← The Think Media Podcast
Loading summary
Transcript97 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 your growth. This class is 100% free and you can watch it now on demand@think masterclass.com now let's jump into today's show. In today's episode of the Think Media podcast, we're going to be learning some tactical tips for getting more views and growing your YouTube channel. And my guest today is going to be sharing how she got monetized in 60 days using just an iPhone, which she still uses today. She's also going to be breaking down kind of the morning show method, this idea that you could turn in casual viewers to a strong community with daily content that she didn't expect to do when she first started out. She's also going to reveal her seven different income streams that are now earning more than she earned in her entire corporate career previously. And also why maybe ignoring social media could be a good idea and why maybe you should focus on one platform cause that could lead to faster growth. Kayla from His Word, My walk is your girl next door. Her vision is that you would grab tea or some coffee, get cozy, and then sit down and grow in your relationship with God. Her channel is all about Bible study and helping people understand the Bible. And her journey has been super inspiring. And there's a lot of lessons we can learn for no matter what kind of channel you're starting, whether you're more established or whether you are just getting started with YouTube. Kayla, welcome to the Think Media podcast.
- [02:00]
Kayla
Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
- [02:03]
Sean Cannell
I'm excited to be talking to you. And I want to, in our kind of like opening speed round, just learn a few tactical tips, which one of the most fascinating things from your story is you went from zero to getting monetized in 60 days using just your iPhone. What do you think led to that? How did that happen?
- [02:21]
Kayla
I. I had to get rid of the excuses. I think technology is always an excuse that we can make or even a reason. For me, it was a reason why I didn't start. But to be very honest, I did the 1k challenge with think Media and that kind of taught me how to format my videos a little bit better. And so I just went for it and my second video took off to get me monetized. And from there is where I kind of shifted my channel to keep moving forward.
- [02:48]
Sean Cannell
That's so cool. And how many videos do you think you posted in those first 60 days?
- [02:51]
Kayla
Well, it was three originally. And then I did a 30 day, what I thought was going to be a 30 day sprint. I did 28 videos in 30 days going through the Book of Matthew chapter by chapter to teach what people had been asking for. And then I continued on from there.
- [03:09]
Sean Cannell
So I think that 30 day sprint had a lot to do with the early momentum that your channel built. Would you agree?
- [03:14]
Kayla
Oh, absolutely. I looked at that one video that was got monetized or got me monetized. The comments in there were people saying, can you help me? Can you help me do this? Can you help me be consistent? How can I really do this? And I was like, oh, well, I can show you. So let's do it together. I'll do it for 30 days. And that built a community immediately and grew to almost this responsibility that there are people here now and a community growing. So I, I felt like I couldn't stop.
- [03:42]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so I think I better understand now. What you're saying is you had an original three videos and one of those videos really broke off, broke out and like single handedly got you monetized. Do you remember what video that was?
- [03:52]
Kayla
Yeah, it was how to read the Bible consistently.
- [03:54]
Sean Cannell
Okay. And. And so you had a breakout video, but then off of that video, not only did that video get you monetized, got you some channel growth that inspired the 30 day sprint, which ultimately shaped your channel and what you're doing today.
- [04:08]
Kayla
Exactly.
- [04:09]
Sean Cannell
Wow, that's so cool. And so I'm excited to come back and learn a little bit more about how you've been building a community and what your channel has evolved into. But my second question is a lot of creators feel pressure to focus on every platform. What was your Mindset? You're at 31,000 subscribers now and did you ignore other social media platforms and decide to go all in on YouTube?
- [04:31]
Kayla
Yeah, it wasn't by choice or by strategy. I just, as I started posting on YouTube daily for those 30 days, I didn't have time, I didn't have time to go back to Instagram. And because my or any other platforms and because my audience was growing and the people that I was serving were there and it was an entirely new audience, it wasn't. I could tell by some of the things it wasn't converting over. And so I just kind of triple down, quadrupled down, whatever you want to call it on my YouTube audience because it was taking my energy, but also I was willing to give that time. And so I just let the other ones kind of go by the wayside and figured I'll come back to them at some point.
- [05:09]
Sean Cannell
Of course everybody's experience is different and there's so much value in a lot of the different social media platforms. But knowing what you know today, if you were to look back, do you feel like that is pretty strategic when you think about the power, the search based nature of YouTube, the even the ability to fund the mission with money you can make from YouTube that actually focusing solely on YouTube might be a good idea for some listeners?
- [05:32]
Kayla
I think it turned out to be probably the greatest decision that I didn't make. I think it really, really helped me. It helped me focus. It helped me focus on who I was actually serving and not trying to be popular or trying to be trendy, but to truly follow the mission that I was there for. And whoever, I mean whoever God brought to the platform is who I was there to serve. And I wasn't trying to get things mixed up, I wasn't trying to hit everybody. I was truly where the growth was happening and, and yeah, to see the opportunities ahead, that's where they were coming from.
- [06:09]
Sean Cannell
Man. I feel like in a 2025 world, focus has always been important, but like there's more noise than ever before, there's more platforms than ever before. And even as an individual, as a creator, as a business owner, it could be so easy to get your mind all tangled with so many things to do. So just the power of narrowing down is interesting, but like you said, the greatest decision you didn't actually consciously make, but in doing so it led to so many cool things. I love those insights. And I'm also, to be clear, you also kind of focused on a format and have you dabbled with YouTube shorts or anything? Or have you even you focused even not just on YouTube because to a point YouTube itself could be distracting. Well, if I'm on YouTube, I need to do all the things on YouTube, but have you focused on even just kind of one singular promise, even within the YouTube ecosystem?
- [07:00]
Kayla
Yeah, I tried for the first probably month, I tried everything. Um, I think I have probably five shorts sitting there that are all from last May. And so once I once I developed this like, okay, we're going to continue this every day kind of thing, or five days a week, six days a week. I really just zeroed in on that. Um, it's what I had the capacity to do, but also it's. It's where I was serving the most people and it's where I felt really purposeful. And I wasn't and still am not trying to trend or whatever. Whatever God's going to do, he's going to do, and I love that. But I'm really focused on the community that I'm serving in a way that now they expect.
- [07:37]
Sean Cannell
This is powerful. I just talked to Noah Kagan on the podcast and he built AppSumo. He's got a million subscribers on kind of a business entrepreneur channel. But what I'm also hearing is he highly recommends experimentation. So I think some people, they hear your story, my story, somebody else's story, they think it's that one size fits all. Because shorts are great, but also long form is great. Video podcasting is great and so is Instagram. But man, when you find your thing and your format and also what's connected to your mission and your strength, that's such an amazing place to be. And man, I feel like the disciplined pursuit of doing less you narrowed into your five to six day a week show served the most, but also sounds like it served your mission the most. And essentially what Noah Kagan recommended was if you've done a lot of tests and experiments, you tried five shorts, you maybe tried a different format, you tried this. What can you then eventually identify that's working and that is in alignment, and then really narrow down on that. I think that's really inspiring. Now you're. You have a video that's. It's called Bible Journaling and it hit 63,000 views without any fancy production. You've got a lot of videos on your channel that now have grown and gotten some significant views. Do you have any kind of formula for creating the structure of your videos that you've learned from some of your most viewed videos?
- [08:57]
Kayla
Well, a lot of them go day by day, right? So if you look at my channel, I'm reading through the Bible chapter by chapter. We've now gone through 16 books of the Bible chapter by chapter, so that helps my format. It is very similar every day. But my desire is to have once a week an actual teaching video, a more practical how to live this life. And that's where Bible journaling came in. And how to elevate your prayer life, how to spend more time with God. Those kind of videos that I structure in a way of more teaching here's three ways you can do this. Here's five ways that you can do this. I come from a elite athlete background and personal training. And so like having practical. Here's how you actually walk this out really helps me in the way that I learn. So I realized that's also how I like to teach.
- [09:42]
Sean Cannell
Interesting. So, and have you found that it's those one per week teaching videos that have been the ones that have gotten garnered more views over time?
- [09:49]
Kayla
Yes and no. That's my plan. My plan is that those are the more searchable ones. Those are the ones that are going to bring people to my channel. But as I've seen as I started off in May going through the Book of Matthew, those ones are now people are still finding them. There are some of my highest watch videos from May 1, some of my highest watch videos every month, which as we get to that, some of my most income stream bringing videos even to this day. So I have a format, but I also just kind of like let it flow whether I'm teaching or reading with my community as well.
- [10:24]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's cool. It's cool to hear the buckets too. You've got chapter by chapter, you've got the one per week. And in both cases, we'll circle back to that a little bit later. Cause I want to get some insights out of that. But let's dive into a little bit of a deeper strategy. And before we kind of get into these tactical things, I would love to zoom out a bit and give us just kind of a timeline of who you are, how you ended up doing this, your passion for this topic, what inspired you to start in the first place, and how long you've been at this YouTube journey.
- [10:52]
Kayla
Yeah, I mean, going backwards, I started YouTube in just April of 2024, so not even a year ago. But before that, I had an audio podcast teaching once a week for two and a half years. And I've just learned so many things that like being diligent and working hard, you know, when no one really listens or it's your mom and her friends or all of a sudden there's people a week. And so I was just faithful. I just stayed consistent. I learned how to speak on a mic, I learned how to teach. I did it every single week. And then when it came time to teaching on video, besides the technology, I knew how to speak already and I knew how to speak on a mic and I knew all of that stuff. And it goes back even further to growing in my relationship with God and getting consistent Reading before I teach. And I'm just one of those people that, like, I won't teach it as soon as I learn it. I got to work it out for at least six months, maybe even a year before I start to share with other people. I want to make sure that I'm consistent. And all of that comes from even, like childhood and growing up, I've been disciplined in what I do and consistent, and that was a big part of who I am. And so let me help teach other people how to do it, too.
- [12:00]
Sean Cannell
You also mentioned being an elite athlete. What was your experience?
- [12:03]
Kayla
There was. I was a basketball player. I grew up in Canada, but I went to high school in Arizona to play ball there, and then came back in college to Canada and won a national championship and ended up working for the NBA for almost a decade. And yeah, sports was a huge part of my life.
- [12:17]
Sean Cannell
Man. It's interesting that we're hearing about your YouTube success, and I see so many principles that are transferable to all of us. If we have more discipline, we're going to get better results. Things like that we learn in sports are incredibly valuable. Resilience and persistence. I also like hearing. It's like your YouTube journey is wild. People are listening like man Monetize in 60 days. So fast your growth even to today and all of that. But yet it's sort of like we don't see the roots that go underneath the surface that are totally invisible before we see the springing out fruit or the tree that grows. And we're like, wow, like it came out of nowhere. It's like it came out of actually all of these years of development. And I also love the idea of basically two years of practice, two years audio podcasts only, but growing as a communicator, finding your voice. If you are, you know, encouraging listeners about the fact that maybe some are further along in their career and they might plug right into YouTube and get rapid success. But also the mindset needed for, you know, having, say, realistic expectations with what it really takes to build a successful YouTube channel based on your experience.
- [13:25]
Kayla
A time like it takes a lot of time. Like, the growth of a channel may look fast for my channel, but I put in a lot of time. This isn't a hobby for me and it never was. And I actually didn't start YouTube to have it be my main source of income. I started it out of obedience and probably delayed obedience, but, like, started it for continuing on the way that I was teaching and felt like it was the next step where God was calling Me. And I had no idea that thousands of people would come. I had no idea that this is how I would continue teaching. Um, I started it for. For the mission and for the people that I wanted to help. And I think that that really shifted so much for me. Um, and to see the growth now, it's even, like, more inspiring, and I'm even more in awe because it truly is. It's just me. Like, I'm the girl with the niece and nephew that's playing freezeball tag. And like, when someone recognizes you in an airport and, you know, can you pray for me? Yes, I can. But I'm still just the same girl that was there when there were two subscribers.
- [14:31]
Sean Cannell
Man, I love that. And actually today, what is the full production? Are you a solo woman show here?
- [14:37]
Kayla
I'm a solo woman show. I plug my phone into my computer still every week or almost every day if I haven't batch recorded something and edit it myself. I actually. Sean, you will be proud. I just hired someone two days ago. I was so excited to be able to say that to you, to help you with some backend things, some tasks that I need to put systems in place as I continue to grow. But it's been just me, and I am curious.
- [15:03]
Sean Cannell
So what do you mean that you plug your phone into your computer for someone listening? If they want to tap into their phone camera, plug it into their computer. How do you capture it and then how do you edit it?
- [15:13]
Kayla
Yeah, I use Plug here. I use Obs Studio. And so I wanted a place where I could see what was on my camera, but I knew I had to use the back camera of my phone. Like, I didn't know all of this when I didn't know it. And so I can plug it right into my computer and use just the camera from my phone. But then I can still see what it looks like. But it actually helps me because I talk just to the phone screen. Like, I don't see myself. I'm not distracted. I talk just to the phone. Behind my phone is my closet full of clothes. Like, I'm just. I'm truly just me. My whole way of teaching is like, grab your cup of tea, cup of coffee, let's sit down together. Super casual editing is pretty simple. I'm putting scripture on the screen, but if I sneeze, people in the comments say, bless you. Like, I'm not editing a whole lot of other stuff.
- [16:00]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's cool. And it's cool to hear. Okay, so Obs Studio and what you mean by the back camera for listeners. You know you do have a selfie camera, but on every phone it's never as good. And what's nice is because while you do have a monitor on your laptop screen because of the Obs Studio software, you are able to look at your phone without getting distracted. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not making eye contact with the lens, which is sometimes hard to do because you see yourself or you're trying to frame it. So those are really good practical tips and just speaks to it's not about our resources, it's about our resourcefulness. I want to dive into this idea of daily routine content. So we were talking before we pressed record. I feel like this could be called the morning show model. And for anybody listening, maybe you've watched Good Morning America before. Maybe you remember when there was a show called Live with Regis and Kelly. Today it's Kelly and Ryan Live. And this idea of consistent daily timing, a mix of structured content and natural moments, hosts who feel like friends, community interaction and this morning ritual aspect. You say, grab your tea, grab your coffee, grab your greens. Meet me every morning Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday with your Bible in your notebook 6am Pacific Standard Time and the best compliments you get is I'm reading my Bible with a friend. Explain how this all came about and you mentioned it came off of this 30 day sprint, but how did the show evolve and what have you learned from this process? Hey, we're about to get back into the podcast in just a second, but I have a question for you. Do you want to grow your personal brand this year? Do you need more leads and sales in your business? If the answer is yes, then right now is the best time to go all in on YouTube. Today's podcast is brought to you by thinkmasterclass.com where you can get on demand access to a one hour deep dive training revealing how to start and grow a profitable YouTube channel this year. For a limited time you can get access to this on demand class entirely for free where you will learn the three biggest mistakes that people make when starting a YouTube channel, the new rules and changes that have been happening on YouTube and how you can use them to create an unfair advantage and the exact strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 350,000 organic views every single day. The data is clear. 70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. So don't wait any longer to start growing your brand and business with YouTube. Just go to thinkmasterclass.com to get access to this no Fluff, highly tactical, free on demand training. That's thinkmasterclass.com well, what I learned after.
- [18:48]
Kayla
Those 30 days was I couldn't do it every day, that I needed a break and I honestly didn't think I was going to continue after those 30 days. My plan was one video a week. My plan was this is going to be my sprint. I didn't realize I was going to get monetized before this happened, but once the people showed up, I felt like I had to continue serving them and I had the means to do it. And so I did. And so I made a commitment that I fight hard against not having a Monday to Friday routine, but having it be every day. So I knew I wanted to include a weekend day, which is why we take Wednesdays off. So every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, a video goes live at 6am and the next chapter. And so they know what's coming. I encourage you to read it before you get here. The videos are usually 20 to 30 minutes is kind of the average of how long it takes us to go through a chapter. And they know what to expect and they show up. And then there are some people who show up every day when they got off work in the UK at 2pm and grab their tea and like they're in the comments. And the comment section has become incredibly inspiring for me and given me questions of what content to create later. But I just continued on and truly the people that I started to serve continue to push me to move forward. So I just set up if I can record three or four at a time to get me set up for the week. That's my ideal. But a lot of days it is the night before recording it and editing it. And that's where, like I say, I work well under pressure that like athlete in me still rises up that I have a commitment to other people. And so it will get done. It will get done and it will get published because there's a team out there depending on me to do it.
- [20:35]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's cool. And I like so sometimes you're batching three to four so you would do the chapter record 20 to 30 minutes, maybe record all four, then throw them all in your timeline, edit them all, get ahead. Have you ever broken your schedule since this started?
- [20:53]
Kayla
No, you have not. I have not. I speak openly and honestly about like grace days if I need one. The only time the schedule broke was in December. My computer completely crashed and nothing was retrievable. And there's no Apple Store in the place that I live. And at the time, I was building a Bethlehem village at my church. And so I put a post and was like, here's the situation. And my community was there, but other than that, no, I have not.
- [21:19]
Sean Cannell
And then, so. So you've been very consistent doing it. You create a routine. You've stuck with the routine. Are you planning on then just reading every chapter in the entire Bible?
- [21:29]
Kayla
Yeah, it's wild how many chapters there actually are when you think about it, and how long that would actually take. So I don't know. I. I tell, I tell my community all the time, like, wherever God leads, I'm willing to go. And I don't see this stopping anytime soon, but if it does, it does. And I'm open to that as well.
- [21:47]
Sean Cannell
That's 1189 chapters.
- [21:51]
Kayla
So people don't realize that when you're trying to read it in a year, if you go chapter by chapter. But the results of growth that people are getting is what's keeping me going just the way we're going.
- [22:02]
Sean Cannell
So that would take three years and three months, but you do it, what, six days a week or five days?
- [22:06]
Kayla
Five Bible chapters a week.
- [22:10]
Sean Cannell
Wow. So. So maybe kind of stretches out to maybe like four years. That would take. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. And so what I love about this and next question is a lot of creators chase viral moments and a lot of creators. What I love about this is it's kind of like this is the antiviral strategy. You've had some videos over time, like you said, since last May have really grown, but you've built your channel through daily connection and really a community first approach. And I think that listeners should really lean in for this. We talked to Chalene Johnson a while back and she was like, community is the way forward in social media right now, because if information is abundant, it's interesting. Like people even going viral. Like we see viral videos all the time, especially vertical videos. We're like, wow, we see it. Maybe it has 27 million views, but what's the connection? Meanwhile, you've just been so focused on this community first approach, and I think it's so powerful to have real connections, real relationships. Can you walk us through? I mean, you've kind of touched on it, but your mindset in regards to that and how maybe we could benefit as creators ourselves to stop chasing viral and start building community.
- [23:18]
Kayla
Well, for me, it's just about the impact. Like, truly, this wasn't my, you know, 10k, 20k a month strategy for life. So it was different from the start for me. YouTube was not my gateway to, you know, buy houses and all the things. However, I have paid my mom's mortgage, like through YouTube, so that was like a huge goal of mine. That just happened. So I'm super.
- [23:46]
Sean Cannell
You paid your mom's mortgage off?
- [23:48]
Kayla
No, not off.
- [23:49]
Sean Cannell
Just for a month.
- [23:51]
Kayla
You are now there yet? Yeah, but it was the impact of the people. And so that's what truly has kept me going. So, like, I realized that I have a solution for a problem that other people have, which is why most of us create a YouTube channel. But their problem meant so much to me and the fact that I had a solution meant so much to me that how could I not continue to give it? Um, and that's kind of what has grown our community now they're inviting friends and obviously the algorithm kicks in and certain things. But it truly for me has always been about the impact. And other sources of income have been coming too.
- [24:31]
Sean Cannell
And you mentioned that you actually didn't go into it thinking that it was going to be a source of income. What was your source of income previous?
- [24:39]
Kayla
You know, I had a rough couple years as the world kind of shut down. I got stuck in a different country. My dad passed away. It was figuring out life, you know, life changed drastically for me in a matter of four years. So there wasn't much. It was trying to figure out, what do I do online, how do I. So this would be great, but yet I refuse to let people's relationship with God be like this pawn to pad my bank account. There's just something like in my heart that couldn't go that way. So the fact that this has grown and the fact that, you know, this is silly, but one screenshot someone sent me was like a foot fungus commercial that came on my YouTube and I'm like, well, the fact that the foot fungus guy will pay me to preach the gospel like I'm in.
- [25:27]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [25:27]
Kayla
And that's truly what progressed me to. To want to keep going and to want to build was to see the opportunities with that.
- [25:35]
Sean Cannell
And this is your full time thing now. How would you say your time breaks down a week? And you, and you mentioned getting over 50 comments daily. How are you sustaining, trying to reply to them, Shooting, editing, planning and making this sustainable. Like how, how long. Today you're making good income. You're supported by doing this. So you have money for the mission, but what kind of time does it take to sustain what you're creating?
- [25:58]
Kayla
Yeah, I mean, for all intents and purposes, I'm working a 9 to 5. Like and I, and I treat it like that. Sure, there are days that I go out and do other things, but I truly had to look at how I was stewarding my time. And to be really honest, Sean has been telling me to hire an editor for months, and I had to really look at that. And if it's taking me an hour and a half for each video, that's six videos a week, that's what, eight hours if I'm paying someone for that time, what would I be doing with that time? And so I had to look at how I'm stewarding my time. Would I just be, you know, doddling or doing something else or scrolling another Instagram feed trying to go viral there? Like, what would I be doing? And so I truly have to treat this like my full time job. I sit down, I go to my desk, I go out for walks, I, I do the purposeful things, that this is a real business.
- [26:51]
Sean Cannell
And you did mention, like, it's been so grateful, you know, you mentioned, Sean said, and I know you've been in some of our community inside of VRA Elite, which is a group coaching program. What have you learned? How has that been helpful? And being connected to some of our stuff at Think Media, it's been amazing.
- [27:08]
Kayla
The coaching in there is probably, well, by far my favorite part. And just the number of opportunities we have for coaching, I could, I could be on six calls a week if I want. And even with that, I commit to one because I choose to steward my time for my business. And I don't want to get this. Sometimes I think as students, we get this overwhelm of I have to learn everything and I have to be on every call and then I'm not doing the stuff. So I commit to one a week, sometimes two, but at least one. But the program has, it has shifted my channel, it has shifted the things. So obviously I got monetized before I joined vra, but I didn't know how to go from a thousand subscribers to 5 to 10 to 30. And that's what VRA has really done for me, is like, give me those strategies. Just yesterday, one of the coaches sent me a video of just like switching some tags in one of my videos. Something that seems so simple, but he went through and like switching these words in the description. And so the hands on help has been, I mean, beyond what I ever thought.
- [28:09]
Sean Cannell
I love hearing that feedback. And of course, that's our mission here at Think Media. And if anybody listening is curious, there's a couple things you've been a Part of there, there is our video ranking academy program which is a do it yourself self paced course that also has some community aspects. And then there's also some higher levels where there's group coaching and even one on one. But if anybody listening's interested, we'll make sure to link up in the show notes. ViralVideoCoach.com is actually a chance to just talk with somebody on our team and if none of that stuff's right for you, no big deal. But maybe there's a level you want to engage with us. Cause you'd say you want help on your YouTube journey. We have a team of coaches in various levels that you can engage with us. That's viral video coach.com and we'll link that up in the show notes if you want to check more of that out. Now I'm going to list these out. This is fascinating. Maybe ask you about this. You have seven different ways that you're earning money now, which is wild. Ad revenue, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, building an email list, selling products and courses, generating leads for your business, coaching and consulting. On our form that we sent you where you like checking boxes.
- [29:13]
Kayla
Well, yeah. And I was like, oh, this is actually. Wait a minute, let me go look at my spreadsheets. This is actually incredible the amount of ways that income is coming in.
- [29:25]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so, so you're getting, you got monetized and you're getting great views per month and your videos are longer. So you probably noticed too that having longer form engage audience just means that. Do you just check the box to let YouTube place ads wherever they see fit?
- [29:39]
Kayla
Yeah, I mean maybe that's a conversation for another day, but I'm just rinse and repeat. Yeah.
- [29:44]
Sean Cannell
Yep. Okay. And so AdSense and then sponsorships. What have you learned there now that you're, you know, a Bible study channel. What's an example of like a sponsorship you've done?
- [29:54]
Kayla
I've done one with better help. So they reached out, which was really cool to have someone else reach out. Hey, can we give you this? We'll pay this much for a 60 second ad. And I was like, wait, what? Like you'll pay me this much to talk about it for 60 seconds? That's something that I use and that I enjoy. And so they actually just emailed me last week to like re up the deal. And to be honest, I was so proud of myself to respond back and say that offer isn't good enough for my. Where I'm at now, negotiating a little bit.
- [30:24]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [30:24]
Kayla
To say that now. So that was really exciting. But that's been a big one that has come and then I've had other like Bible study software and Bible study things that have reached out saying, how can we sponsor and be part of it too?
- [30:35]
Sean Cannell
That's cool. And then affiliate marketing. Like what. What kind of stuff could you be an affiliate for?
- [30:39]
Kayla
Yeah, mostly on Amazon. Amazon's a big one for me. People always asking my Bible or especially now that I teach Bible journaling, like what kind of things I use for that and things you wouldn't, you wouldn't even think on a Bible channel. Hey, what microphone do you use? Oh, you care about that? Okay, let me add that kind of stuff too. So even even though I'm not a. A YouTube channel, people still ask, how did you get started? How can I get started? I see what you're doing for this mission. I feel like I should do it too. Can you help me with that? So that's kind of awesome too.
- [31:12]
Sean Cannell
That's cool. What Bible do you use? I'm personally curious.
- [31:15]
Kayla
Oh yeah, we on his Word, my walk, we read the new Living Translation.
- [31:19]
Sean Cannell
Nice. I'm reading a new nlt. Wide margin this year is actually I've done a lot of study Bibles, but I went wide margin, no study notes. So no distraction, just rolling through it.
- [31:31]
Kayla
That's where I'm at. Yep.
- [31:33]
Sean Cannell
And then you're doing. Building an email list and so do you give away something free that people can join your email list for?
- [31:41]
Kayla
I do. I have a free powerful prayers guide that I had before YouTube. But it is, I mean, gosh, the amount of people that download it every day, it's just incredible how my email list grows. And then I serve them once a week I send an email as well with some additional like services or additional like insights and stuff too.
- [32:00]
Sean Cannell
And then eventually you created a product or course. Do you have multiple.
- [32:04]
Kayla
I have my course which I actually created two years ago when I had an audio podcast and it just sat there because Once I started YouTube, I didn't like how the videos looked. I didn't have a mic, I didn't have anything. So I just re recorded them all in December and now that is available and going. Incredible. There's a community there. There's almost 100 people in there. And I just. Yeah, it's again one of those things I created two years ago and I continued to, to grow and continue to serve and just use something that was already there.
- [32:36]
Sean Cannell
That's cool. And I love hearing listeners and I'll recap after all of this. You don't do all of this in one day. This is a lot. This takes time to build this up. But I also love that there was like a 1.0 version. Ah. And I love the videos. I didn't love the mic, but now I just got to re record it. But whenever you build upon the previous version, you're not starting over from scratch as we've re recorded even Video Ranking academy and are doing. So I'm like getting so much done in February of this year to really block out my March. There's a whole new version coming out of VRA and I'm so excited for all this new stuff and it's adding on the new tweaks and the new lessons, but it's also on the foundational framework that we've built previously. So it's really cool. And I'm curious, what's it called?
- [33:17]
Kayla
Bible Journaling Bootcamp.
- [33:19]
Sean Cannell
Um, and then how do you host it?
- [33:23]
Kayla
I host it in circle.
- [33:25]
Sean Cannell
So cool. Okay. And then generating leads for your business. I guess in a way that's a redundant income stream because it's kind of the same as building an email list and then coaching and consulting. What does that look like for you?
- [33:36]
Kayla
Yeah. So that was actually before even YouTube, like mentoring Christian women and speaking at events and stuff like that. And that has just. It grew when I first started my YouTube and now I've completely scaled it back because of my own capacity. I don't have the capacity to coach people one on one. But two weeks ago opened a monthly membership.
- [33:56]
Sean Cannell
So in addition to selling courses differently, what's the membership called?
- [34:02]
Kayla
It's called the Sisterhood. So it's just women, us coming together.
- [34:07]
Sean Cannell
Wow. So. So really then that still brings us to seven. If leads was redundant, a membership is really different than an online. And so that's so cool. And there was like, I think a quote in the notes that said in the last two months of last year or something, you made as much as you made in your entire corporate career or something like that. Was that accurate?
- [34:31]
Kayla
No. Each month, November, December and January. So the last three months, each month I made more than I ever had in a month in corporate.
- [34:40]
Sean Cannell
Wow.
- [34:41]
Kayla
So just knowing. Yeah, just knowing that this is, you know, it just feels awesome.
- [34:45]
Sean Cannell
I do want to kind of recap this. So this speaks to you. Just kind of broke down like the business model. Lots that to learn there. But I do want to encourage people from your perspective. You already mentioned this stuff takes time. I also love the professional mindset that you approach. I think there, there's way, of course, there's way too much. Shysters, fraudsters get rich quick, people on the Internet. This is not that. Think Media is not that. This podcast is not that. And you heard it from Kayla, she's like, it's like a 9 to 5. That's what I also, there are leverage things you can do, but this isn't the four hour work week. This is at least at Think Media. Some people create that, but this is for like mission driven people who love what you're doing, who want to make a difference in the world. And if you love the content and you get to enjoy it and you want to build a community, it can turn into something that is also very lucrative. So you have more money for the mission, but it does not happen overnight. This was a lot to learn. Can you break down just the process of year by year, even of your journey of figuring out teaching, email marketing, course building and what it really takes to maybe build this kind of career practically?
- [35:55]
Kayla
Yeah. It has to build time over time. I think we can always get sidetracked by what someone else is doing right now or what someone else is doing. You know, it's like the whole like, start with why book. Right? Like, and like, if you're not selling Oreos, then what are you not doing? You know, there's all this stuff. And so I started, I had online business before in, in the fitness industry, so I knew how to build an email list and I knew how to do certain things at one point doing fitness. I did a 30 day devotional through the book of Matthew three years ago. That's exactly what I did for those 30 days. Literally pulled out the PDF, changed the COVID changed some of the questions, put some updated website information and that's what I use. Same with my course. It was something I had built two and a half years ago and I just revamped it and put it out again. And so to just have those moments that help me get a start and then to see a little bit of progress, that's what helps me keep going. It's like in anything I've done, it's like once you see a little progress, that's what gives you the momentum to keep going. And. But it is a lot of work. I don't, I don't, I don't say this is easy, I don't say it's just all fun and games, it's purposeful, but it is a lot of work too.
- [37:07]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, I mean that's, that's so in line with our message at Think Media. And kind of different than a lot of the over promises that people make on the Internet. What's also inspiring about this is I hope listeners maybe feel encouraged that I know we want to have this stuff happen quick. And I do believe mentorship and strategy can get us there faster. But there's something about embracing the journey and embracing the process. Like if it wasn't for my working at a church as a director of communications and being an intern in the video department and then being on weird freelance video projects that taught me about, whoops, I forgot to press record or charge my battery or audio issues and even front facing with clients if it wasn't for talking to customers at the burger place I worked at and like refining my communication skills there. It's interesting how God gives us opportunities to learn all these divergent, detailed skills in your fitness business and then how you're able to pull stuff from years ago that you're ultimately implementing today and continuing to build on it. I just hope that the message coming across, on the one hand it might feel a little bit like, man, I was hoping like I'd be completely arriving at my destination in the next two weeks. Probably not. But what could really be built in the next two months, in the next two years, and even having a legacy vision of, of what could be built over the next decade if you just keep making consistent small steps forward for someone starting today as we land the plane, what would kind of your first few steps be? You're talking to a girlfriend. You're like, hey. She's like, I kind of want to do what you are doing. I want to learn from some of your mistakes or what you may have done a little bit differently. What are my first few moves if I want to follow in your footsteps?
- [38:56]
Kayla
Kayla, you just got to take action now. Like, I'm not big on messy action. The word messy doesn't like work with my whole mind and like Persona. But you have to take action, which means preparing ahead of time. I study ahead of time before. There's way more before I hit record than after I hit record in everything that I do. And, and you have to just put it out there and know that the main thing for me was this is truly about me serving and helping someone else. It's not about me making money. The money came much after I started serving and continued serving and continued serving and then have something small. So for me it wasn't, you know, hundred dollar courses or it wasn't these big mastermind weekends or anything. I created a 15 PDF workbook that went with the book of Matthew. And to this day, that is still my top selling PDF workbook every month. But I'll tell you this, since May 1st of last year, so however many months that is six or seven, I've sold over 600 PDF workbooks that are $15 each. So like you can do the math that over time and as things grow, something that took me two long days or longer to put together is now just residual. And so I continue to rinse and repeat. But step one is you've just got to take action with what you have. You have a phone. So just hit record and go.
- [40:24]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, that's really great. And there's a couple quotes I think that could serve viewers and principals. Your income is directly correlated to the amount of buy buttons you have on your website. I love that you created something and it wasn't something huge, it was something small. A $15 PDF workbook. And now with over 600 sold, that's earned $9,000. For a lot of people that rely on AdSense only, that is actually kind of like a moonshot can seem impossible. And so the power of eventually creating something small is really interesting. I think the more preparation is huge. A lot of times, yes, take action. You've heard me say it probably a zillion times. I'm like, yeah, punch fear in the face and press record. But also like reverse engineer and actually spend a lot more time researching and preparing and it's attention of those two things, which I think is interesting. And then it makes me. At one point in VRA we did like these 10 money principles or something. And I can't list them off the top of my head, but one of them is your income is directly correlated to the amount of value you add to the marketplace. And I know that we're aligned on this servant leadership idea. Like if you help people get what they want, you'll eventually get what you want. And it's a matter of order. And the order is it's like we're not chasing money, we're chasing impact. And we're chasing making a difference of people's lives with trust. And the principle that God has woven into the universe, that our income is correlated to adding value. Have you ever heard of this book Business Secrets from the Bible by Daniel Rabbi Le Pen? Yeah.
- [41:57]
Kayla
Yeah.
- [41:57]
Sean Cannell
It makes me think what's so interesting is that God wove these principles into even the Torah. That when we become obsessed with meeting the needs of his children, when we become obsessed with serving other individuals and having the opportunity to do that in a way that we're compensated for doing that. That's the motive. Like that's like to. To sell is to serve. And so anyways, I love you. Speaking about coming from a place of service, as we land the plane, I have one kind of interesting question for you. That's. I'll tell you what the question is. We'll get to it. Cause I want you to shout your stuff out. But. And we'll do that first. So we'll get to it in a second. But it's actually. Is there any counterintuitive pieces of advice you would give to creators for growing on YouTube in 2025? Think about that. But before we get there, if people want to see what you're doing, we're going to make sure to list it in the show notes. List it out for me. Where can people follow you, see what you're doing, look at your content, give a few shout outs?
- [42:53]
Kayla
Yeah, just come find me at His Word, my walk on YouTube. I'm there every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, reading the Bible. But there are 16 complete books of the Bible there with you. If you want a friend to read with you, one chapter a day, there's a whole community there too. And then Biblejournaling Bootcamp.com is. Is where you can learn and grow in how you journal through God's word as well.
- [43:14]
Sean Cannell
I love it. Okay, can you think of a counterintuitive piece of advice that you would give creators for growing this year on YouTube?
- [43:22]
Kayla
Yeah. I don't know if this is counterintuitive, but it's one I really wanted to say, and I know you've been talking about this one a lot lately too, is just like, be you. Like, I. I truly believe that God has done this, but I'm me. Like, I am me. When I sit down there with someone and when I sit down and drink my cup of tea because I can't read any longer or I'm truly just me. And the thing that sets me apart is that, you know, there's. There's a lot of people who teach the Bible on YouTube. There's a lot of people technically more qualified than me. But I gave God my yes and I gave my God my yes. As me. I tell people when I first started teaching spin classes, I. I taught like the instructor did until she wasn't in the room. And then I was like, oh, I can play my music and say what I want into the mic. And that's when my classes started to grow and I became one of the top Instructors was when I didn't have someone I thought I had to emulate. So I don't know if that's counterintuitive, but I think we are all so unique and look at what we consume, and it's like unique people that we didn't know existed. And so if you can just be, like, truly be yourself, that's how my community has grown, for sure.
- [44:36]
Sean Cannell
Well, Kayla, this is so inspiring, and I just want to acknowledge you and thank you. You're such a powerful member of our community, and the whole Think Media team is just grateful for you being a part of what we're doing and all the good you're doing in the world. And I love that advice. Listeners of the Think Media podcast, make. Make videos according to the music you want. Now, I don't mean, like, the actual music. You might get copywritten, but I mean, like, what's your vibe, what's your tone? And say what you want into the microphone. And I love the modeling the masters. So we have mentors. Sometimes we talk similar to them, but then when we launch out to be ourselves and be authentic. Kayla, that is so inspiring. And Think Media Podcast. And man, if you got a value out of this episode today, like, rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen to the podcast, and I'm talking to you, Apple, I'm talking to you, Spotify. Leave a review. Hit those stars on Spotify too. There's stuff happening. They're. They're really trying to make their way in the podcast game. So wherever you like to consume the Think Media Podcast, it always means the world. If you share this or maybe tag somebody or pass an episode along, it helps get the word out for what we're doing. In the meantime, my name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. This is the Think Media Podcast, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.