Moses J Saldanha is a Goan Youtuber, who went on to get over 100k subscribers in less than a year.
He is very passionate about what he does and has been helping thousands of people to travel with his videos. Moses hopes to inspire a whole new generation of Goan Youtubers that anything is possible if you work for it.
The team of ItsGoa caught up with him and put him under the spotlight.
Humans of Goa is our original and official series that shares inspirational stories from the lives of Goans. Humans of Goa is made for and made up of Goans.
Let’s get started.
If anyone were to ask you, “What do you do for a living, then what would you say?”
I’m a youtuber / businessman. I honestly don’t like to tell people what I do though. I prefer people treating me for me instead of a business title or a social status.
What was that one moment when you decided that, “That’s it! I want to become a Youtuber”
I used to always enjoy making videos, I never thought of doing it seriously though. During lockdown I used to watch a lot of videos and then I came across videos of Goa.
Sadly none of them were of good quality and didn’t really tell you much about the place. It was mostly people talking about their holiday experience.
In my teenage days, I used to explore a lot of places in Goa and I thought to myself, why don’t I make videos and tell people about all the beautiful places and things that are there in Goa.
I started off with a video of Miramar beach and in a couple of days it got over 4000+ views.
I started getting all the questions about other places in Goa and I thought ok this is something people seem to like, so I started making videos every day.
I never thought it would blow up so quickly. At one stage I got over 18 thousand subscribers in one month.
Why aspire to become a top Indian Youtuber? Why not something else?
I actually do YouTube as a hobby and not as a profession as we own businesses.
But, YouTube has been something where I help a lot of people with their trips and also I got to help many local businesses free of cost.
It always makes me so happy when these businesses call me up and say you know so many people came to us after your video.
People will write me big letters of how they had an amazing trip because of my videos and also a lot of locals have messaged me saying that they have never known half of the places that I’ve showcased.
It gives me a lot of motivation and satisfaction.
A bit about your role models. People you look up to…
I would say my father Mr. Alirio Saldanha, at a young age his dream was to be a photographer although he was running businesses, he was so passionate about his photography that he used to click thousands of pictures.
It used to be quite annoying as he used to click pictures of us all the time. But he then went on to become a very successful photographer working with many international brands and launched a lot of models and some of them went on to become top stars in the film and fashion industry.
So I always admired his determination and I applied the same to my YouTube journey, the never giving up attitude.
Any inspirational moment you remember in your life that changed everything…
When I was a teen I went to this remote slum on a missionary trip. There were these children and they used to get only 1 Rupee allowance per month to buy some sugar candy.
You could buy 4 of these candies for Re.1. One of the kids had gotten his candy for the month, he came running and gave it to me.
I broke down in tears. This was a child who had nothing and was willing to give me his precious candy.
It completely changed me from that day onwards. It taught me to put others before myself and to always remain humble and grounded.
What was the biggest challenge when pursuing this as a fulltime career? And how did you overcome it to become a top Indian YouTuber?
I would say time management as I only do YouTube as a passion and not a career. I now allocate a certain time of the day for YouTube.
It’s really important to give time to your family and friends besides being stuck in a virtual world.
I found that at times I was so busy clicking photos or videos of the sunsets and not really enjoying the moment. Now I have been trying to put down the phone or camera and just take it all in.
What are some memories as a kid you’d like to share? Maybe an advice you received or maybe a pop culture reference you’d like to share…
As a kid I used to wear these broken paragon slippers. As my parents always told me I had to work for anything that I wanted in life and I told myself one day I would have a really good pair of shoes.
It really motivated me as a youngster to work really hard, now I have a whole wall full of the best sneakers.
Name your favorite Indian Youtuber or anyone whose content inspires you. Any fanboy moment you experienced or precious advice someone gave you?
YBS Youngbloods is a channel I personally follow closely. He’s a youtuber from Australia and has a very fun lifestyle of fishing and staying on some random islands.
I’ve always been around celebrities from a young age so it was never like a wow moment for me. Although I recently met Ritviz, an Indian musician. I was really happy to see him, especially since he was super down to earth.
Who is the one person you’d like to meet from the past? And what would you ask him/her?
A childhood friend of mine, unfortunately over the years we grew apart. I would really like to meet him and tell him he was really an important person in my life.
If you were to go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
That all the struggles will be completely worth it.
Can you write a couple of lines for us here say on the topic of “My Life as an Influencer”?
With great power comes great responsibility. I would say it’s very important to use your platform very wisely and try to help as many people as possible.
The life of an Influencer can be very overwhelming at times. I have received so much love from so many people from all over the world and it’s sometimes like wow I’m just someone who makes videos.
I’m truly grateful though as I got to try so many new experiences and some things which I would have not really done otherwise. As a youtuber you get access to many places very easily.
What role did family and friends play? Any quick incident you recall that helped you overcome a hurdle or challenge in life with help from family?
I would like to say my wife Sharon Saldanha, she was super understanding even though I had to do hours of editing and come home late from shoots some days.
She has been motivating me and helping me the whole time. Life can be super hard especially since I run businesses and do YouTube at the same time. But it’s always good to go home and know you have someone waiting for you.
What were the learnings from being an Indian YouTuber that shaped your growth in life?
I would say I really enjoy the whole experience, especially since I get to meet so many new people. It also taught me that if you work hard anything is possible.
I hope my journey will inspire many people to go out there and do what they love.
What were people’s feedback (negative and positive), and who stood by you the most?
I have received so much love on my YouTube journey. I’ve had some of my YouTube family drive 170+ kms just to see me in the airport for a few minutes.
It’s very rare that I ever come across any negative comments. Many of my viewers have stood by me really strongly and some have become like family.
What is the legacy you want to leave behind? And for whom?
I’m the first Goan vlogger to reach 100K+ Subscribers in less than one year. I hope it motivates more youngsters to take up YouTube as a career.
Also I’m recording a piece of history in my videos. I’ve done videos of Goa when there wasn’t a single person on the main beaches of Goa and then when there were thousands. Those empty beaches might never be seen again.
You can catch a snippet of this conversation with this Indian YouTuber on ItsGoa‘s Instagram page. Humans of Goa is our original and official series that shares stories from the lives of Goans. ‘Humans of Goa’ celebrates the spirit of every Goan.
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