Welcome to All in the Creator Family, where in partnership with upcoming YouTuber event FamFest — a two-day, all-ages festival starring family vloggers — we profile content creators whose families are at the heart of their videos. Each week, we’ll chat with a featured family-oriented creator about how they established their own unique platform within the booming content space.
Kyler and Madison Fisher didn’t just want to become full-time creators. They needed to become full-time creators.
Three years ago, Kyler was working as a salesman, and his job required frequent travel. Leaving Madison had always been hard, but after she gave birth to their first children, twin daughters Taytum and Oakley, the separation was unbearable. They knew something needed to change.
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So they started a YouTube channel: Kyler and Mad. Their very first video, uploaded Nov. 29, 2016, was a nine-minute vlog giving viewers a glimpse of their daily life with two newborns. In the video’s description, they invited folks to join them for the long haul–and that’s exactly what 3.8 million subscribers have done.
Three years later, the duo haven’t changed their content strategy much; they’ve stuck to usually multiple-per-week, minimally edited vlogs, chronicling their lives with Taytum, Oakley, and as of nine months ago, third daughter Halston. They’re committed to keeping it real, just recording what’s going on in day-to-day–an angle that makes their YouTube content relatable and naturally draws in viewers, Kyler says. They’ve also expanded off YouTube (where they bring an average of 20 million views per month) to build a dedicated Instagram account for Taytum and Oakley, who now have 3.1 million followers tuning in for their many matching photoshoots.
A combined Fisher following of nearly 7 million is nothing to sneeze at, but now that Kyler and Mad know content creation is their path, they’re eyeing an ambitious goal: growing their YouTube channel to 10 million subscribers. And while they don’t plan to change their content, they are diversifying their creative production with Kyler’s burgeoning music career and investments in film.
Ultimately, like most busy families, Kyler and Mad are focused on keeping their kids healthy and happy, and aren’t entirely sure what the future holds. But they do know one thing: whatever happens, they’ll greet it together.
Tubefilter: Tell us a little about you! What did you do before YouTube?
Kyler Fisher: Before I started with YouTube, I was a door-to-door salesman for alarm systems around the country. It paid the bills, but took me away from Madison and the girls, which wasn’t ideal. I knew it was time for a change.
Tubefilter: What made you pick YouTube as the platform for your content? What specifically appealed to you about running a family channel?
KF: I came home one day from a two-week trip after having lost a significant amount of money in a deal. I needed to make up for it, so had to leave Madison for a couple weeks to go generate sales. I was sick of leaving her, and we had just had the girls. It really didn’t feel right, and I told her I wanted to be done with sales and start a YouTube channel. Shortly after, I made YouTube Plan A. We just started posting our lives–a lot–and now we are here. We never really considered our decision to do YouTube as much of an actual choice, because it felt so natural. We were just a regular family that filmed our lives, and have always managed to stay true to who we are.
Tubefilter: Can you talk a little about Taytum and Oakley’s online presence? What’s your content strategy for the two of them? When did you know that creating a platform for the two of them could turn into a serious pursuit—even a career?
KF: It’s been crazy. The girls already had 50K followers before they were born, and knew that they were going to have a presence. We knew that YouTube presented an opportunity for all of us as a family. We offer a unique presence as a family, and we are one of the frontrunners in the family space, and the frontrunner in the twin space–and they just took over.
Tubefilter: Why do you think family content is so popular with people across social media platforms? What are some key things you’ve noticed about your own audience?
KF: We tend to just naturally gravitate toward family content because it is so relatable. People like watching for the escape. It’s similar to why people are attracted to reality TV: they can observe lives that are different from their own. Our goal is to showcase what a traditional family is like, and share the importance of keeping your family strong, even when it means balancing career and all the other craziness life brings.
Tubefilter: How do you keep your content fresh and exciting in such a crowded space?
KF: Honestly, we have a really difficult time doing that. There are so many people out there doing what we do that it’s hard to stay original. There have been days where we upload a video and then see that ten other families are posting the same type of content. Staying creative is a challenge, but we hope to keep our channel real and focused on what is going on in our lives rather than going with content trends.
Tubefilter: What differentiates your channels from others on YouTube?
KF: To be honest, we don’t live our lives the ways that other YouTube families do. We want to be a good example for our audience and the community, and are focused more on sharing wholesome content rather than being outrageous and edgy just to get views. We love a lot of the other families, but we want to grow in our own way and truly focus on our values through our channel.
Tubefilter: What are the challenges of running a channel where your kids are the stars right alongside you?
KF: We find that a large part of our audience is younger girls who love watching our twins, so it’s sometimes hard to determine whether we should just post a video of Mad and me, or one that includes the twins. We love the girls, but are always looking to strike a balance, which is definitely a challenge at times.
Tubefilter: How do you balance your content production? Is there a certain number of hours you film each day, or do you just film when it feels like something vloggable is happening? Do you keep space for downtime/non-filming?
KF: Honestly, we have a hard time keeping a content schedule. We do our best to post every other day, or at least three times a week. Balancing brands, music, and family is difficult–especially with twins and a baby. We have a hard time keeping up on occasion, but we work hard to make sure our audience gets quality.
Tubefilter: Is YouTube your full-time job? What else does the average day involve?
KF: YouTube is definitely my full-time job, but I aspire to make a living in other things by diversifying my income and pursuing new avenues. I am passionate about my music, and just released my debut single last week. Besides that, I also have property and movie investments I manage.
Tubefilter: What plans do you have for the future, both for your family and your channel?
KF: Our future goal is definitely to hit 10 million subs. We are super grateful for where we are now, but hope to continue to grow and share our lives. I personally don’t have goals that drive me nuts like I used to, and strive to be content and grateful for where we are right now. We are both in awe every single day of all that we have–our girls, each other, the new baby on the way–and for all the people who continue to watch us and allow us to share our family.
FamFest is the biggest two-day family festival featuring your favorite YouTube stars. Our mission is to bring families and creators together in an immersive environment to create memories through engagement. FamFest will be featuring one-of-a kind experiences and “Instagrammable” moments at the OC Fair & Event Center on June 20th & 21st, 2020. Tickets (use the code JESSS50 to get $50 off any ticket), sponsorships, and more information available now at famfestusa.com.
