Behind The Content: Josh Brown’s Journey As A TikTok Educator

Josh Brown is a dynamic TikTok content creator (@joshbrownjsy) known for his engaging and educational videos that resonate with students worldwide. Originally from the UK, Josh started his TikTok journey in 2020, quickly gaining traction with his study tips and exam advice.

Now, with almost a million followers and hundreds of millions of views, his content spans everything from productivity hacks to relatable student experiences. Thank you, Josh, for sharing your insights and experiences; your journey is inspiring, and we look forward to seeing how your content continues to impact students worldwide.

IMAGE: JOSH BROWN

What inspired you to start your TikTok account, and how has your content evolved over time?

I started posting videos on TikTok at the end of 2020. At this time, we were still slowly coming out of quarantine, and the app was growing in popularity. One of my school friends had recently found some success posting on TikTok, so I decided to give it a go. I didn’t expect much from it to start with and tried posting a variety of genres of video until I began to specialize in education and school-related videos.

I was studying for my A Levels in the UK at the time (the equivalent of a senior in high school), so I began to make a mixture of GCSE and A Level exam advice videos (the standardized exams taken in all UK secondary schools from ages 16-18).

Fortunately, my tenth video, which explained the revision methods I used to obtain 11 grade 9’s (the highest possible grade in the UK), reached a million views and catapulted my account from 500 followers to 40,000 followers overnight.

From then on, I took my content much more seriously, as I tried to exploit a niche in the TikTok educator market, aiming to post 5-10 educational videos per day to bring value to my audience and further increase my following.

After reaching 200,000 followers in the space of a few months, I decided I wanted to expand the geographic and age demographic of my audience, so I began to post more general educational and study-related videos. These included videos that provided my followers with essay writing advice, study productivity hacks, sophisticated vocabulary alternatives, and relatable high school/college TikToks.

This proved more successful than I could have ever imagined in growing my account on a global scale, particularly in 2022 when an essay vocabulary video I posted reached 13 million views in the space of a week, generating 200,000 new followers!

By this time, I had graduated high school and become a university student. Despite finding it more difficult to balance consistent content creation with a full-time economics degree, I managed to diversify my videos to encompass a variety of educational, relatable, motivational, and lifestyle videos. During this time, I also first began to make money through my TikTok account by working on several brand collaborations.

Currently, I have amassed 950,000 followers on TikTok (which is still crazy for me to comprehend!), generated over 200 million views, and worked with 20+ different brands. Having recently graduated university, I intend to post more consistently on a wider range of social media platforms and continue to grow education-based businesses inspired by my existing content.

How would you describe the theme or focus of your TikTok videos, and how do you stay inspired to create new content?

The majority of my TikTok videos are largely student-based. Whether they are strictly educational and informative, relatable to students, or reflective of student lifestyle, my content mainly appeals to high school and college students. However, I am looking to diversify my content further in the near future to accommodate wider-ranging target audiences.

I am constantly inspired to create new content due to the unprecedentedly viral nature of the TikTok algorithm. Its potential is massive; for example, you could wake up to a video that you posted the night before that now has a million views, and your life can change, especially if you are able to develop a sustained and strong sense of community over time with your followers.

The positive comments and messages that I receive thanking me for helping viewers’ studies also make it all worth it. In addition, the opportunity to share my ideas and connect with millions of like-minded people on a regular basis serves as another motivation to create new content, given the fact that my videos may be able to positively impact people’s habits or lives in some way.

What does your creative process look like when developing new ideas for your videos?

I actually develop new ideas for my videos in different ways; it depends on the video. Sometimes I will sit down and purposely brainstorm ideas for potential videos and even series based on my recently high-performing videos, conversations with fellow creators, current trends, or other videos that I can take inspiration from on my For You Page.

However, some of my most successful videos have been sparked by ideas that have come to me at completely random times, for instance on a walk, in the shower, or at the gym.

In fact, the idea for one of my highest-performing series to date, whereby I introduced and explained the meanings of impressive vocabulary that students should use in their essays to impress their teachers, which amassed over 40 million total views, came to me while playing a tennis match!

Do you have a favorite video or series, and what makes it special to you?

My favorite series has to be the first series I made on GCSE exam advice because of the impact it had on my viewers. As a result of posting hundreds of GCSE-related videos that academic year, on results day I was flooded with literally thousands of thank-you messages from followers of mine that had improved on their grades (partly!) as a result of my advice and study motivation.

This was such a rewarding feeling and made all the time and effort invested in creating content worth it, especially as I was doing it for free at that time!

Have you noticed particular types of content that resonate most with your audience, and how do you handle feedback, whether positive or critical?

The types of content that resonate most with my audience are definitely my educational videos, particularly when offering advice about developing students’ essay writing, vocabulary, and language skills.

I’ve been very lucky that the overwhelming majority of feedback to my videos has been really positive due to my style of content and generally positive messages, which makes my life easier! However, TikTok comment sections can be a toxic place, and there’s always a chance you can encounter the occasional hater.

I just try to focus on the positive comments that clearly outweigh them. If you’re putting out content with the intention to help people, inspire them, and make them laugh, there isn’t really much scope for negativity.

How has TikTok impacted your career or personal life?

The money I have been fortunate enough to make from brand deals on my TikTok page has helped support me through university and funded travel opportunities I’d never have imagined possible at this stage of my life. It’s been amazing for my career so far, as it has opened the door to so many new opportunities and allowed me to make lots of valuable connections.

There is so much earning potential in the influencer space right now, to the extent that I recently made the decision to pursue content creation full time despite gaining a first-class economics degree at university. My plan is to move to Los Angeles in the new year to hopefully take my content, collaborations, and business opportunities to the next level.

Becoming relatively big on TikTok has certainly affected my personal life, but I’ve learned to appreciate the attention that comes with it for the most part.

At university, I would get recognized a lot from my videos, and fellow students would ask for my photograph, which was a bit surreal at first, but I soon got used to it! Luckily, I’m nowhere near famous enough yet to be noticed in public on an extremely regular basis; however, every now and again someone will come up to me and say that they enjoy my videos or thank me for helping a certain aspect of their studies, and those interactions definitely encourage me to keep going.

Have you collaborated with other creators or brands on TikTok? If so, what was that experience like?

While I haven’t yet collaborated with too many other creators on TikTok (something I’m definitely keen to do in the coming years), I have been fortunate enough to work on numerous brand campaigns.

The list of brands I’ve worked with includes Grammarly, Invisalign, Unidays, Italki, and Routledge. I’ve always been fascinated by the experience of collaborating with brands, and I enjoy the process of delivering brand messages in a way that aligns with my content style to benefit both my followers and the companies involved.

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