104. How This 18 Year-Old Makes Viral Content and Generates $20K/Month

0:00Jenny Hoyos started making videos on YouTube when she was just eight years old. By the time she was a teenager, she knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur and YouTube was her way to do it. This is Alex Freeman and you're listening to the Upflip Podcast where we uncover how great businesses are built, how they're run behind the scenes, and how you can replicate their success. Today, we'll find out how Jenny Hoyos creates viral videos that grew her channel to more than 1.5 million subscribers. Jenny, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. Let's start off right in the origin story.

0:33Tell us about you and how you kind of got into YouTube at the age of eight. Yeah, so I'm Jenny Hoyos, a YouTuber and content creator who makes finance videos for kids. I started my channel because growing up, I've always dreamt of becoming a YouTuber. And if it wasn't a YouTuber, it was like an entrepreneur. I knew for sure I did not want to have a job. Like I knew I just couldn't imagine myself working. I knew I had to blend the two of becoming a YouTuber while also like targeting people who feel a similar way, which is why I'm making finance videos for kids to inspire them to either become entrepreneurs, at least be wise with their money.

1:07And I started at such a young age because I was literally born with YouTube. Actually, I was born in 2005 when YouTube was actually created. So it was just engraved into my childhood and my whole family was doing it. I had a bunch of cousins who were making videos. And yeah, I was really inspired and wanted to make similar videos to them as well. But here we are now. Let's start at the niche of money advice for kids, because I'm curious how you landed on that specific spot and then how you went about gaining the expertise to create the informative videos. So two reasons. So for one, if I wasn't a YouTuber, I knew I would want to be like a financial advisor or especially since like I'm actually graduating with a degree in finance next year.

1:49So like I knew that like if I wasn't a YouTuber, I would be this. So like for other people, I would say the same thing. If you know you weren't to be a content creator, what would you be? And it's like, maybe that's the content you should be making. So that was the first reason. The second thing is Blue Ocean Strategy, which is basically that there's a gap in the market where no one is making fun finance videos for kids. So now the viewers have no choice but to watch me because I'm the only one doing it. Let's kind of dive into that a little bit more because obviously there needs to be one. I love the advice of if you weren't making the content, what would you go do?

2:19That's like really kind of fantastic advice. But then obviously that needs to match up with some kind of market need. So how do you go about testing it to make sure that that actually is a need in the market? It's kind of hard to know if there's a need in the market. But I think for me, the easiest thing to do is literally just like searching it up the topic and seeing if there is some sort of interest there. and like reading comments. But also like I was honestly just making videos for my younger self. Like I said, like growing up, I knew I did not want a job. So it was like, let me target that 10 year old me.

2:50I love that. That makes a lot of sense because obviously sometimes the reason that there's not videos on that topic is because there's not actually a market for that topic, at least not to the extent that it can become a business or even like a fairly lucrative side hustle. So what advice might you offer for somebody if they find themselves in that situation, like then going to find a niche that maybe they could make some money in? Yeah, I think researching on YouTube is absolutely huge. Now I knew someone like Graham Stephan, for example, who does like very niche finance content still has like nearly 4 million subscribers.

3:23So I knew if I was to do something similar, but just like slightly broader, I would still at least be able to get the same amount. So if you're in a position where it's like no one else like is absolutely doing anything remotely close to what you're doing, I think it's just worth experimenting, but also thinking to yourself, if you actually personally know people that would actually watch your content, because I know I personally know a lot of people who are like a lot of kids, actually, who are into like saving money or like little side hustles. Like for me, my viewer is literally the kids in school who are like selling candy and snacks and stuff like that.

3:55So I already knew that I had my avatar. Can you talk more about developing that avatar and why that's important for somebody going into this? Totally. So if you don't have a specific avatar, then you're probably going to be all over the place with your content or even like with your business. Because if you don't know who you're talking to, who you're targeting, you're not going to stay consistent with your marketing or consistent with the way that you speak to the viewers. And that's like incredibly important because that's how you maintain a true fan base by having a specific avatar in mind.

4:25We'll dive into that a little bit further, a little bit later in this conversation. I want to back us up just a little bit to those early days for you. and I guess the early days of YouTube. When you first started making content, what content were you making when you first started? Yeah. So I did a very financial content when I first started. I actually used to copy like Graham Stephan. So I literally talked about like how to beat inflation or like talking about the S &P 500, like really specific niche finance things. But then I realized that like I'm just copying Graham Stephan and I realized like, oh, I need a blue ocean.

4:58So then around that time was like when I started to like slowly branch out from finance. So I went from like really finance into like day trading or like stocks in general or Bitcoin mining. And I guess you could say very financial side hustly type of content. What are the startup costs for someone getting into YouTube? I mean, how much did you spend to kind of get off the ground? And is it something that somebody can hop into without a cash outlay at the beginning? Yeah, I actually started with no money. Like I recorded my videos on my phone and I used a free editing software online. And in fact, like I didn't upgrade anything.

5:31Like I didn't even invest in my channel until I hit like 100 ,000 subscribers. So it's totally possible to like grow your YouTube channel with no money. You've mentioned a few times already that you always knew you didn't want to have a job. You know, some people might look at what you do day to day and say, but you do have a job. You are doing a job. I guess one, how do you describe what you do in terms of like for money that isn't as a job? And at what point did you realize, okay, great, I've done it. I now don't have to have a traditional job. Yeah. When I say I knew I didn't want a job, I knew I didn't want to have a boss.

6:05I think that was the key thing because I always liked working. Even before my YouTube channel, I was doing side hustles. I hated some of them. I hated doing it. You know what I mean? But it's just, it was the fact of having a boss and someone being above me and telling me what to do. I knew I didn't want that. But then secondarily to that, I also knew that I just wanted financial freedom. Honestly, the end of the day, the goal is just happiness and having fun. My biggest goal, like I don't even know what I want to be. I don't know where I see myself in 10 years from now, but all I hope is that I'm happy.

6:35Right. And with that said, some people might say what I'm doing is a job. And yes, it doesn't feel like a job. It doesn't feel like work. So not only am I my own boss, but it's actually fun and it's making me happy and it doesn't feel like work. What were some of those side hustles that you hated? What did you experiment with? Yeah, so I tried dropshipping for quite a bit. I did flipping like on OfferUp or eBay. I tried learning how to code, day trading, you know, anything stocks. I also did futures, crypto, options, video editing, which video editing was actually the most successful. And that's when I realized like, oh, shoot, like imagine if I went all in my own content.

7:13I've always had a knack for editing. Like I've done that side hustle since I was like probably started when I was like 13. Yeah. Let's talk about that moment of deciding to go all in with the YouTube channel. Like what were kind of the fears that were maybe holding you back from doing that? Yeah. So at the time I originally started my YouTube channel to document my journey and all these different businesses and side hustles that I was doing. So it was really weird when I had to, like, I knew I had to go all in and let go of all those other side hustles. It was really scary because it's like, you know, like being a YouTuber, you'd think and you'd be like, nah, like in three years, like it's not sustainable.

7:47It's not sustainable. I'm probably, you know, not going to have any money in three years from now or probably die out like most creators. And like, it was really scary. But I had the realization that if I treat YouTube like a business, then it will be sustainable and it will be a business. Like instead of treating YouTube, like being a YouTuber, I need to treat it like a media company, which is why now I'm not only a YouTuber, but I'm also trying to like help brands. I'm actually consulting for people. It's like figuring out like how to be an ultimate media company. And then once I thought of it that way, the switch and like going all in on YouTube made it so much more easier.

8:21What would you describe as kind of the biggest mistake that you made in your early content days? And what did you learn from it? The biggest mistake I've ever made was not learning legal stuff, not learning the importance of it, how to actually read contracts and not even having a lawyer. There's so many companies, brands, corporations, or people, they will try to manipulate you or trick you into things. And if you don't know legality stuff, you're going to run into problems, most likely. Where did you start to turn to for advice on how to avoid legal issues? Yes. So a couple of months ago, I actually saw like an ad, like on Instagram, and like I was the ad.

8:59I'm like, what the heck is this? I was like, so confused. I'm like, this is kind of weird. And it turns out like a couple of years ago before I was like 18, I actually like signed a contract that like I was going to do like this brand deal or something like that. But I didn't think it was going to be for ads or like for in perpetuity until I realized like, oh, shoot. Like because when I asked them to take it down, they told me that they can't do it. They own all the rights. They can make as much money as they want from it. It was like really scary. I'm like, there's no way because they basically like barely paid me for like a little gig that I did.

9:28But next thing you know, they're using my face on every ad. I was able to void the contract because it's illegal to sign a contract as someone under 18 years old without parental approval. So I was able to get that fixed. But then that's when I realized like, oh, shoot, this is just one instance. Imagine what could happen if I don't pay attention to this moving forward. On that same vein, what are some of those things that other content creators that you might say keep an eye out for these three things in contracts that are kind of commonly tried to be slipped in. Totally. So one, imperpetuity.

10:01Imperpetuity, in other words, basically means forever. The word forever should never be in a contract for the most part. And that's in any vein. It could be in perpetuity in any sense. In any sense, it should never be in perpetuity. So that's the number one thing. Next thing is usage rights. Now, similar to imperpetuity, usage rights could be slipped into there and you would think that you're doing just like regular brand deal. But next thing you know, they have usage rights to post it on their page, post it wherever they want, make money off of it, put it on TV, use it however they want because they have usage rights.

10:35But of course, if they're going to use usage rights, be sure to negotiate that and not have it in perpetuity, probably like one month, three months, 12 months, probably max. And then the next thing would also be exclusivity, which basically means you cannot work with any other brands except that brand. Now, there are some cases where brands will say like, oh, you can't work with our competitors, but sometimes there could be a slippage and they can put exclusivity for like any brand or for like too many competitors or something that can like mess up a deal for all other potential brands just because they put in exclusivity without you knowing.

11:07So again, similar to usage rights, be sure to actually charge them per month for that. Listeners, if you're thinking about starting a YouTube channel, make sure you check out the Upflip blog post on how to start a 45k a month YouTube channel, which is linked in the description below for more helpful tips. Jenny, I want to talk about growing a YouTube channel with you as obviously somebody who's been extremely successful at it. What's the most difficult part of starting a YouTube channel? And how did you overcome that particular challenge? The most difficult part is like not knowing what you're doing wrong and still getting like one view per video.

11:41Like the worst part is like every time you upload, no matter what, you're just always getting like 20 views max and you can't figure out like how to break through. But I think the biggest thing to remember is that it's going to be like that for a long time until one video just clicks. Because it took me one year to go from zero to 1 ,000 subscribers, but then the next year to go from 1 ,000 to 1 million because it's all exponential. Yeah, that exponentiality seems to be very, very important in kind of our algorithmically driven society as we are now. So what should somebody be doing to kind of get that first thousand followers on YouTube?

12:17The biggest thing as like, again, treat YouTube like a business. So if this is a business, the biggest thing is skills. So when you're starting off, just like be the best that you can possibly be in every aspect rather than like trying to blow up. Like in fact, I actually spent like three months just learning YouTube and building skills before I was actually creating content. So like I said, I was a video editor. So I was like building my skills doing that. And I knew when I wanted to focus on my channel, I had to improve my editing skills until like, I was as best I could be. And then from there, I was learning my Photoshop skills.

12:50I was learning my copywriting skills. I was learning how to read my analytics data. I was building as many skills as possible. So then once I popped, I can also sustain that. That's a really interesting point of being able to sustain once you get that initial pop. If someone is starting a YouTube channel with the ultimate goal of monetization, how quickly should they be looking to monetize? Or should they be building in, you know, it's going to take you, as an example, a year to kind of like build up the skill set that is going to make this sustainably monetizable? Or kind of what does that look like for someone who's first entering YouTube?

13:25As many things, I think if money is the first thing you're thinking about, it's probably going to fail. Because I think as long as you're like passionate and obsessive, it is going to work and the money is going to come. Like it sounds crazy because I was trying to make money on all these different side hustles. I was not trying to make money off of YouTube. But then ironically, YouTube was the one thing that actually worked the best because I was actually putting in my passion for it. If your goal is genuinely like to monetize early on, I wouldn't try to focus too much on the money and making money decisions.

13:56Rather, just like like you said, building the skills. And then once you have that audience and you know you're ready to monetize, then you flip the switch and monetize and the money will start like flowing in and rushing in like a river. That's exactly like what happened to my channel, similar to like 0 to 1 ,000 subscribers in one year, 1 ,000 to a million next year. Monetization was the same way. The money wasn't that great from the one to two years, because I've been doing this for like two and a half years. So it was like not that good from one to two years. But like these last six months has been like absolutely like just a river, like a flooding through, like the gates just opened.

14:29So I think it's like wise to think of it that way. What do those revenue numbers look like today? And like, what is, I mean, I guess wrapped into this question is like, what are the costs of producing a YouTube video for you now? And like, how does that translate into profit margins? As for the actual cost of the videos, they don't cost that much money, actually. Because like I make a lot of like budget content, I actually try to like mitigate how much I'm actually spending in the video. So it's actually accurate. And we're keeping that integrity of the channel of having fun with the budget. but I am investing in a team.

15:01All my money is going towards the team rather than the videos because the team is what's going to come up with the ideas, edit these videos, make these videos actually good, et cetera. So that's how I like to think of investing in my channel. Of course, it depends based on your niche. But as for revenue numbers, dang, I'll tell you the breakdown of probably the first month of January and then this last month. Because every month is different. So it's like, it's really hard to like, you know, like give an accurate number. But like the beginning of January this year, I probably made a thousand dollars from a brand deal.

15:36And then like probably like 2000 from AdRev. This is just like off the top of my head because I knew it wasn't that much. It was probably like$3 ,000 first month of January. Like this last month, I believe my revenue was$45 ,000. Wow. Yeah. And that was like more than half of like, I believe 70 % was consulting, 10 % was AdRev and then 20 % was brand money. I've got two follow-up questions to that one, but the first one I'm going to pose is as a budgeting content creator, how do you handle the inconsistent sizing of those revenue numbers in your overall life budget? How do you deal with those differences?

16:13It is so difficult. It's so difficult because people are like, oh my gosh, you made that much last month? Like, yeah, it's a lot of money, but imagine not making anything the rest of the year. So it's like, okay, when you think of it last day, it's actually not that much because like you didn't really make that much the rest of the year right it's very tough and honestly for that reason like I really like live below my means so there's multiple ways I see it so like as for personal life I still live with my parents so I don't have to like worry about that I also like don't have a car I also don't pay for car insurance that's why like I just don't drive like I just don't pay for anything except things that help my health the only thing I spend on is my health and that's probably like it's definitely a hundred percent it's like less than$1 ,000 a month.

16:55So I'm like, okay, I only need$1 ,000 a month to actually be healthy and like actually live my life, right? For the team, the way I like to see it is I want to have a 12 month emergency fund for me, a 12 month emergency fund for whichever employee that I want to have. And like, it's an emergency, not an emergency fund for their personal, but I mean, to like still have them as an employee. Like, do I have enough money to also cover 12 months of them working for me. Like, that's how I like to see it. So like, I'm a big saver, to be honest, it's probably like a problem. But yeah. And then the other thing I wanted to follow up on in there is mentioning that a good amount of that revenue came from consulting work.

17:32And that I think a lot of people, you know, look at content creators and are like, Oh, just get paid to make YouTube videos or TikToks. And it's like, No, I do this. And it also leads to these other things that are revenue generating. So like, how do you think about that in terms of the business? And what advice would you offer to somebody in terms of like, perhaps thinking a few steps down the road of like, okay, if this channel becomes successful, then that can lead to these opportunities. How do they start to think about the business in that way? I think there's a vast like range of content creators.

18:04There's some people who just want to be influencers or YouTubers who make videos, like you said, who will probably struggle to make a living, like literally pulling the views that I do, to be honest, which seems crazy because I think I recently hit like a billion views on short form content, which is actually insane. So I think the biggest thing is like, if you know, you don't just like you're okay, at least with not just being the influencer, like the person who's just making videos, then you really do have to like diversify and look at like other streams of incomes or different businesses that you can use as a content creator.

18:36The way I like to see it is like, you realize how many businesses or companies would be so happy if they had your size or like influence as like a big YouTuber or TikToker or whatever that may be. It's almost like use that to your advantage and then use that influence, but then make your product. And as you do that, obviously that can pull you in a lot of different directions. You mentioned that you're, you know, in school graduating with a finance degree, like what time management strategies are you employing to get everything done? Yeah. So first things first, I know I probably said like so many times health is wealth.

19:12Health is number one. So if you are healthy, if you sleep well, if you're eating good, you will have more energy. So that's like an instant productivity hack. Just eating good. Don't eat, for example, like you don't want your glucose levels to like spike too much. And then now you're going to get tired right after. So it's like you want to make sure that you're like treating your body very well and you're going to have so much more energy. So easily like that, you get an extra couple of hours in your days and much more energy. That's the number one thing. Number two thing is also understanding when you are most productive and least productive and making use of that.

19:44So for example, for me, I know my mornings are incredibly productive. So then it's during those times where I try to like work as soon as possible and get the most work done. But on the flip side, I know that in the afternoon-ish or like evening time, I'm not that creative. I'm not working that good. So then don't force it. Why would you work for three hours to get what would have been 10 minutes of work in the morning, right? It's during those times that you rejuvenate and then get back to work when you are productive again. So I think those two things are like hacks alone for like time management.

20:11And then secondarily, just also doing a to-do list and making sure you like basically like have like a good schedule put in place because I block out my days. So I already know like from the night before what my next day is going to look like. I've been putting off this question because I can't come up with a way to phrase it. That doesn't sound like I'm a United States Senator with no understanding of technology asking any of the technology executives a question. So I'm just going to go for it. How does somebody get more views on YouTube? Yeah, that's a good question. There's lots of things, but the number one thing is viewer satisfaction.

20:44If a viewer is satisfied, the video is going to get views in several ways. And one, YouTube's going to see that the viewer retention was high, that they watched the video all the way, and they're going to want to push it out more. Or on the flip side, if a person really liked a video, they're going to share it with their friends. There's going to be so many shares and the video is still going to get views anyway. So to get more views, the simple answer is make good videos, but more specifically that satisfy viewers. Viewer satisfaction is the number one thing. How do you analyze your videos after they've gone up, after you see those numbers and maybe you're looking and you're like, okay, they dropped off at three minutes.

21:18How then do you like look at that moment in the video and kind of do an analysis of what happened at that moment that maybe caused them to drop off? Yeah, it's very tough because there could be several reasons as to why people would have left in one spot. It could have been like, oh, maybe that wasn't funny. Maybe I was talking too slow. Maybe the music was too loud. Maybe the music was too quiet. And there's really like any answer you could probably come up with. So for that reason, the most important thing I think is to like also compare it to other videos. So it's like, you can say, for example, let's say, oh, maybe they left because the music stopped.

21:52Okay, now let's see if this is actually a valid hypothesis. So then we'll look at other videos and then we'll be like, oh shoot, every time that music stops, people are in fact leaving. So I think the biggest thing is like trying to isolate variables so you can determine whether that's actually what's happening. How much time do you spend doing that kind of analysis? Dang, I used to spend so much time doing it. I probably spent maybe two hours a day doing it. And then like at the end of the month, I'll do like one full day of like breaking it down. But now I actually have someone on the team who's doing all that and like creating like softwares and tools actually like do this for us.