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To learn more about the inner workings of YouTube as a business platform, I spoke to YouTube star, Taryn Southern. Southern was part of American Idol season three's Top 50, and although she didn't make the final cut, she's gone on to create her own media empire. Through her YouTube channel, she has amassed hundreds of thousands of subscribers and has accumulated over one hundred million video views. Aside from her own channel, she is a guest star and recurring roles on shows such as New Girl, The League, Rules of Engagement, American Dad, and Guys With Kids. As she's gained more notoriety for her work, companies have hired her to consult to improve their digital media strategy. She hosted the first-ever live digital broadcasts of The Grammy's, The Golden Globes, The American Music Awards, The X-Factor and has appeared on media ranging from CNN to Maxim. Aside from being an actress and a YouTube expert, she is also a singer, having released her album called " On My Face" back in 2012. You can follow Southern on Twitter, Facebook or on her blog.

In the following interview, she talks about how she built her personal brand on YouTube, how she pulls her videos together, her views on the future of media, and best career advice.

Dan Schawbel: When did you first decide that YouTube (and video) would be the best place for you to develop your personal brand? What were some of your original challenges?

Taryn Southern: When I first saw Jessica Rose (the lonelygirl15 phenom) on the cover of Wired back in 2007, I thought - wow, this YouTube thing is interesting. Hollywood is a tough place with a lot of talented people, here's a great way to stand out.

That year (2007) I made my first video, and it propelled a lot of later opportunities for me (the video was originally featured on CNN, MSNBC, and won a Spike TV Guy's Choice Award). All this being said, it took me five years to actually launch my YouTube channel (in the fall of 2012).

Schawbel: Take us behind the scenes of your videos and explain what it takes to pull them together and how you go about promoting them so you generate enough buzz to get attention.

My original music videos take more time - sometimes months from idea to completion - whereas my Internet Therapy videos are very quick and painless. I try to mix it up just to keep up with the output demands. The trickiest part is that my own channel doesn't generate enough sustainable revenue, so I produce content for a lot of content partners to help sustain my business. Right now, I have a weekly movie show for MovieTickets.com, a series for The Today Show, a room tour series for Official Comedy, a project with Glamour Magazine, etc - so as a result, my own channel ends up last in the priority line.

Schawbel: You're a YouTube star but you also do a lot of traditional media. How do you see traditional media changing and how have you been able to move from traditional to social and back while maintaining your fans?

The entire landscape is becoming more and more democratized. In the YouTube world, you grow your audience by collaborating with other YouTubers with similar audiences, but in traditional media, that would be like CBS and ABC cross-promoting each other's shows.

The other big shift is in how numbers play into the game. Any YouTuber has data on the ages, locations, click through ratios, and watch time of every single viewer. TV ratings depend on Nielsen boxes - how many people do you know own a Nielsen box? In general, there is so much bureaucracy and perception-based decision making in the traditional system, but as more viewers flock to the internet, the pressure on traditional to shift will become greater.

For me, I still enjoy working occasionally in TV, but I stopped auditioning for movies years ago - the process just doesn't lend itself to maintaining a YouTube channel. And as the economics for YouTube keep growing, I absolutely see myself doing less and less in the traditional space. For now, though, I've noticed that brands seem to favor personalities with traditional TV experience, so while that's important to them, sure. I'll stay in the game for awhile.

Schawbel: From a business perspective, do you think you need to have a strong online brand in order to land traditional gigs these days? Do you think the online world is a testing ground for traditional media? Explain.

A few years ago I started losing out on jobs to people with stronger online brands. That was a real eye opener! Now, I absolutely think that's the case. Whether you're a writer, actress, producer, or singer hoping to land your next gig, you become far more interesting to the powers that be when you have an audience supporting you.

And yes - the online is an incredible platform for testing. Testing on TV is very expensive, but online, you don't have to give something the axe right away. You can let it breathe.

Schawbel: What are your top three pieces of career advice?