BREAK THE INTERNET: Llama With No Drama (Eylül Savaş) : Viral Travel with a Twist

Tom Cain  00:00

Today we're speaking with Eylül Savaş, a.k.a. Llama With No Drama.

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00:04

I like to lay in bed for remember y'all stay in the Lulu is when you have a bad day. Give up. Try again tomorrow

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Tom Cain  00:19

Eylül and her llama have racked up over 250,000 followers on Instagram and over 20 million views. Good friend Good morning you absolute Stoner. Behind the llama is Eylül Savaş a digital marketing consultant, content creator and speaker. This is how she breaks the internet.

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Ben Kaplan  00:39

Welcome to Break The Internet. I'm chatting with Eylül Savaş and her Llama With No Drama account is breaking the internet. A little welcome to the show. And we're fascinated to hear about your story. Hello,

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Eylül Savaş  00:53

thank you so much for having me. Allama says thank you too

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Ben Kaplan  00:57

the llama does as well. Excellent. And how does this start out? I mean, lots of people liked the name Llama With No Drama, did it start? Is that the genesis of this idea? Or where did this start being like, Hey, I'm gonna create a character. I'm going to create an account and it's going to bring a little bit of joy to the world. Yeah,

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Eylül Savaş  01:14

so this is back in 2016 I believe it was in. This is like around March. One day I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw this illustration of a llama doing this move thing this llama doesn't want her drop but I don't know if I was like going through some tough times or somebody just cracked me up. I was like looking at my file laughing go like this is so funny. I actually like llama drama name is very catchy. Let me like my marketing mind around that time was like, why don't you just like try to search, like account names. Maybe we can do something with it. So then then I came up with what about llama but no drama, and then I looked it up on Instagram, okay, it's available. And then I'm like, Okay, let me go to GoDaddy and see if the domain is like available or not. And they're out there. And I'm like, Okay, I have no idea what I'm gonna do about it. But I'm just gonna buy this account. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I know I'm doing really, really well. So I bought the domain. I have the accounts all over social without knowing anything. And then I think I put their idea on pause for a bit. But then one day, I'm like, Okay, I think it's time to do something for myself do on Instagram, because I didn't want to be one of those girls who were like traveling the world in their bikinis and taking selfies at the time, it was a huge thing. Not that I'm against it. I just didn't want to be under the spotlight. But I still wanted to do something on Instagram. So I'm like, Okay, I have this account. Maybe it's a good idea to get a long one make it travelled the world. So that's how the idea, I guess, came to life. And then we started traveling because I was already traveling. Working as a marketing consultant as a an independent one.

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Ben Kaplan  03:16

You can work remotely, you could travel you're going to interesting places. And I'm going to bring this llama along. So start with the name. It started with this idea of travel. And you were also a little bit inspired. Is that correct? By the the movie Amelie and sort of the garden gnome that is in the movie? It

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Eylül Savaş  03:34

was one of my favorite movies, even though you know it's so funny. I was not thinking of that when I first started it but then maybe like four or five months later when I thought about it, what could be dislike inspiration that I'm not aware of? Like maybe like subconsciously and then I'm like, oh my god, maybe this actually this movie gave me this idea from years ago that I watched it.

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Ben Kaplan  03:57

I don't know what it means to hear this right now. But be peepee poo poo poo poo. So you have the name you sort of have the concept of this stuffed animal llama who's gonna show up in interesting and memorable and popular places around the world? Did you put much thought into the actual like the stuffed animal llama and like how it looked and all this or did you just like get the first one you found and and then how did you think about what the content would be itself? If you know is the static images is this videos is something else?

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Eylül Savaş  04:33

The face was very important when you search like Google. There are so many llama plushies but I don't know for some reason they make most of them very ugly and angry looking. So it was definitely not the first one I like God I like ran through a lot and I found this like very smiley, like welcoming face. I'm like okay, this is nice. So that's Oh, I got that one. Um, the origin Aloma.

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Ben Kaplan  05:03

So you had the name, you had the concept? Yeah, that sounds like you wanted a smiley, happy llama to visualize no drama. And then how did you sort of think about or start experimenting with with content? What was the approach? What was the format? What worked what didn't take us through those kind of early days.

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Eylül Savaş  05:21

So it definitely started with photos. And at the time, Instagram, like we're talking about back in 2016, it was very photo oriented videos, were not a thing. Like, I guess videos, like became a thing thing in the past four years. But in 2016, it was all still photos, and I love taking photos. So it was the combination of my passion for traveling, bringing smiles to people's faces, because everyday like, and I think around that time, some negative things are happening in the world, like, I mean, when does it not happened. But I wanted something bright, to put out there to the world that brings smiles to people's faces. So it was this combination of again, travel, like bringing happiness smiles, and encouraging people to travel with photos with colorful photos since the beginning, it's been always about these colorful places and colorful images.

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Ben Kaplan  06:21

And what did you learn about photos at that time? Like? Was that one of them that it needs to be colorful? What else like what photos worked? And didn't work? Did it need to be recognizable places? Did it just need to be pretty? Like what worked? And what didn't just in the realm of photos?

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Eylül Savaş  06:36

No, I love that question. Because it's so funny. So in the early days, when I posted a photo of the llama from its back, the engagement was much lower. But when it was facing the camera, and like directly from the faces, like even the angles, but you can't be tilted, it can't be like that it has to be like straight and looking in the camera. Those images were always way more engaging. But now like things have changed while I'm doing the videos and doing like POV videos from llamas back like from like from your angle like that. They get like high engagement too. But at the time when we first started, it was an interesting fact like to me like I'm like, Okay, I gotta do this photo from this angle. Okay, so

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Ben Kaplan  07:21

you had to do it you want the llamas face at the beginning, though it's evolved from that. And then didn't matter the location? Did you notice different followers? And this is kind of your path to get here, kind of first 100,000 followers? Was there anything like beach scenes or mountain scenes or things with people or not with people? What did you kind of learn? And were you just experimenting with all this?

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Eylül Savaş  07:42

Not with people, it was more about the scenes, I don't think it was necessarily about the specific locations, as long as I am able to capture like colorful, beautiful scenery, and llama doing things that normally humans would do. captured the audience right away anyway, so I didn't have to go to like very popular places. In the beginning. I think when I first started, I was in Miami, I was traveling in between Miami and New York a lot because I had a client there at the time. So a lot of content was coming from there. And then I went down to Colombia. So this is all happening within the first two months after I started the account. And that's when it went viral. After that, we started going to more popular places. But before then in the

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Ben Kaplan  08:31

first I think indication we've chatted before, you've mentioned that the first indication you thought that hey, this could really be something was when you got a interest from a travel publication, where actually someone wanted to feature this and reached out to you and what was the story and it's kind of interesting in the early days, because you have a PR background, you're able to start leveraging this.

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Eylül Savaş  08:54

It was so funny. I received this email I guess two months after that after I started from Travel Channel at first I thought it was like spam email or why even the scam email? I don't know. And then like I started, like googling this person. Oh, this is real. Okay, yeah, sure. I would love to do that interview. And then that's how I did the first interview. And then from the Travel Channel piece, a few other publications picked it up. But then I thought, okay, there's something here. It's a like, it looks like it good. PRPs. And my background is NPR. Why don't I do some like PR push for this. So I started reaching out to a fibrotic publication. So it was this like viral moment of like, two viral moments, let's say months. happened like that in the beginning initially, and then fast forwarding it to 2019. There was this trend report from a big publication that says unicorns are dead. Now it's time for llamas. Of course the first thing when people search for LA amaz on social media it's Llama With No Drama would pop. So all these publications started featuring loving and

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Ben Kaplan  10:06

you think because this was a trending llama was a new trendy, I guess trendy animal?

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Eylül Savaş  10:11

Yes. But then they were also saying llama. But no drama is part of like making this a trend.

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Ben Kaplan  10:18

So you get mentioned in there. So it was sort of like the first wave, it sounds like PR driven of just like the travel, the novelty of the travel with the llama, and then llama actually becomes a trend and you happen to be in the right place at the right time for that trend. And then it gets more more popular. And meanwhile, were you doing like, how much time were you spending on this? Like, it doesn't seem like it's that time consuming to take stuff down and take take some photos or just move things. But maybe as you start getting into the science of it, it does get more time consuming to figure out the right shots definitely

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Eylül Savaş  10:48

takes like, more time than you think. I mean, it's actually not like that, in the beginning, I would take anything and people would love it no matter what, like, doesn't matter how shitty did photo I took, like, I would get 1000s of likes, okay, great the early days of Instagram, right? But then, of course, things started changing. And now like, I also started working with a lot of big brands, like from four seasons to Ritz Carlton, and you can't deliver them some of the images. So you had to like create a concept and like the setup and everything. So those are definitely more time consuming. And also, when you go on press trips with tourism boards, you're dedicating your I don't know, at least a week, to be with them to do that itinerary. Day by day, and creating all the content that you agreed on from the beginning. So it really depends on what kind of content you create, like, obviously, but it definitely takes a lot of time to create content like Wow, good enough content. You

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Ben Kaplan  11:58

know, more recently, past few months, really a rebirth of the account where you had, you know, I think 140,000 followers in the past few months, you've added another 110,000 followers. What drove that? I think especially given that what I know about you is that you haven't been traveling, this is a travel based account. How have you been growing so quickly? And what have you been doing?

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Eylül Savaş  12:23

Yeah, I know. That's the crazy part. I mean, I'm still traveling, it's just not as much as before. I have a boyfriend, I have a dog, I have a more settled life. And it was way more fun in my 20s. So now I'm in my 30s Like, I like a more routine life. But I still love traveling. I still do. But the content that I've been using that has been going viral recently is all old content, like mostly old content. Because I was just sitting at home that day, like in January, I don't know when I started posting those Exactly. But I'm like, Okay, I'm not traveling that much. But I have all this content from previous years from my prior trips, that I haven't used that much. Because the video was not that big when I was doing all that travel and I was like not really video savvy, I would say. But now I am in the video world to Mike let me repurpose those existing videos. And let's also merge this with some more fun messaging that is not only around travel, but more around mental health and like feel good. And combine it with trending audios and boom like it just gone viral again, you might be experiencing a spiritual awakening, if

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13:46

you've recently asked yourself some of these questions. What the fuck? What the heck is happening? The fuck? What was that?

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Ben Kaplan  13:54

We've spoken before, you've said that you spend way more time paying attention to trends. So now you're trying to insert trending audio, other things with the llama with the travel concept, but with a little bit more evolved the no drama part, which is the mental health part, those things are coming to you. So how, how much time and how do you do? It's just like figure out what's a trending clip, you could use something else that will get you a bigger

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Eylül Savaş  14:21

audience. Well, I mean, Instagram is so smart. So once you use or save a few of those videos or audios that are in that space, like they start serving up a lot of that kind of content. So when I scroll on the lamas account, like all I see is like in those similar areas, and I'm like, Okay, this would work, this wouldn't work. So it's a lot of scrolling and finding a trending audio, and then thinking of okay, what kind of content do I have that I can integrate this with? That's my Recent process,

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Ben Kaplan  15:01

I see the Explore page and how have you monetize this? For a lot of people it's like a dream to have their their stuffed animal monetize for their life. How have you thought about that? Including? I can see that going to Llama With No Drama.com I can adopt my very own llama. I can get a calendar where I can plan my schedule for the year. How did that all start? And how have you sort of best monetize that even when you have a separate marketing career and everything else?

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Eylül Savaş  15:34

I mean, I think the best part is that because I always had a separate income that I never, like 100% relied on Llama With No Drama. And it takes the pressure because I see a lot of creators in the field that are like so under pressure because they have to make that money from these brand partnerships and blah, blah, blah. And they sometimes do like really bad decisions when it comes to that like lot of brands that do not align with their personal brands that in my opinion they shouldn't work with they're doing it just for the income. But for me because I had that opportunity. I didn't have to so I've been very picky with all the brands that I worked with through the alumni account. It is a very specific line it is only like luxury hotels or tourism boards or airlines. And again, of course it's if you're in the travel space, it's hard to monetize those because the travel brands always look at it as a boarder. So they

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Ben Kaplan  16:32

want to provide you with hotel rooms or flights or a trip in exchange for posting

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Eylül Savaş  16:37

Yeah, most of the time it's like that but of course there are like paid opportunities to but they're also paid brand campaigns as well. But for me there's always been the llama sales and for the past four years also llama calendar sales. We've been selling calendars and on Amazon Barnes and Noble Walmart

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Ben Kaplan  16:59

had how many like llamas just one sell? I don't know what a year how many calendars like is it substantial sales?

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Eylül Savaş  17:05

Yeah, wait, like we have good enough of those like I keep especially now that the account went viral again in January. We were out of stock like so many times. And people like constantly DMing the llama. When are the cousins are going to be available? When are they coming back? I'm like, I'll let you know, guys. And it's so cute. Like, there's so many messages there that are so sweet. Yeah, I don't want to get into that. But so there's been a good amount of llama sales for sure. Like I like every month I saw hundreds.

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Ben Kaplan  17:41

And where do you hope to take this now like have over 250,000 followers. It's not meant to be your main focus. But it's it's growing. It's rejuvenated again recently. Where do you want to take it? How do you want to evolve? It is also something that's interesting because it doesn't have to be just you doing it because it's not your personality. It's something that someone else could run with or someone else helping you could run with us what are your next plans

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Eylül Savaş  18:08

for I mean, I do not have any plans on giving up on it, even though it is more on the side. I love that I definitely love the travel aspect of it. But I think what I want to focus more in the upcoming months or years is more on the mental health space because there is a huge need, I think from like creators by their audience, like they need some uplifting content. And that is actually helpful. And all these so even though it's so funny, like to me like we would think this is helpful, but the DMS I've been receiving are showing me that this is actually helpful like me putting this kind of content out there, like made someone smile today, or, um, I don't want to give so much detail. But one of the DMS I received was from a lady who lost her son and she was looking for a sign in her therapy group they told her that her sign of that month would be a llama, and she hasn't seen a llama find anywhere until she came across the Llama With No Drama account. And she started like she told me the story that like she started crying like this is my son showing me like, things get very deep. You would not expect that like from this stuffed animals account, but it gives that kind of a feeling and I think I was able to engage with my audience a lot like I respond to every DM even though I receive a lot like doesn't matter if it's like today or in a week, I always answer them. So it's a very engaged community in that sense.

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Ben Kaplan  19:50

And as you sort of explore the mental health space, how do you envision doing that? What would change about the content? How do you think you can draw upon those themes, but still keep what you're known for, but but evolve it,

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Eylül Savaş  20:04

I really am in need of a mental health company partnership. And that's what I'm trying to navigate right now. Like, who would be the right partner? And how we can integrate llama into their brand and their brand into my brand like something. I'm not thinking of it just the one time like campaign, Okay, we're done. Like I would love to do something more ongoing, where I don't know it can even be an app where llama can pop and like tell you nice things then to remind you, like be kind to yourself and things like that. I just need to structure that like better. Once I have more time I go.

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Ben Kaplan  20:46

Okay, well, and what is your advice for others who want to do something like this? What have you learned from this journey about you know, getting started and actually the type of content that one should create, whether that's putting themselves front and center on your case? Not putting yourselves friends that are putting out stuff? Llama friends that are? What have you learned with this? What is your advice to others?

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Eylül Savaş  21:07

No, it's totally up to that person, right? I mean, I started the llama account because I didn't want to be under the spotlight. But then I also ended up growing my account to like decent amount too. So I'm at like 70,000 followers too. And I do like a lot of partnerships as well from my account. But mine was kind of forced, because it's so funny. So the brands I was working with, through llama love the exposure that they were receiving from the account. But they didn't want to repost or they didn't want to use it on their website or on their like, on pages because they wanted a human in those photos. So that's when they started asking me to take photos for my account or of myself too. And that's how I started creating content for myself, then that's how I grew my account. I see

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Ben Kaplan  22:02

because they just they were structured around needing a person not a stuffed animal for everything they did.

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Eylül Savaş  22:07

Yeah, that UGC. Yes. So my, my content started as more as UGC for them, but then of course, it got bigger and it's no longer you just heating with a and

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Ben Kaplan  22:18

do you cross pollinate between your personal account and the Llama With No Drama account? Do people know those two accounts exists? And your real fans go back and forth? Do you have rules about when you appear with the llama in content versus not? how that's done? How do you manage your two sides of your personality? Your split personality here?

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Eylül Savaş  22:42

So of course, I mean, it was never completely anonymous like on the bio of the law, my account it says like by age or sabotage. So they always knew but I never really pushed myself on that account. I'm never, almost never I guess on Lamas feed, but on the stories, sometimes to answer some questions, because some people are asking, like, how did you come up with the idea of why we want and then in that scenario, I have a

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Ben Kaplan  23:13

marketing agency and one of our clients was the Nine Lives cat Morris the cat, who we brought back a celebrity so we had to do we had five different cats that were live action cats, but we had to like record voiceovers for the cats with a voiceover artist and and get the cats like sort of sit still and like move their head and try to time it to the voice over and we had these little animatronic paws who had paws that we could do like the the you know, point of view and have the paws like, you know, going down the aisle and stuff like that. So we did a lot of that you have not been tempted to do the voiceovers and actually make the llama talk now I

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Eylül Savaş  23:51

think the only reason I'm using the trending audios is that finally Lama has actually like it feels like he can talk but from other people's voices, definitely not mine.

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Ben Kaplan  24:01

But what is your advice for others just on the day to day practice of, you know, getting more engagement, getting more reach building your account, what has been like, I don't know, the most successful tip tips or tactics you've employed for someone else that wants to grow whatever their concept is.

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Eylül Savaş  24:19

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I think especially for like people that are just getting into the content creation scene, it's important for them to be up to date with trends because for a long time, I was like, Okay, I don't want to deal with videos. I don't want to do videos and because of that my account didn't grow. But it was obvious that all these platforms like from Mehta to you like YouTube to tick tock, everybody wants you to create videos. So you kind of listen to the industry, the ecosystem, and it's already telling you what they want you to do. But if it doesn't feel authentic to yourself, you're not yet you shouldn't do it. I hate the word authentic because everybody keeps saying, Oh, be authentic, it's going to work out. No, that's not the reality either. But if it has to feel authentic to yourself, like I, for a while, I didn't want to push myself to do long videos, and I didn't, and I didn't grow it. That's what I deserved. So if you want to grow, and then in June, as of January, I made the decision, okay, I'm gonna put more effort in this account, and I want to grow this, I'm okay. Then I got to, like, keep up with the trends. And then it worked. So it was already telling me what to do. I was just not listening. And I think working with brands that are really true to yourself is very important, not just work with brands for the money. I hated. Like, I think that's my biggest like, feeling for some people in the industry. And they say, like, I don't know. But even like, from fashion influencers, they say, they're so sustainable, and blah, blah, blah, they work with high infant, and then all of a sudden shine or fashionable wants to pay them. And they go and just promote that. And unfortunately, I have respect to many things, but not that

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Ben Kaplan  26:26

we are the hope all of this goes I know you're evolving the account you like the mental mental health as a theme. But uh, do you plan on doing this for the next 20 years? Do you hope to? would you love to grow it to where it could become a full time job? Is it just a fun thing to do on the side? Do you ever get tired of it? How do you deal with like, kind of the the feature of this,

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Eylül Savaş  26:47

it's a fun thing for me to do it on the side, I work with tech company tech startups, and I do marketing for them. And Tech is a space that now I am way more interested in? Well, of course, travel is my passion. So it's always gonna be there. Like even if I'm 90 years old. Of course, I'll be still traveling as long as I'm healthy. Right? Well, I don't know if llama would be there. I hope it will be but I don't know about that part. But yeah, I mean, I'm definitely seeing myself doing this for at least another five years. And then let's see it after that.

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Ben Kaplan  27:26

And finally, what is do you think the secret behind your most popular most viral post the post you most broke the internet? Now sing it with me humans? 17 point 5 million views? Take us through as a final question. What is the secret to that video? And why did that one in particular Break The Internet?

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Eylül Savaş  27:48

Llama saying 80 Shit. That's the secret for you know,

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Ben Kaplan  27:55

that is a secret, which is it's simple, surprising and significant. It's a simple idea that somehow surprises you because you expect it and somehow is significant that brings joy to your day. Is that what it is? Did you know it would be a hit when you created it?

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Eylül Savaş  28:10

Not really to be honest. Um, but I think it was the first video where llama actually used a curse word. And that's what shocked the people I believe. And also, when you sing it, just like listen to it, it's very catchy, like you sing it like

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28:33

today is not today. Just close your eyes. Than take a deep breath and say it again,

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Eylül Savaş  28:41

I sing it at home, like five months, something it's just so funny in a go the loop and you can't stop. So it's a very catchy tune. And I did the edit in a very colorful, so it was in Cape Town. I got that footage. While I was there last year. And it's a very colorful area. And then llama keeps like going like this way that way pops and stuff. Like it's also very full of action. While my actions. I think it was the combination of that, like all of those things. I

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Ben Kaplan  29:18

see. And did you get any complaints from using a curse word on this or No? Was

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Eylül Savaş  29:23

it all positive zero. People love that people

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Ben Kaplan  29:27

loved it. Okay, so that. So there you go. And then maybe the lesson of that is that you can build up, you know, your presence, your brand, your content, people can know what to expect. But then every once a while you can go against all that expectation. And that might be the surprising hit you have that somehow breathes new fresh life into the content you're creating.

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Eylül Savaş  29:52

Exactly. That's exactly what happened. All right. Well,

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Ben Kaplan  29:55

thank you so much for joining us. Well, I have to actually I have to thank two people. First of all, Thank to Eylül Savaş The creator of Llama With No Drama and then I also think the llama, please can I do that as well? Thank

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Eylül Savaş  30:06

you. Thank you.

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Ben Kaplan  30:08

Thank you for bringing some joy to my life, some mental health balance, some great travel scenes. I very much appreciate this. And it's okay if you want to dance if you want to sing if you want to do the occasional rap lyric or curse word and stuff like that, as long as you bring joy to the world. I'm happy with that. Thank you so much for joining us on Break The Internet. Thank

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Eylül Savaş  30:28

you so much. Thank you.

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Tom Cain  30:30

So what advice can we use to Break The Internet? Number one, find your unique angle. Identify a niche or unique concept that differentiates you from the others for Eylül it was a cheerful traveling llama. Leverage your skills. Utilize your existing skills and experience. Eylül’s background in marketing and PR was crucial in promoting her account and gaining media exposure. Secure your branding early, locked down your domain and social media handles as soon as you come up with a concept. Even if you're not sure what the exact plan is. Start with quality visuals. Begin with high quality, visually appealing photos. Pay attention to elements that resonate with your audience like colorful and engaging images. Adapt to trends. Stay up to date with social media trends. If platforms are favoring videos, adapt your content strategy accordingly. Leverage PR for exposure use PR strategies to reach out to publications and media outlets. Features in major publications can significantly boost your visibility. monetize selectively. If you get to that point, you should choose brand partnerships that align with your values and brand identity. This maintains authenticity and trust with your audience. engage with your audience. maintain high engagement by responding to comments and messages. Building a loyal community is key to sustain success. repurpose content. Don't be afraid to repurpose old content in new formats. This can help maintain consistency and leverage previous efforts. Incorporate meaningful themes include themes that resonate on a deeper level with your audience, such as mental health to add value beyond just entertainment. stay authentic. We've had this one many times before, ensure that your content feels true to yourself. Authenticity can drive engagement and build a loyal following balance and sustainability. Keep a balance between your main job and your side projects. Having a stable income source can reduce pressure and allow for more selective content creation. I think this is something that we don't speak about enough. But a lot of content creators don't just start out with content that hit the jackpot and make a bunch of money most of the time. Their side project is content creation until it becomes sustainable. And that's it. That's how Eylül Savaş and her llama the internet. This episode was brought to you by TOP Thought Leader go viral with TTL check out all our shows at topthoughtleader.com Like and Subscribe

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