We had the good fortune of connecting with Alyssa (Cayden) Eckstein (Christianson) and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alyssa (Cayden), what role has risk played in your life or career?

Taking risks is the only reason we are where we are today. We were both competitive swimmers on scholarship in college, and after pursuing our social media career for a few months, we had to decide whether we wanted to continue or not. We went through the pros and cons, and the biggest con is that we would regret not trying. This was the first risk we have ever taken in our lives that a lot of people thought was going to fail, but it ended up being exactly what we needed to do to live our lives to the fullest.

Since then, we have taken a big risk of stopping live streams (which was supporting us at the time) and fully focusing on content. If we failed, we would go broke and have to pursue something else, and it pushed us to gain 16 million followers and nearly one billion views each month on YouTube alone since then. If we did not take the risk, we would not have had the need to work so hard and get to where we are today.

Within that, we have also taken a risk of donating all of our clothes and dedicating to wearing the same outfit everyday. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but getting rid of all of your clothes and fashion was a pretty scary step to take, since that is a huge part of being an “influencer.”

For us, the excitement of taking risks and trying new things help motivate us to become better people, as well as make life more exciting and more enjoying. Risks are what make us happy.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

One thing that sets us apart from other content creators is that we are not afraid to be ourselves, and we don’t try to “fit in” to the typical stereotype.

We are the opposite of fashion by wearing the same outfit everyday. We aren’t “cool,” we are our silly selves. We are PG and family-friendly so that parents can both know that we are safe for their kids to watch as well as make content that they can enjoy as well!

We got where we are today through a lot of learning, studying, trial and error, and improvement of skills. I would say it took us about 1.5 years to fully learn how to make social media content. We had to learn editing tricks, what type of things people like to watch, and who we wanted to be online, as well as figure out a way to stand out.

This was not easy  and took a lot of hard work every day. At the point where we were growing the fastest and took a big step on YouTube, we were working 12-14 hours a day, every day, planning, filming, and editing 4 videos. We were able to do this because we have a passion for it.

The biggest thing we learned is that the “view counts” are real people. You need to make stuff that people want to watch, not what you want to create. There are also a lot of great content creators out there, but there is only one of you. Showing your personality is just as important in building an audience as is creating good quality content is.

One thing we want the world to know about us is that we genuinely love what we do. We have a huge passion for making silly videos and we wouldn’t want to do anything else. We aren’t here to take advantage of our viewers or make money from them. We are here to have fun, make people smile, and do what we love.

One of our favorite quotes from Walt Disney is, “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”  This is exactly how we feel towards out content.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

We would start with our favorite taco place, Taco Calafia. We go there a little TOO much (haha.) We would go wakeboarding at the wakeboarding pulley park, go to the gym (since we lift consistently), as well as hang out maybe at a karaoke place!

We would go to the malls, (Glendale, Arrowhead, and Scottsdale) and explore fun things! We would also go to the farmer’s markets, as this is something we love to do and get amazing produce as well and grill in our backyard. Lastly, we would want to take them hiking in the mountains

One of the best parts about doing social media is that we can film as we do these things as well. We can make silly videos with our friends that count as work and spending quality time.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Without each other, we would not be where we are today. We did not have anyone else pushing us to pursue our dreams, inspiring us, or mentoring us besides having each other along the way. Doing this process together and taking these risks together made it a lot easier than doing it on our own. Without each other, we would not have done it individually.

Website: https://pinkshirtcouple.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pinkshirtcouple/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkshirtcouple/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2xBh2nwvOwBqnA1tEbPCZw

Other: Thank you for interviewing us! We had a great time answering these questions and appreciate being contacted for this opportunity 🙂

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