Battz grew to 287k TikTok followers, 1,100 YouTube subscribers, 6,100 Instagram followers and 1,400 Spotify followers 100% DIY in the past year (and only really taking it seriously for half that). On top of that he’s cranking out 1 single per week going forward along with a music video, and for a while he was shooting all of his music videos on a 3 year old iPhone.
I find his incredible work ethic and DIY attitude inspiring so I though it would be cool to hear his thought process and how he pulled all this off.
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Important Points:
Battz is sharing why consistency is key on TikTok. Posting multiple videos per day gives your content more chances to be seen and go viral.
Battz and Andrew talk about the power of live streaming as a great way to engage your existing TikTok followers and bring them over to other platforms like YouTube and Instagram. Doing giveaways or exclusive content for people who join your Patreon can incentivize this.
Battz and Andrew discuss talent stacking skills like video production, music production, etc. which allows you to release content frequently without relying on or paying others. This saves money to put towards ads or other marketing.
Battz shares his thoughts on TikTok’s algorithm and how seems to identify your niche after a few consistent videos, then starts recommending your content to very targeted users interested in that niche.
Podcast Outline:
[00:01:35] How Battz grew to 280,000 followers in around 2 months by posting 10 videos a day – Battz
[00:02:03] Paying attention to trends, adding his own twist in a way that fits his brand. – Battz
[00:02:53] Battz slowed down posting trending content once he started losing irrelevant followers but gaining followers interested in his music. – Battz
[00:03:38] How freestyle rapping helps build real relationships and boosts the algorithm. – Battz
[00:04:44] Start with whatever tech you have access to. – Battz
[00:05:15] The advantages of editing videos on your phone – Battz
[00:06:37] How going live and announcing new music drops helps migrate followers from TikTok to other platforms. – Battz
[00:07:49] Talent stacking opens up income streams. – Battz
[00:08:02] Releasing a song a week this year to build a catalog that will keep providing income long-term, like stock. – Battz
[00:09:38] Visual content performs much better than just a song with artwork. – Battz
[00:10:09] Designing your own merch. – Battz
[00:11:14] Learning production skills hands-on before upgrading gear. – Battz
[00:12:22] How Battz taught himself production so he can release frequently without needing an engineer or relying on someone else’s beats. – Battz
[00:13:32] How to design and print your merch at home rather than print-on-demand services to maximize profit. – Battz
[00:14:00] Charging less per merch item and potentially selling more while still profiting. – Battz
[00:15:24] Manually color grading videos to make phone footage look more cinematic– Battz
[00:16:23] TikTok views are very unpredictable. You need quantity and luck to go viral. – Battz
[00:18:26] LUTs help beginners get cinematic looks without learning full manual color grading. They’re like presets. – Battz
[00:20:04] Talent stacking means developing diverse skills like production, engineering, videography so you can do everything in-house. – Battz
[00:55:06] Post 3-10 videos a day. Mix trending topics, trending topics with your twist, and ultra-niche content unique to you. – Battz
Wise Words:
[00:01:35] “Everybody’s looking for a magic answer. Like, oh yeah, use this hashtag post at this time. But it’s really not that deep, man. It’s basically how hard are you willing to work?” – Battz
[00:02:03] “So what I did was pay attention to trends. But add my twist to it, that made sense for me, because you know, a lot of trends were, um, kind of inappropriate, but I was a Christian artist, so I had to flip it in a way where it still made sense for my brand.” – Battz
[00:04:09] “Yeah, if you, if you don’t, if you have more time than money, then it makes more sense to, to go learn how to do it so that you can use that money for another purpose.” – Andrew
[00:04:53] “I’ll post my guitar video, like for the, um, the guy, then I’ll post two other videos that day, if you want to post three times a day that are more, View grabbers, you know, I’m sure as a YouTuber, you do it yourself. Like you got videos that, you know, are going to get more views, but you got your more niche videos that, that it brings more attention to. – Battz
[00:05:52] “You’re right about the YouTube stuff. I mean, like, I know if I have anything in the title or topic about Facebook ads and Spotify, it’s going to be like one of my best performing videos.” – Andrew
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If you enjoyed this interview you might also like this one I did with Outlook The Rapper about how to book shows as a rapper & how TikTok works.
