Joslyn Davis & Lily Marston - On Founding Clevver, Finding their Niche, and their new company, Shared Media

it's gonna be a goodie. Not only because the story of how Clever became a household name is so interesting, it's the most interesting of tales, but also the two people sitting across from we are two of my favorite people on planet Earth. And this is not a joke. Lily Marston and Joslyn Davis were so happy to have you guys here at I Heart. There's so happy to be here. I'm actually curious to hear what you guys think.

When you hear the term influencer, it kind of makes me like throw up a little bit of my own mouth. But at the same time, I think if you get down to the core of what an influencer actually is, it's acceptable and awesome and really cool. And we've been able to build businesses and careers and life based on that word. So when used appropriately, I think it's a great term. I think there's two definitions that come to mind. One is like people that make money from posting stuff

on the Internet. That's like very surface level. Don't think past that. It's just like, um, must be nice. But then the other half of it is like building a brand that you actually have influence on whoever's watching. So I feel like it is a positive thing if you

look at it in that sense. But if you look at it as like people that go on reality shows to get famous so they can make money selling things that they don't care about, maybe not people do that, but like, for example, I look at Barack Obama and I'm like, he's a major influencer on digital and in every other so we're basically just like him minus everything. But I think anyone that has people invested in what they're saying, regardless of what that is, because not all

influence is good. Anyone that has an impact over a certain group of people, I would consider an influencer, and you guys definitely fall under that category. And as much as I'm sure you were influencers as toddlers at home, I feel like both of you probably made some power moves. I think Clever was a huge springboard for that. So we're going to focus on how that came to be and how both of you were a part of this huge franchise that everybody knows and has heard of. So

let's take it back to the early days. Lily wasn't quite I truly don't think she was born out sometimes. We started in two thousand eight. Were you in high school? I graduated in from school. Okay, so graduating high school and at this juncture, jos Lynn's getting a phone call about a possible opportunity or how did that work out? I went on an audition, And interestingly enough, by this point I was working pretty steadily as a host already, which was my goal to be a reporter, a host,

a producer, writer, all of the things. So I was working pretty steadily, and I think I even had an agent at that point. So I was going on like legit auditions, but as the universe is, the heavens would make it be for some reason, your girl went on Craigslist and decided to go to an audition for Clever from Craig's list. Not that's us at all, and craigels back in the day, it didn't feel as suss untidy, it's super suss all. The Lifetime movie came out and

then I was like, what was I thinking? At the time, YouTube really was barely a thing. There was no partner program, there was no premium content, no one was advertising. You couldn't make money. And I went on the audition. They wanted me to like produce something for the audition, which I thought was really cool, and I booked the job and that was over a decade ago. Can I tell you what the first video is? Yes, I made like a ten minutes Clever ten years and ten minutes things.

So I had to do a lot of research. It's a movie trailer round up. Gosh, it was probably like sex. I don't even remember what that. I don't even remember who's in it. I think it's like Chris Evans maybe, and he like up the phone rings and then it's like a hostage suit. I don't know, interesting, but it's her like very dramatically going through a bunch of trailers. They don't actually show the trailer. She just talked about

rafting content, also riveting studio space. So back in that day, you know, we were really truly living that startup life. And I think what's so interesting about so many aspects and layers of clever is that I think it feels so cool and it is and so glamorous, which it's definitely not. Behind the scenes, in those early years, we

had two things. We would run a studio once a week to trick celebrity guests into thinking we had a studio when we actually rented it at Go TV, and we would run a studio there once a week, and then every other day for the rest of the week, we were shooting inside of one of the founder's garage in West Covina, no air conditioning. We would have to take breaks during the summer because I was like so

sweaty and disgusting. And on Fridays, specifically, we had to wrap shooting before nine am because that's when the law maintenance team came and we couldn't shoot for sound. So we shot in that garage, I want to say, for two years. Oh my gosh, it was Glamor and the founders Georgia Mike. They were filming and editing it all themselves. That is a true startup. So doing that for two years with no ad dollars, there's no such thing as

a partner program. What is keeping you going every day? Well, at that point, I was still technically free lancing for Clever, so I was working at other places because you know, we all got to pay our bills and live our lives. And truthfully, I was making very little money at Clever, but being someone who's really into new media and has been since the beginning, I knew from probably the first few months that this was going to be a thing.

And when YouTube launched the partner program, we were one of the first channels allowed into the partner program, which meant that even though we were making peanuts, we were able to monetize our content earlier than most people. So we were just really trying to scale the business by producing I want to say, twenty videos a day in an effort to just stay aflow. Our overhead was so

low the founders were not taking any paycheck. I was getting paid like very little money, but I was also bartending at Outback Steakhouse shout out to the bloomin Onion so much. Eventually, when the opportunity came to really take the business to the next level as monetizations started to become something slightly more lucrative, that was when I became a part of the actual business, had equity in the company, and that's when we went all in, balls to the walls,

like hired a staff, and it was high stakes. It was one of those things where it's like, jos Lynn, if you don't make enough Twilight videos about or whatever this week, or if the Jonas brother video doesn't really you know, kill it, we probably have to fire someone. And that was a real thing. Pressure. It was pressure, but it was so so fun. We really had the best company culture. And that's like, that's when I met you in the lobby at couple years later. You kind

of paved the path for us. What I was gonna say, they even they really found out. At first they were doing like movie trailer roundups on like everything, and it was kind of just let's see what people will watch. Then they started doing this young Hollywood stuff because no one was covering it yet. So they're covering Twilight and Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber and all these people that are actually watching YouTube that ten to fifteen years ago,

the entertainment tonights of the world. They were absolutely not covering teenagers. They were covering the Brad Pitts and the George Clooney's and the Julia Roberts and people that were more traditional Hollywood celebrities. First off, there were no Internet celebrities, so no one was covering that. And secondly, no one was talking about like the Hannah Montanas of the world. That is where we found our audience where they were living, which was on the Internet, and they were so hungry

for this content. And then we just dove head in and really found a strong niche and a strong audience with that younger demographic. Was that something that was strategic or was that something that was something that you were personally interested you and Dana really was not interested in. I car really at the time when I was interested and still remain interested in the fact that people want to consume this content. That's what I get excited about

is there's an audience for this. There are people that are passionate about this. I want to give them something. I want to serve something up for them. I want to be their conduit between Robert Pattinson and the girl in Ohio watching us on her bedroom. That's what excites me and always has Back in the day, I didn't even know who most of these people were. Quite frankly, I had to like figure out what is sweet Life on Deck on Disney Channel. Who is justin Bieber? What

is a hand in Montana? I was like, I don't know what any of this is. It really paid off because we found a really like strong, dedicated audience. And now when you look at what's on TV, it's all millennial content, all teenagers, all young people. When you think of who has time to watch hours and hours of content, that's the age group. So it makes sense. So and then after they do that, I don't remember the exact specifics. I still was not there at this time. I just know.

But had you heard of Clever at this point? Oh No, I was at a s U having a great time not watching YouTube. But I know that. Then YouTube Aid approached them to do more channels, and they wanted to include them in this hundred channel initiatives, so they gave them money to invest in it, and that's when they started Clever Movies, which you were on. Clever Movies was already there. It was Clever style, Clever News, and Clever tiv Well, they did do trailer roundups for the first videos.

That makes sense that would have already existed, but it wasn't full for his Clever movies. It was once in a while a junket here or like a comic con. But then when they start uploading trailers and stuff too, which you can't do anymore. But Clever would make money monetizing trail Clever movies. I remember most of my numbers. I was so grateful for trailers because I got so many numbers just from trailers. Do you remember when one video went viral? At that point, whatever viral meant. There's

a handful of videos in those early years. I think Hannah Montana's Howdown Throwdown video really killed it for that has millions of views. The moment in time that I really have to credit for Clever finding its voice is that Twilight era. Honestly, if there was anything involving anything having to do with Twilight, if there were people camping in downtown l af there was a concert with the people from the soundtrack, if there was a chance I

maybe would see Kristen Stewart from across the street. Was there there were stories about them, like getting haircuts, Robert Pattinson getting a haircut where it's like a trim, Robert Pattinson eats a subway. What did you get on the sand the subway that there was? We had to be strategic at that time, and I think I would argue that Clever still is very strategic because it was never a huge media company. The concept that we had the money and the resources to do things on the level

of what you were seeing on TV. At the time, we had negative one percent of the funding that most TV shows did. So do you want to keep our staff, Well, then let's be strategic and try to be smart. And when we got that hundred million dollar investment, we got three channels. YouTube invested a hundred million dollars and a hundred new channels and we were given the opportunity to

launch three channels. And if you look at now many years later, what channels still exist, I would say that there's very few, and three of them are Clever Channels because as we were doing things from a business perspective, so strategically, because we just didn't have any other choice, honestly, So it worked out. Really, you were a huge, huge part of Clever Style, but you didn't know that when you first came in to interview for this job. Actually

you were like looking to be a graphic designer. You're really talented. You walk in, You're applying to be an intern at this company. How did you even heard of Clever? So I graduated from Arizona State in twos and twelve and then moved home because I didn't want to live in Arizona anymore because it's hot. I moved home, But like halfway through my senior year of college, I had seen Diedre by Heart, who was a host at Clever News at the time, who I went to high school with.

She's a couple years older, and she had posted that they need interns, and I was like, I'm going to need an internship in a little bit. I wasn't going to do an internship in Arizona for something in the entertainment industry because it just didn't really feel like it was worth it to do summer internships. You have to literally pay to do summer school, but then you're working

for free. So I was like that seems counterproductive. So instead I just didn't do anything and waited until I got home, then reached out and she was like, yeah, absolutely, come in. Got to interviewing with you, and you're like you're hired. Yeah, yeah, I mean just if you was a very very life that moment. Joslyn's right when she says everybody it was very scrappy. It was very start up. Everyone was doing a million jobs in addition to our ten videos that we had to post before eleven am

every morning. I got tasked with finding interns and I was like, I'm not hr and I am not qualified for this. Literally just was like, oh my god, I don't even really know what they do here. Oh my god, I see all these people on you know. I just remember you walked into my office and you were so adorable. And DJ was like, oh, she went to high school with me. And I just asked you three questions and then I was like, can you start Monday? And you're like,

let me give you a tour around the office. And I remember you brought her by my office and you're like, this is Lily. She just graduated from a s U And I looked and you did have a cute outfit. She was so cute, like, she's so adorable, she's probably gonna suck. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to like hold. And then literally I was like, you're never leaving. So then I started and I was doing three days a week, but then still living at home because that no money.

So then I worked three days a week at the counter the burger place which love to eat at, don't love to work at. Three months went by and I was mainly only working with Jocelyn Dana and then Lisa who was their content manager, and it was mainly only

for Clever TV. Three months goes by and I'm like, so I don't go to school anymore, and it's been three months and I need something, and they're like, please hire her, don't let her leave because they don't have anyone helping them at the time, even as an intern. I think I had started making thumbnails for them. I had started updating the website and stuff, so stuff that they just like didn't have people or just know manpower to do. It very hard to find people who are

based competency. I'm actually not kidding. I think I was doing anything super out of the ordinary, and I would be like, here you go, and they'd be like, she didn't like that's what you asked me to do. Well. I think also in the entertainment industry, I remember so many people trying to get jobs at Clever and all they wanted to do was just be on camera. And they couldn't write, they couldn't produce, they couldn't do anything, but they wanted to be like Jocelyn and Dana on camera.

That's probably where the shock. I didn't want to be on camera at all. That absolutely terrified me. Johnson asked, I think, like first day, she's like, I said, you want to be a host. I was like, oh no, no. And I always liked editing, but I did never really know if I wanted to pursue that as a job because all day, every day is a lot. I'll learn more about producing and stuff, and then maybe I can edit a little on the side, and I didn't even think.

I really hadn't said anything about graphic designer photoshop. So I started doing stuff and it was mostly writing, and I was basically an employee as an intern, and they were just getting a lot of free labor, but highly illegal, especially right now. No one to do but so then her and Dana very much voucher me and they're like, no, you can't. Literally we need to hire her, like we

need her help. We would have truly been lost because at that point I was very much like doing stuff that was integral to the every day and I was coming in more than three days a week just because also they were so passionate about it, so it was very contagious. I wanted to help them because I saw how hard they were working, and I'm like, oh, well, you shouldn't have to do that too, Like I don't have anything to do. And it was just fun because

we're all friends. The energy at the office when people here, I was working for free and doing all this stuff, why the energy there was great. Everyone's best friends. It's just was a really good work environment. Maybe t m I, but I was going through like a big anxiety areas. Her and Dana couldn't have been more understanding about it, and they would just be do you need to go home? Do you need this? Do you need this? I'm like,

thank you. So it was like support system. First, yes you're getting work done, but like everyone's human and like everyone understood that if you have stuff going on, like go take care of it, and I think about, like today, I was actually working on the guest list for my wedding. A solid I want to say at least thirty to forty people are from those early clever days and that was very special, and I think that's why the business was successful, because the culture was so good amongst all

of us. As a woman, I'm so proud of what all of us did and the fact that all of us are like real, I mean, we were at your baby shower just days ago. Yeah, I love that. That's that's the most special thing to me, is that we've really created like a family. Well and for me, I didn't watch YouTube and I definitely wasn't watching entertainment news on YouTube, so like I had seen dr Post stuff. I knew what you guys did, but like wasn't super invested.

I remember doing like a deep dive and being like, well, I should do my research before I go in for the interview. Oh my god, I don't even know what the kind of stuff you guys were doing. Stumbled upon a lot of videos where you guys were just like hanging out, screwing around in the office, and that was always like, oh, like circle. I literally I should have been more creeped out when I was like, I want to be a part of it, but I guess that's

weeks volumes. Okay, so lil you're doing all the things you asked for a job, you get this, So then they don't have any money. So the only money they have because I think maybe two weeks before Clever sold to Alloy, but we did have a little more money at that point because we had finally sold the company and it wasn't like one of these situations where if we don't do well enough in our videos, everyone gets fired. It was like we had like a little moment to

breathe and get some more resources. I mean, not a ton, but that's how we got little. But it started doing ad campaigns, especially because Alloy could bring those in because they had the previous relationships. So then Dana is handling all of those on top of doing everything else. They're doing so much at this point and having to go

to carpets, do interviews, do junket stuff. That's not like, oh, let me do all my work, and then like casually go no, that's like two work days basically, so then they're like okay, so you've been doing great, we do want to hire you. The thing is the only slot, like we have to hire four is the ad campaign manager. I went to Arizona State and majored in film practices, which is something like that's not a real major, so

I didn't learn. I like knew a lot about the video and lots about lots about video and stuff at campaigns was not something I had any experience with. I don't think you can go to school for that as much as at least at campaigns we were doing weren't super complicated. Do you want to do that? And like I knew that Dana hated her life doing it, but like I needed a job, and then I get to work with my friends. I was like, yes, when where did I sign? Let me? Let me do it now.

So it was for very very minimal money, and then I started producing. I was assisting Dana for a while and then eventually transition into producing them myself, and that was a dazy It's actually hilarious to think about how good at her job Lily was in those early days with zero experience, zero training, zero understanding. And I had experience because YouTube has started, so it's not like I was like, you were managing like the whole entire money

making portion of this business and you're twenty two. It's amazing. I love that. So for people who don't know what a YouTube ad campaign entails evolved quite a bit over time. Now they don't make me want to like bang my head into a wall. But we were actually just talking yesterday, um, and we won't mention any brands obviously, but there was something just involved with I'm going to make another example

that isn't the actual one. It would be like they're having a special event week where it's like to promote anti bullying or something. I was going to say, like, so you have to like do like one eyelid a certain color, but I feel like that would look like a black eye and be back. They were very much more like it was like you have to wear a purple scrunch in your hair and then not on one foot, and it was some kind of weird thing that like for kids, maybe that's okay, but her and Dana had

to do an entire dedicated video just about that. Not only people not necessarily want to watch that, but also then they're having to participate in it, and if they don't not organic. That was That's what I was going to say. That's the major difference. And I think a stride that's been made in recent years is that branded content or stuff that is sponsored by a partner feels a little more natural, like you're able to integrate it into what you're doing. Back in the day, it was like, hey, clever,

we're gonna hire you to make seventeen commercials. And that's literally what we would do. So no one wanted to really watch it, and it was a lot of work, very expensive to make the scripts. Hey you have to say this, and if you didn't say that, you have to redo it. And brands just didn't. They didn't understand the influence. So they're like, people watch them, they'll watch this, but it's like you need to understand that you need to give them things that they're expecting, not like throw

out this random stuff that's a commercial. We would go to red carpets and ask absurd questions to try to piece together these packages. At the vm as, we'd be like do you wear glasses? Like the weirdest questions, and they'd be like, wh I are you asking me? Like just curious. We think they're great, like just the most random stuff ever. But again we didn't have a choice like we needed to that, so I was like still

like having to do everything. But then the reason Clever was doing well is it was really playing into the seo of celebrities. Her and Data Uploading a video by themselves with no celebrity tie in was a little difficult. So basically my job was that I would get these r fps emailed to me. I don't even know what RFP actually stands for, to be honest, anymore is googling it. It's like these are the bullet points of like everything you're going to need to do in it, and like

this is the goal. Yeah, it's like they're requesting your pitch for how you're going to incorporate their brand into the content. So I would try and incorporate it into existing content. But when existing content is mostly news stories, that's pretty much impossible. So we did have a few shows that you could do it, like Fashion Face Off would be sponsored by cover Girl or stuff that made sense that makes sense. We didn't have the reach personality wise to be able to get people to watch anything.

You didn't have a lot of leeway with what you were going to say because the brand is like, no, we're paying you. You're doing it now. I'm sure if David Doober gets a brand deal and he's like it would work better like this, They're like, whatever you want to say, it's fine because they understand his audience wants

him to say what he would actually say. I love a long It did a long time to get to that point, and we're going to talk about because I think a lot of people are confused about when a brand comes to and how they come to and all that stuff. We're going to fast forward just a little bit. But Clever was always relevant, Clever was always consistent. You

guys had a really solid fan base engagement. But I feel like there was a moment in time where I remember I was working at Deadline and I remember all of a sudden, everyone was talking about Clever and Clever was everywhere, and all the videos that you guys posted went viral, and I feel like a lot of it

was beauty stuff. So what happened. So what happened was we were doing these ad campaigns and there was one that um like cover Girl originally brought to us and Sally Hanson bought it at one point and a few different beauty brands, and it would be like, how to get Selena Gomez his VM a makeup because that's a perfect fit for an entertainment channel, and then we can

incorporate beauty. But it was during the beauty guru phase, so we would hire these beauty gurus, but it's Megan Rinks was our beauty guru, who now is absolutely doesn't really know it's good at her own makeup, but she doesn't know how to recreate Selena gomes is, so she would do it. I'm producing the show because it's an ad campaign. She'd be like done and look at me

and be like and I'm like, oh god. But so no one watched it because it wasn't good, and then but brands bought it for a while, and then eventually it was kind of like, okay, well it's not doing that, well, let's put it on Clever Style. Maybe it'll do well over there. Well, it was at that point in time when beauty well, beauty break Now it was called sitorial toothday.

When the show with Megan got moved to Clever Style, it was truthfully to let it die, Like I know that for a fact, because Clever Style was a dormant channel at the time. It's where we just sent things to kind of let them fade off into the sunset unless a brand wanted to sponsor it, which was the

game plan. And at that point in time, I remember Lily had been working for a while and we had gotten to know Megan, and I was like, she's freaking hilarious and this beauty business like her trying to really do tutorials is kind of a waste of her time. And they made a few videos that really showcased her personality as well as Lily's personality from a producing perspective, and I remember us talking and I was like, little, no one's paying attention to this show. It's probably gonna

get canceled. Do whatever the hell you want. That's when I was like, so, like, you know how we're always telling people like we know what we're talking about plot twist, we don't, So can we just stop lying and I can just like give us products to try and we just like give our reactions and they're like, yeah, whatever, just just go okay, thanks. And then I started editing it too, because then I didn't have people that are used to editing these like very pristine beauty things and

didn't have the budget for it either. Like I think the show would have gotten canceled if you hadn't have offered edit. Probably. They also took away our sound guy and we only had one camera person editing comedic timing with your editing on that thing. It wasn't even the

editing itself, It was just actually trying to produce. It is more of a comedy show than a beauty show, because one, I don't know anything about beauty, and too, they were funny, so it was like her putting her in Megan together, and then they wouldn't know what to do anything. So I would come in and be like, you're doing it wrong, let me fix it. Do you remember the first time you were on camera? It was

first show. It was much earlier because there was no one available to because it was yeah, well actually, well there's an um. Lily had to be in a video because Megan was recovering from her nose job for like a while. Prior to that, you had like popped into videos here and there, and also nothing was doing that well though, so I also was more willing to do it because no one's watching it anyway. You'll remember this to Tatiana, the brand was so clean. We were like

sparkling clean. And I remember the video that completely changed Clever style was a video about weird ways to curl your hair, which is a lot of curling irons, which you can imagine what they look like. A lot of phallic jokes is what we're saying. And I can remember showing that video to our bosses. We thought it was fine. I thought it was edgy at the time. Now I have no barriers, and they were like, okay, just go

for it. We'll see what happened. We would verbally ask our bosses if we can include certain jokes, and I'm like, I don't know, but then I would edit it to show them, and then they would be laughing so hard and I'm like, you can't tell me. We can't put that up if you're dying laughing. I don't remember how quickly it happened, but I remember there was like definitely a point in time when we were getting like ninety

thousand subscribers. We were consistently, I think for a few months got over a hundred thousand subscribers a month, which like that's but we were a million views a month on a dying channel, on a channel that it got revived from under a hundred thousand to a million and about six to eight months, which is so it was kind of in the midst of that that Megan got her nose Job, which is a whole other video series on YouTube that's hilarious, which is another example of how

a lot of people prior to this in the beauty community were so polished, so perfect, so put together, and it's like we came in like bowls in a china shop, and we're like, we're messes. You know, we're good at some things, but like, we got a lot of this stuff to be honestly, the thing we were good at is that we're friends, and we were good at just

bouncing off each other and having fun. So if we're having fun, it's hard to watch that, and if it's edited in a funny way to point out the ridiculous parts, like what's not to like unless you just thought we were annoying, which I'm sure some people did. But honestly, it grew pretty organically after that, and it was a certain point we're like, Wow, we don't need to use celebrities anymore to get people to click people were watching

to watch you guys. It was really unique. I remember no one really cared about us as people, and that was fine, but then to have this whole new opportunity, first off, to create a new kind of content. Then secondly for people to really appreciate who we were as people was so cool and I'll never forget. In the midst of all of this happening, Beauty Break, which was and still as the flagship show on Clever Style, was

like blowing up. I went an amazing race, and when I left for Amazing Race, my influence on Instagram was I had fifteen thousand followers and I was so excited. I was gone for twenty one days and when I came back, I had I think fifty us and followers on Instagram because of this show that was like just

sparking interest in us as people. And I feel like that's a quantifiable example was my personal Instagram that had nothing to do with Clever but because people were watching this show at such high volume, they started following us. And I remember I came home and I was like, what the hell is going on? Like these were people who were coming from YouTube well. And the thing also that a lot of people like how did you come

up with that? It was not a revolutionary idea. It's literally a sitting trying things and then like breaking the fourth wall to be like you're doing it wrong. You didn't like stop doing it like that. You guys are breaking everything. But the only other people really that were like notably like just kind of trying weird stuff because also I would just spen hours on Amazon buying the weirdest stuff I could find. But the only other person really doing that it was like Graveyard Girl, who was

like our icon at the time. Otherwise it was all like makeup tutorials or people just doing the really like pristine like my morning routine and we were like we're gonna try your candling, and Megan like literally as my paper, like none of you are experts, which is the beauty and I think the lesson and this is authenticity. People just really were drawn to you guys, and to Johnson's point, all of a sudden they want to get to know you on social media and not just through your YouTube videos.

How was this for you guys on a personal level? All of a sudden, You're getting all these followers, Like I know, it was a crazy feeling, but did you also have this responsibility that you didn't feel before. I think it was so positive in the beginning that literally it was like cool, I can literally say anything and people love it. With the first one, we knew that we're like, wow, we can really put up anything, and not in like a let's be lazy not think about it.

But it was just like people really wanted to watch that. We titled it how to Straighten out of Control Hair, and Megan straightened half of Jocelyn's head, did not give any tips. And then it was like taking too long because Jostal was very clearly thick hair, and I'm like, guys, spent some time. We have three more episodes to film, and I was like, well, you got the point. I think that's it for today. And then and it was literally on a million views in less than a week,

and we're like, what's going on? I think for me, you know, because we're in office, it was different than for most YouTubers. For both of us, we were like already adults at that point. I mean I was probably like around thirty at the time. I had already been doing YouTube since like the Dark Ages. I had a strong understanding of how it all worked and how it was growing. And I think for me it was really exciting just to have a new challenge and something new

to do. And also it was really the beginning of that moment where I'll never forget the month that Bethany Mota, who is one of the original like Guru d I White people on YouTube, she was a teenager. She was on the cover of I think teen Vogue magazine, and she also got cast on Dancing with the Stars. And I can remember sitting in my office being like all these people who said digital is not a thing, computers are fake. It's just like, you know, a flash in

the pan. I'm like, this is happening now, Like you know, digital is really starting to take over and come into his own is happening. So it's just exciting to be a part of that. And I think I was already like careful about what I put out out there. The problem with YouTubers now all the time, and not problem, but like the problem that they personally have is that people are getting canceled because stuff from like ten years ago is popping up. I don't really want to know

what's on my Facebook from college. It's definitely not anything racist or weird or anything like that, because I wasn't saying that. I was probably some alcohol related things, but like, I don't know what I said when I was thirteen, but I don't have to worry about that because there wasn't snapshot and I was third seame. People are documenting everything, Like you upload something for five minutes and delete it.

Guess what thousand people have already screenshot at it. So I do think it comes with a big responsibility that it wasn't as much of a shock for because we weren't being out of control to begin with, and you and you made a good point to we worked for a company, so the stakes for us were totally different. We knew that's not my personal channel. Clever Style definitely was the channel that was a good us, But we knew that we were employees and we had people to

answer to, and the stakes were high. If we screw up, all of these people get affected. If we get canceled, the staff gets canceled, and it's just different. It was a lot different than what you go through as a solo. Creator went on the note of just like being in an office, we were going in for our job every day.

A lot of people when they start to blow up on YouTube that might not be their real job all the time or their kids, so they're like, literally like I couldn't imagine growing in suddenly having thousand followers while you're in high school and then like either I feel like that would make people think you're cool or they would like you hate you for it. Then there's people in college like if that was your demo, I think

that would really interfere with your life. We would get really excited when we're seeing followers and views and stuff. But it was like very much numbers, and I think until we started going and like having meat and greets once in a while, that was when it really made it real. But otherwise it's like cool success. I attribute the numbers with success, but it was hard to put them to faces when literally we just go into an office and cut our heads down and go to work.

If we go to like Forever twenty one or like the Target beauty section or like there's a few other places, I feel like we always will meet people. That's awesome and I love it, but it was not something that was like interfering with definitely not something that was like inner fearing with my life. It's like a nice surprise

if it happens once in a a while. Even now it's not especially I think since we're in l A, people aren't like super on the hunt to like look around for people all the time, or I'm just very unapproachable. I think Johnson gets stop more than I do. But it's like only in the very specific. It's like Adam all in a forever one, or like at the movies or somewhere where or like a theme park or something.

But I love it. I mean, honestly, the only reason that we're sitting here right now is because of those people and anyone who doesn't realize that they should be as generous as they're capable of. And some people are not capable of it. It's just too much for them. We owe a lot to those people. Those views are real people watching, and you better be grateful, and I know I am, and I try to like always be conscious of that when when I meet people, because what

would I be doing otherwise? I literally have no idea, which I think is interesting that now it's always like kids number one career choice is YouTuber. Literally, ask anyone I went to high school with, middle school with even what I really want to do, make videos or be some kind of a filmmaker, which also and I'm no wanted to get into hard news, but I'm sure she was still like, it's probably it makes sense that you're hired, but it would have made sense that Johnson would want

to be like an on air host. A lot of people are I want to be a YouTuber. I'm like, do you like producing videos? Do you like editing them? And no, not all YouTubers edit their videos, But you can't start and have a whole team of people that didn't like I think there's a disconnect with what what it actually requires to execute and just like what its meeting fans, And we were talking about that actually before

we went on there. Also, there's a lot of misconceptions that go with YouTubers or influencers or bloggers or bloggers. A lot of people think this job is like the easiest thing ever. You turn on your camera and all of a sudden you have millions of views. Obviously, your journey was a little different because you guys had Clever as a springboard and now you guys are both doing your own content. How has that transition been for you guys? And how do you decide what your brand is? Question?

But no, and that's a tough question. And like, I've only had my channel now for six months, but I think after doing this for so long, I put in the work. But like, my expectations are within reason and realistic, and I don't think you can be too precious. Like anytime I do a video, I'm like, I'm proud of this and I think it's cool and I like it, but like other people might not. And I think that's kind of what finding your brand and your niche is about.

When people ask me, like, oh, you launched your channel, what's your brand, I'm like, well, um, it's six months old, so it's still a baby. It's still trying to learn how to crawl. Also, my brand is just me and

where I'm at in my life right now. But I think if you're trying to build a legitimate business, which this is not a hobby for me, this is my job, I think you have to look at patterns of what viewers want to see from you and then think about, Okay, how can I take this curly hair journey I'm on and turn it into a product line, or how can

I expand and diversify beyond YouTube. Those are like the people like the Shane Dawson's who as an individual creator are not just surviving but literally thriving because they have diversified the type of content they're doing on YouTube and also what they're doing as a business in general. So when people talk about like, oh, this is such an easy thing to do for some people, it might be, but I think when you're trying to build something that's

a little bit more sophisticated, it's not. And going from having this amazing team at Clever of like thirty people, one person who literally just makes thumbnails to now like I was, Chris, my fiance was like, Jaws, what are you doing? And I was sitting at my laptop in the morning typing an email and I didn't realize I was fully talking out loud to myself and He's like, what are you doing? And I was like, Oh, I'm

just having a business meeting. This is my team, just myself and we're talking about what we're gonna do today, and that's like what it is now. So it's a matter of like figuring out how to grow, when to hire people. It goes so far beyond the shoot, Like sitting down for a Q and A or making a video. It's all the pre production, post production, and I love

that stuff. And so it's been really really fun and as sad as it was when we had that transitional moment, you know, when Clever, our parent company fell apart, it's honestly the best thing that's ever happened in me. And I can say that now having some time away from it, because it pushed me forward in a way that would have taken me a lot longer to do. I'm really grateful. And I think that's one of the most awkward questions, like, oh, so,

what's your YouTube channel about? I'm like, what are you literally, what answer are you expecting me to get? It's about like cell phones, Like I don't like it's about me. I don't know, like it's stuff I'm doing, but I guess it could be a beauty or like tech related, but mine's pretty much just like, hey, this is what I think would be entertaining. And I feel like that's

kind of a lot with YouTube is right now. It's less of like premium shows that are going up, and I feel like it's almost reverted back to like people just want to see you talking in front of your camera because they want authenticity, because I feel like that's how it used to be, and then it kind of got away from it, and now it's starting to get back where you don't necessarily need like crazy shock factor to get views like lighting mattresses on fire and throwing

them in pools exactly. And I think the thing that Lily and I have that is like really kind of awesome that we understand the business and we know how to make branded content. So for both of us, we've then even in the early stages, like my channel, I've only had it for six months, but I've done a decent amount of branded content because we understand how to make it and like how to integrate it, how to make it seem like it makes sense, not like totally

weird video. Truthfully, Like, AdSense is awesome and I'm so grateful for it. I'll never turn down that check. But the money is mostly in that branded kind of content. Yeah, I definitely don't rely on ad sense at all. I almost kind of forget about it. Well, people who don't know what adds sense. Ad sense is what Google is paying you for the ads that are running on your video. They're making a very large percentage of it, but then

you're getting a percentage of it as well. So I think you can find out, if you like dig in the analytics what the whole video is making. If you're getting hundreds of thousands of views on the video and making several videos a month, you can make a decent living, I think. And that's why when you see sometimes people will complain like why are there so many ad breaks in this video? It's like, you know, I gotta pay my rent, so are you choosing where the ads go?

Can There's a new feature that has YouTube kind of automatically pick but for me, it doesn't always put them then, and I'm like, wow, I'm gonna add those. Yeah. So like you'll see some people there will be a twenty minute video and they have like fifteen ad breaks. That's too much? Like that? Is that to your discretion if you want to have no ads on your video? Yes, yes.

I recently worked with the brand that for the first month of the video being up, I cannot run Google adsens on it because their concept is they want people to see their integration and as much of the video and just really have an enjoyable experience. But I can go back in a month and add all the ads I want, and your your video just needs to be at the ten minute mark for you to add more

than one ad. So if you once you hit ten minutes, you could be like so many videos where like every one minute there's an ad and you're just like, whoa, it's almost it's almost offensive. I think it is. You're trying to build an audience. There's a balance though, because we have to expect our creators to eat and pay rent and money. One of my favorite things is I get comments. Sometimes it's like, really, I love you so much. I'll leave your playlist on while I'm sleeping so it'll

play through a sweet. Do you guys not make as much money if they skip the ad? We have no idea what the breakdown is, but it's like if they watch the whole thing, if they skip it, if they click on it, if they actually buy what it's selling, there's a whole variation, and there are like you can look at the interface on YouTube. This is the amount of money you made off of skippable ads. This is the amount of money you made off of premium ads.

They do break it down, but we do share the money with Google, so at the end of the day, it's you know, it takes a while to kind of figure out the whole system. So to your point, if you're making chunks of money, it's coming from Na're asking you to do a branded I just did one of in a video that I actually it's one of my favorite ones that I've made, probably because they gave me so much freedom to kind of do whatever I want.

I've been suffering from back injury, which has affected my ad sense because I can't be consistent with anything because I can't sit at a desk at it. But I got a couple of brand deals which has made it so much less stressful that I can focus on what I will want the channel to be once I fully recovered. But I did one for Joy, which is a new brand. Brazer Gillette owns it, but their whole branding is very like towards millennial and it's like shave and get on

with your day kind of thing. And I was like, like I read their brief and I'm like, can I start using this as my bio? Because this is perfect? I like introd the video, I introduced the sponsorship, and then I did a day in my life, but it wasn't like my morning routine. It was like a narrated, kind of stylized thing about more dealing with my chronic pain. They wanted to focus on the small winds, so that

was the only pitch. So I turned that into a day in my life, and then one of my small winds was like actually being able to shower and get out of bed and like do stuff. So it was like a little tad and deep at certain points, but it was real. It turned out really real, and everyone's like, oh my god, he didn't even realize this was an ad.

This was my favorite video that you've ever done well because they're also following your journey and they know, like you're very transparent with your audience and you're like, my back hurts, I can't get up. I'm going to the chiropractor. So for you to do that brand deal was really authentic. And then to see that we're at a point that they can see it's a brand deal, no I'm making money off of it, but still appreciate it was like very nice and like, I feel like that's where the

digital space is going. And even with that comment that people we have, they're like I'm watching all of your ads and not skipping them, like they're starting to realize that that is how people are making money and you can't just make videos in your apartment if no one's watching them are paying for them. Do you guys feel a responsibility to be really picky with the brands because I know some people will just take any brand, you know, for example, And I feel comfortable talking about it because

I've been really transparent with all of these companies. Honestly, is that I have a female audience on YouTube that's female eighteen to thirty. For me, it's super important that women can finally and men and people can finally just freaking be happy with who they are. I know that's a base level thing to say, but like it's so important and that is what we need to do in twenty nineteen. So there's many tea brands on the market. They're all about weight loss, and I don't want to

have anything to do with that. I don't want to promote weight loss. I say no, thank you. If anyone ever wants to promote health, well being, joy, I'm here for it. But that's like an example of a company or a type of company that has a lot of

money to spend. I'm so proud to hear that people are a lot of money because also I think there's some things that like, oh that doesn't want Like people promote things they don't really know anything about, which it might not be a bad product, but they're just doing it because they're getting paid. I think that's one level. Then there's a level of like the teas where it's dancers promoting a flat dummy t and I'm like, something tells me the dancing was what gave you the flat six?

What are you talking about? But then I think on top of that, I have situations where the product I'm sure is lovely by notoriously can only drink beer for the most part because I'm allergic tort alcohol and wine makes me sick as well. So I have a wine brand reach out. I'm sure the wine is lovely, but I literally have to respond to go, I'm so sorry. I would love to do this, or I got a non alcoholic beer one time and I have to respond to Not one person that follows me would ever believe

that this is something that I'm actually drinking. So as much as I would love to take your money, I just can't. I think for every time you turn one down, something better is coming your way. We're also just really bad at lying, so that doesn't really ever I'd be like I love this wine that you'd see pouring behind me for like for example, I mean we all know that.

Like I'm a very healthy person. I like a healthy lifestyle and healthy food and I did work once with a fast food brand, but it was only because they were like sort of unleashing this new healthy product that I was like, I can authentically get behind this because this is something I can endorse that people will believe. If I was just like, hey, guys, let's like eat a bunch of onion rings and different ranch, people probably

would not respond well at all to that. It would just be like cancelation of that's if I'm ever working with any kind of agency or like what kind of brands, like should anything I should know? And like I only drink beer, I don't eat a lot of healthy foods. So like I've even said, O Thrive Market, I'm sure it is absolutely amazing, and I'm sure there's actually stuff I could buy there, but I'm not using Thrive Market. I'm going to rapes and using instat cart and stuff

because I'm not buying organic. I am using thrive market hashtag. Yes, they have spawned me and I loved every moment, thank you very much. But yeah, I think it's so important and brands are starting to come around to that too. You know. I've talked in a lot of industry panels just as like a digital expert, and my advice to brands, companies, agencies is like, if I'm betting you as an influencer and I'm like, oh, that's not gonna work for me,

you better doing the same thing. Don't come to someone like Lily and be like, well you promote my keen waw like she does not like came on. Everyone knows that. Look for the people who authentically make sense for your brand and they want to work with. Again, we're all about like we've worked with like pop Chips, for example.

They're a brand that we've worked with numerous times because we have a great relationship with them and we actually want pompships, So like, why wouldn't you want to keep working with the same people to build that kind of ambassadorship to show that we actually really do endorse the product rather than like a one off that they hope as well. Have you focused mostly on work for your social media? Is there a certain I don't know, like the guide that you have for yourselves, because also there's

a whole question of work life balance. When you guys are hanging out, you're both friends, You're on each other's social media all the time. Do you see it as collaboration do you see it as lilies at my house where best friends. There's so many places that you guys have to set boundaries. I would say I have the grandma boundary. If I'm cool with my grandma saying this, I'll put it out there. It can be sexy, but like Grandma sexy, or it can be like edgy, but

Grandma edgy. And that's my boundary. That is what I actually think about before I post something. And then I have some friends who like don't want to be on my social media and I I'm trying to be conscious of that. I would absolutely never post someone's child without asking them. I think that space level. And what I've always said after doing this for so long is like

you can share a lot without sharing everything. Like for example, and Chris and I, um my fiance when we started dating I didn't post about him for literally over a year. And that same theme has played out in various aspects of my personal life with things I have not talked about that I'm considering talking about in the future, but I'm not ready yet. So when in doubt, Katy Perry said, she writes a draft of a tweet, holds onto it overnight, and decides the next day if she wants to send it.

And I think that's really great advice. And I think for us personally at this point, I like, don't even word just it's different, like the sister relationships. So it's like it's hard to also answer with even posting like ads versus personal stuff for because for me, the last seven months has been like overtaken by my back stuff that like I'm not doing a whole lot, even in videos. I feel like some people I'll post that I'm drinking in videos and I'll get comments. I'm not posting videos

more than once or twice a week. Basically people will see something They're like, oh my god, you're drinking all the time, and I'm like, no, I'm actually never doing anything. And that was like the one video I filmed and my back was hurting, so I had to be able to make it feel a little better. But in general, like she's very in tune with like if I can't do something, and we're just very understanding if one person

has to cancel because we're also very reliable. I think even when we're hanging out, there's no reason why we shouldn't film some content. Why not might as well get some work done too. But I wouldn't even Instagram and stuff. I wouldn't consider work. And for like doing like stories of each other, that's just like we're documenting us being friends. We will plan to like do a video, but honestly, even when we film videos together, I've like we're just

hanging out. Yeah, because I think a lot of people see all these collaborations on YouTube it feels like, Okay, there's certain groups of people that always work together, and there's a question of are they actually friends or is this like a oh when you are on my channel, I get a lot of views. I know for a fact, because I know both of you personally, that you're actually best friends, and so I don't question that. But do

you guys ever think about that? Yeah? Absolutely, because if you ask someone to be in a video, and especially because we didn't launch our channels too long ago, that it is good to have people on because especially because people might already know who we are, but they don't necessarily know that we have a channel. If then we're on our friends channel, that's a bunch of subscribers. It's not even like they're introducing us. It's like, oh, she has a channel now, I didn't even realize that. And

then they'll go over. But like, for example, my friend Jesse Smiles Jesse bask is this her real name, but Jesse Smiles is her online name. She came over and we filmed a couple of videos and we were going to do two for mine and one for hers, and then we were drinking at the end. We were like, oh, I don't want to film another video. We just wanted to hang out. She was like, whatever, we got some for yours, Like, I don't care, we don't need to

film one for mine. I put mine up with her and it's the best performing videos on my channel in a while. I hadn't been uploading because my back I get a bunch of subscribers naularly text. I was like, thank you so much and help my channel. She was like, dude, don't thank me, like literally what and like that's the kind of thing is like you can't overthink it if

you are actually friends. But I do think there's certain relationships you have with people where you know it's beneficial to both of you if you film, But that doesn't mean when you're filming, you're not hanging out to Usually I feel like the stuff we're doing on our channels, you want her to be that natural chemistry, and without it, I don't the video wouldn't be good. But I have

no problem, Like I slide into people's dams constantly. I'm like, oh my gosh, I love you so Like a great example of recently is that there's this girl she's freaking blowing up on YouTube shout out to Sierra Schulze. I've become obsessed with her. She makes fashion content that's inclusive, it's so good. And I just reached out to her and I was like, hey, I love your channel. You are killing it, like keep it up, and she responded She's like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. We

just started chatting. She's like, I'm gonna be in l a get lunch. So we became friends. Then I'm like, listen, if you ever want to do a video on my channel, I would love to work with you. I think you're so awesome, and she's like, well, let's do him for my channel too. But it really started out from just like a friendship sort of thing, even though it was a digital thing, and we joke all the time that there should be I mean, we should do a show

about like the friends I'm that on the internet. Becally have a show that I want to do called We met online because I was at dinner, not even dinner, we were drinks and it was before all the Clever stuff happened, because I ended up quitting Clever right before all the bankruptcy and stuff happened with the five And it was just a pure coincidence. But I've been trying to think about doing that for a while, but I had been stuck in a contract, so I had reached out.

I had met her already, but reached out to see if Grace Helbig would get drinks with me because she was in a similar situation. So we get drinks. We're having this very intense discussion where at Barney's Beanery for like three hours, and these guys keep coming over and like bothering us and we're like trying to have a discussion, like please leave us line, and he'd so, when'd you

guys met? And he had already kind of I think thought we were maybe on a date or something, and we because we were just like leaned in having a very intense discussion and then we both kind of like we met online. And yeah, but in general, I think

that we do have this awesome opportunity. That's like if you see someone, especially for me, if I see someone that I like not only their personality but the kind of content they're creating, and I think that we could work together, I want to befriend them just because I appreciate what they're doing. And then if we can work together, then that's a plus. I think there's a lot of people you want to just be friends with. Two I

would never reach out to someone. We're very openly like fangirls and like like we love cheering people on, like l Mills, who's an amazing YouTuber from Canada. She's a pretty example. We've never even done a video but with her hung out and she is so talented, and we met thanks to that Twitter verified tab, you know, when we were just blowing her up because she's so talented,

we want people to know who she is. I just think it all has to come from that place of like, there's some YouTubers like it just wouldn't make sense for me, like the people who are burning mattresses, Like unless I was their mom and I was like grounding them or something, that we were going to collapse. There has to be some kind of mutual respect and admiration for what the other person is doing. I think to clab. But then also I think there should be a friendship because otherwise

why are you bothering it? But I mean, do you guys think that there are some strategic we're not even friends, were not even dating, let's pretend. I think a perfect example that I don't even feel like it's a bad talk about because they're publicizing it this way is Jake and Tanna. Is that really I don't know, but I think I never watched Eddie Jake Paul contact before. I think Tanna can be problematic, but I also think she's very funny, and I think she's smarter than she comes across.

And I watched her in his videos and I'm like, oh my god, she makes them funny. I've been watching. I've been keeping tabs because we're gonna have Tanna on the show too. Like, yeah, she's somebody who is so open. She's been authentic since day one. She apologized by the way, very sweet and yeah. And then all of a sudden, to me, I couldn't put two people in more separate boxes, and all of a sudden, there in the same box. And now but because he needed to redeem himself, because

it's Jake Paul. Then she just had the break up with her boyfriend and she just wanted to be like stick it to him. And then also just she titled one of her videos my Rebound Jake, So it started I think as a joke. And then I think, I don't think they're like in a very serious relationship, but I think that they're like hanging out and having fun. I love the YouTube world, I mean there is It is like a reality show, like Real World or like road Rules for this genre. You guys have done a

good job of steering clear of the dramas. Don't we talk about this? Try? Do you have time? It's their business. They almost have to have the drama to have views. And I don't want to name names because some of these people are going to be on this show. The second they had a crazy drama, I knew who they were. And you guys have remained relevant and consistent and not

really had any drama. I don't just thinking about it literally, I like, I've gotten in a fight with someone before and literally threw up for two days because I can't handle it, Like a conversation is my worst namare and just feeling like someone is like mad at me, or if I did something wrong. It's not our brand. There is a brand to be I wouldn't want someone to know my name because of something negative. But it's crazy because these people are getting payoffs. I mean, look at

what happened with James Charles and Toddy Westbrook. Like the second she did that video, she gained a bunch of followers. Then he lost a bunch, and then he did a video and then he gained a bunch. I mean, we were talking about it with Gabby and she was just like, it's crazy because everything that happens people are so wishy, washy, And it was interesting for me to hear her perspective, saying that the viewers were wishy washy because they've been

wishy washy with her too. I've never witnessed that with anybody. For I think that people really build their brands in this certain light. It's like, this is my brand. It's not necessarily who they I don't think it's a fake version of who they are, but it's a very singular version of who they are. I think we've been pretty good at giving kind of an all encompassing view of

what we're like. That that's a good example. I had someone tweet I'll get really random, and it's never very often, but someone will tweet as if they saw me somewhere and something like about some altercation we had, and I read it because it's always so ridiculous. It was I just went to in and out and saw Lily eating in her car and went up to say hi, and the window and flint me off, and I was like, like, first of all, Canada really is the sweetest, like non

confrontational person on planet. Or the first thing I would do if someone came and knocked on my window would start having anxiety got break into my car. So I retweeted, and I said, sounds super legit. Every single person responds tore like are you kidding? Like do you know where that? Like, so we've built this brand of ourselves that's actually true, Like no one would assume that I would do something like that's all. I don't have to worry about someone

saying that I would and everyone believing them. I think they're certain YouTubers where maybe they've engaged in behavior in the past where it makes it easier for someone to

switch their opinion on them exactly. I want to quickly touch on we said there's no drums and even in a situation, and this will just very lightly touch on it, because I know a lot of people are still wondering, like, what's the current status of both of you with Clever, the brand that you know made you both household names. What is high level the current status with where you guys both stand with Clever. We have very similar contracts

with Clever. So Clever sold to Hers, which is a great, huge media company in the female space specifically, which is an awesome fit for Clever. And during that process we both signed deals to work for five days total, not like five days a month, but five days total and over the course of three months as talent only. So I'm not producing anything. I'm not participating in anything really involving sales or behind the scenes strictly like I go in and I'm talent. That's pretty much where it stands

right now. I have one day left with my contracts, so maybe by the time this airs, I'll be finished. And that's pretty much where it stands now. There's really nothing but like positive vibes for Clever. I mean, I literally has spent over the last decade of my life working on that, Brandon. I am so proud of what we built, and I will regardless of what my involvement in the future is, I will never stop cheering. Yeah,

I think totally same. I think for me, I had left earlier, but it had already planned on staying on freelance as talent, and a lot of people are like, oh, so you're still there all the time, You're still going in. It's very, very different because I was coming up with a lot of the videos, I was editing a lot of the videos. I was still making a lot of thumbnails even at a certain points. So I love the brand. I wanted to survive, but I couldn't keep putting so

much of myself into it. With the opportunity to be able to do that for myself too. I'm like, I want to put that kind of energy into building something that is mine, but if I can really come in and be my friends and absolutely like my main takeaway is I have no regrets. I loved what I've learned and done for the last decade, but I would like to make Lily rich and not someone who already is rich, more rich that is. She was like, I'm super super excited to share with the world that you guys have

a really exciting venture coming up together. That is a departure from what you've done in the past, but still well it's you're still building your own stuff on your own channels, but now you're going to help build other people up. So we started a new company. Hey, it's called Shared Media. We're launching with two YouTube channels, one of which will focus on the intersection of pop culture and internet news, and the other will basically be launched

as Lillian I's collab channel. It's called the Shared Channel. The other piece of the business that I'm personally really passionate and excited about is that we are going to be creating a talent incubator and mentorship program for people who are really in the game and committed to it and just need that little extra bit of help, that little extra push. It's not a multi channel network. There's a different way that we're going to scale out side

of the business. I know that's like a lot of big words, truthfully and honestly, I am so committed to helping people not have to deal with some of the bs that we've had to go through. And also we're just excited to make new content together and with a team that we're putting together, and I think they're really amazing people. That being said, we're still super super focused on other endeavors, including our personal channels and other projects.

Your moguls were, Yeah, So, I mean, to start out, it's not going to be like, oh my god, uploads every single day and we're doing everything, because we do still need to do our own stuff as well. But I think we're launching planning. It's already started at this point, but our plan is to launch with about two videos on our shared channel week and then on shared News a little bit more, a little more daily. I feel

like clever. One of the beauties was we got to have our friends in once in a while to do stuff, but to have it be in a like more official capacity. It always felt like it was a lot of paperwork, a lot of approvals. There were so many people involved. So we're excited to like, we already have an office in the studio. Oh and oh my god, we're so Rudy didn't even mention that also involved is with the garage.

We're back together. The gang's back together. Also on our team is Lisa Heiser, who's one of the original people from Clever. She's one of the smartest people I know. We used to share in office that was like a closet for There are two other people on staff, Renee Aerial and Fiona Zering, who will be helping with our news operation. They're so so talented and promising and they have so much potential. So we're just excited it's gonna

build something new, fun to go back to. More of like a run and gun kind of like this is a good idea, let's do it. And then everyone's like, yeah, do it, Like you don't have to like get anyone to sign off. We wear the pants now uno we wear skirts, which is also fine or score or scored if I'm feeling crazy or no pants at all even better. I mean so many takeaways from this interview, but I think the biggest thing that like just kept coming up

was authenticity. And you guys connect with your fans, and you have a lot of engagement and people who are going to follow every single thing that you guys do. You've been so consistent from the very beginning. You've been consistent with who you are authentically, and now you guys are branching off and doing your own thing, which is so exciting. But also you're gonna help other people do their thing, which is also very much on brand with both of your personalities. So I'm so excited to continue

to stop you as a friend because I'm allowed to. Um. You guys have to come back when you have new things. I feel like it's constantly gonna happen with you guys, hopefully fingers crossed. You've beat all the odds. I feel like you and Smash are in your own lane of beating all the odds when it comes to YouTube. Not a fad. You guys are here to stay and and growing and changing from like twilight to make up to

wedding dress trying on. It's crazy. Thank you, for having us on your show, on your life, on your kindness, who you are as a purse, saying I'm your biggest fan, and the fact that you are able to maintain all of this while having a successful relationship, a beautiful home, and a dog named hit Teddy slash Santa for half his name is Santa. I have established that is my favorite. Also, every day that I come in here, I'm like, is today the day that my water breaks on? It made

for a great show, great content. I'm ready and willing to deliver your child. Oh my god, what don't you do? She fainted when she see you. Guys, we literally don't know how to stop time. I'm sorry, sorry. Bye. Behind Influences a production of I Heart Radio and TDC Media