Zach Johnson didn't launch his YouTube channel with the goal of becoming an influencer. Rather, the farmer from Lowry, Minnesota — two hours northwest of Minneapolis — was hoping to bridge the disconnect he saw between farmers and consumers.
"What I wanted to do was to bring transparency to it, and show people, you know, here's what we do and here's exactly why we do those things," Johnson said in a phone interview last week.
Fast forward five years and Johnson's Millennial Farmer channel has amassed over 844,000 subscribers ranking him as the No. 1 most subscribed "FarmTube" channel in the U.S. Last month, Johnson was highlighted by YouTube in its annual "State of the Creator Economy" report, which assesses the economic, societal and cultural impact of YouTube in the U.S.
Johnson's channel has touched on three of those aspects. Since receiving his first check of $92 from YouTube, the channel now makes five times more revenue than his actual crops.
This on-screen success has led to two podcasts, a line of merchandise and speaking gigs at agriculture trade shows. And Johnson has used his platform for charitable causes as well, including raising $65,000 to train rural fire departments on how to rescue farmers from grain bin accidents.
As Johnson's channel has grown, so have his skills as a filmmaker.
In the beginning, he shot the videos using an iPhone and barely knew how to edit clips together. Now he's graduated to an actual camera and his wife, Becky, edits the videos down.
As a fifth-generation farmer, the day-to-day operations on the farm have changed immensely since Johnson's great-grandfather began cultivating the land in the 1870s.
The increasing presence of technology and automation into Johnson's 2,700-acre operation is possibly what draws-in viewers, uninitiated to life on the farm, into loyal fans that have racked up over 221 million views.
One minute, Johnson can be seen downloading a software update onto his tractor, and the next, he's filling a bin of fertilizer. All of these ordinarily mundane tasks are interspersed with jump cuts that have made other slice-of-life vloggers into superstars.
While he may not be a household name like many other YouTube influencers, Johnson is frequently recognized at trade shows, forcing him to keep his head down if he wants to enjoy the show for himself.
"I'm thankful for it," he said. "It's certainly something that I never would have expected."
