- Doctor Mikhail (Mike) Varshavski is a board-certified primary care physician and popular YouTube influencer with 4 million subscribers.
- Varshavski’s Instagram page went viral in 2015 after he was featured in a Buzzfeed article, and then again in People magazine’s 2015 Sexiest Man Alive issue.
- Today, Varshavski told Business Insider that he mainly splits his time between filming videos for YouTube and working as a doctor.
- He shared what an average filming day is like and took Business Insider inside his high-tech home studio.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Mike Varshavski is a board-certified primary care physician who went viral in 2015 after he was featured in a BuzzFeed article about how attractive he was, and then again in People magazine’s 2015 Sexiest Man Alive issue.
Accepting his sudden fame, he launched a YouTube channel in 2017 while in his residency, and hired a videographer to film and edit the videos for him. He’s known as “Doctor Mike” online, and now has millions of YouTube subscribers with videos that often appear on the trending page of YouTube.
Yet his YouTube channel was not an immediate success.
“I launched the channel and it picked up like 15,000 subscribers,” he told Business Insider. “It didn’t go anywhere, even though I told 2 million people on Instagram to come watch it.”
Varshavski said he realized the key to growing an audience was consistency (he's never missed a single posting day) and figuring out what content would appeal to a wider audience.
From hospital to filming studio, how Varshavski does it
In his second year of YouTube, while keeping up with his career as a doctor, Varshavski started posting videos twice a week instead of once.
"The first half of the week I am making YouTube videos," he said. "The second half of the week I'm in the hospital actually doing the things I'm talking about."
His videos gain an average 500,000 views to around 4 million views, depending on if a video is picked up by YouTube's algorithm and recommended to viewers.
He puts his own spin on concepts like PewDiePie's popular "Meme Review," where Varshavski reacts to medical memes, or shows like "Grey's Anatomy."
To keep track of his growing online business, Varshavski signed with the digital talent agency, Abrams Artists Agency three years ago. His agent works to build up the business aspects of his social media, like landing public speaking appearances and producing a line of products (that will be coming out soon, Varshavski said).
With the help of his videographer, Dan, Varshavski films a batch of videos during filming days, which Dan will later edit throughout the week.
Most people think Varshavski has a large team helping him out, he said. But he really only has Dan and his agent.
Business Insider spent a day with Doctor Mike to see the process of filming his YouTube videos:
Doctor Mike lives in New York City and films videos for his 4.47 million subscribers in a spare room in his apartment. Here's the view:
When you walk inside his filming room, you are greeted by medical books and filming equipment.
Doctor Mike's editor Dan films and edits the YouTube videos from Mike's desk, and uses high-end equipment.
The equipment:
- Camera - Canon 1DX Mark II
- Tripod - Manfrotto
- Monitor - SmallHD 501
- Lights - Aputure 120dII (x3)
- Light reflectors, Mic - Rode Videomic Pro+
- Post Production - Adobe Premiere
Mike hired Dan in 2017 when Mike first started his YouTube channel.
While Dan set up to shoot, Mike showed us some of the gifts his fans and YouTube had sent him, like these pillows of his dogs Roxy and Bear.
Mike's dog Bear, a Newfoundland, lives with him, and his other dog Roxy lives with his dad. Bear is regularly featured on his Instagram.
As soon as Mike sat down, he quickly went straight into filming, only stopping occasionally for a loud train to pass by, and to fix equipment.
Mike recorded a few videos. The first one he filmed was a "Doctor vs Google" video, a new series on his channel where he responds to Google autocomplete medical questions.
Many YouTube creators use their smartphone to film videos, and little equipment. But Mike said he wanted to create something that was high quality in terms of production.
What has led to success on YouTube? "I realized I just had to be consistent," Mike said. He posts videos twice a week.
And that's how he does it. After finding initial fame from Instagram, YouTube is now his main focus, he said.
