The Content Strategy You Need To Reach Millions of Engagements

0:00What can TikTok actually do? So that first batch was just a hot mess of stuff that I was posting. And there was never a, here's a place to build my brand. It was a safe space to be myself where nobody's watching. Hello and welcome to Shopify Masters, your companion for starting and building a business. I'm your host, Adam Leventer. As entrepreneurs, we know you're balancing a lot. So how can you manage your time efficiently to become more successful? Maybe even grow your career and an online community simultaneously? Well, it's going to take a lot more than consistent creativity to get the results you're looking for.

0:41And if there's one executive who's mastering this balancing act, it's Tim Chisano. He's the VP of Content at Spectrum Reach, where he leads over 2 ,000 companies to achieve their marketing goals each year. On top of his day job, he runs his own popular TikTok page with more than 1 million followers. With his videos, Tim is changing the way people view the world and making their day-to-day lives easier. Tim, I'm excited to chat all about your marketing and brand building and to get some tips for those time management areas. Welcome to the show. Thank you. You started on TikTok in earnest, I want to say four years ago or so.

1:20And since then, you've amassed quite the following. One million plus followers, I think, at this point. what drove you to start building your brand there? I was driven to experiment I was driven to be in a position where I could just have fun creating there was no intention behind it and I think that that's one of the potential opportunities that people don't see across all generations is just how do you experiment a place and have zero expectations as of what's going to happen and then potentially be pleasantly surprised by what does happen or just do it because you love it or because you're sitting on a wealth of information that you think would be beneficial to other people.

2:04So I got into it for a couple of different reasons. One, I was getting a little sick of Instagram at the time, being a dude born in 1977. Instagram was one of the first apps ever downloaded. I think I'm, you know, within the first four months of it being alive having my first post back in 2010 or whatever that was. And I loved Vine, but I didn't really put a lot of time or effort into it. I never looked at YouTube as a destination to make stuff for other people. It was always just, hey, let me use this for a link to send a friend this random video that I made for no good reason. Never looked at any of those platforms as like, hey, here's an audience opportunity.

2:43It was just a means to an end or just something for me to do for my own creative fun. So when TikTok came around, it was an opportunity to get away from Instagram just being where you go to put a picture of your family. It was like a progressive Facebook for lack of a better description, at least at the time. And still is, I guess, arguably. Once I started to experiment, I had some friends and family that were like, what are you doing? Like, what kind of time are you putting into this? Like, are you having a nervous breakdown? I'm like, no, I just like making protein bar reviews in the peace and quiet of my office for 45 seconds on any given day.

3:19And I was also struggling mightily with corporate culture at the time for just a slew of reasons that were specific to that moment in time in 2019 and where I was in my career and some of the things that I was dealing with. And having a safe space to go just to experiment creatively and be myself was an amazing opportunity. The second reason was my technical title is vice president of production creative services for the 10 of the last 11 years I was overseeing a team of 240 270 at its max that were making small business commercials at scale so my team is basically the reason why you would see Bob's Toyota on tv or that local restaurant show up in some sort of streaming service and you're like, wow, how'd that local business get in there?

4:11My team makes those commercials and it's done so for a super long time. So having knowledge of what the latest technology editing-wise was makes a lot of sense if you've got that large of a team and you're thinking workflow and process and where's the world going? So I was like, what can TikTok actually do? So that first batch was just a hot mess of stuff. that I was posting. And there was never a, here's a place to build my brand. It was a safe space to be myself where nobody's watching. And this makes sense because from a technology perspective, like I should really know what's going on here.

4:54So you start with protein bars. Obviously, you've added a bunch of other sort of content areas to your personal brand on TikTok. There's the family time, there's the fitness, there's the New York skyline, there's all of these things. Are you being purposeful about the pillars of your content today? And what are those pillars? That's a great question. I am being as purposeful as I can be in regards to what's most helpful. And with the feedback that I've gotten, the pillars would be family, work, the balance of the two, what in life is worth stopping and acknowledging, which I would argue is just about everything, but how do I weave that in a way that's not going to be like too much?

5:38Like, okay, dude, you know, enough with waxing poetic about the piece of garbage on the street kind of thing. But at the same time too, making sure that that gets sprinkled in. I had originally put it into two buckets of the things is this true story. The things you put in your mouth and the things you do not put in your mouth. Things you put in your mouth are protein bars, sushi, beer, popcorn. And those were things that I can get very specific and intentional with in those conversations. things you do not put in your mouth are sneakers fashion career advice family perspective and I was trying to break it up in those two because getting into it I was like I'm a hot mess you know it's like oh you got a niche you get a niche you get a niche I'm like this feels too weird I'm already out of my element being here as a 40 you know two-year-old at the time and how do you do that so I try to be more intentional now I've actually made this 40 page PowerPoint presentation for my myself, to basically lay out where am I struggling?

6:37I'm struggling because I don't create the pillars with enough intentionality and then get after them in specific and intentional ways. Because this is off the side of my desk, I'm just running and gunning all day, taking random clips the next morning at 5 a.m. What do I got? How do I tell the story? Is there something useful here? I'm trying to get smarter about it with those pillars between family, career, what in life is worth stopping to make sure you're enjoying. And then I would say the last pillar would be just things that have very specific purpose behind them. And that could be a running path that's worth using.

7:18That could be three tips for skincare. When you get over the uncomfort level of why does anybody care to hear these things from me? Who in the world wants to hear a 46-year-old dude's skincare routine. There's actually a pretty big audience for that, shockingly. The larger theme of people seeing me as a person who's making being an adult less scary, which is probably the most common piece of feedback that I have shockingly gotten over the past four years. How do I lean into that and be like, here's some stuff, seems like this might be helpful. I'll wait and hear from you as to whether or not it is, and then I'll use that as a is at least something to keep in the back of my head as I try to get better and better at planning.

8:02But I got so much stuff on my plate too that it's just go and make stuff and hope it is not terrible. I think there's the side of the audience and how the audience sees you and then how you see yourself and the ability to thread that needle. I was looking at your LinkedIn profile earlier today and you described yourself as, quote, an idiot savant in the social media world that has come to life through a raw, authentic content creation style that inspires 1 million followers to see their career and life differently every day for the better, which is kind of a great description, at least in my opinion, about what you do.

8:39Can you explain a little bit more about why you think your style connects with people? I think it's in the last answer a little bit and where I'm clumsy with things. it's been fascinating and really fun in New York City to have this be happening right now because of the conversations I get to have in the street when you sit down on the subway and somebody next to you you can see them first they might just immediately be like hey or I could see the look on their faces I'm sitting down I'm like this is so wild especially at this age like going through this phase of sorts where all of a sudden people recognize you they might get excited they It might get emotional.

9:21I've had literally people break down in tears having a conversation with me. And I'll say things like, I don't know what I'm doing. Or if someone's very effusive in what they're putting on the table from a compliment perspective, I try to caveat or soften it just because it's in my temperament to try to backtrack on something or be a bit shy or uncomfortable taking compliments. And I'll say, just for the record, I don't know what I'm really doing here. because for the most part, I think I know what I'm going to post later today, but I'm not 100 % sure. And that's like a very consistent part of how I go day to day with all this at the moment.

9:56And I'll have a lot of people that say, I know. And that's actually an amazing response to get when they're like, oh, we can tell. We can tell that you are literally just a dad and a guy that's got this job and you're doing this because you love to do it. And it's not perfect, but that's why they might have that reaction when they see me, because they will feel like they actually know me, which is amazing. And it actually felt really good. I just had my 19 year wedding anniversary and congrats. Thank you. Thank you. Something else I made up off the top of my head was, uh, what do I do? What's my anniversary card in video form to my wife or to the public to acknowledge it on that day.

10:41And I stumbled all over the place with this. And then finally it came to a, I'm going to just take the photos that I have because I have no video from that for the wedding. 2005, people aren't recording with their cell phones yet. Didn't hire a videographer just to have still images. How do I take what I have and make somebody feel like they were there? And because of that connection that I've had with the audience, it actually made it really fun to be like, oh, wait a minute. This is actually going to explain a lot, especially for those that have been around for a while. So the answer to the kind of connective tissue, I think, is that they see that I'm, whether it's an idiot savant or however they would want to describe it, that I'm doing this to the best of my ability with what I have and I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve as I go through it.

11:33Yeah. And I think that's important. I was watching you on another podcast and you mentioned the reliability in you, the relatability and the big one trust, right? And you feel like these are kind of the core values that the market is warming up to. And I sort of feel like these are core values in general that the market is craving right now, given all the noise on social media. Does that resonate with you at all? Oh, a thousand percent. It's almost sad that there's such a craving for because it means that it's not out there in you know in as big of numbers as it should be so i feel like i kind of have to do the cringy stuff so that it's not like oh here comes another expert saying these things it's like i just want you to know me trust me know my background know that at least a general high level understanding as to why i would be telling you this and I think that that's that that general recipe I think can bode well for a lot of people especially those that are trying to connect with broader communities get them to buy into things because you should trust a brand obviously once you're going through the entire marketing funnel so to speak keeping in mind like you know the audience here and kind of like the general broader conversation that we're having and if as you're creating that awareness level if you are intentional with the trust that goes into that, once you're kind of getting further down, and for me, the awareness is just, do you want to follow me or not?

13:00The consideration is, you know, kind of getting into the more like, okay, was it worth having in the feed? You know, for me, the conversion is true engagement. The conversion is showing up every day. The conversion is going into my Dropbox folder where I've got 25 whatever career advice documents that I've just put out there to answer longer questions that I can't answer in a 60 second, 90 second TikTok. But that trust is everything. I think if you don't have the trust, then you got squat. I have a loaded question that's converging between what you just said around the idea of funnel building, right?

13:36So as you continue to build on this personal brand of yours, do you have a monetization strategy in mind? And if so, do you feel like that's conflicting with the origin story of why you got started? I do have a monetization strategy in mind, and I don't think that it conflicts with the origin story because it comes around full circle. And here's what I mean by that. The strategy is getting smart about what the potential within all of this is, with trust having to be that foundational layer. So the monetization strategy right now is trying to figure out what are some reasonable places to invest my time based on the value that I can bring to the table that is going to bring a strong ROI back to me.

14:25Like the book, writing a book, got a book deal. That's to me, that is not counter to anything that I did at the beginning or, you know, getting into this. I love writing. I think I've got a lot of value to bring to the table for the very specific thing that I will be teaching through the book, which is how to get addicted to appreciation. But that's one piece, right? I wouldn't look at content as a single source revenue stream. Tim, it's going to be great to hear more about all of this and your marketing advice for business owners. But first, I want to take a moment to thank our listeners for tuning into the show.

15:03Wherever you're listening, be sure to follow or subscribe to Shopify Masters. Share this episode with a friend or fellow founder. You can also leave us your feedback by writing a review or commenting directly on this episode. Tim, so one of the questions I have in my head as I listen to you is this idea of success and continuing to build on your traditional career path. In addition to the sort of non-traditional career path, perhaps for many people, at least those of our generation, you and I, who are thinking about building something on the side, the way you're describing it. So the pillars of content or even book writing, what have you, these sort of creative endeavors.

15:44For you, how do you straddle both of these things? And as you continue to build on both, is there a point at which one becomes unsustainable? Yeah, there's definitely going to be, it's getting pretty close to that point. Like I've officially maxed out the hours that I can put into any given day. So hence me trying to get smart about what's got the best ROI is broadly speaking, that is not just what is worth the money for me. It is what has the most ROI from a happiness perspective, from a value that I can put under the world perspective. But you know, it's kind of getting to that point where I have to pick and be more specific and intentional with these things.

16:25I can't make short form, make long form, do podcasts, write a book, and grow a career here. Like I need to get even more intentional with my time and then what comes of that. I would say the corporate side of things, it's not too dissimilar. It's about understanding what do I bring to the table here? Obviously what's happening, especially at my level, like what's happening from a leadership perspective, what planning might be in place from a succession perspective, like some of those things, to just have a broader understanding of where's my own growth potential within these walls. Big company, fully within my power to understand not just within the specific department or even our side of the company, but holistically speaking, being cognizant of, oh, wow, like What if that GVP role opened in Colorado?

17:26Would we move? All of those types of variables. So right now it's kind of a soundboard in front of me where there's different elements of career of like, okay, what's happening in my specific space, department overall, company overall? Where's my skill set relative to the modern workforce in general? Is it better as a people leader? Is it better as a creative leader? What type of opportunities might that triangulate into? So I try to keep all of that in the back of my mind on a consistent basis. Because to your point, like at some point, I'm going to turn 47 in September. I don't see it being realistic that this is the exact same way that it is come probably even 48 or 49, let alone 50.

18:15so how do I get really smart about what my options are and quite candidly is it better from a value perspective even if I was going backwards from a monetary perspective is it better from a value perspective knowing what I know sitting here and what I've accrued over the past 10 11 years just from this role because of the vantage point that it gives into the people management, relationship management, whose career is taking off, whose stumbles, all that kind of good stuff. It is very difficult to make a lot of that kind of content with the kind of intentionality that I would like to make it while I'm sitting behind this desk.

18:59Because there's, A, I've tried super hard to not be in a position where I walk into a meeting the next day and someone's like, hey, great tips on dealing with a difficult coworker. Couldn't have been more obviously we're talking about so-and-so like right because those are things if i'm like hey i just got out of this meeting and let me tell you three ways to avoid getting blah blah blah and people like thanks dude you're basically using our day in and day out of being co-workers to you know and that would be that'd be far too easy i mean every day there would probably be like three things that i could make a tiktok out of but i'm here to extrapolate as much insight and perspective as i can for myself and in broad ways that I can pass along.

19:40But then to the question of balancing all of these things, I also have to be cognizant that the most value that I could bring to the table broadly and potentially for my family as well may not be as a marketer. It may be as a, I can create foundational elements that a lot of entry-level employees would want to point to and be like, oh, that video series on X, Y, and Z is basically the reason why I survived my first year in corporate America. Or I've never, I've got something I'm super excited about that I'm working with. There's a not-for-profit around raising awareness about the paper ceiling or what happens when you don't have a bachelor's degree and how that can trigger all kinds of things and make it more difficult to get in the door, grow your career, et cetera.

20:30Or at some point I just have to be like that was really fun to do all those things but I'm just going to pull a JD Salinger and kind of disappear right now and that has crossed my mind a lot like I've come to that last screen of delete account a lot of times like you know and on a pretty ongoing frequency that that will pop into my head of like just go back to your old world so I try to juggle that on a daily basis and still crank out a piece of content that doesn't say all of that in it too Well, let's double click on that. I mean, you said a lot, and I know how difficult it must be to find balance here.

21:08And you are a family man, you prioritize parenting, that's obvious. You've got side hobbies, you're doing a lot. And you've also got a pretty ambitious morning routine, which I believe starts at 4am. So tactically speaking, how do you think about structuring your day and also creating these barriers that allow you to continue to build on what you're creating? The perceived better that you get at time blocking, time management, how you're scheduling things out, you'll get to a point where like, cool, it's good now. Annoyingly, for me at least, it keeps getting to a point where it's like, oh man, I guess there is an opportunity not to like squeeze more things in, but have more intentionality behind it.

21:54so the time is what the time is to your point I wake up at four I go to bed somewhere between 9 30 and 10 most nights I don't watch tv I don't consume a lot of content you know probably if you're taking any 17 18 hour day like we're talking real numbers I'm probably spending 70 ish percent of that time on work I'm probably spending another 20 of that time on family another 10 % of the time on content and ancillary things. And that could shift, you know, on any given day, depending on what the schedule may hold, but it's probably in that ballpark and getting really specific because that 4am to call it 6.15 when my wife has to go to work or 7.30 on days where she doesn't and I've got that time to get out the door it's getting rigorous with not every morning it's going to be 15 minutes this 20 minutes that etc but like Tuesdays are going to be the writing days this is you know I'm what I'm going to shoot on Monday and this is where I haven't gotten to yet I've written it out I know how this can help but it's then about executing and not also being a dog with a squirrel because usually what happens is I'll just shoot things during the day have no rhyme or reason for what I'm doing for the most part and then sit there the next morning once I'm done with my work stuff, airdrop it into a timeline on iMovie and then look at it and be like, hmm, I wonder where this should start and what I can say that's going to be helpful or useful or entertaining in some capacity.

23:32What needs to happen now is getting into this place where it's next Tuesday I'm shooting this so that Wednesday morning I'm voicing that and this could still just be my silly stuff with my phone, but at least parsing it out that way. So like, that's where I need to get to, to make this more sustainable, at least short term. I'm also thinking about the environment in which you're in. So the idea of spinning plates over the course of 17, 18 hour days, being in New York city where you are, I mean, you're not making life any easier in terms of pace. I mean, in the energy. And you sort of glossed over this earlier on in the conversation.

24:13You mentioned the idea of moving to Colorado. I don't know if you literally meant there was an opportunity out in Colorado. But as a parent, as a entrepreneur and senior executive building a career, how often do you think about the city you're in and the power of that place and how it impacts you? All day, every day, there is no, to go back that was just a random example out of my back pocket because we have offices in Colorado and that's where a lot of the headquarters are. But I'm consistently aware of the city for a multitude of reasons. It's extraordinarily grounding and humbling on a consistent basis.

24:54It allows for a tremendous amount of opportunity. And I would argue it's one of the easier places to spin plates to a certain extent. It's easier to get to things. There's everything in the planet is available. So if you have a random idea or if I haven't done the best job of pre-planning something and I need to like go find a gift or like those types of things makes it way easier. And I think that there's more in your control too. There's less of a potential variable of like, oh, I'm going to be stuck in a car in traffic and then therefore I'm like isolated and limited. One of my biggest variables every day is, well, I get a seat on the subway, yes or no.

25:35And then that's an extra amount of time for me to use my laptop. Like that's a serious consideration for me from a time management perspective. It's all of those things that make me more comfortable. I know it would give a lot of other people a lot more anxiety, but it makes me more comfortable. And honestly too, like where I live, there's a methadone clinic that's not very far from us and uses the same subway stop. And it can be an interesting scene depending on like when you're going by. But it's New York City, right? Like there's obviously like a stop in Midtown during rush hour is gonna be a different than a stop in my neighborhood or a lot of other residential places potentially.

26:13But having to see other circumstances and all walks of life, basically all day, every day, with the exception of when I'm sitting here, even going to walk to get lunch, especially on the commutes. So having a broader understanding as to how fortunate I am regardless of how hard I work, how fortunate I am in the grand scheme of things to be sitting here 40th floor, air conditioned space, etc. Because I don't know that I would do a better job with anyone else's circumstances. And so having that perspective in New York City while spinning the plates, for me, creates this almost like Zen element of, cool, we're all existing here together.

26:59This is how I see the things around me and the people around me. I'm going to continue to run my ass off all over the city as often as I can, because this is a window in time, both because of my age and health and like all kinds of things that are just like, yeah, go and do, like, see what's going to happen. If we're talking about spinning all the plates, and you've got one wobbling and a stranger comes and helps you spin it. Because that's happened a bunch when I'm like, you know, especially if I feel like I'm in a general funk or if I feel like the content thing isn't going well. And I've been doing it for a long time to your, you know, first question was like four years.

27:38And yeah, it'll be five years in August since I put my very first one up. And there's been times where I'm like, this is terrible. Let me just pull a JD Salinger and disappear. And then all of a sudden, like within a two block span, you get two strangers that are like, Tim, what's going on, man? I love your stuff. Thank you so much for doing those. And you're just like, oh my God, like, thank you. You have no idea. You think that you think that this is the other way around, but like, you have no idea how much you just saved my soul a little bit. You literally came along and I had a plate that was kind of teetering a little bit.

28:15And you just spun it. You just gave me another day. You just gave me another week. You gave me whatever additional energy. So New York City and the potential here, I would say, is a huge part, not only because of the backdrop and just what it means from a potential environment perspective relative to content making, but the energy and the people are 1000 % a massive variable in helping me, even just if it's reverberating through my feet in the sidewalk, look, spin all these things and keep doing all the things. That's so cool. And yeah, I mean, I'm a big fan of New York. It's where I go to charge myself up if I'm the proverbial iPhone in this equation.

28:57And I feel like I'm operating at 70%. I need to get to 99. I'm going to New York. Okay, so I want to go back to your teens for a moment. You were making mixtapes at around 13. You grew up on MTV. you've said that the Nike Air Jordan 4s changed your life. What do I need to understand here about how these early influences have shaped who you are today, both as a person and as a marketer? I love that. It's foundational. These things are foundational. The idea of even mixtapes, how do you entertain somebody over a longer period of time, but in smaller digestible chunks, potentially tell a story by the way that you're putting things together whether it's general mood it's something you're trying to tell somebody without telling them a way to keep them invested in and keep them surprised too I used to take the recorder and bring it next to the tv so I could catch movie clips or sound bites off a tv to like segue in between songs or to like punch something up.

30:03And that was always kind of fun where someone's like, oh, I totally didn't expect for that line. And back in the day, sometimes soundtracks when they would get released would include 10 second snippets of lines from the movie. And so I love this concept of really just kind of creating something for someone to enjoy, not just like, hey, here's a bunch of songs. I think you'll like them. But like what else is within that? You know, probably way deeper than I should have been thinking about it, but that's just where my brain went. The watching of MTV, especially during that era and like the mid nineties is everything because that's visual stimulation that has without question then seeped into my perspective on pop culture in general, but also going into the stuff that I do still pulling ideas from old Nirvana videos or Biggie Smalls videos.