Uptin has a unique position in the creator economy. As both a content creator with 3.2 million followers across platforms and the founder of UP10Media, a company that produces high-impact videos for global brands, he is the poster boy for content creation as an enterprise.

Fresh from speaking at VidCon 2025, Uptin shared insights on the balance between creativity and entrepreneurship that has defined his career since leaving traditional media.

“I was a journalist for CNBC. I covered tech, money, economics, and startups,” Uptin explains. “I lived in New York for them, then Singapore, then Hong Kong. And then they asked me to help launch the YouTube channel.”

While at CNBC, Uptin noticed how individual creators were outperforming established media brands. “I was seeing people like one-man bands were gaining much bigger followings than news and media brands,” he recalls. “And that’s when I realized the power of an individual over a company.”

Finding Balance Between Creativity and Business

At VidCon 2025, Uptin spoke on the “Creator CEO” panel, sharing insights from his dual role as content creator and company founder.

“Not every creator is meant to be a CEO and, in fact, most aren’t,” Uptin reflects. “Creators need to lean into that. And maybe they have a great business model, maybe they have a great business plan, but they need to hire an operations person to run the operations and allow them to be creative free thinkers.”

When the pandemic led to layoffs at CNBC, Uptin faced a key career decision. “Two or three big creators asked me, ‘Why don’t you just do it for yourself?'” he recalls. “If they’re telling me that, then I need to do it because I didn’t necessarily think I could do it. But when other people who have done it believe in you, then it becomes like, ‘Okay, I can’t afford not to try.'”

Uptin launched his independent creator career in October 2020, creating daily videos about tech, money, and cultures across multiple platforms, generating over one billion views to date.

Finding the Right Scale

A key insight Uptin shared from VidCon was the trend of creator-led companies finding their optimal size rather than constantly expanding.

“A trend I’ve noticed amongst the creator-led companies is that oftentimes, less is more,” Uptin observes. “I know a lot of creators who actually have scaled down their teams because they realize once they got to 10 or 20 or maybe 30 people, they were really stressed.”

For his own channel growth, Uptin took a structured approach from the beginning. “I said I was going to try this for one year. I was going to post three videos per week no matter what, and then I would decide,” he says. “If I just left it up to myself to see in a few months what happens, I would have given up.”

From LinkedIn Message to Content Agency

While growing his personal brand, a chance LinkedIn message led to the founding of UP10Media in September 2020.

“I got a LinkedIn message saying, ‘Hey, I’ve seen your videos. Can you do videos for my company?'” Uptin recounts. “And they wanted 50 videos.”

This initial project revealed a clear market need. “Companies need videos,” he explains. “They realize that over the past couple of years, because of Instagram and TikTok, all platforms have shifted to video-dominant. And companies are inherently bad at making videos because they tend to be very corporate and polished.”

Uptin developed the “Hook 3.0 method” for creating high-performing brand videos. “We implement this strategy in all of our videos to ensure that the framing, the audio, the relatability, and the script are in a relatable tone but also on brand with the client.”

This approach focuses on creating an engaging start that captures attention immediately while maintaining the brand’s message. When matching creators with clients, Uptin explains they carefully consider demographics: “We need to make sure that the client usually reflects that client’s target customer in terms of age, gender, location, accents, like all those types.”

The results have been notable. “We saw their average video triple or even quadruple in terms of average views,” Uptin shares. “And it became one of their highest formats for new signups compared to commercial.”

UP10Media now creates content for clients, including Crypto.com, Aura, Microsoft, Amazon, Damac, Bounce, the Museum of the Future, VivaTech, the Dubai Chamber, and CityWalk. 

Mastering Content Strategy Across Platforms

Unlike creators who focus exclusively on one platform, Uptin is active across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook—each with tailored content approaches.

“I do plan out a few weeks to months in advance, and I think all platforms are important and they’re all an opportunity for different reach,” Uptin explains. “Most of my stories will go on all platforms, but they’ll just maybe be sliced and diced and formatted a little bit differently for each format.”

This multi-platform strategy has protected his business from unpredictable changes in monetization. “The most challenging part has been the fluctuations in ad revenue,” Uptin admits. 

These dramatic swings taught Uptin an important business lesson: “I think the key is always to diversify your income. I knew creators who only relied on Facebook or YouTube. They would turn down every brand deal because they were like, ‘Oh, why would I do that? I make all this ad revenue.’ But that to me is not smart.”

VidCon Insights and Networking Value

At VidCon 2025, Uptin observed important changes in the creator space. “What stood out for me is how much more the creator economy has matured,” Uptin reflects. “Four years ago, VidCon was a lot more, just younger people who wanted to be famous. And now I’m meeting the most interesting people from all different industries.”

The networking opportunities proved valuable. “I caught up with people that I feel like are my colleagues in a way,” he explains. “I saw them all at SXSW, CES, 1 Billion Followers Summit… It’s nice every month or two to catch up with people that I really respect.”

VidCon also helps creators escape their algorithmic bubbles. “I would be sitting at a table in the speaker’s lounge, and someone would approach me. And I would look them up on YouTube, and they would have 28 million subscribers,” Uptin shares. “It’s almost like we’re getting out of our bubble because I’m getting out of my algorithm, which is only feeding me content that I consume.”

Uptin at VidCon 2025

The ‘10X Your Personal Brand’ Workshop

Beyond his panel appearances, Uptin led a workshop titled “10X Your Personal Brand,” based on his online course designed for professionals looking to use content creation for business growth.

“A year and a half ago I created a 10-day online course. It’s all on demand and it’s only 10 days, 30 minutes per day,” Uptin shares. “It’s not for travel content creators; it’s for personal brands, real estate agents, CEOs, entrepreneurs, personal trainers.”

His course focuses on high-impact strategies for professionals who need targeted visibility. “If you’re a real estate agent in Milwaukee, you need the people in Milwaukee to be seeing you,” he explains. “I would much rather have 5,000 people in your area see your video about the housing market in your city than 5 million people in Japan and Australia.”

Changes in Brand-Creator Relationships

One notable trend Uptin observed is the changing relationship between brands and creators.

“So many brands are actually a little bit more empowering to the creator,” Uptin observes. “Maybe two years ago, they said, ‘I want this, this, redo it, do it that way.’ Now they’re much more like, ‘We trust you.’”

This change reflects brands’ growing recognition that creators understand their audiences best. “They went through a year of twisting arms and making people do it their way and then realizing they’re not getting as much traction,” Uptin explains. “So now they really come in and say, ‘Hey, this is just what we want. But like, do it your way.'”

Responding to AI and Future Growth

As AI changes content creation, Uptin sees opportunity rather than threat.

“Because of AI, we need to ensure even more relatability,” Uptin explains. “Maybe that creator goes and sits in their car. Maybe they’re just literally holding their phone in selfie mode and moving a little bit. We’re almost working a little bit harder to prove we’re human.”

Looking ahead, Uptin is carefully expanding his content business by doubling down on YouTube.  “A big priority is YouTube. And then I’m also planning to launch a podcast which is going to go over tech and money,” Uptin explains. He’s already tested the podcast concept through short-form videos: “I’ve already piloted this exact podcast, and they’ve just lived as shorts. A comment that I keep getting is like, ‘Where’s the full podcast?'”

This thoughtful approach gives Uptin a clear advantage: “We’re going from short-form to potentially a pod. We already have a lot of data.”

For Uptin, content creation is primarily about human connection, rather than relying solely on algorithms or platforms. “Everyone joins social media to connect with another individual, not a company,” he observes. “Individual voices and creators have an edge essentially over any big company.”