right across from this hall is the very
film school I got my film degree yet
when I was doing my internship or my
cinematic arts degree
I scored what many students would
consider to be the perfect internship
because on the last day of the job I was
approached by multiple heads of
departments to call them as soon as I
graduate because they wanted to hire me
right away as of today I've been hired
by none of them because I simply never
called any of them back and the reason
for that is I chose to become a youtuber
instead now the choice was between a
somewhat stable decent paying job in the
film industry compared to something
uncertain along the lines of posting
videos on the internet helping people
don't hit skip add up to 5 seconds or
worst of all install adblock that
decision that I have made would be
considered incredibly stupid by the
standards of many university students
because I was getting multiple job
offers in the exact industry that I was
doing my degree in in the field of study
that I chose out of passion and if that
wasn't enough I graduated with
first-class honours I was nominated best
students of my faculty and I even
graduated receiving the President's
Choice Award for my University how many
would have killed to get the
opportunities that I had all the people
around me who told me that I was simply
wasting my chances instead of being on
the set of the next biggest blockbuster
film Here I am sitting in a room talking
to a camera alone vlogging just like
every other millennial here's the irony
people think that being a youtuber is a
job that requires no qualifications
whatsoever however when I tell them that
I am a full-time youtuber for some
reason they think I'm swimming in money
and according to this article at least
being a youtuber is smack on the list
for the most lucrative careers for lazy
entitled Millennials
nice I can sort of understand why people
get the idea that we get paid way too
much just the other day I was getting
called out in my own comment section or
being overrated because I am really rich
so I did what this one commenter
recommended all my viewers to do I
googled my own network and boy was I in
for pleasant surprise
according to star networks com
my net worth is worth up to 1 million
dollars u.s. Wow and it must be true
because it's featured at the very top of
the Google search results in a card so
it's really official let me put this
into perspective for you I'm driving my
dad's 13 year old Corolla you know as a
23 year old and I'm not saying this is
the best way to spend your money but if
a 23 year old had over 4 million
Malaysian Ringgit sand assets there's a
fairly high chance that might be driving
something else just say just say and the
most annoying part is every time you try
to explain to people that you are just
like them you're just looking for a
living
nobody believes you because google says
you're a millionaire but that's ok I've
also realized that being a youtuber is
the only job in the world where it is
socially acceptable for someone to walk
up to you and ask you to your face what
your salary is oh come on you won't ask
that to your doctor that's ok allow this
lazy entitled millennial to paint you a
picture of his extremely lucrative
career it's no secret that we make our
money off of the ads that everybody
usually skips and that model is called
the YouTube Partnership Program and the
accents pale that's the ad revenue that
we get out of somebody like me who is a
bearer of a silver play button meaning
that my channel has over a hundred
thousand subscribers honestly speaking
the payer I receive is not that much
higher than what a recent fresh bride
would be offered at their first job
interview so it's not a lot of money
which is why very often sometimes you'll
see some of us convincing you that you
need to buy a website from a particular
square-shaped company because they are
paying us as
sponsorship fee to do so and in exchange
we get to pay rent for the month that
has to be the most frequently question
that I get asked how much I get make how
much I make off of YouTube the second
most asked question that I receive is
why did you start making videos on
YouTube now I'm pretty sure every
youtuber gets asked this a lot and there
are many different answers but speaking
from my heart as a creator what the
answer to that question should never be
is because money now before I elaborate
sworn that let me first answer this
question myself I started my youtube
channel because I was in high school and
I was bored I had a school holiday to
burn and I was really really interested
in photography so making videos about
photography and posting them on YouTube
was an outlet for me a way for me to
share my passion so you can say it
started off as a passion project I did
it for self fulfillment but then
comments started rolling in people
started telling me that they found my
videos helpful people were thanking me
for making those videos so it was
actually the online community that
inspired me to continue making videos so
ultimately what I really wanted to make
was helpful videos videos that I wish
were around for me myself to watch when
I was first starting out and then one
day my parents told me that I had mail
as a kid in high school you never get
mail and on the envelope was printed
Google's company logo inside the
envelope was a check for a hundred US
dollars now receiving a check as a kid
was like the most inspirational thing
ever from YouTube because all that was
running through my head was wow I can
actually earn a living doing this it
also helped that a hundred US dollars
was like more money than I ever got as a
kid but then eventually life hit hard
because I went to cash in the check and
life taught me the hard way that there
was a hundred ringgit banking fee for
all foreign checks so there went most of
my first paycheck at that moment in time
I had absolutely no idea of the places
that little journey that started from my
bedroom would eventually take me all I
wanted to do was quite literally share
mine
with the worldwide community fastball
with seven years it is now my livelihood
but was something like that
to become a sustainable business and do
it full-time as your job is way easier
said than done because we have all heard
so many success stories it sounds so
easy make thirty million dollars a year
playing video games from your bedroom
travel the world in first-class as your
day job
we are oversimplifying it it's only when
you get down to it then and only then
will you realize the sheer amounts of
self-discipline required for it to even
remotely work it's so easy to lose
yourself in the early stages of a
YouTube journey because in your own
YouTube channel there is barely anything
keeping you in check the stakes are
relatively low and you are your own boss
so this goes up to anyone who might have
the slightest idea of giving this
slippery slope a try I think if you want
to survive this journey of becoming a
professional content creator there are
three facts that you must mentally
prepare yourself for a classic piece of
advice something very common that you
get told when you start out doing
YouTube is don't do it all the money
well that is true when your YouTube
journey eventually evolves into a stage
where it is sustainable enough for you
to jump into it full-time I present you
fact number one you will do it for the
money why because it is now your
full-time job your only source of income
as a functioning adults what are we
supposed to do if not for the money
I can guarantee each and every one of
you that most of the youtubers you are
regularly watching right now they are
keeping their content coming because
they are getting paid what's important
here is that you should never start he
would start a channel with the sole
intention of making money because trust
me if we're reflecting your content and
your audience is going to pick up on it
what you should do is instead come to
terms and acknowledge the fact that you
need to do it to pay off your bills but
hang on
to what inspire you to make videos in
the first place before you even have to
worry about any of this making money
because I cannot emphasize enough how
important it is to be enjoying what you
are doing if your motive or starting the
channel is just to trick to turn a
straight profit then I can guarantee you
two things one you will be disappointed
because you are not making as much money
as you thought you would and two you
will not enjoy the process at all my
motive for starting my channel was
because when my dad brought me to buy my
first ever DSLR camera
we got ripped off big time and the only
reason we got ripped off was simply
because we didn't know well enough if we
were simply slightly more well-informed
of camera technology in general then we
would have known that we were being
played so now I'm trying to share what
life may have taught me the hard way or
just pieces of knowledge that I've
picked up along the way so that as a
consumer I can share to my fellow
consumers the knowledge that I've picked
up so that they might have somewhat a
better idea of what they might be
getting themselves into and today I
cannot be happier
that I am able to fulfill my purpose for
starting my channel in the first place
while it is also paying the rent but
because of all these monetary issues of
all involved you will face back number
two and that is your ethics will be
challenged I'm sure many of you are
already familiar with or have heard of
the term influencer marketing you see
yourself as this creative this person
who just wants to create content and
share it with the world but brands and
advertising agencies see you as a
social-media influencer so it's really
only a matter of time before you find
yourself involved in a social-media
influencer campaign in the influence of
marketing campaign and at that point a
huge chunk of your livelihood depends on
how big of a cuts you get out of their
marketing budget now it's really not as
shady or scandalous as it sounds a lot
of times we find ourselves working with
brands to Bro to promote products that
we actually use ourselves quite happily
and would genuinely recommend it to
people so in that case it can be
a huge win-win but just remember that
your biggest asset is the trust of your
audience and that is something you
cannot afford to lose because it is your
value proposition brands are generally
interested in your relationship with
your audience so if you deceive your
audience because the brand paid you then
your audience is going to find out
eventually and they will stop watching
and when your audience stops watching
then the brand's lose interest to you
inversely if you turn down a brand you
because you stood up for your audience
then your audience is going to
appreciate it and it will reflect in
your following as a growth and that
actually ultimately leads to even more
brand deals the hardest part about all
this is where you draw the line and how
you use your own judgement because the
last thing you want to be called as
youtuber is to be a sellout but
something arising from all these brand
deals is the third fact that you will
burn out now I'm sure that at some point
the issue of creator burnout became a
trend on Google and YouTube in itself
for for the most of us the audience who
have never experienced burnout before it
seems like this first world problem I'll
be honest I myself thought that this
whole issue of crater bernal were
excuses come up by weak and incompetent
influencers who simply want excuses to
work less until now long after I found
myself quite burnt out as well
to be burnt-out it just kind of feels
you just feel bummed out in general you
don't feel very creative but the worst
part about it is you feel like your
efforts are simply not paying off
there's really no easy way to deal with
burnout it's nothing new it happens in
every creative industry not exclusive to
youtubers a lot of the expert advice we
get on how to deal with burnout leads
back to simply taking a break and coming
back later when you feel less burnt out
but in reality most of the time you will
feel that you simply cannot afford to
take that break but the good news about
all this is if these are issues that you
are facing very likely you have already
made significant progress in your
YouTube journey because these are issues
that you will typically face in the
early stages
YouTube didn't start monetizing content
until 2006 so it's quite crazy to think
that just 15 years ago if you describe a
job like this it would sound completely
absurd but today it's free real estate
in fact we live in a day and age where
we have the luxury of literally creating
our own opportunities from a web browser
and if you want the slice of that cake
it's never too early to start because
it's so accessible that even the lazy
Millennials are doing it I'm sharing all
these behind the scenes info for two
reasons
one for anybody who's considering to
become a youtuber themselves I hope this
serves as sort of a heads up and
advisory and for those of you who are
not I hope it at the very least provides
some degree of insight into our line of
work where the inner workings are almost
never publicly discussed you don't even
have to quit your day job to give it a
try just keep in mind but just like
freelancing there are going to be good
and bad months so it may not turn out to
be the easiest job in the world
but if anybody approaches me and tells
me that I have the best job in the world
I wouldn't disagree thank you for your
time
[Applause]