- I became a minimalist because
I wanted to have
a simple life.
And it's hard to not...
look at our lives right now as really complicated.
And it's all your fault.
(both laugh)
(chill music)
- [Matt] A lot has changed over the past eight months,
since leaving California to spend more time
with our families in Australia and the US.
And, surprise surprise!
Our life hasn't gotten any simpler by making that decision.
As we prepare to head back to the US,
we thought it was a good time to sit down
and give a little bit of a life update.
This one's a little longer than normal,
so grab a cup of coffee and enjoy.
So, let's get into some questions here.
These questions are going to be covering everything
from our personal life, to business, to babies.
So it's going to be - To balls
(both laugh)
- You can't say balls,
on my channel.
- Hey you said you can bleep it.
- Yeah, that's true. I can bleep it.
Okay.
All right, so question number one,
it starts out really deep: Are you happy?
- Yes. - Are you?
- I know, isn't happiness on a sliding scale at all times?
- Yeah it is
- I'm on the Yes side of the scale.
- Okay, that's good. - So that's good.
- Yeah. - Am I the happiest
I've ever been in my life?
No. - (chuckles) Yeah.
I'm not either. It's funny cause I feel like we have
at least one significant major mental breakdown every week.
- Oh, you know what I saw someone
from Bray from Melbourne. - Yeah.
Posted something where people call it a "Menty B."
- Just a quick Menty B. - Yeah!
It sounds adorable.
- I know right!
So now we're calling it a Menty B.
- Yeah, I think. You're right.
And that it's a sliding scale and some days are better than
others.
I think right now we're in the middle of about seven or
eight week locked down in Sydney.
And so we're going through a lot of the same things we went
through in 2020.
Let's just say that.
- We're happy.
- We're happy. - Happy
- What is happiness?
Next question.
- Who is more talkative?
I mean you definitely,
- Well, look who talked first just then.
- Yeah look's who got the YouTube channel.
- Inside
we are equally talkative,
but I would say outside to new people, I'm more talkative.
- Yeah. I'm definitely more shy than you are
when we leave the apartment,
You're the one that's like just having conversations with
random people on the street.
And I'm the one that's like just kind of like
- Being a dick
- Hiding behind your shoulder.
- Being a dick?
Shit...
Is avoiding all couple conflicts possible?
- I mean, look,
if you're in a relationship where you have zero conflict,
I would urge you to consider whether or not there is an
unequal weight balance happening there.
Like if someone,
if someone is taking lead all the time and then the other
person is doing nothing...
- Are you dating an inflatable doll?
- (laugh) Good question.
- Because no - That is true.
- A hundred percent.
Because it's 2021 and hey..
(laughs)
- We can't go there.
You gotta be progressive.
Yeah.
Let's just end it there.
It's 2021.
- I didn't finish that question.
I didn't finish that assignment.
I don't think I want to.
- I don't think we should go there.
No, no, it's definitely not possible.
And I think that we've learned conflicts are
going to happen.
We're going to have disagreements.
It's going to,
it's going to continue to happen throughout our life.
And it's more so like learning.
How do you get through them and how do you come to terms?
How do you agree to disagree sometimes and get through those
arguments without necessarily agreeing all the time?
- I don't think there's anything wrong with conflict
where there might be a problem is if you have problems with
resolving that conflict,
I think that's the real
telltale sign of like whether or not
you're in a healthy or unhealthy relationship is how you're
able to resolve move forward, learn from it,
allow each person to feel heard and understood because you
will absolutely have conflict.
And it's fine.
You're two different people and you're allowed to express
your different opinions.
And occasionally those will clash.
- I like the cool-down method,
Nat's not a fan of the cool-down method,
but I like taking a step away from the situation to like,
let my ego simmer down and then I can go back and apologize.
Which often happens.
- I feel abandoned when you do that.
- Yeah.
Because I want to talk things out so when Matt just
like shuts down and then like goes to another room,
then I'm kind of like, oh, I feel disposed of
- Yeah
- Like I'm disposable
- That's something that we've worked through
with how we work through our conflicts.
So I try to...
- Man up!
- Yeah, yeah I didn't want to say it. (laughs)
Can't say it.
What's your height? Just curious.
Honestly, I swear to God,
this question came up about 10 times.
Let's just say short is...
- Yeah. We're both short.
- I think in a video, like Jason Zuk said that I was like
five foot one or something.
- That's what I am!
- Yeah. So you're five one
- I'm like, in-between, I'm five one if you round up
- And I'm
five nine
if you round up.
I think I'm like barely like five nine.
- But we do try to guess every now and then like
what our kids will be like.
And so we're like,
will our kids have curly or straight hair?
And it's like rolling the dice.
Will our kids be smart?
Or like an idiot?
And it's like rolling the dice,
but it's like, will our kids be short?
And it's like, well, I mean..
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- Our kids are going to be short and loud.
- I didn't mean to call you an idiot.
- That's okay.
Honestly. Didn't even notice - I know!
Just so common.
- Conflict resolution!
- Okay. So this one is actually one that I can't read.
- Oh, is it pronounced data or data?
- I say data.
- Do you know what I say?
Data.
- Ooh
It's been so long. - You've changed.
You know, it only took like,
I think it took like five months
because my first job in New York
happened to be working with lot with data.
So I was saying that word a lot.
- Yeah. I don't know if we've ever
- Talked about this on the channel, but how did we meet?
- On 3.
1
2...
Tinder - Tinder
As all great 2014 Love stories come about
For me you were just one of many, you know what I mean?
- Yeah. Well, that's actually true because Matt was
hardcore trying to find a girlfriend
- I was being a professional dater at the time
I had, like,
I just talked about this in the last video,
but like I had that dating anxiety.
And then once I overcame that, it was like, and like,
I'm not talking like I wasn't a player.
I just went on a lot of first dates that were unsuccessful.
And so I was trying to go on as many first dates as I could,
because it takes that first meeting to understand whether
you're going to have a connection with that person or not
because you couldn't,
you can't really tell that much through chat and text.
And I would find that there are some people that have great
banter through texts, but then when you meet them,
you actually don't get along at all.
And so I was like let me just meet a bunch of people.
And then I met Nat and then that was the last Tinder date I
ever went on.
- Yeah.
- Same for you, right?
- Yeah, pretty much
No but we went to a BR
a brewery.
And then at the end of the night,
I was like, ah, I'm going to head back.
And I was like, oh, you should see my place sometime.
And Matt thought that was like, I should come over.
Or he should come over.
So then he started following me down to the subway and then
we'd both had a few drinks and I turned around and I was
like
oh!
cause I wasn't expecting you to follow me.
And I was like, oh, you want all of this?
And like in the middle of the street
I was like you want all of this? And he was like
- Yeah, yeah - (laughs)
I thought that that was an invitation.
But it wasn't, it wasn't.
- It's a bit of a blow to the ego
to like follow me and then be like, oh, oh shit.
- I have never gone home with a girl on the first night.
And so I was like, this is it! - This is crazy!
Oh wait no, just kidding!
- I was like, no, yup that feels right.
That's what was supposed to happen.
(laugh)
- How's Nat's business going?
- Good!
It's been busy, which is nice.
But I mean, every,
I try my best to balance the work that I'm accepting
as much as possible because
every,
the reason I decided to go freelance in the first place was
for balance.
So I often find I'm in a fortunate position where I get to
exercise
the right
to say no a lot,
which has been really nice.
But yeah, no, it's been really good.
I'm finding so much fulfillment out of going freelance.
And I'm really touched that someone wrote that question
that was really like thoughtful.
Cause I know I don't, I don't talk about it a lot.
- Yeah.
And like,
I think a lot of times like you're in the fun sketches and
stuff and we're being silly,
but like when you put your like professional hat on,
you're like
- A different person, but do you want to know what?
I've gotten one client from this channel.
- Oh, that's right.
- Yeah.
So there's one viewer out there who watched was like,
Should I say this?
Was weird enough to like look me up on LinkedIn.
I'm like, is he going to watch now?
Was weird enough to look me up on LinkedIn,
which I'm glad he did
reach out and be like, Hey,
I think we might actually have some work.
I was like, what?
- What is amazing is that like, you went from a place,
if you don't mind me saying where,
you took that leap and it was like truly terrifying.
- Yeah, oh my gosh.
- Even though you had years and years of experience in the
industry,
you had zero experience freelancing and going out on your
own
Two weeks like straight,
I think you were just crying every day.
- Oh my God I was crying everyday.
- I had, I mean,
I remember sleepless nights.
Like couldn't go to sleep until 4:00 AM.
There was no other reason besides just being terrified at
what I thought other people were gonna think about me and
terrified of failing and then being judged.
That was,
it was completely like
- You were like entrenched in the industry and
you had co-workers at the time.
And so then you're worrying about what people might say and
might think about you
- Oh, she's gone off the rails.
Couldn't hack it, couldn't handle it
- I think the distance like helps, like the more,
the further that you get away from that past job,
the more that you like, can't even like,
remember like why it was so hard to begin with.
- It was the best
Like the best thing for me, it was so good.
Yeah. Never ever looked back.
It's been amazing.
And I wouldn't be able to do if it wasn't for you.
- Oh, thanks, honey. - It's true.
- Means a lot.
How do you start freelancing?
So what advice would you give somebody that is setting out
to start freelancing for the first time?
- You should take this question cause you gave me a lot of
advice that was very good.
- Okay.
But I do want to know kind of like
- From my perspective?
- Yeah, from your perspective,
cause it's more recent. - Yeah, yeah
- Cause like I did this in college.
- Oh that's true
Cause I went,
you never went full-time to freelance where as I went,
you were always freelance.
- Yeah I went slow and steady.
I think a lot of the stuff that you just touched on is
really important is like the mindset stuff is so important
because I saw early on that there were a lot of people that
were
just as talented as me,
more talented than me that
weren't able to make it work
because
they didn't really
one, they didn't understand that.
Like you have to push through those periods of doubt and
uncertainty,
those periods where like you may not get clients
for three months, six months time,
you may have to move back to live with your parents.
Like you certainly have to make sacrifices early on,
but it's not all about just pure talent.
It's about figuring out how do you run a sustainable
business?
How do you find new clients?
There's so much more to it than just being really talented
as like a filmmaker or a brand strategist.
That's obviously a massive part of it,
but it's just one of the elements that you need to develop.
- Yeah.
I would say for me the biggest thing is just like having one
person in your corner that you can pester every day
and ask them questions
and they can be completely cool with it.
Like it doesn't need to be someone who is like super
successful,
but it's just someone who like understands the path you're
on either they've done it themselves or they're in it in a
similar, in a similar path
milestone
that you're in.
But having someone to soundboard off every time you,
the first time you get a client reach out,
like what do I do? Or the first time a client is like,
great, send me your contract.
You're like, what does that look like?
Like just having one person just to soundboard,
like you were that person for me.
And then your sister was that person for you.
Your thoughts can kind of eat you alive when you're starting
your own business.
And you can kind of just like not know what the right path
forward is.
And like,
ultimately that steals away from the confidence that you
need to be presenting every time you speak to any client,
- Can I make something clear? This is not on
the point of topic that you're talking about.
But oh my God,
this is a nightmare.
- The lighting?
- What's the name of the game? - Truth
- I'm like such a perfectionist.
But before we started filming, I was like,
do you want some coffee?
I was like, the name of the game is keep going.
Because like so many times we do this where like, oh,
I didn't like the way I answer that, Let's just go again.
But with this,
whether it was the lighting or it was like how we answered
the question.
Name of the game, just keep pushing through.
- Truth.
- Is truth or dare.
So that was really great advice on freelancing.
When will there be something baking in the oven?
- You're making me cookies?
- No.
It's safe to say over the next two years,
we're going to start trying to have little
Pidding's and D'Avella's
- Aw little Pidding's
- And D'Avella's.
- No little Pidding's.
but I think I want a dog first.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dog would be nice.
This is like a big debate that we've got going back and
forth.
- We need your help. You guys need a comment below and say,
we're not going to say who's on what team,
but you need to tell us,
should we get a big dog or a little dog?
Because one of us wants a big dog and the other person wants
a little dog and we cannot,
the only solution we've come up with is both.
And I don't want to see any of those bullshit
comments that say, "Both!"
cause that doesn't help us so just tell us big dog,
little dog. Thanks.
- Yeah.
I became a minimalist because I wanted to have a simple life
and it's hard to not look at our lives right now as really
complicated because we have family in both Sydney and the
US and then when we have kids, what does that look like?
How do we fly with babies and a dog?
it's
- Dog
- and it's,
it's all your fault.
- (laughs)
I don't know
If we really knew what we were getting into.
- Oh when we were 24 and we swiped, right?
- Yes, exactly.
Obviously I think like our whole motto from the beginning,
it was like, let's just take it one day at a time.
And I think that's what we're doing right now.
- But at a certain point,
you can't take it one day at a time because all of a sudden
you're like, let's have babies and you're like, wait,
we were going to do this one day at a time
- Now it's forever.
You know what? To be honest,
like I think that we try to like use minimalism and
simplicity to,
to make our lives a little bit easier to take away a lot of
the challenges that we might face.
But like complexity is a part of life.
Question
Does your wife take your own productivity tips? LOL.
- LOL.
- (both laughs)
- Who asked that question?
- Daniel.
- Yeah Daniel already knows the answer to that question.
- Daniel knows what's up.
Has there even been one productivity tip that I have taken?
- Well we talk about this stuff,
but it's not like you're like taking notes and watching my
videos.
- I think it's actually, do you know what
I've taken away from the channel most,
mostly it hasn't been a specific tip or a specific trick.
It's been the overall mindset.
I think that you and I talk a lot about the importance of
rest
and balance
and not burning out.
And that's so important to both of us.
And I think it's the mindset that I've taken a lot away from
versus like one particular tip.
I don't like understanding priorities and like yeah.
- What do you think... yeah - Intentionality.
- Yeah. Intentionality and minimalism a hundred percent.
I think you're like way more intentional
- Just intentional
- A hundred percent.
One zero zero.
What do you think is something that people don't often see
from my life behind the scenes,
making videos like running this channel for the past four
years?
What do you think people don't see?
- Balls.
- (laughs)
We did promise ball talk
- Full circle
Literally full circle.
- You actually have a really hard time with YouTube
And I think like
the
keeping up a regular cadence
feeling like you're not burning out,
finding the fine line between enjoying it
and
it making it feel like it's a chore, but,
and that
that's something we talk about a lot,
but I also think you put that out on your YouTube as well.
- Yeah, true.
- The viewers who turn up
every week or every other week would
know that as well.
Oh, do you know what?
Matt is really good at binging and gaming
for like several hours. So like,
I'm really bad at like getting through an entire series or
like reading a book or like just getting through anything.
Cause I have like a restless mind.
Well, it's like,
you'll commit, like you love the closure
of finishing something like this year so far
you've done all of Veep.
All of The Office.
And then you started The Office again.
- Yeah. And I'm already on
season three and I finished Overcooked
- Overcooked on switch
- On switch. Yeah.
I'm certainly obsessive when it comes to completing things.
But it's funny how I do that with my work.
But then I also do that when I relax.
I'm like I'm going to chill out and watch the office
every single episode.
Okay any final words?
- No, that was it. No more questions?
That's it, no more questions. - That was so fun.
- I know
- Remember to comment below
Big dogs
small dogs, big dogs - Big dogs, small dogs
- And hey, if you want to throw in a particular breed,
we're all ears.
- Yeah we are here for it.
Thanks for watching.
- Have a great day.
- We'll see you soon.
- Bye!
That was fun.
- Aw again.
- It was bad?
- I think that..
Wait
Look at the elbow.
- Better.
It just didn't feel right. - It's not right.
- Try again.
- Oh that was
Ow, that really hurt though. - Does it hurt? Yeah
- Let's not do it again - Should we keep going?
Okay, love you - Bye
- You said bye.
Oh, you're going to go back to your place now?
- Yeah, okay see ya!
- Yeah I'll send you - See you in
- I'll send you - in eight months
a check in the mail. - Okay great