Join us as we talk with Maddy Alexander-Grout, a creator who’s made an impact with her authentic approach. In this conversation, we touch on important topics like finding an audience, the role of vulnerability in content, and the process of establishing multiple income streams. Maddy shares some valuable lessons that will resonate with anyone looking to build a long-term career in content creation.

What part of your content creation journey has been the toughest? Whether it’s finding your niche, staying authentic, or building income, share your experience with us!

Links

• Maddy Alexander-Grout
• TubeFest
• YouTube For Business
• YouTube Accelerator

Hello and welcome to the Full Time Creator podcast.

My name is Matt Hughes, King of Video and I'm here with Maddy Alexander-Grout,

which I was so nervous to say because I always get names wrong.

I'm really excited to have Maddy on the podcast today and we're going

to be talking about why it's not that important to get views and

subscribers, but we're also going to talk about that loads as well.

So Maddy, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Unfortunately, I don't like to read people's bios.

I like to get them to describe themselves.

So could you give us a brief introduction of who you are?

Of course.

So hi guys.

I'm Maddy.

I'm an Oversharer.

So yeah, prepare yourself for that.

I am a multi-potentialite, which basically means that I do all of the things and

I refuse point blankly to niche down.

But very important niche in content creation.

I talk about all things ADHD when it comes to money and business.

I am an ADHD coach, but most importantly, I'm a visibility strategist.

So I talk about all areas of visibility and how showing up and posting on social

media once a day is not going to cut it.

Excellent.

And you say multi-potentialite.

I've never heard of that before, so that's good.

So I always talk about it being like a polymath, having multiple expertise,

used to be in my IT industry.

That was my old expertise.

I'm now video and then kind of shifting towards YouTube and I'm 40, Maddy.

So I think over time, you can pick up multiple expertise and have this multiple

potential that you're talking about.

So from your perspective, how has that come about in your life?

Can you kind of give us a view of what that looks like?

Yes.

So I was a money specialist for 12 years.

I created a money app and I had a really successful business before the pandemic.

I was doubling my turnover year on year.

I was being featured in the press.

I was winning all the awards.

I grew—a really small business that was just like a local Southampton

business into a UK wide franchise.

And I had 27 franchisees.

It was absolutely awesome.

My product was a discount card that helped people to shop local.

So as you can imagine, the pandemic came along, shat all over it.

And it ended up dying a very slow death.

I should have closed that business probably two years before it closed.

We raised 250,000 pounds in investment.

It was, you know, from a growth perspective and a visibility

perspective, it was a great business.

From a cash perspective, it was dead before it started.

Yes.

So I learned lots of things and one of the things that I learned

was how to be ridiculously visible.

So when I found myself in a situation where I had no business, I had a

mental breakdown, I had a kidney infection that wouldn't shift, I

genuinely didn't wanna be around.

I just had my ADHD diagnosis and I felt like I was a broken horse when

really, I should have been realising I was a beautiful rainbow zebra.

And I wrote down all of the things that I was good at, and it turns out

that I'm actually not a one trick pony.

Like I'm good at sales.

I'm good at marketing.

I'm good at like all of these that go into making a visibility strategy.

And I retrained.

So I got a strategist qualification.

I got a neurodiversity qualification and I just decided I was going to go for it.

Now I started on all platforms because I wasn't really sure

where my audience was going to be.

And one day, my Instagram account got hacked and I lost

25,000 followers overnight.

So I thought about where I could go next.

And someone said to me, Oh, have you tried TikTok?

And I was like, yeah, I tried it in the pandemic.

And I did all these whoop whoop, all the dances.

Stupid dances.

Someone said, no, you can actually use TikTok for business.

And I was like, no, you can't.

No.

And.

So I thought, okay, I'll try it.

So I started to show up and I started to talk about my experiences.

I started to talk about all my money saving tips, but I also started to talk

really openly about all the lessons that I'd learned from having a failed business.

And I started to talk about ADHD and all of my hidden disabilities,

because I've got a multitude of those.

And I started to grow an audience quite quickly.

It was a slow burner at start, like, I think it took me about three

months to hit a thousand followers.

And then it took me another year to hit 10,000 followers.

But once that happened, I got in my stride and I found my thing.

And two and a half years later, I'm on 66,000 followers, which, you know, to

some people might not seem that many, but I do run two businesses alongside it.

So, you know, I'm not a full time content creator, but I do make a fair

amount of money from my social media.

I also train people on it.

So, you know, it's an interesting thing.

And I found my niche and I absolutely love it now.

Yeah, I think you say you're not a full time creator and I guess

that's an interesting thing to say because the way I see a full time

creator is where the majority of your income comes as a consequence

of you doing your creative stuff.

The person we had, Desiree, who was on our first episode, she put it in

a much more succinct way than that.

But really, I think the definition is less important.

It's more about the fact that if you wasn't being visible, if you

didn't do the creator stuff, would everything else be as successful?

And you know, there's no way, right?

So, so I think from that perspective, we can say yes, we're full time creators.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

Yeah, go on.

Yeah, actually, I'm sorry to interrupt there.

I think my TikTok changed my life in so many ways.

And it's not just from the fact that, you know, it took me from having zero

income to building a six figure business in the space of a year and a half.

It's actually given me so many more opportunities.

I've been on loads of podcasts, I've been introduced to celebrities who

are now endorsing the book that I got contacted about as a result of my TikTok.

So I've just got a publisher deal, which, you know, is something that's

quite hard to get unless you have lots of followers because they need

to know you're going to sell the book.

And they approached me and they were like, do you want to write a book about ADHD?

And I was like, yes, I do, but probably not the kind of book that you want.

So I just, you know, told them what I wanted to write and it,

and it's ending up happening.

So it's coming out in March next year.

But like, I would never have got that opportunity had I

not been visible on TikTok.

I've been in the press more times than I can remember, national press and now

they've almost got me on speed dial, like anything they want when it comes to money.

They're like, Oh yeah, Maddy's our money specialist.

Like I was in the sun so much in a year that they told me they couldn't

have me in anymore because I was too popular and I've been in too many times.

I was like, okay, you need to be like a regular columnist.

I have told them that several times.

So I just want to go back a little bit.

Like it's great.

And what I want people to understand when they're listening to this is about

the possibility, like what's possible.

Maddy's given you an overview and I've been really fortunate to be friends

with Maddy from the old business.

So I've watched you kind of transform and turn into something

else and relaunch your business.

And it's so funny how you passively mentioned failed businesses.

Like I took the lessons from my failed businesses and it because it's

so important to know that actually the failures are important because

they help you to kind of organise what you're doing the next time.

It's not a case that we failed, we should never do that again.

Maybe not that business again, but it's about like, what lessons do we learn?

What lessons do we take with us to move into the next thing?

Absolutely.

I mean, so I had, at the time, the failure was all consuming, and actually,

because I was quite visible, it was, like, I was going through a breakdown,

but I still felt like I had to show up.

So, I showed up authentically, and do you know what that did?

It got me more followers, it got me more people into my world, and I publicly

failed, which was possibly one of the hardest things that I've ever done.

But when you show up authentically, and I don't just mean like showing up

as who you want people to think you are, actually showing up as your raw

authentic self, people do buy into you.

And that's actually now what I teach people.

It's about how sharing their vulnerabilities helps them to find

the right audience to sell to.

And the thing with TikTok is that it has so many opportunities.

So, it's a platform where you can go viral easier than any other

platform, apart from maybe YouTube.

But I still haven't got my flow with that.

This is why I'm in your world, Matt.

But I feel like TikTok, like, I always create with TikTok in mind, and then

I repurpose to all my other platforms.

My Instagram, I restarted at the same time that it got hacked, I restarted that.

I've got four and a half thousand followers.

That's really not very many.

Well, let's just go back then for a second because yes, I get the

story and the aspirational part of it and all the results of what's

come and we'll come back to that.

But what about this period of the three months to a thousand?

Because obviously having an account as big as you did with Instagram

and again, everything is relative.

So some people see a thousand is huge.

Some people will see a hundred thousand is huge.

So we're not getting into that really, but this three months to a thousand,

how did you stay motivated in the early three months to keep going

when sometimes it feels like you're banging your head against a brick wall?

Do you know what?

I didn't focus on followers.

I didn't focus on views.

I just focused on creating content that I thought would resonate with my audience.

And I always talk about like creating a stable table, right?

So I think I'm the only person that does weird analogies in

their like trainings and stuff.

But a stable table is essentially, if you think about a table, right?

It's got four table legs, four pillars that hold it up.

So four content pillars.

You won't catch me talking about anything that is not those four pillars.

So I talk about my hidden disabilities.

I talk about money.

I talk about TikTok and I talk about business.

Those are the four things.

The thing that ties those things together, me and my personal brand.

And it wasn't always easy showing up.

But as soon as you get that one video that takes off slightly more, especially

when you've got ADHD, I'm like dopamine.

And it just kind of got me into that zone.

And people started telling me that I was helping them with my tips.

And so I felt like I was making a difference with something.

And when you are creating content that makes a difference, it really helps.

So you've got the stable table with your table legs.

The table cloth is the thing that holds everything together.

So my personal brand is the table cloth.

So that means showing bits of me in my everyday life and things that are not

just tips or not just entertainment.

It's actual real life stuff.

And then you've got the vases on the table.

So you need to keep the table stable because otherwise your

vases are going to fall off.

The tablecloth helps the vases to not slide around.

And the vases are your audience.

So the stable table, if you think about it, that's the thing.

The stable table.

I love it.

I love it.

I'm going to trademark it.

I already know when we create snippets from this, the stable

table is going to be one of them.

We just know that.

I mean, this is the great thing about your creative process, right?

Because when you start it and when you go through these, uh, And

do things like podcasts, you're already edited in your brain.

You're already thinking like, these are the things that you want to do.

You mentioned there, like the everyday life stuff, the table cloth of who

you are, the things that pull yourself together, like for me, I find that stuff

is important from an authenticity point of view, but I find it doesn't take

off anywhere near as the intentional stuff that I do, that's teaching someone

something or helping them from the next, to the next step or whatever I'd say.

When you're doing that stuff and you're working with clients and you're talking

about like this content that is about Maddy as the human, and you know it's

not going to do as well, and I assume that's the case for you, but you can tell.

No, totally the opposite.

You think that, so yeah, it's better.

Yeah.

So for me, underneath my table, I've got like the stuff that I talk about.

So like entertaining, engaging with people, creating

tips and educating people.

But the personal stories, those are the ones that go viral for me.

Ones where I'm actually talking about the things that go on in my life.

And it's really weird.

Do you think that's because you've created an audience that really

wants to follow the Maddy story?

Do you think that's different to maybe like a brand that has

products and services to sell?

I think if you're creating quality content, I think quality

content can go viral at any point.

If you're giving something that's really, really valuable, and I have had posts

that have been really valuable that do go viral, but if there's a hint of sales on

TikTok, even a hint of like talking about what you do, the algorithm won't like it.

So for me, I sell my stuff by talking about my things, my

story, being vulnerable, and that leads to people buying.

So I am a massive fan of Stan store.

I think TikTok is one of those places where, like, it doesn't

want you to leave the platform.

But if you're saying, go and check out my link in bio, it's like, eh,

whereas if you say visit my stand, it almost doesn't pick it up.

And people are just used to Stan store being the place that

they go and find stuff for you.

I've grown my email list.

So I started my Stan store in April and I've grown my email list to 12,000 people.

A lot of them regularly buy from me.

In that short space of time, I've also made..

Was it from zero or was it..

From zero, yeah.

From zero?

Wow, okay.

That's insane.

I had to start again.

Yeah.

So, failed business, had to like, scrap all my old stuff.

I had to start completely from scratch.

And it was the easiest way to do it.

I do get visible from other things.

I do things like bundles and, promotions and I sponsor people's events and

I do public speaking and PR and everything drives back to my TikTok

and people buy from my Stan store.

And my biggest tip on Stan is have freebies that align with

your audience so that you can sell to them off the platform.

It's not just about selling on the platform.

But I do also make money from my content, not nearly as much now

that I've become verified by TikTok.

So you can't buy verification on TikTok.

You have to be like verified as like a person of interest.

And since I became an interesting person, my money has gone.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

It's really annoying.

I used to get like between two and four grand a month from my content.

Now I'm lucky if I get 500, but it protects my audience because I talk

about money and I get so many people cloning my account, it protects me.

But I make so much money from my freebies that it doesn't really matter

too much about the content money.

Okay.

So can we just dig into that a little bit?

Because actually I think when you are becoming a creator and maybe

you go from part time to full time or even just getting a side hustle,

like I think you feel like a lot of creators miss out on the opportunity

of multiple revenue streams.

So can we just dig into it just briefly?

What are the revenue streams that you have?

Okay, so on TikTok as a platform, I am in the Creative Rewards Program.

So for any videos that are over a thousand views, you get qualified views.

Annoyingly, you need to be at 10,000 followers to be able to get the Creative

Rewards Program, but I am on that.

And, you know, some months it can make me closer to a grand other

month, there was one month where I made £37, but I was in launch mode.

So I was selling behind the scenes instead of on the front.

It depends where your focus is, but if you're a full time creator,

there is opportunity to make a crap ton of money from TikTok.

Yeah.

I also do TikTok shop stuff as an affiliate.

I train people on TikTok shop.

Creators who want to make more money from selling products that are

other people's affiliate marketing.

My main revenue stream is my membership.

So I created a membership that helps people to get visible on social media,

called Invisible To Influential.

It's a low-cost membership, £10 a month.

So that's kind of semi passive.

And it's the kind of the recurring revenue that I make from that.

I'm also a coach.

So I have regular coaching clients who pay me on a monthly basis,

mainly through the government, cuz the government pays for access to

work, which funds their coaching.

I've got a money community which pays me.

I'm a multi revenue stream person, so like multi potential, multi revenue.

I don't feel like people should limit themselves on revenue.

I get paid for being in the press sometimes as well.

I think the challenge is probably that, when you're getting started,

it's like, which one do I choose first?

So if you could pick one of those, when, if you can remember going back to when you

started and it's hard because like me, you probably did all the things straight away.

You just kind of pick all the things and see which ones work

that you close the ones that don't.

But what do you think would be the thing to focus on in terms of making

that transition to full time creator?

Yeah.

So I think if you're a business owner, it's really different because you

prioritise the things and the services that you can provide to your clients.

If you don't have any clients and you don't have a business.

I would say focusing on TikTok shop is probably your fastest way to cash.

Last Christmas, I made two grand from selling one product.

I got a viral video.

It went insane.

And I regularly make between probably £300-600 a month from TikTok shop and I

do maybe three or four videos a month.

If you're doing it every day, you're out there, you're choosing products

that align with your audience.

You're finding viral products that are trending.

You have to buy the first couple of them.

So there's maybe 30, 40 pounds of investment up front.

But once you start to go viral, people will approach you and

they will give you free samples.

And it's just about finding things that you think align with your content.

Yeah.

Makes total sense.

Wicked.

And you built up this email audience, how important is it to build an

email list for your audience as well?

I know that I would make a lot more money if I was more

consistent with my email marketing.

I'm actually quite bad at it considering how big my audience is.

But I think email marketing is really important.

It's just as important as knowing where your audience lives.

My audience will buy stuff from TikTok shop from me on TikTok.

My audience will sign up for my freebies on TikTok.

They'll sign up for my events and they'll come into my world via TikTok.

But they don't always buy from me there.

So I know that Facebook is where I sell things like my one to one

courses and my packages, etc.

So I understand what the purpose of TikTok is and it's all about the lead generation.

And if you are looking to grow an email list to sell to, it's the

place that you need to be 100%.

As a rule that the people who buy from me.

My passive revenue products.

My TikTok workshop that I've got, my membership, all of that comes from Stan's

store, which is mainly from TikTok.

The, you know, my, my big revenue stuff and my one to ones, et

cetera, I sell that on Facebook.

So for me, it's kind of like a multifaceted strategy.

That was a bit of a mouthful.

And I think you have to do that and I think the most successful full time

creators are having that multifaceted approach platform approach and you know,

like, there's people that will talk about and I know we will get on this

podcast, people that focus and go all in on one platform and then blow up on

that and then move their audiences over.

I know we've got Austin Armstrong who did the same on TikTok, I think, as

well, when he moved it over to YouTube.

But and Facebook.

I mean, he's everywhere, isn't he?

He is now.

Yeah, he is now.

But I'm sure with Austin, I saw him, like, take his audience over to

YouTube and he went from like 6,000 to 100,000 in three days or something.

We'll find out.

He's on the next episode.

But, if you're getting started and you're making that move, then how difficult

is it do you think to make content?

Because a lot of people will say, I don't really have time to make content.

I don't really have time to put into the effort, like to the effort into it.

Like yeah, being a content creator is not for them if they don't have time.

I really do think that, I mean, I run two businesses around my content

and I still make time to do two to three videos a day on TikTok and then

I repurpose them everywhere else.

But it does lead to making cash.

So when you've got more cash, you can free up your time by getting

people to support you in your team.

So I think if you say, Oh, I don't have time to create content, then I think,

content creation is not for the weak.

I also get things like UGC user generated content, deals.

I get brand deals, you know, last year I made like 20 grand in brand deals.

Like I've worked with some really big names, Lockbox, Pampers, company

shop, like lots of different people.

Like I kind of backed away from the brand deals.

I actually took one on this morning, but it was only a little one.

I get contacted all the time and there are so many opportunities.

It's just finding the right one that fits with you.

All of them do take time.

All of them take effort.

For me, when my content started to go off, you know, it took me about three

months, but I've got people in my membership who are getting to a thousand

followers and starting TikTok shop in the first like four to six weeks.

And also there are hacks.

If you want to sell on TikTok shop, you can actually sign up as

a seller to sell your own products.

Which gives you access to being able to sell other people's

bit of a little pack there.

Not many people know that.

So, you know, don't let it be a barrier to you that you think you've

got to have a thousand followers to go and sell on TikTok shop.

You can do it a different way around.

Yeah.

And I love the message that.

If you don't have time, maybe it's not for you because the thing is, you know,

like if it was, if you're like, I'm an Xbox person, I play Xbox all the time.

Like, would you ever turn around and say, I don't really have time to play Xbox?

You wouldn't, you'd find the time because it's something you enjoy.

So if you're being, you want to be a full time creator, like

you've got to be dedicated to it.

I sat, I edited some videos the other day, I had four, I did four short-form videos.

I did some, it took me two hours to do these four videos.

And I was so annoyed because I've got so much other stuff to do.

But once I'd done them, I was like, they're scheduled now.

They're going out until Thursday or Friday next week.

I'm um, next week.

And so I know it's done.

I can just focus on doing the other things that I've got to do and then come back

and create some more content as well.

So it doesn't have to be a pain in the ass to do that.

Yeah.

And I've got a bit of a point around TikTok.

So like, if you want to be an Instagram influencer, then you need to be pretty,

you need to have pretty content.

You need to have really, really engaging, highly edited, really

like formulated videos, TikTok.

I like to call it my rough and ready platform.

So you can just rock up, pick up your phone.

And if you know what you're talking about, you can just talk about the thing.

And I am terrible.

I put makeup on for Matt today.

You know, I said this earlier, but I am terrible at like bumming around in

my joggers, not putting any makeup on.

I'm like the slummy school run mummy.

But TikTok has brilliant editing features and it has like really great

filters, so if you can't be asked to show up, chuck some mascara on.

If you're a woman, maybe not so much of it.

I mean, if you want to, you're a man, you know, I'm not judging anyone.

But, you know, chuck your mascara on as long as you still look like you.

And if somebody met you in real life, they wouldn't go, Oh my God,

you're not Maddy, that weird person.

You know, I've just got slightly elongated eyelashes on TikTok.

And if you go and see now, you'll be like, Oh yeah.

But it is rough and ready.

So you don't need loads of time.

I record content in my pyjamas sometimes or when I've just got out of the shower.

I think that's the problem, right, is people overcomplicate it and they find

it, they kind of look at, I always call it like the Formula One version.

If you're driving cars, you're looking at the Formula One car and you've got a

Mini Metro, you've not started driving yet and you're like, how can I be Lewis

Hamilton or whoever your favourite one is?

You can't get to that until you've done all of the other

things to get to that point.

They don't allow you to get in the car, whereas anybody can get in a mini

metro so you can just go and buy one.

I use mini metrics.

It was my first car probably won't even exist anymore.

I mean, also, as well I mean TikTok is like people think they need all these

like posh editing systems like editing in TikTok, it's actually really easy Yeah.

And if you're editing in the TikTok app, it actually helps with things

like SEO, it helps with views.

TikTok knows that you're staying on the platform longer, so it will

push your videos out a bit more.

So, you know, for me, it's not about going viral.

It's about my videos reaching the right people, and the

right people to buy from me.

So I know that I know how to go viral.

I took a new client on last week.

She's already hit 100,000 views in the last week.

I know how to make people go viral.

But, for me personally, like, that's not my goal.

For me, it's about making an impact, it's about reaching the right types of

people who are going to buy from me.

There are two different ways of looking at that as well.

Maddy, thank you so much.

I've really enjoyed this.

We could talk for ages.

You're going to come and join us at TubeFest.

I am.

We've not talked about TubeFest too much on this podcast yet, but I'm so excited to

have you as a speaker at the conference.

Well, thank you for having me.

No worries, we will have all your links in the show notes, so we'll be able

to put how people can find you, but if you just let us know as well, what's

the best way people can contact you, what's the best way they can find you?

TikTok's the best place to follow me on ADHD, money and me.

It's where I do my shiz, but I'm on all platforms, you can just

find me, Maddy Alexander-Grout.

Actually, follow me on Instagram and help me to get that

four and a half thousand up.

@moneytalksmoney there.

Try to grow Instagram please guys, come over there.

Wicked, thank you so much Maddy, really appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.

Bye bye.