Cortex

00:00:00 ◼   ► Welcome back to the State of the Workflow series.

00:00:02 ◼   ► This is where I talk to creative people about the tools, the systems, and habits that they

00:00:06 ◼   ► use to get their work done, and how those choices shape the work that they make.

00:00:10 ◼   ► In this episode, I'm thrilled to be joined by YouTuber Becca Fasachi.

00:00:14 ◼   ► We talk about how Becca got started with YouTube, how she approaches making videos, and why being

00:00:20 ◼   ► independent is such a huge part of her creative life and identity.

00:00:24 ◼   ► We also spend a little time talking about what she learned while working at The Verge, and

00:00:29 ◼   ► how the lessons that she learned there about storytelling, production, collaboration, and

00:00:33 ◼   ► ethics shape the way that she works today as an independent creator.

00:00:37 ◼   ► We're going to dig into Becca's process, how she decides what to work on next, the trade-offs

00:00:42 ◼   ► that she makes, and the systems that help her stay creative, productive, and sustainable as

00:00:48 ◼   ► someone who's self-employed.

00:00:49 ◼   ► It is a super thoughtful look at not just how her work gets done, but why she does it the

00:00:55 ◼   ► way that she does.

00:00:56 ◼   ► Enjoy.

00:00:58 ◼   ► So, Becca, I want to get started by asking you the question I ask every guest.

00:01:02 ◼   ► Okay.

00:01:02 ◼   ► What is the most important device that you need to get your work done?

00:01:06 ◼   ► Well, I mean, the obvious answer would be a camera, because I film everything, and it's

00:01:11 ◼   ► a visual medium.

00:01:12 ◼   ► But my laptop is by far my most used piece of tech.

00:01:17 ◼   ► And it does have a camera on it.

00:01:18 ◼   ► It does.

00:01:18 ◼   ► And I'll probably make a whole video with it, which that would be a very fun idea.

00:01:22 ◼   ► Uh-oh.

00:01:23 ◼   ► We're watching the content in real time be made.

00:01:26 ◼   ► Thank you, Mike.

00:01:26 ◼   ► You're just walking down the streets of New York City vlogging with a MacBook Pro.

00:01:29 ◼   ► Oh, don't tempt me with a good time.

00:01:32 ◼   ► Tell me about your camera.

00:01:33 ◼   ► Plural.

00:01:34 ◼   ► Cameras.

00:01:35 ◼   ► I have so many.

00:01:36 ◼   ► Where do I even begin?

00:01:37 ◼   ► I shoot a lot of stuff on phones.

00:01:39 ◼   ► So, lately, I've been carrying the Samsung Z Fold 7.

00:01:42 ◼   ► So, I'll film on that.

00:01:43 ◼   ► Not my favorite camera by a mile, but it's the one I have with me.

00:01:46 ◼   ► And in good light, I can get something passable.

00:01:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:01:48 ◼   ► I shoot a lot of content with an iPhone 17 Pro.

00:01:51 ◼   ► I carry it around as, like, kind of a content capture phone.

00:01:54 ◼   ► So, I'll do a lot of, like, Instagram stories or even if I need to film, like, video, but I

00:02:00 ◼   ► don't want to bring a whole camera or I can't because maybe I'm at a concert venue or something.

00:02:03 ◼   ► I'll film with that.

00:02:04 ◼   ► Stepping up from there, I do use a lot of action cameras.

00:02:07 ◼   ► Lately, that's been the DJI Osmo Action 6.

00:02:12 ◼   ► And then I also shoot on an Insta360 action cam.

00:02:16 ◼   ► Sometimes I use 360-degree cams, GoPros.

00:02:20 ◼   ► I mean, whatever I have.

00:02:21 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:02:21 ◼   ► You know, I'll just use action camera-wise.

00:02:23 ◼   ► That's when I need something small that I can throw in my pocket if I'm, like, hiking or

00:02:28 ◼   ► snowboarding or something.

00:02:29 ◼   ► Okay.

00:02:30 ◼   ► When I'm in a more studio environment or home, I should say, the Lumix SR Mark II, I love this

00:02:38 ◼   ► camera.

00:02:38 ◼   ► It's a workhorse.

00:02:39 ◼   ► It's what I shoot all of my, like, talking head stuff to.

00:02:41 ◼   ► The image quality is great.

00:02:43 ◼   ► Battery life's decent.

00:02:45 ◼   ► Stabilization's really good.

00:02:47 ◼   ► So that's a workhorse for me.

00:02:49 ◼   ► Oh, and then I've been shooting a lot on the Canon PowerShot V1.

00:02:55 ◼   ► I got this camera about a year ago on loan.

00:02:57 ◼   ► I loved it so much I bought one cheap on eBay.

00:03:00 ◼   ► I think I paid, like, $750 for it.

00:03:03 ◼   ► But this camera, it has a sensor that's larger than an action cam, but it's, like, small and

00:03:08 ◼   ► I don't care about it as much as my other cameras, so I treat it like an action camera.

00:03:12 ◼   ► Okay.

00:03:12 ◼   ► And I mount it to everything.

00:03:14 ◼   ► I mount it to phones.

00:03:15 ◼   ► I mount it to my bike.

00:03:16 ◼   ► I mount it to my helmet.

00:03:17 ◼   ► And it gives just a bit more depth of field than an action camera would.

00:03:20 ◼   ► So it's just, like, slightly more cinematic and has just a bit more of an aesthetic to it.

00:03:26 ◼   ► So, yeah, I use this camera all the time.

00:03:28 ◼   ► But I call it my special effects camera.

00:03:29 ◼   ► And I haven't broken it yet, knock on wood.

00:03:32 ◼   ► Yeah, I get the impression from watching your content that you do not try to protect your

00:03:37 ◼   ► cameras in a way that would not allow you to get the shot that you want, right?

00:03:42 ◼   ► Like, you will do what you need to do to get what you need, kind of, no matter what happens.

00:03:46 ◼   ► That is true.

00:03:48 ◼   ► Okay.

00:03:48 ◼   ► Can confirm.

00:03:49 ◼   ► But, you know, I see all these things as tools.

00:03:51 ◼   ► Yes.

00:03:52 ◼   ► Right?

00:03:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:03:53 ◼   ► And I'm going to get the shot that I want.

00:03:54 ◼   ► I'm going to put the camera where I want it.

00:03:56 ◼   ► And if my tool falls, then I guess maybe it wasn't a good tool or maybe I'm just not a

00:04:00 ◼   ► good grip.

00:04:01 ◼   ► And I think a lot of folks would say, oh, well, you get stuff on loan, so you didn't pay for

00:04:06 ◼   ► it, so you don't care about it.

00:04:07 ◼   ► And that's not true because the stuff that I own, I treat exactly the same way.

00:04:11 ◼   ► Well, and also, when you get loaned something, it can kind of be embarrassing to break it.

00:04:14 ◼   ► It's like maybe the money's different, but, like, you've got to tell someone, like, hey,

00:04:19 ◼   ► I broke this.

00:04:20 ◼   ► Sorry.

00:04:21 ◼   ► It is not a good look.

00:04:22 ◼   ► It has happened to me once in all of my loan career, even at The Verge, and it was a terrible

00:04:28 ◼   ► day.

00:04:28 ◼   ► So you just mentioned The Verge.

00:04:31 ◼   ► We'll get to that in a moment.

00:04:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:04:32 ◼   ► One of the reasons that I wanted to have you on the show is that you are newer in this phase

00:04:38 ◼   ► of your life.

00:04:39 ◼   ► Most of the other content creators that I've been talking to, the thing that they are doing

00:04:42 ◼   ► now, they have been doing for many, many years, like the exact same thing, where you were previously

00:04:48 ◼   ► at The Verge, and now you have your own YouTube channel.

00:04:51 ◼   ► And I kind of wanted to get a lay of the land of you.

00:04:55 ◼   ► So how long have you been an independent content creator for now?

00:04:58 ◼   ► Yeah, I went independent in August of 2024.

00:05:02 ◼   ► And so people may be aware of you as well from your time at The Verge.

00:05:07 ◼   ► Like, you would be a part of, I would assume, the videos that were most watched every year,

00:05:13 ◼   ► like the iPhone reviews and stuff like that.

00:05:14 ◼   ► Like, you were very kind of visible in those, in the camera work.

00:05:18 ◼   ► How long were you at The Verge?

00:05:19 ◼   ► I was at The Verge for seven years.

00:05:21 ◼   ► I started as a junior director, and then I worked my way up to a senior director, and

00:05:26 ◼   ► then I left.

00:05:26 ◼   ► So seven years, that's a long time.

00:05:29 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:30 ◼   ► How has it been so far, just being you?

00:05:35 ◼   ► Incredible.

00:05:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:05:36 ◼   ► It's been so fun.

00:05:38 ◼   ► I mean, I have full creative freedom, but I also am very, like, lucky.

00:05:44 ◼   ► You know, yes, this part of my career is new, but a lot of what I'm doing now, I was doing

00:05:50 ◼   ► at The Verge, but just under the protections of being at a company.

00:05:54 ◼   ► So I really got to learn and grow about YouTube, and I got to make mistakes on someone else's channel.

00:05:59 ◼   ► And I'm still making mistakes now on my own channel, but I had a lot of protection there

00:06:04 ◼   ► that allowed me to blossom into something and then take that into my own lane, which is what

00:06:11 ◼   ► I recommend everybody does.

00:06:12 ◼   ► Go make all of your mistakes for somebody else and get paid to do it before it's on you to

00:06:18 ◼   ► provide for either your family or for yourself and make something work like a YouTube channel.

00:06:23 ◼   ► So you're not taking on all the risk.

00:06:25 ◼   ► Exactly.

00:06:25 ◼   ► There is something that really makes sense to me in there.

00:06:28 ◼   ► But you're saying you had protections, but you also had help, right?

00:06:31 ◼   ► So you were not doing everything.

00:06:34 ◼   ► No.

00:06:35 ◼   ► Are you doing everything right now?

00:06:38 ◼   ► It's all you?

00:06:38 ◼   ► Yes and no.

00:06:39 ◼   ► I have a manager who handles all of my brand deals.

00:06:43 ◼   ► And so I don't touch like any of that.

00:06:45 ◼   ► And I love it that way because I hate business, which is funny because I own a business, but

00:06:50 ◼   ► I hate it.

00:06:50 ◼   ► Like, I just want to make stuff.

00:06:51 ◼   ► Sure.

00:06:52 ◼   ► So right now I do, I would say, 95% of the making.

00:06:56 ◼   ► I work with a very talented guy named Jonas, who I love, and he helped me redesign my banner

00:07:04 ◼   ► and sort of my presence online.

00:07:06 ◼   ► And he set up like a thumbnail template that I now use.

00:07:09 ◼   ► And so the 5% that I don't do is like, sometimes he does thumbnails for me.

00:07:14 ◼   ► I mean, I always use his template.

00:07:16 ◼   ► So I would say that's all him.

00:07:17 ◼   ► But otherwise, I'm scripting.

00:07:20 ◼   ► I'm editing.

00:07:21 ◼   ► I'm shooting.

00:07:22 ◼   ► I mean, it's obviously me on camera.

00:07:23 ◼   ► I'm testing.

00:07:24 ◼   ► So yeah, 95% of it is me.

00:07:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:07:27 ◼   ► So I guess the moment from when someone presses play, like that's all you, but there are just

00:07:32 ◼   ► some parts around the edges.

00:07:33 ◼   ► The working with a manager, is that kind of everything that is related to external businesses

00:07:41 ◼   ► and how you interact with them?

00:07:43 ◼   ► So it could be, you know, you mentioned brand deals, but maybe events, that kind of stuff.

00:07:47 ◼   ► Yeah, for the most part.

00:07:49 ◼   ► There's parts of my business that are my own, such as Patreon, my merch, some events, you

00:07:56 ◼   ► know, because I know people and I go to their events.

00:07:58 ◼   ► So yeah, for the most part, the management side is brand deals.

00:08:01 ◼   ► But we're also looking to kind of expand businesses.

00:08:04 ◼   ► And I'm sure that my manager will have a hand in those as well.

00:08:07 ◼   ► Are there any areas of work that you're doing right now that you could expect wanting help

00:08:12 ◼   ► on?

00:08:13 ◼   ► Or do you think you are someone who wants the full control?

00:08:18 ◼   ► You're asking this at a really great time because I've been thinking about this a lot.

00:08:21 ◼   ► I look at the YouTube space and there are people like, you know, Marquez, MKBHD, who

00:08:27 ◼   ► like built an empire, right?

00:08:28 ◼   ► Many employees, big studio, larger productions.

00:08:32 ◼   ► But in his content, even though it is just him, increasingly, I can feel that it is a team.

00:08:38 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:08:39 ◼   ► And then there's other YouTubers like Casey Neistat, I think is a great example, where

00:08:45 ◼   ► it's so clear that it is him and it has always been just him.

00:08:49 ◼   ► And I'm in this weird place where I'm trying to decide what the future looks like for my

00:08:55 ◼   ► channel.

00:08:55 ◼   ► Do I start growing and building something large like Marquez or do I always keep it just me,

00:09:02 ◼   ► myself and I, and it's like my brand, my identity, like Casey.

00:09:05 ◼   ► And I don't have an answer right now.

00:09:07 ◼   ► But what I can say is I do enjoy that when you watch my videos, well, at least I hope that

00:09:13 ◼   ► folks feel this way.

00:09:14 ◼   ► When they watch my videos, they feel that it is me from top to bottom.

00:09:18 ◼   ► They can see my little fingerprints all over it.

00:09:21 ◼   ► And I never want to lose that.

00:09:22 ◼   ► So I guess I'm leaning towards the Casey route, but time will tell because I can really only

00:09:28 ◼   ► do so much.

00:09:28 ◼   ► And, you know, only recently have I started taking like vacations and taking days off and

00:09:34 ◼   ► that feels really good.

00:09:35 ◼   ► But then I come back to work and I'm so far behind.

00:09:38 ◼   ► And so at some point I do need to break off some pieces and give to other people, but how

00:09:43 ◼   ► much and what I haven't decided on yet.

00:09:46 ◼   ► So I would guess even from your previous career, you get the idea that when you start

00:09:51 ◼   ► building out a production, you said like MKBHD, I was at Austin Evans on the show previously,

00:09:57 ◼   ► and it's a similar idea of they have these larger and larger teams full of creative people

00:10:02 ◼   ► and they want to be a part of the content.

00:10:05 ◼   ► And so it becomes, I think, harder and harder if you want to build a team around you to be able

00:10:11 ◼   ► to keep it just your solo vibe.

00:10:15 ◼   ► I don't think that it is in service to the creatives that you have around you if you

00:10:19 ◼   ► keep it all just to yourself.

00:10:20 ◼   ► You know, this is only my thoughts and only my face and et cetera, et cetera.

00:10:24 ◼   ► I think it becomes more difficult.

00:10:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:10:25 ◼   ► I mean, there's like a lot of beauty to that.

00:10:27 ◼   ► You know, I watch Austin's content and like the team that he has built around him is very

00:10:32 ◼   ► fun and funny and cool and engaging.

00:10:35 ◼   ► And I really like all of them too.

00:10:36 ◼   ► So there's no right or wrong answer here, which makes the decision even harder.

00:10:40 ◼   ► Listening to what you're saying, I think the right call for you right now is just

00:10:44 ◼   ► like, I'm just going to keep being me and building me because you're early, right?

00:10:49 ◼   ► Like you're finding your footing, I think still, because I can see your content is evolving.

00:10:53 ◼   ► You're falling into like types of videos that you make and you're known for like you're

00:10:58 ◼   ► building that presence, which is awesome.

00:11:01 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:02 ◼   ► Oh, that's so cool that that's evident.

00:11:04 ◼   ► You know, I live in such a silo.

00:11:06 ◼   ► And of course, every once in a while I go back and watch a video from like a year ago and

00:11:09 ◼   ► I'm like, holy cow, I can't believe I did this that way or it looked this sort of way.

00:11:13 ◼   ► So it is cool to evolve, but it's always funny.

00:11:16 ◼   ► It's such a fun thing to be seen, to be perceived.

00:11:20 ◼   ► My favorite videos of yours so far are the ones where you take a product and test it over

00:11:27 ◼   ► a longer period of time.

00:11:29 ◼   ► So something like the Vision Pro review that you did recently, but also I think a lot of

00:11:35 ◼   ► people know you for, you know, like taking a thousand photos on X device, right?

00:11:40 ◼   ► Yep.

00:11:41 ◼   ► Where did this approach originate for you?

00:11:45 ◼   ► This kind of like not rushing to put a video out quickly, but taking a bit more time, testing

00:11:50 ◼   ► things over a longer period?

00:11:52 ◼   ► Because there is a risk in visibility from that, I would assume.

00:11:55 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:11:56 ◼   ► You know, I don't even think it's so much like a risk.

00:12:00 ◼   ► It's just more of like actually putting in the time.

00:12:02 ◼   ► A lot of like YouTube is like hustle culture and a lot of tech YouTube especially is like we

00:12:07 ◼   ► need to meet the embargo.

00:12:09 ◼   ► But my approach came out of like frustration and other people not taking the time to actually

00:12:13 ◼   ► test something.

00:12:14 ◼   ► I remember before I launched my Thousand Photos series, I was on a call with a very good friend

00:12:20 ◼   ► of mine and mentor at The Verge and we were brainstorming video ideas and I had already been

00:12:26 ◼   ► doing a lot of like the camera testing in our iPhone reviews or whatnot.

00:12:29 ◼   ► And someone else had done a review and they had tested the camera, quote unquote, and they

00:12:34 ◼   ► posted like three photos they had taken.

00:12:36 ◼   ► And it was like, I don't know, a traffic cone, some food in front of them and like maybe

00:12:42 ◼   ► one of their friends.

00:12:43 ◼   ► And I was like, that's not testing.

00:12:45 ◼   ► You took three photos of like nothing.

00:12:48 ◼   ► I can't derive anything from them.

00:12:50 ◼   ► Like, how do I actually test these products and prove that I have?

00:12:54 ◼   ► And for some reason, a thousand photos popped into my head.

00:12:57 ◼   ► And I was like, I'm going to take a thousand photos with a phone and I'm going to make a video

00:13:01 ◼   ► about it and then I did.

00:13:04 ◼   ► And now I do.

00:13:05 ◼   ► I think it is helpful because I find photo tests to be really hard to get my head around

00:13:14 ◼   ► as a viewer.

00:13:15 ◼   ► Like, I like what I like from the pictures that I take, but I can't describe to you what I like

00:13:21 ◼   ► about them.

00:13:22 ◼   ► I feel this similarly with like audio gear where somebody uses words to describe to me

00:13:28 ◼   ► what it's like to listen to something on these headphones.

00:13:30 ◼   ► But I don't have the knowledge to be able to take that language and turn it into how it makes

00:13:37 ◼   ► me feel when I use it.

00:13:38 ◼   ► And I think that cameras are a similar thing.

00:13:40 ◼   ► Like even, you know, you can show me some images and you can use the knowledge that you have to

00:13:45 ◼   ► explain to me like what is good and what is bad in this image, but I find it difficult to put those

00:13:51 ◼   ► things together.

00:13:51 ◼   ► And so there is something about, you know, if you tell me I've taken a thousand photos with this,

00:13:57 ◼   ► that gives me a real good context of like, oh, I can trust what you're saying because you've put

00:14:01 ◼   ► the work in.

00:14:02 ◼   ► And I think that is a very helpful thing for me when watching your videos.

00:14:06 ◼   ► That's great to hear.

00:14:07 ◼   ► I think the other thing with the a thousand photos is just the time.

00:14:10 ◼   ► I mean, you could take a thousand photos in an hour if you wanted to, but I don't.

00:14:15 ◼   ► It's like, I know that I have to spend like a week and a half with a device, like really focused

00:14:19 ◼   ► on like actually going around and taking unique photos.

00:14:21 ◼   ► And in that time, you're going to learn way more about a device naturally as well.

00:14:25 ◼   ► And also just like the pool, the sample of like photos will be so vast at that point.

00:14:29 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:30 ◼   ► So, yeah, it is a pain in the ass.

00:14:32 ◼   ► Oh, I bet.

00:14:33 ◼   ► There's sometimes where I'm just like, Becca, why in the world did you make this the thing that

00:14:38 ◼   ► people know about you?

00:14:39 ◼   ► Especially if you want to do it properly, as you say, right?

00:14:41 ◼   ► Cause you say you could just, you could walk around your apartment and do it if you really

00:14:44 ◼   ► wanted to, but that's not getting what you want out of it.

00:14:48 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:14:49 ◼   ► It's also just not fun for me when I'm making a video.

00:14:52 ◼   ► Like if I'm not having fun, the video won't come together.

00:14:55 ◼   ► Like I need to go have a good time.

00:14:57 ◼   ► And like, I need to be actually using something.

00:15:00 ◼   ► And I like to think that comes across.

00:15:02 ◼   ► This episode of Cortex is brought to you by our friends over at FitBod.

00:15:07 ◼   ► If you're looking to make changes to your fitness level, getting started can be real difficult.

00:15:11 ◼   ► That's why I'm pleased to let you know that FitBod is an easy, affordable, and approachable

00:15:15 ◼   ► way to build a fitness plan that is made for you.

00:15:17 ◼   ► Everybody has their own path when it comes to personal fitness.

00:15:20 ◼   ► That is why FitBod uses data to make sure they customize things to suit you perfectly.

00:15:25 ◼   ► FitBod will adapt as you improve, making sure every workout remains challenging, pushing

00:15:29 ◼   ► you to make the progress that you're looking for because you're going to see the best results.

00:15:34 ◼   ► In fact, superior results when a workout program is tailored to you, to your body, to your experience,

00:15:39 ◼   ► your environment, the equipment you have, and the goals that you're looking for.

00:15:42 ◼   ► All of this information is saved in your FitBod gym profile.

00:15:46 ◼   ► FitBod uses this and your workout data to track your muscle recovery.

00:15:50 ◼   ► So you're avoiding burnout and keeping up your momentum because your muscles improve when

00:15:54 ◼   ► they work together.

00:15:55 ◼   ► Overworking or underworking muscles can negatively impact your results.

00:15:59 ◼   ► So FitBod tracks your muscle fatigue and recovery to design a well-balanced workout routine.

00:16:04 ◼   ► This means you're also not going to get bored because the app is mixing up your workouts.

00:16:08 ◼   ► I think this is great.

00:16:09 ◼   ► I find it really exciting and interesting because I do get bored if I'm doing the same workout

00:16:14 ◼   ► day in, day out.

00:16:15 ◼   ► So I love that FitBod is mixing it up.

00:16:17 ◼   ► And when they show me something I don't know, I feel great because there are demonstration videos

00:16:22 ◼   ► right in the app.

00:16:22 ◼   ► They have more than a thousand in there.

00:16:24 ◼   ► So you can watch how the exercise is supposed to be performed before you go and do it.

00:16:27 ◼   ► FitBod builds your best possible workout by combining exercise science and AI.

00:16:32 ◼   ► They've analyzed billions of data points that are fine-tuned by certified personal trainers.

00:16:37 ◼   ► The app is super easy to use.

00:16:39 ◼   ► You can stay informed with their progress tracking charts, weekly reports, and sharing cards.

00:16:43 ◼   ► So you can keep track of your achievements and share them with your friends and family too.

00:16:46 ◼   ► It also integrates with your smartwatch, Apple Watch, Wear OS, and apps like Strava, Fitbit,

00:16:52 ◼   ► and Apple Health.

00:16:52 ◼   ► Personalized training of this quality can be expensive, but FitBod is just $15.99 a month

00:16:57 ◼   ► or $95.99 a year.

00:16:59 ◼   ► But you can get 25% off your membership by signing up today at FitBod.me slash Cortex.

00:17:05 ◼   ► That is F-I-T-B-O-D dot me.

00:17:07 ◼   ► Go now and get your customized fitness plan at FitBod.me slash Cortex and you'll get 25%

00:17:13 ◼   ► of your membership.

00:17:14 ◼   ► A thanks to FitBod for the support of this show and Relay.

00:17:17 ◼   ► With any type of content creation, there's always a balance, I think, between what you as the

00:17:24 ◼   ► creator want to do and what you believe or hear that your audience expects you to create

00:17:29 ◼   ► for them.

00:17:29 ◼   ► Sure.

00:17:30 ◼   ► Is this a balance that you're working through?

00:17:32 ◼   ► No.

00:17:33 ◼   ► You just do what you want to make?

00:17:35 ◼   ► This is another thing I think about all the time.

00:17:37 ◼   ► I should be so much better about optimizing my content.

00:17:40 ◼   ► I should be looking at trends, figuring out what my audience likes and doesn't like,

00:17:45 ◼   ► who they are.

00:17:47 ◼   ► And I remember when I first started at The Verge, I was like hyper fixated on like figuring out who

00:17:51 ◼   ► The Verge audience was and what they wanted.

00:17:54 ◼   ► It's important to do that.

00:17:56 ◼   ► And I think subconsciously I do that a lot.

00:17:58 ◼   ► But increasingly, I have found the most success in making a video about something that I am

00:18:04 ◼   ► passionate about.

00:18:05 ◼   ► And when I've tried to chase numbers, I've fallen flat, you know, around iPhone time.

00:18:10 ◼   ► It's like, OK, well, an iPhone review will do really, really well because everyone cares

00:18:14 ◼   ► about the iPhone.

00:18:14 ◼   ► But it's like if me and a hundred other people are seeing that that content is going to do

00:18:19 ◼   ► well, then I'm fighting with a hundred other people over views.

00:18:23 ◼   ► And I've found that if I can just center things around what I care about and what I like and

00:18:27 ◼   ► build an audience of similar mind, I can have some success.

00:18:31 ◼   ► And I don't think that's the right answer for everybody.

00:18:33 ◼   ► I feel very lucky that I can do that.

00:18:35 ◼   ► And like I said, I think subconsciously I do think about these things.

00:18:39 ◼   ► But yeah, that's how I go about it.

00:18:41 ◼   ► And I don't know if that's right or wrong, but here I am.

00:18:43 ◼   ► Yeah, I often have spoken about and consider myself very lucky that podcasting doesn't have

00:18:50 ◼   ► an algorithm.

00:18:51 ◼   ► And a lot of people in the industry are very upset about this because it's basically impossible

00:18:55 ◼   ► to go viral with a podcast, right?

00:18:58 ◼   ► It's why so many podcasts are trying to move to YouTube, right?

00:19:01 ◼   ► Because they're trying to get into the algorithms that are trying to create these sets, etc.

00:19:04 ◼   ► But for me, podcasting is an audio medium.

00:19:07 ◼   ► That's what I love about it.

00:19:08 ◼   ► And that's what I make.

00:19:09 ◼   ► But it limits you.

00:19:10 ◼   ► But at the same time, I'm then not constantly asking questions about myself as to whether I'm

00:19:16 ◼   ► creating something that's best for the algorithm.

00:19:18 ◼   ► I'm trying to create what I think is what my listeners want to hear and the types of

00:19:23 ◼   ► shows that I want to make.

00:19:23 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:19:24 ◼   ► I like that.

00:19:25 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:19:25 ◼   ► It's just way more soul filling as well.

00:19:27 ◼   ► Yes.

00:19:28 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:19:28 ◼   ► It's brutal to chase something and then make content about something you're not passionate

00:19:32 ◼   ► about because you want to fit into an algorithm.

00:19:35 ◼   ► I mean, I just think that's going to show eventually in your content too.

00:19:37 ◼   ► I want to talk about how you organize your video production.

00:19:41 ◼   ► Okay.

00:19:41 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:19:42 ◼   ► Okay.

00:19:43 ◼   ► When you have an idea, do you have an idea for a video?

00:19:45 ◼   ► Something pops into your head.

00:19:46 ◼   ► Where does it go?

00:19:48 ◼   ► Where do you put that idea?

00:19:48 ◼   ► I love this conversation because it's really messy.

00:19:51 ◼   ► Okay.

00:19:52 ◼   ► And I think every time I have this conversation, I'm like, wow, people must really be like,

00:19:55 ◼   ► it's amazing that Becca has gotten this far.

00:19:57 ◼   ► But there's more process than I think I give myself credit for.

00:20:00 ◼   ► It's just, I do it also subconsciously.

00:20:02 ◼   ► So when I have an idea, it gets written down somewhere.

00:20:06 ◼   ► I'm a big post-it note person.

00:20:09 ◼   ► I have notes, I have notes in my phone, I have scripts in Google Drive, and so it gets written

00:20:14 ◼   ► down somewhere.

00:20:15 ◼   ► Increasingly, I have like a notion board where I just start to like put ideas on a calendar.

00:20:20 ◼   ► And then as things come up, I kind of move them around.

00:20:23 ◼   ► So that's where the idea starts.

00:20:25 ◼   ► Once I have time to make a video about an idea, I just dive in.

00:20:31 ◼   ► I've usually been using whatever product I want to talk about for a long time.

00:20:35 ◼   ► And so I've already been collecting video of me using it.

00:20:39 ◼   ► For example, I'm making a video about this smartwatch right now.

00:20:42 ◼   ► I've been wearing this smartwatch since early October.

00:20:44 ◼   ► And a couple of weeks into using it, I was like, oh my God, this is the first smartwatch

00:20:50 ◼   ► I've ever liked and I want to keep wearing.

00:20:52 ◼   ► And as soon as I had that idea, I just started filming myself when I was out in the world and

00:20:58 ◼   ► I was enjoying it.

00:20:59 ◼   ► Or I was like running and I had stats on it or biking.

00:21:02 ◼   ► And so I just start collecting assets.

00:21:05 ◼   ► And I don't even know where they're going to go if there's going to be a video about

00:21:08 ◼   ► them, but I'm just going to start collecting assets.

00:21:10 ◼   ► So I guess that's the first step of the process.

00:21:12 ◼   ► Then a time came when I finally had time to make a video about the smartwatch.

00:21:16 ◼   ► So then I just start gathering those assets.

00:21:19 ◼   ► I start writing a script and I just start making a video.

00:21:23 ◼   ► I imagine because a lot of your videos are focused around a product.

00:21:27 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:21:27 ◼   ► There is a time in which the video is likely to be made, which is the time that you have said

00:21:32 ◼   ► product.

00:21:33 ◼   ► If the product goes away, it's unlikely that the video will be made.

00:21:38 ◼   ► There are like physical reminders and constraints about what you may or may not want to be working

00:21:43 ◼   ► on for a lot of the videos that you're working on.

00:21:45 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:21:45 ◼   ► A hundred percent.

00:21:46 ◼   ► What smartwatch is that, by the way?

00:21:47 ◼   ► This is the Garmin Forerunner 165.

00:21:50 ◼   ► So in the video, I explain that I got the Meta Oakley Vanguards smart glasses in for review.

00:21:56 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:21:57 ◼   ► And a big feature of them is that they sync with a Garmin watch.

00:21:59 ◼   ► But I didn't own a Garmin watch.

00:22:01 ◼   ► And historically, I have not enjoyed smartwatches.

00:22:05 ◼   ► I just don't end up wearing them for a long time because the battery dies.

00:22:08 ◼   ► I forget to charge it because it's pinging me all the time.

00:22:10 ◼   ► And I just, I don't need my phone on my wrist.

00:22:13 ◼   ► And so I canceled out smartwatches for myself.

00:22:15 ◼   ► But I needed to buy one to review these glasses.

00:22:18 ◼   ► And so I hit up a good friend of mine who reviews smartwatches.

00:22:22 ◼   ► And I said, what's like a cheap Garmin that doesn't suck?

00:22:25 ◼   ► And she's like, just get the Forerunner 165.

00:22:28 ◼   ► I got it used on eBay.

00:22:29 ◼   ► I thought nothing of it.

00:22:31 ◼   ► And then as I explained, I ended up falling in love with it because it's not my phone on my wrist.

00:22:36 ◼   ► It's like a very dedicated device to running mostly, but also just like tracking your vitals and such.

00:22:44 ◼   ► And I guess the funny thing is this watch was supposed to be just an accessory for probably a video about the Oakleys.

00:22:52 ◼   ► And then it's ended up, that's the thing.

00:22:54 ◼   ► Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:22:55 ◼   ► No, I made the video about the Oakleys, which was fine.

00:22:58 ◼   ► That was one of those videos I made just because I wanted to hit embargo and it did fine.

00:23:01 ◼   ► So yeah, anyway, this watch kind of took over my life and I love it.

00:23:05 ◼   ► And I made a video about it.

00:23:06 ◼   ► You mentioned Notion.

00:23:07 ◼   ► That sounds like a content planner.

00:23:10 ◼   ► It is.

00:23:11 ◼   ► Like, is it laid out?

00:23:12 ◼   ► You've got videos, you know when they're coming out, like they're moving around.

00:23:16 ◼   ► No, it's a calendar.

00:23:17 ◼   ► I'd use just the calendar feature and I could use Google Calendar.

00:23:19 ◼   ► I could use any calendar.

00:23:20 ◼   ► Yeah, I just make an event when I have a video idea and I just like put it in the next month.

00:23:26 ◼   ► And then every month I look at like all of the video ideas I have and I just schedule them out.

00:23:30 ◼   ► Right.

00:23:30 ◼   ► Okay.

00:23:31 ◼   ► Do you put like social posts and stuff in there as well?

00:23:35 ◼   ► No.

00:23:35 ◼   ► Oh my God.

00:23:36 ◼   ► Your listeners are going to be like, God, this girl's a mess.

00:23:39 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:23:41 ◼   ► I'm not sure that I've met a person who has a content planner that actually sticks for them.

00:23:45 ◼   ► I feel like everyone's constantly moving things around.

00:23:48 ◼   ► It's a trend that I started to uncover in these episodes of like people are moving things around

00:23:54 ◼   ► and then they move to a new system and also no one else on the team is observing the notion.

00:23:57 ◼   ► You know, it's that kind of thing.

00:23:58 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:23:59 ◼   ► That's the other part that kind of makes me scared about bringing another person into my process

00:24:04 ◼   ► is then there would have to be process.

00:24:06 ◼   ► It could be good.

00:24:06 ◼   ► I'm bad.

00:24:07 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:24:07 ◼   ► I always say the first person I want to hire is my boss.

00:24:10 ◼   ► Like I just need somebody to tell me what to do.

00:24:12 ◼   ► Really.

00:24:13 ◼   ► I'm very good at like being like the swimmer underwater and I need someone with like a periscope

00:24:18 ◼   ► that can look into the future and kind of guide things.

00:24:21 ◼   ► But the notion board.

00:24:23 ◼   ► Social has not historically been an incredible driver of followers to YouTube for me.

00:24:28 ◼   ► Everyone says you make social videos to pull people over to YouTube.

00:24:31 ◼   ► And I'm sure for some folks that really works.

00:24:33 ◼   ► For me, I have not seen the proof in the pudding on that.

00:24:36 ◼   ► But there's a lot of things I want to talk about that I can't make a video that's eight

00:24:40 ◼   ► minutes long about.

00:24:41 ◼   ► And that's where I see social fitting in.

00:24:43 ◼   ► Like I can just make a quick video about something interesting that I saw or a product that I'm

00:24:48 ◼   ► liking, but I don't have a lot to say about.

00:24:49 ◼   ► So that's what I do with social.

00:24:51 ◼   ► And there's not really a plan for that.

00:24:53 ◼   ► It's kind of like, oh, I have a few hours today and there's this thing I wanted to talk

00:24:56 ◼   ► about.

00:24:56 ◼   ► I guess I'll make a social video because I can usually put those together within hours.

00:25:00 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:00 ◼   ► I always think of the social stuff really is kind of like brand advertising.

00:25:03 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:04 ◼   ► And it's hard to try and equate that putting things on Instagram and TikTok will get you

00:25:10 ◼   ► YouTube viewers.

00:25:11 ◼   ► But with all these algorithms working the way that they are, you would hope that eventually

00:25:16 ◼   ► people will become familiar with you in one place and then maybe recognize you in another.

00:25:22 ◼   ► And there's a benefit to that if it does do that.

00:25:24 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:25 ◼   ► And I think it works really well for folks who do like podcasting or have like shows, you

00:25:30 ◼   ► know, I think of like subway takes.

00:25:31 ◼   ► I knew them first on Instagram, you know, quick one minute long snippets.

00:25:36 ◼   ► And then it was so good that I was like, you know, I could watch eight minutes of that.

00:25:40 ◼   ► And I went over and did that.

00:25:41 ◼   ► And I'm sure there's a way that I could do that as well.

00:25:44 ◼   ► But it's just not where my mind is right now.

00:25:46 ◼   ► How much writing goes into your videos beforehand?

00:25:50 ◼   ► Do you write scripts that you read?

00:25:52 ◼   ► Do you write bullet points?

00:25:53 ◼   ► Are you researching that?

00:25:55 ◼   ► What does that look like?

00:25:56 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:25:56 ◼   ► I script every video, but I usually only end up scripting half of it.

00:26:00 ◼   ► So I start with a script and I bullet out my main points and I get an intro really well

00:26:06 ◼   ► written out.

00:26:07 ◼   ► And then I dive into the edit and I start saying it out loud and seeing how it's going to cut

00:26:11 ◼   ► together.

00:26:12 ◼   ► And that's when the edit sort of takes over.

00:26:15 ◼   ► So usually I have about half the script written when I jump into the edit and then I get a feel

00:26:19 ◼   ► for pace and flow and all of that.

00:26:21 ◼   ► And then there comes a point when I'm just doing VO into a mic right into Adobe Premiere.

00:26:25 ◼   ► Interesting.

00:26:26 ◼   ► So your voiceover is usually informed by how the video is coming together?

00:26:30 ◼   ► Yes.

00:26:31 ◼   ► And like I said, I script the first half and I'll usually record just like I'm talking

00:26:36 ◼   ► to you right now into Adobe Premiere and I'll, you know, kind of ham it up the way that I

00:26:40 ◼   ► talk to camera and this and that.

00:26:42 ◼   ► But then once I put music in, I like to change where I'm like emphasizing words or what I'm

00:26:48 ◼   ► saying to like best fit what a viewer is seeing on the screen.

00:26:51 ◼   ► And coming back to hiring somebody, this has been another challenge for me because so much

00:26:57 ◼   ► of my video is like made in the edit.

00:27:00 ◼   ► And it is like my thing, you know, and I re-record lines.

00:27:04 ◼   ► Holy cow.

00:27:05 ◼   ► So many times over.

00:27:07 ◼   ► A lot of the two camera stuff is usually on a first or second take.

00:27:11 ◼   ► I can usually get that pretty easy.

00:27:12 ◼   ► But the voiceover gets redone and redone and redone.

00:27:15 ◼   ► I'm a perfectionist.

00:27:17 ◼   ► Did that perfectionism come before working in a large newsroom?

00:27:22 ◼   ► That's a great question.

00:27:23 ◼   ► I've always been somebody who likes to practice something.

00:27:27 ◼   ► Repetition gets me into a flow.

00:27:30 ◼   ► And so I think naturally, just like nailing a voiceover is the repetition and perfectionism

00:27:37 ◼   ► has always been within me.

00:27:38 ◼   ► Yes.

00:27:39 ◼   ► I will say it's gotten a lot worse now that I'm just myself.

00:27:43 ◼   ► You know, I don't have to meet as many deadlines.

00:27:45 ◼   ► And so I have time to just redo the same part over and over and over again.

00:27:49 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:27:49 ◼   ► That's going back to what you were saying about wanting to hire your own boss, right?

00:27:53 ◼   ► It would be nice for someone to be bugging you about a video rather than if you're in control

00:28:00 ◼   ► of that process, you kind of wanting to make it better and better to the point that it can

00:28:04 ◼   ► kind of spiral.

00:28:05 ◼   ► 100%.

00:28:06 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:28:06 ◼   ► I also sometimes just need somebody to tell me the voiceover you did 10 takes ago sounds

00:28:12 ◼   ► exactly the same as the one you just picked.

00:28:14 ◼   ► Did you bring over any methods or systems that you learned from your days as part of a big

00:28:20 ◼   ► organization that help you now?

00:28:21 ◼   ► 100%.

00:28:23 ◼   ► I think the most noticeable one and maybe the one that matters the least is like my file

00:28:27 ◼   ► structure.

00:28:27 ◼   ► I use the same exact file structures that I was using at The Verge that they taught me.

00:28:31 ◼   ► I didn't know anything about file structures.

00:28:33 ◼   ► So I use the same file structures, you know, the largest thing is I came from a newsroom

00:28:38 ◼   ► full of like really incredible journalists and I learned a lot about just like reporting.

00:28:42 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:28:43 ◼   ► What questions to ask in an interview, how to structure a review, how to talk to PR, how to

00:28:50 ◼   ► talk to sources, all of that I've definitely brought over and oh my gosh, that information

00:28:56 ◼   ► is just like so valuable now.

00:28:57 ◼   ► I imagine that is a thing that is very hard to learn otherwise.

00:29:01 ◼   ► Like if you're an independent content creator, like learning those kinds of interactions

00:29:07 ◼   ► would be difficult.

00:29:09 ◼   ► Yeah, I feel so blessed.

00:29:10 ◼   ► And I never in a million years thought I was going to be in any sort of journalism realm.

00:29:16 ◼   ► And I don't really consider myself like a hardcore journalist.

00:29:20 ◼   ► And I think if I had been left to my own devices, I would have never learned best practices in

00:29:25 ◼   ► journalism.

00:29:25 ◼   ► But the fact that I was in a newsroom making videos with journalists, I just naturally started

00:29:29 ◼   ► to pick those things up.

00:29:31 ◼   ► And it's worth its weight in gold.

00:29:32 ◼   ► Yeah, because in these scenarios when you're working with companies and PR and access and

00:29:38 ◼   ► stuff, it is in their interest to not have you ask them questions a lot of the time, right?

00:29:43 ◼   ► And I think that if you've not come from that world and not been kind of shown the standards

00:29:48 ◼   ► and rigor that an organization like The Verge would have, you could maybe get run over a

00:29:55 ◼   ► little bit more.

00:29:55 ◼   ► That kind of stuff.

00:29:56 ◼   ► 100%.

00:29:57 ◼   ► And I think speaking to rigor to just like having ethics at all, you know, I sometimes

00:30:03 ◼   ► wish that other creators had a bit more of that.

00:30:06 ◼   ► This episode is brought to you by Squarespace, the all in one website platform that is designed

00:30:12 ◼   ► to help you stand out and succeed online.

00:30:14 ◼   ► Whether you're just starting out or scaling a business, Squarespace gives you everything

00:30:18 ◼   ► that you need to claim your domain, showcase your offerings of a professional website, grow

00:30:23 ◼   ► your brand and get paid all in one place.

00:30:25 ◼   ► Once you've built your website with Squarespace, which is super easy to do, they have wonderful

00:30:29 ◼   ► templates that you can get started with, but you can customize things to your heart's content.

00:30:33 ◼   ► They have all of the tools and functionality you'd want to make that an easy and enjoyable

00:30:37 ◼   ► experience.

00:30:37 ◼   ► You want to make sure that your website, once it's up and running, can be found.

00:30:41 ◼   ► So you want to get discovered fast with integrated SEO tools, because why would you build that

00:30:46 ◼   ► beautiful website for nobody to ever see it?

00:30:48 ◼   ► Every Squarespace website is optimized to be indexed with meta descriptions and auto-generated

00:30:53 ◼   ► sitemap and more, so people find your site through search engine results.

00:30:57 ◼   ► And then once people have found your website, you can make smarter decisions with their analytics

00:31:01 ◼   ► system to keep track of the stats that matter with intuitive built-in analytics tools, making

00:31:06 ◼   ► it super easy for you to review website traffic, learn where to focus engagement, and track revenue

00:31:11 ◼   ► from bookings, invoices, or product sales.

00:31:13 ◼   ► As well as websites, Squarespace also do email campaigns.

00:31:16 ◼   ► I've been playing around with this recently for something that I'm working on, and I've

00:31:20 ◼   ► really valued how simple and good-looking the system is.

00:31:23 ◼   ► I was looking around, but I ended up deciding on Squarespace for this, because I know how

00:31:28 ◼   ► to use the tools, sure, because they're so easy, and they're so practical, and they're really

00:31:32 ◼   ► simplified in a way that I enjoy, while still having all of the power, control, and looks

00:31:37 ◼   ► that I want to be able to talk to my email subscribers.

00:31:40 ◼   ► I've been a big fan of playing around with it, it's doing exactly what I want it to

00:31:43 ◼   ► do, as I would expect from Squarespace.

00:31:46 ◼   ► Go and try this out for yourself today by going to squarespace.com slash cortex, and you can

00:31:51 ◼   ► sign up for a free trial.

00:31:52 ◼   ► When you're ready to launch, use the offer code cortex, and you'll save 10% of your first purchase

00:31:56 ◼   ► of a website or domain.

00:31:57 ◼   ► That is squarespace.com slash cortex with the offer code cortex, and you'll get 10% of your

00:32:02 ◼   ► first purchase and show your support for the show.

00:32:04 ◼   ► Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and Relay.

00:32:08 ◼   ► You mentioned that you work with someone on thumbnails and branding.

00:32:13 ◼   ► How did you consider the branding for your channel, and I guess for yourself, when you started

00:32:19 ◼   ► this endeavor, and how has that evolved over time?

00:32:22 ◼   ► I didn't really think about the branding.

00:32:24 ◼   ► No.

00:32:25 ◼   ► I mean, I tried, but it's just not in my nature.

00:32:27 ◼   ► I think I was like, oh, I'll just hand draw everything, because then it's my handwriting,

00:32:31 ◼   ► and that's just natural branding, right?

00:32:34 ◼   ► Bad idea.

00:32:36 ◼   ► It just looks sloppy, and I knew something needed to change, but I didn't necessarily

00:32:41 ◼   ► know when I was going to get to that, and I got cold emailed by this guy, Jonas, who's

00:32:46 ◼   ► incredible, and I link him and talk about him in my one year in video, but he cold emailed

00:32:51 ◼   ► me, and he's like, Becca, I could really help you, and I ignored it, and then he emailed

00:32:56 ◼   ► me again, and he said, I meant what I said, and here is some mock-ups of what branding for

00:33:01 ◼   ► your Patreon could look like, and I was like, oh, who is this guy, but I guess I'll look,

00:33:05 ◼   ► and I looked, and it was incredible.

00:33:07 ◼   ► I was like, oh my god, my Patreon could look like that?

00:33:11 ◼   ► And I was totally dazzled.

00:33:13 ◼   ► It worked.

00:33:14 ◼   ► And so I hit him back up, and we just started talking, and he really picked apart my brand,

00:33:20 ◼   ► and he also compared it to so many other YouTubers in the tech space, and what was working for them,

00:33:25 ◼   ► and not working for them, and he did just this, like, incredible breakdown of who I was.

00:33:31 ◼   ► He gave me a lot of options.

00:33:33 ◼   ► We explored, like, three very different looks.

00:33:35 ◼   ► We landed on something that felt outdoorsy brand, but organic, bright, and yeah, I'm so proud of it.

00:33:42 ◼   ► I still have to do my profile photo, which is totally on me.

00:33:45 ◼   ► I just need to, like, go outside and take it all in time.

00:33:49 ◼   ► But yeah, we picked, like, fonts and colors, and the thumbnail is, I think, the biggest noticeable difference.

00:33:56 ◼   ► I was really lost with thumbnail design before I met him, but he taught me that, like, it doesn't have to be hard.

00:34:01 ◼   ► It just has to be consistent, and we came up with a sort of template.

00:34:04 ◼   ► And now I do feel that, like, when you see one of my thumbnails, it looks different enough from everyone else's,

00:34:10 ◼   ► and if you've seen it before and you recognize it, you're going to recognize it for the rest of eternity, hopefully.

00:34:16 ◼   ► Do you do A-B testing and all that kind of stuff with your thumbnails?

00:34:20 ◼   ► I do, yeah.

00:34:21 ◼   ► I test different thumbs and different titles, and then even a few days later, I'll try something new.

00:34:26 ◼   ► I find it to be helpful.

00:34:28 ◼   ► I love when people comment, oh, I saw two thumbnails for this.

00:34:31 ◼   ► I really liked this one.

00:34:32 ◼   ► I love that.

00:34:33 ◼   ► Awesome.

00:34:33 ◼   ► That people notice and give me feedback.

00:34:36 ◼   ► I think it's incredible.

00:34:37 ◼   ► So, yeah, always testing it and trying new things and seeing what's resonating with folks.

00:34:42 ◼   ► A moment ago, you mentioned you're one year in video.

00:34:46 ◼   ► So, you made a video that was kind of breaking down what one year as an independent YouTuber was like.

00:34:53 ◼   ► You went very open with how the process works, how money was working.

00:34:58 ◼   ► What made you want to make that video?

00:35:00 ◼   ► Because I want to know what everyone else is making, man.

00:35:02 ◼   ► That is a great reason.

00:35:04 ◼   ► And if I want to know what everyone else is doing, then I have to be willing to provide my own insights as well.

00:35:10 ◼   ► That mixed with, in a good way, I have felt eyes on me.

00:35:14 ◼   ► You know, when I left The Verge, I could feel people watching.

00:35:18 ◼   ► What's she going to do?

00:35:19 ◼   ► Is she going to be successful?

00:35:21 ◼   ► Is this going to work?

00:35:22 ◼   ► Both from my peers, from my audience.

00:35:24 ◼   ► And why not share how it's going?

00:35:28 ◼   ► And show that it is working.

00:35:30 ◼   ► Yeah, and I knew as soon as I left The Verge that I was going to make that video in a year.

00:35:34 ◼   ► That was a plan all along.

00:35:35 ◼   ► So, I did.

00:35:36 ◼   ► And it felt really good.

00:35:37 ◼   ► I think, you know, I'm such a maker that unless I'm making a video about something, I don't, like, spend the time to really think about it.

00:35:44 ◼   ► And it was really nice to spend some time thinking about my first year, what went well, what didn't, where my income was coming from.

00:35:49 ◼   ► And so, yeah, if I can just, like, input that homework into making a video, then I'll actually do the homework.

00:35:55 ◼   ► Was there any concern in people judging you?

00:35:58 ◼   ► Or, like, was that a thing you thought about when being that open?

00:36:02 ◼   ► It's not something you see people do often.

00:36:04 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:36:05 ◼   ► I mean, I am, like, a very outward queer woman, right?

00:36:09 ◼   ► And I have almost always looked like this.

00:36:12 ◼   ► And so, my entire life, I have been perceived and judged.

00:36:17 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:36:17 ◼   ► And so, it's something that I'm very comfortable with now.

00:36:20 ◼   ► And so, if someone wants to judge me for how much money I made or how I'm going about my business, like, go ahead.

00:36:27 ◼   ► Because of the list of things Becca doesn't care about, it's what people think about me.

00:36:30 ◼   ► You have a much stronger suit of armor than caring how much money you made and what people think of that, right?

00:36:35 ◼   ► Does not bother me.

00:36:36 ◼   ► I mean, of course, like, I am sensitive and I, you know, just like anyone else.

00:36:41 ◼   ► But, yeah, I try not to let that sensitivity or fear of judgment get in my way of what I'm going to do in life.

00:36:47 ◼   ► And I hope that by me doing that inspires someone else to do that and that we can all speak more openly about whatever it is.

00:36:54 ◼   ► I think all content creators at some point get struck by the fear.

00:37:00 ◼   ► This thing is not going to work or it's going to come crumbling down.

00:37:06 ◼   ► When I was at The Verge, I did a series about creators and I went and spent a day with three creators.

00:37:18 ◼   ► And every one of them, at some point, I was like, what do you fear?

00:37:25 ◼   ► And they said, I fear that one day all the sponsorships will go away, the audience will go away, and I'll have to find something new to do.

00:37:33 ◼   ► All of them said that in some capacity.

00:37:35 ◼   ► And I didn't really understand it.

00:37:37 ◼   ► I was like, oh, what are you talking about?

00:37:38 ◼   ► You're like, well, on your way.

00:37:40 ◼   ► And now I feel that deeply.

00:37:43 ◼   ► I'm like, what if tomorrow every sponsor, like, for example, last spring when Trump took office and put in all of these tariffs, brand deals were a lot harder to come by.

00:37:56 ◼   ► Like, all of a sudden, everyone was really scared to spend money, and I was, like, just getting started in that space.

00:38:01 ◼   ► And that's when the fear struck.

00:38:03 ◼   ► Yep.

00:38:04 ◼   ► What if everybody just pulls out?

00:38:06 ◼   ► What am I going to do?

00:38:08 ◼   ► And so that lives with me.

00:38:09 ◼   ► You know, like, what if my videos start tanking?

00:38:12 ◼   ► But I can only live day by day.

00:38:14 ◼   ► I can only make one video at a time.

00:38:16 ◼   ► And so that's what I do.

00:38:17 ◼   ► There was a time when that did happen.

00:38:20 ◼   ► It was March of 2020.

00:38:22 ◼   ► Every sponsor said, we're going to stop.

00:38:27 ◼   ► Like, we had this.

00:38:28 ◼   ► That was the scariest time of my career.

00:38:30 ◼   ► Because that was when the fear was happening.

00:38:33 ◼   ► And it was happening in real time.

00:38:34 ◼   ► I was watching it happen on a daily basis.

00:38:37 ◼   ► And so, you know, I do feel like that experience kind of strengthened me a little bit.

00:38:43 ◼   ► Because I realized that the worst can happen, and you can still get through.

00:38:49 ◼   ► I mean, for us, we lent on our audience at that time.

00:38:51 ◼   ► That was when we really kind of started saying, like, hey, if you enjoy this content, support it.

00:38:55 ◼   ► Yep.

00:38:55 ◼   ► So, I know you have a Patreon.

00:38:57 ◼   ► Maybe that's for a similar thing.

00:38:59 ◼   ► But having that diversification ultimately is what can weather these storms.

00:39:04 ◼   ► Because advertising will always come and go.

00:39:06 ◼   ► And hopefully it just doesn't all go at the same time again.

00:39:11 ◼   ► Have you spent any time thinking about how your production can be sustainable for you?

00:39:20 ◼   ► Are you protecting against burnout?

00:39:22 ◼   ► Has that been something you've been thinking about?

00:39:24 ◼   ► I burn out all the time, man.

00:39:26 ◼   ► Okay.

00:39:26 ◼   ► I burn out once a week.

00:39:28 ◼   ► Yes and no.

00:39:30 ◼   ► I mean...

00:39:30 ◼   ► Well, you mentioned you're taking vacations.

00:39:32 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:39:32 ◼   ► I've kind of always been raised with this, like, hard worker mentality.

00:39:35 ◼   ► This, like, oh, you're burnt out?

00:39:37 ◼   ► Get back up on the horse.

00:39:38 ◼   ► You know?

00:39:39 ◼   ► Keep going.

00:39:39 ◼   ► And I know that's not sustainable forever.

00:39:41 ◼   ► And it certainly hasn't been always sustainable, even in this small career.

00:39:44 ◼   ► But I'm lucky that my job is to make videos that I love.

00:39:50 ◼   ► And I mentioned earlier, if I'm not loving a video, it is not going to be a good video.

00:39:55 ◼   ► And so I step away and I do something else.

00:39:57 ◼   ► Or a really good example is this watch video that I'm making right now.

00:40:02 ◼   ► Watches are really boring to film.

00:40:05 ◼   ► And I've been struggling so much.

00:40:07 ◼   ► And I've been dragging my feet on this video because I'm just not having fun.

00:40:10 ◼   ► And I've been feeling that, like, burnout.

00:40:12 ◼   ► Like, I've just been trying to make this video and it's not working.

00:40:15 ◼   ► And I'm tired and I'm over it.

00:40:17 ◼   ► And so on Sunday, I was like, what if instead of filming the watch directly, I just started

00:40:23 ◼   ► filming myself using it?

00:40:25 ◼   ► Because the whole idea with this watch is that it actually gets me outside.

00:40:28 ◼   ► It actually gets me doing what I love.

00:40:31 ◼   ► And I was like, what if I just go do what I love?

00:40:32 ◼   ► And I just film it, which is like a classic.

00:40:34 ◼   ► I've done it my whole life.

00:40:35 ◼   ► It's why I love my career because I get to do that.

00:40:37 ◼   ► And so I just went snowshoeing.

00:40:39 ◼   ► And I just got having so much fun.

00:40:43 ◼   ► And I remembered what I love about this process.

00:40:45 ◼   ► I remembered what I love about filming.

00:40:48 ◼   ► I remembered what I love about tech.

00:40:49 ◼   ► It gets me outside, which is the whole ethos of my channel.

00:40:52 ◼   ► And all of a sudden, this video started to get so much more exciting.

00:40:55 ◼   ► And so I think a way I've been dealing with burnout is just to, like, remember to have fun again and remember what I love about this job.

00:41:01 ◼   ► And that's been helping a lot.

00:41:03 ◼   ► Yeah, it does feel like you're able to bridge your love of technology with other things in your life.

00:41:09 ◼   ► And I think that if you're able to use that well, it's good.

00:41:13 ◼   ► I mean, there's always the risk of, you know, you don't want to pull the other parts of your life too much into your work.

00:41:20 ◼   ► I've definitely done that, you know, like I've in my career have tried to make a podcast about everything that I love and then it makes everything that I love also work.

00:41:31 ◼   ► You know, so like trying to find the spots where it's like this part is just for me is important, but it can really help you when you're dealing with the work and you're able to bridge it with a passion.

00:41:42 ◼   ► It can pull you through.

00:41:43 ◼   ► I tread that line dangerously because, I mean, my videos are so much about my life and the things I love.

00:41:51 ◼   ► And I do feel that sometimes.

00:41:53 ◼   ► But I'm just someone that, like, I can't learn a lesson until, like, it happens to me.

00:41:58 ◼   ► And so these are just things that I will learn in time.

00:42:00 ◼   ► I'll say a thing.

00:42:01 ◼   ► You can choose to think about it or not, but just find a hobby that you don't make content about.

00:42:06 ◼   ► Of course.

00:42:06 ◼   ► That has been the thing that has really helped me just so you've still got that little piece just for you.

00:42:12 ◼   ► You know, this one's just my thing.

00:42:13 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:42:13 ◼   ► Well, and I learned that lesson at The Verge.

00:42:16 ◼   ► You know, my hobby had always been photography, you know, and it's not even like going out and taking beautiful photos.

00:42:22 ◼   ► No, it was like my hobby was just going out in the world with a camera.

00:42:24 ◼   ► And at The Verge, I started getting paid to do that.

00:42:27 ◼   ► And it didn't ruin the hobby.

00:42:29 ◼   ► I still love it.

00:42:30 ◼   ► But it definitely took a huge toll.

00:42:32 ◼   ► And so I learned that lesson big back then.

00:42:35 ◼   ► This is such a obvious question, but I'm going to ask it anyway, which is, what has been the biggest lesson you've learned in your first, say, 18 months for your first year?

00:42:46 ◼   ► There's been so many lessons.

00:42:48 ◼   ► I think a big one, and I haven't learned this in like this huge detrimental way, but something that just keeps coming back to me is I need to always do things for me.

00:42:58 ◼   ► Don't do things for sponsors.

00:43:00 ◼   ► Don't do things for your manager.

00:43:01 ◼   ► Even like do things for your audience, but don't do everything for your audience.

00:43:06 ◼   ► Just keep like me as the North Star.

00:43:09 ◼   ► I can feel this in a way that I have found impressive, which is how you handle sponsors in your content.

00:43:17 ◼   ► It still feels very much like you.

00:43:19 ◼   ► I mean, I know how hard it is to find and work with companies who will allow you to have your personality still as part of that.

00:43:29 ◼   ► Definitely harder, but definitely easier to stomach, I think.

00:43:35 ◼   ► Yeah. I mean, I'm very privileged that people really want to work with me.

00:43:40 ◼   ► I am privileged that we get so much inbound, and that is not lost on me.

00:43:45 ◼   ► But if I have that privilege, I'm going to use it, and I'm going to say no to the things that don't resonate with me.

00:43:52 ◼   ► And so the sponsors that you see in my videos, like, I am genuinely using those things.

00:43:58 ◼   ► I genuinely have something to say about them.

00:44:00 ◼   ► What is your experience like of audience feedback?

00:44:03 ◼   ► I read a lot of comments.

00:44:06 ◼   ► I do.

00:44:07 ◼   ► And I feel so blessed that for some reason, I have the coolest people around me that support me and love my work.

00:44:16 ◼   ► And so a lot of my feedback is very positive.

00:44:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:44:19 ◼   ► And even when it's not, folks are like, Becca, I love your videos, but this was like a miss.

00:44:24 ◼   ► It's always constructive feedback that's good.

00:44:30 ◼   ► And of course, I get a lot of negative comments too, which is fair.

00:44:33 ◼   ► That's the internet.

00:44:34 ◼   ► Whatever.

00:44:35 ◼   ► But I'm mentally pretty able to like distinguish what is helpful and what is just someone trying

00:44:42 ◼   ► to, you know, hit me at the knees.

00:44:43 ◼   ► Constructive feedback.

00:44:45 ◼   ► It feels like it's, this is like an oversaid thing at this point, but it's just so helpful

00:44:51 ◼   ► because you need people to give you their feelings in a way that you could do something about.

00:44:58 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:44:58 ◼   ► Well, and I think it goes both ways.

00:45:00 ◼   ► Like you have to show that you're willing to take feedback, right?

00:45:02 ◼   ► Yes, definitely.

00:45:03 ◼   ► And if you're willing to take it, then people will give it in a really constructive way.

00:45:06 ◼   ► You mentioned earlier a mentor.

00:45:08 ◼   ► Do you have people that you can trust to give you honest feedback on your work?

00:45:14 ◼   ► Yes.

00:45:15 ◼   ► I think it's the most important part of the process.

00:45:17 ◼   ► I have some very close friends and mentors that I can send things to and be like, please

00:45:23 ◼   ► be brutally honest.

00:45:24 ◼   ► And they will.

00:45:25 ◼   ► And there are also people that when they say it's good, I know that they're not just saying

00:45:30 ◼   ► it's good because they should.

00:45:33 ◼   ► They're saying it's good because it actually is.

00:45:35 ◼   ► So yes, 100%.

00:45:36 ◼   ► I have some brutally honest, wonderful people in my life and everybody should.

00:45:40 ◼   ► This episode of Claude Sex is brought to you by Century.

00:45:45 ◼   ► Applications break in all kinds of ways.

00:45:47 ◼   ► Crashes, the slowdowns, the regressions, the stuff that you only see once real users hit

00:45:52 ◼   ► it.

00:45:52 ◼   ► Century catches all of it.

00:45:54 ◼   ► That's S-E-N-T-R-Y.

00:45:56 ◼   ► With Century, you get traces, replays, errors, profiles, and details around them, like stack

00:46:01 ◼   ► traces, commits, releases, and the developers who broke it all in one connected view.

00:46:05 ◼   ► So you're not jumping between tools trying to figure out what happened.

00:46:08 ◼   ► Century shows you how the request moved, what ran, what slowed down, and what the user saw.

00:46:14 ◼   ► From my experience of working with developers, bug fixes are important, but they stop you

00:46:19 ◼   ► from doing the thing that you want to be doing.

00:46:21 ◼   ► You want to be out there, and your developers want to be out there building new features,

00:46:26 ◼   ► because that's also what your users want.

00:46:27 ◼   ► They want new, cool things to try.

00:46:30 ◼   ► Nobody wants to have to be digging out from a mess because of some error or crash that they

00:46:35 ◼   ► just can't work out.

00:46:36 ◼   ► So Century take care of all of that for you, and make sure that everybody can stay doing

00:46:41 ◼   ► the work that they want to be doing, and if anything pops up, they're going to help you

00:46:44 ◼   ► deal with it super easy.

00:46:45 ◼   ► They have another tool, SEER, which is Century's AI debugging agent.

00:46:49 ◼   ► It uses all of the Century context that tells you the root cause, and then it will suggest

00:46:54 ◼   ► the fix and can even open the pull request for you.

00:46:56 ◼   ► It'll also review your pull requests and flag breaking changes with a fix ready.

00:47:01 ◼   ► Try it for free today at Century.io, that's S-E-N-T-R-Y.io, and tell them that we sent you.

00:47:08 ◼   ► They have a free dev plan, and listeners of this show can use the code CORTEX26, and they'll

00:47:13 ◼   ► get $100 in Century credits.

00:47:15 ◼   ► Our thanks to Century for their support of this show and Relay.

00:47:18 ◼   ► So I ask everybody to send me their home screen, because I think that there's a lot you can tell

00:47:23 ◼   ► about someone, about how they look after their phone's home screen.

00:47:27 ◼   ► I agree.

00:47:28 ◼   ► You win the award so far for the cleanest home screen.

00:47:32 ◼   ► We're talking, I have two screens here.

00:47:35 ◼   ► You told me that there was a third screen, but it's just a calendar, right?

00:47:38 ◼   ► Which we're not going to share with people for obvious reasons, because you're using a Z Fold?

00:47:43 ◼   ► Yes, I am using a Z Fold.

00:47:45 ◼   ► That's your main phone, because you mentioned an iPhone, but that is essentially more like

00:47:48 ◼   ► a camera for you than your device.

00:47:51 ◼   ► Yeah, it's like a content capture device.

00:47:52 ◼   ► Okay, so we have two screens.

00:47:55 ◼   ► I guess the first one is the outside screen, right?

00:47:58 ◼   ► Which is just, we got a dock and we've got a weather widget, so we can kind of put that

00:48:04 ◼   ► one to the side for a minute.

00:48:05 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:48:05 ◼   ► And then we have just a few apps and another widget.

00:48:09 ◼   ► So.

00:48:09 ◼   ► And when, I think the important thing to know is that when you open the phone, those two

00:48:14 ◼   ► screens make one screen.

00:48:15 ◼   ► Great point.

00:48:16 ◼   ► Why is your phone so minimal?

00:48:19 ◼   ► Where are all the apps?

00:48:21 ◼   ► In the drawer.

00:48:22 ◼   ► They're in the app drawer, where they should be.

00:48:23 ◼   ► Okay.

00:48:24 ◼   ► I don't need them out and about.

00:48:26 ◼   ► I like that.

00:48:26 ◼   ► You know, like, I hate, like, iPhones being able to, like, move apps off the home screen,

00:48:32 ◼   ► it's the greatest thing Apple's ever done.

00:48:34 ◼   ► Yes.

00:48:34 ◼   ► I don't want all my apps front and center.

00:48:36 ◼   ► Like, if I want to go looking for an app, I'll just bring up the app drawer.

00:48:39 ◼   ► Yep, I agree.

00:48:40 ◼   ► And I'll find it.

00:48:40 ◼   ► And so, otherwise, it's just the necessities on my home screen, which is music, YouTube

00:48:47 ◼   ► studio, because Lord knows I'm just sitting there looking at metrics.

00:48:51 ◼   ► Sonos, because that's what, you know, I use in my house.

00:48:54 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:48:54 ◼   ► And then just, like, the messenger, like, I use, you know, a couple different messaging

00:48:59 ◼   ► services.

00:49:00 ◼   ► Yep.

00:49:00 ◼   ► And that's it.

00:49:01 ◼   ► It's like, I almost shouldn't even have the camera, like, app, because if I'm opening the

00:49:05 ◼   ► camera, I'm double tapping the power button.

00:49:08 ◼   ► I don't know.

00:49:09 ◼   ► Like, I just don't need anything else.

00:49:10 ◼   ► So, do you search for stuff?

00:49:11 ◼   ► Like, you're searching for things, or you're just scoring through the app list, and you're

00:49:14 ◼   ► just picking what you need?

00:49:15 ◼   ► Well, I think pretty quickly, and I think I could speak for everybody, you learn where

00:49:19 ◼   ► apps are.

00:49:20 ◼   ► Yes.

00:49:20 ◼   ► Even though I'm downloading a lot and getting rid of a lot.

00:49:22 ◼   ► Like, I just know, like, I could probably open Instagram without even looking at my screen.

00:49:27 ◼   ► And I know where it is in the app drawer.

00:49:28 ◼   ► So, I'm just clicking it.

00:49:29 ◼   ► And then if I can't find it, I'm searching.

00:49:30 ◼   ► But, yeah, I mean, I know where things are.

00:49:32 ◼   ► And it's so easy to get to the app drawer.

00:49:34 ◼   ► I mean, it's just as easy as swiping to a different screen.

00:49:36 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:49:37 ◼   ► You just swipe up.

00:49:38 ◼   ► I figured, because I knew you used AZ Fold, I kind of expected more, like, media apps.

00:49:43 ◼   ► Like, video apps and stuff like that.

00:49:45 ◼   ► Like, just, like, straight on the home screen.

00:49:47 ◼   ► But I guess that's just not happening.

00:49:48 ◼   ► Do you use your phone for that kind of stuff?

00:49:50 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:49:51 ◼   ► I'm devouring content on my phone.

00:49:53 ◼   ► Okay.

00:49:54 ◼   ► But I'm also devouring content on my laptop.

00:49:56 ◼   ► Yep.

00:49:57 ◼   ► And I'm also trying to devour less content everywhere.

00:49:59 ◼   ► But it is part of the job.

00:50:01 ◼   ► So, alas.

00:50:03 ◼   ► YouTube Studio has made it to the home screen, though.

00:50:06 ◼   ► Like, that is one you like.

00:50:08 ◼   ► You need it.

00:50:08 ◼   ► You need to know, is this a one out of ten or three out of ten?

00:50:12 ◼   ► You need to know.

00:50:12 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:13 ◼   ► I guess I do.

00:50:14 ◼   ► I use YouTube Studio, of course, to look at analytics.

00:50:17 ◼   ► But I also just mostly use it to read comments.

00:50:19 ◼   ► Okay.

00:50:20 ◼   ► You know, I'm always up in there, just scrolling the community tab, looking at comments, seeing

00:50:24 ◼   ► what people are saying.

00:50:25 ◼   ► And seeing also, you know, like, I haven't posted a video in, like, ten days, which is, like,

00:50:29 ◼   ► a long time for me.

00:50:30 ◼   ► And so, it's been interesting to see what they're commenting on now, because it's a lot of, like,

00:50:34 ◼   ► older videos.

00:50:35 ◼   ► And so, like, what videos are people still commenting on is really interesting to me.

00:50:39 ◼   ► Oh, interesting.

00:50:39 ◼   ► Yeah, because I guess you're less likely to see those comments when you have a new video,

00:50:44 ◼   ► right?

00:50:44 ◼   ► Because that's just going to, like, swamp the system, where now the stuff that's got a longer

00:50:48 ◼   ► tail is being kind of, like, more highlighted to you than it would be otherwise.

00:50:52 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:50:53 ◼   ► The other reason that YouTube Studio is on the home screen is that all of my Google

00:50:56 ◼   ► apps are in a folder in the app drawer.

00:50:59 ◼   ► And so, the one I use most, I just, like, took out of that folder, because then it was,

00:51:02 ◼   ► like, more steps to have to, like, open the app drawer than open the folder.

00:51:05 ◼   ► So, you use phones of all kinds.

00:51:07 ◼   ► You're carrying two at once.

00:51:09 ◼   ► If not many more, yeah.

00:51:11 ◼   ► Every time I'm with a group of friends and I have, like, my camera bag, it's just, like,

00:51:16 ◼   ► full of phones.

00:51:17 ◼   ► It's just like you've committed some kind of heist somewhere.

00:51:20 ◼   ► You're just not going to the T-Mobile store.

00:51:23 ◼   ► Or it's, like, just full of stuff.

00:51:24 ◼   ► I'm, like, a huge show-and-tell person.

00:51:26 ◼   ► Like, I roll up somewhere and I'm, like, okay, let me show you all these things I got.

00:51:29 ◼   ► What makes you choose Android over iOS?

00:51:32 ◼   ► What is it that you like about that for being your daily?

00:51:35 ◼   ► You know, for a tech reviewer, I should have, like, a really good, like, concise answer.

00:51:39 ◼   ► But I will say this instead.

00:51:42 ◼   ► My, like, first phone that I fell in love with was a Galaxy S10 Edge.

00:51:49 ◼   ► I just loved it.

00:51:52 ◼   ► I loved the UI.

00:51:53 ◼   ► I loved the hardware.

00:51:54 ◼   ► And ever since then, when I use specifically a Samsung device, like, it just feels like coming home.

00:52:01 ◼   ► I just like it.

00:52:03 ◼   ► And sometimes they make decisions in the UI that I hate.

00:52:05 ◼   ► And, like, I must admit, Google, oh, my God.

00:52:08 ◼   ► Pixels are just, like, stunning UI.

00:52:11 ◼   ► But for some reason, Android has always just had my heart in a way that I can't describe more than that.

00:52:17 ◼   ► I mean, I'm sure I could dissect it.

00:52:19 ◼   ► Maybe I should make a whole video about it and learn a lot about myself.

00:52:22 ◼   ► But, yeah, I've just always loved Android.

00:52:24 ◼   ► I also really appreciate how customizable it is, how, like, you can get so nitty-gritty in an Android device.

00:52:32 ◼   ► And, you know, increasingly iOS is allowing for that as well.

00:52:36 ◼   ► But for so long, that just wasn't possible.

00:52:38 ◼   ► And as I mentioned, I hated iOS home screens for the longest time.

00:52:43 ◼   ► So, yeah, Android's just kind of always had my heart.

00:52:46 ◼   ► But, you know, I also carry an iPhone.

00:52:49 ◼   ► Like, their camera systems are incredible.

00:52:51 ◼   ► The app ecosystem is just out of this world.

00:52:55 ◼   ► So, there's pros and cons to each system.

00:52:57 ◼   ► But for some reason, Android has my heart.

00:52:59 ◼   ► So, before we wrap up the main show, I want to give you the opportunity for a personal little promotion.

00:53:03 ◼   ► What do you want to tell our audience about?

00:53:06 ◼   ► What do you want them to know about?

00:53:08 ◼   ► What have you working on right now?

00:53:09 ◼   ► What's exciting you?

00:53:10 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:11 ◼   ► F*** ice.

00:53:12 ◼   ► Everything that's happening in my country is weighing on me so heavily.

00:53:16 ◼   ► And so, I can't help but say my piece about that.

00:53:19 ◼   ► Yeah.

00:53:19 ◼   ► First and foremost.

00:53:20 ◼   ► Second, come over, watch a video or two.

00:53:24 ◼   ► Let me know what you think in the comments.

00:53:26 ◼   ► Helpful criticism is always appreciated.

00:53:30 ◼   ► But come see what's going on.

00:53:32 ◼   ► Get outside.

00:53:33 ◼   ► Take your tech outside.

00:53:34 ◼   ► Find a product that pushes you to try something new or meet someone new or build something new.

00:53:41 ◼   ► And go be in the world a little bit.

00:53:45 ◼   ► I really hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Becca.

00:53:48 ◼   ► I was so pleased with how open she was.

00:53:51 ◼   ► But honestly, I expected it considering how forthcoming she's been with her audience.

00:53:55 ◼   ► If you enjoyed this conversation, you're going to love what we speak about on Mortex.

00:53:59 ◼   ► We talk more about how Becca runs the business side of her YouTube channel and how Patreon and merch sales have been going for her so far and how she's thinking about that going forward with her content creating career.

00:54:11 ◼   ► If you want to hear that conversation, go and sign up for Mortex to get longer ad-free episodes.

00:54:15 ◼   ► I want to thank you so much for listening.

00:54:17 ◼   ► I want to thank everyone that writes in with thoughts and feedback about the show.

00:54:21 ◼   ► It really means a lot to me.

00:54:23 ◼   ► I'm thrilled that people are enjoying these interviews.

00:54:25 ◼   ► I'll be back again next month.

00:54:27 ◼   ► Thank you so much for listening.