Mahrukh Imtiaz

Simran Kapoor

S1-EP013: Don’t doubt your Talent, Doubt your Work Ethic with Simran Kapoor_Part 1

“It’s like we know if we are having fun, then people watching our stuff will also have fun” – SIMRAN KAPOOR

#013 – In this episode, Simran and I discuss her Youtube journey and the one mistake she regrets that she made with Youtube. We talk through promotion of content, skills that Youtube has taught Simran and struggles that get in the way of consistency.

Hope you enjoy the episode!

Have a question/comment or just want to chat? Email me at [email protected]

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Highlights from this episode: 

[1:45] Why did you want to start a Youtube channel?
[10:00] Importance of promoting your content
[14:32] How has Youtube helped you?
[16:00] What skills do you need to excel now to get to the next level?
[17:32] What has posting on Youtube taught you about yourself?

Connect with Simran: 

Instagram
Youtube

A little bit about Simran:

Simran’s a Youtube star on the rise with a growing following – she’s also currently a full time student studying theatre production and working on opening her own clothing line. Aside from that, she’s an avid photographer and a cricketer! Talk about multi-talented.

Transcription:

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Welcome to the Spicy Chai podcast, a podcast for content creators. Today’s guest is a YouTube star on the rise with a growing following. She’s also a full-time student studying theatre production and working really hard behind the scenes to start her own clothing line. So without further ado, let me welcome Simran. Simran Kapoor. Hi guys. How are you doing?

Simran Kapoor  

 I’m fine. How are you?

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I am well, I mean, it’s good. It’s a pandemic. So what can you do?

Simran Kapoor

Long time no see. 

Mahrukh Imtiaz 

So honestly, before like anything else, I just want to get started on why did you want to start a YouTube channel? What got you interested in that?

Simran Kapoor  

Technically, I started my channel back in 2016. Because I just come here. And I was like, Oh, I don’t have anything to do. Because I came here in May. And I was supposed to join school in September. So I had that free time in between. So I’m like, Okay, let’s do YouTube. But then Dubsmash was very high that time. So I used to make videos on Dubsmash and put it on YouTube. Even. There was like a whole issue back home in India when Maggie was banned. So I mean,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I can’t even imagine Maggie being banned. But like, you know, like, that’s a conversation for another day.

 

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, so I was happy that it wasn’t bad in Canada. So I made a video on that. And I was uploading there. And then school started, and then I forgot about that channel. And stupidly, I recently deleted that channel without knowing that YouTube actually changed its policies. So now it’s harder to monetize your content. Right? I should have continued on that channel. But anyways, I made a new one. One of my friends, she had a YouTube channel with her other friends about Microsoft Excel, and all she likes to do and make it make it and we since we were not doing anything, this whole pandemic, and like, okay, you know what, I have to start somewhere. So I decided to start my youtube channel on my favorite YouTube was birthday, David dobrik. I was like, Hey, happy birthday, and I sent him a link to which obviously, he didn’t see it yet. Hopefully someday, someday. Okay. So then I just put it out there. And yeah, that’s how it began.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah, I mean, you said a few things there first, that you actually started the channel in 2016. And you said you did it through Dubsmash? Was that like, a an app like Tiktok? Like, what was that?

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, it was like, TikTok, because, but nobody was dancing or anything. It was more like, you just lip sync dialogues instead of songs.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Right? Similar to Yeah, yeah. Okay. So, so you just kind of used to use that app, and then you would put stuff on YouTube? Yeah, yeah. But, but we’re like, you know, you also said something like, well, someday I have to start a YouTube channel. Anyway, where does that come from? Why do you feel like it was always in like this? This is what I need to do or what, what I want to do anyway, someday, where does that come from?

Simran Kapoor  

So because I love entertaining people, and I feel like YouTube is more personal. Because everywhere else, there’s somebody else thinking for you. But YouTube is your own one on one. With the audience. whoever’s watching,

 

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Can you can you explain that everywhere else someone else is thinking for you. What do you mean?

Simran Kapoor  

If you work on a film, or like any project, there are other people involved in it, right won’t be totally yours. But a YouTube channel can be your own thing. Even like one video can be just you blabbering at the camera and they’ll watch it some it doesn’t if

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

That makes sense. That makes sense. Sorry, continue. Yeah. So what this is, this is something I have to do.

Simran Kapoor  

Because I also grew up watching what’s her name? Lady say, and

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Superwoman.

Simran Kapoor  

So like you I want to do this, like caught up Superwoman. Also, and then I watched AIB videos, which is a comedy based group. Now we don’t work together all all India bar. Nourbakhsh? Yes. So there really is also because it was very huge back in India. So all of my friends and I were like, we have to do this. But we were really lazy. Actually, about this laziness. I saw a quote yesterday, actually a tweet from Humble the Poet he said, Don’t doubt your talents, doubt your work ethic, which I thought made so much sense because even while doing YouTube this year, as a Oh shit, it’s not happening. You know? What he’s watching it and then I’m like, because I’m not putting in the amount of work it actually means. So I need to start doing that. And then hopefully, everything will work out So it’s not the talent that should be doubted, is the work ethic.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And, and you know, you said like, you definitely wanted to start a YouTube channel one day because you would like to entertain people, right? Yeah. Why YouTube? Why not like, tick tock or Instagram? Like what really gravitates you towards YouTube? And why to start a YouTube channel?

Simran Kapoor  

Even the time limit on YouTube, you can just go on for like, half an hour. All right, long form, long form, long form. Yeah, just, I feel like it’s tick tock is really short, it has worked for a lot of people, but I don’t think I did try for a little bit where it was working out. So I’m like, I gotta do this. And tick tock is also the content is very different on there. It’s quicker. And I don’t know. Just not for me,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Not for you. And I think I think that, but sometimes you just like a platform more than others, and you kind of don’t know why. But that’s where you see yourself. And I think you mentioned earlier that you saw AIB videos, and you saw Lilly Singh videos, and I think you’ve seen them on YouTube. So you almost associate entertainment to YouTube, when that could mean apart.

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah. Whenever I’m thinking of like, oh, I should watch something, I usually go to YouTube. So I’m like, That’s my thing. I’ll do that. Instagram real? So I like cut down my YouTube video that I put it there.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah. I think TikTok works similarly. Right. Like you can repurpose some of your content. And yeah, actually, because you create content for entertainment. That’s why I’m like curious, because usually people say for entertainment, go to reels or tick tock. But I find it very interesting that you like to go to YouTube for entertainment. But it also makes sense because you’ve that’s where you’ve seen your entertainment stars growing up. Yeah. Yeah. And there’s another thing that you mentioned you, you said, like, you know, you I really love the quote, I agree, it’s really not about talent, because I feel like everyone has their own talent, their own genius that we eventually need to figure it out. Like, I don’t think everyone knows what their genius is. But it all comes down to work ethic. If you’re able to put in that effort, you will get like some sort of an idea of what your genius is. And then you said, Well, I created some YouTube videos in 2016. And then I stopped because of school, and then I restarted and quarantine. And you know, I felt like nobody was watching. How that’s that’s before I even ask question. That’s, that’s a problem. A lot of content creators go through myself included. You you make so many videos, and then you know, the ones that you put most effort in, and you’re like, oh, shoot, I got like, three views. Happens all the time. And it’s very difficult. Or like, Oh, I didn’t get any likes, or I didn’t get any comments. And how do you get past that? How do you keep creating or how do you feel like okay, well, no, I need to still keep doing this. Even if nobody’s watching.

Simran Kapoor  

That happen after the first video, I think it got a decent amount of views like 300 or so.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

That’s a lot. If you think about it. 300 people came to your house to watch you. You’d be like, Yo, I’m a star. Okay, thank

Simran Kapoor  

Thank you. Cool, but then I was thinking what were the views? No, but I usually the few videos that I’ve made I made with my best friend back home. So it’s just like, we’re having fun making it so I’m like, forget about it. I’m just gonna do my thing. Have fun. And if if we’re having fun then people watching will also have fun eventually will grab the audience promoting it is also a thing, messaging people. Like when I made a video, my first video was on Shakalaka boom, boom, I had messaged all the stars on the show one of them. One of them replied, am I okay?

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Could you expand on what Shakalaka boom, boom is and just so that everyone understands it? Yes. Yeah.

Simran Kapoor  

So if you grew up in India, you most probably watch Shakalaka boom, boom, it was about this magic pencil. So like Santa Claus is crazy here. That was like a tiny Santa Claus. So if you could draw anything you want it and it used to just come alive. Like if you do a mobile phone, it will just pop up. It’s like gifting yourself stuff. A very

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Very popular show. Like almost like yeah, Odeon equivalent. Yeah.

Simran Kapoor  

Everybody had that bento too. But nothing happened within Sadie. So how shocking. Yeah, I tried. Yes. So I made a video on that. We did have a lot of laughs on it. And one of the songs replied, I’m like, okay, maybe even if they don’t reply. It’s not always that they didn’t see it. There’ll be they didn’t see it. Right.

 

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So you actually messaged all the stars from that show before you Yeah, after you made the video before you

Simran Kapoor  

After I was a kid, I really thrilled if you check this out. And one of them give me a smiley back. Okay,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Impressive. That’s very impressive. And does it make you feel great when they actually respond?

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah. Is there any like encouraging even if you probably saw half of it, it’s fine.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah. Even like, honestly 10 seconds of it. Yeah. I’m a celebrity watching 10 seconds of my video. I’m okay with that. And that that’s the thing with content creation, right? Like it bridges that gap between people. I feel like you like Lilly Singh when she started 10 years ago. Like nobody really knew her. She was a YouTube star. Now she comes in with Dwayne The Rock Johnson. Yeah, Reese Witherspoon. She’s a Hollywood star, just by making YouTube videos off her phone. So it does it does groups percent got what are you? What are you noticing are some of the other advantages of being on YouTube? Like what, in the few videos that you’ve made? You know, you’ve been doing it for a few months. Now, what are some of the advantages that you’ve noticed? You’re like, oh, this is really cool. And this gives me the opportunity to do this, which I did. I’m so glad I did this.

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah. The amount of variety on YouTube is there because like, I didn’t keep my channel specific to one, topic or theme. I’m just gonna do everything. Right now it’s all Hindi based. But I also want to make some in English because my friends here don’t understand everything. Like we want to watch your videos, but someone you need to put subtitles or something. So that also needs to be done. Also, the pandemic is an issue because I want to meet up with my other friends and make a video. Because I haven’t found anything that interesting to do solo as of now, maybe unboxing videos soon. I have ordered a bunch of stuff. Right? That should be happening too. But usually it’s more fun when I do it with a person because like the banter and stuff and plus I’m also because David dobrik is my favorite YouTuber and right his whole content is this friend group. Vlog squad. Sound like I also want

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I also want to that’s very cool. I’ve never heard of that YouTuber before. And I mean, I don’t really go to YouTube for entertainment either. And, uh, you know, like, you mentioned variety YouTubers variety. What did you mean by that? But YouTube has variety.

Simran Kapoor  

Like, you could you could be watching a Bollywood song but then you end up watching giraffe walking around. So it’s just anything and everything is that pick up also has it but I’m just saying it’s shorter. Right? Right. Just the length of you can just keep watching for an hour and the whole pause and play and you can decide where you want to start the video that is also an option, which I don’t think when I was on ticked off that was not an option to watch the whole video again. Right, right issues. Oh, I just want to watch that whole thing again, even if it’s like a few seconds, you know, so that was also irritating at some point. Yeah,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah so how has it helped you to like start a YouTube channel like how has it helped you from a skills perspective? Can you transfer some of those skills elsewhere? Like talk a bit about that?

Simran Kapoor  

I think I’m a little less awkward now. I mean, I’m still getting like on camera like You’re like entertaining you know but then it’s a different like the whole different scene on camera and like when you’re actually doing it like when I started off you know the intro when you do it like hey in similar to pour it should take like 10 tries but now now to like to try something new yeah do it with your friend you just laughing about it but then you get serious like hey this is having fun editing videos I’ve gotten better at it. I do make like for my intro I made my own music tune into music so I made that for my friend also I do that so that was a good getting back to music.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah, so speaking on camera video editing skills you know those are things you would say like you’ve definitely gotten better with and yeah, what are some skills that you feel you need to now go to the next level like you know started it you have a decent subscriber base you got working on it what are some skills that you feel okay now I need to if I need to go to the next level I need these skills

Simran Kapoor  

I need to be more regular for sure. Cuz I don’t know if it’s uni I have been off and on because I said I would post every week but that’s not happening every two weeks I do posts

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And why is that not happening? What were what are the struggles with that keep you from posting?

Simran Kapoor  

I’m finding content is also It’s tricky because they, you know, oh, this is trending right now. But then somebody else has also done something on it. You can’t be too similar. Because like, why would somebody watch the same thing over and over again? Right? It’s not a copy. Right? That what else being? Also, I lost my thought. That’s it.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So like you’ve said, regularly posting, and I said, why not? And you said, What? What are the struggles between with regularly posting? Yes,

Simran Kapoor 

Yes, yeah. So I lost it.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

All come back. It was there. Fair, fair. All good. All good. So like, that’s something you what I was asking what are some skills that you feel like you need to grow into the next level? That anything else that you feel like you need to go to the next level for your YouTube channel to really like, let’s say get 1000 subscribers? 2000 subscribers? What are some skills that you wish you had today? That would help you?

Simran Kapoor  

Better equipment? Could you do it on Zoom? But if I actually want to start doing it on a bigger level, maybe a camera and stuff like that? Like even a Mike would you could write it does help? It does? Little things help? Yeah, that’s about it. I think so your

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Time management skills, having the system to post regularly and then

 

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, yeah. Because even during uni, for sure, I was watching Netflix, and I could have been actually making videos, instead of wasting my time. Because like, there’s always time if you make for make some time for it. Ya know, like, busy, busy.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And what do you think by making these videos on YouTube and wanting to be that person who wants to entertain people through YouTube? Do you think you’ve learned other things about yourself that maybe you didn’t know, before? Through this journey?

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, because I can make thinking about making comments like, oh, yeah, I can do that. But then when you actually sit down and do it, like, Oh, I am a little entertained, put Sure. Because then you’re laughing and like, thoughts that just come up. Okay. I’m like, impressed with myself, like, okay, I can. The content is coming to me. It’s because my videos, we don’t sit down and scripted or anything, we just sit down and it just throw it out there. Like we’ll see what happens is, some people have said, like, my mom also said, Maybe you should cut it a little bit in the beginning. But we don’t really go by that. We just, they just do it.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Do you think that’s worked for you? In terms of like engagement and all of that?

Simran Kapoor  

For sure, I think because people do say, Oh, that was funny. And I don’t think the whole funny part would come out if we were reading off of it. It does come up for some people, but for us, because we’ll be like thinking oh, we should say like because like even on Zoom, because it keeps cutting sometimes. You’re going when you have to repeat it. Well, I didn’t grab that hard this time. Yeah, like, oh, shit, I couldn’t hear you. Can you say that again? But then it wasn’t that funny. Right? That works out also like you will have to put it in. Also cutting down the indexes, we usually go on for like two hours or something. And then if you cut down all of it, that is also really cool. Because not everything is funny. It might be funny to you, but like people won’t get it. Right. It also makes you think because you want to keep it like short. longest one I’ve made probably on only because emotional

 

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

MSRE the Indian the beginning for Captain cricket. Yes. That makes a lot of sense. I’m obviously big cricketer. fan too. So yeah. Big cricket fan. And I hope cricketer one day is on the journey on the journey for sure. So you mentioned that your mom gave you advice, you know on YouTube. Have you gotten a lot of advice throughout? And what has been some good advice and what has been some bad advice?

Simran Kapoor  

Oh, yeah. So before posting, I always show it to my mom and Granny. And then I’ll show them. They’ll be sitting like they’re watching then. They’re like some some stuff you shouldn’t say like it’s funny, a friend but it shouldn’t be out there. So my mom helps me out.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

To get advice on cutting more

Simran Kapoor  

Extensively. Right, right. Yeah, because it could be funny, but it’s also controversial. And even though I have a small audience watching it could, right escalate badly. You don’t want to start off right? So that is their bad and why I don’t think that any bad anyway. Like I just take it all in like good spirit. No, that’s fair.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I mean, you could Yeah, advice definitely that you’re taking good spirit. But the advice that you were like this does not apply, or No, I don’t think I would like to take that advice for now, at least in my journey right now maybe later.

Simran Kapoor  

Oh, yeah. Maybe somebody was like, Maybe you should just make the activities which I don’t want to do like just one thing. I want to keep it

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Which would use

Simran Kapoor  

Like reaction videos, which I did think you were just watching a show and like, say cell phone. It’s not too much of a reaction for Yeah. Right. Not sticking to one thing. And not just with one friend because I bring in other friends too. About to start gaming also.

 

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Oh, see, you’re just kind of testing it all. Like, you know, you’re just like RAM. Yeah, reaction videos. I’m gonna do entertainment videos. I’m gonna do gaming videos. And yeah, 100% think that’s the way to go when you’re starting off because you don’t know what’s pulling, like, what do you want to do more of? Or where do you does your genius lie? So I agree. That’s, I think that’s the best way. You also are aside from going into gaming for YouTube. You’re also starting your own clothing line. So do you want to talk a bit more about that? Like, where did that idea come in? From where? How?

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, I mean, I always wanted like a clothing brand because I like okay, it should be there someday soon. Then. Recently, I think it was a month or two back I was like okay, let’s just do this. So I came up with the Instagram handle house of Kapoor and then I made my logo and all like it’ll say someone Gabor but like the handle and all his house of the floor is going to be hoodies and streetwear it’ll be my artwork on it. For now, it’s just going to be drop shipping kind of like print on the go. thing. So I will admit my designs like all the printing

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Do you mind repeating that you cut off a little bit on my end when you were saying that? So do you mind repeating what the process was for? I heard I hoodies and the art yeah after that.

Simran Kapoor  

So because my focus is more on streetwear because that’s what I wear also. So that is going to be the main things that will be available. The company that I choose will do all the shipping and printing. So I just have to submit my designs on there basically that

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

You break down step by step for someone let’s say listing was interested in having their own clothing like like what what are some steps you took from like, just wanting a clothing line to now actually making progress towards that? Can you break it down step by step?

Simran Kapoor  

First I had to think about like investment because like the money to like start off very positive. I mean, it was positive, it

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

It’s positive it it’s breaking out. I don’t know if it’s your intranet or if it’s my intranet.

Simran Kapoor 

I can hear you clearly.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

You can barely see let me just one second check my internet one second, because I don’t want to miss this

Simran Kapoor 

I can hear you but yes, or no? Yes.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah. So this is this should be. Oh, it’s definitely me. I’ve put it on 5g now. So you it’s my problem. 100% is okay, I think we should be good now. All right, yeah. Yeah, sorry. Break it down step by step.

Simran Kapoor  

Okay, so first, I was thinking about, Oh, do I invest in this, like money and all that. But then I watch a lot of videos on YouTube. My one place

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Videos, well videos.

Simran Kapoor  

So I just have to have a clothing line, how to start on low budget or like how to start without any investment. I’m always curious. I’m like, can you start without an investment? So there are Yeah, it is. Probably the best way to start is without investing anything. Just your investment would be your designs, like put more work into that. Right. And then you can choose Print on the go type of companies like printer fi. Shopify has a lot of options, but some of them are also USB, so you have to type in Canadian companies because if you are selling say a hoodie which is costing you 20 bucks, I mean like the maker, and he said as a 30, but you’re still selling it in US currency. So the Canadian people 50 bucks and we’ll just make like five or something. So that’s also stupid. So you should look for Canadian companies. So I’ll say okay, I’ll start off with a no investment kind of journey. And then eventually if and when it gets big, I want it to be completely like from India, like all the clothes, the teachers I mean, they also come in from there only, technically, but yeah, they want everything to be made in India like me that is going to be a future thing but just to start off and make some money first.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So first you went to YouTube you search how to start a clothing line without an investment. Yeah, looked up the videos what did the video say? What were your next steps?

Simran Kapoor  

Except for finding the right company for sure. Like there’s so many out there then I do see the reviews for that like because some people are like, this is why I stopped working with this company. And I’m like, why was happening there like a lot of pros and cons because some of them will send you the print quality can be bad, you don’t want to sell bad stuff, starting off selling them print your logo even on the tags, and some of them won’t. So if you want like a whole branding, you probably want your tag also to be where there is an issue shipping costs because even if I start off I don’t want to scam my buyers. Right Of course. Yeah, it’s gonna be my friend that I was like, I’d be like charging over price.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Right. So yeah, so you you researched how to do it on YouTube then you research those companies that YouTubers recommended. Yeah. And then

Simran Kapoor  

Then and then I didn’t see what kind of products they have like they have sweatshirts. Hoodies have slacks, like leggings, mugs, but I’m probably just gonna start off with T shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies and some of them have polo T shirts also. So that is also cool. I also want to because my designs are going to be mostly from like, Kolkata base and like, Toronto based like I live here.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Where did you design like well, so once you research the company and let’s say now you’re designing the logo yourself to go through these companies, where did you design the logo? What how do you know what to design a logo.

Simran Kapoor  

The logo I designed on Pixar, that’s a good so you can like draw it also there is procreate. So

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

These are software’s that you can get your free, okay?

Simran Kapoor  

Picks out, excrete. procreate, you have to buy. It is available on iPads, and there’s a pocket version on the phone. It’s a little tough to get on the phone. My logo, it just gonna sound stupid, but it just popped in my head and I’m like, Okay, this is gonna be it. And then I just blew it out. And my friend also helped me out because she had the full version of procreate, because I had it on the phone and she has on her iPad. So that is also there. And for my designs also I use procreate, like she came over and I drew all my designs out on Okay, I’m gonna do this. So, right, so,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So do the companies, let’s say that you are potentially going to go with Shopify or whatnot, they make it very easy for you to let’s say, upload your design, choose the material and go through or process okay,

Simran Kapoor  

You can just firstly make an account. So, obviously, that’s the first step. Then you choose the product and it will just say this is a T shirt, and I just, you just drag and paste. And it does have to be like a good resolution. If you’re doing like a picture like because I’m gonna

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

What’s a good resolution? Like, what would be a good resolution?

Simran Kapoor  

Good question. I just throw it in. And I’m like, yeah, obviously. Let me check basically high res photo camera it’ll depend on the size you’re putting if you’re putting in a tiny bit, right it’s fine. Right? Because the design show you like good or great. Then you know if it’s great then you Lola is gonna come out big. Or if it says good then it’s like, maybe not. And for like writing and all they have their own fonts and stuff. So you can do it either on there, or they’ll take in any kind of font. Like there’s a resolution to that. Yeah, that’s about it. That’s good. And so and

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So you’re kind of learning more about that clothing, online business as well. So it’s going to be a good learning lesson for you.

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, just start off.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah, that that makes a lot of sense. And now actually, like talking about learning lessons, like bringing it back to your YouTube channel? What are some of the highs of creating those videos? And what are some of the lows of creating videos as you’re just like, starting off? What are what are some things you’re noticing?

Simran Kapoor  

Not every trending topic is worth making a video on because it may not trend for you. Because not everybody’s like watching it. Cuz, like one of my videos I made on this was trending back in India, it’s from Hindi, Syria, where she says resort in a corner. That means who’s in the kitchen, he’s asking her daughter in law, so that was trending back in India. So we made a video on that, but it didn’t do too well. And we also weren’t enjoying it. But we just did it because it was trending. So maybe we’ll think of that too. Because even though it’s trending that doesn’t mean you want to make a video on it, you know? Because it’s not that funny. Yeah. Right. So that didn’t a lot of attention, which was kind of a low because every random video on that was doing well yeah, that was kind of sad, but we’re over it.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

What are some highs? What are some of the highs? What else are any other lows?

Simran Kapoor  

That was probably the only law and I don’t take not too many loads. It’s fine. Hi there any like any I got a I was really excited when I got my first dislike.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Oh, someone cares enough because dislike it.

Simran Kapoor  

I don’t know if it was my friend though. Who? Right? The recent video that I put on YouTube was on Mahabharata, which is a Hindi movie. I got my first this I don’t have any other dislikes. Now like your I was texting my friend because I made it with her. So you always want to get some reason that’s more interesting, because you have a lot of Yes, men around you but the like. It’s like,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And you know, something very interesting that when you were talking about copying trending videos, or you know Tik Tok has to there’s a tick tock challenges that are going on. And then usually they say small accounts should follow those trends and challenges. And you know, how you said that sometimes it doesn’t make sense to always follow that. I actually agree with that right now, at least where I am in my journey, because sometimes you get so caught up, and oh, my God, this is a trend, this is gonna go away soon, because trends are only there for a few days or a few weeks max, I should capitalize on that. I shouldn’t make a video. And it’s like, and then you’re just kind of running after trends, and you forget what your main reason for being on that channel was what you wanted to create in the beginning. So even like, honestly, as someone who’s starting off, I’m also learning that how to create that balance of, okay, this is trending, maybe I should get on that trend worse is actually, I want to make videos that I want to make, and they might get a lot less views. But I want to make the videos where I feel like I’m going to add more value to versus being that person who’s just following all the trends in the world. As you said, sometimes you you want to follow the trends, and then you make a very trendy video and you barely getting likes, and you’re just like, every other video. Oh, well, what did I do wrong? And yeah, yeah,

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah, cuz I want to also make a quick overview that trends, I wouldn’t be there during the video, right? We can, like make something out of that instead of copying. It’s true.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

It’s that balance between original versus following trends. And the advice usually given is small accounts should follow trends because they get more reach, get more people to come check out your profile. But again, it’s finding that balance between do I follow all trends versus also I need to create my own content? So it’s, it’s definitely a tough balance. And I agree with that. So when you said that it was something I resonated with, and honestly, everything you’re saying in terms of highs and lows, I can completely resonate with that. So thank you for mentioning that. One final question before you leave. If you were to say one thing back to the 2016 Simran, who had started off her YouTube channel, what one piece of advice you would give her

 

Simran Kapoor  

Don’t delete your channel and keep at it. Don’t delete. Yeah, cuz me and my friends like Because I keep saying this David over. If you watch his videos, it’s so good because it’s just logged right into daily life. And I feel like there was some because I just came to Canada and I, the school system here is completely different. I was like, wow, where was that? So there was so much content every day, we were doing something crazy. We’re having fun. So that would have been a great content for videos like blogs. And so

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

We were just documenting your life. Yeah, you would have had some great content.

Simran Kapoor  

Yeah. But there was so many people around me because right now also have friends. But they’re like, oh, I don’t want to be on camera. And we can’t force people to be on camera. Right? But and the ones who want to be on camera, don’t live near me. So that’s an issue also.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Struggles of being a content creator.

Simran Kapoor   

Go back and I hate please don’t keep at it. Yeah.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Well, this is how we learned. So thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you so much for breaking things down. Wish you all the luck with the YouTube channel. 

So for all those listening, if you haven’t yet, please leave a review down and I will see you next week. All right. Thank you. Take care. Bye

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