We recently connected with Betsy Hicks-Russ and have shared our conversation below.

Betsy, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Being a full time caregiver to a nonspeaking individual and wanting to challenge my mind, I started making videos and discovered I was reasonably good at it. Over the years, my videos got better and better and I cerated a strong following. I then started a podcast that I had no idea how to do, but each week got a bit better and better. Eventually my skills got the attention to others and I was asked to produce. It took a solid four years of practicing to where I got good enough to charge for my skills, but now have more work than I can handle. Because I was self taught AND a full time caregiver, I didn’t have the time, money or energy to get a formal education with it, but interestingly enough, the latest in software doesn’t need intense editing skills as much as being a visionary and that is something that builds with experience.

Betsy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My podcast Autism Odyssey was teetering around two to three hundred views per episode, which wasn’t horrible, but not profit making, but because of my building skills, the award winning The Telepathy Tapes asked me to create a podcast hosted on their channel with another mother to help answer the growing questions of the challenges parents of telepathic, nonspeakers are faced with. The show is doing very well and allows me some income a large range of viewership. In addition, I produce the show and that has increased my editing skills. My son Joe is a nonspeaker and at 30 years old developed his ability to spell on a letterboard all of his thoughts, desires, and needs and the path that I am showing viewers both on podcasting and social media is a genuine storytelling that viewers crave because of the authenticity of it. That work put me in touch with other speller programs that I am now doing creative content and editing for.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I don’t believe I could produce as good of material if I didn’t have passion for it. Also, the difficult journey of being a parent of a nonspeaking, self injurious individual has created intense resiliency and and incredible work ethic to get the job done, not matter what the barriers. Parents like me have been through unthinkable challenges and I allow others to peek inside our world and feel hopeful that the future will not be as scary as they may think.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I read every comment; the good, bad and the ugly and it helped me get a pulse on my audience. That allowed me to create content that clarified and educated. I learned early on which negativity to allow to shift me and which is just noise, but many negative comments were huge gifts on how to deliver the message.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://betsyonthego.com
• Instagram: betsyonthego
• Facebook: betsyonthego
• Linkedin: Betsy Hicks-Russ
• Youtube: betsyonthego
• Other: Tiktok – Betsyonthego