Lauren: Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Publish & Prosper. And today I am lucky enough to be joined by a special guest co-host. Welcome back Chelsea, for those of you that are listening and not watching.

Chelsea: Yes, thank you for having me.

Lauren: Chelsea is returning for secretly her third time.

Chelsea: Ha, yes.

Lauren: Except one of those episodes is lost forever.

Chelsea: You have to subscribe to our Patreon to see the unreleased episode that I did, unfortunately.

Lauren: I still have those files. They do still exist.

Chelsea: Don’t threaten me.

Lauren: But we are excited to have her back to talk about YouTube.

Chelsea: That’s right.

Lauren: And showing up effectively and authentically on YouTube.

Chelsea: Yes, yes.

Lauren: For those of you that are watching on our YouTube channel, you might recognize Chelsea.

Chelsea: Like and subscribe.

Lauren: And for those of you that are listening but have ever looked at our YouTube channel, you would also probably recognize Chelsea as the face of our Lulu U videos and so many of our webinars and live virtual sessions and so on and so forth.

Chelsea: Yes, that's true. Correct so far.

Lauren: Nailed it.

[1:37] – Episode Topic Intro

Lauren: Way back in... January, I think, Matt and I did an episode together that was on using social media to sell your books. It was a terrible mix of a pretty good episode, but also the audio is completely messed up on it. So, sorry to anybody that suffered their way through that one. But one of the things that we talked about in there was like, briefly touching on YouTube and saying that we thought that, that YouTube was just such a different frontier and kind of like, just like a totally different beast to what we think of as social media.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: That like, it didn't really make sense to include that in that conversation.

Chelsea: Yeah. I was actually thinking about this earlier, and you might remember this, but there was a time at Lulu where social media, for us, included YouTube. And so I don't know if when you were social media managing, if you kind of reported on it, but there was a time where the social media manager was kind of – or even our videographer and editor, she was kind of, you know, keeping a watch on it. And it was funny because I was looking back through some of the comments that we had and just from the older videos, and we weren't even responding to comments, and we weren't – we were just approaching it really differently, and just kind of as just another piece of social media. But in the past several years, as you said, we realized it's a complete standalone channel and it has to be treated that way. And there's just different ways to think about it and approach it. And it can be its own kind of conduit for your business in a way, another way for you to reach your goals, if you can view it that way, instead of sort of bunching it under the social media heading.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: So, you know, Matt and I could have done this episode months ago and talked about YouTube, but I thought why, why not bring our in-house YouTube expert in to talk about it instead?

Chelsea: You guys could have done a reaction podcast and just watched my videos and then critique them and see what I'm doing and not doing.

Lauren: I, I have actually talked to Paul about doing an episode that's, that's not that. It's, I'd throw myself under the bus instead.

Chelsea: Good, good.

Lauren: And it would just be Paul comes on and reacts to slash corrects all the things that Matt and I have said wrong or that he disagrees with over the course of like, twenty episodes.

Chelsea: When Paul is ready for his career move, that's when he should do that.

Lauren: That's his way out the door.

Chelsea: Yeah, yeah. But I mean, when you have, you know – of course, when you're on camera, when you've done a lot of stuff, and when you have start building a catalog of content, I mean, anyway, you could do that for anything. But yeah, with video, it's just definitely more in your face when you do things well or when you mess up or, you know. Obviously we were talking about when you have like, a bad hair day or, you know, whatever's going on with you, the camera doesn't lie. It can. But, you know, it also captures a lot of stuff you might not want it to.

Lauren: It really does. But I do think that is a big part of the experience of video versus some of the other mediums that people share content in. And, and that level of like, showing up authentically, showing up as representation of a brand, but still, like... I mean, you know, Matt and I have talked about this, this is a Lulu podcast, but we're still ourselves –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – on here. Like we're still, for better or worse, we are pretty much as close to ourselves as we can be without the...

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: – podcast getting taken down. So...

Chelsea: Well, yes, we did say that, you know, I know Matt is a bit more soft spoken on the podcast. Unfortunately for some of the commenters on our YouTube channel, this is my actual voice all the time. And I don't just put on an annoying voice for our YouTube videos. But yeah, I mean, YouTube is its own thing, and the beauty of it is being able to show up and there are different degrees of how to show up. But I think for individual creators and authors, people really crave the authenticity that you can bring in seeing that you're a real person. I mean, more and more with AI being a part of the conversation. And there's places that you can use it to improve your craft and cut out some of the time that takes you to, to do video work or any other work. But I think where you kind of want to leave that out of the equation is when you are writing your scripts, when you're – or your outlines, or showing up – and even leaving in some of the, some of the outtakes, you know? Some of the imperfections. I mean, you don't have to watch that much Lulu U to see examples of me messing up. I mean, we have a great editor, so sometimes she'll leave stuff in. Thankfully for everyone who ever watches, she cuts a lot of it out. But, you know, sometimes it's good to leave that in because, you know, we're all regular people and it's not perfect. And it's funny, because when I was watching some of our older Lulu U videos. And in those, you know, I really just showed up, like, read the script, and tried to get out. And I mean, you know, I tried to be, like, personable and, you know, whatever. But now I try – I really try to just have an outline moreso than a script. So I can know the points I'm trying to get across, but so I can also, like you said, like inject your personality and, you know, build, build that relationship with the audience. Because at the end of the day, you kind of want it to be a place to, to build community and connect with people who are looking for that information.

Lauren: Yeah, absolutely.

[7:01] – How YouTube is Different from Social Media

Lauren: How do you think that, that YouTube is different from social media? Whether that's in terms of like, the type of content or how you approach it or how the audience approaches it? Like, where do you see the difference?

Chelsea: I – for me, I mean, I think obviously, as you said, it can be a part of your distribution channel and it can play several different roles in your overall marketing strategy, but it's really a place for you to show your personality, show more in-depth content, spend more time with the audience. And I mean, I think the community building is one of the biggest aspects. And you can argue that any social media channel allows you to do that. But really in YouTube, it gives you the ability to create a fandom. And that is so... I mean, brands chase that, cause it's just so – if you can get people to feel that for your brand or your company or whatever, your books, your characters – that fandom, that they're a part of something, then that's huge. And such a powerful way for you to build those relationships and, and build that brand. And I just think YouTube is really well suited for that. I mean, because you have this mix of content that you can put out, you know, there's so much that you can do there. And then obviously with the built-in commentary and then other creators that are on the platform that you can collaborate with. So I mean, I – for me, we look to YouTube for discoverability because, I mean, I think it's the second... I think I wrote this somewhere, but I mean – yeah, Google owns YouTube. It's the second most visited website on the internet. So it can give you access to so many communities that you may not have. And – and this is a statistic, but I also do this personally – when I'm searching for something, whether it be a review, or earlier we were talking about using, you know, Adobe Premiere. When I want to learn how to use that, I will go to YouTube to figure out how – or if, like I want to buy a new product, I will go to YouTube to see who's bought it and who's reviewing it. And a lot of people, especially younger folks, that is, you know, their search engine.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Is going to YouTube. So it's a huge opportunity for discoverability and I think gives you that kind of range to play around with the short form content and long form content. All in one place, I think. Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah, I think it's almost a microcosm of all different social media platforms together. Like, YouTube is kind of doing a little bit of –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – what everybody is doing. And I think that that's something that people don't even realize necessarily. Like there are so many parts of YouTube that I didn't realize.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: The community building stuff and the comment threads, and live videos, and the fact that live videos like, have people that are regularly in the chat just hanging out.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: And like, there's regulars that come join a live –

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: – every Monday night and there is that community element to it. And even the difference between Shorts and like, longer form channel videos –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – and stuff like that. There is – a lot of what all the different social channels are doing right now, YouTube is kind of doing them all together.

Chelsea: Yeah. No, I completely agree. Because like you said, I mean, there's the different forms of content, whether it be Shorts or long form content, live videos. You can also post, just do static post and do polls for your audience. It's definitely its own little ecosystem. And then the analytics, I mean, you and I have talked about this, but the analytics are so in-depth and so powerful.

Lauren: Oh yeah.

Chelsea: So you can learn so much about how your content is being discovered, who's watching it, what's working. Obviously just from the basics of subscriber counts all the way to when people are dropping off, the most engaged point, what's being shared... You know, what people are liking. So it can tell you if you are in a place where you're just starting out, then it can give you so much insight into what you're doing that's working and then what to lean into as you kind of start to build your brand in that video content.

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. I think that there's also... Not just from the creator perspective, but from the audience perspective YouTube kind of has its own expectations. And like, what people are interested in and what they're going to YouTube for.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: And I think that that's kind of a really big distinction between YouTube and a lot of the other social channels. Whether like, they're coming to you for recurring content, or they're coming to you for educational content, like they have a different kind of set of expectations of what they're, what they're looking for or what they're willing to...not forgive, but. Like you were saying earlier with, like, you don't have to be perfect on camera, you don’t have –

Chelsea: I hope all of our viewers have forgiveness for me. Like the stuff that I'm doing on our channel, yeah.

Lauren: But I think that that's kind of, like, allowed for. And I think –

Chelsea: Oh yeah.

Lauren: Even, even something like TikTok. Like it doesn’t – you don't have to be perfect on TikTok. People are doing that content, they're editing it on their phones, you know, in one take, not doing whatever. But because the length of the content is generally shorter on there, you don't really have the room or grace for wasted time –

Chelsea: Right.

Lauren: – in a video.

Chelsea: Right.

Lauren: And on YouTube, I think people are, are a lot more like, they're not expecting the short fast cut from clip to clip to clip to clip because we're trying to get it in in, in a minute and a half.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: Like they're, they're down for the, the longer... thank God, because Matt and I can't end a sentence to save our lives.

Chelsea: Well, and you can watch at double speed. So it’s –

Lauren: That too.

Chelsea: – it’s user's choice.

[12:28] – Creating Short Form and Long Form Videos

Chelsea: But, but to your point, I mean, yeah, but there are also so many ways to interact with YouTube. Because you can do – if you, if you're doing really well on TikTok or short form... And again, YouTube will tell you if you put short content, live, or just regular videos, YouTube will tell you what your audience is watching the most. And for a long time, ours was just, you know, we were really just doing the Lulu U videos. And so when we started doing Shorts, most of our audience wasn't watching Shorts. And then now it's a better mix, and with the podcast as well, so you can really see. But if you, if you are just doing the short form – And there are some creators on YouTube that are very popular that just do Shorts. I mean, maybe they'll do some longer videos, but the majority of it is that Short. And you train your audience on what content you're going to create. So if you do – if you start to put out longer videos, then that's what they're going to expect. And that's, you know, what they want from you. Hopefully the feedback is they do, then you can keep doing that. And if you notice that Shorts are taking off and then you pause the longer form and you lean into Shorts, then you can do that as well. So I mean, you as the creator, I mean, you have to know your audience. You have to see those signals, or look for those signals. And then you can kind of decide how to use YouTube to best support your goals and your, your brand, you know? Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. I think there's a lot of interesting ways that I've seen people – even like, creators that I've seen on TikTok, that I've seen them more and more lately doing like... TikTok is the, like the minute-long version of the video, and then if you want the full video... Or the expanded video. Like technically the minute-long still gets the job done, it's short and sweet and gets to the point.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: But if you go to their YouTube channel, there's a fifteen minute version of that one minute video.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: And I think that's a really interesting kind of discoverability and funnel –

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: Like, tool?

Chelsea: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Lauren: Which you know, is kind of cool. And also I mean we've, we've talked about this in the past. Nobody should be putting all their eggs in one basket right now –

Chelsea: Right.

Lauren: – especially a basket like TikTok, which –

Chelsea: Spread your eggs out, yeah.

Lauren: Yeah, yeah.

Chelsea: Do it, make your users do an Easter egg hunt for all of your eggs –

Lauren: Why not?

Chelsea: – when they’re spread out, but. I was – Yeah, for the short form, I mean yeah, the discoverability and the funnel, and I was, I was wondering how far I could get into this before I said flywheel. So how many, how many marketing terms can we throw in here? But yeah, I mean, so if you are thinking about YouTube and... you know the last episode we did we, I think we talked kind of more about like, starting it. And if you are kind of getting over that imposter syndrome – Because yeah, I mean. And again, faceless channels are a thing. So it's not, if you are someone who is more introverted or shy, you can test that out. And there are some that have huge success that way as well. But you know, starting out, like you're – every piece of content that you put out can be repurposed for something else. What we're doing right now, I know that in...whenever this comes out, a couple days later you're going to say hey, this is the Short for this. And like you said, hopefully that Short encapsulates the main point that we're getting across, but then also leaves enough there that somebody would say, okay, well yeah, that's a good point. What else are they saying? You know? Hopefully that's, you know, that's the goal. And the same with our, with our YouTube, our other Lulu University content. I try to go through and break down, and – and unfortunately for the audience, I do have to cut out some of my hilarious jokes, but. Or fortunately for the audience. But, you know. But you try to boil it down, because there are people, everyone kind of digest content in different ways. And so the great thing about YouTube is even if you do have that audience who wants to see... I want in three, one to three minutes, I want to get it all. Or I have an hour to spend so I want to hear the whole thing. Or, you know, somewhere in between. So you can create one piece of content and then kind of edit it and you know, truncate it or elongate it to fit each of those kind of groups and what they're looking for. Which is great, yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. How do you approach that differently, or what's your process for how you approach creating like a Lulu U video?

Chelsea: Well, the biggest thing – and, you know some of the – okay, so obviously everything is, is pretty relevant and, and has to do with Lulu. Sometimes we'll talk about more general, like, marketing things. And I mean, I always hope that our content, even if you aren't a Lulu user yet... We hope that we can get you to our side. But if you're not, I hope that you will glean something from it that you can use that will improve your author career, your creator business, your publishing business, your entrepreneurship. So I try to do that, but really, I want you in... and I try to keep it short. I mean, I think some, one that we just put out was like seven minutes. And so you, sometimes you can only kind of make it so brief without taking away all the value. But I really want you, somewhere between five to seven minutes, to be able to understand a concept and take action on whatever the topic was. So that's sort of always my goal, is to make it entertaining as possible, make it as straightforward as possible, make it authentic as possible. You know, I, I do try to go, like I was saying, more of an outline now than a word for word script. Because that gives me more room to sort of add my feelings, or anecdotes, and make it more approachable. Or, you know, that's, that's kind of the goal. So yeah, I'm thinking alright, here's this big concept. For someone who's new to this, how can I express this in a way that in, you know, three to seven, five to seven minutes, they're thinking, okay, I know what my next step needs to be to act on this? Because at the end of the day, you know, our YouTube channel really serves as authority building. And I mean, credibility, relationship building. We want people to know that we're real people, and that these are things that we think are helpful, and that it's educational. You know, we want you to see this and then be able to make better decisions about your business after seeing it.

Lauren: Matt and I have said that before, and we'll say it again, that's always kind of our goal with this podcast is that Lulu is a secondary factor in it. Like, obviously we would, we would love for you to use Lulu.

Chelsea: We do like Lulu. Let’s get that –

Lauren: We do. Yeah yeah yeah.

Chelsea: I mean, just to be clear. We think Lulu’s great.

Lauren: We’re not sending you anywhere else. But if I had somebody say to me like, hey, your podcast was really helpful, I learned something new from it. I'm not a Lulu Author, or I'm not publishing a book, or I'm not there yet, but. Like, I still learned something interesting and cool from your podcast. Like, I'd count that as a win. Absolutely.

[18:54] – Playing the Long Game

Chelsea: Well yeah, and that's a great point. Because another thing that you – So if you are, again, in that starting out point, I would say, I would discourage anyone – Well, I would encourage you to just understand that it can be a long game, and just like anything. But if you are...regardless of the content you're putting out. I mean, how to videos, educational videos, reviews, these are all super popular content for YouTube. So if you are looking at YouTube as a funnel for your business, it should be part of a bigger strategy. But also it can plant a seed that you don't really reap for, you know, a couple of years. Like, and we know this so well at Lulu, because we've talked to so many people. I mean, there are conferences and events that I've gone to. I mean, you know, we've been at Lulu for like, you know, about nine years now, so. There are conferences that I went to in the beginning and, you know, one day a couple years later, maybe, you'll get an email from that person, or they'll act on that, because writing – I mean, any creative endeavor can be really time consuming. And so you have to kind of understand that the great thing about YouTube is that content is going to live forever, as long as you'll leave it up there, and you can reap the benefits of good content months, years later after you've after you put it out there. So to your point, it's like people may watch it and they may say, well, I'm not ready yet or I'm not at the point to use this information, but when they go to act, they'll say, oh, what was that podcast that I listened to? Or what was that video? Oh, well, it was Lulu. Well what is Lulu? And then maybe will, will take that path to, you know, looking at your website, or booking a call with you, or just subscribing to your channel to learn more. So that's another really important piece of it. And a great thing about it, is that as you continue to create content, just knowing that, you know, a video that you did a year ago could see a boost because someone else talks about it, or because that topic comes back in vogue, or it just kind of continues to gain traction. As, as it is, is live on your channel.

Lauren: I was watching a podcast recently that was a live podcast, and the guest on it was Katie Fawkes, who is... I think she's the Director of Marketing at Ecamm? She works at Ecamm, and she is also a creator independently of that. And she was telling a story about how she had gone live recently. She was doing a challenge that was like seven days straight, like, go live every day for seven days straight.

Chelsea: Wow.

Lauren: And one of the times that she went live, nobody – like literally nobody joined the live. Like it was just her talking to herself.

Chelsea: Yep.

Lauren: But even then, that live video does still publish to your page when you're done with it. And she got feedback from people after the fact that were like, hey, I wasn't able to make it live. But something you said in that video when I watched it back later, like it really spoke to me and it really resonated with me. And, and that was like – I don't think she even had a purpose in that. Like she was just like, I'm doing, I'm doing my daily live. Like, I'm just kind of up here yapping and –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – and see what happens. And it, and it struck a chord with somebody –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – and it, you know, it resonated. It helped somebody. And I think that's something that's really, really invaluable with YouTube content, whether it's short form or long form or whatever it is, is that that that content is pretty much as evergreen as it gets on the internet –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – these days.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: On any form of the internet these days. And, like, you never know when something that you created, whether it's a week ago, a year ago, three years ago is going to be exactly what somebody needed in the moment that they found it.

Chelsea: Yeah. I mean, and it's interesting – there's a couple of things that you said that, I kind of wanted to pick up on. And I feel for her because there's definitely been webinars that you show up to and there aren't that many people. But it's like, you know, if, if you've gone to a concert and there's like, not a ton of people there, but the band still like plays like their heart out and it's just like the best experience ever. So I think that there's a lesson in there about just showing up and doing your best, because even like, like you just said, like on YouTube, even if you do a live and you don't get the numbers that you wanted that, the shelf life of that is indefinite.

Lauren: Yup.

Chelsea: So, I mean, it can be discovered and rediscovered and can find the right audience when, you know, maybe an unexpected time.

[23:16] – Defining Your Channel Voice and Brand

Chelsea: And the other piece of that is consistency, so showing up on a regular basis. This is a best practice for any social media channel, email campaigns, you know, any, any way that you want to put your brand forward, there should be some sort of schedule to it. But on YouTube, coming up with a consistent schedule. And I think when you say that, people kind of immediately think, well, okay, so every week or a couple times a week, every day, it doesn't have to be that. I mean, there are some very popular creators that publish once a month. And again, it kind of goes back to training your audience so they know what to expect from you. If you're putting out... The better your content is, the longer your audience is willing to wait for it. Because they know that you are doing the work to do the research, or make sure the editing is great, or really polish the product. But again, if you are doing the more, maybe short form content or more relaxed or... raw, for lack of a better term, content, then maybe you're doing a Short every day, but making sure that you are consistent with what you're doing so that your audience knows this person is investing in themselves and they're investing in the content that they're putting up.So I know when to show up and I'm investing in it. I mean, make it worth their while to tune in. So, yeah, I mean, even if you're not, because, you know, it's usually not overnight. I mean, it does happen, but it kind of goes back to the long tail thing. But showing up consistently and like, playing for, playing for the room, even if it's, you know, empty. You know?

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Making sure you're doing the best that you can.

Lauren: Which is coming back to, I think, the, the showing up authentically part, too. One of my favorite YouTube channels is Defunctland.

Chelsea: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Lauren: Fantastic. Obviously it's theme park content.

Chelsea: Right. Yeah, yeah.

Lauren: Because I am nothing if not predictable, but it's a really interesting channel. And the creator used to do more frequent content that was shorter. Still like, you know, fifteen, twenty minute videos, but generally, like, comparatively shorter –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – to what he's doing now. And he's now posting way less frequently. Like, it’s like one or two videos a year.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: But the videos that do come out are like, two hour deep dives –

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: – that are so thoroughly researched that you're like, I'm pretty sure the person that, that created this theme park didn't even know as much about it as Kevin Perjurer does. Like, this is crazy.

Chelsea: And well, let me ask you, and did he communicate at all that like, hey guys, I'm going to switch up my style a little bit? Or did he just kind of change the publishing schedule?

Lauren: That's a great question. I'm sure he did communicate that to his audience in some way or another. But because he has kind of dug in on like, this is the content that I'm promising. So consistency not of posting, but consistency of quality.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: And consistency of like, you know that when it comes from me, it's going to be something that's thoroughly researched, well produced, and it's going to be some insane niche deep dive into something you didn't even know you were interested in.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: And and suddenly you're watching a 90 minute episode about how ride queues work and about the psychology behind different styles of lines and, and switchbacks versus separate rooms and this is how they evolve and, and you know, and I didn't know I needed to know all that, but now I do.

Chelsea: Yeah, yeah.

Lauren: But, but I think that is something that like, that's like he has his brand and he shows up authentically within it. And, and he says, you know, you're going to get less content from me, but it's going to be the same consistent, high quality, what you would expect for me. And now it's like a treat. If I open YouTube and I see suddenly there's a new Defunctland video on my, like, subscribe page, I'm like, oh my God –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – what a great day.

Chelsea: Well, yeah. I mean and that, that, that's a strategy as well. And well, the reason that I asked that was because with YouTube you can, and I have seen creators do this, where they decide to change up their publishing schedule. And you can communicate that through – Because, again, there's so many ways to share content on YouTube that you may not have thought of. But just doing, I've seen creators do a post where they say, hey, this month is taking me longer to do this video, so. Or I want to make sure – I'm going to do deep dives now and all my videos are going to be a little bit longer, so you can expect them at different intervals. And so there are those ways to communicate. And then yeah, when you, if you do that, it's kind of more of like a scarcity tactic where your audience has to kind of watch it then, or they're so looking forward to it because you do put it out on a less frequent basis. So then you can kind of drive traffic and engagement by doing it that way. So there again, there are a lot of ways that you can mold YouTube to your audience and the content that you're making, whether you want to do short, funny skits, whether you're going to do deep dives into things. And then I was going to also mention... niching. No. Niching down, you know, I know y'all talked about this so much, but YouTube is so perfect for this. Because anything, I mean literally anything, that you think you want to learn about or watch or look at, you can find people who have grown and created channels based around that. One thing that I had been looking at recently on YouTube – again, you know, I need to learn something new, I'm going to go to YouTube to figure it out. Gardening. I wanted to plant a garden, do a raised bed, and just finding these channels that I would have never heard about. And some of the millions of views just talking about urban gardening or how to do just raised bed gardening or just, you know, shaded garden – I mean, it can just get so insanely niche when you – any topic you take, there's so many layers to it. So if you're thinking of doing YouTube and really if you're just trying to do best practices and really stack the deck in your favor, think about what you want to talk about and then just see how deep you can go into that, and really kind of carve out your own lane. And of course, do research and see what else is out there and what is, is successful. But there's just some, some channels... like my in-laws really love, my father-in-law really loves this guy who just like, feeds raccoons hot dogs. I mean, that's, that's his thing. And this guy has like thousands, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of views feeding hot dogs to racoons. I mean. So that could be you, you out there, listener. If you've ever thought about feeding processed foods to wild animals. That could be your niche.

Lauren: That, that could be it.

Chelsea: Yeah, yeah.

Lauren: What more could you want –

Chelsea: I know, yeah –

Lauren: – out of your life? But yeah. No that's absolutely there are so many different ways that you can approach that when it comes to your content. It's one of the great things about the analytics. We talked about a little bit –

Chelsea: Yup.

Lauren: – on YouTube that you can really, like. I mean, there probably, I would argue the most robust analytics of any of these social –

Chelsea: It's great.

Lauren: – platforms that I –

Chelsea: A bit overwhelming too. But yeah –

Lauren: Yes.

Chelsea: – great. Yeah.

Lauren: Yeah. Because it could very, it could be very easy to go down the rabbit hole of like –

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: – I want to find out the exact second of every single episode that I've posted that people stopped watching.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: And now I'm gonna overthink whether or not they did. And where did they come from and where did they, like, where are people coming from? Here, here? Should I optimize this? Like, it's very easy to go spiral into that.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: In a bad way. But it can also be a great way for you to look at it and say, oh, you know, a bunch of people came to this video from Google search. You know, we were talking before we started recording about using, looking up tutorial videos to teach ourselves how to use Premiere Pro.

Chelsea: Yep.

Lauren: And which is something that I will Google constantly, like how do I add, like a running scroll across the bottom, like if I'm trying to do something on Premiere, I will Google how to do this specific thing. And because of the discoverability between Google and YouTube, Google will give you a search result that is timestamped to the exact moment of the video that talks about it.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: Right?

Chelsea: That’s right.

Lauren: So if you see in your analytics that you're getting a bunch of people from Google search that are coming to this timestamp in your video... hey, there's your next piece of content.

Chelsea: Oh yeah.

Lauren: Is a deeper dive into that. With that, or maybe your next piece of content is a short form video that is just focusing on that piece of content. Or maybe it's a blog post that is a –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – step by step on what people are talking about there. And like that, that can inform not just your, your niche, your content strategy, your channel strategy, but like, where you go from here. And I think there are a lot of different ways that, that whether you're doing short form, long form video, whatever you're doing there, you can use that to like really propel yourself forward.

[32:10] – Being Authentic While Still Being Intentional

Chelsea: Yeah. And I think, you know, you talked a lot about strategy and analytics and, you know, brand building. But also I kind of just want to say, or underline, it can also be just a fun experiment. I mean –

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: – it doesn't have to be, you know, your marketing strategy or your... You know, again, spread your eggs out, you know, all that. But it doesn't have to be just like, okay, well, let me look at the analytics. And if it's not this, not this, I mean, it can just be a fun thing. And again, going back to the, the authenticity, I think that's what people really relate to and gravitate towards. And there’re, you know, so many channels. If you have a channel that you’re a fan of, go back and look at their first video, or their early videos, and they're going to be so different. And you have to just kind of... I mean, you know, people will say start before you're ready and just kind of put it out there and just get comfortable with it. Start learning things on your own. You can always change and you can always pivot, and you can always, you know, decide to keep going or if you're stop if it's not working for you. But it can be a fun endeavor. And if it's something that you enjoy, play around with it. I mean, you don't have to be beholden to metrics or numbers. Just because we like to geek out on stuff like that and, you know, may be monetarily incentivized to do so, but. But, I mean, it can be – and all of social media –

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: – can be this, and –

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: – all of, you know, your writing can be this, it’s just an experiment in what is working for you and what you're con- and what people are connecting with. And just kind of finding your voice as well. Because you can start a YouTube channel with your phone and good intentions. So.

Lauren: Yeah. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely you can. And I do think it's a great playground, honestly. Whether it's a great place to experiment with, you know, maybe you want to branch out into a different genre of writing.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: And you want to try, you know, just like getting those ideas out there and talking to people about it. Or maybe you, you are still trying to figure out your voice for something. I, I've said this before, and I will likely say it again on this podcast. Three years ago, if you told me that I would be this comfortable with public speaking, with speaking on video on a podcast with live, like doing live video or anything like that, I would have laughed in your face. Like, absolutely not. This, the thought of doing this was like, stomach churning to me.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: For most of my life. And this I have gotten so much more comfortable with it just from kind of having that, that freedom and flexibility of like, alright, we're going to try this. Like –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: I mean, it helped that I didn't have a choice. Matt was like, you're doing this, let's go.

Chelsea: Yeah. Yeah, that helps.

Lauren: Like, it helps to have somebody behind you being like, no, no, you don't have a choice. You're doing it whether you want to or not, so get comfortable with it. Thanks, Matt. You're a great boss.

Chelsea: Right? Yeah. Yeah. We love you, Matt.

Lauren: But yeah, yeah, I think it is really a good, like, space to kind of kind of figure things out and and see, you know, a different, it's a different form of – it's, it's a great writing practice.

Chelsea: Yes. Yeah. Well and then also, you know, we were talking about this before we started, but the skills that you will learn in the process of creating video content or showing up on camera and just building, you know, just creating the YouTube channel. I mean, if you just going through the process of logging in or creating an account and uploading a video and figuring out how to edit it and do the descriptions and and learning the analytics, these are all skills that you now have that will certainly help you for whatever the next thing is. Like, if you are really trying to grow a brand or grow an audience, it's not going to hurt you to to go through the process. And again, even if, if at the end of the day – and I mean, I would say, you know, give yourself time to, to fail forward and learn things and do all that. But I, of course I wish you success, but give yourself time to, to really play around with it. And then if ultimately you decide, you know what? Actually, I'd rather do audio or I'd rather just write and do blogs or a newsletter, then, I mean, these are still skills that you have that you've learned this and you've fine-tuned your craft. You've learned that your voice is better, you know, in a different medium. And that's incredibly valuable as well. So even if it's something that you don't stick with or you feel like it's not really advantageous to you in the direction you're going, you still have a new skill set. I mean, maybe it's editing videos or, again, just being able to concisely express yourself or connect with your audience better or just know more about what your audience wants from you. That's pretty invaluable.

Lauren: It's a really interesting way to practice craft, too, I think. I think that's one of the things that I've noticed in the last few years is like... I do outlines for these episodes. You know, Matt has always pushed me to make the outlines shorter and shorter, something I'm still working on. But it is like, you know, kind of giving me the push to be more concise with how I outline things, but also with how I view the overall structure in general. And it's, you know, especially from somebody with a writing background, I don't have to put everything in the outline. I can be more like, we're going to storyboard this. We're going to just kind of lay things out, like high level looks, and talk through it from there. But then on the flip side, there are absolutely, like, I'll be going through and editing episodes later, and especially like when I'm editing the transcript and stuff and I'm like... I, I swear to God, I'm well-educated. Like, I swear to God I am a literate, well-educated person with a masters in creative writing.

Chelsea: English is my first language.

Lauren: It's my first and only language.

Chelsea: I’m quite familiar with it. Despite what I may, what I may say.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: So there are definitely some things that I've learned like, I can be a little looser with this, with this structure and the crafting of this. And then there are some things that I'm like, maybe that topic is better suited to a blog post and not a podcast or a video or something. Because I do need the opportunity to polish the content a little bit more and not just have it be off the cuff.

Chelsea: And you don't know until you try.

Lauren: Yeah.

[38:23] – Building Trust With Your Audience

Chelsea: I mean, and there – again, with the YouTube videos that we do, or the Lulu U, there are some that are quite technical. Like when I'm doing videos around the API, there's not a ton of room to like, you know, goof off. Because it's really just pretty straightforward, like –

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: – with what I need to get across. And so that's just, it needs to be what it is. And then sometimes when we're talking about things that are more, maybe marketing focused or aren’t specific platform, like what I know the users coming here – Like if we did a video, for example, on our cover creator, if you're coming to that video, it's because you want to know how to use our cover creator. It's not because you want to hear a funny anecdote about my grandmother.

Lauren: Right.

Chelsea: You know what I mean? So you have to figure out what is the right way to deliver that. And you don't know until you, you kind of try it out, and your – The great thing about YouTube and the internet in general is you'll be humbled almost immediately, and your audience will tell you, hey, you know, why are you – stop rambling. Tell me, I came to this video to learn what the title said. You didn't deliver on that.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: And so that's kind of another thing to just consider, is like, if you are creating whatever content you're creating, whatever you title it, just make sure you are delivering what you say you're going to deliver. And that goes with the trust part of it as well. And that's another huge piece of building an audience, is you know, they're not going to keep returning to your content if your title says How to use Lulu's Cover Creator, and then it's twelve minutes of me rambling about like, why I can't get out of bed in the mornings or whatever. Which is not a struggle that I have at all.

Lauren: I don't know, I feel like sometimes getting out of bed is harder than using the cover creator.

Chelsea: Oh, 100% it is. Great segue. Always be closing. Always be closing. There's not many things that are easier to use than the Lulu Cover Creator. Like and subscribe.

Lauren: Video linked in the show notes.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: But no, I do think that's that's a really good point. And even just talking about the distinction between different pieces of content. Because we do have, you know, we've talked a lot about the Lulu University videos that we have on here and Shorts on the YouTube channel, but we also have a bunch of tutorial videos. And those are, are – I'm assuming you take a different approach to those.

Chelsea: Oh yeah, for sure.

Lauren: Because those are much more straightforward –

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: – scripted.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: Like, there's no jokes, there's no like, we're getting straight to the point.

Chelsea: No LOLs. Yeah, I mean yeah. I mean LOLs not like, lulls, but. But neither we get, we get to the point. But yeah, because you, you have different audiences and you have different people coming to your channel for different things. So again, you know, because we are working on behalf of Lulu, there's different kind of audiences we're trying to appeal to. There’re people that are, you're, it's like midnight and you're just uploading your file and you just need to know, like what's going on? What are these errors I'm getting? And like, how do I get through this? Or I want to connect to my Shopify store to my Lulu account, like I just need to know exactly how to do this. And so we want to provide that. And then we also want to provide, through to the Lulu Us, through the podcast, are also more conversational opportunities for you to learn this content. But again also hopefully it's a bit entertaining and, more personable than, than just – but you can, that's kind of the beauty of it, is that we can hit all of these. If you just want to get in and out and you're trying to find a specific solution, we want to cover you there. If you are just maybe trying to find some general information about something, a more broad topic, then we want to provide that as well. So we really try to kind of cover our bases. And that's kind of outside of the Shorts. And then the Shorts come in as a completely different piece of that, where, you know, that kind of is, is a middle ground.

Lauren: Yeah, yeah. Do you... to go back to the, you know, the point about Lulu, like we're doing this for, we're doing this on behalf of Lulu. We're speaking to different audiences. We have different intent and different content that we're, that we're doing there. I – do you find it difficult to show up authentically as, like, the face of a brand?

Chelsea: I am a bit odd, maybe. I'm sure there are people that can relate to this, but I never, I was always really comfortable just looking into a camera and talking. Because I – it's just you. You're by yourself, I mean. And Ashley, was, was our videographer then, you know, my husband is doing it now, which is at times more comfortable, at times less, because he'll kind of come in and be like, hey, cut it, you're good here. So it's, it was different, but I never really had a hard time with that. So I always feel very comfortable doing that. And so it was easy for me. And – but if you look back at those older videos, it is again, like it was very scripted. And I was really just trying to memorize lines and get them out in a personal way, a personable way, rather, but just stick to the script. And I felt like that was a bit, what’s the word, a bit rigid, I guess. And so now I really just try to have beats for like, here's the core message I'm trying to get across. Here's what I'm trying to express and explain, and then give myself more room to really just connect with our audience. And, you know, again, share my experience when it's relevant or share personal anecdotes and just kind of make it feel more, as much as I can, you know, like you're talking to a friend and not like you're, you know, talking to a spokesperson. And I think, and that's not unusual. I mean, more and more businesses are going that way where you are trying to be more relaxed and relatable. But it's like you were saying earlier, you know, even though we are representing Lulu, and happy and fortunate to do that, we have a lot of leeway.

Lauren: Yup.

Chelsea: We are given so much room to be authentic, because I think that we know inherently as, as individuals and as marketers, that you, you want to, you kind of want to hear from a friend how to do something, you know? Or someone that you can trust and you feel is a real person. And so that's, that's been the probably the biggest shift in how we do Lulu U videos is now I really try not to stick so rigidly to a script, but really just think, well, how would I explain this to, you know, a friend or someone that, you know, I love or care about? How would I want them to understand and hear this? And how would I tell it to them? Because I think that that's – and I've heard that like, people say, like when you are doing your videos or, you know, act like you're talking to your best friend and then, you know, hopefully that'll make it, you know, depending on how crass you are, hopefully that'll make it a little bit easier for you to really connect and come through and let your personality shine, which is, I really think the biggest piece of building that audience. And, and creating that sort of community aspect.

Lauren: Yeah.

[45:06] – YouTube is For Authors

Lauren: The reason that a content creator that isn't already using YouTube would want to, especially an author – If anyone is still listening, if anyone has gotten this far into this episode that is –

Chelsea: Thank you.

Lauren: – a fiction author... Thank you, first of all. But a fiction author that's like, cool, YouTube is not relevant to fiction authors. I would strongly disagree.

Chelsea: Disagree. Yeah.

Lauren: Absolutely I think there's a lot of really cool content that you as a fiction author could, could use YouTube to create and share.

Chelsea: Absolutely.

Lauren: But the benefit of it and the main argument for doing this type of content is that authority building, but trust, in a trust way. And in a saying like, hey, I am a real person. Like I am, whether it's because we live in this age of AI where people are constantly worried about the authenticity behind things. Or just in a, you know, sometimes it's nice to be reminded that, that the people that you're speaking to at a business are actual people.

Chelsea: Yeah. For sure.

Lauren: And like, this is not – like when, when somebody replies to a comment on our YouTube channel, it's not a bot replying to the comment on the YouTube channel, it's Chelsea.

Chelsea: No it’s me. One hundo p. 100% it's me. I see all of the comments, all of them. And then respond to them. And yeah, I, I, I completely agree with that. So yeah, it's a great – For fiction authors, no, I would say it's a great opportunity for you. I mean honestly again, any almost any niche topic or genre you can, if you're willing to find a way to make that work for YouTube... At Author Nation a couple of years ago, I remember going there, and one of the big topics was authors putting their audiobooks on YouTube. That's free. You're putting it up there for free, and that's just another piece of content. And you don't have to put all of your stuff out there for free. But that's really interesting. No face. You can just audio record, put the recording up there. That's another way for you to connect to your audience. It's another way for you to add value. And not everyone is going to be able to, to buy the book or support you financially right off the bat. So letting them get a taste for your work, or experience your work and your content. And then again, start building that relationship, so that when they maybe are able to or when you put out that new release, they're able to go and convert and make that purchase. So for fiction authors, I think it's it can be such a powerful tool for building that fandom and for showing up, and like explaining the things that you really maybe couldn't in the book. Of like, why did... you know, why was the main character so into cooking or like, you know, why did they love that Corvette that they had? Or like, why did they name their dog Bessie? Or, you know, whatever. That's how uncreative I am. That's my dog's name. So, sorry, I could come up with nothing better than that. But, you know, but you have that room to expand and even kind of start your own fanfiction based on your own content and your own lore and kind of build that up. So, I would encourage anybody who kind of listens and says, this isn't for me, it's not going to work. Well, think about why. Why wouldn't it work? And and just as a thought exercise, think about five reasons why it could work. And then, you know, maybe you can kind of start there.

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah. I think there are a lot of really cool ways. Do it... an FAQ or do, you know, do a couple of Lives. Go live and –

Chelsea: Writing sprints, yeah.

Lauren: That's exactly what I was going to say. Go, go live and do a writing sprint. And say, hey, I'm going to do a one hour, just write with me.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: Like, if anyone wants to – or maybe, maybe not even writing with me. Maybe it's just a co-working thing. Maybe it's I'm going to go live and I'm going to be writing, but you're working on something else right now. But you're going to join my Live and –

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: – and we're going to be in the same space together working on our respective crafts.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: You, you might get a very, very loyal following of people from doing something like that. And that has – you, there's no production involved in that. There's no, like you literally just have to have like an iPhone or a phone with a decent camera on it. And enough of a recording space that you're not embarrassed for the dirty laundry that's behind you in the video screen.

Chelsea: Right?

Lauren: Like that's it.

Chelsea: You know, when the dirty pile, the laundry dirty pile and the laundry clean pile start merging together into the same pile. And you're – and you, maybe your viewers will watch that and then they can get excited about that. And, but yeah, I, I was reading an article about an author and I don't remember now who it was, but she was talking about trying video content or trying to put content out there and just really wasn't hitting. And then one day she started talking about her cat, and people loved it. And then she was like, okay. So then there it was, again, kind of going back to like the real human aspect of your life and sharing what you're comfortable with sharing. But the writing sprints. LaShonda Brown is a Lulu Author, and she does that. I mean, she has these networking – or cohorts, rather – where she’s just like, hey, maybe, I, I think it's once a week or couple times a week. She's like from 8 to 9 we're working on whatever project. Show up with your work, show up with your book, show up with whatever you have going on. This is the hour that we're working on it. And Russell Nohelty, who's also a great resource for authors, if you're not familiar with him. He has said that, it's like everybody wants to be a part of something, but not everyone is willing to create the space for it. You can be that person. So even just saying we're going to show up and write today, I mean, the accountability piece in writing, any creative endeavor is huge. So if you can be the person that helps other people reach their goals, then maybe that's what you show up for.

Lauren: Yeah. Yeah.

[50:33] – Supporting Your Long Term Brand Goals

Lauren: And this is all going back to that audience building. This is all going back to that. Like you're, you know, we, we've said a couple of times, YouTube is not really the place that you're going to be immediately selling your book. Primarily this is more of the long form. Not long form, long tail?

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: I don't know.

Chelsea: Yeah, long tail.

Lauren: This is one of those marketing terms that I pretend that I know that I don't.

Chelsea: Long tail. Flywheel. Synergy.

Lauren: Eugh.

Chelsea: Right. Yeah.

Lauren: Eugh. But yeah, you know, this is, this is where you're building trust and relationships and whatever it is with fans, so that later down the line, when you have a new product out, whether it's a book or a course or a paid membership subscription or something like that, you've built up that rapport with them, that they want to support you. They want to, if they can't afford to buy every single new book that they want to buy, they're going to prioritize the people that they feel a connection with. They're going to prioritize supporting you, because you've built up this relationship with them.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: So maybe it's not an instant-buy connection. Maybe you're not going to sell somebody on buying your book in one sixty second Short.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: But a year from now, they might buy your book.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: And that's still worth it.

Chelsea: Yeah. And also, if they watch one of your Shorts, then YouTube will see that and they'll serve up another one. Or you know, I've noticed that with new creators that I see on my home page, if I watch one video, then another one will come up and then another one will come up, and then they're in, they're kind of in – you're in their algorithm, and then you're more likely to, to, you know, build that recognition and then, you know, possibly convert down the line.

Lauren: Yeah. I do think that's, the discoverability on YouTube, I think is, is pretty powerful. Like the way that algorithm works. So that is something that's great for you to capitalize on.

Chelsea: Yeah. Yeah.

Lauren: I think.

Chelsea: A lot of ways, a lot of ways to connect and get out. And like I said, I mean, yeah, it's the second, you know, most visited website. And so if you especially, it's great if you can do like a how to or educational video. But I mean, we say this all the time at Lulu, but it goes, it really kind of all starts with like, knowing your audience. And of course, testing these things out will teach you more about them. But if you know them and know what they want from you, then you're obviously in a much better position. You're not kind of starting from scratch.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: You can sort of gauge what they're looking for, what has performed well, maybe for other platforms. And then try that out. There's a lot of ways – and I say this, I feel like every time I talk about any topic in relation to like, Lulu stuff, it goes back to your goals for it.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Cause, I mean, we've – in this short, getting longer, episode that we're recording, we just talked about using it for discoverability, using it for brand building, using it just for a creative outlet, using it to connect with other people, to sell your book. So there's a ton of ways you can interact with it, just... And so I think just taking the time to say, what do I want to get out of this? And then sort of picking the path that's going to get you there.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Makes the most sense.

Lauren: Absolutely, absolutely. For sure. We did talk about – the first episode that Chelsea and I did together was over a year ago.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: It was episode like, 66 or something, but that one was on how to use long form content on YouTube to grow your author brand, or build your author brand. I will make sure that one's linked in the show notes.

Chelsea: Yeah.

Lauren: So if you want to go check that one out, if you haven't, then go for it.

Chelsea: Yes, go for it.

Lauren: Highly recommend it. It was one of my more favorite ones that I've done –

Chelsea: More favorite, good, good.

Lauren: – and definitely not just because I did it with somebody other than Matt.

Chelsea: No, no, no, not at all. No. Yeah that one, that's great. And that, yeah, that one of course touches, yeah, kind of more... I think encourages you if you are thinking about doing it, to go ahead and do it. Can I make a book recommendation?

Lauren: Yes, please do.

Chelsea: This is sort of tangential, but I, I love this book. I probably read it maybe once a year, but. The War of Art, I don't know if you've ever read that book, by Steven Pressfield. It's a great book. It's very digestible. It's very short chapters. But, it's it's, for any creative endeavor. If you find yourself struggling to show up, it really kind of kicks you in the pants and sort of just kind of nixes all of your excuses. Because basically it says like, you know, if there's something you want to do, for whatever reason sometimes there's that resistance. And it kind of gives you the tools to overcome that. So if you are in the middle, in the throes of a creative endeavor, there's something inside you that you want to get out. But for whatever reason, when you go to put pen to paper or paintbrush to canvas or face to camera, and you cannot do it and you need a little bit of encouragement, that's a great, great book that kind of, I think, is very supportive of that. So just the last little... He's not a Lulu author yet, but, but just a great book. If you are kind of figuring out how to get to the next step in your creative career, I would recommend it.

Lauren: Awesome. I’m gonna have to check that out.

Chelsea: I’ll put my affiliate link below.

Lauren: Perfect.

[55:37] – Episode Wrap Up

Lauren: Well, check the show notes for that and for any other resources that we promised we would include in here.

Chelsea: Yes.

Lauren: And if you are watching this on our YouTube channel, please like and subscribe.

Chelsea: Please.

Lauren: If you haven't already.

Chelsea: Please do.

Lauren: Please do.

Chelsea: Comment. Leave us a comment.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Let us know, I mean, if there are questions about anything that we talked about, then like I said, I get up in those comments. So I would love to respond to any questions or comments that you have, so.

Lauren: Yeah.

Chelsea: Leave them below.

Lauren: Yeah. We love to see it.

Chelsea: We do.

Lauren: Whether that's on YouTube or on Spotify.

Chelsea: You will not be able to get away from us.

Lauren: No. You're, you're going to be watching us no matter where we are. So you might as well join the video revolution.

Chelsea: I guess you might as well like and subscribe and comment.

Lauren: Absolutely.

Chelsea: Join the conversation.

Lauren: Please do, please do. And if you have any ideas for any other, topics that you'd like us to cover, whether that's me and Matt or me and Chelsea, you want to have Chelsea come back again? We'd love to have her back. So if you have any questions for her, let us know.

Chelsea: Yeah. Please do.

Lauren: And thank you so much for joining me today. I kind of sprung this on you last minute and you were like, yeah, let's do it.

Chelsea: That's right, yeah. Well, thank you so much for having me. And... Yeah, hope this was helpful.

Lauren: I hope so too. And to everyone listening, thanks for listening. And we'll be back next week with another new episode.

Chelsea: Bye, everybody.

Lauren: Later.

Lauren: This may or may not make the final cut of the episode.

Chelsea: Okay.

Lauren: If it does, I'll cut out all references to it so no one ever knows about our secret shame. But...