Brooke Averick: Content Creator, Podcast Host, and Author

0:05Brooke Averick:Hi, everyone. I'm Hilary Kerr, the co-founder and chief content officer of Who What Where, and this is Second Life, a podcast spotlighting women who have truly inspiring careers. We're talking about their work journeys, what they've learned from the process of setting aside their doubts or fears, and what happens when they embark on their second life. Today on the show, I'm speaking with content creator, podcast host, and author, Brooke Averick. Brooke started her career in early childhood education as a preschool teacher in Philadelphia. However, like so many of us, during the pandemic, she downloaded TikTok, but unlike so many of us, her first video went viral.

0:47Brooke Averick:Shortly after, she quit her teaching job to pursue a more creative path. In 2021, she moved to Los Angeles and briefly joined a content house. She also launched her hilarious conversational comedy podcast, Brooke and Connor make a podcast while still making videos on TikTok in 2024. She launched her solo podcast obsessed, which celebrated being a fan girl. Then she stepped away from her solo show after starting the process of writing her debut novel, a love story about an almost 30-year-old on a mission to lose her virginity. That book, which is a summer must read, is called Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It.

1:28Brooke Averick:It was such a delight to speak with Brooke, and I can't wait for you to hear our conversation. Now, on Second Life, it's Brooke Averick. Brooke, are you ready? I'm ready. Okay, excellent. So, we like to start this podcast at the beginning. So what did you study in school? But much more importantly, what did you think you were going to be when you grew up? I studied early childhood education. And I think that I thought I was going to be a lot of different things at different parts of my life. The first thing I ever wanted to be was a comedian when I was like a baby, but also a comedian that drove an ice cream truck.

2:04So like take that with a grain of salt. And then I think I went through a phase of like wanting to be an actress and then an author. and then I kind of settled with teacher.

2:15Brooke Averick:So you graduate from Boston University. Yes. What were you thinking about for post-grad? Like, did you have a job set up? Did you feel like you knew what you wanted to do? Like, what was your headspace like at that moment in time? I had so much fun in elementary school. I went to this like teeny tiny Quaker school outside of Philly. And so I kind of always saw myself going back there. Oh, to that literal school? To that literal school, but they had new administration and I did not get the job. I like interviewed at a lot of places around there and then kind of just went with the first place that hired me without looking too much into it, which is something they should teach you.

2:58Brooke Averick:Yeah. Also, but at the same time, I feel like certainly I was in the job market out of college many years before you, but we didn't have like, what's a good fit for you as something that was part of the conversation. And I don't think it is for a lot of like entry level positions. You're like, who's going to take me? Right. I think a lot of it was fear. Like, am I going to get a job? So the first one that came my way, I was just like, yes, absolutely. I didn't like ask about salary or anything. I was like, just hire me. Just do it. Okay. So what was that experience like? That was not a great experience.

3:36It was really different than what I expected because it was more of a daycare than it was a preschool, which there actually is a pretty big difference. And then I switched schools after a year and then had a much better experience at a different place.

3:53Brooke Averick:Talk to me about some of the skills that you are learning during this time period, because I think there's something about early jobs, even if it doesn't apply directly to like what you do for the rest of your life. But that's where you get a lot of formative skills, even if it's just like, well, turns out I'm resilient. Turns out I can figure myself out. What were some of the skills that you were learning at that period? I think besides just like how to teach, this is where I kind of learned how to advocate for myself and also for the kids too, because there was just so much going on there that was not okay, that I really kind of had to go very far out of my comfort zone and speak up, which was not something that I was ever really comfortable with doing before.

4:36So yeah, I definitely learned how to speak up for myself and others there.

4:40Brooke Averick:How did you like the experience of working with little kids like that? Because I think as someone who has small children and has seen the preschool environment, it feels like I would be so overwhelmed. Yeah. There's so much energy and so many snotty noses. My nervous system would feel overwhelmed, but I'm not a super kid person. So I'm curious about what your experience was like. I really did love the kids so much. And that really is the only thing that I loved about teaching. And it turns out there is so much more to it than the kids. But I loved the kids. I just like didn't have the stamina.

5:16I am the kind of person now I can do one big thing a day. And then it's like, all right, I need me time. I'm exhausted. And so with teaching, when I was done at three, I had nothing left to give. Needed the entire weekend to recharge and then just do it all again. And so I just really had no life outside of teaching. And that's not something that I wanted. I came to learn. So in 2020, like so many of us, you decided to download TikTok.

5:43Brooke Averick:And very quickly, you had a video of you reading your childhood diary go viral. So backing up for anyone in our audience listening who doesn't know you, I think understanding the type of kid you were is important to the story. So can you talk a little bit about some of the things that you've gone through with anxiety and OCD and how you learned to cope and a little bit more about that initial video that folks fell in love with? Sure. I don't know if I ever learned to cope until recently. Maybe part of the charm. But yeah, I was very anxious at a very young age and had OCD that was undiagnosed because I think it was not fully understood at the time that OCD could also be about thought patterns.

6:28And so when I was very young, I was five when 9-11 happened. And that was something I thought was my responsibility. I thought that I had done 9-11 and that was kind of my origin story with my mental illness was kind of then. Just because I still don't really understand what my thought process was there. I think I just was like, I could visualize it and I had thoughts relating to it. And so I thought I must be a bad person. I must have been the one who did this. And so I was diagnosed with anxiety then, which now I understand and my therapist understands that was OCD, but not at the time. Right.

7:04And then I also had really bad emetophobia. So I was really, really scared of throwing up. And so I carried around a trash can with me for like a few years at school. And so that's what I was saying about going to like a really special school. Like they were so accommodating of my trash can. I just look back on that time as like, thank God I went there because I don't know if all places would have treated my trash can like another one of their students. Like it was very wholesome and sweet. But anyway, I wrote a lot in my diary. And the one that went viral was actually from sixth grade. We had an assignment to write a letter to our 18-year-old selves.

7:43Brooke Averick:I did that same exercise. This is the one that went viral. We were writing a letter that we would get when we graduated high school. Yes. I got an actual physical copy of it. Yes, me too. And so in that letter, it was just like very chaotic. Yeah. Asking myself a million different questions, asking who I had a crush on. I'm sure there was a lot of stuff in there about Glee, just like... Priorities. Yeah, a lot going on in that letter. And so the first TikTok I made was reading that letter that I got. I too, all the way over in San Diego, California, was very interested in talking about crushes and who do you have a crush on and who has a crush on you in a way that I was stunned when I opened it up.

8:23Brooke Averick:I was like, you are really fixated on this. Oh, yeah. It's so funny. It really was my whole life growing up was like, I have no interest in going to school if I don't have a crush. Yes. I think I remember a line like that from your book. Yes. Very much so. Yes. I love that. Okay. So at what point did you start thinking, okay, I obviously can do something here in this creator space. Let me start to think about making a pivot into it as an actual job. I was really unhappy teaching and I had been looking for something more creative for a really long time. And so I didn't really even think about it.

9:05I just emailed my boss and was like, hey, I'm not coming back next year. Wow. At what point in the school year? This was April or May. We were already teaching online because of COVID. And already I was like, this is not sustainable. Oh, God, no. Yeah. So I just was like, I have one viral video. I'm going to pursue that, whatever that looks like. I don't know if it's going to go anywhere, but it kind of just gave me that little push that I needed. And it just so happened that my boss was also my teacher in high school, because this was another little Quaker school. I didn't teach at the one that I went to, but it was similar.

9:39And so she was very instrumental in helping me find my voice and humor. She was my English teacher in high school. And so she was like, Godspeed. If anyone was going to get it, it was her. She was very sweet. And so I just kind of followed that and started posting other videos of me reading my diary. I love it.

9:58Brooke Averick:So at that point, did you have a goal in mind of like where this would go? Was it specific to like social content creation or were you just open to anything that wasn't the day job that you had been doing? I was open to anything that wasn't the day job I had been doing. I was applying for jobs at Hello Sunshine and Book of the Month. And so I was interested in that kind of space. And I remember like very early on when I had made just a few TikToks, I started getting calls from like agencies and management companies being like, what do you want to do? Just like feeling me out. Wow. And I was like, I don't know, like maybe I'll work at BuzzFeed or something.

10:36So I definitely wasn't thinking this is going to be my job. I was kind of like, maybe this will just get me somewhere else.

10:43Brooke Averick:Well, also to be fair, like at that moment in time, I don't know how fully we collectively thought that was a job. I think it became clear pretty early on that you could monetize it and leverage it and do other interesting things from it. But it was still really early days, not to mention we were in a global pandemic and no one knew what was happening next. Totally. So, and you were a baby still. Right. I was a baby. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So talk to me a little bit about what your approach was like, what your process was like. How would you know something was a good piece of content? Did you get nervous about like, well, things are going well.

11:25Brooke Averick:Should I try different things? Walk me through sort of your early creative space and how you thought through testing and learning and trying things. Well, I was kind of freaked out because I thought that I only had as many diary entries as I had because that's really what I was doing. And so I was like, all right, well, once I'm done reading my diary, I guess I'm done. And then I had read my last diary entry and I was like, OK, like maybe I'll think of something else to do. And then I started talking to the camera. Like I was just telling random stories from childhood and some of those landed.

12:01And then that's when I was like, this is kind of a comedian thing. Once I finished my diary entries, that's when I kind of got really excited. Like this might have legs. I love that.

12:12Brooke Averick:So at that point, did you have any plan on how to make this financially viable for you? I did not, but I just got so lucky. I had an agency, UTA, reached out and they signed me pretty early. And so it became a job pretty quickly with them getting me brand deals, which I was just like, this is the most amazing thing because one brand deal truly was like$20 ,000. And so I was already able to make a living with like two brand deals. Like I was making more money doing this than I ever had with teaching. So as far as I was concerned, I was like fully employed. So then in 2021, you moved to LA and briefly joined a content house.

12:59Brooke Averick:For anyone in our audience who is not familiar, can you explain what that is and how it works and what your experience was like? I guess a content house is just like a group of creators living together and making content. And at the time, there were these like two big ones. I think it was like the Hype House and the Sway House. They were younger than us and they were mostly like doing dances, which is what a lot of TikTok was back then. And so I have a hard time doing anything alone. So I was like, if I move to LA, I want to do it with people and I want to live with people I know. And what if we just like called it a content house because we're all creators technically making content.

13:38So I lived with three friends and we just like made some comedic skits together. And it was kind of a perfect way to get me to LA. It didn't last very long. We only lived together for, I think, a little over two months because our friend Jack got like a TV show and had to move to Australia. As one does. Yeah, as one does. And then I was like, well, I can't live with boys anymore. So I'm going to get my own apartment. So it lasted for like two months, but it was fun and just a great way to get me to LA. And then I got my own girl apartment. Fabulous.

14:11Brooke Averick:Yeah. So around this time, you also met your then roommate now podcast co-host Connor Wood. So you have an incredibly popular show, Brooke and Connor Make a Podcast, which is probably how a lot of folks were introduced to you. talk to me a little bit about the pod, how it came about, the original vision for the show, how it's evolved. Walk me through it. Connor was like my first internet friend. And I remember in our like very early conversations, DMing online before we had ever met, we were talking about doing a podcast just because we had a lot of fun talking to each other because we're so different too.

14:51So I remember learning a lot from him. Like I have still to this day, never been to Texas. He's from Texas. He was just like an enigma to me. And then I think I was to him. I remember talking to him early on about, I love musical theater. And I remember talking to him about Rent. And he was like, is that a show on HGTV? Like just very different right from the get-go. And so we always like had an idea to start a podcast. And then we filmed a pilot for one when we lived together and it was not good. And we never heard back about it. And And then a few years later, we got reached out to by a network, TMG, and they asked if we would have any interest making a podcast.

15:31And we were like, funny you ask. We actually have a pilot. And then our agents were like, no, do you not send them that one? And then we got picked up from there.

15:39Brooke Averick:Okay. So walk me through sort of your headspace of how you're balancing podcast and content creation and brand deals, and then starting your own podcast. How are you looking at your day, your week, your month, and how you are spending your time. I remember when I was teaching, I was like, I think my dream is to just not do a lot and yet get paid for it. And then I found myself in that position when I was making content. Content creating is really what you make it. And I was in a position where I was not making a ton of it. I was making like one or two videos a week. I had brand deals. the dream.

16:17That is what I thought the dream was. And I had the podcast once a week and I wasn't really doing much else. And then I felt like I'm not fulfilled right now. That is when I made Obsessed, which was my second podcast. And then I felt more fulfilled, which was great. But then I started writing this book and then I was like, I'm not just fulfilled. This is like my life's purpose. Hello, found you. Nice to meet you. And then that is all I wanted to do. and so then I was like how do I prioritize this and that's when I had to stop doing obsessed because I kind of learned the way that I best write is to have nothing to do but write all day because if I had like something coming up at 2 p.m and I just had the morning to write I'm just thinking about what's happening at 2 p.m and so I was really struggling with writing so I had to have like four clear days in the week that's how I was feeling for my first book and so I said goodbye to Obsessed, which was hard.

17:13Brooke Averick:Wait, talk to me a little bit about Obsessed. And how did you come up with the idea? I love celebrating being a fan because I think we all have these like hyper fixations that we get into. Like what was the prompt that made you want to start something else? I think I was just realizing like Connor and I have such a good thing going on in Brooke and Connor, but this is not necessarily the space for me to be talking about everything that I'm hyper fixating on for hours at a time. Because a girl contains multitudes and you had other things. Because a girl contains multitudes. And I was like, but I do want a space to talk about this.

17:52Brooke Averick:Yeah. And so Obsessed was born. And then I had a space where I could just talk about everything that was occupying my mind, everything that I was hyper fixating on for an hour a week. And it was amazing. And how would you put together that podcast? Like, did you script it? Is it more about the editing? Like what was your process like for that creative? That one actually required a lot of prep as opposed to Brooke and Connor, where we really just show up and have a conversation. But Obsessed, just like depending on what I was talking about. Like if it was Glee, I was rewatching however many episodes of Glee and Night and taking notes, which is like dream job.

18:28And then going over those notes during the episode.

18:32Brooke Averick:Okay, so let's get into your debut novel. Where did the idea come from? I have always loved reading. I've always loved romance. And I've always wanted to read about a character that has a lot of anxiety when it comes to dating. Yeah. And I was always just kind of waiting for that book to be published while also always having this dream of really wanting to write a book of my own. And then And suddenly the two kind of merged and I was like, maybe I could write that. But I was also like, am I qualified? Do I need to go back to school? Do I need a master's? I was like Googling like creative writing classes at USC.

19:09Like, I don't know if I can call myself a writer. So I was sitting on it for maybe a few years at that point. And then I was talking about wanting to write a book. I don't know if it was Obsessed or BNC, but probably both. And I got a call from the publishing department at UTA. and they were like, hey, by the way, like we heard you wanna write a book and like you absolutely can do that if you want to. And then I was like, I can? And then when I hung up from that call is when I started writing.

19:37Brooke Averick:So talk to me about the writing process. Did you have a title to start? Did that come later? How does one go from having an idea to actually having a novel? I basically had something that I knew I wanted this to happen in the book loosely based on something that happened to me. And that was kind of like the end of the book. So I had like the end plot point and I had, I want a really anxious dater. What are the stakes? And then the stakes for me, I'm turning 30. My friends are turning 30. The universal feeling, at least for us in turning 30, is that everyone is feeling like they're behind in some way.

20:12There's some sort of checkpoint that we haven't met. And so that was what Phoebe's virginity represented was everyone's thing, quote unquote, that they haven't done yet. And for me, I feel really inexperienced with dating. And so I kind of threw that anxiety into Phoebe.

20:30Brooke Averick:Okay, so the book is called Phoebe Berman's Gonna Lose It. And it comes out on May 26, 2026. Yes. It is so engaging. It is such a delight to read. All of the congratulations to you. How long did it take for you to write it? Did you create an outline? Walk me through the whole experience from a process point of view. I was just so beyond excited that I actually could not stay away from my computer. I was not hanging out with my friends. Like I was kind of in lockdown, just writing and just like immersing myself in this story. That was like three months of just writing. And I got to 130 pages. And that is what I sent to my agents.

21:14And we really workshopped to get that into tip top shape. And that is what we sent out. to publishers. And I will say once we sold it, then I was like, oh, now there's another half and now this is my job. And now there's a psychological element here that's like, what if I can't finish it? So then I slowed down for sure for that second half. But luckily I had had it outlined. So I got there. And you had an ending. I had an ending and I had an outline. And it was like truly a layup. Like if I had that excitement that was untainted by like the, oh, this is my job now. I could have finished it in two days.