Part of having a social media strategy is being smart about whom you follow. Ask yourself who is important to your company or brand. Figure out who needs to know you exist.
— Michelle Phan
Social media is an ever-changing world. You want to be ready if a certain platform becomes red-hot, and you don't want someone else taking your company name as his or her handle. That does happen!
I want to be able to leave behind an infrastructure and a road map for any of my dreamers to follow. So that they can again take care of their family, pursue what they love and live a fulfilling life. Everyone is called, but not everyone answers. I was called, and I answered.
I'm a creator at heart.
My dad and I had been close - he called me Tuyet Bang, Vietnamese for 'avalanche,' because of my nonstop energy. I took a lot from him, like being a risk taker, and I know how much he loved my mother.
It's no longer the older paradigm of, 'I want to own this market, and no one else can own this market because I own this market.' The Internet has made the market limitless.
Your YouTube channel is your show. I think it's a wonderful platform for anyone who wants to have stronger creative control over their content, their message, their vision and their branding.
I don't want to make videos where people are always happy and they're agreeing. It's boring! Do something where people can talk about it.
I am passionate about finding undiscovered and talented artists. I want to help those artists get to the next level and provide existing artists with a new way to reach fans. I wanted to partner with the Cutting Edge Group because they share my vision and have a proven track record in innovation in the music business.
I'm platform agnostic. I've been platform agnostic ever since I went online.
The Internet is where you can find people who are authentic.
There's definitely more to me offline than what you see online. Because what I show online is what I want to show to my followers... If I showed everything I did offline, it might not align with some of my other followers around the world.
I have one room dedicated to just meditation.
What if someone created some sort of eyebrow pencil that was revolutionary and that was made specifically to help eyebrows look more realistic?
We're living in an age where we should be collaborating. Because it's the Internet now. It's hard to say who owns what.
Robust activity on one site is so much better than halfhearted activity on multiple sites.
As one of the first creators on YouTube, I've been fortunate to sit in the front row, witnessing the remarkable evolution of digital media. The experiences and knowledge I've been afforded are invaluable, and I'm excited to take that skill set, together with Endemol Beyond, to build a reliable, reputable business.
Don't trust everyone, especially if they say, 'Trust me.'
Whatever happens, I'll just keep moving forward. Like an avalanche.
Seven years ago, in my first semester at college, the professors handed out MacBook Pros. With mine, I filmed a seven-minute tutorial on 'natural makeup' - just me, my laptop, and a cup of coffee. When, a week later, it clocked 40,000 Web views, I knew people were connecting with it, so I kept going. That moment changed my life.
My best advice for anyone out there that feels like, 'I don't have a million followers so why should I even give it a shot,' is that it's not about the numbers - it's about the engagement. That's how you can build influence.
I'm used to everything digital - the pictures, the avatars of the person, the profiles - so when I get to see someone in the flesh, it's really nice.
Every video I've made has an inspirational message behind it. Since day one, I thought, 'Okay, I want my audience to be, like, Disney members.' So if that's the case, I have to keep everything rated G.
I am first a creator, but my ongoing objective is to leverage my personal success to help mentor new and existing talent and further help them achieve their goals. Endemol Beyond shares this vision, and together, we will drive the future of original content for generations to come.
You know how it is in L.A. At times, it's a dog-eat-dog world. There's a lot of sharks. I think with YouTube, we're anti that. We're anti-competitive. We're all about collaborating and supporting.
The beauty of the Internet is there's a niche market for everything, and if you can focus on it, you can build a sustainable and viable business of it.
When you read about the real history of where feminism comes from, it came from a very political point of view. I don't believe in bringing any politics to an idea like feminism. I love the idea that women should be celebrated, but I also believe men should be, too. We need both - yin and yang.
I always had that yearning, that hunger, to one day be independent and be my own person and build my own world. The most fulfilling thing is to live a life where you have freedom.
I call 2015 a year of deconstruction. I needed to deconstruct myself, my businesses, and find all of the holes in my empire. I had to find holes and fill them with people who could do it better.
So many of my friends have 200,000 subscribers, and they make around five to six K a month, which is completely cool.
You need interesting content that entertains or informs - preferably both. You want people to look forward to your posts and come back for more. People want to follow you. They want to hear your words and see your vision.
I'm grateful that L'Oreal believed in me and helped me bring my dream of creating a beauty brand to life. I'm excited to be working with Ipsy to bring Em home to my community, the original inspiration for the brand.
Art was a way for me to express myself and for me to also escape because it was tough growing up as a child. We didn't have a lot of money. I was always creating. I was writing stories. I was doing comic books. I made my own universe.
As my YouTube following grew, I was soon earning as much from advertising revenue as from waiting tables, so I quit my job. My boss thought I was crazy, which just made me more determined. In 2012, four years and 200 videos later, my channel was so successful that Google offered me $1 million to create 20 hours of content.
If you go on my Instagram, you're not going to see the same content you'll see on my YouTube. Instagram has become the new magazine. It's much more editorial and about perfect moments that are captured. Snapchats are funny, real moments that you want to share. On YouTube, it's more structured, more storytelling.
I now have 10-year-olds asking me about how to become successful, how to become a business owner, which is crazy - at 10 I was trying to figure out which Barbie I wanted.
I had a blog and was documenting my life as a college student in an art school. I had a few comments left by a few girls asking if I could do a tutorial on how I did my makeup. I didn't think my makeup was all that special, but I try my best to share whatever I can with my viewers.
Success is like a lightning bolt. It'll strike you when you least expect it, and you just have to keep the momentum going. You have to strike when the iron is hot. So for me, I just kept striking and striking to polish out the sword that I was making.
Platforms - they come and go, but storytelling is forever.
Makeup is not a mask that covers up your beauty; it's a weapon that helps you express who you are from the inside.
Influence is the new power - if you have influence, you can create a brand.
I believe if religion brings you to a sense of peace, that's beautiful. But I also believe if religion's not your thing, that's fine, too, just so long as you're a good person and you find that one thing that leads you to peace and teaches you to have harmony with yourself and other people around you.
One day, you have a father who's always around, and then the next day, he's gone. I was too young to comprehend that. I actually thought he was going to come back.
It's very easy to make a viral video, but longevity and consistency, that's hard.
The first videos I uploaded on my own personal channel were videos of dogs.
