
Want to know how YouTube Shorts can do more than just rake in views? Curious about turning those quick clips into real leads for your business? If you’ve been hearing all the hype and wondering if you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your brand and grow your email list, you're in for a treat.
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Omar Zenhom
It's smart to always have a few financial goals and a really smart one. You can set earning cash back on what you buy every day. And with Discover, you can get this. Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions. After all, you listen to this show. See terms@discover.com credit card Everyone is talking about YouTube shorts, but how do you exactly use them to get leads, not just likes? The truth is, is that shorts can be more than just entertainment. They can be one of the fastest ways to grow your audience and get them into your funnel for free. Let me show you how. Welcome Back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host Omar Zenholm, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday to help you start, grow and scale your business. Let's start by discussing why YouTube shorts work so well. Right now, YouTube is pushing shorts like crazy and they're getting prioritized in their algorithm especially for new creators. And best of all, you don't need a huge following to get views. This is free exposure with real discovery potential. And unlike TikTok and Reels on Instagram, YouTube is search driven, which means your shorts can keep working for you weeks and months later when people are searching for the keywords that address your video. The way that shorts works is that YouTube puts out your shorts to an audience, even an audience that doesn't follow your channel. And then if people watch it, if people engage with it, they show that video or that short again to more people and more people and that circle of influence starts to grow and grow as long as your content is solid. Some of my most successful videos on YouTube are are YouTube shorts. And this is why I wanted to create today's episode. Because it's a gold rush right now when it comes to YouTube and these short form videos. So where do you get started? So let's start with step one. Create shorts that hook and teach. Don't just talk, teach something valuable under 60 seconds. Answer a burning question, share a quick tip, drop a stat or an Insight that gets people thinking with a takeaway that follows up. But the most important thing when it comes to shorts is the first two seconds. That hook that grabs people's attention. So you want to start with something that really gets them thinking, hey, I should watch this video. Here are some hook examples that really worked for me. Here's how I got my first customer. So that really hooks somebody in to think, oh, how did he get his first customer? I want to keep watching. Another example is most people get this wrong in business. What did they get wrong? See how it hooks them in and gets them wanting to keep watching to find out. Another example is don't do this if you want leads from YouTube. What should I not do? See again, I'm alerting people to something they need to pay attention to. A strong hook gets them to stop scrolling and the lesson gets them to stay. The information you give after the hook is what gets them really feeling like, okay, that was worth my time. I want to watch more from this person. I want to learn more from this person. I want to do business with this person eventually. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's get on to step two. Always include a call to action. Now, if you're trying to get leads with your shorts, you want to get somebody off YouTube and onto your email list. That's the whole point of getting the lead right. But you've got to make it explicit. If you want the lead, every short should point to somewhere. Now, you might not see this in my shorts because I'm not creating shorts to get leads. For the most part, I'm getting people to watch my shorts so they can watch my long form videos, which is like an episode of our podcast. And then from there they can sign up for my newsletter. That's my strategy and you can do that as well. But if you want to get leads directly from shorts, feel free to have a call to action. Something like, want more? Get my free guide link in the description or subscribe for a full tutorial where they give their name and email address in an opt in box and you send them a full video. Or I break this down step by step in my E guide. Go ahead and click the link to download it or get access to it and let them know where they should find that link. Tell them if it's in the description or I pinned a comment, add that link in the description or in the comment. Your CTA doesn't have to be loud, but it has to be clear what it is and where they should go. So that they can get that freebie. Did you know that the pet industry is a booming $150 billion industry? People absolutely love their dogs, don't you? If you're looking for a new investment and love dogs, there's only one name you need to know. That's Dogtopia. Dogtopia is the largest, leading and fastest growing pet franchise in North America. With 300 locations. Dogtopia is the only pet services franchise that offers a reoccurring revenue membership model. Dogtopia offers safe, open play, daycare, boarding and spa services for dogs. Want a strong franchise model that is recession resistant and number one in the industry? Check out Dogtopia because every dog and dog parent deserves it. Go to Dogtopia.com to learn more. That's Dogtopia.com Listen in today's Fast moving business world, your team needs to stay connected with your customers. Without missed messages, without missed calls, without a slow phone system. Because the reality is if you miss a call, you miss a customer. That's why I'm excited to tell you about OpenPhone. It's the number one business phone system that streamlines and scales your customer communications. How do they do it? With OpenPhone, your team can share one number and collaborate on customer calls and texts like a shared inbox. Pretty cool. Any teammate can just pick up right where the last person left off, keeping response times faster and more efficient. Plus, with their AI powered call transcripts and summaries, you'll be able to automate follow ups, ensuring you'll never miss a customer interaction again. You gotta check them out and see why. Over 50,000 businesses trust OpenPhone to manage their business calls and their texts. And get this Openphone is offering my listeners 20% off your first six months@openphone.com MBA that's O P E N P H O-N-E.com MBA and if you have existing numbers with another service, Openphone will port them over at no extra charge. Open Phone no missed calls, no missed customers Step 3 Be consistent and strategic One great short won't do it. You can't just put one out there and then forget about it for a few weeks and then put another one out there, then forget about a few months. No, you need to be consistent to be super clear. I'm talking about 10 to 20 shorts over the next 30 days. That's a lead engine. This allows you enough chances, enough iterations for you to know what works and what's going to actually lead people to that call to action. You want to focus on A consistent content style. So when they see your shorts, they know your brand, they know that's who you are. You want to target one niche audience. You don't want to be talking to everybody. If you can narrow down to a niche, it's going to be a lot easier for them to feel like they're being heard, that you're speaking their language, that this content's for them. And of course, don't confuse people. Deliver one idea per video. You only have 60 seconds. Just go deep in those 60 seconds with one idea. And of course, I highly recommend that you batch your production so you can batch 10 of these shorts in one afternoon and then you can have them edited and in one shot. In fact, you could do all your shorts for the month in one sitting. Now, a lot of you are listening to this, like, okay, I'm sold. I want to use shorts. I want to get some leads through shorts. How do I come up with ideas? Easy. Turn your frequently asked questions from your audience into shorts. Think about questions you always get from your leads from your customers. What do they ask all the time? These questions are a goldmine. For example, questions I get asked all the time are like, how do I price my service? Do I need a website to get started? How do I get my first 10 customers? These are the types of questions I get from my audience or my customers. And these are great pieces of content, great topics for me to cover in 60 seconds in a really tight and snappy way. Some topics are going to be quite big and you can't cover in 60 seconds, but you can create a series of shorts where you talk about that topic over a course of three shorts. That's value driven content that builds trust and pulls the lead in. Naturally, people are going to want to learn more. They're going to want to continue with you, they're going to want to be on your email list if you give them value. But even with all the advice I gave in today's episode, there might be something that's holding you back. And that's probably you. Okay? You are in your own way. A lot of us, we don't want to put ourselves out there. We're afraid to look foolish or to not be polished. Or maybe we're just not used to creating videos and that's okay. You gotta start somewhere. We all start at zero, right? We all have cringeworthy work in our past and if we don't, we started too late. Listen, I've done over 2,600 podcast episodes. I can't listen to My first hundred episodes on the podcast, they're cringeworthy. But I had to get started. I had to get somewhere where I can get the ball rolling, learn from my experience, iterate, improve. And that's the whole name of the game. The more iterations you have, the more reps you have, the better you're going to get at it. But you're not going to get better by just sitting in your head. You got to produce and publish, work, put work out there. And Shorts is a good small commitment. You're not, you know, publishing a big 300 page book. You're not publishing a two hour seminar or webinar. You're publishing a 60 second piece of content that you can really nail. That puts the pressure a little bit down. And what's great about Shorts is that you have enough chances to improve upon the the last short. So get started and don't worry about being perfect right now. They say perfection is the enemy of progress. Listen, you don't need to go viral. You just need to be consistent. You need to be clear and helpful. That sounds pretty easy, right? The goal isn't to get millions of views here. It's attract the right people to build trust fast and to guide them to the world that you've built for them. Your site, your list, your business and YouTube shorts can do exactly that. They can help people get exposure to the value that you can provide them. Speaking of calls to action and value that one can provide, I have a call to action for you. If you want to continue to learn from me and go a little bit deeper, you may want to join my Three Things newsletter over at 1000- MBA-NET. Every week I send you an email with three things to work on. Number one, something to think about. I'm gonna give you something to change your mindset about something. Number two, something to do so that you're progressing week after week and seeing your business grow. And number three, something to learn so that your skills are leveling up so that you become a better entrepreneur. It's my way to coach you from afar. It's absolutely free. Let's grow together. Let me help you so that you don't have a bumpy path. I had to learn the hard way. No need for you to learn the hard way. Just go to 100 MBA net and sign up for any of our guides and you'll get added to our three Things newsletter automatically. Thanks again for being part of the podcast. If you found this episode helpful, share it. Share it with a friend that you're thinking about that might benefit from today's topic. Or you can just send them straight to our show page where has all our episodes100nba.net show and I'll see you in the next one.
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Episode: MBA2623
Title: How to Use YouTube Shorts to Drive Leads to Your Business
Host: Omar Zenhom
Release Date: May 12, 2025
In episode MBA2623 of The $100 MBA Show, host Omar Zenhom delves into the burgeoning world of YouTube Shorts and their potential to generate actionable leads for businesses. Drawing from his extensive experience in entrepreneurship, Omar provides a comprehensive guide on leveraging short-form video content to build an audience, nurture leads, and ultimately drive business growth.
Omar begins by explaining the unique advantages of YouTube Shorts in the current digital landscape. He notes that YouTube is heavily promoting Shorts, making them more visible in the platform's algorithm, especially beneficial for new creators seeking exposure without an existing large following.
“Unlike TikTok and Reels on Instagram, YouTube is search driven, which means your shorts can keep working for you weeks and months later when people are searching for the keywords that address your video.”
—Omar Zenhom [02:15]
This search-driven nature ensures that Shorts have a longer shelf life and can continue to attract viewers over time, unlike other platforms where content visibility might be more ephemeral.
The first step Omar emphasizes is the importance of crafting Shorts that not only grab attention but also deliver value within a short time frame. He underscores the necessity of a compelling hook within the first two seconds to stop viewers from scrolling past.
“The most important thing when it comes to shorts is the first two seconds. That hook that grabs people's attention.”
—Omar Zenhom [04:10]
Omar provides practical examples of effective hooks:
These hooks are designed to pique curiosity and encourage viewers to watch the entire video for valuable insights.
Omar stresses that every Short should have a clear call to action (CTA) to guide viewers towards the next step in the funnel, whether it’s joining an email list, downloading a guide, or watching longer-form content.
“Your CTA doesn't have to be loud, but it has to be clear what it is and where they should go.”
—Omar Zenhom [06:45]
He suggests CTAs such as:
By directing viewers explicitly, businesses can effectively convert casual viewers into engaged leads.
Consistency is key to building momentum with YouTube Shorts. Omar recommends producing 10 to 20 Shorts over a 30-day period to create a steady lead generation engine. This approach allows creators to experiment, iterate, and identify what content resonates most with their audience.
“One great short won't do it. You need to be consistent to be super clear.”
—Omar Zenhom [08:20]
He also advises maintaining a consistent content style and targeting a specific niche audience to foster a strong brand identity and ensure that content is tailored to the interests of a defined group.
Omar highlights the value of repurposing frequently asked questions from audiences into Shorts. These questions serve as a rich source of relevant and engaging content topics.
“Turn your frequently asked questions from your audience into shorts. Think about questions you always get from your leads from your customers.”
—Omar Zenhom [09:30]
Examples include:
For more complex topics, Omar suggests creating a series of Shorts to cover different aspects, thereby providing comprehensive value over multiple videos.
Addressing common fears and hesitations, Omar encourages listeners to overcome the fear of imperfection and the reluctance to put themselves out there. He emphasizes that improvement comes through consistent practice and iteration.
“You gotta start somewhere. We all start at zero, right? We all have cringeworthy work in our past.”
—Omar Zenhom [10:50]
Omar shares his personal experience of producing over 2,600 podcast episodes, acknowledging the initial imperfections but highlighting the value of continuous improvement and learning from each iteration.
Wrapping up the episode, Omar reiterates the power of YouTube Shorts as a tool for attracting the right audience, building trust, and guiding leads into a business’s ecosystem. He invites listeners to deepen their learning through his "Three Things" newsletter, offering actionable insights delivered weekly.
“Let me help you so that you don't have a bumpy path. Just go to 100mba.net and sign up for any of our guides and you'll get added to our Three Things newsletter automatically.”
—Omar Zenhom [11:50]
Omar encourages listeners to take immediate action by implementing the strategies discussed, emphasizing that consistency and clarity are essential for success with YouTube Shorts.
By following Omar Zenhom’s structured approach, businesses and entrepreneurs can effectively utilize YouTube Shorts to attract and convert leads, fostering sustainable growth with minimal resources.