James Cousins has been hosting all of the content on the GeekaWhat YouTube channel for nearly 10 years, building up the YouTube channel throughout his teenage years, and now into his twenties. I sat down with the man in front of the camera to find out a little more about the brain behind the business, and reveal a few little known pieces of info about the life behind the host!
When Did you Start Making Videos Online?
I started making videos in 2013, using PowerPoint of all things! I would make slideshows and narrate them, using fancy transitions and text effects. They were pretty awful, but I learnt a lot and quickly improved, moving on to bigger and better pieces of software to make progressively better videos.
Was GeekaWhat your First YouTube Channel?
Yes! I grew up watching TLDtoday (now Jonathan Morrison), MKBHD, Unbox Therapy and others, and knew that was what I wanted to do. I started off making technology tutorials, before eventually pivoting to hardware content in 2016.
At the time, I would make whatever would get me views, and even had a music channel uploading album tracklists. It was basic stuff, but it worked and I learnt some good pocket money as a teenager. Crucially, it taught me how to make content, how to edit videos and build websites. Those are all hugely valuable skills nowadays, which I’m sure would have come in handy if the YouTube hadn’t worked out.
When Did you Start Making Money from YouTube?
In 2016 I think I made about $2000 throughout the whole year, which I was really proud of at the time. Things started to get a bit more serious in 2017 and the money moved up quite a lot. I spent pretty much all of it on new cameras, better lighting and products for the videos. Camera gear can be really expensive to buy, but you have to keep up with what others are doing. I was never really bothered about how I could spend it personally, the channel was always my number one priority. The first year I made any ‘real’ money from the channel was in 2018, where I would occasionally use it to treat myself or save it up for later.
To begin with it was just Google AdSense revenue from the skippable pre-roll ads on YouTube videos, but brand sponsorships started to come in to play in 2018, helping to fund the channel to a much greater degree. There are gaming trade shows in the UK called Insomnia and EGX, and I would work the floors of those shows talking to everyone and anyone who would listen. It was the place I really made inroads with brands and started to make some money. I often joked that I would have been better working a minimum wage job until recently, given all of the hours I put in as a teenager without seeing a penny.
I would work the floors of trade shows in the UK called EGX and Insomnia, talking to everyone and anyone who would listen. It was the place I really made inroads with brands and started to make some money.
Even nowadays, as long as I can look after myself, I much prefer to channel all of the money back in to the business, and bring in more great people who can help us push forward. I try to treat myself and take breaks, but growing is still my number one priority. There’s a lot of time left to sit back and relax just yet!
How long have you been running the channel full time?
Since September of 2019 – so nearly three years at the time of answering this Q & A! The three years have gone quickly, but it has also been really hard at times. The very start of being full time was quite lonely at times, as global lockdowns kicked in. I was working at an empty office building which wasn’t super fun. Lots of my friends were also on ‘furlough’ during this time, where the government paid their salaries, despite the fact they couldn’t work. It meant lots of my friends were at home, while I worked really long hours trying to grow the channel and business, to varying levels of success.
With restaurants, pubs, gyms and hotels closed it meant there wasn’t much escape from the work, or time to switch off. I’m glad I’m past that stage now, and things have gotten a lot better now normal life has resumed. It’s also great having a team in the office who all get on so well, it makes work really enjoyable and helps us to achieve so much more than we otherwise could do.
How old are you?
‘How old is GeekaWhat?’, is apparently one of the top searches for me! I am currently 21 years of age. I was born in May of 2001, so if you’re reading this in a few years time, feel free to work it out!
What interests do you have outside of work?
I’m quite big into my fitness, working out at the gym a couple of times a week and swimming a couple of thousand meters each week, too. I like to keep active and busy, and I’m someone who can’t really sit still, which is perhaps why I enjoy it so much. I’ve always been that way – my nan used to joke that I had ‘ants in my pants!’. I’ve never been one to sit still.
Fitness is also quite goal based, which I like. I’ll try and swim further than I have the week before, or lift a heavier weight than before. Working towards those goals and having constant wins is satisfying.
I’m also a big rugby fan, having supported my local team all of my life. I attend basically all of the games, so it’s something quite close to me. I also love the F1, and am determined to see a race in person in the next 12 months. Thankfully local rugby is a lot cheaper than Formula 1, though!
Otherwise I’m quite keen on travelling, which is something I’ve been doing a lot more of recently. I saved a lot of the money that I earnt during the pandemic and have been using this for various trips. I went Skiing earlier in the year, and spent Christmas in Mexico. I’ve been travelling in Europe a bit as well as it you can reach places from the UK in just a couple of hours. I’m also planning on attending CES in Las Vegas and Computex in Taiwan which are two I’ve been waiting to tick off the list.
Where are you from?
Contrary to what a lot of people might assume from my videos, I’m actually British – born and raised in England!
Where do you see ‘GeekaWhat’ in 5 years time?
I think this is a difficult question to answer, mainly because I’m sure whatever I write now will be way off in 5 years time! The geekawhat.com website has been a huge area of growth for us, and an area I’d like to really push forward between now and 2027.
The website is also great because it allows other people to be directly involved in the content we make, and the team working on it can essentially work from anywhere! I haven’t written a website article in a long time which is actually quite liberating. It allows me to spend time focusing on other things. All of our writers at the moment are UK-based, but I’d like to open this up to some of our community over the next few years.
I’d also like to keep growing the YouTube channel, even though I’m really happy with where it is now. I’m not expecting to be any kind of Mr Beast or Linus Tech Tips, but if we can get up to a few hundred thousand subscribers I’ll be pleased!
What are you Most Proud Of?
I would have to say my success online over the last few years. Growing up it was always a pipe dream to be known online, and respected. To be at that point, and have built out a team of 6 full-time staff working on the GeekaWhat publication is fantastic. It’s been really stressful at times, especially as a young person with no other business experience, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.
Do you have Any Pie-in-the-Sky Dreams?
Yes. Loads! Most of them will probably never happen (mainly because the list keeps growing, and time is finite), but here is a sample of them:
- Own a hotel
- Train to become a qualified pilot (I’ve always been super interested in aviation, and even had a flying lesson once!)
- Launch an aviation website
- Start a car review channel
- Build out a full-service digital media agency
…see what I mean about there being quite a lot! I’m a pretty ambitious person, but it’s important to channel that in a useful way. Maybe one day I’ll be the car-reviewing, flying hotelier with a media agency. I’m not sure these are all compatible, but I guess time will tell!
