Archive for YouTubers

Pixel To Persona: Safiya Nygaard

Safiya Nygaard is a very successful American Youtuber from Chicago, Illinois. She attended Standford University, studying English and Drama. She quickly noticed her love for production and began working for BuzzFeed in 2015. She started her career at BuzzFeed creating the popular show called Ladylike with a few others. After she left BuzzFeed she was able to put more effort into her own YouTube channel. She has gained over 10 million subscribers since she started posting on her channel in 2017.

Collabs, New Brand, and Other Opportunities:

YouTubers certainly are entrepreneurs but not what some people would think. YouTubers advertise content and as they come into their “voice” that then turns into a brand and this has been successful for many YouTubers including Safiya. Safiya has been able to be a part of many great projects and opportunities. Some of these projects include creating a lipstick collection with popular makeup brand: ColourPop. Aswell as collaborating with fellow YouTuber Cristine Rotenberg AKA Simplynailogical with a limited-edition collection of nail polish from Cristine’s brand Holo Taco. Safiya also owns her own apparel brand called Fiendish Behavior which is a perfect embodiment of who she is. She has added her makeup experiments to her hoodies, t-shirts, stickers, tote bags, blankets, and sweats. Safiya would call her clothing style as “comfortable vampire” which means wearing all black in comfortable styles and textures.

She is known for her series called “Bad Beauty Science” which essentially means mixing large amounts of a single type of products and creating a “Franken” etc (She has mixed almost every type of makeup product together).  This has iterated into many off shoots of channel topics. She loves testing “Weird Fashion” such as Platform Crocs, 9-foot-long jeans and many many more. Recently she has moved into showcasing her cool travel opportunities with her husband also fellow YouTuber Tyler Williams. They have visited an underwater hotel, slept in an Igloo, slept in a Japanese Capsule Hotel, and again many other places. As a fellow viewer and subscriber, I like to say she is an investigative channel of weird things but weird is a good thing because that makes the content very interesting. I found her channel in 2018 so I have been a loyal lover of her content for 7 years and still enjoy every aspect of her videos. One other detail I would like to mention is when she has a video idea she will do whatever it takes to complete it just because she is that interested in the topic. Some of my favorite longer more deep dive type videos include, “I Stayed At Every Hotel On The Vegas Strip”, “I Ate At Every Celebrity Chef’s Restaurant On The Vegas Strip”, and “I Got An 18th Century Makeover” just to name a few. In her 18th Century Makeover video she got the opportunity to live out her childhood dreams and visit Colonial Williamsburg and get to wear 18th century attire and get to participate in activities there. In her earlier videos she would mention how she wanted to go to Colonial Williamsburg and now she finally got to go. It was really cool for me as a fan to see her get to visit a place she always talks about, and I was very invested in videos like these.

Conclusion:

These videos take a lot of time, planning, and funding. I am amazed at the work that is put into these videos from Safiya, Tyler and their team. Both of them are also relatively young being 32 and 33 years old. They all have been working very hard on this channel and brand since they graduated college. As a long story short I really wanted to showcase at least one YouTuber in the blog post agenda and I think it is a very interesting type on Entrepreneur to research.

Here is Safiya’s YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbAwSkqJ1W_Eg7wr3cp5BUA

(I tried every method but I was unable to add any pictures, her thumbnails are really eye catching)

Cutting a Table in Half with Plastic Knives

In the quiet town of Greenville, North Carolina, a high school kid sat down with a box of plastic knives. A couple of months ago, an idea had struck him–an idea that could potentially make millions. Cutting a table in half using only plastic knives. 

James Stephen Donaldson never really enjoyed school. Whether in the lunch room or on the basketball court, his mind was on one thing. Neither his mother nor his handful of friends could convince him to let it go; YouTube. 

Over a decade later, Donaldson’s mindset hasn’t changed. He sets out with the goal of making “the best possible videos” that viewers will enjoy. With laser focus and incredible self-discipline, Donaldson has pulled all sorts of stunts to obtain viewership–from giving away thousands of dollars to the homeless to spending 50 hours buried underground, Donaldson’s fast-paced, master storytelling as well as his extensive knowledge and skill with Youtube has made him one of the top creators to date. His videos often incorporate high-stakes challenges alongside goofy characters, building a fan base that’s not just thrill-seeking but fun-loving. While Donaldson has diversified his channel through physical products such as chocolate bars and burger joints, he is committed to staying focused and consistent with his content while creating interest. 

Donaldson is not only disciplined at his craft but extremely innovative. Through constant ideation and working with his carefully tailored network of employees, Donaldson is always developing and looking ahead. From his successful campaign to raise $20 million dollars to plant trees to his recreation of the popular TV show Squid Games, he is constantly seeking to grow and improve both his content, storytelling, and tools. In addition, Donaldson has created subchannels such as his gaming channel and philanthropy in order to appeal to a wider range of markets. Despite this, most of his revenue is poured into his main channel. 

While Donaldson produced videos beginning in 2012 and only had 30,000 subscribers by 2016. It wasn’t until 2017 that one of his videos reached viral status, gaining him a foothold in the YouTube algorithm that he quickly took advantage of, causing him to drop out of college and pursue YouTube full-time. Today he has 194 million subscribers and counting and is the highest-paid Youtuber with a net worth of $500 million. Despite the fact that he did not experience instant success, Donaldson’s unwavering commitment to creating the best content has led to major success with no signs of slowing down. Donaldson expressed in an interview that after all these years, he is still as obsessed with YouTube as before. This type of discipline as well as creativity, combined with Donaldson’s apparent desire to help others is an inspiration and one of the many reasons so many are familiar with MrBeast.

Jimmy Donaldson: YouTuber, Philanthropist, Millionaire

James “Jimmy” Donaldson, better known as Mr. Beast, is a 23 year old YouTuber and millionaire from North Carolina. Known for his funny and exciting YouTube videos, Mr. Beast is a great example of a young entrepreneur who used his talents and passions to create impact for many people.

Jimmy began his career as a YouTuber when he was 13 years old. For the next few years, Jimmy maintained a small YouTube channel, posting gaming videos and videos estimating other YouTubers’ wealth. Little did he know, Jimmy would soon be one of the highest-paid YouTubers on the planet. Jimmy’s following grew to over 30,000 subscribers through 2016, and by mid-2016, Jimmy dropped out of school at East Carolina University to pursue his YouTube channel full-time. In January 2017, Jimmy posted a video of himself counting to 100,000, taking a total of 40 hours. This video quickly went viral and Mr. Beast’s YouTube career took off. Mr. Beast regularly posts videos of funny or wild challenges, massive money giveaways, and unique philanthropic activities.

Mr. Beast soon branched off from his main channel and created several new YouTube accounts, including MrBeast Gaming, Beast Philanthropy, and BeastReacts. While Mr. Beast’s main account has over 73 million subscribers, all six of his channels have 128.47 million combined subscribers. Additionally, Mr. Beast has participated in other entrepreneurial collaborations and ventures, including MrBeast Burger, Backbone One, and Juice Funds. Fans from all over the world also regularly purchase Mr. Beast merchandise from his several online stores. Mr. Beast has become one of the most famous YouTubers, and estimates of his net worth vary from $8 million to $25 million.

While several controversies have swirled around him, Mr. Beast claims to be driven by a desire to create impact through his entertainment. As he states in his Twitter bio, “I want to make the world a better place before I die.” Consequently, many of Mr. Beast’s videos have strong humanitarian and philanthropic themes. For example, some of Mr. Beast’s videos are about giving money away to homeless people or assisting educational organizations. Most recently, Mr. Beast has partnered with the well-known YouTuber Mark Rober in a collaborative attempt to raise $30 million to fund the removal of 30 million pounds of garbage from oceans, beaches, and rivers.

Mr. Beast is an excellent example of how passion can be wedded with skill to create impact. Mr. Beast not only runs a YouTube channel—he uses his skills and wealth to create impact in other people’s lives in addition to entertaining millions of people. Young entrepreneurs can learn from Mr. Beast as they seek to have an impact in the world through their business ventures. Mr. Beast was not necessarily outstanding or unique as a student. However, he took the opportunities presented to him and fills a special niche that provides value for millions of people.