Today's show. So last week we spoke about
TikTok. Today we're continuing talking
about TikTok and talking to solo founders and how they're using
TikTok to get millions and millions of views.
My guest today, Megan, got 18 and a half million views on a
single TikTok video. Imagine what they did to her
revenue. We also spoke about COVID,
Toronto TikTok, when to post solo versus brand, as in a solo
entrepreneur like Megan versus a brand posting.
We spoke about making behind the scenes videos, prank videos,
which are not what you might think they are, but they are
quite cool. We've talked about this quite a
bit, YouTube Shorts, which I think might be the first time
we've ever even mentioned YouTube Shorts on the show, but
they work incredibly effectively for winning Shopify.
We're talking about authenticity, personality, and
the most awesome topic I think of today's episode or the
funniest one certainly that I will not be forgetting in a
hurry, is 70 millimetre eyelashes.
That's right, 70 millimetre, 7 centimetre long eyelashes and
how she pranks somebody with those.
And they're currently for sale on her store as well if you want
to get a pair for Halloween. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed
today's show. Over to the actual episode.
So, Megan, welcome to the show. How are you?
Hey, Nick, thanks for having me. I'm doing good.
How are you? Yes, I'm very well, thank you.
Very well. And I'll say to everybody
listening as well, Megan and I were just chatting before we
got, we both got coughs at the moment.
And my editors are, they're taking the Mick out of me at the
moment, how much I cough before we start recording as well.
And there will be a blooper really at Christmas, which I'm
sure will include some coughs. So, yeah, apologies if Megan or
I sound a bit croaky at any point, but opposite sides of the
Atlantic and we're both unwell. So.
But anyway, Megan, tell us a little bit about your business,
about your background, about how you got it started.
We ask all of our guests to do this.
So yeah, we'd love to hear a bit about your story and then we'll
dive in more as we go through. Awesome.
So my name is Megan. My business is VO Lashes.
We are based in Toronto. I say we, but it's just really
me. It started as a service based
business in 2017 providing lash extension services to clients.
So I would physically do these beauty services for my clients.
I built a loyal clientele, but when COVID-19 hit, I was forced
forced to shut down due to restrictions.
So this challenge kind of led me to pivot and focus on creating
an e-commerce store. So today my store offers
hundreds of lash styles along with a wide range of lash tools,
products and supplies for both everyday users and
professionals. Amazing, amazing.
And essentially you're based in Toronto.
I have to ask, is that why you use Shopify or was it just the
best option at the time? Because obviously they are based
in Toronto. They're one of the big flagship
companies over there, aren't they?
Yeah, they are the biggest one just because I was mostly I
found it more easier to use Shopify versus the other ones.
Yeah, amazing, amazing. And let's let's roll back to
COVID quickly. I know it was a horrible time
for most of us, but just as you've described, we we've
worked with so many clients, with so many people on the show
as well saying that COVID was just a game changer, sometimes
good, sometimes bad. And what was that initial kind
of shock like when it was like, Oh my gosh, I can't do my normal
service based business? Like was it quite like a 24
hours and you're completely pivoted and it was all lovely?
I'm sure not tell us what that time was like.
What were some of the key decisions and things that were
actually going on around the business at that particular
moment? It was definitely very scary
because that was my only source of income.
I had quit my job to pursue that full time because I finally
built a loyal clientele, and to have COVID come and just shut
everything down was really, really scary.
It was definitely a slow pivot, but because also my clients
couldn't come to me to do their beauty services, I shifted
towards developing products that those clients could apply
themselves at home without needing to see a professional.
Yeah, amazing. Amazing.
And it's really smart then. Yeah.
So if they couldn't do something with you.
And a lot of businesses did this and I thought it was really
effective. I even there, I was supposed to
go to a brewery tour at one point and they said, oh, where
if you want, you can buy this kit and there's a video to show
you how to make your own beer at home.
All my friends that have been over and have beers at my house
would be proud to hear that I didn't do that because my
cooking skills aren't very good anyway, let alone brewing.
But it's a really smart thing I think to do then so people could
still engage with you and still get this almost maybe not the
same, but a very similar the result, but obviously three
products. But that must have added a an
element of scalability to the whole equation at the same time.
Yeah, for sure. So this just added a new source
of income as well, just instead of like servicing people in
person, you know you have a cap on the hours on how many clients
you can do in a day, right. But now with the sales coming in
as you can get as many people to buy your products.
Yeah, yeah. And I guess there must, I mean,
there is some limits, aren't there in terms of like how many
you can physically stock deliver, but all those things
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So obviously you were previously doing services.
Were you doing services and products when you first started
out like pre COVID was like was COVID when you launched your
first product or were you already selling products as well
as the service and then just just grew faster during COVID?
OK. So I was doing the service for
years, just solely the service closer to closer to COVID is
when I started offering like supplies for the lash
professionals to do on their clients.
But that was not really taking off yet.
But after COVID hit is when I really went full force with like
finding the products for the end consumers.
Yeah, yeah. Now one of the biggest reasons
we've got you on, I mean, amongst so many other other
things though, but one of the biggest reasons we wanted to get
you on actually is your success on TikTok.
Now the first question before we jump into like, you know, what
is your secret recipe? How have you done it and how's
it worked? Before we jump into that, here
we go. I've coughed again, but what
what were some of the things that you were already doing on
social prior to when TikTok actually really started to build
and grow? Like was TikTok the start of it?
Was it result of what you went through in COVID?
Or actually were you doing that already and it just started to
grow over time? Like how did that initial kind
of spark begin? So definitely TikTok was after
COVID. I actually never used TikTok
before COVID at all. When I was doing the beauty
service, I was just posting, you know, my last work on Instagram
and I wasn't really consistent with it either.
But that still helps me to build the clientele.
But after COVID, when I started the e-commerce stuff is when I
really, really jumped into TikTok, and that's when it
really took off. Amazing.
And did TikTok just kind of work overnight?
I again, like I said earlier, I assume not.
What were some of the things you had to do to really start to
build some of those views before?
I mean, I won't ruin it with a number, but you, you've had some
really successful videos over time.
So like, yeah, how did you, how did you really start to build a
bit of an audience on there and get some, get some views?
So on TikTok I would really post like 3 * a day if not more.
That's a little bit much but I would still recommend doing like
one to three videos. This is also when Instagram
Reels kind of came out too, and they were pushing a lot of their
Reels because they were trying to compete against TikTok.
But yeah, so when I was, yeah. So just like TikTok posting
consistently is what I really did.
And did you spend a lot of time looking at the analytics of
those posts as well to kind of go this one worked, this one
didn't? Or did you just kind of just
keep throwing them out there in like 1 in four or one in five
works? Like what was that process of
looking at the the analytics? So when I first started, I was
pretty much like an amateur at TikTok.
I was just throwing different videos out there just to see
what worked and what didn't. I wasn't really too familiar
with the data analytics then, but now knowing what I know and
with my experience that I definitely look at that.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I guess the more it grows as
well, like we're like part of my PPC agency here.
When we launch a new brand, it's always like, it's so hard when
they're like, how much money we're going to make?
How much do we need to spend? Like we don't know.
You're completely new. We've got no data, no traction.
But do you, I mean, just just a thought that jumped to my mind.
Do you think you had almost like an advantage that you were like
a solo person, which means you could just kind of throw
whatever content out and see what worked, as opposed to a
brand that then from the get go, the very first post they do like
there's already brand guidelines and sentiment and their business
case. Do you think you found it
slightly easier actually just being an individual going?
I'm just going to be me and if people don't like it, fine, I'll
adapt it and change it over time.
But do you think it kind of took some of that pressure off?
100% as a solo, you know, person running the business, I am in
full control and I actually find it more authentic and genuine to
just me posting myself and behind the scenes of the
business versus, you know, the viewers seeing kind of like a
brand posting because you know, people buy from people, right?
It's more authentic. Like I feel like if I see a
brand posting more behind the scenes or the about the CEO, the
founder, I find it more easy to trust them.
So it definitely is more of an advantage than just posting like
the brand stuff. Absolutely, absolutely.
I, we certainly heard clients that sort of said like, oh, how
would TikTok work for us? Whereas when you're an
individual, you're like, that's cool.
I'm going to post a picture or a video about it.
Just like hit record and go, no editing, just just throw it
straight up. You mentioned something that our
guest last week, Kim spoke about, which was amazing or it
certainly worked amazingly for her business and that was behind
the scenes. And I, I completely agree with
what you said about you connect more with the founder and that
sort of thing. How do you film that?
Like do you kind of try to make it look very sort of like, you
know, rough cut and stuff like that, but actually there's a lot
of time and energy go into it? Do you literally go, people
might like this record and just start recording?
Like what's the process of doing do you think behind doing a
behind the scenes successfully? It depends what I'm doing.
Every day I do something different, but depending on the
task, I will take out my camera and just record slowly and just
stock up all these videos. And then when a time, when it
comes time, sorry, when it comes time to just edit and think of a
video, I will put the clips together and make it something.
OK, so you almost do like kind of just almost like keep a bit
of a diary and then kind of give like a here's a load of
different cuts from the from what's been going on.
Yeah, this is for more of the behind the scenes.
Like if I'm packaging an order, I'll I'll film that and then the
next day I'll film some more. But when it comes to like
different kinds of video, I do have to do planning for that.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
And obviously we, as I think you saw before hit record, we do
lots of planning behind this as well.
You know, like, and I think any video content or even audio
content you're putting out, even if it looks kind of rough cut,
like some of the videos, like, hey, we just thought we'd show
you guys this and like, you know, kind of turn the phone
around, like, oh, look at all of this stuff going on in our
factory or whatever. Actually, it's like, well,
that's it. Months of planning.
It's a professional camera crew. This presenter's an actor we've
hired to bring them in and we've had to get the CEO back from
Barbados to, you know, come and be in the video and all this
sort of stuff. And I do find it fascinating
though, like how much of it is kind of real authentic raw cut
content versus kind of being super pristine.
But it sounds like you've almost taken the raw content with a
little bit of planning, but tried to keep it.
I think as you said earlier, that authenticity behind I, I am
the brand and actually I'm going to portray that.
Yes, exactly. Well.
Let's talk about the biggest, Let's say biggest.
You might tell me it wasn't one of the biggest milestones.
I would be incredibly proud if I'd hit Is it 18 and a half
million views on a single video you've done previously.
As of today, yes. It's slowly built up over the
time. Oh, amazing.
So it wasn't like a kind of you posted it went to sleep, woke up
the next day and was like, Oh my gosh, you've got 18 million
views. It's I mean, first of all, tell
us what the video is of like, how did you come up with the
idea? How did you execute and and why
do you think it's been so successful?
I guess so. They're the kind of questions
I'd love you to love you to share a bit more on.
So the video is me doing one of my lash clients also, I
analyzed, you know, I was on social media scrolling.
I saw a lot of lash pranks going on.
So lash clients were getting pranked by their lash technician
and it's a great way to show off, you know, your work as well
and promote your products. So I did this to my client, but
I put a little twist on it. Everybody was doing like a
different version of a prank. So I decided to, you know, get
these crazy lashes. They're like 70mm long.
Put them on her after I did the service.
So obviously her real set was more natural looking.
Then I put the the fake ones on her and then had and had her
open her eyes and just film the entire review.
And it was just really funny. And I found that this really
went viral because it's funny and people connect when things
are really funny and it kind of evokes an emotion on people.
People shared it. And yeah, but when I woke up the
next day after posting it, it did do very well.
It just, it wasn't 18,000,000, right?
But over the course of the like months and it just kept going
viral. And I, I think it's, and tell me
if I'm wrong, it's much more your world than than mine.
But certainly when I look at it on Instagram posts, it's rare
you find anything that's more than what, like 5 days old.
Like Instagram just stops surfacing that content after
five days. It's still available if you go
on someone's profile. But TikTok does seem to have a
lot more longevity, doesn't it? Where actually a video?
I mean, some of the podcast stuff we posted like 6 months
ago, we're still getting like 50 to 100 views a day on some of
them and we've never paid to promote them or anything.
So TikTok does tend to have that longevity, which in in a weird
way means if you, as you say, you keep posting lots and lots
of content, you just need a few of them to pick up some traction
and suddenly you've, you know, you've got two and a half
million likes as well on your profile.
So it really starts to build, doesn't it?
Yeah, I agree. Tiktok is just really great for
that. Like, sometimes a video will be
going viral. It'll stop randomly for, like a
week, and then later, if someone interacts with it again later,
it'll just start resurfacing again, which is really good for,
like, you know, small businesses like us who don't want to pay
for advertising or who can't afford it.
So it's really good, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And would you say at the moment, TikTok is probably like the
biggest and best social platform?
Would you say there's any others out there?
Is there any that you're posting on, watching see if they grow or
any that you just won't touch anymore?
Like what are your thoughts on the kind of whole social
landscape for your business? Yeah, so TikTok is definitely
taking over the social media game.
And you just know that because YouTube Shorts and Instagram
Reels, they're trying to do the same thing with the short form
content. But TikTok was the first to do
that and it just pushes new videos to like viewers without
them having to search for it. Like they're for the for you
page, which is really nice. I also do news YouTube Shorts
and I found that it does pretty well as well, but you just have
to be really consistent with it because if you post like one or
two videos, it might not do well.
If you continue to pose, you'll gain some traction.
Even with the last prank I did on TikTok, I also posted that on
YouTube Shorts and it did very, very well too.
And you're reaching like a new community on there.
I also gained a lot of like my following from YouTube Shorts
from that video, which is really nice.
And also with Instagram reels a few years ago when it was new,
they were really pushing out the reels to people.
So when you posted a reel, like you would gain a lot of
following and stuff like that. But now I find that it has
slowed down a lot. So TikTok I would say amazing.
Yeah, yeah. And I, I thank you so much for
that answer. And the reason I say that is
we've never ever mentioned on the show YouTube Shorts, which I
find I'm now slightly staggered because actually it's one of our
biggest audiences on the podcast.
More people watch our YouTube shorts than I think.
I think it's probably sorry, second after Instagram in terms
of social content. So us, our reels on Instagram do
incredibly well, then YouTube shorts, then TikTok.
We're almost like the opposite way around to to where you are.
But you're the first brand to mention YouTube Shorts actually
on the show, which I find fascinating because, and I would
say if there's two free avenues of social traffic for any brand,
it's Pinterest and it's YouTube Shorts.
Do you ever find that in your warehouse?
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time. All these things hit profit.
And I've been there. I've run my own Shopify store
and had exactly that problem. But we've partnered up with
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description. Enjoy.
And I think TikTok is absolutely into that space now.
I think some brands like yourself, you know, you're
obviously focusing on it and specializing in it and doing a
very, very good job of it. But I also think that it
obviously depends on the product, doesn't it?
There's certain products you just wouldn't interact with on,
yeah, TikTok necessarily, which might be more than the sort of
luxury products or, you know, you wouldn't.
Car brands would put a cool video out, but they certainly
wouldn't say like, oh, it's at half, half the interest rate if
you buy a car on finance, finance.
It's not really a TikTok piece of content, is it?
But it would be a YouTube short and it would be a YouTube advert
to say find your local dealer now and that sort of thing.
So I think certainly choosing the right the right platforms to
work with is really, really important.
But I mean YouTube shorts, I've been staggered by how much
engagement we get with them. And actually something I've
noticed a lot as well is, and I don't know if you found this,
but we get a lot of people on YouTube shorts actually clicking
through. It's a lot easier to share a URL
on one of those than it is on Tiktok is quite it's fairly
easy, but Instagram makes it so difficult to leave Instagram,
which we found as a business, you're trying to drive people to
your shop, your store or podcast.
Do you find that you get more traffic coming from YouTube
shorts into your store than TikTok?
Do you find TikTok is quite good for that?
Do you find, do you get much traffic from Instagram at all?
Do you find Instagram as as we found especially like it locks a
lot of people within the Instagram app?
Yeah, Instagram is very constricting with that.
Like on TikTok it's still so much easier to share and YouTube
Shorts as well. I find a lot of traffic coming
from TikTok but my second would be Instagram Reels.
Weird but the YouTube shorts is kind of numer for me so I'm just
slowly seeing the traffic coming from there now.
Absolutely. No.
That makes sense. And the YouTube Shorts as well,
I think we actually posted a couple of things on it as a test
and we were quite inspired by it as opposed to it being like a
core focus. But it's what you've got to do
with data, isn't it? You've got to say which channel
is working best for me and let's expand, expand off the back of
that. How important would you say
consistency is in posting? You obviously said you post
several times a day on TikTok initially.
Do you think it's detrimental for brands when they post for a
while, then they stop for a week or the social person goes on
holiday and nothing happens and then suddenly they start posting
it? And do you find there's a drop?
Do you find the algorithms don't like that?
Do you find customers don't like that?
I guess the question really is how important would you say
consistency is? Consistency is very important
when you're trying to grow. As I said, when I first started,
I posted like at least three times a day and I found out when
I disappeared for a while and came back, I there was this like
would be a drop because I feel like people are used to seeing
you on their feet or something like that.
And then, you know, you disappear and then they kind of
forget about you. But when I post like that many
videos a day, I would kind of try to make sure to aim to make
sure each video hits a different element to give it that.
Potential to go viral so each video would be different and
they're not repetitive so that your you know, your audience
isn't kind of like feeling a little drain watching your
videos because it does get a little annoying, right?
If you're posting too much and then they're like OK, this is
too much. This is too.
This is too overwhelming. And do you find on TikTok when
you post more of your audience see it than if you were to post
on Facebook or Instagram? Given that we, it's quite widely
known now that Instagram and Facebook do not put all the
content in front of the whole audience.
Do you find actually with TikTok is more important to get a
follow to keep that consistency than it is on Instagram for
example? With TikTok I feel like they
don't really have to follow you, it's just because TikTok tends
to just push your video out to people who are like most likely
interested in your video anyways.
Like if they've watched similar ones they'll probably get your
videos on their feed. Yeah, absolutely.
And when you when you've got the 18 million views as well.
And so I know I'm asking lots of questions about profile, but I
think, and personally, I think this is where brands actually go
wrong, hence all the questions about this.
I think they they just, every video is like an independent
thing and there's just no consistency, no continuity.
They're constantly trying to make it work.
So did you find as well, when you had the 18 million views on
one video, was that like a complete abnormality for you?
Or actually have you got millions on lots and lots of
different posts? In the past a few of my videos
have gone viral and most of them would not reach that 18,000,000.
I feel like that was definitely just because of that one and the
way it was structured and because it was so funny.
I've my other ones would be like maybe like 1,000,000 ish but it
would never go past like you know that that length.
Yeah, yeah. And it's still 1,000,000 views
is incredible. I mean, well done.
It's a huge achievement, I think.
And did you find when you when you had a post, you're very
welcome. And when you have a post like
that, did you find actually that there was like a big spike in
web traffic as well that you, a lot of those people did come
through to the website at the same time?
Or the reason I'm asking is we've seen clients before go
like guys, we've had a million views on a video and I'm like,
where's the traffic guys? Where's the revenue?
The video was funny, but it was nothing to do with the product
or it was too you didn't feature the product enough in the funny
video, he said. Yeah.
Do you find you get a a spike in in visits on Shopify at the same
time? Yeah, it definitely depends on
the video that goes viral and what is shown in the video for
sure. Like I've had videos where I
show the product and then, you know, I get like a big, big
splurge in like the traffic, but then there's somewhere they're
just more funny. And then they, you know, I don't
really see the people coming onto my website.
But for the one that is 18,000,000, that one I actually
kind of showed the really crazy lashes and I actually put that
product on my website too. So there's people who actually
bought that crazy lash. I was, I was surprised.
I'm like OK. It was a 70 millimetre eyelash
and you put it on the site as a product and people actually went
and purchased it. That's yeah. 7070 millimetres,
Yeah, I'm surprised they bought it.
Did you find anyone like re posted a video and tagged you
guys and said like hey I'm trying out these new lashes and
like was it that effective or do you think it was just people
maybe going to a fancy dress party or just doing something
funny with it? I honestly think it's other
techs maybe wanting to prank their clients with the crazy
lashes. I haven't had anyone share yet
though. I hope so one time.
Yeah, yeah, maybe that's the next marketing campaign then you
could, you could try that. But I think certainly it's yeah.
And I think it's really smart to put the product on the website
because it also means that if somebody goes to Google and
goes, oh, I saw this hilarious thing like let's go and try and
find it if your product comes up as well, given that there's not
loads of people selling a 70 millimetre eyelash.
So I think like being able to then rank for that product again
is a good way of, of hoovering up some of that activity.
I've seen it with PR as well where some of our clients have
been mentioned like in the national press and stuff, where
they've been interviewed on the news, on national TV.
And I'm like, again, where's the web traffic?
Like, you know, you answered the questions about the problem or
the political situation or this person that's potentially going
to prison. What would it what, what they
did, what it means, etcetera. You didn't talk about your
business at all. You didn't say like, oh, it's
something we've noticed is, you know, this particular thing
that's happening politically. Actually it happens to a lot of
people. It wasn't just this politician.
And we see that amongst our customers at least talk about it
in the light that is the business to say where you're
from, rather than just here's an expert and they're going to
share some stuff and that's the end of it.
And you've had this amazing piece of PR that's I think it's
the same with social is digital PR, isn't it?
And I think it's you've had that same impact.
Most of your videos. Do you try to like always
feature a product? Do you try to shy away from it a
little bit? Do you try to kind of alternate
a little bit between this is a specific product video, This is
not like what do you think works best for brands just thinking
about like actually selling products as well as a result of
the content? Yeah, I always try different
videos for each one just to see what works.
And I would like to alternate as well, just to make sure that I'm
not flooding everyone's feed with the same repetitive videos.
So yeah, one video I'll do like a product, like how to use it,
but in the next video I'll alternate with still showing the
product, but like maybe providing tips on how to use it
or just how to like just overall make it better when you're using
it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and I think it's hard, isn't it?
So certainly for brands, it's like if you don't try, you don't
get, but then if you try it, it goes wrong.
It certainly on social it can hurt you.
We certainly Kim was saying last week where she ended up in AO
and if anyone missed last week's episode as well, very similar
story to Megan, but a completely different business, different
content, etcetera. So definitely take out last
week's episode. But she ended up saying
something, I think in a news interview or something, and it
completely backfired and she got some real hatred online about
it, but then turned it back to to explain herself and say,
actually, I didn't mean to say it like that.
I meant to say it like this. And actually kind of vacuumed
all of that up and turned it to her good.
And some of the people that were actually sending her almost like
hate messages or hate comments ended up buying her products and
now become a, you know, a really good customer of hers.
And so I say, I do think there's that sentimental.
And I won't I won't ask you today, Megan, if you don't want
to share, like if you know, if anything's gone like completely
wrong before. But you must have that thought
process when you're going out thinking like, you know, I've
got to be real here. I've got to be authentic.
I've got to actually add value, you know, either make, as you
say, making people laugh or teach them something they don't
know. And I think brands fail to see
that sometimes, don't they? They go, let's just put an
advert out and we'll call it a social media post.
And it's like, here is a wardrobe and you can open it.
You can put things in it. You can hang clothes in it.
It's like, OK, that's kind of boring.
What I really want to see is like, this was voted the number
one wardrobe of the year. And here's why.
Like much more engaging content, isn't it?
Yeah, for sure. So I guess I mean, coming on to
the last couple of questions, I think, but how can brands
identify and use social media to their advantage without coming
across, as I say, being inauthentic?
Like what are some of the things that has worked for you guys in
just getting that authenticity, that honesty across to to
customers specifically on TikTok?
Yeah, you can use social media to your advantage without coming
off as like inauthentic or force by making sure you're
incorporating personal branding. And that's what I've learned
kind of more the past year or two.
And I find that that really works because again, people
don't really like a robotic brand.
They don't buy from that. They trust more, you know, of
seeing a face and so they buy from people.
So just incorporating personal branding can be can be like
making sure you're showing transparency in your videos with
your business, such as like the behind the scenes, you know,
sharing your story, just integrating your personality,
like the founders personality into your business and just
being personable, showing your likeness and just being funny.
And then all while relating to, you know, social media and the
trends that are surfacing. Yeah, absolutely.
And I guess is there any advice you'd give to like a, a bigger
brand that perhaps doesn't have a founder like yourself that's
so, so involved and so engaged in the content?
You know, what would your advice be to a bigger business?
Would it, you know, would it be to get somebody internally to be
the face of it? Would it be to bring brand
personality in rather than human personality?
What, what would you advise in in that kind of situation?
Do you think, again, specifically for TikTok, what do
you think might might work? I feel like the people who work
for the brand or the business or the company would really benefit
the brand. Like if they were to make videos
and just show everybody's like, you know, they daily tasks and
stuff like that. Like I've seen some big brands
on TikTok and they film, you know, their employees like just
like fun videos that include everybody.
And then it just kind of shows what goes on behind the business
and just including everybody, and people just find it more
authentic. Yeah, yeah, You reminded me
actually of a video I saw on Instagram a few weeks ago where
they'd basically gone from like somebody had clicked by on a
computer. The camera then exploded into
the laptop, popped back out in the warehouse and factory where
the product was and the product was like made instantly, then
packaged up, put in the back of a van.
The whole video was about a minute long, but it followed the
like delivery truck. It went on a plane, went across
the country, landed, got in another delivery, a big, big
truck moved overnight. Sun pops up, gets put in a
little delivery van delivered to the house and the guy puts AT
shirt on and it was like made for you.
And I was like, that is so it was almost like ATV advert but
on Instagram. And but the interesting thing
was it then came up with a question saying like, what was
your favorite moment? And people were then commenting.
My favorite moment was watching the guy making the product or
mine was the when the camera blasted into the laptop.
And I thought it was such an interesting way of trying to get
more engagement and more comments.
I forget which brand it was. Apologies, guys, but I just
thought it was fascinating watching this product like move
countries and be made instantly when somebody hit go.
So I think as you say, like watching the staff doing what
they're doing, I think is so important.
And I certainly, and you get a lot of brands who will moan to
me and say like, oh, my competitors above me on Google
or something. And but we, we've got this and
it's so much better. And I sort of put my hands up
and be like, what? I didn't know that.
Like it's not on the website, It's not in any of your
marketing. Like you don't e-mail people,
you don't tell them the delivery driver doesn't tell customers
the delivery. Bring it to life.
And I think social's got such a powerful part to play in that.
Yeah, I love what you're saying about doing the behind the
scenes, how it's made. As I say, it's so authentic.
And I guess last question really, and it's more of a
Shopify question than a than a TikTok question.
What what's next for you guys? Like what do you want to see
happen in the next kind of 1? I say, you guys, obviously it's
yourself at the moment. Is that going to change?
Are you going to try and build a team out of this?
Are you going to try and focus on just the TikTok side of it
and hire an e-commerce team? Or you go to e-commerce, but
someone else takes the face? Like, what do you think?
How do you grow from where you are today?
What's what's on the horizon? I honestly think that it's time
for me to kind of venture out into paid advertising because
it's been like years now and I've only done organic, just
organic marketing myself. So I think that just hopping
into advertising will really take my brand to the next level
because there's only so much you can do with the organic, right?
Yeah, I was, I was, yeah. I was going to say absolutely
that Like, why would you, I guess a lot of people listening
would ask, want me to ask the question like what?
When you've had a, you know, 18 and a half million views on a
single video, why on earth do you feel the need for paid
advertising? Is it, is it because it's more
direct? It's more like, here's a
product, go and buy it, You know, is that something you
really want to drive in in, in the growth at the moment?
Yeah, although those views are really, really great and it did
bring some traffic. I feel like just because it's
you can't all, it's really hard to get a videos to go viral.
Like I it's not easy at all. Like I try very hard and you
know, I'll get some videos to go viral, but you know, there's
going to be a lot of hit and misses.
So sometimes it won't bring traffic and then just won't
bring the sales. Just to be more exact.
Like I feel like the paid advertising will just kind of
reach out to the people who are are ready to buy.
It's like something I would like to try.
It's really interesting. I've never actually, maybe not
never, but I've rarely heard someone saying that I want to
try the paid side now because I'm I've done organic and it's
grown and it's fun, but it's a lot of work I want to do paid.
Normally it's brands going right.
We're paying for all our traffic at the moment to the website
into the business and social. How do we now start to get some
organic traffic? So I always think that the grass
does always look greener on both sides.
I'm great. I'm really, really happy now
that you've almost like given me this quote now to give to my
clients to say like guys, I know you, we want more organic stuff
and we do that on SCO. But actually it's a lot more
work than just kind of like we just produce more content and
money comes rolling in. It's like you've got to connect
all those things. Understand customer, it's going
to be on brand, it's going to be well shot.
And as you said, I've been posting three times a day.
I think most of my clients have a heart attack.
If I said right, I need 3 videos a day, guys, that's nearly 1000
a year get cracking. Let me know once the first
thousands ready and we'll set up, you know, 12 months worth of
posts ready to ready to go out. And I think as you say, it's a
lot of work and I guess you're, you're trying to put out enough
post to get one that goes viral, aren't you?
So you must have also had some, it'd be interesting to to hear
your thoughts on this. You must have also had lots of
videos that didn't go viral obviously, and didn't work at
all, just didn't happen for everyone that did really start
to spark. Exactly.
Yeah. It takes a lot of work, and not
all of them will go viral. So that's why it also takes time
away from me, too because eventually, like, I do want to
hire, you know, a team. Like, right now it's just me.
But, you know, my family helps me out when there's like, a
surge in sales and I need help packaging everything.
So yeah, I, I do, yeah. Just I feel like, you know, when
you maybe hire people to do the advertising and just, you know,
make videos because I make them myself right now, it would give
me more time to do other planning stuff for the business,
which would be really nice. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
absolutely. Well, look, Megan, I really
appreciate your time. It's been amazing chat.
Love the story and thank you so much for being so, so humble in
sharing it as well and and giving us up your time.
If anyone wants to check out your TikTok, can you give us
your handle the web address to get to VO Lash's?
Yeah. Tell us how people can get in
touch and see what see what you're up to.
Yeah, our TikTok is Bowlashes and our Instagram is Shop
Bowlashes, and the website to buy is shopbowlashes.com.
Amazing. And last question quickly, I
have to ask, as you mentioned the product earlier, 70
millimetre eyelashes, are they still for sale on the site if
anyone's heard that and gone, I need to prank someone so I need
a set of these. Are they still on there now?
They are on there, but there's only a few left because I think
it's Halloween. Everybody's trying to get them.
Oh, amazing. So, yeah, get in quick, guys,
get in quick. Yeah.
If it's it might be a little bit closer to Halloween than the
date we're recording this, so there might be a couple of songs
from here. But yeah, go, go and check out
if they're still in stock if you want to get them.
But yeah, Megan, as I say, thank you so much for your time.
It's been such a pleasure to have you on the show today.
Thank you so much for having me. Amazing.
And for everybody listening at home, thanks again for tuning
in. If you haven't already, hit the
subscribe button, leave us a review, and make sure you check
out our YouTube channel as well, which as I said earlier in the
intro, our YouTube is going to be changing in the next few
months. I don't know exactly how yet,
but we are brainstorming how we're going to bring YouTube to
life and change the world as a result of doing it.
So stay tuned. We'll be posting again next
Friday. And thanks again for tuning in
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