I Am That Content Creator Podcast

Ep#101 Forget the Rules: Mia's Chat with Fellow Content Creator Bic Walker on How Their Late ADHD Diagnoses Fuelled Their Love For Content

• Kristen Werner & Mia Steel

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What if everything you thought was holding you back...your ADHD, your impulsivity, your inability to niche down was actually your unfair advantage?

In this raw and powerful episode, Mia chats with fellow 40+ content creator Bic Walker and gets real about how being diagnosed with ADHD flipped the script on her entire life and career. From a burnt-out paramedic to building three six-figure businesses in under two years, she shares the behind-the-scenes truth most people don’t talk about.

💡 What you’ll learn in this episode:

  • Why neurodivergent traits like risk-taking and rapid pivots can actually be entrepreneurial assets
  • The truth about content creation when you have ADHD (hint: ditch the rigid calendar)
  • How Mia built a six-figure membership from her phone without fancy funnels or complex launches
  • Why rejecting the “niche down” advice was the best move she ever made
  • The real reason traditional content plans don’t work for spicy brains and what to do instead

Whether you're neurodivergent, multi-passionate, or just tired of playing by rules that don't work for you this episode gives you permission to build a business your way.

🎧 Listen now and learn how to turn your “too much” into too powerful to ignore.

Find Bic Walker at:
YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@melbournecontentstudio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bic.walker
In person Content Studio in Melbourne: https://melbournecontentstudio.my.canva.site/


 * ADHD and entrepreneurship, neurodivergent content creators, UGC income, digital business with ADHD, personal brand for ADHD, ADHD business success, content creation with ADHD, ADHD-friendly marketing strategies, 

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Speaker 1:

Are you ready to master the art of creating content that converts? Hey, I'm Mia, a mum of two who went from being a burnt out ambo to six-figure content creator in less than a year, all while navigating a late ADHD diagnosis. And I'm Kristen, also a mum of two and a former corporate branding queen turned entrepreneur. My dyslexic brain sees marketing very differently, and that's my superpower, and together we're showing women like you how to master video marketing and create content that generates income. Whether you're just starting out or ready to scale, we are breaking down everything from landing brand deals to building your own empire. Welcome to I Am that Content Creator podcast where we turn scroll stopping content into serious income. No filters, no fluff, just real strategies from two neurodivergent mums who get it. So let's turn your phone into a video marketing machine and let's go. Let's go, guys, be professional, guys. I'm going in. Okay, there's that intro done. Alrighty, you have Mia on the podcast here, all by myself.

Speaker 1:

Me and Kristen have been going behind each other's backs lately doing podcasts with other people, which is a bit strange. Anyway, I am going to play for you an interview that I did with a complete stranger another TikTok stranger, who slid into my DMs and asked me to be on her podcast and she said come to my content studio in Melbourne, do a podcast with me and let's just talk shit. And I said, hell yeah. So it was actually really fun to talk to another creator in person and actually go to her content studio. And because a really interesting woman she's in her fifties but she is obsessed with content like I am. She's recently been diagnosed with ADHD in her fift, but she is obsessed with content like I am. She's recently been diagnosed with ADHD in her 50s, so she's starting to navigate that journey as well.

Speaker 1:

She has a successful fashion brand that she ran with her daughter over COVID and it kind of just exploded. So she runs that from her content studio in Melbourne as well and she does in-person workshops. She does UGC herself. She also coaches other businesses with their content creation. She has all of her cameras and lights and everything set up in the studio so she does photography.

Speaker 1:

She's a really amazing woman and I had such a good time sitting down with her in her content studio and when two ADHD brains get together, you know it's going to be lots of talking, lots of business ideas, and I think I met her for two hours and by the end of it, we already were talking about what we're going to do together, so buckle up for this one. Vic is amazing and, yeah, if you want to go and listen to her other podcasts, she is on Spotify and also on YouTube, and she has some Facebook groups that I'll link below. If you're interested in networking with other entrepreneurs and creators in Melbourne, or using her content studio, which is called Melbourne Content Studio, down there in Brunswick, if you need a space to get some content done, so let's go to get some content done so let's go.

Speaker 2:

You do have an interview.

Speaker 2:

I do I do? I can't remember the name of the guy. My last interview I asked her when she started her business, like three times. She must have got so annoyed with me, because I'm thinking about the next question and I'm not listening to her answer. This is Mia Steele. Mia, you're an ADHD entrepreneur, multi-spicy, multi-passionate, multi-passionate business owner. I'd love to talk to you about that. I'd love to talk to you about how you manage your ADHD and how you view it in terms of it being an asset, because I think it's an asset.

Speaker 1:

Give me your elevator pitch first, yeah so I have only been recently diagnosed with ADHD in the last 18 months. So before I knew that I had ADHD, I've always had this entrepreneurial spirit and I'm a bit flaky and I do all these different things and I've done three university degrees and just job hopped. I just couldn't keep. Yeah, I just got really bored doing the same thing over and over and I don't know, it's just in my blood. And I was a paramedic for a long time and that was a good job to suit my brain because there was lots of different things and every day was different. But I was just burnt out mentally and physically and so I quit. One day and I picked up TikTok and I found a video talking about user generated content and I'm like, well, I just quit my job, I need something ASAP because I've got to pay bills and everything. And I made $7,000 in my first six weeks, oh goodness. And I was like holy shit this is something.

Speaker 2:

This is fun. When was that, like, how old were you, what year was that?

Speaker 1:

So this was three years ago. Well, three and a half years ago, so not that long ago I just came off the back of maternity leave and I was just I don't know, when you have kids, you just get that desperate feeling to stay at home again and so I didn't want to go back on road and all this anxiety and that's where it sort of really pushed me to quit and start something. But through that journey of creating content for brands and doing UGC, I started to realize that my brain is different and I'm really liking this and I sort of fell into the ADHD algorithm on TikTok and I started to realize, holy shit, that sounds so much like me. And yeah, I went through the diagnosis and I've started three businesses since then and I've hit six figures with every single business.

Speaker 2:

Okay, tell me, what are your businesses Summary?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so originally I did the UGC, yep, and so I've made six figures doing that and that's been amazing. That sort of led me into doing affiliate marketing and brand deals and I've made six figures in that realm as well. And then I randomly met another neurodivergent creator on TikTok, kristen, who's my business partner now, and we hit six figures with our business. We have a membership for creators and we hit six figures in under a year. What's that membership? Yeah, so it's called High Pop Collective and it's a membership where generally women in their 40s or older because that's sort of the demographic that we attract come in and we teach them how to create content, how to do UGC and how to monetize their passions through digital products. Yeah, so, completely online, and we meet with our students once a week or every month and we get guest speakers in and we have course materials and we just because we're both pretty neuro spicy we've made this business into a bit of an umbrella business and we just do whatever we want yeah, oh, my goodness, we're playing an in-person event and you know, we do brand deals and we've just recently partnered with another Australian company and we're creating our UGC marketplace, so a place where brands can find creators okay, so is it like creator

Speaker 1:

flow. In a way, we we like to break the rules and I've sort of done ugc through platforms like that upwork, creator flow but I found that, working with agencies and platforms, they take a cut, yes, and you've got to abide by their rules and their contracts and they take ownership of your content and all these things. And, yes, I thought you know what? Let's make our own place where the creators are in control.

Speaker 2:

They get 100% of the revenue and so we're building that now I have a Facebook group called UGC Australia or whatever, and I've got a few businesses, I've got a few UGC work out of that group. So it's basically sort of what you're saying. The businesses will go on that and post what they need and then the creators will then answer DMs and then you know off they go negotiating their contract. Yeah, so is it similar? So similar.

Speaker 1:

We've also got a Facebook UGC group as well for 40-plus creators.

Speaker 2:

Oh, is that yours? Yeah, that's it, I've joined it. Is that New, zealand, australia?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we created that and we're finding that there's still a lot of back and forth with the brands and creators. So they post a job, the creators go yeah, I'd love to do that. And then the brand has to go and email them, get their portfolio. Like there's a lot of they filter through all that. Yeah, so we're building it out. So all the creators have their portfolio. Yes, yes, yes, and so brands can scroll through and filter through. I need a 40-year-old woman who's got a caravan, who lives in Melbourne, and that will come up. Yeah, yeah, and so they just contact you straight.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've got a Facebook group as well. Several Facebook groups, of course Of as well. Several ways of going, of course, of course. But no, mine's called Melbourne, ugc Creators Melbourne. I think I'm probably in that. Yeah, you probably are. Yeah, but this week I've gained 85 followers, which is crazy, because I've just changed, because it was called Content Creators Melbourne, and I've just changed Content Creator to UGC Creator, and boom, ugc word is such a hot word at the moment.

Speaker 1:

We get people coming in every single day just approving people.

Speaker 2:

every single day I sent TikTok to prove my daughter wrong and you did. I hope, yeah, so we had a like a thrifting depop business anyway, yeah, and you know, she was the talent and I did all this good, because I love movies, I love creating stuff, um, and then she checked spares by day. She's like gosh. No, if you're so good, you know, because she wasn't wanting to do what I wanted to do, I can't love. You're so good at this and just do it yourself like I will. Yeah, so when some of this is that a G person, oh yeah, you've got to do it. You're like putting fire to the, you know. Thank you, yeah, yeah. And so, yeah, I started like TikTok and I just started doing it like an art because I'm a sketcher, so I started doing watercolour on it and back then it was so easy to grow it was 2,000.

Speaker 2:

So easy boom 10,000 followers in a month, like it's one viral video.

Speaker 1:

It's so much harder now yeah, and I mean that proves the point that you know we've got. Most of our creators are over 40 and some of them are just killing it because there's not many, yeah, and so brands jump on them and absolutely yeah, I'm always one behind the camera.

Speaker 2:

And my daughter, she's young and beautiful and you know we had that fashion business that we grew she's always the one in front of the camera. Why would anyone want to see a middle-aged lady, especially being Asian? Like no one would want to see and watch me. But only recently I thought my mindset just changed and I said, well, there's not that many middle-agedaged women who are doing UGC, and even with my own, like my daughter's fashion brand, we're always looking for diversity, because that's what the world is wanting now. It's not just you know the size six tall model, it's, you know, people of colour, people of different sizes and different shapes, real bodies. So I thought you know what? There's a market for me, but there's a market for everyone. Yeah absolutely.

Speaker 1:

And like you're not going to buy a wrinkle cream from a beautiful 20-year-old creator, you're going to buy it from a 40, 50, 60 plus year old woman. And we just got one of our students a job the other day. He is 76 years old and it was for a garden tool that is designed for older people because it's really easy to use and you know $800.

Speaker 2:

Easy. And brands do think outside the box too, because, let's say, I do a lot of renovation videos and tools. It's not just for men, it's also for women. Like a lot of women are renovators, so you know, like that's where the market is, and a lot of the brands are getting into this because like, okay, well, you know, let's make something and show that a woman can use it. I did a video on how to create a fly screen and that went completely viral, completely. And I had no idea, like I'm like fly screen.

Speaker 2:

It's the most boring video ever. But yeah, there was somebody on the comments that said you know what? I have scrolled past like thousands of videos of men making this, but I've stopped and watched yours all the way because you're a woman.

Speaker 1:

It's a pattern breaker, isn't it? Yeah, and it's like if she can do it, maybe I can do it.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, you put a handyman with the tool belt. You're like, oh, I'm not going to do that. Yeah exactly, exactly I'm happy, but when you put a woman in front, wow, you know, that's achievable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I don't think people realise how many older people are actually on apps like TikTok. You think it's all the young people, but they're really not.

Speaker 2:

Look, I went to this business lunch just last week and the guy was talking he's a digital marketer and he's got a digital marketing company and he's talking about Google Ads and meta ads and all that stuff right. And I just raised the question saying what about TikTok? You haven't covered TikTok. And he's like oh, that's just for teens. You know, that's for teens. No one's going to look at TikTok. He really belittled me and I said you are so wrong, you have no idea what you're talking about. I put him aside afterwards because I don't want to be wrong and I said hey, you know, I don't want to put you on the spot. Tiktok is almost going to replace Google as a search engine. And you can't sleep on TikTok. And you're wrong about the teens, because the parents get on TikTok because they want to keep their kids safe and then, once they're addicted to it, it's damn swirling.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so true and it's just so fun as well. I don't know like sometimes it can take one viral TikTok to explode your business and completely sell something out, whereas I find Instagram is really hard to grow on and it's really hard to go viral. It's getting better, though, is it? Yeah, I mean, I've built all my businesses organically through TikTok and I might repurpose to.

Speaker 2:

Instagram and whatnot?

Speaker 1:

and nurture people on Instagram? Yeah, but as a top of funnel it's perfect. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I always explain I've said this so many times but I always explain to my clients that you look at TikTok like you're standing on a really busy street and you're handing out flyers or doing something. You know you've got to be loud, you've got to be. That's why you know it's the same as traditional marketing. You know, Beautiful people get eyes on them, get stops to scroll. Or you just put on like a mascot outfit because you're loud and you want to grab that attention.

Speaker 2:

Or you're adding value, Like here buy one, get one free coffee, Something that gives somebody some value. Yeah, and that's TikTok Busy street. Nobody knows you. You've got to learn how to stop them and no one wants to be stopped by a salesperson on a busy street, Exactly. And then Instagram is you've already got them in your show, Like they've already taken your flyer and they've gone into your shop because you've attracted them in. Yeah, and the purpose now is to keep them there, whether it's a beautiful cafe, aesthetic, yummy food, adding that kind of value, but they're in your space already, yeah, yeah. So that's like middle funnel. And then, obviously, website is the conversion.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly, and I think these days, especially on TikTok, your follower account doesn't really matter that much because everything's on the For you page. So you are trying to just grab them at that top of funnel, and it's an interest-based algorithm too. So if they're interested in something that you're talking about, you'll show up on their For you page again. They don't necessarily have to follow you. No, whereas TikTok I mean Instagram your followers see more of your stuff and you're nurturing them that way with stories and whatnot. Yes, absolutely, it's a whole strategy. Yeah, absolutely. So, having said, that.

Speaker 2:

Do you think niching is less important now on TikTok? I think so.

Speaker 1:

And we're like our business is sort of moving more into that personal brand as a whole instead of niching down on one particular topic and driving yourself mad, especially ADHD. It's very hard to just talk about one thing and that's all you talk about. I mean, it is a quicker way to grow, I guess. But if you have a solid personal brand, people buy from people. Then you are able to talk about a few different things and have a few different topics and a few different offers. Be that multi-passionate that you are and still make a good income.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. No, that's good to know, because it's sometimes very hard to stick to a niche with a personal brand. Life changes all the time, so your interests change, and I always started off doing lots of renovation videos because I was just renovating my house and I thought you know what I need to create content. So I just found that as an excuse to create content. But there's only so many walls that you can paint, yeah, and it takes a long time. You know the renovation projects take a long time. So you're going to find something that you can be consistent, yeah, and when the renovation finishes, you're like what?

Speaker 2:

do? I do now.

Speaker 1:

And I found for me, specifically, since I've been doing a lot of ADHD-based content, instead of choosing a niche topic or a niche product, choosing a niche audience is really helpful because then you know them deeply because generally they're you and you know their language. And you know them deeply because generally they're you and you know their language and you know their interests, and they start to follow you and like you as a person, not just that one topic that you're talking on, and it gives you room to pivot. And so if you had a niche audience of, let's just say, educators and you're doing renovation content, but you're speaking to them in a way that they understand and they can relate to, yeah, and then all of a sudden you start talking about indoor plants.

Speaker 2:

You don't have to burn that business. That's exactly what I mean Exactly. How do you know You've been stalking me?

Speaker 1:

I kill a few indoor plants and if you've got this niche audience, then having a few different topics is okay. You don't have to go and burn down the renovation stuff because that's finished and you want to talk about things now.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, at first I was like, oh, you know, I'm doing the renovations. And then I wanted to talk about business, because I'm really passionate about business. I love it. But then does anyone want to hear about business? And like, yeah, I just found it. I hesitated, I didn't know how to swap in between, but but now I just do it. Like I think, well, if I lose followers, I was really scared to lose followers, yeah. But I think, well, you know what you lose once in a while. Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1:

And so if you can speak to, you know a particular maybe it's 40 plus you know women who are single and I don't know have a particular interest then talking to them about a few different things, that kind of have this through line.

Speaker 2:

It gives you space to just be you, yeah, what do you find most works for you at the moment? I?

Speaker 1:

find I've done a few TikToks about this recently is these neurotypical marketing strategies I find really rigid and don't sit well with me, especially things like content planners and having a niche and all these things. And I'm just trying to break all the rules and just have fun and I pick up my phone and create a TikTok when I feel inspired to, not because I've planned it or I've scripted it or I've done all these things, and they're the videos that resonate and get really good views. So I find using your intuition is a lot better than reading a marketing playbook that says do this, this, this, this?

Speaker 2:

People don't want to see that anymore. No, they see straight through. I can't even keep to a content schedule.

Speaker 1:

I tried because someone said you should do that, and then you feel like shit because I didn't do that. Yeah, I didn't fill out this and I didn't.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you failed. You're setting yourself up for failure. Yeah, yeah, so if you don't plan it, then you can't fail.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not fair.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, not everyone works like that. No, yes, like a lot of people do have to put aside time to create content because they have to do it for the business, but that's not their passion. They're just ticking a box for that day. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I think another thing too especially if you want this to be your full-time business and your life, you sort of have to get obsessed with content. Yes, and love doing it and just pick up your phone and just don't care for it to really really work. Yeah, and I think the people that struggle are the ones that aren't really obsessive.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I love everything about it coming up with new ideas, and I don't think that's something you can teach. We can't all be content creators. The businesses do have to have content, yeah, but it doesn't mean that they are content creators.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, do you know? Yeah, and it's a big thing, and there's lots of businesses out there that I don't want to get in front of the camera. I don't want to be the face. I don't want to do this, I don't want to do that, but it's such a big part of business. Business and growing it Exactly, and if you don't start to enjoy it, you kind of got to, which is an option. Yeah, yeah, and I mean that's why people hire UGC creatives.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know I don't want to be in front of the camera. You know that's not for me. I mean, the mindset there is that it's not a personality trait, it is a skill that you need to learn. Like if someone says to you you've got to learn Excel to further, you says to you you've got to learn Excel to further your job, your position, your career, whatever your business, you've just got to learn that program. You will learn it because you need to do it. So it's like that with content creation You've just got to learn how to create content or accept that you need help in that. Like throw some money at it or pay somebody to help you with that and it gets easier the more that you do it.

Speaker 1:

Confidence is a muscle Before I started. I still am. I'm an introvert, I'm very shy. I like my alone time. Three years ago, the thought of getting on TikTok and clustering my life all over social media would have been horrific. And when I started to get paid for it and I started to get better at it and I was posting every single day, I don't even think about it. No, no, no.

Speaker 2:

And if you get a horrible comment or what have you, you learn how to deal with it or just learn how to not take it so personally, Because you know there's those keyboard warriors out there. They're everywhere, they're everywhere and you can't help that. If you don't put yourself out there, you kind of just have to accept that there's going to be people.

Speaker 1:

You could be doing I don't know the best thing in the world researching cancer and have a breakthrough, and someone will have a negative comment.

Speaker 2:

Everyone has a negative comment. It's crazy, it's just yeah. But I actually now tend to have a little bit of a celebration when I get the negative comments, because negativity just spreads so much faster than positive comments. I get people fighting over stuff in my comment section, which helps my algorithm. It blows it up.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So when, yeah, sometimes you know I mean you don't want to always try to like poke the bear or whatever, but sometimes you know you want to put a little bit of controversial out there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah and that's some creators' strategy is to do that, is to provoke conversation and arguments in the comments section as part of their strategy to help them grow. But I like to think of it as someone who is doing more than you is never going to talk down on someone. Yeah, it's always the people who is doing more than you is never going to talk down on something. Yeah, it's always the people who are Doing less. Yeah, you're triggering them because you're doing more than them, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was going to say like I've lived in any other country, but I feel it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, definitely yeah. When my daughter started contact tracing at 15, it was, yeah, it was pretty horrible at school for her, and the worst thing is that you've got to turn up at school every single day and face these people. For us, it's fine, because by the time we see that person or whatever, it's been a week or two weeks or maybe more. All you don't have to see them at all which is great. Give me some tips if I was just starting out.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so it really depends on your goals. What do you want? Sorry, I should turn that up. It's all right. Believe I didn't, because it's real. We don't like to edit our podcast too much either. Yeah, so it really depends on your goals. Do you want to become an influencer and have the big following and go viral? Or do you have a small business and you want to sell products? You know there's lots of different ways to go about it, depending on your goals. But for a lot of women that come into our space is they think they've got an idea and they want to make money from home because they want to be their own boss and have more freedom and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

But when you're starting out, it really is just a big science experiment. You just have to create a lot of content on lots of different things, really figure out who you are, why you're even here, what you want to talk about, and that will change over time. But the more content you put out there, the quicker you will find what it is that you really want out of it all, and we do a fantastic exercise with our students called your deep why. So you ask yourself why you want this seven times and it's a bit of a process and it can be really difficult to get to that seventh why? But you just sort of work your way through and you get to the crux of why you want this business, and then when things come about that you might want to pivot, or you see a shiny object. If it comes back to your deep, why then everything becomes so much easier? Yeah, and you just tie everything back to your deep. Why then everything becomes so much easier? Yeah, and you just tie everything back to your deep. Why?

Speaker 2:

Right, what is?

Speaker 1:

your deep why. So initially, before I did this deep work which was thanks to my business partner Kristen she's been in brand and marketing for over 20 years I just thought I wanted to make money online and I just want to make money online. So I was staying home with the kids and that that was my life. But I went through the whole process and it can get a bit emotional and when I got to the bottom of it, my deep why is inspiring and since I've been diagnosed with ADHD, it's gotten a little bit deeper. But it's inspiring neurodivergent women to be themselves and just do the thing. Don't stay boxed in, don't just get the white picket fence because that's what society told you to do. Just do the thing. Don't stay boxed in. Don't just get the white picket fence because that's what society told you to do. Just do what you want to do. And so everything that I do all comes back to that deep why and just empowering them to start their business or do the thing. What about?

Speaker 2:

non-neurodiverse women.

Speaker 1:

Yeah well, I mean, that's what it was before I got this diagnosis. But as I started to document my journey through my ADHD, I started to find that especially women with ADHD you put the mask on and you do the thing and you tick all the boxes and you internalize everything and it's almost like you just need someone to give you permission to get out and just do the thing and fuck all the rules and make yourself happy. Because if you're going to stay stuck in a job that you hate for the rest of your life just to tick the boxes and pay the mortgage, what kind of life is that? And it all started to erupt for me when I started the UGC and me and my partner, we had a block of land and we were going to build the house and it was all lovely and after COVID lockdown and I quit my job, I was just like I don't want that.

Speaker 1:

I've been told that getting a mortgage and doing all these things is the right thing to do and I had the good job, but it wasn't making me happy and so we sold everything, we bought a caravan and we tripped around Australia for two years and it was the best two years of my life and my kids had a ball, and it was just me giving myself permission to just go. You know what? I don't care what anyone else thinks. You don't need to be normal. No, you don't need to conform. Yeah, and that's the thing that you don't have to be normal. You're just making yourself miserable, and if people have got something to say about that, that's none of my business.

Speaker 2:

I can totally relate, like we used to live in another area and it was just, it was like white bread or vanilla, if you call it. Everyone was being the Ken and Barbies with the picket fence, the kids, the dog, yep, and you know, everyone was perfect. And I really struggled with that. Like you know, I felt like such an outsider and I'm sure people would have thought that I was so weird. I felt so weird, I just felt so out of place.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And you start to internalize, like what's wrong with me? Yeah, why do I feel like this? Why can't I just do what everyone else is doing? Yeah, because you're not built that way.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, when I got diagnosed which wasn't long ago, two months ago yeah, I just sat in my car and cried for half an hour. Yeah, I had no idea why I was crying. You had ADHD anyway. It was just like giving myself compassion.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's almost like when a psychiatrist tells you yes, you have ADHD. It's just like, oh my God. It's just like this permission slip or this realisation that this is why I've been feeling this way my whole entire life. And someone's just given me these four letters, yes, and all of a sudden it's just this relief. It's a grief because you think, oh, if I had known years ago, maybe things would be different. But it's just that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, getting back to the label, I mean I have lots of friends and they probably thought I was weird, but as soon as you know I got diagnosed with ADHD and they knew, I know I think they were just a bit more compassionate, a bit more like accepting of my quirks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and I mean I've noticed two different ways, especially documenting my journey very openly online about my diagnosis. Some people will think it's an excuse you just want to label it's fake, it's made up or all this sort of stuff. But then there's the other side of it, where you almost start attracting similar people to you and similar thoughts, and this community and people become, I don't know, more open and accepting the more you talk about it.

Speaker 2:

People are discovering that more than when we were younger. Also, a lot of the parents that are friends, you know, because I met a lot of friends through my kids. They have kids with ADHD, so I think that's where the compassion comes in.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yeah, it's more talked about now and yeah. So I think that's where the compassion comes in. Yes, yeah, it's more talked about now and yeah, and I think An understanding. Yeah, a lot of people think, oh, everyone's getting diagnosed with ADHD now. Well, I think it's 7% of the population have it, but it's just talked about more. Yeah, and we're discovering new ways to live and new tools and new strategies to help these kids. I'm pretty sure my oldest has it as well. We're going through that process, but just having the awareness of your brain's just different. Let's do it your way, yeah, Not the narrative way, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

I mean school, university, all that stuff. They don't sort of teach you how to be an entrepreneur, how to survive. That way, they teach you how to get a job in the system. And that's what school does. You get there, you conform, you get this job and you work up the ladder. Yeah, then school's not made for people like us.

Speaker 1:

No no, it really isn't. And I mean I've got two sons, and my eldest he's just me and he's struggling in school, and my youngest is very neurotypical and he's good at work and he does a lot of things, but the school, there's just no leeway for learning. And so as a parent and I know ADHD now and all the things about it I can give him tools at home and I'm teaching him about entrepreneurship and him really diving into his interests. And if you're not going up on the next reader and everyone else is, that's okay, it's just a reader, yeah, it's fine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, that's so competitive. When you get to primary school, it's just testing and grading. Yeah, and the helicopter parents doesn't help at all. Your kid is on this level, my kid's on. Yeah, I don't care, yeah, like no one's going to care when you're 25. No, we've had so many encounters and friendship breaks up. Competitive sports, like, oh my God, your kid is not going to be a professional athlete. You know some of them will be, but most of them won't be?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's always pressure. Like a lot of kids, they do basketball and soccer and all this stuff after school. But what happened to just coming home and using imagination? They're over-scheduled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And as someone with executive dysfunction, I couldn't think of anything worse than raising the kids all around. I said to my kids what do you want to do? If you want to do that, let's do that. Yeah, but when you get sick of it, then we'll do something else. Yeah, you know, and when you have more of an insight into a neurodivergent brain, you can be more compassionate, and you know.

Speaker 2:

What are some of the advantages, what are some of the pluses of a neurodiverion brain in terms of business?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think risk-taking is a big one. So I've always been a risk-taker, ever since pretty much high school days.

Speaker 2:

I think if it wasn't for my husband, I'd be in the gutter somewhere yeah me too.

Speaker 1:

Me too, yeah, 100%. And so, when you're an entrepreneur and a business owner, you have to take risks. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, and so, when you're an entrepreneur and a business owner, you have to take risks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you have to. Yeah and you have to. I call up my husband all the time and go okay, tell me if this is a dumb idea and I'm always.

Speaker 1:

I actually talked to my partner the other day. I'm like, because he's a chippy and he's getting older and he's tired and sore and he's just done that job for his whole life, yeah why don't we just?

Speaker 1:

start a coffee van or just something like so we could work together and do this business. And he's like, yeah, but that's a risk, I'm not a risk taker. I'm like but you need someone like me, and I mean selling all of our stuff and traveling around Australia. That was a risk, but we did it and it was amazing and he loved it and the kids loved it.

Speaker 2:

And you can't take anything with you. You can take experiences.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. And we could have built the house and had the big mortgage, but I probably would have had to stay in my full-time job to service that mortgage and not be with the kids and all the stuff. So I think risk-taking is a really, really big part of it and you know, no business that's taken off, you've got to take a risk?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. And we don't have imposter syndrome. I don't think I think I can do anything. Why can't I do that? Megan did that. Why can't I do that? I'll just give it a go. It's like it's delusion Totally. Delusion, totally, and that's probably ignorance is bliss, because you kind of just jump into the deep ends and you're like, oh shit, I shouldn't have done that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. But also another one is not overthinking things like just doing it Impulsive, yeah, impulsive, the impulsivity and just start a business. Don't think about it, because if you sit there and think about it and dwell on, it.

Speaker 2:

You talk yourself out of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, and that's normal People are normal People do that. Yeah, they think through it logically.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, clean it all out.

Speaker 2:

But most of the impulsive stuff are the funnest things. Like you know, we were travelling. I was travelling with my daughter and there was this band playing and I was like I'm going to ask them if you can sing, because she loves to sing. Yeah, she's like, oh my God, no, no, no, you know whatever. And yeah, got up and sang it. No, no, you know whatever. And yeah, got up and sang. It was like one of the best nights of our trip. Everyone gets up and danced, you know. Yeah, talking about dancing, like if there was this band happening everyone's. This was only a couple of weeks ago and everyone was just sitting there like rocking away, really enjoying the music. No one was getting up to dance. My kids used to be in bands. I know that, you know. Bands love it if they get people up dancing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they really feed on that. No one's. Everyone's too embarrassed. They just wanted to sit down and I was just like you know, I'm going to go up and dance, my friend, and we just started dancing like nobody's watching and then, yep, everyone got up. Everyone got up. The dance floor was full and it only takes that one person to just be weird. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And that's again part of my deep why is sort of leading through example. That's why a lot of my content I document my journey and through that I hope that other people see themselves in me and go well, she's doing it, maybe I could do that too. Yeah, and that's why I do it. And go well, if she's doing it, maybe I could do that too and that's why I do it. And when I was growing up before I knew I had ADHD, I couldn't understand why I just couldn't be happy in one place. I would have to move cities and towns and jobs and friends and I had trouble maintaining friendships because I'd just be moving around all the place. But you know what? I've had so much fun in all these different places, finding new things, discovering new things and people. And sometimes I look at my friends who've lived in our hometown their whole entire life doing the same job. I'm like how do you?

Speaker 2:

do that so boring and you've grown as a person with the experiences and you're not growing if you're comfortable. Yes, you've got to get out of your comfort zone. That's where the magic happens. Impulsivity, risk-taking what else is there?

Speaker 1:

I mean some people look at jumping from thing to thing to thing to thing as a bad thing. A lot of the neurotypical marketing advice is to pick a niche and go hard on that niche. You know you're going to fail if you do too many things at once. I don't think you grow as a person or an entrepreneur if you do that.

Speaker 2:

So I think it's really that's very neurotypical.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's really important to explore, to express yourself in lots of different ways.

Speaker 2:

And, to be fluid, you can go in. For example, I went in a content coaching business thinking that I wanted to help creative people because I am also an illustrator and a lot of creative people don't know how to market themselves. They know how to do things creatively, but they don't know how to market themselves. And I went in there thinking, yeah, I'm going to be so much fun helping these creative businesses and all that stuff which would be. Then I just started getting a lot of financial advisors, mortgage brokers, as clients and I thought, oh, this is boring, I don't want to work with financial advisors. Yeah, pass it off a bit.

Speaker 2:

But you know, they were the people that recognised, which I did not. It was so surprising. Actually, they were the people that recognised that they needed content and maybe they also recognised that they needed help and they were willing to pay for help, yeah, and so, yeah, I just took on that niche. It wasn't my initial intention, whereas the creative people it was harder for me to convince them to get over that line because they didn't think they needed it. They thought they were creative enough or whatever. They thought the process was. Yeah, but, as I was saying, if you don't sort of open yourself and try new things, throw some pasta at the wall. You wouldn't discover what fits. This is not working. I'm just going to give up on this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, exactly yeah, and that's why we teach our students to build that personal brand, so that you don't have to burn the business down every time you choose a different niche because you are the niche and it's you and you're creative and multi-dimensional and whatnot. I don't know if you've done anything with human design. Do you know your human design? No, definitely not it's really interesting.

Speaker 1:

So it's based on your birth date, day and place of birth and basically I think there's four of them there's a manifester, a manifester generator, a generator and a projector, I think. And when you find out your human design and go deep into it, it really it's so spot on and human design for marketing is really interesting. We did a project with a human design for marketing woman called Yvette Meyer and she really helped us find our human design and incorporate that into our marketing. And when you find out so I'm a generator and I like to respond. So I didn't know this before, so I like to respond. I can't plan marketing and I can't just do all those things. I need to see something and respond to it. And so when you start to learn about your human design, you realize that if you're trying to force other marketing strategies that aren't in line with your human design, it's really difficult and you start resenting your business and it's really hard. But when you lean into your design, it's almost like oh of course.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's a natural easy Working with the current, not against it, Exactly so how do you take a test on human design?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you can just go online and just type in, find my human design and you put in your birth date and the place that you were born. So why is?

Speaker 2:

the birth date and the place you were born important.

Speaker 1:

I don't know why the place is important, but you also need the time of your birth as well. Right, that would be good, yeah, yeah. So if you can't find that out, I don't know if it's on your birth certificate or not, but my mum told me and yeah, I don't know how it does it and there's lots of things that I can't explain because I'm not very knowledgeable on it, but there's all these different chakras and stuff going on but I was really surprised how accurate. Right, it sounds a little bit hocus pocus. It does, yeah, yeah, but when you sort of know that and read a little bit about it, you're like of course, that's why I love doing content, or why I love documenting journeys and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I mean my business partner. She's a manifesting generator, so they like to do a million different things at once, and if they're just doing one thing, they're unhappy, and so she's got lots of different businesses going on at once, and that's how she works the best. Yes, and that's part of her human design as well. Yeah, so, yeah, it's really interesting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, definitely go and research that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What advice would you give to a person just starting content creation?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think a big part of it is confidence Having the confidence to put yourself on social media and people that you know will find your account. Yes, you know, yeah there's a big one.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it seems to pop up on there for your page, but I did a TikTok the other day, I'm not sure if you saw. It is when you really think about it, you're getting yourself, you're cutting off your opportunities and your growth because you're afraid of tiny little electrical neurons that are firing off in somebody else's meat, like meat inside their head. Yeah, and when you look at it like that, it's like it's just bizarre why you would get so hung up and anxious about that and generally you think people are thinking about you all the time, but they're not. They're thinking about themselves. So kind of changing your mindset and just doing it anyway. Yeah, and I think that's another thing that's good about having ADHD. Is that object permanence or impermanence, where, if you don't see it, it doesn't exist. So for me, I post a TikTok and I forget about it. I don't go back and watch it and stress over it. So if you post it and it's gone and the next thing, I like to do it so quickly.

Speaker 2:

I'm so impatient. I don't like editing. No Spending hours editing and re-watching it and getting it perfect. I'm just like just get it done. Done is better than perfect, that's why I blog on TikTok?

Speaker 1:

because it is just messy and it's. You know. Some of my most viral videos are me in my pyjamas and the light is bad and all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, surprising, isn't it? Yeah, there's all these rules like good lighting, blah, blah, blah blah, but it's like sometimes it doesn't work that way. You've got how many followers?

Speaker 1:

I've got 72,000 on mine and 20 on mine. Yeah okay.

Speaker 2:

So if you lost it tomorrow, today, what would you do? Just start a new one. How would you?

Speaker 1:

get it growing. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing now, just being relatable, authentic, not thinking too much about my content. I think people these days are really looking for that relatability. They can see through the marketing, they can see through the scripting, and I would just be the more me I am online, the more I grow and attract my audience.

Speaker 2:

What advice would you give me on my account? I?

Speaker 1:

would just say to almost and I'm sort of doing this myself now because I've got a few different accounts Don't be afraid to bring everything into one under one umbrella of you, Big Walker, this is me, I am Big Walker and this is all my multifaceted amazing things. And when you choose an audience who is a bit of a niche audience with a similar interest or thought pattern or what have you, that's when you really start to attract your community. I mean my ADHD page, the DMs are full all the time and the comments are full all the time of people just thanking me for being over there. And so when you oh, tiktok, yep, Wow.

Speaker 1:

I only get dm's from you, know sleazy shipper daddies, yeah it's tempting sometimes but, yeah, like just people thanking me for just being so vulnerable and out there, because they're like I didn't. I thought I was unusual and I thought I was different, but I'm just like you and so the more you are on your account, the tighter the community you'll get. You don't have to go viral and have a million followers, but you can easily make a full-time, beautiful income with a small audience that are really sort of, I was going to say, attracted to you but have a connection with you and, like you said before, I feel like I already know you. It's just me on TikTok yeah, the same mask. I made a lot most of my money with under 20,000 followers, which of your income stream is the best?

Speaker 2:

Best, as in the most.

Speaker 1:

The most, yeah, the most At the moment it's our membership, so we grew that to six figures in under 12 months.

Speaker 2:

And where do they subscribe? Is it a website, or is it on your TikTok membership subscription, or what's it?

Speaker 1:

Yep. So it's through. We use Kajabi, so we host our membership on a platform called Kajabi and it's highpopcollectiveco, and people can join the membership and we do free bootcamps and free masterclasses inviting people in, and then we also have an ambassador program. So a lot of our ambassadors share our community with their audience as well, and we pay them commissions and they get referrals.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's quite a consistent income.

Speaker 1:

I was going to say, yeah, we've set it up to be a monthly membership because, being ADHD, specifically, you go through periods of burnout when you don't want to show up and you're tired and all the things, and so having a business where you get monthly income coming in, no matter what you do, has been a lifesaver. You can do low ticket, high ticket and anything. Monthly is fantastic, and even affiliate marketing I'm getting. Is that with Amazon? Fantastic? And even affiliate marketing I'm getting. Is that with Amazon? I've never done Amazon. I'm really into subscription-based affiliate marketing for software because it is that monthly recurring Okay yep. So when someone joins up to a platform that you use and love and what do you do? Stand store, kajabi, flowdesk, tailwind, so any sort of platform that you use in your business every day and you love it you can share that with people and if they join up using your link, every single month you get paid.

Speaker 2:

Which of the platforms are the most popular?

Speaker 1:

StanStore has been a big one, big one for me, especially if you're a creator, what do?

Speaker 2:

you sell on StanStore? Sorry, do you sell anything on StanStore?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I've used StanStore ever since I started my UGC, pretty much. So it's like a link in BioTool. You can sell digital products. You can even do courses. If you don't want to pay for Kajabi, you can host a community membership On Stan's Store On Stan's Store, okay.

Speaker 1:

So why wouldn't you do everything on Stan's Store and not use Kajabi? So Kajabi for us is a little bit more sophisticated in the analytics and we run paid ads and tracking and the funnels and all that sort of stuff. So it is a little bit next level. But for just starting out, you know a very simple linking bio tool. We've also just partnered with Fingertip, which is a new Australian linking bio tool that we're hosting our marketplace on and it's basically stand store, but on steroids, right and very, very affordable ten dollars us a month and you can host everything on there as well. What it is a? Creating their fingertip, which is like their standy store. It's really creative and beautiful and you can put videos and link all your stuff and then that will be their portfolio on the marketplace. Their brands can scroll through.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I was a public speaker, so I have an agent that hosts everyone's profiles, like similar to yours, and then just books them out for people. Yeah, but it's a very arcade set up because, again, they're putting videos on it so quick that people just hear 30 seconds videos of what you're about Exactly. They will want to book you. You know, as opposed to my photo, which was taken maybe 20 years ago, I have set up my new photo Please update. I have not updated. It's really bad yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I mean, I used to be on Upwork for my UGC and you just sort of feel like you're swimming in this sea of just thousands of free lids. Yeah, it's like. Fifa yeah but you have to buy tokens and they take a cut and it's very clunky and you can't express yourself on there you make money hosting the marketplace.

Speaker 1:

So we are affiliates for fingertip yes, and so we're partnering with them. This is just the beginning of our partnership and we're the first company who have created a marketplace on their platform. Right, we'll be working with them in the future, but generally we've just kept it so cheap for our creators to have a fingertip yeah that they can use for their website or selling their digital products and have their portfolio, and then that portfolio will take onto the marketplace Money from it. But this is our way of solving a problem for our creators and getting more people into our world and the awareness and working with brands and seeing.

Speaker 2:

So how are you going to get the brands into your platform?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so that's something when you're building a marketplace. It's supply and demand. Yeah, that could be the tricky part, but because we've got such an engaged creator audience, we're getting them all on there. It'll be open to everyone and we do get brands coming to us all the time. We use creators and we'll just say go here, go here, and then we'll start marketing it to brands and it'll be free for brands to use as well as well. Yeah, so free for creators. Creators will pay the $10 a month to have their software. Okay, yeah, software, and then that's it. Yeah, and then free for brands to search through creators and book creators through their fingertips. You get paid less if you're on platforms like CreatorFlow and you give all your content usage rights away and they take all the raw footage and everything. So user rights away and they take all the raw footage and everything. So this way you're in control. It's your contract, your terms. You get all of the revenue from the brand. So we're just trying to take away some of those pain points for UGC creators. What?

Speaker 2:

do you think about gifted collabs?

Speaker 1:

I've done a lot of them myself. Really good. When you're first starting out in UGC, you get that experience of working with the brand and creating the content and having a deadline and everything. I still do gifted collabs. If I absolutely love the brand, I was going to buy it anyway. It's a small Australian brand that I want to support Mostly. I charge, obviously, so I think you have to be quite choosy with your gifted collab, but there's nothing wrong doing gifted collabs. But when it becomes your full-time job, you need to start charging, because time it takes a lot of time yeah sure.

Speaker 1:

I think so. Yeah, how much do you charge per video. So it really depends on the brand, what they want, the deliverables, how much time it's going to take me. So if I just put a blanket rule that all my videos are $500 each, but it's a cooking brand where I have to go to Woolies and get some ingredients and cook something, I'm going to charge more for that because that's going to take me more time. But if it's just….

Speaker 2:

Just like holding a product up, mixing it, drinking it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so my rates will vary with that, but I've been paid anything between $300 to $1,000 for one video.

Speaker 2:

There's a particular sort of level of businesses that you find will value and pay for content.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it depends on. I mean, there's a lot of small brands that obviously don't have the budget and they will try and do the gifted and the free or the very low paying, and that's fine. I totally get it. You know, we've paid people to create content for us as well, and sometimes the bigger brands are really difficult to work with or they'll go through an agency and the agency will have to be cut. So it just really depends on the brand. But I've worked with big brands who are really well-known and they've been fantastic and I've worked with them directly. Yes, that's the best kind, I think, when you get to really speak to them directly Do you have to chase money often.

Speaker 1:

Generally no. A lot of creators will take 50% up front before they do anything because they've been ghosted in the past. Yes, but I generally get a gut feeling with the email back and forth beforehand. That's not to say that I haven't had to chase money before, but generally they're pretty good.

Speaker 2:

So what's next?

Speaker 1:

What's next for us? Yeah, what's next for you? We're really going into launching this marketplace. We're going to start doing some in-person events. Yeah, so your business partner is in Adelaide. Yeah, she's in Adelaide. We haven't met in person yet. Yeah, so where?

Speaker 2:

would you do the in-person events?

Speaker 1:

So she lives on a vineyard, so our first one is going to be on her vineyard, with some teepees, and it's a local edition, so we're going to be doing that and I think, like I said before when we were talking off camera, this world of AI and everything's digital, I think people are going to really crave that in-person interaction.

Speaker 1:

That'll be, yeah, something that we'll focus on next. Who knows, with us, we get an idea and we're like let's do it. There could be something different tomorrow. So, yeah, you can never tell with us, and I think our members love that because they're like what's Mia and Kristen going to do next? I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I can talk to you for hours. Yeah, I like my skin dry. Yeah, I think there's so much there. Thanks for coming. I'll have to have you back another time.

Speaker 1:

Yes, we could talk all day Talk about something different. Shit podcast. I've uploaded so many good ones too.