B2B INFLUENCERS

Santina Rizzi: Crafting viral Tiktok content with tropes, sounds & pop culture.

We chat with social media manager & TikTok sensation, Santina Rizzi, on her approach to managing Dr. Miami’s social media, what most social media managers miss in their content strategy & her story on how she went from law student to social media.

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Transcript

Jess Phillips (00:02.309)
All right, what’s up guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Social Standard Podcast. My guest today is the famous Santina Rizzi. And for those of you who do not know who Ms. Santina is, she runs the social media for a very famous plastic surgeon, Dr. Miami. Dr. Miami is an interesting guy. He has a documentary out about himself. He has a song on the top billboards from a few years ago. In 2016, the Shorty Awards named him the top Snapchatter of the year. And he has amassed over 8 million followers.

following of over eight million across all social media platforms. So it’s a very interesting conversation that I think we’re gonna have today. And then of course Santina is an influencer herself. So we’ll talk a little bit about that as well. Santina, what’s up and welcome.

santina (00:47.67)
Hello Jess, I’m so happy to be here.

Jess Phillips (00:50.061)
Yeah, I think it’s gonna be a cool conversation. You know, we were talking a little bit earlier that for part of this social media series that we’re doing, we are talking to a wide variety of people. And earlier today, I talked to a social media manager for a brand. You’re gonna provide a really interesting perspective, I think, because you are a social media manager for an influencer.

So, or a personality, a celebrity, right? And so that’s a totally different angle. And I think that it is something that our brand and agency partners can learn a tremendous amount from. And you’ve gained a lot of popularity just from a lot of tactics that you use on his social channel. So we’re gonna get into all of that today and more. But first, I just wanna say, give us the tea on why you got into social media management. Like, how did you end up with this role? It’s such a unique and interesting one.

santina (01:11.007)
Yes.

santina (01:39.086)
Yeah, so it was super unexpected. I went to college and I studied political science and religion thinking that I was gonna become a lawyer. Yeah, very, very not like TikTok antics. So I came back, so I went to Florida State which is in Tallahassee and then I came back to Miami which is where I’m from during the pandemic because like everything shut down and like I prefer to be in Miami than Tallahassee if I’m gonna be stuck in my house. So

Jess Phillips (01:46.821)
Hmm

Jess Phillips (01:53.978)
You sure?

Jess Phillips (02:07.931)
Yes.

santina (02:09.614)
During that time, I was wrapping up college and I was studying for the LSAT and I was like, nose to the books. And at the time, I wanted to get real life experience in the legal world as well. So I applied to work at this law firm and at first I was gonna be the girl who answers their phones, just to have a foot in the door. And then within the first week that I was there, they were like, oh no, she can do more. So they moved me to legal and I became a legal assistant and then later.

Jess Phillips (02:28.058)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Jess Phillips (02:38.82)
Okay.

santina (02:39.166)
paralegal and while I was working there I was seeing like the day-to-day life of someone in the legal field and someone in kind of the legal field that I would want to go into like I knew that you know I have like immigrant parents so to be like a lawyer it was you know there’s a bottom line and it’s to make a lot of money so I was gonna go corporate like I was probably gonna work you know in that same vein and it was miserable so

Jess Phillips (02:55.526)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (02:59.505)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

santina (03:08.478)
simultaneously and even before that I had a TikTok account because in 2019 like December my best friend like of since we were children was like oh my god my cousin Kami like her younger cousins using like this app it’s called TikTok and I’m like but isn’t that musically and she’s like yes but now it’s cool she’s like it’s not the same like and I’m like okay show it to me so she showed it to me and I was like

Jess Phillips (03:29.997)
Hahaha

santina (03:35.882)
What? Like the interface of it was so different from any other app and I felt like my mom. Like I was like, like I didn’t know what buttons to click. Like I just felt so removed. So kind of as a way to prevent myself from being out of touch, I downloaded TikTok and I was like, and my friends would make fun of me. My friends in college were like, bro, that’s musically. Like, what are you doing? I’m like, no, it’s actually funny. But at the time it was like really like

Jess Phillips (03:45.506)
Yep.

Jess Phillips (03:52.113)
I’m going to go to bed.

santina (04:05.662)
it wasn’t that big yet. Charlie D’Amelio wasn’t even big yet. There was no hype, there was none of that. But it was actually niche funny because the algorithm was super specific to your interest. And now it’s even more specific. So through that, I started following, I fell into this fashion niche. I really enjoy clothes, my mom has always worked in beauty. So I started making these videos on my own.

Jess Phillips (04:07.665)
Sure. Okay.

Jess Phillips (04:30.67)
Mm.

santina (04:33.838)
Doing my hair getting dressed. I would recreate like these Pinterest outfits and in October of 2020 I was like it was like weeks of me making like videos just like Recreating viral Pinterest outfits and then I found like this kind of common theme among all of them And it was that all the outfits were worn by like skinny white So I’m like is this really a fit or is she just skinny?

Jess Phillips (04:56.017)
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep.

santina (05:01.47)
So I facetiously put out a video saying that and it went viral. And then it got taken down for bullying. For bullying harassment. My first one. And then I was like, okay, whatever. I’ll make another one. So I made another one about Kendall Jenner and that one blew up. It had like… Yeah, so the first one did…

Jess Phillips (05:12.593)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (05:21.649)
Interesting. In the same like skinnier fit like vein, in that same vein this video was? Okay.

santina (05:27.734)
Yes, so my first video was just like looking at two Pinterest outfits being like, are these really fit? Are they just skinny? And then everyone was like, oh my God, do this about Kendall Jenner. Like she’s, she’s like the, you know, the epitome of that. So I started, so I made a second video and that one took off. And I remember I was going to California to go see my friend, the one I told you that I’ve been friends with since we were children.

Jess Phillips (05:41.369)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (05:49.745)
Mm-hmm.

santina (05:54.814)
I was gonna go see her and on the plane ride from Miami to California, I got on the plane with 10,000 followers and when I got off the plane, I had 250,000 followers.

Jess Phillips (06:06.081)
Oh my God.

santina (06:07.318)
I was in shock and I was like what the fuck. So I started like busting out the is it a finished you just skinny videos. Like people were recommending obviously celebrities, other like very viral photos that I should recreate. So I did around like eight of those and then and then it kind of just like fell off. I like I had like the super niche like whatever and then it just fell off. So that was in 2020. End of 2020.

Jess Phillips (06:15.173)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

santina (06:36.15)
beginning of 2021. And then during that time, I was again, studying for the LSAT doing all that. So I kind of let TikTok die. But when I got to the law firm, I was like depressed. I was like, I can’t like, I’m coming here Monday through Friday. They sell you this dream of like nine to five, but it’s really like, 730 to eight. Like it’s not it’s never like nine to five. So I was like, well, I used to

Jess Phillips (06:47.531)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (06:53.965)
Oh no, no.

santina (07:04.866)
you know, get some serotonin boost from TikTok, I’m going to start doing that again. So, and also my coworkers at the law firm, like some of the interns that are there in the summer, they’re younger, they would be like, dude, you have like, you have like 200 and something thousand followers, like you can do something with that, like you just need to be consistent. So every morning I would get up and put together an outfit to go to my corporate job. And it like fascinated people because I was 21 years old and wearing like crop tops.

Jess Phillips (07:13.393)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

santina (07:33.462)
to a corporate law firm in Miami. So then that became a thing. And so from there I grew, I think like another, I had lost followers from 250, so I think I was down to 230, cause I was like inactive. And then throughout the year and some change I was there, I gained like, I think 320 something. I got to 320 something. So I gained another 100,000 followers just by being consistent.

Jess Phillips (07:33.697)
Yeah. Yep.

Jess Phillips (07:46.065)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

santina (08:01.826)
So at the point where I was like, I don’t want to work at this law firm anymore. I don’t even want to go into the legal field. Like what other like skill sets do I have? And I was like, I have social media. Other than that, I worked at a juice bar. And a clothing store, which I was fired from. So I’m like, this is like, I have very scant options right now. So I started.

Jess Phillips (08:07.205)
Right.

Jess Phillips (08:11.077)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (08:14.479)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (08:18.169)
Hehehehe

Jess Phillips (08:28.278)
Sure.

santina (08:31.062)
writing the, I’ve actually, the first job I applied to was Buzzfeed and I got a call back and I went through like an interview process and in the last round they cut me and I was like devastated. So I was like, maybe I should go to law school, like a couple, yeah, like two months went by, my friends are like, bro, you can do it. Like you, they’re like, you don’t have any formal experience but like you have.

Jess Phillips (08:37.07)
Uh huh. Oh, okay.

Jess Phillips (08:48.994)
Yeah, you’re doubting yourself, sure.

santina (08:58.882)
really good informal experience just like write a cover letter. So I wrote a cover letter and I just started sending out my resume with the cover letter and like coincidentally Dr. Miami was hiring and not just for a social media manager but for a social media personality.

Jess Phillips (09:17.476)
Oh, interesting. Okay.

santina (09:20.542)
So it wasn’t someone to just like manage his account but it was someone to like for him to play off of because if you remember his snapchat like in 2013, 2014, 2015 he had Britney and they had like a different tat relationship and like a lot of the, well like entice people too were like the people who worked in the office like every morning he’d be like, ta

Jess Phillips (09:27.909)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (09:37.113)
They had a nice thing going.

santina (09:48.622)
Tal, what do we have today? You know, you knew all the characters. So they wanted someone to bring that back and then also bring an energy. So it fit perfect with what I was trying to do and the experience I had. Because I didn’t necessarily need to know about SEOs and all those technical things. I just needed to be someone who was successful on social media. And so I applied.

Jess Phillips (09:51.96)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (10:00.88)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (10:06.261)
right? Yes, totally. Totally.

santina (10:18.806)
They called me back like in the same hour. I was literally in shock too because I grew up in Miami and he was like a god to me. I was like, what? No, of course. Like I was in middle school, like watching his stuff at like six in the morning, seven in the morning. So I’m like, I can’t believe it. They’re like, can you come in tomorrow? And I’m like, yes. I literally called the law firm. I’m like, I’m sick. I can’t come in tomorrow. And I skipped work. I think it was a Wednesday. It was actually.

Jess Phillips (10:23.905)
Yeah. Ah, okay, so you knew who he was, yeah.

Jess Phillips (10:42.625)
Amazing.

santina (10:47.674)
Oh, I was gonna say it was a year ago today, but no. A year ago today is when I, my first day of work. Today’s my one year anniversary working here. Yeah. So, so yeah, I came in.

Jess Phillips (10:54.179)
Oh, no way. That’s awesome.

Jess Phillips (10:59.863)
Wow, that’s quite a journey, right? Wow. I mean, and the fact though, to me…

santina (11:03.563)
It was crazy.

Jess Phillips (11:06.733)
What’s really telling about that story is he wasn’t just hiring a social media manager. I mean, that’s a huge role in and of itself, but he’s also casting for his social media show effectively. I mean, to have that level of insight, and maybe foresight’s actually a better word, in terms of what’s working and what’s not working, is really incredible. He seems to be a marketing machine in and of himself.

santina (11:30.466)
He is, like no, he’s like a marketing genius. Also because he’s like one of the first people to really be, he’s like one of the first, not just people, but like brands, like business fronts to put themselves out on social media in a way that isn’t like cookie cutter, preplanned, like you know, like he was doing this stuff in like 2013, 2014, like doctors were like shunning him. They were like, why are you doing that? That’s so unprofessional, like you know, it wasn’t.

Jess Phillips (11:41.265)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Jess Phillips (11:49.849)
Hmm. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (11:57.701)
Sure.

santina (12:00.618)
It wasn’t super popular to be a professional on social media.

Jess Phillips (12:04.525)
Right. Yeah.

That makes sense. But you know, and I kind of fast forward to today, which is something I wanted to talk to you a little bit about, is a big trend that we’re seeing for brands is they’re taking these social media managers and they are making them the main characters in their social feeds. And that’s something that seems like you guys have been ahead of already. And even though Dr. Miami is the main character, he needs a counterweight to that, right? Protagonist, antagonist, you guys need some banter. And so the fact that he called that out in the job post is pretty incredible.

But you guys don’t just, it’s not just the two of you, you also kind of circulate through some of his family members, some of his office staff. It’s like you’re creating a reality TV show.

santina (12:44.661)
Yes.

santina (12:48.718)
Right, because I mean it’s similar to what he did with Snapchat. So I think their thinking was like people like to feel like, you know, connected. They like to see what’s going on in the office, whatever. And because of COVID, they shut down and he was like more worried about like the practice itself and not really maintaining his social media presence. So the goal is like two fold. Like number one, to get someone whose like entire job it is to make you consistent.

Jess Phillips (12:59.578)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (13:10.737)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (13:17.346)
Mm-hmm.

santina (13:17.47)
And then number two, to bring back that dynamic which people liked. Because his patients are people who want a doctor that are funny, that’s relatable, that is human. The way he puts it is that when you’re going to go get plastic surgery, you’ve already been thinking about… There’s something about you that you’re insecure about and it’s not a one-off decision. You’ve been thinking about it. It’s a moment of vulnerability.

Jess Phillips (13:33.069)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (13:41.413)
Mm-hmm.

santina (13:47.102)
And so some people like to go to a surgeon, like white coat, like stethoscope, like very like, you know, show me, show me the breast, you know, like very to the point. And other people like to sit in front of a human and like feel like they’re having this, you know, vulnerable moment. And so his Snapchat like gave people kind of an insight into not just his practice, but like his personality, like the type of.

Jess Phillips (13:54.481)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Jess Phillips (14:04.023)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (14:12.239)
Hmm.

santina (14:16.118)
personality you want in a doctor.

Jess Phillips (14:16.433)
It’s like bedside manner effectively, right? That’s a big thing in that space. Well, plus with plastic surgery, you also, there is a trend element to it, right? Not the plastic surgery is trendy, but like what you’re going for is very of the time, right? And so to have a doctor who sort of leans into trends and things and understands maybe what’s popular and what’s not, and then can use his skill sets to apply that to your…

santina (14:40.536)
Hello.

Jess Phillips (14:45.109)
your canvas, you know, your body, I think to me that would give me a lot of good comfort, right?

santina (14:50.189)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (14:52.662)
Interesting.

santina (14:52.746)
He’s also like, the fact that he’s popular is good for patients because you know that he’s not just taking anyone’s business. Like he’s not gonna accept you because he needs the business. Like he doesn’t need it. You know what I mean? And that’s rare in Miami, because Miami’s like a plastic surgery hub and there’s a lot of shady shit going on, like a lot of corners cut because there’s so much competition.

Jess Phillips (14:56.785)
Uh huh.

Jess Phillips (15:08.049)
Hmm. Mm-hmm. Sure.

Jess Phillips (15:17.553)
Sure.

santina (15:22.262)
But the fact that he is Dr. Miami eliminates that. So he’s not gonna overlook a medical condition that he thinks might be shady. He’s not gonna like, he has like an age cutoff. Like you have to be 18 to 50. Most plastic surgeons here will operate up until like 60 something. So he’s very like, people are like, I don’t want a plastic surgeon who’s on social media, but the benefit of that is that he’s like, this is you want someone in demand. It’s like going to a sushi place.

Jess Phillips (15:38.021)
Mm.

Jess Phillips (15:50.285)
Right. Sure.

santina (15:51.146)
Like you want some place that’s popping because you know the fish is fresh. You don’t want to go somewhere where it’s just sitting there all day and you’re gonna go home and shit yourself. You want someone who’ll like, okay, you didn’t make your appointment, leave. We don’t need you. Like, you know what I mean?

Jess Phillips (15:55.377)
Fresh, yeah.

Jess Phillips (16:00.754)
Right.

Jess Phillips (16:06.093)
Yeah, yeah, totally. I can see that. That’s interesting, because I kind of have wondered why it is that he is even on social media, right? Because he doesn’t need the business, he’s a successful guy. Like, what is it, like, does he get new, and I was gonna talk about this later, but we’ll talk about it now, because we’re there, but like, does he get new patients? And does he make, basically, essentially make, able to turn, monetize his social media for his practice?

santina (16:33.934)
Well, I mean, we don’t have any way we don’t track it anyway, but it’s like they’ve said throughout the years like when he is more active on social media 100% they get more leads Do they go?

Jess Phillips (16:37.164)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (16:42.181)
that he gets more. Yeah. Well, I saw you guys have on TikTok, the like book of consults, right? A free consult.

santina (16:50.074)
Yeah, so for sure they get more leads. We don’t know if like the leads lead to more surgeries, but like, you know, the patients are more excited. They like are, we have like a, an aftercare program where like the doctor goes and visits them, post-op, whatever, and I go there. I like the patients, they want to make TikToks. I mean, like they’re there for a week, like sitting in bed, like, you know, like it kind of also boosts like patient morale. So, well, it might not be, yeah, while, while it might not be like…

Jess Phillips (16:55.281)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (17:02.455)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (17:09.955)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (17:14.181)
Hmm, that’s interesting.

santina (17:20.115)
Exactly.

Jess Phillips (17:22.221)
Yeah, I mean, there’s probably, there’s rarely a straight line to it, but I was just curious if he thought that this was like a big reason why he did it or if he did it for other reasons. It sounds like it’s a little bit of both, right? Yeah, it probably generates buzz and business and all that sort of stuff, but also it’s entertainment, it’s fun, helps patient morale. Right, exactly. That’s what I was thinking. He just, he seems like the guy that wants to be on social media, be out there and be a public face, right?

santina (17:32.534)
Yeah.

santina (17:39.064)
Also, he loves being on social media, like…

santina (17:49.962)
He loves, like, he doesn’t go anywhere, like, not in his scrubs because he’s just like a regular white man and they might not recognize him. Like, he likes being Dr. Miami. Like, he likes, like, you could see, like, if we go to the airport or we go somewhere and people are like, Dr. Miami, he’s like, yeah, it’s me. Like, he loves that shit. So, I think that’s, he loves, like, checking the Twitter, like, Twitter. I guess during that time where he, like, kind of was not on social media, Twitter wasn’t talking about him.

Jess Phillips (17:57.67)
Huh!

Jess Phillips (18:03.726)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (18:08.795)
Ah!

Jess Phillips (18:13.349)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (18:17.24)
Uh-huh.

santina (18:18.942)
So he would look up his name on Twitter, and there would be like, the most recent tweet was from two weeks ago, and he’d be like, oh. And now people are tweeting about him every 30 seconds. And he’s like, I love it, my name is out there, yeah. And then obviously.

Jess Phillips (18:28.524)
Really?

Yeah, well that’s interesting, right? Go ahead.

santina (18:35.798)
Well, in the past he had like, you know, so it might not lead to like direct patient business sales, but it leads to other opportunities like magazines cover him. Maybe someone sees him in a magazine. Like he just opened a practice in Saudi or somewhere else because of his social media. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (18:56.545)
I thought, yeah, I saw he was headed to Dubai, like, in a bit too, right?

santina (19:00.402)
Well, Dubai, he works with the practice there, but he just opened his own Dr. Miami practice in the Middle East, and that’s because of social media. Snapchat, a lot of his followers are from the Middle East, and plastic surgery, they are super expensive, so a lot of them fly in, but now he’s opening one over there. And yeah, it might not lead to this TikTok, let’s have five people booking.

Jess Phillips (19:04.15)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (19:09.157)
Wow.

Jess Phillips (19:21.297)
Wow.

Jess Phillips (19:25.201)
No, it sounds like it’s not a direct like, okay, we post this many videos, we get this many surgeries. It sounds like it’s just opening up other doors and possibilities for him that he would not otherwise be privy to. So that’s super cool. That’s very interesting. Well, and you know, a question for you too around like how you guys think about this show, and I’m gonna call it a show because I really feel like you guys are just basically creating a show. How do you think about characters?

santina (19:31.202)
Right.

santina (19:34.591)
Yeah.

santina (19:50.69)
There are definitely stories.

Jess Phillips (19:52.745)
Yeah, exactly. Well, how do you think about characters? Like, do you intentionally try to bring in new faces and like test them out to see if the audience likes this new character?

santina (20:02.434)
So a lot of the characters are have been introduced on like on a need base. So for example, the doctor was gone like for three weeks or something. And the only representatives of him were his children. And I’m like, they’ll do. We’ll see. We’ll see if they work. And at the time, like the whole, I don’t remember what was advice or what publication made that NEPO baby chart.

Jess Phillips (20:10.359)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (20:13.742)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (20:20.689)
Hahaha

Jess Phillips (20:33.081)
Oh yes, uh-huh, 100%, yeah.

santina (20:35.198)
the Nepal baby article that went viral. And so everyone was making videos like, did you know that like, oh my God, I’m blanking right now. Like Antonio Bandera’s stepdaughters, Dakota Johnson, like all these like random Nepal baby connections. So I’m like, Dr. Miami has a lot of kids. He’s kind of famous. His sons might be Nepal babies. Let’s try them. Plus he’s gone. And so that’s how that happened.

Jess Phillips (20:46.925)
Yeah, but they’re whole…

Jess Phillips (20:51.813)
Right.

santina (21:02.658)
And then once we put them in, people were like, oh my God, like this one’s so cute, or this one’s so funny, this one’s just like the doctor. And we’re like, okay, now we have like a solution, sometimes when he’s gone, to just put the nipple babies there.

Jess Phillips (21:16.225)
Yeah, totally, totally. Well, and I love how you brought something that was trending in like, you know, culture and news and then brought that in. And that sort of, you’re able to capitalize on that trend and solve a problem at the same time, which is really, you know, it’s smart marketing, right? Oh, that’s so cool. And it’s interesting to think about how, like, so it sounds like you’re defining success on this where like based on audiences’ comments and reactions to the introduction of the kids.

santina (21:30.636)
Yes.

santina (21:46.07)
Yes. Like.

Jess Phillips (21:46.509)
And so will that play into your strategy in the future outside of when Dr. Miami is gone? Like do you plan on incorporating the kids more in the future on general content?

santina (21:56.91)
Yeah, I mean another thing is like one of the NEPO babies is opening like you saw Kini. So like that’s good that’s like a good strategy just for him to be like known and his business be introduced. So yeah I mean we definitely if they’re around also right now they’re like in camp they’re far or whatever but when they’re around we like to put them in the content just to keep like you know their faces like fresh in people’s memories and then always to have that kind of like a

Jess Phillips (22:02.925)
Yes, yeah, he’s starting his own business.

Jess Phillips (22:18.03)
Yeah, true.

santina (22:27.078)
as a thing we can play off of later. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (22:28.109)
as an option. Yeah, totally. That makes sense. I feel like that’s always the case when you’re incorporating family members. It’s like, where are they? Especially kids. They’re very hard to corral, I think, a lot of times. But when you can get them in, I think it does. It just provides another sort of peek behind the curtain into who Dr. Miami is, which I’m sure is content that his audience constantly craves.

santina (22:35.521)
Yeah

santina (22:48.75)
Yeah, and in terms of like strategy, when I came in like his Snapchat strategy was very different from what we’re doing on TikTok because number one, like there was no guidelines like in 2013, 2016, like you could post full like surgery, you could even live stream it and like not be

Jess Phillips (22:51.534)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (22:59.584)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (23:05.775)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (23:10.381)
sure. Yep.

santina (23:18.006)
free for all. So people actually, that was like more, that was probably better for him in terms of like direct views to patients because it was showing the actual like product business you know like this is what she looked like before, this is what she looked like after you know and it was three a day like every single day. So that’s like, but in 2021 or oh my god, 2022, wow.

Jess Phillips (23:26.884)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (23:30.641)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (23:36.837)
Yep.

santina (23:47.97)
Time is moving. So until 2022, you can’t do that. So when I came in, I was like, we’re not posting nudity. We’re not posting surgery on TikTok because number one, TikTok, like yes, there’s like a sector of TikTok that wants to learn but TikTok like really, they want like characters. Like I was like, Dr. Miami’s already known. He’s already a name that’s like in a million rap songs. People reference him in movies.

Jess Phillips (23:49.342)
Right?

Jess Phillips (24:07.906)
Yeah, entertainment.

Jess Phillips (24:16.026)
Right.

santina (24:16.522)
And even if you don’t know who he is, just the name Dr. Miami sounds enticing. Let’s make him into an influencer. Like, Dr. Miami influencer. So that’s another reason why we want to incorporate his family because any influencer would incorporate their friends, their family, their lifestyle, whatever. So that’s another facet.

Jess Phillips (24:34.928)
Right.

Jess Phillips (24:38.637)
Yeah, totally. Yeah, that makes sense. And I know one of the ways you do that, I think you’re, well, first of all, his community and his audience, they love you, right? I think that you’ve built a really interesting rapport with them. So talk to me a little bit about how that came about.

santina (24:57.326)
So that actually was not my idea. When I came in I just wanted to like focus on you know making like basically making influencer content almost like the content I was making for myself, but have him make it for him. But and then they wanted like a social media personality. They wanted someone for him to like play off of so they’re so I would still snapchat or whatever. And they were like put yourself in the video and so

Jess Phillips (25:04.581)
Yep.

Jess Phillips (25:18.81)
Mm-hmm.

santina (25:24.202)
we just started referring to me as like my social media manager, right? Because who the fuck, you know, like at that point I had 380,000 followers, like it was a very niche population that knew about me. So it was more just like, oh that’s Dr. Miami’s social media girl, whatever. So funny. And I honestly like…

Jess Phillips (25:28.13)
Right.

Jess Phillips (25:33.869)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

santina (25:45.326)
I can’t think of a brand or business that did that before us.

Jess Phillips (25:50.734)
Yeah.

santina (25:52.502)
I want to say that we were the first on TikTok to have the social media girl or whatever be… Yeah, not just have a face but have this kind of antagonistic personality like the boom we need to get out the content, kind of like lift the veil of what goes into making a TikTok. I don’t think that was happening before us.

Jess Phillips (26:00.437)
Yeah, have a face, right?

Jess Phillips (26:11.888)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (26:16.501)
Okay, so you guys were very behind the scenes focused.

santina (26:19.582)
Yeah, so then people would be like, at first, there was a little resistance. We were like, this is becoming too much about like, her and you, like, this is Dr. Miami’s page. And I was like inclined to agree with them. And I would say like, guys, I don’t wanna be in the video, da da, and they’re like, who the fuck cares? Like, people love you, like, just be in the video. It’s funny, like, da da. So they, it was really like, Dr. Miami and Rosie, who’s his practice manager, but she also was like, the head of our social media.

Jess Phillips (26:30.511)
Right.

Jess Phillips (26:41.027)
Yeah.

santina (26:49.854)
team they were like bro they loved Britney they’re gonna love you just need to give them time like whatever so and it’s true because now we don’t even sometimes we don’t use like it’s rare that we use my social media girl it’s usually my first name like Santina and people know like what I’m doing there like what my role is

Jess Phillips (26:54.157)
Right. Give them time, yeah.

Yeah.

Jess Phillips (27:06.586)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (27:10.233)
Yes, totally. And they mention you in the comments too, right? Which is really kind of interesting. And you comment back, which is also interesting. But you do it from the Dr. Miami account, and then you sign it, Santina, right? So why is it that you do it that way instead of replying from your personal account?

santina (27:14.551)
Yeah.

santina (27:24.094)
Yeah.

santina (27:29.838)
I think it’s just more convenient because I’m usually interacting within the first 30 minutes of me posting a video. I’m responding to comments, liking, whatever, seeing how the video is doing. So I’m usually on his account and so I’m responding as him. And then I see a comment directed to me so I’m like, dash Santina. And it’s funny because the comments will see, sometimes I comment as him and people are like, we know it’s you Santina.

Jess Phillips (27:45.614)
Yeah, totally, yeah.

Jess Phillips (27:59.449)
That’s pretty awesome.

santina (27:59.614)
So I guess there’s sometimes I do comment from my account. It’s just more logistic. Like I don’t want to have two phones out at one time switching back and forth.

Jess Phillips (28:05.825)
Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah, I could see that totally. So interesting. Go ahead.

santina (28:13.686)
I was just gonna say it probably would be smarter if I commented from my account because then they would go look at my account, but…

Jess Phillips (28:19.317)
Yeah, no, that’s kind of what I was thinking. But also, you know, if you’re really like, if you’re building, it depends on how you’re building your own personal brand, right? If you’re keeping it kind of like what you do on TikTok versus what you do for Dr. Miami, right? Cause those are two different, it’s not that they’re two different people. You’re your authentic self on both, but you have a different goal in mind with each account, right?

santina (28:39.65)
Yeah. Yeah, and also, I don’t know if you know this, but I actually manage a second account, the Bellows Film Lab, and so I think one time, this is just to speak to why maybe I should be commenting from my own account, I made a video when I started working for Bellows from Dr.

Jess Phillips (28:46.253)
Yeah. Yes, you do. That’s right. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (28:58.097)
Mm-hmm.

santina (29:08.278)
It was like this friend’s audio that was like, are you cheating on me or da da? And it’s like when Santino gets a second client, whatever. And I commented from the Bellows film lab and it was like the top comment. And I think he got like 10,000 followers. Like their film lab got like 10,000 followers from that comment. Cause people were like, oh, she’s managing that account now. Let’s go follow that account.

Jess Phillips (29:12.557)
Yes, yes.

Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (29:25.829)
Wow, just from that.

And then they want to go over and they want to follow and see what you’re doing over there.

Ah, interesting. Okay, well, I wanna dive into like those differences in a minute here, but before we do that, I think one of the things that you’re really well known for from what I can tell on TikTok is your use of trending sounds and taking them and applying them to plastic surgery, which seems to me like almost an impossible feat, but you do it seamlessly and people love it. I mean, I see in the comments all the time that people are just, I mean, they’re laughing hysterically. They’re like, where is she finding this stuff? How does she do it?

santina (29:34.699)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (30:04.387)
a little bit about like your secret sauce. Like how does this, how do you find the sounds? How do you, how do you have a creative, what’s your creative process like in terms of like figuring out how to make this work for Dr. Miami?

santina (30:14.832)
So the short answer is that I’m just like chronically online, like I’m always on TikTok. So my, I really just see these sounds from my For You page because my, it’s just so ultra specific. I’ll say there are like three kinds of voices, like three.

Jess Phillips (30:20.642)
Hahaha

Jess Phillips (30:29.698)
Okay.

santina (30:36.958)
specific people’s voices that do really well like Drewski, Drewski audios they’re always coming out and they’re hilarious uh Tokyo Tony, Black China’s mom every audio that comes out about like from her or from Drewski are usually like uh very out of pocket but not super specific do you know what I mean like they’re never saying anything specific it’s almost just being like

Jess Phillips (30:44.565)
Okay. Yep.

Jess Phillips (31:00.617)
Okay, yes.

santina (31:05.962)
For example, Jouzki is like, not too much, not too much. And so it’s like something that you could really apply to anything, it’s very broad. And the Tokyo Tony one as well. And then.

Jess Phillips (31:14.289)
Sure.

santina (31:19.054)
I’m trying to think of a third person. I don’t know. I think those two are one of our, like those are like really bread and butter, but like we first realized it with Drusky. We’re like, oh my God. Like every sound that comes out from this guy is too good because it’s super broad, but it’s really funny. And he, and he’s always, there’s always like new sounds coming out from him. And then Tokyo Tony was more.

Jess Phillips (31:25.433)
Those two are your main ones.

Jess Phillips (31:38.541)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (31:47.173)
So it’s a good flow, a good flow and very broad. That’s interesting because, I mean, and then how do you think about, how do you take that sound, you say, okay, great, you know, Drusky comes out with a new sound, you’re like, this is a great sound, then how do you, what’s your method for sitting down and like sketching a skit effectively for how that’s going to apply to a plastic surgery practice?

santina (31:50.273)
Yeah.

santina (32:07.754)
Okay, so this is gonna just, I’m selling myself out, but basically, there are certain tropes. I found, that’s the main thing, like when I start managing an account, is to find the tropes in that niche, right? And then basically just go through them, and just mix them. So we use this trope this month, we won’t use it for the last three months.

Jess Phillips (32:15.438)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (32:21.221)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (32:25.05)
Okay.

santina (32:36.93)
So there’s like a couple, there’s obviously the trope of…

santina (32:42.85)
There’s just a bunch. If you look at our account, we like reuse them. So the old man paying for her surgery. There’s the wife getting a procedure that her husband didn’t approve of. There’s the Dr. Miami bullying the man into paying. There’s the me bullying Dr. Miami. There’s the Dr. Miami pleading to the audience for help against me. There’s… And then what I also look for is like…

Jess Phillips (32:55.525)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (33:05.157)
Hehehehe

santina (33:12.662)
what’s happening in pop culture in that week. That’s like another, like when I can think, and so we built also like these storylines, like we built the Kardashian storyline that he has like this ongoing feud with Kris Jenner. And so anytime there’s like anything remote with like the Kardashians or sound, like we can do that. We’ve built this like love that he has for Bad Bunny. So anytime Bad Bunny was trending,

Jess Phillips (33:15.661)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Jess Phillips (33:25.734)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (33:36.454)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (33:41.135)
Yes.

santina (33:42.858)
we hop on that. Anytime there’s kind of like a male celebrity who’s done something stupid, we’re gonna shit on them. So there’s just like these tropes kind of that we go through and then also try to incorporate like whatever’s happening in pop culture and on the For You page that we…

Jess Phillips (34:04.685)
Yeah, that makes sense. So it’s almost like you set up these sort of columns for places that you’re gonna play in. Whatever’s relevant and trending or whatever new sounds come out, that’s what sort of starts the fire, the creative fire. And then you sit down and write them all out. And then are you, I mean, does he, and it sounds like he just willingly participates in kind of whatever you’re coming up with that week. Is that a fair assessment?

santina (34:28.286)
Yeah, so when I first started, he was more like hesitant because he was like, who’s this girl? Like, what the fuck does she know? Da da da. But I’ll say like my fingers are on the pulse. Like I know, like also because I’m like, I’m Gen Z. Again, I’m chronically online. Like I’m like on every platform. So I know like, you know, there are some plastic surgeons that try to do it, not to be like, not to be like that, but there are some.

Jess Phillips (34:32.826)
Right.

Jess Phillips (34:38.065)
I’m gonna go.

Jess Phillips (34:42.21)
Exactly.

santina (34:55.15)
Plastic surgeons are professionals that try to do it like us, but they cross the line. They’re not walking on it or close to it. They’re over it. And it’s like a very, like it’s a very fine line. Like the way you word a POV, like who you have lip syncing it, like it’s very delicate, especially because TikTok is a younger.

Jess Phillips (35:04.401)
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Jess Phillips (35:20.898)
Yes.

santina (35:23.882)
like audience that dissects like they dissect a video and so because I’m a part of the audience like I understand what they’re looking for as well so um but for

Jess Phillips (35:27.949)
Everything. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (35:35.233)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that is a powerful point, because I have said this to many of brands, many clients, agencies, is that social media managers are very powerful. They are immersed in online culture. They know it, they live it, they breathe it, and you have to listen to them as if they are experts in their field, because they really are.

santina (35:57.994)
Yeah, and so at first he was like kind of skeptical. He didn’t really understand. He would give me ideas and I would like kindly turn them down. I’d be like, that’s just not gonna work. And eventually like once we had a couple like go really viral, he’s like, okay, like she knows what she’s doing. Whatever, so now it’s kind of like.

Jess Phillips (36:14.265)
Yeah. Sure. And you do, because you get millions of views on videos. Millions of views.

santina (36:21.222)
Yeah. So we found like what his audience likes to see and like how we should word things and like also there’s there are certain like scandals that we just won’t like there like anything that puts two women against each other we’re never gonna touch because you’re gonna isolate like women like and that’s our entire audience like we don’t we don’t really have male followers but he doesn’t have male patients so

Jess Phillips (36:39.187)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (36:44.313)
Right. Yeah.

santina (36:50.658)
We’re like in women’s world. So when the whole Haley B. vs Lena Gomez thing was going on, I was like, pass. And that’s like, I think some social media managers like don’t get is like not every trend, not every situation can be applied to what you’re doing. Like you really, you have to know your audience.

Jess Phillips (37:13.649)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, know your audience. The audience is all. That’s absolutely the case. And I think you’re smart to kind of walk that line. It’s difficult, though. It’s easier said than done. So kudos to you for you guys figuring that out, right?

santina (37:27.882)
Yeah, well I think it’s way easier, again, if you’re chronically online. Like, that’s the advice I give to like, I also get DMs from like a million businesses or like, you know, people wanting me to manage their shit. And I obviously can’t do it, but I tell them like, get anyone straight out of high school who like has every social media platform and seems somewhat reasonable.

Jess Phillips (37:32.973)
Yes, yeah.

santina (37:53.886)
and test them, like try them out because I’m sure they’re gonna know better than you for sure. Like if you’re looking for help already, like this person’s gonna know more. It’s just finding like a right fit, I guess.

Jess Phillips (38:07.169)
Yeah, totally. I mean, I think you have to, especially if that person’s going to show up in the content, right? If they’re going to be a character in your story, they have to align with…

santina (38:14.111)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (38:18.785)
your brand, your goals, and your voice. It wouldn’t make any sense for Dr. Miami to hire a very quiet, proper, young, whatever person. He needs someone with a lot of personality and a lot of brains, right? So that works well. That’s the combination that you deliver. So I mean, is that like, why do you think people, why do people follow Dr. Miami? Like, what is it?

santina (38:35.918)
Thank you.

Jess Phillips (38:43.533)
What is it about him? Is it the interest in plastic surgery? Is it just the entertaining content? Like, what do you think it is?

santina (38:51.806)
I think it differs on each platform, but for TikTok, I want to say it’s entirely entertainment. We get comments all the time, they’re like, sometimes I forget he’s a plastic surgeon. They don’t even, or some people don’t even think that he’s actually, some people who just stumble across their page think that he’s a character. They don’t think that he’s actually a plastic surgeon. They think he’s just a guy. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (39:02.671)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (39:10.689)
A real one?

Jess Phillips (39:17.585)
Oh, interesting, interesting. Oh, that’s funny.

santina (39:22.506)
I think it’s like entertainment. I think it’s like kind of shocking for like the people who do know that he’s a plastic surgeon. They’re like, what? He’s like fighting with the Kardashians. They follow for like the different storylines that are always going on. I just think it’s like a really funny page. It’s like a skip page almost.

Jess Phillips (39:28.035)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (39:38.193)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (39:43.673)
Yeah, well, it’s under I think you hit it on the head though. It’s entertainment and that is what TikTok and really social move social media has been moving towards entertainment for a while. I think you probably have seen that near and you’re online lurking. It’s just that’s where it’s going. So I think it’s smart that you guys have done that and now tell me you also kind of speaking about trends you guys have just released or launched rather a podcast called Crime and Plastic. So tell me why you decided to launch podcast.

santina (40:13.854)
So the Doctor already had a podcast like years before with this guy Mack who is a radio host here in Miami and it was called Love in Plastic and he actually was doing well when they first launched it was kind of like during his Snapchat time so he plugged it whatever they had like 25,000 subscribers like they were doing well and it was people would also again this is during the time where there’s really no guidelines content guidelines so they would have

Jess Phillips (40:17.529)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (40:21.559)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (40:30.165)
Okay, yeah.

Jess Phillips (40:41.103)
Right.

santina (40:42.602)
like women come on, show like whatever they want for plastic surgery, so like a tummy tuck or arms or butt, whatever. And then Mac, who on the radio gives love advice, would give like the love advice and Dr. May would give the plastic advice. So this podcast company reached out to us and they wanted to start a podcast with us, but with like me and him. But then…

Jess Phillips (40:57.728)
Ah, that’s funny. Okay.

Jess Phillips (41:08.25)
Okay.

santina (41:09.99)
He already had love and plastic, so he was like, why don’t we just revamp love and plastic? And so on a meeting with like Mac, me, Dr. Remy, Rosie, the podcast people, we were talking about love and plastic, but that maybe we can have different segments to switch it up. And Rosie was like, oh, what about true crime and plastic surgery? There’s like a lot of that. Plus, we all love true crime.

Jess Phillips (41:33.909)
Interesting. Yeah, who does it?

santina (41:37.622)
So then we were like, wait, maybe we’ll just do like crime in plastic instead of love in plastic. And then, I don’t know, the podcast company fell off, but we were like, we love this idea. It’s a good idea. Like, we’ll run with it. So they built out a podcast room here on the third floor, which is like where the doctor’s office is, my office, Rosie. We built out the crime in plastic podcast room. And so we’re like, we’ll just do it ourselves. So.

Jess Phillips (41:57.03)
Sure.

Jess Phillips (42:05.121)
Yeah, I love it. That’s cool. How’s it going? Do you feel like, are people coming from TikTok over to the podcast?

santina (42:06.878)
Just bought all this stuff and started recording.

santina (42:18.022)
For sure. People are definitely coming from TikTok and a lot of the feedback I get is like we’re very like novice, like we’re not like true crime, true crime, okay because I also love true crime, is actually really difficult and they have a really difficult audience that like they get mad if you pronounce someone’s middle name wrong. Like they are hyper detailed like

Jess Phillips (42:27.825)
Uh huh. Oh yeah. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (42:35.174)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (42:42.031)
Right.

santina (42:45.962)
And I haven’t seen a lot of pushback. And our stories are like, so far, you know, we’ve researched it ourselves, we’re busy people. Some of the stories are not completely like, to the tee tee, whatever. And I haven’t gotten a lot of pushback. So I would like to think that like, probably our audience are not true crime, like exclusively true crime listeners. And there are people coming from TikTok. From my TikTok, from his TikTok. And they say like,

Jess Phillips (42:55.589)
Sure.

Yeah.

Jess Phillips (43:07.759)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (43:11.853)
Yeah, that would make sense.

santina (43:15.59)
I get DMs, I get comments, they’re like… Like, I listen to the story, but I really come to listen to you, Dr. Miami, and Rosie speak.

Jess Phillips (43:25.913)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cause I mean, that’s what podcasts have made that move more towards conversational anyway. So it’s interesting that you’re kind of, you’re leaning upon something that is interesting, but you’re doing it in your own way. So that’s pretty cool. And do you post a lot of the podcast content on TikTok, like cut downs and stuff?

santina (43:27.222)
So.

santina (43:31.458)
Yeah.

santina (43:37.837)
Yeah.

santina (43:45.45)
We haven’t, but mostly for technical reasons, like our cameras have not been like recording or like the audio is bad. Like we’re just working on a lot of takes. So we posted a couple, we posted like a couple clips from the podcast, but what we have done is done like those kinds of skit, like character sounds in the podcast room with like me, Dr. Remy and Rosie. And then we’ll be like,

Jess Phillips (43:57.687)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (44:06.617)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (44:12.703)
interesting.

santina (44:15.498)
we’ll post that like, oh POV Dr. Mami won’t shut the fuck up while we’re trying to tell the story about and then the caption would be like podcast is out now and then on podcast release dates like i think it’s today tuesday it’s thursdays um we like go on tiktok live and we’re like oh let’s go listen to the podcast we’ve recapped the story from the last week um right now we have like a giveaway going on

Jess Phillips (44:19.481)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (44:25.197)
Yes, okay.

Jess Phillips (44:32.849)
Okay.

Jess Phillips (44:36.837)
Sure.

santina (44:44.522)
So at the end of this season, we’re gonna have like a TikTok live trivia of the art podcast episodes. And then whoever wins the trivia is gonna get free surgery. So it’s definitely like, yeah. Yes.

Jess Phillips (44:52.269)
Oh, interesting. Okay.

Jess Phillips (44:59.285)
Oh wow. Oh that’s huge. Oh my gosh. Oh wow. I’m just going to shut my window. I think there’s some outside sounds that I don’t really want to listen to.

santina (45:11.598)
I like your headphones.

Jess Phillips (45:26.181)
My lights are like all in thing. That’s why the windows normally are open, but someone has decided to take on some yard work today that we don’t really need to. We don’t need to expose the audience to. So we’ll save that for another day. I’m sure a yard work podcast is in the mix somewhere, but not today. Okay, so I have my, I guess my final question for you is…

at least along Dr. Mammy stuff is like, how do you think about cross posting? Right, like what’s your strategy there? Cause it’s your Instagram content and your TikTok content are definitely not the same. I mean, there’s similarities and I do see some stuff, but there’s different content there for sure. And Instagram feels a little lighter.

santina (46:06.254)
So Instagram, we don’t post as much. And we right now have really just been reposting TikToks as reels. But also Instagram, we’re just not fans. Like, because another thing is like, I think Instagram now has moved from…

Jess Phillips (46:20.278)
Okay, that’s fair.

santina (46:30.162)
like instagram is now like they want like take a picture while you’re taking a shit like it’s like trying to be casual it’s kind of like more of an insight into someone’s life which maybe we should be doing but um i don’t know instagram

Jess Phillips (46:36.549)
Mm-hmm.

santina (46:50.774)
just not a fan.

Jess Phillips (46:51.077)
Well, Instagram, I don’t think Instagram is as much entertainment focused as TikTok is, and you guys are clearly very much in that vein. It is. Yeah.

santina (46:56.698)
It’s not, it’s like an influencer app. It’s like, this is like my Sunday dump, you know? And like his Sunday dump is just like, not home, or in the office doing consults. So it’s like a little, it’s a little weird for him. We try to post like before and afters because that’s where his social media really started on Instagram. He was like, I think like in 2012 or something like that.

Jess Phillips (47:04.93)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (47:09.214)
Yeah. Totally.

Jess Phillips (47:24.012)
Okay.

santina (47:24.182)
posting like gallery photos, like before and afters of surgery, but of course now with guidelines and stuff it’s like almost impossible without getting flagged. So we literally have like a graphic designer who like edits bikinis and stuff like that on top of naked bodies, but even those get flagged. Yeah, even those get flagged because we’re like, we’ve already violated their guidelines a million times.

Jess Phillips (47:27.909)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (47:39.182)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (47:43.655)
Oh, interesting. That’s smart. Yeah.

santina (47:52.45)
So we’re like on a high red flag list.

Jess Phillips (47:55.029)
Yeah, so you guys gotta watch what you’re doing. Well, that makes sense. And I don’t think, every platform is not for every brand or every person, so I actually think it’s smart that you guys look at it that way. I don’t think you need to be everywhere all the time. But that’s interesting. Okay, so my final question for you is, you mentioned earlier the other brand, the other company that you manage social with. Are you taking a similar approach to what you do with Dr. Miami for them, and how is it going?

santina (48:06.838)
Yeah.

santina (48:16.683)
Yes.

santina (48:24.854)
So theirs is like, I mean, I think I’m like on month three and I’m still working out the bugs with their audience because on the one hand, okay, so the second company business that I manage is Bellows Film Lab and it’s a photography film lab. They develop, they scan photos, they print them out for you, they sell vintage cameras, whatever, all this stuff. So like…

Naturally, people that would watch that content are like a little more snooty. Like they’re like professionals. They’re very like they’re artistic people like shooting on film cameras and getting like nice images is a very like meticulous task. And they’re kind of like you have to know about ISO and like all these kind of, you know, it’s like a very niche niche.

Jess Phillips (49:00.177)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (49:12.601)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (49:17.09)
Exactly.

santina (49:22.77)
audience but his followers are not those people because his girlfriend is this girl Danny Cleric she’s an interior designer and she decorated all three of his film labs and she has like this very eclectic style and she’s really interesting because she does like these series of decorating these businesses, people’s houses and then people will go follow the business.

So when she first decorated his Miami and Chicago locations, half of his followers were from her. And those people are not really film experts. They’re kind of like film novices. They buy disposables. They buy automatic point-and-shoots, whatever. They’re kind of just there to see the pretty pictures. And then the other half of his followers have been gained.

Jess Phillips (50:00.569)
Hmm. Right.

santina (50:19.714)
through me managing his account. So it’s like a really weird situation that we’re in.

Jess Phillips (50:22.449)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

You’re in like a rebuild. You’re in rebuild mode, right? Where you’re trying to find the audience that he actually needs to talk to versus the audience that he has.

santina (50:29.278)
Yeah.

santina (50:33.85)
Yeah and it’s weird because like he’s also like okay so Bello’s Film Lab is owned by this man Bello and when I joined or whatever their team I asked him like what kind of audience do you want and he doesn’t want the super like he wants film to be accessible to everyone he wants everyone to start shooting film like his dream his goal the reason he opened up the business

Jess Phillips (50:57.659)
Sure.

santina (51:02.058)
is to keep film photography alive and you don’t do that by just catering to the people that are already in it. So he does want like… funny kind of film content, but he also wants like industry specific niche content, which requires me to like really learn. So I’m like still in the learning phase of that, but um our posts that are funny that are like Dr. Miami Santina-esque.

Jess Phillips (51:04.848)
Yeah.

Jess Phillips (51:08.593)
to.

Jess Phillips (51:24.785)
Sure.

santina (51:31.122)
those always do well, like by far, because it’s already, that’s the type of audience that likes that, like are the people who came from me and probably the people who came from Danny Clarick like it too. So when I make like those super like niche specific videos, like they don’t do as well and then he’s kind of like discouraged but I’m like, it’s a part of the growing pains, if that’s the combination you want, so it’s going well.

Jess Phillips (51:38.373)
Sure. Yeah.

Jess Phillips (51:54.177)
It is, yeah.

santina (51:59.362)
Like, there’s definitely progress. The account is absolutely doing better than it was before. I just started managing his Instagram, like a month ago. No, the Bellows Film Lab Instagram, which is actually, his is nice. Like, I like managing that Instagram because it’s a photography, like you have, yeah, like we just repost photos that we’ve developed and scanned.

Jess Phillips (52:00.166)
Good.

Jess Phillips (52:08.717)
Oh, his personal Instagram. Oh wow, interesting.

Ah, okay.

Jess Phillips (52:20.545)
Yeah, exactly. Instagram is the place for that. Yeah.

santina (52:29.43)
we like will post like informational kind of like TikTok reels and those get pushed on Instagram well. But it’s funny because like the same content that niche content will do really good on Instagram and not well on TikTok.

Jess Phillips (52:37.401)
Mm-hmm.

Jess Phillips (52:44.825)
Yeah, but that makes sense, right? Because TikTok’s about entertainment. So people aren’t necessarily as interested, or like if you’re doing educational content, it’s gotta be like what they call like edutainment, right? Where it’s like, yeah, you’re learning something, but in an entertaining fashion. But I think that, you know, Instagram is a really…

santina (52:47.756)
Yeah.

santina (52:55.743)
Yes.

Jess Phillips (53:01.837)
It’s a really great spot. And you guys actually should check out Pete McKinnon. I don’t know if he shoots on film or not, but Peter McKinnon, he’s a huge Instagram influencer camera dude. So he might be fun for you guys to collab with. I know we’ve done some stuff with him in the past, but that’s interesting. Well, I am excited to just kind of follow along and see how that journey of transitioning from one audience type to another audience type goes, because that’s a heavy lift for a social media manager.

santina (53:11.468)
Okay.

santina (53:16.494)
Peter McKenna.

Jess Phillips (53:31.751)
It’s definitely something that can be done, but you’re right, it does take time. And so we’ll have to check back in with you to see how it’s going in a couple of months. But hey, Santina, it was great to talk to you. I appreciate your time. It was so much fun. And we will all be tuning into Dr. Miami’s TikTok to see how things are going.

santina (53:37.986)
Yes!

santina (53:51.498)
Thank you, Jess. This was great. Thank you for having me. I can’t wait for the episode.

Jess Phillips (53:54.829)
Yeah, absolutely. All right.

 

 

 

 

 

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