Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Rodriguez.
Daniel, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I first started making videos when I was around seven years old. I remember that we had a special video organization come into my school after school’s program to teach us the basic of moviemaking: how to record video, how to put a video on a computer, how to do basic editing. YouTube or just social media was just starting out around that time but I was too young to really focus on that so I made videos for fun around the house carrying a camera and doing random things. Throughout the years, I kept making videos and I even started a personal YouTube channel where I would upload but it was all for fun and very inconsistent. Eventually, I got to middle school and I would try to do as many video projects as my teachers would allow. In middle school, I would say is when I really started paving a huge foundation towards working with the camera and editing. It’s like before middle school, I would just play around, but now in middle school, it was more like a growing moment to make better videos.
In high school, I kept making shorts videos for fun and for projects. I joined the TV production club/class at my school. At first, I enjoyed it and at that point, I even wanted to pursue something in communications related to video creation. However, the more I was in the program, the more I got tired of it. Mainly because I was always being told what type of videos to do, I had to edit a certain way, do a lot of things that I did not agree with. The following year as a junior I decided I would never study anything video related. In high school, I played many sports which kept me very busy meaning I would hardly post videos and focus on YouTube. However, towards the end of my senior year, I created my “It’s Danny” channel and started posting random vlogs every week. Then, when I got to college I decided to make my channel college/UM niche due to the fact that when I was applying to college there were not too many resources out there, so I decided to be one.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has not been smooth at all, and every day as the rewards increase so does the struggle. My main struggle at first was always having distractions when I was younger and not knowing how to balance them with YouTube. For example, in high school, I only focused on school and sports because I didn’t think I could balance YouTube. Also, that first step in creating a channel is very difficult in every way: building an audience, getting views, getting subscribers. There were times when I would edit for a full day to only get 10 views.
However, I kept pushing, I enjoyed making videos which is what really kept me going! Even right now, it is still a struggle finding the perfect balance between social life, school life, and YouTube.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
My YouTube channel focuses on college lifestyle where I do vlogs, give tips and advice for either incoming college students or just students in general. I do have a lot of content relating to the University of Miami since it is the school I attend and I also want to help people who really want to get in the school to achieve their goals. I would say what really sets me apart is my college vlogs are very natural and very spot on. A lot of people are shy or hesitant when it comes to vlogging especially in a big setting such as a college campus, but I have opened up to it by now. A lot of people on campus know me as a YouTuber and it’s very rewarding to have people support you while you enjoy making your craft.
What’s your outlook for the industry over the next 5-10 years?
My biggest startup that I have going on right now is that I am an athletic training student and in the future, I will be working in sports medicine or sports science. So eventually, I want to turn my channel into a niche related to sports science/medicine.
Contact Info:
Image Credit:
@goldenshot.photos
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