From 0 to 230,000 followers
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Yules from Stuttgart has achieved what many young people dream of – Yules is a full-time content creator. This makes her one of only 500,000 people in the whole of Germany who have this profession as a full-time job. We talked to her: How it came about, why collaborations with companies are indispensable and why life as a content creator is not for the routine, you can find out in the interview.
This is Yules
Yules Slavinskaya never expected that she would one day become a full-time content creator. “I studied in Stuttgart, bachelor’s degree in German language and literature and art history,” she says, before moving on to edit a travel deals website. There she was mainly responsible for the creation of SEO-optimized blog posts. “We presented trips, cheap travel tips and everything you need to know about the topic.” At that time, she had no idea that she had already laid the foundation for her current profession. On the one hand, this allowed Yules to acquire valuable know-how, which she now shares in her videos, and on the other hand, this job strengthened her passion for traveling. “Sure, the enthusiasm grew over time as I saw more of the world,” she smiles.
Fun turns serious: Suddenly a content creator
In the Corona summer of 2020, Yules had started producing TikTok content, actually for fun. Since she already had plenty of food and travel content from her travels in the form of videos and photos, she quickly decided to use the video platform. Within a few months, their community grew rapidly.
“For me, it was crazy and also unexpected to see my content resonate – especially with TikTok.” Why? “TikTok is a platform that is not consistent at all. Regardless of the number of followers, overnight you can suddenly have Millions of people reach. So big follower numbers doesn’t mean you have a big reach.” This unpredictability was not so easy for Yules at the beginning. She now has over 230,000 followers on TikTok and over 100,000 followers on Instagram.
Authentic despite collaborations?
To work as a full-time content creator, collaborations with brands are essential. Of course, this also applies to Yules. But unlike many other content creators, she is not tied to a specific industry, such as beauty. Rather, specializing in Food and Travel gives her a wide range of companies to work with. From travel and lifestyle to jewelry, beauty and automotive. One thing is clear to her: the company has to fit her so that she can continue to be authentic. “First of all, I check how reputable the brand is and if it fits my channel. Is there any added value for my community? Is it a cool product that I might even use myself? The perfect scenario is when it’s a brand you already know and use yourself. For example, I have a cooperation with a brand from the travel sector. That’s super cool, of course, because I already knew the company beforehand and used their service or products privately. Then when they approach you and want to start a collaboration – that’s the best thing that can happen.”
Main job: Content Creator – a day in the life of Yules
The idea of the life of a content creator often seems ideal: sleeping in late, creating content, going out to eat while filming and photographing, playing sports and going to events. But the reality at Yules shows that it’s not that relaxed. In fact, her daily life is “very wild and sometimes unstructured.” For this reason, it is still important to her to bring a certain structure into her day: “Every morning I call a small meeting with my manager to discuss what is coming up – i.e. important calls, deadlines and customers. Then it’s on to the specific planning for the day: “So what do I need to do? What do I need to have taken off, where do I need to include feedback loops?”
As a content creator, simply walking by somewhere and hoping that content will spontaneously appear is a fallacy. “I look specifically at what I need to experience so that I can then process it into content,” she says. As a content creator, she is far from a nine-to-five job.
On the one hand, this gives her a lot of freedom; on the other, the line between free time and work becomes very blurred, so it’s often hard for her to pull the ripcord and call it a day. “My day usually starts around 8 a.m. and sometimes ends at 1 or 2 a.m., depending on where I am and what I have to do. But thank goodness I also have very, very great friends and dear people who tell me that it’s good now. That’s when I also need a bit of a push from the outside. That helps.”
The complete interview is available here:
