My guest today is a man by the name of Christos. So when I first started out Digital Podcaster, I didn't really know anybody. I mean, I know a lot of people in the marketing space, but I've said it before. And it's worth saying, again, Digital Podcaster is almost like a secret project of mine, I don't use any of my existing resources to do Digital Podcaster. And I'm building it from scratch. One of the things that I like about that idea is, I form relationships, based on starting from ground zero. I'm not going out there and using my existing relationships, things like that. So I'm starting essentially from an obscure person who nobody knows anything about. And it's a lot of fun. One of the people that I connected with really early on that has been amazingly kind to me, is this man named Christos, Christos lives in Greece, and he has a thriving Instagram page. He has the nickname professor. And honestly, I feel like I've known the man, as soon as I connected with him on Instagram, there's, I guess, there's a thing when you spend a lot of time on a platform, especially like Instagram, where pretty quickly, you can tell if you're going to vibe with someone or not, you kind of know. And with Christos, it was very quick, I got the feeling of trust. And I felt like I knew him. Honestly, I've told him this in direct messages. I've said, you feel like an uncle to me. And it's like I've known you. And Christos was kind enough to ask me, or I made a reel on how to podcast for his Instagram. And he already has this thriving page. And I had no following really at the time. But he enjoyed the content I was making, I very much got value out of the content he makes. And so it was really cool. It was just a cool relationship that started from nothing. And him and I have become friends. And it means his relationship. I value it a lot. And I am super happy and excited that I can have him on the podcast. And we were able to have a discussion in depth because I was able to pick his brain more that I can't necessarily do through Instagram, DMS, things like that, because the professor, as I'll call them, knows a lot about Instagram and marketing. And he has a lot of knowledge to share. And I love the way he looks at Instagram in general, because he's looking at it from a different viewpoint. I've met with so many marketers. And I'm really selective when I have people on this podcast, because I don't want to talk to someone for an hour about, you know, just the best practices, all these things I love. One of the things that crystal says in this episode is he doesn't look at other content to get ideas for content to create on Instagram. He's not getting ideas there. He's getting ideas through all these different things. Here I am giving spoilers away to the podcast. So without any further ado, let me introduce to you my friend, professor, mentor, Christos. Welcome to the podcast Christos. First off. Well, first off, thank you for joining me on here. I just want to say welcome and big fan and I love everything you do. And I feel like I feel like I know you so well through your content, which speaks a lot to your content. But I do have to say one thing before we begin. And I didn't warn you about that. I was gonna say this, but for every curse word on the podcast episode, you have to do one dancing lip syncing Instagram real. Okay, just kidding. Just kidding. I wanted to see if you could go a whole episode about crazy but it honestly doesn't matter. You can curse. It's totally cool. I just wanted to say that because you don't do the Instagram.
Christos Nikas:Like that. Noticing. Only when I'm passionate about something and if you know, I feel you I can feel my thoughts exploding in my mind. And the only way I can express him is by using the F word or, or something similar because it's like drowning me all. They want to come out. When I talk Greek, I have such a you know more reads, vocabulary and ways of expressing myself. So I don't have the curse. So you will never hear me cursing in Greek. Oh, really? Oh, wow. Almost never. Yeah, but not not by using those cliche F words, you know? stereotype, you know, boring courtesies? Yeah. But when I'm talking in a in English, I mean it's like having a big stream of water, a big river, and only a narrow path and narrow where all those thoughts and feelings can go through. And these can become a problem somehow, by only ways to take a hammer and start breaking down things. But I'm way more peaceful when I'm teaching when I'm talking. When I'm presenting when I'm doing my keynotes in Greek, that has I have my vocabulary I have, you know, everything is like me talking English is like fighting. With boxing with one hand tied behind my back. I know, so many more things to give so much more energy to give. And I simply can't.
Dylan Schmidt:That makes me that makes me sad in a lot of ways, because it makes me want to be able to experience that because I experienced so much energy from you. And just for the record, I have nothing against cursing. I just wanted to, hopefully one day see you do dancing lip synching reels, but nothing against the cursing. But you have so much packed like it comes across in your content. And that's so interesting. You say that, because like one of my questions, or one of the things I wanted to talk to you about is the limitations of content in general, when you're limited to like one picture on Instagram and the caption. And you stand out to me so much on your content because of like, you you convey so much in a post and then hearing you say that about English is interesting, because I'm like, wow, what else is there? Like what else? What? Like, I'm only seeing like, part of the color spectrum like and there's a whole nother spectrum that I'm missing. How do you do you feel limited by just Instagram sometimes in general with the content limitations? I guess you could say?
Unknown:Yes, I feel I get this a lot especially before carousels, so I couldn't find I used to hate not I'm not gonna say hate. I couldn't stand Instagram because I wasn't able to be useful through Instagram. So I thought I was thinking that Instagram is just for sharing your breakfast moments and your you having fun or at your best friend's wedding and vacation and your cart and you know your tea and stuff like that basically is like a, I don't know, a photo journal, or a scrapbook sharing photo moments in which is what Instagram was back then. Right. But then, at some point, I started seeing designers say serving educational content using carousels. For those who don't know what carousels are, are basically Instagram slideshows, where you can have up to 10 photos on Instagram and you can start swiping left or right and go through a story. So basically, a carousel is anything from two slides to 10 slides. And I remember a designer named Misko and an author who is now a good friend, Michael yanda, Janda and then Christo, another mentor, using this format, not just to present photos and share a photo story, but now sharing a lesson with a cover like a mini magazine, like a mini illustrated comic, like a mini book or a book of 10 slides, stories and lessons that has a beginning a cover and impressive headline, and an introduction and details. And and then and value. Plus slide 10 asking us to do something and save this and starting conversations and like oh my god, oh my god, Instagram can become a tool to help people to share more useful things, more practical things, and for us educators. Because you have to be an educator to to to recognize this option. If you're an influential Okay, great opportunity to share more photos of me. But for me as a teacher and an educator, it was like a eureka moment, an aha moment. Oh my god, Instagram now has meaning I can do things with Instagram. This is what grabbed me. I started I started creating cowrie shells in Greek. And that was September 2019. And on the December 15 2019, I've switched to English content. Because now I wanted to expand to build to make new friends to help more people.
Dylan Schmidt:How easy was that transition from? From
Unknown:one day? Overnight? Great content next day English content. No, never looking back.
Dylan Schmidt:Same content, just different language. Yeah. Yeah, not same post symposia. Not same post content, same, same
Unknown:idea, same direction. Same vibe. Yeah. 500 Something followers back then, one year later, or two years later, 160,000 followers. Switching to English was basically me. Going on a bigger stage because I see Instagram as a stage as a big theater where you have your audience and each and every one of us can go up on stage and present himself or herself to an audience. And they we can choose to teach. We can choose to entertain, we can choose to motivate, we can choose to become Gary Vee, Tony Robbins, Seth Godin. Mel Robbins. Any style we want, Chris do. We are from from clowns to life changers? Yeah. It's our choice. This is the stage we have the audience that we have to fight for their attention. Yeah, we have our stage is up to us to choose who we want to be. And what we want to do with this audience. Some have 100 People 100 People is not a few. Yeah, because I have spoken in front of 100 people, and it's impressive. If you've, if you're living it, if you're experiencing live on Instagram is like oh my god, I have just 100 followers. Yeah. 500 followers. Oh my god. 101,000 followers. Wow, yeah,
Dylan Schmidt:Krishna, I get anxiety around a group of five people. So five people, I'm like, Okay, where's the exit, you know, in person. But
Unknown:so it was, like a challenge for me now have a different a bigger stage. It's out of my comfort zone, not in terms of language. Because when we're talking about posts, I have all the time in the world to go my posts through Grammarly or other online services, and fix the typos and craft them and correct them and revisit them etc. It was a it was going out of my comfort zone. Cuz now I couldn't steal ideas, translate them in my own language, and post them without risking of someone discovering what I was doing. So now I had to be original. So anytime I was getting inspiration from other creators, I had to work twice as hard to remix that idea to combine it with other creators with other ideas and produce something way more original. Because it's easy to start posting in Spanish or Bulgarian or Italian or French or Greek or Turkish. getting ideas from top English speaking creators translating those ideas, you know, changing the graphics, etc. Yeah, but basically keeping the idea just translated, and no one will find out. That's fast.
Dylan Schmidt:And I never thought about that. That's like a whole a whole market. I would assume I'd haven't obviously been in many non English feeds. But that's is that a whole that's a whole thing.
Unknown:I mean, I've seen some crazy shit, right? Yeah. I think no one will figure this out. Yep. But I've seen and I know exactly the post and the creator. You're stealing stealing from yeah, getting inspiration from Yeah, okay. To be a bit more polite. Yeah, I know. And yeah, no, it's not what I know. It's what they know. Yeah. Yeah. And I didn't want to feel safe and secure. But I can go out there grab anything from bigger creators, English speaking creators, and pretend that I'm important to my Greek audience by sharing amazing ideas. And I'm telling you, I've done this and it didn't feel good. Mm hmm. It's like a headache I have boasts that I know. that those were not my words, those were not my ideas. This is something I saw. And I just translated it. And I didn't want to feel this way. I wanted to make things more challenging to me more difficult to me. So I shifted to English content. And then your journey began. Bigger stage, bigger challenges, tougher competition, more demanding, etc, chatter.
Dylan Schmidt:And make makes me think like, when now that you've been doing this for a while now, and you're doing it on a high level that many people are working towards, but not a lot of people actually get towards, it makes me think about how you see a lot of content creators, marketers, all sorts of categories of Instagramers, let's just call it my guess, is that when they're faking something, that it stands out, like, it's so obvious to you, sometimes it's obvious to me, but you see it, and then you go, this is you see what's wrong, like immediately because you, you're experienced with it, and they are putting on a show, they're faking it. And those are some of the things you call out on your content of like, that no BS, and that authentic touch to it, that just cuts through the noise. And I don't it seems like there is like, in this happens, I guess, with a lot of things that like marketers touch is there's like the exploiting of different things, whether it's carousels, reels, different types of content, where they just try to magnify like they tried to get, I would get likes, I want to get this, I'm gonna get that and it's really just chasing the high or something, it seems like in your experience, or what it seems like what I get from your content is that you really like cut through the then the nonsense of of what people are trying to exploit the platform for, if that makes sense.
Unknown:People are on Instagram for several reasons. And this is because Instagram is not a business tool, it can be a business tool. But it can also be a place for creativity and a place for making friends and a place for never sending a message or DMing someone but you start consuming content and get in touch with your hobbies and with your side hustle, etc. So no matter what if we use educators and business owners and social media managers and coaches, and all of us who want to help people achieve something, get transform themselves, because you try to transform people for their starting point A to be now become a more courageous, creative podcaster, content creator, etc. I'm trying to do the same. On Instagram and on YouTube, etc. There are so many people who don't give an F about education, they're on Instagram, to watch funny cat videos and to stay in touch with friends and have like a personal private account. And they don't want to get educated. So each one of us is on Instagram for its own purpose. That me thing is when and a social media marketing coach, an Instagram coach, a growth coach, a content strategist. Yeah. I like to define myself as I don't know, basically, I do social media marketing. But I'm focusing on content strategy. So how you can learn how to use content to serve your branding and your business no matter the platform. When I'm giving tips, my tips are not for everyone. If I was giving if I was advising my daughter, or an artist who has nothing to do with business, all he wants is to share his art. If I was advising him how to trade Instagram and where and what to pay attention to my tips will be completely different. So for example, when I talk to business owners, I'm telling them followers are important because followers are not just a number. They are your audience. They're your supporters. They're your brand advocates. They are your network. They're your clients, their potential clients, past clients, anything. Friends, colleagues, peer supporters, mentors, students, everyone can be part of our audience for a teenage girl, or a teenage boy who is starting on Instagram, I would advise, don't pay attention to followers don't go out there for followers. Because no followers are just the they see followers as admirers, success, status, popularity etc. I would advise a business to go after likes, and to pay attention to metrics, because they're basically their feedback, their metrics. You can ignore data, you can ignore your metrics. Because it's the only way to figure out what you can do better what you can do different, what you can keep doing or quit doing. If I was talking to my daughter, when she becomes a teenager, I would be like, hide your likes, no one has to know how many likes your photo creation, expression thought. Get not even you learn to love content creation for content creation, learn to how to express yourself, but do it for yourself. So depending on who you're talking to, tips can be completely different. That's fine numbers are meant. Mine tips are for business owners on Instagram for those who see social media Instagram as a business tool. Yeah, so if you're a business owner, who is treating social media, and basically everybody who should who every business owner should treat social media as a business tool. Yes, you should post on a daily basis. I could never advise a kid or a hobbyist to post every day post whenever you want. Because it's a hobby. Yeah, enjoy it, create, share, stop doing it, keep doing it more, do less quit and then come back. It's a hobby. Yeah, enjoy it. But if it's part of your business, stop fooling around, stop acting like a hobbyist, stop treating like a hobby and treat it the same way. You're, you're, you're treating your business. So show up every day, at least five days a week, same way you're treating your job. Every day be there for your audience, your client, your job, your your employees, everything and learn how to master it, and take full advantage of it and have the business to ladies.
Dylan Schmidt:That's fascinating. I haven't told you this before, but like I have my personal Instagram. That is not business related. And I've felt conflicted for years on how to use it. I rarely post on it like, rarely I posted once in the last couple years I think on it. And because I always felt weird because on my personal one I'm it's like, friends from high school or, you know, family. And I'd never, I've never been one to like just share post about my private personal life like all over social media, it's not been something I've wanted to do. But I felt like I needed to do it because of a probably a mental thing around needing to post to keep up with the, with the likes, or the vanity significance metrics of it. And I always felt conflicted about how to use it. And it took me years to start Digital Podcaster to basically be like, this is just a service tool where I can educate, and hopefully at a portion of the time, entertain, but educate. And that just makes so much sense to me now on why how I separate the two in my mind that I have, like, wish I would have learned that about seven years ago, it would have saved me a lot of time. So where were you Christos seven years ago in my life, but but that is one of those things that it really has makes a difference with that purpose. Right is that and that seems like what you're talking about? Is that intention behind why you're using the app itself. It's not because it is like a one size fits all. When you go on there. You're like Oh, I see businesses brands I like I see influencers. I see friends, I see family, and everyone's using it kind of differently, but there is really just two lanes to choose. It's very quite simple when you put it like that.
Unknown:For me. If you're a business, there is no such thing as vanity metric. is like telling Okay, I got 10 amazing reviews. Reviews could be a vanity metric. Oh, look at those reviews, how great things it's saying about me and my clients love me. It already views a vanity metric. Of course not. It's a tool to attract more clients. Same way. social media followers are Got a vanity metric followers is? Because we know how hard these for people to grow on social media. Yeah, especially in stores, of course, give me one sec. Only fake followers can be a vanity metric. So I'm just displaying a number. And number I didn't earn, I didn't work hard for it. I just paid to get it. And now I'm displaying it, you know, on top of my account, and I'm like, Look, my account has a lot of followers. No, this is not even funny. This is stupidity. And
Dylan Schmidt:I feel like I'm a good I look at an account, they have 700,000 followers. And, you know, I don't know, there's just like, there's the there's the ratio, that's always like, that's this is way off, even with I know Instagram reach and things like that. But if if you have 20,000 followers, and every post gets 20 likes, I'm kind of suspicious.
Unknown:It's no, a it's an issue is not suspicious. Yeah. Yeah. It of course you'd like now you're having a sleepy community? Yeah, it doesn't mean that you bought your followers. But there are tools now and they are free when you can dive in, type the name of the account and see their growth curves or if you see like a flat line, and then a spike going plus 20,000. And then back to flatline. This means a to that specific day and you can spot it to the day. This account grew by 20,000 followers, no account can grow overnight. 20,000 followers and then keep getting no followers. So they bought followers. But if you see like curve going up and going plus 20 plus 40 minus three plus 80. You know that this is these audiences is real. And it's okay. So, unless the followers are fake followers are not a vanity metric. They are social proof. It's an audience. There's a cost cost. This number now includes your friends, your family, your colleagues, your peers, your competitor, your industry, people, your community members, your tribes, your tribe, other tribes, mentors, friends, advocates, supporters, superfans clients, past clients, future clients, all those sorts, acquaintances. How how this can become a vanity metric. Yeah. Yeah, this is my this is my audience. This my community.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. And that social proof is is real. If so, if you go to someone, a business page or an influencer, an influencer is like I'm an influencer. And I have five followers. I do believe like, yes, you're influencing five people and anyone who comes across but it's it's just it's, it's undeniable that it's different. If if you go to an influencers page, and they have a million followers or something. Yeah. And obviously the brand deals and things like that. I do want to say one thing about the 20,000 followers, I have a client and I keep it a little vague. But I I've managed Instagram accounts in the past. I have a client who has a let's just say motivational Instagram. This was a few years ago, Kim Kardashian shouted this person out in her stories. And I was kind of it was kind of like one of those moments like, oh my gosh, what's gonna happen next Kim Kardashian just shouted out this account. I'm looking at the it's like, in the stories. I'm like, screenshotting, the Kim Kardashian just mentioned. And it was like, how many followers is this gonna get? And the kind of went down of how many followers actually followed? You know, the expectations. It's like when someone has that many followers, Nisha, you're like, I could come up I could have is this gonna go turn into a million followers? And yeah, there's obviously followers that came over, but it wasn't the number at which some of these fake accounts can seemingly jump up like you said, 20,000 followers overnight. It's like, even if Kim Kardashian shuts you out, I don't know that 20,000 would be a realistic number at all.
Unknown:Any shout out interesting new opportunity for new people to discover us? Yeah. Now based on the account, because at that moment, we will get an increased amount of profile visitors. But it's now it's up to our account, by your feed, post topics design, aesthetics, anything personality, to convert them to followers. Now, if Kim Kardashian kept doing shout outs, every two days, paid organic. These are a petition would have way better results. So I'm Kim Kardashian. And I'm telling you guys go Follow this guy. Yeah, my super funds will go, because they're like everything you say, Okay. I mean, you can tell me to go dive of that cliff, I will do it. But not everyone is a superfan. So okay, you've recommended it. So what? I've checked it out, nothing important. I don't know why you like it. Also, so many people know about paid shout outs. So it can be like, Okay, this is an ABS creator paid you to do a shout out, do I have to follow? Of course not. Yeah, you got your money? You're okay. But I'm not gonna follow it. Yeah. Thing is everything on Instagram, for a business matters. Followers engagement, because everything is an indication of something. Comments means mean conversations likes mean, you know, a post that was relevant, and well design and well produced or anything saves mean that and that means that it's up to us now to start gathering those data. And adjusting, fine tuning our content strategy, because without data, we can go anywhere. And this is where I don't agree with the engagement group approach was if I pay to join an engagement group with 500, members, and I pay, so every time I post, all those 500 people will come in, like my posting every time, and I have to do the same, of course. Now, every time I post no matter if I post the most valuable thing, or the most worthless piece of shit, I'm getting 500 likes. Am I learning? Anything? is lying. Having your kid getting just well done. Bravo. Oh, you're so good. You're so good. And you did nothing wrong. This kid is destroyed now.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. It's like participation. Like, you did it. What did I do? What do you showed up? We go. And that's great. You showed up. But that doesn't even
Unknown:need to be staged. Because at least now they've showed up. But imagine getting like an F in his exams? No, no. right answers. And the teacher go like, a plus. Bravo. Well done. Yeah, we are building now. A worthless, crippled personality.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, I find some of the most can't, that some of the most valuable comments to me are the ones where they say, either they disagree. Or they asked me to explain further or asked me to like there's some type of critical thinking involved of not seeing what you're trying to say, oh, that's an opportunity for me to be more clear. Also, if I look at those metrics, then I know what resonated what didn't resonate, helps me inform what's being heard, correctly, I guess, right.
Unknown:So now you are getting this engagement, these fake engagement, these paid engagement, you are getting no signals of what's working or what not because everything I was getting this amount of engagement. And at some point, you stop being part of this group. Because you feel like okay, you're done. Yeah. And you're pushing the next day, and you're getting like four likes, and you're like, wow, what do I have to do now?
Dylan Schmidt:This is like the mafia, this would be like the mafia, you likes the mafia, you got no family, no loyalty, you got the
Unknown:last, even if engagement groups work. So, um, my post is getting engagement fast, because I'm paying for that engagement. And my posts actually managed to rank in hashtag pages in the in in the Explore everyone who's gonna see my post will pay no attention, because my posts suck. Yeah, yeah. It went there. Only cause of the page engagement. So people will never convert. Yeah, even if my post reads the the Explore page, reaching the Explore page doesn't equal new follows. Anyway, the thing is, yeah, we need data. We need real data. We need the good, the likes, the comments, etc. But we also need the absence of engagement so we can understand what doesn't work. And then we can go even deeper Am I? Or Okay, I have, because trust me, there are specific type of posts and specific type of topics of topics and a specific ways of treating content that will get you the likes. But for the said, if the creator of car
Dylan Schmidt:he, if so as the people.
Unknown:Yeah, if I was going to listen Yeah, what my clients was want, I would have given them faster horses.
Dylan Schmidt:I always think I love that quote Yes.
Unknown:So now it's the this is where you have to understand what works. But you also have to figure it out. If you want to be a thought leader, an influencer with a real meaning influencing impacting people's life, creating change, as Seth Godin making change happens, as Seth Godin says, or you're gonna be like, the follower type of account, who's just reproducing and giving your audience ice cream, because everybody loves ice cream. But ice cream is not healthy chocalate candies lollipops are not healthy, but people love it. So at some point, we have to set out a strategy that will include both the ice cream, but also the vegetable, healthy food content.
Dylan Schmidt:If you can make vegetables taste good, then I feel like that's that's the winning strategy right there. Right? Like, yeah, yeah,
Unknown:yeah, exactly. Because now you have to present your veggie posts, in a way we are presenting them to our kids. So making funny faces, and you know, bean burgers and you know, funny faces, and eat them that good. And aesthetic doesn't have been great. Yeah. So valuable content, and educational content doesn't mean boring. Content, doesn't mean hard to get content doesn't mean a boring lecture for a boring professor in a boring classroom. on a winter day, you can be more of a Have you seen the movie, Dead Poets Society.
Dylan Schmidt:It's been a few years, I have seen it's been a few years.
Unknown:Anyway, this poetry teacher, you know, full of new ideas. He was doing this experience type, of course, taking his students out, you know, in the country and teaching them and performing and stuff like that. So basically, he took English literature, poetry, a boring lesson, and it shows up in the in the movie, and took it to a whole new level. This is what I'm saying. These are what I mean by saying, Don't just post create an experience.
Dylan Schmidt:In every post, you do create that?
Unknown:Yes. Turn your boarding lessons there, those boring terms. KPIs, ROI, ai, ai, da, it's a marketing formula, attention, interest, desire, action, or anything you teach. Yeah, you teach podcasts. So maybe, maybe you can take the jargon and those boring terms and you know how to and turn it into something more easy to consume, easy to digest, fun to consume, and fun to consume doesn't mean I'm going to teach you by dancing or by stripping, or by acting full, it means I will find my way I will use my fighting creativity and, and common sense in mind to make it a bit more enjoyable and then a bit more interesting and a bit more unique. And something give examples, make analogies or use props. Use video use sketches use Stop, stop motion, animation, find something you don't have to go and copy teenagers from Tik Tok. Doing soft porn trends with their underwear, you know, etc. And try to teach people because if I was a convention organizer, and I wanted you to come to my convention and speaker, I would think twice to bring a clown on stage.
Dylan Schmidt:Yes. And like you've
Unknown:already showed some conventions for busy if they're looking for something like this. Yeah. Okay. I'm not saying you will never be hired as a strategist or as a coach or as a speaker, etc, etc. I'm saying I think it'd be You know, wider. Think a bit more macro? How do you imagine your brand? How do you imagine your brand in five years?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Yeah, that's in, like you said at the beginning of the episode, you know, thinking of if you're just posting, not in business, it's not as a business tool. That's one thing, you know, whatever you do, but if you're using it as a business tool, think long term think more than just in the moment and, and so trendy based, but depth based, and long lasting. And that's, that's fascinating. I had a thought that just seemed to escaped me. But it, it makes a lot of sense. Everything you're saying. And it does. Oh, I know what he's gonna say. So it does seem everything you've said makes me think to have why everything looks. And I'm saying this is a question even though it will sound like a statement is, it seems like one of the reasons why everything seems as a copy of a copy of a copy of what I see on social media, Instagram, specifically, or Tik Tok really to is people are looking for the sure thing, like creativity is scary, because you don't know if it's going to work. But people will choose the safest route possible, which is looking at something that's performed well, and then trying to do it exactly. And it doesn't look that good, because it's not original. It's a copy. And they're not doing it with their full heart behind it. Because it's like, hey, that worked for them. It'll work for me, and it doesn't work for the copy. And that's why I think a lot of stuff doesn't stand out. Would you
Unknown:agree, Dylan? Can any shadow be more interesting than the actual item?
Dylan Schmidt:No, not at all.
Unknown:So we become shadows of other creators. Yeah, we are a two dimensional thing that BS basically doing what the trendsetter or any trendsetter is doing. And the most dangerous scene is that even shadows can succeed, because now the message becomes more confusing. Yeah.
Dylan Schmidt:You Yeah. And that seems scary. It's always, the idea always seems scary to me to be a shadow and then have the feeling of constantly looking for the next shot, you know, the next light to have to emulate
Unknown:the biggest trap or No, no, the biggest. The biggest reason this is happening is because people it's like an incest situation. Everybody's copying everyone in the same platform. So I would suggest, guys, if you want to give a fresh approach started incorporating ideas from completely different mediums. So start studying YouTube videos, YouTube title as a YouTuber thumbnails, in order to create better content for Instagram, start reading medium articles, start listening to podcasts, and grab ideas, especially when it comes to podcasts and clubhouse where you, you can get confused by visuals. So you can form the idea you can form the concept in your mind however you want. It's a more pure, because you know, when you're reading a carousel, and the graphics are with robots, and zombies, and alarm clocks, your mind kind of restricting itself into thinking those visual terms. But when you're listening to a podcast, you are getting like zero idea, or theory or concept. And now in your mind, you can create your protagonist and your stars and your you know, every other and you'll be like, Okay, I can I could present that concept and that idea on my Instagram this way or that way. Because now you're getting just the voice, you're getting just the sound. It's like the radio when we are listening to our favorite radio producer. We didn't know how he looked like then we it was just his voice. And who could take this job. This idea this concept. Basically, not even radio books. Yeah, when you're reading a book, everything is happening in your mind. Yeah, if I asked you to make a post about this book, you can use these type of visuals in this type of narrative and this type of that. And if you ask me to talk about the same book, I can create a completely different post because now we have no nothing to restrict us in thinking the same way. Yes, I start reading more books and start listening to podcasts and start going to the and start going on Pinterest started getting ideas from completely different mediums. But now Now I'm consuming Instagram content, Rails cards, etc. Oh my god. The post about hashtags I should post about hashtags. Okay? Let's do some more research. And I'm getting 10 more posts about hashtags. And now I'm creating something new. And then the next creator is starting my own post. And you know, have you have a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy? And each copy is a bit worse than the previous one? Because they are a copy?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, yeah.
Unknown:And kh and kg BHB. A big tech YouTuber? Yep, he did an experiment. It was I don't know, last year, he decided to download and re upload one of his videos on YouTube for 1000 times. So the first video he uploaded was an 8k version, because he had like, insane cameras, etc. So first version 8k, because she wanted to see how the compression algorithm of YouTube affects the videos. So original piece of content, video, or, in our analogy, the original idea, upload on Youtube, done, uploaded 8k, super quality, clear bla, bla, et cetera, download it, re upload the downloaded version. download, upload, download, upload, download, after, I don't know 500 downloads and re upload. The video was unwatchable. It was like a no huge big sales, I mean, piece of shit. Same thing is happening. On Instagram, you are getting a clone a worse clone of a different post. And this also helps of spreading myths. So saves are the new are super likes. One save equals five likes, and saves are the most important things and don't edit your captions and start doing this and start doing that. Basically fake news. People keep reproducing. And each time they're adding like a new element that becomes even worse. And the solution is stop over consuming Instagram content, keep consuming content in your knees. But try go out there and read some articles, read books, listen to podcasts, like join Club House rooms, listen to great digital marketeers and strategist and social media, marketeers attend free webinars, get some fresh ideas, and then go back and keep creating fresher content. And the reason my content, I'm trying my content to be original, nothing the same of this is something completely new. But original in terms of I don't want my message and my delivery to be categorized not cliche, I've seen these etc. Because I'm not getting my inspiration from Instagram. Yeah,
Dylan Schmidt:ah, that's huge. That's huge.
Unknown:I don't care what other digital marketing creators do. Yeah, I don't care. I'm just getting the direction. So I need to post something about hashtags. Okay, how do I express this I did a post about hashtags. How do I find my hashtags using Mr. Bean's exams? Where he knows he's trying to love me. Yeah. And it's basically how most of us pick our hashtags. We are going to another account and we're Oh my God, those classic must be good. Let's copy it was exactly how and I'm trying to infuse personal experience and personal stories. And this is why makes my content kind of more unique. It's not the best approach for growth because people can handle uniqueness people want like the very the path the open path the most walked path something they can reproduce something they can copy.
Dylan Schmidt:But do you think there's because I That makes total sense what you just said. And there seems that my guess is or my I don't know. But my I feel like there's such a deeper level of enjoyment respect experience, when it's when you're consuming something that's like what you're just describing more unique, more creative, not following a copy of a copy of copy, of course. It's like there's something different There were like, I just feel it's longer lasting, the relationship is longer lasting. Because it's not built on trends or something.
Unknown:It helps you create superfans, and it helps you be the brand. But Instagram may not be the ideal platform for the long term content a game. Cause the life the self life of our posts. Yeah, so basically, after 48 hours, let's say 72 hours, our post is like basically non existent. Again, as opposed to finding your own style, your own voice on YouTube, where the YouTube can serve you a piece of content after eight years, nine years. YouTube last month recommended me a video of from 13 years ago 2008.
Dylan Schmidt:I had one the other night I was like, I don't even know YouTube was. Yeah. Anything. Yeah.
Unknown:It can help you more creating evergreen content. Okay, so for friends. Stories, tick tock really is like the best. Yeah, ephemeral content. So I'm putting it out there. And I don't care about what's happened tomorrow. Tomorrow. I'm going to post the new one. Yeah. But for those of us who want to put out there something evergreen, yeah. Something that can add value to people's life, even next year, or in three months or in five years. Yeah. Yeah. 13 years. Yeah. Instagram is definitely not podcast, blogs. YouTube videos. So basically, formats that can be discovered SEO so on Google blogs, etc. We can optimize the SEO and make it more SEO friendly and more discoverable on YouTube. Same thing on podcasts. Yeah, if someone is watching your podcast, they can go back to your episodes and they can you know pick to listen to any episode. But Instagram real stories tick tock is not the best way. And I don't blame them. In Instagram Instagrams priority was never to teach people
Dylan Schmidt:Instagrams priority was just to entertain right?
Unknown:Instagrams priority before, so two, three years ago, I guess it was, I don't know, to help people connect with each other. Okay, after Facebook, buying Instagram, Instagram starts becoming a bit more of a purposeful platform. So it starts including ads and SOPs and the DMS and stories and stuff like that. And then they had like a personal account, and they created accounts in the business account. And now they're having shop. So basically help you sell your stuff and connect your ESOP. I personally feel that Instagram has no clear direction. So it's basically I have no identity. And I'm started stealing the best elements out of everybody trying to become something. But I'm just you know, like, like Frankenstein. So I have the head of Snapchat and the hands, how Facebook and the freedom of the smile of TiC tock, etc. It's like, Oh, my God, instant Frankenstein?
Dylan Schmidt:Yes, this is that's the best explanation I've heard. How are you working with people right now.
Unknown:So I can coach, someone who is just starting or has no idea how to use in the right way, their social media for growing their business, or I can consult a more experienced content creator or a more business, a more experienced business owner and answer a specific question, help them overcome specific blogs, etc. But I also I also have like two ebooks, and I'm doing presentations and I'm doing seminars, basically, any way I can to help people become more effective, more creative and more useful on social media. I can't teach someone how to go viral with Rails. Because they are not my audience. I don't want them to go viral. I want them to create impact, to change lives to grow their business to help their clients more to stand out the competition to lead. This is what I do.
Dylan Schmidt:I love that. How do people best get? Is it through Instagram?
Unknown:Yes. I mean, I basically live on Instagram. So this is my main platform. So the best way of getting in touch with me is send me an email that Christos at Crystal sneakers.com. So first name art first, last name.com and just send me send me a DM on Instagram, and Nephi don't answer if I don't see it, because I'm getting like 200 250 DMS a day, maybe go under one of my posts and say hello Christos. I've also sent you a DM and that's a nice tip on how you can grab your audience's attention or be an Accounts attention. So do follow up. I apologize in advance if I miss your DM but or you can start your DM you know by you know giving a key word, I need coach and Christos reaching out for your help, etc, etc. But that's the best way email and Instagram. And so we can talk about it get to know each other, understand if I can help them and find a way of how I can add the most possible value in their lives and in their business journey. Beautiful and YouTube, YouTube is a new journey, YouTube is my opportunity to feel like a student again, because that's the key of getting better. You have always to feel like you have more to learn. And that you have to do more and because basically a spy expanding your comfort zone. So if I sit on Instagram and like oh my god, I have to have 200,000 followers, I'm done. I'm there, you know, I've achieved this, I've achieved this goal, I've put my finger on this Everest, k 2k. One peak, you won't grow higher, you want to go further. You want travel, you know, to explore new places. So starting on a new platform, it's not just serving my business goals. So to expand to create a new audience to find a new way of building my authority, my personal brand, etc. But it's also a new way of Learn More, expand my creativity, develop more skills, both hard skills, on camera presence, editing, storytelling, etc. But also my Soft Skills and feel like I know nothing again. Because it was one great ancient Greek who said the only thing I know is that I know nothing.
Dylan Schmidt:The man is special and incredible, right? I just again, I want to say it again. Thank you Christos for coming on the podcast. I sincerely value our friendship and relationship. And I have said it many times to him, I really hope I can make my way out to Greece and visit him in person. Because that would just be a blast. I've always wanted to go to Greece never been and it would just be extra special to be able to meet him in person someday. I truly sincerely mean that. So if you would like to learn more about Christos, please see the show notes for that all the stuff is linked there. Make sure you follow him on Instagram. It's an absolute delight to follow and like he says, no BS. I think you got that by now from his delivery and all the knowledge he dropped during this episode. Thank you sincerely for listening to this podcast. If you liked it, I would really appreciate I'm gonna send sincerely three times. I did say thing. I would really appreciate it if you would rate and review on Apple podcasts if you listen there or on Spotify. If you listen there. It would mean a lot to me. So I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next week.