The creator of YouTube series Living Big in a Tiny House' Bryce Langston, says authenticity is key to success on social media.
Global content creator company Jellysmack signed Langston as a sponsored creator due to the success of his 'Living Big in a Tiny House'.
Langston's series explores the very big world of small space design, an inside look at tiny homes and the people who live inside them.
This includes an eight square metre apartment in Tokyo and an off grid cabin in the mountain ranges of the Kahurangi National Park of New Zealand.
Langston has 4.33 million New Zealand and internationally based subscribers and 664 million video views from around the world.
Langston credits social media as the premise allowing him to reach a wider fan base outside New Zealand.
He says: "Social media has been a lot more than just helpful, it’s been essential. Our show is almost exclusively distributed and promoted through social media and so it’s absolutely connected with everything that we do."
Langston places a high level of importance on sponsorship in order to properly monetise his work. However, he alligns his work with the sponsors message in a way that is natural and comfortable to both parties.
He says: "Sponsorship has been an important aspect of helping the channel to grow and provide us with new opportunities.
"I try to align our sponsorships really well, so our sponsor's message is natural, can be carried in my own voice and is relevant to our channel and what our audience may be genuinely interested in.
When asked about his inspiration to create widely consumed content, he said: "I was an actor, who got killed off a TV show. Living in an expensive city and going back to being an unemployed actor again, I was searching for a way to reduce my overheads / cost of living so that I could continue to do a job that I loved, but where work was seldom guaranteed.
"I was searching on Google for small house design ideas, when I saw a picture of the tiny house godfather, Jay Shafer, with his original tumbleweed tiny house.
"It was like an explosion in my brain; this was perfect for me. It was a game changing idea because it meant I could own my own home, which was simple, small, but everything that I would need, and because it was constructed on a trailer, it meant I wouldn’t need to own the land.
"Thus, I set about building my own tiny house. I decided to start the YouTube channel because I was so excited about the idea and really wanted to share it with other people.
"I wanted to share this super cool idea, which I saw had such potential for personal liberation, in the hopes that it would resonate with some and perhaps even inspire a few to see it as a viable solution to the housing problem."
Langston encourages young creators to be bold and create work that doesn't necessarily follow a trend, but uplifts and inspires.
What is the secret to such success?
He says: "The best advice that I can give to anyone starting out on YouTube or social media, is to be yourself. Be authentic, follow your passion, not trends, and build a life that you can be proud of.
"In my experience, the best way to do that is to create content that helps people, that uplifts them, or that helps them to solve a problem. It’s not only rewarding, I believe it’s the key to true success."
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