Do you Do you find I'm going to ask you a question now, but do
you find that some of your friends think you're a bit mad
for doing it? Yes, yes.
Welcome back to the Great British Youtubers Podcast with
me, Neil Mossy. Hello, This is the place where
we share chips, chips, oh chips. Now that would be nice.
This is the place where we share tips, tricks, and experiences
from creators around the world. And right now, if I press this
button, we are meeting this YouTuber.
Candy Clara reviews Claire. Can you hear me?
I can hear you, Yes. Where are the chips?
Oh yeah, I'll have to leave that in now.
But Claire, your channel Candy Clara reviews has at the moment
2 1/2 thousand subscribers on just. 73 videos, which is
absolutely incredible. I think it's only just being re
monetized, Neil, you're so full of flattering.
I like to go with the, what is it, million views.
I'm trying to find the statistic that sounds impressive.
Million views sounds impressive, doesn't it?
1.3 million views, but not many subscribers yet.
For all of us trying to get monetized, if you could go back
in time, what would you say to your 15 subscriber self?
I I do think it is about volume in it.
It is about I mean you're the one who introduced me to the
concept of the 100 crappy videos thing, which I think is so true
and I think you can give up too soon.
I think you just have to push through blindly ignore anyone
who thinks you're mad because people will think you're mad
when you say you're you're doing YouTube.
Particularly if like us, you're middle-aged and they're like,
isn't that I used to be a gamer in 17 when you're doing YouTube
and I think you just, you've got to push through at least to be
hit the 100 mark and see what happens.
Yeah, that was Roberto Blake make 100 crappy video and some
people have actually some big you tubers have reacted badly
against that and said no, no you shouldn't, you should.
I know. I think it's so wrong.
I think it's really bad advice to say hold back.
You know YouTube gurus who say. You know, don't put stuff out.
I don't need help not putting out videos.
I'm way ahead of you on that one, Mr. YouTube Guru.
I need to find ways to get stuff out.
I figure if I learn one thing every time I do a video, then
I'm making progress, you know? And every single video I do,
there's something in it that's new to me, that I'm doing that's
better. You know, I've improved upon.
I think you've just got to keep doing that.
And you know what? I I don't think YouTube viewers
want perfect videos. I think they want useful videos.
How? Would you describe your channel?
So I want to describe my channel could be better, No, no.
It's every guest, thousands of subscribers, millions of views,
and yet we managed to somehow find the thing that we're not.
Yeah, 100% happy with. So I review products for family
and home and I don't review like the the techie.
I don't review iPhones and all the sexy tech stuff.
I review the stuff that we as parents generally have to go out
and buy, and it's things like washing machines and climbing
frames and stuff that isn't particularly sexy.
But I am somebody who when I buy something, I want to know
everything about it before I buy.
I think that's quite a male trait normally, and in fact the
bias on my channel is for male viewers.
But you know, when we're buying online, I want to know that
stuff, and you often can't find a way of finding it out.
I want to know how tall is that thing?
How does that thing fit together?
What does that look like when you open it up?
And all all those little gritty details.
And and one of those videos has done really well, right?
Yeah. Oh this is funny.
So everyone says, what's your biggest video on YouTube?
And I really want to say it's something really exciting or
funny or cool And it's review of a washing machine.
Right. Not not snowboarding or, you
know, parkour. For a while, my lead video was
one that was a review how to make doughnuts in a doughnut
machine and that, you know, that's kind of cool, isn't it?
That's that's quite cool. But no, the washing machine
thing is not sexy. But yet people, people want to
know so. It's like, what, 175,000 views?
Yeah. And has it made any money?
Oh, yes. Oh yeah, they've they've all
made money. And this is, I guess this was my
problem is I stumbled into monetization and I took it for
granted, and then I just thought it would carry on forever.
I just thought YouTube would just keep sending me money.
And then I stopped producing videos and dropped off my
citation. And then and then I'm like, oh.
Yeah. Oh, so you like, fell below the
watch hours? Yes.
Wow. I didn't.
I did not even know that that actually happens.
That's fascinating. Of course you mean that.
Actually, of course it clearly happens.
Did they, did they give you any grace period or was it that
instance? Yes, they gave me a grace
period. So they said, oh, you're in
danger of dropping the day of the hours and why don't you
upload some new content? And other stuff is going on in
my life and I just was like near, near, whatever, I don't
want it. And then of course, the moment
that they took it away, I was like, oh, how dare they take
away my monetization? I want it back instantly.
What is it about YouTube then? What is it what you know apart
from that? Because I can't imagine that the
the money was life changing. So there must be something else
about this platform that makes you want to compulsively put the
next video up. So different motivations at
different times. When I was a Blogger it was
money related because I was doing YouTube videos as part of
like collaborations, which were I was being paid for.
So yes, it was a financial incentive coming back.
Now YouTube ticks so many boxes for me because it is the
creative challenge, and you and I know this so well, of having
to get our fingers into things that as media professionals we
were never involved in before. And now we have to get our head
round and it's lighting and it's cameras and it's sound and it's
everything that sometimes makes me want to scream.
But equally, I love the reward of getting it right.
I think I'm going to be alone in saying this.
I think You Tube is quite democratic in a way, because you
make content and unlike in the professional media arena, it's
not a manager who says yes, no, I like that.
That isn't good. It's the actual audience.
So you get to put something out there.
If it's good, it takes off, and if it's bad it doesn't take off.
But there's no gatekeeper on your creative content, and I
love that. 100% For those of us going on camera for the first
time, is there anything that you do where your presenter
background has helped you? I find sometimes I'm going to
talk about a product and beforehand when I'm setting up
lights and stuff, I'm thinking how how on earth am I going to,
what am I going to say about this thing?
And something switches in my brain when the camera goes on,
but I just talk and I I don't know where it comes from, but I
can just waffle about, Well, not waffle clearly.
It's very incisive and useful content, but I can talk very
well about stuff and that is surely coming from conditioning
of having done it for years. It is I think the hardest thing.
This is what I find not having a background as a presenter is you
start talking and then your brain starts analyzing what what
I'm saying and then I stop and I start again and I watch back the
recording and it was it was totally fine.
But there's this, there's this kind of red light, there's this
stop sign that suddenly pops up like literally mid sentence.
To say that's rubbish or you said that wrong and and it was
fine, yes, it's really like I said, it's really challenging.
Juggling all the elements that we juggle, It's really
challenging, but potentially so rewarding.
What is the hardest part of running your YouTube channel?
I think it's just trying to be everyone, trying to be the
lighting person, trying to be the camera person.
I constantly think I've done this before and there was people
to help me out and and I can't believe that I'm fast forwarding
to this point now where there's no one to help me and I'm
expected to do everything. I was recording a video recently
in the garden and I needed to use a reflector and I didn't
have a reflector stand. So I had it attached to my light
in the garden. And then the wind picked up and
the light was falling over halfway through.
And then the battery runs out in the camera, you know, and it's
like, ah, yeah, it's it's really challenging.
I want to get to the silver play button.
Are you obsessed with the silver play button?
Yeah, yeah, you know I've got one in the background that my
son made me out of hammer beads. And if I can I'll zoom in on it
in the edit. So if I go out the way and does
it say congratulations, you've got 10 subscribers?
Yeah, 1000, we decided that the 1000 subscribers is the is the
brown button. That's nice.
What is it clear though? What is it about that button
that? Is entrancing, isn't it?
Oh, I mean, I literally, there's nothing else I would rather win.
I mean I used to work in radio, so you know the Sony radio
awards were the big thing or the New York festivals.
I honestly, I'd rather have and I can tell you why.
It's because if I did get a YouTube play button, it would be
100% myself. Whereas if you if you win a
award for a radio ward, it's you might have a cohost or a
producer or whatever, but if I got there, that would be 100%
me, you know, that would be my life.
And yet, Claire, I find running a YouTube channel desperately
lonely. Even though I'm in a house for
the people, I just find this. You're in a sauner on you.
Isn't that giant saw? It's actually a BBQ huts, but I
just find it really lonely in in neither.
You've got to kind of create this thing by yourself and then
you might get comments or some kind of reaction.
But well, This is why Neil, I've got, I've got to set up this
community right. So so be interesting to see if
anyone's listening who wants to join this community because I
have this idea of setting up this.
It's going to be the mid mod you tubers and the mid mod you
tubers are middle-aged, moderately successful.
You tubers and I would like to set up this community to help
each other so you can't join. I'm afraid if you're young and
beautiful you also can't join. Sorry Neil, so that rules you
out. And you can't join if you're
ridiculously successful. So I think probably anyone who
who's got a play button, we wouldn't let them come.
That's that's beautiful. So we'll put details of that in
the in the description. I've got to set it up now.
You have. I think it's a great idea, So
we'll put all your socials in the in the description and a
link obviously to your channel. Is there a video on your channel
that you love that doesn't seem to get the love that it
deserves? Oh, that's a good question.
I hope it's still live, but I did one.
My daughter learned to swim by the time she was 3 and when I
was doing all my content I did this lovely video about her
swimming journey of how she learnt, she learnt with water,
babies, the company and all about how that progression
starts from 10 months all the way through to her diving deep
down in a swimming pool at the age of three in France.
And and I love that video, that hardly anyone's ever watched it.
And maybe we'll put, we'll put, I'll put a link on screen for it
so we can it can just have one last hurrah.
And and and on that front, Claire, do you have any favorite
channels or influences? It sounds like the Mummy blogs
might be big in your history. I have lots of people who I'm
slightly obsessed with in a borderline stalk away, don't
you? Yeah, 100%.
So no particular order. This is not showing favoritism
but can you flick through a few of them and we'll just flash
them up on screen. So Hales world is one of them.
So this is and and I'm particularly interested in her
because she reviews tech stuff and I can see on her videos the
progression. If you go right back to the
beginning, she started out as a beauty Blogger and so she's got
she's got her hundred crappy videos of being a beauty Blogger
and then suddenly hitting on something that worked with tech.
And then if you scroll through, you can see, oh, when she got to
100,000, she suddenly took on a premises and then she gets to
300,000 and she get takes on a premises and she's up in the
1,000,000 now. And so I'm a bit obsessed with
her because I can see that journey and that's really,
really interesting. Oh, freaking reviews, because
that's an American guy who reviews products like me.
The other one I am very interested in is fabulously
frugal because she is a lady of a similar age to me and she's
doing lots of slow cooker content and things like that and
she's doing really, really well. And the final one, this is a bit
of an outlier here, but there is a guy who runs a channel which
is all about vacuum cleaners. OK?
All he does is view, review vacuum cleaners.
He's had 129,000,000 views. I think he's a brilliant example
of niching down and just working out what you're really, really
good at and producing really informative videos.
And he's, I'm not quite sure how to pronounce his channel, but
it's I Besaic, I believe. I just think, good for him.
He's found the thing that works. But I think we, I think we're
about probably halfway through. Should we take a little drink
break? Yeah.
And and you too. You too at home as well.
Cheers. Did I do that?
That was wonderful. You'll make people want to go to
the loo. Always don't need the drink to
do that, Claire. What's tiny improvements would
you make to make YouTube better? I would very much like to have
the facility to replace a video with another video.
Oh, that's genius. Yes, because I had this really
painful experience in the last month or so where I put a video
up, it got great traction and then I went to put subtitles on
it. And while I was putting
subtitles on it I realized it was a chunk about 40 seconds in
the middle of the video where I doubled up the audio in the mix.
So I had to pull the video and re upload it and it didn't get
the traction that the first video had got.
I find that very frustrating. I mean in podcasting you can you
can just remove the file and put another file back, but you can't
do it with YouTube. Yeah, YouTube change that.
That's pretty that is absolutely that would be transformative.
That is the best suggestion. Also the end screen thing, the
the like the editor of the end screen thing is horrible isn't
it? You know when you have to sort
of drag it to where the end, that's horrible.
If they could just make that bit more intuitive, that would be
good. That's.
Another good one, but not as good as being able to just
replace out the video. And I I would totally get if
they reserved replacing the video for people who were
partners, you know so so you couldn't just do it immediately.
You couldn't just set up an account and just be able to swap
your content because people could abuse it.
But if they said and if you did abuse it, you would just be
taken off the partner thing, you know, if you put something
completely different on there, they would just go a strike.
You're not being monetized. Do you Do you find I'm going to
ask you a question now, but do you find that some of your
friends think you're a bit mad for doing it?
Yes, yes. And yeah, yeah, they do.
And I have friends who work in traditional media and it's like
a oh, yeah, well done, Neil. That's really I watch your
videos and they do but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
OK. People out, people outside of
media and and they sort of say to you So what you're doing at
the moment and then you used to get, well I'm doing stuff on
YouTube. Do you find them sort of going?
Yeah, I do. And I find myself holding back
as well. I did this.
I was actually on a shoot holding a camera with my friend
who has 150,000 subscribers. Oh, he can't join, he can't join
the mid mod bloggers by the way. I can't, sorry.
That should be an honorary member, but you know you get
some kind of honorary member coats, but so the person behind
the counter said are you YouTuber?
And I could not bring myself to say yeah, even though I am.
I'm doubled trebled down on this platform.
It is my happy place, my medium. Even then I couldn't say, yeah,
I'm at YouTube. I think I played it down and
said oh. Do a bit on the side, you know,
and it's like what what certification would we need to
say yes, you do this silver play button.
Silver, You think it's that you've got it all on the silver
play button. I'm going to tell if everyone
want to get a silver play button, I'll be like, hello, I'm
Claire and I have a YouTube channel and I have a silver play
button. I mean, 100,000 is really
impressive as well and you're a lot closer to it than I am.
And I mean, I've been watching your figures tick upwards even
in the last couple of months. Have you found that your
subscribers have sort of accelerated the more you've got?
Because I have a theory and on views too, that the more you've
got, the more appealing you are. It definitely compounds.
And you found that you know, just by sticking at it.
You know, to get from 46 subscribers to 2 1/2 thousand,
you know that is a huge, huge multiple.
I've had a growth spurt the Google video.
Yeah, yeah, Google Photos videos, SO1 video.
Is responsible for all of the views of all my other videos
combined. It's double that.
So it's a real outlier and it's not really that hugely linked
to, you know, the topic of my channel.
So I don't think it's harmed the channel.
Just from my experience, if you're thinking or if I have a
slightly left field video, I'm worried that that's going to
wreck my channel. I don't think it's true.
I think what it does is. It put you in a shop window that
people will come and take it or leave it, But I do worry that
that one video will become dated.
They all have shelf lives so I'm worried that it's going to drop
and then I won't feel quite as excited about.
The channel. But so I'm just trying to ride
it. Isn't that hilarious?
I mean, you're saying now what exactly what you were saying to
me earlier, which is kind of we get to a place where we've
achieved something, but then we're already anticipating the
problem or what we can improve upon or you know, and it's like
just just live in the moment you've got so far.
Completely. Can we have a little bit of a
giggy cows a Gear G count? Oh.
What What do you use Claire to make your Clara reviews?
An interesting question. So I have a Lumix G7 camera,
which I bought quite a while ago, maybe eight years ago.
That's that seems quite a long time ago when the Canon G7X was
really, really popular vlogging video, it was the first one
where it had the screen on it that you could sort of turn
around and that was a big thing. And I nearly bought that.
And funny enough, I watched a YouTube video and the camera guy
on the YouTube video said I wouldn't bother buying this, I'd
buy the Lumix G7 because. It's got a input for a
microphone, which the cannon didn't have, and I'm very
grateful to that cameraman because I'm still using it all
these years later. What else do you use?
Do you have a microphone to plug in?
So yeah, I have a corded um. What are the chords?
Yeah, clip on. It's got like 12 names.
There's clip on Lavalier That lavalier thank you.
Yes, so I have a I have a chorded lavalier mic and I'm
really envious of your uncorded 1.
And that is my next purchase. And I have it in my wish list on
Amazon, because every time I'm recording something I spend a
lot of. That's my dog.
Do you my dog barking, by the way?
I did. You've got a good microphone to
pick. My dog wants to go out so but
I'll finish. Just not going to let the dog
out, no. So every time I'm recording I
have to do ridiculous things like climb underneath desks and
stuff because I'm attached to the bloody camera and and it's
so irritating. But I will upgrade.
But just like you know, I'm gonna, it's gonna be at a point
where it's worth doing. Because you you you have a
podcast, right? Yeah.
So I do a bit of podcasting. That's my main job.
And yeah, so I have and the sure which model is this?
This is the sure that everybody has and I can't report model is
SM7B. I might be making that.
Up. No, that sounds.
That sounds right. Yeah.
Everyone or the huge Youtubers. Yes.
Swear by it. It's fantastic microphone and
what's really funny is my 11 year old son is desperate to set
up a gaming channel and I'm like, if you set up a gaming
channel, I have the best microphone for you.
You could just record on this and you'll be like leagues ahead
already because you have a brilliant microphone.
That's brilliant that you, that you chair like that.
That's fantastic. And and I've got to say, you've
got is that your dog over your shoulder?
It is. I'll tell you what can I let my
dog out at the front door? Just.
Hang on. Yeah, please do So.
This is our doggy walk break. If you have a dog.
Now's a good time to let them out for have a have a little
walk While I do that. I've actually got Casper down
here in the happy heart, very patiently waiting for his walk
down there. Is there anything else that we
haven't covered about YouTube? I don't think so, other than you
not having to wash your hair every time we do video.
Is it a challenge? You know, hair, makeup and
wardrobe, yes, I think it. I think it really is.
And also, let's talk about the fact that we are older than a
lot of Youtubers. And I think we need to make more
effort into looking good on screen.
You can't kind of, you know, we have bad sides.
I have a bad side. And so yeah, I do have to faff
around. We're putting more makeup on
than I would normally. I tend to record my videos on
the hair washing day because I'm in every other hair washing day
and my hair looks better on the hair washing day and you don't
have this problem. No, no.
But I do have a bit of shine because it is.
Absolutely. It's like an oven in here right
now. Yeah.
I'm not feeling as bright and fresh and made-up as as I could
be, but I also feel as a man, you're probably less you.
You probably wouldn't be judged if you were sort of looking a
bit sweaty and disheveled in a video in the way I think women
feel we have to show up looking better.
But the downside with that Claire, if this is any
consolation, is that I really let myself go.
And I watch back the footage. I'm like, Oh no, no, I've really
shouldn't have worn that tshirt. And and the worst is product
reviews where I go close on the products and like, how could you
not have, like cleaned your nails at least look like I've
been digging potatoes, which I have.
So yeah, they've been a few moments of vanity recently.
So if that's if that's any, Oh no, it's not even on.
On no, nobody's. It is a thing.
Is there a favorite video idea that you haven't made yet?
Not that I can think of. What about you?
Have you got something? Have you got like a big idea
that you? I get a bit personal now, but I
have a dad's channel, a vlog channel.
I really want to make a video about my sleep apnea.
Yes, and how I fixed my sleep. I'm more than happy to talk
about it, and I think what's holding me back is that I've got
so much to say about it that I think I'm afraid of knowing even
where to start with it because it's such a big idea what we
come back to. You know, the the helping people
thing. I think that is one of those
videos that genuinely would be so helpful to so many people.
You've got to do it. It's not.
Even if the reward might not be financially, it might just be
helping people. It's true.
What? What absolute bombshell of
wisdom to end on should we? Should we pose now for a
thumbnail? Yeah, I was gonna say.
Are we gonna have to do some like, you know, Garning, not
faces. Claire, thank you so much for
being so generous with your your take on YouTube.
Good luck with your next videos. Thank you for sharing your
wisdom, Neil, because there are lots of things I'm learning from
you. And yeah, it's it's it's very
interesting and it also it's lovely to know someone who's in
a similar position to me so that we, the rest of the world,
thinks we're mad. Thanks for joining us.
If you're watching this on YouTube, thank you for hitting
the thumbs up or the subscribe button.
Because right, here are all the other great British YouTuber
Podcast episodes. Can you please help my dad get
to 1,000,000 subscribers? Just click on his face.
Thanks. Bye.
Can we have dinner now?