“You just never know what’s in store for you when you are traveling the path of what your highest destiny or what your soul wants for you” – VICTORIA MALCHOR
#007 – In this episode, Victoria and I discuss user experience (UX) and how that ties into content creation. We talk through making the decision to quit something good when you want something better, finding your niche, and how to get started on a blog.
This episode is part 1 of the two-part series.
Hope you enjoy the episode!
Have a question/comment or just want to chat? Email me at [email protected]
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Highlights from this episode:
[2:12] Victoria’s journey
[6:09] Victoria: You never know what’s in store for you
[8:48] Understanding your dream lifestyle and then manifesting it
[12:38] How UX applies to content creation
[14:32] To niche down or not?
[20:08] User Persona and what are the 5 questions to understand your ideal client
Connect with Victoria:
A little bit about the guest:
Victoria is a Growth Marketing and Conversion Optimization specialist and has been in the world of sales and marketing for the last 7 years and counting. Victoria is one of the bravest people I know – she quit her job in the middle of the pandemic while dealing with the grief of the death of her mom and her dog, who was 14 years old.
It’s not only her courage that is so attractive but also her ability to take shitty websites and turn them into something amazing. She designed my website!
Resources mentioned:
Free website Audit by Victoria
Transcription:
Victoria Melchor: Things that I’ve learned and that I’m trying really hard to focus on right now after quitting my job is that you just never know what what’s in store for you when you’re traveling the path of what your highest destiny or what your soul wants for you.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: You are listening to the Spicy Chai podcast. I’m your host, Mahrukh Imtiaz, and I’m on a journey to create inspiring, helpful, and meaningful content. This podcast is not going to showcase high-profile individuals spouting hollow advice like find your passion or hustle harder. Instead, my mission is to bring you the voices of people who are just a bit ahead of you. People you can relate to, and the people who will inspire you to put your own voice out there.
So grab your cup of Spicy Chai, and let’s get this show started.
Welcome to the spicy Chai podcast for content creators.
Today’s guest is someone I met in 2017 at the forefront conference, she needed a roommate I needed to save money. And then we went on a zoom chat. I called it a chat, but she very well knew was an interviewer.
Three days of the conference later, I realized she’s pretty cool. You know, I’d like to hang out more with her. So I reached out and said, Hey, would you like to be weekly mastermind buddies.
At that time? It was a pretty cool term to say mastermind. Really, I was looking for cooler friends. Ironically, she said yes. So her myself and two other people we formed the Wednesday wonders. Three years later when meeting weekly on Zoom calls, and I’m proud to call her a part of my soul family.
So Victoria, she’s not just part of my like, really close friends group. She’s actually really cool. And what I mean by that is she’s had the guts to quit her job in the middle of a pandemic, while grieving the death of her mom and her 14-year-old dog. And aside from being courageous, what’s also really fascinating is she’s able to break down extremely complex concepts for me in two really simple ones.
When she writes, she engages people like no other when she speaks, even if it’s like about spiritual stuff, which we might get into today, and might not. And honestly, I don’t, I don’t really even get it when you want it. She speaks about that stuff. She has my attention. So for me, Victoria, you’re really cool. I’m so excited to have you. And welcome to the podcast.
Victoria Melchor: Thank you. I feel like a really cool person now, like after that description you gave about me?
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Why you are and honestly, to be very honest, I didn’t even I don’t even think I did justice, to the kind of things you’ve accomplished so far. So that’s where I would like to start. Like, I’d really like to know a bit more about your journey. Like, just so everyone can get to know like, how did you really get into UX? How did you get into copy? What got you into that? And why?
Victoria Melchor: Um, so it really goes back to 2004. That’s important. 2005 You know, when you’re I was a college student. And it’s funny, I actually had a dream about being in college last night, but I was a college student, and I was a math major at the time. Wow. And yeah, I love math.
But calculus was kind of my limit. And it wasn’t that calculus was my limit. I think I could have done pretty well on calculus, if I had applied myself. But in college, I kind of run into this side of me that doesn’t try very hard, and then doesn’t get results because she wasn’t trying hard.
So, so quick. So when I when I went into calculus, I was like, Okay, I can’t get past this, I gotta change my major. And at that time, or sometime before that I had actually taken a cultural anthropology class, and I fell in love with it.
So I love math, but cultural anthropology, like I really, really loved. And I switched my major 20 topology. And then somewhere along the lines, I picked up psychology as my minor. And everybody kept asking me,
What are you going to do with this? What are you going to do with this? And I always said, I don’t know. Right, but, but part of the reason is that there’s not a lot of actually UX at the time was probably still a baby. So, you know, I feel like it’s still
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Somewhat is Sorry, continue.
Victoria Melchor: Yeah, a little bit. You’re actually right.There’s so there’s still a lot of people jumping on that UX boat, but I think the market might start getting saturated here in a minute in a minute. But um, but at that point, like, there really, there was really no link that was mainstream between anthropology, psychology and UX.
So fast forward, 2015. I was in you know, I just got jobs. You know, like I did what everybody else does. I got jobs, I worked in foster care, I worked at the Art Institute in Houston. And then in 2015, I went to Machu Picchu. And I did the Inca Trail.
So I didn’t just, I didn’t just go to Machu Picchu, I did the Inca Trail, which I feel like was life changing for me, I knew before I went that I was going to change my life, I just didn’t know how, and being there like I really went back to my roots as a cultural anthropologist, like, I was like, oh my god, this is why I love this. This is why I love watching people, etc, etc.
And that kind of turned into into me looking into okay, what can I do with cultural anthropology and that, and I ended up looking at some people like AI that power the internet basically led me to this guy who was a UX designer, but he was also going by the title of cultural anthropologist.
So that’s where the link started. So that I decided to join what’s a call a bootcamp and I graduated with that in 2017. And it’s really it’s really interesting because you never know. One of the things that I’ve learned and that I’m trying really hard to focus on right now that after quitting, my job is that you just never know what what’s in store for you when you’re traveling the path of what your highest Destiny are what your soul wants for you.
And the only reason I’m saying that is because back then I kept applying to UX jobs. And everybody kept telling me oh, you’re you got a good portfolio. You’ve got you got the skills, you got the anthropology background, you know, you’ll be fine. But I and I get the interviews, but I never make it past the interview. And you’ve interviewed me, so maybe you know why I never made it.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: I think you were pretty decent. Not gonna lie. You’re pretty good.
Victoria Melchor: Thank you. I’m glad I’m decent. Maybe Maybe if I was better, but no, you know what, in the end, I ended up realizing that part of the reason I didn’t get those jobs was because I was meant to go in a different direction. Because as I as I was finally making it past the interview stage, for a company, like I had applied for this job.
And I had been working at the Art Institute for six and a half years at that point, and I was going to the second round of interviews, I had passed the technical test, and my boss at the Art Institute’s like, you’re coming with me, I’m going to the school to do marketing, and you’re coming with me.
And I was like, okay, so I ended up going with her, even though the other job was more money. And it was UX, which I had been trying to get into for like a year or two already. So it was one of those decisions that I made, because I had a dream about it. So I ended up with this job. And I absolutely loved what I did there, it was very much a feeling of I can’t believe they’re paying me to do this.
Right. And that’s really the story of it, because and the thing about it is that I got to use my cultural anthropology because what part of what made me successful there was that I understood the culture of the school. Right, and that I could translate it into visuals.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Yeah. And that’s what’s so incredible, right? You actually really loved your job, and you still decide to quit it because you wanted something more, you got to think you were frustrated, or like this is it you loved it, you were like, but I want something more.
And that’s, that’s like, where does that where does that drive come away? Where did does that come from? of knowing that you’re doing something good, but you want to go for something better? So you need to risk stuff?
Victoria Melchor: Um, I think honestly, it really had more to do with your mic. Sorry. It had to do yes, it had to do a lot with I want something better. And I think that better for me was the kind of lifestyle I wanted to have.
So it really came down to I want to work remotely. And what happened is that because of the pandemic, we all went remote, you know, and that’s when my mom was given her her, her notice that you got three months left to live.
And it just endemic just kind of hit at the right moment. Because it allowed us It allowed on my family. Like we all live in different parts. We all lived at that point at different parts of the US like my dad was in Minnesota, and my brother in Mississippi, and I was in Houston.
And the pandemic allowed us all to get together and El Paso, Texas while my mom was still alive, and what happened is that I was working remotely during that time because the school went remote anyway, so they allowed there. My boss said, You know what, it’s not even a question of should you do it as you need to go do it.
So I moved. And I stayed there for a couple months. And I really fell in love with the lifestyle. I like the idea of not having to, I just don’t believe in the 40 hour workweek. I’ve never believed in it.
And also gave me the opportunity to say, You know what, I’m gonna work three hours now I’m going to work and then I’m going to take a two hour break, and then I’ll work another three hours, and then I’ll take a break, and then I’ll finish out my work day. And I love the lifestyle.
And I’ve always wanted to work remotely. I’ve always dreamed of working remotely. So I said once, but I was scared to do it. Right. I didn’t have a plan. I didn’t have anything lined up.
And once my mom passed, it was really like what am I scared of? You know, so I just, I said, Listen, I love my job, but I want to work remotely. And my boss said, well, listen, I need somebody here. And I was like well and do both. Yeah. So like, it was hard. They try to they try to keep me. They really, really try to
Mahrukh Imtiaz: That’s that speaks volumes right of the kind of work you were doing. Yeah, God I was. I was very lucky. The fact that you got and I watch Apple Watch when you left.
Victoria Melchor: Yeah,I think this is like this was my parting gift. Well, it was it was funny, because I was I’ve been trying to manifest an Apple Watch. Yes, I remember that. Yeah. Like I was literally trying to manifest an Apple Watch. And I just kind of let it go. So and next and during my goodbye party, they they’re like, Here you go. Here’s the gift. And I was like what?So yeah,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: This is where your spiritual stuff comes in, really with the manifestations and stuff. I yeah, I was gonna say like you you mentioned UX a lot. For people who really don’t know what it is. Do you mind going into some of the basics and really just breaking it down?
Victoria Melchor: So how would I describe UX for somebody who doesn’t understand it? What it comes down to? So let’s put it in this tons of applying it for people with websites, who did their website or maybe they paid somebody to make a really pretty website, but they’re not seeing any sales on their website. What UX does is it builds a website that is based on the user.
So for example, if you are a coach, then you build a website, that is reflective of what the person looking for a coach once and would pay for or just basically reflects that mental journey that person goes through as they’re looking for a coach. And, and it gets fed into the design.
And that’s really what UX design is, is building something that is very, very much reflective of what the person who’s going to use it once and needs. And so that they find it very intuitive. So they’re like, oh, this makes sense, you know?
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right, right. And how would that translate for content creators, like for people who are creating Tik Tok, or even Instagram On Facebook, like, Can UX apply to their lives in any way? Are there things they could do? So there is
Victoria Melchor: So yes, because UX stands for user experience is just short for that user. So there is a user experience, design, user experience, research, user experience writing. So for example, there’s the user experience writing portion of it, it deals with content, and it kind of comes to swarm marketing kind of comes to, you know, this is why it’s all the same.
And what it does is you you want to understand, like, for example, one of the things that I’m going to do, I’m going to try to start a blog for my spirituality stuff, because I also want to express that and one of the things that I keep in mind as I’m writing, as far as I’m planning, my content is number one, understanding what people are looking for, what are people resonating with?
What is the journey that people are going through as they as they start exploring what kind of content to create, but then it also becomes about testing. So the testing part is kind of what you do already, which is this is what’s this is what’s working, this is what people are with are resonating with, et cetera, et cetera. But the thing to keep in mind is there’s also that very important aspect of innovation in which
Mahrukh Imtiaz: You’re kind of giving people what they don’t even know they need yet.
Victoria Melchor: Yes, yes, yes, that’s exactly there’s that example with Ford. And what Ford if he if he would have asked people, what do you want, back in the day, there would have been like,
Oh, I just need a better horse or a stronger horse. Instead, he gave them a better car, or you know, so it’s, it’s a matter of innovating, but at the same time, making sure the user’s needs are met. And that’s really what it comes down to what are the people that you’re trying to serve? What are their needs? Right? The people you’re trying to serve is also really, really important to keep in mind as you’re designing or writing.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Yeah, and that comes a lot into like figuring out your niche or your niche, right? So it’s just like, Okay, what kind of person? Do you want to help? When you’re creating your content?
How do you want to help them? What needs do they have? And that’s the big question, usually, the content creators get, or at least for me, I’m always being told, like, make sure you have a niche, make sure that you know, you’re talking to someone in particular.
And from what I’m understanding is what research you talked about is kind of figuring out who that like, who that niche and person is. But how, if someone’s just really just gonna start off? Let’s say, Tomorrow, you’re starting your spiritual blog. What is that process? Could you break that down? Like really, step by step? How could you start doing that?
Victoria Melchor: So it’s, it’s I’m sorry,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Part are no parts, I’m gonna cut
Victoria Melchor: Part art part science, right? Because you have to? You have to play with it. Right? What I would do, if I was because that’s, that’s what actually what I’m planning on doing. Number one is I want to go out there and understand what people are resonating with already. And how do you plan to do that breakdown?
So I’ve got some people. Okay, so that’s a good place to start. So you got your competitors make a list of the people that you follow that are already in the industry? So for me, there’s a couple of YouTubers that I found that I’m like,
Okay, well, I would provide something similar to what they’re providing I can provide similar value. And then what you do is you just compare you have served them, and you want to understand what they’re what need they’re fulfilling, right? And then you compare that to other competitors that you have.
And then you find a couple of things. Number one, what are what are they not offering that you could offer? That’s one thing. So that’s what sets you apart, right. But another thing that I plan on doing is I got to go through some a lot of their blog posts and read comments.
So comments on YouTube are not just for eating popcorn and reading and being entertained. It’s also like really awesome. This is what the anthropology comes in. To me it’s doing digital ethnography.
Have you because you’re looking, you’re reading people’s comments and you’re reading this is what people are like, if people say ask questions, then that could be an idea for content that you could create. Right? So that would be one place to start. And remind me what I’m
Mahrukh Imtiaz: And you know, you’re you’re absolutely right with the with the YouTube in the comments. And that’s that’s kind of how you’re going to start your blogging journey. And what people also say is, you can also respond to those comments.
And like, once you kind of have set up, you would your competitors, that’s how you kind of gain good engagement on your own page. So I really liked that you mentioned, because it’s true, like, it is very important to look at what other people are doing. How, what are they doing?
What are people saying about what they’re doing? And you’re right, and then it’s like, what piece is missing? What Would would you have liked on their page that they don’t have already? And could you add that to yours?
So I like that a lot. And then you talked about, you know, this is the first step, like you’re gonna look at the competitors, you’re gonna look at the comments. That’s how you’re going to start the research part, or the niche finding part, what will be the second step.
Victoria Melchor: So you, you also mentioned about talking to a specific person. And I think it really helps to create what’s called a user persona, or an avatar, Avatar, and user per se. Yeah, and then the professional term or technical term is user persona. But it’s also like, it’s also known on the marketing gurus as client, ideal client avatar.
And really what it is, it’s just a little bit of a, you coming up with the story about this person, you you grab a picture of the internet of what you think they look like you explain what they like.
But this comes from understanding the people you’re serving these comes, the document comes from reading all those documents, reading, sorry, all those comments on the internet and reading, what are people saying, and you’re kind of condensing that into a profile, if you will, so that you can have that and what, let’s encourage the viewers that you print it,
So you have it in front of you when you’re creating content so that you know, this is what I’m talking to. So now you’ve got your user persona, then it just becomes about creating and testing, right. So what’s what’s getting traction, what’s not getting traction. And just going from there,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: I really liked the concept of user persona, or like your ideal client, but for can you give us a bit more into what kind of questions let’s say I’m printing out a sheet, I want to create a user persona,
I’m starting off a blog. In a few weeks, I’m going to search my competitors. And then I’m gonna look at read all the comments. And then let’s say I’m starting my user persona sheet. What are, let’s say five questions that I would like to answer on that user persona sheet just to get started on that process?
Victoria Melchor: That’s a that’s an interesting question. Because really, the only way I can answer that is by telling you that you need to understand the person. And a lot of times understanding that person comes from having conversations with them. So I would actually encourage you to know what to ask,
I would encourage you to go talk to five, actually, five is probably not enough, I’d say seven to 10 people, okay, that would be your ideal client? Do you have actual conversations with them, say and obviously right now, take them out to coffee doesn’t work by you could take them out to virtual coffee.
So and the idea is to we’ll just ask them to tell you about themselves and their journey and start with doing why do you do what you do? Or why are you interested in this? And those are general questions. And the reason those you start with those is because then you can dig deeper, right? Because once you start talking to all these people, you’re going to notice patterns.
And once you notice patterns, then you’ve got your questions, your five questions that you can ask somebody that would make that user persona. So it’s not necessarily that it’s not necessarily that you have five specific questions that you can ask right now. It’s that you come up with those and those questions or the answers to those questions, by talking to people and seeing the patterns of what they’re telling you.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right. And so yeah, definitely, like it’s just fun to first understanding what kind of people you want to reach out to and then start creating content. Because this is where my next question would come in. is, where do how do people know how, how important is this part before you actually start creating, you know, because you mentioned at the beginning, too, like there’s part of it is where you are doing the research and there’s part of it where you are experimenting.
So it’s someone who’s just like starting off creating blog like yourself, or like for me who just started off Tik Tok six months ago. Do I like for someone starting with it in two weeks? Should they invest time doing this research? Or do they just start creating and then doing the side by side? Like do you think there’s some significance to doing this beforehand? Or is it okay to do it side by side too? Or is it okay to do it six months later, as well. Like what are your thoughts around that?
Victoria Melchor: There is no right answer to that because there is people who will get it right without putting in the read the time to do the read. You search. And I’ve actually I’ve worked with people who wanted to hire me as a as a UX designer, well,
I actually didn’t work with them, because they wanted to skip the research part because they wanted to put in all this time into building something that may or may not be something that you can validate, right? And valid is owed to me,
I would always start with the research side of things. Because it gives you more accurate data of what you’re working with. Whereas if you start with without doing the research, then you are just starting making assumptions, which is fine, because again, you can still get it right if you make assumptions.
And if you if you are familiar with the sprints with Sprint’s they’re basically the research process, but instead of doing the lengthy out the lengthy part of research, you’re really just working through a project process of trial and error. And the reason they’re called sprints is because it’s quick. It’s you’re just like, Okay, this worked this great, this didn’t work. Great. And we move on, right?
Mahrukh Imtiaz: What are sprints? Like? Could you could you explain that?
Victoria Melchor: I don’t know how to describe them. It’s basically the design process. So the design process involves, you know, the research, designing for you, sir.
And then testing with the users, you know, making sure everything’s working, et cetera, et cetera, but the sprint, but that process can take, it can take months, right? So when you do a sprint, you’re really just testing, and then improving based on the feedback you’re getting from the test. You’re running.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: So if I understand it correctly, it could be something like for me, I’m going to make 20 Tik Tok videos in the next seven days. In every day, I’m going to make two and then once I’m done 20, I’m going to see what worked and what didn’t, is that a sprint? More or less? Yeah, okay. Okay. Yeah. Because you’re like some defined time around defined targets, to just experiment.
Victoria Melchor: Right? And you’re, and you’re grabbing that as feedback, and then you’re improving upon what you’ve learned. And you go from there.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right? And so,and this, this, there might not be an answer to this question. But like, you know, so for someone who’s like, who’s creating like blogs, or posts, Instagram posts, LinkedIn posts, Tik Tok videos, there’s already that pressure of I don’t, I don’t know if I should record this, or if I should put put this out there.
And then there’s this added thing of research, which is definitely extremely important. But there are people out there that say, Don’t procrastinate on things, either. So where when people do get into that research part, or even apply the sprint methodology, which
I think is great, because there should be some testing, every time you creating, if you want to be a content creator, full time, if this is what you want to do. And if that’s where you’re gonna have to agree, you have to experiment and test. I do agree that you should do research. But do you have any, like, some sort of initial guidance on how much experimenting? How can people experiment and do research and create at the same time
Victoria Melchor: Well, that’s what the sprint is, right? Because if you’re creating something, and you’re creating, and you can start with the hypotheses, and you can start saying, if this happens when I do this, then XYZ, right? And then as you’re executing, then that’s actually your research.
Right? Okay. So because you’re not, instead of doing the research beforehand, you’re just bringing it as part of your process. And honestly, as a content creator, like I understand that it’s what’s it called? Is something over perfection, finish. over perfection. Is that what it’s called?
Mahrukh Imtiaz: I know what you’re talking about, I can’t think of Yeah, so you procrastinate for Don’t be perfectionist, it just makes you a procrastinator. Well, perfection. Perfection is an excuse for procrastinating. Something’s probably something like
Victoria Melchor: Oh,exactly. And the point is that if you if you’re just trying to churn out content, and then this makes sense for you, because quite honestly, yeah, like you can’t, you know, there’s there’s a, there’s some use to do in the research or a little bit of research, because then you can know what people want it.
But at the same time, there’s only so much you can do, you can also get lost in the research. So yeah, so I think that the Sprint’s more or like what them sprint methodology is a lot more helpful for a content creator, because you’re basically doing research as you’re testing, and you’re improving on whatever you’re testing with, with what you’re gathering from what the work that you did,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right? So just to completely break that down into some simple terms. A sprint for someone who’s posting on LinkedIn or Instagram would look something like I’m going to do one post a day for the next 30 days at let’s say a certain amount of time.
And after 30 days, I’m going to say that I get that I’m going to see either if I got more comments, or if I got more followers, or if I just am able to get more reach On my posts, and that is like that would be an example of a sprint.
Victoria Melchor: So two things to kind of address on that. So the first one is 30 days is too long for sprint, you want to do something more like, a week, a week, two weeks, probably long. Yeah.
So that’s so the number one the short periods of time, that’s what’s called a sprint, you know, I feel like a month is a marathon. The second thing, and I just had a brain fart, and I’m trying to think of what it was gonna say about that, um,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: The metrics, were, was it that I said, one certain amount of time post every single day?
Victoria Melchor: Oh, yes. So you want to get granular? Because posting is very general. And I think if you get a little more specific than that, so if you say, if I post about a, so what are you posting about? So maybe I’m posting like personal development? Yeah, are you posting about a, then people are going to like that, and I’m gonna get XYZ. Right? So that’s where your metrics come in.
So like, more engagement, versus and then you can even get more granular done fitness. If I post about people who are on a weight loss journey, then I’m gonna see this, you know, so then you get more granular, because that’s, fitness is still kind of generic. You want to get a look, that’s where the niching down comes in.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right? No, I really liked that. I really liked that some of the concepts, you mentioned, one, looking at your competitors to start when you started your journey, I’ve really liked the sprint. And there’s one more thing that you mentioned that I the balance between research and experimentation, and also metrics, because again, so many times it is very important to record by so if you want to grow in anything, you have to have metrics, and you have to have some sort of system in place for you to do research.
I think I really liked that. And, you know, with, with this research with your blogs, with I mentioned earlier on as well, you’re very good at like taking websites and shitty websites and making them really good. And you mentioned yourself that’s part of UX, right?
Copy is a big part of websites and copies a big part of just content in general as well. So how do you what kind of stuff? Can you tell someone who wants to write better copy? How do you go about writing better copy.
Victoria Melchor: So number one training, I think it’s very important to for example, I bought a course about persuasive writing, because I wanted to understand those concepts. So if there’s things that you feel like you could use to improve upon your skill, then definitely you want to get that training.
But again, don’t let that become your sort of like, that’s the only thing you do, you get stuck doing that instead of actually going out and executing. So that’s number one.
Number two, is understanding your ideal client.
And again, it goes back to those conversations that you if you have those conversations with people, then you know what they want, you know, what they’re looking for, you know, what their story is, and then your copy becomes about addressing. Number one, the pain points, number two, what they want.
Number three, their challenges, things of the sort and ideas to address those in a specific, I believe there’s a very specific, what’s it called, sequence that you can use. And, and you should be able to find out on the internet, if you do like sequence of a sales page or something like that. And it’s very specific, like you start out with this, you need to continue with this at cetera, et cetera. And if you compare sales pages for dog for products, and you’ll probably notice that they have a lot of the same, the same sequence,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right? That’s fair, just kind of looking at what people are doing and how they’re kind of writing and also upgrading your own skills, taking courses, buying books, I totally, totally get that. And there’s also a part aside from copy. There’s also the brand piece, right, where you need to know how to brand yourself, when you’re putting yourself out there.
And I know you speak a lot about getting to know your ideal client. But for someone, let’s say starting off who doesn’t know their ideal client, and they haven’t started the journey of getting to know their ideal client, when they’re putting themselves out there. Do they even try to brand themselves? Or do they just kind of go with the flow and then figure it out?
Victoria Melchor: Later, I think I think I would go with the flow and figure it out. Because the thing is, again, you could you could stay in analysis paralysis forever, right? Like, I’m pretty familiar with that myself. So I’d rather go out there and throw myself in the water and learn as I go and learn what are people looking for as you’re going which is again, the sprint mental methodology basically, because you have to have at least a general idea, right?
You might not be super granular on your niche kind of like I just did earlier like went from fitness to people who are on a weight loss journey. or who want to, you know, because that’s somebody very different from somebody who works out because they want to be toned. Right? Right.
Somebody and if you want to get a fitness journey want to get more granular, then it’s moms who want to lose their baby weight kind of thing. Right? So, you know, but you only learn that from talking to people or from observing people or from observing answering the questions people have. But I think a lot of it too has to do with what you’re interested in.
Because I don’t know that I could write about weight loss as somebody who doesn’t die it, right. Those that are, you know, it doesn’t really work out. So you know, your audience, in a sense, I think comes down to what you do, which is I am, my audience is me, X months or X years ago,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: rRght? Yeah, they like I’ve heard that a lot like your niche is, could be a younger self, your younger self, it’s like, oh, younger mark is someone who’s going to pay attention to my content, because again, I want to be fitter. I want to be a content creator, I want to be a full time entrepreneur one day.
And I’m definitely ahead. I’m not there yet. But I’m ahead of Mark five years ago. So yeah, I can definitely agree with and on that point of like, you’ve from my conversation, like for our from our conversation, actually, it’s pretty apparent that it’s important to understand who you’re talking to, at a generic, like baseline level.
There are so many people content creators out there, especially on platforms, like tick tock. They they’re creating, and they might have like, lots of followers like 20,000 30,000, just because the reach the platform has.
But if I could, if I have were to have conversations with them, they won’t have a single clue on who their audience is, is how bad is that? Or like, how would you how do you think that might impact them? Or will that impact them at all? Or does it not matter? For some people? Like, could you talk a bit about that? I don’t I don’t,
Victoria Melchor: I don’t think it’s a bad thing? I don’t know. They might not be. Maybe it doesn’t apply to them. You know, and the thing about this is that, and that’s why I was saying earlier, you asked something along the lines of the way to approach the situation.
And I’ll say, well, there really is no right answer. I just, you know, and then you have like Instagram models where everybody loves to hate on them. Because they’re beautiful, but they have like millions of followers.
They do. Yeah. You know, and some of them might just do it, because they just want to take pictures of themselves looking good. And that’s really, and their audiences, maybe people who like to look at girls who look good.
And you know, and that’s that’s, anyway, they don’t know that. I don’t know, I feel like it’s a disservice to them. Because if you want monetize, you could I mean, I’m sure that, that switch products, but if you kind of want to hide a lot of
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Gain, that’s kind of what I was thinking, I’m thinking it might impact them when they actually want to monetize their brand. Because I think so all these extra million followers who are just following you, uh, you don’t really know what their voice is, you don’t really know why they’re following you. And it might also impact engagement. Right, like, on your pictures or your posts? I don’t know. Yeah. I mean,
Victoria Melchor: It just, they might not have the business savvy, I think I think knowing your audience, a lot of times it’s very business II term. So they might just not have the business. I’m wondering, maybe they could, you know, if I was, if I was one of them, maybe it’d be like, maybe I should sell a what’s called a wall calendar of myself, right on the beach house, in a really hot bikini. I don’t know, maybe they might try to do something like that. Or they might not. But then again, I feel like those people like, like chicks like that, they might get other kinds of deals. And that’s why they’re doing it. And I think it comes down to why, what they’re trying to get out of it.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: And that’s the complicated stuff, right? It’s or not really complicated, but just different. It’s, it’s kind of difficult to understand why some people can still do well, from a follower perspective, like they can get lots of followers, despite really following the traditional, figure out your niche, do your ideal customer posts a certain way, record videos and a certain style, and they’re still getting ahead.
But at least in my experience, from what I what I’ve seen, even people who have 10,000 20,000 followers, 50,000 million people who don’t really, they’re targeted, their content isn’t specific to something. It’s either they get annoyed or the lack of engagement on their posts, or there’s only certain things they could do or at that moment, they hire a business coach because they have enough to be like, Alright, now. Help me understand how I can monetize this.
But when you kind of go through this process from early on, and you’ve done the hard work in the front, it could help you put yourself in a better position if you decide to monetize your content later on.
Victoria Melchor: I think so too. Yeah. I ultimately I feel like it’s a disservice not knowing who your audience is. or, or why they’re following you
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Yeah, that’s completely fair. Because I mean, at the end of the day from at least from I mean, I was hearing Brene Brown podcast and she said, Nobody who got famous got famous because they wanted to get famous.
You know, she’s like, you know, everyone that did did it because they were trying to serve someone. She was like, she really wanted to get into people who felt a lot of shame and guilt.
And she like she didn’t want to be famous, but she did. So it just always reminds me is that people like really think about adding value to others are the ones in the long run, please get ahead.
Victoria Melchor: Who know, in going back to Instagram models, like what kind of value are they providing? And that is a serious question. I’m not It’s not rhetorical, or I’m not mocking them. Like I’m seriously asking, like, what kind of value are they providing? Like, there’s dudes who, like, they just want to look at a pretty girl right now. And are chicks were like,
Oh my gosh, she’s so hot. I want to be like her. Right? And, and that is a sort of value in itself through that is actually Yep. So it just, but if you don’t understand that, or if you don’t know how to monetize that, then that’s when it’s a disservice to you. And I think part of the monetization comes into understanding where your client is. Yeah. Or your audience, if you will.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Yeah, no, that’s good. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Another thing that I actually really want to touch base on is on your LinkedIn profile, it says, your creative genius.
Victoria Melchor: Yeah
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Creativity are, the skill is something that a lot of people really want to have, or they really want you to, we talked about innovation, you know, where you give people something that so many new videos get viral, because you give people something they didn’t even know they needed.
And even if it’s for entertainment, but how does one work on that skill? Because there might be people who are like, Man, I wish I was a bit more creative to create content, but I don’t think I am can one work on that scale? And how does one work on a scale?
Victoria Melchor: So, okay, so I, there’s there’s two things that I have to say about dots. Number one is, I am privileged, I am lucky that I was born a very creative person, whatever that means, like, I really just, I it’s something that maybe I take for granted, and I shouldn’t because I but at the same time, it’s maybe something that other people can do, right?
So the thing about it is that I also kind of just think outside the bucks a lot. And I do it naturally, because that’s who I am. So that’s I wanted to start with that. Because there’s, there’s things that we are naturally good at, and then there’s things you have to work out to get good at.
And for me, creativity is just something that I’m good at naturally. I’m like, and that’s part of it, because I have a vivid imagination, like, like of charts. So, number one, number two, I do believe everybody has the capacity of being creative. And creativity, I think gets confused with art or being artsy fartsy. Or being
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Or like musical instruments.
Victoria Melchor: Yeah, yeah. And it’s not actually, yes, it is. And it’s not. And I Because honestly, if you if you if you follow people who draw a lot of us, we’re good at it. I’m not as good at it as it could be as I wish you draw.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: I’m horrible at it. I will draw but like, I don’t draw well, but but how long have you been drawing?
Victoria Melchor: Two years? I’ve been drawing my whole life. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Yeah, every time I look at art, from back in the day of mine, I’m like, oh, man, like there’s there’s a there’s a leap in skill. So it’s a skill that you work on.
Right. So that’s why art to me creativity and art. Yeah, they’re related, but they’re not the same thing.
Creativity, it’s, there’s it’s a mixture of thinking outside the box, in my opinion, but it also has an element of creating, you know, even the word says it isn’t itself. So just creating is creativity in itself. And I think we’re, we might be a little bit too hung up on the idea that you have to create something that’s outside the box to to go viral. Right?
If because that’s what that’s what creativity means when Creativity to me, it’s just like you’re creating, and you’re because, and a lot of it to me has to do with expressing what’s inside and giving birth to it out into the world.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Right? So if someone doesn’t know like, they’re like, I wish I was a bit more creative. Would you recommend that they get a book and then just start writing or sketchbook to just start drawing or maybe like a recorder and record like, is that where I start?
Victoria Melchor: I would start with Stop saying you’re not creative.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Just assume power of language. Yeah,
Victoria Melchor: Like, stop, stop with that. And then start maybe referring that into like, I wonder where my creativity lies. Because to me, it’s funny. You mentioned the whole creative genius thing. cuz that was like back was maybe two years ago, when I was starting to apply for UX jobs.
I was like, I made a an intention. And my intention was that I wanted to work on my zone of creative genius. That was my intention, love.
And that’s why I’m saying it’s funny. You just never know what’s gonna happen. You gotta let the universe do its thing, right? Because you never know what’s going to happen. You set the intention, you let the universe do its thing.
And that the term creative, unique genius actually comes from the principal at the work at the school, I used to work out. He, there’s these people he was touring. And he’s like, Okay, this is such and such office, and this is such and such and such and such. Oh, and that’s Victoria.
She says, This is where the creative genius happens. So, you know, such as how you were introduced? Yeah. So amazing. Yeah. And that was like, Holy shit, like I had wanted this. And here I am. Right? But were,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: You mentioned, like two very powerful things, one power of language, making sure that we’re saying the right things rather than saying, Hey, I’m not creative. How do I get creative? Hey, where can I find my creative genius, I love that. And the second thing is universe is working for you.
And for those four different people, that could mean different things. Some people who believe in faith God, other spiritual gods, some people believe in the universe, it’s just kind of putting an intention out there, this is what I want. Like, I want to be a content creator,
I want to be successful YouTuber. I want to be successful tick talker, doing the work every day, but also putting the intention out there to whatever higher power we believe in. So I really love that as well. It’s just, it’s, it’s powerful stuff.
Victoria Melchor: And you have to let go. Because remember, when I set my intention to work in my zone of creative genius, I was applying for you UX jobs, right? Nobody was hiring me. And remember, I ended up doing something completely different. That turned out to be and confirmed my zone of creative genius.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: So So I mean, that’s powerful. It’s just kind of making an intention of me being a successful YouTuber, but also having the ability to let go. That’s, I mean, it’s difficult, but I get it. It’s just kind of like doing everything working hard, but be willing to pivot, as new information comes about, or new opportunities come about and just kind of staying open to everything.
Victoria Melchor: And I think a lot of what has to do with it and testing this. It’s dangerous advice. I’m not advising anybody to go quit their job in the middle of a pandemic and economic downturn. Because right now, like, I’m, I might seem cool on the surface, but I have about three months left, worth of money, right, right, saved in my savings account.
So there’s a point where I’m like, Ah, where’s this happening? Right, I get it. But I think the only thing that’s within my control right now, and the only thing that I can do right now is do stuff that I love. Right? And do stuff that you know, and then, and that’s why I feel like if you’re going to do that content creation, general journey, you have to really love what you’re doing.
Because you have to love it enough to let go of whatever outcome comes because you actually have to be open to the outcomes of that. But again, that’s why I’m saying Don’t try this at home.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: I mean, it’s true. It’s loving the process loving, like creating tick tock videos, Instagram, LinkedIn, even if knowing that it might fail, or knowing that nothing good can come out of it, but loving the loving doing it anyway, I think that’s where a lot of people get confused, or people quit a lot earlier.
Because it’s, I didn’t get followers, because I made four videos, and nobody liked it. I mean, I’ve heard that I’ve literally heard that exact line, or, you know, I’ve been posting once a week, and I don’t know what else to do.
I’ve been doing everything I can. And here I am posting like four times a day, you know, it’s still with like, just sometimes i Because I mean, I do like the process this even this conversation. I’m just enjoying the conversation with you. I don’t know what’s going to happen with the podcast, right? But it’s just the process.
And I do agree. That’s something I have noticed with people who do this more long term with people who quit a lot earlier. It’s people who quit a lot earlier is like I need the money or how can I monetize quickly? How do I get march with stuff onto people can buy versus let me just create add value to people that I think this would add value to for now.
Experiment test? How can add more value? And then kind of go from there? Yeah, yeah. You spoke a lot about advice. What are what is some bad advice that you’ve gotten?
Like, for example, like your even the fact that you’re starting a blog soon, you probably like talk to some people or like, even just with any type of content created, like, what are some bad advice that you’ve gotten, that you would like to share? And why do you think it was bad?
Victoria Melchor: I don’t know. I’m trying to think, don’t know. I can’t think of anything.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: That’s a good thing. You haven’t gotten any bad advice.
Victoria Melchor: I mean, I feel like yeah, there’s a lot of bad advice out there. But yeah,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Even if it’s related to like, websites or coffee or something, like, is there anything that you hear all the time that you’re like, oh, people have to stop saying that?
Victoria Melchor: Not it’s not really. I think it’s more along the lines of people have to start doing the research. But I know I’ve kind of contradicted myself, because I’ve said, Just go out and do it. But you said there’s a balance.
Yeah, there you go. Exactly. But I feel like and I feel like I’ve made this mistake myself before. Back in 2012. I tried the life coaching lifestyle, and it didn’t work out for me. And I think part of it is because I didn’t understand the audience.
And I didn’t do any research about the audience, I just put a page out there. And I said, I can help you live the life of your dreams, which is what every other life coach says. And the reason other life coach says that is because they don’t know their audience, because they don’t know who they’re talking to.
Because they don’t know that maybe they don’t want to live the life of their dreams. Maybe they want to do like, for example, Erin, Erin’s new direction for her website that I’m working on is is people with the mission who want to launch a vision, right? So that’s a very
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Erin’s a guest, one of the guests on the podcast as well. So yeah, yeah,
Victoria Melchor: I think she might talk about this. And that’s very different from helping you live the life of your dreams, which is, you know, and that’s where I think that’s, that’s where copying your competition hurts you. Because then you’re just saying what everybody else is saying when they might not know what they should be saying. And that’s where copywriting comes in. Those conversations you have with people are your copy. Basically,
Mahrukh Imtiaz: No, this is great. Again, it ties back really well to what we initially said that if you want to do this long term, try adding some aspects of research some aspects of experimentation, and there’s different methods one one mentioned was sprint. So I really, really liked that I also really liked the conversation we had about like, creativity universe, and how you have to let go. So one final question for you would be what advice would you give your younger self?
Victoria Melchor: Chill the fuck out? No, you know, honestly, it’s, it’s and I think because I’m going through this right now. Having quit my job and having income. Because whenever I was applying for this UX jobs, it was really hard on the ego to get rejection emails and rejection emails, and oh, sorry, we didn’t like you.
We’re gonna go with somebody else. But I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t have the slightest clue that what I had coming my way was even better. It’s just and I think I think that there’s a lot to be said about. You know, just putting your best foot forward and doing no more. Until you can just keep going. You kind of have to just keep going. You have to be open to what comes your way. Except everything. What expect nothing except everything.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Exactly. Just keep swimming. Yeah, isn’t it or is that Disney? Is that Pixar?
Victoria Melchor: Aren’t. I thought they’re the same thing. No.
Mahrukh Imtiaz: Oh, I have no idea. Well, either way, since I’m in such a big fan. Well, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. For those of you who are subscribed already. Thank you so much for subscribing. For those who have not, please hit the subscribe button. And I’m looking forward to seeing you next week. Take care
