ICYMI: How Michelle Khare Turned Social Content into Hollywood IP
Lessons from Creator Michelle Khare
Creator Michelle Khare didn’t just build a YouTube channel — she built a media empire.
As part of the expanding Michelle Universe, she developed a content series that’s now eligible for an Emmy nomination — thanks to her episode I Trained Like a Black Belt for 90 Days — making her one of the few creators to achieve that honor.
But to go from zero to five million subscribers takes some serious sweat equity. From early days filming cycling sketches with her sister to developing her series Challenge Accepted into an Emmy-contender, I asked Michelle to share with us how she thinks about creating entertainment IP.
Michelle told me what creators can learn about audience-led development, how marketers should take a test-and-learn approach, and the management book that helped her become a better leader.
Whether you’re a creator or a marketer, if you’re developing content, then Michelle’s pro tips are for you!
ICYMI: I read that your sister was the inspiration for your first channel on YouTube — how old were you when you launched your first channel and what was that like?
Michelle Khare: Oh, my goodness, this is such a throwback. I have to credit my sister with encouraging me to do many things that have been instrumental to my career and my growth — the first of which was after I graduated college, I was really interested in YouTube and at the same time, I was a competitive cyclist, so we made this very old channel where she and I would film little sketches together and upload them around like cycling, community humor.
She also encouraged me to apply for my job at BuzzFeed, and was so supportive of me when I ultimately went out on my own channel. She's always been such an amazing cheerleader for me.
This industry is a roller coaster. You can go from posting a video and it goes mega viral to the next upload is your worst performing and those highs and lows, especially when they're publicly quantifiable, is an unnatural thing to experience. I was so lucky to be surrounded by my sister, friends and filmmakers.
ICYMI: Does the cycling channel still exist?
MK: Fortunately for me, unfortunately for you, a lot of my old videos are now private.
ICYMI: You mentioned BuzzFeed. The pipeline from BuzzFeed employee-to-creator is wild (Quinta Brunson, Safiya Nygaard, Ryan Bergara and many more). What did you learn at your day job that you were able to take with you as a creator?
MK: Getting to work at a place like BuzzFeed, where it was one of the fastest growing YouTube channels in the world, was such a special experience. It was like paid graduate school for YouTube. We were thrown in and had to learn every part of the process, rather than picking a department and moving up the ranks.
To succeed on YouTube, you have to know everything. You have to ideate, film, light, edit, upload, look at the data. While on paper, my role was a producer, it's actually quite different from the classic role of producer in film and TV. We had our hands in everything.
I really got my reps in there. I made hundreds of pieces of content and videos for long-form projects there, and I was also producing for other shows and other people. I was behind the camera too. I think that gave me the critical understanding and feedback of how eventually, when I went out on my own, how to quantify and determine success and failure in my own projects.
ICYMI: Was it a slow burn going out on your own, or was there a moment where you thought, ‘OK, I need to strike out on my own?’
MK: My parents taught me from a young age,’If you want to do something big, bold and creative, you better have a plan A, B, C.’ My dad is an immigrant to this country, and so stability and practicality were very big things that I learned as a kid. And I really commend my parents, because when I was approaching this decision of entrepreneurship, I was very methodical about it.
I moved into a new apartment with a roommate and reduced my rent significantly. I started changing my whole lifestyle so that I would get used to what my budget would be if I was totally failing while I had a full time salary. That allowed me to accumulate a bit of savings. I had a spreadsheet that said, ‘This is how long these savings last for the next two or three months.’
At the same time, I was thinking really critically about what I wanted my channel to be, what were cheap and easy videos for me to make out the gate. If you look at the beginning of my channel, I was reviewing Starbucks drinks. It had nothing to do with Challenge Accepted, but behind the scenes, that was how I was learning to be a leader, be an entrepreneur.
ICYMI: I love a well prepared creator and a budget conscious creator, too! Was there one video that helped you turn the corner or understand what your career was going to be about?
MK: A milestone project for me were those early episodes of what became Challenge Accepted. I did a project where I trained like a Victoria's Secret model for six weeks. At the time and at my channel size, it was a little bit of a crazy thing to invest in. Why would I spend six weeks of my life training for that, editing all of that footage and putting it into one single video? But I had a feeling about how it could perform. And it performed very, very well.
Challenge Accepted is in that perfect middle ground of a Venn diagram of what our audience is going to watch, click on and will do well. Fortunately for us, in an era where a lot of unscripted documentary storytelling is being stripped away from budgets in traditional Hollywood, YouTube is where documentary unscripted storytelling is thriving.
ICYMI: At what point in the journey did you suddenly look at your body of work and say, ‘Wait a minute, I think that this could be an Emmy contender’?
MK: It's a dream that came about because I have always believed in the democracy of art and content creation. I think of Hot Ones, Good Mythical Morning, Amelia Dimoldenberg, these are people who are occupying spaces that rival the viewership of late night. Over time it’s made clear to me that there is a crop of creators who are making stuff that is so good and seen by millions and millions of people, it shouldn't be ignored.
There's a reason traditional Hollywood cares about these awards still, and it's because it attracts crew and talent to want to work on them. It attracts the audience to be interested in this higher quality, premium content, and it attracts the advertisers who want to support and sustain it. So there's a long list of practical reasons to want to go in this pursuit.
But at the core of it is because I genuinely believe that there are many people making excellent content that hundreds of millions of people are choosing to watch over traditional Hollywood. And I just think we're at a point where it can't be ignored.
ICYMI: There was a lot of debate at VidCon this year about collaborating with traditional Hollywood, versus remaining completely independent. But it sounds like you're very much on the side of seeing an overlap between the two?
MK: I am on the side of, ‘Let's all collaborate.’ Why does it have to be such a bifurcation? We're getting to a point where that line is so blurred, it's hard to distinguish between the two, which is very exciting. So I look forward to a future where people are collaborating freely and excitedly. And it's not about influencers over here and here's Hollywood, but rather, here are lots of people, making many things, and they matter.
ICYMI: If you had to give creators or social media managers, advice on creating a series that would become entertainment IP, what would it be?
MK: My advice would be what I learned from the very beginning of content creation, which is, test, test, test, before you green light a full series. And that's how Challenge Accepted emerged. It was not fully formed with a log line at the beginning. I was testing lots of things on YouTube, and started to notice a pattern of what I enjoyed making and what the audience enjoyed watching. And from there, it grew.
Every piece of content you upload is a pilot. Start leaning into the pilots that are working and begin formalizing from there. I often see a lot of early content creators want to map out an entire series before they've made anything. And I think you've got to get your hands dirty.
It's a counterintuitive approach to traditional Hollywood. If you go in a pitch for a streamer, they're going to want to know the 10 year plan of this show. Rightfully so. Benefit from the fluidity of content creation online and allow yourself to pilot test as many times as you need before really leaning into something.
ICYMI: That is such a good answer, because you're right. We constantly put the horse before the cart versus testing to see whether an idea even works. Is there anything that you would have done differently when you were starting out — with the benefit of hindsight?
MK: With hindsight, I would have done day one management training. When you are a content creator — maybe we can think about this with bigger content creators who run production companies, etc. — you're leading a team of people. But those skills are so important, even when you're a team of one. You're going to be collaborating with other people. You might be working with a thumbnail designer. You might even ask your friend to help you edit something.
Learning how to professionally communicate, lead, and give critical feedback, those are the most important skills for any form of leadership. What's special about being a content creator is you are an entrepreneur from day one, and ultimately that means you will be leading in some capacity.
ICYMI: Did you learn on the job, or is there a book that you recommend or someone to follow?
MK: Of course, you learn a lot on the job. And I learned very quickly because I was very fortunate to have early success on my channel and start working with crews relatively quickly. But also some literature that was important to me was Kim Scott's Radical Candor, one of the greatest management guidebooks of all time.
Some literature that was important to me was Kim Scott's Radical Candor,
one of the greatest management guidebooks of all time
Also speaking with other people has been a really big, important one. Even if you plan to always be a creator of one, you're going to be collaborating with brands; you're going to be working with teams of people and professional entities; and you're going to have creative disagreements. Learning how to navigate that with your head held high and with all parties feeling comfortable throughout is so, so important.
I would recommend building out your community of other creators, asking questions about how they navigate various situations, and yes, Google Radical Candor. Whatever you need to do to figure it out.
ICYMI: OK to wrap up, let’s do three rapid-fire questions.
1. A creator or traditional Hollywood actor calls you — who are you dropping everything to work with?
MK: Tom Cruise. I got to interview Tom Cruise. I haven't gotten to work with him, and it's a dream of mine to do a stunt with Tom.
2. If you weren’t a creator you’d be a…
MK: I would be creatively involved in some way, somehow. I would probably be a producer for another creator.
3. What’s the last video you watched and why?
MK: The last YouTube video I watched was the latest upload from Ryan Trahan’s series that he's doing where he is raising funds for St Jude while traveling to all 50 states and visiting Airbnbs along the way. He is exceptionally intelligent and gifted at that middle ground of coming up with a concept that's big and exciting, and we'll all want to click and watch; amazing thumbnail; and he delivers by being himself. And that's star quality.
*This interview was lightly edited for length.
