Nichola Beckford/Contributor

Nick Lue continues to cement himself as the top automotive YouTuber and social media influencer on the island as he recently collected his silver YouTube Play Button.

The Silver Creator Award is handed out by the video sharing platform to creators whose channels reach a subscriber count of 100,000.

“It’s a really good feeling to receive the YouTube Silver Creator Award as we’ve been putting out the work over the past few years, but be quite frank I didn’t know that we’d reach this far because when I started it, it was just out of sheer passion and just loving to showcase what Jamaica has to offer,” Lue told Our Today.

Lue is no stranger to Jamaican automotive circles, having taken his Skunk Nation crew of modified Japanese imports to the steps of corporate Jamaica. As the scene cooled off, Lue said he settled back into a normal life of work after briefly flirting with YouTube and social media due to a friend.

In 2019, having started his channel and growing it to about 7,000 subscribers, he realised that even without his attention he got a notice from YouTube that he had gained another 2,000 subscribers. It was at that point he made the choice to pursue the format with more focus. His friend also suggested a shift in content creation, to a more YouTube friendly vlogging format. A contraction of the term video blogging, it’s a first-person video style where the narrator is also the main camera operator versus the more contemporary packaged edited TV programme presentation taken from traditional media.

“I was very uncomfortable in front of the camera at first. Just taking it up and pointing it at myself and talking. I figured some people must have thought I was crazy,” Lue explained.

Crazy good as it turned out. Morphing his channel’s content to include the more lifestyle aspects with his automotive content and coverage, the infectious energy and charm of the spikey-haired Lue as host continued to push forward. Lue saw his numbers rise considerably and, once over 30,000, he knew 100,000 was a possible target. As with many YouTubers, success comes from hard work. Armed with his Sony camera, he plans content whenever he can, but admits the best videos come from spontaneous moments. Once done, he heads back to edit, something he’s been doing since the start of the channel.

“I taught myself to edit because I didn’t want to rely on anyone. I could shoot come home and work late editing. Then I realised I liked it and was good at it,” said Lue.

The success of the Skvnk Lifestyle channel means Lue has had to do his best to balance his work and life, as, outside of YouTube, he runs Fr3sh Panda Auto Spa, another one of his ventures benefiting from his notoriety as he provides vehicle colour wrapping services to high end and corporate clients, among its other services. He tries to post one video a week, usually on Sundays, but is active on his other social media channels throughout the week.

The award also hints at a major element of his achievement, an overseas contingent hungry for Lue’s brand of coverage. Most recently, Lue has been to Antigua to cover their major modified import car event Little Tokyo 2022, and the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association (SEMA) in the United States. He’s collaborated with other automotive YouTubers such as Jason Richmond, better known as HondaPro Jason, one of the top Honda social media influencers in the world.

Apart from the usual 100k subscriber giveaway planned, Lue is even more fired up, getting ready to push his content to the max, something he realises he can’t do himself.

“I’m looking at getting a team together so I can just concentrate on shooting.”

Once in place, Lue plans to branch out even further, with one million subscribers as his aim.