FHow ONE Viral Video Changed Her YouTube Career with Isabella Demarko: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 258
“To think I’d spent so many years on YouTube and never really gotten anywhere with it, and then one video could change my life and change my YouTube career.”
Be sure to check out my FREE eBook: How to Create Impactful Content During COVID-19 Pandemic! This 32 page guide will walk you through how to create content during a global crisis PLUS it includes over 75 YouTube video ideas that you can use TODAY to grow your channel!
Isabella Demarko is a UK-based YouTuber and actress. Her channel is a haircare, beauty, style, and lifestyle channel with 323K subscribers. Isabella’s YouTube journey started when she was 14 years old, when she created a YouTube channel because she felt the need to be seen and heard. As a teenager, Isabella was shy and felt isolated and struggled to be accepted by her peers. It took 9 years for her to start taking her channel seriously, and one viral video changed her career forever.
It took Isabella a while to really find her niche. She created videos about fashion, nails, and just about anything that interested her. She had no upload scheduled and only posted sporadically, and had no idea how to truly optimize her channel. Isabella studied acting at university for 3 years and graduated with honors, which has totally revolutionized her confidence and presence in front of (and behind) the camera. It took 8-9 years of Isabella treating YouTube like a hobby and not taking it seriously before she got an idea to try something new.
“30k views. I literally fell to the ground.”
The idea popped into her head randomly one night to create a video about her hair journey. Despite never having scripted a video before, she felt the need to script it out and wrote the entire thing in a single evening. She then spent hours and hours the following week gathering YEARS worth of footage and editing it all together in what was for her a totally new style. That style has stuck and it is now the style she’s known for. She did a voiceover and spent hours sourcing memes and GIFs and editing them into the video. From start to finish, the project probably took her at least 40 hours. Isabella’s hard work paid off. Within one night, the video got 30,000 views. When she uploaded the video, she had 80k subscribers (something that took her 8-9 years to build). Her hair video helped her gain 100k more subscribers within a month or two. Isabella made the decision to capitalize on the success of the video, and she did the next 3 videos in the same style, and these videos also did well. People were invested in the first one and wanted to know what happened next. Because of her original viral video, she’s maintained her style, especially in the thumbnails. Isabella is now a full time YouTuber and sticks mostly to hair videos, but wanting to stay true to herself, she throws some other topics in there that interest her. The video that totally changed her channel now has 6 million views (and counting)!
“Everyone on YouTube learns through experience and through doing it. It’s the best way to learn.”
3 Key Interview Takeaways
- Go with your gut. Isabella had this feeling deep down that she NEEDED to create that video, and she NEEDED to make it different from all the others. What would have happened if she had never acted on that gut feeling? She also knew in her gut that the combination of her hard work and luck would make the video successful, and it was. When you get a gut feeling or inspiration, act on it.
- Stick with what works. Once Isabella figured out the secret sauce for her channel based on one video, she rode that wave and maintained the same editing and thumbnail style to keep her viewers coming back.
- Be true to yourself. But there’s a catch to sticking with what works, and that is finding the balance between putting out the content that clearly works and also staying true to yourself. The hair videos are what people like to see, but Isabella doesn’t want to pigeonhole herself into one niche. She has so many things she’s interested in, so while she mostly sticks to hair, she throws in other stuff to satiate her other interests, and those videos are mostly for her, not for her viewers.
Mentioned in the Episode:
The Journey to Waist Length | My Hair Story
I Learn to Rollerblade in 5 Days
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Samantha Gilbert
Connect with Isabella:
Resources
Add your name to the Zero to Influence YouTube Bootcamp waitlist so you are notified when space becomes available!
Watch my replay of my FREE Zero to 100k Subscribers Masterclass
FREE GUIDES:
Creating Content During Crisis: How to Create Impactful Content During COVID-19 Pandemic
Getting Started on YouTube: YouTube Niche Workbook
How to get onto PR lists and receive a TON of free product even if you have a small following: PR List
YOUTUBE OPTIMIZATION PLUG-IN I RECOMMEND
TubeBuddy [Use the code ErikasBuddy to get 20% off]
MY FAVORITE BUSINESS TOOLS
Course Creation: Looking to create a course? Kajabi is the BEST platform hands down. I use this for my course after extensive research on all the other platforms.
Live Calls and Interviews: I use Ecamm for my podcast interviews, both audio and for YouTube that you see here on YouTube. It makes it super easy to share my screen and create the split-screen with my guest. I’m not super techie and this software is really easy to use!
Webinars and Live calls: I use Zoom.us for my group coaching calls in my private membership group for female YouTube creators. It’s also the software I use to record my Road to 100k YouTube Subscribers Masterclass!
THE BEST YOUTUBE/PODCASTING EQUIPMENT
After interviewing HUNDREDS of successful YouTube creators, these are the pieces of equipment that hands down get mentioned time and time again. You can’t go wrong with anything on this list!
- 4k Camera: Great for starting out and vlogging
- Lens: This lens is recommended highly by many of my podcast guests, it gives the blurry “YouTuber” background look.
- Audio: If you want to upgrade your set-up, audio should be one of the first investments (after a good camera). This microphone is unanimously the favorite amongst my podcast guests.
- Podcast/Voiceover Microphone: If you are looking for a great microphone for a podcast or video voiceover, this is it! This is the one that you see in all of my videos and the one I’ve recorded my podcast on for years.
- Webcam: For my interviews, that you see in my videos, this is the webcam that I use. Super inexpensive and easy to set up!
- Inexpensive Lighting Kit: Need to pick up some lights but don’t want to spend a ton? This is a great set that will get you started and help improve the look of your videos.
- Ring light: Looking for that beauty look? Invest in a ring light! This is an inexpensive light that does that trick!
FACEBOOK GROUP
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
*Erika Vieira is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com.
**Disclaimers: all opinions are my own, sponsors are acknowledged. Links in the description are typically affiliate links that let you help support the podcast at no extra cost.
