Social Media Stars Making a Social Impact: Why & How Kazu of Ultmeche Is Helping To Change Our World
It’s okay to slow things down. When you begin building on social media, you will become addicted to the growth. There’s nothing quite like it in terms of reward and satisfaction — knowing that what you are putting out there is accepted and enjoyed by many. You will then constantly seek that feeling of reward and satisfaction and continue to provide value for your viewers…only to notice that you’re getting tired from fatigue or burn out. It’s okay to slow things down when you need. No one can go 100% all the time.
As a part of our series about leaders who are using their social media platform to make a significant social impact, we had the pleasure of interviewing Kazu.
Kazu is an engineering career coach and founder of Ultmeche — a Career Resources site focused both on job searching mainly focused on engineering (Mechanical, Civil, Electrical, Software Engineering, etc.), but covers other industries and sectors such as Tech, Business, Finance, Healthcare, Accounting, etc.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
Growing up, I always enjoyed math and science which steered me over to becoming an engineer in my career. After being able to land my dream job at a company that designs, develops, builds, and supports one of the world’s most advanced products, I wanted to help others do the same.
Job hunting was and is the hardest thing ever — until I figured out the right job-hunting frameworks.
In 2016, I had the hardest time finding a job out of college.
I applied to 100+ jobs and in 1 month, I would hear back from absolutely no one. I thought it was normal and part of the game — that applying to jobs online felt like a black hole.
These results are terrible and it was because of my resume.
My resume looked absolutely terrible.
I didn’t know how to write a resume.
No one taught me and I messed up in not having a mentor or even seeking feedback from colleagues.
How would I know any better what I was doing was wrong? I thought it was all part of the game.
After an eternity of trial and error, I figured out what the right job searching frameworks were which led me to land my dream job.
I aspire to teach all of those trying to land their dream jobs the right frameworks so that they too can land themselves opportunities they wouldn’t be able to.
It was through the creation of my career services business which started my career in social media marketing. Through the right systems, frameworks, and the brand that I have created, I’ve been able to amass over 30K+ followers on TikTok and 3K on Instagram.
I mostly talk about career resources and job hunting, but I do realize the power of social media and its potential to make a social impact.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began this career?
One day recently, in the sauna at the gym I go to, someone I knew said to me “I saw you on TikTok”
Getting recognized in real life was one of the craziest things ever to happen to me regarding my business career. It was so surreal and almost like a “We made it” type of moment.
Prior to beginning my career in my business regarding career services and video creation, I was just working as an engineer. I never even remotely thought about social media or video creation back then, but now video creation is such a huge part of my business. It’s so integral in my day-to-day life that I’m constantly thinking of ways to create new content or increase the quality of how I currently create content.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Although I say that it’s much better to use systems and frameworks approach vs. the “spray and pray”, I started off with the “spray and pray” approach.
Anything I could remotely think of that I could produce as video content; I would push out and evaluate what I did. Most of my videos flopped pretty hard such as only getting 7 views on TikTok.
What this did teach me is what doesn’t work.
Each video you upload that doesn’t do well is an opportunity for you to learn, make changes, and create a better video.
Doing this over a long period of time will be able to get anyone to be able to create high-quality video content.
You have been blessed with success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
Don’t be afraid of failure. Failure is an opportunity for you to learn and draw experiences so that you can make better decisions in the future. We all fail, every single one of us. To never fail is to be inhumane. Even the most successful people in their careers will tell you about many failures that they have. Fail early and often so that you create your own database of experiences and use that to make solid decisions down the line.
Ok super. Let’s now jump to the core focus of our interview. Can you describe to our readers how you are using your platform to make a significant social impact?
I help people get jobs. I give no non-sense career advice which has resonated with thousands of my viewers and readers. It’s insanely crazy that many people don’t know about clear-cut job-hunting systems and frameworks. They’re all blindsided with what they learn from those that have no idea what they’re doing. It’s no wonder these people aren’t able to get jobs, and it’s no fault of their own. I aim to help these people get their dream jobs and live the lives they truly want. I show people that they have everything they need, right in front of them. They just needed a bit of guidance and implementation of the right “no nonsense” frameworks and systems.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted by this cause?
Along with job hunting systems and frameworks — I also produce out content regarding how important it is to aim to be successful in all areas of life — financially, physically, and emotionally. I truly believe that these three areas are something we all need to make sure we have covered.
One of my readers truly resonated with me outside of what I preach from a job hunting standpoint. I talk about exercise and the importance of building healthy relationships with friends and family — which no one really seems to talk about. Most social media stars will only aim to have expertise in one area, but I am to have expertise in multiple and convey the importance of that to my readers for an optimal life.
Why wouldn’t you want to succeed in areas such as your career, finances, relationships, and even your health? Success in those areas are all interlinked.
Was there a tipping point that made you decide to focus on this particular area? Can you share a story about that?
One of my readers said to me, something along the lines of “Great points, it’s really great that you talk about this stuff, because no one else does”
This gave me some validation and made me realize that people actually like hearing me talk about this.
I then realized there’s a lack of focus to strive for success in all areas of life — fitness, finances, relationships, and health. As a result, I use my existing platform to convey messages to help those look for success in multiple areas of life.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
- Talk about what I’m talking about. There just seems to be a lack of communication regarding the concept of self awareness, ownership, and taking action into an individual’s own hands. Many people love to sit there, complain, and not do anything about circumstances they’re in. They don’t realize how detrimental it is to just not take action and matters into their own hands.
- Incentivize. Maybe there needs to be some incentive to drive growth and change. Some form of standardization regarding optimal frameworks. Incentives are purely one of the greatest motivators…especially financial ones.
- Support and encourage one another. There needs to be more support and encouragement as opposed towards hostility when presented upon a belief that isn’t accepted by society. People need to learn to think for themselves and form their own thoughts and opinions. Purely, from a logical standpoint, does it not make sense to focus on the areas of life that I have discussed above?
Why do you think social media in particular has the power to create social change and create a positive impact on humanity?
Most people nowadays are geared towards watching video for information. It’s why platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, and IG/FB Reels are all trending and very heavily used among consumers. More people prefer video based social medial platforms over text based social media due to the engaging and entertaining allure that video provides over text. These videos have the power to influence and change the thinking of many of the users on these platforms.
What specific strategies have you been using to promote and advance this cause? Can you recommend any good tips for people who want to follow your lead and use their social platform for a social good?
Push content out whether it’s video through platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube or text based such as Twitter. Collect an email list and talk to your audience daily about your own causes. If your readers unsubscribe, well, good — they’re not the ones you want reading your emails anyway.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
- Anyone can grow on social media, all you need is consistency. I never knew I’d grow as big as platform as I currently have today. The crazy thing? That I’m only just getting started now that I see the potential of social media. Anyone can grow, and all it takes is consistent posting. Through tons of trial and error, you will learn what works and what doesn’t work. Stop doing what doesn’t work and double down on what works.
- Focus more on the brand as opposed to the individual content you create. As opposed to the individual message of each piece of content you create, create a brand for yourself. Within your brand, there will be tons of messages that you can portray to your viewers. Focusing on the individual content is too nitty gritty. A high-level approach to building a brand is much more effective. Your audience will resonate more with the brand than the one piece of content you put out.
- You will get a ton of people that disagree with you. I still can’t fathom that people take the time out of their day to write some disagreeing comment on my content. Oh well, more engagement for me I guess. A ton of my videos have people disagree with me. Do I let it get to me? Nope.
- Conveying a message gets exhausting. It gets tiring to constantly push out messages through your brand and to create new forms of content, even when you do take a high-level approach and work on building a brand. Do what you must to gain creativity, but one of the easiest ways to do so is to just live an awesome life.
This also leads to my next point which is… - It’s okay to slow things down. When you begin building on social media, you will become addicted to the growth. There’s nothing quite like it in terms of reward and satisfaction — knowing that what you are putting out there is accepted and enjoyed by many. You will then constantly seek that feeling of reward and satisfaction and continue to provide value for your viewers…only to notice that you’re getting tired from fatigue or burn out. It’s okay to slow things down when you need. No one can go 100% all the time.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
For everyone to take matters into their own hands and take responsibility, accountability, and ownership for their actions and their situation. As much as we want others to help us, it’s ultimately up to us individually to execute what we really want.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a power lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
Would love to have a power lunch with Mark Cuban — Big fan of Mark Cuban and his accomplishments and ability to run multiple successful businesses. Would love to learn firsthand what it takes to succeed in business and specific actionable steps I can take to further grow mine. Success in business requires growth, delegation, and scale which are all short-term goals of my own to focus on.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Follow me @ultmeche on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter.
Additionally, check out ultmeche.com — a career resources website focused on giving jobseekers the best tools they can get to land their dream jobs.
This was very meaningful. Thank you so much!
Social Media Stars Making a Social Impact: Why & How Kazu of Ultmeche Is Helping To Change Our… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.