Rapid YouTube Growth with Charles Gross: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 42
Welcome to the Beauty and the Vlog podcast! For this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing YouTuber Charles Gross all about his rapid youtube growth. This guy has been KILLING it on YouTube and he goes into detail how he has approached his channel and been able to make it grow so quickly. I really enjoyed chatting with him and I know you will love the interview. You can listen to the interview by clicking on the pink bar above or listen in iTunes or Stitcher.
Charles Gross started his YouTube channel October of 2014 and is 20 years old and lives in NYC. His channel has a variety of videos including tips on how to choose a handbag and accessories along with candid conversations and fashion tips. His channel has seen rapid growth with 32k subscribers and 2.6 million video views in less than a year. Thank you for checking out Rapid YouTube Growth with Charles Gross!
Tweet us! @beautyvlogs
OTHER EPISODES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
How Lindsey Hughes Reached One Million YouTube Subscribers: BV Podcast 33
Finding your Niche on YouTube with Shruti Anand: BV Podcast 22
From 0 to 100k Subscribers in 10 Months with Melanie Murphy: BV Podcast 1
If you are a YouTuber, sign up for Grapevine (It’s FREE!)! You get connected with potential sponsors and other YouTubers looking to collaborate! (Plus you will be getting a special bonus exclusively for my listeners and you are supporting the show!) Click here.
Rapid YouTube Growth with Charles Gross Podcast Show Notes
Below are some quotes directly from Charles himself that he stated throughout his interview. For the full interview, make sure to click on the pink bar above to listen.
It was very serendipitous. I started as a YouTube watcher. I started watching YouTube and it seemed out of reach to make YouTube a career. It seemed like this very mysterious but glamorous thing people were doing. Once day, I decided to put up a video without any intention. I started to get views, a little bit in the beginning. But, I really loved it. It was a very casual start. I didn’t have a real game plan when I started.
I feel YouTube is not a very secure industry. No way to guarantee people would watch or you get views. I didn’t want to get my hopes up in the beginning. Let me put up a video, see what happens. The audience grew and I loved interacting with the audience and that’s when I thought, wow, I really love doing this. I know that even if I didn’t achieve rapid YouTube growth it would be a hobby because it was so fun regardless if people were watching.
The progression was overnight. I forgot when, but I made an announcement on my channel that I would make a new video everyday. At that point, I didn’t have very many subscribers. Something in me said, I really want to make this a full time thing. I love YouTube and am really passionate about it. That is when I realized I wanted to make YouTube my full time thing. I still do Photoshop retouching along with YouTube. The Photoshop retouching is a small part of my career; YouTube is the majority of it.
Ad sense revenue is there and its great but its not a ton of money, certainly not a lot to live off of. Branding opportunities have been an incredible source of income. A lot of viewers have a problem with it, but it’s a great source of income for YouTubers.
One thing that people don’t mention with rapid YouTube growth, there is a huge start-up cost. A lot of these, how to be a YouTuber videos say you can use a webcam and internet. Well, that is true. But, it does cost a lot in that it is good to start with good camera equipment. When you first start, you are not making any money and it is all losses. It’s not a fast thing. There is no fast or guaranteed return on your investment. I am lucky that I have the means that I do not have to work full time and can buy the equipment.
A lot of people think when you first start YouTube; there is a secret formula. I think if you are just yourself and unique but I do feel YouTube is luck of the draw. Besides being unique, be candid, be open and have good production quality, thats how I achieved rapid youtube growth.
Beauty Bonus Round:
Three holy grail items:
2.) Bite Beauty Lush Lip Tint in Lychee
Three Holy Grail Work Items:
1.) Lighting: Lighting is so key on YouTube. It makes a difference. I cant explain how many times I have watched a YouTube video and I’m angry because of the lighting.
2.) Laptop: Having a fast laptop is important. Editing is part of the creative process; my laptop is my key item.
3.) Face Powder: During my videos I am blotting and I check myself.
Lets talk lighting:
A lot of YouTubers use fluorescent lights because they are easy to color balance and easy on skin tones. I really like tungsten lights that are orange wash used in theater. I love the tungsten lights. I use one key tungsten light and I use a light underneath my face and I use a third light on my side, a three light set up. I put the one in front of my face underneath on the floor shining up. Right now I have a hand mirror that I put underneath my face. All of the photographers say to me when I am photo shopping, lift the highlights under the face, soften the shadows. I always think, if the photographer used a reflector or light under the face, I wouldn’t have to do this retouching. I always use a light under the face. I have a light and I use a soft white umbrella. It reduces shadows and makes it look clean and even. It is a good tip. You can even use it underneath to bounce out the light. There is a store in Manhattan called BH photo. I buy all of my camera and lighting equipment from them. It was a learning curve applying that to video. I played around and tinkered and found what worked.
YouTube: CharlesGross
Instagram: @charlesbgross
Twitter: @Thecharlesgross
Did you like this? If you learned something from this interview and post, please share! Facebook, Twitter or more! Muah! Erika
