Hello and welcome to the Planner Pals Podcast, a podcast hosted
by two true planner pals. My name is Mark and I go by Mark
Your pages. And I'm Jess or Jessie Curran
and I'm quite excited for today's episode because it's not
something that I often talk a lot about on both my like
channel or in my kind of community spaces or whatnot.
But we're going to be talking about planner related content
creation. So what our kind of experience
with that is obviously I'm doing it full time, Mark doing it part
time. What are our kind of like pain
points? What is the most kind of
rewarding stuff about it? I think I'm just really eager to
hear your take on it because you do have a different background
to me and you're doing this differently.
Yeah, it's definitely a fun topic to talk about because this
isn't something that I feel like a lot of us, like, openly try to
talk about when people find out, at least in my situation.
I'm sure it's the same thing for you.
It's probably for everyone who does it.
They're like, wait, you make content for the Internet, you do
this, you make videos, and they ask like all of these questions.
And a little piece of me used to be very embarrassed by it
because like being called like a content creator felt kind of
weird. But now I just embrace it.
You're like, yeah, I make content.
I'm working with bullet journals and pens and stuff that I love.
But our situations are very different where I call it a full
time hobby versus a full time job, which is what you're doing
with it and making it into a full time career.
So today's topic should be most excellent.
I'm really excited to dip into some other questions.
Yeah, I think that that awkward point that you talked about, I
definitely still get that. And I probably don't do myself
any favors with regard to this because people like, oh, what do
you do? And I'm like, they make videos
for the net and I'm like, you can't just, you can't leave it
at that because then they're like, oh really?
It's like. What kind of videos are you
making? Yeah, My, my scandalous wrist up
in here. Like hide that.
Oh my gosh, nobody needs to see it.
But because people don't, you know, it's not necessarily a
commonly done thing. I mean, I know there are plenty
of jobs out there that aren't like commonly done, but a lot of
people do have a lot of interest about it.
But they also kind of feel like, but how do you, how do you make
that a job? Like how do you make money off
of that? And so it's always kind of
interesting having to talk them through this idea of like, oh,
you know, ad revenue and memberships and affiliate sales
and all of this kind of stuff because most people just have no
clue about it. But because we've been doing it
for such a while, it's just like, Oh yeah, that's just like
a commonly known thing. There's a lot that goes into it
100% and I can start from like why I started or where it
started because I started not knowing a whole lot necessarily
about the space. I feel like we're seeing a lot
more people want to be Youtubers or be content creators or social
media influencers or streamers, right?
That's definitely become more of a thing that is known, but I
didn't really know what it was going to become when I started
it. I knew that I wanted to do
something around it, but I never really had a topic to kind of
talk about it and think my individual life was all that
interesting to be like a vlogger or a Blogger just to talk about
my my day today. And I also didn't feel fully
confident talking about user experience design or graphic
design or really felt like I knew enough to be telling other
people about it necessarily. So when I started bullet
journaling, or I guess I should say, before I started bullet
journaling, I was already consuming content online because
I was doing my research about it, trying to understand it
more. And of course, when you do that,
you start to see the more popular people or people who are
posting more often about it doing that.
And I'm thinking to myself, OK, well, this might be a thing that
I could at least start to share about and talk about it.
I'll be 100% honest with you, Jess.
When I first started I thought it was going to be like a meteor
superstar shot to the top kind of experience because I was like
I don't see a lot of guys in this community so I'll be one of
the only guys actually talking about it and doing this so it'll
be like overnight success. It has been an 8 year journey
just to get to where I am right now and I've had to learn
everything I know along the way. There is no book.
Probably is a book, but I didn't read it.
I'm pretty sure there are a couple of books, but yeah I
didn't write them either. I do actually have a book about
YouTube on my shelf now and I also haven't read that one.
So there's definitely like different ways to go into it and
I do have a background in broadcasting.
I was a radio DJ for a number of years, so I had no problem in
talking and speaking. Now the video in front of the
video thing, not super comfortable with whatsoever.
So a lot of my early content, my early videos even will just be
of my hands. I didn't show my face even on my
YouTube channel and not even on my Instagram channel probably
for a number of years. And then and I finally was just
like, hey, I'm a person too. I'm more than just this bullet
journal and started to bring myself out a little bit more.
But early on, it definitely just started with me sharing my
experience in my bullet journal, what I was doing.
I started to try to mimic what else I was seeing online from
creators. So I was watching people do the
plan with me and set up their bullet journals.
And again, when I started doing this eight years ago, we just
talked about that last episode. We've been doing this for eight
years. There was no reels.
There was no long form or short form content on Instagram.
So really it was a lot of just still photographs at first until
I started to dip my toe into some video with YouTube when I
started to dabble a little bit there.
But really just started with that.
And I just started to just share stuff out.
And I know we'll get into some other like questions about like
what happens in that process. But before we do, I'd love to
hear about your start and kind of like what brought you into
this beautiful world of content creation.
Content creation. Oh my God, you said like the is
this a trigger word? I'm going to call it a trigger
word. You said influencer and I'm
like, oh. My God, I fully embraced it.
I mean, the truth of it is, I think there is very kind of dark
side of the Internet influencer where you're just touting crap
to make money. And I think there's definitely a
space where people are listening to you and they're trusting you
and making decisions based off of that.
So I just accepted that I am influencing people when talking
about stuff that I love, but I don't like the negative side of
it because I don't want to be that person.
I do want to be able to share and save people money and
introduce them to cool things. But I'm more excited about them,
like getting something and loving it than I am about them
getting it because I told them to, you know?
Yeah, no, 100%. I do think that there's just
like, I know it's probably just all in my head, but I have a
very negative connotation with the word influencer and for
seemingly no reason because I'm usually pretty good with
separating those kind of feelings from most words.
Like for instance, you know, the idea of trigger.
We have like the trigger list, which is a type of layout you
can put in your journal and such.
I know a lot of people do not like that because of the kind of
more like commonly used version of the word trigger nowadays in
terms of like mental health, PTSD, that kind of stuff.
Whereas trigger list is really just used for the idea of
triggering or prompting an idea for a brain dump.
But influencer is one of those ones that I still get really
caught up on for some reason. And it's probably because when
people call me that, I don't really see myself as that.
So there's this like kind of disconnect.
But in terms of getting started in the world of content
creation, I would consider my start to really be more like an
Instagram start. So it started just, you know,
sharing my pictures on there of the layouts I was making and
such slowly getting ever so slightly better.
Taking photos. My gosh, the the way that I used
to take my pictures. First of all, disgusting.
But I used to have a shelf that I kind of I don't even know
where I got the shelf. It was like a spare shelf from
something that we we had in our house.
And I would take the shelf to different places in my home and
take photos on this shelf because I'm like, ah, then my
background is the same consistent color.
I can put it in the right lighting.
All of this. I thought I was like a genius.
I've like hacked the matrix here with my shelf.
But Oh my gosh, looking back at some of those pictures, it was,
it left a lot to be desired, let's put it that way.
So getting into videoing though, that kind of came, I don't know,
is it about a year, maybe a year and a half after I kind of
started actively taking Instagram seriously.
And just like you, you know, seeing creators online living,
living like a passion point effectively like being able to
do this thing that they really enjoyed and loved and share it
with the Internet and stuff. I didn't necessarily start with
the intention of this is going to be my full time thing kind of
a thing, but more so I could do that to like why can't I share
videos online about journaling? It's like a big passion point
for me. I would love to share my ideas
with other people. So why don't we do that?
I tried to start off kind of simply.
I was like, OK, we're just going to do 1 video a week.
You know, set the bar really kind of low.
Make sure that you build up that consistency.
I got to my second week. I'm like, this is ridiculous.
We need at least 2 videos a week.
So since then it's been 2 videos a week at the very minimum for
almost every week since the what, 7 years ago when I
formally started the YouTube channel?
It is absolutely incredible. I remember starting myself and I
didn't know anything about anything.
I think I just had my phone. I don't even know how I set it
up. I think my very first video was
a flip through video, no voice over, just me flipping through
it. I actually put post it notes
with captions in them because I didn't feel comfortable talking
in the video and it and it's still up there if you all want
to scroll all the way back to the earliest one.
Or I guess there's probably a filter for it.
You can see that and it is pretty wide, but there's a you
you hit on a point that I think is important, especially if
you're interested in becoming a content creator or posting stuff
on social media. There is a lot that you have to
learn as a part of that process. You might already be somewhat
good at it if you're a person who takes a lot of photos and
you do some color correction, if you, you know, record video and
maybe edit some stuff on your phone.
But having not a lot of experience with me was the same
thing. Like, how do I get the photos to
look right? So you're looking for the right
apps for it to be able to figure out how to do that.
You try every freaking app in the world until you find one
that you love when you're editing video.
Did all my video editing on my phone for the first several
years. It wasn't actually probably
until I want to say maybe three years ago or so, maybe 4 Max,
when I actually started to use cameras and lighting.
And that's a whole other thing you have to learn.
When you go from using your iPhone as your main camera to an
actual video camera, you got to worry about ISO and levels and
lighting and when you don't know anything about it, that you're
just always learning. And that's the one thing I do
love about it, though for me, others might not, but I love the
continuous learning that has had to happen as a part of the
journey too. It just makes it that much more
interesting. Yeah.
And I think it's interesting to kind of like consider, you know,
start at the bottom now we're here type things like the amount
of kind of little skills that you've picked up along the way.
I think that's definitely one of the most rewarding parts about
it is just the knowledge base that you start building around
your craft is very impressive. Like I still don't necessarily
know what ISO means, but I know how to set it.
Like I don't know what white ballads means, but I know how to
fiddle around with it so it looks kind of good.
Oh, yeah, There's a lot of stuff that when you're not a
professional videographer or photographer, you're right.
These are terms that you hear. I have them written down
somewhere because I remember when I first thought I kept a
little log of like all the shortcuts for the different
programs I was using all the words that I needed to learn.
And luckily there are some amazing other content creators
online that that do exactly that, teach you how to set up a
background or a space, your lighting, the best things to
edit your videos and how to set the right photography.
There's I've learned so much from others too.
And that's also what I hope that Ioffer people too, as a part of
what we're doing is that they're learning from me as well.
Not that I'm making creator focused content like the others
are, but even picking the right notebook, using the right pen,
how to use certain pens. Think fountain pens for me have
been a area of interest, obviously, but teaching other
people how to do that that might be interested, like that's
really fun for me as well. So there's a lot of positivity
to learning and then sharing that back with your audience as
well. Yeah, I would fully agree.
I mean like coming from a teacher background, like that's
what I'm traditionally trained and or whatnot and getting to
still use the skills that I had through that role, but now in a
different space. Like rather than teaching to a
classroom, I'm teaching to the viewer at home or the planner
pals or whoever else, the team. But I also liked your point.
The idea of editing on your phone for an entire year, I
could not even. I'm very much the kind of person
who when I decide I want to do something, I'm like, cool, I'm
going to go buy all the suppliers for it.
It doesn't even matter that I probably won't stick with this.
I'll have a better chance of sticking with it if I have
everything I need. That's why when I started bullet
journaling, like four days into bullet journaling, I'm like,
well, obviously I need the full collection of Tombos.
Like this is a hobby that you've kept up with for only four days
and you're going to go and drop $300.00 on pens.
Yes, because that's where my logic is at.
The similar idea with my camera setup and all of this kind of
stuff. I went and bought myself a
proper DSLR camera, not having known anything about how to use
it. I tried to use it for one video
on the tripod I bought, forgetting that it would have to
be pointed down so I couldn't get an angle where you couldn't
see the tripod's feet. And if I did, the camera would
just fall on its own face. So I'm like, well, that's not
going to work. My first video that I actually
successfully filmed, I had to tie my camera to the tripod with
string. Oh my goodness.
I didn't have a mount for it. So I think if you go back and
look at it, I also just like you.
I was like, I have to film on white.
So I got an old pillowcase that I'm pretty sure had like, age
spots on it. It's not pretty.
It's like, it's not nice. But yeah, tied it up with
string, filled it on this pillowcase had the most awkward,
nervous voice. And I used to make this, like,
noise with my mouth. I'm like, are you a rabbit?
Oh, my gosh, Like nobody wants to hear that.
Looking back on it, I'm just like, oh, you.
But at least she started. She started and she kept with it
and now she's here. Yeah, there are different
approaches to it that are out there.
I feel like more often than not, you see the slow grow that
happens where you're just trying it, you're learning more, you're
getting better equipment, you're getting more comfortable and all
of that. And then there is the more
professional approach, which is planning ahead, knowing all your
things, having all the equipment that you need, knowing how to
use it, and essentially hitting the ground running with amazing
content. I think there's a number of
people recently that I've seen on even YouTube that have like 4
videos and already have like 300,000 followers.
Now, they probably came from a different area.
I know there's a lot of people that come from like BuzzFeed or
something like that and then start like their own channel,
right? But there's also just a such a
high level of production on so many of those videos where
you're just like, yeah, this is a professional.
I like the topic. This is something that I'm going
to like versus US Jerry rigging our cameras together and it
falling over while we're trying to do something or making funny
noises with their mouths as we're trying to plan.
Or I used to do this all the time too.
You'd see the top part of my head a lot as a, because I like
to be up close when I'm working inside of my journal.
So I'd be like up. I'm like, Mark, no one wants to
see the back of your head while you're doing this, man.
Like get your stuff together. But it is just a really fun
approach though, looking back on it now, back then, I was so
frustrated with everything that I was doing.
Oh. My gosh, yeah.
One of the earlier videos I had, I think I'd been doing the whole
YouTube thing for at least like 10 months at that point.
I'm like, all right, we're going to make a resource video.
It's going to be about vertical weekly logs and like different
things you can include and different styles and all that.
You know, it was a decent amount of planning that went into that.
I was feeling very positive about it and it was the first
video that I tried locking my focus or like my white balance
or something like that. And the entire video is
completely blown out. Oh my gosh.
I was like, am I living on the surface of the sun right now?
Possibly. It looks like it.
I hope I don't have Melanoma. Like awful, awful footage.
But I was like, this is the video for the week.
We're going to release it. We just need to put a little
disclaimer to say sorry that was wrong.
Yeah, we're not going to re record it, are you?
Oh my gosh, all that wasted time and space.
My goodness. And resetting up all of the
layouts that I'd already just set up, especially because I was
doing it not full time at that stage, doing it with my full
time teaching job. It's like, OK, we get home on a
Wednesday, we film and record the video.
What? Not to put it up on a Thursday.
Or actually, I think I would get home on a Thursday, film and
record it on the Thursday and release it that evening because
I hadn't set, like, a particular all the time I was releasing
things. Nowadays, my videos come out on
a Thursday and a Saturday, my time at 2:00 AM.
So if I don't respond to you right away, it's because I'm
asleep. But oh, my gosh, yeah.
Like because I was flying by the seat of my pants so much.
It's like, we need to get this up.
It if it's blown out, that's what it is, kind of a thing.
From a content generation standpoint, you know, generating
ideas and things like that, I'm curious to ask you first and we
can chat more about it. Of course, we're early on.
Were you actually planning out content to then put online or
were you still what you just said, kind of flying by the city
your pants with like, well, here's what I'm doing in my
journal, therefore I'm recording it and that's it.
How did you start off and I guess compared to how you are
now with planning for the content you're creating?
Yeah, when I first started, I said I kind of thought I was
only going to be doing one video a week.
So it's like, all right, well, we can do like the monthly setup
that can be one that we we kind of do.
And I'd written myself, you know, ages in advance, several
months, if not years in advance, like, Oh, if I ever start a
YouTube channel, these are the kind of things I can talk about.
So I already had a little very small, not even a well, more
like a bucket, a little bucket of ideas.
So I started pulling through those for the most part, but
going from that one video for the first week to two videos in
the second week and there on out, I decided, OK, well, one of
those videos is just going to be my weekly plan with me.
That's the one that happens on a Thursday.
So then if people wanted to use it for inspirational whatnot,
they have a little bit of time in advance of when they would in
theory be setting this up, they could use it.
And then whichever other video I had for the week, that would
just be something else. Like, you know, once a month,
it'll be the monthly plan with me.
We might have some stuff about my stationary collection or
anything like that. I didn't plan it too far in
advance outside of just keeping my little bucket of ideas, and
notably didn't run out of ideas. So that was pretty good.
What about you? How did you approach it when you
first started? So I'm not extremely proud to
say that the way I started is almost exactly how I still do it
now, which is flying by the seat of my pants.
So when I first started it, obviously I had no idea what I
was doing. I had no idea about a cadence in
which you should be posting things.
I still do it now where I will record something, a picture or a
reel or whatever is that I'm doing and I have 0 patience and
I'm like no, get it out now knowing damn well that 11:30 at
night isn't the best time necessarily to do that.
But I just get very impatient and if I don't put it into a
draft format or put it in the place where it needs to be, then
I'll forget that it's in my camera roll.
Same thing with all the screenshots I take and never
ever look back on ever again. Right?
So that's exactly how it rolls for me with the content that I'm
doing too. I probably have so much stuff in
my phone, Jess, that I've recorded that I just totally
forgot that I did because I had to move on to something else.
And I think that a lot of that has to do because of the way in
which I am recording and working on social media while also
holding a full time job as well, is that I kind of use the little
moments in time to be able to do that.
So when I really hit my strides with bullet journaling and also
was posting more, I loved it because at the time, my office
office at work first, I had like a huge amount of plans and
succulents because I had this giant window, this really nice
wood desk. It was the most ideal situation
to take pictures. I miss that office so much, but
I had to be careful. So I would get to work a little
bit early, not super early because I knew if I wanted to
take a photo in there, I could. Because otherwise it's weird if
you're taking photos of your notebook and your Co workers are
coming into your office to be like, hey, I have a.
Question about work, what are you doing?
I had to be very careful, right? Because technically I'm working,
right? So like I shouldn't be doing
stuff on social media people already get funny about just
like scrolling through Instagram and TikTok.
I was creating content to post on the Internet and I've always
been very careful of that as well.
I know we'll talk more about the full time versus part time and
how I approach it, but I knew from the beginning the fact that
I was, I had a full time job and was doing this.
I always had to make sure that I was creating separation.
And I still do that today as well.
Even though my followers have got bigger and I've done more
stuff. I have to be very careful of
that. I'm just very mindful of it.
But I was just trying to use what I had when I had it.
So if I could take a picture, then I had the picture.
I would post it for the day when I was planning for my following
week. And I still do the same thing
now, just a little bit differently.
I'll still record it as I do my setup, but I'll have to use it
later because I, I don't have the time all the time to record
and do the voice over and the editing.
Because on top of also working full time, I have a family,
right? I have kids and my wife and our
dogs and life that happened. So I try to use the time that I
have efficiently. And that's still how I work
today. So take a photo when you can,
make a real when you can or designate certain time.
But I've never been good. Like you're saying, we're on
Thursdays. I release this because this will
help someone for the following week.
I'm like, all right, I recorded a thing, did a thing, post it
now on Monday morning at 9:00 when everyone has already
started their week. No one's using that for
inspiration, but I just kind of treat it kind of how it is,
which is here's my life, literally in the moment.
Yeah, I think it also probably in part was for me as well.
Like I don't do structured weekly logs anymore so much.
It's not really what I need from my journal.
But back then when I was working full time as a teacher as well,
having that pre structure already done.
So when it comes to do my planning for the next week,
which would have been on like a Friday and a Saturday and a
Sunday, then at least I've got the structure to work in I
suppose. So it was probably a little bit
selfish as well, but it was nice that it aligned with being able
to help other people. I think that maybe I've given
the wrong impression here. I'm also still flying by the
seat of my pants, just a little bit.
Less flying, less pants, more pants.
I don't even know. I still have pants, don't worry.
Oh my gosh. I mean, we can't see below the
waist, so we don't know what you're doing down there, Jess.
It's all, it's all party down there guys.
It's all party. But in terms of the like process
that I kind of use now, one of the perks that I have for my
memberships on YouTube is knowing in advance what my
calendar is going to be. So that kind of holds me
accountable to personally knowing what my calendar is
going to be. I do put the little proviso
that's like, you know, subject to minor variations, but I do
stick with it for the most part. It also means that when I do
those bigger videos where it's like, oh you know, 50 ideas for
ABC, 27 ideas for XYZ, like I have some more time to be able
to think through what ideas I could have, set them up, then
record and then edit the video and get it out just the day
before it's supposed to release. Yeah, There's nothing wrong with
working up-to-the-minute. You just already knew what you
had to do and you just had to kind of get there eventually.
I mean, I've tried a lot of different formats of planning,
both online, digital, analog. I have a whiteboard over here
next to me that I have repurposed at least eight times
for content creation. Jess and I have a YouTube
mastermind that we've been doing for quite some time.
And as a part of that, often I will set intentions for things
that I want to do. I'll be like, I'm going to plan,
you know, three months in advance and I print out all the
calendars and I, for the most part, get there.
I just have a hard time of actually following through on
that. Like right now I have 10 videos
that have been outlined that are ready to go.
I'm just like not interested in recording those, but I'll get a
new planner or a new pen or something in the mail.
I'm like, this is what I'm excited about right now.
And like that's the video that I make.
It's not thought through. I'm flying by this with my pants
as I'm doing it. I'm talking as essentially I'm
experiencing it for the very first time as well, which
luckily people find entertaining.
I'm very lucky for that. But I've just never been good at
like following through with the plan, even though I've planned
several different ways, like Notion is has all the details in
it. That's where I kind of finalize
things somewhat, so to say. But I have sticky notes over
here. I have another journal over here
that has stuff written in it. I have stuff in my phone.
I've been better about bringing it into a singular place, but I
just kind of feel like, you know, however it happens, market
happens. Yeah, most of my planning is
done by a Notion, mainly because things can change and then you
can move them around without crossing a bunch of stuff out.
Also, because it has that functionality of like being able
to write your outlines or whatever and you're saving URLs
if you have any inspiration pieces that you want to link to
in the description box or anything like that.
I do find that doing that planning digitally is just
better for me. If I, well, I mean, technically
speaking, I guess I do have some of it in my planner, but that's
more so just like checklists of stuff that I need to do.
So then once it's done, I can cross it off and have that
little kind of dope man kick. Like, yeah, I did the thing,
he's out, let's go do more things.
But for the most part, I've been using Notion for, gosh, it's
been, it's been a hot minute. Many moons have passed and I've
been using it. And so I've gotten really kind
of established in that, but in this kind of planning system of,
you know, pre planning the videos at least a month in
advance, typically speaking, I find that that's like the sweet
point in terms of, okay, I have enough of an idea of what I've
got going on in the month. I have enough of an idea of what
I might actually be interested in releasing that I can kind of
just make myself do it. I do appreciate the idea of just
kind of waking up on a Monday and being like, you know what,
today I'm going to record about XYZ because that's where my
passion is. But I feel like people might get
a little annoyed at me because of food.
Like they come to like expect a certain system, I suppose.
Not to say that like your system is quite bad or anything because
it's obviously working for you just fine.
Follow your joy all about it. It's more so just like because
of what I've got so far or like done so far and the things that
people are kind of like expecting, either in terms of
the type of content or the scheduling of content or
anything like that. I like to be reliable in that
way. I like to trick myself into
thinking I'm reliable. And this is one of the ways I
trick myself. Something that I think that
maybe you don't realize because you're in it, right, is that the
amount of work that you have put into it, so I feel personally is
paid off because your community is probably one of the strongest
communities out there, the least that I see.
People will go to fight for you. They will go to do whatever they
need to. It's just part of their
day-to-day. But I think what's great is that
they know your schedule. So there are times where people
will be like, oh, I have this question and there'll be someone
totally random. They'll be like, oh, Jess has
this, she published it On this date in this place, or you can
always find a new video of hers on this day on her lives.
You know what, just like this is awesome because people know what
to expect day. I'm sorry, but no one knows what
to expect from me. I've been trying to do lives and
I'm like 8:30 in the morning my time.
We'll see what happens and people are like I'm asleep
because I'm on the other side of the world or on, you know, the
different coast where it's 4 hours behind where I am.
I it's just one of those things though, I have to use the time
that I have though. So that's the time that I have
before I start the work day and no one's here and it's actually
quiet. I'm sorry thing.
We can hear the pounding that's happening upstairs.
The dogs have decided to play with something, a bowling ball
perhaps while I'm recording this today.
But when there's people around and everything else, it's just,
it's no bueno. You can't really do a lot.
So utilizing the time also that I have where there's not a lot
of noise is, is kind of important too, as you're kind of
figuring that out. But I think that's also why I
just try to do it when I kind of can.
And I want to, in my heart of hearts to make things consistent
and, you know, follow through all my ideas.
It's just my poor little ADD brain just won't allow me to.
I think the consistency also kind of comes with a cost as
well though, because when I was doing it as a kind of side
hustle side gig type thing as a full time teacher, if you're a
teacher, you know, you know how limited your time is.
Oh Lord. And then if you try and tackle a
whole a bunch of YouTube video making and editing and recording
on all of that on top of it doesn't really leave a lot of
time for other stuff. So for a good chunk of five
years, I don't even know how long, probably five years
roughly. What was life?
What? What is sleep?
Who is she? I don't know.
I made a lot of sacrifices in terms of things that other
people would deem to be like essentials in their life.
Some of them I'm OK with because it got me to where I am and I
appreciate where I am right now. Some of them I look back on and
I feel, and I don't like to feel guilty or regretful.
I don't think anybody really does.
But I think that that's kind of like throwing past Jess under
the bus a little bit. And I don't want to do that to
her. But there are some choices that
I made in terms of things that I said no to in in, in terms of
like, you know, no, I can't do that because I have to make a
video. No, I can't do that because I
have to do teaching work or whatever else and stuff like
that. Work life balance was not a
thing for me. I mean, it still isn't.
I'm getting better. I am getting better.
I've had most evenings off this year so far.
Knock on wood, we're going to continue with that trend.
But because it was kind of like so consuming of my time, it
meant that I had instances of saying like, no, sorry, I can't
go to your birthday party. Like, Oh yeah.
Like there were a lot of things that I gave up in that kind of
realm to do what I did and not why.
I don't necessarily regret it. I do think that if I had my time
over, I would have made my choices a little bit
differently. Really for me, it was difficult
because I really wanted to succeed in it.
So I know what you mean. You want to put your all into
it. I've never had a situation with
that necessarily to that effect because what happens for me, and
I'm lucky because I will hyper focus and I do it very often and
for a number of years, especially as I got up and
running, I felt like I had to prove myself not just to me, but
like my wife was like, well, you're spending a lot of time in
the basement. You're spending a lot of time
recording stuff. You're spending a lot of time on
your phone, on social media. Why you have a full time job,
like what is this actually doing for you?
And early on it was doing nothing for me.
It was costing me money to do it versus where now it's still not.
I'm saying, I was saying I break even, you know, but the idea now
is more that I'm benefiting in other ways that do make it worth
it, especially on YouTube as an example, right when you're first
starting off and you're making your videos and you're doing
that and you're not monetized, you're technically working for
free, right? Your time, your resources, all
of that. You're pouring that in with the
hope that enough people will watch your content and you'll
get enough subscribers to your channel that eventually it'll
start to make money through ad revenue.
And everyone is a bit different. I don't know what how much
you're making on there right, but I'm not making like a crap
ton. Like December was my best month
yet and it was nothing compared to I'm sure what other people
are doing. But I always have to remind
myself First off, I have a full time job.
This is a hobby for me. So anything extra is fun money,
right? I was just talking to someone
yesterday about it. I was like the perks of it for
me is that if I want to go to a hockey game with my family,
we're not digging into our savings to go to this hockey
game. I have some extra money from a
sales or YouTube stuff or whatever that might be.
Not all the time. I'm not making anywhere close to
like my normal salary because someone asked me the other too.
They're like, what would it take for you to become a full time
creator? And I was like, back in the day,
I would have said if I just made enough, the same amount of money
as my salary to do that. But now I know it's so much more
than that. Because you essentially are an
entrepreneur. You run your own business.
When you're a content creator. It is not just taking pictures
and making videos. There's a whole back end of this
that people don't really realize.
We can hit all that. 2nd, we talk about what people don't
know about contact creation, right?
But there's just a point where you do have to kind of overcome
that. And depending on your living
situation, your social situation, work, other
obligations, you do have to sometimes make those choices.
And in your case there, you know, like you said, you don't
regret it necessarily. But you said I've had to say no
to things because I felt obligated to do XY and Z.
For me, I've just always had to keep in mind, and again, I was
trying to hit it on earlier that I'm lucky my wife will call me
out to be like you're spending a lot of time on that.
You need to calm it down. And I won't even realize it
because I'm just so immersed inside of what's happening that
I do need sometimes for someone to pull me out a little bit and
be like, OK, you know, and I'm like, you know, you're right.
Like trying to do 3 videos a week for a hobby is not it Like
take it back a step my friend, because this isn't your
livelihood. This is this is for fun.
So I think just trying to balance that out for me was was
really important and I still deal with it every single day
and become better about it, but it definitely was harder early
on. Yeah, I definitely know that
there was a period there where my relationship with Vogel
suffered because of not necessarily content creation by
itself, but content creation paired with teaching and the
kind of like all consuming nature of it.
I suppose it left very little time for other people and other
things, including time with him. So there was a period where he's
just like, I feel neglected and I'm like, you know what, fair,
I've been neglecting you. That is not, that is not a lie.
And having to kind of like take a step back and consider how I
could kind of like readjust my, I'm not going to say necessarily
priorities because he was still the priority.
It's more so just like a how my actions reflect my priorities in
that respect. Well, let's talk about talk
about some of those like things that have given up.
Let's kind of flip the coin for a second and talk about kind of
the benefits of it. Anything that has happened for
you specifically that you feel like has been like a really cool
or joyous moment that you're just like, yeah, this has
afforded me the ability to do this, this or this to happen.
I think that the main thing is probably just like fulfilment in
terms of like making an impact, I suppose is, is knowing that
there are people out there who have watched my videos, seen my
ideas, you know, applied them in their own journal and they're
getting real measurable outcomes from that.
That's always really nice. You know, you can, you can take
it from that kind of say there's a little just like, I know it's
happening, it's fine. But anytime you actually get a
comment or a message or something, or like people
respond to my e-mail newsletter or whatnot and say like, yeah,
this tip really helped me out. Thank you so much for sharing.
I'm just like such a good moment.
One of the ones that I recently got because for this year, the
first half of it at least, I made a giveaway journal that,
you know, somebody won just like random comment picker.
And the comment that was picked was somebody saying, oh, if I
win this, I'm going to give it to my daughter.
And she sent me a picture of her daughter opening it around
Christmas time. And I was just like, oh, oh,
it's so good. The joy on her face when she's
opening up and looking through the pages and I'm just like,
This is why I do what I do is like knowing that there are
going to be people out there who are going to be able to take the
ideas, run with them, make them their own, live their most
creative, productive lives, all of that kind of stuff.
And we get free product. That's also great too.
I was. Going to say all of your ideas
were very wholesome. I was like mine sound very
selfish when you. No, I had to start with the
wholesome thing, right? You have to do that.
It's like, I feel like, oh, I don't care about the subscriber
number. I'm like, you do.
Don't lie to me, I know that you care.
We care about free stationary as well, but it's also just nice
to, you know, have the community we're building and know that
we're making him impact. But what do you reckon, Mac?
Yeah, I think mine was just kind of flipped to yours a little bit
because early on, especially because, again, I thought it was
going to have this superstar rise to fame as this guy in the
Bullet Journal community. That did not happen, by the way,
whatsoever. It happened to other people
around me. Their accounts blew up in like a
week when we started the same exact time.
And I was like, what about Mark? What am I doing wrong?
But early on, I really did think it was like, oh, this is how
people get free stuff. Because again, that influencer
word early on, that's all you were seeing online.
Oh, this post is sponsored by blah, blah, blah.
These people sent me on this trip.
I went to New York for XYZ and you're just like, Oh my gosh,
all this stuff is real. You get out there and you're
just like, yeah, those people that do it full time.
Like I said, you're an entrepreneur.
You are chasing after your money all the time.
If you're not trying to find someone to sponsor it, you're
chasing someone to actually pay you because that's another hard
thing that people don't tell you about with invoices that people
don't like to pay them on time. Luckily, I feel like I've
surrounded myself with good people, but that's a reality
though of it. Especially when it's your
livelihood, you have to think about that.
So I would say like early on for me, like some of the big moments
were like the first time that a brand reached out to me and
wanted to do something and partner with me and send me
something. Once they start to do that, it's
very exciting. But then I feel like after a
while you do start to get into the conversation around, well,
what are they getting out of this versus like, what am I
getting out of this? And this was something that I
don't say I struggle with, but I've come to terms with from a
standpoint of valuing my time and like what I do versus the
thing that's there. And So what I mean by this,
sorry, I'm like talking in my head, like I know you all know
what I'm talking about, I don't, is that when someone sends you a
pen that cost $10, right? That's great.
It's a pen. We love it.
You're going to use that pen, you're going to talk about that
pen. People will likely go and buy
that pen. And so when you do something
like that for free, and this is kind of me later on realizing,
but wait a second, how much exposure is that brand going to
get versus what you're getting out of that?
A lot of brands will say to you, oh, well, this is exposure and
you know, more people will see your content and you're like,
cool, but if I'm doing this full time, exposure doesn't
necessarily put food on the table.
So again, from a hobby perspective, I wasn't overly
worried about it, but I was still interested in
understanding how other people were getting brain deals,
working with Micron and other brands like that where they were
getting thousands of dollars to create content.
I was like, I want to do that. How do they, why don't they
contact me? It was definitely cool getting
those kind of things. Now for me, there's been some
other like really cool things as of late that have happened.
But again, this is 8 years of me doing this.
You know, getting sponsored by Zebra to go to Go Wild is
probably still one of the highlights of my life together.
Like in this social media thing, that was amazing.
Going there and doing that, meeting people face to face like
that was amazing. Definitely creating the marked
notebook with Archer and Olive was another big moment for me.
And the one thing that has come out of this more than anything
that I'm realizing now is the community that I've been able to
build around just having fun with stationary and what that
is. It's just taking me a while to
get here because to be honest with you, I don't think I was
necessarily comfortable with myself in the space kind of
knowing what I was talking about and like what my angle was, so
to say. It wasn't until recently that I
just decided like, this is me. So you're getting what I am.
I'm not playing a character. I'm not, you know, leaning one
way or the other based off of who is paying me what.
Like this is just my life in stationary and having fun and
talking about it. So the community and people who
are on the same page as me have been really awesome.
So it's a little bit opposite where you're like, yeah, all
this free stuff is great, but the community was here first.
I love when people talk about things that they love.
It's kind of all these things together.
But I definitely would say, like, you know that first time
someone acknowledges you. Now, I know that everyone says
they love your content and they've been watching you for
years even though they haven't been.
But it's still really nice and flattering when someone tells
you that early on. It's always nice when you get
like a brand or channel like wow, we like, you know, we've
been subscribed to you for years and we really love everything
you do. And I particularly love insert
generic link here. You're like cool, cool.
My most recent video. I love it.
I'm so glad that that was the one that stood out as like the
highlight of your experience with my channel.
It's otherworldly sometimes. And then they just get a ton of
them. And then you have to decide
whether or not you actually want to keep doing it or not.
And then the random people send you stuff.
I got something the other day. It was like, hey, we love your
content. Would you be interested in
sending you a ladder? And I was like, what the F am I
going to do with a ladder? Like OK, you're just spamming
people now. Yeah, I got 2 emails from the
same person with different names in them.
They didn't change the e-mail address.
So it's like, hi, Gabe. I'm like, yes, that is, that is
my pen name. Thank you for knowing.
It's just like, yeah, we want to sponsor you for blah, blah,
blah. And I'm like, I have no interest
in what this is. First of all, I'm bad at
responding to e-mail in general. I, I, I know that's a fixed
mindset. I'll get better one day.
I'm not good yet or whatever, but I am not good at responding
to e-mail already. And any e-mail where I have to
try and like word a response to say as politely as possible, no,
I don't want to sponsor your woodland botanical nature creams
or whatever. I'm like, girl, no, I use
Clinique. That's all I use.
That's all I'll probably ever use because I found the one
thing I like and I'm going to stick with it.
My skins persnickety. I don't want to try your nature
cream. But the random things that
people are like, Oh yeah, we think your channel would be a
perfect fit for this. I'm like, why do you think I
want to tell my subscribers about suppositories?
The the random things, the random things that you get as
offers for like sponsorship deals.
I'm like, yeah, Nah, you have notably not watched any of my
videos. I think that's where that like
dirty word influencer comes from because it's that kind of stuff
where someone's just trying to make a buck and they'll talk
about anything for anything just to get free whatever or money
for it like that. I think it's just very different
and maybe it's different for like lifestyle creators or for
other types of of, but for us, I mean, we're we're easy pick.
Tell us you're gonna send us a 48 pack of markers and we'll be
all over that mess. Say, Oh my gosh, I remember the
first time that I actually and honestly like went against a
brand or like went back against a brand or anything, but they
were trying to set up some kind of giveaway between myself and I
think two other creators or whatnot.
And they're like, Oh yeah, see, you know, we'll get the people.
They have to follow all of you and stuff.
So you're effectively feeding off each other's audiences or
whatever. And they have to comment three
times with three separate tags and whatever.
And they'll win this pack of pens.
I'm like, no, like, why are you giving people homework?
I'll disgust. So I kind of went back and I'm
just like, hey, can we like make the prize more of an incentive
like for this? Because that's not really given
the amount of work you're asking people to put in.
Like they have to like I know you say, oh gosh, you have to
press the follow button. I don't want to follow people.
I don't want to follow, especially not for a free pack
of pens, but it's fine. So it's like you're getting them
to comment on this thing three times to tag a whole bunch of
people and annoy them. You're then getting them to
follow a whole bunch of people, including yourself.
So that's like at least three new accounts possibly they need
to follow now to win something that will cost them if they
wanted to go and purchase it themselves, like two US dollars.
No, like you need to make it more of a prize.
Yeah, you need to make it more rewarding for the amount of work
you're putting in with people. So that's why typically when I
do giveaways nowadays, I like to try and set the terms as much as
I can with other people. I'm like, yes, I will get them
to follow your account. That's that makes sense.
You're sponsoring this, this post.
It's all good. But in terms of how they enter,
it'll literally be like like the post or leave a comment or
something super, super simple. Because I don't want to give
people homework. That's not it's no longer my job
actually to give homework, funnily enough.
Well, you're one of the good creators because I'm always
like, oh, the more people that comment, the better it'll get to
see more people, all these types of things.
I mean, there's definitely good and bad ways about going about
it. And I feel like depending how
often you do it as well, I think what you're doing is a wonderful
thing, not making people work for it.
I know for me, especially now, I think earlier on it was a bit
different where you're like, oh, a free blah, blah, blah and you
tag three friends. I actually think about the
people that I tagged that would actually potentially like
something like that. I know that might be a weird
thing to do because I've just like oh, let me find 3 random
people, but that is something that for me I see is like
community building. Even though again, I know what
the end goal is. Just to be very clear, like I
work in marketing, I have worked in IT, I've had friends in
social media marketing. I will tell you all, this is a
business. This isn't fun and games when
you get into like that side of things, it is a hardcore
business. There's a lot of money that gets
thrown around, most of it not coming towards the creator, by
the way, because they'll be like how a free thigh dollar pen and
for all of your hard work and you're like, cool, but you're
going to run this ad for $500 a play and you're going to make
how much off of this you just kind of come into it.
But again, you don't have to go down that route.
I think that's probably maybe just an important thing for us
to talk about too, is that you can absolutely 100% share your
content online and never ever want to work with a person or a
brand or get a free thing. You do not have to do any of
that. If you just want to share for
the sake of sharing and educating and doing that, please
do that because I'll be honest with you.
The other side can be fun, but it can be just as annoying as
anything else because like any job, when someone's paying you,
they want something specific. So when I make my own video, I
can just put it out. But if I make a video for
someone else and they wanted to edit it, then I have to go back
and edit it to do something else, you know?
And sometimes it can, it can be a lot of stuff.
So you just have to really kind of figure out, you know, what do
I want to do with it? And it can grow and it can
change also too. So don't feel like you always
have to say, OK, I'm in it for the money or in it for the
product, or I'm in it just for myself.
You can Bob and weave as you want to and test the waters and
see, but I also feel like that's kind of the fun part about it.
But I will say maybe we can go into our next part here like our
best advice for people who are looking to get into the content
creation space. And I'll just continue with my
thought, Jess, if that's OK. I'll.
Allow it. OK also is just that the best
thing you can do is actually find a group of creators that
are like minded to you and create a community for yourself
to be able to do that. I can honestly say this isn't
blowing smoke, Jess. Having you as a true planner pal
outside of the Planner Balls podcast has been amazing.
I feel like I've learned a lot from you.
We've been able to share a lot. We bounce off of each other
really well outside of the, you know, fun stuff that we do just
when we have serious questions and serious comments.
I mean, I honestly think one of the areas we started to like
really bond on is that early on, right?
And we've talked about this, we were part of that engagement
group where you had to, you know, comment on everyone's
thing and like everyone's thing and it kind of exploded.
I think we actually bonded over the ridiculousness of it where
we were like, these people are a little crazy, aren't they?
Are we just, are we off here or what?
So I do think it's important they'll find people that are
like minded. Create that community for
yourself. If you want to be friends with
people, be open and honest, because that's the other thing
too is that there are real people behind those accounts.
It's not just like Generation Robot, like people have
feelings. People have feelings and you're
allowed to have feelings as well.
I like your point about the idea that like, you don't have to
turn this into a full time gig. You don't actually have to make
it any kind of a side hustle. You can just share because you
want to share. You can just create because you
want to create, and that's a really nice space to be in as
well. I think that identifying your
own personal purpose behind why you want to make content is
really important because it informs how you proceed.
Like if you want to turn it into a full time gig, then yeah,
you're going to have a different process for how you do things
compared to people who just like want to share on the Internet or
whatnot. There's probably a lot more
freedom with just quote, just sharing compared to trying to
turn it into something that's going to make you money.
But I think that by identifying that for yourself and kind of,
you know, knowing why it is you do what you do means that you
set your metrics of success more appropriately.
Like if you don't want this to be a full time thing, then it
doesn't matter how long it takes you to get monetized.
Doesn't really I'm going to say it doesn't really matter how
many people are watching either. Like if it's for your own
creative fulfillment and stuff and like, you know, filling your
creative well and feeling like you're spending your creativity
in a way you want to. The way you define success is
going to be different to like, say me who, you know, would like
to be able to bring in some income so that then we can
afford to live in our house. That would be nice kind of a
thing. So my metrics of success, the
way that that I am defining success for myself is going to
look different to somebody who's doing it just for funsies kind
of a thing. I also think that in terms of
like going out and you know, making content and all of that
kind of stuff, be open to being a learner.
It takes a while to figure out what you're doing.
And and we're still learning, right?
Like we talked about before, we're still figuring out how to
make things better or faster or like more engaging or anything
like that. There is a lot of resources
online available to you for being able to learn those
skills. So when you identify something
that you're like I'm not very good at ABC, there's something
online for you. There is definitely something
online for you. You might not know the exact
keyword to go and search because you're new to it and you haven't
really experienced it yet, but you will figure it out and you
will find it. Play around, have a go with
things and let yourself take the risks to be a learner.
Make mistakes and learn from them.
One of the best things advice that I ever got from videos was
actually from a video creator. Ben Johnson, I believe is his
name. He's the one who taught me how
to use lighting because he had a videos.
I forget how many people, millions of people have watched
it because he really does like how to take it from like crap to
like better. And one thing he talked about
was just always improving on the next video.
And his was specifically around gear and lighting and things
like that. And that's one thing I've always
done. One of my favorite videos that I
like to cringe on is actually one of my very first videos
where I showed my face and I introduced myself because the
setup is hilarious. If you go back and watch it.
I have this big whiteboard on my desk on one side.
The light is there is no light. It's atrocious.
And my favorite part of it is I had a little cardboard bookcase
with some journals in it and I had one of my plant glow lights
behind it to give like the glowy effect that was that there.
So it's just this like very small little purple globe around
it. And I thought it was the setup.
I was like, this is I'm a YouTube like I'm here.
I figured all out. But then when you start to like
really learn about lighting and how it works and you know, the
right camera settings and all of that to make it look good, you
know, you just make those incremental upgrades.
So like I'm a big person on that, especially with the gear,
it is not cheap. So, you know, get a nice camera,
get one light, then build on it if you want to, or again, if you
want to be that like perfect setup, you know, collect all
those things first and set it up and learn how to use them and
then go into it. But I like the learning as you
go. It's more fun to look back on.
100% it's, it's actually kind of fun being able to look back on
your early videos and be like, oh Yep, the camera's swinging.
That's because you tied it up with strings.
Also, it's don't use supplies as a barrier to entry.
Like if you've got a phone, you've got enough.
Like I've heard about people literally getting out duct tape
and duct taping their phone to the underside of their table so
that they can that perfect top down shot.
Heck yeah, go forth. The best part about a phone is
that it records the video and the audio.
I when I first started, I did not have a microphone for my
computer at all. My computer's microphone was
either non existent or completely shocking.
So I was like, absolutely not, we're not using it.
So I would record videos of like just me holding my phone, just
at the desk talking into the microphone so that I had some
audio and then take that file onto my computer, split the
audio out and then just edit with the audio So I could voice
over all of the video clips that I'd already done.
Or I would try and do it at the end of filming my video,
especially when I was doing those weekly kind of setup ones.
I'd like film the setup or whatnot.
And then I just kind of sit there and be like, OK, what did
I do? I'm just kind of like try and
remember and dictate to myself what I had done so that then I
could use that, you know, end of the video clip, just take the
audio off of that and put it over the top.
But there are ways forward with this.
You do not need fancy equipment. You don't need a fancy setup.
I remember when I first got my first kind of like desk camera
holder thing was just effectively like a big bulldog
clip. It's what it looked like and a
soft bulldog clip though, because we don't want to hurt
the phone. A soft bulldog clip on this
articulating arm or whatnot. You.
The gooseneck. Yeah, exactly.
And it worked so well. It came with a like a light of
some description, one of those ring lights.
So I used that for a little while, eventually upgraded that
or whatnot, but that meant I had these two things like clipped to
the side of my desk so that I could position this so that I
could have my top down shot. But gosh, I'm so glad that I
have a setup that's easier to work with now.
But it took me several years, like a year into my process.
I got a mic that was a real mic. I said, told myself, I'm like,
you're not allowed to buy a microphone until you prove to
yourself that you're actually for Realty doing this.
So I got myself a mic after a year and then it took like I'm
going to say like four or five years until I they actually got
a proper camera. All of the videos before then
we're just done on my phone. I mean, the technology has grown
in leaps and bounds. I'll be honest with you, I could
probably take better video on my phone than I could with the
camera that I have. I'm sure the camera can do
amazing things, but my wife even has like a DSL camera that she
was using like from years ago. And I remember I tried to record
a video, but I think it only recorded up to like 720.
I was like, my phone can do 4K. Like, why would I?
You know, it's just crazy how fast technology has improved on
itself. And you're 100% right about the
microphone. And I'll give everyone a little
tip if you want to do this because I actually learned this
in broadcasting school. Your closet is a fantastic place
to also do voice overs because your clothes will deaden any
echoing or other noise that are going on.
And if you don't have a proper closet, a thick blanket will
also do a great job. So I've actually have videos of
me where I've had to record that way because there's been other
noise and I sweated my ass off to record that because you're
talking, it's hot, you're you know, you're under a blanket.
It's silly. But it's like these are the
lengths that we will go through for like good audio.
Because I also think that there was something on YouTube early
on for me that said people will put up with poor visual quality,
but they won't put up with that audio quality.
And so like that always stuck in my mind too, of like trying to
make sure there aren't as many distractions.
But now I'm trying to get better about it, but it's hard.
Like I did the video I just put out today.
I was listening back to it and I can hear the dogs like leash
their collars jingling in the background.
I'm like, Oh my gosh, that's so unprofessional.
It's probably very minor, but still, it's just like little
stuff like that I do notice. You know, I'm very much the
same. I have this thing where like,
you know, when your house just makes house noises like a Creek
or a crack or a groan or anything like that, I'm like,
absolutely not. I don't live in a house like
that. I will re record.
I re record so much. Like I've gotten better because
I've used to re record way, way more.
I still re record heaps though. It's like my monitor arms will
every soft to make a like crack noise and I'm like sounds like
somebody broke their arm. I'm not going to have that in
the final footage. I had one video in particular
where somebody was like, I was wondering what that mumbling was
in the background and it was Vogel and I was just like, how
can you hear that? I didn't even hear that.
People will notice the weirdest things, but for the most part,
they actually don't know just the majority of mistakes that we
make. Most of the time we are going to
be, you know, our own biggest critics or whatnot.
We're going to be a lot more harsh on the final product than
a viewer is. And oftentimes, even if a viewer
notices, they just won't say anything because it's not like
it matters, you know? It it doesn't.
It's it's hard though, because we talk about this a lot,
especially in the mastermind around those comments.
I was just talking on my live about it because I was super
proud of myself because I haven't bitten my fingernails in
a few weeks now. But for years I've gotten the
comment, please stop biting your nails.
Your nails look disgusting. I can't watch this video
anymore, you know, And in like over time you're just like,
well, I can't help it. Like I've been biting my
fingernails since I was seven years old.
Like it's actually really hard for me not to do that.
But recently just I've been learning about some new
techniques and especially like working towards like an official
diagnosis for ADHD. And like you start to learn that
these are all things, you know, these repetitive body movement
things that I've been doing. I've just been trying to be more
aware of it. So there's like a point of the
comments where you're just like, it is hurtful.
Don't get me wrong. Like trust me, I know that I do
it. That's not a surprise to me.
But but it does bother you though, Like again, to the point
now where I've like kind of reacted.
I know it's not good for me. I know that I've hurt myself by
doing it right. Like I know those things and I'm
getting better at it. And people actually talk about
like positive things. That community has been so
helpful and like things that they've done for it, which has
been great. But there are just some of those
comments that stick with you. I was telling a friend of mine
yesterday, we got the whole conversation around like content
creation and like what it's like and the pros and the cons to it.
So it was perfect setup for this conversation.
Jess, he had said to me like, what's been like the one comment
that has stuck out to you the most, like throughout all the
years. And I was like, oh, I know
exactly which one it is because the person I've responded to a
video that I did a setup on, it was pretty, pretty detailed
setup. And he said I would rather chew
marbles and craft glass than do what you just did inside of your
journal. And I just remember reading that
for the first, it stuck in my head.
That was very early on, but I will never forget that comment.
But again, that's why I like to tell people all the time, like
be mindful of what you're writing on the Internet because
there is a person on the other side of that screen that that
could affect. Again, like I'd like to say
like, haha, it's funny now, but I took that very seriously.
I was like, maybe I should stop. Like this person doesn't
appreciate it and I'm wasting everyone's time.
Yeah, no. One of the ones that I got, I
had two in particular that stand out.
One because it was the first that was like felt more like a
personal attack almost. And then the other one was
because it wasn't actually about me, but one of the ones was you
need to do something about your skin ASAP.
I'm like, no, sorry, that's just my face.
I'm very red. I have a lot of capillaries.
They live where they live and it is what it is.
But the other one was I had done a flip through a Vogel's journal
and he he is his consistency with his journal is limited.
Let's put it that way. He's getting better.
But anyways, so somebody had commented saying, wow, he must
be a really boring person. And I was like, what the fuck
was that? Like, I'm sorry that that was
literally my response. And you know, for the viewers at
home, if you don't like curse words, this is my native
language and I apologize, but it is what it is.
So I was very taken aback because I'm like, how did you
get from here's the journal flip through to wow, he must be a
boring person. So I kind of came back and said,
sorry, I don't know what you mean about that, but it was
actually kind of rude. And they're like, Oh well, his
handwriting is awful and he didn't even bother to fill in
your journal or whatever. I just deleted it after that.
I was like, cool. So you have no founding for for
your comment here. I'm I'm usually kind of OK with
people commenting about me in my videos because you know, they're
my videos, I'm making them whatever.
But it's like if you're going to come from a friends and family
bra, it's like, I will find out where you live.
I don't have that skill set, but I will acquire that skill set.
I'm a learner, a lifelong learner.
I will find you kind of thing, like most of the time nowadays,
if I get a comment that is just outwardly negative like that or
just not pleasant, not positive, not constructive, I will just
delayed it because I'm like, I don't have the time of my day
for this. I barely have time to take care
of myself in the baseline human needs.
I don't need to add this to my plate as well like.
It's a lot and I think just as we're talking about that, I know
that we're kind of telling horror stories here.
There's obviously very positive things that we see as well, but
there are things that stick with you and just if you are
interested in content creation and doing that, I think it's
just important to know that it does unfortunately come with the
territory. I think people will also say
that like with celebrities, they'll be like, Oh well, they
want to have their picture taken.
They want people to talk about them.
You're like. That they don't want you to say
like terrible, nasty, hurtful things about them and their
family and their relationships and like all these other things.
I think right now with like the LA fires, like the comments that
people are making about people literally losing their home.
So like, oh, you're $12 million Malibu beach house.
Boo Hoo. Like that was someone's house.
They don't have a house to live in.
You know, like there's a lot of stuff that's behind that.
You just think like, can we be human for a second?
But you do have to realize that like there are people that just,
they feel very free behind a keyboard.
They would never say it to your face, but they feel very free
behind a keyboard. And you just have to kind of
approach it in a smart way. I think Jess's approach here is
probably a lot more healthy than other peoples.
I don't really do that. I probably should, to be honest
with you, but I think that is A1 healthy way to do that.
You don't want the negativity in your life.
And also, I notice this a lot now, I know what happens in your
community too. The people who are your good
fans and followers and community members, they can get vicious
back. And like, I don't want any of
that. I often will like I want to go
in there, like break up the fight, be like, no, no, no, no.
You don't need to stand up for me.
You don't have to fight online with this person about it.
It is nice turn that you have people have your back, but you
just don't want that general negativity around you.
So I think it is important just overall to try to manage that to
the best of your ability. And if it really does affect you
negatively, I would say stop. Like I know it might be a hard
thing to do, but if you're having major issues with it you
should stop and not do it anymore.
Delete the apps. I mean, you can also just turn
off commenting like if you are sensitive to those kind of
things to the extent where you don't think you're going to be
able to handle it. If and or when you get a
negative comment, just make it so people can't comment.
You could also possibly get somebody else to field your
comments before you go in and check them yourself.
Like I know that there is a filter for like held comments
and such in the back end of YouTube.
Typically those are for like spam many things, though they're
not necessarily the negative things, but you could figure out
some kind of system where it's like, hey friendo, can you check
my comment section before I get in there and see if there are
any that maybe I don't want to see or whatnot.
Not to give other people homework, but still I find that
nowadays I, I've got a bit of a thicker skin.
I've always kind of had a fairly thick skin, you know, haha,
bullying and childhood. That'll do it to you.
But in terms of, you know, being able to read those and kind of
say like, oh, I'm so sorry that you are having such a shitty day
that you felt the need to to comment this to me.
But thanks for taking time out of your day to do it.
The late. So also, if we think about it in
terms of like safeguarding other people, like other people will,
like you said, Mark, come to your defense, which I very much
appreciate. I love that you're on my team.
Thank you so much. But it's like, I don't want to
add that stress to you and negativity into your day either.
Like you, you have enough things going on.
We have nothings to worry about. We don't need to worry about
negative Nancy here, who thought that she could get up on her
soapbox and rah, rah, fight the power, all of that kind of
stuff. Take it somewhere else.
I don't need to hear it now that does anybody else?
Yeah, it definitely is something you have to just be mindful of
and you have some really good tips there just to to be able to
manage that. Well.
Planner pals, I would love to hear from you this week if
you've ever been interested or even if you are content creating
already or you have an account, what questions you might have or
comments even around this general space.
It doesn't have to necessarily be like a question for us, but
just generally like what have you been curious about or if you
are doing it, what if you found to be like super interesting
about the space as well? You can always comment on the
videos and the podcast as well. Let us know what you have out
there. I just love the general
communication and conversation that happens in the chat and in
the discussions. Just it's just, I just read
through it like a book sometimes, you know, it's super
fun. You can also e-mail us as always
if you'd like to plannerpalspodcast@gmail.com.
And of course over there on that Instagram Planner Pals podcast.
We'd like to have some fun sometimes too.
I'm very looking forward to hearing about what you guys have
to ask or have to say about that topic because I said this is
like kind of like my life. And also it's just something I'm
very interested in and I don't really get to talk about it very
often. So that's probably why this
episode's a tad on the longer side.
But in terms of our topic for next time, we're going to be
having a look at inspiration in the plan of community.
People in particular who have inspired us, things that maybe
we've bought into our system as a result of seeing them from
somebody else. Anyone we've seen seeing around
the block and thinking, oh, they're a person to watch out
for. I'm very curious to hear who
you're people are, Mark, because I know that the people you
follow and not the people I follow all the time.
And so you always have some really good inspiration sources.
No, I'm excited about it too, because there are and and not to
say that we don't follow the same content, but also the
difference between some of the things because I have a lot of
like inky pen friends that I'm big fans of and creators in that
space. And I know that you have like a
lot of reading journals and like other things that I don't even
touch it inside of there. So I think we will be able to
provide you with a lot. So grab your journal and a pen
next time, write it down. We'll put in the show notes for
you, too. But I'm super excited to share
more people who inspire me 'cause there's a lot of people.
It's gonna be a good episode, but for today, Flanner pals,
thanks for watching.