Loading summary
Transcript19 lines
- [00:00]
A
Hey, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give you a heads up that my free YouTube strategy class is available right now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com on the class, I reveal the one YouTube strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your growth. This class is 100% free, and you can watch it now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com now, let's jump into today's show.
- [00:38]
B
Sean, we want to know the truth about making money on YouTube as a creator. Maybe some realistic expectations of what that could look like. Not just the pipe dream of going full time and you've made it in a couple months, but reality for normal, regular content creators. The truth about making money on YouTube.
- [01:01]
A
Yeah, this is a great question, and I actually looked up some stats I do. We know there's a lot of big promises and get rich quick schemes, and there's the 1% unicorns that just break out. But if we talk about realistic expectations, here's what the Data says. There's 113 million active YouTube channels worldwide, but only 60 million of them are creators that are posting consistently, and only a small portion of those are actually monetized. So it's estimated that there's around 2 million channels that are monetized. So that'll show you the percentages from the YouTube Partner Program. Now, we can talk later. We have a lot of students that make money before they get monetized, and so that is a possibility. But if your plan is to get paid for views, then there's 2 million channels, which is also a lot. But percentagely, you know, compared to basically the 60 million that are active now in terms of earnings, the vast majority of creators are not making significant money. According to multiple sources, roughly 96% of YouTube creators make less than $12,000 annually. Now, $12,000 is pretty cool, though, and that speaks to this possibility of definitely not get rich quick. But what if it's 12,000 extra dollars a year from your side hustle from a side passion, and then, in fact, many creators earn under $100 a year, especially if they're not full time or they don't have a large audience. So I think the reality at a high level is that don't start a YouTube channel thinking you're going to get rich quick. Don't start a YouTube channel thinking it's going to blow up overnight. I think going into it with a mindset that this is something that could earn me money in the future. This is something that especially if I invest time and learning skills, time and learning strategy. The truth is competition is highest for low effort content. And it's kind of like gym memberships. If we looked at how many active gym memberships there are, millions. But then how many people actually go to the gym and then how many people go like once a month versus how many people are in there consistently and then if they're even in there consistently. I mean I actually see this. I go to the YMCA in my local town. I'm always shocked because I got kids and I put them in kid zone and I'm like waiting for that diaper to fill because they will not change it. So I'm like, I better get my workout in. So I like superset everything. I'm like zooming through, trying to get my. And I'm looking at other people who are scrolling their phone doing like a late. So it's one thing if you even go to the gym, it's a whole nother thing if you actually put in the effort in the work. It's like not the amount of hours you work, it's the amount of work you put in the hours. And I just use that as an analogy, at least for hope that I think that on the one hand the numbers, the numbers are the truth. I mean if 96% of YouTube creators are making less than 12,000, that's the numbers. But if you want to be in the 4%, I think there's a lot of intentional strategic things you can do by working harder, working smarter, having smart strategies, et cetera. But those are the realistic expectations. And then I also think that now having interviewed hundreds of creators and entrepreneurs using video, there's so many stories of people that commit to this. And I think this is the mindset for them. The breakthrough was at two and a half years when they started making significant part time income or they went full time. For others it was at four and a half years. For others it was year seven or eight. So I also think realistic expectations is having a mindset that like this is kind of like a side thing I want to do that I'm passionate about, that I could see would be fun. It'll also be work. It'll take discipline, grit. But I want to just do this. I want to commit to the long haul and have a sustainable pace in doing this stick. Maybe in my day job, figure out the rhythms of my life and build up my YouTube channel. And why I know now, if I knew then what I knew now, I could have gone a lot faster. From really 2010 until 2015, I worked at a church with a salary, full time job building up my YouTube channel on the side. And it was at the end of 2015 that I went full time and I went all in. I was five years. To me, that's realistic expectations and not that even the five years is a guarantee. There's a lot of other things we could talk about that to position you for success, but that's not get rich quick. Not a lot of people, there's so many thumbnails and titles that are talking about, you know, these wild stories. There's not a lot of, you know, titles that are like how to go full time on YouTube after five years of grinding after work when you didn't really feel like it. But I think that's at least the mindset that I've found consistently leads to success, where people start earning significant money.
- [05:53]
B
Okay, I've got another stat here from polling the think media community. And out of the poll, less than 11% are making anywhere between 100 and $1,000. And this poll didn't necessarily tell us how long They've been on YouTube, but in your experience, it sounds like that might be a little more of a normal expectation, especially the first few years. However, for the 68% that are still not making money on YouTube, is there maybe a common theme that you've seen with creators? Maybe it's not having that strategy or maybe just, yeah, commonality between that large chunk of people that have been at it for a few years and still haven't seen any income.
- [06:40]
A
Yeah, the commonality that I see of the creators that are maybe posting consistently but are not monetized yet. They're not making money and they're stuck and they're not growing. I see this a lot. A lot of times I see no channel avatar. It's a funny niche thing to say, but I just mean like their actual logo for their channel is not clear. It's not, there's nothing even uploaded there. And if I click through to their channel, maybe there's no cover art. Their channel name doesn't make sense to me. And they've uploaded three videos, five videos, 55 videos, but it's just unfocused. So it's like them recording the screen of the super bowl touch, like their phone recording a TV screen and they upload like some random clip. Then there's something else where they, they're ranting, talking on a webcam about something. It's just all over the place. And even trying to describe this, it's unfocused. There's not a clear brand, there's not a clear strategy to the channel. There's not a clear niche. It's unfocused. And so I even saw this just the other day when someone, I was asking for Q and A on our community tab and someone was like, I've been getting views. Because here's what's interesting about that. I'm guessing this person was probably like in their 20s and they had some kind of gaming stuff, some different shorter videos. They were maybe trying to do pranks and challenges. And some of the stuff that Certainly there's bigger YouTubers that have grown doing this stuff, but just again, super random, very unfocused, very all over the place. And they said, you know, I'm almost to 4,000 watch hours and I'm actually not quite to a thousand subscribers yet. And they'd uploaded a lot of videos. But what can we unpack from why it wasn't working? I wasn't seeing a niche there. I wasn't seeing a strategy there. Very unfocused, very random content. But the nature of doing the random content is you post a YouTube short and it gets 555,000 views. And that might even give you a bad feedback loop. Because if you're a small town kid like me or you grew up and it's like weird to be on the Internet and get any views at all, like I grew up, I was, went to Arlington High School my freshman year in the Pacific Northwest. I think the population of Arlington today is 22,000 people. So if you're in a small town like me, I grew up on six acres and you have a video on the Internet, get 550,000 views, it goes to your head in kind of a weird way. Not that you get like arrogant or anything, but you're like, that's so crazy. I must be on the verge of like blowing up. You know what's kind of weird in 2025 though, is like viral. And going into 2025 is, is like viral is actually more common than ever. There's, it's, it's becoming increasingly common to find somebody that. And it might be TikTok Instagram YouTube shorts. That's like, oh yeah, I've posted a video that got a million views. I was just on a business call. This guy was wondering like, man, I'm trying to use YouTube for my business. And I've had a couple vertical videos go viral, 500 shares, millions of views, and he goes, and it actually did like nothing for my business. And I think that's. That kind of reveals something like, we're really not chasing views. I think the common denominator of those who are in the 4% that start making money on YouTube is they have a whole nother level of strategy. And I think they go into it. Honestly, I think you should go into it if you want to make money with a plan to make money. Those that usually they don't, they don't have a plan. And this is what they're. I think this is the plan they have and this is why it doesn't work. My plan is to hustle and post videos, hope to get into the YouTube Partner Program, because when I do, that'll be my ticket to YouTube riches. That's a failing strategy. The numbers already say it. Because even if you get monetized, you're going to also be stuck in those that are making under $100 per year. That's the kind of thing where the YouTube Partner Program is paying you $10 a month, 650amonth, $7 a month. Whereas on the alternative side, again, if you approach it differently, without a big channel, you can actually make significant money. But I think it's a business mindset, a more strategic mindset, and the whole thing needs to be architected in a particular way.
- [11:17]
B
Yeah, hearing you talk about that, I am still, I'm seeing comments from creators that are saying, I don't want to niche down any further though. I don't want to further venture down my channel. Avatar, what would you say to creators that are looking to make money on YouTube but don't want to reevaluate their channel? Avatar?
- [11:35]
A
Well, I would say this. It'd be like, I want to get 6 pack abs, but I don't want to give up ice cream and cake every day for all three meals. Okay, cool. I mean, we all want stuff, but like, are you willing to do what it takes to get the result that you want? And it's YouTube. That means it's your tube. It means you can do whatever you want, but those who achieve the most significant financial results, they reverse engineer that, they architect that. So I mean, and let me give an example. Like there's actually a. Not a lot of people know about this, but when it comes to making money online, there's actually three big categories that are proven for making significant money. Health, wealth, and relationships. And so when you step into those categories. Health, how to lose weight, how to gain muscle, health, could include anti aging, skin care, things like that. Relationships, dating advice, marriage advice, all kinds of videos. People probably seen these about, I'm dating a narcissist. This personality disorder, the attachments, these are proven wealth, money, how to make money, how to save money, how to invest money. Now success leaves clues. And why are also health, wealth and relationships the most profitable macro niches? Because the world is populated by humans and all humans are concerned about their health, need money to live. And we live by relationships. Dealing with divorce, dealing with the breakup, getting married, finding the right one. And then what we're talking about. Then here is a actually business term called tam, the total addressable market. Here's my point. There's plenty of YouTube channels that make money that are maybe outside of those categories. But if you were thinking about, okay, if I was going to start a YouTube channel, the business mindset would actually start with the business model first or make sure that there's viability for that aspect of the YouTube channel. Whereas the creator mindset is like, I just kind of want to do whatever I want and I'll be an artist. And that's why people would stay stuck. I mean, that's the exact reason. So if it gets super random, you know, at the end of the day, well, wait a minute. But I want to do like a crochet of, you know, medieval. Okay, like, you could get very niche on YouTube. But I think even besides niche, like, what category are you in? And then is there a level of what else can. What can you sell or what is sold in that arena? Because there's a huge, you know, market for these things. Now let's talk about somebody who maybe some people love and some people dislike, but is in what you would call the personal development and like, maybe info marketing space is probably one of the biggest icons of all time. His name is Tony Robbins. So not only is Tony Robbins big for personal development, many people's lives have been changed by him. Some people think he's a grifter and they dislike him. Bottom line, is he in the arena of also, if you will, first making money back when it was like tapes and CDs, but then making money online has built 500 companies and it's also feed all kinds of children has made a massive impact in the world. He's done a lot. But it's actually fascinating to me because I was looking at the books he was coming out with lately, and he came out with this book called Money Master the game. And I was like, oh, that's so interesting. He's not even really known for money. What he did was he interviewed other people, but I was like, wait a minute, that's one of the big three categories. And then he came out with a book called Lifeforce, which he also interviewed a bunch of doctors. And it was in that health category. And then he's done events for marriage and relationships. And I was like, wait a minute. Like, success leaves clues. And so if you're going to pick different categories or verticals to be in, like, what are you starting with? And if he wants to impact as many people in the world and if we were to say his motivations may be to build as much wealth as possible, well, you want to pick a vehicle big enough to reach those ambitions. So if you study some of the most successful YouTube channels, brands, you could look at something. You could look at somebody like Dave Ramsey. What does he talk about?
- [16:23]
B
Finance.
- [16:24]
A
Finance, money. So he's in that money category. Then you could look at YouTube in general. And how many personal finance channels are there? Which, by the way, niche down, wealth management for business, personal finance from Ramsey perspective, Minority mindset, these. Gen Z finance, millennial finance. Like, people choose proven verticals. Now, by the way, you also. What's also proven on YouTube? Politics. What are we tapping into? So we're now stepping outside in that case of health, wealth, money, relationships. We're talking about total addressable market. Like, get into a market, get into a niche, get into a topic that has a proven path to give you increased chances of monetizing. And I think that's a mistake that people make. Look at the others that have gone before you. What is like the pillar that they've planted their flag in. And one little side tip is no matter what your niche is, you should do benefit extension with the big three meaning. And that if your niche is, you're like, well, wait a minute, but I'm talking about gardening. Okay, well, can you help people save money? A YouTube title for one of your types of videos. In terms of how they could grow their garden on a budget, you tapped into money. Could you help people be more healthy and reduce anxiety because of being in their garden? Gardening is going to have benefits to your health. That's a benefit extension. Could you even talk about how having a hobby or whatnot? Maybe it's not a title of a YouTube video, but. But being engaged in gardening will enrich other areas of your life. What are we talking? We're talking about reaching humans. And then one Other thing would consider would be, is there a category on Amazon for it? This is something we talk about in our niche finder program. Go to Amazon, go to books and look at the book categories. These are a bunch of proven niches that go much broader than health, wealth and relationships. Science fiction. There's plenty of science fiction, YouTube channels, angles you could take. Then you go business and marketing, business, marketing, sales, customer service, all these niches within it, but the bigger category and when you go to the Amazon categories, relationships, it could be psychology, different types of relationships. And all fiction is good too. Go down fiction, booktubers, different things you could do. But you go to Amazon, look at the categories, click on these niches, then there's sub niches. Click on those are sub niches. This would be reverse engineering a strategy back from not just having an unfocused, random approach to your YouTube channel, but not just thinking about, man, what is the focus of my channel? Where am I planted? But am I planted in a niche that could generate money? This is why it's like 4% are really actually making significant money. This makes me actually think about Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investors and who's famous for picking companies and investing in them that are going to go up in the stock market. It kind of be like if somebody was picking YouTube channels and thinking which one's going to probably go up in value and make the most money. And here's the quote. It doesn't matter how hard you row, it matters what boat you get in. So we talked earlier about the YouTuber who's uploading hundreds of videos and shorts and trying to break out in challenges and trying random stuff. They're rowing super, super hard, but there might be somebody else who doesn't work even nearly as hard, but makes 10 to 100 times more money, they chose a better boat. So I think if you choose the right niche and topic, and again, you don't have to go into health, wealth and relationships, but you might want to, if you want to reverse engineer individuals like Tony Robbins and others that say, hey, I'm going to pick a vertical, a topic, a category that also is maybe not just about my YouTube channel, but it's also about the expansive business that might I build around it someday. Could I write a book? If you want to write a book that sells a lot of copies, what topic could it be in? Health, wealth and relationships? If you want to create an online course, Health, wealth and relationships. And again, there's others, but the super niches have Been determined, think this stuff through and start with the end in mind so you have a better informed.
- [20:42]
B
Decision when starting without being too cautious of thinking those things through. I love how challenging that is in a good way to somebody, for. For someone to reevaluate their channel and think through their strategy. If they really are looking to make money on YouTube, what are they doing to get there? Um, but I'm really curious what risks are involved to actually making money on YouTube? You've built a business. You've been on YouTube for over 17 years. And so with that being said, I'm sure there's quite a few risks you've taken to get where you are today. And I'm sure that just comes with wanting to make money on YouTube. So what kind of risks are involved with the search and with trying to make money on YouTube?
- [21:26]
A
It's such a great question. I think that when it comes to risk, I actually think that starting a YouTube channel is probably one of the lowest risk opportunities that exists in the world today. Because we are living in a world where the overhead to get started is the fact that YouTube is free. You probably already have an Internet connection and a smartphone is all you need. So that's pretty low risk. What do you need to put in with those resources? Blood, sweat and tears. But it's time. It's energy. It's you researching. Like, this is the kind of thing my grandfather, Lowell Reed, after he came out of the Army Air Corps, before what's now called the air Force, started a dental practice. And so I always just think about the kind of like grit he had to have to like take out a loan and lease a building and pay a staff and build a book of, book of business and pay for electricity and pay for the water lake and fix all that. And now we're living in a world where with your smartphone and an Internet connection, you can make money from the YouTube Partner Program and affiliate marketing. That's crazy. Hey, we're about to get back into the podcast in just a second, but I have a question for you. Do you want to grow your personal brand this year? Do you need more leads and sales in your business? If the answer is yes, then right now is the best time to go all in on YouTube. Today's podcast is brought to you by thinkmasterclass.com where you can get on demand access to a one hour deep dive training revealing how to start and grow a profitable YouTube channel. This year, for a limited time, you can get access to this on demand class entirely for free, where you will learn the three biggest mistakes that people make when starting a YouTube channel. The new rules and changes that have been happening on YouTube and how you can use them to create an unfair advantage, and the exact strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 350,000 organic views every single day. The data is clear. 70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. So don't wait any longer to start growing your brand and business with YouTube. Just go to thinkmasterclass.com to get access to this. No fluff, highly tactical, free on demand training. That's think masterclass.com now, is competition more fierce and is maybe the overall quality of content going up? Competition is highest for low effort content. So if you're putting in more effort, maybe you're accessorizing your phone, maybe you're buying a nicer camera, maybe you're upping your content quality, maybe. But even still, you don't have to buy dental chairs and lights and machines and drills and like a couple hundred thousand dollars of gear and paint. I mean, there is a great article from and study from the Tilt which talked about professional creators and those that are maybe not full time, they're maybe just starting, but they go in with a professional mindset, a much more strategic mindset. And it does say they invest about $10,000 into their creator business. Cameras, lights, home, office, maybe stuff you're building out software. So, okay, $10,000. Let's talk about your risk tolerance. That's not a small amount of money, but that's not life threatening. Unfortunately, a lot of people listening to this have $10,000 in consumer debt that they did not invest into assets that can make them more money. You invest $10,000 into education, cameras, tools. The downside is it's going to be just that stuff will not pay off. The same way the clothes in your closet that you haven't been wearing didn't pay off either. Or those shoes that you actually don't need. It's kind of a different way of thinking about it. So I would call it calculated risk. And the calculated risk is what? I'm going to invest some time in this. And after I invest that time, it might not pay off. Welcome to life. But no risk, no reward. Okay, I'm going to invest some money into this. $10,000, it might not pay off. Welcome to life. You know, people want to buy a $40,000 car or $30,000 car, buy a $20,000 car or downsize, and there's your $10,000. There's like any way, there's a lot of different ways you could get to the finances. Okay, so then, you know, risk, I guess, losing a year or two or three. There's a stat that says the average successful entrepreneur or business owner has had 2.6 failed businesses until they got to their successful one. Well, what does that mean? It means that they tried two to three things and it was the second attempt or the third attempt that was successful. So you could see trying to build a creator business for a couple years as a risk, and I lost a couple years. That's not how I view it. I view it as sometimes we win, sometimes we learn that two to three years is actually education of how you're going to pivot, of what you're maybe going to do next, of what didn't work. Like, even when it comes to, for example, making money on YouTube. My first channel called Clear Vision Media, it was a portfolio for my video production business. Didn't add value to the viewer. It just was a place for me to show clients what I could do. Led to other clients, but did not grow as a YouTube channel. Started a channel called Think International with my friend Jeff Moores. Learned a lot, never really made a few dollars, never really made that much money. Then started Think Media. Didn't post there for a while. Then started my Sean Cannell channel. I think it was a success. Also did a lot of things wrong. So there's three channels and then today Think Media and then eventually Think Media Podcast, Video Influencer. Some other ones were successful. My story was I basically had like three learning channels where I learned and made mistakes and failed Forward before I had two now. And Think Media and Think Media Podcast are the main ones that are doing very well and continue to grow. That's. I think some of the realistic mindset is like, okay, learning this stuff, finding your footing, finding the intersection between what could be profitable. I'm not suggesting letting go of your passion and only chasing money, but like the intersection of self awareness, your own skills, life experience, season of life, what you're passionate about. Learning online marketing and business and then bringing that all together. This is the journey of a lot of entrepreneurs. It's not that linear path. It is a windy, stressful, crazy road where sometimes you feel like you take 10 steps forward and maybe even 20 steps back. However, it's all learning, it's all education. And so risk wise, I think you take calculated risk and I think it's pretty simple. Just have a framework of, I mean, man, if you're single, there's some people Working for Think Media, Single, you know, not married, no kids, living at home. And they're in. They should be taking a lot more risks in their 20s. Cool. But if you're in your 40s, there's a whole wave right now of 40 plus, 50 plus, 60 plus creators. Well, the risk might be more calculated. On the one hand, you're that age, $10,000. You're like, I mean I've invested, I've got some stuff going, I've got a good career. That's not that big of a deal. Like I'm just. Let me count that. Even maybe more. You're like, I could invest in learning and different things. What is the downside? I don't want to look back at the end of my life. I want to say at least I tried and if I don't step out and try, I'll never really know. So. But then maybe there's a time thing, a season of kids. Well, it's going to be a little slower. You're going to do it on the side a lot more. Somebody else can go all in. And again you think about, you know, what could you recover from? I would never encourage anybody. Like my wife and I, we never, we never really bet the farm. We lived on the edge. But like even I remember I used to think about it this way. I was like, I can always go back to Red Robin and wait tables. Which was what I worked at Red robin for almost 10 years. A burger joint, fries. I was a busser host server. And I always thought that I was like, man, I could always just go back if I step out for a while. And after in 2015, when my freelance clients fired me and I stopped doing video production for other clients and I started to go all in on YouTube, just my wife and I, I was like, I mean if this doesn't work, I could just go get a job. Pretty low risk. And what I mean, I'm not encouraging anyone to get debt, but I like to think about it in the frame of, think about previous generations. They need to like get money from a bank to buy a farm, to wait a couple seasons until like the it's fully fertilized and respect. People are starting businesses like that all the time. Local business, brick and mortar leasing equipment, buying all like the creator economy is going to be like a half a trillion dollar industry. Goldman Sachs research says By I think 2027, like the next three years, it's going to be this massive wave of growth. There's a lot of money in the system and if we Want to be in that top 4%. I think you go into it with the mindset of taking calculated risks, being smart, being wise. But of course, when and if you're single, you could bounce back from anything, sleep on your friend's couch. If you're married, you got kids, you just. I would. You should never make a move that puts them being vulnerable. But you put a little savings aside, talk to your spouse, do whatever. Try it for a season. Let's try this for six months. Let's try this for a year and a half, maybe talk. Hey, let's give it another six months because we feel the momentum but like it's maybe not quite there, you know, just you're having those conversations and at some point, yeah, maybe you want to pivot before your next question. Let me just ask Chat GPT one thing because I want people to hear the definition of an entrepreneur. Hey, what is the definition of an entrepreneur? An entrepreneur is someone who starts and runs a business taking on financial risks in the hope of making a profit. They typically innovate, create new products or services and are responsible for managing the business's growth and operations. Entrepreneurs are often driven by a vision, problem solving mindset and a willingness to take risks to bring their ideas to life. I love that she said it twice. They take on financial risks and a willingness to take risks, risk. And so maybe that's the mindset. I think here is the risk can be calculated but no risk, no reward. And I think that maybe some stay stuck financially because they don't lean in enough. You got to step out in faith and actually post and be consistent and invest and try. Because those who do are the ones that are getting the spoils because they're really going for it. And a lot of people I think stay back in fear and they don't fully commit, maybe for fear or failure, don't blame them. But there's something about it could be calculated, but you're going to have to take a risk.
- [32:15]
B
Stepping forward in faith and with calculation, with just where we are at right now with, you know, higher grocery prices, inflation, higher gas prices. What would you say to a creator who wants to quit their full time job and pursue their YouTube channel wholeheartedly?
- [32:33]
A
I would say don't quit your full time job. It would be my probably biggest advice. You get to make your own choices. But I think the smart thing to do is to work on your dream job. Why? You have a day job again, we're living in an era that if you work even nine to five while there's daylight, you can still come home, spend a few hours with your family, put the kids to bed, and put in one or two or three more hours or more on your side hustle, depending on your hunger and your ambition. And that's not super risky. What are you also sacrificing in that case? If you have a spouse, a partner, they're bought in, you're sacrificing Netflix, you're sacrificing video games, you're sacrificing. Instead of just, you know, chilling and hanging out, which you absolutely have freedom to do, you're just taking those extra hours to invest in something else. And so I think that's the move, like be working on your side hustle while you have a main hustle. I think there's a couple other moves you could do as well. I think you could pursue a job change and seek getting a job in the creator economy somehow. There's a great book by Ken Coleman called the proximity Principle, and it basically is get clear on the vision of where you want to go and then figure out how you can get in proximity to people that are already doing it, to environments, places, people that are already doing what you want to do. So to be clear, try to work for a YouTuber, try to work for another creator, try to work for a media company, try to work for an online journalist, try to work for. And this isn't slowing down, this is speeding up again. There are all kinds of different YouTube channels, media businesses, different types of become try to get a media job. Like I think about in Snohomish, a friend of mine, the Roof Panoramic, built a roofing company and he had just done that for years, put a ton of work into it, and has built a team, delegated, and has been also now building other operators and people in place. So now that he can shift into content and media and building up a YouTube channel, building up his other media, and then also teaching specifically a niche of other roof company operators all across the United States how to build a company like he did. Well, one of the things that he is looking for and has been building and hiring is he's looking for videographers and social media managers and YouTube channel managers. And he doesn't even know exactly what he wants. He's looking for people to help him. And we're now living in a 2025 world. We're living in this world of like, everyone's trying to build a media company. This is a smart move. Everyone's realizing, like media and social media and YouTube videos and your online presence is like the modern business card. It's just the modern currency of getting discovered. So what am I saying? One of the ways to accelerate towards your YouTube goals is use the proximity principle to get paid to learn. Like the people who work at Think Media, some their vision might be like, I want to work at a cool culture and I like what I do there. But some maybe want to be content creators on their own full time someday. Probably the best place in the work world possible to. If that was the path you want to be in, would it be to work at a place like Think Media or something similar? It's also why a lot of people that interesting that come into media world have learned at church especially that listen to this because we sort of, you know, that's my journey. So we've connected with a lot of people like that. But why? Because in church you are a media company. As even a small church that's growing up, it's like, oh, we got to get cameras or we're trying to livestream. Oh, let's post on social. So you're in this place where you're just learning the steep learning curve of all these different skills. What's a good hook and how do you title stuff and what about the back end and how do you set it up and how do you connect the live streaming and how do I get my camera to work? Respect to the hustle of learning all that stuff. But how can you position your life to be aligned with your vision for your future? And if your vision is to go full time on YouTube, you also could be, I think, a lot more patient in that. I mean, I'd love for that to happen in the next 10 days. Like I think Marco, one of our students, got a thousand subscribers in 10 days, monetized in 15. That is not the norm, but that is possible on one side of the spectrum. In fact, I think we should ask ChatGPT an illustration every content creator should know. ChatGPT how long does it take for the average small business to become profitable? On average, it takes a small business about two to three years to become profitable. However, this can vary depending on factors like the industry, business model, initial investment, and the effectiveness of the company's strategies. Some businesses may see profits sooner, while others may take longer to cover their initial expenses and generate consistent income. That's the perfect answer. It takes, on average, a small business two to three years to see profit. However, depending on industry, like if you get in the right boat, depending on your strategy, depending on your initial Investment, there's different factors that could position you to potentially earn money sooner. But saying that if you set your mindset to like it's going to be three years before I'm profitable, how cool if during that whole time where you work and what you do and as many hours in the day can be just compounded around the skill sets that you want to learn. That would be the application of the proximity principle.
- [38:09]
B
Okay, it sounds like that could be the risk too, stepping out of that full time job, maybe into another one. Um, but that's a risk in itself, right? And trying something new and putting yourself out there, maybe you don't have all of the expertise needed, but at least applying for that job and seeing where it might take you, that's a risk all in itself. A statistic that keeps coming back to my mind is the amount of failed businesses until someone is actually successful with their business. And I think you said 2.66. And I'm curious how that maybe translates to YouTube as well. So does in my head. I'm just thinking how that translates to YouTube as well. So maybe that means pivoting your channel. So maybe your first. So Maybe your first YouTube channel kind of is a flop. It's stagnant, it's not going anywhere. And that might be your first failed business. What is a good. How do you know when a good time to pivot your YouTube channel is to something either completely different or maybe, you know, slightly when is a good time to pivot a channel if needed?
- [39:12]
A
Yeah, I love that you apply this idea of the average successful entrepreneur has 2.6 failed businesses, meaning 2 or 3 that failed before a successful one. I think it applies to YouTube in a couple ways. One, it could be that the first strategy on your channel didn't work. So then you pivot your channel strategy. A different format, a different approach. You also could go much more micro. Your first 20 to 30 videos failed and were experiments which gave you clarity for the better videos that you want to do later. And. But it also very well could be the entire channel. Like you're like, man, in light of this, I really gave this channel a fair shot and I need to start over from scratch on the channel. When is the right time to pivot is a tough question. There's actually I can link it in the show notes an episode I did about Seth Godin's the Diplomatic. There's a really good book called the Dip by Seth Godin, when to Quit and when to Stick. And the big idea of the book is this. Anything Worthwhile in life is hard. Everything worthwhile in life is uphill. So, for example, if you are actually going to run a marathon, it's 26 miles. And if you start, you're super pumped. You're also. There's, you know, at the Las Vegas Rock and Roll Marathon, which I've done before, I did the half at the start. There's music and there's lights and everyone's hyped up, and you're all packed in and the adrenaline's happening and music's pumping and you're getting ready, and it's. You're a little bit nervous. You got butterflies and the gun goes off. Let's go. I feel great. I got so much energy. I'm not tired. I'm excited to be doing this. I can just imagine what it's going to be like when I have that medal to share on social media at the end. Wow, I'm pumped. That's also like starting anything new. Sometimes as creatives, we like to chase that novelty, and everybody likes to start something. I want to start a channel. I want to write a book. You feel pumped, and that wears off, like, relatively fast. Maybe the first minute, maybe the first mile, depending on how. What shape you're in, maybe for a couple miles. But the thing is, is it wears off. And if you're running a marathon, you get to. I remember I was just doing a half. So what is that, 13 miles? And I. We. I remember when I got around 9 and 10, everything really shifted for. I was like, whoa, I'm in a whole different physiological level. I was like, I hit a wall. And I was like, man, I kind of feel sick. I actually ended up. I kind of pulled something that I had to sit on the side for a while, and then it really slowed me down. My, like, what was happening? Literally, my physiology. Oxygen, blood. I pull a muscle. So then here's a question. Thank God. I did finish my half marathon, got my medal for the Las Vegas rock and roll. And according to Seth Godin in this book, like, when should you quit running a marathon? You shouldn't. And when should you be surprised that, like, this really sucks? I want to throw up. I am really tired. Why did I even start this in the first place? It's the worst thing I've ever done. Well, okay, that's normal, because that's just what comes with the nature of what you're doing. This is an interesting tension because if you are starting a YouTube channel and you do it for a while, don't be surprised if you're like, this really sucks, I want to throw up. This is the worst. Why did I even do this? And you have all kinds of those emotions now. His point though is when to quit and when to pivot. Those who quit, when to quit, when to stick, is that you need to have a resilience that I'm not going to quit because things are hard, but I am going to quit. I'm going to do strategic quitting. And what strategic quitting is when the data tells you that you just need to change your approach. So the mindset is this, I'm going to finish the marathon no matter what, but I might change my approach. So I want to, let's call it make money or make money on social media. I'm bullish on YouTube. But there's certainly people who maybe, maybe they started with Instagram, then they come to YouTube, they find it's better. But like if we all things being equal, it's like, I want to work from home and make money. That is like a very real reality. You go, okay, can I do it as a gamer and live streaming and am I going to live stream on Twitch? And it's like, can I do it as a gamer and live stream on Kick? Can I do it as a YouTuber? Am I going to do it on Instagram? Do I need to start an Etsy store? And start. So if you're also a little bit open minded, it's kind of like depends on what marathon you want to finish. And if finishing the marathon is like, wow, I finally replaced my job income, I went from part time for a few years inside income and now I'm full. Well, you kind of have this like, I'm going to figure it out. And to me that would be the two or three failed things. When you go on YouTube you might go, I just wanna play video games and livestream on YouTube. You try it for a couple years, it doesn't work on the side you're deeply passionate about, let's say politics or geopolitical politics. You never really thought about it before, but you're like, what I actually might do instead is I might livestream about politics and commentary and some stuff like that. So you pivot because you gave the gaming live streaming a fair shot. You reinvented yourself a couple times, you tried different formats, you got advice, you got some review and you strategically quit the gaming channel. But you didn't quit. Step over into geopolitics, boom, it pops off. I'm actually thinking about a creator I know, he made a pivot like this on his channel. And it wasn't just because that was the next trending thing. It's also because of who he was. But he went to a different aspect of his personality and of what he was into. So that's kind of what I think about is when I think about 2.6 failed YouTube channels. What's so funny is it actually should have been clear to me since I've been doing video for so long, that think media was like kind of an obvious main channel. But back in 2010, when I started my personal channel, there was kind of this thing of everyone wanted to be a famous vlogger and vloggers, not even the Casey Neistat era. This was back. It was my friends Benji and Judy and Benji's co author of YouTube Secrets because they were vlogging too. And actually that's half their fault. Very generously, they mailed me a Canon elf camera. At the time, it was about a $180 camera. And it showed up to my house in Vegas. My wife brings the package in from the front porch. I open it, I'm like, Benji and Judy bought us a camera and we started vlogging that day I was like, let's start vlogging. And I did 30 days of daily vlogging. I think maybe I got to day 50. I was full time working at a church. I almost killed myself. I started just shooting vlogs every day on top. And that was like, that was how spontaneous, creative I was like, we're vlogging now. Started like vlogging daily. Didn't stop for 50 days. Would shoot every single day, edit at night and upload the next day. Crazy 50 days. By the way though, another one of those things of take massive action, do something crazy, stretch yourself for a while, you can take a nap after. That transformed me. It also failed. Like it did it. Maybe it would have if I would have stuck with it. But it also wasn't even really. I was practicing. I was trying stuff that was a 50 day run that's actually still on my Sean Cannell channel that people could see. What's the point? I started to do cooking videos. I started doing other random stuff. I was like searching for my thing. So besides entire channels, you could just talk about maybe quote unquote failed formats, failed niches or topics or ways you try things. And that all led me to clarity. That like, I know a lot about cameras and I get messages from people like, yo, what camera should I buy? So that's where like best camera for YouTube and then everything around that came. And think media's clear vision of the best tips and tools for creators, like, took a long time to actually figure that out. As simple as it is, sometimes clarity is painful. But that's what I would encourage, is like taking massive, imperfect action and being committed to. If I feel like throwing up and my legs hurt and I've got a pulled muscle, it's because you're running a marathon and it is painful at mile 10 and mile 15 and mile 23, that's normal. But if you need to pivot your approach or change your strategy, you're not quitting overall, but you're making strategic quits along the way by finding maybe a better niche, a better approach, a better format. I think that's a big key.
- [47:49]
B
Okay. And you mentioned Marco earlier, one of our students who kind of blew up within. Was it a month or so, his Italian channel?
- [47:58]
A
Yes, it. Well, he blew up. He got a thousand subscribers in 10 days, monetized and 15 days.
- [48:03]
B
Wow. And that kind of seems like what we all want to achieve, right? How long did it take you to, quote, unquote, blow up? And how fast can someone truly get monetized? Realistically having that realistic vision, you know.
- [48:20]
A
If we go back to thinking about the boat you choose is more important than how hard you row, I do think how fast you get monetized is going to be some. If you start the right channel at the right time around the right trend, you might blow up. For example, we had Matt Wolf on the podcast this. He's actually a perfect story for this entire conversation because he had had successes along the way, but he's been trying to do this like, I want to work for myself and be independent and work from home and start an online business since, like, 2008. Lots of rabbit trails, lots of dead ends, some good experiments, some failed experiments, and grinding on YouTube for a really long time, talking about tools, tools for business owners and online business owners. But then what happened? The world changed and AI started to emerge. Chat GBT showed up, and so it was actually a logical progression for him. But then what he started to do was he started to talk about ChatGPT, AI tools. And he was one of the first. It was. And it was also aligned with his passion and his skill set. And then, boom, he blew up. And now he's got hundreds of thousands subscribers, millions of views. So how quickly you get monetized, number one, it was not fast for him, but it was fast once the flywheel hit. And it's not just matt Wolf, there's thousands, tens of thousands of successful now entrepreneurs, online entrepreneurs and YouTubers riding the AI wave. It doesn't mean you need to chase the latest trend. That just means though the boat you choose might put such a fast paced current behind you that could get you to your goals faster. That's a big piece of it. It also is going to be a big piece of just how consistent can you be? I remember, you know, one of my friends, Nikki Philippi, was able to talk to her back in the day on video Influencers and the season of life was her husband was Dan was working full time. His income supported them. She, she had a vision, I think I could do this YouTube thing. And he's like, I support you, go for it. So she went all in. No kids at the time and she told her story and she said she started to work 10 to 14 hours a day, pretty much every day. She would go to Starbucks, buy coffee, shoot, go edit at Starbucks, do whatever, hustling. So these are a lot of the levers that are going to affect it because for some and comparison is the killer of creativity and the thief of joy. So there's like no reason to compare. But you're like, I don't have that much time. You got to give yourself grace. It's your race, your pace, it's your resources. It's different than everybody else's. But if you could work 12 hours a day, go all in not, you know, and then, and you have maybe your background is something you're like, this is a trend right now. And the career I've been in, in medicine or medical or the frontier of, you know, this is trending right now in psychology or mental health. Like so for some that's those factors are why they blow up. If we're talking about realistic expectations, I think the realistic expectation is being a lot more patient and just, hey, let's do what ChatGPT told us earlier. Small businesses take two to three years and consider that that small business is starting. I'm imagining based on those stats, they start and they go all in for three years. That's like a Nikki Phillipe. They start and work 9 to 5, whatever. They're, you know, 8 to 8 of their local coffee shop that's open all day long, grinding every single day for three years. So that timeline might be six years if you've got half time to put into the channel. You know, it depends. And of course YouTube and social media factors are different than like a brick and mortar. All of these factors I think are Important to consider. And so for me that was kind of my story in the sense of the five years that I was working at a church while doing YouTube on the side. It took a couple years until my channel got monetized. My gosh, talk about like, let's go like honey, I've invested like thousands of hours in this. We just made $7. Like what? Like we're going to in n out tonight. Like we're getting animal style fries to celebrate. Like, you know, you're like ready to. And it was like that took a couple years. And I remember it was after five years of doing my YouTube channels, I'd gone to about under $100 a month in ad revenue, but three to $400 a month in affiliate marketing. And around the holidays those numbers actually would go up significantly. But I mean meaning to like a thousand dollars in affiliate marketing for a couple months. So I was kind of in that category of this, like yeah, maybe call it around $12,000 a year creator category, you know. And I'm doing that on a side not enough to live on, but that was a five year journey of building that up again. So many reasons why those listening to this could get there a lot faster. But if this conversation of realistic expectations, the mindset is the long haul. I think the mindset is patience and the mindset is I think also self awareness. Like what are you truly solving for? What is it you really are after? Because if you're really after like retiring a family member or going full time or quitting your job, there's probably a lot more direct path. Because if you're in the wrong knee, if you're in the wrong boat, it doesn't matter how hard you row, it's if actually the boat is wrong. But if you get into the right boat, you might be able to get there a lot faster. That'd be the pivot move. Even if you get in the right boat, it might take two to three years. I think those are some realistic expectations. And of course we're here to help and our goal is to help a million purpose driven people create a full time living doing what they love while making a difference in the world with YouTube. And so you know, subscribe, stick around because future is bright and I think you can get there faster if you really lean in. And we're here to help.