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- [00:01]
A
After 12 years of running Social Media Marketing World, I can spot the difference between two types of marketers pretty instantly. You've got the reactive marketers who come looking for quick fixes. They need to solve Instagram's latest algorithm change or figure out why their Facebook ads are not working. They walk away with answers, but months later they're back in the same cycle. Then you've got the visionary marketers who come looking for the complete picture. They they want to understand how AI enhances their marketing, how paid and organic strategies complement each other, and how to build a marketing system that adapts to any change. They walk away transformed and they stay ahead for years to come. Listen to what Fadan Aladdon said after attending this conference changed my life in many ways. It changed my vision, it changed the way I was approaching my strategies in marketing and I made wonderful connections. Social Media Marketing World 2026 gives you complete AI mastery platform specific strategies for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok plus integration frameworks that connect everything together. Grab your tickets today by visiting social mediamarketingworld.info and transform your marketing approach before change forces your hand. Welcome to the Social Media Marketing Podcast helping you navigate the social media jungle. And now, here is your host, Micha. Hello, hello, hello. Thank you so much for joining me for the Social Media Marketing Podcast brought to you by Social Media Examiner. I'm your host, Michael Stelzner and this is the podcast for marketers and business owners who want more exposure, more leads and more sales. Are you a thought leader? Do you want to establish yourself as a thought leader on a big platform that can generate enormous amount of upside for you? We're talking about YouTube. What if you could use YouTube to get you in front of the right people? Time after time after time? It's all about making sure you follow the right formula. And my guest today has successfully done this at a massive scale and she's here today to reveal it all. And her name is Amy Landino, also previously known as Amy Schmittauer. So you're going to love today's episode. By the way, if you're new to this podcast, be sure to follow this show so you do not miss any of our future content. Let's now transition over to this week's interview with Amy Landino, helping you to simplify your social safari. Here is this week's expert guide. Today I am very excited to be joined by Amy Landino. If you don't know who Amy is, she is a business coach who helps ambitious professional women attract Highly qualified clients. She's also the author of Good Morning, Good Life. Five simple habits to master your mornings and upgrade your life. Her YouTube channel is @Amy TV. Amy, welcome back to the show. How you doing today?
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B
I'm so good. It's always good to be back.
- [03:02]
A
It's awesome to have you back. Today, Amy and I are going to explore how to establish thought leadership on YouTube. Now, Amy, it's been a couple of years since you've been on the show. A lot of couple of years. Like, we've seen each other at events and stuff, but it's been since 2018 that you were last on the show. So why don't you kind of bring us up to speed, you know, in the last seven years, give us, like, what's going on with you and YouTube and all that fun stuff. What's happened?
- [03:28]
B
It has been a real, like, when I say it's been a journey. 2018 was a pivotal year for my career in particular. Mike, you've been on my journey since beginning. And, you know, I was building YouTube for as long as I've been in this business, I've been on YouTube.
- [03:44]
A
Sexy, savvy, social.
- [03:46]
B
Yes, that's right. We were doing it. And. And that was where I really launched my marketing agency. Working for myself in 2018, I'd published vlog Like a Boss. It was my first book. I was talking about video on video, and I was like, you know what? There's a lot of people in my comments who aren't taking my advice, but they watch my videos because they don't have time. They don't have time to do what I'm advising. I thought that was so interesting. And when I started digging into that and pulling on that thread, it took all of seven years to get to 80,000 YouTube subscribers at the beginning of 2018, went from 80,000 to a hundred thousand in a hundred days just by talking about time management and morning routines, and then another hundred thousand in another hundred days. So that was a really big moment for the platform. The book Good Morning, Good Life came out in 2019. I ended up hitting 300,000, 400,000 subscribers. All the things, wow. Then so much happened to all of us in that time. And, you know, the pandemic took out the business in such a way that I didn't see coming because we had leaned so hard on the media side and just, you know, things change. So it was really interesting to go through that because that kind of adversity in your business, you learn a lot about it. I had to Let my team go. I had to kind of reinvent how we did things and how I wanted to spend my time. I had a baby for my first child, came in 2022 and I call her the one who broke my business. Bianca broke my business in 2022. And Sienna, my second born, saved my business because they taught me so much about all the things that I was doing before that worked when it was just me and I could just nose to the grindstone. And life looks different when you invite new people into it. And I wanted my life to look like that. So the business had to reflect how I wanted that life to work. So even in just the last three or four years, it's been a whole reinvention of what does it mean for me to leverage the profile I've built for myself and do work that I'm excited about. And so that's what's been going on. It's been a lot. I mean, it's been fun, but it's been a lot.
- [05:48]
A
Well, and I remember all like, we've had lots of conversations over the years and it's really exciting to kind of see where you're at today. So YouTube has been a pretty big part of your story. And there's a lot of people listening right now that are active on the socials, probably on Instagram. That's probably the main one for this audience. Maybe Facebook, maybe a little bit of TikTok. But YouTube is one of those things that for a lot of people feels very, very daunting. It feels like kind of hard and out there. And your story almost affirms how daunting it can be. Right. But why is YouTube so important for establishing thought leadership? Because that's really what we're here to talk about today. Like if you are listening and you want to be known or you are known for something, why would YouTube be something that's very important for them to maybe pay attention to?
- [06:41]
B
I think part of the reason why people feel like it's daunting is I just, I've literally been in this business since I joined YouTube in 2007 and every time I do an interview ever since, it's like YouTube, we should really think about that. It's never gone away. And that's what I think is so interesting about it. There is just no other platform, period, that wins with long form video the way that YouTube does. Facebook has definitely come to bat and LinkedIn has done a little bit of that as well. But there's just no competition with I can upload a Video of any length, just the way I like it, to a platform to share it. And no matter what type of audience you have, you don't have to want to be a YouTuber to go viral, to hit the certain algorithm, you just need a database sometimes of where people can get to know you better, understand your method better, see your tutorials, understand what you have to offer. And long form video is the best way to do that other than in person. Certainly more efficient because we've dialed it into a certain set period of time differently from being in person. But there's nothing that competes with that. Everything now is how do we get it to you as fast as possible, which means getting it as short as possible. That's powerful. That's really important. You should not discount shorts on YouTube, TikToks, Instagram Reels, very important. But they are such a small amount of context. And there's a different association with somebody who's like, I follow them on YouTube, I know them by name and I follow them on TikTok. They showed up in my feed or I was scrolling Instagram, I know them, I know what they're known for, I can see their face. But it was an interest level connection. And I think that's very powerful. When you're talking about thought leadership. If you want to be the authority in your space, if you want to be the go to, if you're wanting to be somebody that is thought of for that thing, YouTube long form is by far and away the best place to do it.
- [08:40]
A
Well, and I think the closest parallel that I can help people with is podcasting, because podcasting also is a long form medium and a lot of people listen to their favorite podcasters and some of them interview people like I do. Others demonstrate their insights and wisdom by regularly dropping long form audio content. So if you already consume thought leadership from people that are crushing it on podcasting, well, then you already have a framework in which you can understand the value of it. But some people are going to say, yeah, but Mike, with podcasting, I can be driving, I can be doing the dishes, I can be exercising. But with YouTube, you telling me that people are going to sit there and watch me for 45 minutes, like, what do you want to say to that?
- [09:26]
B
You know, I'm so glad you just brought that up because podcasting is such a great case study for YouTube long form. YouTube might be number one or number two. I'm not sure who's top right now for podcasting platforms. A lot of people are going straight to YouTube to consume podcasts because they know they get the best of both worlds. And you can listen on YouTube just as easily as you can listen on other platforms. So if YouTube was already one that you were very friendly with, it's very easy to just start tuning into your podcast friends over there because so many podcasts. I remember when social media marketing podcast was audio only. Everyone's going video now because it just adds that extra element of connecting with the people that they're listening to. This is the crazy thing, and maybe we'll talk about this later. If you can just get somebody excited at the beginning of any piece of content, blog post, email, newsletter, short video, long form podcast. If you can get them excited about what they're going to get out of the experience in the very beginning, they'll stay for 45 minutes, they'll stay for four hours. And it's unbelievable that you could do that and there's only a few places that you can.
- [10:34]
A
Yeah, and I want to double down on something that YouTube does uniquely that most of the other platforms does not. The life of the content can be for years. And this is really important. Like, I talked to so many YouTubers who have people watching videos that they recorded years ago and it's because YouTube does a really good job of finding the audience that matches the video. And this is probably a good transition to my next question, which is why is. Well, talk to me about that actually, because I already asked the question. Explain to people the life. Because you probably have some videos that you recorded years ago that are still getting ridiculous amounts of views. Right.
- [11:13]
B
It's actually unbelievable. My most popular video for years was one I filmed in the first six months, I think, of making content so something I filmed in 2011. Hitting a pain point. I had how to embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint presentation. Simplest tutorial you can think of. That video was by far and away the most successful video on my channel for years because it just kept showing up in search. It was useful, it got to the point people liked it. It was not this perfect video, guys. I literally just filmed a tutorial and it just was what people liked. And until that software became irrelevant or whatever, it continued to work. YouTube lasts forever. Now listen, there's more content, there's more consumption. People are publishing every single day, multiple times a day. So older videos are only going to be so relevant now. They used to be so much more relevant for the first 10 to 15 years of the platform. But every once in a while, like if you're a huge YouTuber, let's say Marques comes to mind. MKBHD, one of the top tech reviewers in the world, is a friend of mine. Every once in a while, the first video he ever created will pop up on the home screen for everyone. Why? Because it is just like, wait, that was Marquez when he first started. That's so crazy. But that's the culture of the platform and algorithmically, it will serve it up. And suddenly his first video ever will just start getting views and start making the channel money and bringing in new people. It's fascinating.
- [12:41]
A
Love it. Okay, so let's say I'm sold on YouTube and I want to establish my thought leadership on YouTube. Is there any kind of things we need to think about before we get started?
- [12:52]
B
Definitely. You said it was daunting earlier. I'll tell you why. Because people think about looking at the lens of a camera like it's the lens of a camera, first of all. And that's dangerous because it means a few things. Either one, you think you're talking to no one, and that's just not helpful. Right. Like, we don't want to admit to talking to nobody. Right. That's not a good MySpace to be in. We don't want to admit to talking to ourselves. We don't want to admit to even talking to a million people. That's really scary. This video could go to a million people. If you go into this with that headspace, you're going to be deer in a headlight. And I mean, literally, your eyes will be bulging. You're not. You're going to be worried. You're going to trip over your words. You have to remember who you're talking to. Who is your target client? Who is the person who needs your help? Who is the former version of you that you can help? When you look at the lens like it's that person. It's like you're sitting down for coffee with somebody who just wanted to ask your advice. That's all this is. Long form, short form, any of it. If you can sit down, talk to camera like you just sat down for coffee with somebody who wanted to pick your brain, you will be fine. Give them a name. Whatever you need to do to get into the right headspace to know you have a perfect viewer, that perfect viewer is going to evolve. Okay? Beyonce's perfect listener at the beginning evolved. We grew up with her. That's okay. The content changed with her. My content was different in 2011 than it is today, and so we have to be okay with that. You can help one person today Sit down, talk to the lens of the camera like that. The rest of this is going to be so easy for you. If you do that, you'll be ahead of so many people.
- [14:30]
A
Let's give an example of how you do it.
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B
Sure. So my perfect viewer has always been Charlotte. She was in a different place before than she is today, but she's evolved into the entrepreneur she is now. She's probably treating her business a little bit too much like a job because she's very happy. She didn't have to be at that old job anymore. But now we need to make the business a little bit more efficient so we can make more money. We gotta beat that imposter syndrome for why our prices have been the same for 10 years. It's not working, honey. We need to move on. And I know what she's thinking about. I know what her struggles are tomorrow. I know the bills that she has to pay. I know the team she needs to hire. So when I sit down and whether I'm talking about morning routines, productivity or a great business tip that's going to help her to make this month a little bit easier and to find a better way of operating, it's easier for me to talk to camera reps. Also make it easier. I mean, I've made nearly 1500 videos on one channel doing the thing a lot you get better at communicating. But if you start at least with a minimum of I know who this is for. I don't have to be worried about Uncle Joe or my in laws or somebody that's was watching a Minecraft video. They don't care. You're right, they don't care. So talk to who does.
- [15:44]
A
Okay, so step one is to come up with that. And many marketers already have this, but some don't. Who is that target audience in your case? Her name is Charlotte. And just to probably put your mind into like, okay, what does Charlotte care about? Is she even going to care about this topic? How do I communicate this in a way that Charlotte will care about it? Right. And this has to go into kind of foundational stuff that you want to do with every time you make a video. Now you've come up with four P's and we're only going to reveal one at a time. Okay, so once you've got your Charlotte, what's the next part of the process?
- [16:20]
B
You need to know who Charlotte is. You need to know who your viewer is because the first P is going to be very important. And that is the problem. What's the problem that we're solving for. Even people who are comedians are solving a problem with their content. It's figuring out where do I need to hit them in the right place at this moment in time. One of the things that you hit on is all the reasons why this matters to Charlotte. One of them is when I sit down and start talking about this. What does she already know and what does she not know? We like to talk about the things that we've learned in our business very fast. I'm capital offender at this. I will talk to Charlotte like she's already been in my brain and went through the whole journey with me. She's not. She's in a previous state, so I need to remember what that previous state is. I need to know what the problem is. What is she thinking about? What is the problem? If you ever struggle with what do we title this? What do we need to say to make them want to watch it? Use the words your viewer would be using. That's a great way to figure out how you formulate what is the problem? That's the current state. Where is she now? What is the problem that we're solving for? That's a great place to start.
- [17:31]
A
When we were prepping for this, you used this phrase, broccoli in the cake, and maybe you can explain what that means.
- [17:36]
B
Yeah, I talk about broccoli in the cake all the time. I like to gross people out. We as my.
- [17:40]
A
Sounds actually really good. It sounds good.
- [17:43]
B
We in business, we have learned so much. We have learned so much, and we just want to take our clients and shake them and be like, it's a you thing. You're screwing this up.
- [17:55]
A
Up.
- [17:56]
B
You're right. But they don't care. That's not the problem they want to rectify right now. So the broccoli of, like, well, you're the problem. You need to change this. You need to approach it differently. We need to have a new strategy that's going to fall on deaf ears. But if you have a nice, big piece of cake, this is going to double your revenue. Okay, now I'm listening. I'm more likely to digest that broccoli that you very well baked inside that cake that I don't even notice it because I just want what I need right now. So when I think about what is the problem? I'm trying to figure out, what does that cake look like? What makes somebody want. I want that cake. I'm going to eat that no matter what you put in it. It looks so good. I need it right now. That's What I mean by broccoli in the cake?
- [18:45]
A
Do you have any examples of any clients that you can kind of share this so that we can actually, like, understand how this might look from a perspective of maybe a business person?
- [18:56]
B
Absolutely. I work with this incredible YouTuber. She's crushing the game when it comes to marketing. But when she started to pivot her coaching a little bit, she wanted to go to her clients and just start telling them, listen, I'm going to help. You have great curly hair. Great curly hair. And we're going to start by the fact that you don't take very good care of yours. So we have to just completely start over. You're going to have to completely reassess how you do things. And that's broccoli telling me that it's going to be a long, drawn out process. I've been doing it wrong for years. It's gonna take some time. The curls need to come back. I don't wanna hear that. But if you tell me that tomorrow, I'm gonna be able to guarantee some less frizz in my life. And I've got curly hair and I need to reel it in. All right, now I'm listening. If the broccoli in that cake de frizz me today, Gina. De frizz me. Okay, great. The broccoli inside that cake is. We're gonna do that. I've got some quick fixes, but I also have some other foundational things that if you follow this every day, not only will you not have frizz tomorrow, you will have a much easier time with frizz for the duration of your curly haired life. You just gotta incorporate some of these basics. So I love talking about Gina because in business, we like to talk business, business, business all the time. This is so business to consumer. Everybody just wants to buy the product on Amazon. That's gonna be the magic bullet. There are probably some great ones that she has to offer. Those are some quick fixes. But the broccoli inside the cake is. If you want this to be more sustainable, you actually want it. To save you time, here's some other foundational things that we need to talk about.
- [20:36]
A
Okay. Just so I can wrap my mind around this.
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B
I know, because you don't have curly hair, it's weird.
- [20:41]
A
Well, yes, but I'm also trying to help everybody else wrap their mind around this as well. But what we need to do here, it seems what I'm hearing you say is that you could just talk about the problems. And in the case of Gina, it Could be you're lacking something in your hair that's like some sort of a thing. I don't know what it is to straighten it or whatever.
- [21:03]
B
Yeah, that. Well, to keep it curly, but keep it nice.
- [21:06]
A
But that's the broccoli. Like, that's maybe like, the technical reason why your hair is not being straight. But instead, what I'm hearing you say is, like, talk about you wish your hair wasn't as curly, and I'm gonna reveal some ways to help you get there. Is that kind of what I'm hearing you say?
- [21:24]
B
Yes. However, people want to be curly, they just don't want the frizz.
- [21:28]
A
Okay.
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B
They don't want the side effects of too much curl going crazy, out of control. We want in control curl. That's the goal. In control curl is the cake, and we're pumped about that.
- [21:40]
A
Okay, so what's the broccoli in this case, then?
- [21:43]
B
The broccoli is. If you want in control curl, you can't change your mind on Saturday and straighten your hair because now you're going to do different things chemically. That confuses the hair into thinking what it should be doing on a more consistent basis so that nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that. Oh, I just haven't been doing the right thing every day up to this point. Now I need to start doing the right thing every day up to this point. People like to say they like daily habits, but it's not until they're fully invested in solving for the cake that they'll actually follow through on those daily habits. So you're saying, I want in control, beautiful curly hair with no frizz. How fast can you get me that? And that's what she's offering that cake. I can get it to you quick, but I can also make it more sustainable. Once you get into this program, once you get into this video, once you get into this experience. And I can tell you some other things, but we had to lead with the defrismen on the thumbnail and the title to get somebody interested in the whole experience, which reveals how you get the quick fix, how you get the longer one.
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A
Okay, now give me a quick example of how you do this for Charlotte with this kind of stuff that you teach regularly. Just so people can get another example.
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B
I'm gonna ask them, who's their Charlotte? Who are we talking about? What are they up at night?
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A
Yeah, but give us an example of your Charlotte, because you know who she is. You know what I mean?
- [23:06]
B
Like, absolutely. So I'm asking Her. Okay, great. How often do you post content? You're saying you want to elevate your profile. You're saying you want to have a better brand. You're saying you want to raise your price, but nobody knows who you are. How do you get your clients currently? Okay, great. Well, the problem is that they're all referral. That does sound like a problem. Sounds like. That's probably few and far between now. I know. The problem is I only have word of mouth clients. This is good, but it's also not great because it's the only way. Then you're at the mercy of wherever the word of mouth is that day. You can start to control that a little bit more by building your brand, by hearing, oh, how to grow your clients outside of just word of mouth. I'm hitting you exactly where the problem is, where you go. Yeah, all my clients are word of mouth. There's a lot of excitement and pride in that. I get that a lot with Charlotte. When I encounter Charlotte, I hear them go, oh, all my clients are word of mouth. That is saying something cool about you. Unless you got only one client, then we got problems. If you have too many clients in your word of mouth, this is a good place to be. But if you don't have enough work and you're working yourself to the bone, you don't have time to market yourself so that you're not just word of mouth, then we have a problem. So it's hearing. Oh, is that a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Is it a good thing? Because you want to say it's a good thing, but it's actually not a great thing because you're not hitting your revenue goals. Now I'm hearing real problems. Great word of mouth, not enough money. Okay, well then it's not good enough word of mouth. I know what the problem is.
- [24:37]
A
This is an interesting story. Since 2013, social media marketing World called San Diego home. It was beautiful. The weather, the sun, the energy. But last year, something became very clear. We had outgrown our space. We needed room to properly host two world class conferences, Social Media Marketing World and AI Business World, simultaneously under one roof. San Diego couldn't give us that, so we're moving to Anaheim, California. Here's what you gain. Two conferences in one modern location where you seamlessly can move between social marketing and AI sessions. Plus, you get perfect weather with Southern California sunshine. And here's the bonus. It's literally walking distance to Disneyland. That means you can bring the entire family and make memories beyond the conference. Maybe even with some of the friends that you meet at the event. Kristen Christian said, quote, I love social media marketing world. That re energizes me and my passion for the field. I've chosen to work in surrounding myself with others who, quote, get it. And having the opportunity to learn. Plus, get sunshine is so valuable. Anaheim lets you be the marketer who invests in your career and creates magical family memories all in a single trip. We didn't just move locations, we upgraded the entire experience. Better facilities, easier access, more opportunities to connect, and yes, the magic of Disney literally right next door. Join us April 28th to 30th, 2026 in Anaheim. Visit social media marketingworld.info and get your tickets today. Okay, so I think what I'm hearing you say is you need to communicate the problem in the way that the person will receive it. That's the key message here. Not everyone is going to receive that. They need a funnel. Okay? Not everyone is going to receive that. They need a process. Maybe that's what you're selling, right?
- [26:24]
B
Makes me want to cry hearing that. I don't want to hear that.
- [26:26]
A
But if you go around and tell everybody that they need a funnel, they're going to be like, no, I do not want a funne. But if you tell them, hey, you need more clients, that's something they can relate to. Let's work on it. And that will draw them into your video. I love it.
- [26:40]
B
And that's why we're talking about the second P here. So we're starting with like, I don't have enough clients. That's the problem. The second P is what is the full package? If we're looking at this as an arc of like current state to desired state, Desired state is more clients than I know what to do with, right? So what I'm going to try to do with my content, this is just to set you up mindset wise. What I'm going to try to do with this content is to understand that arc. What's the problem and where are we trying to go? This piece of content is going to be a Lego piece in the equation that's going to help you cross that bridge, get over that arc, get closer to more clients than I know what to do with. That'd be a great problem. Everybody wants that when they don't have it, right? So that's the package. That's that second P. And now we're talking about. Okay. Not only do I know how they would articulate the problem, which is very easy by the way, Just ask people what their problems are. People who pay you, people who don't pay you. They'll tell you all left and right. Oh, well, the problem is this. Well, the problem is this. Well, problem is this. Everybody's very smart. They know what their problems are. They'll tell you, and they'll tell you why they have those problems. It's great. Let them tell you that, because then you can say, all right, great. Well, if that's the problem, where would you rather be when you have a good idea of that? If you talk to people who are your potential client all the time, even if you've never taken on a single one, if you talk to people like them all the time, and you can understand that arc, you can have content for days just within that, and that could just be one leg of your content. More clients is just one leg of my content. Not enough time is another big one. Right. So that's just one arc I can play with in so many ways, make so many different videos about all the things there.
- [28:15]
A
Okay. I love this for lots of reasons. I was just eating that up like cotton candy. Cotton candy on top of a cake with broccoli.
- [28:22]
B
I was gonna say, where'd the cake go? Come on.
- [28:24]
A
Yeah, yeah. It was next to the cake, actually. But what I really like about what you just said is I think these two things package so well together. Like, hey, you desire to have more business, you desire to have more clients. You want people lining up at your front door, but they're not. Right. It's kind of like these two things kind of need to be, like, really closely tied. Right. And wouldn't it be great if you never had to worry again about where your customers were coming from? That's kind of the desired outcome. Right? What if there was a way to get people literally so backed up that you have more work than. And you can be choosy, and you can pick your best clients and fire your worst. That's kind of what we're really talking about here, right? This idea of really banging home, that desired outcome. But you could start with that desired outcome without the problem. But I feel like there is this one, two kind of punch here. Do you want to explain a little bit about how these two things kind of work together?
- [29:18]
B
Absolutely. If you have just the desired outcome, that's great. That's very important for you to know. But you also have to kind of bring it down to earth. You need to tell me why. You can promise me the sun, the moon, and the stars, and it's because you understand what the other side looks like. If someone's just promising you a beautiful car and you can drive a beautiful car, but never talking to you about the adversity that takes place prior to getting yourself to a place of getting that beautiful car, I'm just not going to believe you. It's just like you're going to win the lottery kind of a conversation. When you understand someone's pain, they feel understood by you and you also do something really important, which a lot of us don't like to do. It's amazing how we were all taught not to be confrontational. And you should be really careful about being confrontational. It feels confrontational when you talk about someone's problems. Like when you really, like go in on it. Like, oh, you only have word of mouth and you only have three leads right now. And they're not really. They're kind of ghosting you. Yikes. Talking about someone's problem is actually extremely powerful because it makes them go, wait, what? That's a problem. That's not normal. Really. It could be better than that, you know, better than that. That really helps somebody understand that you have been in that place before and you know what better looks like because you understand a better way to get there. We don't have to tell everyone everything that we know. We just have to let them know we know what we know. They just have to be clear on that. If you only talk about desired state, it's not the whole picture. When you talk about the specific problems to solve for that help get us closer to that. Now we're talking about an expert.
- [31:04]
A
You have been balancing life and business. You've been talking about this. You've got a husband and two kids, young kids. How have you used this balance of life and business in a package? Like, can you kind of explain how all that might work?
- [31:19]
B
Yeah, I guess, like for me personally, I had to look at. I love my job. I would do the nittiest of grittiest things in my email marketing platform all day long if I could. But now what success looks like is not being an expert at that. It's having somebody way better than me doing that. And I get to spend more time with my kids. As a matter of fact, do you know how hard it was to get this podcast scheduled? And the reason is not my kids, it's me. I do not work after 2:30pm Eastern. It just doesn't happen because I decided to enroll my child into a program where I have to pick her up at 3 and I don't want to put her in any after school activities. I want to spend the day with her after that. When you are reverse engineering that desired state, things look so different when you decide what you say yes to, what you say no to. So now I can say, well, if you want to be able to own your own business, but actually get the perks of it, where you get to spend time with me, with your friends, your family, go on trips, do the things, time and location, freedom. That's cool. Then how do you dial in the most important things? When do they happen? How do you do it efficiently so you stay ahead and you're not constantly trying to come up for air. That problem of, well, sure, everybody could cut off work at 2:30, but then what would happen if you didn't solve for the sales, the marketing, the time batching, the when is the podcast interview going to happen stuff? Those are the individual problems that we can talk about.
- [32:45]
A
Okay, so we've talked about problem, we talked about package. Package is when you take that problem and you couple it with the desired outcome and you just gave an example through storytelling. There's another P. What comes next?
- [32:59]
B
So those are really just to get you in the right headspace. I know, it's not even the best part yet. So the third P is where we get to have a lot of fun and this is where we get to make a promise. So based on what is the problem that's going to help us get closer to desired state we're solving for, which is the package? The promise is a lot of fun. Back in the day with YouTube, you really had to be very creative with your titles to get people to pay attention. Now you just have to be obvious. So the promise you make is how are you going to identify with or solve that problem in this piece of content? And if you can, well form a promise, you have a very strong YouTube title. YouTube titles just need to make a promise so that when they see it, when somebody sees it on their subscription feed or their home page, whatever, they see that title, they see a promise you plan to make good on, they want to click it, they want to learn more. There's another aspect of it, of course, but. But the promise is all you need in that title. The title does not need to be cute. It doesn't need to be full of extra stuff people don't care about. It doesn't have to be clickbaity. Although clickbait isn't bad if it's actually well done. If you have great clickbait and you make Good on that promise then. All set. It's great. You just have to make a promise. What are you promising to deliver on in this video experience? That's your YouTube title.
- [34:25]
A
Can you give us some examples of YouTube titles as a promise? By the way, I love this conceptually because I've always, you know, I've written books. You've written a book. I've always thought that the title of the book is the promise of what you get out of the book. Like a good book. Like my first one was called Writing white papers. How to capture something and keep them engaged. I can't remember the subtitle. I should know. But the promise was that by the time you're done with the book, you'll be able to write a white paper.
- [34:52]
B
Exactly.
- [34:52]
A
And my second one was called Launch, and I can't remember the subtitle of that either, but it was a promise after the word launch. You know what I mean? Yeah, but, but titles of books make a lot of sense, right? Like this should be what you will gain after you consume this content. That's effectively what you're saying. But on YouTube it feels a little more challenging. So like give some examples maybe of some titles that you, you can make them up on the fly or you can pull some up real quick.
- [35:17]
B
I'll share some that I've actually written for myself that performed fairly well. So one example is called the ultimate morning routine transformation. And then I like parentheses. I like to add parentheses. This one has brackets. 90 day challenge. So the video is the ultimate morning routine transformation and it's a 90 day challenge. So it's going to be a ultimate morning routine transformation that happens over a 90 day challenge. That's the title. And so I'm promising that in a 19 minute, 19 second video that I'll deliver on that. There's a second again, the thumbnails, the second part of this, this conversation. But that's our fourth p. And we'll get to that in a second. So that's one example. Another one is how I schedule my week as a mom and CEO. Pretty easy to make good on that promise. Like, I'm literally just showing you how I do it. That's just two examples from my channel.
- [36:07]
A
So help me understand, like, give us some tips on how to craft these things. Because most thought leaders have an outline at the very least before they hit record, right? They put kind of, for lack of better words, something together. It could be a script or it could be literally just talking points. How do they take that and somehow like pull the promise out of it. Do you have any thoughts on that?
- [36:29]
B
You do the reverse, you might have some really strong things you want to talk about in the video. Again, it's broccoli. But if it does not track to why somebody would give a crap, then who cares what you put in that video? So the title needs to be the Promise. The promise needs to be something you keep in mind the entire time. If you are waiting until after the video is done to come up with what your title and thumbnail are going to be. It's amateur hour. Most creators. Zach King does this. I believe he has something called T sheets. These are my P sheets. He has T sheets. He literally just creates a T on a piece of paper, and he will come up with a title, put it on one side, and on the other side he does a little drawing. And that representation is. This is what the title is. This is what the thumbnail is. Now, how do we make this happen? That is what the top of the top of the top creators are doing on this platform. They are not saying, oh, I kind of want to do this in a video. They're starting with, why would somebody even tune into that in the first place? By delivering on some kind of a promise? So your promise should come first. The problems, the desires state, all of those things are going to get incorporated into your outline so that you can touch on all of those mindset things that we talked about. But if. If you don't keep that promise at the forefront, especially talking head video, a lot of thought leaders, they'll just sit down, turn camera on, start talking, and you can do that. And it will be great as long as you remember what you promised on the content to begin with. Otherwise you will lose people. So be sure to start with that title. Be sure to say, what is the result going to be by the end of this video, by the end of this book, what will they be able to walk away and do? If it does not contribute to that cause, then it gets cut. And that's it. You keep that title in mind. You keep that promise in mind. Everything you're outlined is going to be so much stronger. Because even if you're like, well, I kind of want to plug this and I kind of want to make sure we include that. Great. Just track it back to the Promise.
- [38:30]
A
Okay, totally buy that. Here's an example. We're working on a video that we're going to be recording in studio about how to write persuasive landing pages with Claude. And we're going to position it as the better alternative than ChatGPT. And we've, you know, we've got the outline. We kind of know this is the theme where we're going. But we don't have that title completely dialed in yet because we know there's a bazillion little tweaks you can make to the title. And this is where maybe AI helps a little bit. Do you have any thoughts on how you can use AI to like help really get these? Because the title, the words matter, don't they?
- [39:04]
B
Absolutely. I mean, there's so many reasons why what you just shared, it's interesting, but it's a little bit of broccoli. Are we really that worried about, is it it this one or is it that one?
- [39:14]
A
Yeah, that's the concept. But I know we came up with a really good title. But how do you use AI to make the titles really freaking good? Because I know you do, right when.
- [39:21]
B
You'Re sitting in this place and you're like, I know what the problem is, I know what I want to include. Just like, don't worry about calling me or Mike. You just pull up any AI tool that you have and just have a conversation with it. The best advice I got from my business mentor was if you don't know what to do with AI yet, it's okay. Just talk to it every day. And it's become actually, it's kind of mortifying. Like I actually started journaling in it because I was like, I just need somebody to hear me out and I don't have time to call my therapist. So I'm just going to put all of this into ChatGPT and see what comes out or put anything into an AI tool. I want a high performing YouTube video and this is my idea. How do I formulate a title to capture attention? Making good on the Promise. So I'm not just writing something that sounds good, but I'm making good on the promise. But it actually is well written so that it captures attention. We like to put a lot of broccoli in our titles. Oh, this is my episode number. This is the series name. Nobody cares about your series name. Nobody, nobody cares about your series name. It's cute. You can put it in the description. Maybe a little spot on the thumbnail. Probably not just put the promise in in the title. If you take that. I actually have an AI prompt for this. If you just message me on Instagram, just send me social media marketing podcast or just say psheets in my DMs, I'll send it to you, because I want people to understand you can take your idea and have an amazing title spit out for you and you don't have to give this any thought. YouTube now has such. Thank goodness. What year is it? We finally got incredible AB testing on YouTube. You can take three versions that you get from AI and pin them against each other and let YouTube and the YouTube sphere decide which ones work. You don't have to make that decision. It's incredible.
- [41:08]
A
Split testing for titles. So here's what I came up with. How to create landing pages that actually convert in minutes using AI in parentheses. It's not ChatGPT. And my split test is it's not ChatGPT colon how to create landing pages that actually convert using AI. So that's what AI helped me come up with. We'll see if it works.
- [41:27]
B
Yes. And I actually think they're a little long and you're saving AI for the end. And it should be at the beginning, potentially, for one of your tests. I didn't know if this was like a Claude plug. I would absolutely put in parentheses. It's not chatgpt or spoiler. It's not chatgpt. Because that will make people go, well, which tool is it? Because now I need that one and now we're getting people interested. I would have something at the beginning. Save time with AI on the perfect landing page. Parentheses. It's not chatgpt. It just. You have to get to the point very early with these titles, because if you think about all the platforms we watch YouTube on, it could be the TV, it could be as small as our phone. So sometimes your title is very long and it runs into an ellipse. And we don't like ellipses. So you really want the most important words at the beginning in case your title runs off into too many characters land. You have to have the most important words at the beginning beginning.
- [42:22]
A
So I've changed it to how to create landing pages with AI that actually convert something along those lines. It's not ChatGPT.
- [42:29]
B
Yeah, absolutely. So if somebody is looking specifically for the word landing pages, you are putting that phrase at the beginning as a very important qualifying word for whoever's going to watch that video. So as long as you keep that in mind, if landing pages is the phrase, you might also consider different words. Web pages might be a little bit more what the average person is thinking about. They may not even know what a landing page is. So it depends on who is the person. Are they a super marketer? Are they not even close to even Understanding what marketing is. And they just have a small business. So playing with a couple of different words, you think more like your Charlotte is going to help you with that title a lot.
- [43:08]
A
Okay, let's get to your last P.
- [43:10]
B
Okay, final P. Everybody knows you get two things with a YouTube video. It's a little different now, but the main things are a title and a thumbnail. So for the final P, we need a P for the thumbnail. Right. You've got a promise for your title. So what I like to do in my thumbnails is you have to give a visual representation of what people are going to get. But not only that, it needs to add intrigue. You have a promise in the title. So people are already excited about the promise, but now they're looking at the visual representation. They need something that's going to make them go, bo, that's interesting. Maybe I don't have all the answers and this is going to tell me something I don't know. So what I like to do in my thumbnails is, is share a piece of the process. So, for instance, if I had a video of like five tips, but one of those tips had a very specific method name, I might put that method in the title or in the thumbnail words. So there will be words on the image and it will be on the thumbnail. So not only do you read a promise in the title, but now you're seeing a potential process you're going to learn written on the thumbnail. So now you have kind of a visual human SEO element. Words in a thumbnail do not show up in an algorithm. They only work on humans. So you have to choose something that makes somebody go, hmm, what does that mean? That's interesting. So for the ultimate morning routine transformation, 90 day challenge, I gave that one earlier. My thumbnail says morning routine master plan. So I'm leveraging the phrase master plan in the thumbnail because that to me was a bit more powerful than in the title. But I'm also using the phrase morning routine again because it's a very strong phrase for my channel. Anything morning routine on my channel does very, very well. So I just put a process in the written form in the thumbnail. Another one I like to share is called the time audit. Save 10 plus hours per week with this time management framework. It's a long title, but it's a big promise. And I deliver on that promise by putting the process in the thumbnail. The thumbnail says how to make Time for Everything. You read that, you're like, I'd love the idea of a time audit. And I'm going to get 10 hours week. That's the promise. And she's telling me, this is going to show me how to make time for everything I'm in. And that video has over 300,000 views. Because that's a great formulation of, okay, we've got to promise. And that's the process that's going to happen. There's other things you can do when you get really fun and you're creative of. Oh, we have this great method. I have one called the CCC Method. If I put that in my title, the CCC Method. What kind of promise is that? Nobody knows what it is. Nobody knows what the CCC Method is.
- [45:56]
A
Sounds like broccoli.
- [45:57]
B
Exactly. It is broccoli. But if I have something in the title that makes you go, I want that promise. And now I'm wondering what the CCC Method is.
- [46:10]
A
It's intrigue, isn't it?
- [46:11]
B
Yes. The title is How I Motivate Myself to Get Things Done. So the title is A Promise of How I Motivate Myself to Get Things Done. And in the thumbnail it says the CCC Method. Well, now you're like, well, how am I going to motivate myself to get things done? I got to find out how Amy's doing it. And she's using something called the CCC Method. Now I need to know what that is. So that video has almost 200,000 views on something I made up. I made something up, Mike. There's three C's in that video. I called it the CCC Method. I put the CC Method in the. The thumbnail. Now you can see a little bit of my process. I made you a good promise in the title winning video.
- [46:47]
A
What about putting pictures of yourself in thumbnails?
- [46:50]
B
A hundred percent. If you are a thought leader, if you're an authority, if you want people to know your face. Faces are powerful in thumbnails. It shares a little bit of authenticity, a lot of transparency. People love to talk about being authentic in their content. Nobody wants to be authentic. You just want people to believe you. That's fine. But if you do want authenticity, then share your face. You can put your face in the thumbnail. A lot of my thumbnails are my face. The other half of them are flat lays. A lot of people like to see that I'm doing something with my hands. Those thumbnails paired with a method usually indicate to my audience who are super subscribers. If I see a flat lay Amy's hands and the name of a method then I know we're doing a writing exercise today.
- [47:29]
A
What's a flat lay?
- [47:31]
B
Yeah. Thank you. A flat lay is you take a shot, a photo of your desk, let's say just a flat surface. And so my flat surfaces often look like a notebook and my hands holding a pen. And it's just an overhead shot of my desk. So my subscribers know that when I post an overshot of my hands and a notebook, that when they click into that video, I'm going to be doing a writing exercise that they can do with me. So I'll talk to camera and I will film overhead to show them. You don't have to film overhead to use a flat lay. You can just use a flat lay shot if it, well, indicates what's happening in the video or what you want people to know about it. But that's just another way I show the process in a thumbnail. Mr. Beast is going to do something completely different. He's usually not doing overlays on a desk. He's usually got like 40 Lamborghinis lined up behind him. That's his way of visually showing you what's happening in this video. A quick, oh, this process requires 40 Lamborghinis. That's interesting. I'm going to click on this because I like that title. I like whatever he wrote there. It may or may not even say Lamborghini in it, but I see them. Whatever he's promising me, I want to know more about it because of that visual.
- [48:43]
A
Amy Landino, thank you for sharing your method. The four P's, which we'll probably, well, we could put into our thumbnail. We'll see. We might have the PPPP method. Who knows?
- [48:57]
B
You should try it. That would be awesome.
- [48:59]
A
If folks want to connect with you online, what's your preferred place? And if they maybe want to do business with you, where do you want to send them?
- [49:06]
B
You can learn everything over@amylandino.com I'm very responsive on Instagram. Just hit me. Just look for Amy Landino. It's the verified account. It's my old school moniker, Schmittastic. I've been Schmittastic for as long as Mike's known me, so that's me.
- [49:19]
A
Okay, Amy, thank you again so much for sharing your insights with us.
- [49:22]
B
Thanks for having me.
- [49:24]
A
Hey, if you missed anything, we took all the notes for you over@social mediaexaminer.com691 if you're new to the show, be sure to follow us. If you're new, been a listener for a little while. We would love a review on whatever platform you're listening on. Do check out our other shows, the AI Explored Podcast and the Social Media Marketing Talk Show. This brings us to the end of the Social Media Marketing Podcast. I'm your host Michael Stelzner. I'll be back with you next week. I hope you make the best out of your day and may your marketing keep evolving. The Social Media Marketing Podcast is a production of Social Media Examiner Foreign this episode is brought to you by Social Media Marketing World happening April 28th to 30th, 2026 in Anaheim, California. For the first time ever get two world class conferences under one roof. Social Media Marketing World and AI Business World. Master social marketing strategies. Deep dive into AI. Connect with thousands of fellow marketers all in one incredible experience. Plus you're walking distance to Disneyland. Turn your professional development into a family vacation. Ready to level up your marketing? Grab your tickets now@social mediamarketingworld.in fox.