Meet Abbey Sowick and Robert Perez of by Sun and the Moon in Echo Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abbey Sowick and Robert Perez.

Abbey and Robert, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
We met at a restaurant that we both work at. We became friends and eventually started dating about a year later. A couple of months into our relationship, after dinner one night, we decided to make separate lists of what we wanted in our lives. When we were done writing out our lists, we compared the two and saw that we had a lot of similarities in what we wanted.

Mainly, we both wanted to travel, work for ourselves using our creativity and inspire people. And that’s how by Sun and the Moon was created. Firstly, we knew that we wanted to inspire and empower people to live a healthy, active and balanced lifestyle. So we created an Instagram account to start to build a community around that idea. In the beginning, we created all of our content using only our iPhones. Both of us had little knowledge in photography, so we were learning everything as we went.

A few months later we started our YouTube which was part of the plan from the beginning, but it took more time to get rolling. Again, we were using our iPhones to create the videos and learning everything as we went. The first video we made, we worked on for several months and in the end, chose not to release it because we hated it. It was both hilarious and sad but, luckily we were both on the same page about it.

Eventually, we grew confident enough in our skills to invest in a camera. We shoot on a Fujifilm xt20, and her name is Marilyn, she’s our baby. Robert started learning to edit video using adobe premiere, and Abbey learned how to edit photos through Lightroom.

We began planning trips to show a travel aspect to healthy living, and that’s where we’re at today. By Sun and the Moon has grown tremendously from where it started and we did that by devoting many hours to creating and learning. As a couple, we work multiple jobs and spend our free time working on everything by Sun and the Moon is about, exploring new places, being active outdoors, eating healthy food and sharing it in a real and relatable way.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s an uphill battle on a road that we are still traveling on. A source of our struggles comes from us challenging ourselves and each other creatively and always having the desire to be doing and learning more. Social media is a challenge in itself, although we enjoy creating content and sharing it, the tedious work of building a following isn’t our favorite. Another struggle is that we work other jobs as our main source of income right now. That means that all of the content we create is done on our days off which can make it hard to balance time for ourselves.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
By Sun and the Moon is a health, travel, and food blog/Youtube channel. It was created by a couple looking to share their experiences of balanced living, exploring new places, and eating delicious, healthy foods.

What we’re known for is giving a grounded, relatable yet fun representation of our honest experiences. We showcase places and represent brands that we truly believe in. By Sun and the Moon features restaurants that source produce locally, use organic ingredients and have sustainable practices. The brands we choose to represent have ethical business practices, and we are known for shining a light on these types of places and brands.

We are very proud of the progress that we’ve made in the two years its been since we conceived by Sun and the Moon. We also take pride in the things that we’ve learned about video editing, photography and crafting a story. We’re getting to a place now where businesses that we’ve admired are wanting to work with us, and that’s definitely a step in the right direction and something we are proud of.

We have a unique voice as individuals and as a couple. We were both raised in hard-working, middle-class families which makes our voice and message relatable to a majority of Americans. We’re teaching ourselves everything, every step of the way while working other jobs.

By Sun and the Moon is an example that hard work and a creative spirit is all you need to build your dream. Abbey’s passion for holistic health and wellness and Robert’s passion for storytelling gives by Sun and the Moon a very unique platform. We strive not to follow trends but, to lead with what we’re passionate about.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
We find a lot of inspiration being based here in Los Angeles. Because we focus on sustainable, organic dining and being active outdoors, the amount of options to showcase that is vast. We believe that you can create something similar to what we’re doing anywhere in the world as long as you are able to set aside time to travel.

We would definitely recommend Los Angeles or California as a starting place but, the cost of living is high, so you better be ready to work hard doing both what you love to do and also what you don’t love as much, but that pays the bills while you’re building your business.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bysunandthemoon/?hl=en
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyP-1zbI88KWt-1-ja5oKLA/featured

Image Credit:
Jamie Dawn

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