Cattitude - Episode 293 From Meow to Millions: Inside the World of Cat Influencers

<v Speaker 1>Live. This is pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
<v Speaker 2>Hello, cat levers, Welcome to Cataitude. I'm your show host
<v Speaker 2>Michelle Fern. Hey, have you ever wondered what does it
<v Speaker 2>take to be a cat influencer or more importantly, the
<v Speaker 2>pet pairent of a cat influencer. Well, I've wondered this,
<v Speaker 2>and my guest today is going to tell us all
<v Speaker 2>about it. So stay tuned. We'll be right back.
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<v Speaker 2>Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Ashley. She is
<v Speaker 2>the CEO of Pet Influencer Secrets. Welcome Ashley.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, thanks so much for having me on here. I
<v Speaker 5>am super excited to share my experiences and some knowledge
<v Speaker 5>with the whole audience here.
<v Speaker 2>So what is your background?
<v Speaker 5>Do you do just cats? I own just cats, but
<v Speaker 5>I coach everything from Oh my goodness, definitely lots of cats,
<v Speaker 5>dog influencers. I've worked with bird influencers and one really
<v Speaker 5>interesting like Meer Cat. So a little bit of everything.
<v Speaker 5>But I am a little bit biased because I only
<v Speaker 5>have owned cats, and I do have two cats myself.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, what are their names onug type of cats?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so I call one cat the famous one, he's
<v Speaker 5>the one who started all of this. And then my
<v Speaker 5>second cat is the less famous one. She does have
<v Speaker 5>her own channels. So the famous one his name is Chip,
<v Speaker 5>and Chip is the world's most famous Manx cat. So
<v Speaker 5>that's a in X. A lot of people get it
<v Speaker 5>confused with minx like in X, but yeah, so he
<v Speaker 5>is the world's most famous Minx cat. And then I
<v Speaker 5>have Biscuit, and Biscuit is not related to Chip at all.
<v Speaker 5>She is a CaCO cat. And yeah, they are extreme opposites.
<v Speaker 5>They have their own channels on social media, But yeah,
<v Speaker 5>they're so fun and they're my children.
<v Speaker 2>You know what, before we get into talking about it,
<v Speaker 2>I was wondering and I, you know, we're all about
<v Speaker 2>cats on Cata Cheed, but a lot of cat lovers
<v Speaker 2>also have dogs. Do you think there's more cat influencers
<v Speaker 2>or dog influencers?
<v Speaker 5>So I actually get asked a similar question to this
<v Speaker 5>often because I obviously only have experience with my cat
<v Speaker 5>influencers myself, and so obviously dog creators or people who
<v Speaker 5>want to explore making their dogs famous, they also ask
<v Speaker 5>They're like, well, which one does better? Dogs or cats?
<v Speaker 5>And I know we can definitely dive into this later,
<v Speaker 5>but it is all about how you approach it. Now,
<v Speaker 5>do people love dogs or cats better? I actually think
<v Speaker 5>that they can provide a little bit different emotional reactions
<v Speaker 5>when it comes to your audience. So I personally think
<v Speaker 5>that the cat videos bring about a different emotional reaction
<v Speaker 5>than a lot of dog videos. Dog videos tend to
<v Speaker 5>be more upbeats, more crazy because I just imagine like
<v Speaker 5>dogs that just run around the backyard chasing balls, and
<v Speaker 5>then cats tend to be different in which a lot
<v Speaker 5>of the videos with cats they're laying on your lap,
<v Speaker 5>they're like, your emotional support is just different. And so
<v Speaker 5>to answer your question, I'm not exactly sure because I
<v Speaker 5>think the audiences are a little bit different.
<v Speaker 2>I think you're right. Okay, let's talk about the rise
<v Speaker 2>of the cat influencer or you know how everyday cat
<v Speaker 2>parents can turn their cats into social media stars. So
<v Speaker 2>you wouldn't think this, but you say that cats are
<v Speaker 2>naturals for social media.
<v Speaker 5>Why yeah, So, no matter what, when it comes to
<v Speaker 5>trying to make your cat or dog famous online, it's
<v Speaker 5>all about how you staged them with products or how
<v Speaker 5>you interact with them. And when it comes to cats,
<v Speaker 5>it's easy to storytell about cats because a lot of times,
<v Speaker 5>for example, people with dogs, they'll say, oh, I went
<v Speaker 5>and you know, got this special breed of dog and
<v Speaker 5>I bought the dog, and there just tends to be
<v Speaker 5>a different story compared to cats. It's like, oh, the
<v Speaker 5>cat just showed up on my porch one day and
<v Speaker 5>now we're best friends and they're like my emotional support
<v Speaker 5>cat and the source just tend to be different. So
<v Speaker 5>when people ask me, well, how do I even begin
<v Speaker 5>this idea of being a cat influencer? And I do
<v Speaker 5>want to distinguish the difference between like cat influencing and
<v Speaker 5>cat content creating. So being a content creator would be
<v Speaker 5>more of you have an Instagram or YouTube and you
<v Speaker 5>just share videos and photos of your cat. But then
<v Speaker 5>being an influencer is just a hair different because being
<v Speaker 5>an influencers more of the idea of trying to have
<v Speaker 5>a business around it, because the concept of being an
<v Speaker 5>influencer is you're going to utilize having lots of followers
<v Speaker 5>to actually make money off of having followers. But yeah,
<v Speaker 5>so when people want to even explore this idea of
<v Speaker 5>being a cat content creator or again a cat influencer,
<v Speaker 5>it all starts with just realizing what is the story
<v Speaker 5>between you and your cat. And again, most people do
<v Speaker 5>have sweet or fun special stories with their cats of
<v Speaker 5>how they discovered their cat in a storm drain or
<v Speaker 5>you know, how they found the little kitten on the
<v Speaker 5>side of the road, like those type of deeply emotional
<v Speaker 5>stories and then just trying to figure out how to
<v Speaker 5>incorporate those stories. Because the people who watch our content
<v Speaker 5>as cat influencers, they come to our content usually to
<v Speaker 5>feel something, So the value that we provide is typically
<v Speaker 5>not just like mindless entertainment as I sometimes categorize dog
<v Speaker 5>influencers into but with those cat influencers, it's more about
<v Speaker 5>providing an emotional reaction or emotional experience, so it makes
<v Speaker 5>people feel good. And what's really nice is I have
<v Speaker 5>a lot of followers who for my personal cats, who
<v Speaker 5>say that they're not able to have a cat in
<v Speaker 5>their apartment or my cats remind them of a cat
<v Speaker 5>they used to have, and so the emotional reaction is
<v Speaker 5>truly the biggest thing for us.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, that's really interesting. So what are some when you
<v Speaker 2>talk about, you know, cat influencers. I mean, what comes
<v Speaker 2>to mind first is not a cat that cat has
<v Speaker 2>been super well known. I think what some crazy amount
<v Speaker 2>of followers like ten million or something.
<v Speaker 5>Oh yeah, crazy crazy amount.
<v Speaker 2>I actually met her pet parent at a global pet
<v Speaker 2>exp What are some of the ways that cat parents
<v Speaker 2>can turn their cats into Internet celebrities.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so that's a little bit of a loaded question
<v Speaker 5>because it actually is very multifaceted. But I will go
<v Speaker 5>through at least a little bit of what I would
<v Speaker 5>recommend to someone if they were just interested in learning
<v Speaker 5>about the concept of pet influencing and potentially interested in it.
<v Speaker 5>So the biggest problem that happens is most people love
<v Speaker 5>to just all set it, open up their Instagram, create
<v Speaker 5>a new profile, and just try to post some videos
<v Speaker 5>that they have on the phone, or just post some
<v Speaker 5>photos that exist on their phone. Now to actually become
<v Speaker 5>a pet influencer to the point to where your cat
<v Speaker 5>is making some money or that you are able to
<v Speaker 5>raise awareness for shelters or you know, bring in donations
<v Speaker 5>for nonprofits, which I've I've seen it all over the
<v Speaker 5>past six to seven years of doing this. So it
<v Speaker 5>all starts with being very intentional about your purpose. And
<v Speaker 5>I mentioned earlier about storytelling, so people really follow people.
<v Speaker 5>And when we want people our audience to eventually click
<v Speaker 5>on our links to again donate to a nonprofit or
<v Speaker 5>you know, support a cause, et cetera, they need to
<v Speaker 5>understand us by relating to us and trusting us. So
<v Speaker 5>all that to say, when you consider the idea of
<v Speaker 5>being a pet influencer, you have to keep these things
<v Speaker 5>in mind. How are you going to utilize storytelling and
<v Speaker 5>how are you going to utilize your cat for whatever
<v Speaker 5>mission that you you know, want to go about. I
<v Speaker 5>personally never really recommend people to just want to make
<v Speaker 5>money off their cat because let's be honest, I mean cats,
<v Speaker 5>and they don't live forever, and you know, anything can
<v Speaker 5>happen to our fur babies at any time, and trying
<v Speaker 5>to just build your business off of that that may
<v Speaker 5>not be the smartest long term thing. So what I did,
<v Speaker 5>and I think this is again best for people who
<v Speaker 5>are interested in this content, would be to at least
<v Speaker 5>first go through your phone, because most of us obviously
<v Speaker 5>have phones in which we have many photos of our
<v Speaker 5>cats and or videos. And the first thing to do
<v Speaker 5>is just to look through what content you already have,
<v Speaker 5>so you probably always have some photos and videos of
<v Speaker 5>your cat and to put them in an album, simple
<v Speaker 5>as that. And the next step is probably the most
<v Speaker 5>important thing, and that's simply to research what it takes
<v Speaker 5>to actually become a pet content creator, because any type
<v Speaker 5>of content creator, it does take effort and time and intentionality.
<v Speaker 5>And again, as I mentioned earlier, a mission like a
<v Speaker 5>purpose for whatever you know you are utilizing this channel for.
<v Speaker 5>So that's a very very beginning, but I can go
<v Speaker 5>to any sort of detail that's you're interested in learning about.
<v Speaker 2>You started off a good path. Let's go a little
<v Speaker 2>bit down further, like what's behind the scenes, because what
<v Speaker 2>a lot of people may or may not be aware
<v Speaker 2>of is that that content that you see it might
<v Speaker 2>be two minutes or thirty seconds or or however long,
<v Speaker 2>but that thirty seconds might have taken you know, six hours,
<v Speaker 2>And you see that's more in people videos, you know,
<v Speaker 2>the cool videos. I'm more Instagram than TikTok, but the
<v Speaker 2>cool videos where you see someone in change of clothes
<v Speaker 2>and then they swipe out and there's another thing, and
<v Speaker 2>another outfit, another outfit, another outfit. You see that more
<v Speaker 2>with people than with you know, cats and dogs. But
<v Speaker 2>that what took you thirty seconds to view took hours. Absolutely,
<v Speaker 2>I can't even fathom how intense it must be to
<v Speaker 2>have your cat patient enough to go through all of
<v Speaker 2>those different changes. So what happens behind the scenes.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, this is a great question because of that fact
<v Speaker 5>that people don't have any idea if you've never done yourself. Now,
<v Speaker 5>I will say with dog influencers, the ones I've worked with,
<v Speaker 5>and we talk a lot about this concept of you know,
<v Speaker 5>how to get them to look at the camera and whatever,
<v Speaker 5>it is a whole different story with cats because if
<v Speaker 5>you think of a dog, dogs obviously usually can learn tricks,
<v Speaker 5>they can learn to sit look up, YadA YadA. However,
<v Speaker 5>with cats, it's a whole different thing. My cats they
<v Speaker 5>don't know tricks, they don't know how to sit still.
<v Speaker 5>So when it comes in behind the scenes, I do
<v Speaker 5>a lot of my cat Chip. He gets to be
<v Speaker 5>in a lot of content for different brands, and so
<v Speaker 5>every week I am filming these videos for brands, and
<v Speaker 5>I always estimate somewhere right around two to three hours
<v Speaker 5>for filming for any sort of product, and from there
<v Speaker 5>the editing takes a very long time too. It really
<v Speaker 5>for every video that usually is thirty to forty five seconds,
<v Speaker 5>which is the usual for content nowadays. For about a
<v Speaker 5>thirty to forty five second video, I absolutely would estimate
<v Speaker 5>from complete start to finish, and especially any editing rounds
<v Speaker 5>if you are working with the brand, is a solid
<v Speaker 5>four to six hours. And it's crazy, I think, But
<v Speaker 5>I gotta tell you, when it comes to the cats,
<v Speaker 5>how on earth do I get my cats to do
<v Speaker 5>exactly what I need them to do. I use lickable
<v Speaker 5>treats a lot, so they definitely know the word treat,
<v Speaker 5>and the treat means that they're getting those little two
<v Speaker 5>lickable treats. And I have a certain two certain areas
<v Speaker 5>in my house where I primarily do all of my filming.
<v Speaker 5>And of my two cats, I've got the famous one,
<v Speaker 5>of course, and then the not so famous one, and
<v Speaker 5>the famous one he actually over the years has taken years,
<v Speaker 5>but he has learned that when we go in that area,
<v Speaker 5>when I have my treat, he will come and sit
<v Speaker 5>right there and he'll just look at me, and so
<v Speaker 5>I'll be able to get some videos or some photos,
<v Speaker 5>put a product right next to him, and then take
<v Speaker 5>some photos and videos. And then what I do is
<v Speaker 5>I have my phone on a tripod and then I
<v Speaker 5>will intentionally move the treats up, make his head look up,
<v Speaker 5>and then you know, move it down, or you know,
<v Speaker 5>have him look directly at the camera, et cetera. Those
<v Speaker 5>likable treats have worked wonders. But I honestly have gotten
<v Speaker 5>kind of jealous sometimes with dog creators because they are
<v Speaker 5>able to just have their dogs just sit on command,
<v Speaker 5>and they don't have the struggle of the cats walking away,
<v Speaker 5>walking away, walking away, over and over and over again.
<v Speaker 2>Cats are very smart. It's not that they're not smart,
<v Speaker 2>and they can be taught tricks, but I've gone to
<v Speaker 2>more than a few shows where there were you know,
<v Speaker 2>I saw a big one recently that we were invited
<v Speaker 2>to not too far from where I live in Palm Beach,
<v Speaker 2>and it was this big cat show. And even with
<v Speaker 2>cats that are trained for this type of work, they
<v Speaker 2>still will have a tendency to do what they want,
<v Speaker 2>and the people in the show just, you know, you
<v Speaker 2>just have to go with it. So so it's definitely
<v Speaker 2>much harder, I think for cats, but not because they're less.
<v Speaker 2>They're just as smart, if not smarter. It's just they're different.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, And I think that's a really good statement that
<v Speaker 5>you said. I absolutely know, especially with my Minx cat,
<v Speaker 5>he is so smart. I mean he's smarter than any
<v Speaker 5>other cat I have ever been around or owned before.
<v Speaker 5>But yes, and that's a big thing too in regard
<v Speaker 5>to the cats walking away and just choosing where they
<v Speaker 5>want to sit and whatnot, that is a hard thing
<v Speaker 5>to have to recognize when being a pet, pet influencer,
<v Speaker 5>a cat influencer, is that I just have to roll
<v Speaker 5>with it and do what they want to do, because
<v Speaker 5>I will never just force him, you know, to sit
<v Speaker 5>or stand or do something.
<v Speaker 3>Right.
<v Speaker 2>We're going to take a break and we'll be right back.
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<v Speaker 2>Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Ashley. She is the
<v Speaker 2>CEO of Pet Influencer Secrets and we're talking about some
<v Speaker 2>behind the scenes tips and tricks. You know, my cats
<v Speaker 2>are a big fan of the lickable treats too, and
<v Speaker 2>that's pretty much all they demand. You know what. The
<v Speaker 2>other thing that I've heard about working with cats, and
<v Speaker 2>I've talked to a couple of very well known cat photographers,
<v Speaker 2>you have to go low because cats are small and
<v Speaker 2>capture them, so you have to get low to the ground.
<v Speaker 2>This is just for still photographs, so the same if
<v Speaker 2>they're moving, unless they're climbing on something, which some cats
<v Speaker 2>are great climbers, some or not. But it's definitely a challenge.
<v Speaker 5>Do you have.
<v Speaker 2>Any funny behind the scenes stories that you could share?
<v Speaker 5>Oh? Yes, So to date, I have worked with over
<v Speaker 5>one hundred brands and so I've had my fair share personally,
<v Speaker 5>and then of course getting to hear stories from other people.
<v Speaker 5>But I definitely had my fair share of my cats
<v Speaker 5>doing things that they should not be doing. So for example,
<v Speaker 5>one of my favorite stories, which it's ridiculous, so there
<v Speaker 5>is a litter and it was a certain type of
<v Speaker 5>litter that my cats weren't used to. And I'm sure
<v Speaker 5>you definitely know there are now so many different types
<v Speaker 5>of litter it is crazy. Nevertheless, this litter was very
<v Speaker 5>similar to food, and I put it into I had
<v Speaker 5>my cameras going and I was ready for my cats,
<v Speaker 5>want my cats to walk in and use the litter box,
<v Speaker 5>and the cat, my cat Biscuit, she walks in and
<v Speaker 5>she just starts eating the litter and I was like,
<v Speaker 5>what do I do? And she was just eating. I
<v Speaker 5>was like, is this healthy? It's made out of a
<v Speaker 5>food product, and so that was super strange, And to
<v Speaker 5>this day, I still was never able to give her
<v Speaker 5>to actually use the litter. So I had to be
<v Speaker 5>very intentional about how to film it to make it
<v Speaker 5>look like she had used the box. I even poured
<v Speaker 5>some water into it. It clumped up, it was great,
<v Speaker 5>like the letter totally worked, but she just kept eating it.
<v Speaker 5>So that was one thing. And then another issue that
<v Speaker 5>I have had with my cat chip was the automatic
<v Speaker 5>litter boxes. So I personally love automatic litter boxes because
<v Speaker 5>it saves me time obviously, And the problem was my
<v Speaker 5>cat Chip, he is not such a fan, and so
<v Speaker 5>I've had many many times where he would just not
<v Speaker 5>go in. And of course, like as we said earlier,
<v Speaker 5>you can't just force them to do things, and so
<v Speaker 5>I'd be getting pretty stress. I'm like, oh my goodness,
<v Speaker 5>we are sitting here for two hours. I assembled this
<v Speaker 5>whole thing, got it all set up, You're not using it.
<v Speaker 5>And it was just definitely not just one time that
<v Speaker 5>I've experienced that, but yeah, overall, they are all sorts
<v Speaker 5>of all sorts of crazy things that I've even done
<v Speaker 5>for my cats. I mean, having birthday parties. I've had
<v Speaker 5>one of his birthday parties on like YouTube live, so
<v Speaker 5>people just in there and watching my cat eat a
<v Speaker 5>birthday treat. Like just ridiculous things that you don't even
<v Speaker 5>you know, you wouldn't think about doing for your cat.
<v Speaker 5>I've gotten to do over the years, which is so fun.
<v Speaker 5>So yeah, those are just a few small examples.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, thank you. Let's talk about collaborations with brands. What
<v Speaker 2>do companies look for when they're looking for, you know,
<v Speaker 2>brand collaborations.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so brand collaborations there are two different types, and
<v Speaker 5>I just need to explain these two different types of
<v Speaker 5>people just know how this works, because I assume and
<v Speaker 5>definitely talking to people in my real life, people don't
<v Speaker 5>really understand what brand collaborations are, how this works, so
<v Speaker 5>they're really in our world of cat influence, there really
<v Speaker 5>are two types of brand collaborations. You have your brand
<v Speaker 5>sponsorships and your user generated content. So a brand sponsorship
<v Speaker 5>could be, let's say, in our world of cat influencing,
<v Speaker 5>you have a cat food brand, and the cat food
<v Speaker 5>brand wants my cat to eat their food in a
<v Speaker 5>photo or a video, and that video, let's say it's
<v Speaker 5>a video, could be specifically about that food or it
<v Speaker 5>could be subtly positioned within the video, so it could
<v Speaker 5>be either way. And then there's user generated content. So
<v Speaker 5>I'm sure a lot of you who are listening have
<v Speaker 5>seen brands out there. We're a let's say, famous influencer,
<v Speaker 5>because again definitely couldn't. We're not just talking about pet influencing,
<v Speaker 5>but in general, a famous person could be on their
<v Speaker 5>social media and a lot of times what happens is,
<v Speaker 5>let's say, again in the pet influencing world, the brand says, Hey,
<v Speaker 5>I want you to make a video or photo with
<v Speaker 5>our product and give it to it so that we
<v Speaker 5>can post it. So two different approaches to brand collaborations.
<v Speaker 5>So when it comes to brand collaborations, the biggest thing
<v Speaker 5>that they really do look for is authenticity of content.
<v Speaker 5>So there are a lot of channels out there that
<v Speaker 5>will post the same things over and over over, or
<v Speaker 5>they don't really show the human interaction with the pet.
<v Speaker 5>There was a conversation I had with the marketing manager
<v Speaker 5>of a brand just as a few months ago, and
<v Speaker 5>I asked her this exact same question, and I said, listen,
<v Speaker 5>as the influencer, what do you look for? Because obviously
<v Speaker 5>I'm like, oh, I'd love more brand deals, like how
<v Speaker 5>can I make brands see my content even better as
<v Speaker 5>an option to work with? And she actually said the
<v Speaker 5>same thing, where she said, we care most about seeing
<v Speaker 5>the relationship between the cat and the human. And so
<v Speaker 5>if we think back to what I mentioned earlier in
<v Speaker 5>this episode, already, the storytelling and the emotional impact that
<v Speaker 5>you can portray through your content, through you and through
<v Speaker 5>your cat is really what they're looking for. And so
<v Speaker 5>I get the question often of like I don't own
<v Speaker 5>a camera. I don't own accessory lighting like soft boxes
<v Speaker 5>or anything like that. Like, I just want to post
<v Speaker 5>photos and videos of my pet, But it would be
<v Speaker 5>nice to make some money and work with brands. How
<v Speaker 5>do I make myself a good candidate for working with brands?
<v Speaker 5>And really, you can absolutely just use your phone. You
<v Speaker 5>do not need any fancy equipment. You don't need microphones
<v Speaker 5>for your voiceovers. You don't need cameras or even any
<v Speaker 5>extra lighting, although I usually recommend it, and so brands.
<v Speaker 5>In what I tell people is really really what matters
<v Speaker 5>most is that you just study how to do storytelling
<v Speaker 5>in a thirty to forty five second time frame, which
<v Speaker 5>is hard, and that is that's kind of the hardest
<v Speaker 5>part is just learning how to do that aspect of it.
<v Speaker 5>But yeah, you can seriously become a pet influencer with
<v Speaker 5>zero dollars and just your camera and your cat.
<v Speaker 2>And a couple questions. So you said channels, Are you
<v Speaker 2>talking about YouTube? Ah?
<v Speaker 5>So yeah, So when I say the channels, I talk
<v Speaker 5>about the big three. So you have Instagram. Instagram is
<v Speaker 5>the main hub of where cat influencers are typically, So
<v Speaker 5>that's where when people say I don't want to make
<v Speaker 5>a channel for my cat. They usually open up Instagram
<v Speaker 5>and then from there TikTok is kind of like the
<v Speaker 5>secondary one where a lot of cat influencers exist, and
<v Speaker 5>then YouTube is like third on the tier. If we
<v Speaker 5>would say, but I always recommend everyone actually have all three.
<v Speaker 2>Okay, we have one more topic before we wrap up,
<v Speaker 2>But I have one more question under collaborations and brands,
<v Speaker 2>what is some advice for cat parents if they're approached
<v Speaker 2>by a brand for the first time.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so this is a big question because I actually
<v Speaker 5>get this question often from some students and it's scary
<v Speaker 5>and it's exciting. So with brand collaborations, a brands will
<v Speaker 5>approach these I know we talked about the difference between
<v Speaker 5>a brand sponsorship and a UGC or user generated content opportunity,
<v Speaker 5>but even from there we separate it into a paid
<v Speaker 5>opportunity and a gifted opportunity. So let's say you or
<v Speaker 5>you know someone listening here, You're like, okay, if I'm approached,
<v Speaker 5>what happened next? So brands will typically approach you in
<v Speaker 5>two different ways. You have direct messaging like on Instagram,
<v Speaker 5>and then you have on email. So no matter what,
<v Speaker 5>I always recommend people have an email for their cat
<v Speaker 5>on their bio on Instagram, so that brands can reach
<v Speaker 5>out to you. So there are unfortunately a lot of
<v Speaker 5>like spammy channels or brands out there that just try
<v Speaker 5>to take advantage of new creators and they'll say, hey,
<v Speaker 5>I want six videos and I'll just give you this
<v Speaker 5>one toy for free. And so I always recommend to
<v Speaker 5>be very very aware that scams are possible, or at
<v Speaker 5>least brands that are trying to get a lot of
<v Speaker 5>really free or inexpensive free content for their own channels.
<v Speaker 5>But I always recommend, if ever money is involved, to
<v Speaker 5>get a contract. And this is something that not only
<v Speaker 5>like talking to my own students but experiencing this myself.
<v Speaker 5>If you do not have a contract, then you really
<v Speaker 5>are not obligated to get paid. It is almost like
<v Speaker 5>you're verbally agreeing to get paid. And I have had
<v Speaker 5>it before where I made a video for a brand
<v Speaker 5>and then they never paid me, they ghosted me. And
<v Speaker 5>I've heard of this before. So if anything, that is
<v Speaker 5>a big piece of advice, and contracts are scary, especially
<v Speaker 5>if you've never done it before, the concept of like
<v Speaker 5>contract does that involve lawyers, Like all you have to
<v Speaker 5>do if you are in the spot where a brand says, hey,
<v Speaker 5>I'll pay you X amount of dollars for a video
<v Speaker 5>or something like that. Having a contract is so so important.
<v Speaker 2>I absolutely agree and wearing my business hat right now.
<v Speaker 2>One even though love it or hated. There's a lot
<v Speaker 2>of AI around. You can probably pop the contract into
<v Speaker 2>AI and ask for red flags. If it sounds too good,
<v Speaker 2>it might be, so make sure you do your homework.
<v Speaker 2>Say you're not doing a lot of running around and
<v Speaker 2>spinning for myself, you know, I have lots and lots
<v Speaker 2>of listeners on Catitude. As far as followers Instagram, I
<v Speaker 2>don't do a lot with that. I have two shows
<v Speaker 2>on Hotlife Radio. I can only do so much. But
<v Speaker 2>I have been approached by some of those spammers you
<v Speaker 2>know that. Try this for anyone listening. If it sounds
<v Speaker 2>too good to be true, probably is. Doesn't mean it is,
<v Speaker 2>but probably do your due diligence. Say you are not
<v Speaker 2>taken and ghosted and you know, let's say it bluntly
<v Speaker 2>screwed out of what you are promised.
<v Speaker 5>That is so true. It is so true, though, And
<v Speaker 5>I love that you mentioned AI. I actually I love
<v Speaker 5>utilizing AI for idea generation. I am getting pretty bothered
<v Speaker 5>these days from the amount of AI being used to
<v Speaker 5>create like photo and some almost realistic cat content, because
<v Speaker 5>it is taking away from us as the true cat influencers.
<v Speaker 5>But I do use it a lot for like idea
<v Speaker 5>generation and helping with things such as that.
<v Speaker 2>That's what I think it should be used for. I
<v Speaker 2>do not agree with creating content. I don't like that.
<v Speaker 2>There's you know, probably everybody's heard this by now. There's
<v Speaker 2>some movie star they just generated something, somebody Tilly something,
<v Speaker 2>I don't remember the exact name. But I don't think
<v Speaker 2>it should take away from that. But as far as
<v Speaker 2>assisting people and chat GPT, Copilot, Gemini, they're not substitutes
<v Speaker 2>for an attorney. But if you cannot afford one and
<v Speaker 2>you just need some tips on is this okay or not,
<v Speaker 2>there's great advice. But I do not think that that
<v Speaker 2>should be a substitute for content. I don't like that.
<v Speaker 2>I don't think it should be a substitute for artistry,
<v Speaker 2>you know, for creating things that you know people get
<v Speaker 2>paid for.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, one hundred per one hundred percent.
<v Speaker 2>Agree as a help and stuff like that, but you know,
<v Speaker 2>write your own papers, come on you gotta think you
<v Speaker 2>do all that you know, but if you need tips,
<v Speaker 2>you know what's good, go ahead. I use I use
<v Speaker 2>it sometimes for even my shows because I don't always
<v Speaker 2>get information that is extensive for a show, and so
<v Speaker 2>I can sometimes get some just great infro that is
<v Speaker 2>good for my audience. But as far as you know
<v Speaker 2>the content and all that, now, I wish there was
<v Speaker 2>a way to worldly spot it so easily.
<v Speaker 5>I know. Yeah, And on social media you actually technically
<v Speaker 5>have to as a content creator, you have to toggle
<v Speaker 5>or press a button if as you're uploading if it
<v Speaker 5>is AI generated, And I know a lot of people
<v Speaker 5>are not pressing that, but it But yeah, I use
<v Speaker 5>AI primarily as almost like a super version of Google.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, that to me flies, but not for falsifying, because
<v Speaker 2>it might, in my mind my opinion, if you're creating
<v Speaker 2>content and you're spending the hours, you're doing the time,
<v Speaker 2>and then you're just oop, AI just do this, you know. No, Okay,
<v Speaker 2>let's talk about aspiring cat influencers. We talked a little
<v Speaker 2>bit about this in the beginning, the best way to
<v Speaker 2>start a social media page for your cat and what
<v Speaker 2>should you anticipate? And you went over a little bit
<v Speaker 2>this in the beginning, but just kind of a recap.
<v Speaker 2>What are some like maybe bullet points on where do
<v Speaker 2>you start? It's not just about I have a cute cat,
<v Speaker 2>I'm gonna take some pictures poof And also what about people?
<v Speaker 2>So I'm camera shy, I'm photogenetic kinda, but to be
<v Speaker 2>in front of a screen is not my thing. Does
<v Speaker 2>it help for the pet parent to be in the
<v Speaker 2>screen as well? I mean there's authenticity there.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, lots of good questions in that. So I will
<v Speaker 5>answer the last question that you answered first, and that
<v Speaker 5>what had to do with is it best to have
<v Speaker 5>your face on camera? Now, I'm going to explain a
<v Speaker 5>little bit about the again a difference between like dog
<v Speaker 5>influencing and cat influencing here and this will tie in together.
<v Speaker 5>So dogs have their specific breeds. Yes, I know us
<v Speaker 5>cat parrots, our cats do have specific breeds, but it
<v Speaker 5>is a different world when it comes to dog owners.
<v Speaker 5>And a lot of times you can spot certain dog
<v Speaker 5>influencers better than cat influencers because a lot of cats
<v Speaker 5>tend to look the same, to be honest, like they
<v Speaker 5>just do. And so because of that one thing I
<v Speaker 5>talk a lot about to new influencers is you need
<v Speaker 5>to very quickly find a way that your cat can
<v Speaker 5>be memorable and reckoon because of that literal fact that
<v Speaker 5>unless you have a very unique looking cat, which again
<v Speaker 5>most of us don't, but unless you have that, you
<v Speaker 5>need to pinpoint something and so again then people say, well, like,
<v Speaker 5>what what do you mean what's unique about my cat
<v Speaker 5>other than you know, I love them and there are
<v Speaker 5>suites in their sassy or ounre. So when you're starting
<v Speaker 5>out a channel, I mentioned earlier the importance of doing
<v Speaker 5>a lot of research, and really that has to do
<v Speaker 5>more of the technical side of things. Research of how
<v Speaker 5>to edit videos with a basic phone app and you
<v Speaker 5>know how to change the settings on your camera and
<v Speaker 5>just basic technical things like that's really important to spend
<v Speaker 5>research on. But as you're wanting to start up beer channel,
<v Speaker 5>it is important to think about, as I mentioned earlier,
<v Speaker 5>the mission, the purpose of your channel, and the story
<v Speaker 5>that you want to tell about your cat. So if
<v Speaker 5>you are going to be on camera, that actually I
<v Speaker 5>believe is one of the easiest ways for you to
<v Speaker 5>be memorable. Because we are brains recognize faces, you know
<v Speaker 5>one person from the other very very easily, and if
<v Speaker 5>you're going to be starting out every one of your
<v Speaker 5>videos with you on camera. Well, you're going to be
<v Speaker 5>the audience that people watching it is going to recognize
<v Speaker 5>your video faster compared to if it's just your cat
<v Speaker 5>on you know, obviously, on every one of your videos,
<v Speaker 5>it just may take longer time for that video or
<v Speaker 5>your content to be more recognizable. But when you have that,
<v Speaker 5>you have your story, you have the purpose of your channel.
<v Speaker 5>I say. From there, and let's say you've researched a
<v Speaker 5>little bit. Really, the next step, and this sounds basic,
<v Speaker 5>I know, but the next step really is to just
<v Speaker 5>experiment with posting. And I say this, I say it's basic.
<v Speaker 5>I say, oh, I know a lot of people say, okay, okay,
<v Speaker 5>just post. But I have talked to many people over
<v Speaker 5>the years who have gone months of researching and trying
<v Speaker 5>to learn and trying to put together like a brand
<v Speaker 5>book and do all these things, thinking that that's what's
<v Speaker 5>going to, you know, help them. But really what matters
<v Speaker 5>is that you post and you start learning from your posts,
<v Speaker 5>learning what type of audience that Instagram is going to
<v Speaker 5>start pointing your cat towards, and being able to utilize
<v Speaker 5>the analytics from your content you post rather than just
<v Speaker 5>sitting and waiting and hoping one day that you'll do it.
<v Speaker 2>Great information, Okay, real quick. Do you have any tools
<v Speaker 2>or apps to make posting easier? And we don't have
<v Speaker 2>a lot of time, so maybe one or two that
<v Speaker 2>you could share quickly, Like I used to use hoot Sweet,
<v Speaker 2>but that's I think old and gone.
<v Speaker 5>A little bit.
<v Speaker 2>So well see that's why I'm not a poster and
<v Speaker 2>I do cash No so out of touch. What are
<v Speaker 2>some good tools to use?
<v Speaker 7>Now?
<v Speaker 5>Yeah? What do the people use these days? So I
<v Speaker 5>for editing, the two biggest ones are cap cut and Inshot.
<v Speaker 5>I personally use Inshot. I never recommend, ever ever recommend
<v Speaker 5>that you actually edit your content within the app itself.
<v Speaker 5>So if you open up TikTok, it has its own
<v Speaker 5>area where you can film and edit and post. However,
<v Speaker 5>the biggest problem is once it's on that platform, you
<v Speaker 5>cannot get that video and edit it again. Especially with
<v Speaker 5>brand content, you need to always always edit it outside
<v Speaker 5>of the apps. So that's that. Instagram did just come
<v Speaker 5>out with their own app called edits. I haven't really
<v Speaker 5>used it. I just stick to Inshot. I have over
<v Speaker 5>one thousand video drafts in there, so from over the years.
<v Speaker 5>And then you asked about a scheduling app. So a
<v Speaker 5>scheduling app for those of you who are unfamiliar. Let's
<v Speaker 5>say that you make a few videos and photos and
<v Speaker 5>you want to schedule them onto the social platforms. Well,
<v Speaker 5>you have two options here. You can either open up Instagram,
<v Speaker 5>upload your video and post it or schedule it. Same
<v Speaker 5>thing with YouTube, same thing with Facebook, TikTok, or you
<v Speaker 5>can use a scheduling app. I use one called metric Cool,
<v Speaker 5>but it's honestly, it's very similar to hoot Sweet, very
<v Speaker 5>similar to Buffer. All those are just differing samples to
<v Speaker 5>where you can see on one calendar all of the
<v Speaker 5>content that you make, because I usually recommend minimum of
<v Speaker 5>three pieces of content a week to keep the algorithm happy.
<v Speaker 5>And so with that you can schedule out way ahead
<v Speaker 5>all this content making. It really really nice to see
<v Speaker 5>all in one place. Otherwise there's no way to really
<v Speaker 5>see your content calendar in the future on those individual apps.
<v Speaker 2>Great information, Where can our listeners find out more about
<v Speaker 2>what you do and about pet influencer secrets.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, so my main channel that started everything is called
<v Speaker 5>Chip the Manx and then from there again, it evolved
<v Speaker 5>into Penfluencer Secrets. I primarily am on YouTube where I
<v Speaker 5>share a ton of free information and advice all about
<v Speaker 5>this topic about how to make your dog or your
<v Speaker 5>cat or any pet that you have famous in how
<v Speaker 5>to make money from it, because that's why, honestly a
<v Speaker 5>lot of people do it. And then from there, I
<v Speaker 5>have a lot of resources on petfluencersecrets dot com that
<v Speaker 5>you anyone can just look up, and I'm blog articles, videos,
<v Speaker 5>all sorts of resources because honestly, I started penflucer Secrets
<v Speaker 5>for the pure purpose of just showing people that an
<v Speaker 5>everyday person with no experience, no background can make their
<v Speaker 5>cat or dog famous and it's actually not that hard.
<v Speaker 5>You just have to know how the system and processes work.
<v Speaker 2>Actually, I wanna thank you so much for coming on
<v Speaker 2>Catechude and sharing this wealth of knowledge with us. Thank
<v Speaker 2>you so much.
<v Speaker 5>Yeah, this has been great. Thank you for the opportunity.
<v Speaker 2>I hope you all enjoyed this show. I found it fascinating.
<v Speaker 2>I've always wondered what actually goes on in the world
<v Speaker 2>of pet influencers because I'm not one. I'm a podcast host.
<v Speaker 2>Please be sure to check out our site ashley site
<v Speaker 2>is petinfluencersecrets dot com. There's all kinds of great information
<v Speaker 2>on how to become a cat influencer. So thank you
<v Speaker 2>so much Ashley for coming on Catitude. Thank you to
<v Speaker 2>my listening audience for your loyalty for listening to Catitude.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciate it so much. Thank you to my cat
<v Speaker 2>crew which are famous through the airwaves of the podcast.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you Dennis, Charlotte Molly, and of course thank you
<v Speaker 2>to my amazing producer Mark. I appreciate you so much.
<v Speaker 2>Thank you Mark Winter for all you do to make
<v Speaker 2>our shows sound amazing. And hey, remember lose the attitude,
<v Speaker 2>have Catitude.
<v Speaker 4>Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
<v Speaker 4>dot com.
<v Speaker 5>TIDD