YouTube icon Lachlan Power shares business tips for YouTubers

We turn to some popular YouTubers to try their best Tips and Tricks to be successful and as a pioneer on the Internet to better understand the ups and downs of life.

This week we spoke to Lachlan Power (@lachlan), a pro Fourteen days Gamer and powerhouse YouTuber with over 14.8 million subscribers. He has another 8.6 followers on TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and Twitch. Power is also the Founder and CEO of PWR, a leading esports organization and lifestyle gaming brand known for its high fan engagement, reach and fashion drops.

Power has managed to sustain a 10-year YouTube career since 2013 — a lifetime in internet years. He became known for his jokes and humorous comments on games like Minecraft, battlefield, call of Dutyand Pokemon GO. Now a big one Fourteen days Gamers, in 2020 Lachlan was awarded his own Fourteen days Skin – only six other content creators, like Ninja and Loserfruit, have been given the opportunity to have a skin.

Based in Australia, Power has paved the way for creators in its country while managing to establish a global presence as a family-friendly brand. Power’s creative skills caught the attention of the traditional media industry when he won a Nickelodeon in 2020 child priceand in 2021, he voiced in Netflix’s animated musical Back to the hinterland. In 2021, Power signed a deal with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), opening the door to more media opportunities in television, publishing and brand partnerships.

In an interview with Passionfruit, Power spoke about managing his company’s growth, tips for finding good partners, the top challenges developers face today, his favorite content creation tools, advice for aspiring developers, and more.

The following interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

Let’s go back in time to your first moments of internet virality. How did you take advantage of this virality to pursue a long-term career as a creator?

One of my early moments of internet fame was when I launched Pokemon GO in 2016. As an Australian, I got access to the game before most people in the world, and I jumped at the opportunity by shooting a simple vlog-style video showcasing the game. The video quickly gained traction and I capitalized on it by continuing to create content Pokemon GO. As a result, I was able to travel the world and capture Pokémon on camera. It was a pivotal moment for me and helped me build my online presence.

Operationally and management-wise, how have you dealt with your growing popularity? What challenges did you face as your audience grew, and how did you overcome them?

YouTube is challenging and I have found that it takes persistence, organization and the ability to lead a team. At first I did everything myself, but as I grew I added an editor and other members to my team. One of the biggest challenges is coordinating and leading the team, but I’ve assembled a strong group of people who manage different aspects of the business. It’s also important to balance the hobby and business aspects of YouTube, and I’ve applied business skills, particularly finance, that I learned from my mother to grow my business.

My first outsourcer was an editor. I was also working at a company in development around the same time Minecraft Server, which was another way to monetize my content. I had a talented group of friends, creators and developers that I worked with on these projects.

What qualifications or qualities do you look for in the people you work with?

Over time, I’ve built a group of people who work with me from a financial and operational perspective, including agents, finance directors, talent managers, merchandising teams and professional services firms. Generally when hiring creative talent for my team [and] For the PWR teams, we’re looking for people who really understand YouTube and online gaming culture – it’s such a difficult space to describe, but at its core they need to have a deep understanding of what makes a viewer click and watch as long as possible. Having this knowledge while working with myself on content creation is what I value most.

Of course, I also have some on my team who come from traditional backgrounds and don’t necessarily understand that culture, but balance and diversity are important.

What led to the creation of PWR? What challenges did you face when setting up the organization and how did you overcome them?

I first thought about starting PWR after competing in the 2018 Fortnite World Cup. I really enjoyed the competitive aspect of gaming and realized that there are not many organizations in our country/world that have helped develop the content potential of professional players. Personally, my biggest challenge has been dividing my time between my own content and what I’m building at PWR. I’ve been able to optimize my time since inception, but I still find it difficult to meet deadlines across both channels.

What lessons have you learned from your apparel launch and merchandising ventures? What advice can you share from what you’ve learned from your past launches?

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned and struggle with on a daily basis is to let go of certain aspects of business and trust others. It’s a lesson I’ve learned and struggled with because there have been times when I’ve let go of oversight of some aspects and the people I’ve been entrusting with those aspects didn’t have the same vision or passion, that I had for these things . That goes for apparel, manufacturing, and even game development. I’m somewhat of a perfectionist, and it takes a long time before I can trust anyone to do things with the care and diligence I would do them.

There are a few pieces of advice I would give with that in mind: Firstly, recruit hard – hire the right people. Second, aim for the stars, but get used to landing on the moon. Third, try to master one or two things first before moving on to the next.

With all your experience in the world of content creation, what do you think are the biggest challenges developers face today?

From my point of view, one of the biggest challenges is how high the bar has been set since I started creating content 10 years ago. I could play well then Minecraft 20-30 minutes and upload it unedited. Today, the average YouTube video demands so much more, and while it’s great for consumers of the platform, it makes it harder for YouTube channels to keep track of their content.

Do you have any tips for creators tackling these challenges?

Flexibility and speed were key for me in my early days of content creation. I would avoid having tunnel vision regarding any type of content or format. Always experiment because things can change very quickly and you need to be comfortable with change. The reality is you are competing with everyone else in the world and that makes the scenery unforgiving. A truly diversified content distribution and brand reach is also important so you don’t just rely on one distribution platform/content.

What are your favorite software and hardware tools for creating content? What do you particularly like about these tools?

Recently, one of my favorite tools was a thumbnail A/B testing program, which essentially allows you to have two thumbnails for a YouTube video, and the program automatically swaps out the different thumbnail variations and gives you specific analysis about the thumbnail’s effects -The change. It’s not a perfect tool, but it certainly helps in refining thumbnail trends with the ultimate goal of increasing CTR [click-through rate.]

Other than that my software suite is pretty standard, Adobe suite for production, Discord for communication and OBS [Open Broadcast Software] for recording.

What advice would you give to other aspiring YouTubers looking to advance their careers?

These days I would recommend investing time in building an audience through short form, [YouTube Shorts and TikToks.] It’s easier to create a viral piece on these platforms and you can use this to build an audience. When you’re ready to move to long form, I would suggest working from a quantitative perspective (frequent uploads) and testing all possible metrics (length, history, etc.). Over time, take this data to focus on making a better video and eventually slowing the upload rate to a pace that is manageable but still presents a quality video to your audience.

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