Austin Null is known on YouTube as the patriarch of the Nive Nulls, a “Los Angeles based, fun vlogging family, who show their crazy daily lives in an entertaining and fast paced way” with an upbeat personality that’s nothing short of infectious. If you’re one of Nulls’ 120,00+ aggregate YouTube subscribers, you’ll know the family unit and its videos are comprised of Austin, his wife Brittney (who has her own channel, Britt’s Breakdown), their daughter Audriana, and their newborn son Kailand.
And if you’re not yet part of the Nulls Fan Club, but still involved in the online video industry, you’ll know Austin as the social media voice of prominent YouTube multi-channel network Fullscreen.
Since October 2012, Null has orchestrated and executed the MCN’s public-facing social media strategy, building an informal, but informative tone while developing a decent-sized audience and interacting with Fullscreen’s 15,000+ YouTube partners across the company’s various social media channels. Austin’s good at his job, too. Of all the social media efforts of all of the major YouTube MCNs, I find Fullscreen’s to always be among the most engaging and engaged.
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Today, however, Austin announced he’s moving on. He’s leaving Fullscreen to pursue something nearly everyone with an active YouTube channel dreams of doing. Do YouTube full-time, and do it well enough to support a family.
We caught up with Mr. Null to ask him how he landed at Fullscreen in the first place, what he’s done there, and how he made the tough decision to try to make videos for a living.
Tubefilter: How’d you initially get the job as Social Engagement Strategist at Fullscreen?
Austin Null: I started in October of 2012. I got the job by tweeting our CEO, George Strompolos, and telling him that he should give me a job. I lived in Kansas City at the time and our YouTube channel was already signed with Fullscreen. After tweeting with George some we got on a Skype call and he eventually offered me a job and I moved the family from Kansas City to LA.
TF: Why leave now?
AN: The easy answer, we’re blessed to be making more via YouTube income than my salary at this point. I’ve been able to land a lot of recurring brand deals with some really awesome companies which is a large chunk – about 60% or so – of our YouTube income.
However, our channel has also grown a lot over the past year and even recently over the past few months. Our brand as The Nive Nulls is supported via our main channel and my wife’s channel, Britt’s Breakdown. We’re at 120K subscribers combined, over 1 million monthly views combined and I’m not even able to give my full time to it, so we’re excited to take our content to the next level and revolutionize the vlogging genre (my personal goal) this year.
TF: Has the job at Fullscreen helped you get to where you are?
AN: Totally! Being at Fullscreen has helped me understand YouTube as both an ecosystem and business more than I ever thought possible. I’ve also been able to make tons of connections with both YouTubers and people in the industry, who will definitely be a great help to our channel moving forward. Especially because we plan to do TONS of collabs in the coming months since we haven’t had time in the past.
TF: Are you going to be a Fullscreen YouTube partner?
AN: Definitely. I created the hashtag #FullscreenFam as I was running social media this past year and I totally consider myself part of the family for sure.
Our channel has thrived under Fullscreen. I love the products they offer to creators and use them daily. The Gorilla product sets Fullscreen apart from other networks by a mile when it comes to offering value to small/mid-level creators by making them more money. And, finally, as a now-former employee, I know the vision the company has and things it’s working on and I wholeheartedly believe Fullscreen is going to revolutionize the industry, for both creators and brands, in the coming years.
You can check out Austin and family’s YouTube channel at YouTube.com/thenivenulls.
