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47. YOU DON'T NEED A LARGE FOLLOWING TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE?
80 Plays1 year ago
Most of us are either stuck in a job we don’t like or are looking for a side hustle. In this episode, Kessa explains how she left her 9-to-5 job to pursue her passion for creating content online. She transformed something she loved into her full-time career.
Not only does Kessa work full-time as a content creator, but she also coaches and teaches aspiring creators how to start and make serious money from their own content.You can follow Kessa on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/contentbykessa.
If you’re interested in Kessa’s step-by-step guide on how to become an online creator, check out this link: https://stan.store/contentbykessa.Let me know if there's anything else you need!
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Transcript
Kessa's Journey into Full-Time Content Creation
00:00:00
Speaker
welcome back to the podcast i have a special guest on today and this is a great episode that's going to be a good follow-up from the last episode so we have content by kessa coming on the podcast today um she's from british columbia and she's been creating content for about seven years and basically she turned her her thing that was basically fun creating content into literally a full time job. We kind of dive into that and like how you could actually make money like literally as soon as today by doing this UGC content creation. She also um has made her own kind of step by step guide
00:00:48
Speaker
on how you could become a content creator and start literally making money as soon as today. So I hope you guys enjoy
Monetizing User-Generated Content (UGC)
00:00:56
Speaker
this episode. If you do enjoy this episode, please share it to your stories. Please tag me. And don't forget at the end of the episode, if you like this episode, make sure to rate the show on whatever platform you're listening to this podcast, like Spotify or Apple podcasts or whatever. you listen to your podcast. So let's get to it. Hope you guys enjoy it. Kesa, what's up? i'm I'm happy to have you on the podcast. I've been following you for a while, um but you're here. We're here to we're here to we're here to talk. What's up? Excited. You excited? Yeah. Super excited.
00:01:32
Speaker
yeah so basically i like this is my first time actually talking to you face to face finally finally nice to meet you but i've been following you for a while and i'm like ah like i want to get this girl on here because anybody who don't know you that like for me personally i look at your page You're working at the beach. You're out walking your dog. Like you just seem like you actually have a really nice lifestyle that a lot of people would want. And I'm like, man, I need i need
Transition to Full-Time UGC
00:02:00
Speaker
to get this girl on here and kind of talk about it. You know? Yeah. Let's dive into it all. So you're doing, you're doing UGC content, right? Like content creation. You've been doing that like how long now?
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, so I've been doing it full time now for over a year and a half. Um, but I've been doing it kind of for fun for like seven years now. okay So it's been, it's been a long journey. Um, we've definitely improved a lot along the way and get full time of it it. Yeah, it took a while, but we're here.
00:02:35
Speaker
yeah Yeah. Honestly, I didn't even know that like this world existed. right like in my and and And a lot of people don't. you know in In my mind, it was like, you know if a brand reaches out to you on your Instagram, like that's the deals you will get. right it wasn't on It wasn't until Content Jet. Am I saying that right, Content Jet? Yeah.
00:02:57
Speaker
It wasn't until they reached out to me where they were like, Oh, Hey, do you want to like, you want to work with us and like do, do this type of work? I'm like, I knew, I knew nothing about it. Right. So I know most people don't. It's like, even when I tell people what I do for work now, they're like, what does that even mean? Like nobody, nobody I have to totally like get into and explain it all. Cause it's, it's pretty new of a concept. Like even when I started doing this seven years ago, this did not exist. Yeah. Yeah. Um,
00:03:23
Speaker
Yeah, it it it is wild. like a lot I think a lot of people think that you need this big mass of following to be able to make money doing content creation, and that's not true, is it?
00:03:35
Speaker
No, because I mean, when, when the internet kind of started and influencers came about, like you had to have a good following and then the more followers you have, the bigger the paychecks were. yeah But things have progressed to where like brands want authentic content. So now they reach out to people like you and me and then we can make this our job, which is so cool. And like, it's just so much more accessible now to make money on the internet than it ever was before. And it's just becoming easier.
00:04:04
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, this is actually a
Kessa's Background Before Content Creation
00:04:06
Speaker
really great follow-up podcast because my last episode I kind of touched on this like anyone who's listening right now you listen to the last episode I touched on this briefly but I'm like man I should get you on here so we can like really dive into this because I feel like you know a lot more about this world than I do I'm i'm kind of like just getting into it dipping my toes so Yeah, I just listened to your last episode this morning. Super cool because I didn't know like much of your story. and yeah And we all start from somewhere and then we end up where we're at. So it's really just cool to hear people's journey. I love it.
00:04:41
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, so i'm I'm curious like what did you do before starting like the content creation, right? Because like I feel like before we dive in that like myself I've always worked trades and these jobs where I fucking hated it like it it was good money, but I always liked creating videos and creating content and I and I knew I wanted to do it, but I just never knew how to do it. So Yeah, you know you're drawn to it by like actually tangibly figuring out how to make money from it. Like it seems so out of reach. Yeah. So what'd you what'd you do before this if you didn't want me asking?
00:05:18
Speaker
Yeah, so I'll kind of like start from the very beginning. Like ever since I was probably 13, like very young. I got into YouTube, loved it. I was obsessed. I watched YouTube all the time. And I was like, I want to do this as my job. And of course, like when you're that young, you're saying that to people and everyone's like, okay, but like, what are you actually going to do? Like, what are you going to go to school for? And I was like, I don't know. Like this is what I want to do. So I'm going to figure it out.
00:05:44
Speaker
yeah So then when I was like 15, I actually started posting on YouTube, I posted my first video, and I was so scared of the judgment of people. But I finally, I was just like, if I want to do this as my job one day, I just got it like, there's got to be a point where you just start, no matter how scared you are, and there's gonna be judgment from people, but I mean,
00:06:02
Speaker
Nobody ever said anything to me. So I was just doing that for
COVID Era: The TikTok and UGC Evolution
00:06:05
Speaker
fun. It was so much fun It never really like I didn't get a lot of subscribers, but it was a creative outlet So then I turned 16. I had to get my first big girl job. So I got a retail job It was fine I worked there for like a year and a half and then I ended up quitting that job to get a new one and then Covid happened So I only had that job for like a week and then I was stuck at home for like six months or so and I was just like posting TikToks for fun I mean still at this point I was like I don't really know what I'm gonna do with my life because I wasn't making money off of YouTube or anything it was just a hobby and then TikTok was kind of where I figured out like
00:06:44
Speaker
this is cool you can post videos and like get views because that's when everyone was like posting dancing videos and like getting views and i was like this is like so cool like i had a little video go slightly viral and you kind of get a taste of it and during that time when I didn't have a job I got into network marketing so basically some similar to affiliate marketing where you're just posting products online and you make a little bit of commission if anyone buys the product. um So I started, that was like when I started actually making a little bit of money, nothing crazy, but that was fun because I kind of got to figure out like okay this is one way to make money and I saw other people getting really successful with that so it was really inspiring. But then I had to go back and get a real job once like the world kind of calmed down a little bit. So I got an office job but and I worked there three days a week and this was for like four or so months. This was awful like I hated it. I was like this is my sign that this is not meant for me. I am not meant to sit in an office
00:07:51
Speaker
I just hated it. I would like cry on my way to work, cry in the bathroom. It was not good. So I was also working on my network marketing business too. I liked lunch times, like I was just grinding whenever I could. And I still was like, I got to do something with my life. So I decided to go to nail school.
00:08:09
Speaker
and went to nail school for like three four months graduated from that got married and never became a nail tech i just it wasn't what i wanted to do it was kind of a waste but i mean you go through these things to figure out like it's just part of your path and whatever it's not a waste i guess um so i got married and then we moved to the states and i couldn't work there where'd you move I moved to Virginia um because my husband was going to school there. So I couldn't get a work visa and that was fine with me. I was like, all I ever wanted was to just be at home. So I was just at home all the time and then I was kind of still posting online and stuff just for fun, still making a little bit of money here and there. but
00:08:55
Speaker
um I got really bored and so still the internet stuff wasn't going really anywhere other than a couple hundred bucks here and there but after a while like a random brand would reach out to me and just be like hey do you want to make a video for us we'll pay you for it and this was kind of like my first introduction to UGC just like you it's like random brand just reaches out and you're like yeah really cool So I did like a couple of jobs like that for super random beauty brands or whatever. Didn't know about rates at the time. I was like making such a little money but I was like on top of the world being like
00:09:34
Speaker
they're gonna pay me like this is so cool this is like all i've ever wanted so a couple little things happened like that and then i got connected with content jet so i was making like a little bit of money and i decided to go home like back to canada and do long distance from my husband so that i could pursue ugc So this was over a year and a half ago now and I came home and I just like spent a month learning about UGC all on my own and figuring out like how you make money, what do you charge, like I didn't know a thing about it.
00:10:10
Speaker
um other than my
Challenges of Self-Employment and Staying Motivated
00:10:11
Speaker
small bits of experience. um And I just like jumped into it in January of 2023, made two grand my first month. If you can hear that, that's my dog. Yeah, I can hear him. I was worried he was going to like bark or something. It's all good. It's all it's all good. we love We love dogs. We love dogs out here.
00:10:32
Speaker
Yeah, he's such a baby, but he's very needy. over Anyways, so yeah, just jumped in, made over two grand my first month and like, it never stopped. So we're here now. It's crazy, right? It's crazy.
00:10:47
Speaker
it's yeah it is crazy like to look back and my story has like it's been so all over the place and like anyone else i started at zero i didn't know a thing about this and i just knew what i wanted i knew that i wanted to do this and i just got to work and like learned. I just like put in the work to learn the steps and figure it out so that I could make this happen because I knew that like I didn't want an office job and I didn't want to make myself go back to that. Not many people do. Not many people want to sit there all day long. I wouldn't be able to do it, right? right Like it's hard. So you just have to go for it really. That's exactly. You just got to go for it. There's so many people like I spent, I spent probably, well, I got out of high school. I worked for probably 11 years, but like I always knew that I wanted to do something else, but I was just didn't know how to do it. And I was so scared. Right. And like, have you not been, you know, just messing around, posting fun things, right? Brands probably would have never seen you and then yeah content yet wouldn't have seen you. Right. So like,
00:11:53
Speaker
It's just wild how, you know, how much the internet can really just make an opportunity happen. But like, you got to put yourself out there for that to happen, you know? Right. That's such a good point. Like I think a lot of people are sitting back kind of like waiting, like they know they want something else, but they sit back and they wait. Like you just have to take the messy action. My messy action was just posting. I didn't know what I was doing. My content was all over the place, but just posting got brands reaching out to me. yeah and Like literally led me to where I am today. So yeah you have to take action. Even when you feel like you're unprepared, you don't know what you're doing.
00:12:32
Speaker
fuck yeah fuck yeah it's so wild because like before i actually just changed my instagram name to adam pike living right so but so for the
Improving Skills and Daily Routines
00:12:43
Speaker
longest while all i used to post was like even during the pandemic it was just all fitness content, right? Like I never actually sat in front of like the mic like this, because I have a lot of those types of videos. Now, it wasn't until I started to to do that, where I guess brands started to like, that's what the content jet they they see me sitting in front of a camera and talking, they must be like, Oh, he could talk pretty good. So that's, yeah that's when they reached out to me, right? But like, have I not, you know, switched up my content, they probably would have never reached out to me. You know what I mean? So
00:13:17
Speaker
It's just wild, like the opportunities that will come to you just by putting yourself out there and and doing it. But I wanna add, I wanna add, I was terrible in front of a camera. like create like when i I don't know if you've ever done this, but like i sometimes I scroll back like ah like yeah years and look at some of my videos of me like talking, I'm like, oh my God, dude, you're so cringe. So cringe, right?
00:13:44
Speaker
I know I do the same thing and like my first content jet video is so bad. So bad. Thank goodness they took a chance on me because I improved a lot. But like they're so bad in the beginning. I was like so monotone, no personality there. But I didn't even know they were bad at the time. Yeah, but you get, you get good at it. Like I know that there's, you know, there might be a few people listening right now. Like if you want to jump in this world or even do anything, you just got to do it. Right. Because you're not going to be great at something right away. No, exactly. You learn along the way. Like my editing skills have have gotten like a lot better, you know, like the quality, everything, it just gets better. Once you just step into that world and there's learn about it. Right.
00:14:31
Speaker
Totally. Yeah, you improve. Like I still learn things all the time and yeah, like there's always new things to learn and ways to improve and you're going to start out not knowing anything, but that's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, one thing I want to mention though, I want to ask you about it. Like,
00:14:50
Speaker
When you're working for a job, right, you you just wake up or another company, you wake up, your alarm goes off, you don't have a choice, you just go to work, you make it happen, right? But when you're working on your own, I find, I don't know if you find, but I find the mental mental game, like mental aspect of things, it's like you gotta motivate yourself to get up and do it. And some days it's tough, it's like, fuck, I don't wanna do this, but it's like, you have to do it, because it's just you.
00:15:16
Speaker
You know, and if you if you don't show up for you and you're not your best self and and you don't work on yourself and make you like the ultimate Kessa, you're not going to make good, good content. You know what I mean? Oh, 100%. That's like probably the hardest thing about being self-employed, running your own business, is trying to be motivated. I've definitely struggled with that because like as much as I love my job, I have to force myself to like get up and do my work instead of doing other things and like watching YouTube or whatever else.
00:15:48
Speaker
yeah so I've definitely tried a lot of different things lately. I've just been like getting up super early, like going to the gym. I find that doing some kind of like exercise or whatever first thing in the morning can really help. It just gets your mind going. It gets you like started on the right foot. Like I also don't go on my phone first thing too. And that really helps. And then I'm bad at that. I'm bad. I'm bad at it. I got really gotta stop. I gotta stop doing it. It's like I get up and it's like, okay, checking emails, twooo two to twooo right?
00:16:19
Speaker
yeah but uh i've definitely been there and i like go back to it all the time and i'm like no i i can't do this like it it never starts my day on a good foot when I'm like going on my phone first thing. Especially like when work is on your phone because then I'll just start checking my emails and like jumping into work and I'm like, no, I need to like do things for myself and like my mind first. Um, and then like get myself ready in the morning. I do so much better when I just like fully get ready. You feel better about yourself. You'll just like work better.
00:16:54
Speaker
that's the best way to do it. um And I always write myself to-do lists. I try to be very organized in that way, but I still have days where it's really hard. Like I've been doing this full time for a year and a half and like I'm not perfect, that's for sure. um But you find like ways along the way that work best for you. And I know everyone's different, but I like to do my work in the morning when I can and then spend my afternoon at the beach or whatever else. Like that's kind of how I,
Negotiating Rates and Understanding Usage Rights
00:17:23
Speaker
spend my days doing stuff that I like because I just I don't think you should work 24-7 or even like during the week I don't I don't necessarily want to work all day long every day so you find ways to like schedule yourself and so I found routines oh again he's safe he's like mom I want to come in too I'm gonna pick them up pick them up bring them in bring them in It's too bad I didn't record this video so we could see the dog, but I'll post ah'll post the dog later so you guys can see. um Hello. Hey, buddy. What's it? Him or her? ah Him. His name is Ollie. He's like in such a play mood right now. He normally sleeps all day long, but all he wants right now are his toys. Of course. like and and and like And attention. And attention. One yeah one thing you mentioned though, um because this is something that I just been recently thinking about, is
00:18:17
Speaker
chart like the rates that you charge right because I know like I've done so much work for companies like in the past stuff like that. And like they're charging me. um um I'm charging them peanuts. Like I'm getting nothing. And then I hear other people that work for that same brand and they're getting like three, four, three, four grand. I'm like, Oh, like what? Right. You feel so betrayed and like, yeah, negotiated or something. Yeah. This is like a huge thing. And this is why like, it's something I will always talk about. And I'll always post on my stories like,
00:18:53
Speaker
here's what I made because I want to show people what's possible because otherwise we don't know if we keep it to ourself. We think, you know, rates under a hundred dollars are normal. And like, it's not because you deserve to get paid more because it is a lot of work. Although we're just like you filming videos. Like it still is a lot of work. You're running a full business yourself. So I'd say like kind of the industry average for like for creators when you're charging on your own is like 150 USD. So that's what I started at, charging on my own. I charge 250 now, um but that's just the base rate. So that's for organic usage. You're gonna charge on top of that for usage rights. So this is if they're using the video for ads. So I'll always ask them like, are you using the video organically or for ads? And organically- What do you mean by organically?
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, organic is just anything posted to their Instagram feed. Like there's no ad spend behind it or anything. Okay. Okay. Um, so if they're posting it as an ad, you charge more because they're directly profiting off of your face and your content. I'm writing, I'm writing this down. Cause I, I've never heard of this before. And it's, yeah it's funny because I, I did, ah I did a partnership with, uh, sorry to cut you off. I did a partnership with this company. nercover And, um,
00:20:18
Speaker
They paid me a bit, but like I just seen an ad that it was like, hi, meet Kyle. He likes it. I'm like, that's me. I'm like, who the fuck is Kyle? And like, yeah, I know. But it's it's just, I see my face plastered everywhere now and I didn't know about this like ad spend thing. So.
00:20:36
Speaker
yes because the problem is like if they have full usage rates they can do anything they can put another name on it they can use your voice um like they can do crazy ai stuff with it like technically they could just do anything with the video so yeah there's so much to it, but like, yeah, if they're gonna be using your video in ads, I charge monthly plus 30% of my base rate. So the base rate can fluctuate depending on what the video is and what it entails, like the more complex the video, the higher I'm gonna charge.
00:21:09
Speaker
yeah so Plus 30% is what I charge monthly for usage rights. A lot of brands are going to push back on the usage right thing because they they just want to be able to use it for whatever they want because they're profiting a lot off of your video. so yeah they are Of course they just want to you know give you a couple hundred bucks and say we're done, but you miss out on so much money when you do that. like my big the big deals
Advantages of Content Creation Over Traditional Jobs
00:21:35
Speaker
that I've gotten for like thousands are all because of usage rights and if I had just like charged the my base rate I would have only gotten like you know 150 250 whatever it is so there's just like so much more money to be made there Yeah, yeah, it is it's it's it's a wild world because I like I used to work 12 hours a day I drive like two hours I was gone for like almost 14 and a half 15 hours some days and Then I started doing this and then I was like For like a couple hours. I made like the same thing that I would make doing that for 12 hours Just getting treated like shit. I'm like
00:22:14
Speaker
what the hell what have I been doing so literally like you just some days you wake up you work a couple hours and then you got the whole day to just do whatever the fuck you want and it's kind of kind of sweet and there's there's so much work that you can do it's not you know what I mean like like some days are slow and some days you don't have anything going on but like It's just, I feel like getting in connection with the right people because. Oh yeah. I didn't know about this world. Right. I started content chat reached out to me. Then I was like, man, there gotta be, there gotta be more to this stuff. So I started, I started journaling about it. I was like, man, i I got, I gotta start doing this and this and this and this very next day. This other agency reaches out to me. I'm like, Oh my God. I was like, Oh shit. And then there's like all these like different platforms that we were actually discussing that. Like you can just literally go on and just.
00:23:06
Speaker
Oh, yeah. There's just endless work to do with this right now. Well, there really is if you like, if you want to do this, you can make it happen because there's Yeah, there's so many avenues. I know people who fully do all their work on Fiverr or Upwork.
00:23:23
Speaker
And then there's all the UGC platforms. There's agencies. You can just go reach out to brands on your own. You can start posting and getting inbounds. That's how I get most of my work because it's like the easiest way. um and Inbounds is just you reaching out.
00:23:38
Speaker
Right. yeah Outbounds. Inbounds is when they reach out to me. So they like find my Instagram like or my Instagram or see me in an ad and then reach out. Which, yeah. Probably my favorite way to find work because it's the easiest. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. For sure.
00:23:53
Speaker
It's so wild. like i I've been following you a lot. I've always taken notes and stuff. yeah and the The other day, I was like, you know enough is enough. so like i Just just last since Sunday, I've been like reaching out to a bunch of brands just myself. and i've never done've I've never done this. right and I'm already like in conversation with like five different brands. and i'm like like They're pretty big brands. I'm like, well, shit. it you know like it's just it's It's nuts that the the work that you could be doing. but Um, I know we we're doing a lot of talking about this, but you, you like teach this, you made your own, your your own step-by-step course, right? Like you can, you want to share about that?
Guidance for Aspiring Content Creators
00:24:35
Speaker
You know, not, not all the details, but like you can, you know, yeah, totally. So, um, after doing UGC full-time for probably a year, I had people just start messaging me because they're like, what are you doing and how do you do this? And.
00:24:52
Speaker
like tons of people would message me asking if we could go for lunch or whatever and I was just like okay there's like so many people who want help with this but I obviously like I cannot help everyone one-on-one and I couldn't even give you all the information one-on-one because there's just too much so I I knew like a lot of other creators had courses and stuff um but I didn't want to come up with one until I was like I felt fully established like and experience um because I didn't want to give any information that wasn't like fully right or whatever so after a year of doing it I started writing a guide it took me like two months I spent a long time on it because I wanted to make sure that it had everything like if you get the guide it's going to teach you
00:25:41
Speaker
start to finish how to do UGC and I didn't want to leave anything out so I put so many hours into trying to make it absolutely perfect and like the last I've had it live for like eight months maybe I've had I've been able to help so many creators get started and just like hearing the feedback of them like telling me that it's like so helpful and then them reaching out to be like I just signed a $500 deal like this is my first deal like it's amazing it makes me so happy that I can like help other people because this is like I'm doing my dream job and to be able to help other people do their dream job is so fulfilling and
00:26:22
Speaker
like building a community is so important and I just I love building these relationships with new creators and helping them and like the girls or I mean guys can get the guide too it's been all girls so far because I feel like there's more girls doing this than guys to be honest there is but we need more guys yeah I'm here I'm here you have you kind of have an advantage I think because there's less guys out here doing it yeah yeah that's amazing it's amazing Yeah, so I've just like been able to build like a community through teaching all these girls how to start and like we chat all the time like don't message me like, hey, I had a brand reach out like, is this a good deal? Or is this like a legit email? All those kind of things. And so yeah, I just love that. It's not just
Exploring UGC as a Side Hustle
00:27:12
Speaker
like by the God in your honor. Yeah, you're kind of you kind of like build the build the relationship with you.
00:27:16
Speaker
Yeah, totally. I want to build a relationship and like help you out. I never want you to feel alone or like, cause it's easy to feel alone in this. Um, especially cause we don't have many people around us who do this job. Usually no it's more rare. So if you can find people and like build community, it's huge and it'll like help motivate you too, because having a community is just so important, I think. Yeah. And any, like literally anybody could just do this right now.
00:27:46
Speaker
Yeah. But like, obviously, you got to get you got to get comfortable in front of a camera and stuff like that. But like, a I do know a lot of people that they they want to be making content, but they're just they're really scared to just be in front of a camera. Right. And I i think it's just like all in your head because like you got to think about it like you're you're filming. No one's seen it. If it's not good, you just do it again. But I'm willing to bet if anybody wanted to do this and they spent 30 days standing in front of a camera, talking in front of a camera,
00:28:16
Speaker
you would be so much better at the end of those 30 days. Like 100%. You just have to practice and like practice makes perfect with anything. And I feel like if you're going to learn anything, this is one of the easiest things to learn. Like it's not like a sport where you actually have to like have the talent there. yeah Anyone can learn how to set up their phone, like clean their camera off, talk to the camera, like anyone can learn that. And I feel like, yeah, if you talk to a camera for 30 days, you're going to be way more natural by the end of that. And I mean, it's all, it's all in your head. You just have to not think of it as like, I'm talking to like so many people right now. Like you're actually not talking to anyone when you're filming. So just act like you're hanging out by yourself. Like yeah on time with a friend, like there's no pressure there.
00:29:06
Speaker
And like, you don't need to, this this could be a really great side hustle. And like anybody who, you know, has extra time, like me maybe they they need to make a little bit more money. Like this would be a perfect solution, right? Cause it's just, it's like easy, quick money, right? And anybody who don't know how to do it, we got the step-by-step guide right here. I'm going to put all the links in the bio. You check it out. Um, yeah.
00:29:33
Speaker
Yeah, even people who want to do this um just as a side hustle, and you don't have to jump in and be like, okay, I'm quitting my job today. like No, I don't recommend doing that. like Start doing it on the weekends and like just learn how to do it and you can take your time. You don't have to jump right in and you're not going to be reaching out to brands on your first day. like It's a process, especially with the way I set the guide up. like it's you're going to go through step by step and learn everything so you're not going to feel like overwhelmed. And yeah, you can just do it part time, you can try to do it full time, like there's, you can literally do anything. That's the great thing about this is it's totally up to you how you want to run your business and how much money you want to make.
00:30:15
Speaker
And the
Tax Insights for Content Creators
00:30:16
Speaker
thing with this too, um you could write off a lot of stuff. yeah like i yeah I think I'm going to have to do this this year coming. So like I have an actor, but like, from my understanding, you could write off like your phone bill. Like, you know, sometimes you film I film in my car, I could probably film like gas receipts, or even like I'm filming in my house, like you probably write this off, right?
00:30:41
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. um So I established or like, I don't know what you call it. I'm like an established business now, but for a while I was just a freelancer. So you just claim it as like the personal link or whatever. um But once you start making more money, it's kind of it works out better in your favor to set it up as a business. So I like have a business credit card and I just put like everything through that. Like your car, your part of your rent is right off because you work at home. Like makeup, if you need makeup to film a video, any filming supplies, your phone, like that's the really convenient thing is the amount of write-offs with this job. There's
00:31:22
Speaker
So many even if you go out for coffee Yeah, that's right. If you're doing work like so many things even trips because like if you go on a trip to sharinging content It's a write-off. Yes. That's that' wild. That's well, so like Do you normally get money back or like do you normally have to pay in a lot for like boy by doing this? Cuz I haven't done yet. This is my first year coming. I like I'm going to be filing my business taxes this month actually, because it's not like youre the year can be like whenever. So it just works best for the accountant to do it this month. um So this would be my first time filing as a business. So we'll see. Well, you have to let me know. I will let you know. I have had a lot of write-offs just because of like,
00:32:12
Speaker
I've had to buy two cars in the last six months. I've seen that. You bought a, what was it? I had four, yeah. And it was like brand new or something? ah It wasn't brand new, like it was used. But it was still new-ish. Yeah, it was um what I thought was in good condition. But I don't know what happened. The motor basically went and we had to, yeah, sell it for nothing. So that was a big loss.
00:32:40
Speaker
but yeah right off Yeah. I honestly, I, uh, like I used to have like a brand new oddie before. And then yeah when the lease was up and I started doing this, I was like, I don't need that big monthly payment. I'm just going to buy a car. But like I bought the car and now it's like kind of running into all these issues. I was like, is it even worth it? I was like, I should just, set you know, what? Yeah. Got something more reliable. We have an Audi known. We really like it. Nice. What is it? What is it? Q3. Yeah, they're nice. They're nice. Yeah, it's a good car. It's kind of disappointing after losing my dream car. um You know, that was a big hit, but we still have a very nice car now, so it's fine. Yeah, they are nice.
Pursuing Passions and Career Shifts
00:33:23
Speaker
This has been good. I've learned a lot, and I hope that people are watching. um You know, if you're interested in this at all, make sure you reach out to Kesa. but
00:33:33
Speaker
um I wanna do this at the end here. So everything that you have basically learned in your life, um if you were to leave this world tomorrow and you wanted to leave one like quote or lesson or something that you wanna leave for the the rest of the world, what would it be?
00:33:51
Speaker
Yeah, I think as cliche as it sounds, I would say follow your dreams because i mean we literally get one life. yeah Why would you spend it doing something that you don't love? I just think like if there's something in your mind that you're like that it would be so cool to do like that's my passion why not follow it because you might as well try like maybe it won't work out and that's fine you'll have exhausted that and you can go back to what you're doing but the on the other hand like if it works out and you get to like do your dream job it's so rewarding and you'll never regret it you're never going to regret chasing your dreams and i just i do not like seeing people like
00:34:37
Speaker
holding themselves back because that's the only person who's holding you back is yourself. Like just go for it and there's there's no reason not to. Yeah. I honestly, I love that. I love that because I feel like I was but always working these jobs, just chasing money. I was always away from home. I was like burnt out. I was tired. Didn't love what I was doing. I was like, man, I'm dead. I was always like, I meant for more. And then I had a conversation with a friend one time and and I was like thinking about like coming to do what I'm doing now.
00:35:09
Speaker
and And he's like, why don't you just try it for three months? He's like, those yeah those trade jobs, they're always going to be there. And I was like, you know what, you're right. And I tried it and it's been like two and a half years. You know, it's just been not on my own. Right. So.
00:35:28
Speaker
I mean it's um it's obviously tough like it definitely has its challenges but like it it beats
Conclusion and Future Opportunities
00:35:33
Speaker
being up in Alberta in the middle of nowhere like it's just oh yeah totally like the the downsides to this are very slim very slim like compared to doing a job that you hate and being miserable every day like it's so rewarding yeah well this was a great this is great to have you on there i really do appreciate your time coming on here and like giving us all the deets um this was awesome and thank you so much for having me on this was a great first podcast experience i would do yeah i feel like once once this is the first one there's going to be more people asking you to come on so no that would be awesome yeah anyways see you later guys hope you enjoyed the episode peace bye