Creators Chat Creators Chat

Great to be back on the Creators Chat Podcast and what a great guest to come back with. Our guest today was Courtney Slazinik from the ClickitUpaNotch.com blog and Instagram feed. I ran across Courtney’s blog about 7 or 8 years ago when I was trying to learn photography. She had a great Lightroom tutorial. Come to think of it, I think this is my first experience with doing any sort of virtual challenge as well. Courtney would often create little photography challenges to go with her tutorials and they were really effective in improving my skills.

My guest host for this one was Jen Bell from Jen Bell Yoga. Jen is a previous guest, and it was so great having her back to help me host this podcast. I didn’t realize at the time, that both ladies are military wives. I really wish I had the recoding started as they immediately bonded. Definitely a very tight sisterhood, which is something that Courtney talked about later in the podcast.

Courtney was always interested in photography, but it started in earnest when her husband bought her a fancy point and should camera. Unfortunately, while she was in labor with their second child, he accidently knocked it off a chair and broke it! Luckily her mom and her sister had their DSLRs there. The next day, while holding her newborn baby, she informed her husband that there was a DLSR on hold at a local camera shop and he should go and pick it up. What was he supposed to do under the circumstances? Say no?

Courtney soon realized that despite having a fancy camera, her pictures were still not what she expected. She talked to a friend of hers who showed her some of the basics and convinced her to buy a 50mm lens (much to the chagrin of her husband).

While her husband was stationed in Japan she decided to do a project 365 where she took a photo everyday and posted it to her family blog. (challengesare a great way to get better at anything). As she was browsing various blog, she realized that one of the blogs she visited could be making as much as $1,000 a month on ads. This inspired Courtney. She though if she could start a blog, she might be able to make maybe $200 a month.

So, she started posting 3 times a week. Whenever she would learn something, she would write a blog post about explain how to do it. Her audience was literally learning with her.

It took three years, but she met her first benchmark. Today, Courtney gets up to 70K visitors a month to her blog and has over 20K IG followers. All of that without showing picture of her feet (you’ll have to listen to the podcast to understand that reference)

Thanks for all your great content, Courtney. WE had a great time with you!

Also, I have posted my own photography challenge on ifUiWill. It’s a 7 day street photography challenge. Join today and post one Street photography picture every day for 1 week!

Happy New Year everybody! Welcome back to Creators Chat! We took a little break for the holidays but we are really looking forward to a great year with a bunch of fantastic guests. And speaking of the New year, I'm sure a bunch of you are kicking off your Resolutions. You know the best way to stick to your resolution is by having an accountability partner. And the best way to track your accountability is with the ifUiWill app. It's a lot of fun, you can set up regular check-ins, and you can invite others to join. It's always better than doing something alone.

This episode was a lot of fun. Our guest was Jen Bell who goes by @Jenbellyoga on Instagram. Jen is just awesome. I don’t know how she does it all. Yoga coach, mom, Internet creator, and world traveler. 

It was also great to hear about her struggles and work with infertility through Orchid Experience and work with veterans and military families teaching yoga therapy through Peace Through Strength Yoga Academy. It is always such a pleasure to talk to Jen. 

I was joined once again by Sandra Perez, my friend here in Mallorca, Spain. Make sure to check her out @whateverinblack on Instagram. Sandra is a CrossFit beast, photographer, travel junkie and IG model. Make sure to check her out on Instagram.

This was one my favorite podcasts. Our very first guest, Lloyd Ellet (@Lightning Lloyd), guest hosted this one with me.  Our guest was Marine Gunnery Sergeant, Art Shvartsberg, otherwise known as Iron Wolf.  You can find Iron Wolf on Youtube and Instagram.  This one was pretty special to me.  During quarantine, I was going nuts. A friend of mine turned me on to Iron Wolf for workouts, and I can't overstate the impact it had on me, both physically and mentally.  I felt fitter than I had ever been, and I felt like I was part of a community.  He became the first internet creator I followed.

Art is everything you want in a creator.  He is a United States Marine, first and foremost.  He posts his workouts for the simple purpose of helping people reach their goals and sharing his knowledge.  If you are looking for polish and glamor, look somewhere else.  The Iron Wolf is all about the work.

This interview was great.  In addition to being smart and disciplined, Art was really, really funny. 

Thanks for everything you do, Wolf.  Both for this country and the online community!

Make sure to check out the ifUiWill app for some great challenges and the Blog for the latest content.  Also check out the Do Together Podcast.

This was a great episode to kick-off our Creators Chat podcast.  My co-host for this podcast was Sandra Perez, who goes by @whateverinblack on Instagram.

Our guest for this podcast was Lloyd Ellett.  Lloyd goes by @Lightning_Lloyd on Instagram.  Lloyd was a professional boxer in the UK. Lloyd is awesome!  After hanging up his gloves, he started posting boxing workout videos on Instagram and in a really short time, amassed 31K followers.  His audience continues to grow and he now offers training programs to his followers are Instagram.  As an aside, he is currently hosting a 7-day boxing challenge on ifUiWill, starting November 15th.

Welcome to Creators Chat brought to you by ifUiWill, the perfect app for challenges, competitions, and accountability.

My name is Peter Mansour. I just wanted to use this episode as an opportunity to introduce myself and the Creators Chat Podcast.  Creators Chat is a podcast where we interview Internet creators and learn how they got their start, how they plan their content, grow their audience, and more.  We will be releasing regularly with new episodes.  Don't forget to subscribe! Also make sure your check out the ifUiWill app and Blog!