About Us

The TikTok Tea

This blog exists to help with a few things:

• To go beyond the 15 seconds of fame that the TikTok famous have on the app, and discover who they are at a deeper level.
• To keep you up to date with the major trends and cultural shifts on the app, and what that means in the world.
• I'll be throwing some broccoli in with the candy, so you actually learn something. Sorry, not sorry. 🤣Why am I doing that? Because some of you will want to do something more than become TikTok famous, but won't know HOW to use TikTok fame to do that good stuff. I can help with that. Part of that is understanding the broader context in which the app exists. If you just want the candy, just eat the candy. If you're willing to eat the broccoli too, you could become your generation's Gary Vee. Up to you. 

Rebecca Bardess

Hi. I'm Rebecca. I'm Gen X (so don't "OK Boomer" me!) and I was one of the first online influencers. 

Influencer

In 2009, I won the Ms Twitter influence contest, beating all the Kardashians, and was the only non-celebrity in the final. The following year, I was a finalist in the 'twitter Oscars' The Shorty Awards', beating JK Rowling in the Literature category. 

Writer

I leveraged this influence into becoming a bestselling author and a magazine columnist for three magazines. This helped me to meet influential people in tech, and become friends with Directors and Vice Presidents at Google and Amazon. In the process, they verified my YouTube channel. Spoiler alert... I SO don't make enough use of that, but I'll be making more videos over the next year. 

Entrepreneur

Once upon a time, I was a teenager, like many of the people reading this now. At 17, I set up my first business, selling jewellery... and scrunchies. Lol. Trends loop. I took what I learnt from that business and became one of the first Dot Com Pioneers in the 90s, building the infrastructure for online social networks that came along years later. 

Business wasn't always fun and sociable. It was my little crop of chums who did that for you. We went into rooms full of billionaire Boomers and pitched for Venture Capital. We brought in the ideas of Dress Down Fridays, beanbags in the office, working from home, and informality online. Memes? That was us. TikTok is very similar to the early internet. It was all about short memes and fun. 

Since I first went online in 1988, when it sucked, it's been a pleasure to watch this space evolve, and to help clients of mine (I coach celebrities, aspiring celebrities, creatives, and entrepreneurs) to find their own space, and their own voice, online. I hope I can help you to find your voice and the voices of others as you pick up the torch and do your own thing with this wonderful Worldwide Web.