Cringe Is Required | Katy Roberts | Full Battery Media

In this episode of the Full Battery Media Podcast, I sit down with Katy Roberts, a freelance creative, video producer, and personal brand strategist who helps people stand out online through video content. We talk about what actually makes people stop scrolling, why curiosity gets attention but relatability keeps people watching, and why memorability matters more than chasing viral moments.

Katy shares how anchor words can help define your on-camera personality, why copying someone else’s style usually feels awkward, and how professionals can make better videos by bringing in more personal experience, vulnerability, color, and real stories. We also get into confidence on camera, building trust through consistency, and why your personal brand should feel like a universe people want to keep visiting.

What is one thing you could add to your videos this week to make them more memorable?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

People don't bring their personal experience into their videos enough. And also they don't allow themselves to get vulnerable. They don't talk about like the tough shit. My top three best performing videos are I got laid off, I got called out, and I got fired. Like people love hearing about other people's failures, honestly. And as long as, you know, you kind of like wrap like bring it full circle of being like, here's what I learned, here's how I'm gonna be better. Then people really relate to that and they actually appreciate that you were like so willing to be open like that. And you can do it in a funny way. Like all of mine are very like self-deprecating fun, right? My favorite comment I think I've ever gotten. I just got it the other day on a video I posted, was a woman who was like, I just love how genuine and fun you are. And I feel like you would be the best neighbor and we could just like chat over the garden fence together all day. And I was like, that is amazing. That is exactly the vibe I'm trying to give, right? Like, I'm just your best friend next door who helps you be creative and you know, make fun, engaging video content. And the other thing I think people do wrong is they try to do too much too fast. So they're like, they see content like mine where I have 10 years of experience developing video content. And so obviously, it is going to be very different than someone who's doing it for the first time. And so they're trying to do these crazy edits, they're changing scenes every five seconds. Uh, when really you just need to sit in front of the camera and talk, edit out some of the pauses, add some captions, and there you go. Start there. Don't make it complicated because if you do too much too soon, you won't do it again.

SPEAKER_04 2:07

Welcome everybody back to the Full Battery Media Podcast. I am your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Would you like to tell people who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 2:16

Hello, everyone. My name is Katie Roberts. I use the umbrella term of freelance creative because I do a lot of things, but uh within that umbrella, I have a local photography business. But in relation to today's podcast, I um am a freelance video producer, and uh I help personal brands stand out online with video content. Lots of different forms of that. But yeah.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

That's awesome. First of all, you're the guest that has had the coolest background of anyone I've had on. I love like the the the like toolboard and then like the photos, and everything's got like lots of color mixes. It grabs attention, and I think that's that's important, you know? And I think that people don't realize the little shit that that that pulls people in, you know, but love it. So just wanted to say that real quick.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

But thank you. This is actually a new a new addition. Um, stay tuned. I have a whole series coming out about um redecorating my office, but the corkboard I literally found on I yeah, I found this corkboard on the side of the road and I hold it home uh like half a mile while walking my dog, and then I spray painted it yellow and threw a bunch of stuff up there.

SPEAKER_04 3:36

That's red. That's awesome. Well, it looks great, and uh I I love good backgrounds. I need to redo mine, but it works for right now. I like yours. It's me. You know, it's kind of like my wife. My wife was like, I want to remodel your room. I was like, no, no, please no, because I know what you'll do, and it will be known, not me. It might look really good though, but you know, I just like the vibe that I got, you know. But I want to ask you this because when when I was looking at your content, that was one of the reasons I reached out to you, because you had some really cool content that you were posting up, you know, and it led me to want to ask this question like most videos get scrolled past. What actually makes someone stop?

SPEAKER_00 4:16

Well, first of all, thank you. Uh it's been years of rendition and experimentation to figure out what actually works. But in that time, I think it comes down to two things. There's one, it's curiosity. You have to engage the viewer's curiosity. And then it's about um relation. So are they able to relate to your content? Are they able to say, yes, this is made for me? And so I like to say they you pull them in with curiosity, and that could be your visuals. So for my content in particular, it's very colorful. I I mostly post on LinkedIn where it is a sea of sad beijoals. And so the way I stand out, the way I sound out is my colorful backdrops, my colorful beanies, things like that. Um, and then obviously people always talk about the hook. You can have a very uh curiosity-enticing hook that makes people say, like, wait, what? Or uh I need to know more about this. And then, but the reason people stick around is because it relates to them in some way. It's going to have some impact on their life. That could even be it gives them a good laugh, but no one's sticking around if they're not gonna get something out of it personally. We all are inevitably selfish, right? And so you gotta think about like how your viewer is going to be feeling and thinking um throughout the entire video itself.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

I made a video, I made a post on LinkedIn today. And I think that I couldn't get it really, I should have done a video because it was is way more funny than you'd think, but it didn't sound funny. I realized that there was a failure in that in the the in the the second half. But I was walking down the street today, and this one lady looked at me and said, Good morning. Okay, and I was just like, Wow, okay. And I recognized her and I was like, Oh, I know you. You pulled a knife on me six years ago. Literally, totally, totally. So here's the story.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

So I wow, this took a turn I did not expect.

SPEAKER_04 6:32

Totally took a turn.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Here you go. This is your curiosity, this is your curiosity enticing thing. I'm hooked, let's go.

SPEAKER_04 6:38

Right? Took a hard left. This story just took a hard left. And that's what I was trying to do in the post, but like someone was like, I don't think that's good advice. I think that's dangerous to tell people that. Then I'll tell you the full post and explain everything. It needs more detail. My wife is pregnant. Now, Vietnam has lots of karaoke, like lots, but karaoke and beer go hand in hand. And of course, there is this inverse, like, like, the more beer that comes in, the worse the pitch. The worse the like but more the higher the confidence, but yes, and the higher the confidence, and they just they just start going off the rails. And so we had neighbors that were the definition of the world's worst neighbors, and they would just wheel out their karaoke thing and go till three, four in the morning, and like outside, dude, outside aimed down the street, and the liquid confidence was flowing, and they just were amazed. And like, I'm the type where I don't deal so well with stuff like that. I you know, I'm the type that I'll just get in someone's face about it. I'm like, turn your freaking radio down, man. You're kind of a jackass. And so I um I went outside late at night, and uh it was like I just went out. I was like, guys, can you cut the music? Now this, what does this mean, right? Cut it, right? Cut the music. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cut it, cut it. They thought I was going like this, and so I'm like, cut the music, cut the music, and he's like, I'll take it, you know, and so guy runs and like they get him really pissed off. They come, and this little old lady, she she was not old, she may be like at that time, she's like 50 something, and pulls a knife, and like I just like, what the hell? Pulling a knife, cops come, uh, it all gets cleaned up, but they tried to storm into my family's house. It was wild, right? She ended up getting arrested a couple days later for something else because she was just out of control, right?

SPEAKER_00 8:50

It's those cute little old ladies that you can't trust.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

Yeah, 50-something-year-old old lady pulling a knife on people and scamming people and stuff. It was wild. She was on a roll. But she she showed she went, she disappeared for a while, but she came back. She was always around the neighbor's house. And um I always remembered her, and I was just like, Oh, it's that lady, and smile, be polite. And it's like over time, she just started smiling back at me and just smiling more and more, you know. And over time, I mean, we're talking eight years ago now, and now she sees me, and it's like water under the bridge. She's like, How's your daughter? Your daughter's so tall and cute now. Like, and I'm sitting there going, You pulled a knife on me. I can't get past that point.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

I mean, she was probably she probably doesn't even remember. She was like six spears in. Right?

SPEAKER_04 9:45

But the thing is, and I I posted on LinkedIn and I was just like, Well, you know, sometimes you gotta play the long game. Relationships are better to mend than to than to go down with the ship, you know? And so, but that was my LinkedIn post today, and I was just like, I thought it was hilarious. Hell of a hook, hell of a hook, right? Someone pulled a knife, you know. So, but I mean, you gotta find a way to to get attention, but also to deliver value. For me, that story was about, you know, don't burn bridges down. Just because someone's a jerk in the beginning, it doesn't mean that it's gonna go always bad, and you never know what's gonna happen, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Totally.

SPEAKER_04 10:23

I I want to ask you about this one. You talk about mem memorability over virality, and I love that. Memorability, why is that such a critical distinction for personal brands?

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Right. So, I mean, it's funny because I the whole reason I started posting content on LinkedIn is because I went viral and I wasn't expecting it. So uh, but how however, I think I essentially analyzed that post of being like, what was it that made people tune in and how can I replicate it? And I essentially started creating my own personal brand around that and you know, trying different things, seeing what's stuck, but inevitably creating the bones of my personal brand. And so now I 90% of my content is has like some core elements in it that I never change so that people recognize me instantly, right? And that has really been what's kept people coming back, and I like to think about it like if you think about your favorite TV show, or there's a reason we we love a TV series, it's because they kind of have the same tropes, it's the same characters tackling the same problem almost every time. Like a Seinfeld episode is literally the same thing every time, just with like one little thing or one part of the plot's different, but like it's inevitably the same arc with the same characters. And that's what we're looking for. And so when people go to your content, like it feels nice to see the same thing, and they can also they know what to expect from you, right? And so that's what they're like, well, I know Katie's gonna give me going to inspire me to be creative in some way, and so that's why I'm gonna going to stick around because she has always done that in the past, and I can expect her to continue to do that in the future.

SPEAKER_04 12:24

I love that. And that I reference this one book a lot, and it's one of my favorite books, and it's um called Trust Agents. It was written early on in the internet age, and it looked at uh the idea about one of the most important things that you can do uh is to build trust. You build trust by giving and delivering that thing again and again with consistency, and the people like again can really depend upon you for that. And that's the experience they're looking for. And I it's interesting when you try to change that too much, people can get uh a little bit resistant, but at the same time, I I do feel like as long as you're working that memorability angle, uh, you can continue to deliver uh powerful experiences for them, as just as long as you're not, you know, going from making plumbing videos to ping pong videos, which is an actual story that I heard recently from a guest. Some guy was one of his clients, was making a plumbing channel, and then he put up a ping pong video of him playing ping pong and it went viral, but it caused problems for his channel because all of these new followers that found him through the ping pong video, when he started posting the plumbing video, they were confused and they didn't engage. And so YouTube started downgrading all of his videos, which was a challenge for him.

SPEAKER_00 13:50

That is tricky, right? Yeah, I will say it's that is that's a that I would say that's a very unique situation. Right that is not common.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

Yeah, you know, I mean that's what I was thinking. Like attention is attention, which is attention. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 14:06

And I think that as long as you're I would say 90%, if 90% of your content is talking about exactly what you want to what you're trying to build your brand on, right? Yeah, um, then you are going to build the type of audience that you want. Because at the end of the day, even if you have a million followers, if they're not the right kind of followers, then it doesn't matter. Like they're not going to buy from you or engage with you in the way that serves you because, like, yeah, they're not really there for the reasons you want them to be. And so when it comes to your personal brand, you know, I like to think of you have your anchor words, you have the, it's almost like your core values that uh are the building foundation of your brand. And so you can kind of think of it like a marriage, right? Where like I'm getting married in June. And I, you know, my fiance and I, I know over the next hopefully many, many years that we are together are going to change a lot. Our wants and needs are gonna change. We're gonna try new things, we're gonna like, you know, all these different things. However, I'm confident that we'll be successful together because we have these core values that tied us together from the beginning. And that's what we're always gonna come back to before we make any transition or big change. And so you can kind of think of it like that with your content.

SPEAKER_04 15:39

I love that. And I think that that's it. It's about being able to re-ap in and to reconnect and just re find alignment. But you know, one of the things that I find is trying to find that originality of what I'm doing, you know. I mean, I like with a podcast, you can have the same conversation at any number of times with different people. But like one of the things I try not to do is to try to copy someone's video style or things, you know. What happens when someone copies a video style that isn't theirs? Because we see that a lot now.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Well, that's the thing. You can tell. You can tell immediately. And you immediately, you know, it's like we talk about the online cringe or whatever. That is when I feel the cringe when I'm watching somebody and I can tell they're just not being themselves. And being your authentic self, it's such a cliche term. But I, and it's hard to describe what your authentic self is. However, I think it's very obvious when you're not being your authentic self. So it's it's kind of like knowing how not to feel in order to know how it feels to like be yourself on camera, right? And I used to do this like when I started YouTube, uh I was, you know, when I that's how I got into video is a try to be YouTube famous. And this was back in 2015. Heyday of Casey Neistat, Peter McKinnon vlogging, the really like cool New York city dudes uh on YouTube, where I'm like this like quirky girl, like whimsical little witch. Like I am not the cool city dude, and that is okay, but I was trying to be like them and it didn't work. And so over time I have developed what really works for me, how to show up, uh, finding my voice that's not too loud, not too soft, but like just right.

SPEAKER_04 17:37

I love that. But that's it, it's about finding your voice and finding your I was a um how I honed my skills of podcasting was with one thing. I was a children's teacher for 20 some od years. I taught English on the side and taught kids English in Southeast Asia while I was building my media company because it was a good side hustle. And the most brutal uh audience member ever is like a 12, 10 to 12 year old kid. Like they will just we're like, this class sucks, they want to be entertained, they want to have fun, and I, you know, honed this style of mix between education, comedy, stand-up, and a little bit of just all this other stuff. And my my boss would observe me and he's like, I want to give you zeros on everything. He's like, Because your prep is horrible, your your lead-ins and all this are horrible. But he says, I've never been in a more interesting class because you know how to engage with the kids, you know how to work with them, you know how to like draw them out. And he's like, You were just sitting there, just like absolutely because I I'll give a kid shit, like endlessly. I do that with my my workers now too. There's one kid here, Andrew. He's my my favorite editor, and he is an editor slash uh after effects artist. He is one of those absolutely socially awkward kids that became a socially awkward adult, but he is a heart of gold. And when I uh, you know, and I was getting ready to open up a new office space, and I was like, hey, you finally get to move into a bigger room, and he's like, Can I stay with you? Because I just have a lot of fun and make me feel really good. I was like, Andrew, you can you can stay in this office as long as you want. You're you're my bud, you know. But it was like I was able to see him, and one of the things too is like why I'm bringing this all up around content, is that my style is not like anyone else's. I studied acting in Los Angeles a long time ago, and I use this example all the time. Um uh Ivana Chavik was my teacher, great teacher. And I went and observed one of her classes. It was when the movie Boiler Room was at its peak, and that the movie's amazing if you've never seen it. It's great. It's an old Vin Diesel, Giovanni Rubisi, all these great. And these guys are essentially running a like Wall Street type scam. They're getting people to invest, and then they're investing and stealing, essentially stealing that money that was invested. And uh Giovanni Rubisi plays this one character. Giovanni Rubisi's always got this, like, you know, he's like freaking out like half the time, and he's got these, like this really exaggerated thing, like he's always, you know, oh man, peak. And the actor that was playing that scene channeled Giovanni Rubisi uh perfectly. Like I was sitting there going, oh my god, that guy was just a Giovanni Rubisi. And uh the whole class, we thought that he was gonna get the most amazing reviews. The teacher tore him apart. She was like, I that was horrible. I I didn't, and here's what she said. I didn't ask you to be Giovanni Rubisi, I asked you to be you. I asked you to embody how you would embody that role, how would you play that role? And she's like, if they wanted Giovanni Urbisi, they're gonna cast Giovanni Urbisi. If someone wants to watch Mr. Beast, they're gonna watch Mr. Beast. If someone wants to watch someone else, they're gonna watch them. You have to find you and the reason that those people are gonna want to come and watch you. It's individual.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yeah, definitely. And the tough part is like it, it's it's easy to say this. It's so hard to actually figure that out. And it just takes time. And that's that's like the shitty part of this is that it takes practice, you know, and like nobody wants to hear that. Like they want to be like, oh, well, I just like figure it out overnight, but you can't because it does take a lot of trial and error. And I think there are there are like some tricks that you can try to to make it move a little faster, but um, at the end of the day, it is about like putting in the reps, seeing what we're works letting yourself be a little cringy and learning from that.

SPEAKER_04 22:05

I love that. Sometimes you have to do what you gotta do to um you know to really find your space. And it's like it does there are moments where you are horribly cringe. And I remember early on for me I made some videos that were just awful and I learned a lot about who I was and like I tried to get especially with my daughter with her YouTube we were making early Ailani's little world and we're like let's open some toys and I was just like and very quickly as an educator I was like we're not doing the toy channel thing. And one of my friends said Sean that's not you don't do that. And I was like when I tried to make these videos I was like what toy can we go by next and we had like a giant room full of toys and I was like we're not doing this. And you know we started making educational content. We started talking to kids about science and STEM and seeing animals and talking to NASA scientists and it was fun and my daughter loved it. And it was our unique that's so cool. Do you still do that? For sure we're still doing it and still building it um and it's a lot of fun. You know and the coolest part is I get to do with my daughter. So I think that's the the blessing of it all. But I want to ask you a question because you use anchor words to define on-camera personality. How does that change someone's constant strategy long term and what do you mean by anchor words?

SPEAKER_00 23:22

So your anchor words I kind of referred to this earlier but this it's think about it like it is your on-camera personality right but they are they're kind of the core basis of that so for me personally my anchor words are playful curious witty and sincere and so it it's kind of like an encapsulating view of what you can expect to feel when you watch my content. And so it's very specific though. So I'm not laugh out loud funny I'm not a comedian but I'm witty. I'm like you kind of get like this I don't know just witty feeling watching my content and it's obviously very playful um but it's sincere. So I the big thing that I like to come back to with this idea of being playful is the reason I added sincere is that I love the phrase you don't have to be serious all the time to be taken seriously but you do have to be sincere. You have to people have to know that you're coming from a place of truth that you have their best interests at heart and that they're going to get something out of this but that doesn't mean you have to be like super serious and boring. So those are my anchor words and I came up with those after uh you know creating a lot of content looking back on it and being like how what are some words to describe this content? And you can come up with these without even creating content that will be put on the internet. You don't have to do that yet but uh you can even just record yourself and talk about something that lights you up like you're chatting with a friend in a bar be like what's like the best vacation you ever went to or like how you met your partner you know I don't know what you love about your pet like things that are really exciting to you and then watch it back and see describe how you seem on camera and those can be your anchor words because that is like your true authentic self right like you're not acting you are just being yourself and talking about what you love. And then you can when you're creating your scripts when you're thinking about how this translates into content you can keep coming back to those anchor words and being like okay does this script seem playful? Does it seem sincere? Is it a little witty? Uh all these things that like bring you back to who you are to make sure that like your full authentic self is coming through on camera.

SPEAKER_04 26:06

I love that man it it makes a lot of sense because you know if you deviate from that people tend to not like it you know but I wanted to ask you another question because what's the biggest mistake professionals make when they finally just start decide to start doing videos and I I'll tell you what I see from what we edit the thing that I notice is that people oh man people are just doing like spammy people with AI scripts and they're just like what they think people want to hear I'm here to tell you why a 401k is the most important investment vehicle that you should have and you're just like dude come on man tell me about your experience tell me about your life the other day I made a video about content now I'm walking down the street and I went to buy a new DJI mic I'm walking down the street and someone says I am your father and I was just like what the fuck is that all about and I was just like and I'm a huge Star Wars fan like huge Star Wars fan and all of a sudden I was like I am your father I was like dude I'm Luke I'm Luke I'm good with that and I looked down and I realized I wore a shirt that said I am your father and I was just like oh shit I forgot I was wearing this so I walked up the street bought my mics came back out and I was just like the guy was still there and I was like dude can you say that again on camera he's like I am your father and I was like nice I reported it made a video about it and you know spiced it up a little bit but it was unique it was memorable yeah what was the video about the video was about creating content and I was talking about mics I used the new mics in the video and right there like it was so much more memorable than me being like I just bought two new mics and they're really good and I'm very happy I got them no one's gonna give crap about that you know you got to be memorable.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Yeah I would totally I totally agree with that and I would expand on it saying people don't bring their personal experience into their videos enough and also they don't allow themselves to get vulnerable. They don't talk about like the tough shit. My top three best performing videos are I got laid off, I got called out and I got fired. Like people love hearing about other people's failures honestly and as long as you know you kind of like bring it full circle of being like here's what I learned. Here's how I'm gonna be better then um people really relate to that and they actually appreciate that you were like so willing to be open like that. And you can do it in a funny way. Like all of mine are very like self-deprecating fun. Right. And um but they really that is like uh I had a my favorite comment I think I've ever gotten I just got it the other day on a video I posted was a woman who was like I just love how genuine and fun you are and I feel like you would be the best neighbor and we could just like chat over the garden fence together all day. And I was like that is amazing. That is exactly the vibe I'm trying to give right like I'm just your best friend next door who helps you be creative and you know make fun, engaging video content. And so that's when I get comments like that, I'm like, I know I'm nailing it. And the other thing I think people do wrong is they try to do too much too fast. So they're like they see content like mine where I have 10 years of experience developing video content. And so obviously it is going to be very different than someone who's doing it for the first time. And so they're trying to do these crazy edits they're changing scenes every five seconds uh when really you just need to sit in front of the camera and talk edit out some of the pauses add some captions and there you go start there don't make it complicated because if you do too much too soon you won't do it again. Right and consistency is important.

SPEAKER_04 30:12

I 100% agree I think that when people try to do too much they they might be able to pull it off for a day or two and then they get they hit a wall that's one of the reasons that I've like I've had a lot of success with my my clients just because I tell them that I say you know what you are going to hit a wall and you're paying me to be the person who helps you get through that wall and like I do everything I can to help I'm not gonna say pull drag people to the finish line because that's what I generally end up having to do is like say we're gonna get there. Come on let's go but you know one of the things too that I I notice is that it takes people you know for for podcasts I tell people they're not gonna feel natural until they're 10th podcast plus maybe maybe further you know and for short form you know what I've been doing I still feel super awkward on short form unless I'm just freestyling it like if I try to sit down with a script you know the today I'm gonna that and then turning to this camera and then turning here I'm so bad at that I'm so funny I'm the opposite I'm like I struggle with long form because I feel like I have to I have to like really be on compared to short form where I can do like one line at a time so it's interesting. It's interesting we each have our strengths but you know this is what I wanted to ask you though because confidence on camera is it a skill is it a mindset or is it just reps?

SPEAKER_00 31:44

It's all three it is I think you have to put in the reps in order to gain the skill but in order to be proficient at that you have to have the right mindset. And that mindset is being willing to fail and being to will be being willing to make fun of yourself and uh know that you're not gonna nail it the first time and also being open to like trying new things. So another thing I love to tell people to do is you know we talked about not copying other people. However I think what I like to call uh intentional scrolling is a great homework for your voice but especially for like your visual aesthetic like what do you want your space to look like? What fonts do you want to use? All this kind of stuff um but also like how you show up on camera, getting ideas from other creators I feel like my style in particular is like an amalgamation of 50 different creators right that I have seen throughout the last for throughout my time doing this.

SPEAKER_04 33:00

And I've taken a little nugget of theirs that I like and I've brought it into my own style but because it's also I've taken nuggets from 50 other people it's now become mine and it's a very recognizable as Katie Roberts's videos but like originality is the I think doesn't exist right like it is just a combination of everyone that you're inspired by I love that it is you know we we are kind of this this potpourri of of combination I haven't seen a potpourri for Sir Sale in forever. That's like a thing that we just don't get in Asia. But you've led teams at a global nonprofit now you run your own creative business.

SPEAKER_00 33:46

What changed when it became your name on the line you know what's interesting is I actually felt so much more freedom when it was just my business and because at the nonprofit um which I'm sure is the same at any company or organization is there are guardrails around what you're allowed to say, what you're allowed to talk about. And the nonprofit in particular like we're nonpartisan we could not be have strong opinions any right or left and so big things in the world would happen and I'd want to say something um but like that was not okay. And if it was a little spicy we had to go to leadership it would take forever and so with my own company I can say whatever I want. And yes like you have to be careful like this is your personal name on the line. However I think that's kind of fun and I am not afraid to get a little spicy and I think that actually helps when standing out online you know people who have just like boring opinions uh that don't you know rile any feathers they're not gonna be known for anything and so yes you have to be a little more careful I'm definitely more careful with what I put on LinkedIn compared to what I put on Instagram because LinkedIn is this like more professional platform I try to be like very I mean work specific in a way um Instagram I'm a little louder about certain things. But yeah at the end of the day I feel so much more freedom to just like fully be myself and like just let myself post whatever the hell I want to post.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

I love that right at the end of the day that's what you gotta like I had the other day um I then we've been dealing with a sick kid or and like that's the reason I'm actually really tired tonight. I had to take my daughter to the hospital's office really we we go to the hospital here for just like regular doctor's visits in in Vietnam okay like it's where you go for doctor's appointments. But we still took her there because she was projectile vomiting the last week and it's not fun. She looked not good finally gave us a stronger medicine that was able to help a bit but I was tired and like this was four days ago I was dealing with this and she got better and she got worse and I took a picture like I sent my mom's like how's how's everything going I took a picture of myself and I looked like shit and I sent it like the next morning I saw it and I was just like oh man I'm gonna post that on LinkedIn because that's awesome you know and like I posted and I was like this is what it's like this is what you know you know what was interesting though so many people comment on that that was like one of my biggest posts today like it was just huge reach everyone's like I'm pulling for you man and so many parents are like I've been there like I've been there I've been there trying to get to work trying to figure out how to do all this stuff and I've got a sick kid at home you know parents are balancing multiple jobs and it was interesting because it wasn't just I didn't think that shit out I just was sitting there with a really sick kid going and my mom's like are you okay and I'm like not really you know and but it was that moment but you know so I I think there's something to be said for just like not be authentic but like truly authentic moments you know if you're sitting there and you're dealing with a little moment of zen as whatever happens happens even if it's not great you know document it I think that's one of my biggest problems with like all of the you know not just all of the the influencers especially on length of the go I crush it 12 days a week I'm out here running you know you know I've just ran five marathons in 12 days and you're like God you know I I had one of my students that just ran a race and um she did this race and I was like dude I need to start running too but then luckily she posted what happened after the race she's like I just partially torn one ACL and the other ACL is fully torn and I was just like okay yeah maybe I don't need to do cross country racing you know I'm I'm okay with my ACLs being where they're at.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

But you know totally I mean we romanticize so much and I think people forget about you know a personal brand is should be somewhat personal. Like they forget that part of the say or of that name right the term and so it's it's posting things like that with your sixth kid. I mean I just had one similar I was sick for a week and I couldn't really post anything I felt like shit and um I was like what do I even post about and I was like I guess I'll just post about being sick and how actually it's really tough. It was the first time I was ever fully sick and like out of business for a week, you know since starting my own company. And so before when I was like a classic employee um working for somebody else if I'm out for a week like whatever I'm still getting a paycheck it's just sick leave but I'm not getting a paycheck when I'm working by myself for myself and I'm sick. And so I was like okay I can like turn this post or turn this experience into something relevant online. And you don't always have to do that. That's like a very LinkedIn thing to do. Um but I think showing the hard sides of whatever it is your uh personal brand is about showing the the tough stuff and also I like to think about your personal brand as your universe you know and so and within this universe you have your your kingdoms as some people call them pillars right so for me it's like I'm a freelance creative and um you know it's video it's photography but it's also I love I live in Salt Lake City because I love high uh hiking and climbing and skiing and all these other things. And so that is a huge strong kingdom in my life and it's something that's going to that I post about 10% of the time um but it adds just like a little bit of depth into who I am and it's some it's just another way people can connect with me and relate to me. And you know and inevitably like the better you get to know somebody the more likely you are to trust them the more likely you are to buy from them. You know there's that saying people buy from people but I like to say people buy from friends. And so the more you can make yourself feel like somebody's friend the more likely they are to buy from you.

SPEAKER_04 40:58

I love that I want to ask you one last question. What's one small change someone could make this week that would immediately make their videos more distinctive the first thing that comes to mind is add a splash of color.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Like they're I'm so tired of seeing just beige white walls nothing on them they're in like a white button up or like a beige sweater and they're just staring at the camera I'm going to swipe away from that like uh just because I'm expecting the same old same old however put on a bright red shirt add I don't know go into your kitchen where you have a blue wall like do something maybe it doesn't even have to be something big like that I don't know you have a funky lamp put that in the background like something small that you can add to your content um hopefully that is colorful because people the human eye perceives color before it recognizes anything else. It's like the first thing that we notice and so if it's bright and stands out you're more likely to grab someone's attention and then you just gotta figure out how to keep them around throughout the rest of the video. Love that where can people go to find out more about you and what you do the main place to go is my LinkedIn so LinkedIn.com slash Katie Roberts creative if you just google Katie Roberts Katie with a why um you'll find me um if you're in the Salt Lake City Utah area go you can check out my photography uh the at the playfulprofessional dot com um but generally yeah I'm I am trying to grow also Katie Roberts creative on Instagram I'm trying to grow my personal brand um because I have gotten so much great feedback about how I just inspire people to be more creative and I feel like that is my main mission in life is just to get people to start making shit. And so if I can grow my audience so more and more people do that, I think inevitably the world would be a better place