The Financial Reality of Having a Baby and Working for Yourself (2 Years Later…)

[@heyashakaye]

Even though the podcast wasn’t profitable, I think that the fact that you had an idea and believed in that idea and yourself enough to leverage your resources and give the world something educational and beautiful is really heart warming to me. Capitalism has made us believe that if something isn’t profitable, it isn’t worth it (or possible sometimes). So you choosing to make it anyway is really special and speaks a lot to your passion (and financial planning lol)! I’m glad you were recognized for it. 🎉

[@morehannah]

Aaaw thank you!! Yes I always saw so much value in it - for listeners and for myself beyond any money it could make. Absolutely loved doing it! (pun intended 😅)

[@fionafiona1146]

I'd hope there will be ongoing attention on it and it eventually recoups your investment​@@morehannah

[@roma_venka]

I totally understand your hesitation to jump headfirst into the consumerism of affiliate links. From this follower's perspective though, I usually use affiliate links for things I already wanted to buy, and I'm happy to take an extra second to track down an affiliate link to give the creator who recommended the specific product some credit for that purchase. I appreciate the product recommendations that the creators I follow give because it takes away the time I have to spend comparing different options in a category, and I like supporting my favorite creators!

[@jenniferbuhler461]

Same!!

[@DamnItsJustSam]

Absolutely agree

[@alissa6380]

yup, same! honestly, I kinda love the idea of just periodically posting a bunch of different affiliate links and being like "hey, if you've been eyeing anything from these companies lately, here's a cheeky discount code for you!" like, not *encouraging* consumerism, just a "let's all benefit" for the consumerism that is probably gonna happen anyway

[@morehannah]

I don’t always get discount codes with affiliate links but I am always more likely to share if I do because then it feels like I’m actually giving something of value to you guys too!!

[@abcdefg216]

I do think its good for me as long as its super genuine, if you found something you LOVE and think will genuinely improve my life I think its good and I also usually only buy stuff I already want/need to buy.

[@fatcatdetectiveagency]

Honestly knowing that my KZbin Premium subscription meant that the creators I watched got more income than me watching an ad was a major contributing factor to my decision to subscribe to it. Win for me, win for the creators

[@rosseesor1234]

Babies really change the game even as two people in traditional jobs our spreadsheets have shifted a bunch too!

[@lalaillustrator6295]

6:46 That voice in the back of your head is Leena! 😉

[@morehannah]

HAHAHA I mean when you see your friends/peers do something it definitely adds to the voice like “oooh see it is possible!”

[@marthabjo]

That’s what I thought too😆

[@Sophie_liest]

Love the Lego flowers in the background! 🌼🌸

[@megan6552]

Love the transparency! There so much mysticism around social media and freelancing, this is really helpful to get a realistic understanding even just as a consumer its great to relieve the unrealistic fomo/fantasy of influencer lifestyles :)

[@miriamwilson342]

Coaching is completely unregulated so anyone can call themselves a coach :) so you already are a coach! but obviously there are official accreditations that exist. Loved this video! Can’t believe I’ve been watching these for six years 😮

[@mollyhoyer3356]

Just echoing my Patreon comment here that I love these videos! Also can't believe it's been 7 years already. I remember how radical a breakdown like this felt when you first started doing it.

[@ellaboffrell]

So not the point, but I'm loving some of my fave dresses of yours making a comeback in the last few videos! Happy for you that you've got that corner of your wardrobe back lol Also, the nerd in me looks forward so much to these income/expenses videos, so excited to check back next year to see how the new sides of the business are taking off!

[@morehannah]

hahaha hopefully!!! and yeah I've been loving busting out the old dresses - feels like new again!

[@cleolangsford1006]

The coaching piece is really interesting to me! Though I’m also not as familiar with it, it doesn’t sound quite like life coaching; maybe more of a very specific flavor of career coaching? The way you described it made me think of the interactions people have with their teachers when they sign up for something like piano lessons or creative writing classes. They have a thing they want to do, the teacher gives them things to work on to achieve what they want as well as technical guidance, and so forth. Maybe ‘teacher’ doesn’t feel like the right title to you either, but just sharing that dynamic in case it helps to further home in on the narrative of how you describe that area of your work! Loved this video!

[@morehannah]

yeah it's similar to mentoring I guess and yeah career coaching is absolutely a thing! I'm not particularly interested in the life coaching part of coaching tbh

[@LaureREACTS]

Podcast-wise, you can simply become a guest on other people's podcasts. Less upfront work, and you get to meet new audiences and people :)

[@morehannah]

Yes absolutely! I felt like I didn't have the time to do much guesting on other pods the last 2 years but now I can be a podcast guest slut!

[@maggiebookworm]

Petition to get Hannah on The Financial Confessions, I would listen to that convo immediately!

[@jillisenberg9704]

Love the transparency!

[@thenopedetective]

FWIW I think the reason why a lot of KZbinrs and influencers switch to "momfluencing" is because expectant mothers spend more money and are a very reliable audience for affiliate links. While I don't like the change as a childfree person, I understand why someone would feel the financial draw!

[@kianam2252]

my main motivation for joining Patreon is when there is bonus content like an extra video!

[@lemonlemonster]

Lovely video! I know you mentioned somewhere you use YNAB for your budgeting, would love to see a video on how you use it. Obvs not using your actual budget/numbers, just how you set up your categories. There’s so many different ways to set it up and I love seeing how other people do it. 😊

[@TheYasmineFlower]

Seconded! Hannah's organizational content is massively helpful to a disorganized mess such as myself.

[@morehannah]

Oooh yeah I love YNAB. Maybe could get them to sponsor a video lollll

[@maggiebookworm]

At least drop your referral link for YNAB if you do a video! I believe it gives you 1 month free for everyone person who buys a subscription

[@jessd8357]

I really appreciate you being so candid and love the way you check in with and try to live your values. Thank you!

[@IsaSouzaG]

I've been waiting for this one ❤ it's very interesting to see how life changes impact your revenue

[@ellabooray]

These videos are always so fascinating. Excited to see how the consulting work plays out this year!

[@Emlikesbiology]

I think personal finance & budgeting & general family finance videos would be incredibly interesting. I’ve watched your channel for years & as someone who is newly married & ttc next year - it would be amazing to hear your insights and thoughts on how you navigate things. I think a lot of similar aged women & people would find it useful too! Xx

[@jhors7777]

Thank you for this post lovely Hannah.

[@albiesspace]

Re: Patreon: I watched the Hannah Witton videos for years as a broke student, now that I have an actual full time job and the stable income that comes with, it feels only fair to be paying a still tiny sum for them now. And it's lovely that this comes at this time of the creator transitioning.

[@katielouise210]

how is it this time of year already? time flies!!

[@miraearles3372]

Love seeing the cute cactus dress. 🌵

[@maddiebeatrice8048]

Just realised I was only subscribed to your other channel! Love this video Hannah. You are so inspiring! xx

[@bimaloxley]

Sadly even therapy isn't regulated in the UK (hopefully changing soon) and coaching is even more below that, but i believe it's not too hard to get into and do a coaching course...? I think training in where we have to contain/ help other people is necessary even if not regulated as there's an ethical stance to it all .. but that's probably my therapist brain talking too. Deffo sounds like that's a calling to you of sorts and great to know you enjoy it as it's that passion, clients feel, plus bet you'dbe great at it. Would love to know what coaches think, but i feel they'd also want it to be protected as it's good hard work ♡

[@hannahk1306]

How would someone looking for therapy (particularly privately) check if a therapist was legit? For instance, is there a particular accreditation or qualification to look for or is there some sort of 3rd party register? Patients shouldn't have to go through a trial and error approach to find someone who actually helps, especially for something like therapy and especially if they are paying for it privately. Hopefully it becomes properly regulated, like other medical professions, soon.

[@bimaloxley]

​@@hannahk1306 so for sex and relationship therapists they will be on the COSRT register. Foe general therapists they're usually on the BACP or UKCP register. So go onto those official websites and search their names! Hope that helps :)

[@hannahmaree9738]

This was so interesting to hear about! Thank you so much for sharing 🤩

[@finianlacy8827]

We work the black seam together. .i crym

[@laurenschenck5355]

OMG! Love ur pie charts and love how organized! Colorful it is and amazing ❤️🌈🫶🏻❤️🩵💚💙💓💛💛💜💙🪻🌷🌊🌷🪻💖🌻🌞💖🌹💋🧡🧡🌷🩵❤️🌈🌈❤️💚💚🩵❤️❤️🩵💛💛💜💙💋💖🌞❣️🧡🧡❣️❣️🌝🌞🌞🌼🌼🌸🌸🌼🌻🌞🌈🌈🌈🪻🪷🌼🧡❤️🩷🩷🩷🧡💛💚💚💚💛❤️🩷🩷🩷🩵🩵🩵💙💜💝💝💘💖❣️❣️💞💓💗💝💘💘💘💝💝

[@at5363]

Thank you so much for sharing

[@leifyla]

I haven’t had a problem with your sponsorships… but I can’t remember most of them. There are a few that I know regularly sponsor heaps of people that I really struggle with because I support the maker but not the sponsor as I find them HIGHLY problematic and exploitative

[@thenopedetective]

Yes, this is how I feel too! Bellesa (they started off just stealing cobtent, seems like they've improved now, but...) and that therapy app come to mind off the top.

[@mewow6406]

Love your cactus top!!

[@morehannah]

thanks! it's a dress! 🌵

[@magnoliaskogen]

Being able to pay yourself from savings, i.e. having enough savings to live on, is *not* a failure. There are many many many people who have absolutely no savings and no way to stay afloat financially. And I would argue that capitalism, racism, ableism, misogyny, anti-fatness, anti-transness, etc are what create financial "failure" for people, not individual effort or lack thereof.

[@filibusterfirework74]

I know that chats and reacts has an incredible Patreon set up where they have some videos that they only put on Patreon and honestly I really appreciate that. They are a very different style of channel but if there is any content you couldn’t post for copyright reasons I would love it still to happen but on Patreon. Maybe just like silly off topic things like telling us your fav Taylor swift moments or KZbin memories? Idk just ideas

[@JungleTherapy2023]

Is that a Lucy & Yak ??? As a houseplant-lady, I NEED it !

[@cariiinen]

Yay to pie charts!

[@ExpatEdit]

Please go to Shambala also this year, would love to see you again!🙏🏼

[@elspethfougere9683]

I do appreciate your openness, in doing this just to way you did sex ed, from subjective life experience plus research. It's helpful. Massively. Personally I think that it is a huge sign of success to be able to live off savings. It's natural that your whole life would be upended as a self employed new mother without maternity leave cover, let alone switching formats of your last 8 years of work from 3 to 1 work stream. I think it's truly admirable to take this time of transition, and to be able to support yourself from savings so you can work it through is a classic example of a very capable entrapraneur with secure and stable business planning.. it might not look like cashflow, but thats the kind of investments careers take sometimes, and its all good! Thanks again for the frankness, it's what I'm here for ❤

[@elspethfougere9683]

Also, nice spring jumpsuit 😊 I've just spent a week gorging on seasonal colour palettes and saw the videos you made over the last year... I'd definitely love to know where your outfit came from, Ive used the links from Jessica's outfits very gladly, I don't shop alot but I value good quality fun and quirky items and small brands.. And yeah, totally appreciate your integrity around not promoting something you haven't personally used and can quality assure folks on, that's your name attatched to that, and someone has to earn the trust to be associated with it - I've learned that the hard way in real life, its not worth being generous and kind if your not 100% sure. Being true to your word is a reputation hard to rebuild if someone else breaks trust in your name.

[@MrTimcoronel]

or (cough) people who aren't on Premium but use a strict ad blocker ...

[@morehannah]

Well I don’t earn any money from those people… lol

[@Emthe30something]

Thanks for the insights

[@katielou1266]

Where is this lovely dress from please? Such a flattering shape!

[@ASmokeyHaze]

Great video

[@xzonia1]

Well, I guess if your other revenue streams were to increase over time, it'd be fine if your brand deal stream decreased and so if one day it disappeared, you'd hardly miss it. Financial goals. :)

[@frogs_ur_uncle]

Love your videos!! I would love to see a video about how you actually document your income to make these lovely pie charts and to track your revenue. You are the queen of organization, please teach me your secrets 🥹🙏

[@morehannah]

It wouldn’t be a very exciting video because my accountants do the spreadsheet and then I just simplify it for video purposes and make the pie chart! 😅😅

[@frogs_ur_uncle]

@@morehannah 😅 hahaha still helpful advice though - get an accountant if you are self employed and able to do so! So easy to have expectations that you have to do everything yourself 🫠

[@artemisacasillascasarez3787]

I really have a "dumb" question (no question is ever dumb), but I'm listening to your podcast on spotify, does that give you any kind of revenue? I started it a while ago but listen to it very sporadically, (even tho i go through big chunks when I do, around 2-3 episodes by session) and in chronological order, I think I'm around 2020-21 in the podcast timeline. When you where talking about how this will be the last time the podcast will be in the chart I imagined next year it still being there, even if it is only by 0.0001% just because of a random person in mexico binge listening to it lol parasocial relationships are weird, but that was a fun little thought I had.

[@morehannah]

yeah sometimes you get ads on podcasts and I get a (very small) cut of that revenue!

[@althyastar]

Is there anywhere where you post any recent sponsorships that are still active to use as a reference for finding your coupon codes? I've had this issue a few times with other products I've been interested in, where I think that I want to purchase something I've heard an ad for recently but I can't remember exactly which video was promoting it and it's hard to track down.

[@morehannah]

I have a public notion page for sex toy affiliate links that we would keep up to date although not a massive priority anymore but this is a good shout to create something similar! A lot of the coupon codes aren't permanent though - they change every campaign. Squarespace one though is the same and has never changed and seems to be always active!

[@althyastar]

@@morehannah Good to know! :)

[@nellyls7872]

Maybe you could have a list of your affiliate links in a list in patron as a perk.

[@morehannah]

There’s an affiliate/discount channel in the discord server where I share stuff/people can ask for links!

[@complicateditis]

Even though you're not making new videos for your sex ed channel, do you still get ad stream revenue from it? Sorry, I don't know how youtube ads work

[@morehannah]

yeah because those videos are still up on KZbin if people are watching old videos and they are playing ads then yes. Not as much as before of course because there are no new videos but still something as there is such a huge archive on that channel.

[@complicateditis]

@@morehannah thank you for answering! I hope it continues to be at least something of a revenue stream for you

[@morgandevol6218]

My mom is a life coach in the USA, and from what I understand to call yourself a coach you have to have a certification from a licensed company or teaching program. It may be different depending on country and region what the qualifications are, but it is definitely different than therapy in that you aren’t supposed to give advice on how people should live their life, but rather help them take steps towards making their own choices. So in that way it is very different from consulting (getting paid to give your professional opinion), which ironically her partner does.

[@morehannah]

Yeah coaching and consulting are very different indeed and I think I can feel myself doing a bit of both in sessions with clients which is why I want to learn more about coaching to be able to figure out where I sit/what I want to do and what qualifications I might need!

[@sophiegavroche]

I would join your patreon if there was a one dollar option 🙏

[@seabream]

@sophiegavroche Apologies for the length of the comment. Hopefully it's helpful anyway. You can manually select an amount of your choice on any Patreon creator account pledge (above a minimum, which last I checked was a dollar). You don't get tier benefits higher than the amount you selected, but that just makes sense. If you follow a creator (Patreon now calls it the "free" membership, but there used to be a "follow" button to add their channel to your list and get notifications of public posts) and then go to the membership tab of the creator's page on a desktop browser, there should be an "Upgrade" button next to the creator's profile picture, as well as one that drops down at the top right once you've scrolled down a bit. Clicking that should take you to a screen that lists the membership tiers with amounts. Below those, under a divider labelled "or" is "Choose your own price" with a button labelled "Make custom pledge". Click that and you can pledge a dollar a month (I'm not sure whether that's an option if the creator only has "per creation" pledges - I haven't experimented). Note that, depending on what plan the creator has, transaction fees for a series of small pledges may be higher than for smaller numbers of larger ones. I think that Hannah may be on the Founders plan, which aggregates pledges monthly and reduces transaction fees in such a way that it doesn't make a difference, but for others who started after the eligibility for that plan, or switched to a different one, if you are pledging just to support and not for benefits, you might want to do a $12 pledge once a year instead of an ongoing $1 pledge. Also, if you pledge through a browser rather than the iOS app, more of the money goes to the creator because there aren't so many middlemen. Cheers!

[@jo-annewilkinson5663]

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@IceNixie0102]

Patreon - we want to support YOU irrelevant of content. We're parasocial friends, and we like being able to help you in this new stage!

[@cariiinen]

A professional accountability buddy sounds great!

[@Glitterfiend_]

As someone who is deaf, I am recently really struggling with watching your videos now with this style of editing out every breath/break in speaking. I naturally lipread, and despite there being subtitles, (which are appreciated), it is incredibly jarring to have your image moving all the time when I'm trying to watch your mouth too. I'm not sure if this applies to every person who is D/deaf. I'm watching less of your content because it is so jarring, and it's difficult to engage with your videos because of it 😢 I do appreciate you giving us this insight into your business over the years, and will continue to keep trying to keep up with where you are now. I in no way want this to be negative, more of an awareness thing incase it is affecting other D/deaf people.

[@DoorSCARF]

Stop doing all brand deals? I can see the appeal!!!! If you can find a way I'd say it's a reasonable goal to have tbh :)

[@morehannah]

I’m starting to think of it as a 3 year goal but need to figure it if it’s really what I want and a plan!! 😅

[@emmabarnes609]

hey!