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Followers Aren’t Enough | Alex Drachnik | Full Battery Media

• Sean Trace

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In this episode of the Full Battery Media Podcast, I sit down with comedy creator, social media business owner, and longtime content creator Alex Drachnik to talk about what it really feels like to build a life around content creation. Alex shares how she started making videos at 13, how her comedy character Sasha the Russian helped her grow millions of followers, and why the creator economy feels so different today than it did during the early days of TikTok.

We get into the pressure creators feel to constantly pivot, the difference between blaming the algorithm and understanding what audiences actually want, and why views and followers are not always the same thing as real business growth. Alex also opens up about creator burnout, running a social media agency, making content for clients while struggling to create for herself, and why platforms like TikTok Shop and TikTok Go may be changing the future of social media monetization.

This conversation is honest, funny, and very real. We also talk about AI, authenticity, the value of human creativity, and why creators need to keep adapting without losing themselves in the process. If you are a content creator, social media strategist, business owner, podcaster, or someone trying to understand where digital media is heading, this episode is for you.

What do you think matters more for creators today: going viral or building a real community?


SPEAKER_02

It's just like the government's fucking the economy so bad. Sorry if I'm swearing. I'm just like, so, and and so the creator economy and with with the with AI coming in now as well, like AI is such a great tool, you know, to aid your creative process. However, like I don't want it taking over the creative process. And sorry if I'm going on a rant here, but my biggest gripe with AI, my biggest gripe with AI is everyone's like, it's it's moving really fast. And I get it, obviously it is. But at what point, right? Like everyone uses AI to write everything now, but AI takes everything that's written on the internet to learn what to write. So at what point are we gonna get to a spot where nothing on the internet is written by a human anymore and it's all AI?

SPEAKER_01

All right, welcome everybody back to the Full Battery Media Podcast. I'm your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today that can tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so I'm Alex Strachnik. Thanks for having me today. And I am a comedy content creator, a social media business owner, and yeah, I've been making content since I was 13. I'm 33 now, and it's completely changed my life.

SPEAKER_01

That's awesome. How did you get started? I I love this because, like, you know, people all start somewhere and there's a there's an anchor. You know what how I got started in the video? I'll tell you, first of all, I got to work in Hollywood a long time ago, and I was a background actor on a Ron Howard movie, which is literally the most unglamorous thing you can do in Hollywood is to be a background actor. But it was so much fun. I got to stand there and watch these people work all day, and then suddenly I made friends with people and they kept me on set. They're like, hey, do you want to be a stand-in? You just stand there when the lights are getting done. I was like, dude, I'd love to do anything to be on this movie. And I got to stay and watch the movie being made for six months. But then after that, I kind of got behind the camera and I was working in a hair salon in Hollywood. Oh, wow. And I was like, let's make some hair videos. And so I started making hair videos, and it was early on in YouTube. I'm that old. And uh, you know, it was fun. But it's like people all start somewhere. I wanna, how did you get started? And what was your what's your origin story?

SPEAKER_02

Uh okay, so I got started when I was like 13. I was making, I wasn't even making anything yet. I was in uh where was I? Sorry, my brain is blinking. Let me just No problem. That's that's every day for me.

SPEAKER_00

I had I know. I had my barrels and roots podcast last night. And uh let's just say we had some wine during the podcast. So this morning, I'm like, hmm.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, so I was whatever was before high school. For some reason, I cannot think about what we were doing.

SPEAKER_00

Middle school.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Oh my god, my brain. Okay, so I was 13. They were uh middle school was like, cool, here's a group project you need to do, make a music video or something. I forget why. And I was like, wait, my parents have cameras lying around the house because my dad does like photography and videography as a hobby. So I pick up this camera, I we shoot this music video, and I was like, whoa, this is so fun. I love this. And then I was like, wait, how do I edit? And my friend had told me about iMovie at the time. And the moment I started working on iMovie, I was like, whoa, wait, this is like a thing people can do. And I was honestly hooked from then. Like I did start a YouTube channel, was doing comedy videos there, went to film school, la la la la la. Like it literally just from that one little scenario, it trickled. And I remember we made the music video to a secondhand serenade song. That's what I remember. I don't know where the video is anymore, but I remember it.

SPEAKER_01

I love that. I love that. It's awesome too. Like when you bring up iMovie, I'm like, oh, the memories, man. You know, but yeah, that's the cool part. It's like, you know, one of the things too is like I you don't have to have the fanciest tools to make awesome stuff. And especially now, there's so much that like that you can do that's so cheap and so easy.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, like, you can shoot something that goes super viral, makes you millions and millions of dollars on an iPhone.

SPEAKER_01

Right, right. That's so true. I wanted to ask you a question though, because like you built million, like four million followers as a comedy character called Sasha the Russian, but at some point you had to drop the mask and show up as yourself. What was the scariest part of that shift?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm kind of in this weird shift right now. So if my energy is kind of low for this podcast, I'm just kind of like, it's a really hard time to be a creator right now, um, unless you're doing like TikTok shop and all these things. So I played this character, Sasha, whatever, but I also, you know, on my Instagram, I my Instagram has been my like longest platform. So I do like post other things outside of just being my Russian character. But I will say it is tough because there's like there's no rule book and there's no playbook to follow. You're kind of just inventing whatever comes to your mind about what you want to do. But like when it comes to branding, right? It's like the most successful creators kind of stick to like, I don't want to say a niche, but they stick to like a thing, right? Like if I was playing this Russian character, I'd just do this Russian character, but forgetting that I'm also a human who wants to share other things. So I don't really have a concrete answer for you right now because I'm kind of like figuring it out. There's just a lot of like, it's a weird year to be a creator, I will say that. Unless you're like the OG creators, like when we all started on TikTok back in the day, you know, um, it was like so much easier to just like blow up and make videos, but now it's like everyone is doing like TikTok shop and doing some sort of like thing that is actually making you money. So it's like, you know, like I'm kind of going towards the TikTok shop world a lot now. So I'm kind of like, but but but does that mean I'm sacrificing my character, or is my character gonna do that? So it's like it's confusing. So that's where I'm kind of at right now.

SPEAKER_01

One of the things too I think of is that uh with content, I think, and that's a great point. It's pivot city. Like I think that the one of the things that if you want to stay active in this game, the only thing that I think is a constant is your ability to pivot. Because you know, man, I've seen so many iterations. Like when I first got into this with building my own brands, my wife and I were doing the Casey Neistad five style vlogs, you know? That was the thing, and we were out there like this is a day in our life, but it wasn't a day in our life, it was these this.

SPEAKER_02

Did you just call it a Vlog, by the way? I just I didn't a Vlog, right?

SPEAKER_01

I did. God, I'm old. Um, please clock me. But you know, that's the wild thing. We we were right, GIF or GIF, Jesus, yeah, right. Uh um, but the uh when we were doing it, like, and everything's changed, and then TikTok came along. I remember when TikTok came along and people were asking me, should I put my time into this? And I was like, I couldn't figure TikTok out for the longest time. I was really like trying to figure out short form, like how to lean in on that. And then every time the algorithm changes too, it's really I'll tell you this. I've known so many creators that when the algorithm starts shifting, they're just like, what I was doing is now not working, and it's really confusing at times for people because how do you keep up with the constant shifting trends and keep yourself from going nuts, you know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I'm gonna counter that because it's not necessarily the algorithm, it's uh more so the what people are interested in, right? Like back when TikTok first started, you know, it was a lot of like lip syncing and dances, and then you know, everyone started to do it, so it became so like oversaturated, and then people want more diff different types of content. So I wouldn't blame the algorithm as much. I would blame more on like people's wants and needs and desires and what they want to see. Like it's supply and demand, right? Like people don't want dance videos anymore. So I think the people that do blame the algorithm are the ones that ultimately fail on the internet because they're they're finding something to blame instead of pivoting, as you said.

SPEAKER_01

That's it, you know. And I think that's it. I don't know. I'm gonna push back a tiny bit though, as well. Yeah, do it. I like uh I a hundred I 100% agree on your point though. At the end of the day, you have to pivot if you want to succeed. But I did see that, like, especially with my daughter's channel, when it was more for YouTube, less for TikTok. TikTok, we've been able to be consistent with it, but when YouTube rolled out their shorts, uh, we were getting insane numbers on a certain format, right? But then we kept doing that format and it crashed. And I'm like, well, was that us? Was that YouTube shifting? And at that time, all I know is that at that time people were like, oh, the algorithm changed. How the fuck do I know if it changed or not? Like I don't even know if that's true, but what I do know is that the one thing I do know, because this is like like the little bit of stoicism of content creation, even if it changes, that's outside your control. What you can control is your ability to adapt, to sit there, to research trends to see what's doing well and what's not, and then to match that, you know, because at the end of the day, man, you can cry, you can be, oh no, it's changing, or you can sit there and go, All right, it's changed. What can we do? Like, yeah, you know, an interesting case I found out last week. Um, and I whether you like him or not, I was blown away by his YouTube channel because he's actually really growing right now. Mark Wahlberg, you know, who has gone through so many iterations of his career, went from marky mark and the funky bunch into the movie star, and now he's he's embracing YouTube. So, what he's doing, he's got this really interesting style on YouTube that is he has these insane workouts, and he's getting Mr. Beast, I show speed. Uh, he just had uh, was it Drewski? Drewski just came and it did Mark Wahlberg's workout. He's like, Can you come and do my intense workout? And he puts everyone through the same workout. That's absolutely insane. And I was just like, what a pivot. You know, this is that's the what you do. You don't complain, you sit there and figure out what's your niche and then run with it.

SPEAKER_02

And it and I feel like though comparing to a celebrity is a bit different, though, compared to like someone changing a brand, because like a celebrity is already, they can do whatever they want. Like Mark Wahlberg is the brand. So Mark Wahlberg could do whatever he wants. Like any pivot he does is like it's like on brand in a sense because he's the celebrity, he's an A-list tier person. So it's like, but I don't know, but no, that is a good point. It's just like I don't know. It's tough. It's tough. I it's cool though that he's doing that. I think that's smart. And I think it's smart when celebrities do jump in on social media stuff because like it is where everything is now, and you don't want to be left in the dust. Um, but I do think celebrities are in like a different tier of like pivots because they can do whatever they want, they're already a household name everyone knows. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Right. And that's interesting too, because you know, like I see, like with the podcasting arena, you know, people are like, oh yeah, so this person just created a podcast and it blew up to 200 million views. And I was just like, oh my god, man. Like, yeah, they're also super famous already, you know? And so it's kind of an unfair expectation for the average person, you know?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, and and going off that, I don't know if it was at the Grammys or the Oscars this year, but they had a podcast um section. I think it was at the Grammys. I don't remember. No, not the Grammys, it was the one of the award shows for movies or TV. They had a podcast award section, but every podcast that was nominated was basically a celebrity podcast. And I was thinking, like, I know this is the TVs and movies, but like it felt wrong almost. It felt like so wrong that all the podcasts that were getting like nominated were like celebrity podcasts. I think like Amy Polars was on there and um Jason Bateman's or something like that. Anyway, I just it's almost like, okay, well then what are the rest of us doing with our podcast? I don't know, not saying like the award is the end goal, but it was just like such an interesting award that they were doing. Right.

SPEAKER_01

It's like those uh those groups. I have ever seen though like when people have their own club and then they start giving away awards to club members, and you're like, is that even really fair? Like, like, is it fair, you know, that you're giving away participation prize for our team? Yay! But I mean, it's fair. I do see, like, especially with my clients, though, and that's one of the things too, is I think that you have to have an expectation shift. You can have an impact and drive your business and create leads without having to have 10 million subs, you know, without having to have this stuff. So yeah, I still think there's a place for people to find their voice though. And I wanted to talk because you had a post where you talked about hiding the real me for too long. Talk to me about that because that's something that I think is really interesting with people sharing their real their real self. What post what post was that? When did I post it? Jeez, I don't know. It was a while ago that I was doing my research, maybe a month ago.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I was like, was it a recent was it a video I did?

SPEAKER_01

I think so. It was within the last three weeks.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah. That was more so about like kind of what I've been going through right now is like figuring out like, what is it that I want to do? So, like, to give you an example, like I come from the traditional TV and film world. Like, I, you know, did the YouTube thing, realized I wanted to make movies. I worked in TV and film, and then I blew up on TikTok at the same time that I was about to join the camera union in Hollywood. And then I hadn't made a choice. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do the social media thing because it's new and I don't have to climb the freaking corporate ladder of like unions and stuff. And so I did the social media thing and it's it's been great and it was great. And I mean, it still is okay, but this year's been really tough because like I'm just gonna be real with you here. I blew up on the internet, right, as this Russian character, and I was back in the day, we all we cared about was like how many followers and how many views can we get on our videos, right? Like I hit a million followers in one month on TikTok. It was crazy, it was so cool, it was such a crazy moment in my life, and every video was getting millions and millions and millions of views. And then now, you know, I started my own social media agency, right? Thinking that's what I wanted to do. And and like I do like to do it, but as of late, I've been getting really just like shot down a lot myself, just because not from clients, but it's like I'm only creating for other people now, and I'm not creating for myself. And the whole reason I did what I did is because I like creating for myself. So now I've kind of gotten myself into this hole where I'm like struggling to even carve out like 30 minutes to create for myself, and it's really wearing on my mental health and like terribly. And so I'm like, so what is it that I actually want to do? Because I like to help people, but if helping people is taking up all my time and I can't even help myself anymore, then like, what is the point of it? Right. So it's just an it's an interesting year for creators because I'm not the only one who's kind of like views, nobody nobody gives a fuck about your views and followers anymore. They really don't. They matter about more about your community and your engagement, and like that's why TikTok shop is so popular because it's like brands now have creators to make videos for them for free, and then they get commission off of the sales. So why would anyone want to create other content? Obviously, we create content to entertain, but like if I'm not the platforms don't pay like they used to, right? Like Instagram doesn't give you bonuses anymore, Facebook has a pretty good one, Snapchat. You have to reach their program, YouTube's okay. Like, but at the end of the day, it's like, I don't know, it's it's just tough. Like it's been a tough year. It's only April, but it's been a tough last couple of years, you know, with the way the world is going. You you moved out of the country.

SPEAKER_01

I'm still stuck in this country where the I I moved out like 20 years, like 15 years ago though. So it's been lucky.

SPEAKER_02

It's just like, it's just like the government's fucking the economy so bad. Sorry if I'm swearing. I'm just like, so and and so the creator economy and with with the with AI coming in now as well, like AI is such a great tool, you know, to aid your creative process. However, like I don't want it taking over the creative process. And sorry if I'm going on a rant here, but my biggest gripe with AI, my biggest gripe with AI is everyone's like, it's it's moving really fast. And I get it, obviously it is. But at what point, right? Like everyone uses AI to write everything now, but AI takes everything that's written on the internet to learn what to write. So at what point are we gonna get to a spot where nothing on the internet is written by a human anymore and it's all AI?

SPEAKER_01

Right. I use, and I'm I'm trying to be intentional about this. I mean, because my team, we use it as well. I think everyone does right now. Yeah, but I try to tell people like for my own posts, the only thing I use AI for, for my posts on my like my LinkedIn and my stuff, I use it for a grammar check just because I'm atrocious and like help me with grammar and punctuation. But I like I have to go at it. I'm like, don't paraphrase, don't summarize, don't rewrite, use my words. And it's just like, all right, let's go to town. And I'm like, no, don't go to town, just use like don't do that. But one of the things too is like, I think, you know, everyone was looking for the Jetsons type of uh let's get that robot assistant to help do the dishes, and like it like now it's in the creative space. But here's the thing I see a big pushback amongst my clients about people like and just from people, like I think that we're gonna get in that there's already talks about the AI bubble bursting. I mean, because think about it like people are generating cats doing kung fu. Dude, I don't want to see fucking cats doing kung fu. Like, honestly, I want to see like real my biggest my biggest gripe against especially Facebook. Everything I see on Facebook now is AI generated content, like almost 98%. And I lean more toward Instagram because I actually see my friends' photos, I see people, I see things that are still real. And I don't know about TikTok as much because you know, my TikTok is I just follow my wife and daughter. That's what I see all the time on their their stuff. And so, but the reality is, is I think that people are getting tired of the spam. And I think that there's an opportunity for people to sit there and go, all right, how can we kind of lean in to like be more authentic in this time? I know it's so fucking cliche to say authentic, authentic, authentic. I mean, it's true though, you know, at this point in time when people are dude, like I don't want to see another like cats doing kung fu, maybe the first time was interesting, but yeah, not really, you know. And and I'm sorry, but the the uncanny valley and the creepiness of like here's the thing, right? What makes so this is I I do you mind going down this this rabbit hole a little bit? Because like last night I like talking about this uh on my wine podcast. It was much easier to do once I'd had half a bottle of wine in me as well to go down this rabbit hole. But it was interesting because I have a winery podcast and it talked to winemakers. You know how much work goes into making wine? You have thousands of people out there in the fields, you know, cutting these vines, harvesting this stuff. Then it goes in and it's aging in these barrels. And there's still this awareness of like authenticity in that, right? But seriously with the content, you can let's generate something really fast. You know why I don't think AI movies will become a thing? Um, certainly Hollywood will you know try to cut margins and stuff, but like the fact that you have to show up, you have this group of people showing up, you have people who have to learn lines, you have authentic people trying to give that. I've seen like these AI-generated, like Bruce Lee fighting um Jackie Chan. And it was just like, okay, certainly those are their moves, but like, how much more impressive to have the real fucking person there doing this shit, you know, with all of the practice, all of the things. Like, I think people are misunderstanding the fact that what was impressive about Jackie Chan wasn't just the movements, it was the fact that that dude was doing his own stunts, right? That was what was wild about it. Like when you see him sliding down the top of this building, he did that. It's so crazy because he did it. It wasn't the move, it was that this person was doing that for real. Tom Cruise is a bit of a nut, but the fact that he's hanging off the side of a plane is impressive. I don't want to see some AI generating that. I want to see Tom hanging off the side of a plane. You know, I'm there for that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I don't, I mean, I mean, I can't obviously predict the future, but I I think Hollywood's smart enough to not do AI only movies. I don't see that happening. Like they'll use AI in movies. I'm sure they already are, but they're not gonna they're it would just be so it would just take away from everything if they did like an AI and a full AI generated movie that like won an Oscar, right? Because it's like it's like the whole thing about movies and TV shows and celebrities is people like the celebrities. People like the press and the celebrities. People are obsessed with them, you know? So they like to see like, oh my god, my favorite celebrities on the red carpet and I'm watching e-news right now or something. Like that is part of why we love movies. It's like the press, and you can't really do that with like the AI stuff. Um, I don't know. I I I've read somewhere that people think we're gonna go into an analog era where people are gonna be like so anti. Um, like we'll just kind of kind of reset and go back to basics uh from AI. Um, I don't know. Like, again, it is a helpful tool. Like, I'll be honest, I use it a lot for you know, like writing. Things fast, like just to like help me generate some stuff. But like when it comes to ideation, I think I think AI sucks at it, like literally sucks because it cannot like me and my friends can come up with some insane fucking ideas, right? Like, and it's stuff that I'm like, dude, you wouldn't no normal human or a fucking robot would be able to process how we came up with this. It just came up, right? And then my other like, it's just like I'll I'll literally how I'll generate AI, I'll yeah, I'll prompt AI and Claude all the time. I'll have it like research stuff for me, and then I'll be like, can you generate me ideas like this? And it just it can't. It like gives me the most basic fucking thing. And I'm like, this isn't gonna work. And um yeah, it's just I don't know. I just it's scary because I use it a lot. I will be honest. I still use AI a lot to help me write things fast, and I hate how much I use it sometimes because I'm like, I mean, I don't have it write me ideas, but it's never gonna be able to write ideas the way we want it to. I just don't think so. And okay, my biggest thing too, I hate when people are like, oh, just use AI to do this thing. And I go, do you not realize that when you use AI, you still have to prompt it, you still have to interact with it. You're not just like giving it a thing and then it goes and does it all for you. You have to interact with it and tell it what you want and prompt it. And guess what? Sometimes you doing those revisions and prompting it takes a lot longer than having to fucking do it yourself.

SPEAKER_01

Right? That's what I sit there and like with with when people start going down this path and like go down this. I sit there and I we use it in our workflows, and I am just the amount of time that I spent or I spend going back and going, no, you dumb robot. And so I'm probably gonna be one of the when the robots take over, I'm for sure in the first wave of getting taken out because I have not been polite to my AI overlord. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I was mean, I'll be honest, I was really mean to chat. Like, chat pisses me off, dude. I chat GBT, like, but then I switched to Claude and I noticed I'm so much nicer to Claude. I actually never really yell at Claude. So there you go. Isn't that funny?

SPEAKER_01

Right? That's hilarious, man. Yeah, but Chat GBT pisses me off so bad. I run in circles. But with you, like, as I want to talk to one other thing too, because like that dichotomy that you talk about, this is something that I bump up into all the time. The challenge of um my own content versus the challenge of doing things for other people, because it can feel exhausting at times. And I'm not gonna lie, like my team, we get feedback. I was wanting to post something yesterday too, because my team, my my team. So here's the crazy part like I hired editors that all work for worked with me at as a language school. Before I founded my business, I was parts like side hustling teaching English. Nice. One of my editors uh next year is moving to London to study politics and feminism studies and her master's degree at the SOAS School of Uh Oriental African Studies. Fucking amazing school, one of the smartest people I know. She's a rock star. And uh another person is a biochemist who's getting ready to go study in Germany next year for her doctorate. Uh, another guy, two of these guys are like awesome musicians, but yet when we get feedback coming through your editors, this editors, and it just is so it's so belittling that time. The editors did this, and I'm just like, one of the things that like I think people forget the energy that goes into stuff and that the people behind it. And for me, I sit there and I go, like, whenever they work on a video for me, man, I treat everyone with like supreme respect because I'm just like, I'm thankful that you're here. I'm thankful that this amazingly talented individual is working with me. And it finding that balance between working with other people and most of my clients, though, are absolutely awesome because I filter incredibly because I don't want, you know, a-holes working with me. It's just like I don't have the time or the day for that. But it still can be timing, you know, challenging to do client content for other people. How do you find that balance? Or is that something that you're figuring out right now?

SPEAKER_02

Honestly, it's something I'm figuring out right now because I have no balance in my life. Um, as I said, like I'm in a very weird spot right now where it's just like transition, it's like a weird transition moment where it's like I'm in I'm in a really low spot right now, and I'm just like figuring it out and talking to a lot of different people. But like it's been really tough to do anything for myself that I want to do. And I don't like the fact that it's like, oh, well, you own a business, it's gonna be a lot of hard work and you're gonna have to sacrifice a lot. And I'm like, you know, there's so many different paths in life. You know what I mean? Like, why do I have to like sacrifice everything I want to do for this thing that I don't even know if it's gonna work or if it's what I want to do? And yeah, lately it's like I'll I'll be on client calls, and sometimes I'm just like, what if I was just really mean on this call and they fired me? Like the intrusive thoughts have really just started to wander. I'm like, because some I I just the whole reason I started a business so that I didn't have to work for someone else. But when you have clients, you're technically still working for someone. And it's almost like even worse in a sense, is because everything that your team does, it's your fault. It's not their fault, it's your fault because you run the company. And I'm like fine with that. I'm like, it's my fault, whatever. But over the last couple months, it was like every day I after I fix something, another thing would happen. And I'm just sitting here, I was like, is this ever going to end? And I was like, honestly, I don't like this. Like, is this why my hair is gray? Like um, it's just, and then I and then uh I went over to my friend's house and he's like a big business guy and he broke down. He's like, Okay, what are all the things you do all day? And then what are all the things you do for yourself? And when we wrote it down, he goes, You do literally nothing for yourself. Like, you know, like I'm starting to really like my personal life is starting to get affected by it. And so yeah, I'm trying to figure it out right now. And my current solution is well, I'm a big solution-oriented person. Like, if I have a problem, I find a solution. I don't like to sit there and complain. However, there's a difference between complaining and venting to your friends because you cannot bottle it up in your in your inside all day because that's how bad things happen. You know what I mean? So I've been venting and like letting it out to friends like about what's going on and just kind of like like I do want to get like I'm really good at making content, but I haven't, but I've always made comedy content. I've never been like an expert at a sales per I'm not a salesperson, I'm a creator, right? So like, but there are these tons of people on TikTok who are like nobody's, you could be anyone, who are making TikTok shop videos and making 50 to 60 grand a month from TikTok shop. And I'm just like, I could literally do that. And like I what, you know what I mean? So I uh my first step here is I love learning new things. So I hired these uh this like coaching, this TikTok shop coaching, whatever, they're like the number one TikTok coach shop coaches or whatever to teach me how to do it because I was like, I want to get so good at this that I'm an expert at it, and then when I become an expert at it, then I can offer it to people as like a that's awesome. You know, like because the thing is, is like I don't underst. I'm just gonna say this out loud here. I don't understand why people are hiring people to do their organic content anymore. They really should be hiring people to do content that's actually gonna like sell their products better. I get the organic. Obviously, this is what we do. Like, I'm literally like stabbing my own self on the back right now. But but I've had I've been thinking about this a lot. I'm like, organic is great. Obviously, you need it, but you really do need to know and have the creators that are if like if you have a product, you should hire people to help you with your TikTok shop 1 million percent. Like that should actually be like a first thought. I don't know, I digress. Lots of thinking over here.

SPEAKER_01

I love that. And one of the things too that I um uh I'm thinking more and more um is that you know, it goes back to that pivot of like you shifting into this other arena is something that to me is the smartest thing you can do. Because it's like I know it's unless you are super wealthy and you can just bankroll endless amounts of organic content, at some point in time you gotta be making money with this stuff. I mean, it's that's the goal, you know. Thank you. You know, you gotta be making money or you're just spinning your wheels. So I I love it, you know, and I've been looking at TikTok shop as well because excuse me, I never sneeze on podcasts. It's the first time I've ever sneezed a postcard. But you know, and it's interesting because right? I mean, I got something in the air. But you know, I I think that you know, if you're not looking at the new trends and you're not embracing the next step, then you're just what was it, you know, if you're not changing, you're dying at some point in time in the whole scheme of things. And if you're if you really want to get ahead, you got to figure out ways to kind of adapt, adapt and survive, adapt and iterate, you know?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And um a new a new program on TikTok that I also joined too is called TikTok Go. So instead of like TikTok shop where it's products, TikTok go is travel content. And basically you like you post a video. Let's say you went to like somewhere cool in Vietnam that's on this program, you post a video, whatever, and then you link the location to that place, and then you get commission if people book it off of TikTok. And the incentive is if you book it off TikTok, you get like a deal, right? It's like 10% off tickets or something like that. You can book hotels, activities, resorts, etc. And it's very new. It's only about a year old, but they're no one, I did I just heard about it literally like a week or two ago, and I've already joined, but they're ramping it up for summer. So, like my advice to a lot of people right now um is to get on that because we're at the early stages. Like, I wish I got on TikTok shop in the early stages because my gosh, I mean, it's still early, but like this is like TikTok Go is it's it's it's an infant right now. And so I got into this like program where they whitelisted my account. I got a they're like, make a brand new account, we'll whitelist you so that you could have zero followers when you're in the program because usually you need like a thousand. And I already made my first sale after posting four, four days in a row. Like, cause I um I live in Vegas and I live between Vegas and LA, but I live in one of the most perfect cities to do this travel thing because everyone comes to Vegas. They book hotels, they book like everything. You know what I mean? Like it's just like the perfect travel destination for your summer getaway, right? Like everyone goes to Vegas. And so I literally live in that city, and you don't even need to like stay at the hotels. I just have to get B-roll of the hotels and then voiceovers or whatever I want to do. And so I'm like going hard in the paint on TikTok Go and then TikTok shop right now because I'm like, you know what? Times are changing as a creator, and I don't want to get left in the dust. And yeah, as you said, I would like to make some money because I was making money as a creator, but you know, I'm not I'm not making like vit videos with like 10 million views every day anymore, you know? And so I'm like, all right, shifting. And that's that's all you can do is just shift.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, 100%. It is all about shifting. And I think at the end of the day, it's a lesson for life as well. You know, I think it would be nice um if things were always clean and clear, but it's not, you know, and I think that the best thing that you can do is to be ready and aware that wherever it's shifting, um, you know, you can either embrace that or or or not. Where can people go to find out more about you and what you're doing right now and about your company and what you offer?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. So um I was like, I know I've been talking down about a lot of things, but um, um, but it's just being real, right? Like, you know, you asked me about being authentic, and I'm just like, I'm just like sick and tired of having these like conversations where it's like, yes, everything's good. It's not, everyone's having a hard year. But um yeah, so you can find me at Dracnik, which is my last name, D-R-A-C-H-N-I-K, which is like my personal stuff. That's gonna be like my personal sash, Sasha. It's Alex Dracnik on every platform. My username is Dracnik on every platform. And then Drax Social is my social media video production agency. So that's where like we help brands uh come up with a social media strategy. We shoot like a real production. So like we'll set up shoot days, and then we'll do the editing and then social media management. Um, and uh we take very select few clients for that because we do want to focus on them and not have like a huge uh, you know, like huge uh client list. Um, and then I also do consulting as well. So like, you know, if you wanted to hop on a consulting call and I can talk to you about social media, that's that's what I do.