The #1 question we get asked these days at WHEELIE is what brands need to be doing on TikTok. So we sat down with our clients/friends/TikTok stars, Megan Kennedy (Chief Adventure Officer) and Tyler Tennant (Director of Operations) of Good Trip Adventures to talk all things TikTok!
Megan and Tyler discuss balancing authenticity with the chaos of TikTok, what makes this platform different than other social media platforms, ending up on the wrong side of TikTok, and how the app led to a new product offering for Good Trip. Learn from their strategy, laugh at their jokes!
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Episode Transcript
Megan: So, one thing that we've started doing since we've been posting these TikToks and like I posted a couple again, like I said, information about Yellowstone. So like, these are the five entrances of Yellowstone. These are the campsites in Yellowstone. These are just like five things to know, or five hikes or whatever. And I get so many questions of people who are planning trips and don't really know where to start. So we actually started selling itinerary consultations because of all these questions on TikTok.
[intro music]
Welcome, creative outdoor folks, to the Outside By Design podcast. This show is brought to you by WHEELIE, a women-led creative studio & production company for brands that care about craft, connection, & change.
My name is Iris, and I have the pleasure of introducing our guests this week to you. The #1 question we get asked these days at WHEELIE is what brands need to be doing on TikTok. So we sat down with our clients/friends/TikTok stars, Megan and Tyler of Good Trip Adventures to talk strategy, balancing authenticity and the chaos of TikTok, ending up on the wrong side of TikTok, and how the app led to a new product offering for Good Trip.
I promise this one will make you laugh, so let’s get right into it.
[music]
Megan: I'm Megan with Good Trip Adventures here in Bozeman.
Tyler: And I'm Tyler with Good Trip Adventures as well, also in Bozeman.
Lisa: And you both own Good Trip Adventures.
Megan: We do. I think my official title is Chief Adventure Officer.
Tyler: And I'm something boring, like Chief Operations Officer or something like that.
Megan: We should come up with something more exciting, honestly.
Lisa: That's so boring compared to how you are in real life. [laughs]
Tyler: Oh yeah, absolutely. It's like, we have to be more businessy to the front-facing public than we ever are in our real lives.
Megan: Only barely though.
Lisa: [laughs] So the first question we ask everyone who's on the podcast is to describe where you are and what you're looking at.
Tyler: So… [laughs]
Megan: We're in Tyler's bedroom right now, which used to be a garage in a new house that we just bought in Belgrade, Montana. I am seeing a lot of pictures of… I'm seeing a lot of queer art. You could say. Probably a little too X-rated for this podcast. [laughs]
Tyler: Yes. Uh, some graphic designs.
Megan: GRAPHIC designs.
Tyler: And then I'm seeing all of my plants, all of them all like 40 something of them. That I nurture and care for. Because if I lost them, I would lose a piece of my soul.
Megan: Like a horcrux.
Tyler: Truly. If I lose any of them, I'll probably cry. But, yeah.
Lisa: Cool.
Tyler: Sitting on the ground also, that's important.
Megan: Like true professionals.
Lisa: And your shirt, Tyler, says 1-800-OFF-DUTY.
Tyler: Yes, it does. With little prayer hands at the top.
Lisa: [laughs] Nice. Wow. Okay. I'm so excited to talk to you because we've worked with you. So I personally know how fun you are as humans and I love Good Trip Adventures. So really fast for our audience, do you want to just say what Good Trip does and kind of what you do and your mission?
Megan: Yeah, we lead inclusive and eco-conscious tours in about 20 something - I don't know the exact number anymore - US national parks.
So that can be everything from single day interpretive tours to hikes to backpacking and sort of everything in between, for people who are experienced outdoors people, first-timers, everyone.
Tyler: Yeah. I think it's 23 national parks with like two national forests, a couple ranger districts and a state park
Megan: sprinkled in.
Tyler: Yeah.
Lisa: Fun. And so I specifically asked you to be on the podcast today because all these brands contact us all the time at WHEELIE, and they're all asking the same thing, which is, “what do we do about TikTok?” And I thought, I know someone that knows.
Megan: Yeah, well, we're really lucky to have an in-house TikTok-lebrity in Tyler. He already had his own, like, so much success that TikTok banned him for life from his first account at… what was it, 212?
Tyler: 212.6 thousand followers.
Megan: Yeah. That was for things unrelated to a Good Trip, but we definitely were able to use that to kind of see what kind of stuff resonated with people. And… yeah, frankly, we're just kind of trying things out and seeing what works right now on TikTok.
Tyler: Yep.
Lisa: I'd like to hear about why your account got banned, in your opinion.
Tyler: Sure. In my humble opinion, I was too powerful for TikTok. I was too queer and too fun for the app.
Megan: Yeah.
Tyler: And I got a lot of community guideline violations. So I know the community guidelines like the back of my hand, the do's and do nots of TikTok.
Lisa: It didn't really seem that offensive.
Tyler: Thank you. It wasn’t.
Megan: It’s not, no. There were times where he was like fully clothed in his room and they were like “nudity.” “Adult nudity.” Yeah.
Tyler: One time, yeah. I made a video of being like, “you're your best self when you're being you” or something like very generically motivational. And I, I think I was like, yeah, I was just lying in bed, like a human person would do. And…
Megan: It was pretty sexy stuff.
Tyler: … it got flagged. And they were like, “Nope, this is absolutely inappropriate.”
Megan: Too hot for TikTok.
Tyler: I was like, I guess TikTok knows better than I do what is hot and what is not.
Megan: So we've actually yet to get any community guidelines violations on our current TikTok, but we're certainly happy to talk about filtered comments. ‘Cause we got some experience with that.
Lisa: Yeah. I think my big question - that I kind of might know the answer to - is like, what's your strategy here? What's the strategy?
Tyler: The strategy is very simple, make a lot and post it. It almost- it does matter what you post, because obviously you all know this very well. And you taught us very well that, you know, the brand has to have a voice and it has to have like a personality of some sort and you should be consistent with that. But once you have that, just like… make an ASMR nature video that's seven seconds and throw it out there. Make a three minute informational video just using like B roll that you already have in your camera. Basically just like flood the algorithm with things and things will stick. Or they won't. [laughs] And we have a lot of stuff that doesn't stick. You know, we have stuff that you post something and it gets 400,000 views, and then you post something very similar to it and it gets 200 views.
And the big thing that we… our strategy kind of revolves around TikTok is… like, I'm trying to think of a good analogy, like a jealous step sibling who doesn't want you to have nice things. And so. That's not…
Megan: When you get too much, they take it away.
Tyler: Yeah, yeah yeah.
Megan: I can see that.
Tyler: Yeah. They let you have a little bit, but not a lot. So yeah. Our strategy is just like, lots.
Megan: Yeah. I think… I keep talking about like my elder millennial brain wants everything to be like super highly produced and I want there to be a script. I have trouble even, like, talking on a TikTok without having planned out exactly what I'm going to say. And you can definitely see the difference between my videos and like Tyler's videos, he's a lot more natural at this. But I've learned, I've like gotten away from that and learned that if I spend more than like 20 minutes making a TikTok, I'm probably wasting my time. Because people want it to feel more real, more natural, more, kind of spur of the moment, not overproduced. And yeah, it's like a 50-50 shot, whether anyone's going to see it in the first place anyway. So if I spend two or five hours making this perfect video, there's a chance that no one's going to see it anyway. Whereas like our Instagram and Facebook is a lot more curated. We're just kind of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks as far as TikTok.
And the other thing is we're all trying out different personalities. So our goal with our TikTok is to kind of feature as many voices as we can. So everyone in the office is making TikToks and we're all working on developing who we are as a personality on the app. Lauren is definitely more of like the mom on the app and she can talk about her expertise, which is being a mom on the trails. And, you know, Mallory's our wildlife expert slash… she's really into hauntings.
Tyler: Oh yeah.
Megan: And like, Yucca Man. She did the video on that. So she's really into like spooky national parks stuff. I've just been talking about Yellowstone and that seems to resonate with people. So I just say Yellowstone facts that seem really obvious to me, but that people don't seem to know and have a lot of questions about. So yeah.
Lisa: What I find really interesting is you are such an intentional brand and you're, you know, you're like, very inclusive and very like… the way that you guide trips is very intentional and very fun and very thoughtful. And TikTok just throws all that out the window.
Megan: Yeah.
Lisa: Because you just, you can't go into it scripted. You have to… I don't know. So like how do you, how do you balance those things?
Tyler: Yeah. I mean, I think that we're slowly finding a balance and we just have to start doing it to like, start doing it, obviously. So, you know, I think in some ways, you know, there was a few videos where maybe we went a little too far unscripted and it immediately felt inauthentic to who we are. So we scaled it back a little bit. You know, we took a step back, we looked at it. And so now, we have found like a happy medium between the, like you said, the very intentional, very like curated trips and just the chaos of TikTok. We've reeled it into our own special little, like, parameters that we are within. And again, that just took doing it. And it almost felt just, you know, you would look at a video or post a video and, and be like, “huh, that doesn't exactly feel like everything else that we're posting.” Until we kind of created an intentionality to them.
Megan: The funny thing for me is it actually feels a lot like running a trip, that you have this big plan. And if you make yourself enough of an expert, like, you don't know what wildlife is going to run out in front of you, you just have to have been prepared to talk about whatever it is. So I'm definitely an over planner. I will have a structure of like what I want the perfect day to look like in my head when I'm guiding and then like, 20 things will be different than what I expected. So like the chaos of TikTok, actually, like, in that I try to have a structure, we try to have a schedule and then things come up that you don't really expect. And if you're enough of an expert, you can kind of speak to those things at any time and in any way. So like, yeah, we get these random questions that we weren't even expecting to have on our calendar this week. But like, yeah, I can go ahead and answer that in a video and like that's our content for the day. Whereas that's not really happening in the same way on Instagram. People aren’t engaging the same way. It's like, you get a like, or you get like, a, “cool content,” but not questions and engagement in the same way. So I don't know. It's pretty cool in its sort of chaos.
Lisa: And how do you use your personal brand as a business owner? I guess this question is more for Tyler, right? Because you're… you have a special flavor of comedy, I think. Like, I love your TikTok account.
Tyler: Oh thank you.
Lisa: But how do you, like, how do you overlap that with being a business owner?
Tyler: We've actually talked about this before. We are more than happy to talk about anything I post on my personal TikTok with anybody that we would ever take on a trip. Basically, you know, I am like unapologetically who I am on my personal account. Now on the business account, that obviously looks different because of that, like, those parameters that we've kind of found ourselves within. I do have to be a little bit more like measured, a little bit more- a tiny bit more scripted. I've actually even had people on my personal account that are like, “oh my gosh, is this bear spray Tyler?”, coming from our bear spray video that I made for the company and finding my personal account. So it seems like….
Megan: Or vice versa, and people don't believe that Tyler can possibly have a day job. Like, and surprisingly, he's actually very good at it. [laughs]
Tyler: Yeah. And so it seems like we're actually… my account and the place where we want our brand account or like, excuse me, our business account to go are actually pretty similar. It's like, you know, like, queer, BIPOC, excited young people, and well, everyone, but that seems to be kind of like the range where we're in and that we would like to be, you know, ‘cause we want to get those sorts of people into the outdoors, you know, like historically marginalized populations and like people who just don't have access or haven't had access, that's like something that's really important to us. So it's interesting to see.
Megan: Well, we did get, we got one client who came out on 10 different trips with us from Tyler's account and he's amazing.
Tyler: Yeah.
Megan: Yeah. He, again, he continues to interact with us on social and has met a bunch of our guides because he just went on a bunch of day trips with them. So that was really great. And he was exactly the kind of person that we want to have on our trips. And it was definitely looking for expertise, but also fun, which is basically our brand in a nutshell. Everything can be a joke, even if you're taking it seriously, you know?
Tyler: Yep. And so, yeah, I think like my personal account and the business account don't really need to be separate entities. And also, like I can talk about both of them in the same space.
Lisa: So, do you, do you grow your business following from your personal account? Which is… your personal account right now, your rebuilt one, like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, is at like 70,000 or something. It’s still quite substantial. Are you sending people to your business account on accident or on purpose or…?
Tyler: They find their way there, I have it linked in my bio. And I have talked about it on my page. Actually it's interesting because people find me on Instagram more.
Lisa: Hmm.
Tyler: And through that find the business. Because I also post about like job openings and stuff. So people through TikTok will find my Instagram, follow me on Instagram, and then I've posted about like, “Hey, we're looking for guides.” And we actually got like three awesome guide applications because of TikTok ultimately. So.
Megan: I mean, that’s been interesting too, like the way to find people who kind of resonate with us, the clients who resonate with us, because frankly, the TikTok algorithm hasn't really figured this out yet. And especially with people talking about national parks and wildlife. I don't know if you saw Tyler's bear spray videos, but you know, we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of comments of people talking about how they were going to blow bear's heads off instead of using bear spray. And because those people were engaging, that's what TikTok thought that we wanted. So it's interesting, like, Tyler's account is almost a better way for us to find the clients that we want, as opposed to like what TikTok currently thinks that we might be.
Lisa: Oh!
[Megan and Tyler laugh]
Megan: Yeah.
Lisa: Okay. And you know, like the saying that like TikTok knows more about you than you know about yourself, or whatever, just based on what shows up in your feed. Do you find that to be true?
Tyler: I think that it knows us as like an outdoorsy, like… just outdoorsy. I think it just thinks we're outdoorsy and we get a lot of that content. We're also looking for trends and stuff that we can do on our, uh, on our business account. So it also shows us some of those. But I think it is still trying to figure us out because like, we don't like interact with videos or anything very much.
Megan: I was just going to say, that's probably an area where we could do a little bit better. Like I think that Statement is true about my personal TikTok and on my personal TikTok I don't post anything. I interact with a lot of videos. I follow a lot of things. And so my For You Page, everything has been curated to what I want to see. We can be better about that on our personal TikTok, to let it know what we're interested in. We spend so much time focusing on our own content that we probably haven't helped the algorithm figure out who we are.
Tyler: Yeah. And I think also outgoing videos and what… like how it works in reverse, I don't actually really understand. I know that if we interact with videos we like and resonate with it'll show us more like that.
But the other way around, I'm not a hundred percent sure how the algorithm sends it out because you know, you see people on TikTok all the time. Like, “oh my gosh, I've made it onto the wrong side of TikTok If you're like [people] please interact with us so I can find my way back to you.”
Megan: Which is sort of like what happened with us and your bear spray videos. And we made a little comment at the top kind of talking about how queer we are. So if you're here and you're talking about shooting bears, you're probably in the wrong place. And we got a lot of interactions with that. And that actually did seem to kind of turn things around for our next few videos.
Lisa: For our listeners who don't yet follow you and enjoy your content, but are probably immediately going to, what's your story of the bear spray videos? Like, share that with our audience.
Tyler: Yeah, so, I mean, I made a pretty innocuous video about bear spray and how to use it. It was a two-part video and I posted them right after each other because everyone hates waiting for part two. So I was just like part two already posted. And I just… I went over the basics, you know, like what it is, how to use it, when to use it.
And part of it, there was a tiny section where I said, we don't use guns. We use bear spray for this, this, and this reason, you know, statistically, it's more effective by quite a bit. And we found ourselves on a side of TikTok where people were talking about turning bears into Swiss cheese, you know, “forget the bear spray, I'm blowing down the bear and the five trees behind it.” “I'm going to make Smokey the bear stew,” just… which we are, we've even talked about this, we're very open to having like, discussions about like effective bear deterrents and like alternative methods of protection. We're happy to have those discussions.
But we reached the side that was, “bear spray sucks. I'm a hundred percent going to kill the bear and wear its pelt on the way out on my hike.”
Megan: And we're like, sir, these are national park tours. Like we're not trying to murder anyone or any wildlife. Also, like, guides are not allowed to carry guns in the national parks. So there are many reasons why that sort of irrelevant here. But, I mean, frankly, part of the reason why those videos have almost like 400,000 views at this point, is because of the engagement, because there were so many opinionated comments. And then of course, people fighting in the comments about like, “no, you shouldn't murder a bear. I'll let the bear murder me.” So like people were talking amongst themselves and it continues to sort of thrive to this day. And that was posted a couple of weeks ago.
Tyler: It's like clickbait.
Megan: Yeah, for sure.
Tyler: You say anything that's even even close to being revolutionary and people are like, “No!” “Yes!”
Megan: And that’s another thing, we've learned that anything can be controversial. Things that you do not think are controversial. And people want you to know that they know, like, everything. So we get some interesting questions, interesting feedback, feedback about things that we already said in the video, TikTok is an interesting place. The comment section is an interesting place.
Lisa: Uh huh. So how much time do you spend like reading and regulating your comments?
Tyler: It depends on the video. Again, some only got like 200 views. Those are real easy. You go into the one comment and you respond and it's great. Other ones like the bear spray video that had so many views, it's not feasible unless you have, I guess, like a whole team of people working on social media.
Megan: I was doing that 24/7 that day to kind of limit what people were saying.
There were also some homophobic and transphobic comments on that one as well. Because Tyler has his nails painted, God forbid, while talking about the outdoors. So making sure to delete those, but we also have, we put a filter on that one. So anything that was talking about guns, we had to look at first. And again, we approved ones where people were like, “I carry both for this, this, and this reason.” We're like, great! Reasonable discussion. Sounds good. Allowed. You know, but that took, it took quite a bit of time in those first couple days.
Tyler: And you also, like, even now it's like, you can't respond to everything, especially in a video that goes like semi viral. There's just too many comments and it honestly will just sap away at you. So you just kind of have to, yeah. Filter some, allow others through, and then you can kind of check it periodically.
Megan: I have a differing opinion. I think you have to respond to everything and I will stay up all night in order to do so. [laughs] I will sacrifice my mental wellbeing on a business account, for sure.
Lisa: Yeah. That sounds healthy.
Megan: Yeah, no, it's chill. I'm a chill girl.
Tyler: Good boundaries.
Lisa: [laughs] Well, I really love that. And I'm curious, like, I really enjoy how you address nature and kind of the outdoor industry in general and you make it more fun. Do you find that TikTok is an even better place for that?
Tyler: Yes.
Lisa: Like, I don't know. I think it's really… I like what you guys are doing.
Tyler: Yeah, it, I think it's a place where… I feel like with Instagram and Facebook, there is, the algorithm is just different. You have to be following someone most times to see anything. And then the things that are promoted to be sent to you are pretty big accounts already. You know, like a small account, doesn't usually make it onto those like feed pages.
The coolest thing about TikTok is, and I've actually seen TikToks talking about this, about how, since everyone now has this medium through which to post and the algorithm, for the most part, it doesn't discriminate on what it puts out. (It does, but.)
Megan: It does.
Tyler: But, you know, for the most part you can get any video about anything and anyone can get those videos. It is just more of a playground. You have more chances of people seeing your content, and it's a little bit more free form. You know, the audience is so wide. You can, I feel like, be even more authentic to like your brand or yourself or whatever, because there's just such a bigger audience to tap into that you can get really niche videos that you're like, how did they know so much about me? Or, yeah, this nature video that's very specific and reaches X amount of people.
Megan: And yeah, and for better, or for worse, people have to be drawn in in the first couple seconds, like people are on TikTok just scrolling through and you know, you have to get them to stop. So being funny as a pretty easy way to do that. Again, I've yet to master being myself on TikTok, we're working on it, but we've got Tyler to go viral for us in between.
Lisa: This is again like a question that we at WHEELIE get asked constantly is like, okay, let's say you successfully build your following on TikTok. What do you do from there? Are you specifically going to your website? Are you trying to get people over to Instagram? What's your tactic and why?
Tyler: I mean, I think again, the tactic is just send them wherever they'll go. Most of the time, the following that you're building... I mean, you think about how you personally might use TikTok. You like things, you follow people, you might swipe over to their account and watch a few more videos. But at least personally, I seldom find myself clicking on any links or anything. But it does happen and you have that link in the bio and we do videos in which we try to send people that direction. Again, sometimes it feels a little disingenuous, especially on a platform like TikTok, but basically send them there when you can. And if not, people tend to and seem to be finding their way to that page anyway. Do you have a different opinion?
Megan: Well, yeah, I feel like, again, my goal or I think our goal on TikTok is to position ourselves as experts in the outdoor field, who, again, are also making people feel included and safe and know that we care about the environment and that like, yeah, we know what we're talking about when we're talking about a specific national park. And I am the daughter of a salesperson who… her philosophy has always been, you don't… the goal is not to sell someone something they don't want, it's to show them what they do want and help them get there, help them connect with the things that they do want. So, one thing that we've started doing since we've been posting these TikToks and like I posted a couple again, like I said, information about Yellowstone. So like, these are the five entrances of Yellowstone. These are the campsites in Yellowstone. These are just like five things to know, or five hikes or whatever. And I get so many questions of people who are planning trips and don't really know where to start. So we actually started selling itinerary consultations because of all these questions on TikTok.
So at this point, like that's something I'm doing is when people ask me questions, like, do you think I should travel at this time of year? I'm happy to, like, answer a quick question, but if what people need is a little bit of health planning an itinerary, well now I can lead them to like, “Hey, we offer itinerary consultations on our website” and we've, we've connected with some people and helped them plan their trips. And that, to me, feels like people have a need and we are meeting that. Now, it would be great if they would just click the link in our bio. I'm having to go through and like respond to these like dozens of comments of people asking the same question. But again, some of them, like, I'm helping them find what they need. So, I don't know, that feels kind of like a win. A little bit.
Lisa: Yeah. And it's probably fun. You probably, you enjoy it.
Megan: Yeah. I mean, I love helping people plan trips. Yeah. And we, you know, it's also an opportunity, we can upsell them into a guided day, but also like our goal is to just get people outside. So we also know that there’s a cost barrier to being able to hire a private guide or even going on a public tour. So that's not for everyone. I don't necessarily hire a guide when I go to the national parks, but having a local expert help you out with like where to go, where to avoid, what, like what hotspots do I actually need to see? What, which ones can I skip and where should I go instead? Like, I'd be willing to spend $45 to have a 30 minute conversation with someone who knows the area better than I do. So that feels like, we've added now - because of TikTok and because of being able to connect with that audience, hear what they wanted, we've been able to kind of add that as a less expensive feature. And then also still offering free content through TikTok that hopefully helps people.
Lisa: I love that because that's even more inclusive.
Megan: Yeah. Yeah. I think that's something that we've struggled with a lot is how do we, how do we provide trips to these historically excluded folks who may not have the money to go on a personal, like, private trip or even one of our public trips - they are expensive - while also paying our guides, who are also historically excluded people from the outdoors, like a living wage. That, like paying guides… paying guides a good wage means that the trips become more expensive. So this is another way where we can help get folks outside without a huge price tag.
Tyler: Yeah. Or even make them break down other barriers besides just, like, price being like, yeah, the educational side of like, I'm afraid to go on a hike because I don't know, like the etiquette. So, you know, we make like a video on hiking etiquette, or, you know, I want to go to Yellowstone, I can afford all these things, but I don't know anything about it. So yeah, we post videos about the entrances and the campsites and stuff, or bear spray as well. You know, there's, there was a ton of people who were like, “I've never even heard of bear spray.” You know, “this is great. I was just going to go, you know, hiking out into the wilderness.” So those little small ways, too, that we can give like free, free education to get more people outside too.
Megan: Yeah. And I mean, we definitely acknowledge that our TikTok right now, like we do have quite a few people posting. We’re diverse in some ways and not diverse in some obvious ways. That we're definitely working on, trying to diversify who's sharing content on our page. But you know, we follow, the American Alpine Institute and they post really great videos and have even acknowledged, you know, bro culture in the outdoors. It's a great account. Everyone should follow it. It's still one straight white cis man posting on an account. So we're kind of hoping that like we provide a little bit more diversity and people can maybe see themselves more in who is teaching them, we know that matters. And again, as we continue to grow, I think our TikTok is really only about a month old at this point, so that's definitely a priority for us is to have more diverse faces on our page, teaching more diverse content that just appeals to a larger audience and makes more people feel included in this education.
Lisa: Well, it's wonderful. You're doing an amazing job. It's…
Megan: Thank you.
Lisa: I think it's, I think it's exemplary.
Tyler: Wow, thank you.
Lisa: Yeah. I really think you're using TikTok as a business so well, and it feels very authentic. It doesn't feel fake or salesy. It's just really fun and matches your brand. I know your brand very well because we helped build it, but it really matches your, it matches your brand so well, and I am just so proud of you.
Megan: Well, that is a high compliment.
Tyler: Yeah, thank you. [laughs] We really do sometimes feel like toddlers learning how to walk. But we're quickly becoming young adults.
Megan: But you all made us look so professional. I mean, we get compliments on our logo. We actually - show the hat. We get compliments.
Tyler. This isn’t great podcast material, but.
Megan: Yeah, you can describe it for our listeners.
Tyler: I am holding…
Megan: [laughs] we got hats made!
Tyler: A Good Trip Adventures hat with a logo that WHEELIE put together for us.
Lisa: That looks so good.
Megan: Yeah, that we love so much and get compliments on and we get compliments on our website all the time. So yeah, we feel like you cleaned us up nice.
Lisa: It's nice. My favorite thing about your logo is how Adventures fits in there like a little hug between the G and the P.
Megan: It’s so cute. We love it.
Lisa: Well, is there anything else that I haven't asked you that you think our audience of outdoor creatives would like to know?
Tyler: Hmm, that's a good question. I don't know. I think just like, have fun and like, let… especially if you have a big team, like let each person be their own personality. ‘Cause like, you know exactly what Megan said originally, Lauren, who's a mom and talking about mom stuff on trails will resonate to an audience that like my manic energy will not, or… you know, it might be the same audience, manic moms. But yeah, just like letting everyone have their own voice within the larger voice of the brand. And just experimenting.
Megan: Yeah. I think TikTok is a great place to not overthink it. That's a lot of what we've done with building this business from the beginning is… I mean, as much as I, like, I'm a planner, we plan things, we've had a strategy, but we haven't necessarily let… we haven't let perfection get in the way of… what's the saying? Of progress. We kind of just put stuff out there and see what works and it's a great place to learn what people want. Try stuff. Don't overthink it.
Tyler: Low stakes, truly. TikTok is low stakes. So just have fun.
Megan: Yeah. And try not to get your feelings hurt. I've already said, if anyone comments anything mean I will cry. But you know. [laughs]
Tyler: I just ignore it. I just delete it.
Megan: Yeah. Or again, if you post something and no one sees it, it doesn't actually mean that no one likes it. It just means TikTok doesn't like you, so. And that's just a computer.
Tyler: [laughs] we don’t care if a computer likes us.
Megan: I don’t care if a computer likes me. [laughs] I do. I actually do.
Tyler: Lots of crying. [laughs]
Megan: I don't know if that's going to help anyone, but.
[music]
Iris: Thank you so much for tuning in to Outside by Design. This show is produced by WHEELIE - a creative agency that specializes in helping brands articulate what they stand for and making really cool creative work that serves as a gift to your community. You can find us at our website, wheeliecreative.com.
You can also visit wheeliecreative.com/podcast to find more episodes, transcripts, and the show notes. We are on Instagram at @wheeliecreative. Please subscribe, leave a five star review on your podcast app and share this podcast with a friend, that really helps us grow. You can also support us by visiting one of our affiliate links, which you can find in the show notes.
With that, I'm Iris. Thanks for being here!
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