We were lucky to catch up with Olivia and Kaolee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Olivia and Kaolee, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

When we first started our talk show, we didn’t anticipate making any money and actually thought that we wouldn’t. We really just wanted to create a platform for our Hmong community where we can talk about topics that we felt were relevant and interesting.

During that time, Facebook had a monetization program for which we were able to qualify for. Although we were unsure of our abilities as creatives, we also didn’t want to not try to monetize.

As we started closing in on our second year with the talk show, we started trying different types of videos that we felt would be engaging and fun for our audience. This was definitely out of our comfort zone, but something that we, as creatives, also wanted to stretch our skills and abilities.

It was our first viral video where we started seeing traction that reached outside of our Hmong community that got us really excited. At first, we hit 100k views and as it slowly closed on 500k views, we were ecstatic. We kept watching the number of views increase, and seeing Facebook pay us a little more each day. This was when we realized that maybe our little show could actually generate money, and that we were onto something.

Olivia and Kaolee, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are two friends who love to talk about topics spanning from relationships to career to life. It was through having these conversations where All That Talk Talk Show was born.

All That Talk Talk Show is a talk show striving to create a platform that will strengthen and enrich the Hmong community by providing content that educate, empower, and entertain, which are also the three pillars for which we stand for.

We are most proud of the fact that we have tackled taboo topics in our community, and have worked rigorously to normalize these hard, but incredibly important conversations. In addition, we are also proud of building a platform where people can come together and share life experiences to uplift one another. We want to continue to inspire people to have more conversations, and by watching our show, that they can take these conversations and expand it within their homes, communities, and life.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We learned the importance of pivoting very early on. When we first formulated the show, Covid-19 was unknown to the world. We had planned to go film in a studio, and had even gone to the studio to practice and try to record an episode. Soon after, Covid-19 happened, and the world as we knew it changed.

After debating what our next steps will be, we decided to just have our show on Facebook live. It was not the professional, beautiful studio that we had dreamed of, but it was real, raw and authentic, at a time that our audience needed it most.

As our audience learned to live and cope with Covid-19, they streamed us and connected with us through the screen. We in turn were able to connect with them, and work to build content that would help ease some of the uncertainty in their lives.

This pivot from a studio space to our living room space was just the start of many pivots we would have to do, but it was through this first pivot that cemented our realization that we needed to be nimble and flexible in order to be successful as a show.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We’ve been able to grow our following on social media by being authentic and sticking to topics that mattered to us and our community. We focused on taboo topics that everyone can relate to and had guests on our show to help us unpack them. We also engaged with our followers and shared many things about ourselves to help build a relationship with them.

For those just starting out, consistency is key to growing your following. When we first started we only had 11 live viewers, which were our closest friends and family. We continue to show up week after week and have since grown to 750 live viewers.

Don’t be afraid to try new things and test out different ideas, even if they don’t do well. You’ll learn more about your audience and gain new skills.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.allthattalktalkshow.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/allthattalktalkshow
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/allthattalktalkshow
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChy5Z93G9xhXlBg4eYX9gdQ