0 comments

[SGC-24] How The Body Positive Fairy Godmother Found Her Peeps on TikTok With Guest Tishia Lee

By Melissa Brown, MD


On this episode of the She’s Got Content podcast, Dr. Melissa Brown sits down with Tishia Lee, also known as the Body Positive Fairy Godmother. Tishia shares her journey of self-love and body acceptance, and how she’s using social media, specifically TikTok, to spread her message. Tishia shares how she experimented on multiple social media channels before finding a supportive community and success on TikTok.

The discussion also covers the challenges of promoting oneself and dealing with trolls and hate comments* on social media. Tune in for an insightful conversation on content creation and body positivity.

*Trigger Warning: This episode contains some themes that might be disturbing for some people. My guest talks about enduring comments from internet trolls who espouse self-harm for people of a certain body size. There is mention of an eating disorder and the word ‘fat’ is used in a non-pejorative way by my guest to describe herself. This warning is provided for those of you who find these themes and topics triggering,

Don’t Miss Inside This Episode:

  • How all that’s needed for a meaningful movement to ignite can be one sentence for those who hear it. In other words, one person can make a huge difference in the lives of many. Don’t give up.
  • How quickly and easily Tishia was able to create content that resonated with her audience on TikTok.
  • The one big surprise she’s discovered from the TikTok platform.
  • The heart-breaking reason that Tishia sometimes needs to take a break from social media (and the response she receives when she returns to posting.)
  • What one thing you need to keep top of mind when you are on the receiving end of negative comments and hate messages.

Links and products mentioned in today’s episode:

The app that Tishia uses to remove the Watermark from TikTok videos to repurpose on other platforms : SnapTik

The Body Positive Journal–download a free copy from Tishia’s website.

Tishia Lee, The Body Positive Fairy Godmother

The Body Positive Fairy Godmother, Tishia Lee, encourages women of all sizes to take up space confidently and comfortably with no apology. She knows if you don’t take your space in the world, no one else can. And that would be a damn shame.

Tishia’s Website

Check out Tishia’s website at Shining Self

Connect With Tishia on Social

Connect with Tishia on TikTok

Connect on Instagram

Connect on Facebook

About Your Host

Melissa Brown, MD – Coach, Author, Speaker, Teacher, and Podcast Host.

After leaving medical practice in 2009, Melissa discovered the online world and never looked back! After coach certification, she began a healthy lifestyle coaching practice online and quickly fell in love with blogging, writing, and content marketing.

Melissa believes that coaches have the power to change the world. Unfortunately, too many coaches get discouraged by the amount of content they need to create for marketing their business and this can lead to overwhelm and giving up on their dreams. There’s such a ripple effect when a dream dies, so Melissa is on a mission to help coaches and solopreneurs overcome the overwhelm when it comes to content creation so they keep those dreams alive.

Your content can impact massive amounts of people and positively change the world. You’ve got content in there inside you; let’s get it out into the world.

Check out these social media sites:

She’s Got Content Facebook group:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Get your FREE Never Run Out of Content Ideas Tool Kit/Workbook

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to this podcast. It means the world to me to have you here on this journey! If you got value from this episode, please share it on social media, and recommend it to your business besties.

Please leave feedback or questions about this episode in the comment section below.

Subscribe to the podcast

If you want to be notified every time a new episode is published, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform. You can also subscribe from the podcast apps on your mobile device.

Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts

If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. I am so grateful for the time and effort it takes to rate and review this show and I would love to give you a shout-out as the next Content Creator of the Week when I read your review of the show.

TRANSCRIPT:

Tishia Lee [00:00:00]:

For the longest time, I was always constantly saying, I just want to let my hair down and have fun. I don’t want to have to worry about doing my hair and doing my makeup, because if you meet me in person, I know, listeners, you can’t see what I look like, but I have my hair in this messy bun. I don’t have makeup on. That’s just who I am. If I try to do YouTube videos, I feel like I have to do my hair, I have to do my makeup. So I was constantly just saying, I just want to have fun with creating my content. That’s what TikTok lets me do. My peeps, they just want me to show up authentically. They don’t want me to show up perfectly. Thank gosh, because I’m an imperfectly, perfect person.

Melissa Brown [00:00:48]:

Hello there, content creators. You’re listening to the She’s Got Content Podcast, where it’s all about creating content for your coaching business. I’m your host, Dr. Melissa Brown, and I’m here every week to help you get your content out of your head, out of your heart, and out there into the world where that information and your services can impact the most people. Get ready to take notes today and then take action. Content creators, let’s dive in with today’s episode because you’ve got content to get out there. Hello and welcome back to the show, all of you content creators. Today I’ve got a guest here who’s making an impact on TikTok with her movement, and I wanted to chat with her all about how she’s using that platform to build her community and connect with her audience. Tishia Lee is the Body Positive Fairy Godmother. She encourages women of all sizes to take up space confidently and comfortably with no apology. She knows if you don’t take your space in the world, no one else can, and that would be a damn shame. Welcome, Tish.

Tishia Lee [00:02:01]:

Hi Melissa. Hey, listeners. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Melissa Brown [00:02:06]:

Oh, I am excited to have you. And we’ve got a lot of things to talk about because TikTok is one of those platforms that I keep looking and lurking on, and I really want to know some more about this. And you were an early adopter.

Tishia Lee [00:02:22]:

And the first thing I want to say about it, too, is because this is what prevented me from checking it out for the longest time. Everybody knows it as, like, the teenager app, and I was so flipping blown away when I got on there. You will find people in their 40s, their 50s, their 60s, their 70s. It is not the teenager app. I just want to get that out there.

Melissa Brown [00:02:47]:

Okay, I’m glad to hear that because you did mention the age category that I’m in, and that’s one of those higher numbers. But anyway, before we start talking, TikTok, Tishia, tell us about your movement, the Body Positivity movement that you’re in.

Tishia Lee [00:03:05]:

Yeah. So this all came about from my own struggle. I’ve always had weight issues my entire life, going back to when I was a little girl. I was put on my very first diet in fifth grade, and it just caused so many issues throughout my entire life. And I was always achieving and striving for this thinness. And I’m not saying being thin is bad. It was just I was constantly trying to make myself thin because that’s what society programmed me to believe was acceptable and lovable. And if I was just thin, then I would find love. I would be able to travel the world. I would be successful. All this crazy crap. And I heard it from well-meaning family and friends, if you would only lose weight. I even had a pastor once tell me, if you only lost weight, think of all the men that would be knocking down your door. Yeah, we won’t go down that rabbit trail because there’s a whole thing there. But I never was comfortable in my skin. There was times I couldn’t even look in a full-length mirror because I hated myself that much. And I think back to where I’m at in my journey today. If somebody had just pulled twelve-year-old Tishia aside and said, you are enough just as you are, I wonder how different my journey would have been. But in 2018, long story short, I made this massive change in my life, packed everything I could fit into my VW Beetle, which was not a lot. And I made the move from Michigan all the way out here to the West Coast. I’m now in Vancouver, Washington. And I was immersed all of a sudden into this just fat, positive body acceptance, body positivity community. And in October 2018, I went to this yoga class. And this lady, I’d never been to a yoga class, so I wasn’t sure if this was normal. But before class, she had the lights off, candles lit, we’re all laying on these mats on this floor, and she called it getting present, getting in the moment. And all of a sudden in the silence, she says, I feel like somebody needs to hear this tonight. And I get so emotional, and it just gives me goosebumps remembering this. She said, you have permission to take up space just as you are, fat and all. And I’m laying on this floor and these tears are just coming down my cheeks. For the first time in my freaking life, somebody is telling me I’m okay just as I am. And I walked out of that class that night and I ditched diet culture. I threw the scale away. And for the first time, I realized my value and my worth had nothing to do with a number on a scale. It had nothing to do with what my body looked like. And I was so obsessed with wanting to make other women realize you’re enough, you’re okay just as you are. I’m literally on this mission to make women understand and appreciate their bodies for where they’re at right now.

Melissa Brown [00:06:18]:

The Body-Positivity Fairy Godmother! You’re bringing that message. I love it. I remember following your journey when you moved from Michigan all the way to Washington. And I remember when you went to that first yoga class and how amazing and profound that message was directly to you. We don’t know if that instructor was talking directly to you, and maybe she was talking to absolutely, and probably was, everybody in that room. But you received it and now you’re amplifying that message. I love it. I love it.

Tishia Lee [00:06:53]:

Thank you. And I don’t want to go too far off track what we’re going to move into talking about, Melissa. But I also want to say that one of the biggest struggles that I have in my marketing and my messaging is that we all are our own best advocates. We know what is best for our bodies. So if somebody chooses they want to do another diet, they want to lose weight, I support that is their decision. They believe that’s what’s best for them. For me and where I’m at, and I have an eating disorder, for me and where I’m at, dieting is not mentally healthy for me. I work with my doctor. We monitor my numbers and things like that. So I just want to say I don’t knock people that are out there dieting. I’m not trying to spread the message that, oh, my God, you can’t lose weight. That’s not my messaging at all. So that’s been a struggle. Because in the Body Positivity movement, there are two sides to this. There are the people that are 100%. If you are in this movement, you cannot be okay with people wanting to diet and lose weight. They think that perpetuates the problem with society’s messaging, that women have to be thin. And then there’s the other side of the movement that I fall into, where, again, we’re all our own best advocates. If you choose to lose weight, then that’s your decision, and I’m okay with that. So it can get ugly sometimes.

Melissa Brown [00:08:16]:

Yes. I support what you’re saying because I do believe that your message, your mission is about accepting yourself, loving yourself. Yes. And that doesn’t mean that you can’t be also striving to be healthier. If there is a diet that you’re following, it’s not like you can’t be a part of Tishia’s movement, because that doesn’t work in your world. It does.

Tishia Lee [00:08:40]:

Exactly.

Melissa Brown [00:08:41]:

So with this movement that you have, I’m assuming then it was around 2018 that you started with the Shining Self movement.

Tishia Lee [00:08:49]:

Yes and no.

Melissa Brown [00:08:50]:

Okay. Tell me.

Tishia Lee [00:08:52]:

2018 is when I definitely jumped headfirst into the, ‘I’m done with diet culture.’ I made it my personal mission that the diet industry would never, ever get another cent from me. They would not profit off of me ever again. I’d done so much inner work and personal work over the years, but still that piece of accepting myself and loving myself was missing. So 2018 into 2019 was all about just learning more about loving myself. And then in 2019, I went to this open casting call for plus-size modeling, and I was selected as one of the models. And the night that I stepped out onto the runway, I call that my coming out moment. That was literally my moment when I was like, f-you world. If you do not like me because of my body, that’s your problem, not mine. So 2019 is really when I was I don’t even know how to put it into words. I was just so passionate from that moment on that every woman deserves to just feel comfortable and confident in their body. I have to tell every single woman that I can tell.

Melissa Brown [00:10:06]:

The passion is so obvious. It’s great. So you’re out there with your banner message and that is – it doesn’t matter what you look like on the outside, just love yourself from the inside.

Tishia Lee [00:10:19]:

Yes.

Melissa Brown [00:10:20]:

Okay. All right, so you’ve taken us through that journey, and I would imagine you’re shouting from the rooftops. You’ve tried several different platforms and ways to raise awareness for your mission for this movement. So tell us about some of the things that you’ve tried because here we are, this is She’s Got Content. So what kind of content, what kind of platforms have you experimented with before you landed over here on TikTok land? That’s where we’re going. But I want to know how you got there.

Tishia Lee [00:10:49]:

Oh my gosh. Where didn’t I dabble? I’m notorious for being one of those people that I like to say, I will just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. So that means I was on Pinterest, I was on Facebook, I was on Instagram, just everywhere. And I was building a community a little bit, but nothing was really sticking. I wasn’t getting the results that I wanted. And all of a sudden I found myself one night scrolling. I finally decided, okay, I’m going to download this TikTok app. I’m going to check it out. I downloaded it and I’m scrolling through it. I’m 48 at this time, so I was in my forties at the time that I downloaded this. Okay, I’m going to do a search for over 40 and see anybody that pops up on TikTok. On TikTok, they have this Discover feature and I put it in there and I was just blown away by all the results that popped up. Okay, so there are people my age on here. Then I want to know about like fifty’s and sixty’s and seventy’s. So that kind of gave me permission. Okay. It’s okay to be here on TikTok. And then even when I first downloaded it, I don’t want to say stalker in like, I was stalking somebody, but I was literally just consuming content, not creating content. And it took me a while and I started following a bunch of other Body Positivity influencers to see what they were doing. A lot of them were doing the dancing trends. Okay, I love being silly, I love being goofy. But I also knew I don’t constantly want to have to be dancing because this girl has no rhythm. So I dance really badly. So I finally decided one night, I’m just going to make this quick. You have 60 seconds. And actually you can do up to three-minute videos now, but at that time, you only had 60 seconds. I’m going to introduce myself and I’m just going to put it out there. What I really want you people to know about me is that I’m fat and I am comfortable and confident in my skin. And I grew by 200 followers and it was like all older women. And comments that I got on that one video about how are you so confident? Because again, we live in this society that says if you take up space in a bigger body, you should not be comfortable in your skin, you shouldn’t be confident. Okay, I’m just going to start posting some more messages about just showing up authentically as this fat woman. I posted this one video about the way that I used to dress. I would do anything and everything to cover my body. I would wear big baggy sweatshirts and then because I was always told fat girls can’t show their body, you can’t wear tank tops. You can’t do this. And I did this video where I don’t dress like that anymore. And it was a transitional type thing where I’m dressed in all this big baggy stuff and then I go into I have shorts on in this tank top and I’m jiggling my bat wing arms because I’m comfortable in my skin and I love myself. And all of a sudden that video blew up and oh my gosh, I grew by 2000 followers and just more and more women are coming to me. Oh my gosh. And I knew in that moment, this is where my peeps are. This is oh, my gosh, I feel like I’m getting so off track.

Melissa Brown [00:14:10]:

No, this is great. This is great because what I’m hearing you say is you played around. You looked first to find out if there were people like you age-wise. Then you looked for other people who were in the body-positive movement and what were they doing. So you looked at the content they were creating and then you jumped in and said, all right, let me see. I’ll make a video. That one was pretty well accepted. You made another one and that blew up. It sounds like what you’re saying is you were able to actually connect with way more people with two videos than you probably had with any of the other methods that you had reached out with. Am I correct?

Tishia Lee [00:14:49]:

Oh, my gosh. You hit the nail on the head. When I say that spaghetti finally stuck to the wall and I found my thing. TikTok was my thing. TikTok is my thing.

Melissa Brown [00:15:01]:

Awesome. Okay. So I think that’s really good information and advice here for our content creators that are listening, because for myself anyway, I can watch TikTok. And I love sitting there in the evening and going through and watching the TikTok and I thought, okay, what kind of content could I create here? But I’ve been very busy consuming the content over there rather than creating the videos. Pretend like somebody doesn’t know anything and that’s me doesn’t know anything about how to create those videos. How do you do it? Do you create your videos in the TikTok app or do you create them off the app and then import them in? So tell us the logistics of it and mention any software you might use. TikTok. Okay. All right.

Tishia Lee [00:15:47]:

So, Melissa, I am one of those people that if something is not simple, I don’t do it.

Melissa Brown [00:15:52]:

Amen. What if it were easy?

Tishia Lee [00:15:54]:

Absolutely that easy button. I like that easy button. There is this massive social media influencer that I follow because I love her content. I love tips and tricks that she shares, but she does tons and tons of editing. She will record videos off of the platform and then edit them and then upload them. And I tried. This is so far above my head. This is just so difficult. So I wouldn’t produce content. I literally am the type of person that if I can’t just pick up my phone, go into the TikTok app, record that video, I’m not going to do it. So literally, I don’t record anything unless it’s right in the TikTok app. It’s super simple. You can find templates, they have audio in there. It’s really easy. And I say that from being on the app for a couple of years. But I do remember even in that beginning, it was so simple. You open the app, there is this big plus button at the bottom and you hit that. And actually, I think it’s been a couple of days since I’ve produced content on there, but I think you have to choose if you want 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 60 seconds. It’s very user-friendly. It seriously is simple. There is one software that I do use and it’s going to make me draw a blank right now.

Melissa Brown [00:17:20]:

What does it do? What does that what it does allow you to do?

Tishia Lee [00:17:24]:

I will download my TikTok videos because again, I’m all about the easy button. So I want to repurpose that content. So even though I’m not super active on Instagram, I love to repurpose the content from TikTok over to Instagram. Sometimes I’m really lazy about it. And I won’t even worry about removing the TikTok Watermark, the one app that I can’t think of the name of. But I will find it and message you so we can stick it in the show notes. This app, I will download the TikTok video, upload this video to this app, and then it literally removes that TikTok Watermark so I can upload over to Instagram as if I had just created that content for only Instagram. And it won’t have that TikTok mark on it.

Melissa Brown [00:18:09]:

Yeah, okay. So that’s great to know because absolutely, let’s multiply our efforts and if you’re going to make TikTok videos, let’s put them elsewhere, put them over on Instagram or on Facebook or wherever to share.

Tishia Lee [00:18:24]:

YouTube shorts is another good one for repurposing TikToks.

Melissa Brown [00:18:30]:

Like I said, I tend to consume a lot of TikToks. But one of the things that I’ve seen that in a way is somewhat frustrating. But as a content creator, I understand why sometimes people do. This is part one, part two, part three and it kind of keeps the viewer on the platform, but it also keeps them coming back and watching. And some of them are like really interesting stories that go on and on and you couldn’t fit all that into a three minute video. And I wonder, is that a strategy that you have used? You’re shaking your head no. So tell us Tish.

Tishia Lee [00:19:08]:

My advice. So they did just recently roll out and it’s only available for some content creators. I don’t have it, but again, it’s people that have the massive followings that seem to get a lot of these perks but they can actually categorize their videos. So like how YouTube lets you have playlists, TikTok lets these creators do that. So for those creators, doing part one, part two, part three is awesome, because if somebody sees part one and they want to go watch two, three, four, how many other parts are in the series, they can go to that creator’s profile and find the video category that those videos are in and easily consume those videos. However, for somebody like me that does not have the option to categorize my videos, if I’m going to do a seven-part series, say part three pops up on somebody’s for you page would have to scroll and scroll through all of my freaking videos to find all those. And as a consumer on TikTok, I have been so frustrated so many times because I have come across that. I’ve landed on part two of something and I’ve wanted to see part one just give up because there’s so much.

Melissa Brown [00:20:27]:

It can really suck you in as a consumer. And I understand why some people do that to keep you interested. The other frustrating thing is you see something and it says for part two and you go to their profile and there is no part two. There really is no . . , they haven’t uploaded it yet or whatever. So what you’re saying is just keep it simple, keep it short, do more frequent type content creations, but none of these long and drawn out. I think I would save those for the true crime stories that seem to be flooding over there. But that brings up another question. How often do you post a TikTok?

Tishia Lee [00:21:07]:

Oh, goodness. Okay, so I’m totally outing myself here. I was going to mention this before we started recording Melissa, but even though I’m so into TikTok and this is my thing and where my community is, I have been really bad about posting consistently. And there’s a reason, and I’m not trying to make an excuse. In the niche that I’m in, the trolls and the hate comments are ferocious. I can deal with most of the comments. The ones that tell me, you need to lose weight, you’re promoting obesity, you’re so unhealthy. But the comments that have really gotten to me, that have caused me to pull back from posting so much is I’ve been told because I’m fat, I should kill myself. Yeah, these are Faceless accounts, so I know they’re fake. They’re just trolls. Yes, it’s a real human being behind there, but they don’t have a picture on their profile. I don’t even really know why I’ve let these comments get to me as bad. So I did step away from social media for several months, and when I did come back, I’m posting, quote unquote, safe content. I posted about going to Gulf Shores, Alabama, last month. I posted about sharing my nine year sober anniversary. I’m almost afraid to start posting the content that I’m so passionate about because the comments sometimes just really . . .

Melissa Brown [00:22:40]:

I’ve seen this happen with some of the accounts that I follow on TikTok. Maybe it’s a political type of an account or it’s health-related. For instance, there’s someone who’s a nurse who posts things, and it’s people who have no medical knowledge at all that are coming in there and making misinformation and threats. And some of the people have handled it with a lot of grace and dignity. And it is one of those things that gives me pause. And I’m sure it would give other people pause when they start when these trolls start making threats because you can only ignore so much. There needs to be more done to prevent that type of behavior. Yeah, and I don’t have the answer, and I’m sure you don’t either, but that’s just again, that’s something for all our content creators to be aware of. For the most part, ignoring trolls is probably the best answer. But when the threats start happening, then I know that some of these creators that I follow have been reporting to police, reporting to authorities. And really, that’s what you have to do if it gets to that point.

Tishia Lee [00:23:45]:

Yeah, it’s really sad that we can’t just freely spread our message like we want to. I’m not hurting anybody by simply showing up as myself and taking up space in this big body. So why does somebody that thinks that being fat is so wrong that I should kill myself? I just struggle with that and I get really frustrated with myself, though, because this is the second time that I’ve taken a pretty long hiatus from social media because of stuff like this. And when I do come back, the people in my community are like, oh, my gosh, I’ve missed you. Welcome back, and I’m so glad that you’re back. And I think of for all those nasty hateful comments that I have, thousands of other comments from my peeps that are my market, that understand and need my message. So then I get frustrated with myself that I allowed hateful comments to take away from the people, the women out there that need me and my message.

Melissa Brown [00:24:50]:

That’s a very good point, because if the content creators can ignore these trolls, because it’s not just TikTok, they can be on any platform. You can find them on Instagram, on Facebook, YouTube, any of the platforms. You’re going to find trolls and people who just spread hate. But if we can ignore that and remember that there are people out there who need your message, that need to see what you’re doing, to feel that it’s okay, it’s okay for them to exist in this world because there’s the Tishia Lee’s out there living their life happy and just sharing their message. So I think that’s one of the takeaways I would want people to take from what we just said about that, don’t let that stop you. Think about those people that you’re helping and that message that you want to get out in the world and ignore the haters because people are going to hate. What is that song? That Taylor Swift song? Haters going to hate.

Tishia Lee [00:25:47]:

Haters. Yeah, I know what one you’re talking about.

Melissa Brown [00:25:49]:

I don’t know the name of it.

Tishia Lee [00:25:50]:

And a lot of the times, people will say, oh, you really know that you’re speaking. The message that needs to be spoke when you know the haters come at you. And I hate that saying because I get it, but at the same time, it’s just haters go away. You have something better to do with your time.

Melissa Brown [00:26:10]:

And they’re just almost always just looking for attention.

Tishia Lee [00:26:13]:

Yeah.

Melissa Brown [00:26:14]:

Okay, we focused on a little bit of the negative, but here’s a question for you. What has been your biggest surprise about your experience on TikTok? What’s the biggest positive surprise that you could share with the listeners?

Tishia Lee [00:26:28]:

Oh, my gosh. The community that I have built, the women that have been attracted to and needed my message, they have my back. And some people in my offline world don’t understand this whole online thing. That’s just not their thing. So they don’t understand when I say the hater has come after me, and I haven’t even had to worry about responding back because my community, they are on them.

Melissa Brown [00:26:53]:

Shuts them down.

Tishia Lee [00:26:54]:

Think it’s like just an app. You think I’m not really connecting with these people, but I really am. Some of the women in my community, some of them have gone through divorces, surgeries, massive things. And when they share that stuff, I genuinely care and am concerned for them. And the couple of times that I have taken hiatuses, I will get inbox messages, are you okay? What’s going on?

Melissa Brown [00:27:20]:

That’s wonderful. The community really takes care of you. You’re taking care of this whole community, but yet they’ve got your back too. I love that.

Tishia Lee [00:27:30]:

So, yeah, just, I guess the community and the camaraderie.

Melissa Brown [00:27:34]:

One other question I forgot to ask this before. When you got started and you were looking to see if people were your age, people like you, creators, how did you deal with hashtags? And is that something that’s a strategy that you’re using on this platform? Not every platform has hashtags. Right? But TikTok does use that. So how did you research it? How did you come up with your hashtags? How does that work?

Tishia Lee [00:28:00]:

I’m laughing, and if you can see the look on my face right now, people, you would know that I didn’t have a strategy and I still don’t have a strategy. The one thing that I have picked up from the I briefly mentioned this mega influencer. A lot of people were saying that you should use the hashtag FYP, which means for your page. I think that’s what it means.

Melissa Brown [00:28:25]:

I’ve seen that and I often wonder what that meant. FYP. Yeah.

Tishia Lee [00:28:28]:

Okay. So people were saying you should use that because it would increase your chances of being on somebody’s for you page. And that’s how new people can find your content, is if you land on that for you page. But it doesn’t really and again, this is with any platform you’re on, everybody who teaches this stuff, they all have different things. So one person says, yes, you should use that FYP tag. I personally, when I did try it on some of my videos, I didn’t notice because I watched my analytics on my videos and using that FYP hashtag wasn’t helping new people consume my content. So I just stopped using it. But I feel like it’s easy for me because in the Body Positivity community, I just use the same hashtags over and over because that’s what people are searching for when they’re searching for my message. So, yeah, I really don’t have a strategy. And I know that’s horrible to say, but for what I’m doing and the results that I want, it’s working for me. So don’t do as I do.

Melissa Brown [00:29:41]:

Here’s what I’m going to take away from what you’ve said, putting it together, and that is look and see what other people are doing that are in your same niche. Look at the hashtags they’re using.

Tishia Lee [00:29:51]:

Absolutely.

Melissa Brown [00:29:52]:

And not copy them, but model them. Be consistent. I know I heard you say before being consistent, it is pretty much any platform. I understand why you took a break from producing content, but consistency will help the algorithm. So the hashtags looking at other people. Who are in your niche, what they’re doing, being consistent and just having fun with it. That’s what I’m hearing, that you’re having fun with it.

Tishia Lee [00:30:23]:

And, Melissa, you and I have been in a mastermind group together for a long time, so you and I have known each other for a long time, right?

Melissa Brown [00:30:30]:

Yeah.

Tishia Lee [00:30:30]:

And for the longest time, I was always constantly saying, I just want to let my hair down and have fun. I don’t want to have to worry about doing my hair and doing my makeup, because if you meet me in person, I know, listeners, you can’t see what I look like, but I have my hair in this messy bun. I don’t have makeup on. That’s just who I am. If I try to do YouTube videos, I feel like I have to do my hair, I have to do my makeup. So I was constantly just saying, I just want to have fun with creating my content. That’s what TikTok lets me do. My peeps, they just want me to show up authentically. They don’t want me to show up perfectly. Thank gosh. Because I’m an imperfectly, perfect person.

Melissa Brown [00:31:14]:

Okay, that’s a mic drop moment right there. All right. Just show up, have fun. You don’t have to be perfect. People don’t want to see perfection because that’s like, oh, I hate to use the word Kardashians. The Kardashian world, where it’s all highly edited and staged. It’s not real world. Just show up as yourself. Be authentic. Have fun with this. Tishia, this has been really great. Do you have something that you’re giving away to the audience that they could connect with you and maybe you can help them in the Body Positivity movement?

Tishia Lee [00:31:50]:

I do. I have a free embracing Body Positivity journal. So if you go to Shiningself.com/Positive, that will take you to the page that you can grab this for free.

Melissa Brown [00:32:06]:

And I will put that in the show notes so you don’t have to just write it down here as you’re listening. It will be in the show notes, and we’ll have it where you can just click on it and go over there. And where can people connect with you? What do we call it? Handle on TikTok. Or what is the TikTok name that you use?

Tishia Lee [00:32:26]:

ShiningSelfTL

Melissa Brown [00:32:32]:

shiningSelfTL. okay. That’s for Tishia Lee. Yes.

Tishia Lee [00:32:34]:

Because somebody else had ShiningSelf. Darn it.

Melissa Brown [00:32:39]:

All right, well, that’s TL. We know that’s you yes. Are there other social media platforms that you’re active on?

Tishia Lee [00:32:48]:

I am. I’m on Instagram, and I’m shiningselfTL on there, too.

Melissa Brown [00:32:53]:

All right. And your website. Tell us the name of your website.

Tishia Lee [00:32:56]:

Shiningself.com.

Melissa Brown [00:32:58]:

Awesome. All right, I think that’s all of my questions that I have for you today. Is there anything else that you want to let the listeners know about starting up on TikTok that we didn’t cover?

Tishia Lee [00:33:13]:

The one other thing that I would say, because I hear this from other people a lot is, I don’t want to do TikTok because I’m not putting myself on camera and I’m definitely not dancing. There are so many ways that you can do TikTok without putting yourself on camera and without dancing. And then, of course, I would obviously just say, do your research and make sure that the people that you want to market to are on there. So far, I’ve not come across too many people that have said they haven’t found an audience on TikTok.

Melissa Brown [00:33:44]:

Beautiful. All right. Thank you so much, Tisha, for being here today. I really enjoyed our little chat we had about TikTok and your movement. I think you’re doing a great thing. It’s definitely needed and keep it up.

Tishia Lee [00:33:57]:

Thanks, Melissa. I’m so glad that you had me here.

Melissa Brown [00:34:00]:

All right. And thank you to all the listeners. Thanks for being here. And until next week, make sure that you’re getting your content out there because you’ve got a message and someone needs to hear it.

Tishia Lee [00:34:12]:

Take care.

Melissa Brown [00:34:13]:

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the She’s Got Content Podcast. I hope you got at least one nugget to take action on this week. If you got value from today’s episode, I would be so grateful. When you leave a five-star rating wherever you listen to podcasts, it only takes a second and it really helps me get my message out to impact even more people so they can, in turn, keep the ripple going. If you’re listening on Apple podcast and leave a review of the show, it would really make my day. And you just might receive a shout-out on the show as my content creator of the week when I read out your review. And last but never least, if you want an endless supply of just right ideas for content you can write about for your blog post, your emails, your videos, podcast, episodes, all the content things, then you want to head over to my website@shesgotcontent.com/content and pick up your free workbook. Never run out of content ideas. Look for that link in the Show Notes today along with the other links mentioned in today’s episode. Until next time, content creators. You’ve got an audience waiting to hear from you and you’ve got content to share with them. Stop being the best-kept secret and make a bigger impact when you’ve got content out there in the world.

This blog post may contain recommendations for products, services, and events. In some cases, the links provided are affiliate links. That means that if you click on the link and then buy a product at the site recommended, you won't pay a penny more and the author may earn compensation as a thank you. You can be assured that any of the promoted products have personally been used by or researched by the author for you and found to be high quality before being recommended. 

About the author

Dr. Melissa Brown's career journey has always had an element of teaching. After retirement from clinical pediatric practice, Dr. Brown has taught and mentored as a healthy lifestyle coach, author, and speaker. She currently teaches solopreneurs and coaches how to stop being the world's best-kept secret. Her mission is to help you: Create great content. Impact people. Change the world.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}
>