THE TIKTOK TEACHER: What I Learned After 30 Years in Production and 1 Million Followers

by | Jun 11, 2025 | Podcast | 0 comments

Helen Polise
Helen Polise

Helen Polise is the Owner, Director, and Executive Producer of Muthership Productions, a company specializing in storytelling, lifestyle, healthcare, fashion, and testimonials. She is also the Founder and CEO of Socialize, a community for social media creators. As a professional director and interviewer, Helen has worked with notable brands like Blistex, Conair, and NFL Alumni to create engaging, cross-channel videos. As a video content creator and self-proclaimed social media guru, she is known as the TikTok Teacher, sharing her learnings via tutorials on TikTok. 
 

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Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [0:00] Helen Polise reveals the secret to compelling content on TikTok
  • [3:33] How Helen discovered her passion for teaching and creating social media content
  • [7:15] Viewer feedback as the catalyst for Helen’s purpose for content creation
  • [9:47] The misconceptions about monetizing content on TikTok
  • [13:45] Building trust before monetizing — and how Helen launched her paid creator community
  • [18:25] Behind-the-scenes work on high-budget production sets as a social media content creator
  • [26:07] What makes content go viral, and how can you structure videos for higher engagement?
  • [30:54] Why long-form educational content builds more loyal followers than short viral trends
  • [34:04] Helen shares insights from a TikTok study
  • [39:42] Helen’s perspective on creators’ content being used to train AI
  • [46:08] How Helen has built a community of supportive content creators

In this episode…

The social media landscape is flooded with millions of daily uploads, so creators often struggle to stand out, connect meaningfully with their audiences, and earn a sustainable income. Many aspiring influencers follow trends and expert advice with limited engagement or long-term followers. With such a saturated and fast-paced environment, how can creators find their voice, build trust, and turn passion into profit?

According to social media educator Helen Polise, content creators can build a loyal following by leaning into their authentic purpose. She emphasizes the value of educational content, stating that videos offering tangible value drive deeper engagement and long-term follower growth. Helen recommends investing years in building trust before monetizing content and encourages creators to explore indirect income streams like speaking gigs and brand partnerships. Influencers can also structure content with compelling hooks and deliver on promises to sustain viewer attention and inspire action.

In this episode of What The Teck?, Helen Polise of Muthership Productions and Socialize returns to talk with Rolando Rosas about building a lasting presence as a TikTok content creator. Helen explains how she found her niche through teaching, why she prioritizes community over quick monetization, and how she leverages production expertise on commercial sets.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

  • “You have to take that mindset and say, okay, how am I going to get someone interested?”
  • “I’m getting the feedback that I need, and I’m getting people who need me.”
  • “I have a propensity for bringing the right people together and making positive impact, and that’s what I’m going to frickin do.”
  • “It’s easier for the bot to take my language and just clean it up a little bit.”
  • “They probably would get thrown out because they’d think, oh, I’m in charge here.”

Action Steps:

  1. Focus on long-form, value-driven content: Educational videos that offer tangible takeaways encourage deeper audience engagement and sustained growth over time.
  2. Build trust before monetizing: Establishing credibility and authenticity with your audience lays the foundation for future paid opportunities.
  3. Use your own voice before AI enhancement: Writing content in your natural tone before using AI ensures your personality and message remain intact.
  4. Read your analytics closely: Understanding what content is saved, shared, and watched repeatedly can guide your future content strategy effectively.
  5. Create a separate paid community: Offering exclusive support and engagement outside of social platforms helps prioritize high-intent followers and generates revenue.

Sponsor for this episode…

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Episode Transcript:

Helen Polise  0:00  

I felt like the biggest idiot when I whipped around this corner trying to get this shot, tripped over something, slammed into the glass. I had to put ice. They were trying to get ice in a foreign country, you had a war story I did, and I like making content to really share my perspective, which is, I do appreciate the crime of it all, and I never 

Intro  0:18  

She’s back. Helen Polise, the most influential TikTok teacher of our time inspires millions to show their true selves on social media by teaching the art of content production with just a smartphone.

Helen Polise  0:30  

I think the audience feeds the creator and vice versa. And that’s, I think, what a lot of people are making a mistake about. What do you want to share? What do you feel so excited about? What do you feel that you can help people with, and even if it’s just by entertaining them, what is that that drives you? That’s the part that people have trouble tapping into because they’re trying to

Rolando Rosas  0:50  

if you’re trying to go viral, what’s the first thing you should be thinking about? Things that

Helen Polise  0:54  

are most successfully viral. They usually hook you in the first three seconds, but they also

Rolando Rosas  1:00  

AI is playing a greater role. AI is learning,

Helen Polise  1:05  

but it can’t be us. It’s different. I cracked the code on how it helps me. I’m just hoping that we can figure out a way to use it as a world that’s more productive and not destructive.

Rolando Rosas  1:17  

What have you found that’s given you just a little bit of peace of mind. There’s a

Helen Polise  1:21  

skill set I have that I am tapping into at a different level, and it’s not production, and it’s not teaching, and it’s none of those things. It’s

Rolando Rosas  1:33  

Welcome to What The Teck? your gateway to business strategies and tech secrets shaping today’s workplace. It’s not often that we get somebody that is at their peak and who understands what it takes to succeed on social media, because they’re living it, and as they’re living it, sharing that experience with the rest of us, so that we really get an insight on What is really happening. I have that somebody today. I want you to welcome to the podcast again. Helen Polise. I love it. I love it. Helen, is it okay if I, if I, you know, I’m not gonna offend any guests here that have been on the past, but I really enjoy when you come on, and I love talking to you, and this just feels like I’ve known you for a long time, and but we have it. We’ve known each other for, you know, maybe a year or so,

Helen Polise  2:33  

right? It is that way, and I find that a lot of people say that about me when they meet me in person. I just met someone recently that I know from TikTok, and she was in the city for a billboard thing that she had to see in Times Square, and she said to me, oh my gosh, you’re even better in person. You’re exactly the same, but you’re somehow better. And I was like, okay, 3d

Rolando Rosas  2:52  

version of you is better than the 2d

Helen Polise  2:54  

apparently. Who knew?

Rolando Rosas  2:58  

Well, you know, you’ve been up to a lot since the last time you were here. And you know, when we have a guest on for a second time, to me, it’s a little harder because, you know, we put a lot to try to get the first thing off the ground, but the second one, there’s so much that’s happened. And one of the things that, you know, I’ve been consuming and loving all this stuff that you’re putting out there is it’s really just for those that don’t know you, to understand your why you know somebody that’s coming on to the podcast right now, trying to understand you know they’ve not seen you on social media. Don’t really understand what you’re doing. Why are you doing what you’re doing?

Helen Polise  3:33  

It is something that I almost can’t put into words, because it’s so inside and part of my thread at this point, part of my tapestry. But when I got on social media and I started just having fun and dabbling in it, and we talked about last time how that happened, and how I started baking and dancing and all of that and and when I realized I have this knack for teaching and imparting knowledge on how to do the things, and people were embracing me for that, it became something that I was, like, driven to do by unexplainable forces inside. And recently on my daughter on his podcast, we were talking about childhood jobs, and I said, Oh, actually, my childhood job was always to be a teacher, and then I ended up getting in production and being in directing. So it’s weird, because I’ve almost come back to my childhood self, and I we always played school, and I was always the teacher, me and my sisters, that’s what we did when we were little. So this is weird, and it’s like something inside that’s the truth. So why I keep going is I’m getting the feedback that I need, and I’m getting people who need me, and it just took me four years to realize what I’m realizing now, which is creating a space to actually help people and be able to earn a living from it, so that I’m not just spending all my time doing this for free, and then I have to go and work a day job at the same time to make sure that I’m still doing my thing. So that’s been a it’s been a little adventure since we last saw each

Rolando Rosas  4:56  

other, you know. And I think a lot of people that are putting content out, if you’re more. Of, let’s call it the content creator type, right? And there’s a lot of people now in that market, they’re trying to find their why and understand how to navigate that, because we had Neil Patel on a couple months ago, and he said, You know, there’s at least 4 billion pieces of content uploaded each day, and nearly half of them get no engagement, no likes and no shares. So in a sea of 4 billion pieces being uploaded, and you’re trying to find your why or who you are, it seems like it really is important. Because when I look at your videos, and I we were just looking at them before you came on, the strongest videos that have performed in just the last couple of weeks are still your teaching videos. Yes,

Helen Polise  5:40  

and I still love doing the other things. And I don’t know, I

Rolando Rosas  5:45  

love your jumping and your excitement and your trend and how to do the marshmallow thing and how to do the switcheroo and the bust of rhyme, those. I enjoy that. But you when I look at the views, the teaching stuff is still off the charts, because,

Helen Polise  5:59  

I’ll tell you why, because it’s algorithmically, I love that word. Now, algorithmically, when it’s people saving it and saving it for later and sharing it with someone else, it definitely boosts your engagement. So then you get more views, and that’s just facts. So even though someone might enjoy me jumping into my boots, they’re less likely to save that to see it later or to share it with someone else. So by engagement metrics, it makes sense to me that the tutorials are like person saving it for later. When you look at the metrics, when you see saves and shares, that’s when you see higher views overall. So that’s a big part of it. I think also just people that are trying to find their why, they have to just realize it’s inside. There’s a passion inside that you haven’t tapped into yet, because I do all these things, but that, for some reason, I’m driven to do every single week. I want to make sure I’m sharing knowledge. And I get so excited when someone does it, and someone tags me, and it’s like they did it. Oh, my

Rolando Rosas  6:52  

God. You know, like a teacher, people would say, if they don’t know you, like you know what? That’s You’re saying that because you have a million followers, and it’s so easy to understand all that, but if somebody’s in the beginning of the journey, because the essence of who you are, your why, people say that, but how have you come to that conclusion? How did you get there and understanding this is your why, and therefore I will do this,

Helen Polise  7:15  

because in the beginning, when I did it a few times and I got the feedback, I felt my calling. So I felt like, oh, this person really got it from my lesson. And they would say in the comments, I’ve seen hundreds of tutorials about this, and yours is the first one I understood. So I’m like, I gotta keep doing this. I have something here, and it was just really obvious because I listened to my viewers. And I think if you’re trying to find something in yourself, look to the people who are watching your videos. And so for me, even though I didn’t have a lot of views necessarily in the beginning, I was always motivated to come back for that handful of people that was really getting it from my videos. So I think that, I think the audience feeds the creator and vice versa. I don’t think it’s a one way street, and that’s, I think, what a lot of people are making a mistake about. And I have examples of that, and I’ve know people who are like, I don’t understand why I can. You know, I’m not successful, and I’m trying to do this, and I’m trying to do that, and maybe I should try this, and maybe I should try that. They have the wrong, I think, the wrong perspective of how to do it. Like, what do you want to share? What do you feel so excited about? What do you feel that you can help people with? And even if it’s just by entertaining them. What is that that drives you? That’s the part that people have trouble tapping into, because they’re trying to put the pieces together and pick the things from all the gurus saying, do this and do that. Yes, yes, they get lost. So yes,

Rolando Rosas  8:32  

five videos a day and and do that on all the platforms, or all of that stuff. Yeah, no. Thanks. You know, there’s a lot of people that can do that, but then it’s, can be hard. It’s great if you have a team. Not a lot of people have a team to go through and and make those videos. You know, happen five or six a day, and, I mean, I love Gary V Gary, if you want to come on, you’re invited. Yes, you

Helen Polise  8:59  

are invited. I’ll be a voyeur in the lobby. You bet? Yeah, I will be a voyeur in the lobby. If you have him on, I’ll just sit there and watch. You

Rolando Rosas  9:10  

know, we had James Orsini, so he works underneath Gary V and he said something that I want to ask you about, okay, and not so much, the posting five times a day, but something that’s really stuck with me, because I think a lot of creators the things that, once they have a little bit of success, they think, Well, where can I take this? Where does it go? You know, I’m not making a dime on views, right? I’m getting some views. Now, maybe I’m having some success, but, you know, I’m still at my mom’s house or my dad’s house, or with my roommates, or, you know, I’m still driving the old jalopy car. How do I take this to the next level, where I’m actually paying for the bills and then some

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