Who are you and what kind of content do you create?

My name is Adam Lobo, and I am a tech content creator on YouTube for my channel called Adam Lobo TV. I am doing this as my full-time career. It was a side hustle for the past three years, and I have been full time for a year, close to two years now. At this moment, I am a one-person army. I plan, script, shoot and edit every video that I publish on YouTube. I was previously known in the media and music industry as the lead singer for the Rap Metal band Dragon Red since 2002. However, as the band became less active with everyone, being busy with their personal life, I went on doing my own thing (Adam Lobo TV), which was more catered to tech instead of music. The reason for the name Adam Lobo TV instead of coming up with a "Tech Name" is because I wanted to brand myself as an individual tech reviewer who gives my opinion on every tech item to help everyone make a purchase decision.

Let's go down memory lane, tell us your backstory! 

Since November 2016, I started out sharing a space with the band by using the music studio as a tech YouTuber. While I was blessed to have a place to shoot my videos, it was a hassle to always setup and dismantle my whole set every time I made a video and every time I used the studio to shoot. The band members couldn't use the studio for their practice sessions and vice-versa. Then in December 2019, I finally got my personal recording space, which I have till this date, after working hard to get enough funds to have my very own place for Adam Lobo TV.

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Before my career path as a Tech Youtuber, I was doing event management for close to 18 years and my last corporate job, I was Head of Events and Head Of Music Label for a huge company called Astro here in Malaysia. What led to me changing my career choices was that I found more love and passion for producing content for tech. The corporate job didn't feel as exciting as it was. Stress would be the defining factor in making the switch as the daily work stress got to me. That's when I made a tough decision to quit my job and do YouTube full-time even though I wasn't earning much through that, but I knew if I put my mind, love, and passion towards this, I would excel and the rest is history. It has been fantastic up to this moment.

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YouTube has always been my main platform until this date, and then it has expanded to Instagram. My YouTube is very focused on Tech and nothing else. However, Instagram is not only about tech but also about the other work that I love, like working out, music, and Liverpool Football Club.

Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. -Alan Watts

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The first person who influenced me was Jonathan Morrison from TLD Today as I loved his production value, and nobody at that time in Malaysia did the same. I promised to ONLY starting my Youtube channel and my content creation journey at the highest quality possible. It took me about ten months to learn about everything, about camera gear, shooting angles, and everything else as I did not know of that as I only knew tech. I started off doing content about Smart Homes as I loved that topic the most. Still, my audience came from the US, which was great, but for me to make this a proper career here, I needed to get more Malaysians as my audience, thus deciding between many smartphones and tablet-related content.

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Another individual who I am highly influenced by is Peter Mckinnon. I truly admire his passion and charisma when he does his videos. That’s something that inspires me to this day to create the content I love and be more personal in my videos than just doing a regular tech review video. I sleep an average of 5 hours every day, but I wake up and go to sleep with a smile on my face because I love what I am doing, and that motivated me a lot.

How do you brainstorm ideas for your content and your advice in getting the creative juice flowing.

Since I cater my content towards tech, I don't need to "look" for any inspiration as it is the type of content that I need to produce, and it's usually review videos of a particular tech gadget. I just use Google Keep as my primary app tool for my video ideas and video plans as there is smooth integration between the app and the web. At this moment, I have not had any mental blocks at all. The only thing that I sometimes find hard is not having enough time and resources to do as many videos as I would like since I am a one-person show.

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What are the tools and platforms you use to help with your brand?

In terms of my content creation tool, I use Final Cut Pro X as my primary editing software. I use Davinci Resolve to shoot all my videos in Blackmagic Raw, where my camera of choice is the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6k Camera. As mentioned, my main content platforms are YouTube and Instagram, followed by Facebook. I am considering doing a TikTok channel dedicated to tech, as well. For other third-party tools or apps, I use Google Keep a lot as it syncs with Gmail. I use Adobe Photoshop for my Thumbnails on YouTube and Snapseed for my Instagram photo postings.

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What were your fears starting out? How did you handle it? 

I didn't have any particular fear when I was first starting as I knew that I could do anything if I had my focus on it. When I love something, I put 110℅ into it, and I always felt and knew that failure was never an option. The majority of the people around thought I was crazy to quit my stable day job, especially with the position I had in the corporate company. Some did even know that it wouldn't be possible to replace the amount of income and stability that a corporate job gives, but eventually, it did, so I am truly blessed.

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In terms of negativity, especially in the comments, coming from the music industry, I have learned to accept that you cannot please everyone. When I read negative comments, I feel bad for them because they are probably in a very dark space in their mind for them to take take the time to write something negative. I usually just ignore those and occasionally reply with a smile or even say thank you for your feedback. 

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Since I came as an on-stage performer, I never had any fears in front of the camera. Still, it is one of my biggest challenges until today to record in front of the camera without making tons of mistakes, but I keep going at it until I perfect myself.

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How did you build your brand to where it is now, take us through your process.

I started out posting videos every week on the same day and at the same time. Once I quit my corporate job and did YouTube full-time, I produce 2 to 3 videos per week, sometimes can be every day, it depends on the "tech season" which gets busier towards the end of the year. I slowly collected my own money and bought one by one equipment, and when I got what I wanted to start, only then I created my first video.

Since I started from scratch, I didn't know anyone in the tech industry, so I had learned everything myself, and it developed from there with meeting new friends in the industry. I was fortunate to have good friends who supported me, and my first 100 came within a month. It is just me in my humble little studio. It is a residential unit where I converted the master bedroom into a studio and with the living area a new place to shoot the product shots and tiny but comfortable little room space to sleep in. It took me ten months to learn everything on YouTube, and then I released my first video. It is usually a comparison or tutorial videos; my full video reviews do well, but not all the time, as it depends on the hype of the product.

For someone who wants to get into content creation, what is your advice?

I would have released regular content compared to before since I understand the formula and workflow of every video without going through any trial or error. I am guilty of buying some equipment that I ended up not using as it became more of a burden to set up. However, the results were reasonable since I need to produce content fast. I only ended up using the equipment that was easy and fast to set up. Practice and come up with consistent content, and the more the person does it, the more they will improve their craft. Learn from your idols and from the people who inspired you. Inject your flavour into it, to make everything YOURS uniquely!

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How did you finally commit to X platform rather than your regular day job?

Yes, I quit my corporate job. I was more in love with my content creation on YouTube, without even thinking about the money.

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Tell us your best milestones in being a content creator.

I would say the best highlights are the opportunity to travel around the world (France, Barcelona, Thailand), go to these tech events, and create content on an international space, which is the highlight for me. It made me even happier than ever knowing that if I didn't pursue this love for YouTube content creation, I wouldn't have the great memories in France and other great experiences in Barcelona and Thailand.

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What are your marketing strategies to grow your brand?

I just keep producing as much content as possible until this day. The channel has been growing, not at the pace I would like to, but I am truly thankful and blessed. I do everything on my own; I did not hire anybody to handle my marketing stuff. Friends, subscribers, and the brands themselves share my content. I did several collaborations with international YouTubers like Jon Rettinger, Armando Ferreira, Atola Visuals, and some YouTubers I approached online. I showed them my work and asked them about working together on a collab, and they kindly and thankfully said yes.

How do you handle brand deals and sponsorships? 

I did approach lots of brands via email since I didn't know anyone who had their contacts. All the brands I worked with were terrific so far. Put your subscribers and your values first. Money is secondary. When some brands can’t pay the exact amount of my rate card, then I will probably negotiate a product exchange in addition to their said budget.