How to reach a Million YouTube Subscribers with Nikki Phillippi Interview: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 38
For the Beauty and the Vlog podcast interview with Nikki Phillippi she reveals how to get a million YouTube subscribers and what it takes to hit that number!
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Check out the YouTube highlights version of the interview HERE!
Nikki Phillippi is a 27 year old based in Southern California who started her YouTube channel 4 years ago in 2010. She was a performer and upon experiencing an injury, decided to hop onto YouTube instead. Since then, she has gained 813k subscribers and almost 54 million video views.
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Nikki’s Interview: How to Reach a Million YouTube Subscribers
Enjoy some of my favorite parts of the interview!
That feeling, even at this point still comes and goes because it’s so different, or off the beaten path. Even now, 4 years in here I am making a full time income off of it, I go through seasons of thinking am I crazy, million YouTube subscribers? It’s changed our life in so many ways, but that feeling of, am I crazy? Should I be doing it? I felt that in the beginning a few times where I thought, this is so dumb, nobody gets it. When I first started telling people, they are like, what are you doing? You are filming videos in your bedroom? Even when I first told my husband, he would ask me, what do you do all day? You’ve been on your computer at home all day? It’s so new and not something everyone understands. Have you ever heard the saying, new levels, new devils? Every level you get to, there are new things you are dealing with. One thing that has been a struggle is, I love making videos, taking pictures, creating things, beautiful things, and making amazing food. I love the artistic side of it. The business side has been the hard side for me. Because it’s myself, I’m a person, I am selling myself, that has been the bigger struggles and the doubts, I am tearing through contracts. I think, should I just stop? It just becomes a little bit stressful and sometimes I think that is not what I signed myself up for. I know that everyone experiences part of their job they don’t like. Also, dealing with people that are not so nice. I want to help impact people in a positive way. When you deal with hate, that is a little harder.
Product placement! I’ve joked for a long time that I kind of wanted to do the reverse end of what Jessica Simpson did where she came in on her talent and built this whole lifestyle brand. Some people have said that is why my numbers have not rocketed, people don’t know what to make of me. For me, it was a conscious decision, I wanted to do lifestyle, I wanted to do a bunch of different things. I wanted to try it. I wanted to see if I even liked it. That’s why I rolled out wit the tumbler. It’s easy integration, it will naturally be easy for me to promote. So much of what I am doing right now is experimenting with things and finding out the paths that I want to take. I’ve talked to people about licensing deals and I wasn’t sure if that was a path I wanted to go. Now that I experimented with self-fulfillment, is this what I want to do. There are honestly so many different things going on right now, I’m not sure what path its going on. Its interesting in some ways it’s doing a little bit better than I thought, in terms of speaking to my fears. But, in reality it’s doing exactly how I thought it would. We sold about 1200-1500 since we launched them. Most of the sales happened when I first launched. There has been so much going on, that I haven’t gotten to push it much. Its doing about as good as I thought it would. I’m selling it for about $20 domestically and $30 internationally.
Beauty Bonus
Holy Grail:
What are your three Holy Grail Beauty items.
- Tarte Maracuja Foundation: I love it
- For hair, I am going to say the Chi silk infusions, its what saved my hair through going blonde.
- Sugar Lip Balm: Ive been buying it since I had braces.
Beauty Bonus Round:
What are your three holy grail work items?
- My Canon 60D, DSLR is one of them.
- Sony RX100. It is really great because it gives DSLR quality in a tiny, hand-held camera. I found out about it from a subscriber who came to a meet-up and was vlogging. Its expensive yet worth it because you can get such beautiful quality but not draw so much attention to yourself with a big camera. Its more discreet and fun. You end up with this beautiful video that nobody expects from this little camera.
- My iphone. I do so much business on my iphone. Every time a new one comes out, I want the new one. It have the 6 but I’m going to upgrade to the plus. I do so much, I feel like I personally will like having a bigger screen. Everyone kept telling me its too big, but I regret not getting it.
Time Management Tips?
I know people that don’t even use calendars. Use a calendar, use your notebook to make sure you are making lists of everything. I try and prioritize. If my list is really long, I will try and prioritize. I don’t have a set schedule, I haven’t figured out how to do it.
Dream Collaboration:
Pioneer Women
What would you not do again if you were to start your YouTube channel right now?
I know I’m about to sound so corny, everything I have done I have learned so much If I wished it away, I would have still encountered those problems and not know what to do. A million YouTube subscribers is huge and I wouldn’t change a thing.
What are you glad you did do?
Researched the crap out of everything. I feel like I went to YouTube school. I’m glad I came in with that, I feel like I came in with a lot of information. I like that I did so much research at the beginning. There was something called YouTube partners projects. There was this series that used to be on Youtube. It’s a great series.
What has been your favorite opportunity you have gotten form YouTube?
I had always wanted to go to NY my whole life, a year and a half into YouTube I got to go to NY with Clean and Clear. I was standing at the top of the empire state building and I was crying. I couldn’t believe I wanted to go there forever and I tried so many times and couldn’t get there and now because I upload videos to the internet I got to go there. It was a really exciting moment for me.
What piece of advice would you give someone who has a YT channel and its not going where it needs to go?
It takes a long time for things to move. It takes a while. I’m over 4 years in, it takes a while. Keep learning. Try to find out, is there something I am missing in the puzzle? It took me a long time to reach a million YouTube subscribers.
What is your unfair advantage?
I think I make people happy. I think people will say that, you made me feel better, I was in such a down mood, you make me happy. People will say sunshine a lot to me. I think that’s my thing, I think I make people happy.
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You can find Nikki and his channel at http://www.youtube.com/nikkiphillippi
How to reach a million YouTube Subscribers with Nikki Phillippi Discussion: What did you learn from Nikki in this episode? Leave your comment below!
