“I truly can’t believe that I’m turning 30 in April and am finally getting to do what I’ve wanted to do my entire life, which is be a content creator.”
“Find your niche.” This is one of the most common pieces of advice I hear given to creators looking to grow their audience. The phrase refers to when a creator is working to identify what topic their audience prefers the creator covers in their content. The advantage of doing this? Since the creator’s audience has followed them because they like the topic they cover, they will hypothetically continue to return to the creator’s content to see the topic covered again and again. However, with the growth that creators often see by following this strategy, sometimes there can also be a downside with sticking too closely to one niche. Some creators, feeling like their audience will be disappointed if they cover other subjects, can feel stuck, especially if they fall out of love with what they initially set out to cover.
One creator’s current strategy proposes a new approach — enter Joshua Pingley. Joshua has built his career as a creator by posting videos on two different TikTok accounts, one focused on astrology (@thatastrologyguy2, 253.2K), and the other, focused on celebrity news (@yourbestfriendjoshua, 333.1K). With this multi-pronged strategy, Joshua provides himself flexibility to cover what he’d like depending on the moment of time. He adds, “having both accounts is definitely strange. People are interested in both but I’ve never seen another creator doing exactly what I’m doing…fully having an identity in both of these niches.”
Like many creators, Joshua saw his content take off during the darkest days of the COVID-19 lockdown, back in April 2020. He had just amicably separated from his job at Starbucks and, with more time, began recreationally posting content. After one video blew up about “how every well-known serial killer was one of four zodiac signs: virgo, a pisces, a gemini, or a sagittarius,” and Joshua received some thought-provoking comments, he felt compelled to know more and subsequently “fell down a rabbit hole of being obsessed with every little facet of astrology.”
Thus his astrology-focused account, @thatastrologyguy2 was born. He dove head first into this world, researching astrology through online sources and with books like the one he’s currently reading, The Stars Within You by Julianne Mccarthy. Mixing this new knowledge with wit, Joshua then reports these findings in both shareable and educational content. He mentions that he learned a lot from other creators in the space like @jkitscole, @zodiacboyfriend, and @maylikethemonth.
In June, this routine was disrupted when Britney Spears spoke up about her conservatorship. Joshua, who had followed Britney since his childhood, posted a video reaction to clips of her speaking in court. He then fell asleep and woke up, the day after posting, to 10 million views and news outlets in his DM’s.
“SO then I became @yourbestfriendjoshua [the handle for his celebrity news TikTok account] covering the Britney Spears case, and I also had astrology on the side, focusing on spirituality. And… that’s just about where we are today,” he adds laughing.
The content on Joshua’s celebrity-focused page consists of him reading articles covering hot topics and inserting his take on the matter, such as the recent Julia Fox and Kanye relationship. When this topic comes up he comments: “It’s quite obvious how manipulative Kanye is. The fact that he’s going public with his relationship when he was begging to have Kim back last week at the Drake concert… after he bought a house across the street from her…” Joshua sighs. “Don’t get me wrong I think [Julia] is a dope person.. But girl, you need to run.”
With both of his accounts having amassed more than half a million followers, Joshua has now begun to monetize his following beyond both the TikTok creator fund and brand deals. As of last month, Joshua is now beginning to offer his astrology followers readings through his Snipfeed. When the topic of offering readings comes up, he mentions that he held off on offering readings for a while, out of nervousness that he was too new to the category: “I wanted to wait until I understood the basics of everything before I started offering readings because it wouldn’t have been fair of me to offer readings without a solid knowledge base. Then Snipfeed reached out to me at the perfect time. Right as I had just got a grasp on everything.” He now offers multiple readings including a compatibility reading, a big three zodiac chart reading, and a full birth chart reading.
Joshua now works on his own schedule and is his own boss. “I truly can’t believe that I’m turning 30 in April and am finally getting to do what I’ve wanted to do my entire life, which is be a content creator.” ★
Find can Joshua on TikTok at @yourbestfriendjoshua and @thatastrologyguy2 and on Instagram at @yourbestfriendjoshua.
