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Why This DIY Creator Left 7.5 Million Subs Behind š
Life after a successful, family-owned YouTube channel
Good morning. Today is Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the freeing of all enslaved Black people in the US in 1865.
To learn more about Juneteenthās historical significance, head to the National Museum of African American History and Cultureās official page. We also love the Lincoln Center Orchestra's new jazz album in celebration of the holiday.
Why This DIY Creator Left a Channel with 7.5 Million Subs
Joseph āJ-Fredā Fredrick co-founded the challenge YouTube channel Team Edge with his relatives Matthias and Bryan in 2015āand helped grow it to 7.5 million subscribers and 3.6 billion views.
But after taking nearly a year off from YouTube, Fredrick is back with a new venture: DIY channel Man Made.
Context: Fredrick announced his departure from Team Edge via a joint video with Bryan in October 2023.
The duo explained that, after years of content pivots to address viewership decline, they were going their separate ways.
āWe all came to a family decision that we think itās time we move on and let go, not try to just hold on to what we used to have in the past with that level of success,ā they said in the video.
Fredrick is now kicking off his second act: He documented the process of building his ādreamā garage workshop over the last eight months. That workshop will serve as the new home of Man Made, where heāll be tackling DIY projects and creating videos about them moving forward.
Zoom out: As weāve covered frequently so far in 2024, āretirementā takes many different shapes for YouTube creators.
For Fredrick, it means downsizing and taking on a unique niche from scratch.
For other creators like MatPat and Tom Scott, it means appearing on camera less frequently in order to pursue bigger creative projects, such as MatPatās first fashion show.
One Creatorās Plan to Revamp the Wheelchair Industry
Zack Nelson (left) and his wife, Cambry (right) make off-roading wheelchairs The Rig (right) and The Kids Rig (second from left) / JerryRigEverything
Zack Nelson, aka JerryRigEverything, is on a mission to make wheelchairs less expensive. He told us how heās doing itā¦with the help of his YouTube channel.
Context: Nelson has amassed over 2 billion views in 12 years of making DIY and tech review content on YouTube.
Five years ago, he met his partner, Cambry, who was paralyzed from an equestrian vaulting accident.
Nelson has partnered with local manufacturer Utah Trike to make off-roading wheelchairs The Rig and The Kids Rig, but now? Heās taking on manufacturing himself.
The pitch: āWe can manufacture wheelchairs for 80% cheaper than other people right now,ā Nelson told us. āHere in the US, insurance and the middlemen are what drives these medical equipment prices through the roof. So weāre bypassing them and selling direct-to-consumer.ā
The cost: Nelson said heās spent over $1.5 million on a 26,000-square-foot facility, equipment, and staffing this year. He can make 1,000 wheelchairs a year right now, but the goal is to reach 10-15,000 per year.
The plan: Nelson is financing the project via his YouTube channel (which counts brand deals with companies like Anker and The Ridge as its biggest revenue source), pocket knife sales, and site donations.
āIām in a position now where I feel super lucky to be where Iām at with a large audience but also financially,ā Nelson said. āMe and my wife are never going to make money from this business. Weāre just making wheelchairs as cheap as possible so people can get out, explore, and have fun.ā
Sponsored by Thinkific
The Leap Helps Creator Earn $8K via Mini-Course
2 hours and $0...
Thatās all Andrea Casanova (a creator with over 200,000 TikTok followers) needed to create a mini-course that made more than $8,000 based on one of her most popular videos.
Howād she launch it so efficiently? With a little help from The Leap.
The Leap is a free, all-in-one creator store that lets you build, sell, and promote bite-sized digital products straight to your audience.
Use its AI-powered product builder to develop mini-courses, guides, and tutorials curated for mobile-first consumption.
Take The Leap for yourself. Create your free account and start monetizing now.
TikTokās New Tools Allow Ads Featuring AI-Generated Avatars
TikTok Symphony introduces Avatars, which can generate AI representations of people in videos and dub their voice in different languages / TikTok
On Monday, TikTok announced that itās testing a new ad offering: AI-generated avatars, which will appear in feeds with a āMade With AIā label.
What it means: Brands that use the feature can choose to produce advertisements with one of two options ā
A stock avatar ācreated from video footage of real paid actors,ā according to TikTok.
A custom avatar that looks like a specific creator who licenses their likeness to brands.
Big picture: With multi-language dubbing included, the new tool āwill enable new ways to scale creative strategies on TikTok,ā the company wrote in a blog post.
Weāre curiousādo you approve of AI avatars in advertising? |
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Thank you to everyone who came out to our NYC creator event last night! It was such a pleasure to meet you, talk to you, and hear where you are on your creator journey. You were engaged, came with great questions, and made it easy to host. Objectively, the best readers around.
Stay tuned for a recap and more pics from the event. See ya next time!āļø
š½ļø From The Studio
We're excited to announce that we're dropping a secret project at the end of the month...and Publish Press readers will have an exclusive opportunity for early access.
Starting today, we'll begin revealing IRL location hints for early access.
The first 50 people to arrive at this secret location on Tuesday, 6/25 will receive the drop there.
Hint No. 1: This 19th century developer and conservationist wrote several books, including The Conquest of Death and Tasks By Twilight (both published in 1893).
P.S. The drop will officially go live for everyone at presspublish.store on Friday, June 28.
š„ Press Worthy
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How do you know when itās time to launch merch? Colin and Samir tackled this question and more on a Discord live sessionāwatch here. *
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