From Lip Syncing to Campaigns with Big Brands - Lydia MacNeil.

don't let what someone else says about you affect too much like obviously if it's really nasty there's a little bit of you that's going to Care yeah of course but don't let it consume you it's just a comment and in like a week's time you're probably not going to think about it just don't sweat the small stuff welcome to the podcast Lydia good to have you here yeah why don't you quickly introduce yourself hi I'm Lydia I am a Tik Tok Creator and also on Instagram awesome um well thanks for coming in and uh I'm glad that we got these fans on us cuz it's really hot this morning yeah um so I want to jump straight into this conversation um as I said off

camera I want you to take me back to when you started this creative journey and like take us way back to that when did it start was it Tik Tok that you first started on was it Instagram and why did you start and what happened um it was Instagram okay but Tik Tok has kind of been the main thing for me Instagram was always kind of the thing everyone had an Instagram account y had an Instagram account probably since I was like 15 maybe okay used to love going out with my friends and just taking a GoPro into the water or taking it jet skiing or just taking the phones wherever we went typical teenager yeah um but then when I went to University um

Tik Tok became a thing um my friend Amilia and I used to make them to procrastinate studying yeah and then at the end of that semester finished it was Christmas holidays she went back to her house I went back to mine and I was like I actually really enjoy this did a lot of um speech and drama through High School yep was very good at it my own horn love it but I just loved it I loved just looking back and seeing this little video that I'd made this little pocket of Happiness yeah and I used to post them and then I'd get nervous so i' take them down oh really and then one day one of them came up on someone's for you page

and it was a friend of mine and she said you're actually really good at this they're like they're funny and a lot of it was just lipsyncing just knowing the words to whatever the video was I never really made my own content yeah just whatever Trend was going around and then I kept making them IID get so excited I'd go to my little summer job and then come home blue tack my phone to the window I love that in full light and just sit there and make them for hours and then one day one of them I think it was beginning of 20 19 okay oh real early no it would be end of 2019 yeah or maybe beginning just before lock yeah just before

lockdown I made one posted it woke up and it had like 2 million views and it was the most I ever got on a video Y and I was like oh my God Mom Dad look I love that they like cool just don't understand it at all like they always loved the videos but it was what they do for a living um my dad was the manager of a real estate branch and Mom has had many jobs jobs um but she was the customer services rip so like the social media world was completely not really for them they're also on the older side of most parents like I'm 23 yeah and they're like well into their 60s ands so yeah for them it was like

social media to them is yeah like mom loves Tik Tok yeah I'll often sit there listening to her giggling over random Tik toks um but they never really understood it until it became a thing until they got signed with the that I was with and they were like hey we love what you're doing do you want to get paid for it and I was like yeah um when was that I started working with them I'm going to say maybe April 2020 okay yeah cool cool I was at University for a year and a semester and then Co happened Y and I left um just didn't have the passion to continue doing that online Y and that was kind of where Tik Tok became my main

source of income for a while cool um so working with the likes of Skittles and L lemon how was the channel at that point I think like 40K okay cool yeah yeah um not really that big but but I had plans to to grow it but in the beginning it was never my intention to hop on a social media platform and go hey I'm here like I want to do this yeah like I said I would post videos and delete them yeah ex like but yeah then it just kind of became a thing yeah it was cool can I ask how what like what made that switch in your head to from going so obviously one of your friends told you they're pretty good but

like was it just that moment or like was there a series of moments like what was the thing they go you know what [ __ ] this like let's go all in on this um I think it was R&V okay 2019 yeah I was in the campsite and we were walking from my tent to the festival and I had like five people stop me and go are you lady McNeil uh oh that's great and I was like yeah oh my God how do people know that and they're like oh I love your content like I watch you all the time that's so good and I was like wow so that's actually really cool because I look at people that I watch on Tik Tok and I'm like

wow this person's so cool and I know how that makes me feel so thinking about how it made that person feel y I was like this is sick yeah I want to run with this cool it was very cool that's very cool prob the most rewarding about it for other people the always seen them react to you yeah um I always find that real funny with like Mia who I think you're talking to on the text right so she's only 17 and uh her her Channel obviously built pretty fast in the last s of seven or eight months but she'll see creators walk in like she'll probably talk to me later on like oh my God I got to see Lydia like blah blah blah

she's already said she already said today yeah yeah yeah and like with Kennedy the other day and I she was like holy [ __ ] that's Kennedy innocent like BL like and what's real crazy is like cuz her Channel blew up you know like she's got like if you take Kennedy as example she's got like three times the followers he does which it's not really about that at that stage anyway but like cuz his is longevity but it's interesting to see that like how excited she still is but then she went away for the summer and she was in did she tell you that story the mount was the mount yeah she was in the mount and like about a group of a hundred girls like young

like 17y old 16 girls like came up and swamp she was like it my Bieber moment like everyone was like swamp going oh my God that's Mia blah blah blah and just how excited she was she was like I don't know how to take it like it was real weird for her cuz I've seen her yeah I've watched her a lot yeah so when I wed in before I was like oh my God I love that that's so good but I I love that because like all I think we do we do the same thing like you know we we'll have all our people see us and whatever but then you still meet people like I think that's a cool thing about the Tik Tok

creative world like you just as excited to meet someone who's oh Creator as they are to meet you yeah okay so we are somewhere in 2020 you're making money from Tik Tok What was that like like as a uni student like well and I guess you stopped being a uni St at that point how was that income at that point like was it um I started really small yeah but even just like the fact that I would sit down and make a video and it would take 20 minutes 25 minutes half an hour Y and then this paycheck would come through yeah it was pretty wild Y and it was never the drive behind it but it definitely was like that epic like people are

paying me to make content for something that they created yeah this big brand that was pretty cool um and then I guess the more campaigns I did the more traction I got with businesses and the company that I work for had me on their website cool and it's like when you get an email and they say they want to work with you they're really Keen to work with you yeah yeah yeah you're like sure that's fantastic I'd love that yeah okay so you're in 2020 that started happening what's next what happened how did the you quick uni what happened um I kept making videos and then in August after the lockdown finished I went to makeup school okay and I studied makeup for six months

did a full-time diploma in that y still kept making videos loved that and then within the makeup school I learned hairdressing there was like a two we period in hairdressing and I vividly remember saying to my mom when I was like 14 leaving the hairdresses I want to be a hairdresser she was like do you I was like yeah and I was always that kid that was getting to off at school for playing with their own here that's funny yep and so then beginning of 2021 I reached out to my now boss said hey do you need an apprentice yeah and I've been hairdressing since 2021 nice qualify hopefully please August this year y cool fingers crossed how has that Journey been like going into

that apprenticeship and that like how was it going in with that following and with that stuff like was how did the rest of the people treat you like was there any things in there that happened or was it just pretty normal no one well none of my colleagues really knew anything there's one girl who's the same age as me that knew yeah um I did a photo shoot for no I didn't interview for I can't remember the name now okay it was on the cover of Viva magazine okay cool um and I remember asking my boss to have the day off to go and do it and she was like interview for what oh for the job yeah and I was like no like I'm

being interviewed and she was like what for cuz it'll just never come up in conversation it's not really something that I go around and go hey I have a following on Tik Tok um yeah and so then she was so proud of me though when the article did come out she had like a million copies all around the salon and everyone would walk in and go is that you and that was when that conversation kind of Amalgamated into me being able to tell people cool yeah I have this following but juggling hairdressing and doing social media yeah can be a little bit hard sometimes cuz obviously being a hairdresser you stand and talk to people all day and sometimes the last thing you want to

do when you go home is sit in front of a camera so the Tik Tok side of things slowed down a little bit y but I was still doing campaigns every now and then okay which kind of like kept that side of my life going okay yeah and so you talk about that U struggle of trying to do both did it um like did it properly slow off and then have you been trying to get it going or like what was that like like did you just was in the back of your mind always like I've got to keep it going or something like that or you just did you just let it go cuz you're focusing on the hairdressing um or you trying to

juggle them properly for a while I was trying to juggle them properly yeah cuz I was a a really good point on social and I wasn't really full into the hairdressing thing just yet okay it was like first year so you're just yeah you're an apprentice you're just helping run the salon you're not really dealing with clients yeah and then probably when I started dealing with clients and having more to do with the actual hairdressing side of things the Tik Tok slowed down and I actually took a break for a while okay cuz I just couldn't juggle the both yeah and then how long was that um I Reon I was not posting for probably like 3 months well not posting any campaign work not

doing actual work work through Tik Tok I was still posting get ready with me y y little TK Tok changes and but nothing nothing that I had to plan to do it's was just like I've got a a free moment and I enjoy doing it yeah yeah yeah so um you did the stuff that started you doing in the first place like having fun doing it rather working for it yeah and then okay so for about three months and then what you started back doing it again and you are you still just sort of juggling both now yeah I my last lot of campaign work finished beginning of December yeah don't have anything in the pipeline just yet um but I think that's kind of

nice just ease into it yeah cuz I'm straight back into work already yeah I'm like I miss uni break having months off two weeks summer good um yeah but I am excited to see what 2024 brings yeah what do you hope it brings um my apprenticeship finish my finish your appren um I'd be really Keen to kind of bring the hairdressing side and tomato Tock a bit more cuz that's more kind of authentic to what I'm doing now yeah you not doing much of that at all on no no yeah cuz I was going to say I've scroll through there's not a lot of is that no um I don't really want people to know where I work okay got it like that's kind of

yeah it's my boss's sellon yeah okay and that's not really her thing yeah I'd love to one day but at the moment because I'm still The Apprentice I work for her yeah I don't really have my own clientele base one day I'd love to do that I want to own my own salon and hopefully by then I'll still have the platform to do something with that yeah kind of like what Kim hly does and Sarah Jane yeah yeah cool that cuz I love I'll just sit there scroll for hours watching know is that you know off camera you talked about wanting to speak around like Online safety and stuff does that play into that same conversation you want people yeah yeah and where did that

come from has that been something that you've experienced no no it blows my mind because I've never actually received hate okay interesting yeah well not nothing that I'm like no serious stuff yeah but sometimes I look at my friends videos or I look at comments and it just makes me so angry yeah yeah yeah I'm like what drives people to be such a keyboard Warrior and throw that up on the Internet yeah yeah and like we're all human sometimes you watch a video and you think oh that's going to get some Traction in the comments section and you go and look at it and you're like really yeah so just hopefully one day using my platform more yeah to not have that really nasty critical

side of it yeah cuz that's just what social media can be sometimes but yeah it's a hard one it's like a um it's the gift and the curse of social media like yeah if you if you're the bigger you are the more likely it happens and um like how do you deal with it and manage it and and I and I'm not sure if it is for everyone like I don't so like my partner CLA and I like she she can't handle the negativity so you know we'll put something up on our attention s account will blow up and they'll be you know like I play the um I play the bad guy and as a character for me and Joanie and so I'll often

get like people like jumping on thinking it's real right like they think our content's reality and so they jump on but she can't handle it and so and I just don't think she ever will like as long as we've been doing this now like she she just can't so she tries to just stay out of the commentary and so I I find it that for a lot of people not for a lot of people for a certain amount of people it's like just something you're never going to be able to do and so you have to decide do I continue to grow huge or do I stay real Niche so only the people who like it like the type of content I have stay there

which is kind of okay when you've got like a like a maybe a channel like yours or um like other people who like a real Lon to like say makeup or you know something real Niche and that they can keep to that same audience and so they never get that stupid virality which brings all the hate yeah there's a video going around oh there is a series going around at the moment about people eating snow have you seen this no any you guys seen this one the snow one so um in obviously in the US it's like in in the north of the US and Canada it's snowing crazy at the moment right and so people are like like a dad and like all these

other people Rees spoon was one of them like showing how what they do when they eat snow they like big snowfall come down they'll go grab some of this fresh snow off like something outside and then they'll like put it into a bowl and they'll put like condensed cream milk in it whatever they'll make these things right and it just makes ice cream yeah that's all it is Snow's just ice right and then there's just all this like hate in the comments like calling them like CU his dad was like giving it to his kids like that's bad for your kids like all the pollutants and it's bad to eat snow and all sort of crap which like technically there's a bunch of science people

come out like no like it's it's it's gross if you grab it from the ground but if it's like the snow's like this deep like this top stuff like literally just fell out of the sky so anyway there's this whole like um hate section in it and Reese Witherspoon's the same like she's just been getting attacked for making making snow cone stuff but it's this like it brought up the conversation with CLA and I around like how do you deal with that sort of stuff and from her end the fact of having to ask the question was the thing like would never have thought to ask the question how do I deal with all the hate yeah I would have just been like oh this

got so much engagement this is great yeah like that's how we look at it like J and I will be like like we got we were talking about we got a client recently who got their first hate comment on a video we made yeah and we were all excited we're like finally like we cracked it like we we flipped it to get traction traction like this is broadly accepted now and they were like you bring brought our brand into disrepair like you know and I like that's that's not how that's how we look at it so it's a real interesting conversation you have cuz I'm not saying that people shouldn't hate online I think they just I don't know people have bad days and some

of them are just trolling like you go ask Alicia who works for us she just does it to troll people I actually won't she's not real I wouldn't say she's hateful but she just does stuff to poke like play into the world so okay so if you think that like that from your perspective how do um how do you then build this I guess world that you want to live in where like you stand on the fence or you play you keep this positivity like what what do you want to do to make sure you can stop that when you know it's there anyway just keep it authentic keep you authentic yeah yeah um we all know that Hate's there we all know that trolls

are there we all know that keyword Warriors are there mhm just probably focusing more on the side of people that it does affect Y and it does hurt yeah letting them know that they're not the only ones and that these comments are literally just people sitting there behind their screens cool like if you saw them in public they probably wouldn't say that to your face no like people love a good roast like I see videos sometimes and I'm like oh that's something's going to be said yeah and you go and read through them and you're like that person is just sitting there typing away on their phone going I'm just going to make this person feel crap yeah cuz it's going to make me feel

better it's going to make me think yeah so how do you do that like cuz I think it's a real issue in that a lot of young creators um don't know how to deal with that on once it cracks yeah like how do you how do you help them like how what is that message like how do you what would you tell someone like let's say it was Mia and it won't be Mia because Mia does not give a [ __ ] and in fact the thing that people think she is in her comments we've made her turn that into a character for the attention Seekers Channel but if it was someone like Mia who was younger it's up to you come see is like how do

you deal with this like what do you tell them water on a duck's back you don't know the person you should only give a shed about what the people around you think people that you care about the people that you put effort into how do you do that techically though like you know like that's I say that and the reason I'm asking this is cu like I say that to B I say it to my partner CLA who cares a [ __ ] like yeah but tactically like how do you help people see that like how do they how do people who are affected by start to go what can you say to them what can you do that makes them make it click for them do

they bring any value to your life do you know who they are do would you turn around and say that to them no because you don't know them you don't have an opinion on them they don't really have an opinion on you they've just used an empty thought in their brain to post something about you when they don't know you at all so it's kind of just this bubble of who cares like they don't they're not in your life y don't let what someone else says about you affect too much like obviously if it's really nasty there's a little bit of you that's going to Care yeah of course but don't let it consume you yeah it's just a comment and and like a week's

time you're probably not going to think about it just don't sweat the small stuff yeah which can be harder said than done and it definitely took me a little while yeah I remember when I first started ging traction on Tik Tok y I used to walk around cuz I did two years in the Halls y I used to walk around the halls and people would go like this I'm like I don't even do the Renegade what is this that is so good just like little things or they'd be like Tik Tock girl Tik Tock girl yeah or they'd like walk past me and go oh my God are you L McNeil yeah I'm like yeah I am yeah yeah so yeah like pull out a

pen you want autograph yeah I don't know I just I guess little comments and little things like that have just never really bothered me yeah what do you do about like like what would you do so you get these nasty comments or people ARG getting them do they how do you handle them do you ignore them do you hide them delete them like what how do you deal with the the nasty ones block people I don't really get them no you just don't get them no what would you say to people who do just delete it just delete it cuz other people don't need to see that I don't want to see it it's not worth it I think I maybe I've had a few

in the past yeah but nothing that like stands out to me that I'm like oh my God yeah just yeah just don't see it yeah yeah yeah it's a hard one right because I'm like for me I love it cuz I like I just said like I like I like the hate coming in I think it's aru yeah it's funny I've had people argue with each other in the comments and I'm like keep coming to keep coming to keep yeah yeah yeah my engagement this is benefiting me you can do what you want um but also I don't think I've ever really posted enough that would won't yeah hate comments yeah like I don't really post my opinion I don't think I've ever posted my

opinion no and I don't often do I never used to do a lot of talking videos like about my life and I don't know things that I think generate hate not that I've intentionally avoided I just haven't really done yeah like a lot of it in the beginning was just lip syncing Y and then a couple of dancers cuz I used to be a dancer and Vlogs y um get ready with me cuz I love my make makeup y transitions y I don't know it's not really the stuff of like people can latch on to some sort of opinion and have a go at you against it right yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay as like August hopefully fingers crossed you're fully qualified what's the

plan like so both both from a career perspective so what are you hoping to do like now that you're fully qualified and then two like where do you think this Creator journey goes hm getting the qualification I need to build the clientele mhm so jumping on Instagram and saying hey I am fully qualified if anyone's looking to get their hair done come to me seeing what that does y cuz I have I have like a clientele base probably not enough at the moment but I mean that's just what it is being an apprentice yeah um I don't know if my boss is going to watch this podcast I don't know you don't have to say stuff about like leaving and anything like that but like

you you're hoping that the the goal for you is become fully qualified build your own client base yeah that's pretty normal for any headress right definitely own my own sellon one day yeah definitely like that has always been the dream all along yeah own my own sellon yeah have stuff just make it a lot more than what I'm doing now yeah in terms of taking more time with clients and you know instead of doing eight clients a day or 10 clients a day doing three and doing a full transformation or just doing something that I really enjoy yeah instead of some things yeah yeah W I think it's one of those things is like businesses grow the the maintenance hairdressing yeah considering maintenance side of

things and the maintenance stuff is what pays the bills long term right like that's the hard thing it's like that's that's why the big headdresses will have staff to like okay you take the maintenance I get to do the fun stuff yeah um when you think about that like own your own Salon thing because that's like a big deal like owning a salon that's not like a St we just just jump into cuz it's huge that's um the like when I went into my career was in hotels and so when people know there's a skill thing that they want to go through I always say my advice to them whether or not you got a huge audience or not is get someone else to teach

you that by getting paid to do it yeah and so you you'd become a qualified hairdresser but then it's going well how do I learn the business side of it by getting paid to do it yeah yeah well like how from your perspective are you someone who's like quite do you just want to jump straight into that or is it something you just happy to work along and push through and learn that through someone else or are you someone who's like real entrepreneurial who just say n [ __ ] it I'll figure it out on the way um I definitely look up to my boss a lot I watch what she does and I give her a lot of credit for what she does y but also

just like making little notes about what she does yeah cuz she's a bloody good businesswoman yeah she's been in the industry for a really long time she owns the cell and she owns the business cool she has been top in the industry she's won competitions she's trained countless amount of apprentices including myself yeah so just like watching the way that she works yeah because her business and her career has been so successful yeah taking little leavs yeah but also I feel like I am quite entrepreneurial yep um I know that I definitely want to own a business one day yeah and I always have done just probably finding the knowledge that I need and learning the knowledge that I need to own a business yeah

cuz it's obviously not just hey own a business you got to pay tax which I hate yeah hate tax you know and even that like that's like something um even the text conversation is a real good one to have with no because like when I was young I was the same thing [ __ ] tax taking all my money but now when I think of my tax bills and how big they've gotten yeah I think how much other money there is and like now it's switched in my head like we had to in January pay a $61,000 GST bill which was my and I was like [ __ ] that hurts like 61 Grand and one go but then and I was saying that and then like straight away

my brain went to [ __ ] do you know how much that's on you know because actually like with GST the 61k is only a portion of the GST you've collected because obviously you have expenses and there whatever I'm not going to get into accounting here but once your mind flips that like actually this is [ __ ] great paying tax especially GST and payroll tax those two things when you're paying those it means um you are something you're killing it yeah yeah this's is um funny thing where you get a lot of entrepreneurs like in the early stage of the um business going oh I got a credit for my GST and like they get a rebate and they think it's cool because they get money back and

it's like no that means you spent more than you earned yeah that mean you're you're making a loss like you're you're losing you're losing the game like this is not a good yeah you keep doing that and you'll be out of business real fast so it is an interesting conversation because I what I don't like paying is income tax yeah uh not income tax for my I get like so I pay myself a salary that's fine but like for the business business income so we try run out real like right to the wire every year so there's like no profit left in the business yeah cuz we pay enough tax and bloody GST and everything else but there is a um there is an interesting

thing about like how do you turn that relationship around like because you're paying tax obviously on all your Tik toks Tik Tok stuff yeah yeah how do you how did you manage that did you set that up from the beginning did you have like were your parents helping like how did you know to do that or did you just get hit with a big bill um my first year I just got hit with a big Bill and learned my lesson real hard and fast um that was awful yeah hated that but obviously well not obviously the money that I earn from Tech Tok is coming from Australia y so you get the offshore margin kind of thing and then also they don't pay the pae

yeah they don't pay that little portion of tax so every time you get an invoice putting just working out and putting that aside yeah which is really annoying yeah are you just doing that manually now um or you on Henry or something I actually heard about Henry recently because the most recent one was quite large yeah I was like oh oh you should definitely look it I mean he said that chair not long ago right I've got it on my phone you should I just downloaded it the other day uses it still does she still use it a I think she does yeah she uses for personal finance cuz it just gives you the money you're allowed yeah yeah yeah but for a while they

because Tik Tok slowed down so much and I wasn't really earning yeah a stainable income to be able to do it yeah a bit frivolous with the spending set of things but my mom's really good at it okay shout out Mom it's it's a thing that a lots of um young creators get fall into trip they just get all this money and they're like oh this is amazing this is great and then because they put it all publicly I ID no to come after them yeah because it's all life yeah yeah and they've got the evidence right there to be like I know you did this I know these are things and I can ask those companies for invoice Trail um so now youve just

been doing it manually pretty much yeah how have you been doing that just paid it yesterday so annoying have you just been going I do the calculations every whatever timeline and then you pay it rather than like slowly building up to it yeah so my accounts money that it goes into yeah take away what it is going to be and just put it aside okay and then transfer it to my mom so I don't touch it okay okay cool so you are taking it out as the money I have to take it out otherwise big yeah good that's smart and that's what Henry does for you takes it out for you yeah it's a smart thing you I talked to heaps of people who do

this at the beginning and then they're like um you know I mean it might not be huge but relative to the amount of money they're earning from the platform yeah it's massive yeah even like our International staff because the way we pay them are like kind of like contractors yeah and one of our particular stuff I would tell who it is I've been telling them for a while now like have you been pay your tax like cuz I don't pay your tax yeah like I can't pay your tax I'm not registered with the your government yeah and he hadn't for a while and I was like you need to start doing this cuz it's like a few thousand do like you're going to owe them

by the end of this thing and I can't help you yeah I can't help you so you got to start putting this money away um and we just hired a couple staff in New York and same thing to them I'm like you guys are contractors like you have to do this you have to put away and this is the US like you're taxes are huge and you got to pay state tax and you've got to pay uh federal tax and all that sort of [ __ ] so uh it's an interesting one it is a it is one of those things like it's it's annoying income tax but if you are consistently paying it then you're doing something right yeah definitely yeah like I get my paycheck

through hairdressing yeah and I see how much I've worked and I see how much tax and I'm like at least I'm earning enough and doing what I love yeah so that's okay I don't mind that it's just when it's like the end of the financial year and you get this whopping Bill and you're like damn but that's okay how old are you now 23 23 24 in July in July so I um yeah I find it real the thing I find real crazy is like like I don't know what you get paid and we don't have to get into that but the guy like I obviously know what my team have paid and a lot of them are around the same age as you and

and even if they once complained about text I'm like [ __ ] like your uh wage that you're getting paid like hourly rate roughly is like three times what I was on at the same time like the wages like like my cousin David over there him and I used to work together and we used to be on like like even in Australia where we work where they got the highest average wages in the world we're still on less than my first hourly wage there was still less than half of Connor's now and I was his age but I was managing a department like I like I was like yeah managing a a whole Banquets Department of a hotel and so if they like for me it's like

shut the [ __ ] up like right now like yeah cost of living and stuff's gone up but actually what I found is that there's like a when you really look at it there's like a percentage of your pay always left over after you paying everything but it's a percentage of a bigger number now yeah that bigger number can still do stuff yeah anyway I'm just getting into AAL old man conversation right now about how these young kids get paid so much um what I want to know is okay Salon we know your goal is build a salon over time build a career in the hairdressing what do you want to do if you create a world like obviously you see you want to bring some more

of your care dressing into that but like what do you think that that world's going to do for you and how you going to manage it I've never thought about it I guess just because I've been on social media for so long it's not a part of my life that I want to stop y I enjoy it yeah I don't I don't put myself out there as much and because I don't really post my personal life too much like for a while I did a few Vlogs but then was getting a little bit too close to home okay cuz I'd get like random people out and we'd be having a conversation they go oh you live in stonefields right I don't live there anymore no

one lives here anymore but they be like oh you live in stonefields and I'm like I don't want you to know that so I pulled back from that and kind of like took it in a different direction but now I'm like what direction do I take it in yeah I can't really whip my phone out in the salon y because it's not my business it's like a lot of the clients that I do probably don't want to be on the internet yeah I probably should sit down and have a conversation with my boss and say hey hey I would love to show that platform what I actually do as a living probably something I would brainstorm a bit more why haven't you had that conversation

with her just really focused on getting my prip yeah um getting the hours yeah working hard cuz like I'm not someone said to me I went to an event and it was another influencer and they said to me for an influencer you're not very influency and I was like what does that mean and they said oh you know like we're at this event we're supposed to be posting content everyone has their phone out yeah you haven't really had your phone out and I thought about it and it's cuz I don't really have my phone out very often I love if I'm at the beach to whip out a phone and take a photo and like if I'm at a concert I'll whip my phone out

and take a video yeah but for someone that's been on social media for as long as I have I don't think personally my screen time is as much and I'm not as active y on platforms I still take the content that I need to take yeah but I take it quality over quantity I guess do you not consume a lot like sit and scroll yeah oh no I sit and scroll all time oh you sit and scroll yeah you just don't put a you're just not constantly putting up stuff yourself like end of the day I've had shower had dinner I'll I'll sit in bed and I'll yeah scroll on Tik Tok yeah I mean you're 23 24 love to I mean I say that

but I'm 36 and I do the same yeah um okay so you're not with your boss yeah does she has she figured out what like what it is that you have does she know yeah she yes so you've had that conversation she realizes she follows me she got me to make her an account so that she could follow me when I did my um trip to America last year yeah she wanted to see it cuz obviously I was away from work for a month got it and like she'll like my stories every now and then how old is she roughly I have no idea no no idea but a bit older than you yeah yeah is she her kids are older than me okay yeah

cool so she's hitting genx Boomer age bracket probably if she's got a kid older than you probably um okay so what you would be okay with like using if she was okay with it you'd want to make Tik toks about the salon and being out to start showing that side of the world do you actually okay with that with people knowing then oh I work at this brand like this salon and um cuz a lot of people aren't yeah yes and no yeah like a lot of our clients younger kids will come in and go oh my God that's what m now and then the parents will say to me at their next appointment how does my daughter know who you are and then that

conversation comes up I think have having 88,000 people know where I work yeah I don't know cuz I guess that would also looking at a business point of view bring in clients MH but I think I'd have to be fully qualified and under my own not under anyone's Wing no to be able to do it yeah cuz the clientele base at the moment is probably not wanting to be on the Internet it's a lot of Maintenance clients okay a lot of Maintenance C they bit older yeah but I love them yeah it's so great yeah I mean if they just don't understand it they don't know why they're being on it right yeah um I've always thought about renting a chair Oh Yeah from someone

else than a different one or from your current boss um probably at a different space later on though yeah yeah definitely later on I just walked past um a creative space face a few months ago yeah it's I think it's just off K Road okay looks epic yeah yeah but it's just obviously yeah it's like a building upstairs they've got a table for beauty therapy they've got hairdresses they've got tables for nails yeah and you just ran a chair from it yeah got it interesting yeah yeah so that you can then make content heing content is yours like if I did seriously want to continue that side of things I um I find that real interesting about like letting people know where you are and

whatnot I I think it's right I think especially in your home life for sure there's a weird thing when it becomes a business that people um like treat it differently because you know like you're not the only one there if it was like a solo place it was just you I probably wouldn't maybe then say that yeah cuz that's different right there's no like cuz people are weird on the internet they do weird stuff but it once soon as say like if you were to promote say your current boss this one I don't think you'd have any concerns of people doing anything weird because it's you might get occasional person Rock by but like hardly ever like we the worst we get was like last

week when a guy brought a CV into us you know and he did this big gag where he had this like giant CV that he bought us but like we get I was just to say really opposite to us gole everywhere yeah nothing we don't get anything in the mail we get nothing I think it's just CU people like oh it's a business yeah as opposed to a person yeah you know like and they're like we wouldn't go and do anything weird to the um people and even when I like so I live next door to the place and um Lisa per like came in she's like I'm so surprised she's the best I love her well she goes how do you like how are

you so confident telling everyone you live across the road from your thing and I was like oh I mean I've just never felt you know and and then I and then we had a conversation like I wonder if it's a gender thing like I wonder if it's just because as a man like there's like cuz men are the weird ones like you know what I mean like men men are the weird on you said it not me yeah well they are let's be honest like men on the internet are weird um more weird I say I say there's like probably a high percentage of widows who are male than female when they're going to do iners crazy [ __ ] maybe I don't know I'm not sure

if that's like a legitimate thing it's definitely is right guys are weird um especially like younger they are Dum they are so and then that's what our conversation with Lisa was like is it just CU I don't like as a as a man I've like not had that fear you know like I've never had like I mean if men have a bunch of girls chasing around like they're not that worried about it they're kind of like oh this is like Life's good like I'm doing something great right whereas like a girl having a bunch of guys chasing around is like [ __ ] scary as [ __ ] yeah you're like oh my God what do they want yeah yeah so I wonder if that's I wonder if it's

that than the business like I wonder if it's or if it's a combination of the two when when and if or if and when I own my own Salon it's going to be blasted all over Tik Tok because that is a really good tool to use in this day and age y to grow a business I think it's just because it's not my sellon it's not my business it's my job to work for my boss yeah and learn from my boss so maybe in the future definitely yeah but just right now I'm pretty happy with how things are going that's good the last like six months no not last six months the last like four months has probably been the happiest I've been the most

at peace I've been with how things are going in my life what's called it um just things in order just things you don't have to say anything you don't want to but it's just things just working yeah like I'm I've got a plan for the year cool um I moved out in August cool I've got my girls I've got my flat mates yeah yeah yeah so it's going to be a good year yeah okay what can we expect from you then finishing my apprenticeship yeah hopefully so that's all you focus on all the way to August Nothing Else Matters finish appren ship cuz I would have loved to have gone traveling again this year but I can't go traveling until I finish that apprentiship of

course yeah I just want to have something under my belt cuz obviously I didn't finish my degree yeah which sometimes I really regret cuz I don't I feel like I don't have something secure to fall back on even though I know that I do want to be a hairdresser yeah um just really enjoying my year this year y my motto of the year is unironically Yolo I love it so 23 of you in in a non cringe disgusting way YOLO yeah like just go out and do it yeah and yeah spend more time being happy as opposed to being oh my god I've got to do this this this this and this just roll with the punches cool love it it's a good year I

don't know about anyone else in this room but like my 23 to 25 year old years like were were some of the best like they were I was an idiot I was with this guy over here stuck in the go Coast um but it was fun like cuz it's that age bracket where like you're now a little older that people take you a little bit more serious you're not you're you're on the uni years but you're not so old that like [ __ ] do I have to have my [ __ ] together once you get over 25 people like hey you s be a weird stage that I'm kind of in yeah so I'm like I've had my fun yeah I think embarrassingly enough we were talking about

it the other day 2020 2 and 2023 I genuinely don't think I had one weekend off it was just go go go every weekend yeah we just went out and had so much fun and I've kind of gotten to a point now where I'm like I actually can't be bothered like I seriously cannot be bothered I've got my good friends I've got a new boyfriend we just want to work hard this year this year is a grind year cool nice just not go out so much spend more time yeah saving um it's I mean it comes for everyone at different times when that happens and and look honestly for most people a relationship is most of the reason because let's be honest like when you're

young and you're dumb and you're having a whole bunch of fun like it's a it's that's what you do and then you find a relationship and then that relationship starts to change the way you view life cuz you're like I don't need to be out partying all the time because I'd rather hang out with you or whatever it might be but I like what you're saying that like then how do you achieve big goals yeah like what are the big things I just want to ask one question before we start to WP this conversation up which I'm got a clear enough answer on and I don't know if I'm if I'm going to get it but like so first of all are you hoping to

like with your boss or not your boss who knows we don't know what the conversation is this isn't anything to do with your boss but is it to just go from finishing apprenticeship to just being a full-time hairdresser that's the very next step or is it like see if there's other opportunities that you can find from that and that's not about like quitting or anything like that does like so does your boss think or is hoping that like you go from Apprentice to fulltime Sal yeah that's her goal is that role and title forget where you are the role and title what you want to like is that where you want to go to or do you want to go off and do some other

cool [ __ ] eventually yeah yeah and is that like what does that look like like let's not cuz time frame's going to be time frame so it's not about like when you're going to quit and you got the opportunities have to come when they come what are those cool things that you want to go do I want to travel I love traveling yeah um 2025 so I guess also this year what I was saying before I've changed my mindset more from having a lot of fun to moving into the more saving side of things yeah save this year so that I can travel and do whatever it's just a case of also when I finish my preneurship do I want to take that overseas with me

or do I want to do something else yeah not a complete career change like there's obviously I really want to own my own salon and I'll always come back to that but I've kind of got this 2024 2025 year where I'm like I'm not quite old enough in my own mind and in my own self where I feel like I desperately need to have a sellon yeah or a house or you know I still have like a little bit of leeway to do whatever I want yeah so I don't know maybe what what is working I want to Europe like every man in the dark and when you say travel is it like the classic um just big overseas experience for a few months and

go do it or you want to go live and work or like what does it look like for you um I don't know if I would ever want to live actually I don't know a lot like my entire friend group has moved Y and I'm the youngest in my friend group so at the time I was like they've been waiting a really long time to do this and I never felt ready and I still don't think I feel ready to move overseas and do that yeah it's like I love New Zealand yeah and I don't want to be away from my mom and dad I'm really close with my parents yeah like I moving out last year was big for me yeah and I love

it and it's been so good but I've just never really felt the urge to move overseas and work yeah yeah I don't know if that's still coming yeah but I almost feel like oh everyone else is doing it so should I be doing that or am I just happy here and am I okay being happy here yeah maybe it's one of those things with travel and like for people who are listening who have done a lot of it you don't really you often don't know you want to go live abroad or do something abroad until you go properly travel yeah and then you catch a bug as everyone's is and then and then you'll go like let's say you went to Europe and you did

three months in Europe and you had this life-changing experience right cuz it will be like that to go then you come back and there's this like Dad when you come back cuz you have changed so much as a person but no one else has everyone else has stayed the same and you and like they don't get where you're at they don't understand so now you feel out a place at home cuz you're You' have changed but the world hasn't yeah and so the only place you know where everyone else is feeling the same way you is is abroad again and then so you go and it happened to Joanie when we took it to New York last year yeah so like Jan's like I mean

her family are super tight both sides like her and her husband's family both sides of them like they just don't leave South Oakland like they stay there they live there their whole lives they do the whole thing then they made her and alist made a big deal of like moving to the city yeah away from the family so that was already huge and then she came to New York for me for three 10 weeks or whatever and she was like I'm not going home like you can't let me go home I have to come back to New York and that like even everyone here right like saw the in like she was like a whole new person and so I think and like doesn't always

happen to everyone but I think that what you'll find probably is go to Europe you'll do this big thing you and your partner will be like holy [ __ ] if you if if you know if you guys go over there together that [ __ ] how do we come back yeah like how do we come back because if you really do like traveling like there's a thing that just happens and you're like holy [ __ ] the possibilities in the world and as a Creator what you'll find is Is that ah there is no money in New Zealand for creators but there is globally you know like we got a young kid in uh New York who works for us he's 19 he's got a pretty big F he's like

840,000 or something followers on Tik Tok but he pulls in 4,000 us a month just from Tik Tok wow just from Tik Tok like from the creative fund yeah that's his pay you see we don't have the creative fund here but you can hack it yeah so like I've got it cuz I wasn't there for 3 months and I the VPN on when I got back until it ticked over and then I've got it and we're going to do the same for jie so you can't hack it into it you just still need a bank account and stuff over there which there's some you can get a wise account there's an American bank account but anyway to my point is I think um that will

be interesting to see in a year from now where your head space is like you go travel and then you just like I don't want to come back yeah cuz I was in America for a month beginning of last year yeah like did LA New York Washington North Carolina Florida did Coachella got to the end of that holiday and I was like please don't make me get on that plane I don't want to go home yeah and that kind of is what opened my eyes to it but then like I went to Sydney end of last year yeah and I was on my own for 4 days yeah never been to the city before was kind of just like a bigger Oakland and I was

like I do want to go home like I miss my family so it was like I went to America on the other side of the world and I didn't want leave but I went to our neighbors and I was like oh I'm ready to go home now yeah yeah Sydney's not like going going to Australia as a kiwi is not that exciting everyone's moving so many people I think it's um it's an ease yeah it's ease it's accessible yeah there's more money in Australia population's bigger there's more opportunities so all those things it's just New Zealand with more opportunities and I went there for 12 years on and off yeah um I love Australia like clears from Australia Australia is amazing but it's not you

you're not different yeah you don't change it's not a travel bug like it's not like when I went to New York or Tokyo or London to live it's more of a lifestyle change I guess yeah just a little bit lifestyle same thing so same problems yeah it's all the same stuff uh but it's just more opportunities yeah okay so there's a bit of um traveling there's a bit of not sure where salon's going to go but you're going to open your own one someday soon okay cool if anyone has any name suggestions let me know got LS at the moment it's not great Lids Lids as in like L is fixing Lids of people is that the that is great I would never name it

that that is it people can we just clip this bit out and just say if this gets a th000 comments it has to be Lids Lids this is the internet will destroy you if you don't I know no that's great now thank you so much for coming on and sharing your St I appreciate it yeah thanks for having me see you next time it was fun thanks