He Quit His $125K Journalism Job to Be a YouTuber

Fernando Hurtado is a former NBC Telemundo journalist who walked away from a six-figure media career to build on YouTube from scratch. In this episode, Fernando breaks down how he got monetized in days, landed (and lost) brand deals early, priced himself wrong, and rebuilt with a repeatable system for publishing high-quality videos without burning out. We talk risk, leverage, time-boxing creative work, and what journalists actually need to know before betting on themselves. __ Fernando’s AAPI Latino’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8FkX5iEkYY __ Fernando Hurtado YouTube: @byfernandoh Twitter/X: https://x.com/byfernandoh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byfernandoh TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@byfernandohh LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fernandohurtado/ Francis Zierer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francis-zierer/ Twitter/X: https://x.com/FZierer __ Timestamps 00:00 Introducing Fernando Hurtado 01:06 The hardest part of full-time YouTube 04:40 How to land (and lose) brand deals 09:30 Transitioning from NBC to YouTube 16:02 Four reasons to become a YouTuber 21:00 Learning the business side of journalism 28:59 Diversify your revenue streams 30:41 Building a sustainable upload schedule — without burnout 35:09 Creating videos for the algorithm and the culture 40:48 Showing the journalistic process 43:27 Creating a video that inspires discussion 45:50 Successes from one year as a YouTuber 51:36 Advice for going all in on YouTube