Flossie Clegg on how she gained 250k subscribers in ONE month | The Influencer Series

Ever wondered what influencers do all day? Every week we're going to be chatting to famous social media influencers to find out exactly what they do on an average day.

This week we spoke to YouTuber, TikToker and Instagram star Flossie Clegg. If you don't know she's an absolute babe and she's spilled the tea on getting into the industry, why it's important that she casually posts on her social media platforms and how she gained over 250k subscribers in one month.

Name: Flossie Clegg (real name Florence)

Age: 20 years old

Social media platforms: Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Twitter

Flossie Clegg opens up about her YouTube career

We love a UK YouTuber because we can pretty much relate to everything they say or buy (sorry but we don't have Sephora here, American YouTubers). And one British YouTuber we've been OBSESSED with is Flossie.

From her make-up tutorials, hilarious hauls or her iconic transformations or challenges (have you seen her testing out the Victoria Secret's model diet? It's a classic) we're a big fan.

She's been on YouTube since 2014 so of course, we had to ask how she got into the whole influencing business and it turns out that her success didn't come over night, in fact it took years until she went full-time.

"I uploaded a video a few years ago (November 2018 to be exact) where I was getting ready for a date with my ex-boyfriend and in the first week of it being posted it accumulated over one million views and I gained just over 250,000 subscribers that month.

"That really launched me into doing this full time and I just remember being so excited, confused and in utter disbelief. I still can never get my head around it."

Flossie has since signed with a management company and admitted that they've done an "amazing" job to help her career.

"[They give] me opportunities to work with some of my favourite brands and advance not only in my social media career but also on other projects outside of it.

"I feel like everyone says it but I honestly fell in to this job by mistake."

"I made videos and posted photos just as a creative outlet and as a hobby - never thought I could make it a full time career but here we are and I’ll never not feel like the luckiest girl in the world!"

Before becoming a full-time YouTuber, Flossie was actually at college and had a job at a pub.

"I used to work one day a week in a pub, there was only so much fish fridge cleaning a girl could take," she joked.

"Then I had three days a week at college so I was lucky enough to have a spare three days to focus on YouTube and Instagram.

"As soon as my YouTube took off my parents were super supportive in me leaving both work and college in order to do it full time - I'm super grateful and lucky to have always had their support."

FYI, Flossie was very much not the biggest fan of school and college, she's spoken about it in previous videos but mainly in her 'why my hair fell out, PCOS diagnosis and I dropped out of school' video.

But it's safe to say that her YouTube career has gone from strength to strength because she's currently just shy of 700k subscribers.

Long gone are her days working in a pub and nowadays you'll see her spending the majority of her day on a laptop or working alongside her BFFs Olivia Neill and Lewys Ball.

"My day to day changes all the time. Sometimes I’m able to wake up at 8am, make a coffee and start work straight away but I also can go through some pretty terrifying sleeping pattern periods - in which case I’ll spend the night editing and brainstorming videos.

"I have strategy meetings every other week with my management team but apart from that meetings are only had when needed to discuss a bigger brand opportunity or if Olivia, Lewys and I are doing something collectively.

"Most of my day to day work will be overlooking briefs, sending out product selects for brand deals, scheduling, filming, brainstorming and preparing for videos - I spend a lot of my time on my laptop."

She may be a full-time content creator but Flossie doesn't actually post content every single day on her social media platforms.

"I post once a week on YouTube and as and when I feel like on Instagram and TikTok. It’s really important to me that I still have a somewhat casual posting approach to social media as I feel our industry has lost it’s ‘organic’ feel and that was what made it so different to TV and any other media.

"As for brand deals I’ll accept them as they come if I like the brand or product. I don’t really have a target or a limit for the month but I’m super lucky that my management will let me decline or take on as many as I want.

"Quality over quantity is really important to me and I think it’s key to building a trusting and genuine relationship with your followers," she added.

If you have a browse down Flossie's Instagram you'll notice that some of her photos look a little retro and that's thanks to two apps she uses - VSCO cam and RNI films.

"I’ve recently been using this app called RNI films which gives your pictures an almost film camera look. I’m sure my friends in photography would be horrified at me saying that but I like the effect it gives on my photos - something fun and new for me to play around with!

"I’m not strict with a theme or editing style on my instagram - I think it’s fun to have a colourful mismatched feed! Once again adds to the 'organic-ness' and I never want to limit my creative vision."

Flossie Clegg opens up about YouTube video ideas

You might only see Flossie upload on YouTube once a week but it turns out that actually creating the content can take up to a week.

"Filming a video can take anywhere from one hour to one week. Similar with editing - sometimes if I’ve filmed a video over a week, I’ll sit and edit that days footage the same evening to help break it up," she explained.

She then went on to reveal where she gets her YouTube ideas from and it turns out she too watches a lot of YouTubers.

"I’ll often try to jump on a video trend when it's fresh or else i’ll scroll through my favourite YouTubers old videos and put a twist on them. It’s also good to look at what videos of yours perform well and re-film them with alternative themes and ideas.

"Sometimes I’ll have a video planned weeks in advance or sometimes I’ll wake up on the day and have a real itch to film a specific video - it’s important to film what you really want to in the moment in order to have the most engaging and authentic content."

Now you may be wondering what content does well for Flossie and as well as her transformation videos, it's also videos that involve her parents.

"[They] performed really well and helped give me a boost over lockdown which was nice because it was something fun for us to do whilst they couldn’t go to work," she explained.

Since the first lockdown Flossie has moved from the Cotswolds to London with her BFF Olivia but after the Irish YouTuber bought a house in her native land, Flossie is now living alone in London.

"I never expected to make my best friends when moving to London but I think being around all like minded people who are in the same job keeps my [mind] super healthy and also inspires me.

"Everyone I’ve ever met has a been so lovely and I’m so excited to meet more people now that events and conventions are starting up again."

During our chat, Flossie also gave her advice for anyone who is planning on becoming an influencer.

"Try it out and you’ll soon see if it’s for you or not. A lot of people idealise and glamourise the idea of doing social media full time but when it actually boils down to it, it’s not all it’s deemed to be.

"You must also be patient! Don’t expect to gain 100,000 followers in your first week or even year - if you enjoy it then none of that should matter. It is one of the best jobs in the world in the sense of being self employed, creative expression and building connections with like minded people all over the world but of course it can get tough at times."

She went on to advise, "You have to be able to focus on the positives but also be disciplined as some days you will lack motivation but like any other job in the world you just have to put a smile on and power through.

"Whilst hate can be incredibly hard to deal with, it will always always ALWAYS be outweighed by love and positivity - something you must remember and keep perspective on!

"It’s also so important to keep the discussion of hate and your mental health open with your friends or family or even a counsellor if you don’t feel comfortable talking about it to loved ones. Just be your lovely self and nothing can go wrong".

And if you're thinking of following in Flossie's footsteps then she's said that you should make sure you're making content you actually enjoy.

"Film the videos you love watching and making! A lot of people will change their personality or even sometimes compromise morals in order to be controversial and get views but it will never make a sustainable career.

"It’s so easy to get carried away with clickbait titles and trying to push boundaries but if you gain following off of videos you don’t enjoy filming and being somebody you aren’t it will never be enjoyable.

"Be true to yourself as well as patient and your followers will engage and stay engaged. And most importantly just have fun!"

Flossie's target audience is people aged 18-24 and she's managed to gain a following of a similar age group to herself because she "just filmed the videos I loved watching/were relevant to my lifestyle at the time".

Speaking about her followers she admitted, "I’m super grateful as it’s almost like we are all growing up together.

"Of course I have some younger and older viewers but it makes sense to me that the bulk of my viewers are in that age range as I hope they’re able to relate to my life and interests."

Flossie opens up on management regrets

Flossie also advised any upcoming influencers to do research before signing with a management company because she's had a "horrendous" experience.

"I signed with a pretty awful network who just took a cut of my adsense money (a platform that allows YouTubers to host ads on their videos and then earn money) and only brought me one brand deal through the whole two years we were together.

"Don’t rush in to management and brand deals - if an amazing opportunity comes along of course take it! But there is absolutely no rush to sign with the first management who show interest or to work with the first brand who want to pay you.

"Always worth holding out in case you rope yourself in to something sticky you can’t get out of - trust me".

And she's definitely learnt from that mistake because when we asked about her current management Gleam she gushed about how "amazing" they are.

Other than three people she works with at Gleam, Flossie works alone. "I’m not fancy enough to have editors and photographers just yet but I also really enjoy just doing it myself.

"Probably also because i'm a bit of a control freak," she joked.

Flossie on YouTube regrets

As with all guests on the influencer series we had to ask Flossie is she had any YouTube regrets and it turns out she doesn't.

"I honestly don’t think I’d change anything. Whilst there are a lot of things I look back and cringe on, the makeup evolution was real let me tell you oh my goodness, it’s all contributed to the channel and audience I have now.

"I’d like to believe I’ve always been myself on my channel through the years so I guess I’ve grown up online. Whilst I’ll always be growing and changing I’ll always be Flossie and have the same core values and morals."

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Flossie also teased that she's got some exciting plans up her sleeve for the rest of 2021.

"Annoying Youtuber moment but I may or may not have an exciting project in discussion but I don’t want to jinx anything.

"Let’s just say I sat on the floor and sobbed (happy tears) down the phone to my mum when I received the text from my manager. Olivia and I also have a couple of projects coming up but I never know what I’m allowed to talk about," she laughed.

"So I’m going to keep my mouth shut but get excited and keep your eyes out! As for where I want this job to take me, I’m always happy just riding the waves and seeing what opportunities come my way.

"I’m getting better at overcoming my almost ‘imposter syndrome’ and saying yes to more projects instead of worrying about not doing a good enough job or being a failure. I’m super excited about 2021 - I've got a really good feeling".