A few years ago, Shauna Connor found herself pregnant and lonely in England. Her husband, Air Force Staff Sgt. Ben Connor, worked long hours at their first duty station, and she had trouble making connections in an unfamiliar country. Then, life changed when she became a follower — on YouTube.
Shauna admits to spending a considerable amount of her free time on the video-sharing social media platform, gleaning from fellow moms-to-be and military spouses. And a few years later, her habit has turned into a thriving side hustle in addition to duties as a stay-at-home mom. After starting her own YouTube channel in 2018, she has gained more than 18,000 followers and now spends much of her days as an influencer — planning content, editing vlogs and deciding on which reel ideas will garner the most attention.
“Anyone can do it in this day and age,” said Shauna about creating her brand. “As long as you are willing to be open-minded and continue evolving with the times. It takes hard work and dedication.”
While many military families have turned to social media as a way to earn extra income no matter where life takes them, Shauna says that for her family, embracing a vlogging lifestyle began first and foremost as an easy way to stay connected to Ben. Two weeks after they had their first child, Elodie, the Connors received news that Ben would deploy in a few months, leaving Shauna worried he would miss many of their daughter’s “firsts.”
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“I started to realize that these people who are YouTubers and bloggers and everything, it’s awesome because they’re capturing family memories without even realizing it’s a job,” she said. “I thought Ben could watch the videos while he was deployed to feel a bit more connected.”
So, they invested in some necessary equipment and Shauna began to get comfortable talking to a camera, documenting the highs and lows of life and figuring out what sort of content resonated with her audience. The first vlog to take off was about Ben leaving for deployment.
Shauna says she started her new hobby without any expectations the channel would take off. She doubted anyone would be interested in watching what daily life entailed for her family.
“I feel like when you start social media there’s always that hope or that thought in the back of your mind of like, ‘I hope I can grow, and I hope I can help people. I hope that my channel and my content can get some traction. I can build a community, and they can relate to me, and I relate to them and we can have this sense of security.’ But at the same time, I never thought it would happen. I had no idea I was going to grow on social media. You’re always ready and think it would be cool if it happened, but you also feel like it’s a one in a million chance.”
Keeping the momentum
Today, the Connors share life with their ever-growing audience from St. Louis while Ben is stationed at Scott Air Force Base. Shauna said the YouTube channel has morphed into a mix of motherhood (“Busy DITL with a newborn and toddler”) and general lifestyle (“Nest with me: kitchen clean and organizing”) with military life sprinkled in (“Finally explaining why we are moving”).
Her current favorite vlogs to produce are the ones that document her children’s milestones and birth stories, especially baby updates after adding a son, Oakley, to the family in September.
While vlogging on YouTube was Shauna’s first taste of social media success, she has since expanded her brand to both Instagram and TikTok, this time with more help from Ben. They plan content together for short reels — “what everyone is loving right now,” Shauna said — with Ben often offering entertaining ideas that get a laugh. Recent content with comedic value has involved Ben pouring cartons of expired milk on his head and dancing shirtless with some killer dad moves.
But the job of an influencer family isn’t always fun and games. Shauna says one 10-second reel takes up to three hours to produce, while YouTube vlogs require five hours of her time, not including the filming. Though she started this journey with “no video editing background,” Shauna says she has learned about equipment tips, shooting techniques and software galore through … social media.
“But even to this day, it’s a lot of learning and mistakes and figuring it out,” she said. “And that’s the hard thing with social media in general. No one gives you a playbook on how to do it.”
Ben added that a key thing the couple has figured out is to post regularly and keep the creativity going, no matter what.
“Be open to the fact that you will get into a rut,” he said. “You will have those times when life gets in the way of your work and you will need to take a break for whatever reason. Just know you need to get back into it.”
Social struggles and success
Of course, being creative and captivating also means being real. Shauna said it’s often difficult because she wants to touch on tough topics (living in England while Ben was deployed … during COVID) but also not come across as ungrateful for her life. There is a fine line between trying to be transparent and also protecting themselves, she says, particularly when considering the responsibility to portray a typical military family to thousands of viewers who may not be familiar with the lifestyle.
“I think it’s trying to depict that the military life isn’t always what you see from the outside,” she said. “I feel like a majority of people who aren’t military at all just think, ‘Yes, they risked their lives,’ and they’re so thankful that the troops do what they do for them, but they don’t know the behind-the-scenes things. They don’t know the commitments that are daily life. They don’t know the loneliness you feel as a family traveling to different places or the loneliness as a stay-at-home mom or the loneliness even as a service member.”
Ben added that an open-book life was hard for him to be comfortable with at first.
“I had just come out of basic training and they grill, grill, grill you about don’t put yourself on social media,” he explained. “It took me a while. Whereas now, I will put my uniform on and go down the slide with a fire extinguisher,” he joked about a recent reel. “At the end of the day, we’re just showing our lives and how we survive as a military family with this being my job.”
And the lifestyle often helps them thrive, as well, including Shauna being able to provide a second income. Her advice to other military families considering a social media career?
“A lot of the people we look up to are reachable or at our fingertips because of social media,” she said. “Use your resources.”
The Connors plan to continue finding ways to grow and add followers — and sponsors — on all platforms. Shauna says social media has blessed her family and fulfilled her dream of being a stay-at-home-mom.
“I want to continue to scale and grow so that I can support our family more,” she said. “So that Ben’s job is honestly just serving our country and not so much trying to serve our country and support our family at the same time. That’s my ultimate goal.”
Follow the Connors on social media on YouTube @Shauna Connor and Instagram and TikTok @ShaunaPConnor.
