Latest / Mini Scroll / Touching Grass with introverted community curator Sami Jenkins

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Touching Grass with introverted community curator Sami Jenkins · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  Welcome to Touchgrass, a miniseries where I chat with
• 0:03
  creatives about staying sane while being chronically online.
• 0:07
  I'm your host Lauren Meisner, and Touchgrass is a miniseries
• 0:11
  brought to you. By Britta where we.
• 0:13
  Explore the implications of being chronically online with
• 0:15
  the creatives who can't escape it.
• 0:18
  One thing that keeps coming up in these conversations is how
• 0:21
  important small grounding routines are offline.
• 0:25
  And for me, one of those routines is drinking enough
• 0:27
  water. Whether I'm refilling my water
• 0:29
  bottle for a long walk or taking a break from scrolling my For
• 0:32
  You page, Britta makes it easy for me to stay hydrated and
• 0:35
  grounded. With pure fresh.
• 0:37
  Tasting. Filtered water straight.
• 0:39
  From any tap, thank you to Britta for supporting
• 0:42
  independent media and helping us take better care of ourselves,
• 0:45
  one refill at a time. Today, I'm chatting with Sammy
• 0:48
  Jenkins, a video producer, content creator, and founder of
• 0:52
  WILTY Meetups, a grassroots community that creates safe
• 0:55
  spaces for connection. Through our conversation, Sammy
• 0:58
  takes me through her unexpected into content creation,
• 1:01
  navigating an extroverted industry as an introvert, and
• 1:05
  how she's become a community facilitator for other socially
• 1:08
  anxious young people in Melbourne.
• 1:10
  I'm so sad to be chatting with you in this like beautiful
• 1:13
  jungle slash garden that we're in right now.
• 1:17
  Yeah, this is. I'm a little overwhelmed, but
• 1:20
  like in the best way. It's really beautiful.
• 1:22
  I wish you were here. So actually this I think is
• 1:24
  maybe the my favorite location that we have recorded one of
• 1:27
  these episodes in and I'm so excited to be chatting with you
• 1:30
  today. So before we get into it, we
• 1:33
  like to ask every guest some iteration of this question.
• 1:36
  Would you consider yourself chronically online A. 100% yes.
• 1:40
  Like everyone else, my screen time is insane.
• 1:44
  I don't even look at it anymore because I know it's just like
• 1:47
  way too high. But we're working on it.
• 1:49
  It's a constant journey of like managing screen time.
• 1:52
  No, I know. I don't look at my screen time.
• 1:53
  People ask me about that all the time and I'm like, it's none of
• 1:56
  my business. I need it for work.
• 1:58
  So it's it's none of my business.
• 2:01
  OK, so some of your earliest viral Tik Toks were about
• 2:05
  quitting your job because you were unhappy.
• 2:07
  At that point, did you see content creation as a genuine
• 2:10
  path to consider? Why is that funny?
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  I don't know, I just, Oh my gosh, what a throwback.
• 2:16
  I haven't thought about that in a while.
• 2:18
  I we do our research here. You do your research, you do
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  your research. So I didn't consider it as a
• 2:24
  legitimate career path for me. I think I would watch a lot of
• 2:29
  creators online. I grew up watching YouTube and
• 2:32
  loving these people and like, to me, they were making legit
• 2:37
  career moves. And I think it was an imposter
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  syndrome thing. I always thought that's not for
• 2:42
  me. I'm not creative, I'm not well
• 2:47
  spoken. I'm too shy to be in front of
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  the camera. So it all just kind of happened
• 2:53
  naturally and almost like accidentally.
• 2:55
  But I guess here we are. Yeah, that's amazing.
• 2:58
  So when was that? How long ago was that?
• 3:00
  This will be the fourth or third year.
• 3:03
  OK, yeah. So then how did you move past
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  your imposter syndrome to start actually putting yourself out
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  there? You know, there's like a cliche
• 3:13
  that when you first start making content, people are really
• 3:16
  scared about what high school people are going to think, like
• 3:18
  what your friends are going to think.
• 3:20
  I created basically like a burner account and I thought
• 3:25
  that no one would see it. And I kind of had this like the
• 3:28
  imposter syndrome was was very loud and I was like, no one's
• 3:31
  going to see it. It's probably not very good.
• 3:33
  So I was just like posting so, so much.
• 3:37
  I was experimenting. I was like posting every single
• 3:40
  day. And I kind of did that
• 3:41
  consistently for like, I think 3 months.
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  I guess through just trial and error, I found certain things,
• 3:49
  you know, went viral. People like certain things.
• 3:51
  And I kind of just kept doing it.
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  And I guess like over time, I kind of build my confidence a
• 3:56
  little. Yeah.
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  So can you talk to me about experimenting with your content?
• 4:00
  Because I know a lot of your content centers around being
• 4:03
  introverted, which is really interesting.
• 4:06
  I studied marketing and media, so I kind of was, I mean, I did
• 4:10
  a little a few internships in media and like at a marketing
• 4:14
  agency when I first started, but doing content was all new.
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  Like I didn't have experience with like filming or editing or
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  even how to like create an engaging cook or anything.
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  The thing that stuck was my little introvert series and how
• 4:28
  that came about was I just genuinely loved spending time
• 4:32
  alone and I never really thought it would go anywhere.
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  But what was interesting is that a lot of other people felt the
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  same. A lot of other people maybe
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  didn't have friends or a partner and they just wanted to go out
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  and have fun. And then I thought, why don't I
• 4:45
  just turn something that I already do into content?
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  Yes, I know. I say that to a lot of people
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  who asked me about like starting content creation or how they
• 4:53
  should build their following. And I say just start like
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  documenting what you actually do.
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  Don't try and necessarily create content, especially when you're
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  starting out. Just document what you already
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  do and then you will find that through line of like what your
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  story can be. And then you can start actually
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  experimenting with like the curation and like making things
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  a little bit more, you know, aesthetic and things like that.
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  OK, so the Internet often rewards extroversion.
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  Have you ever felt like the introversion element of your
• 5:23
  content, your niche, and your personality was at odds with
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  what performs well online? Whoa, that is such an
• 5:30
  interesting question. That's such an interesting
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  question. I'm glad you asked it.
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  I think 100 percent, 100%. I think working in media and
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  marketing and like being a content creator, from my
• 5:41
  experience, you're not encouraged to be quiet.
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  You're encouraged to be loud. You're encouraged to be the
• 5:47
  centre of attention and speak your mind, which I think is
• 5:50
  really important. That's really great, but I've
• 5:53
  found that you can still have an amazing impact by being quiet.
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  It sounds a bit wanky, but it's been something I've had to
• 6:00
  navigate. Yeah, I think content creation
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  is one of those careers that even though it does kind of
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  reward being a larger than life personality in some ways, that
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  also can be a really nice career for people who are a bit more
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  introverted. Because at the end of the day, a
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  lot of your work is slow, right? Like you're by yourself, you're
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  speaking to a camera. And a lot of people find that a
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  lot more natural than having to speak to a room filled with
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  people. So now that you have kind of
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  this other arm to your career doing content creation, how
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  would you say that has impacted your relationship with scrolling
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  in the Internet I. Think that it's definitely
• 6:42
  changed my relationship with like screen time and what I do
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  when I'm like wanting to rest and recharge.
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  I have to be a lot more mindful with the content I'm consuming
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  and how much time I'm actually spending doom scrolling because
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  I think it's just too much. It's not normal to, you know,
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  work in this space, make content, be creative, and then
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  work another job that's also meant to be creative and then
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  come home and rest and look at your screen for three more
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  hours. Like, I just don't think, you
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  know, some people could do that and that's totally great for
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  them. I, I feel like I just burn out
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  and like I'll try to be really, really switched off or really
• 7:28
  present when I'm with my friends, for example, because I
• 7:30
  just don't want to look at my phone.
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  And so it's a constant like push pull of being online and being
• 7:37
  offline, taking care of yourself.
• 7:39
  Yeah, well, you can't be creative like it if you are
• 7:43
  never out touching grass, if you will, if you're never
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  experiencing life, right, That's where you actually recharge.
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  But it's also where you get inspiration.
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  Do you feel like you have a hard time switching off when you say
• 7:57
  that you don't really use your phone when you're with your
• 7:59
  friends or you're intentionally trying not to scroll?
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  Is that difficult for you? Oh, the the big question.
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  Yeah, Literally the biggest question.
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  Yeah. I do have a problem with
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  switching off and it's something that I just haven't gotten right
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  yet. And I think it's something
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  that's just really hard to do in 2026.
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  Like we are all chronically online.
• 8:23
  Yes. I think it's just like being
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  intentional with your energy and your time and even like the
• 8:28
  people that you're with. I am so grateful that a lot of
• 8:32
  my friends now, when we hang out, we are there with each
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  other, and it's not really about us just being in a room
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  scrolling together. We're often doing things or,
• 8:41
  like, having really meaningful conversations.
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  And I feel so recharged from those Hangouts.
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  But sometimes I do still find myself going home and doing
• 8:51
  scrolling. And I leave those experiences
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  just not feeling good. Yeah.
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  And when I don't clock that, you know, it can just happen again
• 9:00
  and again. And then two weeks have gone by
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  and you're like, oh, I've wasted a lot of time watching nothing
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  on my phone. Yeah, I know literally nothing
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  is worse than the do scroll. It makes me feel so bad about
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  myself but I have feel like I have to do it for work.
• 9:15
  I'm yeah it's so hard. So I wanted to pivot and chat
• 9:18
  with you about WILTY meetups. Can you tell us what that is?
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  Yes, I can. That's my little baby.
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  Multi Meetups is a community that I started about four years
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  ago and we host meetups for introverts.
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  A lot of people ask me I'm I'm an extrovert, can I come along?
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  Yes, I can come along. It's not exclusive.
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  No discrimination. No discrimination here.
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  We love all people, but yeah, it, it kind of happened
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  organically through creating content about doing things
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  around Melbourne. And then other people in my
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  comments section were making friends with each other, were
• 9:56
  wanting to set up plans and, and kind of create a group.
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  So through that, I hosted one meet up one day and, you know,
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  didn't expect anyone to show up. I think about 10 people showed
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  up. We were just complete strangers.
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  And it's literally just been hosting these monthly events
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  ever since. And monthly, that's a lot.
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  About monthly, you know, sometimes I've, you know, had to
• 10:21
  take a break here and there, but it's been, it's been a pretty
• 10:25
  constant, yeah. Wow, that's amazing.
• 10:27
  Has anything surprised you about hosting events offline?
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  Yeah. I've been thinking about this a
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  lot recently and it's interesting because, you know, I
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  am a content creator. I do kind of exists online and
• 10:42
  the meet ups is everything's in person.
• 10:45
  So it's like it's really interesting.
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  And I think what surprised me is how real it feels, how real
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  everyone is who shows up to these events.
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  I try to do a little spiel at the start to kind of remind
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  people like, hey, we all don't know each other.
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  Hey, we're all here because we met on social media, but I kind
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  of come from a place that social media is fake a lot of the time.
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  And at these events, like, be real, like try to be your most
• 11:13
  real self. And what surprised me is like,
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  even though people say they're introverted, give it like 10
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  minutes. Everyone's like making friends
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  and everyone's, you know, feeling really comfy.
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  And then they leave and they've made a whole new friend group.
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  And it's just really, really wholesome.
• 11:29
  Yeah, it's great. I've been to a couple in Sydney
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  through different organizations, and every time I leave, I find,
• 11:37
  honestly, there's a totally different type of energy when
• 11:40
  you're in a room filled with people that you don't know.
• 11:43
  And I, I feel like it's such a great opportunity to let your
• 11:46
  guard down even more than I feel like if you're in a room filled
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  with people that you do know because, you know, at that
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  point, there's no judgement. People don't know your back
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  story. They don't know who you are.
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  And you can really just, like you said, truly be your
• 11:57
  authentic self. That's how I have felt at these
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  events at least. Yeah.
• 12:01
  I love that. You know, there is a lot of
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  discussion about the lack of third spaces and actually one of
• 12:07
  our interviews that we had yesterday, yesterday with Eugene
• 12:09
  Healy, he was saying not that he said that doesn't necessarily
• 12:12
  that conversation doesn't apply to Australia, but he was saying
• 12:14
  less so in Australia. He said we actually do have a
• 12:16
  lot of, he believes there's a lot of like infrastructure here
• 12:19
  that still supports third spaces for young people.
• 12:21
  But from your experience, what is it that you think young
• 12:25
  people want from community? Unrelated but I'm a big Eugene
• 12:30
  Healy fan so I can't believe you met him.
• 12:32
  I'm very jealous. Hi Eugene.
• 12:35
  Anyways, I also think about this a lot and I was thinking in the
• 12:39
  shower this morning actually. That community is such a
• 12:42
  buzzword at the moment it feels, especially if you work in the
• 12:45
  social media space. I think what young people and
• 12:49
  adults are looking for is really a place where they can come
• 12:53
  together and let their guard down.
• 12:56
  I think yes, we are so like privileged here in Australia and
• 13:00
  in Melbourne to have a lot of third spaces where people can
• 13:03
  gather safely and connect. But what we can always improve
• 13:07
  on is how do we make people feel safe in these environments?
• 13:10
  How do we make them feel like they can express themselves
• 13:16
  without judgment? I think, you know, that's
• 13:18
  something that's really important to me in any, you
• 13:21
  know, event that I have because, you know, I'm very anxious.
• 13:24
  I have a lot of social anxiety. I know a lot of my peers do as
• 13:26
  well. And, you know, everyone's a bit
• 13:29
  like tense because we're all chronically online.
• 13:31
  So like, how nice to be able to walk into a space and just feel
• 13:35
  free. Yes.
• 13:36
  Oh, my God. Free.
• 13:37
  That's actually the perfect word that I was looking for when I
• 13:39
  was talking about like, I genuinely, when I leave.
• 13:42
  Yeah, when I leave, meet up sometimes with people that I
• 13:44
  don't know, I genuinely feel a sense of freedom.
• 13:46
  It's so nice. Do you think that social
• 13:49
  platforms or even brands have a type of responsibility?
• 13:54
  Do they have a responsibility to help foster a sense of
• 13:56
  community? I think they do.
• 13:59
  I think it would be great if all brands had that awareness of
• 14:03
  creating community. And I think if they're a strong
• 14:06
  brand with strong values and a mission and they're doing good
• 14:11
  in the world, I think that the community will just form
• 14:14
  naturally. That said, I think they do have
• 14:17
  somewhat of a responsibility to take care of their customers and
• 14:21
  take care of their audience or even just someone who follows
• 14:24
  their Instagram, whether or not that's actually happening with
• 14:27
  brands. I feel like there's a lot of
• 14:29
  performative community happening, like brands wanting
• 14:32
  to capitalize on this buzzword, but fostering real community I
• 14:36
  think takes like a really intense level of care and just
• 14:40
  like awareness of people's needs and different people's needs as
• 14:45
  well. I agree, I think a great way for
• 14:48
  brands to start, given what you just said with, you know, the
• 14:53
  level of care that it requires to truly foster a meaningful
• 14:57
  community. I think a great place for a
• 14:59
  brand to start is to support existing community initiatives
• 15:03
  like WILTY meetups like the heated rivalry look alike
• 15:06
  competition that just happened in Sydney.
• 15:09
  Oh my God, yes. Yes.
• 15:11
  Did you see you saw that on? Social.
• 15:12
  I saw that everywhere on Social. Shout out Lena.
• 15:15
  Yes. Did you go to it?
• 15:18
  No, but Lena's actually our guest.
• 15:20
  She come her episode comes out today.
• 15:22
  Oh no way. Oh my God.
• 15:23
  Amazing. Yeah, no, she's great.
• 15:25
  No, I couldn't go to it, unfortunately.
• 15:27
  I actually did have a nail appointment and I know that
• 15:28
  sounds dramatic but my nails take like 4 hours.
• 15:30
  That's valid. That's so valid.
• 15:32
  Yeah. So yeah, I.
• 15:34
  Think, you know, supporting kind of grassroots initiatives like
• 15:38
  that that are already happening through creators or people where
• 15:42
  they align with their message and they align with what that
• 15:44
  person is trying to do. That's a great place to start, I
• 15:47
  feel. So, given how deeply your work
• 15:50
  is intertwined with mental health and community, how do you
• 15:53
  personally protect your emotional well-being while still
• 15:56
  showing up online and showing up for your community that you're
• 15:58
  building? Yeah, I think like, like I said
• 16:02
  before, it's like a constant push pull of maneuvering your
• 16:07
  online offline self. I think it comes down to having
• 16:11
  very clear boundaries and rules for yourself because you know
• 16:15
  when you're online and when you're making content, even
• 16:17
  though it's like authentic and it can have impact, it's still
• 16:20
  like the curated version of yourself doing practices like
• 16:25
  journaling or walking or spending time with friends who
• 16:29
  you feel safe with when you're offline.
• 16:32
  Doing those things is really important to, like, come back to
• 16:36
  your sense of self, which sounds like.
• 16:38
  Yeah, I think that's important because if I don't know when I
• 16:42
  don't do these things sometimes, you know, historically I've
• 16:46
  gotten caught up in, oh, this video performed really well.
• 16:49
  I feel so good about myself. Then a video performs really
• 16:53
  badly. I'm like, well, I guess I'm a
• 16:54
  failure. Yeah.
• 16:55
  But that shouldn't be the case at all.
• 16:57
  Like, that's kind of crazy to say that out loud.
• 16:59
  So. Yeah, leaning into like, like
• 17:02
  your your community and fun mental health well-being
• 17:06
  practices like journaling. Yeah, it's so hard because in
• 17:10
  this line of work, your identity is so intertwined with what you
• 17:15
  do, how you perform, all that. It's so hard to, like, untangle
• 17:19
  that, Yeah. Do you feel like there's any
• 17:22
  lessons that you've had to learn the hard way while being
• 17:24
  chronically online, whether it's through work or just through
• 17:26
  your own personal like social media use?
• 17:28
  Oh my God, so many lessons, so many lessons.
• 17:32
  I feel like I'm constantly learning lessons and like
• 17:35
  readjusting things. Yeah, one of the biggest lessons
• 17:38
  is like your online self and persona.
• 17:42
  It's still you, like you said, but it doesn't have to be you
• 17:46
  and it's not where you should be drawing your worth from.
• 17:48
  Yeah, like don't attach yourself worth, self love, identity to
• 17:55
  your Instagram. Yeah, it's difficult because I
• 17:58
  create content. We all create content, and I
• 18:01
  love expressing myself online. But you just have to be really
• 18:04
  mindful if you want to like, work in this career path, right?
• 18:07
  Or like you want to do it sustainably.
• 18:09
  Like it's not. It's not for everyone.
• 18:13
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 18:14
  No, that makes sense. OK, So the last thing I would
• 18:17
  love to know from you is how do you touch grass?
• 18:22
  I love to literally go to the park and sit on the grass.
• 18:27
  And touch grass. I love to like literally touch
• 18:30
  the grass. I find that really healing.
• 18:34
  Yeah. Going to the park, grabbing like
• 18:35
  a little picnic mat, whipping out my journal or like I've been
• 18:39
  listening to these really quick like 5 minute meditation or
• 18:44
  affirmations like literally from Spotify.
• 18:47
  And then like maybe exercising and seeing friends.
• 18:52
  Like any offline activity that's just like something fun to do.
• 18:57
  It's just like super recharging for me.
• 19:01
  Thank you so much. Thank you.
• 19:02
  For having me, this is so much fun.
• 19:05
  Centennial world podcast network operates on gadigal land we
• 19:08
  would like to acknowledge the gadigal of the eora nation, the
• 19:11
  traditional custodians of this land and pay our.
• 19:14
  Respects to elders. Both past and present.