Hello! Right now you’re reading “The Creator Confidential”, a blog where famous YouTubers share their stories and tips they have for growing a YouTube channel. Over the past week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Breana, and here is the finished result. Enjoy!
Breana started her channel, “milkyboos”, just 2 years ago. Today, her channel is still growing rapidly and she has over 72,000 subscribers and 3.4 million views. Her content and videos include topics like kpop, journaling, book hauls, and much more!
"Make friends in the community that you're creating content for. Follow people, support their content, and develop good bonds."
What inspired you to create your channel?
I had originally created my "bujogram" first after my college roommates told me to post my bullet journal spreads online, and from there my following blew up a lot faster than I expected! It wasn't until months after that I decided to open a YouTube channel to show everyone what my room looked like, and this was after lots of requests from my followers at the time who wanted to see more of my room. I hadn't been posting anything besides kpop journaling and bujo photos back in 2018, so there was a mystery there as to what my room actually looked like haha. From there, I kept creating videos because it was quite fun and a good stress reliever from studying and going to class!
The first video you created went semi-viral and got 42,000 views! Was this success overnight? Can you describe your reaction and how it affected you?
I think a lot of the success from my first video is because of people's interest in kpop growing internationally and because my Instagram following had supported it and hyped it up a lot! I do notice that my room tour videos tend to do quite well on my channel, so I also think I just got lucky since that video fell into a popular niche that people enjoy! It felt a bit scary at first, because I couldn't fathom that many people wanting to watch my content, but ultimately I just stopped thinking about the numbers aspect and started focusing just on the comments everyone was leaving and the positive feedback. A lot less overwhelming that way.
How long does it take to edit one of your videos?
Most of my videos take less than an hour to edit. Vlogs take the longest, and depending on how much footage I have, it can take maybe two to three hours, but I've never spent days editing a video. I sit down once and finish it all in one go!
Top 3 tips you would give small YouTubers trying to start a successful YouTube channel?
Top 3 tips are probably:
Find a niche you are interested in (cooking, mukbangs, journaling, books, asmr, etc.) and focus on building up support for those videos first! Branch out later if you'd like, after establishing a core subscriber base.
Make friends in the community that you're creating content for. Follow people, support their content, and develop good bonds. It's less lonely that way, and you can share tips and pursue goals together!
Ignore/delete mean comments, and as hard as it is, don't focus too much on the numbers. Of course you want content you worked hard on to be popular and appreciated, but focusing solely on stats does way more harm than good. It has made a lot of my past mutuals quit altogether, when they could have found success had they just kept pushing and improving their content.
What do you think was the biggest mistake you made in starting your channel?
I don't really think I made any mistakes per se, but my one regret is that I wished I had personalized my content from the beginning and shown my face more. That way I could have been recognizable from the start!
How do you find new opportunities with brands? Do you reach out to them or do they just email you?
I've never personally reached out to a brand before. I found that after I made a dedicated email for business inquiries, I received a LOT of sponsorship offers and PR emails with free products. Many of them are duds though, and while it's tempting to just accept every offer you get, I have tried to only work with brands that I have personally already purchased from, or someone I know has worked with them before and has had a good experience. I've accepted deals before that ended up being shady and the "company" didn't follow through. I'm much more careful now!
What is one of the best opportunities you've gotten from your YouTube channel?
Funnily enough the coolest opportunity I've ever gotten from YouTube/Instagram isn't one that I was able to capitalize on, but it was my first "big deal" offer, and I was crazy excited. While I was vacationing in Hong Kong, a restauranteur reached out to me and offered me a free meal at their restaurant and a "nightlife tour" if I posted about it on my Instagram. Unfortunately, the offer came in the day I was flying back to the States and I couldn't accept, but that email was the first time I felt like running my social media accounts had brought actual, tangible results!
What is your experience with hate comments, and how do you deal with them?
Fortunately I don't receive hate comments very often, almost never. When I do see them, I simply delete them now. I used to engage and try to "convince them" to like my content, but it's futile and trolls are more interested in getting a response than they are with anything else, so I find deleting and moving on is the best way to go. I DO get creeper messages and comments every now and then though, and for those I just block the users. Ugh.
Thanks for reading! A huge thanks to Breana for taking the time to answer all the questions. Here are the links to all her socials:
Instagram: @milkyboos https://www.instagram.com/milkyboos/
Twitter: @milkyboos https://twitter.com/milkyboos
YouTube: milkyboos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCug2NP3DL-qPxNXElC5KgEQ/featured
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