why most “signature series” fail + the recipe to make your series STAND OUT (receipts inside)

If you know me, you know, second-year style series has become a specialty here at Inspired Media Co. and something that I've been yapping about for years. But I wanted to give you an updated version of everything I'm learning, patterns I'm noticing, things are really working after working with my creator clients. I'm Alyssa and welcome to the Inspired Media Podcast, a space for creators, creatives, and entrepreneurs who know they're meant to do more than just stop the school. So we're putting the spotlight on the unspoken truths and unconventional takes on how to truly build a standout brand online. Now let the show begin. Hi Vestee, I'm so happy we get to sit and yap together because my feed has been full of this one thing. Signature Series, every other video, Signature Series, Signature Series, this, Signature Series that, you need a Signature Series, Signature Series ideas. Here's how to grow with a Signature Series and you're probably at this point like, yeah, I love the idea, but I don't even know where to start. So get your notes out because I'm dissecting it all in today's episode. If you know me, you know Signature Series has become a specialty here at Inspired Media Co and something that I've been yapping about for years. I want to give you the four ingredients that make a strong Signature Style Series, the biggest mistakes and misconceptions I see creators make, advice I see that you should just scroll past and all the lessons I've learned really being in it, helping big and small creators finally nail down their Signature Style Series for themselves. Now, it's just you and me here, okay? So I am going to be really blunt when I say one of the pieces of social media advice I hate to see is anything that has to do with Signature Series without the receipts. I know it has become such a trending thing to say, it's a powerful hook, but it is insane to me that people are out here giving advice, giving these ideas, speaking with such confidence and then you look and there's no social proof. There are no receipts. Chat GPT can come up with 20,000 million bajillion ideas for you, but what's really impressive to me is when I see somebody not only get results for themselves, but get results for other people across multiple industries, across multiple niches over and over and over and over again, that's where the social strategy really comes through. That's when you can see their method, that's when you can see their point of view and I will get clients that send me these videos, Signature Series videos, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, can you audit this for me? Hey, I watch this. Let me know what you think every single time. I go, my brain is like a big error sound because most of the advice that I'm seeing out there is advice that's just noise. It is just a distraction from what you actually need to pay attention to and you could have the best intentions as the viewer of, okay, I really want to nail this down and I want to learn more, but most of the advice is again, just a distraction and pulls you away from what you actually need to focus on and because this is so important to me, I want to list out one of my clients' latest results of her series because this client came to me with one of her biggest goals being I want multiple series and I said, okay, okay, challenge accepted. So we started out with this first series. It's more vlog style, it's more lifestyle-y, it's something that really challenges her. I will say this is probably the most high production piece of content that she's been creating. Now, she's the type of creator who's really used to the more face to cam stuff, but I really wanted to stretch her content creator skills, her editing. I wanted to refine the content that she was making so she could really see that content is the building blocks of your world. If we don't have these things nailed down and if we're just doing, quote unquote, what's working or we're doing the easy thing or we're going the easy way out and it's not really hitting, that means we need to change. So we started this series, we've been posting it about once every week for a few months now, really working, really refining one of her latest episodes now, 172k views, 2k likes, 130 comments, 88 shares and she's also done brand partnerships as an episode on this series. Amazing. And yes, even though those numbers are such a big win and we're going to continue to be consistent with this series, the bigger wins for me are the bigger ones. The back end wins. What do I mean by that? The content workflow, the accountability, refining her style, refining her editing, doing something a little bit more high production, figuring out what the workflow is to get clips and then do the voiceover and then edit them all together. These were things that she wasn't doing before. These are things that to her, it was like, oh, that's kind of hard. I'm like, yeah, maybe. And I said, it's not that it's hard. It's not that you can't do it. It's just new. We came here to grow and growth isn't just in the numbers. It's in your skills as a content creator and we did just that. I was very, very picky with this series. I was tearing it apart. I was sending her so many edits and revisions and notes and she probably hated me sometimes because I was so annoying, but it is paying off. Now she's working on her second one. This one more low effort. Okay, I said, let me give you a break, low effort. One of the first episodes we posted, 90k views, 62 comments, 1600 shares. Another one, another 91k views, 50 comments, almost 2000 shares. And both are performing on Instagram and TikTok. Results like this happen for my girls because both of us understand this one thing that really leads to success. It's not the idea. It's the execution. So many people have a million bajillion, good, brilliant ideas, but they're not bold enough to take the first step and they're definitely not bold enough to have a few fail. We had a few episodes in that first series, not super perform. They didn't 100% tank, but they didn't super perform, but we had to keep consistent. We had to keep refining. You have to get your reps in or refine each time because imagine if she gave up on episode three, we wouldn't have the numbers that we see today and we definitely wouldn't have the improvement in her skills. So I want you to keep that in the back of your mind. So now let's get into the ingredients of a strong signature style series and this is what I use for my clients. This is what I use for the client that I just mentioned. A strong signature style series will have predictable structure, consistent format, you coded edits and anticipation for future episodes. And throughout this episode, I'm going to try the best I can to use my clients as examples in case studies to really paint this out for you so that you can make it you coded. Ingredient number one, predictable structure. Think of this as your reality TV show. Every reality TV show has a predictable structure for that show. For example, love is blind. You know the contestants are going to come in. They're going to introduce themselves. They're going to be in that colorful room. There's going to be montages of them posing as they're introducing themselves. And then we see them interact with the other contestants. That's at least the first episode. Here's another example. Think America's next top model. I know their documentary just came out on Netflix, so that's why it's the top of my mind. But every time you see an episode, you see Tyra Banks' model-on videos of the girls. Then it goes into the beginning of the day, middle and end. There's predictability in structure. We know how the show is going to be run. We know the rules. We know the flow. We know how the show is going to go. Human beings like predictability so you can apply this to your own series. Now, if you want an example of this, I would search up "Jesha" on TikTok. Here at is J-E-S-H-A-S-T-E-V-E-N-S, "Jesha Stevens." And she is the sour dough girl. She has a very predictable structure and an average single one of her series. She pushes the dough to the camera, tells you what she's going to make, and then goes into a montage of her making the dough. This is also what makes someone a comfort creator. When they repeat themselves, in a way that makes their content predictable. That sense of predictability makes our brains feel safe and keeps its coming back for more. Second ingredient is a consistent format. So you have the predictable structure, how the series episodes are going to go, and then you have your format, which is how are the episodes going to be produced. Here's a few examples. Format number one, face to camera, face time. Think Bethany Frankl's Supermodel Snack series. You can do voiceover. She has a series called 52 Fridays, where it's voiceover and a bunch of clips. You can do face to camera, green screen. There's a creator by the name of Benton McClendon. And he does green screen satirical reviews of luxury releases. Another format is out and about. So the account La La Land, they do street interviews. That's another format. Then we can go into TV style, more cinematic style, think in style with their intern series, roomies. Also has a series that's more TV style. Give you a few examples there, but you want to pick a format that you can stay consistent with. It might not always be the most low effort. It depends on your goals and depends on your capacity. But you want to pick a format you can stay consistent with. Third ingredient are you coded edits. And remember in the beginning of the episode where I said signature style series, this is really where the style element comes in. And I believe in this so much I trademarked it because I really, really think it's so incredibly important for you to hone in on your style. Somebody else will have a series idea similar to you. The idea itself is not the thing that's going to make it stand out. It is how it is easy. executed. And this is really what I want to focus on for today, because if you're listening, that means hundreds, if not thousands of other people are listening. I'm giving the same ingredient lists, the same examples, the same framework to other creators, but it is up to you to make it you coded. The music, the colors, the font, the overall look, how it feels, is it more serious and suspenseful, is it playful and fun, is it cheeky with some drama, like Love Island, or is it more a documentary style series, like something you watch on a true crime show? That will really change the entire look and feel of the series from others that have a similar idea. Let me give you an example from my client. So when we were coming up with the name for the series, we wanted to come up with something that was simple, but we also were really picky with choosing the colors that would stand out, but also feel like her. So she is a mom in her 30s. She loves luxury things. She likes a timeless look. Her wardrobe is a little bit more neutral, but with some colors, she's not super afraid of color, but she's definitely not a maximalist. So we chose very simple fonts. And for the color of those fonts, we go back and forth between a soft yellow and a red, because those really feel like her. Something is you coded because it starts with your personality. So something I want you to ask yourself is how can your edits represent your personality? If your personality is more grounded, you have more of a calming presence, then your edits are going to match. Maybe your colors are more neutral or green. You're not going to use a bunch of pop-up memes and fires and sparkles everywhere. But if you're more loud, chaotic, then you might choose bolder fonts with a lot of fun accents and edits and video memes, photo memes. Using audio effects, where they make sense, to add emphasis to those chaotic moments. When it comes to edits, I know so many people get so overwhelmed, but let me tell you right now, the right edits are the ones that enhance your personality. Kind of like makeup. There's so many different makeup products and makeup tutorials and different ways that you can do your makeup, but at the end of the day, you want makeup that enhances your face, your beauty, your features. You know when you try a different look or you try a product that just doesn't fit your skin, it just looks weird on you. It doesn't mean that the product is bad and it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you. It just doesn't complement your features. Same thing when it comes to editing. Just because you see your favorite influencer do a style of edit, yes, of course, I want you to play with it. I want you to try it out, but I always want you to keep it in the back of your mind to be intentional with does this edit actually represent my personality because that's where it's going to look the absolute best is when your edits are accenting and complementing and enhancing who you are. So when you're editing your video or you're mapping out your series, I want you to think about that. And when you look at colors, fonts, music, different overlays, different graphics, ask yourself does this represent my personality? Does this complement an accent and enhance who I am to the viewer? And the last ingredient is anticipation for future episodes. And this is the perfect balance to the first ingredient. And I'm going to bring up the cooking analogy or metaphor to really make this make sense. But when you are baking something and you're adding sugar, you want to add a little bit of salt because it balances it out. Okay. This one really balances out that predictable structure. Yes, human beings like predictability. Yes, they love consistency. Yes, you need to make your series in a way that people can actually understand it. But there has to be the balance of that spice, that anticipation for future episodes. Like yes, I know the gist of what's going on. But I always want to watch another episode, which is what makes a series bingeable. So for you, anticipation for future episodes is that worth key ingredient. Now this is where people's opinions matter. And this is probably one of the hardest parts that I work through with my clients. Because people's opinions about you don't matter. But people's opinions about your brand. Yes, they do matter to an extent. And I'm talking specifically about the opinions of people that match the community that you want to build. Just because you get one hate comment or a few doesn't mean you should stop what you're doing. And it doesn't mean that you're failing. And I'm not saying that you should only create for the validation of others and risk your own mind and how doing it in the process. It's a very delicate balance. What we do. But what I am saying is when you are starting a series, you need to practice some social listening. Are people engaging with it? Are they just scrolling past? What more can you offer them? Just like a reality TV show that has to look at their ratings and what's being said, you have to have that CEO mentality to do that. It's not, oh my gosh, I'm failing. Oh my gosh, my series is flopping. It's let me take the information after posting these episodes and refine each time. So for you, try posting at least seven episodes of your series with the goal to refine, learn and get the data. What's the data? Views, comments, likes, shares, watch time. I see so many people say not only online, like in my comment section, DMs, but even my clients, I want to start a series. I want to do it. They're like two episodes in and they wanting a bump and I'm over here like you don't have enough data to give up. You didn't do enough to get better. It's so crazy to me that in every other skill, we understand that things take time. We understand that practice makes progress. You go to a dance class. If you went to a dance class and you tried it out for two times, would you be ready to go on stage? No, absolutely not. You would think that's ridiculous. You would say, no, I'm not ready to go on stage. If you go to a dance class once a week for about a month, you will have four to five dance classes under your belt. You're going to be way better than you were when you started, but the next person that maybe went to dance class five times a week in a month, they're more likely to improve. So don't put a strict, oh, I have to get this done in a month. I have to get this done in a week. No, look at how many times you're actually giving yourself a chance to practice and look at the data and not to go in a little bit of a tangent here, but Zara Larsen, who is the 2026 eight girl right now, her story just fascinates me because after 10 plus years in the industry, she is finally getting the recognition. And if you look back at her old work, if you look back at clips of her old constant, her old outfits, her old styling, her old just way of performing, it's not bad at all. Her talent is there. Her talent is higher than even other people that were also coming up at that time, but it's her marketing and her branding, really refining and clarifying her brand identity to the world. That has really made this new version of her brand. And what we see today and why people are so obsessed with her, but imagine if years and she gave up because she wasn't charting because people didn't know her. I remember seeing an interview and she said, people know my songs, but they don't care about me as an artist because I'm not culturally relevant watching people younger than her surpass her, watching the numbers. She opens up in the documentary and she's like, that's sucked. Like that was my flop era, but now that I came out of it, I know what to do and I can enjoy this moment even more right now. And I really think every single creative, anyone in any creative industry should really look at that story as a reminder that it is not just overnight, just because you posted one episode, posted a few videos, hey, even posted 10 videos. That doesn't mean you're a failure. The people that win are the people that stay in the game. So stop setting unrealistic expectations for yourself that you're going to succeed after the first few tries and then using your feelings of disappointment as an excuse to stop going when you're not even halfway there yet. Because what would suck and what would be a shame is you miss the success that's on the other side. And yes, it's frustrating and yes, it's annoying. And yes, you're going to compare yourself to other people. Welcome to being in a creative career. But the really exciting and powerful thing about that is you have the power to do what you have to do to succeed. You have the power to stop all of that and hyper focus on you and getting really, really good at being yourself. That's how you know something is your signature. Think about the signature that you write. It's mindless. Maybe that first it wasn't maybe you tried a few different versions. Maybe the A was different. Maybe the way that you ended it was different. Maybe there was a dot. Maybe the dot was a heart. Maybe it was a little more pointy in the beginning. Maybe you try you try to bunch of different things doodling on your notepad trying to figure out your signature and then something stuck and then you did it again and again and again and again and then it became effortless. You have to put an effort first before it becomes effortless. And I think a lot of people forget that because we see this quote unquote overnight success. There's no such thing as overnight success. And being a successful person isn't about checking a box. It's about being able to manage it. So don't let yourself be distracted. Okay. Of course I went off into a little bit of attention. But it is what it is. Okay. Rapid fire pieces of advice to give you post your series for at least seven episodes before you shift pivot or completely give up on that series. Post with the intention and action to refine each time. Post at least once a week or at least at least every two weeks. So you have that sense of consistency and accountability. Views will dip but look at your show and judge your show as a season. So judge it in a whole month of posting not episode per episode. There's gonna be dips. Not everything is gonna be a hit. I have a client right now and her signature style series is her top best performing content to date. And we've been working together and we built that series about a year ago. It does outperform her other pieces of content, but there were a few that kind of dipped a little bit, but I said, don't delete it. We're gonna keep going. We're gonna keep it pushing. She literally just texted me and that series has now turned into one of the biggest in real life opportunities of her career. And that is so crazy to say. And I really, really wish that I could share more details but client protection, client privacy. But imagine if she just gave up on the series because she had a few episodes that didn't hit the same as her top performers. Ridiculous. She was able to create something that her audience knew her for, her community knew her for. There was demand for. She proved, hey, brand, I have something unique to me and my brand that I can offer you. Here's my idea. Let's do it in real life. And now she's gonna do it. And that's on period. Now, if one of your series episodes are popping off but really anytime that this happens, you really wanna lean in and try to post another episode as quickly as possible if you can. 'Cause the demand is there. So now you need to give us the supply. Simple and clean edits over, overdoing it and just to edit to edit really big one. I know edits are really fun but don't just throw a bunch of editing just to do it thinking that it's gonna be more interesting. Many times it just is out of place and it looks overwhelming. Again, going back to the makeup example. More is not always more. So there it is, the recipe to a strong signature style series. And just like any recipe, you gotta add in your own little spice in there. Okay, this is the things. Maybe some extra vegetables, some sugar, some soy sauce, whatever. It's gonna make it you. That's how you're gonna stand out. I hope you took notes. I hope you found this helpful. Maybe send it to a creator bestie to help them. Any highlight moments, I love to hear all about it. And it always makes my day when you DM me or email me about the podcast. So don't be shy and I'll see you on the next episode. And as always, break a leg.