UGC for Gen X: How to Make Money Creating Content (No Followers Needed) W/Megan Collier

Brett Trainor (: 00:01

Hi, Megan, welcome to the Corporate Escapee Podcast.

Megan Collier (: 00:05

Thanks so much for having me. I'm super excited to chat.

Brett Trainor (: 00:08

My pleasure. This is one of those, one of the beauties of being a podcast host is you get to talk about what you want to talk about. But I think in this situation, if anybody doesn't know, we're going to talk about UGC or user generated content. I got that right. Right. And as a revenue stream. So I'm super curious as you know, we're both on TikTok, but you know what, what I'm really trying to do with this podcast is show GenXers that have been in corporate for two decades. What's possible.

Megan Collier (: 00:24

Yep. Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 00:37

And this one is definitely fits something that's a little bit different, but I know you work exclusively, I think exclusively with GenX and beyond within this category. maybe to get started, why don't you just share a little bit about your company and a little bit about your background and then we'll dig into it.

Megan Collier (: 00:57

Yeah, for sure. So yeah, it was about three years ago exactly. I was scrolling on TikTok and I saw someone who's actually now a friend of mine talking about UGC. And I actually come from a social media background. of I was working a full-time job helping this medical device company basically do some social media. And I had never even heard about UGC. So it made sense to me, know, for anybody who has never heard of it, UGC again, like you said,

stands for user generated content where you get paid, you partner, you collaborate with different companies, but not as like an influencer. So these companies just need a lot more content for their own marketing purposes. So it really, made sense to me and I only had about 200 followers probably at the time. And I was like, okay, this is fantastic news. Cause I have no idea. Like I thought that they were only working with influencers.

So UGC made sense. I was like, yep, let's do it. I needed some extra money. Our son was one at the time. Diapers were getting expensive. I got started with UGC. I had a goal of about $1,000 a month and quickly hit that. think within 10 days, I made about $750 just off of one UGC deal for an app company that needed more ads to run. And so I was kind of hooked after that. I started doing it and then...

Fast forward about 14 months after that, I was able to replace my six figure income. then beyond that, once I had a bunch more time, was, I just have dedicated a lot of my time to teaching other people and specifically Gen Xers and Boomers how to get into this. Cause I saw this massive gap in the market where a lot of companies wanted to work with more people that are 40, 50, year olds. But there was not that many people that I knew of pursuing it at that age. So it's been really cool.

Brett Trainor (: 02:46

Yeah, no, that's awesome. And I love that, right? Again, I've gotten further away from corporate. I'm definitely much more adventurous and experimenting and figuring out where it comes. And I'm going to be honest with you, I haven't really dabbled. I get the inbounds quite a bit for ads and I looked at it the first time, but just like the intake form was super complicated. I'm like, wow, this looks really hard. I'm like, eh.

I'm fine doing what I'm doing on TikTok and we'll figure it out. But like I said, I've always been curious. Then you really caught my attention when you were working with the Gen X and boomers. Because I see the same thing, right? Because my whole career was in B2B, right? Not B2C or direct to consumer, whatever they're calling it these days. So I don't understand, right? The market. But to me, having like 100,000 Gen X followers would seem to be valuable to somebody. But to be honest with you,

I haven't been able to figure it out. So that's one of the reasons why you're on here is to help us all, right? Cause I think we're all closet creatives. so like I I really appreciate you coming on and sharing what you've learned.

Megan Collier (: 03:45

Yeah, for sure.

Megan Collier (: 03:56

Of course, yeah, I love it. And I think that, I think what's happening right now is, and there's been dozens of articles written about this, is that several reasons why people, think, are wanting to do something more creative in these two generations, right? GenXers and also Boomers, right? But people want to make extra money, they want something creative, they want to have fun with it. But they also just, I found that a lot of...

because I teach people obviously, I see so many times these people that are specifically learning from me, the ones that I keep up with, they're starting this new chapter in their life. Like you, when you maybe left corporate, it's like this whole new era, this whole new exciting venture. And I found that a lot of people also, even if they don't need extra money, but they're in these demographic, is like they really are lifelong learners.

and they're like, this, my gosh, I had no idea that content creation could even be an option for me, but I'm excited about it, I'm willing to learn, and I found those people are often the most successful. So it's been really, really cool to see.

Brett Trainor (: 05:02

That's awesome. I always consider myself a closet creative. I'd love to be a singer songwriter, but not sure I can actually sing. Maybe we'll conquer that after I'm done with this, the TikTok and podcasting thing. So maybe let's just start the basics and what is it, how does it work? What are brands looking for? And again, like I said, I've been around it, so I think I understand, but I don't.

Megan Collier (: 05:11

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 05:29

Yeah, for sure. Happy to break it down. So again, like UGC user generated content. So really what you're doing is you're as a UGC creator, you're providing that service of making the content. So I think a lot of people, again, obviously people who are not in like in the marketing world, don't really truly understand just how much content is needed for all these businesses, whether it's e-commerce or it is, you know, app.

or even a service base like financial institution, all of these businesses who are trying to stay active on social media, just how much content is needed to stay active, to stay relevant, and just how much content there even if they're running ads, so many pieces of content that they're putting out there, testing, spending a ton of money on. And so you as a UGC creator, you're helping fulfill that demand.

And to kind of give you this idea of how it typically works is like say that you're like, my gosh, this is amazing. Yes, I want to do UGC. One of the couple first things you want to do, number one, I always recommend especially for visual learners is just to view some UGC example videos. You can do this so many ways, but I found if you are on TikTok, literally just type in the words UGC example video and there's going to be so many that pop up. That helped me like.

three years ago when I was starting out, because I'm such a visual person, I wanted to see the kind of content I would be creating. And so that helped out. I always recommend doing that. And then if you're like, yeah, I could totally do this. Starting to create a portfolio is really important just to have one central place for these brands that you could potentially work with and create UGC for, just to have them land one place.

land in one place where they can get to know you better and like what your age is, your generation, and then see some of your work. And usually like people hear that and they get freaked out about that. my gosh, I gotta build a website or like, hey, I've literally never filmed a video before. That's honestly most people. So what I always recommend, honestly what I did, cause I really didn't even have any content that I could put in a portfolio.

Brett Trainor (: 07:34

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 07:46

when I started in 2022. So what I did, I always recommend people do is literally just walk around your home, choose products that you already have, whether it's the collagen powder you put in your smoothie every single morning, or it's a skincare that you use at night, whatever it is, choose some products that you like, that you use pretty consistently and that you could make some video examples about, and have about four or five of those, put them in a portfolio.

You can make a simple one on Canva. That's what I did. That's what I teach is go to Canva.com. Even if you've never used it before, it's very user friendly. Create a portfolio on there. You can literally build a website on Canva and just make it simple knowing that it will evolve over time. So I try to remind people, especially like I found the whole mindset piece of it. So many people who do start UGC at this stage of their life, they're very intimidated by the whole tech thing.

Not everybody, but a lot of people are. And so just keeping it simple, knowing that you can always change things in the future, swap out videos as you get better. It's really important to remember that. So that's really the first couple of steps. And then obviously the next step is connecting with these potential brands that you could do UGC for.

Brett Trainor (: 09:03

That's so good. And I think so it's kind of the chicken or the egg story ID to create the Content and then reach out to the brands and well, let's even take a step back to someone I first heard this I'm thinking well I have to create a commercial for them. That's really not what they're looking for What's and I'm sure every brand is a little bit different but maybe give us an idea of what how long are these videos and what are you talking about? Is it just your endorsement of it or?

Megan Collier (: 09:26

Mm-hmm.

Brett Trainor (: 09:31

I don't want to put words in your mouth. What's the best way to describe these videos?

Megan Collier (: 09:34

Yeah, I mean, think, so one thing to remember is that every single person listening to this has probably seen thousands of UGC videos and UGC creators, but you just don't know, right? You like think they're influencers or something like that. while you're scrolling, like even after, you know, somebody listens to this or whatever, you know, later today, while you're scrolling on Facebook or Instagram, those two are the best places for this. But, you know, when you see, which you will probably within a matter of what, 30 seconds, an ad,

Brett Trainor (: 09:45

How interesting.

Megan Collier (: 10:03

with some random person in it talking about a product, what they like about it, how they use it, how they incorporate it into their daily life. It's usually what the ads are looking like. Those are almost always UGC creators. So once you understand what UGC is, the style of videos, you're going to start just seeing them everywhere. And so that's one way to kind of understand what brands are doing right now, what's working. And then also it's just a great, great idea to pay attention to these ads because then you're like,

okay, I literally just bought something off Instagram because of this one ad that I saw, somebody talking about this. So you can be like, okay, great. Maybe if I do decide to pursue UGC, I'll kind of do it in this same kind of style. But that's, like you said, every brand's gonna be different, but usually when I work with a brand, like for example, I just landed a UGC deal with a pet brand that's actually an app, kind of like a rover.com, but it's different. So they are gonna hire me for two UGC videos.

So what I'll do is kind of walk through how the app works. So I'll screen record it on my phone. I'm gonna do like a green screen, which is really simple in apps like CapCut, and just kind of explain how it works, who it's best for, and why somebody should join this app. So that's usually the kind of things. Like my mom and I have done UGC deals together. So we did recently a UGC deal for a supplement company that we had both been taking their supplements for.

four or five years, and they just wanted us to kind of explain what the supplements have done for both of us. And so walking through what they do, the benefits, and showing just us together, talking and using it and taking the supplements, it's kind of, they're honestly quite simple. But every brand, I like to tell a lot of people this who are intimidated, like, oh my gosh, I'm not creative, I don't have any ideas.

Most brands that you work with are gonna give you some type of creative brief, if not an entire script. So it's not like you're working with these brands and you're like, my gosh, I'm drawing a blank. These brands who are hiring you and paying you good chunk of money, they want you to be on the same page as them. They don't wanna waste your time, their time. They want you to be super crystal clear about the content you're gonna be creating for them. So they'll send you a creative brief, like a script, maybe video examples so you have a visual of like,

Brett Trainor (: 12:02

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 12:26

okay, I could just replicate this video. So it's always, it's a really, really good thing to remember that you're not just going in dark to all these UGC deals that you like.

Brett Trainor (: 12:36

Yeah, that's so helpful. Yeah, because part of it is, you where do you start, I think. And are you seeing this with big brands, small brands? Is it kind of universal now?

Megan Collier (: 12:45

It's kind of across the board and what's actually working really well is that brands are seeing that more relatable content. you know, what used to happen, which you know, is like these brands used to have to hire these massive production crews, these commercial crews to come in and create a whole even five minute or two minute video that is like a commercial. Those are actually not performing as well as paying somebody maybe like a few hundred dollars, 500 bucks.

to just film on their iPhone in their home, talking about a product. That is outperforming these crazy, highly produced things, commercials that they used to have to do and pay tens of thousands of dollars for. Which for people, everyday ordinary people wanting to get into content creation, that's like a sigh of relief because you can be yourself. Sometimes you'll follow a script and everything, that's fine. But just who you are.

Brett Trainor (: 13:20

Yeah.

interesting.

Megan Collier (: 13:42

and what stage of life you're in, what your past experiences have been, can actually highly, highly benefit you in this UGC space.

Brett Trainor (: 13:51

Yeah, I think you're right. Cause I think at least me as a consumer, I'd rather see people like me talking about it, right? Not the paid actors or, you know, the company spokesman that that's talking about it. So I think it makes perfect sense. And so if you're getting started, is it, do you just reach out to the brands and their marketing department? Do you film, right? Is this one of these deals? Let me give you an example. So I don't have it on now, but like Travis Matthew, I love their, their shirts and

Megan Collier (: 14:02

Exactly.

Brett Trainor (: 14:19

probably over a million. know over a million people on TikTok have seen me wearing their clothes, right? But I went through a channel and to see if they were taking a partners and I never really heard back. what's what I'd be better off making them just a video sending it to them or am I giving away the farm? You know, I'm saying maybe this is getting a little more tactical, but if there's other people out there like me were sitting on the fence, how do we get started? And instead of doing nothing, anything, we don't do anything.

Megan Collier (: 14:40

Yeah. No.

Megan Collier (: 14:47

for sure.

Brett Trainor (: 14:49

Right, we sit on the fence.

Megan Collier (: 14:50

For sure, absolutely. So one thing I will say is that because UGC is so big now, most companies to some extent are hiring and working with UGC creators, because of that, there has been this increase in the amount of apps, platforms, agencies that were created to connect brands with these UGC creators. you

Brett Trainor (: 15:08

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 15:14

Like looking back on my UGC journey in 2022 when I got started, all I knew and like UGC was very much just like kind of up and coming, like not that many people are doing it. So what I only knew of just like emailing companies, Like cold pitching them, emailing them, maybe sending an Instagram DM. So that's what I did and that's what I still do. I can give you some tips and other places to do this, but.

Brett Trainor (: 15:31

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 15:39

You know, for me, what's worked the very, best for me is pitching directly to companies. Now, sometimes you can find the best person to contact, whether that's, you know, their creative director or partnerships manager. Sometimes that's like stated on their website, but oftentimes it's not. So one of two ways you can kind of go around that is number one, if you can't not find the email.

of any marketing person at the company, you can just use their generic email, info at company.com or whatever. And it usually gets forwarded to the right person. But what I have actually done is you can either also pay for something like hunter.io or you can get access to this, but it's a little bit expensive. what I have found that works is going to the company's Instagram account and making sure you're following them and then sending them an Instagram DM.

and just saying, hey, I'm a UGC creator. either, you know, say whatever your experience is with the company. I've been seeing your ads. I really think I could use this product. Would love to be connected with the person in charge of handling UGC partnerships. So you like ask a very basic question because most of the times these people that are running these Instagram accounts, especially for medium to large size businesses, they're just customer service people, right? Like wanting to answer a quick question. So usually they will point you to the right person.

If not, then again, revert back to that info at company.com email. So that's one way is cold pitching via email DM that seems pretty basic that most people can understand. And then there is also platforms, apps. So platforms like breakfast.io, which is B-R-K-F-S-T.io. There's Koli, Vidzy.

join brands, there's other apps out there that you can download and literally just create profiles, upload maybe a couple example videos and connect with brands that are actively looking for UGC creators, which a lot of people I have found that when they first get started with UGC, it's kind of preferred or they like to get on those platforms just because you're not just sending out a bunch of emails and DMs and like hoping and praying these people are actually looking for you at the right time.

Megan Collier (: 17:57

getting on these platforms and apps and even reaching out to agencies can be a really good way to get some UGC deals under your belt. But beyond those, I actually, one of the ways that I've landed some of my favorite clients, the brands I really, really wanted to work with, you have to stand out. There's a ton of UGC creators, even though it's in high demand, you still have to stand out. They might be getting a dozen emails a day from UGC creators, right? So what I have found that really works

is sending a personalized video pitch. And I use a software called Loom, L-O-O-M. It's just an extension, a Chrome extension. It's really easy. It'll screen record your computer or even phone if you're doing it on your phone. But I just introduced myself and just make that personal connection with these brands. And they're like, oh my gosh. Nobody else is doing this, right? So yeah, it's just getting attention. It's all a numbers game. As you know, it's like,

Brett Trainor (: 18:33

Yeah, okay.

Brett Trainor (: 18:50

It's so good. Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 18:55

It's the same in almost any industry. It's a numbers game. You got to make those connections and kind of stand out.

Brett Trainor (: 19:01

Interest so good. And I'm guessing the brands, you know, because part of it will default back. Well, if I'm on Instagram, I've only got 20 followers, but you're saying followers don't matter, right? They're looking, what are they looking for? If they're outreach? How do I as a Gen X and the boomers, how do we put our best foot for what, what are they kind of looking for? For these content, right? So

Megan Collier (: 19:24

Yeah, yeah, so that's where the portfolio really comes into play. if you like, you know, a lot of my students who are, you know, making thousands of dollars a month, they still only have like 100 or 300, maybe a thousand followers on social media. So what the way that they stand out and like let the brand know who they are and what they can do for them is really, you know, obviously in that communication, maybe give some UGC like ideas that they had.

Brett Trainor (: 19:27

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 19:49

which works really well because that just lets the brand know, oh my gosh, like this person has, they're not just sending out a billion pitches to people, they're like thinking of our brand and how they can add value to us. But, you know, getting that portfolio and like, you know, stating a little bit about you, having some pictures of you, maybe you and your family, and then focusing on those video examples of other products, whether you were paid for them, whether you just did them randomly at your home, that's really what they want to see.

Brett Trainor (: 20:17

It's interesting. It's so good too. I love the idea of the back to the video, right? Introduction and you know, cause I think too, part of what my hesitation was, right. Cause it, do I have to pitch on my social media channels? But most of the time UGC is not, I don't have to post it on my channels. It's for them to use their, my video on their channels, right?

Megan Collier (: 20:38

Correct, yes. So typically nine times out of 10, you are not required by the brand to post on your own social media channels. Again, that's why followers don't matter, because they're not like relying you like they would be an influencer where it's like, oh, this person has a million followers. We're gonna really utilize and take advantage of their followers, their engagement rate. This is different. This is just getting that content in their hands so they can take it and maybe post it as,

Brett Trainor (: 20:52

gotcha. Okay.

Megan Collier (: 21:07

an Instagram reel on the brand's Instagram account or a YouTube shorts or a TikTok video or run his ads. So that's one of the really great things. Like every now and then, yes, they'll maybe want you to do that. You can decide yes or no. There's also, you know, posting your video examples, though it's not required typically when you work with brands. I have found it to also be really helpful for getting brands attention. So, you know, going on your Instagram account or TikTok or wherever you're active, if you're willing to post your

examples, the videos you've done, brands could potentially find that and it'll just increase the chances of you getting some more inbounds as opposed to just always reaching out to the brands yourself, if that makes sense.

Brett Trainor (: 21:48

Yeah, that's probably the goal, right? Is to have them start reaching out to you and because again, some of the ones I get, I've never even heard of them, right? But they'll send you product. have a couple, have had a couple of folks send me product to test it and then ask to create. So, all right, so I know this is going to be a broad question, but from, are they going to tell you what they're going to pay for videos or do you have to have a rate going in and you know, what?

What are we looking at? $10 a video, $50, $500? And I know that's super broad, but maybe just an overview of what to expect as we head into that.

Megan Collier (: 22:20

Yeah. Yep. Totally. I always recommend starting if you're like brand new to UGC, I recommend having kind of a baseline of about $150 to $200 per UGC video and then offering bundles as well, bundles, packages, whatever you want to call it. if, you know, it's always, I always tell people this, like it's actually much easier and better and more profitable to make.

Brett Trainor (: 22:34

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 22:47

five videos for just one single brand as opposed to, you know, five separate videos for five separate brands, right? Or one video for five separate brands. So it's just easier. The long-term, it's gonna be easier. You're gonna make more money. So having it like a no-brainer for the brand. So if a brand comes to you and says, hey, we want one UGC video, you could say, great, like I charged $200 for this one video. But if you'd like to test more content and you want more content to post or test or run as ads,

Brett Trainor (: 22:55

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 23:17

I can do three videos for $500. So they're getting a discount, but it's also like, you just landed a $500 deal as opposed to just having $200 in your pocket. So that's kind of the baseline. Obviously, as you get better, you'll increase your rates, you get more UGC clients, you are learning what makes good content for these companies, you're gonna increase your rates and every brand is gonna be different. Like some brands I have said,

ho I say, yeah, it's gonna be: 1200

Brett Trainor (: 23:51

Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 24:12

Yeah, that's good. And again, as I tell people, even when you're starting as an escapee, right? Be opportunistic, right? You may undercharge for the first one, but you're going to gain the experience and you can start to stack and build off that. So it makes sense. What about, from the contract, anything in the contracts or that you should be paying attention to, or something that would be a deal breaker, I'm guessing again, cross the board. Is there any red flags, right? That come out in these things that you should be worried about?

Megan Collier (: 24:23

Mm-hmm.

Megan Collier (: 24:40

Yeah, yeah. mean, AI is a big one right now. So just make sure that you're not signing over your likeness for these brands. That's something that you need to be aware of now in 2025 and beyond is, you know, some that I've had, oh my gosh, I've had some friends who did not know, or maybe they were like, oh my gosh, this is $1,000. I can just, I could get paid a thousand bucks for this short video, but they're signing over their likeness. So the brand has actually like made

Brett Trainor (: 24:48

interesting. OK.

Megan Collier (: 25:08

AI avatars out of them making new ads and they don't get paid for that, right? So that's something just to be super aware of the verbiage will be like laid out in a contract typically. And most of the time, I know some people may be wondering this, most of the time the brand itself, they have contracts. Every now and then a brand who's like maybe newer to UGC working with UGC creators asks me to send them my contract.

Brett Trainor (: 25:12

Yeah... huh.

Megan Collier (: 25:33

And I have one from an actual lawyer that I've purchased. It's like a template. kind of adjust it as I need. usually brands have contracts that they'll send you. What I have found helpful, if anybody is into using ChatGBT or some AI tool like it, is copying the entire contract, especially when you're brand new, you're starting to learn all this verbiage. Copying and pasting it into ChatGBT and saying, hey,

Brett Trainor (: 26:00

How interesting, yeah.

Megan Collier (: 26:01

Is there any red flags? Like, do you see any possible red flags in this company? And I have, actually my mom, who was doing UGC as well, she got a contract from a company and I was like, this seems a little weird. I plugged it into ChatGBT, told them this exact same thing and they were like, there's like bam, bam, bam, these different red flags. And I said, okay, great. Now redo the entire contract for me and then.

create a Google doc or whatever PDF so I can send it to the company. And my mom did this. And they were like, my gosh, thank you so much for doing this. We hadn't realized that this would be a better way to form our contract. So they're actually, I think they're actually using that contract now. So.

Brett Trainor (: 26:36

How interesting.

Megan Collier (: 26:45

that's, know, if you're afraid of using AI or maybe haven't done it yet, maybe that's a good introduction. Just copy paste it, it, ask it to point out some red flags, but usually it's like the AI thing. usage rights are, are, are something that most, you know, everyone should know if you're doing UGC. So what usage rights are, say that a brand comes to me and they want to pay me for a few UGC videos that they plan to run as ads on social media.

whether it's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, whatever, they're gonna use it as paid media. That comes into play the usage rights thing. So I can charge more for that as opposed to if they're hiring me and they're just gonna take that video and use it for organic content, posting as Instagram reels or Facebook posts or whatever. If it's paid media, you can and should charge for that. However, there's a couple things. One,

Brett Trainor (: 27:29

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 27:41

Some brands don't wanna deal with the legalities of that, right? So I could say, okay, cool, I'll charge $500 for a UGC video and then I'll charge an extra $150 if you wanna run it as an ad for 30 days. Some brands are like, okay, great, that's great. How about 90 days? Let's go up to 90 days and then I'll charge more for that. But some brands, again, don't want to deal with the back and forth or the, know, just like...

my gosh, what if we go over those 90 days and then you could potentially get us in trouble? with that, a lot of brands want to own your content outright. So like in perpetuity for that, you can either say, no, like I'm not doing that. Or you could just charge a lot more money and see what they say. So you kind of have to navigate that. Every brand is going to be different, but just that open communication with them. Like, what are you using this for?

Okay, this is what I charge. Does that align with your budget? Yes, no, and then go kind of go from there.

Brett Trainor (: 28:39

Interesting. Yeah, I could see where this could get complicated in a hurry, but I'm like, I'm a big believer. Keep it simple. And by the way, I love the fact that you're doing this with your mom. think that that's so cool. I mean, and again, it's the new world that we live in. can, you can do things differently. Um, so along those lines, I know you, you have a bunch of students, so maybe give us what, what are your better students doing? I don't want to throw the poor ones under the bus, but you know, what are, what are some of the common characteristics that you see of the successful folks?

Megan Collier (: 28:45

yeah.

Megan Collier (: 28:49

It's been fun.

Brett Trainor (: 29:08

you know, that you were.

Megan Collier (: 29:10

For sure. I have found most people, like I said before, it's the people that are excited to learn. Maybe they're a little bit nervous, maybe they're like, gosh, can I really do this? But they're excited. They give themselves some grace, knowing that their first couple videos may be a little bit rough. I always like to give the example, my mom has done UGC deals with me, but she's also doing UGC herself. So she's 64.

been a nurse for over 40 years, raised five kids, has 16 grandkids. Like she's, she's busy and she's not like 0 % experience in this, right? So it's just, it was super cool for her to like go through my course and learn. But like her first video having zero experience, her first video was a little bit rough and I was like, okay, there's some, there's for sure some things we could, we could tweak on here. But then she kept doing it that same day. And a few hours later, she sent me her first ever UG for her second UGC video she ever

And it was like night and day difference. Like she was just messing around in CapCut, just having fun, like using product. I think it was like a supplement product or something. And she was able to figure it out. So that's always what I like to tell people. And that's what I've seen in some of my most successful students. Like the ones that are knowingly a little bit nervous and know that they don't have experience in content creation or anything to do with social media, but they're excited and they're willing to just kind of be a little bit messy in the beginning and giving themselves some grace.

Brett Trainor (: 30:12

lesson.

Megan Collier (: 30:38

are the ones that exceed and also get UGC deals a lot faster, because they're willing to kind of be bad at the beginning. So I think it's really important to remember.

Brett Trainor (: 30:49

So it sounds like done is better than perfect, right? In this situation, right? Just get going and then you can start to figure it out. Now this is awesome. Like I I feel a hundred percent better and more confident than I did before our conversation. So it's definitely, it's going to be on my radar because I'm recording content every day for TikTok anyway. So it's not like this is a stretch. It would be a stretch for me to do. So now no more excuses. So, all right. So with the folks, I know you do coaching. So

Megan Collier (: 30:51

Yeah, yeah.

Megan Collier (: 31:00

Good.

Megan Collier (: 31:11

Yep.

Brett Trainor (: 31:14

share with our audience. How do you work with folks? What's the best way for people to connect with you? And we'll go from there.

Megan Collier (: 31:23

For sure. Yeah, I'm mainly on TikTok and Instagram at megan underscore ugc. I try to go live on TikTok a lot and just answer questions. Because again, most people that are finding me are new to this space. So I like to answer a of questions and just give that support. Beyond that, if people do want to learn from me personally, the best way to do that is inside my ultimate ugc course.

That's where I've taught over, yeah, 9,800 people, most of them being Gen Xers and Boomers. Yeah, that's the best way. And I think that, you know, a lot of people, again, like this is a new thing for so many people. And I always like to give kind of some context too, because so many people are like, are you sure though? Are you sure that the Gen X, like they want Gen Xers, they want Baby Boomers?

And I always like to tell the story of, know, it's kind of random. Like I'm 34. I'm not in these two generations. It's kind of random that I'm teaching these people. my mom is really the inspiration for this. I was actually on a call with a brand last year, like a year and a half ago. And I really, I was like trying to convince them to hire me to do some UGC for them. They'd never worked with any UGC creators. And it was going really well. They were going to hire me for three UGC videos. And then I had mentioned toward the end of the call that my mom

who's in her 60s, loves their products. It was for a footwear company. I'm like, she only wears your shoes. Like she's obsessed with them. And they were like, my gosh. they kind of like lit up a little bit. And they're like, that would be so cool if your mom could be in one of the UGC videos that you do for us. Cause your mom is actually more part of our target demographic. And I was like, my mom would totally, my mom loves me. She's totally doing me. It would be fun. And so she did it. And I was like that, I hadn't really thought about it, but they really, like those are who they.

sell most of their shoes to, it more people my mom's age. And I was like, gosh, that makes sense. So we did the video, they loved it. So they've hired us again for another one. But I got to thinking after that, I'm like, okay, this is a fairly large footwear company. They cannot be the only one with these target, this target demographic. And then I went on TikTok and I'm like, I don't know anybody. Like I was very connected in the UGC community. I have tons of friends doing UGC, nobody around my mom's age or even like in their 50s or like

Brett Trainor (: 33:42

interesting.

Megan Collier (: 33:44

few people in their 40s were doing UGC that I knew of. And so started talking about it about a year and a half ago. And since then, I've had dozens and dozens of brands themselves reach out to me directly thanking me for educating people in these two demographics, because that is their target demographic as well. So it's been really, really cool to see brands just basically confirm that. And then I think it's helpful for people to

Realize you know most people just have never heard of you GC before like maybe people listening to this is their first time hearing this And so knowing that brands actually want to work with them and that they're not just focused on the 20 somethings or just 30 something year olds They want people with life experience You know like I always say I like to give this example You know if you're 55 and you're scrolling on Facebook and all the ads you see are like 20 something year olds talking about apps or Skincare that you maybe should get you're gonna be like what?

Brett Trainor (: 34:28

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 34:40

I don't relate to this person at all. So it makes sense for brands wanting to work with people of all ages, but especially 40s, 50s, 60s, even people under their 70s to relate better to this demographic. And Gen Xers are the wealthiest generation according to the stats. So it's all like green lights for people who are hesitant, but yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 35:01

Yeah, no. So if you weren't sold on this as an opportunity, I mean, you should be the audience. I'm like, you guys are crazy. If you don't at least test it, right? mean, if you're thinking about it. Yeah, and two. do you do again, this is more, do you do any advising? Right? Because I'm thinking, right, as I'm going through this process, right, all of a sudden, I start to get some brands, I would like to hire you to say, Hey, so it's not really coaching, but it's more the technical side of it where

Right, I mean, I don't know if you do any of that type of work and maybe we can talk about that offline, but.

Megan Collier (: 35:33

Yeah, obviously I teach everything in my course, but then I also have a Facebook group. So there's about 5,800 people inside the Facebook group. that's where, all day long, I was just in there right before hopping on this call with you, people are posting screenshots of emails from different brands they're getting. They're saying, hey, this brand wants 10 videos and two pictures. What should I charge or how should I respond to this?

Brett Trainor (: 35:38

Okay.

Megan Collier (: 35:57

Hey, here's my portfolio. Again, I'm brand new to this. Can somebody give me some feedback? And a lot of people, it's been such an amazing community of people just coming together and offering advice. I spend like 30 minutes a day in there answering questions, looking at people's portfolios. And yeah, that's kind of how I offer some support along the way. then people actually have gotten together, become really good friends inside the Facebook group and they had an event in Florida a couple of weeks ago.

Brett Trainor (: 36:24

How awesome.

Megan Collier (: 36:25

Yeah, so it's really collaborative and very, very just encouraging to be part of a community that is, you know, people on the same journey and some people are more experienced, they offer their advice, some people are just starting and it's just a great mix of people. But yeah, it'd be on that, you know, going live on TikTok and answering questions as much as I can. I have two little boys at home so I don't do any one-on-ones, but you know, maybe in the future. Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 36:45

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. No, I like the one to many. I'm with you, but I could see my wheels were spinning that, yeah, man, having somebody, you know, riding shotgun. And just out of curiosity, I know it's a little bit side. I've only done one TikTok live. You obviously find them valuable. So I need to, I really need to do that, don't I?

Megan Collier (: 36:53

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 37:06

It's so, I don't know, oh my gosh, Brett, I don't know if you have experienced this, but there's actually like a ton of fake accounts. I don't know if you have your own impersonators. It's so frustrating. think for anybody who's active on TikTok, you guys have maybe experienced like getting like inundated with these crazy messages from people that claim to be somebody else. I have found like TikTok lives are great for so many reasons, but just alone, that reason alone, like just connecting.

Brett Trainor (: 37:14

Yes, I've got. I do. Yeah.

Brett Trainor (: 37:34

Interesting, okay.

Megan Collier (: 37:36

with my followers, with people who just randomly hop on my lives. It's so helpful. And I think especially in this day and age, it's like, you know, could post a million videos, but people don't really know me beyond the videos I'm posting. So making that personal connection, even if it's just me yapping for two hours on a TikTok live to myself essentially, is really, really helpful. And just offering that personal support to so many people, like I said, it's a scary thing. It's scary to get on camera for so many people.

and scary to go into a new venture and learn a new skill. having, I try to like do some pep talks on TikTok lives and like help people, know, work through their, work through some mindset shifts. So it's been great for me. I love doing TikTok lives. I hope you do some more of them, cause I think you'll love it.

Brett Trainor (: 38:21

All right. I'm sold on that one too. Yeah. Cause I've talked about it. And again, part of it, I get myself and I don't mind. I'm like, I'm doing this, you know, weekly having, so it's just the first time I did it, trying to navigate the questions popping up on the scroll. And then then you're talking, you almost need a sidekick to that's reading the questions to help you do it. So I'm sure it's just a comfort getting through the, do you plan them in advance or you just say, know what, I'm going to go live now and pop on and go.

Megan Collier (: 38:40

yeah. Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 38:51

I literally just do it whenever I can, whenever I'm at my office, because I have an office outside of my home, because we have a toddler and a 10-month-old, so it's a little tricky. But yeah, I just literally go live randomly. I have found, for me, my work schedule and then just based on who sees me on the live, going live around 1 to 2 PM-ish PST for me.

Brett Trainor (: 38:52

awesome. Okay.

Brett Trainor (: 38:59

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 39:18

has been good and people are maybe off work if they're in different time zones or they can sneak away from work. So yeah, it's been cool.

Brett Trainor (: 39:23

Yeah.

Awesome. All right. And I will make sure we put all the links so people can find you in the show notes. But if people are listening, I'm sure they've already Googled you or put you into chat GPT and are pulling this up. So, so Megan, thank you so much for, for joining us. And, yeah, I think this is again, we're living in a new world and Gen Xers man, there's, there's more than corporate that's out there. So, so take advantage of it or test it. If you don't like it, you know, no harm, no foul, but

And again, I think probably the last thing I'll end on is it may seem like it's saturated because you work with lots of people in large faith. Nobody's doing this, right? So there's opportunity for everybody out there, right?

Megan Collier (: 40:06

100%. And it's again, going back to what makes you you, have just real quick, I'll just say like one of my students who I just interviewed just a few days ago, she's in the health and wellness. So she does like acupuncture and like functional medicine. She's 52. Her first two months of UGC, she made over $11,000 like in like 63 days or something. So she kind of used her experience. So she's working with different health and wellness products.

So that's something like whatever you've done in corporate or whatever your profession has been, capitalize on that and use that in your pitches. Like, hey, like my mom has been a nurse, right? She's still doing nursing and she got hired by a footwear company that was releasing a healthcare specific shoe, just made for healthcare workers. So she got that UGC deal because of her professional experience. So anybody who's like listening to this and you've done, like whatever you've done the past however many years in corporate, whatever your profession has been.

Brett Trainor (: 40:34

Yeah.

Megan Collier (: 41:03

Think about it and capitalize off of that and go after brands, maybe especially in the beginning, that are kind of aligned with that same thing.

Brett Trainor (: 41:11

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So much gold in this one, Megan. I appreciate it. And I don't know if you can feel a little bit honored because I haven't had very many non-GenXers on here. Cause even though like use cases and folks that have been out for a while typically fit that. but I thought this was, it was an interest. It's such an interesting topic that, let's, let's expand. So, uh, no, I appreciate you coming on.

Megan Collier (: 41:26

I feel very honored. Thank you, Brad. This has been awesome.

Megan Collier (: 41:33

For sure.

Brett Trainor (: 41:35

And maybe I'll check back in with you here. If there's more developments or you see new things, you're always welcome to come back on. like I said, we'll share all your contact info in the show notes and yeah, continue to success. Thanks for sharing with us.

Megan Collier (: 41:43

I appreciate that.

Megan Collier (: 41:50

Thanks for having me, Brad. It's been really fun.