Speaker 1: Welcome to Behind the Influence, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and t DC Media, And it's like we came
Speaker 1: in like bowls in a China shop, and we're like
Speaker 1: we're messes. Like my main takeaway is I have no regrets.
Speaker 1: I loved what I've learned and done for the last decade.
Speaker 1: Like I think the show would have gotten canceled if
Speaker 1: You've hadn't have offered to edit. Probably we were consistently
Speaker 1: I think for a few months, over a hundred thousand
Speaker 1: subscribers a month, which million views a month. Guys, toy,
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a goodie. Not only because the story
Speaker 1: of how Clever became a household name is so interesting,
Speaker 1: it's the most interesting of tales, but also the two
Speaker 1: people sitting across from we are two of my favorite
Speaker 1: people on planet Earth. And this is not a joke.
Speaker 1: Lily Marston and Joslyn Davis were so happy to have
Speaker 1: you guys here at I Heart. There's so happy to
Speaker 1: be here. I'm actually curious to hear what you guys think.
Speaker 1: When you hear the term influencer, it kind of makes
Speaker 1: me like throw up a little bit of my own mouth.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, I think if you get
Speaker 1: down to the core of what an influencer actually is,
Speaker 1: it's acceptable and awesome and really cool. And we've been
Speaker 1: able to build businesses and careers and life based on
Speaker 1: that word. So when used appropriately, I think it's a
Speaker 1: great term. I think there's two definitions that come to mind.
Speaker 1: One is like people that make money from posting stuff
Speaker 1: on the Internet. That's like very surface level. Don't think
Speaker 1: past that. It's just like, um, must be nice. But
Speaker 1: then the other half of it is like building a
Speaker 1: brand that you actually have influence on whoever's watching. So
Speaker 1: I feel like it is a positive thing if you
Speaker 1: look at it in that sense. But if you look
Speaker 1: at it as like people that go on reality shows
Speaker 1: to get famous so they can make money selling things
Speaker 1: that they don't care about, maybe not people do that,
Speaker 1: but like, for example, I look at Barack Obama and
Speaker 1: I'm like, he's a major influencer on digital and in
Speaker 1: every other so we're basically just like him minus everything.
Speaker 1: But I think anyone that has people invested in what
Speaker 1: they're saying, regardless of what that is, because not all
Speaker 1: influence is good. Anyone that has an impact over a
Speaker 1: certain group of people, I would consider an influencer, and
Speaker 1: you guys definitely fall under that category. And as much
Speaker 1: as I'm sure you were influencers as toddlers at home,
Speaker 1: I feel like both of you probably made some power moves.
Speaker 1: I think Clever was a huge springboard for that. So
Speaker 1: we're going to focus on how that came to be
Speaker 1: and how both of you were a part of this
Speaker 1: huge franchise that everybody knows and has heard of. So
Speaker 1: let's take it back to the early days. Lily wasn't
Speaker 1: quite I truly don't think she was born out sometimes.
Speaker 1: We started in two thousand eight. Were you in high school?
Speaker 1: I graduated in from school. Okay, so graduating high school
Speaker 1: and at this juncture, jos Lynn's getting a phone call
Speaker 1: about a possible opportunity or how did that work out?
Speaker 1: I went on an audition, And interestingly enough, by this
Speaker 1: point I was working pretty steadily as a host already,
Speaker 1: which was my goal to be a reporter, a host,
Speaker 1: a producer, writer, all of the things. So I was
Speaker 1: working pretty steadily, and I think I even had an
Speaker 1: agent at that point. So I was going on like
Speaker 1: legit auditions, but as the universe is, the heavens would
Speaker 1: make it be for some reason, your girl went on
Speaker 1: Craigslist and decided to go to an audition for Clever
Speaker 1: from Craig's list. Not that's us at all, and craigels
Speaker 1: back in the day, it didn't feel as suss untidy,
Speaker 1: it's super suss all. The Lifetime movie came out and
Speaker 1: then I was like, what was I thinking? At the time,
Speaker 1: YouTube really was barely a thing. There was no partner program,
Speaker 1: there was no premium content, no one was advertising. You
Speaker 1: couldn't make money. And I went on the audition. They
Speaker 1: wanted me to like produce something for the audition, which
Speaker 1: I thought was really cool, and I booked the job
Speaker 1: and that was over a decade ago. Can I tell
Speaker 1: you what the first video is? Yes, I made like
Speaker 1: a ten minutes Clever ten years and ten minutes things.
Speaker 1: So I had to do a lot of research. It's
Speaker 1: a movie trailer round up. Gosh, it was probably like sex.
Speaker 1: I don't even remember what that. I don't even remember
Speaker 1: who's in it. I think it's like Chris Evans maybe,
Speaker 1: and he like up the phone rings and then it's
Speaker 1: like a hostage suit. I don't know, interesting, but it's
Speaker 1: her like very dramatically going through a bunch of trailers.
Speaker 1: They don't actually show the trailer. She just talked about
Speaker 1: rafting content, also riveting studio space. So back in that day,
Speaker 1: you know, we were really truly living that startup life.
Speaker 1: And I think what's so interesting about so many aspects
Speaker 1: and layers of clever is that I think it feels
Speaker 1: so cool and it is and so glamorous, which it's
Speaker 1: definitely not. Behind the scenes, in those early years, we
Speaker 1: had two things. We would run a studio once a
Speaker 1: week to trick celebrity guests into thinking we had a
Speaker 1: studio when we actually rented it at Go TV, and
Speaker 1: we would run a studio there once a week, and
Speaker 1: then every other day for the rest of the week,
Speaker 1: we were shooting inside of one of the founder's garage
Speaker 1: in West Covina, no air conditioning. We would have to
Speaker 1: take breaks during the summer because I was like so
Speaker 1: sweaty and disgusting. And on Fridays, specifically, we had to
Speaker 1: wrap shooting before nine am because that's when the law
Speaker 1: maintenance team came and we couldn't shoot for sound. So
Speaker 1: we shot in that garage, I want to say, for
Speaker 1: two years. Oh my gosh, it was Glamor and the
Speaker 1: founders Georgia Mike. They were filming and editing it all themselves.
Speaker 1: That is a true startup. So doing that for two
Speaker 1: years with no ad dollars, there's no such thing as
Speaker 1: a partner program. What is keeping you going every day? Well,
Speaker 1: at that point, I was still technically free lancing for Clever,
Speaker 1: so I was working at other places because you know,
Speaker 1: we all got to pay our bills and live our lives.
Speaker 1: And truthfully, I was making very little money at Clever,
Speaker 1: but being someone who's really into new media and has
Speaker 1: been since the beginning, I knew from probably the first
Speaker 1: few months that this was going to be a thing.
Speaker 1: And when YouTube launched the partner program, we were one
Speaker 1: of the first channels allowed into the partner program, which
Speaker 1: meant that even though we were making peanuts, we were
Speaker 1: able to monetize our content earlier than most people. So
Speaker 1: we were just really trying to scale the business by
Speaker 1: producing I want to say, twenty videos a day in
Speaker 1: an effort to just stay aflow. Our overhead was so
Speaker 1: low the founders were not taking any paycheck. I was
Speaker 1: getting paid like very little money, but I was also
Speaker 1: bartending at Outback Steakhouse shout out to the bloomin Onion
Speaker 1: so much. Eventually, when the opportunity came to really take
Speaker 1: the business to the next level as monetizations started to
Speaker 1: become something slightly more lucrative, that was when I became
Speaker 1: a part of the actual business, had equity in the company,
Speaker 1: and that's when we went all in, balls to the walls,
Speaker 1: like hired a staff, and it was high stakes. It
Speaker 1: was one of those things where it's like, jos Lynn,
Speaker 1: if you don't make enough Twilight videos about or whatever
Speaker 1: this week, or if the Jonas brother video doesn't really
Speaker 1: you know, kill it, we probably have to fire someone.
Speaker 1: And that was a real thing. Pressure. It was pressure,
Speaker 1: but it was so so fun. We really had the
Speaker 1: best company culture. And that's like, that's when I met
Speaker 1: you in the lobby at couple years later. You kind
Speaker 1: of paved the path for us. What I was gonna say,
Speaker 1: they even they really found out. At first they were
Speaker 1: doing like movie trailer roundups on like everything, and it
Speaker 1: was kind of just let's see what people will watch.
Speaker 1: Then they started doing this young Hollywood stuff because no
Speaker 1: one was covering it yet. So they're covering Twilight and
Speaker 1: Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber and all these people that
Speaker 1: are actually watching YouTube that ten to fifteen years ago,
Speaker 1: the entertainment tonights of the world. They were absolutely not
Speaker 1: covering teenagers. They were covering the Brad Pitts and the
Speaker 1: George Clooney's and the Julia Roberts and people that were
Speaker 1: more traditional Hollywood celebrities. First off, there were no Internet celebrities,
Speaker 1: so no one was covering that. And secondly, no one
Speaker 1: was talking about like the Hannah Montanas of the world.
Speaker 1: That is where we found our audience where they were living,
Speaker 1: which was on the Internet, and they were so hungry
Speaker 1: for this content. And then we just dove head in
Speaker 1: and really found a strong niche and a strong audience
Speaker 1: with that younger demographic. Was that something that was strategic
Speaker 1: or was that something that was something that you were
Speaker 1: personally interested you and Dana really was not interested in.
Speaker 1: I car really at the time when I was interested
Speaker 1: and still remain interested in the fact that people want
Speaker 1: to consume this content. That's what I get excited about
Speaker 1: is there's an audience for this. There are people that
Speaker 1: are passionate about this. I want to give them something.
Speaker 1: I want to serve something up for them. I want
Speaker 1: to be their conduit between Robert Pattinson and the girl
Speaker 1: in Ohio watching us on her bedroom. That's what excites
Speaker 1: me and always has Back in the day, I didn't
Speaker 1: even know who most of these people were. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: I had to like figure out what is sweet Life
Speaker 1: on Deck on Disney Channel. Who is justin Bieber? What
Speaker 1: is a hand in Montana? I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know what any of this is. It really paid off
Speaker 1: because we found a really like strong, dedicated audience. And
Speaker 1: now when you look at what's on TV, it's all
Speaker 1: millennial content, all teenagers, all young people. When you think
Speaker 1: of who has time to watch hours and hours of content,
Speaker 1: that's the age group. So it makes sense. So and
Speaker 1: then after they do that, I don't remember the exact specifics.
Speaker 1: I still was not there at this time. I just know.
Speaker 1: But had you heard of Clever at this point? Oh No,
Speaker 1: I was at a s U having a great time
Speaker 1: not watching YouTube. But I know that. Then YouTube Aid
Speaker 1: approached them to do more channels, and they wanted to
Speaker 1: include them in this hundred channel initiatives, so they gave
Speaker 1: them money to invest in it, and that's when they
Speaker 1: started Clever Movies, which you were on. Clever Movies was
Speaker 1: already there. It was Clever style, Clever News, and Clever
Speaker 1: tiv Well, they did do trailer roundups for the first videos.
Speaker 1: That makes sense that would have already existed, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't full for his Clever movies. It was once in
Speaker 1: a while a junket here or like a comic con.
Speaker 1: But then when they start uploading trailers and stuff too,
Speaker 1: which you can't do anymore. But Clever would make money
Speaker 1: monetizing trail Clever movies. I remember most of my numbers.
Speaker 1: I was so grateful for trailers because I got so
Speaker 1: many numbers just from trailers. Do you remember when one
Speaker 1: video went viral? At that point, whatever viral meant. There's
Speaker 1: a handful of videos in those early years. I think
Speaker 1: Hannah Montana's Howdown Throwdown video really killed it for that
Speaker 1: has millions of views. The moment in time that I
Speaker 1: really have to credit for Clever finding its voice is
Speaker 1: that Twilight era. Honestly, if there was anything involving anything
Speaker 1: having to do with Twilight, if there were people camping
Speaker 1: in downtown l af there was a concert with the
Speaker 1: people from the soundtrack, if there was a chance I
Speaker 1: maybe would see Kristen Stewart from across the street. Was
Speaker 1: there there were stories about them, like getting haircuts, Robert
Speaker 1: Pattinson getting a haircut where it's like a trim, Robert
Speaker 1: Pattinson eats a subway. What did you get on the
Speaker 1: sand the subway that there was? We had to be
Speaker 1: strategic at that time, and I think I would argue
Speaker 1: that Clever still is very strategic because it was never
Speaker 1: a huge media company. The concept that we had the
Speaker 1: money and the resources to do things on the level
Speaker 1: of what you were seeing on TV. At the time,
Speaker 1: we had negative one percent of the funding that most
Speaker 1: TV shows did. So do you want to keep our staff, Well,
Speaker 1: then let's be strategic and try to be smart. And
Speaker 1: when we got that hundred million dollar investment, we got
Speaker 1: three channels. YouTube invested a hundred million dollars and a
Speaker 1: hundred new channels and we were given the opportunity to
Speaker 1: launch three channels. And if you look at now many
Speaker 1: years later, what channels still exist, I would say that
Speaker 1: there's very few, and three of them are Clever Channels
Speaker 1: because as we were doing things from a business perspective,
Speaker 1: so strategically, because we just didn't have any other choice, honestly,
Speaker 1: So it worked out. Really, you were a huge, huge
Speaker 1: part of Clever Style, but you didn't know that when
Speaker 1: you first came in to interview for this job. Actually
Speaker 1: you were like looking to be a graphic designer. You're
Speaker 1: really talented. You walk in, You're applying to be an
Speaker 1: intern at this company. How did you even heard of Clever?
Speaker 1: So I graduated from Arizona State in twos and twelve
Speaker 1: and then moved home because I didn't want to live
Speaker 1: in Arizona anymore because it's hot. I moved home, But
Speaker 1: like halfway through my senior year of college, I had
Speaker 1: seen Diedre by Heart, who was a host at Clever
Speaker 1: News at the time, who I went to high school with.
Speaker 1: She's a couple years older, and she had posted that
Speaker 1: they need interns, and I was like, I'm going to
Speaker 1: need an internship in a little bit. I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to do an internship in Arizona for something in the
Speaker 1: entertainment industry because it just didn't really feel like it
Speaker 1: was worth it to do summer internships. You have to
Speaker 1: literally pay to do summer school, but then you're working
Speaker 1: for free. So I was like that seems counterproductive. So
Speaker 1: instead I just didn't do anything and waited until I
Speaker 1: got home, then reached out and she was like, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: come in. Got to interviewing with you, and you're like
Speaker 1: you're hired. Yeah, yeah, I mean just if you was
Speaker 1: a very very life that moment. Joslyn's right when she
Speaker 1: says everybody it was very scrappy. It was very start up.
Speaker 1: Everyone was doing a million jobs in addition to our
Speaker 1: ten videos that we had to post before eleven am
Speaker 1: every morning. I got tasked with finding interns and I
Speaker 1: was like, I'm not hr and I am not qualified
Speaker 1: for this. Literally just was like, oh my god, I
Speaker 1: don't even really know what they do here. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: I see all these people on you know. I just
Speaker 1: remember you walked into my office and you were so adorable.
Speaker 1: And DJ was like, oh, she went to high school
Speaker 1: with me. And I just asked you three questions and
Speaker 1: then I was like, can you start Monday? And you're like,
Speaker 1: let me give you a tour around the office. And
Speaker 1: I remember you brought her by my office and you're like,
Speaker 1: this is Lily. She just graduated from a s U
Speaker 1: And I looked and you did have a cute outfit.
Speaker 1: She was so cute, like, she's so adorable, she's probably
Speaker 1: gonna suck. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to like hold.
Speaker 1: And then literally I was like, you're never leaving. So
Speaker 1: then I started and I was doing three days a week,
Speaker 1: but then still living at home because that no money.
Speaker 1: So then I worked three days a week at the
Speaker 1: counter the burger place which love to eat at, don't
Speaker 1: love to work at. Three months went by and I
Speaker 1: was mainly only working with Jocelyn Dana and then Lisa
Speaker 1: who was their content manager, and it was mainly only
Speaker 1: for Clever TV. Three months goes by and I'm like,
Speaker 1: so I don't go to school anymore, and it's been
Speaker 1: three months and I need something, and they're like, please
Speaker 1: hire her, don't let her leave because they don't have
Speaker 1: anyone helping them at the time, even as an intern.
Speaker 1: I think I had started making thumbnails for them. I
Speaker 1: had started updating the website and stuff, so stuff that
Speaker 1: they just like didn't have people or just know manpower
Speaker 1: to do. It very hard to find people who are
Speaker 1: based competency. I'm actually not kidding. I think I was
Speaker 1: doing anything super out of the ordinary, and I would
Speaker 1: be like, here you go, and they'd be like, she
Speaker 1: didn't like that's what you asked me to do. Well.
Speaker 1: I think also in the entertainment industry, I remember so
Speaker 1: many people trying to get jobs at Clever and all
Speaker 1: they wanted to do was just be on camera. And
Speaker 1: they couldn't write, they couldn't produce, they couldn't do anything,
Speaker 1: but they wanted to be like Jocelyn and Dana on camera.
Speaker 1: That's probably where the shock. I didn't want to be
Speaker 1: on camera at all. That absolutely terrified me. Johnson asked,
Speaker 1: I think, like first day, she's like, I said, you
Speaker 1: want to be a host. I was like, oh no, no.
Speaker 1: And I always liked editing, but I did never really
Speaker 1: know if I wanted to pursue that as a job
Speaker 1: because all day, every day is a lot. I'll learn
Speaker 1: more about producing and stuff, and then maybe I can
Speaker 1: edit a little on the side, and I didn't even think.
Speaker 1: I really hadn't said anything about graphic designer photoshop. So
Speaker 1: I started doing stuff and it was mostly writing, and
Speaker 1: I was basically an employee as an intern, and they
Speaker 1: were just getting a lot of free labor, but highly illegal,
Speaker 1: especially right now. No one to do but so then
Speaker 1: her and Dana very much voucher me and they're like, no,
Speaker 1: you can't. Literally we need to hire her, like we
Speaker 1: need her help. We would have truly been lost because
Speaker 1: at that point I was very much like doing stuff
Speaker 1: that was integral to the every day and I was
Speaker 1: coming in more than three days a week just because
Speaker 1: also they were so passionate about it, so it was
Speaker 1: very contagious. I wanted to help them because I saw
Speaker 1: how hard they were working, and I'm like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: you shouldn't have to do that too, Like I don't
Speaker 1: have anything to do. And it was just fun because
Speaker 1: we're all friends. The energy at the office when people here,
Speaker 1: I was working for free and doing all this stuff,
Speaker 1: why the energy there was great. Everyone's best friends. It's
Speaker 1: just was a really good work environment. Maybe t m I,
Speaker 1: but I was going through like a big anxiety areas.
Speaker 1: Her and Dana couldn't have been more understanding about it,
Speaker 1: and they would just be do you need to go home?
Speaker 1: Do you need this? Do you need this? I'm like,
Speaker 1: thank you. So it was like support system. First, yes
Speaker 1: you're getting work done, but like everyone's human and like
Speaker 1: everyone understood that if you have stuff going on, like
Speaker 1: go take care of it, and I think about, like today,
Speaker 1: I was actually working on the guest list for my wedding.
Speaker 1: A solid I want to say at least thirty to
Speaker 1: forty people are from those early clever days and that
Speaker 1: was very special, and I think that's why the business
Speaker 1: was successful, because the culture was so good amongst all
Speaker 1: of us. As a woman, I'm so proud of what
Speaker 1: all of us did and the fact that all of
Speaker 1: us are like real, I mean, we were at your
Speaker 1: baby shower just days ago. Yeah, I love that. That's
Speaker 1: that's the most special thing to me, is that we've
Speaker 1: really created like a family. Well and for me, I
Speaker 1: didn't watch YouTube and I definitely wasn't watching entertainment news
Speaker 1: on YouTube, so like I had seen dr Post stuff.
Speaker 1: I knew what you guys did, but like wasn't super invested.
Speaker 1: I remember doing like a deep dive and being like, well,
Speaker 1: I should do my research before I go in for
Speaker 1: the interview. Oh my god, I don't even know what
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff you guys were doing. Stumbled upon
Speaker 1: a lot of videos where you guys were just like
Speaker 1: hanging out, screwing around in the office, and that was
Speaker 1: always like, oh, like circle. I literally I should have
Speaker 1: been more creeped out when I was like, I want
Speaker 1: to be a part of it, but I guess that's
Speaker 1: weeks volumes. Okay, so lil you're doing all the things
Speaker 1: you asked for a job, you get this, So then
Speaker 1: they don't have any money. So the only money they
Speaker 1: have because I think maybe two weeks before Clever sold
Speaker 1: to Alloy, but we did have a little more money
Speaker 1: at that point because we had finally sold the company
Speaker 1: and it wasn't like one of these situations where if
Speaker 1: we don't do well enough in our videos, everyone gets fired.
Speaker 1: It was like we had like a little moment to
Speaker 1: breathe and get some more resources. I mean, not a ton,
Speaker 1: but that's how we got little. But it started doing
Speaker 1: ad campaigns, especially because Alloy could bring those in because
Speaker 1: they had the previous relationships. So then Dana is handling
Speaker 1: all of those on top of doing everything else. They're
Speaker 1: doing so much at this point and having to go
Speaker 1: to carpets, do interviews, do junket stuff. That's not like, oh,
Speaker 1: let me do all my work, and then like casually
Speaker 1: go no, that's like two work days basically, so then
Speaker 1: they're like okay, so you've been doing great, we do
Speaker 1: want to hire you. The thing is the only slot,
Speaker 1: like we have to hire four is the ad campaign manager.
Speaker 1: I went to Arizona State and majored in film practices,
Speaker 1: which is something like that's not a real major, so
Speaker 1: I didn't learn. I like knew a lot about the
Speaker 1: video and lots about lots about video and stuff at
Speaker 1: campaigns was not something I had any experience with. I
Speaker 1: don't think you can go to school for that as
Speaker 1: much as at least at campaigns we were doing weren't
Speaker 1: super complicated. Do you want to do that? And like
Speaker 1: I knew that Dana hated her life doing it, but
Speaker 1: like I needed a job, and then I get to
Speaker 1: work with my friends. I was like, yes, when where
Speaker 1: did I sign? Let me? Let me do it now.
Speaker 1: So it was for very very minimal money, and then
Speaker 1: I started producing. I was assisting Dana for a while
Speaker 1: and then eventually transition into producing them myself, and that
Speaker 1: was a dazy It's actually hilarious to think about how
Speaker 1: good at her job Lily was in those early days
Speaker 1: with zero experience, zero training, zero understanding. And I had
Speaker 1: experience because YouTube has started, so it's not like I
Speaker 1: was like, you were managing like the whole entire money
Speaker 1: making portion of this business and you're twenty two. It's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love that. So for people who don't know what
Speaker 1: a YouTube ad campaign entails evolved quite a bit over time.
Speaker 1: Now they don't make me want to like bang my
Speaker 1: head into a wall. But we were actually just talking yesterday, um,
Speaker 1: and we won't mention any brands obviously, but there was
Speaker 1: something just involved with I'm going to make another example
Speaker 1: that isn't the actual one. It would be like they're
Speaker 1: having a special event week where it's like to promote
Speaker 1: anti bullying or something. I was going to say, like,
Speaker 1: so you have to like do like one eyelid a
Speaker 1: certain color, but I feel like that would look like
Speaker 1: a black eye and be back. They were very much
Speaker 1: more like it was like you have to wear a
Speaker 1: purple scrunch in your hair and then not on one foot,
Speaker 1: and it was some kind of weird thing that like
Speaker 1: for kids, maybe that's okay, but her and Dana had
Speaker 1: to do an entire dedicated video just about that. Not
Speaker 1: only people not necessarily want to watch that, but also
Speaker 1: then they're having to participate in it, and if they
Speaker 1: don't not organic. That was That's what I was going
Speaker 1: to say. That's the major difference. And I think a
Speaker 1: stride that's been made in recent years is that branded
Speaker 1: content or stuff that is sponsored by a partner feels
Speaker 1: a little more natural, like you're able to integrate it
Speaker 1: into what you're doing. Back in the day, it was like, hey, clever,
Speaker 1: we're gonna hire you to make seventeen commercials. And that's
Speaker 1: literally what we would do. So no one wanted to
Speaker 1: really watch it, and it was a lot of work,
Speaker 1: very expensive to make the scripts. Hey you have to
Speaker 1: say this, and if you didn't say that, you have
Speaker 1: to redo it. And brands just didn't. They didn't understand
Speaker 1: the influence. So they're like, people watch them, they'll watch this,
Speaker 1: but it's like you need to understand that you need
Speaker 1: to give them things that they're expecting, not like throw
Speaker 1: out this random stuff that's a commercial. We would go
Speaker 1: to red carpets and ask absurd questions to try to
Speaker 1: piece together these packages. At the vm as, we'd be
Speaker 1: like do you wear glasses? Like the weirdest questions, and
Speaker 1: they'd be like, wh I are you asking me? Like
Speaker 1: just curious. We think they're great, like just the most
Speaker 1: random stuff ever. But again we didn't have a choice
Speaker 1: like we needed to that, so I was like still
Speaker 1: like having to do everything. But then the reason Clever
Speaker 1: was doing well is it was really playing into the
Speaker 1: seo of celebrities. Her and Data Uploading a video by
Speaker 1: themselves with no celebrity tie in was a little difficult.
Speaker 1: So basically my job was that I would get these
Speaker 1: r fps emailed to me. I don't even know what
Speaker 1: RFP actually stands for, to be honest, anymore is googling it.
Speaker 1: It's like these are the bullet points of like everything
Speaker 1: you're going to need to do in it, and like
Speaker 1: this is the goal. Yeah, it's like they're requesting your
Speaker 1: pitch for how you're going to incorporate their brand into
Speaker 1: the content. So I would try and incorporate it into
Speaker 1: existing content. But when existing content is mostly news stories,
Speaker 1: that's pretty much impossible. So we did have a few
Speaker 1: shows that you could do it, like Fashion Face Off
Speaker 1: would be sponsored by cover Girl or stuff that made
Speaker 1: sense that makes sense. We didn't have the reach personality
Speaker 1: wise to be able to get people to watch anything.
Speaker 1: You didn't have a lot of leeway with what you
Speaker 1: were going to say because the brand is like, no,
Speaker 1: we're paying you. You're doing it now. I'm sure if
Speaker 1: David Doober gets a brand deal and he's like it
Speaker 1: would work better like this, They're like, whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say, it's fine because they understand his audience wants
Speaker 1: him to say what he would actually say. I love
Speaker 1: a long It did a long time to get to
Speaker 1: that point, and we're going to talk about because I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people are confused about when a
Speaker 1: brand comes to and how they come to and all
Speaker 1: that stuff. We're going to fast forward just a little bit.
Speaker 1: But Clever was always relevant, Clever was always consistent. You
Speaker 1: guys had a really solid fan base engagement. But I
Speaker 1: feel like there was a moment in time where I
Speaker 1: remember I was working at Deadline and I remember all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, everyone was talking about Clever and Clever
Speaker 1: was everywhere, and all the videos that you guys posted
Speaker 1: went viral, and I feel like a lot of it
Speaker 1: was beauty stuff. So what happened. So what happened was
Speaker 1: we were doing these ad campaigns and there was one
Speaker 1: that um like cover Girl originally brought to us and
Speaker 1: Sally Hanson bought it at one point and a few
Speaker 1: different beauty brands, and it would be like, how to
Speaker 1: get Selena Gomez his VM a makeup because that's a
Speaker 1: perfect fit for an entertainment channel, and then we can
Speaker 1: incorporate beauty. But it was during the beauty guru phase,
Speaker 1: so we would hire these beauty gurus, but it's Megan
Speaker 1: Rinks was our beauty guru, who now is absolutely doesn't
Speaker 1: really know it's good at her own makeup, but she
Speaker 1: doesn't know how to recreate Selena gomes is, so she
Speaker 1: would do it. I'm producing the show because it's an
Speaker 1: ad campaign. She'd be like done and look at me
Speaker 1: and be like and I'm like, oh god. But so
Speaker 1: no one watched it because it wasn't good, and then
Speaker 1: but brands bought it for a while, and then eventually
Speaker 1: it was kind of like, okay, well it's not doing that, well,
Speaker 1: let's put it on Clever Style. Maybe it'll do well
Speaker 1: over there. Well, it was at that point in time
Speaker 1: when beauty well, beauty break Now it was called sitorial toothday.
Speaker 1: When the show with Megan got moved to Clever Style,
Speaker 1: it was truthfully to let it die, Like I know
Speaker 1: that for a fact, because Clever Style was a dormant
Speaker 1: channel at the time. It's where we just sent things
Speaker 1: to kind of let them fade off into the sunset
Speaker 1: unless a brand wanted to sponsor it, which was the
Speaker 1: game plan. And at that point in time, I remember
Speaker 1: Lily had been working for a while and we had
Speaker 1: gotten to know Megan, and I was like, she's freaking
Speaker 1: hilarious and this beauty business like her trying to really
Speaker 1: do tutorials is kind of a waste of her time.
Speaker 1: And they made a few videos that really showcased her
Speaker 1: personality as well as Lily's personality from a producing perspective,
Speaker 1: and I remember us talking and I was like, little,
Speaker 1: no one's paying attention to this show. It's probably gonna
Speaker 1: get canceled. Do whatever the hell you want. That's when
Speaker 1: I was like, so, like, you know how we're always
Speaker 1: telling people like we know what we're talking about plot twist,
Speaker 1: we don't, So can we just stop lying and I
Speaker 1: can just like give us products to try and we
Speaker 1: just like give our reactions and they're like, yeah, whatever,
Speaker 1: just just go okay, thanks. And then I started editing
Speaker 1: it too, because then I didn't have people that are
Speaker 1: used to editing these like very pristine beauty things and
Speaker 1: didn't have the budget for it either. Like I think
Speaker 1: the show would have gotten canceled if you hadn't have
Speaker 1: offered edit. Probably. They also took away our sound guy
Speaker 1: and we only had one camera person editing comedic timing
Speaker 1: with your editing on that thing. It wasn't even the
Speaker 1: editing itself, It was just actually trying to produce. It
Speaker 1: is more of a comedy show than a beauty show,
Speaker 1: because one, I don't know anything about beauty, and too,
Speaker 1: they were funny, so it was like her putting her
Speaker 1: in Megan together, and then they wouldn't know what to
Speaker 1: do anything. So I would come in and be like,
Speaker 1: you're doing it wrong, let me fix it. Do you
Speaker 1: remember the first time you were on camera? It was
Speaker 1: first show. It was much earlier because there was no
Speaker 1: one available to because it was yeah, well actually, well
Speaker 1: there's an um. Lily had to be in a video
Speaker 1: because Megan was recovering from her nose job for like
Speaker 1: a while. Prior to that, you had like popped into
Speaker 1: videos here and there, and also nothing was doing that
Speaker 1: well though, so I also was more willing to do
Speaker 1: it because no one's watching it anyway. You'll remember this
Speaker 1: to Tatiana, the brand was so clean. We were like
Speaker 1: sparkling clean. And I remember the video that completely changed
Speaker 1: Clever style was a video about weird ways to curl
Speaker 1: your hair, which is a lot of curling irons, which
Speaker 1: you can imagine what they look like. A lot of
Speaker 1: phallic jokes is what we're saying. And I can remember
Speaker 1: showing that video to our bosses. We thought it was fine.
Speaker 1: I thought it was edgy at the time. Now I
Speaker 1: have no barriers, and they were like, okay, just go
Speaker 1: for it. We'll see what happened. We would verbally ask
Speaker 1: our bosses if we can include certain jokes, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, but then I would edit it to
Speaker 1: show them, and then they would be laughing so hard
Speaker 1: and I'm like, you can't tell me. We can't put
Speaker 1: that up if you're dying laughing. I don't remember how
Speaker 1: quickly it happened, but I remember there was like definitely
Speaker 1: a point in time when we were getting like ninety
Speaker 1: thousand subscribers. We were consistently, I think for a few
Speaker 1: months got over a hundred thousand subscribers a month, which
Speaker 1: like that's but we were a million views a month
Speaker 1: on a dying channel, on a channel that it got
Speaker 1: revived from under a hundred thousand to a million and
Speaker 1: about six to eight months, which is so it was
Speaker 1: kind of in the midst of that that Megan got
Speaker 1: her nose Job, which is a whole other video series
Speaker 1: on YouTube that's hilarious, which is another example of how
Speaker 1: a lot of people prior to this in the beauty
Speaker 1: community were so polished, so perfect, so put together, and
Speaker 1: it's like we came in like bowls in a china shop,
Speaker 1: and we're like, we're messes. You know, we're good at
Speaker 1: some things, but like, we got a lot of this
Speaker 1: stuff to be honestly, the thing we were good at
Speaker 1: is that we're friends, and we were good at just
Speaker 1: bouncing off each other and having fun. So if we're
Speaker 1: having fun, it's hard to watch that, and if it's
Speaker 1: edited in a funny way to point out the ridiculous parts,
Speaker 1: like what's not to like unless you just thought we
Speaker 1: were annoying, which I'm sure some people did. But honestly,
Speaker 1: it grew pretty organically after that, and it was a
Speaker 1: certain point we're like, Wow, we don't need to use
Speaker 1: celebrities anymore to get people to click people were watching
Speaker 1: to watch you guys. It was really unique. I remember
Speaker 1: no one really cared about us as people, and that
Speaker 1: was fine, but then to have this whole new opportunity,
Speaker 1: first off, to create a new kind of content. Then
Speaker 1: secondly for people to really appreciate who we were as
Speaker 1: people was so cool and I'll never forget. In the
Speaker 1: midst of all of this happening, Beauty Break, which was
Speaker 1: and still as the flagship show on Clever Style, was
Speaker 1: like blowing up. I went an amazing race, and when
Speaker 1: I left for Amazing Race, my influence on Instagram was
Speaker 1: I had fifteen thousand followers and I was so excited.
Speaker 1: I was gone for twenty one days and when I
Speaker 1: came back, I had I think fifty us and followers
Speaker 1: on Instagram because of this show that was like just
Speaker 1: sparking interest in us as people. And I feel like
Speaker 1: that's a quantifiable example was my personal Instagram that had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Clever but because people were watching
Speaker 1: this show at such high volume, they started following us.
Speaker 1: And I remember I came home and I was like,
Speaker 1: what the hell is going on? Like these were people
Speaker 1: who were coming from YouTube well. And the thing also
Speaker 1: that a lot of people like how did you come
Speaker 1: up with that? It was not a revolutionary idea. It's
Speaker 1: literally a sitting trying things and then like breaking the
Speaker 1: fourth wall to be like you're doing it wrong. You
Speaker 1: didn't like stop doing it like that. You guys are
Speaker 1: breaking everything. But the only other people really that were
Speaker 1: like notably like just kind of trying weird stuff because
Speaker 1: also I would just spen hours on Amazon buying the
Speaker 1: weirdest stuff I could find. But the only other person
Speaker 1: really doing that it was like Graveyard Girl, who was
Speaker 1: like our icon at the time. Otherwise it was all
Speaker 1: like makeup tutorials or people just doing the really like
Speaker 1: pristine like my morning routine and we were like we're
Speaker 1: gonna try your candling, and Megan like literally as my paper,
Speaker 1: like none of you are experts, which is the beauty
Speaker 1: and I think the lesson and this is authenticity. People
Speaker 1: just really were drawn to you guys, and to Johnson's point,
Speaker 1: all of a sudden they want to get to know
Speaker 1: you on social media and not just through your YouTube videos.
Speaker 1: How was this for you guys on a personal level?
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, You're getting all these followers, Like
Speaker 1: I know, it was a crazy feeling, but did you
Speaker 1: also have this responsibility that you didn't feel before. I
Speaker 1: think it was so positive in the beginning that literally
Speaker 1: it was like cool, I can literally say anything and
Speaker 1: people love it. With the first one, we knew that
Speaker 1: we're like, wow, we can really put up anything, and
Speaker 1: not in like a let's be lazy not think about it.
Speaker 1: But it was just like people really wanted to watch that.
Speaker 1: We titled it how to Straighten out of Control Hair,
Speaker 1: and Megan straightened half of Jocelyn's head, did not give
Speaker 1: any tips. And then it was like taking too long
Speaker 1: because Jostal was very clearly thick hair, and I'm like, guys,
Speaker 1: spent some time. We have three more episodes to film,
Speaker 1: and I was like, well, you got the point. I
Speaker 1: think that's it for today. And then and it was
Speaker 1: literally on a million views in less than a week,
Speaker 1: and we're like, what's going on? I think for me,
Speaker 1: you know, because we're in office, it was different than
Speaker 1: for most YouTubers. For both of us, we were like
Speaker 1: already adults at that point. I mean I was probably
Speaker 1: like around thirty at the time. I had already been
Speaker 1: doing YouTube since like the Dark Ages. I had a
Speaker 1: strong understanding of how it all worked and how it
Speaker 1: was growing. And I think for me it was really
Speaker 1: exciting just to have a new challenge and something new
Speaker 1: to do. And also it was really the beginning of
Speaker 1: that moment where I'll never forget the month that Bethany Mota,
Speaker 1: who is one of the original like Guru d I
Speaker 1: White people on YouTube, she was a teenager. She was
Speaker 1: on the cover of I think teen Vogue magazine, and
Speaker 1: she also got cast on Dancing with the Stars. And
Speaker 1: I can remember sitting in my office being like all
Speaker 1: these people who said digital is not a thing, computers
Speaker 1: are fake. It's just like, you know, a flash in
Speaker 1: the pan. I'm like, this is happening now, Like you know,
Speaker 1: digital is really starting to take over and come into
Speaker 1: his own is happening. So it's just exciting to be
Speaker 1: a part of that. And I think I was already
Speaker 1: like careful about what I put out out there. The
Speaker 1: problem with YouTubers now all the time, and not problem,
Speaker 1: but like the problem that they personally have is that
Speaker 1: people are getting canceled because stuff from like ten years
Speaker 1: ago is popping up. I don't really want to know
Speaker 1: what's on my Facebook from college. It's definitely not anything
Speaker 1: racist or weird or anything like that, because I wasn't
Speaker 1: saying that. I was probably some alcohol related things, but like,
Speaker 1: I don't know what I said when I was thirteen,
Speaker 1: but I don't have to worry about that because there
Speaker 1: wasn't snapshot and I was third seame. People are documenting everything,
Speaker 1: Like you upload something for five minutes and delete it.
Speaker 1: Guess what thousand people have already screenshot at it. So
Speaker 1: I do think it comes with a big responsibility that
Speaker 1: it wasn't as much of a shock for because we
Speaker 1: weren't being out of control to begin with, and you
Speaker 1: and you made a good point to we worked for
Speaker 1: a company, so the stakes for us were totally different.
Speaker 1: We knew that's not my personal channel. Clever Style definitely
Speaker 1: was the channel that was a good us, But we
Speaker 1: knew that we were employees and we had people to
Speaker 1: answer to, and the stakes were high. If we screw up,
Speaker 1: all of these people get affected. If we get canceled,
Speaker 1: the staff gets canceled, and it's just different. It was
Speaker 1: a lot different than what you go through as a solo.
Speaker 1: Creator went on the note of just like being in
Speaker 1: an office, we were going in for our job every day.
Speaker 1: A lot of people when they start to blow up
Speaker 1: on YouTube that might not be their real job all
Speaker 1: the time or their kids, so they're like, literally like
Speaker 1: I couldn't imagine growing in suddenly having thousand followers while
Speaker 1: you're in high school and then like either I feel
Speaker 1: like that would make people think you're cool or they
Speaker 1: would like you hate you for it. Then there's people
Speaker 1: in college like if that was your demo, I think
Speaker 1: that would really interfere with your life. We would get
Speaker 1: really excited when we're seeing followers and views and stuff.
Speaker 1: But it was like very much numbers, and I think
Speaker 1: until we started going and like having meat and greets
Speaker 1: once in a while, that was when it really made
Speaker 1: it real. But otherwise it's like cool success. I attribute
Speaker 1: the numbers with success, but it was hard to put
Speaker 1: them to faces when literally we just go into an
Speaker 1: office and cut our heads down and go to work.
Speaker 1: If we go to like Forever twenty one or like
Speaker 1: the Target beauty section or like there's a few other places,
Speaker 1: I feel like we always will meet people. That's awesome
Speaker 1: and I love it, but it was not something that
Speaker 1: was like interfering with definitely not something that was like
Speaker 1: inner fearing with my life. It's like a nice surprise
Speaker 1: if it happens once in a a while. Even now it's
Speaker 1: not especially I think since we're in l A, people
Speaker 1: aren't like super on the hunt to like look around
Speaker 1: for people all the time, or I'm just very unapproachable.
Speaker 1: I think Johnson gets stop more than I do. But
Speaker 1: it's like only in the very specific. It's like Adam
Speaker 1: all in a forever one, or like at the movies
Speaker 1: or somewhere where or like a theme park or something.
Speaker 1: But I love it. I mean, honestly, the only reason
Speaker 1: that we're sitting here right now is because of those
Speaker 1: people and anyone who doesn't realize that they should be
Speaker 1: as generous as they're capable of. And some people are
Speaker 1: not capable of it. It's just too much for them.
Speaker 1: We owe a lot to those people. Those views are
Speaker 1: real people watching, and you better be grateful, and I
Speaker 1: know I am, and I try to like always be
Speaker 1: conscious of that when when I meet people, because what
Speaker 1: would I be doing otherwise? I literally have no idea,
Speaker 1: which I think is interesting that now it's always like
Speaker 1: kids number one career choice is YouTuber. Literally, ask anyone
Speaker 1: I went to high school with, middle school with even
Speaker 1: what I really want to do, make videos or be
Speaker 1: some kind of a filmmaker, which also and I'm no
Speaker 1: wanted to get into hard news, but I'm sure she
Speaker 1: was still like, it's probably it makes sense that you're hired,
Speaker 1: but it would have made sense that Johnson would want
Speaker 1: to be like an on air host. A lot of
Speaker 1: people are I want to be a YouTuber. I'm like,
Speaker 1: do you like producing videos? Do you like editing them?
Speaker 1: And no, not all YouTubers edit their videos, But you
Speaker 1: can't start and have a whole team of people that
Speaker 1: didn't like I think there's a disconnect with what what
Speaker 1: it actually requires to execute and just like what its
Speaker 1: meeting fans, And we were talking about that actually before
Speaker 1: we went on there. Also, there's a lot of misconceptions
Speaker 1: that go with YouTubers or influencers or bloggers or bloggers.
Speaker 1: A lot of people think this job is like the
Speaker 1: easiest thing ever. You turn on your camera and all
Speaker 1: of a sudden you have millions of views. Obviously, your
Speaker 1: journey was a little different because you guys had Clever
Speaker 1: as a springboard and now you guys are both doing
Speaker 1: your own content. How has that transition been for you guys?
Speaker 1: And how do you decide what your brand is? Question?
Speaker 1: But no, and that's a tough question. And like, I've
Speaker 1: only had my channel now for six months, but I
Speaker 1: think after doing this for so long, I put in
Speaker 1: the work. But like, my expectations are within reason and realistic,
Speaker 1: and I don't think you can be too precious. Like
Speaker 1: anytime I do a video, I'm like, I'm proud of
Speaker 1: this and I think it's cool and I like it,
Speaker 1: but like other people might not. And I think that's
Speaker 1: kind of what finding your brand and your niche is about.
Speaker 1: When people ask me, like, oh, you launched your channel,
Speaker 1: what's your brand, I'm like, well, um, it's six months old,
Speaker 1: so it's still a baby. It's still trying to learn
Speaker 1: how to crawl. Also, my brand is just me and
Speaker 1: where I'm at in my life right now. But I
Speaker 1: think if you're trying to build a legitimate business, which
Speaker 1: this is not a hobby for me, this is my job,
Speaker 1: I think you have to look at patterns of what
Speaker 1: viewers want to see from you and then think about, Okay,
Speaker 1: how can I take this curly hair journey I'm on
Speaker 1: and turn it into a product line, or how can
Speaker 1: I expand and diversify beyond YouTube. Those are like the
Speaker 1: people like the Shane Dawson's who as an individual creator
Speaker 1: are not just surviving but literally thriving because they have
Speaker 1: diversified the type of content they're doing on YouTube and
Speaker 1: also what they're doing as a business in general. So
Speaker 1: when people talk about like, oh, this is such an
Speaker 1: easy thing to do for some people, it might be,
Speaker 1: but I think when you're trying to build something that's
Speaker 1: a little bit more sophisticated, it's not. And going from
Speaker 1: having this amazing team at Clever of like thirty people,
Speaker 1: one person who literally just makes thumbnails to now like
Speaker 1: I was, Chris, my fiance was like, Jaws, what are
Speaker 1: you doing? And I was sitting at my laptop in
Speaker 1: the morning typing an email and I didn't realize I
Speaker 1: was fully talking out loud to myself and He's like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? And I was like, Oh, I'm
Speaker 1: just having a business meeting. This is my team, just
Speaker 1: myself and we're talking about what we're gonna do today,
Speaker 1: and that's like what it is now. So it's a
Speaker 1: matter of like figuring out how to grow, when to
Speaker 1: hire people. It goes so far beyond the shoot, Like
Speaker 1: sitting down for a Q and A or making a video.
Speaker 1: It's all the pre production, post production, and I love
Speaker 1: that stuff. And so it's been really really fun and
Speaker 1: as sad as it was when we had that transitional moment,
Speaker 1: you know, when Clever, our parent company fell apart, it's
Speaker 1: honestly the best thing that's ever happened in me. And
Speaker 1: I can say that now having some time away from it,
Speaker 1: because it pushed me forward in a way that would
Speaker 1: have taken me a lot longer to do. I'm really grateful.
Speaker 1: And I think that's one of the most awkward questions, like, oh, so,
Speaker 1: what's your YouTube channel about? I'm like, what are you literally,
Speaker 1: what answer are you expecting me to get? It's about
Speaker 1: like cell phones, Like I don't like it's about me.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like it's stuff I'm doing, but I
Speaker 1: guess it could be a beauty or like tech related,
Speaker 1: but mine's pretty much just like, hey, this is what
Speaker 1: I think would be entertaining. And I feel like that's
Speaker 1: kind of a lot with YouTube is right now. It's
Speaker 1: less of like premium shows that are going up, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's almost reverted back to like people
Speaker 1: just want to see you talking in front of your
Speaker 1: camera because they want authenticity, because I feel like that's
Speaker 1: how it used to be, and then it kind of
Speaker 1: got away from it, and now it's starting to get
Speaker 1: back where you don't necessarily need like crazy shock factor
Speaker 1: to get views like lighting mattresses on fire and throwing
Speaker 1: them in pools exactly. And I think the thing that
Speaker 1: Lily and I have that is like really kind of
Speaker 1: awesome that we understand the business and we know how
Speaker 1: to make branded content. So for both of us, we've
Speaker 1: then even in the early stages, like my channel, I've
Speaker 1: only had it for six months, but I've done a
Speaker 1: decent amount of branded content because we understand how to
Speaker 1: make it and like how to integrate it, how to
Speaker 1: make it seem like it makes sense, not like totally
Speaker 1: weird video. Truthfully, Like, AdSense is awesome and I'm so
Speaker 1: grateful for it. I'll never turn down that check. But
Speaker 1: the money is mostly in that branded kind of content. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely don't rely on ad sense at all. I
Speaker 1: almost kind of forget about it. Well, people who don't
Speaker 1: know what adds sense. Ad sense is what Google is
Speaker 1: paying you for the ads that are running on your video.
Speaker 1: They're making a very large percentage of it, but then
Speaker 1: you're getting a percentage of it as well. So I
Speaker 1: think you can find out, if you like dig in
Speaker 1: the analytics what the whole video is making. If you're
Speaker 1: getting hundreds of thousands of views on the video and
Speaker 1: making several videos a month, you can make a decent living,
Speaker 1: I think. And that's why when you see sometimes people
Speaker 1: will complain like why are there so many ad breaks
Speaker 1: in this video? It's like, you know, I gotta pay
Speaker 1: my rent, so are you choosing where the ads go?
Speaker 1: Can There's a new feature that has YouTube kind of
Speaker 1: automatically pick but for me, it doesn't always put them then,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, wow, I'm gonna add those. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: like you'll see some people there will be a twenty
Speaker 1: minute video and they have like fifteen ad breaks. That's
Speaker 1: too much? Like that? Is that to your discretion if
Speaker 1: you want to have no ads on your video? Yes, yes.
Speaker 1: I recently worked with the brand that for the first
Speaker 1: month of the video being up, I cannot run Google
Speaker 1: adsens on it because their concept is they want people
Speaker 1: to see their integration and as much of the video
Speaker 1: and just really have an enjoyable experience. But I can
Speaker 1: go back in a month and add all the ads
Speaker 1: I want, and your your video just needs to be
Speaker 1: at the ten minute mark for you to add more
Speaker 1: than one ad. So if you once you hit ten minutes,
Speaker 1: you could be like so many videos where like every
Speaker 1: one minute there's an ad and you're just like, whoa,
Speaker 1: it's almost it's almost offensive. I think it is. You're
Speaker 1: trying to build an audience. There's a balance though, because
Speaker 1: we have to expect our creators to eat and pay
Speaker 1: rent and money. One of my favorite things is I
Speaker 1: get comments. Sometimes it's like, really, I love you so much.
Speaker 1: I'll leave your playlist on while I'm sleeping so it'll
Speaker 1: play through a sweet. Do you guys not make as
Speaker 1: much money if they skip the ad? We have no
Speaker 1: idea what the breakdown is, but it's like if they
Speaker 1: watch the whole thing, if they skip it, if they
Speaker 1: click on it, if they actually buy what it's selling,
Speaker 1: there's a whole variation, and there are like you can
Speaker 1: look at the interface on YouTube. This is the amount
Speaker 1: of money you made off of skippable ads. This is
Speaker 1: the amount of money you made off of premium ads.
Speaker 1: They do break it down, but we do share the
Speaker 1: money with Google, so at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it takes a while to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out the whole system. So to your point, if
Speaker 1: you're making chunks of money, it's coming from Na're asking
Speaker 1: you to do a branded I just did one of
Speaker 1: in a video that I actually it's one of my
Speaker 1: favorite ones that I've made, probably because they gave me
Speaker 1: so much freedom to kind of do whatever I want.
Speaker 1: I've been suffering from back injury, which has affected my
Speaker 1: ad sense because I can't be consistent with anything because
Speaker 1: I can't sit at a desk at it. But I
Speaker 1: got a couple of brand deals which has made it
Speaker 1: so much less stressful that I can focus on what
Speaker 1: I will want the channel to be once I fully recovered.
Speaker 1: But I did one for Joy, which is a new brand.
Speaker 1: Brazer Gillette owns it, but their whole branding is very
Speaker 1: like towards millennial and it's like shave and get on
Speaker 1: with your day kind of thing. And I was like,
Speaker 1: like I read their brief and I'm like, can I
Speaker 1: start using this as my bio? Because this is perfect?
Speaker 1: I like introd the video, I introduced the sponsorship, and
Speaker 1: then I did a day in my life, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't like my morning routine. It was like a narrated,
Speaker 1: kind of stylized thing about more dealing with my chronic pain.
Speaker 1: They wanted to focus on the small winds, so that
Speaker 1: was the only pitch. So I turned that into a
Speaker 1: day in my life, and then one of my small
Speaker 1: winds was like actually being able to shower and get
Speaker 1: out of bed and like do stuff. So it was
Speaker 1: like a little tad and deep at certain points, but
Speaker 1: it was real. It turned out really real, and everyone's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, he didn't even realize this was an ad.
Speaker 1: This was my favorite video that you've ever done well
Speaker 1: because they're also following your journey and they know, like
Speaker 1: you're very transparent with your audience and you're like, my
Speaker 1: back hurts, I can't get up. I'm going to the chiropractor.
Speaker 1: So for you to do that brand deal was really authentic.
Speaker 1: And then to see that we're at a point that
Speaker 1: they can see it's a brand deal, no I'm making
Speaker 1: money off of it, but still appreciate it was like
Speaker 1: very nice and like, I feel like that's where the
Speaker 1: digital space is going. And even with that comment that
Speaker 1: people we have, they're like I'm watching all of your
Speaker 1: ads and not skipping them, like they're starting to realize
Speaker 1: that that is how people are making money and you
Speaker 1: can't just make videos in your apartment if no one's
Speaker 1: watching them are paying for them. Do you guys feel
Speaker 1: a responsibility to be really picky with the brands because
Speaker 1: I know some people will just take any brand, you know,
Speaker 1: for example, And I feel comfortable talking about it because
Speaker 1: I've been really transparent with all of these companies. Honestly,
Speaker 1: is that I have a female audience on YouTube that's
Speaker 1: female eighteen to thirty. For me, it's super important that
Speaker 1: women can finally and men and people can finally just
Speaker 1: freaking be happy with who they are. I know that's
Speaker 1: a base level thing to say, but like it's so
Speaker 1: important and that is what we need to do in
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. So there's many tea brands on the market.
Speaker 1: They're all about weight loss, and I don't want to
Speaker 1: have anything to do with that. I don't want to
Speaker 1: promote weight loss. I say no, thank you. If anyone
Speaker 1: ever wants to promote health, well being, joy, I'm here
Speaker 1: for it. But that's like an example of a company
Speaker 1: or a type of company that has a lot of
Speaker 1: money to spend. I'm so proud to hear that people
Speaker 1: are a lot of money because also I think there's
Speaker 1: some things that like, oh that doesn't want Like people
Speaker 1: promote things they don't really know anything about, which it
Speaker 1: might not be a bad product, but they're just doing
Speaker 1: it because they're getting paid. I think that's one level.
Speaker 1: Then there's a level of like the teas where it's
Speaker 1: dancers promoting a flat dummy t and I'm like, something
Speaker 1: tells me the dancing was what gave you the flat six?
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? But then I think on
Speaker 1: top of that, I have situations where the product I'm
Speaker 1: sure is lovely by notoriously can only drink beer for
Speaker 1: the most part because I'm allergic tort alcohol and wine
Speaker 1: makes me sick as well. So I have a wine
Speaker 1: brand reach out. I'm sure the wine is lovely, but
Speaker 1: I literally have to respond to go, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: I would love to do this, or I got a
Speaker 1: non alcoholic beer one time and I have to respond
Speaker 1: to Not one person that follows me would ever believe
Speaker 1: that this is something that I'm actually drinking. So as
Speaker 1: much as I would love to take your money, I
Speaker 1: just can't. I think for every time you turn one down,
Speaker 1: something better is coming your way. We're also just really
Speaker 1: bad at lying, so that doesn't really ever I'd be
Speaker 1: like I love this wine that you'd see pouring behind
Speaker 1: me for like for example, I mean we all know that.
Speaker 1: Like I'm a very healthy person. I like a healthy
Speaker 1: lifestyle and healthy food and I did work once with
Speaker 1: a fast food brand, but it was only because they
Speaker 1: were like sort of unleashing this new healthy product that
Speaker 1: I was like, I can authentically get behind this because
Speaker 1: this is something I can endorse that people will believe.
Speaker 1: If I was just like, hey, guys, let's like eat
Speaker 1: a bunch of onion rings and different ranch, people probably
Speaker 1: would not respond well at all to that. It would
Speaker 1: just be like cancelation of that's if I'm ever working
Speaker 1: with any kind of agency or like what kind of brands,
Speaker 1: like should anything I should know? And like I only
Speaker 1: drink beer, I don't eat a lot of healthy foods.
Speaker 1: So like I've even said, O Thrive Market, I'm sure
Speaker 1: it is absolutely amazing, and I'm sure there's actually stuff
Speaker 1: I could buy there, but I'm not using Thrive Market.
Speaker 1: I'm going to rapes and using instat cart and stuff
Speaker 1: because I'm not buying organic. I am using thrive market hashtag. Yes,
Speaker 1: they have spawned me and I loved every moment, thank
Speaker 1: you very much. But yeah, I think it's so important
Speaker 1: and brands are starting to come around to that too.
Speaker 1: You know. I've talked in a lot of industry panels
Speaker 1: just as like a digital expert, and my advice to brands, companies,
Speaker 1: agencies is like, if I'm betting you as an influencer
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, that's not gonna work for me,
Speaker 1: you better doing the same thing. Don't come to someone
Speaker 1: like Lily and be like, well you promote my keen
Speaker 1: waw like she does not like came on. Everyone knows that.
Speaker 1: Look for the people who authentically make sense for your
Speaker 1: brand and they want to work with. Again, we're all
Speaker 1: about like we've worked with like pop Chips, for example.
Speaker 1: They're a brand that we've worked with numerous times because
Speaker 1: we have a great relationship with them and we actually
Speaker 1: want pompships, So like, why wouldn't you want to keep
Speaker 1: working with the same people to build that kind of
Speaker 1: ambassadorship to show that we actually really do endorse the
Speaker 1: product rather than like a one off that they hope
Speaker 1: as well. Have you focused mostly on work for your
Speaker 1: social media? Is there a certain I don't know, like
Speaker 1: the guide that you have for yourselves, because also there's
Speaker 1: a whole question of work life balance. When you guys
Speaker 1: are hanging out, you're both friends, You're on each other's
Speaker 1: social media all the time. Do you see it as
Speaker 1: collaboration do you see it as lilies at my house
Speaker 1: where best friends. There's so many places that you guys
Speaker 1: have to set boundaries. I would say I have the
Speaker 1: grandma boundary. If I'm cool with my grandma saying this,
Speaker 1: I'll put it out there. It can be sexy, but
Speaker 1: like Grandma sexy, or it can be like edgy, but
Speaker 1: Grandma edgy. And that's my boundary. That is what I
Speaker 1: actually think about before I post something. And then I
Speaker 1: have some friends who like don't want to be on
Speaker 1: my social media and I I'm trying to be conscious
Speaker 1: of that. I would absolutely never post someone's child without
Speaker 1: asking them. I think that space level. And what I've
Speaker 1: always said after doing this for so long is like
Speaker 1: you can share a lot without sharing everything. Like for example,
Speaker 1: and Chris and I, um my fiance when we started
Speaker 1: dating I didn't post about him for literally over a year.
Speaker 1: And that same theme has played out in various aspects
Speaker 1: of my personal life with things I have not talked
Speaker 1: about that I'm considering talking about in the future, but
Speaker 1: I'm not ready yet. So when in doubt, Katy Perry said,
Speaker 1: she writes a draft of a tweet, holds onto it overnight,
Speaker 1: and decides the next day if she wants to send it.
Speaker 1: And I think that's really great advice. And I think
Speaker 1: for us personally at this point, I like, don't even
Speaker 1: word just it's different, like the sister relationships. So it's
Speaker 1: like it's hard to also answer with even posting like
Speaker 1: ads versus personal stuff for because for me, the last
Speaker 1: seven months has been like overtaken by my back stuff
Speaker 1: that like I'm not doing a whole lot, even in videos.
Speaker 1: I feel like some people I'll post that I'm drinking
Speaker 1: in videos and I'll get comments. I'm not posting videos
Speaker 1: more than once or twice a week. Basically people will
Speaker 1: see something They're like, oh my god, you're drinking all
Speaker 1: the time, and I'm like, no, I'm actually never doing anything.
Speaker 1: And that was like the one video I filmed and
Speaker 1: my back was hurting, so I had to be able
Speaker 1: to make it feel a little better. But in general,
Speaker 1: like she's very in tune with like if I can't
Speaker 1: do something, and we're just very understanding if one person
Speaker 1: has to cancel because we're also very reliable. I think
Speaker 1: even when we're hanging out, there's no reason why we
Speaker 1: shouldn't film some content. Why not might as well get
Speaker 1: some work done too. But I wouldn't even Instagram and stuff.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't consider work. And for like doing like stories
Speaker 1: of each other, that's just like we're documenting us being friends.
Speaker 1: We will plan to like do a video, but honestly,
Speaker 1: even when we film videos together, I've like we're just
Speaker 1: hanging out. Yeah, because I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: see all these collaborations on YouTube it feels like, Okay,
Speaker 1: there's certain groups of people that always work together, and
Speaker 1: there's a question of are they actually friends or is
Speaker 1: this like a oh when you are on my channel,
Speaker 1: I get a lot of views. I know for a fact,
Speaker 1: because I know both of you personally, that you're actually
Speaker 1: best friends, and so I don't question that. But do
Speaker 1: you guys ever think about that? Yeah? Absolutely, because if
Speaker 1: you ask someone to be in a video, and especially
Speaker 1: because we didn't launch our channels too long ago, that
Speaker 1: it is good to have people on because especially because
Speaker 1: people might already know who we are, but they don't
Speaker 1: necessarily know that we have a channel. If then we're
Speaker 1: on our friends channel, that's a bunch of subscribers. It's
Speaker 1: not even like they're introducing us. It's like, oh, she
Speaker 1: has a channel now, I didn't even realize that. And
Speaker 1: then they'll go over. But like, for example, my friend
Speaker 1: Jesse Smiles Jesse bask is this her real name, but
Speaker 1: Jesse Smiles is her online name. She came over and
Speaker 1: we filmed a couple of videos and we were going
Speaker 1: to do two for mine and one for hers, and
Speaker 1: then we were drinking at the end. We were like, oh,
Speaker 1: I don't want to film another video. We just wanted
Speaker 1: to hang out. She was like, whatever, we got some
Speaker 1: for yours, Like, I don't care, we don't need to
Speaker 1: film one for mine. I put mine up with her
Speaker 1: and it's the best performing videos on my channel in
Speaker 1: a while. I hadn't been uploading because my back I
Speaker 1: get a bunch of subscribers naularly text. I was like,
Speaker 1: thank you so much and help my channel. She was like, dude,
Speaker 1: don't thank me, like literally what and like that's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing is like you can't overthink it if
Speaker 1: you are actually friends. But I do think there's certain
Speaker 1: relationships you have with people where you know it's beneficial
Speaker 1: to both of you if you film, But that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean when you're filming, you're not hanging out to Usually
Speaker 1: I feel like the stuff we're doing on our channels,
Speaker 1: you want her to be that natural chemistry, and without it,
Speaker 1: I don't the video wouldn't be good. But I have
Speaker 1: no problem, Like I slide into people's dams constantly. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I love you so Like a great
Speaker 1: example of recently is that there's this girl she's freaking
Speaker 1: blowing up on YouTube shout out to Sierra Schulze. I've
Speaker 1: become obsessed with her. She makes fashion content that's inclusive,
Speaker 1: it's so good. And I just reached out to her
Speaker 1: and I was like, hey, I love your channel. You
Speaker 1: are killing it, like keep it up, and she responded
Speaker 1: She's like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. We
Speaker 1: just started chatting. She's like, I'm gonna be in l
Speaker 1: a get lunch. So we became friends. Then I'm like, listen,
Speaker 1: if you ever want to do a video on my channel,
Speaker 1: I would love to work with you. I think you're
Speaker 1: so awesome, and she's like, well, let's do him for
Speaker 1: my channel too. But it really started out from just
Speaker 1: like a friendship sort of thing, even though it was
Speaker 1: a digital thing, and we joke all the time that
Speaker 1: there should be I mean, we should do a show
Speaker 1: about like the friends I'm that on the internet. Becally
Speaker 1: have a show that I want to do called We
Speaker 1: met online because I was at dinner, not even dinner,
Speaker 1: we were drinks and it was before all the Clever
Speaker 1: stuff happened, because I ended up quitting Clever right before
Speaker 1: all the bankruptcy and stuff happened with the five And
Speaker 1: it was just a pure coincidence. But I've been trying
Speaker 1: to think about doing that for a while, but I
Speaker 1: had been stuck in a contract, so I had reached out.
Speaker 1: I had met her already, but reached out to see
Speaker 1: if Grace Helbig would get drinks with me because she
Speaker 1: was in a similar situation. So we get drinks. We're
Speaker 1: having this very intense discussion where at Barney's Beanery for
Speaker 1: like three hours, and these guys keep coming over and
Speaker 1: like bothering us and we're like trying to have a discussion,
Speaker 1: like please leave us line, and he'd so, when'd you
Speaker 1: guys met? And he had already kind of I think
Speaker 1: thought we were maybe on a date or something, and
Speaker 1: we because we were just like leaned in having a
Speaker 1: very intense discussion and then we both kind of like
Speaker 1: we met online. And yeah, but in general, I think
Speaker 1: that we do have this awesome opportunity. That's like if
Speaker 1: you see someone, especially for me, if I see someone
Speaker 1: that I like not only their personality but the kind
Speaker 1: of content they're creating, and I think that we could
Speaker 1: work together, I want to befriend them just because I
Speaker 1: appreciate what they're doing. And then if we can work together,
Speaker 1: then that's a plus. I think there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people you want to just be friends with. Two I
Speaker 1: would never reach out to someone. We're very openly like
Speaker 1: fangirls and like like we love cheering people on, like
Speaker 1: l Mills, who's an amazing YouTuber from Canada. She's a
Speaker 1: pretty example. We've never even done a video but with
Speaker 1: her hung out and she is so talented, and we
Speaker 1: met thanks to that Twitter verified tab, you know, when
Speaker 1: we were just blowing her up because she's so talented,
Speaker 1: we want people to know who she is. I just
Speaker 1: think it all has to come from that place of like,
Speaker 1: there's some YouTubers like it just wouldn't make sense for me,
Speaker 1: like the people who are burning mattresses, Like unless I
Speaker 1: was their mom and I was like grounding them or something,
Speaker 1: that we were going to collapse. There has to be
Speaker 1: some kind of mutual respect and admiration for what the
Speaker 1: other person is doing. I think to clab. But then
Speaker 1: also I think there should be a friendship because otherwise
Speaker 1: why are you bothering it? But I mean, do you
Speaker 1: guys think that there are some strategic we're not even friends,
Speaker 1: were not even dating, let's pretend. I think a perfect
Speaker 1: example that I don't even feel like it's a bad
Speaker 1: talk about because they're publicizing it this way is Jake
Speaker 1: and Tanna. Is that really I don't know, but I
Speaker 1: think I never watched Eddie Jake Paul contact before. I
Speaker 1: think Tanna can be problematic, but I also think she's
Speaker 1: very funny, and I think she's smarter than she comes across.
Speaker 1: And I watched her in his videos and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, she makes them funny. I've been watching.
Speaker 1: I've been keeping tabs because we're gonna have Tanna on
Speaker 1: the show too. Like, yeah, she's somebody who is so open.
Speaker 1: She's been authentic since day one. She apologized by the way,
Speaker 1: very sweet and yeah. And then all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: to me, I couldn't put two people in more separate boxes,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, there in the same box.
Speaker 1: And now but because he needed to redeem himself, because
Speaker 1: it's Jake Paul. Then she just had the break up
Speaker 1: with her boyfriend and she just wanted to be like
Speaker 1: stick it to him. And then also just she titled
Speaker 1: one of her videos my Rebound Jake, So it started
Speaker 1: I think as a joke. And then I think, I
Speaker 1: don't think they're like in a very serious relationship, but
Speaker 1: I think that they're like hanging out and having fun.
Speaker 1: I love the YouTube world, I mean there is It
Speaker 1: is like a reality show, like Real World or like
Speaker 1: road Rules for this genre. You guys have done a
Speaker 1: good job of steering clear of the dramas. Don't we
Speaker 1: talk about this? Try? Do you have time? It's their business.
Speaker 1: They almost have to have the drama to have views.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to name names because some of
Speaker 1: these people are going to be on this show. The
Speaker 1: second they had a crazy drama, I knew who they were.
Speaker 1: And you guys have remained relevant and consistent and not
Speaker 1: really had any drama. I don't just thinking about it literally,
Speaker 1: I like, I've gotten in a fight with someone before
Speaker 1: and literally threw up for two days because I can't
Speaker 1: handle it, Like a conversation is my worst namare and
Speaker 1: just feeling like someone is like mad at me, or
Speaker 1: if I did something wrong. It's not our brand. There
Speaker 1: is a brand to be I wouldn't want someone to
Speaker 1: know my name because of something negative. But it's crazy
Speaker 1: because these people are getting payoffs. I mean, look at
Speaker 1: what happened with James Charles and Toddy Westbrook. Like the
Speaker 1: second she did that video, she gained a bunch of followers.
Speaker 1: Then he lost a bunch, and then he did a
Speaker 1: video and then he gained a bunch. I mean, we
Speaker 1: were talking about it with Gabby and she was just like,
Speaker 1: it's crazy because everything that happens people are so wishy, washy,
Speaker 1: And it was interesting for me to hear her perspective,
Speaker 1: saying that the viewers were wishy washy because they've been
Speaker 1: wishy washy with her too. I've never witnessed that with anybody.
Speaker 1: For I think that people really build their brands in
Speaker 1: this certain light. It's like, this is my brand. It's
Speaker 1: not necessarily who they I don't think it's a fake
Speaker 1: version of who they are, but it's a very singular
Speaker 1: version of who they are. I think we've been pretty
Speaker 1: good at giving kind of an all encompassing view of
Speaker 1: what we're like. That that's a good example. I had
Speaker 1: someone tweet I'll get really random, and it's never very often,
Speaker 1: but someone will tweet as if they saw me somewhere
Speaker 1: and something like about some altercation we had, and I
Speaker 1: read it because it's always so ridiculous. It was I
Speaker 1: just went to in and out and saw Lily eating
Speaker 1: in her car and went up to say hi, and
Speaker 1: the window and flint me off, and I was like, like,
Speaker 1: first of all, Canada really is the sweetest, like non
Speaker 1: confrontational person on planet. Or the first thing I would
Speaker 1: do if someone came and knocked on my window would
Speaker 1: start having anxiety got break into my car. So I retweeted,
Speaker 1: and I said, sounds super legit. Every single person responds
Speaker 1: tore like are you kidding? Like do you know where that? Like,
Speaker 1: so we've built this brand of ourselves that's actually true,
Speaker 1: Like no one would assume that I would do something
Speaker 1: like that's all. I don't have to worry about someone
Speaker 1: saying that I would and everyone believing them. I think
Speaker 1: they're certain YouTubers where maybe they've engaged in behavior in
Speaker 1: the past where it makes it easier for someone to
Speaker 1: switch their opinion on them exactly. I want to quickly
Speaker 1: touch on we said there's no drums and even in
Speaker 1: a situation, and this will just very lightly touch on it,
Speaker 1: because I know a lot of people are still wondering, like,
Speaker 1: what's the current status of both of you with Clever,
Speaker 1: the brand that you know made you both household names.
Speaker 1: What is high level the current status with where you
Speaker 1: guys both stand with Clever. We have very similar contracts
Speaker 1: with Clever. So Clever sold to Hers, which is a great,
Speaker 1: huge media company in the female space specifically, which is
Speaker 1: an awesome fit for Clever. And during that process we
Speaker 1: both signed deals to work for five days total, not
Speaker 1: like five days a month, but five days total and
Speaker 1: over the course of three months as talent only. So
Speaker 1: I'm not producing anything. I'm not participating in anything really
Speaker 1: involving sales or behind the scenes strictly like I go
Speaker 1: in and I'm talent. That's pretty much where it stands
Speaker 1: right now. I have one day left with my contracts,
Speaker 1: so maybe by the time this airs, I'll be finished.
Speaker 1: And that's pretty much where it stands now. There's really
Speaker 1: nothing but like positive vibes for Clever. I mean, I
Speaker 1: literally has spent over the last decade of my life
Speaker 1: working on that, Brandon. I am so proud of what
Speaker 1: we built, and I will regardless of what my involvement
Speaker 1: in the future is, I will never stop cheering. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think totally same. I think for me, I had
Speaker 1: left earlier, but it had already planned on staying on
Speaker 1: freelance as talent, and a lot of people are like, oh,
Speaker 1: so you're still there all the time, You're still going in.
Speaker 1: It's very, very different because I was coming up with
Speaker 1: a lot of the videos, I was editing a lot
Speaker 1: of the videos. I was still making a lot of
Speaker 1: thumbnails even at a certain points. So I love the brand.
Speaker 1: I wanted to survive, but I couldn't keep putting so
Speaker 1: much of myself into it. With the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: able to do that for myself too. I'm like, I
Speaker 1: want to put that kind of energy into building something
Speaker 1: that is mine, but if I can really come in
Speaker 1: and be my friends and absolutely like my main takeaway
Speaker 1: is I have no regrets. I loved what I've learned
Speaker 1: and done for the last decade, but I would like
Speaker 1: to make Lily rich and not someone who already is rich,
Speaker 1: more rich that is. She was like, I'm super super
Speaker 1: excited to share with the world that you guys have
Speaker 1: a really exciting venture coming up together. That is a
Speaker 1: departure from what you've done in the past, but still
Speaker 1: well it's you're still building your own stuff on your
Speaker 1: own channels, but now you're going to help build other
Speaker 1: people up. So we started a new company. Hey, it's
Speaker 1: called Shared Media. We're launching with two YouTube channels, one
Speaker 1: of which will focus on the intersection of pop culture
Speaker 1: and internet news, and the other will basically be launched
Speaker 1: as Lillian I's collab channel. It's called the Shared Channel.
Speaker 1: The other piece of the business that I'm personally really
Speaker 1: passionate and excited about is that we are going to
Speaker 1: be creating a talent incubator and mentorship program for people
Speaker 1: who are really in the game and committed to it
Speaker 1: and just need that little extra bit of help, that
Speaker 1: little extra push. It's not a multi channel network. There's
Speaker 1: a different way that we're going to scale out side
Speaker 1: of the business. I know that's like a lot of
Speaker 1: big words, truthfully and honestly, I am so committed to
Speaker 1: helping people not have to deal with some of the
Speaker 1: bs that we've had to go through. And also we're
Speaker 1: just excited to make new content together and with a
Speaker 1: team that we're putting together, and I think they're really
Speaker 1: amazing people. That being said, we're still super super focused
Speaker 1: on other endeavors, including our personal channels and other projects.
Speaker 1: Your moguls were, Yeah, So, I mean, to start out,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be like, oh my god, uploads
Speaker 1: every single day and we're doing everything, because we do
Speaker 1: still need to do our own stuff as well. But
Speaker 1: I think we're launching planning. It's already started at this point,
Speaker 1: but our plan is to launch with about two videos
Speaker 1: on our shared channel week and then on shared News
Speaker 1: a little bit more, a little more daily. I feel
Speaker 1: like clever. One of the beauties was we got to
Speaker 1: have our friends in once in a while to do stuff,
Speaker 1: but to have it be in a like more official capacity.
Speaker 1: It always felt like it was a lot of paperwork,
Speaker 1: a lot of approvals. There were so many people involved.
Speaker 1: So we're excited to like, we already have an office
Speaker 1: in the studio. Oh and oh my god, we're so
Speaker 1: Rudy didn't even mention that also involved is with the garage.
Speaker 1: We're back together. The gang's back together. Also on our
Speaker 1: team is Lisa Heiser, who's one of the original people
Speaker 1: from Clever. She's one of the smartest people I know.
Speaker 1: We used to share in office that was like a
Speaker 1: closet for There are two other people on staff, Renee
Speaker 1: Aerial and Fiona Zering, who will be helping with our
Speaker 1: news operation. They're so so talented and promising and they
Speaker 1: have so much potential. So we're just excited it's gonna
Speaker 1: build something new, fun to go back to. More of
Speaker 1: like a run and gun kind of like this is
Speaker 1: a good idea, let's do it. And then everyone's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: do it, Like you don't have to like get anyone
Speaker 1: to sign off. We wear the pants now uno we
Speaker 1: wear skirts, which is also fine or score or scored
Speaker 1: if I'm feeling crazy or no pants at all even better.
Speaker 1: I mean so many takeaways from this interview, but I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing that like just kept coming up
Speaker 1: was authenticity. And you guys connect with your fans, and
Speaker 1: you have a lot of engagement and people who are
Speaker 1: going to follow every single thing that you guys do.
Speaker 1: You've been so consistent from the very beginning. You've been
Speaker 1: consistent with who you are authentically, and now you guys
Speaker 1: are branching off and doing your own thing, which is
Speaker 1: so exciting. But also you're gonna help other people do
Speaker 1: their thing, which is also very much on brand with
Speaker 1: both of your personalities. So I'm so excited to continue
Speaker 1: to stop you as a friend because I'm allowed to. Um.
Speaker 1: You guys have to come back when you have new things.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's constantly gonna happen with you guys,
Speaker 1: hopefully fingers crossed. You've beat all the odds. I feel
Speaker 1: like you and Smash are in your own lane of
Speaker 1: beating all the odds when it comes to YouTube. Not
Speaker 1: a fad. You guys are here to stay and and
Speaker 1: growing and changing from like twilight to make up to
Speaker 1: wedding dress trying on. It's crazy. Thank you, for having
Speaker 1: us on your show, on your life, on your kindness,
Speaker 1: who you are as a purse, saying I'm your biggest fan,
Speaker 1: and the fact that you are able to maintain all
Speaker 1: of this while having a successful relationship, a beautiful home,
Speaker 1: and a dog named hit Teddy slash Santa for half
Speaker 1: his name is Santa. I have established that is my favorite. Also,
Speaker 1: every day that I come in here, I'm like, is
Speaker 1: today the day that my water breaks on? It made
Speaker 1: for a great show, great content. I'm ready and willing
Speaker 1: to deliver your child. Oh my god, what don't you do?
Speaker 1: She fainted when she see you. Guys, we literally don't
Speaker 1: know how to stop time. I'm sorry, sorry. Bye. Behind
Speaker 1: Influences a production of I Heart Radio and TDC Media