If you’ve ever dreamed of becoming a successful YouTuber, you need to read this. In this month’s issue of The Hangout, we chatted with YouTube sensation Lee Hinchcliffe to get the facts behind his success, as well as some valuable advice for anyone looking to kickstart their YouTube career.
Hi Lee, we see you’ve managed to get close to quarter of a million subscribers. Congratulations! Do you have any advice for young people wanting to get into YouTube?
My advice is to always be yourself, and don’t let what others say about you affect how you live your life. If you have a passion for making videos you just need to go for it, you never know you could make a career out of it!
What was your first YouTube video? Does it make you cringe?
My first video was called “Things We All Do” and I basically sat there and spoke about relatable things we all do in day to day life. And yes, it is now possibly one of the most cringiest things I have ever watched.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given about your YouTube channel?
The best piece of advice I always get given is from the viewers. They leave comments on the videos, whether it’s just that they really enjoyed it, if they like the editing, or more suggestions for content they want to see. That’s the most important.
Did you experience subscriber growth quickly or was it a slow process?
It kind of varied, it started off a little slow and then started to pick up a bit, then again slowed down. Eventually one of my videos blew up (The Song Lyric Text Prank on my Crush) and got over 1 million views in a few weeks, then my subscribers just went mental.
How do you think of such unique content for your videos?
The ideas come for my videos come at random, sometimes when I’m sat at my desk. As weird as it is, sometimes I get an idea in the shower and even weirder, when I’m on the toilet! Haha it’s a great time to think.
Which YouTuber inspires you the most?
I don’t really have one specific YouTuber that inspires me, it’s mainly my YouTube friends because we all bounce off each other and sort of work together on everything. It’s an awesome community to be in. We all bounce off each other and sort of work together on everything. My best friend is Joe Tasker, we plan videos but as soon as we spend time together our videos never turn out to be normal - we go absolutely insane!
What’s your most popular video? Why do you think that is?
My most popular video is a lyric prank on my crush using Justin Bieber’s ‘Let Me Love You’ lyrics. I think it became very popular to people because the main thing in the video is basically me getting pied off by the girl that I had a crush on!
Most YouTubers have loads of fancy camera equipment, can you become a full-time YouTuber with just your phone camera and lots of dedication?
Definitely. My first couple of YouTube videos were filmed with just my phone and a simple lamp. A lot of really big YouTubers now still use their phones for vlogging and things like that. As long as you have the passion and dedication to take on YouTube, you can use anything.
We see you’ve recently spent £250 on McDonalds – are you a burgers or nuggets guy?
It’s always got to be nuggets, they’re my life!
And finally, we see you’ve been wearing KWD products on Insta. What’s your go-to outfit?
My go to outfit is always skinny jeans (black or blue) and the longline KWD tees, I’m a longline sort of guy haha. I also love the new KWD line that has just dropped, so that might have to be part of an outfit soon!
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