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Kelsey MacDermaid

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35
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2022-06-23
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2022-06-23
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1
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  1. “Know creating a shop, creating products, creating merchandise is definitely something that we see a lot of other creators do, definitely something that's always been on our mind, but I'll be honest in that I think our values have gotten in the way a little bit of us being able to do that. We are, you know, pretty sustainable, pretty eco-friendly. This is something that we just really believe in and it hasn't ever felt right to create t-shirts or just sweaters or hats.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  2. “There's also licensing. So if somebody wants to use our content for whatever reason, we recently had an airline license it to be short form content in the entertainment system or we do speaking engagements as well, but we're constantly working on developing those other revenue streams, things that don't relate so much to our YouTube content because, you know, we might not always be able to be the faces of this channel. We're just trying to create something that will last longer than this.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  3. “We definitely do not agree to every single brand deal that arises. I think that we look at our values. We look at if it's going to be a value to our audience, if they're going to find it an interesting brand and informative brand, we look at the brand's values. We always look into what their sustainability practices are, how they operate. These things are all important to us when we're choosing a brand. And then, you know, there's also the little piece of the pie that has to be the right monetary value in order for us to include it in a video. Then I also want to thank the audiences out there for watching ads, for listening to brand integrations because they really are clearly the lifeline of creators that are trying to create content for free for audiences.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  4. “They very like all over the place. And I think what's kind of cool about what we do is there's also that lifestyle element just learning more about Becky and I and how we live our lives. So even something like thrift stores, yes, we can shop there for decor, but also we like to dress from thrift stores and only shop secondhand. So brands can be integrated in so many different ways.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  5. “Yeah. So I think based on who our audience is, what our type of content is, how much you make is going to vary depending on creator.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  6. “Yeah, I think it really depends. It also depends per creator from what I've heard from our contacts at YouTube and just other creators. Our CPM is actually kind of high, and I think it's just because of the”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  7. “Yeah, not really close. We have a lot of overhead now. It just has slowly built as we've needed different members of our team to help sustain everything that we have going on. We have a bigger office now, you know, upgraded from that 200 square foot office to like a 2,000 square foot office. And yeah, there's a lot of overhead. So AdSense is just one piece of the pie.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  8. “It was around the same time 2015 when we decided to leave our film jobs. We decide we want to go all in. So we went to City Hall, we incorporated. Shortly after that, we got our first office, which was a tiny little 200 square foot space in this kind of three-story complex. And we just treated it like a full-time job, which I think a lot of people don't see that from YouTubers. You expect that you just make up your own schedule. You work whenever you want. You don't work whenever you don't want. But I think also because it was Becky and I, there's two people we needed to agree on a time to come together. So saying we're going to work Monday to Friday, 9 to 6 at the time, like that's going to be our time. That's what we're going to go in. That's where we're going to work. We're going to film. We're going to edit. And we're going to just be consistent at it.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  9. “I also think, too, we were really focused on finding that niche that was unique to us. I think that's how the channel kind of blew up at the beginning as well, is being in the right place at the right time when there wasn't someone there already. There wasn't a lot of DIY and home decor channels back at that time. So to be a place where people can go who are looking for that kind of content.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  10. “That's pretty much it. I mean, we never paid for ads or anything. It was just, it was taking opportunities that came to us, whether it was to be on like a local talk show, talking about a DIY project or just creating those videos that we were excited by that we knew the audience was going to be excited. Met our manager in Toronto, who again, we were not. Of YouTube channels back then. Him opened up the doors to more opportunities saying yes to brands that came our way. I think just a combination of a bunch of things and working hard and treating it like it is our full-time job and where we're making our money is how we were able to grow it.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  11. “There was definitely a lot of paying attention to what's trending at the moment, what our peer group seems to be interested in. But I think a lot of the success of what we've been doing comes from just doing what we are naturally passionate about at the time. And our audience seems to respond really well to that. So kind of fading out of the Halloween costumes and maybe the fashion stuff a little less too just because we were so genuinely passionate about home decor and design and the audience really loved that. I mean, we started our DIY journey by just shooting our hands essentially and showing us making something with like a simple voiceover and then we got more confident to have our face on it and explain as we were going. And now, I mean, we're creating things that feel more like full-blown shows where we have a whole storyline to the DIY process as well. And that's just because it's been what we're passionate about making at the time.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  12. “Yeah, I would say so. I mean, even so now, the internet is ever changing and it was really hard at the time to say where the natural career path for this kind of job goes because there was no one who had really retired from a YouTube career at that time. Like there wasn't anyone to look at that had done the whole path. So it was hard to say where we can go with this, but we were excited about what we were doing kind of right now. And the channel was really growing. We were kind of experimenting on other platforms too. And every day was just, okay, how can we be better at what we're doing right now and just make more and cooler things?”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  13. “Your It's so true. Or when somebody Bumps into you, or you bump into a standalone piece of furniture, you say, sorry. You apologize to furniture. Yeah. Sometimes. I think for me it wasn't so much that I necessarily had a certainty that this was going to work out and this was going to be the thing I was going to do but it was more that we had seen other people take a pause from YouTube for an extended period of time and try and come back and their online presence just wasn't the same. It's kind of like a train you need to catch on as it's going Whereas working in the film industry was really exciting But I felt like the opportunity could potentially always be there should I come back to it one day but YouTube I did not feel that same certainty at all and since it was really taking off we thought okay let's maybe try it for a year since it's kind of feels like an hour never opportunity yeah and if it doesn't work out then we can head back into our previous passions”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  14. “That's right. The E-A scirls. You wouldn't know. So the story girls was one of the other ones, which seemed to be the better move at the time. And that's what we went with. Yeah. But we're not sorry for anything, just to be clear. Not sorry, but it's just.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  15. “So we thought we wanted to come up with something that was unique to us and something that might be timeless because we had no idea what was going to happen after this first video if we were going to use the channel after this first video. So I think we're hesitant to call it something about Halloween or costume because it might not be that. And we kind of wrote a list of what are things about us that might not change, and the fact that we were Canadian came up a lot. So one of the going names was the A Girls, perhaps, because we say A lot in Canada. Oh, yeah. But yep.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  16. “Well, when we way back then made that first fateful highlighter video, we were going to put it online. Everything was done, ready to go. And we realized, oh wait, we actually have to have a channel to put this video on. And we were signing up for a YouTube channel, and it comes to that question where it asks you, what are you going to call this channel? And at that time, there were so many other creators that had just resorted to using a bunch of numbers and characters in their names because finding a unique name online can be difficult.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  17. “It actually took a little while, so we started film school in 2010. We were creating the videos throughout school. We graduated in 2014. And we actually went into the film world. So Becky went and worked in the art department on commercial sets and film sets. I was working as a production coordinator for commercial production company. And I think we just got so busy in the film world. And the YouTube channel was still growing that it was like, we need to make a decision. We either need to be in the traditional film world or we need to pursue our YouTube channel. And we made the decision to go and be full time with just our YouTube channel.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  18. “But yeah, I have no official training in most of this stuff that we're doing these days. It was a very slow progression. I think the first time I picked up a drill ever was when I was in college and then you slowly work your way from there when we were working with wood. You know, I definitely only used a handsaw to start. But years later, you get more comfortable to use a power saw. And that's a really big scary move for you. But I think the thing that was really successful for us was showing that online, that this is our first time using this, and we're going to show you how it's not so scary. And it really made it feel more accessible to people out there as well.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  19. “I would say it's a good mix of watching other tutorials online and trying to educate ourselves, but for me at least, it's a lot more of just trial and error. I just like to give my best go at something, and if it doesn't work, then that's the best way to learn how to do it better the next time.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  20. “Yeah, I feel like I grew up in a household where at least my dad really liked to work on the house. He also doesn't really have any formal training, but he's just passionate about creating a nice home. So I would want to paint my bedroom when I'm 12 years old. And he wouldn't let me just do it because he wanted it done right. So I'd have to kind of help and sit there and watch. And it was painful to not be able to just do it the way I wanted to do it. But in the end, it made for a nice bubble gum pink bedroom”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  21. “Yes, I don't think we really had too much of a plan at the time. There wasn't a set schedule back then. It was kind of whenever we could, whenever we thought it'd be fun to make another video on another question or sort of trending item in the space of the time, we were down to do it.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  22. “Yes, very simple, very budget friendly too. I mean, we were both in college and a lot of our audience was too, which usually puts you on a tight budget, limited supplies, limited skill set even. So we wanted to share the knowledge that we had and the budget we were working with.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  23. “I think because we had shot the Black Swan one in our small basement apartment by our college, I think people could tell that we were in kind of an apartment and wanted to know more. Like, who are you? Where do you live? Show us around your place. It looks cute. We want to know how you made those magnets on the fridge behind you. And so it really started by just reading the comments and thinking, oh, we could make a video answering that question, or we could make a video showing them how we made that thing in the apartment.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  24. “Yeah, I think it was around that time that we also got approved for the YouTube partner program, which means that we could start making money through our YouTube videos, which wasn't really a goal at all, but it was definitely just an exciting advancement. And with that video, people were asking, can you show us DIY home decor? They were just requesting other video and content ideas. So we were like, okay, this is fun. This is exciting. Let's keep going.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  25. “Yeah, I mean, it really was the hit movie of that year. Everyone was talking about it, and then it was setting it up to be kind of the hit costume that year, and it wasn't something you could go to the store and just buy a pre-made costume for, maybe like you could now. So people took to the internet to look up a tutorial and how to make their own. And we were there with a tutorial for you.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  26. “This one did much better than the first one. I think it meant. I want to say it got around $100,000 that year. Wow Which again for being really only our second big video on a YouTube channel is major at the time.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  27. “It does, yeah. I think if I were to do it again, we would definitely film it a little bit better now if you go back and watch it's kind of a cringy voiceover to how we did it. But today”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  28. “Yep, this is round two, and this year Black Swan, the movie, was super popular. And fast fashion wasn't quite yet a thing. So if you wanted to be the black swan for Halloween, you needed to make it. And we thought it would be an amazing Halloween costume. So since there were two of us, we were Black Swan and White Swan. We did the tutus. We made the crown. We went all out and we again uploaded this tutorial to YouTube.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  29. “Yeah, definitely getting our hands on and actually making things was one of the exciting things about being in film school and having the YouTube channel.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  30. “I was always really interested in the art side of film, so production design, costumes, set design, any of that kind of stuff. I really wanted to go into that one day eventually. I found myself always just wanting to organize things. So being on the producer side of things was, I think, what interested me.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  31. “No, no, not really. We I don't think did much else for that the rest of that year besides a follow-up video explaining how we made the hat to the costume a little bit more for people that had questions, but it was kind of a one and done. This was fun. Now let's go back to doing school. And I think it was the next year again when we picked up with Halloween where we started creating again and things started to take off.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  32. “I don't even know how we knew SEO at the time, but I believe we called it something basic, like easy last minute Halloween costume idea. And because there wasn't a lot of that on YouTube at the time, I believe it got a lot of clicks. Now, a lot back then is not a lot now, but for being our first YouTube video, how many would you say it got kind of in the first month, Kelsey? I don't know exactly, but maybe something around 10,000 or even a thousand. It's pretty good. It's like pretty good for your first video with no background. And this is 2010 when not every single person was watching YouTube yet.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  33. “So both of you are highlighters. Yeah, yes. But one's pink and one's blue, and those were also our names for the rest of the first year of college, too.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  34. “Yeah, like imagine neon blue tights, a little blue tube dress that we sewed. We cut out letters that said highlighter down the side and folded paper into the shape of the little cap.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT

  35. “It was a pink and a blue highlighter, as in the stationary. I think we were inspired by literally what was on the desk at the time.”

    2022-06-23 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · HIBT Lab! The Sorry Girls: Kelsey MacDermaid and Becky Wright · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT