The Truth About Content Creation No One Talks About

In this episode of Mama’s Playground, we start off laughing about World Cup chaos, jerseys, and mom life… but quickly dive into something deeper:

👉 Is social media actually making us miserable?

From content creation pressure to mom guilt, comparison, and even AI taking over — we’re sharing real, unfiltered thoughts about what it’s doing to our mental health, our families, and our everyday lives.

We talk about:

• The pressure to constantly post and “keep up”
• Missing real-life moments because we’re thinking about content
• Mom guilt and social media comparison
• AI, fake content, and what’s even real anymore
• How social media affects our kids
• Finding balance (or trying to 😅)

This one gets honest, relatable, and a little too real.

🎙️ If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by social media… this episode is for you.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe 💛

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Mama's Playground. We stopped doing the uh this is Monica and this is Darlene. Because I think I'm tired. Yeah, this is Monica. But I'm I think I'm tired of saying this is Monica. And then you say it's Darlene. Okay, and I'm the brunette. And I'm like the redhead, but with Grace. I have Grace. You guys can't see it on the camera. It's redheaded.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Talking about redhead. Do you remember we were we had a contract before we were doing our podcast at another with another company? And that the owner of that company, he was like, he liked you.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

No, he didn't. I think he liked you. He's like that redheaded. I think it's because people don't see too many redheads. That's what it is. Yeah. That's what it was. I think people just tend to like the hair. And today I have it up, which lately I've been having it up because I feel like I'm having horrible hair days. And I don't feel like blow drying my hair. And then I have greys coming in, ladies, and it's driving me nuts. So I say, nah, I'm gonna pick it up and I'm done with it. And I said to Darlene today, Jarlene, your hair looks so beautiful. I want to let my hair down. But I was like, nah. You look good. Whatever. It is what it is. You look good. It is what it is. It is what it is. We're wearing our soccer.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Yes, if you can see us, then sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

That's that's baseball.

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Let me tell you something. Stop here. Actually, it's baseball and it's 21. You can't see the number, Roberto Clemente, baby. Let me tell you, for the past month, World Cup is almost over in a few days. Our teams got eliminated last week, which uh Colombia, USA.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

Our husband's teams. Because we are not Colombian. We support Columbia.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

We support USA. And then people were saying, okay, so you're Puerto Rico, so it would be USA. And I say no, because Puerto Rico would have its own team if we would have made it. It might happen someday. But let me say something. Especially living here in Miami, you go out, or you see jerseys from everywhere Colombia, Argentina. Colombia, Argentina, Brazil. And I just said, you know what? I'm tired. I know that we were not representing our country in the World Cup. But I am gonna wear my Puerto Rico jersey because it's time. It's baseball.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

It's time to wear my country. I don't have, I'm wearing, listen, she said, I'm gonna wear that shirt because we are in the midst of the World Cup. And this is, you know, you know, we're in the midst of the World Cup. Everybody's with their soccer jersey. Almost done with not baseball jerseys. But anyways, I'm giving it to her that she wanted to wear her Puerto Rican one. So I said, what do I wear? And I went into Benjamin, my husband's closet, and I just found anything. And I'm like, Darlene, I'm gonna wear this. What is fly emerald? It's so bad. I'm sorry, guys. I was like, Benjamin, you don't have a Spanish jersey. At least so I represent, you know, my mom's side of the family. He's like, no, put the Colombian one. I said, no, I always wear the Colombian jersey when it's like soccer stuff. I'm gonna wear something different. Yeah, it's crazy. It's like you're supposed to support, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

You do, which yeah, we do. But you know what? No, you know what made me mad? That when the world baseball classic was going on, every time Puerto Rico was playing, that I'm like, Puerto Rico's playing. My husband would be like, I'm gonna be in the studio. I got to work, and I was watching the games by myself, so then the World Cup starts, and then Colombia's playing, and we had to stop everything. And these games, come on, three o'clock. Well, they started like at 10 at nine. The Colombian games were starting very late. They started late. They were starting like at nine. They were in Mexico, I think. And that's why the time difference. And then they were at three in the afternoon on a weekday, and then everything stopped. Everything stopped. There's no work, there's no phone call, there's no texting, there's no social media, it's just the game. And I'm like, really? And then here I'm wearing a shirt that doesn't fit because I don't know something with the sizes in Colombia, but a medium size in Colombia is an extra small in the States. And then the family, they'll bring shirts, the jerseys, and then I wear them, and I'm like, I'm feeling so fat, but it's a medium. So I told them next time, bring me an extra large from Colombia.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

And now we're Puerto Rico and Fly Emirates. Again, I think it's like a London, don't ask me. But anyways, I it's I'm I'm representing. I said it was Barca, but I don't think it's Barca. No, it's not.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Put it on AI. I did.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And it said it's the London, like London-based. I don't know, you're wearing, I don't know. Anyways, I just wanted to be in spirit because I didn't want to wear the Colombian one. Not that I don't love the Colombian people because my husband's Colombian, but I said, I'm not gonna do Colombia again. I'm always wearing that yellow jersey every time. So you know what? You gotta do you.

SPEAKER_01 4:53

It's like the people were like, okay, there's no Latinos uh countries left, then everybody has to go for Argentina, and it was a whole mess. And I saw so many polls on social media, so much hatred against poor Argentina, and well, I can't say poor, but it's like all these things that okay, now there's no Latino country, so now we gotta go for Argentina. And a lot of people were saying, No, we don't want them to win again, we don't want them to win again, or we just want, you know, to represent Europe, you know, a place in Europe, or maybe one of the African countries.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Um what was the one that we want? It was uh it was Argentina against Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde. They were magazine, and the guy that came out, I even had him on the social media thing that I saw him, that he's like they said that he's a worker, and and it's just like a small little country, and and every he was like the highlight of the World Cup. Uh my god, I forgot I forgot the guy's name. Oh wow. Uh from Cabo Verde. Fabo Verde member. But it was a beautiful story, and it was like they they gave Argentina a fight. Like people will never forget about that game. I think it'll go down in history, but yeah, and that was a beautiful part of it.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

They earned everybody's respect, and also Egypt. And oh my god, the whole drama that came after that, and the drama with the USA player and the red card, which I don't think it should have been a red card, because that same thing that he did by accident happened throughout the whole World Cup. But then he got the red card, and then the president got involved, and FIFA, and a lot. Let me tell you, I mean, I it it's I I went online on Instagram, and this friend of mine, he's Argentinian, and he posted something saying it was very early in the morning, and he said, you know, to wake up and read so much hatred and so many comments and so much this. It's like, come on, people, and he was still swollen, like he had just woken up, and then I'm thinking, yeah, it's horrible what's happening because even I put the I opened my my feed and it's just like everything was negative, and then we're coming from what happened in Venezuela, also, which I had to shut down social media, yeah, because all these images and all these things are your and then you're stuck with that your whole day. But when I saw my friends post, I'm like, why? Why are you opening it so early in the morning and then why are you reading it? And now your day, look how you're starting it. It's not even 7:30 in the morning, and you're already pissed off. And and we're gonna be talking about that today.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

About and we've talked about social media before, but is it making you like miserable? Not social media in general, it's just everything behind it, right? It's like the the content creation. Obviously, we're doing content and we know that it takes a toll on you. Um, it's it's uh it's definitely a job in itself, a full-time everyday Monday through Sunday or Sunday through however you want to say job, and it's constantly, you know, thinking with your phone and having your phone with you. And if you go take a crap, excuse me, you gotta take your phone with you and you have to document that. And if you go to the kitchen to have a drink, you have to document that, and then and it's a lot, it's taking, it's taking toes. It's not just the negativity that you see, because you see negativity, but there's also positive things. We've talked about this. There's good things, it's how you use it. It's how you use it, but is this day in, day out, because every business right now has to do social media. Let's be honest with you. Uh, every single business under the sun, whether it's a car dealership, whether you're a grocery store man, whether you're doing content creation like us and we're doing podcasts, you have to do social media all the time. It's it's there is, I feel like at this point, the way that we're going, there is no other way to go about it. Either you run with the crowd and you move forward with it, or again, you stay behind. But what is the toll that it takes on you mentally? That's what we're going at. And that's really what our episode was. We started off with the whole, you know, chit-chat of the soccer and the World Cup. But what you said, you you go online, and even with the World Cup, there has been, you know, people posting all day long about what's going on in the World Cup, and everybody's, you know, attached to their phone and what this one did, and then the negativity that comes behind it.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

And then you read the comments, and people are insulting each other's countries and each other's people and the way they're dressed. And we saw fans, sorry, from Argentina, insulting, you know, some of the kids. I say kids, I feel like they're all so young. I mean, it used to be like we're on the same age, and now I see them, and they're like kids playing. Well, some of them are not. Um, but it's in the hatred, and they were throwing comments to was it uh from Cabo Verde. I think some fans were insulting, and I'm like, this is so sad.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

And then, you know, if you weren't there to to see it, then you're reading about it, you're watching the videos in social media, and then it's just and then you're carrying all that stuff in your head and or you're creating content about it because now with the World Cup, you have everybody that does their social media getting on there, and now it's like they're they're reporting on it, like reporters, all day long. So you see what happened, and this and that, and and it's just it's a constant. I don't think there's a time where we, and I say we because it's all of us, that we actually just do not have our phones and we're not thinking about what we're gonna post or what we're gonna look at. And is it taking a toll on our mental health? And yeah, and our kids. And our kids actually, yeah. No, and it's just everything. I I had showed Darlene, I had sent Darlene uh this mom. Um, I think you had it there, I forget the the name, and I and I want to put it because it really hit me.

SPEAKER_01 10:30

Dara the explorer. So she's Dara Dara the Explorer. Dora. No, Dora it's the D-O-R-A.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

Dora's the show. Okay, so Dara. D-A. Yeah, no, you're right. You're right. Sorry. I was thinking Dora the Explorer. So it's kind of like that, but she changed it with the Dara. So D-A-R-A, the Explorer. It's funny. I it's not that I follow her, but one day, obviously on social media, I am laying in bed, scrolling through social media. I have the habit to do that at night and just take that time for myself to kind of like catch up with things. And her feed pops up, and I said, you know what? I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna read it. And it really hit home. I took, I, I really read the whole entire thing that she posted. And basically, it was that she started content creation one year ago. One year. She hasn't been in this five years, not ten years, one year ago. And she said, I'm gonna give it my offer one year, I'm gonna see what happens, and she became successful at it. But she said, At what toe? You know, she is a religious person, she has her spirituality and all that. She was saying that, you know, she left it up to God to say, I'm gonna give this one year. She's a mom, I'm gonna do the content. Uh, she's like, But at what toe? She's like, I started realizing I kept becoming more successful and more successful.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

And so sorry to interrupt because something that I found very beautiful of what she wrote is she said, I'm gonna give it a year, and I'm also going to follow God's lead and I'm gonna pray for it to stop when it's time for me to stop. And she realized when that time was.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

And it was one year. She's like, I don't know. And she's like, it's asking more of me and more of me, and the the beautiful moments that I used to have with my kid that I was present, fully present in. I'm no longer present in. I'm basically everywhere I go, I have my phone with me, and everything becomes a let me see what I'm gonna post on social media today. Because as you get more successful, which I can definitely see that happening, and it and it is what it is. Either you choose that route or you say, I'm not gonna go, I'm I'm gonna stop it here. You know, that's it. I already maybe did what I needed to do, and I'm gonna take it a different avenue. But as you become more successful in your social media content, you the more you have to continue to put out content. And so now your life revolves around content and always having your phone with you. And every second of the day becomes what am I gonna post? It happens to us. I say, oh my god, darling. I mean, we have busy lives, we have our kids, we have the things that we're doing, you know, outside of the podcast. But then when it comes to the podcast, it's like, oh my God, we have to put content. We should post this. We just did this with the family. Oh my god, we should have put that on our on our platforms. And it and it becomes so overwhelming. Yeah. But at the same time, if you want to grow, social media is where it's at. So it's like you have to choose that battle. And maybe it's like you get involved in it, and then you say, once you've done what you wanted to do, or maybe where you've gotten, you know, where you want to be. Maybe at that point you kind of reconsider and say, okay, maybe here I stop. Like I'm doing this because it's gonna benefit my family, it's gonna benefit what I want to do. You know, now like you you wanted to be an actress. That's what you want to do. You've done a bunch of commercials, you've done shows, you've done this. This is kind of like a little outlet, too, that kind of still gets you into what you wanted to do, but it's still it takes a toll because it's a constant uh you have to post.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

And for those content creators, is the stress of they have millions of followers, thousands of followers, and I feel that they're probably waking up and be I don't want to let them down. I have to create content, and what I wonder what they want to see me do this time. In the meantime, you have a family that you're probably neglecting, yeah, because you're constantly, you know, thinking about those followers instead of thinking about the little kid that's close to you watching you, your son, your daughter, like mom, you know, let's play. And you're like, wait, no, I gotta do this. And I found myself, let me tell you, the other day, Luna was clowning around and dancing and doing, and I immediately, this is I immediately said I need to post this, but she was in her PJs. It was such a personal moment. Personal moment. She's like with her, you know, little, she still wears these short dresses. PJ is super cute, and her was crazy, and she was just doing something so funny. And my mind was like, Oh my god, I'm gonna record her, I'm gonna post it, da da da. It's gonna be funny. Uh, I could write this. This happened like in a matter of like, I swear, like 15 seconds, and then I go, Luna, can I record you? And she goes, No, mom. And then all I'm thinking is like, what the fuck was I thinking about? Yeah, like we're here in the morning, it's a funny moment, not for me to publish it, it's for me to enjoy it, to laugh with her, to get up and dance with her. And I'm like, why? Why? And I am really working hard on just forget about you. Nobody wants to know what you're eating today. Don't take the freaking picture, unless you're a chef and you made it or something like that. I mean, everybody does their own thing, but also at what expense, you know, especially if you have a family. If you're a young kid and you're uh you're into social media and you're posting and it's not affecting anybody else and you're okay with it, then go for it. And by the way, call us. Maybe you can do our social media. I would love that. Yes, call to action.

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Call to action for sure. No, it's true. It's like you think about it. Even I I when I read the post at night, again, everybody's sleeping. I'm in the room, dark, I'm looking up at my ceiling, and I have my little blue light from the phone, and I'm I'm reading this, you know, this girl's post, and it really hit home because as with this podcast, you know, we have to do social media, we have to put short form content, we have to plug it, right? And don't get me wrong, I enjoy this. The reason why we started this is because we enjoy it. We love to talk. Darlene comes from the acting side. I come from I've always loved that side of things. I never, you know, uh pursued it or anything, but I said, wow, we love to talk. Why not? We could do content. This is fun. We can connect with people. My main thing was connecting with other people and having other people on our podcast and building a community, which I think is beautiful. But at the end of the day, with all that, you have to continue to post. So you are a slave to your phone. You are a slave to the content creation, you're a slave to editing, you're a slave to what am I gonna post today? What caption am I gonna put? And then comes in, oh, use AI to do that, which we've talked about. This use AI to get the caption. This'll, this'll, this will be the easiest way to do it. But then at the end of the day, it's like, I don't know, I feel like I'm on a hamster, I'm on a hamster wheel. It's hard.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

AI, let me tell you, yesterday I was at my parents and my dad was so frustrated because there was a video going on around they were comparing Messi versus Ronaldo, and they were saying Ronaldo's uh so much better person than Messi, and then they show this video of things happening like him, Ronaldo hugging a fan, and then Messi kind of like rejecting the fan, Ronaldo picking something up from the floor while Messi walked right by it. I believed it, and then my dad goes, I believed it, and I was like, Yay, Ronaldo, and then I saw a video, the same video, but it was the other round. So he got so frustrated and he said, I'm done. And then he's a super fan of Jimmy Kimmel, we all are. And my dad goes, but Jimmy Kimmel's on vacation right now, he knows. He's on vacation, but then they're showing him um on his show doing this monologue, talking about what happened at the end of the game. But how did he do it if he's on vacation? And then he said, Can you believe that that was AI? He said, That's so scary, and it is scary because now, even for entertainment purposes, like you don't even know honestly, like what's real, what's not, what to believe. Uh, is my favorite late night host really there? Or it's an what what's real? And that is so scary. And I, you know, we work in the legal field, my family, and I was also saying, you know, with the AI, and imagine having to use pictures as evidence, you know, where were you the night of whatever? Uh oh, I was home, I wasn't there. Oh, but we see you sitting at this restaurant back here, and the person could be like, I was home, but we see you in the picture. So that's another thing. Like, it's just so scary because now you can make whatever you want, and then the scary part, and share it. And there's gonna be a lot of people that are gonna believe it, and this is just an ignorant world we live in now, you know? It's it's sad.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I think it's I think it's everything, it's it's a vicious circle because again, obviously, we've all been on the social media content creation thing and getting online, and then we read other things that are going on of people posting, and then now the AI thing is also intertwined in there, and it's like, what's real, what's not, but use AI to make it easy because if you're doing a business, let's use AI to do this, and that's the next thing. And then you hear people like Gary V and like all these big, you know, these big shots saying, you know what, if you don't want to get with AI, you're gonna lose, you're gonna lose the the and and I believe it. I do believe that. Like if you want to take your company somewhere or whatever you're doing, and you want to do social media uh or you want to do content creation, whatever it is that you're you're trying to do, AI is part of that. And AI actually makes things easier. Let's be honest. Like you can go on and say, Oh my god, I don't I don't have I don't have time to do this. But here's the thing we're becoming slaves. We are becoming slaves.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Like now I feel like we don't even think anymore. It's like I I have AI. But it's because we are we are in the email.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

We are so busy, we are so busy in the rat race of trying to continue doing things. Because again, at the end of the day, what do you want most? Like, let's think about it. What do you want most in your life? In your life, you want to, I think the most people want to live healthy or they want to be healthy, they want to be there for their families, they want to provide for their families. And everybody is saying, obviously, to provide for your family, you need to make money. How do you make money? Well, now everything is social media. The largest companies are on social media. Everybody's doing, you know, uh the content creation, the editing, the this, the that. So again, we are all, even those that don't do content creation or get on social media, we are all slaves to it because if you're not creating, you're watching it. And you're on your phone. So it's it's and either we continue moving forward with it or we kind of like reject the path completely and say we're not gonna do it, but then there's another cost to that. Your business, if you have a business, might not flourish. Uh, because now you're not, nobody knows you. And the only way to get out to all these people is through social media. Um, it's just it's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

It's a it's a back and forth of I think it should be left when it comes to companies to somebody, to hiring somebody that specializes in that and it's happening, and it's already, you know, a degree in the universities and somebody that can do that for you. Like what happens to me sometimes when I okay, I have to post something for the podcast or or just want to share something. I'm gonna go on Instagram or TikTok just for a minute and check our comments or reply to, you know, anybody that could have written. And then, but you go in there and it's just like it just sucks you in. It sucks you in completely. And then when and then sometimes I I go, wait, wait, what this happened? And I'm like replying to a post that has nothing to do with me. And then I'm like, wait, what? And I get mad, and then I hang up, I close the phone, and I'm now I'm upset, and I did not do what I was supposed to do when I went in because You know, I am uh we both get distracted very easily. But it's not just us.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

It's not just us. I talk to you know other people. Obviously, there's people that do not have a podcast. They don't get on, and they're not doing uh uh cre uh social media like uh creation or content creation or anything of that sort, but they get sucked in in other ways, so it's it's a it's a vicious cycle, and the the purpose of this, like you know, this talk, what Darlene and I were wanting to get to is the thing of is it taking a toll on our mental health?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Obviously, it is oh a hundred percent, and it is and I lived it at the beginning of the summer. Um, I just saw also my circle of friends, everybody was traveling, but we couldn't travel. Um, but we are next week, but there we go. But at the beginning, I was just I I would go in. A lot of people traveled at the beginning of summer. I had never noticed that. I don't know if it just happened this year, but it was very surprising how as soon as school was over, everybody was out. Everybody was out, everybody was like, I'm out. And um, so I would go in and I would see, you know, everybody just traveling and and the kids having a great time, and then I look and Luna's there, you know, watching Bluey the whole season for the 10th time, and uh it's a whole mom guild again, and just saying, wait, what we don't have plans right now, and it's just also the this constant comparison, and then seeing I get these pop-ups of things that I should be doing with Luna, like, oh, for mothers and daughters, and go to Boca and take this $7,000 you know, photo shoot, both of you dress as princesses, and then I'm like, oh my god, she's gonna grow old, and I'm not gonna be able to do that. I'm gonna have her guy this princess photo shoot in Boca with her, Boca Raton, and then it's just even all these ads, because obviously they I go in and everything I get it's some parenting. Obviously, that's how social media works, and then I just log off and I'm feeling like sad, I'm feeling miserable, and it's just of course it takes a toll on mental health. Now I have my daughter saying, Mom, stop with the phone, or you tell me not to use the iPad, you're always on the phone. Or, Mom, I don't know this question. Can you ask Chat GPT? And that's another thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:22

We talked, well, uh we were talking, I don't remember who it was the conversation with, but we were talking to some other moms, and I remembered bringing that up about you know, because they're also in the business that they have to do content creation, they have gotta, you know, put their stuff out there because they want to plug their business. You know, that's the only way to get out to a thousand people, you know. Um, and I remember her saying it's a mindset, and it really is. You have to put a mindset and it and it struck a chord with me when she said that. She's like, I I get it. And when I talk to my partner about it because we feel the same way, it's constant, you know, we have to plug, we have to be here, we have to do this. Um, we have to kind of say we're doing this for our families. Because at the end of the day, if we look at it from a different viewpoint, and when she said that, that kind of opened up my mind. And I said, What is the difference than you going to a nine to five and giving your eight hours of your life to a company and sitting there versus giving the eight hours on the phone with your with and I think here's where the difference comes in with your phone, you travel with it everywhere, so it does become kind of like a 24-7 thing unless you're sleeping, right? And you're sleeping those eight hours. But if you want to look at it on a different angle, you could think about it as I'm creating content for my company or I'm creating content for my product or whatever it is that I'm doing, and I'm constantly on my phone, yes, but it's for the bigger purpose of creating something of, you know, maybe financial freedom for my family or creating that trip that I want to take because that's what's helping me to build my business. You know, and it sounds sometimes it feels like it's so like, I don't know, it's so shallow, but it's not shallow, but it's not because then how do companies you know, it's all how do you look at it? How do companies thrive then? Your brick and mortar stores or your, you know, people that have an actual place of business and it's not on the phone wherever they want to go, how are they doing it? They have employees and those employees are going in and they're spending and they're giving away eight hours, sometimes ten hours of their life, plus the commute and this and that to a business to build somebody else's dream. And so now it's kind of like if you look at it on a different light, you have the access to go out to millions of people, build your own thing with the touch of your phone. But are you a slave to it? Is there a mental thing to it? Yes, there is, but then there's that catch 22. What do I do? Do I just stop it altogether and continue doing and not pursue my dreams and not do the things that I want to do?

SPEAKER_01 26:43

So there's the the the Yeah, I think again, it's getting organized, and now there's so many apps, for example, for people that can post, for example, for the whole week. It's okay, this is going this day, this is going this day, this is going to be. And then you just yeah, with these platforms. Um, and then it's just being mindful of trying not to do it in front of the kids because then don't complain when they start doing the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

Um, I'm personally, personally, I'm torn with that. I'm torn with that, and I'll tell you why, because I feel like if you are somebody that wants to build something eventually, or you do have something, or you are a business owner in in in a sense, you know, you're a business owner, it doesn't ever stop. So either you become an employee to somebody else and you work those eight hours, but then you're it's it there's nothing perfect. But it has to stop. But you are sacrificing your eight hours of your time for that person to build their life because let's be honest, the owner of the business is the one that's building their dream and building themselves up for their family and their future. The employee, and I'm not bashing this because I've been an employee, is working the eight hours to build that other person's dream and you're getting your paycheck at the end. That's the the the fruit, right? Behind it. And then you go home and supposedly you forget about it, it's no longer your your company. But then you come home and then you also complain about you wish you had the opportunity for freedom. And in order for you to build freedom, you have to do it by typically setting yourself away from somebody's business and building your own thing. And that comes with the cost of day in, day out of working and day in, day out of building something that if your kids are around, unfortunately, like this mom said, and I remember she said it, she said, I look at it as like my kids are around, and yes, I am on my phone. Yes, I am taking meetings, yes, I am on social media, building, you know, content creation. But my kids, I'm doing it for the better of them for their future. And my kids will look back on it one day and say, My mom or my father or whoever, um, uh, I saw them build this day in, day out.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

But there's that being expense of quality time.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

I know, but it's like it's it's I don't think, and this is where I say when everybody says, Oh, you gotta, you know, you just gotta uh build that that balance. I don't know if there is a balance. I do believe that there is a balance. Um, your balance might not be my balance. Your thing might be, you know what, I'm gonna give 40% to this, and the 60 is going to my family. And for somebody else to be like, no, my perfect balance is giving 80% to my business, but that 10% that I give to my kid, I'm just giving numbers here, right? That 10% that I give to my kid, that 10% is gonna be full on. I mean like undivided attention where I am really giving them quality time, experiences, moments. You know what I mean? So it's all how you how you look at it.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

I can relate to that part in the sense of we rent video equipment, you know, for productions, audiovisual stuff. Um, and Fabiana's constantly we're talking about mid-90s. Constantly 11. They're picking up something, so I have to be on the phone. They're gonna call when they're at the gate, blah, blah, blah. And at times I gotta admit, it's very frustrating. But also, it helps when he also lets us know hey, Darlene, Luna, I'm on the phone because I'm talking to this client about this. Let's say we're having dinner, you know, and we try not to have the phones in the table. But if he does, there's a reason behind it, and he'll explain it to Luna. Luna's like, okay. And we've had this situation when you own your own company and you have a business, you also have to put a time limit.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

A boundary.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

A boundary. You have to say, Okay, I'm working until seven, unless you know you have to go extra, and it happens all the time. But I relate to the 10% because that 10%, Fabian, when he's with her, I mean, it's a hundred percent. Let's go play soccer, let's go swimming, help me wash the car, and they have these beautiful moments, and then when he's not, then I jump in and but yeah, it's it's it's tough, and it also again it depends if it's for work, yeah. But if you're there just like scrolling and scrolling and listening to these bullshit videos, who most of them are not even real, and you're feeding your brain with all this stuff, and not only social media, it's just the notifications from I got into one of the news notifications because my sister was always this is happening and this is happening, and I'm like, Oh, I need to get on the news app because what if something happens in Luna schools? Oh, that's gonna tell you immediately before the school does, and I'm like, okay, great. Oh my gosh. So now I wake up in the morning and the first thing I see, this kid is dead. There was a shooting, bah, I had to turn it off. No, it's not. Because I'm like, I can't wake up and this be the only thing I see. I mean, not the only thing, I'm sorry. I can't wake up and this be the first thing I see in the morning and I had to turn it off. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

Is it, is it? I just I, you know, it's it's all I guess how the way that you look at it, because if we if we go back to the thing of social media in general, from everything from content creation to watching your favorite influencer to watching what's going on, because now people don't even watch the news. Now you watch it on social media. The issue with that as well is why do we get so consumed and then putting AI into the mix, right? Because now you don't know what's real or what's not real. Everybody is getting like alterado. Everybody is getting uh one little thing, and I stopped doing that actually. One little thing that you see, it could be about politics, it could be about uh a kid that did something. All of a sudden you're you're looking at this and it it sparks these emotions in you, whether it's anger, whether it's you know, the comments that somebody said and it's it's fueling you up, and then you come to realize that what you saw wasn't real, and then you got all hyped up for no reason, and then later you find out from another source that's a more legit source that that was not true, that this influencer reported on this and said this, but this was not the accurate story, and then all of a sudden, you just it's just it's crazy. It's it's it's it's very um it's very tricky. I don't know how to how else to put it. It's it's either you have to sit down and you have to say to yourself, if I am doing content creation and I am on social media for business purposes, okay, yes, I'm gonna keep doing it because what else? What what else do I have? Let's keep moving along with it. But how do I protect my mental health while doing it and not becoming a slave to it? And I don't know if there's an answer to that because the successful people that I have seen on social media, I think they're slaves to their phones. They are slaves to their phone. Everything that they do is around that. And then you gotta pick and choose and say, I become a slave to this, with possibly the outcome being that everybody wants to be a millionaire. I'm gonna be a millionaire and I'll take care of my family. But at again, at the extent of what? You know, and I don't know. I think we in this in this particular episode, we have gone all over the place, but it's all connected. I do, I feel like we've been all over the place, but it is all connected because it's talking about an issue that's going on. Yeah, no, no, and and it's and it's and it's literally a a wheel, a hamster wheel, that it just keeps going and going. And it's either like you find the exit out, but again, at each it draws you back in for some reason. It draws you back in. Then you have to like weigh it out. Everybody's circumstances are different. Am I on social media because my business thrives on it? Because I want to do this. Yes, okay, I gotta do it. Then how do I build like the the time that I actually move away from it? Because I think you even told me about a friend that was off of social media for two years.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

She was off. I just ran into her uh not long ago, and she looks so happy. And I told her, This is the happiest I've ever seen you. And she's just she said, I gave up social media, I've been focusing on myself, I'm single. Uh, so this is one person. She's single. Darlene got no kids, huh? Darlene, and for that, she's single. I'm like, oh, that's why she's so happy. She's single. No, but I'm saying she's single because uh she could be in social media and nobody's gonna be like, Why are you in social media? She doesn't have kids that she had, they're gonna be like, Why are you social media mom? So she's single, she has the time, but she decided not to. She she gave it up and she's so happy. And she said, I'm reading a lot, I'm loving myself like I have never loved myself before. If I want to talk to a friend, I call them. Uh, it feels good when somebody wants to know how I'm doing. They'll call me because they don't find out through my post. Yeah. And she's so happy, and she made a decision to move back to her country in Hungary. And uh, she's been living out here in the States for oh my gosh, most of her life. And she's happy. She said, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna have a garden and I'm buying a house and I'm gonna be two minutes away from my family. She said, being outside of social media is just helping me be who I am, be what I want in life, not try to compare myself to other people to, but wait, this is what my friends are doing, or this is what I should be doing, and I should be married by now and I should have kids. And she said, No, you know, I gave it up and I'm just living my life how I want to live it. I'm reading my books, the books I want to read, and she's happy. She's had this calmness on her, and I go, could that be it?

SPEAKER_00 36:20

But I think, I think, do you get there? Because, for instance, the the post that I saw from uh Dara.explorer when I read the whole thing, I I it definitely touched me because I I said to myself, You and I are doing content. Eventually, you know, we love doing this, but we do have to not the social media part, not the social media part. No, it's true. We do not like the social media part. We love this of the conversations and we love connecting with other people and having them.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

I think it's beautiful. That I love if people it's like come, I'll give people my number, just WhatsApp me.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

But you but but at the end of the day, at the end of the day, this is a this is uh mama's playground podcast. So we have to put it out there. So why why would we do this and do all this if we're not gonna plug it out there? So we gotta use social media, you know, and so it's I that's where I say to each journal, and I think it's wherever you are in life. Most people that are in content creation, it's because it's their business. This is what they're doing. They're either selling a product, they're selling their lifestyle, they're coming out, they have affiliate links that they're using. It's a business. This is a business. So it depends how you look at it. And I feel like the person that can completely get themselves off of social media and just not look at it and say, I don't use it. I I've never used it, or I stopped using it five years ago, two years ago, is because maybe in their life, maybe financially too, they're doing a different type of position. They're getting, they have a different business going on that doesn't or they hire somebody to do that. Yeah, but they still gotta be on it because the person, if you're gonna have somebody posting your social media content, you're gonna wanna get in there and see what they're posting. I'm sorry, you're never not gonna say, I'm not gonna look at it.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

You get somebody to do that. You get you hire somebody that hires somebody that checks what the other one is checking what the other one is.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

And you're gonna wanna get it's just human nature. You're gonna wanna get on there and you're gonna wanna see what these people are posting. So you will you will be a slave to it no matter what. Now, the pros of it, if you have something, you know, beautiful that you want to share, like we've we've had some interesting people on on like the the the the podcast, um, you know, that are doing great work in certain things, like psychologists and this and that, and they're plugging their business. This is a new form, not new, it's been around for a while. It's a form of getting their information out there and getting their stuff out there. And there is beautiful parts of being on social media.

SPEAKER_01 38:34

For instance, of course, the World Cup. Yes, no, of course. I'm not bashing it completely. I'm just saying, you know, everybody's different. And just if you're struggling with mental health and things like that, or if you know that you can go down that route or that things affect you deeply. For me, I had to stop seeing the Venezuela footage because it would depress me. And it's not that okay, I'm not gonna see it, it's not happening. It's just seeing all these things that I feel that are, you know, unnecessary to be constantly like in your face, you know, having it all day, and then it just stays in your brain.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

Well, because I guess at the end of the day, it depends on how how you're using it. Exactly. You know, I think the algorithms to push stuff that you've been watching for. So, for instance, if you stopped in a post about Venezuela, they listen to you.

SPEAKER_01 39:22

No, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 39:22

I'm I'm I'm I'm 100%. Sometimes I'm like, how did my phone send me that? I was thinking that the other day, but I didn't like look at anything. How? And I swear to you that it's reading my mind. I'm like, oh god. But, anyways, on on the thing of Venezuela, let's say you stop, you know, you're you're scrolling through Instagram and you decide to stop on somebody's thing about the Venezuela uh, you know, tragedy. And you get on it and you start reading, and then now it sends you a thousand things about Venezuela. So now everything on your feet is about that, and it's a this constant, my God, it's just like constant like rabbit hole that you fall in, and then you have to say, Oh my god, I need to get off. This is affecting me. How do I get involved and help? But at the same time, I can't, I just it's taking a toll on me.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Look what happened to my friend. I have a lot of friends from Venezuela. Um, and so my neighbor, Stephanie, she it was a couple of weeks ago, probably a few days after it happened, actually. And I go, you know, we're gonna go to the pool. Why don't like let's meet at the pool? And she said, Oh, well, let me see. And then my husband called her husband, hey, we're gonna go to the pool. They were gonna watch the World Cup there, uh, one of the games. And then she came and she tells me at the end of the day, she goes, Thank you. Because I have been so depressed. All I do is I'm on Instagram 24-7, reading what people are. I wanna see what's happening in you know the mercado que yo iba. I wanna see what I wanna see what's going on. So now every time I open my phone, it's all that, that, that. But now you got us out of the house. Thank you, darling. Thank you for getting me out of the house because uh we're having such a wonderful time, the kids are happy, we haven't checked our phone in hours, and that's what we need sometimes, just to turn it off and just go.

SPEAKER_00 41:12

In every sense of the way, just disconnect from it. Whether you're doing it, yeah, the content creation, whether you're just scrolling through social media, whether I don't know, however it is that you're using it, sometimes it's true. You have to look at yourself, and I think a lot of people go through this where they say, Okay, that's it. I am gonna be two weeks off, and that's mostly people that do not use it for business purposes. I'm gonna I have to get off of this because and clean your feed. Yeah, and and clean your feet. But I don't know how do you clean your feed?

SPEAKER_01 41:37

Because you can always go and you'll see the people that are following you. Obviously, this is not gonna happen if you have thousands and thousands. Yeah, although there might be an AI app that will do that for you. But just if you were able, just start cleaning it. We were working at an event with some law enforcement agents, it was some awards, and I was talking to this woman, I think I told you about this before, and she's um she's the big guns, like they say, and she's the one she has caught uh she works with child pornography and all that, and she has caught a lot of the really bad guys. And I stopped her and I said, I have a seven-year-old daughter, and I have a question for you. How do I keep her safe? Uh, if uh, can I post? Should I not be posting anything? And she said, Don't post, obviously, of her, you know, in her you know, two piece making suit. So now the other day I posted something and I completely cropped her. It was like just here. I'm like, from here down, nothing. And she said it's okay to post, but that even if it's a two-week old baby, don't post anything that it's where the baby's naked. And then she said, clean your feet, make it private. So now I made my private. We have mama's playground, it's public, but now my personal one is private. Now I see who's checking out my things. Uh, although you know, the internet has a way of anybody can see anything, I guess. But the most we can do right now is clean our feet and who's following you, who's commenting, who's liking. If it's somebody that you really don't know, that you don't feel comfortable, pafuera. When you log in, make it mindful. Mindful connections. Who are you writing to? Are you catching up with an old friend? Are you congratulating them on the picture they just posted of anything that happened or whatever? But don't like, don't just do the whole scrolling, and that's when all the bullshit comes into your life.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

No, it's uh it's it's so social media has many different angles. And I think we've touched every single angle. Every single angle. Every single angle, which is is it sucking us in? The mental health, yes. Is there safety precautions you gotta take? Yes. I mean, especially with small kids and just even us putting pictures. Sometimes you wonder like, will somebody take a picture and now put it somewhere else and use AI to do? Yes. Uh is it is it is it a rabbit hole that seems like you can't get out of your Yes. Is there positive things to it? Yes. I mean, it's just like there's so much. It's very overwhelming. And I think that's that's what it comes down to. Is it social media is taking a toll on our on everybody's mental health? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And there's many different angles to look at it. It's not just like the content creator. It's not just like the the person that's scrolling through it. It's everything. It's now, it's news 24-7. It's posting 24-7 because you need to get out there. It is, it's it's a lot. It's a lot. And again, we touched every single angle to it. And it's the last question is is it taking a toll on your mental health? Have you sat there before and said, Am I, am I feeling off lately? Or is there something that I'm doing more of that maybe I did, and sometimes you don't even realize that what you're doing more of is this. You're on your phone going, Ah, okay, look at this. And did you see? And and then you're just constantly on it and you don't realize it. And then your phone will send you a thing. You have been this week 12 hours per day on your phone. And you say, 12 hours? Eight hours of those.

SPEAKER_01 45:03

How much money did I make? Wait, it's still the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:06

So what the heck was I doing for 12 years old? I mean, but you've been on, you know, not maybe just social media, but you've just been on your phone all day. And a lot of that goes down to when you go, Oh, I was on Instagram for an hour today. Like, what was I doing? I can't even remember.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

I can't even remember. I think my time on, let's say I go on Instagram, I'll probably be there daily, uh less than five minutes. I haven't I haven't checked.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

I know I spend a lot of time on my phone because I work with my phone. So it is, I mean it is what it is, but you know, but with the social media, I would say probably I spend a good at nighttime when I can't sleep, a good 30 minutes. And then Facebook, actually, something about Facebook, that page, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 45:51

I I what I like the most about Facebook, everything for me seems more real when I go on my feed and I see my friends because it's it's it's people that I know too. Uh I don't get as many ads, I don't think so. But the one thing that's depressing on Facebook is as much as I love seeing my friends, this is where I always find out somebody died, somebody sick. So, and I don't know. I always get also again depressed. But then I tell my friends, I didn't know that this happened to you. I posted it on Facebook. I'm like, okay, I gotta go on Facebook to see what's happening to my friends. But yeah, it happened a few times that I would go in and it was like five deaths in a row. And I said, Okay, now I'm depressed again.

SPEAKER_00 46:35

I'm like, nah. It's a it's a constant social media, is your is a well again, it's been for forever already. I don't know, since when social media started. I can't even tell you, but I think it's a Since we got the iPhones, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 46:47

I don't even know. This has been years. I blame everything on Steve Jobs, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

It's been years of this. So we're just getting even more and more consumed, but it has been constant news source. It's a 24-7 news source. And it's not just worse. And it's not just 24-7 news source of what are your the businesses that you follow doing. It's also what your influences are influencers are doing. It's what's happening in the world. It's what don't even get me started on, and I don't want to go down that rabbit hole right now. But down threads. Threads is another thing that I don't use. And then I got down on threads and I just looked at it one day and everybody was fighting. And then I said I got consumed in what everybody was commenting.

SPEAKER_01 47:24

I didn't I don't I don't use threads.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

I I don't know how I did it. I got on one day and I said, Oh, it says mama's playground is oh, you have a threads. And I was like, I'm gonna ask Darlene if she started the threads. No, threads. I'm kidding. Threads, threads, which is the other thing. And I said, Oh, all your friends are on threads. And I was like, Oh my god, just another thing to even think about that you have to be on. How how much more of it, you know? And I said, Okay, no, breathe, take it in, and it's a day-by-day thing. And again, if you're using social media for business, I completely understand. Plug your stuff, do your stuff. It is what it is. I'd rather be doing that than working for somebody else uh 24-7, you know, and and make you know it, it's it's all how you use it and all how you how you look at it. I guess that's that's what I want to end with. It's all how you look at it and and and it's how you use it, and it's how you use it. Balance it, balance it. However, whatever that balance is for you. For some, it might be I am working literally 20 hours a week because I want to build this brand and I'm doing it through social media. And it is it's the toll that I'm gonna take on myself, but I have this goal in mind of where I'm gonna go with this, and in a year, like this, Dara.explorer said, I'm gonna give it one year. And she took off with it and she was doing good. But her whole thing was after the year, it went great. I'm doing phenomenal, but it's asking more and more and more of me, and it's pushing me more and more and more away from my family. So at the end of the day, it's what are you willing to risk or what are you willing to give up for this this yeah, this thing that we're doing, like this social media that is gonna continue.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

Those moms and dads out there, just be conscious of you know, whatever you have to do, you gotta do it. But just be conscious that there's little kids uh watching you, and when they become teenagers and they start doing the thing and they start comparing themselves to others, and they start doing the same thing that it might be happening to you, then you know, know that that it comes from what you're doing today. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:24

I'm gonna put it out there again. We're doing content creation, so we're talking about this and we're and and we're going through it. I love it. I I love, but what I love about it is again the community that we are start building through mama's playground, you know, connecting with other moms, connecting with other people, real stories. I think that's the beautiful part behind the social media.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

And we want to hear from you. Yeah, we love that. We again, and the plan is eventually to have some events out here locally in South Florida where we can meet some of you, and I'm excited for that. I'm I'm all about, you know, the face-to-face, face-to-face, all that. So it would be nice all these relationships that we can start building through our be it Instagram or email or or TikTok or all of those, and the ones that are gonna keep coming.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

And we we have some new things in in in in the works, which I'm excited about. Well, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say it because on Twitter it's actually out.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

But we're coming out to you guys, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

Yeah, I'm excited.

SPEAKER_01 50:28

All right, well, thank you guys for tuning in. And next week we have a really, really special episode with two beautiful women who have an amazing story.

SPEAKER_00 50:38

Yeah, stay tuned because it's gonna be awesome. That one's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 50:41

Yes, bye guys, bye.