He Gained 500,000 YouTube Subscribers After Making One Key Change | 02 Craig Benzine (WheezyWaiter)

When I was coming up in media and learning about online video around 2010-2011, Craig Benzine (known to the Internet as ‪@wheezywaiter‬) was a big inspiration. His videos were so absurd, so fast, and so funny. I felt like he was speaking to a new kind of audience. "TH-camr" was starting to become a job, and being ridiculous on the Internet could pay the rent. Loyal subscribers and conversations from the comments section were the gold standard.
But as TH-cam became more algorithmic, Craig's channel started to stagnate. His core audience was remained, but the growth had stopped. He felt completely stuck, for about 5 years. Then, in 2018, he made a radical change to his content that doubled his audience - from 500,000 to 1 million subs - in just a year.
I'm thrilled to talk to Craig about making Internet videos for 16+ years (!), and what drove him to "make a movie every day." We discuss how TH-cam editing became a unique artform, why getting 30 views and 1 comment from an online stranger was the best feeling in the world, the years he toiled in obscurity before the Internet finally took notice, and the re-invention of his channel.
Plus: Your voicemail!
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[@KyleCulver]

As soon as I saw this one I thought "the coffee is ready" and ran off.
A conversation I'm only 6 minutes in and excited to hear the rest.

[@InfluencePodcast]

Thanks for the support, Kyle! The coffee is INDEED ready, and I hope you get to enjoy the rest of our chat! We had a great time.

[@wastedzebra]

Great episode, it is interesting and so true how hard it is to fight for a viewers loyalty nowadays. There's only a handful of channels where I'll watch most of their content, and it's unfortunate because it feels like the algorithm doesn't allow the opportunity for some other channels that I'm subscribed to to land on my feed.
I've known of wheezy since that 2010 era and then remembered his viral sugar videos came across my feed and I was surprised because I hadn't seen anything from him in so many years. Watching this video made me realize I haven't seen anything from him recently.
It makes me sad to know that I'm subscribed to so many channels and I won't ever be updated with 90% of what they've been doing

[@InfluencePodcast]

I feel the exact same way. Part of the problem is that there is JUST SO MUCH MORE stuff to watch/read/listen to. In some regards, algorithms are very helpful in "sorting" through the most valuable/relevant stuff.
In other ways, I feel it's important for us (the audience) to do a bit of work to curate the stuff we care about. I do the same thing as you - I seek out and listen to/watch EVERY item that comes from certain creators. Sometimes the topics aren't all that relevant, but I'm very invested in their particular thing that I still enjoy it.

[@matthewduran7059]

Hey fellow Matt this was another great show! You mentioned that you have another podcast during this pod. Do you think you can make a community post with your other endeavors?

[@InfluencePodcast]

Salutations, fellow Matt! Thanks for checking out the other pod. As this channel gets cooking, I will definitely start cross promoting. For now, (and for anyone else curious), the other podcast is a video game show I co-host with former Destructoid/Kotaku writer Colette Bennet: haveenteredthechat.com/