Sean Cannell (3:52)

And what is that app called? And what is how. How much is it a month or a year for people as being kind of your main source of revenue?

Christina Patterson (4:02)

It is called the Beloved Women app. You can search it up on the Apple or Google play stores. It's 1499amonth and a little over $100 for the year.

Sean Cannell (4:13)

And when did you launch that?

Christina Patterson (4:16)

We launched that app in 20. Was it 2019 or 2020? I can't remember off the top of my head. Sorry.

Sean Cannell (4:29)

And how did you build an app? If listeners are like, I mean, you made an app, Was that tough?

Christina Patterson (4:35)

Well, it was a. It stretched us a lot, actually. I worked with. I've worked with several app developers. First with Vimeo Ottoman, they were the first app developer that we worked with to create like a membership subscription app. And then we are now with Vid App in conjunction with Kajabi. And we're actually in the next few months going to be moving the app to solely Kajabi, because Kajabi does apps now as well. And so these are just different app developers that we've worked with. And so they do a lot of the work. I just have to make sure that we have the income to pay for.

Sean Cannell (5:18)

It, to pay the service fee as the software, as a service. Essentially, yes.

Christina Patterson (5:22)

And so apps are very expensive, especially back then. Now I'm seeing those prices going down as more people, especially entrepreneurs, coaches, nonprofits, are actually seeing the value in developing an app for their services. But yeah, we had to, like, start small. We started on web first before we built the app out, made sure we had enough members to support purchasing an app. And then once we had enough revenue to make sure that we could do that, then we actually had the app built out.

Sean Cannell (5:55)

I love that. Now one of the things I Want to drill down on is you're saying we can you speak to who we is if you've got a team today, but also, you know, we'll unpack your story more. But how we as progressed, like if early on it was, you know, just you and a spouse or what has been the journey.

Christina Patterson (6:12)

Early on, before the app and all things, it was just me recording videos at night, as you mentioned, while my. My kids were asleep, because that was the only time that I had to do it. My husband definitely helps out a lot. He's. He's actually a computer engineer, which worked out perfectly for me. So he's able to really like help out a lot with the behind the scenes tech things that nobody knows about. And then probably around the same time as launching the app, I brought in my friend Kirsten. She's our ministry coordinator. So she helps a lot with admin and like community management and things like that. And we've had video editors over the years as well, which was extremely helpful because that takes up so much time. I love editing videos, but it just takes up so much time and I would prefer to be playing Legos with my son.

Sean Cannell (7:05)

Yeah, I love that. So you reached your first a thousand subscribers in about a year. But I actually kind of want to go back on the timeline here because it basically was the year you took things seriously. But when did you officially start the channel? What was your life like then? And then how much time progressed before you kind of took it to the next level and took YouTube a little more seriously?

Christina Patterson (7:31)

Yeah, I started the channel in 2013. That's when I created my YouTube channel and my daughter was one. I didn't have my son yet. And I just sat down at the kidney table. I opened up my webcam and I just recorded a video and it was horrible. I don't even think I have it live on my channel anymore because I was so embarrassed. But I just thought, like, I can just flip over my camera and just start talking. And I did. But it wasn't very structured or well thought out. But I got started, I had to start somewhere and so had my daughter. Then we ended up moving. I had my son. And so from 2013 to 2016, I was just trying to navigate having two children. And so I would post sometimes or I. I think there was probably an entire year 2014 when my son was born where I just didn't do anything at all. Just trying to navigate that season. And then it wasn't until 2016 where I had the idea to do a Bible study Series and I did a series of videos and the channel started to really grow because I was becoming more consistent in posting. And so that's kind of where things took off with our actual growth as a channel.

Sean Cannell (8:46)

I am curious back to the why and the inspiration. Like in 2013, what was sort of your mindset? What got you even thinking about opening up your laptop, turning on the webcam, and recording a video?

Christina Patterson (8:58)

Yeah, you know, Sean, not many people know this about me, but before I had kids, I actually had a job. And I was a. I was a grant specialist at the U.S. department Estate. Me and my husband used to live in the D.C. area before all where we are now. And my heart has always been for nonprofit work. And because my mom used to work at the. Well, she still does, actually, the American Red Cross, my entire life. And just seeing how much impact that made in people's lives, I knew that I always wanted to do the same. I always wanted to be like, mission driven, impact focused with whatever work that I was doing. And so when I left that job because we started having kids, and me and my husband just decided it's probably best for us to have at least one of us home. And at that time, I had no idea what I was doing. And I really needed to just cling close to the Lord at that time because I was like, working at the Department of State was easier than being a mom. And that was a pretty, like, intense job. And so I was just doing my devotions every morning. And then it was just on my heart to start sharing it. I started a blog. Well, my friend encouraged me. She was like, you should start a blog. And I was like, what's that? What that was? I started a blog, turned into a podcast. And then that's around when in 2013, I found out about YouTube. And it was just really on my heart to, like, start a YouTube channel. But I looked at YouTube and I was like, there aren't Christians here. Like, there weren't pastors were not posting their sermons on YouTube back then. So I was just like, I'm kind of out here all by myself. I don't know how this is going to turn out. But I went ahead press record and it turned out amazing.

Sean Cannell (10:45)

Man, I love hearing about your story. And then later on, the idea of a Bible study hit you in 2016, and you started to be more consistent. Now your channel has over 2 million views. Do you remember when your channel first got monetized and what that felt like being like, whoa, I'm getting actually paid a few dollars from YouTube or maybe a few cents when you only get those first few views.

Christina Patterson (11:11)

But it was that I had, I did a video, a book review on a book from Priscilla Schreier called Fervent. And she's like really big in the women's ministry space. And so that video did well for me. And I remember looking at my AdSense because at that time you didn't have to like qualify, you just had to apply. So I had applied for the partner program and I made it, but I wasn't making any money. And then I looked at my analytics and that video had made 2 cents. And I remember being like, oh, people make money online. Like this is a thing. And I just remember thinking like, if I just make more videos, I can make more money. I was like, okay, let's do this.

Sean Cannell (11:58)

Yeah, I love that. Okay. So then that was before YouTube required 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time within a 12 month period of time. So then you actually lost monetization and then you had to re. Get in. Do you remember when you got into the new terms?

Christina Patterson (12:16)

It probably would have been around that 2016 mark. I can't remember. It was 2016, 2017 when I was consistent. It didn't take me long to get back into it. I think I just didn't have the watch hours. And so I, I was like, okay, let's just post more videos. We can get the watch hours. And it didn't take long. It took longer actually for them to approve. The approval process was like super long even once you qualified.

Sean Cannell (12:41)

I love that. Well, I'm still excited to get into some stuff about seasons and taking breaks as well as tactics, even that you've learned for getting views, your strategy of creating video series. But I want to go a little bit deeper into some of the ways you've earned money. And one of the ways is publishing your book Relentless Joy became a number one Amazon best seller in two categories. Take us back though. Was it true that you got rejected by actual publishers? So how did you kind of have this experience of discovering self publishing and how that is turned into an opportunity for revenue and an opportunity for listeners? Maybe that is outside of something they've thought about before.

Christina Patterson (13:23)

Yeah, for sure. Outside of those two cents that I made in AdSense. Self publishing was the second way that I generated income online. And I went to a conference, like a Christian speaker woman's conference or whatever because I thought that in order to have this impact that I want to have in women's lives, I need to be speaking on stages And I need a traditional publisher. So I went to this conference and I spoke to agents. I had a book that I had written that I wanted to publish. And I just knew that this, this book was going to be hot. They were going to be knocking my door down trying to give me a publishing deal until, until it got rejected by three different publishers. And I remember just feeling devastated because I felt stuck because the publishers were like, well, you need more speaking engagements in order to be able to get a publishing deal with us. And then conferences were like, well, you need to have a traditional publisher before you can actually speak on our stages. And I was like, well, what am I supposed to do? I don't have either. So I feel like I can't start anywhere. And during that time, like I wanted to just kind of give up the idea, but I just felt like God really placed it on my heart. Keep, keep talking and sharing on YouTube, keep speaking on YouTube and go ahead and self publish the book anyways. Like, it was like God had gave me that message for a reason. And even though it wasn't traditionally published, I still felt called to make sure that I at least did my part to make sure that it was out in the world. I couldn't control the results as far as how many people bought it or how many people saw it, but I could control the fact that I press publish and made it available. And so I did that. And, and that was the first book that I published. It was called Daughters of Fire. And then to promote it, I did a video series on YouTube so you could buy the book and then you could watch the video series for free on YouTube. And that actually ended up working really well. And we use that format to this day where we will self publish Bible study guides and then we will have free video series on the YouTube channel so that people can follow along with us. And so I, I don't even like promote the video, the Bible study guides that much in the videos or even when we're not doing a series, but we're constantly making royalty from Amazon, KDP just from having those books linked in the description and other places as well. And I just love it because it's a way where I'm still creating that community around the content, but then people have a way with the study guides where they can like go deeper and develop their own personal relationship with God, which is always our goal anyways. So it's just like a win win where you can figure out what offer works well for you that best serves your audience, but also helps you to meet your revenue goals so that you can continue your mission.

Sean Cannell (16:29)

So how did you. What was the journey of figuring out how to self publish? Because it might feel daunting to individuals to think about, okay, logging into Amazon, you know, formatting. Like, how'd you figure all that stuff out?

Christina Patterson (16:40)

YouTube University.

Sean Cannell (16:42)

Yes.

Christina Patterson (16:43)

Googled everything.

Sean Cannell (16:45)

Yeah.

Christina Patterson (16:45)

And I was like, I mean it would take like when I first got started, I was like, I didn't know how to format. I was like, I just have my word document and then I have to go on YouTube and figure out, oh, what did I do wrong? And I have to resubmit it. And they'll be like, oh, it's wrong. And just, it was just a lot of trial and error. I didn't take like a super like expensive course or anything like that. I didn't have money for that at the time. I just figured it out as I went along by how, how to format margins for a KDP size 6 by 9 book. It's all out there. Like all the information is out there.

Sean Cannell (17:18)

Got it. So just diligence, step by step, problem by problem, writing out your content. And then did you. Do you just type out chapter by chapter in Google Docs? Like what's your process?

Christina Patterson (17:31)

My process has changed over the years actually, especially with, with ChatGPT because you.

Sean Cannell (17:36)

Can narrate, you can kind of do. Or do you use narration?

Christina Patterson (17:40)

Yeah, I do now. I didn't back then. I just typed everything out as I had an idea. If I had an idea while I was out, I would use my notes app and then I would come home, put it on my computer, type it out. Now I might be on a walk and just have my voice memo app and just start talking. And that's how I do my video scripts now. And then what's cool with one of the most recent updates for the iPhone, it transcribes your. I don't know if you saw that. It transcribes your voice memos now where you can just click copy the whole transcription of the entire voice memo.

Sean Cannell (18:16)

Got it. So you've really tapped into one for. It's helping you write the books and the Bible studies you're writing using AI to for your video scripts. If you're preparing another video, you're out walking, you start getting an idea, you just start narrating or verbally processing into ChatGPT while you're walking and then into.

Christina Patterson (18:39)

My voice memo app.

Sean Cannell (18:40)

Okay.

Christina Patterson (18:41)

And then I'll take the transcription from that, I'll put that in a chat GPT and say, hey, can you edit this for spelling, grammar, sentence structure? Keep it in my voice, keep it in my tone. Don't take anything out. Like, I'll be real specific about what I want. Depending on what I'm trying to do. Write a hook that sounds like this, you know.

Sean Cannell (18:57)

Got it. Okay, so the voice memo app on iPhone. Make sure you do the recent software update OS operating system update. And not only do you have the voice memo app, but then you've got the ability to copy paste the entire transcript, give ChatGPT some instructions to not alter your tone or anything like that. And now you can build out a video script while you're on a walk.

Christina Patterson (19:23)

While I'm on a. I have had to get like super smart and fast about creating content because I feel like for me time is always limited because I got it. Like I was telling you today, I was like, okay, 2:00, I got to get in the carpool line. Like there's always like with, with the kids, there's always something going on. Or like I was like, okay, I have to record videos at night. And so I feel like for a lot of times I'm like working in the fringes and I've just had to. I am grateful for that because it's forced me to be disciplined, but it's also forced me to be really innovative and smart with how I create content. And I can create content probably 10 times faster than I could 10 years ago.

Sean Cannell (20:04)

Man, it is really a game changer with AI, some of this technology, which is nice because everybody listening to this is asking like, man, how do I balance this with kids or work or school? And so these are some really juicy tips. Now I am curious, like if you can think about what has been like one of your best months from Amazon kdp. It's inspiring. I'm on your Amazon page. Your most recent book, Crazy or Cold? You got Stand Firm. Worth more than Ruby's. A grace filled Bible Study on the Seven Virtues of Proverbs. 3191 reviews. And over the years it looks like, I mean you've built now multiple listings. So it's kind of like speaks to the longevity of like one book at a time, one Bible study at a time. But like, what, what are we talking here? Obviously it's maybe up and down but like, do you. Can you think of like maybe your best month of how much essentially Amazon sent you?

Christina Patterson (20:57)

It was probably a few thousand dollars.

Sean Cannell (20:59)

Wow.

Christina Patterson (21:00)

And then on average we probably get like between 5 and 700amonth if we're not promoting anything, but if we're promoting anything, it'll be substantially larger than that.

Sean Cannell (21:13)

Yeah. So it's. So this is kind of like this reoccurring revenue stream. Also similar to building up ranked videos and building up a library of videos, you also have, like a library of assets of the books you've written. And they're ebooks. Some of them are physical books as well. And that's all through KDP is.

Christina Patterson (21:32)

Right, right, right.

Sean Cannell (21:33)

Have you done any audiobooks?

Christina Patterson (21:35)

I haven't done audio. I do want to try that, though.

Sean Cannell (21:39)

Yes. Well, I love this. Okay, now, again, we're actually going to get into so much more, but one other question. I call this a lightning round. We're quite a bit into the conversation, but sort of the opening things, kind of talking about the financial side. We've covered, you know, the KDP AdSense, some of the different ways, you know, you've been earning money with your app. But have you also built an email list?

Christina Patterson (22:04)

Oh, yes, I had. I'm pretty sure I had an email list before I had a YouTube channel.

Sean Cannell (22:08)

Mm. Why do you think it's important to have an email list? And do you think that this is an overlooked point for a lot of creators?

Christina Patterson (22:15)

I do. I think a lot of people are, like, focused on, oh, I want to grow my Instagram or I want to grow my TikTok. And I think those are great for me. I've been able to grow my revenue and my YouTube channel faster, I believe, because we've had that email list because people have, you know, what's called permission marketing, where they're saying, I will give you my email address because I actually want to hear more from you. And so those people are more prone to buy from you, to want to hear from you, because they've given you permission to connect with them. They actually want to hear from you. And so that's worked really well for us over the years. Every time I post a video, I make sure to send it out to my email list. And that helps us to, within those first 24 hours, to make sure we get those extra views from our email list. And they're. These are like the women that are, like, super passionate about the ministry and supporting us. And so they're. They're clicking those videos from the emails they're sharing with their friends. And so it just helps overall.

Sean Cannell (23:14)

And so how have you done that? I mean, and maybe you've used different softwares over the years, oftentimes called like CRM, Customer Relationship management, or email marketing softwares, but Also why people sign up. Do you give away something free? How have you done that?

Christina Patterson (23:32)

Yes. So my primary opt in, which is like the free gift that I give for people to give us their email, is a video bible study called Worry free that I don't share anywhere else. I've been using that same opt in probably since 2017 and it just works really well and so I just keep with it. But we have different, like prayer guides or five day challenges or quizzes work really well. We have a what spiritual season quiz are you in? Or what type of Proverbs 31 quiz are you in? And those work really well as well. So we have multiple opt ins but I focus mainly on the worry free Bible study video and, and that's like our main one.

Sean Cannell (24:18)

Very inspiring. Okay, so taking a little bit of back, you've given us a picture of your past, but I'm kind of curious about seasons of YouTube. A lot of listeners, young kids, it's a whole different ball game than when they're, you know, a little bit grown up or different seasons of work. Balancing work full time job with YouTube. And one of the things for you was having a year of health challenges yet still growing your channel off of just a few videos. Can you tell us that story?

Christina Patterson (24:52)

Yes, that was a very hard year for me. I had a lot of health challenges, specifically slipped disc in my cervical spine and had to had some issues with one of my eyes. I have glaucoma and had to have surgery and then another emergency surgery after that. And so it, it definitely was one of struggle seasons that I was in. And I'm just, I'm just trying to survive. I only got like 12 videos out that year, most of them at the beginning of the year because once everything started spiraling I just was like tapped out. But I remember looking at the analytics and being like, wow, we still gained like 10,000 subscribers and people were still watching all of the older videos that I had posted before. And so as you know, I had, I start really started being consistent in YouTube in 2016. I think I took VRA in 2017 and learning how to rank my videos. And so all those ranked videos were still getting views for me while I was recovering. And that was like super inspiring for me to just continue YouTube because you, you go through a season like that or any other season where you feel like you're just struggling and you're like, I could just stay tapped out. Like I could just like not come back and be okay. Like it's a lot of work that content Creators put in. It's a lot of effort that you're putting, putting in. And you do have those seasons where life gets hard and it's easier to just kind of like quit, you know. But I think that really inspired me because it showed me like this is working and this is probably the best platform to create an impact if that's something that you want to do even when you're not available. And so that just kind of inspired me. Okay, let's, let's still continue to lean in on this YouTube also. I feel called to do it, so. But YouTube helps.

Sean Cannell (26:47)

So you mentioned taking our program Video ranking academy in 2017. One of the things that sometimes individuals new to the term ranking or I learned how to rank videos is they're like, what exactly does that mean? So I'm curious if you were talking to a friend who is kind of brand new to YouTube and you know, you throw that out. That's not exactly like kitchen table talk with your family, like, ah, I'm ranking videos. Or like what? Like how would you try to explain that simply of like what a ranked video is and why that again is so powerful through the different seasons of life?

Christina Patterson (27:23)

Yeah, well, I would just explain that, you know, people are coming to YouTube usually searching for something, and so ranking your video means creating your video in a way where the people that are searching for the topic that you talk about can easily find you. So if someone searches how to study the Bible for women, our videos will probably be some of the ones that will pop up at the top because we've intentionally titled our videos and create our videos in a way to make sure that that happens. So that's what I mean when I say rank your video with starting with the thought of what are people searching for and how can I make this video easy for them to find it.

Sean Cannell (28:05)

Yeah, that's a, that's why we're obsessed with ranking videos here at Think Media. And, and I think about it in the seasons of life as well. Whether in our family, we've had chronic health issues or challenges. Now as a father of a two year old and a four year old, it's like I'm always looking for ways to have leverage essentially, videos working for me, things working for me when I'm not working. Because it may be that you need to work on something else, recover, rest, or maybe that you're dealing with a really heavy season. And so rank videos are super powerful. And if you're listening to any of this and you actually just want to drill down on that One topic and you haven't seen my free class, you can go to thinkmasterclass.com or I'll link that up in the show notes. This goes more into specifically ranking videos. And so I'll have a link to that free one hour class in the Show Notes if you want to check that out a little bit more. One of the things that has helped you with your channel getting views is you mentioned in our pre survey that a well thought out hook is working good for your channel growth right now and you're doing some new stuff because you already talked about maybe a prompt that you're giving AI for coming up with these well thought out hooks. Can you break that down?

Christina Patterson (29:24)

Yes. So as you already know, Sean, those first few seconds of your video are like super important. YouTube's looking at that, at the engagement in those first few seconds to I guess decide how they'll share that video on the platform. So you definitely, but you also want to just in and of yourself make sure that people are engaged in those first few seconds so that they continue to watch the video. And so I usually do script my videos out completely. If I don't and I just have an outline, I will at least always script the intro or the hook to make sure that whoever's watching knows what the video is going to be about and why it's so important, why they should continue to watch. Usually trying to like pull out some of their pain points and provide a promise that, that we can help alleviate that if they continue to watch the video. And so one thing that I've been doing is really just studying other people's hooks on YouTube. So and it doesn't even have to be like Christian content creator. It could just be anybody doing a video, a beauty video or like a productivity video. And so this is like a hack that I've been doing. If I see a video and I'm like, wow, that hook really got me. I will, on YouTube, YouTube transcribes all the videos. I will copy the hook of that video from the transcription and I'll put it in what I call my YouTube copy bank and I'll just save them. And so then as I'm creating my videos, I will take that hook, I'll put it in ChatGPT and I'll say, hey, can you use this hook as a template for my video and create a hook based on this template that you've created from this other hook? I hope that makes sense. And so ChatGPT will kind of give me like a really rough draft and Then I will go in and kind of craft it to really make it my own, but still kind of use the same format of the hook that I really liked from them.

Sean Cannell (31:22)

That is a genius YouTube tip and so practical and something that we can immediately use to start getting more views on our videos. I'm also curious you, are you using shorts and how consistently are you posting shorts and how do you feel about shorts when it comes to long form vs shorts?

Christina Patterson (31:41)

This year on YouTube I am using shorts. So I have a video editor now. Love her. And so she'll take probably two to three shorts out of my long form videos and then I will post them after I posted the long form video so that I can then link people from that short to then encourage them to watch the long form video. Because as you upload the short there's the. I forgot what it's called the related video that you can connect to.

Sean Cannell (32:12)

Yeah. That makes it a clickable link right on the short called related videos.

Christina Patterson (32:16)

Right. So I'm. So I'm leveraging shorts to just get more views to the long form videos.

Sean Cannell (32:22)

Got it. And, and have you. How effective do you think that's been or what have you noticed?

Christina Patterson (32:27)

I was using shorts a lot last year because I was doing a lot of testing and I did see a substantial growth in our views. Both are short view because some people were like, oh well you only get people that want to watch short views, you know, the shorts. And so then they don't really watch the long form. I've seen that it. That has transferred over to having more views on the long form as well. I think it takes time though for some of those numbers to kind of come through. But from what I've seen it's, it's been working for us. Our, our view count, both shorts and long form increases anytime that I'm consistently posting shorts.

Sean Cannell (33:04)

That's a great insight. I think it also for listeners sometimes the issue is like their shorts are different than their long form significantly. Sometimes it almost like creates confusion where I guess in your case it's like it's your shorts are aligned so it's right. So the people who are following you, they want to learn about the Bible, they want to learn these principles and maybe a short it is a reminder they want to dig deeper and so it might settle the debate because this is a huge debate amongst creators. But for sometimes it's like shorts can be so they just what is getting you views there might be so unrelated to your other content that it could create algorithmic confusion. But the vision of your channel, the brand of your channel. I think it's probably one reason why that's very helpful. That's a great tip for listeners to think about strategic shorts using the related video feature that are tying back to the bigger video that they are a part of. In fact, even to address. Sometimes people wonder if they should make a trailer for their long form video. And I don't think you should. I think what you're doing is your editor's cutting out a clip that's valuable on its own that then links back and then that is a, a choice that viewers can make if they want to go look at the long form. In fact, I'll link up in the show notes. I had an interesting conversation with Dave Ramsey's YouTube producer and strategist who broke down how they are kind of using a tiered approach to using shorts that lead to their longer form. And it's a pretty people some people's favorite video in terms of just kind of how interesting and tactical it is. So that'll be linked in the show notes as well. I need to know about your day and what I mean is like at the different seasons of life, whether you got a one year old, a two year old, whether you were editing at night and maybe. And then things are different today. You gotta go into the carpool line or to pick your kids up. Like, what are your tips for busy creators and entrepreneurs that are making excuses that they don't have enough time? How do you do it? And what are maybe just some of the practical things from the time you get up to run a business, to also create content, to run the financials, all the, all the other unseen things. And in just a second I want to talk about how you actually have a nonprofit setup and an S corp and how we could structure some of our YouTube things for where it's relevant for listeners. But what are kind of what's, what are, what is your productivity tips and what do you personally do to kill excuses and get everything done?

Christina Patterson (35:36)

I don't always get everything done, but I do. I have a planner. We actually have a beloved women planner. And so I try to each day kind of write out what I need to get done that day. And I pick like the top. Like I have to get this one thing done today and try to make sure that's the first thing that I get done. So I would say just prioritizing, taking time to like. And a lot of people are like, yeah, you can prioritize but like, you have to like take time and be like, in this season, what is the most important thing for my business, for my ministry, for my nonprofit, what is the most important thing? You know, if it's, we gotta submit our taxes, like, you better do that then, you know, it might not always be, like, creating a video or it's. Or maybe it is like, today I gotta get a video recorded because we're going out of town next week. So I figure out what is my priority, and I try to structure my day around that. I have, like, a block of, like, deep work time. So usually from, like, 9 to 12. I try my best not to schedule anything in those during that time. For me, I know my zone of genius for in my business, like, so that I'm not distracted with busy work. I know that I have to be writing, I have to be creating content. If I'm not doing that, we're not making money. So from 9 to 12, every day, I'm at this computer and I'm writing something. I'm creating some sort of script or Bible study guide or something like that. And so just being really disciplined about doing those things, but also being clear about what I don't do. So I don't watch that much TV because I just don't have time. I don't have Instagram on my phone because it distracts me. So I would be scrolling all day. I love Instagram, so I'll use different apps to post there when I need to. So just, like, knowing what my distraction weaknesses are and making sure that I have limits there so that I can be present whether I'm at work or with my family or things like that. But then also, like, what you said is also, like, giving myself grace. Like, if I know that I've been, like, going hard for, like, 10 days straight, I might drop the kids off at school, come home and lay on the couch and go to sleep, like, and just say, I gotta, like, just rest today. And, like, just being at a point where I know, like, the signs of, like, okay, you're pushing a little bit too hard. Like, let's reel it back in a little bit. Or, you know, even talk to my ministry coordinator. She might be like, you taking a break anytime soon? You okay? You've been kind of going kind of hard, you know, so having people in my life, her, my husband, they just kind of hold me accountable because I'm. I'm definitely can be a worker, be like, I'm more the person you have to slow down than push to speed up.

Sean Cannell (38:23)

So those are some great insights. And I Would love to hear a little bit more about your definition of, of deep work, especially as a content creator. So I would. I want to hear from you. It sounds like a time of killing distractions, but sometimes there's this idea of writer's block not having the energy. I've heard others call this knowledge workers. Content creators are knowledge workers. Like you're the effectiveness of your brain and your energy and your focus. How. What does deep work mean to you? And from 9am to 12pm when you've blocked that out, is there anything you're doing to get in the zone?

Christina Patterson (38:59)

For me, deep work is the most important work that I have to do. Like you said that I can't. It's not something I can multitask. Like if I have to do it when the kids are gone, they're at school. Like it's not the kind of like emails. I can do that if they're like around or like creating a thumbnail. I can do that if they're around. But like writing, it's whatever work that I really need to be locked into and paying attention to. So that's deep work for me. So I start out, I try to get some food in me first. Some. Something I usually just do like some scrambled eggs and some bacon. Just get some protein in me. Maybe some tea if I'm feeling tired. If not, then I don't. I don't really do caffeine. But I'm also not like one of those people that wake up at 4am I tried it. It's not for me. I'm not a morning person. So I just let that go. Everybody else can have that. I let that go.

Sean Cannell (39:50)

You're not like doing a cold plunge and then like running 20 miles with.

Christina Patterson (39:55)

Yeah, like I love to sleep. So I, I'm one of those people that. I know this is like the opposite of what all the productivity people will tell you, but I wake up at the latest moment. I know I have to get out of bed at 7:32 to get the kids to school on time. I'm going to sleep till 7:32. That's just in this season. In this season. Maybe later I'll be one of those 4am people, but not right now.

Sean Cannell (40:21)

You're setting people free right now because.

Christina Patterson (40:22)

Again, I don't do all that. I tried it and I was over.

Sean Cannell (40:26)

It's kind of overrated. It's kind of like what works for you. It really helpful. But like you get enough. Look at the business you've built. Like look at. And I think you're set people free because we feel pressure as if, like, these complex morning routines are really the secret. It's really about finding your routine of getting in the zone. But I'm cutting you off. You can keep going, right?

Christina Patterson (40:45)

No, you're good. And so drop the kids off at school, get here, try to get some breakfast in. I will always do a morning devotion, spend some time with God. But it's. It's like maybe 10, 15 minutes. And then I will write down my list of things because I gotta get out my head. You know, I'm always thinking, what do I need to do today? So, like, I just write it down so it's out of my head. And then I'm like, all right, let's get to work.

Sean Cannell (41:11)

Yep. And then you do that five days a week.

Christina Patterson (41:14)

Five days a week? Yes. I. I would love to take Fridays off, but I'm not there yet.

Sean Cannell (41:19)

There's something. It's like if you see anybody that's getting consistent results and you look behind the scenes of their life, you can see a consistent routine. It's like, there's something about the. It's pretty wild. I just think about five days a week, you have deep work from 9am to 12pm and look at what you've accomplished. That's all. There's also sometimes it's not, you know, some scrambled eggs and some tea is not super fancy.

Christina Patterson (41:49)

Right.

Sean Cannell (41:49)

It's not even necessarily exciting. It's repetitious. But discipline equals freedom. And so that is inspiring to hear. Yet it also is unique to you. People do different individual things and to get in the zone. But you found out something that works. Anything else on this routine and the discipline that you've consistently had over years, that's really compounded.

Christina Patterson (42:13)

I would say exercise. I walk, I try to get two miles in every day. It's been hard because it's been snowing here. I'm in North Carolina and it's cold for us and so. So. But normally when weather's good, I. The one at that 12 o'clock time, I 12 or one, I try to get outside, get some fresh air, get my body moving. And then I'm like thinking and I'm creating ideas and trying to solve problems that came up while I was doing the deep work and, you know, scripting videos, different things like that.

Sean Cannell (42:45)

I love that, you know, as this is just coming to mind right now, my number one purchase, I think maybe in the last five years that I feel like has changed my life is a walking pad for under my standing Desk.

Christina Patterson (43:01)

I got a feeling you were gonna say that. I'm about to buy one now. Just because you said that you're. You're the second person I heard say that.

Sean Cannell (43:07)

And I researched it forever. I ended up getting. The brand is actually called Walking Pad. I got the C1. It's a foldable walking machine. It's under my desk right now. I've now started to easily get in 10,000 to 15,000 steps a day as I go through about two hours of meetings. And I'm gonna be on two hours of meetings anyways on zoom, right? And I've noticed I've been getting less chronic pain that I've been dealing with anyways up in like shoulders and neck because of my hips. I'm feeling better. That energy's transferring towards the end of the day. And I love getting out maybe with some Bluetooth headphones. Probably best to actually just go on a walk. But I maybe take phone calls and whatnot. But it actually has been the secret for me lately because of just being able to stay working or multitask, especially with meetings. So anyways, if anybody wants to check that particular one out, I actually think maybe. I got the C2. I got the C2 walking pad. I'll link it up in the show notes if anyone's interested in this particular brand. But it's been a game changer. Christina.

Christina Patterson (44:13)

I'm sold. I'm so. You're the second person I heard say that. And I'm like, okay, yeah, I gotta get one now.

Sean Cannell (44:18)

And I used to. I used to actually think when people said get 12, 000 steps a day that I was like, that just sounds impossible. I'm too busy. And then I realized, well, this is. This is actually like not hard actually, because if you're going to be. I can actually. And then if I'm planning a video, I can talk to my microphone right here. Of course, I think the big investment is also thinking about a sit stand desk or at least a standing desk. It's going to go underneath that. And so there's some other pieces to get in place. So if anybody wants to look at that, I'll link. I have an office tour video and I'm going to do an updated one because I've got my sits down desk. And then, yeah, my walkie pass. My new favorite thing, it's like under my desk. So anyways, we'll link all of that up in the show notes. Okay. Two other big, really cool things to talk about. I want to hear a little bit about S Corp and nonprofit. You have both. And listeners might be interested in how they're going to structure their thing. But I want to hear about the video series strategy first. So one of kind of something that's been working for you, something that you have doubled down on, you mentioned it earlier that when you create a new Bible study series or you write a book that you publish on Amazon kdp that you create a video series around it. A lot of individuals are out there trying to make a one off video, good video, trying to go viral, trying to get views. But you've built these series out. What can you explain, like just maybe how you think about this and why? Perhaps thinking about a series could be a strategy listeners consider more than just thinking about a solo video.

Christina Patterson (45:46)

I think series are so helpful because I can have one idea and come up with a series around it and just kind of break it up so I don't have to come up with necessarily five different ideas. I can break this one idea up into a five video series. And most likely the person that watches Video one series, Video one in the series is going to want to watch the rest because they've already shown interest in it. And so it reminds me of like when I was a, a little girl, I used to watch this soap opera with my mom called All My Children. And at the end of every episode they would say next time on All My Children. And it would just kind of like spark this interest in you to be like, I can't wait for tomorrow. What's going to happen in the next episode? And so in some of my series I actually implemented that. So because everything was already recorded, I would say watch to the end to see a sneak preview of next week's video. And I would put like a little 20, 30 second like clip of what was coming up next week. And I feel like that really helped people not just to come back but also subscribe because they see like, okay, this isn't just a one off video. Like she creates content that I'm interested in every single week. And so one thing that I like to say is like when you show up consistently for your audience, they will show up consistently for you. And we've been able to do that, I would say pretty seamlessly through video series. And I think it does work with the type of content that we're creating as well. Because some of the ideas, if you're talking about like the Proverbs 31 woman, you know, it could be a three hour video, but I could just break that up into 20 minute, you know so many 20 minute videos as well.

Sean Cannell (47:34)

You know this is inspiring me is I've studied out and when it comes to marketing and psychology, they actually in email marketing, they've called it like a soap opera sequence because soap operas themselves actually use techniques that really work psychologically. You develop emotional bonds with the characters, you have an emotional investment. There's a curiosity gap when cliffhangers happen at the end of episodes. There's routine formation like just being able to watch that show daily and listeners could tap into all of these different things. When you're building a community on your YouTube channel in a positive way. I know there's people, there's new shows I watch on YouTube. It's part of my routine.

Christina Patterson (48:26)

Right.

Sean Cannell (48:26)

Curiosity gap is maybe what, you know, what else is coming next on the podcast and even the, the emotional investment if we take that deeper. Some of the, I've invested a lot of money in some masterminds and whatnot that revealed this tip and it was this idea that soap operas are, they're, they're actually less about even the story, they're about the characters. Like sometimes the stories aren't that good, but you're invested in the characters. And so a one off movie, you're like that's such a great story. Where really the soap opera idea is the character itself. And the principle was that if you're building a personal brand, like being invested, there is an aspect where you do want people to get invested in you, of course, a healthy way. But it's like the reason we keep following you is like yes, they're learning from the Bible, yes they're learning about YouTube, but how else can they connect with you, the individual? And if anything maybe you're actually not doing this, but it was painting an idea that like weaving in narrative or the connection they actually have. I mean I, I really believe that actually if you're only going to have a one off video, if all you have is a good video with a good hook, maybe a few videos people watch from you. But if you're built gonna build a true longevity on YouTube, you do need at some level people to be invested in you. So anyways, I just, we could talk about that. In fact, if you watch the YouTube version of this podcast, let me know if you'd want me to maybe do an episode about the stuff I've studied and Learned about what YouTubers could apply Soap opera techniques. You can leave a comment or any other questions you have for future episodes. But I love that and we would encourage listeners, right? You do this, we love to do this as well. Don't just think about your next video. Think about your next video series. When you sit down and plan these out, do you know how many episodes there are going to be or how does that process take? Like, do you. Do you. Didn't you actually plan them all before you even press record on the first one?

Christina Patterson (50:25)

I've done both, so. But I, I do know how many videos will be in there because I'm going to have an outline because I got to know at the first video. I got to know where you're going to end up at the end of the series. So I at least know how many videos are going to be in that series. I try to create at least all the videos in the series first before we start posting. Just because something I say in video seven might make me think I need to reword something in video kind of situation. Just because we're doing like Bible study series. And I want to make sure that it really is accurate. But I do think it's easier to kind of just create them as you go along, because when my kids were younger, it was easier to batch content. Now it's not as easy for me to batch content as it was then. So it just kind of depends on what season you're in and how much time you actually have.

Sean Cannell (51:15)

I love that. All right, Well, I do want to have one final question for you, really, that I think could be it's a little more advanced, talking about business structure, nonprofits, and all that kind of stuff. But before we kind of get to that final section, I want to acknowledge you for one. Thank you so much for being a part of our community, for the good you're doing in the world, for the content you're putting out there, but also whether you've been a part of some of our challenges in our private group for vra. I'm just so grateful for you. The entire Think Media team, you know, appreciates you and really just thanks again for being on the podcast. You've added a ton of value today. Again, before we get to that last question, give a full roll call so people can check out your stuff. You actually have two channels. You have another channel that's teaching some of the more YouTube and business stuff. And so, yeah, where can people connect with you? And we'll make sure to list out everything in the show notes.

Christina Patterson (52:07)

Yes, you can find everything about Beloved Women. We're on YouTube at Beloved Women or belovedwomen. Org. If you want to learn more about me, like professional teaching, YouTube, business nonprofit work. You can go to our YouTube channel, the Beloved Studio or go to Christina Patterson dot com.

Sean Cannell (52:29)

Yeah, I love that. So check out the show notes to connect with Christina. And I do want to hear a little bit about this idea, especially for faith based ministry type channels. How is it that you came about forming a nonprofit and then also forming an S corp and maybe the order of doing those what, what what you've done strategically about thinking this especially be true for Christian content creators or others maybe trying to figure out what entity to set up how to do it. And so what's that process been like for you?

Christina Patterson (53:01)

For me, I originally started as a nonprofit because I was thinking, okay, if I want to have like this mission driven mindset, it needs to be non profit. You know, the focus doesn't need to be money. And like I shared with you earlier, I quickly realized that we still need money though. And so non profit does not mean you just don't make money. Like no, you still need income and revenue to keep your mission going. And so I like to explain like this like a for profit business, the goal is to generate a profit by solving your customers problems. But when it comes to a nonprofit, your goal is to help make an impact by meeting your community's needs. But there still needs to be structure and you still need income in both situations. As I've grown, I personally think, and this might be a hot take, Sean, I personally think a lot of people that are starting out with like mission driven organizations are thinking, oh I should do a non profit and they probably should do a business because a business is going to help you to structure yourself in a way where you can generate income to help propel the mission without as much red tape. In certain circumstances you don't have to have a board of directors or anything like that. I think that people think, okay, well I want to be a non profit because I don't want money to be the focus because I don't want money to become a distraction. But what I see is a lot of people start non profits and they don't have money and that becomes a distraction because you still need money. So it still becomes a distraction anyways. And so I think that you can still have a mission driven for profit business that helps you to generate the money that you need to make the impact that you feel called to have. And so for me we started off as a nonprofit. We're a 501c3 nonprofit in the United States. That's just like a tax filing name. That means that we have certain Tax benefits and that when people donate to us, they don't have, they can write that donation off on their tax benefits. So it's a benefit when to tell people to donate to our organization. And it is about credibility as well that we're recognized by the government in this way. But when it comes to income generating offers like our app membership or our books or anything like that, then that is a for profit entity. Start off as a llc. Um, and then Sean, I got audited by the irs. Now look, everything went, everything was clear, but what happened was because I was LLC and this is like high level stuff, but just because I was, because I was an llc, I still have to report that on my personal taxes. And I felt filed jointly with my husband and I was like, oh no, we gotta separate this. And so that's when I was like, okay, let's do an S corp where it's a little separate. But that was scary for me. But it also again reminded me of the purpose, the, the importance of really having some sort of organizational structure. Despite, you know, if you just want to focus on impact because government didn't care, they were like, let me, let me see those receipts. And so it, it's still important to have a business mindset. A nonprofit is still a business and you have organization. You still need income, you still need structure, you still need a budget, you still need an accountant probably. And so, and, and I'm not a professional, this is not professional advice. This is just my experience from the past 10 years being in business, the past 20 years in ministry, in women's ministry. This is my experience. But yeah, you still need to have some sort of structure, whether it's a non profit or business. But don't knock starting a business even if you feel like you're more faith based or mission driven, because that actually might be the way that God provides the revenue to fulfill the mission he's called you to. And that's okay too.

Sean Cannell (57:27)

And ultimately today, because there's this ministry aspect to what you're doing, you, you still have the 501c3 nonprofit set up because it allows for, in this one method, if people want to say I want to support and make donations to the ministry work you're doing, they can do that. You have the credibility of that and that's a write off for them. So for having both for you, and this could be true for faith based Christian creators, having both might be a practical thing.

Christina Patterson (57:57)

Right.

Sean Cannell (57:58)

And then you started realizing though, well, because I got a YouTube income and this app income and Whatnot. I'm also going to have this S Corp set up. Am I following that correctly?

Christina Patterson (58:08)

That's right.

Sean Cannell (58:09)

And I do want to encourage listeners as well. There's a couple good episodes, in fact a series that we have here on Think Media that is about taxes, corporate structure. And one of the things that is powerful about an S Corp is you actually can save money on self employment taxes in the US and some even if you're making I think I talked to a CPA named Matt in the in that video series. I think if you're making around 50,000 a year plus you can start actually putting a few thousand dollars back in your pocket just because of how you set up your structure. So I know that at this point, if someone's still listening, number one, you're right or die on this episode. Number two, this is the real stuff though. There's like tweaks to you know, real creator economy business stuff. And you know, we want this podcast to be a resource for you. So we've put a ton. Thank you for all of that value that you've added Christina. And in the show notes, I'm going to do a roll call here. We've got Christina stuff. You can look at all of that. We will link up that series on taxes, corporate structure. If you want to learn more about ranking videos specific Christina is a part of our video ranking academy. It's one of our favorite obsessions here at Think Media. You can also check out that free class, you can watch it on Demand. That's@thinkmasterclass.com and that'll be in the show notes as well. And if you're actually ready to get your 12,000 steps in, you can check out my favorite walking pad and my new favorite purchase. I've made probably five to 10 years of my life, the Walking Pad C2, which is absolutely been a game changer. So always check out the show notes. And Christina, thanks again for adding value Think Media podcast like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen and I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode.