Creator CEOs: How Yolo Aventuras built a family business off YouTube
Jul 06, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
The sound of summer reminds us of time well spent with kids out of school — so in our latest Creator CEOs series, we talked to family-run Yolo Aventuras to learn how they’re using their YouTube platforms to build their own brands. Content creation is now a launchpad enabling creators to expand their creativity into brand building and build something bigger to connect with their community, make money and have an impact that ripples through the broader society. In the case of our next creator feature, they're using their platform to showcase art from a place of cultural significance.
Meet Yolo, creator of Yolo Aventuras, who alongside his family and friends has created a business that keeps growing more and more everyday.
In a few sentences, tell us about what your business is about?
Yolo Digital Productions is a family of influencers, editors, producers and three dogs. We create social media content at scale while helping brands spread their messages to their desired audiences and we also have fun in the process.
What are some of your proudest moments in your YouTube career?
It has been a long road, during which I had the chance to know thousands of wonderful people, change the lives of my family for the better, travel all around the world doing what I love and I was really close to meeting my hero, Leo Messi, at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
We grow the business every year, but I would say those are the real goals I’m trying to accomplish.
The greatest challenge has always been adapting to the changing trends and trying to ride on the social media waves ... As my brother Nando says, you have to "let it flow" until you identify a new trend to lean on to it.”
Yolo Aventuras started in 2018. During this time, what are some of the challenges you have faced when creating your business?
Leaving my hometown and my country was certainly a great challenge. Starting a new life in a different country kind of scared me a little bit, although I knew this was something I had to do.
But the greatest challenge has always been adapting to the changing trends and trying to ride on the social media waves. Every business lives in a changing environment, but when you mix that up with the volatility of social media, you have a real challenge at hand. As my brother Nando says, you have to "let it flow", until you identify a new trend to lean on to it.
From reality shows to music and books, how have you used your YouTube audience to inform the direction of your business?
My YouTube Subscribers are the first ones to know the next thing I'm coming up with. We usually create videos to entertain but we sometimes use them to announce important events we are developing. Some time ago, we shared an exclusive video talking about the INCONDICIONAL TOUR: Yolo Aventuras Musical Tour.
We let our audience know all the information through video and then, through links in the comment section, helped them acquire the tickets. We also created YouTube Shorts, to spread our message even more, and drive traffic using pinned comments.
Could you share an example of how you have used YouTube tools to grow your business?
We have written two books. Every time we launch a new one, we try to make a couple of long format videos and YouTube Shorts to advertise the event. The quantity of pieces of content is variable, but we usually use the book as a resource to create a better video.
Once we used a random internet product to bust the myth that you couldn’t read the book without looking at it. It was fun to film, it showed the book in a cute way and we made it part of the content.
We had also used the book to play the game of "Would you rather...". I think we try to adapt our content to the business needs and it has worked really well so far.
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What has inspired you to create music and write books?
I have tried to create content that resonates with people's hearts, that touches their emotions. Through music I’ve had the opportunity to experience a form of art that goes beyond videos, it’s something that lives inside you, that you can carry around and stays with you when need it the most.
With books, I actually never thought I could write one of those, but with the other three adventurers, we could create stories that go beyond our imagination. We could create books with AR and adventures that I would like to live myself. This is something I really enjoyed doing.
What's next for Yolo? Would you plan to expand your business or move into a new area?
That’s a good question. I know there’s going to be a time where I will be behind the camera. I believe I have a good understanding of how social media work and how people behave when they consume content. So, I don't intend to leave this business, but I do think I will be doing more managing instead of pressing 100 mystery buttons to escape an indestructible box.