In this episode, Kaitlin Narciso discusses her journey from journalism to content creation, the evolution of Streets of Toronto, and navigating the shift from traditional to digital media. The conversation also covers creator anxiety, content organization, and the intersection of journalism and content \creation. The future of Toronto, its comparison to other cities, and the impact of changing business landscapes are explored. Lastly, Kaitlin introduces Drop Creative Agency and her series "My Niagara".

Key Points

- Kaitlin, the guest on the podcast, emphasizes the importance of having a clear outline when telling a story, as it helps in maintaining the core message amidst an abundance of content.

- Streets of Toronto, where Kaitlin works, is focusing on community engagement through events and has plans to launch their own beer in collaboration with a brewery and host a dumpling festival.

- Kaitlin discusses the blurred lines between content creation and journalism, noting that individuals on platforms like TikTok who are dedicated to sharing news and facts can be considered journalists in their own right.

Chapters

0:00 Introduction of Kaitlin Narciso and discussion on her transition from journalism to content creation

6:27 Balancing emotional and superficial content and the growth of Streets of Toronto

16:30 Transition from traditional to digital media revenue streams and Instagram monetization

24:19 Dealing with creator anxiety, organizing content, and tools for content editing

29:04 The blurred line between content creation and journalism, and the role of traditional journalism

35:09 Future plans for Toronto and its growth over the last decade

41:52 Comparing Toronto to other cities and the convenience of its facilities

45:32 Impact of disappearing businesses on routines and fast food preferences

51:20 Introduction to Drop Creative Agency and hosting "My Niagara" series

Nelson B. Thall 0:00

Kaitlyn, welcome to, cast of creators.

Kaitlin Narciso 0:01

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

Nelson B. Thall 0:04

It's incredible that you're here, Casey and I are a big fan of storytellers, and you're a great story Thank

Kaitlin Narciso 0:09

you. It is probably the thing I pride myself on the most.

Casie Stewart 0:12

You're very good at it. Thank you.

Nelson B. Thall 0:15

When did you realize you love to tell a good story?

Kaitlin Narciso 0:17

When I was a child? Honestly, I think, like, I was born, always loving movies, and entertainment, and Thall always wanted to be a part of that in some way, and it kind of just ended up following on my life journey that I was going to be a storyteller in some capacity.

Nelson B. Thall 0:38

And so as technology has evolved, that capacity changes.

Casie Stewart 0:43

Yeah.

Nelson B. Thall 0:44

So walk me through, you know, what was that first concept around ultimately turning the love for storytelling into a career and how that's changed?

Kaitlin Narciso 0:55

I think it it's so funny because when I was growing up, I may not look it, but it was a long time ago. So the TikTok, the Instagram, YouTube even wasn't necessarily something that was prevalent. So when I first decided that I wanted to study journalism, It was one of those things that it was really only TV or print. And so I decided to kind of do both. I was lucky enough that when I was applying for universities, the idea of, like, multi platform journalism was starting to come to fruition.

So were getting more, like, digital articles. So it wasn't just print, and it wasn't just, like, TV journalism. And it was a little bit of everything. So that's why I decided to start studying there. But it honestly wasn't until I was working at CTV Bell Media that I decided I wanted to go fully into the content creation sphere because I just realized I was like, oh, there's not a lot of multimedia journalism actually happening here.

And I feel like that's the next thing. And so I made the jump.

Nelson B. Thall 2:02

So as a journalist going through school, were you thinking about on air, like B. in front of the camera, or were you thinking about you being a Esther, like, what was what were you thinking you'd be doing?

Kaitlin Narciso 2:14

Honestly, everything. I think my dream was always to do, like, a little bit of everything. I never I I could see myself in front of the camera, but I could also see myself writing started actually writing for a lot more magazines than I was doing anything in front of the camera, and it wasn't until I was doing more travel journalism and taking beautiful content for those pieces that I started mini vlogs just for my own, like, friends and family, And then it all honestly just, like, merged together and ended up being something that I could create a life out of.

Nelson B. Thall 2:48

Yeah. Very cool.

Casie Stewart 2:49

Like, it's so wild that it's, like, in order to access the audience audience and create content, it was like everything was only, like, push from TV or, like, you know, even, like, billboards, I don't know, anything radio. But now it's, like, your access to people people is so much it's so much bigger. And that's, like, one of the things I loved about content. When I first started my blog a 100 years ago, I was like, oh my god. Like, I can published to the internet.

Like, and it was the time I was like, for free, and I can reach out to people because I wanted to be a Esther. And it's like writing a book is like a big feat, you know, and it's like, I would have to have a publisher or self publish, but then, you know, just that, like, social media and Esther has just, like, given everyone so much access to, you know, creating content and connecting with people.

Kaitlin Narciso 3:32

Mhmm. And I think, like, that's the beautiful thing about, digital media. And There is such a capacity to reach a large audience, even with something that you publish that you don't think is gonna go anywhere, Like, there's that ability to go viral with a random piece of content that maybe you didn't even put your heart and soul into. And a lot of the times, sometimes that's the piece that ends up reaching the largest amount of people, which is also kind of sad because sometimes you can put your heart and soul into something. And then all of a sudden, it did not reach the amount of people that you wanted it to reach, it can be a truly, truly heartbreaking.

Casie Stewart 4:11

Have you had any is anything stand out of a piece content that that happened. Like, something you just, like, threw up willy nilly. You're like, I'm just gonna put this out.

Kaitlin Narciso 4:19

Oh, my my first viral TikTok, I it's this the most random real that I had used so much content from this one beautiful place in Tulum, called Umai. And Thall it was the end of the year. I was in Germany. I couldn't sleep because of the jet lag, and it must have been like 1 AM there. And I hear this audio.

How is that even possible?

Casie Stewart 5:05

Did you find after that? I don't I've had a couple, not, like, millions, but, like, you okay. So that you have one piece of content. You wake up. It's got millions of views.

Did you find that you got a lot of new fans, followers, people after that?

Kaitlin Narciso 5:18

Yeah. Well, so I think Thall always like to see it as kind of a wave. Yeah. Yeah. You don't always like, catch the wave necessarily for very long, but there's always that initial little flow of it.

So it's nice because the more content you put out after peace goes viral, which can also be really intimidating because you're like, I just wanted to stay at the top of my page for ever. I don't want this to ever drown out in the feed. But that's actually due to service. It's better to actually be publishing content right after something goes viral. Because then it may reach more and more people and still kind of what wait.

I'm gonna hit this so often I'm so sorry. I'm like, I'm such a hand talker.

Casie Stewart 6:03

I'm wrong. Me too. I'm like, just, Dora.

Kaitlin Narciso 6:06

No. But, Yeah. So I think it's, like, it's it's that way of, right, you might, be able to kind of ride it and gain even more followers in a lot of ways. But you may not actually catch it very long, and it it may just quite literally be that one piece of content that did well, and and you don't get any followers from it.

Nelson B. Thall 6:27

How do you balance storytelling about things that are really emotional and impactful to you versus you know, more superficial fun stuff because, like, you wanna tell stories, but how do you manage your time when it comes to where you put your focus?

Kaitlin Narciso 6:50

I think that, it's such a hard Push and pull because, yeah, there's there's a part of you that always knows, like, those pieces that mean so much to you, but then there's pieces that you need to do, whether it's a paid collaboration or just something that you know would be a interest to the audience. And For me, I'm lucky enough to work as the executive of video production and social media 4 streets of Toronto. And so I get to have a lot of that cross because with streets of Toronto, I can tell a lot of stories about businesses that mean something to me while also meaning something to the audience. But Casie I can I lie and say that every single piece that I do for streets of Toronto is like, my soul and passion is going into it? No.

That's not the reality of the business, reality of the businesses, even for journalism as a writer or a journalism as a TV Esther, you're always going to need to find a balance between reporting on things that just need to be reported and telling stories that are personal to you. And I think A lot of creators do a good job of finding that balance, after years of practice.

Casie Stewart 8:13

Yeah. Takes time.

Kaitlin Narciso 8:14

Yeah.

Nelson B. Thall 8:14

How did streets of Toronto start?

Kaitlin Narciso 8:17

So streets of Toronto actually started with a friend of mine, Rob, And he started the platform many, many, many moons ago. It was pretty much just photos at the time of the streets of Toronto. And Postity magazines ended up buying the platform for Rob. I was actually only supposed to stay for, like, a few months and transition the post city team to learn to do social media. But the owner, Lauren, and I had this, like, respect for each other.

We really admired what we were both doing. And I think he put a lot of trust into me, and I put a lot of trust into him to believe in me. And together, I I honestly decided to stay because of him for a lot of reasons and because I saw the platform grow from a smaller platform, and we just reached half a 1,000,000 followers, like, last week. That's so much. It was, like, a huge milestone for us were so excited.

Casie Stewart 9:22

You know, like, the balloon. The, you know, when people hit a milestone, it's common on social media and they get the number balloons.

Kaitlin Narciso 9:27

We should have but we instead got a cookie truck from Craig's cookies.

Casie Stewart 9:32

Oh, that's

Kaitlin Narciso 9:32

a good one. 500 free Craig's cookies and milk. Oh, that's amazing. So we went to, like, we parked outside of TMU and, like, had a bunch of our creators and just team in, like, our streets of Toronto hoodies and

Casie Stewart 9:45

It's a good idea. Excited.

Kaitlin Narciso 9:47

Yeah. And it was exam season too, which I didn't know until the week before. And I feel like just, like, the students were super happy people just walking down the streets were super happy. And it I felt like it was a good way to give back because we've worked so hard to, yes, tell stories and make a business out of this, but we would be nowhere without, like, our audience and the engagement that they they give us.

When, when post media post a city bought streets of Toronto, how many followers were on that Instagram?

Lauren and I go back and forth because I truly can't really remember. I wanna say it was, like, at at, like, a 100 k, maybe a 120 something. It could be more. It could be less. I I honestly, at this point, it all kind of just blurs in my mind because, honestly, I wasn't expecting to stay with streets of Toronto 3 or some years later.

Yeah. Mhmm. Cool.

Are you from Toronto?

I am. Yes. Grew up at Young and Eglinton.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

What about you guys?

Bathurst and Eglinton.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Not me. I grew up in Cambridge, Ontario.

Oh, Cambridge is beautiful. Yeah. So I was there, and then I lived in Australia for school and then came back. That's lovely. Yeah.

What do you think are young and negligent these days?

Now that there's less construction

Is it still going how they found it? It's fine

if they kind of hit a milestone recently, it seems.

It was, like, And the amount of videos that I probably posted on streets of Toronto of this because the intersection was clear for the first time. Like, that like, that iconic young and eglinton intersection. And when there was no, like, cranes or something, I was like,

what is this? What is this beautiful spot?

There's still a lot of construction because there's a lot of condos going up our apartments. But, now I feel like the neighborhood can once again thrive. Because anyone that knows young in Eglinton for a while there, duck in it.

While as in, like, how many years a second? I feel like that's, like, the real Toronto ongoing joke is, like, when even when something, like, young and like, construction at young and eglinton gets compared to other things that have lasted, like, on 2 years. You know? It's like

But it's so true. It's like, why? Why so long? Even I'm so scared to know about the construction downtown, like, with the 2, this 2 streets running parallel. I'm like, This is gonna be insane for the next 10 years.

Yeah. I don't have to fortunately, I don't drive downtown that much anymore, which is great. Rather around. Yeah. You go around.

No.

Do you live downtown? No. I I still live in the area I grew up. I downtown's intimidating to me. I don't know if I could devote every hour of every day down there.

Scares me.

Yep. When you see

downtown, you mean even self here. Right? Yeah.

I'm like, this is downtown.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I literally Thall, Casie, and I'm like, Where am I going to this podcast? That's okay. We got you.

So have you tried is that LRT open yet?

I drive

You'll have to take it. Everywhere.

I do. Yeah. I I have to take a walk. Yeah.

You'll have to do it First Stewart to Toronto.

Yeah. Honestly, I

I probably should have by now.

I don't even know if it's open.

I don't know either. It must be in,

like, the trial stages for sure, but, I don't know. I'm not sure either. With Toronto Transit anymore?

Totally. So right now, streets of Toronto is, Instagram, but platforms that it on.

So streets of Toronto is on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook.

And a website.

Our Facebook is impacted by C18. Yep. Yeah. Unfortunately, we do not have a Facebook platform right now and then digital site. Then the Postity magazines, which is the pairing company of streets of Toronto has our print magazines.

Okay. And then when you publish walk me through a bit of that publishing process. You're publishing to your site and then social simultaneously. Like, how does that work?

So we kind of separated the website and our Instagram in a lot of ways because of CA team.

Mhmm.

Unfortunately, at the beginning, we were blocked as a news outlet and completely reinvisioned our brand strategy. Even even back then, I don't think we were ever really considered news when we finally were able to speak to someone at Meta. They very much aligned with us, and so we were able to get our platform back. Thank goodness.

Yeah.

But so in a lot of ways, we we separated the 2, some of the content will live a little bit on both. Like, we'll take inspiration from B., like, some the top restaurants that we've wrote about and then do a corresponding piece that lives on our Instagram. But in terms of cross promotion right now, because of the realities of everything that's happening with C18, we we have kind of put a pause on that multimedia approach.

Okay. So do you use, a Lincoln bio on your Instagram to drive back to the site, or how do you integrate the 2?

We have 1, but it can't link back to the site because our Stewart of Toronto.com is considered

news. Right?

Nelson. And so if you were to stick it, it would be like people in Canada Casie be this. Lessons.

It's really frustrating.

Oh, that's interesting.

Yeah.

So they've separated. They've they'll still deem your site news. But they don't deem your Instagram content news.

Yeah. I think there's also a difference between and once again, I I don't necessarily know how they classified

what's news and what's not.

Honestly, and fair. And to be to be honest, I don't even think the government nor Meta necessarily know where that line is, like, because it's such a gray area.

Yeah. I know. They don't know either.

Everything. Right? Like, technically, anything I say, like, me going on this podcast could be construed as news. But also a celebrity is, like, eating a burger at a Canada fast food joint, and we post real technically, That could be construed as news. So it's it's it's all in.

We're very careful about what we post. But in the same breath, it's like if we really just lived every single moment of our lives being like, what's news? What's not? I think it's we would never know.

Yeah. You wouldn't know. It's total sheet of gray. And something that isn't news today can be news tomorrow.

100%.

So it's tough to deal with. Yeah.

Yeah.

So traditionally, back when you're Stewart. Primary source of revenue is print ads and ads on a TV.

Yeah.

Right? Those two avenues. So that's changed quite considerably. How much of your revenue? Do you have to rely on affiliate?

How much of your revenue do you have to rely on sponsored content? Like, what are now the core pillars of a, you know, a digital media company's revenue streams.

So for streets of Toronto And Post City, I think In a lot of ways, they're they're separate companies. And, of course, like Stewart of Toronto rely as heavily on our Instagram sponsored content. Whereas the magazines rely heavily on print ads. Yeah. I think I couldn't necessarily say what the divide is just because I am, 1, not good with numbers and, 2, don't pay attention to them because I am on the creative side.

I, to me, I Thall own my own business outside of streets of Toronto, streets of Toronto is technically one of my clients. But to me, I'm like, so long as I'm putting out good content that drives our brand and our branding, that can eventually help us to get sponsorships and paid spots and all of that, then I'm doing my job. And that's what I'm concerned with.

Will you work on a paid spot?

Yes. Yeah.

Okay. So a so a big part of the Instagram monetization is sponsored content. Yes. Okay.

I I would say probably most of our our paid spots on IG to fall into reels that are organically created by the team of creators that I I I manage.

Cool.

Okay. And a brand, a a Toronto business most of the time is your is your Esther? Is your client?

You'd be surprised. Yes. But Thall, no. I've done some very successful campaigns with Discover Los Angeles. Turo, which which branches

I saw that you just had had that trip with turo. They're great.

They're honestly amazing. They're such a great company, and it's really cool their business model and how they've really, like, built up their own platform. And so we've done a few things with them and look forward to doing more with them because, first of all, I love their team, their team. Like, shout out to their team. Their team is some of the best in the biz.

But They're also really good at allowing you to run with what you think the audience is going to resonate with.

That's a good topic. Like, how I mean, I've been a a content creator for a long time, but, like, speaking of yourself, like, how do you what's if for someone who's maybe wants to get into being a content creator or is, is now, like, what's how's what's a way that you kind of combine making things your own style of content versus the brand wanting to get in the key messages because I think that's something that people deal with all the time. You know, I've seen different things where I'll see, like, ten people and their copy is all the same. And I'm

like, god,

you guys should have fought back. So, like, How do you deal with a brand wanting you to say a specific message, but you wanting to create something that's unique?

I think a lot of the times, it it goes back to the first point of contact when you are doing a sale. Like, I always say When you're working with streets of Toronto, you're working with our brand for a reason. We've put countless hours into creating our brand and and finding content that resonates with our audience. So leverage that. Like, if if you're a business, leverage our expertise because that's what you're buying into.

You're buying into our brand.

And unique voice.

Yeah. Exactly. And so I think whenever I speak with any businesses that are interested in doing paid content. I do always stress that. I do say, like, typically when I'm asking for their key messaging, I Casie for one key message that is, like, their main goal.

Like, if they could only say one thing in the entire video, what would that B.? And then 2 secondary key messages. That I can try and incorporate in some way. But when it comes to the actual, like, bigger picture of it all, if they push back, then sometimes my hands are tied. And I'll do what they want, but A lot of the times, brands are willing to listen when you just have a when you speak up and and you defend your own voice and you do say, like, This is our brand.

This is what I think will work, and these are kind of the different pieces that can kind of prove my point.

Is that the same for your own content. Definitely. I think if someone's hiring you, I was like, you're hiring me. You know? And I'm like, this is what you get.

Yeah. Like, I think that's a But the buddy thing too, it's like, I think sometimes people get so scared when they're especially a new creator Yeah. That they're worried that a brand's just gonna be like, oh, well, could I don't wanna work with you then. If a brand doesn't want to work with you when you express your own voice, is that piece of content going to do anyone a service? I don't think it's going to resonate one with your audience, so it's not gonna do the brand of service, for sure.

It's not gonna resonate with you. You're not gonna feel good about it. You're not gonna want to promote it more. Most of the brands that I work with, especially on my personal ones, are ones that I truly love. And so even though I have a set of deliverables, Because I'm so invested in them as a brand, and I've loved working with them.

Yeah.

I'm truly, like, I'm posting more stories. I'm posting more things because There's someone I actually love to work with, and there's something I believe in. And I think sometimes, yes, maybe you do need the money and you do need to sell your, like, sell your image for money. But in the same breath, when you reach a point, that you're able to kind of look at the bigger picture, I think it will go a lot further for you as a creator than if you just say yes to everything.

Oh, yeah. You don't wanna say yes to everything. That's not cute. Yeah. It's not cute.

A wellness creator Does a spot with McDonald's. Yeah. Like, hey.

Do you

know what I mean?

Yeah. Absolutely.

We've all seen it.

You know?

We Casie talk about it after. Yeah.

We've got lots of examples of that happening.

What are some keys to telling a great story?

So I always equate it back to do you remember when you were elementary school or, like, those early grades, and you were actually in the first stages of writing a Esther. And your teacher made you have a blank piece of paper and write out that outline. Mhmm. Whenever I am telling a story, I always go back to that outline because if you don't know your own story or know the message you want to tell, there's not necessarily going to be a Nelson for the content that you're producing. And as soon as you have that outline and you know kind of what's important to your story, It doesn't matter if there's no words actually written out or or, no direct, like, scripting or anything.

Visuals can tell your story. Your voice can tell your story. So many different things can can tell Esther story in a beautiful picture. Rather than kinda just throwing things and seeing if they stick.

Yeah. I love an outline. Thall always make

a creative little outline for things.

I find those. Like, it Thall also helps. Like, if you're creating content, you know, you have to do something. Find if I don't have an outline, even, like, I'm are you going to a conference? You know, you're doing something to just have, like, a a a light loose outline really helps alleviate creator anxiety.

I find because sometimes you're like, Like, you can get really stressed out. And, like, if planning out the content that you wanna create, just even loosely, really helps make you not feel stressed.

Yeah. And I think sometimes too, we capture so much content as creators that it's very easy to lose your own messaging when you have, let's say, like, 60 minutes of footage for a less than 1 minute piece. And so going back to that outline and going back to being like, oh, well, this doesn't even like, this might be a beautiful, like, set of images or or B. rule, but this doesn't actually fit into the story I'm trying to tell. So B.

I'll use it later for something else, but this doesn't fit into my piece. And Yeah. Yeah. Gotta just get rid of it.

Save it for later. You never know when it might come back. There's always a throwback. There's always something.

Actually, notice to, like, any creator, if you are doing a like a paid spot, do not delete your content for at least a year because the amount of times I've had brands come back to me and Casie to either recut something for an additional fee or to, rebuy the video back and and publish it months Esther, or even just, like, ask if I had additional events that they could use for marketing materials, countless. So and that was a big mistake that I used to do because footage. Yeah. It takes up a lot

of space.

Gosh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

That's a good tip. So when, like, Do you have any do you edit a lot of things? Like, do you edit on your phone? Do you edit on your computer? What are some of the tools?

Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.

Like, I I edit on my iPad. I literally carry it everywhere with me. My phone, my MacBook. I truly believe that not every amazing piece of content needs to be done on a MacBook. Right.

But I also believe that the heavier footage that are maybe paid spots that that B. a more intense storytelling benefit a lot from doing it on, like, a MacBook sitting at a table and really like looking at the different layers, looking at the different audio and being able to pull up multiple streams. So I'm a big fan of both, but sometimes when you're just doing something that is is quick and dirty. Like, you can do it on your phone. The amount of creators that I've kind of taught and and worked with, especially some of our, like, TMU creators, I've just been like, yeah.

Edit on

the subway. Edit when you're just sitting at the kitchen table. Any, favorite app recos for anyone listening for someone who's editing editing on the go?

Casie Cut for sure. I think Cap Cut is is my favorite now. I used to be a huge fan of splice.

Yeah.

I don't use it so much anymore, but I I I still don't mind it. And, learning to color grade I think is very, very important to people. And I think it's something that people don't always think of because the difference in the way that color can actually make something look go from looking maybe a little bit cheaper to something a little bit more high end and expensive. Yeah.

Yeah. For sure. Makes sense. I learned that from Sean. He's, like, my boyfriend has a pro post production studio.

So, like, there's the color color the edit sweet and color. Someone comes into color things, and it's like, it something goes from, like, I was in an airplane commercial, and it's like, okay. It looks like it's a commercial. And then someone comes into color grade it, and it's like, Oh, shit. That looks good.

Yeah. It's like it looks at freemium.

It's crazy. And once again, this go this goes to, like, I have a true love of the actual production side of media. Like, I love seeing the way that things are created. I love directing. I love producing.

I love each element, but the really, like, niche, like, the audio team, the the coloring team, and all of that, I am mad respect for because It is a profession that takes a lot to learn, and it's a skill that's often just forgot about.

Yeah. I I I love that aspect of it too.

Mhmm.

It's easier today than ever too.

Yeah. There's some Thall great filters.

If you if

you yeah. Thank you. But some of the strong fundamentals. For laughing. Internet for filter con accessible.

Yeah. I think that's but that's the beautiful thing about content nowadays. Like, it's really attainable for everyone now. And in the beautiful thing about media is that there's room for everyone. Because if you look at TikTok, if you look at Book Talk, Food Talk, all of the different things.

Like, there's space. Like, it's I think sometimes a lot of people get intimidated when there are so many different faces, but That's not necessarily a bad thing. Like, it it's it's good that we are able to be ourselves authentically in a lot of ways. And and There's room for

everyone on the internet. There's enough there's enough space. Like, you know, like, Meryl Streep doesn't, like, always like, Merrill Streep doesn't worry about a new new young actor. She's freaking Meryl Streep. Yeah.

You know, it's like there's there's no there's always some new thing, but, you know, there there's room for everyone.

Yeah. Where do you think that content creation ends in journalism begins?

It's a line that is getting more and more and more blurred each and every day. I think you see that with, like, entertainment TikTokers. I don't know if, like, I Thall always bring him up actually in conversation because I'm such a huge fan of his, but, news daddy who does, like, like, every day he posts, like, 5 different mini newscasts on, like, individual things. Who's to say he's not a journalist? Like, I have people that are saying that that's not real journalism.

Why? Why wouldn't that be true journalism? Like, the reality of the real journalism or I don't wanna say real journalism, but the reality of

Traditional.

Traditional. Thank you. Traditional journalism. Is a lot of companies had to get rid of their fact checking departments, which marked a huge change in the industry. And without that, Esther you have producers and you have scriptwriters and you have all of this and you have a bigger team that's able to to tell a Esther, but why can't

a singular person want to

be or be a journalist On TikTok. Like, I'm not saying that necessarily believe everything you hear on TikTok. Yeah. But don't believe everything you hear on the mainstream media either.

Yeah. Well, the thing is there's been a bit of a democratization of act access to facts or you

know Mhmm.

Facts. Right? So it's, you know, somebody can do a pretty good job at fact checking

Mhmm.

Just with access to the internet. Yeah. What additional capabilities does a traditional must have to access fax.

It's it's funny. So I will say this. I am so lucky to have the post city team at my back because anytime I'm unsure about anything, I also Thall, yeah, I do my own research for sure, but I always message Lauren, the the founder. And we he'll message, like, the editor as Nelson, and we'll kind of, like, all go back and forth, until we we figure out what is fact or at least the most current information on something But who's to say that these TikTok journalists aren't doing that in their own way? Exactly.

And exactly. They have an inside source. 100%. So it's like, I think there is such a gray area, and I'm not saying once again to be like, only get your news on on TikTok or only get your news on Instagram, but definitely, don't discredit someone for doing what they what they want to do and and what they have a passion in because You never know what they're doing behind the scenes, and you don't see all of the hard work that they're doing. And you gotta get credit where credit is due, and sometimes these people are working really, really hard to be a real journalist And why can't they be?

Right. In order to be a real journalist, you'd expect that person to, be correct more than not.

Yes.

Wouldn't you?

Yes. Thall Nelson if you're watching someone that's just continuously not correct on stuff, that kinda goes more to say about what you're consuming than what the person is doing because maybe their whole page is satire, like the onion.

Right. But there isn't really an official rometer on sources whether they're correct over time or incorrect over time either. So you can toss on a network and you don't really have an idea of what what you're dealing with over there.

It's it's very true. And I think that's I think that's also the struggle with journalism as an industry in general because With a lot of things also, we do see that over time things get disproven and reproven and then disproven again. And It's just the reality of the industry.

Wild world. Totally.

It's a wild, wild world.

One of the missions that we have at our our browser hover

Mhmm.

Which you know a little bit about Yeah. Is to really empower people. You know, hovers a browser where sites are social. What we've done is we've brought Thall of the best features of social media and blended it with the web to empower people at, their site in a more profound way because it's very difficult to monetize the one digital asset that you own Mhmm. Which is your site.

Yeah.

And it's the it's the space that has the least capabilities.

Mhmm.

So, you know, part of the you know, the grievance of the journalist is of, a grievance we share intimately. And trying to solve. But, yeah, that's really interesting. So, what's next for Stewart at Toronto?

1,000,000, baby. No.

Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Hopefully soon. I think it once you hit that point, it starts to grow quite a bit faster once you hit that half a1000000.

That's the hope. I I mean, we have a lot of really fun things coming up. We wanna Esther doing the cookie truck too, we really realized, like, we want to do more and more with the the community we want to be on the streets of Toronto. Yeah. So we have things come up, like, we're gonna launch our own beer in in tandem with a brewery.

We're going to do B. a dumpling festival. We're going to do things that actually get us on the streets of Toronto and meeting our audience because, like I said, we would be nowhere without our audience in to get to experience things with them and do things for them as well, I think is is a big thing for us. And then just continue to hustle with regard to, like, the content and and showcase really cool, unique, Toronto brands. And even not unique Toronto brands, just all of Toronto because Toronto's stuff.

Like, any, like, it's we're coming up to, like, spring Nelson are changing.

Stuff starts happening. Like, anything you can that stands out of, like, things that people should keep an eye out for in the spring. Summer, stuff to do.

Oh, so many things. I so I am the host of our Great Escape series. So I do a lot of different great escapes all throughout Ontario largely, but sometimes Canada that are easily accessible from Toronto, And so anything from road trips to, like, Park Omega in Montebello, which is, like, pretty much like our sleeping amongst wolves, and it's the coolest thing ever to anything from stargazing domes and and things like that. We try and find the most, like, bucket list worthy experiences. That are easily accessible from Toronto.

So, like, follow along if you if you want the inside scoop on any of that because That's a passion of mine. So I love telling those stories.

Very nice. I guess over the last decade, you've been pretty impressed with what Toronto has become.

Yeah. I how can you not be?

Mhmm.

Toronto honestly is being more and more and more put on the map in such a positive way. I know, of course, like, there's the negatives. Like, I'm not oblivious to some of the things that people critique, like, the increase in living expenses, maybe sometimes the violence. But all in all, like the amount of how how multicultural. The businesses are how how much, we're known as a community for our kindness.

Canada in general. And even, like, getting big DJs or artists coming to Toronto more and more. I think it's super, super impressive to see the trajectory of Toronto. And even when I'm traveling abroad, A lot of times when I say I I'm from Canada or from Toronto

People are like, oh, I've always wanted to go or, oh, I just came back. Toronto's actually so who

I wasn't expecting it. It's it's like this, that, and everything. And I'm like, I I know. I, like, I love Toronto. And I didn't always.

Growing up, I I I kind of was like, oh, like, Toronto's overrated. Like, I don't wanna I don't wanna be here. And then one day, I think The more you travel

Yeah. Totally.

The more you learn to appreciate Toronto and and Canada in general.

It's pretty crazy that we've had the most cranes up out of any city in the world, and there's still a supply issue. Of housing. Yeah. Like

cray cray cray cray cray cray cray cray cray cray is it? Yeah. I I don't always necessarily know if Toronto is the best at, you know, organizing everything. So maybe maybe maybe we have enough cranes. We just I wanna allocate them Mhmm.

Properly properly. But

One of Toronto's biggest, well, it depends who you Casie if it was a mistake or not. Was if you know the Allen Road.

Yes.

The Allen Road was supposed to continue all the way to the water. Yes. But, unfortunately, the root that it was gonna have to go through was not very palatable. To many, many people, and that's why it wasn't it wasn't built.

Mhmm.

Which is which is fine. But, One of Toronto's biggest downfalls is you don't have a central artery downtown. Okay. That's the most. So trying to get downtown through the core through the center is just a nightmare.

So even. That's the that's, I think, the most annoying aspect. Yeah. Now that's probably bred some interesting nuances to the downtown core. Maybe it's maybe caused some early expansion north, which has resulted in Aurora having everything, you know, that you'd you'd like it to have.

Yeah.

But, that definitely makes downtown living difficult.

Yes. And I think the thing now is and I, you know, a lot I'm I might get a lot of slack for this, but, like, where does Toronto start at end nowadays? Like, to me, Toronto is like, everywhere. Like, I, like, even Mississauga, but, like, I will still say, and I know a lot of people are like, no. That's not true.

Toronto. And I'm like, okay. But, like,

Yeah.

We're all Toronto.

Like,

when we're out this way, like, why can't they be once again, it goes back to, like, why can't they be Toronto?

It is true because sometimes I'll ask somebody, you're from Toronto, and they'll go, no. And and they'll be like, I'm from well, they'll say, like, I'm from Markham.

They're like, no. It's okay. And it's like, well, let's still Toronto.

I, like, I say I'm Toronto, and I'm Midtown, but I, yeah, Midtown honest.

Yeah. How specific do you want?

But, like, when I moved north of war, I was like, I'm locked downtown. I live in Junction Triangle. Like, It's literally, like, walking north of Lour. And I had, like, a meltdown. I, like, I was like, I moved because I came from city place.

And I was like, I don't live downtown anymore so far. Loser. It's so funny because

it's like,

you know, Toronto is

all in what you make of it. It's all in subject to different people's beliefs. Like, the Toronto borders do not exist. Yeah. I really probably do, but I mean,

to me. What leads you to the GTA?

Yeah. GTA.

And then and then, but I've considered that basically. Toronto.

Yeah. I wouldn't 100% say that's Toronto.

Yeah. That's like people are coming downtown.

Yeah. That's true. I think that, like, something to talk about New York, they're like, New York is like,

you know, New York is just But

it's like creepy. Someone lives like way over. Not downtown, but you're like, I'm from New out of your life. Yeah.

No. That's But but just say I'm from Brooklyn.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right?

And I'm so That's like, yeah. If you'll be like, I'm from Parkdale.

Or something. Yeah. The the one thing that I love about Toronto, even over what I'm in New York, is, like, at least you can get to a nice home depot with a parking lot.

Oh, yeah.

You know what I mean? Like, you can run into a drive through. You can, like,

there's, like, you can get to some

space earlier. Yeah. Than other cities where you're just really caught.

I am a huge fan of drive thrus and, I learned that in Europe, that is not a thing.

It's not

a thing. They don't like it. They don't want it. And I was like, but the drive, it's so convenient. Yeah.

It's amazing. You're just in your car on a on a snowy winter day. You pull up, and they're always nice. And they give coffee. I'm like, it's the best experience, and you can get it in this city.

Yeah.

That's better. Why have they

been on a Like, why are there so few

full service gas stations now? I don't know. Going on. Somebody's on a crusade to

ditch full search.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's true.

It's crazy.

I have one by my house, and it's my favorite thing.

I feel like everyone who has a car knows where they are.

Yeah. Got it? Well, because, like, when you're really busy or when you have, like, a Nelson emails, obviously, like, you can't be texting on other things. So sometimes when you're getting gas, it's the best to just pull up and you're like, responding to all of the emails that you need to do. I'm sometimes, like, posting reels at the gas station.

And, like, if I have to get out of my car, I'm

like,

I don't mind pumping gas, but, like, Totally.

You're a little bit

generous with buy your house too. You're talking north of you. Right? You're talking north down into the into the valley by the Swiss Chalet. Right?

Yeah. See, that's not by your house. See, that's the problem.

There's one there's one, at layered and

Weird.

Bay. No. Lair. And, Bayview. Bayview.

Yeah. There's Larry Bayview. At where's Loblaws. There's, like, a major

Loblaws. Yeah.

Yeah. No. I know. That's a little no man's land area. You know, it's tough to figure out where

that is.

It's amazing.

You've there's a full serve

over there.

There's a full serve over there.

Re a real brand though or an off brand?

It's a very good question. I don't know.

Yeah. Okay.

I I don't judge by brands.

I think it's an I think it's an off brand.

It's most like There's also one. I know all of the

Yeah. I bet.

This is why I'm part of Suites of Toronto. So I can tell you where the gas stations are. No. There's also one by big Loblaws. I'm very bad at the names of the on the streets

of Charlotte.

But, like, all the way down, at layered, when you go past the bridge to the left.

You

turn into the big

Loblaws this way and up the little hill, and then they have a, like, a car

wash as well. Okay.

Nelson Yeah. No. Those are good. You know message me. Yeah.

No. I know. That's towards a direction of a decent drive through Wendy's.

It's yes. The Wendy's and the Tim Hortons got taken down. Yeah.

Oh, bear?

Yeah. In in, over league. Right? Is that where you're talking? Sad.

It was it was heartbreaking. They

weren't old though.

I know. No. But if it's the one I'm

talking about the same one.

I

think so because

That's my closest drive through Wendy's.

Oh, well, if it if it's the same one that was the Wendy's and Tim Hortons.

Yeah. It was Wendy's and

Tim Hortons. Costco?

No. Okay. No. You're safe. Closer.

Yeah. You're safe. This is this is more near, near that fantastic smart

center out

Esther.

Oh, okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I think that one's safe.

Oh, yeah. Different one.

Okay. Different one.

Oh, it's so sad You just slowly start to see the businesses, like, you know, that are, like, all about convenience just disappearing. Yeah. Yeah. Don't leave me.

Yeah. Yeah.

I know. Especially if you're in a routine.

Yeah.

That happened to a Starbucks near here. Yeah. You know, all of a sudden, you go there for, I went before, My daughter's a morning class for an egg white bite. They're gone.

You have so many strategies. Got, like,

just removed.

I'm shocked with people there.

Really small Thall. It's crazy.

Yes.

It it's it's weird to sometimes see, like, your like, my mother and I used to go to the Tim Hortons that I'm talking about, like, the Tim Tim Hortons and Wendy's. And we would just drive there when it was, like, really cold and get, like, our steep tea and and just, like, have catch up times. Then we drove by when we were, paying out one day to go to, like, I think, like, Don Mills or something together. And We both go. No.

No. So even if you don't frequent it anymore, it's still like it's a part of your Esther.

Yeah. That happened to me with a McDonald's over, like, a Dufferin Thall area.

Oh, yeah. The one that was that was closer to my house, that one, and I used to take out. That was, like, Emily and I, we had our bonding time. That's what I'd always take McDonald's. Right.

It's not gonna happen since they took a day. Nothing. I miss that place. Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, man. Oh, man.

It's so funny.

What's your Wendy's fan?

I am a Wendy's fan.

What's your Wendy's order? What's your go to Wendy's order?

Onion. Oh, yeah. I really like their onion rings.

You mean harvys? That's harvys.

At harvys? No. Harvys has a really good onion rings. Does harvys have

onion rings?

Doesn't Wendy's have onion rings?

I know that many.

Wendy's isn't the one is it the whopper? No. Where's the whopper?

That's Burger King.

Burger

King. I know my fast food. No problem.

Burger King has onion

Yeah.

They're good. They're not

hardly breaded. They're okay. But I would say onion rings is B. has the best ones.

I don't But

I love Wendy's. I was

gonna say, I don't need too much fast food. More. Like, these are all, like, mailed them together because it's, like, they yeah. I I try to be healthy.

Yeah. Me too. I haven't had any of them this whole year, but I'm still sometimes I still think about them. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's so funny. I always say it's like, yeah. I try to be healthy, and then people would, like, look at the page, and they're like, Yeah. So you went to this restaurant and ate all of this and drank all of that. And I was like, try.

The keyword in that moderation.

It's true. You've got a job that would be pretty easy to go off the rails on.

It's

You're disciplined.

Yeah. Sometimes.

Really, you're possibly.

Find your yeah. I mean, a lot of people with your job, but, You know?

Oh, believe me. When I when when I first

Fill that chair.

When I no. Honestly, when I first started this this job, I think I was being sent to restaurants, like, once a day for, like, the like, Monday through Friday, sometimes on the weekend as well. And I was eating so much. Yeah. With this job, if you do not know how to have, like, a couple bites of something and then, like, push the plate away and and, like, give it to your friend that you brought.

It's dangerous. Oh, yeah. Real dicks. Yep.

For sure.

Because it's addictive to an, like, so good.

They want you to try all the things.

And that's the thing too. Right? Like, when I'm when I do this, I I'm not a huge picky eater. I have done, like, the vegan thing. I have, have been vegetarian.

I have been pescatarian, so it's like, I I do know sometimes, like, when you are, one of those things, it's it's easier to say no things, but now that I kind of eat everything, and I I I just say, yeah, bring bring me whatever. I'll I'll eat whatever. Whatever you wanna recommend. Like, who's to say I know what the best thing on your menu is. Like Totally.

Yeah. That's nice. No allergies.

No allergies.

Oh, nice.

So so rare. The I have no allergies either.

Mhmm.

Like, it's rare. Thall always like, no allergies.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's great.

It's yeah. I I think to to to do like, the part of it that I do because I I touch kind of, like, everything with streets of Toronto and and even my personal brand. It it's helped a lot because I do know some people that they can only do one type of Esther Yeah. And sometimes that's that's harder too. That'll be like, how do I how do I assign 10 different vegan spots?

Yeah. Exactly.

But Well, I'm excited to see the spring content.

Spring content. Yes.

It's a good season for content.

Yeah. Did you know it's like Toronto has, like, one of the biggest sane potties day party. No. Yeah. Yes.

It's it's it's huge. So I'm thinking about going to that because I just got invited and I was like, wait. That's so cool.

It's coming up.

Yeah. Yeah.

That'll be great. Uh-huh.

Yeah. That's a good time.

Where is it?

It's a very question.

Can I check my phone?

It's so close. It's Niagara.

Yes.

Yeah. The GTA.

Somewhere downtown.

So, you

know, like, oh, oh, over there.

Oh, great. Yeah. Somewhere downtown.

Mhmm.

Good luck there. There'll be beer.

Thank you. Yeah. I agree. Thall, Actually, no. That's not Toronto.

Never mind. I was meant to lie to you guys. No fact checking here.

Yeah. That's good. On the spot.

Yeah. We'll we'll expect your principles.

Yeah. Sent over.

Yeah.

We'll put them

in the show notes.

Honestly. I need to come up with

that voucher.

Well, thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you so much. This was so much.

Glad you had fun. We had fun too.

Yeah. Of course.

Very

good. We're excited for the spring summer, see your content. And, oh, before I wanna know a bit more about drop agency.

Drop. Yes. So drop creative agency is my personal brand. It's my creative agency that I started long while ago. I I actually did start it with one of my, partners at the time she ended up moving to the UK.

To pursue dancing. Actually, she's like, she's killing it, like, shout out to you, Marley. She danced in the Barbie movie.

Oh my gosh. Like, she's

killing it. So, like, I couldn't be more proud of her. But, yeah, so now I'm doing drop creative by myself. I have, like, a team of videographers, a team of different creators, and We create content for a variety of different brands. I'm actually the host of visit Niagara's My

Niagara series,

which it lives on YouTube and kinda gets disseminated to the USA as well as Canada. And it's like a passion of mine to create content for different brands, whether in the tourism sphere or even, like, creating food recipe reels too is another thing that I only, like, recently. And by recently, I mean, like, the past 3 years, got into. And so drop rate is, like, my my B..

Oh, I love it.

That's fantastic. Well, there's Stewart brands to hire you. I can see why they bring

them on.

Thall you. I appreciate that.

Alright. Well, thank you.

Thank you so much, guys.