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How To Effectively Work With TikTok Creators On Brand Collaborations with Alex Stemp (19.4 M Followers)

• Kyle Kaplanis / Alex Stemplewski • Episode 65

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Are you a brand or content creator who is looking to build your business online specifically with TikTok. Are you looking to leverage influencer marketing into your brand strategy or as a creator looking to learn the best ways to monetize your channel and learn the best practices in working with brands?

Then this episode is for you!

In this episode I talk with Alex Stemplewski best known as @alex.stemp on TikTok. Alex is the most followed TikTok photographer in the world and has amassed a following of over 19.4M followers! He rose to fame by creating a compelling series of photographing random strangers on the streets. Alex has worked with some of the biggest name brands in the industry and has experience in what a great working relationship looks like in working with these brand partners, and what is not working. 

Be sure to follow Alex across his socials and check out what he is up to.

TikTok - @Alex Stemp 

IG - @alexanderthegreat

YouTube - Alex Stemplewski 

Twitter - @AlexStemplewski

Go watch the Full Podcast Episode via Video over on the BizTok for TikTok YouTube! 

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Kyle Kaplanis:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of BizTok for TikTok, brought to you by PRJT Z talent. Are you a brand or content creator who is looking to build your business online specifically with TikTok are you looking for ways to leverage influencer marketing into your brand strategy or are you a creator looking to learn the best ways to monetize your channel and learn the best practices and working with brands? Then this episode is for you take talk in the world of marketing is still looked at as the wild west, where advertisers are looking to figure out what are the best methods of not only creating content for themselves, but also working with TikTok creators. Working with TikTok creators is really important because they've built audiences in all shapes and sizes and get the best returns on your investment. It is simpler than. And it all stemmed from TikTok slogan. Don't make ads make,TikTok's. I'd like to introduce you to today's guest Alex , who is the most followed TikTok. In the photography space and it's a massive fan base of over 19.2 million followers. He's rose to fame by creating compelling series of photographing random strangers on the streets. Alex has worked with some of the biggest name brands in the industry. We are very fortunate enough to be representing Alex at project Z talent. He's. Also well-known for curating presets for other photographers to use an iShares tutorials on how to create these unique moments. Alex, welcome to the show,. Yes. Thank you so much. I'm horrible at scripts and I'm so much better at natural conversation, like we're about to have now. So I appreciate you, being here with us. Working with brands on TikTok is so important for the advertiser and. For the creator to learn a lot more about how they can monetize their efforts and working with these brands. But before we dive into all that, because it's so valuable and so important for everybody to learn, I love to know more about you and your TikTok journey.

Alex Stemplewski:

My journey actually starts back from before I was a content creator. I lived an average life. I had a nine to five office job. And before that actually, I studied statistics in college, , I've always been a math person. I have a very analytical brain and, that's how my mind works, but, , I had this creative side to me too. I've always loved drawing and I loved art grown. So when I became an actuary, an insurance actuary, which is , basically I'm a statistician for an insurance company. It was a great job, but I wasn't able to use my creative side of my brain. And I was feeling really. Unfulfilled because of that. I decided to pick up a creative outlet to satisfy my creative, side of my head. I randomly got a camera and without ever thinking I would do social media for living. I started posting photos on Instagram. And one of my first photos was a photo of a stranger. I've been just doing that since I got my camera. I love street photography, stranger, photography, whatever you want to call. It challenges me socially and in so many things. I got my camera. I started posting on Instagram. I did that for six months and grew about 10,000 followers. Just posting my photos. And it wasn't until Gary V started talking about TikTok a lot. He made a lot of videos about it. He explained why it was so powerful. He said, everyone needs to join it. Like you're going to miss out. So you don't have, if you don't listen to me on this. And I really trust, I just, I trusted him at that point. He had given me a lot of good advice through his videos. Sometimes. Okay. You get this weird app I'd never heard of and see what the heck it's all about., but I was a photographer. I didn't make videos. I didn't know how to make videos. I took photos. So one of my first videos was actually a slideshow of photos. That was video I could do is just slideshow of photos out my first TikTok video. I think it's still up on my page. A month later I had a million followers because that's how TikTok works. So I, I wasn't even any good at making the content, but , with TikTok , man. Sometimes you a little bit of luck, a little bit of drive and motivation, and you can achieve some crazy things on to.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's crazy. You grew to a million, but now here at nearly 20 million followers, which is insane. How do you feel about that?

Alex Stemplewski:

It doesn't feel real, honestly. It's never getting, I'm always waiting for it to hit me. after I hit a million followers, I decided that. This isn't real. And so since then, I've continued to feel that way. I remember telling my friend, Derek, cause he had a million followers around the same time. I'm like, dude, why are you excited?, it's fake. This can't be real. Why do a million people follow us? We're like random people. I'm an actuary., why do a million people follow me? But no, it is real. It's so unfathomable. That amount of people is crazy, but people do come up to me on the street and say, Hey Alex, what's up. They recognize me and , it's also crazy.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I bet. Still to this day. It's a shock. Anytime somebody comes up and recognizes you.

Alex Stemplewski:

Yeah. I don't know what to do. I freak out.

Kyle Kaplanis:

That's hilarious. You know, that's what I love about TikTok creators though. So many of them are so humble because they don't get it. Cause they think I'm just like these people who are coming up to me, I'm not any different from that person. Right. Why am I so exciting? But I love the humbleness of the creator culture, versus a traditional celebrity who, maybe have bigger heads and they have these like different motivations of talking with fans. But I love that. And, speaking of Gary. I was intake talk, well, Gary V was already talking about it. I was involved with it. I was helping my daughter build her channel , but I saw him and I was like, yes, , let's go Gary., we need the motivation over here. Cause people were laughing at us the whole time, especially brands. Are like, hell now, that space is not for us. It's just for kids or teens or whatever. But, , I want to share a clip of him. And this is an interview with him in 2019, specifically talking about brands, coming to TikTok. And I wanted to share this clip with everybody, I'm going to share that now. So many brands being built right now on TikTok that are going to monetize for next decade while everybody keeps laughing. The fact that their daughter spends an hour to make a video in the kitchen. People are grossly underestimating what's happening. This is a very important time. This is the last decade you're going to have to take advantage of the current state of this internet. And I think that people need to get way more serious about it. And you look at the behaviors, the decisions at the top, the allocations of dollars against it, and what it's being asked to do. There's very few corporations in the world that under. What's going on. Social media is the slang term for the current state of the internet. So when we call it social it's ha when you call it the current state of the internet, you have to take a step back and be a little more thoughtful of it. This video right here is just powerful. Funny thing is Alex, is that. That was 2019 yet a lot of partners that are looking into this, they're coming in with the wrong, way about it. They're looking at it like they're advertising on Facebook or Instagram when TikTok is totally a different beast. So it's still the wild west to these brands, but there's a lot of brands that are not understanding how it works, and going through that particular video that he posted and he posted this only a few days ago. There's comments in here saying my brand is an evidence of this because I've made $1 million last week, thanks to TikTok or people are saying, Hey, I couldn't pay my rent two months ago. And now I have a six figure business and we're seeing a lot of small businesses take off because , they're not jaded by the way you should be advertising. They are coming to TikTok and making TikTok. Right. Have you seen on like your, for you page, some brands that are doing well and, have you experienced any of that?

Alex Stemplewski:

I'm probably not the best person to ask this only because I don't watch a lot of TikTok. It's a very addicting app and I truly love the content, but I don't want it to interfere with my own ideas and my own creative process. I try not to watch them because I don't want to copy anyone's idea. I feel like if I don't watch it, I'll come up with something original. Cause there's no one to like copy, but anyway, the one example I can think of would be, a company that was started by a friend of mine. Greg tube on Tik TOK. He came up with a, mask that you can slap onto your wrist while you're not wearing it. Literally one. Brand new business just launched first TikTok video from that video alone generated six figures of sales. Um, yeah, it doesn't surprise me like Ted talk, is that powerful? The best thing to talk has going forward is its ability to reach people, so with one video you can reach 10 million people and get six figures in sales. And that's what my friend did with his brand new company. But in terms of like more of the existing brands and companies out there that are more established, like, the McDonald's, the Walmarts targets and all that. It's hard for me to think of an example of a brand. That's just absolutely like crushing it. We

Kyle Kaplanis:

talk. Yeah. For one, that story is insane with your friend's brand because on other platforms, that's just not possible. You'd have to take years and years and years to try to grow. Fan base enough for them to be able to like, develop your product and sell it, for them to trust you, it would take so long, but I'm TikTok. You could create an account today, posting video that's native to the platform and it could go viral and change your entire life from one video as a normal person or your followers. That is so powerful. And I think create creator culture. Right now is shifting because the world doesn't know what to do with this. And I think that's where Gary V was saying, , nobody's wrapping their head around this because they're not in control anymore., that's the funny thing is the creator is like the head of the world right now. Like these content creators are controlling everything from the brand down where it was the other way around advertisers have a lot more control but it's not working like that now. These brands have to , realize that they creators are the one that knows their audience, they know their space. Like you, as a content creator, you know, what's working well for you, you know, what your audience will like or not like. You've developed that. So that's really important, and speaking of content, you talked about sharing a slideshow and then were you just testing and trialing new things. And then finally something clicked to be able to show like the behind the scenes of you taking these photos. How did that start?

Alex Stemplewski:

What I did right when I started TikTok was I tried different things. The first video I posted was, a simple slide show. There was no video component to it. It was just photos, cycling through. I realize that that video was just not getting a good result or, me thinking that it was just not a good concept. I don't really know why I decided to try something else, but I just remember having this mindset of let me try different stuff. Let me figure it out. If not, I'll try slideshow video. I'll try something else next. Yeah. And, I think that was really key for me. I think that for anyone that's willing to, get started on TikTok, you should really consider having this mindset of let me try different things you don't want to join TikTok and have this one idea and you're just sat on it because it might not work. And if you keep doing something that doesn't work, it's not just going to suddenly start working. You got to try different. So that's what I did. And, that's where I landed on this idea of taking pictures of strangers and filming the whole thing. And what's really interesting looking back is that the first time I did that, I was filming it with a, magnetic camera that just films, things, point of view. So it was like a camera that I clip to my. And it would film everything like point of view, but it didn't look that good. And I realized that pretty much immediately cause I never did it again. And the next time my friend Derek, I was like, can you just fill me with your iPhone? So he filmed me with his iPhone in it. It got a much better result. It got significantly more abused, it looked better. And I just think it's interesting that very early on, I had this mindset also of , not only testing things, but if you have an idea you want. Try to make it better, try and improve on it., never make the final version. You're like beta version, your first version. You've got to do one version two version three. So literally, I was doing that from the start. Like I noticed that the first camera,, POV style just didn't look good. So , I changed it up. Yeah. For my first month of creating content, I was always trying to upgrade it and level., yeah, and it worked out really well because my videos, they kept getting more and more views. The more that. Improved it.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. What's interesting and I think this might play into your mental health awareness of taking a break from the app as well, not comparing yourselves to others, but a lot of people do they compare themselves. They see on there for you page, man, I wish I was a photographer. Alex is already doing so good. I can never be there, blah, but they don't understand that everyone's on a different path in their journey. And. Some people , who have that mindset, they love a certain crater and I'm like, go back, scroll all the way down to their beginning, because typically they haven't removed those posts. And you can see where they shifted, where their changed was. They were not always this polished or really good at what they do in the beginning. I do that a lot on content creators. I'll actually scroll. And sometimes it takes a long time, but I'll get back down there and I'm like, whoa, it didn't look that great or they weren't so funny or maybe it wasn't put together and you can see the way evolves. Like as you scroll back up, you see where they made some tweaks and changes., you got to constantly test things out. Like you have to just keep testing, and like you said, finding what is something I can improve for the next time, go through your content and say, , what is it that I can tweak? To get better results. And it might even be just taking out that entire series piece. That's just not working and try something new and it's, and the fun thing is it's okay to always keep testing things on TikTok. You don't have to be set in your way. It's so much more fun and organic that way, versus like Instagram was very picturesque where, you had a very like aesthetic page and it had to look a certain way where I'm TikTok. You can still have your aesthetic way about it, but you're allowed to test different things out and try things.

Alex Stemplewski:

That's the cool part about TikTok. On Instagram, like you said, everyone kind of cares more about their like feed aesthetics. So each post you're a little more careful about, and there's a little bit more fear in posting an Instagram photo than there is a posting a TikTok video in the sense that yeah. When you take talk, it just feels like an app where you , just put it out there. Just post it. If it's not great, it's fine. Like with Instagram, it's probably, this has to be perfect because it's going to go ahead and feed us. It's got it. So it's got to be just right, but on TikTok, there's more freedom. It's like the way that the algorithm is programmed., if you post 20 videos in one day, it's not going to show all 20 videos to your followers. So it's not like Instagram, where if you post 20 photos on your phone, you're going to upset your followers. They're like, why are you, like, why did you post so much today? This is too much on my feed. You're going to take over their feet and they'll probably unfollow you when they talk. It doesn't work that way because people spend time on the, for you page. So you can blast 50 videos in one day without upsetting your followers. And that really quickly allows you to test different kinds of. And the way that you couldn't really do, you actually can do that on Instagram because on reels you can post it and not put it on your feed. The algorithm doesn't work as well. If you do that on reels as it does, they talk, your content has a better shot if you were , to post it organically on TikTok. But yeah, , that's a really great thing about TikTok. Is it just the freedom of. Testing with no downside.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly, exactly. He funny thing is , I don't use Instagram that much., but apparently I've been posting too many storage, which is weird. Cause I've only been doing like two a day, but I got the notification saying, Hey, we see you've been posting too much. Basically take a break. I was like, , okay. I, I rarely use this, but Hey, but on TikTok, it's funny, like you said, you could post 50 videos and take notes. Not going to give you any flags saying, you're overwhelming , your followers. Cause like you said it's not always geared to , your followers at all. It's going to put it into different categories , of different people on the, for you page and see, and the algorithm will slowly test different audiences out, which is really cool. There's a lot of really unique things with the algorithm that I think is why they're winning, , in so many ways and that it can stay authentic and organic, no matter how big it grows is because it's constantly testing. Areas where people can grow and develop no matter how sat traded the app is, which is super cool., and I want to do share a clip of one of your videos to give the audience a better idea of , what your videos have developed into. So I'm going to share that now. And it's one of your top viral ones, which we'll talk. What you know about rolling down in the deep, when you bring those in numb, you can got them mental freeze. When these people talk too much, put that shit in slow motion. Yet. I feel like a natural astronaut and the ocean. I wish, you know, bowel rolling down in the deep. When you bring those numb, you can call them at the freeze when you judge them much for that shit in slow motion. Yet, I feel like an astronaut and the ocean. I'm like, yeah, that's true. I believe in God. Don't believe in T H O T. She keep playing me dumb. I'm a play off of fun. Y'all don't really know my man. So let me give you the picture, like stands for fall and now in a drought, no float rain. Wasn't blowing down. See that bang was all around. See mama. Awesome. For one that video you could tell was taken down on Hollywood Boulevard where you find some of the most interesting people down there. So I'm sure that's one of your common grounds to go, to find , some interesting strangers in the area. But what's interesting about that video for anybody looking in, you might just think, oh, that's a cool video. That's fun to see, I see a lot of videos similar or whatever, but that video has, gained about what is it, 90 million views, which is insane. So I wanted to know, what, where do your thoughts on that, where you really shocked when you saw that?

Alex Stemplewski:

I don't really remember actually. First of all, like the 90 million views, , it took about three or four months for that many views to happen. So like the first day within the first 24 hours, maybe I have like four or 5 million views. So that's still a lot of people, but when someone sees that, they might think that the 90 million views just happened, overnight. And that would be crazy., it was more of like a kind of a trickled, but it trickled quickly . It was a lot of use, a lot of comments and people really hyped and that's always like really, really exciting. So I was really excited when. That video took off.

Kyle Kaplanis:

I'm glad that you brought that up because some brands have , this concept in their mind that once you post it, you have a few hours and it's gone., whereas on other socials your feed gets overwhelmed by something else and it's not going to get pushed back out, but , why TikTok has been so smart with their algorithm is, and TikTok even released a statement saying, To reach the max performance of a video may take up to 90 days. And the reason why they do that is the algorithm is constantly testing new audiences and that can be over, , a 90 day period. So like this first month that tested over here, then the next month it's going to push it over here. And then all of a sudden, like in 60 days, Take off because it finally tested another set of audiences that are absolutely eating it up. My daughter actually posted a video like., it was about two months ago. It had a hundred thousand views or whatnot, but yesterday she was getting all these notifications and it was coming in like crazy, like what the hell? What's happened. And it was because that video got kicked out again and now it's almost 2 million views and the comments are coming in and , people are stitching it now. So what's fun as an advertiser as well, is that your content lives way longer than you think., it's not just one and done. You have a small window , to get as much reach as possible. It organically will grow over time. And then after 90 days, you can, even as an advertiser, you can do a spark ad on it and boost it even further to reach more people. But there's so much opportunity there, which is insane.

Alex Stemplewski:

I liked that you gave the example of the video sort of being stagnant for a couple months, maybe completely flopped. And then weeks later months later, it suddenly goes viral out of nowhere. And that's a really cool thing about TikTok., and what's interesting to me is like why that happens, like how the algorithm sort of finds this like hidden gem from the past that didn't quite make it, and it gives it a second chance in it and it goes viral. The second. And there are so many factors that can play into it. Maybe it finds a new audience that it hadn't tested before, and that audience loves it. If it finds a content it's. Or maybe it's that the topic is just somehow more relevant now. Like you may have posted a video of Logan, Paul, training like three months ago. And then by the time the Mayweather fight came up, Logan, Paul boxing is now trending. So if that video hits the for you page to like couple of people, it's going to have really high engagement. And now that old video. You got lucky because it became more relevant and going viral, maybe a common, it could start by like a comment. I think I've noticed that , if one person puts an intriguing comment that starts a hot topic or a debate, even though the video is posted a month ago, we'll see that comment because it's a recent one. So it stays up at the top and they go in and a war starts in the comment section that can blow up your video to know where that's happened to me. So it's really cool. How. Your videos are never really dead on TikTok, unless it's maybe after that 90 day mark, but like you said, you could promote a video with a spark ad after 90 days, if you want, I call it shelf life. The shelf life of a TikTok video is significantly higher than this shelf. Life of a Instagram photo, for example, because after a day or two on Instagram, your photo is not going to get any more likes or reach. Yep. But I'm TikTok months later, you can still be racking up a lot of views. So like the shelf life of your content is really high.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. I love that you mentioned comments because I feel like comments are, undervalued sometimes where the comment section really came. Like you said, trigger a video again, but also drive tons of engagement, even if it's not your video. Like for instance, why I'm bringing that up is there's a lot of brands that are doing so good in the comment section right now. Like they're just having a fun time communicating with people, putting in hilarious, insights, that are like very native to the platform. Like very culture inside jokes and people are. Hilarious. Like they're loving it. McDonald's is doing great job. Detroit lions is doing insane., Netflix right now anybody who's mentioning squid game within there, like in the comment section, like crazy and hyping it up and sending over some of the characters in the show and It's such a fun way. So a tip for brands that are listening, even the content creator a good way is just to go in the comments and start developing some sort of communications in there. But as a brand, if it's something relatable to your business, you can go in there and put a little comment and be seen because trust me, my first thing I do when I watch. I jumped to the comments every time, if it's a compelling video. Cause I want to see, do people have the same mindset as me? So being in the comment section is really, , an important step , for brands. And there's a lot of brains that are on there, but I don't see them in the comments or they're not using that. And that's really a key element, I think uptake dog.

Alex Stemplewski:

Yeah. That's such a good hack. And I would just add to that. This is an ultimate hack for small brands. Like of course, Netflix and McDonald's can drop a funny comment and that can , do really well for them. But even as a small brand, you can use this comment section hack, , to get a lot of exposure on TikTok. And I'll give you an example. This all happened organically. I discovered a coffee company the other day through a comment that they left on a viral video. And it was a really comment. I still remember what the comment was, unfortunately for the brand. I don't remember what brand it was because it was all my girlfriend's phone. Had I seen it on my phone. I probably would have remembered the name, but she only told me what the comment was and act that it was from a coffee company. And, just to give an example to , if a brand is listening to how this, like a real life example of this, , there's been a recent viral video about a girlfriend visiting her boyfriend on a college campus. And when she gets in there, the boyfriend's sitting on the couch and surrounded by like other girls, girls, the girlfriend that's visiting her boyfriend is extremely excited, but the boyfriend is. Very much not on the same page. He's not very excited things. Like he grabs his cell phone away from one of the other girls. Very suspiciously.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Awkward. Yeah. Yeah.

Alex Stemplewski:

And then this, so there's this huge viral video going around., and everyone's riffing off it, stitching it, making their own. Parody versions of it, they call them the

Kyle Kaplanis:

couch guide. Don't they? Yeah, the couch guy.

Alex Stemplewski:

So one of the parody videos went viral and we looked at the common sections as like 90%. And I don't know how, like everyone goes to the comment section and then the top comment was by a coffee company and it was really funny. It said something., I know we're a coffee company, but we're staying here for the tea, like trying to get the tea that using that phrase, , like a , really clever

Kyle Kaplanis:

scene.

Alex Stemplewski:

It was so perfect. And, the visibility on that is not something that should be underestimated. Let's say 10 million people saw that video, I guess five to 8 million of those people went to the common section and everyone sees. So you just got five to 8 million impressions from leaving a comment. I would suggest that small company or even a large company. And I'm sure that some of them do this, hire a person to leave clever comments on TikTok, try to get comments like

Kyle Kaplanis:

exactly. And the comment should be , like you said, clever and very native to the platform. So like somebody who understands tick-tock and sees these trends for one, it showed that the brand is real, that they pay attention to this culture and that they know how to play into it. And I think that's, what's important. These big ones have now probably added a new person on their marketing team that knows take talk and knows the native culture there and can speak to it. And people are hyping it up. Like Netflix recently posted a video with Squid game and them sipping and people were like freaking out in the comments., I didn't even realize this was a you Netflix., Hey, like you're like one of us like, and that's, what's so important is for brands to look like they're a actual creator. If that makes sense, like they're real, just like the rest of the people on the app. And if they can Harbor into that, that is where they're going to shift and stay relevant. Yeah, really develop , that strong loyalty, , that brands are like dreaming of, and this kind of rolls into a perfect segue into Gary V. This is another Gary V video of him talking with, , Michelle Romano, and they're talking to a brand on the importance of take talk and his advice on how brands can work with creators. And I think it's really important to like two minutes., and then we'll dive into that. So I'm going to play that now for us. one of the keys to TikTok though, is that people relate to them and the authenticity of it. So I think the posts that go viral are the ones that are so authentic and so genuine. And I would say, I would say that there's unlimited posts because of this is my life going by on succeeding that are, that are contextual to the platform. Not necessarily all that. Okay, got it. Don't mix up contextually, contextually strategic versus authentic. Cause when you think it's authentic you to go into a place over dinner saying, fuck, you know, if we pay them, it's not gonna be authentic. And that it's not going to work where in reality what's happening is the reason a lot of people are not winning on Tik. TOK is they don't know how to make content for TikTok, but if you make content for TikTok, that is actually an ad or paid for through an influencer, it always works. Yeah. Yeah. And it's about being, content's about being contextually native to the platform. Not trying to put your flow bottle on a band that is, let me give you an example. You can pick the influencer and then tell her, do whatever the fuck you want. Yeah. They built an audience cause they know like this is where brands always fuck up. They're like, Hey, we love you. Let's make Michelle the influencer, Michelle. We love you. And you're amazing. Okay. You've got to at least mention our brand three times. You've got like, they get heavy handed, you control who you're going to give money to and then get out of the fucking way and do that a hundred times. See what you like and then build from there. It's so, so, so true because actually the best posts are always when I'm like this, actually I love my ordering. It's my favorite thing. I talk about it all the time. Like post my sleep. They've never paid her, asked me to do that, but the moment, because I've gotten all these brand briefs, it's like, Ken Michelle, they actually, you sometimes write this for you. They say like, what you need to mention is like the benefits and features. It's like, no one gives a shit about that. People actually want to know that I used the product. And so it's like, I love that. And I've seen that so much. I'm just, I'm just adding this cause it's important. Yeah. We have unlimited things working that is a paid influencer thing. We just don't tell them what to do. And we always win that with our clients. Like I do it and I'm great and it's easy for me, but for my clients, a lot of times I can't get, even though they hire us, even with me involved, sometimes they can't get there. And the reality is it bites them in the ass and then they adjust you pick. You want to endorse and then get completely out of the way, which is fallacy in brand land historically. Yeah. We'll be teach you in school. Boom. Yeah, but it's like Gary V like the thing is , people can love him or hate him, but what he's saying right. There is so real like you said it's fallacy, like brands have in their mind that they want to work with the creative, they have their vision because they create content for themselves. That's very structured., and they're trying to imply that on the creator they're working with they're almost like treating the crater as. As like a marketing employee, like you have to say this and you're like, no, I don't work for you., you're paying me to endorse your product., you're paying me that the relationship I built with my audience that trusts me, you should be paying me for just speaking, like using your product. I didn't even have to say shit because they trust what I'm doing. So now they're going to be like, oh, Alex is using this particular product. Must be. I'm going out and getting it period and it's true. We see that a lot. In fact, we're not \ name dropping anything, but me and you worked on , a campaign recently. They did provide a script and me and you both looked at it and were like, if this is what you want, it's going to underperform. We already know off the bat and it's very frustrating, but yet they pushed back and like, no, this is what we want. And we know the results. So when like Gary V was saying, it's going to bite them Nass, they're paying for it. Sure. We'll give you what you want, but there's going to be zero return on that.

Alex Stemplewski:

Yeah. It's a real shame., . I agree with Gary's approach. I think there should be a balance. I think the brand can give some guidance and some suggestions, but at the end of the day, the creator should decide like how to make the creative, not the brand., what brands don't realize, is how TikTok works cause they don't make TikTok. So the fact that are. Telling a creator, how to make a TikTok is it's ridiculous. And I want to understand why that is. I think it might be because they don't understand how the algorithm works to the point where they see that Alex has 19 million followers. And all of Alex's videos get 10 million views. So we're just going to tell Alex what to put in the video. Do this, this and this, and we're going to get those 10 million views. Cause he's got 19 million followers. It doesn't work like my videos get 10 million views because I'm thoughtful about what goes in it. And * I don't put a bunch of crap in it. That's not going to work. And I think that might be where the hangup is., maybe like communicating to the brand, , look, we can do this, but I guarantee you that this video will significantly underperform my content. Here's what I think we should do. Instead, if you would like to see views that are going to be a lot better., because whenever I blindly followed a brand and sometimes they're so stubborn that I just give in and I just do what they say and it's happened. Those are date, my lowest performing videos on all of my page. And they essentially wasted their money with me, but they wouldn't let me revise them otherwise., but literally , the two worst performing videos on my entire page are from brands telling me what to put in my TikTok.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. And we see that across the board. this is crazy, but it's probably true. You could go to some of the top TikTok, craters, scroll through, find a low performing video and I guarantee you it's sponsored. And I, and if you watch it, you can see that it just doesn't feel. That crater at all., and I've seen it loads. Like I recently worked with another creator and it underperformed horribly. Maybe 1% of the views that they typically get and for one, it doesn't just damage the brands dollar value that they're spending, but also the crater as well, because it lessens their performance overall where their engagement rate, and it can damage , their brand as well. Creators listening in you can control that. You don't have to take everything you get. If somebody is going to be very specific, you can say, look this is going to cause more damage or underperforming., I'm going to pass on this , or whatnot. And I think , talent managers like us, it is our. To help educate these brands and saying, look, and those that are going to be really stubborn. They're going to, like Gary V said, it's going to bite them in the ass and they're going to learn the hard way. And it's like a waste of money and I almost want to tell these brands like, be a little bit more upfront and tell them, look, why don't you go become a crazy. Create your own content and then come back and let's have a conversation but there's a lot of brands now that I've worked with that are really good. They got bitten asked so many times and now they've come back and they're like, okay, here's the list of things not to do. And the only list that they have is, don't wear competitors, colors or don't wear like other brands, which is fine. Right. Like I think that's totally fine. And then they give you. A little bit of direction. We do want you to mention this, but in your own way, like the focus should be on this particular area, but please do it in your own light., and a great example of that. Would be EOS. They make soap, they make chapstick like little ball chap, stick ones., there was , a crater and it wasn't branded or anything, but she talks about shaving your fucking coach. And she said, it just like that too. Like this smoothie is fucking cute, , and the video went insane. Well, they made a whole product and rebranded their product that when you open the lid to the product or the shaving cream, it says like for you, for the smoothest fucking coach him, and I'm just like, are you kidding?, I think that is so cool. And some people might disagree. They might be like, that's crazy that , as a brand is a professional, well, we're in a different culture now. That is where our culture is. And it resonated really, really well with the TikTok culture and people had a new level of respect for that brand for listening and driving that. Have you worked with some brands that are really good about, letting you be the voice?

Alex Stemplewski:

Yeah, give a shout out to Samsung. They're a great partner. They allow me to control the creative and they have a lot of trust in me. That's allowed me to make really good content for them. I want to get back to just one thing Gary said that I like, which was brands should let the creator decide what to do, give them the money and be hands-off. And I think a lot of brands might be like, if we do that, some of them are not going to do it right. You're correct in thinking that, but some of them are going to create the next, viral chapstick video that you can then use as a new, marketing play. I really liked that approach. And I think , if a brand was willing to just have trust in creators doing what they do best and just say, look, I'm going to hire 10, 15, 20, however many creators. Let them create the content. However they want. You don't have to work with all of those creators. Again, absolutely crush. It five-year like your longterm creator partners and the other ones. They got their money, they did their ad and they're happy to work with them anymore. I just think that the whole approach of like brands coming out TikTok with this very specific idea for each creator or even worse, having the same idea across all the creative., cause each creator is different. Like none of them should be making the same, have the same script, have the same contracts, this+ pre predefined, pre laid out idea. You're not going to allow the creator to do what they do best. They're not going to , find that gold for you \ that's really going to actually , help them.

, Kyle Kaplanis:

I could not agree more. They're coming in. Thinking they're experts in it in a totally different places like me and you. We're going to build a house, meaning you've never fricking built a house in our life yet. We're going to tell all the contractors how to do., you gotta do it like this. You can't use that product. And they're like, what are you talking about? That's the product I'm most comfortable with?, no, you have to use this. And they're like, I don't know how to use it. and they expect to get the same results of them building it with the tools they know. And that's really important, as well. And I'm really glad that you brought that up because, , I love that approach. That's exactly how brands should be doing it. Just like you said, Here is 20 craters. Go for it. And like you said, baby, one of those become the next thing for that brand that everyone's talking about. It becomes a huge meme. It gets talked about all across everyone wants to use that product. That's part of it. And it becomes like a part of the culture of TikTok. And that's what you're looking for. And that would not come from their direction. It would only come from the courageous direction. 100%., awesome. Alex, and, you're doing a lot of really cool things and I know that there's so much more, value there's so many more things that we can look out for and you have a couple, things in place. You're doing a really fun thing. With Koji and people who don't know Koji there, it's like the link in bio, like a link tree or a beacons. They have a link in bio, but what's so powerful about them is they've actually created apps within that link in bio. So when you click one of those things, it opens up a window, , within the link in bio. So you're not having to navigate everywhere else. There's going to be. A Lightroom preset app that Alex is actually known as one of the developers for that. And Alex, that's huge. Are you really pumped about that?

Alex Stemplewski:

I am. Yeah, it's exciting for me personally, , to help develop, and launch an app like this. And, , the app itself is really exciting because, if you're a photographer and. That's either your profession or you want to make that your profession, or you just want some side cash. One of the best ways to make money as a photographer is to sell your Lightroom presets. But the problem is a lot of my photographer friends., they haven't been able to do that because you have, you got to build a website., you got to do this and that. There's a lot of steps to it, but this new app with, within Koji has made it so easy. And I'm really excited to share with the photography community. So that they can really quickly get their Lightroom presets out there and sell them, just like that. I don't know why this hasn't been thought of yet, but, um, leave it to Koji to just come up with it and get it out there. So yeah, I'll probably host like an Instagram live stream explaining like how to set that up within minutes. A matter of minutes, you can be selling your Lightroom presets right now, and you've got an extra source of. As a photographer. And even if you're selling them on your site, put them on your Koji, within your Instagram profile. It's a lot easier to buy them to go to a website and do , the whole checkout thing.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Exactly. And it takes away costs. You don't have to now pay for your website with the whole e-commerce aspect of it, which can be expensive. And, , it makes it very easy and convenient for you. It's so simple. Plus people are really lazy nowadays, even with online, they don't like to leave anywhere. So having a link in bio where they're click the Lightroom preset app. Boom. It's right there. It's so easy. To be able to use and managing, and people can find it so fast versus, Hey, come find me on my website. And then you have to like, make sure your website looks good and is easy to navigate, or you just lose people. Cause people just leave it if it's not easy to use. It's so important and so cool. And I love that for photographers listening in, definitely check that out and you can, get that on your own Koji and be able to put your own presets in there and be able to sell them to, people who really trust where you've taken your photography too. So it's really cool., there's a lot of awesome apps within Koji as well. That is for anybody, any creator out there, there is something for you in there that you could use as well. I'm definitely, a huge fan of them and what they're doing. So thank you. And Alex, for everyone listening in, where can they find you? What's the best places to, follow you and, tell us all your social media.

Alex Stemplewski:

I'm Alex dot STEMP S T E M P on TikTok and on Instagram Alexander, the great, those are my two main platforms. All my content is going to be , on both of those. And if you want to follow me on Twitter, I'm Alex, , stem pesky. If you just type in Alex stamp, you'll probably find my.

Kyle Kaplanis:

Awesome. And yeah, if you guys are interested in any NFTs, anything like that, definitely go follow Alex on Twitter. Cause that's where he's talking there, which is really fun. Alex, I really appreciate you. All the audience that's listening in right now. I made it very easy for you to be able to go follow Alex, because you can just hit the description notes and be able to go click the links and , go directly to him and follow him and see what he's up to. Thank you, Alex. I appreciate your time today, man. And, I also want to say thank you for everybody. That's been listening in today on this episode I appreciate every single one of you, Alex, have a great day, man. And thanks for. Yeah,

Alex Stemplewski:

this was fun. Thanks.

Kyle Kaplanis:

If you're a brand or business that are listening in and you want to work with Alex on some content after you've checked out his page, definitely reach out to me@kyle.com. Planets at project Z talent. I have that in the description notes as well, and we will see how we can work together. Cause Alex will do a phenomenal job for your brand.

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