MEET LAURIE & KEVIN

SACRIFICES THAT LED NOWHERE

To say the early days of Laurie’s YouTube career were dark is an understatement.

Laurie literally didn’t own a computer.

On top of that, she had no experience creating YouTube content.

All while Laurie was brand new to decorating cakes, which was the whole premise of the channel.

Essentially, Laurie and her fiance had no idea what they were doing.

Here’s what their typical day looked like:

• Come home exhausted from a terrible 9 to 5 furniture refinishing job.
• Spend hours learning video editing AND cake decoration.
• Film videos that had little chance of getting more than 30 views.

Take a look for yourself:

Here are just a couple reasons why this is a bad video:

• There is no introduction or enticing “hook” that’ll make the viewer want to continue watching
• You don’t see Laurie’s face or personality, so the video loses entertainment value
• Laurie’s voice over is monotone. If she’s not excited about these cupcakes, why should the viewer be?

Combine these ingredients, and you’re left with a recipe for disaster.

And Laurie knew that - she’d be the first one to tell you that she needed guidance:

Unfortunately, the problems didn’t stop there.

In the first 6 months, the Icing Artist channel gained only 8 thousands subscribers.

That’s actually pretty decent, but those first 6 months were paradise compared to the next 2 years.

Although that’s a decent start, the channel’s growth quickly plateaued.

For weeks, Laurie worked for tons of hours just to gain birtually 0 new subscribers.

Laurie was tired of working 70-80 hour weeks, just to earn an extra $5,000 annually from her channel...

She passed up opportunities with friends and missing family dinners… all for a “2nd job” that paid less than minimum wage.

It got to the point where Laurie asked herself: Is all this worth it? Is this really what I want to be doing my whole life?

No one would blame Laurie for quitting right then and there. The future seemed so terribly bleak, and that’s when everything changed.

Jumpcut: One Last Shot at Making It

Laurie and her fiance had decided they were going to give YouTube one last shot, and it turned out to be the best decision they ever made.

But this time, they wanted some guidance from people who were already successful on the platform. No more shooting in the dark.

That’s why they enrolled in Viral Academy as soon as they physically could.

Soon, the couple was changing how they created thumbnails and titles for videos, using tactics from Viral Academy to grab her audience’s attention among the sea of videos on YouTube.

Take a look at Laurie’s old thumbnails vs. her new ones:

Given how dull and uninteresting the thumbnail is for the Halloween cupcakes, it’s no wonder it only received a few thousand views.

On the other hand, the AMAZING PRINCESS dress cakes video had bright, eye-catching colors that entices a viewer to click. It’s no wonder why this video has over 86 Million views.

More importantly, the Icing Artist channel really took off once Laurie and Kevin implemented the Viral Academy lessons about eliciting an emotional response in every video she made.

Take a look at one of her new videos and you’ll see exactly what she means:

She was challenged to create a Wonder Woman cake based on an action figure Warner Bros. sent her in anticipation of the new Justice League movie.

Unlike her Creepy Halloween cupcakes video, Laurie shows off her personality, has an energetic tone and makes it look fun to bake this cake.

You can also see Laurie is relatable, funny, and makes you feel like you can make THIS cake, even if you have never baked before.

It’s no wonder this video surpassed a million views:

The Icing on The Cake

Here are a few highlights from Laurie and Kevin’s journey:

• 2.8M YouTube Subscribers
• 500K Facebook Followers
• Featured on Local Toronto TV Show
• Laurie created a LEGO Batman cake that got 279,000 views and was featured in ELLE magazine.
• Their most popular video, “10 Princess Dress Cakes,” has over 86 million views.
• Speaking of compilations, The Icing Artist has over 25 cake compilation videos that have over 1 million views.

Most importantly, Laurie and Kevin both quit their jobs to work from home.

After years of plugging away in obscurity, The Icing Artist now generates over 300k a month.

Talk about an epic turn around.

And while the money is great, success has been more than just financial for Laurie:

Even though Laurie now has the freedom to live her dream lifestyle, she’ll still give back to the Viral Academy community:

Isn’t that awesome?

So if you’re with Laurie and don’t want to work for “the man,” take the first step in creating the freedom to live your dream lifestyle -- check out our free YouTube 101 crash course: