How a YouTube star is trading viral success for a digital marketing career

It was just supposed to be a quick glance down at her cell phone during class. But the number staring back at Sadie Aldis arrested her gaze. With her eyes still glued to the screen, she nudged her friend with her elbow, angling the phone toward her. That’s when, with eyes wide, the two 16-year-olds tried to contain their glee as they celebrated the feat: 50,000 video views.

“This is how it happens — how people always say it happens,” her friend said. “You’re blowing up.”

Aldis shrugged off the fantasy with a bashful grin. But over the next week, it began to materialize. As the hours passed, her subscriber count soared, eclipsing 75,000 within days. It was this moment, she says, that rerouted her adolescence and set the stage for her life as an influencer.

“I’ve never had a normal part-time job as a kid because I was essentially always running my own business,” Aldis said. “I need to be creating, and I was so excited to have something that was fully mine and that I could work on.”

After spending her teenage years building a following from scratch as a lifestyle vlogger, Aldis reached the one million subscriber mark on YouTube. But her explosive climb came with unrelenting pressure, eventually leading to burnout. Now at 22, the Burlington, Ontario-based creator is stepping away from the camera and pivoting to digital marketing.

“The whole channel was focused on my life — what I wore, what I ate, who I hung out with — and I never felt like I was sharing enough,” Aldis said. “You just feel watched, and I didn’t think this would be beneficial for my mental health long-term.”

Rising to influencer stardom

While still in high school, Aldis grew her online fanbase exponentially, garnering a sponsorship deal with Apple. As her influence continued to rise, brands like Netflix followed. But securing these deals only resulted in a growing sense of obligation.

When Aldis served as the face of TD Bank for an Instagram Reels advertising campaign in 2024, she had to adhere to strict requirements that resulted in four rounds of video revisions. Unlike her previous brand collaborations, she needed to work closely with TD’s legal team, provide an approved script and ensure her clothing matched its precise shade of green.

With public exposure rising in unison with her follower count, Aldis became subjected to universal critique — her life laid bare through her channel’s likes, views and comments.

“It's like having a report card that's public for everyone to see, which is terrifying,” Aldis said. “It adds another layer of pressure to everything you do, and then you start overthinking your content. I was at the most successful point of my life — career-wise and financially — but I was the most unhappy.”

A new digital journey

On January 16, 2025, Aldis wiped her social media accounts save for YouTube, leaving a single note on her Instagram profile addressing fan speculation and concern. In it, she announced the end of her YouTube career. But that same week, Aldis resurfaced online — this time in a digital marketing class at Concordia Continuing Education. She turned her focus to building brands instead of being one.

“I know how to market a personal brand and connect with people, but I wanted to learn how to market products and services instead of myself,” said Aldis, who enrolled in Concordia’s digital marketing diploma to pursue a strategic marketing role off-camera. “I have a lot of experience in social media but I wanted to fill in any gaps and really understand what I knew and be confident in it.”

That confidence took shape during her Social Media – Strategies and ROI course. For the final assignment, Aldis was tasked with conducting a thorough social media audit for an existing brand. She chose to dissect the accounts of The Pearle Hotel & Spa in Burlington, Ontario. Then, she developed a social media calendar by drawing on content pillars to increase awareness and address audience pain points.  

This structured approach reshaped Aldis’ perspective on content creation.

“It gives you a framework for content production,” Aldis said. “This was very different from being an influencer, where you just wake up and film everything and then decide what’s worth posting at the end. Having a plan makes you confident in knowing what your voice is, how you’re going to differentiate yourself, what platforms you’ll post on, and how you’ll repurpose content. I feel like I can market anything now.”

Marketing her influencer skills

The confidence Aldis gained through the diploma inspired her to launch her own social media management business. Less than four months after announcing the end of her YouTube career, she’s back to marketing herself. In hopes of unveiling her business by the end of May, she has been building a pitch deck for prospective small-and-medium-sized businesses — her new target audience.

But to get it off the ground, she knew she’d have to reframe her influencer skills to overcome the pervasive stigma she says undervalues their work.

“I didn’t just film YouTube videos,” Aldis said. “I edited, produced, optimized and marketed them. All of these actions and my merchandise revenue on Etsy led to KPIs, and these are what companies are going to measure.”

Aldis attributes these realizations to her mentor, Damali Thomas, an SEO manager at Scotiabank with whom she was paired with in the diploma program. Together, they translated Aldis’ influencer success to her revamped LinkedIn profile to better showcase her relevant skills.

“I wanted Sadie to champion her skill set because I think she doubted herself being branded as an influencer,” said Thomas. “You’re not going to find many marketing employees who have a million followers, so I wanted her to show off that she has deep knowledge of these platforms and has engaged audiences over a long period of time. That influencing experience is huge because it crosses a lot of different marketing specialties.”

In this career pivot, Aldis has defined her niches as content creation and influencer marketing. While these were once the source of her mental health struggles, she credits the diploma program for allowing her to find a new equilibrium.

“Every class had a section dedicated to mental health in the social media industry, and that was really refreshing,” said Aldis. “The instructors were aware of what could happen, and they wanted to help you create a long-term successful career in a healthy way. That was really special.”

The viral video that catapulted Aldis into influencer fame has grown from 50,000 views that day in the classroom to 5.4 million today. It’s a feat she hopes to repeat, but this time from behind the scenes.

“I feel very grateful that I get to use the skills I love, like creating content, planning and strategizing, without my life being the centre of attention.”