Playback‘s New Establishment is an annual feature highlighting Canadian companies or individuals achieving great success mid-career. Inspired our 5 to Watch nominations, these individuals are already “watched” and are making waves in the Canadian entertainment industry. Our second 2015 New Establishment profile takes a look at digital lifestyle maven Sara Lynn Cauchon. 

Sara Lynn Cauchon / The Domestic Geek

In the fast-changing online space, having a flexible business model isn’t just a competitive advantage – it’s an absolute necessity.

Cauchon, 32, is the face and co-owner of The Domestic Geek, a cooking and recipe lifestyle brand based in the burgeoning YouTube multi-channel network (MCN) space. Her channel is in the Kin Community, a female-focused U.S. MCN that also operates Kin Canada with Corus.

She produces two videos per week, sharing creative and easy-to-replicate recipes with over 500,000 fans. That fan base, in turn, has powered a fast-growing Domestic Geek brand that spans social media, custom web series for Corus’ WView.com and The Design Network in the U.S., a food-truck-themed web series with Kin called Mobile Meal Makeover, e-books and speaking gigs.

Did we mention this has all happened in a year and a half?

The Domestic Geek’s rapid growth is due in part to Cauchon’s partnership with RTR Media and its president, Kit Redmond. The duo share ownership of The Domestic Geek IP and RTR has facilitated with production assistance and research into building a business model for the Geek brand. That model, says Cauchon, is accelerating quickly.

“It’s really in the last six months that it’s gotten super exciting,” she says. “The growth has been unbelievable. And really unexpected. The timing has been right in a couple of ways. We hit a certain subscribership and at the same time advertisers started to be really interested in working in this space. It’s been a wild ride but enjoyable one.”

The advertising side is driving new revenue opportunities for Cauchon, but is expanding her content production and distribution model as well. For example: Cauchon ran a “30 Days of Smoothies” content strategy on The Domestic Geek Instagram account, sponsored by Silk Almond Milk, in which she posts photos of smoothie ingredients with the recipe listed underneath. And in July, she and RTR worked with Starbucks on its launch of a new bottled iced coffee, creating a video and Instagram content featuring three different iced coffee recipes.

The YouTube-based business model may be accessible but it’s not for the faint of heart, she emphasizes.

“I always tell people, you have to have the stomach for it. You do put in the hard work off the top before you see any results. But the revenue model is very diverse and…we’re exploring all the different ways. It’s been amazing to identify revenue sources that we couldn’t have imagined even a year ago.”

Related: YouTube stars on reversing the broadcast model