Good morning. MrBeast officially has over 200 Million subscribers across all of his YouTube channels. That means if all those subscribers only followed one MrBeast channel, more than 2% of the world would be subscribed to MrBeast.

–Hannah Doyle

From 50,000 to 1 Million Subscribers in 2 Years

Actor and long-time YouTuber Julie Nolke went viral in 2020 with the video Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self, and has sustained growth to reach 1 million subscribers earlier this year.

“Before 2020, I had spent many years on YouTube as a mildly successful creator,” Nolke told us. “I’m thankful for that time because it created a foundation of internal validation and a clear mission statement for why I created in the first place.”

How did she get here? 

• Nolke started uploading to YouTube in 2014 after difficulty breaking into the entertainment industry. She slowly built a following of 50,000 subscribers by 2020.

• In April 2020 she posted the video Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self and a few days later shared it on Facebook where it took off and landed on the front page of Reddit. 

• By May 2020 she had 252,000 YouTube subscribers, and ended the year with 798,000.

• Her Patreon subscribers nearly doubled, from 341 patrons in 2020 to 679 today.

• In the past 12 months, her channel has earned 40 million views with an average of 108,000 views per day.

“I’m proud to say I haven’t changed my content since the viral video. It’s foolish to chase the ‘views dragon,’” Nolke said. “You need to keep your head down and focus on creating truthful and original content that makes people laugh.”

Nolke shared more about what it was like to go viral, and advice she has for creators to sustain long-term growth. Check out our exclusive Q&A at the end of this newsletter.👇

Our Take

Growth happens slowly—and then all at once. Although it may feel daunting, slow growth is ideal for a long-term career as a creator. Comedians and actors like Julie Nolke and Andrew Schulz are using social to build direct relationships with their audiences, and funnel them to other platforms like Patreon, sidestepping the traditional gatekeepers in the entertainment business.

TikToker American Baron Releases a TikTok Short Film

Last week the film and comedy sketch creator released his first 6-minute video that takes advantage of TikTok’s new duration limit, which now caps at 10 minutes. 

So far the video has around 194,000 views. That is on the low end for his typical video performance, which this year has averaged 1.9 million views per video.

Unlike most creators on TikTok, American Baron has amassed over 2 million followers creating content that draws largely from the past, making videos inspired by the work of directors David Lynch, Larry David, and Wes Anderson.

He writes short stories that he turns into videos, like A Conversation with the Future and Relationship Catch-22. He’s also done partnerships with Paramount Films and an 11-part series on chance and fate. American Baron plans to release a book later this year and make more original content on YouTube.

Our Take

For creators that want to dive into long-form content, they now have a couple options: TikTok and YouTube. Each has their strengths—TikTok can help you find more viewership, but YouTube is ultimately the best place to monetize. We're curious to see the retention data on TikTok as more creators try lengthier videos and if users are actually interested in long form content or just short, snackable bites. 

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Michael Reeves Returns to YouTube After 11-month Hiatus

Last week, the comedy tech YouTuber with 6.6 million subscribers uploaded his first video in nearly a year, gaining 2 million views within the first 24 hours it was posted.

Now at over 5 million views, which is about half of the average views he pulled in last year, the video shows how he made a program that invested in certain stocks depending on where his fish was in its fish tank. It also features cameos from Ludwig and Graham Stephan.

Our Take

It’s a misconception that algorithms and audiences don't like change when it comes to their favorite creators. Reeve’s successful return is proof that true communities will stick around and want to be part of the next chapter of a creator’s career, even if there's a break in between.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Rhett and Link’s new series with Discovery Plus launches April 24.

• Twitch is shutting down its desktop app.

• RedCircle is the one-stop-shop for podcast monetization and growth.* 

• Colin and Samir break down why TikTokers raised money for their own fund.

• Visa launches a creator NFT program.

• Axel Webber releases merch.

• Hype House gets a new cast.

*This is sponsored advertising content

Q&A: Julie Nolke

The following interview, conducted via email, has been edited and condensed for clarity.

You started uploading to YouTube 8 years ago—where were you in your acting career at that point? What drew you to creating on the platform?

I was two years out of theater school and completely heartbroken by the acting industry. I had tried every avenue to get a foot in the door but the industry has so many gatekeepers that I couldn’t gain any traction. 

I worked two jobs and couldn’t afford acting classes, which meant I couldn’t even practice my craft. That’s when I began the YouTube channel. I wanted an opportunity to practice in front of a camera. Creators like Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart were hugely influential to me because I knew they began as actors. 

Can you walk us through how your Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self video went viral in 2020? Did you feel like you had to change how you made videos from there on out? What has changed and what has stayed the same since? 

Initially I wasn’t planning on posting that video—I didn’t think it was very good. A friendly reminder that artists are never the best judge of their own work. I had 50,000 subscribers at the time and had posted it to my Youtube channel where it saw the usual two thousand views. 

Then, 3 days later, I uploaded it to Facebook where it absolutely took off. Within 12 hours the video was getting hundreds of thousands of views and the Youtube link had hit the front page of Reddit. My subscriber count skyrocketed and people were flocking to my library of content that was relatively unseen. Videos from 3 years ago with under a thousand views now had half a million views. 

In a way, I was lucky because the follow-up video to Explaining the Pandemic had already been shot and edited. I like to work in advance. There wasn’t any pressure to create something equally amazing because I had already committed to the next video. 

Differences now, I hired an editor and an assistant. Building out the team has been really helpful. Everything else is the same, I still write all the videos and film them in my apartment :)

You’re also on TikTok and Instagram—how do you approach those platforms differently than YouTube? 

Ugh, with significant difficulty. Every time a new platform or video format comes out for social media I have a little anxiety attack. Me: “Oh great, here’s one more thing I have to make content for”. But we do because the fear of being irrelevant or outdated is terrifying. 

I feel like all creators deal with the dreaded pull to be on multiple platforms. For me, it’s like, “How do I work smarter, not harder? I make all this great content, I should be able to use it in other places.” So I try to reuse and repackage my content for different platforms but it’s not always successful. Realistically these platforms want content specifically made for them and I just do the best I can. 

For both TikTok and IG, I’ll reframe to 9x16 and recut so the videos feel quicker—I find I lose a lot of comedy this way but these platforms want speed and something easily digestible. I actually think these platforms have a detrimental effect on comedy and joke writing but that’s a can of worms for another interview. 

Congrats on earning 1 million subs! What advice would you give to creators working toward that milestone?

Thank you! My advice is lame but true: just keep creating. Have a clear vision for your videos and continue to challenge yourself to make them better.

I believe the key to success is the drops in the bucket, to use my favorite analogy. Reaching your goal is overflowing the bucket and each piece of work you do is a few drops. You never know which drop will overflow the bucket so you just have to keep your head down and keep trusting the process because eventually it will happen. 

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