IFH 784: Mastering the Art of Connection: Kristen Maldonado’s Journey Through Pop Culture and Social Media

Alex Ferrari 0:24
Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullis.

My next guest is a pop culture content creator and reviewer, and she's the Social Media Manager for MTV Total Requests Live in this episode, we're gonna be talking about social media. Wendy Savage, Twitter accounts running social media for a multi billion dollar company like MTV, all that good stuff, with guest Kristen Maldonado.

Kristen Maldonado 2:14
Yeah, for sure, I was part of the radio station in my school that was, like the main, the main, like, journalistic thing that I was a part of. And actually, it's funny, I didn't really start out in journalism. I was always a theater kid. So I actually went to school for three years studying theater, and then I was like, you know, like, I kind of like to talk about entertainment too, not just, you know, participate in it, I guess so from there, I, like, switched my major, like, going into my junior, like, the end of my junior year of school, and, you know, got into the radio station and kind of just like, did a whole 180 of of where I was going career wise.

Dave Bullis 2:56
So, so being a theater kid, you know, like, what were some of your favorite plays that you did while you were in college?

Kristen Maldonado 3:02
Oh, we did Rent, which was fun. What else? Even before then, I had done, like, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Aida. I'm a big fan of, like, contemporary musicals. So, you know, like R and B pop sounding music.

Dave Bullis 3:20
So, you know, I actually, and you spoke at the radio station, I actually helped out not a lot, not a lot at all. I don't want to take away from anybody, but I used to help out with the radio station at the college I worked at from time to time. And one thing that I actually always said was, this would make like a perfect web series would was, it would be a web series about a college radio station, just because, you know, for the people that actually really enjoy it and make shows and stuff like that, it almost suits it, you know what? I mean, you get, you kind of have, you kind of have all, you have a whole, all your cast of characters right in there, you know, I'm trying to say,

Kristen Maldonado 3:58
Yeah, for sure. I mean, like you have that newsroom aspect. But then like you have, like the music aspect. So like you can get sort of like, you know, I'm trying to think of, like, what news related television shows are out there, are out there, but maybe even kind of, like a 30 rock but like, college level, you know,

Dave Bullis 4:16
Yeah, it's almost you ever see the TV show Frasier?

Kristen Maldonado 4:21
I've seen a little bit of it, okay?

Dave Bullis 4:22
It was, we know, he's a, he's a radio psychiatrist, you know. And since, you know, radio is still around in, you know, in that sense, it's, it's just, I think it'd be funny if you had like, a, almost like a college radio station like that, you know what I mean. And I think it would work in a different way, but it just make it a web series, that would be cool, we know. So you graduated, and you ended up going, and you graduated from, from, from college, and you ended up applying to to MTV, correct, yes. So how did that process work? I mean, did you hear about, you know, an internship or something in like your senior year?

Kristen Maldonado 4:58
Well, I ended up staying an extra semester because I switched my major so late. And in that semester, I did an internship at Viacom, which is like the parent company of MTV and a whole bunch of other places. And I was interning at Team Nick and Nick tunes and the 90s are all that. And from there, I kind of like reached out to people, and was like, I want to learn more about what people do at MTV or at, you know, other companies within Viacom. And this one guy that I reached out to actually responded. He was the only person to respond, and he I met with him. He told me about what he does, and I happened to bring my resume because I met person that's like, oh, just bring a million resumes with me, just in case, because it wasn't even an interview. And he took my resume, and then he also suggested places, like other places within MTV that we're hiring. And I applied to those, and I didn't get them. And then he reached out to me and was like, Oh, actually, we're hiring for a PA right now, if you're interested. And I was like, Oh, of course, of course. And I applied, and then I got the job. So the rest is history, I guess,

Dave Bullis 6:07
So it's about all see, it's about networking. It's about getting your name out there, you know. And it's awesome, too, that you got to choose your internship. Because I know a lot of times, you know, working, because I've worked at a college. I also, obviously, I worked at the college that I graduated from. And, you know, I've seen it before where, you know, like, I couldn't pick my internship, you know, I had to have one that was selected for me. And I was like,

Kristen Maldonado 6:31
Yeah, yeah. They, like, picked it for you,

Dave Bullis 6:34
Yeah they, they basically would give you what you had to do. And I so later on, I heard that you could actually, if you came to them with one, they would, they would let you do that. But what happened was, with me, they gave it to me, and I ended up like interning at an insurance, insurance, whatever store, whatever location, whatever you would call it, and I was doing a lot of cold calling. So I was like, I don't think this is a good internship.

Kristen Maldonado 7:03
Yeah, that's so interesting. At my college, you got three credits of an internship. And so what people would do was they would do some for no credit, just to get experience. And then they would do like, you could put the three credits to however you wanted. So they would do like, three internships with each credit. So I think at school, I ended up doing maybe, like, seven internships, just because I was like, I want the experience, especially because I thought I was so late in the game, you know, switching my major. So, but that that one at a at Viacom was my last one, which landed me my job. So I'm very appreciative for that one.

Dave Bullis 7:41
So, so what are some of the things you did at the internship Viacom?

Kristen Maldonado 7:47
Some of the things that I did, I did a little bit of writing. I remember I got to write an article about de grasses I think it was their 300th episode. So that was cool, because I'm a huge Degrassi fan. So that was, like, one of the huge perks of getting to work on Team Nick stuff. I was like, I love de grassy. And then I got to help out with some of the social media posts. What else I'm trying to think

Dave Bullis 8:17
So Kristen, I'm not very cool and I'm not very hip. So what exactly is de grassy?

Kristen Maldonado 8:24
Oh, it's like a Canadian teen drama. That's what de grassy is. Okay? It's an excellent Canadian teen drama that's been around for years. It's actually where Drake first was discovered. You know, he back when he was Aubrey Graham, before he was like, you know, Drake, the rapper. He played a character on this Canadian teen drama show, de grassy.

Dave Bullis 8:46
Oh, well, see, I didn't know that. And I'm glad you clarified that too, except when you said Drake, I was like Drake Bell from drinking Josh,

Kristen Maldonado 8:54
Who's also excellent. So,

Dave Bullis 8:58
But, but you see, that's cool. She had to do something you liked. And so when you do this internship, they you were able to continue with it, because you became, you know, the coordinator of digital strategy. So let me ask you this, how did you, how were you able to stay in that position? Or, I'm sorry, how would you, how were you able to sort of parlay that into another position?

Kristen Maldonado 9:19
Well, that just happened to be, well, another part of my internship was working in, like the content management system for Nickelodeon shows, so we would like build out the episodes within the website so people could watch it online. So that was like a big part of my internship, and that was actually probably my least favorite part of the internship, but that was the part that that was, like, the job that MTV was looking for as a production assistant. They were looking for people that would be able to, like, build out episodes in their content management system. And I had a little bit of experience with it, so that really helped me actually get that job, which is funny because, you know, so this was like, you know, five years ago now. When I first started, our job was literally to build out, you know, full episodes and clips online. And now our job has completely changed, and it's someone else's job to do that, and we mostly do like the the social and digital strategy around TV shows. So it like, really, it changed a lot over the, you know, over five years,

Dave Bullis 10:29
Yeah, because, you know, now, if you look at Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and Instagram, which I consider to be the big four, I know some people like Snapchat. I don't like Snapchat. Snapchat either. I'm glad you don't like it, either, because I sit there and I'm like, you know, I love social media, and I'm and I heard so much about Snapchat, and I'm sitting there going, what is this, you know?

Kristen Maldonado 10:50
Yeah, I think it's, it's more of a personal kind of account. I feel like, you know, people, I feel like Instagram story is a place that's a little bit more polished, whereas on Snapchat, you can, like, send a picture of, like, a goofy face to your friend, and it disappears. And, like, it's fun in that way, you know,

Dave Bullis 11:08
Yeah, it's, I don't know. Maybe I'm just looking for, like, a more of a maybe it didn't speak to me right away. It's like a marketing tool, you know, that's what kind of I was looking for. It's kind of like that old saying, if everything looks like, if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, yeah,

Kristen Maldonado 11:22
Yeah. I mean, that makes sense, because you can't even really, you know, search for people on Snapchat. Like, it's a lot harder than like, if you're just on Instagram, you know,

Dave Bullis 11:30
Yeah, and Instagram, I think, is probably Instagram and Twitter are probably the most friendly social media channels. And, you know, to tie all this in, you just touched about, you just touched upon, you know, building a strategy for a TV show. And that's I'm really interested in that. Because sometimes, you know, like, when a new movies coming out, you know, they'll follow me, and maybe they'll send me a message, and sometimes they won't. And you know, some I always, you know, when I ever see, I see a new movie coming out, I always try to, you know, if they, if they follow me, or what have you that's, that's great, but I'm always wondering, you know, what is the end, sort of the end goal of that the TV show, obviously little it's a little different, because that's a continuation. So, so Kristen, if you could, and I mean, please feel free to give me as much info as possible, because I'm really, I really like this stuff. What are some of the things that they do, or maybe even tell you about when they, when they when they say, Let's build a strategy around a new TV show.

Kristen Maldonado 12:26
Yeah, so, I mean, the main, our main goals, really are to, you know, bring awareness to the show, you know, get people to engage with it, and to really tap into, like, strong and passionate audiences and build a community. So when we're coming up with stuff, you know, we're thinking about digital video, we're thinking about social content, and we're just trying to see, like, what's gonna like, what is like, the voice of the show, and how are we gonna like resonate with our audience? Like, who is our audience? And so those are things that we're really thinking about and, you know, we're using all the different platforms out there, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, musically. And just like creating engaging and impactful content, we're really paying attention to like trending topics and and what's like popular right now, you know. And just, you know, trying to be authentic voices. I think that's like, a huge thing right now in social, you know, in just like, the way you present yourself on social media is just to, like, you know, be an authentic, real voice. And I think that's something that we really put into. I mean, every show that I've worked on, you know, you don't want it to be like, this is a robot talking to you like, there's a real person behind there. You might not know who it is, but like they they have a personality. They have, you know, likes and dislikes, and their goal is to, you know, kind of fan out over the things that you're fanning out over, you know, so, like on other shows I've worked on, it's maybe, you know, fanning out over a specific show that has, you know, like a, you know, maybe it's a scripted show that has, like, a specific storyline for TRL, it's, you know, we're tapping into, you know, the artists that we love, or the influencers we love, and trying to connect with people who love it as well.

Dave Bullis 14:23
Yeah, so that's something I always worry about too. Is whenever you know you have a channel, people worry about getting spammed, like they don't want to follow you, and all of a sudden they're just getting spammed by DMS, which you know doesn't, can't really happen anymore, because Twitter changed those rules, but for the auto DMS, but you know, they don't want to follow a challenge just to get hit with constant stuff, like, like a robot, like you said, you know, like, hey, you know, watch this, or, etc. So, you know, what are some of the things that you do to avoid that, you know, for a new show? Because, I imagine it's kind of like a balance, because you can't show too much footage, because you want people to. To watch it on whatever, you know, medium it's on. And at the same time, you want people to be aware of what the show actually is.

Kristen Maldonado 15:08
Yeah, I think the balance there is like finding little ways to add, like, tune ins in places that like are not overtly, like in your face, kind of, you know, so it's like, you can enjoy the content, but, oh, by the way, it has the tune in at the end of the video, you know. Or you know, if you know, putting out a card with, like, who's going to be on the show, and putting the tune in there, or giving it to talent to let them kind of share with their audiences. And I think when you have, like, good talent on the show that have their own fan bases. You can rely on them to kind of help as well, like make people aware that they're going to be on or that you know the show exists.

Dave Bullis 15:51
So do you think Kristen, like this is why a lot of the times, you know, like shows or maybe get rebooted, or because you know, or the movies now, you see, it's a lot of Marvel movies, there's a lot of DC movies, a lot of superhero stuff. Do you think that it? One of the strengths of that happening is when you do social media marketing for something like a new like a show like this, or a show that's based on an existing property, you know, you already know what. Because you don't have to really introduce people to what it is, you know what? I mean, they already know what Batman, Superman is. You know, they already know what you know. Even like Drake or, you know, coming out with a new CD, they kind of already know what that is, what that is.

Kristen Maldonado 16:28
I think in some cases it can definitely be a strength. In other cases, you know, it might be coming back at a time when people are not familiar with it, like, I would say a great example is Guardians of the Galaxy. People love that franchise. But before it came out, people were like, What is this? And if you were a big comic book fan, you knew who the guardians were, but if you weren't, it's like, why are they making this movie about a raccoon and a tree, you know, like, what is this? And then they were able to turn that into something that people love, you know, like a franchise that people maybe even as, maybe even more popular than Avengers, you know,

Dave Bullis 17:06
Yeah, it's, yeah, I always wondered about like that, you know, how, how to actually, you know, market like new TV shows and things like that. Because even marketing this podcast, for instance, it can be a little bit tricky at times, because, you know, again, people don't want to be spam, too. And sometimes it's kind of hard you want to get the to get because you want to get the message out, but at the same time, you're like, Well, I don't want to spam too much. Then how you know how many? How you know how many tweets? Or too much? And do you tweet too much?

Kristen Maldonado 17:33
I would, I would definitely say a big thing that I've learned in my career is, like, quality over quantity 100% like, you could post something 100 times, and you're gonna not get as much reach as, like, the one, one or one or two times you posted it. And just like, had really great, you know, copy or really great visuals around it, you know.

Dave Bullis 17:54
So, so what's something that you've seen Kristen with one of your campaigns? It just has really taken off. Like, was there, like, ever a video or a photo you maybe posted on like, a Twitter or Facebook or YouTube that is just that? It's just, you know, not, not even just going viral, but just has been very popular?

Kristen Maldonado 18:12
Yeah, I worked on ridiculousness for a while, and there was a bunch of times when, like, we'd have viral clips that we cut and made them a little bit shorter and made them more meme able, that would get like, you know, millions upon millions of views. And that's, like, always a really cool feeling. I mean, it's, it's probably mostly due to the fact that it's, like, a funny viral clip, but, yeah, I would definitely say that's, that's one of the times where I've seen something do really well. A lot of times it's about just like, what that content is, and just like, putting a good spin on it, you know,

Dave Bullis 18:45
Yeah, you know that. That's I've noticed that too, like, just just, you know, if you know what channel you're on, and maybe making the media for that, that's something I've noticed too, is if you're on Twitter, Twitter has a different way of people can how they consume it. Same thing with YouTube, same thing with Facebook, same thing with Instagram. For sure. You know, it's kind of like people expect a certain type of of media when they go to those channels,

Kristen Maldonado 19:09
Definitely and like, it's, it's like, always cool, like, learning, like, as you go on, like, what works best where, like, maybe square videos do better on certain platforms. Or, you know, just regular 16 by nine videos do better on other platforms. Just even like small things like that can have a big impact on video being seen. And another thing is like posting things natively like you, if you're on Facebook, for instance, and you post a link to a website like there's a there's a good chance that like YouTube is not going to surface that. Sorry, not YouTube, Facebook is not going to surface that as high as if you had like, let's you had a video and you literally uploaded it to Facebook, that will get more reach even just like certain language use, like saying, share this or like this or watch this. Um. Um, we'll bring things down, um, because Facebook, Can see that you're like overtly, you know, overtly promotional, when their main goal is to, you know, kind of have people more sharing things personally, you know. And I think that's why things like Chewbacca mom can can go viral and trend, because it's like a fun native thing that, like, you know, it's not like someone being like, watch this, you know, promo this, you know what I mean.

Dave Bullis 20:38
Yeah, yeah, I know exactly what you mean. And so one channel I thought really has done really well, is, is Wendy's. Have you ever seen their Twitter, their Twitter channel,

Kristen Maldonado 20:48
Yeah, they're very sassy.

Dave Bullis 20:50
Yeah, it's amazing how well they've done. And I'm always like, man, all this from a from a fast food Twitter channel? I can't believe it.

Kristen Maldonado 20:58
Yeah. I mean, when you have someone who has, like, a really great voice and brings that to the table, and can really channel something that, you know, that people are interested in, you know, people go to see, like, what's Wendy's gonna say next? You know?

Dave Bullis 21:15
And that's a kind of a question I was gonna lead into you with, is when you want to change a voice. Because, I mean, before that, I'm sure, you know, the higher ups at Wendy's probably said, All right, look, we're gonna get social media channels. We have no idea what we're gonna put on any of them, but we were, but, you know, you're told, you have to have all these channels, right? You got to have Facebook, get up Twitter, you gotta have all these channels. So where does that person come in who finally just says, You know what, I'm just gonna talk crap on other people, and I'm gonna do this. And it just, I can't imagine some managers signing off on that, you know what? I mean, I can't, because everyone's is so careful nowadays, because that's what social media is, right? Everyone owns marketing now with social media, so I can't imagine, you know, a manager at some point being like, you know what, yeah, just go, just go, balls to the wall. And, you know, I just always wondered, you know, where that shift came in, and who actually approved that, if anyone did, or if some, some social media manager, Wendy, just went off with it one day, and it ended up being a hit, and they just kind of stuck with it.

Kristen Maldonado 22:16
I mean, my only thought, you know, I think, I think working on a brand like Wendy's or like versus working on a TV show or a movie is that, you know, I agree with you, it's very surprising that they would let a brand like that kind of go ball to the wall and and kind of take that big leap. But I think they must have, you know, higher ups on their team who you know are very innovative and are really looking at what's going on, like trending wise and in pop culture, and are like, You know what, let's try this. And then, you know, sometimes you take that big leap, it works. I don't know exactly who you know would approve that on their side, because I'm not sure if, like, Wendy's themselves, like, have people that are, like a social team that runs, or if they use an outside source, but if they do, like, you know, they obviously are open to taking leaps. And to me, that means they're an even more innovative company than, you know, than even just that. So I think that's awesome.

Dave Bullis 23:22
Yeah, it's that, you know, we should tweet them and actually ask them that, you know, shouldn't even theorize, that we should actually ask them, like, when the hell did this shift come in? And I'm sure they're probably by now. It's probably like, Oh, I was somebody go, but, but I always wondered that if somebody, on the last day, you know, grabbed a Twitter channel at some company, like, even, like, Wendy's just said, You know what, I'm just gonna do whatever I want to do now. And, and that's happened too, you know? Or the last day at someone's job, they've taken a Twitter or Facebook or whatever, and they've literally just not only held it hostage, but they've also just tweeted out random stuff. Yeah,

Kristen Maldonado 23:58
I don't know. Did you see spike TVs? Like their their last hurrah on Twitter, they recently changed to Paramount network, and they did this really awesome Twitter goodbye, where they just kept tweeting all these things about like they were like, Oh, it's my last day as a Viacom employee. So like, I'm gonna tweet whatever I want. And it was a social strategy that they did, and it was so funny. And they became like a, they became a, what is it like a Twitter moment? And they were trending all over the place. And it was really, really funny,

Dave Bullis 24:34
And that works well too, because people, I'm sure, were probably thinking themselves, wow, this is, you know, so this, this person is going to either go out guns blazing, or they're going to actually, you know, tell someone kind of like, trade secrets or something you never know, right?

Kristen Maldonado 24:49
Yeah, they, it was all, like, part of their strategy. So it was planned, but there were so many people commenting, being like, oh, whoever's doing this is going to get fired, or like, but it was all part of their their whole, um. You know, good, like, goodbye, like, you know, going out, type of thing. And it was, it was really hilarious.

Dave Bullis 25:08
See, that's really cool. And I'm gonna link to that everyone in the show notes. I'm gonna find that. And also, we'll also link to that Wendy's channel. But so, so in, in so now in 2017 you got to be made the manager of social media at MTV. TRL, so how did that happen?

Kristen Maldonado 25:25
I would say it was, it was kind of like I was working on the show previously, and like before it like, really jump started, and I was kind of doing it on my own with another coordinator. And it was like, so much that they were like, Oh, we're going to make a whole new team that's just going to work on this. Do you still want to be a part of it? And I was like, Yeah, of course. So it is kind of from there. I moved over, and I was just really thankful that I, you know, am able to be a part of this, you know, huge reboot, like, it's such an iconic show. So that's kind of how it came about. I would say,

Dave Bullis 26:06
Yeah, it is an iconic show. Because I remember watching TRL, like, when I was in high school, and just seeing all the different like, you know, the countdowns and stuff like that, and Carson daily, you know, it's just, yeah, when I saw that, I was like, you know, I'm glad it's still on, but I saw it's being rebooted.

Kristen Maldonado 26:22
Yeah, yeah, a complete reboot. It's, it's different, but it's still a lot of fun. We have a lot of great guests come through all the time. So it's, it's great.

Dave Bullis 26:31
So, so now, when you when the show's running, you know, so as far as social media goes, you know, are you getting a lot of people like, saying different things, like, hey, you know, are they able to, meaning, like, are they able to vote for stuff?

Kristen Maldonado 26:47
We do have a little bit of voting. We have a right now. We have a top three countdown of like, what's going on in pop culture. And so people are, I would say it's more like they give their thoughts on the number one topic. So, for instance, the one that we just had recently was they were talking about Kim Kardashians, like recent nude photos that she released. So it was like, the question was, like, is she doing too much? Is, you know, should we just, like, mind her own business and let Kim do whatever she wants? Which is, like, you know, people can kind of cast their votes and share what they think and leave comments, and then they'll talk about it on the show, and they'll, like, actually bring up fan comments, and they'll be able to, like, contribute to the conversation.

Dave Bullis 27:28
Yeah, and the Kardashians, they kind of have social media locked down, right? Especially,

Kristen Maldonado 27:32
Oh yeah, yeah. They're, they like, own it. They're, they are everywhere. Everything they post does so incredibly well. Yeah, they're just everywhere.

Dave Bullis 27:44
So let me ask you this, Kristen, just to as we talked about all the different shows and stuff like that, how do you handle Twitter trolls, or trolls in general, people who just tweet at you or message you or whatever and say, Hey, listen, this stinks, or whatever, and they just make sort of arbitrary, whether it be like arbitrary comments or just something that's trying to sort of, you know, ruffle feathers. How do you handle like people like that?

Kristen Maldonado 28:06
Are we talking specifically around television shows, or just in general, like online, like, dealing with haters, or either, well,

Dave Bullis 28:13
I was gonna say specifically about TV shows.

Kristen Maldonado 28:17
We mostly, we don't answer because you don't want to kind of jump in and cause, like, a whole, you know, fight with someone when, like, you know, we're, we're just focused on doing our job and getting the content out to the people who want to have it, you know,

Dave Bullis 28:36
Yeah, and that's a good strategy to have, because I remember one time I was talking to a friend of mine who's a social media strategist, and he pointed something out to me and celebrity. He said celebrities just tend to to focus on the negative. And if you look at a lot of celebrities, they they will answer a lot of negative stuff. Like me, they will, they will always like they always sort of respond to negative stuff. And then then it came out. You know, celebrities read mean tweets. And I'm just like, you know, so much negativity, you know, but at least of mean tweets, you know, can they can make a little bit of funny, you know?

Kristen Maldonado 29:09
Yeah. I mean, there's always gonna be hate out there. I think it's just like paying attention to the people that you know are positive and that actually enjoy your content, because the people that don't like it or not, the people you're targeting. You're targeting, you know. And I mean, like, on my YouTube channel, I've experienced, like, getting hate on stuff, and my strategy there is, like, kill them with kindness. If someone doesn't like something that I said or that I posted, my whole thought is, like, you know what, you still watched it, so that's fine. Like, that's great. Like, let me know what you think. Then, if you don't like, whatever it is, you know,

Dave Bullis 29:44
Yeah, and you did start a YouTube channel, and, I mean, I've seen some of the stuff you have on there, you know, you do some review stuff, and you do, also, I saw you actually had, like, some celebrity interviews. So I wanted to, I know this is, this is kind of sort of like an interview show. It's more like, I always consider more of a conversation, but, you know, so, I mean, what is it like, you know? I mean, do you do the YouTube like, do you, do you try to upload at least once a week?

Kristen Maldonado 30:18
Yeah, I try to upload as many times as I can, like, at least once a week. But if I have more things that I want to cover just I try to be as timely as possible, you know.

Dave Bullis 30:28
So would there be a point Kristen, where you would start uploading, like, every day?

Kristen Maldonado 30:32
I don't think I have the time right now for that. I wish that would be awesome like that. My goal really is to, like, grow my YouTube and whatnot, because I love talking about, you know, television and movies and books and music. And I wish that I could just, like, spend all my time talking about that stuff. But, you know, there's all, you know, all these other things I have to work on as well. But it's a lot of fun. Like, that's, I've been doing it for four years now, and I don't plan to stop. I just like talking about things, and you know, hopefully other people will talk back, you know,

Dave Bullis 31:07
You know, I was actually, I just got the book crushing it by Gary Vaynerchuk, do you know Gary Vee?

Kristen Maldonado 31:15
Gary? Oh, wait. Vayner Media, yeah.

Dave Bullis 31:17
Vayner Media, yes, yes. So, you know, I just got his new book, crushing it, and I've been just kind of like, you know, I just came out today, actually, and I've been just, you know, making little notes here and there about different things. And, you know, he talks about people who do social media full time. I mean, there's, there's tons and tons of people, you know, like, I mean, if we went down the list of all the top YouTubers and everything else, I mean, it's just, you know, the landscape is sort of, you know, broadened, and especially with TV. Now, you know, episodic things are everywhere, but it's also very segregating in terms of, you know, what the shows are and what medium they're on. You know, for every game of thrones on HBO, you have Stranger Things on Netflix. I almost blacked out there for a second. I always forgot how good to go to couldn't think of another show. And like, you know, it's a golden age of TV, and I'm like, blanking out on shows now, but you know, and you see all these different, you know, channels like and you see all these, you know, wonderful, wonderful shows. And you just kind of wonder about things that fly under the radar. And then you also have your content creators like you and I, who, you know, I do the podcast, and you have a YouTube channel, you know, it's just, I think the two things that everyone sort of gives it as advice for all this stuff, for all everything I just said, just sort of encompass this is, you know, to create a brand and to do it very well. And to those two components are to create a brand, you have your own voice, and also just, you know, be unique as possible. And to do it well, you know, is all the other is all the technical left brain sort of things where it's like, you know, make sure the framing is correct, the lighting is correct, stuff like that. And, I mean, so have you noticed that too? Because I know you obviously probably have friends that do YouTube a lot. Have you? Have you noticed that those components of creating a great media across all these channels?

Kristen Maldonado 33:08
Yeah, I mean, I think especially as you like, continue making things you can, like, see the difference in like, you know, the audio or the the video quality and it like feels good to, you know, see, not just yourself, but even just like how, I guess, like in the world of social media and content creation, like, everything has been like elevated, and people are making really beautiful content, like all the time, which is something that, like a few years ago, you know, people were just like, in dark rooms, like little lamps on them to try to, like, you know, make their own content. So it's the quality has improved so much. It's, like, amazing,

Dave Bullis 33:53
Yeah, I actually had a friend of mine. He ended up repping the, do you remember the Numa Numa guy? Yeah, yeah. He ended up becoming his his manager, slash agent. And what happened was he put that video up, and he knew he he hit. He hit it big. When the news vans were outside of his house and his his mom was like, Gary, there's a bunch of fans and stuff from the news out here. They want to talk to you, and it just spiraled out from there. And then my friend, and that's when he and my friend met, and he was one of the original YouTube, you know, viral video hits and YouTube celebrities. And you know, he started to parlay that for a while, and he doesn't do YouTube anymore at all, and his channel is actually run by my by that same friend. But, you know, it's just, it's just interesting. So again, reading that book about, you know, all the people that kind of go in, and maybe they have one or two hit videos, and then they kind of, you know, like some guy I see a lot of is Casey, nice that I'm sure,

Kristen Maldonado 34:53
Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. Actually saw him once walking his like daughter in the streets of. New York City. I was like, what was he vlogging? I don't, I don't know if he was, I just know he was, like, pushing a stroller. So maybe he had something on him that was like, recording.

Dave Bullis 35:11
I imagine, like, he can't record anything now in the streets of New York, like, I imagine if he walks around like everyone just like, walks up to him and starts talking to him.

Kristen Maldonado 35:19
I mean, me, my boyfriend were walking, and he was like, my boyfriend was like, hey, it's up. And Casey responded, and I thought that they were friends or something. And I was like, Who's that? He was like, it's Casey nice that. So nobody had seen him. Then at that point, I don't know if maybe a few more blocks away, he got mobbed,

Dave Bullis 35:34
See and that's what I mean, like, I can't imagine he goes. I saw a video what he was doing was reviewing camera that I actually was looking at buying, and they actually reviewed it. And I was like, wow, it's actually a 360 camera. And, like, he was, like, skateboarding down the street, and people were still trying to talk to him, like, so he's like, whizzing past them. And people like, oh, Casey, what's going on? It's like, I mean, I hopefully nobody thought they were gonna have an actual conversation with, you know, somebody skateboarding past you, but you know, it's, you never know, right?

Kristen Maldonado 36:03
Yeah, I mean, it sounds like all his fans are kind of like his friends, you know, they're all just like, hey, sup, what's up, man? Good seeing you as he rides by.

Dave Bullis 36:14
And that's kind of what you want, right? You want to have that brand where you kind of like, you know, it's, it's, you notice it, and you want to be able to interact with it, right? So, and I think that's kind of what, you know, the Kim the Kardashian brand. I mean, look, you know, what they've done, and they, you know, love them or hate them. They still have that brand, that brand image, that brand name, and, you know, they make a ton of money just doing, doing, you know, just being Kim Kardashian,

Kristen Maldonado 36:36
Yeah, just being themselves. It's, it's crazy that you can, like, you know, have make a career in being yourself nowadays. That's so cool,

Dave Bullis 36:45
Yeah, and it's always that, that magical word to influencer, right? So you're kind of always wondering, you know, what is that influence? Because, I mean, like, even when you're doing a TV show on Twitter or Facebook and you're, you know you're as the show's happening, you know you're maybe you have a tweet chat going on, and you, you know, you're trying to influence people to watch or to interact with the show, because when they when they interact, they have to watch more, and when they watch more, they want to interact. You know, it's kind of like that, that kind of zig zags back and forth. And I think that's to What's everyone's kind of is looking for, is how to sort of leverage, you know, starting a YouTube channel. Like, for instance, you Chris, like, you started a YouTube channel a few, you know, four years ago. And have you been able to, sort of, you know, leverage that, or use that to, sort of, maybe, hey, you know, Kristen gets it. You know, you get invited to an event because they say, Hey, listen, Kristen has this YouTube channel. She said all this other stuff, you know, should we invite her to this, to this event? Has that happened to you yet,

Kristen Maldonado 37:42
Not really. I've had like, a couple of, like, small opportunities, of like, oh, there's like, a book subscription service that that once sent me a box to try and like, review for free. So that was cool. And like, Tribeca Film Festival I go to every year, but that I didn't really get that opportunity, like, through doing YouTube. I got to do something else. So I would say, like, right now I'm kind of, like, just doing my own thing there, but I would love, like, the opportunity to, like, cover more things, or, you know, whatnot, through my YouTube channel. I think that would be awesome,

Dave Bullis 38:18
Yeah, because I didn't mean that the way it sounded, by the way, it hasn't happened to you yet. I'm sorry.

Kristen Maldonado 38:25
I'm working, you know, working towards

Dave Bullis 38:31
Because sometimes I've had friends who they've started a channel and, I mean, for instance, I started a podcast before this one years ago, on a whim, and you'd be amazed at the people that I had just not only following the podcast, the Twitter channel we had for the podcast, but people would follow it, and they would ask to come on the podcast. And these are people that are on TV. And I'm like, There's no way this is real. Like, there's no way. And then, yeah, it turns out it was real. It was completely real. And I'm like, holy crap. Like, why my little podcast at the time? And it's like, now all these people who are on TV, like, who are on, like, different chef shows, different other other shows, on history, channel, Discovery Channel, them, they wanted to come on my podcast. I was like, What the hell am I doing? Yeah, and so that's why I'm kind of like, you know, if you have persistence. It's amazing what could happen. Because, I mean, I the average podcast lasts seven episodes and gets 5050, downloads per episode, so that's 350 and I don't know what the average Twitter or YouTube or anything other analytics are, but you can kind of see it, though, with podcasts, because not only am I in this medium, but you can see when people just start things because they want to see how it works, and maybe they have an idea, and there's a lot of ferborn energy, and they go for it, and it kind of fizzles out, and then all of a sudden, you just see, it's like, it's like a relic. It's like a ghost town that only talks about anymore.

Kristen Maldonado 40:05
Yeah, I mean, I think that people do that on on other platforms, also, like YouTube, where, like, you start out thinking, Oh, I'm gonna make these videos and it's gonna go viral and get a million clicks, and, you know, it's gonna just, like, blow up, and then it doesn't, and then a lot of people stop because it's like, this is not going where I thought it would. And my goal is to never be like, Oh, I just gave up, you know, like, I think that I have, I'm, like, slowly growing. And I, I mainly started my channel because I wanted a place to talk about pop culture and, you know, you know, as a journalism student, you know, I was always, you know, I wanted to be an entertainment journalist. And whenever I went to panels and things, they would always say, if you want to do what you have to do yourself, no one's going to hand anything to you. So I was like, Well, no one's going to just let me be on air. So, like, I'll make my own channel where I can be on camera and I can talk about what I want to talk about, and we'll see what happens. And I've gotten a few, like, little opportunities to do things outside of my channel, like hosting wise, like I've done a few videos for MTV and a few videos for glamor, and I hosted a recap show for MTV faking it when that was on, which was really awesome. And I would love to, like, find opportunities to, like, do more stuff like that, but, um, but, yeah, it was more for me to, like, have a place to talk about the things that I want to talk about that I love,

Dave Bullis 41:31
Yeah, and I think that's, that's one of the things with social media is obviously, you know, you can sort of run the channel, or you want to run the channel, You know, you don't have to answer anybody, and you can just sort of do whatever you wanted to do. That's, you know. And like, you know, you started that YouTube channel, and, you know, I started a podcast. I mean, it's just, you know, you just want to, you just sometimes have to just go out there and just do things, yeah, and you know what I mean? And just, hey, this is what I want to talk about. This is what interests me. Somebody once gave me the advice that, if you can just get 1000 true fans, and they each pay, I forget what the amount was, you could easily just substitute that for your day job, like, right off the bat. And once I heard that, I was like, wow, that's actually pretty cool. You know, if they were to just whatever, buy your services, buy T shirts, whatever, it hasn't quite worked out that way for me, but, but it's still, it's a cool theory, right?

Kristen Maldonado 42:23
Yeah. And I think, you know, it's, I think it's, it's very commendable to, like, kind of do stuff like this on your own, and, like, you know, not rely on other people. And you know, you're putting it out there, and if people want to check it out, then they they can. And you know, you can, even if it's not a huge community, like, my community is not that huge, but there are people that that do have interest in hearing, you know, what I have to talk about, I'm sure what you have to talk about. And then that's like a cool feeling that there's people there that do want to have that conversation, you know,

Dave Bullis 42:53
Yeah. And it's, you know, and I think more and more I had on here, oh, I forget his name. I can't believe I'm blacking out, but he actually works for Pixar, and we had him on the podcast, and he actually said he goes, I think in five years, you're gonna see this huge influx again of people just starting this stuff again. And what's gonna happen is, people who didn't start it five years ago are really gonna regret it, but people who started, you know, five years earlier are already going to have built in Analytics, you know, they built in, you know, numbers and everything like that, and built in audience, rather than just starting fresh, you know, from scratch.

Kristen Maldonado 43:28
I think that makes a lot of sense. I mean, I already regret, and I'm kicking myself for not starting my stuff earlier, and it was because I was too nervous, you know, I was like, afraid to put my voice out there. And now I'm like, Yeah, whatever. Like, I'll talk about, you know, the things I'm interested in, and just like, hope that people you know will listen. But before I was, like, really scared to do it. I'm like, What will people think? Like, especially like, What will people I know think? Well, they think it's like, lame. There's like, you can't really worry about everybody else. You got to just do the stuff you want to do.

Dave Bullis 44:02
So did you get any blowback, like any any friends or colleagues or anything, were they, when you say, mentioned that they you know, people you know might think it slain. Did you get any blowback at all from any, like, friends or anything like that?

Kristen Maldonado 44:14
Um, not really well. When I first started, I would, um, I would like talk about pop culture, and then I would, like, sing and stuff in my videos. And I did have a friend that was like, yeah, they're just kind of lame that you do that. And I was like, whatever. And then I slowly, not because of what they said, but like, just because it worked better for my videos, like, stopped, you know, like doing adding that, like, singing element, but, um, no, I just do that at karaoke, you know. But otherwise, nobody's, you know, I feel like I get like, some decently, like, good feedback of like, Oh, I see your your YouTube videos. Like, that's really awesome that you're still doing it. And like, you have some cool content out there. So, yeah,

Dave Bullis 44:59
Do they act actually like it, like, meaning that they like it. Give it the old thumbs up, because I have friends who I post stuff on my personal Facebook page, which has kind of become like a mix of both. And they'll say stuff to me like, oh yeah, I saw you were doing that, and blah, blah. And I'm like, Well, how come you didn't like it? Then say anything like, you know what? I mean, it's kind of

Kristen Maldonado 45:18
Yeah, I feel like my like, real close, close. People will like it, but like, the you know, everybody else probably just looks at it and and scrolls past. And I was like, Yeah, I saw that, which is fine. You got to know who you're true, your true fans and friends are,

Dave Bullis 45:36
Yeah, you know, I don't know. I always say it's weird if somebody sees something and they don't like it, you know. And they know, you know what I mean. And the same type of people that would be, if anything ever became of this, like something big, like, if you got famous, or if you got money from it,

Kristen Maldonado 45:49
Oh, then they'd be like, Hey, I've been here the whole time. You're like, No, you haven't been,

Dave Bullis 45:53
Yeah, yeah, exactly and I'm always like, I gotta make a mental role decks of those people. You know what I mean? Like, you gotta, you gotta watch those people. You because they're the vultures. That's like, the minute you fail, they're there to kick you at while you're down, but the minute you succeed, they're there to help you about, oh yeah, we've always been there for you, yeah. So you know, Kristen, we've been talking for about 45 minutes now, just in closing, I wanted to ask you one question, and that is for anyone starting out on social media. Now, you know, what advice would you have for them?

Kristen Maldonado 46:27
I mean, I would say the best advice that I've ever gotten, which I mentioned before, is just like, do it yourself, and hopefully the opportunities will come. So you know, if you want to run certain accounts, maybe start building your own accounts, make a website, start talking about the things that you want to that you want to focus on. Maybe try to volunteer somewhere. If there's an organization you know that, like you know, maybe can't pay you, but you can volunteer. Maybe it's a, you know, a charity, or a band, a local band or something like that, see if you can help them with their social media and kind of get that experience. And always go for the internships, especially if you're in school, like, do as many internships as you can. And I think from there, you know, your work will speak for itself,

Dave Bullis 47:20
Yeah, and that's, that's really good advice. And I know a lot of times when you know, anyone says a channel, it's kind of like, you know, what do you post? What something I've learned? And just to, just to sort of piggyback on what you said there, Kristen, you know, I think posting is, obviously, it's not really a strategy, per se. It's more of just being consistent. But the what you're going to post, you know, hey, I'm going to post something that, you know, now, maybe a quote, and then the next and then the next post is going to be something else. Maybe it's going to be some other piece of information that could actually help them, or, you know, what have you. So it's kind of going back to Gary Vay. It's kind of like that, you know, left, uh, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, which is give, give, give, ask. So it's kind of like, you know, you always help, you know, making sure that if people follow you, they know they're not going to get spammed. You know, they're going to get something of value. Yeah, definitely. So Kristen, we're working speaking of online. Where can we go find you at online.

Kristen Maldonado 48:15
You can find me everywhere. At kay maldo, K, A, Y, M, A, L, D, O, so I'm there on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, if you edit one at the end of that, you can find me on Instagram and Snapchat. Yeah, I'm all over the social webs, the interwebs.

Dave Bullis 48:33
Kristen, I want to say thank you so much for coming on.

Kristen Maldonado 48:37
Thank you for having me.