FLEX MAMI - FLEX FACTORY
ON PUTTING HER WELLBEING FIRST, AND CONTENT CREATION SECOND
In this episode we’re chatting to Lil Ahenkan, also known as Flex Mami. She’s a DJ, influencer, media personality, author and the founder of online game store Flex Factory.
Flex Factory sells thought provoking conversation cards designed to facilitate tough conversations, and to get players thinking deeply about topics like life, death, purpose, career politics, religion and love.
Lil has built a cult social media following by being unapologetically herself. Her personality is big, bright and bold, and she’s attracted partnerships with epic brands like Spotify, Hey Tiger and Fluff….and she’s also been dubbed young Australian entrepreneur of the year by none other than Instagram.
Flex is the queen when it comes to starting conversations with her audience, and in this chat she let us in on all her secrets to build vibrant, engaged communities online.
We covered everything from building an ecommerce platform, to how she goes about creating new products, to the toll that it takes putting herself out there online for the world to see...and criticise.
You’ll learn:
Why Flex decided to create an online store, and how every decision during the product development process has been informed by her community
Why she’s motivated by cash money
Her top tips for creating a two way dialogue with your audience online
Why she’s changed her content strategy to ‘me first, content second’
How she manages relentless content curation in a way that avoids burnout
How she uses data to drive her decision making for the online store
We hope you enjoyed this conversation – for more podcast action follow us on Instagram @lady.brains, or sign up to our monthly newsletter at www.ladybrains.com
THE BITS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS
“I get a lot of feedback that I’m really good at having conversations. My audience would always ask me, how can I replicate the chats you have in my own space? So I started writing questions in my iPhone notes. If someone would DM me, I’d send them some questions, no biggie.At first it was 10 people, 20 people, 100 people. And then it was like incessant.”
“It comes from living in an environment where money was always spoken about. Mum would often say to me...if you want to do things, you have to have cash. Because of what she taught me, I recognised the value money could bring me from early on. The only reason I want to maintain this influencer job title is because it literally pays me to be myself.”
“Managing content is tricky. My strategy has always been to give 110%, 110%, 110%...then burnout. So my strategy these days is me first content second, as opposed to content first, me second. An example of content first me second, is to sit there for five hours perfecting a 3 second GIF. Now, I create content around what I’m actually doing during the day. That’s really easy for me to do. It’s me first, content second. I didn’t figure this out until 5 years in. Before, I thought my audience expected fresh, fun, funky, cool. But in reality, your audience expects what you give them. So if you change what you give them, then you create a new expectation. And so that’s what I have been learning to do.”
“Audiences have such a short attention span. They’re not holding on to what’s been done, they’re looking to be excited or moved by what is to come.”
“The cost somebody pays for something is indicative of how much they want it, not how much it’s worth.”
Learn more:
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Listen via Spotify
Discover Flex Mami
Discover Flex Factory
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