What's up, folks? This is how Paulo Rodríguez from Lanzarote always starts his videos, whose content focuses on trying and rating dishes from different places from his point of view, both in Madrid and Lanzarote. Originally from Playa Honda, the young man has been studying Digital Business Administration in the Spanish capital for five years, where he combines his studies with this hobby on social media.
Rodríguez has accumulated hundreds of thousands of views on his videos, both on TikTok and on Instagram. Some of his videos exceed 200,000 views, where he shows and recommends places to eat for all audiences, from smash burgers, pizzas, Canarian or Asian food.
His passion for food led him to upload his first gastronomic content video, also motivated by seeing other people publish the same thing. "I saw that no one was doing it in Lanzarote and since I like to show Canarian food to friends and others, I thought I would be good at it," says Rodríguez.
His partner was the one who encouraged him from the beginning to create this content for social media because he really liked commenting on food with friends who are also gastronomy fans. "They told me why didn't I open a TikTok channel and start posting the places I like, especially burger places because that's what my friends and I like the most," he recalls.
This was not only a way to share his opinions and favorite places to eat, but it was also a way to create an "agenda" in which to keep each place in mind because "there are so many that I don't even remember anymore." Although he started with content more focused on burgers, when he arrived in Lanzarote again, it made him open up to other dishes, since, as he says, "there are not as many places of this type on the island as in Madrid."
A constant evolution
Paulo Rodríguez's friends were watching the videos he recorded and they liked them, which ended up encouraging the young man to create this type of content. "The first video had very low quality and I spoke through a script and it was very noticeable, now I record without them," he says.
In all this time, the young man has noticed an improvement in the editing and recording of his videos. "I notice the improvement in how I comment on the videos and in the way I edit, everyone tells me that the way of editing has changed a lot, but I think I still have a lot to learn, I've only been doing it for a year, but I'm very happy," he says.
This improvement in his content has been noticed in the views, which many are around 100,000 visits and others exceed them. "I didn't expect to have this impact, although I mostly have it here in the islands because I don't have as many visits in Madrid," he points out.
Likewise, he assures that in the Canary Islands he feels very loved. "I didn't expect this reception from the people of Lanzarote because, in addition to having the visits I have, they comment a lot, they write to me by private message and if I go to a shopping center people know me, I would never have expected this," he says.
Despite his continuous growth of followers, the young man takes these videos as a hobby and does not plan to dedicate himself to it, although he does not rule it out "if the opportunity arises." "It is a hobby that, although you can live from it, you can combine it very well with a job and it doesn't take up much time. If I have the opportunity to live from it, I will continue to combine it with the work that I would like to do," he clarifies.
"I almost never look at the menu, I order what they recommend"
When recording each video, the Lanzarote native usually goes with a companion, either with his partner or a friend, and they are already used to recording him and know how to do it and how he likes it. "What I do when I arrive is record a little outside and then we order a few dishes, but to the places I go, I almost never look at the menu, but I order what the waiter recommends because I like all kinds of food," he declares.
After recording, he edits the content when he has some time and uploads it to his profiles on Instagram and TikTok. Some of these videos are collaborations, although he does not charge any financial remuneration, only the product he consumes in the place.
During the recordings, shame is not something that is part of Paulo's vocabulary. "Many friends always ask me if I'm not ashamed to shout What's up, folks? in the middle of Gran Vía with a hundred people passing by, but no, I don't care," he says.
Thinking about what content to publish
For content creators, the continuous thought of what to publish is something that is part of everyday life. In the case of Rodríguez, it is also like that. "Now in the summer I'm here in Lanzarote and I'm working in the afternoons in a hotel, which has made it difficult for me to record videos because I'm used to having the afternoons free and the first two weeks in which I started working I ran out of content, but now I've gotten back into the rhythm," he says.
In fact, the young man has started this month an episode called The teleclub route, where he will visit each week one of these famous establishments in each town that offer a great variety of typical Canarian food so that people know how to eat in them. "Many people from the peninsula who come to the island ask me by message where they can eat Canarian food and I thought of the teleclubs, in them it is as if the grandmother of each town was cooking, so I wanted to bring these places to the people with the good people from here," he recalls.
In addition, he will also upload another weekly video commenting on other different places to the teleclubs, something that the young man varies with the smash burger content that is currently in full swing with the appearance of places of this type, something that is also appreciated in Lanzarote. "From my point of view, there must be a balanced balance because I love smash but I don't always feel like it. When I go to eat with friends I prefer to go to a teleclub because I spend half the money and I eat much better, especially in terms of quality," he highlights.
As a result of this content, Paulo Rodríguez also gets the so-called haters from social media, that is, people who base their comments on criticizing and insulting, usually behind an anonymous profile. In this sense, he points out that "in my opinion, gastronomic content is very subjective, what I like doesn't have to be liked by anyone and I appreciate the criticisms very much. In fact, I always tell everyone that I prefer constructive criticism to being told that they like my content, since that's how I improve."