Stitches & Picks S2:Ep 4 - The Base Part 1 Picking Your One Channel

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The Base Part 1: Picking Your One Channel Video and Podcast Transcript

[This transcript has been lightly edited to ensure readability]

Dave Dougherty: All right. Hey, welcome to episode four of Season Two of Stitches and Picks. I'm Dave. 

Kristen Juve: I'm Kristen. 

Using the Content Inc. Framework and Choosing Your One Channel

Dave Dougherty: And today we're going to continue our conversation on the Content Inc Model as a framework for launching your idea, walking Kristen through the process as an example so that she can see if her plan is...

Kristen Juve: As an accountability partner.

Dave Dougherty: Exactly. Is it a well fully formed meal, like a pizza or is it holey, like Swiss cheese? 

Kristen Juve: It's fully formed, obviously like… 

Dave Dougherty: Yeah, because then you don't have to choose, right? Then it's just presented. 

Kristen Juve: And it's whatever you have, just put it on, put it on the board. 

Dave Dougherty: Right. So long as you have a slate slab that's the presentation.

But we digress. So in the last episode, we were talking about the content tilt. How are you going to speak to your audience that will differentiate you? And obviously, we had some fact-finding things in that conversation. So go back and listen to that if you haven't already. 

In this one we're going to talk about, assuming you've chosen where you're going to address your audience, what's going to be your one key channel that you're going to do that in? Is it going to be a blog? Is it going to be tikTok or Instagram? What are the pros and cons of that? What will you need to address your audience in that way? 

Because one of the main things about the content piece, like if you are going to be doing videos or doing thought leadership styles of things, is delivering consistently. That's going to be utterly important over time. 

Kristen Juve: But I'm still delivering some content. I'm… 

Dave Dougherty: You're still learning. You haven't launched yet, so you're fine.

Have You Launched a Content Business if You're Creating Content?

Kristen Juve: Maybe this is super nuanced and I'm probably overanalyzing this, but if you have a content business and you're creating content and putting it out there, then you technically already launched?

Dave Dougherty: No.

Kristen Juve: I mean, I agree with you in my situation, because my content's actually my patterns technically. I mean, but also my marketing is my content stuff. So, 

Dave Dougherty: If you're engaging in the audience that you want to address as part of your research, then no, you haven't launched. Because you don't have your unique whatevers, like your unique website or take or, product launch or… 

Kristen Juve: Thank god, I'm not behind then.

Dave Dougherty: I mean I was a part of the online guitar community before I launched Beginning Guitar Online. And just because that was something I was interested in and would engage in stuff, now I just feel more motivated to keep involved in it. 

Where is Your Audience and How Will You Speak to Them?

Kristen Juve: Yeah. This does also speak to where we are at our point in the history of social media, in particular, is what I'm thinking of. Because of YouTube, the barrier to entry is higher. You're not making a one-minute video. You're usually making like maybe a three-minute video or more, and you're going more in-depth and you have a higher quality production. And you need more tools for that.

Whereas like TikTok, which is the one that I've been playing around with, you put your phone on a stand and you hit record, and that's it. So it's interesting to think about if you've recorded and published stuff on YouTube, that could be considered the launch because that is way more time intensive than TikTok market research.

Dave Dougherty: I think it depends on, again, where is your audience. Where are you going to speak to them? 

If you are dead set on being a YouTuber, then that's already answered for you. If you don't know what you're going to do and you have some inklings that there seems to be an audience on Instagram, there's definitely an audience on TikTok. Then what do I need to do that? How do I do that? 

You know, for me, I think with TikTok being in the news around the time of this recording. You know, government agencies are banning their employees from using TikTok. There are a lot of talking heads that are speculating that TikTok will be banned. You know, those kinds of platforms, they're great to reach an audience, but you don't own your audience. So if that platform gets shut down, you are S.O.L. You cannot recover that. 

That's why I've been such a proponent of having your own thing. Having an owned media strategy and having a website that you can bring people back to. Or a newsletter where you can get subscribers so that if your channel goes away or the platform changes an algorithm on you, you still have a collection of people that you can reach out to and say, Hey, that sucked. I'm still here. I'm figuring out what I'm going to do. Please stay with me as I figure this out.

Kristen Juve: I think a lot of creators learned that lesson when Instagram went down. They had, they had to learn the hard way. 

I truly subscribe to that. However, I have a website that’s not launched yet and I fully intend to build it so that I have an email list.

I don't like email marketing. Uh, and that's going to be my owned platform. That's like a future thing for me. The website is part of the launch, the email is a future thing for me because I need to…in order for me to consume the tasks and strategies I need to do in order to make this thing come to life, I need to have it partitioned out into smaller pieces so I don't feel overwhelmed. 

And so for me to be like, I need to own everything and own it right now and build this up and blah, blah, blah…That's overwhelming for me. 

So, channels right now for me, even though I don't own it, it's my rented land. It's on TikTok and it is a place that I feel most comfortable right now. Because on Instagram, I don't feel like I fit. Is my audience there? Yes. I don't fit there. I might in the future. 

Dave Dougherty: Well, you had said that there's a lot of pressure to be really polished on Instagram. And I feel like that's true in a lot of different spaces too. Like you look at like the makeup creators or, on the guitar side of things, you have a lot of people who are doing just these crazy acrobatics and it's like, Hey, you know, good for you. You've practiced a lot. But that's still practicing in your bedroom. Write a song. Let me see you write a song and not just one technique. 

You know, are you really good at home practicing, or can you actually play live? Because the stage will scare the crap out of a lot of people, even if they're “the bedroom guitar god.” So, part of it's put up and shut up. The other part of it is knowing what that channel favors. Because the algorithm's just going to go after what people are clicking on anyway. 

Kristen Juve: Yeah and as we've continued to talk about this type of stuff, I'm like, Instagram's intimidating to me right now. I think it's not the place for me right now, but I could see as I find more. And in our last episode, we talked about the tilt, my tilt is to try to bring on the intimidation level people feel. Anybody can make a sweater. If you want to make a sweater, you can make a sweater, period.

That aspect I don't see on Instagram all the time, like rarely, ever. Maybe like one piece of content. It's not like an overarching brand strategy or whatever. So I think as I've kind of honed in on that more, I think there is more of a place for me on Instagram.

And I think since talking about that too, I've been thinking, Hey, why do I like TikTok so much as this channel? So I know you told me which one channel, but now I'm like, Hmm, maybe two? It's the video aspect. Why can't I show up on Reels on Instagram? There's no reason why I can't.

Dave Dougherty: Well, isn't there a button in the back of the TikTok settings to just push it? Yeah, so just do that. 

Kristen Juve: I don't, I dunno why I'm not! I think…I don't know. There's definitely an emotional intimidation factor. People who follow me on Instagram actually know me. There's that level. I don't know, there's something there.

Dave Dougherty: Okay, so I'm going to give you that homework. Hit the button in TikTok, and then just push out whatever content you create on TikTok. Don't even look at Instagram until like a month or two months of producing more TikTok videos. Then you can analyze what's already happened. Because then it's not real-time 

Kristen Juve: But that doesn't provide any context like why I'm suddenly showing up differently on Instagram. So that's all. I'm always like… 

Dave Dougherty: Because you're trying something! 

Kristen Juve: I guess it doesn't f***ing matter. People don't even know what my purpose is. They can just be like, Oh, that's a bobble. That's how you knit a bobble. Next. 

Like, if you don't know what a bobble is. Have fun googling that.

Dave, are you really trying to think what a bobble is? 

Dave Dougherty: No, I was trying to think of…No. This is my day job getting in the way. I was thinking how that word, how that translates into other countries [or languages]. So a bobble could also be like a Christmas tree ornament. But that's not what you're referring to.

Again, this is where my brain's going, 

Kristen Juve: Okay. So I follow a bunch of people who knit across the world. From what I've seen in the knitting world, most of the knitting terminology stands, so a bobble would be a bobble. 

Well, you said an ornament, and I immediately thought of Norway, because I was thinking of cold weather, and like pagan, Christmas trees and stuff. I'm pretty sure that stands. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure a bobble is a bobble in a knitting pattern. 

Dave Dougherty: Well, this brings up a good point. If you find yourself unsure where you want to address your audience, go do the market research into TikTok or Instagram, or even the Google search engines. Pick a word and see the Also Searched at the bottom of the search page to find the terminology that people are using for things you're familiar with. 

And then start putting together that list of hashtags you might want to target, what terminology and accounts are using these terms? 

Kristen Juve: Yes. Doing hashtag research, I will say is one of the best things ever because then you can literally make a spreadsheet of which ones you want for what type of topics you're covering. And then you can literally just pull it up and just... 

I will say, on the SEO side of things. Right now I'm not doing a blog on my website. One of the reasons why I chose Shopify is because I knew my product would be a digital download, and I knew it could support that. I also knew that I could support SEO. Like I could literally if you search, let's say I do a really great job at advertising my sweater as Lynn's Bobble Sweater, which is honestly the name I'm thinking about right now. If you were to type that into Google, my Shopify thing will pop up. That's the goal. 

It won't right now. Don't try it.

Dave Dougherty: Or if it's a month beyond when this recording takes place, then by all means do that because Kristen's supposed to have launched it. 

Kristen Juve: We have not come out with a new date yet. Dave. Do not make me do that! 

Dave Dougherty: I won't. I won't. 

Kristen Juve: I'm just kidding. I’m thinking about it. I need to actually feel out what's realistic and sit down with a timeline and then build in some buffer time for my toddler to be sick and for me to be sick.

Dave Dougherty: Tis the season for that. For sure. Yeah, for sure. 

Now one of the things that we've always talked about is when you listen to a lot of other podcasts about launching things or having small businesses or side businesses, is that everybody's always so positive about You can do it and it'll be great, and This will be awesome!

Kristen Juve: It'll be hard. It'll be blood, sweat, and tears. 

Does Kristen Have Concerns About Picking TikTok as Her Channel?

Dave Dougherty: Do you have any concerns about TikTok being your channel of choice? 

Kristen Juve: Oh yeah. 

Dave Dougherty: What are they? 

Kristen Juve: Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Okay. So one of my dear friends, like one of my best friends is a - I think she probably would hate this terminology - but a TikTok influencer. So I get to bear witness to things that she's going through and she has a very different niche and she has a very different way of approaching it. Which is awesome and she's amazing.

But it's pretty funny when she's talking about me in one of the videos. This is just an example of how I kind of came across this. She was talking about me in one of the videos and she happens to mention that I'm an atheist and people are on the threads like Is she a bad person? Is your friend a bad person? Why is she an atheist? Like, blah blah blah...Like people are talking about me. These people don't even know me like it was so funny. And so I chimed in and I was like, As the atheist here, no, I'm not a bad person. 

That started to exemplify being cautious of showing pictures of my child or talking about personal things and putting stuff too much out there to let people consume and judge is definitely a piece of this. If heaven forbid, I actually do become successful and I have quite a bit of followers, sometimes followers come on just so they can control you. There are people who are looking to just drag you down. There's always the, whatever, you know, nefarious, unhappy people who are unhappy with their own situation. They're looking for a place to put it. 

So, yes, those are all concerns for me. Those are probably more concerns than if my IP (intellectual property) is stolen. Like that sucks, but at the same time, I'm at this point in my life, I take it as karma. It's like you're signing yourself up for something, man, if that's what you want to do, that's what you want to do. I wish all the best for you. I wish you would have time to think strategically on your own and come up with your own stuff. But if that's something you needed to do because you needed to do it, then whatever. 

Those are my two main things when I think of concerns around almost any channel really. 

Dave Dougherty: That is the shocking thing for me looking at different videos or other channels that I like. Where every once in a while I'll pop down into the comment section just to see, because I'll watch the video and be like, that was a really good video I appreciate that. But I won't ever, the vast majority of times I'm passive. I won't really comment. 

But then you see some vitriol on some of this stuff, and you're like, Why? You didn't pay for this. You're not supporting the show monetarily or anything. So just skip over it. Why do you have to…like there were some Facebook reviews of a podcast that I happened to like, and there were all these people that were just slamming them for a particular interview that they did. And I didn't, I just, I don't see what they were mad about because I listened to that episode and it was fine. At least to my ears. I could be wrong, but I feel like there were a lot of people that seemed like they just wanted to be offended. 

Kristen Juve: Yeah, that can happen. 

Dave Dougherty: Yeah, that's unfortunate, and that's an unfortunate piece of mass communications, for sure.

Standing For Something With Your Communications and Dealing with Backlash and Trolls Online

Kristen Juve: I did put out a video on TikTok recently that I was a little afraid that I was going to get some interesting trolls on. I didn't, weirdly. Maybe not weirdly because I don't have that big of a following but it made its rounds. It's one of my higher viewed videos, but I wanted to bring more of my holistic...

It wasn't strategic. I wanted to do it. It wasn't strategic in the sense of like, Oh, I need to put myself in this viewpoint. I think this is something that needs to be talked about. That's the strategic part. Like I think it should be talked about more.

I was talking about how like in 2020 we all got really like BLM (Black Lives Matter) and we had all these pillars of activism and then like now you don't really hear about it. 

And I was sick, so I don't know that I totally articulated that well, but one of the things that I focused on at that time was purchasing, because purchasing power is strong. I went into what I purchased, and why, and I shared one brand and one set of products. Because I had been irked significantly by these ads that I had been getting for lotion bars and I was getting almost like the value prop was like, they were acting like they had invented them.

And I was f***ing pissed because I knew that lotion bars had been around for a long time and the place that I was getting them from has been making them for, I don't know, generations I could say. Like, she's Lakota, so  I don't know how long they've been making them, but it wasn't like a new idea, so I wanted to go on and rant a little bit and show some stuff. 

And it was weird. It was weird. It was weird to put myself out there and be like if I have followers that are super conservative and don't believe in this type of stuff, I could be asking for them to just like call me horrible names. And instead, it was this is amazing. I just purchased from them. Thank you for sharing. I'd love to see more Minnesota-based people, blah, blah, blah blah, like, right? That was kind of the gist of it. 

So the scare factor is totally there when you're putting stuff out there. 

Dave Dougherty: Right. Well, especially when it's more of the holistic person. Yeah, as you were saying,  if you're staying strictly business focused, then great, but I don't think you can separate the two as much as previously we could. 

Kristen Juve: I agree. 

I also showed a picture of my daughter when she was six months old, and I still think about it and go, Should I have done that? 

Dave Dougherty: Before I launched, I went through and deleted a lot of photos. 

Kristen Juve: I don't really have any photos on Facebook of my daughter, and that's very intentional. And then I have a couple on my Instagram, my personal Instagram, and a couple on my Castin Knit's Instagram because she was modeling some stuff and, but that's all from when she was under the age of one. 

Dave Dougherty: But I mean, that's a personal choice that you have to go through. You have to come up with it, and the answer to that question will be different for everybody.

Kristen Juve: Totally. Totally. And no judgment on either end of the spectrum. 

Dave Dougherty: Yeah. I think the unnecessary ads that I've been seeing in the guitar spot are a lot of YouTubers that may have made enough money to start advertising, but their ad copy is negative. So they're just putting down the way people are teaching and I don't see the need for that, personally. Because everybody's got a different learning style and it clicks differently for different people. 

Kristen Juve: I kind of feel like we didn't jump into enough of like the channel stuff. 

Dave Dougherty: Well, that's a perfect segue because next week will be part two.

Kristen Juve: Uh, okay. Of perfect. 

Dave Dougherty: Your base and your audience and exploring that out. And if we need to, we can spend three episodes on it or more. I'm sure this will be a reoccurring theme as you launch, and continue to develop it. 

That’s been an ongoing theme since I launched two years ago. You know, who's actually reaching out? Who's interacting? What are they interested in? 

Thank you, everybody, for hanging out and staying with us. Like, subscribe, share, and let us know what you think. Good, bad, or ill, and we'll see you next week. 

Thanks.