The Real Mom Hub
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The Real Mom Hub
Episode 41: The One for the Mom Building Something Beautiful in the Midst of Survival with Kalee Isbell: Postpartum Depression, Entrepreneurship, & Capturing Family Legacy with Isbell Family Films
We sit down with Kaylee Isbell, mom of two (soon to be three!), entrepreneur, & founder of Isbell Family Films. Kaylee opens up about her journey from severe postpartum depression to building a thriving business that helps families capture their most precious moments. This isn't your typical success story – it's about finding beauty in the mess, learning to accept help, & discovering that sometimes our greatest challenges become our biggest breakthroughs.
Main Topics & Discussion
From Dream Baby to Barely Surviving
Kaylee gets raw about the shock of severe postpartum depression after her daughter's milk protein allergies made breastfeeding impossible. She shares the hidden medical condition every new mom should know about and how she learned that every child is completely different.
The 3-Minute Video That Changed Everything
During a rare moment when both kids were napping, Kaylee made a simple video from phone footage that gave her a "fly on the wall" perspective of her own life. What started as personal therapy became a viral Instagram moment that launched a business now serving over 700 families.
The Broken Ankle Breakthrough
What made them ready for baby number three? A serious injury that forced this Type-A mom to accept help became the relationship reset that opened up brand new possibilities.
Key Takeaways
For Moms Struggling with Identity: Kaylee's journey from postpartum depression to business owner proves that your lowest moments can become your greatest strengths. Sometimes you need that outside perspective (even from a phone camera) to see the good you're already creating.
For Aspiring Mom Entrepreneurs: You don't need a perfect business plan. Kaylee went from Instagram DM to full business overnight, proving that authentic connection and solving a real problem matters more than having all the systems in place.
Ready to capture your family's story? Connect with Kalee: IsbellFamilyFilms.com | @IsbellFamilyFilms on Instagram.
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Host & Show Info
Hosted by: Cally & Emily O’Leary
About the Hosts: We’re real moms and real sisters. We may look and sound alike, but our motherhood journeys are uniquely ours. We all do Motherhood differently, and thank goodness for that. Let’s learn and grow together.
Podcast Website: https://therealmomhub.com/
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impactful for me to see this outside fly on the wall perspective of my life that I was incapable of seeing because I was stuck in the rut of it all the time, right? Like when you're stuck in the middle of a crying baby and changing diapers and tantruming toddlers cause you gave them the wrong color plate. You think that that is like your whole life. And there's nothing outside of that because it's so hard because we get stuck in like the hard. We don't always see the good, which, you know, that's just what happens. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just the way it is. And so watching this back, I was able to see like, oh my gosh, this is good.
(...)
so how many kids do you have?
(...)
Two and a half. So I have a 10 year old, an eight year old, and I'm pregnant with our third. What? I'm doing the eight year old. Yeah. Oh, girl.(...) Yeah, thank you, thank you.
Wait, when are you due?
The end of November, November 30th.
Oh, so you tore close. Emily's due at the end of October. Oh, nice. Oh, Sally's due at the end of December. Yeah, I'm gonna be pregnant ladies right here.
(...)
Perfect.
(...)
It's where I'm like, what would happen if we were all in the same room together? Like, is there some sort of like a hormonal experience?
(...) (Laughing)
Dogs would go for the baby.
Baby mojo or something.
(...)
All right, all right. Let's back up. We have Kaylee Isbell with us today. We're all pregnant.(...) Kaylee has a lot going on in her life, so I'm really, really excited to dig into this conversation. Welcome, Kaylee. Thanks for being here.
Thanks guys. I'm really excited.
tell our listeners and us kind of what a standard week day looks like for you? You're a mom, you're a business owner. What does a random Thursday look like for you?
Yeah, oh, okay. Well, it depends if it's in the school year or the summer, but school year's probably more interesting, so I'll go there. So I work from home, so that's convenient.
My neighbor and I have a routine of we walk to go drop our kids off at school, then we walk together, come home, and we both work from home. So come back and do our work and then walk again to go pick our kids up from school. It's a great way to be outside and talk about
things, not with kids.
(...)
And then both my two are, my son's going into fourth grade and my daughter's going into third grade, and so they play sports and are super active. So I'm either taking my son to baseball practice or coordinating some kind of drop off with my husband, and then my daughter is a competitive swimmer. So we're usually at the pool doing swimming stuff with her. And then we'll figure out where the third one falls in later. That's a problem for November for me at this point. She's just gonna have to figure it out.
(...)
Just to pack her in, like right in the new hectic holiday season, why not?
Yeah, exactly. You know, might as well have a baby.
(...) Is baby gonna ever get a scheduled nap?
No, probably not, which is ironic because I was crazy about my kids sleeping and doing all that stuff when I had my first two. And this one, I've had to just already prep myself and I'm gonna have to release all my need for control because it's probably just not gonna happen for her. Poor thing.
(...)
It might be better.
I don't know, thank you.
(...) Probably have some things dialed at this point. So Kelly, wait, Charlie's four, Norris two.(...) I only have one and then another on the way and mine is going to be two. Like
season that you're in right now is kind of what I'm reaching for, like the school age. I'm like, when are we gonna be school age? When are we, cause then we can have routine. They're gonna go away and then I'm gonna miss them. It's gonna be amazing when they come home. You're there and you're like,
you're gonna be postpartum again. Yeah.
(...)
School age to me is the best
motherhood time for me. Like I love my school age kids. They are independent fairly.(...) They will have their own mics and interests and they have friends, which is great. Like neighborhood friends they can go and play with and like, I'll have to set up a play date cause I'm not a good play date mom.
And so, I would have had three school age kids by this point, but our life circumstances just kind of kept me from having the third until now. But my thought is, hey, I'm gonna, my daughter is like so beyond excited to have a little sister that I'm probably not gonna pair with this child. Like I'm sure she's gonna change every diaper. I probably will never dress her. Like it's, she's getting her own real life big baby. So she's just like pumped.
She can't wait.
Okay, so going just said that out loud.
(...)
Intacable.
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So going way back to what, 10 years to your first.(...) Can you remember something that just completely shook you, shocked you to your core?
Oh man.
You know, to be honest, probably not with my first. He was a dream baby. Like he was the kind of baby where I was like, oh, I am the best mother in the world. I'm gonna have five of six of these. Like this is great. He slept through the night at like, I don't know, six weeks old. Like he was just a dream, a dream.(...) Now my other one, she rocked me to my core. She was a baby from hell. I mean, she was just, we joked that, we joked. I told you guys like, I'm 10 years out. It's just the way it is at this point. But she,
we always joke that she was the worst baby in the world and the best toddler. And then my son was reversed. He was the best baby in the world and the worst toddler. So we've gotten like both ends of the spectrum. But I think that's what rocked me the most when I first became a mother. And they're only 20 months apart too. And in reality, 20 months is not any amount of time at all when you're thinking about, you know, the grand scheme of your life.(...) So I still consider myself a new, I still do now, consider myself a new mom when I had my second.
And it was just that what really shook me was that it's not the same. Like I was really kind of expecting it all to be the same. And
blown away by how hard it was the second time around, comparatively to the first. Like I just assumed the first one would be the hardest because you don't know what to expect. You don't know how to do things. You didn't know, like I didn't understand how to be a mom, right, at that point.
But it was her that really just killed me to make it so hard.
(...) How long did that period last of like the drowning feeling? I'm just putting words in your mouth, but I'm assuming that's- It's a good word.
(...) So my daughter was so difficult because she had a milk protein allergy. So she could not be breastfed or put on normal formula. So she was on like $90 a can medicated formula. She couldn't breastfed? No, because she was allergic to the protein in your milk, my milk and in cow's milk. So she couldn't have any dairy products at all.
I think I'd be insulted.
Yeah.
(...) (Laughs)
You're making your baby sick. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, really hard. And you don't realize it because you're supposed to nurse or you feel like you're supposed to nurse, right, breastfeed. And it's not working and she's screaming all day long. And so my RP physician was like, you gotta stop breastfeeding her. Let's put her on something else. Cause we thought she just had reflux, which you do get when you have a milk protein allergy.
but then it was, okay, this can isn't working. Now this can isn't working. Now this type isn't working. And you just have to like go down the line while taking reflux medication to try to figure out what happened.
So. Meanwhile it was like pure, perfect little tiny being that you just want everything to be right for in the world. Yeah. That's traumatizing.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
No, it was traumatizing.(...)
And a toddler, a 20 month old.(...) Who actually my son has a developmental disability and we didn't know it at the time. And so he was going through a major period in his life for that as well. And so it was just,(...) it was terrible. It was terrible.
(...) (Laughs)
You know, it was just, it was really hard. Hence the eight year gap between the second and the third. You know, you gotta recover from that,
So the drowning feeling really was super intense for the first like seven months of her life. And then
she, which they say for all, I don't know if your kids had reflux, but like they say for all reflux kids, like once they start sitting up, everything gets better. And that really was true for her. Like once she was able to start moving, she was a lot better.
And all of that started to feel better. And like, I started to enjoy being a mom more,
but you're still traumatized. And so every time they get upset, you know, you get triggered with those feelings of like, I'm inadequate, I'm harming my baby, what have I done? You know, like you, you know, you're sad because you're this infant of yours is hurting and you can't help her. And then you're sad because you have this toddler who we had a great life together, just, you know, me and him and my husband. And I brought this baby into the world that has just rocked his world too, right? Like he's lost so much of me. Cause I mean, that girl could not be put down. I had to hold her pretty much 24 seven.
I was never much of a baby wearer. So I could never really, I never really found one that I liked. And so I would just be like holding her all the time. In fact, I was showing my kids the other day when I was making them breakfast, how to crack an egg with one hand. Cause I learned how to do that when she was an infant. Cause I had to, cause I couldn't put her down and they were so impressed by my skill. And I was like, that's cause you're a sister. She's the one that pushed me to have to learn how to do that.
She's really a child over there.
Yeah.
(...)
Right?
(...)
Yeah. So it was, it was hard and
slowly got better. And I found ways to kind of like try to bring myself out of that, but really honestly did not fully feel like myself again until probably a year ago, after like lots and lots of therapy and time with my kids being older and separation from, you know, feeling like I was constantly
charge of their life. Right? There's a difference between when they're two and when they're seven and how they have so much more autonomy when they're seven to be their own little person that it just took a lot of separation with that phase of my life to kind of feel like I was back to myself again.
I mean, that's almost a decade, right? So. My daughter, she just turned eight. Yeah. Yeah. You had become a fresh mom prior to that. So we're edging up on 10 years of you.
I don't know if you would say you lost yourself, but or whatever.
Yeah.
That's not a blip. That's quite a while.
It was a lot. And you know, there's other factors in there too, like my own upbringing and other things that got brought into that that contributed to all of that. But ultimately, you know, it really was like, I've just considered myself to always, I'm just a better mom of older kids. I just really like older kids. And so I was able to kind of find myself more than, than I, or now than I did then.
So how are you
finding glimpses of yourself
(...)
or saying it all sane during that time? So you, therapy you mentioned, did you start that right away?
Oh no, I didn't go to therapy until my daughter was
four, three or four,
(...)
four, she was four.
(...)
so the first, you know, six months, there was just nothing. It was just pure, pure survival mode. Like I was just trying to make it. I worked, I used to be a teacher. So I taught middle school history during that time. And so I had work. So I did have some,
know, break away from, from them to kind of have my own identity. But what I found was when I started to,
record and take videos of my kids and do something with the videos I was taking of them, that was actually kind of the propulsion out of this like dark cloud I was under because I was, I mean, I was true. I mean, I was like deep in postpartum depression and I was taking medication for it. I probably should have been taking more, but you know, you go to that six week appointment and they ask how you're doing and you're like, I need medication. And I liked my doctor a lot and she was helpful, but you, you get stuck in it and you think like, oh, well this dose they gave me is all that I need. Probably needed more. And I, one time too, I was at the pediatrician with my daughter at one of these reflux checkup appointments and I must have been like just beside myself. I don't really remember being, you know, that aware of how upset I was, but the pediatrician at one point like put her hand on my arm and was like, do you want some Xanax? Like I would prescribe you some Xanax like in the nicest way possible. And we loved her, she was great. And I was like, no, no, no, I'm fine. But I should have at that point taken that as a cue too. Like maybe I need, you know, something a little bit more.
Did you have that self-awareness? So I'm asking, cause I have actually not talked to a single mom yet who's like, oh yeah, the six week appointment was actually helpful in diagnosing my depression. Yes.(...) Like, honestly, usually it's a much longer journey and as people close to them saying, hey, hey, this is, it seems to be normal, please seek help. And then it's like, well, how do you find the energy to seek help when you're, so I'm curious
there was a feeling that you can identify or like a place you were in where you knew it was an issue and you either brought it to the provider's attention or,
(...)
you know, maybe it was that stupid little, you know, quiz that I just-
Emily has feelings about this. I do.
(Laughing)
And I'm curious how it came to play.
well, so I also struggle with perinatal anxiety. So when I'm pregnant, I was on Zoloft with both of my kids. So with my son, I had horrible perinatal anxiety and then actually didn't have to take Zoloft anymore after I had him. So after I had him, I was great. I didn't experience any post-partum depression with him at all.
And so then with my daughter, we actually just went and this was all my doctor.
She was like, let's just start taking it now. So she wanted me on it at the beginning of my third trimester with my daughter. And so I was just on it.
This is the Zoloft or this is-
Yeah, I was on Zoloft for it. And so I was on it all throughout, you know, that postpartum time period. And to be honest with you, I don't remember what that six week appointment was like. It probably was me saying, oh yeah, this is hard, but I'm taking medication. So I think I'm okay. And I probably was not totally honest with her. Also, I think that six week appointment, like you're still kind of in that newborn fog a little bit. Like they still sleep a lot and like she was miserable. Don't get me wrong. But I think there's something about six weeks of like, it's going to get better next week. Like you think it's so
early. Like there's so much about them that they're still not even a real human yet. Like they just were born. That I think there was part of me that was like, oh, well it's going to be better. Like I'm figuring this out with the pediatrician. So I'm just stressed because she's hurting, not because I'm depressed. And so I think it wasn't until, you know, the next six weeks that it didn't get better that I really started to kind of spiral downward at that point.
is it always to just put it on the kids? Like, oh, we're having a rough week. We are having a rough week.
(All Laughing)
I'm just not doing X, Y, and Z. And it's like, well, it's also kind of an ecosystem. Like what's going on in the family?(...) How are you to step out of that?
No, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Hence the no therapy till she was four situation, right? It's so easy to say like, oh, there's still little. This is hard. Or I'm not doing good enough because they're so difficult, right? It's like,
You have to either like hit your just absolute rock bottom or you have to have somebody outside of you saying like, this is enough. Like this, you've got to go
something else at this point
So I really want to hear about your business and just how that helped you and that creative energy. But I'm also curious just before I forget, did you have certain cues or like gut sense that you were ready for this next baby? Like what was that transition where you're like, okay, I feel like myself again.
Yeah.
No, that's a really good question. So always wanted more. My husband and I got married and we wanted four. We're both one of four. And so we wanted to have four, had the two. We were like, absolutely not work done.
(...)
(Both Laughing)
Both of us on the same page. And then in the last eight years, there would be times where I would be like, I want another baby. And he'd be like, absolutely not. And then he would come to me and say, I want another baby. And I'm like, absolutely not. And we'd be like off each other's track the whole time.
Strangely enough, and nobody has asked this before of me. So this is kind of for some sharing this, but
November of this last year, I had a, I fell off a ladder and
I tore every ligament in my ankle and ended up having to have reconstructive ankle surgery and was off my feet for three months, like in a chair or on a scooter for three months. And my husband had to do everything for our family. He's already a great dad and a great husband and super helpful, but I mean, it went from, we were probably 70, 30, 60, 40 to 100 and zero, just nothing. And it was in that time that I was able to stop mothering almost. I mothered as much as I could from the place I was, yeah, from the chair and on my scooter. I mean, we were talking about my neighbor and I would go on a walk every morning, but we would still walk when I was on the knee scooter. Because I enjoy that time with her so much of us getting to walk and chat and have our time.
was that time of getting almost like this mom reset button
by the time I got out of the cast and I was starting to be in a boot and walking again, we both were like, let's have a third baby. And that's where we ended up being, because it was, I don't know what it was, but there was some shift, I think, in our relationship and in our family that just allowed us to be like, okay, I think we can do this. And it had been kind of like brewing underneath too. We probably would have gotten to the same
probably now by the summer, but
were getting to a point where it was like, okay, my son's about to be 10, so he's gonna turn 10 at the end of September. And to me, the 10 year gap was kind of like the limit. Like I didn't want more than a 10 year gap between my kids.(...)
lots of families do, but it's like the oldest is 10 and then they have like six underneath the 10. It's not like 10, eight, boom, baby, right?
yeah, I just, I don't know. I think it was a lot, a little, there was that one big event and then that one big event kind of allowed me to get my mind in a place of like, okay, yeah, I'm ready to do this again. I want to do this again. I'm all, like I was young when I had my kids. I was 24 when I had my son. So now I'm in my mid thirties. And I'm like, you know, I want to have a baby in my mid thirties when my brain is fully developed and we have good jobs and we can handle, like we're gonna have a whole different experience this time around. And so having all of those thoughts of like, okay, this could give me this, this, this, and this was kind of the yes trigger that we needed to pull.
I'm completely projecting right now. I'm owning that before I say these words. I'm thinking about your
situation as a very like type A person. If I was in your shoes, I feel like it would force me to allow help and like allow my husband to have more of a hand in it.
Yes. And that would be so relieving
and just like open so many possibilities.
I mean, you might be projecting, but you're also just calling me out because that's exactly how it is. So yes, I'm 100% type A high achieving personality and I don't want anybody to help me. And it did, yeah, forced me to have to have everybody help me, like not just my husband, but I'm talking like calling people every day to come pick up my kids for their sport activities. Like just,
swim meets and baseball games cause I couldn't go anywhere. Like it was a lot, but yeah. And it's like once you're able to like
for help and see that people want to help you and it doesn't devalue who you are as a mom or a human, man, it is just a whole new experience.
I honestly might set a calendar reminder for myself for like five years from now. Just hearing that because I think the thing that shook me the most about becoming a mom, I felt shattered by my first, because I had my early thirties when we did. And my husband and I were together seven years before we had him.
And we were in a 50-50 partnership and I expected that that would continue as soon as the baby came. Yeah. And that's just not possible. Right. For my opinion, for the younger years, it's just not. And that's one reason why I'm like, okay, we're gonna do number two, we might do number three. Like I need these babies clustered so I can have these really, really hard years where it's really predominantly on me, if I'm breastfeeding to do all of this.
And it's been really bizarre for our relationship to have that switch. Like there's just no way for it to be 50-50, the way that it always has been. Some days it's like 5%, 95%. Like it just is switching so much.
And it just sounds like such a nice reset. I really think I might not be able to count.
(Laughing)
I put it in the calendar, mom's out. Yeah.
(...)
Just to reset us.
(...)
No, yeah, that's such a good point too. But you do so much in the little years that it's really not until they get older
can get back to that 50-50. But even then, like I find ourselves, like we're still in the 60, 40, 70, 30, because I work from home and he doesn't. And so it's so easy for me to say, I will go get them from school. I will do the right after school practices. I will do this. And so we found the ways that we can kind of work around that is like, I do the doctor and he does the dentist. So it's like,
and that way he takes off work for dentist appointments and I take off work for doctor's appointments. And we kind of try to break up those types of things that way.
But there is always that unspoken like, oh, well it's
it just happened yesterday. My son had a three o'clock hitting lesson that my husband had scheduled that he suddenly couldn't go to anymore. And it was like, well, can you take them? I'm like, yeah, I can take them because I just don't have to, I just take off work. Because I work for myself, so it's easy. But yeah, there's always as much as you try to make it totally even partnership, it's never gonna be even a hundred percent of the time.
and I think the sooner that you can,(...) that like I was able to recognize that and not have resentment, the easier it got for me, right?(...) Because it is, but it's just so hard to be the default parent, especially in those baby years. Especially if you're breastfeeding or whatever, like there's no way, no one else can feed that baby. So it's hard.
Yeah, or if you're breastfeeding and then not breastfeeding, cause you're trying five different
brands of cambulant.
(...) (Laughing)
(...)
Just so
you both know though, if you have your babies coming, right? Like if they just are crying and crying and nothing is making it any better, you should ask them about that, the male protein thing. Cause it's,
(...)
I don't think it's talked about enough. I don't think enough people are aware of it. And it's kind of a secret hidden problem. And so it's not the first line of questioning, I think for doctors. It's like, oh, it's reflux. Oh, it's a soy allergy. Oh, it's this, oh, it's this. But it takes a long time to figure that one out.
Okay, so I'm, and now I'm back in this like postpartum tunnel, wow, wow, wow, so hard.
(...)
And this is the period that your business is born in, right?
My business is born actually when my daughter is almost two. So the idea for my business was born in this time, kind of. So like I said, like I was, I found, I started to find my way out by recording videos of my kids. We all wait, my husband and I would make them a birthday video every year to show at the birthday party of like all the videos and photos compiled of them at the end of the year. And I loved doing that for them, found it really creatively fulfilling. Always been a super, not super creative person, but I have always liked having a creative outlet. Like when I was pregnant with my son, I taught myself how to crochet. I learned how to quilt when I was pregnant with my daughter. Like always trying to find like some kind of creative thing for myself.(...) And so when my daughter was born, I started using the app one second a day. I don't know if you guys have heard of that, where you just take one video a day and it makes a 30 second video of your month or 365 second video of your year.(...) And I really enjoyed doing that, but it was too short for me. I got tired of having to pick one video to use for that day. Cause I was taking, you know, maybe two, sometimes three.
(...)
And so one day while they were napping, both at the same time miraculously. Cause also my son starts napping before he turned, or right after he turned two. So he like, yeah. So then I didn't have a napper. And so then this was one day when like they were both sleeping at the same time. Oh my God. Like the baby gods are shining down upon me. So I put all of the videos in my computer and made a little
yeah, just like
three minutes, picked out a song and compiled all the videos in like the last two months together. And it was just
impactful for me to see this outside fly on the wall perspective of my life that I was incapable of seeing because I was stuck in the rut of it all the time, right? Like when you're stuck in the middle of a crying baby and changing diapers and tantruming toddlers cause you gave them the wrong color plate. You think that that is like your whole life. And there's nothing outside of that because it's so hard because we get stuck in like the hard. We don't always see the good, which, you know, that's just what happens. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just the way it is. And so watching this back, I was able to see like, oh my gosh, this is good.
Like look at all these good things we're doing. Like we went to the library or we were playing outside and having a good time together. And so then I showed it to my son and he was too and they love watching themselves on TV, right? So he was obsessed with it. He thought it was the best thing in his whole life. And then I showed my husband and he was like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. Can you make more? Let's make more of these, right? So then I just started making more. And what I found was because I knew what I was going to do with these videos and because they were impacting me so greatly, instead of taking one video a day, I was taking five. And then I was like finding a reason to get out of the house to take a video. Cause then I would think like, oh, wouldn't it be so cute if I got a video of them together, swinging at the park and then we'd go to the park so I could get the video. But it had this alternate
which was like, it got us out of the house. Like we went somewhere, right? I took a video at story time to remember story time where we were going anyway, but I wasn't doing anything to capture it. But now I was watching the video back and reminding myself like, oh yeah, we did go do this today. Like I can take them out of the house. They are okay. Like we're having a good time together.
it just really snowballed from there. I made more and more and more. And my husband, who's actually the entrepreneur who always is thinking of a new business idea. He's not an, he doesn't own a business now, but he always has wanted to. He was the one that was like, you, Kaylee, you have to make a business out of this. People would love, would want this. And this was back in 2017, 2018 when, you know, easy app edits didn't exist. There were no apps on our phones to do this kind of stuff. You had to use your computer. And I was like, oh God, nobody wants that. Like who's gonna give me their videos? And I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to run a business.
in all of that time of talking about this, we ended up moving. We lived in Dallas and we moved down to Austin closer to his family and to a new job. And I lost my teaching job because we moved and I was trying to find a new job and I couldn't find one. So I was staying at home with my kids.
And I was on Instagram one day and this influencer that I followed, I'm gonna do the question boxes on Instagram where people ask them questions. And
someone had asked her a question like, what do you do with all your videos? Cause she has great photography of her kids, but
did anything for videos. And so she replied back something like, I have no plan for my videos. Does anybody have any suggestions? And this is not me. I'm like type A, like I have a plan. I like to do things the right way. I messaged her and I say, well I can do something with your videos.(...) And she goes, great, I'm gonna send them to you. What's a good email address?
make a Google drive and she sends me her vacation videos and I make a video for her and send it back. And she goes, this is the best thing ever. Do you have a business? And I'm like, yep, I do. Now I do.
(Laughing)
(...)
And so I overnight
a price sheet and tried to figure out how I was gonna license music and where I was gonna get videos from clients because the next day she shared my video
She shared my video and tagged my Instagram account and I was at the children's museum with my kids. And all of a sudden my phone just starts blowing up. Like DM after DM after DM after DM on Instagram. How can I do this? I wanna do this. What's your pricing? Can I get your information? Blah, blah, blah. And then my phone dies. And I was like, we gotta go. And so I packed them up and take them home and put them down for a nap and stick my son in his room and shut the door.(...) And it's just been from there, right? Like just a snowball of effect. The first three years was like truly catching and running train. Like I was trying so hard to like stay ahead
I was really just like right behind it. Like I never got ahead. But after the first three years,
(...)
we were able to kind of feel settled in and have a plan and have a website. Like I didn't have anything.
those first couple months, I was sending emails
people with a Google doc, essentially with the pricing sheet and had people just submit their videos on Google drive and sending stuff back that way. And so that's, I mean, then we've been doing it ever since.
And I say we, because there's a team of eight other moms that edit with me. And so we do it all together. Cause there's no way I could do it myself
edit all together and yeah, so we're on year seven. So that was in January of 2019.
And it's been great.
and I have never stopped editing for my own family. So I still find so much value in taking video of my kids, even though now I take less cause they're older.
I still find so much value in it. And then now I get the value of providing that feeling to other families too. And which is just
it's exponential, right? It just keeps going and going and going.
(...) I'm loving these time snapshots that you're giving me too. Like, oh, it took me eight years to feel like myself again after my daughter. Oh, it took three years for this business.
(...) (Laughing)
(...)
Looking at it now, it's like, oh my gosh, wildly successful. Your website, you've got so many,
how many
thousands of families have you helped at this point?
(...) We're at 700 families, but over about 6,000 videos, I think.
I was just thinking of something. Like that's just so much volume.(...) So you've clearly been at this for a while.
And now you have a whole community of moms. Like you've enabled other moms to have flexibility
(...)
in their time and their pay.
Yeah, it's really the most valuable part of my business that I love that the best. I love that the most, that I'm able to provide income for moms and also give them work flexibility at the same time.
I'm curious what you saw in yourself looking at those videos back in the day before you have a business,(...)
talked about it galvanizing you to take action to get out of the house, to go do the activities, but what were you seeing in yourself when you looked at those videos?
The narrative that I had in my brain during that time was, I am failing both of my kids in two different ways, right? Like, I am ruining them.
And it really helped me shift that narrative for myself of like, oh, like I am not providing a terrible life for them. That was my worry. It's honest to God, it still is my worry. Like I still, I think we all do as parents, like are we giving them enough? Are they going to look back on this time and like think, oh my gosh, I loved that we did this or I miss doing this, right?
But it was unhealthy, the thoughts that I had then. And so it really was helpful for me to have the perspective of, I'm not failing them. We're doing enough.
(...)
They are thriving. Like I was able to see their growth in video, which helps you as a parent have the perspective of like, okay, they're good, like they're growing, they're learning. Like we always- Smiling. Yes, exactly, they're smiling. They're happy, right? Like sometimes you need that
of this neutral party of the camera to capture what you're incapable of seeing. Cause we can't, everyone comes with some kind of biased lens, right?
(...)
Even your spouse has this biased lens of being grateful for you and what you provide for your kids. And so it's like, yeah, I understand that my husband, like you think I'm doing a great job, but I'm telling you, I'm not doing a good job, right? And so it was able to provide this like neutral landscape for me to kind of have this mindfulness
of noticing just the way things actually work because you can't manipulate, you can manipulate a video, but you really can't. So it was like this neutral ground of noticing,
(...)
this is how it is and
it's good. It's good enough, right? Like it's not the best, it's not perfect, but it's good enough for right now.
Transcription Pending
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(...)
It's something that you seemingly could have kept small. Like this business idea seems very, very flexible(...) in terms of scalability.
I guess I'm curious if that kind of happened organically, if you have big dreams that you're chasing right now in this season, what does that look like?
Yeah,
well, at the beginning, I was always worried my business was going to fail. So that was a big thing at the beginning, right? Like I bought a used computer because I was certain it was going to fail.
(...)
But then it was like year after year, it just kept growing and growing and growing. And then I finally got a year about year five, which is when most of my businesses fail. I was like, okay, we're good. Like I felt good.(...) But there was always this talk at the beginning(...) between my husband and I of like, okay, what type of model do you want to take with this? Like you could go boutique and you could shack up your prices and make yourself only available to the people who fly private planes on vacation.
You could continue to keep your prices really, really low and be accessible for everybody, but can you keep up with that?
And so my philosophy has always been,
that I want our product to be affordable to everybody, even if it's your once a year Christmas gift. So I was thinking about the times when my husband and I were like the most poor of our lives when my kids were first born. And we were living in an above garage apartment that was 1100 square feet and it was so tiny and we had one car and it was just hard. My husband could have still afforded to spend $150 on me for Christmas and he would have done that. And so that's always been my goal is that
I had a joke too that we're like,(...) the anthropology knockoff at Target, right? Like I could be anthropology or I could be dollar general, but I'm gonna take the knockoff at Target kind of middle ground situation, right? Or Costco, like Lululemon is suing Costco right now for their knockoffs.
(...) And-- Wait, really? I gotta go. Oh yeah. I was just like, okay, I'm Googling Costco quick. Yeah, Emily, you have an order from me. I don't have a Costco, so Emily's my dealer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you let me know.
Yeah,
so that's my joke. Like we're gonna be this middle ground affordable to everybody and then if you can't afford us, you're gonna wait until we run some kind of special or sale so that you can't afford our product. Or if you're the person who takes the private plane, then you can just buy our product whenever it's convenient for you
yeah, that's just kind of where it's at. It's where it's worked for me and for us and as time has gone on in my business too, like our clientele, our client family base has really kind of settled in to a lot of regulars and returners. And so now the
train I was talking about of just like everybody coming for it isn't there as much anymore. So it makes it a lot easier to keep my team where we're at.
(...)
Yeah, your prices are so affordable.
I mean, you can pay what, 600 bucks for this magical thing if you have that kind of pocket change lying around. But there are also some much more affordable options. Yeah. As well, like you can really pick and choose which I love looking through your stuff.
And it sounds like you just have a heart for moms.
(...) You know, like you want it to be accessible because you saw how valuable that was in your life.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, I'm terrible at taking pictures. My kid is so cute. I'm obsessed with him.
(...)
I like don't take pictures. It's actually one of my greatest joys. I have a few mom friends who will just randomly send me pictures of their kids and I don't live near them. And I love it. I love opening up my phone and seeing their family, like seeing what's going on in their life, seeing their highlight reel. Makes me so happy.
And then I'll look at my phone and I'm like,(...) What have I done? There's a different last one.
Like, and we've actually got some really cool stuff, but I like one of those, it's the last one.
(Laughing)
(...)
Do you have tips for getting your phone out, feeling good about it, like capturing the good stuff?
Yeah, that's a good question. My first tip is have a plan for what you're gonna do with it. If you're not gonna do anything with it, what's the motivation to take it out, right? Like if I'm never going to put my photos in a photo book or print them out to hang on my wall, why would I take them? There's no point, you know?
Especially if I think about like, if I met my kids school program, okay?
and I'm watching him perform and I'm a photo book person, am I gonna take a photo or a video? A photo, because I know where that photo is going.
Or like, you can see these photos behind me, like this is a gallery wall in my kitchen and I change these out like every six months. And so,
(...)
yeah. I'm not that good at it as I used to be, but I try to change them out like every six to nine months or so.
And so-- And I'm like lucky if I do that. All right, I'm getting inspiration here.
Right. So then I think about like, oh, I could take this and put it on our wall, right? Like I try to do like group photos of us
here behind me. So I think it's just having a system, knowing what you're gonna do with them that gives you the motivation first.
The second thing that I
people is that
there's ways that we can take photos that make it more enjoyable for us. Like if you start thinking about a way to take a photo that you've never thought before, like maybe
decide to get down on your kid's level while he's playing at the train table, right? Like one of my favorite videos, and this was before I was intentional with my videos with my son, but one of my favorite videos of him is he's playing at his train table. And instead of like me videoing him up here, because I'm standing this tall and he's way down here, I'm like crouched down like at his level. And you can like see his whole face and his like dimply fingers while he's like pushing his train. And it's just so cute. It's just, I just love it. Like it's one of my favorite videos of him ever. And you just don't get that same impact when you're standing up as high as they are. And I think maybe that's also sometimes the thing that keeps people from recording memories is they think like, I'm never gonna make my stuff look as good as X, Y, and Z. Which if they're taking photos with a DSLR, no, it's never gonna look as good. But if we can do little things like switch the angle at which we're taking it, the impact is enormous. And then that makes you feel better because maybe you have high aspirations for how you want your content to look, makes you feel better about yourself and the content that you are taking. But just like having different perspectives of the way you wanna take it. Like I just would, you could just take a video of their feet when they're splashing in the pool or like little things like that that you wouldn't normally decide to take a video of.
And that forces creativity. Like I wonder if there's a day when I'm feeling so, especially like when I'm pregnant, there's some days that I'm so tired. I just feel like I can't interact the way that I want. I just have this brain fog.
maybe that's the day that I'm like, I wanna try to get some cute videos from different angles. That's such an easy way of getting out of yourself in your funk too.
(...) Yeah,
like if you set up some kind of art activity, almost make it like a project for yourself. Like I'm something you would do anyway, like you finger paint or something, or maybe that's not what you guys would do. So maybe you go to the park and you swing and then you try to take as many videos in as many different ways as you possibly can of that one activity.(...)
just do it once, right? Or just do it once a week.
I'm really
so Kieran is on his tippy toes right now and he just has all these little mannerisms. He looks like a mini version of his dad, which is so cute. But he's doing these little top
and top things. I just wanna throw out, Kyle does not walk around on his tippy toes.
(...)
(Laughs)
He was Kieran's age and I go with that because I've seen their family videos. Oh, hey.(...) And it's always a little horrifying.(...) I think when people like, I'm talking about like the real 90s and 90s parents, you know, like when they're like, here's the home video and they get it down. It's clearly like they suck it on a tripod and you're watching it and you're able to eat. This is the real story, not necessarily my own list, but like we've all seen it. And it's like the pressure to be like, okay, am I supposed to be engaged this whole time? Can I like have a side convo over here? Because I really wanted to see my husband when he was two. It's so cute, but like, how long do you need my attention to be focused on your memories?
(...)
Versus having a curated edited clip where I can just see like cute little baby Kyle walking around in his top toes with my son
(...)
and then it's not cringe when you show your grandkids. It'll just be cute. This is fun.
Right?
(...) Exactly, exactly.(...) So true. Oh my gosh.
aside from fixing my angles, which I never thought about getting on their level, all my views are from far away.
You're not fixing whatever you have is fine, right? You're experimenting. Yeah, it's great.
(...)
You just said dimpled fingers and I'm still stuck there because it's the cutest and cutest of them ever.
You have tips and tricks for how I'm storing those videos, what to do in moments. So I may have taken the video, like organized. Why do I organize? I don't hate myself in a year when I'm trying to send you stuff and you need to find it.
So there's, yes, I do have a lot of suggestions for that. I think that it also needs to be said that there are two types of people in this world. There are iPhone camera roll minimalists and iPhone camera roll maximalists. There are people who don't care how messy it is. There are people who it drives them insane when they don't know what's on their camera roll. So I think the first thing is to identify who you are. Despite my type A personality, I am a maximalist. I don't need to know what's on my camera roll. One, because I have a system and two, which I'll share, and two, because I use the tools that your camera roll gives you, which I don't know if you guys have iPhones or not, but that's what most people do. And like the search tool in your camera roll is amazing. So when I want to find my birthday, like my son on his birthday, I just search September 29th, no year, and it holds up every photo and video from September 29th on my camera roll. I don't need to have it organized because I'm gonna use the search tool to do that, or I can search.
(...)
So the other day I posted a video or a photo on my story. My kids and I went to a snow cone place that they used to have in Dallas that my son was obsessed with called Bahama Bucks. And so I wanted to find a photo of him on his second birthday, because he did not want cake. He wanted Bahama Bucks to snow cone for his birthday.(...) And so I searched in my camera roll Bahama Bucks. And because it's on the cup,
(...)
the photo showed up in my camera roll because it scans the text in your photos.
(...)
So whether or not you're a maximalist or a minimalist, we can use the tools that iPhone camera rolls give us to help us find content that we need to find. And that's really helpful.
Making albums in your phone is really helpful.
So when you go to your photos and your albums, like you can see, I keep albums on my phone. So like my daughter's swim, summer swim team is called the Aqua Dillos instead of Armadillos. And so she, every year I make her a photo book of all of her results and the photos that we took. And so I keep albums every year of her meets.
So you can use tools like that in your camera roll to keep yourself kind of like, I want to stay in the forefront of my mind.
The other thing that you should do is utilize some kind of cloud storage. And I know a lot of us are like, "Oh, cloud, I don't want to touch it." But here's the thing is that when our phones inevitably could put,
the iCloud, which is so wonderful that I also pay for, is a sync and not a backup. So if it did not sync that day, or if you accidentally delete an entire album worth of photos, and then you delete the deleted somehow, I don't know how that, you know, because that happens, it's gone. It's not even in iCloud anymore. And so you don't have it. So having some kind of backup, Amazon photos, Google photos, Dropbox, something like that. And the perspective I give people is when we were young,
(...)
our moms went to Walgreens or Walmart and paid however much to develop their role of film, right?
That's true.
are so unwilling to pay that amount of money. I'm not gonna be nervous. Yeah.
(...)
It's a little more now, but in LinkedIn, okay? We gotta just, you know, we gotta pay it. So it's like, we're so unwilling to pay that because, "Oh, it's here. Why would I pay for it? I don't wanna do that." But our moms, and I'm sure your mom has it too, a big old Rubbermaid tub of all these photos, and half of them are trash, right? Like they developed that role of 50 or 30, or however many it was, and two of them are good, right? And they didn't care because that's what you had to do to get your memories. And so I use Amazon photos because it comes free with Amazon Prime. And so we paid for Amazon Prime, like most people in the world. So you get, and most people don't know. You get unlimited photo storage with Amazon photos.
I think we have more Google photos, but we have Amazon Prime.
Google Photos has the search feature like the iPhone does. So if you like that part and you like how they compile your stuff, just keep paying for Google Photos. But Amazon Photos is free.
Also, Amazon Photos is free, but not Amazon Video. So no matter what, you're gonna end up paying something on Amazon for your videos.
We have so many systems as moms, right? Like we have a system for how we pack their lunches every morning, where we put our shoes, how we do our laundry, but we don't create a system for our photos. And then
this happens, we get overwhelmed, we get stuck, we get in this frozen state of like, I don't know what to do, we'll just forget about it. And if we were to take just like a step back and think, how can I make this work for me? Then your memories and your photos and your videos become so much more accessible and usable for you and easier to manage.
Now, if you're somebody who is like, I don't have time for this, I don't want to do this, give me somebody to do this for me. There are people out there who you can pay to organize your photos for you. And they're professional photo organizers. And I have a colleague that I work with, his name is Ms. Freddie, and she's fabulous.
(...)
And that's her company name is, her name is Casey, but she's fabulous. And her whole job is to organize your photos for you. She'll literally tap into your iPhone and into your computer and get everything organized for you. And a lot of people will do that because they just are so overwhelmed. They don't even know where to begin. And so they'll case for some reason.
I don't know why that is so tempting. It's so appealing.
(...)
It's worth it.
And the photo or you're like, yes.
Yep. Great thing to pick. But then she gets you set up and then your system is set up and it automatically does it for you after she sets you up. She's not like a, you have to pay me next year to come back in and do all of next year's photos. No, it's she gets you set up on a system. So you usually don't have to touch it.
Oh my God, phenomenal.
(...)
There are people out there that just make mom's life easier. We just don't talk about them enough. We don't know about it.
That's what we're trying to fit. Yeah,(...) this topic is new to me.
I don't know if I've ever thought about it. Now I'm like, oh, this is crucial to my life.
Yeah.
(...)
So before we get to the lightning round, just so we don't forget, can you tell people where to find you, where to find your business?
We have a website, isbellfamilyfilms.com. That's where you find all the nitty gritty pricing,(...) film types, testimonials, all that kind of stuff. Contact me via email on there. And then we also have an Instagram account, which is the same thing. It's at Isbell Family Films. And there is where I share a lot of, I was telling you about the angles and the little dimples on your fingers. Our Instagram account revolves around how moms can take better and easier videos with their kids.
Yeah, I see a lot of great, easy tips. Yeah. Apparently I've been doing this all wrong. I've been relying on my nice iPhone camera.
(...)
(Laughing)
In a nice way though. I have very crucial tips.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it.(...) And it's Isbell, like I-S-B-E-L-L, right?
You got it.
I don't wanna say Isbell, but it's not.
Yes, everybody does. My daughter's like, "Why do people keep calling me this name? "This is not my name." Like, "Oh, just like us." You just naturally wanna put an A in there.
Yes, Isbell, okay. And we'll link everything in the show notes.
So fun, this has been so fun. Are you ready for a lightning round?
(...)
Sure, let's go for it.
Okay, morning person or an owl?
(...)
Morning person.
Coffee order or go to drink to fuel a busy mom day?
(...)
Okay, so my coffee order is(...) the iced espressos at Starbucks. There's like a caramel, like I love that. Don't drink it now, but I miss it. But, and then if I'm not drinking that, then my other go to order is getting a half, like half tea, half lemonade.
(...)
They have a place called HTO here in Texas, which is like all different kinds of flavored teas. And my kids and I love going there.
Love an Arnie Palmer.
Favorite film you've ever watched or favorite that you've ever made?
I love making little kid T-ball highlight reels.
(Laughing)
The best. The best.
(...)
There's one I made with this last year where the two brothers on the same T-ball team and there's one video where the older brother goes to field the ball and the little brother jumps on his back and is like jumping on his back while he's trying to field the ball and then collapses on top of the ball. It's just, T-ball is the best. Those kinds of little highlight reels we make, they're my favorite.
(...) (Laughing)
What a great visual.
(...)
A phrase or mantra you would say to yourself when things get hard.
(...)
This isn't gonna last forever.
Yeah.
(...)
One thing motherhood taught you that you never expected.
Oh,
(...)
that mantra's born out of that, that everything ends and there's a season for everything and I was not expecting that and also taught me to have way more patience than I ever thought I was capable of possessing.
(...)
Yeah, that'll do it.(...) Dream travel destination with kids or solo?
really want to go to Italy and I would love to take my kids. We wanna take our kids on some Europe adventure but Italy is the first stop. Amazing.
In one word,
(...)
what does creativity feel like to you right now?
(...)
Right now?
Right now.
Fulfilling.
All right, in our closer, what makes you feel beautiful?
(...)
Oh gosh.
Probably when my kids say something about it, like my son the other day came up to him, he goes, I'm just feeling so happy and I think it's because you're so beautiful. And that was just great. That got me, because he's not a complimentary kind of kid. And so that one, that cut deep. Good job buddy.
(...)
(Laughing)
(...)
He's
a
charmer, he'll charm the pants right off you and then you'll turn around and have to send him to his room. Like he just, it's one or the other.
(...)
Interesting, I love it.
(...)
Oh man, Kaylee Ismail, thank you so much. This is just enlightening, inspiring. It's so fun. I'm gonna go hang out on my phone for a minute in a constructive way after this.
And organize your photos.
Yes.
Exactly.(...) Thank you guys for having me, I love talking to you.
bye you guys.
bye bye.
Bye bye.
(...)