Why YouTube's Biggest Star Quit (Liza Koshy interview)

rereading a lot of the comments on your videos Liza and a lot of them talking about hello we'll talk about that why is the Koshi quit YouTube one of the biggest creators on the platform disappears although I was at like my peak in terms of numbers in terms of eyes and Partnerships the fastest growing YouTuber ever I just I needed me I missed me and I refused to be ignored who is ignoring you who is ignoring Liza koshy you know you're very good at what you do Isaac it's so exciting to be here with you in New York I know you're on late night shows you're doing interviews so you take the time out just means the world you made me sound way busier like I fit this in I was happy to do it and having to sit with your brilliant brain so thank you for having that thank you Eliza I know that for two and a half years you uploaded every single week and I was rereading a lot of the comments on your videos Liza and a lot of them talk about uh upload hello we'll talk about that uh don't worry we'll talk about that but a lot of them just even the ones that were dated back to when you uploaded just talk about how effortless a lot of your comedy is and I know that so much effort goes in behind the scenes can you talk a little bit about a video that you put out what is the timeline like are you scripting are these off the cuff jokes absolutely so I had two different channels going at one time I had Liza koshy and Liza koshy too and at the time I really just wanted to have premium content on Liza koshy and on the second Channel it was kind of more free you know kind of host like I didn't realize that I really was uploading my hosting reel and my acting reel so you go to each separate channels to see different facets of my perspective on the world My Lens so on Liza koshy I had a lot of sketches a lot of you know really thought out ideas that look effortless but really what's happening is weeks before I'm going to the Dollar Store and looking at each product understanding what I could do and how I can you know write a joke around a specific word on that product and raise it up to camera uh and then hopefully give a natural effortless um delivery when it comes to day of shooting so it takes some pre-production that I never really talked about so I never really gave people an inside look of what it took to create those videos because I said okay now you'll see it when it's posted like that'll be it that's the the proof wow yeah wait so you're going to the dollar store you're picking up like uh like a like a basketball what this is only 79 cents come on man it's a dollar store get this cheap stuff out of here oh my God this is a dog Obama a dog dang that's so cheap I can go balls to the wall in this place that joke was scripted absolutely wow yeah I mean there's some moments that are just like free in the moment I see something I didn't see the day before and I'll go pick it up and have fun with it but it kind of showcases my I didn't realize at the time now that I've been in the industry and have had experience and have you know been so fortunate to direct actors and to be one myself on a set now do I realize that oh I'm giving a natural delivery to something that was pre-scripted the day before like this is also showcasing that I'm able to take something and make it new again or you know give it a new fresh version of it so that's that's what you know now that I've been on set and in that frame of mind and wearing that hat I understand oh this is just acting in a different form and it's in in my own version of it yeah how do you do that by the way we just did a speaking event together for YouTube and I feel like so much of that I was like oh thank you how do you do it how did you keep it it's about you what amazed me about you is like I'm watching you during rehearsals I'm hearing it for the first time natural delivery everyone's in stitches laughing then you get on stage today and you give it for the third or fourth time and sounds just as natural maybe even more spontaneous but to me it's mind-blowing to hear that that is something you've done in your videos you walk into these places and it sounds uh just as natural how do you do that for all the people that's like you know I don't want a script I want to turn on the camera and just do it off the cuff because that's my authentic self like how do you script without making natural once the camera's turn on oh thank you for asking that I feel like it's so nice to have the bones so let me tell you my signs because I've lived in La too long I'm Aries Virgo Virgo so that means the Virgo plans the script and is very particular very specific wants things her way and the Aries is impulsive so this is my diagnosis okay I went to psychologist um basically the Aries allows me to just be super impulsive and spontaneous and allows me to you know be observational and catch things in the moment and play off of that which is what I did today jumping onto that stage you know realizing the CEO that spoke before me could be my Lauren Michaels in my SNL skit um and then applying that in the moment and yes I'm 100 pretending like this is my SNL Monologue now let me tell you how these dreams became my reality now remember how I'm pretending to host SNL right now David Cohen is Lauren Michaels in my brain whereas that wasn't a thought that I had the day before but allowing that to be free so have the bones and then you build the meat around it too and just allowing yourself to have fun with it and find the joy in it again instead of thinking I I delivered that perfectly yesterday it was in this tone this inflection you get kind of technical about it your left brain really wants to marry the success that you had with that delivery yesterday but the right brain is where it's yummy and you can find the creativity in it again and find the flow in it again so I try to make sure I stay more right brain and stay more present in it yeah a lot of meditation happens too it's very clear that I need it but uh staying present is the Ultimate key to a fresh delivery every single time yeah and the key for acting specifically is like listening and they say acting is reacting but really it's just listening and being so present which you so brilliantly are thank you Liza thank you I want to ask about another video or it seem like you're so present and honestly I would say if YouTube had a Hall of Fame of videos this would belong in it oh my gosh oh my God 73 hi we're here to be yeah well we're here to do the 73 Question Interview I heard you call them your sausage Fierce is that right my sausage my Sasha Fierce but you know the off-brand version how did you plan that video because that to me was such a catapult in your career I want to talk about all the things that happen afterwards for the two people that didn't watch that video um what was that video about take us through how are you thinking about where's that as deliberate as that Vogue is doing the 73 questions format yeah I want to replicate it like take me behind the scenes of the few days before as you prep for that absolutely so jet pack skinski uh was a character I said it like he died he still lives within me okay uh jet was a character that is kind of based off of loosely super Loosely my dad so he kind of looks like my dad a little bit if you're wondering what my father looks like I take after him his only son uh but it has a little like bowl cut and a little mustache for those who haven't seen him and he's just overly confident he's delusionally confident which is what I've banked off of for my career too so of course a part of him lives within me uh but he is just he can't do a damn thing but he thinks he can do anything and throughout the course of this like interview I'm trying to figure out what is the most confident answers what does it look like to be a man in this world who's like never been told no and if you ever heard no he heard what was that go okay keep going awesome so that's Jet and I love tapping into him because he just he has he's monotone he has no expression whatsoever and it just feels like a fun sausage Fierce to step into before going into a room and taking up space and Jet always takes up space so that's what I think Sasha Fierce does for Beyond Beyonce I think I think all a lot of performers have that Alter Ego of sorts that helps them feel like they're a superhero putting their cape on and now those are my characters yeah I had Helga who was like a more of a maternal character you know being 19 in La I was looking for that maternal you know figure from my mother being a kid still raising herself alone in LA and always had the support and you know communication with my mother but you know wanted to create a character out of that too and what did that look like so these different facets of my personality or the voices in my head took on these you know physical forms and Jet for that video specifically I just wanted to answer seven or three questions in the most confident way possible in the most absurd way possible we're watching these Vogue interviews of these incredible celebrities and actors everyone and they're answering these questions while doing the most mundane things in their home like just I don't even know what it is it's like lint rolling like maybe not even that far but you know they're just kind of like you know pouring themselves a glass of water and then drinking it or whatever it is and I wanted to see how absurd I could make this specific interview it's like him slamming the microwave and putting like a pineapple in it or him spilling milk all over himself and it was just a lot you know to to keep the audience audience's short attention span uh involved in the video too so it's just how much absurdity can we add how many layers can we add to this video Eliza I have stats here that I pulled that parody that you put out of the Vogue 73 questions format has 32 million views to date that beats out the actual Vogue videos that they did with Nicole Kidman that has 9.3 million views Reese Witherspoon 9.1 million views other folks like Roger Federer 6.6 million views what happened in the days after you uploaded that video because that started trending really quickly did Vogue reach out did other folks reach out did you feel your life changing like take me through it's trending what's going on in your life and in your inbox right afterwards life changed but like in a vacuum for me so I'm watching all this unfold online I'm watching The Views come in um and then I just stopped watching because I was in disbelief that it was really happening and so a week later I want to say or maybe a couple weeks later after that that um the viewership had gone he had surpassed somehow their videos with that that concept 73 questions that they reached out and said hey you want to do the real one like as as real you unless that is you is that you that's disturbing um so then we did the actual 73 questions hit with Vogue Liza it's Vogue oh my God this is the real one here we are in person where you've done your massively successful parodies of this format stop flirting please and in that video specifically it's so nuts that feels like such a turning point as you say because in that video I had I raised some cookies up from my oven with no oven mitt of course because they were store-bought cookies and I wrote Met Gala question mark and I rose that I love you saying you know this story don't you you did everything I know I see the notes but I uh raise those cookies up out of the oven it said Matt Galley question mark and that year I was invited to do the interviews at the Met Gala at the very top of the carpet as a Vogue red carpet correspondent a lot of questions about that before we get there how many people showed up to your house from the Vogue team oh my gosh so many people are behind the camera yeah it is um and that was pre-pandemi so they weren't condensed right right teams up in your home nobody took their shoes off do you know how crazy that is for a little child of an immigrant I'm not a mother yeah but I would smack you um I think it was like 20 no no more than that it had to at least been like a total of 45 in and out but also like Gaffers people were setting up lighting I just walked into that home too so I still have to invoice Vogue for a lot of the marks they left on my walls but uh over 40 people to put together a video that looks like such a seamless walkthrough of somebody's house in life I know and Joe is Amazing Joe conducts all the 73 questions interviews he's so brilliant he's so like connected and you're looking at the camera you're looking down the barrel the entire time so it's very hard you're here but I can't look at you it's like me answering and talking to you but looking at the camera the whole time you're like yeah yeah yeah because the camera is like the person coming into the home exactly but he's off camera right it's like his POV like I'm looking at him and I'm looking at you yeah but he's really he came up I think he conceptualized 73 questions and so I became a real big fan of him and I did I think a couple other 73 questions videos after that too yeah I mean I talk about it all the time finding that format it's repeatable especially as a media company is huge right and so I think they did a great job of it what was going through your head as you saw hey I did a video with just me and I believe David was recording right behind yes exactly three questions and then all of a sudden you're like okay this is a production team of two that got over 30 million views and now here a few weeks later he's a production team of 40. yeah absolutely let me give credit to him where credit is due because he helped me record that video I think seven times really and I'm gonna blame it on him because he kept messing up the questions and I was like that's not but I 100 messed up so many times too I almost chopped off a finger whenever I was chopping something on the counter um but seven times is the amount of times it took to execute that 73 questions video with jet it was a full there was no cut in between it was a full one single take and we kept up the pace as well as we could but that 73 questions with Vogue that took I believe three times the third time is what you saw wow yeah I mean you do it in one take they don't hide it in any way and that's like a full day versus um I think we made that in like three hours wow scripting to filming oh that scripting is like me in bed the night before just trying to figure out like tapping to the character and writing down and all my scripts on my notes that's my my notes app is where all my scripts live really I have about 20 000 plus notes wow it's so cool to hear about how much process goes into comedy and natural delivery because yeah I watched that video I'm like she did that in the first take oh man at that point it's just you're mad and you want to get through it like you've had some fights start because of it you're just trying to get it over with yeah but it was fun it was very fun so you hit upload on that video Vogue did the 73 questions uh what happened after that because to be invited to them yeah is a big deal but to host and do red carpet interviews is next level what's going on in your life after you do those 73 questions on vogue's actual Channel like how are you thinking about your career YouTube like what's going on that led to the Met Gala as the next inflection point so I had big shoes to fill uh very fashionable shoes to film my dad Andre leontally was the original Red Carpet correspondent for Vogue I believe also a friend of Anna wintours like is a massive big wig in the fashion community and God Rest his soul that we lost him this past year and uh he was amazing I watched all of those interviews in preparation for it um and I just took note from that I was also given a thick binder from both uh they really prepped me they're one of the breeziest most well-planned Productions but they gave me the biggest notebooks and I just I put that to the side and I just went on Instagram for each person gen Z and me really screamed and I you know I went and looked at the most recent happenings in each person's life um there's you know 200 plus attendees maybe more maybe I forget it's a blur so I'm you know I go to the I reference the book The Bible I um play the role of Anne Hathaway in Delaware's Prada and actually someone somebody off camera is really being my eyes and ears they're telling me Lady Gaga I'm like y'all have to tell me them I know them okay but um you know I was newer into the Fashion World at that time now I've done the research now I've had the experience now the faces and put the names of the faces and so they know mine too but I at the time it was brand new for me so I just was studying studying studying and prepping prepping prepping praying praying praying and it's it's a whirlwind but to be the first Creator to uh host the top of the red carpet is such an honor such an honor and then I came back for 2018 20 18 2019 and then 2020 of course a little pandemic hit and uh Coco set us back we were gonna do a third year I believe but instead we did like a video just yeah giving like a a full rundown of all my reactions from years prior and I still can't believe that was one of the most fine most terrifying jobs I've ever had the honor to do it is terrible I've done one red carpet interviews like at the Streamys and you're like people are coming at you it's so much chaos yeah but you not only handle it so much great like you're you're like a in the most complimentary way possible you're a shape-shifter in the way that you see somebody coming and I feel like you change your personality to match their energy yeah like what's going through your head as you see like Kanye and Kim Kardashian like walking up oh my gosh I mean I'm it's nuts I'm also that's a moment to acknowledge that the recovering people pleaser that I ever am and the relapsing people pleaser that I am as soon as someone comes up I match their energies I'm like hey how you doing you nervous me too oh my God like it's it's fine it's such a challenge but it's also I'm I'm a genuinely curious person so to be able to be in the position to ask the questions is something that I naturally take on in life anyways as do you um so I I to prep I mean Kanye and Kim specifically like Kanye said tonight's about her she looks amazing ask all the questions to her and then Kanye just stood in the background with sunglasses on didn't speak in the interview and and at the very end I just threw in a compliment towards him and made him smile and that was that was cool any other off-camera moments or things that uh stick up I just remember feeling so much more in my power and in my voice second year around I understood what was to come I understood you know the tone I understood you know slowing my pace and being all the more present the first year was such a whirlwind it felt like you know the little kid in the cafeteria where do I sit where do I go and I'm also the first you know Creator to to do this job and I want to you know set the precedent right and do it well and it's pressure to be the first sometimes but I know how much of a path it's gonna Blaze for now Emma Chamberlain who is crushing it and that we all do that for each other right like to acknowledge all creators behaving the pathway path for each other Lilly Singh broke down doors for me and I got to waltz through those and I did the same for her in some ways and Emma's done the same for me in some ways and I mentioned mentioning female creators because there's not as many as I want there to be there's a lot but there's more on the rise that like I can't wait to see where so many different hats and crowns that they deserve to wear you know that outfit that you wore at the mangala Liza I felt like you took up so much space in a good way thank you I did it was two of me yeah yeah it was like a like a Chinese fingers like trap I was stuck in that it was amazing and I feel like that's like a metaphor for what you're doing in your career right now what statements are you trying to make how are you trying to be heard in ways that you've weren't heard before yeah I mean thank you for noticing that because it is super intentional um I feel like back to a child of an immigrant mentality of nose to the pavement keep working you're silent there's also the whole idea of you know 10 years of Silence pouring in the 10 000 hours and I thought okay I'll lift my head after the 10 000 hours and then I I've fully developed my wheelhouse that's when I'll speak up no talk about the process talk about where you're at right now it's all so valuable and especially as creators creating I want to let you in and this is I think a new chapter in my career where I'm being all the more vulnerable and more open about my process and what it took to take when what it took for me to be here and I am going to steal a quote from Zendaya because she's Zendaya uh in terms of carpets in terms of me taking up space in terms of making a statement and having a bold moment I live for the moment and so does she she said I refuse to be ignored I too refuse to be ignored I will be heard and if it takes that moment on a carpet to you know have the representation of an Indian designer and represent my people in my background to bring you know a spotlight on different artists but also on my own voice of stepping into this new chapter in my career and into Womanhood people saw me grow up online I started vine when I was a junior in high school and was bored and got into YouTube and dropped out of college and fortunately it worked in my favor but I you know want to let other creators who are pursuing this path you know it's it's so valuable to to hand down what I've taught or what I've learned and what I've been taught and there's so many nuggets now that I have in my back pocket that I can give to these other creators and I'm like stretch show them your wingspan like live in this moment and and allow yourself to really absorb and be present in it because you're gonna hand it back down one day too and it's this circle of life that just keeps going we're just a newer industry and um you know a new form of artists that are are coming to be so you know hand the Nuggets down as you can I want to ask you about that nuggets but I'm also thinking about people who are listening to this and wondering who is ignoring Liza koshy she is getting millions of views yeah like for younger Generations like you are a role model like people are watching your videos yeah at that time it's just so interesting to hear you say who is ignoring you at that time you know we'll get right back to the video but first I want to thank our sponsor flavors which is a shoppable video platform started actually by my former colleague from YouTube 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and the additional incentives that flavors is offering in the next 60 days all right now back to the video I don't know if it's ignoring me so much as trying to Define me and I blame that on the definition that I wrote for myself at one time and I blame with no shame whatsoever at one point I was you know just creating a certain form of content I created the idea of what you were going to see from me the expectation I said it and I delivered and I I want to say I conquered I did well in that but I've evolved as humans do as creators do and I have a different story to tell I have a more embellished lived story to tell from 10 years ago and what people don't realize I think is is the box that I you know I built for myself I compare it kind of to um what is it like the Disney kid breaking out of that box that they were hired to be into and I kind of created my own boxes creators do for themselves and what you can expect from them and I broke out of that and it was uncomfortable for some people and it was disappointing for some people and as the recovering people pleaser that I am uh that was hard for me to you know disappoint but it was the two and a half years that I was consistently uploading on my main Channel and also my second Channel I uploaded for every single uploaded for every single week and I didn't miss any weeks and finally I took a second to realize that I was I was pressuring myself into performing in a certain way that people expected of me and I didn't see the glimmer behind my eye when you know editing spending the hours editing more than you are performing um I didn't see that glimmer in my eye anymore and I realized I was forcing myself back into a box that I was growing out of and rightfully so and I took that step back and that was from my mental health and later on we saw you know our world top world-class gymnast taking a step back for their mental health watching Trevor Noah take a step back for his own like his own lifestyle he wants to you know pursue other endeavors of his as he should um we've always given the coupon to Rihanna we've done it all like she you know is going up and and being a business entrepreneur and the brilliant CEO she is so we're allowing people to evolve and sometimes you get caught up in your own um internal dialogue that sometimes is the external dialogue in the comments but a lot of people don't realize that I my uh acting and hosting and creating ran parallel at the same time I've been acting just as long as I've been creating but what I created online my digital content had more of a magnifying glass on it I was also acting at the same time series on Hulu or series uh that I created on YouTube or series that I was so lucky to be a part of on Netflix and they grew together it just so happened that YouTube had the most eyes on it so then the title of influencer and Creator and that came to be and I I honor those those are my roots I love those I water those I will forever pull one out for those for Vine every time but also actor and producer is what I've been and host at the same time too and it just didn't have as much uh a lot of people weren't hearing that yeah at one point yeah yeah I mean I looked up your IMDb you have eight hosting credits Like Dancing with Myself with Shakira and Nick Jonas like New Year's Rock and Eve 33 acting credits yeah uh I believe you're in the Director's Guild I am in the DGA we need more female directors right you Shonda Rhimes 33 acting credits late night appearances yeah when you took that break on YouTube there was something really interesting in the video that you uploaded right after you came back you said two things that just struck me uh one you said this is the first time in your life that you felt like a success and I'm so god of the progress made because you consider myself to be sick it's the first time I've said that which I'm like what like after all those numbers yeah after all of that um and you said you have a renewed Focus like what were you thinking about during that time off um I also heard you uploaded a lot of videos that only were For You video diaries what were the themes of those videos like that you're telling yourself as you took time off to kind of have this renewed Focus for your next chapter yeah I mean such a weight and worth placed on those quantities the number that felt so much like my sense of self and my my worth and what I was able to bring or achieve was so tied to my value it was so tied to the societal success was the numbers versus individual success was my mental health and my place of peace and and discovering myself in my early 20s so I've been creating from the age of 19 to 22 is already such that those years are such transitional moments in your own Evolution too so you're stepping into your own you're you know you're unlearning what was taught in your childhood because that might not have necessarily been your your souls terms and conditions that you needed to abide by the way your parents taught you so you're teaching yourself all over again as a young adult but I'm also doing all of that on camera too and then expected to be a role model of sorts and be setting the pace for you know younger kids watching me so it felt like a lot of pressures all at once yeah and although I was at like my peak in terms of numbers in terms of eyes in terms of uh you know Partnerships I just I needed me I missed me and lost that version of me and I missed her so I decided to take that step back and take that step away and I think it really part of the work is the rest and I needed that rest and I did it at first with the mentality of oh I'm gonna rest so I can get back to work and that is yeah that is the brown kid for sure I'm gonna rest so I can get back at it and I you know I changed that mentality to more of a meditative one to one that I took a seat back and I acknowledged my accomplishments and I wasn't doing that I was moving at a thousand miles per minute where I wasn't acknowledging you know how much how many dreams had come true that I realized or that I didn't realize would ever come true at all and I wasn't celebrating myself I was just being so hard on myself I had a really tough inner dialogue for a while and yeah I couldn't I couldn't you know put on a face anymore and and be that for other people if I couldn't even be that for myself and how hypocritical would that be so I would be doing myself a disservice to continue being what I was and not creating the quality of content that I wanted to create so yeah I lost that spark and I wanted to regain it again and I feel like I have in a totally different way and I'm so lucky to have the clarity and to have the peace of mind and to have you know deeper connections with my friends and family and faith that I watered during that time and are still consistently watering and it's your constant work in progress and Masterpiece at the same time one of the other things that a lot of people don't know about that you did during this break is you started production on your own show lies on demand it's actually a really big reason for the break because there was so much going on with lies on demand that I was like I'm being demanded everywhere I can and I want to ask about the writer's room specifically can you take me on the inside of the writer's room like what was going on and and what were you thinking after being a solo writer for your videos for so many years now having a team like how many people are in the room yeah how do you think about ideas and that changed your perspective like you know what doing a solo I don't know if I'm going to go back to that this is what I see as a future of how to extend my creativity yeah uh writer's room consists of a wall and spaghetti and it's everybody throwing everything everywhere all at once um trying to create and conceptualize episodes for a show and then from there the writers take that and run home and uh you know whip up a script and then bring it back get the notes like it is such a process that is far different than me and my thumbs in my bed with on the notes app that was all I was doing previously and then to be exposed to that experience of such collaborative nature of such fun of like going out afterwards and having drinks and then having friends and having you know still conceptualizing after a couple of shots like you're you're creating magic with people it's like being you know like in a music studio and it's like being in your closet you know recording music which is a freaking way to start go at it do it whatever way it takes for you but uh to going to a studio and having lunch and kicking it and throwing around ideas and having magic and having somebody take your idea and run with it to the next one and embellish it and um just there's so much ooey gooey yummy goodness that comes from a writer's room and so many brilliant brains that have so much more experience than you do or come from a different perspective and our cultural Consultants of their own cultural and ethnic backgrounds too so you can make sure you're having a proper representation of you know this person's voice this person's experience um so there's so much respect and honesty there is the room you want filled with no men and no women and no people and you want people to shoot down ideas so that they can create better ones and there was nobody I was working in a vacuum so I was working in within my own the echo chambers of my own mind and I was so Aries independent with it of course that I never showed cuts to my family really I never showed my YouTube videos to my friends so much um and I didn't get the you know the the collaborative nature that I did in that writer's room I loved it I got bit by the bug and now I yeah I can't stop hearing about the writers what makes me think about how so many people try to pit traditional media and social media against one another yeah the lines are blurred honey yeah they're gone and you've lived in both worlds yeah what's one thing that you think traditional media gets right that social media creators don't understand or maybe get wrong oh damn I'm boo-boo today I'm about to mention the age of Aquarius we are moving sorry girl the stars are speaking to me um we are moving into like an age and I think it's just I think you can tell on social media too I think after um a massive social Awakening that was much needed in 2020 too I think there was uh the realization that we work better as a community as a whole as a together versus the age of the individual and that being um you know there was such a focus on Independence on the rise of one and there can only be one on even women in the industry there can only be one of this one of that um and I think we're you know widening our table I think we're the most invites ever are sent out I think everybody's welcome I think that's what we're trying to do it's what the goal is I think that's what traditional media can do really well social media I think we still tend to pit women against other women in some sort of way I think we're still trying to pit people against other people where why can't both exist at the same time we don't know we don't need you know this person versus this person they both have so much to offer and are so brilliant in their own right and both of their voices deserve to be Amplified and heard so why not let everybody to speak everybody gets that mic I think traditional uh has notes of that sometimes but I think they're I think from through my experience at least I've had such a collaborative community and creative Community um versus the one that I had uh online with myself or uh the experiences I've heard about or that I've seen online so yeah I think they get that yeah what's one thing on the flip side Liza that you know traditionally has evolved a lot what's one thing that they could learn from social media creators like yourself as you step into the room Trust trust creators when it comes to the voices that they've honed and the abilities and the form of Storytelling they've developed like when it comes to Brands trusting a Creator let them let them speak through the lens they have created trust with their audience with you know an example of that I almost said it you saw me thinking about it did you saw my eyes turn left and think about the numbers I feel like a lot of your brand deals like you're like it's in your voice oh yeah uh I was even questioning right now because they wouldn't let me say the word vagina for a product that I was you know uh advertising essentially um and it was a product's for your vagina and they wouldn't let me say that and as a woman who talks openly about her experience with her period why not like that just seemed so absurd to me that you create for this and yet it's a it's a tainted word to say um yeah that just blew my mind that that that wasn't allowed and I think there should be more trust instead of a box to fill once again is what you're supposed to do or check these boxes no let's make this a collaborative process let me tell you what's worked for me and why this is going to work for you I really had to Advocate once for a character I created to uh you know work with a brand and I knew this character was going to tell it through an enthusiastic passionate lens versus it just coming directly from me and there's a lot of power in it coming directly from me yeah it was a more yeah recent character that was based on my mom was kind of like a southern belle raisin Hill and uh I uh I loved that vehicle for you know this format and I really had to show like you'll see the proof is in the pudding the proof is in my audience understanding that this is something that I do and something that is a form of entertainment but also they'll actually understand the product better through this character than me and so when you have that you know Niche audience you've created that understands you when you have that group of friends essentially that understands you they're gonna know the language that you all speak in the group chat they're going to know the language you all speak um online in that community so yeah trust do you use the creators do you ever say no to a brand that you're like that that gave you significant sums that you're like you know oh yeah oh I was given I was given um right you could do whatever you want I was giving because I left YouTube at one point and I was like Wow you went for the big bucks didn't you girly YouTube creators they work they they they they make make and that wasn't something that was a priority for me it was more so the quality for me so I've said no to large sums to small sums it's not about the sums for me it's about what's the final product look like when we collaborate together yeah and that's not me trying to be higher than in any kind of way it genuinely is I want to put good out there I don't want to I want to be proud of what we've created and I want to be able to talk about it afterwards with pride um so yeah I have said no it's fun saying no Eliza how big was your team at the height of your YouTube career and how big is your team today because I think you're talking a lot about community and not doing it alone how big is your team today yeah I mean it started with big old group of friends back in the day uh creating videos together so I mean it was less of of a collaborative effort for my channel um it was something I would like would sneak off and go do in the depths of the night because I just loved creating characters and sketches and and writing those scripts um at the height of it though you know I had I had the joys of working with Westbrook at one point I had a team there like you'll see always in the credits if somebody else is editing someone else has collaborated in some way I give credit where credit is due so that is in there yeah being Will Smith's Media Company exactly and that arm yeah yeah so we I think I'd have a total of a check last night I'm not gonna say think I have 142 videos so about 20 or how many episodes of lies on demand was about 26 episodes total um massive collaborative effort of course yeah hundreds of people behind that um it was a massive family for three years uh three seasons and then prior to that was a little Westbrook situation so we would have you know uh small Productions like you and will like going jet skiing like those videos yeah that was on his channel though that was him yeah uh I was just featured I was just just a co-star and then a lot of videos I I I wrote and and yeah scripted and edited and produced and posted by myself and so those were moments like that that I didn't really celebrate those like wins yeah because I was just doing it solo I I didn't have a moment to be like okay to watch it with the community of of the people who are actually watching they were just numbers to me and little do I realize they're real amazing humans of course real quick we'll get right back to the video but I want to say thank you to another one of our sponsors Creative Juice you know the hardest part about being a Creator today is honestly not the stuff you see on camera it's the stuff that happens off of it I'm talking about the finances the operation just the day-to-day of running a Creator business and that's where Creative Juice comes in simply put juice is a One-Stop shop for all your business needs as a Creator they provide business funding Banking and tax tools and best of all a community for creators they just launched juice club in fact which is a great members only Community for creators where you'll get a lot of benefits like Advanced bookkeeping tools priority Creator support exclusive events and Community monthly AdSense advances and so much more and best of all you get it all in one place for an affordable monthly price that's tax deductible so check out the link below to get started and now back to the video I feel like you've voice acted in your videos and your character for so many years now now you're voice acting on the big screen yeah RC in the new Transformers movie what were you doing to prepare for that live how are you training are you like in like your room like practicing different intonations like just oh yeah through the sounds and some of the things you were doing to prepare for that role absolutely it's pure chaos and a voice acting Booth I mean you're just losing all entirely you're emoting you're big but for RC I mean that's the work that I've done so lucky to have done with Disney on these like tiny characters with big voices or I'm a I'm a reporter of some sort and the inflection is crazy and it's just fun to be able to experiment in those ways but for RC specifically I worked out for the role I worked out do not be on camera I uh I hope you can hear in the inflection in my voice how freaking ripped I am that I'm shredded uh she's such a powerful character and she is the first female Autobot to be featured in a live action Transformers movie so that first once again I'm so honored and the fact that she stands for so much that she is such a disciplined like dynamic character who has her backstory to uh she is she's kind of like she gets all the boys together she's like come on y'all get Jack together which is really me and among my boyfriends that sounded like I date heavy I do um me among my guy friends I'm like come on y'all it's always a woman to to reel everybody in um and lead the charge which is what she does and so I'm so honored to be able to play such a powerful figure like her but she uh she's she's toned I mean she's she's a well-oiled machine is what she is and they designed her beautifully the animators knew what they were doing and we are looking and we are admiring respectfully but she's beautiful and so to step into like a lower register is is really fun for me to like feel powerful and be down here and calling the shots and can you give a few lines in her voice Optimus she really does say Optimus like that um I like I wish I'm putting you on the spot you don't know you really are I want to remember the voice actress I'm forgetting her name I'll have to do my research and honor her properly but the voice actors really before me that voice Darcy she gave me some big old shoes to try and fill she had a gorgeous voice for RC and I had to lube it up and really just drink all the honey and tea and everything to be down here and be commanding uh but I don't have a line for you no that's a spoiler I signed an idea you have to watch the movie I can't wait to see it Eliza your bio sticks out to me like you said you're just a little brown girl with Big Dreams yeah as we look ahead what's your biggest dream let's say we're talking in five years you're looking at your accomplishments your Milestones what have you done and how are people talking about Liza koshy man so many dreams have come true that I'm I mean I now you're being too humble what are the projects I know you have big dreams like I do like are there certain things like you want to be on the Oscar stage one day like you want to like like are there certain things like you've been part of part of so many Hallmark parts of culture I mean like doing Nickelodeon is double dare doing Rock and Eve like humble gets you to hide me up so I'm gonna keep doing it and tell them more tell them more about what I've done I mean I could go through all your acting credits so you've been on the late night shows what's one thing that you're like I need to check that off yeah I want to do that like you're you're so intentional there's something that you're looking to add to your resume as you look at this new chapter Eliza 2.0 I mean I think this is everybody and their mother in the creative industry and especially having the sketch background that I have and playing characters and loving that SNL all the way wow I mean I thought that was a path at one point watching that growing up I thought okay I have to audition and then I think Quinta Brunson said it best you know all I did was write a show and win Emmys and Golden Globes and well now I'm here hosting SNL so if that's a path for me that would be an honor to you know follow in in her stuff but like you know the Issa Rays the Quinta brunsons the creators of the world that have really broken down the ideas of what it means to be a Creator in both traditional and digital um would be honored but I'm gonna do it the Liza koshy way um and SNL would be an absolute dream to write that monologue to you know Jimmy's feeling sick one day from the Oscars to fill his shoes in some way like I'll I'll call it I'll I'll uh manifest it in some way but I really wanna get more in behind you know Productions and and produce more you know use my DGA membership well keep it active you have to keep it active so some directing tell a story do a musical I'm heavily inspired by lin-manuel like um I yeah I think there's it feels like so many dreams have come true at this point that you know why not keep keep dreaming and someone told me recently Natalie Johnson was her name she's here uh today and she just dropped a gem on me and I'm gonna repeat it for the rest of my life she said dreaming is a skill and honing that skill and honing that craft is something that I've been doing and will continue doing and we'll teach others to dream as big as they possibly can do and any other final nuggets you mentioned those you mentioned a lot through those things that you want to leave creators with well this is such a name drop you ready to catch it uh I heard this quote when I was hanging out with Michelle Obama got it cut it um Momo and I were hanging out and she someone next to her actually said when you feel like giving up remind yourself of the reason you got started and I heard that at such an inflection point in my own life where I was genuinely reminding myself of the joy that I had as the kid in my own living room my own bathroom my own car and um I just I'm recently taken back to like the other day where a kid said oh Vine oh that's before my time I was like you uncultured swine pop get out of my face like kids don't know Vine now but that's where it all started for me 10 years ago so yeah I downloaded it just for fun just as like a group message among my friends and you know my studio was my car my studio was my bathroom not realizing it was a studio where that would be in this one today um but it just evolved it took on a life of its own over the past decade and I had the approval of my dad because I'm the youngest child and had that privilege so he kicked this little experiment to the curbs of LA and said know what will happen if we let this one go Rogue and I went wrong not initially right you studied yeah like he asked you to delete your followers right and then you went off to your first year in college yes um I want to ask about like what made him turn because you mentioned like his support and I was listening to a podcast that you did where you very quickly mentioned a car ride home from the airport yes where your dad was taking you home from your freshman year yeah I had to I had to and he's like you know what Liza if this is what you want to do yeah you should become a Creator full-time oh my God verbatim that's exactly what he said we had a phone call before this yeah yeah yeah what did you say that is my free call yeah um why do you think he had that turn of heart what were you doing in that time especially because I think there's so many creators to try to convince their parents absolutely to do this full-time and you did it in one year what happened there with your dad what was that conversation that car ride home about you say turn of heart but I think it was always in my dad's heart my mom and dad uh met in theater so they're both theater kids at heart who made three obnoxious little kids and I was really lucky to have the influence that was my middle sister and was really lucky that she also tattled on me and brought my phone to the table and said there's a bunch of strangers following her on the internet we're gonna have to go through one by one and delete them dad and Dad's like yes at absolutely this is this is creepy your my daughter's making videos on the internet for free and strangers are following her no one at a time blocked every single one and it wasn't until a year later that I was on a uh tour at a university um Emory University be to be super my sister went right yeah yeah yeah yeah I almost did but then I didn't because our tour was being followed by another group of kids another tour was happening behind my own tour and these were kids that were following me online and said you know they came up to me and introduced themselves and said I really appreciate the work that you're doing online I love your videos can we take a picture together and so we had this moment where we took this photo and my dad's just kind of observing from the side trying to understand what's going on and it was in that moment ironically at University where he said you don't have to go to university let's figure out what this is I give you my endorsement you know let's let's figure out this path for you since it's happening clearly and I still remind myself of that that making that child Liza at 19 with dreams proud so it's always tapping back into that and honoring where you came from and doing so with my dad and mine with my family and mind with my faith in mind um just keep pushing keep striving with your sisters with everyone thank you for getting started I don't know if you have any other final words but Liza I am so excited to see you one day I have no doubt that SNL Monologue is going to happen I'm gonna try we're gonna manifest it and uh I'm so excited to evolve thank you this new chapter thank you for all that you'll do so thank you for coming on the show thank you you too John I love your story I'm gonna pick his brain once the cameras are up but you are just so brilliant so thank you so much for taking the time the diligence y'all don't see this iPad but it is full of notes and this man listens to podcasts on 3x speed Sean Evans listens to 2x being sure um you do the work and so that that shines through and I'm so appreciative of being seen as a human behind the scenes too I think your best Liza thank you so much it's a wrap on Liza cozy all right

Channel: Jon Youshaei

Views: 1,482,625

Keywords: marketing, creativity, youshaei, jon youshaei, creators, creator economy, jonathon youshaei, instagram employee, youtube employee, youtube

Id: vjI_ZhCHDnU

Length: 48min 8sec (2888 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023