Nathan Kessel chatted about being a content creator and influencer in the digital age. He also opened up about his transition from opera singer to influencer, and how his traumatic brain injury molded him into who he is today.
What inspires you each day as a content creator and influencer?
Honestly, my whole mission is to help people smile and forget about the world for a while. I started creating content in one of the darkest periods of my life… the darkest period of many of our lives – when COVID hit.
Everything shut down, I got depressed, and I thought to myself, “If I feel like this… the rest of the world must be feeling it ten fold.”
I lost my job as an opera singer, my peers’ drive fizzled out and they ceased to do anything, and I realized i couldn’t stop and fall behind. And so I pivoted. All I had was my tiny apartment and my imagination. And that’s where it all began.
What kept me going was wanting to make people feel something during this dark time in history.
I knew the content had to be about the viewer. Views aren’t just a number, each one of those views is a real human being with a story of their own, and my goal was and still is, how can I relate to their humanity.
How can I make the human behind the screen feel something, and that’s why I don’t care to be in my videos because it’s not about me. It’s about you.
I’ve never had a desire to be famous. I’ve never liked being the center of attention, but what I do like is helping others.
My audience feels like my family and I want to do everything I can to make them smile, it’s like they’re my kids and I’ve got to take care of all of them, from ages 1 to 92, and Knowing that I get to make people smile — That is what keeps me creating every day.
How does it feel to be a part of the digital age?
Very strange in the most beautiful way. I came from the world of opera, I didn’t have social media until I was a junior in college and I never watched YouTube growing up. So entering this world of direct media, instant connection, and being able to make millions of people laugh? It still blows my mind.
We’re living in a remarkable era of humanity. We can take our humor, our businesses, our adventures, our communities, and build them online, without any gate keeping, without anyone telling us no.
We can just pick up our phones and create at any moment in time. The only thing that can get in our way now is our selves. It’s baffling and I’m so grateful.
How do you use technology in your daily routine?
I try to let content happen naturally. If I just live my life, the videos come. It keeps everything feeling relaxed, authentic, and honestly keeps everything organic in energy, which I love.
When I film I’m genuinely having fun and that’s what helps make it relatable! It’s so important to enjoy what you do in this field because if you’re not, it reads, and the views can tell within the first second of the video.
Making content as part of my routine allows for it to be synthesizable, because it could be anyone making these videos, and that’s why the viewers attach themselves to the content. When I’m not filming, I’m studying analytics, my own, my friends’, the whole social ecosystem.
I compare trends, see what’s happening across platforms, and learn from it. But outside of that? I’m barely on tech. I disappear. I love hiking, music, analog things, especially mechanical watches, and reading.
What do your plans for the future include?
I’m always expanding in the world of social media, constantly creating, constantly experimenting.
I’m leaning into voice acting, I’ve got several projects coming out, and I’m excited to keep building and exploring every corner of storytelling. Chaos never sleeps, apparently.
Were there any defining moments in your career?
Absolutely. Hitting my first 100,000 followers was when I thought, “Okay… maybe I can do this.” I wasn’t making money yet. Hitting my first million was when I realized, “Alright… now I HAVE to make this work.” But one of the biggest moments was when my first series fizzled out.
In the world of social media, every series comes to an end, much like how all good things do, except in social media you can pivot, and what’s cool is that you can pivot at anytime.
I really felt like a failure. I remember thinking “oh no what am i going to do, my videos used to get 40 million, 50 million, 75 million views every time I post, people really enjoyed it and now it’s getting stale and they’re not feeling it anymore, how am I gonna compete with myself?” For me, I love failing. It forced me to ask, “What’s next? How do I adapt?”
That pivot led to the waxing series, which led to my first 1B-view video on YouTube. It led to all sorts of new comedic series to make people laugh again in an entirely different way.
When I started YouTube, I already had 10M on TikTok, but there was no way to funnel the audience over from TikTok, so I had to start from scratch. And in the past 3.5 years, I’ve surpassed everything I did there.
That was a huge defining moment, proving to myself that I could rebuild, reinvent, and rise again.
Can you talk about your transition from opera singer to influencer, and your traumatic brain injury?
Opera was always the dream. I had a teacher in high school who pushed me to sing, and by 16 I was singing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s choir called the Tanglewood Festival Choir. And I was the youngest man to ever sing with the choir.
I was featured in the Boston Globe as their young artist of the year, sang as a soloist in Aaron Copeland’s “the Tender Land” in a trio with two of my best friends with the BSO and choir at 17.
Then I went on to study at the Eastman School of Music with four-time Grammy award-winning tenor Anthony Dean Griffey, then attended Rice University on a full ride for my Master of Music in vocal performance and worked with one of the greatest vocal technicians of the century, and sang with orchestras, won international competitions… Opera was everything.
Then the pandemic hit. Rice had the first COVID case in Houston. Everything shut down. Every job I had was gone overnight – all seven of them. I was working really hard to pay the bills while a full time student.
On March 3, 2020, I downloaded TikTok. In April of 2020 I had moved back home with my parents, I saw we had two days old spoiled milk from the fridge.
I got some rubber bands and goggles, and I was heading to the backyard because I was going to put the rubber bands on the gallon of spoiled milk, and my dad caught me as I was about to walk through the sliding door to the backyard.
He said to while laughing at my ridiculous getup, “What are you doing with that milk?” I said “it’s old so I’m going to explode it in the backyard.”
He started yelling, “Don’t you dare, you’re going to ruin the grass and it’s gonna get all over the house…” and as soon as he started yelling my mother ran down the stairs from her office and started yelling at him saying, “Don’t you yell at him…”
My father stormed out of the room and mom encouraged me to go do whatever I was about to do and I said “No its done, he ruined it for me.”
My mom stopped me mid sentence and said, “Nathan, Get out there right now and do whatever it is you were about to do.” If it hadn’t been for my mom I wouldn’t be where I am today because I filmed it, and it was that video that made my career and it ended up on Barstool Sports, MTV, ESPN Sports Center.
That moment changed everything. And to this day my father and I laugh about, and he always said “Well I didn’t know you would end up being ‘Nathan Kessel.’ I am so proud of you.”
Honestly, the real beginning goes back even further, to when I was 12. I had a traumatic brain injury, I had crushed part of my face, slept 20 hours a day for months, and had to relearn how to learn.
No short-term or long-term memory. Light sensitivity that was so bad I couldn’t leave my dark room, it was those moments that I realized I had synesthesia.
I couldn’t play instruments anymore… so I became the instrument. That’s what pushed me into singing. It made me more creative. But without that injury, I wouldn’t be who I am. It redirected my entire life.
We realized that the synesthesia was always there when my mother recovered a notebook from kindergarten that said “I hear red” and it served as a super power for music school.
Can you briefly tell us about your business and how you help brands go viral?
Most of the brands and celebrities I work with come through word of mouth. Over years of studying content and analyzing patterns, I developed a reliable method that helps creators and companies blow up online.
It has led to the wildest adventures, working with celebrities, huge organizations, nonprofits, even the Academy of Radiology and Imaging.
I’m passionate about helping anyone trying to benefit the world: medical organizations, kids discovering their future careers, marine life nonprofits, global causes.
What’s your advice for young and aspiring content creators?
Always go in with a pure intention. If your goal is just to be famous, it won’t serve you in the long run, I’ve seen so many people lose themselves and quit the profession chasing that reason.
People can smell your motives instantly. They know if you’re trying to help, to teach, to make them smile, to show them the world. And they will celebrate you for that.
Know your WHY. It has to be strong enough to carry you through the hard days.
Show people something real, whether it’s joy, knowledge, kindness, or a unique lens on the world. Anna, my fiancée, is one of the best examples this. She goes above and beyond and cares so deeply for the viewers mental health. And it reads that way when you watch her content.
She always tries to make the inner child in us all feel light, and she radiates that with her art. She truly makes you feel something. That’s what matters.
What does the word success mean to you?
When I was younger, I thought success creates happiness. I believed if I became successful, no matter where I was, I’d automatically be happy.
Around 21, I realized it’s the exact opposite. If you’re happy, success will will follow wherever you go. If I made Anna smile today, then today was a success.
My dad is a clarinet player, and even when he wasn’t in an orchestra, he found joy and fulfillment just by practicing. That taught me a lot and that life is so much simpler than we think.
As humans, we stress over tiny little problems. Happiness… simplicity… gratitude… that’s success to me.
What would you like to say to your fans and supporters?
Thank you for being with me through every series, every phase, every chaotic pivot. I’ve changed so much over the last six years, my style, my humor, everything, but so many of you stayed.
I regularly call one of my first fans just to check in and see what their thoughts are on the content and make sure they feel it’s just as authentic as day one. The loyalty of this community means the world.
We’re an ever-growing community, always evolving. Let’s just keep laughing together. You all always understand the assignment, and I’m so grateful.
To learn more about Nathan Kessel, follow him on Instagram and TikTok.
