For this week’s Deep Dive Series, we are interviewing mom and Clapper creator, @Sundancer05!
@Sundancer05 (or Nicola!) is an Irish creator and mom. She creates content about her day-to-day life, spreading a little positivity and happiness each time she posts. In this interview, we talked about her fitness journey, her proudest accomplishment on Clapper, how she’ll be spending St. Patrick’s Day, her advice to new creators, and so much more!
Keep reading this Deep Dive to find out more about this creator’s inspiring story. Make sure to tune in every Thursday at 5pm CT on our @ClapperCreator account to listen to the bonus questions that will only be available on our live radio show: Clapper Talks.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. What does a day look like in your life?
I’m a stay at home mom at the moment, although my profession would be childcare…which is ironic since I have 2 kids of my own. My day is busy with the children. When I’m not with them or they’re at school, I’m cleaning, cooking, and I recently started going to the gym! I want to get my fitness up and lose some weight. I’m just a busy mom! I have a 4 year old girl and a soon to be 8 year old boy, so they keep me very busy.
We know from your content that you’re a mom. How do you balance being a parent and content creator?
With great difficulty, sometimes! I’ll just be honest, it’s really hard. Especially when they’re off school or on holidays; sometimes I can’t get recording because they’re in the background shouting or trying to kill each other or something. I love them to bits but they can be noisy, so I try and make content whenever they’re at school or in bed. Sometimes you just feel like good-cop/bad-cop, and because I’m a single mom I’m usually both. I hate being bad-cop! There’s never a dull moment.
We noticed that you recently began a fitness journey. Can you tell us a little more about why you started?
I’ve put on so much weight and I’ve struggled with my self confidence because of it. And I’ve just come to a point now where I’m thinking, for my own health (I don’t have any health issues, thank God), I need to lose weight. I need to get more comfortable in my own skin again and I need to do something for my mental health as well. So I thought I’d throw myself into the gym! And you know what guys? For once in my life, I’m actually enjoying working out. Who knew it was fun!
My son saw me the other day and he said “Mommy, your belly’s shrinking.” And I thought that was so lovely. Then my little girl said, “Mommy, your bum’s very small,” and I looked at her as if to say really?! And she goes, “Okay, it’s really huge!”
You do so much, it’s really impressive! How do you make time for all of it?
Sometimes it’s extremely difficult. My kids do inspire me: I have a hashtag, #KidsSaytheFunniestThings and that’s usually about my children. They’re just so comical, they really make me laugh. My platform is about trying to make people feel good, trying to spread love and positivity, so I take that, I use that hashtag, and it brings me joy and happiness. I’m hoping it brings others joy and happiness listening to it.
If people in the audience haven’t been able to tell, you’re Irish! Do you notice a difference between Irish social media and content versus American?
I guess it’s the way we speak. Obviously, the humor sometimes differs. But the way we speak, some of the slang we might say, like…if I said to you, “what’s the craic”, you’d look at me and go “What? What is she saying? She’s asking me about drugs?” But what’s the craic means: How are you? Hello, how are ya’?
For us, tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Can you tell us a little about what a typical St. Patrick’s Day looks like in Ireland – or at least for your family?
Well, I’m recovering from a broken big toe. Yes, the gym’s great and all that, but not when you drop a 10 kg weight on your foot and break your toe. So I won’t be going to any parades tomorrow! Although there are St. Patrick’s Day parades and my children want to go, I need to make sure my foot heals properly. There’s not much you can do for a broken toe and I need to be sensible. I don’t want to end up walking with a limp. So there are parades on, but we probably won’t do anything, to be honest with you.
There’s a historical place in my town that was on TV for an archeological dig. It’s a really, really beautiful site. They have a fun fair up there, they have lots of stuff for the kids to do, and they might have Irish dancing and stuff like that to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
When did you join Clapper? How did your journey as a creator begin?
I first started Clapper on the 14th of March, 2021. I came over from “The Other App” and I just wanted something – I heard Clapper was more real, more authentic, and I just wanted that. As soon as I started posting videos I just fell in love with this app. The community is amazing. The support that people give…I just think it’s like home.
You’ve been on Clapper for quite a long time! What has been your proudest moment as a content creator so far?
I’m not sure. That’s a really hard one! I’m really proud to be part of Team Positive Wave, and I’m really proud of the friends that I’ve made. At any time, I could pick up the phone and text somebody or DM them and they’ll get back to me. There’s a really good support network, and if you need prayer for anything, you can put a prayer request out and people are all over that. So I really love that. And this show! I’m proud to be on this show, so thank you for having me!
What do you enjoy most about Clapper? In what ways do you feel like Clapper needs improvement?
Things that I like…well, I’ve already said I like the community! I like the way that Clapper is evolving. I like that people do get back to you. They’re not robots, they’re real people. I like the way that you put on events, like the St. Patrick’s Day event. You try to celebrate every occasion and I love that! And I loved the festival that you put on last year; it was absolutely amazing! I was hooked, I never put my phone down, I absolutely was enthralled in it. It was just like being in a festival. I just love all the different events and how you bring creators together.
I don’t like all the trashy stuff at the moment, I don’t. The Lives and all the stuff you go into, and you see stuff you don’t ever want to see. But, it is a work in progress and I know that. And there’s kids now on the app, and I suppose all we can do as creators is report, report, report.
What advice would you give new users that want to be successful on Clapper?
Some advice I would say is, be authentic and be real. Show what you like, your interests, share your life, snippets of what you feel comfortable with. And just be real, be yourself. Join groups, chat to people, give feedback on posts, be supportive and you will get support back. That is how you grow. You’re present on the app, you encourage people and give positive feedback, and you will get it in return…most times.
We hope you enjoyed getting to know @Sundancer05. For our latest deep dive on @LauraMilesSlots read here.