Creator Spotlight: Jimmy Zhang, @downbadshow

Our team was lucky enough to sit down with Jimmy Zhang (@downbadshow) and chat with him about being a creator and how he's found success on Fanhouse.

Jimmy has been using Fanhouse for the past eight months to provide extended cuts and behind-the-scenes content for his subscribers, along with exclusive access to a Fanhouse-only Discord, among a number of other offerings.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Fanhouse (FH): Thanks for taking the time to speak with us! Tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got your start as a creator.

Jimmy Zhang (JZ): I make videos where I go out there and I show guys how to beat social anxiety, and how to talk to women, and be an approachable person.

I started off doing relatable videos about being Asian and about being a nerd. And then it kind of transitioned into just raunchy, straight interview questions. And that kind of transitioned into [videos about] picking up girls.

And that's how I actually leveraged into Fanhouse's concept because it's like, oh, [my subscribers] want to see full interactions of how, from beginning to end, I grab a girl’s number.

FH: What made you want to start creating?

JZ: I guess in the very beginning, I wanted to make YouTube videos because I wasn't good at anything else. So, like, I was in school for communications, and I had no internships that summer. I remember I applied to three, and then I got one interview and then I got turned down.

So I was like, “Oh bet, I didn't like doing jobs anyways.” I gravitated towards YouTube because I watched a lot of YouTube growing up. I knew I wanted to kind of tap into the entertainment field because that was something that always interested me because I felt like Asians lacked a lot of representation in like the media.

So I wanted [to be] either in front of the camera or behind the camera; I was just so intrigued by the whole industry and business. And I think in the beginning those were all some good reasons as to why I wanted to kind of start a YouTube channel.

FH: You’ve been in content creation a while. What exactly drew you to Fanhouse, when there are a few other monetization platforms out there?

JZ: Yeah, yeah, I tried Patreon.

FH: How was that?

JZ: It didn't turn out good. When I started Patreon, I didn't have a business sense of how to monetize something that people would want. You have to be very insightful about what your audience needs and wants and what they would want to pay for.

That’s why not everyone succeeds on something like Fanhouse or exclusive, subscription-based platforms. You have to know your audience and know what they would click on and what's going to be enticing enough for them to buy.

FH:  Got it. So with that in mind, when did you start seeing success on Fanhouse?

For me, I saw a big uptick in my Fanhouse subscriptions when I made this gym video. 97% about my audience are guys between like 18 to 34, then you start breaking it down like, okay, "what do they need?"

They need to go to the gym; they need to make more money. A lot of guys [also] probably watch my videos to get out of their comfort zone and to be more social.

So I'm like, "I will teach you how to do that on Fanhouse." I will show you exactly how, before the edit, before the cut.

FH: Do you have any advice for aspiring creators who want to check Fanhouse out?

JZ: You got to treat every moneymaking thing as a business. If you don't water it, it's not going to grow.

I would probably start with: know exactly what you're selling. Know the audience that you're selling it to, and just have a really good sense of that, and how to construct different offers for [your subscribers] to buy. Just treat Fanhouse like a business.

FH: What's been the coolest thing you've gotten out of your Fanhouse journey?

JZ: Recently, I made a Discord for people in the Fanhouse. On [that] Discord, I do these monthly like Q&A's or AMAs (Ask Me Anything).

Last month I was telling everybody that I was going to Thailand next month. And then one of the fans was like, "I know some people out in Thailand and I can introduce you, Jimmy." So he put me in a group chat with one of his friends in Thailand, and then that friend introduced me to a well-established producer-type person.

Next thing you know, I jump on call with this man. And he gave me a full rundown of all of Thailand, helped me prepare all the videos, all the locations, etc.

I was mind boggled. Before that... I didn't know anybody in Thailand. I didn't know who to hit up. But because of that [connection], I'm set for the whole trip.

It's just the way you could connect with your fans. In the [Fanhouse-only] Discord, people are paying to be in it so automatically, they’re more invested in you and you’re more invested in them. [We] just have a stronger like link, right? So to have that close access to a thousand people and for them to [help] reduce those degrees of connection when I'm traveling... that was actually really cool.

Are you a creator who'd want to share their story with the Fanhouse team? Send us an email at success@fanhouse.app. We'd love to hear from you!