 On today's episode, Aaron's coming at you with an exclusive interview with YouTuber Mr. James Geary, and we learn more about his YouTube story, the obstacles he's faced, and his tips on succeeding. This episode is brought to you by BenQ, bringing enjoyment and quality to life. What's going on, Freedom Family? My name is Aaron, and in today's episode, we're going to discover more secrets and tips on how to grow a successful channel. Today's successful YouTuber is Mr. James Geary. He is another GT5 YouTuber who tapped into this mainstream title when it first was released. Remember, guys, he was also very small back in the beginning, but you're going to figure out throughout this interview how you became so big and so successful on YouTube to distinguish himself throughout this gigantic YouTube cloud and earn his way all the way up to 400,000 subscribers. Okay, James, can you please tell the Freedom Family when you were once a very small sapling? First started uploading videos. Oh man, it's been a while. I started uploading videos back around the Modern Warfare 2 day. I was a little bit late, or at least when I joined, I thought I was a little bit late uploading videos. I thought YouTube had already reached its prime, but I really wanted to get into it. I always told people I'd upload videos. I think my first five videos on my channel were me telling people that I was going to be uploading more videos. It was like an update video, and I slowly started to get into uploading videos through Modern Warfare 3, and I uploaded once a month. I actually started out doing graphic design tutorials, fun fact with that. I think it was towards the end of Modern Warfare 3 when Black Ops 2 was about to come out. That's when I definitely started to get serious about YouTube. All through Black Ops 2, I grinded out videos, which definitely paid off a lot, but the big reward happened when Grand Theft Auto came out because that was a new game, that was new. The game before it was GTA 4, and that game was really popular on YouTube, but there was no one that really exclusively covered GTA, and it was a pretty new community with such a popular game that led to so many channels exploding, and lucky enough, I was one of those in the group that uploaded videos for GTA. What video made you realize your audience was growing? What happened with that was when GTA first came out, I uploaded a video that was just locations of cars and stuff around the map. It was something real simple. To me, when I was working on it, it was another upload. That's one thing I've noticed. Whenever I talk to loads of YouTubers, they all have the same story as me. Their most popular videos are the ones they really didn't expect to do that well, or that were just normal videos, and for some reason, something just ticked either on YouTube's search engine or their sub boxes or their subscribers just loved it. All those just came together and worked out well, and that happened for me. That video just was a regular guide, and I came back like a week later, 500,000 views. Came back a month later, 1 million views. That was my first video to hit. My first million view video, I got a few more after that, and that one was really special to me because it was just like, for me, that was huge. Coming from just about a year ago at that date, seriously getting into YouTube, trying to get 1,000 subscribers, a million view video was unheard of. I couldn't even dream about that. I was excited to get 1,000 views. I was freaking out when I got 1,000 views on a video. A million, that was just definitely a huge, that was one of my favorite moments. That was a huge accomplishment to me just to see those numbers associated with my channel. Since you are a GTA 5 YouTuber, what are your thoughts about uploading DNS code videos? Yeah, especially for DNS. At least from my perspective was a definite loss because, A, a lot of people that were doing DNS, the way it worked was like, oh, in order to get into a lobby and get money, you have to subscribe to my channel, follow me on Twitter. It was just going to end up with DNS getting patched, you and all the people that you're influencing getting banned. More importantly, you being left with a dead channel on Twitter because people were following you, not for what you're posting, but just to get in the giveaway and then get out. What do you love most about being a YouTuber? I love the most. I definitely love good feedback. I love just getting on and seeing positive comments, playing with subscribers is always fun. Mentioning stuff from my videos, definitely. I mean, we're all nerds in a way. We all play video games and I think that's a great thing. That's why I love going to events like MLG events and stuff like that, because everyone's there for the same reason. They're all there because they love the game for the most part. There's always the issues. Anyways, I definitely love meeting new people through YouTube because it's kind of like you already have a conversation starter. You're playing games. You obviously know you like the same games and I love positive feedback. Like I said, it's definitely, I don't know, it's something vital in my opinion to going on with YouTube and continuing and continuing to upload videos is definitely positive feedback. George just recently made a video about using Reddit to help grow your channel. So what are your thoughts about using this social media site? I mean, it really depends. Some subreddits, the subreddit for GTA was very active when it first came out. Reddit is very unique in the way they are. Definitely, that's actually a huge thing is a lot of YouTubers will get their video ideas from Reddit and I'm guilty of it on my own. I always try and credit it and that's just a general thing. If you get an idea from somewhere, credit it. But yeah, if you get a unique idea and post it on Reddit, usually it's received pretty well. I mean, it definitely depends. People on Reddit can be pretty intense at times though. Based on your experience, what is the most helpful tip that is an absolute must have in order to grow a successful channel? Some sort of entertainment is going to be the main ingredient for anything on YouTube. People have to have a reason to subscribe to your channel. That's the bottom line. People listen to music because, you know, it connects with them. That's a huge reason why people watch things on YouTube and subscribe is either A, the person's entertaining and they can connect with them or B, they're gaining some sort of either entertainment, knowledge, something like that, like a how-to channel. And those are two big things. So if you want to make a channel, you have to connect with your audience. There's no way really around that. Whether it's the elusive tactic, like some YouTubers, they don't show their face. They're really elusive. People have their mental images of them. And they're still really entertaining. I don't think Critical's ever shown his face. Maybe I've been wrong. Maybe he has. I don't know. He's one of the few YouTubers I do watch. And that's one of the big things. I noticed myself not watching YouTube as much when I started doing it more and more. But I definitely always watch my own videos, not for the entertainment, but just to see where I went wrong, where I could have done better. That and I think, especially sticking with trends is popular on YouTube. And doing your research, knowing what's trending, how to target your videos, that's a big thing. Kind of like the back end that a lot of people don't know about is using the right keywords, targeting your videos to the right people, and making sure you know what you're doing when you're uploading a video. You're not just crossing your fingers and hoping, like, okay, I'm using this keyword. And I think Google Analytics comes in handy there. Just doing research on what works, looking at other channels and seeing what's worked for them, because that definitely can help you out to seeing what other channels have done for them to really blow up and trying to use that to your advantage. Like, this worked for him. I could try this myself, this game, maybe, or just definitely going in new territories. Because people that are always at the front leading the trends are the ones that are going to profit the most, get the most subscribers from and be the most popular. So it's risky, but if you want to go your own direction, just know that the rewards are great if it becomes successful. Throughout your crazy adventure on YouTube, what is the most memorable accomplishment? Biggest accomplishment, oh man, I definitely think the Million View video was a huge one for me because that was something I never thought I'd get. Also hitting 100,000 subscribers, that was huge for me too. I got the little YouTube plaque. That was cool because I got to hang that up on the wall. And that was, you know, like, a real visual representation of success on YouTube, something that you could see and touch. And, you know, it's right in front of you as opposed to on your screen. And I have that above my wall and I always look up at that, you know, remember that all the work that was put in and, you know, I really couldn't have done that without everyone's support. And that's definitely huge. Like you need to realize, especially when you're growing on YouTube, that while you are putting out good content, most likely, you know, you wouldn't be where you are without the subscribers and the people who are supporting you. So you got to show some appreciation to all of them too. Yeah, man, I've heard everyone rant and rave about that silver plaque. Pretty soon, the Freedom Channel will hit that 100,000 subscriber milestone and it too will receive that awesome token of accomplishment. All right guys, hope you've learned a lot from Mr. James Geary. Put in the comments below who you want to see on next week's episode. And like always, follow us on Twitter at ImpulseThis and see who next week's episode is going to be on the show. My name is Aaron and if you want to see more of this crazy personality, go over and check my personal channel out. Link will be in the description below, especially if you like black ops zombies. Be sure you believe in yourself because one day you too will be able to put a silver plaque on your wall, just like Mr. James Geary. See ya! This guy's name, Jimbethy. He is humongous right now in a GTA 5 community, but before that he actually uploaded Call of Duty videos, one being how to stop a Moab which actually reached Machinima Respawn and is now the second most watched video. All right, I'm done talking. Let's dive in. Find out how in the world this guy did. What happened to being your brother's keeper? Now a day's kids won't worry about the...