Today we’d like to introduce you to Walid Kalifa.
Hi Walid, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My story began back when I was in high school. My cousin was really into film and would recruit me to help him make little short films for neighborhood contests in Toronto. After never winning a single one, I guess he began his journey into YouTube and I went into school for business. A few years later, his YouTube (agent 00) starting getting some attraction and he needed someone to help him and naturally he asked me.
I quit my two jobs at bestbuy and shoppers drug mart and began working with agent. I really just began by helping with physical tasks to make video production an easier load for him. Then transition into editing and a couple of years later took over as a creative producer. I then started to create my own video on my free time and that has done well too.
I learned to do the main stuff when it come to YouTube like edit videos, plan videos, record videos and also deeper behind the scene things like make ads for companies, learn analytics, understand contracts from brand deals and much more.
As more time passed on we were able to secure united states visas and move here to Atlanta, Georgia and continue down this path. I began to work with one channel which turned into 2, which quickly turned into 4 (Agent 00, Agent 01, Peer to peer podcast, AMP) and having two on my own individual channel (Walid Kalifa) and a joint channel with Jon (The Affiliates).
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
This has not been a smooth road at all, learning how to edit a video for millions of people to watch and keep them engaged was a hard skill to learn. You have to take your own personal opinions about every second of footage to the side and think subjectively for the target audience.
An ever harder bump was obtaining visas. Going through legal hoops to be accepted into another country is absolutely no small task. I lived out packed boxes ready to move in the drop of a dime for months waiting on the hope of an acceptance letter.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My specialty is truly in editing, I’ve been editing all of agent 00 and agent 01 videos for about five years now if I’m not mistaken. It took a very long time to get the hang of it but it has been so worth it. I started of getting recognition for my work since the agent 00 channel really had a team of two people. I was always editing and always recording these videos. My proudest moment don’t usually come how many views a video got. But there was a video I spent 25 plus hours on and I couldn’t bare to see all that work go to waste. The video to date has about 6.3 million views.
What are your plans for the future?
My future plans are to continue to grow my channel and my joint channel with Jon. I want to build my own team and side business that I don’t want to say (I can’t let anyone steal my idea). I do also want to venture into Real estate and car rental services with the money I make from youtube. Passive income business are truly my main goal.
Contact Info:
- Email: walidkalifwalidkalifa@gmail.com
- Instagram: walidkalifa
- Twitter: kalifawalid
- Youtube: youtube.com/walidkalifa
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoPB1OLU8sR8ply9A91PXMQ
