This Full-Time Harvard Student Went From 0-250K Subscribers in 1 Year with Sienna Santer

What’s the TRUE power of a niche? You hear so often that picking a niche is super important, but how much of a difference does it really make? Our guest this week, lifestyle YouTuber Sienna Santer started vlogging her experience with #dormlife at Harvard and virtually overnight became a viral success. We’re peeling back all the layers and exposing every single detail. No stone will be left unturned!

“Who cares if I stand out a little bit, I’m here to do something different.”

Sienna was always passionate about filming and editing videos for her friends and family from all the YouTubers she enjoyed watching. So when she took her gap year and traveled, she decided to throw up a few videos. They didn’t do great for her growth, but she enjoyed the process. When she moved into Harvard, she filmed her moving and dorm room decoration and thought she’d make a vlog one day, but with a new school and environment, time got away from her and she shelved that idea. That was until December. She edited together the videos she filmed on her iPhone and uploaded it. It went viral. Within a week it got over a million views - it’s sitting at over 5 million views right now. In 2 weeks she went from 2k to 35k subscribers. Now she has over 332k subscribers!

“I have a really loyal fanbase that supports me no matter what I do.”

People were hungry for her Harvard student perspective, and not many people were sharing it. So that was the niche she decided to stay in and dominate. She had an opportunity being a new student to speak to an audience that wants to go to Harvard themselves one day, or who wants to know what it’s like from someone seeing everything for the first time. As she levels up, there’ll be more and more opportunities to show different perspectives as she herself changes. One thing we need to pause and remember is that there are many viral hits that go extinct when the fame dies down. But she’s done what all of them wish they could do: turn those curious viral viewers into an ongoing raving and caring fanbase who want to know about HER - the person. We’ll be talking about how she did that in this episode, and so much more. Enjoy!

“You’re not always going to be perfect. You’re going to slip up, and there’s a beauty in that.”

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