- Action.
Hello, this is Glozell
Hello, this is Glozell,
is you okay?
Is you okay?
Is you good?
This is Glozell, is you okay?
'Cause I wanted to know
I'm gonna tell you my story
from rags to riches
(cash register chime)
- I want to introduce you to our next YouTube star,
Glozell Green
- Thank you
(President Obama laughs)
- Glozell, by most accounts the most followed
African-American woman on YouTube.
- Wassup!
My lifestyle did change,
I'm getting stopped in the streets
I'm getting asked to do television shows.
- I get to get interviewed by Glozell,
this is a monumental moment for me.
- Just thinking like, okay
everything is going to go up and up and up from there.
Not the case!
Get your popcorn it's all good
You come to California like everybody does
thinking like, okay, I know that I have this gift
and I'm gonna do standup
and like, YouTube comes around.
See when you can't scratch you just have to pat
'cause you don't really want mess your hair up.
And so I started posting and someone's like,
do you know that, you know, there's quite a few people
looking at you on this YouTube thing.
I'm like, I don't know those people
and that absolutely, that took off
and I had no idea that that would
'cause I didn't grow up with computers
I mean I took a typing class, okay
We talking 'bout, with whiteout
Okay.
Okay, so 150 ka-billion people have been asking me
to uh, do the Cinnamon Challenge
Alright, so here's the cinnamon, alright?
Alright, here goes.
(Glozell chokes)
Hah!
I'm like, this is the vehicle that I can reach people!
And then I remember my first check came in it was $25
I was like, is this real money?
I better spend it now before they ask for it back.
You know, and we're talking like $25 a day
so that started adding up and I'm like oh!
Then it went up to $100 a day
and then it just grew from there
I'm like, now I can move, I can move to a safer place
and of course I had to get my Mercedes!
Like that's what I...I wanted to buy a Louis Vuitton bag,
I wanted a nice ring
and I wanted a Benz
so that's, those are my aspirations.
I'm getting asked to do television shows
don't even have to audition.
A Kevin Hart movie I did called The Wedding Ringer,
Trolls
- I'm your
- You're, you're my grandmother
- Yes!
Yes you know that,
you know I've told everybody at the family reunion
I'm like he's probably gonna show up
(Anna and Justin laugh)
- Just letting you know!
So that's incredible, you riding high with people like
oh, can you sign this?
These are things that you dream of.
Oh, you get a call from the White House?
President Barack Obama.
I'm like (laughs) ah click.
And then it was like emails and duhduhduhduhduh
I was like, oh is this real?
- Hey Glozell
- Hello
- How are you?
- Good to see you
- Heyy
- So um, I have three lipsticks
one for your first wife, I mean
- My first wife?
- I mean (laughs) I mean
- Do you know something I don't?
- Oh! Oh! For the First Lady!
- And the First Children
- And the first, oh I'm just (laughs)
- Alright
I hugged him, they said don't touch him!
I touched him!
He smelled like Sandlewood and power
Ah!
And that's when you realize, like wow
you really have made it!
And you thinking like, this is gonna just keep going
the Internet's not going anywhere, you just think
it's gonna always be there
and then all of a sudden, BOOM!
On YouTube they change stuff all the time.
All of a sudden my videos started to get significantly
fewer views and it wasn't just me,
many other creators were affected.
The way YouTube suggested videos to viewers changed.
So mine weren't necessarily showing up,
even for my subscriber base.
This new algorithm started a downward spiral
because the lower views meant it made it even harder
for my videos to get seen at all.
Next thing I know, videos that would once get
millions of views are now getting just thousands
and the lower views means less money
and before I knew it I was broke.
My management left and what, you know
we get paid off of you getting paid
and people were leaving out of my life
and then Notices on the, the door
Eviction!
It's time, you didn't pay, you gotta go!
And I'm sneaking Kraft services
so that had gotten really really really really really hard
It was about trying to survive
day, by day, by day
and I was asking my mom for money
and she's tapping into her retirement
You don't even want to hear your own thoughts
it's like what are you doing?
Why are you doing this?
You know, nobody's watching you, nobody cares!
You're old, you're a has-been!
I don't know what else to do,
I've been doing this for over a decade at this point
what, what else can I do?
What kept me going was my daughter
and sometimes I felt like that wasn't gonna be enough
because the low days were just low
when you feel like you want to take care of this child
and you can't
and you try to figure out, tomorrow how she's gonna eat?
She's going to, she's going to class,
what is her lunch?
You know things like that.
She's gonna open her lunchbox, what is it?
What's gonna be inside?
Like, it was, it was that bad.
Then I thought of Madonna
because she kept reinventing herself, you know
like if she was still like,
"Trying to make it through the wilderness.."
She would be stuck in the wilderness!
You know still!
And so I was thinking, I need to do that
I have to come up with some, it's not working
you have to be able to go, what else,
how can I tweak my talents?
You have to see, let people see you
outside of what they normally see you
so you get different opportunities and actually
it's coming up, I'm doing my own show
- Hello this is Glozell, is you okay, is you good
'cause I wanted to know!
I'm here with Colleen Ballinger, look at, she's so cute!
I am terrified, I've not done this in forever
I'm like, what in the world am I gonna say?
But I'm going to do it and I keep telling myself
it's gonna be fine, it's the Glozell show, it called
Showzell! Like how creative was that name?
- I think it's very creative
(Glozell laughs)
- I love it!
- More auditions are coming in
I have new management,
so they're sending me out more often.
I was asked to be in Vanity Fair.
Everything is coming in
if I could go back and make different decisions,
it would be just to understand money
how money works, how taxes work
realizing how much was being spent
like I did not even know, I had
I wasn't even going to the grocery store
I wasn't the one getting the gas
you know, I was just out of touch
and then realize that I've had people doing this
and, and so you have to know where your money's going
and what you're doing and what can you do
you know, to save money
and that money saved can go, invest in something else
anything else, I wasn't investing at all.
I mean even from like write and balancing your checks
and just knowing, like you need to be taught
in like regular school.
I just, just got out of touch
and then it was time to get back in touch,
I feel much better about doing it.
I would tell you now, be ready to reinvent yourself
things change, people grow up
and you have to be willing to, to change
and evolve and so I, I'm really thankful to finally
whoo!
Be on the upswing and it makes you appreciate everything
so much better!
So keep going, don't stop.
(clicks fingers)
Ooh!
Yes!
I like this, let the glow-up begin!
(finger snap)