Episode 181: What Happens After Your Content Goes Viral with Tik Tok & Instagram Comedian, Andrea Lopez
Picture this: the reel you posted of your Kourtney Kardashian impression of ordering an iced matcha goes viral...now what?
In Erin’s final episode with Andrea Lopez, you’ll learn what it’s like for your content to go viral, what to do as a result, and how to continue to build your online community.
If you’re interested in building your social media presence—or using laughter to change the course of your day—then this episode is for you.
ICYMI – Your Post-Episode Homework: Share joy with someone else today. Whether that’s sharing this episode with someone, watching one of Andrea’s Tik Toks and sending it in your group chat, or creating something of your own and sharing it with a friend—it’s up to you. But know that the joy you share will find its way back to you.
Connect with Andrea:
Follow Andrea on Instagram
Follow Andrea on Tik Tok
Listen to Andrea’s podcast, Big Wigs
Check out Andrea’s website
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Connect with Erin Diehl:
@itserindiehl on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter
Connect with Erin Diehl:
Email Erin: info@learntoimproveit.com
Erin Diehl is the founder and Chief “Yes, And” officer of improve it! and host of the improve it! Podcast. She’s a performer, facilitator and professional risk-taker who lives by the mantra, “get comfortable with the uncomfortable.” Through a series of unrelated dares, Erin has created improve it!, a unique professional development company that pushes others to laugh, learn and grow. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Groupon, Deloitte, Motorola, Walgreens, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award.
This graduate from Clemson University is a former experiential marketing and recruiting professional as well as a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater, and The Annoyance Theatre.
When she is not playing pretend or facilitating, she enjoys running and beach dates with her husband and son, and their eight-pound toy poodle, BIGG Diehl.
You can follow the failed it! podcast on Instagram @learntoimproveit and facebook, and you can follow Erin personally on Instagram @keepinitrealdiehl here. You can also check out improve it! and how we can help your organization at www.learntoimproveit.com. We can’t wait to connect with you online!
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Episode 181 Transcription
Erin (00:00):
Welcome to the Improve It Podcast,
Erin (00:10):
Improve It peeps. I am thrilled to bring you part three of this three part series with Andrea Lopez. If you have not listened to episode 1 79 or 180 of this show, do yourself a favor. Go back and listen to those two episodes. She is bringing so much joy to this show, so much laughter, and so much positivity and so many great nuggets of wisdom. Today we're talking all about what happens when your content goes viral, what happens after the fact, and just given some more insight into some special projects Andrea has going on that I think you'll find quite interesting. If you like this show, let's get to improving it with Andrea Lopez. Let me ask you this. So this, this is a question that I really love. You've had several, many, many videos go viral. Do you know how many that you have had?
Andrea (01:16):
I don't know how many, but because I don't really treat it, I, I treated the first couple, of course, like humongous milestones in my, in my career. I was like, okay, this is huge. I'm gonna use this. But I, I couldn't say an actual number. I would say it's a good handful, definitely. Yeah, but I, I'm not saying that like a show Boaty way, I'm saying that like I have no idea how they went viral, but they did. And <laugh>, it depends on what you do with it.
Erin (01:43):
Yes. Okay, <laugh>, so it's, and I asked this question because I wanted to, I wanted to ask you, and I love this cuz you sort of teed me up for this one. What happens after your videos go viral? What do you do? Like, what is the next step?
Andrea (02:00):
Well, Jesus comes down from the clouds and he has a whole come to Jesus moment. He hands you a check for a million dollars and he says, go do whatever you want. Your life is complete.
Erin (02:09):
Yes, yes. Uhhuh, <affirmative>,
Andrea (02:11):
Uhhuh <affirmative>. You, you pack your bags up and you, and you head on over your yellow brick, yellow brick road and you're like, to the magic land. No, honestly not a dingle dangle thing. You go viral, a couple of your, your friends reach out to you and go, girl, you were on my four you page. It's crazy. You're like, girl, I know I haven't spoken to you in three years. Like, how you doing? And then you, you, you, you actually reconnect with a lot of your old friends and they're like, wait, I'm so sorry that we lost touch. Do you wanna get lunch? And then you have to like, turn down a lot of like rando lunch dates. But yes, <laugh>.
Andrea (02:43):
But yes. It, it is, it is really cool. I think the best part is reading the comments. You're start, you're starting to building an audience, right? So you're starting to build this huge community. So the best thing to do is respond to the comments, use the comments. Sometimes people will even prompt you with other content they want you to make. Use that, that's free content, do it, people are gonna love it. And then you just start building off of like what that first video is. The, the one big thing I realized with social media is they kind of group you into something. So I went viral for my Courtney Kardashian impression, and since then the biggest amount of prompts I get are for Courtney. I don't hate it, but it is really hard to get away from that once they've kind of keyed you into like what that is.
Andrea (03:23):
But lucky for me, I still like doing my Courtney, I've just been doing it for so long. So it's, it's just u utilizing that community you've built and, and using it towards something else. So give them somewhere to go, give them a website, give them a YouTube channel, give them a podcast. Or if you have a show coming up, you're a comedian. Use that and garner all of their attention and be like, Hey, I'm gonna be in your city next week. Come to my show. So it just, it's this, once again, coming back to me not knowing any science terms. It's like the one one energy thing. You hit a ball and then like three balls later the ball hits. You just gotta give a place for the energy to go and, and herd the, the, the cows to, you know, get them to go somewhere. So you gotta give them a, an end goal. So I think a lot of that, I started a podcast I'm starting to do more one woman show things. I'm writing my one woman show and I'm hoping that I'll be able to use my community to go and, and watch me in real time, not on a screen anymore.
Erin (04:20):
Yes. Okay. And your podcast is called Big Wigs, is that right? Mm-Hmm.
Andrea (04:25):
<Affirmative> Big Wigs podcast.
Erin (04:26):
Big Wigs podcast, which I'm so here for, just so you know. I love a good wig. I have a wig bit, I'm sitting in a closet. Yes. And above my head I have a, a bin filled with wigs, <laugh>.
Andrea (04:36):
I absolutely love it. I'm right there with you.
Erin (04:38):
Okay. Now, so, and this is with your friend who also is an impressionist? She does. Is she the one that does the Chris?
Andrea (04:47):
She, she's the Chris to my coordinate. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Erin (04:49):
Okay. Okay. This is so fun. And how did the two of you meet?
Andrea (04:53):
So she's an incredible performer. Her name is Anna Roseman, and she's also just like a, a creator loves starting new things. She's got her hands in a lot of different baskets as well. You know, she, she does acting, she's a celebrity host or like a, you know, a a media host. She sings, she and, and also loves doing Impressions. And the way we met was she invited me on her podcast which she used to do. I think it, she, she paused it, but it was a show about it's called Unemployed. And she would have people on there that kind of were self-employed and didn't have a job in the pandemic and wanted to talk about like, what they're doing now and crazy jobs they've had in the past. So that's how we met. And she started doing impressions. I noticed her social media and I was like, girl, we gotta, we gotta get together and we gotta do some stuff.
Andrea (05:38):
So we started hanging out more and more and we just had so much fun. And then she started working on a Chris Jenner, and once that started, we were off to the races. So we, we now get together, you know, once she, she's bi coastal, lives in la has a, still has a place in New York. So I'm in New York. Whenever she comes to New York, we get together and we make funny videos. And we both were always guests on these really great shows for our impressions. And we thought, girl, what a, we need our own show. Like we, yes, we, we wanna expand on this. So we created the show Big Wigs, which is, you know, you're a big wig in your life. Fake it to you, make it kind of mentality until you are truly that big wig. There's a lot of wigs involved. So it's got that play on the word wig. And we do a lot of hot takes as celebrities on the show. We do prank halls and it's truly just started, we're on episode 13, so it's a fresh new little baby project, but we're having fun with it and we'll see where it goes. It's, it's another thing to, to put your time into and have a lot of fun with.
Erin (06:37):
Oh my God. Okay, well, everybody needs to check it out. Big wigs. We'll link, we'll link to your podcast in our podcast show notes, <laugh>. And we, and you have to listen to it because I, I checked it out and it is so fun. You are so brilliant, and I hope that you keep sharing this joy with the world. So tell people, if they wanna find you, Andrea, where can they find you? Where can they do all the things?
Andrea (06:59):
Find me at Andrea Lopez comedy on Instagram and TikTok. And if you're anywhere near the New York City area, I'm doing a sketch show April 14th and 15th, which is coming up really soon. I'm not even sure when this will be released, but if you're, if you wanna come to a really fun sketch show with voices and fun characters that's coming up. And then otherwise, every week, every Thursday big week's podcast.
Erin (07:20):
Oh my God. All right, thank you so much for being here. You are a light and a de delight and thank you to Courtney Kardashian, Sophia Vara, and also Jennifer Coolidge for making a guest appearance. This was amazing. Thank you. Oh,
Andrea (07:34):
Thank you so much, Erin, for all your sweetness and your good questions. And yeah, whenever you need a celebrity to stop by, you know, you can have your, your wish.com, your Craigslist celebrities. Come on, come on down. That's me.
Erin (07:47):
I'm here for it. It's not Angie's List, it's Andrea's List. Okay, <laugh>
Andrea (07:53):
Sounds great.
Erin (08:03):
Improve It peeps. There you have it. This three, three-part series. I am sad to say with Andrea Lopez has come to a close. She has brought me laughter, she has brought me levity, she has made my cheeks hurt from laughing, and I hope she did the same for you. So if this three-part series did not make you want to reconnect to that inner child, do things that bring you joy, I don't know what else to do. I, I want you to enjoy these episodes. Laugh. This is, you know, we don't really have a ton of comedians come on the show, even though we use improv as our art form. But what Andrea reminded me in these three part series episodes was laughter can change the course of your day. If you remember her saying that in her childhood, her mom owned a at home daycare center, and that's really what helped her develop and realize that play being playful is a way more joyous way to live.
Erin (09:11):
And she chooses it every day. I want you to choose to connect to your inner child today. Find something today that brings you joy. Maybe it was the show, and I want you to share that joy with somebody else. So maybe you share the show with a friend. Maybe you watch one of Andrea's videos on Instagram or TikTok and share that with a friend. Or perhaps you create something of your own and share that with a friend. I know you can do it. I'm so here for you. I'm so proud of you. Keep failing. Keep improving because this world needs that very special it that only you can bring. I'll see you next time. Hey, friend, did you enjoy today's show? If so, head on over to iTunes to rate and subscribe. So you never miss an episode. Now, did I mention that when you leave a five star review of the Improve It Podcast, an actual team of humans does a happy dance? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. That's right. So leave a review for us on iTunes, screenshot it, and send me an email at info learn to improve it.com. I'll send you a personalized video back as a thank you. Thanks so much for listening. Improve It Peeps. I'll see you next Wednesday.