Road to 1 million subscribers with Marie Stella
Feb 14, 2023 – [[read-time]] minute read
Canadian creator Marie Stella is a viral comedic sensation best known for recreating classic pop culture tropes like inspirational Christmas movie trailers and gossip girl characters. She opened her channel during the pandemic post-breakup. “I needed to get myself back,” she says.
“From there, one video led to another. Soon enough, I found so much passion in video making and continued to learn and explore the world of content creation.”
With the explosion of short form content, Marie garnered 1.48M subscribers on her channel in just eight months. But things obviously didn’t happen overnight, so we looked to Marie to tell us how she got past the one million mark.
Remember to connect with your audience
Marie takes feedback directly from her audience, and looks to the comments to engage. “I love seeing my audience take part of this universe of fictional celebs and actors and playing along in the comments,” she says. “It brings me the biggest smile to see a viewer quote a line from my video or simply engage with my content. I try to respond to my community as best as I can. I want them to know that their kind comments honestly make my day and keep me going!”
Numbers aren’t everything
While chasing after view counts, subscribers and watch time are legitimate goals, Marie says gaining those views is ultimately not her end game. “I used to focus so much on gaining views, an audience, etc. Overtime, I’ve learned that maintaining is as important, if not more, than gaining,” she says. “One day, I decided to put my focus on YT shorts and posted every single day without looking at the numbers. Those videos eventually took off and today, they sit between 10M and 58M views.”
Use humor to your advantage
YouTube fans love content that feel relatable, especially in situations that would otherwise feel sad or discouraging. Shorts has become Marie’s creative outlet, and using humor to her advantage helps her audience empathize and understand her content better.
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“Comedy and laughter has helped get out of my darkest days and continues to uplift me today. Let’s be honest, the burdens of life are heavy enough!” she shares. “I laugh at the same things I used to cry so much about, not because I repress my feelings but because I’ve done a lot of personal work to shift my perspective to positive. I’ve learned that some things aren’t worth my tears and could use a little humor to overcome and move on instead.”