Today we’d like to introduce you to Abby Weinstein (Asselin)
Hi Abby, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I moved from my hometown of Panama City Beach, FL to Tuscaloosa, AL for college in 2016. I loved consuming video content from a young age, and always knew in the back of my mind I wanted to create content online in some capacity. It started with a blog in high school and eventually blossomed into making videos to post on YouTube during my freshman year of college. I didn’t feel as intimidated to put myself out there since I was in a new town and didn’t have that looming fear of judgment from people I knew. Creating videos in my dorm room quickly became my creative outlet and escape. It took me a while to make friends in college since I didn’t rush a sorority, so I spent most of my free time brainstorming content and creating videos about college life, the college application process, living in a dorm, and so much more. My channel gained some traction thanks to my dorm tour amassing 54,000 views, which I never expected to happen so quickly. I started making a few hundred dollars a month only a few months in and could finally relate to the liberating feeling of making money doing something you truly love. After about a year, I signed with a talent management company and the hundreds of dollars turned into thousands as my channel grew. I never thought I’d be in a position of making a full-time job’s salary as a college student doing something as seemingly simple as posting on social media and YouTube, but it was pretty life-changing for me. I finished up my degree in Accounting and Finance at the University of Alabama and stayed one more year to get my Masters in Tax, and then moved to Houston summer of 2021 to start sitting for the CPA exam before starting my full-time job at a Big 4 firm as a Tax Associate in January of 2022. Throughout those years of college, taking and passing the CPA exam, getting engaged and married, and the 2 years I spent working in tax at a Big 4 firm, I continued being a content creator as a “side hustle” and shared my life as I adjusted to the many challenges of moving to a new city postgrad, starting my first full-time job, and planning a wedding while working a very demanding full-time job and being a part-time content creator. I am so grateful to have met some of the most amazing people both in person and online, built a wonderful community online, and have the opportunity to be a content creator full-time for the last six months while I’ve been recovering from some serious burnout and intentionally searching for my next job. While I love the freedom that being a content creator provides, I enjoy it most when it is a creative outlet and I enjoy the analytical challenges the finance and accounting industry offer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been plenty of challenges since I started creating content seven years ago. Thankfully, since I started doing it in college, I quickly learned how to balance a lot between creating content, being a double major, extracurriculars, and working as a teacher assistant. However, maintaining that balance came at the cost of sacrificing some of my social life in college. I traded nights out for staying in to edit a video that needed to be submitted to a brand for approval or to study so I could maintain good grades to be in good standing for an internship with a Big 4 firm. Posting your life online to strangers also opens you up to arguably unsolicited criticism and advice, which was harder to process when I was in my early 20s in college and just doing my best to balance it all and figure things out. I had an exhausting time balancing content creating with my Big 4 role. My job as a tax associate always came first, but I spent my evenings after work and at least one day of my weekends shooting and editing content. I neglected my social life and worked 60+ hours a week most of the time between my full-time job and side hustle and was quickly burning out. I had the heartbreaking realization that I would have to give something up eventually, and it was a sensitive topic for me to talk about because I have a hard time quitting things and I couldn’t fathom letting go of being a content creator after years of working so hard and building it from the ground up, especially for a job I was very unhappy in and knew I didn’t want to do long term. I realized pretty quickly that working in public accounting was not for me, so I decided to quit that job in December of 2023 and give full-time content creation a chance while I figured out what career step I wanted to take next since I had never done so before. Many people don’t realize the impact that being a content creator has on you mentally, even though you technically willingly sign up for it as a content creator. The last six months of doing it full-time has been a difficult adjustment for me, because it’s hard not to take things personally and tie your worth to numbers and how your content performs when it becomes your livelihood and full-time job. It’s also extremely volatile regarding income which can be stressful, but like any other job, it has its pros and cons.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I create lifestyle videos on YouTube and share lifestyle content on Instagram and TikTok. I also hosted a podcast, In Bloom Podcast, for four and a half years and shared self-development-inspired content as I navigated my 20s and shared all the things I was learning along the way. Depending on when they discovered me, most people probably know me from my college day/week in my life vlogs that I shared on YouTube or the work week in my life videos I shared while being a CPA at a Big 4 firm. Whether I’m sharing about the books I’m reading, my makeup routine, home projects, my fitness or therapy journey, or the struggles of figuring out your career in your 20s, my goal at the end of the day is to inspire everyone to show up authentically as their best self each day and live a life that they truly feel proud of. I am most proud of the community I’ve created over the years because it is ultimately what has provided me with so many incredible opportunities over the years. I wouldn’t be where I am or learn what I have without them, and even though it’s a virtual community, I have developed relationships with so many people from my community who truly feel like friends. I think what sets me apart from others is my innate desire to provide value and make a difference in the content I share. Even though I can get caught up in the numbers (who wouldn’t want something they worked hard on to perform well?), deep down, I don’t care to be a huge influencer with eyes on me at all times and I just want to have an engaged community I can connect with and inspire in some way or another. I am so passionate about helping and inspiring others and it makes my day when someone tells me my content has helped them, even if it’s just to feel less alone or provide entertainment.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I am so thankful to have had a supportive family throughout this journey, even when they totally did not (and probably still don’t!) understand what I am doing as a content creator. My older brother, Zane, is one of my biggest supporters and always encourages me to chase my dreams and creative pursuits, which I am endlessly grateful for. He let me use his camera when I was starting my YouTube channel until I saved enough money to buy my first camera and was a friend to me when I had none early in college.
I met my now husband in my sophomore year of college, about 7 months into being a content creator, and he has been nothing but supportive since the very beginning. He has spent weekends and time outside of work being the man behind the camera when I’m sure he’d rather spend his time away from work doing something else. He’s been a constant throughout almost the entire journey and I couldn’t be more grateful for his unwavering support, especially during those rough 2 years of juggling content creation, wedding planning, and working my full-time job.
My subscribers/followers/online community are also an integral part of this journey. I can’t articulate how grateful I am for their support over the years. Without it, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to work with some of my dream brands, take huge steps financially that I didn’t believe would be possible for me in my 20s, and have the luxury of taking some time off from a traditional full-time job and taking the time to be intentional with the next step in my career.
Lastly, I have my talent management company and talent manager to thank – I was one of the first creators who joined the Sociable Society back in the spring of 2018 and have stuck with them since. One of my good friends/coworkers as a teacher assistant in college, Lexi, wanted to get her foot in the door with the social media industry when we graduated, so I connected her with my talent agency, where she has been crushing it as a Lead Talent manager for a few years. After my previous talent manager (shoutout to Erin!) left the company about a year ago, Lexi took over as my talent manager, which has been so full circle and special to see how hard she works and thrives at the company. She is amazing at what she does and I couldn’t be more grateful for her support!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abby.asselin
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@abbyasselin
Image Credits
For the graduation photo – Whitehorn Photography
