Fred Mills, co-founder of a construction YouTube channel with a million subscribers, tells Construction News how the industry can attract more talent
Today, in the midst of a global pandemic and an ever-nearer labor shortage, the challenge is more vital than ever. But how can the sector succeed in a wider population and convince others of a career in construction?
The answer, for Fred Mills, is YouTube.
Mills is a former Osborne manager and the founder and CEO of YouTube’s structure channel The B1M, which has over a million subscribers. He created it in 2015 as a pastime after work.
“I’ve noticed the worst in the industry,” Mills says. “I saw everyone object, and I saw an industry that I didn’t quite understand. Then I started downloading videos and they started to have a little traction. Gradually I built the platform from there, expanding the content, creating the team, expanding the scope.
In April, the YouTube channel reached one million subscribers. Mills attributes this to his project statement. “I love the structure and I need the overall total to like me too, and other people are in touch with that project,” he says.
Mills thinks it’s as easy to attract other people to the industry as to show them the exciting paintings that are happening. The key is to simplify it so that other people who are not experts in structures can perceive it better.
An introductory video, titled “This is The B1M,” features a voiceover that describes the structure as a domain that “isn’t smart to yell at itself and isn’t smart to celebrate what he does, and many talented and more productive young people don’t even realize.”
Mills continues: “There is a lot of internal communication in the structure industry, and the way many other people communicate with each other in the sector has not presented itself in a way that can obviously be used through other people outdoors. The industry.
“I think other young people today don’t just need wages and jobs, they need anything that makes a difference in the world. I think the structure industry is the toughest industry that can do that. It affects the lives of each and every one, from the houses where you wake up with the infrastructure and buildings we use every day.”
Mills hopes that younger generations find it less difficult to locate and perceive structure data through a format they know and entertain. He says: “If you want to make a difference in the world, you paint in this industry, but we can’t expect other people to move to open-structure sites and documents and documents to see it. We want to include this exciting and engaging content in your news feeds. »
In addition to profiling the projects, Mills interviews graduates to ask them how they have entered and gives them routes in the industry, with a video titled “Current Contract: The World’s Largest Industry”.
While defending the industry because it deserves much more compliments and respect, Mills also works to solve its problems.
“We don’t doubt complexity, nor do we hesitate to problems,” he says. “We cover issues such as social housing and inequality, fitness and climate protection and change. It’s not that we’re reducing things, it’s just that we’re formulating them in a way that other people can see more clearly.
“I think other young people today don’t just need wages and jobs, they need anything that makes a difference in the world. I think the structure industry is the toughest industry that can do that.”
“People appreciate that we tell both sides of the stories we report, for example, we can communicate about very impressive, well-designed and incredibly thin skyscrapers in New York, but we also point out that they belong to millionaires who perpetuate inequality in the design center, and that gets a lot of public support.
But there is a challenge that is not earned as well globally when discussed on the B1M channel. “I think that in the UK and in the European market, we all agree that climate substitution is a challenge that wants to be addressed and is just a question of how we treat it, but in the US it is not,” he says. Array Mills
“If we do something about climate replacement and construction, we wonder if it’s something to communicate or if it’s just a hoax, which doesn’t even surprise me anymore, it depresses me.”
Mills is confident that the public belief of the structure industry can be replaced by something more positive, however, he is convinced that some things also want to replace in the sector, and admits that there are less than favorable facets of the culture of the structure.
He says: “We communicate a lot, but we don’t walk much. We say that we need racial and sexual diversity and that we need a lot of young people to come, but then we have the Construction Leadership Council and they’re all white, they’re not women either, and I think they’re all over 40, it’s not the kind of industry we should be.
“I’m looking to take this industry beyond professional websites and show other people how wonderful it is and how it can have an effect on the world. We want to ask ourselves how we can actually bring more racial and gender diversity to the industry and be much more proactive in doing so.
When CN asks how lucrative the YouTube business is, Mills laughs and says, “If I had a pound for every time someone asked me how I make money, I probably would have made more money [than the B1M].”
The B1M is too small to be asked to register your cash and benefits accounts with Companies House, with an organization of only 8 other employees, adding Mills and 4 other freelancers working with the team.
Mills says: “When I started, it was just me doing everything from coming up with the ideas, shooting the videos and distributing them, so I’ve been very lucky to build a team of people around me to help me make all that work.”
It explains that it is generated through a combination of advertising earnings on YouTube, logo sponsorship and some conference bookings.
Mills said, “Actually, we were surprised, because you would think that the audience would be made up of all the young people who are interested in TikTok and Instagram, but it’s a genuine mix.”
Explains that the average viewer of The B1M content is 36, according to their YouTube analysis. “There’s a big recovery with younger views, but a lot of the older generation is also watching,” he says.
“I have videos in which young architects and engineers tell me what they attract in the industry, but I can also tell my parents what they attract.”