For the better part of three decades, Helen Polise made a living behind the camera as a TV commercial director. Her keen eye and authentic approach to storytelling helped to elevate the profile of global brands such as Sensodyne, Conair and the NFL, among countless others.
But when the pandemic hit in 2020 and production ground to a halt, it gave her the opportunity to dig a little deeper into the world of social media.
“I was always on social media, and I was always looking at the next thing,” Helen said on the Leading With Nice Interview Series podcast. “So when I decided to try TikTok … I just embraced it.”
Not only did she find herself in front of the camera, she was also at the helm of a new chapter in her career.
Known as the TikTok Teacher, Helen has 540K+ followers and over 100 million views on her clear, easy-to-follow tutorials, which demystifies the whole process and teaches people step-by-step how to start creating their own TikTok videos. She even has a TikTok course geared toward beginners.
“I had one follower when I started, and then I had 10 followers,” she said. “I built my whole thing by learning and trying and using myself as the experiment.”
Through all her trial and error on the platform, one thing remained constant: authenticity. And it’s a big part of what Helen believes is the secret to her success.
“People want real, they want genuine, they want kind,” she said. “The people who are trying to manicure the content and make it seem authentic aren’t really going to be the ones that end up at the top of the game.”
Helen stopped by the podcast to discuss everyday productivity tips and simple ways that anyone can create powerful, authentic content. She even provides a live TikTok tutorial during the episode. It was a blast! You’re not going to want to miss this one. Listen to the full episode below.
[00:00:00.130] – Speaker 1
People want real. They want real. They want genuine. They want kind. The people that are trying to manicure the content and make it seem authentic aren’t really going to be the ones that end up at the top of the game.
[00:00:23.370] – Speaker 2
Good day and welcome to Leading with Nice interview series podcast. I love it. I’m Mathieu Yuill.
[00:00:29.350] – Speaker 2
You know this. We want to help you inspire others, build loyalty, and get results. I know I say this all the time, but I made a decision to only do things in life that are awesome. So of course, I’m excited for every guest. I would never have a guest on who I wasn’t excited for today. I have a legitimate and she might cringe, let me call it a legitimate social media influencer. Helen Polise, I’m going to say of TikTok, but you’re more than that. Welcome. Thank you so much for coming by today.
[00:00:54.820] – Speaker 1
Thank you for having me. This is so much fun. I love it.
[00:00:57.970] – Speaker 2
Okay, so listen, we’re going to go into how I came to know you a bit, but I think when I say I discovered you on TikTok, we talked about your half a million followers and many million views. I think it’s important people understand. It’s not like you just showed up one day and you mastered TikTok because you are an accounting, CPA or something. You have a background in TV storytelling. And I’m really curious because I can appreciate that you’ve worked with brands like the NFL, other big brands. So you obviously knew how to tell stories. What did you see prior to Covet? Like I’m talking before COVID was even on our radar. What did you start to see in social media? The game was shifting, and I’d love for people to see what you saw.
[00:01:42.700] – Speaker 1
Okay, so let’s just start with I’m not 20 anymore, so I’ve been around in the industry for a while and I’ve watched the industry change from film to video to then reality TV and how all those things have impacted advertising because my specialty is really in TV commercials, and that’s been my medium for the bulk of my career. So when I started to see things like reality TV starting in and then social media started coming into play, you could see that the traditional scripted commercial style was starting to change because all those things impacted advertising. And so what used to be scripted then people were like fake scripting. Like, oh, let’s make this feel like it’s not scripted, but it was still scripted. And what I see now and what I love is that I see it really being unscripted and not the fake unscripted vibe. So I’ve seen that whole evolution happen in advertising, and I feel like I’m ahead of the curve because I’m doing it myself, which is really nuts. I never thought that would have happened. I’m watching it from that perspective and being a part of it where now my casting director is calling me for castings, and I’m like, it’s just a very strange place to be for me.
[00:02:51.360] – Speaker 1
I’ve never thought I’d be in front of the camera. All right, so let’s just talk about really, I don’t know if you want my history, but let me give you a little brief part of how this all happened on TikTok. So when the pandemic shut down production and I was just dead slow and I didn’t really have any work, I was like, let me dabble a little more in social media. I was always on social media, and I was always looking at the next thing. As soon as Facebook came, I was on it. As soon as Instagram came, I was on it. So I always had an interest, and my aptitude for technology is high. So I really just embraced things really easily and I can figure it out. So when I decided I’m going to try TikTok, let’s see what this is about. Everybody’s talking about it, and I was pretty early for my age to be getting into it because that is a factor. It’s been around for a while, but I just embraced it right in the beginning of when my age group was coming into it. So what I started to do is just put myself in the front of the camera and do some things in my kitchen.
[00:03:54.450] – Speaker 1
And I also had one follower when I started, and then I had ten followers, so I didn’t always have 5000 followers. So I built my whole thing by learning and trying and using myself as the experiment. So I was like, oh, let me try and do this in my kitchen. And then I knew how to edit, so I was able to take my aptitude from production and learn how to do it on my phone. So knowing and then doing have to connect. And I think a lot of people don’t understand the basics of how, like, a head turn transition would happen, but I understand that from a production standpoint. So when somebody on TikTok asked me, oh, how did you do that thing? I did something in a little story that I posted. I was like, oh, I’ll make a tutorial for you.
[00:04:37.790] – Speaker 3
This morning, one of my friends from TikTok, Tammy Cakes, asks me how I save my videos without the watermark. So I’m going to do a quick tutorial and show you how to do it. First you open TikTok, find the video that you’re going to save, touch the three dots, and then scroll over on the bottom until you see live photo.
[00:04:55.060] – Speaker 1
I made that tutorial, and then the rest is history. I blew up as the tutorial.
[00:04:58.690] – Speaker 3
The tutorial Queen, and then you have voila, a video with no watermarks.
[00:05:05.310] – Speaker 2
I didn’t know that. When you’re retweeting the hashtagorial, you’re the muthership muthership the muthership. Yeah. So definitely obviously been linked in the show notes, but definitely, if you’re not on TikTok, this is a great place to start.
[00:05:21.620] – Speaker 1
It is a great place to start because I have your beginner class, and I felt like when I started on TikTok, I was so lost and I had to figure it all out myself. What buttons do, what? So when I figured it out, I was like, there really needs to be a class for this. And then I’m like, I’m the perfect person to make it. So I made the class.
[00:05:36.430] – Speaker 3
If you’re somewhat new to creating on TikTok, this one’s for you. Here’s how you put the text on and have it pop on and off during your TikTok. You’re going to start a TikTok. I’ll pick something to work with. Click next. Once I have my text type in, pick a color. You can have a box around your text or an outline.
[00:05:56.550] – Speaker 2
I want to address this if you’re not watching. I’m a middle aged white guy, so I was showing another middle aged white guy TikTok. I said, you should get on here. It’s really interesting. I love baseball. So I see there’s a couple of people that I follow. There’s another popular YouTuber John Boy that actually learned about on TikTok. And then I found out, oh, he’s actually bigger on YouTube, and he’s on TikTok. Anyway. So I’m showing my friend this, and he’s scrolling through. He’s like, oh, all I see is like, teenage girls dancing. And I was like, what you need to start doing is start following creators. You like, start liking videos you like. And slowly over. Actually, I think it takes less than five days. You have a really great feed. So all of that to say, if you’ve been on TikTok, you’re like, no, it sucks. I hate it. Get back on there.
[00:06:39.180] – Speaker 1
Yes, that’s very important, because when people first start on the app and they see all this stupid stuff, I remember being on the Kanata going, oh, my God, this is stupid family jokes. And I just thought, what is? But when you start to scroll past that stuff and teach the algorithm what you want to see, eventually you really only get the stuff that you want to see. It just becomes very addictive because you’re learning things. I was learning household tips and all these, like, then I was into cooking because it was like, what else do we do? When we were stuck, I started calling it TikTok University, which is no joke. I really learned a lot on TikTok. I even made a TikTok about what I learned on TikTok.
[00:07:15.210] – Speaker 3
Fun things I learned on TikTok. How to cut a watermelon with dental floss, how to nail a transition with a really good surprise.
[00:07:26.610] – Speaker 2
Okay, I try to remember the first one I saw of yours.
[00:07:29.080] – Speaker 1
I don’t remember stop motion when I was doing, like, the little characters.
[00:07:32.880] – Speaker 3
Here’s how you can have a lot of fun doing actual stop motion with the stop motion effect on TikTok. You’re going to love this.
[00:07:39.350] – Speaker 2
I think you’re on a beach. Actually, you might have been on a beach anyhow, that was a while ago.
[00:07:46.890] – Speaker 1
That was my first viral video.
[00:07:48.770] – Speaker 2
Was it actually maybe that’s how you manage you then? Yeah, it’s a long time ago. Right?
[00:07:52.580] – Speaker 1
I didn’t know we go that far back.
[00:07:53.920] – Speaker 2
Yeah. I actually have a question later. I’m going to talk to you about this in a little while. But we’ve talked before. But in one of your lives, right? I’ll tell you. And it’s funny because there’s only like, I think twelve people in that one. And then I came back two weeks later, Mano, NASA like 12,000. How come the muthership isn’t my personal friend anymore? What happened? Anyhow true story? 100% true. And for people that listen normally, nail me. My assistant, she’s been on this journey with me because I said to her when I said, oh, I found the mother ship’s contact info, she’s like, are you going to email me? I’ve already emailed it’s like 02:00 A.m. In the morning.
[00:08:28.150] – Speaker 1
This is great.
[00:08:29.850] – Speaker 2
I digress.
[00:08:30.930] – Speaker 1
I love this little backstory. I love it.
[00:08:33.880] – Speaker 2
I digress. So here’s what I want to ask you about. Because you just talked about getting your selfie stick. I see so many two part question I’m seeing now companies investing money, like hiring TikTok, influencers buying gear. Like I saw somebody shoot on it like a Sony A 73 X. It’s like a $5,000 camera and their stuff looked amazing. But then I see like my son does Tik Tok on his iPhone five or something.
[00:09:00.620] – Speaker 1
You don’t need fancy.
[00:09:01.990] – Speaker 2
Yeah. So do you have any clients that are saying to you, oh, and we want to be able to use this content you’re producing for television. We need some of it for social. And so I’ve seen that. Tell me about what is the tide going to look like? Will it one day in the future be all highly manicured content or do you think there’s room left for this?
[00:09:20.100] – Speaker 1
No, I do think it’s going to stay authentic. I think what’s going to happen is the people that are trying to manicure the content and make it seem authentic aren’t really going to be the ones that end up at the top of the game because I can even see, quote, the influencers who the minute they become popular, they kind of change and they become this different. And immediately my daughter does it too. She’ll unfollow. Immediately she’s like, oh, have you seen so and so content now? It’s like really fake. So when that happens, it’s the unfollow. And so then you become less popular. So I think the tides are going to stay. People want real, they want real, they want genuine, they want kind. I don’t get many haters in my comments, thank God. Yeah. But I don’t because of the nature of my content and probably the nature of my persona. So I do think it’s going to stay authentic. But I think that brands are struggling. They’re struggling to find that real voice. It’s hard to find they’re hiring like a person to do it and then that person is trying to do it.
[00:10:21.450] – Speaker 1
From the brand’s perspective, there’s definitely going to be some evolution in the industry where that has to become like a melting pot together where it makes sense.
[00:10:32.370] – Speaker 2
So with one client that I think has shown me the model that we help them get their Tik Tok up and running. We hired a woman who had worked there for many years and now she works part time, but she has three kids, which is the demographic. And she was already making great TikTok for herself and had like twelve followers. And I said, hey, what if I could put this in front of a larger audience built in already? And we didn’t give her any instruction. We didn’t give her an editorial calendar. We didn’t say, okay, this week. This week is going to be our back to school savings. Now, clearly that will probably happen because she’s a mom and she’ll be thinking about back to school. And we might have meetings say, oh, keep this in mind. But we actually have said to her like once a week, we fully expect just for you to witness something on TikTok and respond to it. We can’t schedule it in with that in mind, I’ll tell you, I jumped into your life because my company leading with nice. We’re trying to figure out how to be on TikTok.
[00:11:34.720] – Speaker 2
And so I jumped in there and I said to you, hey, I have a communications consulting company. What would be your advice to start on TikTok? And you said, which is so helpful, just do it. Just start doing it. And I was like, that actually is exactly right. But I want to say this. Just start doing it is one thing, but you when you do your thing, it’s not like it takes you three minutes.
[00:11:56.050] – Speaker 1
No, you know what, there are certain things that take me 30 seconds and there are other things that are curated. So what I will say and I find this helpful when people ask me the question, I can’t believe I said just do it. I was afraid what you were going to tell me.
[00:12:12.550] – Speaker 2
You told me to screw off and get a new job. No, not at all. That would never come out of your mouth.
[00:12:17.670] – Speaker 1
Listen, the funny thing is I’m still saying the same thing. Just do it. Just try something, because you can always delete it. Just pick something out there. But I think that what I do in my content. And I think this is like a generally a good idea is I have some curated content and then some things that are just Brandon like, oh, I’m on the Street, I saw that, I recorded it. And later the perfect sound, Corey up and I just stick it together. And I made a great Tik Tok and sometimes that’s the one that goes viral. I’m going to send you one later to actually prove this fact. I was out running, I was walking, I saw something I said I never noticed this before. And I did it. And I put it on with a trending sound, and it has, like, I don’t know, 5000 views or some crazy thing. So I do think there’s a combination. And I always do, like, my rotation is I’ll do a trend because I want to learn how to do it. And then I do the tutorial, the tutorial, whatever you want to call it. And I teach the trend, and that is very curated and carefully recorded.
[00:13:07.470] – Speaker 1
And I pick my camera angles and I figure out how I’m going to explain it. It takes me a lot of time to do it and then a lot of time to edit it. So when I say a lot of time, at least an hour to record it usually, and then possibly an hour or more to edit it, because I take my time and I do it very carefully, and then you got to pick the right sound, and then you got to do the captions. So the process is involved. So those are two buckets of content. And then my third one is just random stuff that I encounter in New York City. I’ll do that, and then I have, like, the fourth one will rotate between it’s like my family or it’s my work behind the scenes of the shoot. So I have sort of a four bucket rotation that I go through, and I think that the audience will say, stay in your niche, stay in your Lane. And I’m like, no, I can’t because I’ll get bored doing the same thing every day. I’ll just bore myself to death. And therefore I’ll Corey my audience to death.
[00:13:55.510] – Speaker 2
Yeah, I like that idea of having, like, the four buckets of rotation and what you didn’t say. So this is what I started thinking. So if I’m thinking there’s probably listeners thinking this too. I was like, I love reading, like, leadership books. I’m like, So maybe my one bucket could be a leadership book review, but I think that’s even too specific. But maybe it’s just like, once every four or five videos, I might just talk to the camera about something. It doesn’t have to be specifically a leadership book.
[00:14:23.360] – Speaker 1
Yeah, it’s just about really. And I think everything should somewhat relate. Like, when I do a trend, I typically relate it to being the TikTok Teacher. So I don’t just do a random trend. There was one recent one that I did, and I was like, I can teach you TikTok. That’s how I used the sound. But other people were using it, like, whatever their thing was used to doing it in the kitchen. So you take, like, a boyfriend girlfriend trend, and now the boyfriend becomes my Tik Tok students instead. So you don’t have to make the trend be exactly as the trend that did it. You take that trend and you mold it into your own content so that you’re getting the benefit of the trend because they’re pushing out those trends and they’re pushing out that sound. But then you’re standing out and you’re also telling people about who you are. So it’s an interesting way of thinking about the trends.
[00:15:08.960] – Speaker 3
Here’s how to do that really funny mouth sync trend that’s going on right now. And it looks like this.
[00:15:16.970] – Speaker 1
It’s hilarious.
[00:15:17.830] – Speaker 3
If you have that TikTok open on your phone, you can actually just simply select the music by pressing the circle and then using the music.
[00:15:26.010] – Speaker 2
Do you have to jump on like pretty I was thinking, I remember this one. He’s a young kid and it’s funny because I saw him do my two year anniversary and he was eleven when he did it. Now he’s 13 and it was the NASA, Billy Ray Cyrus, like country hip hop. Yeah. And he did that trend. And I remember that was the first one I saw and that came and went in probably two weeks. Yes.
[00:15:49.770] – Speaker 1
It’s so fast. You got to get on it. And I never hesitate. Like if I see a trend, just start. I’m like, I save it to favorites, put it at the top of my list and I try and get to it because if you get to it too late, you’re going to get to it. When people are already annoyed and over the trend, there’s like a sweet spot in hitting a trend. If you’re too early, no one’s seeing them yet. If you’re too late, people are annoyed by it. So that one that I told my little story of production story, it’s pinned at the top where it was like that song, you can be Brown.
[00:16:16.910] – Speaker 4
I could be blue, I could be violent Sky, I could be hurtful, I could be purple, I could be anything you like.
[00:16:23.670] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:16:24.550] – Speaker 1
So I hit that trend right in the sweet spot because I have almost half a million views on that one and that one. People were getting annoyed by it pretty quickly, but I got in that one early enough. So it’s really about a little bit of finessing the timing and not being afraid to just put it out before other people are doing it and just see if it goes. No fear.
[00:16:43.610] – Speaker 2
You don’t want to annoy me about that one, actually. Speaking of which, Ashley, I was trying to think because I remember watching him thinking, oh, this is a lot of fun. And also I love Mika. So it’s all good. I found the trends, at least people that I followed were like telling us about their most horrible times in life.
[00:16:55.510] – Speaker 1
A horrible story.
[00:16:58.010] – Speaker 2
I’m at home with my kids in Covet. I do not need this right now.
[00:17:01.450] – Speaker 1
I don’t want to get depressed.
[00:17:02.750] – Speaker 2
Yes. It made me start scrolling by the one that you did recently that I love was, I think, probably in your building lobby with the concierge in the Spiderman tutorial. I love how you roped him in.
[00:17:16.010] – Speaker 1
The only thing you need for this is a helper. I got to go find one. I’m in the lobby with Alfonso. He’s right over here. I’m going to give Alfonso the phone, and it’s going to be in selfie mode so I can see what I’m doing.
[00:17:27.060] – Speaker 3
And he’s going to hold the phone.
[00:17:28.390] – Speaker 1
I’m going to just vibe five for, like, 5 seconds, put my hand out, and then do the Spiderman move. When he sees me do this, he’s going to bring the phone towards me like that. Watch. All right. One, five, six.
[00:17:41.590] – Speaker 3
Ouch.
[00:17:43.010] – Speaker 1
He was like, I don’t want to be on camera. I said, no. Don’t worry. No one’s going to see you. He’s so cute.
[00:17:48.430] – Speaker 2
It was so funny. Because also, I just love, like, random strangers.
[00:17:52.650] – Speaker 1
Yeah.
[00:17:52.890] – Speaker 2
Also they say yes.
[00:17:55.060] – Speaker 4
They do say yes.
[00:17:56.000] – Speaker 1
I don’t think I’ve had anybody say no to me, honestly.
[00:17:58.040] – Speaker 2
And you’re a New Yorker, right? I expect this is where people don’t care.
[00:18:04.130] – Speaker 1
I just get such a darn kick out of it. I will say a lot of times I don’t plan because somebody asked me the question, do you carry a tripod wherever you go? Because it looks like I’m set up and doing TikToks everywhere I go. But in fact, I don’t. I don’t prepare. A lot of times I see something and I’ll go, do you mind just filming me doing this real quick? And the person never says no. And then when they get excited, I go, It’s going to be for my TikTok. They’re like, oh, what’s your TikTok? And I go, you want to be in it? And then we get into TikTok together instead, and we get someone else to film. My process is just like, my exuberance welcomes people in, and they can’t say no to me. I don’t know. Even Alfonso didn’t want to be in that door.
[00:18:40.970] – Speaker 2
Like, the one where the drop it low one, you’re in, like, seven locations.
[00:18:45.110] – Speaker 1
I was in the Ups store. I prop the phone up on the coffee machine. The guy ignored me. I’m like, don’t they think I’m strange? But they’re not even paying attention.
[00:18:59.630] – Speaker 2
When you say, Just start doing it with that is the mindset of, like, probably people don’t care, right? Or they might look at you sideways.
[00:19:10.130] – Speaker 1
They don’t care.
[00:19:11.410] – Speaker 2
So listen, I have a legit Tik Tok star on my podcast. Is there something you can teach me to do now, or is there a little thing we could do?
[00:19:21.700] – Speaker 1
First of all, do you know how to do duet? You probably know the basics.
[00:19:24.190] – Speaker 2
I know the basics, yeah.
[00:19:25.450] – Speaker 1
Because I was worried about, like, I could teach you duet or green screen, but I don’t know what your aptitude is, but I was thinking, like, I could show you how to do a head turn transition.
[00:19:34.620] – Speaker 2
Okay. Perfect.
[00:19:35.420] – Speaker 1
Because that’s like you don’t have to go anywhere. You could sit still. You just hold up your camera and you’re going to record a head turn.
[00:19:40.340]
Okay. Okay. Perfect.
[00:19:41.370] – Speaker 1
And then we’re going to record. So as I said in my lesson, my tutorial is when you think about a head turn transition, you want to think about that. You have surrounded by cameras. So when your head goes from camera one to camera two, your next shot has to be thinking about what the camera to see. And then you have to shoot from camera two perspective in your mind.
[00:20:00.120]
Okay.
[00:20:00.490] – Speaker 1
You probably watched that tutorial.
[00:20:01.770] – Speaker 2
But of course I have I’ve watched all the tutorials.
[00:20:04.550] – Speaker 1
I have nothing new to teach you.
[00:20:06.180] – Speaker 2
No, it’s okay. But I haven’t done it myself. This would be great.
[00:20:09.620] – Speaker 1
We’re going to do a lesson.
[00:20:11.450] – Speaker 2
If you’re listening on audio, pull your car over. I know how many say listen to it. No, you pull your car over right now and you get on your phone and get on YouTube and check this out because this is going to be a good one. If you’re watching on YouTube, you’re already here. You’re going to learn something.
[00:20:23.830] – Speaker 1
That’s right. We’re going to see you do it live.
[00:20:26.100] – Speaker 2
Okay. So what do I do?
[00:20:27.140] – Speaker 1
All right, so open up your Tik Tok if you just open Tik Tok and press the plus at the bottom, we’ll talk everybody through it audio wise so that if they are just listening, I’m actually going to speak the visuals. And what you’re going to do is when you start recording, you’re going to press and hold on the button, say something to the camera and then turn your head and then let go of the button. Okay. In the tutorial, actually, I stopped and started, but you don’t have to you can press the button and that way you just have to let go when you turn your head.
[00:20:54.130] – Speaker 2
Okay.
[00:20:54.440] – Speaker 1
So say something to the camera and then turn your head and let go of the button. So let’s do that first part.
[00:21:00.390] – Speaker 2
Okay. Hey, here I am learning a cool head turn tutorial from the muthership.
[00:21:07.030] – Speaker 1
You forgot to turn your head.
[00:21:08.540] – Speaker 2
Oh, I forgot. That’s right. Okay. Exactly. All right, here we go. Okay, here I am learning a Tik Tok tutorial from.
[00:21:17.630]
Okay.
[00:21:18.030] – Speaker 1
That’s a good way to do it. I love it. All right, so now the next one you’re going to be starting. Now you’re holding up your phone to the side.
[00:21:24.730] – Speaker 2
Do I go next, though? Do I push next on my phone?
[00:21:27.070] – Speaker 1
No, you actually did push next. You have to go back so you’re still in the recording screen.
[00:21:32.780] – Speaker 2
All right. Do I click on Quick or do I click on at the bottom? I have quick camera and templates.
[00:21:39.470] – Speaker 1
Hold on a second. At the top. Oh, God, it’s hard to see. Did you use up all the time on that recording or do you have time left?
[00:21:47.190] – Speaker 2
Hold on, let me start over again. I’m going to say plus, let me try again.
[00:21:50.900]
Okay.
[00:21:51.210] – Speaker 1
And don’t click anything after you’re done. Okay.
[00:21:53.130] – Speaker 2
I’ll click anything. Hey, I am learning a TikTok tutorial from.
[00:21:59.030] – Speaker 1
You didn’t turn your head. I know. All right.
[00:22:01.120] – Speaker 2
Okay, here we go.
[00:22:02.010] – Speaker 1
It’s hard.
[00:22:02.700] – Speaker 2
I am learning a TikTok tutorial from.
[00:22:06.230] – Speaker 1
Good.
[00:22:07.110] – Speaker 2
Then it goes right to next when you let go. Hold on.
[00:22:13.190] – Speaker 1
He’s learning a TikTok tutorial from. Maybe it’s because you’re in Canada.
[00:22:17.750] – Speaker 2
Where is it?
[00:22:18.820] – Speaker 1
Because I can do the first part. And now look at my screen at the top.
[00:22:22.630] – Speaker 2
At the top. Interesting. Okay.
[00:22:24.390] – Speaker 1
Only part of it is done. It’s not the whole thing yet because I didn’t use up all 15 seconds.
[00:22:31.050] – Speaker 2
Okay. So let’s pretend what I’ll do is I will just do it in my video camera.
[00:22:36.970]
Okay. Good.
[00:22:38.120] – Speaker 2
All right. I am learning a TikTok tutorial from.
[00:22:42.050]
Good.
[00:22:42.500] – Speaker 2
Yeah.
[00:22:42.700] – Speaker 1
You don’t want to move the phone. You just want to move your head. Then you’re going to hold it to the side and then you’re going to turn your head from there to there and you’re going to say hello, muthership. Okay.
[00:22:51.730] – Speaker 2
All right. Okay. From the muthership.
[00:22:55.520] – Speaker 1
Great. Now you’ve got to put those together. And in your case, now you don’t have to put it together in editing app. But I’m going to show you how to do it. Not in an editing app. Hold on a second. I’m going to show you my demonstration in the app. Just go back. So now I’m going to start here. I’m going to start the timer. One, two, me, the muthership. Okay, this is what I did.
[00:23:25.800] – Speaker 2
All right.
[00:23:26.320] – Speaker 1
Let me play mine. I clicked the check Mark from me.
[00:23:31.870] – Speaker 2
Oh, yours is perfect. You don’t have to do any edit on that.
[00:23:34.610] – Speaker 1
I do need to make an edit because that was a double action. So I would click see? So now I would click the adjust clips button at the top and then I would click on the first one.
[00:23:44.390] – Speaker 2
Yes.
[00:23:45.050] – Speaker 1
And I got to take off a little bit at the end because my head turned all the way and I just want it to be a halfway head turn. Okay. Then I click the check Mark and the second one is pretty good already. So we don’t have to Corey about the second one. So now let’s make it bigger. Here we go. He’s learning a tick tutorial from me.
[00:24:03.990] – Speaker 2
Okay. All right. So I’m going to show my little guy I have used the Adobe Rush.
[00:24:14.590] – Speaker 1
Okay, great. So now you just got to take off the beginning and the end of each. You did good so far.
[00:24:20.580] – Speaker 2
Thank you. Yes. Okay, let’s see. All right, here we go. From.
[00:24:27.070] – Speaker 1
So take off the first head turn so that you’re only halfway turned.
[00:24:30.850] – Speaker 2
Yes.
[00:24:31.540] – Speaker 1
And then in the second one, you’re going to take off the beginning. So you’re halfway there.
[00:24:35.020] – Speaker 2
All right, split. Delete that. Delete it.
[00:24:39.170] – Speaker 1
I can’t wait to see how it looks. This is a really fun way to keep your audience engaged.
[00:24:44.430] – Speaker 2
Oh, my gosh. And this is like, I actually feel successful right now.
[00:24:48.420] – Speaker 1
Oh, my God. This is making me feel successful, too.
[00:24:52.100] – Speaker 2
All right, here we go.
[00:24:55.250] – Speaker 1
Let’s see it.
[00:25:01.710] – Speaker 2
All right. Pretty good, eh?
[00:25:03.070] – Speaker 1
That was so slick.
[00:25:04.240] – Speaker 2
I’m going to post it after the podcast. That was amazing. I actually feel, you know what legit. Okay, here’s what I learned. Right now, I have about seven TikToks posted on the Leading with Nice account. All of them were much harder, but I don’t know if they’re as good. I spent way more time on some other ones. That one is good. And it took me like, what, a minute?
[00:25:26.800] – Speaker 1
A minute? And you know why? Because you’re keeping the audience engaged by changing things so that you’re not just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So that’s why a lot of the creators use head turns, because they keep you moving. And a lot of people use Zoom ins and outsum. You can hold your thumb down, you can slide up and down, and you can Zoom in and out. I don’t love the Zoom in and out as much. I think that it’s more clever because it’s like film editing.
[00:25:51.770] – Speaker 2
So I really enjoy I do have to say as well, you have awesome hair. It’s all wind blown. It’s so amazing for me. I don’t have the same air flow. Yeah, they’re like anyhow.
[00:26:06.000] – Speaker 1
You got to work with your assets. Don’t worry about it.
[00:26:08.790] – Speaker 2
All right, one more question. Two more questions. Jessie. So finally we did talk a little bit about Monetization, but what’s next? Where do you go? Like four months ago, you said you’re getting busy, you’re going to get busier now because you’ll be in front of more people know who you are, what’s next then? What do you do?
[00:26:24.430] – Speaker 1
Okay, so first off, I’m still doing production because I have big clients. I work with big brands. I do full up TV commercials with big crews. And I love it. I do interviewing. So I’m on your side of the camera, and I love that part of my job. But when it comes to the Tik Tok side of things, I was actually approached by a venture capital company, and they have decided to proceed with my business, which is called Hellosocialize.com. And it’s a platform where it’s going to welcome creators of all skill levels. And it’s going to highlight creators that I’ve selected. And I found a lot of them on TikTok, and I literally just cold reached out to them. And I just like certain creators that I love. So I’m building a little collaboration like a collective of creators that are going to be represented on the platform. It’s also going to feature a blog which teaches all the latest trends. It’s going to feature some of my videos and it’s going to cover more than just TikTok. It’s going to cover Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever you want to learn, social media, big picture. And then it’s going to actually represent these creators to brands so that if you’re looking to reach an audience that’s the mature, over 40, over 50, even over 60, over 70 audience, you’re going to have their eyeballs in a specific place.
[00:27:37.150] – Speaker 1
So that is where I am headed, and I am very excited about it.
[00:27:41.190] – Speaker 2
I feel like I just dropped an exclusive.
[00:27:44.520] – Speaker 1
Here you are, because it’s the first time I’ve mentioned it on any.
[00:27:47.890] – Speaker 2
Wow. Okay. Wow. It’s funny. I was just talking to our content manager and our audio engineer and, like, we need to turn this one around quick because I’m Super excited now. I got to get out even quicker. So this is fabulous.
[00:28:01.710] – Speaker 1
Literally, this is like the moment of launch because I haven’t talked about it until today. I was changing some images, and I was not ready to release it until today.
[00:28:09.770] – Speaker 2
I am so proud of you. Congratulations. You know, I’m so happy because I know you’ve put the work in, and it’s been from a place of generosity, which to me, just warms my heart. That’s leadership, Helen. And as I said to you before, tell us you have a sign in your office. What does it say?
[00:28:27.440] – Speaker 1
Oh, it says if you are kind and work really hard, amazing things will happen.
[00:28:31.740] – Speaker 2
Dude, I think that’s like police. That is so good. Okay, last but not least, I just have to ask about this because I saw it on your LinkedIn. Are you to blame for Furby’s?
[00:28:46.350] – Speaker 1
Is that what we I am. I worked on Furby commercials and hit Flip commercials. I hate to say it, but I’m that old. But it was really fun. That was a game changer in the industry. When you think about it, hit clips were TikTok back in the day because Hiccups played only the major 15 to 30 seconds of a song, which is exactly what TikTok does. And Furby’s were the first interactive pets that had come out. And then everything trailed on after that. So, yes, I’m responsible for that. I didn’t invent them, but I was responsible for advertising.
[00:29:18.790] – Speaker 2
I know, but you invented my children’s desire for them. So we’ve had four or five in our house over the years. In fact, before I got on, I was trying to find a Chewbacca one from Disney. I was trying to find it to bring it on and make it talk to you.
[00:29:33.080] – Speaker 1
But it’s really funny.
[00:29:34.350] – Speaker 2
Well, listen, this has been a treat. Thank you so kindly for making time. There are some other people that I have to think that have made the fact that you and I could talk today is a result of about many hands. First of all, Amber Tomkins, who is our education and training coordinator, she’s put on a fire today for us. So thank you Amber for that she’s dealing with it. Naomi Grossman my assistant. She helped like last night when I was in the middle of everything. She’s like, let’s write the questions now. She made sure we got the questions prepped.
[00:29:59.790]
Yes.
[00:30:00.480] – Speaker 2
Jamie Hunter is a content manager. If you’re seeing this on social which you probably are that’s all him. That’s all him. Thank you, Jamie. Austin Palmer is the audio editor. He’s going to cut out all the time when I was screwing up on TikTok earlier. He’s going to make it great, Jeff Anhorn takes all that and puts it on video. I can’t get over it. It’s so amazing. And of course I’m in my basement right now and my wife upstairs making the kids be quiet so thank you, Calce and I really appreciate it. You supporting me and my business. Okay, Helen. I can hardly wait to see what’s next.
[00:30:29.950] – Speaker 1
I’ve never been on a podcast where somebody actually thanks his team like that. I mean my cup run is over for you. That was beautiful.
[00:30:37.350] – Speaker 2
Thank you so much. Well, yeah. I know that many hands make light work and I am the result of many people’s dreams and dedication.
[00:30:45.010] – Speaker 1
That’s beautiful. I have enjoyed this so much. Thank you so much for inviting me.
[00:30:50.190] – Speaker 2
Have a great day.
[00:30:51.220] – Speaker 1
Thanks for having me.
[00:30:52.180] – Speaker 3
Bye you.
BONUS: Right after you listen to the episode with Helen Polise, you’ll want to check out our conversation with Corey McMullan, another TikTok star who found success by embracing authenticity.