TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

From ER Nurse To YouTube Creator

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We sit down with BriannaPlayz to trace her leap from emergency room nursing to building multiple YouTube channels and a massive, family-friendly audience. We dig into how she uses analytics, team systems, and a healthier mindset to grow without letting views define her. 
• leaving a stable nursing career after finding a clear sense of purpose 
• building multiple channels with calendars, batching, and a real production pipeline 
• using YouTube Studio analytics to guide pivots without killing creativity 
• separating self-worth from performance and treating thumbnails and topics as variables 
• balancing gaming, IRL shoots, and reactions with different stakes and workflows 
• staying family friendly for a young audience and handling public scrutiny 
• deciding when Shorts, live streaming, and long form fit your goals 
• adapting editing and pacing for the rise of TV viewing and longer watch sessions 
Hit that subscribe button. Drop a comment. Let us know. Is that something that she should do? 


Cold Open: Worth Beyond Views

SPEAKER_02

I was an emergency room nurse, actually. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears and years went into it. Something just like a light turned on in in my spirit. Your content performance is not a reflection of you as a human. It could literally be change your thumbnail. Don't put that on you, because that's a heavy burden to carry. When I was an ER nurse, my paycheck or whatever, it's the same. YouTube is always like this.

Meet Brianna And Her Channels

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the OnlyPodcast is not afraid to mine some crafts. I'm Travis here, and today we have an incredibly special guest. Brianna Plays with over 6 million subscribers, 2 billion views, and six years of experience here on YouTube. We got a lot to talk about, Brianna. Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you so much. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00

So excited to have you. And if you're new here, we do this every week. Uh interview people. We talk about YouTube. We have a great time. So feel here for you to hit that subscribe button. If you're listening to the audio-only podcast, there will be links in the description with everything you need to know. So without any further ado, tell us who are you for the people who don't know and what is your content?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Hi. So I'm Brianna. I have a couple channels on YouTube. I have the Brianna channel, which is more my IRL real life vlog challenge type videos. I have Brianna Plays, which goes everything from Minecraft, Roblox, variety games. I now have a reaction channel. And I've been doing it, yeah, six or so years, which is crazy to say. It's flown by, honestly.

SPEAKER_00

It goes so fast. Um, let's talk a little bit about your content creation journey. Let's start all the way back at the beginning. Before you were doing YouTube, what were you doing uh as a job and like uh what was your life like?

SPEAKER_02

Wow. So uh so different from what it is now. I was an emergency room nurse, actually. Um, yeah, I worked in the hospital for about two and a half years. So blessed that I had that experience. It really taught me, you know, like the type A, like you gotta have a calendar. A lot of us content creators don't have one of those. Um so it taught me a lot of skills that I've actually been able to apply to YouTube. Um, so I did nursing, then I met my husband Preston, and he's been doing YouTube now for like 16 or something. Forever.

SPEAKER_01

Since the beginning.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Yes. And he was like, Bree, you grew up in theater. I'd love to have you in videos on my channels and see what you think. So I started to do videos with him. He saw how much I loved it and he was just really encouraging me. He was like being a cheerleader, like Bri, you're really good at this. I feel like you should you should think about doing this yourself. Um I prayed about it, I thought about it a lot because I wanted to like go into it just because I wanted to do it, not because my husband told me to, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Uh, and so here I am. This is where the I had a big passion, and I just jumped and went for it.

SPEAKER_00

So, what were the the first of all, the very first video that you did with Preston, what was that like? What was your were you nervous? Like, what do you remember anything about that experience?

SPEAKER_02

First of all, I had a really bad spray tan. So I remember that. I looked normal, I thought, in person, and then you look different on camera sometimes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I was definitely nervous because growing up in theater, you know, you're used to saying verbatim lines that you're given on a paper, whereas what we do is very much improv heavy. Um, and it was just a QA. So it was simple, it was way more toned down than a lot of the videos that we see and do now. Um, but I was definitely nervous and excited. It was like a calm.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So what made you want to leave nursing to do this? Because it's it's two different things. Like one, you're really helping people in kind of really extreme circumstances, which I also would imagine is highly stressful. Yes. Um, but really making a difference to doing YouTube, which can make a difference, but you know, a lot of content out there doesn't necessarily make a difference. So, what what were the thoughts that went through your mind when you went from one uh very, very, very important job to YouTube, which can be important, but I mean, listen, it's emergency nurse. I mean, that's kind of important.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, fair question. Um, I had to think about it a lot because you work hard to get that nursing degree. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears and years went into it. Um, but truly, I just had something just like a light turned on in in my spirit, and I was so excited. And I thought to myself, you know, I feel like overall my audience leans younger, and I had this rebellious, you know, devil on my shoulder for a minute, like, man, I want to be cool. Like, I want to have like these older kids watch me. But no, like, what if my purpose is to bring light and laughter and love to a younger generation? So honestly, that motivated me a lot to go from nursing where you're so hands-on, you're you're really like you're saying, you're touching people's lives, it's so important. But this platform has allowed me to get to know and talk to and bring joy to so many people that it's pretty, pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00

How long were you doing stuff on Preston's channel before you decided to do your own channel or before you were convinced to do your own channel?

SPEAKER_02

You know, I would say it was like six months or eight months before he was like, you really should start considering this if you'd like to do it. Um, and then we had a very tiny team at that point, and we just kind of slowly I started only with video game content at first. That's all I did. And it's funny because I didn't grow up playing games at all, so that was kind of like part of my shtick, I guess you could say, because I was just terrible.

SPEAKER_00

But was it something that you enjoyed, or was it just because it made I mean, he knows how to play games, like this this is Preston plays, like he knows all the things. Or was it that you were able to lean on his expertise a little bit e better because he's so good at it? Or did you like games and you just hadn't done it a lot growing up?

SPEAKER_02

Grew up playing Sims, so I played some Sims uh at the beginning when I started YouTube. It also was more like an easier, not exact copy paste, but to say like we had the setup, the software, everything we needed already there to go. So it was more plug and play that way. Because of course I was leaning a ton on his expertise at the beginning. Um there's so much to learn when you first start your YouTube journey.

The Real Work Behind Uploads

SPEAKER_00

What kind of things did you go into YouTube thinking and now you know completely different?

SPEAKER_02

Ooh, wait, that's a good question.

SPEAKER_00

Because I think there's an expectation when you first go on. Now, of course, you you had the benefit of Preston, right? Of course, helping you learn things that maybe the the creator who might start today wouldn't know, and all these things. But you yourself as a creator have definitely learned things over the years. And I assume going into it, you thought, oh, this is going to be either easy or things probably work this way. And then when you get into it, it's like, oh wow, none of this works the way I thought it did.

SPEAKER_02

There's so much behind the scenes that happens that viewers, you you don't see, oh my gosh, like my mic cut at this point. So I have a beautiful editor who had to like figure all of that out for me. The um we try to stay like at least a couple weeks ahead on creative ideation. So, like, what videos are coming up? What vendors do you need for that? Like, there's a checklist of so many pieces, and I feel really blessed that we have a wonderful team that assists us with a lot of these things. Um, but I definitely didn't realize how much went into a video. I thought, oh, you just sit down, play a game, you're done. It's not that easy.

SPEAKER_00

I would say it's not that at all. No. Some ways. Yeah. Um, you have multiple channels. How are you juggling that and having a family? Like, how is that a thing?

SPEAKER_02

Calendaring. I mean, I follow a pretty good calendar. So, like, some days are dedicated towards like meetings and gaming. Then I have my reaction days, my short form content days, and then like two long form days. No week is the same. I think it's just knowing the give and take and like knowing how like what my capacity is to how does this affect um your like a relationship?

SPEAKER_00

Not to get too saucy or anything, but like, I mean, you're both in the same field, which sometimes is a great thing for a marriage, right? And then sometimes it can be kind of challenging. Uh, you're not on the same channel necessarily, but doing the same thing. Is it helpful? Does it uh does it make it harder to conversate or does it make it easier to conversate because it's something that's so unique?

SPEAKER_02

I actually can completely answer this knowing it's so much nicer. Because when we first met, I wasn't doing YouTube. So when Preston would come home and we'd be talking about stuff, I was so confused. Like, what is CTR? What is this like random thumbnail? What's a thumbnail? I I didn't know any of that. And so I feel we're I I'm a believer in iron sharpens iron. So like if he has this wisdom of like this thing he just learned from a video, like we can totally bond over that. Or I don't know. There's so many things that I can relate to now that I couldn't before.

SPEAKER_00

What do you think um is the reason that your channel has done so well from the perspective of the type of content you create? Because it's not like you just play Minecraft, you don't. You play multiple games. Of course, Minecraft is one of them, but you play multiple types of games, and and the way in which you you produce the content is slightly different each time. What what made what brought you to that point and uh and what do you think is connecting with your audience specifically?

Analytics, Trends, And Creative Balance

SPEAKER_02

I feel like metrics within YouTube Studio gives you a lot of answers. So I would say, especially recently, I've done some pivoting and really use my data to listen to my audience.

SPEAKER_00

So interesting.

SPEAKER_02

You have to enjoy the kind of videos you're making, or you're gonna have a really short shelf life. You're gonna get burnt out, you're not gonna love it. But on my IRL channel, like my long form videos, I love animals. Like it's always been one of the biggest passions in my life is being around animals. And so I've started to post more animal-involved content, and the views are higher, people are watching for longer, the they have a higher engagement rate. So I'm like, well, I want to give viewers what they're they're liking. So and trends change. Something could be like going up, and then, oh, well, squid, for example, squid games was so hot, like you gotta film it. But then when it's like less popular, you have to pivot and find a new thing. So I guess always listening to the data and and the trends.

SPEAKER_00

Are you in the analytics very often or just every so often?

SPEAKER_02

I would say pretty often with that with every video. I like to I don't want to go too data driven, like to the point that I lose some of my creative freedom because I've been in that rut before.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

But I I do like to be in touch with each video.

SPEAKER_00

You spend uh about how much time per long form video, like shooting and stuff. Uh for a particular video, like how many hours would you say that you send shooting and then maybe helping the editors and like how much of your time is invested in each video?

SPEAKER_02

So I I'm always a part of the ideation process. So I help I have a team that also assists. It's not just me, but like help come up with ideas. Uh we sit in writers' rooms together, so we kind of say, Oh, here's the bones of what the video should look like. And then we'll shoot typically from like, I don't know, maybe eight hours, and then it'll go out that weekend or the weekend after. So it's a pretty quick turnaround.

SPEAKER_00

With but that's still a lot of time. Do you ever feel so connected to a video that its success or failure directly affects your emotional well-being?

Detaching Self-Worth From Performance

SPEAKER_02

Gotten better about it. Um, but at the beginning, yeah. Like it to a bit of an unhealthy place. I would say, especially to newer creators, that's really, really, really, really important is to separate yourself a little bit because your content performance is not a reflection of you as a human. Like it can feel so personal. I think, especially coming from a theater background as a performer, it's like you're putting yourself out there, you know? So it feels personal, but no, it could literally be change your thumbnail. People aren't clicking because they don't, they don't like your thumbnail. Or it's literally, oh, tree houses aren't of interest to your viewers. It could be that simple. So don't put that on just you, because that's a heavy burden to carry.

SPEAKER_00

What was the realization that made you kind of look at it that way? It's very, I think the way you're explaining it is very healthy. Um, but as a content creator, especially if you're a one-person team, everything falls upon yourself. And you know, you put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears in the video, and then it doesn't perform, and you just feel like it is an assault on yourself, exactly like you explained. But the way you explained how not to take it personally is something that takes time. How did you come to that conclusion?

SPEAKER_02

I actually had a couple really rough months of uploads, just to be totally vulnerable and honest. Um I was uh I was pretty down. I was like, man, am I supposed to pivot totally like what I'm doing? But no, I feel like I'm I'm in the right spot. Uh so I started just taking the losses, I I say losses as like a bad video performance and just dissecting why are people not clicking to the best of your ability? Like what correlations can you find? Like, why are people clicking off at certain points of your videos? But I almost felt like I had to have a couple bad months to be like, okay, my identity is not solely my channel. Like I'm Brie and I do YouTube, and that's awesome. But yeah, they have to have some separation.

SPEAKER_00

What did you find was the thing that uh then kind of turned it around after you had those bad months? What were some of the realizations you came to?

SPEAKER_02

That's a good question. I almost I just feel like it slowly happened over time. I don't have like a I don't have a direct answer to that, to be honest. I also think to be frank, just being a little older, because I started six plus years ago. So it's just the repetition you get used to. When I was an ER nurse, my my paycheck or whatever, it's the same. It's not a roller coaster, no matter how good or bad your shift is. YouTube is always like this. Yeah, it is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, you have to decouple your emotional well-being to that because exactly that. Like there's times of the year where no matter what you put out, it is going to kind of suffer because it's off season for certain things. So that's definitely important. Um, looking at some of the I assume that you watched YouTube uh just in some of your free time, right? Every once in a while. Oh, yeah. Some people are too busy too, but okay. Um, what are you seeing out there that like smaller creators are doing that kind of excites you or maybe even inspires you?

Fresh Perspectives And Trusting Your Gut

SPEAKER_02

They have a fresh perspective. And I used to have that, and I'm trying to get my edge back. There's something once you get in just like the day-to-day, like I've been doing this for years, I feel like I'm always looking at data. Oh, this is trending, that's trending. But we need those fresh perspectives. I have a specific video I filmed when I first started. I remember Preston and the team at the time, they're like, we don't have time to film that for you. Like, I that's not a good idea. No. I don't know. I'm not a videographer, but for whatever reason I said, you know what? I'm gonna film this myself. I'm gonna go and do this, and it did great. So, like, I feel like when you first start out, you have these bright, shiny new eyes of ideas that maybe you're not seeing, you know, these huge names already do on YouTube because you have these cool creative insights. Trust your gut and try stuff people haven't seen before.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I love that. And and you're right, like the people who don't know don't know the things that don't work, so they're willing to try anything. And sometimes that works.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

And there's things that you can do on YouTube that um are really amazing. Some of the some of the realities of I always say, you never know who's watching your content. And that can be life-changing or game-changing for you. Um but of course, again, you're connected to Preston, who who definitely has has, I mean, he's he's kind of a trailblazer in a lot of ways. Yeah, what type of things have you learned specifically from him uh that you've been able to apply to your channel?

SPEAKER_02

He was the first one to come in and start to encourage me about like, hey, if a video doesn't do well, it's not a reflection on you. He really was such a helpful mentor with that. He also scaled our our company is called TB and R, the best never rest. Um, and he really wanted to scale and grow. And so I learned a ton from him and just seeing the business side because he's really entrepreneurial spirited. That is a really hard word for me to say.

SPEAKER_00

It is, it's it's multiple syllables and everything. You did a great job.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Um, so I love being a fly on the wall with some of those sorts of things just because they interest me. But I'm not like, I won't lie, I'm not like the biggest business gal. Like I find it interesting, but he's like always been super of that that mind. But honestly, he taught me at the beginning everything I knew. He was yeah, and and I never have had to edit a video. Don't come for me. I know that's not fair.

SPEAKER_00

Listen, it's nice. It must be nice.

SPEAKER_02

It is nice. I have tons of respect for people who have to learn that all on their own. Um, but there's so many resources out there now. Like, yeah, definitely network, meet people. I I feel like all the creators I've met have been so sweet, and we love to share insight on like ways to grow and get started.

SPEAKER_00

What

Gaming Versus IRL Production Stakes

SPEAKER_00

how much different uh and of a mindset do you have to have for in real life stuff versus your gameplay? Because it's not the same thing. It's I mean, you definitely need to be entertaining or or educational in some way, but it's different and really putting more of yourself out there and in real life. You can almost always blame the game if something doesn't go right, like ah, they just didn't like the game. But when it's like, it's me, either you like me or you don't.

SPEAKER_02

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00

Um, talk to us about that whole thing.

SPEAKER_02

Definitely a different mindset. Um, because gaming, a lot of the videos recently I've been filming are just solo me in my room by myself. Like I can say whatever wack-a-doodle thing. Hopefully, my editor will make me seem relatively funny, and then we move on. But yeah, the IRL videos, like, man, like you have an eight-hour day, there's like 20 people staring at you, and it feels like there's more stakes for some reason. But for some reason, that makes it even more exciting.

SPEAKER_00

Take us behind the scenes of like uh a new in real life you did recently. Like, and tell us, tell us like what it was like, like what were you producing and what was your your target going into? Like, what were you trying to accomplish? What happened, if things went wrong? I I want to hear about all of it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so I have a series or a format we've been doing recently called I adopted blank pets. So I I adopted movie pets in real life, for example. So for this one, I've got a big old sloth, Preston. He's got, what did he have? He had a big warthog from Lion King. And then our buddy Chase. He had, I'm trying to remember his movie. When you're filming with animals, things go awry. You just never know what's gonna happen. So, oh, he had a goat. We went to Walmart and he got kicked out of Walmart because he had a goat.

SPEAKER_00

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_02

My sloth was fine. People loved the sloth. Um, but yeah, like the behind the scenes is there's just so much prep work. There's so many, like we have our production team that's like, okay, are we on schedule? Is the vendor here? Are they coming in? And then my director's like telling us, here's the intro, the blocking. Like, there's so many pieces to it. I feel like gaming for me, this is just my own personal. I know everybody's journey is different. Gaming for me feels a bit more like I'm just gonna improv, we're gonna chill together. Like it feels a little less high stakes.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, again, because you're putting something else uh as the kind of the main hook of the of the video. Whereas uh in real life has to be kind of interesting just because of the things that you're experiencing. Reactions. So again, what what how did the reaction thing come about? Because that reactions are like in some ways what a lot of creators want to do because it's it's kind of easy and it's fun and it's different every time. And uh people like to watch that content because they want to know how other people react to a certain situation or thing. Uh how did that come to be and and how have you found that experience so far?

Building A Reaction Channel That Fits

SPEAKER_02

So my my husband Preston, he had a reaction channel. The the team overall came to a consensus they thought it would play to a lot of my strengths because on my gaming channel I was doing reaction content and it was doing well. So it kind of felt weird to have like, here's a Minecraft video, now I'm gonna react to something. So we kind of wanted to have its own little home on a new channel. It I don't know, I'm an only child, so I talk to myself a lot, and I feel like it just was natural. I just I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00

That's hilarious. What what is um something that you want to do content-wise, but haven't done yet?

Dream Shoots: Japan And Travel Formats

SPEAKER_02

Ooh, I want to film in Japan.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, I I love the Japanese culture. I actually uh interviewed uh a Japanese uh homeless vlogger, uh Nomad Push, a couple months ago. Fantastic stuff. I love watching his content because I love Japan. Tell me about what you would want to do there.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I've been twice now, and I just get so engrossed in how amazing it is that I'm like, oh, I don't want to work while I'm out here. But there's so many fun things you could do. Like the robot hotels, the vending machines are crazy. Like, even as simple as getting like ramen from a vending machine is really cool. Um, so I think utilizing some of their really unique locations intrigues me the most, especially hotels, theme parks, that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00

Do you think um your in-real life uh channel could uh be a little bit more travel oriented in that way? Maybe you can use that as an excuse?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I used to, and I want to bring this back actually. I had a series years prior where it was Preston trapped me, XYZ. So it would be in my greatest fear, a hundred feet in the air, a hundred feet underwater, blah, blah, blah. The whole series was me a lot of times traveling. So, like the the underwater one, I went to Mexico and was in a submarine underwater doing challenges. So I do feel like the the travel bit could definitely work if we did it in the right way. I miss that series too, because it was. I felt like hopefully empowering younger kids too to like overcome fears.

SPEAKER_00

Your audience

Family-Friendly Content And Public Scrutiny

SPEAKER_00

does skew younger, right? And that means that there are certain things you have to pay attention to. You also want to be like a good role model because of course you're going to have what's like the age group you mostly see uh uh either at places you meet people in person or or in your comment section.

SPEAKER_02

What age group would you say that is about especially gaming would skew younger than IRL. Overall, my range would be like say six to sixteen.

SPEAKER_00

Wow. So tell me what thoughts go through the content creation process, knowing that not just that you have to, you know, entertain them and stuff, and there's different attention spans for that, but also that there's like a real um a real I mean because you're doing things that your parent that the parents of these kids have to be okay with, right? Like you've you've got a responsibility to an age group. What do does any of that ever come to play when you're like coming up with these content uh strategies?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, yeah, in everything I do. I really, really am always putting being family friendly as a forefront of what I do. I want to be the content creator, say you have a single parent who's off to work, like you can hand your kiddo the iPad, and if I'm not gonna say anything controversial, I'm not gonna cuss, like not to devalue people who do that. I just I want to be like a safe place, no matter where you're from, no matter who you are. So, but that's kind of who I am naturally already as a human. So it's it's kind of just ingrained in what I already do. So I would say it makes it easier in that sense because I'm already doing it on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_00

Which is good. I think it the the the follow-up question to this is um because Preston's the same situation, right? Like he has a very large uh following of younger uh kids and stuff, and that means that not even just in your content. I mean, I think it's kind of easy to do it in your content because you can have an editor edit something out if you mess up or whatever, you get upset and you go rah-rong get edited out, right? Um, but like in everyday life, like there are constantly people looking for the downfall of like the you know, the preciously nice channel, wholesome channel. Oh, now I can make a documentary about it and make get like a million views. And I'll just like these takedown channels that are on YouTube. Um does that ever do you guys ever worry about that at all? I mean, obviously you'd have to be doing something scandalous or crazy, but uh by the same token, like there's got to be tons of eyes on you, like no matter what you do. Like you can't go out in public and get into a fight necessarily. Like, even if you're you're married, right? Like it's gonna happen. You're gonna be upset with you don't even want to do that. Like, tell me about that whole thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, you definitely have to be aware of, you know, if you're at a restaurant, the the closest to anything I've ever felt was Preston and I were talking about moving, and I was drinking wine and a kid came up to me. I'm 32. Um, so I'm Oh, listen, stop.

SPEAKER_00

That's a perfect age. I don't want to hear it. I don't even want to hear it, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

I am allowed to drink wine. I'm you know, but it still felt weird to have like a kid come up to me. So like that sometimes is like I I always want to have my mind and my wits about me. Yeah, but yeah, like I also just try to be overly aware because you could always twist someone's words to make it sound not what you're intending to sound like. So I don't know. I just try to be overly precautious as best as possible.

SPEAKER_00

So is that when you go out like to I don't know, grocery shop or whatever, like if you just go out to for everyday life, um are do people come up and kind of see you is that a regular occurrence during the course of your day, or is it like every so often?

SPEAKER_02

I would say fairly regular.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so then you do, like literally. It's is it somewhat tiresome to leave the house then? They'll always be like, all right, I gotta be on my guard a little bit. Someone, everyone has got cameras and phones now, so I gotta be uh on my guard.

SPEAKER_02

No, not too bad. I feel like it depends also on where you're going. Like a grocery store, it'd be not too bad. Like the craziest was me and Preston did something at Disney World once, and that you have so many prime viewers, which of course at the end of the day, it's just a blessing. Like the chance that somebody actually knows who I am is wild to me still. So that's kind of the mindset that I still have in my mind that it doesn't seem real.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and obviously Preston was the person who kind of got you to do this stuff in the first place. How does he see um from what he tells you anyway? How does he see your progress from when you started to where you are now?

SPEAKER_02

I know he he acts like he's very proud of me. He's like, one day you're gonna have even more subscribers than me, which is crazy. That's silly. Um, but it's cool because when I first started, I was so I don't want to say dependent. I was not dependent on him, but I, you know, was constantly like, hey, what should I do? And now that I've become a lot more independent, I think it's cool because I'm now also able to give him insight, which is such a new, like it didn't start like that at all. Yeah. So that's that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00

Well, you have the female perspective on content creation, which is really very valuable, especially in this space, because uh, from a gaming perspective, it's mostly male-dominated. I'm not gonna it is what it is, right? I'm not making that up, but you've done very well for yourself. Why do you think that is? Because there are a lot of female gamers out there that are trying, not all of them are succeeding. Yeah, uh, but you have. Why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_02

I didn't pretend I'm somebody I'm not. I think that was really important at the beginning, as I mentioned. I didn't grow up playing like any competitive type games. So I didn't start a YouTube channel saying, like, I'm coming in and I'm gonna show you guys how baller I am at getting a victory royale. Like that would be so fake and weird for me. So just leaning into like being a noob, learning Minecraft for the first time. Like play if if you're trying to make it in the gaming space, I would truly lean in on your strengths. What you think brings out the best in you for content. Um and I I've made a lot of pivots, like I said, all those different games. Like, I don't play Sims anymore because it's not really like content people are often searching for. So maybe you gotta try a couple things. No, not maybe. You will have to try a few things.

SPEAKER_00

Talk to let's talk about um the different

Shorts, Live Streaming, And Community

SPEAKER_00

formats. So let's talk shorts first. I'm not even gonna try to bias you in either direction. I just want to know, give me your unfiltered thoughts about shorts.

SPEAKER_02

Uh it's such a hot topic. I feel like people are very like one or the other. Yes.

SPEAKER_00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

I am one of the people that does like shorts, but here's why. I feel like it's very you're able to reach an even bigger audience quicker because we are in this culture where everybody just does this. Um in the shorts that we get to do, like I'm going to Walmart a lot of times and finding strangers and like giving them gifts. So like random acts of kindness, and I feel like that's a really fun message that you can send out all around the world. People can understand that. No, like you don't have to speak the same language, even. So I love shorts, but I definitely see a world where sometimes they can clash on a channel where they don't they're not cohesive, I guess you could say.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah, no, totally. What about live streaming? You used to do it a little bit on Breonna Plays, but like not anymore. Why not? You did very well.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. I don't know. I love live streaming because we're it's so fun.

SPEAKER_00

What are you doing? What are we doing? Can we do one? What's going on?

SPEAKER_02

Let's do it. I I honestly would love to get into live streaming again because I mean I read comments on videos, I really do, but that's the only time you're like actually having that real life inter or like on the same page interaction. So yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_00

Do you know why you stopped? Was it just you just didn't you were too busy or because it seems to me it's like easier, it's a l it's a less lift. There's no editor necessary. True. You just need to do whatever you can just interact with the, you know, for as long as you want. Doesn't have to be two or three hours, it could be an hour or less. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

No, and I've seen so many specifically gaming and uh creators this year explode because say Roblox is doing an update on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Well, these people are gonna stream at 2 p.m. through the update, and it's like grown their channel substantially. So there's definitely something to it. I think my priorities were oh, I want to focus in other areas, especially with having these other channels, but it's been in discussion with the team because I I would be interested.

SPEAKER_00

There is there is a fun uh moment of that. I'm curious as to what your live viewership would be now. Last time you it looks like you'd live streamed on this channel was about six months ago. I was talking to Creecraft just a couple of weeks ago, and one of the things that he mentioned was I mean, he's a huge Roblox creator, and his stream is just constantly going. So he says he has a hard time ever connecting with audience members that he used to back when he was smaller, and it's harder, it's just a big wall of words. I'm curious what that would be like for you now. What would be the things you would want to accomplish within a live stream, other than just having fun? I mean, the live streams for the most part are about community building. Right. That's really what it's there for. It's not necessarily to be discovered. I mean, you can be discovered, but it's really there for community building. What are the things you would want to accomplish in that in like a live stream?

SPEAKER_02

I like having somebody who this is like secret behind the scenes, but somebody who can be like, Brie, like notice Madison 905. It's her birthday. You know, like make sure you like the ones that really stand out, like people going through a hard time that you can connect with, or sometimes even like, hey, like what videos do you guys want to see? Like having the honesty of people who are loyal enough to watch it on a live stream. I'd be curious. Like, do you want to see me play more Minecraft right now? Do you want to see more variety? Um, but yeah, like you said, community building 100% is the main driver for wanting to do the live streams.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I'm curious as to what the viewership would say. If you're listening, if you're watching this on YouTube, drop a comment. Let us know. Is that something that she should do? I mean, I think she partially should do it. Honestly, I think she should do it this week, but you know, that's just me. I'm kind of biased in the situation. I love I love live streams.

SPEAKER_02

I do too.

SPEAKER_00

Um, what are what are the things I think you'd be good in podcasting too? Like, is that something that you'd you'd want to do a lot of or I it's been we've talked about it a little bit.

SPEAKER_02

I think that just comes to time management right now.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_02

Um with all the channels, and then I also am in a not a ton, but like a good bit of Prestons as well. So just almost making that like I was gonna say Venn diagram. What who am I? List of priorities. And like I love listening to podcasts, um, but I feel like it's not my like number one at the moment, but I feel like there's so many, so many skills that you can grow by doing podcasting that I'm interested in.

SPEAKER_00

Like I'm shocked that you were able to find time to do this, to be perfectly honest. Like, I think I got lucky. I don't know if there just happened to be a hole in your schedule, and I got slipped in. Uh, I feel very honored by that, and I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02

No, I know I love what y'all do, and I've seen your stuff, and I I feel like having an outlet like this is so important, like for people who haven't even started YouTube yet, who maybe are well-versed, like we can learn so much from every single other creator out there. Like, the more we can connect, even if it's through a podcast, not face to face,

Staying Positive In A Drama Economy

SPEAKER_02

the better.

SPEAKER_00

Let's talk about the fact that you and Preston uh primarily deal in positive content, which is great. But as we know as humans, uh, I think humans are always drawn to negative content or negative uh things, right? Like car crashes, everyone has to slow down and look at it. All the bad news uh headlines make you know, everyone wants to look at those. Um talk to us about how your brand and Preston's brand to maybe a different degree, uh, seemingly just stay away from that stuff. And is there ever like a pull to go not negative, but like a little bit more edgy just to kind of get to the sauce back? Because people come to watch that stuff. Talk to me about that.

SPEAKER_02

You're so right. I feel like maybe he would be more interested in that than me. Um I feel like the audience that we at least currently have is typically very kind and which is a huge blessing. I the biggest thing is that kids can be so matter-of-fact. So even recently on a gaming video, I made the A Canator, like this game, fall in love with me. And like in the comments, people are like, Bri, you're married. I'm telling Preston. Like, it's this is not serious, guys. Don't worry. Um, but you're so right. There's something about like the tea, like people want the tea. So I feel like sometimes with like thumbnails, we'll try to spice up like our packaging or title and stuff. I don't want it to lean too clickbait, but I do feel like those shocking words do get more clicks.

SPEAKER_00

And as you get older, uh which unf I'm sorry to get to let you know that you will get older over time. Uh, as you get older and more mature as a content creator, do you feel like um you will have a it's impossible to know. I'll I'll I'll start there. It's impossible to know the answer I'm gonna or answer I'm asking for. But do you feel like there's gonna be a time where you want to do more mature content? And I don't mean in any kind of saucy way, I just mean like something that's more for because your audience is also gonna grow. Right. Right. So the people that are watching you now are going to be teenagers and and young adults in a couple of years. Do you want your channel to grow with them? Are you gonna try to always focus on this age group that you currently are?

SPEAKER_02

That's a good question. We actually talked about that as a team not that long ago because what we've been doing is really hard because, like you're saying, people are gonna age out. So then you lose those viewers and you're trying to gain new ones constantly.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um, I would say my goldilocks would be to stay doing similar type content I'm doing now, but with as much broad appeal as possible. For like now that TV viewership is so much higher, yes, that like mom, sister, little sister, they could all enjoy it. It's it's not like, oh my gosh, turn that annoying thing off. I feel like that would be my goal is that the type of content I'm making is enjoyable for co-viewing as

Designing For TV Viewers And Longer Cuts

SPEAKER_02

well.

SPEAKER_00

And it's funny you bring that up because uh, as of the recording of this, YouTube just announced that they have this like co-viewing uh analytic and metrics that counts TV viewers differently than like phone and stuff. So the assumption is that more than one person is watching on TV, that's not necessarily true. But so they're I think they're assuming some things. But like, for example, if your content gets paid on television, they're they're assuming that two to three people could be watching at the same time, so those numbers look different. Uh, have you seen uh in your particular content a shift in television viewing? Because that's something that some creators are seeing.

SPEAKER_02

Dramatically. I would I want to even say it was either 60 or 70 percent for me.

SPEAKER_00

Whoa, yeah. Wow. Yeah, that's huge.

SPEAKER_02

We went for gaming, all of our stuff now records in 4K, so it looks nicer on a TV screen. So we've definitely been keeping that in mind. We've also extended the length of videos.

SPEAKER_00

I was just about to say that because people who watch on television watch for longer. So you guys have uh consciously made that decision in content, is what you're saying. Yeah, very important and very uh but it also means that like shooting certain things, you have to think about the sensibilities of who's watching on what platform. So, for example, if you're watching on your phone, so YouTube Shorts, you're holding your phone in a certain way, right? And you people, like you said earlier, people are swiping really fast, and that's kind of what you're used to. If you hold your phone horizontally, you might be down to watch for a little bit longer one particular piece of content. When you're on your television, you're probably either cooking or sitting at the sitting down, like you have more time to like invest in the in the content. Do you shoot your videos differently now that you know that that's a large portion of your portion of your audience? In other words, stories don't have to be Mr. Beast cut in the first 30 seconds necessarily. I mean, sometimes they do, but if you if you know someone's gonna sit there for 15, 20 minutes, you can let the story breathe. Is that something you guys consciously do?

SPEAKER_02

100%, yeah. We've uh our our editing team really has been told like we can let things breathe more than they used to. Say in like 2021, it was like, I'm doing blah, blah, blah, blah. And it was like an eight-minute video that we filmed for five hours, but somehow it's eight minutes long. Um, because I feel like also people are craving authenticity and getting to know the creator as like an actual human. And I think you see more of that when it's a little more raw, a little more extended cut.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, for sure. Uh, and is that something Preston's doing too on his channel? Like, do you see the same thing? Yeah, yeah. Television, it's so funny because it went from TV being big before YouTube, and then YouTube came along, then it was the phone, and then it was a little bit of tablet and computer, and then back to the phone with shorts, and then it's gone the exact opposite direction with TV. That's so crazy, right?

SPEAKER_02

I know. I know. I guess it's like the circle of life.

SPEAKER_00

It is. Do you what do you primarily watch uh YouTube on?

SPEAKER_02

My PC.

SPEAKER_00

Your PC. Okay. So you also have time to kind of sit down and let things kind of uh uh kind of you know breathe.

SPEAKER_02

I try. I yeah, every single week I try to allot a bit of time for work just to see like what's trending right now, what new names are out there that I could be learning from, things like that. I I almost use it as like my my homework each week.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. All right, I'm gonna ask something.

True Crime Habits And Collab Goals

SPEAKER_00

And don't worry, no one else is listening. What's your what's your guilty pleasure on YouTube?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I love true crime.

SPEAKER_00

I do too. I have some true crime people I'm gonna be interviewing the next couple of weeks. So yes.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, I love it. I love to watch true crime videos, but then I do it on my profile. So I'm like, this is not helping me with scraping for ideas at all now that it's in my algorithm. But that's I'll I'll watch those.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and that one of the things actually, so what you just brought up is really interesting because I actually have some multiple uh profiles depending on what I'm trying to do. So let me give a tip for some of the listeners. So, what you can do if you're trying to do research in your niche, you should have a separate YouTube viewing profile that you only watch that content so the YouTube algorithm can kind of show you what's being, you know, what's popular in that thing. If you do what uh Bree's talking about and what I unfortunately do because of what I do for work, uh you'll get a hot mess of everything. You won't know what you're watching. It's crazy. Uh, but it would be interesting. Uh, is that who would you like to collab with that you have not collabed with yet?

SPEAKER_02

Ooh, that I haven't collabed with yet. That's a good one. I'm trying to think of who I there's a girl named Maya. Um, I'm trying to remember her last name. She lives in Texas as well, and she has like an animal rescue. She does more live stream content. But I my team is like, you have to meet her. I think she looks like a wonderful, amazing human. So that would be fun.

SPEAKER_00

Have you ever uh reached out to her or anything or just kind of my team has, but I haven't gotten to meet her yet. Okay. Well, that might be fun to watch. Might be cool to see.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

2026 Creator Advice And Starting Fresh

SPEAKER_00

Um, all right. So finally, let's talk a little bit about two things. Number one, I'm gonna ask you for a challenge thing here in a minute, but more importantly, what kind of things would you tell a new content creator in 2026 that they need to focus on uh in a very crowded kind of either gaming niche or in real life game? Because the nice thing is you're doing all these niches that everyone wants to do. So tell us like some things that they need to really be focused on in 2026.

SPEAKER_02

Be willing to make mistakes and know like you're not gonna ever be perfect. So say you upload just a couple videos, nothing's hitting. Maybe try something else. Don't stop too soon. Like we even see videos from months ago that started off really slow, you just change a thumbnail and they can skyrocket again. So I feel like it's important to get to know your studio to get to learn the data and the back end of what your videos are telling you, but also do content that excites you because if you're gonna do this for whether it's a hobby or like your full living, your career, like you put so many hours into it. If you're doing content that drains you, I don't think that's very sustainable. And people are really smart, and you can feel like I can tell when I watch a creator who's like really not vibing with the video they're making. So go into it with like this kind of content excites me. I'm interested in it. I think I could crush it. I think that's really important to also keep in mind.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. Uh that's a great feedback because it is that last moment with that comment is so funny because as you said it, I was literally thinking of someone that doesn't vibe with their own content. And I'm not gonna say who, yeah, but you can tell. And the audience will always tell you. It's so funny. Years past, I've if I wasn't feeling well, there would be comments like, are you okay, Travis? Like, people know. They do. It's crazy, right? They really can tell, they're really uh in touch with you. Uh, last thing, and this is something that I don't even know that I can ask you. For the most part, I asked this question for people who have one channel, but you have so many channels. This might not be this might be an impossible question. If you had to create a new channel starting today with none of the subjects you do uh currently, none of the none of the formats or funds that you have, but just like your phone and the knowledge that you have, what would you do? And tell me your first three videos for that that type of channel. What's the channel about? Give me a name, just and and stream of consciousness. We want to hear your thought process.

SPEAKER_02

I love makeup, and I noodled with the idea back in the day of making a makeup channel, so much so I made a studio for it and we never used it.

SPEAKER_01

What?

SPEAKER_02

Uh yeah. What would that be? Like Bri. I always do like Brianna Plays, Brianna Games.

SPEAKER_00

Brianna Slays.

SPEAKER_02

Wait, I love that.

SPEAKER_00

You're welcome.

SPEAKER_02

That's it. That's the name.

SPEAKER_00

That's it. I mean, that totally makes sense, right?

SPEAKER_02

It does, it does.

SPEAKER_00

And then it's just makeup and yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I would do the first intro video, I feel like would be almost a get ready with me, kind of like you see on reels and TikTok a lot. So you're like getting to know me as a human while doing my like daily routine talking about my favorite makeup. And then I would do the next two more more like trend or challenge based, based on whatever's happening in the makeup world. I'm not super versed with that niche at this moment.

SPEAKER_00

But would this be a short form or long form channel?

SPEAKER_02

I would have said long form, but I feel like makeup a lot of what I'm seeing is more short form now than it used to be.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. I think you'd be good at it. I think you could do a short. You already have the studio, so I don't know what you're waiting for.

SPEAKER_01

I know.

SPEAKER_00

You have the name now. I know.

SPEAKER_01

Go get it.

SPEAKER_00

The name is hot. You better get it before this episode comes out because someone else is going to steal it. So you might as well at least at least park the park the name. Park the URL. Just go park it after this episode. I promise no one will know for a couple weeks, and then you're good to go.

SPEAKER_02

Get the Instagram handle.

SPEAKER_00

Get it. I mean, you might as well, right? Because you just never know. So if you're listening to this when this goes live, this was recorded weeks ago. Go check to see if she's done it. I want to know. I I would uh past Travis wants to know in the future what happened. So go ahead and check it out.

Wrap Up And Where To Find Brianna

SPEAKER_00

But everything else will be in the show notes if you're listening to the audio podcast, and of course, in the description here on YouTube. I can't thank you enough for spending some time with us and really sharing a lot of your knowledge here, Brianna. Thank you so much. It's really, really awesome to hear from you.

SPEAKER_02

Of course. Thank you. I've I've never gotten to do a podcast like this. So it's super fun. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_00

If you want to see more of her, I'll have links in the description and I have another interview with another incredible creator right here. See y'all in the next one.