An honest conversation with a content creator
Do you have a transcript?
Hello Holly, yes I do, it should be showing on the episode. Just in case, here you have it too:
(00:00:01):
I've been researching the world of content creators, podcasters, YouTubers and so for years.
(00:00:11):
And there is one thing that I find to be the main problem.
(00:00:17):
You are only shown what people want you to see.
(00:00:24):
And that's obviously true.
(00:00:26):
That's the case with any kind of social media or video creation because you are the
(00:00:34):
one who ultimately prepares it for the public.
(00:00:39):
But that means that you have the power to edit out anything that you don't want other people to see.
(00:00:46):
And for the ones who are watching,
(00:00:48):
that creates a major dichotomy between the performed life and the actual life of
(00:00:54):
people who are creating content.
(00:00:59):
And I'm not okay with that.
(00:01:00):
I mean, I'm not okay with that.
(00:01:02):
I'm not okay with that for my own videos.
(00:01:09):
for a variety of reasons one being that performativity can be very tricky because
(00:01:16):
it can make others think that your life is better than what it actually is and I
(00:01:23):
don't want people to think that I want people to be inspired from the things that I
(00:01:28):
do or by the things that I do by the way this is not my first language so I'll make
(00:01:33):
mistakes every once in a while you can for sure deal with that
(00:01:41):
I don't want other people to feel bad because of the way I create videos.
(00:01:47):
And I think that's often the case when you watch something created by a famous
(00:01:52):
YouTuber or someone who's actually making the art of creating videos their job.
(00:02:00):
You might think,
actually,
(00:02:02):
I'd love to do this,
(00:02:03):
but I think I can't because my life doesn't look like theirs,
(00:02:07):
not even a little bit.
(00:02:10):
But obviously, 2024, we all know that's not entirely true.
(00:02:15):
We only show what we decide to show.
(00:02:20):
And because of that,
(00:02:22):
I decided to make this spontaneous episode of the podcast without an intro,
(00:02:27):
without video,
without anything else,
(00:02:29):
just to talk a little bit about how my life actually looks like.
(00:02:37):
And eventually, maybe I'll even make a video out of it if I find...
(00:02:41):
the strength to do so so i'm 29 and a half years old i'm italian from trieste and i
(00:02:50):
moved back as you know from my first video now about three months ago it took me a
(00:02:56):
while to make that video and i am currently living in my mother's house i sleep in
(00:03:04):
her room because she's not here at the moment me and my sister are
(00:03:10):
staying here until she comes back with her husband.
(00:03:16):
I work at a hotel,
(00:03:17):
I'm a receptionist,
(00:03:19):
part-time receptionist,
(00:03:21):
and I drive a very old car,
(00:03:25):
which was my granny's car,
(00:03:27):
almost as old as I am.
(00:03:32):
My dream is to become a full-time content creator.
(00:03:35):
I want to live by creating podcasts and videos and books and courses and whatnot, but I'm not there yet.
(00:03:43):
My job,
(00:03:45):
the place where I get the most money from,
(00:03:47):
the more money from,
(00:03:48):
whatever,
(00:03:50):
what I'm paid to actually do is being a receptionist.
(00:03:54):
Even though I studied, even though I'm on my way to getting a PhD, I'm still a receptionist.
(00:03:59):
That's easy.
(00:04:02):
because then you get some sort of like stable income and you get time to focus on
(00:04:10):
your own art and that's already a very difficult thing to do to create space and
(00:04:14):
compromise to actually create things that you think are worth being created so if
(00:04:21):
you for some reason ended up listening to this without much context
(00:04:30):
um the main thing that i want to share with whoever took a moment to listen to this
(00:04:37):
is that life is a work in progress nothing starts at a state of perfection you
(00:04:47):
might be or you might feel like you are light years away from the life you actually
(00:04:52):
want to live but the most important thing you could ever do is to try and align
(00:04:59):
your everyday life to the direction you want your life to take.
(00:05:05):
So talking into a microphone in my mom's living room is better than taking this
(00:05:15):
free time that I have to avoid talking into a microphone.
(00:05:24):
Life is very difficult.
(00:05:25):
It's very complicated.
(00:05:26):
Even the non-dramatic lives are very difficult.
(00:05:29):
The ones who are privileged in a sense,
(00:05:32):
they're still difficult because being alive and dealing with everyday life is
(00:05:39):
extremely difficult.
(00:05:41):
Full stop.
(00:05:43):
Maybe I'm saying things that have been already said a million times before.
(00:05:52):
but if i had to give a piece of advice to someone to i don't know a younger version
(00:06:00):
of me someone who's trying to create the foundation for their creative life and
(00:06:11):
their creative career it would be it would be to put self-judgment on a side for
(00:06:20):
one second
(00:06:22):
And start from the premise that your life is worth talking about.
(00:06:30):
The things that you love are worth talking about.
(00:06:34):
The things that you feel like making and like doing, creating, etc.
(00:06:39):
They are worth watching and listening to and whatnot.
(00:06:46):
That should be the premise of every creator.
(00:06:51):
And I think we're forgetting about that because of all the marketing advice that is
(00:06:57):
thrown in our direction.
(00:07:00):
All the niche or niche or whatever type of talk.
(00:07:07):
that we are bombarded with each day.
(00:07:12):
I do believe that the first and most important thing that you could ever do if you
(00:07:16):
want to try out this kind of career is to realize that the things in your life,
(00:07:26):
the things that you want to talk about are worth it.
(00:07:30):
First of all, for you.
(00:07:34):
And that should be the starting point.
(00:07:35):
And from that moment on,
(00:07:36):
you can train,
(00:07:39):
you can learn,
(00:07:40):
you can make mistakes,
(00:07:41):
you can ask for feedback,
(00:07:42):
you can try it out.
(00:07:43):
But until you don't realize that your life is worth it the way it is right now.
(00:07:51):
then you cannot pretend like you're going somewhere with your career from an artistic point of view.
(00:07:59):
If what you're doing is talking about your own life, like many creators are starting to do.
(00:08:07):
I promise my next podcasts will be more structured.
(00:08:10):
They will have an intro, they will have a topic, and many, many times they will simply be
(00:08:19):
A audio version of my YouTube videos.
(00:08:22):
But this one is going to be different.
(00:08:24):
This one is going to be exactly what I'm talking about.
(00:08:26):
Trying things out.
(00:08:28):
Because I do believe that my life is worth it.
(00:08:31):
Even if it's a work in progress as I said.
(00:08:35):
So thank you so much for listening for now.
(00:08:37):
And I'll talk to you soon.
(00:08:40):
Goodbye.
Do you have a transcript?
Hello Holly, yes I do, it should be showing on the episode. Just in case, here you have it too:
(00:00:01):
I've been researching the world of content creators, podcasters, YouTubers and so for years.
(00:00:11):
And there is one thing that I find to be the main problem.
(00:00:17):
You are only shown what people want you to see.
(00:00:24):
And that's obviously true.
(00:00:26):
That's the case with any kind of social media or video creation because you are the
(00:00:34):
one who ultimately prepares it for the public.
(00:00:39):
But that means that you have the power to edit out anything that you don't want other people to see.
(00:00:46):
And for the ones who are watching,
(00:00:48):
that creates a major dichotomy between the performed life and the actual life of
(00:00:54):
people who are creating content.
(00:00:59):
And I'm not okay with that.
(00:01:00):
I mean, I'm not okay with that.
(00:01:02):
I'm not okay with that for my own videos.
(00:01:09):
for a variety of reasons one being that performativity can be very tricky because
(00:01:16):
it can make others think that your life is better than what it actually is and I
(00:01:23):
don't want people to think that I want people to be inspired from the things that I
(00:01:28):
do or by the things that I do by the way this is not my first language so I'll make
(00:01:33):
mistakes every once in a while you can for sure deal with that
(00:01:41):
I don't want other people to feel bad because of the way I create videos.
(00:01:47):
And I think that's often the case when you watch something created by a famous
(00:01:52):
YouTuber or someone who's actually making the art of creating videos their job.
(00:02:00):
You might think,
(00:02:00):
actually,
(00:02:02):
I'd love to do this,
(00:02:03):
but I think I can't because my life doesn't look like theirs,
(00:02:07):
not even a little bit.
(00:02:10):
But obviously, 2024, we all know that's not entirely true.
(00:02:15):
We only show what we decide to show.
(00:02:20):
And because of that,
(00:02:22):
I decided to make this spontaneous episode of the podcast without an intro,
(00:02:27):
without video,
(00:02:27):
without anything else,
(00:02:29):
just to talk a little bit about how my life actually looks like.
(00:02:37):
And eventually, maybe I'll even make a video out of it if I find...
(00:02:41):
the strength to do so so i'm 29 and a half years old i'm italian from trieste and i
(00:02:50):
moved back as you know from my first video now about three months ago it took me a
(00:02:56):
while to make that video and i am currently living in my mother's house i sleep in
(00:03:04):
her room because she's not here at the moment me and my sister are
(00:03:10):
staying here until she comes back with her husband.
(00:03:16):
I work at a hotel,
(00:03:17):
I'm a receptionist,
(00:03:19):
part-time receptionist,
(00:03:21):
and I drive a very old car,
(00:03:25):
which was my granny's car,
(00:03:27):
almost as old as I am.
(00:03:32):
My dream is to become a full-time content creator.
(00:03:35):
I want to live by creating podcasts and videos and books and courses and whatnot, but I'm not there yet.
(00:03:43):
My job,
(00:03:45):
the place where I get the most money from,
(00:03:47):
the more money from,
(00:03:48):
whatever,
(00:03:50):
what I'm paid to actually do is being a receptionist.
(00:03:54):
Even though I studied, even though I'm on my way to getting a PhD, I'm still a receptionist.
(00:03:59):
That's easy.
(00:04:02):
because then you get some sort of like stable income and you get time to focus on
(00:04:10):
your own art and that's already a very difficult thing to do to create space and
(00:04:14):
compromise to actually create things that you think are worth being created so if
(00:04:21):
you for some reason ended up listening to this without much context
(00:04:30):
um the main thing that i want to share with whoever took a moment to listen to this
(00:04:37):
is that life is a work in progress nothing starts at a state of perfection you
(00:04:47):
might be or you might feel like you are light years away from the life you actually
(00:04:52):
want to live but the most important thing you could ever do is to try and align
(00:04:59):
your everyday life to the direction you want your life to take.
(00:05:05):
So talking into a microphone in my mom's living room is better than taking this
(00:05:15):
free time that I have to avoid talking into a microphone.
(00:05:24):
Life is very difficult.
(00:05:25):
It's very complicated.
(00:05:26):
Even the non-dramatic lives are very difficult.
(00:05:29):
The ones who are privileged in a sense,
(00:05:32):
they're still difficult because being alive and dealing with everyday life is
(00:05:39):
extremely difficult.
(00:05:41):
Full stop.
(00:05:43):
Maybe I'm saying things that have been already said a million times before.
(00:05:52):
but if i had to give a piece of advice to someone to i don't know a younger version
(00:06:00):
of me someone who's trying to create the foundation for their creative life and
(00:06:11):
their creative career it would be it would be to put self-judgment on a side for
(00:06:20):
one second
(00:06:22):
And start from the premise that your life is worth talking about.
(00:06:30):
The things that you love are worth talking about.
(00:06:34):
The things that you feel like making and like doing, creating, etc.
(00:06:39):
They are worth watching and listening to and whatnot.
(00:06:46):
That should be the premise of every creator.
(00:06:51):
And I think we're forgetting about that because of all the marketing advice that is
(00:06:57):
thrown in our direction.
(00:07:00):
All the niche or niche or whatever type of talk.
(00:07:07):
that we are bombarded with each day.
(00:07:12):
I do believe that the first and most important thing that you could ever do if you
(00:07:16):
want to try out this kind of career is to realize that the things in your life,
(00:07:26):
the things that you want to talk about are worth it.
(00:07:30):
First of all, for you.
(00:07:34):
And that should be the starting point.
(00:07:35):
And from that moment on,
(00:07:36):
you can train,
(00:07:39):
you can learn,
(00:07:40):
you can make mistakes,
(00:07:41):
you can ask for feedback,
(00:07:42):
you can try it out.
(00:07:43):
But until you don't realize that your life is worth it the way it is right now.
(00:07:51):
then you cannot pretend like you're going somewhere with your career from an artistic point of view.
(00:07:59):
If what you're doing is talking about your own life, like many creators are starting to do.
(00:08:07):
I promise my next podcasts will be more structured.
(00:08:10):
They will have an intro, they will have a topic, and many, many times they will simply be
(00:08:19):
A audio version of my YouTube videos.
(00:08:22):
But this one is going to be different.
(00:08:24):
This one is going to be exactly what I'm talking about.
(00:08:26):
Trying things out.
(00:08:28):
Because I do believe that my life is worth it.
(00:08:31):
Even if it's a work in progress as I said.
(00:08:35):
So thank you so much for listening for now.
(00:08:37):
And I'll talk to you soon.
(00:08:40):
Goodbye.