TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

What Being Full Time is REALLY Like! Featuring Trisha Hershberger

• vidIQ • Season 6 • Episode 13

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Trisha Hershberger, a 12-year veteran in the content creation world, takes us behind the curtain of what it truly means to build a sustainable career around your passions. Moving from theater training to digital storytelling, Trisha has carved out a unique space for herself discussing technology, video games, tabletop gaming, and broader fandom culture across multiple platforms.

What separates her journey from many others is her steadfast commitment to content diversity despite algorithm pressures to niche down. "If you're going to have longevity as a creator, you can't just do one thing all the time," Trisha explains. "You'll get sick of it, run out of content ideas, and be creatively less fulfilled." This philosophy has allowed her to weather platform changes while building meaningful connections with her audience.

The conversation delves into the rarely discussed challenges of content creation – from the staggering $30,000 annual health insurance costs for her family to the complex negotiations behind brand partnerships. Trisha offers candid insights into what working with brands actually entails, debunking the myth that creators "just get paid for posting pictures." Her careful approach to partnerships – first assessing whether she genuinely likes the product, then evaluating if the brand representatives seem reasonable to work with – reveals the thoughtful business acumen behind successful creator careers.

As a woman in traditionally male-dominated niches, Trisha shares how she's navigated both the advantages of standing out and the challenges of constantly having to prove her knowledge. The shift from community-based social platforms to algorithmic content delivery has intensified these challenges, creating situations where every new video potentially faces the same scrutiny from unfamiliar audiences.

Perhaps most powerfully, Trisha reveals how she's balanced her creative career with motherhood, candidly discussing how her husband transitioned to being a stay-at-home parent during the pandemic, enabling her demanding schedule of production days, streams, and events. This glimpse into the careful orchestration required to make creator careers sustainable alongside family responsibilities offers invaluable perspective for anyone considering this path.

Ready to dive deeper into content creation? Subscribe to Tube Talk for more honest conversations about building your audience in an ever-changing digital landscape.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Tube Talk, the show dedicated to helping you become a better video creator so you can get more views, subscribers and build your audience. Brought to you by vidIQ. Download for free at vidIQcom.

Speaker 2:

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast. That's never the same two episodes in a row. And I'm Travis, of course, as always, but this time Jen isn't with me. She's on her way into a secret thing that's going to happen in the next episode. Y'all are going to want to stay tuned for that, but I am joined by an amazing creator. I'm super excited to have Trisha Hershberger here. How are you doing today, Trisha?

Speaker 3:

You know what, travis, I'm doing better now that I get to be here chatting with you. That's right.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me. We're going to have so much fun today. We're going to talk about all the things, but if you are the first time listener or viewer, we welcome you, as we like to talk a lot about YouTuber-y things, sometimes growing your channel. Sometimes we talk to full-time creators, which is what we're going to do today talking about, like, what that lifestyle is like. We do all the things.

Speaker 2:

So, if you're new here, hit subscribe. If you're on YouTube, and if you're on YouTube and if you're listening to audio podcasts, just grab some popcorn, sit back, relax. We're about to tickle your ears with a bunch of fun stories. Just let's start off with the thing that I'm super happy to start off with, because Jen isn't here. She can't, she can't mess this up, so this is an undercover candy podcast as well, so sometimes we talk about candy here. Okay, all right, and there's a controversy here. There's two teams. I'm not going to bias you in either way. I just want you to know what the teams are and then I just need you to vote for one. That's all it is. It's all it is. There is only one right answer, but I'm not going to tell you which one it is.

Speaker 3:

No pressure.

Speaker 2:

All right, One of us on this on this show loves candy corn and the other loves Cadbury cream eggs. Now I just need to be clear. You can only choose one. If you had to, which would you choose? Which team are you on?

Speaker 3:

If I had to choose one, I would choose candy corn.

Speaker 2:

All right, that's the end of that episode. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. Jen is going to kill.

Speaker 3:

Cadbury cream eggs thing for me as a consistency.

Speaker 2:

That's what she says. That's exactly what Jen says.

Speaker 3:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

Terrible. I can't wait to surprise her with a Cadbury egg later today. She doesn't even know. All right, anyway, now that we're past that I know some people are cheering in the comment section Trisha, tell us a little bit about yourself, like what's your background? You've been around for a long time. I know a lot about you because I've come across you on the interwebs many times. But for people who don't know, give us a little bit of your background.

Speaker 3:

Sure. Well, my name is Trisha Hershberger and I have been fortunate enough to be a full-time content creator now for gosh probably 12 or 13 years I kind of lost count somewhere after 10. But my background just in short. I got my degree in theater, in stage theater, and moved out to Los Angeles to pursue an entertainment career but did not have all the wonderful nepotism contacts that so many people have, and so found myself doing it on my own and auditioning for everything I possibly could. That, you know, wasn't asking me to do something that I felt in my soul was horribly wrong.

Speaker 3:

And eventually I kind of tripped and fell into YouTube and discovered this world where you can talk about things that you're passionate about and you can make really fun content and, if you are able to gather an audience, thus a career makes. And so that was back in like 2011 or 2012. And of course, now I'm present on all the different platforms, but I mainly talk about things that I love. So technology, video games, tabletop games and kind of fandom entertainment, so that when I say that that's spanning, like sci-fi, fantasy, comic book stuff, and back in the day we used to call it like geek themed content. But you can't really say that now, because that stuff is all the super popular content.

Speaker 2:

Right, exactly.

Speaker 3:

But I feel like if you say pop culture, people think you mean the Kardashians. And so we're in this weird place that it's kind of hard to quantify. But yeah, I consider myself very fortunate that I get to talk about things I'm passionate about for a living.

Speaker 2:

That feels like very dreamy, because a lot of times we talk about on YouTube, especially if you want to grow immediately, is to niche down. But you have, the niche that you're in is a niche. It is like geekdom or whatever you want to call it, so it is technically a niche. However, it spans so many things. I've seen you talk about video games, literally computers, like all the things you've talked about. I've literally seen you do all this stuff and uh, as a growth strategy on youtube by itself, especially when you're first starting out, probably not a thing you could do anymore, but there is an instant and I'd love to hear when that moment seemed to switch, if there was a moment that switched for you, where it's like I actually can make a living doing just everything I'm passionate about, rather than just this one little thing that just, yeah, I like it, but I'd want to talk about these other things too.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's. It was interesting for me because I had a different start. I feel like to most people in the YouTube scene when I say I tripped and fell into YouTube. I went to an audition in Los Angeles that said online news host and I was like, yeah, I don't have a broadcast journalism degree, but whatever, let's go for it. Right, and I went in to this audition and, um, I read my news stories that I prepared on index cards and that was fine.

Speaker 1:

It was fine.

Speaker 3:

Um. And then they kind of said oh well, do you play video games? Do you like books? What do you read? Are you into tech at all? And I remember leaving that audition and thinking I don't know what that was actually for, but I think I nailed it.

Speaker 3:

I think, I was what they were looking for and I ended up getting called in and it was to work for a brand new YouTube channel being launched by Philip DeFranco, who is still obviously a major player in the space, does really great work still obviously a major player in the space, does really great work and so I ended up being cast as talent on an ensemble YouTube channel Okay, and so that was where I first really kind of learned the ropes of YouTube.

Speaker 3:

But it was a little interesting because back then you could still be this more broad type of channel. I mean, at one point we were kind of pitching a content strategy that was like video game Mondays, anime Tuesdays, wacky tech Wednesdays, like it was really spanning a lot of different content categories. And nowadays you're right, travis, you can't really do that Like. Nowadays the algorithms really want you to niche down. But I think because I started my content creator journey so broad, I've really stuck to that. Um, really, it's kind of me bucking the algorithm a little bit, uh, if I can.

Speaker 3:

But I feel like if you're going to have longevity as a creator, you can't just do one thing all the time. You'll get so sick of it, you'll run out of content ideas, you'll be creatively less fulfilled. That's my take on it at least, and I know a lot of creators that nowadays work around that by having multiple channels and different channels to do your different types of content. I still primarily work producing content, like I was then as talent for someone else's channel. I still produce a lot of content for other channels and specifically other brands, channels in addition to my own. So that kind of helps with the creative need to want to spread your wings a bit more and cover more types of things.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we had Justin Moore on a couple weeks ago and he talked a lot about brand deals and stuff and you work with a lot of brands. It also feels like you've branded yourself. So when we talk about niche, you do talk about the geekdom niche, but in a lot of ways you are kind of the the niche, the brand that people are connecting with. So it while it's cool to hear you talk about star wars or whatever they come for, your take specifically because, as you've said, you know you started from the get-go kind of wide and just kind of kept it, so that became a brand in and of itself. How do you do that? If you were to tell someone, um, you know all the mistakes you made along the way and then all the things you've learned along the way, what would you tell a new person who wants to try? I know it's hard now, but if you knew then what you know now, what would you say?

Speaker 3:

I would say don't feel the pressure to fake it Like. If there's something that you think like, oh I should really know more about this one particular thing than you do, like for me, kind of my.

Speaker 3:

So I make, I make you know fandom content, right, but one of my big nerd blind spots is anime and I remember very early in my career thinking I need to oh, I need to pretend I know everything about anime and I'm going to do a crash course and watch all this stuff. And you know, try to be able, like I need to be the expert on everything. And I would say you don't need to be the expert on everything. Branch out to the things that you're really passionate about, because that's what you're going to be able to create content the most easily about.

Speaker 3:

And I think, especially early in your creative career, you want to focus on things that you can naturally pump out content fast and easy, because for a long time you're shouting to an empty room while you're building that audience, there's not a lot of people watching. You're probably not getting paid for it, unless you figured out some hack that the rest of us don't know. So it has to be something that, in addition to whatever your day job for money is, you have fun doing. So. If you don't have fun talking about that specific content type, I would shy away from that and just be comfortable in who you are and just say like you know what. That's not something I know a lot about and that's okay.

Speaker 3:

I don't feel the need to be perfect at everything.

Speaker 2:

I love that. That's such great advice because I think there is that pressure that creators put on themselves we talk to when we have people email in. We have a lot of people who are starting out, just starting out, and they'll see someone like you who's been doing it for a while. It makes it look easy. Let's just, let's just put it out there, you make it look easy, very kind of you to say it you make.

Speaker 2:

so this is the thing. Like I'm really good at off the cuff stuff, like I can. I can do unscripted stuff all day long and make it look good. I swear to beans, if you put a script in front of me, I'm a bumbling idiot. I can't read any of it. I can't remember what I'm supposed to say. Now, I can't do it. The skills are not all the same, right.

Speaker 2:

So when you're, when you're that good at it and it makes it look easy that you have creators come in and like, oh, that's, that's easy, I can do that. And then he tried to do it and it's like, oh, my gosh, that was, that's a lot harder. I don't understand why they're not getting these views. Why am I not getting all these brands reaching out to me? But speaking of brands, I do kind of want to understand, like, what is the current workflow for you when a brand comes in? So recently, like I said, two episodes ago I think it was two we had Justin here and he talked a lot about the kind of negotiations and stuff. But I'm curious from the creator side itself, because he's like a coach for creators to get brands. But you're the actual creator and you have the company and you now are. The brands are coming to you. Talk us through. You don't have to give us numbers, but like talk us through what that process looks like and what you keep in mind whenever you're negotiating.

Speaker 3:

So the first thing that I think about when a brand comes to me is is this a brand fit? Is this something I would create content on, regardless of if there was any brand affiliation Like, would I just like to make this content? And if the answer is no, then usually it's a polite decline right there to save everybody time. If the answer is, oh, heck, yeah, I've been wanting to do this one for a while, then I'll respond and see if I can kind of open the door to a negotiation. I think it gets a little tricky when the answer is I don't know, maybe, because then it's really an inquiry for more information.

Speaker 3:

Do you have other product videos? Would you be comfortable sending me a sample to check out before we agree to a partnership? I'm happy to send you you the sample back, but you know I don't want to endorse something that I don't actually believe in, um. So I think the first step of that is do I actually like and would I actually use this product? Um, and so once you've kind of gotten past that hurdle, then the second hurdle for me is do I think this marketing agency or brand or whoever's doing outreach seems reasonable to work with? Because sometimes I love the product and the marketing agency is a nightmare.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And if I feel like this whole brand deal is going to be 100 plus emails back and forth, which I'm not exaggerating- I believe you Some of them really are. Yeah, I believe you and they want to micromanage every step of my creative process. It's simply not worth it to me. No amount that they're going to pay me, it will compensate me for the amount of time and stress that that brand deal will take, Even if I love the product right, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Like, sometimes that's just the reality of it. I'm like, look, I'd rather buy your product myself and make a video on it just for me, and not deal with your nightmare.

Speaker 2:

Literally have done that, literally have done that.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes, exactly. So, yeah, is it a brand fit? Do I actually like it? Step one. Step two do I think these people are people I want to work with for the next month or two, because sometimes brand deals can span month, two months I've even done some that are three or four months and just like you have to like being in an office with someone, like, is this someone I want in my inbox all the time.

Speaker 2:

Right.

Speaker 3:

Once you've gotten over those two hurdles, then I'll get to the point where I'll say, ok, here's what I think I could produce your content for and, realistically, let me know which distribution platforms you're looking for. I'll put together a package for you. And usually I put together three different packages, like kind of the budget tier, the mid range and the premium package, and see what they're comfortable moving forward with. We'll get some kind of contractor agreement in place and then we'll begin the production process and the post-production process and then there's usually one or two rounds of revisions that I offer the brand at that point before we decide on a posting date. Now that's kind of the you know overall broad steps of it.

Speaker 3:

But there are, like I said, there's some brands that they want you to do everything their way and you know it changes based on who it is. They want you to do everything their way and you know it changes based on who it is. But generally if a brand or a marketing agency is very collaborative when they work together, then that's someone I'd like to work with again in the future. So it's funny Sometimes the marketing agency I know they're a great marketing agency to work with and they'll come to me with a brand I may not have considered before, but because they're so lovely to work with and they're open to my creative ideas, then we can maybe make it happen.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've had that same situation where I'm like I really don't, I'm ambivalent, but then I've worked with the yeah, exactly that. And then it's like okay, fine, fine, it's fine, I'll do it, let's. Let's talk a little bit about the industry that you're in and I just I have to ask, because originally this was going to be like more you and Jen talking about women in creation, and I think there's there needs to be a lot more talked about women creators, because I think you guys have unique obstacles that a lot of guys don't. So I want to talk specifically about that for you. Because you're in a male-dominated niche, let's just call it for what it is. Because you're in a male-dominated niche, let's just call it for what it is and you're a female in it. Now, that could be an advantage or a disadvantage, and I would love to hear which you think it is. Is it an advantage because you have a unique voice amongst all the other guys, or is it a disadvantage?

Speaker 3:

because literally it's the guys club and you have to try to fit in. I don't think it's a one or the other issue.

Speaker 3:

I think, it's a little of column A and a little of column B, for exactly the reasons you said. Right, you're naturally going to stand out as something different, for better or for worse. There are some people that are looking specifically for different and there's some people that are very adverse to different, and I think a lot of people naturally, not even maliciously. Of course there's some malicious people out there, but everybody has trolls, right Of course. But I think that a lot of people, not intended, maliciously, think that's not what I was expecting to see.

Speaker 3:

Something must be wrong here, just in their subconscious Interesting, age or a personality type, whatever it is, that's other than what they were expecting to see.

Speaker 3:

I do feel like people try to figure out what's wrong here, and in the what's wrong here is when you start to see the questioning of like this person doesn't actually know what they're talking about or they were just hired for reasons X, y and Z, or like people are a lot more critical when something is not what they expected to see, which I think is a very natural human response. And so I think, in a lot of ways, if you are other than what people are expecting to see, you have more work to do in order to prove yourself, which was very present early on in my career. Like I said, you know a lot of that pressure I felt like I have to be an expert at everything. I think was in part a response to that, because I knew that everyone's first impression was that somehow I was being inauthentic, which I had only even gotten the job like nerding out about things that I actually liked.

Speaker 3:

So it was really like as someone that was trained in acting. This was the most authentic I had ever been.

Speaker 2:

The irony.

Speaker 3:

To talk about books I like and movies I like and games I like. And so it was, you know, a bit of a trial by fire period for me as a creator and as a performer to encounter that so early. And then I was very lucky in that I had built up a community that even if someone new had come in, someone else in the community would say, oh, you clearly haven't seen the past five years of her work.

Speaker 2:

Right right.

Speaker 3:

But now, with the change from social media to algorithmic media, that problem is present all over again. Interesting All the time and I really feel for creators that are coming up right now. It's part of the reason that, as a creator, I kind of shy away from tick tock and a lot of short form video interesting because every video is being shown to not my community, and so with every release I am encountering all over again wow this stupid woman doesn't know anything about X, y and Z.

Speaker 3:

all over again. It feels like the first year of my career. It feels like 13 years ago all over again with every video release and it's honestly, from a mental health perspective it is just exhausting. So hats off to the creators that do algorithmic media. All the time I yearn for the days where it's your followers in the community you've built up that see your content. It's part of the reason that now I am so much more active on Twitch, because my Twitch subscribers get the notification that I'm live and the majority of my community that I hang out with there is my community. It's not just being shown to whoever the algorithm and feels like on that day, but it's a different landscape now than it used to be in terms of how you might build up a community right.

Speaker 2:

That's such a really interesting take on that I had never really I had heard recently cause I don't really dabble in short form that short form audiences tend to be more quote toxic than than other forms I had. But I didn't consider, in what you were just describing, what that would be like if you're. You know, you're constantly I mean for the most part, on youtube you're always being shown to a new audience. But to your point, uh, twitch, the. The plus about Twitch is that you generally can make a community and they kind of stick with you and it's that thing. The minus is the discoverability isn't quite as good as YouTube, but the minus from the discoverability point is literally what you just described. So it's very interesting. I love how you put that. So was there a point, or is there a point, where you just stopped looking at comments other than Twitch? Okay, so let's talk about the line. I mean, I think one. It's funny.

Speaker 2:

We got a comment today on one of the old podcasts talking about the, the negative parts of going full time. So we can actually talk about that here, because everyone always talks to positives. Oh, you got, you know, you're your own boss, blah, blah, blah. By the way, you're your own boss is also your negative. Uh, it's not just your positive, it's also your negative. Um, but I would love to hear about these things like what are the things that you didn't know? Or, or a lot of new creators don't know, that are the not so great things about going full-time, because there are some not so great things about going full-time, which can include privacy, by the way I want you to talk about.

Speaker 3:

Sure, whether you are full-time or even a part-time creator, you have to deal with the comments, the positive, the negative and everything in between. Sometimes they're just strange, sometimes they don't make any sense and can leave you scratching your head for days, like there's always that one comment that'll just get under your skin, yeah, and you're like what, what even was?

Speaker 2:

that.

Speaker 3:

But to your point about you know, do you even look at the comments, right? If they are channels I control, then I will usually look at the comments and I do believe that there's moderation tools there. For a reason I don't kind of subscribe to the old school mentality of like, oh, you can never ban. No, I feel like if I'm inviting you into my house and you are rude to me in my house or you are rude to other guests at my party, aka my community, I'm going to kick you out of the party. I'm sorry You're no longer welcome here because you have behaved atrociously Right, and I feel like it is well within the rights of my party, my house, to ask you to leave forcefully if need be. Right. But I do, like you said, a lot of work with brands where I'm producing content for other brands or I'm guesting on other brand channels where I do not control the moderation tools there, and when I do that I have learned to just not look at the comments.

Speaker 3:

That makes sense, and I've also stopped working with certain brands because I do not feel like they protect their talent.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 3:

When there are brands that refuse to take out things like and I'm, you know, trigger warning for anyone but take out things like rape threats, death threats. If you're not willing to moderate that stuff from your community comment section, I am no longer willing to be associated with your brand.

Speaker 2:

Good for you, but thank you.

Speaker 3:

My mental health is more important than that and I have many, many clients. I'm very lucky to have many, many clients that want to work with me, so I can be choosy.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that you're taking a stand there, because so many people and you know, right, wrong or indifferent, you know follow the money and sometimes compromise their own. I don't want to say moral standards, but we can say moral standards. I think it's really important to understand a couple things about content creation, because I even have friends that this has happened to. When you compromise enough, the audience will figure it out and they'll stop supporting you.

Speaker 2:

And I know channels that have basically killed their own channel because they bent every way. The wind blew at any moment and there was no authenticity there and they started getting calling out and they could see the red flag starting to fly, but they just ignored them and now they don't have an audience. And it's sad to see Like some of these people were really influential and then now, uh, yeah, it's, you can't. You have to be authentic, like you were saying. You have to to have your, your moral guidelines so that even your community knows, so that, for example, what Trisha just said before it's four is like when people come into our community on Twitch chat, they'll know, because they'll be self-moderated. I love self-moderating. You know our community self-moderated.

Speaker 3:

Shout out to the community heroes.

Speaker 2:

Let's go and that creates a more positive community. If you allow these one-offs, then it. I actually did a study. I looked into a study on this. Turns out the first negative comment is usually the hardest one for any average person to make. However, when they see one, it's much easier for them to pile on. They feel socially acceptable. So then the piling on happens very fast. If you can cut off the first one, typically you won't see a lot of the others. Now, that's different than critique, because that's actually important. Have you ever can you remember a time when you were critiqued about something and were like oh, actually that's a good point, let me work on that.

Speaker 3:

Yes, there's actually many times, because my education is in theater and it's in the performative aspects of being a creator and not so much in the production aspects which shout out to the YouTube space, because I took lighting and filming and editing courses at the YouTube space back in the day before I went out on my own to kind of do this full time.

Speaker 3:

So I'm always asking my audience to be critical of those things, because it's helpful to me as a creator to make my content better. So when I do see I mean even if they're unkind about it when I do see comments that are like man, that audio is straight trash, hey well.

Speaker 3:

I know now we're not using that microphone anymore you know, whatever it is, so things that help me, or if people like sometimes I'll say you know this video I think was a little long Is there a part of it that was more interesting or less interesting to you than other parts? And checking your analytics to see kind of where that drop off is, I think all of that can be super useful and to me the line of something that's critical but useful versus critical and just hurtful is can it make your content better? Because, like I remember um, it was actually. This was so interesting because it was someone that I think I had mutual friends with that I found out on social media and I was like interesting because it was someone that I think I had mutual friends with that I found out on social media and I was like this is wild, but it was another woman that just went out of control in my comments about how obnoxious my voice sounds.

Speaker 3:

Okay, and this is clearly not something I can change.

Speaker 2:

No, you're kind of stuck with it.

Speaker 3:

I think it's fine, by the way this is not a critical and helpful comment.

Speaker 2:

Sure helpful comment.

Speaker 3:

Ma'am, you know I'm not going to give up my career because you, as one commenter, don't like the sound of my voice, so sorry. But yeah, if it's something that's critical that can actually help my content get better, that's great. If it's just you know people being critical just to I don't know feel better about themselves, or be an online bully or whatever it is that's motivating them. I don't pretend to know people being critical just to I don't know, feel better about themselves or be an online bully or whatever it is that's motivating them. I don't pretend to know, then that's something that I can just ignore.

Speaker 2:

I like that. Let's dig more into the lifestyle of a full-timer. What does your day look like? Let's talk about today. I mean, it's the most recent thing. So what happened before this interview? What's happening after? Talk to us about what your day looks like.

Speaker 3:

Okay, so my day is a little different every day, and that's exactly how I like it. So that's the part of being my own boss that I really enjoy.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 3:

I try to work Monday through Friday traditional office hours, as well as Sundays.

Speaker 2:

I go live on.

Speaker 3:

Sundays Okay, and so that's a six-day-a-week work schedule, which is quite a lot, um, especially considering I have a family. I'm a parent and so work-life balance is very important. But I try to take half days fridays when I can, and limit the amount of evening and weekend events that I leave the house for um. But today, for example, I wake up and my son leaves for school at 7 30 in the morning okay my work day that's early, I'll get a

Speaker 3:

cup of coffee and I will sit down at my computer and the first thing I do is go through the onslaught of emails that have come in since end of day yesterday, which is a lot, and some of these are brands reaching out for potential brand collaborations. Some of these are event invites, some of these are ongoing discussion with brands. I've already partnered with um. I do a lot of on-camera hosting where I am the talent hired for other brands' productions, so some of them are audition notices or offers for that kind of work. It's a whole lot, but I sit down and I do emails for approximately the first half hour to an hour of a day just to kind of catch myself up.

Speaker 3:

Then this morning I had chats with my editor, who is a lovely human being who lives in Chicago. I adore her, she works for me part-time and she had some edits ready for me to review. So we just kind of discord, chatted back and forth about some notes that I had on some of those edits, things that I'd like to see differently and, you know, just being like actual people and how's your morning and that kind of stuff. Because, again, I work with people that I enjoy working with, because it makes my day full of more smiles. So after chatting with her for a bit, I had a meeting with a brand that I'm partnering with from 9.15 to 9.45. And then at 10 o'clock I went live on Amazon Live to do some shoppable video content. And I two birds with one stone to this one, because for a job I have tomorrow I need all this tech unboxed. So I did an unboxing stream, so I made content out of the work I had to do anyway.

Speaker 2:

Love it.

Speaker 3:

So I did a tech unboxing stream from 10 to approximately 1040. And here we are 11 amam and some change chatting for this podcast. After we're done today, I'm going to get myself some lunch and some water, because hydrating is important, and then I'm going to go live on Twitch from approximately one to four, and then this evening is a special circumstance because I have a premiere in Los Angeles that I need to then get myself fancied up and get my booty too. So it's going to be a long work day today, but that is an example of you know what could be a typical day for me as a content creator.

Speaker 2:

Wow, I love that. That's amazing and it's a little bit of everything. You're doing all different types of things today, so it's not like it's one, like you're not just playing a game for 17 hours and then editing. That You're doing all types of, which I think makes your life more fulfilling in that way, but then also makes work more fulfilling.

Speaker 3:

We're gonna talk about it does it also, but again, in this time of like algorithmic media and you're down to one thing, it makes that a lot harder.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

Because people will say like I don't know. Brands will say like hey, we noticed, you haven't done a phone review in a while. And it's like yep, you're right.

Speaker 2:

There's a reason.

Speaker 3:

I have not. I've been busy with other work, so if you're expecting my YouTube channel to be all phone reviews, that it is not, you're definitely going to be waiting a while.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, I feel that We'll talk about work-life balance in a little bit, because I actually do want to dig in and I think that's not talked about nearly enough. But I look at like, even what? If you're watching the YouTube video, you'll see this it looks like you're wearing a Legend of Zelda thing on your neck, right.

Speaker 3:

Yes, I wear this Triforce necklace so much I usually joke in the summer that I'll probably have a tan mark.

Speaker 2:

That would have been the next question, but no, I think it really shows that you are not just doing this because it's a job, like it's something you enjoy. So let me ask you the question, um, and because I remember when I was in high school and I was working at little caesars, um, they were like do you still eat pizza? I'm like, hell yeah, because I love pizza. So are you still playing video games in your free time? I mean, I don't even know that you have free time when you're not streaming. Do you even get a chance to play games just for fun?

Speaker 3:

Um, I don't really have a lot of free time. Uh, I do play video games with my son. He just turned eight. Um, so sometimes in my free time with him we'll play games, but those are generally not the games I would choose to play. I think we just rolled credits on dog man for the Nintendo switch.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

Not the game I would choose to play in my off time, but that's all right, all right, my husband and I are talking about doing a dark urge run on Baldur's Gate 3. Okay, and inevitably that would have to happen, clearly after my son goes to bed. Seems that way, and there are many days when I put my son to bed and I have a 6 am call time the next morning and I am going right to sleep. There is no time to stay up late playing Baldur's Gate 3 as much as I would like to Wow.

Speaker 3:

So I think the times I game for fun are when I'm lucky enough to travel for work and I have a six hour plus flight. Everyone dreads long flights, not me. I finally get a long time to game.

Speaker 2:

I love it. What's the game you're waiting to play by yourself, not streaming, where you have to answer questions that you just want to play, you want to dig into.

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, there are so many. Right now I have the longest list. I did not get past the character creator on Dragon Age, the Veil Guard. And I know it's gotten mixed reviews but I still want to check it out. I only got a few hours into Avowed and I would love to play through all of that. Right Life is Strange, true Colors Split Fiction just came out and obviously that's a two-player game.

Speaker 2:

It's a co-op game, yeah.

Speaker 3:

You know, the list is just on and on, and on and on and on of the games I would love to finish. It's a running joke with my Twitch chat that I start games and never finish them. Now, that being said, I just finished a 200 plus hour first run of baldur's gate 3. It took me a year plus to do it because I only played while I was twitch streaming and I I do a lot with my twitch channel. It's not just the same game all the time.

Speaker 3:

I do an indie game showcase in game show format every tuesday when I Wednesday and Thursdays are usually chats, choice Sundays are a lot of like coffee chats and then gaming. So I'm only really playing these games in two to three hour chunks at most a couple times a week. And if I'm on set for a brand filming or I'm doing like sometimes I do news spots in the morning again, kind of the on camera side of what I do then that has to take priority over the streaming schedule. So, yes, it took me over a year for my first run through of Baldur's Gate 3, but I enjoyed it immensely. I also finished Alan Wake Alan Wake.

Speaker 2:

Oh, how was that? What did you think? Alan Wake, alan Wake, alan Wake, alan Wake.

Speaker 3:

Alan Wake, alan Wake, alan Wake. And someday when I age too much and I age out of the on-camera side of all of this, I'm going to go full-time like Skyrim grandma and just play games, and then I will actually be able to complete games.

Speaker 2:

Finish games Regularly. That's awesome, well cool. Okay, so that's the kind of gaming side of your life. Let's talk about the work-life balance a little bit more, just because I think it's super important. So you have family, obviously, and that's typically a full-time job in and of itself to be a mom and a wife and all that stuff. Let's talk about the balance. What does that look like generally speaking, and is there something you wish could be different?

Speaker 3:

So I've gone through many different phases of what it looks like. When I first started content creation, I was young and single and could really work around the clock, and because I loved what I did, it was very easy to work around the clock. However, from a mental health standpoint, I found myself in a position where I didn't even know what I wanted to do in my free time anymore. I didn't have free time. I started kind of losing a little bit of that and I was realizing there was no self-care and and so I kind of struggled with that when I was single. And then, once I married my husband, then all of a sudden, you know, I needed to spend time with him, I needed to nurture that relationship. So there was time that was needed to take away from work for that, which actually was very healthy for me, because I needed a real thing to help me prioritize.

Speaker 3:

And then, especially when I had my son, that was the biggest adjustment, because now there is a human dependent on me for his livelihood and he does not care if that YouTube video got out on time, you know. And so when I had my son, youtube was actually the part of my content creation journey that took the biggest backseat and I think I didn't post to my YouTube channel for like nine or ten months. It just totally went away. And again, because you now have other priorities that you need to factor in, there's only 24 hours in a day and only seven days in a week, so you do the best you can and I thought you know what. I can probably post a photo every now and then to Instagram.

Speaker 3:

I love Twitch streaming, like if I have to prioritize the platform that I enjoy creating for the most, it's going to be that, and so I kept once a week Twitch streams and I just looked at what I could realistically do and still not feel like I was letting my family down in any way. And then fast forward to the pandemic. My husband was working full time before that at an office job and I was trying to do the stay at home parent with a toddler but also keep up my content creation, which was a bit of a hot mess. Then everyone got stuck at home, right, and so then we had no childcare help.

Speaker 3:

Because, before that we were doing kind of like part-time childcare on a flex basis as I needed it, and then we had no childcare at all. So every morning my husband and I had to sit down and say okay well, I have an 11 o'clock. Okay, well, I have an 11 o'clock. Okay, well, I have an 11 o'clock. Who's 11 o'clock?

Speaker 2:

is more important because he's three.

Speaker 3:

We can't just leave him for 45 minutes because mommy and daddy both have zoom meetings. Like that's not realistic. Um, and so the decision we ended up making for our family uh, which is going to be different for every family is that my husband said look, I hate my job and you love your job.

Speaker 1:

Wow.

Speaker 3:

And if one of us is going to take a step back, I think it should be me. And again, a global pandemic is something that hopefully only happens once every century or so. So it was definitely dire circumstances, but he at that time did take a step back from his career and his job that he did not like anyway.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 3:

And since then he has been, he has taken on the role of the stay-at-home parent, which has enabled me to have these days like I described today, where I'm working from 7.30 am until the end of this premiere, which is probably going to be at 9.30 pm tonight. So today is an extraordinarily long day. Or tomorrow I'm hosting, uh, a live stream for amazon and my production time, uh, my call time, is 6 00 am that wouldn't enable me to do a school drop-off in the morning if I was still responsible for that.

Speaker 3:

So the fact that my husband is available to do those things is very helpful to me at this stage in my career.

Speaker 2:

Amazing. So the answer for everyone is get married if you are not, otherwise, it's never going to happen for you. No, I'm just kidding. That's great. That's really awesome that you figured that part out, and it's definitely something that I love. You talked almost in the negotiation that you had with your husband to figure out like, okay, well, we got to make a choice here. I mean, hopefully, most people won't have to make a choice like that, but there are things that a lot of content creators don't think about when they think about going full-time. Again, we've said this before. It sounds like it's all great, but it's not. What's maybe the one thing that a content creator is not thinking about right now that you're like oh, this is the thing you need to know about because you're not going to like this. What's the one thing I like to say?

Speaker 3:

it's like health insurance or something like that Health insurance is a hard one Let me tell you, for my family of three, Our health insurance costs us almost $30,000 a year. Oh my God.

Speaker 2:

I'm about to faint.

Speaker 3:

Yep, that's something, realistically, if no one in your household is working for a corporation that provides healthcare, that's real. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of that kind of administrative end of it that I think is really hard for a lot of creators, and I, you know, I feel like every creator I know that's full-time structures their day and their workflow slightly differently. My hat's off to the creators that are live eight hours a day and then take care of their negotiations and emails and bookkeeping and all of that In addition to that.

Speaker 3:

I'm thinking you must be working 12 hour days every day or they found a really good team and have a really good team in place that takes care of a lot of the administrative for them. I don't have that. The only person that's kind of regular on my team is the part-time editing help that I get Shout out Jen. She's amazing, but Jen is really the only person on my team and she's part-time on my team. And then I do have a talent manager that helps me with negotiating contracts, but I still like to do most of the negotiation myself and then I hand him off for the fine print. But I'll take care of the major deal points, because otherwise he'll just call me and say what do you want out of this deal? Like what is this okay with you?

Speaker 3:

And so just to minimize the middleman back and forth. I take care of the major deal points, but yeah, it's a lot of the behind the scenes work that goes into orchestrating that. It makes me so sad in my heart when I hear people say things like oh, then there's these influencers that just get paid all this money for a picture and I just want to say would you say the same thing about a marketing agency that made a picture for a billboard?

Speaker 3:

no, you would not. No, thank you, um, and I can show you the 100 plus emails I have back and forth with the entire team, the marketing team, the legal team, like I always just I don't say it out loud because I feel like don't say something. Nice, you know say it here, though you can say it but in my head all I can think is oh, your ignorance is showing yeah, oh it's, it's, it's bright big time like I don't go to my mechanic and pretend I know what his whole work day is like.

Speaker 3:

I don't know what his whole work day is like. So I do find it very insulting when people assume that they know what a content creator's day or workflow looks like, especially, again, because everyone I know that does it full time has structured their business so differently. And what I would say to the new creators is play to your strengths. If there's something, if there's a part of the process you know in particular, you're very good at and you enjoy, prioritize that. And if you are in a place when you can outsource, outsource the part that you feel like maybe you're not as good at or not very efficient at.

Speaker 3:

For me, I can edit. I'm not a very efficient editor, right, um? And honestly, I was just saying this to a friend on set yesterday who is really great at special effects. If I am working with a brand that is, you know, the budget's high enough for me to pay my friends, I'm gonna pay my friends, especially my friends that are much better at editing or vfx or whatever it is that they do. You know I, I want to do that I'm happy to have a good team.

Speaker 3:

I think that is going to yield a better result. The brand's going to be happier, like I totally make it happen. Outsource the stuff that you don't feel as good at, because that's the stuff that will drag you down and cause the most burnout is the stuff you don't like doing.

Speaker 2:

I love that you said that, cause we've actually said that on podcast, and love to hear other people say it on. Uh, hear other people say it unprompted, so that it gives more validity to the fact I've been saying this for a while. Yes, yes, yes, whenever you can. Now it might not happen for a while, but trust me when I tell you as soon as you can, the benefits typically outweigh the cost paid. So just two more things. They're kind of the same question, but it's more of an experience. I'm always curious about this sort of thing. We're going to start the the weird one first, like what's the weirdest slash? Maybe most uncomfortable, awkward situations happen with a viewer in person that you've experienced, or have you had one of those weird kind of like oh, what is going on right now?

Speaker 3:

you had anything like that I have um and I don't. I don't know if you're leaning more towards like, uh, like scary you tell me, you tell me, it's your experience um, I, I, I guess a kind of light and fluffy one. That was more just kind of silly and awkward. Uh was, I think I had someone, and this has happened a few times. But whenever someone sees me at an event but doesn't actually stop and say, say hi, and then they'll like tweet me later later I saw you blah, blah, blah earlier today and I'm like now it feels weird.

Speaker 3:

Now it feels weird, yeah, yeah if you had just said hi in the moment, it would have been totally cool yeah, exactly now I feel like someone's watching me and that's strange. Um so that. But then there's also always, you know, sometimes you'll have people that cross the line how do you deal that? Try to figure out your residence or something like that, and that's never cool.

Speaker 2:

How do you deal with that? What do you do?

Speaker 3:

Um, I mean, if it's bad enough, you get your local authorities involved. Um, if you need to, and just kind of contact your local authorities and let them know, like, hey, this is who I am, am, this is what I do for a living. I know it's really strange, uh, but you know, especially for folks that play video games, like, should you ever get a swatting?

Speaker 1:

like right from this residence right. This is probably understand the circumstance.

Speaker 3:

Um, or I had a while where, um, I joke around with friends about this, where someone kind of the lighter version of that, but still the I know where you live ping, where people will send things to your house instead of your PO box or publicly available address.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And it's like ooh, don't like that. No, thank you. Yeah, please don't do that and you kind of feel it out right, like sometimes there will be, or like if there's I don't even talk to my mother that much Okay.

Speaker 3:

And I think you feel it out right, like if it's, if you can say like hey really appreciate the support of my content. At this point in my life, I have a hard enough time maintaining the friendships I already have and I'm not looking to add to that. Right, these are the ways that it's appropriate to communicate with me moving forward.

Speaker 2:

So you're saying, for sure, we can't be friends after this.

Speaker 3:

I understand we need to kind of draw a line in the sand, yeah, and, like I said, then there's other times when you might need to go as far as contacting the authorities. But every situation is different and I try to deal with it differently. But I mean in general I'm sure on this podcast you've had people talk about it all the time, but it's so important to keep privacy in mind- yes.

Speaker 3:

And make sure that you use services that scrub your information off everything and do everything you can to kind of put as many layers of protection between your private information and what you make public.

Speaker 2:

And the thing is, you don't even have to be a big creator to take that into consideration. I use Delete Me, I use Delete Me, but regardless, if you even use a service, like even just in your, I always tell creators in your blocked words, put your phone number, your address, and if you don't tell your real name, put all those things in there so they get automatically blocked.

Speaker 3:

That's great advice, yeah. Finally tell us one of the most heartfelt, most hits you in the heart feels thing that a viewer has ever said to you or done for you or anything. Okay, I'm gonna step away from my chair for just one moment to grab it, okay for those of you watching the video version okay, it's a physical that she's.

Speaker 2:

She literally just left her seat. I've made the guest leave. It's amazing, I've done it finally.

Speaker 3:

All right, here it comes I didn't know you were going to ask this question, but since since you did so, I recently celebrated my 10-year Twitch partnerversary Congratulations and my community made me this book.

Speaker 2:

Wow.

Speaker 3:

Now it says 10 years and it has our sub logo on the front and every page is a written notice from a community member of the time they've met me in real life or the moment on stream that meant so much to them. Oh my gosh, it's amazing. It's amazing and it's you know this beautifully like very long book wow, that's incredible that they all organized without me knowing and in order to keep privacy.

Speaker 3:

Since we were just talking about it, they had contacted my editor in Chicago and said can we send the book to you? And then you send it to her so that she gets it. But like pictures with. This is a picture with one of my viewers at a Halo event way back in the day. It's just. It's so lovely and so heartfelt and, like my emotes and some of them that have designed emotes or just drew little pictures, or it's just amazing.

Speaker 2:

It's just amazing.

Speaker 3:

I mean as much as we talk about how the internet can kind of sometimes bring out the worst in people. I think it also is just a tremendous tool for bringing people together that never would have found each other otherwise, and bringing really special communities and friendships together.

Speaker 2:

I love how you're looking at it lovingly. It's so amazing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. I love it so much, I love my community so much, which again is taking it all the way back to what we were talking about earlier. It's why algorithmic media kind of breaks my heart a little bit. Yeah, yeah, I can see why because to me, the special part of this I mean, I did not have a lot of friends growing up. I was the weird, nerdy kid that got picked on, and so a big part of my content creation process is finding my people- right and so a big part of why I still do this for a living is to to hang out with my people.

Speaker 2:

But I love it. That's fantastic. What just tell me real quick in your, in your heart, as you're reading it? Cause I can see you looking through it, I can see it kind of in your face, but people who are listening what are the thoughts and feelings going through your mind as you look through these pages? Is there something that kind of it comes to the forefront?

Speaker 3:

Um, just, people were even remembering small things that I don't remember and then I'm reading them and going oh yeah, that is so fun, just like a little trip down memory lane and realizing you know like how much meeting people in person means to them. And little letters, like some of these community members I have been pen pals with now for like 10 plus years.

Speaker 2:

That's insane.

Speaker 3:

You know I might not have time to write back often, but I write back as often as I can and they've helped me through hard times or like people that started watching my content in a different phase of their life, and now they watch my content with their children.

Speaker 3:

Wow my content with their children, and so you know, getting to for me, getting to be a fly on the wall for all of those awesome moments for them and their lives, like it's just. It's really awesome. And to see everybody else's creativity come together and share things they're passionate about that again, we were probably all picked on at some point for sharing our passion about it, that it's now something we can celebrate together. I just think it's a really, it's a really lovely thing and it makes me so happy.

Speaker 2:

Well, that is a great place to end this, because I always thought of you as a very positive creator and I think ending on a positive note like that is amazing. So what's the what's the next thing? Of course people can find you just by googling your name. But like what's the next thing? Of course people can find just by googling your name. But like what's the next project you're doing that you want people to tune in for?

Speaker 3:

or something of interest. Oh my goodness, um, I always have about seven or eight different plates spinning at a time which, if you are going full-time content creation, I highly recommend, because any of those plates could come crashing. That's true at any time. Everyone's like what are you gonna do if tick tock goes away? I'm like I don't know. That's like one of the ten plates. I'm not super worried about it because I've got these nine other plates, um, so you know, keep all your plates spinning.

Speaker 3:

So, that being said, it's hard to pick just one project I'm working on right now. I would say if you want to find me, you can, of course, find me at youtuber, twitch, slash, trisha hershberger, um, and on the other socials I'm that girl, trish, with no I in the girl. So it's just thatgrltrish. Fun fact that's because that girl Trish, spelled correctly, was taken, so it's just thatgrltrish. But if you like tech content, if you like gaming content, both tabletop and of the video game variety, if you like just kind of geeking out about fun fandom stuff or toys and collectibles, then you will probably like something that I share somewhere along the way. Or just in general, if you need an internet friend-o to spread some wholesome positivity. I try to be that for people as well.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. Everyone you know listen. If you go and check out Trisha's content, tell her that you loved on the podcast. We really appreciate you taking your time out of your really legitimately busy day to talk to the listenership here on vidIQ's really the best podcast we have. Really, to be honest, this is the best podcast. It's the only one we have.

Speaker 2:

The best, but it's the best. It's the best one. Anyway, for those of you all that are watching on YouTube, we hope you liked it. Of course, feel free to hit subscribe and if you're listening to Audio Podcast, leave us a five-star review on those Apple Podcasts. We'll see you all in the next one.

Speaker 1:

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Tube Talk brought to you by vidIQ. Head over to vidIQcom. Slash Tube Talk for today's show notes and previous episodes. Enjoy the rest of your video making day.