YouTube Millionaires: Cross-Platform Couple Des & JuJu Hit One Million Followers On YouTube, TikTok, And Facebook

By 10/15/2020
YouTube Millionaires: Cross-Platform Couple Des & JuJu Hit One Million Followers On YouTube, TikTok, And Facebook

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 creator has a story to tell about YouTube success. Read previous installments here.


Those of you who regularly tune in for this column—or who read the title of today’s feature—will know that normally, we gather here to profile creators who have recently hit one million subscribers on YouTube. But this week, we have something a little different: Creator couple Des and JuJu are not only newly crowned millionaires on YouTube, but on TikTok and Facebook, too.

As you might imagine, regularly creating content for three platforms (plus Instagram, where they have 80.5K followers) is a full-time endeavour. Des and JuJu upload a new YouTube video every other day—and on non-upload days, they’re still brainstorming, filming, and editing. Managing multiple accounts is made slightly easier by the fact that their content, regardless of platform, has always had one consistent focus: their relationship.

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Des and JuJu first launched their YouTube presence in 2018, and while they didn’t intend to become career YouTubers, they did know what they wanted to make. From day one, their channel has been a trove of trendy couple capers. They’ve done couples mukbangs, reaction videos, truth or drink, and dozens upon dozens of prank videos. When they expanded to other platforms, they took their tricks with them.

Pranks are still their main fare, but as their following has grown, they’ve noticed fans are interested in them, not just their antics. Nowadays, they also update their YouTube channel and Facebook page with everyday vlogs and videos about big moments in their lives–and as for their TikTok account, it’s sprinkled with dancing duets.

Check out our chat with them below.

Tubefilter: How does it feel to hit one million subscribers? What do you have to say to your fans?

JuJu & Des: It honestly feels so surreal to hit one million subscribers. We have been thinking about this moment, and when and if it would ever happen, since we first started our channel. We would like to thank each and every person who has supported us in our journey to a million subscribers. We love and appreciate you all so much!

Tubefilter: Tell us a little about the two of you. How did you meet? What did you do in the days before YouTube?

JJ & D: We are a young couple who go by JuJu & Des on YouTube. Our full names are Julius Brown and Destiny Rodriguez, and we are 23 and 25, respectively. We met three years ago through mutual friends at Destiny’s job at the time. When we met, she was a bartender at Hooters and had just completed her bachelor’s degree at UCLA. Julius was modeling and trying to pursue his career in acting. Right before we started our joint channel, Julius had started his own YouTube channel. He gained a bit of popularity through Instagram and Twitter, which gave his YouTube channel a boost. As we grew closer in our relationship, we decided to start a YouTube channel together.

Tubefilter: Tell us about starting a shared channel! Did you go into it intending to “become a YouTuber,” or did you end up becoming a content creator without quite meaning to?

JJ & D: Like we mentioned previously, Julius had already started his own channel and really enjoyed creating fun entertaining content. Destiny would help behind the scenes and come up with ideas because she was a bit camera-shy at first. Julius encouraged Destiny to step outside of her comfort zone by getting in front of the camera because he knew how much more fun it would be to do it together. We didn’t intend to become “YouTubers.” We honestly just enjoyed trying out funny challenges that we normally wouldn’t do if it wasn’t for YouTube.

Tubefilter: Your content revolves around trendy couple pranks, which is a popular niche. How do you make your videos stand out amongst all the noise?

JJ & D: We love putting our own twist on different trendy pranks. We also try our best to come up with our own concepts and pranks we have never seen before on YouTube. Sometimes it is difficult to stand out, but we always focus on staying true to ourselves rather than trying to be like or compete with anybody else.

Tubefilter: Is YouTube your full-time job? How often do you film? What does the average day look like for you?

JJ & DThankfully, YouTube is our full-time job now. It took us over a year to get to that point, and we are so grateful we get to do what we love every day! We film quite a bit throughout the week because we try to post every other day. On an average day, we are either filming, editing, or working on something to better our channel. We also like to take time away from work as a couple to spend time together and separate work from our relationship.

Tubefilter: Do you have any strategies for growing your audience? Have you noticed any particular kind of content getting more traction than others? Do you adjust what you film depending on how your viewers react?

JJ & D: The biggest tip we can give anybody to grow their audience is to be consistent and stay true to yourself. As for our channel, our audience particularly loves pranks because that’s what we started off doing. However, we are blessed to have a diverse audience who also love our vlogs, challenges, and simply keeping up with our daily lives. We always try to keep our audience in mind when coming up with different concepts for videos.

Tubefilter: How long does the average video take you to make, from brainstorming to upload? How do you come up with ideas for videos?

JJ & D: We don’t like to force ideas or content, so we try to just jot down ideas when they randomly pop in our heads throughout the day. As far as filming, editing, and uploading, it usually takes anywhere from four to six hours, depending on the video.

@juju_desI Think We Are Little Too Much Fun 😅🤣 @fashionnova Fashionnovapartner ##fy ##fyp ##couplegoals ##jujuanddes ##relationshipgoals♬ Whole Lotta Choppas – Sada Baby

Tubefilter: What’s your favorite part of making content on YouTube?

JJ & DOur favorite part of making content on YouTube is being able to do it together. We get to celebrate our accomplishments together and overcome any struggles we have along the way.

Tubefilter: Have you expanded your content/personal brand off YouTube at all? Launched any merch, a related business, a presence on another social platform, etc? Do you want to?

JJ & D: Yes, we have expanded our brand outside of YouTube. We can’t elaborate too much on what we have coming, but we have lots of exciting projects in the works! We have also ventured onto TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. We’ve also recently hit one million followers on Facebook and one million on TikTok.

Tubefilter: What’s next for you and your channel? Any plans looking to the future?

JJ & D: What’s next for us is to simply keep bettering ourselves and our platforms everyday, and to keep inspiring people to do what they love and never be afraid to chase their dreams. We have a lot in the works right now so we are looking forward to announcing some of those projects in the near future.

 

JuJu and Des are represented by Zach Cole at Slash Management.

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