Using the Creator Economy to Empower Underserved Youth

I want to be painfully honest with you today, gang. What we do in the influence marketing space, or the marketing space overall, often seems to me to be superfluous. Will the world survive if marketing died? Sure it would. Heck, some people would even say it might be a better place. 

Sometimes, I’m not sure those voices are wrong.

Don’t get me wrong! I love what we do. And I do think that connecting brands to the audiences that can benefit from knowing them has meaning. While that might be a stretch for someone who markets luxury footwear. It becomes more relevant for those of us who do it for non-profits or businesses that have a real impact on people’s lives. 

But when I stumble across someone who looks at the creator economy or influence marketing and sees a real path to change the world, I am both excited and humbled. Excited that what we do can have great meaning and impact. Humbled that I’m some schlep who does it more for money than for a greater purpose. 

Last spring, my friend T. Adeola, invited me to speak at an event he was putting on in Dayton, Ohio. T, who is more formally known as Temitayo Adeola Osinubi but thankfully is comfortable with just T, is an experienced digital marketer. I met him years ago at an event he says was the first digital marketing event he ever attended. 

He’s done time with several brands over the years, including Proctor & Gamble. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at more colleges than most people can name. 

It’s that role of educator that makes him invaluable to our community. I saw how invaluable in Dayton almost a year ago. 

The event was a creator camp – a weeklong workshop to teach people how to be content creators. The attendees? Underserved children in disadvantaged communities. And, to an extent, their parents. 

T asked me to come talk to both groups about the creator economy and how there is real opportunity for young people to earn a living from content creation. The focus of the event, and the organization T leads, which is called STEM Whisperers, is to disrupt what he calls the School-to-Prison pipeline and give at-risk youth inspiration, training and opportunities in the creator economy. 

I get chills just explaining it. 

T uses the data that kids today say they want to be influencers, YouTubers, Instagrammers. Not astronauts or doctors or lawyers. He thinks we should be embracing that and fostering their education, aspiration and opportunity. 

T also just launched a companion podcast for STEM Whisperers on the Marketing Podcast Network. It’s called Tiny Giants. I was honored to be the first guest on the first episode this month. 

I invited T on to talk about the problem, his solution and what challenges he needs our help overcoming to make STEM Whisperers successful and disrupt that misdirected pipeline for our young people. Pay attention folks … I’m going to ask you to jump in and help him in the discussion. I think you’ll see why. 

T. Adeola and the finest reason to focus on influence marketing I’ve ever heard of is coming up on the show.

Winfluence is made possible by Cipio.ai – The Community Commerce Marketing platform. What does that mean? It’s an influencer marketing software solution, but it has additional apps that function to tap into your brand community to drive commerce. Community Commerce Marketing moves beyond influencers to fans and followers, customers, employees and more. Try its generative AI application, Vibe Check, with a two-week free trial at cipio.ai/vibecheck, and generate a library of social captions in minutes you can use right away.

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The Winfluence theme music is “One More Look” featuring Jacquire King and Stephan Sharp by The K Club found on Facebook Sound Collection.

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T. Adeola Transcript

[00:00:00] Jason: On this episode of Winfluence.

[00:00:01] Adeola: My 13 year old when he said he wanted to be a professional gamer, he called me flatfooted. I’m like, you wanna do a what? Because the image that popped into my mind is that, okay, you’re never moving outta your mom’s basement and you’re just gonna be, sitting there playing street fighter and whatnot.

Until I did my research, my youngest sister’s husband is a semi-pro street. Player, like he plays like in tournaments and wins money. It’s a thing, right? Come to find out eSports is 25 billion or something insane like that. And so I had to educate myself as okay, if my kid wants to be a creator, essentially what does that mean for him in terms of career trajectory? And is this something he can legitimately do or is this a pipe dream?

[00:00:51] Jason: There’s a difference between being an influencer and actually influencing. I’m Jason Falls, and in this podcast we explore the people, companies campaigns and stories that illustrate that difference. Welcome to Winfluence, the Influence Marketing Podcast

Hello again, friends. Thanks for listening to Winfluence the Influence Marketing Podcast. I wanna be painfully honest with you today, gang what we do in the influence marketing space or the marketing space overall often seems to me to be superfluous.

Will the world survive if marketing died? Sure it would. Heck, some people would even say it might be a better place. Sometimes I’m not so sure those voices are wrong. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love what we do, and I do think that connecting brands to the audiences that can benefit from knowing them has meaning.

While that might be a stretch for someone who markets, let’s say, luxury footwear, it becomes more relevant for those of us who do it for nonprofits or businesses that have a real impact on people’s lives.

But when I stumble across someone who looks at the creator economy or influence marketing and sees a real path to change the world, I’m both excited and humble. Excited that what we do can have great meaning and impact. Humbled that I’m some schlep who does it for more for money than for a greater purpose.

Last spring my friend T.Adeola invited me to speak at an event he was putting on in Dayton, Ohio. T, who is more formally known as Temitayo Adeola Osinubi but thankfully is comfortable with Just T is an experienced digital marketer.

I met him years ago at an event, he says, with the first digital marketing event he ever attended. He’s done time with several brands over the years, including Procter and Gamble. He also teaches as an adjunct professor at more Colleges than most people can name.

It’s that role of educator that makes him invaluable to our community. I saw how invaluable in Dayton almost a year ago, the event was a creator camp, a week long workshop to teach people how to be content creators. The attendees, Underserved children in disadvantaged communities and to an extent, their parents.

T asked me to come talk to both groups about the creator economy and how there is real opportunity for young people to earn a living from content creation. The focus of the event and the organization, T leads, which is called STEM whispers, is to disrupt what he calls the school to prison pipeline and give at-risk youth inspiration, training and opportunities in the creator economy. I get chills just explaining it.

T uses the data that kids say today. They want to be influencers, YouTubers, and Instagrams, not astronauts or doctors or lawyers. He thinks we should be embracing that and fostering their education, aspiration and opportunity. T also just launched a companion podcast for STEM Whispers on the marketing podcast network called Tiny Giants.

I was honored to be the first guest on the first episode this month. I invited T on this program to talk about the problem, his solution, and what changes he needs our help overcoming to make STEM whispers successful and disrupt that misdirected pipeline for our young people.

Now, pay attention folks, I’m gonna ask you to jump in and help him in the discussion. I think you’ll understand and see why and how. T.Adeola and the finest reason to focus on influence marketing I’ve ever heard of is coming up on today’s show.

Winfluence is presented by cipio.ai the community commerce marketing platform, I love what they’re doing so much. I joined the company as Executive Vice President for marketing in November. Cipio.ai is a platform that has a family of applications that help you drive commerce through your own community. One of those apps taps into a big theme for 2023 for brands and creators, and that’s efficency.

Whether you’re a brand or creator, you probably spend a lot of time writing and rewriting captions for social media content. You also have to make sure that content will perform well by keeping up with the trends across social media, right?

 Our gift to you this new year is a solution called Vibe Check. Think of it as an AI content generator with an extra brain for optimizing social media posts and predicting success. Tell Vibe Check the idea of your post or even campaign. Give it a call to action, the tone of voice you prefer, and the length of the word count. With the push of a button, you have a library of smart content recommendations with predictive analysis on how that post will perform.

Vibe Check’s Powerful generative AI engine dips into the big data of over 140 million social media users, posts, images and videos. It mines that data for deep learning insights to give you not just content, but content that will perform that makes it very different from other AI content generators out there.

Now, you know I’m not a fan of automating content creation. It takes the humanity out of things, but two things. Number one, the generative AI sophistication that cipio.ai has is really good. But that’s not the point. Vibe Check actually produces a ton of great content to save you writing time. You still need to review it, edit it, and make sure it’s perfect. But it gets you 90% of the way there, which saves you time, makes you more efficient.

And if any of you kids or parents of aspiring creators out there are listening to this episode because of the title and the subject, this is a great tool to supplement creators who may not be the best writers in the world and just need a little help scaling their content production while creating strong content. It’s powerful stuff.

Cipio.ai wants to give you that power as a new Year’s gift. Sign up for a two week free trial. No credit card required. Go to jasonfalls.co/vibecheck and start creating all the captions and content you need with the click of a button. It’s free for two weeks. Just see if you like it. I’m betting you will.

Jasonfalls.co/vibecheck, V I B E C H E C K, Vibe Check. Jasonfalls.co/vibecheck. Seriously, this is gonna change the game. If you write a lot of content or have clients you need to write for Jasonfalls.co/vibecheck.

We’re talking about influence and influence marketing from a different perspective today gang, T.Adeola and inspiring at risk youth to be creators. That’s next on Winfluence.

 Temitayo Adeola Osinubi for those listening. Better known as T. Good to have you on the show, my friend. How are you?

[00:07:27] Adeola: I am doing well. How about yourself?

[00:07:29] Jason: I’m doing great. Doing great. So I wanted to have you on the show for two reasons and they’re interrelated. You do have a new podcast out proudly on the marketing podcast network

[00:07:40] Adeola: Yes. Yes.

[00:07:41] Jason: And we’re gonna get to that in a moment because the more important topic and the one that Tiny Giants really supports is STEM Whisperers. So before you tell us what STEM whisperers is and does set up the problem for us, what led you down this path of creating this as a potential solution? Give us the why first.

[00:08:00] Adeola: Certainly. Again, as Jason said, my name is T.Adeola and I am your favorite former 400 pounder getting you fit, on all things creator economy. That’s right, baby. Losing 140 pounds is one of my claims to fame. I’ve also been flogged, publicly flogged at a Nigerian boarding school and bitten by a bat

[00:08:21] Jason: Ouch.

[00:08:23] Adeola: But none of those things are pertinent to Jason’s question,

[00:08:25] Jason: Wait, you didn’t start Covid did you?

[00:08:27] Adeola: No, you know what actually, I have skirted that somehow I have not had Covid at all. Not once, at least not to my knowledge. And I’m double vaccinated, so are my children. And so we all gathered for, Thanksgiving and then I just was recently, as of yesterday informed that some people we gather with did positive.

But I took the home test. I’m negative, went to see my doctor. I’m, yeah I have skirted it somehow, some way.

[00:08:54] Jason: You’re probably the only person to be able to say that having been bitten by a bat, so congrats.

[00:08:59] Adeola: Yes, I got away from Covid, but a bat got me and that is quite the story in and of itself. With regards to STEM Whispers, the one census summary of STEM whispers is to replace the school to prison pipeline with marketing technology careers. And I’ll spare you the domestic disaster, that was my early childhood, but needless to say, I was that kid, right?

Chronic suspension, truancy. I barely graduated high school. I like something stupid, like 1.9 GPA, something like that, because I was always, either skipping school or expelled. And so somehow I managed to avoid the pitfalls of the system and went on to have a very successful professional career.

And so I’ve worked at National and International Conglomerates, including Cox Media Group ,Echo Brands, which owns most of the brands and the offense and school supply space. So Five Star, Trapper, Keeper, Mead, at a Glance, Daytimer, all of those brands.

And most recently, Proctor and Gamble. On one of their newer brands, which is See Me Beauty, which is makeup for ladies who remember the eighties, AKA 50 plus, but they don’t like to be called 50 plus in marketing messages. They prefer eighties girls. So that’s what we called them. During my short stint at P&G I was only there for three months. I learned a lot about menopause. So that was interesting.

Through my, professional journey. Oftentimes I was the only brown face in the room. And not only that, I was often complimented for, my creativity and the way that I speak and the new, perspectives that I brought to the table, which other people in the room didn’t necessarily see through that lens, because again, I was in rooms where it was fairly homogeneous.

Right, and so that’s why I got the spark of Stem whispers. Okay, get the quote unquote bad kids like I used to be and get them out of trouble and into marketing technology as a career. Because one of the things that I’ve seen for a while, and I talked about on my previous show that I had way, way back in 2017 ,which I’m happy to say you were on, you’re one of my early guests.

There are three ways that people professionalize themselves as it pertains to digital market. The first is to just Google it. And yes, you can find a lot of great information out there, a lot of witches for free, but you also have to kiss a lot of toads before you get to that prince, if you know what I mean. You got, sort through a lot of Bs.

You can do what I did, which was go back to school and get a bachelor’s degree in digital marketing but that’s cost prohibitive as well. I speak about it openly. I did not get into full sale university the first time I applied. I had to reapply a year later, get my credit cleaned up, and then I got in right.

And Full Sale University ain’t cheap. It’s one of the better business schools in the entertainment space, but it ain’t cheap. I paid the better part of 60 grand for my bachelor’s degree, about 57,000 if memory serves or and this is the most prevalent. The third way that people professionalize themselves is through conferences and seminars, which is actually how we met.

You were the opening keynote at the first digital marketing conference I ever attended. A bootcamp digital event in downtown, Cincinnati. Way back in 2000 if memory served. 2005.

[00:12:31] Jason: Wow, that was a long time ago.

[00:12:34] Adeola: Indeed. Indeed it was. Both of our chins were a bit darker. Now they’re a bit wider. Children are older, and thing about conferences, seminars is while they too are cost prohibitive. Some of the better ones like Social Media Marketing World, or Content Marketing world, you’re talking between 12 and 1500 bucks just to get through the door.

That does not include your flight, your hotel, food for however many days. And then at some of these places, they upsell you to their VIP Inner Circle, dancing Bear, whatever they call it, coaching programs. And those can be upwards of $10,000. And, that’s out of pocket.

ClickFunnels does not provide financial aid. You either have the money or you don’t. And I’m not talking down on ClickFunnels. I know a lot of folks who do very well with that software and then that framework, however, the fact that $15,000 out of pocket is less than 57 that you’d pay, getting a bachelor’s degree is of no utility to, if you can’t access the 15,000.

And so those were the traditional ways into the career, and I wanted to go a step before that and actually get to younger people before they exit high school. The topic of my second book is why Google is not a substitute for post-secondary education.

I literally wrote a book about it, and so I feel very passionate about it because, all those things notwithstanding. When I, went to Google when I graduated high school, way back in 2002 and I went to Google and said, okay, how do you make money online? Or I got welcomed into the warm embrace of all of this stuff I had to wade through.

And not to say that I didn’t learn anything or that I didn’t get anything out of the experiences because obviously I did. Something that’s really prevalent, in our industry that I don’t like, but it’s unfortunately there’s, not a lot being done about it, is that you have these people who call themselves marketers.

I don’t consider the snake oil salesman marketers, but they’ll promise you the secrets of the universe and all this good stuff. You just gotta pay me $97 or $127 or some price that ends in seven. And sprinkle all this NLP, stuff on it and all this good stuff. It’s not that it’s not valuable, but you pay ’em $97 for $5 worth of value, maybe 10.

And the reason I take issue with that is because they are literally targeting people who don’t know any better. They’re going out of their way to target vulnerable populations with that. They’re like the used car salesman of the digital marketing space, and I got bad information.

And it was not until I came to Full Sale University, a full 10 years later. I graduated high school in 2002. I went back to full sale in 2012, so I was a decade in before one of my professors gently had to sit me down and was like, yo, all of this stuff, you’re doing these link farms, and you’re see all of this crap here , that’s not above board.

And I was like, oh, because no one had ever had that conversation with me. No one said that I was, okay, how do you make money? And then, okay, you make money like this. And so, that’s the glaring blind spot of just Google. It was that, it’s only going to give you what you ask for and if you don’t ask for it the proper way or you don’t have the right context, it’s not going to save you from those unsavory corners of the internet. Which is why I feel it’s imperative that we as seasoned professionals get these young professionals started off on the right foot,

[00:16:26] Jason: Yeah. That’s, obviously a noble pursuit and has led you down this path. So you’re taking all of that experience that you’ve had and you’ve basically poured it into what I would think is essentially digital literacy.

How much of your inspiration for this also though, came because you’re really focused on young people, high school and even earlier than high school, teaching them the digital literacy and the digital content creation tools so that they can see that as a potential career path. How much of the inspiration came from your own children?

[00:16:57] Adeola: Most all of it. Because I fancy myself as a fairly articulate fellow. I don’t know everything. I’m very open about that, it’s important to me that I seem at least a little smart in front of my kids. And I’ll be honest, my 13 year old when he said he wanted to be a professional gamer, he called me flatfooted.

I’m like, you wanna do a what? Because the image that popped into my mind is that, okay, you’re never moving outta your mom’s basement and you’re just gonna be, sitting there playing street fighter and whatnot. Until I did my research because fun fact, my youngest sister’s husband is a semi-pro street fighter player.

He plays like in tournaments and wins money. It’s a thing, right? Come to find out Esports is 25 billion or something insane like that. And so I had to educate myself as like okay, if my kid, wants to be a creator, essentially, what does that mean for him in terms of career trajectory? And is this something he can legitimately do? Or is this a pipe dream?

Because you never wanna be the daddy who, reigns on your kid’s parade, but at the same time, you have to keep them protected and you’re not doing the many favors or services by sending them out into the world unprepared.

And so, when he approached me with that, I actually had to take a step back and do my research. And then it dawned on me that, because of my career and who I am and the connections that I have, I was able to tap into some of these resources and get up to speed relatively quickly.

However, if you drive a truck for a living or a teacher or you’re not in the space even though your child is probably saying the same thing, you don’t have the same level of resources that I have. I’ve been at this almost 20 years now, and so that’s where I saw the gap in the space beacuse, at the risk of sounding like the nostalgic cot that I’m growing into, back in my day, if you walked into a third grade classroom and you asked a bunch of eight, nine year olds what they wanted to be when they grow up, you’d hear, doctor, lawyer, police officer, that sort of thing.

And the schools were set up to produce those professions, and this is very important, parents understood the importance not only to their family, but to society that their children Be doctors, lawyers, police officers, nurses, et cetera. So they put an appropriate amount of parental pressure on their children to say, okay, you’re going to law school, you are going to medical school, you are going to the police academy, that sort of thing.

That’s no longer the case now. That’s debt that’s gone. If you ask that same question to the eight, nine year olds, you’re going to hear, IG model, gamer, like my son said to me and not only are most schools woefully ill-equipped, most not all, but most of them woefully ill-equipped to produce those professions.

Most parents don’t understand the creator economy well enough to know whether or not this is something they should get on board with or be like, eh, maybe you should go to medical school. And so, that was the gap that I saw in the space and my children had everything to do with that journey.

[00:20:30] Jason: Right. So you’ve got the gap in both on the education side where the, schools are not teaching young people that they can be content creators. They might be teaching the skills, some of the skills, but not all of them. And they’re certainly not teaching kids. I never learned, at least in secondary school, and I didn’t really learn much of it in college.

Because I just didn’t take the courses, but they’re not teaching kids how to be entrepreneurs, how to be business owners, how to, think like a business owner too. So there’s a gap there. I find it also interesting that you’ve also recognized the gap on the parental side of things that, the parents can be encouraging and whatnot, but if they don’t understand. the creator economy enough to be able to inform their children of, okay, if you want to do this for a living, here are the things that you need to know how to do. Here are the things that you need to learn. Here’s how you break into that. Then the child is sitting there with nothing but what you started with Google to inform them on how to get there which as you proved and have concluded, that’s not the best path to do that.

So my real introduction to this, STEM Whispers and whatnot was what what you’re doing now is, I believe your first, creator camp, back in Dayton, in, the summer. Tell us about that pilot event. Tell us how many people were there. Tell us what type of activities and education you built for the kids and how did it turn out? What kind of feedback did you get?

[00:21:47] Adeola: Absolutely, and thank you for that. So yeah, creator camp, we had our first cohort over spring break of this past year was in early april and it was a kind of a soft launch. It was made possible by a generous grant by the Blacks and Tech Foundation.

And so we had our first cohort, it was a little over 15 kids that registered. And what we did was we had them produce three to five minute YouTube videos, which I passed the buck. And had you judge.

[00:22:20] Jason: Yeah, I had to pick the best ones. Are you kidding me? Put me in front of a room full of 15 kids whose hopes and dreams are hanging on this video project and the big obnoxious fat guy gets to come in and tell him which one was better? That sucked.

[00:22:33] Adeola: And mind you, Jason had them hanging on his every word. I have pictures to prove it. Now mind, I don’t know if you’ve ever run a summer camp to say it’s like herding cats, doesn’t quite say it. Like there were times where I could not buy their attention for $10,000 cash and Jason just walks in and next thing you know they’re in wrapped attention.

I’m like, are you freaking kidding me? I’ve been with you all… You just met this man, and just, okay, whatever. They’re getting the information. It’s not about my ego. What we did over the cohort is we had them produce a three to five minute YouTube video, but we took it past just the fun being on camera part, and we actually introduced them to the back end of what it actually means to be a YouTube creator.

Now, we did focus on YouTube. I know that the creator economy is a lot bigger than YouTube, but YouTube is the common denomin. All of them were on and they all wanted to be, Mr. Beast or Chandler, or Mariah Elizabeth, you name it, whatever.

And so broke ’em into groups. Had them go through the storytelling process. I also introduced them to the search engine marketing side of things because something that I had happened often when I was consulting, even when I was teaching at the collegiate, as I would have a student or a prospective client come to me and say, hey, we tried YouTube, it didn’t work. And you’re like, oh, okay.

And so you go over to their channel and you do a quick Tubebuddy or vidIQ or whatever, and you audit their channel and then print out the thing and you give them the audit and you’re like, yeah, the SEO on your channel sucks. Fix this and you should start seeing some results in a few weeks to a few months, which is generally when you’re met with a vacant express. What is SEO?

Lemme just say this is no one’s fault. This is not your fault, this is not the kid’s fault. But when we’re presented with a piece of video content, mass media has trained everyone that when I see a piece of video content, that means you are either going to entertain me or you are going to inform me.

And if you’re good at what you do, you’ll do both at the same time. Right? Edutainment, almost no one sees a piece of video content and thinks, search engine optimization because fun fact, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world behind its parent company, Google.

So those are the types of things that , we introduced them to, and we had them, after you came up with the topic and the script, okay, what are gonna be the keywords? And we had them identify the importance of the title because the title identifies whether or not they click on it and just walk them through not only the content creative side of things, but also the SEO, business storytelling side of things.

And the feedback that we got was a resounding success. The parents loved it. The parents actually learned a lot. And which was the goal, right? The goal was for the kids to have fun, but also to bring the parents into the phone and say, hey, cause we had ’em have folders and they had their discovery cause we had broke down the anatomy of a YouTube video and we had ’em, and I actually put ’em on YouTube and okay, whoa, look at the description. What’s the call to action? What’s the description? Tell me what the keyword is and we just walked them down like this so they can actually look at a YouTube video and be like, that’s the keyword word and the title, that’s the call to action. It takes me to this landing page and dot,dot,dot,dot,dot.

And now the parents, they have a commonality, a talking point to rather than just saying, yeah, I wanna make duck lips and yo know, eat food or do unboxing videos and I only had a week, right? So I, didn’t, break out Semrush or any of those heavy tools like that, but I at least started them on the path of understanding how all of this works on the business side of things.

[00:26:33] Jason: I also know that the plan now is to obviously do more events in and around the Dayton area, but also to grow this thing. I know that’s not gonna be easy. So after the break, I want to tackle some of those challenges and also talk about tiny giants as well. We’re talking to T.Adeola from Stem Whisperers, and the Tiny Giants Podcast. When we come back, let’s dig into some of those obstacles you may be able to help remove, to make his vision come to life. Stay Tuned.

 Back with Temitayo Adeola Osinubi you may see him online as T.Adeola and he’s the man behind STEM Whisperers, which is trying to help underserved populations find pathways out of generational poverty and at-risk career paths by routing kids through STEM programs to include content creator and content creation as a career path.

So this is very much about creating a new generation of creators and even influencers, if you will, and giving those that often are challenged with advancement to high paying jobs, even access to college education and such because of generational poverty, underserved education and social needs and let’s be honest, things like institutional racism fall in there as well.

So there’s challenges in front of these populations that this program is trying to help them overcome. T, I obviously love what you’re doing, but I want people out there listening to know, what challenges lie ahead of you, so maybe we can find ways to help.

So what are the two or three biggest hurdles you’re gonna have to go through or over to have STEM whispers, not just take hold and be effective in Dayton where you’re starting out, but also come to bear on other communities where I know it’s also shortly needed.

[00:28:14] Adeola: Certainly. Thank you for that. One of the biggest challenges that I’ve had is that, to say that infiltrating the educational system has been a nightmare, wouldn’t quite say it. And the primary hurdle there is that, first of all, selling into a school is a longer B2B cycle because most school budgets are approved a year in advance.

And even once you get in there, it depends on the school district, but some of them pay out 30, 60, and even 90 days, after the services have been rendered. And so, if you’re a big corporation like Lexus Nexus or something like that, then those terms sort of work. But you know, I’m on child support and so I can’t wait 90 days to get my money ,you know what I mean?

And so that’s our hurdle. Not only that, but at least in Dayton anyway, there’s this incestuous relationship between education and the nonprofit sector. In Dayton we have what are called community schools. So you have a non. Organization such as the Y M C A or the Boys and Girls Club or someone like that actually adopt schools and provide those afterschool services or those ancillary services that aren’t provided directly by the schools, like mentorship or reading programs or whatever have you.

And the open secret is that the nonprofit sector is just a peg blow below openly hostile toward marketers. They think of us as those people, right? They’re all noble and persnickety and hoity-toity, and I’m doing something to make the world better. And you’re one of those people who’s pushing Coke on everybody and Coca-Cola bad food, just not very welcoming or at least that’s been my experience.

And which is one of the reasons why after a half decade hiatus, chose to get back into the saddle because one of the best ways to help is to just go to the parent directly and the parent can then go to the president of the P T A who can then say, Hey, we want this at our school.

 And this is again given all credit to my superintendents, a lot of them just don’t get it. And that’s not any fault of theirs because they have a lot on their plate and understanding all the, career paths and whatnot, yes, that’s part of their purview, but I understand that they’re not experts. I get that.

And for example, I just became aware of a conference that I’d like to speak at. However, everything has to be evidence-based and you have to have case studies and whatnot. It’s one of those chicken and egg situations where, okay, before they’ll hire you, they want you to be evidence-based and have a case study, but how are you supposed to get the case study if no one will hire you? You know what I mean? And it’s the same sort of breakthrough issues you find in any other industry, but just the bureaucracy and politics that come with education. I’ve just had a very difficult time penetrating, so the best way to is to just be the best parent you can be.

And my way of helping with that is, yeah, I have a few books that will help you on your way and again, January, 2023, launched a podcast. I’m having experts, tiny giants like Jason and other industry experts in shining a light on the different path forwards and giving you direct access to the tools and the resources that you need to have these conversations with your children, irrespective, of whether or not your superintendent is ready to play ball.

[00:31:56] Jason: So what I’m parsing out of all that is you’ve got probably two or three challenges here to make this grow and scale. First of all, a path through the bureaucracy of education. Which one way to influence that is to go through the parents, but also have the challenge of educating the parents, getting to them.

So that they can understand what you’re trying to do and what benefit it brings to their kids. And then certainly within that path, through education, whether it’s the, the billing cycle or the long lead to convert and all that good stuff.

In both of those cases, whether it’s talking to the education system or whether it’s talking to the parents, you need marketing dollars. You need funding to be able to fight those battles and climb those walls. And so to the listeners out there, what I’m hearing is that STEM Whispers needs corporate funding. And the reason that I point that out is because talk about an initiative that aligns with what many of your brands are probably already trying to do.

How about you invest in something like STEM Whispers to address some of the diversity, inclusivity, and equity issues in society, not just your business, and at the same time, create an army of content creators who might be loyal to your brand, as a result.

Now all of a sudden you’re killing a couple birds with one stone and there’s not a soul on the planet that’s gonna think it’s an irresponsible use of your money. To do that.

So,I think there’s a lot of ways to tackle this, but I definitely would like to call out that appeal for corporate funding and sponsorship of a program like this, because I went there to the Creator Bootcamp and talked to the kids and saw what they were doing and was like, holy crap, if a generation of underprivileged kids who don’t have the same kind of access that more privileged community kids have had this kind of programming that’s gonna be a game changer for a lot of families and pull them out of that generational poverty, which is just a fantastic thing.

There’s my little appeal for this whole thing. So there’s a lot more thinking about this and progress to be witnessed on your fancy new podcast. Tell people a little bit more about Tiny Giants. What’s your plan there?

[00:34:06] Adeola: Absolutely. So Tiny Giants is the Creator Economy Show that’s about careers versus celebrity, or career over celebrity I should say. Because again when most people see, video content or they see the social media content, they think of it through the lens of either entertainment It’s not a natural jump to think s e o email marketing content strategy those are things that young people don’t necessarily have an appreciation for.

And so what I’m doing with this show is highlighting niche specific influencers or people with influence and telling those stories and bringing awareness to that, or as we like to call them tiny giants, right?

So the basic premise of the show is that you get big by going small, right? Don’t try to boil the ocean. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Pick a niche or niche. If you’re fancy, focus on that. And then you can branch out and do other things once you’re established in your core niche, right?

And so the goal of the show is to, again, advanced people’s digital maturity and advance their, thinking through how all of these pieces work together and where they fit inside of it. So again, going beyond, I want to be a celebrity to, okay, thinking more like Mr. Beast, right?

So when you talk about influencers or who the children first words out their mouth is Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast is very method. He’s very methodical, he is very strategic and there’s a reason why he rose to that level. And even though I think PewDiePie still has roughly about seven, eight times more views, cause PewDiePie has just a dumb amount of views, but Mr. Beast makes eight, nine times more than PewDiePie makes because again, PewDiePie ain’t broke.

But PewDiePie only brings in four or 5 million a year whereas Mr. Beast he’s flipped his brand into a burger chain. He’s got Beast Burgers and some other things. So Mr. Beast and somebody fact check us on this and leave a comment. Mr. Beast pulled in like 50 some million dollars last year.

[00:36:19] Jason: Yeah, he’s got a billion dollar brand.

[00:36:21] Adeola: Yeah. He brings in more than PewDiePie. And PewDiePie has several multiples of the view, so that, the type of thing I’m talking about. Talking about those case studies, talking about how do you pick a niche or do and make sure that they’re focused on the right things because there’s a difference between seeking validation and creating value because one of the darker sides of, social media and influencer, especially when you’re talking about schools, is that there can be bullying and also it can encourage high risk behavior.

So you have people doing just silly things that are indicative with adolescences, the thing that comes to mind is there was this one unfortunate young man who thought it would be a good idea, get to swallow a Tide POD for views, and then he had to be rushed to this hospital and pumped his stomach. It’s what like, made you think that swallowing a Tide POD is a good idea?

Now he got the views almost died, but, he got the views. You know what I mean? And so stuff like that, like don’t have to do nothing crazy like that If you want success, because one of the things that I write about in my first book, which is actually Tiny Giants is the first chapter of the first book that I wrote way back in 2016.

One of the things I talk about in that book is that from a business perspective going viral doesn’t make a ton of sense because, think about it, if your roof’s Chris Steakhouse, why in God’s name, do you want a vegan from California who volunteers for Pita on the weekend seeing your content?

They’re never going to buy from you. And if anything, the content of your delicious slabs of wagu beef are going to trigger them. So from a business perspective, going viral makes no sense because not everyone is going to be your customer. They just won’t.

And so advancing that digital maturity, getting them thinking more along the lines of, okay, how do I make a living out of this is what Tiny Giants is all about.

[00:38:27] Jason: That’s great. Love the perspective of career over celebrity especially when you’re talking to the kids. But I think also too, when you’re talking to the parents too, so that they can help steer the kids in the right direction.

T, I admire the hell outta you and what you’re doing. I’m gonna pitch in and help where I can along the way. Hopefully some others listening will do as well. Tell people where they can find you, where they can find the podcast and whatever else on the interwebs..

[00:38:51] Adeola: Sure head on over to tinygiants.tech, everything socials is all there. And you can listen to Tiny Giants wherever you get podcasts. And of course on the Marketing podcast network, which we are proud to be members of and also LinkedIn is the best way to connect with me. Just search T. The letter T as in the tea that you drink Adeola, A D E O L A, T.Adeola on LinkedIn and then tinygiants.tech.

[00:39:19] Jason: Killer. T. Thanks so much for sharing, man. I’m really excited to see where this goes, and I know the influence communities behind you, brother.

[00:39:25] Adeola: My pleasure. It’s been an honor and a privilege and thank you for being a the powerful example that you have. Cause I mean it man, like the fact that you were the opening keynote at the first conference that I ever went to really set the trajectory, and I’m not giving you all the praise, but I am acknowledging the fact that, as someone who did not have good examples to follow and someone who had to figure my way out, the fact that I was able to tap into that content at the beginning of my professional journey really meant a lot. So I really want to thank you for all that you do for the community and it’s an honor and a privilege.

[00:40:05] Jason: I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life. You’re welcome. I’m so much in awe of T and what he’s doing. I hope you are too. Jump over to jasonfalls.co/Tadeola that’s T A D E O L A and get the links and show notes. If you’re a brand that has a desire to get more actively involved in helping at-risk youth by creating an army of loyal creators in your corner, I can’t think of a better cause to support than this Go do it. Jasonfalls.co/Tadeola. That’s T A D E O L A, or you can go to jasonfalls.com. Click on articles and find this episode.

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Thanks for listening, folks. Let’s talk again soon on Winfluence.

 Winfluence, the Influence Marketing Podcast is an audio companion to my book Winfluence: Reframing Influencer Marketing To Ignite Your Brand. Get your copy online at winfluencebook.com. While you’re there, sign up for the latest ideas about influence marketing delivered in my periodic newsletter, or book me to speak to your company or organization about influence marketing.

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