Welcome to Creators on the Rise, where we find and profile breakout creators who are in the midst of extraordinary growth. Today’s installment is brought to you by VidSummit.
When Jenny Hoyos started uploading videos to YouTube in 2021, she did it confidently believing one thing: “It’s not like anyone’s going to see this.”
“That was the truth,” she says. “I was like, ‘No one’s going to see it.'”
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She was wrong. Very wrong. (We’ll come back to that.)
Hoyos didn’t just wake up in 2021 and realize she wanted to make YouTube videos. She comes from a big, sprawling family of entrepreneurs–plus lots and lots of cousins who are very into YouTube. Watching YouTube video was a family activity, and so was going to the movie theater on the reg. These two things together sparked Hoyos’ interest in digital content and storytelling, and she started making videos when she was very young.
Then she hit high school, and as we all know, kids in high school aren’t exactly the nicest people on Earth. Their condescension convinced Hoyos her videos weren’t going to turn into anything significant, so she stopped posting them publicly.
But she didn’t stop making them. So, when COVID quarantines began and Hoyos realized she was slipping into “bad habits” like “gaming all day and eating unhealthy,” she decided something had to change. “I was like, ‘I need to find a passion. I need to do something,'” she says. “I need to make money for myself. What do I do if I keep just playing video games?”
She started trying side hustles, and her YouTube videos (you know, the ones she thought no one would watch) were meant to be a way for her to document her journey as an entrepreneur.
Now, two years later, she has nearly 2 million subscribers and her videos have collectively pulled in almost 850 million views. She’s also slated to speak at next week’s VidSummit, where she’ll talk about her analytical approach to success on Shorts–including how she wants every one of her videos to hit Trending.
Check out our chat with her below.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tubefilter: I’m familiar with you and your videos, but for people who maybe don’t know you or are just getting an introduction to you through VidSummit, I’d like to get a background from you. Where did you grow up, what kinds of hobbies were you into as a kid, and how did you eventually end up here?
Jenny Hoyos: I grew up born and raised, still live here in Miami, Florida. As a kid, as funny as it sounds, my hobbies were…YouTube. I started YouTube when I was eight years old, and I have nearly like 20 cousins. I have so many cousins. It’s not funny. They all did YouTube. We were all making YouTube videos. We’d have sleepovers. It was just like, it was just a thing in the family. That’s what I grew up with. I was just doing vlogs, silly videos as a kid until I stopped around when I got into high school because people are not very friendly. Then you’re like, “Oh, this isn’t even going to work out. I’m embarrassing myself.” So I stopped.
Tubefilter: Yeah, high schoolers are not known for their friendliness.
Jenny Hoyos: It’s just rough. Yes. It’s rough. It’s rough. It was like in middle school. It was like mainly in middle school, but then when I got into high school, I’m like, “Yes, I can’t do this in high school.” I was still making videos. I just wasn’t uploading it, actually.
I actually have a hard drive of nearly every day of my life. I haven’t looked at the footage, but I have so much footage and it’s never been uploaded. I recorded everything. I was always making videos, my entire life, essentially, until quarantine happened. As funny as it sounds, like when quarantine started, I was getting into bad habits. I was just gaming all day and eating unhealthy, and how most people’s story is. Then it was during that time when I was like, “I need to find a passion. I need to do something.” Right? I realized, I was like, “I need to make money for myself. What do I do if I keep just playing video games?” You know what I mean?
Tubefilter: Yes.
Jenny Hoyos: Then that’s when I got into entrepreneurship. At this point, YouTube wasn’t even a thing. I got into entrepreneurship. My family are entrepreneurs. I was helping them with their businesses. I was doing a bunch of side hustles. Then I was like, “Oh, I need to document this. I’m going to be a millionaire one day. I need to document my entrepreneurship journey, teach others that they should be an entrepreneur and they should get into finance and the importance of all that.” Then I was like, “I need to start making videos again.” Then that’s the origins of my channel.
I’ve always been passionate about storytelling. The reason why I make videos about money is because I know how important it is. I see so many people who struggle financially. I just thought it was so perfect to get into that. It’s a long story, but I think it’s pretty relevant.
Tubefilter: Most people I speak to who fall out of a creative hobby just stopped doing it entirely. It’s really interesting to me that you were still making videos, but for you. I’m sure that that’s played a lot into your channel, because your videos are pretty polished. That experience all comes in.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, exactly. It’s crazy. Yes. Basically, in short, I love YouTube, then I got entrepreneurship, then boom, married the two.
Tubefilter: You’ve made a handful of long-form videos, but short-form seems to be–is that where you feel like you really thrive?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, I definitely thrive in short-form. It’s crazy because even if you look at my first couple of long-forms–I was long-form first, by the way. I made long-forms first–even my first long-forms were like two minutes each. I’m like, if all my long-forms are going to be two minutes, why don’t I just make Shorts? [laughs] I’m trying to get into a long-form for sure. I want to have a healthy cadence between the two.
Tubefilter: Yes, got you. Then what’s your current production schedule in terms of, are you aiming to produce a certain number of videos every week? How often are you filming?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes. It’s a bit complicated in the sense of I upload every week on the same day at the same time. I haven’t missed a weekly upload this entire year. If the video is good or bad, I’m uploading by the end of that week. There’s no specific amount of Shorts versus long-form. It’s just whatever I can get done by the end of the week, if that makes sense. Usually in the beginning of the month, I’ll be like, “I think I’m going to do one long-form and three Shorts.” Or I’ll just be like, “Maybe this is a four-Shorts month,” etcetera.
Tubefilter: How much time would you say goes into the average short-form video?
Jenny Hoyos: The overall production, it‘s about 20 hours per Shorts. At a minimum, it’s 10 hours.
Tubefilter: I think that’s one of the longest times I’ve heard from a creator. But your videos do take a lot of planning, a lot of activity that you have to do and bring together.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, it’s basically a lot of brainstorming and figuring out. As funny as it sounds, anyone can make Shorts. I can make a Shorts in an hour or not that long, but it’s figuring out, how am I going to make this go viral? Because my goal is to make every Short hit Trending. Then that’s where all the time goes. Just trying to figure out how to make it go viral.
Tubefilter: Can you talk more about that? I’m curious about your approach to virality and how you approach that formula.
Jenny Hoyos: It’s a lot of things. I’m very analytical, but it’s more so like– It’s very strategic. When I think of virality, I’m thinking, one, is the hook good? Because if the hook isn’t even good, it’s probably not going to go viral. Not only does the hook have to be good, but also is this something people will rewatch? And then I also think like, is this something people would share? Would they potentially try this out themselves?
My most viral video was a hack to save money at Chipotle, and it went completely viral. It got nearly 100 million views because it’s actually actionable. People were actually going to the location and doing that hack. It’s more so on that aspect. Also, for example, and then minor things for retention, is this something that it has the proper story beats to push the viewer along the video? I noticed it’s a bunch of little things and I try to have– You want the viewer to basically, just alone hearing the hook, they have so many questions that they need answered throughout the video. In some Shorts, it’s usually just one question that’s getting answered throughout, but I try to spark a lot of questions in one hook. It’s complicated, so I think of a bunch of things, essentially.
Tubefilter: Do you remember what your first video to really take off was?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, it was a long-form.
Tubefilter: Oh, interesting. Okay.
Jenny Hoyos: It’s privated on my channel now, so you can’t see it. It was something along the lines of me taking Andrew Tate’s course and I was seeing if it was a scam or not.
Tubefilter: Now I see why it’s privated.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes. [laughs] That’s exactly why.
Tubefilter: I did want to ask a little bit about–So, to be honest, I’m very skeptical about things like crypto and NFTs and art/writing generative AI. I do know that a lot of your early videos, you were doing Bitcoin mining and dabbling in NFTs. Now your content’s shifted away from that, so I’m curious about how your side hustles and your money-making methods that you recommend to other people have changed over the years.
Jenny Hoyos: When I first started the channel, yes, correct, I was Bitcoin mining. I was dabbling in crypto. I was doing all right until you just– I was making profits, and then I just lost all my profits. I didn’t go negative. I just lost my profits. The only profit I had was the Bitcoin mining, but then I used the mining to invest. I’m pretty much a skeptic too with cryptos and NFTs, so that has changed. At first I was like, “Oh, this is interesting.” I was in the middle. I was in between, but now I’m in the no zone.
I guess the way it should be explained is when I first started, because remember I was recording to document my journey, so I was dabbling in these things and making videos about it to see if it’s worth it. I was doing it from a beginner’s perspective. I was looking for those get rich quick things, but now over time I realize that that’s not the case and it’s actually just having skills. Simply put in, you’re not going to get rich quick. Now when I try to do side hustle videos or little things like that, I do things that maybe they don’t pay as good, but they’re more reliable.
Tubefilter: They’re solid.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, like garage sales. I made a video on that. Those are good, flipping garage sales. They’re not going to be 10xing your money like a crypto. That’s where I’m at with it and also a lot of saving money. I had no saving money videos until I realized how important it is to also save money, because it’s like, what is it? You know how the millionaire next door, the millionaire who’s always cheap, how do you think they’re a millionaire?
This is why it’s not so strictly finance, because I think it’s all about perspective. I try to teach the perspective of not just staying living below your means, but being happy with it. I have a friend who says this thing where it’s like, he’d rather go to a bad restaurant because it would be more memorable than if he went to a good one.
Tubefilter: I can vibe with that. Where are you with school? Did you just graduate high school?
Jenny Hoyos: No, I graduated quite a while ago.
Tubefilter: Wait, you’re 18, right?
Jenny Hoyos: I’m 18. I’m a senior in college. I’m about to get my bachelor’s in finance next year.
Tubefilter: Okay, this I did not know. You graduated high school early and now you’re graduating college early?
Jenny Hoyos: Correct. Yes.
Tubefilter: Then do you intend to go into this full-time or are you looking at getting a day job and then doing content on the side?
Jenny Hoyos: Well, I’m just going to do content because I’m getting a degree from my parents, but also an interesting fact is I have two scholarships. I have one that pays for college, so college is free, and then the other scholarship just gives me the cash reimbursed. I have a thousand a month to go to school.
Tubefilter: Clearly it’s working out for you. Do you have a team working with you at all on content creation stuff?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, I have a very lean team. I have a full-time video editor who’s also a strategist. He’s working a dual job there. Definitely, he works more than the 40-hour work week. He probably does 40 hours editing and then an additional work week of strategizing for my channel. He’s almost like two people in one.
Tubefilter: This is something I’m curious about, how did you end up finding him?
Jenny Hoyos: He was just a friend for a long time. He’s obsessed with YouTube. I have him, and then also I have a thumbnail designer who also just like– you know how people, they go on Twitter and they just hire someone? He’s actually part of the team, if that makes sense. He’s closely working with us.
Tubefilter: Got you. Yes, that’s one of the biggest pain points for both creators and professionals that I speak to. They can’t find each other. Creators are always looking for good, dependable team members, and people out there with skills to become team members are like, “Markiplier’s not going to answer my DM, so how do I get a job?”
Jenny Hoyos: For my thumbnail designer, I think this is interesting. I actually found him, he was just a Fiverr guy. He’s a freelance Fiverr guy. I’ve done this with a couple of people, actually. I would just hire services on Fiverr. If they do a good job, I pull them out of the platform. So that’s really where I found him.
Tubefilter: Definitely interesting. One of the big things VidSummit is doing this year is they’re having a job fair. They’re going to set up a bunch of booths and have creators there looking to hire, and I feel like that’s really important.
Jenny Hoyos: 100%, that’s going to be so good.
Tubefilter: I think what you said is valuable advice. I feel like people write Fiverr off when it comes to finding people.
Jenny Hoyos: Because most people aren’t good on there. Because the people who are really good already have the connections. I think another thing, my guy, if you would have seen his work, you would have thought he’s bad. But I saw potential because I also read his description. I saw he’s going to college for graphic design, and this is something he’s genuinely passionate about. His background isn’t even YouTube and I’m like, “Let me see if he is interested.” It’s just training.
Tubefilter: I wanted to go back to, you said you quit uploading videos because kids are mean, which is very understandable. Kids are awful in high school and in middle school. Clearly, you’ve gained the confidence now to run a channel. You said during quarantine you were posting videos, but how did you build up that confidence again to start putting yourself out there?
Jenny Hoyos: Honestly, it’s funny, because I thought to myself, like, “It’s not like anyone’s going to see this.” That was the truth. I was like, “No one’s going to see it. Anyway, at least I don’t have to see them every day of my life.” I’d say I’m very confident now. I don’t know. It’s more of like, I was still confident back then. It’s funny because people would still say those things. I don’t want to say I got bullied, because I never cried, I never had problems like that. They would say things and I’m like, “Okay.” I would just say something back. That’s just the type of person I am, or I’d try to think of something clever to get them back. It wasn’t even like, not confident. It was more so like, I was just kind of annoyed. You know what I mean?
Tubefilter: Yes. The fact that you were like, “Oh, it’s fine. Nobody’s going to see this anyway.” Just the confidence of like, “No one’s going to watch it. It’s for me.”
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, exactly, kind of like what I was doing before.
Tubefilter: How has your approach to strategizing videos changed over time from the beginning to now? Do you feel like it’s become more intentional, or how has your process changed?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, my process has changed a lot. It’s very, very intentional now. I’m talking like, I would sit on an idea– One of my most viral ideas, I sat on it for a year. In fact, I’m about to upload a video in four months, that’s very intentional. I’ve sat on that idea for over a year too. It’s very, very strategic. It’s changed in the sense of, back then I would think of, “What are things I would want to watch?” Now, I would think, “What’s a story I want to tell?” Then I try to figure out how to package that in a way that’s going to go viral. Then I would research a bunch of videos.
I would spend hours on it and watching other people’s videos that are even remotely close to this topic. Then I would analyze their videos, and I’ll read all the comments. Then I’ll have AI even analyze the video on what’s good and bad, and it’s like, “Now I’m going to make this video and then apply all the good things and make sure not to do all the bad things.”
I never even thought about that much before, though. I would just think of, “What would I want to watch, as opposed to, what are stories I want to tell? Then how do we make that viral?” I think that’s very important.
Tubefilter: You said you’ve always been really passionate about storytelling. Do you remember what originally sparked that? Was there something that inspired you?
Jenny Hoyos: Oh my gosh, growing up, I watched TV all day. All my favorite shows, I feel like, just inspired me. iCarly, like amazing. Drake & Josh, Victorious, Zoey 101. Those are big ones.
Tubefilter: That’s so funny. I’m like, what, almost 15 years older than you, and still those are the shows I grew up with.
Jenny Hoyos: [laughs] Yes, that was all I watched all day. SpongeBob is just funny. It’s insane. I will say that’s where it all started. Also my family, we’d be in the movie theater all day. We went almost every day. It was just, it was a big thing. I’m just so passionate about it, even to now. That’s what sparked it, but the more films I watch, the more inspired I get. The MCU, it’s actually Marvel that has the best storytelling. They’re still releasing movies, and that just continues to inspire me, for sure.
Tubefilter: Have you thought about getting into fictional content, getting into filmmaking?
Jenny Hoyos: I haven’t thought of making my own movies. There’s something about it that doesn’t intrigue me. I really like how intentional YouTube is. For example, for a movie, they can show you an irrelevant scene that doesn’t get paid off later. Versus on YouTube, you have to motivate that scene, or else the viewer’s going to click off, and then you have to pay it off later. I think YouTube’s actually harder. I think it’s much, in my opinion, I think it’s much more strategical. I think you have to think about human psychology a lot more because you have all these videos that these people can click on. It’s very intentional, but I would love to get into acting probably in the future, or more mainstream things for sure.
That’s another thing I did as a kid. I did musicals, too.
Tubefilter: Did you really?
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, when I was really young. I used to play chess as well as a kid too. That’s probably why I’m so analytical.
Tubefilter: Oh, chess too?
Jenny Hoyos: When I was 6 to 12, I was the best in Florida. I was a professional. My dad grew up with it, and then he got my brother into it, and then I got jealous that my brother was going to these chess tournaments.
Tubefilter: Classic.
Jenny Hoyos: I’m like, “Let me sign up for a tournament.” My first tournament, I barely knew how to play the game. I won third place, and it was a big tournament, too. Then they were like, “Oh, my gosh, she’s naturally good.” I think the craziest thing is I never studied. I never even tried. My rating is 1800 even though I never tried, which is pretty good.
Tubefilter: It is interesting too, I was thinking when I asked if you’d like to get into filmmaking, you have complete creative control on YouTube.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, that’s a big part of it. You get to be yourself and I feel like it just seems more fun. I feel like that’s the whole point of it, even though I’m so analytical. That’s why I say it has to be a story I want to tell. That’s what I try to think of. That’s my whole branding. I’m like, “This has got to be fun. How can we make this fun?” You’ve got to do fun things. Otherwise, what’s the point?
Tubefilter: That’s really good to hear. There are some creators who try to take this analytical approach and make content that is intended to go viral. Then they lose their own passion for it because they’re not putting any of themselves into the videos. It’s just like, “Oh, it’s going to get 100 million views.” That’s it.
Jenny Hoyos: Exactly.
Tubefilter: Is it the storytelling? That’s how you make sure that you’re staying passionate and you’re having fun with it?
Jenny Hoyos: Honestly, it’s everything. I try to have fun in every process. This is even a light part of it, but I think it sounds little, but I think it’s a big part of it, is having a team makes it so much fun. We’ll just get on calls and then it doesn’t even have to be related to anything work. I even read this, they did some psychology study, and this is supposed to be legit. Just messing around with coworkers for even a couple of minutes, then you get into the productive talk, makes you guys so much more productive, and it makes the teamwork so much better. It’s also more fun that way. I just don’t take anything seriously at all. I don’t know. I think keeping at a child brain is key.
Tubefilter: As a creator, what’s been your favorite thing that’s happened or experience you’ve had over the past couple of years?
Jenny Hoyos: I’d say the best experience is meeting fans. It’s so wholesome. I feel like it’s weird. It’s a weird dynamic because I’m really scared and then they’re really scared. I’m like, “Who is more scared?” [laughs] It’s so funny and it’s so cool. My favorite experience was I went to the Hard Rock, which is a casino, because my mom and my aunt wanted to go, and I was just tagging along. I can’t do anything because I’m 18. I was like, “I’m not even going to meet anyone here.” I was just chilling. Then there were 10 kids surrounding me, and they were asking me questions, and next thing you know is it was an hour of them just asking me questions. That was like the best experience I ever had. I swear it felt like five minutes but it was actually an hour.
Tubefilter: The fact that you’re nervous meeting fans is–look, it’s not funny, but it is funny. Everyone’s nervous.
Jenny Hoyos: Of course I’m nervous, because I’m thinking like, “I want to give them a good experience. I don’t want to let them down.” You know what I mean? It’s like I’m thinking, “How do I make their day?”
Tubefilter: That’s a lot to put on an 18-year-old. I’m not going to lie.
Jenny Hoyos: Yes, it’s tough, but then I guess the flip side is, too, because I get scared. I’m also thinking now, even if no one recognized me or if someone looks at me for a second, I’m like, “Oh, no, are they going to come up to me? Now I’ve got to make sure I don’t do something weird. I got to make sure I don’t–” You know what I mean?
Tubefilter: Yes. Do you mind having people come up to you?
Jenny Hoyos: No, I love it. What I’m saying is now I’m aware, because I used to go everywhere in pajamas. I was known for the person in pajamas. It was funny, because the flips changed when one of my friends texted me, he was like, “Jenny Hoyos, by the way, you can’t be going out in pajamas anymore now that you’re famous,” is what he said. I was like, “Oh, he’s kind of right. You can’t go out in pajamas.”
Tubefilter: We love those kinds of friends. Do you have any plans over the next year or so?
Jenny Hoyos: I have quite a few plans and goals. One of them being, one of my biggest goals for the longest time was to speak at VidSummit, and I’m doing that this month, so that is crazy.
Tubefilter: What’s your presentation about?
Jenny Hoyos: The shortcut to success on Shorts. As for my upcoming goals and plans, I’m just going to keep working on long-form and break out there. It’s very, very simple, yes. Then, oh, win a Streamy is a long-term goal. I just want to put that out there.
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