Don't Wait, Create: How to Be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution with Erica Barry

Don't Wait... Create! The ultimate guide to getting started on TikTok is as simple as creating content today, even if it sucks!

I talked with media strategist, entertainment industry professional, writer, and digital content creator, Erica Barry, about her take on TikTok and what creators can be doing today to get started and create better content. 

In this Episode we will be discussing:

• The strategies a new content creator can take to getting started on TikTok
• What has TikTok done in terms of a global aspect and why it matters
• What steps you can take to be a better creator today
• About Erica's new book "Don't Wait, Create: How to Be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution"

About Erica Barry

Erica Barry is a media strategist, entertainment industry professional, writer, and digital content creator.

She studied economics and media studies at Pomona College, where she discovered her passion for media, entrepreneurship, and representation.

Growing up in the Internet generation, Erica watched digital media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok transform the entertainment industry and become a way for talented creators to find their audience and tell their story. Thus, she decided to write her inspirational, debut book Don’t Wait, Create: How to Be A Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution.

When Erica isn’t creating, you can find her hiking Runyon Canyon, experimenting with new recipes, and catching up on the latest TikTok trends.

Buy Don't Wait, Create: How to Be a Content Creator in the New Digital Revolution on Amazon Today!

TikTok: @eirbarryofficial

Instagram: @eribarry

Transcript

0:00

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of BizTok for TikTok. Have you ever wanted to be a social media creator, but have no idea where to start or, the whole idea of being a creator is really overwhelming. Or maybe you're a new business and you've never created content in your life. And you're looking for expert advice on what to do and where to start. I'm talking with industry entertainment, professional writer and digital content creator. Erica Berry. Erica realized that more mainstream creators were getting their starts on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, and of course, TikTok. She went looking for a guidebook only to find that there wasn't one. So she went out and wrote her own debut book, which is debuted, "Don't

Wait, Create: 0:45

How to Be a Content Creator in the New Revolution". So I brought Erica on the show today to give her expertise and we will be talking about things like how TikTok is changing the entertainment industry. Advice for business owners or new content creators who have never created content before and how to listen to your audience as a creator as it's growing. So without further ado, I'd love to welcome Erica. Welcome to BizTok for TikTok. Thank you so much for having me excited to talk everything's social media TikTok, entertainment, all of that good stuff today with you on the show. You've seen the changes through social media with, YouTube is popping up Instagram, and now, you know, we're seeing a huge change in the digital industry specifically with TikTok and TikTok because of what they've done, all the other platforms are now shifting their focus as well as short form video. Right? TikTok was like the most explosive by far. When you look at all of the like year over year growth charts for YouTube, Twitter, Snapchat, like TikTok just like blows it out of the wall. I'm 24 right now. And I just, I grew up in that online generation. And so I kind of watched all of these platforms blow up. So I, you know, as a kid, it wasn't really a big thing. And then YouTube, when I was in middle school, I started watching like a ton of YouTube, in those early days, like smash and all of those creators and then, TikTok is the next big thing. It's like blown up. Instagram's now moving to more like a video platform rather than. Uh, photo-sharing platform. I remember I got my Instagram account for the first time in high school and it was everyone was just like easing those horrible, low five filters and like taking pictures of their latte art. And now it's like a whole, people's careers on Instagram. And so I've just been in that perfect sweet spot generation where I've really watched like the waves of these platforms come and go. But there's really been nothing like the tidal wave that is it's so true. It's really taken off. The platform now has a billion users on there, which is incredible with it being so new, but it is crazy to see that they've really set the bar for where digital media is going. Because you see YouTube now rolling out YouTube shorts, like you just said about Instagram now being video focused with Reels. Some people might feel like TikTok's, not the place for me, or for my brand. But if you look at it as the entire concept of just the style of what content it needs to be made, obviously with all the other platforms following suit with that traditional new style of vertical video, short form, that's something that as a personal brand or as a business, you really have to start focusing for your business versus, the old traditional landscape mode. Highly produced and people are over that. They just want something real. Exactly. And I think that's something too, if you're thinking like I would TikTok's, not for me, TikTok kind of got a weird start because it started as like musically into TikTok. So people have this like previous misconception that it's like lip singing videos or just dancing, or it's just teenagers, but there is really everything there. And that's the big, like appeal of TikTok is the algorithm is like so good. It always was like, exactly like what I want to watch at any one moment. But there is cooking TikTok, fashion TikTok, jail TikTok, all of these like crazy, crazy, like specific niches that everyone can really find a place on the platform no matter how old you are, no matter what you're doing. It is the future. You have to hop on the bandwagon now while it's still new or, when it's too late later. Exactly. And I like to say this too, because some people think, oh, to the future. I got time. I got time. Actually the future, We're in that it's present, it's a present moment right now. And people really need to start thinking that, but I feel you with the whole conceptions in the beginning, which a lot of brands do have some issues still, but it's got a lot better. I'm in the space, I work with TikTok cr eators as a management company to work with these brands and, be the communication between the brands and the creator. I've been working with TikTok and creators since August, 2018, when it actually officially launched. And trust me, the conversations then to now are completely different. For one people used to laugh at me. I talk about it on LinkedIn a lot, but in the beginning people were like, this isn't the place. Don't talk about TikTok here. This is not the place to talk about those things. I don't want to see your TikTok videos over here. And now those same people, funnily enough, they're same people now are posting TikTok's on LinkedIn or where they're talking about the amazing growth that they've been having and they're having more views and more success on that platform than anywhere else. So it's funny how things do change. Totally. And just like random things. There was a whole like Feta pasta trend, you could not buy feta cheese, like in America at all. Now the thing is the whole, Emily Merico salmon bowl, and you can not go to the grocery store and buy Japanese mayonaise because it's all sold out. Or if you want to get the little seaweed squares, like I was at trader Joe's earlier this weekend and, just like shelves empty. You can't buy the stuff. And that is really impacting, especially for businesses, what people are buying is what they're seeing on this platform. And you probably relate to this. I totally used to watch a ton of TV. Still do, but that time has really been like slowly encroached on by watching two hours of TikTok a day. And like the volume of actual videos that I'm watching is like insanity. And so instead of watching a commercial during a TV show and am I going to buy that. It's really , what are people using on TikTok? Cause that's what's nesting in my brain now. I have four kids, all of them, except for my son. He's very gaming focused. He doesn't care about TikTok, but one of them is a verified TikTok creator. She's got 2.4 million followers and she's 20. And then I have, a 16 year old. And then my youngest. It is eight, but our entire house like anything we do revolves around TikTok, meaning from the things we eat to the things we buy to the clothes that the kids buy, the clothes that they want to wear is. all around TikTok. So even though it's my job, it's my business. But I do say, TikTok cost me a lot of money because my kids are like, oh, I got to try this new trend. We got to go out right now. And I got to go find, pickled garlic. That was a big chain to pickle, garlic. So it's things like that. My 16 year olds, like, come on, I got to go. I want to try this. And the feta pasta thing. Totally. We had to go do those things, but then the pickle garlic was funny cause we went to three different Walmarts all gone.,And same with makeup. I think it was Maybelline or, or one of them, they had a specific, mascara that came out and it went insanely viral. We called up all the shops like all of our local. CVS type pharmacy places gone, like Wal-Mart's gone off the shelf and they couldn't even keep them in stock fast enough. There used to be that thing as seen on TV. Well, in stores now, when I'm shopping around, I've seen as seen on Tik Tok. I've never seen that with as seen on YouTube or as seen on Instagram. So this has really revolutionized the way people are not just consuming content, but the way that they're actually spending. They're dollars. Traditional advertising is just people. they don't even pay attention. Like my kids. They've grown up to find that skip button faster on YouTube now than anything. They're not paying attention to your traditional ads. It's not a thing that we want to see a real stuff and people actually consuming it or using it in their own authentic way. That's what really relates in that's what makes us want to go purchase those things. Totally. And I think it's that like authenticity, like for me, it's a consumer in the world who's like heavily influenced by TikTok as well. It's something , I'm like, oh, if I see someone using something in a TikTok or like eating something and TikTok, it just seems so much more real than a commercial. I'm like, oh, this looks good. It just seems much more like a friend's recommendation rather than , Ooh, this company is trying to sell me something, you know? Exactly. And from a real person, they're like looking at the camera and they're speaking to their audience. Right. So like, I think that's, what's a really key factor there too. It's a real person that we know because we see them and they're actually engaging in their comments back to their people that are watching. They might go live. So, you know, they're a real person. So therefore you trust their opinion a lot more because they're not just like some paid ad on a TV. Commercial, where you might not even use this product in real life, or you're just being paid, which sometimes that does come across when people do do paid ads. But if they're done in a really good way, people respect it, and there's so many, not only products for businesses, but just like you, mentioned TikTok is really changing the game of entertainment. Overall from all sorts. What other things, have you noticed that TikTok's kind of revolutionizing right So many things. I think music trends, I look at the top 50 charts on Spotify and every song is a TikTok viral song. And so music, 1000%, I think for like aspiring musicians and like our up and coming artists that. The fastest way to find success now is, put your song out there and hope it becomes a trending song or someone choreographs a dance to it. I honestly think, yeah, shopping and business and in kind of the weirdest ways to, and brands can really lean into it. Like, remember. The whole Alabama rush talk went super viral. All of the girls rushing Alabama sororities, they're all wearing just like by default, the like Kendra Scott earrings. And then those started flying off the shelves and Kendra Scott as a brand started leaning into that. I also think it's really cool. Since there are a billion users, it does have the ability to enact real social change as a society. I know there was the whole with the election. They did that whole Tok the Vote initiative to try to get gen Z out to the polls. I don't know. Harvard did a whole study, like retroactively looking did this work. And it actually did, they could trace it back. Gen Z voter turnout was so much higher because they have these people doing it. So it's like really every aspect of our lives. I was down the medical TikTok the other day, where like doctors are talking about health problems and how we can take the best care of ourselves. And I was like, oh, this is actually, really useful information. That's just popping up on my, for you page. I'm hearing an actual dermatologists talk about like the importance of sunscreen use and showing the whole little thing and like an entertaining, memorable way. And so it's really , Infiltrated every single aspect , of our lives in a really big way. And it's funny because people still dismiss it. I think that's changing rapidly as we talked about earlier, but I think it's still has this , oh, TikTok, but like , it's huge. I would say it's , arguably the one thing that has the most influence on us, especially as gen Z millennials as like a generation. I could not agree more with those things and I love the Tok the Vote initiative. In fact, I had somebody from Tok the Vote on my podcast when that was going on. Yeah. And we talked about that because I think like traditional media sources, like news companies hate this because people they're like, I don't trust you guys anymore, but I trust these users that can give us real factual information or show us in the moment of what's happening. Because sometimes the news could be like, oh, there's a huge riot down here and show like a little group. And then somebody in reality is actually I'm down here. And it's like 10 people, what are you talking about? And TikTok's, like deep bunking. Things and all these, misconceptions about what we actually see on media. And that's what I like as well as I don't even need to watch anything. I just watched TikTok and see the real truth of what's happening in like these doctors as well, talking about, what's the proper sunscreen. Like you wouldn't get that anywhere else. And there are so many TikTok's. To fall into. So if you're very niche specific, there's going to be a spot for you. And people call them like different talks, like doctor talk or food talk, everything like that. And you can go, you can deep dive into those and go crazy. And then your for you page starts changing and you end up on those things. So you see that in the comment section a lot like, oh, I'm commenting. So I don't leave this particular talk. I know they also, like the government hired the whole influencer army to get like the vaccine message out, it's powerful. It's great. Yeah. And even with social media in general, just like I'm going to use this. Kid's a documentary came out with Brittany Spears,, Brittany versus spheres. And I think like a part of that was huge. Like her being able to get out of, her conservatorship was really because a lot of fans were just stepping up to be part of it too, and be like, no free Brittany. That was a big deal. Yeah. And the hashtag everywhere. And that's like really how I got interested in that whole issue. I've been a big Brittney fan my whole life, but like following her on Instagram, she would post all this stuff in the comments would go crazy. And then people would make like all of these, like conspiracy theory TikTok's about it. And then I was glued to it and then documentaries and TV finally caught up and we can watch it there too, but could not agree more. It's. Yeah, exactly. That just ties into where you said it's not just, for business or, just for consuming fun things, but it can change globally. Things around the world. Like we can actually make a change as a society using social media for good as well. I love that aspect about it. Whereas before, as a human being your voice didn't matter that much. Now you have a voice you can share and reach people from around the world to millions of people with a good message that you have. And we never really had. The opportunity before, which I like, because with the music aspect of it, you can be a small musician in a small town and actually have the opportunity to reach billboard charts. That was never a thing before. Never an opportunity. Never anything you don't have to move to New York or LA you can stay in your town, you can live with your parents as long as the music's good. I remember there was a tweet from like an executive at TikTok way back when it was like every video gets a hundred views. And I don't think this is still true about the algorithm and early TikTok days, every video would get shown to a hundred people. And then it would go viral off of that or not just based on like comments and engagement. And it democratizes fame and, what's trending, what's popular as opposed to who's going to get a record deal or who does this random studio executive know, and I happened to be their cousin and , you know, it just eliminates that whole like playing field. Exactly. And I love that though. I love that my kids have the opportunity to say, if they want to be a content creator, that's not even Farfetch. it's not even something you could look and be like, good luck. It's actually you can like, it's speaking of that and going into that kind of area, cause there's going to be a lot of people they're going to use, TikTok now for the first time to be a creator they'd never created before they might be a brand or just their personal brand. I would love to know your advice from researching industry things and understanding what you've learned along the way to especially create your book. What are some advice that you could give to. Not only businesses, but just a person in general and creating content for the first time. I think my biggest advice really is the title of the book. Don't wait, create there's this whole myth of overnight viral success and becoming an overnight viral sensation, which certainly happens. It happens like every hour on TikTok, but what isn't always expressed in those is oftentimes there's just this long tail of creating on different platforms or creating other things that leads up to that viral success. An example is like Emily Merico obviously one of the most followed people on TikTok now absolutely blew up seemingly out of nowhere, oh, this girl making like the salmon rice thing and suddenly millions and millions people are like tuning in, but she'd been making content on YouTube for like years with, modest success, had a following, but nothing like she has now. And I think that's something that people always forget that oh, if my first couple of videos flop, like this isn't even worth it, it's , no, you just have to keep experimenting, listening to your audience. Kind of pivoting, but like just committing to that habit of creation and it gets so much easier over time. When you post a video, you don't know whether it will get like one view or a million views, and the first ones that was the scariest to like, oh my God, I'm putting myself out there. Everyone might hate it. I might get roasted and the comments. There's so many things that go through your head, but if you get into that habit of creation, Stop waiting and put your first thing out there. You're on your track to putting in it's like anything else it's like learning how to play the violin or learning new recipe. You have to put in the hours and put in the reps to figure out what works. And the best time to start is now. Is so true. We overthink it a lot. And one thing that fits well with TikTok and this concept is what I love is that TikTok made it very easy for people to create today without anything like YouTube, it's hard because you've looked at it and you see people, oh my gosh, they have a whole film crew. They have a whole editing team that owns a studio. It's not realistic. Whereas TikTok. Literally, we all have a phone in her hand, and you could literally just like point she right here. It does not have to be anything fancy. You can do it anywhere. Like in your car driving. There's so many people that have gone by, or just sitting in their car, sharing the message. Like there's nothing holding you back. All the editing just happens like in the app, easy peasy. You don't need to know final cut pro or like I was wearing anything like. There's some statistic on it. I don't remember it, but it was like most TikTok are edited, like an app, as opposed to obviously YouTube has its own editing platform. It's like garbage. No one does that. It really is as easy as just open your phone, click on the app and make something. And that's something too is I think in the early days of internet culture, which I've been following for a long time, it used to be there's this 1% of internet creators and everyone else is a consumer. And I think platforms like YouTube are still like that. Most people are consuming these top creators, but on TikTok. I think a huge portion of TikTok users have actually posted at least one video. Not as many relative, like lurkers as they're on these other platforms. So it really does cultivate this, you could do it too. You can make something. It's the number one platform for people making their own content and it might've been just one video or whatnot, but when you go through the, for you page and you realize, whoa, like they're sitting at their desk right now, too. What's holding me back? Nothing. I can do this too. Cause what I love is like on the, for you page, the viral videos you see. Uh, they arranged from some of them could be a little bit higher Polish. Some of them could be somebody sitting in a car. So you, it fits like any video can fit within your own life and realize that, man, I can do this too. There's no secret sauce there. You just gotta show up. Like you said, just create today. That's it. And advice I give and I've said this many times on other episodes, but I love to remind people. If there's a creator, you really enjoy. And you really like, and you felt overwhelmed because you want to be like them, but you're not there yet. What you need to do is either find if they've created content on other platforms or on their TikTok, if they've made lots of videos, scroll to the very bottom, and see where they started, because you will see a massive change. They're not going to be like this perfect, creator you really enjoy. They're so funny. They probably did not look like that in the beginning. They probably looked very cringy. Most creators. I talked to say, oh my God, please don't scroll to the bottom. It's so cringy. But it gives you the reality that it's like a muscle, like the more you do it, the better you get the more you understand your audience. And so therefore you can talk to them a lot better, but you have to create to learn how to do that.. And adapt kind of like my podcast. If you go back and listen to my first episode, it sounds it's horrible. Like I'm like, please don't listen to this episode. Please don't listen to my first like 20 episodes. Because each time I release, if people have been listening to my show for a long time, they probably realized, dang, these are just getting better and better and better because you learn as you go. Yeah. And I love that advice. Find your favorite creator and watch their like first, whatever it is. I know I was talking to a marquee and he does smile squad on YouTube. He's been like creating for ages and he was like, your first 50 videos are going to suck. And you just have to like, accept that as part of the process. And that's like a lot of really bad videos, but eventually, it'll fall into place and all the more reasons to start today is then you'll kind of get past the valley of suck faster and start making the stuff that you're actually like proud of and excited about. I really think content creation is unique in that it's something that you really just have to do to learn. Obviously everyone just to go out and buy my book, don't wait, create. And that'll inspire you to start doing it, but it's something you really can't learn how to do just from a book or a manual, or not really putting yourself out there, you really just have to start. And that's the best way to learn because every creator is, is so different and it's really just like part of you. And nobody really knows how to do that, except for, except for you. People who are looking to do this, they're probably thinking on the, gosh, I know me. I like to have resources and tools that handle for kicking this off. Cause even though yes, me. And you were saying, it's easy as picking up your phone and doing this. Sometimes people do like to have an extra guide or how can I jump start ahead with people's expertise. So I think your book is a really great resource for don't wait, create and learning some of the tools that you've learned along the way that can kickstart somebody and put them a more ahead than just going in to learn these lessons. As you learn those things and you come to the platform and learn, the tips and advice from your book, then you're going to start building an audience because I believe a hundred percent. I believe everything in my whole heart that any person, no matter if you're boring, if you feel like your life sucks, you don't have anything to give. We all have value to give and there's an audience for every one of us really is. I mean, I live a pretty boring, simple life. I've built my Instagram following. Literally my hallmark things is , I talk about the soups that I make and I go on a walk every day. I can not think of two more like conventionally boring things and like soups and walking. And I have people DM me every week being like, what soup are we making this week? Or , have you gone on your walk yet? If I can make content around that you can make content about anything. But it is so much easier said than done.'cause, especially if you're coming from a traditional performing arts background or you're like an actor or something, and you want to make comedy sketches, for example, you're used to feeling like chosen for something, whether it's like a job or a role is so nice. It's , oh, this person's like giving me permission to create, or this person likes my stuff. And they have that safety net and like confidence that comes from that. And we'll making your own stuff online you don't have that on all you have to find that approval within yourself, which is so, so hard, you know, it's like nobody, it could be an absolute disaster. You don't know that you have to find that approval to be , you know what? I think this is good. No one else has really said anything about, I noticed I was like, seen this before. For the world to see that so scary, but that's something I talk about a lot in my book too, is like ways to cultivate that creator's mindset. So that one, you have more ideas that you're excited about and proud of. And also getting over that post anxieties. What I like to call. I love that. You just have to find the confidence in yourself, but the cool thing is, is that TikTok does move pretty fast. So you're not just going to sit there after like 50 videos and hoping you get one person. Honestly, if you create 50 videos your're going to have, A small audience start. Like no questions. If you stick to something and you're consistent with it. You're going to get people that follow and are interested in. You're going to start reaching out to you, even if it's a small start. That's fine. The important thing is listening to your audience as it's growing. And a lot of people I think get overwhelmed by that because they're like, oh my gosh, I know have people following me, now what? So what is like some tips that you can give to listening to your audience? Obviously tracking engagement, like what posts and videos are doing better than others and trying to figure out like, are there patterns there? Is there something I can like to do is from that really like reading the comments and the DMS. Like, I always go through my message requests once a day. And obviously you can't respond to everything. But it's good to know, just like, what are people saying? And actually like engaging with it. It's not a one-way street, which is why , social media is so fun. It's like the social aspect of it. We're not just individual broadcast stations, living in a vacuum, spewing things out and think a lot of people maybe like, think about it that way. But if you're really utilizing these tools to their maximum ability you're doing that two way street. You're going live and talking to people, you're responding to DMS, you're responding to comments. You're seeing where are people gravitating towards, like in my page and how can I create more of that? And that's something too. I feel like we lose sight of just with all of these people in the public eye who have like millions and millions of followers. It's just how valuable each and every one of those followers are. If we can say like a typical 24 year old has 2000 Instagram followers or a thousand Instagram followers, just like friends, family, and like random people. It doesn't seem like much. You definitely, probably don't call yourself like a content creator, but you really should. Because if you think about being in like an auditorium and having all thousands of those people, which is not considered a big following at all, like sitting there listening to what you have to say, , you would be a bit nervous. You would be like, this is a big audience. I should probably prepare for this. I should probably think about, what would they like me to say? What would I like to say what I want them to know about me? And it's Crazy. That we have even like a following of 500 people, that's a pack, that's a full house. That's more people than, fit in like a restaurant. And it's wild to think about that inside. I, it could be overwhelming to be like, oh, this post only got, 500 views. Okay. 500 people watched this. That's an entire, class at a high school. And, I think we just get so desensitized to these like astronomically high numbers. I know I was talking to Kat Stickler, who's a big TikTok creator and she has, I think, 8 million followers on TikTok. And she was like, it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that there's more people who follow me than live in my state, you know? Yeah, exactly. I even made a post I'm not long ago. I might even reshare it. I might just reshare it all the time just to remind people. I did what does 20 views look like with people? And then I showed it like progressively getting bigger because we do get desensitized, especially like a content creator who is starting to get good views. They like when the video flops and there at like a hundred thousand views, like, oh, they're really down. And I have to try to remind some of these craters look like that's a lot, that's a whole stadium of people. And then I show them like, here's a picture of a hundred thousand people. And then they're like, wait, hold on. Okay. You know what you're right. And there's actually a trending sound somebody saying, Hey, what is 30,000 views, but at 30,000 people walked in your house. Great. Now you'd be really overwhelmed and it's so true. But on TikTok like generally a normal video. I see it still, where they get a hundred view, minimums are kicking it out to people. I still see that for new people or people putting videos out. So they could just that in general, if you were to talk at a local high school gym and show up and share a message. And you had a hundred people walk in the door. That would be a huge success. Totally. And so then we that post for sure. Cause that's something that I totally get behind and believe I'm like, it's even two people. That's an audience. And shouldn't be taken lightly. No, exactly. And they're calling them now micro influencers who are just those creators who have. A decent following from just your friends and family, because a thousand people and those thousand people are closer to you than somebody who might have a hundred thousand who they're just like fans of your content, but they might not know you that well or trust you. Whereas that thousand group people are so influenced by you when you're just like, Hey guys, I went down to the local restaurant. Oh my God. They're like, their pasta was the best I've ever had. Now people living in your town. They're like, where send me the link or I'm going, or tell me more. And then you have 10 people show up. That's huge. Totally. And I think that trust is so important. My mom has like a hundred Facebook friends, but if she like posts and she, doesn't really post anything on Facebook, I wasted on her like public page. But if she said like, I love X, Y, Z product. Like, I bet those people like, oh my gosh, she's like making a post about this. This must be a big deal. And probably people would go out and buy it. Again, shouldn't be taken lightly, all influence is like big influence. It's not a new concept either. Think of even back before social media, people would have on business c ards referring a friend is the biggest gift you can give to me. And it's that same concept is when you're telling somebody that something you believe in and they trust that's more powerful than just an ad. So that whole concept it's not new. but now it's being able to reach more in different ways, which is really cool. Erica, I'd love to talk a little bit more about your book, how people can get it? Give us a little insight there, where they can get it and maybe a couple more things that they can learn from it.. Yeah. So book is available. Everywhere books are sold, you can get at your local bookstore, Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Amazon is where most people go and it's available in paperback and Kindle edition. And it goes through everything. We talk about at the beginning, just like, how did we get here? 20 years ago we didn't have these platforms that now are such a central part of our lives. I don't want to look at my screen time right now, but like a significant portion of my week is spent on these websites that did not exist in semi recent history. So it goes through how did we get here? And how do you find your place into it? And I, interviewed so many different creators about their journey, their advice, what they wish they did differently, what they wish they knew when they started. Their trials and tribulations so that you can learn from those and apply it to your own journey to hopefully make that a little bit smoother. We talk a lot about the creator mindset, how to cultivate that, how to put together your posting schedule, how to find your niche and all of the little tool kits that you need to be successful online. Because I really do believe that there is a place for everyone out there. And I think the more perspectives and stories and content that gets put out there there's something we can all learn from each other. And I'm excited for that to happen. It does sound to me the perfect guide on learning how to be a content creator, especially if you have no idea where to start. It sounds like it is the ultimate guide to pick up. So you can be a couple steps ahead versus just starting from nothing. And there's a lot of people out there that really look for that. They look for that, like, where can I learn these things? So I could learn from others who have made these mistakes, so I can be a little bit more ahead, , in the game and, I'm 100% telling everybody, we all have access to Amazon. If you're a Kindle reader and want to read it on the go, that's a great option too. Um, or if you love going down to your local Barnes and Noble, you can go down there and physically pick it up. And what I'll do as well, if you're listening at this point right now, Quickly click the description notes and there'll be a link straight to the Amazon link to, to be able to go buy that, right now. So go into the description notes right now, click that link. And there you go and purchase that. And Erica, people will be very interested in your book, but also people really love to engage with people on their social media. So talk to me about how people can find you and where are you creating content? Yeah, I'm creating content on both Instagram and TikTok. Best way to reach me is, shoot me a message on Instagram. As I mentioned earlier, I check my DMS every day and try to respond to as many as possible. And so if there's something you read in the book or you have a question about creation or anything at all, definitely. Give me a message and I would love to chat with you. I think that's. Something that I love about social media and something that I was like hesitant to, do, like in the form of a book that's such like a one-way form of communication. And so that's really my hope that my book is that it'll encourage people to start those two-way conversations with me and just get that conversation started. And so please, please reach out. I'm on both platforms@ eribarry with an A. For all of you that are listening as well, I did make it very easy again, in the description notes, you'll be able to find the links to Erica socials. She could go connect with her over there and, be able to follow her and see what she's doing because she's providing a lot of really great value outside of her book, but you'll be able to see in real time, and what she's up to. You can join learning more about her walks in her soups, for those as well. Erica I appreciate your time so much, and this was really valuable. There's a lot of great reminders in here for people to, remind themselves that every view is a real person to think of it like that. And two, if you're brand new and you're overwhelmed, it's okay. Just create today. Don't wait, create. And Erica is here for you with her book, for the tips and tools you need to be able to get started. But while you're waiting for the book, make your first video, I encourage you today. Do it. Don't wait. Create .No reason to wait. Exactly. Thank you so much Erica for your time. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. This was so fun.