As is often the case for guest episodes, I did not want this chat to end. [00:01:00] Sienna and I chatted Far beyond what will make it to the cut of this episode. And I'm sure that there will be many more invitations extended to Sienna to draw on her success as a UGC creator and as an emerging voice, as an educator in this space.

Who's Sienna? You're asking. Sienna is a 23 year old content creator from Melbourne, Australia, and she's behind the creative edits, a colourful community and good vibes of Sienna in the Sun. Her origin story is a fun one and we talk about it in the beginning of the episode. And you'll learn that she was really tired of seeing the same safe and boring content on social media, especially in her own feed.

So what she creates through her online persona extends to her values and her approach to her work as a creator and an educator in this space. She's an influencer, she's an actor, she's a model, she's an educator, she loves doing it all. Her mission in everything she does is to inspire people to become their happiest selves.

We speak about media kits and why I consider Sienna's to be one of the very best influencer media kits I've seen. We also chat about Sienna's free brand pitch template that's generated big dollars for her business. enabling her to become a full time creator, her content creators, Facebook group, and her mentoring.

Absolutely that, it truly sparks joy, some of the images just really pop out on my feed. So, I wanted to start there, [00:05:00] tell us about how you taught yourself all of these great photography tips and started that journey for yourself as a UGC creator.

Sienna: The origin story of Sierra in the Sun. I actually started it as a travel blog, uh, I was going to Bali with my family. I was like 19. I'm like, I'm going to become a travel influencer and just shared a bunch of like photos from my journey, which was just like kind of colorful sunsets here and there. I had no idea what I was doing.

It's very intuitive and very easy to use. So I was just. mucking around, really just trial and error, teaching myself things, a couple of YouTube tutorials here and there, really, really just seeing what I liked, seeing what I didn't like, and when I look back at my original work, like, it's so cringey, it's so bad, but at the time, that's what everyone was doing, and that's what was fun and colourful and vibrant, and I still have that essence in my work. I just like to think it's a little bit more refined.

Karan: It definitely is, and I really like the way that you take your audience on that learning pathway, because as I flick back through your channel, you give really useful tips on the skills that you've learned. Uh, I think I was looking at a post recently where you spoke about,

And then I also like the before and after shots. I think there was one of you added a cherry orchard recently. Was it the cherry orchard? And just the way you quickly edited that photo, the before and after, and you made it sound so easy. And it really elevated that image in the feed.

Sienna: I think that's the thing that a lot of creators forget, is something that seems easy to you, is not easy to others. Creating that very basic tutorial for someone else, you might think, oh, everybody knows how to do this, but they actually don't. And those little tips, like, oh, put your camera on this setting, or position yourself this far away from the camera, it's not always intuitive for other people.

So those little tips are actually really valuable.

So you've got all this real vibrant and creative content on your feed, uh, you've taught yourself these skills. How do you consistently go about generating creative ideas for your channel?

Karan: I think that's a really powerful mindset and it's one that Marketers use is they put themselves in the mind of the consumer or the target audience, and it's often overlooked by creators. They're creating content that they think others might like, but they don't stop and think about what is it that I like?

When I was owning and operating agencies, we would run all of our talent campaigns through Trello, but as a content creation management tool, I love it. And. The free version covers almost everything any creator could ever need. And I like its searchability and functions like you've described. You could just put up a photo and go, you know, put it into a list and think this is great.

It's super visual as well, but it has all the functionality of listing and searching and categorizing.

Sienna: Yeah, I think Trello is a really great one for visual people because I can get really stressed out about everything that I need to do, but if I can see it. spread out on a screen in front of me and I can tick things off once I've done them. That makes me feel so much more organized and I think creating is a very visual thing too.

Karan: Absolutely. I probably just now, I'm going to take a segue here. I hadn't really considered this question before, but now we're speaking about it. what is your planning process? So you've spoken about maybe taking inspiration or capturing ideas as they come to mind. What do you do when it comes to actually putting that creative process into motion?

Do you batch your content or is it on the fly or a little bit of both?

I don't have to arm and uh, and just go, Hmm, what do I need to say now? I have it all written out and a lot of this is a great tip for UGC creators too, or anyone doing brand sponsorships. If you write a script and get it approved by the brand before you film, that is going to reduce how many retakes you need to film and just bring down the work that you have to do, you know, flesh out any scripting issues before you film it and you won't have to redo it. So that's a good one. I love doing that. And so yeah, once I've written that script, I'll usually sit down for maybe an hour, two hours, film everything I need, and then sit down and on the same day, try and edit it if I have time, because that's when everything's fresh in your brain. And then you can come back and do little things like adding music or adding captions.

Karan: That is really best practice what you've spoken about just there, Sienna. It really is. So when, even when we work on really big campaigns at scale, scripting process, or even the storyboarding process is vital and it does, as you say, reduce pushback or feedback from brands. I'd also say make sure you negotiate the number of reviews that you

permit a brand to make.

But it, it is really important because it gives you clarity of thought, you know what you're going to talk about. And then when you, you've got the makeup on and you're ready to shoot. You're good to go. It's so much easier. So storyboarding and scripting is really great tool in that, content batching or content preparation process.

So we've spoken about creating the content and your process there. You've built a really great community. So let's talk about how you foster those. connections with your audience.

So to me, that's what's really important is making friends with people that are both. and business associates, but also genuine friends that have the same interests as me. And I think even as maybe a business owner [00:16:00] or a UGC creator, connecting with other people that are like yourself, that are going to support you is really important.

You don't necessarily need to interact with people just because you think they're going to follow you back, just interact with the people that are actually. Inspiring you. Inspiring and inspiring, supporting you and making your feed a better place.

Karan: Powerful words. That's how community is built. It's built on those genuine connections and those genuine relationships. And I think that's wisdom far beyond your years. And I actually, I want to talk about your relationships with brands and I'm sort of looking off to the side, which I know the listeners won't be able to see because we're doing audio only, but one of the really.

Doesn't matter what channel you're on and everyone's complaining about how the algorithm is wrecking their engagement and that will never change. So there's a couple of points I wanted to make, and I want to speak more about your website and the value that's played in your role as a creator. But right now I want to talk about how you've really.

showcased yourselves to brands through having this gorgeous influencer media kit, which is probably one of the best online media kits that I've seen in terms of your channels, the articulation of your brand, your engagements, your impressions, and you really speak to the brand and you've got these beautiful video examples embedded into the website.

Sienna: I'm actually quite, I want to say lucky, but it's also a lot of hard work that I'm at this stage in my career where I get a lot of inbounds. So I am getting a lot of brands reaching out to me. They are emailing me. and that comes from having a really strong social presence, my Instagram, my Tik TOK, and I've actually created a second Tik TOK for UGC and content creation, sharing tips with other creators, and also as a portfolio for brands that find me and be like, Oh, wow, she would be a good creator for us. So I think having all of those channels that are directing people to my website, to my portfolio, has really helped brands come to me. And that takes out a huge, huge chunk of time [00:19:00] for me, which is pitching to brands. And I will still pitch to brands if it's someone I really want to work with. but a lot of my jobs now are coming in from my website. Or I'm actually on Fiverr as well, which is a freelancing platform where I can put up my briefs as saying, I can do this, I can do this. And brands will then, click on it and say, yes, we'd like you to produce two videos for us. So. The website is really fantastic, but I think it's important to not limit yourself to just a portfolio on, you know, a Canva portfolio or a website. I think spreading yourself out across, brand collab platforms, Fiverr and Upwork are two really good sites. And also, yeah, being available for inbounds is how I really catch a wide range of brands.

At the beginning of the episode, you started off as travel and, you know, you've also become a bit of a foodie. I follow you now for some tips on where to go in Melbourne, which I love, but fashion and, and that, so, and also things like software. So in your digital media kit, you've got examples of these different niches that you work really well in, both in video format and static image, for photos as well.

What great things your audience is saying. So I think that's a really great thing to, to add in. You spoke about pitching to brands and you do have a lot of inbound inquiries now, which is great,

but you also help others learn how to pitch to brands. And you've got a free pitching template on your website that creators can download let's talk about what might be included in that and the strategies that you use to pitch to brands.

com. Like I have my own domain now, but I didn't. I originally was just siennaandthesun at gmail. com. And that's totally fine. But that's professional. It's my username. Like the brand can see who I am. And then including. What you're going to do for the brand, like, don't just be like, Hey, let's collab, you need to provide some value.

Are you going to create a try on haul? Are you going to do a tutorial for them? Like, what's your strength? What can you give to them? And like, why should they pay you for that? Or why should they work with you for that?

No personalization, no effort to show a genuine interest in, a value based productive income in that relationship. And you do also demonstrate some snippets of wording on your website, because again, when we look at your Influencer Media Kit, you clearly say, how can I promote your brand? And you give examples, as you've just described, the try on hauls, unboxing, stories, reels.

So bringing in all of those elements makes it easy,

because

Sienna: the

Karan: In exchange, I want to share some advice from someone who sits across the other side of the desk constantly being inundated by creators with

content.

Sienna: an

Karan: It is overwhelming as an agent or as a brand because everyone is reaching out to you and everyone wants something.

I'm going, thank goodness, you know, someone's onto it. And I, I only have to do less thinking here and we can just, she's got it. She knows what needs to be done and I'm not going to have to teach her and educate her about delivering a campaign.

Sienna: delivering Yeah, minimise minimise the back and forth of how many emails you have to send.

Lay everything out in that first email, and they, the brand might not know what they want until you present it to them. You might have a great idea they've never thought of, and they're like, yep, hire this woman. So now,

Karan: that's absolutely correct because nobody knows your audience like you do. And one of the. Powerful things that we do when we work on campaigns is that we bring the talent in and we get them to say, this is going to work because the agency will often have a brief from their client, the brand, and they'll say, we want X, Y, and Z.

Some of them are fairly transactional. It's like, we want this and this is what we want you. That's great. The more professional you are, the more communication that you minimize. That's great. The money's in your account. You're done and dusted. And as you build experience, you'll be able to come to the table more with those.

conversations about how you can shape the campaign and what you can do to contribute. So it really sounds like to me that that free pitch document that you've got, everyone needs to download and understand the fundamentals of pitching to brands. Because I can also see from your website, it's generated significant income for you.

Sienna: something else that's quite important with pitching too is even if you get a no now, If you're approaching them professionally. They are going to keep you on their books and potentially reach out again when they have something that actually does suit you.

So always being polite and courteous and to the point and very professional can come back to you later even if it's not a right fit now.

Karan: Absolutely. Absolutely. You never burn a bridge. And to that point, if someone's come and said, Hey, Sienna, we're doing this campaign for Christmas and keep their details, get in touch with them a month or two before the following year at the same time and say, Hey, last year we spoke about this activation for Christmas.

I was wondering, are you going to do that again this year? I'd really like to be considered for that opportunity. And that's where the tools like you've suggested Trello come in handy because you can have You know, like a sales follow up or an opportunity follow up. So professionalism goes a very, very, very long way.

Sienna: Well, I do share a lot of tips for free on my Instagram, my TikTok. Um, I'm always trying to help for as free as I can, but when you have a really specific situation and you want to know how to build your channels, not just generally, That's when I think a one on one session is really valuable. So, um, I'm happy to do like Zoom sessions, or if you're in Melbourne, we can like meet up for a coffee. And I just want to be able to like help you develop your content plan, or if you want help pitching to a certain brand, like I can help you write that. It's [00:29:00] really open ended for me, like I will help in whatever way I can. And yeah, that mentoring, it can be a one off call. We can do it once a week, once a month, like whatever you need. I want to be able to help you build your profession.

And that, that community is incredible. What you've built there. Talk to us about your creators community.

Sienna: My baby, my Facebook group, Content Creators Australia. I actually started this group because when I was first starting, all of my idols and my mentors and everyone I looked up to, they were all American. And that's fine, but the industry is so different there. It's so much further ahead and all of their rules are different.

Their tax laws are completely different. Like, it's just, It's a whole nother world and I found that there's a lot of Australian influencers but there's not many that are teaching other influencers what to do or other creators. how to manage their taxes or, you know, how to actually get in touch with Australian brands because the industry is just miles behind and one day it will catch up and it's doing pretty well now, but it can be really overwhelming when you don't have anyone else in the same position as you.

Everyone I see is in another country, another state. So yeah, this, this community is about the community. connecting people and also providing resources, but it's also a source of brand collabs. Um, there's actually been a few, collabs come from this group of people being like, I really need creators that are mums or have a dog or live in Sydney.

And it's just a really nice resource for both business owners and creators.

It's a platform we're all familiar with. So most of my interactions or time spent on Facebook is really only in groups and. I probably have at least half a dozen opportunities a week where I see brands calling out. They don't even really understand what UGC is. They might put up a video and they say, I want this.

How do I, what is it? How do I do? I go straight over to, I put in the link to your group and say, go over there because you will find some of the best, professional and dedicated. Australian based UGC creators bloggers as you've described and it is, it's a really good community that's well run and well managed that brings in the value to the creators themselves and now by default coming into the brand.

You wear lots of different hats. You are a creator, an influencer, a model, an educator. You've spoken a little bit about the business side of things. And I think many creators may incorrectly think that being an influencer is just. creating content and that's the role, but it's actually running a business and you need to understand all of the things that you've just described tax and engaging with brands and, you know, running your content.

How do you wear all those hats? And do you find the juggle difficult? How, how are you learning to manage, expanding your growing business?

You've got to apply for an ABN. It's just. So much to think about and I am learning on the fly, but I think that's why it's so important for people like me who are that, you know, a little bit further ahead in their journey to be sharing the trials and errors. Like I've had my tax this year was a nightmare. I, you know, I tried to do it myself. I got stuck. I got stressed. I went to an agency. They had no idea what a content creator was. It was just a mess. And so everything I learned this year. I was taking notes. I'm going to be like writing down for next year and hopefully sharing with people without, you know, giving too much financial advice, but that kind of thing of, again, going back to that content creative Australia group, being able to ask, Hey, does anyone know how to fill out this form or has anyone had experience working with a.

So

Karan: constant learning, isn't it? And for someone who's owned and operated many businesses, plus come out of executive management, it doesn't matter where you are in your career, the. External environment. The external business environment is constantly evolving. So you need to stay on top of that.

Do you set aside a day, a month or a quarter or a couple of days, a quarter to look at the business administration requirements of your work?

Sienna: It's more of an as I go thing. I have a really big spreadsheet where I keep track of all of my collabs, all of my income and basically as the collabs come in, I'll enter them into that spreadsheet and then maybe like once a month. Go through my bank statements and be like, okay, that's been paid. Tick that off.

That's been paid. Tick it off. Oh, this one hasn't been paid. Follow that up with the brand. So yeah, like it's not scheduled, but I will be like, okay, today is admin

Karan: Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's good. You've got a process there and it works with you and I'm a big fan of

Karan: You do. And look. You're not alone there because they're quite different strengths. And again, sitting on my side of the desk, that's where other people bring value. You said earlier in the episode, you understand different people bring different things to the table. I work with some. of the most creative and, you know, biggest celebrities in the

world, actually, I'm very fortunate,

Sienna: very fortunate.

Karan: but a lot of them are creatives and that's why they have that team as they've grown their business.

They can focus on what they're really, really great at and then outsource these other things. And, and that's all part as a business owner, you've got to learn the basics, but regardless of where you're at in your career, you still need to understand it anyway, because you want to make sure that.

it is a constant process of learning.

Sienna: it is a

Karan: I actually don't want to end this episode, but I am mindful of your time and what we need to do.

So Before we wrap up, let's talk about what's ahead for you. you've

got a lot of things happening and in your role as a creator, as a mentor, as an emerging leading voice in this space, what's on the horizon for you?

Sienna: Well, I love the base of my content, which for me is just creating things that I love, like fun foodie recommendations or fashion videos, but I want to take this. mentoring thing further. I want to do a lot more events. I like to run meetups for creators. We've done a couple of like content days. We've done a branch.

Karan: Hopefully more. I feel that I feel that I feel it come through in your content. And I feel it comes through in that genuineness to want to see others succeed. And that's a quality that is not always present, but I can say that it is a quality that will take you far and I'm excited to

learn

And it is really hard to be like, why are they doing it? And not me. And I think a really important mindset to have is just because it's a no for you now, it's not a no in future. And. Being positive and supportive for other people now is going to be so much more beneficial than being jealous. And yeah, I think there's always room for more.

Like, people say it's an oversaturated industry, and yes there's a lot of people, but there's no one that does content like you, and there will be brands that are like, she is perfect for us, no one else can compare. So, it's all in the plans, it's okay, it's gonna

happen.

Karan: It is. And when you combine with all the elements that you've described and you share through all of your resources about the professionalism and the way that you manage those relationships.

And. I just really enjoy listening to what you have to say because I can genuinely see that it brings that value into the community. Ah, I think we're going to have to wrap up soon, but I'm not going to let you go until you can share perhaps a recommendation or a piece of advice for influencers or creators

looking to build their career.

Sienna: just start. It doesn't have to be good. It doesn't have to be perfect. I look back at my old work and cringe so much.

And I know that's so cliche, so cringy, but it's true. Not everything you do has to be perfect. You just have to do it.

Thank you so much for your time.

Sienna: Thank you, Karan. Thanks for having me. I've had an absolutely great time. And yeah, I love just sharing this joy of creating with everybody. And I hope that people listening are inspired and want to work on their own business and just create what you love and the success will come.

Karan: Wonderful words to close on. Thanks, Sienna.