Meet Reyes The Entrepreneur: a YouTuber based in California who is best known for documenting his entrepreneurial endeavors. Reyes started his YouTube channel in 2010 as a hobby and since then has grown it to 348,000 unique subscribers. Reyes’ channel has amassed over 23,000,000 channel views through his intriguing Entrepreneurship videos. His most popular video to date is “How Much YouTube Paid Me for a 1 Million Viewed Video.” This video is nearing 3 million views and typifies the main reason he has a such a strong and dedicated following: his honesty. Many entrepreneurs with large social media followings try to sell “being an entrepreneur” as an easy process when it’s far from easy. Reyes is known for showing all the raw up’s and downs of his entrepreneurship journey with refreshing transparency.
When interviewing Reyes we asked him several questions and these were his responses:
You are very open with your audience about how you were homeless at one point. Can you expand on this?
I wanted to show people that no matter your situation, you can succeed with a plan and taking action. But instead of telling people or giving advice, I wanted to show them it’s possible by actually doing it, documenting it, and showing people real results. I saw it as an opportunity to really test myself to see if I could survive and actually achieve my goals but most importantly this was my first attempt at really finding out who I was and what I wanted to do with my life because before this, I was lost in the world.
Have you been an entrepreneur your entire life?
As far as I could remember, I always wanted to find ways of making money to help my mom, who was raising us all by herself. My freshman year (2004) was when I tried for the first time, selling chocolates at school. I failed miserably. I didn’t try again until my senior year (2008) of high school with custom shirts. And ever since then I kept trying different things until 2012, I got my first taste of any success with my eBay business. I did that for about a year and a half full time until I got banned for copyright infringement. Then I really had to take a step back and ask myself what I was doing wrong. Concluded that I don’t know anything about business so instead of going back to school for business or finding a mentor, I just read as many business books as I could. In 2014, I picked up my shirt equipment again, and with my new knowledge, I was able to do shirts full time 6 months after I started but only did that for another 6 months (1 year total) until I decided I wanted to make YouTube into my new business. From 2015-2017 I was doing YouTube but working odd jobs to support myself and my family until finally one video went semi-viral and 3 months after that video got a lot of views and I got a lot more subscribers, I was able to quit my day job and have been doing YouTube full time ever since.
How did the idea for your channel come about?
Just like any business, ideas and plans change and evolve. I actually started by doing stand up comedy (2010), then I changed it to showing people how to save money, then I decided to show people how to get jobs. I didn’t get a lot of views and I only had like 20 subscribers but I saw it as a hobby. Until I decided to take a real shot at YouTube in 2015. I honestly didn’t know exactly what I wanted to make videos about but all I knew was I wanted to help people and show them achieving your goals is possible.
That’s when I decided to be homeless and document the struggle. I swear if I could have bet money on this new journey, I would have bet everything I had because I knew this homeless series was going to bring me all my success. This series was going to blow me up…Glad I didn’t bet because it didn’t. I only got a few views. But one thing I did realize was that even though the series was a bust, I actually liked making video and even if one person sees my videos and it helps them get through the struggle, I’m happy with that.
For 2 years I was making content about making money: picking up cans, selling chocolate bars, selling drinks at the fields (that was my current job), I didn’t get my first piece of YouTube success until I started making shirt content. It took me from about 3,000-4,000 subscribers to 20,000-30,000 subscribers. That’s when I was able to do YouTube full time and I was growing. Then I hit a plateau and decided to try new content and out of all the new things I tried, vending machines gave me my second jump taking me to over 200k in a few months. Now that the vending machine content has dried up, I’m trying new things now to get me my next jump but as you can tell, it’s all about trying new things, evolving, and persistence.
Aside from your YouTube channel what businesses do you currently own and operate?
Besides YouTube, I’m affiliate partners with 2 companies. I promote their products and I make a commission. Honestly, I have chosen to stick with YouTube because 1) I enjoy it and 2) it has a lot of potential to grow. Last month (May 2020) I Made about $12,000 from YouTube Ad Revenue, my 2 affiliate partners, and selling merchandise. This month I’m on track to hit $15,000 because I’m working with 2 new companies to make sponsored content. One thing I learned in business is to focus on what’s making you the most money and put most of your energy on that. Out of all my businesses, YouTube has been the most lucrative and that is why I stopped starting new businesses (unless it’s for content) Plus I do everything myself (besides using freelancing video editors) so I can’t spread myself too thin but as I’m building my team, I’ll start looking for new opportunities.
What is your favorite aspect of being an entrepreneur?
The Freedom. I love not having a boss. Love dressing how I want. I love not having to deal with negative co-workers. The second thing I love is not having a cap on how much money I can make, no hourly wage, no salary. I’ll be honest, it’s a little risky being your own boss because you never know if tomorrow YouTube will go away or I could even lose my channel overnight (highly unlikely since I play by the rules but you never know) but if you chose to become an entrepreneur, risky is just part of the job.
What has been your most satisfying moment in business?
My most satisfying moments in business have to be when I could officially quit my day job to do my business full time. I’ve been able to turn 3 businesses into my full-time income: eBay, custom shirts, and YouTube. Nothing feels better than to say I have full control of my time, my finances, and my family is happy. I put a lot of time and energy into my business but so I can make time for the important things. Never have I missed a birthday, a holiday, a special event and that’s why I chose to pursue entrepreneurship because I feel no other job can give me that freedom.
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