Today we’d like to introduce you to Willie Britton II.
Hi Willie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
New York born and raised for 24 years. But let’s take it back to where it all started. Growing up in New York wasn’t easy with my mom moving all around New York City, from Manhattan to the Bronx, to where most of my childhood, teenage and early adulthood took place. I didn’t live in the best part of any of those boroughs hence the multiple moves until we settled down in Queens, NY when I was 8. I took to basketball very quickly moving to Queens and immediately hit a lot of roadblocks with me being the new kid on the block. Of course, not being from the neighborhood would cause tension between the other neighborhood kids because even back then I was still a go getter, a rascal, quick to stand up for myself and always looking to play basketball with older kids. You can say the typical treatment was delivered to the “New Kid on the Block”.
Fast-forwarding, I started getting better at basketball and those same kids who picked on me started to take a liking to me because I would always preach to everyone around the neighborhood I was the best basketball player around. It wasn’t until I got to high school when I started to get the respect from those around the neighborhood. Getting into high school was nearly impossible since I got rejected from all public schools I applied to due to low test scores from middle school. I was then offered a scholarship to attend an all boys private high school where tuition was usually $9000-$10,000 per year. I received a scholarship through this sponsorship program that allowed me to attend that school for only $900 per year. I would say that’s a blessing in disguise. I also grabbed attention from the school’s basketball program while attending their basketball camps and landed a starting spot on the freshman team. Fast forward through my high school career, I graduated with a 3.3 GPA on the National Society. Moving forward, I attended three different colleges chasing the basketball dream to play pro basketball where my career came to a screeching pause. I suffered a serious concussion during a college basketball game that ultimately ruled me out of all sports and school for the rest of the year. I was forced to take a medical leave from that school and move back home in order to rehabilitate myself and take a semester off.
I then attended my last school where I had the best season of my basketball career, being honor on The All-Conference Team and the 3rd leading scorer in the conference. I graduated from that school (SUNY PURCHASE COLLEGE) with a Bachelor’s in Communications with a concentration in Television. During that time of my rehabilitation, my YouTube career was sparked, thanks to my bestfriend/brother who heavily introduced me to it. We created a Co-Channel where we created all sorts of content from reactions, vlogs, day in the life’s, basketball workouts, wave chronicles and much more. The Co-Channel was getting hard to create content being that my bestfriend and I were at different schools. So I branched off, created my own channel, originally named 360 Will. Strictly focusing on waves, how to get them and wash & styles. Moving forward, my bestfriend and I started transforming our content because we now had two different channels. We started doing Public Interviews, continued the vlogs, pranks, challenges and much more. We found so much excitement in creating that type of content and we started to see a lot of people taking a liking to it. Somewhere along the line, I met this beautiful girl through Instagram, she was from LA and it was so ironic my bestfriend and I have been planning to take a trip to Cali just for vacation and expanding our content. That connection between her and I grew so strong that it urged me to make that trip happen so much faster.
Even though part of my reasons were to vaca and create content but also to meet this girl as well. That Cali trip cemented my bestfriend and I to want move to Cali after I graduated college. During that time, one of my prank videos (chocking prank) I did on my bestfriend went viral and got picked up by a UK Television network that was creating a new series of shows with MTV. The MTV series was called Revenge Pranks hosted by Vinny and Pauly D from Jersey Shore. The episode aired a year later where it got millions and millions of views worldwide. Later that year the pandemic hit, I was focused to leave college and graduate online but months later, I saved up only $2000, took another trip to Cali with my bestfriend and another friend I met during the MTV episode filming to take a tour of ONE apartment in hopes of moving in by the next month. That was July 27th to be exact, we viewed the apartment and fell in love immediately. The next day we were approved to sign a 14 month lease and officially moved in August 21, 2020.
During that entire time of figuring out moving situations, I continued to created consistent content on YouTube. Back in December, I recorded a kissing video with the girl from LA who later became my girlfriend. That video went viral and propelled me past the monetization requirements. It accumulated 180k views to monetize my channel and is now sitting on over 400k views. My subscribers started to take a big jump as I was creating exciting content. My channel was monetized within 6-8 months of starting YouTube full-time. It has been six months since I moved here to California and my current subscriber count is 7.8k and counting. I can honestly say through all this, I’ve met so many people, YouTubers, content creators and enjoyed every bit of it. Getting up to move across the country from New York to California wasn’t easy! I only had about $2000 in my bank account moving into my new apartment and having to buy all the necessary things someone would need when moving into a new apartment.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road wasn’t easy, I can tell you that. You can imagine the struggle with moving across the country with just $2000 in my account especially not having a job solidified and rent coming the first of the month. It was literally the first time my roommates and I had to get it on our own and make things happen for ourselves that only we can do being that were so far from home.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As of right now, I am currently working a Full-Time Job at Enterprise Rent-A-Car but I am also a YouTuber pushing to take it full time and quit my current full-time job. I’m most proud of the fact that I was able to graduate college during a pandemic, a time where our country was shutting down, move to California during the Pandemic with only $2000 dollars to my name to start my new journey, my new life and create a name for myself that so many can remember and be inspired.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Right now, I’m currently following this motivational speaker by the name of Eric Thomas. His energy, his passion, his grind and determination to become the Number 1 motivational speaker in the world inspires me to become the best version of myself. He has a YouTube channel, Instagram and podcast with over several million followers. He is very impactful to many across the world. I would also throw in GaryVee, I was recently on an Instagram live with him that lead to him helping me deal with toxicity in the household. He also preachers about living life without regret, live how you want to live life and not how Society deems how to live. His words and messages really hit home for me as I know it does many others.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/willtunein?igshid=1n4ej454snim7
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/WillTuneiN
Image Credits:
@alexahayward
