Today we’d like to introduce you to Donaldo Estevam.
Hi Donaldo, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Starting out I wanted to be a gaming streamer and I tried that out for about 3 years never getting anywhere. I think I had 150 followers on twitch by the end of 3 years. But what I did come out of the other side with was a new learned ability in video editing. I spent hours editing through 4 to 8 hour long streams to make video content from them and I learned a lot during that.
After completely failing in the streamer journey I was going to just quit and accept my fate. But me and my Wife had a real Passion for cooking and eating and the best restaurants we could find in our area. And my wife said to me hey why don’t you just make a cooking channel and so I did. But it was rough I couldn’t get lighting down I was using an old phone that didn’t have a very good camera and I didn’t understand how to tell a story through cooking yet. But even though it wasn’t perfect the views the videos were getting was more then I’ve ever seen ( like 5k views a video which is pretty small but back then it was worth celebrating haha) so I knew there was something here.
As time went and after trying many different recipes I settled into the comfort food neigh and I had found my audience. And I was able to grow to 100k in about 1 year, my cameras got better my skills in lighting and videoing food got better ( I watched like 100 how to videos on lighting and cameras haha ) once I passed 100k followers I found that my channel hit a stone wall and growth slowed down to a crawl I was even losing followers. It was at this point I realized that I had to make a change again or els my channel would become irrelevant ( social media has a real way of never letting you get to comfortable ) so instead of food video that solely relies on hands and food with just ASMR no dialogue. I started to talk during the videos and instead of just telling you have to make the recipe I talked about my weight loss journey and I was totally honest about it. If I gained wait I told them if I lost weight I told them and I started making changes to the recipes so they are healthier and the crowd responded. In just 6 months I went from 100k followers to 1.3M on IG alone I also grew to 400k on TikTok and over 100k on YouTube shorts.
The fun food content channels I had started wasn’t just a hobby anymore it had become a brand that was recognized across social media, and with that came brands wanting to work with me and I was able to quit my 9 to 5 jobs and finally become a full time content creator like I had dreamed of.
I’ve been full time now for 3 years and even if it all ended today I wouldn’t change a thing because I got that time to experience what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and call my own shots.
Next in the near future is launching my own product a chef knife that I have been working on for the last year and is ready to roll out.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There where tons of struggles that I mention in the last box
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a content creator and I love to cook! I like to create recipes that are as good or better than the originals but are made healthier and high protein. I specialize in creating this into short form content that is fun to watch, I definitely specialize in comfort food and I’m most proud of what I’ve been able to build with the limited tools I have.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Definitely reach out to your peers in your neigh if you’re a content creator. You can get some great information from them, but just always remember you are the only one who can make you make better content. So listen to your gut and don’t hesitate to make that content that you have been thinking about.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Donaldocooks.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/donaldo_cooks?igsh=YmpwdmRmODFnOWts&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1GhMXUdADs/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@donaldo_cooks?si=USZ1XoyC0U1Mb7VX
