The 3 Secrets to Success on YouTube with Rosita Applebum: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 8
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Listen to the interview for the FULL story on how Rose achieved YouTube Success. In a nutshell, here are her 3 rules to YouTube Success:
1.) Film in Natural Daylight:
“Invest in good lighting. Be yourself, try to bring something new to the table. But, put your best foot forward. You dont want to have a video where people can’t hear you. I subscribe to my followers but when I watch them I’m like, please girl, film in natural daylight. Don’t film at night if you don’t have a ring light. You don’t need the best camera, I know it’s hard with a budget. Just try to get natural daylight”
2.) Pretend that the whole world is watching you:
Pretend that the whole world is watching you You don’t want to mumble. You can’t do a makeup tutorial in the dark. If I can’t see what you’re doing and you are in the corner doing it, I can’t really learn from that. Pretend that everyone, the president is watching you. But yet, be yourself, be comfortable, be cool. If you are nervous it’s going to pick up. Its not the end of the world if you mess up.
3.) Have Thick Skin:
I wish I would have known to have thicker skin and not let comments get to me. Each comment that I would get when I first started I would literally take it, screenshot it, and sit with it and send it to all my friends. I would take it super personal. Even if it was the same comment over and over again. I got a lot of hate about my nose. I got a lot of hate at the beginning. I would sit there with one comment and really think about it like, wow I should get a nose job or I should change that about myself. Why do I keep saying like, this girl doesn’t like it. I wish I told myself, look, you are going to get it a lot more, you are going to get the same comment 60-100 times more. So why are you so worried about it. You put yourself out there for a reason. You decided to put your business out there so you deal with the consequences, I had this expectation that it was going to be good. For the most part I don’t get that much hate. I wish I would have told myself, look there is going to be hate. Someone is going to think you are going to be beautiful but someone else is going to think you are ugly. Just to have thicker skin and not let it get to me. And I wish I told myself not to leave YouTube for so long. I wish I was more consistent with it If I would have been more consistent with it I would have grown a little more and touched a few more peoples hearts. But I missed out and that’s ok and now I’m back.
Rosita Applebum Show Notes!
Here are my favorite quotes and moments from the interview. Please note some words have been edited for easier readability.
Tell me about your channel:
My channel I would describe as a beauty channel. I do inner beauty as well as outer beauty videos. I like to do life advice as well as makeup tutorials. A lot of people consider me a makeup artist because I am freelancing now with makeup. I just enjoy everything beauty. I am a beauty enthusiast more than a makeup artist. I like to try new products. I am in Sephora every single day. I like to show my viewers everything I love. I also like to touch on other subjects other than beauty. Fitness, I like to talk about relationship advice. It’s a combination of beauty, fashion, inner beauty and life in general.
In the beginning:
I started my channel 3 years ago. I was literally spending 20 hours a week watching other people on youTube. I was thinking, do you know what, there is a missing demographic on YouTube, there is a missing Latina from NY that is down, raw, and I thought I could do that, I could definitely do that. When I started, the only thing I knew how to apply was liquid eyeliner and even that was a disaster. I didnt even know about makeup application I was more obsessed with buying it and just actually purchasing rather than putting it on my face. I hated the way eyeshadow looked on me and now I couldn’t go a day without eyeshadow. I am kind of self taught.
Every day I get at least 10-15 comments like, wow finally someone I can really relate to, someone from New York, someone Latina, someone young and I have a lot of older viewers and I have a lot of people that can relate to my personality more so than my love for makeup. A lot of people relate to my makeup style which is very neutral. I don’t like to do lots of colors. I am a very plain person when it comes to my makeup but personality wise a lot of people could relate to me, feel for me and the struggles I’ve been through. I love hearing that and I definitely feel like I have filled that and I want to grow so I can show people,other parts of the world that this is New York this is Latina life here in New York.
Where is your channel now?
It’s more growing. They have literally watched me grow up, years 19, 20, 21, those are years that you find out your style and who you really are and you are growing as a person, you are in college, you have a job, which I do both. Just managing all of that and giving them all the tips I have for them, trying to look their best, putting out their best look and feel good about themselves. Just showing them little things they can do to feel better about themselves.
I don’t sleep too much, I film a lot of my videos at night. I have my ring light and the reason I bought it is because I couldn’t film with natural light. I can film at 12 in the morning and then edit.
As soon as I started seeing that I could do what I love and still maintain some kind of cash flow, I was hooked. This could become even bigger. Watching other YouTube stars do it full time, a lot of people do YouTube full time and watching them grow and have their own tv channel, fashion line in big stores we all go to is super inspiring, even getting a taste from that even from the little that I have gotten, I definitely see this as a career path. I have this gut feeling that I am going to get this huge opportunity and take it and run with it.
Beauty Bonus Round:
What are your three Holy Grail items?
1.) Mascara: Too Faced Better than Sex Mascara: So great. Even if you run out the door with no makeup on, you have mascara and you are good to go.
2.) YSL Touche Eclat Foundation
3.) Kendra Blow Dry Spray. Makes a world of difference, I can do my hair in 5 minutes.
Best Tip to Increase Subscriber base:
Invest in good lighting. Be yourself, try to bring something new to the table. But, put your best foot forward. You dont want to have a video where people can’t hear you. I subscribe to my followers but when I watch them I’m like, please girl, film in natural daylight. Don’t film at night if you don’t have a ring light. You don’t need the best camera, I know it’s hard with a budget. Just try to get natural daylight and try to be unique Try to be unique and enunciate your words. Be presentable. Pretend you are always at an interview. Pretend that the whole world is watching you You don’t want to mumble. You can’t do a makeup tutorial in the dark. If I can’t see what you’re doing and you are in the corner doing it, I can’t really learn from that. Pretend that everyone, the president is watching you. But yet, be yourself, be comfortable, be cool. If you are nervous it’s going to pick up. Its not the end of the world if you mess up. Put it at the end and put it in the blooper, it makes you real, it makes you raw. I always put my bloopers, shoot, you curse, that’s you, it is what it is, if you stutter, make it fun, make it your thing that makes you different. If you have a lazy eye, shoot work with it. Do something. You can’t just try to hide it and mask it and be something else. We can’t be clones of each other. We can all learn from each other and we can’t all be the same thing. I have had a lot of people copy me, when I say copy I mean literally copy. It’s a slap in my face, because yes, I want to teach you but I want you to learn in your own way and do it your own way. Not exactly my text, exactly my shirt. There are a couple people out there who know who they are and it’s going to backfire because my followers watch you, we are in the same Latina community. It seems fake and phony and they will call you out on it.
Who is your YouTube inspiration?
1.) NurberXO She has this great passion for makeup technique and this great teacher style. Everything about her seems so put together. Her personality is amazing, I really look up to her as a person.
What do you wish you knew when you first started?
I wish I would have known to have thicker skin and not let comments get to me. Each comment that I would get when I first started I would literally take it, screenshot it, and sit with it and send it to all my friends. I would take it super personal. Even if it was the same comment over and over again. I got a lot of hate about my nose. I got a lot of hate at the beginning. I would sit there with one comment and really think about it like, wow I should get a nose job or I should change that about myself. Why do I keep saying like, this girl doesn’t like it. I wish I told myself, look, you are going to get it a lot more, you are going to get the same comment 60-100 times more. So why are you so worried about it. You put yourself out there for a reason. You decided to put your business out there so you deal with the consequences, I had this expectation that it was going to be good. For the most part I don’t get that much hate. I wish I would have told myself, look there is going to be hate. Someone is going to think you are going to be beautiful but someone else is going to think you are ugly. Just to have thicker skin and not let it get to me. And I wish I told myself not to leave YouTube for so long. I wish I was more consistent with it If I would have been more consistent with it I would have grown a little more and touched a few more peoples hearts. But I missed out and that’s ok and now I’m back.
I would go away for literally 6 months, then 3 months ,completely ignore my channel, come back with one video and then go and be gone. I had school and I was a freshman, sophomore in college which was really rough, commuting, family, work. I need a planner desperately.
What piece of advice would you give someone else just starting in YouTube?
Just go for it. If you are going to go for it, don’t hesitate and give it your all. If you are going to make the choice to involve yourself with this, know that this is a commitment. know that this is a job and you want to have the best version of yourself. If you are not ready, it’s going to be a little bit harder. Find your happy place first and then start. We are going to read it. We are going to see it on your face if you’re upset. We are going to know that you are down. Truly, don’t just say you are confident, find that confidence. If it takes losing 5 pounds first, do it first before starting, you are going to feel better about yourself. And I’m going to say to give it your all and be you, and all of your flaws, like put them into a positive. If you have something that is strange about you, bring it out, don’t try to hide it. Put some glitter on it. Make it a good thing, make it you. I think that is what people will watch and love about you.
You can find Rose and her channel at: https://www.youtube.com/user/RositaApplebum
Channel Stats:
140k subscribers
7 million views
Started: May of 2011
