What do undercover reporting, matchmaking, and YouTube’s “cats team” have in common?
Roya Zeitoune, Head of Culture & Trends at YouTube EMEA, joins us to share her unconventional career path and what it reveals about the future of online culture. Tune in to hear her take on short-form video, community-building, and why curiosity is the ultimate career skill.
Diving in, Roya shares her journey—from early days in the matchmaking industry to leading YouTube’s whimsically named “cats team”—and what it’s taught her about connecting audiences with content that matters. She opens up about her unconventional career path, which includes undercover reporting for the BBC and a serendipitous opportunity at Google, and the lessons she’s learned along the way: stay curious, hire for potential, and never stop exploring. Roya also shares her take on the rise of short-form video, the cultural shift toward participatory content, and how AI is shaping the next era of creation. Listeners will walk away with a fresh perspective on how YouTube is democratizing culture and fostering passionate communities worldwide. Join us as we explore what authenticity and engagement really mean for the future of content—and the marketers and creators shaping it.
Check out highlights from the episode below, or or tune into the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen!
The following interview has been lightly edited for concision.
“I know sometimes you might not want to open yourself up to criticism, but isn't it better to hear it and then know how to act on it than to just have people shouting into the void?”: Roya Zeitoune on hearing from your community
Brit Starr: What advice would you have for creators across all stages? To maintain that relevance, to continue to tap into that learning loop that's so important that, I would imagine, sets the creators who have long-term sustained success, apart from some of their peers?
Roya Zeitoune: I think it is hard and it's getting harder because there are more and more creators, there are more and more options for people to watch. The world is being enriched, but as a creator, it becomes increasingly difficult to cut through. One of the things that comes up constantly when I have conversations with creators is that defiant obstinance to stick to what is your real passion, what is authentically you, really does pay off. Creators sometimes are just trying to jump on a bandwagon or trying to ride a wave of some type of popularity. It can work for a while, but I think, because it is a relentless job to choose to do, in order to have that tenacity to keep going, you really need to be into what it is that you're making your content about. Often the most successful creators that we have are the ones who had no intention of becoming successful, but because they really cared about the stuff that they were making content about, that brought the community with it. That's really key and a lot of creators do this brilliantly, and it's something that I think brands can really learn from them is really listening to their audience. One of the most wonderful things is the immediate feedback you get in comments. YouTube comments are a whole culture unto themselves. When you are a creator, taking the time to actively see how people are responding to the stuff that you're making is really important.
One of the biggest mistakes I see both creators and brands make is turning off comments. Why would you do that? I know sometimes you might not want to open yourself up to criticism, but isn't it better to hear it and then know how to act on it than to just have people shouting into the void? If you take it a step further to actually engaging in those comments, which some creators do very effectively, the community absolutely loves it.
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