Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 44 Natalie Tran- Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: August 8, 2014

One of Australia's most well-known YouTubers, Natalie Tran of Community Channel, sits down with Rhett & Link this week to talk about how her quirky sense of humor and stream of consciousness video format has informed a number of today's emerging YouTube personalities, what it is like being somewhat isolated from the rest of the YouTube community and how that's shaped her outlook on the platform and her career in general, and why her confident on-screen persona differs in a somewhat surprising way from her real-life personality. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits. I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet, and this week at the Round Table of Dim Lighting, we have Natalie Tran. Technically, she wasn't at the Round Table of Dim Lighting. We caught up with her at VidCon. It wasn't that dim, and it wasn't round. It was rectangular. It was a squarish, rectangularish table, but we took these microphones, so it shouldn't

sound that much different. All of that's really beside the point. Natalie has been making videos under the handle Community Channel since 2006, so going way back, but she's been making videos consistently pretty much on a weekly basis, especially recently again All showcasing her unique sense of humor Her channel currently has over 1.5 million subscribers. She's the second most viewed Australian channel with over 500 million views now the majority of her videos are this combination of stream of consciousness Monologues with a sketch format where she plays every single character. A little taste of that we're going to give you right now.

A 2009 video called Sexy underscore Baby, Those Embarrassing Old Email Addresses with 5.5 million views. Hi. So did you guys ever make up stupid email addresses when you were young? I know I did. And it's incredibly embarrassing when you're still using them. Okay, let's have a look. Natalie. Yep.

Yep. Sorry, sweetie. Could you also give me your email address again? I can't quite make it out. So it's S. S-X-C. Okay, so it's S-X-C and then underscore. And then is that a baby?

Baby? Yep. Yep. And then A-N-G- a baby? Baby? Yep. Yep. And then? A-N-G-E-L. Okay, Angel. And then what are these numbers here? 669. So we have S-X-L-X-Sexy.

Sexy underscore baby underscore Angel 69 at Hotmail.com. That's you? You wouldn't think it, would you? Great. Now, look, could you just take a seat so I can be right with you? Thank you. Okay, you probably already get a sense, if you're not familiar with her content,

of why she's popular. She's totally relatable. And that's the thing I've always thought about Natalie's videos, is I always immediately relate to the observational humor, that she's, you know, the thing that she's making an observation about, and it's always funny. And she's been doing this for a very long time.

And her fan base has remained and continued to grow. I mean, she goes back to, you know, we're talking 07, 08, early stages. No, 06. 06, all the way back. All the way back to the beginning, certainly. So, I mean, it's a testimony to her ability to remain true to her voice and continue to captivate an audience. But we had an interesting conversation with Natalie. I mean, it was different than I expected.

I would say different than you expected, too, right? I mean, for someone with such a developed comedic voice and such longevity on the platform, she was extremely humble. Almost meink. Yeah, I mean, I do believe that she helped set the template for popular comedic vlogging on YouTube today. I mean, just look at Superwoman as, if not a direct emulation of her, certainly an inspiration through a couple of layers of YouTube

since 2006 leads to someone, a phenomenon like Superwoman, who we've also talked to on Ear Biscuits. But when we're talking to Natalie, it was almost like we had to convince her of that in the conversation, that she made a legitimate contribution to the medium. She didn't want to own it. It's as if she hadn't even thought about it.

Right. And this is coming from you know two guys who are definitely we have a lot of aspirations and we see this YouTube thing as the thing that we want to do and continue to expand and everyone that we talk to on Ear Biscuits typically

they have that kind of focus it's just like yeah I found this thing I have found success on YouTube and I'm going to keep pushing it and interestingly I mean obviously she's just like yeah i found this thing i have found success on youtube and i'm going to keep pushing it and interestingly i mean obviously she's just as talented as anybody that we've talked to but her perspective is totally different it seems like youtube is a side project yeah i mean that was surprising and not a career that i mean that's at one point she actually said she feels very lost that comes up in the conversation i mean it's an interesting case study um it's like she's evolved on another continent i mean she's she yeah she's on another

continent but it is an island yeah i wonder how much that has to do with it it's like she's she's kind of in her own world of developing as an artist that is not tied to playing the YouTube game, as we call it, or even making it a career. I mean, she talks about the things that she wants to do while this is her side project. And that surprised me. Right. And we say all that to prepare you for the conversation because I feel like there are moments in this conversation where it feels like we're pushing her. We are pushing her to get an answer for her to recognize how awesome she is. And so, yeah, this is going to be interesting.

It's going to be an Ear Biscuit that stands on its own, that's different from the ones that we've done so far. We want to prepare you for it. We think it's great. And like Link said, I think it's an interesting case study and someone who thinks very differently about the whole online career thing. Here it is, our ear biscuit with Natalie Tran. What is this thing on your wrist?

This is like a pedometer and a heart rate monitor. And I wear it because I like to know how many calories, 100% that I can consume. So if it says you've exerted this many, I make sure that I eat that amount. Does it know when you're eating? Or do you have to tell it? No, it doesn't know. I don't mean that I try,

like I just mean because I often eat over. This way I always kind of try and justify how much food I'm eating, if that makes sense. So I go, oh, I've walked this far so I can definitely eat food. Right, you can put like a hamburger in terms of steps. Yes, yeah. I I go, oh, I've walked this far, so I can definitely eat food. Right. You can put like a hamburger in terms of steps. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, well, I've walked far today. That looks far to me. So I'll definitely eat more. Are you sure it's not a watch because it looks like a watch?

It is also a watch. Can I hold it? How convenient. So it's a watch that counts your steps. Are you, I mean, you're obviously physically fit. No, I'm really, I've got Mr. Burns's body. If you take my clothes off, it's pretty unattractive. Who's Mr. Burns? From The Simpsons, man. Come on, Link. I've never seen that. Oh, I'm sorry.

I don't know pop culture at all. I think that show's only in Australia. Yes, it is an Australian show. It's very small. Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't get the reference. They're coming out with a new cup called The Vessel. And this is a cup that you pour any liquid in the world into the cup.

Like any other cup. It's amazing. It goes a step beyond that. It analyzes what you have poured into the cup and tells you how many calories it is. So it'll be like a blue Gatorade, 300 calories. It talks to you? I'm auditioning to be the voice of the vessel.

Good for us. In the next year, this is happening. It exists and it will be on the market. You can pour anything you want, any mix, and it knows. That's a great question. I was told that the guy who tested it poured a bunch of different liquids into it

and it got everyone right. Now, is this just a Kickstarter campaign where people promise everything and then nothing really happens? No, this is legit. I read it on the internet. Sounds like bullshit. It sounds like a load of crap.

Well, I think the question is though, I mean, anyone who has a contraption like this that you're wearing is a little bit progressive in terms of technology, right? I'll be completely upfront with you you i was given this and then but but i was so infatuated with it i bought him one full price and for me that's the big deal of you like a product when you're given one and then you buy someone else one so i have to be up front with you i was given one i wasn't told i had to wear it but because i'm a loser i was like i'm gonna wear this everywhere so i wore it and then i got him

one him being oh sorry him being my partner Rowan. Because I really wanted to see how much. We collect data at the end of the day. So you can also measure the percentage of your sleep, how often you stayed still. And so I check every night I wake up and I'm like, 83%, what about you? Has it changed anything about your habits? It changes what I know about my habits. What kind of sleeper are you?

Do you move around a lot? No, apparently not. I think it's because we're in a hotel at the moment and the dunas are very heavy, so I'm just stuck under them. The what is? The dunas. Is that the covers?

Yeah, sure. She sleeps in a room with sand dunas in it. I don't know what that is. You're sleeping on piles of sand? There is no sand in my room. No, you know what I mean. The big, the dunas. Yeah.

You know what I'm saying. We call them duvets or comforters or whatever. A quilt. Yeah. So they're like trapping you. You're trapped in your bed. Yeah, because, you know, it's very heavy when you're in a hotel. It just kind of keeps you still.

So you're not a health conscious person. But are you, so it's more of a competition between the two of you to see who can walk the most or eat the most? We're just very, we're big into our data collection. So, for example, we had traditional heart rate monitors, which, you know, the most or eat the most? We're big into our data collection. So, for example, we had traditional heart rate monitors, which are the ones you stick around your body. Those are uncomfortable. So we wore them for a full 24 hours for a few days so that we could compare our exertion after a few days.

But I now have like a permanent scar under here because it just – but I was such like a dick. I just didn't take it off i was like oh it's really hurting under there but i was like really how long ago was this oh ages ago and now i have like these permanent like nipples and like nipple looking scars under his really so you have four nipples i have four nipples that's the two of them told me how what my heart rate was it was worth it now it seems pretty obvious to translate four nipples into like internet success. Oh, yes.

So, I mean, when you're in this field of occupation, does that happen? Is it, okay, I'm going to turn, have you turned the heart rate monitor scars or any of these other weird gadgetry things into vlogs? No, I can't believe I even told you guys about this. I've never told anyone about them. You haven't made a video called I Have Four Nipples because... No, it's super embarrassing. Why would I tell anyone about that? Well, because views.

Views. All caps, four exclamation points. Yes. Naked in the title. No, I haven't told anyone about my nipples. But you know, it's interesting that we're talking about this, taking something like four nipples and turning it into a if you're not going to do it we're going to do it okay uh because we technically do have four nipples between the two of us that's true uh it would be a big letdown though four nipples and it's just the two of us

guys um but you have uh even from the early days you kind of made a decision, I think, to just kind of do things your way, right? So to not necessarily play the YouTube game. Even, we were just looking at some- You say that because I'm failing, right? I know, I'm joking. No, okay, like your early videos, right? Yeah.

There was a couple of videos in your first, like, 10 or 20 videos where you would be like, boring video. Mm-hmm. What do you mean? You weren't trying to be ironic. She would say that. Yeah, because you were doing

what you called your housekeeping videos early on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so where you answer questions and that kind of thing. And I wish people happy birthday because it's the kind of person I am. Right. Yeah.

And so you were like, boring video, but I definitely got the sensation that she's telling me it's a boring video because she thinks, guys, this is gonna be a boring video, not because i'm trying to be some super ironic person to trick you into watching it there's just a certain honesty right cool level yeah no it was just honest i mean that was youtube youngs ago and i guess every it was just such a different community and i guess i don't know yeah and it that seems to be that that's the kind of that's how your career

has been characterized is you're just being yourself. You're just doing your thing. I mean, it literally is you multiple times in each video. Yeah. No, I guess it never started as anything, and I've always kind of hoped that I'd just keep it up for fun and continue with life, and it's just something, I guess, that was thrown into the mix.

Right. Now, I like to call you the queen of split screen. There's lots of people who will do that. You're shaking your head, but. I cut off all my fingers on the last video. I didn't notice in the queen of split screen. There's lots of people who will do that. You're shaking your head, but... I cut off all my fingers on the last video. I didn't notice in the crop, and they're like, you're missing all these fingers. Oh, really?

Yeah. It's the hazards of split screen. The physical split screen is not what I'm in awe of. I know how to do that. What? So I know how to not cut my fingers off. You just don't cross the line. So you're not blowing my mind there.

But I call you the queen of split screen because the comedic timing. How do you maintain and execute the comedy that you've come up with in your head or written down? I don't know. You tell me how you write it down. And then how do you maintain the comedic timing in a split screen with yourself? All my videos are scripted. So they're all scripted. And I guess, especially with the sketch kind of skip parts of them,

they all have to be scripted because they interact with each other. It breaks my heart that I'm not good enough or patient enough to do any green screening because that would be much more interesting. But I guess I just just i put a 20 cent coin on the floor and i'm like that's where the other person's standing or sometimes my cat moves it and i'm like i wish you hadn't done that because now i don't know where the other person's standing but it's very high tech i just put a coin on the floor well you put a coin i didn't even know existed i mean so you're even even that a 20 cent coin is something I didn't know It's magic I make a coin and then I put it on the floor

And then I look at that part and I go, I hope this looks right Right, so you establish island that way But are you hearing in your mind the other you speaking the retorts? And how do you know how long it's going to take? Yeah, I have this really, I must be very boring and repetitive Because I have this awful ability to speak at the same pace of sentences constantly. So like sometimes I've dubbed things

and it's just worked the first time. I'm like, wow, like I just have no variance in the way I speak. Meaning you ADR it to match your, because the sound was crap. You don't have to even reference it. You just say it and it's like, well, that's-

Yeah, sometimes I just said it and it just fits. So you're not listening back to the, I thought you would have done is like, okay, gonna play back oh no not adr with the videos sorry not with videos but i mean sometimes that's happened right but back with your videos when you're doing the split screen thing you're not like going back and watching what you just said oh no because you can't really touch the camera other than right because you've got to stay in the same place and the light always always changes. No, I always just kind of, in my head I can hear it, so it's okay. But if you notice in my videos, I nod a lot. The other character nods a lot.

Or they kind of look in the other direction. Just in case, if the 20 cent coins moved, I just kind of look off and nod a lot. Like this. Like I close my eyes and I nod, so that way there's no real interaction. Right, it just kind of works. It works, yeah. And how critical are you of your own videos? Do you watch them back?

Having done them for almost eight years, A, do you watch back your latest video even beyond the edit? Like once it's up and are you critical? Or do you shy away from that? And B, do you go back and watch some of the earliest videos? Does that ever happen? I make a lot of videos that don't go up, as I'm sure everyone does. So after I've edited, if I really don't like a video, I watch it a few times. If I think it's bad, sometimes I think

maybe I'm just in a bad mood. I'll come back later. If I still don't like it, it doesn't go up. How often does that happen? It used to happen a lot more often, but maybe I'm just lazier now. But I'd say maybe one in every four videos, every three or four videos doesn't make it up. Really? Yeah. I write a lot more scripts that don't make it up as well. So every script.

So it might be something that happens in the middle of shooting and you're like, oh, this just isn't working or whatever. I used to give up, but Rowan, who helps me film a lot, encourages me to finish them and then I finish them and edit them and see how it goes. But maybe I'm just being a dick and I often don't like them,

so I don't put them up. I think we just have a lower standard. Your videos are super polished. I don't know what you're talking about. If I put the production value that you guys were, I would be very happy with every video too. I'd be like, no, this is going up because I paid people and it's going down.

Well, that's true. It's just me in my pajamas. Like, it's okay. I'll come back to this another day. It could be the budgets. But it's like we get to a point where we're just like, well, we definitely have videos that we're not proud of. But then you're like, okay, but we've got to put this up. But you get to a point where you're just like, nope, if there's not a video.

Because at this point, are you still, is it still kind of weekly or like what's the yeah i still do them weekly i mean don't get me wrong i still put ones up that i'm not super happy with but that tends to be when i go well i've got work i just can't and i tell people i'll have one up a week now i try to um right and so if if it worse comes worse i do put one up but yeah it's not always something i'm super happy with well i'll tell you I'll tell you something that maybe we decided we weren't going to tell anybody but I'll be vulnerable and I'll expect a reciprocation later on in this ear biscuit okay but yeah we've definitely put a lot of work and time and it's difficult to walk away from something but I mean we had an idea for

something and it involved kids and then we shot the whole thing and then we realized that inadvertently it had gotten way too close to something that the Fine Brothers were doing and you know them being so successful at it we didn't want to come close I mean and they're also friends we didn't want to come close to any sort of comparison so we scrapped the whole thing and when we're talking two days of filming with kids, like lots of kids, I'm telling you. And we just didn't anticipate how close it was gonna, the final product was gonna seem.

And we scrapped the whole thing. Oh, that's a shame. And that's, it's really, not only are you spending money, and you've got all these people working on this thing, but we had all these kids lined up that then we had to, well, somebody had to tell them. We didn't. You hired someone else to tell them that. The kids weren't going to, it wasn't

going to see the light of the day. Did you do a kids react to their videos not being put up on YouTube? Because that would have been a good way to handle that I think. You know what? That is, here's what we should do. We should just give that video to the Fine Brothers and let them make that video. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm sure though if you put it

up they wouldn't have seen it that way, and I'm sure other people wouldn't have. You've got a big bank of work, and they wouldn't have thought you guys are taking it. Well, I appreciate that you're encouraging us, but no, we're not putting it up. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, and we shouldn't have. So, hey, we've been there very recently.

Now, thanks for bringing it up. I feel horrible now. recently now thanks for bringing it up i feel horrible now so okay so you you are part of what i would call the first early wave of youtube you know 2006 let's let's go back and and lead up to that point what got you into youtube and that kind of thing so let's just go back to the beginning of natalie okay so where'd you grow up and what's that story um i grew up in sydney with my family as you do sometimes i don't know um i grew up with my family as you do um i was just a very normal child um i'm the youngest which probably says i was a bit of a but i think that's about it really like i was you know the youngest youngest of probably says I was a bit of a s**t, but I think that's about it, really. Like I was, you know, the youngest.

Youngest of how many? Of two. My sister's nine years my senior. Nine years? Yeah. I crashed the party. That's a big gap. Yeah, it is a huge gap.

So how do your parents explain that? I'm Asian, so we don't even speak of such things. Oh, really? So tell us about your parents. Oh, they're lovely. My father, he was a teacher in Vietnam, and then he came to Australia and he taught primary school in Australia. And then my mother was a solicitor in Vietnam.

She came to Australia and she worked a few jobs and eventually worked at a post office, like sorting mail and stuff in the back room. So what was the circumstances that led to the move from Vietnam to Australia? When was that? They fled Vietnam and they arrived. Fled? Yeah.

And they arrived via boat in 1981. So, okay. So explain the fleeing part. Yeah. So after the war, a lot of Vietnamese people seeked refuge other places and they were lucky enough to have arrived in Australia when laws were better and we were accepting people. And they arrived in Australia in 1981 and we've been Australian since. I was born in Australia.

Yeah, I read a quote where you said that your parents endured so much to give you and your sister great lives. Yes, they did. And they were wonderful, very selfless people. And I'll always be indebted to them. Are they still living? Yeah, they are. Oh, okay.

And one day I'll buy them a massive house. That's the plan? That's the plan. I'm going to buy them a massive farm and anything they want. Well, you know, you have a very specific sense of humor that we both really appreciate. Oh, thank you. And it's very developed, and it's great. Did that come from your parents?

Yeah, my parents very much made me very aware of the subtle differences between people, I guess, and the way they behave. Not necessarily where they – it wasn't really always the same kind of observational humor that I talk about, but it may have just been, have you noticed this or have you noticed that, and I guess that's something that you pick up, or maybe it's just a different – but, I mean, observational humor isn't really a specific thing. Everyone notices it. Well, to be able to put it in a

certain way especially in the way that you're able to write it is absolutely a gift yeah I guess our curiosity is is that the type of thing that came up conversationally with friends or with your family I think my parents probably established that way of thought but it's probably something that I talk about with friends or it's just something I notice as everyone does when they're hanging out with friends. You seem to say that culturally that your parents, you didn't really talk to your parents about the specifics of anything. You know, you're talking about the difference between you and your sister being born. It's something you never discussed with them. No, sometimes I go to other people's family times. I can't believe the way they're allowed to talk to their families. Like,

if I laugh too loudly at the dinner table, someone's like, huh, calm down. I'm like, okay, okay, all good, all good. So as I've gotten older, she's been a little bit cooler with things. Like, I can say words like, you look sexy, and she laughs. But it's still a bit, you know, she's calmed down a bit in terms of me being a bit of a dick around. It's like I see her and she's always in her pajamas, because pajama is the home attire of immigrants. And so we wear pajamas at home all the time. And like sometimes I come over and because I'm coming over, I'm in proper clothes, you know, and she won't know I'm coming over. So she'll be in her fluoro pajamas that she bought for $3 at the market or something. And I'll come over and

slap her on the bum. You look really sexy. Back in the day, I would have been in a lot of trouble for that. But now she's okay with it a little. Now you started making videos and for years, a few years at least, you were making them from home. Were you living with your parents? Yeah, so they bought me my first computer when I was at uni and I made them through my eyesight. So I literally like dragged my computer

everywhere. I read about Lonely Girl in the newspapers and I remember just going onto the website and being really interested in the website. Did you think that Lonely Girl was a real person? No, I didn't, which is why I heard about in the paper. It was after everything had been revealed. It was just, I had never heard of YouTube, which I love the idea of a university person not knowing what YouTube is. Cause if you think about it now, every man and his dog knows what it is. But I remember going on and really enjoying the community and then I saw video responses. So I started clicking on video responses and then that kind of landed me

into a space where I saw everyone communicating with each other and I wanted to do the same. So you made video responses to Lonely Girl or to just videos across youtube yeah just to other videos and stuff but did you have a channel at the time called community channel when you were doing that yeah so when i i hate the name community but yeah i signed up it's like calling yourself hbi or something it's really like you know it's like that um why yeah so what went into that you know do you know um it's called public is it called public access television here? It's like YouTube So we had that in Australia

And I was obsessed with this channel Because you would see people filming like a science show in their living room And then the telephone would go off And they'd look at the camera They'd look at the hallway And they'd be like, oh And then, you know, he'd say I'm just going to get the phone

I'll edit this out No, I won't And then he went out And you just hear this conversation happening So I really liked this channel So I called myself Community Channel's so it's like community television it's like i didn't think you know so so you're saying specifically the there was an australian public access that was called community channel it's called community so you just

ripped their name yeah i just called myself like hbo but it's not HBO at all. It's funny because, you know, I would assume that most people just are like, this girl had this amazing insight into the community of YouTube. Yeah, and a lot of people think I'm religious and they're like, oh, so you're like a do-gooder because you like the community and the channel. I'm like, no, I just like this. It's like the equivalent of calling your channel public access TV. Yes, it is. It's exactly like that.

It was really dumb. Ironically, it does have this, it seems like you were getting involved as a community member with the whole conversation, because it seems like that's where I thought you were going with the name of the channel, because what got you involved originally wasn't the this impetus to entertain but it was to be involved in the conversation that was happening i really like that story so i'm gonna

go with that from now on i like a lot i i originally called myself community because i went in there with a sense of community there you go rather than to entertain i like it taken that's that's the new story we just officially changed the official story i like that okay did you have a need to socialize on the internet was there did you not have friends in real life and was this kind of a i'm not gonna lie i mean i went to uni and i worked after uni so it was like i came home off like you know you come home at 10 o'clock at night so I kind of made videos at night time and then I like I had friends man back off I had friends I had friends okay I'll back off but not really but did you make actual YouTube friends early on absolutely a lot of really wonderful people that I've met I've met online and it's yeah it's lucky

do you do you keep in touch with these people now, like some of the earliest people? Yeah, I went to one's wedding before and I have a wonderful time with people who you meet online. Okay, so you were at university, but you were still living at home with your parents? Yeah. And so 10 o'clock you'd log on to the YouTubes

and you would make your response videos. At some point i imagine it it started to shift into more of your comedic voice how did that happen i mean i guess back then like you everyone took i still take feedback um you know to heart but i guess when people really enjoy one element of your video go okay well maybe i'll focus on that and obviously they enjoyed some storytelling and then okay i'll just keep going with that and in terms of the the genre with it's sort of a vlog with these scripted elements right were there other people doing that kind of thing like did you you're emulating someone yeah um i remember the reason that i started even doing the cloning was because a subscriber made a video

response to me and he did the same thing and then I did one back to him and then that just kind of everyone enjoyed that and then I just kept going but then I figured it was easier just to break it up between monologue and sketches to to storytell I guess and then what what became what really started to break out for you what was the turning point from just I'm doing this for the fun of it to whoa people are writing articles about me it was very organic i mean i've got i mean sorry i don't mean this in an only but i've got 1.5 million subscribers you know kids log on these days start a youtube and youtube account in six months they have like five million subscribers or something so mine's been a very slow organic growth that's not been this meteoric rise but by 2010 i mean articles would

be written and they were speculating about how much money you were making millions of dollars that i make and they were saying they were i mean they were saying okay and that she's the queen of youtube she's in the top 10 earners i don't know how that came out in that year it was really weird i was like i'm definitely not in the top 10 I think well that's what everyone on the list said yeah right but the fact that

you were one of those 10 people at that point were you making you were making it into a career look I still work outside of YouTube and I still do stuff

and I guess I don't know I guess it's like I said it's been so slow and so organic I've always just accepted it that it's something fun I do on the side

that is a bit bigger but I mean especially with going to VidCon today I've just and you see how huge it is for everyone else it's I mean that's I think it's a different playing field for those guys and maybe for me it's just something really fun I do on the side that was made my transition from being a young adult to someone in their late 20s made that a bit more exciting if that makes sense I mean I get the sense as you talk about it. I mean, there's a, that you

kind of want it to be that way too. I mean, would you say that you're like, this is, this is a great medium. This is fun for me. This is a great outlet, but this isn't something that I necessarily wanted to propel me to a place where I'm, you know, I've got a television show or I'm in my own studio or that kind of thing. It sounds like those aren't necessarily things that you aspire to. Yeah. I would love writing as I'm sure everyone who's on YouTube will tell you. I love writing and I love creating things and I'd love to do other things and explore it in other mediums. But I guess I always try and remember I was doing something before YouTube came along, if that makes sense.

And I want to make sure it doesn't take me off the path entirely. Okay. So what was that? Yeah, I don't have a path necessarily, but I don't want it to completely drive what I'm doing. So what have you been doing since university that this has kind of still been the side project what's been the main thing i'm very lost like every person in the first world is who is very privileged and you know has too many choices but i mean i i feel like the way that you characterize it you sell yourself short i mean it's just like you know we're sitting here yeah

we've been fans of yours for a long time and then we see you at VidCon and we're like, we definitely want to talk to Natalie because we have this level of respect for what you've done and how it's so pinpointed and so good and been good for a very, very long time. But see, but you shake your head. You're like, oh no, you guys. I see your videos all the time.

Every time I go and do work with an agency or something, they always pull up things you guys have done. They always say, this is kind of the caliber we want. And I'm like, well, you guys are tight as Australians. It's not going to happen. But you guys are amazing. Well, but I mean, we may have some bells and whistles and we're doing a different type of video.

But, you know, in terms of the, I guess what I'm saying is that the core elements that make something engaging and good on YouTube are things that are based in personality and just the ability to entertain people. And that doesn't necessarily have to include some high level of production. I wasn't saying what you did was good because of your, No, no, no. Sorry, I didn't mean it in that way. No, but I'm saying the core of what you have is... There are production companies out there who would bend over backwards to say, hey, we want to take the stuff that... Because anybody can add that kind of stuff, right?

But they can't bring the personality and the connectivity that you have with your audience. They can't bring that to... That's what they're looking for, right? Well, I would say the comedic voice. I mean, I think this is an interesting conversation. It's kind of turned into us trying to convince you that you're great.

Seriously, I mean, it's, you know, our assumption was, okay, she's a full-time YouTuber. She's been doing this all these years and I'm very interested in the resilience it takes to remain relevant for eight years with changing what you do very little. I think we're surprised to hear a level of humility that you don't, I don't know if it's that you don't want this to be your thing or that you just don't consider yourself of a caliber that you deserve for it to be your thing. I think that's what I'm trying to figure out. I don't know what

I'm going to be doing, but I don't know. I guess I have other things outside of YouTube as well that I'd really like to achieve in life. So tell me about those things. I want to build a place for my family. I'd like to give them somewhere nice um and i guess i'm just working towards that at the moment so i can can do that for them well what is your what is your perception as someone who's who's been involved in the community for uh you know a long time and you've seen the evolution of youtube and then you see like you said you come to vidcon and this has been mind-blowing i can't even explain how mind-blowing this has been. So what are some of the things that you've thought as you've observed it?

We've likened the crowds running towards people like World War Z. It has been... I don't even know what they're running towards. I just assume there's a good-looking young boy on the other side of it. Yes, some British in nature. I'm thinking there must be a really tall, young, good-looking guy on the other side or a very pretty girl, like beauty girl on the other side because they just scream and they run.

And, I mean, I remember like the days where I would sit on Stick'Em in my lunch breaks. I would walk down to – this is so embarrassing. I would walk to the internet cafe around the corner from my work and I would sit in there so I could talk to the other, like to the American YouTubers during my lunch break and we would do that. And I remember that. So I remember like Phil DeFranco was in there and the wine cone and all these, you know. And so I remember that was what it was like.

Like that's what YouTube was like for me. So when you come here and you're like, whoa, oh, there's a sign and it's printed in colour. And I was like, oh, that's pretty money, you know. And then I went into the registration room and I'm like, oh, badges and like barcodes, this, that's pretty money. You know? Oh, no. And then I went into the registration room and I'm like, oh, badges and like barcodes. This is getting pretty.

Right. Yeah. Like so that's, it's changed a lot from what it was. And I guess I'm so, it's amazing. I love the things that get shared on YouTube. It's incredible. And I love that people can access video production at such small costs, like relatively speaking to what they were before.

You know, that kids with SLRs can make films it's incredible right but at the same time it's like you know i definitely especially as somebody like we've been to every vidcon just because we've been here you know so yeah no it would be great to go but but you you it's even vidcon itself has changed so much from the first year until now. You definitely get this sense that this is like, hmm, this has become, it's amazing, but there are these trappings of this has become something that's so much, the more popular it gets and the more celebrity that there is involved in it, it kind of gets tainted, right? I think this is because I look really boring.

So as we were coming through, this woman saw me, this mother came up to me and she said, you work for VidCon. I was like, I don't work for VidCon. She was like, anyway, let me tell you, we're really upset. And she went through and I've had a lot of parents, I must be someone who parents approach because I've had a lot of parents come up to me today and they tell, I'm just eating a sandwich and like, listen, I have to tell you I'm really upset because I felt,

then my heart breaks. I drove, you know, I flew my kids here from Florida and we didn't get to see so-and-so, you know, like the signings, they closed off the signings, whatever. And for me that's an interesting thing because I guess as a, but you're right and I guess that comes along with this whole new wave of what a celebrity is and how there's this fame attached to these guys and they have to, like security escorting people

is really interesting, you know, and I understand it's necessary but that's been an interesting shift in culture, I guess, that it's not so much a connection anymore. Now you can come and have signings. How do you guys feel? I'm surprised you guys are on this level, like that you haven't been harassed. Well, we stay in here a lot, honestly.

on this level that you haven't been harassed. Well, we stay in here a lot, honestly. And we're not young, cheeky British. I don't even know what cheeky means, but I think it means that you get swarmed. I've already pictured him in my head. He's very attractive, whoever you're describing. But yeah, we have to stay in here a lot. Yeah, yeah.

But there is a sense when it does happen, we've got our scheduled signing that is going to be for a certain number of hours or whatever and some people will probably be turned away from that and then when we're walking through if we're doing something and we're going to a panel and we say

sorry just come to the thing tomorrow and to think that if those people couldn't get into it there is this dynamic that I told Link I was like the worst part of vidcon for me is those are those interactions where i'm having i'm telling somebody no i can't get a picture or i can't do it get a hug right now because if i do then maybe there'll be another one and another one and another one and we're not even that you know like link said we're not the the 20 year old british uh we're not boy vlogger.

We're not anywhere near the most popular people here, certainly. Oh, you guys are pretty popular. I mean, do you feel like that this is kind of eye-opening, that you've been isolated? You've continued to contribute through your channel, and it's been very consistent in terms of the number of views. It's not like you've dropped off that much, but do you feel like you're living in an older YouTube that your eyes are being open being here kind of a thing? Yeah, for sure. And in Australia, it's so different.

Like it's, we live in a country where there's, you know, there's arguments about whether we should have faster internet or not. Like we live in a very different kind of place. And when people see me in the street or something And they say hi Genuinely it takes me a while to know where I know them from Because they're so relaxed And they're so hey how's it going And then I assume I must have met them through work or something And then they'll say oh no I'm a fan

Yeah yeah and so it's very relaxed and it's very different I can't imagine this kind of screaming Like it's very yeah Do you watch other YouTubers today and what do you think um i still stay i'm i'm i stick to a lot of people who have been watching for a long time um i i do get recommended a lot of young people but i guess as you do when you start to be precious like i said and you think your time for all the time with work as if you go i'll watch these later i'll watch these later but i'm on holidays at the moment so i'll catch up more but um i think do you catch

do you catch glimpses of um other youtubers doing what you've been doing for eight years and what do you think when you see someone like superwoman um doing the split screen and she's playing different characters and talking to herself i mean you, you know, oh, that's, that's, she's doing my thing. She may not be here, but I do, but I mean, well, you tell me what you think. I'll tell you what I think. I understand having that kind of a feeling. But it's not like I made up split screen. And I think kids these days are very polished at what they do. And I think they're really smart and switched on and you know good good on them I guess like but they wouldn't be I mean there's a argument to be made they wouldn't be doing if you hadn't done it first I mean in terms of somebody would have done it it's not

like you know what I mean like I did like I said everyone's been doing split screen it's not like it's not that specifically but even the comedic voice and a female with a strong comedic voice all alone playing different characters or speaking her mind in a comedic way and interacting with fans. You set a template that absolutely is being emulated directly and indirectly and through a couple of different layers at this point. And being around and still doing it, I mean, does that give you a sense of satisfaction? I don't ever attribute their videos to me. I don't ever go, they've obviously like taken this from me. But yeah, look, I just, you just have to be like good on them. And they, they're so good at what they do now, you know, like it took me so long to figure out maybe I should move off a webcam and maybe I should get a microphone and maybe I shouldn't you know i just they're great at what they do and you

just have to applaud them really so you don't want to say that it took you so long and it doesn't take them as long because of me and other people because i think that's the truth no because it's a generational thing everything will happen faster with the next generation everything will it takes you and it took me longer to look up books in a library. Oh, no, now kids have all these new ways of, you know, it's just the way time works and you have to accept it and move on. You made a comment, Rhett read it to me, about how you put comments at the end of your videos and now there's people who do that and do more with comments.

Where did you read that? It's on your About section of your channel. Oh, it must have been a joke. I thought I deleted that dick joke. Oh, that was a joke? It was like it was me being a dick, and I thought I deleted that. I don't know why I did that. It's still on there.

I need to learn about this YouTube channel editing. It takes me ages to get in around my channel settings now. Well, I definitely took it as sarcasm, but at the same time I sense that there's truth under that, which is like, yeah, I was, you know, everyone's doing all this interesting stuff with comments. I only put that up because I got comments on my thing, which is like, oh, she does this like so-and-so.

And then you go on, there's like 14-year-old doing it. That's all. So I was like, I did it, you know, I've been doing it a while. It's okay. It was obnoxious and I thought I had deleted it and i apologize that i hadn't um i don't think you should apologize no it's just i liked it no i i thought i had deleted it but i can never and they changed that youtube page and i can't find things anymore they do change it quite a bit yeah no that's just everyone like i said if i didn't do it someone else was going to do it i

didn't invent comment feedback or anything. I just made a dig. I'm sorry. But when you put like porn music with it, can you say that you invented that? Come on. Well, no one's copied that. So maybe that's not the magic. Maybe that's not the magic that I thought it was. You've been more consistent in making your videos over the past year.

Yeah. But there were times when you would kind of fall off yeah yeah well and be gone yeah yeah it was there many secret babies was there anything let well let us in on some of these secret babies was there what took you off of youtube and were there was there any drama i mean i guess my hunch or my guess is that when you're putting yourself out there and you are setting a template for a strong voice female vlogger, that I have to believe that there's this gray line between your personal life and your public entertainment life. Yeah. Did that have an impact on your ability to maintain your videos?

Did anything go wrong? I like to think no. I mean, I know I talk about things my mother does and stuff, but they're pretty generic things. You know, my mother tells me to bring a jumper. Everyone's mom tells them to bring a jumper. Sorry, a sweater. Right, yeah.

Like that, you know, I like to think I actually don't talk about my personal life too much, really. Like they're all very generic. Don't you hate it when this happens? That it happens to everybody, if that makes sense. There's not really that much about my personal life in there. But fans demand it. I mean, there's speculation all over the internet about you being engaged a few years ago

because you wore a ring on the wrong finger or something. I wear many rings. I wear many rings. Look, it's all just, yeah. The first break I had, I can't remember why. It just happens. Look, it's all just, yeah, the first break I had, I can't remember why. It just happens and I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I'm a very, I work myself up sometimes.

I'm like, oh, no, because I've made a big gap. The next video needs to be really good and then it just becomes this huge fear. It's a stupid fear and I don't know why. So that usually is what prolongs a big gap. The second, I remember I had just gotten back from a big trip around the world. We created a video, a travel series. Rowan filmed this with me, a travel series, as well as our YouTube.

And we were contracted to make one a week, as well as that while we traveled. It was a lot of content to make, especially when you're on the ground and you're traveling and it means no sleep ever. That wasn't on your channel? No, so I put it on somebody else's on a company's channel and by the time i got back i was just exhausted and i'd gone through a bad time with my personal life and i just wanted i guess to get over that because like i said i mean youtube's really fun and stuff but it's on the side and i always try and make sure life is good

first right before youtube yeah so so i YouTube. So every YouTuber deals with it, with just fans that take things too far and messages and you get berated with comments and messages, that kind of thing. And from our experience that females deal with this many degrees more than males. You guys don't get told that people are going to impregnate you? No, we don't. And cut your hair off? No, right.

So, I mean, like, how has that been? Has that had any impact on the way that you approach YouTube? Yeah, look, if I could go back. I mean, no, I shouldn't say that. It's hard because on the internet, for some reason, if you wear a singlet top, it somehow is very, you know't say that. It's hard because on the internet for some reason if you wear a singlet top, it somehow is very, you know, erotic whereas if you were to walk down a street in a singlet top, it's not very interesting or, you know, anything like that. But you just grow a thicker skin to it, I guess.

Sometimes I don't tend to go out in public meetings a lot, to be completely honest with you, because I do receive, I used to receive when I was, I used to receive a lot, to be completely honest with you, because I do receive, I used to receive when I was, I used to receive a lot more kind of threats and scary emails and stuff like that. What do you mean? I used to have like, I reckon, a dozen people who would write me every day and they would span over years. So I remember when the first vidcon happened i really wanted to

go and i was planning on going but then the emails got scarier and i guess because they knew where i was coming and then they would say i know where you're coming and 12 people who you would get 12 emails a day for a year at least from 12 different people um and i remember one guy just all independently just yeah yeah and i remember one guy got really upset and he wrote me every minute one night and it was insane. And you get that a lot as a girl, as a woman. Sorry, I think that... I'm sure everyone gets it.

Sorry. I just think sometimes with anything people just get a little bit confused and perhaps they project feelings that don't necessarily exist. So how did you deal with that? I mean, what did you do? I just said, I'm really sorry, I can't come to VidCon. Then I cried. Oh, but you didn't respond to the people, the stalkers.

These are stalkers, right? Well, I mean, to be honest now, I don't even know if I get them. I mean, you just don't read them after a while. But I didn't know that then. So perhaps I just paid too much attention to them and I should have just let them go. Was it the type of thing you had to call the police? I called the cops once because a few times but I remember one time I was really upset because someone left a package outside my house and it had obviously happened in a very short break where I

had left my house to walk down the road for something so I assumed they were in my street waiting because it had no postage stamps or anything like that. And I called the cops. But back then, again, no one really watched YouTube. So the cops just said to me, you know, well, don't go on the internet then. Well, did they open the box? Oh, yeah. So we opened the box and there was just weird stuff in it.

Well, I want to know what the weird stuff was. You sicko. It was your shirt and your shirt and your glasses and all those weird things you wrote to me. No, it was just a letter that he'd written

from the perspective of like my fish and he'd given me stuff to put in my room and stuff like that. And I know it came, it was good intentions, just in the wrong way. Just somebody who doesn't understand boundaries. Yeah. Who was around the block, which is scary.

And then the cops didn't do anything. No. They said, if he hurts you, then we can do something. I was like, that's great. If he hurts me, I'll let you know. Thanks for the help. I mean, did it get worse? How did that how does

that story resolve no nothing happened and this is the thing is i should have just learned from a i should have just been smarter from younger and just realized you just ignore things well but you know i i can't help but think that you know if you think if you take us for an example i mean first of all being guys that you just naturally don't have to deal with those things as much. But you must, Michael. No, we don't. It's not to the same degree. And then I think that there's two of us, right?

But if you change a couple of those factors and there's more of that kind of thing, you're kind of by yourself. It's not like you're sharing the channel with somebody. I mean, I know how that would affect me personally is I would lose some of my motivation to kind of by yourself. It's not like you're sharing the channel with somebody. I mean, I know how that would affect me personally is I would lose some of my motivation to kind of be like, okay, yeah, I really, I want to keep doing this and I want to keep raising my profile

because what, I'm going to get more crazy people like this that are trying to reach out to me? You know what I mean? If that's part of the package, I could see how that would cause you to lose a little bit of a taste for YouTube fame. Yeah, well, look, I was in my bedroom. I was making videos at night.

I created a very intimate setting. I probably should have been more aware of that. And I'm sure you guys receive, I mean, it's all girls screaming out there at VidCon. I'm sure you guys have received your fair share of scary. But girls aren't as crazy as guys. Yeah, they are. Like, I'm going to go in your house and wear your clothes. And, like, girls touch everything.

Like, that's scary, too. But it is. Well, you're just making me very thankful that I haven't read any of those. Right. I'm just telling you. They're in your bedrooms right now. There are girls in your – I'm just saying it's girls around the hallways right now.

You know what I mean? I think – i'm sure you guys are a subject to that somewhat but you know not to the same degree um so as you as you obviously you say you've got things that you want to try off of youtube youtube has changed dramatically you know over the past eight years your content has definitely gotten more polished and that kind of thing, like you said, as you've added just from a technical perspective, it's changed and gotten better. But it was always great in terms of the content

and it seems like you're continuing to kind of pump it out. What's the long-term plan with YouTube? I don't know i'm really worried because i'm hitting 30 soon and i'm really worried because i meet these little girls like i watch you and i'm like you must be 11 like this is not good like this is not good no i don't know i guess i'll just keep doing it till i have a lot more videos that don't make it than do and then i'll just stop but i mean but you're doing other things at the same time, right? Yeah.

So like you did this, you shot the series, which that was for a brand. It went somewhere else. Yeah, that went somewhere else. What was it? It was for Lonely Planet. So we did an around the world travel series and we're trying to do one now, but it's a bit harder, ironically, independently, because we don't have a brand attached to us, even though we produce the whole series anyway.

So we've had a lot of trouble with just tourism boards kind of getting back to us. And just because of what we learned, it was so hard to get content to fill two minutes when you don't know anything about a city. So we would land in a city and go, we have two days to film here. And that's quite hard. So we've been trying to talk to tourism boards about organizing itineraries, but they don't necessarily want to collaborate with YouTubers.

But I understand they must get a billion requests a day from bloggers and whatnot. But that's the flavor of the type of projects that you're working on at the moment? Oh, no. So we run a few companies. We do like corporate videos and we also make wedding videos as well. Oh, yeah?

That's one of my favorite things. And that's what we do. We just finished wedding season in Australia. And we freelance doing other things as well. what we do that takes we just finished wedding season in in australia so and we freelance doing other things it's also a freelance so it sounds like you you you like to be involved in the creative process and in in this kind of medium uh but it isn't necessarily that all your efforts are focused towards the personality natalie centered content that youtube youtube's all about that, right? It's just personality driven. But you're saying, I want to make videos. I want to be creative. I want to write, but I don't necessarily have this aspiration to be like, no, but I want to funnel all that

creativity into, you know, your channel to continue to grow that. I just don't have, I don't have what it takes. I don't think. It seems to be a lot of, I, I totally understand the lot of effort. I know a lot of people don't, especially in traditional media. When I hear interviews with YouTubers, I know how much effort goes into a YouTube channel. I know how much effort goes into, you know, the community and God, you go into a company and they have a whole person dedicated to running the Facebook page. So I understand how much effort goes into a YouTube channel. I don't have that kind of motivation or dedication. So I don't think I could carry it off. But yeah, I just don't have that dedication. Well, but I think kind of what we've kind of arrived at is that it's definitely not an ability issue. You don't have that specific desire

that would lead to that. That would lead to this is the only thing that you do and this is like you're 100% all in. I don't know how to. And there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, it's not, you're not being accused of anything. It's very much just, it's interesting. I think, honestly, refreshing, you know, to talk to somebody who that isn't their very specific aspiration. I just don't know how everyone does it. Like I'm trying to organize like some t-shirts and stuff and my brain just melts when they write back an email that's more than a paragraph. And I'm like,

oh my God, there's words in here and fulfillment and clothes, come back to that in three months' time. Well, one of our dreams is to come to Australia, so maybe you can help us answer the questions that you have when we come there. No, you should definitely go to Australia. Whereabouts would you want to go? We'd want to do like a four-by-four adventure. You know how big Australia is, right?

It's big. A lot of four by four adventures are happening there. Oh, that would be wonderful. When were you doing it? I'm committing you now. When are you doing it? Whenever you book us. Do you have a four-wheel drive vehicle?

I have a three-door car. What happened to the fourth door? No, it's like one of those really small mazdas it's not gonna make it across the outback it's a hatchback yeah is that what it is a two door hatchback yeah and i make everyone wait when they want to get in the back seat and i push the seat forward and i'm like you can hop in now well we can work we can get our own transportation i can hire a car though okay i got my full license this year i'll hire a car, though. Okay, all right. I got my full license this year. I'll hire a car for you guys.

It's got to have like really big tires. We don't have any plans, but we are at some point. I don't know how many months or years it will be, but we're going to come to Australia. Why so far away? You know, you've got to plan these things. You've got to line things up. Are you guys booked far?

You must be making content all the time. I mean, we're really busy, but yeah, it's just something like that. just will take just a lot of things that fall into place but we're gonna do it it's gonna happen may i ask if you're booked up like do you create content in advance like are you all i mean we try to you know get our rent link channel stuff lined up and then good mythical morning you know we just have to keep churning those out. It's a daily show type thing. Yeah. And may I ask, do you get tired creating so much content? Yeah. I mean, there's a mentality that you've started this train, right? And it's got this momentum.

And sometimes you just find that you're just exclusively committed to just keeping the train going, right? I mean, we're able to encourage each other and we're doing enough different things that we don't have to just do the one thing. So that helps us out a lot and we let our ideas drive us a lot and we have the freedom on the RentLink channel

to do anything we want, which is really great. We're grateful for that. So that helps. Yeah, so there's not any, at this point there's no real sense of burnout or anything like that even with all the content that we create but there is like man this is tough and it never stops yeah i was going to ask about that because like obviously i just take breaks whenever i want but how do you deal with having to this is the thing with youtube and the internet right there's no seasons so it just continues and

how do you guys deal with that kind of well break? Well, we used to break up Good Mythical Morning and we still do break up Good Mythical Morning into seasons, but the breaks in between seasons have gotten to just like this one between season five and six is a week. Yeah. That's what I mean. Like how do you, that's not, that's just another episode. Yeah. So you really don't get a break. Yeah. To the answer to the question is, well, we don't, because once people make our show a part of their daily routine, you're like, well, I don't want to stop, because then they'll stop making it a part of their daily routine.

But we can do it from Australia, so we'll figure out how to make that happen. Yeah, that's right. It takes a full day to fly to Australia, though, so that's a day you won't be able to make on time. That's fine. We'll have to bank one. Yeah, we can shoot ahead of time. We can make it happen.

Well, listen, we'll take our Australian epic trip offline. That's what they say in the corporate world. But keep doing what you do and thanks for hanging out with us. Thank you, you guys too. And there you have it. Our Ear Biscuit with Nat Tran. I feel like I'm calling Nat. Well, Nat Tran.

Now that we've had the Ear Biscuit, you know. Is that Nat with a G or just Nat, N-A-T? Oh, just no G. That would be an insult. I saw the look on your face. You're like, there's a G in gnat? I was thinking, no, I literally, I put it everywhere except at the beginning of the word.

Put it before. You saw the wheels turning, like gnat G, like a silent G. Gnat, gnat, gnat. That was a gnat joke. Okay, you know, I feel like I have two seemingly contradictory thoughts in my head at the same time.

And when this happens, I like to stop and recognize it. Okay. Because I feel like these are the special moments in life, Link, when you have two contradictory thoughts in your head. About Nat. Natalie. About G-Nat. Okay.

On the one hand, it's refreshing. Very refreshing to talk to someone who is just kind of like, guys, I am not going to take your bait. Yeah. And say that I want to be the super successful entertainer that you guys want me to be. That's the one thought. And then the second thought is a frustration with her. Because she is so awesome. She's an incredible, unique voice. And her sensibility and her sense of humor and her writing style and all that,

I can see it so easily expanded into other formats, you know, beyond. What she's doing is great, but I could see it expand into so many different places. And as a producer, the producer in me wants to see it come to life and blossom into what it could be. And so I'm like, well, but I don't want to, I'm not one to force you into that. So it's refreshing.

And I want to like, you know, I'm kind of envious on one hand, but then I'm frustrated on the other. Right, right. Yeah, I can relate to that. I feel refreshed that after, you know, eight years of YouTube content, it's still a creative outlet for her. It hasn't become a job. I mean, maybe it's not evolving on another continent. Maybe that's trying to oversimplify the Australian thing.

She's a marsupial YouTuber. Maybe it's more of a personality type. She says, it makes my mind melt to think about merchandising. She doesn't think that way, but the way she does think is very comedically and insightful. And we can just revel in that and be happy that, hey, she's doing this as an outlet and she's got other things going on too that we don't necessarily get to see, but it rounds out who she is as a person. Why do we have to see all of it and that be her career?

see but it rounds out who she is as a person why do we have to see all of it and that be her career but yeah as a producer and as a fan i'm like well if if she was a couple blocks from here well i'd love to work together yeah on a you know on a frequent basis and just tap into that uh comedic psyche that she's got yeah and maybe the verb is exploited. And I think maybe that's what she's sensitive to. And but I don't know. Yeah, I think that theories abound. Yeah, it's it remains to be seen. I think that my analysis of the situation is that part of it is the fact that she is just not as enamored with. you know, she kind of knows in some sense what it would be like to be even bigger than she is right now. And it's not something that interests her, but I hope that it's not that she, that she feels like she needs to apologize for her success or that she doesn't deserve it because that's the last thing that's true because she definitely deserves it. She's, she's a unique talent and we were happy to have a conversation with her and we're going to keep watching her content. Yeah, and you let her know what you think of her on her Twitter.

You know, hashtag her up. You know what? I don't think you should hashtag. I think you should use the at symbol. You can hashtag Ear Biscuits, but then at Natalie Tran. Hashtag her up. Hashtag Ear Biscuits. How does that work?

Let Natalie Tran know what you think. That's what it is. We could do hashtag GNAT. I mean, you could do that. We could start that too. Also, leave us a review on iTunes and just keep listening. You know, we value that

and we value you. These Ear Biscuits are baked for you, not for nobody. Yeah, because we unabashedly and unashamedly want more and more people to listen to this. Well, I just said I want them to keep listening. Yeah, well,

and more new people. I didn't say, please get your other people to listen. The last thing you're going to accuse me of is being apologetic about more people listening. Just being honest with you. And on that note, will they have another one next week? We will.