• I've touched on this before, I fucking hate unboxing videos, I think that they are self-serving, I think they're super braggy, I think they're tasteless, classless, I think they suck. I hate them. I also understand the problem, I know that you guys are getting sent a lot of stuff. If know you want to incorporate that product and give some coverage to your brands that sent it. I know you want to say thanks so much for the gift blank brand. I do think that the unboxing isn't coming from a place of ego, it's coming from a place of wanting to show the brand that you got the package and you appreciate it and show it to your fans.

    It just doesn't come off that way. It comes off in a very look at me way. The other problem is again let's talk economics as your stories become more and more and more about unboxing every day or twice or three times a week, you are showing all these shit that you're getting, you're stories become inherently less interesting. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people really enjoy those videos, I hate them. I've never met anyone that really likes them. I do think and I said this before that it is a little different in the beauty space because it's such a product-driven vertical. People want to see product and they're more interested in that but for most of you, it provides no value to your followers.

    Such all it does is dilute the quality and stickiness of your stories. By doing that it dilutes your brand and makes it less interesting. When that happens less people-- more people skip over your stories and more people skip over your stories and Instagram stops serving those stories to them. The more people they stop serving the stories to they stop serving your static posts to. Then you email me six months later and you say James I don't know what happened the algorithm hates me. I say to you the algorithm does not hate you it hates everyone equally and you're just one of those people. I don't think they're interesting.

    I don't think many people can do them well, who does-- Isaac from Isaac likes when he does his unboxing, he has this one pocket knife that he uses to open his boxes. He does it in a very aggressive way and he throws the thing out and then he tries it on. At first I thought it was annoying, but it is now a thing he does, and so I do watch it. He's turned unboxing into a thing that is his thing. Then, he actually puts the piece of clothing on and shows it on him. I think that makes it more interesting. I think that he is someone who does it well.

    Jamie Beck who's been on the show, she does that once a week, she goes through her mail. She is obviously a creative and lovely person and I think she does a nice job covering the stuff that's being sent to her.

    I think the reason Jaime's stuff resonates with me is that she seems legitimately excited about the product and she does the same thing. She uses everything that she gets and tries it on if it's clothing. If it's a fragrance or if it is skincare or something like that she talks about the product, she gives a little demonstration, she puts it on. She does something to show you interacting with it.

    If you have to do unboxing move it to one day a week and make it a thing and try and create content that is actually interesting and valuable for both the brands that send you stuff and for your audience. Don't feel like you have to post every single thing a brand sends you, especially if they're sending you shit without asking you. Don't feel like you have to cover that.

    You should potentially email the brand and say, "Thanks for sending this." If you don't want this stuff anymore tell them not to. I was talking to someone from a brand the other day and they were joking about PR giftings and how influencers are turning around seeing how quickly they can sell it on eBay, or Poshmark, or wherever you're reselling stuff. That's not a good look. It's better if you don't want something, to send it back to the brand or tell them to take.

    That you appreciate it but you don't want them to waste a product and to stop sending you stuff. Final thing, never, never, never show your pile of 40 boxes when you get back from fashion month. The fucking posts when people get back from fashion month and they show the 50 free things that they got is insane. Again, you have to put yourself in the mindset of that is more shit than most people will buy themselves in the entire year and you are joking about getting all of it for free, and it's just not funny.
    Episode #127
    - Influencer Rates in 2019, Unboxing Videos, Hashtags