---
title: 'Back from Maternity Leave Q&A: Labor Story, Postpartum Depression, Business Update'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mhYb2PKpB5I'
video_id: 'mhYb2PKpB5I'
date: 2026-07-31
duration_sec: 2192
---

# Back from Maternity Leave Q&A: Labor Story, Postpartum Depression, Business Update

> Source: [Back from Maternity Leave Q&A: Labor Story, Postpartum Depression, Business Update](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mhYb2PKpB5I)

## Summary

A content creator returns from maternity leave and answers her community's questions in a candid Q&A. She recounts her unexpectedly fast labor and birth story, opens up about struggling with postpartum depression caused by D-MER (dysphoric milk ejection reflex), and explains how she and her husband structure their days to balance a newborn with her business. She also shares practical content strategy advice for creators who are short on time.

### Key Points

- **Opening: vulnerability about personal content** [00:01] — She admits feeling that only tips and tricks are valuable and that viewers may skip personal sections, but she wants to get better at opening up.
- **Labor and birth at a glance** [01:32] — Went into labor on March 17 (St. Patrick's Day), due date was March 29; she worked out, attended meetings, and worked all day without realizing she was in labor.
- **Braxton Hicks confusion** [03:11] — She mistook real contractions for Braxton Hicks, even timing them with an app for two hours while watching golf videos; the app repeatedly warned her to get hospital bags ready.
- **Hospital check: 7 cm dilated** [05:41] — Checked in around 7 p.m.; staff confirmed she was 7 cm dilated. Her water broke audibly 30–60 minutes later and she finally realized she was in labor.
- **Baby born March 18** [07:33] — Baby arrived at 12:10 a.m. on March 18 (not St. Patrick's Day). The epidural didn't fully work because labor progressed so fast, but the pain felt natural rather than alarming.
- **Keeping baby's name and face private** [10:17] — They call him Baby J, Bubba, or Squirt; they won't share his name or face online because of the 'weirdos' her platform attracts, though that may change.
- **First six weeks were dark** [11:28] — She experienced intense postpartum depression-like symptoms; later learned it was D-MER, not standard PPD.
- **D-MER explained** [12:10] — Dysphoric milk ejection reflex: a hormone misfiring during breastfeeding that triggered depression, anxiety, and sadness instead of euphoria. She felt 'soul-sucking' dread with every feed.
- **Diagnosis and first fix** [15:48] — A lactation consultant identified D-MER. Switching from breastfeeding every 2 hours to pumping every 4 hours lowered her supply and sharply reduced the symptoms.
- **Transition to formula and freezer stash** [17:43] — She pumped for the first 3 months to build a stash, then switched to one breast-milk bottle per day plus formula. Within weeks she felt like herself again.
- **4-hour workday with split shifts** [20:53] — She works 10 a.m.–2 p.m. while her husband handles the baby; she owns morning/evening baby duty and he handles bath/bedtime, enabling both to work out and rest.
- **Outsourcing: team and in-home chef** [23:13] — Her team handles editing and admin; she hired an in-home chef at 6 weeks postpartum—found via ChatGPT and Thumbtack—because her video revenue outweighs meal-prep time.
- **Use 30-minute windows to move the needle** [26:05] — For creators with a baby, spend free time filming, editing, or researching products—not replying to comments or scrolling. Ask: 'Does this action move me toward my goal?'
- **Skip the website; master one platform first** [29:11] — New creators should focus on one platform (e.g., TikTok) and use a Stan store as a temporary site. Add memberships/products only after proving you can post consistently—one at a time.
- **Motherhood reignited her drive** [33:13] — She feared losing her passion, but back at work she feels energized and wants to scale the business so her kids see parents building something meaningful and she can be more hands-off.

## Transcript

this. I'm having a hard time thinking people actually care about my personal life. Like I feel like if I'm not giving tips, then what I have to say is not valuable. So, like I'm like stuck on should I even answer this question? Do
people even care? People are just going to skip this part of the video and just go to the business stuff cuz no one cares. That's what I'm telling myself in my head, but I'm trying to get better at opening up.
Hello, everyone. I'm back from maternity leave. I took a little bit over 3 months off of work completely. My team have been posting for me and keeping my business running live and out, but now that I am officially back. What does
that mean? Is anything going to be changing? I wasn't going to do like an announcement post like this, but when I announced that I was back on Instagram, I had a lot of questions over there of just like personal questions, maternity
leave, business goals, direction and trajectory of my social media plans. thought I would open up the conversation to you. I posted on my YouTube community
feed asking all of you what sort of questions you might have for me now that I'm back. And so, this video will just be like answering all of your burning questions and then next week we'll just go to the new stuff. As always,
all of the questions that I'll be answering throughout this video and let's jump into your questions. Okay, we are going to start in chronological order, I believe, and also with that being the order of the questions. Also,
questions to business because a lot of the questions that I have been asked were about my birth process and how labor was, how was it having the baby, would I do it again? Questions like that, so I'll start there and then we'll
go from there. How was labor, birth, how's that experience, would I do it again? I think it was good. It was great. And yes, I would do it again. Basically, let me tell you kind of the summary of what happened. I went into
summary of what happened. I went into labor on March 17th, so on St. Patrick's Day, which was really exciting because John and I actually wanted a St. Patrick's Day baby. We were like hoping. My due date wasn't until March 29th, but
I went into labor on March 17th. What's crazy is on March 17th, I still went to work out, I still had my meetings, I still worked, and I didn't know I was in labor because the week before I had an OB appointment and I told my OB, I was
like, "Hey, I think I'm having like these practice contractions because they feel like Braxton Hicks." For me, Braxton Hicks felt like tightening, you know, the tightening in your abdomen, and I would feel Braxton Hicks for
months. And then that week they started like more cramping and more pain a little bit. Like it felt like period her, I was like, "I think I'm having practice contractions because that's
her the Tik Tok part. And she was like, "No, those aren't contractions. Those are Braxton Hicks." And I was like, "Oh." I even was filming a YouTube video like the week before. I wonder if we still have footage of this. And I was
like, "Oof, hang on. I think I'm having a contraction." Like I thought they were like, "No, that's not a contraction. It's just Braxton Hicks." So, that day like 11:00 a.m. I was taking a shower and I was like, "Ooh, there's another
Braxton Hicks." Cuz it was the tightening with the cramping. And then like an hour or two later, I felt it again. And I was like, "Oh, another one today. That's interesting." And then around 2:00 or 3:00, I think it was like
closer to 3:00, I felt them like maybe every 20, 30 minutes. And I was like, "Ooh, let me practice timing these Braxton Hicks. Let me I timing them with Braxton Hicks. Let me I timing them with my app so that I know how to use the app
when the time comes to have the baby. So, I start timing these Braxton Hicks and John and I were chilling. I printed our birth plan out. We're on the bed. We're watching Grant Horvat golf videos because we love watching some golf
content here and I'm timing them. I time them for 2 hours and throughout the timing my phone keeps saying like, "Oh, get those hospital bags ready." You notification of like "Oh, it might be
time to leave soon." But in my head I'm like, "No, this is just practice. I'm not really in labor. These are Braxton Hicks." I never told John anything this whole time because I didn't want him to worry. I didn't want him to think I was
"I'm not in labor. These are just Braxton Hicks. These aren't real it wasn't until I finished timing them having fun timing these fake contractions." And he was like,
"Uh I think we should just go to the hospital. I think we should get ready to go." And I was like, "No, these are Braxton Hicks." At this point the timer Braxton Hicks." At this point the timer they were happening every 5 minutes and
each contraction was lasting 30 seconds to a minute long and it was pretty And so, he was like, "We should probably just go to the hospital." I'm like, "No, you should just call someone." So, I call the like triage nurses that are
And I call and they're like, "You know, maybe you should just go in and get checked just in case because it is a pretty consistent rhythm even if you're not like that much in pain." So, in my head I'm telling myself I am not in
labor because in the movies like people are always like, I've heard people say if you can talk through it, it's not a contraction. And
we're chilling. We're watching TV. I'm talking to John. We're having a great time. And so, I was like, "Okay, we'll go get checked because they told me to." So, we go to the hospital. It's about 7:00 p.m. when we check in. And when we
got to the hospital, that's when it started to hurt. Like before it was just kind of crampy, and then this time it hurt. But I told myself, "Oh, this is hurt. But I told myself, "Oh, this is just mental because my body sees that,
'Oh, we're in a hospital now. Now we should start hurting all of a sudden.'" because I'm in a hospital. Mentally, I think I'm hurting now." So, we get checked in. I'm like, "Hey, I'm supposed to get checked. I think I'm having
don't know. The nurse told me to." So, we go, we get checked. They check me in a triage, which is just Yeah, I think it's triage where they're like before you get admitted admitted. And they're like, "Cool, let's get you checked." So,
they check me, and they're like, "Miss, ma'am, you're 7 cm dilated." And I'm ma'am, you're 7 cm dilated." And I'm like, "Oh, okay." And then when they're having this baby." That's when I'm like, "Okay, we might be having this baby. I
might be in labor. Oh my gosh." And it wasn't until my water broke that I was it was about maybe 30 minutes later, they took my blood because I did want an epidural, and they had to do blood tests before that. And maybe 30 minutes to an
hour later, my water breaks. And it was audible, loud. John heard it. He like looked at me. I looked at him, and I was like, "I think just broke. Water broke." And he was like, "I heard that." And I was like, "I
think I'm in labor." And he's like, "I told you." This whole time he's he's like, "You're in labor, babe." And I'm like, "Nah, it's just Braxton Hicks." So, we check in at 7:00, and by midnight, we had a baby. It happened
very fast. We actually had him at 12:10, so he was not a St. Patrick's Day baby, which I was a little bummed about. But everything happens for a reason. He was everything happens for a reason. He was born March 18th at 12:10 a.m. And the
epidural didn't fully work. My nurse told me after it didn't go into full effect because everything happened so fast, it wasn't able to. And so I did feel a lot of stuff and it did hurt very bad, but it wasn't a pain that was like
a scary pain. It wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, something's wrong." It was like, gosh, something's wrong." It was like, "This is natural. This will pass." pain. always scared of the pain part and that I would get a panic attack anxiety or
cuz I was scared my body would tell me something was wrong. It was really cool trusted it and it was everything was fine. Baby came. I hear him crying. I
knew he was okay. They put him on my chest. I knew he was okay, but I didn't like fully cry of relief. You know like that moment when like in the movies, wee, and then he puts on your chest and mom and dad are like, "Oh my god, this
is so beautiful." Like I didn't do that. I was still in like fight or flight mode, so I didn't cry. I wanted to. I tried, but nothing came out. No tears cool, John was great throughout the whole thing. He learned how to like read
each contraction. He gave me breathing exercises. He got to help birth the baby, which was really cool. And he also as soon as baby got here, the first you." And he's like, "Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you." Just kept
thanking me for my service. He didn't say thank you for your service, but he thanked me. And he did give me a push present, which is this baby right here. Oh, and then like the wave of emotions eventually came when we
left the hospital. I didn't know like, emotions." It was like after we left looking back, I think I was still scared something was wrong or something would go wrong. And so I was still on edge of
like, "Am I okay? Is baby okay? Is baby breathing? We're still in the hospital. Is something wrong with us? You know, I was still on edge and it wasn't until we were like checked out, I was in the car, I was in the backseat with baby, we were
driving home where I finally like felt relief and I felt joy and I felt not scared, but happy to not feel scared anymore. I guess in the hospital I was feeling scared and so that's when the wave of emotions came and I just bawled
held baby's hand held John's hand. It was beautiful magic moment, wonderful. I would do it again. I would. It was wonderful. Yeah. Okay, another question that I got asked was what's the name of your baby boy? So again, I'm going kind
of like in order of everything. Right now we're not sharing his name. We're calling him baby J. So in videos I'll call him baby J or we still sometimes video that I was pregnant, I told you that we called him squirt because he was
the size of a baby turtle when I was pregnant. John and I were like, oh, squirt from Finding Nemo. So we've always called him squirt and even now he's still squirt. We call him Bubba, baby J and he's just our little Bubba's.
So that's all we're sharing right now. We don't plan as of right now to share his face or his name on social media because I do unfortunately get some because I do unfortunately get some weirdos because of my platforms and
certain audiences that I attract. Just want to try to keep his information and identity as private as possible for the time being. Maybe this will change in the future. This is just where we're at with that decision right now. If you
more than welcome to come say hi. You're more than welcome to see baby and if you hear his name, it's like not this huge secret, no big deal. I just like we're not sharing it in a video like this or like on a post, you know, but in person
say hi. Okay, the next question that I'll answer are like the how are you doing questions. This is Just Jackie 55, how are you really doing? I also had my first baby in March and that first month was hard and dark. Four months in, we're
finally doing better. Today that I'm filming is actually Baby J's four-month thing. I hope you and your family are doing well and soaking up all of that doing well and soaking up all of that baby love, too. I'm doing a lot better.
I can honestly say I'm doing so good now. The first six weeks were really hard and I guess I'll share everything and then I could edit it down if I need to. The first six weeks were really, really hard for me. I basically had a
lot of postpartum depression going on, but it was because I had a condition called D-MER, which I had no idea existed. I didn't know it was a thing and it wasn't until we figured out what was going on that I was able to quickly
adapt and make changes and all of those postpartum depression symptoms went away. Basically, what was happening is in the beginning, I wanted to breastfeed with Baby J. That was my goal, that's what everybody says to do, my whole
family. Like I have people in my family and friends, they all breastfeed and I just wanted to do the natural mom thing and build that bond with baby and do the breastfeeding thing. And Baby J was great. He knew how to latch, he latched
well, it wasn't painful for me. He was a perfect little angel child baby who eating. You know, he was perfect, he was great. But, what was happening for me with breastfeeding was not what happens with a lot of women. A lot of women feel
with a lot of women. A lot of women feel a lot of joy and euphoria, an insane breastfeeding. It's like this beautiful connection, you get to bond with your baby, you get the cuddles, you get to provide, you get to be the nurturer and
magical for so many women. But, for me, I was hating it and every time I did it, I hated life. I didn't love it. I didn't feel a connection with him. And if
anything, I was starting to resent him and I was getting mad at him like for no reason. Because you're feeding every 2 hours, for those of you who don't know. When you feed every 2 hours, if baby starts feeding at 8:00 a.m., their next
feed will start at 10:00 a.m. Even if it takes them an hour to eat from 8:00 to 9:00, it doesn't matter. You still start again at 10:00. So, in the beginning, you're feeding every 2 hours. We did 2 hours in the day and tried to stretch
the nights to 3 hours or try to let him sleep until he got hungry. So, during sometimes he would take 30 minutes to an hour to eat. But then you have to burp him and so like another 30 minutes. And then I'd maybe have 30 minutes to try to
rest or 1 hour to nap. Anyhow, so every hour I would feel like that, this insane sadness. And the only way I could describe it when I was asking my friends if they had experienced something like this was it felt like soul-sucking. All
energy, all positivity, any positive feeling was drained from my body and I immediately would think, "I can't do this. I can't do this anymore. I don't
dark. And that was because of Deemer. Yay! So, it had gotten to the point where I was so not myself
that John had said something. Because for me, I was telling myself, "Well, every woman experiences this. So, if every woman that I know breastfeeds and can breastfeed for the first year of a child's life, I just have to do this. I
just have to feel this way. I have to breastfeed. This is the only option. You're just going to feel like this for the next year." Because we did pinpoint breastfeeding. But then it got to the point where John was like, I think you
need to talk to somebody. And he was like, I just want my wife back. When he said that, that hit me and I was like, okay, if he thinks something's wrong,
I'm not crazy. Cuz I thought, I'm the problem. This is on me. Everybody else can do this, why can't I? So I thought like I was the problem, I just had to something, then something was actually wrong. So I did meet with a lactation
consultant and she told me about D-MER, which I had never heard of. D-MER, dysmorphic milk ejection reflex. A condition where there's a misfiring of hormones happening when you breastfeed. So most women, not most, I'm not going
to generalize, but a lot of women that I've talked to experience a lot of euphoria or joy or this feeling of nurturing. Just like, yeah, cool, I'm that when they breastfeed and that's because most of the time when a baby
body creates these happy hormones, these euphoric, happy feeling, this is what you're meant to do. But for me, for some reason, there's a misfiring of hormones happening. So anytime my milk would come in or I would breastfeed, the opposite
hormones would actually trigger. So anything that causes depression, anxiety, sadness, melancholy, all of that was triggering instead. And it was time I would breastfeed. And I was an overproducer, so milk was coming in all
the time, basically. And so I was feeling like that all the time. And so we had to quickly figure out how to lower my supply and see if that helped adjust my hormones and my energy. So we switched to pumping. Instead of feeding
every 2 hours, I tried to switch to pumping every 4 hours. And that helped a lot. We were lucky because baby J does take a bottle, and I remember the first time I gave him a bottle, I cried because I was like, oh my gosh, is this
what it's supposed to feel like? Is this the joy that you're supposed to feel for providing for your baby?" Like, yes, it was still breast milk in the bottle, but oh my gosh, all of a sudden it was like, "Wow, I'm
doing it. I'm a mom. Like, I can take care of my baby and I love this. I'm feeding him." Like, that was the first time I felt joy giving him feeding and nurturing for my baby. And so, that was just like a huge moment for me. So, we
switched to pumping every 4 hours. It helped. I started to get some had like gotten out of the shower, got dressed, and like was listening to music. John came in and I like did a little dance and he was like, "There's
my wife. That's the first time I've seen you smile since we had our baby." And that I was like, "Okay, we're onto something here." So, pumping was still hard because every 4 hours I would still get the D-MER side effects, but you
know, like the in-between time that least I had like 3 hours of working my way back up to happiness, but then I started to feel that dread again. Like, an hour leading up to it, I'd be like, "Oh, no, I have to pump again. I'm going
to feel depressed. I'm scared. I don't want to do this." So, we've slowly want to do this." So, we've slowly transitioned to formula. Basically, what we did was for the first 3 months, I pumped religiously and we tried to stash
up our freezer supply to last baby J through the end of the year. So, that the rest of the year or one bottle of breast milk every day for the rest of the year. We talked to our pediatrician and our lactation consultant. Both of
them were fully in support of every decision we made because they said D-MER sorry you have to go through this. Whatever changes you need to make, let's do it. Let's adapt. Let's blah blah blah blah. So, we have a freezer stash full
of breast milk that I pumped and we give baby J one bottle of breast milk every day and then the rest is formula. And I lowered my supply. I'm no longer pumping, no longer breastfeeding, and I
pumping, no longer breastfeeding, and I feel good. I feel great all of a sudden. I feel like myself. I'm happy again. I'm excited. I love creating. Like I have energy. Even I had book club with my friends the other week, and one of my
so happy today." Or like you're acting so much more like yourself. And even like my mom had said something like people noticed, and they're like, "I see the life back in you." So, there's the long answer of how I'm doing and how I'm
feeling and how those first few weeks were. Okay, now we're getting into more questions. Another question that I was asked often were things like from HR_Snacks, "How are you balancing work life and mom
life? Are you using a family or sitter while you work on content? If you're those people? Congratulations again, busy mom here, too, trying to balance work and home. Sending you so much love. Can't wait to watch the video when you
answer all our questions. Thank you." And then also from this person, "Welcome you'll get this question a lot, but in case you don't, how do you plan to juggle your work with a newborn now? You do have a team as well. Any tips for
someone who is a business owner without a team making content for their business baby?" Love these questions. I'll answer tips on what you can do. I'll start with what I'm doing because I'm just going to
share what you could do because I think they're different things because I do have a team and I've built this business the past 5 years versus somebody who's just getting started. So, for me, I am working 4 hours a day.
day, Monday through Friday. During those 4 hours, my husband watches the baby, and not like watches the baby. He does his job as dad. And we do like work shifts in a way. So, morning shift is me From like the first morning bottle feed,
whatever time that is, all the way till 10:00 a.m., I am mom. I have baby. When baby's awake during week windows, that's when I'll do my makeup to get ready, or I'll make myself breakfast. That's my husband's time for like his me time. He
could do chores, but it's whatever he wants to do. He doesn't have to worry down, I need to change diaper." It's him free time. Then from 10:00 to 2:00, that's when I work. That's when John takes baby. 10:00 to 2:00 hustle mode.
And then 2:00 to 5:00, I take baby. That's when John goes and works out. So then John will go work out, he'll shower, he'll have dinner, and then we'll swap. He'll take baby at 5:00 all the way to the rest of the night. And
then from 5:00, that's when I go work out. So I work out, I'll go to Pilates. I tried to go back to weightlifting, but pelvic floor said no, so I'm just doing Pilates right now. I usually do Pilates at like 5:30, 5:30 to 6:30, and then I
have dinner and shower. And then when it's time for bedtime with baby, that's when John still has baby. He does bath, bedtime story, he puts baby, gives baby last bottle, puts him to sleep, while I kind of reset the house for tomorrow. So
I do everything else. So I'm helping with when baby's in bath. Okay, here's his night clothes. Let me put his night clothes on the heating pad so that of the bath. Here's his nighttime bottle. You know, I'm trying to be one
step ahead of my husband. So when baby's feeding at night, I go do the dishes. I clean up the kitchen. I start a load of the bottles, or I do laundry. I get ready for bed. So we kind of flip-flop, and that's been working really well for
us. And it works for us, too, because this is what we both do. Like this is, yes, my business, and John will help. He helps with the business. This is his job, too. He'll help with video setup, or mostly he does a lot of like the
taxes, accounting, bookkeepers. He handles all the legal side of our employees or contractors, and then I'm more operation content creation side of things. Another big help that I have, obviously, is my team, so I don't have
to edit videos like this. I don't have to do website updates. There's lots of things I don't have to do because I have a team helping me, and we also, I'm embarrassed saying this, but we have an in-home chef. I don't know how long this
will last for, but we hired her around 6 weeks postpartum when I was really struggling, and we just needed extra help. So, she would make us meals every about that. And now that I'm feeling better, do we need it? No. But now that
I am back to work, it saves so much time to just have meals already prepped for the week and have somebody come do it on one day. They meal prep for our whole week, and then we have meals ready to go. I didn't order out once last week,
so proud of myself. And just the cost weighing the pros and cons of having somebody to do our meals versus like me doing it or John doing it. When we figured out like how long it takes us to do meals every single day or meal prep,
that time that I could put into work and like film YouTube videos, I can make more on a YouTube video than it would cost to have somebody come make us food. So, we do have that help as well to be fully transparent. How did we vet her?
you vet those people? I actually found her via Chat GPT. Because I was like, I want to hire a chef, but I have no idea how to go about that. Hey Chat, how do I find a personal chef near me to come into my house and
was like, here's some places you could maybe, so I checked Thumbtack, and then put in our location. We found somebody that was close to us, in our price range, like all the things. So, I asked
people or how do I find somebody? So, that's the way we did it. Now, when it comes to like tips, if you're going to have your first baby, I want you to know like it's possible, everything will work out, you find the time, and it works. It
I wouldn't have time to do this. I was so scared I would have to quit my passion of being a content creator, and so far so good. We're in the clear. I still feel like I I find myself having down time like when we put baby J down
for a nap or he's napping on me, I have headphones on and I'm editing the videos, but I have a personal secret post to for my personal life. And when I was on maternity leave, I still had the
urge to create, so I was still making videos for myself, and I would just edit those or I would do my content research. I'd save ideas so that when I had a free quickly film those and then have them ready to edit. So, you find a balance
new routine. It's not like everything goes to waste and you're like, "Oh, no, this anymore." Like everything works out, so I find that to be really cool. When it comes to how to grow as a creator and being like a first-time mom,
going to move the needle forward for you. So, always remember what that end goal is. So, you have 30 free minutes. When you start to work on content creation, ask yourself like, "Is this action actually going to help me move
forward, or is this just a distraction?" I wouldn't spend 30 minutes replying to comments and engaging. That's not going to move the needle forward for me if I research. I would film. I would edit. Those are going to move the needle
forward. If your goal is to make money, what are those things that are going to help you make money? Maybe you need to do some research on a digital product make that digital product. Maybe you need to set up your Stan store. Focus on
help you move the needle forward with your goal, because you do have more get to be more intentional with your the things that are productive instead of like getting distracted scrolling on
TikTok. I do appreciate this comment that I got from Diamond Gun. Thank the Lord for a safe delivery and welcome back. I appreciate that you will not transition this into a channel about your personal life. Me too.
Yeah, I don't have any For those of you wondering like what are the plans with your future for this business? Is anything changing? Nothing's changing other than maybe my content's going to get better. I am going through this new
phase where now that we have a baby, John cannot come in here and set up my stuff all the time. With short-form content, short-form era in social media is changing so fast. We're in this era where like I have to uplevel my skills.
I have to film better videos. I have to get better with the quality of my shorts or my reels or my TikToks. I have to learn all the gear that I was scared to learn, camera settings that I was scared to get into. So, if anything, I'm
upleveling as a person and I think that only benefits my channel because the more I learn, the more I get to teach and like if my wisdom goes up, then I can teach more and that means your wisdom only increases, too. So, I have
zero plans to post about my personal life when it comes to like being the life of a mom. Here's what's in my diaper bag. I don't know. I'm not going to go from like Instagram tips to here's what's in my diaper bag. Not to say like
that content's bad, but I'm saying like I wouldn't make that big of a jump. That doesn't feel genuine to me and I have no desire to do that. My passion is still desire to do that. My passion is still very much in this, in my business. I
still very much love what I do. It excites me. I love helping people become content creators. I love watching that transformation. So, nothing's changing. Now, let's get into more businessy questions. From Kate, as a content
doing, but I still feel confused. For example, in one of your videos on how to breakdown on how to do it. But what about all the details in between? When it comes to your business website, what am I supposed to create, how? This is a
great question. As a content creator, I know what I'm supposed to doing, but how and in what order? I think that's really like a question here. So like, when it memberships, let me just start by saying, if your goal is to be a content
creator, what kind of content creator is that? Is that a YouTuber? Is that TikTok creator? Instagram creator? What does that look like for you? Whatever that platform to focus on first before building a website. Because you can
building a website. Because you can easily create a stand store and have your stand store, your link in bio tool, be your temporary website or your website for a good like year or two as you start to grow. So, I would skip the
website and focus on the platform you want to grow on. Let's say you want to be a TikTok creator, focus on TikTok. Don't worry about YouTube, don't worry about Instagram, focus on TikTok and become an expert of the platform. Know
the algorithm. Know what makes your audience tick, what stops their scroll, what captures their attention. Focus on creating good videos, right? Now, as you're like studying the algorithm and the platform there, if you have an idea
like you want to be a fitness influencer, right? Then you have a products you could offer or the membership that you could create. But I would say don't worry about creating the membership until you know that you could
post consistently. Because a lot of people, they have this big idea that and then like for me, I wanted to be a content creator and so I started thought I had to have a website if I want to be a content creator, so I
started building a website and I spent three months on this website. I hated be a content creator anymore. I quit, I gave up. And luckily for me, I did go back and get a 9-5, but I was let go from that after a few weeks cuz COVID
"Just focus on the content creator thing." So, I was forced to come back and here I am, now a content creator, but I was focusing on the wrong things. If you want to be a content creator, create content. Focus on that first. If
you can show yourself that you can show up consistently, you're like, "I was you have to post every day for 30 days, but you're like, "I posted a video every other day for 30 days." Okay, cool. That means you might be taking these things
for it. Or maybe it's you posted consistently for 3 months. If you could show yourself that you could show up consistently for you and your goals, when it's like, "Okay, I'm ready to turn this into a business." That's when I
when I would build out the paid digital products. Just for you who are asking Should I do the website, the membership? Just focus on showing up for yourself first. Create that consistency. Find out that rhythm. When you have that rhythm,
then start adding in those other things one at a time. One at a time is the key one at a time. One at a time is the key word. Do you always schedule your videos word. Do you always schedule your videos like on YouTube shorts? Healthier day by
day, day by day. I love that. Healthier day by day says ever since she started scheduling her videos, views have gone down. I always schedule it. I always schedule my videos, especially like I took 3 months off and we had videos
them out to post automatically. I've always scheduled them for the past 5 years and haven't really noticed an issue. The only time I've noticed my views go down is when I increase my frequency of posting. So, there was a
time where I was posting twice a week for like 3 to maybe it was like 6 months of just posting twice a week. I noticed when I increased how often I posted long-form videos, my views went down. So, if you're increasing, you're like,
"Oh, I have long-form, but now I'm also adding shorts to this." Views might go "Oh, everything's tanking." It's just everything's kind of trying to find their new average because you have more frequency, you're feeding your audience
more, they're seeing your stuff more, so they might click, they might not click, whereas if they're seeing your stuff less, and it's less frequent, they're like, "Oh, yeah, Nilly." "A week later, oh, yeah, Nilly." But if
people would be like, >> "Yes, okay, we get it. That's a lot." And then their attention might be more scarce. So, if you've increased your frequency in your posting schedule, then I can see how views could go down, and
it's not like down, they're just kind of averaging out between all the videos. does it feel to be a mom? It feels so good being back. I remember the first day back, it was last week, July 7th. My first day back, I felt so energized and
so excited. I filmed so many short-form videos. Like, I was just so thrilled to be back. I was scared to come back because I was worried like, what if I don't like this anymore? I think I've heard so many people say, "Oh, well,
when you have a baby, your priorities change. Like, you have to sacrifice a lot for your children. Like, maybe you won't be able to pursue your passions care of your baby." Like, I heard so many things like that, and it scared me
because I love what I do, and I didn't want to have to give it up. So, yeah, I was scared that having a baby meant I would lose my passion for life, for would lose my passion for life, for things, for hobbies. And if anything,
because I have such I think it's also because I have such a strong support system. Like, my husband is so amazing. He's always like, "Here, let me take him. You go go work. Go have fun. Like, here, let me take him. Have you worked
Pilates?" Like, he's always just offering, "What do you need today? What do you need to feel happy, to feel joy, to feel fulfilled?" And he's always offering like, "Yeah, let me take him.
do things. And I think just having that burden lifted off my shoulders also, not like babies a burden, but I just mean that mental weight of thinking, "Oh, I have to be taking care of the baby all the time. I have to be the one I have to
mental burden I'm talking about. That feels lifted. And so I feel a lot of freedom coming to work. I feel a lot of excitement. If anything, I I feel like I have bigger dreams for my job because I'm like, "I want to scale this even
more. I'm excited. I love what I do. I want my children to see their parents like run a really cool business that impacts people's lives. I want to create a business that is scaled to the point where I could be more hands-off, you
know? I don't have to be in the weeds all the time every single day." So like, there's just so many so much new passion and excitement. Even with short-form content, I feel like I'm getting more excited with it because when I was in
like batch maternity leave mode, we batched like 80 videos and I hated doing distracting from my course content and the YouTube." And now that I don't have to batch ahead, I'm having so much fun just like creating for social media week
by week. So, it feels really good to be back. I'm very happy to be back. And I questions that I was asked. Thanks for coming to this yap of a video. It was a coming to this yap of a video. It was a huge yap sesh. I am so grateful for you,
for each and every one of you that watches my channel and supports me, watching a video, pressing the thumbs up, that's supporting my business and I'm just so grateful to have this as a business. I've always wanted to be a
YouTuber since I started a YouTube channel with my little brother in middle school. It's such a blessing. I never take it for granted. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, am so grateful to each and every one of you. And yeah,
this is pretty much it. Thanks for your questions. I will see you in the next one. Thanks you for watching. Follow your joy. Bye. And I don't have to hide my belly anymore. Bye.