In this episode, we sit down with viral TikTok creators and TANDA Ventures founders, Taz Zammit & Alessia Allfree. Their inspiring journey has led them to become Australia’s most celebrated Lesbian couple. They turned their lockdown account into a large social media account with a deeply engaged community. With over a million followers, they have become influential voices within the LGBTQ+ community and in this episode, offer insights into content creation dynamics, community building, monetization strategies, and future aspirations within the creator economy.
What You'll Learn in this Episode:
1. The Origin Story: How Taz and Alessia's collaborative TikTok account began as a fun outlet during lockdown and grew into a significant platform with a major following.
2. Content Strategy: Insights into how they produce and differentiate between regular video content and live streams, and how each format serves to build connection and community.
3. Engagement and Growth: Tips on maintaining audience engagement, the importance of live streaming, and how it significantly amplified their growth on TikTok.
4. Monetization: Discussion on various streams of revenue, including brand partnerships, merchandise, and the innovative ways they use live streams for direct sales.
5. Building and Managing Community: The importance of fostering a positive, inclusive environment and how their approach has cultivated a strong, supportive network.
6. Future of Content Creation: Perspectives on the progression of the creator economy, including personal content platforms, digital independence, and insights into how platforms' evolutions influence content strategies.
7. Practical Advice for Aspiring Creators: Real-world advice on the importance of consistency, engagement, and evolving with the platforms.
In this episode, we sit down with viral TikTok creators and TANDA Ventures founders, Taz Zammit & Alessia Allfree. Their inspiring journey has led them to become Australia’s most celebrated Lesbian couple. They turned their lockdown account into a large social media account with a deeply engaged community. With over a million followers, they have become influential voices within the LGBTQ+ community and in this episode, offer insights into content creation dynamics, community building, monetization strategies, and future aspirations within the creator economy.
What You'll Learn in this Episode:
1. The Origin Story: How Taz and Alessia's collaborative TikTok account began as a fun outlet during lockdown and grew into a significant platform with a major following.
2. Content Strategy: Insights into how they produce and differentiate between regular video content and live streams, and how each format serves to build connection and community.
3. Engagement and Growth: Tips on maintaining audience engagement, the importance of live streaming, and how it significantly amplified their growth on TikTok.
4. Monetization: Discussion on various streams of revenue, including brand partnerships, merchandise, and the innovative ways they use live streams for direct sales.
5. Building and Managing Community: The importance of fostering a positive, inclusive environment and how their approach has cultivated a strong, supportive network.
6. Future of Content Creation: Perspectives on the progression of the creator economy, including personal content platforms, digital independence, and insights into how platforms' evolutions influence content strategies.
7. Practical Advice for Aspiring Creators: Real-world advice on the importance of consistency, engagement, and evolving with the platforms.
I'm just so proud of the community that has cultivated there because we can all come to that space at the end of the day and leave feeling positive. Sometimes on social media there's a lot of stigma around like, oh, it's a negative space, it's toxic. But I just haven't had that experience.
Speaker 2:
Welcome back to the show. Hope you're all having a great week so far. I am so inspired by our guests today. On the show we have on two creators who have an account together Taz and Alessia and they have close to a million followers on TikTok. We talk about how they started the account, how it all started during the pandemic. We talk about how they were able to build the account up to the very large audience that they have now and how they deal with what comes at them.
Speaker 2:
How do they think about community, this community that they've built? I will give you a hint. There's so much about who they are. That is this generosity of spirit and that comes across. I found my conversation with them on this so inspiring how they think about serving the community of followers that they have. We also talk about the reality of how they deal with hate. One of the things that they said is that they just don't give the energy to the hate because it breeds more hate. I thought that was a really interesting insight from them. I really enjoyed this conversation with Taz and Alessia. I hope you will too. With that, we're going to jump right into it. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:
Thanks for having us all on. We're super excited.
Speaker 2:
Let's start with how did you two start the account?
Speaker 3:
Because now you have a million followers on your account. The account kind of started by accident. So we started our TikTok account back in 2020 in lockdown, and this was before we were even in a relationship. So it was kind of just like a space for us to go to to share our like togetherness at the time, but without putting it on our personal platforms, because my account was focused more on like beauty and makeup and Taz's account was focused more on like tech and DJing, and obviously we didn't want to put our not relationship on our own personal accounts because we weren't really there yet, but we were in lockdown.
Speaker 3:
So we were quite bored and you know, tiktok was on the rise, so it was something for us to do together and we really enjoyed filming. So we started this TikTok account thinking no one would see it, because I don't think we truly understood the TikTok algorithm. We kind of thought it would be a little bit like the Instagram algorithm, where whoever follows you sees it. But after each video we posted, we just noticed that, like, we were gaining more followers and getting more views with every post, and I think something that contributed to that was the fact that a lot of people were discovering their sexuality during lockdown because it was time to like, reflect on yourself, your life and things like that, and we kind of became like, I guess, social media representation as a lesbian couple and we did end up in a relationship a couple months after this was pretty much.
Speaker 1:
Then, at the beginning of the pandemic, you started the account yes, yeah, melbourne had one of the longest lockdowns in Australia, so we had nearly two years in lockdown at Fowl Life.
Speaker 2:
So how did you know one another before lockdown?
Speaker 1:
So we actually did it. We met on Tinder. So we had the first lockdown. We were both swiping on Tinder and we matched and there was a small period where we were able to go out of our houses again. Things seemed back to normal. That's when we met in person. And then, on the second lockdown, we just spent that together.
Speaker 3:
So I think we'd only known each other about two or three months before we started the TikTok account together.
Speaker 1:
Which sounds so crazy, and it is.
Speaker 3:
You know you had an instinct, it we were called to do it now, but we didn't really start it with the intention to create what we have. We started it just to have fun and post like fun little videos online and it was kind of like an accident that we fell into it, but it was. It's a lovely accident. It's one of the best things that's ever happened to us.
Speaker 2:
You start this account it you start building momentum, you realize it's not like Instagram and that other people will see your content. How did you get to where you are now?
Speaker 3:
I think we once we sort of noticed that it starts to pick up. We were a little bit more strategic in like how many pieces of content we were posting. So we were posting about four pieces of content per day at the time and keep in mind this was also whilst we both had full-time jobs, so we were finding any time that we possibly could to film, because four pieces of content a day is a lot, and we were bad at filming back then, so it used to take us hours just to get those four pieces of content as well.
Speaker 3:
I think just putting ourselves out there as much as what we possibly could on the platform whilst it was like in its growing stage really helped our own growth. But I think another thing that contributed to that was we found live streaming on TikTok as well. I remember the little feature popped up when we were around. I think it was about 3000 followers and they had just released it. Whenever a platform releases like a new feature and they want you to use it, there's lots of benefits to using that, so they might boost your videos or they might put you out there a little bit more, which we didn't know at the time.
Speaker 3:
And I kind of said to Taz I was like, oh, I should try this live streaming feature. And she laughed at me and she's like oh, yeah, go on. So I remember sitting on her bed facing the window, cause that's where the best lighting was and I went on and I had five people watching me and I was just chatting to these random five people and I'm like hi guys, like what's your name? How long have you been watching us? And then each time we live streamed it, progressively the audience got larger and larger and what we noticed was was every time we live streamed, it would push our videos out onto the for you page, and so that's when we really picked up momentum and the ball started rolling very, very quickly.
Speaker 2:
Oh, I want to talk about the community, but so is it. How do you think about the content that you do live versus the other content you have on TikTok?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's totally different, isn't it? So our content that we do for video that gets posted on our account, that that can be like prepared and we can make that really snappy and fun, whereas our live streams are just chatting. It's as if you're catching up with a friend. You're on a FaceTime call. We often get people saying it feels like they're FaceTiming us. Something we love doing is an activity while we're live. So unless you might do her makeup while she's getting ready or we might be cooking together, it's honestly nothing special, like it's just us living our life. But people really find like comfort in that and you know the conversations that come out of it. Some nights we're just on for hours like laughing with the people on our stream. So the way we prepare is just we don't really have much preparation for our lives. We go into it open and I love that about it it's you never know what you're going to get.
Speaker 3:
it's very real. It's very raw, authentic, I think, like the content that we post on our account. Like Tess said, it's a little bit more sparkly and I feel like people don't necessarily get to see the whole picture of our personalities in the small snippets of content that we create, and so the live streaming really gives us a chance to show our audience who we are, and Do you use that time ever to sell?
Speaker 2:
We sell like t-shirts.
Speaker 1:
So occasionally I'd say like twice a year we don't do it as much as we should, but occasionally we'll jump on there and we'll pack orders on the line, which usually generates more orders. I think people are super responsive to purchasing things during the live stream because you can try things on, you can show people how it works. Yeah, you would be so shocked at when we're like we said, when we're cooking dinner how many people ask us what sauce is that, when can I get it from and what pasta are you using? Like it's just such an organic way for people to become interested in products. So I definitely think brands and businesses should explore the live space more for selling. But for us, we actually just love chatting, so we don't do a lot of asking for gifts as well. A lot of live streamers make thousands of dollars with gifting. Maybe it's something we'll explore one day, but for the moment, we're more than happy just to spend time and not really ask anything about audience and just get to know each other.
Speaker 2:
Let's talk about the community. You mentioned community before. How do you think about your audience? It sounds like you think of them as a community. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3:
From the last Streamy we were able to curate. I wouldn't necessarily say Team Tanda is the whole of our following. It's more the people who regularly come to our live streams and kind of understand, I guess, who we are as people and get amongst us on other platforms as well. So it is smaller than our entire audience.
Speaker 1:
Community for us is like at the core. So every decision we make we have community in mind, whether it's working with the brands or the content we post, and we have such a generous and supportive community also, a community that's just looking for friendship and acceptance which, to be honest, just resonates with us because that's our journey that we're on as well. So we've always wanted to make it an inclusive and accepting space and I'm just so proud of like the community that has cultivated there, because we can all come to that space at the end of the day and like leave feeling positive. And I think sometimes on social media there there's a lot of stigma around like, oh, it's a negative space, it's toxic, but I just haven't had that experience.
Speaker 3:
We've been able to cultivate a really warm community, and I think that's props to us as well, and I think that comes from we never really look at hate comments or reply to those. We really focus on the people who are asking those genuine questions and engaging with each other in the chat, and I think that's kind of a little bit how Team Tanda started Like. When we were live streaming, we noticed people like talking to each other in the chat and we kind of wanted to give them a space that wasn't just 90 characters outside of the TikTok app to get to know each other and also to get to know us as well, which is where we created our own app, the Team Tanda app, and that's just where we house like a majority of our community members, where they can get to know each other and they can also get to know us whilst coming to like private live streams and events and things like that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, people have like moved internationally to like be together and friendships have formed where they like holiday and see each other road trips. It's really cool to see like other people's connections that have come out of it. So it's not just us that have like our life has changed from this social media platform, like other people's lives are changing too, which is I just love that. Where do you see this going? Yeah, I love looking into the future of the creator economy.
Speaker 1:
I definitely see Web3 and, you know, the crypto space and also, like people's independence becoming more of a priority. So, right now, a lot of the social media platforms is where creators house their content, but I think in the future, we'll all have our own spaces in this digital world where we kind of like, are able to monetize a little easier as well and where we own the content, because right now, if our account gets banned on any social platform, we lose that following, we lose access to all the people who have opted into to be a part of the community. So, I think, moving to a space where I hate the word owned community but, like you, have a little bit more access to the people who are following you, either through like email text. I think it's kind of moving off platform, but I don't know the timeframe. But I'd love to build in that space once it comes.
Speaker 2:
That is super interesting and you know all the part of what you're talking about with the owning versus like renting, so to speak.
Speaker 2:
You know this is this was an issue that I think early on, when people started moving like. So the influencer space started really with blogs right, with people having long form blogs, and then you had an email list because you emailed people when you had a new blog post right, so you had a lot more ownership because you owned all the content on the blog and then you owned your email list. Then everyone started moving away from their blogs and onto Instagram at the time, right. And as soon as Instagram started playing around and Facebook and the algorithm, where, overnight, people went from having access to almost a hundred percent of their followers, then down like, down to like 30% and some case even less, some cases even less people realized like okay, yeah, I got a lot more, I got more access to people on these platforms, on the social platforms, but I don't really own and own in terms of like, I can get in touch with them, those relationships.
Speaker 1:
So it's so scary, isn't it? Cause you build your whole business life off of that following or the platform and then it can just go like that. So I think a lot of the conversations we're having with our creative friends like we all realize that that's like a really big risk and everyone's kind of in that process of thinking about well, what can I do to diversify and like protect myself in this space? And you know it's it's crazy because we have friends who have been banned and they have large account and they have connections at the platforms that literally can't get their account back. So it's not as simple as just knowing someone in-house that can like turn it back on. So this is something we think about a lot and it was part of the reason why we created the app. We wanted a space that, if somehow TikTok gets banned or goes dark, we can still talk to the people who really want to be a part of this community.
Speaker 2:
Were you both so before you started the joint account, were you each individually creating a lot of content on your own accounts?
Speaker 3:
I definitely wouldn't have considered myself a creator before creating the Taz and Alessia account. I definitely was creating little pieces of content for my own. I would probably say I just started exploring what TikTok had to offer. I definitely found TikTok easier to navigate than Instagram. I remember I wanted to be a creator for a long time when I was on Instagram and I had a couple of friends who had like maybe 10,000, 13,000 followers on their own Instagrams and I was like I would love to do that, but I just didn't really know how to get into the space.
Speaker 1:
But then when TikTok came along, I really feel like I found my groove in that yeah, I never considered myself as a creator or, to be honest, the only word in my vocabulary was influencer back then, and it was like models with this amazing life. They were rich, they were like, yeah, and I just never thought that you know, a person just living an average life like myself would be able to get a following. And I feel like TikTok really changed that.
Speaker 1:
It kind of brought in this new level of authenticity and just getting to see people like beyond, like a polished lifestyle as well.
Speaker 2:
So in thinking about the monetization I know we talk with so many different creators and influencers and they share just you know that they were like just from a, from the standpoint of like where they're earning it's kind of still mostly on the brand partnership side versus like you know anything they get from the creator funds or. But I'm just curious, can you share just high level, no number like, just like are generally? Is it more from one area? Are you divers?
Speaker 1:
we don't have creator funds on tiktok instagram, so we only have access to the youtube shorts program and that's that which you know. A lot of creators in australia are now forced. So basically, the only way we can earn money is through brand deals or if you have your own product. So, yeah, I would say a large percentage probably too much, but a large percentage is coming from brand deals. And then we also try and monetize through our app so people can subscribe and get bonus content, extra live streams with us, things like that.
Speaker 1:
We sell merchandise as well, yeah, and a small percentage through gifting. Now we don't ask for gifts, so I think if you did ask your audience for gifts, you could get that like a lot larger percentage wise, is there any other way? I mean, speaking gigs have been a new area that we're kind of exploring, like doing keynotes and things like that and getting paid for that, consulting. So we're starting to explore those areas as well, but we do realize that it's it's important for every creator to start diversifying in thinking about where you are going to take the content next.
Speaker 2:
Do you mostly look at trends that are happening on the platform, like on TikTok? I know TikTok is like a huge platform for you both. Is that are you when you're thinking about new content? Is it is a lot of it based on what you're seeing as trends that are happening, or you know how do you decide?
Speaker 3:
I think we decide based on a couple of different things. Right, we look at what the platforms themselves are bringing out. So, for example, tiktok released 10 minute videos and then they released 15 and now they've released half an hour videos on the platform. So we're really looking at like the platform is asking us to produce longer content because they want people to consume longer content. So we're starting to look at those things where it's like okay, longer content's coming in. But also we can look at massive creators like MrBeast, who's kind of like moving away from like that really dramatised content and leaning more into like storytelling, which also leans further into that longer content, and kind of like placing that in our own content and like, I guess, drip feeding it as well.
Speaker 3:
You can't just jump from 15 seconds to half an hour when your audience isn't used to that and also it's difficult to film. Like we're not going to be able to film a 15 second video and jump straight to half an hour. So do we skill? Yeah, it's a completely different skill base, so I guess we have to learn like all of the things that come with that as well yeah, I think looking off platform is important and looking at the platform you're going to do both because you get inspiration, sometimes from different spaces, and we something we've loved doing is creating signature series, so it's something that, like we, nothing, nothing is original on the internet.
Speaker 1:
You're always getting ideas from somewhere else, but trying to make an idea our own and then repeating it over and over again because that, just as a creator, we're not coming to the session every day being like what do we do now? Because that's exhausting. Yeah, so we kind of have repeat repeatability in our content, which makes it really good for our people who are following us they know what to expect and for us, as it helps yeah, and I think, like you can look at the trends for the short term, like we can jump on a few trends and maybe that'll get us a lot of views and whatever.
Speaker 3:
But we really need to look at, like, I guess, the bigger trends, which is something Taz is really good at, like studying the industry and seeing what's next, to understand how we can be here for a long time, not just do a really good job in the short run.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, I mean and it's you know, I like that. You both are clearly very passionate about the creation of the content for the sake of you know, wanting to tell and share interesting stories, wanting to build the community, but also having the eye towards okay, where is this going? How do we think about it from a business perspective? Because that's how you get to do it for the long haul right.
Speaker 1:
I'd love to just give a practical takeaway for people that are listening and want to do this themselves. I would say one of the biggest things that has contributed towards the growth of our content is being consistent, and I know that you would hear this so much, but I'm saying it again because you need to hear it. Anything you want to do, you have to show up again and again and it's going to feel like no one's listening. We have this term which is called a silent watcher People in our community who watch every single video right to the end, but they never comment, never interact, and then one day we ask people on a live stream.
Speaker 1:
You know who's the silent watcher? Who's been here for a couple of years but never said anything. And there's always people that come out and they're like I love you guys. I remember you in your other house. You know when you were living with your mom and they would bring things up and you're like, yeah, these people have been here for a while. So don't be disheartened. If you're not seeing success straight away, just keep. If you're not seeing success straight away, just keep at it. I think consistency overcomes, you know, those short little bursts. So that's my kind of key takeaway for everyone.
Speaker 2:
Well, that is all, and that's a very generous thing to offer up to people, because I think that's another thing I've seen with creators who have longevity and success is this desire to give back. Right, you talked about building the community, but also just that. You know you want to give people value. They know we're being genuine and want to just provide value, so thank you for that.
Speaker 1:
Oh no, thank you for having us and allowing us to share our story. It's been amazing, Thank you.
