574: A Quick TikTok Ban Update And The State Of Social Media

00:00
Welcome back to the podcast, the show where I cover all of the latest strategies and current events related to e-commerce and online business. Today, Tony and I are talking about the TikTok ban and what’s really going on with social media. From all the drama to what it means for creators and regular users like us, we’re breaking it all down. We’ll chat about what’s popping off, what’s fading away, and where things might be headed. But before we begin, I wanted to let you know that tickets are now on sale for Seller Summit 2025 over at sellersummit.com.

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The Seller Summit is the conference that I hold every year that specifically targets e-commerce entrepreneurs selling physical products online. Unlike other events that focus on inspirational stories and high-level advice, mine is a curriculum-based conference where you will leave with practical and actionable strategies specifically for an e-commerce business. Every speaker I invite is deep in the trenches of their e-commerce business, entrepreneurs who are importing large quantities of physical goods, and not some high-level guys who are overseeing their companies at 50,000 feet.

00:59
I personally hate large events, so the Seller’s Summit is always small and intimate. Every year we cut off ticket sales at around 200 people, so tickets sell out fast, and we’ve sold out every single year for the past 8 years. If you are an ecommerce entrepreneur making more than $250,000 or $1 million per year, we also offer an exclusive mastermind experience with other top sellers. The Seller’s Summit is going to be held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida from May 6th to May 8th.

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Right now, this is the cheapest the tickets will ever be. So head on over to sellersummit.com and grab your ticket. Now onto the show.

01:42
Welcome back to the My Wife Could Her Job podcast. Today we are gonna talk about all things social media, the TikTok ban, Red Note, among other social media platforms. Oh, what a weekend. You know what was funny is when I first opened my TikTok app, I think it was on Saturday, I can’t remember exactly what day it was, but anyway, it was banned, I was like, oh my God, I can’t believe this really happened. There goes all my plans, you know, for the year for Bumblebee Linens.

02:11
And then the next day it came back and I was like, huh, OK, what the heck is going on here? Yeah. So the one thing I want to make sure we talk about is like, is it a good idea to invest in TikTok? Not financially time time wise, right? Like, I think that’s the big looming question. But before we get into that.

02:32
I want to talk about the fact that like my 15 year old, it was like, I don’t know what this is like, but I would assume if you were a meth addict and you lost your supply, the stages of grief that we went through on Sunday morning, I wish I would have filmed because I would be Mr. Beast level finances posting that video. Like it was.

02:57
the best thing that happened to me in probably six months. Tell me because my kids aren’t allowed on TikTok. That’s smart. Nothing happened in our household at all. Yeah. So I was kind of happy when it happened. I was like, OK, great. Now people can not waste as much time anymore. So I had a very mixed feelings because like I waste time on TikTok, 100 percent waste time on TikTok, usually not during the day, but like, you know, before I go to bed, it’s like I could probably get an extra 30 minutes of sleep every night if I wasn’t scrolling TikTok.

03:25
I know it’s a time waster and I don’t use it for business. So it’s like, don’t have any excuse to be on there. And my kids are like TikTok addicts, right? And some of them have had big accounts, have lost big accounts. Like we’ve been through the whole TikTok roller coaster over the past four or five years. So there was a part of me that was like, oh, ban it, get rid of this. Like give me my children back, right? But then we have friends, several of them who make a substantial amount of money

03:55
selling physical products on TikTok through TikTok shop. And so for them, I’m in full panic, right? Because it isn’t just about, like, let’s take your YouTube, for example. If YouTube went away, you would have the immediate impact of the lost revenue from ads. But you would have a much further impact in that you would be losing

04:17
your email subscribers, right? Because you get a lot of email subscribers through YouTube, which a lot of crown credit creators do. And so not only would you feel that initial impact of the, know, thousands of dollars a month in ad revenue, you would feel a long-term impact of how do I get new customers for my affiliate marketing, for my course, for the other things that I promote. And that’s what I felt about TikTok, because if you are on TikTok shop and you are selling products,

04:47
TikTok requires you to have a certain level of inventory, at least they used to, I’m not sure what their requirements are right now. So it’s not like TikTok goes away and you’re Charlie D’Amelio and so you lose your revenue from views. You now have a warehouse with probably two to $3 million of inventory that you’ve already paid for. And now you’ve lost that channel for sales. Now you probably have some other channels, some people don’t, but I mean, people we know do.

05:12
But it’s, can’t just, I can’t tell you, hey, I know on Bumblebee, you are making a million dollars a year on, you know, your DTC store and a million dollars a year on TikTok. So just make 2 million on the store. It’s like, well, it’s not that simple. So for those people, I was in like full on panic, right? Because the financial repercussions are gigantic. Yeah, not only that, actually, are we gonna be talking about whether it’s worth it to do TikTok right now?

05:39
Yes, we’ll talk about my daughter in just a second because it was quite hilarious. I wanted to hear your daughter, but I just want to say that TikTok is not fully back. Correct. Just to be clear. And this is why I’m still hesitant, because you cannot download it from the app store. Did you hear this that iPhones with the TikTok app on it are selling for like 10 grand? Are you serious? So apparently, yes, I heard this on the radio this morning.

06:03
I saw my son rides a motorcycle. He normally rides to college on the motorcycle. The weather here has been terrible. So I drove him to school today. So we were just listening to like the radio as we were going to school and they were talking about an iPhone sold for over $10,000 because it had the TikTok app on it because someone had deleted the TikTok app and then you couldn’t get it back, which I’m like, who deletes an app? Like, I do that actually. I’ve, would not be the first thing I’d think about doing. Sure. But yeah, it’s like, that didn’t take you long.

06:32
12 hours? Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not back. That means no app updates. Correct. I’m pretty sure that means limited advertising if you’re allowed to advertise. And I know Live just kind of came back. Yes, I had Live last night. I saw it. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, it’s kind of in its crippled state. Yes. In a state of limbo for the next 90 days. But I will just want to say I have a beautiful iPhone 15. It’s only two months old.

07:01
It has your price. has a TikTok app. I need I just had a car die. So for ten thousand dollars, this phone can be yours, all yours with the beautiful TikTok app on it just for you. My Android phone for five grand with TikTok. Be part of the green bubble. So anyway, it goes off Saturday night.

07:25
My daughter was actually at a friend’s house. pick her up on Sunday morning and I was like, just, could not wait to get her in the car because I was like, I know this is going to be bad because she is like live or die, TikTok, right? So we get in the car, she’s clearly irritated. So the agitation phase has begun, right? She’s jonesing because it’s now been, you know, six hours since she had access.

07:46
So then we get home and usually one morning on the weekends, I make like a big breakfast. So we’re all there, you know, a lot of kids are home, which normally it’s, you know, usually one or two. So we’re all sitting around the kitchen and she is like, now she’s reached like phase two of withdrawal, whatever that is. And she’s like visibly angry, right? And I was, I made the critical error, the mom error of saying,

08:14
You can watch videos another way. Which I guess it’s like someone saying to a meth addict, there’s always crack. Like, I don’t know. So she looks at me and she’s like, what are you? You expect me to watch Reels?

08:38
And like her older brothers who like they grew up without TikTok, right? So there and I gave everybody the stare of do not laugh at her, like because we don’t know what we’re dealing with. We have a caged animal here. Right. And so she’s like, Reels? And I’m thinking I actually like Reels that shows my age. And then before I could get anything out and she’s like, and don’t even tell me to go on YouTube. Like.

09:07
You know what’s funny about what you just said? You used the word Joneses. I don’t know if you do Strands, which is one of these games on the New York Times. Oh, yes, I do Strands, yes. One of the last ones was outdated slang. I was like, hey, I still use those words because I was thinking Joneses. Who uses that anymore? She was in a complete, I was like…

09:31
was like, wow, I like, this is like, I felt like we were at the zoo watching the native animal species, you know, and there’s like a, and this is what happens to a 15 year old six hours after TikTok. mean, it’s, it’s crazy. Everyone started fleeing to Red Note. Yes. Communist China app. What I don’t, nothing makes like, I couldn’t figure out what world I’m living in. Cause if they ban this app, and let’s say Red Note becomes popular, they’re just going to ban that one too. Yeah. And in my boys who are

10:01
very pragmatic and pretty pretty tech savvy. One of them goes, well, you know, I mean, you could actually download TikTok with a VP. You know, he’s going into and I was like, shut up. Like, I don’t want her to know that there’s a chance she can get this because she’s already talking about Red Note. She’s like, but you have to know another language like it’s just like the. was I was like, I wish I had a hidden camera just to. But then part of me was like, I’m so glad this is gone.

10:30
Right. Because clearly you have a problem. and, you know, it’s hard to because now her grades are good. So I was like, it’s not even like I could be like, well, your grades aren’t good. So TikTok’s not coming back on your phone anyway. But it’s like, actually, you’re doing really well. So I can’t really like I don’t have a lot to pick at. I mean, my whole feed was people waving goodbye and complaining and having people coming clean.

10:53
Coming clean about what? No. I’m a fitness influencer, but I’m actually on Ozempic and I don’t drink this garbage. No, we’re on different feeds. Yes, a couple people. I only saw one like that on my feed, but I did see a whatever, repost things of like, yes. Anyway, the whole thing’s crazy to me. I was excited that it was gone personally, upset for my friends, but-

11:23
I wasn’t thrilled when it came back on. I feel like Trump just put them back on so people could watch the inauguration on it. I think that was the whole impetus for all of this. Here’s the thing that’s so interesting, and I’ve followed it not religiously, but it sounds like if someone buys it, they might not be buying the algorithm.

11:48
I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. That’s all up in the air. I don’t want to speculate there, but yeah, that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Right, because I read an article on Forbes, a legitimate, it wasn’t a thing. I didn’t see this on TikTok, but basically that the valuation of the app, which would be the users, the e-commerce, that kind of thing is like an X value, but the algorithm is actually where all the value is in TikTok.

12:17
which is what I guess the US doesn’t want sold is the algorithm. They don’t want the use of the algorithm, but then part of me is like, feel like Mark Zuckerberg is behind this. The whole thing just seems so There’s whole bunch of conspiracy theories now on TikTok itself. Of course, yes. The big question is after all of this, should you be spending any time on TikTok professionally as a business?

12:45
See, that’s the thing. If it was fully back, meaning you could still download, update and everything, I’d probably be in Bumblebee filming right now. But right now, it’s just still up in the air. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I personally am not going to invest a ton of time into it. What are your thoughts? I feel like it’s too risky to… I definitely wouldn’t be working on creating a TikTok shop.

13:13
or anything like that, like if I was in e-commerce. If I was a content creator and I was already creating content, would I continue to promote through the affiliate, you know, the creator program? Yeah, I would probably still do all that, but this would not be the day that I would start TikTok. Plus you can’t download it anyway if you haven’t had it. The only thing that I would say is this is where it gets tricky. I mean, you can make shorts and you can make reels and those are all the same.

13:42
It’s the same stuff as TikTok, right? Like obviously we say that like you kind of create differently for the different platforms, but most creators don’t. They put whatever they put on TikTok on reels and on shorts. They’re not changing it up. So I would say if you’re already creating that content, then there’s no reason why you can’t put it on TikTok. But I would not have that be my focus at all. So I’ve been doing YouTube shorts now. I want to say for a year and a half, two years, and these are,

14:12
half-hearted YouTube shorts, I should say. Yes, you’re cheating. Because I’m just taking clips out of my long form with the hopes that it will get them to watch the long form video if they find the short. And what I found is that, you know, it still gets like a tiny amount of views, know, a thousand, two thousand views, which is nothing in TikTok land. But I do have a couple that have been tens of thousands of views or even over a hundred K. And I do see YouTube shorts that are not in the business realm get millions of views.

14:42
It can happen. The reach can be like TikTok. I just don’t feel like people are as addicted to YouTube shorts as they are. I don’t really know that many people that use Reels actually. Clearly nobody according to my daughter. That was a prison sentence. I actually gave it a try that night when TikTok was banned. When you haven’t used Reels and it’s not trained, all I got were a bunch of like,

15:11
scantily clad women actually on Reels. I never see that on Reels. You don’t? No. It’s all just glamour shots of people posing. Oh, no. My Reels. Brian doesn’t have TikTok, so he sends me Reels. My Reels algorithm is pretty accurate. It’s funny because the same people I see on Reels, I see on TikTok. There’s not a huge difference.

15:38
Anyway, but yeah, so I would say like if you’re creating that short form content, continue to post it on TikTok. But here’s the other thing. And I actually, our friend Jim Wang, who kind of, you know, blew up on TikTok last year, you know, started it. And like you, you want to make sure you have all that content if this happens again, because a lot of big creators on TikTok film and edit, like my kids don’t do everything in TikTok. Like they film, they edit.

16:06
I don’t think they have the content on their phones. It’s because their phones don’t have enough memory. I would say if you are doing this, make sure that all your short form is in Dropbox Drive. What does Kevin call it? The cloud, the bubble attachment server, whatever he has his fancy name for it. The NAS, you mean? The NAS, yes. Did you know that Capco was down too? Okay. That was my next thing. Oh, okay. I did not realize that that was a TikTok product.

16:35
Oh, yes, it’s Capcom’s Cap or ByteDance, I should say. Yes, because we had a student in the class say, is CapCut down? I was able to open it and see everything when she asked that, but then I read later that no, that was down too. To me, it’s like that’s just a video editing software. That shouldn’t be. To me, CapCut, obviously, they can do whatever they want. We don’t make the rules on this, but to me, I was surprised to see CapCut go away because that’s not actually a platform.

17:04
It’s just editing, which stinks because I love. no, we use CapCut now because it’s the easiest software to use to insert captions and edit the actual short form thing. So well, and then I realized because I’m in the middle of like hiring this video editor that all of my applications like must know CapCut. I’m like, well, that might be yours. They’ll still be able to use it. They don’t live here. Actually, I’m curious. I haven’t talked to Jim recently and he’s been like solely focusing on the TikTok platform for the past year. What are his plans?

17:34
So he had all of his content already. So he had downloaded everything. He has actually been posting the same content on Reels for several months, which I did not know. He’s also been putting it on YouTube. So he’s still doing everything on TikTok. I don’t think that’s changed for him. But he gave me a very interesting fact. You might know this. I had no idea. So you know that Reels, first they were only 59 seconds or whatever.

18:01
and then they expanded to 90 seconds. And so he was putting all this content on Reels and it was getting zero reach. And it’s hard, because when you have success on one platform, it doesn’t necessarily transfer to another platform. So I think he chalked it up to, well, maybe it’s just not working on Instagram. So Reels just introduced the three minute short, which TikTok’s had for a while, YouTube.

18:29
What was that, maybe two or three months ago YouTube went to the three minutes. Well, when Instagram announced that it came to light or maybe Jim just heard about it, I hadn’t heard about it, that any reel over 60 seconds doesn’t get shown in the feed. It only gets shown to your followers.

18:48
Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, I didn’t know that either. And he’s like, so that explains why, because he doesn’t have a lot of followers on Instagram. And most of his content was a little bit over a minute because, you know, TikTok, you have had that option for a long time. So he couldn’t really he just figured like, maybe I’m not a fit for Instagram. Well, come to find out. literally got zero. Not zero. But like, you know, a real on a TikTok that he would make on a topic would get.

19:14
5,000 views, right? Like a Costco one, that’s a good example, because that should be popular on Reels, right? And then he’d put that literally exact same content onto Instagram. let’s say it was 72 seconds. And that same video that got 5,000 views on TikTok would get 100 views on Instagram or 50, right? it’s because it’s showing up in my feed. It’s going to show up in your feed, but it’s not showing up. Typically, when I go on Reels on Instagram, when I just go to the real feed,

19:43
I don’t follow any of those people, right? It’s just content. Well, Instagram wasn’t showing anything over 60 seconds in the feed. It was only shown to your followers. you know, that explains why, probably explains why a lot of people weren’t getting traction on Instagram. I just wanted to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that I offer on my website that you may not be aware of. If you are interested in starting your own online store,

20:10
I put together a comprehensive six day mini course on how to get started in ecommerce that you should all check out. It contains both video and text based tutorials that go over the entire process of finding products to sell all the way to getting your first sales online. Now this course is free and can be obtained at mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Just sign up right there on the front page via email and I’ll send you the course right away. Once again, that’s mywifequitterjob.com slash free. Now back to the show.

20:42
For reals, occasionally I get one that gets a couple thousand and then I’m happy with that. I’m pretty sure I’ve alienated all of my friends who follow me on Instagram now because that’s the only thing I post. They’re not following me for that. They’re following me for family photos and just what’s going on in my life. I think Instagram is hard. Instagram is not a place where… This is something interesting that my daughter was saying when she was in her meth withdrawal.

21:11
is she was like, how am I going to know how to do anything? And I was like, what do you mean know how to do it? Like, I was just like, are you not a functioning human without TikTok? And then she started listing off everything that she gets on TikTok. Like she’s like, that’s where she finds all her recipes. That’s where she finds like in like for her. And I was like, well, you can find recipes other places. She’s like, where? Like.

21:38
It’s just like, like, cause you think about the time period she’s grown up in, like her whole time having a phone, TikTok’s been available, right? So she never, yeah. So she never had to Google a recipe, right? She never lived like where you and I did when we like, how do you grill a piece of chicken? Like you’re on Google 15 years ago. Um, and then she’s like a little too young for Pinterest, right? Like the only thing she uses Pinterest for is, is nails. Like how do I want my nails done?

22:04
But even TikTok competes with that, right? So like she started listing off all these things that she uses TikTok for. She uses it as a search engine. Like that is her search engine. And how am gonna know how to clean something? How am I gonna know? And of course, Brian’s like.

22:19
half that crap is wrong anyway. You’ll kill yourself trying to do this. You it’s kind of like you’re just letting random people tell you how to do stuff. And I was like, I’ve had some of those TikTok recipes. That’s like YouTube also, right? Exactly. I’m like, it’s no different. Like somehow we think that Google, I mean, it used to be like 10 years ago, if something appeared number one in Google search, it was pretty authoritative, right? Now it’s like a Reddit thread, right? And I’m like, I don’t know who this lunatic is. So yeah, I mean, I think that Instagram

22:47
Because of the content gem post, which is like personal finance budgeting type content, no one’s going to Instagram for that. People are going to Instagram for travel. If you were a fashion blogger, if you’re a travel person, if you’re, I mean, my entire Instagram reels feed is, last night I was on Instagram and I probably saw 25 videos and 18 of them were bathroom tile installation. Our feeds are so different. You know what’s funny is,

23:15
I feel like Instagram is what TikTok was three or four years ago. I’m getting dances. Oh, I don’t get any dances. Maybe that’s just because I never use it. Yes. My entire- women doing dances. No, my entire Instagram feed is either comedy stuff that my kids will send me or it’s all home renovations. Here’s how you correctly get a good caulk line on your baseboard.

23:42
Last night, literally out of the 25 videos, 18 of them were bad because it became a joke because I kept showing Brian. I was like, oh, look, we could do the tile this way. He’s like, stop showing me. I don’t want any more ideas for the bathroom. I think for Jim, the personal finance content is just not going to be something on Instagram that ever really takes off. Same with your stuff. I don’t think it’s ever going to be something that really takes off, but Bump will be different story.

24:11
It’s true. I’m going to still go ahead and film that, but I was just hoping it would have been TikTok. TikTok was still the best way to get reach for practically any topic. I would still put stuff on TikTok. That’s the thing. I wouldn’t stop posting, but yes. I’m going to auto-post to all platforms, actually. Of course you are. I’m just curious to see what’s going to happen.

24:41
I do think though, in all of this, it’s definitely showing me that each platform definitely has a preference. Instagram, people are on there for a specific reason, but TikTok has sort of, Pinterest is a different thing, YouTube’s a different one, but I feel like TikTok sort of got all of it and made it work together because the algorithm’s so good.

25:07
My TikTok, once again, so different from yours, right? We never see the same thing. But I think you can succeed talking about just about anything on TikTok, where I don’t think that’s the case on the other platforms. I still think if you’re to put your energy towards something, it should be YouTube long form. Yes. Yeah. It’s just so hard to do because I was planning out Bumblebee and I was like, should I be doing long form?

25:33
And the problem with Bumblebee is I’m going to be the person doing them. Yeah. Right. Like my wife doesn’t really want to, has no interest in doing that stuff. So like, how am I going to talk for, for eight minutes about something that I don’t even like? I mean, you could make a whole channel about your printer. No, no, no, that’d be terrible. But it’s supposed to drum up business and get people to like the brand. Right? Yes. Yeah. I mean, I like the brand. just, you know, the top, the products just aren’t me really.

26:03
I definitely think you’re in a hard place, right? Just you personally with the brand. I think someone else would have an easier time. Well, yes. Maybe if I hired a spokesperson or someone. Yes, but then I think spokespeople dilute the, like, here’s the owner of the brand, this is exciting, personal connection. I’m talking about it today in the webinar.

26:30
One of my clients just launched on YouTube long form and we’re already seeing conversions in sales after In her case, it’s perfect. Absolutely perfect, yeah. It’s perfect. My business is just random. The origins of my business were mainly because of my wife’s needs at the time, not my needs. My needs were revenue.

27:00
But yes, your client, amazing synergy. I know it’s gonna kick butt to generate revenue for products and everything as well. Yeah, in fact, I just pulled the data because I’m updating some slides for that webinar. I mean, and this is, I mean, this is small money, right? We’re talking, but like we’re also in the very, we’re two weeks into the channel. I can show direct correlation to about $300 in sales from people who didn’t, who were not on the email list before for, and in two weeks. So it’s like,

27:29
I mean, and obviously there’s a big advantage. She’s an established brand. She has a presence outside of YouTube, but she had zero YouTube presence, right? So we started from zero with YouTube. And I think anyone who is a brand, and as I was putting the slide together and updating some stuff, I thought about our friend Kelly, who has Kelly Dream Crochet Kits. same thing. But I feel like you’re close to that niche.

27:57
The crochet niche, it’s because you’re kind of crafting kind of special occasion. It is, except I’m a middle-aged Chinese dude. only you sold crochet stuff, then you could just crochet all day. I could do the crafts and whatnot, and I wouldn’t care what people would think of me doing them. I always have to make a choice. This is one of the reasons why having two businesses is bad. I got to choose whether to focus my time on my wife quit her job.

28:27
or Bumblebee. yeah. I feel like if I, there’s a lot of history also with our business, since we’ve been running it for our 18th year now, the dynamics between my wife and I also working together, also coming to play there too. Yeah. It’s definitely a complex situation. It’s not as simple as like, just start a YouTube, you know.

28:51
But I would say if what you’re selling and a lot of people listening to this actually sell physical products, if there’s synergy with the content that you want to create with what you sell, I would almost go towards long form. It’s going to be a slog in the beginning and you’re not going to get nearly as many views as the shorts, but you got to view this as like a multi-year plan. Cause I remember when I did my channel, that first year was pretty miserable. That when I launched it with a giveaway and a promotion, I

29:21
think that video only got like 1,500 views. And that sounds like a lot, but like I was blasting my email list, everything, text, everything at it. And that’s all I could muster. And there were a lot of videos I published that first year that had less than a thousand views. And that hurts. Yes, but it is a slog. And actually yesterday I was talking to my client about this and it was funny because she,

29:50
She admitted something to me that I was like, please don’t tell me these things moving forward. I don’t wanna know. That we had this launch date set. We were releasing one video a day for two weeks or 10 day, like over a two week period as part of the launch strategy. And she had to have all these videos filmed.

30:12
And I told her, was like, we can’t do this last minute. Like you will get so stressed out, whatever. Well then of course it was the holidays. She owns an e-commerce business over the holidays, right? So it’s like perfect storm, right? And she’s like, I had a feeling, I forget when it was, sometime in December, she said, where I almost messaged you and said, we’re not doing this right now. And I was like, I’m so glad you didn’t, because I would have driven to your house and put you in front of a camera.

30:36
But I get it, that initial, especially when you first get started, like you were saying your first videos, not a lot of views. You’re not used to filming. So just getting used to using a teleprompter, not using a teleprompter. Do I stand? Do I sit? How much? What kind of editing do I want? There’s so many components of it, right? The good news is you’re not going to get a lot of views. So if you decide to have not a lot of editing initially and then add more editing in the future, that’s fine.

31:04
you have a lot of opportunity and runway to make changes. My client is a speaker, the videos actually weren’t terrible. She’s great, she looks great on camera. For her, it was more the writing the script and the post film, right, the editing side. And it was funny because she told me yesterday, she’s like, well, writing the script is the hardest part. And I’m like, as it should be. Like you’re doing exactly what you’re, if writing the script is the hardest part, then that you’re doing it right.

31:32
Because filming it once you are used to filming is easy. It’s the script writing that’s gonna be where you have to put the most brain power, right? That and your title and your hook. But yeah, I think for e-commerce brands, if you have any brand like remotely videoable, I guess, where you can create that content, one of our seller summit attendees works for a company, it’s actually his husband of an attendee works for a company called Grizzly Coolers.

32:02
or Grizzly products and they sell coolers and hunting stuff. I hate to say this, but it’s a man’s brand kind of thing. They’re a larger size business, but they have done a really great job of creating that content online. Long form or short form? Both. Their Instagram is awesome. It’s not awesome for me because it’s like, here’s this 10-year-old with a giant elk.

32:32
that he just shot whatever from a from a tree stand made by this company, you know, but like for their like they are killing it with the brand messaging, right? Like they know their audience, they know who they sell to, and they are creating the perfect kind of content. Like, you know, can a guy survive in one of our coolers, you know, out of a second store built story building, you know, like crazy stuff like that. But, you know, when I started looking at their video content, I was like, yeah, they are getting customers through their content.

33:02
because of their stuff’s well done, but their earlier stuff wasn’t as great, but they still had the messaging right. I think if you’re in e-commerce, this is a no-brainer for 2025. How many tears can a bumblebee linens hanky absorb? Yes. Before. Make it be Mike Jackness crying. Shout out to Mike. I’ve been playing around a lot with the chat GBT.

33:31
I can’t remember like the exact model name, but it’s where it branches out a whole bunch of different queries for you. And so you can actually ask it to give you a comprehensive TikTok plan and what to put in each video for like the next 30 days. And so, you know, if you want the ideas, that’s actually a decent way to do it. But then of course you have to go film and edit. What I like about long form is that you can actually make significant money on the ads.

34:00
So I make multiple six figures just on the ads and that can fund everything. Marketing, could fund a editor and whatnot. Whereas with the short form, I don’t think you’re ever gonna make enough money. You have to get so big. You can, you can. I don’t wanna say you can’t be done. But yeah, in order to fund some of these activities. So really you’re gonna be depending on going viral and maybe

34:29
getting brands to come out and pay you and that sort of thing. That’s where I see a lot of people making money. Or if you sell your own product, people will naturally try to find your brand and buy it. Yeah, so I think if you sell a physical product, well, I think short form is great. It’s sort of that like awareness, right? That display, it’s basically like display, old school display advertising, right? Just getting your brand in front of people. I think about

34:53
whenever you and I both love the NBA, we’ve been to a lot of basketball games, know, where we are, it’s like Chick-fil-A sandwich, but like if in the fourth quarter, the opposing team misses two free throws in a row, everyone gets a free Chick-fil-A sandwich, right? Like that’s a pure exposure play for Chick-fil-A because like, plus, you know, it gets all the crowd revved up. To me, that’s like the short form video. It’s like pure exposure, right? Cute videos that people send to their friends, you get people excited, you get people involved.

35:21
it’s not a click over and make a transaction, right? So if you’re in e-commerce and you’re making that short form video, you’re just getting exposure, you’re getting your name out there, you’re getting brand awareness. Whereas long form video to me is an actual transactional giving piece of content, right? It doesn’t mean that you’re not gonna get it from everybody, but I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos over the past six weeks of trying to figure out the best way to get people to take an action without

35:51
blatantly just selling. And, you know, there can be done a variety of different ways. We talk about this a lot in the course, but, you talk about a free six day mini course. You know, my client gives away a free, she’s got a lead magnet on there. And then as soon as they get in that email flow, then it’s your job to warm them up to the brand, get them to make a transaction. Very rarely do, you know, is it like a direct sell from the video? Although,

36:18
in all my clients videos, she’s talked about her products in every single video. And people still absolutely love it. And it feels very natural, right? Because like, you know, she has one coming out next week on she sells a reading journal, basically helping your kids learn how to read, keep track of their reading, that kind of stuff as they get older. And it’s the video is going to I don’t know exactly what the title is, but you know, it’s basically like, how do you teach your kid how to read? Right. So it naturally fits into the product.

36:48
and what she’s doing. And in a short form video, you just can’t get enough information out there. But if you are a content creator, if you sell a digital product, you sell a course, a membership, to me that short form can be very powerful because you’re wanting people to take less of an action, right? It’s just a different component to that. And I think short form video for people who are doing that sort of business is definitely, I would definitely have that in your marketing suite.

37:19
I mean, we have colleagues, uh, part of ECF that have built their entire business off of TikTok and short form, right? Like that, that Ninja, the Katana sword. Yes. The Katana guy. I mean, it’s just a bunch of short form videos of guys chopping stuff up with swords. Yeah. And that that’s gone viral. I I wonder what their repeat business is like. I can’t imagine buying multiple Katanas, but what do I know? Like, I You’ve never met a guy who owns one Katana. That’s not true. My best friend actually owns a bunch.

37:48
Yes, see? They do buy. He collects them. I don’t know anything about Katana, so I should probably stop. He goes to shows and he collects them. They’re really expensive, like tens of thousands of dollars. When you look at our friends, Paul and Tiffany, they sell clothing. They’ve had huge amounts of success, short form video, TikTok shop. We won’t go into all the reasons why they’ve had that success. She talks about that at Seller Summit.

38:16
I think there is a place in e-commerce for short-form video, but it’s definitely wouldn’t be my priority, especially if I was selling anything that… I think clothing, beauty, that kind of stuff, absolutely short-form video. If I was in the beauty space, I would be sending my products to every influencer. I’d want stuff out there on TikTok, but other verticals, not so much. Here’s an interesting tidbit too.

38:46
And I actually got this from Dave Bryant’s most recent YouTube video on e-comm crew. Turns out that people in China are, leaving Amazon because it’s too competitive now. And what they’re doing is they are all going all in into live selling. Yeah. And so if you, and we’ve our friend Tiffany is a perfect example of this. I’m curious to try it. I don’t know if it’s something that I’d want to do regularly, but

39:15
That’s what’s hot right now in China. And I feel like the people in China are always ahead of the curve actually. Yes. And I know our friend Ming, who is one she’s Chinese, but has a lot of interaction with like sourcing and everything from China. She was telling us at seller summit that they’ve gotten so into live selling in China that they’re actually using like

39:42
I don’t know if it’s like holograms or like it’s not always a real person selling. No way. Yes. Yes, it’s AI. Yes. And she was trying to explain it and it was like one of those things where I was like, no, no, that’s not true. Right. But apparently it is. So and she’s like, yeah, they’ll be live for 24 hours, but it’s not actually a real person. Huh.

40:09
I am very curious about that technology actually. Yes, I might see her next week, so I’ll get more information. I do know that they have a lot of sets in place. They’ll show a video of something being made in a factory. It’s a fake factory. They’re for no children. We know it’s not real. No, but yes, it’s interesting. I have this one girl.

40:36
in my feed all the time and I don’t follow her, but she’s live selling, like she’s never not live selling. So I’m like, I wonder if she’s even real. And she’s, I don’t know where she is. She’s Asian and she’s selling like skincare. So maybe like a Korean skincare brand or something like that. But she’s always live in my feed when I see the live tab. her skin is perfect though. So she could be a robot. It’s possible. we should find someone to talk about that and sell her summit. Someone who broadcast live 24 hours a day.

41:06
It is true. There’s people I see live in my feed and they’re always live. Every time I’m on, they’re live. I don’t understand. That’s the one. mean, there’s a lot about TikTok I don’t understand, but that’s probably the one that really baffles me is these creators go live and just sit on their couch. I mean, remember we talked about this like three years ago, one of my kids went live on Instagram and made a peanut butter sandwich and had like 400 people watching.

41:33
I was like, a peanut butter sandwich. She was like, it wasn’t anything like, I’m making a peanut butter sandwich, wink, wink. No, you’re literally making a peanut butter sandwich. Your kids are attractive, so I get it. They’re cute, but it’s a peanut butter sandwich. Come on now. The true test is middle-aged Chinese guy. Let’s see if I get 400 people watching at once. You need to make a peanut butter sandwich and see what happens. I’m in the process of hiring a video editor.

42:03
I’m helping a client launch a YouTube channel. I think video, we’ve said this for like the last two years, but it hasn’t changed. Video is probably where people need to be this year. And whether TikTok stays or goes, the way people consume content is here to stay and it’s video content that they’re consuming.

42:33
For more information and resources, go to mywifequitterjob.com slash episode 574. Once again, tickets to the Seller Summit 2025 are now on sale over at sellersummit.com. If you wanna hang out in person in a small intimate setting, develop real relationships with like-minded entrepreneurs and learn a ton, then come to my event. Go to sellersummit.com. And if you’re interested in starting your own e-commerce store, head on over to mywifequitterjob.com and sign up for my free six-day mini course.

43:03
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