- Hi, we're Joel and Lia.

- And this video is all about how we

turned our friendship into our job, or our business.

Which probably is already triggering a few people

because it's kind of like a, oh my gosh,

you're talking about money again

or you're talking about worky things

and you're, yeah.

- Yeah. (laugh)

- See, it's making me probably more

nervous than actually the viewer.

- Well, obviously this title sounds very brutal,

how we turned our friendship into a business.

And I guess the worry for us is that we

wouldn't want anyone to think that

our friendship is fake now because it's our job.

Because it's not and obviously you guys

hopefully can see that our friendship

is very genuine.

- Oh, my gosh, how much does this feel

like an apology video?

- Yeah, it does.

- Guys, we're really sorry.

- This friendship is very genuine.

(laugh)

We promise.

- We promise we're not fake.

Leave Joel and Lia alone.

- We've done videos on how, we did one when

YouTube became our full-time job,

we've done videos about, so of our

life as YouTubers and we are sort of,

are you guys interested in learning a bit more

about like, our dating lives as YouTubers

or like, and so we just thought we'd do

an honesty video.

- Honesty hour, not an hour, just ten minutes.

- Honesty ten minutes.

- Honestly.

So yeah, I guess one thing that's worth saying

is that like, what you've already said,

the friendship hasn't been compromised

just because it's now our job.

If anything it's become more and more.

Because we were saying to each other,

we were each other's only friend.

(laugh)

- It's so true.

- You end up like, you know how you have

colleagues at work and you're like

I literally don't see my family because

I just, all I see are these people at work.

That's kind of what it's like with us.

- Because we just see each other

or maybe our manager, or people we might

be collaborating with but literally

we just see each other all the time.

- That's it, like, that's why I'm like

I've got no other friends.

But I'm fine with it now.

- Yeah, it's all right.

- Yeah, it's actually all right.

We go to the same gym, we use the same shed,

like work space, that's it.

We've got something going on.

So let's talk about how we did it

and was it ever really the plan.

- Which the answer to that is just no.

- No.

- It wasn't ever a plan for us.

We started making videos about five years ago,

messing around in front of the camera.

- We were just bored, like, you know,

we left drama school waiting for the phone to ring,

anyone who's an actor or in the creative industries

will know that like, work doesn't just come your way

as soon as you're like, a newcomer into the industry

and you're like hi, I'm an actor now.

Nothing happens, really.

Well, it does to some people.

- A very few, very small percentage it does but.

- So we just started messing around making

videos and then no one was watching,

no one was watching, no one was watching,

no one was watching, a few thousand people were watching,

and then last year loads of people started watching.

- Yeah, it just randomly took off and so

it's been an accidental business.

It was never our plan to become YouTubers.

We're very much like, we're actors

and we're just doing this in our spare time.

And now that's sort of taken over for the moment.

Obviously you guys know that we hope to

be acting one day, but at the moment

YouTube is sort of that we're,

it's our day job essentially.

It's what pays the bills.

- It is our job now which is so weird.

But I think like, there have been a few times

in our friendship where we sort of sat down,

we've not gone like, what's our game plan,

or what's our strategy.

In fact, we find that really hard.

- Yeah.

- Someone asked us the other day,

it's are partner manager at Google,

she was like, so she's like a YouTube,

basically she just helps you grow your channel,

she was like, what's the six month goal,

what's the one year goal,

and we had no answers for her.

- So we've actually got a lunch meeting with her

next week or the week after and so

we've been talking about our goals.

- Setting goals.

- What actually do we want to achieve

because it can easily just feel like

oh, we're just having fun on camera

and that's it.

But actually, everyone around us,

our management, the people at YouTube,

are just like no, come on guys,

like, what do you want, where do you want to go,

how can we create a safe job from this?

Because at the end of the day, YouTube isn't a safe job.

It depends on people watching, trends, everything.

So they're like, how can we turn this into

a secure, stable, career for you?

- So we did sit down about a year and a half ago, I'd say,

and we just sort of went right, there's

a bit of momentum on our channel.

How can we turn this channel into something

more than just us posting on it

when we can be bothered?

And yeah, and I think since we sort of

changed our mindset and said this could be a job.

Let's try and make it our job.

And slowly, slowly, slowly, the results started to come

and I think so much of it was do to with

believing it could be.

Because there's so many YouTubers out there

that go yeah, you know, I've been doing it eight years

and still nothing's happening for me.

And we genuinely thought we would be those YouTubers.

We were like well, we'll have a channel,

we'll always be small, it will never be big.

Do you know what I mean?

- Yeah, but.

- I mean, it's still, we still think

it's a really small channel.

- I know, when we say, this is the other thing.

Networking is so difficult and when people

ask you like, how many subscribers you've got,

me and Lia both are like oh, it's only very small.

It's just like, 180,000 subscribers.

And they're like, oh my gosh, that's incredible.

And we're like, is it?

- Oh, is it?

- Oh, thanks, and then you don't want to say is it

because you sound really like, is it?

So then you're like, I don't know,

I just haven't really thought about it. It hasn't sunk in.

- Yeah, 180,000.

- We can't think about the numbers

because it will freak us out.

Because if we're like, potentially 180,000 or more

will watch this video you're like,

you just wouldn't say anything.

I'd just be too scared.

- You'd just be like, nice to see you.

- Yeah, so we just pretend that there's still like,

there's 20 people watching.

Just 20 of you.

- Yeah, mostly friends and family.

- Yeah. (laugh)

- Numbers are strong.

- But we went to the World Travel Market yesterday

which is a big event in London

where you basically it's tourism boards

for every country in the world.

- In the world.

- Every, not every city but lots of cities

in the world, as well, where you can just mingle.

And we went as influencers, which is what we're called.

- And it was, I'm telling you guys,

it's hard to sell yourself.

- So difficult.

- Which is what inspired us for this video

because we have to go up to people, right,

and say like, hi, we're Joel and Lia,

we're from a YouTube channel called Being British,

it's basically, it's just us, the title is us.

And already, just saying it, you're like

you can feel your pitch getting weaker, weaker, weaker.

So we were like, do you know what?

We need to just brush up on some networking skills.

Let's do a Skillshare video and let's see what

the like, top tips for being amazing at networking are.

- And for those of you that don't know what Skillshare is,

it's an online learning platform that has

online lessons in everything from like, design,

technology, personal skills, health, well-being,

anything you can think of.

They've got thousands upon thousands, upon thousands

of lessons and classes and you guys know,

we've worked with them a few times.

We, over the next few months, are going to share

with you once a month, what we've been learning.

So last time, we were sort of learning

sort of what was, I was learning health and well-being,

you were learning sort of design.

- Yes, so last time it was like, camera skills

and more techie stuff.

This time we both sort of decided to niche down

on how to network because it's one thing

networking with people who already know what

your industry is, and there's one thing going

to a conference at a big, what are they called?

Like, exhibition hall full of people wearing suits,

people with real proper jobs and

we're just there in our normal clothes

wearing our merch, and we're just like hi, we're.

- And they expect you to sell yourself.

So we went and some people would be like, where you from?

Meaning, not where are you from,

because we were like, London.

And they're like, no, what company are you from?

We were like, are we a company?

Like, Joel and Lia?

(laugh)

So before we went we knew we wanted

to do some networking classes.

So we did one that was called, I think,

Networking like a Ninja which I loved.

- [Lia] Yeah, and then one that was called

something like How to Survive an Event.

And we though, oh perfect.

And the picture of it looked exactly like somewhere

where we were going.

- [Joel] Yeah.

- [Lia] So, and obviously like, loads of it applied to us.

Some of it, I'd say, maybe didn't

but you can just take what you need.

Just pick out the tools, you know,

we're obviously not going to turn

up to an event in corporate wear

because at our job we.

- [Joel] It doesn't reflect our channel.

- [Lia] Yeah, it doesn't reflect who

Joel and Lia are, it feels weird talking about ourselves

in third person.