My Story Was the Content
Sometimes it bothers me that people online only know me for being the mom from Our Family Nest. They don’t know me by my name, yet they recognize my face and my voice triggers something in them. Then it hits them…that’s the voice of the mom from that YouTube channel that I used to watch every day when I got home from school or work.
It’s hard to explain why it makes me feel agitated…maybe because I want to get to a point where I am known for more than that? I mean I appreciate everyone who watched our family vlog content back then…that whole experience changed our lives forever and if it wasn’t for all of those people who watched who knows what our lives would have been. But that was then and this was now. I am still working on what exactly I want to be known for moving forward.
So who am I?
Hi, I’m Candi. Most know me as the mom of Our Family Nest, the YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers. I’m 53, wife to Ken for 27 years, mom of 4 kids - ages 22, 23, 26, 30. I shared my life online through daily vlogs with my family for over a decade. Life has changed a lot since those days. We don’t record our lives every day anymore. My kids are grown and all moved out. Now it’s just my husband and me and our dogs. We are in the process of downsizing our home and figuring out what the next chapter of life is going to look like.
I know it’s hard to expect people to see me separately from my kids, as that is how they watched us for years and years. It’s an adjustment for me too, trust me. Sometimes it’s hard as a mother to know what to do with myself when I wake up and there isn’t a single thing on my agenda. Let alone, okay I am creating content today - all by myself - what in the world do I have to share without my kids. It has been tough and just odd at times. I think this feeling is what people refer to as identity loss or identity crisis?
This is why I took a much-needed 18 month break from social media back in 2024. I needed some time to figure out exactly who I was and what I wanted out of life. I had to adjust and honestly mourn the life that I once had. I don’t regret that decision at all. I needed that time for myself and burnout from social media is a real thing.
I did end up missing the feeling of connection I got from sharing my life online. Slowly over time I did miss sharing whatever was happening in my life. Mostly silly things really, like if I got a new purse or tried a new recipe I wanted to talk about it. If I was attempting to stick to a workout routine for the 100th time or I wanted to copy some silly trending video with my husband, I wanted to have a place to share it. Everyone welcomed me back with open arms, I felt like I was in the right place with the right people once again.
After a while though I started thinking - okay life is going by way too fast these days. What is my purpose here on social media? It has to be a bit more than sharing my mundane day-to-day happenings. I need a plan or purpose to my content. I decided to get a bit more strategic and serious about my content. I wasn’t totally sure how I was going to accomplish this but I thought I would start with sharing my personal story of how my hobby of creating family videos accidentally turned into a YouTube channel that grew to over 1 million subscribers. How I ended up making 3.5 million dollars through my videos and brand partnerships over the years. And then getting into what led to the decision to quit and all the details in between.
I couldn’t believe that it took me so long to figure out that THIS was what was missing. My story WAS the content that I longed to share and people truly cared to hear.
Sharing my story has allowed people to see me a little less “the mom from that YouTube channel” and more just me and what I actually know how to do. It’s led to some interesting posts about content creation strategy and I’ve started helping other creators through content reviews which has been its own kind of reward. My following has grown a lot faster than I expected these past couple of months which is exciting - I feel like I have found my purpose again. However it does put this certain amount of pressure on me too. Like I want to make sure my content is helpful and it’s not coming across as “I am an expert” and I don’t want to be pigeonholed into this whole “I am a content coach”, because I am certainly neither of those things and don’t want to be. With all that said - it does finally feel like I have a real reason for showing up and sharing my life and my story instead of just doing it out of habit which was ultimately my goal.
I guess I am writing about it because it is a huge part of who I am today. I also think that I could dig even deeper with my story and share some more of my back story. I love how writing gives me this invisible permission to go anywhere I want to, especially emotionally. Somehow putting this much into words feels a little more vulnerable than talking to a camera. I’ve always been one who figures things out by talking about them out loud and I guess that now includes writing them down too. I’m sure I will get better at this as I go.