After scrapping it out in the trenches for years, Alison Kenworthy landed a plum position in broadcast TV as a producer on Good Morning America—the kind of job you don’t leave. But in 2019, that’s just what she did. “I had been in television for 15 years, and I felt that there was something out there that was still left to be done,” she tells host Dennis Scully on the latest episode of The Business of Home Podcast. “I always had a passion for architecture and design, but never had the skills to be a designer, and I wanted to find a way to partner my two interests—one being journalism and storytelling, and the other being this passion for decor and sort of snooping around in other people’s homes.”

The result was Homeworthy—a YouTube channel dedicated to home tours. In the beginning, Kenworthy filmed it all herself on an iPhone. It was tough sledding at first. But over the pandemic, her perseverance paid off, and the channel blew up. Homeworthy now has nearly 800,000 subscribers, and has produced tours with the likes of Bunny Williams, Martyn Lawrence Bullard and comedian Amy Schumer.

In 2025, Kenworthy’s husband, Michael Koenigs—another veteran of TV news—came on as CEO of the newly formed Worthy Media company, and the two now work with a network of 120 freelance producers and videographers to create their content. Gone are the days of the handheld iPhone, but the fundamental approach hasn’t changed: “We’re not necessarily showing up at these homes with massive sound techs and lighting, and I think that creates the authenticity,” says Koenigs.

Part of their success naturally stems from being on a winning media site, one they encourage everyone to jump on. “Every creator should be on this platform,” says Kenworthy. “YouTube has now surpassed Disney+ and Netflix in terms of viewership; the Oscars are moving over to YouTube. The beauty is that you don’t have to be a professional. You can create whatever you want and upload it and see what works and what doesn’t. You don’t need fancy equipment: You could do it with an iPhone and a microphone attachment and a gimbal, the way we were doing it six years ago, and it’s just about creating that relationship with an audience.”

Crucial insight: YouTube has a much more robust system for paying its creators compared to other social platforms. “Each creator gets paid 55 percent of the ad revenue that’s sold by Google’s ad sales team. [YouTube] retains 45 percent,” says Koenigs. “They’ve recently expanded the number of ways you can make money, and we’ve pursued all of these avenues. You can now have your members pay on a monthly [membership] basis to see exclusive videos ad-free. You also have product sales and integrations that link to, in our case, furniture items that are seen in these homes. And when people purchase that, we get just about 10 percent or less of the sales revenue there. Those are the key ways of monetization that have expanded beyond what had been simply ad revenue.”

Key quote: “What has separated our company from others is the element of storytelling,” says Kenworthy. “It’s not just about someone’s home, it’s also about who they are and hearing their story and learning more about them. I think there’s also a rawness to these episodes. We always try to make people feel as comfortable as possible, but encourage them to be as natural as possible, as if the camera that they’re talking to is really an old friend.”

This episode is sponsored by Ernesta and Crypton. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

The Thursday Show

Host Dennis Scully and BOH editor in chief Kaitlin Petersen discuss the biggest news in the design world, including the rise of the wealth tax, an update on the tariff refund process, and whether being featured in a magazine still matters. Later, interior designer Chloe Redmond Warner joins the show to talk about her new book, This Must Be the Place: Homes With Atmosphere.

This episode is sponsored by Loloi and Chelsea House. Listen to the show below. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.