We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Feli From Germany. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Feli below.
Feli, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
For me, making money from YouTube was never my goal. I only uploaded one video every few months at the time but a few months in, I had gathered enough views and subscribers to qualify for the YouTube partner program, which allows you to run ads on your videos and get paid by Google Adsense. Once I signed up for that, I made around $100-$200 a month, which felt like a nice little side income to me at the time. A few months after that, I was approached by the first brand that I believe offered me around $300 for a placement in one of my videos, and half a year after that, YouTube featured me as “Creator on the Rise” at the exact same time as the first Covid lockdowns were called out. Those two things together gave my channel a huge boost and one of my videos went kind of viral. Suddenly, I was making over $2000 a month and was approached by YouTube agencies and multi-channel networks who wanted to collaborate with me. I had just been told that the full-time job I was in the application process for was given to someone else so I figured, if these agencies are reaching out because they think they can make money from me, let me see if I can do that myself first. Before this, I didn’t look at my YouTube channel as a business and I wasn’t actively trying to make money with it or even upload consistently. That was in March of 2020 and I told myself “I’ll do this full-time for a while and see where it goes and if I’ll get tired of it” and over 3 years later, I’m still doing it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I run a YouTube channel, a podcast, and social media platforms under the name “Feli from Germany” where I talk about cultural differences between Germany and the US. I’m a German native, born and raised in Munich, and came to Cincinnati, Ohio at the age of 22 for an exchange semester during my undergrad. After that, I kept coming back to the US and have been living here permanently since 2018. My content is targeted at people who are interested in learning more about Germany as a country as well as our culture and language. It’s interesting for people with German heritage, and for those who simply wanna know how I, as a German, view the US and which things I like and don’t like here.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Many people believe that content creation is an easy job and hardly takes any work. My reality is that I often work 80-100 hours a week and often don’t even have time to go grocery shopping or spend any free time with myself or friends and family. Not all content creators live that kind of lifestyle but that’s how it’s been for me for most of the last 3 years and despite that, I haven’t had a single time where I considered fully quitting because I still always like what I do. I do also know that not having any personal life isn’t my goal in life so I’m actively trying to find ways to have both: Keep the channel running and have a better work-life balance where I can take weekends off and don’t work when I’m on vacation. I guess these are the issues that every self-employed person and every business owner struggle with though.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I just started sharing the topic I’m passionate about on YouTube and then later also started an Instagram page. I think my best tip is to always be authentic and give people an insight into your life, your opinions, your skills (or whatever it is that your platform is about) and always think about whether you’d be interested in watching that video, that reel, that Instagram story, etc. The art is to have something interesting to share but also have a little bit of “sales skills” to sell whatever it is you’re doing in the hook of a Reel, in the thumbnail, the video title, etc. And nowadays, short-form video content (TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts) is the quickest way to grow an audience but not always the most sustainable so I’d recommend combining short-form video with long-form video or another long-lasting business model.
Contact Info:
- Website: felifromgermany.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/felifromgermany/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/felifromgermany
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/felifromgermany
- Other: Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/understandingtrainstation and https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/understandingtrainstation
Image Credits
Feli from Germany