This 22-Year Old Built a 3.6 Million Following on YouTube
How best-dressed a.k.a Ashley did it
In a 2019 survey made by Harris Poll for Lego, it was found that the top career choice of children in both the U.S and UK is to be a blogger/YouTuber.
When it’s a well-known fact that big YouTubers earn a pretty penny doing what they love, who’s to blame them?
But the reality is, while the entrance to getting a slice of that billion dollar ad revenue on YouTube is free, the majority of those who start eventually get frustrated before giving up and going back to their old reality.
So what does it take to successfully build your own empire on an established platform like YouTube?
If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results. — Tony Robbins
With the views of her most popular videos ranging from 1 million to 13 million, not to mention an interview with Forbes, let’s take a look at what we can learn from YouTube star Bestdressed A.K.A Ashley.
She Didn’t Let Common Excuses Stop Her
Just like in any new endeavor, it’s easy to start, but very few follow through until the end. Or some never start because of the following reasons:
1. “I’m too busy and just don’t have enough time.”
When Ashley started her YouTube channel, she was in high school juggling 5 jobs and handling college applications. Upon entering college she continued to do YouTube — squeezing in filming whenever possible, as she finished college in 2.5 years.
The timing will never be perfect for the opportunities that could change our life. We can always find or make time for the things that we choose to prioritize.
“You either have results or make excuses, but you cannot have both.”
Bestdressed’s #1 piece of advice for those wanting a career in social media is to start now. She highlights that that’s the beauty of having the internet at our fingertips.
“Nothing is stopping you from creating content even from the shittiest camera.” — Bestdressed
2. “I don’t have the perfect camera, lighting and etc… to start.”
Ashley didn’t start out with all the fanciest gadgets.
In fact, for her first 3 years on YouTube she used a Canon G7 x Mark II — a camera you can get on eBay used for under $300. She did invest in a great mic, but there are plenty of affordable options under $50 if you don’t have the budget for one.
A camera and good mic coupled with creativity and hard work were enough to get her to her first 100k subscribers and quit her job where she used to work until 3am.
3. The thought: it’s “too late” to start on YouTube
Bestdressed also feared that when she started out in 2015 that no one would watch her when there were already other big names on the platform. She still decided to put out content anyway and the rest was history.
“It always seems like when you want to start, you’re too late to get into it. But then, people 5 years from now will look back and be like, ‘Oh no, if only I started a YouTube channel in 2020, now it’s too late.’” — Bestdressed
Didn’t expect to Get Rich overnight
Anyone who looks at BestDressed’s channel knows that she’s making a ‘comfortable’ living, to say the least.
But while some people may conclude that YouTubers make so much money effortlessly, what we see today is the tip of the iceberg. The fact is it took BestDressed two and a half years before earning any money at all!
Building a strong profitable stream of income online requires an upfront investment of time and effort to set up a foundation.
“This industry is about patience and endurance. A lot of people think that they can get into social media and it’s going to be this overnight success. They’re gonna be millionaires in like a fucking day. And the truth is that I had been doing this for nearly 5 years at this point.”
— Bestdressed
What most people don’t realize is that in creating a following online, means to venture away from the safety and stability of employment. It is entering into the world of entrepreneurship where there are no guarantees.
If you want a new lifestyle where you have more freedom and no boss, you need to accept all that comes with this new reality you’re trying to create. You can’t expect only the good of a new lifestyle without also accepting the entire reality that comes with it.
Ashley shows the possibility of working hard now and tasting the fruits of your labor later.
The ability to Look at Her Work From an Outsider’s Point of View
When new creators make something, it can feel like their ‘beloved creation’.
But when you’re too emotionally invested into something it can be hard to critique it for what it is — which may not be that great. Creating that necessary separation is critical to determine if it provides enough value to the viewer or if it’s too selfish.
This ability of learning to create for an audience versus only creating for yourself, is a skill Bestdressed learned to cultivate. Though fashion is her passion, she balances this love for the topic by putting herself in her audience’s shoes asking,
“What is something I would enjoy watching?”
A question different from “What do I want to create?”
As YouTuber Adam Bell has pointed out, if we look at her top 8 videos, they don’t solely revolve around herself. Instead, they are informative and provide a lot of value for the viewer.
She Let Her Real Personality Shine
One of the traits that draws many subscribers towards Bestdressed is her personality. Often Ashley is described by her fans as funny, honest, and relatable. While she’s clearly comfortable showcasing who she is now, it wasn’t always easy.
In her interview with Forbes, Ashley shared that she felt the pressure to be like the YouTubers she grew up watching. Creators who had the persona of being ‘bubbly and smiling’.
She later on learned that what really made her audience begin to connect with her, was when she started sharing her authentic self. Her connection with her fans only deepened when she began opening up about her struggles, giving fans a feeling of closeness similar to relating to a friend.
Kept a Strict Schedule
When you’re aspiring to create something valuable, many fall into the trap of ‘forever perfecting’ their work. Which results in them either never getting anything done or taking too much time working on something.
Ashley owns the fact that she’s a try-hard, but knew the importance of regularly putting out content. She kept a strict weekly uploading schedule for years.
“I also use this same strategy to fight perfectionism, which can sabotage you from sharing your content with the world.” — Bestdressed, Forbes 2020 Interview
She Wasn’t Afraid to Take Huge Risks
When a creator finally finds what ‘works’ for their channel, they can fall into the trap of their work becoming a never ending rehash of the same content over and over again.
But Ashley, holding the value of creative freedom over money, had it in her blood to take risks. Risks she knew would take a lot of time to create, with no guarantee of succeeding unlike all her other ‘tried and proven’ content. But these risks paid off enormously to say the least.
“Some of the big videos I have planned honestly are things I’ve never seen on YouTube before, so they could perform well or completely flop. But I know either way I’m excited to make them, and that’s what matters most. You have to build something you love, then the audience will come eventually. It doesn’t work the other way around.”
High risk, high reward as the saying goes. Fortune favors the bold who dare to blaze a new trail.
She Believed in Overdelivering
There are creators who only put in ‘just enough’ effort for a video they hope will succeed. They do this fearing that their time might get “wasted” if they try too hard on something that may not bring a return. In building her following, Bestdressed did the opposite.
She didn’t go for the overblown title strategy that could easily get more clicks by creating a high expectation among viewers. A strategy that often fails and turns away viewers when the creator does not put the effort to meet those expectations. Instead she followed the principle of “reverse-click baiting.”
This is a principal where she would overdeliver in the value of each video. A strategy that built a trust among viewers that when it comes to her videos, they can always expect something really good.
She’s Constantly Striving to Improve and Learn
One of her most admirable traits is her attitude of constantly seeking out ways to improve her craft.
She’s learned to consume media with a critical eye, asking herself why certain content is more well-received than others.
With the size of her current audience, Ashley could choose to get lazy or literally drop off YouTube only to collect a paycheck. But she chooses not to. She finds happiness in continuously getting better at what she does and it shows.
In a 2019 interview when asked how it felt to hit 1 million subscribers and if she had a message for her fans she said,
“I cannot express my gratitude for everyone who watches me and the life they’ve given me, but at the end of the day, it’s not my job to get caught up in the numbers or rave about how much I love my fans or even hype myself up in articles like this one. It’s about making a damn good video and doing it even better the next week.”
Bottom Line
Often when people dream of creating an online following of millions, they underestimate the sheer amount of dedication it takes to make that dream happen.
Success truly doesn’t happen overnight. What we see today on big channels like Bestdressed is the snowball effect of years of work invested into her channel.
Bestdressed is a shining example of the type of person that succeeds in such a competitive field like YouTube. Her success shows what’s possible if you’re willing to put in the hard work, the right attitude, and the patience of playing the long game. She deserves all the success she has today and will only get even bigger.