We were lucky to catch up with Martine Beerman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Martine, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I had been working full time as an on-air Host/Producer/ Content Creator, and Writer for WhatsTrending.com. As our project drew to a close, I had one of two options; Either I go in search of another job, working for a new company, or I take a risk, and commit to becoming a full time Content Creator myself. Having worked on WhatsTrending’s social team, I had helped grow their online TikTok presence to 1.4 million followers in a fairly short time. I am super creative, and truly love the process of creating digital content, so I decided to “jump without a net” (so to speak,) opting for the career path that brings me immense fulfillment, but comes with little to no job security at all. It was the riskiest and absolute best decision I could have ever made, and though it has not always been easy or straightforward, I appreciate the life I have created for myself very much, and would take that same risk all over again if given the opportunity for a “do over.”
Martine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have always created content on some level, whether it was a public access show in college or a live streaming show after college, digital media, and the ability to showcase my creativity, and sometimes bizarre ideas, has always been my focus. While working for WhatsTrending I helped grow their TikTok account to 1.4 Million followers, and simultaneously worked to grow my own following on the side. After my project at WhatsTrending ended I saw Musical.ly become TikTok, and watched Instagram launch Lasso (their first attempt at Reels.) Having received an invitation from Instagram to join their first group of Content Creators on Lasso, I decided this was too big an opportunity to turn down, and threw myself into full-time content creation.
A makeup video I had fun making on TikTok went viral, garnering millions of views, so I knew I was on to something. I combined my love of art, cartoon characters, comedy and the bizarre, and began painting characters on my face around the area of my mouth, using my lips and mouth as theirs to speak or sing lyrics. I also created multiple characters on my nose, who I then made dance, coining the term “nose twerking.” Shortly after I was approached by Snapchat and was invited to create a show displaying how I create these unusual art pieces. My first show was called “Two Faced With Martine Beerman” (since I had two faces; my own, and the cartoon character’s… get it?) But, in the years since my show is now called Martine Beerman, and has become a mix of my unusual face- paint and artwork, and me trying out the most bizarre makeup hacks the internet has to offer.
Having been very influenced by Lewis Carole’s Alice in Wonderland as a child, today, I think of my eye-catching, colorful and thought provoking content as a way to have my audience “jump down the rabbit hole” with me. Together, we launch into a world where cartoon characters come to life on my face, where I walk on walls, appear to jump off of buildings unscathed, launch myself into space, am ripped from my bed into the sky, and walk (or crawl) through my upside down house. My goal is to get my audience to stop, and wonder, in a safe and fantastic space. With videos exceeding 150 million views each on YouTube, and tens of millions each on TikTok, not to mention having millions of subscribers across all main platforms (2 million on TikTok @Martine, 1.16 Million on YouTube @MartineBeerman, 222,000 on Instagram @MartineBeerman, 385,000 on Snapchat @Martine, and 916,000 on Like @MartineBeerman, ) I am so proud and appreciative to know that there are people out there who think like me, and enjoy my content enough to continue to support me in creating it!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Just a couple of years ago being a Content Creator as a full time job seemed small, unlikely and was not even on most peoples radars as a career path. Even today, it is not always fully understood, and certainly comes with its ups and downs. I think the biggest lesson I had to unlearn was paired with my own fear of failure. School and University prepared me to join the workforce, and find a job that existed; something stable, and solid. So, when my inner creative voice was all but screaming at me to “jump without a net” into a Content Creator career path that had no playbook, no course to follow, no guarantees, and absolutely did not come with medical or dental, I found myself forcing myself every day, to unlearn all I knew about a structured, secure path. Instead I decided to “shelf” my fear of failure for three to six months, to give myself a chance to work in something completely unknown, unexplored and unstructured, where I would get to do what I love, while forging my own path, coming up with my own vision, and ultimately working for myself in an industry that barely existed at the time. Today, I have a show on Snapchat, millions of followers from across the world, and Im also a cast member on React Media and People Versus Food. I am so proud to say that I am quite literally living the vision I created for myself.
How did you build your audience on social media?
I built my audience in two ways, the first is through trial and error, and the second is by being unafraid to be myself.
For trial and error, the question I often ask myself is : Do I actually enjoy making this content? Does it bring me joy? If the answer is yes, then I keep doing it, because content that brings me joy, I’m far more likely to stick with and be willing to adjust, even at times when the viewership is not there. I then look at the content I create from the outside in, as an observer and ask myself: If I was scrolling along through social media, and a video of someone being ripped from their bed came up, where they almost seem to be pulled by an invisible, force… would I stop to watch it? If I both enjoy the subject matter, and after removing my feelings about myself from the content, and thinking of it as someone else’s, I’d still want to watch it, then I post it and see what happens. Content creation is sometimes like throwing spaghetti against a wall and seeing what sticks. Sometimes the most unlikely video will connect with an unexpected audience and take off, which is a great indication that I should probably make more content like that. But, if what sticks is something I did not enjoy making in the first place, sticking with it gets harder and harder down the line, and being a Content Creator is about consistency.
Being unafraid to be myself has also been a big lesson for me. When you make content, you have almost no control over who sees it. This can be daunting because it’s easy to think of the judgement of others and allow yourself to get pulled away from your goal, but it’s also liberating, because you never know who is going to identify enough with you being authentically you, enough to follow your journey and your work.
Being authentically myself, and unafraid to act, or play around on screen, is what has also lead me to land a small role in an upcoming movie called Winterset, and has also helped me find my feet as a cast member on React Medias React and People Versus Food Channels on YouTube. Whether it’s trying not to eat (and failing) foods from my favorite movies and TV shows, Finishing the Lyrics from iconic pop songs, or trying the latest, viral products on the internet, my reactions are all unabashedly, and authentically my own, and I believe that leaning in to my blend of goofy-silliness, and random knowledge helps my audience connect with me, enough to want to follow and support my journey.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/martinebeerman
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/martinebeerman and www.Facebook.com/itsmartinebeerman
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM9pBCccqK2l0EeSImQaaEg
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@martine?lang=en Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/martine?locale=en-US My Snapchat Show, Martine Beerman: https://www.snapchat.com/p/2738580a-350c-4263-b6c3-b54439cf1983/2556665738133504?locale=en-US
Image Credits
Martine Beerman, David Adly Garcia (Upside down images)