Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Lawrence. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

To be honest, starting Cactai Agency was one of the biggest risks that I’ve ever taken in my life so far. After being laid off in Feb 2023, I knew that I never wanted to be in that position again. While I didn’t love the work that I was doing with the company, I knew that I deserved to be working in a field where I could wake up every day and do work that I was genuinely passionate about and felt I was properly compensated. After sending out dozens of applications for jobs that I didn’t want, I decided to start building my own company and make all of the side gigs in consulting and content creation official. I wasn’t sure how I would make anything happen, but I spent months speaking with lawyers, building a brand and learning as I went. As a result, I’ve built a business where I get to help creators learn more about content creation, I get to create content for others, and I run a rapidly growing newsletter called The Greenhouse, where I break down the top Social Media news and trends for hundreds of creators.

Looking back to Feb 2023, I was genuinely a different person in a number of ways.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Chris Lawrence. I’m a Content Creator and I also am the founder of Cactai Agency – a Creator-Led digital company that helps content creators and brands create high-quality content for people, not algorithms. After being a content creator for a decade, I started spending a lot more time creating threads on Twitter/X to give creators free advice on various areas like editing short-form content, and I noticed that I enjoyed helping creators learn more about the industry. When I started back in 2014, I experienced a lot of gatekeeping where nobody wanted to help me learn more about social media, partially for fear that it would take away from their success. I’ve always believed the internet was huge, and there is tons of space for all of us to be successful in our own ways. Fast forward a few years and those Twitter threads led to a company.

Something that I think sets my company apart from other companies is what I like to call the “No BS” approach; if there’s an answer to something that I can easily provide, I simply provide it. Don’t get me wrong, I run a business and making money is a priority – but just like in my personal life, everything doesn’t need to be done solely for the purpose of monetization. As a result, I use Social Media to share knowledge without fear because I was intentional about building a business that wasn’t going to BS creators and if there’s no reason to gatekeep – I simply don’t.

My clients come to me most frequently for consulting services, especially when they feel like they’re stuck on their content creation journey. I’m able to take a look at their content and social media from an analytical and creative perspective to get a better understanding of who they are as a creator, the content they want to create, and what their content niche/market is missing that they can add to the conversation. The most common product that my company oversees is The Greenhouse Newsletter, what I like to call the ultimate newsletter for Content Creators, Social Media Managers, or anyone who has an interest in The Creator Space.

I’m most proud of The Greenhouse because while the product is still in its infancy, the response from subscribers has been overwhelmingly positive; especially the section that lists out the current TikTok trending songs and audio – meaning that creators can spend less time searching for trends and more time creating what their passionate about.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson that I’ve been unlearning aggressively over the last year is that just because someone told me that I wasn’t great at something as a child does not mean I have to live my life believing that as an adult. Growing up, I was a terrible student. I remember having 4% in Media Arts, and I cannot remember a time when the teacher handed me a math test that wasn’t face down. For a large part of my life, I thought that this meant that I wasn’t smart and it created a lot of insecurity in what I was capable of. When I would do well at things at work, I felt like I wasn’t good enough, and that I would always be “not good at XYZ”. Something that I’ve been trying to unlearn and remind myself is that I’m allowed to continue learning as I get older, and I should be excited about learning new things instead of staying in a constant place where I won’t try because someone told me I wasn’t good at something before I’d even hit puberty.

If I’m not good at something, it means that I simply need more practice and I can learn anything that I set my mind to.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

To date, I’ve built an audience of nearly 40K followers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, etc. and it all started with gaming content and going viral for playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I started using strong storytelling skills to play ACNH in new and exciting ways that really struck a chord with people, especially when live streaming on TikTok Live. Believe it or not, the first time that I had a TikTok go “viral”, I didn’t want to post the video. I didn’t think that it was funny or anyone would care, but I had already done all the editing and said “Might as well”. Really quickly, I learned that people really enjoyed Animal Crossing, and I leaned into it because it was also a game that I was really excited about.

The best advice that I could give to anyone who is just starting out is the same anytime that I’m asked: you simply need to start where you are. You don’t need to wait till you have the latest camera or anything, start where you are and build as you go. This advice makes content creating sound like a startup, but it really is the best way to go about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cactaiagency.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cactaiagency/
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/cactaiagency
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/cactaiagency/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cactaiagency