05/05/2023

DTC Strategy and TikTok Stardom

interviewing @iamdulma Part I

I am doing my 50 days of learning / writing because of @iamdulma’s 100 days of podcasting. 

Dulma Altan is an entrepreneur, founder, and content creator who has made a name for herself in the e-commerce and online education spaces. While many may know her for her impressive resume, including attending Brown, working at Google, and bootstrapping a startup, Dulma's background and personal story go beyond what's shared on her viral tiktoks or podcast. 

Her childhood was marked by frequent moves and changes in schools, as her family moved between California and Mongolia. She didn't attend the same school for two consecutive years.  Being an only child and an immigrant, Dulma often felt isolated and had to rely on her own resources for entertainment and companionship. She found solace in reading and developed a deep curiosity about the world around her. This curiosity has stayed with her and has been a driving force in her professional pursuits.

Dulma’s experiences of growing up between two vastly different cultures and socio-economic circumstances, have given her a unique perspective on life. Having been exposed to a wide range of people, Dulma feels like a chameleon who can feel at home in any environment among any group. Her appreciation for different perspectives and circumstances has also led her to prioritize empathy and to suspend judgment. 

Her entrepreneurial journey began with the founding of Potion, a clean fragrance online retailer in 2017. While the venture ultimately failed, Dulma learned a ton about e-commerce and running a small business, including the importance of finding the right co-founder. Her experiences also made her aware of the lack of communities for female e-commerce founders and direct-to-consumer (DTC) founders. 

Dulma decided to start her own community, which kept growing over time. She began bringing in guests to do fireside chats and Q&A sessions, which led to the development of her latest venture, Make Lane.

MakeLane was a platform that offers masterclasses for women on a wide range of topics, from entrepreneurship to digital marketing to personal finance. Dulma is passionate about empowering women to pursue their dreams and achieve financial independence. Her focus on education and community building has allowed her to make a difference in the lives of many women – and led her tiktok gaining insane traction. 

She calls her tiktok “business school for women”, which I would say is spot on, because watching her case studies on brands like Glossier is how I found her. 

Dulma is a testament to the power of resilience and the importance of creating space for oneself in a world that can often be isolating and unforgiving.

Your focus is primarily on DTC brands – why? Aren’t they notoriously harder to build and scale compared to B2B?

My love affair with DTC goes back to 2014 when I was a senior at Brown and I did a few internships while I was in the Bay. One of them was at an agency called Red Antler that does branding for startups. 

At the time in 2014, it was right when a lot of consumer brand startups were raising a ton of capital. So they could afford an agency like Red Antler. So Red Antler did the branding work for Casper, Birchbox, and Rent the Runway and all these fancy DTC. I call them DTC 1.0 brands.

Having such a close look at how that whole process of developing the brand and aligning it with the strategy, got me really excited about the intersection of brand storytelling and fast growing startups, which is basically what DTC was for a while. Especially in the zero interest rate era.

I think that's just where my love of DTC started because I love storytelling. I love content, I love editorial, and I also like entrepreneurship and I like Silicon Valley and DTC has all of those. I also just generally care a lot about consumer brands because I think the best consumer brands know how to appeal to emotion and cultural phenomena in a way that can sway people and cultivate loyalty and engagement. To me, the art of that, the craft of being able to persuade at scale through compelling storytelling as a brand, as a capitalist entity, that to me is fascinating. I find that really, really interesting.

Do you think one of the reasons why is also because DTC just impacts so many more people? DTC has household brands, whereas, my parents wouldn't know what Salesforce is. 

I'm glad you brought that up. The other reason I wanted to start MakeLane, and the other reason I focus so much on consumer brands with my TikTok content is because people are familiar with it and it's an accessible way to hook them into learning more about business.

Especially when it comes to celebrity-led brands, everybody knows Kim Kardashian. So using SKIMS as a case study to teach something about marketing strategy is effective. 

And because starting a business is not easy. Often when women start businesses or when, when people who don't have access, if you're not a Stanford dropout who studied AI/ML and you don’t have access to Sequoia and Andreessen, then the business you're going to start, especially if you want to start something that's not service-based, very often ends up being a consumer brand, if you want to try your hand at entrepreneurship. That's why Shark Tank focuses on the kinds of brands that it does.

Selling physical goods is an accessible pathway to entrepreneurship and that's also something I care about. The barrier to entry in other business models can be a little bit more specialized because not everyone is going to know how to build a very specialized vertical SaaS, AI driven product, whereas anyone can sell socks.

Did you organically fall into TikTok or was it a calculated strategic move where you wanted to build a following or a platform for a specific purpose?

It's funny because the TikTok there, was a strategy and there wasn't. 

I was running that community with MakeLane, and my founders were starting to ask about TikTok as an acquisition channel in the wake of iOS14.

I was thinking, "Oh, people are starting to show real curiosity about TikTok, and I'm finding it a little challenging to find the right people to teach workshops about it." So there was that data point. Additionally, I enjoyed taking part in the hundred day challenges, and I thought it would be a great way to step out of my comfort zone and learn this new platform.

As someone who considers myself a marketer, I saw the potential benefits of exploring TikTok. Another factor to consider is the deeper aspect of my story, which I have shared to some extent but would like to elaborate on. In September of 2021, I began posting on TikTok, aligning with my New Year's goals of personal growth and reflection.

Through deep introspection and journaling, I realized that having a platform, even a small community of around 10,000 like-minded, intelligent women who are interested in hearing my thoughts on important topics, would bring me great joy. Forming a community in this way was my aspiration.

When September came around, I rediscovered this goal in my journal and was amazed that I had forgotten about it. I realized I hadn't taken any steps towards achieving it, so I decided to start posting on a platform where I could grow quickly. TikTok was the obvious choice as it provided rapid growth opportunities without being as time-consuming as YouTube.

With this in mind, my approach to TikTok was more focused on personal growth rather than attachment to any potential success. I actually assumed it wouldn't lead anywhere significant. Regardless, I believed it would help me break free from my shell, especially since I had previously been fearful of creating video content.

So, I began by participating in trends, which I found enjoyable but didn't generate much engagement. However, as I started sharing business-related content, something I had desired to see more of in that year, my posts began to gain traction. In particular, the Glossier videos and those featuring notable figures like Kim Kardashian received positive responses.

What does success look like for you? Do you have a 5 or 10 year plan?

Success, to me, encompasses a few aspects. Firstly, it means having the freedom to wake up each day and pursue what I truly desire. This includes working with people I genuinely want to collaborate with and engaging in creative endeavors.

Creating output that holds personal significance and consistently engaging in such meaningful work, all while being financially rewarded without struggle or stress, is a key component of my vision of success. I strive for an enjoyable and stress-free journey. Plus, I value a remarkable level of autonomy and cherish the freedom it provides. It forms an integral part of my definition of success.

Another facet of success for me revolves around making an impact through content on a platform. I have a passion for content creation, not solely for the sake of going viral or increasing numbers. What truly drives me is witnessing meaningful growth, as I find fulfillment in explaining and sharing insights. I enjoy breaking down complex concepts, particularly those related to capitalism and societal institutions, in a way that helps people comprehend them more easily. Any means that allows me to achieve this effectively contributes to my personal definition of success.

Essentially, success boils down to having a platform with a deeply engaged, loyal audience of intelligent, like-minded, and curious individuals, primarily women. The audience I have built holds a special place in my heart. It's a remarkable feeling when someone recognizes me at a tech event, especially when it's someone from my incredible community. Being able to continue cultivating that audience is a significant measure of success to me.

Looking ahead to a five to ten-year plan, my aspiration is to continue doing what I love on a larger scale. It's not overly complicated. I envision having a podcast that becomes a substantial platform in itself, allowing me to invite any guest I desire. Through this podcast, I aim to dissect crucial concepts in a manner accessible to all. For instance, I could bring in the three most prominent experts to demystify AI, discussing its risks, safety, and ethics. I strive to produce high-quality programming akin to educational content seen on platforms like PBS, offering valuable insights to a wide audience.

While my goal doesn't necessitate mainstream popularity, I hope to achieve a significantly broader reach. Ultimately, success is about creating meaningful content, fostering a loyal community, and expanding my impact.

I find myself really obsessing over analytics and I’m trying really hard to separate that from what I’m curious about. I only want to work on things I’m curious about. How do you balance your curiosity and “growth”? 

Do I care about the numbers? Yes and no. When I release an episode on the podcast or publish a video on TikTok, I do pay attention to the numbers, and naturally, I want them to be higher.

This can be a healthy approach because if you have long-term goals for your platform, it's important to strategically grow and keep an eye on the analytics. However, it can quickly become unhealthy when you become fixated solely on the numbers. We often can't control them, especially with TikTok, which feels like a giant slot machine for creators. I believe this unpredictability is intentional, designed to gamify the platform and encourage frequent content creation.

Over time, particularly for full-time creators, excessively focusing on numbers can be detrimental to mental health. After experiencing burnout, I've learned to shift my focus away from obsessing over the outcomes of the numbers and instead concentrate on the inputs and the quality of my content. I've come to trust that the algorithm will sometimes reward certain videos and not others. Regardless, my priority is building a solid body of work that I can be proud of. It's essential to create content for people, especially our smartest, most engaged, and loyal audience members, as well as ourselves. It becomes a portfolio of work, not just for personal satisfaction but also for our industry, peers, and colleagues.

By letting go of fixation on numbers, I've found it easier to focus on the inputs and the quality of my content. Ultimately, I cannot control the numbers, so it's more productive to direct my energy towards these areas. Another reason why I don't fixate too much on numbers is because despite not having a large following on TikTok, I've cultivated a high-quality audience. They demonstrate exceptional engagement, loyalty, and provide valuable feedback. Plus, the caliber of individuals within my audience, their intelligence, ambition, and drive, is remarkable. Most of them are incredible women. Even those further along in their careers often reach out to me with interesting opportunities.

Witnessing these outcomes firsthand, and knowing creators with significantly more followers but fewer opportunities or lower rates for sponsorships, has made me realize that numbers alone are not as significant. It's the combination of quality and quantity that truly matters. As a result, I have become more measured in my fixation on numbers, understanding that they don't hold as much importance as the overall value I bring to my audience.

What is your process in researching – from idea to shipping for the TikTok deep dives?

The process of selecting a topic is somewhat amorphous. It involves a combination of factors:

Do I feel excited about it? 
Do I have a desire to learn about this subject? 
Do I believe I have valuable insights to share? 
Is there a potential audience interest in this topic? 

Additionally, I consider whether it is timely or evergreen content. If it aligns well with these considerations, I choose it. I also take into account audience requests and its alignment with my overall content focus.

The amount of research required for a topic can vary significantly. For instance, I recently created videos on OpenAI, which took me a few solid days of work. There is a wealth of content available on Sam Altman and OpenAI, so I listened to numerous podcast interviews and read various articles covering criticisms and insights. This deep dive took several half-days of research. While I typically don't spend an entire workday on research, a half-day is common for in-depth investigations. However, research duration can fluctuate depending on the complexity and scope of the subject.

After conducting research, I distill my notes into a content outline, direction, and determine the key points I want to convey. Sometimes I may create multiple videos or explore different angles. This outlining process usually takes a few hours. Gathering relevant screenshots can be a surprisingly time-consuming task. Once the preparation is complete, I begin filming.

Typically, I go through several rounds of video drafts to refine my message and enhance the clarity of my delivery. The final product appears more eloquent than the initial takes. After finalizing the video, I edit it entirely within the TikTok app, without using additional editing tools like CapCut. Once edited, I publish the video, and that concludes the process.

To illustrate, I'm currently working on a video about the zero interest rate policy, which deviates slightly from my usual content. Since this topic falls outside my expertise as an economist, I've undertaken a thorough exploration of the Federal Reserve, central banking, quantitative easing, and monetary policy. This research-intensive topic has taken me several days to prepare.

Find Dulma on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Substack. 

This piece is 35/50 from my 50 days of writing series. Subscribe to hear about new posts.