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TikTok Creator, Jaksin21, Gained 1 Million Followers in Just 3 Months

• Kyle Kaplanis / Jaksin21 • Episode 77

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Did you know that the total number of creators with more than 1 million followers is close to 43,000, Trendpop estimates, and my guest today is one of those creators.

On today's episode we talk with 19 year old, TikTok creator @Jaksin21 who has 1.2M followers (as of September 15, 2022) about his creator journey and how he grew so quickly by gaining over 1M followers in just 3 months.

On this episode we discuss:

  • Jaksin's journey and what his day to day looks like 
  • How he creates and the time it takes to create
  • His strategy to make better content for his audience
  • How he plans to make nurturing his audience the number one priority
  • How TikTok gifts are not the answer to becoming a top fan


This is one episode you will not want to miss, and one you will be surprised by.

Want to watch the video episode of this podcast?
Check it out HERE on YouTube

Guest

Jaksin21

TikTok - Jaksin21
Instagram - Jaksin21

Follow Kyle Kaplanis on Socials

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Kyle Kaplanis:

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to BizTok for TikTok. Did you know globally there's only 43,000 creators in the world that have over a million followers and Jaksin who's in the studio today is one of those creators and he has 1.2 million followers Jaksin is really well known for his comedy videos, specifically comedy POV videos. And we're gonna dive in and talk to Jaksin about his origin story and a couple things that he is really passionate about. So Jaksin, welcome to BizTok for TikTok.

Jaksin:

What up gamers? I'm excited to jump into this. I have a lot to say. my fans get into my personality a little bit better.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Love that. Jaksin, talk to me a little bit about your origin story. Who are you and when did you get started on TikTok?

Jaksin:

As a backstory, I'm 19. So, when I was little, instead of being an astronaut ,rockstar. Again, I wanted to be a YouTuber. That was the thing. So I always made like star was Lego videos, Minecraft videos, and YouTube. I tried everything and, only that small percentage actually make it, so that didn't work. Then February 2nd of 2022. So this year,

Kyle Kaplanis:

oh, wow.

Jaksin:

About seven months. That's when I made my first video. It did well, but it was a sound video. I consistently posted two to three times for that seven months, but I made a drastic change around June cause I realized I plateau of following. I was getting great views, likes, but following wasn't. I was just confused, like, where is it what's happening.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yep.

Jaksin:

And that's because I looked at other creators that were on the rise. And I noticed that they were showing the creativity, they were doing skits. So I was like, okay, I made a change. And then that's where it all blew up that summer is when it really exploded for me.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's amazing, man. So you're telling me right now that just this year alone is how you've grown to 1.2 million in less than 12 months.

Jaksin:

Well, I was 220. I was at 2 22. I remember that. Cuz that was it's engraved in my brain. I was so upset, like two months, 2 22, and then June 3rd.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Wow. Wow.

Jaksin:

I was with my girlfriend, I said help me, at first it was cringy. Yeah. And then after we saw what was happening, then we started, putting real effort into it. So just three four months so far.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Wow. That's incredible. And if you go to Jaksin's page, people who are listening or watching this, you'll see his views are killing it. There's a lot of creators that have a million followers, but their views are not consistent. And when you go on your page, it's very consistent. So clearly the change that you made from more of like you said, the sound on feature with TikTok, we're starting to see that change from more of creator's voices, creator's own sound that they're creating. And I think that's drawing a lot more audience to actually engage. And that's what you were saying is really, really, really important is the engagement aspect. People were liking the videos before, but they weren't engaging. And you saw a big change from that once you started creating content that was engaging for people to take apart and want to comment something versus just swiping to the next thing.

Jaksin:

Yeah, I feel like it's more personal when someone makes a skit cause a sound, it could be funny. You know, I like sounds, I shared my girlfriend and that's it. Mm-hmm , the punchline is already there for you, right? There's no creativity. There's no effort. I spend almost an hour on every video, cuz I take it multiple times, so I mess up one thing I'm like, ah, restart.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yep.

Jaksin:

And then, if I make a video and oh I could add this in it that will be funny. Then I do that. That's just how much I care my effort into it rather than

Kyle Kaplanis:

no, for sure. You made a really, really good point actually, because a lot of people from the outside they're like, oh, I wanna be a creator. I wanna be a creator. Looks so easy, such an easy career, whatever people don't realize, the effort that these creators put in. Yes. Maybe a video 15 seconds, but that does not mean it took them 15 seconds,

Jaksin:

exactly

Kyle Kaplanis:

the process it takes. So talk to me a little bit about how that works for you. When you start the day, do you have to create these skits, right? You have to figure out the script. And talk to me what's that process like for you?

Jaksin:

Man, the man it's all the time. That's all I think about. And my manager was even telling me, take a rest day, but that's so hard for me. Mm-hmm just to get some creativity up, cause I create two to three videos a day.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Wow.

Jaksin:

And some creators that they're verified have a million followers, plus they make two to three videos a week.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yep. Yep.

Jaksin:

Again, my views are consistent, so I have a standard. I hate what is it quantity over quality mm-hmm I take a walk every day for an hour and I call other talkers up and I'm like, I always tell 'em we talk each other tips, ideas, and always say I hate quantity over equality. So when I wake up, I have a few ideas in mind from the day previous. And I text my girlfriend, is this good, it's this bad. And she's so brutal and it's great. Yeah. Like I'll record a video that I'm iffy about and I'll send it to her I'm like what do you think girl? And she sent me back a voice memo, one time saying like, What is this? There's no passion in it. Be angry in it. And I was like, it's upsetting. Cause I, I don't wanna do it again. Right. But it turns out that again, she's always right. Unfortunately but it's stressful and I should really slow down. I think that's why I grew so fast, million views of video two times a day. Also trying to do new things. Mm-hmm, trying to keep my followers on edge. New characters. I'm always scared to do that. I'm so successful in my previous ones. I don't wanna milk.'em so dry. I'm kind of slowing down on my old ones starting new ones.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah.

Jaksin:

So, yeah, that's what the Jackson 21 morning looks like.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I love that. And what I hear from your morning and what I like the key takeaways that I'm listening to is that it's really, really important for creators to have a network of people they can trust and get feedback from. So creators that I feel like don't have that. I feel like they post these videos that may have not been good if they had like a friend saying, Hey, you should, be more aggressive to get the audience more engaged.

Jaksin:

Yeah.

Kyle Kaplanis:

And they're gonna have a slower rise, whereas you have a really good group of people around you that are supporting you and that are there for you to give you some feedback on your videos and be brutally honest, which is really awesome. And I think that's really key. Another thing to me, what I'm hearing from you. And this is where a lot of creators fail. So backstory, I run a talent management agency, and we represent some of the biggest creators like Khaby Lame who's the largest creator in the world. Michael Le who's one of the top and the people who are on the top are grinders. There's a lot of craters who hit a million, then they get lazy. And like you said, they create one to two videos a week. TikTok is fast moving. You have to be like a Mr. Beast in this space right now where every single day you grind. If you want to be known long term and build that community, you have to grind. And it sounds like that's what you're doing. And you're really passionate about it by spending multiple hours a day to create multiple videos for your fans and you're thinking outside the box, okay. How do I keep them engaged? Let me work into new characters, even though it's scary. You're still knowing that that needs to be a step to keep new people in and trying new things. And I think that's really important. So through this, have you started building a community? Have you noticed that there's a lot of the same people coming back to comment?

Jaksin:

Oh yeah, of course. I've noticed that there are tons of people that I see regular that do comment. I do have a Discord that people join. I talk to them. Especially in person too. A million, it seems like a lot, but I don't think it is right now. I'm still reinvesting everything trying to grow that number, but even in person, again, like I go out in public, I probably get noticed Every time, I'd go in public in a major place. Go out to dinner the waitress I was eating with my girlfriend yesterday and the waitress noticed me.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's awesome, man.

Jaksin:

It's kind of rewarding knowing that some of it's paying off.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. And sometimes you think as a social media creator and you see people behind the screen really like in the comments and stuff you almost feel, are they real? You almost feel like it might not be, but in public when people notice you you're like, holy shit, these are real people watching me right now. Like this is,

Jaksin:

it's a big difference. Mm-hmm

Kyle Kaplanis:

yeah, really good thing.

Jaksin:

For them, it's so much easier to type, there's no interaction, there's no connection to go in person to actually say are you Jaksin on TikTok? But I think that's a big step of showing that people actually do, care or watch my videos and think about 'em other than watching them swiping like a robot.

Kyle Kaplanis:

And do you ever get audience participation where they're maybe suggest some ideas and, and you've taken some ideas based off of their feedback?

Jaksin:

I go live about every night.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah.

Jaksin:

I see a lot of reacurring people there too. And it's not even that hard to talk to my audience. I get like 500 people a live and people always say, you're the goat for actually responding to comments. And that's just not hard. It does go by fast. But I talk fast. So it's easy and people act like I'm such a good guy from reading, right. They're saying appreciation to me. Yeah. That's I don't know.

Kyle Kaplanis:

You hit a really good point that's one of my biggest pet peeves is creators who are not focused on their audience because the audience is what got you to where you are. Right? Like without them and their support, you would be a creator with 1 million empty followers. Maybe at one point they followed you, but they don't care anymore because you're not communicating back. And I see that with a ton of creators, like I have backend analytics that can see your audience participation for any creator on TikTok. And you'd be surprised at how many creators that have over a million are actually engaging with their audience. And it really pisses me off because when you're wanting to monetize, right,. This is a tip for anybody listening. That wants to be a creator. If you're not focused on your audience I promise you when it goes down to monetize and, brands are paying money for you to get something from your audience. Right. That's just how it works. And if you have an empty audience, the brand's gonna be like, okay, cool, thanks for this one off video. And they're not gonna repeat business. So it's really important. But if you have a solid audience, I'm telling you, brands are gonna be begging to work with. You want to keep continuingly work with you, but you have to nurture that audience. You have to build that community. And it's such a lacking thing right now. And, like you said, how people are just shocked that you're communicating back. To me that's a big, yeah. Hello, like you should be.

Jaksin:

That should be that's. That's the easiest thing I could have done. You guys follow me? You like on videos? The simplest thing I can do in return is saying, thank you guys. I'll talk to you. It's not that hard.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly.

Jaksin:

You are exactly right about the, how many content creators Don't care about the audience. I've been talking to my manager before he recruited me and I was asking like, what other creators have you reached out to? And he was telling me these creators, I'm not gonna say them obviously, but. Saying that how much they only care about the money. All they want are like the ad deals. I think I've done like three ads, not that many, the previous ads I've done on 800 K so view. I'm getting tons of offers right now that I'm just declining. Cause I told my manager don't give me ads. I want to do in person stuff with fans, collaborations, podcasts, videos, I'm reinvesting everything for interaction with my fans, growing, getting new fans, getting back older fans that I lost. Just everything.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Jaksin, I think that's super smart because it's so true. A lot of people go straight in, they go in, they start getting a following and they're like, okay, I wanna make money. Now let's go. And that's fine. That's what I do is I find deals for my creators as well. But the thing is, it's really important to stay true to your brand. And if something doesn't fit, right. I tell my creators all the time, the money doesn't mean anything because you need to fit brands that fit with everything that's about you. So that way, your audience agrees with it. And they're like, yo, this was sick ad. I loved it. Cuz they could feel the authenticity, but also really focusing on your community first, I think is really where creators need to focus. And Mr. Beast, I said him already earlier, but he's really prime example because. You can tell, he takes his time to really engage with his audience and look, they show up, they do what Mr. Beast says, like Mr. Beast said, Hey, I'm opening the first ever Mr. Beast burger in the mall and 10,000 people showed up, that's a clear example. I guarantee you, these creators that are like, I just want the money. They open up a store and maybe three people show up. I promise you. Yeah.

Jaksin:

a lot of people right now. Big influencers, like you said, that don't care because they do stuff like that. They do meetups mm-hmm no one shows up like that. One girl, no one showed up to the million followers. That one guy's 26 million only few people showed up because they're saying influencers. Aren't what they used to be and it's dead. Well, that's exactly right. Yep. It's not what there used to be. They're changing. They want their influencers now to actually connect with them and not be like David Dobrik and commercialized mm-hmm and, I think Dixie dil said something also like that, and that's because dancing. Isn't really a big thing anymore.

Kyle Kaplanis:

No, it's not.

Jaksin:

You don't really see it. You see a trend, but you don't see Addison Ray's D Emilio's you don't really see them as much.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yep. Yep.

Jaksin:

Even jacob Day he used to be a dancer mm-hmm and I checked his account He only has 1.7 million. I thought he was 15 million. So that's even slowing down for him.

Kyle Kaplanis:

My daughter, that's how she grew up on TikTok was dancing. She's a great dancer. She's known as Jayde can dance on TikTok and she's got 3.1 million and she's verified.

Jaksin:

Wow.

Kyle Kaplanis:

What was interesting about that is to see the change where people don't care anymore. She still does dances and they do well. It's just that audience participation. They're like, oh, cool. That looks great. Next now, she's having to rejig her content and figuring out, okay, how do I share who I am and how do I communicate that with my audience and capture their attention and, build those connections. So that way people know more about her than dancing because

Jaksin:

exactly

Kyle Kaplanis:

people want to have that connection now. That's that true thing. That's why we're seeing that and why we're focused so much on community is cuz people are craving that, but these creators are not giving that. And so the creators who are, are going to see long term growth, because just as fast as you can grow, I promise you that's as fast as you can fall. And a lot of these creators are falling off. Big time.

Jaksin:

Yeah. Noah Beck and Bryce hall. I've been keeping up with them recently. I'm getting double their views

Kyle Kaplanis:

a hundred percent.

Jaksin:

And it's crazy. Noah Beck right now. He's in Rome, all fancy stuff, all fan fancy dinners. She's like showing it off. Right. Because people used to love rich people spend money. Yeah. And that got like 50 K views in a day. People don't care to see that anymore. No one wants to see you flex your money anymore.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. Flexing is over. I agree. Early TikTok was all about the flex. Everybody's flex flex. Now it's be authentic. Really Noah, is that what you love? Maybe if it is then I think it would be different cuz you could feel the authenticity, but when you feel just the flex energy from it, you're like, wow, whatever your tool, man. But when you feel like a real authentic person, just having a good time, you can feel that. And when you can feel them really wanting to capture their audience, that's the difference. And that shift is happening quickly. I'm noticing it big time. And I'm really, really focused on creators that really want to give a shit and care about their audience. Cuz that's what matters. And we talk about fans but, I think a lot of people that are fans, they feel like they have to contribute back in a way. And I know you go live a lot and there are gifting options on there, but to be a fan, you don't have to gift all the time. Is that correct?

Jaksin:

That's extremely correct. I'm a big fan. Big fan of not gifting. Again, I feel like those rich people spending money, I feel like they said, if you wanna be a fan, you wanna support me so I can keep doing this mm-hmm and they set a big wave of saying, to be a real fan, you have to buy my merch, you have to gift me all this money. And then they do like subscriptions on YouTube that paid and Twitch subs, gifts, everything. They wanna capitalize on everything they can. And they do. Every time, I get a gift, you know, I appreciate them even one rose. And then I. You don't have to do this. It's free to click the like button. Right? I don't want you to gift money. I'm just talking to you guys and on TikTok live is awful right now that I hate it. Gift one galaxy and I'll do something. Yes, that is. And they're awful. They have no community. It's just. I, I hate it. I really do. I really do.

Kyle Kaplanis:

We do see that a lot, like these battles and these people are just using their audience. I've seen it loaded where they're like gifted galaxy and I'll do this thing. And you're just taking advantage of people and I get it. It's a form of entertainment, but it's like gambling in a weird way. You're telling your audience to gamble on you doing something versus giving back. Are they giving value back? That's another thing too. Is there an exchange of value there? And maybe there's some that they feel like it because they're getting the entertainment that they need, but I like your approach on you're saying, look, community, you don't have to gift me, but I do, understand that creators do have to get paid in order to do this full time. So they have to make some sort of money. So there are gonna be fans out there that do gift and are just appreciative and they want to support you because they're getting so much value from you in their day that they wanna give back. So I get that, but love that you're telling your audience, look, if you don't have any money, doesn't mean that this person that has all this money to give me is a better fan than you. That doesn't mean to be

Jaksin:

a fan. You know, you come back like the video comment mm-hmm follow. Right. The little stuff that makes you're a fan. The little stuff goes a long way. The money isn't really, a big thing to me. Everything I make I reinvest into my TikTok, so I'm gonna be flying out, doing more stuff for my fans. That'll be happening soon.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Are you gonna be collaborating with any other creators as well?

Jaksin:

Yes. I did collaborate with Mitzi she's like 2.3 mm-hmm . We did some anime kid videos together hopefully I'll be flying out to LA just the weekend to collaborate with other comedy guys.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yep.

Jaksin:

no dancers. I can't dance very well., but, that's the plan just to again, get some new audience, a lot of people right now, losing audience and then get some old followers back from as well as I might have lost them along the way.

Kyle Kaplanis:

What's your strategy for that right now? What is your plan to do that?

Jaksin:

What like collaboration,

Kyle Kaplanis:

no, for harnessing your audience and trying to get some of them back, what is your plan?

Jaksin:

I just say create, a healthy personality. Mm-hmm cause I am always happy. Yeah. I really am. I always wear colorful clothes. I feel like that evaporates my personality.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Right.

Jaksin:

I have rainbow shoes. I wear all the time. I love that. I have blonde hair. Uh yeah, everything. I just love that. I feel like just having a healthy and real personality on TikTok will get them back because I might have lot of something along the way for my sounds, cuz again, I was at one point I was desperate, I would say probably desperate, but what am I doing wrong? and just posting bad quantity over quality. That's what I was doing. I was looking at this other guy at this other sound, cause I used to mimic mm-hmm sound creators. He had like a million followers only using sounds, which is impressive. Mm-hmm so for sure, he posts like five times a day. That's what I did five times a day. And they weren't good. And now he's at 1 million still. He hasn't gained anything.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly.

Jaksin:

And he's at that plateau now.

Kyle Kaplanis:

You've heard of Gary Vee.

Jaksin:

I love Gary Vee. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Kyle Kaplanis:

So Gary Vee he says that quantity over quality in the beginning is helpful because then you can understand what quality means to you. And that kind of seems like what happened to you? You were like, okay, I need quantity, quantity, quantity. And then you realize, okay, this style that you're doing now, Is quality. And that is what brings in the audience. So you realize that now and now you're bringing only quality and value to your community, but you wouldn't have learned that if you didn't go through that process of putting out a bunch of crap and just seeing what it sticks and what works for you as a person. So I think any creator, starting out, I'm like, okay, what are your passions? Share a bunch of those things at first. And then see What community likes something from you based off of your authenticity. And then that's usually what happens and then they just start growing crazily from there. Like you said, though, creators that their not looking for that piece of quality that their community wants. They're just doing a bunch of quantity. They're not building a community. They're just building content that people like and move on. Do you wanna be a creator that you create content and people like it and swipe past? Or do you wanna be a creator that they take the time to communicate comment, share, come back every single video, that's what kind of creator you wanna be.

Jaksin:

Yeah, exactly. Cause again, sounds they get you likes they get people push buttons, but that's it. There's this one guy, he's 500 K followers and he has a hundred. Plus million likes mm-hmm , that's a ton of likes and he doesn't even have a million followers just because he only does sounds. Yeah. That's relatable, but that's about it. I would say.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah, no for sure. That shift is happening really, really, really, really fast. In fact, the craters that on my roster that are having the most success are creators. Typically do skits or they're sharing their own voice. And, we're seeing that drive big time. It's gonna be interesting to see how that transitions over time, but I really feel like the sound part of TikTok is diminishing quickly. I barely. Barely see that on my four you page anymore.

Jaksin:

Yeah, I agree

Kyle Kaplanis:

Which is cool. I always love to ask creators specifically, but what tips could you give if somebody's listening right now and they want to, become a content creator or just start, what kind of tips would you give them based off of your experience?

Jaksin:

Again, I would say it doesn't have to be like comedy skits, but, showing your own personality. That could be hard to portray mm-hmm there are so many factors of getting that right. There's videos that flopped from me back in June that I remade like last week and they blew up because it was different. Different angles. Angles are such a big deal. It's such a big deal. I don't know why I have no idea why it just looks better. Yeah. And then your followers, agree more and everybody has different angle style. Everybody. Tony STAI. His is like holding the camera on his hand. Yeah. Some people have it on the floor looking up mine's. Higher up, everyone's just different and finding your own style to portray your creativity is such a huge deal. And I couldn't figure that out for the longest. Right. Uh, when I first started doing skits, I made one skit. It blew up. It's like, okay, skits are doing good. I started doing skits. I kept trying to do this. Wasn't working that wasn't working, but they were good ideas. I just privated them. Mm-hmm . And then when I figured it out, like I found it, I know what I need to do. I remade them, add a little bit of more pizazz, more mm-hmm personality, and then it was good. That's awesome. Your own style and. Copying people's. Obviously there's only so much you could do, you know? Right. But. So your style.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. So what I'm hearing is, , find your own voice and message and what you're excited about and continually try to share your voice in different ways until you find what sticks, but in the process, it might take you some time because most people, the biggest failure that they do is they quit too early. I always use this, and cliche that meme that you see of. Two people in the cave and they're digging for gold, right. And one person gives up and they're only one hit away from getting all that Golder diamonds or whatever. And it really is like that. You just have to keep going. And, I use Gary V as an example is even In the last three years, but he's been creating for 15 years, but really in the last, like three years, he's really developed and really well known now globally, but it took him that long and Gary did not give up. He didn't give a shit. So I tell people, maybe after a year of creating consistently, you can have the idea of saying, okay, maybe I need to rethink this. Yeah. But don't give up so many people give up after a week, two weeks a month. And I'm like,

Jaksin:

consistency. Yeah. That is again. That's what got me. The only reason why I started posting. Was the day before that I saw a video that said post two to three times a day for six months and see what will happen. Exactly. And now six months from a , few days ago, at 1.2 million boom.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. But you know how many people that advice is out there? Like, cuz people are like, what's the secret sauce? And I'm like right there, post two to three times a day for six months, see what happens mm-hmm but you know how many people do that? Like probably one. Because they look at it and they're like, yeah, that looks easy, but they start it. And then they realize that it takes work and it's not, it is hard. It really is. Exactly.

Jaksin:

Yeah. I mean, I complain to my girlfriend every day. She knows she gets the heat.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Yeah. Being concentrated is one of the hardest jobs, careers that you can take. In the world because you have a lot of pressure of an audience that, you have to create content for them. It's not something that you could just, take a month off and rethink and do all these things. And then you have to show up every day and it's really important. To me, that seems like, a really good spot here to, wrap things up. Is there any last minute things that you'd love to, say.

Jaksin:

I like this, this is a good podcast. I love being interactive. Very good host, not bland I don't like bland., so yeah, I was very interactive. I liked it. Good questions. Better answers for me. It was great. It was great. I liked it, man.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I love it, man. Let's use this time right now to shield the hell outta yourself. Tell people where they can find you follow you all

Jaksin:

right. You to go to TikTok dot com Jaksin 21. Hit that follow button for me. Also on Instagram, I'm trying to get to 20 K I think I'm at 13 K now, Jackson, 21 as well. Easy to find me. That's only two, social media have currently, so yeah.

Kyle Kaplanis:

All right. And everybody that's listening, I made it really, really, really, really easy for you. Just go to the description notes of this podcast, wherever you listen to it, and you will find links to Jackson's social media. So you can go over there and give him a follow check out his content, and you're gonna love what you see and, start engaging with him. Jump. Ask him questions and say that you came from BizTalk for TikTok and Jackson. Thanks so much for coming on the show, man,

Jaksin:

dude, thank you so much, for, inviting me. I loved it. Really did

Kyle Kaplanis:

awesome.

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Kyle Kaplanis

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