in this video I talk with Shelby Church about her tips for coming up with
creative video ideas advice for upcoming YouTubers and the most
embarrassing moment of her life coming up
Hey what’s up everybody Sean here with video influencers and I'm sitting here with
Shelby Church How’s it going Hi guys good thanks for having me super pump to have you on here Shelby
if you never heard of her before has got a lifestyle YouTube channel and a vlog
channel over 800,000 subscribers over 40 million 44 million views hi guys hi guys
that’s pretty incredible I didn’t even know that until today I'm like whoa and so you’ve been crush in it and you started in 2009
yes pretty amazing everything that you're doing but for everybody watching let’s just
kind of start off and talk about your story how did you get into online video the first
place and start YouTube yeah I started it I think how a lot of people my age
started it which was just out of boredom I was 14 and my parents we like just
moved to a new house that was like far away from my friends kind of and
so I couldn't drive I was so bored and I was just watching YouTube videos all day
but I always liked to make videos too so during the summer I just like bought a
video camera and started making them and they were horrible at first but some
people watch them for some reason over time they got a little better and i ended
up moving to California
and I always knew that I wanted to like learn more about film and stuff so that's
what I've been doing here that's amazing and one of the first things though i know a lot of people ask
too is is having the confidence and the courage to put yourself out there what
was that like when you first were getting started where you kind of naturally that way or
was a kind of a little nervous when you first started out to post those first
video I honestly didn't even think about it cause like I didn't think anyone
would watch it I just did it for fun and then like once I was in school I was
like oh people probably gonna find out about these but it wasn't a big
deal I think it can be different for everyone like depending on your school
and the people there but everyone at my school is really nice about it and I
feel you always hear about like the mean stories people getting bullied but that doesn't
always happen so that's interesting so you kinda had people around you that
we're supporting yeah that were encouraging you yeah people were really nice about it that's awesome so that was crazy you were 14 and now you've been
doing YouTube for seven years during that time what was maybe one of the big
obstacles that you faced and your learning curve or something that kinda
was almost a setback and how did you overcome it I think recently you kind of
have to have people shooting for you like it's gotten to a point where you
need to like hire people to like hold the camera like you can just use a
tripod anymore so that's been one of the bigger obstacles is just like working
with other people cause it takes more time to like schedule things and before I
think a lot to YouTubers are just used to like making a video in their bedroom but
that's been harder but it's also been cool ‘cause like my videos have gotten so
much better so I don't know it's definitely a struggle that will continue
but I think it's good that's great what are some of your tips there cause I mean
how have you found people and I'm sure there's probably some video influencers that
are in that stage right now how have you been able to get people to help and
sometimes hirer maybe sometimes collab and help each other what have you learned I think collabing
is a good way to do it because it's fun like help people with other videos and
that's really how I started doing it like I had a roommate
who did film production too and she always liked helping make videos and everything
and so I hired her for a bit until she had to move back to Boston but it was
awesome because we worked so well together and i think just starting with
finding people who if you take a class for like video or anything like that
that can be like a good person to do it I wouldn't recommend doing like just your friends
because they're convenient because you can teach them how to use a camera cause it
doesn't really work out quite as well because they don't really want to do it
you know sure
that's super smart because they also in the quality what they do probably won’t be that good but if you found
them in a film class yeah and they’re like actually interested in it that's super smart that’s a great tip
what has been maybe somebody would want to follow in your footsteps and so they're
watching kind of lifestyle youtubers like yourself and they will want to get
started and maybe there are already started what some of the advice you would give them
to go further faster now that you've been doing this for a while I was just focus
on the quality of the videos rather than like being the most popular because once
you make videos that are good quality people want to watch them and they’ll want to
subscribe so that's what I was trying to do and try and be creative like
not like everyone else on YouTube because now it's like very saturated
everyone kind of does the same thing in the lifestyle realm of YouTube yeah so if
you're doing something different than people are like super into it but also
if you're like make sure you have that good quality video it can't be just like
on your phone anymore I mean maybe if it was something like super different
creative but for the most part
DSLR is where you would want to use and just like not really caring about the
outcome of the viewers or not really the viewers but like how many viewers
cause you can't really control that and so cause I've done it for seven years so it
just takes time really that's really interesting so you're saying that the
bar of the quality has been raised
especially lifestyle you wanted it to be set high what would you say is good
quality content like what are some of the things that you think makes a great
video I think that good audio helped so much and people don't realize until they
change their microphone that it’s so much better and you don't even realize if you're
watching a video that's like way better audio just even a microphone that's a
$200 to make such a difference even little things like making sure that your
background looks good that really helps the quality and that doesn't cost any
money to do so
like that just like making sure everything that editing just really
taking time to make sure it's interesting like if you don't really
want to watch your own video then other people won't want editing is really
important for lifestyle videos yeah that's huge
do you edit your own videos? yeah what do you use? just Final Cut Pro X that is awesome now what of the huge things especially after
seven years that's a long time and a lot of the big questions we get a lot from
influencers is even how to come up with ideas in the first place but talk
about also eventually you've done about how to videos I mean you've done
hundreds of videos
yeah I think I have two hundred and fifty on my channel but there's so many
more that I've made and just like deleted somewhere along the way probably
wow so that is i mean even 250 sounds like crazy with that many videos did
seem like you’d run out of ideas so what are your tips for staying creative and
inspired staying fresh and that could be go for someone who season like yourself or
did you just try to get ideas for your first videos yeah I think everyone kind
of struggles with like being creative on YouTube ‘cause it moves so quickly and like
you have a really good idea and then you made the video and got to move on and so
I watch the YouTube video one time actually what a lot of videos to show me
how to be more creative and come up with ideas and it said to take the good ideas
and sort of combined them with something else and I remember when I would you
like Lifehacker videos while ago no one had really done that was like life hacks
for school and it was back to school time and so a new life hacks were really good
so I was like oh life hacks for school and if you just sit
down and like look at something that's popular and see what it hasn't been kind
of combined with then it is like perfect thats a super super good tip so taking
something I could be trendy and then combining with something else you just
created something entirely new
yeah that's even though those were potential two ideas that people were doing very you can actually sit down and think
of it ‘cause most of the time ideas like I don't even know how I came up with them
that just happened but that you can really sit down and be like ok what can
I do here you know yeah that's huge now one of the things that is
interesting that is happening on YouTube is there's like this whole generation of like super
young video createors and they’re they’re crushing it they’re doing a lot of cool things and
then you can relate you started when you were fourteen yeah and now you're 21 but
you've gone through that period of of being like a young youtuber what are some of the lessons or
maybe challenges with you can know then what you know now would you tell
yourself when it comes to like negative comments or working with others and may
be feeling like getting kinda taking advantage of you’re dealing with networks I mean there's so
much what would be your advice and wisdom for young youtubers ok I would
say first of all for negative comments there's a black list feature which is
amazing so you can blacklist a word hair in that
video you can just blacklist the word hair and you won't see any of the comments
about it it's amazing how have negative comments
affected you like having dealt with that though too because that's great kind of
shield yourself have you ever had a time where you've been like torn up hurt
its super personal yeah I haven't been too bad about it i got really take them
to seriously because it's just people who are bored but one thing if you like
work really hard on the video and the people are like this sucks then that’s disappointing ‘cause you like
really worked hard on it and honestly just like props to anyone who's starting
YouTube now because it's so much harder now it seems like because everyone makes
really good videos and when I started I use like this really just horrible
camera is just no one would watch the video so I started with if they were
uploaded now so honestly
like it so much harder if you're doing it now
major props to you that's huge now so talking again about young youtubers what
are some of the wisdom safety things things to worry about maybe privacy and
just being smart I mean what would you give advice to up-and-coming young
YouTube yeah I don't really say where I live other than the fact that I live in
LA just cause it's pretty obvious on blogs and everything and I think if you
live in LA it's big enough that it's sort of ok but if you live in a random
town I wouldn't say what it is I would say like the major town next by
so like I always say that I lived in Seattle but really lived like a random
to a little bit further away so that is a good thing and then also if people are
like at your house or vlogging or snap chatting or whatever just make sure they
don't like go right outside of like show your house because then people can find you
and it really only takes like one leaked video clip for that so that’s really smart and probably also
don't like to have friends like hey don't checking and on Twitter like
turnout geo-tagging or different things cause there’s a lot of things that people could do yeah
and most youtubers know not to so that's good so one thing that I think there's a lot of pressure for
young youtubers is to like be like others you know we look around and we
compare ourselves to other people and we sometimes maybe try to be like somebody
else what are some of the advice you maybe give up-and-coming youtubers for
find their own voice and unique and also like getting free from it could be like jealousy to
which you know competition like that's that's kinda hard I know I see a lot of
people like when they moved to LA they've become so LA and I gonna be like
Kylie Jenner whatever but like I’m proud of the fact that I'm from Seattle and like
I like it there go Seattle yeah wherever you’re
from just like work that really because I don't know I think that's cool to not
be like everyone else because there are so many youtubers in LA that that it's like
they're all kind of the same but I try not to be too much like that I think you
can like sort of become like it but also stay true to yourself and what type
encouragement like talking about that I give you if somebody you know there's a
lot to look up to you and me too young tubers young youtubers that would you know
just encouraging them to you to go for it to go for it in youtube but also to find their own
voice in their own style what would you say to them I would say if you're
thinking of making a channel like definitely just do it it's really fun and it's
changed my life like I can't even imagine how it would be if I didn't make
it is honestly it's kind of perfect cause I've just always like to make videos putting
yourself out there can be super vulnerable yeah for sure I think it helps to have
your kind of afraid to make a channel by yourself to make it with a friend ‘cause
I’ve seen a lot of people do that and it's cool ‘cause then you have someone to help you
with the video so like shoot for you too so I know like some really popular youtubers have
done that like I think Jimmy Tatro even like he made it with a friend and it
turns out better to you can brainstorm with your friend and like you probably
would want to edit by yourself but like you can shoot with the friends I think
that helps a lot and then finding your own voice just watch more than just
lifestyle videos even if you make lifestyle videos watch like vloggers and
like food videos like just all kinds of things you can find inspiration
everywhere and other people might not be watching it so it'll be like kind of
different that's a super super good tip i think that lighting is sort of like zig zag
yeah so it’s kinda like this you didn’t do it though we gotta go it at the same time lightning round lighting round 321 coffee or tea coffee talking or
texting talking the person you trust most with a secret my cat last thing you grabbed out of the
fridge eggs i think would you rather never watch TV or movies ever again or never use social
media again never use social media i think including YouTube oh no YouTube is a social network no including youTube never mind never to watch TV or movies wow favorite place
in the whole world the beach favorite nickname for yourself when people call me
shellbs i thought that was pretty good shells hashtag shellbs biggest pet peeve when people eat very loudly last can stand that
song you had on repeat work by Rihanna's
sing it work work work favorite show on Netflix Grey’s anatomy i’ve never seen that before and yeah I love the office that’s like
my favorite show oh classic most embarrassing moment of your life like when I was in
kindergarden my brother would always say the word tight and like so I was 5 we had
to say something about a kid in our class and everyone said all the good
words right so like I think matthew is tight and the teacher had no idea what
that meant it was like in 2000 and so for like 20 minutes she was like what
is tight and like it was so embarrassing like I don't know I'm 5 like i don’t even know one movie you think every
influencer should watch I love them and we catch me if you can I just really
like that movie doctor harris do you concur concur with what sir do you concur
if you could only have one thing in a zombie apocalypse one item what would it be
a vlog camera cause you're probably not gonna make it out but at least you can record what
happened
yeah and make some cool videos that’s awesome your favorite YouTube channel right now
Casey Neistat I feel like everyone loves him right now they're just i watch his videos every day one I mean their insane they’re crazy one
book you think every influencer should I don't know I really like Tina’s books cause
I just think it's funny but it doesn't have anything to do with being an influencer
I guess kind of because she’s like an influencer go to comfort food mac and cheese
the kind of the box even is that easy mac and I don't know no easy mac it’s like in a packet and powder and i don’t think it’s very real but it tastes good
lighting round so as a video influencer it's about a lot more than
just YouTube and so now there's all these other social networks which ones
are your favorites and why? Instagram is my favorite cause I just like pictures the
best it’s my favorite to post on and to like look at I probably use snapchat the
most so easy but like I think Instagram it’s like the most fun to look at what's maybe like
one of your biggest tips and things that you've learned focusing on that social
platform that influencers could learn from I probably need to do this myself but just
to post more like posting often because you can't post on YouTube every day and
you're like a Lifestyle channel but you could post on Instagram every day or snapchat
like every hour
yeah yeah people can keep up with you that way so posting consistently that’s huge and then
do you have any kind of like aesthetic I mean obviously do for your Instagram
account what are some of your thinking that goes into what it needs to Instagram well I really
liked the VSO cam filters a 61 I like that and I kind of like things to be
like blueish
and maybe light pink but mostly blueish like it's going to have a hint of
anything it's blue how often is your pictures iPhone or a better camera
they're usually iPhone but sometimes if i feel like just like taking pictures it's a
better camera but like 80% of the time iPhone lastly where you at on YouTube and
everywhere well I feel like I've been focusing a lot on my other channel just
like that so I'm taking some time from that to just focus on my main channel
and post regularly more again so that's really what I'm working on just like
working on a lot of content for main channel so you’ve got just like that
content there Shelby Church your main channel also a vlog channel and
consistency there will link up everything in the comment section below
and things like that thank you so much for being on video influencers yeah thanks for having me
one final word one final thought or just encouragement for influencers watching
what would you tell them as far as going out there and crushing it and building
their influence just go for it and actually make a video because it's
really fun so yeah and have fun editing too because you’ll just spend hours doing
that so yeah editing work on it I really can’t dance do like .. .. let’s get it going yeah what’s your vocal
warmups yeah yeah yeah yeah are you recording this that’s powerful