Kylie from Uscreen: Building an Owned Audience Before You Need It

Kylie is a full-time creator coach at Uscreen, where she helps creators grow membership businesses every single day, and she builds her own YouTube channel at @ohnoitskylie in her free time. She came up through nonfiction media, moved into the creator economy on the business side, and learned YouTube from the inside while helping other creators figure it out at the same time.

In this interview she walks through how she found her voice, how she actually scripts and edits a video, and the one piece of audience-building advice she wishes every creator heard on day one.

Before I go any further, I want to be upfront. Uscreen is a paid sponsor and partner of the Kan Do Creators Community, and Kylie works there as a full-time coach. I want that relationship on the table before you read a single one of her answers. None of it changed what she said, and she somehow turned a simple set of interview questions into something close to a journaling session, which is exactly the kind of real we were hoping for.

Our community used to call me the face of TubeBuddy, and Kylie is one of the people you picture when you think of Uscreen, so getting her to sit down and answer these meant a lot to me. I respect the work she has put in, both on the Uscreen channel and on her own, and her answers are full of the specific, unglamorous details that actually help.

I trimmed a few of the longer ones into tighter bites at her invitation, and I kept her voice exactly as it is.

Who Was Kylie Before She Coached Creators at Uscreen?

"I had a few different lives! I went to school for film and knew I loved nonfiction media (I blame Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown, and Animal Planet for that). I was an intern for my university's sports broadcast program and learned very quickly that I didn't have the passion needed to give up every evening and weekend, though I did gain a massive respect for volleyball players. I ended up working for a major TV network on their digital studios team, think chasing down vendors for video delivery and processing invoices. Now I'm a full time coach at Uscreen where I get to work with creators who are building membership businesses, while I build my own channel in my free time."

The through line goes back further than any job.

"The crazy part is, I think all roads were eventually leading here. I was always running around with a camcorder as a kid, making terrible 'movies' and bossing my friends around to act. I remember making a conscious decision that I'd keep doing the 'camera thing' until it wasn't fun anymore, and now I'm in my late 20s and still having a blast."

That last line is the whole thing in a sentence, and it is worth sitting with if you have ever wondered whether you are allowed to keep going with something just because it is still fun.

How Do You Break Into the Creator Economy When You Do Not Have a Voice Yet?

This is the part I think a lot of newer creators need to hear, because Kylie did not wait to feel ready.

"For me 'going for it' looked like seeking out a role at a company that's steeped in the creator economy. At 22, I knew I didn't have my own unique voice developed yet, or frankly anything interesting to say. So I went for the next best thing, which was a day job that put me in direct contact with creators from all walks of life, and that pushed me to develop the skills I'd need when I DID find out what I want to say. Looking back, working as a marketer at a company where you get to wear multiple hats was the perfect move for me."

The early days were not smooth, and she is honest about that.

"Back in 2022 I was a total newbie who had to learn almost everything about YouTube from scratch. Shoutout to Daniel Kosmala for taking the chance on me! I knew production management and writing, but not the ins and outs of the platform. Getting thrown headfirst into writing, then eventually presenting on a channel with 25k subscribers, was terrifying at first. But the beautiful thing is, when you're on work deadlines you HAVE to figure it out. You can't wait for the perfect time, or say 'just one more hour of research,' because people are depending on you."

There is a real lesson in that for anyone stuck in research mode, because a deadline and a little accountability will teach you faster than another month of preparing ever will.

She also kept it quiet for a while, and I found that part relatable.

"I actually didn't tell my family or friends about my personal YouTube channel for a long, long time. While I was finding my voice, I wanted this to be purely my own creative outlet."

What Actually Works When You Are Starting a Channel?

Set the answer theories aside, because Kylie pointed at something concrete that most people skip.

"Something I'm SO glad I did on my personal channel was set up the infrastructure before I needed it. I created a donation page and some free Notion templates on BuyMeACoffee, even before I had 100 subscribers. That way when a video did pop off, which for me meant 2k views in a week, I was able to capture emails from close to 100 people. Am I great at remembering to email them? No. But baby steps, ok!"

The move worth stealing there is building the capture system before the traffic shows up, because the spike does not wait for you to get ready.

What Is the Hardest Part of Creating With a Full-Time Job?

She did not dodge the low stretch, and I appreciated how plainly she put it.

"I am really passionate about my day job and love doing it, which rocks, but it also means that by the end of the workday I'm so mentally drained it's not even funny. I don't HAVE to make videos, and that is such a hard concept to face when you're someone who's functioned on external motivation for a long, long time."

Her fix is one of my favorite answers in the whole interview.

"This is going to make me look bad probably, but we each have different carrots and sticks that get us where we need to go. For me, spite works. So when I didn't have the internal drive by myself, I went and asked for it. I actually went on Threads and asked the void to tell me I couldn't finish an edit that I'd been dragging my feet on. A couple people chimed in and boom, I was like a woman possessed. I finished the edit within a day after that."

How Do You Make Content for a Brand and Still Sound Like Yourself?

Most creator advice assumes you are building your own thing from zero, so I liked that Kylie has lived the opposite problem.

"Coming into an existing channel for a business has the exact opposite problem. How do you build something for other people, but still feel like yourself? It's also really cool, because anytime I hold back something from a piece of Uscreen content I get to ask myself 'why was that important to me?' Sometimes it's insight into how I want the world to see me, and sometimes it's just a dumb bit that I find funny. Either way, some of that ends up in my own personal channel content."

What Does Kylie's Content Process Actually Look Like?

This is the section to bookmark, because she gave the full workflow with the specifics left in.

"Whether I'm creating for a brand or myself, the question I always ask first is 'what's the outcome for the viewer?' For a brand video it might be understanding how to use the tools better, or feeling inspired by other happy customers. For a vlog on my personal channel the outcome might be avoiding the problems I ran into turning my apartment office into a YouTube studio, plus a dose of entertainment. If there's no impact for the viewer, then why bother making anything? I want creators to respect my time, so I'm gonna respect yours."

From there she scripts in layers.

"For a talking-head video I work in three phases: bullet point outline, actual sentences, then layered visuals. The outline makes me dial in on the layout, what curiosity loops I open, where I put the subscribe call to action, and it lets me just word vomit onto the page knowing I'll clean it up later. Then I take those bullet points section by section and ask 'how would I explain this to my bestie if we were on the phone?' That usually gets me to a 90% draft. If the words feel stuck, sometimes I'll turn on voice-to-type and explain out loud first, then polish from there."

The edit has a system too.

"I color code my scripts with B-roll, graphics, and sound effects in different colors, which helps me see at a glance where there are gaps, and it's clear to read when I hand it to an editor. I use a prompter for talking heads, so I give myself permission to riff, but having a structure to come back to keeps the pacing right. I'm a DaVinci Resolve fan, but I've also started using Edits on my phone for short form, after saying for years that I could never edit on my phone. Oops."

What Skill Did Kylie Sleep On That Turned Out to Matter?

Her answer surprised me, and it is a good push for anyone who only ever records alone.

"Speaking to a live audience. When I'm at home in my office I get as many takes as I want, or I have a prompter, so it's easy, but there's zero real time feedback. Does pausing here bring people's attention back? Did that joke land? After hosting live streams, coaching calls, and getting to speak in front of a full room, it's way easier for me to imagine the audience reaction as I'm talking. I find that I sound more natural and conversational in recorded stuff after the experience of doing it live."

How Do You Keep This From Swallowing Your Whole Life?

This is the part we care about most at KDCC, so I gave it room, and Kylie was honest about the fight.

"Learning to prioritize has been a battle. It helps when you work with a team, because you can put your heads together and decide 'this is urgent, that is not.' On the solo side I look at the consequences. What happens if a video goes live a week late? Slower growth. What happens if I pull an all-nighter to finish this edit? I'll have a crap day at work and trash my immune system. It's not a perfect system, I still fight the hustle-bro voice in my head that says 'you could have done more.'"

She also gave up something heavier than a task.

"I've stopped taking myself too seriously. I realized that part of what was making me so exhausted was this desperate need for everyone to like me and think my videos are good, which is just statistically impossible!"

What Would Kylie Tell Her Earlier Self?

"Stop trying to plan so much, just do the next step that gets you 1% of progress."

She has made her peace with the fear that used to keep her up too.

"I used to lose sleep over 'are people going to think that was dumb?' but now I'm like 'hell yeah that was dumb, let's post it.'"

How Do You Build an Owned Audience Before You Need It?

If you read one answer twice, make it this one, because it is the question Kylie wishes more people brought her.

"In my coaching role I'm always thinking about how to bridge the gap between a rented audience, like YouTube or Instagram, and an owned one, which is anywhere you have direct access to your people and their contact info isn't held hostage by a platform. I wish more people asked me how to build an owned audience before they need it. My answer is super simple. Create something of value like a bonus video or a template, put it behind an email gate, and start putting that link in your video descriptions and a verbal call to action in the videos themselves. Email that list once a month, and by the time you DO have something to sell, you have an easily reached and warmed up audience!"

If the rented versus owned audience idea is new to you, we break down that language and a lot more in the KDCC YouTube Glossary, so you can put names to the moves before you make them.

What Are Kylie's Lightning-Round Answers?

Here are a few fast ones, answered with whatever came first.

What is the most overrated advice in this industry? "That others in your niche are competitors. I am a firm believer in the rising tides lift all ships mindset."

What is a habit you would never give up? "You can pry the camping cold brew from Dutch Bros out of my cold, dead, caffeinated hands. It's my pick me up when I'm tired and my pre-hike amp up."

What is a mistake you are weirdly glad you made? "I recorded a video entirely in slow motion with no sound once. It was low-stakes so I wasn't too stressed, but you can bet I'll never NOT double check my settings again!"

What is something you were proud of that did not land? "I made a silent junk journaling vlog purely for fun. The audience on my personal channel didn't go for it, but I had a lot of fun making it and it was a nice test."

What is the tool you would fight to keep? "Notion!!!!!"

What compliment lands the hardest? "Anytime someone says 'this helped me,' I feel all warm and fuzzy."

What Would Kylie Ask Andrew and Ike?

She turned the tables on me and Ike, and it is a fair question.

"When you started the KDCC Discord, how did you create a space where people felt confident posting? Community building is tough sometimes!"

The short version is that we went first. We posted the half-formed questions and the small wins ourselves, we kept the bar to speak up as low as we could, and we made a point of replying to people early so nobody felt like they were talking into an empty room. A place feels safe to post in when the first few people to post get met with warmth instead of a scoreboard, so we protected that above almost everything else.

Kylie summed up why that work matters better than I could.

"Community and peer support is so important in those moments you feel alone, so Andrew and Ike making a space for that, with mentorship, is huge."

You can read more about how Ike and I built this in Ike's story and mine.

Where Can You Find Kylie?

Learn how to build a video membership business on the Uscreen channel, where Kylie helps creators market their memberships better, and if you like tech, home, and building a cozy work-from-home life, follow along with her personal channel at @ohnoitskylie.

You have seen what Kylie Kan Do, so now it is your turn to watch what YOU Kan Do. Go check out her stuff, steal the owned-audience playbook, and when you want people in your corner while you figure yours out, join the free tier of the Kan Do Creators Community today.

Watch What You Kan Do.