The HAWK TUAH Effect: Are You Ready To Face Virality? ft. Haliey Welch

[00:00:00] The HAWK TUAH Effect I don't know where you're going with that, but it sounds interesting. That one phrase out of a 15 minute interview was the thing that resonated and generated all this attention. At the end of the day, it's like how do we translate into business?

[00:00:14] Now you have a privilege and you have maybe a responsibility to lead in front of many people that are giving you their attention. I think that is part of creating content, right? It's taking a stand and sharing your opinions without trying to please everybody.

[00:00:29] Everybody's assumptions were completely wrong and it shows how modern media today manipulates information and how they put stuff out there that is fake. Would you damage your health to that extent to create that story, that traction? What are we giving fame? What are we giving a platform to?

[00:00:46] Are you ready to be viral? Sorry about the rant. Hey guys, welcome back to Content Is Profit. Today's fun topic, the HAWK TUAH Effect. Fonster, why are you laughing? Do you even know where I'm going with this?

[00:01:08] I don't know where you're going with that but it sounds interesting. Yeah, do you know what the HAWK TUAH Effect is or the HAWK TUAH? Of course, I feel like everybody has seen that meme. Yes and if you haven't, here is a clip.

[00:01:21] What's one move in bed that makes a man go crazy every time? Oh, you gotta give him that HAWK TUAH and spit on that thing. Okay, now that we all know... What are you laughing at? So, here's the clip. And then a little pause so it's perfect.

[00:01:38] Yeah, exactly. Okay, HAWK TUAH. For those that obviously just watched the clip, this girl goes to be massive on the internet, right? She becomes an instant sensation. Nobody knows why, the reasons, maybe you come with your own thoughts, whatever.

[00:01:59] But then after this clip goes viral from these influencers, I guess, YouTube video, she disappears so a ton of media is telling rumors about who she is, what the dad does, what she does. Everybody's trying to find this girl.

[00:02:18] And then a few weeks later, she shows up and she does an interview with one of the shows from Barstool. There's like a 15 minute interview. Obviously it goes mega viral, they got the first dibs on talking to her.

[00:02:36] And in that first interview, she kind of explains who she is. And everybody's assumptions were completely wrong. And it shows how modern media today manipulates information and how they put stuff out there that is fake.

[00:02:49] She basically said everything that's been out there, said about me is completely fake and is getting out of hand, right? And part of it is like the question I really want to ask Fonsi today or in general if you're listening, are you ready to face virality, right?

[00:03:09] To become viral, in a sense. And after she did that interview, she clarifies everything that she wants. And there was a thing that happened after how she's planning to handle this stuff and I think it's really interesting, right?

[00:03:21] But initial thoughts Fonsi, do you follow the story at all? Not really. I didn't really care. I mean obviously I saw the meme because it showed up and then obviously everybody under mother repurposes in a way to be able to use it.

[00:03:35] And then the best repurpose I will say was the F1, Formula One, about Max Verstappen. I think that was hilarious. There's some pretty sick mixes in there with songs and stuff. Yeah, which is pretty funny.

[00:03:47] But to your comment, I think the type of content where that came off is somebody was doing interviews in the streets, they pulled this girl out and then they asked some questions and she said that comment, right? And I think obviously when people is funny, right?

[00:04:03] To an extent and some people think it's kind of like sad to another extent, right? Obviously it's a pretty sexual comment, the one that she's making. But I think what causes the reaction for people is the fact that nobody knows who she is for a while.

[00:04:20] So that leaves that curiosity, right? If you go in the comments of like the memes, people are always like who is she? Like what's her ad? Like trying to find who this girl is.

[00:04:29] Sadly, I will say it's because probably a lot of people are like sexualizing her and like trying to find if she has like some sort of only fans or something like that, right?

[00:04:40] Which I think makes her more of an internet sweetheart in a way because people realize that she doesn't have, you know, that sort of platform, but it's more of like a regular country type of girl, right?

[00:04:56] That is doing this in a funny way and it becomes she becomes an internet sweetheart of a way. So people, you know, it builds more curiosity around her. Like whoa, like she doesn't do this. Like now who she is, right?

[00:05:10] Like people want to know on that curiosity, that gap between that meme and maybe that interview, right? Or all the other things that she has done now. I think it increases the curiosity on people knowing what to do.

[00:05:24] Now, does a person like her deserves a platform, deserves, you know, all the hype and all the stuff. I think that's argument for another day. I don't think necessarily for the little that I've seen that, you know, she's a bad person or anything, right?

[00:05:41] Actually, for what I've seen, she looks more like somebody that has some pretty solid values, right? What I do found funny is how the internet culture raises people for this simple joke, right? And gives them so much of a platform and I'm saying in a way, right?

[00:06:04] I've seen some other clips where they have they have her at parties and concerts and all that stuff. And, you know, I think from now on, we'll see what she's about and what those values are about and how she uses her platform.

[00:06:16] I think that's going to be very important, right?

[00:06:18] On how is she used use her platform just for her own personal profit and benefit or is she going to use a platform for, you know, any other bigger cause that she might believe in and try to help people, etc. Who knows, right?

[00:06:33] But I think that's in a way what makes her this kind of like inner internet sweetheart virality, right?

[00:06:40] The fact that people are still trying to discover who she is and it's not somebody with, you know, maybe a very polemic platform like only fans selling, you know, explicit content.

[00:06:52] That some people might be like, well, like, all right, you're giving a platform to somebody, you know, that is causing some sort of controversy with, you know, the way they make a living. I think it's very, very interesting, right?

[00:07:04] Obviously, I think this also talks a lot about the culture, right? Like, who are we racing? What are we giving fame? What are we giving a platform to? I think that is very, very interesting.

[00:07:15] Sadly, you know, majority of the population, like they look for that sort of entertainment. I feel, you know, not everybody is into the personal development and all these things, you know, so that's a bigger debate.

[00:07:27] I think it's very interesting, but I'm very curious to see the part of the story that I'm more curious about is to see where this girl now takes her newly found fame, right? Where does she take her newly found influence if she has some?

[00:07:42] I'm very curious to see what she's going to do with it. You know, hopefully some positive things. But also, this is what you're gonna be talking a little bit here about, but you know, now she has some sort of management company behind her managing her.

[00:07:56] Imagine, you know, PR all these things. So is there gonna be some negative influence in there of what they're gonna, you know, book her on and, you know, potentially influence her to do, right? Because of profit's sake. I'm curious to see how this story developed.

[00:08:15] But to answer your original question, I think I deviated a little bit there, right? Am I prepared for this sort of virality and influence and all that stuff? Me personally, I could care less. Right?

[00:08:27] I think I actually made a post not too long ago on Facebook, I think it was right, which was the dichotomy of working on social media, right? Or or wanting a successful podcast without wanting the fame because for me personally, like I enjoy the content creation process. Right?

[00:08:49] I enjoyed the research. I enjoy sharing my opinions. But I'm like, I don't really want to be on the public eye for too many people. Right? I want community. I think that's important, right? But I don't want the virality.

[00:09:04] So me personally, I'm like, I don't really know how I would deal with this. Now, it is something that if you're putting yourself out there, it is meant to happen. Right? You can become viral one of these days, right?

[00:09:20] Because of X piece of content that you put in my cost of reaction for some sorts. And at that point, I think you might have to reconsider, right? Like what are your priorities going back to what we talk about? Right?

[00:09:33] Like now that you have the attention of so many people, so I think you do have some sort of a duty, right? On the message that you're sharing with people. Of course, if you have a business, you're going to try to maximize that attention, right? Towards your business.

[00:09:48] Hopefully it's a legitimate and, you know, viable business that is doing some good in the world. But at the end of the day, you know, that specific type of virality that this girl got, I think it'd be kind of rough.

[00:10:04] I would be, I think I'll be annoyed first. I'll be like, oh man, now I got all these people's attention. But at the same time, you know, we have a client recently. I was on a call with him and he mentioned something too.

[00:10:16] We were doing a workshop for his other clients and he, you know, he mentioned something that really resonated. He's just like, look, you're in a position as much as you don't want to deal with certain things and lead others.

[00:10:27] And he said this to one of his clients, like you're in a position of leadership. Like that is a benefit that you get, right? That is a privilege that you get to be a leader in front of other people.

[00:10:40] And you have to take the responsibility and take these actions. And I think if virality comes to you for a topic like this one's of source and you're being given a platform, now you have the privilege, right? It's perspective at the end of the day.

[00:10:54] You can see it as, oh man, I want to hide. I don't want this virality, which kind of sounds like the comment that I pretty much said earlier.

[00:11:01] But at the same time, I do believe that is a well now you have a privilege and you have maybe a responsibility to lead in front of many people that are giving you their attention. Right? Does that mean you're going to lose some of the virality?

[00:11:15] I'm sure as soon as you take a stand and talk about your values and virtues and whatever you stand for, you're going to lose a lot of the audience. But at the same time, I think that is part of creating content, right?

[00:11:28] It's taking a stand and sharing your opinions without trying to please everybody. Sorry about the rant. Yeah, you were scared that you had nothing to say, Fonzie. Hey, I told you I asked the right questions.

[00:11:43] Look guys, at the end of the day, we've dealt with a lot of content creators over the last five years. I don't think we attract the people that want to be viral online.

[00:11:55] I don't think that's our deal relationship or partners that we work with, but it does come up. We've had a couple of clips that have gone a little bit viral.

[00:12:05] I think one reached about 9 million views in one of our clients and they elevated a lot of the content. It's funny, I think I'm more convinced that that has nothing to do with the success of your business or your message reaching the right people.

[00:12:20] Just seeing it firsthand, it kind of debunks all that and it comes to a spot where you're like, you know what? Maybe a smaller platform might be better. For example, we had a conversation with a creator in a company, right?

[00:12:32] She came to a studio, recorded three interviews here. Amazing, right? And she focuses on helping people with small audiences and they create this incredible impact with their businesses. Now, a couple lessons I kind of grabbed from obviously this whole experience with, and her name is Haley, right?

[00:12:50] With the Hock to a Girl. After she disappears, I think, and seeing the story kind of played out a bit, is one we can't control what goes viral. This girl was out there in Broadway Street in Nashville.

[00:13:03] She got interviewed by these two guys after a night of party and then she said these things, right? And obviously the interview is a little bit longer, but you can't control that.

[00:13:12] That was the thing that was going to go viral with the internet and all these people kind of putting attention on it, remixing in the modern media world, right? Like this wave of attention that came up here, right?

[00:13:27] The other lesson is at the end of the day, it's like how do we translate into business, right? So for you, if we're not putting content out there, we'd never know what's going to resonate.

[00:13:34] For that audience, which you mentioned, is that really the content that we're consuming as Americans or in the world? Really, like before your audience, like if we're not putting content out there, if we're not putting our thoughts out there consistently and frequency,

[00:13:49] we're never going to find what really resonates. In that specific case, that one phrase out of a 15 minute interview was the thing that resonated and generated all this attention. Now, the second point is she took her time to kind of react to this, right?

[00:14:02] She kind of went back to her home. She didn't make public appearances right away. She denied everything that was happening, almost like Radio Silence, right? Until they finally found where she lives. She lives in a very small town, 700 people she said, right?

[00:14:17] And her whole family was with her. But she really took her time to make the decisions of like what's next? Like how can we, obviously if you come across something like that, it could be a blessing in disguise as well.

[00:14:29] So in her case, I think she took her time to decide like what's the blessing or what's the thing that she wants to create out of this, right? So that, you know, through that interview, she decided to shoot first and later, right?

[00:14:40] So she says, hey, we're in a bunch of podcasts tours with the biggest podcast in the country. And we're going to talk about this experience, share a little bit of who I am and then go from there. And the person asks her, so what's the plan?

[00:14:54] Are you monetizing this? Are you creating some kind of platform? Are you selling merch? You know, at the time, I think she partnered with like a local person that does like T-shirts and hats. And this guy was doing the shirt.

[00:15:04] And she's like, that's the only thing that I endorse anything else is not me. And I'm just really going around talking and seeing what comes out of this in a way. But what's absolutely for real is that she's going to be herself.

[00:15:17] And that's what she says, like, what you saw there, that's me. You know, my dad is not mad at me. You know, they know what I say. They know what, you know, how I am.

[00:15:25] And the time of this recording, I think her social media was only her only social media page is Instagram. She has 12 posts and 1.6 million followers, right? And on her post is just her explaining who she is, her regular life and maybe a couple of experiences that she's had.

[00:15:43] Right? So again, shoot first and later her shooting is just starting to put content out there. And she's starting to go on this podcast interview. She's going to share who she is. And I'm sure opportunities of some sort are going to come her way.

[00:15:56] And at the end of the day, the fourth point that I want to kind of bring home is just be yourself. Like what I've seen with a long form content, which by the way, you can see authentically who that person is, right?

[00:16:08] Because in a short can get out of context. But if you're having an interview, you can actually see, you know, the way that they talk, the way that they react to certain things. She's completely being herself. And I think she's like grabbing onto her values really well, right?

[00:16:22] She's not letting all this kind of get into her head. So I think that's really interesting because then if we flip that for our businesses, right?

[00:16:30] Are we going to stay, you know, stick to our stick to our values even though something, you know, goes out of our like, are we going to serve the wrong customer? Are we going to do the wrong product?

[00:16:40] Are we going to, you know, lower the quality control of the items because we need to keep up with demand?

[00:16:46] Like what are these things or these consequences of our I've seen so many cases, for example, with like Shopify or, you know, a product might go viral right on Tiktok, for example. And then all this vendor gets like inundated with orders, right?

[00:17:00] From the regular person that might be a blessing. But on the back end was causing that right? Like it's costing a lot of stress. Maybe they can't fulfill right? Some people are going to get disappointed. Like there's some negative that comes into it.

[00:17:13] So how do we manage all this? Right. So I think this is something that as a creator and as business owners, we have to be aware is like, do we actually want to go viral?

[00:17:23] Do we want to sustain, you know, a steady growth year after year in whatever you're measuring right on your social media's on your content on your business itself bottom line at the end of the day? Right.

[00:17:34] And I think to keep that in context is super important for for business owners. So hopefully, you know, the people are listening to us, you know, are not chasing that crazy virality like that. Maybe I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm wrong. Tell me.

[00:17:48] Yeah, I think chasing virality just for the sake of fame is definitely not the way to go. But I think again, that's a reference of many people, right? A lot of reference people is like, well, if I, you know, if I'm famous, I'll have it all.

[00:18:03] And they don't really think down the line what those actions can, you know, what can I create on all that stuff. So I'm curious to see how this story develops.

[00:18:13] I will say I think I'm glad that the joke came from like this country girl that seems to have values, you know, and hopefully, you know, does something pretty good with her platform rather than, you know, not to criticize but some other personality that

[00:18:30] might they might not be promoting, you know, the most of healthy things and all that stuff. Yeah. So I'm excited to see what turns out of her story.

[00:18:40] You know, maybe something limited, maybe something that, you know, she'll just have this fame for a couple months, maybe a year or two. And then she'll go back and disappear.

[00:18:48] She'll make enough money to, you know, probably retire herself, her family, you know, start some business, whatever it is. But that's everything she's going to take advantage of this situation that she's in right now for, you know, her own future. I think it's interesting to see. Yeah.

[00:19:07] I love it. As last thoughts, I mean, yes, I saw this report on an influencer. I can't remember the name exactly, but he's a food influencer, right? That he started here, you know, food, food. Oh, you said foot. Just food. What type of content are you?

[00:19:23] Are you watching over here? Research purposes. But he started, you know, being a normal guy, right? And his channel was all about eating fast food. And he became like really obese, really big, right? To the point that he was probably going to die soon. Wow.

[00:19:41] And but he became super massive. He was like outrageous with his content showing his like big belly all the time going grocery. Like it was, it's not my type of content. Like that's something that I probably wouldn't follow.

[00:19:54] And then this guy was saying, okay, now he started reverting that process to where he's trying to become healthier. And, you know, change his habits.

[00:20:05] So a lot of people see kind of the story of like, okay, the rise of this like crazy food, you know, very big obese influencer to now the transformation, right?

[00:20:15] And the person that was doing their report was like, okay, was this like the game all along to where they built that persona, they built this to build that fame to build, you know, to make the amount of money.

[00:20:28] I think they reported that he bought an apartment, it's like a $2.3 million apartment, right? To where he's already financially free. And then now he's like, okay, time to switch it. I'm going to go back to normal and maybe hide, you know, forever because they're financially set.

[00:20:43] I thought it was a pretty interesting concept and idea. That's rough. Very crazy. Would you damage your health to that extent, you know, to create that story, that traction, you know, for the sake of I guess profits to an extent or freedom, right?

[00:21:02] Because now that he has potentially time and resources and money, right? He can potentially do his own thing. That was just an opinion by the way. So this is not, I'm not sure if that's 100% accurate. It's an opinion, but I thought it was an interesting thing.

[00:21:16] It reminds me of fit to fat to fit, right? The trainer that he was super fit. But then he said that people couldn't relate to him because he's always been in a fairly good shape. So he gained weight to then lose it again.

[00:21:32] And I thought that was super interesting, right? Like great. Obviously it's a great marketing campaign and he can prove that he can do it and he can show it to others. Yeah.

[00:21:41] My only concern, me personally would be like when you let your health and this is obviously this is a little bit of a scarcity mindset up a deal. But you know, when you let your health go down like that, right?

[00:21:54] Like you're ruining your health for the sake of a marketing prop. Like there's other things that arise, right? Like your mindset also changed. Probably some of your habits have to change for you to put on that much weight and all this stuff.

[00:22:08] And maybe those are things that you don't really think about at the beginning when you're like, oh, I'm just going to gain some weight for XYZ purposes. Yeah. Right? But then you have this like second order of challenges that arise.

[00:22:23] And then my mind is like the fear I guess is can you actually reverse that, right? Well, I don't think, you know. It's kind of scary to be like, what if he stays like that for the rest of his life?

[00:22:33] I mean, clearly this guy didn't, you know, fit to fat to fit. I was fit and stay fat. So, you know, it's whatever. No, but I mean jokes aside at the end of the day, I think it's like he believes in his product, right?

[00:22:46] Like he believes 100% that he's good to go do that. And clearly he did it. So at the end of the day, you know, maybe that's not the thing that you the path that you want to go on to.

[00:22:54] But you're like, look, you know, we're going to commit the next as a business the next two or three years to do. X or to create this way. It's like, for example, Duolingo, we talked about this in the past, right?

[00:23:05] Duolingo has an incredible campaign where yeah, non apologetic with their social media is going crazy. I mean, imagine the decision of this big corporate organization and the COB like guess what?

[00:23:16] We're gonna be, we're gonna do jokes and we're gonna tell people off and we're gonna say bad words and all these things on social media to create all distraction. I mean, that's a pretty bossy move.

[00:23:26] It's like, okay, what in the eyes of the public opinion is that not gonna be the right choice? It's not gonna be the runches at the end of the day.

[00:23:33] But I'm sure the conviction of their product and what they, you know, the value that they provide to their audience at the end of the day. It's like who cares what everybody says. I am convinced that I can deliver on this.

[00:23:43] And I think obviously as a personal as an influencer, like if you decide to do something with your own body, I think you have to be super comfortable with yes, I can endure this change. Yeah, that's my main thing.

[00:23:55] You know, like I agree with you when you're talking about brand and I mean, you shouldn't care too much on what other people are thinking, right? Like you have your values, you know who you're talking to, you know the message that you want to deliver.

[00:24:07] And you stick with that. What I'm saying is like you, like you mentioned, right? Like the repercussions of maybe putting your own physical health, right on the line like that without thinking on like second order of, you know, consequences that can come down the line.

[00:24:23] You know, after a year of putting on weight like crazy. And then you know what would happen, right? But again, if I like to think I like to think there's some containers where, you know, they if this is planned, right?

[00:24:37] Or if that situation was planned, you have containers where, you know, you may be talking to a psychologist, you might be talking to a nutritionist, right? And they have the resources to do so. They might have some containers in there and again, just like your business, right?

[00:24:51] Whatever decision that you're going to make whether it's content or business decision, right? There might be some containers be like we're going to test this out. Like we talked about the theories, right?

[00:24:58] Like is a hypothesis we're going to test this out for two weeks, three weeks a month. And guess what? If you know we consider that worked perfect. We continue. Is that healthy for the business? Right? We've heard so many stories of startups that grew too fast, right?

[00:25:12] For example, right? And then they they are out of business because they grew too fast. But I think we're like deviating a little bit from the topic. But fascinating stuff, man. Are you ready to be viral? I think I'm not ready to be viral. Same thing.

[00:25:26] I agree with Fancy. I might be a little bit more outgoing, but I don't, you know, I don't want paparazzi in front of my house. Terrifies me. So you won't be getting any hug to it from us.

[00:25:35] And I think the, the, I think the bonds for me is use build our community, right? Like if virality will help me build the right community, I'm open for it. Right? It's like, sure. Make me viral.

[00:25:52] So then I can, you know, with my message and my values and what I stand for filter the people that really resonate with it and they stay in my community and everybody else leaves. I'm down for it, right?

[00:26:05] But, you know, maybe going viral for the wrong reasons and, and trying to keep up with that virality and that fame, like that, that me personally, that's not my thing. Right? But it's again, more as a business owner too.

[00:26:17] You want to build your tribe, build your community and find the people that you can serve. See, awesome. Guys, with that said, thank you so much for tuning into the contest profit podcast. Go ahead and follow the show in your favorite podcasting platform and on social media at

[00:26:31] Beast Bros Cup. That is running today's episode. Help you move one step closer towards your goal. Please don't forget to share this episode and look us around and join our community. Let's go. Let's go. See ya. Bye guys.