Behind the Scenes of a MarketWatch Minidoc

Right around early August (yeah, remember when time meant something?) I randomly got an email from a film director asking if we could chat about my story. At the end of August I took a day off of work to meet with him, show him around my neighborhood, and bring a friend or two along as we filmed for the MarketWatch FIRE Starters series.

YES, YOUR GIRL DARCY IS GETTING PICKED UP BY THE MEDIA!

And not just any media either: I’m now joining finance greats like Grant from Millennial Money and Julien and Kiersten from Rich & REGULAR by being both a content creator and a part of this series. Quite a few more folks now want to get their guac, too. 😉

If you haven’t seen it, feast your eyes on the awesome final product:

No More Anonymity with a World-Class Director

In other news, surprise! With this video I’m semi-stepping out from behind the avocado-themed curtain to reveal my real-life name and face. I’m still hoping to go by Darcy in the finance community, but we’ll see how long that lasts with the views this is getting. As of this writing it’s gotten over 34,000 views on YouTube with a TON of comments loving the story!

Which isn’t too surprising with Brian Quist at the helm. His first email included a link to his other work. I clicked on it expecting to see more mini-documentaries and business-y videos. Instead, I saw his film work with stars like Lizzo, Taylor Swift, and Natalie Portman. That was interspersed with stuff for MASSIVE media empires (freaking Vogue! Vanity Fair!! MTV!!!) And now Darcy is on that list? There’s no way to expect something like that in your first year of blogging.

And Brian was incredible the whole way! Watching that video above you can’t really tell how nervous I was to be doing the voiceover bits. Let me tell you, it takes a ton of skill behind the camera to get that done; I felt so bad when I’d mess up but he never stopped being patient with me. For that alone I was incredibly grateful, but he took it to the next level to really showcase the things I love about my life. Which are, of course, largely possible thanks to my money know-how.

(Plus, getting Bizzy to come by and talk more about our tribute song didn’t hurt, either.)

The Song, the Song!

And SPEAKING OF Bizzy – my creative partner in crime – his part truly pulled the video together. Despite us still embroiled in a pandemic of epic proportions, he took the time to come out to my neck of the woods and chat with Brian and I on all things song- and finance-related. While still juggling a semester at Harvard. In quarantine. No way could I have found a better artist to work with, and he’s still pumping out new music! If you haven’t caught his Corona Light video you’re missing out.

I’m tempted to just link to this when I see YouTube comments going “Where’s the song?!” just to further spread the wealth. Once the vaccines become widespread and we reach some kind of “normal” I’m hoping the We Want Guac music video will make it online too. The most I can say of it now it: Coming Soon!

How Fame Has Made Me a Finance Diva

Ah, yes. Before this video hit the Internet I was a quiet dork who wanted to help people. Nowadays? I’m a raging prima donna who’s just as prone to blow off fans as I am to start yelling at paparazzi about how they choose to budget.

In reality, this feature with MarketWatch means a higher uptick in the messages I’m getting from new blog readers that have seen the video. Since it went live I’ve heard from several people asking for my input on starting IRAs or reaching high-pay jobs like mine. Many of them were folks in theirs 30s to 50s, which came as a surprise. But hey, by no means is this information limited to us young whippersnappers! I’m working hard to keep up with the emails, so if you’ve sent one and I haven’t responded yet please bear with me as I clean up my inbox.

It was really fun to show off my part of the FIRE Starters series to my close friends and brother (“Why is one of the first shots of you going through a box?” was his main response…) Besides that, contributing to the FIRE Starters series means reaching more people about how they can really get going on the climb to wealth. Now they’ve got a place to learn about investing and securing a big salary. They’ve got over a hundred articles to meander through, or some direction to next-level financial content.

My main hope is to show that building wealth when you’re young is more in-reach than what it might seem. You won’t see everyone coming out with music or being in a mini documentary while building their net worth.

But that’s not the point.

By taking it on you will see your life shaping into something much, much better. That’s what money management, and the FIRE movement, is all about: building your ideal life. That’s the message I feel comes through this FIRE Starters series, and one I’m going to see more people like me have the tools to chase after.