How to be a creator with 200K YouTube subscribers AND work a full-time job

Find out how design expert Charli Prangley keeps both passions running as ConvertKit’s Creative Director and creator of her design-focused YouTube channel, CharliMarieTV.

On October 10, 2013, Charli Prangley uploaded her first YouTube video. But you won’t be able to find it anywhere. Like many early adopters of YouTube, she’s taken down a few of her first videos. It’s normal to be awkward and imperfect when you’re trying something new; most creators are embarrassed by their first attempts. But those shaky first steps are crucial. 

Even though Charli cringes when she watches her first video, she knows without it she wouldn’t be where she is today: the Creative Director at ConvertKit, and a creator with over 205K YouTube subscribers. 

Charli’s YouTube channel focuses on design. It showcases her design life and process, and shares content to help other designers move forward in their careers. 

But it didn’t start out that way.

I know because Charli gave me access to watch that very first video.

It doesn’t make me cringe like it does for her – I find it rather delightful. But I can understand why she’d find it hard to watch now. Because she isn’t quite herself. She’s doing that thing almost everyone does the first time they speak in front of a camera – they try to act like other people they’ve seen in front of a camera, instead of themselves. 

But Charli’s sincerity still shines through. In her first video she shares:

My videos will mostly be about design, music, travel, fashion, maybe a few healthy recipes thrown in here and there.

 So why and when did she stop making videos about music and travel and fashion and food? How did her channel go from 0 to 205K subscribers in eight years? And how does she manage being a full-time creator and having a full-time job? That’s what I’m here to find out. 

But first, Charli gives me a tour of her home office in Valencia, Spain.

The first things I notice are a record player and a cat tree. The cat, Nora, shows up shortly after and almost trips Charli (“She likes to be near me at all times.”). 

Charli recovers her balance and shows me the most important thing in the room: “Here's my pride and joy: my gallery wall.”

Prints cover almost every spot on the wall, expertly placed, nothing matching but everything working together. 

I ask Charli which print she’s had the longest and she points to the one she designed herself years ago, inspired by a quote from a friend. It reads: “High-Def Hopes and Dreams.”Then I ask her an impossible question – which one is her favorite?

She starts by telling me about the print that says “I like it. What is it?” by Anthony Burrill.  But then she also adds a few more of his prints. Oh and also the one that says “You’ll think of something.”

I love them all. This is too difficult. I'm just going to tell you about every single one.

And she does. She’s as big a fan of design as she is a practitioner.  

And it was being a fan that got her started in the first place.