--- title: 'Smoothie on YouTube Career, Failed $25K Video, and Michelle Phan''s Advice' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=t8U5h21KKoc' video_id: 't8U5h21KKoc' date: 2026-07-17 --- # Smoothie on YouTube Career, Failed $25K Video, and Michelle Phan's Advice > Source: [Smoothie on YouTube Career, Failed $25K Video, and Michelle Phan's Advice](https://youtube.com/watch?v=t8U5h21KKoc) ## Summary In this interview, YouTuber Smoothie discusses his channel, the moment he realized YouTube could be a career, and the balance between passion projects and videos that perform well. He shares a costly failure and the best advice he received from fellow creator Michelle Phan. ### Key Points - **Who is Smoothie?** [00:00] — Smoothie runs an animated story time channel focused on lifestyle content. - **Career-Defining Moment** [00:30] — The YouTube check from 'Confessions of a Disney Employee' made him realize he could make YouTube his career. - **Balancing Passion and Performance** [01:15] — Smoothie spent $25,000 on a video he thought would be a hit, but it flopped. He learned from the failure and views it as data. - **Audience and Platform Shifts** [02:30] — He adapts content for different devices: phones during the day, TVs at night. - **Impact on Viewers** [03:10] — A fan told Smoothie his advice 'do not race' became their conscience, which fuels his motivation. - **Best Advice from Michelle Phan** [04:00] — Michelle Phan advised Smoothie to focus on story times, as they are timeless compared to trend-based content like 'is it cake?' ### Conclusion Smoothie emphasizes learning from failures and staying true to storytelling, which he believes is the foundation of lasting content. ## Transcript Who are you and what is your channel about? >> Smoothie and I talk about lifestyle, but mostly it's just animated story time. >> Was there a moment where you knew you could make YouTube your career? >> When I dropped Confessions of a Disney Employee, that check was like, oh, wow, I can buy electronics from anywhere with this money. So, yeah, that that was Confessions of a Disney Employee one. >> Sometimes there's a video that we know is going to bang, but we're not into it as much versus like a passion project that we're not sure it's going to get views. How do you balance that? >> how real do y'all want to get on this? >> Really real. >> I spent $25,000 on a video that I thought was going to slap and it flopped. But, also, these bad things happen and you learn from them. Think about how strong you get when bad things happen and you overcome them and you rise from them. Everything is data and knowledge. So, I took that knowledge and now I'm trying, you know, just learn from it and build from it. >> A lot of people are watching YouTube on television right now. Do you think about that when you're making your videos? >> I have a routine now. When I started in 2005, 2006, it was like, okay, they're watching on their laptops and their desktops. And then it was like, oh, shoot, now they're on their phone. And that was like, all my friends, everybody I know had the routine like, when we're during the day, phone. At night, always TV. >> Yeah, yeah. We have a lot of families, a lot of kids watching YouTube. What do you hope they get out of your channel? >> I'm always trying to be the big brother that I never had. A guy came up to me yesterday and I'm glad this happened because in my brain I'm like, I don't know if this is hitting. The advice I give my friends, they ignore it all the time. So, I always wonder it's like, is this landing with anybody? And the guy came up to me, he was like, Smoothie, the video you made about your friends watch Did he say your name? The video you made about saying, do not race? >> Yeah. >> Anytime anybody pulled up to me at the light, they're like, it's do not race. I hear that in my head from your videos. Like, your conscience My conscience is your voice. So, when I hear people say that, bro, that's that's the fuel that keeps me going now. >> What's the best advice another creator's ever given you about YouTube? >> Ooh, I would say Michelle Phan. When I first started out, uh, she said story times. She was like, Smoothie, no matter what you're doing, it's great to follow trends, but story times will be around forever. If you have a good story, I mean, they were telling stories back back back in the day. They were drawing stuff on the walls telling stories. So, keep in that lane and you'll be set. She was like, "We're cutting hot knife through whatever or is this really cake or is this really real?" That's going to be done in about 2 years, but your story times will last forever. That was the best advice I ever got.