Kiva Brent On Why She Ditched Biochemistry For A Career On YouTube: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 319
“If I hadn’t enrolled in the bootcamp, I would have stopped. I would have gone to med school. I just didn’t have the confidence.”
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Kiva Brent is an Interior Stylist and Youtube personality based in Pittsburgh, PA. Her design journey began when she moved into her first home. She wanted to craft a beautiful, luxurious, modern space without breaking the bank and struggled to find guidance. That’s when Kiva began her Youtube channel, DIY with KB. On Youtube, Kiva teaches people how to achieve the “luxe look for less.” Much of her content shows you how to combine luxury and affordable items in the same space. She also shares DIY home decor projects. Kiva and her Youtube channel have been featured on The Tamron Hall Show, Insider, and The Zoe Report.
Kiva started her current channel at the beginning of the pandemic. At the time, she was still in school, stuck at home, and bored out of her mind. She was tired of staring at 4 boring walls, so she started designing and filming it. Kiva’s degree is in biochemistry, and at the start of her channel, she was planning on going to med school and studying for the MCAT. The first time she had a video go viral was coincidentally on the day she was interviewing for a job that she didn’t actually want.
So why the huge shift from biochemistry and dreams of med school to interior design? Kiva was raised by her grandmother, who was an artist. Despite growing up poor, their home was beautiful, and because of her grandmother’s creativity and artistry, the home felt rich, so Kiva developed an interest and desire to work in interior design, but she was too cautious to pursue it because she was afraid that it wasn’t a stable career path. She saw an opening in the niche on YouTube and decided to go for it. If YouTube wasn’t going to work out, she was going to go to med school. Kiva held out on the decision for a long time. She wanted to be confident in the longevity of a lucrative career on YouTube in order to abandon the plan she’d had for the last 20 years of her life. At first, she felt guilty abandoning her dreams of med school, but now she’s happy with the decision.
“If anyone was going to help me, it was Erika.”
When Kiva had about 25k subscribers, she joined my Zero to Influence YouTube Bootcamp. Her channel was growing nicely, and since everyone was stuck at home, she was posting around 3x a week. But she still didn’t really have a clear direction for her channel. She wanted to pivot, but she wasn’t sure how. She was excited about her channel, but cautious at the same time. How do you know if YouTube could be a long term career? She realized that if anyone could help her understand how to create a viable career on YouTube, it was me, and there was an opening in the bootcamp at just the right time.
The biggest game changer for Kiva was confidence, because when she joined, she didn’t have it. YouTube can be an overwhelming platform and there’s so much more to learn than just editing and uploading. Before joining, she had no plan and was nervous with every single upload. Through the lessons in the bootcamp, she learned how to create a good thumbnail and title, and truly brand herself in a way that established consistency and credibility on her channel. Kiva has worked hard to overcome her perfectionism and understand that when you create content with confidence, people will come, and she’s learned to relax and not take things so personally so she can truly enjoy what she loves. In fact, one of her most popular videos was one that she didn’t even want to upload because the editing and the audio weren’t up to her standards. It has nearly 650k views now, which goes to show you that just because something isn’t perfect, people will still watch it and get value from it! My 1:1 coaching has helped her with her confidence, and refine her content to make it more widely available as possible. YouTube can be a lot of trial and error, and creating content is so much work. Sometimes having a coach to give you guidance, analyze your analytics, and let you bounce ideas off them can make a world of difference.
What I love about Kiva is that her content is relatable. It’s a hard world. Not everyone has the money to spend on making their home beautiful, so Kiva’s mission is to make sure that everyone has a beautiful home, regardless of budget. Interior design doesn’t have to be inaccessible, and Kiva is so aligned with her mission!
“It’s about making my content as widely available as possible.”
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:
Zero to Influence YouTube Bootcamp
10 Reasons Why Your Home Looks CHEAP | Interior Design Mistakes and How to Fix Them!
Connect with Kiva:
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!
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