How To Quit Your Job In Your 20's And Start Your Own Business.

and tell me when we're ready are we live oh okay oh there we go outtakes in between the takes um all right so welcome Nikita welcome to the show appreciate you coming on um we obviously meet you briefly months ago now um that's been six months ago and you're a good friend of Joni's um which is cool to have you here uh first of all what I'm going to get you do is I think that camera right there you can look steering right down the thing and tell everyone like like introduce yourself what do you do where you come from who you are what do you do for a living all right um so my net wait this camera okay um so my name's Nikita

um I'm originally from South Africa um my parents came over here when I was like one um I had no idea what I wanted to do when I left high school I went to UNI for one week and I was studying psychology for that one week and I quickly realized that's not for me so I dropped out after a week and had to have a really difficult conversation with my mum um because my mum and dad have like divorced when I was nine so it's very like you know like your mom your single mom your kid's not going to UNI now all that stuff and then now I'm a makeup artist yeah and I work at Sephora I've been working at Sephora since I was

19 so 2019 till now yeah um but I also started freelancing and I kind of fell into the social media world yeah wow cool awesome well thank you for the very thorough yeah I really appreciate it I want you to take us back to the beginning of the social media World um where did it start how did it start um well it first started when I I guess no it was Instagram I started I was like I want to do makeup like I'll just post my makeup looks and just see I mean not even just see I just wanted to post him just because it was fun I had no job I was like what else am I going to do during my days I'll

do that yeah so I just started posting on Instagram and then that kind of gained a little bit of traction nothing crazy um so I just continued doing that and then in lockdown I think it was 2020 yep I posted me making some pancakes on Tick Tock yeah I love it um and that was that I didn't think I'll be using Tick Tock like other yeah it's like a Creator um and then I would just post my makeup on there and is this it oh yeah this is my Pancake video I love it um so I did that and then I was just posting my makeup because obviously I wanted to be known for my makeup but then I also posted me shaving my face

because that's something I've always done since I was like 16. and then that blew up basically and it kind of changed this whole platform for me because I got like 50 million views [ __ ] and it was just is it is it in that playlist yeah keep going sorry Karen but yeah so that's that and then I had to take a break because I was getting a lot of hate and all that stuff and I was like I didn't sign up for all this if I don't I don't know what to do but then I was like no no like I can use this to my advantage I want to be known for my makeup I'll just use it off the back of this yeah and

then yeah I just started posting my makeup videos but I guess all people wanted was my shaving yeah videos um so yeah that's that's me now that's crazy can you just go back a bit um because it's not that one no it's go back into face shaving um saying and scroll to the bottom it'll be that yeah that one there 50 million this one um that is crazy when was that 2021 yeah oh last year yeah no no it's already 20 three yeah um tell me about the hate what was the hate oh I mean I can probably guess yeah tell me what it was it was probably the people to say I'm like a man or like good luck getting a boyfriend yeah just

suffer that your hairier than me or like stuff I've never heard before basically so just that and I just couldn't handle because it was one after the other and it's just like you're gonna grow a beard you're going to be like this but yeah and where what how did you get away from that like how did you I mean the other 19 videos that you did about I just I talked to my partner a lot and I just like vent to him and he's like you can use this platform now to just show your makeup because that's what you want to do and I was like yeah like you're right like as I just did it and I just kind of blocked everything out cool

and does it affect you still no no um yeah great yeah well in terms of like commentary yeah um that can we go back to that 50 million one um how much of it was hate in there like was it out of the what have we got 18 000 comments I know you probably haven't gone through every single one encountered but like what would you say as a percentage is I'd say it's like 70 hate yeah like try this like I do this I love this yeah that's that's interesting so then if we go back um to the 4.8 million mine or whatever it was that was more recent the most recent one how do you has has anything changed about the comments like would

you still say at 70 30. no will it be now it would or like the Hate's probably like 20 in and there is like oh I want to try this I'm going to do this yeah that's super interesting right yeah because like we see that all the time as well like if you stick to your guns and you go hard on something people will just get over it yeah that's right it's like it's like last week when we had Hannah on like she's got some interesting views of the world and like people take her lover or don't right and that's fine you don't no one has to love everyone but the more she does her thing and stands by her view on the world yeah

um the less hate she gets different and I think it's and I and I wondered that because like I hadn't seen the 50 million one I didn't scroll down fair enough but like I was reading these and I was like actually like most of this is like how do you do that deeper stuff on your face they do use an oil do you what do you do you know and I like for me like this is something like that how do I put this like it's not something you see a lot on media yeah right that girls do this sort of thing it's a male thing for sure Gillette and all that sort of crap um but obviously it shows that there's so many people

who want like need to figure it out well think about it definitely and you find those people in time and like we talk about this a lot like the time in the market allows you to build the community that you need yeah it's always gonna you hate to begin with oh yeah for sure like definitely my LinkedIn I talk about I talk about uh not buying a house yeah because I'm not at all interested in getting a mortgage whatsoever and I always do them pretty antagonistic just because I mean I love hate um I'm a bit of a thing for it but like it's gotten less the more often I talk about that topic like more and more people realize like well there's no point

continuing to call him an idiot because he obviously doesn't give us what we say definitely but now I've got all these people who come out of the woodwork and are like like I'm so happy you say that like we don't want to do that either like we'd rather build a business we'd rather do this definitely we think like we're the weird ones yeah yeah but you're not right I'm like it's funny you say that because I've like recently got into that mindset where I don't want to buy a house I want to start a business and I'm gonna do my own face Shavers yeah and yeah I thought I saw you do that yeah did you do it already I haven't it's not live I

don't have I have you been building a product day because you did a video on it right yeah yeah I knew I'd seen it like months ago eh yeah yeah so it's been in the works tell me about that I want to hear about it because I was actually like it was going to be one of my questions and then I couldn't find it and I was like oh maybe she like he just deleted it all or something tell me the story um so we're basically I'd never wanted to come out with face shape it's just something I did but I had been done Dirty by a couple of face shaving Brands okay and I was like you've made so much money off me like

I ended up in like a Yahoo article or something and they like stole my video from my Tick Tock um that they didn't pay for and they put like paid usage behind it so like they made like I don't know like I don't know if it was millions or I don't know how much they made but they made a lot of money off it and then it happened to me previous before that so I was like oh like [ __ ] this like I'm just gonna make my own face Shavers and sell them because people are still like interested in them it's still very new yeah so then I was like yeah I never ever want to work with a face shaping company again I just want

to have my own interesting yeah just before you get into the face of your business like yeah did you like what did you do about that did you sue did you so I was with a agency at the time so I messaged them to be like hey like what's up with this um they are each time they're like oh they're small business there's nothing they can do about it they'll apologize to you and I never got an apology so that's what happened yeah um yeah okay so if you're a lawyer and you know this I know that to not be true yeah [ __ ] him yeah like yeah I guess there might be a small business but like then give me equity okay you can't pay

me yeah I want 20 in your company yeah you know otherwise [ __ ] you like yeah sue them like you can't you can't do that like you can't actually you can't steal content um you can steal content unless of course the only way they can get away with it is if your settings were wrong because and Tick Tock it allows for settings to say you can be done you know how like you know like in your settings it's got like uh can be ad sponsored content right anyone to use and some people allow that on Tick Tock because actually yeah if a company goes and puts a million dollars spin behind your video your face is in front of everyone yeah so some people are okay

with it like depending on the brand I would probably let it happen depending on the brand yeah um but it's as long as like you I I reckon it's still worth talking to a lawyer yeah how long ago was it could have been last year um yeah last year I I can't remember the statutory statute of limitations but like which essentially says if it's not done within a certain time frame you can't do anything about it right yeah of course I'd still have a look into it yeah because they like um they had paid me 500 for Instagram real yeah it was an Instagram reel and it was like completely different this was like this I made that video like months after I think just

like because I used the face drivers yeah yeah um I didn't tag them or anything I said like when people ask me oh like what brand is this I would tag them in the comments yeah it's the Sprint yeah and then they took the video because they saw it was doing well and they put yeah okay yeah like the thing behind it and they didn't actually tag me in it I had other people tag me like hey isn't this you yeah like that you haven't created you that's dodgy yeah you know even like we get heat you probably get some stuff as well but like you get heaps of people who go um you know they're the accounts that share stuff yeah that you know

send you like release forms right yeah because even them who aren't necessarily putting spin behind or monetizing anything they understand that we're not going to get [ __ ] over because we're sharing some content I mean some of the contracts are real dodgy like yeah I had one from uh I think it was like lead Bible or something it was literally like um you give us permission to use every piece of content from this day forward oh my God so while you own my channel yeah anyway okay get off that topic because that is quite interesting and I think you should look into it um but in terms of your business yeah tell me about where's the journey where are you up to I mean you don't

have to give away Secrets like Canada did last week but like what where are you up to what's the plan um so basically I ordered a new sample of a new supplier because I wanted to tweak it I also wanted to see if I can get it a bit cheaper because it was going to be like 30 000 units or something like that and I was like look this is like I don't have the capacity to sell that what if I don't sell that it's just going to lay there so I found someone that can do 3 500 units and I was like okay that's a lot a lot better but um I'm just waiting for the samples to come just to make sure that

I'm happy with it and use them a couple more times I've also changed the packaging yeah I've made the website and stuff I don't actually have a marketing plan though yeah yeah yeah I'm just well you're the marketing plan aren't you yeah that's basically what I thought is I'm just going to keep kind of promoting it how I have been and just see how that goes are there other influences who do what you do in terms of face shaving um a couple yeah a couple people worth partnering with yeah yeah I would say so that's always good for sure yeah definitely especially if you can give them like so like in in Europe a real big way of getting so you know here in New

Zealand's like the brand deals like he's 1500 bucks whatever make a video um heaps of people in Europe it's his 20 of sales and they just do like you think you can sell heaps yeah sell it we'll give you 20 cut and the way it works like have you heard have you seen much of tick tock shop yeah yeah so Tick Tock shop has it built in so as you buy in Tick Tock shop right automatically 20 goes to the Creator 20 or whatever the for years goes to tick tock and the risk goes to the to the company so it's built into the app just like Amazon yeah yeah I've seen it but I thought it wasn't available here not New Zealand but yeah

where's your audience how much is in the UK uh it's mainly the USA yeah I mean always yeah but you must have a lot in the UK still if it is really yeah interesting no it's mainly like my top theory is um America New Zealand and it's New Zealand remember too um some Algeria or some yeah crazy like that yeah it's funny well look Tick Tock shop is coming um the UK it's already there and launched it's in parts of Asia it's obviously already launched and stuff like that so you can always tap into that yeah earlier true um I was talking to we've got a partner agency where we do some stuff with in Scotland and they're heavy on it like so so they

don't really do what we do which is brand building they do e-commerce staff selling stuff on Tick Tock and like he's like it's so um successful standard that they went and ordered like 10 000 units or something yeah that's like um tooth toothbrush for kids which is literally like a squeezy bottle that you just like suck on sort of thing it's weird yeah I don't know but um he's like I'm saying we paid like 30p for these we'll sell them for like yeah ten dollars yeah you'll go viral in a couple of years and it'll take off so I reckon like that saying to definitely look into like how do you push it in those markets with Tick Tock shopping because you already got native

content to the platform yeah um in terms of the product itself um tell us about that journey of getting it developed because I think that's interesting because we did this with Lisa and it was real interesting to hear the product development space like how did you start this process so my partner helps me he's good but I'm not like I would say like in a business I'm not like the business mind I don't I like know what I want to do but I don't have yeah I don't know where to start basically I have all the ideas 33 right yeah yeah so I just used canva and I did like a rough thing I'm like this is how I want it to look I showed

it to him he did it in Photoshop and he did on a template sent it off to the manufacturer and then he'd just keep asking me do you like this you want me to change this cool how's this um and then yeah I just got a whole bunch of face shaving samples I've been using them and I like this one don't like that one yeah and yeah honestly it's been pretty what's the cost being my first sample was like 600 and is that just for one or for a bunch of them like it was uh like 15 individual face roses are they are they disposable are they yeah yeah yeah and then um two boxes yeah and then one insert to have how it will

lay so yeah it was like 600 yeah okay how much have you spent on it so far getting it like do you know a couple Grand Yeah couple great yeah maybe like a like a thousand dollars yeah yeah of course not huge amounts but still not nothing no not nothing for 23 year olds right yeah yeah yeah yeah still significant yeah um and then in terms of like next steps like so have you found the like what it looks like yeah yeah I have like I'm like I know like this is exactly how I want it to look I just want to make sure that last sample is like perfect cool yeah what was what was wrong out of interest um I agree with that

because I'm like they're disposable in a trend of eco-free I'm like no I don't need that on there I wanted that gone there was like an aura bit at the top it was like two at the top it looked like disconnected it was little things like that and I wanted instructions on the back of the box instead of inside the Box because I thought if it was ever in a shop I want people to be able to turn over to see how to use it yeah 100 I love that thing about the Eco thing because like it's uh it in today's world it's either you lean into it you do it right or you actually tell everyone you're not doing it because it can't yeah

like we could do this if you want but I'm gonna charge you 10 times as much so I think I have to find my place in it yeah um yeah that's really interesting so okay so so you're pretty close to it yeah how do you see it rolling out just pushing it on your Tick Tock like yeah that's essentially that's my marketing plan is just to do it like that and then if that's you know if it's working then cool if it doesn't then I'll kind of go from there how do you how do you see you rolling that out have you thought about that not really to be honest I'm kind of going with the flows yeah and I'm like it'll come to me

yeah yeah but I think like I want to be able to ship it yeah but then I'm stuck as like do I want this to be worldwide do I want it just to be New Zealand Australia like I'm I don't really know yeah I'm like confused yeah yeah yeah it is um for you it like we had this conversation even with Connor when he's doing his t-shirts and stuff like um the worldwide shipping thing is especially for you like like you have to yeah because half the audiences exactly won't matter the actual percentage but yeah so much of them are us right yeah um but there are ways to get around it right like so you don't just have to ship it from here you

can get a Drop Shipping Place out of the US in fact the smarter way to do it if you're going after us is how do you get into how do you do it through Amazon yeah Amazon fulfill center now there's more cost to it but distribution yeah like like um uh we were talking we were shown the example of that um uh was it bless your [ __ ] Gooch or whatever have you seen that one EOS oh yeah like the shampoo stuff where like um she that girl made a viral video about how she's to shave um you know shave herself and then it went viral yeah and then like he always jumped on it and like took her words that she does was like you're

[ __ ] Goose like literally like wrote on the bottle made a whole new product he made a whole box sent it to that went viral again and then um they went from rank to number 300 000 on Amazon as a product to 15 000 and sold just like tens of thousands of units because of this viral thing yes so like and and what's good about is that like through Amazon they fulfill it all yeah that's true you don't have to do anything you just push it and your product is one of those products where like people have to continue to buy yeah it's like it's a consumable right so it becomes one of those things like your initial launch people buy it if they enjoy the

product that's what they do they have to continue to buy it that's now you're the trusted person yeah I would definitely look into Amazon yeah I have thought about it I have thought about keeping like half the stock there yeah so that people from outside Australia New Zealand can access it yeah but then I'll do the rest yeah yeah do your local Museum Australia potentially yeah um there are some companies in New Zealand who do this for people so they like I'm like they might have a fee to them or something like they're experts and they know how to set up Amazon properly run appropriate Amazon ads and things to push your product you're going enough a different proposition to most people because you're like

I don't know if I need to promote yes I've got the promotion tool I need help making sure I sit up right yeah like how to get the SEO right on Amazon how to get this page set up properly yeah the mechanics of it the actual fulfillments Enterprise because there's cost to it for sure and if your stuff sits on a shelf too long you either go to dispose of it or pay Amazon more money to hold it yeah so that's right I would you wouldn't start there no you would definitely just start here yeah and then and then once you know that the volume's going you then you set up Amazon yeah um but there's also like 3pl shippers like so third-party Logistics and

there's heaps in the US where so they're not quite Amazon but they're like small little warehouses that you store stuff in and then like an order comes through if it's a US order or somewhere where they deliver to it just goes straight to them they fulfill it for you so it's like Amazon yeah yeah except it's not as good as Amazon but also doesn't cost the same exactly right right I see so there's heaps of options for it um I think like if you you would want to see what's the how people react yeah how many you're actually going to buy it yeah definitely how do you get into the like your comments like are you like I noticed that you're pretty responsive for yeah

like are you pretty good at that yeah I try but then sometimes I get so I'm like I just can't be bothered yeah and I know like in my head like I should be responding to this because it's going to keep it but honestly sometimes I just yeah you know I um so a thing about comments is that like on Tick Tock they're real hard because they're yeah there's no way to automate them there's no like meters or way better comments yeah platform and you can like get them into DMS and all this sort of stuff but so it's a bit more work on Tick Tock but like the the comment section as a dead end for most people they don't use them right yep

and we like talk about this other day like as a way to activate comments is go like for instance you could do a competition there's something significant enough that people want to comment and be part of it which could be as simple as like um like say when a lifetime supply like like you know because like realistically what does that cost you yeah if in the long run you got a thousand sales out of it yeah like it's not true like your cost of goods won't be that high once you start getting a lot of a lot of it and you just give them a unique code that they can order a certain amount each year like you know whatever so yeah but anyway you

do a competition at that level and you say everyone put your email address in the comments and we will like we'll do a random thing and someone will win this big prize but now you've got like like how many did you get the other day how many comments 1200 people wanting to enter a draw he did it so they've just commented yeah but I said to them go back and ask each of them for their email address to put you into the draw which is a lot of work and he does yeah but that's okay like it was learning it was fine you can still activate it yeah of course work to activate it whereas if you say if you say um put it in

put your email in the comments yeah and then you just get you can just get something just yeah um just like get all those emails yeah 1200 people on an email distribution list who are all now interested in your product yeah and then you send them a code to go hey here's 20 off your first order for launch true but it's only active it's only valid until this day right yes until two days after launch now they've got scarcity because they're like [ __ ] yeah do I have to do it and it might be more than 20 like you might go you might realize your margin is like 80 on this product or whatever so you get 40 off yeah because you can for the first

round right because it's all about pushing it's all about like can we make our money back for the first three and a half hours yeah yeah that's right so I was like what do I need to do to get that push him because you know like your disposable product like you get them using it yeah then they have to buy again that's right yeah into the future for sure so you could do something like that for launch those are those are real successful yeah they like um we talked about that even with with Connor like about um clothing lines like how do you do the thing before you pay the bill yeah yeah yeah and I said before you order three and a half thousand

yeah you do it so you got the money to buy it at three and a half thousand yeah um I don't know when you have to pay for that bill if you already have but yeah but that's another way too is like how do you get money out of your audience first to do it and now some people might think it's a bit dodgy about like gymshark does it all the time yeah like they always go out with a sale or like um I heard there's a Crop Shop Boutique Rachel Dillon do you know her she's like woman's um uh bikini model of the year like four years in a row Aussie girl amazing yeah her business is epic like oh [ __ ] massive heaps of

people has their own software development team she's a fitness influencer oh okay as a software development team like yeah crazy but she they did a launch the other day where they had limited Supply in a and a new job sold out all of us as it does right yeah brands but then they're like oh look so many people you've missed out we're going to do an open order like a limited run yeah but you won't get it for six to eight weeks because we haven't got them we'd go get them produced but like you just like they just have it open they can take unlimited orders right because at that point it doesn't matter you just everyone that orders you order that many that's right

um so how do you do stuff like that for launch yeah because it takes risk away it does yeah that's true because I know like without order we can pay 50 of it yeah in the beginning and then they'll produce and then we have to pay the 50 like when it's done Yes again I don't really know the logistics behind it but uh yeah I know that there's something like that yeah exactly yeah so like how far away do you think you are from launching I would say maybe like two months okay so like start then start it now yeah just started now have you told apart from that one video I've watched which is Monster High match more have you done um in terms

of launching it I did like just one thing on Instagram not not much was it just that was it on Instagram I saw your video no I've done a couple on the picture I think I've done like three yeah but then I like wanted to stop it because I say I feel like I'm putting this content out there but there's no product to buy at the moment so I'm like I want to kind of hold off a little bit and then once I know it's coming then I'll start doing it again tell the journey yeah you've got you've earned the respect of your audience to be able to tell them the journey yeah you know right like you've got a really engaged audience so like

you have the right to be able to tell them stories that aren't necessarily makeup tutorials or whatever yeah definitely but like tell them that because like um I always go back to the uh Linus tictus example which every single person interview has no idea who Dynasty tips are but they got like 25 million followers right they do PC there's and they built a a bag a backpack and a screwdriver and for Their audience like it made sense because the backpack's like when you're taking your tech gear around and then the screwdriver was for like when you were building computers or whatever right so they're specific to Their audience but also they are products they spent three years building and they wanted to get right they

always kept sending them back getting them perfect and whatever right and um these if you go to lttstore.com that top one screwdriver yeah yeah that top one um they want to get in perfect right so it's 70 U.S so that was a hundred bucks or something and if you scroll down um I don't know if it's still up here but they had like their launcher now they've taken it away they had like their launch rounds anyway they sold like 70 000 units screwdriver screwdriver I bought one and I bought the bag because I'm so invested in their story of what they did yeah and he and he didn't it wasn't every other video it was like every once in a while yeah and he built

up enough equity with me that I was like nah like I love your content I love what you're doing I don't need a screwdriver I make tick tocks for a living um but I'm gonna buy it yeah because I'm gonna support you and your channel yeah so you know in your world you might not get as many people buy it because like if I'm not going to show you my face there's no point in me buying it but I might buy it as a gift for someone else that I know does who doesn't know who like it or whatever um and I might just literally do it just to support you yeah that's right I have been like capturing a little behind the scenes bits

and like when I got my first sample I did my reaction and stuff so I slowly want to put out like a yeah kind of like build the brand with me because I also am doing the same thing because I want to get a makeup studio so I'm kind of doing like the come with me on the journey to find like why haven't you start putting out I don't know yeah I think you should like I think like if anything like if you think of Conor's one when he did his like it's been really successful what he's done with his launch of his de Plaza but I think it would have been only better if he had started it earlier because he's had to retell

the stories yeah of what it is but you see a lot of people doing that come with me for this journey right yes but the what people don't realize is it takes ages for people to make a buying decision they don't make a buying decision number one yeah true that you're gonna have to show them this journey for three or four months before majority of them buy yeah so why not just like build a hype yeah the whole time yeah like this is the Plaza's one so he's like started this what 50 something days ago and he's got like 11 000 followers now after 50 something posts he's been put out and they're getting good views and stuff like ever since the beginning he it's

been taken off but like how many sales have you done now um proper sales through here like oh fifth so about 20. yeah so not a lot not as much as people might think yeah he's done more and he's got a whole strategy so yeah that's it it's actually been going really well for him but that 20 over six weeks is actually really good like the next six weeks if he if he had more product he'd probably do 50. yeah the same time frame but do two or three times as much then the second set he might do 500 yeah you know what I mean right that's how it goes because it takes people ages to make buying decision so yeah and it was the

same when we took the Lisa it's like on her launch you did like 40 sales and for her it was massive it was awesome and it is awesome yeah because it's hard yeah but what if you what if you just delay that what if you tell a really good story for a long period of time until people like hyped up to go and take my money yeah definitely that's I mean that's what lines tick tip did and literally overnight seventy thousand I mean I get it they're at 24 oh well actually their main channel is only 15 million followers still heat yeah but like 70 000 is excessive yeah but they told that sorry for three years for three years right and that's why like

we're all hyped by the time he did it was like finally it's here yeah and then it still took me three months to get it really yeah because like they did waves of production they did 15 000 units at a time and I got into the fourth wave so I had to wait for them to produce mine it's interesting because I'm someone who also buys into someone's story like I'll even if I'm not gonna I think I bought a book from someone but I just liked their content the book just sits on my side table I don't even use it but yeah you are I should think about like how I consume products as well 100 we all like especially in this influencer world like

we always buy products because people we trust people we love this story definitely we want to support like how many people really just love your story and want you to succeed you can tell in the comments is people yeah just love you for you being you yeah I'm sure I I feel like this is the guys trying to tell me to get onto the topic of YouTube um but actually that is kind of a good segue because so business-wise launch strategy right yeah is that the is that the long-term goal to build your wealth and brand and thing is create this product or whatever ideas um well well I feel like that product is something I'll use for the rest of my life so I

think it's a good first product for me yeah um but I want to do makeup full-time yeah basically yeah so I would like to build a brand on the side Kevin thought of another product that I want to do as of yet but like I want to do makeup yeah like be a makeup artist full-time cool basically that's like how would I see and then do this all on the side basis I kind of like take people on my journey of becoming like full-time makeup artist in terms of makeup artist that actually listen to this nicely like what about being a makeup artist do you love and do you want to continue I think it's like like I don't like doing big big anything like

that I like how helping like the average Joe I guess yeah I like more like that type of client like they're going to the ball they have the 21st I like that sort of makeup I guess so it's just helping people making them feel like confident for like a night or whatever yeah yeah so like the real money in there isn't they're doing the makeup no because that's yeah what does that really generate you you you're essentially now on like paying for time and stuff right yeah you pay for time yeah which is okay there's nothing wrong with that because and that's why it leads a nicer to here because that's where you make your money right yeah you make your money by documenting those

things yeah the real good ones yeah that's right um so tell me then we're a year ago yeah yeah what happened oh it's it's YouTube is so much like it's like you've got a it's obviously excuses and I know it's excuses but it's it was a lot but I do want to start doing it again um I actually have no reason why I stopped I just I don't know actually I started doing Tick Tock yeah and then I stopped because I was like oh just doing like the daily Vlogs on there was so much easier for me yeah than like sitting down editing making this thumbnail doing all this it was doing the most the Vlog on YouTube is like like for you this I

I in my opinion I don't know how right I am but like the daily Vlog thing on Tick Tock is so much easier and more consumable by people that you have to be exceptional on YouTube yeah to make it count for sure exceptional like and if you're not Casey neistat like don't even try yeah you know yeah but what could you do what could you change it to rather than blogs like how do you make this something that people do want to consume with what you do I have no clue you've already got the answer like I feel like you go and put the call out to your audience in New Zealand yeah and you say hey I heard it's ball season coming up or

it's wedding season yeah anyone Keen to like have me do their makeup but I'm gonna film the whole [ __ ] yeah and then you just film it and make a vlog like another Vlog but like you make a story about this person's ball or like their wedding and why they couldn't afford to get a really cool makeup and you coming along and like or like tag someone who you know is getting married who would really love this let's tee up and give them a surprise uh oh he's been all over myself yeah yeah whatever his name is the coolest [ __ ] yeah give ways to people yeah definitely that guy's outrageous yeah 16 million yeah right but you could do like a YouTube version of it which

is like a deep dive story Into the person and why it's so why it's been so helpful for them or just why things have been struggling for them and why they needed support and come on the world we live in right now like how many people in Auckland are struggling yeah right now so like you could do a lot of good for people sure and you know like we had this conversation with Judy girl too like with dresses like making people feel special like lifts their mood so much and allows them to do more things definitely like take control of their life for sure so like how do you do you could do that on YouTube that would [ __ ] go viral overnight because no offense

but like yeah YouTube doesn't give a [ __ ] about your Vlog no and you can see it and the only reason they don't is because YouTube doesn't know yeah that's right tick tock knows you yeah fine care about you yeah like a lot of tick tock is try to do this me included we put our daily Vlogs here we stopped it because we're like no one gets a [ __ ] about it yeah I think that's probably why I stop because I'm like there's so much effort for like it's not even I'd rather just make the three minute video and just do that yeah and then I don't mind the shorts though because I just use my tick tocks and just put it on there yeah um can

we go to the short stab the so what's the strategy for shorts that's what I thought so that scroll down a bit there's nothing this can we scroll down um so when were these uh ages ago yeah yeah um that's what I mean like I think I I think like with YouTube so like we've tried YouTube YouTube yeah it is we actually went and employed to do to come and um to help us with our YouTube moving forward yeah we just don't have the time and attention to focus on it yeah um Ash is driving it but like there's another guy Josh he's coming in who's built it you know he understands if only gets it inside out we know how to make videos but

we just kind of [ __ ] like coming up with ideas and stuff like that so it's hard we get it yeah but like for you um I think it's like just a no-brainer you want to have your own um Beauty studio makeup studio you want a YouTube channel well I don't know if I want the YouTube channel you want a marketing strategy yeah yeah people buy stuff from YouTube people more than they buy from ticket people we we all know that like that's why you can get that's why like um there's creators I watch you'll get paid thirty thousand dollars for a skillshare yeah you're gonna have 20 million you're not getting that on Tick Tock No One's Gonna Give You 30 grand no not at

all but you do they will and the reason being is because the behavior of people on YouTube means they purchase more they're more the community is way stronger Tick Tock might eventually get there it's not there yet yeah but like and it might be hard for you to create one of these things but like have you heard of Mark Roper Mark Roper can we go to Mark Roper um Mark Roper is one of the highest average views of any YouTube account ever turn yeah Mark robot Rover sorry um yeah I'm really good yeah 24 million subscribers one video a month a month and if you go so if you go to videos look at these videos 20 million 15. this is an order a latest

yeah so this is this is just an order 2015 29 40 21 47 squirrel maze if you go to home if you go home and go like oh no don't just hit popular sorry sorry videos and popular oh they have changed there that's cool is that popular 129 million 127 111 many 109. one one a month it does big stories all right but one like as if you can't do one Beauty yeah no I can okay 12 minutes like what are these like 12 minutes 10 minutes 20 something 20 but eight minutes eight minute video yeah even I want to watch some of these I'm like the testing of sharks can be that epic he is one of the coolest channels um any look he

targets kids yeah a lot of like young people yeah um we're all Mr Beast to start oh yeah he doesn't he's not quite like he's not like Mr Beast in a storytelling it's very different but in terms of like he understands the child audience on YouTube's very strong sure um and [ __ ] he's got ads on there [ __ ] um but like it's just epic so like you could um you could tell these sort of cool stories yeah for sure what stops you if it yeah yeah time not even time because I I have time but I just yeah I don't know I mean I yeah no desires yeah yeah not enough desire to make you do it yeah it makes sense what about like um what

about if you launch and it goes well I don't wanna reinvest yeah have you thought about that or no you just want to pop it all by house no but like seriously what if you eat three and a half thousand what if you sold out in the first month what do you think you do what's the next steps obviously order more yeah yeah I'd go on like some pre-order do you think just scale that business continue I think so like I haven't thought about it um yeah this is probably not good [Laughter] um my my thoughts would be that you like that business is different to this business but you've already highlighted that you want to make our studio yeah um your you've got too

much of a brand to just have a little makeup studio that just employs one or two or three people yeah unfortunately makeup studios are like unless you franchise which you could that's an option yeah unless you franchise they're designed to stay small as soon as a makeup shooter becomes like 100 people like yeah you don't get it that's right where are they yeah even like when you look at like Sephora or maker and software people come and even that seems to commercialize for what you're probably wanting to create right yeah so they're designed to be small and Niche which means that they have earning capacity right issues which is fine not everyone has to be bajillionaire yeah but like you could do that because you

just said I don't really want to do the big fashion shows I don't want to do that I want to do people who like really want to think like want something from it yeah and we said that to Judy like could you get a sponsor to sponsor the production like could you go to like could you get a makeup brand I don't know what they are so a makeup brand that you love Yeah and be like hey give me 30 grand yeah that's going to pay for a production team to come in and develop this story around this person and I'm gonna then take that person do this whole thing you're going to get all your makeup you're all over it and then that affords

you to have someone help yeah the YouTube channel true that is true I also I feel like with the makeup studio yeah I want it more than just a makeup studio as well because I do browse as well like waxing and stuff so like I wanted to do that but then I also want to like be able to rent chairs out to other freelance makeup artists that don't want to work out of their house because that's kind of what I'm doing at the moment and I'd want to take it away from the house because I have no work-life balance basically yeah of course um so I want to do that but then I also with that space because I work at Sephora three days a

week so I'm not going to be at the studio seven days a week I want to make it really aesthetic looking and all that stuff and then I wanted to rent it out for like content creators if they want to go shoot their content photo shoots all that stuff so it's making money while I don't have to be there yeah yeah I guess yeah and look there's nothing wrong with those ideas yeah those are all good and valid I would assume that if you were able to launch a studio you'd probably have to quit Sephora yeah because yeah I mean how much money is it going to cost to invest to set up a studio a lot yeah uh Sephora literally just pays my bills

yeah exactly yeah and so you'll need before you go and spend all that money to go and set something out you'd have to be confident that that's going to make a return yeah like you don't want to go work for Sephora and try to run a business like a proper business on the side like when I say proper business like you got overheads yeah you got to pay rent yeah or like Staffing you might have clean it like who knows right like whatever um stock so there's nothing wrong with having like how do I maximize my return on that space like how do I get other chairs in for other people how do I make content Studios what people um where people sometimes go wrong

here is that oh I could do all this cool stuff which adds overheads which means you have to do more sales which means you're a slave for it yeah a lot longer yeah it was like where you should really start is go how small of a space can I get yeah to start yeah take a short-term lease on it build bear so okay cool we're at capacity this Revenue can support you know because then you could do that two days a week yeah yeah three days so four or three days there or whatever yeah because it's like eight grand a year in rent so it's like like still eight grand but like it's yeah we pay more than that a month right and like and

if you're wanting a retail store yeah you're probably on a main street or you're probably yeah so then the rent goes up through the roof even further whereas like just getting like enough space for you to make content yourself and do for sure like start there yeah that's definitely the goal and I kind of want to do that like this yeah yeah you can do it pretty affordably actually like you can get small spaces like not everywhere but you know funnily enough you can only really get small spaces in the city yeah you can't get small spaces in Suburbia yeah because they just don't do it they don't no and I because I'm based on the North Shore yeah so I wanted it more local

cool there but it's like yeah the only way you can do it is like going to an old strip mall sort of places like like where like you know the places where you find like the bakeries and stuff yeah and finding someone who's like gonna sublet a little room yeah and then you Jazz that room up real cool yeah you're never going to go to like one of the nicer places or new development they just don't do small yeah small rentals for sure New Zealand's real funny like they like um you see all these new restaurants they're like 200 seat restaurants I was like mate you gotta do like 20 people tonight yeah get a smaller restaurant yeah sure so I would definitely start some

of us yeah they don't like all those cool dreams that you've got like do it slowly like yeah I think there was one thing with this space that we did like the rent was so low here oh I shouldn't say solo but like relative to what other offices and Auckland Irene was stupidly cheap but like the cost of fit out the cost of maintaining this place all the other crap that goes in here like putting lights and putting [ __ ] cameras the staff it takes stuff yeah like those costs we didn't really like it was probably a mistake by me like right we didn't and like for ages or even now we're probably not maximizing the space yeah like we're probably just using it it's probably

comfortable now right see um and I had this idea of like oh I could rent the space out and all this stuff but then I realized that like renting the space out I'm losing money because every time someone rents it I can't put one of our more expensive full-service clients then very more valuable to us so you might like rent out something but then like a contents you but then you can't do something you know like it starts to like and then you start going oh I don't want to take too many then yeah and then it defeats the purpose of the first point that you did it from like we don't we've I can't remember the last time we hit a just a studio

booking right so I just stopped advertising I stopped pushing it out I was like fair enough and the first month we did it we did like 10K in sales so it was great I was like yeah fantastic paid the ring yeah but now I'm like uh it gets in the way yeah I don't want to be back here like one of them I had to be coming at one in the morning like I fell asleep when the client was like this thing and he like finished up and I was like oh [ __ ] yeah yeah I'm here I'm here um it was like yeah because he had to do a late night filming so anyway we're getting off topic now so cool I don't know if

we really gave you any real ideas we just kind of went real round in circles but um what I what I do like about it is that um what the thing I like the most about what talking to you which is actually reminds me a lot of Lisa is it Lisa's probably a little bit further because she's had more experience yeah like she's my age or she's a little bit younger than me actually but so she has a bit more ideas that like you built a product that you wanted that's the coolest thing I think about it and I think that's a real good lesson for people because like how many people go oh let's make a course or yeah yeah let's do this thing

yeah or listen and say you wouldn't pay for that yeah no yeah but you actually do like yeah you're essentially like making a product so other people can pay for you to have face Shavers but you know what I mean like yeah that's kind of what it is so that's pretty cool um but my advice is definitely start telling your journey yeah don't think launch day is sale day like you know what I mean like launch day is like you've got to get into it like just start telling the story um even on your Instagram which isn't as big an audience but like you know Instagram's different right like people Instagram is yeah it's it's it's it's it's it's it's kind of annoying too because

like Instagram is like you can't do more with Instagram and engage people more even if they don't engage as much if that makes sense yeah it's more solid a for sure it feels more New Zealand yeah yeah for sure I'm like people from high school and stuff like yeah yeah so I reckon you should definitely start to push that I do want I do think you should look it like how do you get YouTube going yeah I will I actually will yeah yeah I think you should look at that idea like there's just one idea but like don't don't have it like I always say like we do this journey a lot it's like don't take the first idea like because my mind's so stupid

it just like ideas come Spilled Out of it all day but what you do is you go home with that concept and you sit with your partner or whoever's your trusted people around you and you just go broader okay cool that was one idea what else could we do what are other Trends and styles what's the risk of culture of YouTube like what other makeup artists doing what are other people in the beauty industry doing and go real wide until one thing you do goes oh man I love that idea I'd be so cool if we could do that yeah and then you go to Tony and you say Tony this is I need a deal yeah I need you to find me a deal

to sponsor this right yeah true I mean he's gonna get a big payday right like it's worth his shot how do we break her a deal yeah he's a smart guy Tony's clever he knows what he's doing he'll figure it out for you for sure that's what I'll do get someone to pay for your production on YouTube yeah well like editing a eight minute Vlog like an eight minute video yeah like macrober yeah well how long do you reckon that is in terms of workload like 40 60 hours depends on how intense it is anywhere from 40 there yeah one to two we spend a whole week doing it yeah you could spend a whole week easy yeah so that could be like four or

five grand in terms of post-production cost um and then whatever the actual production costs you know uni partner could probably film that to start with but like you could probably get a 5k sponsor right like Tony could probably find like I said 30k but that's yeah you might eventually yeah but you could probably Tony could probably find a 5k sponsor from a makeup person like I'm not sure how much your brand deals have been I know you probably don't get 5K for one video very often that much but like but it's not one video because what you could say there's like look you're gonna get five tick tocks plus a YouTube clip true true right because you can make shorts definitely all the things yeah

and now you've got someone to do all your post-production and actually we know a guy could do your thumbnails and stuff to go we just had his I can just get him on board just so you can just go talk to him but like you know what I mean there's people who can help you like a lot of people go I don't have time well I don't want to spend my time I do have on birth yeah but if you find the idea you like and you go and film it all and then you just have a sponsor and pay the bill of the guided post which is I guess that's why I was stopped because I wasn't having fun doing these videos it was

just so yeah putting it out to putting it out but yeah it wasn't like filling my cup or anything yeah so why don't you what like I mean you can do whatever the [ __ ] you want but if you actually did want to look at YouTube like take the idea I had yeah go sit with your partner and be like okay here's one yep let's go real wide yeah and like when like this is like probably the most fun actually I have working with Joanie is like she'll come in on a Sunday um Fallout 1 NZ brainstorming and maybe me her and Nate and that's all we do and like in the blink of a knife four hours has gone past yeah that's when you know

you've had fun yeah definitely I mean it's still work but like when you get on the float and then we'll come up with like a six-week strategy for for one like I think it was like I think it's 20 videos that we designed in that time yeah but like so but the the way to do that is to go wide yeah not to go our Stan said this idea let's how do we do that yeah so real wide and then what happens when you go real wide all those like connections start to happen yeah and then you someone will say sang and that'll spur someone else out and then it gets into the snowball where like [ __ ] we got the idea yeah and now your

skin as I'm doing it yeah and I'm like and then you gotta yeah and then you put a brief together and you go to Tony and you go give me give me a sponsor yeah do your job Tony do your job yeah yeah Tony knows what he's doing he's a good guy and I think if you can come up with a pitch to a couple Brands like yeah if you're helping support him do it like definitely yeah I don't see why not anyway any last questions before we go yeah I do have a question because I was thinking about I was like what am I gonna ask him because you know you obviously are on a successful business and all that stuff so like I'm

working at Sephora yep but I'm freelancing as well like all of my days off plus I do social media I want to leave Sephora basically because I want to do I want to work for myself like basically me working at Sephora I can't work with a lot of Brands yeah so it's kind of cutting money there so I know I can make a lot more money but because I'm at Sephora because it's consistent and it pays my builds I don't know I guess I'm trying to ask that what is your advice on there or something like that yeah it's it's real hard question because it's it's so dependent on you yeah my first question back to you is like if you took Sephora's salary away

yeah how much in the hole are you each week month do you know like as in how much are you sure on paying your bills right um well like when my bills every Fortnight is like 700 and so current outside if you take Sephora's written you away and you just average out the revenue you've earned yeah from everything else over that time how much more do you still need oh it would actually cover it I can pay my bills so so the reason I ask that question is I actually didn't think it would be I thought there might be a gap and then yeah it would be like okay well that's the thing you need to First do yeah yeah and I'd say that to

everyone if you if there's a gap you need to fill it yeah life's too hard at the moment we're in a downturn of a recession there's some of us who are doing well but like we've spent three years building brand to do that and we go out and we go hard after [ __ ] but if you are deciding do I keep this job or not go all in and you've got commitments and responsibilities yeah you need to make sure you've got some way of covering it right so there's a girl in Melbourne I know Beck and she follows our stuff she's real cool she has gone all out on her own she's 21 has her own little social media agency um she bought a house when

she was 19 like a gun yeah but her thing is like Stan I can't grow my business first because I'm not that good at selling I'm young I'm struggling but I don't care I'm gonna drive Uber when I need it yeah she knows I turn on Uber for a lunch run I can make 200 you know she's like yeah yeah there's some cost per petrol and maintenance and stuff but you know so she's got failsos yeah so she knows when [ __ ] hits the fan and I need some money yeah I'm gonna go do Uber for a lunch run I do that five days a week I may just make a thousand dollars right yeah now not everyone wants to do because they it's beneath them

or whatever it might be or whatever but for you in your suit it's like well [ __ ] actually I could probably cover it yeah but there might be we it's going to be a cash flow problem yeah that's I think it's like the reason why I'm holding on to support is because it's consistent every two weeks yeah whereas social media you don't get paid till like exactly like it could be six weeks after eight weeks after so my advice then is build a Runway so before you quit yeah save save hard save yeah and just like sacrifice some personal stuff for two months get two months of Runway which means I've got cash flow in the bank to pay bills for two months if my other

things don't succeed yeah you'll never touch it yeah because you have done this on the side you moment your mindset goes all in what do you do you hustle yeah you'll do it yeah you hustle that while you're working at Sephora and of course you kind of hustle it when you're not yeah like the freelance stuff what's freelancing for you like what sort of freelance I like the makeup freelance okay so makeup freelancer right so do you think there's more capacity to grow the freelance stuff if you needed to okay so you already know if you go all and you can do it you might not get more brand deals overnight yeah because that doesn't happen of course yeah and who cares they pay you

two months later so it's not yeah it's a long-term build definitely but you can do freelance makeup and you know you can do more of it yeah you know that if um you had two months Runway it would give you the confidence to go actually I can I can keep this up yeah so I would just go do I have enough in my savings to give me two months of Runway yeah and if I do quit you I think you have to that's what we did so yeah when I I had two years of Runway yeah but look I was a different stage in my life I had a like I was a gym of hotels where I had a much different career to where

you are and I was seven eight years ahead of you in life so I had a pretty good amount of savings I also moved back to New Zealand to live a family for rent free so that saved me a lot as well and we did that on purpose because we wanted our money to last longer yeah so we gave ourselves two years to make a dollar our first dollar that was our goal now we moved here in October 2019. um we made our first dollar by January it was like two and a half Grand that someone signed a deal for us then we made another deal it's like nine grand in February start of Feb and then we didn't do another sale until May 11th

um 2020 because lockdowns yeah yeah but then but the reason I tell that story is that all that six months leading up to lockdown we went hard true like every single day I was networking with people I was building Brown I was making content like I'm not even good at making content like that's why I hire these guys like I suck at it but like I knew to do it yep and I just kept pushing stuff out kept meeting people and then from May 11 that when it just snowballed like May 11th 2020 it was just me and my mates to be a bedroom yeah doing stuff and then you fast forward to May 2021 and there was four of uh five of us and

I was look I put a job ad out to hire two more and then he fast forward to May 2022 and it was a new start today so it was like yeah so I was saying there was like 12 by that stage 13. I think we're at 14 at that point we did a big higher not everyone stayed around us but it changes but that exponential growth happened because we just went all in we just went all there yeah and I know if I like had more like energy just to do that I could it could do well yeah it's just like like I I have time and I have reduced from being full-time to the three days a week yeah but I still feel

like a bit Rich after how um how's your savings it's all right like it's not do you reckon you got two months of Runway or at least yeah yeah do it let's do it you're obviously talented to know what you're doing and you got a good hit on your shoulders there's no you you're 23. yeah if it all [ __ ] up when you're 24 go get another job yeah seriously yeah you got no kids eh no yeah yeah I guess I have nothing to lose I live with my partner's parents I'll give you a piece of paper to write your resignation on the way up just just no honestly just just quit like if you really want to quit sorry Sephora but like if you really

do want it just quit if you don't and you're scared yeah then don't quit but don't ask for the things that come from quitting yeah don't dwell on it just be like nah I'm not ready to do it I don't have the psychological safety inside myself to be comfortable doing pudding so that's a big step right yeah oh yeah so I don't feel comfortable doing that so therefore I'm gonna stick this out for a little bit longer as I build resilience fine get it yeah everyone has the resilience and the psychological strength to be able to do stuff like that I was 30 before I could do it yeah right so me telling you to do it 23 is a bit rich um but if

you do if you're like nana I can do this because you've got a brand I quit with zero followers yeah everywhere yeah yeah so if you work out a brand like that's it man like you go for it you [ __ ] man you'll crack it you'll crack it because like you've already shown you can create content and that's the hardest thing yeah part of like growing stuff like if you go if you tell the gym like you're quitting video [ __ ] that's gonna go oh I I have like dreams about the video I'd make when I like leave like get ready for my last day we have to probably like save this car for after she quits because Sephora might be like hey I heard your pudding

yeah you might just keep this on the podcast watches but we'll save it till she quits and yeah we'll we'll like Stitch your video to be like we knew we [ __ ] knew for sure because I make a lot of content for Sephora yeah no I've seen [ __ ] I get nothing for that uh but but that's that's not on them that's on you yeah and you know that that's why you do it nah like if you psychologically you feel safe enough to do it yeah and you obviously got a pretty supportive partner in this whole process and that helps massively definitely for sure especially when you're 23. yeah like I would never have told Lisa to do this yeah she's got kids to feed you know

she's got more videos get to work yeah you know I got an announcement then after this piece then good okay all right good and look I I even tell my stuff like hey go for it like you're not these guys aren't going to work here forever yeah let's try to say she is and it's like well actually like I respect you less because you'd have more ambition in life like and that's kind of my view on things right like true or young you got heaps going for you yeah you can take big risks yeah nothing's gonna happen you live in New Zealand like yeah it's true you know what I mean you live in New Zealand like what's the worst that's going to happen go

on the doll go on the [ __ ] doll until once you are at a point where psychologically you feel safe you can do that don't do it before that because yeah you'll cry all the daylight Journey does just like like don't do that yeah once that and talk with your partner about it a lot like yeah and I know once like you someone plants that seed in your head like what happens is you figure out how to solve that faster yeah so like us moving to New York I mean I've already like my post is my post today was already about how do we bring that timeline forward seven months because now I'm like I'm like it's too far away I want it now yeah so

if you start going like yeah I'm gonna do it in a year yeah then like a month later you'd be like no I want to do a month yeah I'm very like 2 part of me is like like I'm just like yeah I'm just scared I guess that's the bed I'm talking about the psychological stuff yeah like it's a lot and throw your life in yeah an idea my only advice there is that you're so young and talented you can find a job tomorrow yeah like it's true like seriously I could probably go back to Sephora I guess if I leave on a good yeah one of them one of them will pick you up they're getting you from Buckle like you think about how

much you get paid as a wage you can't [ __ ] cool yeah we're getting told to shut up um the guys online they want lunch so thank you thank you thank you appreciate it I hope it was somewhat useful for you it was useful for us but otherwise we'll catch you next time