Patricia Bright: How She Built A Million Dollar Empire
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The same thoughts that keep you up at night keep me up at night because for a long time for me

Money was a motivator because I grew up poor. So I know what it's like to not have anything. And then to have money, you're like, oh, is this it? My motivator is creating. As long as I'm alive, I'm just going to have ideas and I'm going to try and make them happen. That is where I've now become comfortable within myself. And in all of those ideas, if I can give back and make someone feel good or make them laugh or provide something that changes their life in a little way, then I'm happy.

Hey friends, welcome back to Deep Dive. If you're new here, my name is Ali and in each episode, I chat to entrepreneurs, authors, creators, and other inspiring people about how they got to where they are and the strategies and tools that we can collectively use on our shared journey of living healthier, happier, more productive lives. My conversation this week is with Patricia.

Patricia Bright. Patricia is a YouTuber, an entrepreneur, a writer, a podcaster, and so many more things. She's got 2.85 million subscribers on her fashion and beauty channel. She has another half a million subscribers on a personal finance theme channel. And she's got over 1 million followers on her Instagram where she posts mostly about beauty and lifestyle and that kind of stuff. But her life wasn't always like this. Her journey started in a council estate in South London where to use her words, she was totally broke. And when she was in school, she became this self-proclaimed hustler. She started making money doing

hair for the girls in her school for five pounds a pop so that she could make money to buy school dinners with. And from those humble beginnings, she is now CEO of a multi-million dollar empire. In this episode, we touch on a few things. We talk about success, the idea of success, where that comes from, from how kind of financial success relates to success in life and how me and Patricia think about those things. We talk about how we can figure out what to do with our career in terms of like, do we want to do something that makes a lot of money or do we want to do something that follows our passion and that we feel more fulfilled by?

I really enjoyed having the conversation. It's amazing how open and transparent and honest Patricia is and how much of herself she has kind of put out there on the internet. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy this conversation between me and Patricia Bright. You started your YouTube channel in 2010, like in the original, original days of YouTube.

And obviously the landscape of YouTube was very different in 2010 than it is now in 2022. Very different. And you've become like phenomenally successful on the platform. You've got your own YouTube original series. You've got your own documentary. You had the podcast, which did amazingly. Billboards on Times Square. That whole shebang. One thing that you said in your YouTube original documentary thing was that you've had all the success, but you don't feel successful. And I wanted to ask, what do you mean by that?

So I actually think that was at the time then. I've had a lot of therapy and coaching since then, and I'm really excited by what I've done. But at the time, naturally, I'm not very good at seeing the things that I've achieved because there are so many things that I still want to do. And I think what is the definition of success is like quite hard to explain.

to put your finger on. And I don't think at the time I had my finger on what success looked like to me. And I felt like there was more things that I wanted to do and there still are, there are more things that I want to do. So that's maybe one of the reasons why I felt like I wasn't successful, but I take it back because I am successful and I've done amazing. So yeah. What was the...

what were the learnings from say therapy or coaching and stuff that made you now feel that, Oh, I'm actually successful. Oh, just mindset. Like I didn't realize that, you know, thoughts become, and I'll shout out to Jacqueline because she's amazing and she's helped me a lot. Um, but,

thoughts become your feelings, right? So I realized that I had the wrong kind of thoughts, these weird imposing thoughts that would say you're not successful or you haven't done or you haven't achieved. So then I would feel like that. Whereas now, if I look at the reality of actually, I've done this thing, I've got a show, I've had a YouTube channel for 10 years, I've built an audience, I have sold product, I've done so many things, actually all that evidence supports

in the things I've wanted to be successful in. So that's it. Just looking at the reality. So it sounds like you're sort of objectively analysing, be like, here are all my kind of accolades, achievements, et cetera. Therefore, surely this must mean I'm successful. And then if you tell yourself that enough, then over time with the right professional to help guide you through the process, you genuinely start to believe it. Yeah, you just look at the facts. And I think sometimes our minds tell us

All these weird lies that aren't actually based in like reality. It's not true. So you have to sometimes take a step out and look at it from a more logical perspective and then replace those weird biological or weird psychological thoughts to then kind of reframe things. It strikes me that like, so you are sort of by almost every definition, phenomenally successful. Do you think that, let's say,

If there is a more, quote, normal person listening to this who doesn't have like huge businesses and brands built up under their name, do you need to have those kind of essentially tick boxes in order to feel successful? Or do you think there's stuff that people who aren't as objectively successful as you can do or can think to essentially feel better about themselves?

that kind of thing. - Definitely. I think it's for you to define what success means for you. So what does that look like? Success might be, I got that job that I've wanted to apply for, or I got the grade, or I did the work I needed to do, so I'm successful, or I've looked after my family well. So I think that the first place,

everyone needs to start is defining what's important to them and why those factors are important to them is it from external sources or peer pressure or social media are all of those things being told to you that they're important or are they coming from yourself so that's a whole exercise everybody needs to do like what do i actually want who do i actually want to be what do i actually find

What do I define success as to me? And then check yourself. Why do I think that makes me successful? Is it external factors? So was that the kind of exercises that you did with your coach and coach?

therapists and things or yeah yes yes in terms of thinking about stuff a lot more but I think I've just become a more introspective person in general okay and I just like to analyze like why do I think and feel or want a certain thing especially because I'm in this world I know what that

pressure of seeing what everybody else is doing, seeing what everyone else has. Like I can see how that can completely bombard your brain and tell you, you need that, you need to be like that. And then sometimes you just have to check yourself. So I've had to do a lot of checking of myself over and over again to really be clear on what makes me tick.

Yeah, this is the stuff that I've been thinking about a lot recently. In the last year or so, after I left medicine and decided that, hey, I'm going to go all in on this internet stuff. It was a case of defining, well, what is this internet stuff? You're still working that out now? Yeah, exactly. What does the brand look like? What do I actually want to be doing three years, five years from now in a world that's constantly evolving? Yeah.

And like, I can't imagine myself continuing to be like, hey friends, welcome back to the channel when I'm 50 years old. So what the hell am I going to be doing then? How did you kind of tackle these sorts of thoughts? So I'm still tackling those thoughts. But the way I tackle it is that I've defined that for me, I like the idea of being able to think about something

that I'm interested in and making that thing become something. So that is my process. So if it's a case of, I wanna grow tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, and I work out how to get my soil with the right pH and I find the seeds and I water them every day and I grow tomatoes, then I'm happy. So as long as I'm able to kind of make decisions and we're all gonna make different decisions,

at so many different phases in our lives. Like maybe it's for me also parenting was one for me. So I knew that I wanted to have children, I'm gonna do it and I did it.

It's hard to do that, but it is kind of hard nowadays. But yeah, that is how I'm kind of going through the process now is just my desire is just to keep creating. And it might not be creating on YouTube. It might be creating life. It might be creating a vegetable garden. It might be creating a brand, but I can do that at 95. Okay. I can still create. So I've realized that's what I want to be as an individual. Hmm.

Okay, so yeah, often when I speak to people who are maybe in their sort of early to mid-twenties and they're having that crisis of I don't know what to do. You know, a lot of the internet would say, hey, find your passion and follow that passion. I don't believe in that. Oh, you don't believe in that? Don't believe in passions. I absolutely think that's so dead. Sorry, I just interrupted you. But I don't believe in like...

the idea of following a passion, especially if you're broke or you're hungry, 'cause passion may not put food on the table and passion isn't gonna pay the rent, right? So once you've been able to kind of deal with those basics there, like get those covered. And then I think it's about you defining like,

What is something you have skills in doing now? And you, again, are interested in. You can execute in that kind of, those key areas. And I wouldn't call that passion. I'll just call it, what would I call it? Like working on your strengths or-

or like playing to your strengths, that kind of thing? Yeah, playing to your strengths, but just doing something. So like sometimes that you're waiting for passion to come or like a wind of inspiration to come and it's not going to come, you're going to wait forever. So it's better to just do something, anything. It doesn't even have to be the thing that you're passionate about or you like. Maybe it's a thing you can do right there and then. It might be like,

Oh, I'm not passionate. Okay, let me just, you know, read the book or clean my room or make a meal or go on a walk. Doing something versus doing nothing is a good idea. Yeah, it's kind of like what Cal Newport talks about in So Good They Can't Ignore You. He talks about this idea of kind of follow your passion is really terrible advice because as you said, you know, I'm passionate.

I'm passionate about playing the guitar. The chances of me making a career out of playing the guitar are minuscule. And instead, if you aim to become really good at something, then a passion often develops for the thing that you are then really good at. I love that. And then you can, as you become good at the thing,

it then gives you career capital. And often the thing that makes people passionate about their job is a sense of autonomy, a sense of freedom, a sense that they can do what they want with their time. And if you're really good at something, you can then negotiate autonomy, even if you're not an entrepreneur or a creator, even as an employee, you can find that passion, but you have to become good at something first.

rather than thinking, oh, I'm passionate about guitar. I'm passionate about football. I'm obviously going to make a career out of that, which is kind of generally unrealistic for most people. Exactly. I even say this, that I'm actually passionate about eating sweets and chocolate and watching Netflix, but that is not going to be helpful for me in the long run if I just focus on binging on shows and eating high calorie snacks that aren't good for me.

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If any of that stands up your street, then do head over to brilliant.org forward slash deep dive. And the first 200 people to hit that link, which is also going to be in the video description and in the show notes, will get 20% off the annual premium subscription. So thank you so much to Brilliant for sponsoring this episode. How do you balance that out though? Like sort of the balance between I'm watching Netflix because I think it's really fun versus I'm going to hustle for my businesses because kind of ladder I want to climb.

I get a lot of guilt from doing like sitting back and like watching Netflix and doing nothing. So it's a struggle for me. And then I then go on binges and I'm like three hours deep into a show. So it's really hard to navigate that. But I think fundamentally, I feel like there's so much I know that I want to achieve that time wasted on stuff like that just isn't worth my energy. So I avoid play a lot.

But I enjoy what I'm doing. So like I work on a Saturday and I have to stop myself from working on a Sunday because I'm like, but I'm enjoying this. I like this. I want to create. I want to think of ideas. This is my fun to me. I'd rather do this than just watch a show. But it's not healthy probably to like work all the time. Yeah. I think I have the same thing as well where...

You know, my housemate might be like, oh, why are you working at 11 p.m. on a Saturday? I'm like, it doesn't feel like work because it's fun. And I would I genuinely get more pleasure out of, I don't know, coming up with video ideas or dabbling with some logo design for a new project that we're doing than I would out of watching Bridgerton on Netflix or something. Exactly. Where do you think that feeling of guilt comes from, though?

You said you feel guilty when you do a little binge. It's not an external thing. It's not that someone's going to make me feel bad about it. It's like an internal pressure that I've kind of put on myself. Like, I think we all know when there's certain things we need to get done. Like, even if it's doing our homework, we know we need to get it done. And if we're not doing it, we're going to feel a certain way. So maybe it's just...

something on the inside that knows that you should be doing something better one thing that i've been i guess struggling with is it's very much a first world problem but it's um like once you've ticked the box of like financial success yeah then in a way the question my mind becomes well what's the point of trying to grow the audience trying to launch more products is it to make more money is it to help people but like i can help people without

Selling my products like so why would I sell my product? I mean, you know, perhaps it is to make money Like is it fame? Is it like I don't know getting more and more accolades is it to get on Forbes 30 under 30? Like what what the hell am I doing all this for? Yeah, how do you think so the same thoughts that keep you up at night keep me up at night because the reality is when money is no longer a motivator because for a long time for me

money was a motivator 'cause I grew up poor. So I know what it's like to not have anything and then to have money, you're like, oh, is this it? It's like, oh, okay. And then like, I had an existential crisis when I was like, oh my God, I don't care about money anymore in that way. So I think that,

It's like, again, I've defined my motivator is creating. As long as I'm alive, I'm just going to have ideas and I'm going to try and make them happen. That is where I've now become comfortable within myself. And in all of those ideas, if I can give back and make someone feel good or make them laugh or provide something that changes their life in a little way, then I'm happy. So I've defined that for myself now. Okay.

It sounds like your North Star, kind of your core value almost is to always be creating. Yeah. Do something. Yeah. Create something. And like, you know, that process of idea to execution fills you with a lot of like internal joy. That's it. And even if you didn't make any money from it, you'd still be doing this and you'd still want to do it when you're 95 years old. A hundred percent. Yeah. Nice. But I've just defined that for myself over time.

Over the last like two years or so that I realized that is the thing that drives me. That's what made me make videos. I just wanted to make something. I was bored. So I had to create. And then when I created, I was happy and then it became a business. And then I was doing the same thing and I was bored of that form of creation. So I need to like switch it up for myself. Yeah. I think for me that this sort of North star thing is,

Just teaching, basically. For me, it's less about creating and more about teaching. That's the thing that I would do if I wasn't getting paid for it. It's the thing I imagine myself continuing to do at the age of 95. And I guess...

I guess for someone listening to this, that's like something to ask yourself. It's like, what is, what is the thing that you would do if you won the Euro millions and you didn't need to worry about money? Like how would you actually spend your time? You probably wouldn't spend it like sipping cocktails on a beach in Thailand for more than two weeks. That's kind of boring after a while. Um, you'd probably spend it doing something or other. And there's this new coach called Corey who I've started working with a couple of weeks ago.

And he coaches a bunch of executives and things who have ticked that box of have made enough money. And what he encourages them to do is find this one core value. And it's generally rooted in some form of service. Like, you know, initially I thought my core value was freedom. Freedom is kind of like a networked good in that it's only really useful if other people that you hang out with also have similar freedom. Otherwise, you're...

watching Netflix at nine in the morning on a Monday while all your friends are at work. Exactly. That's just not inherently fun. And so looking at it from a service angle made me realize that the thing that I care about is the freedom to learn and teach on my own terms. Yeah. And now I see that as like the North Star and it's like almost everything is optimizing towards, oh, I mean, you know, is this moving me towards freedom to learn and teach on my own terms or away from it? And if it's moving me away from it, then there needs to be a really, really, really strong reason as to why I'm doing the thing. Yeah.

And it sounds like for you, that similar thing is creating in a way that potentially helps other people. Exactly. Exactly. It's nice to like be clear on that. And I think it takes people a while to define what that is for them. And even...

learning to kind of listen to your own internal voice to determine what you truly are about. Like, I think most of us are even scared to look inside to like, see what do I actually like? I actually don't care about this kind of thing. And it's scary to, you know, shed off the, what's the things, the,

The expectations of the world and outside and then just understanding yourself more and then being unapologetic in that is like scary, but fun. How would someone, so how would you think about this? Let's say if you were still Brooke, if you hadn't ticked that box off, I've made enough money to be comfortable. How do you square that? I need to make money. I need to pay the bills with this.

I want to do the thing that fills me with joy. I want to follow my North star. I wouldn't square it. Okay. No, I've been too broke to try and square in the middle. That's why. And that's sad, but that's how I am. Yeah.

there's money to be made, there's work to be done. Like that's why, so when I grew up, I wanted to do fashion and fashion is a non, sounds so bad, but at the time is a non industry, there was no money in that. And I was like, oh, that's what I wanna do, I love clothes.

And I realized there is no revenue in it when I was at university. I quickly switched to accounting because accounting is a steady and stable job. Like, and I got my job and I was secured in it. And I found enjoyment out of one, the learning in accounting. I actually...

chose accounting because there's a module on my fashion course that was accounting and I was really good at it. And I was like, oh, I could do this. This is fun. I love numbers. So fundamentally, I think it's difficult depending on where you are with squaring, needing to make a living and be following your passion. I just wouldn't do it. I would just make a living how I need to and then leave passions for the weekend. I think most people do that. Yeah. Like,

You can't have both all the time, I don't think. Yeah, I think it's a fairly modern thing in the world of like, I've been doing a bunch of research into sort of the history of work and where that's coming from. You know, it's part of my book. We've got a bunch of books here that are all about like the history of work and just this idea that it's a relatively recent phenomenon, this idea that the thing that we do for work is also the thing that should ideally fulfill us and fill us with passion and things.

And I think in a dream world, of course, like everyone wants to do a job that they are also passionate about. But in the real world, probably it's quite hard to get to that point. And it sounds like, you know, having been broke, it's way better to be making money and having passions on the weekend than it is, I guess, to be following your passion and not making money. Yeah.

Would you say that's fair to say or? I mean, I just think about people who have to farm every day and people who worked in the coal mines. You think they're like, I'm not passionate about this. They just got on with it. And I think sometimes when you're doing a good job at what you're doing, eventually you enjoy it. So even when I worked at,

I worked at a really cool bank. I worked at Bank of Tokyo and I just loved, I love spreadsheets anyway, but I didn't know that I love spreadsheets and other people think it's a really boring thing. But like when I was in it and I was really involved, I was having a great time. Like it wasn't my passion, but I felt excited to be able to execute well in what I was doing. And my manager liked me and I was doing a good job. So I could have done that for many, many years and being comfortable really, but-

Yeah, there's a quote I came across the other day, which was along the lines of, you know, throughout history, essentially, whenever you're doing a craft and there is the opportunity to do something well, doing that thing well is a profound source of joy and meaning. Yes. And I find that for me and for friends that I speak to, when we sort of half-arse our work for the sake of I'm not really enjoying it, I'm going to half-arse it so that I can go home and play video games in the evening or whatever.

that feels a lot worse than thinking, I don't really enjoy my work, but I'm just going to try getting really good at it. And even though you're putting in more work, it just energizes you to a far greater degree than half-assing it and living for the weekends, as it were, does. Exactly. 100% agree with that.

And even someone could say like being a YouTuber is the funnest job in the world or say someone who pays video games for like a living. That might be the funnest job in the world. But I bet you there are times where that play is like, I just don't want to do this today. This is boring. I'm over it. But if they do it well and play well, they'll be like, okay, I'm enjoying this. Like I think fundamentally almost all jobs and all careers can become fun.

a bit tedious and it's about how you focus on or how you channel your energy into it which will change how you feel about it let's talk about money it's about money money seems to be one of your one of your uh favorite favorite topics just like it's one of mine yeah i like talking about money yeah so you're you're very open about money and stuff um which is still even in 2022 a little bit rogue uh where does your yeah how how do you feel about money broadly

- I like money. I think it's a really good tool. I think it's really valuable. I think it gives you loads of options. And I think from not having money to then having it, like I can just see the benefits of how it makes life so much easier. - Okay. What's that before and after like?

the choices that you have to make, you can probably take a bit more time to make a choice when you have more money. You can be a bit more patient about taking the next step. Whereas if you are desperate for where your next paycheck is gonna come from, you may take,

a shortcut or you may do something that isn't the best for you because you really need that income, which is what so many people are dealing with all the time. So I think that money gives you the freedom to make choices that are more thought out and potentially better in the long term for you. Yeah.

So you've got this extra, this sort of second YouTube channel, The Break, which has got its own website and products and things like that, where you educate people about kind of money and finances and stuff. I will put links to all of that stuff wherever people are watching or listening to this. How much do you think it's actually possible for people to, I guess, change their lot in life? Kind of the whole rags to riches thing. Is that like, how does that happen? And is that actually achievable for normal people, do you think? Yeah.

Like, what are the different factors that go on here? This is a really hard, and also quite an upsetting question because I actually really don't think most people are going to go from rags to riches. I feel like it's a 0.001%. I feel like it's based in a lot of luck. I think it's based in so many different factors that most people are not going to be able to ever control. Like if you grow up,

in some village or a desert, that's it. You've been born into that. No amount of work hard is going to make the rain come out of the sky to fulfill the drought that is causing your animals to die.

That's something that you cannot control. So I think there's a lot of factors that people can't control. But I do think that people can focus on the little things that they can control to make their life a little bit easier. But most people aren't going to go from rags to witches. They might just have minor incremental improvements in their lifetime. And so when you advise people, or I guess it's not technically financial advice, but when you educate people about money, what are the...

Like, I guess if you were speaking to your younger self when you were broke, what is the advice you would have given to that younger person? Actually, my number one advice is don't do what everybody else is doing. Like, we're really under pressure to like spend and have and do and fit in. And I would just advise myself, don't do that because most of that stuff isn't helpful for most people. The classics make sense. Save where you can as much as you can.

And make more where you can, how you can, and live a bit more frugally if you're struggling financially, and then invest in yourself and invest in other things to aid your opportunities for long-term growth. So I believe in those principles. And that's what I would advise anybody and everyone. I'm not saying it's going to make you rich. It's not going to make you a millionaire. It's not going to make you a billionaire, but it might make your life a little bit easier if you develop those basics around finances. Yeah.

What are the kind of biggest mistakes that you see people slash that you made when you were younger in the realm of money? To be honest, I was pretty good with money because, again, I say this all the time. When you don't have, like, you don't, I don't want to spend money unwittingly on money.

crazily because I didn't have it to spend like that. So I was pretty smart with my money and I was really good at making money. So I was making money from 11 years old in terms of, I knew that I liked money and I knew that I wanted it. And I knew that if my parents can't give me dinner money to go to school, then I'm gonna make my own dinner money. So I would like do hair in the playground and I'd make five pounds here and there. And then I would make products and I'd sell products and

you know, even at uni, I had a part-time job and then I would have my own clients as well. So I would do hair. So I would always have money, but I would always try and save it and then spend it on the things that, you know, I liked and, um,

were valuable to me, but I never spent all of my money and I'd never be entirely broke. But then say my biggest money mistakes came when I actually started making more money and it was around like the whole business side of money. I didn't know that I had to pay taxes.

And I was an accountant. And I worked in banking. So I obviously had a full-time job. And then I bought a house when I was 23. Me and my husband, we bought a house together, which was really good at the time. And I was making money and I was just spending the money that I made, you know, on the house or in things that I wanted. And then I didn't realize that I was meant to pay my corporation tax. I didn't even know what corporation tax was.

And then I ended up being slapped with a fine for like 15,000 pounds. And at the time I was like,

Well, how am I going to get £15,000 from? I don't know what that means. I didn't know how to manage that or anything. So that was one of the big mistakes I made. Oh, wow. I wasn't informed at all from a business perspective on how to run my finances. And you were an accountant and worked in a bank. But I guess just connecting that to the day-to-day. And that's the thing about, say, the education system. I can do the corporate finance course and still get...

and get a two one in my exams and then work at Bank of America, Merrill Lynch and work at all these like big firms, but they're not teaching me how to live my life as an individual and how to manage my finances as an individual. And actually in the bank, so many people who work there are in debt. Like they were like, I used to see people who they're using their credit cards, they were struggling financially and they were on high salaries, but they're living beyond their means. So as soon as they made money,

Like they were spending more than they had. Like it was crazy. So even in that industry, I think they were worse off because they felt like they had to keep up with everybody else. Is that something that you've kind of struggled with? The whole keeping up with the Joneses type thing? Because people talk about it in films and books and stuff. But I guess I don't... Like I think of all of my friends, I know one guy who...

just freaking loves spending 600 quid on a pair of shoes just to flash it at a club and then never wear it again. But everyone else seems to be fairly like, like it's, it seems like, it seems to me, at least from the people that I know that people have realized that keeping up with the Joneses is a bad thing. And so then just, I think realizing that sort of helps people not do it in a way. Yeah. I think it depends on the

So my friends are not like that. My friends are really normal. My industry is about the spend, the glamor, the designer, the have you got the Cartier? Have you got the Chanel bag? Have you got the outfits and the look? So for me, I felt like I had to keep up. Like I needed the next palette. I needed the next outfit or I needed to look amazing at the next event. So yeah.

I definitely overspent many, many years trying to keep up with just the image of being an influencer because we're influencing others. And there's an aspect of being aspirational that was really important for us. Hmm.

Okay. I guess the analogy there is when you're a tech YouTuber, you need to have the best desk setup and you will splash out like thousands on a computer monitor you don't need because it will make your desk setup look nicer because it's somewhat aspirational to people be like, I've got a cool desk setup. But I think you can kind of forgive that because it's like, that's your job, right? You're playing the game in your job. Yeah. So do you, do people who are not professional influencers who need to play the game for their job

Do you find that they also fall into those similar traps? So yes and no. So actually I recognize that the amount I spend on clothing and bags, jewelry, like is maybe in a hundred thousand a year, right? Which is insane, right? But that is part of my job, right? So everybody else might be like, what the hell? Yeah, tax deductible expenses. Yeah, whereas it is like I could expense most of them. Yeah.

And maybe let's say 70,000 a year or something like that. So that is a lot, right? But that's the nature of my job. But the thing that started to scare me and started to bother me was knowing that there are other people who are watching me who it isn't their job, but I might be influencing them in that way. So that's why I had to come and bring my finance knowledge to say, yes, I like a Chanel bag. I might buy for a year. Don't buy for a year. Yeah.

Save and buy one a year. Okay. And this is how to do it. So for me, it was really important to bring that balance because we could look like life is peachy and spending money all the time, but this is our job. And I didn't want to encourage people to do that as much. Okay. So I guess that's how you, like, yeah. How do you balance that? I want to buy four Chanel bags a year with I'm encouraging people to live frugally and I don't want to get a housekeeper because it might be expensive, but I'm buying four Chanel bags a year. How do you balance those different things?

I don't know. I feel like I'm being called out, but the reality is that I'm still trying to work on that. Like, cause I think everybody has two sides. Some of us want to save more, but some of us like nice things. So I've, I've accepted that's what, who I am and what I'm about. But,

but everything to me is also about balance. Like if I'm gonna buy the four Chanel bags, maybe it won't be four, maybe it will be two. And maybe I'll make sure I've saved and invested this amount first and then I'll buy the Chanel bag.

And that's how I advise anyone who follows me. And I used to do, you know, the content format I used to do was called haul videos. - Oh yeah. - Haul videos is you showing all the stuff. And I had a series which was called I spent. That series probably did about 30 to 40 million views, right? And it was me spending every week thousands of pounds on fast fashion. And people loved it. 3 million views, 4 million views a video. But I physically couldn't do those videos anymore. I felt,

sick because I was like I'm just I'm part of the problem I had to stop so I think that I've got a healthy balance now how did you become so comfortable talking openly about money slash why do we not feel comfortable talking about it do you reckon I don't know if I am that comfortable talking about it I talk about it because I think it's important and necessary like I still feel a bit icky sharing certain numbers but I know how beneficial it is when I do um and so I think

I allow the fact that I know this is helpful to override the fact that I feel uncomfortable. And I've shared this story a hundred times, but as an influencer, I didn't know what my value was. I didn't know how much I should pay. I didn't know how much I should be making until I, one, accidentally stumbled across an assumed rate of pay. And two, someone told me how much they were making on a monthly basis and it blew my mind. And I was like,

I don't even make a 10th of that. And she was maybe say double my size and was making,

10 times my amount. And that was enough for me to make a decision to say, well, I'm going to at least try and reach half. And I did that in like a month. And then I then eventually made that amount and surpassed that. But that figure was pivotal to changing my mindset. So I feel like if I can provide people insight into what's possible, then I can help them. And that's important to me. Yeah. I think that's probably similar, similar for me. Um, there is a level of

Yeah, a level of discomfort I am with like sharing numbers. I think when the numbers are small, it's nice to share them. Oh, I made a few thousand for my business this year. When the numbers start to become ridiculous, at that point you're like, okay, this is completely unattainable for most people. It's the only reason I'm doing this to flex. And like, you know, even if I can convince myself that the reason I'm sharing these numbers is because it helps people, because it does, how much of the actual reason behind why I'm doing this is to ultimately flex? Yeah.

- Yes, that's such a good point. So even me, I don't share all my numbers 'cause I sometimes think that all my numbers could be quite scary to people. So I think as a creator, our job is also about relatability as well. So I even did a challenge where I opened up a small online business

and I didn't promote it and I didn't market it and I didn't tell people that it was my brand or anything. And I did a video on how I made say 8,000 a month from this small business that I didn't market. So I was trying to just show people that 8,000 for an influencer business is very small in the scheme of things, but for an everyday person, that's a lot of money. So I actively did that in that way. So I could show people how it's possible to create something small without using brand or name or anything like that.

and build it from the ground up. And then I started getting stories from people who had done the same thing. So I feel like bringing the numbers in a way that's understandable is important. The big numbers, let's not stress people out. - Yeah. - How I made 10 million this year. That's your next video or something. It's like, ooh, it's not. - Yeah, yeah. So we were working with this YouTube growth coach guy

His insight was really helpful. We were brainstorming title ideas for a video. And...

You know, there was some like numbers we were playing around with. We were like, you know, should we make this how I make $100,000 a month from off the back of this business or something like that? And he was like, no, no, no. Make it how you make $1,000 a month off the back of this business because that's like infinitely more relatable to people. If they see $100,000 a month, they're going to just assume it's not for them and that's completely impossible, which is kind of true. But $1,000 a month feels more manageable. Or for example, $100 a week or even $100 a day. Like those sorts of more manageable numbers rather than getting into the tens of thousands or the...

hundreds of thousands. Exactly. Kind of thing. What was the, like, let's say someone is listening to this, they're like, you know, mid, early to mid twenties, they've got a job and they want to do a business on the side to make that $8,000 a month or whatever to supplement their income. What would, how would you approach that? Like, do you have a method, a system process? So, I mean, I would say

tell people to use the skills that they currently have, knowledge they currently have, tools that they currently have. So if you know something, so say someone I know who's really good at Excel, well, just either help people build Excel templates or sell Excel templates. This is something you can already do. That's where I would start off and then looking at scaling that or pricing it higher. That's what I would tell most people to do. I wouldn't tell them to go and invest in a product

and spend loads on inventory without testing a model first, because I think that's really expensive and actually hard to like make happen. But I just say, use what you've got.

Like if you've got a spare room, rent that out. Why you would have a spare room? I don't know, but something like that. Or if you like animals, why don't you start pet sitting or something or dog walking? So loads of dog walkers make like a ton of money because they like dog walk 10 dogs for like 50 pounds a day. They can make like 500 pounds a day. Is that the right math? Yeah, there we go.

They can do that, right? And even, for instance, I'm working with a cake decorator and someone who does balloons and decor and like, you know, I'm paying her 500 pounds and it's something I can't do, but she's really good at it. She loves it. So there's ways that people can make money from things that they are good at doing already. Yeah. Yeah, it's like that Venn diagram of the things that you're good at, the things that you like and the things that there is a market for. Exactly. And I remember when, you know, my...

I like to think of it as my origin story when I was 18 years old, got scammed out of my life savings when buying a MacBook off of Gumtree. And I was like, right, I need to make this thousand pounds back because I'd saved up for like years and years to get to that point.

And I was like, all right, what's the list of things I'm good at and the things I like doing? And on that list was teaching. On that list, it was like making websites. And on that list was I did reasonably well in med school entrance exams to get in. I was like, cool, what if I combine teaching with the med school entrance exam? So I teach people how to get into med school and then I make a website for it that markets it nationally. And that was the thing that made my business successful. And, you know, I just think a lot of people are like, hey, I'm going to learn day trading completely from scratch.

And then I'm going to make loads of money because I found some course that does it. It's like, it's really hard to compete in a market where you are not already good at the thing. Exactly. So step one is to get good at something. And if you're already good at something, then find a way to make money off the back of that if you can. Exactly. If not, it's you're fighting a losing battle or you recognize that it's not going to be fast.

So if you wanna be a day trader, you're gonna spend three years or two years dedicated to learning it entirely fine, but you might be broke and lose loads of money during that period of time. But you can get good in like three years, right? 10,000 hours and all that jazz. So if you're willing to put the work in to get good at something that's lucrative, fine, go ahead and do it. But I think most people have got abilities within themselves now to do something.

What about the whole people who decide they want to become a creator because it makes money and they see people like you and me being open about some of our numbers. They're like, oh, I want a slice of that pie. It's not scalable or sustainable if you don't want to do it. So when I started, there was no money in it. So I did these videos for three years without making a penny. I didn't know you could make any money in it. I was just doing it every single weekend after exams, after interning, like every

I would just come and make videos 'cause I loved doing it. And I didn't see it as a business at all. I do think that if you wanted to come in strategically, I'm not mad at that. Like if you're strategic and you're like, I'm gonna make money as a creator and this and this and this and this is what I'm gonna do, fine, execute your plan and see what happens. - Yeah, I think it's like,

It's the way we teach this in our, on our courses, sort of this, there's kind of two approaches to being, to being like a YouTuber. For example, there's the archeologist and there's the architect. So an archeologist is like, cool, this looks good. I'm going to make a video, a few videos here. And then, okay, didn't really enjoy that. Let's find another one, make a few videos there. And eventually they'll stumble on something that's like, oh, I enjoy this. People are getting, it's getting views and life is good. And that seems to be how most YouTubers start off just making videos here and there until they stumble on their niche. Uh,

And that's probably still what I'd recommend for complete beginners who don't know how to make videos because it takes a while to get good at actually making videos. But if you are A, already good at making videos or B, you just want to treat it like a business from day one, then approaching it more like an architect is potentially a strategy where you analyze the market, you build out your plan. And then once you've got a clear idea of what your plan is, then you execute on it. Right. And so there have been quite a few channels that have decided to

for example, create content in the finance space where the CPMs are ridiculous. Yeah. Because they're like, oh, there's a clear business here where you make content about books. You need about 50 times the amount of views to get the same amount of money. So like, why not just make one finance video rather than a whole year worth of books videos to get the same amount of money. And it becomes like a business decision at that point. Yeah. But that's like, does that inspire you? Like,

So I did have a whole channel that grew to half a million in like a year on finance stuff. And I love it, but like, I'm bored of talking about finance now. Like I love it and there's other stuff I wanna do around it, but the way in which I did it, I feel like I've taught and shared everything that I have within myself right now about finance. I'm okay to like cool down on that. Although I have a new series coming that I wanted to talk about a few things that I thought would be super valuable for people. But again, my approach is different.

I'm not an architect. I'm an archaeologist who wants to have architect tendencies. It sounds like from the conversations we've been having, you're more creator first and you're more of a creative who's then building a business around that. Whereas I feel like...

I approach things as more of like an entrepreneur where then the creator element is just sort of a sprinkle into that. I'm trying to get there. But again, I like the idea of like doing it from how I feel and what my heart says, because I think that's actually better in the long run. Or I feel more satisfaction personally. Yeah, definitely. That way. Yeah. Where someone else, you know, may feel like the fact that I've executed my plan, they feel better from executing their plan.

Which might be more of you. Yeah, yeah, potentially. But I find for me as well, like when I go too much into the into businessman territory, it stops becoming fun. OK. And then it's like, OK, let's look like claw it back a little bit and finding some kind of middle way of like creator and entrepreneur and finding a way for the two to meet in the middle. So retaining like the artsy side of being a creator with the data driven sciencey plan, quarterly planning side of being an entrepreneur, for example. I need probably more of that. I'm going to get there.

What does your business look like at the moment? Like what are the, what does the Patricia Bright portfolio look like? Portfolio look like, okay, so maybe I'll break it down. So I, do you mean like as an individual or personally as well? Both.

Okay. So I have, I am an influencer in terms of, I talk about products and I work with brands a lot. Um, so most of my revenue comes from like brand partnerships, brand deals and working with them. And then I also have the break. The break is actually revenue, well revenue generating from the digital product. So we do sell digital products and guides and you have a career course coming out as well. And then, um,

I then have my investment business as well. So we've invested into a couple of companies. That's not revenue generating just yet, but that's like a long-term plan as well as then the properties that I've invested into. And then the next arm is really the kind of product arm that I'm going down, which is about bringing physical products to life with my partners.

So the break is sort of YouTube channel website generating content, mostly through ads and digital products. Digital. And we had a physical product. So we have a plan on our plan and we've done it two years in a row. It's been really popular. But I'm not doing planners again. Why not? Labor intensive. Timelines. Low margins. China. Lower margins. Italy. Shipping. Ports. Weight. All these stuff that...

You don't want to deal with. Yeah, we don't want to deal with it. There's other ways that we can provide value that doesn't give us that much aggro. And your brand deals. So I noticed that you don't publish on YouTube that regularly anymore compared to what you used to. Is that mostly on Instagram these days? Or like, what does it look like? Exactly. It's mainly on Instagram now in terms... And I still get YouTube deals. I think...

I think I only post when I have a YouTube deal, which is so bad. But I get deals on YouTube and I still get deals on Instagram, but Instagram is probably bigger now. Okay. And what's the, how do you find, how do you strike this balance between promoting a brand deal versus actually creating content that feels authentic to you that grows your audience or?

Or are they sort of tangled up together? They're kind of tangled up together because I only work on brand deals with products and services that I love, that I know my audience will want to see and know and use anyway. And that also includes like affiliate linking. So the good thing about my...

my job as an influencer is that our job was always to tell people about products and always to tell people about things we like and use. So I still get to do that. And then I get paid to do that. So it's not like I talk about other things and then I'm like, use this product. Like was me working with say Estee Lauder or Lancome or,

L'Oreal, these are brands and products I use all the time. So if they launch something new, I'm like, oh my God, this is something new. I'm trying it out. I'm showing them how I try it out and I'll give my opinion. But sometimes it's not even about my opinion. It's just me showing how the product's used and I would have used it and bought it anyway. So the balance is there isn't really one. It's just, I keep creating what I was creating anyway. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I guess, yeah, the way I think of brand deals, like, and I don't know if this is the right way to think of them. So I'd love to get your take on this. It's like,

kind of putting something out there that gives value to the audience for free is like almost like sort of adding money to the Goodwill account. And anytime I do a brand deal or try and sell something, it's withdrawing money from the Goodwill account. And there needs to be this balance between depositing into the account and withdrawing from it. But I don't know if this is actually true. I'm just kind of bullshitting myself. Maybe that's the opposite way of you thinking about it. So when I tell my audience about a new product,

I'm adding into the Goodwill account because this is something they may want to try, use or even know about. So like I'm giving them something that they weren't aware of. So I use a lot of affiliate links. I know that people want to buy the dress

or they want to buy the makeup. They want to buy it. They're purchasing it. They wanted it. So imagine if I, so I recently worked with say Elizabeth Arden and I gave them a free gift with it. So when they make a purchase, they get,

a free product so many people bought it because they've been wanting to try it out so I've just told them about something that they didn't know but they want so I don't see it like yeah oh interesting so it's like the mindset of like in a way promoting and selling is not an evil thing it's actually doing the audience a service by telling them about a thing that they might want

Yeah. And again, my industry has always been about showing product. So I'm just showing product that they want to know. Like there are people who watch QVC for fun. Right. So I would say that my audience are the kind of people who would love QVC. I always say I'm an infomercial queen. I love watching ads to decide what I might want to buy next. Like I'm that kind of person. And I think the people who follow me like want to know stuff.

And then like, so with the property portfolio, are you open to talking about that? Yeah, yeah. How did that develop over time? When did you get started? So funny enough, my mum actually...

So she's an immigrant, but she bought her like first council house. And then she bought like five to six properties in total around the UK herself. And so when I was like 18, I was helping her do that. Even when I was at uni, I helped her like with tenancy agreements and like cleaning and all that kind of jazz. So I've always been into property and I thought I hated, I thought I hated property management.

But then when I started to get revenue and had some extra and I was like, well, what should I do with this? The first thing I thought was, you know what, let me get into the property market. And so I bought, oh, the first place we actually bought was buying my own house from me. We're using the company money to buy a house that we already owned. And so the company now owns my old house so that we could get the money to buy a new house. And then-

that was rented out and that's been really cool and that's fun. And then the next property was because my sister was looking for her house. And then the guy was like, well, there's a flat upstairs you might wanna look at. It costs a bit more, but you might like it. And we were like, oh, this is really cool. So we bought that flat. And then we like, we're looking at some auction properties and we bought one without seeing it. And then he bought it. He was like, oh, we love this. And then we bought that property and then a few others. And then it just kind of cascaded from there. Okay.

So it's like you have a property investment company that buys the properties and then the rent goes into that.

Yes. We have an investment company specifically for property. Nice. Yeah, that's really cool. I've started dabbling with that like in the last few months myself. Okay. And it's quite fun. I don't do a lot of it. I'm not going to lie. My husband is, he loves the property stuff because he goes to the houses. Oh, okay. He fixed stuff and he like sees the electrician or he'll be like there with his like tool belt on. I've just got something to go sort out. So he loves that kind of stuff. So he's living his dream. I'm like, yeah, you do it. Whatever you like.

Yeah, I think that's, again, going back to that autonomy thing we were talking about,

It seems like a lot of people who make money on the internet then are very keen to diversify away from internet-based revenue streams into something bricks and mortars-y like property. Because it's like you make money off of YouTube or whatever and you know that you've got a few years in the limelight to really make hay while the sun shines. And you want to try and funnel that into more like long-term investments. I think it's a smart thing to do. I think it's what anybody with money does. So I have friends who are not in...

the world that we're in um they have property as well like my friend my one of my friends has a coffee shop as well so he's invested into like hardcore brick and mortar businesses um so it's i think it's just smart money to do that kind of thing does your so you're fairly open to talking about this does your audience not like hate you for being a landlord

Or are they just fairly chill about it? My audience do not hate me for being a landlord because I think people have seen my journey. They know where I've come from. They've seen me living in my mum's house in one room. They know that I didn't have, like, I did not grow up with a silver spoon or I've not had to do anything like...

crazy to make gen to generate revenue I've just continued to provide value and entertainment and enjoyment and that's how I've generated revenue however I understand that some people are kind of against you know people who have resources but

Bearing in mind, I grew up in council property and I've had, I lived in property with bad landlords and the government being my landlord. So for me, I was like, if I have this opportunity, I'm gonna make sure I'm gonna be a better version of a landlord. So I don't increase rents. So at least I know my tenants are happy. This is my little way of like helping because the houses that we bought were in complete disrepair that nobody wanted.

like the government was selling off houses and like okay fine buy that one that no one no one wants it and i can afford it i'll buy it and someone's in there um i guess for a final question i want to ask on the money front and then i want to shift gear to like identity it's like just just to sign first that um do you feel like you have enough money or do you feel like you need to make more and then at some point you will have enough

"Oh yeah, I don't feel like I have enough money." Yeah, that's a fact. So I need more. I'd like more for different things. So when I think about how long life is

And then I think about like my revenue generating years. I recognize that there's probably more I need for the fact that I have children and I want them to go to school. And then there are other things I'm going to do for other people. And like, I want to be able to buy someone a house and be like, oh, that's fine. Like, and then buy my mom's house and then do this for someone who needs it. So I know that I'm nowhere near that figure that I want to be at to do the things that I want to do. Okay. Have you got a number in mind?

Or is it just sort of more than... Like a hundred million. Oh, okay. It's a billion. Is it ever increase in number? I bet. No, I don't have a specific figure. Okay. Yeah. This is something that I think about a lot because again, coming back to that stuff we were talking about around doing things for the passion versus doing things for the money. And something I often think about is like, what, like if I...

What's the difference between the way I'm spending my time right now versus the way I would spend my time if I had a hundred million in the bank? Okay, and like so and therefore that those two different scenarios illustrate What are the things I'm doing for money rather than for fun? And so I think even if I had around 100 million in the bank I would still make YouTube videos and I would still do podcasts. It's cool talking to people But I probably wouldn't do courses because courses are specifically a revenue generating thing and I just chuck them online for free and

Got it.

could probably comfortably get 40k a year and if I need to I can always just do freelance stuff yeah so then why am I doing all this other thing like how do you think about that yeah um that's a really good point I don't know if I do think about that um I mean I do feel like I could live comfortably and I feel like I just know that there's other stuff I need to do so until I'm there I I

will continue to work towards it. But now I'm also in the position that I recognize creation is my main driver, as I've discussed previously. And if the money comes, the money comes. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. Like I'm not gonna kill myself over that because again, I've recognized that money isn't a main motivator for me as well. So I think I'm satisfied, but I think I'd always want more. Yeah, fair.

Who doesn't want more? Who doesn't want a bit more money? Who doesn't want to look a bit better and be a bit younger and grow a bit more? So, yeah. So you talk in some of the finance education stuff around kind of living frugally, um,

As you probably know, there's this concept in the personal finance world, lifestyle inflation. Yes. And how as you make more money, you end up spending more money. And like you said, a lot of your colleagues at the bank were having high salaries but were living beyond their means. Do you try and combat lifestyle inflation or how do you feel about that side of things?

I think I'm actually really good. Like in terms of from my earnings and to how much I spend, I am, my percentage is really good. I don't spend like to the max. I save quite a lot. And I think that is again, because I've learned to be frugal. Again, it's all relative because I still buy my Chanel bags. So yeah.

But, you know, I could buy more than that. You know, if I wanted to, I don't want to, but like I have friends who have Aston Martins and like Bentleys and like this kind of stuff in my industry. And I'm like, oh, no way I can never do that because in my mind it just feels excessive. But for them, it might be the right thing to do. I just wouldn't do that. So I recognize lifestyle inflation and I've avoided it. And I'm more about investing for the long run. Nice.

I want to change gears a bit to talking about identity. So you, I think a few minutes ago when we were talking, when I asked you about your portfolio, you said, well, I'm an influencer, therefore I work with brands, et cetera, et cetera. How do you think of your own identity? Good question.

This is a really good question that I'm still trying to define and actually redefine. So for the last 10 years, I've been a, maybe I should say online content creator because it's not just about influencing. I've been educating, I've been entertaining, I've been creating content and I also work with brands. So I've been an online content creator for the last 10 years.

But, and that's been my identity, which is putting myself out there in a way that most people don't put themselves out there. I realize I'm a weirdo for what I put out there. It's crazy that I do this, but I do. Whereas I know that like for the next 10 years,

I know that I wanna also wear other hats and I'm also a mom and I'm also a wife and I'm also an entrepreneur and I also run a brand and businesses. So I think I wanna lean more into those as an identity moving forward. The identity of personality as well. I'm a personality, but I feel like everyone's a personality. So I don't know what that means.

Yeah, I kind of find myself struggling with this when like it's very easy to have a very legible identity as being a doctor. Everyone knows what that means. Oh, yeah, exactly. And then you leave that behind. You're like, oh, am I, you know, I guess I'm an influencer now. What? And then there's a prestige associated with it. Like, you know, I worked in banking. I was a banker, you know, or I'm a consultant. It's like, I'm an online content creator. I take photos on Instagram. Yeah, exactly. Like, you know, I'm a doctor. Yeah.

make videos on YouTube. - Make silly videos on the internet, yeah. - It's a weird thing, like, 'cause it's still valuable. Like there is this thing of people, even in the industry, they wanna label you. Like even I work with certain management companies that are like, well, you're not a model, you're not an author, you're not a this. So they like to put people in specific boxes. I'm like, definitely not a model. And I'm definitely not, well, I am an author 'cause I've published a book, but I don't call myself an author, but maybe I should.

We could all wear different hats and have different titles. Yeah. Yeah. One piece of advice I got from one of my author friends was don't worry about the noun. Think about the verb. So it's not I am a doctor. I am a YouTuber. I am a writer. It's like I spend my time teaching medicine. I spend some of my time making videos. I spend some of my time doing writing. And thinking in those terms means that we're less...

It's less like boxy. Because when it's boxy, in a way, there's something exclusive about that. Oh, I'm an author. That's my primary thing. Whereas if you think, what do you actually do? Oh, well, I look after the kids. I write books occasionally. I watch a bunch of TV and I record podcasts. There's something about that that feels to me more of like a, can I try and internally shift my identity into the things that I do? Preferably.

not even that, preferably actually my identity is who I am rather than what I do. But until we get to that point of enlightenment, my identity is, you know, the verb that I'm doing rather than the noun that that corresponds to. I think that's great for us as an individual, but I don't know if other people on the outside, like, experience

accept that yeah it's that when you're talking to the companies and the marketeers are like well you know we can't put that in this trap line yeah exactly so yeah yeah there's a friend of mine Paul Miller who wrote this book

The pathless path, which I always find myself plugging in these podcasts because it's like basically how you find, figure out what you want to do in life and sort of reimagining our relationships and careers and work and stuff. And so he used to be a high paying management consultant in like New York and then he quit his job and became freelance. And then he kind of jokes that people would ask him, oh, so what do you do? And he'd be like, oh, you know, I, you know, I go for walks in the park and I read some books and,

You know, I listen to a podcast occasionally and people would just be like, wait a minute, what? That's not an acceptable answer to what do you do? It's like they want a job title rather than what do you actually spend your time doing? Yeah. You seem to be very comfortable being authentic and being vulnerable and like giving a lot of yourself to the internet and have done for the last 12 years. How did you get comfortable doing that? Were you always that way? Like, yeah. Yeah.

- So actually, I don't know if I am that comfortable with it. I think I'm a natural over sharer. - Okay. - I'm a natural like people pleaser as well. And when I put myself out there, there was no one watching. So I got so comfortable with putting myself out there in this way. Like when I first started creating, YouTube wasn't the thing that it is today. So it was so easy to naturally just be yourself

And I just continue to do that because now that's what I've developed. But it is hard, but I've recognized the power of me sharing my truth and just being authentically me and how much that impacts others. And I've liked doing it, but there's a part of me that is ready now to like hold back a little bit more and share in a way that's a bit more channeled and productive.

Productive as in like strategic for your wider business goals and stuff. Exactly. Strategic. Like I don't need to check with you what I had for breakfast. Yeah. You know, my bowel movements. I've done that. I've not done that. But like everything, like, you know, it's a lot like there's no need for it. Like, and also there's like this thing of like authenticity for the sake of like authenticity's sake. It's like almost like pretend authenticity, which you see a lot of people doing and it's not real. It's cool.

very cringe to me like I'm so offending no you're not it's an act you're just oversharing for the sake of it but I'm trying to like just kind of

home back a bit oh interesting yeah so any so um i feel like a lot of people are in the other way around where they're like oh i feel really shy about putting myself out there online i know it's probably better if i go a little bit more in terms of being comfortable with kind of being authentic on the internet do you do you have any advice for those people that are struggling with authenticity or displaying um or being comfortable with putting themselves out there for example

Well, I understand why someone would feel uncomfortable putting themselves out there. And I think you are in control of what you put out there, but you can't control how people are going to react to it. So there's an element of caution that you do have to exercise, but it's important for you to put your own boundaries like around that. Like, okay, I want to put myself out there, but I don't want to show my kids.

I'm going to put myself out there, but I'm not going to share this side of things. Like you can determine the factors of how you want to do that. And for me, my oversharing, I've, you know, for now I'm just like, I'll share in a more structured manner. So it might be a sit down video where I explain something and I've done that in the past. So like I shared my birth stories and that's,

that's been watched by more than 2 million people. And it was more, it was me definitely sharing quite a dramatic moment, but it was structured. Oh, it wasn't real time vlogging live streaming. I mean, there's some clips there. There was a bit like, and there's, do you know, I've actually had real time clips of when I gave birth to my first daughter and I said, you know what? We're not putting this out. Yeah. We just kept the sound effect. Oh, nice.

It's a lot. I wouldn't do that now. That was too much. - That was too much? Why? - Do you know, it wasn't too much 'cause people loved it. And people, and I loved it because I watched so many women give birth. That's how I knew what was gonna happen. So like, I felt like I had to give up, but now I'm like, I can't believe I put that out there.

What, because it's cringe or like what? Just because it's a lot. I can't even watch the video. Oh, okay. Like, because I'm like, it's emotional. It's cringy. It's like, oh, lots of stuff. How did having kids change your online stuff, if at all?

my ability to create as much as fast was reduced. But I didn't change what I put out there 'cause I'm not really the most like, I'm not a mommy blogger. I don't make content about my children. My children are in my content but I don't make it about them at all.

But before I could like film at three o'clock in the morning if I wanted to. I could film any time of day, but I can't do that now with kids. They've got to be, you know, certain things have to be done in the morning. They've got to be picked up after school. I've got to be around as a parent and present. So I can't, you know, make as much on the fly content as I used to. Okay. I'm bound by time. Yeah. I hate that. Did you find that you, because one thing I've heard from a lot of like startup founders is,

Before and after kids, it's like before kids, it's like the main thing in my life is my work and therefore I'm hustling at all hours of the day because it's really fun. Then after kids, it's like I still enjoy the work and I still enjoy hustling, but actually I get a lot of joy out of spending time with the kids now. And so in a way, the focus gets split. Did you find that happen for you? I guess what I'm asking is how do you balance that?

Family life versus definitely a split of focus and I think I'm gonna be completely transparent I have the desire to spend way more time working like I have I want to do more work But I recognize that I can't I love being with my children and stuff So I have to sacrifice some of the work stuff that I love doing because I want to be a really present and valuable parent so sometimes it's

it feels like a bit of a sacrifice. But in the same breath, like I'm so joyful and happy when I'm with my children that it doesn't feel like a bad thing. And also that when I then dedicate loads of time to work, I'm like, oh my God, I just wanna be at home with my kids.

I want both basically you just find a way to make it work exactly and you have to give a little and take a little and I know that my time is restrained and that's what it is do you worry about like the longevity of the career in an industry that's focused so much on looking young and looking young forever kind of stuff not for me no

'Cause I, again, I think it's very important to develop other skill sets. And I look up to women who have had long-term careers and it isn't just 'cause they look good. Like you have to have something else. So I pride myself in like,

In my industry, I'm not the best looking girl in terms of like, I know the girls who are the hot girls, right? Who look amazing, but they've not got much to say about them. So I've seen hot girls come and go and new hot girls come in and replace them. But those who have personality and something about them are the ones who usually have like more to say or they have more sticking power. So that's why I see myself. I wanna be like 75 and witty with great hair

And fake boobs. Nice. I feel like that's a great place to end the conversation. Thank you very much, Patricia. Anything you'd like to plug? Any ask for the audience? Anything like that? I've got nothing to plug right now. That stuff's coming later on. That has to happen soon. Just follow me on Instagram. Links to all of the stuff down below and we'll be the first to know when new stuff comes out.

- Perfect. - Thanks very much. - Thank you. - All right, so that's it for this week's episode of Deep Dive. Thank you so much for watching or listening. All the links and resources that we mentioned in the podcast are gonna be linked down in the video description or in the show notes, depending on where you're watching or listening to this. If you're listening to this on a podcast platform, then do please leave us a review on the iTunes store. It really helps other people discover the podcast. Or if you're watching this in full HD or 4K on YouTube, then you can leave a comment down below and ask any questions or any insights or any thoughts about the episode. That would be awesome. And if you enjoyed this episode, you might like to check out this episode here as well, which links in with some of the stuff that we talked about in the episode.

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