Goooooooood morning creators!!

If you’re reading this as it came out, I’m currently somewhere in Paris, hopefully eating a croissant.

No other big updates from me today, except that I just got YouTube Premium and oh my god why didn’t anyone tell me to do this sooner? I didn’t realize you could efficiently watch YouTube videos, but here we are.

PS - Shout out to one of my readers, Sav!! She shared some kind words with me about the newsletter, specifically about my ramblings in this section, so I just wanted to say thank you properly, Sav. You’re the best and comments like this are what make me want to keep creating this newsletter every week!! 😎 💪 

Now, onto the news!

Creator Economy News 🚨

This week in the creator world, how to growth hack YouTube, a creator running for congress, Sidemen raise millions, Ninja launches a podcast, Khaby Lame gets a video game feature, and more. This week in creator economy news!

• This creator who has almost 3M subscribers is running for Congress. Yea, his videos are a little different than when we were just chillin’, in Cedar Rapids.

• The Sidemen put on yet another insanely successful charity soccer match with a ton of creators. The event raised around $2.5M & saw 2.5M+ viewers. There are a bunch of different stories about the event at the link above, but here’s the best thing to come out of the match. Seems like we might have our next Max Fosh vid. 👀 

• This creator found a ton of exploits to grow viewership and following on YouTube. These exploits gained him more likes, more viewers on streams, and more money on ads from the “increased viewership.” There’s a lot of craziness in this video, so if you’re a creator, I’d most definitely check these out before they’re fixed!

• Were you a Soundcloud kid? You know, you’re the one diggin’ up all the bangers from the sea of trap songs? Well, Soundcloud is back with a twist: A TikTok-style Discover feed. Honestly, this could be pretty sweet, so long as it continues to push artists who aren’t the most viral. If this allows for more true discovery of new artists, I’m all for it!

You should see these 👀

• Hopefully this isn’t old news by now, but one of the largest streamers in the game, Ninja, is set to launch a podcast to add to his content kingdom. Future guests are to include sports stars, massive musicians, gamers, actors, and beyond. And everyone is getting blue hair, just kidding (maybe).

• Khaby Lame is now a Fortnite character. And now everyone in the comments is saying, “it’s the guy from Fortnite,” which is just peak memery.

• Looks like YouTube is getting crafty with their ads. The streaming giant has announced that this move is to make ads more simplified for creators, but something tells me that this is just a new way to have more control over audiences and advertising to those individuals. Meanwhile, with my new Premium subscription, I’m over here like…

• Philip DeFranco is on his Emma Chamberlain vibes with the launch of his new brand, Wake & Make Coffee.

• This is a super interesting look into how other countries and nations are dealing with TikTok and its role in society. This article specifically speaks about the role of TikTok and the results of recent bans on the app in African countries.

Creator Spotlight 🔦

Meet Paul Baldonado AKA PaulieB!

PaulieB is an NYC-based photographer and videographer whose channel popped up on my feed from my recent film photography content deep dive (that was a mouthful, even in my head).

PaulieB is not only an incredible photographer, mainly focusing on street photography and capturing the eclectic and hectic life of NYC. As a New York native, watching Paulie’s videos brings me right back to walking around the city, taking in all of the insanity, intrigue, and emotion that comes with the millions of faces and lives in NYC.

My first introduction to Paulie’s content was a video series called Walkie Talkie, where Paulie follows different photographers and lightly interviews them on their processes, techniques, inspiration, and beyond. When I watched Paulie’s video on street photographer, Trevor Wisecup (another insanely incredible creative), I was immediately hooked on his content and editing styles.

As an interviewer, Paulie doesn’t interject himself into the conversation, he really just lets his subject speak, teasing out more details by asking very simple questions. Paulie has the chops of a seasoned journalist and really allows the subject to speak their mind.

Another standout from these videos is the way that Paulie strings the interviews together with imagery shot during the conversation. Not only are the shots intriguing and beautiful, but they allow you as a viewer to understand the intricacies (and beauty) of shooting in this style.

If you’re looking for some artistic inspiration, definitely be sure to go check out Paulie’s content, and if you’re not sure where to start, most definitely check out this video. It made me shove a few extra rolls of film in my travel bag for my upcoming trip!

Keep shooting, interviewing, and making scroll stopping content, Paulie!

Want to go even further? 🚀

If you’d like to keep learning about topics like the ones shared above, stick around! But more importantly, check out the links below to further your development as a creator. 😎

1. Sign up for CreatorPad

2. Join our free creator community

3. Find a personal mentor to learn from