Creators On The Rise: Vlad SlickBartender Helps Newbies Find Their Flair Behind The Bar

Welcome to Creators on the Rise, the place—in partnership with international creator firm Jellysmack—we discover and profile breakout creators who’re within the midst of extraordinary development. 

In the early 2000s, when Vlad Buryanov was a teen, Tom Cruise appeared him straight within the eye and advised him bartending could be his factor.

OK, so it didn’t occur precisely like that. But that’s not far off from what Buryanov felt watching Cruise headline the 1988 movie Cocktail. In the film, Cruise’s character Brian Flanagan moonlights as a bartender whereas attending enterprise college in New York City. Though he begins off as your fundamental behind-the-bar man, he finally ends up discovering a mentor who teaches him a specialised, stylized technique of serving: aptitude.

If you’ve by no means seen a aptitude bartender at work, you’re lacking out. Flair bartending entails, sure, making clients’ drinks, but it surely additionally entails dazzling shows the place all the things from liquor bottles to shakers to glasses and ice are tossed and twirled within the air. It’s a high-octane mix of juggling and mixology, and is particularly common in equally high-octane cities like Las Vegas.

The second Buryanov noticed Cruise flairing in Cocktail, he was offered. He started bartending in his hometown in Ukraine, picked up a pair aptitude strikes from one other tender, then turned to educating himself with videotapes of previous nationwide and world aptitude competitions, dreaming that at some point he’d be on these levels.

And at some point, he was. By 2007, Buryanov himself was a world champion.



These days, he’s a three-time world champ, multi-award winner, and resident of Las Vegas, the place he moved to bartend after getting a piece visa due to his worldwide reknown. But Buryanov isn’t manning a bar anymore–at the least, not in an precise bar.

Instead, he’s behind the bar at dwelling, having change into a full-time creator due to a sudden surge in viewership.

Some of the creators we’ve featured for this column can level to particular YouTube movies that made their channels take off. For Buryanov, he factors to the pandemic. He’d been importing movies to his YouTube channel, Vlad SlickBartender, since 2015, with most of them geared toward serving to novice bartenders be taught methods of the commerce. Between 2015 and the beginning of 2020, he’d gathered a modest following of round 160,000 subscribers, and was getting a pair hundred thousand views a month.

Then lockdowns hit, and out of the blue his channel went from a pair hundred thousand to a few million views per thirty days. Buryanov thinks that as a result of folks had been caught at dwelling and now not hitting up COVID hotbeds (er, bars and nightclubs), they had been attempting to DIY their very own drinks, and located his movies whereas on the lookout for steering.

Buryanov’s channel jumped from below 6 million views in November 2021 to almost 80 million thus far this month. Monthly view and subscriber knowledge from Gospel Stats.

When his amped viewership pushed his channel to half 1,000,000 subscribers and started translating into sponsorship provides, Buryanov puzzled if he may truly pull off YouTubing as a profession.

Turns out he can. Buryanov is a full-timer now, posting a video per day to his YouTube channel (967K subscribers presently) and his TikTok account, which he launched in the course of the pandemic and which has nearly 10 million followers. His YouTube viewership has continued to develop, and just lately leapt from a pair million views per thirty days to 72 million in December and 77 million thus far this month.

For Buryanov, the elevated publicity will not be solely a method for him to construct his personal enterprise as a content material creator–it’s additionally a path for him make aptitude bartending training accessible to probably thousands and thousands of newcomers.

And, he hopes, it would at some point let him personally inform Cruise how Cocktail helped him discover his ardour.

Check out our chat with Buryanov under.

Tubefilter: First, inform us just a little about you! Where are you from? How did you get into mixology and bartending?

Vlad Buryanov: I’m initially from Ukraine, and received into bartending after I watched the film Cocktail with Tom Cruise. I started coaching as a aptitude bartender as a result of I liked the leisure facet of bartending. I additionally competed in aptitude bartending competitions around the globe, and changing into a three-time world champion helped me get observed and resulted in me acquiring a piece visa so I may transfer to the United States and work at a number of the high leisure bars on the earth.

Tubefilter: When and why did you determine to begin importing movies? Did you begin importing on YouTube or TikTok first? Why did you choose that platform?

VB: I used to be at all times excited by folks having the ability to share their data with one another on platforms like YouTube. I needed to be part of that neighborhood, so I started importing poorly filmed movies filmed in my storage on an iPhone again in 2015. Originally, the movies had been simply how-to movies educating my viewers completely different bartending methods. I wouldn’t say I used to be very constant in doing this, however as soon as the pandemic hit, I needed to shut up my bartending college in Miami, and I moved again dwelling to Las Vegas.

At about the identical time, the viewership on my channel elevated considerably. With everybody being caught at dwelling, they had been in all probability turning to YouTube to discover ways to make cocktails at dwelling, and with the elevated viewership, I additionally began getting model offers. That made me suppose that YouTube may presumably be a profession.

Also in the course of the pandemic, a number of folks stored insisting I ought to begin importing to TikTok, so I did, and my channel began rising fairly quick. I used to be very impressed with the TikTok algorithm, and I like the problem of determining what works on the completely different platforms.

Tubefilter: Your movies function numerous cinematic parts and attention-grabbing enhancing. Is this a technique you assist differentiate your content material from different creators’? How did you be taught your enhancing methods?

VB: Besides creating numerous content material, I additionally watch numerous content material from different creators. I strive to concentrate to the enhancing methods they do to keep up viewers retention.

In normal, it may be difficult to maintain folks watching, so I’ve to maintain the content material shifting. I take advantage of numerous phrases on the display, memes, and B-roll to maintain the content material from feeling boring.

Now that I’ve a number of channels on YouTube and on different platforms, I’m coaching some others to assist me with the enhancing so I can proceed to provide numerous content material, however for the primary six years, I did all of the enhancing by myself. I taught myself easy methods to edit on Premier Pro simply by watching so lots of the fantastic creators on YouTube that share their data free of charge.



Tubefilter: Your YouTube channel has just lately seen a giant increase in variety of views and subscribers. Do you recognize if there was one particular video that took off, or did numbers go up throughout a bunch of movies concurrently?

VB: I observed my channel beginning rising quicker after I stopped specializing in how-to movies and started creating movies that had been extra interesting to a normal viewers. I added extra storytelling to my movies and created new segments like comparability movies and opinions. It at all times appears to be a gradual course of. Some movies do higher than others, but it surely appears every new video brings new viewers who watch older movies, so all of my movies proceed to develop over time.

Tubefilter: How do you determine what drinks to make or methods (like making an ice glass out of a balloon) to strive? Do you ever take recommendations from viewers? Do you try what different bartenders are making on YouTube and TikTok?

VB: I get inspiration from numerous completely different locations after I’m arising with concepts for content material. Plenty of the cocktail hacks I share on my channel come from one thing I noticed at high-end cocktail bars. I wish to make these methods extra accessible for folks and present them that the majority of those methods they see once they go to good locations may be simply finished at dwelling on their very own.

I watch cooking, instructional storytelling, and leisure channels to see what’s trending, and I attempt to hop on traits as a result of that appears to work for my channel.

Tubefilter: You began importing longer content material to YouTube a number of years in the past, however have ramped issues up lots on YouTube Shorts. What impact has Shorts had on the expansion of your channel?

VB: I feel Shorts is among the greatest issues that occurred with YouTube. I completely fell in love with creating short-form content material. I discover it rather more enjoyable determining easy methods to inform a narrative in lower than a minute. It helps me maintain the power rolling in a video, and it’s a lot simpler to maintain the viewers’s consideration. It additionally permits me to succeed in a bigger viewers than my long-form movies do, so that they have had a big impact on the expansion of my channel the previous few months.

Tubefilter: Is there any distinction between the movies you make for YouTube Shorts and those you make for TikTok?

VB: Yes, positively! I started the TikTok channel only for enjoyable in the course of the pandemic, and it was form of an accident how I discovered I may create artwork out of ice. I made it a objective to attempt to create all the things that my followers had been asking me to create, and that channel simply began blowing up. It has over 9 million followers, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with some wonderful manufacturers, such FC Barcelona, FC Juventus, and I used to be even featured on PewDiePie and MrBeast’s channels. It’s positively lots completely different than what I do on YouTube.



Tubefilter: What does the common day appear to be for you? How a lot time do you spend making movies? What else do you rise up to?

VB: I normally keep up late working, so I’m not an early riser. My routine is constant on daily basis. I get up and get the emails and uploads out of the best way. I spend a while participating with individuals who remark, after which I rise up and work out for 30-45 minutes. After that, I spend about eight to 12 hours per day creating content material and enhancing. I take a break within the night to spend time with the household.

Fortunately, I dwell in a big home that has sufficient area for me to work in and have my studio as nicely, so I don’t have to fret about any commuting time and I can get lots finished on daily basis. I do dwell in Las Vegas, so there are numerous thrilling occasions which can be at all times occurring, so I take day without work at any time when there’s something that excites me sufficient to go try.

Tubefilter: Has your latest engagement spike on YouTube modified something for you? Do you will have any new plans or targets in your channel?

VB: The latest spike has given me much more confidence that I can proceed creating content material as a profession. Even although this has been my fundamental supply of revenue for the previous couple of years, I feel as content material creators, we at all times have behind our minds that one thing may change tomorrow. You continuously need to be studying and evolving so your channel not solely continues to develop, however so it doesn’t simply cease at some point. Now that my fundamental channel has grown a lot and I’m about to hit a million subscribers, I’ve extra need to work tougher on my different channels as nicely, and I’d additionally love to do what I can to offer again and encourage different creators to maintain pushing ahead.

It’s wonderful that platforms like YouTube and TikTok are giving folks the chance to do one thing they’re obsessed with, and so long as you keep constant and work arduous and sensible, finally you’ll be able to flip creating content material right into a profession. It’s a difficult journey, however so rewarding while you lastly begin seeing success.

Tubefilter: What’s your favourite factor about making content material thus far?

VB: I like the truth that I can do business from home, and it’s problem that retains my mind working. It’s enjoyable to attempt to determine new methods to entertain and educate these watching me so they are going to proceed to assist the channel.

Another factor I like is the attain. I used to show folks offline, and I may attain a whole bunch of individuals annually. Now I can train folks issues and entertain them, and the attain is within the thousands and thousands. There is nothing extra rewarding than getting suggestions from people who find themselves grateful to have realized one thing from me.

Tubefilter: What’s subsequent within the quick future for you? Where do you see your self in 5 years?

VB: I wish to get ridiculously good at vlogging so I’ve an excuse to lastly go away my studio. Hopefully I’ll develop a lot within the subsequent 5 years that I’ll have the possibility to satisfy Tom Cruise and thank him in individual for the inspiration.

Jellysmack is the worldwide creator firm that detects and develops the world’s most gifted video creators. The firm’s proprietary video optimization know-how and knowledge drive social viewers development, unlocking new income streams and amplifying monetization.

Currently dwelling to over 150 influential Creators together with PewDiePie, MrBeast, Brad Mondo, and Bailey Sarian, Jellysmack optimizes, operates, and distributes creator-made video content material to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube. Jellysmack-managed content material boasts 10 billion international month-to-month video views and a cross-platform attain of 125 million distinctive U.S. customers, making it the biggest U.S. digital-first firm in month-to-month social media viewers.

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