My Pitfalls Starting a Podcast
What I Learned After Going Viral on TikTok (And Letting It All Go)
You may have heard of my channel, The Happy Dead. It blew up almost overnight—over 100,000 followers in just one month, millions of views, and a wave of momentum that felt unstoppable.
But here’s the honest truth: I didn’t capitalize on it the way I should have. And this is what I learned.
How It Started
I created The Happy Dead exclusively on TikTok, I dove into all things spooky, creepy, and paranormal. I didn’t think I’d blow up as fast as I did, but TikTok is a wild place. One post can launch you into the algorithm's spotlight without you even knowing how or why. For me, that moment came when I posted a video about the film The Conjuring. I found what the algorithm liked, and I ran with it—again and again.
And it worked.
In just a month, I went from a few hundred views to hundreds of thousands—even millions. Random friends were messaging me saying, “Dude, I just saw you on TikTok.” It was surreal.
Where It Went Wrong
When I started The Happy Dead back in 2020, I was also editing and managing social media for another podcast. One thing I had learned from that experience: post consistently—ideally every day. TikTok loves it. The algorithm rewards it.
So I did just that… for a while.
But burnout crept in. Fast.
Despite the views and likes, I was barely making money from the Creator Fund—maybe $2,000 total, across millions of plays. On top of editing for other channels, I was also working doing GrubHub deliveries to fill up my time not editing and working some nights as a DJ/Audio Tech. Each of my own videos took 1–2 hours to create, and the return wasn’t cutting it. I realized I was earning more editing other people’s content than my own.
That’s when I decided to pivot from short-form content to long-form podcasting and generating TikTok Videos from that. This is what marketing people call “funneling”. Basically trying to convert TikTok views into YouTube views/subscribers (which at the time at least, this worked amazingly for my channels I was editing for).
As a few weeks went on, doing everything solo—research, scripting, filming, editing—was overwhelming. I brought in a friend to help write scripts, but in doing so, I lost something crucial: my voice. And that voice, it turns out, was what made the content special to begin with.
The Burnout & The "What If"
Eventually, I burned out completely. I didn’t want to edit. Didn’t want to research paranormal stories. I was done.
So, I let the channel sit—at 170,000 followers—untouched.
I tried posting a year or so later and the results were heart breaking. I was barely getting 1k views, and I also got content violations which made it even harder for my videos to get out. So it seemed like my channel was basically dead.
The TikTok algorithm is very mysterious, no one really quite knows how it works. It’s theorized that there’s a point system, and you get points for view time, likes, follower, etc. I wonder if when they make changes to the algorithm if inactive channels have a harder time getting back into your followers For You Page. That’s my theory at least. So even though I’m at 167k Followers, it’s like starting all over again.
The silver lining? The podcasts and channels I edit for exploded in growth: millions of TikTok followers, over 500K YouTube subscribers, and significantly better pay. But there’s always been that lingering thought:
“What if I had stuck with it?”
If You’re Just Getting Started…
Here’s what I wish I had done differently—and what you can do right:
Find your audience
Create content daily
Ride the momentum—Funnel those followers into something outside of TikTok
Don’t give up - Don’t Live in “What If”
Most importantly: have fun with it
Success doesn’t come overnight for most. But if you enjoy the process, stay consistent, and lean into your voice, you’ll go further than you think.
Hope this helps someone out there just getting started. Keep going. You got this.
-Brandyn
