The beauty influencer shares what inspired him to work in the industry, going from 120,000 followers to a million in four months, and more.
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00:00Honestly, I was like 11 years old when I had my first YouTube channel talking about perfume,
00:05talking about fragrance, talking about makeup.
00:07It always just felt like my calling.
00:09What's up everyone? It is Thea Dennis from BeautyCon,
00:13and I'm so excited to interview Paul Reacts for our CreatorsLane interview today.
00:18Hey beauties, it's Paul Reacts, and thank you for watching my CreatorsLane interview.
00:22What inspired you to work in this industry?
00:25I think it goes down to me being so young and being so inspired by all of the beauty creators
00:32that I would have seen growing up on YouTube, on Instagram, when Instagram first started to
00:37come around in 2012. And I think just seeing the light inside of beauty and just seeing how
00:44positive it could be and how much of a positive impact it could have on other people,
00:49I think that that was something that had such a positive impact on me.
00:53Wanting to create content wasn't just something that I woke up one day and I was just like,
00:58I'm going to create content. It went on for so long watching these creators and seeing how these
01:03creators made such a name for themselves. These creators are getting these such amazing opportunities,
01:08but also just seeing their love for their audience and their support to their audience,
01:14that was something that really stood out to me. I was a fan before I was a creator,
01:20because I'm still a massive fan of so many creators who are humongous and I look up to them.
01:28I'm still a fan. I know what that feels like to love a creator so much and to respect their
01:34opinion. It started at such a young age. Honestly, I was 11 years old when I had my first YouTube
01:41channel talking about perfume, talking about fragrance, talking about makeup. I probably had
01:48five YouTube channels after that, but I deleted all of them. They were all so embarrassing,
01:55horrible quality content. It was not up to par. I was like, shit, no, not good.
02:02I always had beauty content out, beauty fragrance content. It always just felt like my calling. It
02:08just felt like something that it was so fun for me. I think that that was the beginning of it.
02:13It just all started off so, so fun. So if you could describe your career journey
02:19thus far in three words, what would they be? Intense,
02:29humble, and
02:33strong. I feel like it was really intense. It takes 10 years to make an overnight success.
02:48I did this for so long, created content around beauty, fragrance. It was intense the way it
02:56kicked off, how it was doing this for so long and you don't find your niche. You're just floating
03:04around. It was like I found this series which started the Duke Perfume Fragrance series that
03:14was really popular. It was like my Miss Girl series. I found that and it was within four
03:19months, we went from 120,000 followers to a million followers, which is mind-blowing. That's
03:26crazy. I haven't seen that happen to a lot of people. That is absolutely wild.
03:33Speaking of that, what keeps you motivated and inspired throughout your career as you're growing
03:40and expanding? I love that question. My audience. The love that I receive is like no other. I
03:48never thought that I would have an audience, let alone an audience that loves me, that cares for
03:53me. They'll DM me at random. I'll get random DMs and be like, hey, I seen your last video and you
03:58wasn't smiling or you didn't scream. Are you okay? I'm like, oh my God. I was just tired. I promise
04:04I'm good. I'm good, y'all. I was just tired. It's very much that. I'm so blessed and grateful to
04:11have people who enjoy my content. I thought I would never get to a state to where people do.
04:15It's my audience every day. Every day I wake up, I know that I have to film a video, edit a video,
04:20upload a video to know that I'm doing something for my audience compared to what they've done for
04:25me and what they've given to me, the opportunities they've given to me. It feels like even making a
04:31million videos a day would never be enough to repay them. How have you been able to build a
04:36personal brand that lasts past just the virality and the views and the likes?
04:43Yeah, I think having an honest, transparent relationship with your audience and having
04:50your audience get to know you. When your audience gets to know you and when your audience
04:55has a connection with you, it goes beyond them just supporting you. They feel like they become
05:03one with your videos. For instance, I watched Emma Chamberlain for so, so long. When you watch
05:10her videos after so long, you're immune to what she's doing. You're in there and you just feel
05:15like you're involved in the content. That's one thing. She's another massive inspiration. She
05:21built from doing small little vlogs on YouTube to now hosting the freaking Met Gala in New York
05:29City. That's insane. I think it just takes being an honest person, loving what you do.
05:38And a lot of people go viral for really crazy moments. I think that when someone goes viral
05:44for, let's say, a certain makeup trend, it's hard to keep that virality to go out consistently
05:52throughout their career because that one makeup trend was popular in that moment.
05:56But I feel like if you engage with your audience correctly and if you take your audience from that
06:02one trend and you try to interact with them with other trends, other ways, other videos,
06:08it could easily lead to them finding you from that one video and then becoming one of your
06:13biggest supporters, fans, followers. I think that anyone who has the right intention on social media
06:25and anyone who has a heart of gold will eventually definitely see the other side
06:34of social media where it definitely works in their favor for sure.
06:39So what steps do you take to ensure that the products and brands you endorse or recommend
06:45align with your personal beliefs and values?
06:49Oh my God. Yeah, absolutely. That's something that I feel like I've worked so hard on and I
06:54feel like there's been so many opportunities that I've had to work with certain brands that
06:58I've never really aligned with to where I was like, why would they reach out to me? There's
07:03so many other people that they could reach out to that would work for them. Not to throw anybody
07:08under the bus, but there was this strictly male beauty product company and I was like,
07:15I love, you know, I love my Charlotte Tilbury and that's sold, you know, I'm fine with that.
07:24Um, so I, I was kind of like turned off by that and I just feel like you have to always keep it
07:28100% true to yourself and you have to think to yourself, would I go out and purchase this product
07:33with my own money before I accept this deal? Would I go out and, you know, see somebody or would I
07:38go on TikTok and see somebody talk about this product? Would I be inspired to go out and
07:42purchase it? And I really feel like brands make it really, really simple and easy with what they
07:49give you, you know, to kind of give you like a brief of what the video should be about. If it's
07:55like a themed video, if it's about like a mother's day video, if it's a father's day video, if it's,
07:59you know, a wedding inspired video, or if it's a Valentine's day video. So they always give you
08:03a brief to kind of go off. But I also feel like you have to know that it will fit within your
08:07content. Don't talk about something that doesn't fit within your content. What is a common
08:11misconception about the work that you do? I personally feel like when it comes to influencers,
08:17we see them post brand deals and sponsored content. And we kind of just ignore it, we kind of just
08:23like let it run flat. And I think that that's kind of hurtful, because we want to see our,
08:29you know, favorite influencers continue to make our favorite types of content. And I feel like
08:34influencers, when you're inside of this work, you kind of have to
08:38devote certain times in certain parts of your life to really make sure that you flourish in
08:43this industry, because it's very much about, you know, timing and place and making sure that you're,
08:49you know, constantly online with your schedule and constantly online with your audience. I feel like
08:55a really big misconception is that, you know, and of course, this only goes for what I know myself
09:03and some other people. But, you know, a lot of influencers are kind of joining on trying to be
09:12an influencer for money. And I think that that's a really, really horrible way to kind of join into
09:19the influencer community. Because you don't automatically become an influencer and you get
09:25rich overnight. It honestly doesn't, it never happens like that. It takes so long inside of
09:32this to even, you know, start to receive a little tiny baby little paycheck from any sort of brand
09:39when doing this. And I think a really big massive misconception is that people automatically assume
09:45that you're, you know, trying to excuse my French, but like kiss ass a little bit to certain brands
09:50when you are nicer to brands, or when you may talk about them a little more frequently. And,
09:54you know, I think truth of the matter is, it's just like, I know what brands my audience likes.
10:00And those are the brands that I, you know, tend to prefer as well as my audience likes those brands.
10:05And if my audience loves to see me talk about, let's just say like Bath and Body Works. Why would
10:10I not if I love Bath and Body Works? Why am I not going to talk about them? Why am I not going to go
10:14ahead and, you know, want to work with them because I had this like manifestation board, where I wrote
10:20down how bad I wanted to work with Bath and Body Works on a video. And last year, my manager made
10:27it happen. So it was like, that was something that I was like, this feels like I worked, like I truly
10:34worked so hard for this one particular campaign. And I feel like going into every campaign being
10:40like that being excited about every brand that you work with is something that's so important.
10:44What has been your biggest career challenge thus far? And how have you worked through it?
10:49My biggest career challenge was being inside of the industry for so long without making any
10:57movements and without really making an impact. And that's fine. You know, I think that it was
11:05something, you know, when they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, being denied
11:09partnerships, being denied, you know, PR opportunities or brands saying simply like,
11:15oh, you're not good enough for our content, or simply you're not good enough. And we have
11:21certain criterias that we need to fit. That was something that, you know, a lot of times that
11:28would want me to be like, okay, I'm never if I'm not good enough now, why would I be good enough
11:32in two years from now. And I feel like that was something that I really had to overcome was like
11:36self doubt because of certain experiences that to be honest, now that I think about it, I'm like,
11:42yeah, at the time, maybe my, you know, content of my quality wasn't certified to be,
11:47you know, their criteria. But it, you know, what didn't kill me made me stronger. And everything,
11:55every door that closed, led to another door opening. And, you know, almost 10 years inside
12:02of this industry talking about perfumes online. It, you know, it really does take so long to get
12:09an overnight success. It doesn't have, you know, an overnight success doesn't actually happen
12:13overnight. It takes years and years of work for an overnight thing to happen for you to get there.
12:19That's how it was with my, with my career. And, you know, on social media, I posted a few videos
12:24that I posted a few videos on this one particular series that I made with the miss bro perfume
12:30series, all of that, you know, finding the new perfumes. And I made like three videos inside
12:35of the series. And each video was around was under 100,000 views. So they were doing okay,
12:42like they were performing better than average at the time for my content. And then I waited and I
12:48was just like, okay, maybe people don't care about this as much as I think that they do. Because it
12:53was like three videos back to back, they were performing well. And then I uploaded one, nobody
12:57cared about it. And I was just like, Oh, nobody cares about this series anymore. I'm going to
12:59stop this Miss girl series. One month later, I was I was looking at my drafts. And I was like,
13:07what do I have to post? I don't have anything to post today. I need to upload a video. I don't feel
13:11like filming. I don't feel like getting ready. I need to post something. And I came across this one
13:16video of me talking about, you know, this, this Bath and Body Works fragrance from that series.
13:23And it was just all twined together. And I was just like, why didn't I ever upload this? This
13:26is so good. I'm going to upload this. And I'm not lying to you. I uploaded it. And within like two
13:31hours, it had a million views. Within like four hours, it had 2 million views. And it just
13:36continued to grow and grow. And it was like, the comments that I started to receive, I didn't
13:41realize that people were going to want this to be a trend. Or I didn't realize that people would
13:44want me to go out and try and find, you know, a perfume that smells similar to their favorite
13:49discontinued perfume. I had no clue that that was something that people was interested in. I just
13:54thought that people simply wanted a more affordable option for perfumes. I didn't know
13:58that there was such a large, large amounts of people who wanted to know, you know, how do I
14:04smell like this perfume, but more affordable? Or how do I make how do I smell like this perfume,
14:08but make it last longer? And I feel like, yeah, that happened overnight. And you can find me
14:15across all social media platforms at Paul Reacts with two S's.