 Welcome back to another YouTube video. I am very excited about today's video. Today's video is a Q&A I am in my bedroom on the floor. I really like doing these once a month for you guys Especially since I am not doing my podcast right now a lot of influencers Including me sometimes do Q&A's on their Instagram stories find that this is much more personable And I feel like I can really answer questions in more full as opposed to text on a story that expires in 24 hours But before I get into the Q&A today, I do want to tell you guys that I'm gonna be doing a giveaway Here's the huge box of PR That I'm going to be splitting into three different packages for you guys I obviously am so lucky and grateful to receive so many amazing products But I honestly can't keep everything so I really wanted to finally do a giveaway like that for you guys All you need to do to enter is follow my Instagram Instagram subscribe to my YouTube and then just leave a comment below pretty easy I've just been extra extra grateful recently for the people who show up for me and all my content and support me and are commenting on my content and supporting my Branded content and just everything just feeling so incredibly grateful for you guys It's been a really cool past few months with my brand and with coming back to YouTube and being really consistent on YouTube And you guys have just really showed up for me So I typed up a bunch of your guys questions and then I sorted them into category So I'm answering similar questions. So the first question is where do you thrift most of your clothes? Slash, how do you find your style and what works for you? Oh? Okay, let's go out For the first question and excuse my nails. I really need to get them done Anyways, personally, I think the best easiest thrifting in America would have to be in LA I do so much of my thrift shopping when I'm in LA almost every trip I do to LA I always go to the Melrose trading post and I might seem like a basic place to go or like Super touristy, but honestly, they have some really really amazing vendors where I have found some of my favorite pairs of denim Favorite bomber jackets denim jackets best really really good selection of car heart and camo LA is also the denim capital of America. So that probably also has something to do with it I also do a lot of my thrift shopping on eBay Occasionally depop, but mainly eBay you can search things like vintage gap That's a good one also in any town across America. You can go into Goodwill Or Salvation Army and pick through depends on how dedicated you are to really dig in and then how I found my style and what works for me I've always had a very strong sense of my own personal style even since I was younger and I'm really lucky for that my friend Olivia who you guys probably know who also works for me Talks about how she has all the pieces But she's a really hard time putting clothes together and that's something that I never have struggled with But I think following creators that put together outfits watching outfit videos looking at Pinterest could be really helpful for Learning how to piece things together. I also worked as a stylist in New York when I first moved to New York So I feel like that experience also really helped me I'm a very visual person So I feel like style and outfits are easier for me but I feel like my style is really a reflection of how I was brought up and the sports that I did and I would say my Style is pretty sporty and relaxed and I wear a lot of men's oversized clothes like my style is very all-encompassing I really just like like a relaxed Sort of look with denim a good pair of boots obsessed with leather always have loved leather I don't know. I'm also really in a way lucky that My personal style and how I grew up that's in right now Outdoor gear is super in right now Car heart is super in right now Camo is super in right now and I grew up Wearing a lot of those things through like spending a lot of time outside whether it was hiking skiing Camping hunting riding. I also feel like when I left New York and moved back home My style got much better as much as I loved like running around New York and always dressing up It just wasn't it wasn't super aligned with like what I actually wanted to be wearing all the time So yeah, so now I'm gonna talk about influencers and influencing and a little bit more about my job got a lot of questions about that Okay, the first question advice for influencers on how to grow create good content how to grow on YouTube quickly I'm gonna answer them all separately first advice for influencers on how to grow It is so hard now to become an influencer because so many people are doing it So many people are good at creating content almost everyone now is creating content Even if you're not a content creator I luckily got in at a time where there were not many New York Influencers there wasn't a main New York influencer group. There were a few girls It wasn't as big as it is now and it's much harder to grow now So you really have to differentiate yourself. You really have to either find a niche or create your own niche I would say and what I always say is now Personality is being more rewarded than ever that doesn't mean you need to be like a big personality You don't need to be super drama or super loud and crazy and in people's face I think just being yourself and showing up as a personality is Rewarded find a niche and do it over and over and over again It doesn't suck But it is really hard now to grow when I was starting and when I started to grow It was really a different space. I definitely Grinded a little bit and did the thing and when I was living in New York and went on every single revolved trip I got invited to went to Coachella and like did a lot of things that I didn't want to do in order to Continue to grow my brand to be a part of these really cool brand trips And I like don't really go to anything anymore I still go to some events and things to support my friends, but I Feel like I was in a little bit of a different position how to create good content I think for me personally and I think every influencer would give you different advice on this focusing on your story Content and making sure your content is high quality and consistent Why I say that stories are so important is because brands really want to see data They want to see your data. They want to see how many people are viewing your stories How many people are engaging with your content? How many people are buying the products that you are organically posting and selling and it is so important to create Organic authentic content that resonates with your followers following someone now on Instagram is a commitment You know, you're really committing to following what they're posting every single day And I think that people have also started to cleanse their Instagram of influencers People have started to unfollow influencers to kind of live more maybe more in the present or just People are over a culture that might sometimes be fake or too salesy I think that you really need to create something that will make people feel good and create and offer something So when someone's following you why are they following you? You need to give people something to follow from the days that I'm really fully on social media I will do morning stories afternoon stories and night stories personally the influencers that do that on their stories are the ones that I enjoy their content the most and I also see that they are working with the most brands again It goes back to you have to give people something to follow People really want to see your space what you're eating and your outfits doing outfit stories is always really fun I love doing outfit stories, you know every day like kind of getting dressed up and putting on an outfit that you feel Good in and then documenting it that will give people ideas for outfits You just really want to create content that will help and make other people feel good and that could look like a lot of different things For different people, okay, and lastly how to go quickly on YouTube So YouTube is a space that is not only not really talked about on other platforms I don't really see people going on tiktok and talking about YouTube and how to grow on YouTube and I don't know YouTube but not it's not a dying platform, but I think that long format content has kind of Kind of went out during COVID. I feel like tiktok came about and people were Really drawn to that platform. It feeds kind of this addictive Nists that social media is in general and I feel like tiktok really feeds that and there are parts of our brain That are like addicted to tiktok and I feel like people have moved away from YouTube YouTube is definitely harder to leverage an audience from and what I mean by that is if you have a big Instagram following It can be hard to leverage your followers to come over to YouTube as someone who's been creating on YouTube for a long time And I know a lot of other creators and work with a lot of brands in the space I can tell you that first hand that it is really hard to grow on YouTube vast and a lot of people watch your videos and not Subscribe to them. I love YouTube because when I think that it's gonna make a total comeback And I think that people will get over tiktok. I personally am super over tiktok Which I'm gonna talk about later in this video, but I feel like Long format content is really more authentic for me. It is creatively better for me It makes me feel better about myself and about the content that I'm putting out and the version of me that you guys are seeing I feel like you really get to know me better, but that being said Anyone who is growing really fast on YouTube Like crazy fast is probably buying Subscribers or doing that sort of stuff because I'm telling you takes years unless you have like a few Crazy videos that go viral YouTube will take consistency it will take uploading vlogs once or twice a week consistently for Years it will really take letting people get to know you and your content and what you're going to offer the viewers And and if they want to be kind of a part of that journey Because a lot of people just watch YouTube and they don't subscribe So yeah, I would not be too discouraged if your YouTube is not growing really fast It is totally okay if you have high quality Authentic videos and you're loving it and you're really enjoying the process of vlogging and you want to get into it Don't be discouraged. Keep making videos. You have to stay consistent Brands want to see authentic content with an authentic engaged audience that brands now I feel like are focusing more on influencers that have that engaged audience than like the numbers playing the long game and Putting hard work in and being consistent will pay off this question is about influencers But it's not about the work part. It's about the people So have you had any bad experiences with influencers? So this might surprise a lot of people because I think the assumption About influencers are and this is why when I meet a stranger or my parents friends I like am hesitant to tell them what I do because I think that there is this stereotype that all influencers are miserable and vapid and and are mean and Self-obsessed that honestly couldn't really be farther from the experience that I personally had with influencers But I will say I am referring to New York influencers all the girls that I Hung out with and the main group of New York City influencers that you guys might know are all the most hard-working Sweet girls. I seriously never had Drama a bad experience a bad encounter at an event with any of these girls now I can't say the same about LA influencers and I've done some thinking on why that is like why Is it that way the biggest difference that I can highlight personally is that I feel like in New York Another influencer getting a good brand deal making content it performing well it doing well anyone finding success We are all rooting for each other. We have a big group chat We're all hyping each other up supporting each other going to each other's events Everyone wants everyone to do well and we all feel like there is room for everyone whereas in LA I have had negative experiences with other females and it really came down to me feeling like they felt like I was Competition they felt like I was a threat to them or do you know what I'm saying? It's just like seeing me as either someone that that they can become friends with and then we can have like a cool Friendship business relationship and help each other and root for each other or see me as someone who is competition to them who? They're almost threatened by and that is the experience that I've had with influencers in New York versus LA it honestly sucks because I Hate when there's a stereotype about a place and it's actually true Like I really wanted LA to be something that it wasn't and I don't really know why that is It's a bummer. I don't know why it's like that but the influencers in New York that I've become close with I really all consider them really close friends and Just like I have nothing but positive things to say about them. I always get so many questions about Toronto when I do Q&As it's actually really cool. Obviously in US is my main demographic I do have a pretty big percentage of Canadian followers, which is so cool because I love Canada I absolutely loved living in Toronto. I really miss it Someone asked what do I miss most about Toronto? I would say I miss my girlfriends that I made living there. I miss the city a lot It's a really cool pretty really beautiful city. The food was really good I missed all my girlfriends a lot since I was in the hockey community. I did make like a big group of girlfriends there Through that and we would all hang out a lot and do stuff So do really miss all those girls. I miss a lot of things about Toronto What is something you wish you knew freshman year of college? It's a great question Oh, I like feel like an entirely different person than I was freshman year of college Um, I feel like so much of what I've learned has been through time and experience My biggest life lessons have been through just time and through going through life and learning from each thing that I've been through the first thing that comes to my mind is Social media stuff because when I was a freshman in college I had no idea that I was going to be an influencer and was going to reach this many people and have as many eyes on me I had no idea maybe being more private when I was younger about my life because I was 1921 when I really started so I was really going through like being a freshman and and Posting a lot of things that were happening and like reacting to people being mean to me online And I didn't really know how to act online And I didn't really know what to share on what not to share So I would say like just be more private with your life just keep more things to yourself so young and I was just like going through life and Figuring things out. I think Learning boundaries with yourself and with privacy with social media are really important I would probably also say I don't regret moving to Toronto in college because I loved it and I did learn a lot But I would say I wish I would have prioritized my career a little bit more and myself a little bit more instead of kind of Following what my partner was doing and putting everything on the backboard There should be with him and focus on him and his life I wish I would have kind of focused a little bit more on myself now I have some questions about friendship stuff. Did you have trouble with mean girls in high school? So some of you might know I had a really unique high school experience and therefore I feel like it would be really hard for me to like compare my high school experience With the mass majority of people because it just was very very different I went to a sports Academy a sports specific Academy for downhill outpines ski racing. I literally had like 15 Kids in my class and 60 kids in my whole school And I lived dorms on the side of a mountain in the most northern part of Vermont Not only did I have to grow up pretty fast because I've been living away from home since I was in like sixth grade But we were all extremely independent. We were all really respectful of our team And the culture of the school was really really rooted in community. We had this thing called the honor code and Just like basically made when the school was founded and we really lived by the honor code And I feel like we had just like tremendous respect for each other Not only because we were all doing the same thing and working hard towards the same goal And the school just wouldn't really work if we were all fighting and being petty I'm really lucky that I didn't Have girl drama, but I also think it was a little bit of a curse because now in my adult life I have a really hard time dealing with mean girls and and girls who act in certain ways I don't really understand why they do and say and act in ways that they do and I don't know I just don't do well with drama. So in my adult life It's been actually a little bit trickier like I almost feel like if I dealt with more mean girls in high school and dealt with clickiness dealt with Jealousy and like that sort of thing I I would have dealt with it Maybe better in my adult life because I also went to a really unique college I went to the new school in Parsons in New York City, which is a design school didn't have sororities I didn't go to parties. I didn't go to college parties. I was going to bars just had a very unique Social life my whole life. So luckily I did not have to deal with mean girls I can think of like two big fights that I got into in high school And they were all with Olivia who is still my best friend and works for me We would get into the dumbest fights one of them was about soccer and then the other one was about something really stupid I don't even remember. Yeah another hard part about going to boarding school You make these friends from all over the world and all over the country And then you go to high school and become like family with them And then now we all live like in all over Almost no one from my boarding school lives in New York City or even close to here. So that kind of sucks Like these lifelong friends that I made that are like my people and I have more in common with probably than anyone I just like never really get to see a lot of them are still like living in the mountains or still ski racing I like some of them are even on the US ski team and the Olympics We're living in out West in Colorado or in Utah. Someone asked me about balloon I should have answered that question when he was in here. So if you didn't know I'll tell you guys the story Because I know that there are some of you guys that aren't new here. So I got blue about four years ago three or four years ago with my ex boyfriend when I was living in Toronto and When I was living in Toronto COVID hit So my boyfriend and I at the time moved home with blue to my parents in Connecticut My parents have a lot of land. They had two other dogs a pool It was just like a very good situation for COVID and then for blue obviously we were gonna bring him with us So I lived at home with my parents for a year and a half during COVID and then during COVID my boyfriend and I broke up It was like a nightmare breakup just like really really ugly and I was just a Disaster that year end of COVID to like me moving to LA was like probably some of the worst times in my life But my ex-boyfriend at the time didn't offer to take blue. I think he just kind of assumed that I was gonna keep him Which is fine because honestly, I probably wouldn't know obviously hard But that was fine with me when him and I broke up. I didn't really know where to go what to do I didn't want to go back to New York I didn't want to live at home and I felt like okay. I guess I have to go to LA I actually only been to LA once before moving there. I had no idea What LA was about did not know what I was getting myself into But blue had been living at home for a year and a half and he was really happy much happier than when we lived in Toronto parents became very close with the dog and we just decided what was best for blue and for me at the time was For me to go try LA and for blue to stay at home where he had been living And I planned on eventually bringing him out to LA then I hated LA my life kind of like blew up just some terrible shit happened I moved back home and then I'm then I moved back to New York And blue was back and forth between New York and my parents mainly in New York with me Which you guys probably have seen in my old vlogs and then blue started having a lot of health issues Giant dog breeds have a lot of bone issues just because they're so so big But he was having serious hip issues To the point where like when he would walk he would like be in a ton of pain So then he started just living at home with my parents and then now we're here and he's just been at my parents I do get criticized sometimes saying I abandoned him, you know was irresponsible of me All the things but ultimately this is my reality I'm gonna make choices that are best for for my dog and for me and if people have something to say about it That's just life. I probably shouldn't have gotten a dog with my boyfriend I would say if you were to learn anything from me It's to wait to get a dog with someone that you're engaged to or married to because you just never know what's gonna happen That being said, I do not regret getting blue at all He's been a big part of my life and my family's life and and yeah, but when I moved to Connecticut I really wanted him to be here with me when I wasn't traveling because my parents live close enough where They are more than happy to drop him off We just needed to get some like fencing up at my house here before he was able to come And now I did that so he's gonna be spending time with me here when I'm here And that was a very long-winded blue story But that I would explain it to you guys because I have gotten quite a few questions about that How do you feel about people having an opinion on everything you do? um, I don't know I feel like I Set myself up for that like I think while the internet has become a very different space and it is a very like vile scary um Space that is full of a lot of online bullying now and a lot of negativity and a lot of people on fake accounts Kind of taking their anger out on other people I think that I create content for people to You know, hopefully love but I don't expect everyone to understand or love me at all And it is a part of the job something that I've realized over these years are that if you gain an audience of people that Really love you like really love you and really support you and really feel like they know you Actually, you're gonna have the flip side of that So you're gonna have the people that really really love you and know you and they're gonna have the people that hate you and feel like they really really know You and then on the hate side those hateful people will spin Narratives rumors their own projections of how they feel about themselves on me So negative opinions on me some I do apply as actual constructive criticism and I don't have a big ego I don't think that I'm always right. I don't think that I've done everything perfectly. I definitely have made mistakes I think that sometimes people can highlight influencers mistakes More than they would highlight the mistakes that they've made in their own life It's much easier to pick through everything that I've done wrong When we're all having a human experience like I'm going to continue to make mistakes And I am just a human but people who actually like want what's best for me and give me their opinion on things I'm always down to hear them out and listen. I don't know I love my job and I love what I do. So I've just learned that it's a part of the job There's the quote that like if you don't want to be judged do nothing say nothing and be nothing and I don't want that Okay, one last question and I'm gonna sign off But I will be doing these regularly So if you guys have some new questions, you can ask me next time how to move on from a toxic relationship This is the question that is that I get in almost every Q&A that I asked to be honest with you guys The last two relationships that I was in were at times quite toxic The toxic cycle of the good being really good and the bad being really really bad More so in my last relationship than the one before that for me personally Knowing wholeheartedly that I deserved more like it took me gaining more self-worth to walk away From a situation that was not good for me. It was not healthy for me. I needed to walk away I needed to gain the self-confidence to walk away I needed to realize what I offered not only as a partner, but in my life I have so many things I want to do I have a lot of aspiration seeing a situation for what it is personally for me when I've left toxic Relationships or situations. I just really they needed to look at the situation Realistically and look at it as a whole and and also see it out long term because I'm someone who dates to marry Like I don't date someone unless I feel like I'm gonna be with them for a very long time It was really helpful for me to look at the bigger picture of things and be like is this how I want to feel for the rest of My life is this really gonna make me the best version of myself and it is really hard to gain self-confidence in toxic Relationships because you're really confident when it's high and then you're really not when it's bad And I think that's why you stay stuck in that cycle. It took me being very mindful I was praying a lot looking a little bit more within if I feel like that's What helped me a lot, but that's gonna look different for everyone I know often we can go to our friends and our friends can be like this person isn't good for you You need to leave them like why are you still with them? And I know personally how hard it is no matter what any of your friends say you need to come to a realization With something on your own and you're probably gonna end up going back to that person So fully coming to terms with it yourself first is super important I think getting advice and support from friends is always good But like make your own choices and just make sure you're coming to that Realization really on your own. I think that's really important before I go I've gotten two phones and this has helped my mental health so much and this is probably not gonna be that applicable to Most people watching But maybe you run a business or maybe you spend a lot of time in your phone for work And maybe this will help someone but but I was having a really hard time having work life Separation and I felt like even when I was checking a simple text. I would also check all my other socials I also get so many messages and inbound stuff every day from my followers and just from a lot going on And I feel like it was too much. I was reading too much and I was just spending too much time on my social media Just because of work then just from being like someone who has a phone with social media But I was starting to really dissociate and what I mean by that is I would be a really bad communicator on my phone because my phone kind of became Like a source of like work and it became something that like I didn't always like really like or enjoy Anyways, I've just been struggling a little bit recently with work life separation and just like Protecting my peace a little bit better You really have to protect yourself and protect your mental health and protect your peace Because there are a lot of people who are a lot of people that are not only evil online and all that but also just in general Consuming that much content is not always good for you and seeing that much content so quickly in such a short period of time For me personally makes my ADHD so much worse Um, and I feel like my brain was like literally fucking melting So I got a phone that has that is a new phone number that has no social media on it and only my closest friends and family This is the phone that I sleep with besides my bed found that I was really bad at responding to like my closest friends and even my family Um, I was just like really bad on my phone and it wasn't because I wasn't on my phone It was almost because I was on my phone too much and that might not make sense to people But it's just like how it went but then this is my work phone and I have all my social media on this phone And I do not sleep with this in my bedroom. I will wake up. I will do my morning routine I will get on the computer even do work and I will not check this yet Um, if I want to take photos in the morning of like in my bedroom on my outfits or something I'll take them on here and then I'll post them on here when I'm sitting on the couch watching TV I put this phone away. I'm not gonna be scrolling on tiktok aimlessly I've also filtered all the comments on all my social and I feel really good about it So I wanted to tell you guys that I know that not everyone is an influencer who is watching Probably most people aren't but if you work on your phone, maybe like you could do the same Um, but yeah, I love you guys so much so excited for the giveaway Um, they're just gonna be like boxes of PR stuff beauty product all that so yeah the next vlog I will announce the winners and then I'll message you guys personally. I love you so much and thank you for watching