Creating Authentic Content: Tips from Top Influencers Dallin and Bella Lambert
Hang out with Jess and special guests Dallin and Bella Lambert - a creator couple with 2.7M followers on TikTok and 3.07M on YouTube.
(upbeat music)
- My name is Jess Servion,
and I'm super excited to bring you my new podcast,
The Juice With Jess.
This podcast is gonna be about everything
in your customer's journey.
We're talking acquisition, awareness,
making that purchase, retaining that customer,
bringing them back around, and everything in between.
This is gonna be all about delivering dope brand experiences
and talking to some really amazing people
who are in the customer experience space,
the marketing space, and everything in between.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to another episode
of The Juice With Me Jess.
This week, I have Bella and Dallen Lambert,
(laughs)
We have a really interesting story
of how we know each other.
They're some of my nearest and dearest friends,
but they are also, hey, calling you guys this,
but you guys are influencers.
- Oh, I'll plug my ears in and say that.
- You guys are influencers.
I mean, what do you call yourselves creators?
Oh my God, I ruined that.
- I want to say that, right?
- Yeah, they're Korean content creators,
and I love content.
So anyway, without further ado,
I would love like Bella, Dallen,
tell the audience a little bit about yourselves.
I mean, you guys have like a massive following now,
like three million on YouTube.
Like there's a lot to cover in the brand.
Just tell them about yourselves.
Okay, yeah, do you want to say or do you want me to?
- You start and I'll jump in.
- All right, so our YouTube channel is Delav Logs,
and we started it just for fun, basically around COVID.
We just made like goofy videos,
and then as we started to grow,
we decided to do a lot more lifestyle content
and just like filming every day of our lives.
We actually did one period of time
where we filmed every single day for six months,
and that's like the biggest time
that we started to really see some growth.
And then we went through a whole infertility journey,
and we decided to document it and share it
because not a lot of people talk about it,
and we felt very alone in that journey
and so we're like, you know what, we should share it.
And so we started sharing that,
and we gained a following of people
in the infertility community,
and it was actually amazing
because throughout all of our infertility treatments,
we had a community of people cheering us on
and wishing us the best and giving us tips.
That was so nice, it's like having people to talk to.
And then as time went on, we--
Wait, let me start this part.
You're my favorite.
Okay, you should.
Time went on, we ended up going through the adoption route,
and then we adopted a little baby,
and she's the best thing ever.
She's our little-- We adopted our daughter's story.
Beautiful story.
It was very beautiful.
Thank you.
We were literally just talking about how it's really funny
because even though she's not biological,
actually looks like-- I know.
It's so wild.
It is, it is.
It's really crazy.
I think it's very serendipitous.
She's awesome though.
She's just-- The best.
She's our little world, and then, yeah,
so now we kind of just document parent life.
We enjoy traveling.
Yeah.
We took story on our first international trip.
Two of them actually in the last month,
and so we want to continue to travel
and just document our life.
I mean, we though and I do a lot of unique,
cool things we feel like, and so--
Yeah.
It's fun to make videos around those,
and share them with the world, essentially.
Yeah, well, I really appreciate you guys coming on,
and honestly, selfishly the reason I wanted you guys to come on
because this is a podcast about customer journeys,
and acquisition retention, and e-commerce, right?
But I think what's really interesting,
and we talk a lot about marketing,
and influencer marketing, and all these content marketing,
like all these aspects, right?
But what we don't ever really talk about
is the influencer side of that though, right?
Yeah.
Like the brand deals, like the side that--
like the expectations for y'all to like,
produce content, right?
And I kind of-- and what's really interesting now, too,
is I'm actually starting to see a lot of like e-commerce brands.
One, pick up in doing more content creation, right?
Like really doing that creator kind of world
of like creating really like dope content about their product,
or like vlogging, or any of those things
on like the founder journey.
Yeah.
But also the second thing that I'm seeing in Ridge,
Wallets is a good example of this.
People bringing on influencers on staff, right?
To be the content creators and how it's so cool.
Yeah.
So, I mean, let's just start--
We need to get an angle.
Yeah.
Like I think it's a really unique angle.
And so like honestly, that's kind of where I wanted to start.
But before we get there, because we did promise to say this.
So how I even know Bella and Dallin, it's kind of a crazy story.
It is a crazy-- well, I-- OK, so let's actually start there, right?
Like I would love to like on your perspective.
So how I met them is because in the past life--
I know I talked about this frequently-- but I started
customer experience app festivals, which also
was winner experience.
And Dallin won the Golden Ticket in the Mr. Beast bars
and was also the winner of the Chocolate Factory.
Let's go.
It's like so crazy just saying that.
I know.
And what you see on TV is like, you know this--
I forget how long that video is, maybe like 10, 15 minutes.
You see the 10, 15 minutes of the video of like Dallin,
like winning the Chocolate Factory.
But what you don't see is the fact
that we had to spend two weeks in Greenville in a hotel--
hold up for four days because it was like a during--
like cutting off a dab.
Yeah.
The quarantine.
Yeah, quarantining.
That's where it goes.
And production-- that backside of it, just like production
of it, you know?
Well, I would off at our door every day.
And I was like, wow, I was a good winner experience.
You were.
You were.
You were.
You were.
That's pretty much saved that whole experience
because leading up to the filming, it wasn't enjoyable.
I mean, we were stuck in a hotel, which
wasn't the nicest hotel.
But you did an incredible job keeping the spirits high.
Hospitality, baby.
That is good food.
The hospitality, 10 out of 10.
10 out of 10.
What do you recommend?
I'm serious.
I'm serious, too.
Incredible.
I know.
But what's also interesting-- well, I was filming.
And sometimes I would be gone for like two hours filming a set.
You two were in this little room that--
I'm getting attacked by flies because we were in a chocolate
factory that was melting.
Yes.
Do you remember that?
Yes.
It was so hot.
Yeah.
What was that?
August?
August in June.
June?
June?
Yeah, middle of summer.
Greenville, North Carolina.
Yeah.
At the chocolate factory, the Feast Mill's chocolate factory.
It was so fun, though.
We had such a good time.
Looking back is awesome.
So many memories.
So many things we talk about all the time are just like,
can you believe that happened?
I just can't believe, first of all, that we got a golden ticket.
Yeah.
That was the craziest thing because I
know there was so many people that entered.
Everybody was entering to try and get a golden ticket.
And then, Dallin, I call him the lucky Lambert
because he is literally the luckiest person I have ever met.
Yeah, yeah.
If we go anywhere that has a raffle or anything,
he enters and he wins somehow.
I don't understand who lucked him.
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know.
Side note, we went to this charity gala.
And everybody put in their number to win these earrings.
They were $10,000 diamond earrings.
Dallin won them and gave them to me.
OK, are you wearing these today?
No, I don't wear them now.
I'm like, can you believe that?
I know.
I was just-- I couldn't believe I won that ticket.
And then, yeah.
And then I won the whole thing.
Yeah, salad is sold.
Yeah.
Oh, wow.
Well, knowing you guys and knowing how kind you guys are
to other people, and I think you guys are really
deserving of winning really amazing things.
Thank you.
But I mean, I think that was a really crazy experience.
I think, honestly-- and I don't think a lot of people
realize the production that it takes
that goes into content producing.
And I'm sure, even on y'alls, a five minute reel,
or how long are you actually not even a reel?
How long are your YouTube videos usually?
I think they average from 10 to 12 minutes.
But what's the hours of production to that?
Yeah, so many.
That's a good question.
I probably send to our editor probably an hour
to an hour and a half of footage.
Yeah.
And then it dials it down to 10 minutes.
Right.
Yeah, sometimes not so much, but that's kind of my goal.
I've learned that the more footage--
It's better to have more than less.
Yeah.
And have his creative flow in.
You never wish you had--
or you always wish you had more.
You never--
Right.
Yeah.
But anyway, so then our editor spends--
I don't know, sometimes--
yeah, I don't know, I would say 10 to 12 hours--
Yeah.
--putting together the first rough cut.
Yeah.
Then he said that it's me.
And then, yeah, so it's a big production
to put out a 10 minute video.
Yeah, even just a simple vlog, right?
Yeah, which is mostly what we do.
Right.
There's so-- how many cameras do you guys use?
Well, to be honest, I try and only use one, to be honest.
Yeah. With the vlog, because it just gets more complicated
with the more that we use.
Yeah.
But then I mean, I'll always try and fly a drone,
get a perspective.
Oh, Pro, bro.
Oh, yeah, I go pro, things like that.
So I mean, there's probably three or four different cameras
that we send over.
Yeah.
But yeah, we always have our main camera on it.
Yeah.
I think it's just so crazy, because it's
like what I think is really interesting
is the creator economy in general, right?
Or just create a world in general, right?
And how you can monetize.
And I'm not going to go into specifics on those things.
But I mean, it kind of goes into the questions
that I do want to ask you.
Being the creators on the other end,
because I don't want to use influencers.
And I apologize for using that on the beginning.
But going on the other end, the other end of influencer
marketing, how do brands approach you
to do ad space or sponsor a video?
What's that process look like from your perspective?
That's good.
Yeah.
I feel like, well, first of all, we've learned a lot.
I feel like we kind of just were rapidly growing and learning
as we were going.
So it's like we have learned a lot.
And in the beginning, it was just brands reaching out
to us directly.
But as we've grown, we've signed on with management
that helps manage everything for us.
And we like to really be nitpicky about the brands
that we work with.
I think the first thing about a brand for us
is we want to make sure it's something that we actually use
or something that we can receive the product
and try it out for a little bit before we actually talk about it.
I think that's the most important thing.
But do you want to add anything to that?
Yeah.
And then I would just say, what kind of what happens
is then our management approaches us.
We kind of talk over the deal, the product,
kind of the deliverables that the brand wants.
And then from there, we negotiate everything.
And then we put together a package on.
We'd be willing to do this for this type of monetary gain.
And then come to agreements.
Then we execute the brand deal at that point.
Yeah.
I think you guys hit on the one point, though,
to make sure that aligns with your values.
Yes.
Because I think if you think about it
from a brand's perspective, let's say you were
slang and like, I don't know, a curling iron.
Well, a curling iron is not a good example.
I don't know, maybe like a lawnmower.
Yeah, yeah.
Listen, darling, you're a dad.
OK.
You probably have a lot of work here.
OK.
OK.
OK.
Well, but my point is, though, is like, it's not necessarily
content that you always create, right?
Like, you're not going to create a content about a lawnmower,
right?
Yeah.
And like, and it's not even just about values.
It's like value on both the creators and, but also
the brands and too.
You know, like--
I know right away whether the brand or the deal
is going to do well for the brand.
Right.
Like, immediately.
I mean, if they try and pitch us a lawnmower,
I know that if we promote that on our channel,
it's not going to perform well for that company.
Right.
You know?
And so to be honest, we feel bad doing something
like that for the brand's--
you know, for the brand.
You know, they're going to pay us.
And I know deep down that they're not going to get a lot of nothing
in return for it because that's not our audience.
Right.
And so I just--
I feel like we have a good gauge on our audience.
Like, we know our audience.
Yeah.
I feel like we know what they want to see
and what they're interested in.
And we keep a good-- like, we really
try to make sure that we know, like, our audience.
And so I feel like, to your point,
we do know, like, things that they would receive well
and things that they might not be interested in at all.
Right.
Right.
Well, I think that's really important on both ends, right?
Like, a brand deal in, like, whether for, like,
the creator or the brand, right?
It's-- yes, it's values of the products.
And, like, if you guys, like, utilize that product,
and can you genuinely and authentically say, like,
I'm going to use this shampoo, right?
Yeah.
But it's also aligning with the right audience.
I think time and time again, like--
because listen, like, I'm not a creator.
I mean, I'm creating.
Well, like, I'm not a creator.
I don't-- like, I don't live fully on that world, right?
I've lived more on the marketing world.
And so, like, time and time again,
I see brands doing UGC user-generated content, right?
And, like, getting into these, like, kind of deals
with these, like, micro and macro influencers.
And, like, actually, this is a really funny one.
A wellness brand that I've seen,
the influencer couldn't even pronounce colostrum.
Oh, no.
When creating the content.
Tough.
So it's like-- then you know, like, the audience
isn't going to buy that this woman is slinging colostrum,
because you couldn't even pronounce it, you know what I mean?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just think, too, like, the audience knows.
Right.
They've been watching.
They ain't dumb.
They're not dumb.
Yeah.
A majority of them have been watching Bell and I for years.
And it's like, they know us.
They've seen the products we use, the stuff we promote.
I mean, I come out randomly and say, I love this lawn mower.
Like, down you got fake grass.
You never-- you know, like, they know.
Yeah.
Bro, you live in Arizona.
Yeah, Arizona.
It's desert.
Yeah.
So I mean, and just like that, though, I
see a lot of creators out there that do do stuff like that
and try and just fake it until they make it.
And I'm like, yeah, that's not working out.
Yeah.
They know.
Yeah.
I think it's authenticity.
Yeah.
You know, it's authenticity in, like, in any aspect.
Like, whether you have a brand, you're a software company,
or you're the creator, like, slang in it, whatever it is,
like, authenticity sells.
Right.
Yeah.
You can't lie to your audience.
And I think that that's a valuable lesson to, like,
even just, like, in partnerships, right?
Yeah.
We try and hold very true to that.
Yeah.
Well, I think that--
It's good luck.
--values as well.
And I can say, like, even during our infertility,
whole infertility journey, we were--
I was always taking supplements on supplements.
Like, certain supplements that were, like, good for fertility.
And I remember during that time, we had a brand reach out to us.
That wanted to work with us.
It was a supplement.
That was for fertility.
And I wasn't actually taking it.
And I knew that we have a whole community of people
who are going through every--
We're going very well.
Yeah, it would work more incredibly.
Because if I'm promoting it, I'm going through my infertility
journey.
Like, people would probably trust that.
And I just didn't feel good about promoting that,
because I wasn't actually taking it for my fertility journey.
And so I actually turned that one down.
I just feel like it's important, like, to respect also
whoever's being the person that's consuming the content,
because it's like they're going through a hard thing too.
I don't want to say I'm using something when I'm not,
especially when it comes to fertility.
I remember that.
That was hard to turn down, because--
Yeah, sometimes it's hard to turn those things down.
But it's always better.
Definitely better.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think it comes down to values and authenticity.
You don't want just, like, both ends.
Like, it's not always about money.
It's about, like, what rhymes well with your audience.
Really.
I actually have an interesting question
that I was just thinking about.
So like, your channels have grown so much and so rapidly
in the last couple of years, right?
And I think this might be a little bit of a hard question,
but like, oh, maybe not.
If I'm thinking about I'm a brand, right, like, I'm a brand,
and I want to go and work with and do affiliate or influencer
marketing, right, that I want to align myself
with individuals who have values and all these other things.
But on the other side of it, I'm also thinking about,
how do those creators think about building loyalty
to their channels?
And so what I'm curious is, and it's not necessarily
a tactic question, but how do you research
and understand your audience to know what actually hits with them?
Besides just looking at the comments,
are there any other things that you do to really, truly
understand that community?
Yeah.
I think the biggest thing is we can see all the analytics, right?
So we can see, first of all, what videos perform well.
So maybe we know their interests of like, oh, they
like when we travel more than when we do at-home videos
or whatever.
Also, we could see in the back end the age range.
And also, we have more of a female audience, rather than a male
audience, you can see the range on there.
And so I feel like I know automatically that if I promote
something, maybe skincare, hair, something
that females are more typically interested in,
we could see that on the back end.
And we know that that might perform a little bit better.
Also, I feel like because we specifically
went through infertility and adoption,
those are two things that we know that are some of our top
performing videos that people are heavily interested in.
And so for us, we know things that can fit into that niche,
like people are interested in, because they're also
walking those journeys as well.
Yeah.
And so it's like, I feel like a lot of our audience is similar
to us in real life.
And so I kind of see in our audience ourselves.
And so I know like, if I'm actually interested in this,
I feel like people will also connect with it as well.
And stuff that we use daily, people are interested in.
I know you said besides comments, but I think that's like
a massive thing.
That is a big yeah.
I think it's like a review of every product or video
that we put out.
But then even on top of that, like I try and just
engage in messages on Instagram, I think that's huge.
I think it means a lot to our audience when they get a
message back from us.
So we're always trying to just communicate with them, you
know, they'll show their feelings of how much they like a
video, how much they relate to certain things.
And so just engaging with them in any way through messages,
comments, even just liking a comment.
I know.
Oh, like--
It goes a long way.
It goes a long way.
Yeah.
You know.
It just-- yeah, just trying to interact in any way
possible with them.
And you feel for, you know.
And what's so interesting is we'll put out videos, or we'll
put out a video that I don't think is going to perform well.
But yeah, all of a sudden, it just hits, you know, that
right audience.
And they love it.
And it performs very well.
I would just would have never known.
Yeah.
And so--
So that's for surprise.
Yeah.
We're like, wow, people are really interested in this.
So we should post more about this topic.
They like it.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Well, I think it goes down to consistency and
engagement, for sure.
And I think that same thing--
role applies for anybody growing, like, whether it's their
founder journey, or their individual, creator journey,
or brand journey.
It's like-- you don't just, like, put up the stuff and just
leave it.
Right.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
As you grow, you've got to engage because that also
feeds the algorithm.
Totally.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
How do you ever figure out the algorithm?
The algorithm--
Like of any of these channels, you know?
Oh, my gosh.
I wish I knew, right?
It's like-- it's always changing, especially like--
yeah.
The hard thing as a creator is we're not only doing YouTube.
We're doing TikTok.
We're doing Instagram.
We have multiple Instagram accounts that we're running.
Like our Delavlogs account and our personal accounts.
And it's like-- it's constant, like, keeping up with all the
content on there.
It's a lot.
And the algorithm, like, especially on YouTube and TikTok,
it's like, who even knows?
I am.
I think though that a lot of creators get caught up in the
algorithm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't even think you worry about that.
You just try and put out an authentic video that's good.
The best video you can make.
You know, we make a travel vlog.
I try and just create the best travel vlog possible.
Right.
And let YouTube do its thing.
You know, YouTube wants to push good videos.
And they see that if a lot of people are interacting with
the video, it's going to start reaching more and more.
I see a lot of creators that are like, I'm banned from
the algorithm.
And then I watch their video.
And I'm like, actually, that's really not why you're not
getting views.
I hate to tell it.
You know, like, it's not a good video.
Yeah.
It's not the algorithm.
You're like, oh, huh.
Yeah.
Or, you know, and so I just think that don't get caught up in
the whole algorithm without a good, authentic video.
You know what your audience wants to see?
Yeah.
You know what they like?
And let the platforms do the rest.
Yeah.
Do you guys ever dig into it?
Like, this question just came to me.
Like, do you ever dig into like SEO of like YouTube?
Because even for myself, like, I can't even figure it out.
Yeah.
You know?
It just hits or it doesn't hit.
Yeah.
It's basically that.
It's that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's pretty much it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't think there's a real song in the event.
I don't think so either.
I don't think so.
Yeah.
I mean--
Because you talk-- you look at some of the biggest YouTubers
talk about it, and they say the same thing.
Like, they don't even have the method or the science.
But I think the science and the method--
and this applies to anybody doing content at all, right?
I don't care-- again, I don't care
if you're a business or you're an individual.
It's consistency and engagement.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I mean, sorry, I cut you off, but like, that's, in my opinion,
like, what drives?
Yeah.
And I think also keeping up with the times.
Like, keeping up with the trends.
Like, if we were still filming the same content
that we were doing two years ago,
I don't think we'd be growing.
No, I know what we were doing.
I feel like we're just constantly changing our content
and seeing what works and trying to keep up with the times.
And the trends--
Yeah.
No, I totally agree.
I've seen other YouTubers that don't keep up,
that are like really big in one era.
They crush one thing.
And then that trend kind of dies off.
And they can evolve into a new one.
And they continue doing that same trend.
And it just kind of dies out.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You're constantly evolving and things are constantly changing
and not bring up Mr. Vis again.
But he was just on a podcast talking about how he's always
been very fast-paced videos.
And now he's noticed he's slowing things down a lot.
And there's this new shift of a little slower video.
So when watching, you're not getting a big headache.
And if he's not evolving and I use that in our content,
you just always have to constantly evolve as things change.
But constantly critiquing ourselves in our videos,
watching it back and seeing like, oh, maybe if we would
have done this, it would have done better.
Then we'd try it in the next video.
And we're like, oh, that did well.
Let's keep doing that.
So it's always evolving.
I agree.
And I think that those methods of consistency,
engagement, and evolving, and putting it down as tactics
to say, actually breaks it down to be more digestible.
Or anybody who's scared to create content.
And again, and again, it's not just individually.
It's also for the brand too, right?
Because I personally think flipping the script,
not even just an individual creator,
I think that brands, the brands that are the most
successful are creating content now.
They're creating, they're like going viral on TikTok.
They're utilizing TikTok shop to sell their products,
or Instagram, or YouTube, or doing YouTube shorts
and all these things.
But the same rules apply, whether you're individual,
or if you're a brand, it's consistency, it's engagement,
and it's pivoting and constantly iterating.
Imagine if we were on TikTok still doing the dances.
I know.
Yeah, magic.
Yeah, it's constantly changing.
People wouldn't, you just wouldn't do well.
Yeah, that's so crazy that you guys started doing this in COVID.
I completely forgot about that.
Yeah, we did.
It was kind of, we had done a little bit of stuff before that,
but that was kind of like our big pivotal moment
of where we were gonna really dive deep in.
We had a lot of time to just be like,
well, let's just make some videos dancing.
Yeah, we didn't watch that.
I don't dance, please don't go back and watch any of those.
I pray.
Are they still up?
Probably they're out there.
Oh my gosh, I'm gonna take some of those up.
I cringe.
They're terrible.
Oh, dude.
It'll make me dance.
Oh, man.
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Going back to what you were saying though,
like both of you were saying, it's like it is also
like following what's trendy, right?
So like what I noticed like on my individual stuff,
and this is actually really funny.
And why again, there's no secret sauce to it.
It's a sensean engagement, right?
So on my individual stuff on Instagram,
I did like a reel and I actually posted on my private page.
And but I like did a collaboration
with my other, my professional page.
And it got like over 2000 views, right?
But like then I flipped it and did it on my professional page
and did the collaboration like for another one.
Did the collaboration with my private page
and I got like maybe 600 views.
- Interesting. - That's interesting.
- That's interesting how it works.
And I'm trying to be like, I'm actually experimenting.
That's why I'm like bringing this up
because I'm experimenting from an individual level
to like just understand content marketing
even more further, I'm like understanding the sauce, right?
- Yeah.
- And it's just like, it doesn't matter.
Like it's yeah SEO or the keywords or the topics
or collaborating or tagging cities, like all this stuff.
But it's just like, if something hits, it just hits.
- Yeah, all for sure. - Yeah.
That's totally right.
Like there's just no rhyme or reason.
I feel like sometimes it's just like
the most random things will go viral for us.
- And that's why I also say just put everything out there.
People critique it, there are content so much.
That's how you're gonna learn
and that's how you're gonna grow.
Just put out this video and put out this one
and this reel and this short and see what,
see where it goes.
- Yeah. - See what your audience
resonates with and then kind of build off of that.
- Yeah.
Well going back to like just brand and stuff,
I wanna talk a little bit about like affiliate marketing, right?
Like I didn't even grant it, I know.
Like you guys have like a big following now,
but I'm curious like when you first were starting out
and I don't know if you've done this,
but like, you know, if you had like a brand deal, right?
And then you shared like a link for like 10% off or whatever.
What's like, and again, this is in about like secret sauce,
but I'm just curious about the things
that you've learned from then
of like doing affiliate and influencer marketing
for a brand versus now.
Like what are like maybe the top two things
that you think that you've like done differently
to help be successful for those brand deals?
- Oh, that's a good question.
- That's a good question. - Yeah.
- You do one and I'll do one.
- You start. - Oh no.
- Yeah.
- I mean, I feel like it's just always, it's ever changing.
Like the whole brand deal space,
just constantly changing.
And I remember when we first started out,
just like I would be excited if we got sent a free t-shirt,
you know, and I would want to be honest all about it.
And so it's like, I feel like we right now
have just tried to find brands
that we're really excited about, that we want to work with.
And then like we just, I don't know,
we get excited to collaborate with the brands that we love.
And then I don't know, it's just,
this is kind of a difficult question.
- Ooh, did I stop? - Yeah, stop, stop.
- I think so.
- What do you think, tell us?
- How we've evolved.
- Yeah, just like, you know, like just understanding,
okay, so we're talking about like understanding your audience,
like that hits and stuff, right?
I'm sure when you began, you probably were like,
oh yeah, like at least Dallin, right?
Dallin versus Bella even, right?
Like, oh, let's do more masculine stuff versus feminine stuff.
Now you're realizing your audience is more female, right?
So now you're like, yeah.
Okay, so Bella, you're probably like,
oh, let's maybe talk about like stories outfits.
- Yeah. - You know, like, I don't know,
or like the dad content now.
- I just think like looking back at the very beginning
brandos that we did, we just weren't selective on the,
you know, like anything that came our way, we were about it.
It excited us.
- It was very exciting, yeah.
- You know, it felt cool to go on there
and talk about a product and maybe receive some money
or just the free product even, was a cool thing.
So I think anything that came our way,
we were down to do it.
- Yeah. - Where now it's--
- And a lot more selective on those products,
which we talked about earlier.
- Definitely, yeah.
I feel like maybe it's because we also notice like
when we would promote just like absolutely anything,
I feel like our content suffered
because people could see if it's authentic or not.
- Yeah. - And it's not that we were promoting
just like absolutely anything.
It was mostly just like, you know,
I feel like now we're just way more selective.
And like before it was just like,
I don't know, it was an exciting time.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Yeah, I think that that's,
I mean, I think there's a lot to be learned
from even that statement about being selective, right?
- Yeah.
- Even on your end of being selective
and a brand being selective, right?
It's like, again, it goes back to the UGC story
that I was saying where it was like every,
like a micro-influencer couldn't even say
"Clostrum Correctly", right?
And so like, that's like gearing up,
or not gearing up, but like working with somebody
who maybe like doesn't understand that brand, right?
But she's probably not being selective
because she wants to take all the deals.
- Of course.
- And then the brand also is looking to do like anything
and everything for UGC, but it's important to be selective
over the people that you're working with
to produce authentic content.
- I think also something that we have changed
is at the very beginning, we were a lot more,
we were a lot more, I'm not gonna put it,
so when there's a brand deal,
the brand kind of puts on,
they kind of have a requirements for us
where now, well, let me think here,
edit this out, let me gather my thoughts.
- Yeah, you're fine.
- How could I say this?
You know what I'm trying to say?
- I'm not.
- We're like, whenever we have posting requirements,
we're now, we give ourselves more creative freedom.
You know, like if the brand said you need to do this,
this and this, we were like, yes, we're down to do it,
but now it's like, hey, we know our audience a little better,
let us have a little more creative freedom.
- Yeah.
- Now is that good or no?
- No, I get what you're saying.
I absolutely get what you're saying.
So like basically what you're saying is,
you have a little bit more,
it's not even necessarily a creative freedom,
it's just you know your audience a little bit better.
You know your audience a little bit better
and like you're just a little bit more in your game
of like understanding your content.
So it's like, it's not even just about like authenticity,
it's about also the partnership of it too.
- Yeah, they get it that, I don't know.
- No.
- I don't know if that was good or not, whatever.
- I feel like I also like now with brands,
I like to look at the long term,
like I'm like, okay, if this brand that I am excited
to work with, I want to make them want to work with me again.
And so I want to just crush the brand deal.
So then I can have like a long-term partnership
with that specific brand,
rather than jumping to a bunch of brands,
I feel like I'd rather work with one brand for a year
that I love than like 10 brands.
And so that's where my brand is at right now
is like how do I find those brands that I love?
How can I work with those brands?
And I can just like have like a long-term relationship
with that brand.
- Yeah, no, I think that's a really good point.
I mean, it's the same thing that you were saying down to,
like it's not even just about the creative freedom,
it's just like you know the audience
and you're on your end, you want to make it
like a really good partnership.
So you're not gonna partner with a brand
that you can't have like long-term success with.
You're not gonna just take a deal to take the deal.
Like you're gonna like, can I deliver
on your posting requirements,
but also can I have a little bit of a creative freedom
to like do a little bit more, you know?
And then like, and what you were saying Bella,
like the partnership piece of it,
I think that's so important with like anybody
who's listening to this and looking for like the other,
the flip side, right?
Like the core of what we're talking about
is like strong partnerships and relationships
with the individuals that are like representing your product,
you have like and vice versa too.
Also, I think it goes a long way when like a brand,
if they reach out to us,
if it sometimes I feel like there's just like a lot of brands
that reach out to like every influencer,
but I can tell when a brand is intentional
and they like will reach out to us and be like,
hey, I saw that you just adopted a baby, here's this, you know?
And it's like, wow, that's like, that goes a long way for me.
- Nothing is worse than when you get an email
and they forget to change out the name
from the previous influencer that's just,
and I'm like, I don't even respond.
Like if that happened,
which I understand like mistakes happen and it's fine.
And if in the email they talk about us
and that's like the only mistake, okay, it's fine,
but I can just tell when it's just a copy paste email
and they just blasted it out to a thousand people.
- Yeah.
- And I'm like that, that doesn't,
you know, it doesn't really,
- It doesn't resonate with you.
- No, it doesn't resonate
and it doesn't work with kind of what we have going on.
- Yeah, well, you know these people,
like I wouldn't say these people,
but a lot of times like the tactics
of like influencer marketing is just like spamming
as many people as possible going down the list
as many people as possible, right?
And then again, yeah, like mistakes can happen,
but it's so important again,
that when you're creating a partnership,
you're being intentional about it.
Like slow down, take a moment to be like,
okay, Bell and Dallin just adopted story.
Like let me say at least one sentence about this.
So it's like they'll even pick your deal, you know?
And it's not to say, and I just wanna be very clear
because I know we're really talking about it
from the other end, it's not that like
dollar being picky necessarily,
like it's just about like authenticity, you know?
- Exactly.
- Like I know you all,
it's like I know you're,
this does not come from a place of ego, you know?
It comes from a place from like,
you wanna be authentic to that.
- Authentic.
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
- Exactly.
I think that's exactly it.
- I just like those brands resonate more with us.
Like yeah, and they just feel intentional.
So what I'm curious about is as you guys
are creating your content,
are there any influencers or creators out there?
Are there any creators out there that inspire you
on your videos?
Like who inspires you?
- That's a good question.
- I really like, there's these creators called Cara
and Nate on YouTube.
I just love their style of content.
They do such cool videos and just like watching
their content is so interesting.
I feel like they're just like so down to earth
and every time I watch their videos,
I'm like, I just love them.
- They're full-time travelers.
- Yeah, they're full-time travelers.
- So Eric kind of doing more traveling,
we take inspo from them.
Yeah, they're awesome.
They make great videos.
- Yeah.
- There's a lot of other filmmakers out there too.
- Oh filmmakers.
- Yeah.
- Which were not like our videos aren't filmmaking,
you know, they're more vlog,
but I've been trying to learn a lot about
and get inspo from those filmmakers
to just incorporate a little bit.
Like I like the-
- All of yours.
- Yeah, let's hear.
- Delans is Sam Kolder.
- Yeah, I mean, he's a big favorite out there.
- Ever since we were like first married,
Delans always talked about how much he admires Sam Kolder
and I mean, I did too.
His content is incredible.
- Yeah, for sure.
He's, he makes incredible videos.
- He works with Conan too?
- Yeah, I like getting a mechanic as well.
Great photo and video guy.
- Yeah.
- I want you to come out there
where I try and pull pieces from my own.
- The bucket, well family?
- Yeah, bucket's family.
- That has a lot.
- I don't know.
I have like, I don't know.
I just, I admire anyone who goes online shares
something with intention and heart
'cause you can just like feel it.
It goes such a long way when you're just yourself.
I feel like sometimes like I'll scroll TikTok
and I'll say like, I'll see 10 of the same video
and I'm like, if these people would only be themselves,
like this video would do so much better
I see people just doing the same thing over and over.
And I mean, I'm sure I'm guilty of that at some point too.
But it's just like, I've noticed that
when people are intentional you just,
you feel it and you resonate with it so much more.
- Yeah.
- Yeah, I mean, again, authenticity sells.
- Yeah.
- On whichever end of the scope, right?
I do agree with you, filmmaking
is really what inspires me too.
When I was younger, I wanted to be a music video director.
- Oh, the way.
- That's so cool.
- You should direct one of Bao's music videos.
- You wanna direct me to him?
- That's how you say it.
- I think you wouldn't like my word.
- That's right.
We can do it for fun, Z.
- It's so fun.
- Yeah.
- No, I wanted to be, I wanted to direct music videos
and God, this is probably gonna end up to be a short.
I had a camcorder when I was younger.
I like begged for a camcorder.
And I would like fill all my friends and like, listen,
I'm very old.
I'm not old old, but I'm like, I'm not older than you all, okay?
And back in my day, oh my God, on my boom box,
we would play on the radio,
and then we would press record to record the song.
And I would like literally sit down and plan my,
the what songs I was gonna record.
- That's amazing.
- And then I would make my friends go and act out
music videos to the songs.
So like, you know what?
- We would have been friends because I do stuff like that
to all the time.
- I'm the best.
- I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish.
- My mom still has my old videos that I made
with my brothers.
- Yeah.
- I can, Bella Lask, 'cause she's seen them.
- They're so excited.
- I had the VHS tape, I put in that thing,
and we go film anything and everything.
- He would be a cowboy.
- Oh yeah, we did cowboy videos and everything.
- Yeah, awesome.
- I loved it.
- I still love it.
- I love creating content.
- Yeah, it's amazing.
- Yeah, it's amazing.
- So on any type of aspect, I mean, I know we're talking
about influencer marketing, right?
Here, but on the other end of it,
but I just think content is just so fun.
To take a flat photo and make it into motion
and to build the emotional journey of it.
That's why I loved music videos so much.
Probably why you loved it, like, cowboy,
is you know what I mean?
- Yeah, all of it.
- 'Cause it's just so fun.
It is so fun.
Like, we really are just so grateful that we get to do this.
It's so cool that we have this falling,
but like, I feel like even if we didn't have a falling,
we would just be posting videos
'cause we just genuinely love it.
It's so fun.
- And not only that, we're just capturing the memories,
capturing.
- We watch our videos back all the time
and we're like, I'm so glad we have this
because it's such a good memory.
- We're out of video back.
- Dude, I did not listen to my podcast back.
- No.
- None of them.
- That's cool.
- One day you might--
- Same, yeah.
- No, but like a couple years.
- Yeah.
- You will, I promise.
You're gonna look back on this book.
Wow, that was awesome.
- Yeah.
- It's in your chat and--
- Just chat.
- Yeah.
- I love it.
- I think you wish for sure.
- No, for sure.
I think, I don't know.
But yeah, no.
But going back to actually watching yourself back
and critiquing to how you can like be just 10% better.
- Yes.
- And how you produce really good content.
- Oh, for sure.
- Absolutely, yeah.
Okay, one more question that I actually
wanna completely switch gears for a second.
What's the best PR box you've ever gotten?
- Oh my god.
- Oh, this is huge.
- And you cannot say, you cannot say,
- It's like a whole ticket.
- No, you cannot.
(laughing)
- Bella's, I don't get a lot of PR packages.
Bella mostly gets up.
But when they come and there's some epic ones,
they're cool.
- The unboxing experience and good PR boxes
is just so--
- Yeah, yeah.
- Which I wanna talk to you about off camera
'cause I know you're a genius with that stuff.
- I would say honestly, Tristan Akhika,
he does some of the coolest PR boxes
and I felt honored to get one of his PR boxes.
But he does, when the box opens, it drops open,
there's a rose in this little canister
and then dry ice.
- He sells rings.
- He sells rings, but there's elaborate, incredible.
He's so good at his PR boxes.
Yeah, it's so cool.
So I don't know, probably that.
- There's a company go around,
or they're huge, called Nudes.
And they printed a clothing company.
They printed a newspaper article about Bella
and that's what the clothing was wrapped up in.
- Cool. - Pretty epic.
Yeah, I would say.
- They do funny stuff, they're like, breaking news,
Bella was nude, or like, you know, like,
spelled like Nudes, like, they're brown.
Like they funny stuff like that.
- Get play on words.
- Good play on words. - Creative.
- Also, my friend Amber, her brand, Day Hair,
she does such great PR boxes, I get so excited.
But one that I loved, that I thought was so intentional
was their signature scent is orange, like, citrusy.
And they freshly squeezed some orange juice,
and they like left it in this cute crate on my door
with like their shampoo because it smells like the oranges.
And it was just like fresh orange juice.
I'm like, that's just like thoughtful.
- You know what is also so genius about the brand doing that?
You have to post it on your Instagram.
- Exactly. - They're not.
- They're not. - They're not.
- They don't pay you anything to do that.
- Yeah. - But how do you not share that?
- I will 100% of the time post that
because it's so cool. - Yeah, right.
- Like, that's exactly why I asked you guys that, right?
So like on the other end of it, right?
If I'm a brand new brand, and I have a list of my influencers
that I wanna send a PR box to, like,
don't just send the product in like a boring box, right?
- No, it will never get to us.
- It's some intentionality behind your brand.
And in credit, like, I know that this can be costly
for a brand 'cause I fit on this interview.
But even if it's like a personal note.
That's all I was just gonna say.
When we would get notes that would say,
just note congratulations on whatever,
or just anything personal, it just made me wanna
use that brand and post about it.
- Whenever there's a handwritten note,
that always goes a long way.
Like, even if it's just in a boring box,
like if there's a handwritten note,
I'm like, aw, someone took the time to write that
because that takes time.
It's nice, yeah.
- I think that's a really important thing.
So whether you're like a huge company, a small company,
and if you're gonna do any sort of like PR boxes
and like want UGC from like influencers,
it's like the intentionality behind it is so important.
- Definitely.
- And I also love a good unboxing experience,
but I know that they are very costly.
So I'm not saying like, oh my God, you gotta go do that.
But like, just a little extra step.
- Yeah, it goes a long, long way.
- And then you'll be more likely to talk about it
and post about it.
There's also a brand really quick
that's called called Deserve.
They send me a lot of PR boxes.
And I think it's cute because their team members
will take Polaroids while they're boxing it up.
And then they'll write on the Polaroid,
like we love you, like hope you're having a great day.
Like this is us boxing it up.
And I'm like, that's so cute.
- Cost nothing.
- Cost nothing.
But it's like just like a little touch.
I always get excited.
I'm like, oh, how cute are they?
Like boxing this up and sending this.
Like that's so cute and thoughtful.
Yeah, yeah.
- Yeah, so point is, yeah.
Do you want UGC?
You gotta put a little intentionality in it.
- A little heart.
- A little heart, a heart.
- Yeah.
That actually gave me some really good ideas
for like my own influencer marketing extensions too.
So I appreciate that share.
Okay, listen, I actually, for the,
anybody who has made it this far,
I have intentionally not mentioned this stuff,
but Bella's a badass.
- Oh my gosh.
- That's so nice.
- That's a badass.
- That's a lot.
- I just wanna point out that,
and we're gonna talk about this for a couple of minutes
because I actually wanna point out,
Bella owns her own e-commerce brand.
- I do.
- And she started it when she was very young.
14 baby, tell us about origami owl.
- Oh my gosh, yes.
So origami owl, man.
So I'm 27 now for some context.
I've been doing this for a long time.
I started origami owl, honestly, like swear,
just to make $2,000 and to buy a used truck.
I already had it picked out online.
I was like, that's all I want.
And I just started it out of my house.
It's a customizable jewelry collection.
We started with what we call living lockets.
They're lockets that you fill with charms.
And yeah, it kind of started a craze.
I did not expect that to happen,
and the brand grew very quickly.
The name origami owl,
because I'll just address the elephant in the room.
I was 14.
I picked like the two things that I loved in life at the time.
- Origami and owl.
- I had origami hanging in my room.
I thought it was like the cutest thing my friends
and I would make origami, hang it up.
And then I had an obsession with owls.
I used to wear these like massive owl necklaces.
And so I'm like origami owl, great brand name, right?
And so then it really just started something.
And it's become my baby, you know?
I mean, it's just been such a cool thing.
I mean, I don't even know where to start
with like talking about it because there's so much,
but it's been such a blessing.
And I never could have expected it to take off like it did.
Yeah, it's just crazy.
- Well, I mean, we're coming towards the end of it.
So like, and I purposely did this 'cause I purposely did
'cause I really wanted to talk about
like the other side of influence or marketing
and in leave room to talk about
developing a baddie and owning this company.
But the one thing that I did wanna ask about
and you know, feel free to anybody, reach out
if you have more questions.
But the one thing I wanted to ask about is like,
what's so interesting is you guys,
don't you have like a partnership with Disney?
- Yes, we absolutely do a licensing deal.
Yeah, which is like so bad at us.
- Well, it's a long time in the work.
- 10 years of work to get that.
Like I'm not kidding.
Like the amount of vision boards I had to make
for that one to become a reality is crazy.
But yeah, we have a partnership with Disney.
We also at one point have every once in a while
we'll work with Warner Brothers.
Like highlight for me from the collections that we've done
our Harry Potter collection, which was huge.
Obviously Disney and friends, Disney Princess.
And then we did the Trolls movie and the Minions movie.
- Oh wow.
- Which was so cool.
And so I actually got to go to the Trolls red carpet
when Trolls was first coming out.
And that was like a highlight.
I think it was like 18 when that came out.
And it's just like so cool to see something
that you create evolve and grow into what it has.
It's such a blessing.
Like I can't even explain to you how cool it is.
Yeah, I feel like we have to have a whole other episode
with Jack. - I think part two.
- Part two. - Part two.
- It's just so cool.
- Yeah.
Well, I think it's really badass.
And I encourage everybody to look into origami out
because it is really like, it's a badass story.
Like she literally created this when he was younger.
And it's been becoming like the sustainable business.
- Yeah.
- She, you know, they're not just creators.
You know, like they're also business owners, you know?
And they're doing like badass things.
So we're gonna do a part two.
- Yeah, let's do it.
But on that note, I would love for you guys
to plug yourselves a little bit
and tell the audience where they can find you.
- All right, well, you could follow us on Instagram
@dellavlogs or @bellagraceweems is my Instagram.
And @dellamber is Dallas Instagram.
Or on TikTok, it's @dellanexbella.
- Yeah.
- And on YouTube.
- It's just down in Bella something.
- It'll go up.
- It might go up.
And then on YouTube or @dellavlogs
or we have a second channel, @dellavlogs2,
where we post other fun things.
I love it.
Check it out.
- Yeah, yeah, go comment.
Go see what's up to us.
- I will be sure to put it in the show notes,
but I also really appreciate you guys coming on.
- Thank you.
- I feel like having us.
We could be talking for five hours
because we have lots of touch.
- I really think so.
- I love to touch our blood.
I know.
- Yeah.
- But I really appreciate you guys coming on.
And to everybody out there listening or watching,
thank you for tuning in.
And I will see you next week.
Or here you next week.
Or you'll hear me.
(laughing)
Okay, yeah, okay bye.
- Bye.
- Bye.
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You made it to the end of the episode.
That means that you like me and I like you,
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