How Frederique Bros went from Business Failing in 2020 to Full Time YouTube Creator: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 318
“There is always room for someone on YouTube. There is always an audience for someone.”
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Born in France, Frederique Bros lived in Paris for 10 years where she learnt how to dress up effortlessly chic for each occasion. Last year, she created her YouTube channel to help women with fashion, beauty and lifestyle tips with a French twist. Her worldwide community is growing fast with nearly 200,000 followers and still counting. Frederique loves sharing her styling skills and fashion flair with elegance and humor.
Frederique Bros comes from a digital marketing background, and owned a web design agency (which completely crashed during Covid). She had a YouTube channel that she had made a few videos on, mostly about web design, and nobody really watched them. Most of the videos were answers to common questions she got from her web design clients, but she really had no strategy and had no idea what she was doing, so she decided to rebrand. She relied on being French, having lived in Paris for 10 years, and being over 40 with a passion for fashion. So… she decided to give it a try. People were either going to love her or hate her, and there just might have been a market for her. Her first video in February 202 was admittedly very bad, but she had fun making it. At the time, her business was really struggling and YouTube was either going to make it or break it for her. She started with 18 subscribers (mostly her friends), and set a goal for herself for 5,000 subscribers in 6 months.
“The algorithm is unpredictable. You can try to control as much as you can, but at the end of the day, it’s a robot who decides to show your content to someone else.”
At first, Frederique was trying to be perfect, or at least, appear perfect, but she soon realized that she didn’t need to be perfect, she just had to be herself. Once she stopped over editing her videos and removing the goofy “oopsies” moments and allowed her true self to shine, she started to get more subscribers. For Frederique, YouTube is like you’re stripping naked… you can’t hide anything. Even though you’re alone and talking to a lens, Frederique just pretends that she’s talking to some of her best friends. It took her a few months to get to 1000 subscribers. She got monetized and invested anything she earned back into her channel through equipment, software, music, courses, you name it. She even listened to this podcast while walking her dog!
Frederique got a viral hit just a few months into her channel called French Women Don’t Get Fat. She didn’t really think people would watch it because it had such a strong opinion, but after awhile, it started to pick up. Every time Frederique checked her analytics, she was freaking out. She started to rack up hundreds of comments. While the video didn’t really target her ideal audience, it did give her a lot of exposure on YouTube. The video now has 1.4 million views, and she’s earned about $9000 from it, even though it’s not even one of her best videos. Going viral really gave Frederique a reinvigorated sense of motivation to continue to buckle down and go all in on her channel. She really makes a concerted effort to connect and communicate with her audience. She is always on YouTube, studying her analytics or watching other people’s videos, and while her background in digital marketing has served her well, she really had to invest a lot of time and energy to learn the platform and really know it by heart. Her advice to YouTubers? Never give up!
“To any people who are listening: never, never, never give up. Never give up and do it properly! Learn the tricks because there are a lot of things to learn with YouTube.”
3 Key Interview Takeaways:
- Treat your YouTube channel like a business from the beginning. Do it the right way from Day 1! Take the time to learn the tricks and learn the platform. Learn it all: titles, descriptions, thumbnails, editing, sound effects, engagement, retention etc.! It might seem overwhelming at first, but it isn’t.
- Block off time for your comment section. Instagram is visually beautiful, but it doesn’t really allow for as much connection to an audience. YouTube is all about community, so make time to foster that community. Talking to strangers on the internet might seem weird or awkward at first but make a concerted effort to respond to your comments. Frederique answers them no matter what, whether she’s tired, sick, hungover… doesn’t matter!
- Never give up. Frederique had an all or nothing mentality when it came to YouTube because she didn’t really have a choice. With her business crumbling, she had to give it her all on YouTube, and that’s not an easy thing to do. There are days where you might want to throw in the towel. Don’t! Keep going.
Mentioned in the Episode:
14 DIET SECRETS FRENCH WOMEN DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW I How To Lose Weight
10 FASHION TRENDS THAT MAKE YOU LOOK CHEAP I Worst Fashion Trends
I’m French this is what I think about Emily in Paris I Shocking Review
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Connect with Frederique:
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
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**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.
