How to Grow on TikTok and Facebook Reels: Social Media Expert Heather Rose’s Strategy

Most people spend weeks overthinking their first TikTok post and months waiting for the perfect niche to fall out of the sky. Meanwhile, a social media coach named Heather Rose built an entire coaching business called Breaking Free Coaching by doing exactly the opposite: she posted bad videos, figured out the algorithm, and filled the gaps nobody else was filling. In this episode of the Get Off The Wall Podcast, Heather breaks down her exact framework for growing on TikTok and Facebook Reels — no vanity metrics, no guru fluff, just the repeatable system she used after trying 20 different side hustles before landing on what worked.

Heather started in Mary Kay in 2013, worked her way up to becoming a car earner at a company called Lavelle, then transitioned into a regional manager role at a solar company handling in-person sales in Tucson. When COVID disrupted all of that, she leaned into TikTok — not because it was trendy, but because she could see where the algorithm was going and wanted to test it herself. She started getting results. Friends started asking her to teach them. That organic demand became Breaking Free Coaching. Everything she shares below came directly from the podcast conversation — real numbers, specific tactics, and honest caveats about what no longer works.

What You’ll Walk Out With

The key difference between TikTok and Facebook Reels algorithms and why you cannot simply repurpose content between them if you want to get paid
Exactly how to get into Facebook’s digital creator program and what the current payout cap looks like for new creators ($1,200 per month)
The two proven paths to going viral on TikTok, laid out in plain steps
Heather’s two-layer hashtag strategy and a two-minute test that can double or triple your views
How many times to post per day on each platform without burning out or producing junk
The market research method that finds content gaps before you shoot a single second of video
Why Heather tried 20 side hustles before landing on social media coaching and what that tells you about finding your own fit
Not sure which online income path fits your background? Find your match at finder.platformproof.com

Who Is Heather Rose and Why Her Advice Is Worth Hearing

Heather Rose is a social media strategist and founder of Breaking Free Coaching. She did not start as a content creator. Her background is in network marketing, sales management, and coaching — all of which gave her a practical, results-oriented lens on how online business actually works at the ground level.

Her path to social media coaching was not a straight line. She started with Mary Kay in 2013 and learned quickly that the online space had serious income potential. She became a car earner at Lavelle, a role that required her to build and train a team of affiliates, which sharpened her coaching instincts. She then moved to Tucson and took a regional manager role at a solar company, running in-person sales teams. When COVID hit and in-person sales collapsed, she shifted her attention to TikTok and started studying the algorithm the way a scientist studies a system — methodically and without ego.

She tried roughly 20 different side hustles before social media coaching clicked: Mary Kay, Lavelle, weight loss products, affiliate marketing with home goods, a curb painting business, solar, real estate support work, and more network marketing companies than she could easily name. Each attempt was data. Each one narrowed the search. When she landed on TikTok strategy and coaching, she felt the difference immediately. Her enthusiasm was genuine. Her results followed. Friends noticed and started asking how she was doing it. That demand became the business.

She built Breaking Free Coaching without a massive budget or a celebrity audience. She built it by getting good at something specific and teaching it to people who needed it. That is the model she talks about in this episode, and it is the one that runs underneath every tactic she shares.

TikTok vs Facebook Reels: Not the Same Platform in a Shorter Format

The single most common mistake new creators make is treating TikTok and Facebook Reels as interchangeable. Both use short-form vertical video. Both respond to hooks, watch time, and clear value delivery. That is where most of the similarity ends.

Algorithm structure: TikTok’s For You Page is built around aggressive content discovery — your video can reach someone who has never heard of you and has no connection to your account. Facebook’s algorithm has more of a social graph layer, meaning who you know and what you engage with influences what you see. This changes how new creators can grow. TikTok gives you faster access to cold audiences. Facebook tends to reward community-building over time.

Content originality requirements: If you are monetized on Facebook, you cannot simply repurpose your TikTok videos. Facebook requires original content for creators in its monetization programs. That means if you want to run both platforms simultaneously, you are creating two separate content streams. Heather acknowledges this is more work. She also says the income opportunity justifies it for people who can maintain the output.

Trending sounds: TikTok’s trending sounds are a specific growth lever that Facebook Reels does not replicate in the same way. A video built around a trending TikTok sound has a built-in discovery advantage on TikTok that simply does not transfer when you upload the same file to Facebook.

Search behavior: TikTok is increasingly functioning like a search engine. Users type in topics and browse results rather than only passively scrolling. This changes how keywords, captions, and hashtags need to work. Facebook is catching up but TikTok is further along in this shift.

Heather’s overall take: treat them as complementary income streams, not competing choices. TikTok for fast audience growth. Facebook for relationship-building and a second monetization layer. The creators who run both well tend to cross-promote without copy-pasting, which is exactly what the platforms reward.

Getting Into Facebook’s Creator Program: The Real Numbers

The era of $35,000 Facebook bonuses is over. Heather does not pretend otherwise. But there is still a clear path to getting paid from Facebook Reels, and the barrier to entry is lower than most people assume.

Here is how the current Facebook creator path works, based on what Heather laid out on the podcast:

Start posting Reels consistently. The platform needs to see you as an active digital creator before it offers you anything. The biggest bottleneck for most people is simply not posting enough for Facebook’s systems to recognize them. Heather was direct: not posting consistently enough is the main reason people do not get monetized.
Facebook will invite you into the digital creator program or you can apply. Once you establish a posting pattern, Facebook may extend an invitation to its Reels bonus program. If you hit 100,000 views in a single calendar month, you can also apply directly without waiting for an invite. That threshold sounds large but is achievable with consistent daily posting of good content.
Current earning potential for new creators: up to $1,200 per month. That is the current cap for creators entering the program now. It is not the headline number from a few years ago, but it is not nothing. Stacked with TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms, it adds up.
Post 3 to 5 times per day on Facebook Reels. This is Heather’s recommendation for building toward that 100,000-view threshold. It sounds aggressive. Content batching (addressed below) is how you make it sustainable.
Facebook is still pulling content from Instagram. Because Facebook Reels does not yet have enough original content to fill the feed, it is surfacing Instagram videos. This means the competition in the Facebook Reels feed is softer than it appears. The opportunity window is real and it will not stay this wide indefinitely.

Heather’s framing for why this matters: “An extra $500 a month from five different platforms is going to replace your 9-to-5 income.” She is not asking you to build one massive income stream. She is asking you to build five reasonable ones that add up to something life-changing.

What to Post When You Have No Idea What to Post

The blank screen before you figure out your first video is where most aspiring creators freeze. Heather’s answer cuts through the paralysis by starting with what you already have.

You do not need a large following, a ring light, a professional camera, or a niche you invented from scratch. You need a skill or experience that some portion of the population would pay to learn or find useful. That is a lower bar than most people think.

Heather gave a concrete example on the podcast: if you are a stay-at-home parent, find five key tips that would help another stay-at-home parent have a more organized or less stressful day. Post those five tips as five separate videos. Alston added his own: if you are an accountant, talk about cost accounting basics. The small business owner who does not know what you know is already searching for someone like you on TikTok right now.

Your first five posts, simplified:

Pick one area where you have real experience — not theoretical knowledge, actual lived experience
Identify the five most common questions or struggles people in that area face
Make one short video for each question, speaking from your own experience
Skip the scripted intro, skip the branding package, skip the perfect background — just answer the question on camera
Post it and immediately start the next one

The value chain Heather describes: more genuine value in a video leads to longer watch time. Longer watch time signals the algorithm to distribute the video to more people. More distribution builds community. A larger community creates more income opportunities through monetization, brand deals, or services you offer. Every part of that chain starts with you sharing what you already know.

Heather put it plainly: “If you aren’t posting your content, you’re doing us a disservice.” There are people looking for exactly your combination of knowledge, experience, and personality. They just cannot find you yet because you have not posted anything.

The Two Proven Ways to Go Viral on TikTok

Heather laid out a two-path framework for going viral on TikTok. Every viral video she has seen falls into one of these categories. Understanding both lets you build a content strategy that hits both angles rather than hoping one random video takes off.

Path One: Trending Sounds

TikTok’s For You Page has a mechanism that amplifies videos using trending sounds because the platform knows those sounds already have momentum. When you attach your content to a trending sound, you borrow some of that built-in discovery advantage. But using a trending sound is not the same as slapping audio under an irrelevant video and hoping for the best.

Heather’s process for using trending sounds effectively:

Find trending sounds in or adjacent to your niche — TikTok makes this visible in the sounds library
Study the top-performing videos using that sound: look at pacing, tone, visual style, and the hook structure
Identify what specifically makes those videos work — is it the format, the reveal, the contrast, the humor?
Build your video around the same structural elements while inserting your own personality, knowledge, and angle
Use relevant keywords in your on-screen text, your caption, and your hashtags so TikTok sends the video to the right audience

Heather is clear that mimicking is not the goal. If you just copy what someone else did with the same sound, you lose the differentiation that makes a video spread. Pull inspiration from what is working, then bring something only you can bring to the format.

Path Two: Original Content Built Around a Strong Hook

The second path is original content — no trending sound, just a well-structured video built to earn watch time. Heather says this path lives or dies on the first two to three seconds.

Watch time is TikTok’s core ranking signal. The platform’s business model depends on keeping users on the app as long as possible. A video that people watch all the way through gets distributed to more people. A video where people scroll after two seconds dies in the algorithm. Everything in your original content strategy should serve watch time.

Heather’s four-part structure for original viral content:

Hook (seconds 0-3): Stop the scroll immediately. State the pain point, the surprising claim, or the payoff before anything else. If the first two seconds do not give someone a reason to stay, the rest of the video does not matter.
Pain point: Clarify what problem you are solving. The viewer should know within five seconds what they will walk away with and why it matters to them.
Value delivery: Give the actual answer. Keep it tight. Cut anything that gives the viewer a reason to scroll — dead air, unnecessary preamble, meandering transitions.
Call to action: Tell viewers what to do next. Follow, comment, visit a link, save the video. Going viral without a call to action means you generated attention and captured none of it.

Heather made a specific point worth repeating: “The last thing you want to do is go viral and people say ‘then what?'” A viral video with no call to action is a missed opportunity. Build the conversion mechanism into the video before you post it.

Heather’s Two-Layer Hashtag Strategy

Hashtags are the mechanism TikTok uses to route your content to the right viewers. Get them right and your video reaches people who actually care about your topic. Get them wrong and your video burns its reach on people who have no interest in what you made, which kills your watch time and tanks your distribution.

Heather uses a two-layer approach:

Broad hashtags: These cover the overall niche or theme. If you are a dog walker, broad hashtags might include something like #dogwalker or #dogtraining. These tell TikTok the general category of your content.
Narrow hashtags: These get specific to the exact video. If your video is specifically about techniques for walking large breeds on a leash, your narrow hashtags might include #walkinglargedogs or #largebreedleashtraining. These help TikTok find the most targeted subset of viewers within your broader niche.

The two-minute test that changes everything: before using any hashtag, type it into TikTok’s search bar and look at the videos that populate. If those videos are similar to the one you are about to post, the hashtag is configured correctly for your content. If the results are unrelated, that hashtag is sending your content to the wrong audience — drop it and find a better one.

Heather’s claim: this two-minute check can double or triple your views by ensuring TikTok knows exactly which viewer to show your video to. Given that hashtag research takes two minutes and costs nothing, there is no good reason to skip it.

Personal vs Business TikTok Account: A Practical Answer

This debate generates a lot of conflicting opinions in creator communities. Heather gives a direct answer that cuts through most of the noise.

The functional differences between personal and business TikTok accounts:

Trending sounds access: Business accounts do get access to trending sounds, but with a delay. By the time a trending sound is available to a business account, it may have already peaked and the viral window has closed.
Monetization access: Business accounts cannot access TikTok’s native monetization tools — the creator fund, live gifts, and similar features. If you want to earn money directly through TikTok’s platform, you need a personal account.
Promotion and targeting tools: Business accounts have better features for running paid promotions and targeting specific audience segments, which matters if you are running ads or driving traffic to a specific offer.

Heather’s recommendation: if your goal is organic growth, building a creator income, and using trending sounds at their peak, use a personal account. If your goal includes paid promotion and targeted audience outreach, a business account makes sense. Some creators run one of each — one for content growth, one for paid promotion — and there is no rule against it. The dual-account approach lets you access both sets of tools without sacrificing either.

How Often to Post: Platform-Specific Numbers That Actually Work

Posting frequency is one of the most debated questions in creator communities. Heather gives platform-specific answers based on what the algorithms actually reward rather than what sounds impressive.

Facebook Reels: 3 to 5 times per day. This is Heather’s recommendation for building the momentum needed to hit the 100,000-view monthly threshold that unlocks monetization eligibility. It is a high volume target, which is why content batching is essential (more on that below).

TikTok: 2 to 5 times per day for sustainable organic growth. There is no official TikTok minimum for gaining traction — good content alone can break through at low posting volume. But Heather cited Rachel Peterson, a million-dollar TikTok earner, who suggests 7 to 10 videos per day for maximum growth. Heather’s practical take: “With 10 times a day you’re really focusing more on volume than value.” For creators trying to build a business, 2 to 5 per day with strong content beats 10 per day of rushed content every time.

The underlying principle on TikTok is that each video is an independent at-bat. One video in a batch might get 400 views. Another might get 40,000. You do not know which one until it is posted. More videos mean more chances for one to land. But if posting more videos means your quality drops or you burn out and quit in two weeks, you have traded a short burst of volume for zero long-term presence. Consistency over six months at 2 videos per day beats two weeks at 10 videos per day.

The frequency target is whatever you can do every single day, not the maximum you can push for a week before collapsing.

Not sure which platform or online income path fits your specific background and schedule?

Take the free quiz at finder.platformproof.com and get a personalized recommendation based on what you already know how to do.

Market Research: Heather’s Number One Secret to Success in the Online Space

When Alston asked Heather for her single biggest secret, she did not say mindset, consistency, or hook writing. She said market research. That answer is worth sitting with, because it is the opposite of what most creator advice tells you to prioritize.

Her definition of market research in practice:

Study what is already working in your niche — specifically the top-performing videos in your target category
Identify the gaps: what questions are not being answered, what angles are not being covered, what audience segment is underserved?
Pull inspiration (not copies) from what is performing — understand why the viral videos went viral
Infuse your own personality and angle into the format, filling the gap the top videos leave open

On TikTok specifically, this research process takes advantage of the platform’s shift toward search engine behavior. Instead of purely browsing, users are now typing queries and looking at results. That means keyword research has real value on TikTok in a way it did not three years ago.

Heather’s TikTok keyword research process:

Start with your niche topic (say, basketball coaching)
Type related phrases into TikTok’s search bar and watch the auto-complete suggestions
Browse the top videos for those keywords: what is trending, what gets shares, what generates comments
Look for common threads in the content that is performing well in your field
Find a specific angle or question the top videos are not addressing — and build your content to fill that gap

She also addressed a common misconception about competitors: the top creators in most niches are not adversaries. In her experience, they tend to be surprisingly supportive of new creators entering the space. The market is large enough that your goal is not to beat them — it is to reach the segment of the audience they cannot reach because you have a different background, voice, or angle.

Done Is Better Than Perfect: The Mindset Behind Every Tactic

Both Alston and Heather spent time on this because it is where most aspiring creators get permanently stuck. The mental hurdle of “I’m not ready yet” is real. Their solution to it is blunt and consistent.

Heather: “Your content is going to be bad. That’s okay. You don’t want it to be good when nobody’s going to see it. You make bad content — nobody’s going to see it. You make great content — nobody’s going to see it. You just gotta keep doing it. You’re going to get better.”

Alston translated it this way: the worst outcome of posting bad content is that nobody watches it. But nobody is watching you right now anyway. So the worst case scenario of posting is identical to doing nothing — except posting gets you on the other side of the learning curve faster. The only way to get better at making videos is to make videos. There is no shortcut that skips that part.

Heather added a point that reframes the perfectionism problem: people are not looking for a polished, curated version of an expert. They are looking for someone who is one or two steps ahead of them and honest about the process. The relatable creator who shows their real experience consistently outperforms the production-quality creator who posts once a month because the editing took three weeks.

The one thing Heather said she wishes she had known at the start: “I didn’t have to be an expert to have value to share with people.” She had real value to offer before she felt qualified to offer it. Most creators do. The gap between what you actually know and what you feel authorized to say is almost always imaginary. Post anyway.

When to Start Planning Your Content and When to Just Post

Heather draws a clear and useful line here: content planning before you have real data is procrastination dressed up as strategy. Content planning after you have real data is how you scale without burning out. The difference is everything.

If you are brand new to content creation:

Do not build a content calendar before you know what works for you
Start posting and gather actual performance data first
Learn which topics, formats, and hooks your audience responds to
Get comfortable on camera and in the editing process

Once you have that real performance data — once you have a few videos that outperformed the rest and you know why — a content plan becomes powerful instead of theoretical. Content batching (making multiple videos in a single filming session and scheduling them to post over the following days) lets you maintain daily posting without needing to be on camera every day. It also protects the business-building side of your work. Heather’s point: having a plan means you spend less time on the app in total, because you are not constantly scrambling to figure out what to post next.

The plan is a tool for efficiency. It only works when you have real data to base it on. Building a plan before you have that data means you are planning in a vacuum — which is another form of not posting, just with a spreadsheet attached.

20 Side Hustles Before One Worked: What Heather’s Journey Actually Shows

When Alston asked Heather how many side hustles she had tried before landing on social media coaching, she said twenty. That number is not a cautionary tale. It is a data set.

The list includes: Mary Kay, Lavelle, weight loss products, affiliate marketing with home goods, a curb painting business, solar sales, real estate support work, and more network marketing companies than she could comfortably name off the top of her head. Alston’s list included online surveys, dropshipping, e-commerce, and others. Both of them got to something that worked by trying things that did not work and learning from each one.

What Heather says those 20 attempts taught her:

You can execute perfectly in the wrong business and still fail — the fit matters as much as the effort
If a business does not genuinely excite you, you will not sustain the effort long enough to see results — enthusiasm is fuel, not decoration
Switching from one side hustle to another is information-gathering, not quitting — the only real failure is stopping entirely
When you find the thing that makes your “heart sing and pulse race a little,” the work changes because your motivation is intrinsic instead of forced

She also made a point about the support system problem during those years. When you try that many things, the people around you get skeptical. They have seen you start over before. Heather said her biggest supporter through that process was herself, and that the support system she needed came from connecting with other coaches, other TikTok marketers, and other affiliates who understood the process from the inside. If the people closest to you do not understand the side hustle journey, go find the people who do — they exist and they are usually willing to help.

The Execution Gap: Why Most People Stay Stuck After They Learn Everything

Heather named the execution gap as the biggest hurdle she has faced and the most common blocker she sees in the people she coaches. The idea is always easier than the execution. Most people spend a lot of time in the idea and planning phase and not enough time in the doing phase.

As she put it: “There comes a point with your content creation or your business creation where you have to stop thinking and start doing. And it’s hard, because dreaming of the possibilities is so exciting. You could dream about something forever. But until you start setting the foundation and really start doing the things it takes to be successful, that’s really the hardest part.”

This is not a motivation problem. It is a structural one. People know what they should do. They understand the tactics. They have watched the YouTube videos and taken the courses. The block is the distance between knowing and doing, and that distance is usually crossed by making one small, imperfect move — posting the first video, sending the first email, making the first offer.

Heather’s coaching clients, in her experience, need help with execution more than they need more information. They do not want to admit they need that help, because there is a cultural assumption that if you just consume enough content, you will figure it out. Some people do. More people need an external push or a community that holds them accountable to actually doing the thing.

Your 10-Step Action Plan for Getting Started on TikTok and Facebook Reels

Based on everything Heather laid out in this episode, here is the sequence that gives you the best chance of building momentum on both platforms without burning out or wasting time on tactics that do not move the needle:

Identify your area of experience. Pick one thing you know better than most people around you. It does not need to be a professional credential — it needs to be real lived experience that someone else would find useful.
List the five most common problems in that space. What do beginners struggle with? What did you get wrong when you first started? What do people constantly ask you about? Those five questions are your first five videos.
Set up a personal TikTok account if your goal is organic growth and monetization. Skip the business account debate for now. Start with personal.
Post your first five videos this week. Do not wait for a ring light, a better camera, or a fully formed niche. Post and learn from the data.
Run the two-minute hashtag test on every video. Broad hashtags for your niche, narrow hashtags for the specific video. Test each hashtag in TikTok search before you use it.
Study your analytics after 20 videos. Which videos got longer watch time? Which had higher completion rates? Build more of what performed and less of what did not.
Start Facebook Reels at 3 to 5 posts per day. Begin content batching: film 10 to 15 short videos in one session and schedule them across the week.
Do market research before each content batch. Before your next filming session, spend 30 minutes in TikTok search. Find what is currently trending in your niche. Identify a gap. Build two or three videos specifically to fill that gap.
Add a call to action to every video. Before you post anything, decide what you want the viewer to do next. Say it clearly at the end of the video.
Keep going past the point where it feels bad. The early videos will underperform. That is normal and expected. Heather got through roughly 100 videos before her first TikTok account hit 1,000 followers. Her second account, with more refined strategy, got there in about 15 videos. The learning curve is real and you only get through it by posting.

Find Your X

Heather’s journey from 20 failed side hustles to a coaching business that works comes down to one thing: she kept going until she found the intersection of what she was genuinely good at and what genuinely excited her. TikTok strategy happened to be it. For you, the intersection might be something completely different — freelance writing, bookkeeping, online tutoring, selling digital products, or something else entirely. The tactics change depending on which path you take. The first step is figuring out which path actually fits your skills, your schedule, and how you want to work.

If you are not sure where to start, finder.platformproof.com walks you through a short quiz that matches your background and goals to the online income paths most likely to work for your specific situation. Free, takes a few minutes, gives you a starting point worth acting on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to get monetized on Facebook Reels?

There is no fixed timeline because it depends on how consistently you post and how quickly you hit 100,000 views in a month. Creators who post 3 to 5 Reels per day with strong content can hit that threshold in a few months. Creators who post sporadically take much longer or never qualify. Facebook may also invite you into the Reels bonus program before you hit 100K views if it recognizes you as an active digital creator, which is another reason consistent daily posting matters.

Can I use my TikTok videos on Facebook Reels?

If you are not monetized on Facebook, you can technically repurpose content. But if you are enrolled in Facebook’s monetization programs, Facebook requires original content — meaning videos you created specifically for the platform, not repurposed from TikTok or Instagram. Beyond the policy issue, videos with TikTok watermarks also tend to get reduced distribution on other platforms. If you are serious about monetizing both platforms, plan to create separate content streams for each.

Do hashtags actually matter on TikTok anymore?

Yes. Hashtags are how TikTok’s algorithm categorizes your content and decides which users to show it to. The key is using hashtags that match your actual content, not just hashtags with high view counts. If your hashtags send your video to the wrong audience, your watch time drops and your distribution suffers. Heather’s two-minute test — searching each hashtag in TikTok to confirm it surfaces similar content — is a direct way to verify your hashtags are working before you post.

Should I niche down before I start posting or just post about whatever I know?

Heather’s advice for absolute beginners: start posting and let your niche emerge from your performance data. If you try to perfectly define your niche before you have any data, you are making decisions in a vacuum. Post videos about what you know, watch which ones perform, and notice what your audience keeps coming back for. That pattern is your niche. Once you see it clearly, then you narrow your content plan around it. Trying to engineer a niche from the outside before you know what works is a form of overthinking that delays the only thing that actually generates data: posting.

Is it too late to start on TikTok or Facebook Reels?

Heather’s answer on Facebook Reels: the massive bonus payouts from 2021 and 2022 are gone, but money is still available for new creators and the competition in the feed is still relatively soft because Facebook is pulling content from Instagram to fill the gap. That softness will not last. On TikTok, the platform is still growing globally and new creators break through regularly. Every niche on TikTok has room for someone who covers it with a slightly different angle or speaks to a slightly different segment of the audience. The window is not permanently closed, but waiting longer does not improve the odds.

What if I tried a side hustle and it did not work — should I keep trying?

Heather tried 20 before one stuck. The ones that did not work were not failures in the permanent sense — they were information about what she was not suited for and what did not align with her enthusiasm. Her rule: if a side hustle is bringing you zero satisfaction after a genuine effort and the work feels like suffering rather than building, it is fine to shift. That is not quitting. Quitting is walking away from the idea of building an online income entirely. Trying something else and learning from it is the process. The only way to find the thing that works is to eliminate the things that do not.

Do I need expensive equipment to start making content?

No. Heather’s early TikTok videos were grainy and dark. Her phone and whatever lighting was available in the room she was in. She noted this directly: the videos looked bad and she posted them anyway because done is better than perfect and because nobody was watching at that point anyway. The content itself — the actual information and relatability — matters far more than production quality in the early stages. Once you have a following and a content strategy that is proven to work, you can upgrade your equipment. Before that, equipment is a way to feel productive without posting.

What books does Heather recommend for social media creators?

She mentioned two specifically. Fascinate by Sally Hogshead focuses on building fascination into your branding and how to make your content and business feel compelling to the people you are trying to reach. She described it as a strong storytelling vehicle for its ideas, which makes it easier to read and apply. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is her recommendation for the mindset layer — specifically for creators who have the skills and knowledge but are blocked by self-doubt or lack of drive. Her assessment: “I will talk about that book till my lips turn blue.” Both are worth reading if you are building any kind of online presence.

Sources

Get Off The Wall Podcast interview with Heather Rose, founder of Breaking Free Coaching (YouTube video ID: FQ_7zqnNBSU)
Heather Rose on TikTok and Facebook content strategy, hashtag research, and going viral — direct podcast transcript
Facebook Reels creator program details and payout structure as described by Heather Rose on the podcast
Rachel Peterson (cited by Heather) as a million-dollar TikTok earner with posting frequency recommendations of 7-10 videos per day
Fascinate by Sally Hogshead (recommended by Heather Rose)
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill (recommended by Heather Rose)