Hunters of Happiness Origin Story - (Episode 3)

How did Hunters of Happiness begin? In this episode, we’re sharing the full origin story—from Scott building his tech startup and Elise pursuing speech pathology, to the infertility journey that changed everything and unexpectedly opened the door to a whole new path.

We talk about how sharing infertility online created the first Hunters of Happiness community, how a simple blog name stuck, and how the platform slowly grew from heartfelt connection into a real business. We also dive into the early blogging days, getting fired while pursuing IVF, the first viral moments, the shift into DIY and home content during the pandemic, and what it’s really like to build a career as content creators and entrepreneurs.

We also answer your questions about how this all became a full-time job, how creators actually make money, what the hardest parts are, and why authenticity matters so much more than follower counts.

Plus: girls trips, a dog wedding update, puppies, power tools, haters, and the weird reality of being recognized in public.

This episode is a behind-the-scenes look at the heart, heartbreak, luck, grit, and growth that built Hunters of Happiness.

Transcript

Elise 0:00

I wanted to offer other people a community. I wanted a community for infertility. And that's where the account really started to grow. Because as we talked about before, our infertility story was crazy, lots of up and downs. And I think a lot of people became very invested in like wanting to see it work for us.

Scott 0:17

Yeah.

Speaker 3 0:17

And that's where like the initial growth came. And I don't even know like how. It must have been just people sharing or finding in different ways, but that's like how it initially grew.

Speaker 2 0:50

All right. Welcome to Hunters of Happiness Podcast.

Speaker 3 0:55

Episode three. Today.

Speaker 2 0:57

Today we do our own sound effects in line. Just kidding. Go ahead.

Speaker 3 1:01

Today we're going to be talking about our origin story. How Hunters of Happiness came to be.

Speaker 2 1:09

Yeah. Yeah. Because we kind of talked about our personal origin stories before.

Speaker 3 1:12

Yeah, our infertility journey. Yeah. And this is more, we get lots of questions about like how Hunters of Happiness happened.

Speaker 2 1:22

How do we become such weirdos? Truth.

Speaker 3 1:25

So we're going to dive into that today. I think we're going to start just by telling the story of how we came to do what we do for work and then answer like a bunch of questions that you guys submitted about being content creators, entrepreneurs as our job. So let's get into it. Oh wait, we're supposed to do a rundown.

Speaker 1 1:49

Oh, the rundown. Give me a rundown.

Speaker 3 1:51

Give me a rundown.

Speaker 1 1:52

I need a rundown real bad.

Speaker 3 1:54

Gotta go on my yearly girls trip with some of my very best friends in the whole world. And I love them. I feel very grateful. Most of we of us all met because of doing the same thing for work. And it just makes us kindred spirits and we can understand each other and what life's like. And it's the best.

Speaker 2 2:16

Yeah. It's become a great group of friends for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3 2:18

Yeah. Not only for me, but you for me too. We've gone on couples trips and had so much fun. You like all the husbands you've met, and we've had so much fun. That's been a big blessing in my life. Other things. We are planning a dog wedding.

Speaker 2 2:34

Are we gonna tell people that?

Speaker 3 2:35

Oh, I already announced it on Instagram.

Speaker 2 2:37

So shoot, and it's happening. Yeah.

Speaker 3 2:39

You gotta watch my story, Scott.

Speaker 2 2:41

I shared it twice. Oh boy.

Speaker 3 2:43

Um three times maybe. No, they're giving me fantastic ideas. Someone gave me the idea to get a big wagon and decorate it and like put flowers on the outside and have the puppies come down the aisle.

Speaker 2 2:56

Oh yes.

Speaker 3 2:57

So but the problem is that there are nine.

Speaker 3:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:01

And so I was looking up like wagons or wedding wagons or like something, trying to find something on Facebook Marketplace that I could turn into a wedding wagon. They're all way too small. Puppies would just jump right out of them. So we might have to get one of those. What are the what's the crazy wagon we have in the backyard?

Speaker 2 3:16

Uh gorilla carts.

Speaker 3 3:18

Yes. We might have to get a gorilla cart and spray paint it white. Well, we have a gorilla cart.

Speaker 2 3:23

We'll just spray paint it.

Speaker 3 3:24

Spray paint that one. Perfect. So maybe you'll see that content coming up. But yeah, lots to plan. It's prepping me for planning our daughter's weddings on a very small scale.

Speaker 2 3:37

Tongue in cheek. Small scale.

Speaker 3 3:39

Very small scale. But it's gonna be so fun. I'm excited.

Speaker 2 3:42

Yeah, me too. It'll be cool.

Speaker 3 3:43

I actually think it was your idea.

Speaker 2 3:45

It was my idea.

unknown 3:45

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:47

So people don't think I'm Scott is the idea guy. Weirdo. He has so many fun, crazy ideas. And that one was definitely yours. You were like the whole neighborhood. It could be a party. It'd be so fun. And I'm excited.

Speaker 2 4:01

We'll see how it goes. Yeah.

Speaker 3 4:03

Okay. In now that we did the rundown, because we were just ready to get into it. Let's start with um like careers. So where we started, like in college, what did you study?

Speaker 2 4:15

Yeah. Yeah. So I was studying information systems at the Marriott Business School at BYU.

Speaker 3 4:21

What is information systems? Quick, very quick.

Speaker 2 4:24

Information systems is management of large systems for corporations. So effectively. Like software. Yeah. Effectively they train us to be CTOs. That's what they told us.

Speaker 3 4:32

Gotcha. Technology.

Speaker 2 4:34

Technology. Yep.

Speaker 3 4:36

And I study, I changed my major a lot. I really didn't know what I wanted to do for a lot of college. I thought I I at one point, well, I was uh I went in as an elementary education major and then shadowed a class and was like, this is too many kids. Like, this is a little overwhelming for me. Yeah. And then was like, I'm gonna be a history major. I love history, love history. Did a study abroad focusing on history and then realized that's a probably better hobby. I don't know what I would do with that for work, and then decided to be a speech therapist. I had um shadowed a speech therapist in high school, loved it, and was like, this is the way I can work with kids more one-on-one. Took the undergraduate courses and really liked it and was like, this is what I'm gonna do. So I did that undergraduate, and then I only I graduate, we walked in graduation and then I think I had two days, and then I started my graduate program at BYU too. So I did the speech pathology graduate program, master's degree, master's degree for two years. I at BYU you have to write a thesis, and that took me an extra year. You were a participant.

Speaker 2 5:50

I was a participant.

Speaker 3 5:51

Maybe we'll throw a pi a picture of you with all the little things on your tongue.

Speaker 2 5:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3 5:55

Well, yeah, um, but I learned so much and then got a job being a speech pathologist for a local school district right after graduating. And that was right in the middle of infertility.

Speaker 2 6:09

And you, while you were still so that was from when we got married in a couple years, but yeah, but you during before you right went before we even started dating. Right before we started dating, actually. I started a company called Pokemos. It's a home service business management company. Um and we started with with digital contracts. We were actually the first to ever do digital contracts in pest control industry. Um so we that'll forever be our claim to fame. But um, but yeah, we've built out a lot of tools.

Speaker 3 6:38

So it's a tech company if you don't speak tech.

Speaker 2 6:41

Was that tech?

Speaker 3 6:42

Yeah, you didn't say anything about I a startup technology company.

Speaker 2 6:46

Startup technology company.

Speaker 3 6:47

You said something about management of something.

Speaker 2 6:50

Oh, gotcha. Yeah. It's a piece of software that helps business owners, home service business owners, run their business.

Speaker 3 6:57

Dumb it down for all of us. You usually go on podcasts that are very focused on technology. So let's take a few levels down. But so he's started that business. No, I no. I would fail epically, I feel like, even though I've heard about it for almost 15 years now.

Speaker 2 7:16

Four thirteen, fourteen years, yeah.

Speaker 3 7:19

So he started that before we started dating, and you were fully doing that and growing it when I started being a speech pathologist.

Speaker 7:27

Right. Yep.

Speaker 3 7:27

And that was both of our paths and infertility, really, that we talked about in episode one, really like changed everything. Yeah. Not only personally, but that was the pivot. If that wouldn't have happened, I would probably still be a speech therapist and I'd probably love it.

Speaker 7:43

Yeah.

Speaker 3 7:44

Um, but I had done two rounds of IVF and they had both failed. And a day after the second IVF, after we miscarried, uh, they called me in and asked if I was gonna do IVF again and at work, which I don't even know if they're allowed to ask that question.

Speaker 2 8:02

Yeah, I don't think I don't know. I was we talked about it. I don't know.

Speaker 3 8:04

We talked about this a lot when it happened because it felt uncomfortable.

Speaker 1 8:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3 8:09

But um, yeah, I said, yeah, I'm I'm gonna keep doing this till I have a a baby. Like I'm gonna, you know, I was like, yeah, we'll we'll start another round. But and I didn't really think much of saying that, and then immediately was like, we're going to have to let you go if you choose to continue doing treatments. And I remember being so upset.

Speaker 8:29

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 8:29

Like furious because I mean, it was also that time that I was emotionally so unstable because it was literally like a day after we had miscarried the baby that we were finally pregnant with on round two of IVF. And then to be told, like, because it didn't work, you gotta go or you can't keep pursuing this. It just felt like you know, infertility was blowing up my whole life. And you you gave me really good advice because I was like, I feel like this might be illegal, but infertility is also considered a elective. All of the things you do are elective, they're not medically necessary, which is why insurance usually doesn't cover it. But you told me not to burn bridges. Yeah. You said you never know what the future holds, and like you know we're okay, and you should focus on your mental health and and IVF's a full-time job.

Speaker 2 9:25

And and yeah, IVF is more important to us than yeah, and growing our family is more important.

Speaker 3 9:30

Yeah. And so that's what we did, but that's when I really started sharing about our infertility journey on my Instagram account.

Speaker 2 9:40

Yeah. Which actually thinking about before we leave this, thinking about it, it's really interesting that pregnant women is a protected class. But infertile infertility, if you're not pregnant and you want to be pregnant, that's not protected.

Speaker 3 9:53

No. I uh yeah.

Speaker 2 9:55

Anyway, move on.

Speaker 3 9:57

There are a lot of things I would change about the way people with infertility are you know seeing. But what can you do? We but so that's when I really started sharing more heavily about about about infertility on Instagram.

Speaker 2 10:15

And before that, I had started a blog when we got married and used it kind of Well, we should we should probably talk about that though more because like I I feel like you know that was a big thing to happen, especially at that time.

Speaker 3 10:30

Uh blogging was all the rage. Instagram didn't exist really, right? And so blogs were the thing that's where you know bloggers, it was you weren't an influencer or content creator, you were a blogger.

Speaker 2 10:45

And infertility nobody talked about. That was the thing. And nobody talked about, I guess we kind of talked about this before, but yeah, what made you decide to to share it? Because well, let me tell you my experience actually first. Because you came to me and you were like, hey, if it's our it's kind of our thing that we're going through, but if it's all right with you, I'd love to share about this. Uh and I, you know, I'm uh I'm kind of either way, I don't, you know, I'm I could go either way, like I don't share a lot, but I don't mind sharing. And so I was like, Yeah, that sounds good. Let's let's if you want to do that, if you would like to do that, then let's do it. But I was a little bit shocked myself that you wanted to. I mean, that's pretty personal, pretty um, you know, pretty intimate to be sharing online is kind of what I was thinking at the time.

Speaker 3 11:27

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:28

Um, but yeah, tell me your thoughts at the time.

Speaker 3 11:31

Of like why I wanted to. I think that having grown up with infertility, with my parents experiencing infertility after they had me. And so it was kind of always a part of my life. It took that taboo-ness away, I think, because it was just like Yeah, it's just a medical condition. It was just something that had always existed and was talked about openly and freely. And I I saw that there were other people. I think it might have been like kickstarted by sharing with other people that we just in person, not online, and making those connections and finding out someone else was struggling alone and being like and seeing how much it helped to have that connection of us both realizing we were struggling with something similar and realizing this blogging is a platform to do that, to make someone feel less alone. And if I don't have any shame and I don't care, then why not? Like, what if someone reads this and feels less alone because they know someone else is going through it? Like, I think the other reason, which I'm realizing now, is I chose our infertility doctor because I watched Ellie and Jared, which was a YouTube channel, and it was a couple who went to our fertility clinic, lived in Utah, and were sharing their experience and sharing everything. They were like filming, going in the appointments and everything, and it took so much fear away from me because I knew what was gonna happen and I knew what to expect, and I felt like I really appreciated that, and I was like, I could I feel comfortable I could do that for somebody else too. Like I could help pull down that stigma. So I looking back, I do think that influenced me heavily was seeing somebody else do that too. And that it helped me and thinking I could maybe help somebody if I shared that.

Speaker 2 13:29

Well, and that's certainly what happened, right? I mean, maybe that's the next a good segue into the next section.

Speaker 3 13:34

But but that's when hunters of happiness, I mean, we should talk about how it got its name.

Speaker 13:39

Okay.

Speaker 3 13:39

Because that was the name of our blog. And I started a blog like two months after we got married.

Speaker 13:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3 13:44

Blogging was all the rage, everything, and it really was at that time like I'll just keep our family up to date about what we're doing and what are going on in our lives. And then we went out to visit my grandparents, my Mimi and Papa C, and we were driving back, and I was like, it needs a name. Like all blogs had a name, nobody was like their own name. Like all the big blogs had a blog name.

Speaker 2 14:09

Fancy name, yeah.

Speaker 3 14:10

Yeah, and I was like, what should our blog name be? And I was like, it would be fun if it was like our last name's Hunter, if it like had a play on words, and you immediately were like hunters of happiness. And I was like, I love it. And that's what it's been ever since. I changed my blog, I made that our Instagram handle, and um I just loved it.

Speaker 2 14:32

Yeah.

Speaker 3 14:32

I feel like it represents like us pretty well.

Speaker 2 14:35

I think so too. And uh and it's uh, you know, I think it it also applies to other people. I think I think you know, that's that's what it's like.

Speaker 3 14:41

It can be a community.

Speaker 2 14:42

Yeah, the double meaning, double meaning, it's like double meaning on so many levels, right?

Speaker 3 14:46

Because it's double meaning squared.

Speaker 2 14:48

Yeah, it's us and our own pursuit of happiness. But we want others to join in on others and their own hunting of happiness, and we, you know, they're they're also hunters of happiness, and that creates a full community, which is hunters of happiness. Which is what you always the platform to do.

Speaker 3 15:05

And that's really where I wanted to offer other people a community. I wanted a community for infertility, and that's where the account really started to grow because as we talked about before, our our infertility story was crazy, lots of up and downs, and I think a lot of people became very invested in like wanting to see it work for us.

Speaker 15:23

Yeah.

Speaker 3 15:24

And that's where like the initial growth came. And I don't even know like how. Um it must have been just people sharing or finding in different ways, but that's like how it initially grew. And so it did, it was slightly growing behind the scenes while I was doing grad school, while I was in that job, and then when I got fired from that job or I quit from that job, sure. We I was like, I'm gonna share more and and do and I had more time to really share. And that's when I did like a series of lessons from an infertile mom when I was pregnant, and a lot of those went viral. And it wrote about the things that I learned through infertility when I was, you know, I think when I was pregnant with our first, and it just kind of slowly kept growing into a community that I just loved. I really have a a soft spot in my heart for those early days when it was really small. And I know so many of you that are listening or were probably part of that community, and I message you all the time, and they message me, and they're like, I've been here since the beginning.

Speaker 2 16:32

Yeah. And we've met several of those people in person, and it's always amazing.

Speaker 3 16:36

They went with me and it started, it just was really slow growth for a long time.

Speaker 2 16:41

Yeah. Well, what were some of the early indicators that it was turning into something, do you think?

Speaker 3 16:46

Oh, I think when I hit 10,000 followers at at that time, that was like 10,000 on Instagram, right?

Speaker 2 16:54

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 16:55

I was like, wow, this is like that's a lot of people.

Speaker 2 16:59

Yeah, that was bigger than my small town I grew up in, Woods Cross, so it was pretty wild to me as well.

Speaker 3 17:05

Yeah. But it was really then that then just as a community like postpartum with both my girls. That's when stories were created, and I was on there every day, and just like in my messages all the time, and it really was a safe space. It was I found community, friendship, like connection while I was in the trenches of young being a young new mom to like two under two, and making zero money and just so much passion for it. I loved it. And when it was, I don't know, probably on 20,000, 30,000 is when companies started offering to send me stuff.

Speaker 17:47

Yeah.

Speaker 3 17:48

And I was like, this is the sweetest thing ever. Just still love it. So cool. And that's when the entrepreneurship part of you.

Speaker 2 17:57

Yeah, because I've I mean I've been into entrepreneurship pretty much my whole life. Yeah, your whole life. And uh, but and and meanwhile, all this is going on, and I'm I'm working on a tech startup, grinding it out, we're doing it the hard way, bootstrapping, you know, just no funding, just working all the time. Yes, working many hours, and uh and but yeah, you started getting free products, and uh you thought it was the coolest thing in the world, and I thought it was cool too, but they gave you so much free stuff. I was like, there has got to be. I knew nothing about in fact I I I was very rarely on Facebook.

Speaker 3 18:30

I don't think you even watched most of my stuff. No, you were too busy, it was my outlet.

Speaker 2 18:35

No, I just I didn't I didn't get on I any social media. No social media. Like I just I I was pretty focused on the the tech startup um the whole time and uh and then but they were sending you so much free stuff.

Speaker 3 18:48

I remember you being like Elise.

Speaker 2 18:51

This has gotta be worth something.

Speaker 3 18:52

Yeah, there they people don't just send you free stuff for no reason. Like it's there's yeah, you have value. And I was like, what are you talking about? I think you were like, this could really be a job.

Speaker 2 19:04

No, I didn't say that. I I said there's gotta be some money in it, which I was thinking that's right, like, you know, they should give you money with it. And I was thinking like, you know. A little bit. A little bit. Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:16

In my mind, I was dismissive. Do you feel like I was dismissive?

Speaker 2 19:20

Yeah, you it seemed like you thought I was like, I just did not understand, which I didn't, but I I obviously didn't understand either.

Speaker 3 19:28

You just being like, I just love it. And you saying, that's even better. Yeah. Like if it could be something and you love it, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 19:36

Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:37

But it really was rare find indeed. Beginning of 2019, I was editing. I mean, at that time, Instagram was a heavy photo app. There was no video in feed really.

Speaker 19:48

Yeah.

Speaker 3 19:48

And um stories had just started, but uh photo editing was like everyone wanted their photos to be beautiful in a certain style, and it was like really over-edited in a way. Um, and I, because I have two little girls, I had made a preset on Lightroom that was kind of pinky toned and um really bright and light, and I used it on all my photos, and I had had a bunch of people like, How do you edit your photos? How do you edit your photos? And I was like, I think there's a way. I think I I had seen one or two other people sell their presets. Um, and I literally stayed up one night.

Speaker 2 20:25

Yeah. Well, you and I both and just like put together the yeah, it was Shopify.

Speaker 3 20:29

I feel like it was in like two days. Yeah. You built a Shopify account, and I was figuring out how to make take the preset and how to make it downloadable, and was doing like all this research, but we figured it out quick, pretty quick, and but that was the moment that switched absolutely everything in my brain because it was the first time back then there were no analytics on Instagram, like you didn't even know. I think you could see a number of how many people watched your stories, and that was it. You couldn't see how many people were clicking things, you couldn't see, you know, driving traffic here or there. You had no analytics, but Shopify had analytics. So I sent everyone to Shopify. Said, I'm gonna sell my preset. Here's my preset. And it blew my mind. I got to see sold a lot. I got to see the traffic. Yeah, I got to see the sales in a single day, I got to see, and I that is when my brain switched. I think I saw like, oh my gosh, this is what I'm doing for other companies, and I'm doing it for free. Like I'm generating all this traffic, all this interest, and all these sales for a $20 product that I'm getting for free, even though I'm doing all this work. And that's when I realized I had value, even though it felt weird, because it wasn't at that point, it wasn't a job. At all.

Speaker 1 22:00

Yeah.

Speaker 3 22:01

It was kind of a joke. It was. I was, you know, definitely in those early years made fun of. Yeah. Joked about. You know, people would be like, oh, who does she think she is? You know, like, and you really helped me just if you love it, do it.

Speaker 2 22:21

Yeah.

Speaker 3 22:22

You always encouraged me.

Speaker 2 22:23

Yeah. You you came to me several times. Like, should I quit? Should I just not do this?

Speaker 3 22:28

Yeah, people think it's dumb or weird or silly.

Speaker 2 22:31

Yeah. And uh and then Do you remember what you always said? Yeah, well, if you like it, then do it.

Speaker 3 22:35

Like it's like, which is one thing I just love about you so much that's changed my brain a lot, is that you flip it back into onto me. Like I feel like instead of responding in like, that's not true, like you know, like and trying to build me up, you don't even do that. You you turn it back on what only matters what you think, which I feel like has really built my self-confidence because it's like it's like you're not even saying, Elise, you're great, you should do it. You're encouraging me to build my own self-confidence and think about what I want. Not and you're not influencing me either. Like you're not saying I think you should do it. Like you've always encouraged me to do what I want and what I like and make me look inward about like what I want to do. Yeah. And it's a gift and I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 23:30

I'm glad. You know, I just remembered what is the story about the the uh your first hater.

Speaker 3 23:36

Oh, we have to tell that. Oh, we have to tell this. So I did a like a makeup tutorial, and yeah, this is what one of those instances again where Scott reshaped my brain because um I like was so excited to post this makeup tutorial. I had worked on it, I had edited it, and um it was pretty early on.

Speaker 2 23:59

Yeah, that was this is we're jump jump jumping back a little bit here, but I should tell you my my perspective because uh that's why I died laughing. But uh so I walk in from work after you know tech startup all day driving hard and in our little apartment. Yeah, and Elise is like, Do I have a huge forehead? And I was like, No, what? No, that's crazy. You're it's a perfectly normal size forehead, don't even worry about it.

Speaker 3 24:27

Could an airplane land on it?

Speaker 2 24:30

Then yeah, then you explained to me what the hate comment had said.

Speaker 3 24:34

It was like my first really mean yeah, and the very first comment was that forehead is so big you big you could land an airplane on it. And it hurt so bad. And I was like, it wasn't that, I don't know, I don't know, it was pretty quick to before you came home.

Speaker 2 24:53

Yeah, but then but then she explained it to me, and I I I was like, Oh, you have your first hater. I see.

Speaker 3 24:59

And that was amazing because I was expecting I just wasn't expecting that mentality. Like he switched it. He was I actually think well, I actually think the first words that came out of your mouth were like, Elise, you've made it. You have a hater. And it just kind of switched my brain to not take it personally, yeah, and to be like, you know, you're doing something right if if there are people that are trying to tear you down. Then, you know, stay the course. And I don't know. It was crazy. It totally shifted my brain because of the way you made me like switch thinking about and it still impacts me today um while things still hurt. That was really helpful.

Speaker 2 25:47

Yeah. Jumping back to the presets. Yes, okay.

Speaker 3 25:51

Pass that into So the Presets were wildly successful, a huge blessing.

Speaker 2 25:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:57

Um right before presets, we had our first home and we we kind of totally renovated it on our own together. Yeah. Scott doing 95% of the work.

Speaker 2 26:07

I grew up doing lots of work on houses.

Speaker 3 26:10

And you did wordworking classes at school and helped like build a house for that class.

Speaker 2 26:15

Yep.

Speaker 3 26:16

And we're held and you had friends who were a painter and you worked for a painter.

Speaker 2 26:19

Yep, worked for a professional painter. All the ones very important. I was I was a large child. Like I was I was almost this size in like ninth grade, eighth grade. Well, uh seventh grade, I was almost as tall, uh, but uh but like size-wise, I was almost the size in like ninth grade. So heavily recruited by the the tradesman in my neighborhood, the plumber, the painter, the uh and then yeah, I I did uh you know all kinds of fun stuff.

Speaker 3 26:44

So we even like added a room to our basement just on our own.

Speaker 2 26:48

Yeah.

Speaker 3 26:49

Well, you did studs. I watched the babies and supported and pointed and said where I wanted things.

Speaker 2 26:54

Paint colors, of course.

Speaker 3 26:55

But an important part of that is that you always encouraged me to try the power tools.

Speaker 2 26:59

Yeah.

Speaker 3 27:00

Even then, like when I had zero interest, you would put up some boards with the nail gun and be like, okay, come over here, you gotta try it. And I'm like, ah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 27:07

Couldn't feel the power, I think I would say with the nail gun. Uh good times.

Speaker 3 27:11

But so when the presets kind of really took off, and it was we we used that money to buy our second home.

Speaker 1 27:19

Yeah, down pit.

Speaker 3 27:20

Which was our which was our dream was to be able to keep that first house as a rental. And I this is where the positive the power of positive thinking is because Scott was like, we are not selling this house. We are we are keeping this house as a rental and we are buying another house. And I was like, that is impossible. Like, and you were just like, that's what we're doing, and and we will get there.

Speaker 2 27:41

It's not easy. We made it happen though.

Speaker 3 27:43

We made it happen. And when we moved into that house, the that's when things started to pick up a little bit with Hunters of Happiness. I started getting offers for brand partnerships, which hadn't happened before. The girls were little.

Speaker 2 27:58

Hampers, is that what you were talking about?

Speaker 3 28:00

Yeah, and that was like my first big brand partnership. And pretty quickly I want to niche down into something that doesn't involve our kids. I think this really could be a job and a career, and I want to try, but I don't want it to be focused on them. They're part of our lives, and but I don't I want the business to thrive and be like completely independent of them. I just didn't like it. Renovating our last house did really well, and I think I'm gonna do home. What did you think?

Speaker 2 28:43

Uh I would remember I do remember that. And yeah, when we were in bed, that's what you're talking about, right?

Speaker 1 28:48

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 28:49

And I was concerned about how much decor was gonna cost is I think what I was first thinking about because uh I knew decor was already expensive and we were already we were already spending a lot on decor. So I was thinking we're probably gonna be spending more on decor.

Speaker 3 29:05

You were like, is this just an excuse for to buy stuff for the house?

Speaker 2 29:09

Indeed.

Speaker 3 29:10

Yeah. Maybe.

Speaker 2 29:12

Yeah.

Speaker 3 29:13

But it very I had no intent of it being a home and DIY account. I really just thought I'll share decor finds and decorating, and I'd really gotten into that. But very quickly. Especially, yeah. Yeah, but very the very first project I wanted to do niching down was the nursery, and I wanted to add wall trim. And I went to him and was like, When can you help me put up the wall trim? Because I don't I didn't know how to do it. He had done 90% of all the projects. I mean, I had watched you and helped here and there, but I was like, When can you do it? And you looked at your calendar and you were hustling yourself, and you're like, uh, in two Saturdays.

Speaker 2 29:58

Not this Saturday, but the next Saturday.

Speaker 3 30:00

And I remember being like, that's not gonna work. I was like, Will you teach me to use the saw?

Speaker 2 30:06

And I want you well, that was a separate, so that then you come back to me and say, uh, okay, I want you to teach me how to use the tools.

Speaker 3 30:15

I had decided I don't want to wait. I was afraid to use the tools, but I didn't I'm more impatient than I am afraid of the tools, and I want to try to do it.

Speaker 1 30:25

That was like January of 2020. Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:29

And this is where I think luck really played a part in our story. And I do think in all successes, in all endeavors, there's an element of luck. Certainly. Or um, you know, miracle from God. I did my first solo DIY project using the saw and the nail gun and putting up the trim in that bedroom one week before the pandemic started, beginning of March 2020. And the pandemic happened second week of March.

Speaker 30:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:57

That's when the world shut down.

Speaker 30:58

Yeah.

Speaker 3 30:59

And that's the element of luck, honestly, is that I started focusing on home and sharing this journey of learning how to use power tools and building stuff right when everyone was turning inward. Everyone was stuck in their homes, everyone just had staring at their ugly walls, hating it. And the things they were gonna do in on their homes. Everyone was stuck in their homes, and everyone was on their phones a lot more.

Speaker 1 31:29

Yeah.

Speaker 3 31:30

And so that was, I think, uh, just really lucky.

Speaker 1 31:34

Yeah.

Speaker 3 31:35

And that's when things really skyrocketed. I think at that point I had maybe 60,000 followers, and for reference, then I think by the end of that year, I had over a hundred thousand, and no by the end of the next year, over three hundred.

Speaker 2 31:50

It just those pandemic years well then tick tock well that what when was TikTok that was?

Speaker 3 31:55

TikTok exploded in 2021, I think.

Speaker 2 31:59

Was it 2021?

Speaker 3 32:00

Yeah, is when I I got on TikTok right away.

Speaker 1 32:03

Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:03

A lot of you might not know because I think most of our listeners are from Instagram, but yeah, TikTok exploded and I grew way faster there, and my audience is actually way larger there.

Speaker 32:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3 32:13

Um, I don't feel as connected to them as I do on Instagram. That's where I feel like I have a community more, but that's that's kind of how it became like what it is. And we've grown it since then and done a lot of learning in the process. I think what's really crazy about being a content creator that started in 2013 is that I've seen it go from nothing to a full-blown career. Yeah. That people pursue now. Like not just for you, but for you. Yeah, like people in high school take classes. Yeah. There's whole like it's and not only just being a content creator, but everyone that surrounds that, like in on the business side, like people who do the social media marketing and arrange all the campaigns, and then con uh social media managers, and like there's there's a whole field that didn't exist when I started it.

Speaker 1 33:10

Yep.

Speaker 2 33:11

And to be a part of that, like the starting of a new industry, yeah, and like a pioneer in seeing it like be formed is yeah, she may not look like a pioneer woman, but pioneer.

Speaker 3 33:26

Walked and walked and walked and walked. I think that kind of leads into where we are now. Obviously, there's been a lot of growth and change since it like exploded, but that's how Hunters of Happiness came to be.

Speaker 2 33:42

Well, and in that time frame, it went from being like um, you know, a cool, cool side thing to making, you know, to being a legitimate business. And you know, there's there's a lot that happened in that time frame, but um yeah, but it became something special, something very special for us, I guess.

Speaker 3 34:02

Yeah. I'm very proud of it. I used to, I think, feel a little bit embarrassed to say I was a content creator or most people say influencer. It feels a little cringy to me, but uh I I've kind of shifted my mindset now. I think that I'm really proud of what I've built and what we've built together. And I'm proud of what it's able to do for others. Yeah. And um both like in the sense of like giving builds and and things like that aren't seen online that we're able to do for people, yeah, that it's turned into what it has. And I feel really grateful and proud. And I feel proud of us for continuing to push ourselves and to do things like this and expand. And and my cousin was really sweet and messaged me when we launched this, and she was like, I love seeing you continue to push yourself into things that are uncomfortable. And I liked the way that she worded that because I was really uncomfortable on podcast launch day. I felt like really nervous. And and it's true.

Speaker 2 35:12

Like this was certainly not my on my bingo card. Um, but uh it's we live an amazing life.

Speaker 3 35:19

And uh that's a that's actually a perfect segue into like so that was kind of how Hunters of Happiness came to be the story. And now we'll go into answering your questions about what it's like, um, and and questions surrounding being a content creator, because we had like quite a few that I saved.

Speaker 2 35:37

Lots of questions were gonna drive the seat for sure.

Speaker 3 35:40

Did did you ever think you'd become a content creator? And for me, no. I mean, it didn't exist, so I definitely had no idea that this would be part of our lives at all.

Speaker 2 35:51

No, but you did think that you were going to be a pop star.

Speaker 3 35:54

When I was little, I didn't think I was gonna be a pop star. I thought I was gonna be a Broadway star.

Speaker 2 35:59

Okay.

Speaker 3 36:00

I truly believed I was gonna be on Broadway. Okay, when I was five, I wanted to be Brittany Spears. That's right. For sure. But no, legitimately in my youth I thought I was gonna be on Broadway, but this is nothing like Broadway. You will not hear me singing at all on this channel. It's true. So how do you feel about like have you ever felt weird about me being content creator and you being like part of it or no, and I think that's partially because I have, you know, a technology mindset, you know, forward forward thinking.

Speaker 2 36:35

So I I think I never thought it was weird. I could see, you know, it being a thing and was there ever a moment that it did feel weird? There have been some weird things that have happened. In fact, I'm about to ask you what the weirdest things have happened to you, but the first thing that started being like, whoa, this is crazy is when people started like kind of stopping us in public places here here in Utah, especially. And I remember specifically there was there was early on, so this is blogging days, we're jumping back again, but there was early on you posted about us going out on Utah Lake when it was frozen and it and we took some amazing photos at the sun was out, and it was it was it was really cool. But uh but then like the following week at the store, we ran into somebody who was like, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you guys went out on the lake, and that was so cool, and all these just like almost like cited back to us everything that we did, every picture, and it was like wow, they really really tuned in. And that was uh that was interesting for sure.

Speaker 3 37:33

That was the first time that you were like, Wow, there's actually people.

Speaker 2 37:37

There are people.

Speaker 3 37:38

She's not talking to the abyss.

Speaker 2 37:40

No, I knew there were people because of analytics, but but like yes, see meeting somebody in person.

Speaker 3 37:47

I remember when I realized it was also a great tool to like keep an eye on you.

Speaker 2 37:53

She's got her emissaries.

Speaker 3 37:54

No, I remember. I remember when you like you went Maverick is the low local gas station in Utah. They're the best. And I got a you were at work and I got a m a DM that was like, I think I just saw your husband at Maverick. And so I texted you. I was like, and that was I don't think I I don't think that was back when you like had the location setting thing. And I was like, are you at Maverick right now? And you were like, What? I was like, someone saw you there.

Speaker 2 38:24

Uh yeah, and then another weird thing was like I, you know, I then I kind of got used to just we we meet people all the time and we love it. We meet, you know, the nicest people, and it's great.

Speaker 3 38:33

The nicest people. We love when people say hey, like we really do.

Speaker 2 38:38

But uh when there was there was a few times where I was, you know, at work and I hadn't seen what was happening or hadn't been home or anything, and you'd posted about it, and people would be like, Oh, that you know, whatever it was, that cool thing that your your wife bought, and I didn't know about it. And that would freak me out a little bit. Like they, because of social media, know more about what's happening today at my home than I do.

Speaker 3 39:01

And so another question was like, when did you feel comfortable leaving your previous career? And like we kind of shared, like it kind of like slowly morphed.

Speaker 2 39:10

Yeah, it's morphed.

Speaker 3 39:11

So it it I never like was like, I'm leaving um because I had been let go and then I was a full-time stay-at-home mom, and then it just kind of morphed.

Speaker 2 39:20

Yeah, and that's what's nice about entrepreneurship is it is flexible that way. Yeah, I'm still involved in in Pokemos, and you know, it's we we're we're able to do multiple things.

Speaker 3 39:30

Yeah. Um, how long did it take to become a full-time job? Scott likes to say you're an eight or seven.

Speaker 2 39:39

You're an overnight success in 2020. After seven years.

Speaker 3 39:44

Yeah. So I I definitely it was about seven years of doing it pretty consistently. You just loved it. I just loved it before I made any money.

Speaker 39:53

Yeah.

Speaker 3 39:53

And I mean it's hard because I there's a lot of requests for like advice, and I I don't know how qualified I feel because I grew in a very different time. And social media is very different now, and so I can't speak to how to grow now. I can't I mean, I of course I I'm st I still grow and lose every day, but I'm building off of something that's already built.

Speaker 40:15

Yeah.

Speaker 3 40:16

I I don't know how to build something from the ground up in this day and age and environment on social media. It's very different than when I grew my account.

Speaker 2 40:24

So it's funny that people ask you that. They also ask me that. And I I tell them, listen, I know even less than like we couldn't explain it to like how to do it to somebody right now, and even less I could explain it.

Speaker 3 40:35

I actually think it's it's way harder than it used to be because it's way more complicated, there's way more things, there's way more. Yeah, there's virality that didn't exist before. And um, yeah, I think my number one piece of advice if you are trying to be a content creator is to not worry about followers. There were a lot of questions of like, how do I get followers? How do I grow? And I think if you're foc focused on that, it's it's you're not focused on the right thing. Because you should be focused on what do I want to create, what am I offering people? How am I educating, entertaining, uplifting, like whatever your why is, whatever your goal is, you can't you can't control anyone else on the internet and their behavior. You can't control if someone follows you or unfollows you the next day.

Speaker 1 41:28

Yeah.

Speaker 3 41:28

You can't control if you say something and someone cancels you and hates you. You can only control that you like what you do and that you're proud of what you do.

Speaker 2 41:37

Yeah. And so you people are attracted to their authenticity.

Speaker 3 41:41

They're attracted to authenticity, they're attracted to like things that benefit them. And so decide what you're gonna give. And it's it's more of a look, instead of looking for things from other people and looking for followers, look at what you have to offer. Like, what can I offer the people on the internet? What can I offer someone else? And also focus on the one. That's always been one of my core like tenets is that even as I've grown, I care about the one person that interacts with me, and not about the number behind how many people. I want a community, and especially being on the other side of numbers and being able to see, just because someone has a lot of followers doesn't even mean that they can be that successful as a content creator. Like, um, you can have as many followers as I do and make way more or wake make way less. Like it's the power is in community and in connection. And if you focus on creating that over trying to get to some number or get to some place, you're gonna build something that lasts because you enjoy what you're doing and you care about the people that you're making it for.

Speaker 1 42:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3 42:56

And so that would be my advice. I can't tell you specific strategies, but I can say if you have that mindset that you'll create something you're proud of. And and I th I can't remember if it was you or someone else, but someone was like, think about placing all the people that watched your stories today in a room. And sometimes we see really big numbers on Instagram, and so we have really high expectations because virality can happen. And but even if if you have a hundred views and you are like defeated and think that's so low, a hundred people wouldn't even fit in this room.

unknown 43:38

Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:39

You would think that was a really good turnout if you came to speak somewhere.

Speaker 2 43:42

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 43:43

Like focus like we've talked about before on gratitude and what you have, and that will also help you push through any lows you find. Yeah. Like in growth is focusing on well, I'll I'll you know, make content and serve the people I have. Why why would I? Be focusing on making content for people that I don't have. You know, like I'm I'm building a community, I'm focusing on these people that already follow me and um and I care about them, not about someone else and trying to scramble to earn them.

Speaker 2 44:17

Sure.

Speaker 3 44:18

Which I think just comes back to being true to yourself. Yeah. Let's see. One a big question was how many hours a week do you actually work?

Speaker 2 44:27

It's a tough one to answer.

Speaker 3 44:29

I don't even know if I could answer that question. Uh I don't feel like I work within the like typical like how many hours do you work? I feel like I don't even know if I could quantify because it's flexible in a sense, and one of the best perks is that I can be working and then I can pause and I can run and do something at the girls' school, and then I can come home and then I can put them to bed and then I can do some more things. And so I I don't really keep track of it. I just feel like I'm working all the time.

Speaker 2 44:59

Yeah. Yeah, it's it's tough to describe, but we I mean we basically wake up and we work slash play slash work slash play all day.

Speaker 3 45:08

Yeah. And part of that is that we love what we do.

Speaker 2 45:11

Yeah. And so separating what's work and what's play is and that's one of the huge perks of doing this for a job.

Speaker 3 45:17

And I think it's also one of the hardest parts about doing this for a job is that it becomes really blurred with your personal life.

Speaker 45:24

Yeah.

Speaker 3 45:25

And separating like work and family time and turning things off. And I don't have a physical place that I like, I leave work and I go home and I can switch my brain. So making sure I make non-physical shifts. I have employees that come nine to five. And so like those are like I usually work nine to five.

Speaker 45:49

Yeah.

Speaker 3 45:49

And then I also usually work after the girls go to bed and answer DMs, plan content for the next day, and do planning for future projects.

Speaker 2 46:01

While watching traders.

Speaker 3 46:02

While watching traders. So again, it's like work and play. Yeah. Like I'm getting some things done and hanging out and chatting with you. And so that's why it's like hard because I feel like I work all the time, but I also love what I do, so it doesn't feel like work. Yeah. And I'm flexible enough that sometimes I'm like, let's go to Disneyland for two days and during work days and it's fine. Yeah. So it offers flexibility, but it also I work all the time.

Speaker 2 46:28

Yep.

Speaker 3 46:29

But I love what I do. So then it doesn't feel like work.

Speaker 2 46:31

Work play all the time.

Speaker 3 46:32

Work play all the time.

Speaker 2 46:33

I don't know if that answers your question really well, but it's not answered, but it's it's uh it's reality.

Speaker 3 46:40

Yeah. Uh how many people work with me? So it's changed over the years, and I love um, I I love having employees. I love having help. Um, like if you ever think, how does she do it all? It's because she doesn't. It's because she has help. Don't compare your one-person accomplishments to a team team of six people accomplishments. And um, so I've had a few assistants over the years. I've loved all of them. And I have I have two right now. And then I have a manager who helps me with all my brand partnerships, and then I have a virtual assistant that helps me with editing and digital stuff, and so that's my team right now. So that's four. I have four, right? Yeah, yeah, four pretty much full-time employees right now that help us with everything. With all the things, and they're phenomenal. And I I love watching them grow too and hoping like it's been an adjustment, I think, because I find someone and I'm just obsessed with them and I want to keep them forever. And and then learn that like uh, you know, an assistant job is not I love them so much I don't want them to stay an assistant, if that makes sense. I want them to learn and to and to gain more confidence, and then I want them to take what they learn with me and do something bigger and better. And they all have, and it's fun to see. So there's a lot of like movement, and but I yeah, that's kind of what my team is right now. And Scott, how many people work with you at Hokomos?

Speaker 2 48:30

Uh it's I mean it's varied over the time as well, but we have we have a team about kind of fluctuates between 10 and 15 uh employees. Employees, yeah.

Speaker 3 48:39

Okay, and as far as yeah, I can I guess I can dive into more people really want to know what each one of our employees does, but it they joke about all the time. They're like they're like, I could make reels about what did you do for work today? And it's like today I uh made a dog pen. I I painted a fence. Today I filmed my boss in a Lorax costume. Today I, you know, it it just varies so much.

Speaker 2 49:10

They just never know what they're gonna do for sure.

Speaker 3 49:12

Which makes it really fun.

Speaker 2 49:13

Yeah, they love it. I think so. Hopefully they love it. They tell us they love it.

Speaker 3 49:17

We should bring Jalen in for an interview.

Speaker 2 49:19

We should.

Speaker 3 49:20

Like she'd be honest on the podcast. Jalen, do you like us? Uh but we love her. Um, so the next biggest question is how we actually make money, like how we get paid. And there's a lot of different revenue streams for being a content creator, and the main ones are ads, like partnerships, paid partnerships, affiliate, and then your own product. I would say are the three like pillars. Three categories, yeah. Yeah, there are other ways, but those are the main. So, like if you see an ad or a partnership with a brand that I'm you know promoting, they've they've paid it. They've sponsored it. Or um, and then and then affiliate is like anything that I love that I share. I create an affiliate link and I get a pretty small commission, but you know, they build up and so that's another usually it's like usually it varies from yeah, it's really interesting. It varies from like low end 1% to sometimes upwards of 20% commission on a product, and then it also varies on different platforms. So you could find something that you love, and then you're trying to find like where's the best place to share this? Because if I share it here from here and people buy it, I only make 2% commission.

Speaker 50:46

Yeah.

Speaker 3 50:46

But if they buy it on this platform, you know, like it's the same product that's sold at Nordstrom or it's sold on Amazon, you get different commissions at different places.

Speaker 2 50:57

Yeah, affiliate's uh a world of its own.

Speaker 3 51:00

It is, and there are a lot of content creators that solely do affiliate and just um share things that they love on the internet and make a great living, and it's so cool. Yeah. And actually was telling the uh our assistants the other day, which we call the girls, which gets really confusing because we have our girls, but then in work we have the girls. But lots of girls, lots of girls, yeah, you house full of girls, except for Bo. You got Bo. That's right. So we but I was telling them it like still brings me so much joy when I share a product and somebody messaged me and was like, oh my gosh, I got that. And thank you. That was the best recommendation because that's really important to me that um I only share things that I have used and that I love. And that's it. The third pillar would be your own products, which is like the presets when we sold those. I sell some of my art prints. I had like clothing, clothing for a little bit, sweatshirts, and you know, like merch. So those are the three main pillars. There are other, there are so many ways. So many ways. That would probably be my other thing about content creator like stuff. Like a lot of people are like, Do you have a course? Do you recommend a course to be a content creator? And I don't, I don't recommend any of them because there is not one way to be a successful content creator. There's a million ways. There's a million ways to do this job. Well, there's a million different ways you could do it. There's a million different ways you could make money. There's like so many opportunities, which is so exciting, and especially I feel like it's so exciting for women. Like it gives women so many more options, I feel like, than were before, especially moms who were at home. Like that I got to create a business that is successful while I was a young stay-at-home mom is incredible.

Speaker 2 52:57

Incredible.

Speaker 3 52:58

And I think it gives such a voice to and a way to connect. And I just I think there's so many ways to do it, and there's so many different ways to do it right, and there are so many ways that haven't even been found yet of how to do it right.

Speaker 2 53:11

Yeah, the way to do it now is not the way we are going to talk about that, but it's different now and it'll be different tomorrow.

Speaker 3 53:16

I think you take all advice with a grain of salt. Because if someone ever says this is the only way to do this, I automatically don't trust it. Yeah. Because I that's the only thing I do know that's true. Is that there's there's not just one.

Speaker 2 53:28

Whatever the course says is wrong.

Speaker 3 53:31

No, there I just know that if it says this is the only way you can do this one thing, yeah, I know that there's probably five ways you could do that that would also be successful. So um I I I think there's a lot of ways to do it, and there's so much information on the internet.

Speaker 1 53:47

Yeah.

Speaker 3 53:47

And the hardest part of deciding to be a content creator is being brave.

Speaker 2 53:52

Yeah. Putting yourself out there. Yep. Agreed. Like five minutes. I'm just kidding. No, just kidding.

Speaker 3 54:01

It really depends. Sometimes content is totally on the fly. Yeah. And just happens.

Speaker 2 54:07

The projects are planned out a little more.

Speaker 3 54:08

And the projects often are, but sometimes they just happen too.

Speaker 2 54:11

Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 54:12

The fence just happened. That was not on my the pickleball fence last year was not planned.

Speaker 2 54:18

That was a big planned to scope creep.

Speaker 3 54:20

Yeah. We had planned to do the pickleball court. And then just surfacing. Just surfacing the pickleball court.

Speaker 54:26

Yeah.

Speaker 3 54:26

And then it kind of just snowballed from there, and we just did the whole area, and none of it was planned, and we were just flying by the seat of our pants. And you can maybe see it online, probably that it was a little all over the place. But um, but yeah, it varies greatly. Sometimes I'm planned ahead, sometimes I'm not. Most, especially content in stories, is just day of figuring out. And I would say the only time like projects aren't really in real time is when they are part of a paid sponsorship. Like when they're a partnership, then usually they have to be filmed prior, turned in, approved. Sometimes the company comes back with edits, have to edit it. And so that means that they're they're pre-filmed, pre um created. Do you ever worry about being canceled?

Speaker 2 55:27

You you tell me what's the most challenging part of this job.

Speaker 3 55:32

I feel like it changes. It ebbs and flows. Yeah. Some months are more successful than I have Lowe's on, you know, like the that wasn't a question here is uh is the income consistent and it is not. It varies greatly month to month. I mean, are we consistently making enough to pay the employees and do stuff like that? Yeah, we know, you know, like where that is, but it it varies greatly. And then most uh paid sponsorships are paid 30 to 90 days after you post them. So it means that money's coming in far later than the work you actually do. And so and then if they're all like 90 days, then you can go a whole lot of time without getting paid at all. And so it is not like a consistent paycheck in that way.

Speaker 2 56:25

Okay. I think the hardest thing is maintaining a good mental state.

Speaker 3 56:30

You think so?

Speaker 2 56:31

I think so.

Speaker 3 56:31

Yeah.

Speaker 2 56:32

Cause it just, I mean, you're getting uh so many opinions all the time.

Speaker 3 56:36

Yeah. I don't think anyone's meant to hear so much that much, not only negative, but positive too. So many and people send the craziest stuff. I hadn't been on in a little while. I think when we were in Disneyland and it got in my DMs, and I was just like, whoa, I forgot. It was one person who was like, You look haggard. And the next message was like, was like, I really hate that color on you. And the next one was like, You are so beautiful. It was just like, whoa, whoa. And um, I think that's something I miss from when it was a smaller community is that um I didn't have a lot of the um the just people that were just didn't think you were a real person lashed out at you when they have something going on. But it's definitely not normal to just be a punching bag for people on the internet.

Speaker 57:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3 57:32

And I think it was really hard for me when I get worked up about it usually once a month and maybe post something that is like, oh, this was so mean, like, and it's an onslaught of messages, like, don't let it hurt you. And it's like, okay, if you had just read 500 messages that were all negative, you would have a really hard time just mind over mattering which opinions you listen to and which ones you don't. But I think you're right, it takes a lot of it take it's really made me hone in on whose opinions I care.

Speaker 58:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3 58:09

And which opinions matter to me. Because there's millions out there on the internet every day, all the time. And I've realized, okay, this these are the people in my life that I care about their opinion.

Speaker 1 58:23

And otherwise it doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 58:27

For me, I don't know if I could I think maybe the hardest thing for me now is a work-life balance. Because there's almost no end to the things I could do. And I also like it's hard, like I want to get to all the DMs and like stopping myself sometimes and and letting myself have time to just be. And and then I think if I'm being really honest.

Speaker 2 58:56

Uh do what you know, do what's good for you. Do what you like to do. And the more you can do what you like to do and make money at doing what you like to do, and the more you'll find happy.

Speaker 3 59:07

And start it as a side hustle.

Speaker 1 59:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3 59:10

And and you know, it's the perfect side hustle that can grow and can you can put you know, more and more time as you have it. But there's just so many possibilities. I think I want to end with that. There were questions like, would you still do it? Like, do you love it? I'm so grateful. Like, that's what I would end with. Like, I am grateful every day that somehow I get to do this for work. Like, I I just feel like the luckiest ever. And while yeah, I think there are elements of it that are hard for sure. And like I think there are far more people out there that work just as hard as I do and don't make as much or struggle. And sometimes I have like, I don't know if you call it like survivor's guilt. I don't know what you what do you call that? I just I feel I want you wishing for the you know the same thing. Yeah, I want this type of success for everyone, genuinely.

Speaker 2 1:00:11

Or or whatever brings it.

Speaker 3 1:00:12

Or whatever, yeah, whatever they want. But um, yeah, anything that you do for work becomes a job and has things that are hard. But I think the things that like are hard for me that that there's way harder stuff out there.

Speaker 1:00:27

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:00:27

And I feel so grateful that I get to do this. And I don't know how long it'll last. I don't know. I feel like I've become a little bit less scared of that and have just learned to ride the the ups and the downs of this as a job, but I think that's probably how I'd leave it.

Speaker 2 1:00:43

Is yeah.

Speaker 3 1:00:44

I love it. I don't take it for granted.

Speaker 2 1:00:47

We we're very glad for the life that we have, is what I'm actually trying to say.

Speaker 3 1:00:51

Yep, and I'm glad with what we can do with it, and hopefully I think I'm I have big dreams of what we can still do to take the platform that we have to add more happiness, more goodness, more light into the world. And yeah.

Speaker 2 1:01:12

So what is the strangest thing that's ever happened to you relating to Haunters of Happiness?

Speaker 3 1:01:21

Um probably. One time when I was grocery shopping at Costco, you can say, and I was like picking out my strawberries, and all of a sudden someone like bear hugged me from behind, and I assumed it was probably one of my friends or neighbors, and I turned around and it was someone I had no clue who they were. And they're like, I love following you, and they were so nice, and we became friends, but like the hug without knowing who they were definitely threw me a little bit. It took me a second, I was a little like wha and super nice. I actually we still follow each other, so we still talk actually. Yeah, yeah. Do we want to do a quick Trader Joe's bag?

Speaker 2 1:02:03

Absolutely.

Speaker 3 1:02:03

Okay, where is where is the bag? Bring in the bag.

unknown 1:02:09

Okay.

Speaker 3 1:02:10

Again, 99% of the questions. Tell us more things about the puppies.

Speaker 2 1:02:17

They're really cute, they've tripled in weight, they're getting to be porkers, and uh they feeling about mainly it's aren't we gonna keep one?

Speaker 3 1:02:29

Oh where are we where where are we sitting right now? After today, after today I'm more wanting one. I I keep going up and down, but Bo had to go to the vet today and they put him under. And so I spent most of the day without him at home.

Speaker 2 1:02:46

And I like Just for tests, everyone, he's fine.

Speaker 3 1:02:49

Yeah, he's fine. He was fine just for like stuff, and I was like, I missed him so much. I like all day, and like coming home and he wasn't there, I don't know. It just made me like if we got a puppy, it would extend the period of time until we would we would still have a dog in our house. I just I love coming home to a dog. I I just love him. I love him. I love what he brings. I really I mean the girls are what's getting me though. Their little faces and they print pictures of the puppies and put them on their pin boards and kiss them good night. Good night, Betty Blue.

Speaker 2 1:03:30

Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for tuning in. Hundreds of happiness.

Speaker 3 1:03:33

Very excited. Episode four. We are starting our interviews. We have our first interview lined up. And I'm so excited and nervous.