I want to thank all of my supporters across all my platforms for the tremendous and genuine support. I am so glad to have you all along with me in my journey. Thank you for listening!! Cocoahontis xoxo
Cocoa’s Cup
episode 24: 100k
(upbeat music) - Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Coco's Cup, where I'm your host, Coco Hantes, and I'm so grateful that you are here. Okay girl, thank you so much, okay. Today's episode, I'm gonna say that it'll be a little bit short. No, it's not, okay, I changed my mind, girl. But I wanted to talk about hitting 100,000 followers. OMG, isn't that huge? It feels so huge to me, it feels so unreal, because if you've been following me from the beginning, you know that I, okay, let me backtrack. I've had TikTok since it was, what was it, musically, right? And I didn't post publicly until about two years ago, and I had about maybe 300 followers for the longest time. And so I was in that TikTok jail, where you get like 200 views maximum, and I never had a video that blew up. Most of my followers were just people that knew me in person, or I don't even know if they're real people, like it kind of felt like bots. Of course, people don't necessarily have to engage with my content, they don't have to comment, but the likes would be there, and that would be nice. And I did that for a while, and I started posting more intentionally, so if you look back at my videos from two years ago, you'll see what I'm talking about. So I did things like reviews, my makeup, get ready with me, which is things that I all still do. Not so much the reviews part, but I did a lot of day in my lives, come get my nails done with me. I did a lot of slide shows and things like that, or showing pictures, showing my outfit, and that was the premise of my account, right? I did nothing that was out of the ordinary. And then, my content just kind of changed around February of last year of 2023, and I started posting get ready with me, but I was talking, and my audience for the most part was just my closest friends that I had, and some coworkers at work. And it's interesting, because the very first video that blew up, I think had maybe 2 million views, and it was insane. So the 2 million views came over a couple of months, but when that video blew up, I went from 300 followers to about 7,000, and then I really blew up on the 4th of July. I hit 10,000 followers, and it was so insane, because that was not something that I was expecting, especially from a content that I was making, where I was just being myself, and I was making these get ready with me videos, and I was talking about issues that I was having, and they were pretty personal, and at first I was really nervous, because I knew that there's people that know me in real life that have access to my parents, and I thought they would stitch on me immediately. I was shit scared, okay? And that did eventually happen, right? And that was really hard for me to navigate that happened in October of 2023, so a few months after I blew up, and I had to delete some of my videos, I actually just made it friends only, so the public can't see, but the issue that my parents had was that, one, they thought I was disrespectful, but they've always thought that I was disrespectful, right? And what I was wearing, so I compromised on privateing those videos, so people would stop talking about me negatively, and these people are aunties and uncles who have, they're 20 years my senior minimum, right? 40 years, even for some of them, and that was really hard for me because I started to feel really attached to my platform. It meant a lot to me that I had people in my corner, people that were relating to me, and that was also huge, and it was so valuable to me because I've always considered myself to be alone. Like, I thought I just had such a unique experience, but that wasn't the case, and the platform just continued to grow, and just this morning, I hit 100,000 followers, and that's insane. I grew so quickly, and there's so many people that have shared their story with me, and have told me how much it's helped them, that I've created a safe place for them, a safe space, and I feel really humble, and I feel really honored to have been given the opportunity, and it wouldn't be possible without them because they are who make my platform, right? And incredibly grateful, incredibly thankful for that, and I'm thinking bigger than my platform, 'cause it's above me. My platform is consist of the people that are there that support me, and show me love and care, and they show up for me a lot of times when I'm upset, somebody sends me a text, whether it's on just direct messages, or if it's on Instagram, or even in the comments, some people send some threads, and it's really nice because these people are worldwide, and that makes it so much more real, because at that point, it's not just a comment, but it's a real person who takes the time to listen to me for those three minutes, or the two minute long video, and it's unreal. And I think further than my platform, some goals that I have for myself is to have a talk show. I would love to be a talk show host, and this podcast is just a big inning because I do eventually want to move to YouTube and have a video platform. Right now, I don't have the space for it in my room because I want it to have a really cute setup, and I think it'll take time, because I haven't even had this podcast for a year. It's gonna be a year next month, September 1st, and I'm super excited to celebrate that as well. I still don't know what I'm gonna do to celebrate 100,000 followers, but I do wanna do something nice for my followers like a giveaway or some sort. I'll probably ask them what they'd like, and then I'm gonna make it fair, 'cause I've submitted so many giveaways where I've just commented I liked, I followed, I reposted, I did all of those things and I've never won, and I'm not a sore loser, but I just wonder if the people who've won the, sorry, the giveaways really receive their things, you know? Like, I hope it's not a scam. Anyways, I'm talking in circles, but back to the goals that I have for myself, this talk show host would be so cool. Isn't that so insane? I really like Kai Sanat's room that he uses for streaming, and I think it would be so nice just to have a space, and that, of course, would be like my, the, what's it called? Let me think. I can't think of the word my man would know, but yeah, okay, it would be just like the setup, the space that I have that would just be for the talk show. So instead of the podcast is gonna evolve to that eventually, so it'll be podcast, audio podcast, which is what I'm doing right now, and then it's gonna go to video podcast, and then it's gonna go to talk show host, host is. I love that so much, it makes me so excited, and eventually I'm gonna have guest speakers, I'm gonna get better equipment. It's gonna be so nice, and my man is so great at all of those things, and I'm so grateful for him. I know that he's gonna be an excellent help, because he is a wondrous resource. He knows so much about mics and videos, and all the behind-the-scenes kind of things, so I'm really excited for that, and it's crazy because this is the first thing that I feel like I've done on my own, right? Like creating this platform, showing up for myself, showing up for other people, and it's insane because some people, they wake up and they search for my name, right? And they look at my content, and that's something that they do on their own, that's insane, 'cause even with people that I follow, I pick and choose which videos I wanna watch or which posts I wanna see, and the fact that people choose me, insane. Like I have my own little family, big family, 100,000. One hundred, are you joking, are you kidding me? That's insane, that's huge, and I'm so proud of myself for how far I've came. I've grown so much since I first started making these videos, and now they're just habitual, where I love to post. It helps me so much as far as reflecting. I don't do so many videos where I'm not talking. That's like, impossible, but it helps me gather my thoughts, and it helps me get opinions from other people. Sometimes if I need to get validated for the way that I'm feeling or something that I'm doing, or a goal that I have and want to pursue, it's nice to have those ears, especially with people who've been following me for a while, and they know my story, they know what I'm going through, and they know who I'm involved with, and they can relate, and they can give me their perspective, or they can share their experience with me. And that's so humbling, because I love to hear other people's stories, and I love to hear what people think about me. Mostly when it's positive, I can take feedback well, but I love my platform, and I love my followers, and I love you all so much. And I'm going to go ahead and share some gratitude that I did mention a little bit earlier. I am very grateful for my man. I love him so much, and I appreciate him very much. He's such a great man. Man. (laughs) He's wonderful, really. He's my best friend, and he's the most supportive person that I've ever known, the most supportive man in my life, and I love him dearly. I encourage you to share some gratitude with someone that you appreciate today, or whatever, multiple people. There's no limit, there's no cap, and as always, I hope you have a happy and healing weekend. I love you so much, and I will see you in the next one. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)