Lita (00:00)
to the empowerment diaries I’m using Riverside on the app which is something that’s quite new for me often I record from directly from the iMac well I’m here I’m back this is Lita goddess of growth self-fashioned goddess of growth you are leta welcome and I am still transitioning from

a number of decisions made this year as I try to embed my understanding, everything I’ve learned over the last couple of years really, to get myself into a position of full-time self-employment which is my ultimate goal. I’ve mentioned previously on this podcast excitement at achieving a

contract with TikTok at the time as creator network manager this was April 2025 this year and within a few months I decided to end the contract part ways the platform was going through a number of changes and the final crux for me was putting a post up guiding

creators on how to apply to join my network, whether or not they qualified for the creator network opportunity that I had partnered with TikTok to provide. The post was suppressed, in fact deleted of sorts. I was able to capture a screenshot where I was told I had violated the platform and after three attempts at trying to identify why.

it was receiving a violation notice. The support staff told me quite politely that I was permanently banned. I never experienced what a ban was. I still had access to the account, I was still able to post and I basically escalated the matter, tried a number of ways to do so. Finally the ⁓ matter was

80 % resolved, the warning was removed from the account, no explanation as to why and a violation notice was still kept on, apparently to remind me of what to avoid in the future though no one could tell me what it was that I was to avoid. Yes and it’s now middle of September and there has been some times when I thought, did I, was I too hasty?

and then I get to remember all the experiences of the last couple of years and I know I was on that journey to just see the other side. I have attempted to be on social media for many years, TikTok is not the first and I do acknowledge that one comes upon the same barriers in each attempt.

There is something, now we understand this is an algorithm, there is something about the way these platforms operate. When you decide to join in good faith you presume because of the international connections, the people, the buzz, that this would be your opportunity to connect beyond your local

residents, belong, beyond the nation that you’re in, we’re looking at connecting internationally. And I must admit each time I’ve joined social media I have had great hopes. I remember the old days of Facebook and in those days we hadn’t a clue so we connected with our colleagues, our friends, family, everyone.

Until we started noticing some people, in my experience, I noticed people, one really stark situation where a woman was off sick from work quite a lot and she had posted images of herself in London with her family and on her return to work she was dismissed. Not that one can’t be sick and still be in London.

getting respite but the optics were not great right posting that you’re out and about when you’ve reported to work sick so I learned in those days actually if you’re doing social media you have to separate the business from pleasure but the lines can get easily blurred and platforms often give us tools do they not where you can share information with just your closer friends and then publicly generally.

Instagram didn’t really get on with it so much, tried to get to know it. I latched onto threads quite quickly and then left it quite quickly. Too many lingerie adverts. Initially I thought women were just promoting the brands that they were promoting until I realised that there was a darker side behind the images.

and no matter how many times I deleted and blocked, deleted and blocked the next day I would go in and find the same women, very nice negligee and so forth on my profile. So I had to delete threads. I think there was some kind of reporting system that you do and I think Instagram would often say ⁓ it’s it’s it wasn’t a problem basically for the platform so I left. ⁓

We joined the platforms and they set targets for us to get followers and these follower counts are really important if we’re looking to monetize. Now admittedly, it wasn’t until I joined TikTok that I heard or learned of this thing called monetize. I joined TikTok to promote my coaching business and I found out about this opportunity to go live.

And at the time you did a thousand people to go and live stream. And I followed the trends. I went into the grow rooms to connect people to the account so that I could have this magic number to live stream. And I was really excited about it. This was probably 2023. ⁓

And then we went on from there. And the nice thing about meeting people on the platform from other countries, you get to hear how monetization works for them. So it was someone in America that taught me that she was able to live stream and sell as an affiliate. She also taught me that there were brands that was paying her per video.

promote their brand so she would get a lump sum the item and it was her task then to showcase the item in the video and so forth. In the UK the rules are slightly different

Yes, affiliate marketing was available. I hadn’t met anyone even to date that was paid to do a video as this American friend that I made had ⁓ made. The rules are very, very different or I wasn’t meeting people in the UK that had had the same opportunity. Either way,

I got to understand, of course, not everywhere had the shop, so other regions, they were making money through brand deals with private companies off the platform. So it was really a case of making sure you had a good community connection on your account so that you would be in the best position to promote yourself and the brand.

Summary

In this episode of the Empowerment Diaries, Lita shares her journey towards self-employment, discussing the challenges and decisions she faced along the way. She reflects on her experiences with social media platforms, particularly TikTok, and the impact of these platforms on her professional growth. Lita also talks about the importance of building a supportive community and the lessons learned from navigating the digital landscape.

Keywords

empowerment, self-employment, social media, TikTok, community building, digital landscape, professional growth, challenges, decisions, journey

Takeaways

• Embed understanding from past experiences for future growth.
• Full-time self-employment is the ultimate goal.
• Navigating social media platforms can be challenging.
• Building a supportive community is crucial.
• Decisions can lead to unexpected outcomes.
• Understanding platform changes is essential.
• Reflecting on past experiences aids in decision-making.
• Social media can impact professional growth.
• Community connections enhance opportunities.
• Learning from others’ experiences is valuable.

Title Options

• Empowerment Diaries: Lita’s Journey
• Navigating Social Media Challenges
• From TikTok to Self-Employment
• Building Community in the Digital Age
• Lessons from the Digital Landscape
• Empowerment Through Self-Employment
• Overcoming Social Media Hurdles
• The Path to Professional Growth
• Reflecting on Digital Experiences
• Community and Growth in the Digital World

Sound bites

• “Full-time self-employment is the ultimate goal.”
• “Navigating social media platforms can be challenging.”
• “Building a supportive community is crucial.”
• “Decisions can lead to unexpected outcomes.”
• “Understanding platform changes is essential.”
• “Reflecting on past experiences aids in decision-making.”
• “Social media can impact professional growth.”
• “Community connections enhance opportunities.”
• “Learning from others’ experiences is valuable.”
• “Empowerment through self-employment.”

Chapters

• 00:00:30 Introduction to Empowerment
• 00:00:59 Challenges with TikTok
• 00:02:17 Reflecting on Decisions
• 00:02:59 Social Media Experiences
• 00:05:54 Building Community