YouTube Creators Hub She Built a 160K Channel With iMovie (And a Farm) | Hopewell Heights
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Jan 9, 2026 Steph, a Catholic mom of five from a fifth-generation farm, discusses her journey to growing the Hopewell Heights YouTube channel to nearly 160K subscribers. She shares how editing with iMovie and navigating sponsorships and affiliate income helped her build a sustainable creator business. Key topics include the surprise success of her laundry detergent video, balancing different content styles, and the importance of being authentic. Steph emphasizes the necessity of diversifying income streams to protect against uncertainty.
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From Blog To YouTube
- Steph started Hopewell Heights as a food blog in 2016 and moved to YouTube around 2022 after audience requests.
- The channel name came from her husband's family's farm name idea and she grew it slowly with recipes and sourdough content.
Quit Then Came A Viral Payday
- Steph paused her channel after monetization frustration and then returned when an old laundry detergent video exploded.
- She discovered a large AdSense payout and realized YouTube could be a real income source.
Edit Your Own Private Footage
- Accept that you'll likely have to edit your own intimate lifestyle footage to protect family privacy.
- Build editing speed and systems so you can sustainably produce one long-form video per week.