Have Fun, the Money Making Opportunities Will Come

Unedited Episode Transcript

Andi: Hi, I’m Andy Smiley, your friendly podcast guide. I help you elevate your podcast and feel less alone while you’re doing it. Today, I’m sharing a conversation I had with Alexa Lewis, who is a veteran in the creative space. She and her family have a very successful YouTube channel and they also have a kid podcast.

I can’t wait for you to hear how their YouTube audience translated to their podcast listeners. At the end of the episode, I’ll recap all of the things I learned from Alexa during our conversation. So you don’t have to take notes unless you want to. Here’s my lovely conversation with Alexa.

Alexa, thank you so much for being on the Friendly

podcast guide today. Before we dive into talking about lively Lewis stories, your

kid podcast, I want

to introduce you to my listeners a little bit by asking you some slightly random questions.

Alexa: Love it. I’m here for it. Thanks for having me.

Andi: I am so glad you’re here. Okay. The first question is. What is the last podcast you listened to?

Alexa: Oh, well,

for you, for me, my taste in podcasts and what my kids listen to obviously are very different. I, the last one I watched was, uh, to live and die in LA.

Andi: Wait, is that true crime? I’m

Alexa: I’m assuming

that is. It’s a true crime. I love all, all true crimes.

Andi: Do you live in

Alexa: LA?

I live in Orange County, so I’m really close.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh. That’s too

scary. It is. I mean, I’m a homebody, so like they’re going to have to go out of their way to like get me, so

I’m pretty safe. Oh,

Andi: that’s so funny. Okay. See, and I can’t do true crime. They literally give me

nightmares.

So I stay away from true crime. but I know so many people love it and it’s interesting. it’s fascinating.

But then I have nightmares

Alexa: and

can’t sleep. Yeah, it’s like all the wondry ones are, are my, are my jam. Like they do such good ones that are like really well produced, which I really like because otherwise like my attention span just goes out.

But honestly, I do more audio books than I do. Podcast. I, but I love just audio listening for me is amazing.

Andi: It’s the best way to listen as

Alexa: as

a

mom. It is

Andi: Like

you can be listening and

still

Alexa: doing

something

else.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I’m listening constantly to a book going on or a podcast, whatever’s going on, whatever I’m deep into.

Andi: Yeah,

I agree

I do

Well

truly

for me. It

just

depends.

It depends on

what I’m

like

want I feel like I go

through audiobook

phases,

but I kind of like the physical book cuz I mostly

read

like right

Alexa: right before

Andi: and

Something about holding a book

Alexa: makes me tired. I don’t

know. Oh, absolutely. I listen during the day to one book and then I read my Kindle every single night before I go to bed.

Like I just can’t get

enough best. I

Andi: it. Ooh, I was going to ask you,

have you

listened to

Cold?

That’s a

Wondery

true crime.

So, Cold

is

very

scary and I

couldn’t handle it. But it’s cold cases and it’s actually,

Weirdly. Um,

from one of

my old

Alexa: my old

coworkers. I can’t. Yes. I have listened to this?

Wait,

Wait, your old coworker makes this?

Uh,

huh. Dave

Cawley.

Andi: I

Alexa: I know he’s a

rock star.

That’s so cool.

Yeah,

I actually got to

interview him on my

show.

Well, now I’m going

to have to

go back and listen to that. I gotta go. Bye.

Andi: I

Alexa: I

promise it will

be there when we’re

done

with this

interview.

And

truly we had such a good conversation, Dave and I,

that I think the actual raw audio was like 45 minutes

long and I had to cut it down to like

20.

So maybe I’ll do

like,

Alexa: Like a bonus

episode

because it

was

fascinating.

Oh, absolutely.

I got to do that. You got to make your mental note. Yeah, that would be

so cool.

Oh, I’ve got a

notebook. I’ll just write it

down.

Um,

okay.

Next

question.

What is a simple

life hack

that is making your life

better right

now? Great question. So we have a, a, ton of different things that we, for some reason, keep saying yes to, which is just kind of how my husband and I operate. Right. We love. We love trying new things. We love when an opportunity comes, we say yes. Um, our biggest thing right now is we use an app and like a webpage called Trello, and it just keeps us on track.

It is the only thing that keeps us from like losing our minds with like people, different people that we work with and things we have to do. So I would say that’s probably just like having like. Something that keeps your mind, like, outside of your mind. Like, all of the things that I have to do elsewhere.

Because if it’s in here, it’s done for. Like, it’s just, gets too intermixed.

Andi: Totally.

Alexa: Okay.

Like

umbrella, broad view.

How do

you

use your Trello?

I, so we have different ones on there. So we have Lively Louis stories, Lively Louis family and Lively Louis show.

And so what’s great is that on each one of those, we have all of our people who work for us are on there too. So like our script writer to our editor, to our sound mixer, everyone’s on these. So there’s like an actual like column. So it’s like, Hey, here’s my idea. Yeah. I write all the ideas out, then I give it to the story writer.

And then the story writer can see all my ideas, and then she takes it and drags it over. Like, it’s like a physical drag, which I love. Then the person knows, oh, it’s now here, it’s time for the production, so like, Jason, our sound mixer, or Ryan, our video editor, can go, oh, they’re ready, and then he can drag it into, like, processing.

It is the coolest thing. Like I am so impressed by it.

Andi: Okay.

Alexa: Maybe

that’s one

of my

projects

is figuring

out how to use Trello

shout out to Trello. you sold me.

They’re the best. thanks Trello!

.

Alexa: Okay.

Now

that we know you a little bit better, we’re going to

dive into

lively

Lewis

stories.

Wow.

Lively Lewis

stories. I promise I don’t have a

list. We’re really testing everybody, all the L’s, the S’s, the whole thing.

Okay,

first

I want to

ask

what

Is your

favorite

part

of creating lively Lewis

stories?

So my favorite thing is being able to have absolutely no limit to creativity. Like when we make videos, I have to be realistic, right? I can’t, I can’t do things that my brain is like, Hey, you know, it would be fun.

It’s like, well, I can’t do that. This is real life. There’s real, you know, parameters of what we can do. And so with. Our podcast, like I just love being able to push those limits. I love being able to just let imagination be without boundaries and be able to be like, Hey, what if the world was upside down?

Hey, what if you went behind Niagara falls and everything was different? And just being able to give kids the thing of like, I can dream it. I can make it come true. And so that is by far my favorite thing is not having boundaries and being able to just Take my little girl brain and be like, what did my little self like imagine the world to be like?

Let’s go and see what would happen. And so definitely the the creativity without limitations.

Andi: I

Alexa: Love

that.

That’s

just

how kids

brains

are

period right

and so

we get to tap

back

into

that

When

we try to be creative

or

no, when we

succeed at

being creative

and

Andi: I

Alexa: I love that it

also

shows

kids

that they don’t

have

to have a

limit on their imagination.

Yeah, I completely agree. And kids are, kids are incredible. I mean, we have, um, on our, our story, we ask kids like, Hey, submit your story ideas. And it is so cool to see so many kids with different ideas, whether they’re real life experiences that they’re having or struggling with to just super outlandish, amazing, like just.

Okay, yeah, a, a dog and a unicorn become best friends, like, let’s do it, why not? And it is so, so cool, because then it pushes even me where I start going, okay, maybe I’m getting too into like one area, then you see that, I’m like, oh yeah, that kind of creativity, all right, let’s go back there too. So it’s very cool.

Andi: Definitely. Oh, and

Alexa: Oh, and I love

the idea of

having

kids

help

With story

ideas because kids

love

to

like,

be creative, like we said,

and also

they

love to hear their stories

on.

Andi: The

Alexa: podcast that they

love. So

like, it’s a win

win. It is so fun. And I, you know, I wish, I don’t know if this will come off sounding weird or not, but I wish I could be like a fly on the wall when the kids turn on their podcast and then they realize it’s their story and it’s their name in the story.

And they’re going to get to spend 15, 20 minutes listening to a story that was perfectly captured just for them. Like, that just feels so personal. You know, we don’t have a ton of ability to connect with our audience in a way that I would love to, um, but I love being able to, like, have this idea that, like, there’s someone out there that, that felt special.

That they were like, hey, that’s my story. Like it, that’s me. And then they can listen to it at bedtime or whatever. It’s just, it’s a very, very sweet moment and it’s very big for us to be able to feel like we can have that connection with our audience. Definitely.

Definitely

making

kids feel special

is kind

of

just the best. It’s the best thing in the whole

world. I love that you get to do that. I do too. We do not take it lightly. .

Andi: My

Alexa: kids

just need to do a story. They

need to submit a

story. Yeah, they do. I don’t

know why they haven’t.

Yeah, we gotta get them on there.

I know.

Okay.

Andi: I’ll

Alexa: add that to the

list of things to do.

I know someone who can make it into a story. I, I know them.

It’s on

your

Trello.

It’s on my Trello. Exactly.

Andi: I should

Alexa: preface this by

saying my kids love lively Lewis stories. And we

listened to

them. Mostly they listened to them at bedtime, like

you were saying,

but sometimes we

do it, we’ll turn them on in the car

during

a road trip or

just running

errands when I

just

need them

to

not whine at

me.

Absolutely.

.

.

Alexa: How

does your family

or like

your

group

feel about you?

work

together to

come up with the ideas for the story? So we just, you did say that

like some of them come

from

listeners,

but do

all

of

them

come from listeners?

They don’t. So I would say we’re probably at about a 20 percent comes from listeners.

Um, and then the rest come from, really come from me. Um, I started in theater when I was a little girl, and I always loved the theatrics. I always loved the creativity that came with that. Um, but as a fellow mom, it’s like I became a mom, and just, I, I lost my creative outlet. Because, I mean, I can’t go and be in a play, Well, I have nursing babies and all of that.

And so I, I found myself in and just kind of like, Oh, I feel like I’m missing something. And so we started our, our, uh, YouTube channel. And then when we met Mr. Jim at a YouTube conference, he told us about you know, kids audio.

And so I’m like, all of these ideas that I have that I cannot. create a YouTube video about was able to have a home. And so with that being said, I will, I’ll sit down. I take some of them are personal experiences like one of our very, very early, I think it might be our first ever podcast story was a story that my grandma used to tell us when we were kids.

My grandma is the most incredible storyteller teller. So like, We would go camping and every single night she would do ten part adventure stories. And it would be

adventures of Erica and Alexa, my sister’s Erica. And so I’ve always had that kind of example of imagination.

And so, I would say a huge part of that comes from my grandma. Um, and then, yeah, I just, I kind of sit down and think what, what stuff are my kids dealing with? Hey, we just moved. Let’s make an audio story about that. Kids move all the time. Like how can we support kids through life changes?

And also let’s just have fun. Let’s have some crazy safari adventure, you know, where chimpanzees can talk because we can. Right. The world is

your oyster when it’s a podcast

and it’s

just audio.

Absolutely.

Andi: So

Alexa: when we listen, I feel like we

listened to a

lot of dinosaur stories and a

lot of

unicorn stories because, and I was wondering,

are

those your

kids

interest right now?

And

like, you’re just kind of following what they

love.

I love it. Yeah. So they, you know, I will say things have changed a little bit. Um, my son Levi is almost eight and now he is all sports guys. And

so he’s actually, he’s funny in that new transition where he’s like, mom, I’m not really into dinosaurs.

Okay. I really like basketball. I’m like. Okay, dude, I get it. No problem. And so you’ll see as time has kind of gone on from our early stories to kind of where we are now Um, there is a lot more of kind of capturing their ages now But when we started absolutely my daughter was all princess all unicorn. My son was all dinosaurs

Andi: that’s

Alexa: that’s another

beauty of

having

your own show

is you get to choose what you

talk about and you might

as

well

make it

so that your kids want to listen to it

too.

Absolutely. Yeah. That’s a big one. I want to create something.

And my, my kids are my best metric of if we’re doing good. Um, my daughter listens every single night and I’m always giving her options. I’m like, Hey, who do you want to listen to? Like, you know, giving her all these options. And it really does mean a lot because. She does. She listens to, to our stories every night, which I think, aside from other people listening to it, just having her get to listen to her mom tell her a story each night is, is really special.

Andi: Definitely.

Alexa: Yeah.

So I know you’ve been doing this for a while

and I was

wondering what

has

been

the most

surprising thing

or

part of

starting

this like

podcast

side

of

your

Andi: enterprise.

Alexa: Yeah, I, I think the, the most interesting thing to me is that You know, I spoke before, um, when I met Mr. Jim, it was at a YouTube conference that was meant for kids, people in the kids and family space.

Um, and it wasn’t obviously specifically to YouTube, but, um, I would say 89 percent of the people there were, you know, there for YouTube. And. He was telling us what he did and I’m like, Oh, that is so cool. But I really had a hard time thinking that the kids that are watching YouTube would be the same kids that are listening to podcast.

Um, I

really struggled with thinking that there was going to be no overlap. Um, and that’s what honestly has been what my biggest surprise is. You know, of course we, we let people know on our YouTube videos that we have this podcast and all that kind of stuff. But the transition of having kids come over has been.

So incredible. It’s been such an amazing opportunity because like I said before, we don’t really have like YouTube, you have no communication with your audience. Because there’s no comments, there’s no nothing, whereas at least with this, we have the comments on our review page, so we can hear from our audience more, um, and so it’s been so neat watching that transition of kids going from their YouTube over to podcasts, because we know as parents, like, there’s time for video, right?

We know, like, we watch movies, we watch YouTube videos, we do all of that. But there’s a time when it’s time to put the screens away. You know, there’s only so much time that kids should be spending glued to a screen. And I love being able to offer a, Hey, you trust us over here in YouTube. You trust that what we’re putting out there is appropriate, that it is nurturing for your kids.

Now we have another place for you to send them when you’re like, I, I’m in the car or, you know, we’re playing Legos or, you know, whatever. Um, and so, yeah, definitely the transition of bringing kids over has been, has been really cool. I’ve, I’ve really appreciated the effort that people have gone to, to kind of see what we’re doing over on the podcast side.

I

bet

there’s more

overlap

than

at least

you

initially

expected,

which is fun.

Very much more than I expected. And I think because in the podcast community, from talking to other podcasts, they’re like, our audiences are completely different. And so I was prepared going into it being like, okay, we, no, one’s going to listen.

Cause cause the audio space is different. There isn’t an algorithm. There isn’t this, you know, we’re used to knowing if we do X, Y, and Z. And fit into an algorithm, this video will get fed to someone that wants these types of, of content, right?

There isn’t that in the audio space yet, you know? And so it is very intriguing to see like, Oh no, this is an intentional someone going, searching us out and listening to us, which is like.

That’s a big deal. Someone, when someone picks you, you know, like they have all of these options and they chose to spend their time listening to us, which I mean, no higher, you know, praise than that, which is amazing.

Definitely.

Yeah.

Andi: I

Alexa: I know that

some podcasters don’t really love that. There’s

isn’t really an

algorithm for

podcasts,

which,

yeah, it’s kind of a

bummer.

So it’s harder

to

get found,

but

Andi: I

Alexa: love,

like you said, when people do find you,

usually they’re

looking

for you, which

means

they

want to listen to you.

It’s not

like,

uh,

I’m going to pop

in front of you

and hopefully you’re going to like

me. It’s like, oh

no, you already

liked me.

Cause you

looked for me. Absolutely. Yeah, because that’s not, what we’re used to is the, we popped in front of you before Peppa Pig came on, and hopefully someone’s going to stay through it before Peppa takes over type thing. And so it is. It’s very, very different. And I think it is interesting because there’s not, there’s not a lot of people like us that do both that have the experience in both.

And so it’s funny because I’ll talk to people who are in audio only versus people who are in, in, uh, video only. And they’re very different, how we approach things are very different. And so it’s, it’s fun. Like I love having a foot in both worlds.

Totally.

Andi: Yeah,

Alexa: that would be

interesting.

Andi: Do

Alexa: Do you

have

one that you

like

better or is

it just like you like

different things

about

different

ones?

Yeah. I mean, the PC answer would be, Oh, I love them equally. But the truth is I love the podcast. The podcast is my baby. It is, it is definitely the place where it’s like a place where I just feel like it’s. It’s allowing imaginations to blossom and I think that it’s really hard , raising kids in this era because kids don’t have to have the imagination that like our generation and generations before had to have.

Like my parents were like, you’re going to go play in your room with your Barbies for hours on end. Have fun. And that’s what you do. Our kids, it’s like, go play with Barbies and they’re like, Oh, okay. How? I’m like, what do you mean how?

Uh, it’s

true.

Well, that is one

thing that I say

about

kid podcasts

is that

they help

kids

like work that

imagination

muscle.

Absolutely.

That they

don’t have to

when

they

are

Watching screens Right.

And yeah, we also have screen

time

But that

is

limited

while kid podcasts y’all can listen

to

them as

much as you want

all

day long

Absolutely.

And honestly, they’re

usually

just as entertained,

at

least at our

house

Yeah. They do

have

to have like a thing to keep their

hands

busy. Yes. like magnet tiles

coloring

pages, or

Legos,

that’s a

big one for my

seven year

old right now

is he will listen

to like pixel

quest

by,

Mr.

Jim, that’s his

favorite right now

Sounds so good. and

just

build Legos for

like

hours,

like

where’s,

where’s

D

he

must

still be in his

room

listening to a kid podcast. It’s so amazing.

Andi: Oh, okay. So

Alexa: Okay. So before

we

hopped on this call, I

asked

you what one of your favorite episodes was, and you gave me a lot,

but we decided to talk about

the

enchanting

and whimsical cupcake

unicorn.

LLS: Told you a hundred times! Of course, there was definitely a real unicorn made out of cupcakes playing in our kitchen with you on a rainy summer afternoon. It was such a great story. One of my favorites from YouTube for sure. I’m happy you liked it, but it wasn’t a story. Yes, Princess Summershine was a real cupcake.

Unicorn! Dad, play with us!

Alexa: I

loved this episode.

I

listened to it by myself. The kids didn’t

even listen I love that.

Andi: Well, and

Alexa: and your kids are

so

fun to

listen to.

So that

was

really

fun.

Where

did this

story

idea

come

from?

So this story was actually a submission from one of our listeners and I feel so bad, but I do not have the name of the child off the top of my head, but it came from one of our comments and I remember reading this comment and I’m like, how am I going to turn this into a story?

Like I mean, I think I have a good imagination, but here we are, this is a unicorn cupcake I sat on it and I was thinking about it and I’m like, okay, we got to do something with this. This is so unique. And so, you know, I kind of came up with kind of an outline for the story and gave it to our story writer, Jill.

And she is incredible. I had this idea of like, you know what? Our audience is used to hearing my kids. They’re, they, they come to our videos for my kids.

They’re, we, me and my husband are just supporting characters to help keep the story going.

Um, and I had the idea of like, hey, let’s have everyone like use their voices. Like, can we turn it into more of a script, which is what we’re typically doing with our, you know, Our videos. Let’s see if the audience likes it.

And so yeah, we turned it into a script and it’s my favorite just because I love hearing my kids. I love hearing their involvement in it. I loved watching them actually create it and hearing their little voices as they’re trying to do this because it, it, it’s different than video. And so by far my favorite video because I can hear my babies and it’s just so, it’s so creative.

It’s, it, it’s so fun. There was no way that I could have come up with something like that. And so knowing it was our listener who had this imaginative idea, and then my baby’s getting to come in and bring that story together, and have that listener who probably loves watching my kids get to hear their voices, it was like, for me, it was the best.

Yeah, like home run

Hit

all

the

home runs. check

all the boxes.

Oh,

I love that. Okay.

So

if you

haven’t listened to

this

episode

yet,

just to

give you like a

synopsis,

Ivy

wanted to

make a cupcake

unicorn.

She

had to,

they

made a

big

mess

making the,

the

cupcake

unicorn.

And

then

the

unicorn

came to

life

and

made an

even

bigger

mess.

Right. That feels right. You

should

really

listen to

it with your

kids.

Thank you. All of you

That’s so sweet.

Oh,

okay.

So

when I

listen with my

kids to lively

Louis, I

don’t usually hear your

kids

voices.

Is

that

like,

Andi: am I

Alexa: I just

missing the ones with your kids voices? No, they’re usually not on there.

They’re usually not on there. So there is a, I would say maybe like four max of episodes that actually has the kids on there.

With them being six and seven, it’s still a lot, and so when we write them out, it’s a lot easier to write them in more of like a storybook format, rather than writing them into scripts. Um, and so we try, and especially because we do film, and they are part of all of that, I’m trying to have something that kind of Like, they can enjoy what’s about them without them having to take on any more responsibilities.

Because I want them to just live normal life as kids and not have too much on their, their shoulders. But they do like it. They’re like, every once in a while, they’re like, hey mom, do we have another one that we can record with you? I’m like,

yes, I will absolutely make that happen. We’ve done that one, which was a very scripted one where the kids knew what to say. And then we’ve also done where I’m telling the story and they’re sitting with me. And I’m asking them questions and like, what they think. And so, we’re trying just different things to kind of just see what the audience likes.

Um, but just transparency is, it’s almost always going to be me, um, just because trying to keep that workload, if you will, from the kids.

Andi: Yeah, that

Alexa: that totally makes sense.

And I

think it’s

really fun to

hear

the kids,

but like you said, kids need to be kids. kids

need to be kids.

and so can’t,

Andi: you can’t

Alexa: overload them. No, no.

And they do. I’m glad that you have that balance.

They do. And they, and they honestly, they, they work so hard and they love what they do when it comes to the YouTube world and they love listening to the audio, but I have to kind of be the I gotta be the mom in this situation and be like, Hey, you guys also need to be, just be kids.

Go play basketball. Go, you know, go play.

Andi: Totally.

Alexa: With your Barbies. With your Barbies. That you’re going to figure out how to play imaginatively with.

So I

love a short

podcast,

Andi: especially for

Alexa: for my kids because

their attention is pretty

short.

This episode is eight

minutes long

And I, and

most of

your

episodes are

like

15,

like.

eight, it’s kind of on the shorter side, if I’m

remembering right.

like 15,

20 minutes long.

Is

there a reason that you keep

them that short? Or is

that just kind of like how long the stories end up

It kind of depends. So when we’re getting, um, submissions that are. Like, like that one for instance, you know, we have to kind of reign it in and it’s like, okay, I don’t know how far out to go without it then just getting kind of too watered down or too lost in the, you know, details, um.

We’ve had ones where we just love the idea so much that we end up doing 2, 3, 4 parts to it. Like we did this one called, it was like the Book Fair Chronicles. And that one was a blast because it was a 4 part series.

And so we’ll do some of those. Um, but yeah, I like, my, my kind of goal is kind of in that 10 to 20.

I think anything past 20 minutes for a kid is, that’s just too long. Um, but we kind of try to stick within that. I don’t want them so short because obviously as podcasts are, we have, you know, the possibility of ads and we have, our, you know, beginning part that we have the talk and then we have a little ending, whatever those things are called, I should probably know what they’re called, but I

don’t. Like an intro and

an outro.

That’s the word. There we go.

Nailed it. I got it. Yes. Our intro outro is there. And so I feel like if. We’re putting an intro and outro on every video and they’re on that shorter side. I feel like a kid’s just like, I just heard that. I don’t want to hear that like so quickly.

And so we do.

Like kind of in that, I think that 10 to 20 minute, you know, is like the sweet spot for attention span. But also giving like a good real like detailed story.

Like a robust

story.

A robust story. I like that. Perfect word.

I’m glad I can

assist with words. Oh, the words. They don’t, they’re not there anymore.

Like I think I had my baby’s and then they took the dictionary out of me and i’m like Do we have

words

Andi: words

Alexa: words are hard

Especially

as a

podcaster. I’m

like, Oh

yeah,

I have

to talk.

Oh my goodness. Well, I have, I have people ask all the time, like, Oh, do you just come up with the story on the spot?

Like, are you just like going from your head? I’m like, no, no, no. I would love, I would love that to be able to have that figured out. But absolutely not. I’m like, that has to be word for word written down so that I have somewhere to go with it.

Andi: Yeah.

Alexa: I’ve noticed

that if

I don’t

have.

like a word

for word script, I’ll just ramble.

And then editing

that is so hard

And I

don’t want to

I don’t want to edit

that.

So just

spending, they’re so nice. You like know what, you know, or at least like an outline of like, what is coming next? Otherwise, yeah, I can go off on a tangent, like. It’s my job.

So this next part,

I’m

trying

hard to

make

talking about

money,

less

weird. Yeah. So

Andi: I

Alexa: I want to

ask you money questions, .

But yeah,

it’s like a

personal

thing where I’m like, I need to

make talking about money,

less weird. Honestly, I think in our world, the financials of how these things work.

Are very un, like they don’t, they’re not understood. And then people are upset because there’s an ad and you’re like, here’s how it works. So yeah, go

for it. I

kind of have to make money.

Yeah, exactly. Okay.

Andi: So is

Alexa: is this

your full time

gig or do you

guys, or

is this like a side

hustle?

So for me it is mine. So our podcast and our, um, and our YouTube channel is my full time gig.

My husband also does all of the analytics and He does a ton of the stuff for our YouTube channel, um, but he also works as a health insurance agent. So we have a health insurance agency and so his not fun job is health insurance, but his creative outlet is, is YouTube.

Okay,

And

How much

money do

you guys make

in like

a year?

So it’s, it’s tricky. So when it comes to the podcast, it’s odd because in order to get monetized on a podcast, you have to sell ad space. And if you don’t sell ad space, you don’t make any money. So I think there is. So for us right now, our podcast is just in the growth part. We signed on with iHeartRadio as, um, one of their network podcasters, which is amazing,

which means that we will actually start making money once we start selling ad space.

We’ve done a couple, if any of our listeners or listeners have noticed, we’ve had a couple like Spotify for podcaster ads placed before we joined iHeartRadio. Um, but right now we have no ads in there just because we’re really just trying to like create the solid like listener experience before we have to start doing that.

And plus I’m also really particular about like what ads would be ran on our channel because

that’s like my biggest thing. I’ve always, we’ve prided ourself on being like very protective about our space and making sure that nothing sneaks through. Um, and so we actually do not at the moment, we don’t make.

podcast.

And so. Just on YouTube

stuff. Just on YouTube stuff. Yeah. So our YouTube is the one that funds this for now. But it is coming soon though because we will be starting to run ads on our channel, um, by the end of this year.

Andi: Oh,

Alexa: Oh, good

for

you. Yeah. That’s awesome.

It’s awesome. And it’s really, it is hard because we understand.

I mean, I see them all the time. They’re like, Oh, I don’t want ads on here. Why am I getting fed ads? And I totally understand as like, I mean, it’s, it’s annoying, it’s, it’s disruptive and all of that kind of stuff. I mean, we listen. Oh, I forgot. My favorite podcast is SmartList. I don’t know why I didn’t say that earlier.

I listen to that all the time with my husband. Anyways, we listen to SmartList and so it’s like they have, you know, they have ads. These are, you know, it’s just unfortunately if you, if you want to do this and you want it to at least pay for itself, you have to run ads, which is a bummer.

Andi: It

Alexa: It is,

maybe

eventually we’ll

find a

different

way

to make money on

podcasting,

but for now, I think

that’s kind of the main way, unless

you

want

to do

something like you know, you want

on

top of the podcast,

Or if you want to do like subscribers where you actually have them pay for access. But for us, like we never want money to be a reason why someone can’t listen. And so we don’t put anything behind paywalls or anything like that, just because money should never be a reason why a kid can’t have access to, you know, entertainment.

So that’s just

not, we’re like, I’m sorry, you have to sit through an ad, but at least it’s not. You know,

behind a paywall.

for you. It’s free for

you. Yeah. So,

okay. Well, Yeah, of course. for talking candidly about

money.

Yeah. It’s, it’s very weird. I mean, it, it is one of those things, um, especially within the podcast world, because it is very strange.

It’s not set up, um, as simply as other ways that like are paid monetarily, you know, like with an Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, all of those have, Just placed ads. You don’t have any control over it. You don’t have any say over it. It just gets placed there and that’s how you make money. But with podcasts it’s, it’s interesting and I’m very curious to see what’s going to happen now that we are fully signed up with iHeart and I’m excited to see.

You know, like the possibility, because obviously it costs money to write the stories, it costs money to mix the stories and all of that. So,

Right.

Yeah.

And

it’s like your time, your time is worth money and you’re spending

your time

recording and

even just

thinking of the

stories. So

Yeah. Yeah. It’s the not fun side of it.

I mean, it’s worth it. You know, we hope that You know, a lot of this stuff, when you do this, you really do step out in faith and you’re like, I believe this can be something and I’m going to just, we’re going to put in the work until hopefully it does.

And my hope is just that we can bring in enough that it just pays for, for us to keep doing it. Honestly, like going above and beyond that, I don’t really care about, I just would like it to be paid for so that, you know, it’s not coming out of, you know, family budget and all that.

definitely,

well, and I

think

Andi: if

Alexa: nothing else,

your podcast

can also point

people to

your YouTube,

which makes money

easier

or more

straightforward. Absolutely. And that’s our thing. It’s like, the more that our name is out there, the more different ways.

I mean, we have. You know, we, we have one piece of merch that we’re hoping to expand soon. And so it’s like those different ways where we can, and like they do, they, you know, thankfully each thing kind of works for itself, but yeah, I mean, we’re, we’re working on because of our, um, because of our podcasts, we’re working on an animated series because a animation company heard it, loved it, and was like, we could turn this into an animated series.

So it’s little things of just like trusting and being like, Let’s, you know, like, just put it out there and let, you know, let’s hope for the best. And you know, if it turns into something, it does. But if it doesn’t, honestly, I look at it in like a non morbid way. Like my kids will have stories of their mom reading to them at the end of the day.

Like if that’s all we have from it, it’s worth it.

Andi: Totally.

Alexa: And

you get

to choose when you’re done, right? Like,

if you’re like, that

was

awesome. We

did the thing. They have

stories

now.

If

we need to move on, we will.

Absolutely. Yeah. It’s, it’s great being in control. No one owns, no one owns us, if you will. You know, we’re, we’re able to kind of just make our decisions, which I love.

Same with like what we, what kind of content we put out. We are a hundred percent in control of that. And so I really appreciate being able to do that.

Definitely.

Okay.

Before I let you

go,

tell people where they can find

you.

All the places.

We are on the I heart radio, um, app as well as, um, Apple podcasts and anywhere you get podcasts, you can listen to us.

We’re also on YouTube. If you’re not wanting to go on any of the other apps, we have an actual, um, lively little stories page on YouTube as well.

Andi: Fabulous.

Alexa: Um, and then

social

media

too, right?

Yeah. So social media, um, you can find us on Instagram at lively Lewis family. As well as TikTok and Zigazoo as well, we post on

there. Okay, wait, I don’t know what Zigazoo is.

Oh, Zigazoo is adorable. It is a, it’s

kind of like a TikTok for kids. But it’s

super, it’s super controlled, which I appreciate. Everything is manually reviewed by a person.

To make sure that it is appropriate, but also, um, kids can’t just put anything that they want on there because it is being made sure it’s safe for all kids.

Um, and so yeah, we, we’re on there, um, as creators, which is, which is really fun.

Andi: That

Alexa: That is

fun. I love

that.

Andi: Dang.

Alexa: super cute. Okay. Well, I’m gonna just look into

that. Yeah, we would love it. Come over, come introduce yourself on, on Instagram. I love getting to meet, I’ve had so many moms reach out to me and just say, Send us videos of the kids watching our channel or listening to our stories or with their merch and like it No one bothers me when they reach out to me.

I love it. I love when people tell us, you know, that their kids like watching or listening because for us, we don’t really have a lot of connection with our audience, which is very sad. So I love it when people reach out.

I know That is one

of the hardest parts about podcasting.

Well,

and probably

YouTube

kids

too, is just,

it’s

hard to

connect with your people.

Unless there,

unless you’ve

got that group also on social media, which

is like a whole

different

Right. Which most people don’t translate. I mean, our, our, Instagram is teeny tiny considering our size on YouTube or the amount of lessons we get on our podcast. It’s like, this does not translate, but I would love to be able to have more of a connection because it is really special to be able to hear what people are thinking or what we did do right.

Or, Hey, can you. Do this differently or you know, whatever the things

are totally.

Oh,

and I was gonna

say

we found you guys

on story

button.

Yes,

I

think

actually I saw you on Instagram

too, but my kids found you on the story button. So

we love

story button. You love story

button.

Andi: If

Alexa: any of you out

there

want a

story

button, you should

definitely get one because they’re the best.

They are honestly story button and Jim the brilliant mind behind story button and what he has created and what his mission is is You incredible and we are so honored that we got to be on there.

Um, and it’s, it is so cool. I mean, to be able to have my kids not steal my phone, not steal an iPad, not have to like figure out, you know, the Amazon or the, you know, the Siri is, it’s a game changer for sure. They can keep it in their room and I don’t have to wonder

if they’re going to like sneak on over to Minecraft or Roblox or something because it’s not on there.

Yes.

totally.

Okay. I

just realized I

didn’t

explain what

story button

is. It looks like

an old timey

radio.

That

has like

Andi: six,

Alexa: nine

buttons on

it

and a little

screen that

just

tells you

what

podcast you’re listening

to.

And

my kids, like you said,

it’s just sits in

their room. They can listen to it whenever they want.

Most the main time we

use it as bedtime

so

that I.

It just

like helps

that transition between

me

being in the

room and

me

not being in the room and it has been, it’s the

best and

it

updates

itself. It’s

connected to the internet.

So

this is

not

an ad, but if we just left story,

but we are, and it was really fun.

Is that when story button was. Kind of getting launched into what creators would be on there. Jim brought me on board to help because as someone who’s very familiar with the creator community, it was a blast. We actually have worked quite a bit on that together and figuring out who comes on to the story button, because right now it is curated for what we’ve curated for the story button.

But the app is coming soon, and that app will allow parents to actually pick what podcasts go on there and what podcasts are not on there. So for people who are like, Oh, but it doesn’t have this podcast or that podcast, the app is coming soon, which will actually allow for, for selective nature on there, which is great.

Andi: totally, I’ve

Alexa: I’ve heard a little bit

about that. I’m really

excited.

I’m excited too. It’s good. It’s great because everyone has, um, different things that their kids are interested in, you know, and we did the best that, you know, we could, as far as like having a good broad spectrum of, of types of shows on there.

Um, but obviously with the amount of podcasts that are available to kids. You’re not going to have everything, so

it’s very cool. it’s not

possible.

Yeah. It’s fantastic, though.

Andi: Okay.

Alexa: Well,

thank you so much for

being on the show today. This was a blast. Thank you so much for having me, and I love just getting to chat about what we both love to do and what our kids are both into, so it’s very fun.

Very fun.

Thank you so

much.

Thank you.

Andi: Alexa is such a wealth of knowledge.

I’m so glad that I got to chat with her. Here are some of the things I took away from our conversation. First, use a tool to stay organized. So you don’t have ideas just floating around in your brain, driving you crazy. Alexa uses Trello and she convinced me. So now I use Trello too. It is such an amazing tool.

I feel so much more organized and it really is fun to like click and drag it to the next column when it’s ready to go there, it’s Lovely. I highly recommend Trello and no, this is not an ad. The second thing I learned is you don’t have to have listener participation in every episode for it to have an impact.

Alexa only has about 20 percent of her episodes that come from listeners suggestions or submissions, but it’s enough for her listeners to notice and to love it and to feel. Important and special. So if you’re trying to build your community, it doesn’t have to be an all or nothing. Start with something small that, that your community can latch onto and go from there.

The third thing I learned is don’t let your episodes get too rigid. Try experimenting with different ways of doing things to see what your audience likes. Alexa tries this, especially the episodes that she has her kids involved, um, telling the story in different ways from having it scripted with the kids reading the script and And she and her husband reading the script to more of a bedtime story style with her just telling the story to her kids and her kids interjecting cute little anecdotes, because that’s what kids are so good at.

And I love that she is able to try different experiments with episodes and then seeing which ones resonate the most with her audience. The fourth thing I learned is know your audience. I feel like we all know that we need to know our audience, but sometimes we forget. So this is your reminder to know what your audience likes and know what vibes with your audience.

In our conversation, Alexa talked about how the sweet spot for her show is 10 to 20 minutes long, because she knows that’s how long her kid’s attention span is, which tells her what her audience likes. The fifth and final thing I learned. That I wrote down that I learned from the conversation that I had with Alexa is that the moneymaking opportunities aren’t always going to be ads.

It was so fun to hear that an animation company was interested in making an animated series because they listen to lively Lewis stories. They have this awesome opportunity to do something really unique and fun. And it came before they had ads on their show. So ads are one of the. Ways that we always think about for making money with a podcast, but it is not the only way to make money with a podcast.

Will you share this episode with your podcasting friend who’s been struggling with staying organized so Alexa can convince her to try Trello too? Also as kind of a sneak peek in next week’s episode, you’ll hear a conversation I had with Mr. Jim. Who we talked about in this episode, he is one of the creators of the kid podcast, pixel quest.

Pixel quest is one of the favorites at our house right now. My kids listen to it almost every day. You’ll learn all about how to use sound to its fullest potential on your podcast. Thanks for being here and I’ll see you next week.