From TikTok to Impact: How Erica Hernandez is Inspiring Change for the Ocean

Are you interested in speaking up for the ocean on social media? you're going to want to watch this episode because I have Erica Hernandez who is a personality on TikTok that I love to watch. She talks about climate, she talks about environmental science, she talks about wildlife conservation, she talks a lot and it's great and it's really wonderful

to see how she's progressed over the years. She started talking about it over two years ago and has really developed a great account, lots of views on her videos and she's kind of looking at different ways to do environmental messaging. And we talked to her about that. I talked to her about that

on this episode. And I'm really excited to share that because I'm hoping that people who are maybe thinking about starting a channel or a profile or what have you, you know, can take this and take some advice from from Erica and myself on this. We had a great conversation and to say, hey, you know what? I'm

going to start one, too. I'm going to start a profile, a TikTok account, an Instagram page or start talking on YouTube or whatever that might be, podcasts, and be able to check that out and see what can come out of that, see how your life changed with that. But we're gonna talk about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Let's start the show. Hey

everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. And today we're gonna be talking about speaking up for the ocean, something that I love to talk about, science

communication. It's probably one of the most important things in conservation, in my opinion, and it's the reason why I started this podcast, because people that I talk to just around my own life, like my own circles, my family, my friends, didn't really know a lot about what was happening in the ocean. And they would come to me and ask me great questions, but

I was like, why aren't more people talking about the ocean? I just realized at the time when I started, there weren't a lot of resources to find out about the ocean. There's a lot of competition for information these days. So I started a podcast that you're listening to right now, and now you have a resource to talk about ocean news or to hear about ocean news and

how to talk about it and all that kind of stuff. So if you're interested in starting some kind of profile, whether it be a TikTok account, an Instagram account, a podcast, a YouTube channel. This is, as I said before, this is the episode for you because Erica Hernandez, who has a profile on TikTok, talks about environmental science, climate change, all those great issues

that we need more information on. She talks on today's episode about why she started it, how she started it, how her message has evolved, how her confidence has been building over the last two years with each and every video. We talk about followers, we talk about commenters and how to deal with them, just a lot of different things that has to do with social media. And I think it's really

important because it's such an important tool. And I know a lot of people talk about being on social media, how it's bad for you. But wouldn't it be great if there's more great content on there? And I think that's really important. Erica does provide that great content. It's information. It's something that you can use. It's not only just on, you know, this endangered species or that endangered species or this

wildlife habitat. It has to do with just like how people can live by living just a little bit better for the planet, a little bit better for the ocean by buying clothes, like through thrifting, by just having a better lifestyle, a more sustainable lifestyle. Not that it's perfect. Nobody's perfect. Erika even mentions that she does this sort of imperfect kind of way of living. And I think it's really important to share that and to share how people can do to get better and

what people do for a better, how people can live for a better planet. So with that said, here is the interview with Erika Hernandez talking about her TikTok account and her science communication. Enjoy the interview and I will talk to you after. Hey, Erika, welcome to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about science communication? Nice. I love it. Look, this is exciting. I have been watching your TikTok account for quite some time. You are

talking about climate change. You were talking about the environment. And it's a really interesting platform to be on because you can go like mega viral at times, sometimes just 10 views, a couple hundred views, but you're getting that constant connection with your audience. And that's what I really wanna talk about today, answering questions from the audience and so forth, but really how you got to pick all that up and what your plans are in the future for this wonderful

platform as well as just science communication in general. So we're gonna get into all that, but before we do, Erica, why don't you just let Okay. My name is Erica. I'm 23. I have a degree in environmental science and a geology minor. I went to Appalachian State. And I'm currently going to work as a environmental justice organizer and researcher for Clean Water for NC. And I'm excited about that. And I've always just had an interest in environmentalism. I feel like it

really sparked when I was in third grade. And the way it Just saw a forest just totally cut down and I don't know something in me clicked and I felt like I had to fix something like me like me personally like it's such a So you had like so what did people come into your classroom like did you have people like from an organization come into your classroom and talk about you know different things you can get take part of or like plastic or

Anything that had to do with the environment. Is that what you had or was this your teachers that were I feel like for teachers, they started talking more about climate change probably in middle school, but what really got me into it was just seeing that forest and I just wanted to do more with them. I was just thinking of like the wildlife conservation, like where did the animals go? How do they adapt to human activity and how it's progressing over

time? In high school, when we were applying to colleges, I was gonna go undecided because I really didn't know what I wanted. But then I forgot, like I had that spark. I'm like, environmental science. I feel like that's what Yeah, they say your inner your inner child has all the answers you need. So I'm like, okay, my inner child wanted this. And I still I love it. I love it. Now. So going to Appalachian State, you're, you know, it's kind of discovering environmental science, right? Because,

you know, you're going back and thinking, like, what can I do? What were your ideas as you're going through college, like maybe at the beginning compared to at the end of how you're sort of image change of what you could do in conservation or Well, like a lot of college students, when they first go in, they're kind of naive. And I knew the climate crisis and like human activity, environmentalism was depressing. But I didn't know it was that

depressing when I started going into it and learning more about it. And a lot of the times I kind of wanted to just switch my majors because I just I don't know. I don't I can handle it. But I did always wanted to lean more towards wildlife conservation. And I'm still not where I am where I want to do that at the moment, but hopefully in the future. But like I said, there's so many topics within the environmental sector, climate change, environmental science.

It's very broad, which is one thing I love about it because it's a very diverse degree. And I remember thinking when I was about to graduate, I'm like, I feel like this is this degree is not going to help me. I feel like it's not worth it. But my my advisor, like my teacher, she said, no, no, no, no, no. This is a very good degree. And it's it's actually growing field, I believe, like a lot of companies are trying to be more green and they really need

environmental scientists. And I feel like every job can be a climate job if you use what you know to help Well, I mean, you know, as you and I know, climate change affects everything we do. And it doesn't matter if you're a marine scientist, a wildlife biologist, an environmental scientist, or you own a business. You're impacted by climate change. Your business is impacted by climate change. Supply chains are impacted. Everything is impacted. We

can't get away from it. And I think a lot of people try to deny it so they don't have to worry about it out of sight, out of mind. But we know now it's definitely not out of sight, and it's on our minds quite a bit. It's interesting how you're talking about how you thought you were going to switch out, or you thought about switching out, because a lot of the things are heavy. A lot of the issues are heavy, and there is no real like switch to be like, if we just, you know, flip this switch, we're

going to be fine. It's a lot heavier. Do you remember some of the, some of the issues that really got Yes. I feel like for me, it's more endangered species. And I remember in one of my classes, you can't save all of them. And like essentially how biologists, I'm not sure who, but the way that they decide on which species deserves more protection is what they offer in a way. Like, do you know what I mean? It's like, okay, which one brings

more money to us? Like, that's, I was like, when I heard about that, I'm like, that was, that's kind of depressing, because you really can't save all the species. And that's what I want to do. But obviously, you can't, but you can try. And I think another one, I feel like would be just Displacement because not everyone has

can just pick up and leave where they were is better. Some people are gonna Suffer and I remember watching this they showed us a documentary and I tried to look for it again on youtube But I couldn't find it and it was titled the island that disappeared and it was some natives from an island that essentially sea level rise just kept getting worse and worse and they were basically not being heard and essentially they just hadn't deal with the consequences and

It is. I mean, if you think about people actually having to leave their homes and leave their land that they've been living there for who knows how long, hundreds of years, you know, like multiple centuries, it's really depressing when you think about it. We don't think about it here in North America as much. because it doesn't impact us

or it has impact family members as of yet. But there's definitely going to be times in the future where people on the coastline are going to have to move and they're going to have to try and sell their homes, not going to be able to, and they're going to have to move to a different spot. And they are going to be what we're going to consider climate refugees because they weren't, they had to move with nothing because their

homes are flooded or they can't sell. and they move. The ones that can sell are gonna be, or that are okay with leaving the home are gonna be like the super rich. And that's the people who don't really care and they have most of the power. So it's frustrating and depressing when you hear about that. But what made you, you know, like that's enough for a lot of people to turn off. Just like I know from my case with science communication,

I started a YouTube channel when I was like maybe 24, 15, 14 years ago. And I remember one of my gym owner was like, yeah, I started watching your videos. And I got depressed because you talked a lot about some depressing things. So I stopped watching it. And I was like, oh, that's interesting to learn, you know, like in terms of how you communicate that. But what was it that really kept you in it? Because I can understand a lot of people leaving the

field even while you're learning because you're in college. You're like, I want to make sure that I'm going to be happy with my job. I don't want to have to watch all these species leave. What made you stay in If I'm being so honest, I feel like it was the Lorax movie, Yeah. But it makes me cry every time. It's like, unless someone like you cares and hold off a lot, things aren't going to get better. It's really not. And I know because they say like, I clearly believe there's power in numbers.

And if we're being realistic, one person can make a difference, but it can only do so much. But still, if everyone had that mindset, I feel like things really could turn around for the better. And yeah, I even have a sticker of it on my laptop. It literally has a quote, unless someone like you cares. Yeah, but that movie, I feel like it's really special to me. And I'm hoping the future doesn't look like that in the end where people forget about it. But it does leave some

hope for the future. And I feel like, for me, I try not to let climate doomism get to me, because that gets a lot of people. And I know what it feels like to have climate doomism and just to give up and be like, all right, I'm just waiting for Mother Nature to kill us 100%, I agree. I agree completely. It's really interesting. My kids grew up on that movie too. They're teenagers now. They love, they still go back and watch that movie. And it's like, there's some hard parts

in it when you think about it. Cause for me, especially, I relate, I see it happening in real life and it's not a far-fetched story. Maybe sort of like what's happened in the movie is far-fetched. Maybe, hopefully, but just the message of it, if

everybody has their own voice, they all stand up, you can change. I think that's really empowering because I think we've seen that with Climate change already, you know, we saw the the climate strikes happen and we saw starting off with you know One or two kids or three kids or four kids and then starts to you know Grow and grow and then we had millions of people around the world start to say hey like we

need change here You know all the people who are in charge aren't changing. They're denying climate change all this kind of stuff and And we know it's real and so we need to do something. And now if you look at many governments, although they can be criticized of not acting fast enough. a lot of them, like 10 years ago, weren't doing anything. And now they've got these major plans to do something. And like

I said, they're not perfect by any means, but we're seeing those changes. And I do believe it's because people are standing up and people are starting to mobilize and empower themselves to be like, look, yeah, I know I'm one person, but if everybody starts to talk, we all know the feeling. And so we're starting to see governments change and we're starting to see that representation start to kind of fill out for people who are more, who are going to be more affected. and

who are being affected right now. So I love that. I love the movie. I'm like, yeah, this is it. This is the movie that's gonna kind of keep me into it. That's awesome. Now you did a minor in geology. Why geology?

I have to know. I think it's a great field, complicated and complex in terms of what you're learning and stuff, but why, those are two big things to learn about, you know, major environmental science, minor in geology, very, you know, they mesh together quite Um, I'm not sure because I, when I was younger, younger, I also wanted to do paleontology and I could kind of get a little bit of taste with that because, um, I could have

gotten. I could have chose to get a degree in like some paleontology, but that's too much for me. I don't know if I wanted it that bad. But yeah, when I got my degree in environmental science, I focused on life science. And then I got a geology minor because I could get a little bit of both. Because they do go well together. And I Love it. I love that. And so that was more of like, it's a fun thing to learn, obviously usable in a lot of different fields as you go. So when you graduated, you've

got your life ahead of you. You've got your undergrad degree. What were you thinking? What kind of area did you want to go? Because even environmental science is still quite a broad field to learn from. Well, I was applying to jobs and I did get job offers, but the thing was they were in cities a bit away and I kind of needed to save up money at the moment to get an apartment. So as soon as I graduated, I just was an environmental educator at

a local camp. And I did that for a few months and I loved it. And then I worked as a restoration technician. And now here I am starting about to start my new job, my big girl job.

Like if you think about three very different jobs if you think about like the context, right Obviously this one you the environmental justice one is gonna be new so you haven't done that one yet out of the other two Which ones did you prefer Yeah, it was a very because um, I it was like during outdoor education season so it was like four or five months and essentially it was mainly elementary middle school kids but often on the weekends there would be conference groups that

they would do their own little things but sometimes like we would do like environmental lessons for them and and I loved like we talked about water ecology, forest ecology, the water cycle, things like that and also like having fun which which I thought it was fun because I was still using it's still kind of related it did relate to what I studied and I During my undergrad, I also had two internships. One was an outreach, and it was mainly for elementary school

kids as well, and then a research one. But the one I enjoyed most was the outreach internship, because like a lot of people say, or the cliche saying, kids are the future. And what they know, they're going to end up carrying on with them in the future years. And surprisingly, a lot of the kids do Well, I mean, it worked for you, right? Yeah. If you go back to grade three, you're like, yeah, that's, uh, you know, that's what I kind of wanted to do. And

I agree. I think that's one of the most important things to do. I think as science communicators now as well is this to the people, whether it doesn't matter what age group at this point, obviously young kids are, it's like an investment, right? You're investing into the future of education. So they don't come up and. You know, just learn or listen to anything that's said

that's wrong and then they believe that. You know, you want them to understand science, you want them to understand nature and what it can do, the potential, but also the consequence that we can have if we start to disturb it too much like we're doing now. So it's always great to see that. One thing you mentioned too about, you know, you had job offers that were away from where you lived. I think that's a really interesting point because

I find I've had this a lot of times too. You know, growing up in Canada, there's a lot of jobs in the US. They offer you the job, you're like, okay, this is great. But then you're like, I'm far from home, you know, and you got to look at lifestyle, you got to look at, you know, what you want in terms of in the future, how you want to live your life. I think a lot of us, especially in marine biology, for me, You know, you have to grow up along a coastline, or you have to

live along a coastline. And for me, my family's in Ontario, where we have freshwater coastlines, but not ocean coastlines. And I chose to stay here, even though it was going to be challenging for my position in the future. But this is what came out of it, was this podcast. But a lot of the jobs, they wouldn't

offer enough to live in that city. You know like it was it was and it's like how do you expect me to survive or I'm not sure if you came across this but the jobs weren't full-time they were like a few months here or a few months there or maybe a year or a year and a half and that's a very difficult thing when you start to look at trying to live somewhere or trying to build a life somewhere. I don't think some of these organizations think

about that. It's probably due to funding and how long the funding is, but I find that's a really difficult thing to process when you first start out. I'm curious to hear your opinion on that type of building I agree. And especially within like the environmental sector, a lot of jobs are seasonal or it's based on funding or they're really, really competitive because they're just really competitive to get into. And I feel like that's not talked about enough. And I was

grateful enough to have job opportunities and eventually get a job. And especially now, because apparently the job market is really bad right now. And I thought it because I remember when I was applying like a few months ago when I was at my job I was like, okay cuz I knew I was there for just a little bit of time just to save money Yeah, I was trying to fly and I kept getting interviews, but then they just ghosted me I'm like is it me but then I'm like no it's it's it's a lot of people and I

It's harsh out there right now. It's harsh. Yeah, it's a hard one. So when did you start getting the, I'm gonna pick up my phone and start talking about the environment bug? When did that really start to hit you and I think my first environmental TikTok was talking about why blue whales are my favorite. That was like, that was almost two years ago, I think. And I don't know, because I do remember actually the time when I was like, okay, I want to I

want to make content about environmentalism. And I told my boyfriend, I want to do it. You have the technology, you have the knowledge, go ahead and try it. And I'm really glad I did because, like I said, I know my following is small, but I have screenshots of every time someone Messaged me on there saying hey, thank you so much. I love your content.

It gives me. Hope please don't stop posting I hope one day you get like a million like stuff like that and and it makes me feel good to post like for me I love posting because I love it myself, but yeah and other people loving it. It's just like a bonus Well, look, I'm here. You're just shy about 4000 followers on TikTok. And but I'm looking at

like your videos. And like, I've done stuff on TikTok, not nearly as good as your content, in my opinion, but you have like quite a few views on these videos, like you're averaging probably around like, you know, five to 800 on average, and then every once in a while, I see like a 10,000, or a 1,000, or 5,000. I think your highest is, what, I see one here for 74,000 views on this one video, and this is weekly positive climate views. I love these.

And you have another one where you have 200,000. I didn't even realize it, it was right beside it. When you first started out to now, how have things evolved My messaging? I think my first, in terms of positive climate news, my first one posted, I put positive environmental news. And I probably should go back to that because some of the news I post on climate isn't really under the climate. It's a little more broad. Gotcha. But because I know like the TikTok algorithm changes too, and

that's not really on the creator's fault. And I'm trying to find Different I guess how I make my content is I think what

would I want to see in my for you page? I know every now and then I do some lifestyle videos and I just usually just make content on what I don't see as much a lot of people post like Some positive climate news and they have their own way of doing it and the way I do it I just do like pictures and so I just keep it short and sweet and then some of my followers say you should try talking about them instead and I'm like maybe I Maybe I might do that in

Well, and I think, I mean, one good thing about being a scientist, which we both are, is you're okay with experimenting, right? Like, I mean, you put up, everybody's gonna have an opinion on what they'd like to see, and I think that's good. I think, you know, trying different things, and if somebody suggests something and you're willing to do it, or you're willing to try it, or you have the time to try it, because a lot of these things are not easy to put together, as I've noticed.

I think it's interesting to experiment. Even like you said, to put these climate news where you put a picture and you just kind of swipe across for the different climate news, which is great because it's almost like you read articles and you're like, here's some cool climate news you should know about. You just summarize them so people are like, oh, this is

nice because this is the positive stuff. that you we see and it's like sometimes it's like oh you know another couple of countries signed on to you know like it could be like the ocean treaty say or or what have you right it's just really cool stuff that people are like oh that's nice to know that's nice to know and they could share that with other people who knows or they could repost it or or

what have you, right? I find, though, a lot of people will have suggestions on the way to do things, and I know we feel pressure to do them, but then you're just like, well, I like doing my own stuff. You know, it works within my workflow, because, like I said, sometimes it takes a long time to do it, but it's really cool. And one thing I really noticed, too, is you put in sort of your, like you kind of mentioned, your lifestyle into here, right? And one of your most recent videos is

your thrift clothes. Yeah, it's kind of cool. You have like a fun style to your clothes. I don't know anything about style, right? I'm a, I'm a 46 year old dad, but you have, you like, you show off your, you like, it's almost like a get ready with me or like, Hey, look what I got. And these are like nice looking clothes. And you're like, this was thrifted. This was thrifted. This was thrifted. Do you find people get surprised at what you

Yeah, for sure. I remember I got a comment, I posted another type of thrifting video, and I was like, oh my gosh, you have such good luck. But it's funny because I go through every rack and I search everything, and I feel like people that say, oh, I never find anything, they're just like, Like, you'd be surprised how much good stuff is at the thrift stores. And personally, I don't like to buy, even though it's from the thrift store, I try to avoid fast

fashion brands because they usually don't last long regardless. And for me, I just like finding brands that are a little older just to have a little more sense of No one else is going to have this. It makes me feel like more unique I like really colorful clothes and I recently was starting thinking maybe I should start dressing my age, but I'm like, So far, I'm still gonna have my little style, but that's a problem You know, but what do you mean by dressing your age? I'm curious

about that. Like, is it you want to dress, you know, quote unquote, more like more like professional or is it like, what is that? Because I, because I feel like you've got a good style, you know, it's professional or not, or fine. Like not everybody dresses professional

every day, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, I'm just curious, I guess probably yeah, like more professional or maybe it's because we're like social media gets to us be like, um, like, why are you like, or like where they say, Oh my gosh, my frontal lobe is developing. I no longer find that Because I mean, my, my, my style, I don't, I don't really wear that much crop tops anymore. You know, just things like that. And I do have some professional clothing, but I

Not many people do. I mean, people like to be relaxed and they like to be comfortable in their clothes. And sometimes the professional clothes is not as, like, I know that, like when I wear a suit, I'm not as comfortable as if I'm wearing. You know, like a nice pair of pants, like even jeans or something like that, that makes me feel comfortable, right? So

it's interesting though, too. The reason why I asked is because I remember having somebody on because I was, I had never thrifted before and I was trying to figure out what it all meant. This was a couple of years ago. I've now started to do that. But a lot of like the person I had on the interview, she was saying that she actually buys a lot of her that she goes to conferences with and she spends like less than $100 on

an outfit or maybe even a couple of outfits. And then she goes to these professional conferences and people are like complimenting her on, you know, her styles and what she's wearing and things. And she's like, yeah, this was, I didn't, I barely spent any money on this. Not only that, but I know the clothes are used and it's better for the environment and all this kind of stuff. So

I think a lot of people like, I think this is kind of a thing now. I know in my city, we're starting to see more thrift stores pop up that have a lot of different styles and a lot of different brands. My kids like to do it as well. But they kind of search as well. You have to kind of search for that. I know what you mean

by that. It's like search for that unique kind of material. So I I'm really glad for like secondhand fashion is getting popularity, especially like we even have apps now like Depop and whatnot. And I usually go on there too if I'm looking for something specific. But yeah, I feel like a lot of people are into thrifting. I know, I don't know if it's because people do it because it's in now because I remember thrifting used to be looked down upon a few years ago, like it was

like, like, you're poor or like, ill. Like, I don't know, but now people are like, oh my gosh, like, look at me, I'm thrifting. But I've So yeah, I think I used to see it because it used to be like, you know, like a value village or a goodwill that we have up here, where it was, it was for people who couldn't afford clothes. So they went and they got used clothes, and you would donate your your used clothes there. But now I see a lot more stores popping up like saying no,

no, here we are. It's like a thrift store. It's like this is you know, come for these types of brands or what have you and you see a lot more kids who are doing it and young adults who are doing it and it feels like the fashion plus like... things are expensive, so it makes sense to be able to buy something that's cheap but still quality made, which is nice to see. And I'll be honest, I try to look for new clothes that are environmentally friendly, and they

are crazy expensive. Like shirts that go for, like T-shirts that go for like $30, $40, and it's like, I can't afford that. I can't spend that on a T-shirt. There's no way.

But anyway, that's good. So in terms of the messaging for, you know, what you do on, like when you do, is it just TikTok that you do I do post on Instagram occasionally, but it's usually the same posts, specifically the ones I make on Canva and every now and then I do post stories about like important environmental issues that are going around,

but mainly TikTok is where I post at. And I'm thinking of, recently I was starting to think of Maybe posting on YouTube because I did have a YouTube channel before but that was more like me But That's where people are. I mean, I don't know how many users it has now. It's got to be over a billion And you know not knowing what's gonna happen in the future with tick-tock in the US and other places I mean, it's kind of interesting to see this platform

grow and evolve. So now like from the beginning when you first started a couple years ago posting to now how is your social media like messaging and like I feel like I'm still on I mean, it looks like I'm confident, but my videos, like there's so many tries I do, or I stutter and I have to like edit. I'm like, I don't know why I cannot speak. But I feel like I've gotten better a little bit at editing. Recently, I've started using

CapCut. And by recently, I mean, like literally four days ago. Because recently, because I was just editing on the app itself and the CapCut. It's A little bit cap cup is a little I feel like a little more difficult Yeah, I'm trying to get the use hang of it and The message explain a little more me. I'm not getting it like my messaging. How Well, the confidence is a thing to like, you know, like I know for me when

I first started I had huge imposter syndrome, right? So when I first started and I would say stuff I wouldn't even tell people that I published a podcast I would just and see who was listening and see how many. If I had a lot of people, I'd be like, ugh, I'm not sure. Because like when I started, even like started, like I started with a website and a YouTube channel and then I went to podcasting because it was easier for me. But when I first started, I was very worried about

being called out. And like scientists weren't talking about the work that they were doing. Because there was no incentive to do so. And there was almost a disincentive because people would take what you had and they would cut it to what they wanted to. So if you talked about climate change, people like it or you did an interview about climate change, people would mess up your, the journalists, if you call them that, some of them, they would mess up your words,

they wouldn't manipulate your words. So a lot of scientists didn't have trust in talking to mainstream media. And, and so when I first started the podcast, the whole point was not to cut anything out, not to edit that to not to manipulate it so that people would feel comfortable. and to get cool stories out. But I was so worried that scientists would be like, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be doing this. People are going

to attack you all the time. And I realized after a while that people weren't attacking me. And other scientists supported me so much that they would come on. And then they're like, we're having so much fun. You should talk to this person. And you should talk to this person. And this person is doing it cool. And then I just started to get more and more people coming

to chat. And I think through that, through getting that acceptance, And comments back being like, hey, like, you know, you changed my life, or I'm really glad I never had this. I never knew about this before. And that kind of built my confidence. Now where it's like, I feel guilty if I don't post an episode, because I'm like that person who's who could learn about this, or I'll read an article like, oh, that's not that important. And I'm like, No, it probably is

probably important for somebody. And so I'll do an episode on it and I'll publish it. And then somebody responds like, I'm so glad you did that episode. I'm like, ah, I knew it. But sometimes you're into it so much that you're like, oh, I've seen that so many times. People don't want to talk about that. Then I'm like, Once I publish it, people are like, I didn't know about this. And you're like, oh my god. OK, so it's still worth it.

So my confidence in the material and what to publish has changed from feeling like I'm an imposter in this field and not knowing what I'm talking about to trying to serve somebody by providing information for that person. And so it's less of about me and more about the audience that I have. So I've got a little bit more confident in what I'm I feel the same way, in a way, actually. I posted a TikTok about vultures a few days ago, and then someone commented today,

That's the video that happens all the time. I had to turn mine I was like, where did those balloons come Yeah, so if you do like if you move your hands, and like it looks like a celebration balloons and celebration. Do you like a heart shape Essentially, they just said, Oh my gosh, I didn't know about this. Thank you. I learned so much from you. And yeah, I just I just like spreading information and Environmental communications, it's

like a good bridge between like the science and the community. And I feel like that's not what there is a lot of. So I like doing it to what I can in a way. And I like speaking on topics that Yeah, for sure. So what topics do you think? Like, what Uh, well, like I said before, I like talking about like different animals and species every now and then I do like it's like it's blank day and I talk about that

animal. Uh, definitely the positive climate news. Cause I've, I've been doing that continuously for like a year and a half now. And I haven't missed a single week, even though the views don't bother me. I know some days, like I don't get that many views. Like I'm still going to post them because some people still like seeing them and I like seeing them too. And those, those videos I

like doing and just. If there's like a local or like issue, environmental issue that I know about or I'm aware of to a good knowledge, I usually speak

out on that as well. And I was thinking of doing a TikTok. I think I think in Texas there was like a chemical power Yeah, I think I think I think that happened this morning and I'm like, uh, that's bad yeah, well, I'll be honest one of the reasons actually we connected and I never told anybody at the beginning was you did a Story on the Florida State Parks recently.

Maybe like three fourth four weeks ago. Yeah, I and you're talking about how you know that the the state wanted to be able to build or having public comments on building these massive resorts these golf courses, disc golf course too, I didn't know that was a big thing but apparently that's a big thing and they want to build in these beautiful state parks and they're giving like less than a week notice of like these public comments You

told me you you kind of let me know of that story through your content and I was like I gotta do an episode on this and I mentioned you in the episode that's when I reached out like hey just to let you know I mentioned you in this episode because this is important um and so that's what I feel like that's the cool thing I also feel too I don't know if you ever noticed this but like when we get on social media And I don't know if we, it's just because so many people talk

about it. And like, there are a lot of celebrities out there that have like millions of followers. They get so many views. And even like the quote unquote Tik Tokers that are like huge. It's their brand, right? They're the influencers of the world. And they get, you know, millions and millions of views. And then I look at mine and I'm like, I got like only a hundred views on this or 300 views on this. I'm like, then I think to myself, That's like

300 people. Like if you can fill a lecture hall with 300 people and it'll look busy and you just like imagine if I had to speak in front of 300 people, you know, for like two minutes of like an episode that I do on TikTok or even like 10-20 minutes of an episode that I do on the podcast. I was like, that's a lot of people to

connect with and you never know who you're connecting with, right? It could be a decision maker, it could be the kid of a politician who's like, hey, mom or dad, you need to see this because this is important. And you may change somebody. You never know who's out there watching your content. And so I think that's quite interesting when it comes out. Do you ever get that feeling though? Because you get a good, you get a solid amount of

views. Do you ever feel like sometimes you're like, oh, I wish that did better, but actually it hit a lot of people. Like it got to a lot of Yeah, I do. Like perspective is everything. And even likes, like let's say you get like 30 likes, like if 30 people went up to you and complimented on what you did, I'd feel like very happy. I'd be like, oh my gosh, thank you so much. But I, yeah, I do feel that way. And also like some of my mutuals, Like,

like you and other people, like, they're within the environmental sector field. And like, I've connected, like, even like, I've connected with people that advocate for animal rights, like they're vegans, or some of them work in like city, city planning, things like that. And yeah, I, it's crazy, like who, who people like who sees and even if they don't directly Interact or will they do interact with let's say they repost it like a lot of people do repost my

Yep. I reposted your stuff quite a few times So this is all good like this is great like it's interesting to see what you've done on here and what you're sort of able to do Do you have? Like specific types, like you talked about your weekly positive climate news. And that's cool. And that's comes out like, is it once Okay. Every Monday. Yeah. Cause it's Monday today. Okay, cool. Um, so you, so you do that every Monday. Do you have other types of like, do

you say, okay, Monday's for this? Um, one, I'm trying to. I think I have so far, but every now and then I have like a little streak and then I don't post for like one or two days and then I post again. But that's one of my goals. Like I'm trying to be more consistent with posting because that essentially is better for your performance because they get circulated more. Still a lot of work. And also, yeah, it's a lot of work. But usually what I do is I like bulk create. Like one day

I like make the same. I make videos of myself and sometimes I like change my shirt but it's the same day to make you think that it's another day Yeah, I do that. And pattern wise, I know like I'm trying to have more like a schedule. But I know Mondays are weekly positive climate news. And essentially, I just look at my feed. And I try to have a weekly positive news every now and then a Canva post, which is like something it doesn't matter what topic it is, but it's just something I made on

Canva. Every other now and then maybe like a video to show about me. And And So you have kind of like pillars. So you have like the ocean positive news, like a lifestyle thing, you know, something that you make on, like something that you try and experiment on Canva. Usually they have, and what you mean by that, like they have templates and you just kind of pick a template and then use it and then kind of fit it to the Okay, cool. So that's kind of cool. So you have those types of pillars. I

think that's, I think that's great. I mean, even posting a couple of times a year, I'm like, is pretty cool. If you think about it, because I'm like, wow, this is, this is pretty cool. But so looking into the future now, Yeah, with just science communication in general, are you gonna just stay on TikTok mostly and build that platform out? Are you going to, like you mentioned a little bit of maybe going back to YouTube,

I do wanna stick mainly to TikTok. I know they were saying it might get banned and that's part of the reason why some videos aren't performing as well as they used to. But I do wanna stay on TikTok. Maybe more on YouTube, but Essentially, I want to get more comfortable using the features that TikTok has. I know TikTok Live. I've been on it for a few times, but I only am on it for like three minutes or less because I get scared for some reason. Is it because you're worried about running

That's what I'm worried about. Sometimes I do think about that. Especially like because I know could I not have a little bit of free time because I haven't started working my full-time job yet Yeah, cuz I've had like a two-week gap just to enjoy but I'm trying to like get as much done as possible But it is kind of hard to do like social media while doing other stuff and that's I like it's it's it's a skill to have like time management and like having all that so I Props to us because we did.

Absolutely. It's difficult. I think a lot of people, they don't realize how much time it takes to be able to get these videos up and to edit them and whatever software you're using to edit. It takes a long time to put it up there and make sure you do a job that you think is a good job. That's good enough to put out for you. It does take a long time to do, so doing it with the job. would be good. Now, is your job aware that you have like a

TikTok account that gets some pretty good views? And do you think you'd feel comfortable in talking about some of the work you do to make people more Um, for sure. Yeah. And I did tell them about that. I do post on social media as like a little hobby for environmentalism and

they know my account. So they're not stalking me, but like, and I'm pretty sure they're gonna, they're gonna know that I'm going to talk about like what I do and to gain more insight because I'm going to have to be doing research and like environmental justice communities within the state. And a lot of it has to do with like hog operations and how it affects some water qualities or streams nearby. And yeah,

Yeah, that'll be cool. I think, I think it's great. I think more organizations that have their, I mean, they should show off their staff in my opinion, cause I love the people that work within the environmental field and I find some organizations do it really, really well. And other organizations are so tight knit that they don't want to let any information because they want to control everything. But I like the fact that they let people talk

and let their staff talk because that's why you hire them. You hire them for their expertise and so you let them talk on their expertise. So I love that. One question I haven't asked and I've wanted to ask this for a while. You post a lot, you get a lot of views, you're going to get comments. Do you find most of your, and some people are always worried about comments,

right? Like it could be really, really great. And you've started to mention some of them, but some of them can be like, you know, when, especially when you deal with climate, a lot of times you get some, some, some, whether they're real people or not, who knows, but you get some pretty harsh comments. How do you approach How do I approach them? I usually just delete them because I don't respond to them. Sometimes, I think one time I do, but essentially how I see it, I'm like, wait

a minute, this is my page, get out of here. So I just delete them. But I often, I don't really get that many negative comments. I would say I got them more when my weekly positive climate news were getting more traction. People would be like, they would say stuff like, Well, what's the point? We're already dead. Or this isn't really good climate. Like, I don't know, something like that. Or I think I made a video maybe like last year talking about like, Oh,

did you know if we killed animals? Well, if we killed humans, the same rate we killed animals, we'd be extinct in like, two weeks, 14 days. And because I was talking about like, how you can reduce your impact because I'm not a vegan, but I do my best to like, Yep,

because I don't eat pork. I don't eat seafood. I'm really just eat chicken and and yeah people were just saying like oh I'm gonna eat like a two burgers to like to the vegans think I'm like, you know, just to cancel like it's definitely I'm like, yeah Right the trolls and we've all seen it. I I find every time I post anything on climate I get somebody that's just like I You know, you should watch this YouTube video because this YouTube video sells everything. And I

always laugh. I respond. I'm like, oh, thank you for sharing this YouTube video. I'll stop listening to the scientific papers that are out there that are peer reviewed by other scientists, the top scientists to watch this guy on this YouTube video talk about, you know, how it's, you know, a completely different theory. I always find that I always get that every

time I post it. Right. But no, I think that I think it's it's interesting because a lot of some people are afraid to talk on on like these platforms because The comment so I think if I like that approach it's like look if I see these comments, I'm just gonna delete them They don't provide anything. I find some people who like who respond positively Can actually help other people when they come to the to the comments be like, oh Like people are really enjoying it here. Like this is this

is fun. Like this is you can almost build a community Do you find you hear from the same people or a lot of the same people? commenting on like multiple videos like building a little bit of that audience or a community Yeah, I do. I do feel like I have a good little community and I do the same thing to their videos. We both do good interactions. And yeah, like I said, that's

the thing I love about social media. You never know who's watching and some people have the same interests connect with you or they want to learn more about XYZ and the environmental sector. And I just feel like it's really heartwarming. That's the thing I love about social media. I know it can be Like, social media can have its downsides, especially within the climate field, because I know I would see these, like, videos that would trend and it was

just, like, all, like, negative, like. like a video of the polar bear starving on ice, thin ice, litter. I know what they were trying to do, like to raise awareness, but that's not a good approach to do it because a lot of people just see it and they're like, oh, we're already dead, like they scroll. But I feel like it should be a little bit of a good mix. That's why I do some environmental awareness and I do positive climate news because I feel like hope

is the biggest thing you can have right now. Um, like, cautious climate optimism is like, huge for me because I know because there's toxic positivity. It's not like, oh, yeah, we're good. We're good. Whatever. Like, you should, you should still be aware of, like, what's going on, but, you know, still talk about, like, what's good because often, like. The news, they hardly ever say anything about what's good, so I have to actually look

for it. It's always like, this explosion happened, this much deforestation, it's always just, it's all negative, They love it, because it's easy to click on, right? It's like, look at this forest, it used to look like this, now look at it, you click on here and find out what it looks like, and people

love to hear that. I find too, one of the things that I've discovered recently, and it's interviewing a few people, there are major projects out there, That talk about like say the blue economy or blue carbon or climate like you see like the you know, the the paris accord Uh and everything like that, but you never hear about the projects that are actually happening from that You know, they never talk about some of the things and so some of the interviews i've been doing i've been digging deep

into like Tell me a project that's come out of this agreement Let's talk about those." They're so cool. When you listen to it, you're like, I get excited. I'm just like, this is a cool thing. Why don't you talk about this? Why isn't this front page on your website to say, look at this great thing? There was a fishing community in the Philippines where I was talking to the person that's from Rare. It's in the interview that

we did a couple of weeks ago. you know, they talked about how they have this marine protected area that everybody, it's managed by the government, but it's co-managed by the fishing village. And they have a, so they've been all contributing to this savings account. So like the whole village has this savings account in case there's like a typhoon or cyclone that comes through and it destroys the MPA. So they can't fish in the MPA because they want to

get back, but they need money. So what they do is when they get that, they allow the MPA to recover. and they dip into the savings and they all, they still have money to feed their families, to send their kids to school, all that kind of stuff. So by the time that the MPA is back and ready to go and they can start fishing again, they don't have, they don't have to take from their savings account, but they have the savings account. I'm like, that's

a cool thing. That's like, that's a good adaptation. That's good prep. And everybody I've told that story to is like, That's amazing. That's so cool. Why don't we hear about this kind of stuff?" And you're like, no, because they don't get out. It's almost like too good of news. That's what I love about sharing news that you share, like the weekly positive climate change news. I think that's cool because it makes me happy when I see that because I'm like, oh, I didn't even know about this. Then

I'll go searching. I'll be like, where did she find that? But finding those takes a long time, right? Like you said, you have to go digging a couple of times. So how long would you spend, so you're going to do one today, say, The way I do it, I always do them Sunday mornings and then on Monday I look for images, the images that I usually came from that are similar and save them and then I post them. And I say sometimes it ranges between maybe

like 25, 30 minutes. I usually am better now, but yeah, I usually try to do in the morning of Sunday Well, especially now that you're going to be working, it's going to be like Sundays are going to be the day you do it. Right

on. Erica, last question for you. If somebody's listening to this and they've wanted to start something where they start talking about something that's important to them, you know, from a conservation standpoint, what would be the first recommendations that you would say, like the first steps that you would say that they should take when they consider starting to speak up for, say, the ocean or for just Um, I would tell them, like, if they're nervous, just go ahead and do it

because time will pass anyway. And if it's something that matters to you, I feel like it should, it's probably going to matter to somebody else. You never know who also is thinking of that. And just

make sure you are getting the facts. Straight because some people they don't mean to but sometimes they do some like a little bit misinformation And sometimes they're light but still some people can call you out on that and I would just say just make sure you're doing it right but also Your passion will show like people will know if you're passionate about it and that's gonna make them want to hear you more like if you sound monotone or you talk about something they're probably

just gonna scroll so I would just say just just If you love something, go for it. And don't be too nervous like At the beginning, I was scared. But now I'm like, good. I'm good. I Yeah. But I think it takes some time, right? It takes some time to kind of get that confidence and to be like, no, no, I'm doing this. Now I'm looking at other things I want to accomplish, not just getting them out there. And I always tell people, when you do, I do the same thing. I'm like, just

record. You don't have to post it but record and have somebody watch it be like hey What do you think like have someone close to you be like what do you think you know? And I think that's really important to get a little bit of that boost of confidence, but yeah, you should post this I didn't know about this and then Send it and then you get better and better as you go through like you don't I still mess up on words. I still do that. Yeah You know, and sometimes

you can correct this, sometimes not. We're all human. I find like social media allows us to be human and not like the perfect, you know, cadence or the perfect way to say the words or anything like that. So I find that kind of nice. But anyway, love that advice. And I want to thank you so much, Erica, for not only for the work you do, but for coming on. of the podcast and talking about it. I think it's really great. I can't wait to

see what you're gonna create next and in the next year. Love to have you back on to talk more about not only the TikTok, maybe your job, and what you're up to in this wonderful field. Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. This was so fun. Now I'm no longer This was her first podcast, people, and she did a fantastic job. I love it. So thank you so much, Eka. I really appreciate it. Thank

you, Erica, for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. It was great to be able to talk to another science communicator, especially learning some of the tips and tricks that she has used on TikTok. And I think that's really important because TikTok is an

interesting platform. I know we know all the controversy with, you know, the app being owned by a company in China and the way that the US and Canada and as well as other countries have approached the app, trying to ban it, trying to worry about your information getting out to people who are not so in your corner, let's just say. And so there's a lot of bad things that get talked about the platform, but there's still a lot of users on there. And there's people are on it each and every day. And

they watch videos for multiple hours. So imagine being able to take up some of that time, two minutes, three minutes, one minute, 10 minutes. I think you can now post for 60 minutes, not many people do. But imagine if you can do that and you can take some attention and take some attention on the environment, right? And put us toward the environment. I think that's really important.

I think that's something that we need more of and we need more people on TikTok, on all the different platforms talking about the environment because, you know, my audience may not, you know, some people who listen to my podcast may not hit the right note. It may not just be that right connection for them. They may, you know, they

may feel more of a connection towards Erica. or towards some other creator that is doing some kind of creation on whatever platform that we have here on social media, YouTube, TikTok, podcast, whatever that might be. And so I think it's important to be able to find all these different creators and be able to hear what they have to say and how they work. I think that's super important. So with that said, I hope you enjoyed the

episode. I thought it was really important to be able to have Erica on, and looking forward to having her back on. I'm going to put her link to her TikTok. The handle is atwhales2e, so whale, W-H-A-L-E-S. And I'll put the link in the show notes, in the description, however you're watching this podcast. You can watch it on Spotify, which will be video, YouTube will be video, as well as all your podcast listening platforms, and your favorite one at that. And those will be audio as

well. But you can leave a comment on Spotify, on YouTube, or you can hit me up on Instagram, at howtoprotecttheocean. You can also hit me up on TikTok, my profile account, is, once I find it, I don't remember what it is, it's speakup4blue, at speakup4blue. You can check that out. I'll put a link in

the show notes as well. But thank you so much again, Erica, and thank you for listening and letting people know that, hey, if you wanna know more about communicating on TikTok, send them this video or send this link to this episode, and I'd love to hear from them and hear what they think. But thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.