Welcome to Digital Podcaster My name is Dylan Schmidt. And this week on the episode I have a returning guest, my first returning guest Actually, her name is Seema, Seema Batavia. And I had her on. It's been a couple months ago, a few months ago, I guess now, but she is a branding strategy expert primarily for introverts, and I'm introverted. I believe she's introverted, too. But although when you get to introverts together, they like to talk and laugh a lot. So that is Sima and I together. So, in this episode, it's a little bit different than normally what you probably heard on Digital Podcaster, I wanted to have a bit more laid back conversation free flowing. So what you can expect in this week's episode, is I'm just capturing some thoughts from Seema, because Seema has built a pretty solid following on social media. And I've just found her brain interesting. And so what I wanted to do was just kind of get her kind of freestyle thoughts. I didn't give her much prep in advance for what I was going to ask her a little bit, but not too much. So kind of really just went with the flow on this one, and wanted to try something new, and not so rigid, I'd say. So I hope you enjoy my conversation with Seema. And here we go. Welcome to Digital Podcaster thank you so much for joining me today Seema.
Seema Batavia:Thank you so much.
Dylan Schmidt:No editing. Alright, Seema? So since last time, you've joined me on the podcast, a lot has changed. I gained a new listener. You started listening to the podcast, so? Yes. Um, hi, dude. How you doing today? See,
Seema Batavia:but I'm okay, dude. I'm good. I'm good. I've been busy. And a bit mentally fried. But I always see that as a good thing. I never see brain fry as a bad thing. When I'm when I'm not fried, that's when I start worrying whether I'm not doing enough, but I'm doing well. I'm doing very well. I'm happy to be here.
Dylan Schmidt:That's awesome. That's piggybacking off of that I had a therapist on like, a few weeks. I don't know, a couple months, I don't know time. But she said something about overstimulating or something with people on social media. And I've thought about that almost every day. I'm like, not saying this as you I'm just saying, This is me. I've been thinking like, am I overstimulating myself with like, my feed? You know? Most of the time, the answer is yes. But like, wow, towards the end of the day, I'm like, I wonder how many things I saw? A lot. A lot. A lot. That is a lot. I would love to just keep a tally all day long. Just go. They said ingested this piece of news. Like, like, like, you know, like, almost like a food diary. Like, keep consumption diary.
Seema Batavia:Yeah, information consumption diary. Yeah, makes sense.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, that's a that's an app that nobody will use, but people will sign up for
Seema Batavia:one thing that exists already. That's what Reddit is for. And that's where that's where I get all of my information. So So social media for me is bifurcated. Right? Instagram is for me from business. Yeah, to see trends and what's going on and to Hobnob and meet people. Yeah, Reddit, for me is to consume. It is where I binge. And that's where I lurk and find out all of the information. I think most of my news comes from there.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Do you do you run into people in IRL in real life that use Reddit?
Seema Batavia:Not particularly, but I remember this one individual. And this was before I started my journey on Instagram. And he had the most beautiful logos, and he was viral, like hugely viral. And I remember seeing his work. It was amazing. And then ironically, when I started this whole branding thing on Instagram, I ran into him there, and we connected as friends. And I'm like, You have no idea. I'm fangirling right now, because I saw your work on Reddit and I think you're a celebrity. And he was the nicest person so I think that's probably the only Association I've had off of Reddit. I have considered going to like meetup groups because they do local meetups right. Yeah, but but I'm like, I don't want to get killed so
Dylan Schmidt:like to stay alive. Yeah, that's a that's a good that's a good thing to have. I yeah, I It's funny cuz I asked that because I feel the same way. I meet people all the time. And it's like Reddit is in the top five most popular websites I think, as far as like rankings and daily losers, almost a daily losers I go on daily, great people and but but yeah, so many people I meet they're just most of the time they like it No, I mean I've heard of it, but I don't know what it is. And then anytime I actually get someone to like sign up for it and check it out, they're always like, what? I can't stop. There's something for everybody.
Seema Batavia:Yeah, it's a smorgasbord of information. There is everything you could imagine I used to spend a lot of time on Reddit before I got consumed by Instagram. But it's it's the the beauty of these small communities. Right. And there's very little judgment. Of course, there's trolls everywhere. But yeah, it's very easy to find your your tribe.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. You know what? And one of the things I want to talk to you about today on the podcast is Instagram, but have you I'm sure you've been on the Instagram subreddit. I have Yeah, is not good at all. Like for what I'd expect, like you look at the news, maybe on Reddit, and you're like, Wow, this is breaking everything. There's so much information on Reddit. And then you look at the Instagram one. And some of the subreddits are like flops or something where you go for a piece of information you're like, there's nothing here. Like it's people complaining because they have issues of getting locked out of their account or something. But so speaking of Oh, one thing too, about Reddit, I posted in I'm a lurker I don't really post but I posted in the podcasting subreddit, a month or a couple months ago, time, can't be recalling time, you know, can't be bothered. Think back. I don't know Seema, it just it's all a blur. But I posted in the podcasting subreddit, and I, it was just a value post and read, it seemed like one of those things that different than Instagram where if you post something that seems salesy, or trying to sell something like, people do not like that, you know, but I will say, I posted with good intentions. And something nice, and not even a big value add and ended up having people sign up for courses, which was not expected. And an increase in followers and, and whatnot. And new friends. But also like, yeah, I just thought that was interesting, because I just posted like, a friendly little thing. And then of course, there was the both sides, like people were generally pretty nice. And then some people were like, take this down immediately. This is breaking rule number 3.50. My gosh, like, I'm literally just asking a question. Also saying, like, a little bit of here's what I've learned. And yeah, so I don't know, I just read I feel like marketers are always trying to hack Reddit, because there's so much attention there. And not, is saturated with sales, like say Instagram, you know, ads, I guess, you know? Have you ever tried ads on Reddit?
Seema Batavia:No, not at all. I don't like ads on Reddit very much. it dilutes my experience completely. There was only one ad so far that I still recall. And this was some very fancy lounge chair, some futuristic fancy lounge chair from, you know, some big designer company tech company in Europe. And
Dylan Schmidt:you got your chair that you're sitting in?
Seema Batavia:Not it was but it's not. Because an ergonomic desk slash chair kind of a thing, the jig. And it was it was everywhere, right? So I clicked on it because I was intrigued. And this never happens. But what really caught my eye was the fact that they had left comments open. And people were asking questions and more trolling. And the person who was managing the account, had such witty smart replies, were instantly gained my respect. Like, you know, what, if you're going to do an ad, be transparent about it. Kind of like be the Wendy's of lounge chairs, if you have to have an add on on Reddit. And that's the only edit you recall. But I would not put ads on Reddit myself, because I think it's too volatile to predict user behavior over there. I don't think there's a specific trend, so to speak, because there's too much movement. And there's no contained ecosystem for that either. Right? Whereas for Instagram, at least, you know, there's that Facebook marathon going on. They have that in play. It is very, very organized, even if it's not well received. But at least that's in place. So no, I haven't dabbled in it. Maybe at some point. I know.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Yeah, I agree. like I've never clicked or bought anything from Reddit, it seems like there's so many lines of information on Reddit. It's all text. So like, it all kind of looks the same. I'm like, I'm not gonna click that I know where that's going. It's like very intentional, you know, I mean, like, you know, let's this, it all looks the same. It's all just like text, you know? Like, it's all just their words. Yeah, it's just words, whatever you call those things, words. And so I click them. Speaking of comments, though, I don't really go on Facebook a lot. Except, I mean, unless you consider Instagram, but or meta, but when I do go on there, and if I do come across an ad, I guess as like a marketer, I always if it has, like, 200 comments on an ad, I always just want to read the comments on the ads, because it's very interesting to see how a brand or company will react like, are they going to be nice? Are they gonna try and defend the product and make it look even worse? It was, it's like, watch watching the battle go down in the comments. Sima that's just call me crazy. What do you do for fun?
Seema Batavia:What do I do for fun? So lately, I have been watching all of the tinder swindler just finished inventing, and, and this morning, I had about an hour. And I didn't feel like working. So I watched the fire festival documentary again. Again, nice. I wasn't before, but I've been in this documentary kind of zone. And I'm like, let me watch this and dissect their brain. See how they did this?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, you think of getting the festival business?
Seema Batavia:Oh, we are in the business business. Right. So we want to see, okay, how, how did these people manage to get so much money from unsuspecting people? Is my question. Not that I want to do that. Because I don't think I even have the skill to do that to go to that level. But it's just the site, the psychology behind these people? What do they employ? Is it charisma? Is it personality? Is it just knowledge? Is it personal branding? What is it? So that's got me very curious these past few days. So I've been in a bit of a rabbit hole.
Dylan Schmidt:I feel the same way with a tinder swindler. I feel so similar and like, how, like, how to keep that going? The energy that keeps that going? And then from hopping from one thing to the next.
Seema Batavia:Yeah, like,
Dylan Schmidt:you could, that it's got, okay, that's gonna require a lot of energy to do. And it just seems like one of those things like, you could channel that energy into something more sustainable and legal, and not harming everyone you come into contact with? I don't know. I mean, that seems. If you're going to put that much energy, it's like, if you could, if you could convince these women to give you the money, you could probably also convince so I don't know. start up a business and stuff. Some money.
Seema Batavia:You could but then there's the moral compass. Right. I don't think that particular individual has a moral compass. So he got accustomed to a certain lifestyle. I mean, when you are working honestly, or building something from the ground up, it's not quick, first of all, and it's not particularly easy. But essentially swindling people out of their hard earned money is easy money. You don't have to do much apart from just be charming, or, you know, convince them in some manner and be dishonest. Yeah, I think their brains function very differently than normal. It doesn't justify what they do. But I think they see the world very differently. They see the world as if they're entitled to a certain level of lifestyle, rather than Why should I be working very hard for this when I could easily be making so much money?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Speaking of which, I don't know much about that. But for the audience listening, do you mind just sharing the last four digits of your Yes, is it 332
Seema Batavia:I wanted to make a joke here, but I think I'm gonna refrain but you're not getting my credit card.
Dylan Schmidt:Also. No, I just
Seema Batavia:made cat calendar. Is that why?
Dylan Schmidt:I did. I didn't seem a cat calendar. Well, it started for everyone listening after our last podcast. Episode Seema sent me a box, not just like, King size like that was like a nation size a continent size of Reese's and I ate them at a record speed and basically lived out them Reese's Peanut butter cups which apparently I misspelled or recess and and then I it was someone's birthday and I sent she's in India I'm in the US I sent Seema and name a desk plate desk name plate and and then and then a cat calendar cat calendar never made it. It took like three months. What month is
Seema Batavia:the one you sent? Got refunded or something?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, what was your What month is your birthday again? December. December? Yeah, okay. There's a recording of me saying December just so you know, I did say December. I did remember that. So yeah, like three months. It just got to see my like, this week,
Seema Batavia:like, Yeah, a couple of days ago. Yeah. And I was not expecting it. And I was so shocked because we are regular ordering people from Amazon. So there's usually one package or two packages daily that come to the house. And I got confused for a while an exam or something. I can't remember if I did. And this was when the morning the dude rang my doorbell at 730 in the morning and I was half asleep. Yeah. What is going on? You're just
Dylan Schmidt:getting ready for bed. Yeah.
Seema Batavia:I was waking up from by listening. And I opened the package and it's a friggin CAD calendar and I just burst out laughing because I know you had mentioned it. Yeah. And it was so funny to me in the morning where I'm just I couldn't make sense of things. I mean, it's
Dylan Schmidt:and what like was driving me crazy is I ordered a different cat calendar and it was like it said delivered the whole thing and then refund and exchange rate all this stuff and just how hard has it been to get a cat cat? I can get the nameplate actually pretty easy. And then a cat California
Seema Batavia:Do you want to see it? Sure.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, look at that. If you're just listening seems holding up the nameplate and it is a made of pure darkened, pure dynamore
Seema Batavia:It's like a it's like a crystal rocks. Let's roll on it. And it's this thing of Batavia number one introverted Brand Builder. It's lovely.
Dylan Schmidt:brand colors to him. His brand colors are blue. You did good deal. Yeah. Hey, I just you know, Amazon Jeff Bezos. I texted him. I said, Hey, can we order this for my friend Seema? He said Sure thing right away? Don't I said, Okay.
Seema Batavia:You know, you know what really surprises me to this day. So for those who are listening, I do and I became friends after we did the podcast. And this was what, October September October? Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of months ago. And at some point, Dylan mentioned that I ran out of candy and this was during Halloween. Yeah. And I do this I like to send candy to my friends. I like to send random stuff to my friends. It's just pretty fun. And then I asked Dylan for his home address. Okay, now what surprised me is that he gave it to me.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, I'm actually thinking back right now as you're saying that white. I'm like, I just willy nilly as they say willy nilly just given my home address.
Seema Batavia:I'm like this. This person is such an interesting person. Or he's given me a completely fake address because he barely knows this person. Yeah. across the across the world here.
Dylan Schmidt:I'm trying to get your house. Yeah, I'm trying to get your credit card number. I'm giving out my home address. Like, just like, Wait, am I this this is Netflix documentaries. This what's going on here?
Seema Batavia:So So from there a beautiful friendship was born when I say he says and he was completely taken aback? Yeah, this is
Dylan Schmidt:my dentist said what the hell are you doing? You know, 30 in a weekend, and I wonder why I have like food allergies and stuff like that.
Seema Batavia:Yeah, okay. Oh,
Dylan Schmidt:I do my my nose gets red. Every time I want to record something. My nose just turns red like Rudolph.
Seema Batavia:That might not be allergies. That might be nervousness.
Dylan Schmidt:There's I think it's, I think it's allergies. It's usually after I'm a mess. Allergy wise. I don't know, I don't know what's going on with me Seema. But yeah, one of the things that's been awesome, though, learning from you is it sounds so ignorant, like I've traveled a lot. Pre 29 teen or whatever, parents. Memory recall is just slipping today. And I've traveled a lot. I have not been to India yet. I've been a lot of people I know have been to India and have just said such incredible things. So but asking you things, like I almost go pure ignorant American and will be like, do they have this in India, you know, and it's just fun learning the differences because that's one of the things that I miss about traveling is the cultural differences like finding the common threads amongst different cultures. And it's so i Oh, Putting in rather than I've always found like, rather than act like just like a chameleon and be like, I am now Balinese, when I go to Bali, you know, like, I'm just, it's like, except embrace that, like you're not from that. And instead of trying to be like, is anyone can notice that I'm not from here, just embrace it. And especially I guess being from the US, there's a certain ignorance that I totally understand that comes with it of being. What do you mean, we're not the center of the world? And then on top of that, mmm, Los Angeles, which is even more like, It's Hollywood, you know? So people are like, Sure. So like, I guess I have to embrace that. But I love asking you just like, do they have this? I mean, I'll keep it super ignorant, sometimes just for for jokes, I'll be like, do they drink coffee in India? Do they? Do they have hair? What do they do they journal there? But you've been so patient with me see my appreciate?
Seema Batavia:No, I actually appreciate those questions. And I have experienced with that, you know, I've lived in the States before. So I know the level of curiosity that can come with those who have not traveled, you can see, it's cool. It's not always ignorance, though. That's the thing. A lot of it does come from a genuine place of curiosity. And I've started taking it in stride, because I really think people want to know because it's meant to be an exotic place and they have some preconceived notions about it. So I assume that all of the questions that you're asking me, including do they drink coffee in India? genuinely curious question, and I'm happy to answer
Dylan Schmidt:well, yeah, I mean, maybe the coffee one but the types of candy. I was actually, you know, obviously really curious about, like, what types of candy are popular in India? Because exactly is something that like, one thing I noticed, like when I went to I'm not gonna say up etha I think they said it that tender swindler. I say Ibiza. Sorry. You know, but when I went to a visa candy selections were different than I was used to, you know, probably a lot of the candies come from, you know, spending somewhere, you know, it is participating. But so, so yeah, so I'm, like, shocked by the candy. So it's like, if I was in India right now, what kind of candy would I be getting? You know, those little things like so curious. And then you shared some of your hometown candy with me called Reese's. This is authentic. So silly. So switching gears ceva question I want to talk to you about because it's one of I feel like it's one of those apps that you and I both use frequently. Before actually do whatever their social media platforms. Do you like besides Instagram?
Seema Batavia:Do I like to consume or do I like to participate?
Dylan Schmidt:Participate in? Okay,
Seema Batavia:I would say LinkedIn is a close second. Oh, also, Pinterest is okay. I'm not highly active on there. But that's, that's there. And you know, what I really enjoy more than anything else is email marketing. I love sending emails, I think it's it's a very direct way of just putting my thoughts on paper and sending it directly to the people who have signed up to receive information from me. But I'd have to say I still do enjoy Instagram, despite all the changes is going through. It's extremely versatile compared to everything else I've used so far.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, yeah. I agree. It's like you can kind of do a little bit of everything, right? You can do long videos now. videos, images, carousels, stories. It's like it's it's overwhelming, I think for people to do, what do you see when, when people that you're coaching, what do you see like, are some common struggles that people deal with when they're maybe becoming more visible or starting to brand themselves switching from, you know, just posting about only cat calendars and Reese's to posting more like, Oh, I'm gonna actually use this as maybe a business tool. You find any like common threads of like, Oh, these people are usually running into this issue?
Seema Batavia:Yes, it depends on the level that they're at when when they come to me. It's usually two types of people. One is someone who's barely just starting, where they don't even realize that they need branding for themselves or they should be on the platform spreading their word out or getting popular. And the second type of person is someone who's already on there but struggling, so struggling in either getting their message out struggling in finding clarity and some things seem foggy, or there things are aren't jiving, so to speak. So depending on which level they're coming from, there's usually some level of confusion there because you They don't want the platform very well don't know themselves very well, or they don't know where to start, or they don't know just how deep they need to go or how complicated they need to get. So you have to kind of unpack a lot of where they're coming from before you try to coach them or teach them anything.
Dylan Schmidt:That makes sense. Yeah. It's not like a one size fits all, when it comes to becoming more visible on Instagram. I could see that, and especially with, have you found, have you I'm curious to know, have you found any of the tactics or the way you approach Instagram in general change at all? Because I remember with Facebook, reach was such a easy, not easy thing. But I mean, it was it was a very different thing, like pre 2017. Like, you could post something on a business page, and it would actually get seen by people. And then they changed something, I think it was in 2017, or 2018. And literally, in one day, it went from like, Oh, I'm reaching 50,000 people to I'm reaching 2000 or less, unless I'm paying then because they were like, people don't want to see business pages. Yeah. Do you find that the approach changes much? As far as what you do? Like just as the algorithm changes, do you find that the value add changes?
Seema Batavia:It has to I don't think you could stay static, or have that status quo, because I started maybe six months before reels came in, before the whole video onslaught came in. And I've seen that radical shift happen. And it is like night and day. So things that used to work before things that were predictable before with single post carousels, the way. engagement happens, the way people react to your content has radically shifted. And the way Instagram pushes your content to other people, for consumption for visibility also has changed. And the heart of the matter is that Instagram is now more of a video app more than anything else. That's the priority right now. And because of that, you have no choice but to embrace that particular format. Even if the message doesn't change, that's the thing. So it's not that the value that you're providing, is changing, it's the manner in which you're relaying the message. Now, again, you can get very creative with it, turn an image into a video or, you know, create static reels or whatever you want to do. But at the same time, you you have to make it palatable for your audience. If your audience likes to consume moving video that is snappy, than if you're presenting them an image just in a video form is not going to work. So you have to kind of get to know your audience, again, to see how you can get to know them. And give them the information that they need, in a way that the platform agrees with
Dylan Schmidt:the way the platform agrees with yet. Yeah, that's interesting. I saw this was a couple of weeks ago. If there was a compilation of me during this episode, three weeks ago, two months ago, one month ago, a year ago, ESPN, or one of those big like sports news, Instagram, they still might be doing it, I just noticed that a little bit ago that they instead of what would normally just be an image, they would make a video. And that video would only be like three seconds long. And it wouldn't be an actual moving video, it was just an image saved as like a video format. And they did that because they knew that the reach would get further. And so they post it like that. And so it's like, kind of like adapting to what the platform is calling for. Like you're saying, like, I find that very interesting of how I say marketers, but it's like even people that just want their content to be seen, you know, they might not call themselves marketers, but for the purposes of like, generalizing the conversation. It's like marketing in a way. And it's like, just to get your stuff seen. Having to convert a photo to a video is, I find interesting when it's still a photo, just in a video format. Like, these are the things we got to do and adapt to be seen. I find that fascinating. Mainly because it's just like it's because we're so used to like being able to just share photos on Instagram. And it's just changed so much. Yeah, it's but that's one of the things and maybe that's why maybe that's why you gravitate towards email marketing would you say is because when you're creating content on Instagram, it's like so easy to get lost in the noise.
Seema Batavia:Yes, yes.
Dylan Schmidt:Like I go on there like Seema. I got like, six or seven accounts on my thing, you know, your face well hi disgusting
Seema Batavia:cuz I have like, not disgusted okay. Is that cool? It's a guy called me Yes, yes, we do we have we have a coke syrup.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, I got big Coke Zero drinker too. I think we should tossed him on the podcast. So why don't have six or seven accounts? Well, one of them is like my personal one that I've like had for years that I don't post on, but I follow. It's not like company accounts that I'll follow, just consume never post. That's the one like, I'll follow friends from high school, that I it's like the one person I don't need to see what their updates are in life. So maybe I've muted it, but I feel too bad to unfollow. I haven't never talked to them in years, but I don't know what I'm doing. So that one is just like personal interest, I guess. And then Digital Podcaster. And then I have another one, secret account Seema, I have another account where I test content from, and I'll just do all sorts of wacky stuff, stuff that you'd be like, What the heck. And I do that, like, just to have like, fun with it, because it's not podcast related. And it's not really personal related. The weird thing about that, though, is it as it kind of gets followers and like, naturally, because I'm not using it as like, oh, I want to promote this or that. Yeah, I'm just posting content that I think is fun or whatnot. And just, I don't know, just it's like, a way to like, practice or something. But people will be like, I haven't seen your posts in a while cuz I'll go like, Yeah, I'm not trying to reply to comments. I'm not really trying to do anything with it. But people will be like, where are you been Dylan, I'm like, covered Digital Podcaster. It's like, you'll get sick of me over there. Because I post every day and a lot. And then other accounts, you know, animal like one for my dog Wednesday, and then one for a couple of clients that I have like access to their accounts. And another test account that is just inactive. Like I'll do it just to post it to see what it would look like, you know. And then the same with tick tock like, I got like, six or seven accounts, like I have a poetry account on there, where it's just, I like like social experiments. So it'll just, it's literally just me reading poetry. It's like 15 seconds of poetry. Not always my poetry, other authors. But I just like seeing like the differences. And then like I told you, I just started a news, a news and news. Profile domain. I mean, I don't want it's not we don't call a company X not doing sales. But I'm posting daily on that I'm still trying to find the groove of what time to report the news, right? Just the top three headlines. And that thing is just, it's like, Tik Tok is like at 13 or 1400 followers now, like, it's silly, it's in the comments are so mean to me all day. Just keep posting. So but yeah, I don't know, I don't even know where I'm going with that. But all those different accounts. But one thing that struck me though, is, I'm just part of being able to do all those reps. And actually, I just made a video for this, before we hopped on for this podcast, and I was going to post it after this to my Digital Podcaster account is it's not going in this in depth, but I can post I post so much, I can record so many videos, podcasts every week, all this stuff. And like people will be like, and I'm not saying they're right or wrong, or it's like, look at me, it's like, they'll be like, I'm just so I don't know if I can share this, you know, and it's like, I see that, like, I'm afraid to share something. And I'm on the opposite end of the spectrum, where I am hesitant to post stuff on my personal page where like, people from high school know me, but on Digital Podcaster. I mean, I posted I'll post like unflattering photos on purpose to strengthen my muscle of just like not caring, and I'll post on practice things. So it's just like, I don't know, I found the more I ramp up everything, the more I just can post more and I care less. How many accounts do you
Seema Batavia:have my own? I would say, so I have one personal account that I lurk from what Yeah, gotta look at account. Yeah, I have a lurking account. And I have a couple of accounts for brand names. So I just locked them down to make sure in case tomorrow if I have to scale them or something, and I think I have two more so I think total on my phone at the moment. I have seven. Oh, what Well, yeah, I do but I only use two of them which is mine and my personal one and even the personal one. I go on maybe once a week because I just can't be bothered to go on every day. Yeah, there's there's no Have activity on my on my work account to last me all day. So I don't want to go on an account after that. But yeah, I don't use them very often.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. How do you manage your your business? Count? How do you manage? Like? Do you have schedules of like when you go on it? And like, do you intentionally use it where you go? I'm going to respond to comments during this time, I'm going to leave comments on, you know, when I'm like,
Seema Batavia:I'm not that person I live on as me when I get off the west.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. You know, Chris those. Christo say that, like a similar thing. He's like, I would I asked him at the end of the episode, I was like, how can people work with you? How can people like, you know, get in contact with you if they want to work with you? And he's like, Instagram, he's like, I'm always on Instagram. He's like, Instagram, I'm sleeping. And you can reach me out of like, I love the honesty and transparency rather than
Seema Batavia:I am not the kind of person who schedules let me spend two hours and respond to that. It never works. I've tried before, but I think I have too much distraction. If someone comments if someone likes something, or if someone sends me a message, I'm inclined to respond right away. Because if I don't respond out, forget it, it won't happen. And I would rather just get to it as soon as I can. Just so I, I've done it and no one's left hanging. And I still sometimes miss a bunch of them. So yeah, I just live on there. Yeah,
Dylan Schmidt:yeah. That's, it seems like I mean, if Mark Zuckerberg was making the rules, he probably say that's, you know, that's what I want. That's what I want for
Seema Batavia:the outcome he wants.
Dylan Schmidt:Instead of you having to hold that phone, just attach that thing to your face.
Seema Batavia:Because the phone you become
Dylan Schmidt:the phone become one with the phone. Oh, my God, what do you so much? Oh, nice. Oh, one thing about living on Instagram to like, I see, I see. I just have to say this for people listening that or maybe they haven't grown their Instagram account. Or they want to grow their Instagram account, or they want to be like, do more business on Instagram. And they're like, they hear that and they go, Oh, my gosh, seems like, that sounds great for you, and you've had all this success, but I'll never reach that, because I don't want to live on Instagram. And to that I say, you probably already are like, if you are using Instagram regularly, you probably just don't realize how much you use it. Yeah, you're consuming so dang much. And it's just flipping it because they think they'd be happy to, they think it'd be the same of like, I'm going to consume all this information at this at the same time. And then also, in addition to that, I'm gonna have to create all this information. And instead of like, how about just shifting, how about cutting down the consuming time, is in creation time. So I just want to say that because people, I don't know, people get weary of that. They're like, I don't want to live on it. I want to grow it, but I don't want to live on it. And like, how much time you consume in there, you know?
Seema Batavia:So exactly. You're like, Chad, you're already on there. So you might as well, you might as well. And you're absolutely right. It's the creation. That turns a lot of people often it intimidates them, because there's this fear of judgment, right? Because you have to, you have to create it and have it for others consumption. And their judgment means a lot. Are they gonna like it or not like it? The validation is there to see it's numerical, you know, so for that, I understand why they're on the other side of the phone saying, You know what, I'm just, I'm just gonna like it, I like this stuff, I'll create it or, you know, post,
Dylan Schmidt:and I'm gonna call it out, see my, um, call it out. But what I see too, depending on what category you're in, for the most part, it's not dealing with criticism or judgment, like actual judgment. It's these overly positive comments of like, you get so much I just feel like there's like, I this might be cynical, but I consider myself an optimist person, too optimistic person, but where I'll see certain things where maybe I'll disagree with it. And I'm not going to like call it out in the comments, because I'm like that, I don't know, they put in work to create this. I'm not going to be like actually, this is not, this is not like helping people and comments or like, I just get this vibe that it's like, fake engagement of like, trying to comment so that they then get commented back on. Right? I don't know. It's just a weird thing where I just feel like there's this fake positivity happening in engagement. And then, I guess as a creator sometimes, because I don't see on Digital Podcaster is different than the news on the news. And I'm like, I mean, some people are nice. It's not like everyone's mean, but it's like, it's very extreme. It's like, this is underrated. This is so cool. Amazing. And then other people just like, bro, your forehead is so big and Like before, like, just coming up? Or is it guys like you're like, Mike, you look like Mark Zuckerberg and like, I've never been called that. And so that one's different, but like Digital Podcaster for, like, educate people on podcast. Pretty nice. And I guess like sometimes I guess, almost I almost wish for some more challenging opinions, because that kind of shows an area of growth, like in a relationship, if you are just happy, like positive, like if you don't hit any kind of like, friction, I guess with your audience. It's like you don't even know if you're being understood. Because it's just like, Yeah, that's awesome. Cool. Awesome, rad. Cool. But if someone then DMS me and is like, Hey, I don't understand this. I'm like, Oh, perfect. Let me explain more. So yeah, once again, don't know how I got there. But just fake the fake positivity kills me.
Seema Batavia:I get it. It is irritating, because you don't let the person's actually consume the content because it is a very generic response. Yeah, but for what it's worth, I talk about pizza at your comments. So I think we're okay.
Dylan Schmidt:No, that is like, that. is amazing. Oh, don't welcome like any other stuff. It's like when someone will, I don't know, there's like a difference between, like, this is actually, I don't know, it's it's nuanced. And I guess, as a creator, you can almost kind of tell when someone's just phoning in something. I don't have to come to whatsoever.
Seema Batavia:Oh, I know, that was a joke. But what I'm trying to say is that I
Dylan Schmidt:take very seriously Sima
Seema Batavia:as you should. Pepperoni. I think that there's such a huge opportunity that people miss here. Because your personality is something that you can easily show in the comments section. For example, I very regularly I do know who Christo is, you know, I very regularly comment on his post with chocolate, or I'll say something really random about chocolate and He'll pin my comment. It's just really funny and random. Yeah. But that to me shows are you really letting your own maybe internal barriers or fear of judgment that people are gonna see this comment section, judge you and be like, this comment sucks. But I see that as an opportunity, because very few people actually articulate and vocalize what they're really really thinking in the moment. Yeah, with wittiness or banter or sarcasm, or even countering with their own thoughts and feelings. That is very welcome. People appreciate that. When someone comments very genuinely on my posts with a joke, or something, a counter idea or an opinion, I welcome that very much. Because it tells me that a you read it, and you have context, and be your natural person with a personality that I would like to get to know I'm worth more likely to interact with you.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, it's not a robot. Because obviously, you know, there are like not obviously, because people don't know, but there are a lot of bots on Instagram. So yeah, when you come across an actual, something that relates to the post, or doesn't even relate to the post, but you could just tell like was thoughtful in any sense. Like there was funny.
Seema Batavia:Yeah, and I always respond to humor. I think that is the best way to approach anything. It's a slice of your personality, even if there's some context of the post. To me, a my day is made when I see an amazingly thought out funny responses. Oh, yeah, that's, that's cool.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, I love that too. Yeah. And something I've been thinking about lately. In I'm curious if, if you think the same, but for people who struggle with making content, especially maybe if they're new at creating content, or if they're just like finding it really difficult to ramp up the output that they need to do in order to grow on Instagram is like, to me, it's like, if you can't post comment, because that's, yes, that's getting visibility, that's, you know, like, and then comment, something thoughtful like, and that takes that's so it's easier than writing a tweet, it's easier than pretty much, you know, doing anything really, it's just hopping on there and responding to a comment or responding to a piece of content and then the visibility that can happen through there, right.
Seema Batavia:I will say this though, what's likely to happen in this chain of events is that when you comment genuinely, very thoughtfully on someone else's page, to the point where you attract their attention. The first thing that they're going to do is go to your page. That's the very first thing. Now when they come to your page, and they see nothing of substance, they most likely will leave or they you probably won't get the outcome you desire, whether it's them DMing you or having an interaction, your job as an account who wants attention. From an audience is to make the audience's job as easy as possible. So I always say at least have some kind of cohesiveness on your feed, whether it's a subject a color, whatever that shows who you are, as a human being, have a decent bio on there have some highlights have to have a nice photo. So that when you are putting all of this work out there, where you're engaging with others, and you're drawing them back to your page through being authentic, at least they have something to look at, and they have something to go by. Because otherwise you're just someone who's randomly commenting everywhere, but yet to have nothing to offer. And that is always a little lopsided, I feel this way people understand that this person is working hard, maybe they haven't taken off yet. But that's just the beginning, he seems really cool. And they will support you in that regard. But not if you're not making an effort. They always reward some kind of effort. So if someone sees that you're creating, even if it's not creating seven times a week, at least you're creating, you're out there, you're making some kind of effort. I just feel you can engage and you can comment to get visibility. But why waste that time in the engagement efforts when you're not trying to build up your pages? Well, I feel it should just happen in a parallel manner.
Dylan Schmidt:That makes a lot of sense. And now that you say that, as a creator, when I go to someone's page, like if they comment, I It's something about like, it's it's not like this unspoken rule or something. But I guess because I'm focused on creating. And I know that there are like rewards as a creator, when your work is seen consumed and enjoyed by someone. That when you then yeah, you go to their page, and it's like, oh, they don't post or they don't post anything at all. And I'm like, not, I mean, I want to almost reciprocate, you know, the value that you've given me, you know, like, like, it's not just a one way, I don't want to just talk at everybody like, I want to, hey, let me like, show some love to your thing. Whatever you're up to what do you have to and yeah, like, as you say, there's, if there's nothing there, it's it's like, I don't even know, a bit jarring,
Seema Batavia:isn't it? Yeah, it's jarring because you are happy to go and show some love back. But if there's nothing to show love to. It's, it's highly unlikely that you're going to DM them from there because the interaction happened on a public platform. So you're not likely to start a personal interaction unless that was initiated. So you're basically wasting that public interaction that you've made and made an impression with, if you don't have something for them to consume as well.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. I wanted to ask you about this earlier, but had to ask the other stuff. Metaverse, what do you think about the metaverse? I don't think my thoughts? None? None. Yeah,
Seema Batavia:I don't really. I feel that the direction that is going in I understand it. I see their point of view. But I don't know the place it has in the way we function today. Maybe I'm not seeing it yet. Or maybe I'm I'm too far behind to see the merits of what they're going towards. But I do think that people should be focusing on the need of the hour, rather than let's create something that's not there yet and find a way to make money from that. I think that is it's just another level of capitalism that we don't need at the moment. But I'm sure that there's some high level thinkers, they're doing what they need to do in order to get technology to the next level. And those are my comments on the matter.
Dylan Schmidt:spokesperson. Good. You got a future in politics Seema.
Seema Batavia:ever tiredly? No, no? Political person?
Dylan Schmidt:The mayor of pizza? I yeah, I agree with that. Like, it just seemed weird. It just seems like I did the pop my I have with it is like, there is so much attempt at education around what the metaverse is and how it's used. It's like anytime you have to educate someone that hard. People like you could probably relate to this because you've sold many a digital product in your, in your day, that when people when you sell like a digital anything, and you think, Oh, someone's going to consume this, it's going to be awesome. All this stuff about like, a good little chunk of that is actually getting people to find their way into the thing. How do I turn How do I log into this thing? What's my username and passcode? How do I join this call? How do I submit a question? How do I interact like the questions are very basic and We're still talking on like, zoom level basic where people have issues on like, how do I get my webcam set up all this stuff? And not that I don't think like there is a place for the metaverse, but it seems to me like, it's not like next year or in three years, like people say, kind of like, there's so much education around cryptocurrency. I like crypto. I like the idea of it. But there's way too much education and NF T's like saying like, you are I'm not, I'm not saying that they're not going to happen. It just seems like the amount of missing of like the mainstream of how to utilize things other than a picture of an animal, a computer grab, like, I don't know, just seems it's one of those is like if you're investing your time. There's, I don't know, certain people are making a lot of money. You know, I don't know.
Seema Batavia:But to their credit, people were very skeptical about the internet a couple decades ago, and people didn't really understand Facebook when it first came out or when it got to the scale. When the the moment they started sharing pictures on there. I remember what an uproar that was, and how people got really offended about how we do not want to share all parts of our day. And we do not want to be so visible and lose our privacy. But look at where we are now. Yeah, yeah. So you kind of have to lean into what the society wants. And you have to lean into what the need of the hour is. So that is something that they did foresee, which is the collectivism and the coming together and just how accessible the internet and the ability to be social is online, no matter what the location is. But as far as the metaverse goes and its whole experiencial platform that they're trying to create. And the whole NFT web three space. I'm sure it has merit. But I myself I'm not I'm not that visionary who sees that in my life at the moment. I'm not seeing its place right now. Yeah, as I'm sure trying to set up my webcam. I mean done.
Dylan Schmidt:But then they go in the metaverse, you don't even need a webcam because you are the webcam so you want to have
Seema Batavia:like so I know that it's coming from a good place. Yeah, of course a lot of it is profit driven. We all know that nothing happens in a silo. But I just don't see it for myself. Just person speaking.
Dylan Schmidt:Let me let me tell you this, personally speaking Seema, Seema, firstly, okay. With with the whole pandemic, and then things will, as a news reporter seen now as someone who posts three headlines a day, one of the headlines, at least in the US, the CDC is supposed to announce something today, maybe they already have about relaxing like mass guidelines. Generally speaking, I know it's like a kind of a moving thing. But generally speaking, it seems like the pandemic is shifting from what it was a month, six months, a year ago in the US just being for the US. And I can only imagine that people are probably like, ready to get back to some more face to face reality, then we've just had years of screens. And now it's like, Oh, you just had two years of nothing but screens. Well, we got a screen even closer to your face. Like, that's my, my skeptical kind of view of it is people are going to be like, I'm ready to get outside. I'm ready to be around, you know, human human connection. I don't know. That's just, it just seems like weird timing to me, but just seems and I'm open to it. I'm open to it. I just like I feel like there's a healthy level of skepticism when it comes to anything, even with the internet is like cool. Be skeptical about it. You know, you don't need the Internet to make money. But a lot of the people, anyone who's making a ton of money, generally speaking is using the internet. I don't know, just some thoughts, some thoughts from personally,
Seema Batavia:personally speaking, the way I see it, is that technology doesn't have a choice but to move forward. It's just something that happens. And it's just one of those rapidly changing things that the next thing is always there, the new discoveries always happen. The new inventions always happen. There's always something happening. So I think regardless of the fact of whether we are spending more time outdoors or not enough time on our screens anymore, this new ability to experience the internet will happen regardless. Now again, who takes advantage of it, who has access to it, what the means are going to be and what it's going to be used for, maybe we'll be gatekeeping maybe it will be exclusive. We really don't know the depth of This thing yet, but that's what makes it beautiful and interesting. The fact that okay, we didn't know what the internet was a couple decades ago, and we were fine. But now we can't really live without it, regardless of being outdoors or not. So for all we know, this could become the next big thing in terms of how we make transactions, how we experience events, or how we learn how we communicate, it could be a little of everything. So I'm not opposed to being open to it. I just don't like jumping on bandwagons when I when I don't see it. Like, what's the point?
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah. And that's where I guess the education thing comes in where it almost seems like the people that are the loudest about it are making money off of it, which makes me skeptical as a person who's like, okay, that, obviously, I'm capitalist, but yeah, okay, I get it. But I'm, I'm not like, I'm honestly not like a huge skeptic of it. Because I would run out I had an Oculus years ago. But it was like, there was like a limit, sitting in a room by myself watching Netflix on here. I mean, just watch it on my TV doesn't get
Seema Batavia:an introvert, are you? What's a traitor? You're not an introvert? No,
Dylan Schmidt:I was like, I was like, I'll be alone in my room with the TV rather than be alone in a virtual room with a TV. There was just not much to do on there. And I guess I just like I would go out and buy whatever the latest Oculus is today, I would participate and things like that. But it just, yeah, it just feels like that mass adoption. Like you said, I'm like, I don't see the vision yet. And the people that are allowed us with the vision, it to me, it just creates confusion, and also creates a delay of people that want to create. They're like, well, maybe I'll just wait for the metaverse. Maybe before for my I'll just wait until things change a little bit more until I get started. Because Instagrams changing, maybe I should do this. There's all these different platforms. And I just I don't know, I think there's a certain audience of people out there too, that might feel so much chaos and confusion around the idea of where and what to post and what, how to brands once all that stuff. And then they hear things about the metaverse is coming. And it's like, How soon is that? And should that stop you from creating today? This is what I'm preaching, I guess.
Seema Batavia:Reach sista?
Dylan Schmidt:Thank you for that duck?
Seema Batavia:No way I see it. It's crickets the way I see it, is those who make the most noise. They're early adopters, right? And I'm just gonna keep going back to this fact that this is the next wave. And if we think back to that wave of Facebook, the wave of Myspace, the wave of social interaction, do you remember how much noise there was about how people were talking about sharing your photos online, check your status online. It's harder people it is fun. That's what people do. So there was an uproar about that there was a lot of noise, there was early adoption, people were trying to get others to use this platform, because they foresaw the actual use of it and connectivity. Of course, they made money off of it. But there's a reason why Facebook has gotten to the scale of test today is because people genuinely use it as a way to connect and to remember other's birthdays. So it's not that they're making noise to make noise or making noise to sell something or make the most money. I do feel it's the noise that comes with something new. And it's, it's bound to level off at some point. Because the novelty is going to wear off, it's going to become a way of life where it's going to become something that's commonplace and something that people use every single day like NF T's or something. But I don't think it means that they're they're trying to make money off of you specifically, it just means that hey, this thing is new, you have the choice of either to jump on this bandwagon or wait it out. And maybe by the time you wait it out and are ready. Things will be different. But that is your choice.
Dylan Schmidt:Yeah, yeah. And yeah, yeah. And I guess part of the marketing is that fear of missing out too, right? Where there is a certain section of have you better hop on now before it's too late. And I guess anyone listening, I just want you to know it's not too late. And it's not too late to you know, start building your personal brand. Even if you're an introvert on Instagram,
Seema Batavia:shout out see me that was right. Any I'm here to help you.
Dylan Schmidt:Yes. Is is your go to any last words. Seema, I just want you to have the last word so just whatever it is covered a lot of ground. A lot of pressure riding on this.
Seema Batavia:Well, first of all, if you need some Reese's Pieces, you let me know, whoever's listening. I'm a pro at sending you Reese's.
Dylan Schmidt:What if I can just hit you up for I know
Seema Batavia:but But that means you'll have to give me your home address. And we don't know how that's gonna go. Just saying
Dylan Schmidt:I internet's monitored and FBIs outside, but yeah, everything's good.
Seema Batavia:And the second thing I'll say is that if you aren't online, building your brand, you probably should start now, if you haven't already, because the times are only going to keep progressing. technology's going to keep progressing. The algorithms are changing every single day. And they may or may not be in your favor. So it's better to learn now learn quickly, and to get in a place where you have enough content or yourself to disseminate to people. Because there are too many people out there who are very talented, doing the exact same thing as you may be worse than you and they're succeeding. And there's no reason why you can't be out there doing your thing. No matter what the outcome you're you're looking, whether it's only popularity, or reputation, or building a business or money, whatever it is, it's all possible. But it's not possible by you only consuming the internet, you have to become a participant. And it's easier now than ever. But it's too volatile to just sit back and not do anything. So I would say to start now.
Dylan Schmidt:Alright, thank you again to my guests, Timo Tavia if you want to check out Seema, all things Seema check the show notes for that. I'm sure you'll love her if you don't already follow her on social media. But make sure to check out what she's doing. She's incredible. And she has a huge heart, also of the color blue. But besides that, I hope you're having a great week so far. It would mean the world to me if you would drop a rating. If you're listening on Apple podcasts or Spotify, that helps out the show quite a bit. And you can go to digital podcaster.com For all things I'm working on, which is quite a few different things at the moment. So make sure to check out digital podcaster.com Probably the latest and I'll see you next week.