In 2012, Chelsea Coulston had just moved to a new house in a new city with a newborn while her husband was deployed. She turned her focus to decorating her new rental home, and turned to the internet for help. But she wasn’t finding much to inspire her, since most of what existed was meant for people who could make permanent changes. So she started a blog called Making Home Base to share renter-friendly decorating ideas for military families. What followed was a 13-year front-row seat to how the internet went from a wholesome, free exchange of ideas to a massively profitable influencer industry — and why she ultimately walked away.

" I think we're to this place where social media doesn't feel good. The content that we see doesn't feel real or authentic a lot of times. "

Hear Chelsea talk about:

• How home bloggers were among the first to use Instagram — not to sell, but to send people back to their sites
• How the money worked: sidebar ads to Google AdSense to brand deals to sponsored posts, and what that means for authenticity
• Why Chelsea calls the creator economy the Wild West, and what it actually takes to keep up
• Why everyone with a following is an influencer now and why that comes with responsibility
• What made her walk away, and why she'd reset the whole thing to the early blogging days if she could

Mentioned in this episode:

• Making Home Base — Chelsea's blog
• Making Home Base on Instagram
• Brick— an app designed to help people limit their time on social media

Support This Show:

• Follow Tell Me What It’s Like in your favorite podcast app
• Leave a rating & review — it helps others find the show
• Share the episode and tag @RaineMediaCo on social media

Mentioned in this episode:

Help Others Discover the Show

Enjoying Tell Me What It’s Like? Leaving a rating and review in your podcast app helps more listeners discover the show. Thanks for supporting thoughtful conversations and perspective-driven storytelling.