October 1, 2025 • 49 mins
In this day and age, we all enjoy a few parasocial relationships with people we follow but haven’t actually met and in fact most of our guests on the show feel that way before we record. But this week’s guest goes even further beyond that and into the realm of an honorary family member who’s with us in our lounge room, kitchen and sometimes even bedroom every single day…
In the ultimate case of #IYKYK, anyone listening who’s at a similar stage of life to us won’t need any further context than her name to understand why it was so surreal to sit down with the incredible Ms Moni for our episode this week. But for those who don’t know, I am so excited to have educator, musician, mum of two and Australia’s answer to Ms Rachel jump right out of her booming YouTube channel to join the show.
Ms Moni - otherwise known as Monica Ferreira - brings years of teaching experience to her interactive toddler learning videos on YouTube using interactive songs, stories and adventures to help our little ones develop language and social skills wherever they are. I was introduced to her after some of my own followers realised Teddy had been picking up American sign language before I realised sign language wasn’t universal, and we’ve never looked back.
But even if you too know her face and voice as well as we do, you may not know the amazing story of how she ended up where she is today. I won’t give it away too much more but I had no idea about her medical sliding doors moment, other businesses she has started, and was dying to know more for behind the scenes of how she edits her videos, writes her lyrics and which instrument she actually plays.
Wildly, this was her first podcast EVER (even though you wouldn’t know it at all from her eloquence and poise). She’s as delightful as you think she’d be from her videos and I hope you enjoy as much as I did.
Get tickets to our live show here.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've never felt more in my place ever until now.
I'm like, Wow, this feels like what I'm meant to
be doing. We're like this just makes sense, Like everything
that has happened has led us to this, and it
feels incredible and I'm just so grateful. And we still fail,
Like there's still things that we fail at and we
keep trying and we keep We're always learning.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
one way. So this is a platform to hear and
explore the stories of those who found lives They adore,
the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
(00:42):
will bear all the facets of seizing your Yea. I'm
Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned
fu entrepreneur whos wapped the suits and heels to co
found matcha Maiden and matcha Milk Bar. Ces. The Ya
is a series of conversations on finding a life you
love and explore trying the self doubt challenge, joy and
fulfillment along the way. In this day and age, all
(01:07):
of us enjoy a few parasocial relationships with people we
follow and feel like we know but haven't actually met,
And in fact, a lot of our guests on this
show feel a bit like that before we record. But
this week's guest goes even further beyond that and into
the realm of an honorary family member, because she's with
us in our lounge, room, in our kitchen, and sometimes
even our bedroom every single day. In the ultimate case
(01:30):
of if you know, you know, anyone listening who's at
a similar stage of life to us won't need any
further context than her name to understand why it was
so surreal to sit down with the incredible Miss Mooney
for our episode this week. But for those who don't know,
I am so excited to have had educator, musician mum
of two and Australia's answer to Miss Rachel, jump right
(01:52):
out of her booming YouTube channel to join the show.
Miss Money otherwise known as Monica Ferrera, although much like
my teachers that's I cannot bring myself to call her that,
brings years of teaching experience to her interactive toddler learning
videos on YouTube using interactive songs, which by the way,
are absolute bangers, stories and adventures to help our little
(02:13):
ones develop language and social skills wherever they may be.
I was introduced to her after some of my own
followers saw that Teddy had been picking up American sign
language from Miss Rachel before I realized that sign language
wasn't universal, and of course I wasn't going to have
him speaking in an American accent, even though it was
in sign language. And from that very first video with
her bright yellow costume and big smile, we have never
(02:35):
looked back. But even if you too know Miss Monny's
face and voice as well as we do, you may
not know the amazing story of how she ended up
where she is today. Of course, you know we love
a good path yay. I won't give away too much
more on the intro, but I had no idea before
I started researching about her medical, sliding doors moment, the
other businesses that she has started, and I was dying
(02:55):
to know more from behind the scenes about how she
edits her videos. It writes her lyrics, and which of
the instruments that you see her playing that she can
actually play in real life, which spoiler alert is more
than one. Wildly, this was Miss Money's first podcast ever,
even though you wouldn't know it at all from her
eloquence and poise. She is as delightful as you'd think
she'd be from her videos, and I hope you enjoyed
(03:17):
this one as much as I did. Miss Money. Hi, Hi,
welcome to the show. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I'm excited to chat. I'm excited this is my first podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I know. I still can't believe it. It is such
a privilege and it made me laugh so much when
you joined the call and said you're not very good
at tech because you're a YouTuber extraordinaire.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
No, I just I'm a mum just doing something, you know,
some videos on the side.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh my gosh, absolutely not. You are a household name,
if not a household hero. Oh, I mean, you're literally
saving our life and providing a wonderful soundtrack for everything
we do. So thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I get so much joy out of hearing a mum
say you gave me an opportunity to have a shower.
Oh I know that feeling. Yeah, Like I know that feeling,
and it's just oh.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, Well, I am so honored to be your very
first podcast, and particularly because one thing I love doing
on this show is showing a side of people that
they know a little bit less about. And I mean
hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of Australians see you
every day and know your facial expressions intimately, but obviously
(04:31):
without many other podcasts being out there, don't know much
about how you got there, what goes on behind the scenes.
And Nick and I always talk to each other about
I wonder how she chooses the songs or how do
you know which ones are going to land? Well, So
I can't wait to dive into all.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Of that, but sounds great.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I start every episode going all the way back to
the beginning to your childhood, because I think that is
such a beautiful formative time where a lot of the
seeds are planted for where you end up, even if
you don't necessarily know it at the time. So, born
and raised in Adelaide, what was your childhood like and
what did you think that you wanted to be?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I had a really nice childhood. I mean I started
violin when I was eight, and so that sort of
really just took my life into that direction of music
in the arts. Since I was in primary school. As
soon as I picked up the violin, I just loved
it and I was just practicing all the time. And
then I excelled really quickly into it. And then I
got into a special interest music school in Adelaide, which
(05:33):
you know, then obviously music was really solidified, and everything
I was doing, I didn't really have my heart set on,
you know, going down the performer pathway. I was really
just very much go with the flow.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And that flow took you all the way to Queensland
to the Conservatorium, so such strong musical roots.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, so I auditioned for the con because my brother
came to Brisbane. But then I also was like, oh,
maybe i'll have a gap year, or maybe i'll go
do medical science. I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I was just so blase about it all. And then
I just hit the ground running. I loved being out
the con and just being surrounded and I feel like
music was really a big part of my childhood and
sort of led me to where I am. But I
didn't have anything in mind that I will be a
performer or I'll be a teacher or anything like that.
That sort of came a bit more towards the end
(06:27):
of my degree.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, it's so fascinating because you know, people often say
one day you'll end up in a job that didn't
exist when you first started school. And I mean, of
course you didn't grow up thinking I want to be
a famous YouTuber because YouTube didn't exist, so of course
you couldn't have known. But along the way with the arts,
obviously you've turned it into such an incredible career. But
(06:51):
I think there is often a bit of a hierarchy
of career pathways when we go through school with a
slant towards something stafe and sensible. Were you ever dissuaded
from the arts because of that? Because I know a
lot of people have such a dick passion for music
or acting or whatever form of the arts it is,
(07:11):
and then don't continue pursuing it because family pressure or
because they think I need to do something more stable.
Did you ever have that or did you just roll
with it?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Not? Really? Like my family really supportive though, really supportive,
and my brother I was kind of following his footsteps
because he went to the con and played the cello
and so were sort of a big part of our
upbringing was music, and so I think that was only
natural to sort of go down that path, but I
mean not really. I feel like once I got to
the con and you know, after a year, you're just like, Okay,
(07:43):
well I'm not a prodigy. You know what am I
going to do?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I feel like you are. I feel like I.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Just enjoyed my time at the con. I was you know,
we'd practice and then we'd go for coffees with our
mates and it was just such a beautiful time. And
I feel like that was really just the highlight of
my twenties, was just how free I felt and that
I was doing music and enjoying it. But I knew
that it wasn't going to be Okay, I want to
go and perform in an orchestra, because that's a whole
(08:11):
other level. It's a whole nother space. So I was
just like, where am I going? Okay, well, teaching kind
of feels like the most natural path at that point,
but you know it just yeah, I think I was
always so supported that I was free to make those
decisions on my own.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Oh that's really beautiful. And I mean obviously the translation
of the Conservatorium with your diphed have led to exactly
where you are the dots are connecting in such an
extraordinary way. But you did start in the classroom after
you'd finish your education degree, So how long were you
a teacher and what was that chapter? Like?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So I did my dip head. I mean, I had
no idea about teaching at all, and I loved it,
Like not so much the high school because I looked
like a high school kid teaching class cool kids like
I'm really sure, I'm one hundred and fifty three centimeters
and I'm just around these high schoolers. I'm like, oh,
what you have to So I didn't love the high
(09:07):
school part. But then I ended up getting a job
where I did my prack, which was beautiful, and then
I did classroom music from kindy to year five, and
then year six to twelve was violin. I don't know,
I loved it, and especially just the kindy kids, like
I really feel like I connected most of them, which
is really resonates with what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It set you up extremely well. It's so funny that
I have no idea your height because there's nothing on
the screen relativize, and I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Have anyone like standing next to you. The hotel on
my back of my high school jumper says Mini Money. Yeah,
Money was in my high school nickname, and mini because
sometimes it's.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Been such a long time in the making. Well, one
of the big preoccupations I have with people's pathways, or
we call them path ya the way to finding the
joy that you have in the chapter we often meet
you in, which is as mismoney is the pathway pivot,
and especially the ones that are unexpected, often challenging at
(10:16):
the time. And I think sometimes life throws things at
you that feel grueling and you don't know why at
the time, and they throw all of your directions sort
of into disarray, and then later you look back and
you're like, that's why that needed to happen, So you
were enjoying your teaching career. And I also think that's
(10:39):
one of the interesting things is that sometimes people have
a pivot because they decide they're unhappy and they'll leave,
whereas sometimes it's sort of involuntary. Something happens. What happened
to you and how did it redirect you to where
you are?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah? Absolutely, Well, yeah, like you said, everything was going
really well with teaching. It was just all flowing.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Really.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I see, I was in a new relationship with Nelson,
and everything was just smooth, you know. And then I
can't really pinpoint exactly what happened, but it was just
a slight sort of ankle injury, like a roll or
something that happened at work, and it was just you'd
think it was nothing. And then over a few months,
I guess it turned into something called complex regional pain syndrome,
(11:23):
which is basically a nervous system being in complete overdrive
and just being like confused about what's going on. So
there is nothing wrong physically with my ankle, but it
thinks that there's it's in huge danger. So I could
not put my foot to the ground because it was
just I'd get shocks and it was just on fire.
It felt like my ankle was on fire. I did
(11:45):
not get diagnosed with it for at least over a year,
but I have always been very determined. So I saw
over forty different practitioners, including someone who thought I had
rheumatoid arthriders and someone who was injecting thirty or forty
injections of saline down my leg once a week because
(12:06):
I didn't know what it was. And so then finally
I found the right person who told me what it was.
I went into a hospital for a pain rehab program
for a week, which was amazing, just to learn about
pain and like how it works and what I was
going through and the things that I could do, And
so finally I could get my head in the game.
(12:28):
I had to leave my job, so teaching in the classroom,
I just I had to leave and then I could
really focus on myself because I was just becoming so
negative and the issue was that this thing had taken
over my identity. So I decided to leave, and it
was the best thing because then I could really focus
on my health and I got myself back on track.
(12:48):
And then I started my own violin studio from home.
But I just wasn't able or ready to go back
to the classroom. But I missed that connection with the kids.
So in the meantime, I was just trying to find
work online, and I worked for my brother as a
project manager online for a little while as well, and
that was great because you know, I sort of got
an idea of that sort of e commerce well, which
(13:08):
has been helpful to what I'm doing now as well.
Then one day, when after we had our daughter, we
sort of started experimenting with screen time after she turned
about one and a lot of parents were going to YouTube.
So yeah, and she sort of started watching a few
shows and everything, and a few like really great American shows,
(13:29):
and then we were like noticing that she's sort of
developing a bit of an American accent, okay, and like
for us, Ozzie's I feel like that's not really a novelty,
whereas like in America they love the Australian accent. I mean,
we're in the Bluey era at the moment as well,
And so for us, we were like, oh, I think
(13:50):
it's really important that she's seeing and hearing an Australian voice.
And so there's the beautiful music channels, but nothing that
sort of melds the music and the education maybe speech
development as well, when they're watching at such a young age,
when that age is so important for speech development as well.
So yeah, that's kind of where it led me to,
(14:13):
and we just took off from there.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I guess, Oh my gosh. And it's so funny because
I truly believe that the universe has wild ways of
making sure that you end up where you're supposed to
be one.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Hundred percent, Like I can. I've never felt more in
my place ever until now. I'm like, Wow, this feels
like what I'm meant to be doing. And Nelson as well,
like we just were like this just makes sense, Like
everything that has happened has led us to this, and
it feels incredible and I'm just so grateful.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, And it's also such an important reminder to our
listeners too that if they meet you now, which many
of us do, you'd have no idea that there was
a period where you couldn't work, you couldn't walk, or
have the sense of direction purpose that you do now.
But so many of us go through something like this
along the way, and you can come out the other end.
(15:06):
I think this is just the part of people's story
that doesn't get as much airtime, and particularly with CRPS.
I wasn't glad to hear you experienced it, of course,
but I was glad to be able to cover it
on the show because a dear listener turned friend, Kate
has been a longtime sufferer and it just seems like
such a little known, misunderstood condition that she has often
(15:29):
felt so isolated by and even traveled overseas to be
treated for and it's invisible as well, so very difficult
for anyone else to understand what you're going through. But
I think you give such hope to others that you
can overcome it and build an incredible career afterwards that
you never expected.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
There's definitely hope. Like, honestly, yeah, if you had spoken
to me, even during that time, I was just a
different person because it just took over my life. But
then I just had that fire in sign me that
I was like, no, like, if I can do anything
to avoid going down the aisle in a wheelchair and
do it, do you know what I mean? Like that
was just where I was at. I just wasn't going
to give up. Yeah, but you know, it was still
(16:09):
really hard. But I think there's definitely hope.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And I think Kate had also said she'd never heard
of anyone else who had had CPS, and if she had,
they were still in the throes of trying to manage it,
whereas in your case, you're an incredible example of someone
who can not only come through it and obviously walk
down the aisle, but also to become an incredible dancer.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Oh you uio.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Choreography is insane.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's the one area that I have the least confidence in.
Stop bitch. Yes, I'm so embarrassed about my dancing. It's okay,
I'm working on it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Okay. So in construction crew, there's a scene where there's
like five of you and one of you is flossing
on the top floor of a building. I see it
every time. I'm like, she got moves.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
No, it was a fluke. I'm not kidding you. It was.
I was like, I can't believe I did it that
long in a row, and don't ask me to do
it again. It's a fluke. I don't know if you've
seen my Halloween episode, I did miss like that little
move and that was a fluke as well. And last
night we were having a Halloween dance party last night
and I was trying to do It's like, because there's
(17:16):
been about a year since I've posted that video, and
I was like, I can't do it again.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I love how you're like, I don't know if you've
seen I've seen them all all the songs, all the routines.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You know what's weird. I was thinking about this the
other day. I was like, there are so many kids
and families out there who know my videos a hundred
times better than I do because I make them. I
watched them before I post, we watched them, we post it,
and I never watch it again. Do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Stop it? Even Nick, like Nick is the one so
has fun fact, it's actually Nick who lined this up
because we have been obsessed with Miss Monty. Obviously you
are a staple in our household. And this was because
it's funny that you mentioned we had been When we
did sort of introduce screen time, it was only educational shows,
(17:59):
and of course we went straight to Miss Rachel because
that's kind of everyone's, you know, gateway drug entry level,
welcome to screen time. And I had been teaching Teddy
more and the sign for that, and I made a
funny video about it going more more as if it
was to Teddy and it was Nick pouring me a wine,
yeah right, which was hilarious. But so many people were like,
(18:21):
by the way, that's more in American sign language and
OSLAN isn't the same. And I didn't know that sign
language wasn't universal because we hadn't had, you know, anyone
in our family or in our friendship group who would
know the difference. And I thought, oh my God, Teddy
wasn't even speaking, but he's got an American accent in
sign language. His baby sign is America. I'm not okay
(18:44):
with that, let alone if he'd actually started saying words.
So that's how we discovered you, because okay, I had
hundreds of messages really saying go to miss Money, go
to miss Money, like all of your fans were just
redirecting us. And since then that's so nice. We've been obsessed.
And Nick was like, we have so many questions about
the behind the scenes. Why don't you just ask her yourself?
(19:04):
And I was like, no, wait, she's way too famous.
She's way too like she wouldn't be available. And he's like,
let me just dm her. Are you joking? Oh my gosh,
ran in and he was like, she said, yes, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh no, I've loved Nick sent me a video of Teddy. No,
he's very proud, so proud, he's so proud. I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But I think the other thing we all forget now
watching your incredible videos, like every detail is thought out,
even in the background in like the blurred out backgrounds
you have. There's like book names that are about you know,
how to make your kid eat vegetables, like they're just
so funny. Everyone starts somewhere, and I think we forget that.
(19:53):
So there was a day when you literally started your
YouTube channel with zero followers. You were putting these videos
together for the first time, Like you would have had
to set up a green screen for the first time,
and you would have had days where you had like
five followers then six followers. Like I think we skated
over that part, and that's really scary because what if
(20:15):
you fail. You don't know where it's going to go.
You don't know what you're doing. What was that part like?
And obviously you're doing it with your husband and you're
at home and you got kids, So tell us about
the very beginning and did you ever think it would get.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
To hear on? No way. So I was pregnant with
our second I was four months pregnant, and I was
I mean, yeah, like I said, I was like, oh,
you know, why don't I just give it a shot.
I've got I can play the ukulele, I can do
a bit of singing. Like I didn't see myself as
a singer, but I was like, I like to sing,
I can do that, And yeah, I just bought a
green screen off Amazon. Didn't even know. I didn't know anything.
(20:53):
Like it was wrinkly, it was all folded. I was like.
And then as soon as I figured out how to
kiy it out, and I was like, oh my god,
this is a I remember that feeling of being we
had this like found this like under the sea background,
and then like as soon as we keep it, I
was like, oh my god, I'm under this, Like it
just blew my mind and it's like so simple. But
I was like, this is so cool. But I had
(21:15):
no idea, like I think the first time I edited
was on iMovie and quickly realized it's not a great idea,
but you know, and like it was just we love
to learn, Like Nelson and I just were just all
about learning. We love trying new things. So we weren't
afraid to fail. Well I wasn't afraid to fail, like
we just we've tried some. At one point, I was
(21:37):
selling mugs on Etsy, like just printing out mugs and
like no way, yeah, yeah, and so and that was
before yeah, before I had our first our daughter. But yeah,
I mean the first video was just oh, I mean,
if you look at it, it's it's horrifying, but it's
up there. I'm not going to take it down because
it shows how far we've come. And it was just
(21:58):
you just give it to go like it just I
was like, I can just try this, and then you
learned so much from your first video. The first thing
I learned was how scary my eyes looked, like, my
eyes are just like this, and I had no idea,
and so Nelson, I have this thing where it's like
you're doing scary eyes. I'm like, okay, I'll tone it
down like I can feel it, because you don't know
(22:19):
until you just and then you look at yourself and
you came around, You're like, oh, wow, that actually looks
a bit wild. Okay what I look like? You know
what I mean? Like, there was just so much to learn,
but it was beautiful. It's such a great process. And
then it just started to grow really quickly and we're like, wow,
there's actually more than just our daughter and our friend's
kids who want to watch it. There's people out there
(22:42):
who want an Australian voice and Australian sign language keywords
signs as you're saying, so yeah, I don't know, it
just sort of it flowed really nicely. We weren't afraid.
And that's the thing is, if I was afraid, I
would have spent six months on my first video trying
to perfect it. I just didn't care. So I just
put this out there. And I had no idea what
(23:03):
YouTube was about. We were learning the platform, we were
learning about analytics, we were learning about I use YouTube
videos to learn about how to edit on Premiere Pro,
and you know, ironically, it all just sort of came
together in one beautiful way. So yeah, the beginning was great.
It was great because you were just just we weren't
afraid to fail. It doesn't matter, like, give it a go,
(23:24):
and if kids find us and connect with me, that's beautiful,
and you know, and that's it's only just growing from there.
And we still fail, Like there's still things that we
fail at and we keep trying and we keep we're
always learning, we're always trying to do better, and everything
still feels new, especially compared to all of our sort
of peers in the space or the beautiful Australian artists,
(23:45):
kids artists out there, like they've been at it for
years and years, and so we still feel like these
little puppies on the stud but you know, but we're
learning and we're growing, and you know, it's all failure
is just a huge part of learning.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
So oh my, oh gosh, that is so refreshing. And
I think if we all had that approach from the
beginning of a project, you wouldn't get in your own way,
and you would start quicker and you probably would find
out that you can do it. And there is a
obviously often a bigger appetite for what you're putting out
there than you would.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Ever expect exactly. And it's not just YouTube, it's just
any it's any platform. It's about having the confidence put
yourself out there, put your work out then, and not
be afraid to that it does look a bit rough
around the edges.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Well obviously we didn't notice, and now it looks so
polished to talk to us about the nuts and bolts
of putting a video together, because at the sort of
polished end, it flows so beautifully. You're swapping between different backgrounds,
then you've got your props, and then you've got transitions,
(24:48):
and then you're singing in some of them and you're
speaking in some of them. And I think to anyone
who's not in our industry, they wouldn't be thinking what
I'm thinking. But I'm always sort of like, oh my god.
So they had to get like you over, like how
are you getting the microphone to do the audio to
match the singing? And then the talking is different. But
then I can't say a boom mic in the you know,
I'm thinking about the logistics of like how you're doing it?
(25:09):
So do you write the songs? Is Nelson editing or filming?
And then like how, yeah, how what's the split?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah? So I write all the melody and lyrics to
all of my songs, and I direct the style of
the songs. So then I hand it over to our
awesome music producer who's in Spain, and we just work
really well together. And so basically, yeah, I have an
idea of all the songs and I have that direction
and it just it flows really well. So that's the
(25:38):
music side, and then so generally I'm in charge of, yeah,
all the creativity. I edit all the videos myself, do
you yeah, do everything myself? Yeah? Yeah, no, because I
learned from the beginning and I think, and then with Nelson,
he's a huge part of the analytics and the business
side and making sure that we are growing and we
(25:59):
are reaching the right families. But also he overlooks everything,
like if I put together a recording of at the
end of every scene cut off, I'm going, was that
all right? How was it? Okay?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You need to upload just a clip of all of those.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Oh my gosh, I know, I to think of it.
And he's like, yep, yep, no, no, do it again, okay,
And so he overlooks everything because he has he has
a really analytical brain. So we just we work really
well together. Our skills have come together really nicely. So
he guides me with the ideation because we got to
we have to look at our analytics and kind of see, okay, well,
(26:36):
what are kid's enjoying, what are parent's responding to, what
do they need more of? What? You know, what's working,
what's not? Where's the balance? So he guides me with that.
I do the scripting. We go over the scripts together,
and then while I'm scripting, I'm putting together backgrounds, so
I usually just make them in canvas and then I
have like sort of a pay for stock footage yep,
(26:57):
and sort of put things together myself, and then we
film Nelson's in chargeable the audio. We just film with
a boom mic.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
No way, because the audio is just so clear. Is
it at home studio? Like you do it all at home?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah? Yeah, it's all at home. Yeah yeah. Oh my gosh,
oh yeah no. We don't have time to go to
a studio. I know.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I was like, wait, you have two kids when he
started bit We have two kids.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So we've always filmed at night. Only recently it's been
game changing because our daughter's at KINDI So I've been
going and filming during the day, which has been so
refreshing because I feel like I'm a bit more awake.
But yeah, generally we were always filming at night both
kids are sleep. That was hard at the beginning when
I had my son a newborn and you know, being
(27:43):
dressed as Miss Mooney and he wakes up and I've
got to go feed him and then run back down
and keep going your yellow dress. Yeah, I know, it's crazy.
And my hair and I'm just like, don't get his
spray near him.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Okay. One thing your hair always looks in Shane is
so shiny and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I'm just going to chalk it down to my Mum's
Indian and I used to have hair. She used to
put hair oil in my hair wiling. Yes, so that's
what I don't use anything special. I wish there was
some magical formula that I could share with everything.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I think about it every every time I watch it,
I'm like, oh my god, her hair is so beautiful,
and like there's one the video where the other thing
this is so random, but in the colors song red, yellow, blue, orange, purple,
green needs a color dream just in case you'd forgotten
what your lyrics are. I was like, she knows literally
(28:41):
the bit where you paint a rainbow a your hair
looks really good from the back as well, And I
was like, damn, her hair's amazing. Cheese and b Nick
and I every time are like she freehand painted a
perfect rainbow.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
No no, no, no, no, all right, trade secret, Oh
tell me more. It's nothing. I just went in with
a pencil like oh, I like took a lot of
time and there was there's just really if you look carefully,
you can see the careful like the pencil lines in there.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
This is why they say meet because I thought it
was always like that.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Freehand How is she doing that? And it took me
so long, like that's obviously spedter. It took me ages
and I was like, don't make a mistake. I was like,
what the what's the next color? Go to the song?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, that's so funny. I can't believe you do all
the editing yourself. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, and look, one day I'd love to get an editor.
It's just it's almost like, if I get an editor,
I'm going to have to kind of teach them your style.
And then is that going to hold us back because
our timelines are pretty tight, like we're just video to
video at the moment. Yeah, it's just basically the two
of us, and so things are just always just you know,
(29:55):
we can't really we're not that much planned ahead ideas
of what we're going to do. But one day i'd
love to get an edit out. We were working on
an illustrator so that we can have a bit more
of a style for our backgrounds and have a more
Mismoney world like.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, so might feel a bit more cohesive.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And we're always thinking about, you know, how kids can
connect with Miss Mooney and the brand and you know,
how we can work in those ways and the business
side of things as well. So yeah, we're slowly getting
there because we don't obviously want to, Like I'd love
to outsource a little bit as well, so I can
really hone in on the creative side and scripting and
making sure I'm like really doing all of that really well,
(30:34):
because yeah, they're editing takes a bit of time.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And yeah, what is the turnaround, and like how often
are you releasing videos?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Well, at the moment, it's sort of like every four weeks.
I filmed last week and I'm going to finish the
video hopefully today, So it's like an editing of one week,
which is sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Songs take
the longest because that's so much happening in a song. Yeah,
but yeah, and I just try and keep things simple,
like I just go, hang on a minute that seems overstimulating,
(31:03):
cut that out, Like let's just keep it simple. If
kids are connecting with me, that's what's important. Like don't
overdo backgrounds and things like that. So that's the other
thing about getting an editor is making sure that they're
getting that part of our videos right as well, that
we don't want to be over stimulating.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Sometimes when you're growing, it is actually like people say
delegate all the things, and it's like sometimes it's actually
you're too busy to delegate, like because you've got to
train a person and there's a whole process. So that
makes total sense, and I appreciate every video even more
now knowing that you've done it yourself. But it's also,
I mean, it's incredible that your background was violin and
(31:39):
yet you're writing, singing playing Okay, are you playing the
guitar and the drums in construction crew?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Absolutely not?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Oh my god, Okay, we had bets on that.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Sarah, you shouldn't have asked me no, but you get
it actually, like, no, it's my violin.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Really well, yeah, I was like, look at her, think
she's doing the guitar.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
But if you look at my right hand, it's doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's just like it looks like what's going on there
with the left hand.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I'm trying to get her up. It's fun though, I
love it. We love filming those bits because Nelson just
like has a huge laugh of me. He's like, it's
not down there, it's a guitarist.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh yeah, He's like, no, you're doing that wrong. Oh yeah,
you look so good. And when you change costumes, I'm like, whoa,
she's in character like the construction hat. I'm like, even
your hair even looks good with a hat on, Like,
what the hell? So with all the like you obviously
taught yourself oslan, how much of what goes into the
(32:38):
videos is guided by your analytics and going with what's
gone well versus are you doing educational research on like
delivery or like you've obviously upskilled haapes to learn actual
sign language.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, so, I just want to clarify, and it's really
good for more people to learn this. But so Oslan
is a language itself, Stralian sign language. It's not spoken,
so the voice is off and they just sign without
their voice on, and they have different sentence structure and
it's a whole proper language. Whereas keyword signs, which is
(33:14):
what I'm doing. I'm signing keywords that come from Osland,
so I sign and I say them. So I'm not
teaching Osland because that's your language. Because in my song
I can do anything. It's coming out in the next video.
I'm signing keywords, whereas if I were to sign Osland,
the structure of what I'm signing would be completely different. Yeah,
(33:37):
so I have a beautiful death consultant. Her name is
Mikayla from Awesome Oslan and she has been incredible. She
has helped me so much and I've learned so much
from her, and she just wants, you know, more people
to learn about this, to understand the difference between osland
and keyword sign, and just to be signing because I
think it's beautiful and like, our kids are signing all
(33:58):
the time and they can speak, but they love to
sign as well, and I think it's it's great, it's
like so inclusive and yeah, I think so. I'm learning
from Mikayla, So anytime I do any signs, I'm always
sending them to her. Hey how was this? And even
for this song, I wanted to sign the very last
chorus fully with keyword sign, and so she I sent
(34:20):
it to her, and she even spoke to an interpreter
and she wanted to make sure I'm getting it really
correct because I know the responsibility I have to make
sure I'm teaching the right thing. So I'm always getting
her help with all the signs that I do. So
I'm really lucky to have that. Yeah, I had no
idea at the beginning to tell oh, yeah, Uslan, Yeah,
I'm teaching and like you know, and you're like, oh
(34:43):
my gosh, it just open your eyes a whole nother world,
and it's yeah, and they're a wonderful community, and so yeah,
I've learnt a lot and I'll keep learning. I'll always
keep learning.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I love that you've got such a thirst for learning
and a curiosity which strives obviously everything you do from
a business side, or for anyone listening who perhaps isn't
in sort of the same child focused or even music,
which is anyone who's building a YouTube. You mentioned there's
a lot of analytics like I, for example, don't know
anything about YouTube. I feel like I'm really well acquainted
(35:14):
with the platforms that I have and podcasting, but YouTube's
a whole other world. So you're obviously responding to the
analytics you're getting about what's popular and what videos work
well and what doesn't. And I also want to ask
you if that surprises you sometimes, but also monetizing it
and making it your career, how does that work? So
for Instagram, for example, it's I think most people know
(35:36):
how that works. A brand will come to you and
they'll ex give you a brief to create content as
part of a partnership, and then you'll create a piece
of content and then it's marked as a paid partnershiphereas
I think YouTube works quite differently, So how do you
build a career out of your YouTube content?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yep, So to get monetized you need one thousand subscribers
and four thousand watch hours.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Oh see, I didn't even know that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, so then you get invite to the YouTube partner
program and so that's how you can start to monetize
your content. And then I guess the whole YouTube game
is just all about being consistent, you know, just making
sure that you are putting content out there. It doesn't
need to be a video every two days or every
three days. It can be as you know, for us,
(36:20):
it's once every four weeks and that's consistent. We still
get views and we're still growing at that rate, but
we're consistent. So just making sure that you are consistent
is a huge part. Looking at retention and analytics, so
really start to understand the platform. The best thing you
can do is just learn. There's so many great businesses
out there that can help, and there's help out there
(36:42):
for free, So just keep learning about the analytics side,
understand your audience, like make sure you know what's out there,
what's already working, what does your audience want, and then
get that feedback on your own videos and make the adjustment.
And I think that's a beautiful thing about YouTube versus
broadcast TV is that you're getting those analytics almost like
(37:06):
in real time, and you're able to go and look
through and go, oh, okay, well that retention dropped at
three minutes in because I did this. Okay, Well, so yeah,
it's like to the second you can see how your
audience is viewing. So yeah, it's really great and it
helps a lot.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And so do YouTubers make the same So just say
there was another channel that had the exact same number
of followers as you, and they put up the exact
same length of videos with the exact same regularity. Just hypothetically,
would you both earn the same.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
No, So it all comes down to the ads. Advertising.
This is all Nelson talk, by.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
The way, because I don't know any of this.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yeah, no, it's really great to learn. Like, so we
get paid through advertising, and so it also depends on
your channel, like your genre and who you're serving, and
so those ads go you know, like business channels sort
of make a higher CPM cost per thousand, oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, and so but you can obviously because it's a
children's channel, your ads that would be running on your
videos are different to sort of adult channels, right.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yes, but it's kind of it's not many people know this,
but you don't technically earn any money from the YouTube
Kids app. So if you're viewing our videos on the
YouTube Kids app, we're not getting any money from them.
Oh yeah, I know. And so technically they say they
run ads, but no one ever sees them on YouTube Kids,
(38:46):
so we do make our money from ad revenue on
may YouTube. Yeah, so that's important to note, especially for kids.
Grown up channels are completely different. They can earn a
lot more so kids channels are sort of in a
different boat there.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah wow, okay, And so it's based on like the
number of views you get and the number of ads
and the kind of ads that run over that channel.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah exactly right, Oh so interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
And so when you go and look at your analytics,
what are your most popular songs and videos and then
what surprises you like? Which ones did you think go
better and they didn't, and then the reverse well.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Our construction episode, well, I guess it didn't have full
construction in it, but it had me with a construction
hat on and holding a truck that sound most viewed episode.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Well that's all me. Yeah, dig push rolls, construction crew,
beautiful things. All the views were me. Yeah, I love
well Teddy so yeah, construction, monster, truck.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And dinosaurs are huge, yes, yes, yeah, And often when
I'm meeting little kids, they just it's always oh, dinosaur,
the construction song, that sort of thing. So, I mean
it doesn't really surprise me because we've got kids and
like you know.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
What sailor to those things, you know what I mean, like.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Like, oh, you're really obsessed with wheels, okay, like you know,
and you're okay, so.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Sure dude, cool. Great.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
So we're just trying to find the balance of like, okay,
well what do parents want as well? Like parents want
to show their kids. Potty training is like a huge
one that's been requested, but I just don't know how
to do it yet. Yeah, I don't know how to
pull it off.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
So you'll sit on an idea and then we'll sit
on an idea. Wow, I'm not intended, but I was like,
where going with this, you'll sit on the potty and
you'll think about it, think about it. Yeah, And I
need a good partty song and I don't have one,
so do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Like I'd like to serve that, you know, because I
know adults like it, but also would it be helpful
to kids? I don't know, you know. And now I've
got this affirmations video, which I'm so proud of. I
think it's beautiful. I've just demonstrated so many different ways
to you know, incorporate rate like oh my, my dump
truck's broken. Oh no, let's say some special words. Let's
say I can fix it. And you know, I'm really
(41:07):
proud of it, and I hope it does well. But
I don't know, yeah, because I feel like it's like,
you know, the vegetable of the videos, but I've put
in I've put in construction stuff into it to try
and hide the veggies, do you know what I mean?
So well, like who knows? Hopefully it does well because
(41:27):
I like, I think it's so great for kids to
you know, have those affirmations in their head and just
feel more confident in themselves. But we'll see otherwise, just
back to dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Do your kids watch you or are they like they
can't because they do.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
No, they do the miss miss mummy to them, that's missing,
But they do. My son, he's so engaged. My daughter,
she's like, she runs the show Mummy. That's a bit boring.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I'm like, babe, harsh critic, you're not my demo exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I was like, you can't speak. But now's she like
understands what we do and that it's our work, and
she's like all over and she you know, makes suggestions
and things like that. It's great. But our son, he's like, really,
I love it. I get the feeling that I imagine parents
get the feeling when they see their kid respond and
oh my gosh, she's like talking to me. You know,
(42:21):
I understand that feeling, and I know how special that
is and how much that can mean to a parent
because I'm kind of experiencing it as if it's not
me on the skime, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, yeah. And another thing we talk a lot about
on the show is the definition of success and whether
or not success is even a metric. I think a
lot of people spend their earlier career chasing that kind
of elusive goal and then later on in life it
becomes it. You're just trying to find fulfillment and happiness
(42:52):
and peace. How do you measure success or value in
your life? And like, do you feel successful now or
is there a goal that you want to achieve for
missmoney that you'd be like, yes, that's it, or have
you already done that by knowing that families watch you
all the time?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, a bit of both, I guess, like for us,
the success comes from connection, like just knowing, Like I
get messages from parents every day and so I kind
of measured by that, like, oh I have I you know?
Is that increasing over time? When I leave the house now,
I'm getting recognized more and more, which has been really
nice because I get to meet kids.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
You know, Teddy would lose his actual shit. He'd just
be like, well, that's the thing. Sometimes I feel a
bit like because I did it.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
I've done a couple of ment greets and sometimes it
doesn't put me off. But sometimes I see that the
kid is just in shock, and I get it's fine,
like because sometimes they're either just completely blank, other times
they run up and hug me. You just never know
what you're getting so then when the kid who's in shock,
who's maybe they're in their line, They're like, oh my gosh,
(43:55):
Miss Morney's over there, and then they get up to
me and then they just shut down and the parent
is like, oh my gosh, but you were so excited.
Then I feel sorry for the parent because they were
expecting their kid, you know what I mean, Like we
just never really know. But I love meeting them anyway.
So yeah, connection is a huge part. I would love
to be like a household name, especially in Neualia and like, yeah,
(44:19):
oh yeah, I just it would just mean so much
to know that our content is connecting with more kids,
and especially in Australia across the globe. But just I
know that I won't always be for everyone, but it's
just nice knowing that there are kids who are connecting
and learning and I'm a part of their learning journey.
Like that's so fulfilling. So I do feel really successful
(44:42):
already where I'm at, but I want to do more,
Like I want to give more. I want to I
want to help more. I want to just be there
for more kids.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
And because you're so passionate about what you do, I imagine
that switching off, and because your platform is online which
has no opening and clothes hours, Yeah, how do you
switch off? Do you make yourself do things in the
analogue world, like what's your joy or your gay outside
of what.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
You do well, spending time with the kids, Like we
just try and be really present, Like I'll just notice
if I've been on my phone and I'll just be like, no,
I'm going to deal with social media tonight. Let's just
go and play in the player and go outside, Let's
go for a walk to the park or just I
think main thing is we love going to playgrounds with
the kids. We're just just the simple things, like just
(45:34):
not too much with real home bodies as well, but
we just love like being present with the kids and
just playing. And I'm learning from them as well when
they're playing, and then that also helps me with what
I do. So it just really feeds in together. The
lines are a little blurred, you know, but it's fine,
like because we really enjoy what we're doing, so it
(45:55):
doesn't feel like work at all. And so but you know,
I wake up really early and I do work before
the kids are up. And then if our daughters are
on a kindie day, I'll get a bit more done.
But other than that, like Nelson works often a lot
at night, and so we just work around the kids.
But also we don't put work ahead of the kids,
so we're able to do that, which is really lucky
(46:17):
because I know that a lot of people they can't
do that, so I know we're in such a great
position to do that. So yeah, I feel like it
just works really well together that it all just feels
like really joyful. Oh that's so, it's really nice.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Oh well, thank you so much for your time and
for sharing so much about literally a massive part of
our life. Do you mysterifying what it takes by and
the scenes to bring these incredible, incredible videos to our homes.
And Teddy learns so much from watching you and dancing
(46:54):
and singing, and obviously like some of your songs. Honestly,
I can't remember which one it was. I meant to
to save it for you. One of them is a banger,
like you have this bridge in one of them, and
it's like it should be on the chart. I can't
remember what it is. I'll find it an authentity, But
every time it comes on, I'm like it's about to drop,
Like it's so good.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
No, I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
I love like trying to make music that parents can
enjoy as well. Yeah, like what would we enjoy? You know? Yeah.
But also every time I'm writing songs, I'm like, Okay,
what words are they going to be able to scream
out loud? Yeah during this song? So I'm trying to
put everything I know into what I'm writing as well.
That can also.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Be Oh, it's moved like an animal. Oh yeah, you
know when there's that pause in the bridge and that
it's you at the end, You're like, move like an animal.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah. I had that while I was on the treadmill
like for weeks before I released it.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
I was just like this is my Yeah, me too,
like this Teddy's like gone and I'm still like yeah,
I love that. I'm here for that. Well, congratulations on everything.
Keep doing the incredible work that you're doing. And if
anyone is listening, Miss Money also does personalized videos for
(48:13):
your children, So that is on the website and I
will include links to everything in the show notes. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Thanks Sarah. Was such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Guys. I still cannot believe this was Miss Money's first
ever podcast. She was just so well spoken and as
lovely as I had hoped, if not more so, but
especially since it was her first time and she was
quite nervous. Actually, if you enjoyed listening or get as
much out of her channel in your household as we do,
please do share this episode tagging at Miss Mooney Teachers
so we can thank her for her time and show
(48:44):
our support. In other news, our live show in Melbourne
has nearly sold out, which I cannot believe, but I'm
getting so excited for our evening with Headley Thomas and
also to get to meet some of you in the neighborhood.
They are my very very favorites to do live events,
and it's been so long there are less than ten
tickets left somehow, so I will pop the link to
(49:07):
the event in the show notes and would love to
see some of you there. We have an amazing goodie
bag and some incredible silent auction items coming up as well,
which I'll post about in the coming days. In the meantime,
I hope you're having an amazing week and are seizing
your yay
I've never felt more in my place ever until now.
I'm like, Wow, this feels like what I'm meant to
be doing. We're like this just makes sense, Like everything
that has happened has led us to this, and it
feels incredible and I'm just so grateful. And we still fail,
Like there's still things that we fail at and we
keep trying and we keep We're always learning.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Welcome to the Sees the Yay Podcast. Busy and happy
are not the same thing. We too rarely question what
makes the heart seeing. We work, then we rest, but
rarely we play and often don't realize there's more than
one way. So this is a platform to hear and
explore the stories of those who found lives They adore,
the good, bad and ugly. The best and worst day
(00:42):
will bear all the facets of seizing your Yea. I'm
Sarah Davidson or a spoonful of Sarah, a lawyer turned
fu entrepreneur whos wapped the suits and heels to co
found matcha Maiden and matcha Milk Bar. Ces. The Ya
is a series of conversations on finding a life you
love and explore trying the self doubt challenge, joy and
fulfillment along the way. In this day and age, all
(01:07):
of us enjoy a few parasocial relationships with people we
follow and feel like we know but haven't actually met,
And in fact, a lot of our guests on this
show feel a bit like that before we record. But
this week's guest goes even further beyond that and into
the realm of an honorary family member, because she's with
us in our lounge, room, in our kitchen, and sometimes
even our bedroom every single day. In the ultimate case
(01:30):
of if you know, you know, anyone listening who's at
a similar stage of life to us won't need any
further context than her name to understand why it was
so surreal to sit down with the incredible Miss Mooney
for our episode this week. But for those who don't know,
I am so excited to have had educator, musician mum
of two and Australia's answer to Miss Rachel, jump right
(01:52):
out of her booming YouTube channel to join the show.
Miss Money otherwise known as Monica Ferrera, although much like
my teachers that's I cannot bring myself to call her that,
brings years of teaching experience to her interactive toddler learning
videos on YouTube using interactive songs, which by the way,
are absolute bangers, stories and adventures to help our little
(02:13):
ones develop language and social skills wherever they may be.
I was introduced to her after some of my own
followers saw that Teddy had been picking up American sign
language from Miss Rachel before I realized that sign language
wasn't universal, and of course I wasn't going to have
him speaking in an American accent, even though it was
in sign language. And from that very first video with
her bright yellow costume and big smile, we have never
(02:35):
looked back. But even if you too know Miss Monny's
face and voice as well as we do, you may
not know the amazing story of how she ended up
where she is today. Of course, you know we love
a good path yay. I won't give away too much
more on the intro, but I had no idea before
I started researching about her medical, sliding doors moment, the
other businesses that she has started, and I was dying
(02:55):
to know more from behind the scenes about how she
edits her videos. It writes her lyrics, and which of
the instruments that you see her playing that she can
actually play in real life, which spoiler alert is more
than one. Wildly, this was Miss Money's first podcast ever,
even though you wouldn't know it at all from her
eloquence and poise. She is as delightful as you'd think
she'd be from her videos, and I hope you enjoyed
(03:17):
this one as much as I did. Miss Money. Hi, Hi,
welcome to the show. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
I'm excited to chat. I'm excited this is my first podcast.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
I know. I still can't believe it. It is such
a privilege and it made me laugh so much when
you joined the call and said you're not very good
at tech because you're a YouTuber extraordinaire.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
No, I just I'm a mum just doing something, you know,
some videos on the side.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Oh my gosh, absolutely not. You are a household name,
if not a household hero. Oh, I mean, you're literally
saving our life and providing a wonderful soundtrack for everything
we do. So thank you.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
I get so much joy out of hearing a mum
say you gave me an opportunity to have a shower.
Oh I know that feeling. Yeah, Like I know that feeling,
and it's just oh.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, Well, I am so honored to be your very
first podcast, and particularly because one thing I love doing
on this show is showing a side of people that
they know a little bit less about. And I mean
hundreds and thousands, if not millions, of Australians see you
every day and know your facial expressions intimately, but obviously
(04:31):
without many other podcasts being out there, don't know much
about how you got there, what goes on behind the scenes.
And Nick and I always talk to each other about
I wonder how she chooses the songs or how do
you know which ones are going to land? Well, So
I can't wait to dive into all.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Of that, but sounds great.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
I start every episode going all the way back to
the beginning to your childhood, because I think that is
such a beautiful formative time where a lot of the
seeds are planted for where you end up, even if
you don't necessarily know it at the time. So, born
and raised in Adelaide, what was your childhood like and
what did you think that you wanted to be?
Speaker 1 (05:10):
I had a really nice childhood. I mean I started
violin when I was eight, and so that sort of
really just took my life into that direction of music
in the arts. Since I was in primary school. As
soon as I picked up the violin, I just loved
it and I was just practicing all the time. And
then I excelled really quickly into it. And then I
got into a special interest music school in Adelaide, which
(05:33):
you know, then obviously music was really solidified, and everything
I was doing, I didn't really have my heart set on,
you know, going down the performer pathway. I was really
just very much go with the flow.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
And that flow took you all the way to Queensland
to the Conservatorium, so such strong musical roots.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah, so I auditioned for the con because my brother
came to Brisbane. But then I also was like, oh,
maybe i'll have a gap year, or maybe i'll go
do medical science. I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
I was just so blase about it all. And then
I just hit the ground running. I loved being out
the con and just being surrounded and I feel like
music was really a big part of my childhood and
sort of led me to where I am. But I
didn't have anything in mind that I will be a
performer or I'll be a teacher or anything like that.
That sort of came a bit more towards the end
(06:27):
of my degree.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, it's so fascinating because you know, people often say
one day you'll end up in a job that didn't
exist when you first started school. And I mean, of
course you didn't grow up thinking I want to be
a famous YouTuber because YouTube didn't exist, so of course
you couldn't have known. But along the way with the arts,
obviously you've turned it into such an incredible career. But
(06:51):
I think there is often a bit of a hierarchy
of career pathways when we go through school with a
slant towards something stafe and sensible. Were you ever dissuaded
from the arts because of that? Because I know a
lot of people have such a dick passion for music
or acting or whatever form of the arts it is,
(07:11):
and then don't continue pursuing it because family pressure or
because they think I need to do something more stable.
Did you ever have that or did you just roll
with it?
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Not? Really? Like my family really supportive though, really supportive,
and my brother I was kind of following his footsteps
because he went to the con and played the cello
and so were sort of a big part of our
upbringing was music, and so I think that was only
natural to sort of go down that path, but I
mean not really. I feel like once I got to
the con and you know, after a year, you're just like, Okay,
(07:43):
well I'm not a prodigy. You know what am I
going to do?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I feel like you are. I feel like I.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Just enjoyed my time at the con. I was you know,
we'd practice and then we'd go for coffees with our
mates and it was just such a beautiful time. And
I feel like that was really just the highlight of
my twenties, was just how free I felt and that
I was doing music and enjoying it. But I knew
that it wasn't going to be Okay, I want to
go and perform in an orchestra, because that's a whole
(08:11):
other level. It's a whole nother space. So I was
just like, where am I going? Okay, well, teaching kind
of feels like the most natural path at that point,
but you know it just yeah, I think I was
always so supported that I was free to make those
decisions on my own.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Oh that's really beautiful. And I mean obviously the translation
of the Conservatorium with your diphed have led to exactly
where you are the dots are connecting in such an
extraordinary way. But you did start in the classroom after
you'd finish your education degree, So how long were you
a teacher and what was that chapter? Like?
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So I did my dip head. I mean, I had
no idea about teaching at all, and I loved it,
Like not so much the high school because I looked
like a high school kid teaching class cool kids like
I'm really sure, I'm one hundred and fifty three centimeters
and I'm just around these high schoolers. I'm like, oh,
what you have to So I didn't love the high
(09:07):
school part. But then I ended up getting a job
where I did my prack, which was beautiful, and then
I did classroom music from kindy to year five, and
then year six to twelve was violin. I don't know,
I loved it, and especially just the kindy kids, like
I really feel like I connected most of them, which
is really resonates with what I'm doing now.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
It set you up extremely well. It's so funny that
I have no idea your height because there's nothing on
the screen relativize, and I don't.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Have anyone like standing next to you. The hotel on
my back of my high school jumper says Mini Money. Yeah,
Money was in my high school nickname, and mini because
sometimes it's.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Been such a long time in the making. Well, one
of the big preoccupations I have with people's pathways, or
we call them path ya the way to finding the
joy that you have in the chapter we often meet
you in, which is as mismoney is the pathway pivot,
and especially the ones that are unexpected, often challenging at
(10:16):
the time. And I think sometimes life throws things at
you that feel grueling and you don't know why at
the time, and they throw all of your directions sort
of into disarray, and then later you look back and
you're like, that's why that needed to happen, So you
were enjoying your teaching career. And I also think that's
(10:39):
one of the interesting things is that sometimes people have
a pivot because they decide they're unhappy and they'll leave,
whereas sometimes it's sort of involuntary. Something happens. What happened
to you and how did it redirect you to where
you are?
Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah? Absolutely, Well, yeah, like you said, everything was going
really well with teaching. It was just all flowing.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Really.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
I see, I was in a new relationship with Nelson,
and everything was just smooth, you know. And then I
can't really pinpoint exactly what happened, but it was just
a slight sort of ankle injury, like a roll or
something that happened at work, and it was just you'd
think it was nothing. And then over a few months,
I guess it turned into something called complex regional pain syndrome,
(11:23):
which is basically a nervous system being in complete overdrive
and just being like confused about what's going on. So
there is nothing wrong physically with my ankle, but it
thinks that there's it's in huge danger. So I could
not put my foot to the ground because it was
just I'd get shocks and it was just on fire.
It felt like my ankle was on fire. I did
(11:45):
not get diagnosed with it for at least over a year,
but I have always been very determined. So I saw
over forty different practitioners, including someone who thought I had
rheumatoid arthriders and someone who was injecting thirty or forty
injections of saline down my leg once a week because
(12:06):
I didn't know what it was. And so then finally
I found the right person who told me what it was.
I went into a hospital for a pain rehab program
for a week, which was amazing, just to learn about
pain and like how it works and what I was
going through and the things that I could do, And
so finally I could get my head in the game.
(12:28):
I had to leave my job, so teaching in the classroom,
I just I had to leave and then I could
really focus on myself because I was just becoming so
negative and the issue was that this thing had taken
over my identity. So I decided to leave, and it
was the best thing because then I could really focus
on my health and I got myself back on track.
(12:48):
And then I started my own violin studio from home.
But I just wasn't able or ready to go back
to the classroom. But I missed that connection with the kids.
So in the meantime, I was just trying to find
work online, and I worked for my brother as a
project manager online for a little while as well, and
that was great because you know, I sort of got
an idea of that sort of e commerce well, which
(13:08):
has been helpful to what I'm doing now as well.
Then one day, when after we had our daughter, we
sort of started experimenting with screen time after she turned
about one and a lot of parents were going to YouTube.
So yeah, and she sort of started watching a few
shows and everything, and a few like really great American shows,
(13:29):
and then we were like noticing that she's sort of
developing a bit of an American accent, okay, and like
for us, Ozzie's I feel like that's not really a novelty,
whereas like in America they love the Australian accent. I mean,
we're in the Bluey era at the moment as well,
And so for us, we were like, oh, I think
(13:50):
it's really important that she's seeing and hearing an Australian voice.
And so there's the beautiful music channels, but nothing that
sort of melds the music and the education maybe speech
development as well, when they're watching at such a young age,
when that age is so important for speech development as well.
So yeah, that's kind of where it led me to,
(14:13):
and we just took off from there.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
I guess, Oh my gosh. And it's so funny because
I truly believe that the universe has wild ways of
making sure that you end up where you're supposed to
be one.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
Hundred percent, Like I can. I've never felt more in
my place ever until now. I'm like, Wow, this feels
like what I'm meant to be doing. And Nelson as well,
like we just were like this just makes sense, Like
everything that has happened has led us to this, and
it feels incredible and I'm just so grateful.
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, And it's also such an important reminder to our
listeners too that if they meet you now, which many
of us do, you'd have no idea that there was
a period where you couldn't work, you couldn't walk, or
have the sense of direction purpose that you do now.
But so many of us go through something like this
along the way, and you can come out the other end.
(15:06):
I think this is just the part of people's story
that doesn't get as much airtime, and particularly with CRPS.
I wasn't glad to hear you experienced it, of course,
but I was glad to be able to cover it
on the show because a dear listener turned friend, Kate
has been a longtime sufferer and it just seems like
such a little known, misunderstood condition that she has often
(15:29):
felt so isolated by and even traveled overseas to be
treated for and it's invisible as well, so very difficult
for anyone else to understand what you're going through. But
I think you give such hope to others that you
can overcome it and build an incredible career afterwards that
you never expected.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
There's definitely hope. Like, honestly, yeah, if you had spoken
to me, even during that time, I was just a
different person because it just took over my life. But
then I just had that fire in sign me that
I was like, no, like, if I can do anything
to avoid going down the aisle in a wheelchair and
do it, do you know what I mean? Like that
was just where I was at. I just wasn't going
to give up. Yeah, but you know, it was still
(16:09):
really hard. But I think there's definitely hope.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
And I think Kate had also said she'd never heard
of anyone else who had had CPS, and if she had,
they were still in the throes of trying to manage it,
whereas in your case, you're an incredible example of someone
who can not only come through it and obviously walk
down the aisle, but also to become an incredible dancer.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Oh you uio.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
Choreography is insane.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
It's the one area that I have the least confidence in.
Stop bitch. Yes, I'm so embarrassed about my dancing. It's okay,
I'm working on it.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Okay. So in construction crew, there's a scene where there's
like five of you and one of you is flossing
on the top floor of a building. I see it
every time. I'm like, she got moves.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
No, it was a fluke. I'm not kidding you. It was.
I was like, I can't believe I did it that
long in a row, and don't ask me to do
it again. It's a fluke. I don't know if you've
seen my Halloween episode, I did miss like that little
move and that was a fluke as well. And last
night we were having a Halloween dance party last night
and I was trying to do It's like, because there's
(17:16):
been about a year since I've posted that video, and
I was like, I can't do it again.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I love how you're like, I don't know if you've
seen I've seen them all all the songs, all the routines.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You know what's weird. I was thinking about this the
other day. I was like, there are so many kids
and families out there who know my videos a hundred
times better than I do because I make them. I
watched them before I post, we watched them, we post it,
and I never watch it again. Do you know what
I mean?
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Stop it? Even Nick, like Nick is the one so
has fun fact, it's actually Nick who lined this up
because we have been obsessed with Miss Monty. Obviously you
are a staple in our household. And this was because
it's funny that you mentioned we had been When we
did sort of introduce screen time, it was only educational shows,
(17:59):
and of course we went straight to Miss Rachel because
that's kind of everyone's, you know, gateway drug entry level,
welcome to screen time. And I had been teaching Teddy
more and the sign for that, and I made a
funny video about it going more more as if it
was to Teddy and it was Nick pouring me a wine,
yeah right, which was hilarious. But so many people were like,
(18:21):
by the way, that's more in American sign language and
OSLAN isn't the same. And I didn't know that sign
language wasn't universal because we hadn't had, you know, anyone
in our family or in our friendship group who would
know the difference. And I thought, oh my God, Teddy
wasn't even speaking, but he's got an American accent in
sign language. His baby sign is America. I'm not okay
(18:44):
with that, let alone if he'd actually started saying words.
So that's how we discovered you, because okay, I had
hundreds of messages really saying go to miss Money, go
to miss Money, like all of your fans were just
redirecting us. And since then that's so nice. We've been obsessed.
And Nick was like, we have so many questions about
the behind the scenes. Why don't you just ask her yourself?
(19:04):
And I was like, no, wait, she's way too famous.
She's way too like she wouldn't be available. And he's like,
let me just dm her. Are you joking? Oh my gosh,
ran in and he was like, she said, yes, it's hilarious.
Speaker 1 (19:24):
Oh no, I've loved Nick sent me a video of Teddy. No,
he's very proud, so proud, he's so proud. I love that.
Speaker 2 (19:32):
But I think the other thing we all forget now
watching your incredible videos, like every detail is thought out,
even in the background in like the blurred out backgrounds
you have. There's like book names that are about you know,
how to make your kid eat vegetables, like they're just
so funny. Everyone starts somewhere, and I think we forget that.
(19:53):
So there was a day when you literally started your
YouTube channel with zero followers. You were putting these videos
together for the first time, Like you would have had
to set up a green screen for the first time,
and you would have had days where you had like
five followers then six followers. Like I think we skated
over that part, and that's really scary because what if
(20:15):
you fail. You don't know where it's going to go.
You don't know what you're doing. What was that part like?
And obviously you're doing it with your husband and you're
at home and you got kids, So tell us about
the very beginning and did you ever think it would get.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
To hear on? No way. So I was pregnant with
our second I was four months pregnant, and I was
I mean, yeah, like I said, I was like, oh,
you know, why don't I just give it a shot.
I've got I can play the ukulele, I can do
a bit of singing. Like I didn't see myself as
a singer, but I was like, I like to sing,
I can do that, And yeah, I just bought a
green screen off Amazon. Didn't even know. I didn't know anything.
(20:53):
Like it was wrinkly, it was all folded. I was like.
And then as soon as I figured out how to
kiy it out, and I was like, oh my god,
this is a I remember that feeling of being we
had this like found this like under the sea background,
and then like as soon as we keep it, I
was like, oh my god, I'm under this, Like it
just blew my mind and it's like so simple. But
I was like, this is so cool. But I had
(21:15):
no idea, like I think the first time I edited
was on iMovie and quickly realized it's not a great idea,
but you know, and like it was just we love
to learn, Like Nelson and I just were just all
about learning. We love trying new things. So we weren't
afraid to fail. Well I wasn't afraid to fail, like
we just we've tried some. At one point, I was
(21:37):
selling mugs on Etsy, like just printing out mugs and
like no way, yeah, yeah, and so and that was
before yeah, before I had our first our daughter. But yeah,
I mean the first video was just oh, I mean,
if you look at it, it's it's horrifying, but it's
up there. I'm not going to take it down because
it shows how far we've come. And it was just
(21:58):
you just give it to go like it just I
was like, I can just try this, and then you
learned so much from your first video. The first thing
I learned was how scary my eyes looked, like, my
eyes are just like this, and I had no idea,
and so Nelson, I have this thing where it's like
you're doing scary eyes. I'm like, okay, I'll tone it
down like I can feel it, because you don't know
(22:19):
until you just and then you look at yourself and
you came around, You're like, oh, wow, that actually looks
a bit wild. Okay what I look like? You know
what I mean? Like, there was just so much to learn,
but it was beautiful. It's such a great process. And
then it just started to grow really quickly and we're like, wow,
there's actually more than just our daughter and our friend's
kids who want to watch it. There's people out there
(22:42):
who want an Australian voice and Australian sign language keywords
signs as you're saying, so yeah, I don't know, it
just sort of it flowed really nicely. We weren't afraid.
And that's the thing is, if I was afraid, I
would have spent six months on my first video trying
to perfect it. I just didn't care. So I just
put this out there. And I had no idea what
(23:03):
YouTube was about. We were learning the platform, we were
learning about analytics, we were learning about I use YouTube
videos to learn about how to edit on Premiere Pro,
and you know, ironically, it all just sort of came
together in one beautiful way. So yeah, the beginning was great.
It was great because you were just just we weren't
afraid to fail. It doesn't matter, like, give it a go,
(23:24):
and if kids find us and connect with me, that's beautiful,
and you know, and that's it's only just growing from there.
And we still fail, Like there's still things that we
fail at and we keep trying and we keep we're
always learning, we're always trying to do better, and everything
still feels new, especially compared to all of our sort
of peers in the space or the beautiful Australian artists,
(23:45):
kids artists out there, like they've been at it for
years and years, and so we still feel like these
little puppies on the stud but you know, but we're
learning and we're growing, and you know, it's all failure
is just a huge part of learning.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
So oh my, oh gosh, that is so refreshing. And
I think if we all had that approach from the
beginning of a project, you wouldn't get in your own way,
and you would start quicker and you probably would find
out that you can do it. And there is a
obviously often a bigger appetite for what you're putting out
there than you would.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Ever expect exactly. And it's not just YouTube, it's just
any it's any platform. It's about having the confidence put
yourself out there, put your work out then, and not
be afraid to that it does look a bit rough
around the edges.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Well obviously we didn't notice, and now it looks so
polished to talk to us about the nuts and bolts
of putting a video together, because at the sort of
polished end, it flows so beautifully. You're swapping between different backgrounds,
then you've got your props, and then you've got transitions,
(24:48):
and then you're singing in some of them and you're
speaking in some of them. And I think to anyone
who's not in our industry, they wouldn't be thinking what
I'm thinking. But I'm always sort of like, oh my god.
So they had to get like you over, like how
are you getting the microphone to do the audio to
match the singing? And then the talking is different. But
then I can't say a boom mic in the you know,
I'm thinking about the logistics of like how you're doing it?
(25:09):
So do you write the songs? Is Nelson editing or filming?
And then like how, yeah, how what's the split?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah? So I write all the melody and lyrics to
all of my songs, and I direct the style of
the songs. So then I hand it over to our
awesome music producer who's in Spain, and we just work
really well together. And so basically, yeah, I have an
idea of all the songs and I have that direction
and it just it flows really well. So that's the
(25:38):
music side, and then so generally I'm in charge of, yeah,
all the creativity. I edit all the videos myself, do
you yeah, do everything myself? Yeah? Yeah, no, because I
learned from the beginning and I think, and then with Nelson,
he's a huge part of the analytics and the business
side and making sure that we are growing and we
(25:59):
are reaching the right families. But also he overlooks everything,
like if I put together a recording of at the
end of every scene cut off, I'm going, was that
all right? How was it? Okay?
Speaker 2 (26:12):
You need to upload just a clip of all of those.
Speaker 1 (26:15):
Oh my gosh, I know, I to think of it.
And he's like, yep, yep, no, no, do it again, okay,
And so he overlooks everything because he has he has
a really analytical brain. So we just we work really
well together. Our skills have come together really nicely. So
he guides me with the ideation because we got to
we have to look at our analytics and kind of see, okay, well,
(26:36):
what are kid's enjoying, what are parent's responding to, what
do they need more of? What? You know, what's working,
what's not? Where's the balance? So he guides me with that.
I do the scripting. We go over the scripts together,
and then while I'm scripting, I'm putting together backgrounds, so
I usually just make them in canvas and then I
have like sort of a pay for stock footage yep,
(26:57):
and sort of put things together myself, and then we
film Nelson's in chargeable the audio. We just film with
a boom mic.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
No way, because the audio is just so clear. Is
it at home studio? Like you do it all at home?
Speaker 1 (27:12):
Yeah? Yeah, it's all at home. Yeah yeah. Oh my gosh,
oh yeah no. We don't have time to go to
a studio. I know.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
I was like, wait, you have two kids when he
started bit We have two kids.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
So we've always filmed at night. Only recently it's been
game changing because our daughter's at KINDI So I've been
going and filming during the day, which has been so
refreshing because I feel like I'm a bit more awake.
But yeah, generally we were always filming at night both
kids are sleep. That was hard at the beginning when
I had my son a newborn and you know, being
(27:43):
dressed as Miss Mooney and he wakes up and I've
got to go feed him and then run back down
and keep going your yellow dress. Yeah, I know, it's crazy.
And my hair and I'm just like, don't get his
spray near him.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Okay. One thing your hair always looks in Shane is
so shiny and beautiful.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
I'm just going to chalk it down to my Mum's
Indian and I used to have hair. She used to
put hair oil in my hair wiling. Yes, so that's
what I don't use anything special. I wish there was
some magical formula that I could share with everything.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
I think about it every every time I watch it,
I'm like, oh my god, her hair is so beautiful,
and like there's one the video where the other thing
this is so random, but in the colors song red, yellow, blue, orange, purple,
green needs a color dream just in case you'd forgotten
what your lyrics are. I was like, she knows literally
(28:41):
the bit where you paint a rainbow a your hair
looks really good from the back as well, And I
was like, damn, her hair's amazing. Cheese and b Nick
and I every time are like she freehand painted a
perfect rainbow.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
No no, no, no, no, all right, trade secret, Oh
tell me more. It's nothing. I just went in with
a pencil like oh, I like took a lot of
time and there was there's just really if you look carefully,
you can see the careful like the pencil lines in there.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
This is why they say meet because I thought it
was always like that.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Freehand How is she doing that? And it took me
so long, like that's obviously spedter. It took me ages
and I was like, don't make a mistake. I was like,
what the what's the next color? Go to the song?
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Oh, that's so funny. I can't believe you do all
the editing yourself. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Yeah, and look, one day I'd love to get an editor.
It's just it's almost like, if I get an editor,
I'm going to have to kind of teach them your style.
And then is that going to hold us back because
our timelines are pretty tight, like we're just video to
video at the moment. Yeah, it's just basically the two
of us, and so things are just always just you know,
(29:55):
we can't really we're not that much planned ahead ideas
of what we're going to do. But one day i'd
love to get an edit out. We were working on
an illustrator so that we can have a bit more
of a style for our backgrounds and have a more
Mismoney world like.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
Yeah, so might feel a bit more cohesive.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
And we're always thinking about, you know, how kids can
connect with Miss Mooney and the brand and you know,
how we can work in those ways and the business
side of things as well. So yeah, we're slowly getting
there because we don't obviously want to, Like I'd love
to outsource a little bit as well, so I can
really hone in on the creative side and scripting and
making sure I'm like really doing all of that really well,
(30:34):
because yeah, they're editing takes a bit of time.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And yeah, what is the turnaround, and like how often
are you releasing videos?
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Well, at the moment, it's sort of like every four weeks.
I filmed last week and I'm going to finish the
video hopefully today, So it's like an editing of one week,
which is sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow. Songs take
the longest because that's so much happening in a song. Yeah,
but yeah, and I just try and keep things simple,
like I just go, hang on a minute that seems overstimulating,
(31:03):
cut that out, Like let's just keep it simple. If
kids are connecting with me, that's what's important. Like don't
overdo backgrounds and things like that. So that's the other
thing about getting an editor is making sure that they're
getting that part of our videos right as well, that
we don't want to be over stimulating.
Speaker 2 (31:18):
Sometimes when you're growing, it is actually like people say
delegate all the things, and it's like sometimes it's actually
you're too busy to delegate, like because you've got to
train a person and there's a whole process. So that
makes total sense, and I appreciate every video even more
now knowing that you've done it yourself. But it's also,
I mean, it's incredible that your background was violin and
(31:39):
yet you're writing, singing playing Okay, are you playing the
guitar and the drums in construction crew?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Absolutely not?
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Oh my god, Okay, we had bets on that.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Sarah, you shouldn't have asked me no, but you get
it actually, like, no, it's my violin.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Really well, yeah, I was like, look at her, think
she's doing the guitar.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
But if you look at my right hand, it's doing nothing.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
It's just like it looks like what's going on there
with the left hand.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
I'm trying to get her up. It's fun though, I
love it. We love filming those bits because Nelson just
like has a huge laugh of me. He's like, it's
not down there, it's a guitarist.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Oh yeah, He's like, no, you're doing that wrong. Oh yeah,
you look so good. And when you change costumes, I'm like, whoa,
she's in character like the construction hat. I'm like, even
your hair even looks good with a hat on, Like,
what the hell? So with all the like you obviously
taught yourself oslan, how much of what goes into the
(32:38):
videos is guided by your analytics and going with what's
gone well versus are you doing educational research on like
delivery or like you've obviously upskilled haapes to learn actual
sign language.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Well, so, I just want to clarify, and it's really
good for more people to learn this. But so Oslan
is a language itself, Stralian sign language. It's not spoken,
so the voice is off and they just sign without
their voice on, and they have different sentence structure and
it's a whole proper language. Whereas keyword signs, which is
(33:14):
what I'm doing. I'm signing keywords that come from Osland,
so I sign and I say them. So I'm not
teaching Osland because that's your language. Because in my song
I can do anything. It's coming out in the next video.
I'm signing keywords, whereas if I were to sign Osland,
the structure of what I'm signing would be completely different. Yeah,
(33:37):
so I have a beautiful death consultant. Her name is
Mikayla from Awesome Oslan and she has been incredible. She
has helped me so much and I've learned so much
from her, and she just wants, you know, more people
to learn about this, to understand the difference between osland
and keyword sign, and just to be signing because I
think it's beautiful and like, our kids are signing all
(33:58):
the time and they can speak, but they love to
sign as well, and I think it's it's great, it's
like so inclusive and yeah, I think so. I'm learning
from Mikayla, So anytime I do any signs, I'm always
sending them to her. Hey how was this? And even
for this song, I wanted to sign the very last
chorus fully with keyword sign, and so she I sent
(34:20):
it to her, and she even spoke to an interpreter
and she wanted to make sure I'm getting it really
correct because I know the responsibility I have to make
sure I'm teaching the right thing. So I'm always getting
her help with all the signs that I do. So
I'm really lucky to have that. Yeah, I had no
idea at the beginning to tell oh, yeah, Uslan, Yeah,
I'm teaching and like you know, and you're like, oh
(34:43):
my gosh, it just open your eyes a whole nother world,
and it's yeah, and they're a wonderful community, and so yeah,
I've learnt a lot and I'll keep learning. I'll always
keep learning.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
I love that you've got such a thirst for learning
and a curiosity which strives obviously everything you do from
a business side, or for anyone listening who perhaps isn't
in sort of the same child focused or even music,
which is anyone who's building a YouTube. You mentioned there's
a lot of analytics like I, for example, don't know
anything about YouTube. I feel like I'm really well acquainted
(35:14):
with the platforms that I have and podcasting, but YouTube's
a whole other world. So you're obviously responding to the
analytics you're getting about what's popular and what videos work
well and what doesn't. And I also want to ask
you if that surprises you sometimes, but also monetizing it
and making it your career, how does that work? So
for Instagram, for example, it's I think most people know
(35:36):
how that works. A brand will come to you and
they'll ex give you a brief to create content as
part of a partnership, and then you'll create a piece
of content and then it's marked as a paid partnershiphereas
I think YouTube works quite differently, So how do you
build a career out of your YouTube content?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Yep, So to get monetized you need one thousand subscribers
and four thousand watch hours.
Speaker 2 (35:56):
Oh see, I didn't even know that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, so then you get invite to the YouTube partner
program and so that's how you can start to monetize
your content. And then I guess the whole YouTube game
is just all about being consistent, you know, just making
sure that you are putting content out there. It doesn't
need to be a video every two days or every
three days. It can be as you know, for us,
(36:20):
it's once every four weeks and that's consistent. We still
get views and we're still growing at that rate, but
we're consistent. So just making sure that you are consistent
is a huge part. Looking at retention and analytics, so
really start to understand the platform. The best thing you
can do is just learn. There's so many great businesses
out there that can help, and there's help out there
(36:42):
for free, So just keep learning about the analytics side,
understand your audience, like make sure you know what's out there,
what's already working, what does your audience want, and then
get that feedback on your own videos and make the adjustment.
And I think that's a beautiful thing about YouTube versus
broadcast TV is that you're getting those analytics almost like
(37:06):
in real time, and you're able to go and look
through and go, oh, okay, well that retention dropped at
three minutes in because I did this. Okay, Well, so yeah,
it's like to the second you can see how your
audience is viewing. So yeah, it's really great and it
helps a lot.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
And so do YouTubers make the same So just say
there was another channel that had the exact same number
of followers as you, and they put up the exact
same length of videos with the exact same regularity. Just hypothetically,
would you both earn the same.
Speaker 1 (37:39):
No, So it all comes down to the ads. Advertising.
This is all Nelson talk, by.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
The way, because I don't know any of this.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Yeah, no, it's really great to learn. Like, so we
get paid through advertising, and so it also depends on
your channel, like your genre and who you're serving, and
so those ads go you know, like business channels sort
of make a higher CPM cost per thousand, oh jeez.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
Yeah, and so but you can obviously because it's a
children's channel, your ads that would be running on your
videos are different to sort of adult channels, right.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yes, but it's kind of it's not many people know this,
but you don't technically earn any money from the YouTube
Kids app. So if you're viewing our videos on the
YouTube Kids app, we're not getting any money from them.
Oh yeah, I know. And so technically they say they
run ads, but no one ever sees them on YouTube Kids,
(38:46):
so we do make our money from ad revenue on
may YouTube. Yeah, so that's important to note, especially for kids.
Grown up channels are completely different. They can earn a
lot more so kids channels are sort of in a
different boat there.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Yeah wow, okay, And so it's based on like the
number of views you get and the number of ads
and the kind of ads that run over that channel.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Yeah exactly right, Oh so interesting.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
And so when you go and look at your analytics,
what are your most popular songs and videos and then
what surprises you like? Which ones did you think go
better and they didn't, and then the reverse well.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Our construction episode, well, I guess it didn't have full
construction in it, but it had me with a construction
hat on and holding a truck that sound most viewed episode.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Well that's all me. Yeah, dig push rolls, construction crew,
beautiful things. All the views were me. Yeah, I love
well Teddy so yeah, construction, monster, truck.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And dinosaurs are huge, yes, yes, yeah, And often when
I'm meeting little kids, they just it's always oh, dinosaur,
the construction song, that sort of thing. So, I mean
it doesn't really surprise me because we've got kids and
like you know.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
What sailor to those things, you know what I mean, like.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Like, oh, you're really obsessed with wheels, okay, like you know,
and you're okay, so.
Speaker 2 (40:11):
Sure dude, cool. Great.
Speaker 1 (40:13):
So we're just trying to find the balance of like, okay,
well what do parents want as well? Like parents want
to show their kids. Potty training is like a huge
one that's been requested, but I just don't know how
to do it yet. Yeah, I don't know how to
pull it off.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
So you'll sit on an idea and then we'll sit
on an idea. Wow, I'm not intended, but I was like,
where going with this, you'll sit on the potty and
you'll think about it, think about it. Yeah, And I
need a good partty song and I don't have one,
so do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Like I'd like to serve that, you know, because I
know adults like it, but also would it be helpful
to kids? I don't know, you know. And now I've
got this affirmations video, which I'm so proud of. I
think it's beautiful. I've just demonstrated so many different ways
to you know, incorporate rate like oh my, my dump
truck's broken. Oh no, let's say some special words. Let's
say I can fix it. And you know, I'm really
(41:07):
proud of it, and I hope it does well. But
I don't know, yeah, because I feel like it's like,
you know, the vegetable of the videos, but I've put
in I've put in construction stuff into it to try
and hide the veggies, do you know what I mean?
So well, like who knows? Hopefully it does well because
(41:27):
I like, I think it's so great for kids to
you know, have those affirmations in their head and just
feel more confident in themselves. But we'll see otherwise, just
back to dinosaurs.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Do your kids watch you or are they like they
can't because they do.
Speaker 1 (41:42):
No, they do the miss miss mummy to them, that's missing,
But they do. My son, he's so engaged. My daughter,
she's like, she runs the show Mummy. That's a bit boring.
Speaker 2 (41:55):
I'm like, babe, harsh critic, you're not my demo exactly exactly.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
I was like, you can't speak. But now's she like
understands what we do and that it's our work, and
she's like all over and she you know, makes suggestions
and things like that. It's great. But our son, he's like, really,
I love it. I get the feeling that I imagine parents
get the feeling when they see their kid respond and
oh my gosh, she's like talking to me. You know,
(42:21):
I understand that feeling, and I know how special that
is and how much that can mean to a parent
because I'm kind of experiencing it as if it's not
me on the skime, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (42:31):
Yeah, yeah. And another thing we talk a lot about
on the show is the definition of success and whether
or not success is even a metric. I think a
lot of people spend their earlier career chasing that kind
of elusive goal and then later on in life it
becomes it. You're just trying to find fulfillment and happiness
(42:52):
and peace. How do you measure success or value in
your life? And like, do you feel successful now or
is there a goal that you want to achieve for
missmoney that you'd be like, yes, that's it, or have
you already done that by knowing that families watch you
all the time?
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, a bit of both, I guess, like for us,
the success comes from connection, like just knowing, Like I
get messages from parents every day and so I kind
of measured by that, like, oh I have I you know?
Is that increasing over time? When I leave the house now,
I'm getting recognized more and more, which has been really
nice because I get to meet kids.
Speaker 2 (43:28):
You know, Teddy would lose his actual shit. He'd just
be like, well, that's the thing. Sometimes I feel a
bit like because I did it.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
I've done a couple of ment greets and sometimes it
doesn't put me off. But sometimes I see that the
kid is just in shock, and I get it's fine,
like because sometimes they're either just completely blank, other times
they run up and hug me. You just never know
what you're getting so then when the kid who's in shock,
who's maybe they're in their line, They're like, oh my gosh,
(43:55):
Miss Morney's over there, and then they get up to
me and then they just shut down and the parent
is like, oh my gosh, but you were so excited.
Then I feel sorry for the parent because they were
expecting their kid, you know what I mean, Like we
just never really know. But I love meeting them anyway.
So yeah, connection is a huge part. I would love
to be like a household name, especially in Neualia and like, yeah,
(44:19):
oh yeah, I just it would just mean so much
to know that our content is connecting with more kids,
and especially in Australia across the globe. But just I
know that I won't always be for everyone, but it's
just nice knowing that there are kids who are connecting
and learning and I'm a part of their learning journey.
Like that's so fulfilling. So I do feel really successful
(44:42):
already where I'm at, but I want to do more,
Like I want to give more. I want to I
want to help more. I want to just be there
for more kids.
Speaker 2 (44:51):
And because you're so passionate about what you do, I imagine
that switching off, and because your platform is online which
has no opening and clothes hours, Yeah, how do you
switch off? Do you make yourself do things in the
analogue world, like what's your joy or your gay outside
of what.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
You do well, spending time with the kids, Like we
just try and be really present, Like I'll just notice
if I've been on my phone and I'll just be like, no,
I'm going to deal with social media tonight. Let's just
go and play in the player and go outside, Let's
go for a walk to the park or just I
think main thing is we love going to playgrounds with
the kids. We're just just the simple things, like just
(45:34):
not too much with real home bodies as well, but
we just love like being present with the kids and
just playing. And I'm learning from them as well when
they're playing, and then that also helps me with what
I do. So it just really feeds in together. The
lines are a little blurred, you know, but it's fine,
like because we really enjoy what we're doing, so it
(45:55):
doesn't feel like work at all. And so but you know,
I wake up really early and I do work before
the kids are up. And then if our daughters are
on a kindie day, I'll get a bit more done.
But other than that, like Nelson works often a lot
at night, and so we just work around the kids.
But also we don't put work ahead of the kids,
so we're able to do that, which is really lucky
(46:17):
because I know that a lot of people they can't
do that, so I know we're in such a great
position to do that. So yeah, I feel like it
just works really well together that it all just feels
like really joyful. Oh that's so, it's really nice.
Speaker 2 (46:32):
Oh well, thank you so much for your time and
for sharing so much about literally a massive part of
our life. Do you mysterifying what it takes by and
the scenes to bring these incredible, incredible videos to our homes.
And Teddy learns so much from watching you and dancing
(46:54):
and singing, and obviously like some of your songs. Honestly,
I can't remember which one it was. I meant to
to save it for you. One of them is a banger,
like you have this bridge in one of them, and
it's like it should be on the chart. I can't
remember what it is. I'll find it an authentity, But
every time it comes on, I'm like it's about to drop,
Like it's so good.
Speaker 1 (47:16):
Oh, thank you.
Speaker 2 (47:17):
No, I love it.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
I love like trying to make music that parents can
enjoy as well. Yeah, like what would we enjoy? You know? Yeah.
But also every time I'm writing songs, I'm like, Okay,
what words are they going to be able to scream
out loud? Yeah during this song? So I'm trying to
put everything I know into what I'm writing as well.
That can also.
Speaker 2 (47:38):
Be Oh, it's moved like an animal. Oh yeah, you
know when there's that pause in the bridge and that
it's you at the end, You're like, move like an animal.
Speaker 1 (47:46):
Yeah. I had that while I was on the treadmill
like for weeks before I released it.
Speaker 2 (47:53):
I was just like this is my Yeah, me too,
like this Teddy's like gone and I'm still like yeah,
I love that. I'm here for that. Well, congratulations on everything.
Keep doing the incredible work that you're doing. And if
anyone is listening, Miss Money also does personalized videos for
(48:13):
your children, So that is on the website and I
will include links to everything in the show notes. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Thanks Sarah. Was such a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (48:22):
Guys. I still cannot believe this was Miss Money's first
ever podcast. She was just so well spoken and as
lovely as I had hoped, if not more so, but
especially since it was her first time and she was
quite nervous. Actually, if you enjoyed listening or get as
much out of her channel in your household as we do,
please do share this episode tagging at Miss Mooney Teachers
so we can thank her for her time and show
(48:44):
our support. In other news, our live show in Melbourne
has nearly sold out, which I cannot believe, but I'm
getting so excited for our evening with Headley Thomas and
also to get to meet some of you in the neighborhood.
They are my very very favorites to do live events,
and it's been so long there are less than ten
tickets left somehow, so I will pop the link to
(49:07):
the event in the show notes and would love to
see some of you there. We have an amazing goodie
bag and some incredible silent auction items coming up as well,
which I'll post about in the coming days. In the meantime,
I hope you're having an amazing week and are seizing
your yay
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