David Dobrik Shared the Secret to His Creativity and Avoiding Burnout
This article originally appeared in the December 2020 issue of Men's Health.
DAVID DOBRIK is one of the internet’s most successful personalities, reaching an audience of millions via Vine, YouTube, and most recently TikTok, cooking up viral video after viral video thanks to a combination of hustle, humor, and go-all-out intensity.
But 2020 offered Dobrik a rare chance to reset—and an opportunity to get more in touch with what he really wants to accomplish as a creator.
I think what I’m most proud of in 2020 is having the confidence to take a break from what I do. I was posting so much on YouTube and so consistently and it was in a scary place where I almost felt like I was going to implode. I didn’t know if it was okay to stop. Then the pandemic hit and I was like, “I need to stop.” It was a wake-up call. It slowed everything down for me, and I’m proud I took some time to breathe.
How do you keep reinventing yourself? Do what you like, do what you find is funny. Be yourself and then fans will follow. Your audience wants to see what you do. They don’t want to see you try something new because they think you’re losing touch. They just want you to be yourself. And the harder you try to be yourself, the more the audience will fall in love with you.
The reason I think I’ve found any success online is I’m being honest. There are definitely things I leave out in my private life, but the stuff I post is the stuff that makes me laugh.
My Insta Stories and TikTok and YouTube videos, it’s all stuff that I enjoy doing. My friends and I are actually having a good time. We wouldn’t be doing it if it wasn’t fun to us. That’s the bottom line. So I think [my online persona] is really accurate to how I am in-person.
I think I really want to go back to posting YouTube videos. I’m still kind-of figuring this out. I’m really in awe of the whole traditional world: being on sets, filming TV shows, doing all that. It’s just because I’m so new to that world that I want to play in that area.
But I think what I’m figuring out more is that I really do love making my own content and being my own boss. Shooting whatever I want, whenever I want. And I really want to be able to get back to that in 2021.
I was always like, “What’s next? What’s next? What big show am I going to host?” But I think the better answer is “How do I polish what I already do?” Because that is what’s next. I’m already in it, I’m already doing it. I just need to make it a living and do it for a really long time.
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