This story was originally published on Passionfruit.
We’re reaching out to some popular creators to get their best tips and tricks for success and better understand the ups and downs of life as a trailblazer on the internet.
A self-professed "tech head," Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) has built his YouTube channel for 15 years. The 29-year-old New Jersey native has gone from a high-schooler with a desire to share his love of computers with the world to the keynote speaker at 2023's Samsung Galaxy Creator Collective, an annual event in March designed to help provide aspiring content creators with skills and advice from their peers.
With 16.8 million YouTube subscribers and over 3 billion cumulative views across all his videos, no one knows more about navigating the ever-changing creator landscape. Missed his talk at the Creator Collective? No problem. Passionfruit sat down with Brownlee to discuss his story so far, the tech reviewing niche, his insight for other creators, and what he wants to do next.
The following interview is condensed and edited for clarity.
What inspired you to start your social media journey?
I started off as a high school kid looking to spend my precious allowance money on a laptop. I watched all the videos I possibly could on every laptop in existence, and eventually, I picked one, and so once I purchased that laptop, I was in love with the thing. But I did actually find a few things that weren't actually in the videos that I watched. So, it felt like the natural thing to do was turn the camera on myself, and that was my first video: a video about the Windows Media Center remote that came in a PCI slot in that laptop. Then I went on to making videos about the software and the keyboard and the accessories I got for it, and it sort of snowballed from there.
Do you work alone or with a team? If it’s the latter, how do they help?
I started alone, and for the first thousand or so videos, I did everything. But it did get to a point where there was both a limit on my time and also a limit on my scale, as I approached the level of content that I aspired to make. It made sense to get help with that. The team has about 12 people now, and we all work on all parts of the production, whether it's writing or set design or camera work or graphics, or editing.
What do you think it is about your content that attracts audiences?
I tend to see it as two different types of audiences. The first is people looking to make a purchase decision. My videos are literally trying to put a device in your hands before you actually spend the money on it, so you know as much information as possible before you actually spend that money. ... And then the other type of audience is just there for the entertainment value because there into tech.
What was it like being the keynote speaker for Samsung Galaxy Creator Collective?
Giving an entire keynote that I wrote myself was fun! I learned a lot, not just in the actual presentation process but in writing for the presentation. Once Samsung asked me to speak to creators at an event that's for creators by creators, I couldn't say no. So the opportunity to speak to them about things that I have learned along the way in my last 15 years of doing this meant a lot. Hopefully, it helps them speedrun their own creator journey.
I think the main draw of an event like that is the fact that you are surrounding yourself with other creators, and you get to start having those conversations and familiarizing yourself with other people's learnings. You get to learn from other people's experiences and mistakes before having to go through them yourself. That was one of the goals of my Keynote (to pass along my own learnings) but hopefully, a lot of those other conversations and connections were made for those types of learnings to continue!
How has the creator landscape changed since you first started, and how have you adapted?
Well, the most obvious thing that’s changed from when I started versus now is that when I first started, this wasn't an actual job. There was no partner program, nobody actually made money for making YouTube videos. ... People just turned the cameras on and made videos for fun. Now there’s a whole structure built around optimization and monetization that the whole world making content has had to adapt to, including me.
You have a podcast now. What made you pivot to that kind of content?
Essentially, the videos have gotten more and more polished and well-produced over the years, which is amazing. It's something we have really gotten to put a lot of effort into, and we love creating them. At the same time, it left an avenue to make a more freestyle, open-ended format of loose thoughts and scraps of things that don't make it for videos. That's what the podcast is turned into. Tech conversations around the studio that don't make it into four videos.
You do a mixture of interviewing, reviews, podcasts, and live streams. How do the creative processes of this content differ? And do you have a favorite?
Right now, the bread and butter of MKBHD Videos are definitely still device reviews. I love taking a device at the box the first time, setting it up, using it, and trying to figure out what it's good at, what it's not, and who it's for. So that's still a central type of contact, but there's a lot of other things that with all around it with different creative processes.
Podcasting is a bit less polished and a bit more free-flowing, as I mentioned earlier. Interviews are more about finding interesting people with a perspective on tech that my audience hasn't heard from before. And live streams are just all the fun and chaos that comes with setting something up for the first time, unboxing something, or just having fun with Q&A.
Do you have any tips on how to make your following multi-platform?
One of the most fundamental pieces of advice that you get as an upcoming creator is to diversify yourself across multiple platforms. It makes a lot of sense, but it actually takes a lot of effort to make sure your contact feels needed for each platform you post on.
You can make one YouTube video that you also repurpose to cut down into a TikTok and an Instagram reel, etc. ...But it actually feels much more personal and is way closer to ideal if you're able to make a TikTok instead of just cutting something down into a TikTok. So I try to encourage people to be as native to the platforms they are uploading to as possible.
As a tech reviewer, how do you balance sponsored content with ensuring you retain audience trust with your reviews?
I only do sponsored content around things that I would ordinarily do editorial content with. So I review a lot of devices, gadgets, smartphones, and computers, and things like that for example. That’s one example of drawing a firm line in the sand and keeping things sensible.
What's the most unusual tech you've reviewed?
That is definitely a tough question. We recently did a video where I just said yes to everything in my inbox for a month, and we had all kinds of wild stuff from VR headsets to triple monitor setups to a casket show up at the studio. So the variety is pretty high!
Any advice to other creators on how to avoid burnout?
If you imagine your production schedule as a treadmill, you want to sort of balance yourself at a treadmill speed that you can maintain over time. If you say the speed of the treadmill is too low, you'll feel like you're not expressing yourself enough and not getting out enough. But if you said the treadmill too high and you're putting out too much stuff, you can quickly bring you.
So, I think playing with that dial, changing the treadmill's speed, and finding where you're comfortable is the best advice I can give.
Of all the changes the creator economy's seen over the years, what has stayed the same?
The creator economy has grown massively over the years, but at the core of everything is having your own unique creativity and voice. From the beginning, my goal has always been to make content that I would want to watch, and that's really what drove my style, and what I chose to make videos about.
Any tips for aspiring creators negotiating brand deals?
My best tip for creators negotiating brand deals is to talk to other creators who are also negotiating, similar types of brand deals! Having that type of context about how much others are charging, what process others are going through to make sure they maintain creative integrity, etc, is all important. Everyone can learn from each other’s learnings instead of trying to navigate that new world alone.
Are there any tools as a creator you can’t live without?
Oh, I'm a gearhead, so I could just go down a list of all the tech that helps us make the best videos right now. I have a few favorite lenses and cameras, and of course, I love my editing software, but something that has been really rewarding and fun lately is shooting entire videos on a smartphone for the new AutoFocus channel we started. I've always advised beginning creators to make the best of what they have before they go out and start getting new equipment, and so that means I end up saying a lot of people should make videos with their smartphone cameras. To actually go out and start doing that feels great.
What’s next for you? Where do you see your creator journey going and where do you want to be a decade from now?
I just love the idea of slowly expanding and progressing what we're capable of as a creative team. I work with some amazingly talented people now, so I've gone from making videos and reviewing smartphones alone in my apartment to sharing the entire tech world with my entire audience. So in a decade, we’ll be reviewing and sharing even more types of tech, interviewing more people, shedding light on more stories, and having a great time doing it!
What creator would you like to see featured next? Email tips@passionfru.it to send in your ideas.
