Mila Jaye isn’t short on opinions: people who hate on influencers are actually just jealous and secretly want to be creators themselves; the person responsible for product placement in the new Mean Girls movie should be fired; she is a bad YouTuber — and she loves that about herself.
Another thing she’s not short on: followers. Last year, the social media strategist and creator educator gained over 100,000 TikTok followers in six months. She’s blowing up fast by sharing tips and insights for aspiring creators that go way beyond posting frequency or the hottest audio trends. “Because,” as she says in a recent video, “that sh*t doesn’t work.”
Instead, she’s fully transparent about what has worked for her and her clients, like creating a signature content series your followers will come back for time and again. (Bonus: repeatable content is easier and less time-consuming to produce.) It’s tangible strategies like that that are going to help Mila get to 1 million followers, which is one of her big goals for 2024.
We chatted with her about how a mindset shift can help with imposter syndrome, finding (and leveraging) your unfair advantage, creator guilt and burnout, and why long-form content will be huge this year — especially for creator educators.
First things first: How did you get into content creation?
I feel like my journey into content creation is a messy journey, which makes it the best journey. I started out working behind the scenes in social media marketing for a local agency. I liked the job, but with inflation and everything, it wasn’t covering all my bills. So, to make some extra cash, I started creating content on the side — and I fell in love with it.
Then, with more experience, I started to see the things — ideas, milestones, content gaps — my agency was missing. I knew I could do better, so I ventured out on my own. I was hesitant at first, because I’m actually a pretty private person and can suffer from a bit of imposter syndrome. But then I shifted my mindset. I realized I just wanted to help people and share my knowledge. It’s been full throttle ever since.
How did you juggle your day job and your side hustle?
For a while I was doing content on the side while working a 9-to-5 and bartending at night. Sometimes that meant waking up at 5 a.m. on Saturdays to film for four hours, and batch-editing on Sunday for another four hours to have content to post for a week. That was a lot, but I just made it work until I felt comfortable leaving all my other jobs.
Money-wise, I was matching my salary through my income from content creation within the first month, but I loved my job and my coworkers, so it was hard to quit. I had my two-week notice written for months before I handed it in! But at a certain point, I just wasn’t creating the content I knew I could because I was so burnt out by my schedule.
Now everything’s a little more balanced. I can wake up at 8 a.m. and end my day by 4 p.m. I love having control over when I’m posting — and I haven’t missed a day in seven months.
So monetization went well from the beginning. What are some of your strategies for turning your content into a steady income stream?
I started with one-on-one coaching sessions and selling a few digital products that kind of replicate the coaching experience. But recently, as my follower count has increased, I’ve moved more into passive income — like affiliate marketing and those kinds of brand partnerships. But whatever I’m doing, it has to feel authentic to me and helpful to my audience.
How do you approach pricing your digital products and how do you decide which products should be free?
If it takes me less than an hour to make it, and you can read it in 10 minutes and learn something quick, I’ll make it free. That includes templates I’ve made for myself, checklists, easy guides, or how-tos. I usually change up my lead magnets every few months to keep them fresh and new for my audience.
For paid products, I go based on my hourly rate and how long it would take someone to consume it. So if it would take someone three hours to complete and my rate is $300 per hour, then the price would be $900. Having said that, most of the time I price things on the lower end to make them as accessible as possible.
And how do you establish rates for brand deals?
It’s so tricky! I remember when someone reached out when I was just starting — I had maybe 5,000 or 10,000 followers — and I had no idea how to price myself. It brought up so much anxiety. I went back to the agency I used to work for and chatted with them. Very helpfully, they gave me a spreadsheet showing mathematically, how they priced things based on engagement and all kinds of stuff.
What was that initial fee?
It was a flat rate of $500 for a dedicated TikTok video, with no usage or anything like that. I liked that price because I honestly didn’t want to start too high and have weeks of back and forth. Now, it’s $1,500 to $2,000. And if a brand wants usage or anything else, we add a certain percentage. It feels good for me and for the brands I’m working with.
Are you a planner or more spontaneous with the content you post?
A little bit of both. I plan out a lot of content, but I truly believe in acting on your creative impulses. Sometimes, I’ll hop off a call feeling inspired and pull up my phone and film something. Sometimes, it will sit in my drafts for weeks — maybe I didn’t feel I expressed myself perfectly or whatever, but then I’ll post it randomly. And those ones often do really well! People can tell when you’ve got that spark in your eye.
You’re active on a bunch of platforms. How do you approach each of them?
Oh, I love this topic, because a lot of people are the same on each platform, and that’s not how I do it.
TikTok is my authentic platform, where I get to share my knowledge and my personality. It really gives me a lot of space, especially now that longer videos are getting more popular.
I think of Instagram as my website — it’s more curated, a little more professional. Short content, with lots of value in the captions.
I’m very excited to jump into YouTube. I love long-form content, and I’m excited to figure out how to translate two- or three-minute TikToks into 10-minute YouTubes and help a whole other segment of the market.
Any big goals for 2024?
I really want to launch and create a membership and community space. No more Facebook groups or little offshoots for each course. I want everyone together, all the courses, all the resources, everything I have to offer under one umbrella. I just have to figure out what that will look like!
What’s one skill creators looking to go “full throttle” should work on?
Editing and pacing. Successful creators grab your attention, maintain it, and then repeat that process over and over again. That’s how they create consistent growth. Editing is how that’s done, and it can help you create little cliffhangers at the end of one video to make sure people watch the next one.
It’s a skill you develop over time, but it’s also something you can work on. I watch a lot of YouTube videos on pacing and scripting.
So, editing could turn into your “unfair advantage,” which is a concept you’ve posted about before. Could you tell us a bit about that idea?
Absolutely. Your unfair advantage is basically anything that makes you stand out. And, yes, it could be editing!
Emma Chamberlain blew up during those early YouTube days thanks to her very specific editing style. But it could be your look, your humor, your knowledge — anything that sets you apart. And if you feel like you don’t have one, you can develop one (again, like editing). Honing a skill can also keep content creation fun — it gives you intention with every video you post.
Speaking of which, it sounds like you’ve got a better schedule than when you were juggling three jobs. But is creator burnout something you still grapple with?
Creator burnout is so real. For me, it manifested more as creator guilt. I felt guilty if I thought about missing a day of posting. I felt guilty if I wasn’t as active in the comment section. I have to work hard to be okay with prioritizing my own mental health.
Even this past Christmas, I didn’t post on Christmas Eve because I was with my family — but I still felt so guilty. One of my family members had to sit me down and be like, “You post every day, you have 300 videos, no one will notice if you don’t post on one day. Your followers will be there tomorrow.” Everyone else gets a day off! It’s so important to take that time to rest and recharge, so you can be a better creator and better serve your audience.
Any predictions on what to look out for in the creator space in 2024?
Longer-form content is going to be big. TikTok is rolling out 30-minute videos sometime in the near future and they are really going to push them. You’ll be able to watch a whole 25-minute course on the app, which I think is going to be really fun, especially for creator educators who have a lot of knowledge to share. And it will be interesting to see how the media and everyone who said TikTok was ruining attention spans are going to react.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Photo: Courtesy of Mila Jaye
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Further reading
- What Is a Creator Educator? (And How To Become One)
- Beyond Influencing: Why Creator Educators Are Making Bank
- How To Sell Digital Products Online: A 6-Step Launch Checklist
- How To Make Passive Income Selling Digital Products
- 9 Best Examples of Digital Products Created on The Leap
- How To Make Money on TikTok: 8 Effective Ways
