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Hey, before we jump into today's episode, I've got a question for you. Is your YouTube channel failing to bring in consistent leads and sales? If you'd say yes, then we are hosting an event that's probably perfect for you. I want to personally invite you to join me and the Think Media team this February in Las Vegas for an exclusive in person YouTube growth mastermind. Seats are limited, so make sure to secure your ticket today@thinkmedia media mastermind.com and over an intensive day and a half, I'll show you my proven strategies for creating videos that attract the right audience, generate real revenue and drive more sales. You'll craft your next winning video, learn the latest strategies for leveraging AI and attracting high quality leads, all without the complex funnels or expensive ads that can be so frustrating. Since we keep this Mastermind small and intimate spots are extremely limited and and filling up fast. So secure your spot for February 21st through the 22nd, 2025 and you can apply for this event at thinkmediamastermind.com before the seats are gone. Now, as of recording this, we're looking for about 10 more people, so grab your seat now. All right, let's jump into the podcast. One of the biggest media shifts in history is happening right now, but the question is, are you ready?
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We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.
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In today's episode of the Think Media podcast, I'm going to be reacting to a recent press briefing from the White House in the United States and look at some of the wider reaching implications from some executive orders that have been being signed. The reality is Trump just opened the door for content creators, AI is booming, legacy media is collapsing, and the next four years are going to be an economic explosion. I've broken this episode into four parts, but let's start off with a press briefing from the White House Press Secretary, Caroline Levitt.
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President Trump has held multiple news conferences, gaggled on Air Force One multiple times, and sat down for a two part interview on Fox News, which aired last week. As Politico summed it up best, Trump is everywhere again. And that's because President Trump has a great story to tell about the legendary American revival that is well underway. And in keeping with this revolutionary media approach that President Trump deployed during the campaign, the Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room.
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This is crazy. So one of the mega shifts here is instead of the White House press briefing room, Just being for traditional media. Cnn, New York Times. It is now open to all independent media types of people. Substack writers, YouTube, podcasters. This is pretty insane because according to.
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Recent polling from Gallup, Americans trust in mass media has fallen to a record low. Millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media and other independent outlets.
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So this is fascinating. If you're curious. Where is YouTube going? Where is the future of media going? And how could you get into it as a content creator now or as an aspiring content creator? This is where it's going. It's going to hands in the power of the independent content creator on these social media platforms. And not only is data backing this up, but of course we always see future trends in the younger generation because the younger generation continues to age up and shifts the entire landscape.
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It's essential to our team that we share President Trump's message everywhere and adapt this White House to the new media landscape in 2025. To do this, I am excited to announce the following changes will be made to this historic James S. Brady briefing room, where Mr. Brady's legacy will endure. This White House believes strongly in the First Amendment. So it's why our team will work diligently to restore the press passes of the 440 journalists. We're also opening up this briefing room to new media voices who produce news related content and whose outlet is not already represented by one of the seats in this room. We welcome independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers and content creators to apply for credentials to cover this White House.
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Can you like just what a bar. I feel like she's rapping right now. Like, we welcome social media influencers. We welcome the YouTubers, the content creators. We welcome. Let's go.
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And you can apply now on our new website, whitehouse.gov new media. Starting today, this seat in the front of the room.
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Side note, starting today, this seat in the front of the room sounds like the content creators that were being disrespected in the cheap seats just got promoted to the best seats. And future is bright, which is usually.
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Occupied by the press secretary staff will be called the new media seat. My team will review the applications and give credentials to new media applicants who meet our criteria and pass United States Secret Service requirements to enter the White House complex. So in light of these announcements, our first questions for today's briefing will go to these new median members.
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Come on.
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Whose outlets, despite being some of the most viewed news websites in the country, have not been given seats in this room.
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What, a bar too? Just these. So our Q and A is going to be going to the people that have the influence and actually have bigger audiences than the legacy in the traditional media, but up until this point has not been given the proper respect and platform that they deserve. I hope you can see that this is a mega shift. And I mean as. So the White House goes and the leadership goes and the ethic of your leaders is going to trickle down into the whole system. And since that press briefing happened, the White house has received 7,400 requests for the new media seat in the briefing room. And by the way, she gave you the info. We'll link it in the show notes. You, you should apply. You want to do news, you want to get into the game. Now's the time to reach out and shoot your shot. So here's some of the key takeaways. The White House added a permanent seat for new media. 7,400 independent content creators have already applied. Within 24 hours. Trump's team acknowledges the death of legacy media and the power shift to YouTube, podcasts and social media. And I think, of course there's still going to be Fox News and CNN and msnbc, but. But the power shifts are getting so disrupted. The bottom line is this means independent creators now have mainstream access. The bottom line is for the first time, independent YouTubers and podcasters can be in the same room as CNN and the New York Times. And the people controlling the media narrative aren't just newsrooms anymore, they're you. And if we look at some of the trends that are happening, you could see this article about tech journalist Taylor Lorenz, who plans on leaving legacy media for the creator economy. She noted that even the mainstream media stars are jumping ship. You're seeing a lot of people shift out of legacy media and start their own thing, start their own podcast, their own YouTube channel. And she left the Washington Post to start her own media brand. And the article actually touched on that. Some of the journalists are making millions of dollars going independent. Matthew iglesias is making $1.4 million a year on Substack. And I think about that for your average everyday creator because you might be like, well, you know, nobody knows me or I'm just getting started. The practicality in a 2025 world of starting a 10K a year side hustle, a $25,000 a year side hustle, a six figure media company. While you're working your day job tapping into this wave, you just got to open your eyes and Pay attention. You can look at Johnny Harris, Cleo Abraham, Both really legendary YouTube creators, massive solo success stories. The truth is this, the creator economy is now the real economy. Now the second thing I wanted to touch on is really positioning yourself to maximize this current environment in the next four years. And while I know that talking about this stuff is going to ruffle feathers because people have such strong political opinions, the landscape's gonna be the landscape. And my question is for you and your family for how you're positioning yourself, even if you're anti this current administration. One of the fascinating things is actually those that are like anti Trump do incredibly well when he is in office because they have a lot to talk about. So there's really gonna be a lot of opportunity for everybody. And in the next four years, I think we're gonna see a boom in business, a a boom in AI and a boom in content creation. For example, Trump just signed a bunch of executive orders, which is an understatement. He's signed a ton of executive orders. But let's talk about a couple that he signed that'll shape the future of AI crypto and entrepreneurship. One, he's committed to making America the AI capital of the world. Now I know that we have an international audience too, and you have your maybe independent country, different things and dynamics you're dealing with. And I'm sure there's many countries that are gunning for being the AI capital. But it's going to be a massive wave here in the US and it's going to be a massive wave period. There's many countries and individuals around the world that are driving AI. That is going to be a wave to ride. Now they also want to position the US as the global leader in crypto. They're also launching a science and tech advisory commission and then they're also pushing for lower interest rates and pro business policies. So let me just propose to you a thought. If you're living here in the us if you look at pro business policies, lower interest rates and the things that are going to be rolling out, you got to ask yourself, why are you waiting to start your side hustle? You got to ask yourself, why are you waiting to go all in to start that YouTube channel, to start that UGC business user generated content, to start that social media platform that podcast and lean into access to capital, access to the momentum of what's happening now, access to a pro Small Business Administration. That's going to put wind in your sales. Doesn't mean it's going to be easy. You still got to put in the work. But the stock market, innovation and business opportunities, I believe, are about to explode over the next four years. And what we're seeing here is that AI, crypto and innovation are the future. AI is not taking jobs, it's creating jobs. No doubt about it. Some jobs will be eliminated by AI, but many jobs will also be created. And you could clearly see here that the US Wants to take a lead in AI over China and that ultimately entrepreneurs who embrace AI right now are going to dominate the next decade. If there's a subject matter you should be studying as a content creator and becoming increasingly skilled at, not temporarily like, let me learn it and then just once I got it figured out, then I'm done. This is now one of the new skill sets that should be within every content creator's tool belt. Additionally, as we mentioned the first part of this episode, I believe the next four years are going to be a content creator gold rush. And that also backs up what Goldman Sachs research predicted. Before there was even an administration change. They said that basically the creator economy is going to double between now and 2027. That means the entire money in the system, the total addressable market, is going to double in the next two years. The next two years are really going to be the best two years to start a YouTube channel, start a podcast, get in the game. And so what I'm hoping to get across in this episode is that the next two to four years could be one of the biggest wealth shifts in history that we've seen. But the question is again, how are you preparing for it? How are you positioning yourself? How are you skilling up? How are you learning? Let's dive into part three of this conversation. I wrote down five ways that content creators can take advantage of this shift. Number one, trend surfing and covering press, books, briefings, and I would say more broadly the news in general. What we're hearing is that White House content is now fair game for YouTubers, podcasters and independent media. So really, no matter what side you're on, reacting, fact checking, analyzing press briefings can lead to massive engagement if you are in that niche. And then just trend surfing in general, leveraging breaking news, viral moments could be a huge content play for you in 2025 and beyond. Number two, it's time to start your channel, start your YouTube channel, start your podcast, start your newsletter. Traditional media is dying. The new CNN isn't cnn, it's independent creators. And creators are building seven figure media brands. And so that means there's going to be a Few thousands that are going to build million dollar businesses, tens of thousands that are going to build six figure business. But hundreds of thousands that are going to start building niche focused, long tail opportunity independent types of YouTube channels. I'm not just talking about news, I'm talking about around anything that you are passionate about. Now's the time to get into the creator economy. Number three, the expansion of fair use for content creators. Understanding and mastering fair use is probably one of the most important things you should be thinking about in 2025 because the Fair use landscape is evolving, allowing more flexibility to creators. But let's think about it this way. From the White House down, they are clearly Pro independent creator YouTuber in their mom's basement. Like they're like, hey, we're gonna give you guys a seat. Use the press briefings like get into the game. So this is a big mindset shift. Think about for sports, game highlights, reactions, film and TV breakdowns, culture commentary. There's already people doing this. We're just seeing that the pendulum is swinging further in this direction towards fair use opportunities. It's not away from it. News, media, press briefings, interviews, analysis, repurposing content. Being a content aggregator, you sometimes might think, man, there's so much content, it's too noisy. How do I get in the game? One of the opportunities is to be somebody that brings context and highlights of what's happening in media. In this very episode I'm bringing together multiple blog posts, Trump's press briefing, the White House press briefing, and trying to bring context to it. Hopefully it's adding value. And if you watch this on YouTube, hitting the like button or leaving a comment and of course on the podcast rate review, Leave some stars on Spotify. Share this it really helps get the word out, but ultimately you understanding how to legally repurpose and react to content is a game changer for creators that are working from home studios and in their basements. Number four is we're seeing a power shift to podcasting and long form conversations. This has broader implications because I think this also speaks to polished media personalities in sound bites is not cutting it for what the public expects. Now people want long form conversations. People are used to and hungry for two and three hour conversations on the Joe Rogan podcast, on the 16 to 20 different podcasts that Donald Trump went on. That's interesting because Kamala Harris only went on a handful and they weren't super deep and super long conversations. We're kind of entering into this era where being on these alternative media platforms and having a Level of more transparency, more authenticity. You really can go 10, 20, 30 layers deep with a person. How much do they know? How much can they articulate what it is, you know, the depth they have as opposed to just talking a few things they learned on AI in a long form conversation environment. So if you're an entrepreneur, a business owner, a creator, now's the time to build your personal brand. Now's the time to launch that podcast. Now's the time to take social media seriously. I understand the objection that, oh, it's getting crowded and that's true, it gets more crowded every day. But those who figure out how to communicate in the new media language, those who figure out their unique point of danger difference, those who are consistent and outwork the majority of people that give up after trying it for three days or three weeks, can really get insane upside return from investing not in where media is now, but where it's going. And then number five is any niche or channel topic that you want to start, I believe has opportunity. But AI tech and crypto are gold mines if you're thinking about starting a new channel. And so we specialize in helping people build YouTube channels here at Think Media. And we have students and people in our community that have cooking channels and Star wars hobby, comic book channels, gaming, anything you can think of, right, Gardening. And there's people all around the world. And a platform like YouTube gives you a chance to find your community, find your tribe, connect with your thousand true fans. But if you look at where things are going and we pay attention to politics, geopolitics, crypto, AI tech, and if you're starting from scratch and if you have a passion for any of these things, then these could be a really smart content play for you. So while all niches have opportunities, if you think about AI and automation, the rise of AI in business, creativity, daily life, starting a podcast about it, interview shows about it, how to use the tools, it's just so big. And you might already think, well, people already started AI channels. I don't think you understand how big it is and how big it's going to be and how many different angles there are to these things. How about crypto and decentralized finance? The push for the US to be the lead in digital assets. Interesting. It's going to continue to expand tech and innovation. You know, one of the things that made this cerebrally clear for me, experientially clear, is that I often go to the show CES or NAB in Las Vegas, the Consumer Electronics show or the national association of Broadcasters. And I'm always blown away by how diverse. You say something like tech. And you may not be aware that 200,000 people fly to Vegas every year to go through the biggest multi. There's like seven different huge conference halls and there's everything from smart home to robots, to consumer watches and wearables to TVs. So even when you say tech, the long tail of tech, there's like trillion dollars in the industry. There's thousands of niches within the niches within the niches within tech, maybe tens of thousands. And you figuring out like a small place in that ecosystem where you could kind of be a specialist or you don't even have to be an expert, just where maybe you interview people on a particular 3D printing, like, and that's just one aspect of tech. Think about what crypto is happening. Of course, as crypto continues to evolve and there's lots of different drama to talk about. I mean, how do you feel about Trump and Melania's meme coins? Did you buy some? I mean, I don't know. Like, what do you. How do you feel about that? There's a lot of weird stuff happening. Point is, get into the game and be thoughtful about what niche you pick, how you position your channel. All right, so let's land the plane and get into part four of this conversation. But before we do, I did want to give you a heads up if you haven't heard. I am giving away free copies of the updated second edition of my book YouTube Secrets. If you go to ytsecrets.com or just click the link in the show notes, all you gotta do is pay shipping and I will mail you the updated edition. 90 new pages. We deleted some chapters, we added some new chapters and there's a couple cool bonuses that come with this as well. You actually get access to a free deep dive training. If you are looking to create an edge on YouTube. What's working now? What's changed? How do you get your first a thousand subscribers? How do you get views? You're gonna love this book. I will ship it out to you in the mail as well as send you that free video training that comes with it. All you gotta do is cover shipping and I'll hook you up with that. And so that's yt secrets.com or click the link in the show notes wherever you watch. Or listen to the Think Media podcast number four. The collapse of gatekeeping and the rise of decentralized influence. This kind of ties together this whole wave that we're seeing in 2025 and if you do have the ability to comment because you're watching the YouTube version, I really am curious about your thoughts, your take, do you love Trump? Do you hate Trump? Do you, are you excited? Do you see this as an opportunity no matter what? But here's the truth. The old media gatekeepers, cnn, the New York Times, the major networks, they no longer control the narrative. So this is a right now conversation. But what is the landscape going to look like over the next six to 12 months with Trump's executive orders on AI, crypto and tech leadership? The US is pushing for decentralization, not just for finance, but for media and influence. And if you've never looked up the concept of the long tail from Seth Godin, I don't know if he invented it, but it's this idea that there's gonna be the big guys, right? The Joe Rogans, the Russell brands, the Patrick Bet David, which are gonna these independent really mega brands now. Like I think Patrick Bet David and Valuetainment added up their numbers and they were like getting more views than seeing CNN as really like a scrappy startup comparatively to the old school mega corporation. That's cnn. So there's going to be those people. But when you look at the long tail, there's just such a practicality to growing a die hard audience of a couple thousand subscribers, of 20,000 subscribers and then figuring out creative ways to add massive value and then create subs significant income because of these micro tribes. And so yeah, if you search that later you can look up the long tail. Seth Godin's got some great blogs on the long tail. And so what we're seeing though is that independent creators are becoming more trusted than corporate newsrooms. So I don't know what's holding you back and I know you might think about well what do I have to say? Or you're afraid of being on the sidelines. Everyone who got into the game at one point had zero views. And everybody who has gotten into the game of content creation dealt with the same mindsets you have. Of course they had different levels of confidence, but it's things like imposter syndrome, overthinking it. I think one of the biggest things I want to communicate to you is don't put this off for six months or another year or two years or three years. Have the boldness to get off the sidelines, get into the game and to take a swing at your giant, take a swing at that thing you care about, grab your slingshot and go on the offense this year. Make an attack. And I love YouTube, as you know, but there are other platforms too. X is going to be interesting. Formally, Twitter, that's going to continue to evolve. Again, I know these characters are so polarizing and people have such strong opinions, but it's a real player, and who knows where video on X is going to go. Video is emerging on platforms like LinkedIn. Of course, writing substack rumble is interesting. YouTube is the juggernaut, and absolutely a place that you should have a presence established on. Bottom line is creators aren't relying on traditional institutions to build their influence anymore. And so here's the big idea. Creators that understand what's going on and build strong independent platforms now are going to dominate the next decade.