Oversharing with the Overbys
Welcome to Oversharing with The Overbys! In this podcast series, Jo and Matt Overby cover a wide variety of topics—from parenting lessons, life stories, to personal relationships. Take an inside look on the lives of Jo and Matt as they navigate the adventures of adulthood and overshare online.
Episodes available monthly with a weekly option available via Patreon if you're looking for more!
Oversharing with the Overbys
Life Behind the Camera
Join us as we break down the realities of making a living as content creators, answering listener questions about everything from revenue streams to work-life balance while sharing personal insights from our own experiences.
• Brand collaborations - involving contracted content creation with companies
• Platform payments from YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms offer another revenue stream based on views
• Commissionable linking / purchases through creator affiliate links
• Subscription models through Patreon or platform features as reliable monthly income
• Individual businesses or product lines representing additional revenue opportunities
• Filming with kids and clear boundaries and communication about work time versus family time
• Simple vs. Easy - explaining the time and skill to produce quality videos
• Video editing time and variance
• Spontaneous vs planned content breakdown
• The pros and cons of social for us personally
If you've got a voicemail or want our (likely unqualified) advice on something, hit us up at the Speakpipe link below!
http://www.speakpipe.com/oversharingwiththeoverbys
If you'd like to email us you can reach the pod at oversharing@jojohnsonoverby.com!
And if you want to support the podcast and gain access to all episodes, check out https://www.patreon.com/oversharing!
CONNECT:
TikTok: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Instagram: @jojohnsonoverby / @matt.overby
Website: https://jojohnsonoverby.com/
Watch the Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL29Si0ylWz2qj5t6hYHSCxYkvZCDGejGq
Welcome to Oversharing with Overbees. I'm Jo. And I'm Matt, and each week you can tune in to hear us respond to your voicemails, go in-depth on our lives as content creators and hopefully leave you feeling even better than we found you.
Speaker 2:With that being said, let's get to Oversharing. For those of you following us along on a weekly basis, you may have noticed a set change I don't know every week.
Speaker 1:For the last month, yeah, I can't decide where I want to record in our house. I really wish we had a podcast studio, but I don't think that we are taking podcasting seriously enough to have a studio. You know what? I wonder if, over in the in-law suite, where the dining area is, if we did the built-ins that I want, we could like paint the wall and intentionally set that up as a studio spot.
Speaker 2:Okay, still have to move the camera in and out, have to move the camera in and out.
Speaker 1:It wouldn't be like a permanent setup, wouldn't be a film. But we could set it up with that in mind, with like a nice background, sure, but we could set it up with that in mind with like a nice background, because what I really don't like about recording at our house is everything is white.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we don't have the most interesting sets. Yeah, this is the most interesting one by far.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We've got a fireplace. We could turn it on, but we'd be sweating.
Speaker 1:I'm supposed to have artwork up here. It's being painted currently. Wait, this way it's funny because I should know. I was trying to look at the camera and know where I was supposed to point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but we could just know where we are in relation to the fireplace. That's what we should be like yeah it's behind me on the right anyway.
Speaker 1:Uh, not to describe how things look when this is a listening format sorry team, also a listening format. It's available it's mostly a listening format yes, yeah, I think they're like I don't know four thousand of you that uh watch on video no oh yeah on video. Yeah, yeah, I was gonna say I think they're like four thousand people that tune in monthly yeah and I think like 40 of them watch the video.
Speaker 1:So what's going on? Do you have an update for everybody? Today we're going to answer. We'd had a question a few weeks ago about content creation and just like people wondering what the back end of content creation looks like, how the hell are these people making money?
Speaker 1:What do they do? What is a week in your life look like, you know? I think a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their mind around it as a job just because there's not a lot. I struggle with the word transparency because I don't think it's a lack of people being transparent. I think that there are just parts of the recipe that go into doing certain jobs that you don't necessarily disclose, not out of it being a secret, but it takes away the enjoyment of the consumption of the content.
Speaker 2:Like making hot dogs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. But I imagine there are a lot of jobs like that too. Like if you're trying to pitch somebody being a doctor, you're probably not going to push them in the ER day one with no preparation.
Speaker 2:Or just all the paperwork.
Speaker 1:Yeah or that.
Speaker 2:Like you know like.
Speaker 1:My point is there's just parts of every job that we're not as familiar with, and my goal is to share some of that with you today, because it's not again a secret again it's it's not necessarily like uh, there's also just parts that don't translate necessarily unless you've tried to do them.
Speaker 1:I feel like yeah, there's a lot of it. You know, I saw somebody dive into this really, really well and I thought that it translated to my photography career as well, in that people get the two concepts of simple and easy confused with one another yeah uh, making content is simple, it doesn't mean it's easy.
Speaker 1:Like, being a photographer is simple, it doesn't mean that it's easy. Yeah, and I mean that it's simple in a way of lots of people have access to doing it, and I think people get those two concepts just a little confused.
Speaker 2:Well, it's the same confusion that people have when they're talking about photography and they're like, oh well, if I had a $3,000 camera, I could also make this happen, and they chalk it up to just the camera. Oh well, if I had a $3,000 camera, I could also make this happen, and they chalk it up to just the camera. And so it's even more so. I feel like when you're doing content creation and you're filming on an iPhone or whatever it's like oh well, I have a phone that I could take videos of and then put them online.
Speaker 1:The issue is that I don't have the time or I don't have the privilege to be able to do that. That's what a lot of people and I don't disagree Same thing with the. Dslr. Having a much nicer DSLR is going to make you a much better photographer in a lot of ways, just like having the privilege and the time and the access can give you a leg up in content creation.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:But those are not the things that make the people in those careers either.
Speaker 2:No, does that make sense?
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, do you want to give an update before we dive in, though?
Speaker 2:Update Well, we had your family holiday. Yep Went up and uh saw the cousins, saw the uh the other aunts and uncles, and uh, the kids had a good time. We had a good time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kids had a good time I had to take my sister to the ER. I'd never done that with her before, so I told her. As I was driving her to the hospital, I said thank you for doing this for me. I had never had that sisterly experience. So that's part of living in different states growing up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean I've never taken my brother to the hospital, but yeah. You guys are not close like that I also.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Yeah, he's never taken me because I've never gone. When I talk about siblings, I think a lot of people automatically jump to any siblings and I'm jumping to the siblings that I wish I was gotcha which is I wish that I had sibling relationships where we were very close and we were one another's support system and we were in one another's lives on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 2:Fair enough.
Speaker 1:That's like my dream sibling dynamic and it's what I'm comparing to when I say that I've never gotten to experience that I'm not looking for somebody who also does not have the sibling dynamic. I want to go. Well, I've never done that and I'm like, well, yeah, there's nothing aspirational about your sibling dynamic to me.
Speaker 2:Totally, totally fair. I guess I've been to the hospital one time. Now that I'm thinking about it, You've only been that one time. Yeah, you took me.
Speaker 1:I did.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You've taken me to the hospital.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Only once, twice Once um once I feel like once I haven't been to the er that many times in my life I've been to urgent care a few times, but never only once.
Speaker 2:The hospital and that was with you. You're like, hey, you got to go to the hospital I've been to the er for my mom a lot yeah, yeah, you have plenty of er experience but never only that one time I think for myself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but never only that one time I think for myself. Yeah, matt and I both have never broken a bone, but you know there's, I mean there's still time.
Speaker 2:We absolutely could yeah, we have lots of life ahead of us, hopefully oh, that's funny.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we had fun. The road trip went well. It was our first long road trip with three kids and and.
Speaker 2:I thought it went exceptionally smooth. Oh yeah, it was like wildly smooth.
Speaker 1:I thought the way there was smooth, so I was a little nervous about the way home, and the way home was even smoother, yeah, so we're just kind of a road trip in family, I guess.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, and yeah, the trick is bring zero entertainment for your kids.
Speaker 1:That was that is how we do it.
Speaker 2:Impressive part yeah normally, though, we bring like the little drawing thing and some books and stuff, and we realized on our way up we were like oh, we brought them basically nothing yeah, well, they can use their imagination or they can nap. Plenty of napping opportunity in the car. Yeah, they're pretty good at and they really are good about using their imagination and looking out the windows and yeah, if you don't pack entertainment for your kid, though, you do need to be willing to talk to them a lot yeah at least our four-year-old.
Speaker 1:She was questions galore I'm willing to chit chat for sure, yeah, I like to hear about it. I'm here for it. Yeah, uh, yeah, so that went well. Anything else, matt still hasn't taken down the building and we are still Raccoon Haven over here at the Overby Abode, and that's really about it.
Speaker 2:I'm going to take down the raccoon habitat this week. It was a busier week last week than we were also gone for the weekend.
Speaker 1:That's true. I'm not feeling any kind of way about it, yeah there was a lot of getting ready.
Speaker 2:That happened. Damn Was there weather. It was just hot. It was really hot last week.
Speaker 1:It's been hot and I think it's going to be hot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean we're moving into July, which is usually not the coolest time.
Speaker 1:It's Matt's birthday month. Everybody round everybody round of applause for the birthday boy 33 33 33 wow 33
Speaker 1:turning into an old piece of crap yep, that's what I always say when people ask me about you. I'm like he's an old piece of crap. Uh, I can't believe you're turning 33 yeah, nobody I've been thinking about age a lot lately. Just I don't feel as old as I am okay, I think that's normal. I think mentally people feel quite a bit younger though, because I get around my peers and they seem old to me fair enough?
Speaker 2:no, I I think there is. I think it's common, though I think even people that act older and like say they feel older, they're not feeling their age, they're just. I think they have a different view of like what the age should be, and so it's like, say they're 30, they might feel 25, but they also feel like they have, you know, 35 year old responsibilities.
Speaker 1:Well, I feel like people will say well then I get around a 25 year old and I know I'm 32, but I don't.
Speaker 2:I get around a 25 year old and I'm like, yeah, I'm 25. We have three kids, so I don't know that. I have the feeling of like, oh, I'm 25, because I think there's a period like mid to early twenties especially where it's like, oh, you're really just hitting a groove.
Speaker 1:I guess not your responsibilities and everything are totally different, I guess I mean independently, because you're right, I have friends that are 24, 25, and they talk to me about their dating lives and I'm like, oh yeah, no, I'm super married.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's that difference, but to me that's not like an age thing.
Speaker 1:You could be super married at 25 too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean you can have three kids at 25. Right, that's why I don't think that's as relevant to me but I think it's on the aggregate, Like yeah, yeah, yeah, if you're talking about the majority, when people are talking about someone who is quote unquote 25, I think it's the the average experience, not anything on the polar ends.
Speaker 1:Okay, fair enough. Just for the purpose of talk. Well, on that note, content creation.
Speaker 2:Content creation.
Speaker 1:Where would you like to start? Do you want to give a rundown? We gave a rundown last week or a couple weeks ago about how people make money via content creation. Do you want to give a short recap of that first?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we kind of hit the highlights when we answered that question the first time and we wanted to get into it on a full episode, and so I think the primary way a lot of people do it is through collaborations. So that's where a brand will contract you out, basically to make a video or to put a product in your videos or that kind of thing, and so you'll work directly with a brand or you'll have, like, in the case of a lot of people, they'll have management that works with a brand and you contract out and you get paid that way, directly. That's our primary form of income is contracted content.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't say that that's everybody. No, not at all A lot of people make their primary income through other channels. That's just our.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or some people. It's very well diversified or like evenly between those, and so that's one form. There's also being paid directly by platforms, and so, like YouTube, tiktok, especially for longer form content or I have less knowledge about, like how short, and Facebook, I know, has ways that they pay out too, like how shorts and facebook, I know, has ways that they pay out to anyway those, the actual social media companies, will pay you on a per views basis, and that ranges wildly depending on what the content is and I don't know anybody that's making a living doing purely that yeah well, I think some people, especially maybe if they're smaller or they just have, like if they've been growing, that like they have it as like a subsidized income and then it's slowly like well then, they'll use like tiktok shop or things like that too.
Speaker 2:But I the there's like ways to make money through lives and stuff, but the payout via view count is not.
Speaker 1:it requires a lot of views for you to make a substantial income. As far as I understand, again, we don't use Facebook or anything to do that.
Speaker 2:No, or Instagram, but I think there are people that have that as more of a primary income source. It's definitely not for us, but I don't think we make reliably viral content, which is really, I think, the only way to yeah. I don't think we make reliably viral content, which is really, I think, the only way to. Yeah, you either have to put out an outrageous amount of videos or you need to be very reliably going viral, especially with longer, longer form content.
Speaker 1:And then there's commissionable linking.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And so that is through platforms like shop my like to know it Amazon I don't know if walmart has one now, an individual storefront.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know they do or not.
Speaker 1:I don't use it if they do, um, but you make commission based on the amount of people who make purchases after clicking through your link. So when you see me post on a story, a link, and there is a little message below it that says commissionable link, I always share and disclose that just so you guys know it does not mean anything or impact you in any way.
Speaker 2:It's not going to change the pricing of things for you. It's not going to.
Speaker 1:It doesn't do anything, yeah, other than if you were to click through that link and then make a purchase from that website. I will get a small commission, and that can range from one percent. Some brands do up to like 30.
Speaker 2:Not very many do to be really clear, very few have normally that have to be a pretty high margin product that they like are really. I feel like if something's doing it that way that they're basically paying content creators by linking out that much, I would say most range four to 10%. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's honestly, one of my favorite ways to make money. Uh, in terms of in ways that my audience can support me. I think um not going out and buying things they don't need.
Speaker 1:But, if you found something from me that you're going to try because of me choosing to purchase it through a link. I'd like that's always really kind, like a lot of followers, when they know they're going to purchase something, will contact me and be like hey, I found this through you six months ago. I can't find the link. Could you send it to me so that you get your credit? And I always think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:That's very thoughtful.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's only, like you know, a dollar, two dollars it can be like 43 cents. Yes a lot.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of like.
Speaker 1:you got a nickel from this purchase, but I just think that that's cool for them to be, to take the time to like. Think about me in that way, because I think that's the hard part about content creation for me is we have moved into this time where so much of our entertainment and our like, so much of what we take in is free to access in some capacity, and I think that's where a lot of people don't value content creators, because there's always another one to you know fill in that spot. And if they don't have to pay for it, why would they? And I know a lot of people get annoyed with people doing ads and doing this stuff, but it takes time to make content and put things out there and it takes effort, and so it's nice when it can pay out in some capacity.
Speaker 2:It's the ads and things that give people the time to make all of the videos that you consume.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:No, well, that's, I mean, that's also the. It is technically free in terms of money, but it's an attention-based economy, is what it is.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So that money is generated by advertisers. Generated by advertisers either, like the platforms directly receive tons of money for just advertising on the platforms, and then the creators um also receive a piece of that, because they have to make the content that fuels the platforms um, and then the last way that I would say content creators, like a lot of people, start businesses or they'll do co-branded lines with companies or et cetera, et cetera. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I think a piece people get confused is when somebody says they make $70,000. A video Like that will circulate around about a big content creator every few months, like somebody will find out through they work in brand marketing or whatever and they got the rates of so-and-so.
Speaker 1:That's huge and they're charging $70,000 a video. And then people go to their account and they count how many times they've posted and they're like that means they're making $2.2 million this week and I'm like hold on. That doesn't mean they're making seventy thousand dollars every time they post a video. That means their brand collaboration is worth that. Possibly it could be that they quoted seventy thousand and it wasn't just for a single video. There are also things like whitelisting, advertising uh, paying people additional in order for them to not mention other brands for a certain amount of time Exclusivity.
Speaker 1:Thank you, it wasn't coming to me. I was like I know the word for this.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Paying for exclusivity. There are a lot of factors that go into those prices. It is not just a well. If I were doing that, then I would just make 10 videos a day and make $7 million.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and it's also like it's a negotiation and so maybe you're doing three videos for a brand or that all has effects, and so like you do three videos and that's like a larger guaranteed check for you, but your per video would be lower, and you know, there's just all kinds of stuff like that um.
Speaker 1:The things that are most important to me, though, when I'm doing brand collaborations, is saying yes to brands that we know, we love, we use um, and it being a good fit and feeling good about being a part of that brand's ecosystem and their advertising and what they're doing yeah um, and I I think that's become what's most important to me.
Speaker 1:Easier said than done, I uh, somebody asked when I asked questions what my like craziest content creation experience has been with it as a career. Um, and like what people wouldn't believe, and I thought of, like I've had really, really big brand offers that we've chosen to turn down because of things that they require on the back end. We there, there's a brand that, um, we had a very large opportunity like a, a salary sized opportunity, yeah, um, but in the fine print it was no political content. Like I couldn't say anything via stories on any platform anywhere. Like my political beliefs could not be known, um, and this brand has to do that because of legal reasons.
Speaker 2:It's a regulated industry.
Speaker 1:And so they have to.
Speaker 2:They can't be partisan in any way, and so the people that they advertise through they don't want declaring partisan views, and so that was like before the election and, um, it didn't really matter what side of the things you were on they you couldn't talk about anything political, basically for three, four months, something like that I think it was a year was it that long anyway? Regardless, it was also around the election time, so like even maybe it was only six months.
Speaker 2:Even if it was six months, it was very like volatile six months and so it wasn't necessarily like when you say it's in the fine print. It wasn't like, oh, we're trying to hide that in there. It was just like this is a stipulation of this contract. It's like we can't have the people that we're advertising through share views that could impact our brand, basically Impact our company or the political standing of our company, and so that's where they have to make those of our company and so that's where they have to make those.
Speaker 1:honestly, they're probably regulated in terms of, just in general, if they advertise politically yeah, but turning that down was one of the craziest things that I think has happened to me in content creation that was a tough one, but it was.
Speaker 1:You were like I have it wasn't tough, like the answer was there. It just hurt like yeah, yeah, they're not tough in terms of values there are brands that have come through that it's tough, like I have a hard time writing the line of like it is something I like, but is it something that you know it's? Something I believe in you know, and that can be hard, but that was not hard in that way. Yeah, yeah, um, I knew, but anyway, I just thought of that immediately as one of the craziest.
Speaker 2:One of the other, one of the other paths that we didn't touch on, and like I think that that segues into you were talking about paid partnership, like having their own brand or something. You can also have subscriber based platforms, oh, yeah, and so it's like you can have Patreon, those kind of things. I think there's subscription options now through almost every platform, like Instagram has them, youtube has them. You can directly subscribe.
Speaker 1:Somehow I completely forgot about subscriptions. That was completely out of my head, entirely. That's a very good point yeah, I was gonna. I was gonna point that, in contrast to like an attention-based, that's really the only alternative to an attention-based and I think subscription-based is actually probably one of the biggest ways a lot of smaller content creators make money, and I also think it's one of the most reliable ways that content creators make money.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's because when you can have support from an audience that they're paying you a couple bucks a month or sometimes like it can range obviously.
Speaker 2:Oh, some people have, some people get paid a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's expensive to subscribe to whatever they do because it really depends on what you're offering in terms of content.
Speaker 2:Some people it's a niche product in terms of like market specialty, or they have like very specific or very quote unquote valuable information that they it's more of a, or it's or it's more of a service that they provide.
Speaker 1:What's interesting to me, there is the mix of people that would be called. Some would be called content creators, some wouldn't like there are personal trainers that make their money that way, through online content sure um, but they wouldn't be called content creators. They would be called personal trainers.
Speaker 2:But what they're selling is content of them yeah, and their primary form of advertisement for that would be content creation right and so anyway, I just that's where all of it is well that's kind of really the certain really.
Speaker 2:The thing you're doing, then, is advertising for yourself via social media right but that's still advertising and attention, but really the only alternative, the nice alternative part of a subscription based is that it does not require content to be attention grabbing for the sake of attention grabbing. Like that helps improve the quality of the content. If it's important that it stays Partial, now, if someone's just making entertaining content, that's going to grab attention anyway, and but if it's more information or news or that kind of thing, it can be nice to have a non attention based video.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's why we moved to. Subscription base with the podcast was we were originally with the network We've talked about this and they wanted us to have a x number of monthly listeners and we were a few short, not crazy like we were very close to that right in the wheelhouse, yeah and, uh, they wanted us to do a lot of not I don't want to say clickbaity, but like that direction of things, in order to draw in more listeners, and it just wasn't for us.
Speaker 1:So we left the network and we decided to go a subscription style with the people who wanted to listen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, not that other people don't want to listen to the other way.
Speaker 1:That's not what I mean. I just it's not. It doesn't work for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just it's not. It doesn't work for me. Yeah, I mean, we did it, we did it non-subscription for quite a while and just basically paid out of pocket to have it edited and put together and hosted and all that stuff, and so basically it got to the point where they they didn't really understand what our I think our appeal was, and so I don't understand our appeal either. So well, that's in common there's some degree of fairness to that, but they didn't.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:It just didn't have a good understanding of, like, what our niche was and what our value add was. And so they're like oh, make it more facts based or information. And then like, make it funny clips and you're like, what?
Speaker 1:So yeah, those are like the main ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I have questions though. Oh, great yeah those are like the main ways. Yeah, I have questions, though. Oh great, I have a whole lot of them. So there's a lot of different things. It goes from how to make money how to like and from like.
Speaker 2:So this is a wide range. I'm just going to kind of go in order on questions a wide net, you get a broad, it's no, you. It's not sorting the the questions by niche yeah, so we're gonna fire okay.
Speaker 1:Somebody asks is it hard filming content with kids around? Do you try to be filming away from them so they don't see you on your phone constantly?
Speaker 2:Oh man, it is hard with kids around.
Speaker 1:Very.
Speaker 2:We have help to be with the kids, but let me tell you, little kids don't understand the idea of I'm working but I'm in the house and I'm doing a lot of the things that I would normally be doing, just with a phone out.
Speaker 1:So what we put online doesn't deviate from what our kids see day to day when we're not recording. The deviation is that they're not included in the moments that we're filming, and so I think that, honestly, is the harder part of all of it, because they're like well, why can't I X, y, z, whatever, with you right now, and sometimes I can get around it and I can have them be around and help me and turn around it and a lot of times I, I can't. So yes, I would say it is difficult.
Speaker 2:And some people share their kids, some people like kids are an integrated part of their content. We've made the choice and we've talked, I think, at length, probably on different episodes, about why we don't share our kids and how our feelings and opinions on that impact that choice.
Speaker 1:But I'd say, my kids see me on my phone a lot though sure but I think the most important thing isn't them not seeing me on my phone. It is them seeing me put down the phone and always paying attention to them when they ask for my attention and always being willing to put down what I'm doing and also making sure that I'm creating intentional time with them.
Speaker 2:You're really good about and because you're on your phone, because that is a requirement of what you do, you go. Hey, I am working on this thing. When I am done working on this thing, we will have some time.
Speaker 1:And I don't say this thing I want to clarify on that Only because if somebody else is looking for a solution, I tell them exactly what I'm doing. I'm like hi, mommy's editing her. Get dressed with me video from this morning. Would you like to watch me edit and sit with me while I finish, or would you like to go work on your puzzle and mommy will let you know when she's done? Yeah, you know like. I explain exactly what I'm doing if they're around, because I don't want them to just think of it as passive time on a device.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and when you are having passive time on your device, I think you also do a really good job of being like yep, got it. I will like. I'm off my phone, I'm here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody said how much give or take of your content is planned before and how much is posted spontaneously. And they said spontaneously, in quotation marks how much time do you spend to plan it all out?
Speaker 2:Planning Not that much. We would like to be better about planning so that we could take on bigger projects, because sometimes that is required, like, if we're going to do a big project, it's going to take us multiple days, maybe multiple weeks, to make content around it, which means we need to either plan out stuff to do along the way or we need to trickle out the content as we go. And sometimes that's not. Like, if you don't have a project finished, not everybody wants to watch, like 15 videos of it coming together.
Speaker 2:That's not necessarily a satisfying video to watch. You need like clips of it, kind of like looking like something at the end, to kind of tease what's going to happen. They'll watch the process, but they need to see some payoff. We don't plan out a ton matt doesn't plan out anything, it's interesting to me how much matt's talking as the one.
Speaker 1:What am I posting this week, matt? Uh stuff what did I post yesterday?
Speaker 2:videos Videos, more videos.
Speaker 1:And what? What am I posting today?
Speaker 2:Videos about stuff. No, you posted that you were swimming, you, you. That's your update from the week. You've started swimming, you're a swimmer. Now You're a swimmer again.
Speaker 1:But you're, I'm making the point that Matt's giving a lot of feedback to this question.
Speaker 2:For sure, well, well, these are discussions we've had. I feel like no, they are.
Speaker 1:I don't think that you're incorrect. You're just giving a lot of context when I don't feel like that's necessarily your piece of the puzzle.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, this is about content creation. I don't think people want to hear from you. I think they want to hear from me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fine.
Speaker 2:As someone who, did it for like two months.
Speaker 1:I always do genuinely appreciate your perspective. Yeah, I was going to say that I would say about 80% of my content is posted spontaneously.
Speaker 2:Oh, I would have said more than that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I said like 90, 95%. Yeah, it probably is more. I would like it to be like 80%.
Speaker 2:Well, because sometimes having batched content allows you to be consistent. Well, it allows you to be consistent. It allows you to like, if you don't have a video that day, to be like, okay, cool, I have something. Yeah, but you are heavily spontaneous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I very rarely plan stuff ahead. The only thing that I plan ahead is what I'm going to do for giveaways on the weekends and if I have a product launch or if I have a collaboration post.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Those are really the only things that get planned. Because collaborations usually have to go through approvals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the brand wants to see the content.
Speaker 1:They want to, and I've gone through seasons of life where I have things a little more planned out than that, but with little kids it's been really hard to do it that way. Somebody asked how do you remember to record moments and balance that with real life, a social media presence being yourself and it feels like you're a constant production machine?
Speaker 2:Oh, interesting. Like 95% of our phone space is just like life stuff. I feel like Not our phone space, because the videos you film for work are really long.
Speaker 1:Well, I think this is how a lot of people become content creators. Some people are just born documenters in a way that other people aren't. I don't feel like I take an. I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb and say I don't think I take any more footage and photos than I do, than I did as not a content creator. As a content creator.
Speaker 2:That's true. You've always since junior high. I didn't know you in junior high, but you have videos and photos like way before people were taking a bunch of videos and photos Like you had little point-and-shoot cameras.
Speaker 1:Well, think about the videos of us at the park when we were in high school that are edited together to music.
Speaker 2:You have videos on your crazy old Mac laptop that you filmed like in their movie maker studio.
Speaker 1:And so I say that because I think that's something that just comes organically to me and I think people way overestimate the amount of time that you have to take when you know how to do it. We'll be out doing an activity. It we'll be out doing an activity. I'll take three 10 second clips throughout a three hour thing, and that's all I need.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a skill that I've had to like, I'm still nowhere like I'm not good at it. You're terrible, not terrible I've had to get better at, because it's like if you have to go, like sort, through three hours of raw footage and and there isn't like some people do that and they will time lapse it or speed it up or whatever it is like there are ways to do it, but it is really hard to go through three hours of raw footage. Even if you're going four times speed.
Speaker 1:That is 45 minutes, right, yeah, 45 minutes that you have to look through and that's at 4x speed, which is crazy and I think it's one of those things that the more you do it, you get better at it and it becomes very second nature. Documenting stuff is very second nature to me. I just move the camera and I hit it and I go and I move the camera and it's a step in what I'm doing, but it's understanding that you need multiple angles.
Speaker 2:It's understanding that this, this clip, is going to show this thing enough for people to understand it, without doing an hour from this angle and you'd be shocked.
Speaker 1:You really don't need that much footage. Like, I find that when I undershoot things, I really lean on doing voiceovers and just clipping things out and telling stories. And, um, no, that's something that a lot of people, when they meet me for the first time or hang out with me for the first time whether it's extended family, like your family but a lot of people have said to me they're like you're on your phone a lot less than I thought you would be and I'm like, yeah, that's because when I'm with people, I'm I kind of avoid.
Speaker 2:It also has less appeal when it's your job.
Speaker 1:That's so true.
Speaker 2:Like again when you're doing it for work, it does not have the same appeal. There's lots of people that are like you know make your passion your job and you'll never work a day in your life. And that's just not true. You will work days in your life. It will turn your passion into a job.
Speaker 1:That can be good. It can also put a limit on how much you enjoy your passion. So I said, how do you remember to get your phone out and your phone or camera out in to catch content in real life? And again, I don't think.
Speaker 2:I think about it yeah, you do well with that. Like you, you try to really capture and document lots of things in our life. Also, I feel like that's more important, like if you're, you're sharing your kids and we don't share our kids. We just try and capture little moments of our kids, but it's not for content. And so more of your content based stuff is like I'm going to set the camera up and do this thing. It's about intentional.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I agree.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing that I keep thinking is, I'm like I'm taking all kinds of videos and photos that are not for my job at all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and like you were talking about how, when we film, we have some workarounds for, like, if the kids are around. A lot of times we try to have childcare and use that childcare time to our advantage. But sometimes we don't have childcare and we still have to put together videos, and so we have a boatload of cute OOTDs that our kids we negotiate with them. We're like, hey, mom and dad need to do this outfit video, and then you're welcome to do an outfit video when we're done, but we have to get this one done first, and so there's there's negotiating with that, but we have the cutest OOTotds in the world on our phones.
Speaker 1:They are just back there.
Speaker 1:It's so cute, a lot of that stuff somebody said what was your plan for content creation when you started, like, was it just a creative outlet? And I think matt spoke on that a little bit. I've been doing this since I was 10 years old. Um, content creation wasn't necessarily a thing then, but I've always really loved this as a creative outlet and I think I got really lucky in falling into it during the TikTok era Because I tried, I was doing this and trying to make it back when people were blowing up on Instagram in the beginning.
Speaker 1:Like the OG big Instagram girls. I was making content then too, and I didn't blow up then, and I think that that's part of why I understand so deeply the one. There is a stroke of luck. And two most people you see make it in this are people who have been showing up consistently for a long time, regardless of having an audience.
Speaker 2:And there's there's a degree of talent to it as well, like you have to be able to produce something that is engaging for people. And so, yeah, you've been. You've been taking content for a long time, less so video, like it's not like you were doing vlogging in the early vlogging days, but you were doing a lot of photography. You, I mean, you did some of that, but you did photography. Then you turned photography into a business and then social media was the way to promote photography still is. But because you did those things and followed along and then, as short form, video took off and you had the time to commit to that, you had some experience in that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody asked what our must-h are for content creation equipment, apps, editing tools. I edit in Tik TOK. I don't have anything special. I use my phone and I edit in Tik TOK. I will occasionally use a light that clips to my phone, but I would say that I do that in short bursts, maybe like for two videos once a month, and then I forget about my light again maybe like for two videos once a month and then. I forget about my light again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean a tripod you need a tripod, oh yeah, yeah, like, but you don't need a special one. You don't need a crazy tripod you don't need it's. It's like we talk about podcasting. Some people hit us up and they're like what mics do I need? What lighting do I need? What camera do I need?
Speaker 2:it's like man, you can set it up with, you can use your phone, or you can use like very low cost microphones and film it on your phone to like you can scale it up however much you want, but make sure that you're you can make quality content without high-end equipment and if you really either have a passion for it or it starts to take off, then you can invest more into equipment. It's like your phone almost certainly has a good enough camera, maybe you. Maybe you spring for the, the higher end phone, but that's like the difference I did.
Speaker 2:I sprung for the big phone finally you sprung for the big storage phone because when you take as much video as you take, the 256 gig fills up fast.
Speaker 1:Well, it took almost two years, but regardless, I digress, but this lets you continue.
Speaker 2:But it filled up fast because you also had to offload a lot, yeah, and so you kind of use your phones like a time capsule. I feel like you try to keep as much on your phone as possible and then you're not necessarily trading your phone in every time. You're like this is 2023 to 2025 phone, like I can go back and I got all my stuff right there. It's like a little backup storage.
Speaker 1:I am bad about that, even though it's in the cloud and I have it like.
Speaker 2:It's in a server that I built up.
Speaker 1:I have it backed up in more than one way, but I still it just freaks me out. I have it backed up in more than one way, but I still.
Speaker 2:It just freaks me out. You love to just have a physical brick.
Speaker 1:I like to have all the copies.
Speaker 2:A little brick that has your storage.
Speaker 1:How long does it take you to edit videos for TikTok? I think this really varies. So, like the get dressed with me's that I do every day. That takes me what?
Speaker 2:30, 45 minutes probably, I guess 30 minutes yeah. Where, like, it probably takes me 30 minutes to film maybe not quite 30 minutes, but 20 minutes range, yeah, I would guess you get dressed in 20 minutes and then 30 minutes to edit it yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm just there's also kind of a formula to your edit.
Speaker 2:There you're like, okay, I need this clip, this clip, this clip right, I'm gonna say an hour in total for that.
Speaker 1:The days that I do it and that is probably one of my most quick, like the quickest that I do uh, the videos where it looks like I'm just talking to the camera, like I'm in the car or whatever, I would say minimum you're looking at is an hour really okay yeah, because I will normally film myself talking like it will end up only being a minute and a half, but I'll have six minutes of footage and I think this probably varies a lot person to person, but I have a hard time talking directly to camera like that, like it's more time consuming for me yeah, that's something that you've and then any kind of voiceover content can really I mean, it can really range, but it can take anywhere from two hours. I've had them take a lot longer than voiceovers you can take six.
Speaker 2:I mean like you could have an hour and a half of raw footage, even once you've cut it down, like if it's a long project, something you've done for all day or whatever. You could have 80 minutes of raw footage. You cut that down to like you can cut it. I feel like when you have that raw footage, you cut that down to like you can cut it. I feel like when you have that much footage, you can cut it down to like 10 minutes pretty quickly. Then you have to pick out the best two minutes out of that 10 minutes. You have to cut it right, you have to get Right.
Speaker 1:I'm just trying to think of how long that takes me. It can really vary, is what?
Speaker 2:I would say you think you'd be able to put like a formula on like how much raw footage to how much?
Speaker 1:time. No, because it depends on what the raw footage is of.
Speaker 2:And if you're going to voiceover it or if you're going to use data audio.
Speaker 1:The hard part for me is not having three hours of footage. Yeah, you always go back to that because I think that's the overwhelming part for you.
Speaker 2:That's the struggle for me, yeah.
Speaker 1:I don't care about finding the best like you really care about. You want to have the best two seconds. I don't give a shit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Cause I also a lot of times use the audio, that like I'm talking out loud and I'm like I think I said something really funny here.
Speaker 1:I've never said anything funny in my life. I don't have to worry about that. I can delete four minutes here, six minutes there. Like I'm not, generally, that's not a big deal for me. The hard part for me is when I'm documenting a project over time and I am wanting to pull lots of footage, or I do a lot of videos that go back through our processes of things. Or, like I did, a trend where it pulled a photo from every single year, back to 2009 when Matt and I started dating, and that takes me forever because I have to find a photo and confirm that that photo is from the correct year every single time. So that probably took me an hour and a half or two hours and all it is and you also have to cut it, like with the beat of something, like sometimes that I didn't, that was just.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if there's a carousel, but sometimes there's a uh, an audio that it like is like beat transition, beat transition. So you have to like be cutting these into the right length to fall on the transition. If you move anything, it can shift the holding.
Speaker 1:I think there are templates and stuff that people use, getting way too into the why it takes long.
Speaker 2:We need to get all the nitty-gritty in here.
Speaker 1:I don't really care about that?
Speaker 2:I don't think anybody needs to know the sausage I don't think people care to me.
Speaker 1:What you're doing right now and this is the thing that I get really frustrated about when I listen to content creators talk is when somebody's like, well, how long does that take you? And you go, I don't know, maybe two hours and then they try to justify why it takes two hours and why it's hard and why it's you know.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it coming from you Like I appreciate that you see that I'm putting time and work into things.
Speaker 2:That is probably a lot of. It is like I have over time had to observe and appreciate and I've done a little bit tiny, teeny bit of it myself.
Speaker 1:And so I want to say like You're seen, yeah.
Speaker 2:I say like you're seen, yeah I appreciate what you're saying but I also I don't, I don't know you're not trying to justify it to people listening no, I am not you're just people have a question. You want to answer a question yeah, it can range.
Speaker 1:My answer of how long I would say it can range anywhere from an hour to three hours. The longest I've spent longer than three hours editing a video, but that's few and far between. Um, I know one that took me a really long time to edit was our announcement hour announcement of Kay's birth. Okay, that took me. I probably spent four or five hours pulling footage and doing all of that and I tried to prep it and then was able to drop footage into the video later, so I didn't have to do it with a newborn. But there are videos that take less than an hour. Those are the videos that it's just like one long clip that's 15 seconds and it has text over it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that takes less than an hour for sure those are quick, um, but then when you do the trending sounds and you have to learn to lip sync with whatever it's saying, those can take. Some people are probably better at that than me Sometimes they take 10 seconds and it's no big deal.
Speaker 1:Somebody asked if we have budgeting strategy, given that our month to month income can vary. I actually have a whole blog post about this from when I was doing photography on my website. It's from like 2017, but it still holds true. Um, I have a pretty good structure on budgeting. With all of that, I have a good idea of what our minimums are most months and that's kind of what we base our whole lifestyle around, and then anything extra is just that it's extra.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true. Yeah, it's about freelancing in general. Yeah, just how to either price yourself or how to budget with freelance work, and then the gist of it is is like cover your expenses and have a safety net for the lulls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Somebody asked do you ever feel like you don't have privacy or like you live in a bubble?
Speaker 2:Live in a bubble maybe, but not privacy.
Speaker 1:I think they mean live in a bubble like a uh oh, like being observed yes, like a, like a fish I don't think they a fishbowl, like a, like a snow globe always being observed?
Speaker 2:no, yeah, not at all I don't feel like that.
Speaker 1:I also I think it's really interesting because people really think they know a lot more than they do based off very little information.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the thing to remember with people who are doing content is they share the content with you that they want to share, unless it's like a live stream of their life all the time. I mean some people basically have that. There's a lot of people that that share to that degree, but we're not those people, and so I know there's very little that we share that we don't want to share.
Speaker 1:It's also something we're pretty comfortable with, I think somebody asked you ever feel pressured to take uh sponsorships?
Speaker 2:you're not head over heels for pressure, like not pressured by somebody, but sometimes. Sometimes you're like, wow, that would be a great payday.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I have talked about this a lot to content creator friends, and I think it's a message that I would like to communicate to my audience as well. I have not felt pressure. I have not felt pressure, but that is not because I am holier than thou.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's because I come from a very, very privileged place of. I graduated from college debt-free. I was able to buy a home in 2017, before things were absolutely crazy, like I've had a lot of factors and I have always been financially secure. It doesn't mean that I've always had like tons of spending money or anything like that, but my bills have always been paid, and so saying no feels easier to me than some people I meet who have grown up financially insecure or have been financially insecure while having children or they take care of their families.
Speaker 2:There are people who are younger. This is their only job that they've had, and so they don't have a comparison to before and after.
Speaker 1:So while I understand why a lot of people feel the pressure, um, I've had the privilege of that not being so much of an issue for me.
Speaker 2:We had, like good paying jobs before this. We could go back to those jobs for the most part, um after this, or we could find different paths with our degrees and all that stuff, and so you've always had a very good sense of this. Is something I'm okay with, this is something I'm not okay with, and if I'm not okay with it, I'm not going to share it.
Speaker 1:And I think for me it's always been more important to maintain trust and to maintain reliability with my audience than it is to make a buck.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And for some people it's more important to make money, like for their survival, that is more important and I'm not here to judge.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:What is the best part of being content creators? What makes us love it?
Speaker 2:The best part is that it's given us the ability to be with our kids as much as we have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2:Like. It's given us a lot of flexibility. It's given us flexibility when, um when we started. It gave us flexibility with, like your parents.
Speaker 1:My mom's health. It's given us a ton of flexibility to help my parents and not flexibility to. I think some people take that as like to financially help them, and that's not what I mean. It's given us the ability to not have to be in an office all day, like I was able to travel and help take care of my mom when she's been hospitalized for extended periods, and a lot of things like that that I don't share online. Uh per se, that's probably been the biggest eight, ten, twelve weeks a year, sometimes like yeah of time that you were caretaking which you
Speaker 2:had. You had a freelance job before that in photography that was mostly weekend based, and so that was. You went from that to this, and so it's given us the flexibility wise to to do that stuff. But for me, even if I went back to a job and when I left my job they were on, they, they were the ones that pointed out. They're like hey, you should definitely do this. If you want to come back, let us know. We'd gladly take you back, but if you can be there with your kids, you never get that time back.
Speaker 2:When they're one, two, three, like that's so valuable for them and you'll never be upset that you did that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, somebody asked how to get into content creation and make money without being a selling account. I get that you have to sell something, but all I see is TikTok shop. I actually don't agree that you have to sell something. Well, I shouldn't say that, yes, like you're going to need to be a subscription base or you're going to need to, you're going to have to provide something in exchange for money. That is really the whole capitalistic society thing.
Speaker 2:Capitalism is great at growth. It is not great at supporting everyone. But.
Speaker 1:I don't think that it has to be selling a product via TikTok shop or slinging water bottles or whatever it is. It can be and that's a way that people can make is.
Speaker 2:It can be, but, and that's a way that people can make money directly. I think quickly and like earlier in a, in a growth career.
Speaker 1:But if you have a skill in anything like, you can sell that skill. You can talk about what you're passionate about. You can create subscription models. You can create a lot of people create product. Like, if you're really, uh, passionate about crocheting, you can create crochet patterns and, you know, sell those digitally online. Like there are a lot of options. I think a lot of people look at content creation and think that it's a get rich quick scheme or it's a easy money scheme. Uh, and I just that's not the case. It's work in some capacity or another, and so you don't just get into content creation and make money for creating content. Like there has to be a direction you're going, but it doesn't have to be selling something or TikTok shop.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think going into it with the expectation of making money is difficult.
Speaker 1:I think so. Somebody asked if I think it's important to niche down.
Speaker 2:I don't think you have to niche down, but you do have to have value. You have to have. You either need to be entertaining, you need to provide value in some way. If, if you niche down, then you have a point of view, then you have a message, then you have some specialty that I think can give that value. You don't have to do that. Maybe you're good at everything and you can do videos about everything, or maybe you're just a hilarious person that can film parts of your life and make it.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not funny and I have a niche down, sure yeah. Like I'm just out here. There was a time that I was doing photography, but I think a lot of people. There's another question here that says how is your transition from photo inspo content to lifestyle content? And that's such a funny thing, because I didn't think of that as a transition, I did per se.
Speaker 1:It is a transition. I did, but my goal wasn't to get to lifestyle content. I was trying to stay in that niche and people continued to ask me questions and continue to engage with my content. That was outside of photo inspo niche and I followed that and ended up in lifestyle land you were also trying to like.
Speaker 2:You were moving out of being a photographer. You had it. You had a time frame on your photography, trying to do photography education which is why I was doing the photo inspo and small business education, yeah right, which you still do some of, but um, no, but I think I fell into lifestyle content.
Speaker 1:I've always just kind of followed what people were interested in, and just in the last year have I thought more about like what, what am I trying to do?
Speaker 1:yeah um, I don't know, I got sick of doing the photo inspiration content because I felt like I was making the same three pieces of content over and over and over again, um, and I just like it didn't resonate anymore. I was like they can go back and watch the same. Like I do the same thing over and over again. Just go back and watch that. I kind of got to that point with it and so yeah to me it's less about finding a niche thing.
Speaker 2:Over and over again, just go back and watch that. I kind of got to that point with them and so, yeah, to me it's less about finding a niche. Now people also need to know why they're coming to you like yeah so having a series, having something, having a niche, gives them that.
Speaker 1:But if you can do it without that, there's no reason to yeah, um, have you and matt ever disagreed about how much to share?
Speaker 2:I think conceptually we've we've agreed on it. There's times where I haven't maybe executed sharing or not sure? Like yeah I, I just don't think about it to the degree you've thought about it. So sometimes you have to be like hey don't include that bit, or but it's not a fight, I'm never like oh.
Speaker 2:I really want people to know yeah, like I need people to see, whatever, whatever this is, our house from this angle, or our kid or what, like whatever it is, you're just like hey, just so you know. This, like whatever it is, you're just like hey, just so you know. This, this shares. You know something that I don't want to share.
Speaker 1:It's like okay, yeah, we'll work around it. Yeah, You've never really had a problem with anything. I think I'm probably the more conservative one in that regard, definitely White male privilege. Yeah, nothing can hurt me. A hundred percent, a hundred percent. Um, did you see the thing? White? Speaking of white male privilege, uh, I think I don't know, but I would guess of the dad who put his kid up on the railing on the disney cruise no he put his kid up for a picture and the kid fell off into the ocean and the dad well, that's not proven, that is the speculation Suspected.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do you know what he did? Didn't even hesitate, jumped right over the edge into the ocean after his kid Got to her, saved her, treaded water in the ocean for 20 minutes while they got to them and rescued them, which does not happen when people go overboard. They see, like I I read a one of the comments said this isn't so. I didn't look it up, sure, um, only like 10 of people that go overboard get saved because it's so you're moving and you're in that big vast ocean, so they're moving faster than people think yeah, and so they lose yeah them just in the.
Speaker 1:They also don't start and stop on a dime right this is not somebody's power boat right, they just lose them in the vastness of the ocean wow isn't that crazy crazy and as I saw it, though, I thought to myself matt overby, matt overby, would I don't think you'd set your kid on it like? That's not what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:No, it's not about the risk you took in the first place. It'd be like this will work out.
Speaker 1:Yes, 100%, and the bad thing never happens to you, and I worry about the day that it does, and that's the kind of thing that I'm like, ah.
Speaker 2:Sometimes the bad thing never happening to you is more about not letting the bad thing. It's not like bad things have never happened to me. It's more that. Not that I've had a bunch of bad things happen to me either, but sometimes luck gets construed for.
Speaker 1:That's not what I'm talking about Sure, sure, sure, sure. I'm talking about that. You've never broken a bone.
Speaker 2:Survivor bias?
Speaker 1:Do you yes?
Speaker 2:Got it Like I'm not talking about.
Speaker 1:Matt is really smart and things just work out for him.
Speaker 2:Got it.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking about that.
Speaker 2:That's my sensitivity, sorry.
Speaker 1:I understand, but like I'm talking about survivor bias of you're like wolf, it's fine I've been on the roof a hundred times and I've never gotten hurt exactly yeah, yep, I'm with you now yes
Speaker 1:I'm on the same team and you're like well, have you ever thought that nothing bad happens to me on the roof, because I just excel at being on the roof? Cat like reflexes, just build different anyway, apparently I'm not the only one who has to have those conversations but no, I think lots of people do um. Do you have a content creation?
Speaker 2:hot take hot, take I probably nothing too hot. I feel like, um, nothing too hot, I feel like, no, it's just. I think people need to realize that everything is about the value. When people feel a certain way about what they make or why they've become popular or like I could do this, everything in life, your job, any job, comes down to what value do you provide? And so the value you provide is what someone is willing to pay you, what someone is willing to. Now, that may seem ludicrous compared to other things, but there is a value to it that is quantifiable for somebody, and it's quantifiable in the way that they're compensated that way.
Speaker 1:My hot take is you're probably not as interesting as you think you are.
Speaker 2:Totally. And like that's where the difficulty for people, I think, becomes is they're the main character in their life and it's like who could not find this entertaining? I love how entertaining I am, that's great for you, but if you can't capture it and translate it to a platform, then it's not going to work that way.
Speaker 1:I think I can comfortably say that, because I don't think I'm the best of the best at anything. I do think there are parts of me that are just not that interesting, and it's why I am not more viral, it's why I'm not a.
Speaker 2:It's why you have 1 million followers, not 20 million followers.
Speaker 1:Exactly, um, and that's okay with me. And there are some people who have 500,000 followers who their engagement's the same as mine because they are so entertaining and so good at what they do and so interesting to follow Um and I. I just think a lot of people take time picking apart people who do well when, if somebody's performing well online, they have an appeal to someone yeah and that's okay, like it's okay if it's not.
Speaker 2:You, yeah, yeah just, I don't know, that's my it's a it's a waste of energy, like trying to analyze why someone should or should not have what they have.
Speaker 1:I think the worst part about content creation is Reddit.
Speaker 2:Fair.
Speaker 1:I haven't been on Reddit in years. I've never looked up anything Like I.
Speaker 2:You were never a heavy Redditor.
Speaker 1:Well, I used to use it a lot for plants and for house plants and for a lot of photography stuff. And then my backstory on Reddit I think 2022, I was on it looking up something for a house plant that I had and on my like, explore that's not what it's called, but like my main feed. Something popped up about one of my best friends. It like said her name, content blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and it was in like an influencer group. I'd never heard of snark before that.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Um, and I clicked on it because I was like oh.
Speaker 1:Oh no, somebody's talking about this person, this friend this like good friend of mine and it was vile. And then I got pulled into it for a while where for like probably six months, every night I was checking and reading everything everybody had to say about all these content creators and I was like, well, I'm going to do it to where nobody can be upset with me ever, because I'm going to learn from all of this and what? Well, all that does is completely stunt you as a person, because people have a problem with everything.
Speaker 2:Different people will have different problems with both sides of an issue.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or both, like any way you do things.
Speaker 1:And it's just very extreme. So I think that's the worst part, if you make everything inoffensive to everybody.
Speaker 2:Someone is going to be like, well, she just doesn't make interesting content anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she rides the line too much she has no point of view. She won't just say how she feels about stuff. She's trying to keep followers. Yeah, I hate hearing that. I'm always like no, I it's like, it's hard, I'm trying not to hear from people about stuff. Yeah, and that really is where I ended up landing for a long time and I've been trying to really job and it's a hard habit to break. It's really hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because you start getting more feedback.
Speaker 1:You start getting the thing you don't want and people are mean, yeah, and I don't like, genuinely, I don't think I'm an offensive person, I just don't. I don't see it that way. No, okay, last one, and then we'll get out of here. Okay, last one, and then we'll get out of here. They want to know what your favorite part of content creation is.
Speaker 2:They want you to start and then me to go to see if we have a different answer. I'm going to assume making it. It's not the answer of we get to spend time with our kids.
Speaker 2:It can be whatever you want, because I think us having that flexibility and what it's done for us in that capacity has been awesome. When I've made my own content, um, it's been fun to see like people relate over it and it's been fun to see like a small community come together out of it and like people. It's nice to see when people get value of what something you've made. There's a. There's a dopamine hit from that, if nothing else.
Speaker 1:I love documenting. I find it to be so nostalgic. I love to be able to go back and watch the things we've done. I love the creative outlet of it. I love the community building. I love talking to people and getting to know people. I love the friends that I've made all over the place through doing this. Um, I don't know there's there's a ton of pros for me. I love the friends that I've made all over the place through doing this. I don't know. There's a ton of pros for me.
Speaker 2:Okay, we have some very long questions. We have somebody that has a really cool update. Okay, hey, john Matt, I thought I'd give you a little update on my last text about my daughter, who has a single artery in her umbilical cord and cysts on her brain. We are four weeks out from her due date and so far cysts have dissolved and she's in the 50th percentile overall. We're expecting a healthy little girl. Question what are your thoughts on having your mother-in-law come stay with you after baby is born to help around the house? Also, this is my first baby, so I'm clueless. How soon after you gave birth did you feel comfortable leaving the house to get lunch, dinner, grocery, whatever?
Speaker 1:I'm really happy that you sent us an update, because I have thought of you on and off ever since we read that um your first email. So that's so exciting and good and I'm happy for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a great expected outcome.
Speaker 1:My mother-in-law came after we had our first baby. It was good. I think it depends on your relationship with your mother-in-law.
Speaker 2:We didn't have much for her to do. No.
Speaker 1:No, you had a, we only had one kid. Our house was picked up because we only had the baby and you were off of work for four weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I had paternity leave. It was like I could keep up with you and a newborn, that you were really handling everything for.
Speaker 1:So we had her come and that was fun. I think she stayed for like she was planning on staying for, like five nights and she stayed for three or something like that.
Speaker 2:I don't remember Something like that Because, like by day two or three she's like I guess I could weed the front garden bed or something Like she was kind of inventing things.
Speaker 1:We didn't ask her to leave. She was like I'm going to go, you had a really like you had a really good recovery.
Speaker 2:So I think a lot of it is based on like how good is your recovery? How mobile are you? How, um, do you need a lot of care in your postpartum deal? That wasn't your experience, and so all of a sudden it was like, oh well, just kind of operating on her own and able to take care of the baby very much by herself. So then Matt is freed up to do a lot of the around the home things that maybe my mom would have been more involved in.
Speaker 1:And I'm going to say the same thing. For when was I able to go out again? I think that that can really depend. It depends on if you have a c-section, it depends on if you um have a traumatic delivery or if you have tearing, or if you like. It depends on a lot of different things yeah. I mean I was out able to go out and about within 48 hours yeah, we had a quick trip to target yeah, not that you want to, though no I I would honestly say plan to be home for a minimum of two weeks yeah, I was gonna say 10 days you try to venture out in any capacity.
Speaker 1:Yeah, uh, I really think that that's like two weeks at home is nice, but then if you like to get out, venture out. You can stay home longer than that. Obviously you can stay home longer.
Speaker 2:You can recount, you can. You can expect to stay home two weeks and after a week you go.
Speaker 1:I think I'm ready to pop out but I think it can really vary, like I have some friends who are still really struggling at four weeks and I have some friends that 72 hours they were ready to not get back to their normal. That's not what I mean when I say that. I'm talking about a quick trip to get a bite out and then coming back home or driving up to the grocery store.
Speaker 2:And you know I'm not talking about grocery pickup you know, doing a drive through or something like just getting out of the house with totally yeah a drive-thru or something like just getting out of the house with totally yeah so how comfortable you with the car seat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's, there's a real factor to that but the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get so I really encourage people to just go for it and just be prepared that if stuff doesn't go well, you can come home yeah, yep, just don't commit to anything where you'll be trapped and you'll be all right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Do you have any other notes about content creation before we exit? Notes, if you guys have any more questions?
Speaker 2:same as always, We'll always answer questions about it. I mean not that we're the world's best experts, or definitely not may not have like the most universally applicable advice, but we can give our, our angle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So again, I talked way too much this episode for somebody that has made one piece of content it was an ad in the last nine months, so I don't think you talk too much. Yeah, I just I probably spoke for your experience more than I needed to.
Speaker 1:That's okay. Yeah, I like it. I like when you have thoughts, great. So all right, on that note, love you guys, hope you have a great day and we'll see you next month. And if you're on the Patreon, we'll see you next week. And if you're not on the Patreon but want to be, you know how to do that.
Speaker 2:Bye. And if you texted me a question and you don't want it answered on the Patreon, we're probably going to answer them next week. But you can just text and say hey, do it on the big one a month from now. Sorry that you're going to have to wait for that time, but um, our bad. Yeah, we'll see what is behind us in the next video. Bye.