Transcript
Oops! Our video transcriptions might have a few quirks since they’re hot off the press. Rest assured, the good stuff is all there, even if the occasional typo slips through. Thanks for understanding.
Kwame
Hello, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of Beyond Influence. I'm your host, Kwame Appiah, and I am very excited to have a guest with us today who reached out to me about the podcast, about being on the podcast, about talking about a book that they had written.
And I got exposure to that book and got really, really interested because there's a topic that so many people don't know enough about that affects so much of us. And so, very happy to have you here today, Carrie Berk. Carrie, how are you?
Carrie
Hi, very excited to chat.
Kwame
Yes, for sure. So, I mean, we'll keep it simple, right? How's your week going? How's everything flowing? How's life right now?
Carrie
It's good. Like I said, I feel like this week is going by very slow and my brain is half dead.
I'm very exhausted. But all good things, busy means that things are moving. So, overall, things are good.
Kwame
Love that. I think if you're a busy person and people want you on their radar, it's better than not being wanted, right?
Carrie
Exactly.
Kwame
So, yeah, I mean, you're obviously someone who is putting their best foot forward, wanting to get their presence out to the world.
I'd love to know just a little bit about your background and how you gained your social media following. So, I started off as a writer. I've been writing for as long as I can remember.
Carrie
Really kind of broke into the public eye at age eight when I published these children's books with my mom and did that for a little while. I didn't get into social media until probably 2017. I made this fashion blog at the time and I was trying to promote it.
And I had an Instagram account that I was trying to promote it on. So, I kind of had a little bit of a following on Instagram after that. And then in 2020, when TikTok was really blowing up, I wanted to capitalize on that.
So, I started making videos on TikTok consistently throughout 2020 and throughout the pandemic. One night, a video went viral. And that's kind of how it all started.
I just got into this really consistent, steady flow of producing content and watched my following really skyrocket during the pandemic. It was a great time to grow because everyone was online watching videos. And I was really just trying to take advantage of that time by producing as much content as possible to entertain people while they were stuck at home.
And from there, just really tried to bring my following across all socials since we saw that TikTok can go away in a second. And I didn't want to be left high and dry. So, I started building my following on Instagram and YouTube and Pinterest and Snapchat just by taking these TikTok videos I had already made and repurposing them on other platforms.
Kwame
All right. So, you know your way around the social media game. That is super cool.
Now, you mentioned something as you were talking there about the pandemic. And I think the pandemic was an interesting little section of everyone's life that was way, way, way far out there. And it definitely was a catalyst to a lot of life.
I think we are heavily digital now because during that time, we maybe learned to distance ourselves from being in real life to figuring out how to completely put ourselves out just on a digital footprint so that we could still connect with people as much as we possibly could from a distance. And so, when it comes to the pandemic, I mean, how do you think that it impacted your life?
Carrie
I mean, in so many different ways. I think, I guess for starters, when it comes to social media, that's when I built my following.
So, even though the pandemic was really difficult on me mentally, I feel like in terms of social media, that really served as a lifeline. It made me feel connected to society when I couldn't go outside and see my friends. It helped me communicate with people online and build a fan base in a way that I never had before.
So, even though I was really struggling, I also found this great source of creativity. I built a business online on social media. So, there were pros and cons, I guess, during that time.
Kwame
Yeah, for sure. And I think when I was doing a bit of research, learning a bit more about you, I know that during that time was when you really started to experience, you know, maybe some difficulties with mental health, right? And so, walk us a little bit down that path because it will, you know, to help us talk a little bit about how this book came to fruition.
Carrie
Yeah. So, I was really struggling during the pandemic because I was the class of 2020. I didn't have a prom or a graduation. My entire generation was just really going through it.
And I didn't realize how that affected me until one day I was sitting on the couch, just had this unexpected panic attack. And I had never experienced anxiety before. I just thought it was the same thing as stress.
I didn't understand what was going on to me. I took myself to get a COVID test because I thought losing my breath was COVID or something, and it just turned out to be anxiety. And it started off as purely physical symptoms and eventually transitioned into these really dark, deep, intrusive thoughts that just did not align with the core of who I am.
And I just started this learning curve from scratch where I learned what is anxiety? Why do we get intrusive thoughts? And the reason is because so many things were happening around me that were so unknown. My brain was trying to latch on to those illogical things that were going on around me and convinced me that that was real, that that was my reality. So, I was basically like lying to myself 24-7 and saying that this world that I was living in, this dark, hopeless universe was going to be my reality.
This was my life. And that was something that was really difficult to swallow. And it took me a long time to get over that and realize that just because we have these dark thoughts doesn't mean they're our reality.
In fact, sometimes we get these thoughts because they're almost a false alarm and warning us of what could be if we don't live our life to the fullest. And I went to therapy. I learned a lot about anxiety.
I learned about OCD and how the mind can obsess over these intrusive thoughts and compulsively try to pull us out of it. And yeah, I guess that's what led me to write the book. It was not for a few years after I started experiencing these things that I wanted to do something about it to educate other people.
Because at the time, I wished I had someone as a role model who was teaching me at age 18. I didn't want to go out and search for all this research by myself. I wanted someone to kind of hold my hand and guide me through it so I didn't feel as alone.
And I wanted to kind of step into that role and be the person that I wish I had when I was 18 going through it for the first time.
Kwame
That's really important in so many aspects. I think one thing that we always want to have around us, no matter what we're going through, is community.
And I think that community in itself is such a powerful tool that that is what connects people for good or bad things. But I think the most important thing about having a successful, thriving community is having people who want to contribute to it. So if you are going through something, the best way to help the people around you is to open up and to talk about it and to talk about how you are dealing with it.
And so, you know, we're really happy that you've opened up in a way that can help a lot of people. Because based on my learnings and, you know, before we get too much deeper, I think it's important for everyone to know that, you know, I'm not a mental health expert. I'm not an anxiety expert.
You know, and Carrie's here sharing her best as well with all the knowledge that she has learned and gained. But we're still learning more, right? And from, you know, what we see is, what, 50 percent of young adults suffer from anxiety, or is it just population as a whole in general?
Carrie
Yeah, I mean, 50 percent of young adults suffer from anxiety, which is just a staggering statistic. And that number is only going up.
We would assume it's going down after the pandemic, but it's only going up because of just look at the world we live in right now. There's so much tension and stress and adversity. And we're living, even though the pandemic's over, we are living in a post-pandemic world, and we're still feeling these aftermaths.
I still think about what it felt like to lay in my bed and stare at the ceiling and feel like the world was ending. It feels like it's yesterday. You know, we're still feeling these effects.
It's something we're going to remember for the rest of our lives. So I feel like you said community is so important and realizing that it's okay to ask for help. You don't have to go out and publish a book like I did, but asking for help could be something as simple as talking to one friend or family member or seeking a therapist, just someone to kind of bounce ideas off of, or even something as simple as a listening ear, because it can really help us feel less alone in what we're going through.
Kwame
Yeah, I think one thing, you know, one thought that I always like to share is, you know, when I was growing up, and I think when most of us were growing up, we wanted to change the world. You know, I think everyone wants to make a big impact, but a point that you make there is that having an impact within community could just be talking to the person next to you. And if you want to change the world, you have to start with your own community, the people to your left, the people to your right.
Once you start having impact, that impact then grows, and it can grow tenfold. So I think it's important for us to understand the real qualities of being able to make a difference, and making a difference can really just start with helping the people around you.
Carrie
And before that, even like helping yourself.
I feel like a lot of times it's a little scary to even reach out to the one person next to you, but it all starts with knowing yourself, and talking to yourself, and realizing who you are and what you value. I mean, for me, during the time when I didn't want to talk about my anxiety, I would journal a lot. I would kind of like sit in my room and contemplate my life, my purpose.
I would just really look inward, and I think once you have a strong sense of self, and you know who you are, and what you want to contribute to this world, that's when you start spreading it outwards to others.
Kwame
Yeah. Powerful words.
So with that, with the experience that you've garnered, and the things that you've gone through, you've obviously stepped forward, and you've written a book. And I think there's a lot of powerful sentiment behind sitting down, writing, putting your thoughts down on paper, and then sharing it with the world. So do you mind opening up, and telling us a little bit about Mindfire?
Carrie
Yeah.
Mindfire is a guide to anyone who is struggling in their mental health, and looking to feel less alone. It's written memoir style. I'm talking about my own experiences going through anxiety and OCD over the past few years, and how it's progressed.
But ultimately, these are universal themes that everyone can resonate with. Everyone knows what it feels like to be lonely, to be restless sometimes. And what I'm trying to do is help people feel seen.
I'm not telling them how to act, or who to talk to. I'm literally just writing in a vulnerable manner, so someone can read this, and feel empowered to tackle their anxiety head on, and maybe not push it down as they had before. So each chapter is going to be dedicated to a different emotion that you experience when you're going through anxiety.
Like I said, loneliness, restlessness. We also touch on heartbreak, grief, all these different emotions that anxiety might go hand in hand with. And even though I wrote this, the subhead is, “Diary of an Anxious 20-Something.”
I wrote it in my 20s. These are themes that people go through, regardless of age. I've had 13-year-olds come to me and say that some of these themes of anxiety have resonated.
I've also had moms come to me. This is a theme that everyone can really relate to. And my goal with Mindfire was to make a community of people who can actually feel seen in their mental health journey, and maybe not feel so ashamed of what they're going through.
Kwame
Yeah, 100%. Obviously, every chapter of the book is very important for people to get an understanding of. But throughout your journey and in writing it, is there a chapter that really resonates most with you, where you felt like as you were writing this, or as you were experiencing it, that this was just such an important pivotal moment for you in discovering yourself and how to really work through your anxiety?
Carrie
I mean, all of them, I feel like, contributed to my journey.
When you were asking me that question, the first one that came to mind was grief and losing my grandma, and how that's the one that still strikes the biggest emotional chord for me. But then also, at the end of the book, I had a really hard time figuring out how to close the book, because I kind of wanted to tie it in a bow and find a way to wrap things up. But that's not really possible when it comes to anxiety, because there's no finish line.
There's no medal you get at the end of the race telling you that, congratulations, you conquered your anxiety. You're never going to feel anxious again, because that's just not the reality of having an anxiety disorder. So I had a really hard time figuring out the best way to send people off with a sense of hope, but also pragmatism.
And I realized, your anxiety is not going to get better, you're just going to get stronger, you're going to take the tools I gave you, you're going to think of them every time you have a flare up, and realize that everything will always be okay, and things always return to balance. So whenever I read the last chapter of my book, I cry every single time, because I see such a strong, now 22-year-old girl, her words, and I think back to that 18-year-old girl who was so scared of her life, and didn't know what the future held. And I see how far I've come.
And then I think about taking that one step further, and how other people are going to be reading this, and in four years, they might have that same reaction, where they read those words, and they go, okay, now I feel like I can really embody what she's saying, whereas back then, I may not have had that hope. So, long answer, but probably the last one. [Laughs]
Kwame
[Laughs] Okay.
No, I think it's important to understand how to, like you said, not necessarily close the chapter, or close or end the book, but how do we tie it all together? There's a lot of similarities in the way that we look at writing a book, and now what we have as an opportunity right at all of our fingertips is being on social media. It's the journey that we've gone through. Like you said, you reflected on who you were at 18, 19, 20, and looking at who you are now, and thinking about the journey that you've gone through.
I think all of us now have access to a way to just look at our own little video, or picture, or a written journal online. The world follows that as well, and so it is really interesting looking at a bit of comparison and contrast in terms of you going through that journey, you seeing yourself grow up, how it relates to you as a human being now, having access to that all written down, how powerful it's been for you, and also the fact that you can also just go back and scan that journey right online as well, and see your digital footprint, and how you've evolved, what you were doing at that age, and who you've become. Now, if we were to dive in a little bit deeper, I'd love to get a little bit of help from you to the world outside.
I think we initially talked about the diagnosis, right? What is, if someone is feeling like they're having issues with anxiety, or feeling a bit more stressed than usual, how does anxiety get diagnosed?
Carrie
I think you got to go see a doctor, right? I'm not a doctor. I wasn't able to diagnose myself. I thought I was losing my mind when I would just be having these dark intrusive thoughts all the time, and losing my breath
I didn't know what was wrong with me. I didn't get officially diagnosed until I went to see a psychiatrist, and she diagnosed me. I would just say, ultimately, if you have a gut feeling that something is not okay, ask for help.
Don't wait until it reaches its climax, and you really feel like you're going to explode. I think if you know something is wrong, you know yourself better than anyone, and you should ask for help. If you're asking a parent to ask for help for you, they should listen.
Mental health is something to be taken seriously. I feel like therapy is so taboo. Oftentimes, you hear people saying, we don't need therapy.
You can just solve the issues by ourselves. If someone is making a deliberate effort to ask for professional help, that can be the one thing that literally saves their life. I would just say, if you're the person going through it, don't be afraid to ask for that professional help.
If you're on the receiving end, and you're someone like a parent who's helping your child get help, listen to them, because they're never going to joke about their mental health.
Kwame
Yeah, very true. Now, staying on that same wave of just asking you with your experience, I know this might take a little bit of time to come up with, but if you were to, let's say, give our audience three things that you've learned about mental health and anxiety throughout your journey that could really resonate and could really help someone, what would those three things be?
Carrie
Well, the first one I said before, just realizing it's not going to get better and you get stronger.
Stop trying to chase the finish line, because it's only going to make your anxiety stickier. If you feel like you're constantly trying to push it away and move towards that finish line, it's not real. That's the first thing I would say.
Second, realizing that you need to be patient with yourself. It doesn't take a day for anxiety to go away, and it's never going to go away. Sometimes, you just have to be patient with yourself and realize that in order to return to balance, you have to put in the work.
You need to move towards productivity, turn your pain into productivity, do things that make you happy, and see a therapist if that's what you want. Then, realize that happiness isn't something that necessarily embodies you, if that makes sense. Not every day is going to be happy.
I ask that question to myself in my book, what does it mean to be happy? I think realizing that just like you can't chase anxiety as a finish line, you can't chase happiness as a finish line. We're human beings. We're going to be sad some days.
We're going to be happy some days. It ebbs and flows. I tell someone going through anxiety to realize that happiness will come to you when you stop looking for it, just as the anxiety will go away when you stop looking for it. Those two things will go hand in hand.
Kwame
Yeah, for sure. Interestingly enough, I myself, I don't know if you know my background too much, but I went through a reality TV experience, and it brought me to where I am now, and in this place, and in this space.
That entire journey of reality TV, I think, took what, I think, maybe a year going through the process in itself, that being fully immersed in it, going through casting, and then eventually going through filming, and then eventually to release, it took quite some time. I like to consider myself a pretty calm person, pretty worry-free, pretty easygoing. Due to that, I'd never really experienced anxiety, like rarely ever.
The only times that I ever felt something close to it was when I felt a bit of nervousness when I was about to play in a big soccer game or something of the sort, but I'd never really experienced full-fledged anxiety. I remember while going through the reality TV experience, I think maybe two or three weeks before filming was completely wrapped, was the first time that I started feeling this very weird strain on my body that was basically head to toe, and it felt like it was just radiating from my chest, and that was the first time that I had a panic attack. I was so confused.
I was like, what's going on? Am I dying? I felt so strange, and going through that experience was so important for me to understand and be able to relate to what some people go through at a severely higher frequency and a way more consistent frequency. I think it's just this really difficult experience if you've never ever gone through it before, so I think for everyone out there, it's important to understand what anxiety is and what it feels like to go through it because you might not experience it ever if you're fortunate enough, but guarantee someone around you at some point in life could be going through it, so you want to know, and just like we talked about, it may not be you affecting yourself. The goal is always to start with yourself, but it could be the people next to you, and so I think learning about this is really important as an overall.
I got my own little experience, and so I'm going to be learning a lot more from Mindfire as well, so I'm excited to do that.
Carrie
It also looks different for everyone, I'll say. Your anxiety is going to look different from my anxiety.
It's going to look different from the person next to me. Some people, their anxiety can be really loud, and they could be hyperventilating and crying a lot, and for a lot of people, it can be really quiet and almost borderline depression, so it looks different for everyone, and just because someone's anxiety doesn't look like yours doesn't make it any more or less valid. Everyone's kind of going through it in their own sense, and I also did reality TV, and I can relate a lot to that feeling of going through panic in the weeks after it.
I feel like that's obviously a unique experience because only so many people have done reality TV, but putting yourself out there in a public sphere and literally leaving your reputation up to producers is something like no other, so I totally understand what that's like.
Kwame
Yeah, big co-sign on leaving your reputation to producers. That's always a tough one, so yeah, I think we can both echo that.
So as we kind of talk about your experience and what you are doing with your book, I'd love to kind of open up a bit more to your platform and just talk about how you are leveraging that and kind of how you are mindfully growing that community, because I guess the way that I look at everybody's Instagram or TikTok, like their social media mediums, is you are growing this community of followers who follow you, want to learn from you, want to hear from you. They're interested in you as a person. Some could be there because you give them something.
Some could be there because you make them feel a certain way, but how have you looked at your social media in terms of really growing and growing that community?
Carrie
I mean, social media is very different now than how it was in 2020. At the time, it was all about likes and comments and views and kind of feeling like your ego was being boosted constantly because you were getting all these views and everyone was always online, and it has grown into something so much more than that for me in that I realized that now I built this platform, and what can I use it for? I have millions of people watching. What am I going to make them watch? Mindfire was a big part of that in educating people about mental health and presenting this tool to where I'm so grateful there's millions of people online.
That's really rare to be able to have that platform. I think it's changed in that now it's so much more to me than just a number on a screen, and I'm starting to think more about that number as people. Something as simple as getting a message from one person about Mindfire means a lot.
I feel like now social media, I'm not necessarily putting as much energy into it as I used to be because I'm kind of expanding my purpose outward beyond my screen, which I think is a good thing. I think social media is a great tool, but also it's not everything. I have so much else that I want to accomplish outside, including writing.
I'm a runner. I love running. There's so many other hobbies beyond just TikTok and Instagram, and I'm learning that those passions come first, and social media is almost like the supplement to that and a way to celebrate my wins and to almost promote things that I have going on and spread awareness for mental health.
It's that supplementary tool instead of just my everything, my entire life.
Kwame
Yeah, for sure. I think social media, as it's gone on within the last few years, it used to be very curated.
Social media used to be incredibly curated. I think that COVID had a big part of that because as we were home, we just shared more about ourselves. What we realized is that this may not always be the case.
There's exceptions, there's outliers, but what it feels like to me is the people who actually get the most buy-in from their community and the people around them, the people that want to follow them, are the people who display their actual selves. When you look at something like Instagram, it's very different from TikTok, and now they're becoming a bit more similar in a sense where with Instagram, for the longest time, it was kind of an influencer style. If you have a very cool picture, you post it, you post it.
You go on a vacation for three weeks, you post three pictures of that vacation. It's just those three best parts of it, whereas now it's become, hey, I missed my flight, and I'm going to talk to my community about why I missed my flight, why it was either the airlines or my fault, how we can help everyone else. Maybe I did this thing wrong, and that's why this thing happened.
It's become a productive tool for us to be able to share what's going on and how we can do better, how we can all gain from it in a positive way. I think social media has definitely become, it's on a significantly more positive side of things than it used to be. It's not as curated.
I think TikTok was a big catalyst for that. I think I actually really support that in a sense where people feel like they could literally talk about the worst part of their day. and have a conversation with people through things like through mediums like that.
So that is something that is really important, and it's great to see that you are noticing that that isn't where the whole conversation has to happen. Yeah, right. I can share a bit of myself there, but also extend beyond that. How do I have access to people in ways where maybe some people don't necessarily love being on social media?
Because social media in itself comes with its own certain levels of anxieties, you know, and sometimes we want to detach ourselves from those and maybe just put our phone down. Maybe we want to take a week off or take a month off. So there's important ways to be able to connect with our communities beyond that stretch. And it's great that you've somehow amassed a great following that you can share these things with, but also stretch beyond that.
So just wanted to say that now, you know, as someone who understands the a lot of the ins and outs of social media, you know, what is some advice that you would give to the community at the general audience about how to kind of manage social media so that they don't have as much anxiety or difficulty through it.
So that it doesn't necessarily have negative implications on them. How have you done that?
Carrie
I would just say it's supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be curated like it used to be. You know, social media is fun. You can do anything online. There's so many different creators of so many different niches. You can literally be whoever you want to be online. So I would just encourage people to kind of let loose and let their creativity run wild.
And in order to prevent burnout, listen to your gut and take the step away. If you ever feel like it's getting too much. And for me, you know, my entire career is basically online, so taking a step away would be like an hour. Going out on a run with something as simple as that can really reset you and kind of bring you back to the present.
Kwame
Yeah, there's exhaustion in everything and everything. You can get tired and everything you can get, you can stretch yourself, you can stress yourself. And so it is really important to understand your own balances. It's really important to understand your own bandwidth and how far you can go with something. So, you know, I think Carrie, speaking of it right now, right? She takes an hour. She needs to—for me, sometimes I take a day. It's important that if you are a person who sometimes needs to take a week, then maybe you take a week right? It's all about understanding yourself and how it affects and how it impacts you, right? You want to make sure that the things that you are doing are bringing less anxiety and less stress into your life, and if you see that something's pushing you to a limit, reduce it and be comfortable with doing that because it is way better for you in the long run.
Now, okay, we're going to pivot a little bit to talk about, you know, things specific within social media. You know, when we talk about how the landscape is, how you are growing, the things that you like, the things that helped you to grow so that we can appeal, you know, more to the people who maybe want to grow their account as well and maybe have a positive message.
You want to be able to share it with the world. So, with that being said, you know, you've amassed quite the following, you know, did you have any specific techniques or strategies that you really thought about when you started to, you know, grow your following?
Carrie
I mean, everyone kind of says it, but posting consistently and engaging with your audience is the name of the game. I used to post 4 to 5 times a day when I was first growing my following. Now it's kind of chopped down to 2 or 3, which is still consistency in a sense, but just really making sure you're on that steady posting schedule so your followers can look forward to your videos and come back for more.
And then engaging with them if they comment, if they ask a question, respond to it. You can even go as far as to respond in a video forum. Host giveaways for your fans, find new ways to interact with them as much as possible so that they keep coming back for more. And then, just like I said, having fun with it, being yourself online.
People on social media are generally smart. They can sniff out someone who is not being themselves in seconds. So just be authentically yourself online and people who genuinely want to get to know you for you will gravitate toward your page. You don't want to build a following of people who just follow you because of some front you're putting on.
You want people to follow you because they appreciate you for who you are. So be yourself. Be consistent. Interact with your audience would be my top three.
Kwame
For sure. All right. And I've seen, you know, I've looked at your TikTok, I've looked at your Instagram. And since those are, you know, for the most part, two of the most, kind of out there, most active public forums for people to connect. So just kind of speaking to those two, how do you—do you have a certain way that you look at both? Do you treat them a little bit differently? How do you look at those social media mediums, like, as individuals, or do you just say, hey, I don't care, do the same thing on both?
Carrie
I do treat them a little differently. I think a lot of people on TikTok aren't necessarily allowed to be on Instagram, and I'm referring to like, younger kids who follow me like a 13 year old might not be allowed to be on Instagram yet. So for that reason, I cater a lot of my videos to my younger audience on TikTok, whether that be through product reviews—I used to do a lot of soap videos— just making it really fun and lighthearted and a little younger. Whereas on Instagram that's kind of, skews a little bit older. That's where my college friends follow me, is where I post with, you know, my friend group. So I would say Instagram, I treat more like a personal page that I just happen to have a really big following on.
And I just post kind of everyday moments from my life. It's mostly photo content. I'm getting a little bit more into Reels, but even so, like the Reels skew older, like I wouldn't necessarily post a product review, but I might post going to like a rave or something on a Reel. So I just try to, like, separate it in terms of my demographic.
Even, like, Snapchat skews older for me, but YouTube skews younger, but Pinterest skews younger, so I'm just kind of, like, tapping into who my audience is on each platform. And creating content that accompanies that.
Kwame
Wow. So, I mean, you brought up a couple other social media, pages and sites there. So I'd love to know, like, what are all the different places that people can find you on social media and how are you actively managing all of those? Do you have a team or are you just doing that yourself?
Carrie
No, I'm posting all of it myself. I have a team that helps me with brand deals, but in terms of posting schedule, it's all me and I do it easily because I have the content. Like the content lives on TikTok and I just take the video and I repurpose same everywhere else. So any video that goes up on TikTok will most likely be re-posted to YouTube, Snapchat and Pinterest, and sometimes to Instagram.
Just I treat it, like, really transparent. Like I take photos every day just for fun. And I stick it in a folder that says “photo dump.” And if I'm bored, I kind of just, like, group photos together and throw it up on Instagram. The videos are what takes a little more time, because a lot of the time it's splicing clips together and adding a voiceover.
And it's good because, like, once that's done, I can just use it on all my platforms and that's one video for each platform per day. So I don't have to worry about creating. I don't know how many. Plus I can't do math. I don't have to worry about creating content for every platform because I can repurpose it.
Kwame
For sure. And so roughly how much time do you spend per day on creating and posting content for your social media?
Carrie
It depends on the day. I mean, I also work a 9 to 5 job so I don't really have time—
Kwame
Oh wow.
Carrie
—to, like, sell content every day. I would say over the weekend I usually designate like 1 to 2 hours to film and edit. And in terms of posting, it's all ready to go during the week. It's already drafted in my TikTok, so like two seconds. All I have to do is like, press a button. Yeah. That's it.
Kwame
Wow. Okay. All right. So you've got it down pretty well. That's actually, so I did not know about the 9 to 5. Yeah. Managing to do that. Write a book. Be super active on social media. That definitely takes some time management.
Carrie
Yeah.
Kwame
You manage all that on your own. You do. You have anyone that helps you with that? Do you have an assistant? How do you do it?
Carrie
I wish I had an assistant. That's actually thinking about that the other day. No, I kind of just, I compartmentalize, I think about my priorities. Obviously, in a 9 to 5, like, that kind of comes first, but I'll take breaks during the day, and I take like a ten minute break to pee. I'll like, check my social media email on the toilet or something like I always like, have pockets in my day when I can fold in other things, even like catching up with my parents or with a friend.
Like I'll call them on my walk to the grocery store. So it's really just a matter of like, recognizing when I have a pocket in my day and filling that pocket. So I'll have moments sometimes during the day where I'm actually, like, bored and I want to take a nap because I just fill every second I can until everything is complete.
And then I'm like, okay, good. Now I'm bored and bored feels really good, so I'm just going to sit in bored.
Kwame
Yeah, okay. Well, cool. So I mean, you're—as someone who, you know, has a grasp on everything, I think maybe a bit of an elephant in the room is your level of acuity. And I think just like success at the age of 22, you know, I think that you've done quite a lot. And, you know, I think that there are a lot of successful young people out there, for sure.
But I think for those who are still getting up to this point, like you said, you have people who are 13 years old who follow you, who learn from you, who understand, and want to, you know, want to connect with you. Like, what would you say you credit this success to, you know, and like I said, it doesn't have to be one thing, but what do you think, you know, are a few things that really led to giving you a bit more of this push to get to where you are at this age?
Carrie
I just have a lot of grit, like I'm a very determined person, and I always have been since I was a little girl. So when I achieve one thing, I'm always looking for the next thing to do, and that's kind of just who I am. And yeah, I don't know, it's kind of, like, toxic sometimes because I won't have a chance to rest.
I'll always, like, want to go to the next level. But I think that's just like an inherent nature in me. And I'm very lucky that I have a great support system around me—my parents, my boyfriend, my friends who boost me and kind of pick me up when I'm tired and when I don't want to keep going and when I want to take a nap.
So I would say it's a combination of like that inherent grit that I have, but also like having a support system around me to keep me pushing forward because they recognize my potential. In some times when I don't recognize my own potential.
Kwame
Love to hear that. So okay, we've got about ten minutes on us. So with that time, you know, there's a lot of things that we could go over and talk about. And I think at the tail end of this will get some final words from you, but we'll dive into a few specifics, that, you know, our audience loves to hear about.
So, we have a quick fire kind of game that we play. That speaks to the differences between social media. And so I ask you a question. You give the answer and maybe one word or one sentence. You're definitely welcome to expand on it, but we get through it as quickly as possible. So at the pace that you want, but get into it as we go.
So do you think you're down for that?
Carrie
I’m down.
Kwame
All right. Sounds good. So first question. Instagram or TikTok?
Carrie
Instagram. Now, that used to be TikTok.
Kwame
OK, and why?
Carrie
So you do want me to expand, why? Because I feel like it's—I don't know, it's more fun than it used to be. It's posting photo dumps. It's posting me getting all dressed up for the night. TikTok. You know, the product reviews are fun, but I'm also kind of catering to your younger audience and Instagram. I can interact a little bit more with my friends, so it's fun to interact with, like, younger fans.
But also I love being, you know, 22-year-old girl, exploring the city, getting dressed up, posing in outfits and yeah, yeah, but, but, but leaning towards Instagram now.
Kwame
Okay, lovely. That's a great answer. So, Reels or carousels?
Carrie
Carousels—I rarely do reels. I probably should do more. But carousels just because I like photo dumps and like putting random photos together.
Kwame
Yeah, I love that. So, what is your dream brand partnership or collab?
Carrie
I actually got it like a year ago. It was Peloton because I was just a diehard Peloton girl and a year ago, and that was surreal.
Kwame
Get your screen name then.
Carrie
Oh my god, are you a peloton person?
Kwame
Oh yes I am. I'm going to ride later today.
Carrie
Who's your favorite instructor?
Kwame
Alex Toussaint.
Carrie
He is, he's coming. I feel like you're on TV. Kind of like matches his energy. He's like, very hype and, like, positive. Yeah, I love Alex. I rode this morning, yeah. Anyway, dream brand deal now is, I don't know, something, like, really fancy. Maybe like, a Gucci or like a Jimmy Choo. I'm not a fashion influencer, so I never get those. But that would be cool.
Kwame
Okay. I like it manifesting. You said it out—you said it out loud. I can see one of those brands reaching out to your inbox in the next month. Let's hope. Right. So, and then this one, I think I kind of know the answer to because you talked a little bit about it earlier, but batch content or create spontaneously?
Carrie
Both. I mean, even when I create spontaneous content, I kind of draft it and I keep it on a backlog for later. So I guess backlog. But like my backlog sometimes comes from, like, filming spontaneously.
Kwame
Yeah. I said so if you were to in this one. So that's it for our quick fire round. You did great. Fantastic. And I know the expanding honestly ends up being some of the fun parts. Yeah. So thanks for opening up about those as well. So, you know, if you were to start from zero followers today on all your social media accounts, what is the strategy that you would use to build back up?
Carrie
Oh, boy, I would not be able to hold a 9 to 5 job that I support. No. The reason why I was able to grow my following is because I had nothing to do. I was stuck at home all day. It was all happening over the summer. I had no school. It was like the summer before my freshman year of college.
So I would just need a lot of time on my hands, and I would be filming and editing and posting and interacting just in bulk, like as much as possible, and keeping that consistent schedule of 4 to 5 videos a day. I think now having a job and having all this other stuff going on, oftentimes I'll kind of slack and I'll do, like, one video one day and then for the next day and then two the next day.
So it won't be, like, as consistent. So if I were to do it now, I would just have to really bring that consistency back and make, like, a deliberate effort to put content out and engage with fans as much as possible.
Kwame
Amazing. And then I think the last question before we kind of get to a tying up point, you know, since you've grown your account so well and you said, you know, you manage that yourself, but you do have people out there who find brand deals for you. For those out there who have literally no clue what a brand deal is, how to get one.
But they see brands out there and they're like, wow, I'd love to, you know, I don't know, get some of their stuff or, you know, work with them. How does someone, you know, like, you go about getting a brand deal?
Carrie
I mean, DM them. I think there's a lot of well, there's a lot of platforms like aspire IQ, creator IQ, Maverick influencer marketing platforms you could sign up for and apply to brand deals, but sometimes it's as simple as just sending a DM to your favorite brand and saying, hey, I want to work together. This is what I envision for a partnership.
Let me know if there's someone I can reach out to via email like. Even though I have millions of followers, even though I have a manager that brings me brand deals, sometimes I'll still be. I'm a brand if I really like them, so it doesn't really matter how many followers you have, you can have, I don't know, like a thousand followers and want to work with a brand.
And you know, they might want to work with you. A lot of times brands love micro-influencers because they have a really niche community of people that returning to them sometimes as micro influencers have higher engagement, the macro influencers. So I would say, like, don't hold back, like reach out to a brand if you really like them and you want to work with them.
Kwame
Love that, I love. I talk about this so much, like don't lean so heavily on the amount of followers you have. Yeah, I think it's more important to focus on how well you connect with them. Yeah. So with that being said, you know, we've—we've kind of touched on just about everything that we want to talk about today.
So, you know, before we wrap it up, I'd love to just give you the floor to, you know, give our audience some some parting words, a little bit about yourself, where they can either find you on social media or where they can find your book, anything at all that you want to talk to us about?
Carrie
Yeah. Well, you could find my Fire Diary of an anxious 20 something on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Target, basically anywhere you can order a book. And if you follow me on social media @carrieburkk, with an extra K, on all platforms.
Kwame
Love that. Well, sweet. Well, Carrie, it's been an absolute pleasure. Great conversation today. Thank you so much for giving us some of your time. And also kind of just, opening up a little bit about the things that you've gone through, the difficulties, the ups and the downs and how we can all relate to those. And hopefully find success through all of our journeys.
So with that being said, thank you for being with us and thank you to everyone out there who is listening today. Until next time we will see you. Have a great week. Bye bye.