Welcome to YouTube Millionaires, where we profile channels that have recently crossed the one million subscriber mark. There are channels crossing this threshold every week, and each has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments of YouTube Millionaires here.
Mini Ladd is a member of the YouTube community, but he doesn’t take his success for granted. The UK-based YouTuber, whose real name is Craig, has built a lot of his success thanks to Garry’s Mod, the sandbox program he features in many of his videos. To celebrate one million subscribers, Mini Ladd released a compilation of his best “GMod”.
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Mini Ladd is currently on the up-and-up, but he believes his time as a top YouTuber is ephemeral. Here’s what he had to say about his experience within the Let’s Play genre:
Tubefilter: How does it feel to have one million YouTube subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?
Mini Ladd: It’s honestly the most crazy thing to me that one million people from around the world like me enough to feel the need to watch me more. YouTube has been the best thing that has happened to me and if you would have told me that I would reach the one million subscriber mark, I would have laughed. For my fans I have to say thank you. Thank you for changing my life, and because of you, I get to wake up everyday and live my dream, and I wouldn’t be where I am without you.
Tubefilter: How do you manage to set yourself apart instead of being just another gaming channel?
Mini Ladd: I don’t think I’m anything special so it blows my mind that anyone wants to watch me…I think maybe its because I try to add more of my personality to my videos through editing. Editing for me is the main reason why I only upload every day or every other day, because it takes a long time to edit every video but in my eyes, it makes the video a whole lot better. That and because I’m just a weird person and people like to laugh at me.
Tubefilter: What’s the story behind the name Mini Ladd?
Mini Ladd: The name Mini Ladd came from when I was a kid. When I was growing up, my next door neighbor and one of my best friends at the time was called Craig (which also happens to be my name) so to avoid confusion, they called me ‘Mini’ because I was younger. I was six or seven years old when people first started calling me that, and when you’re that age, calling someone Mini was hilarious.
Craig’s younger brother Kyle was the same age as me and when we went into Secondary School/High School, he kept calling me Mini and because of that, everyone kept calling me Mini and even to this day, people call me Mini before they call me Craig. The ‘Ladd’ part came from when a few friends and I decided to make our Xbox gamertags the same, so there was Kyle Ladd, Conor Ladd, and then me, Mini Ladd! When I made my YouTube channel, I kept getting an error whenever I tried to make my YouTube name ‘MiniLadd’ so I just added an extra ‘d’, and that’s why my YouTube name is ‘MiniLaddd’.
Tubefilter: What is your process for choosing games you play on your channel?
Mini Ladd: For me, I try and find games are not just fun, but also funny. There are a lot of games out there that are fun but I also know the game needs to be funny for people to watch and enjoy it. For example, I play a lot of Destiny, because its a fun game, but I don’t want to upload it because its not really a funny game, and because of that, people wouldn’t find it too entertaining. For games like that, I like to livestream them on Twitch whenever I have some free time.
Tubefilter: What was your favorite collaboration video so far in your career?
Mini Ladd: My favorite collab I’ve ever done is probably when I played with SeaNanners for the first time because he was one of the main reasons I started a YouTube channel over three years ago, and when I finally got a chance to meet him, it was crazy to think that I was talking to this guy who I’ve been watching for four or so years. The fact that I can call him a friend is still crazy to me. It also helps that he’s a really down to earth guy!
Tubefilter: Your Five Nights at Freddy’s video has over 2 million views. Why do you think it’s so popular?
Mini Ladd: I think I just got the video up at the right time when Five Nights at Freddy’s was still big on the scene, and at that time, I didn’t see anyone else who had uploaded a Garry’s Mod version of the game so for that video, I edited it for nine hours to make sure that people [would] really like it and so it could be received well, and I guess I got lucky. That’s one thing about YouTube is it’s all about being there at the right place at the right time. For example, I could have made that video when no one was really looking for it and it would have got nowhere near the amount of views as it has. It’s all about picking your moment.
Tubefilter: You just did your first “#AskMini” vlog. What was your favorite part about that? Do you think you’ll do more in the future?
Mini Ladd: For as long as I can remember, I have always wanted to be more personal with my viewers and talk to them on a personal level but I guess that because I was too busy trying to get my gaming videos out there, I put vlogs on the back burner. I probably wouldn’t have started #AskMini if it wasn’t for a close friend of mine, Ashlynn Arias, who knew that being personal can separate a good channel from a great channel and so I took her advice and went for it. I’m really glad I did because recording my first #AskMini episode was a lot of fun.
I know it wont get as many views as my gaming videos but I know views will come in time and I just have to be consistent with it and keep enjoying it and eventually, views will come, but it’s not my main priority. I still treat YouTube as a hobby even though it is my job. I still put the enjoyment of making videos at my forefront, I can work out all the business stuff afterwards!
Tubefilter: Can you see yourself doing YouTube gaming videos the rest of your life? Or do you want to try something else?
Mini Ladd: As much as I want to continue doing this for the rest of my life, I can only see YouTube being around for the short term, not because I want to quit, but because I feel that as a YouTuber, everyone gets their moment in the spotlight before someone else comes along and takes your thunder, kinda like that artist who has a one-hit wonder and then no one ever hears from them again. I live in the UK at the moment, but I’m planning on moving to California in early 2015 because I want to be able to gain connections with people in the gaming industry so whenever YouTube does decide to shut its doors on me, at least I’ll know people and have a plan that I can fall back on.
Tubefilter: What’s next for your YouTube channel? Any fun plans?
Mini Ladd: I want to continue to develop as a YouTuber and continue to improve the quality of my videos. I also want to start doing more personal stuff and collab that way as well as my gaming stuff. I will always keep my channel gaming but I also want to let people who know who I am, not just [be] that voice that shouts over video games. Big things are planned but now they just need to be brought to life. Life is amazing at the moment and I cant wait to see what lies ahead for me.
On Deck (channels that will soon reach one million subscribers): Kina Grannis, Ten Second Songs, Pinkstylist
