Tiffany Dawn had a dream of speaking to millions of young women all over the world! That dream came to fruition with over 3.5 million views on YouTube and counting. Her honest advice on dating, marriage, sex and healthy relationships is what keeps her 10’s of thousands of subscribers coming back for more each week. Join us her home for some girl talk as we discuss how Tiffany Dawn built her audience, and practical advice for starting your own YouTube channel.
Tell us about what kind of work you do, where you grew up, and what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was growing up really wanting to travel to the other side of the world. I grew up in a conservative Christian home and my mom would read these stories about people who were missionaries who were martyred or killed for their faith so I thought I really wanted to go to the other side of the world, to a dangerous country, and be martyred for my faith by age 22. I was a very extreme dreamer as a child. Basically every day I live now I’m on borrowed time.
As I grew older I realized that was a very strange dream and I decided that I wanted to travel and speak all over the world. I would tell my parents I want to speak in front of millions of people someday and I remember my mom saying that’s cool, but it’s OK if that doesn’t happen, you don’t really have to do that. And now she tells me it’s so cool I wanted to speak to millions of people because I have millions of views on my YouTube channel.
It came true, just in a very different way that I had imagined. I don’t have to get on a plane, I can reach people from videos I make in my home.
What is the Tiffany Dawn channel about?
My channel, I call it dating advice, I talk about dating, marriage, sex and healthy relationships with yourself, with God and with the people you date. It’s basically what I wanted to have when I was growing up and in college. All these things I wanted to talk to someone about but didn’t know who to go to. Things that it felt like were taboo to discuss, I want to talk about them.
What made you decide to start your Tiffany Dawn YouTube Channel?
I started traveling and speaking when I was in my mid 20s, it was my dad’s idea. I had just finished my master’s degree and my first book. I really didn’t want to keep working full time, so my dad suggested I just quit my job to start traveling and speaking and see what happens.
Tell us about your first book.
My first book I started writing in college, just for fun, as an outlet for myself with the idea I want this to be for someone else what I had wanted. Everything I do is for something I wish someone had told me.
When I was in college I was working through an eating disorder, a really bad break up and hearing a lot of negative things said about myself and what I looked like. I started writing about my journey through them. I didn’t have any answers, but it captured the rawness of my emotions and the journey. I worked on that book for several years and decided to self publish and see what happened.
That was maybe 6 weeks before the phone call with my dad, I self published on Amazon. The book is called The Insatiable Quest for Beauty. My dad suggested I quit my job and start traveling and speaking about my book, so I tried it for a few months.
It was really cool, I packed up my apartment and moved back to my parents house. I figured I would travel around the country and stay with people I knew for a few weeks at a time and speak wherever I can in that state. I loaded up my little PT Cruiser with my boxes of books and took off. It was so last minute and random.
I reached out to different people asking if I could stay with them for a few weeks. They would set up events with their churches, high school or college and I would email places in the area and say hey I just wrote this book I’d be happy to come in and tell you more about it or speak to your organization, I charged next to nothing. It was cool because different places would say, “We’d love to have you come speak.”
It turned into doing that as my full time job for about 4 years, I would travel 6-9 months out of the year just speaking different places 2-5 times per week. When I’d be home in between I would do things like substitute teach at schools or clean just to continue to bring in income while I was home.
It was really cool, the word started getting out and I would speak more places. Then I got married, 5 years ago this year, and my husband and I tried to do a little of that together. His company has clients all over the country so we’d travel together and I would speak, he would meet with clients and it was fun but exhausting. I was already getting tired from traveling and speaking but adding his work in was too much.
I started praying about it, I want to keep reaching people but I also want to sleep in my own bed, make friends because I felt so isolated. That’s when the idea of YouTube came in my head. I can reach all these people, and more, without leaving home.
What was your first video?
I actually have no idea. One of my first videos was 6 Things Every Teen Should Know About Sex. I don’t even remember what the 6 things were, that was about 4 years ago one of the first I released. At the time I had 60 subscribers and that video got 12,000 views which at the time was a big deal. I thought this was cool and reaching so many people, I had spoken to 2,000 before and 12,000 was so much more.
Did you feel comfortable talking about that topic? Growing up in a Christian home that’s something that typically isn’t talked about.
I’ve always been an open book. Sometimes people would say too open. It doesn’t bother me but you can tell in the video I’m uncomfortable because I was getting used to talking to a camera. But the topic itself isn’t uncomfortable to me. I love talking about things no one talks about, my husband says I love to push people’s buttons and this is a way to do that.
What does a typical day look like for you now? How do you plan your videos?
The hard thing for me is having enough energy to film. You have to be very high energy to film and naturally I’m not that every day. I’m tired, I’m mom of a toddler and she doesn’t sleep through the night most of the time. My natural state is tired and low energy. So that makes it hard to batch film, but i have done that. When I was getting ready for a 3 month maternity leave I did batch film, I did one video a week. Normally I don’t just because I can’t keep the energy high for that long.
To get ideas for videos, a lot of the times its through the messages people send me. I get hundreds of emails and Instagram messages and I’ve hired people in the past to go through my email, because I’m a mom. I love to hear from these girls and I wanted to know what they were asking but I didn’t have time to read through everything. So I hired someone to read the emails and categorize them.
Categories like Sex or Dating Advice, I write down a synopsis of their question and that’s where I get a lot of my video ideas from. 3 of my videos that have the most views are in response to questions.
What were the topics?
One was masturbation- that one I put off for a while, that was a little uncomfortable for me. I finally did that one and I think that one is at about a quarter million views.
Another was how to enjoy sex on your wedding night when you’re a virgin and another was about modesty, Myths of Christian Modesty, talking about a lot of things Christians say about modesty. I say: No, no that’s not right. James and I did that one together.
Sometimes things come up and start with me ranting to James and he says, “film a video” so we’ll do that.
Your website has Girl Talk Tuesday, so do you publish a video every Tuesday or is there more than one per week?
I did publish two per week for about a year, now I just do one per week. I don’t even do one every week now that I have Natalie because I’m just too tired. I try to do it every Tuesday but I do miss some weeks.
I like the short series you have going right now because I’m sure they’re easy to film, and they’re quick watches. Sometimes you don’t want to sit down for a 30 minute video.
I’m loving that series. In the fall I was getting so tired and burnt out so I took a month and a half off from making videos and that was the idea I had when I came back. Dating Advice in 3 minutes or less. It’s gotten a lot of good feedback, people like the short videos.
My other videos are 7-10 minutes, and personally I would never watch a 7-10 minute video. The 3 minute ones have been really fun.
What equipment do you use to film?
I am not advanced at all. I have a Canon T5i in the Rebel series and a Rode mic. For lighting I usually film in front of a window. I have tried different hacks in the past and didn’t like the way they looked so the window is where it’s at for me.
As of today, Tiffany Dawn has 43,000 subscribers. How were you able to grow your audience?
Don’t give up. It is slow going at first. I’ve heard it called the snowball effect, the more subscribers you get the more exposure you get, and I’ve found that to be true.
At first I would be excited for 1 new subscriber in a week then there was a phase where I had 1,000 new subscribers in one day so it comes in phases. There’s hills and valleys. It depends how many videos you’re putting out, whether they’re catching one or not. The biggest thing is to stay consistent and don’t give up because it is hard in the beginning. It’s extremely rare to hit it big right away.
The other thing is to collaborate with other YouTubers in your niche, other people who are speaking to the same audience. That way you get exposure to their channel and they get exposure to yours, you can encourage people to subscribe to their channel. I’ve done a lot of collaboration videos.
One of things that helped my channel grow is I published a video called: “To All The Single Girls” and this Facebook page found it and shared it on their platform so it got 5 million views on their platform. A Facebook view is not the same as a YouTube view, on Facebook its impressions while as on YouTube it has to be watched for a little while to be a view. So 5 million on views on Facebook isn’t really 5 million views, but it went kind of viral on Facebook and people found me on YouTube that way.
Other YouTubers have shared my videos on their channels and I’ve built relationships with them, they’re our friends now. I went to England to speak in May at an event with YouTubers who are friends of ours. They are pastors in England and I spoke at their church and at their women’s group. We had a lot of fun with them.
What about copy and key words, are those things important to build an audience?
It used to. There’s a guy named Tim Schmoyer, he has a channel called Video Creators, and anyone looking to start a YouTube channel I would recommend watching his videos. He knows where it’s at.
Now, keywords are less and less important because YouTube is getting smarter, they know what you’re saying in your videos and are picking up on that and how people click on your video after certain searches so key words aren’t as important as they used to be.
Does having a successful YouTube channel earn a decent living or are there other outlets you should have?
Tim Schmoyer has a YouTube channel and has a whole team that works for him, so he’s bringing in significant income. He would say most of his income is from products he sells, and YouTube is a platform to promote those things.
There’s also ads, where an ad is played on your video but that’s a small amount, I make like $150 per month. I’m still a smaller YouTube channel, I don’t have a million subscribers.
I have two hours per day I spend on my channel. I’m a full time mom and I work during my daughter’s naps. So I try to really focus on my products.
I have my books, I create limited time devotional and I do courses like “Wedding Night Talks” which is everything you should know about sex before your wedding night that James and I created, its a video course online. And “Is He Right For You” is another video course you can buy that talks about how to decide if a guy is a healthy fit for you.
How do people find that?
I talk about them through my YouTube channel and on my website but I created them for my YouTubers. I also have an email list, people can sign up for certain kinds of emails each month. Or I’ll send an email for a special course. I also have an Instagram account.
I think people used to use every social media platform available to get their name out wherever they can, but I found that to be a big waste of time and I couldn’t do all of them well, so I try to focus on ones I’m passionate about and can put the time in. So its YouTube, secondary email list, third Instagram. That’s where I try to put my energy.
Have you done any brand partnership or sponsored posts?
I do have a sponsorship; I get a lot of emails about this and I say no to 99% of them because I think it’s tempting to get money or free stuff. But if it doesn’t align with my brand I think it just takes away from the value of my brand. I only have one that I’ve said yes to currently.
It’s a counseling platform that offers online counseling called Faithful Counseling. That is one I’m proud to sponsor, I’m a big advocate for counseling and I talk about mental health on my channel. I’m an affiliate of theirs so that brings in some income and it also goes with my brand.
I love how you describe your channel as your brand.
It’s both business and passion. Every video I do I try to think, “Does this go with my brand?” Because if it doesn’t, what’s the point?
For a while I was trying to get my name out more so tried more trendy videos but that didn’t fit with my brand. It didn’t help me grow, it made my viewers confused as to what I’m all about. They weren’t watching me for my morning routine, they’re watching me for dating advice. So I don’t even do those videos, just stick with what my brand is.
How have you been able to encourage your audience to share their voice?
This has changed over time because i used to be able to respond to emails. As I was saying now there’s just so many, being a mom I don’t have time to look at them. I’d love to hear from people I’m just so limited with my time and with the energy I have. I have to be true to that and take care of myself first.
The biggest thing is I tell people to find someone to share their voice with, whether that’s Faithful Counseling or their own mentor or counselor, I want them to talk about these things with people. Someone who’s in their lives and they have a relationship with. I love hearing from people in comments, hearting them or giving a little response.
As far as disconcerting comments, I’ve definitely gotten some hate.
How do you deal with that?
It’s anything from being called the c word or on the Myths of Modesty video “I can’t believe you call yourself a Christian, you don’t know blah blah blah” Some of them are so ridiculous you have to laugh.
At first it was really hard for me because I’m a perfectionist and I really want people to approve of me or at least understand where I’m coming from. I wanted to fight this battle of “Let me explain myself to you” so I really had to learn to let that go.
Honestly, I worked on that in counseling a lot because it brought up a lot of stuff in my life and from my past. It was very good for me because it helped me grow personally. Also, when you get hate comments YouTube just sees it as more engagement so when you get hate comments its just letting your channel grow so I’ve learned it’s a blessing in disguise. Now I don’t take it personally, it doesn’t bother me anymore.
One of the best videos I’ve watched of yours is when you were talking about saying no. It really helped me and gave me permission to say no. Saying no is allowing you to say yes to something else, that has resonated with me.
That has been life changing for me, because if you say yes to everything you won’t have time to say yes to the things you want to say yes to.
Why are you so passionate about your audience ?
I think it’s a mixture of 2 things:
I wished someone had done this for me. I remember being in college and being in a relationship where this guy was telling me you’re not beautiful enough and pushing me to do things physically that I wasn’t comfortable with. I can remember going on Google and searching “How can I be beautiful?” I wish something like this had popped up.
It’s like I’m making these videos for Tiffany 15 years ago. I’m making them for myself and that’s makes me passionate about them. Then its hearing stories from people.
One lady just wrote to me about my video “To All The Single Girls,” ‘I was single and feeling really down and discouraged and it gave me hope and here’s a picture of me in my wedding dress. I’m getting married in a few months!’
It’s special for me to hear that. I’ve heard from people that my books have helped them through an eating disorder or a video gave them the courage to break up with a guy who didn’t treat them right. That makes it all worth it, to get out of bed and do it again.
Do you ever find yourself in a creative rut?
Yes. I usually just have to take a break, take some time off. Usually I’m in a rut if I don’t have brain space so I’ll take a break from YouTube for a few weeks. Sometimes that’s a week off or to sit and color and meditate or go to a coffee shop by myself and have nothing on the agenda. It’s a sign for me that I need to create space in my brain and that usually gets me out of it.
Because you give so much to your audience, when you find yourself in a rut how are you able to reserve the mental capacity for Natalie and James?
Honestly I think my situation is different because I work so part time now. In the past I felt like I needed to help everyone and I’ve realized that’s not my job.
It’s been good being a mom because that creates boundaries automatically between me and my work. My daughter is always going to come first during the day. I know that’s not everyone’s case, but for me it creates boundaries automatically. That can be hard because I like to be productive and she’ll want to make tea for the dolly, and over and over make another cup of tea for dolly I’m going to go crazy.
So sometimes its hard but the rule I set for myself that my family will always come first that sets boundaries. Being with James gives me energy. It doesn’t drain me, I don’t feel like i have to save energy for him, I recharge when I’m with him. Having those people who help you recharge is important and for me that’s James.
What would you say to someone who wants to start a YouTube channel that is scared or insecure?
Know why you want to start it. It is scary and a lot of work at first so if you’re doing it just to get big or for people to like your videos, you’re never going to have anyone like it. You have to know why you’re doing it and do it for yourself in a sense.
If you’re doing it to be liked its ever going to be satisfying. You have to know why you’re doing it for you and always remember what that is. You have to do it for you otherwise you’ll get bored and burnt out. But if you’re making videos for you and what you’re passionate about then it will be a lot easier to keep going.
What are your favorite videos to make?
Anything about dating or sex, I love talking about those topics. Even just on a personal level, if we have people over and I’m tired my husband says, “Just talk about sex or boys and she’s good for another hour.”
What do you typically do for lunch?
I was hoping I could say I have vegetables or something live for lunch but I don’t. I have toast and an egg because it’s easy and fast.
Where can people find Tiffany Dawn on social media?
