Welcome to our Champion the Creators interview series with influencers of all niches to highlight their journeys, share their insights and inspire! Today we are talking all about influencing with Anderson, a YouTube lifestyle and food creator.
Meet Anderson, a 25-year-old content creator and foodie living in San Francisco. Anderson began creating food and lifestyle content two years ago but has already grown his audience to about 200K across his social media channels. We chatted about how he grew his YouTube channel by 25K in one month, his inspiration for starting his channel and his hopes for his content creation journey. You can also check Anderson out on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.
Starting his YouTube channel
Inspired by his friends who started their own platforms, Anderson began his YouTube channel during the pandemic and has already grown it to more than 62K subscribers with his food and lifestyle content.
“I started sharing food around where I live in the Bay Area. I’m from San Francisco, and there’s a huge variety of things to eat here. I would always go around and try different foods. I’m a very adventurous person; I love trying weird dishes and a lot of stuff that people wouldn’t normally get. I will be the first one to try it and let people know how it tastes.”
He also wanted to share his appreciation for food and the importance of food in connecting with others, including his mom.
“Food has been a very important thing in my life. My mom is an amazing cook. She makes the best food in the world. I was always surrounded by people that appreciate food, people that love food, and that really inspired me to want to create content that shares food with others, too, because I think it’s so important. Food transcends languages. I think anyone, regardless of their language, can enjoy another culture’s food, and it’s just a way to spread some love. So that, that’s why I love making food content.”
He found that videos making Vietnamese food with his mom, Jennifer, were a hit with his audience and he’s able to keep her recipes alive through his content. Anderson focuses on American dishes, while his mom takes on Asian dishes, including Vietnamese and Korean favorites.
“I was like, ‘OK, my mom makes the best pho and all her recipes are the best in the entire world. Why not share that with everyone?” Anderson said. “So her and I made a combined total of about 40 videos so far, just highlighting her recipes, how to make it from start to finish and just to show everyone that everybody can cook.”
Telling his story
Anderson’s storytelling has been key in drawing in his audience.
“When I present food stuff, it’s not just a food review; it’s usually accompanied by a personal story of mine.”
He wanted to be relatable to people who, like him, grew up in an immigrant family.
“I try to throw in my personality and just a little bit of that personal touch, so other people can relate to me too and know that they’re not alone.”
Beyond authenticity, consistency and drive have helped him grow his following — but it wasn’t an overnight success.
“I’d say within the first year, I didn’t get much traction. I was posting pretty often, but it just wasn’t gaining the traction that I wanted. And then I started making the switch-up. I started analyzing my content more and looking at what worked, what didn’t work, looking at what other people did and integrating stuff that I learned from what I watched from others. And then eventually I just came up with my own version, Anderson style.”
His YouTube Shorts strategy
He tried various content styles, including vlogs and travel content. But it was YouTube Shorts that paid off the most.
“I was like, ‘What if I become one of the pioneers on YouTube Shorts in its infancy and see how it does?’ So I did an experiment where I posted 30 Shorts in 30 days,” he said. “I was just throwing random stuff in the dark and hoping something sticks. I would make 60-second vlogs instead of making those longer ones.”
By the end of the month, his channel had transformed. The strategy of posting consistent Shorts paid off, taking him from about 300 subscribers to more than 25K that month alone.
“I posted one Short a day for 30 days in a row. For the first 20 days, almost no traction, but within the last 10 days, all of a sudden it just went up and up and up. And then I ended up with 25,000 subscribers by the end of the month,” he said. “I told myself, ‘I’m going to stick it, stick this out for 30 days,’ and I stuck it out. Within just the last few days it skyrocketed. From there I’ve been going up pretty nice. It’s been a nice upward trend.”
Now, Anderson is a full-time content creator.
“I was previously a software engineer and right now I’m going to focus on full-time content creation. This is something I love doing. I started my YouTube channel at the same time that I started working as a software engineer. So both of these things I’ve been doing in parallel. And although I was able to balance it, there was difficulty with work-life balance, so I had to choose one or the other. So ultimately, I decided to go with my passion and choose content creation because I have this; it feels more fulfilling to me to share this with the world.”
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Marette Flora is IZEA’s Content Manager. She writes and edits content about influencer marketing and all the latest #TeamIZEA happenings. When she is not at work, she can be found writing her personal blog, crafting personalized gifts or exploring Chicago where she lives with her husband, two daughters, dog and plants.
