Content Worth Creating with Shelbey Wilson

Join Kosta and his guest: Shelbey Wilson, beauty and lifestyle creator, founder of Shelbey Wilson and Shelbey Wilson Daily on YouTube.

In this episode:  How Shelbey organically grew a YouTube following of over 280,000 on YouTube, what it's like to be a micro-influencer, how much content creators actually make and the process of making brand deals, and Shelbey's strategy on building authentic audience that converts online and off. 

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

Find out more about Shelbey Wilson:
https://www.shelbeywilson.com/

Shelbey Wilson on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@ShelbeyWilson

Find out more about Kosta and all the ways we're better together:
http://kostayepifantsev.com/

Transcript

Shelbey Wilson: 0:01

If you're scrolling your feed and you have someone that you follow that really inspires you, or you've purchased things based on their recommendations, and they've changed your life, or they've become favorites of yours, I think that's someone who is working in the field correctly.

Morgan Franklin: 0:17

Welcome to Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev, a podcast on parenting business and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you thoughtful conversation, making your own path to success, challenging the status quo, and finding all the ways we're better together. Here's your host, Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 0:37

Hey, y'all. This is Kosta. And today, I'm here with my guest, Shelbey Wilson, beauty and lifestyle creator, founder of Shelby Wilson and Shelby Wilson daily on YouTube. I want to start the show with what might seem like a simple question, but it's more complicated than it sounds. What's the difference between a creator and an influencer?

Shelbey Wilson: 0:58

Well, thanks for having me on the show. Kosta! Absolutely. So for me, this is purely going to be my definition, I think content creator and an influencer, they essentially are the same thing. But for me, the two they have two different missions, okay. So when you're scrolling through your Instagram, and you have this person that you follow, and you're noticing that you just are constantly seeing us code so and so for 25% off your purchase, or a check link and bio shop here, if you're not seeing any content in between that that inspires you, more than likely you're following an influencer or someone that I would consider an influencer, I think, if you're willing to so quickly take on that influencer title a little bit, a little bit of a red flag is coming my way. On the other hand, someone who's a true content creator, in my opinion, is someone that it really values, the content that they're putting out, they really pay attention to what their audience wants, they're not just pushing things that are going to have a monetary value to them. I think it's also in terms of a monetary value. When you're working with, you know, multimillion dollar brands, you want to put out the best work that you possibly can. And so for example, if you're scrolling, we'll go back to scrolling your feed example. If you're scrolling your feed, and you have someone that you follow that really inspires you, or you've purchased things based on their recommendations, and they've changed your life or they've become favorites of yours. I think that's someone who is working in the field correctly.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 2:34

I love it. Yeah. Can we take it all the way back to the beginning? You graduated college in 2015, from Tennessee Tech. Awesome. So did you do this while you were in college,

Shelbey Wilson: 2:45

I started blogging, and I created my youtube channel in 2012. I can't tell you the exact reason why I just kind of I was doing freelance artistry in Cookeville. That's how I met a lot of people in Cookeville. People would come to me and say like, Hey, I got this wedding, you know, on the weekend, or come do this. And so I met a lot of people doing that, and really just developed a lot of great relationships, too. And I had this just knack for beauty. I loved makeup and the industry. And I just, I mean, this is what I told you, Morgan, I was a sophomore at Tech. And I was living in a studio apartment across from Phil Oldham's house over by tag and I went to Walmart and bought a $20 HD camera and just started filming videos. And I think I had mentioned this before, but my blogging kind of took off quicker than my youtube channel did because blogging was still very much a thing in 2012. You know, Pinterest is on the scene, and we're talking Instagram wasn't even out yet. I think Instagram wasn't till 2013 I think so I had no clue that I could make money doing that. I just fell into it. And then when I was blogging, I was approached by these, what you would call agencies, and they were specifically focused in beauty. And they're like, hey, we'll pay you X amount to it wasn't even to give positive reviews or reviews in general on my blog. It was actually just to give consumer feedback on some of these new like beauty releases. So I love telling the story because it just it's so funny to me my first ever paid sponsorship. Hopefully my like NDA and my contract is out on this. I mean, it was 12 years ago, was for my blog, and it was for Sally Hanson. I know, Morgan's get to know Sally hisense and Sally Hansen's nail polish brand. They're like, we'll pay you 100 bucks to try this new like line that we have out and I was like, okay, cool. You don't want to in college, you know, I was working a part time job and then also doing freelancing. And then when I had these opportunities present themselves to me, you know, kind of quickly became like an extra like 1000 bucks a month here and there and just kind of like grew from there. And I discovered new ways that I could make a living from this

Kosta Yepifantsev: 5:00

Do you think that you being on the scene so early? Yes, right. Do you think that that contributed to your success? Oh,

Shelbey Wilson: 5:07

100%. I tell people that all the time when people ask like, how did you grow head, it was not overnight. But the industry was still small enough to where I was able to like, kind of wiggle in and have opportunities with some of these high profile companies. And once you work with a brand, I mean, chances are like you're going to be on their roster if you're doing a good job for future projects. And so I think definitely,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 5:35

so when you see videos of people, and I'm just curious, when you see videos of people like promoting a specific product, and they say, like, oh, well, you know, I use this all the time. Is that real? Like? Do they actually use the product all the time? Do you use all the products that you promote? I mean, surely, you must promote a lot of products.

Shelbey Wilson: 5:57

So again, I've been doing this long enough to where honestly, this makes me sound like the Cryptkeeper. But most of these products I've been using for years, or you know, it's a brand that I'm already super familiar with. But if a brand approaches me, and let's say it's a new product, or it's something that I've never tried, normally, I have this trial phase period where I test it out, and you know, if it's something that I feel like is a good fit for me, I'll move forward with it. If it's not, you know, again, like I said, some of these people are people I've worked with for years, and no is not going to hurt their feelings. And you know, they just move on to the next person that it might be a fit for, or the next person that's just willing to take it like, regardless,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 6:35

have you ever tried a product and you were like, Oh, this is terrible. I can't do this. Oh,

Shelbey Wilson: 6:39

yes. Like, yeah, no, I wouldn't say all the time. But probably in the earlier days. I mean, the beauty industry has like improved a lot in its quality. And in the earlier days, I remember one specific project, you know, I was like, yeah, like, I'll try this out. It was I think it was some type of hair product. Okay. It made my hair look like a greasy disaster. And I was like, I can not recommend this app, people will come for me, like with their pitchforks. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, I just very early on, I just felt confident, you know, telling people No, and honestly, brands value that they're going to look at you as someone who has a respect for their work, basically, and it's not going to hurt their feelings. Again, most of these companies are multimillion dollar companies. It's not going to hurt them. That little me said no,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 7:34

as of January 2023, you have 282,000 followers on YouTube. That's just astounding, folks. 282,000 followers, what's changed the most for you, as a creator from 28,000 followers to 280,000,

Shelbey Wilson: 7:56

a lot has changed 28,000, I probably was like a junior at Tech. And I was still pursuing this, I wouldn't even say pursuing I was doing it as a hobby. Making money on the side. When I started, YouTube wouldn't even allow you to monetize your videos until you had 5000 subscribers. So I definitely felt like it was still just something fun for me to explore. And with that, I think was a lack of audience loyalty. So now I've built up this audience who's been with me for it, you know, some people have been with me the whole ride at 28,000. Like I said, I was kind of just like floating through the air. And I had people coming and going the comments were a little bit more, you know, dicey. People weren't as nice. And now I've mentioned this while we were talking before, but the audience I have now is amazing. They are so loyal. They give me their feedback. It's always great constructive criticism, if it is something that they're wanting me to improve on. I just don't get that negativity anymore, which gray for the middle health. But I would also say a big difference is the opportunities that I'm presented with now you know, if you would have told me at 28,000 subscribers that Armani beauty would know who I am Armani someone that I'm going to reference because I've worked with them multiple times. And they are not only like the epitome of just luxury, like in the fashion and beauty world, but their products are just some of my favorites. And I would have never thought 28,000 subscribers that they would be requesting that I create content for me and they're amazing. They always let me have like creative direction when we work together. And that's another thing at 20,000 and I didn't know what creative direction was, you know, I was just kind of like hopping through like aimlessly trying to figure things out. And so not only has I think my knowledge grown in the industry, but audience loyalty is definitely a big one.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 9:59

How do you Do it. That is such an incredible accomplishment. I mean, if there is one or two factors, maybe like something when you look back on your whole career, I mean, 10 years of doing this, was there like a big jump off point where you were like, I just made it?

Shelbey Wilson: 10:17

Yeah, there was. I started pursuing content creation full time in 2016. I graduated from Tech in May of 2015. And then I left my part time job here in Cookeville. Let's say it was December of 2015. So pretty quickly, and then I just decided, like, Hey, I was making enough to where it would probably have been even a little bit more than an entry level position with my degree. So I was like, why not pursue this because the, you know, monetary options are kind of limitless in this field. So we're taking it back to 2016 2016. till about 2018, possibly even going into 2019. I can't remember exactly when I posted this video, but it was not easy. In those I had like the this two to three year period where I hadn't found my niche yet. I didn't have 100% Audience loyalty, I wasn't as skilled and editing and photography, and nothing had, well, at least in my eyes, nothing had fully come together yet. And I felt like I was just in this waiting period. And I remember telling myself, it was probably at the beginning of 2018. You know, I was doing fine. Like I could have kept doing it. But I just scribers

Kosta Yepifantsev: 11:33

did you have back in like 2018? It would have been maybe

Shelbey Wilson: 11:37

like a little over 100,000. Okay, that's still pretty substantial. Yeah, it was fine. There was just something missing for me. And I think that it was so yeah, beginning of 2018. I remember telling myself, hey, at the end of the year, if I'm in this place, like I'm gonna move on to something else. I mean, like I said, I was making a decent income. But I just felt like I couldn't tie everything together. There's so many aspects to you know, this job. And I felt like I had to be the best in each aspect. And so that was probably like February of 2018. And then April rolls around, I post this video. Oh, my gosh, it was the most basic video out of my entire career. I think the title of it was literally called easiest way to do your eyeshadow, just so simple first video to ever reach a million views. Keep in mind, this is 20. I think it was 2018 at that point, so I had been making videos for six years, my first ever one to reach a million views. I gained probably over 100,000 subscribers alone in that year from April maybe close to it maybe a little bit more. I can't exactly remember. But I saw that people wanted something that they could relate to a little bit more during that time. During that time, it was all about maximalism, you were seeing a lot of like 30 minute makeup videos and tutorials. People just don't always have time for that. And so this was literally like a nine minute video quick, straight to the point. And people loved it. And I kind of just went with that afterwards. And I still get feedback all the time. They're like, I love that you don't sit there and give a 20 minute intro on what you're about to do. You just get straight into the video. And so when I started my videos new, there's no intro sometimes I don't even do an intro. I'm getting straight into it most of the time. My thing is, Hey, welcome back. And then we get into it. So I would say that was yeah, the point it, it changed my entire perspective, it really helped me understand what my audience wanted. And it helped me grow as a creator and see where my strengths were.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 13:45

What's the future? Like? Do you have a and we're going to talk a little bit about monetization next. But do you have a goal for how many followers or subscribers that you want to reach before? You can? I don't know, what do you do deep? Do you sell a YouTube channel? Do you? Because I mean, that's I mean, you could just continue doing it because you're obviously young. I mean, you still have a ways to go until you retire, right? I guess what's the end game?

Shelbey Wilson: 14:08

Yeah, um, I'm not a big analytics person. I try not to focus too much on the numbers, the period where I was talking about where I just felt like so unsure, I was posting multiple times a day, I was focusing on the numbers, and it wasn't working for me. And so now I do analytics and numbers. I have a media kit that I send out to brands in each month, it changes because my numbers change. So obviously I have to look at that. But that's normally like the only time that I'm really paying attention to that kind of thing. I just most of the time rely on audience feedback and just kind of go with them. I'm kind of a go with the flow person. You know, I think that's one reason why I really love content creation. It's ever evolving. You know, I could switch up at any point and I could follow trends if I wanted to, but I tend to not fit into that. Like specific niche, but I don't know, I don't know if there isn't. I mean, for me

Kosta Yepifantsev: 15:05

you expect to hit a million subscribers?

Shelbey Wilson: 15:09

I would hope to Okay. Yeah, that was that of course, that's like a huge accomplishment for anyone if that happens, great. Listen,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 15:17

I am an all numbers guy. And I only have 665 subscribers. Okay. And we've been hustling for a year and a half. So I think for me personally, you've just unlocked a tool, which is, listen to your audience. Yes. Maybe in the comments section is where all of your feedback and your direction is,

Shelbey Wilson: 15:38

right. Yeah. I mean, they are essentially the people who are watching you. So, you know, a lot of people like to remind you, we're your livelihood, or you know, like, sometimes you'll get a comment like that. I'm like, well, she's not wrong, you know, so. So yeah, I rely on audience feedback, I value their opinion. And if it is a constructive criticism thing, I try not to take it too, personally, and just go from there.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 16:02

Yeah. And I don't want to get too technical. But could you speak a little bit about how you turn this into a business, your strategies around monetization, what your sources of revenue are, so that listeners can kind of understand how they can also build a business if this is something that they want to do?

Shelbey Wilson: 16:17

Yeah, so I have four income streams, and each content creator is going to be different, some people have less, some people have more, we'll just go from top to bottom here, my main source of income is going to be working directly with brands so they come to me and sometimes, you know, they want me to post on my channels, then they'll like post on their channels. And it's just like this mutual benefit. Sometimes they come to me and they want privatized content that they can hold on to throughout the year, repurpose and emails, their social media website, you know, whatever they basically need it for. So that is a primary source of income. For me secondary is going to be licensing fees. So when brands do approached me on content, and they want to hold on to it, generally it's a three six or 12 month period. So along with that comes a licensing fee and sometimes the licensing fee can be more than one I'm actually charging for the content because they are owning my content for a specific amount of time. So that's second 1/3 is affiliate marketing. This is when I anytime I talk about a product on my channel or on social media, I have a couple of different affiliate marketing agencies that I use, but I linked the products and when people buy them I make a commission Okay, now of course this is disclosed in any type of posts that I make, you know, if I make commission off of it, but that's a large source of my income. And then the last is YouTube, AdSense, YouTube, AdSense is still going strong. Yeah, that's where, you know, YouTube puts ads on my videos, and I you know, make money off of that.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 17:52

That's when you reach like 1000 subscribers. I yeah,

Shelbey Wilson: 17:56

I don't you know, what's funny is I started a second channel when I was in that Limbo phase. And it was like a more of a lifestyle channel because I'm really into cooking. I love food. And this is totally off track. But you know what, I posted three videos on that channel. The third video has three like point 5 million views. What What was it on? It was a copycat Starbucks recipe video like how to do a Starbucks recipe, but I couldn't once my main channel took off. I could not keep up with that. But it killed me because I was like, I've been doing this for you know, six years. Just now. You know, I just now I got a video with a million views. That one's it's like hanging out cool. 3.5 million views right now. So yeah, those are my four streams of income. Some people have more. Some people are big on Patreon, which is, you know, a subscription based site where people pay to watch your content. I haven't really explored that. I know it's a great option. For some people who you know, haven't seen like as much success with YouTube. There's ways to monetize on Instagram now their subscriptions, Instagrams rolling out subscriptions. Wow, tick tock. They have a creator platform now. And then also people can just like send you money on tick tock. I don't really know how that works. I haven't explored it. But there are so many ways to make money.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 19:11

So Louis, my eight year old, he wants to be a YouTuber, and he already has like made videos with my phone and shout out to Louis. Today we are going to talk about certificates. That's the title of his first video. It's great actually, it is great.

Shelbey Wilson: 19:28

I want to say this.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 19:30

I think Jessica may have posted on Instagram at some point. But anyway, I digress. 75% of children ages six to 17 want to become YouTubers. As a mother and YouTuber do you think this is a viable career path? And does this statistic worry you should children be on YouTube?

Shelbey Wilson: 19:49

Yeah, this is a really great question. I'm glad that you asked this and I may go off on a little tangent with this. I'm going to answer from last to first on this. Should children be on YouTube? Absolutely. not I 100% do not think that children should be posted on YouTube. And really, for me, I don't post my son on any platform. I have a private facebook and i mean i here and there for extended family but absolutely not. It is so mortifying to me with like these family vlog channels. Yeah. And it's crazy to me to think that actual parents wake up in the morning and think it's a good idea. First thing to have a camera in their child's face. And then on top of that, to go post it to millions of people to see. And not just that, you know, sometimes I'm on Facebook, and I see people say like, Hey, vote for my daughter for most beautiful smile, or most and I'm like, What are we teaching these children that is, you know, boils down to their physical appearance. And then also, statistics are coming out. If you were born in 2003, you're 20 years old. Now, your parents possibly could have put your entire life on the internet for people to see. And there are kids coming out now saying like, hey, like, my life was ruined. Like there were things I didn't want, you know, people to see. I didn't even think about that. Yeah, I don't post my son on anything anymore. When he was born, I was posting some photos of him on Instagram. And I discovered that I had a Reddit thread where someone had taken a screenshot of a photo that I posted. It was me and my son literally hours after he was born. And people were talking about like, the way I look the way my son and I will just go and say it was a positive thread. Nothing was negative on it. But at any point someone can come on and talk about, you know, my son. And after I saw that, I was like, Absolutely not. I went and deleted almost every single photo I had of him I had some stuff on like Instagram stories done. Most people don't even know that I have a child now. And I've discovered this creator on Tik Tok her count as mom Uncharted. And she literally dedicates her life to talking about these issues of children's lives being placed on the internet for everyone to see. And you know, we're not just talking like some harmful like photos here. And there, we're talking about parents posting things like, again, to the wrong hands, you know, like kids using the bathroom like potty training, I cannot believe that parents think that that's a good idea. And so I could go on and on about this. But no, I don't think that children should should be on YouTube at all going back to does this statistic worry me, it worries me that young kids are so eager to put themselves online at the age that they're at, I look back to me being like 13 and 14 years old, if I would have had access to put some stuff on the internet 1314 Oh, my gosh, it would have been so bad. I would have been mortified. You know, and so it worries me that, you know, kids see this and they think it's this harmless thing, you know, posting just silly videos online, you just never know, like, what hands that content is going to end up in. So that does worry me in terms of a kid growing up to be an adult and wanting to pursue content creation. Really no problem with that. I mean, we have to admit that this is a career, right? You know, I mean, we there's too many people that are succeeding in it right now. And in terms of is it a viable career, I like to use this example all the time. So when you graduate from college and you go into most field, you're going to have a little bit of potential to move up in that field. But unless you're an entrepreneur, you you know, make the call in terms of your money, you're not going to have multiple streams of income. And so this is one career where, like I said, your income is limitless. Yeah.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 23:48

Well, I mean, but on the other end of the spectrum, there's no base wage. Yeah. Whereas you might be able to fall into the turn after college making, you know, 36 $45,000 a year, if you want to be a YouTuber, like it's all hustle. Yeah, cuz if you're not hustling, you're not getting paid, which means that you're bringing home zero, goose, right. And so like, it worries me because, you know, I'm not trying to say that Louis is not motivated. He's also eight years old. So I don't know if he'll be motivated at 16, or whatever. But I mean, it's hard. Yes. We've been grinding on some YouTube. Absolutely. It is the hardest thing I've ever had to monetize, and harder than running a long term care company to be totally honest. So when I when you sit here and talk about the success that you've had, it's astounding, and you should be extremely proud of yourself. And from this entire conversation. Obviously, we have a lot more to talk about. But so far, one of the biggest things that I've taken away is your audience is right, and you should listen to them and adapt to what they want.

Shelbey Wilson: 24:54

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And I also think that again, I'm going back to the audience loyal. Tea, the way that you act in your videos, the type of persona that you give off, that also shapes the people, you know, who are following you. And so I've found that, you know, as my confidence grew, and you know, I was just more confident in the things I was talking about, my audience just kind of latched on to that. And they were just so much more accepting. I see some people who post what I like to call shock value content. And that's where you see the crazy like thumbnails that get you to click, if you read the comments on those videos. They're just insane, like, people are nuts. But again, that's what the Creator is putting off. That's what they're putting online. And so they're getting that in return. Yeah, I focus a lot on what's called Evergreen content. And that's where the user or the viewer wants to come back, you know, they're either learning something, it was aesthetically pleasing, and it really just encourages them to come back. So yeah, I think that's also something that a lot of people don't think about. They're like, Oh, why am I getting like these negative comments? Well, maybe like, go and see, what are you putting off, you know, on these videos,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 26:09

so let's say somebody is 20 years old, has just graduated college and decides that they want to become a YouTuber, they have a specific skill, they love socks, and they want to tell people about socks, different kinds of socks, what would be your one piece of advice for them when they're starting their journey. But I also want to know if there's something that you wish you'd known when you started?

Shelbey Wilson: 26:34

Yeah, something I wish I would have known when I started is that your worth is not determined by numbers. So we're talking about numbers. Again, like I said, I am not a big numbers person, when I was focusing a lot on that. And I was like, doing the grinding thing, I was in that Limbo phase, where I just didn't feel 100% fulfilled, I was telling myself, you're only going to be worth something when you reach like 500,000 followers. And I will say the YouTube culture ingrain that in me because back in the day, you got opportunities based on your following, you didn't get opportunities based on audience engagement based on your demographic brands, were really just looking at how many subscribers you had. And you know, they weren't really looking on return on investment or anything like that. So that's kind of where that thought was in my mind for a long time. Like, you're not going to make it until you're at this number. And I can tell you right now, I'm involved in a lot of campaigns and I'm able to get feedback sometimes from other creators that I work with on projects. I've seen what's called micro influence influencers. I'm considered a micro influencer, I think of micro influencer, your micro until you're over like 600,000. Now Oh, wow. Yeah. So I have seen micro influencers bring in like double triple the rate that a macro can because their audience retention is better their audience loyalty is better. For example, I just worked with a brand this fall. And it was a new brand. To me, I love their mission. It was obviously beauty related brand, I knew my audience was going to receive it well, because they truly did top quality products. But I worked with them on this project. And I have the ability, a lot of brands will gatekeeper how much you've made them on a project. But because of affiliate marketing, where I go in and I linked up, I'm able to see, you know, at least a certain percentage of what people are actually purchasing. And within a three day period, this brand that I worked with, I made them over $25,000. So there are some macro influencers who can't return on investment because they're way too focused on you know, taking too many like crazy opportunities or pushing products and people don't have that loyalty to then also

Kosta Yepifantsev: 28:48

when you start getting into that territory, how many of those subscribers are real? Yeah, like how many of those are just bots? Yeah,

Shelbey Wilson: 28:55

that's another thing that honestly, I like totally forgot about this. I'm glad he like brought this back into my mind. But for a long time you have people were buying their subscribers. And that was very obvious back in the day when people would do that. Because you know, they'd have like this great following and then their photo would get like 16 likes and absolutely no engagement. And nowadays, engagement is way more important than likes brands want to see you know that people care to interact with you. It takes more effort to comment and interact with a video than it does to give it a thumbs up. So yeah, that's that's a really big thing. And then a piece of advice I would give to someone starting out. I listened to Amber jerith podcast and she said she was mortified when young real estate agents quit their job and came to her and were like, I'm ready to do this full time. Yeah, I would definitely recommend having at least some sort of backup income. If not, you're going to put so much pressure on yourself. And my second piece of advice would be to just have fun with it in the beginning look at it as a hobby because if you have that type of pressure on yourself and the Beginning you're just going to be in like a never ending pit where you're just focused on the numbers. And it just doesn't allow you have to have the clarity. Yeah, when I stopped focusing on the numbers and just kind of started going with the flow, you know, a little bit more laid back, I had that moment where things just changed. And I just felt like I had so much more more clarity, and

Kosta Yepifantsev: 30:25

it's video. So when you put pressure on yourself, or you're being inauthentic, everybody knows. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So now we have our entire path forward, Morgan, I mean, 100%, we know exactly what to do now.

Shelbey Wilson: 30:38

Stop looking at the analytics. We're just

Kosta Yepifantsev: 30:41

gonna, we're gonna go and do subscribe from all of our analytic platforms, and just focus on making videos. I don't know, maybe we can bring Louis in. I mean, yeah, but certificates. Anyway. So you are a mother and you're married, and you live here, you have a pretty normal life, right? From a mental health aspect. How do you protect yourself from the constant pressure of posting reviewing analytics, and audience feedback?

Shelbey Wilson: 31:10

Yeah, I just a long time ago, I told myself, I'm not an everyday poster, you're not going to see content for me every single day. And that's just something that, you know, some people can do that I can't nor do I want to, nor do I feel the need to just over saturate my audience. So that's something that definitely I don't freak out about. I just tried to keep it at what I feel comfortable. And basically, um, and then the analytics thing, you know, like I said, I've never been a big analytics person. I'll notice sometimes like, hey, this video didn't do as well as this one. So make a mental note of that, you know, we'll try something different next time. I don't try to beat myself up about it. I just had to get to a point in my life where I just felt comfortable with you know, delivering, like, hey, like, we're just going to do like three, four videos a week, it's not going to be an every single day thing and there's nothing wrong with that. That's a great if you can do that. But it's not me.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 32:06

And so what you're doing now, managing your YouTube channel producing this content, that's good for you right now in your life, right? Okay. Does it ever feel taxing though, because for example, what if you have more kids

Shelbey Wilson: 32:21

I think I will always feel like I can be flexible in this I've come to terms with like for example, YouTube within the past two years has not been the biggest priority for me, it takes probably three times as long to produce a YouTube video as it does for short form content. And the past couple years the companies I've been working with and my audience has really shifted to the short form content I never want to let my youtube channel go but I used to post two videos a week on my YouTube channel after I had my son I could no longer keep up with that and so we do one video a week now I really would love to get it back up because inside or hot tip guys I've heard YouTube's going to be making a certain year this year it's going to be the new come around platform. Wow. So keep going keep going with that. I have seen several posts where people are guessing that I don't know where that information is coming from honestly but in terms of going back to the you know how am I going to feel comfortable like continuing this I think that I can make it work and again I try not to beat myself up over things if I can't get you know this particular like video up on a day it can wait it's not like it's you know dire need that it has to be posted

Kosta Yepifantsev: 33:41

but like when you if you have a bad day you know or like a bad month I mean what do you do? Do you go like for walk do you go hiking do you go running? How do you manage your mental health?

Shelbey Wilson: 33:49

Yeah, my husband and I are both very big on exercise before had my son I went to the gym five, six days a week like that was my outlet now doesn't always happen we try to make it a three four day week thing but yeah, we have a great walking area and our community love to go on walks my husband's really good about you know when he comes home taken over if I need to have a break. So yeah, there's a good balance there

Kosta Yepifantsev: 34:15

as a creator in the beauty industry, what sets you apart and what shaped your online presence the most over the past decade

Shelbey Wilson: 34:24

when I started having the most growth I referenced you know that video a little bit earlier on where I had the super simple video that I posted and I just discovered my niche from that and it really helped me shape how viewers saw me and also during that time period the types of videos that I was posting hate say a little bit ahead of the game but I was I've always been very minimalist and my beauty style you know in 2015 and even earlier on is very maximalists like Kim Kardashian smoky eye and so I want to say I'm may have hopped on the train a little bit earlier with that, and people were just looking for, you know, quick ways to just have fun with makeup and just look a little bit more refreshed. And that's kind of what I was bringing to the table. Like, again, I want to say it was like the 2018 era.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 35:16

Do you remember? Like 2014 2015 the filter game on Instagram was strong? Oh

Shelbey Wilson: 35:23

my gosh. Do

Kosta Yepifantsev: 35:24

you ever look back at like your old pictures? I look back.

Shelbey Wilson: 35:27

Do not go back and look at 2014

Kosta Yepifantsev: 35:31

and Jessica, face to you.

Shelbey Wilson: 35:34

We know we all know face to sure everyone just looked like a blurred little blog. No. Yeah, that that extra game was actually i Yeah, when I stopped doing that, like I'm very intentional with my photos. Now I do very minimal editing, there's zero face tune, it's a may bump up contrast, sometimes lighting that kind of thing. But yeah, the the blurred photo days. 2014. I mean, that was the trend, you know, people were doing it. But I hopped off of that. And like I said, this was probably like 2018 and I really just started focusing on this minimalist beauty lifestyle. And that's like it now you know, like, everyone wants to look like Haley Bieber, all she does is put concealer on and then she's like, good for so you know, I kind of jumped on the train a little bit early on that trend, I think,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 36:24

then I'd like to look like a younger Brad Pitt, like from Troy, you know, just like somebody just like, full of muscle. But there's no filter for that, you know, especially now you can't use Filter. Well, again, as you can tell,

Shelbey Wilson: 36:38

filter is still very strong. And really Yes, but they've done it. And Morgan knows like, you know, Photoshop style. I know, there's like a another face tune app now where people can literally put their faces like layered over other people's faces and more. It's crazy. And sometimes you're looking at a photo that you don't even know is it looks so real. You don't even know it's been altered, which is like horrifying.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 37:04

So here's the overarching question, what is your greatest mission as a brand?

Shelbey Wilson: 37:11

I feel like I have maybe three missions one to myself one to companies that I'm working with brands, and then one to my audience, probably for myself and my audience is to always maintain that authenticity, really valuing, you know, the loyalty that I built up throughout the years, you know, there are so many opportunities that I could have taken and you know, especially earlier on when I was still in college, like hey, let's good like pay my rent, but something would always like go off in my brain, like do you want people to view you that way? What is worth more, you know, your monthly rent or how people view you keeping that authenticity and keeping myself grounded, I think is really important thing. And also that translates into my audience, I just always want them to view me as a loyal and trusted source. And then for brands that I'm working with, you know, I really value what I submit to them, you generally when you work with a brand, they want to see a draft before it's posted, I am a little bit overly critical. When I'm working directly with a brand, I just want it to be something that is going to be beneficial for them and just top tier quality. So yeah, that's really my mission, stay grounded and produce good content.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 38:28

So we always like to end the show on a high note, who is someone that makes you better when you're together? Well,

Shelbey Wilson: 38:36

this is a toss up between my husband and my son. When I saw this question, my husband said I've known you longer. Of course, he was joking. But yeah, my husband, we're total opposites. And it's the exact same thing with us opposites attract, because in every way that we're different, we just held balance each other out together for like 12 years now we've been married for this will be six years, but he has made me a healthier person. He has helped me grow in so many ways. And especially you know, after becoming a father, I was, you know, really worried about motherhood. I was never the type of person who was overly excited about motherhood, I was just more anxious and nervous. And he was just so great after our son was born and being, you know, in touch with like, my mental health and knowing when I needed breaks, so yeah, he's obviously my rock in so many ways. And then my son comes along right now we call him the Sour Patch Kid. He does, you know, things where we're like, Why? Why don't you do that? And then he comes to, you know, cuddle us or hug us. They're so smart. But he in a lot of ways has really like soften my exterior. I'm an only child. So in a lot of ways I've always been selfish. And he just came along and kind of broke that hard exterior and I feel like I'm a more compassionate and I think about things that I didn't before becoming a mother. And it's all because of him and he's just the sweetest little boy I know everyone thinks their kids are the end all be all, but he's just like everything to me. So, you know, at the end of the day, I'm exhausted no matter what, but then I lay down in bed at night and I look at pictures of him before I go to sleep. You know, it's so it's like, what are those things but he just brightens my day in so many ways. So we're gonna do 5050 on that one.

Morgan Franklin: 40:41

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. Leave us a review or better yet, share this episode with a friend. Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a Kosta Yepifantsev Production. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin post production mixing and editing by Mike Franklin. Want to know more about Kosta visit us at kostayepifantsev.com We're better together.