 It's honestly crazy to think that we might not even be here much longer. Hey y'all, my name is Snolly. Welcome to my channel. If you guys are new and if you are, definitely hit that subscribe button. I have not posted on YouTube in a month. And that's not a thing for me, not a thing for this channel. I come up with an upload schedule of Monday and Thursday. Since this is my first video back, I wanted to catch you guys up and do a Q&A. You guys of course delivered with the juicy questions. So while we go through and answer all of those, we are also gonna be making one of my newest obsessions, which is cowboy caviar. I know it had a moment on TikTok last summer, but I feel like it deserves to have another moment this summer because it's just so good. And I feel like not a lot of people know about it still. So this video is my PSA to you that you have to make this cowboy caviar. It's pretty much like a bunch of vegetables, corn, beans, and then you just eat it with chips. And my boyfriend that doesn't love the healthiest meals loves this. So that was definitely a win and also why I'm making it this week. So I can just have a big bowl of it so that we can just eat it whenever we're wanting a snack. Not the most aesthetic thing in my kitchen, but the most realistic cause it has a lid and it's giant. So we're gonna just start with this bowl right here. I had a mini panic attack because I came home from the grocery store and I was like, oh my God, I forgot the beans and the corn, which is like the main part of cowboy caviar. But then I realized I had it stocked up in my pantry. I have like literally six more cans of each because I just love this stuff so much. First, we're gonna start by draining the black beans. So I'm gonna do that really quick and then come back on camera. Blop them in. I only do one can of beans, but I love some corn. So I'm gonna do two cans of corn. We'll start with the first question and I feel like it's very fitting for the first question because it kind of explains why I haven't really posted on YouTube and they are asking if I'm quitting YouTube. Oh, why did I do that? Definitely meant to drain it in here. I just don't know if I can be multitasking like this, guys. Obvious answer is that I'm not quitting YouTube but I honestly just have not really felt very passionate about posting on YouTube. If I'm being completely transparent, it's just the fact that it takes so much time. I don't really even hit 1,000 views anymore and I have like around 36,000 subscribers, which I know followers and counts don't really matter, but it is a little bit discouraging because I started YouTube when I was 16 back in 2013. I believe half my followers, probably more than half, are ghost followers. Like they probably don't even open the YouTube app anymore. I have been a little bit discouraged about that but then also I just didn't know like what to make content about because I loved blogging and specifically I liked blogging just so I could have the memories. Editing takes so long. I did try out hiring a video editor. I actually tried hiring too but it was just really expensive. I really don't make that much money from YouTube for it to pay off. So I just really wanted to feel that like spark of motivation again and not that I'm fully there but I really want to get there and just kind of explore different avenues of content kind of like this one. And I also think that travel has thrown me off so much. I am such a routine person that if I'm not in my own house or like, you know, more than a week, I'm like, oh, what's the point of getting in a routine when I'm just gonna like, you know, pack up my suitcase and travel again. I feel like I've been traveling quite a bit since like February, March and it's finally starting to slow down which I'm very happy about. I cannot wait to just experience the Austin summer that I love. We did one can of beans, two cans of corn and now we're gonna do some veggie prep. I brought out the Magical Veggie Chopper. This thing just saves so much freaking time and I'm not the best at chopping veggies. So we will be using this today. I know my mom's gonna wash this and tell me to put up my hair. So we're clipping it up. I recently learned this hack on how to cut a bell pepper and make it just like way easier to chop up. So you take off the top part. So it kind of looks like that. Then you take off the bottom part. Maybe a little more. So it looks like that. Then you just kind of carve this middle thing out and it makes it so much easier. Just pull it out and you're left with this. The next question says, are you moving when your lease is up? And there was another question about an update on house hunting. It's honestly crazy to think that we might not even be here much longer because we might be buying a house. And I really, really hope it happens this year. Our lease ends in November. We actually signed I think an 18 month lease because we wanted to lock in our rate for longer. And I'm actually really glad we did because a lot of people said, oh, in April the housing market is gonna get better. So it's a good time to buy, but it never really did get better. Like the interest rates are still really high. Now people are telling us to wait to buy. But like I said, lease is up in November. So I don't really wanna wait. I really just submitted all my documents to get pre-approved. So I haven't really even done that yet, but I have been like looking at Zillow every single day. But one of my friends is buying a house soon too. And she was starting to look in like January or February or something. And is only now kind of like wrapping it up. So she's like, you need to start actually taking it more seriously like today, like yesterday. I was like, oh crap, just because it's scary. Like it's a really big adult decision. I don't know, I feel like a baby. I just cut the bell peppers up into like little squares because this chopper attachment will probably only fit that. So let's start. You kind of have to like really like smack it down. So sorry if it's loud. There we go. Grace about what area we're looking in. I mean, ideally I would love to stay in East Austin just cause it's, you know, I feel like up and coming. There's just so many new restaurants popping up and just a really fun part of the town. You would ask me that two years ago, I definitely would have said Mueller. But now I just don't even want any house that's like attached to another house, like a town house pretty much. And I also really want a backyard. And I feel like a lot of houses in Austin have like a little sliver of a backyard, especially in Mueller. And I'm not really willing to give up that like amenity of a house. So I'm kind of over Mueller. And obviously with our budget, we're definitely, you know, having to look outside the city, like not too far out cause I'm not gonna buy a house so, so far out. Like I literally hate driving. So, and I want to be close to like UT because I'm a photographer. And I specialize in UT grads. And so I'm there like twice a day for like three months out of my kind of like seasons. So it's important for me to be like closer to that. So we're thinking we'll be up North, but honestly I've seen a lot of great houses now. So I feel like for the most part we do have an open mind. The next question is, is Ryan back for good? And yes, he is. So if you guys are new to my channel, Ryan went back to Georgia. That's where we're both from. We met in high school. So we're kind of from the same hometown. And he went to Georgia for six months just to try to save more money for the house and just not eat out and all of that kind of stuff. Cause we eat out a freak ton. I mean, I feel like we definitely slowed down compared to what, you know, it used to be. So we're definitely eating at home a lot more, which I like because I also like to cook and I also know what's going on in my body, but I do love a good meal at all. I freaking love red onions. These are so underrated honestly, because you can eat them so many different ways, but it just adds so much to a meal. So this definitely has to go in our cowboy caviar. Next question is, do you ever miss Georgia slash would you ever move back to Georgia? I honestly don't really miss it very much. I mean, maybe when I go home, I'm like, ah, you know, this is really nice weather during the summer. We were like not sweating at all compared to Austin where you like walk out of your door and your dripping sweat instantly. Yeah, I missed that. I missed the weather of Georgia for sure. I missed my family, but I don't miss Georgia. Even just thinking about having a wedding and like where it would be, I don't really feel connected to Georgia. And sometimes we'll get DMs like, oh, I know you're like from Atlanta, do you have any recommendations for Atlanta? And I'm like, honestly, I have not lived there in eight years, isn't that crazy? It's been eight freaking years. I cannot believe it's been that long since I've lived there. And I did live in the suburbs. So I think it would have been a different experience if I was in the city, but I just love Austin so much. So I don't think I see myself really moving back anytime soon at least. I mean, never say never. I loved this next question because I immediately knew exactly what to say for it. It reads, what is the cringiest thing you've done for social media? And it's funny because I'm literally working with this brand again, but the first time I worked with them and it was my Lumify ad. So the redness reliever drops, the eye drops, and they're good. They brighten your eyes. They like make them look so white. The product is great, but what I had to do for this ad that I did was so cringy. And basically they had like a sound. It was kind of back when music on TikTok was important, like trending sounds was super important. So they made a Lumify song and they wanted us to dance with our eyes. And I literally like when I read the brief, I like started laughing to myself. I was like, you gotta be joking. But it wasn't a joke. So I danced with my eyes. Honestly, it could have been cringier, but like they boosted it. So it did get a lot of hate. I mean, it was just funny. You could probably honestly look it up on TikTok. I did like more of like a before and after kind of thing. Half the comments were like, oh, I thought she was gonna fix her eyebrows. And I was like, cool. So that's probably the cringiest thing I can remember. I've kind of come to terms with the fact that a lot of things I do is cringy. And I tell a lot of my friends, I'm like, I know I'm cringy. Just like, you don't even have to watch my stuff. Like I'd rather you not watch my YouTube videos if you know me. I'd rather just like, I don't know, have this be like my personal diary. But if you do know me in person, then just close your eyes up the cringy parts, please. I don't even think I'll have to take out the peppers. It might all fit in here. I guess this doesn't eliminate the onion tears all the way, cause I'm definitely feeling all that coming. I almost forgot the jalapeno, but we have it right here. And I believe that's everything. Look how satisfying it is just to see all the vegetables chopped up. It's time to dump it in. This thing is literally gonna feel us for days. Like this is so much time for the best part. We're gonna do the dressing, which makes it so much more yummy. And we're gonna start by putting into some olive oil to a bowl. Honestly guys, I'm so bad at measuring. And now I see why my grandma never has measurements. Cause if you make a meal so many times, you kind of just like know how much you're supposed to put in. But I would say like about maybe a little over two tablespoons. And then we're gonna use rice vinegar because I don't think I have regular vinegar. So I think that this should be a good substitution. So we're gonna do like maybe a little under a tablespoon of that. This is the key ingredient, honey. You have to put honey in the mixture. It tastes so freaking good. So we're just gonna eye it and probably just add in the whole bottle. Cause why not? There's like a lot of vegetables in here. So I want it to be covered. I think I'm gonna juice a whole lime. This lime is pretty large. We'll continue with the questions. The next question is, do you ever regret quitting your corporate job and are you still doing photography? No, I never ever, ever regret quitting my corporate job. And I'm so grateful that I was able to do so. I never thought I would say this, but I do miss kind of having someone above me telling me what to do. Not every day, obviously, but I kind of miss that because for me being self-employed, I, you know, have the most flexible schedule, but sometimes I don't even know where to start. I don't know what's a priority. I don't know, you know, what's a deadline and what can be kind of pushed off. So that is really hard. And also having a flexible schedule, you really don't have to work some days if you didn't want to. And so there are some days that I do take advantage of that and I wish I didn't. When I had my corporate job, it was pretty much work from home plus a little bit of travel, which I ended up hating about the job. But honestly, it was probably the best job I could have had out of college. It was a content creator for a student housing property management, what is it called? Property management company? Yeah. And so I would travel and take photos and videos of the properties for marking materials and all that kind of stuff. So it was very like cool. Like I got to see my photos blown up on like posters and my videos play as like Snapchat ads. And it was just great to have the corporate experience. But yes, I am still doing photography. Right now it is my slow season of photography. Like I said, I specialize in UT grads. So their season is really like February, March till May and then a little bit in the fall. I don't get too many bookings in the fall but I'm hoping that will change. It's just really about people knowing that I exist and that my services exist. So I definitely need to work on marketing myself but it's just a lot to handle because I have my personal and my content creation, Instagram, TikTok, all that. And then I have my photography, Instagram, TikTok and all of that. So it's a lot to keep up with. I'm not gonna lie. That's why I kind of put the photography stuff on the back burner and like update it maybe once a week which is horrible, I know. Cause that's like a really good way of people to find me. But I do want to do more couples and honestly high school seniors. I've definitely done a good handful but again, it's word of mouth. And since my Instagram page is so many of UT grads maybe high school seniors look at it and they're like, oh, she doesn't even do seniors. So I want to change that. And hopefully I'll start working on that now that I'm home. The end of every grad season I go through a really bad burnout with photography and sometimes I'll get DMs of people like asking me, you know, if I'm available for a shoot and I'll literally be like, I'm busy just cause I want like a little bit of a break. So it's kind of nice. It's a little bit chill right now but I am really ready to get back into it cause I am craving to do more shoots. I'm gonna just taste the dressing. It's definitely missing some more lime and I'm just gonna go ahead and get the extract because I don't have too many more limes and I don't want to put it all on this cowboy caviar. So let's do that a lot better. They're not done yet. Still have some garnishes to put on. First being cilantro and I am horrible. I got the pre-cut ones at AGV. These are honestly just the best. So we're just gonna do lots of cilantro. Actually, I was gonna say a little but lots cause it's so good. And then what makes it so delicious is avocado. And I learned this trick from my mom. When you eat this cowboy caviar, like put it in a separate bowl and then add avocado so it's fresh and it doesn't brown because like I said, we're kind of like meal prepping this for the whole week. So I want the avocado to stay nice and green. I think this is our last question. They're wanting to know some tips on how to monetize as a beginner influencer and I could talk about this all freaking day cause I feel like there's many ways to monetize. You guys are on TikTok or Instagram. You probably know about Like to Know It and the Amazon influencer program. So I definitely recommend you look into that but the thing is you have to get accepted into both. It's really not super hard to get accepted. I've actually done a few videos on setting up in Like to Know It and the Amazon influencer. Like Amazon storefront, all that kind of stuff. So if you guys are interested, definitely check that out. But a lot of people apply and then they get rejected and then they DM me and ask why. And then I go to their Instagram and don't see any shoppable content. And what I mean by that is like, you know, here's my outfit. I bought it at blank. Like maybe even like tag the brands. You can literally make anything shoppable but you really need to show that you're already doing it to get accepted because they're not going to just accept anyone that just is posting random family pictures every, you know, six months. So you really gotta stay consistent even before making the money. Another tip that I can give you guys is starting to build those relationships with brands. So yes, you can reach out to them but know that that will not get you a paid brand deal right from the start. I personally think you'll be at a disadvantage if you reach out to them and kind of just tell them your rates off of that. So if you are a beginner, still reach out and accept the gifted product and almost treat it like it's a brand deal. Make really great content. Kind of just go above and beyond if you have the time. Email them back with like all the links that you may have posted. Maybe you want to share the analytics too. That will literally impress the brand so much that they may come back to you with a paid opportunity. I would love to do a full video on content creation but honestly I just like would not know where to start. So if you guys would want that, let me know. And then maybe I could do a question box on my Instagram. So that concludes our yummy and beautiful cowboy caviar and you can serve it with whatever chips you want. I got these for Ryan, they're delicious. And just like the normal chips but I love these Seattle chips. I think they're just, yeah, the sea salt ones. And I feel like they're a little bit thicker so they can handle more of a scoop, you know? Here's a little close up of all that vegetable goodness. And like I said, if you guys do not really like prefer vegetables on a normal daily basis, like this will change your life because the dressing makes it like that hint of sweetness. You will not be able to stop eating this honestly. I hope you guys enjoyed this video. Go ahead and follow me on Instagram and TikTok. That's kind of where I post everyday stuff. More real time content too because I feel like YouTube is a little bit delayed especially for vlogs and stuff. So I can interact with you guys more on those two social platforms. I do have a threads account but I don't see myself using that. Let me know what you guys think about threads. I'm just not here for it. I thought Twitter was like phasing out. I was happy that I didn't have to think about one more platform. So this coming up, I'm like, are you kidding me? As always, if there's anything specifically you wanna see on my channel, let me know in the comments. If you guys have any video ideas, I definitely wanna get back more into my Austin content. And I'm actually starting a new series very soon so get excited for that. And lastly, don't forget to subscribe. I'm gonna be posting every Monday and Thursday so you'll have two videos a week for me. I'm so excited to start posting again on YouTube and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye. Guys, add garlic powder. It's so good in it.