Tales of the unexpected...
Or how I got to 100k subscribers on YouTube by accident.
Even writing the phrase 'YouTube journey' makes me want to cringe and laugh simultaneously.
But after receiving this Silver Creator Award for reaching 100,000 subscribers, I guess I have one?
My channel came out of Covid - surprise surprise. Stuck at home, I started playing around with some ideas for educational content for clients, and made a series of videos about how to work, direct and negotiate with voice actors.
After that, I felt myself beginning to enjoy the challenge at getting competent at something new. So I decided to make more educational content about voice acting for a year, posting once a week.
✔️ I learnt how to film myself better.
✔️ I learnt how to structure a video.
✔️ I learnt how to work with an editor.
And the process helped consolidate a lot of my learning and ideas up to that point in my career. I made videos for 52 consecutive weeks, and even got my subscriber count past the 1,000 mark!
But then... I ran out of things to say.
I faced a choice - try to keep going just because I felt I owed it to my audience, or admit that it was a good run, but something drastic needed to change.
Not being excited by the prospect of repeating myself - and having no real interest in becoming a coach to other voice actors - I chose the latter.
Taking a step back, my biggest concern was that I was addressing my peers and not my potential clients.
But my OTHER biggest fear, was that even I was bored retreading what my clients should be (hypothetically) interested in. I wanted to be truly excited by the content.
So I just began repurposing my Tiktok content instead - recordings of me performing material that it excites me.
I didn't post natively.
I didn't optimise video SEO.
I just set up a workflow and was consistent.
And after a few months, the channel started to really snowball.
Received wisdom is that you should focus on ONE social platform and make getting really good at it your focus. A sentiment I broadly agree with.
But if you believe in your stuff, it's already getting some traction and you can find a way to repurpose it easily, then it's definitely work a try.
Through the act of 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 repurposing (using repurpose.io - no advertisement involved), I managed to grow my YT to 100k and my Instagram to 91k without much real effort.
And those new platforms?
They had 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵 audiences to my Tiktok - including a LOT of clients.
So yeah. I'm not saying do what I do.
Just sharing my own roundabout journey and marking a milestone!
But where do I put this????
𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱, 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱-𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿?
Feel free to contact me here
If you’d like to check out my You Tube Channel click here
By Christopher Tester, British Male Voice Actor
