Hey everyone. Scott Austin here.

And in this week's episode, I want to talk about how you can use TikTok for your e-commerce brand. Now, I know absolutely zero about TikTok, even though I think I've done two, podcast episodes on it. So I wanted to bring in another expert on TikTok, add to our lineup of them. And we have Sonja from Partly Sunny Projects, a Shopify brand at a Ramona, California.

Welcome, Sonia. Oh, we enjoy having you here. Would you, first tell us about your Shopify store and, what you're selling and who your audience is.

Now, is this store your full time job or is it a part time gig for you?

Yeah. I always say that when you have your own brand, you know, you get the freedom they talk about.

And

that freedom is to decide which four hours a day you don't work and which 20 hours a day you do work right.

how long you've been doing this for?

Yeah, I could actually, I was going to ask the question you already said. Like, I would assume the pandemic would have helped you just sort of like our sourdough bread makers. Same thing. Right?

How much do you think, your brand and success is a function of you and your personality. You personally, versus your products.

Yeah. And I got to say, in getting ready for this podcast episode, I went and checked out your TikTok channel. I thought I would, you know, spend five minutes there. I spent an hour. It's fucking hysterical. Absolutely hysterical. What you do and the way your personality comes through. And I'm like,

I'm assuming it doesn't take you long to make these videos, but I'm just so impressed with how funny they are and how thoughtful they are.

And you personally just comes through like you're saying,

right? And that.

And it's, you know, what you said about people buy from people. I see the exact same way a lot like if people wanted to put pockets in billionaires, it'd be on Amazon. Right? And they're not on Amazon because they don't. Everybody hates Jeff Bezos,

they want a reason to buy from you. And like you said, all of your, you know, there's hundreds of people doing the same thing you're doing.

What's the difference? You not the product. And you are so putting that out there with the way that you are so present and all the stuff you're doing, you know, and it sounds like it is resonating for you.

Yeah.

You're.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now,

how long have you been doing this whole TikTok thing and what made you get in? Were you doing TikTok before you were doing the Shopify store, or did you get into TikTok because of Shopify?

Yeah.

With, the,

Yeah. And.

You know, totally, totally. I'm just going to explain for the listeners here, the the most recent TikTok video that you posted, because I just saw it a few minutes ago, right. And the camera starts off shaking

and Sonia's standing there. And if you live in the desert, you know the tool that she's holding in her hand.

But if you don't live in the desert, you have no idea what it is.

And then she, you know,

does some words, and then she puts the camera down into the flower pot and there's a rattlesnake at the bottom

And that's totally what you're saying about this is a day in the life. This is I'm out here in Ramona in the desert, and we have rattlesnakes.

And sometimes you got to capture them.

And you scared that.

Yes,

yes,

yes. So it's not just a sales call like, hey, by my great plants kind of thing. It's like,

here I am, you know, out in the backyard and this is what happens.

Yep.

Yep, yep. And in talking about the numbers, you mentioned like 250,000 followers, you know, when you first got started, I'm going to I'm going to read your numbers off your TikTok today,

454.6 thousand followers, which is an amazingly high number, right? Anybody would be happy to have that.

And even better than that, that's with following 1645 people.

So it's like

less than 1% of 1%, you know, the ratio, whatever they call that one yours is fabulous.

And 12.7 million likes,

those are great numbers.

And you're not doing direct sales. How do you get from having this community, this following, creating all this content,

and how do you have that

generate revenue for you and your business?

How do you measure those things? There's a lot there, but just walk me through the flow of of how it all works for you these days.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah. One of the ways I explain that is, you know, because we've all heard that that number of seven, whatever, whatever number of times it is, basically

the more you're in their face, the more they're going to remember you. And anybody who lives in a house that gets those in real estate fliers every day, you got 17 real estate agents sending you a flier every week, and all they're trying to do is stay top of mind to the day you decide to put your house in the market.

You look around on the countertop and like, oh, John, the real estate agent, why don't I give him a call? Right? And a lot of this is just keeping yourself top of mind. So when they're ready, because, you know, it's really hard to push them to be ready. But when they're ready, they remember you.

Yep, yep

Well, I think the quote of this episode is going to be TikTok, the refrigerator magnet of 2025.

Right? And that is fabulous way to explain it. Right.

So how do you decide what to make a video about and how do you make a video like how much time does it take. Do you write scripts? What are you using for equipment?

All that fancy stuff? How do you edit blah blah blah.

right? Like, but

but that's the beauty of it, right? Is is and and the reason I say that you've got that video number three on your queue right now where you're dancing to some 80s rock band song going out of my head, one right. And the motions you're doing and the way you're playing with the camera and how it's rotating around you all in your hand is really well done,

I was super impressed with the choreography of that, and I'm guessing it didn't take you that many takes.

Do you actually write it out when you start?

Okay okay.

think one of the things that makes your video so amazing is you as a talent. Right. And you're, you're, you know being humble about it and like oh I just do it on my phone. But it's you coming through. And I don't think that as many people I think you have a talent there. Right. And you're totally leveraging that.

Really? Well, that doesn't mean others who don't have as much talent can't work and try to get as good at it, but I think you're just organically made

yeah, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

Well and I love the tip you just threw as a quiet little aside. And you know you get to write off your vacations because you're creating content from them right. Where if you don't go visit a supplier you can't write it off. But if you are creating content then you can. And like I saw your mongoose one in Hawaii kind of thing,

So.

Yep.

Yep, yep. Now, you threw out a number a minute ago, and I pulled up my calculator and did some math. You said 2700 unused videos, right?

So that is 540 per year over five years. And that means there's two a day almost that you're doing and throwing away. And that I want to highlight that because it was probably two a day or one a day you're actually posting.

But that means you're you're creating three, 4 or 5 videos a day. Some of them meet your quality bar and some don't. But that means you're creating content

constantly.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah. I always say you have to operationalize your content creation, right? For me, it's

every two weeks I put out, you know, this podcast episode and I've never missed one, but it's only every two weeks. So it's not the level you're doing kind of thing. But too many people are like, when I have time, I will make content.

It's like, no, you have to make time to make content. Otherwise you will never make content.

Well, and you know, you add a little personality to that. So it's not just packing a box right? Yeah.

you film on the camera, are you on an iPhone or Android?

Okay.

And what app are you using to edit? Is it is it all inside the TikTok app,

or do you have a separate app?

Yep.

Oh, so all your content is stored locally on your phone inside

the app,

the app,

Yep.

Nice, nice. Now,

when you're in the app editing or making a video, how much time do you think you spend recording the video? How many takes do you do? And it sounds like you doing one take. But you know, the question I ask is like, do you do five takes to come up with the one that works,

how

much time you spend recording, and then how much time do you spend editing for a normal one minute video?

What I'm trying to do is give the audience an understanding of how much work it takes to make a one minute video.

With that on the plane.

Yeah, I saw that video.

Yeah.

Okay, so I heard you you start, you know, anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, and then you ended up with, I think your idea is you want to do it within 30 minutes, but that's after having five years experience of the two hour ones that you know what you're doing kind of thing, but

it takes a multiple of time to make a one minute video, anywhere from 30, 30 to 120 times.

You

know.

Yes.

Yep.

Yeah.

I believe and I, and I believe it to be true, it is that video is very forgiving. Right. When, when we grew up, you know, the only video we saw was ABC, CBS and NBC and everything was perfect. Right. And what YouTube and Instagram and TikTok and a cell phone and every person's hand is no longer professional quality.

And that authenticity runs through. And because you have video and audio and text and music,

you can be wrong in 1 or 2 of those and the whole thing just all comes together. And it makes sense in the human mind where if your grammar is wrong, that just breaks people's mind, right? Or if there's a smudge in your image, it breaks people's vision.

But video has got so many, you know, inputs to the human mind that they don't have to be perfect because they all come together. Nonetheless.

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So

you had mentioned before that this is your community and your way to engage with your community and talk to your community. You know, can you explain to me, like how have you seen your community respond?

And do they like, do they comment? Do you have conversations? Are you actually meeting people, creating, you know, connections? How does the community side, the people say that all work for you.

You

know.

how much time? Because I, I always want to make,

Storeowners understand that, you know, it's my belief that you're only successful in Shopify through effort, right? And it takes a lot of effort over a long period of time and consistent in that kind of stuff. And we we explain, you know, how much time and how much content you're making and how much time it takes to create that content, edit that content, all that kind of stuff.

How much time do you spend engaging in the community, you know, and answering things and having those conversations?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I totally agree with that. Like, one of things I would say is you should let your customers design your website. And so you put your website out there and then you listen to like when they ask a question about this or that, you put that content up there

they have, you know, why don't you have Pondo?

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

My rule of thumb is for every one that mentions that there's 100 more that didn't. Yeah.

you're engaging your community and you find that valuable. How do you get your audience from Tick Tock to your Shopify store or how do you get them to purchase? Let's put it that way. Now, you mentioned, you know, you're not overt about that, but there's got to be some connections you put in place.

Yeah.

As with everything of integration, it's,

harder to do than they say, but it's possible.

So it's interesting that, you know, you've you've foregone the whole TikTok shop. And also, you know, I think about your videos, you're not sitting there saying, this is the best plant in the world. You know, you're doing completely different things.

So it's more of that branding play. But you do have the links to your store.

Do you know how much traffic that drives? How much, how much of your traffic to your store comes from your social sources?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Now, your your target audience today in your store of your purchasers, like, demographically, you know what country are they in. What gender are they. What age group are they in.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

So

American women, adults 20 to 65. Is that whole audience on TikTok or is TikTok going to be more of the younger group?

You know, a question I'm asking is, are older people on TikTok

I'm asking is, are older people on TikTok

okay?

Yep.

So you're making these videos in the TikTok app. Are you also publishing them to Instagram and YouTube shorts, or is it just TikTok?

Okay.

Now you mentioned Facebook and Instagram. Are you also doing YouTube?

Yeah, because my understanding is the YouTube shorts, the exact same format of Instagram and TikTok

and

just as if

Yes.

Totally agree.

Yep.

Yep.

Yes, yes.

Yep.

tell me the pitfalls that

people that are just getting started in this are going to come across and hopefully help them

either prevent falling into those pitfalls or be aware that this is happening and it's not them, it's the system or whatever kind of stuff. What kind of

tips and tricks can you give the newbies here?

Well, I would say the the business side of it, you know, using content and video to promote your e-commerce brand.

Yeah.

Yep.

agree with you on that. You know, and also on, on the, you know, pay for performance, right.

That performance is going to be views and likes, which are vanity metrics when it comes to building your brand.

Right.

You can't measure the actual improvement of brand and traffic to the site. And all those things are a little harder to to get.

if you're just look at those vanity.

Yes.

Totally.

Anything else that they should be thinking about and I love what I'm hearing is just freaking do it. If you own a Shopify store and you're not doing video, you're a moron. Is that accurate? Yeah, yeah. And then.

They suck.

You suck just as much. You can do it. You're.

Too. And also, you know, the beauty of it is, is we all have niches, right. And your niches is the succulents and the plants kind of thing.

And so all you have to do is to appeal to those people. You're not trying to appeal to the jocks or the fashionistas or whatever, right? Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

For those of you that are listening, audio only, she's clutching her pearls

very colorful.

Yeah.

Yes,

yes.

Yes. So.

Yeah.

Yeah. I, I could not agree with you more because with my podcast. Right. I'm very factual. I mean, I'm not rah rah rah and and I'm a very, you know, sarcastic tone sometimes. But I try to hide in this podcast because can be a little too much for some people.

But what I love is the people that hate me.

I respect anybody's right to hate me. Right? The people that listen to my podcast and hate me, I never hear from them and the people that it resonates with. They call me up and say, I want to work with you, and it's not a sales call. Let's see, how do we work together? Because I've already made that decision

because I already know you type of thing.

Right?

And that's that's what you're doing in your your videos. You're putting yourself out there. And the people that resonate with it, well, they come back to you.

And that's all you need.

Yep,

yep.

Yep.

I love that. Right. And

that whole you know

when you're doing that that inbound marketing, which means you put content out and people come to you instead of you reaching out to them through direct mail or ads and stuff like that.

You know, you want that filter and it's just a filter so that the right people already know.

when you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

yep. And when they call you or talk to you, they're talking to a mini celebrity now

their media life.

Yeah. Yes.

But you know, you got to be clear though, you're a crazy plant lady on TikTok. There's a difference.

in watching all your videos, the biggest question I had the whole time was how many pairs of glasses do you own? Nice. Nice, because it shows, like every video is a different pair of glasses.

Yep.

Yep.

Yep.

Yeah. Nice. Nice.

So,

love the conversation.

If you were to summarize for our audience of small Shopify store owners, you know, who aren't in video yet, what would you say to them?

Fabulous, fabulous summary. Thank you very much, Sonja.