We were lucky to catch up with Tulio Sasaya recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tulio, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always been a bit on the fence about pursuing content creation as a legitimate career.

I grew up in an immigrant household, so ideas of prioritizing education and going down a more traditional career path were deeply cemented in me. In high school, I focused entirely on getting into a good college, but once I achieved that goal, I felt lost and didn’t know where to take my career. I began creating content on TikTok as a joke after finishing my college applications and gained viral success with my inline-skating videos, growing my platform to around 400K in a couple of months. However, I only viewed it as a hobby at the time as I felt limited to only posting inline-skating videos.

At Duke, I continued to post these videos online but struggled to grow an audience as I was essentially a one-trick pony. I struggled with this for about a year at Duke before I realized my passion for content creation. I’ve always enjoyed filming and documenting my life as a form of expression. In high school, I loved filming video projects for class, and in Boy Scouts, I documented my camping trips using digital cameras. I fell in love with the idea of storytelling and began incorporating elements of narration into my short-form content creation. This shift from inline-skating videos to story and personality-based content helped me grow to over 1 million followers across my accounts this past year.

I am now signed with a talent agency to help manage brand deals and am looking to expand further into long-form content on YouTube.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Hey! I’m Tulio Sasaya, a rising junior at Duke University and part-time content creator on social media, where I share stories and spectacle inline-skating videos. I began my skating journey at around 7 years old after attending a school roller skating event. My parents saw that I loved skating and enrolled me in weekly lessons at a local roller rink. After around 3 years, my instructor suggested I try speed skating at the DFW Speed Skating team. There, I attended practices and competed in speed skating meets. However, practice was an hour away, and I couldn’t fully commit to attending speed skating more than once a week. I later made the decision to drop speed skating to focus more on my academics and extracurriculars during my sophomore year of High School. I still skated at a nearby park outside as a hobby, and my skating skills later became the key to my initial viral success on social media.

My content has evolved from inline skating videos to what I would describe as personality- and story-based content. I share stories about my culture, my skating journey, and my personal life. This has allowed me to connect with my audience on a deeper level and be a more authentic voice on social media.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Duke University actually has an Innovation and Entrepreneurship program that has helped me immensely throughout my creator journey. It’s connected me with other like-minded individuals in the creator space and a professor who has provided me with many resources and advice. I’ve taken several courses at Duke related to start-ups, branding, and product management that have helped me develop a more entrepreneurial mindset.

Outside of Duke, I listen to The Karat Podcast and The Colin and Samir Show to learn from other creators’ journeys and the creator space. I also watch Mino Lee and Katie Xu for advice on building a personal brand online through short-form content.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Sharing stories and having an audience to listen to those stories has been one of the most rewarding things about being a content creator. I also really enjoy the freedom that comes with growing a personal brand. I don’t need to get my videos approved by anyone, and I can post whatever I feel like. This allows me to focus more on being creative and authentic to myself, which helps me connect better with my audience.

Since I also post college vlogs on YouTube, I tend to get recognized a lot on campus. Prospective students tend to watch my videos to get a sense of Duke’s campus and college life. It brings me fulfillment when I can see that I’ve helped others throughout their journeys.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tulio_sasaya/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tuliosasaya/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TulioSasaya

Image Credits

Personal Feature Photo: Chris Hildreth