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The Think Media Podcast
391: (Part 3) The NEW Way to Grow a YouTube Channel That Lasts (Forget Viral Videos!)
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Sean Cannell
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. So if you haven't seen it yet, Google and YouTube did a brand new report revealing exactly what's working right now to get views and subscribers on YouTube. And in this video, I I'm going to be covering four tactical things you can do immediately, plus three big themes from this report. But I want to address the elephant in the room, and that is YouTube Gurus. The problem with YouTube Gurus is a lot of them are sharing theories that are untested with maybe personalized data, but not big data that can be proven across multiple channels. And so while you want to make sure that if you're learning from somebody about how to grow on YouTube, they've got some results. That's why I didn't start teaching YouTube until I had generated six figures figures in a niche that's non YouTube education. And then today have gotten three silver play buttons and a gold play button. But the bigger thing is that it's not just about what works personally for one channel or one niche, but what are the universal principles that you can apply so that you can get results no matter what your channel topic is. That's what we're going to be covering in this video. Welcome to the Think Media podcast. Sean Cannell here and I'm excited to dive into today's episode, which is based on a study that YouTube did and Google did of thousands of viewers and what their preferences are when it comes to content. And this study revealed a bunch of insights, so many that we actually have broken it across three episodes. This is episode three, if you want to check out one and two, we'll make sure those are listed in the show notes. And now let's jump into the first insight. Build a consistent theme on your channel. Instead of posting random videos. Here's the stat. Viewers are 100% more engaged with thematically consistent content. So the insight is connected. Content themes build stronger audience loyalty than random topics. And this brings up the question that all of us ask often. Do I need a niche on YouTube? Do I need a specific channel topic that might be so constraining? Some people these days are saying the niche is you, like you're the niche. Or some people are saying you should have a really specific channel, like gardening or just vertical gardening. And there's all kinds of debate. But here's where the debate stops. What you need is a theme, and what you need to avoid is just posting random videos that have no cohesion. So I think an application tip here would be answering this question. How does each new video reinforce your channel's core message? Which might reveal another question. What is your channel's core message? You know, when I think about think Media, the brand we now have, our tech channel, and this is the more strategy video podcast. If I summed up our content in one word, it would be helping you with YouTube. The one word would be YouTube. I actually could take a step deeper than that or maybe wider and say video or video marketing. And so can you sum up your core theme in one word or one topic? What's fascinating is that when you do so, maybe your experience, if you've been a part of the think Media podcast community, is, you know, eventually we might talk about email marketing or how to package what you know in an online course or how to, you know, select the right camera or get views on YouTube and maybe even time management. Because if you're a busy mom or a busy entrepreneur and you're trying to do YouTube, you're juggling a lot of things. But here's what's interesting, right, is I hope it's coming across in our brand that, like, it's in the context of YouTube or it's in the context of helping you build your brand and make money with video. And so I think you need a theme. In fact, remember, it doesn't matter what any YouTube guru thinks. What's the real data show? What does proven success across the platform show, it shows that you should have a core message because viewers are going to be 100% more engaged with thematically consistent content. And let me encourage you, the myth here, I think that people get into trouble with is they have a breakout video. Viral videos are dangerous. They have a video that gets 10,000 views or a hundred thousand views or a million views, a short goes viral and then they start thinking that, oh man, you know, now I'm making it. Now I'm like getting some reach. But just because you have a viral video doesn't mean you're building an engaged audience that is subscribing for a consistent core message. Random videos create random viewers. And no successful online business is about random stuff. And so, as you plan your content and your greater channel strategy for the rest of the year, answer the question of how does each new video reinforce your channel's core message? Next, insight. Communicate clear value promises in the first 30 seconds of your video. Here's the stat. 82% of viewers decide to stay day watching a video based on the first 30 seconds. The insight is direct value statements outperform slow introductions. So one of the reasons why your views might be suffering is because the beginning of your videos are suffering. And you have to understand how YouTube works. If you have a good title, good topic, good thumbnail, and someone clicks through on the video, great. But if they jump off within the first 30 seconds, then that's going to harm the reach of the video. YouTube's not going to distribute it very far. So you want to be very thoughtful about what's happening in those first 30 seconds. And it's not a time for introducing yourself. It's not a time for a slow introduction. It's not a time for anything other than direct value statements. And even if you're doing entertainment, you want to grip attention in those first 30 seconds. Now what's fascinating is if you log into your YouTube studio, there is under analytics, an area that actually will tell you what percentage of your viewers are still watching at 30 seconds. So we know for a fact that YouTube cares about this specific metric. I have found that when I'm looking at that stat in YouTube analytics, that 50% of people are leaving my videos in the first 30 seconds. And sure enough, those videos don't do very well. It's interesting recently though, as I continue to spend more attention on crafting the opening 30 seconds of my video, the hooks my best have been like 9 out of 10, 92% are still watching at 30 seconds. So that's something to consider as you're crafting your intros of your videos, but it's also something to measure because what gets measured gets improved. So if you've been posting some YouTube videos, take some time to go into your YouTube analytics, analyze the results. And if you're watching the video version of the fake video podcast and you have a chance to report your results in the comments, that'd be awesome because I'd love to know what insights you're getting maybe from diving into your analytics. And here's the application Answer this question before you press record. After this video you will be able to what now again in entertainment. It might not be an educational result or something they've learned, but you know, I wanted you to know that after this video you're going to have at least four actionable tips and three big themes that can help you get more views and subscribers on YouTube this year. What what's going to be the takeaway? And define the takeaway before the video starts. Next Insight use every YouTube feature to help viewers navigate your content. Here's the stat Channels using platform features show faster growth rates. This is fascinating. So of course we know that the content itself videos themselves are what are going to get views are going to grow your channel. But from the report they realized that those who tap into YouTube's features, the insight is built in tools. This improves the viewer experience and retention. There's something called session watch time, which is beyond just watch time. This is one good example. If you have a good video that has good watch time, that means people spend a lot of minutes on it. Maybe they even watch it till the end. That's great. But you know, it'd be even better is if they spend a longer session on YouTube, meaning they watch multiple videos that might include your videos or other videos. But what YouTube loves is top time on platform. They love it when people come to YouTube and stay on YouTube. So the best case scenario is you bring people to YouTube in some way or when they get on YouTube your video is recommended. Or they search for it and they find it and as a result of watching your video, they stay on the platform. What's best for you is if they stay on the platform and keep watching more of your videos, they get into a binge session of your content and tools are going to tap into that. At the end of your video, they click the end card and they go to another video. You know, think about this example. Maybe after this video you didn't see part one and two and you want to go watch those. I Mean, it'd be helpful if you did, because YouTube would be like, huh, this session is longer. These videos are keeping people on the platform longer. But here's the other thing is, even if they don't watch more of your videos, if they stay on the platform, perhaps your video helps people learn new terms, new insights, new things they're curious about, so they just have a longer session period. There's a level of credit that YouTube gives to you. That's what's called session watch time. But let's talk about this in application. When we say YouTube tools, what are we talking about? Well, includes many things. It could be YouTube chapters that could be helpful. You could skip around in the video. The way you do that is in your YouTube description. You start with 0 colon 00, which lets YouTube know, okay, these are about to be the time codes and chapters. And then if the next section of your video is at 5:32, 5 colon 32, and you type out whatever that section is about, this now becomes clickable, searchable, organized structure to a video that's called YouTube chapters and YouTube time codes. Now there's also cards which could be clickable in the corner of the video. There's also how you organize the YouTube description, letting people have valuable resources there, maybe find other videos or things they're interested in, putting videos into playlists, the utilization of end screens, your utilization of YouTube Studio itself and optimizing things on the back end and understanding YouTube Studio, and even the community tab, using your community tab to promote and cross promote videos, engage with your community. Again, this principle from Google's report is that channels using platform features show faster growth rates. So I encourage you, commit to just mastery. I know these could all sound overwhelming, like there's so much to learn on YouTube, so just commit to learning something new every day. You can subscribe to this podcast if you find this valuable. Wherever you watch or listen, you know, rate, review and just continue to come back, you learn a little bit more every single day. And also, if you want help, we actually do have, if you never heard about it, a coaching program. Maybe you would love to work with somebody. It's kind of like working with somebody in fitness and you want to get some results, so you hire a personal trainer. We have that at Think Media if you're interested. So if you want to inquire if it's not right for you, then no big deal. But if you go to viralvideocoach.com we'll link that in the show notes. You can fill out an application and we only work with people that it's a great fit for and it becomes a win win. So viral video coach.com if you want a personal trainer to get your YouTube game fit tight results and make it your best year ever. And other than that, keep studying out these features in these tools because channels that use platform features show faster growth rates. Now in a second I'm going to give you the three biggest takeaways from from the entire series and I have some unique insights that I think will really help us this year. But let's hit the next insight out of a total of I think 15 across the three part episodes. Here we are. Let genuine passion and enthusiasm shine through. Here's the stat. Viewer memory increases 70% when creators show authentic excitement. Here's the insight. Real enthusiasm is more engaging than polished restraint. So I know when it comes to getting on camera it could be nerve wracking just to do it in the first place. You know, we punch fear in the face, we start, but then sometimes I think like we feel we have to get on camera and deliver well and, and we like maybe lose our personality and our enthusiasm by just trying to be pro, by trying to be a professional, by trying to be articulate or something. Here's what the stat reveals. That when you show up with real enthusiasm and you connect, hopefully your YouTube channel is about something you're truly passionate about. Hopefully you're talking about something that gets you pumped. And I'm sure that at certain times you might go down a train of thought or you start happens to me, I start mentioning something that kind of fires me up. You want to roll with that. You want to roll with that passion. Because what's fascinating is Viewer memory increases 70% when people show excitement. It's like dry information is like cool, I'm getting facts, but I'll forget the content. If you want to be unforgettable, get a little uncomfortable by being yourself and showing real enthusiasm. And so the application is don't be afraid to include moments where you naturally get excited about your topic. This episode is brought to you by streamyard. Streamyard is our go to platform here at Think Media for for live streaming to Facebook and YouTube and for recording our video podcast. It has an incredibly easy to use interface for built in branding transitions, text, lower thirds and seamlessly bringing on guests. And they just added an awesome new feature called Local Recording. This allows you to take the quality to another level by separating out your audio and video from from your guests, giving you more control over your content for later use this feature is perfect for video and podcast creators. And so to get a special deal on streamyard right now and to see all the features that are included, just go to stream with think.com that is streamwiththink.com. you know what's fascinating is there's this idea of react content and there's been some stats that that have come out that have revealed that a lot of millennials and gen zers actually prefer to watch sports or current events or things in the media or things in pop culture via their favorite streamer or their favorite YouTuber. So more than actually going and watching the news, they want to watch the news through someone like you reacting to it because they find someone they can kind of hang out with and you know it's good or bad. One of the reasons for this is that there's more kind of loneliness and some fragmentation in cult around the world. So some people, I'm one of them, might sit down at lunch, turn on my phone and instead of going and watching the news, I'll watch one of my favorite creators recap of the news and see their reactions. Because it's like you're watching it with a friend, right? You're watching it with somebody that you have context with and it is more interesting because the way they react or when they show enthusiasm or excitement, it sticks with me, right? And so don't be afraid to include moments where you naturally get excited about your topic. But we're not done. In fact, this is probably the most important part of the video because we're going to cover the three biggest takeaways from the three part series. Let's dive in. Number one, the new YouTube authority comes from experience, not production. Here's what the research shows. Viewer trust and memory formation are highest when creators share real experience and genuine insights. This explains why channels built on authentic expertise consistently outgrow those built on production value alone. Your lived experience is your competitive advantage in an AI driven world. What I love about this tip is it tells us why we won't be replaced by robots. So the future is bright for real creators like yourself. You know, one of the reasons why I love this insight is because it's encouraging and tells us we won't be replaced by robots. One of the things we learned in a previous episode was about one of Google's ranking factors or the way they evaluate websites, which was E E A T. It was experience, expertise, authority and trustworthiness, which are human attributes. And I wrote down three things that I am going to try to apply this year. That I think will benefit you as well. So that there is continuous growth on your YouTube channel and you don't get stuck or plateaued. Number one is commit to personal growth. If you want your YouTube channel to keep growing, you need to keep growing. You are the incubator for your content. You know, one of the fears you might have when you start creating content on YouTube is what if I run out of things to say? What if I eventually run out of topics to talk about? And the only reason that would happen is if you stop growing. But the cool thing is if you keep growing, if you keep learning, if you keep having experiences, if you keep creating new stories because you're actually living this thing and challenging yourself and putting yourself out there, then you will continue to grow. And so where your YouTube channel, you know, we talk about the 10% edge. You don't need to be a super expert to start on YouTube. You only need to be 10% ahead of the people you're helping. You only need to be 10% ahead of somebody else that's just getting started. But you will stall and you will get stuck and you will plateau and you, if you don't continue to grow and so commit to personal growth this year, meaning commit to gaining new experiences. I want to encourage you that you, you can start now, you can start with the experience you have. But I want to warn you, it's not going to be enough for the future. And that's okay. You should feel a little pressure. You should feel a little bit like none of this is going to be guaranteed. But the future will take care of itself if you commit to personal growth today. The second application would be create new experiences and stories. I kind of already touched on that. But it's like, how can I continue to put myself in places of pressure so that I have new stories to tell, Personalized stories like Google tells us. Experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. When someone's lived it, when they've done it, when they, they're not just on YouTube talking about it, but they're. They're in the real world. Why I think media, we use the term player coaches. Like whether it's Craig or Nate or Kyle. Like, we do this video production stuff. These guys have worked in colleges and Kyle's doing church audio, video, lighting every single Sunday. And I've done all kinds of freelance work and all kinds of photography and all this different stuff. And we say this to all of our think media coaches who have their own YouTube channels. It's like we aren't just Coaches, we're player coaches. We want to stay in the game getting new stories and experiences. Like, I have a program called Video Ranking Academy. I didn't just rank videos five years ago. I ranked videos yesterday. Like, I'm continuing, but it's also new stories. How did I do it? What was the. I want to encourage you in your niche, create new experiences this year, create new stories this year. And this is an interesting way of viewing the world where I think for the content creator, pain really can be reframed into something super positive. Because the best stories are ones that are usually painful and have conflict and have challenge and are somewhat dramatic. So the pain you go through in your life, the mistakes you make, the experiments you do see, nobody wants. There's no movie that is good if there's no conflict in the movie. There's no ups and downs, there's no wins and losses. There's no getting knocked down and coming back. There's no underdog to it. So could it be that your own personal story, all the trauma and the pain and the challenges you're going through, that's the very ingredients that leads to greatness on your YouTube channel. But furthermore, I want to challenge you. I'm really just speaking to myself. Don't get comfortable, Sean. Don't, don't shrink back from, from stretching yourself into new territory and creating new stories. And also, sometimes life just happens. In fact, that's a guarantee to all of us, right? And as life's happening, setbacks, challenges, getting punched in the gut, getting the wind knocked out of you, having these different things happen, these are new experience, these are new stories. And for the storyteller, for the content creator, we want to be in these experience. So get into, get into the mud, get into the conflict, get out there, try stuff. Don't be afraid to fail because even your failures are lessons and content that can be teaching moments for your channel. If you want to have good and interesting stories to tell, you need to live a life full of good stories and interesting stories. And then lastly, number one of the three big insights from the report is stay endlessly curious. Be a source of epiphanies and insights by continuing to read, learn and question. So if you feel like again, your level of depth is here, that's fine. But you gotta keep reading and keep studying. That's why for the content creator, you also do need to be a consumer. We say create more than you consume, but also strategically consume. What books are you reading? What is your pdp? What is your personal development plan? What online Courses are you watching right now? What membership groups are you a part of? You know, I joined a membership recently and it's like a sacred hour long session on my calendar every month that I'm not going to miss because I always need to be learning more, having new epiphanies myself, which leads to new experiences and experiments myself, which leads to new insights and stories which then I can pass along to you. And so to be a great content creator, I think we have to be a strategic content consumer. Lifelong leaders are lifelong learners that are not randomly learning, but just never stop being curious about your subject matter. And I know that sometimes it might even get boring and redundant. So resell yourself, reinvigorate yourself. Light your own fire, fan into flame your passion for your subject matter. Buy a couple more books, you know, listen to a new podcast, listen to something about your subject matter or adjacent to give you different divergent ideas that bring fresh inspiration to your channel. That's when you'll stop being an echo and you'll start being a voice. Because people are like, man, there's some freshness to this channel. This channel feels fresh, feels new. It's not just an echo of other channels. How's it happening? Because of your commitment to personal growth and the strategic consumption of smart materials, because you remain endlessly curious. Now, the second big takeaway from the entire report is build a content ecosystem, not just videos. And that was one of the tips in this video. But let's kind of break this down. When viewers actively engage with organized thematic content, their engagement doubles over time. This means sustainable channel growth comes from creating interconnected content that rewards deeper viewer investment, not from making disconnected videos hoping to go viral. And so let me just encourage you, catch a vision for a theme. Catch a vision for you're not just making random videos or just some niche YouTube channel. What's like the greater brand? What's the greater core message? What is the ecosystem of content? And how well are you communicating that to your audience, to your viewers as you build one video at a time? And then the third big takeaway from this report from Google, of all the tips, and remember, part one and part two will be linked up in the show notes and it's all organized into playlists. Is emotional resonance is the new view magnet. This is a big deal, emotional resonance. I don't know if you're watching some AI content, it's cool. There's a time and place for it. It's going to be a wave. People are going to make a lot of money and get A lot of views off it. But, man, you know what we want now. You know what the thing is in 2025 and beyond? It's emotional resonance. It's like real people live in real life. We're looking for real connection. And so here's what brain imaging shows. Brain imaging research shows viewer retention and memories spike by over 70% when they feel an emotional connection. This means your ability to make viewers feel something, whether through storytelling, whether through shared experiences, or whether through genuine enthusiasm, is now more valuable than any technical skill. The big theme of the report was also that you need a baseline of audio and video production value. But that's not the magic sauce, the real sauce. If you want to be the sauce boss, you want to be emotionally connecting. Sometimes we feel like if we tell a story, some viewers might click off because all they want is information. That's okay, let them go. Because there's going to be a lot of places to get information, including places like ChatGPT or whatever. But the emotional connection and the community you build is your only safety and consistency for building a strong personal brand or media brand year after year. So, of course, don't waste people's time with endless stories that are poorly organized. But weave in experiences, enthusiasm and storytelling into the content that you're creating, and you're going to create a better connection and get more views and subscribers this year. Now, if you enjoy episodes like this and you find them valuable, it would mean the world to me. If you like, rate, review and share the Think Media podcast wherever you watch or listen. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. And I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.