Me and my friend group were just the weird art kids that liked making stuff.
Weird art kids live on forever.
What's up, creatives?
This is Gerald from the YouTube team
bringing you another episode of Amplify Voices
where we interview creatives from under-represented backgrounds
and explore how they found their voice on YouTube.
In this video, we'll hear from Nick Foti, from soundlyawake.
Nick has been a day-one creator with YouTube, launching his channel in 2006.
Not only has Nick's content changed over the years, but so has his voice.
YouTube's mission is to give everyone a voice and show them the world.
Let's explore how Nick found his on YouTube.
Hey Nick, how you feeling?
I'm good, how are you?
I'm doing good, excited to speak to you, and just to to open up.
I want to just hear a little bit about, you know, what inspired you to get started.
So, I had a friend who posted a lot of song covers on YouTube
and he got like, I think, 60 subscribers and I was wondering
"how did you get 60 random people to subscribe to your videos on YouTube?"
And I was completely ignorant of the world of YouTube.
And I started posting videos, in the beginning, they were also song covers
and then eventually decided to do comedy videos, play different characters
and then now I do like language, geography, edutainment videos.
Were there things you were seeing either in your YouTube comments
or with your audience that was inspiring you or leading you in that direction?
Yeah, so I felt I was super-sensitive when it came to criticism of my covers
and so, I was like, "okay I don't like this feeling
but the comments on my comedy stuff are more positive, so let me keeping doing that."
And did you see anything in like YouTube analytics around either particular views
or aspects of that that really were also like a signal for you that
"Oh, I should continue going in this direction?"
Oh definitely, seeing like subscribers going up and seeing the view count go up
all of those things combined, basically just motivated me to keep doing it.
What I want to hear more about is how you trust your audience?
Because you know again, I'm sure there's a fear around these pivots
have you seen a dip in subscribers, a gain in subscribers, when you made these pivots?
Yeah, like I had a stark change in content, probably exactly a year ago.
It was harder to think of ideas that I was excited about
that fit into that initial box.
And I found myself super excited about
for example, right now, like language learning and geography.
And I was like, "I can get excited about a million ideas on this side"
and I could see some people drop off, but that also signaled to me
that the people that stayed were that much more interested
in what I was doing.
And so, I would rather stay there and make content that I love
and that this core group of people loved together
than try to pass something off that I just was really wasn't into anymore.
One of my favorite videos from your channel is the "Why My Voice Sounds Different Now."
How did it feel to share such a personal story
and your journey as an openly gay man with your YouTube audience in this way?
Yeah, that was kind of like a random realization
that I may have been, sort of, putting on a more masculine personality
that I really wasn't even aware that I was doing
until I started, I guess, feeling more myself and I'm more comfortable in myself now
than I ever have been.
And do you feel like your YouTube audience helped you get to that place in any way
whether through comments or through sharing?
100,000%, yeah.
There were just so many people that I guess I didn't realize would resonate
with just people living their lives authentically.
It sounds like, you finding your voice
and then sharing that is helping others find their voice too
which is really powerful, but I'm sure there's some negativity too.
How have you navigated any hate or disparaging comments that have come your way?
I feel it's really important to preserve your own sanity.
The most important thing to remember is that you are worthy
and that you are deserving of good things
you're deserving of love, of success, and all of the things that you want in life.
In general, marginalization isn't fun for anybody
and I think, you know, platforms like this are some of the new meeting places
and so we have to make sure they're safe too.
If you were to talk to yourself when you first started your YouTube channel
what advice would you give to yourself?
Don't be so hard on yourself, don't overthink things
and if I could go back I would just be like,
"breathe, relax, you're fine."
No, that's real, that's real.
Well, listen Nick, this has been a really really powerful experience for me
I just want to thank you again and I really enjoyed the conversation.
Thank you so much for having me.
Big shout-out to Nick for sharing his voice.
Check out the links below for creator resources and best practices.
Thanks for watching.
Peace.