Hello how do the best performers keep going
on TikTok?
What's going to grab someone's attention in
the first four seconds?
Because that's your window that you've got.
Sometimes it's shorter, depending on what
kind of video it is but you've only only got
your first few seconds to hit someone with
what you need.
Because if you do it for the first few seconds
they'll stay for 15.
If you're still good then they'll stay to
30.
This is the Great British Youtubers Podcast
with me, Neil Mossey.
Hello, it's awesome to have you here.
This is a place where we share advice, experience,
and tips with high achieving creators and
performers just like you - and in this episode
Steven Mckell!
Steven has over 2.3 million followers on TikTok
clocking up over 500 million views.
He also has a YouTube channel so is absolutely
the best person to talk about YouTube vs TikTok.
Steven Mckell!
What do you find are the hardest videos to
make?
Hardest?
Original-- original comedy content is very
hard to make because you have to be-- you
have to be funny and you have to have a good
sense of humour.
You have to be quick.
How do you make a funny TikTok video?
What's your process?
How do you go about it?
It depends on what I’m making.
If I’m making a video like, if I’m using
like a sound underneath it and it's not me
talking - I think "what's going to grab someone's
attention in the first four seconds", because
that's your window that you've got.
Sometimes it's shorter depending on what kind
of video it is, but you've only - only got
your first few seconds to... to hit someone
with what you need.
So my thing is how what if I make a video
that I want to watch for 15 seconds or more,
how can I get the punchline in there - if
it's non-verbal - within the first few seconds.
So I think of that, I think "how can I get
that in there quickly" then, "what's the story
after that?"
Because people love watching a storytelling
that-- if it's-- and that's hard to do itself
if you're doing a comedy video without you
actually talking.
And you're just doing something that's funny,
you're trying to tell the story through your
actions or through the writing on the screen.
So you've got to have a plan and I think:
"plan but don't plan too much"
It's hard, it's like "do this but don't do
this!"
You know "go to work, don't go to work" but
anyway um so you've--
You've got to plan but don't plan too much.
Plan like: "this is the beginning middle and
end" and allow yourself to have a bit of leeway
of um spontaneity have been-- like spontaneous.
Put that in there as well and just do stuff
that you think will be funny and watch it
back, but yeah...
I think that have a plan for it, making sure
you're getting that real comedy punchline
the very first few seconds to hook people
in.
Because if you do it for the first few seconds
they'll stay for 15.
If you're still good then they'll stay to
30.
And people that are really intrigued-- if
you can get them intrigued on what you're
doing then great.
If it's stuff like you know, you actually
want to be a character, and you want to do
like an actual original comedy video where
it's just you talking?
Plan your characters out.
Plan what you want to say out, film it and
film until it's good you know that--
You know those kind of ones where you pretend
to be people and you're trying to be like
"oh I’m gonna you know" - you have to make
sure - I make sure that my timing's quick,
so if it's from speaking from people to people
which a lot of TikToks are and you've got
to get that timing really quick between the
characters.
You've got to know what you're going to do,
and you've got to think how is TikTok going
to perceive this?
What's my caption going to be um-- is
Is it going to be a build up to the end where
people know what's going to happen but are
still going to watch and that's the kind of
stuff that my process is.
If it's character-wise you've gotta, I’ve
got to make sure it's character developed
and but also be spontaneous throughout it
because, if it's too planned TikTok will know.
People that are watching will figure it out.
That's why it's different to YouTube.
YouTube like... people make sketches of actual
like tv shows right.
You can do that on TikTok as well and-- but
if it's not authentic and you really have
planned it out to the point where it's like:
"My name is Stacy, and I’m doing this!
My name's bit--"
People are going to click right off and be
like that's not fun, the person's too much
in their head.
That's really interesting.
When you-- when you're planning do you-- do
you literally write it out or do you keep
notes for yourself?
Sometimes I write it out, if I want to get
a point of view across, if it's-- if it's
not-- if it's a comedy video, but I want to
get a point of view of what I want to say
in the video, I’ll write it out because
then-- I’ll put it in my head but then my
head gets jumbled - mambo jumbo - I've got
dyslexia so sometimes it's like, "what did
I just say?" and, and that's why I always
record if I’m doing takes and stuff because
sometimes you forget what you said - you have
to like watch it back!
I’ll write some stuff down and like this
is what's going to be like a few of the lines
but not all of them because I think you have
to have a way of just ad-libbing it and doing
it and-- and not everyone can do that, erm.
What you might not be good at doing comedy,
you might be good at singing.
If you're not good at singing maybe dance.
If it's not dance maybe it's art stuff, maybe
it's arts and crafts, maybe it's point of
view content.
Some people do really really great acting
on point of view content which I don't-- I
am not great at, I’m not, because how they
edit it and how they make the videos it's...
Yeah if you go on TikTok, you just put in
#POV you'll find a lot of these like dark
videos and you think you're watching like
a little episode of-- it's great!
People do like 10 part series of stuff and
I’m like...
I’m watching the whole thing!
What you're actually outlining is basically
rehearsal on camera.
Do you, you tend to just rehearse record?
See me, sometimes I wake up at 3 in the morning
like "this is gonna be such a great comedy
stuff"
Put my phone up and I’ll film it there then
because my... my mind was telling me this
is really gonna get the best kind of content
for this video, now, so I’ll be in the hallway--
Mum and dad will be asleep and I’ll be like
strutting down pretending to be like a character
and, and I think that's really great because
once you start doing that it's tough to start
with - but it's like any content, whether
it be comedy, singing, dancing, point of view,
meme style, artsy craft and telling-- storytelling
you find a way of doing it that works for
you...
works with people watching your content and
for it to do well.
That's the one thing when you work with brands,
they're stuck with YouTube and Instagram in
mind.
You can't do that for TikTok.
You-- you really should, brands... if the
brands are watching this.
Brands should really open it up to the creator
and say "well what this is - what that's the
idea that we have - and it's great whenever...
when a brand comes with an idea... be like
"we think this" because it shows that understanding
of TikTok and that's great because any company
should look into the platform, they're looking
to promote on or Insta the product on - that's
just the tee! um
So they'll come with a plan and I’ll say--
this is me just rambling on now-- and I’ll
say that's great and then we'll take stuff
out and say "but this would work on my account
because of this"
So having that between-- some brands have
a fully realized campaign.
Fully realized brief and I’m like "That's
great, I love-- and I love the.. the you know
the music or the product and that's great
and that works for me and my fans or people
that follow me..."
I don't want to- I call them Sassy Squad because
like "fans" is like a weird thing um
But I'll tell them this will work this way
on my account because we're all different.
And so sometimes you get a bit sometimes and
I’m like I’ll do it like I’m happy to
do... because what you've got is good, but
I know it won't work.
So like sometimes I’ve had-- I’ve done
it and it's been alright, I’ve enjoyed what
I’ve done but other times I’ve been like
"if I can't do it that way then I’m not
going to be able to be part of it" because
it doesn't fit and-- and what it's going to
do, is it's going to do an injustice to you
as the artist or the brand.
It's going to do injustice to me and injustice
to people watching.
Where some people wouldn't do that.
Some people be like "give me the money and
I’ll post to you" and that's you know, that's,
that's-- that's alright.
That's people that you know will do that and
they have that.
Me?
I’m not.
I want to do stuff that I feel that I’m
really passionate about.
That if it's a song, if I don't click with
a song I won't do it.
If it's a TV show, whatever.
If I don't like the idea of it, I won't do
it because then that's essentially what every
creator should be doing.
You-- you should be doing it in a way that,
"okay this is fun and I think my fans would
love watching this"
Or fans would love listening to this.
Or they're going to have fun watching me doing
this.
That's the issue that you have nowadays with
brands with er--
if that's a conversation you have with someone,
that's the issue that you have, is you're
just-- they're so like Instagram driven.
Instagram story driven?
No.
They look like ads!
[LAUGHS] That's right, it's true!
Steven what... what would you say to your
1000 follower self?
Oh that's hard!
I would say um you'll... stick to your-- stick
to your guns on, you know, how you want to
be perceived and how you want to be kind of
um looked at in the world I think, um.
And you're gonna have ups and downs and that's
alright, um, but it's alright just to say
to people like, you know, no!
Get away.
You don't have to be-- you don't, you know
and people... some people might be a bit mean
to you.
Social media wise some people are gonna be
mean to you, or some people are going to have
opinions about you that you don't... they've
never met you and they never are going to
meet you and you have to just really take
yourself out of that mindset and just focus
on doing what makes you happy.
Because I didn't do that to start with, okay.
I was like "other people--" and people didn't
like me on musical.ly
I was you know my name was "Mr. Chubby" or
something like that - it was so bad um
Well, I say "fat" isn't my comedy but I had
my name as Mr Chubby!
But yeah I’d say to myself, just stay authentic,
have fun and-- and just don't let what other
people think of you, like annoy yer.
And I don't do that now, but it took me a
bit a while to kind of get into that, you
know, I got hate on the first-- my first day
on TikTok.
On social media in general I’ve had hate
comments.
I have them now so it's just about persevering
and realizing...
My Mum taught me you've got two options: you
can really let it consume you and reply to
them and kind of defend yourself... and then
like think about it or like you know really
argue with them.
OR you can kind of take it in, let it go over
your head and just move on.
And so that's what I did.
I said "that's it!"
That's what I’ll do, just like move on.
If someone's got an issue that's them, so
1000 follower me, keep doing YOU and don't
let anyone stop you!
Steven what do you think TikTok will be like
in 2021?
Oh I, I think it'll be more um...
I think it'll be bigger than it is now.
I don't think it's-- good I’m looking at
the wrong camera...
I think it'll be bigger than it is now TikTok
2021.
I think that... that the fight for the "For
You" page is going to be a lot tougher than
where it is now.
I do think it'll be bigger and it'll be better
and I think that it's going to encompass a
lot of stuff that the... this... all generations
can get involved in more and more because
it's a platform for everyone.
There's everyone of all kind of ages on it
and there's not a... there's never been another
app or platform that's rose to this kind of
fame, in such a short time.
So for 2021 I just see it being bigger.
I see...
I hopefully see creators you know getting
more monetization for the the work that they
do but I am, I think-- it'll be...
I think it'll be harder for creators though.
I think it'll be a lot-- it'll be a tougher
game, what YouTube was back in like you know
2012...
2011 a lot of people just uploading content
and it's you know, it's survival of the fittest
and only the strong survive.
When it comes to being a big creator on it.
But in terms of people making content, you
know, I think that it'll be more people of
all ages that are on it hopefully... you know,
hopefully it's not shut down!
You know these things about getting banned
and stuff - it never will be like that.
But yeah I do see it-- I see it being twice
the size it is now and just taking over the
world even more.
Should we just pose for thumbnails?!
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