Welcome to Dtcpod, where we take you behind the wheel with the best founders and operators of consumer brands. You'll learn the ins and outs of business from setting up shop, hitting your first million, scaling past eight figures, and even navigating an exit. As founders ourselves, our goal is to help you learn from the best as you build. Visit us@dtcpod.com to sign up for our weekly newsletter, join our founder community and find additional resources from every episode. DTC Pod is brought to you by trend, the creative solution for your brand. Go to trend IO to access thousands of creators for content needs such as product photography, unboxing videos, or even TikTok and Igorganic creative use the code DTC Pod. Ten for 10% off your next content purchase.

Hello, DTC Pod. Today we have Jen Jennings from Nash Media. Jen is a content creator who I've gotten to know over time for being a content creator on trend. Jen, I'm very excited to have you on and let brands know a little bit more about content and the work you do. So why don't you take it off and tell us a little bit more about yourself and what Nash Media is.

Yeah, well, thank you for having me. I really enjoyed my time on trend. So a little background on me. I'm originally from California. My whole career background started in healthcare, and on the side, I started doing wedding video. And that was a lot of fun. Loved kind of learning about the camera and how, you know, video works and all the all the intricacies of that and kind of nerd it out on that. And then decided during the pandemic to just fully walk away from healthcare. And so that's when I transitioned into creating Nash Media, which is I'm now the creative director, and I primarily create content for CPG brands, food, beverage, beauty. And now I create all types of different content photo, video, UGC, all the good things. And I found other apps such as trend that allow me to be able to connect with brands and create a lot of UGC content print for them. That's been a lot of fun. So that's kind of how I hear.

It's interesting how you mentioned that you were a wedding photographer videographer and how the pandemic sort of unlocked the UGC because initially it was well, for the creator's perspective, it's like, well, it's the only kind of content I can shoot at my house. But then they started getting jobs and gigs and saying, well, now I can just do this by doing my passions, doing the things that I like, and I don't have to go to someone's wedding that I don't know and sacrifice my time and do that. So how was that transition? Did you ever go back to that or did you just double down to keep increasing those engagements? How was that transition?

Yeah, I had a hard stop, so I stopped doing weddings completely and just made the decision that I'm going to go all in on CPG brand content. Because during the Pandemic, all these brands were like, crushing it because they're running Facebook ads, they're making money. Everybody was at home just buying stuff. And so there was kind of a huge surge for a need for content. And at the time, it was kind of that professional, high end video and photo. And so I kind of took those skills, and yeah, it was a hard switch, and I didn't look back.

Yeah. And so for the creators that are making that kind of content, some creators stand out for having something in particular that they use their environment as their assets for or skill set. Whether it's environment or skill set, if someone lives by the beach, they just become like a beach content creator. What was your niche? Were you cooking these recipes? I know more about your work and the stop motion and everything, but what was your specific thing that you leaned into for why brands chose you instead of other creators, and how did you differentiate yourself?

Yeah, I think I really leaned heavily into the studio style because I realized I could manipulate my bedroom to be anything in a studio, you put up a backdrop, you get props, and you could create anything. And then that kind of slowly transitioned into other areas of my home. Definitely, like kitchen heavy bathroom for beauty and that sort of thing. But I definitely started out with more of a studio look, I would say. And then that quickly transitioned.