Hey, and welcome to episode 153 of Maple to Maple. This is number 10 in my content creator community series. So thanks again for joining me today. My guest is how shall we put this? She has managed to prove that you can be a successful content creator and a powerful influencer in our community while living in a remote area of the United States. And despite the flat landscape of western Nebraska, there is nothing flat about her content or her influence.
Unfortunately, she has a knack for losing all the games today. Joining me is Sarah from Sarah Always Loses. Sarah, how are you? I'm great. How are you PJ? You know it's cold. It's very. Cold. Very cold? Yes. Lots of snow. No snow yet, but you know, it is. It is just, you know, as a Cajun from Louisiana, I still can't get used to the winters here. Oh. Man, that's my favorite. As soon as I'm back in school, there should just be snow on the ground. That's my philosophy.
I mean, I like it, but then I have to shovel the snow. Shovel drive in it. Yeah, we don't have to do sidewalk. We didn't have to do that as a it's just insane. But here we are and we're just, and I guess it's going to be if anyone bothers to listen to this and not listen to it later on, it's two days before Christmas. So Merry Christmas everyone. Yes, Merry Christmas, I dug my Christmas here so. I pulled out my Christmas Scally cap. I'm so want these guys to be a
sponsor. So go to Boston Scally and get a Scally cap today. I've been courting them for months. It's like I wear these hats on every episode and it's just like, come on, you can do it. You can do it. My wife doesn't want me to spend any more money on it. Board games. We could spend as much money as we want on board games, but not the caps. Yes. This is how this conversation is going. It's great. Love it. Merry Christmas. It's just. Yeah, it's the winter time. I love it.
So let me ask you this question. I've been starting it off with everyone. What was the first game you ever played as a kid? Well, man, as a kid, probably like Candy Land or those fun games. I, I remember a lot playing Hi Ho Cheerio in kindergarten. I remember I have some good memories of that. So that'll take you back. It will and just, you know, we, I'm an only child and so I think that was one thing that my
parents and I did quite a bit. We played games and I always asked for a board game for Christmas. And so I have some really good memories of playing like the game of life with my cousins at Christmas. And I'm having those really fun early experiences with board games that I think really did shape where I've gone now. Nice, that's so interesting. I had a similar experience, although not I was not an only child but playing board games as
a kid. I didn't have a lot of friends so I ended up playing a lot of games alone. Yes, in solo mode. Solo, yes. I don't play solo modes anymore. You know, I can't get over that emotional baggage. And I feel like I'm sure God knew more than just this, but God knew this about me. And he's like, you know what, I'm going to find a Yankee from Ohio who's already a board gamer and I'm going to set it up so that y'all meet in the deserts of Arizona because that's where
we were for grad school. That's why I met my wife and she was already a gamer. So it was like there was a moment when we were dating, we were in the we were in the mall, we were on our way back. There was a, there was a board game store in the mall and we were walking out and I just looked at her and said thank you for being you. Overwhelming gratitude for having met a gamer who would take me in and love me and and get me and.
Such a big difference, like when you have that family that will play games with you, you get to play so much more and it does, it fills, fills my cup up quite a bit. I when we haven't played games for a while, I, I feel it. I feel that mental like man, my mental health is not good and we haven't been playing games. I. Know, I know I was reading an article, I think it was about, I think it was a year ago, I think it was in 24.
There was, it was a committee or I don't know what it was, but there was a Commission or something. But the United Nations did a study on the positive mental health effects of board games on individuals, family members and whatnot. And I thought that was really cool. And they were trying to push. They had like, I think they're in an agenda of pushing board games in the classroom. Which, Speaking of as a teacher, do you bring the board games into the classroom?
Occasionally, yeah, it definitely has to be specific situations. So we've been doing Fun Fridays recently, and I'm a music teacher, so in my ensemble choirs, we've been doing Fun Friday and they got to choose. Yesterday was Friday. We got to choose whether they wanted to play Green team wins or if they wanted to play
hipster. And so the way we do hipster is if they can get the row of 10 in a row, then I, I lose and they all get a Jolly Rancher. And so they, I had one class that chose that and two that chose to play green team wins. So I do bring them in a little bit. So for the for the Jolly Ranchers, I'm just thinking about with Christmas upon us, did you have like the sour green apple and the cherry? So it was just red and green or? They would hate that. They want blue, they want blue.
If there's no Blues, they want me to refill it. So. OK, well, you know, dude, you might be. Sarah always loses, but we've got a good friend in England who's always plays blue. So yeah, shout out there. Yeah, they should have a Jolly Rancher jar filled with blue. Right. Absolutely popular in my classroom. What's the story with your username?
So when I first started posting, I was trying to come up with that catchy kind of username and it was definitely a perception that I had that with the board gaming I lost a lot and Drew won a lot. I think that perception has changed a little bit as we started tracking. So I think if you feel that way, track your games because you probably don't lose as much as you think.
And something that just Speaking of mental health and personal growth, something that really came out of gaming for me was the people pleasing aspect. And so when we are playing games, it end up being more important to me that everybody was having a good time and everybody had the that chance to win. And so I would maybe not make the most strategic moves so that keep the peace at the table.
And I think through gaming that's given me the confidence that, you know, I can play my way, I can play my strategy. I don't have to worry about hurting somebody's feelings. And so I think that it's been a lot of growth. And if you look at my stats now, I def it's definitely closer to 5050. But we've kept the kept the username. Sure, I've had a lot of people relate to it. It's interesting you bring that up. So when we moved from Louisiana to Illinois, that was the general perception.
I don't know that it was a perception. I think it was the reality too, to be honest. But my belief was that Katie beat me constantly, right? And then I think 3 years ago she picked up BG stats and started tracking. She loves to track everything right, Our plays, number of plays, most played just, you know, But what has happened in the past three years, four years is I usually win the head to heads and then I'm not as much of A loser. As a person to be.
As I think I am, yeah. And this year, this year I've got pretty commanding lead. I mean we've, we're almost at 95% of our entire collection played for the year. Jealous of that stuff. Still got, you know, still got a few days left and it's a holiday, So what else are you going to do? Is too cold outside. So yeah. But yeah, I don't lose as much as I thought. And it's really interesting that you perceive that you lost more than you start tracking it.
You're like, wait a minute. We've even gotten so that it's like specific games. So there's like, if one of us, like you always win this one, well, let's check the scoreboard. No, I actually don't always win this one. In fact, you have won the last three times we played it. Is there a game that you just have like you have a winning record, like overwhelming? There's a few. Everdell is probably the one that stands out the most. I do tend to win that one.
My daughter has won a couple times and I don't think Drew has ever won on that one. So. Well, you know what, in this, in the spirit of the season, maybe you should play it once and let Drew, you know, just go easy on him and hear people please her. Once you know, it's OK. Occasionally it's OK. For us, it's Hadrian's Wall. I think it was like 20 out of 25 plays. I won 24 times. Oh wow. What was interesting is Katie was not discouraged.
She was like, I want to play it again and you know, I will beat you. So yeah, she finally beat me. But. The sign of a really good game too, though, Like, do you care if you win or you lose or do you just enjoy playing it? And so, yeah, that's kind of a mark for us too, is like, oh, well, I don't really want to play that one because I never win. Well, maybe that's just not a game for us. That's true. No, you're absolutely right. There's there's definitely some truth to that.
If you can enjoy the game and lose, then it. I think it's a sign of a good name and a good design. I know I certainly feel that way about obsession. Squeezed it in love obsession. I don't care if I win. I just wanna, you know, get all Heidi Toidi and Victorian England and. And I love the cards in that one cuz I love reading the descriptions of all the people. It's just that's the best part of obsession.
To me, Yep. So what we do, our house rule is when you're playing obsession, you you kind of narrate the event that you're hosting and you read the flavor text of the card. It's like, so Lady Danbury, the Blobberry, whatever the flavor text, she'll be having afternoon tea with the Countess of whatever. Now, we don't do that every time, right? Only when it's a new guest coming out. Otherwise that would get tedious. If you had to hear me say Lady Danbury likes to every single
time. Yeah, every time. Yeah, but the first time, you gotta, you gotta get into that. So yeah, everyone's so tired of hearing me talk about obsession, but deal with it. It is. It's so good. So how about what was the first game that got you into the modern hobby? Yeah, So Drew and I had been married for a few years and we were looking just for a couple activities that we could do that weren't just, you know, sitting on the team, sitting on the couch watching TV and being on our phones.
But I don't even think when we first got married that like being on our phones was as big of a thing. It was more just, we want to do something that's more interactive and not just sitting next to each other. And Drew is someone that likes to do a lot of research. So he was researching all these different things and he found Forbidden Island and that was such just like a experience for me because you can play games and like work together.
You you don't have to lose, like you can lose all together or win all together, but you don't have to have one person beating up on another person. Like that was that definitely opened our minds up to modern board gaming. And we continued to go down that rabbit hole a little bit, probably preferring co-ops for quite a while. And then the pandemic hit and we were home a lot. And that was really when our collection probably exploded from maybe 40 games to I think we're pushing 400 right now.
Just too many. That's too many games. We need to do a little culling on that. But definitely Forbidden Island. We'll always have a place in our heart just for those first memories. A good one, Islands. A really good one. Matt Leacock knows how to make a cooperative game.
Yes, right. Pandemic was right up there too for us. I think we, we slept on Pandemic for a long time because we thought it was going to be too hard for us. That's something that we struggle with as gamers is that confidence of trying something a little outside of our comfort zone. And so taking that step up, trying something a little more difficult. Usually when we do it, we're like, oh, this is great, we can do this.
And then the next time we see a weight rating on a game and we're like, oh, that sounds like it's going to be be too heavy for us. I just want to point out to those of you who are listening to this on Spotify or other streaming services and not watching the video, this lady right here has Seven Wonders Architects and Wild Gardens behind her head and she thought pandemic was too hard. Well, this was like. I know.
Five years ago or more even. That it's just funny because it's it's how our perception of board games just change and evolve over time, right? And are are you and Drew still kind of do you still favor co-ops? It's. Probably closer to to half and half and we're struggling probably to find a newer co-ops that we really, really enjoy. I think the Co-op, the direction co-ops have gone in is very difficult.
And so if we play a Co-op game and we play it on the easiest level and we play two or three times and we we can't win and we just feel like we can't like we shy away from those. We want to at least have a shot at winning If we need an easy win, like we can dial done that difficulty and be like, OK, we're gonna win this one, right? Let's get into it. But I think more often now we are probably playing competitive
games. But I think that also comes back to the perception that we can track those plays. We can see who's won. There's not. There doesn't feel like there's an imbalance as far as one person is always getting that win while the other person is always losing. I would recommend, given that you're out, you know, you're so you're out in Western NE, the
winters get very cold. I don't know what the snow day laws are with school and how many, how often that affects your job, but I imagine there's some time where you're kind of you're stuck inside. So there's a great two player. I don't know how you guys feel about campaign games. It's a but it is an exclusively 2 player campaign game. That's interesting. By Sky Sky Kingdom Games, it's called Isopharian Guard. That was when. We did that. It is like a, it's an open in
world narrative campaign. My wife and I've been playing it for two years now. Because, you know, you do have to get to commit for a long time, but it's like it's bag building. So you put chips in your bag and then when you when you fight a monster, you fight together. So it's like you take a turn, then I take a turn and then the enemy takes a turn and then do that again.
And you pulled the chips out of the bag that determine what kind of what cards that are on your playmat in front of you. You can activate powers. But it's really cool because it's exclusively 2 player, yeah? That does sound. Interesting. So you've got this board, it's got a map and the miniature is the 2 figures that you're playing. So it's one figure on the board, but it's the two miniatures because you know, they're it's that classic back-to-back, right?
Holding the sword or the crossbow or whatever. But yeah, it's a unique story. It's done really well. There might be something to look into. Yeah. The caveat is that the box will not fit in a Cal X cube cuz a Cal X cube is 13 by 13 by 13. The box is 14 by 14 by 14. So if you don't care about that, you're golden. We have all play shelves so we don't have to worry. About Oh yeah, big fancy over there. How you got them or this how you got? Them or Yeah. No, I don't know how you got them.
Yeah, I know the story of the shelving, but yes, no. How did you get the all play? Show So we it was what two or three years ago now that they ran a contest and you could submit your space for a board game room makeover and we shot my shot, played the teacher card and we won a board game makeover from all play. I do remember this story now. Wow, that well, congratulations, that's awesome. I completely forgot. About it. You are. Yeah, you are.
Yes. And that is one thing I will say is that a dedicated board gaming table has made all of the difference for us getting to play games when we don't have to constantly clear off the dining table to be able to to play. It's just like we play so much more now. Absolutely. I completely agree with that. Yeah, no, that's that is a must. That is a must. Although they're, they're so darn expensive, you know
they're. Yeah, we, that was two or three years ago and I think maybe now we would have saved up enough to kind of get a table table if we hadn't won it. So we were just so blessed by that, like. Yes, she. Really did change our lives a lot so. Yeah. So you should be hold. You should host Western Nebraska Con. In my basement. In your basement. You know, we might all fit. I don't know how many gamers we have out here so. So have you so you've been oh so the modern gaming, right?
So that forbidden Island, do you remember when that was? What year that was I? Want to say like 20/17/18 somewhere in there. Just before the pandemic, but yeah. All right, so you you've been playing for nearly ten years. In the 8 to 10 years you've been in the hobby, do you have a favorite player color? Yes. Green Green. OK, so does that mean that green team wins is your favorite game of all time? It probably should be.
Yeah, we do have. It's really funny though, because we do have one couple in town that we play games with, and his preferred player color is green. So we always kind of have to Juke it out. Like who's gonna get the green this time? How do you how do you resolve that? Usually we probably fight over giving it to the other person even more and he's gonna take it so. No, no, no. You be great. No, no, you can have it. Yeah. What about, you know, so 88 to 10 years is a long time and you
get a lot of review copies. You've you've made so much content, like I said in my intro, I mean, you really are a powerhouse influencer in the community. Do you have a favorite game mechanic that you gravitate towards that's. So tough because I really do
enjoy a lot a lot of things. I think if you tell me a game has an engine that I can build, I think I'm there like if you're it doesn't if you lead with that and then the rest of it I don't care as much about like I think engine building is probably one of my big ones. Wingspan. Those kinds of games really speak to me. This has become a little bit of a bad word in gaming, but if it's multiplayer solitaire, I will be there.
I love being able to kind of do my own thing and have that social interaction around the table. But don't mess with my stuff. Like I don't want you to take parts out of my tableau. I don't want you to force me to discard stuff like leave my stuff. Away. OK, OK. Is it? Is that a bad word? Yeah, it's, it's used, in my experience, it's used as a negative when describing a game, especially in reviews. Like OK, it's just, it's just multiplayer solitaire.
There's no interaction so. Yeah, I'm a little torn, right? My wife and I deal with that a lot, right? A game that we're still mulling over his Vantage, right? Which So objectively, I think across the board, everyone agrees Advantage is a fantastic game and the narrative is amazing. I think the challenge, however, is that lack of interaction. 2 of us are playing the game because we've been burned by those before, right?
Like we're not interested in sitting across the table from each other and just doing my thing right here in front of me, you know? So I kind of get that talk about that all the time. It's really important. So yeah. So that's kind of an example of one that we're, you know, we're been, we go back and forth. Do we want to get it? It sounds good. But yeah, I just don't think of it as a bad word. It's just kind of a preference. And not? Oh, definitely. Not an absolute, but I guess I
could see how, yeah. OK. Yeah, I think for me personally, it's a preference. Do you like a lot of interaction or do you not like a little a lot of interaction? I guess my perception is that people that like a lot of interaction will say that that's a negative. Right, right. I love cooperative games, and cooperative games are reliant upon interactive. Interaction. Although your your original observation about co-ops can be you know can be problematic. They need to be too heavy and
too hard on the front end. The other, although what I found recently is that recent cooperative games are coming up with creative, asymmetrical ways to make it difficult to table captain right, Because I think that's why people don't like co-ops is you don't need PJ telling you what to do on your turn. And it's like, why do I even have to be here? I get that.
What about a All right, so this question is got two parts and it's got two parts because it's out of compassion, because the first part is difficult for most people, and I understand. Do you have a favorite board game of all time? So. The second part, the second part will let you off the hook if that's too difficult. Do you have a favorite board game, like right now? Is there something that's hitting your table constantly? So yeah. The good news is I have an
answer for both. So about once or twice a year I try to do the Pub Maple ranking and just kind of figure out what what I'm liking right now. I haven't done it for a while and that's probably something that needs to happen soon as we're wrapping up the year. And I want to figure out where I where I stand right now. But I'm kind of a data nerd. I like to see those numbers. I like to see where things go. The last two years my number one game has been Earth.
And so that goes back to that multiplayer solitaire. But I argue there is interaction because what the other players choose effects what you're going to do too. It kind of effects the strategy a little bit. So I love that tableau. I think the photos are really cool. It's something that Drew likes to play because he is a horticulture major from college, so he likes to see all the plants and the effects that they have. And so I think it's a really
good couple game for us to play. Something that's hitting my table right now, literally, I have had this game for 10 days, maybe come sail away. I have probably played it 8 times in those tensions. So good. So good, it's so. It's so good. And it's such an easy solo game to just pull out and table. And still interesting choices to make as a solo player as well. OK, it is amazing too. It plays great at 2. We've also played it at 4:00 and it is fantastic.
You know it is. Three, the first time we played it, our daughter played this and so it was possible. That was the first time that sold me on buying the game. So yeah. Katie kept hearing about this game. Everyone kept talking about it because it's like a Japanese desire and I had heard things independent of what she had heard. And there was a copy at our local game store and she was like let's I don't know why we would go back and forth.
Cuz usually if we're both on board it's yeah, like I said we could buy board games, I just can't buy my Scally cow. But so we picked it up and I think we played like 3 or 4 times that weekend, right? And then since we like anyone, anyone who comes over, guys want to play, come sail away. It's an. Easy teach.
It's an easy teach after a long day of playing two scenarios of Frost Haven with our big game local game group, Get the Way to Come Sail Away is a great palate cleanser at the end of the day as well. Although that's not to say that that's what Come Sail Away is a palate cleanser. It's it's. It's got. A lot. It's got a lot of strategy it does, but it's so accessible and so easy, right?
Yeah, so. Good. We had a similar experience because I had just heard so many people rave and rave and rave about it, and then we had gone to Spielbound in Omaha, which is a fantastic board game cafe. We'll give them a little shout out. OK, Yeah. I noticed they had a copy for sale and then I was like, I wonder if they have it in their collection, too. So we tracked it down, got it out, played it, and I think about three turns and I was like, yeah, that's coming home with me.
Yep. Yeah, we've got coming up in the beginning of January is Geek Way Mini. So so if you're familiar with Geek Way to the West in Saint Louis anyway, with two to 3000 attendees, mostly open gaming games, library, play to win, very small vendor hall, couple of events. Geek Way Mini, I think is 400 attendees. It might be 700, but it's at it's at a hotel in Saint Louis. They've got it's just one it's one big hall and it's nothing but open gaming and play to win.
There are no events there. There's nothing That's all it is. And we've been doing really well the past few years. We, we each have won a game, so we, we always take two games home every year to start the new year, which is really cool. I say that I'm going to jinx myself this year, but it's great to play a lot of games, to try out a lot of games. We tried. We played Earth in 2023 and it was boring. Everything else that you said about Earth, I agree.
Yeah, the art, the design, yes, we did not. It wasn't terrible because the game, I mean, it's it's a solid game. It goes back to that preference. We were just like, oh, OK, We just, it left us. Wanting a little more? Yeah, and then we discovered. So we discovered Civilution and Men Nefer at the beginning of this year, in January of 25 and we we want a copy of Civil Illusion and Men Nefer. Men Nefer, If you don't have it, you need it. It is great.
It is the single game that it just marries theme and mechanics so beautifully so. That goes back to our lack of confidence and heavier games. Because I look at that one, I'm like, oh man, I don't know if we do that one. No, no, no, it's heavy. OK, yeah, it's a, it is a heavy game, but you literally have like 7, 10 paths to victory. There's so many ways to score points. But I mean, it is so well informed by the social, cultural and religious and agricultural practices of ancient Egypt.
And all the steps make sense. You must take this action in order to take this action, which you want to take. But, you know, you can't bury the dead. You've got to embalm them first. And so that action, you know, it's so good. It's so, so worthy. OK, you might selling me on it, I was. Yeah, yeah. An ancient Egypt nerd in in school so I might have. To then you can't go wrong.
I also think it was a heavy game, so not I think that I think we really enjoyed it. So we we played it like 3 or 4 * a geek way mini and each time you play you get entered to win that title. Oh, each time. Yes, right. So there's a little tablet the way, the Geek way. Any con convention should mimic what Geek Way does in terms of play to win. It is perfection extraordinaire. You check a game out, you play the game, you have 4 hours to return it.
Then when you return it, there's a tablet you go up to, you give it a rating, you put in your badge number and everyone who played it with you, right, So I could check it out and then you and Drew and Katie and I play it. I will then enter all four of your badge numbers. We will all get one entry to win that game that. Is awesome. And then every time you play a game, you go to this tablet and you do that every single time. There are no sheets of paper in a cup.
I am looking at you, Tennessee game days. A plastic cup with a piece of paper and a number. No, no, it is the 21st century. Embrace technology. You can do this. You can do it. Speaking of play to win, yes new con to us last year was Great Plains Game Fest and they had a fantastic play to win selection. And I heard that it's similarly where you scanned your badge to check it out and then they would also scan everybody elses in the groups badge for you too. Yep.
Yeah, it's it's so worthy. But I think to your original point, boy, I really said go it away. I'm sorry, guys. You know what, it's Christmas. I'm just going to talk. Is that it lets you try a bunch of games. So geek way mini is a great, OK, we try a bunch of games. So then we know what we want, what we want and what we don't to be looking out for in the
course of the year. So by the time we get through, you know, you get, you get I guess what we call real geek Way in May and then you got, and then of course UKGE is at the end of May. So all of our British friends tell us these games are great, look out for them. And then Origins in June and then Gen. Con's in August. I'm just exhausted thinking about it. 2025 was an exhausting year of going to conventions. Then we know what we want and what we don't.
So like Gen. Con this year our list of games we wanted was like 3. You know, we didn't, we really didn't buy nearly as much as we had in the past simply because we got to try stuff out. Yeah, and that that is definitely a luxury I am jealous of. Yeah, I know, I know. How far are you from Omaha? You talked about? What is it called? Let's plug them one more time. Great Plains Game Fest. Great. Plains Game Fest, that's in Lincoln. Talk to me about the Game Cafe in Omaha. What is it Spiel?
Spielbound, yeah, it's, they call it Midtown Omaha, and they have lots of tables and they have a fairly extensive game collection and they have a nice retail area. They have food and drinks and we have spent many an evening having Spielbound pizza and some beverages and playing games whenever we make it today. That is fun. We will include a link in the description of the episode and we'll. Definitely check. Them out, we'll plug them. Yeah.
So Omaha, that's great. So do you have, I know you're on Instagram, but do you have a favorite platform you like to use when you're creating your content? Yeah, Instagram is probably my preference. We also have a YouTube channel with our friend that's local. I talked about our couple friends that we play games with. We have the YouTube channel with them. But for me, Instagram has that instant connection with people.
You get the comments right away and you can respond and then you can see what they're doing and like you just get that instant connection with people, which is really cool. What about TikTok? Yeah, I've. Always had the perception that I'm too old for TikTok. No, no, that's that's definitely not true. I struggled with TikTok because Tik Tok's got problematic existence here in. The US right? And I think that's that's a big hang up for me as well.
Because I noticed a lot of our, a lot of our friends and members of the community in the UK have really recently embraced TikTok and are finding a lot of success. So yeah, who knows, right? There's just so many, so many platforms to choose from. So let's talk about content creation. I'm interested in the story of when you transition from a casual gamer to a content creator, Right. So you and Drew, you play Forbidden Island. You're like, oh, these games are
fun. At some point you decide to make the intention of posting everything and then your world changes and all play redoes your whole basement. I mean that. That really was the turning point, I think. Yeah, just having the more photogenic area. But again, going back to our friends that live in town, they had just moved to town and our friend Brody had done some review work.
And so that was never something on my radar as some that I thought I could do, that I was qualified to do, that was possible for me. I think I'd been posting on Instagram just for fun, just to get my game photos off of my Facebook page because I thought my friends and family were a little annoyed with me because I was just posting games all the time. But yeah, so I was just casually posting pictures. I did not have that instant
success. You hear those success stories where I just started posting and I have 10,000 followers in two months? No, that was not me. I posted for probably 2 years and had 100 followers. And so I, I think that's something that people don't always realize is that they're to growth on any social media platform. There is a strategy and there are things that you should be doing. And I had no idea on any of that.
I didn't have a marketing background, I didn't have a photography background, I didn't have a theater background, like I just didn't know. And so once I did kind of make that decision, I think I started pushing a little bit more after we had found out that we had won the the makeover, because the process for that was we found out in like maybe February that
we had won. And then the, and makeover was at the beginning of May. And so I had this whole long time in between that I kind of was like, you know what, this might be an opportunity to, to jump in. And then we had to be quiet about it from May, from the beginning of May until the middle of July. And so like we weren't able to like show it off or anything for about 6 weeks. So yeah. So did they just like ship everything to you and said have fun or did they come in and show shopping and.
And put us up in a hotel for two nights while they came in. And they actually didn't want us to really do much cleaning or like tidying and stuff. And so like they just took everything out and then they themselves did it. It wasn't like a crew really. They had some electricians come in to do a couple things, but honestly, they did a lot of the work themselves. And we, again, we're just so grateful for that whole experience and we haven't really
changed anything. It's very functional for us, so. Thank you all Play. Yes, thank you all play. Thank you all Play. So how many games were in your collection at that point? Do you remember? Do you know? We were under 200 for sure. Under 200. Yeah. And they and actually they, they've gifted us probably about 60 games in that process as well. And so I think that maybe put us right around 200. OK. And that that almost felt overwhelming at the time, like, Oh my gosh, these are all these
games unplayed on the shelf. I think at that point I was trying to keep I, I call it shelf of shame, some shelf of opportunity. I tried to, at that point, I was trying to keep it in the single digits, like no more than 9 unplayed games in the house. And that that rule has gone out the window at this point. But yeah, definitely an
experience. And again, completely changed not only just the gaming, but also again getting into the content creation a little more seriously and gaining what I like to call a part time job that I don't always get paid for. Right. So I'm just looking it up. Check out Episode 78. It's an episode exactly. And what you're talking about, we do not call it a shelf of shame. It is your board game backlog. It has alliteration. Burn in July. Yeah, here I see Played a new
game every day right. That was. A lot. There you go. So we keep, we keep a backlog of probably I think at any given time the most our backlog has of unplayed games is 3. Well, I think for one thing, because I don't do reviews, I don't get inundated with a lot of review copies. So when I buy a game, I got to play a game, right, Because that's what we're here for. Now what I do get, but they, they come and go, are prototypes for play testing because my wife
and I do a lot of play testing. I mean, we've got a, we've got a prototype upstairs right now that needs to be played, but it's not part of the backlog. And because we commit to playing our entire collection a minimum of once every year, this is separate from the backlog, right? We, you know, so we're like over 9090%. Yeah. So, you know, it's just, I think we have a backlog of one right now. We have 11 unplayed game like we have never played it.
So that's because it's a Kickstarter that came in and. And you don't have control over when those come in. Right, we don't, we do not have control over that. And I think that's always been a goal of ours, is we have a game, we should be playing it, we should be playing it every year. And if we're not playing it, then it's time probably to say goodbye. But saying goodbye, it is so hard, that is. Hard. For us. I don't. I don't experience that. No.
No, not anymore. No, because there's a reality to, you know, we've got to manage. Like we figured out, you said it yourself, you have 400 games and that's too many. Too many. Well, there's only one solution if we get rid of them, but that doesn't mean that you can't. There are many ways to give them to good homes, you know, you know, or you can sell them. Use game sales are great. We've got one in our local game store here in Springfield. And then we've got Origins.
And then Gen. Con is like the last ditch, right? But usually we get everything sold and the reality is as if a game's not hitting the table, you know? Yeah. And yeah, I think some of that might be a rural gamer problem too, is if I get rid of a game, chances are I can't play it again until I go to a con. So that's part. But that's OK, and that's OK. Then you play it at a con. Maybe if I have time, yeah. And then?
Even if you have time, you're going to make time to play a game with me at the Great Plains game. Game. Fast Festival. Yes. Fast not. Fast we do also have a really good game sale like a what do you want to see? Yep, Sam, that was that was very good for us as that was one place where we sold a lot of
games last year, right. But again, then being rural, we have to truck them with us. Yes, the four hours to Lincoln and then if we don't sell it there are really our only option is online sales, which can be time consuming. And so I think that's a hold up for us too is just. I get that. If I get rid of a game, where is it going? Right, right. Yeah, no, that's that's fair. That's fair. I mean there's like game trades and stuff too.
I'm never I don't know, because the reality is is like, you know, I think there's like a math trade where they like math out the value of the game that you're trying you're trying to get rid of and the game that you want. And so you're, I don't know the, I don't, I don't do math guys. That's yeah, that's, that's, that's not for me. So let's talk about the community, right? Which is why we're here, right? This is all about unity and diversity, right? You cannot have unity without
diversity, right? It's been said recently is like, oh, you know, I, we want, we want to be, we want unity. Well, OK, in order for us to be unified, we have to embrace everyone so that we can be unified, right? What, what to your mind? Because you're again, you're in a very unique position. You're a school teacher, so you see games differently, right? You have a different lens than just a gamer or a content creator, even though you have those lenses too. You're also in a very rural,
isolated area. And yet you managed to be awesome, right? Like you don't have to live in Chicago or New York or Los Angeles. You could be in rural Nebraska and just take the world by storm, see and all play recognize that genius so. You bring all of that to the table. So looking at the community, to your mind, what do we do so well
that you're proud to be a part? Of it I think the community is so welcoming I think as soon as we see somebody new coming in we're like you're one of us we want we want to support you we want to see what you're playing tell us what your favorite things are we so welcome that and when we see a new account we're like yay come join us that's.
I think one of my favorite things is just how supportive, and I don't feel that it feels competitive, like no one's like, well, I have to do better than that. And like we're all in this together. We all want to share how awesome this hobby is and how this hobby can change. I don't want to oversell it, but I mean, it can bring you new groups of people. It can change your life. It can bring you into a new social social circle. So I think that's something that
the community does amazingly. When you were early on in your content creation, did you feel like you needed to keep up with other content creators? I still feel that way, but that's my own issue. OK. That's it's something that in just in general I struggle with is comparison. And so just knowing that about myself, when I feel that coming in, I'm like, wait, I'm my own thing. Yep, it will happen when it's supposed to happen. Take a deep breath.
Just keep doing what I'm doing. And I think that something that people can really tell is if you're authentic, if you are really putting out there what you are doing and not trying to copy everybody else. Because I think if you start trying to copy everybody else's style or format or things like that, then you lose yourself in the prospect and people can tell. Yeah, I agree with that.
I definitely agree. I hope, I hope that my sincerity and genuineness through to the, to the 20 people who watch my bike. Yeah, yeah, it varies. You know, it's like I, that's why I started this. Like I'm not really good at the whole review thing. I'm all about the people I'm all about and I fail like everyone else. I'm a Sinner who's fallen and you know I've I've made a lot of mistakes in the past and try to try to do better. I think we all have that piece
of content that we put out. And they were like, Yep, this is great. Everyone's gonna love this. And then, like, right, people watch it and you're like, yeah. OK. Absolutely. So we don't do that again. Yeah. So what about the flip side? Is there something you've seen in the community that you really we need to do better? I'll put on my rural gamer lens again. OK. I think that those social
connections are so important. And so when you are not someone that is able to get to a con and get face to face meetings and get be able to, to walk around and say, hey, this is me, this is what I do. That's hard. It really is hard to make those connections professionally. And so we are 4 hours from our nearest major airport. We do have an airport in town, but it flies to Denver.
That is all, that's all it does. So I mean that it helps sometimes, but again, that's an extra cost that's associated with that flight. And then, you know, we're teachers. We're, we're, you know, not, not the wealthiest of professions. And we both teach. And so it's, there's a cost involved with attending those cons and things like that. And so I, I wish that there were a more centralized way to make those connections with people when you can't do that face to face.
Yes, I agree. I think it's unfortunate there is no solution. Our country is just so big. I talk about this all the time. Like all of our friends in the UK, they host these one day conventions, right? And it's not even really a convention. It's like, you know, 3030 of them get together and they bring their kids and they just, they rent a hall for a day, you know, and they've got little cute names for all of them.
When my wife and I were in England in 24, we were down in Southampton and Gareth, my partner in the podcast, we called it Cajun Con because, you know, a Cajun gamer, you know, But no, it was like there was like 3535 or 40 people came from around the UK to see me. Like, man, you want to warm your heart like I am not, I'm not, I'm just not. I'm not worthy of that, you know, And that was like, and the British don't like it when you cry and.
Get all emotional. Yeah, I got, there was a moment where I got him like we all took a group picture and everyone was getting ready to go back to their table. And I was like, guys, wait, hold on a minute, you know, And then I just had to be a cage. And it'd be like, I love all of you and thank you so much. And I just really, you know, they welcomed my wife and I and and, you know, they took us into their homes. We certainly we stayed with
folks while we were there. They're just lovely people. Their country is small enough that they can drive one to two hours or less and then do that and then turn around and go home or get a hotel for the night. Right? Like that's the problem is, OK, so I think I'm six hours from Lincoln. That means I'm 10 hours from you. And you can't just come to Springfield for the day. You you'd have to drive, stay the night, then game all day, stay the night and leave the
next day. So that's like a whole weekend for a single day of gaming, you know, so I definitely get what you're talking about. I think the only solution to my mind is that maybe more content creators and publishers could think about coming to these smaller ones. Like you've got one in Lincoln, you know, and and visit, like I told you, offline, like we're thinking about coming to great lanes this year because, you know, we get to meet you and we'll get to see Nick and Mandy again.
I've only had the pleasure of meeting once, you know. So yeah, that's definitely, I guess we could do that. We could certainly do that better to accommodate everyone in the community, yeah. And I know margins are so, so small in board gaming and like, I know financially it's not viable to attend every single little convention. I totally get that. It's just one of those things that has been a frustration on my end is just the answer to everyone has always been like, just go to the cons.
OK, Well I can't so. I think so. I think if I'm not mistaken, you had a post. I don't know if it was. I think it was Gen. Con this year you had you had a post post or a message or something you were expressing your FOMO and I think I DM D you and was like don't no right. Cuz I kind of see my role as a podcaster when I go to these conventions as a way of me to bring it to you but don't switch. You don't feel the FOMO rather than the look what I bought. Look who. Gave me this.
It's more like, hey, look, you know, I try to do that. I don't know that I succeed, but I definitely try to do so, and I try to alleviate as much of our greater communities FOMO as much as possible because I don't like emotional manipulation. I try not to do it myself. Certainly sometimes I have both intentionally and unintentionally, but as a victim of it as well. So I'm very reticent to manipulate one's emotions for whatever.
And I think that especially with that Gen. Con aspect, I think we have already decided like, I don't think that's for us. We're both very introverted. We get very drained if we are around large groups of people for a very long time. And we even felt that we, when we were in Omaha, we went to the zoo and we were like, OK, we're, we're peopled out. We can go home and be quiet now, right? But we, we loved going to Dice Tower W Dice Tower W was a great experience as far as you got to
play games. Like that was the main focus. It wasn't necessarily going to meetings and things like that. But we love gaming with people like we just wish we could more easily do so. Sure. Well, hopefully we will see you the Great Plains. It would be awesome next year. I really, I hope that we can make that happen. So the last thing I wanted to ask you is that's not true. I have two more questions.
So who, when you were, when you dove into content creation early on and even now, are there any content creators in our community that have inspired you and maybe continue to inspire you today? Oh, for sure, for sure. I think that's something that's great about our our community as well as just the inspiration that we can take from each other. And you don't want to copy somebody, but just being able to be like, oh, that was really
cool. I wonder where I could take that for sure, Chris, from just three maples, 33 little, just three maples, just just. Three. Yeah, just three maples. He isn't as active now, but he was super supportive, like he answered all my questions and like he was awesome for for helping me get started.
Someone that I take a lot of inspiration from and I still take a ton of inspiration from is Dana at Better Mood Board Games. She is the queen of reels and I just wish I had a modicum of her talent. She is so awesome. Tell me about it, right? Every time I'm like, Oh my gosh, how did you do that? She's going to be part of the series, too. She's yeah. That's what I want to talk about is her reels. I think she's just. She is. She is. I think everything she touches just is technical.
Well, no, you don't want that. That could be bad. Right, she has another one that has been so like if I ask a question from like, Hey, how'd you do that? She will tell me. She she doesn't gatekeep. She's not like, well, that's just my little secret. Like she wants everybody to be so successful in this as well. She's awesome. And just, you know, as we go through, everyone just really does support each other. Rich from 60 minute Gamer always answers my questions when I have
them. Corinne from Game Changer by Corinne. She and I really have been a bit of a cohort as we've come up, and so definitely leaning on each other and even not just content creation, but like, hey, how are you doing? You didn't post. Yeah, last week. Like, are you OK?
Like just being able to check in with people like that too is so impactful so. Yeah, that is man, that that is a full time job because most of my content is spent sending you Adm going, just checking in. How are things going, right? Yeah, I don't. Yeah, just. But the problem is, is like, so if I haven't messaged you in a while, Mayor Coppa? Mayor Coppa, I am not forgotten about you. It's just the reality of life is not our community is for as niche as our community is right.
This community is huge and it's so hard to keep up. With everybody. Everyone and I always like it keeps me up at night. I I lose sleep over the fact that, well, I haven't reached out to so and so in like 3 months, six months. These are the these are the things that are in my nightmares. You're so awesome. Because that's, I mean, thank you. I'm just going to leave it there. Thank you. That is very kind of you. Yeah. It's just, it's, it's so hard. It's it's a real challenge.
Even just the the keeping up with like, oh, did they post this week? I don't. Maybe I just didn't see it. Maybe they have been on and I just didn't see it. And I'm the awkward social person too, so I don't ever want to be like, hey, what's going on with you? Like I don't want it to be come off like pushy. I worry about that too, OK? Like I reach out and you don't respond and I'm like, Oh my God. I came across just. Oh, no, yeah, it's never y'all's fault. I just.
I'm just. Oh, internalized for sure. I internalized. Y'all are, y'all are busy. Y'all have more important things to do than to talk to this man. Things are happening well and I am. Super guilty of I open it and then it's not unread anymore and then it gets buried. And so then I'm like oh, today, today. Oh my gosh, that was like 2 weeks ago and I never replied. Yeah. I also think the algorithm works against us. I talked with Grant Lyon, who was on the series earlier.
There were some influencers and content creators that I had messaged just like I messaged you, Hey, can I get your e-mail, send you the pitch for this whole series, and I can go and I can see they've never read it. It still says sent because you get so many messages it gets buried. Did it go to the spam folder? That's something that like I, I forget to check, like I forget to check my request sometimes.
And so then that gets and then there's even a separate subfolder in the request folder that's like hidden requests. So Oh my gosh, if that doesn't show up then. Yeah, I know. It's it's just, it's just crazy. OK, last question. What piece of advice do you have for someone who's thinking about getting into content creation and they reach out to you? Go, Sarah, I love you, love your work. How do I how do I do this? Step 1 is just being true to yourself, putting your opinion
out there. Do your thing like if you try to copy somebody, it's not going to go well, like you're going to burn out because you're not being yourself. And people just don't connect with if they perceive it to be kind of fake or, or a copy. Like we're a small enough community that we've probably seen a lot of each other's content. And so if you're like, oh, they're just copying that person, well, that's not gonna
go over very well, right? Step 2 is not the fun step, but do the research, do some look in like tips for growth on your platform. Watch some people that know what they're talking about, but also make sure they know what they're talking about cuz you can get some greater that are like, well, this is what you do. And no, that's really not great
advice. So just got to be careful about, about who you trust Step 3 as you can, if you, it just depends on what you want to do. If you just want to do photos, I think your phone camera is perfect. You're, you're probably good. But if you want to get into some video and stuff like that, you might need to upgrade some equipment. And that's a financial investment for sure. And for somebody that does this
as a hobby, how much? How much can I invest in this hobby that is a hobby of my hobby? Obviously. But my hobby of my hobby is making content. Right, right. So yeah, we don't get paid for this. No, no it is not. If you were getting into this because you think you're going to make a lot of money, then that's probably not a good reason to get into this hobby for sure. Yeah, that's so true. There was one other thing I was going to say.
It's gone now, remember? Step four, yes, she'll let you know you're going to get all kind of requests in the new year. What was step four? Well, Sarah, thank you so much. Oh my God, I'm so glad we finally got to meet. It's been a real pleasure. So tell everyone where they can find you. Instagram, YouTube, all that. So Yep, Instagram and at Sarah always loses. And then YouTube our channel with our friend is called Let's table it. Let's Table it. I'll link that in the title.
Of the episode yeah that'll that'll definitely guys as always happy holidays season greetings, etcetera at nauseam. Make sure to like and subscribe to this episode. There's this is episode 153 I've done 152 before this so go check it out. There's some great content out there and this content series is become permanent. This has just been really great. So going to line some people up for the new year, but keep listening and as always, be kind to each other and let's play more games.