Overview

The Challenge
One of the most formative experiences in my career was building my own YouTube channel from the ground up. While the channel now has 125K subscribers and 20M+ views, the most valuable learning came early - when growth was slow and the strategy wasn’t working.

Coming from a strong production background - film school at USC and viral content experience at BuzzFeed - I initially assumed high-quality execution would be enough. It wasn’t. What works for a media company doesn’t automatically translate to a personal brand, and the audience felt that disconnect immediately.

My Role
Owned every aspect of the channel - strategy, creative direction, writing, production, editing, publishing, and optimization.

Early Learnings

When “More Content” Didn’t Mean More Growth

In the first phase, I made several classic mistakes:

• Posting too frequently

• Chasing trends that didn’t feel authentic

• Experimenting across too many content types

The result was a channel without a clear point of view. Despite solid production value, growth stalled and the audience lacked a reason to commit.

Strategy Reset

Treating the Channel Like a Brand

I paused, reassessed, and made a deliberate reset - shifting from “posting content” to building a brand. That reset focused on three changes.

1. Quality Over Quantity
I reduced output and raised the creative bar, prioritizing stronger storytelling, clearer hooks, and more intentional visuals. Consistency only matters when the content itself earns trust.

2. Authentic Point of View
Instead of trend-chasing, I leaned into what I was genuinely good at: short films, comedy sketches and other formats rooted in real experiences. That personal POV became the creative anchor for the channel.

3. Audience Focus
Rather than trying to appeal to everyone, I narrowed the target audience and embraced specificity - creating content that felt relatable to a core community instead of broadly optimized.

Results

Sustainable Growth and Community

Once the channel had a clear voice, growth followed naturally:

• One video reached 11M views

• Subscriber base grew from ~20K to 125K

• Built an engaged, loyal audience - not just a follower count

The channel became a place people returned to because it felt consistent, personal, and intentional.