Grady Hillhouse’s journey to full-time YouTube creator has been an unusual one. Through passion and persistence, he’s taken Practical Engineering from a hobby channel about woodworking and converted it into a resource for educators around the world — all while nabbing a book deal along the way. We recently chatted with Grady about being a YouTube personality and why he still feels like he’s learning as he goes.

Practical Engineering
Subscribers: 3.11M
Uploads: 156
Video views: 266,201,831
Content type: Education
User created: Feb 18th, 2007

Early origins 

Grady Hillhouse had been immersed in the engineering world long before he had thoughts of starting a YouTube channel. His fascination with the topic found roots in his childhood. Grady explains, “When I was younger, I definitely went through a lot of engineering phases. I was obsessed with circuits for a while, remote-controlled airplanes/cars for a while, and also got obsessed with writing code in high school. Still, I went to college for geography for some reason [laughs]. Luckily I found my way back to engineering.”

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, Grady got his master’s degree in civil engineering. From there, he built his career. “I am a licensed professional engineer in Texas, and I practiced engineering for nearly ten years at a private consulting firm. My specialty is in dams and water resources.” In short, his credentials on the topic are impeccable.

Funny enough, engineering wasn’t the original focus of his channel, which wouldn’t shift into the Practical Engineering we know today until 2016. You could say he stumbled into his niche. “I got interested in YouTube because I was given some woodworking tools [from my father-in-law] and wanted to learn to use them. I noticed there was a community of creators around woodworking on YouTube and wanted to be a part of that.”

Making the jump

As Grady toiled away on his woodworking, he was also giving engineering presentations at his wife’s school. “When the teachers were interested in my presentations,” Grady explained, “I realized that not very many people have a lot of exposure to the field of engineering. So I made some videos about engineering to see if people would find them interesting. They did [and] I just kept going!”

Practical Engineering found incredible success by shifting the focus of the channel to engineering. It filled in a seemingly niche yet crucial knowledge gap. We asked Grady about how he found his audience for engineering when he initially made the switch. “Reddit was a big help early on in the channel in driving traffic to the videos,” Grady explains. He emphasizes the importance of collaborating with other YouTubers. Collaborating with others helped him build a name for himself. “Another big help was producing a guest video for Tom Scott’s channel.”

In the years since, the channel has amassed nearly three million subscribers. They’ve worked with universities and museums on various collaborations and have been featured on both the Science and Discovery Channels. Grady has even leveraged his YouTube channel’s success and unique approach to education into a new illustrated book, Engineering in Plain Sight.

Engineering is something Grady has a deep passion for. That passion made Grady debate whether he should turn his YouTube channel into a full-time job. Grady emphasizes how much he loved working at his regular job. For him, YouTube fame wasn’t a goal but an unexpected side effect. As Grady said, “For most of the life of the channel, it was a hobby I did after work and on weekends. I have only been working on the channel full-time since February 2021.”

Grady and the Practical Engineering team go beyond Ad Sense to make things profitable. “Sponsorships are the primary revenue stream for the videos,” Grady reveals. “This year, we released a book as a way to branch into physical products and merchandise as a revenue stream… On the merch/book side, I’m partnered with an e-commerce company who manages my store and fulfills orders.”

Staying practical in engineering

Even among all the success and ability to transition Practical Engineering into a full-time job, Grady insists on keeping their process much the same. The core focus of using handcrafted models to break down complicated topics has never changed, nor has his team’s approach to producing content. 

“We produce two types of videos on the channel,” Grady says. “The first Tuesday of each month, we release a video on some fundamental aspects of engineering. That usually includes a homebuilt model as a demonstration. The third Tuesday of every month, we usually release a video on a more journalistic or newsworthy topic related to engineering.”

There’s no shortage of topics to cover, either. Grady explains that topic requests from viewers frequently flood his email inbox. Then there’s Practical Engineering’s Patreon, which also gives fans of the channel an outlet to suggest things. All of these contribute to Grady’s ever-growing list of potential ideas. “We are on all social media platforms, but most of the interaction happens through email or YouTube comments.”

Grady continues, “For choosing topics, we usually do that as a brainstorming meeting each month. I’ll bring a few topics that I’m interested in, and we’ll discuss potential titles, thumbnails, demonstrations and script framing/details. We often write videos that go together in a series. Since a lot of engineering topics are too complicated or nuanced to cover in a single 12-minute episode.”

Production process

Grady reveals production on a video could span up to an entire month. “We spend the better part of each month researching a topic and coming up with a demonstration that can make [it] more interesting and engaging. We often shoot the talking headshots in batches. Then all the post-production happens in the few weeks leading up to each release.”

Of course, there are times when certain topics take even longer to produce. Due to the nature of the experiments and the models built, some videos take a bit longer. Regardless, the production schedule remains tight, but they’ve worked things out to a science. It’s an impressive feat for such a small team, considering also they had zero production experience when they started this endeavor.

“Right now, my team is Wesley (editor), Ralph (script editor) and Josh (production assistant). [There’s actually] a production company that does my motion graphics,” Grady mentions. But, in true YouTuber fashion, they learn as they go. They utilize trial and error as they fine-tune every step, from scriptwriting to filming to post-production.

Staying consistent

YouTube’s algorithm can be a fickle thing. Depending on who you talk to, how the algorithm decides which videos to boost for viewers can be a source of great joy or severe frustration. For Grady, however, it’s not something his team considers when crafting content for the channel. In short, Practical Engineering doesn’t “chase the algorithm.” 

They would rather let the channel’s content speak for itself. When speaking on YouTube’s algorithm, Grady says, “This is kind of like asking a plant what they think about the sun. I know that no algorithm is perfect, and the way YouTube chooses which videos to suggest is likely problematic in some ways. It sometimes even feels capricious. But, when it really comes to making decisions, I ultimately just have to trust that if we make good videos that people will enjoy watching, YouTube is going to find a way to connect that content to an audience.”

That’s not to say they ignore things entirely. Grady doesn’t feel there’s any “secret sauce” to Practical Engineering’s success. The key factor in Grady’s mind has always been the content they produce. Despite all he’s learned over the years with Practical Engineering, he wouldn’t change the journey that led him to this point. 

“I’m really not sure if there’s much I would do differently,” Grady said. “I feel very fortunate that this silly idea of making videos about infrastructure is somehow pulling the viewership that it does. I suspect that has more to do with being the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Less to do with any conscious decisions I made about growth.” 

Staying true to yourself

Along this same train of thought, we asked if Grady had any advice to offer other YouTubers looking to take their passion to the next level. “It’s tough to offer advice to others since I still feel like I’m stumbling my way through it. I could type for hours about important lessons I’ve learned over the years. I think my advice to new people wanting to start a channel is to set deadlines for yourself, even if they are arbitrary. 

“One of the most important things I continue to learn about YouTube is that viewers will let you get away with a lot. You don’t have to have perfect production quality, color-graded footage and the best music tracks. You do have to have a tight script, great audio and a good story to tell. Setting deadlines for yourself forces you to get something published, even if it’s not 100 percent perfect in every way. Then, slowly, you learn that a video doesn’t have to be perfect to be successful.”

Consistency and genuine passion are all important elements of being a successful YouTuber. Grady has leveraged his years of experience and ability to educate into something truly special with Practical Engineering. With the transition to making the channel a full-time gig, and more sponsorships and opportunities on the horizon, Grady and his team are just getting started.

Murray SawChuck, also known as Murray the Magician, describes himself as the Dennis the Menace of magic and comedy. “When everything goes wrong or haphazard, that’s my style,” Murray tells us. Murray doesn’t look like your typical magician — he opts for a t-shirt and jeans over the stuffiness of a suit — and he isn’t afraid to lean into his unorthodox appearance to support his act. “With my messy hair and my big glasses and stuff like that, it kind of works for me,” he explains. But this apparent disorganization only enhances the illusion. “At the very end,” he assures us, “there’s a resolution, you know, whether it be a magic trick, a prank, whatever the case is.”

We recently had the chance to chat with Murray the Magician about how he got his start in magic, how he makes a living and what he’s got planned for the future. Here’s what he had to say.

Magic Murray
Subscribers: 1.76M
Uploads: 209
Video views: 241,186,098
Content type: Entertainment
User created: Oct 13th, 2015

Why magic?

“You know, it was one of those things where, of course, I always wanted to do it. I saw David Copperfield on TV and, and other entertainers and I thought it was super cool,” he says, thinking back to the first magic kit — a gift from his parents. He was seven at the time. “I did it for a little while, put it away like any kid,” Murray recalls. A few years later, Murray received another magic kit as a birthday gift from his aunt and uncle: “I could understand things better and I dove back into it again.”

By then, Murray already knew he wanted to be an entertainer. “I was a professional dancer for like 16 years and I also played music,” he says, “I played the accordion and keyboard and stuff.” Murray remembers that he always loved being on stage — “I kind of like the attention of it, you know?” — and magic was one way to stay there. As he learned more about magic tricks and techniques, he started to wonder if this was something he could make a living at.

Early career

Murray started small. “I don’t know why I thought I could do it, you know?” he says, “But for some reason I did … I was a lifeguard when I was younger, and at the rec centers, I saw these ads on the wall … And I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I put an ad up on there for magic shows?’ You know, half an hour birthday parties for like 50 bucks.” Murray put up ads in recreation centers and newspapers and to his surprise, he actually got responses. Before long, he was booked and making money.

Still practicing magic, Murray went on to get a degree in radio, television and broadcasting with a minor in business. At the same time, he was promoting his act to agents. He ended up landing some cruise ship gigs. “I got booked for more money than I thought I could ever dream of at like 19 or 20,” he remembers.

By the early 1990s, Murray was getting opportunities that took him all over the world. “I was still doing ships and I toured to resorts in Europe — never Vegas though, you know, but Japan and Europe and all that.”

Increasing visibility

While cruise ships and resort tours allowed him to see the world, Murray, as a magician, had dreams of playing the glitzy stages of Las Vegas. “I always wanted to play Vegas and I wanted to be on TV in LA,” Murray says, “but I lived in Orlando.” Eventually, after going after Vegas gigs by mail, he found some producers willing to take on his act. “They took a risk on me,” Murray tells us, “It did all right, and then at the same time I thought I need to get on TV.”

Around this time, reality TV was starting to take off in popularity. Murray saw an opportunity: “I thought, ‘Well, I wonder how I can get on some reality shows,’ you know?” The strategy worked; Murray kicked off his TV career on a reality dating show called Blind Date. These days, he’s a regular guest on History Channel’s Pawn Stars and appears on CW’s Masters of Illusion. He also recently released his first comedy special, Itz Gone, Live from Las Vegas, on Tubi.

Taking magic online

As YouTube rose to prominence, Murray began posting clips from his TV appearances to his YouTube channel. Eventually, though, it became clear that his approach wasn’t ideal. A friend, Seth Leach, enjoyed Murray’s magic but lamented the YouTube channel’s poor performance. He suggested adding more original content. Not only that, Murray needed a hook.

Murray recalls Seth telling him, “You’re cool and hip. We need you in a t-shirt and jeans.” Murray, at the time, was not accustomed to the more casual getup, but he agreed to give it a shot. Then, Seth had another suggestion to help draw in viewers: “He said, ‘Let’s do magic tricks with cops and parking attendants,’ like, because you know, anyone who goes against a cop is a bit daring and avant-garde.”

Murray took the idea and ran with it: “We started doing pranks and magic tricks with police officers, and all of a sudden it got a huge buzz because it’s kind of taboo. And anyway, it ended up really, really being a thing,” Murray says.

The purpose of social media

Despite the initial success, Murray eventually let his channel go dormant: “Trends change all the time.”

That didn’t mean he was done with social media, however. Murray shifted gears and started doing shorter videos on Facebook, Snapchat and other platforms. He says he hasn’t given up on YouTube either. He plans to revitalize his YouTube channel with new content in 2023, though he knows success is not guaranteed: “You know, at the end of the day, whoever they are, you know, they can either suggest you or not suggest you.”

For Murray, social media is about getting his name out there and sharing the fun of magic tricks with people online. In this way, YouTube is a tool that helps him build an audience, but it’s not the centerpiece of his career. “I work in Vegas at my show at the Tropicana nightly, and I’m also in a show called Fantasy at the Luxor,” Murray explains.

Still, Murray recognizes the unique power of social media when it comes to reaching people: “When you have an audience, you have 300 or 500 or a thousand people every night. You can’t compare that to when you do social media, and you get one video that hits 20 million people … that would take a lifetime to do a live show for that many going theater to theater.”

That’s why Murray includes online media as part of his overall career strategy. “As an entertainer or somebody being the public eye, you really don’t wanna miss out on that,” he admits.

How Murray the Magician makes money

Throughout our conversation, Murray emphasized the importance of diversifying both your skill set and your income streams. “If you wanna become wealthy,” Murray tells us, “you kind of spread your money around … Same as in entertainment, if you wanna be successful — and when I mean successful, I mean like a Dolly Parton, you know — you have those different facets of entertainment, getting out there really makes you a really well-rounded performer.”

In fact, Murray puts being well-rounded as one of his top priorities as an entertainer: “I want people to go, ‘Oh, that’s Murray. Not just Murray the Magician.”

Murray approaches his income in a similar fashion: “I’ve always been a believer of various incomes … To keep in the business and keep making money, I always have all sorts of ads. I have my live shows, my touring — I wrote a book — I have my social media … Also, on a side note, I have investment properties as rental homes and real estate.”

Murray also recently released a children’s book titled “At Nighttime, We’re All the Same Size.” Murray tells us, “It’s a book based on rescue animals and basically a metaphor of not judging people and the way they look or sound, but seeing them eye to eye so you’ll understand them better. You know? ’Cause the way I look, I’ve been judged every day. I walk in a room with my crazy hair and my weird outfits and my glasses and all that.”

Murray recommends a diversified income strategy to anyone, but especially those in entertainment. He reminds us, “Every day, life changes, you know, money and life and the weather and everything.”

Final words of encouragement

Wrapping things up, Murray shares some advice for aspiring creators and entertainers:

“If you love it, money will come down the road,” Murray reassures us. “I could have done any job in the world, you know what I mean? And I chose magic, which is, you know, right down there by clown and juggler … and I’m making a living off it. So I’m very fortunate.”

“Just remember though,” he cautions, “when people always say, follow your dreams, that means you gotta work probably 24 hours, seven days a week … There’s gonna be a lot of sleeping on couches and in your car for auditions and just doing a lot of stuff that that isn’t that luxurious, trying to make it.”

In the end, Murray emphasizes that this risk is necessary for success. If you believe in your talent, it’s worth putting in the effort. “You got nothing to lose,” he reminds us, “You know, the great thing about trying something is you can always go back to whatever you’re doing.”

“Just go for it,” he concludes, “Yeah, of course. Why not? What the hell?”

To find out more about Murray the Magician and his various projects, including live shows at the Tropicana and Luxor in Las Vegas, as well as upcoming tour dates, TV appearances and book releases, head to murraymagic.com. You can also check out his TikTok channel here and his YouTube channel here.