← The Think Media Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript49 lines
- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
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. So Becky started her YouTube channel with a broken phone and now makes over six figures. And in this episode of the Think Media podcast, she's going to be sharing her lessons, mistakes, and tips, as well as how she earns money in multiple different ways and how she gets it all done, balancing being a choir teacher as well as a content creator. And so Becky park is a high school choir teacher who resells clothing online. And she started her YouTube channel documenting her journey a few years ago. And it has grown to be a great success with lots of challenges and lessons along the way. And so I'm excited to learn from her today. Becky, welcome to the Think Media podcast.
- [01:21]
Becky Park
Thank you so much for having me.
- [01:23]
Sean Cannell
So I would love to give us a little context about starting your channel. What year did you start? How fast did it grow, and how long did it take for your channel to get monetized?
- [01:35]
Becky Park
Yeah, so my husband and I were both teachers. I teach high school choir like you said. My husband teaches first grade, and we just don't make a lot of money being teachers. And it was just kind of hard, like day to day living paycheck to paycheck. I had learned about reselling and never utilized YouTube as a way to learn about how to do things. But as I was like, typing into Google, like, how can I make more money selling more things on Poshmark? It kept directing me to different YouTube videos. So I would start watching them and learning a ton and being like, oh, like, this is something people do to put food on the table. Like, they just sell old clothes online. So I started doing that for about a year and a half. I started reselling basically in 2018, and then in 2019, I at that point had been trying to grow my Instagram, just, you know, sharing any tips and tricks I was learning along the way as a reseller. And a friend of mine was like, he found me randomly on Instagram and learned about this side life I was living that he knew nothing about. And he was like, what are you gonna do with this? Like, this is pretty cool. And I said, I'd eventually like to have a YouTube channel and share what it's like to be a reseller from like a part time perspective. And I was like, but I'll probably wait till I have like 10,000 followers on Instagram and try to bring them over. And he was like, it doesn't work like that. He was like, you have to start right now. And he's like, I'll help you. So he helped me get started in 2019, made maybe my first three or four videos for me. He's like a professional videographer and stuff. And then he was like, I don't have time for this anymore. So I was left with my broken phone and imovie and just having to figure it out for myself. But I would say it took maybe six to seven months to get monetized. It happened pretty rapidly. And he was right. Not like a very, very small percentage of my Instagram followers followed me over YouTube, but I was able to find an audience on YouTube who was hungry for the kind of content that I was creating. And it didn't take too long.
- [03:36]
Sean Cannell
So take us back to those early days. This broken phone. What a story. A lot people can relate to maybe having limited gear, limited equipment, as well as also the skill set of even learning how to shoot and make videos. What do you mean by your phone being broken and what were your circumstances then? And how did you figure out the content creation process?
- [03:57]
Becky Park
So thankfully, as a choir teacher and just as a musician, like, I've had some experience just recording into things like GarageBand and stuff. So I knew how to. Again, not a professional or anything, but I knew how to like cut out sounds that I didn't like or enhance things. I knew how to look at the sound waves and make cuts where appropriate, things like that. But my phone at the time was just really old. It did not have a lot of storage. My laptop was really old, did not have a lot of storage. And so I remember trying, I think I sat down and filmed a video on my phone. I just stacked a bunch of books on top of each other, stuck something behind the phone, pointed it at me, and I talked at it for a half hour or something and that was fine. When I went to transfer the file from my phone over to my laptop so I could edit, my laptop was like, nope, can't do it, I cannot, you know, So I tried a lot of different things I think that first time I tried cutting down that 30 minute video into like two minute segments and I was able to do it. It took forever. So from that point on, I would just film for two minutes, stop, start again, film for two minutes. And then I would just send all these little baby video files over to my laptop. And even then sometimes if there were too many files, if the video was just a little bit longer, my laptop would just shut down. It just, it was so old, it couldn't handle all of that data.
- [05:19]
Sean Cannell
So it's such a lesson in resourcefulness to just use what you had at the time. And how long until you upgraded? How long until you started to invest in maybe a better camera or new gear?
- [05:32]
Becky Park
I think like, I think I filmed like that for two years and you know, I had gotten monetized. I had started making some pretty decent money with affiliate marketing. And I think my husband was the one that was like, you know what, I think that we should get you a for real camera at this point. Like, you've definitely earned the right to be able to invest in some better equipment. So yeah, I got, I don't know, I think you had recommended it in one of your videos. It's one of those Sony vlogging type of cameras. And then I got a new laptop and my whole world changed. Everything went so much faster at that point.
- [06:11]
Sean Cannell
Do you still edit your videos today?
- [06:12]
Becky Park
So I just gave, I just hired a video editor maybe earlier this year. So I had been doing it myself since 2019, and I still will edit a few probably every month. I'll still do like one or two just because of the nature of the video and knowing it'd be more work for me to explain everything to my video editor and give him all of the different screenshots of things that he would need versus me just doing it myself. I like editing. I think it's a really creative way to create something. It's. It's the timepiece and it's trying to juggle being a mom and a teacher and reselling and content creator. It's all those things something had to give and it was the editing.
- [06:57]
Sean Cannell
So how did you find that editor?
- [06:59]
Becky Park
So I started by just posting something on Facebook. I got a ton of spam. I guess people have. I did it during Grow with Live. I was like, I have to give something away. I think it was like during one of the sessions I posted it on Facebook and I guess people have like alerts for terms like video editor. And so I just got a ton of people messaging Me, I actually took the time to, like, interview people, and then I was like, this is. God, this is not working. But I had a former student, her older sister's now husband, he edits. And the sister had reached out and was like, I know someone. He's really great. So I interviewed him, and it's been great.
- [07:39]
Sean Cannell
That's amazing. So one of your key lessons is that you've learned that teaching something, start to finish, in an entertaining way can change people's lives. And that was one of the strategies that has helped you grow your channel. Can you explain that and what you mean by that and how people can maybe apply that to their content?
- [08:00]
Becky Park
Yeah. So I have a lot of videos uploaded on my channel at this point, and I have a few different styles, but the ones that always do the best for me and the ones that continue to perform even years after having made them are kind of my tutorials. How to Sell on Poshmark, how to Resell From Beginning to End. And even though for me, it's kind of boring to make those videos, it's stuff that I learned a long time ago, and I'm kind of like, I don't even. Who wants this kind of stuff? A lot of people. A lot of people want someone to hold their hand and take them from beginning to end and teach them how to do something. And I think that that has become the best videos for me, mainly because of my teaching background. Like, a lot of the comments that I'll see from people who've watched the video are, thank you for explaining this in such a simple way, or thank you for explaining this in a way that made me feel like I could do it too. And at that point, they're just so grateful that you've taught them how to do something that they thought was so hard or so overwhelming, that's when they'll hit that subscribe button and decide to kind of stick with you for the remainder of their journey as well. But, yeah, I think teaching people how to do something, there's a need for that. There's a Google search that will lead them to that. So that's how I've been able to find a little bit of success.
- [09:15]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, you're part of our program Video Reiki Academy, and we talk about answer specific questions, we talk about teach specific skills. And I agree with you. Sometimes this stuff, it maybe doesn't even seem exciting. And sometimes it's like the curse of knowledge, too. It's like, well, people don't. They already know this. Or like, you know, they might Figure this out or look somewhere else. But we're living in a world where people want YouTube videos to walk them through things. I just unboxed my DJI Pocket 3, and I'd even revealed think media videos that we had not made that we should make. Because I got to a place where I was like, how do I set the white balance on this? And the way I wanted that question answered was YouTube. I asked the question to YouTube. I found a video, and that was the very specific video that then walked me through. Video had almost 100,000 views. Just like teaching a specific skill or solving a specific problem. What has kind of been your experience when you dove into Video Reggae Academy? Why'd you join that program, and at what stage on your journey were you in?
- [10:15]
Becky Park
So before I started my YouTube channel, because it was something that I knew I eventually wanted to do, I spent probably a solid year just watching videos on YouTube about how to YouTube. Among my favorites were your videos, you know, just breaking down, how to do different things, how to find your audience, hut whatever. I spent, like a solid year just consuming as much content about that as possible. So when I did finally jump into starting my own channel, I felt kind of like I knew what I was doing. Like, I always knew what the next step was because I had been in that world for so long, at least just listening to what a lot of people were saying about it. But as you kind of continue it does. It is a little lonely, you know, if you don't have people around you that you can sit down with in real time who also channel, to be able to sit with them and say, well, this is working for me. How about you? Or, I don't know what to do. I thought this video was going to take off, and all I'm getting is crickets. It's kind of hard to do something like this all by yourself. And because I had followed you so closely and listened to so much of your advice on YouTube, I don't even remember, like, how I found out that you had a course or why or whatever. I think I was interested in the course piece of it, knowing that especially the, you know, beginning lessons would be a lot of stuff that I had already heard you talk about before. But I think I was really excited for the community aspect of it. Just like having the Facebook group to bounce ideas off of, you know, with people. Also, like, within the Facebook group, there's always, like, little community challenges or just people checking in or, you know, everyone, you know today, or you're going to post a thumbnail and people can leave feedback on it. It's when you're too close to your content, it's hard sometimes to be subject or to be objective and really see it for what it is. You've spent so much time creating it and you think, this is amazing. It's going to change the world. And sometimes you need some outside people to be like, oh, maybe you need to adjust X, Y and Z and then it'll accomplish that. But I think it was mainly for the community aspect. And I'd say I was about four or five months into my own channel maybe before I took the plunge.
- [12:32]
Sean Cannell
Oh, so four to five months in your channel and like you said, you got monetized at about six months.
- [12:38]
Becky Park
Yeah.
- [12:39]
Sean Cannell
So this is still the early stage. You're at 59,000 subscribers today. Congratulations.
- [12:46]
Becky Park
Thank you.
- [12:46]
Sean Cannell
Do you know how big your channel was back when you, like, joined vra? And right around you got, obviously had to get to a thousand subscribers, but maybe you were quite a bit past that.
- [12:54]
Becky Park
Yeah, I think I was monetized when I joined and I think, you know, it does seem like some people joined VRA with the mission of, like, this is what's going to help me figure out how to get monetized. That piece of it. I think I just kind of, I was like, I'm just going to keep putting out content and trust, you know, I was like, we'll just see what happens. I. I think I was monetized by the time I joined. I think it was more so. So that I could have a way to do more deep dives into the things that I was unsure of. And then, yeah, mainly for the community people.
- [13:30]
Sean Cannell
I love that. Now one of the huge lessons listeners could apply is tapping into this idea that's kind of under talked about and underrated in today's YouTube landscape of kind of collaborating. I looked at your most viewed video and it's got 230,000 views and you brought together 24 successful other sellers and put it into like a longer form video with them sharing their tips. And it's a 43 minute video and it's absolutely crushing. And what made you choose this collaboration? And then also how did you reach out and how could somebody maybe imitate that and like, the idea of, like, this exact strategy that you did, they could do in their own niche and it was very powerful. Got a lot of views. Hey, we're going to get back into today's episode in just a second, but if you haven't heard, we are running a special sale on the Complete package for growing a successful YouTube channel in 2025 for just $57. This special offer includes your ticket to our upcoming YouTube strategy event, the updated YouTube starter kit, our brand new AI prompts guide, our video editing basics course, and our five hour YouTube workweek system, all included in one bundle. Basically everything you need to start and grow your YouTube channel in 2025, valued at over $1,900. But for a limited time, you could get a massive discount on our most comprehensive YouTube training bundle yet for just 57. If you want to take advantage of this offer, just click the link in the show notes or go to think media sale.com but I gotta be real with you. This bundle with these products at this price is truly limited. So just click the link in the show notes or go to thinkmediasale.com all right, let's jump back into the episode.
- [15:26]
Becky Park
At that time and even today, you know, there's a lot of different places you can resell clothes and other things. I had so many people asking me specific questions about ebay and I just didn't feel very confident with ebay. It was just one of those platforms that I was like, I don't know, like, I'm doing my thing over here, but I don't feel very good about it. Like, I don't feel like I can. I'm at a place where I can take someone's hand and be like, do as I do. Because I didn't feel that way. Still kind of don't. But again, from Instagram and even, you know, there's a community within YouTube as well, of people within your niche, if you are willing to, like you said, collaborate with them, speak with them, leave comments, that sort of thing. And I have built up real friendships in my community. And so when the question kept coming, how do I sell on ebay? What are your tips for selling more on ebay? I was like, let me just ask the people who know, because I have friends and people within the community who are good at just that. Like, that's their main platform. And so, and for me too, like, I always found value as a teacher, bringing in other people for my students to learn from. Sometimes they'll say something and it's just the way that they structure their analogy or their sentence that it clicks for my students, which upsets me sometimes because I'm like, I've said the same thing to you for like a year and you didn't get it when I said it. But it's something about the way that someone else said It. So even for my audience, I knew that there would be a lot of value in bringing in people who are going to explain things in their own way and maybe in a way that actually finally clicks with my viewers. And so I simply, I think I just slid into people's DMS on Instagram. I just reached out and I said, hey, I have this idea, I would love if you'd be a part of it. And I just set some parameters of like, I'd love for your clips to be, you know, within this time frame. If you could send it to me in such a file, send it to this email. And it was pretty easy to piece together. I would say of those 20 plus people, 10 of them were people that I actually knew pretty well and have, you know, we have like a relationship and a friendship. A lot of them were people that I had always admired from afar. And I was like, no way that this person is going to agree to, you know, be a part of this video. And everyone was so gracious and even people that I thought were completely out of my reach, people who had twice or three times the number of subscribers as me, they sent me videos. It was so nice. And then I knew, not I knew I hoped that they would publicize that video on their channels as well and send new people over to me because they had been a part of it. And I do think that that happened for sure.
- [18:01]
Sean Cannell
Such a cool idea takes some work and some organization and some sliding into the DMS of others. But I also love the fact that you said, you know, questions might come your way in an area that you're not an expert in. This happens for me all the time. That's why I love the Think Media podcast, because I can bring others on and maybe something that I understand, I've kind of done, but somebody else has gone 5, 10, 20 layers deeper, man. Bring someone else on your channel and you don't have to be a podcast channel or an interview channel to do this. It could be a one off video or a collaboration video. So I love that now you've built a six figure affiliate income with just a few products. What's your process for choosing what you promote? And that's a wild number people think about affiliate marketing. How does that break down for you and your niche?
- [18:56]
Becky Park
So it's for me, I didn't, I think I knew affiliate marketing was a thing. I always kind of associated it with Amazon, I think, and I had tried that and I still have, you know, links and stuff in my descriptions and I'd make like 40 cents a month. And I'm like, okay, well, that's not going to work for me. And I had never thought of affiliate marketing being anything else, and especially for companies that were much smaller than a company like Amazon. But I just kind of accidentally fell into it because there was this software that I had heard about that would make this one process of reselling just much faster and much easier. And I remember trying it and being like, oh my gosh, like, this is going to change my life. It's going to help me save so much time. And I just would talk about it all the time and I would like, I made a couple videos about that software, not even thinking to reach out to the company itself and be like, hey, I'm gonna make this video. Like, do you want to work with me in any way? I just made the video and was like sending people there. They reached out to me and they were like, so we have gotten so many people to sign up for, and it's like a monthly subscription, you know, so you, you pay to use this software as a monthly subscription. And they're like, we have gotten so many people from these couple videos that you made. Do you want to come on as an affiliate? And I was like, what's that? You know? And then I just started throwing my link in videos and was shocked at how much they were sending me every month. I would look at the number and be like, if this is how much you're giving one affiliate, how much are you guys making yourselves? But yeah, like at this point, the CEOs and I like the owners of the company, like, we're close and we try to find ways to collaborate all the time. But it just started with me loving the product, being obsessed with it, talking about it all the time. And I think that's the only way to grow it into anything meaningful is if you can firmly stand behind it and you use it yourself. And since then, I've found a couple other things similar to that, other softwares or other things that it's the same kind of monthly subscription. As long as the person stays with it, you continue to get a payout for that person staying with the company. And all of that has added up in ways that I just, I was shocked.
- [21:17]
Sean Cannell
Wow. So. And. And that's one of the most powerful things of affiliate marketing would be called what's called continuity.
- [21:23]
Becky Park
Yes.
- [21:24]
Sean Cannell
Essentially what happens on Hulu or Netflix when we subscribe to something and pay for it every month. If you as an affiliate are getting a cut of that, then it just Compounds and builds. So are you saying then that like, I mean, if you take $100,000 divided by 12, it's about $8,300 a month. That over $8,000 a month is reoccurring revenue that has come from your YouTube channel?
- [21:51]
Becky Park
Yes. I mean, maybe a small percentage of that is from Instagram, but I think my following and my ability to utilize affiliate links and stuff like that is much stronger on YouTube. I. Yeah, I mean, I don't think I would have been able to do that had I not had a YouTube channel.
- [22:10]
Sean Cannell
Totally agree. Because link in bio, Instagram, it's harder despite the same experience. But you got the description on YouTube, you've got kind of also, like, you have serious people that want to learn things that like serious other resellers that are looking for education and tutorials now. That's so inspiring to think about that. And does that then become your biggest income stream?
- [22:33]
Becky Park
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I do get, you know, Google AdSense payouts every month and they're wonderful and I'm so thankful for them. That's why my kids can do gymnastics and stuff. Right. But I mean, I think the majority of my income from this side hustle on the side of teaching has been affiliate marketing. It's really funny because I spoke with our school's, like, business class. The teacher asked me to come in and talk about my side hustle. And one of them asked point blank, like, how much do you make like from doing all that stuff? And I was like, I mean, I'm not going to give you an exact number, but it's basically double, maybe even a little bit more than double what I make for my teacher salary. And they're like, so teaching is your side hustle? And I was like, I mean, no, because it takes up all of my time, but in the, in the sense of how much income I make from it, yes, it's, you know, teaching. You can teach as hard as you want and be the best teacher, but you're only going to make this much money. Whereas with affiliate marketing, with YouTube stuff like that, it can really kind of spiral into something that is so much greater than what you can get with, with a salary.
- [23:38]
Sean Cannell
So I would love for you to break down because your, your story is inspiring. I'm curious, kind of your mission and your vision for your life and your family, because essentially your side hustle earns double what your main salary does. But, but I'm sure you love what you're doing and you care about the students and you. So in your from your perspective, what is this creator economy, YouTube opportunity provided for you to essentially design life that you want and have choices to. Even though maybe you could quit your job, you still love having that and being anchored in that and having freedom that YouTube has provided. What's your vision when it comes to this?
- [24:20]
Becky Park
Yeah, well, when I think back to being a kid myself, my parents immigrated here from Korea in their 20s. My dad was a pastor of a small church, my mom worked at the post office and we just didn't have much. Like, I don't ever remember a time when we were like, oh God, are we going to eat today? I mean it was, it was always enough, but it was things like I never had like new clothes. It was always hand me downs. Wanting to do certain extracurriculars were just out of the picture because there just wasn't enough income, you know. And I think that is really what my life would have looked like had I not found this whole world accidentally had. My husband and I continue to, you know, live as two teachers, which is, I think admirable and I think amazing. I think the world needs good teachers. But it's hard for teachers to stay in the profession because there just isn't a lot of money in it. When I started my YouTube channel and a little bit of extra money kept coming in every month, it was life changing. Even at the first thousand dollars a month, you know, because it's hey now, like that's covering our car payments and da da da da. When the next like couple thousand more started coming in, it was like, hey, like we're starting to pay off our mortgage. Like it was just now when the kids want to do something, you know, if my son says he wants to take coding lessons, he can take coding lessons because we have our incomes from teaching, we have our health insurance and all that kind of stuff. But there's also this extra money. It's not a better life, right? Like more money doesn't equal a better life necessarily. It's easier in many cases, in many situations. And it's just allowed us to also be very generous to those around us. Thinking back again to my parents and their experience, girl, you know, living their adult lives in America in a country that they weren't born in. And same for my mother in law and father in law. Like we were able to treat them to a trip to Hawaii. We went just a few weeks ago. Being able to, I don't know, give back to people who sacrificed so that we could have the opportunities that we have now. I have always wanted to be able to do that. It wasn't going to be possible with two teacher salaries. So it's just afforded us a lot of opportunity to do amazing things for our family and those that we love.
- [26:52]
Sean Cannell
And that's so inspirational. And I think media we talk about, we want to help purpose driven people and you just embody that so much. And it's so cool to see how YouTube gives us freedom and flexibility to sort of design a life, a future, a business around our lifestyle, our goals. It's so cool. I wanted to go a little bit deeper on this opportunity of education content and I'm curious for you. Here's some stats in regards to learning related content. YouTube sees 500 million views of learning related content every single day. In a 2018 Pew research found that 51% of YouTube users utilize the platform to learn new things, which equates to 35% of US adults. That number is much higher today. And For Gen Z, 59% of Generation Z prefers learning from YouTube over printed books, in person, group activities and learning apps or games. So YouTube has released a lot of information about how you know there's two big categories, entertainment and education. If you can blend them, you're even better. If you can make your education entertaining and edutainment as they would call it. Just this opportunity of like solving a specific problem, answering specific questions, that's a massive opportunity and you're clearly an example of what's happening there. But if you were to speak maybe to that opportunity, but also to other teachers, because man, we need teachers more than ever. It's such a seems like such a challenging industry because to your point, they're the some of the most important people in our culture and they are the those influencing the youth and coaching and training future generations. Yet economically there's a big gap probably in wages of what's even need to live a medium, let alone like really prospering life. But YouTube is this opportunity and online is this opportunity. So if you were to speak even in kind of a 20, 25 and beyond world to teachers and the opportunity for the skillset they already have to get on YouTube, share what they know, kind of do something similar to what you're doing, what would you see? What advice would you have for them? Would you like a free copy of the number one bestselling book for growing a successful YouTube channel? If you want to get a copy of the new and expanded second edition of YouTube Secrets, just go to ytsecrets.com and if you'll cover shipping and handling. I would love to send you this book for free. And the cool thing is, when you place your order, you're also going to get access to some bonus resources like our 1000 subscribers club, our 7C's framework, our perfect video recipe framework, as well as some bonus videos that will help you get results on YouTube faster. So to get your copy, just go to ytsecrets.com or click the link in the podcast Show Notes.
- [29:40]
Becky Park
And I can't tell you how many teachers I've had that exact conversation with, you know, teachers in my building who are like, I just, I don't know, like, how much longer I can do this in this way, you know? And sometimes some teachers, I think, lose their sense of identity. Almost like everything that they are is in who they are in the classroom. But especially for those teachers who have outside hobbies and have lives outside of teaching, I always tell them, I'm like, like, I had a friend who's really into health and fitness, and I was like, make a channel about it, like, and just start with, like, what? You know, even if it's just, hey, today I'm going to go on a mission to get my 10,000 steps in. And if the whole video is you just getting your 10,000 steps in and how you did and where you went for a walk or whatever, someone is going to watch that video, you know, and at least even if it's not a video, you're proud of the process of making that video, of putting your face in front of a camera and going through the growing pains of that. Like, you're going to get better with time. I think what has been the piece that gets in everyone's way is. But how long do I have to do it before I see something on the other side? And I don't have a for real answer for them because it's different for everybody, you know, but, man, I'm like, if you can just stick it out and just take the steps necessary to build your community, you can really dive into this thing that you're so passionate about that has nothing to do with what you're doing during the day with your day job, and you can make money doing it. Like, isn't that worth it? Isn't it worth sticking with? So I think that's the main thing is, like, if I could just hold people's hand long enough for them to be, you know, to have the patience to see it through to the point where they're getting monetized and they're building a community that's my biggest piece of advice. Just give it, give it a whole solid year of for real consistency, you know, and then as far as creating educational content for YouTube, sometimes I get stuck in the mindset of only creating content based off of who I am as a content consumer. Like, sometimes I'll get in my own way and be like, oh, I'm not going to make that video. Like, I wouldn't watch it. And it actually ends up doing really well. But when I think about why do I turn to YouTube? It is absolutely to learn. I'm not watching people unbox things. I'm not watching people I don't know, like, create stories or narratives and like, take me on a. I don't really care about. I'm turning to YouTube because my toilet's broken and I want to know what I need to do to fix it. Right. And in the same way, when there's an issue in the reselling community, if, you know, a platform has a sudden change in their terms of service or whatever, I know that even though I'm not super interested or excited in the content, like people are going to turn to YouTube to be like, what's going on and how does this impact me? So I know I need to make that video right now so that when they search for that information, they're going to see my video pop up. You know, I don't super remember what your main question was about that.
- [32:41]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, it was a long question. Those were some great answers. Massive opportunity for learning on YouTube and teachers are already communicators. They already. I think the opportunity for teachers too is the skillset of structuring content.
- [32:57]
Becky Park
Yes.
- [32:58]
Sean Cannell
You know, you structure, you have an outline. You know, you think about how you might teach a class and you're then translating that to video. You have a beginning, middle and end in structure and an outline for a video. I want to get into some tactics as we just kind of go into part two of the conversation and sort of land the plane if you're giving some advice. I love that you said give it a year. It's inspirational to think about. Okay. Don't be overly judgmental about maybe your views or your results. Great things take time. There are really cool stories like yours where, wow, you might get monetized in six months and reach that YouTube Partner Program goal. Or it might take longer. So give it the time necessary. I love that you also talked about spending a year of studying and learning and absorbing information. So critical lifetime leaders are lifetime learners. And you're a teacher yourself. So of course you value learning and education, and that is essential for success in YouTube. But if you were to be giving advice to a friend that wants to get more views, has started their channel, but maybe feeling stuck, what are some things you would encourage them to look at, tweak, improve? Maybe some things that have been the breakthroughs on your journey in terms of just the tactical side of YouTube.
- [34:14]
Becky Park
Yeah. And I think I've gone through a lot of the growing pains that you just mentioned, and it's hard sometimes when you're creating content about something and you see other people creating content about the same thing and you feel like they're just doing better than you. They have more views, they have more subscribers. And I feel that way all the time. Like, there are people making content about the same thing that I am, and they'll upload a video and it shoots to like a hundred thousand views within a week. And I'm like, how did they do that? Like, I made that same video the other day and nobody cared to watch it. I think a lot of what I had to learn and kind of come to terms with was just because I'm making the same. Just because I'm in the same niche doesn't mean that people want to see the same kind of content from me. So, for example, a lot of people within my niche, they'll do, like, come to garage sales with me and, like, watch me make deals and see what kind of stuff I get. I have tried making those videos and I get like a tenth of the views that I typically do. And I think it's because that's not where I shine. Like, that's not where I'm able to show my personality. I don't like to barter. I just want to pay the person what they said they wanted for the item. And people are like, you should have asked them to come down on it. And I'm like, I didn't want to. Or, you know, like, that's not where I'm able to show the best version of myself, if you will. I think where people like to see me is, again, I think it's kind of boring. I just plant a camera in front of my face. I talk at it it for 30 minutes. Maybe I'll insert a little bit of B roll here and there. I don't even think my audience needs it because they just want to hear me explain what to them are complex and complicated concepts and break it down for them in ways that make sense. And I. Whenever I try to do other things, it's not that people don't like it. And people will say in the comments, like, oh, it's fun seeing this side of you. But that's not why people come to me. I think my advice for people who are struggling to figure out, like, how to find their viewers is to really pay attention in the comments to what are people telling you already that they like about your channel and just continue to give them more of that. I think a lot of times people will create videos more for themselves than for their audience. They have a passion project or I really want to flex my muscles here on this vlog style of video or something. But if no one's been asking for that, it's going to be hard to find people who are like, let me watch a random person's day in their life. Like, it's. It's probably not going to happen. And just pay attention to the numbers. You know, which numbers, which videos have the strongest numbers. Play a game of, let me try to recreate that video to some degree. Do I continue to get those kinds of numbers? And if so, lean in?
- [37:02]
Sean Cannell
You know, man, I took away three big tips that you just said there. The first one is play to your strengths. It might take a while to find them, but when you look at somebody else's channel, why do they get more views? It's like, you want to find your strengths. You want to find your sweet spot. You also said, pay attention to the numbers. I like to think about success leaves clues. Look at your top performing videos, maybe some of the bright spots in terms of your videos. And then also make service content, not selfish content, that sometimes we make videos for ourselves. And it's YouTube, it's your tube, so you can do what you want. That's great. But if nobody's interested, if we're listening to the audience and thinking about what would serve them, what do they want to watch? Play to your strengths. Make service content. And success leaves clues. I turned that into three S's. You see what I did there?
- [37:50]
Becky Park
You did a great job. You should be a teacher. I mean, you are in many ways, but you should be in the classroom, too.
- [37:58]
Sean Cannell
Oh, man, I appreciate it. But as we land the plane, one of the biggest pain points. And it doesn't matter what season of life we're in. I think all of us realize our time is scarce. We're juggling a lot of different responsibilities. But your story is pretty inspiring because as a mom, as a choir teacher, and as a very prolific content creator, how do you get it all done? Is there systems, routines and habits that have helped you scale your channel, stay sane, stay healthy. And what's your advice for this being possible for people that are like, man, how do I just. How do I do this? As also a side hustle or a main hustle, and juggling all these different things.
- [38:42]
Becky Park
I think it probably boils down to two things. I kind of have this philosophy as a singer, too. I feel like early on, I had a choice of, do I want to be really good at singing one kind of music, or do I just kind of want to be mediocre at, like, everything? Like, I can kind of do everything, but I'm never going to go pro in any one of these things. And I was like, I want to sing everything. I don't want to be tied down to one thing. When I look at my life, I'm kind of like, if I want to do all these different things, if I want to have my hand in all these different. I have to be okay with, like. Mediocre is a strong word, but I have to be okay with, like, not being the absolute best at everything. Like, I have to be okay with okay at work. My students may not be, like, you know, ready for Carnegie hall today? That's okay. We're working on it. Like, I just have to be okay with that. With my YouTube videos, you know, I know that they could be a lot better. I know I could invest a lot more time and learning even more tricks when it comes to editing or this and that. But I'm like, I just have to be okay with them being what they are, because that's what I have the time for with reselling. It's like, I would love to list ten things a day. I don't have the time for that. I'm just going to do five. I'm going to do. Do the best that I can with them. So I think I've just learned that if I hold myself to impossible standards for all of the different facets of my life, I will go to bed every night just so upset with myself. And when I get to that point, when I get to the point where I'm just kind of beating myself up, that's when I know I need to take a step back and I need to kind of reassess all of the things on the plate and ask myself, like, do I keep all of this here? So I feel like I tried to be a lot more consistent with Instagram back in the day. I have very much let go of that. I'll post every now and then, but I used to spend A lot of time on Instagram, and I quickly found out it doesn't actually add a lot to my bank account or to my life. So I think that's something I can let go of. And I bought back some time there. And it's little things, like buying time with, like, cleaning the house. Like, we have someone come and clean twice a month. We have. You know, it's finding little ways of how much is my time worth and can I give some jobs to other people of things that I don't want to do. I also have the greatest partner in my husband, who does a lot of stuff at home so that when I'm home, I can spend time with the kids, I can work on, you know, taking pictures of clothing and, you know, listing them and stuff like that. He does a lot of things that a lot of husbands don't. He does the laundry, he does the dishes, he cooks. He, you know, takes care of a lot of that stuff, and that buys back a lot of my time. And then as far as, like, staying healthy, especially mentally, there have been, I think I remember, like, two periods since I started my YouTube journey where I had to take a step back and I just had to stop making content for, like, a month or two. One time, there was just a lot of stuff happening in my personal life, and I just didn't have the capacity to sit there and smile in front of my camera and make content about stuff that at the moment, I cared nothing about because there was all this other stuff going on. And I just had to allow myself to step back and apologize to my viewers and say, I'm sorry, but, like, I cannot show up for you authentically right now. So I'm going to deal with my stuff and hopefully come back, you know, just ready to go. And I think it's important to recognize those signs in yourself. When your body starts shutting down, when your mental capacity starts shutting down because of different things, you have to be able to take a step back. Your audience will understand, and they'll be waiting for you. And that's not to be mistaken for laziness. That's not to be mistaken for, like, I just don't feel like showing up today. Oftentimes I show up when I don't want to. But when there are very real things that are taking up too much space in our heart and our mind, it's okay to take a break.
- [42:37]
Sean Cannell
Wow. You might have just given somebody permission kind of to maybe think about that they could take a break, that they could maybe breathe a sigh of relief. And I'm curious, how long did that break last?
- [42:50]
Becky Park
I believe it was at least one solid month. And you know, at that point I was consistently uploading like two to three videos a week. So that was like a minimum of eight videos that I didn't publish. I didn't even try. So I would say at least a solid month. It might have been a little bit longer.
- [43:08]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, I think some, sometimes we get into the algorithm cycle and we think, oh man, we just got to keep it going. And no matter what, we got to keep it going. And it can almost be fear based that we hesitate from that. But that's very powerful thing for you to share there. Well, listen, I do want you to shout out your stuff and I want you to also. It's kind of an interesting opportunity that listeners have here because what I love about what you're doing, there's maybe some listeners that they want to grow their YouTube channel, they want to grow their personal brand, they want to develop new skill sets, build an online business. And sometimes the path to that isn't quite as linear as we think. In fact, in fact, I think for most entrepreneurs it's not linear at all where we try different things, we test different things, and you have a particular set of skills that anybody could tap into that, you know, people are here because they want to grow a profitable YouTube channel, but if they also wanted to make some money on the side, they could start making money with reselling. That is the thing you teach and coach people to do. So where can people follow you? But then what's like the opportunity for the kind of people in your community that just start spending maybe a few hours a week doing this and the kind of money they could earn from reselling itself, or maybe the money that's available in their garage right now, if they actually didn't want to maybe do it forever, but maybe just wanted to unlock some funds to. Maybe they do want to fund their YouTube business, buy a studio, buy some cameras, buy some stuff. Perhaps under their, in their closet and in their garage is the opportunity to unlock some serious cash. Break that down.
- [44:51]
Becky Park
Well, first of all, you hit the nail on the head, which is for people who are interested in reselling, my biggest piece of advice for them always is start with what you have at home. Because the majority of Americans, we have a lot of stuff in our homes that we've not touched in years. It's as simple as even just looking at things in your own closet and your partner's closet, your kids closets that they don't wear anymore. And I always tell people, before you invest any money in reselling, you should start with what you have at home, because then you don't have to spend any money to learn how to do the art of reselling, you know? So just start listing things on whatever platform you want to start on. And that is what my channel is all about. It's all about how to get started on ebay or Poshmark or Mercari. Tips and tricks on how to make more sales. And I share, like, one of my mainstays on my channel is what sold this week. And I'll share everything that sold. I'll break down the numbers of, like, I picked this up at the. At this thrift store for this much. It sold for this much. This was fees and shipping, and I ended up with this much. And people are able to learn, like, oh, if I see that when I'm out thrifting, I should pick that out or I should pick it up, because she made 50 profit from selling that one item. That means I can probably do that too. So that's what my channel is about. And I think it is a really great side hustle, because you can start with zero down, and that is very rare for most side hustles. And you make as much as you work. You know, the more time you put in, usually the more that you can earn. As far as my YouTube channel, oh, my gosh. Like, I. I think it's just Becky Park Co. I know I changed it at one point. I think if you just search Becky park company into YouTube, like, you should be able to find it. I am on Instagram. That was my old YouTube name, which was Becky park on Poshmark. And I think those are the main places. And then you can find me on Poshmark, ebay, all those places.
- [46:43]
Sean Cannell
Well, Becky, we will link up all of Becky's resources and channels in the show notes, and I want to acknowledge you and thank you for adding so much value today to the Think media podcast. This was a great episode, y'all. So, like, rate share, subscribe wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel, and we will catch you in the next one.