← Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
Call Her Creator with Katelyn Rhoades
169. How Modern Millie Built a Multi-Six-Figure Creator Business: YouTube Growth, Instagram & Multiple Income Streams
00:58:21
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- [00:00]
A
What is up, everybody? Welcome to an episode of Call Her Creator. I'm your host, Kaitlyn Rhodes, and today I have one of my friends, Millie. She has said yes to the podcast, and I'm so excited to talk to her. And, like, you guys just don't understand the power of this woman. And we're gonna talk through all of her goodness. But let me just start you guys off with this. Like, I remember when I first started posting to Instagram, Millie, I had seen you a million times. I'm like, one day I'm gonna know this chick. Cause she knows what she's talk. Millie. Most people might know her as Modern Millie. Online. She's a content creator, she's an educator, she's an entrepreneur, and she's a founder who has helped thousands of creators and business owners navigate the world of social media and online business. So over the years, she has built a thriving personal brand, she's diversified her revenue streams, which we'll get into, and she's really transformed what started as content creation into a scalable business. But what I'm most excited about, like, we are totally gonna get down and dirty with the algorithm, but I do wanna know, like, how she just handles it all and what she does with the followers after, you know, you've built it and you've built this amazing business. So we'll talk about the creator myths, visibility, entrepreneurship, scaling a business, and what it really takes to go from creator to CEO. So, Millie, welcome to Call Her Creator.
- [01:26]
B
Thank you so much for having me. I am truly so excited to be on your podcast. I. Yeah, I'm stoked to be here.
- [01:36]
A
She looks beautiful. We'll have this on YouTube too, if you're listening to this in the car. But she always looks gorgeous. I feel like you have this signature look, and I need to know, is that a part of your content Persona too?
- [01:49]
B
Yeah, absolutely. It's a part of, like, my intentional, personal brand of, like, consistency, always looking one way. And it's also laziness because, like, there's nothing easier than a slick back bun or pony, you know what I mean?
- [02:04]
A
So rock it so well. Today I am wearing a hat. And I don't know if you've heard of the rich wife brand, but I'm really getting behind it. She. I know the co founder, Like, I've talked to her in the DMs now, but it's not about being quote, unquote, rich wife, but it's, like, rich with, like, freedom and, like, family time, which I think me and you both, that's why we've created what we've created.
- [02:31]
B
Yeah. I'm literally writing this down. I'm like, I'm gonna go stock.
- [02:34]
A
Oh, go stock. She has some really good stuff. I have, like, the baseball cap, but there's, like, a trucker hat that I like. She's got all the things. But Shout out. She's gonna be coming on the podcast soon, by the way, and I can't wait to talk to her. But let's talk about you. Okay. Because. Okay. Last time me and Millie saw each other, we were in. We were in California. We were dining and whining. Well, you weren't whining.
- [02:58]
B
I wasn't wh. Lining.
- [03:00]
A
Also, you had your baby.
- [03:02]
B
I did, yeah.
- [03:04]
A
How old?
- [03:05]
B
He's a little over a year now. Yeah.
- [03:09]
A
Then that would mean we saw each other a year. Over a year ago.
- [03:13]
B
Yeah. Which is crazy. You were. One of. You were the first creator to know that I was pregnant. We weren't telling anyone, and you freaking had this sixth sense. You were like, are you pregnant? And I was like, shh.
- [03:28]
A
Because I have two kids, and I'm like, so before social marketing queen, there was the smother mother, which a lot of y' all might not even know that, but, like, I used to blog about being a new mom, so I have a sixth sense to when someone is pregnant.
- [03:42]
B
You really did. We had. We didn't tell anyone. We didn't even post about it until after I was had baby. And that's when everybody found out on social media was. I'm like, hey, had a baby, by the way. And so, yeah, you knew early on.
- [03:58]
A
I love that. Also, I love how Millie was able to hide that while. Because you are still making content.
- [04:06]
B
Yeah.
- [04:06]
A
Okay, we gotta get all into this. Okay. For anyone who's meeting you for the first time, let's take them back first. How does Millie get to where Millie is now?
- [04:18]
B
Yeah, it's been a journey. I feel like every area of my business has its own starting point in a way. You know, like, Instagram has its millie journey and YouTube has its millie journey, and everything has kind of all led to here. But I would say, growing up, I always loved creating. I always made videos with my little brother. We had my parents like camcorder, or we would do, like, magic shows, do little singing and dancing bits. And once YouTube was YouTube, we would make videos on YouTube together. And we created on YouTube, I think, for 12 years. And it was for no purpose other than to make videos, because we loved it. We wanted to be goofballs. We wanted a form of expression. And I went off to college and I thought, oh, I go off to college now I need to grow up and do the real world thing. I need to go to college, get a job, get married, have kids, be an adult. And so I kind of, my brother and I, we stopped posting to our YouTube channel. And I went through this whole journey of like pursuing my dreams in college and then had an injury, I lost my scholarship and I had to. Everything kind of fell apart and ultimately I ended up finding my way back to YouTube, back to creating. And I just wanted this outlet to create. And Instagram and YouTube were both those places for me because YouTube was very video focused. And Instagram at the time it was just photo, there was no video. And so I was just having fun doing the photo video thing. And the more I created, the more people asked, well, how do you do this, how do you do that? And I wanted, I, I was a dance teacher for nine years. When I was in college, I wanted to pursue teaching. And so teaching is something that always came naturally to me. And when people started asking those questions on social media, it was just a no brainer to answer them full like, no, no gimmick, no, let me hide this behind a paywall. Just teach and educate. Because the more I taught my audience, the more I noticed they also educated me and challenged me. Because once I taught them to reach my level, I was then forced to uplevel because then they would ask, okay, well what about what's next? And I was like, you know what, I don't know, I gotta go figure that out and then I'll come back and I'll teach you. So that's kind of how it all came to here.
- [06:49]
A
I love that. Okay, so then when you got back into it after college, what were you weren't getting on there to teach about social media? I don't think. Were you or were you?
- [07:04]
B
No, no, I. YouTube was like my vlog platform. It was more for funsies documenting. Oh, I'm moving to LA with my boyfriend who is now my husband at the time, and documenting life and then Instagram, that's where I was trying to be the first level of influencer. Because back in the day it was like blogger influencer where you do travel blogging or fashion blogging. So Instagram, I was trying to do the blogging thing, but when I was creating on Instagram, I was taking, I guess what were really good photos. So people were like, oh, how did you edit this? How did you take that? How are you posing, how are you confident on camera? How are you growing your account? So like, I wasn't doing social media at first. I was just creating and people were asking all the creative process questions.
- [08:06]
A
I see. Okay, that makes sense. Kind of like, that's same with me too. But like I. When I started posting, it was like to teach social media. Cause I was doing a social media agency, starting my social media agency and then people would ask me questions. I'm like, okay, like your audience is going to ask you things and when they start asking you things, that's when it's like, okay, I need to make content around what they're asking for.
- [08:30]
B
Yeah, I just leaned into that.
- [08:32]
A
That was the smartest thing you could have done. Were you. I remember and we'll get into this. But I do remember when you took a step back from Instagram so you could focus just on one. But in the beginning phases, were you trying to handle YouTube and Instagram together?
- [08:50]
B
Yeah, yeah, I was. I. YouTube has always felt more natural for me. It's always been my priority because I yap and so that's the place to do the long form explaining. And I love doing deep dives. Let me explain my thought process so someone truly understands the thought process. I think that's where people can learn deeply and I love that deep connection with people. So that's why I've always catered to YouTube. But Instagram was also this place where it was a quicker growth. YouTube is long game. You know, it's a slower growth platform and Instagram just was picking up traffic more quickly. So I would kind of use Instagram to quickly test ideas and content types and topics and ideas that I had. And then whatever ideas people really engaged well with on Instagram, I would turn it into like a longer form deep
- [09:50]
A
dive YouTube video and your YouTube videos. People don't really realize how hard having a YouTube channel is. And all that's like, all that's included. So like when you first, I guess, I mean, I know you had done it with your brother, but let's say when you got back into it, were you like, okay, we're gonna do this the right way. Did you buy a lighting? Did you do all the things or was it like supernatural? Wherever you were, you were recording?
- [10:17]
B
It was wherever I could, I would record. I remember deciding to take YouTube seriously again because I would dabble with it on and off, but never really like committed to it or to myself. It was more like, I'm just gonna post a video here and there. But when I really Wanted to commit. I remember John and I were living in a two bedroom apartment and it was like the bottom floor and it was under this canopy. Like it was so dark, even when I was by our patio, it looked like a cave. But that was the best lighting I had. And so I would like sit by this one window that we had with my little tripod with my phone, filming on my phone and that I, I can like remember a few videos, YouTube videos that I filmed like that. And after I actually got videos up and wanted to go all in, like committed to posting consistently, that's when I was like, okay, I'm actually posting consistently. Let me up level my gear. My husband, he's a, at the time, he was doing a lot of video work with other businesses. So he had gear around the house and he would help me set videos up. I'm like, okay, can I use your lighting? Can you help me with this? How do I do my mic? So I was very blessed and fortunate I had that advantage. I will admit I had an advantage because I had an in house person that was helping me with like the video, teaching me together in person, like, oh, this is how you set your camera settings, this is how you do your mic, this is how you do the lighting. So I had that advantage early on too.
- [11:54]
A
Yeah. Cause that part's not easy. Even doing the podcast when we first got in, Millie did say she liked my background and I was like, thank you. It's a work in progress because you really don't know how to do this stuff. Like there's backlighting and then there's the front lighting and then there's the lighting on the sides. So I think you having your husband, that definitely is helpful. Were you working another job at the same time too when you were dabbling or what? How did you get to lead that job to do YouTube full time? Like walk us through.
- [12:26]
B
So I was working a corporate job. I was a project manager at a company for about four, almost five years. I quit before my five year anniversary. And it was a company I genuinely loved. Like I loved the people, I loved the business. I had a great position there. But something was still telling me like it wasn't it for me. And I didn't, I felt silly because I'm like, this is the dream. Like I did all the right steps, you know, I, I got the big girl job, I'm working in corporate and I have a salary job. What the heck is wrong with me? But I really just wanted to trust that intuition and lean into the creative Side. So that's when I was posting Instagram more consistently at that time. And I started getting brand collaborations. And I told myself, if I could replace half of my corporate income, then I will leave my corporate job. Because if I can make half of that on two days, you know, at the weekends, then imagine what I could do with 40 extra hours a week, you know. And so once I was able to hit that halfway mark, it was with brand collaborations. And then I also signed a, I was a contractor to help a company with their social media. So I had one client that I got where they're like, okay, we'll sign a six month contract. You could help us with social media for six months. Once I did those two things, I was like, cool, I finally hit that halfway mark. I'm going to put in my notice. And that was the transition. So most of the income at first was coming from Instagram. My YouTube hadn't pick, picked up traffic yet.
- [14:01]
A
Oh, okay. I, for some reason I thought your YouTube went off first. Okay, one thing I'm going to note here, and I hope you guys are listening to Millie's just said like you, it's not like you hated your career and you're like, I gotta get out of this. You liked what you were doing and the same with me. And I don't think there's people that are sitting on the edge of the fence right now and they just don't know, like, well, no, because if I was meant to do that, I would hate what I'm doing now. Like, that's not necessarily true because I had the salary, I had the benefits, all the things, got to work from home, all the things. But I still had something nagging in my ear that was like, this isn't your story though. This isn't the, the, the insign for you. So I do think that there will be writing on the wall when there is that time. Yeah. So talk to us about your first money. Like the first time you made money from Instagram, you said, was it a partnership?
- [14:53]
B
You said yes. I, there's a, there's so many firsts with income. For me, the first time I got paid through social media in general, I believe was a brand collaboration.
- [15:07]
A
Okay.
- [15:07]
B
And it was not great.
- [15:09]
A
Yeah.
- [15:10]
B
Like the content that I made, looking back, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so not me. This is so bad. I was just excited to be paid. And so I said yes because somebody was offering to pay me. So I was like, I don't care what this product is, I'm Saying yes.
- [15:25]
A
Right.
- [15:25]
B
And it was a good learning lesson for me. So that was probably the first time I made money on social media in general. It was a brand collaboration.
- [15:33]
A
Okay, I love that. And then, okay, so you get your brand collab, you've got your freelancing contracting work on the side. What happens next for you? Are you like me who's like, oh my God, I gotta hustle, hustle, hustle and get all the things I can. Or like where was your mindset at? Right there.
- [15:52]
B
My mindset? Oh, wow. It was not in the right place strategically for growing a business because I, I hit my milestone with BrandClab Income. I'm like, cool. I made this much money in the month. I signed a contractor position and then I put in my two weeks notice after that. Actually it was a two month notice anywho. But after I put in my notice because I love the company and I wanted to make sure we had a new person in place, fully trained, I once I put in that notice, I started putting out teasing that I was going to start coaching for social media myself. So I was going to take on a coaching group as soon as I left my job so that I had some income. So I remember it was October 4, 2019, when I was officially self employed. That was my last day, or my last day was the day before. October 4th was my first day self employed. October is when I was like, cool, I'm launching a coaching group. And I did a coaching group and that helps supplement income. But that was, that was all I had planned. I didn't plan anything else. I was like, yay, I'm self employed, I can create content. So I was just like creating and I thought I had to build a blogging business. So I was working on a website and trying to build this website from scratch using WordPress, not thinking about income. I was just like, I need to have a website. And I forgot about the income side of things. So after three months of trying to build a website website, I actually gave up being a content creator and I went back to corporate.
- [17:36]
A
No way.
- [17:38]
B
Yeah. So I went back to corporate end of February ish or mid February of the next year of 2020 and I got a new job. Within a month though, I was let go because Covid and writing on the wall sister. It was a sign. But it was also a blessing because I ended up getting paid unemployment because I was let go from a, from a job. So that income from unemployment was like, okay, I'm gonna take this as me getting paid to be a content Creator. And I'm just gonna focus all of my time to going back to YouTube. So that's when I made the shift from Instagram to like, more YouTube focused.
- [18:21]
A
Do you remember how many followers you had on Instagram when you were like, okay, I'm gonna focus on YouTube.
- [18:26]
B
Actually, I had over 10,000 followers, I think.
- [18:30]
A
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- [20:47]
B
plans, maybe a couple hundred subscribers.
- [20:51]
A
You said I have 10,000 Instagram followers, but I'm gonna go to this platform where I don't have as many. What was the process?
- [21:01]
B
I just love YouTube. Like, it was always a dream. I. It was always a dream. And seeing people be YouTubers, that was, that was what I wanted to say. I was. I didn't want to say I'm an Instagrammer. I wanted to say I'm a YouTuber. And that was way more exciting for me. So that's what I pursued.
- [21:20]
A
I. Honestly, this is so funny, but like, me being an Instagram influencer, like, I still do look at YouTube influencers as like more higher up just because they're. I do feel like their content creation is so much harder. I'm not a yapper like you are. So, like, I don't like explaining things. I want to. Like, my, my husband will ask how my day was and I'll tell him in like three words and he, you know, so like, Instagram is great for me, but that makes sense. Like, if you like to talk, then YouTube is, is a great avenue for you to do that.
- [21:51]
B
Yeah. Wow.
- [21:52]
A
Okay. So you get laid off, then you get unemployment. What's next?
- [22:00]
B
I was posting to YouTube every week. That was just.
- [22:06]
A
Is that when you pause Instagram?
- [22:08]
B
No, I actually paused Instagram later.
- [22:12]
A
Okay.
- [22:13]
B
Yeah. So posting to YouTube every week and still not making like a ton of income. And so I wanted to get a little part time job. This is March, April, May, June, July, August. Five months later, I think it was maybe August is when I started. I got another part time job. I was actually a social media assistant for an influencer. Family influencer. I don't think I've ever said that. Yeah. And I was like a house manager, social media assistant, nanny for them.
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A
Are you allowed to say who it was?
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B
I probably won't. I don't know if I probably could say who it was, but I'm not going to because this is so wild.
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A
I did not know this about you.
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B
Yeah. And so I was doing that for a little bit.
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A
And
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B
they. That's when reels was launched. And so we were doing a lot of reels. I was making reels for this person and I was. That. That creator Instagram had told them, like, hey, we're going to be launching Reels. So I kind of knew about that a week before it was launched. And I was like, oh, this is going to be huge. Let me make a tutorial on YouTube teaching reels and how I've been using it with this other creator. And that was the video that I had another viral video before that, but that was the video that was, like, brought in subscribers, really kicked off my channel. I got monetized. So YouTube got monetized. I got married the next month. I stopped working for that creator, and I just did my own thing. And that's when I was like, okay, teaching is where it's at. Teaching Instagram, teaching YouTube, teaching strategy. So I created digital products courses all around Instagram strategy. And I'd say within the next. Within the next year, I was making six figures.
- [24:15]
A
That is incredible when you. Here's the thing that people, too, don't know. When you went viral on YouTube, did you have some kind of call to action or, like a guide or something in place?
- [24:28]
B
No.
- [24:30]
A
That wasn't your goal either, was it? Your goal was to get followers at that point?
- [24:34]
B
Yeah, I just wanted subscribers, and I wanted to grow and get people to watch all of my other videos because my other videos were still teaching Instagram to tips and YouTube tips, but they just hadn't picked up traction. And once that one video picked up traction, it supported the rest of my video library because I had been planting those seeds for so long, there was already resources for other people to binge. So it helped the entire channel because I already had videos in place for people to watch.
- [25:03]
A
I love that planting seeds is so important, too, because, like, I feel like I've been in the planting seeds stage for five years, you know, but, like, we have to do that because, like you said, like, they had other resources to find you. And I truly, like, I know someone can go viral at this point in day and, like, their life can truly change, but I think it can easily. They could go viral. Life change, and then they can die. It can die. That success can die. Weren't building up to it. You know what I mean? So, like, I know there's a method to God's madness. Making me plant all these seeds and then just feeling like, all right, when's my seed gonna sprout? But then we remember, too, like, I am living the dream that I wanted. Like, this is all I've ever wanted was to. I was like you. I was doing magic shows and making my family watch videos. So, like, at the end of the day, like, I'm living my dream life, and I don't really know what even, like, people will be like, what's your end Goal where. What. What does success mean to you? I don't really know, but I do feel like we're always chasing it in our industry. Do you feel like that?
- [26:16]
B
Yeah, absolutely. My biggest goal was I wanted to hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and make a full time living off of, like, just replace my corporate income with content creation. I have hit both of those goals. So everything past that is just the cherry on top. Like, everything beyond that is a blessing. I never take it for granted. Every day, I'm so grateful to do what I do. And I'm always still asking myself, like, I don't, like, what's that next big goal? I don't know. But like, there is this. I feel like there, there, there should be. And I don't want this to be like, oh, hustle. Everybody's promoting Hustle culture because that's I'm trying to get at. But I, I want there to be too. I. I'm excited to keep doing this. I want to have another goal. I love having something to work towards in a healthy way. So I still am figuring out what that, like, next big thing is. I have like, personal goals that I know are like, next big things for me, but when it comes to business, I'm just like, really happy, taking it day by day with my business and just trying to, instead of scale my business, just like really dig into what I'm already doing and branch the roots out further, building, building more sustainability with my business and a deeper connection with the people who are already following me. That's like the direction I'm currently going in with my business.
- [27:46]
A
That is very inspiring for someone like me with adhd, which this kind of goes into. When I, When I saw you show up on Instagram and you're. I think you like, kind of announced it, like, hey guys, I'm gonna step back from Instagram and go all in on YouTube. I remember thinking, like, what is she doing? Why doesn't she just do both? But now looking back, like, I truly do feel like if you want to be really, really, really good at something, you have to go all in on one thing. And I've seen since then, you, even when you're teaching people. I was looking at a bunch of your reels last night. You had, you had done one where for like, anybody who's even just getting started, don't try to be everywhere at once. Like, pick one, get really good at it, and then spread yourself. So I guess my question here is you pause Instagram to go all in on YouTube. So what did that look like, like how many times a week were you posting? How do you monetize over there? Like what? Tell me behind the scenes on that because I know nothing about monetizing YouTube, to be honest.
- [28:53]
B
Yeah, so the reason I, there were quite a few reasons. I paused Instagram and I ended up being off of Instagram for a full nine months before I returned. And going all in on YouTube was just like one reason. It was. There was a lot of sub reasons too. So yes, I wanted to go all in on YouTube in the sense of I felt like internally our team systems were just kind of all over the place and we were just taking a bunch of messy action, which is good when you're starting out, but when you're growing a business, having everybody on the team taking messy action all the time leads to messy content. And I was feeling like we were all just kind of like the chickens run around with their head cut off type of a thing. And I was like, okay, we are all, all spreading ourselves too thin. So let's stop short form. Because it wasn't just like stopping Instagram, it was stopping short form in general. Instagram, TikTok shorts. Let's stop. Let's take a step back. Let's focus on mainstreaming YouTube. Let's clean that system up and turn that into like a well oiled machine. And while we're doing that, let's also update our courses, like internally, let's update bsp. Let's focus on our students and give back to the people who have trusted us and let's work with them and their short form. Because my brain could not handle thinking about strategy for my business. I was already helping students think about short form strategy for them. I was auditing accounts. I was figuring out, okay, let's do this hook, let's do these pillars. Talk about this. Like, I was already helping so many other people with their strategy. At the end of the day, I didn't want to do mine. I was like, this is the last thing I want to do. And so I felt it was more valuable to help students grow on Instagram than grow my own Instagram because I already grew. I didn't need to do it again. I needed to help people from zero. And all of that could then feed back into my content, feedback into YouTube, feedback into the courses, and create more credibility and trust with my new followers. And so it was a hard decision because I knew it would come with a lot of pushback. But at the end of the day, I, I was very, I knew all of My reasons behind it. I also don't. When it comes to all social media platforms, I don't have the best relationship with Instagram. Like, for some reason, that one I get in my head about comparison. I see all these people doing all these things. Like, that one affects me the most with my mental health. And it was the last thing I wanted to take up space in my brain. I didn't want to be stuck kind of opening there and feeling anxious anytime I just, like, looked at the app. So there's a bunch of reasons. And just with all of those reasons, I put it off for way too long. I was like, I'm just going to take a step back. I know people will push back on this because I teach Instagram and I'm taking a break from Instagram. It doesn't make sense, but it made sense to me. And I knew if I'm helping other people grow on Instagram, that's more proof than needing to post to my own.
- [32:19]
A
Also, for her, let me just tell you that she has, I think it was like 290,000 Instagram followers, like, for you to have taken a break and still be growing at the rate that you're growing. I'm like, you obviously know what you're doing.
- [32:34]
B
Yeah, that's a whole other thing. I took nine months off, came back to a. What people would call a debt account.
- [32:40]
A
Yeah.
- [32:40]
B
And. And I'm fine, you know.
- [32:44]
A
Yes, you are allowed to take a break. I did the same thing when. When I first started my account. It was like, before I had a baby. And then I ghosted it for years, and then I came back and grew what I have now. But, like, people saying that a debt account, like, as long as you nurture it and bring it back to life, you can definitely bring it back to life.
- [33:03]
B
Yeah.
- [33:04]
A
For those people out there that are interested in YouTube creation and making money that way, first off, how hard is it to make money from YouTube? And second of all, can you give us any insider sneak peek, like, of ranges of what people can make and how they can make money from YouTube?
- [33:24]
B
Yeah, absolutely. I would say it's hard to grow on YouTube, but once you grow your YouTube, making money becomes easier.
- [33:36]
A
Okay.
- [33:37]
B
Because once you kick that kind of snowball effect of views and growth and one video takes off and kind of the rest follow. Once you hit monetization and you can figure out, okay, how can I replicate this growth pattern, monetization becomes easier, both in the sense of YouTube monetization itself, which means when people watch ads on my videos.
- [34:00]
A
Right.
- [34:01]
B
YouTube pays their creators for running ads on their accounts and you can make money that way. But also brand collaborations, brand collabs is a huge chunk of my business's revenue. And a lot of brands, they pay more for YouTube partnerships than short form content. Short form content is very popular. Like I would say a lot of brand, every brand wants a reel. Right. Like it's so popular brands want short form content, but they pay more for, for YouTube integrations or dedicated YouTube videos. Oh, and then the sneak peek. Everybody's YouTube channel is going to have completely different analytics and results. There's certain terms within the YouTube realm of like CPM and RPM and all that I can say over the last 28 days, my channel made over $11,000. I'm looking at my analytics right now.
- [35:07]
A
Yeah.
- [35:08]
B
And then for YouTube partnerships minimum, we make $3,000 per YouTube integration. 3,000 is like the minimum. I would say it's usually more because we'll have different length integrations. Some might be like two minutes and then a dedicated video is going to be 10,000 or more. So I'm very transparent with money and I'll just kind of say exactly what we're making. And that's, that's, that's our process.
- [35:39]
A
How many times a week are you posting to YouTube?
- [35:42]
B
Once a week.
- [35:43]
A
Okay, once a week.
- [35:44]
B
And each video has a partnership.
- [35:47]
A
Okay. Is that something you've had to work on, like to get a partnership for? Yeah, like I don't want people to think like, oh, you know, I'm just gonna go get a partnership and make a video like Millie's had to work for that.
- [36:01]
B
It's taken time. And I think the, the, the thing that has been the best return on investment is like nurturing relationships with just brands you love working with. And when you have a brand that you love to work with. I work with storyblocks and I've been working with them, I think since 2021 and I just love working with them. They make working with them completely easy. They trust me, my creative process. They trust the videos I pick, the topics I choose. And so we'll sign longer partnerships with trusted brands. And really it just takes four brands you love to lock in six month contracts or 12 month contracts, you know, so when you nurture connections and relationships, securing that income and those brand deals become easier.
- [36:54]
A
That's something I need to work on, is nurturing past relationships with partnerships. I'm really good at nurturing relationships. Like when I did quit my career corporate job, guess who I reached out to to say, hey, I'm going out on my own. Will you hire me for freelance work? My past bosses. Because I, I had that relationship. So it makes sense too, with content creation. I should be going back to people that I've worked with and love. What about, are there any hot niches out there on YouTube right now that you're like, oh, my God, if you're really good at this, you should start a YouTube channel?
- [37:26]
B
No, I don't think so. And I, I laugh be I'm laughing.
- [37:30]
A
Yeah. Why are you laughing?
- [37:33]
B
Because, like, anything works on YouTube. Like, I think people want like this secret, like, oh, yap content is viral. Do yap content? Like, people want this like, secret niche where they could pop off quicker than anyone else. But, like, I pulled open a two hour compilation of trash truck driving videos for my son and that video had over 24 million views. And it's just a compilation of trash trucks. And my son, he's obsessed with trash trucks right now. So, like, literally, I was laughing because I'm like, you could post about anything on YouTube, whatever you want. Just, like, be consistent, have some strategy behind it and intention and any niche can work.
- [38:20]
A
Honestly, have you thought about going into like, the child, you know how they're like, just playing, like, oh my God, anybody can get on and like, play with blocks or baby dolls. Like, that's what my, my daughter watches. Baby dolls. People playing with their baby dolls. Have you like, kind of been tempted to be like, maybe I should look into this kind of content since you're like, okay. I mean, I have, I'm like, man, maybe I need to go buy some Barbies and just start playing with them. Like, because like you said, they'll have like millions and millions of views on there. Talk to us a little bit about a YouTube growth strategy. So most of my listeners, like, there are people on here that are just starting out, but there are people on here, there's a lot of people that are already doing content. We know what we're. We know that we need to be on YouTube. Where would you tell us to start if we wanted to get serious about that for, like 2027?
- [39:13]
B
Yes. I would say two things. Know who you want to create content for. And the reason that's important is because each platform has its different quirks when it comes to how the algorithm behaves. And with Instagram, we know their algorithm thrives off of niching down. That's why everybody says you need a niche down because. Because that's how their algorithm behaves. With TikTok, you don't have to niche down. It's fine. You're fine. Do whatever the heck you want with YouTube. YouTube is kind of the same. Like you don't have to niche down, but you do have to post for a particular kind of person and it's whatever that person is for. You have one clear Persona in mind. Know what they want to watch, what they want to consume, what are they looking up when they open up the YouTube app? What problems are they facing? How could you help them solve those problems today? So have a clear idea of who your audience is because that, that's the YouTube algorithm. It thrives off of audience. And instead of asking yourself like, what do I want? What do I think the algorithm will like? It's like, no, what do you think your audience will like on YouTube? So go with that when you have that clear idea of who you're posting for. The second thing that I'd say is start making search based content. And there's different ways you can get your videos to show up on YouTube. It's in search results on YouTube home or in suggested results, which are usually like next to videos that you're watching. And most of the time when somebody is starting on YouTube, it's going to be harder to get onto the YouTube homepage, you know, and even if you do get on the YouTube homepage, it's going to be hard to get clicks because as a new creator, maybe you don't have the like proper packaging with your title thumbnail. So people ignore your video and then YouTube's like, hey, we're not going to show their videos on YouTube home. So your best opportunity is actually dominating search and SEO, which people hate hearing because they think SEO is scary and hard, but it's actually easier now than ever before. So focus on what questions do my does my audience have? I'm going to make videos answering those questions and optimize my titles and descriptions so that I could be discovered in search results. And that's kind of how to get that snowball rolling is knowing who your audience is and trying to rank in search results for that audience.
- [41:35]
A
That is so helpful. So, so helpful. Do you think that thumbnails are just as important as the search terms and like the title and the description of the video?
- [41:44]
B
Yeah, I do. I There's different intent and reason behind everything that you do on YouTube. And the video packaging, which is the title thumbnail is arguably the most important phase of your creative process. It's more important than the video itself, you know, like it's more important than how you edited the whole video. So really taking most of your time to conceptualize title, thumbnail, or do thumbnail research and figure out what should my thumbnail look like. How can I create this? I. I start all of my thumbnails in Canva and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna makeshift this, I have a few ideas. Then I upload it to ChatGPT and I'm like, okay, how could I make this more viral looking if this is the concept of my. And then it'll come back to me like, oh, try this, this, this with this title. And so I'll like go back into Canva and maybe like play around. Or I'll just be like, okay, cool, can you take this pose? And I upload my pose to chat and I'm like, take this pose, add these words, and then put me in the middle of the ocean. I don't know, random prompts. So that chat is kind of like editing that thumbnail for me and helping with that creative process.
- [43:01]
A
That was what I was going to ask next is with AI. I know, like you said, it is easier than ever now to become a content creator. Guys with AI, like, people used to not know what SEO was and that was like a competitive edge that I had because I had worked for these agencies, I knew SEO on top of social media. But now it's like, AI can help you do any of that. So you're not opposed to someone creating a thumbnail in ChatGPT or using AI to create those?
- [43:30]
B
I'm not opposed to whatever somebody else wants to do with their creative process and how they allocate their time. I, I admire people who want to be involved in the creative process and like, want to be hands on with editing their videos. They want to like, lead the creative direction. And I try to lead, I lead the creative direction as much as possible. We still do like a lot of research manually and thumbnail research manually. We start the creative process manually. You know, like by manually I mean like humanly with our brains and like talking, looking through like analytics from our channels. And we use AI to help with efficiency of like, okay, how could we make this process faster? And if we have a good thumbnail that we have started and we're like, oh, we don't have the technical skill to do this one thing that we want, we're jumping to AI to do that. And so I'm okay with people using AI how they need to for their businesses. And my opinion on that might change within a week. You know, I think AI is constantly Changing and how people are leveraging it or using it constantly changes. So by the time this podcast episode is out, who knows what people are going to be using AI for? And maybe I'll be like, oh, I actually don't think people should be doing this. So at the moment helping you with a thumbnail, I'm like, yeah, that's cool.
- [45:05]
A
Well, I'm just gonna make you do the content. I'm with you there. What about. You haven't mentioned YouTube shorts. Are you. You're posting one long form a week. What about YouTube shorts? How much are you posting there?
- [45:16]
B
We post three to five times a week on shorts, but not with a shorts strategy. Our short form is driven by Instagram and TikTok strategy and then we just repurpose that to shorts to maintain our presence across short form platforms. But it's not like a short strategy. I think each platform has its own nuances for strategy. But we're just repurposing to shorts right now.
- [45:44]
A
That's what we were doing. We've kind of paused because we're doing some team restructuring in the background. But when Darby was doing our YouTube we would take a podcast episode, upload it and then she was just repurposing all of my reels over to YouTube as shorts. They were performing very well. Like honestly they're doing way better than my long form because again I'm just not that great at long form. But I have since I've hired like with the podcast now and I'm trying to level up, I actually hired someone this month that's gonna take my videos and make them more interesting. I wanna pick your brain on something too. With podcasting on a video, do you or I mean just any video where someone's talking say for like 45 minutes. Do you think it's important to have like little pictures popping up and like B roll? Like how important is editing your videos for YouTube?
- [46:37]
B
Yeah.
- [46:38]
A
For.
- [46:38]
B
Are you asking the podcast or the video format for YouTube or are you asking like if repurposed to short form, blah blah, blah.
- [46:47]
A
Nope. If. If we wanted to take YouTube seriously and I've got like, I've got footage, hour long footage of each episode that's just kind of sitting. What would you me to do with that as far as.
- [46:59]
B
Yeah, editing. It's what you do with it is going to look different for every person, every type of content, who your audience is. Right. If, if it's a casual sit down video then and you want to your personal brand, you want to give that like authentic connection I'm your best friend vibe. Like, your editing is going to be a lot more chill than somebody who's like, no, I'm trying to be animated. I want to be like high retention. I want like viral view, you know, like, like if it's all about the, the energy that you want to give off with your personal brand and the goals that you have, who you want to reach, Editing styles will vary per person. And all the things, I would say do anything with that content as, as long as it's reducing friction for you to do something with it. You know, the fact that it's just sitting there means there's, there's something that's causing you to not do something with it. There's friction that's like, oh, maybe it's a belief of like, well, I have to have it look a certain way or I need it to do this. And I'm just like, do whatever you need to reduce friction and get that post up. Because the more you're posting, the more you're exercising that muscle of like going through the process of, you know, film edit, post, film edit, post. Even if it's messy, even if it's sloppy, even if it's not. This idea of perfection that you have, you're growing because you're posting. And I don't mean just like numbers. Your followers is growing, but you as a creator, you as a person, you are growing because you took action anyway. So do whatever you can to do something with it.
- [48:36]
A
I love that. And that's exactly what I teach people with Instagram. So it's like, come on, Caitlin, take your own advice. I love that. Okay, I have some fun questions to wrap us up. Let's go find them. Do, do, do, do, do. Oh, okay. What's a revenue stream every creator should be building right now?
- [49:00]
B
Digital products.
- [49:02]
A
Ooh. And agreed. Like, if you. That is the easiest.
- [49:07]
B
It's the easiest. So easy.
- [49:09]
A
Like get on Canva, do a little guide about what you're good at or a checklist and freaking sell it.
- [49:14]
B
Yeah, like putting up, putting it up in Stan store makes it so freaking easy. There's no excuse you can do it in a weekend. You can get it up, up there. If you're posting to Instagram, Stan also has the DM to automation so that you could include a call to action in all your videos. You know, like, people over complicate it and it's the passive income. You own it. You don't have to rely on signing new brand deals. Digital products, hands down.
- [49:40]
A
I love that. I Love that. What about. What's one thing creators waste money on too early when they're starting?
- [49:47]
B
I would say gear. Yeah. Yeah.
- [49:51]
A
I think there's a lot of people that have this limited belief that, like you had said earlier, every. It has to be perfect or I can't post it. So I want to do it the right way. Friends like that. And I'm like, girl, do you see half of my videos? If I waited for myself to buy all this stuff or for it to be perfect, I would never post, which is probably why my YouTube channel's not growing. But, like, literally, like, you have to get out of your own way and just show up, messed up, see something.
- [50:18]
B
Yeah, you have to. Yeah, just show up. And also master your skills with what you have, because those skills will then carry over to upgraded gear. For example, if I'm a new creator, I know nothing about settings, lighting, camera settings, lighting, composition, rule of third, nothing. And I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna buy the best camera because it's going to make my camera, my content, look good. You could put the best, the world's best camera in someone's hand who has no idea what they're doing, and it's not gonna make them a good content creator, you know? And you could also give the best, most skilled videographer. I'm like, think of my husband. I could give my husband my worst iPhone that I've ever had, and he can make a banger with it because he has the skills. He has. He's took the time to understand, okay, what can I make with what I have? What settings can I dial in? What lighting can I do? And so when you work on your skills, it won't matter the gear you have. Oh, I love that. Yeah.
- [51:25]
A
What about as a business owner? What was the first hire that changed everything for you and your business?
- [51:33]
B
I would say video editors. Okay. Just because that took me so long, and once I had video editors and I had so much free time, I was like, whoa, someone's that got done and I didn't. What I was able to work on a digital product. I was able to work on my course like it was. It blew my mind being able to buy my time back that way and work on the things that were gonna drive my business forward.
- [52:07]
A
Ah, I love that. That. Is there a belief that you had to let go of to get to the current level that you're at right now? Hmm.
- [52:18]
B
Is there a belief that I had to let go of I one that comes to mind? I'm sure there's many, but one that comes to mind is this is the belief. I'm not saying this is true. I'm saying this is the belief I had. Money is hard to make. Like, that's the belief that I had to let go of.
- [52:41]
A
Yep.
- [52:42]
B
Because I remember this was before I was making a full time income or like before making money on social media. I was listening to a podcast. I don't remember which one, but somebody had said, like, there's someone out there who's not as good or smart or skilled as you are. They're just more confident, more bold, and they're making millions doing what you could do better just because they believed they could. And I was like, I was offended. I was like, you're right. But I was like, okay, fine, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it. And they're in that conversation, they had also said, like, there's so much money out there, there's millions. And like the creator economy is becoming like a billion dollar industry. I could probably look up stats for like the actual number. I think it's like a $15 billion industry. And it's like, to be made. It's already there. It is there waiting for you, waiting. All you have to do is just like, believe you deserve it, believe you can earn it, and like cut yourself a piece of that pie, you know? So that was probably the, the belief I had to let go of.
- [53:49]
A
I love that. I interviewed Shamina Taylor, who is like a money mindset coach, and she said, caitlin, you've got to have an abundance mindset. Like they're, they're, they are printing money right now, there, right now out in the world. And like, it's yours for the keeping, but you have to make the decision that you can accept it. And one hill that I will die on and I tell everyone there is someone out there that is less skilled than you, that honestly probably sucks at what they're doing and you can do it way better. But you're the industry's best kept secret because you just won't show yourself up online. I. That might drop, like for anyone in the world. I don't care. You could be like, like just any job in the world, like the weirdest job in the world. There's someone out there.
- [54:34]
B
I.
- [54:35]
A
Not that I. Not saying everyone needs to be a content creator, but if it is something in your calling, nothing should hold you back at this point.
- [54:44]
B
Yeah, I agree. And I need to correct my stats. Currently, the creator economy is valued at roughly $250 billion and it's projected to surpass $480 billion by next year.
- [55:01]
A
Plenty of money for all of us.
- [55:03]
B
There's plenty to be made here.
- [55:05]
A
So much I love that. Oh, you were a dream to speak with. Can you tell everyone, is there anything fun that you're working on or how they can work with you? Tell us what's going on behind the scenes.
- [55:15]
B
Yeah, there's. Personally, I am working on a triathlon. I'm gonna do a triathlon in six days, so that's gonna be great.
- [55:25]
A
Oh, Stace, have you been training?
- [55:28]
B
Yeah, I've been training for the past few months.
- [55:30]
A
Oh, my God, I'm so proud of you.
- [55:32]
B
Thank you. So, personally, that's what I'm working on. But we're also for my business currently, again, we go through every year to do course updates. So we're doing our year's updates of the BSP model, which is our Ivy League for content creators. It's the full roadmap to help creators go from zero to full time. And if anybody wants to connect, I always recommend my YouTube channel because I consider it my main platform. It's Modern Millie over on YouTube or Milly Adrian. Both searches will show my videos. And I always, if anybody has any questions about, like, how do I grow on YouTube, how do I grow on Instagram, how to grow on TikTok, whatever the question is, go to my channel. When you go to the videos, there's like a search, little search icon. You could search through my videos, any question you have. And I probably have a video on it. So there's a full archive of over. I think it's like over 500 videos that you can find. Lots of cool, quality tutorials.
- [56:31]
A
She's also very transparent, as she said, about money. So if you're, like, very curious, I never want to, like, make people feel uncomfortable asking the money questions, but if you want to know, like, what kind of revenue Millie is making, she shares it on her Instagram channel too. I'm sure it's on your YouTube as well, but that's just where I was last night, so highly recommend following her again. Millie, you were one of the first people I ever followed. And it's just. It's a dream to be your friend and it is a dream to interview you on Call Her Creator podcast. So thank you so much for being here.
- [57:03]
B
Of course. Thank you so much for having me.