Loading summary
Transcript73 lines
- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
If you've been trying to grow your YouTube channel on your own, you might be frustrated because it's kind of like trying to get in shape without a coach. Slow, frustrating, and full of trial and error. That's why we created the Think Media one on one coaching program where you will get a dedicated expert to walk you through your next steps, to hold you accountable and to teach you advanced growth strategies. Plus, you get connected with the right expert in specific areas from our Think Media team for whatever challenge you're facing. But here's the deal. The annual fee is going up soon, so if you've been on the fence, now's the time to lock in your spot. Just go to YTCoaching.com to apply before the price increases. In today's episode of the Think Media podcast, we're gonna be learning why sometimes your worst videos can actually get the most views, even a million views in the case of of our guests today, and how to spot patterns in your own content. We're also going to be learning some title tips and actually just a super simple software to come up with great titles that get people to click and to get people watching your videos. Our guest was able to grow their channel from zero to monetized in just six months. We're going to be learning that story as well as some different revenue streams that she has tested over the years while staying at home with her kids and creating content at the same time. And then we're gonna look at other practical tips for helping you start and grow a successful YouTube channel and more. Now our guest today, Swavy Curly Courtney, is a wavy curly hair scientist and she is dedicated to helping people embrace their natural waves and curls. Her content emphasizes positive messaging around natural hair textures and is Inspired by Psalm 139:14 reminding followers that they don't have frizzy or bad hair, they have beautiful wavy curly hair. 177,000 subscribers, over 23 million views, and she's posted 576 videos. So no matter where you are in your journey, stick around until the end of this episode because there's going to be a lot of juicy nuggets that we will unpack. Courtney, welcome to the show.
- [02:30]
Courtney
Thank you so much for having me, Sean. I'm grateful to be here.
- [02:32]
Sean Cannell
So I want to dive right into this big topic of you mentioning in our pre survey that some of the videos you think are terrible often perform the best. Can you share a specific example of a video that unexpectedly took off or like just the elements you think made it succeed? Even Though it wasn't the video you.
- [02:53]
Courtney
Were most proud of, the video that just took off, I was not expecting it, was how to get wavy curly hair to clump together. And I heard somewhere, probably from you on Think Media, that using the word hacks in your video titles was real grabby. So I titled it Curl Clump Hacks. And I was filming on a cheap camera with terrible editing software. I had a horrible microphone. I go back and I watch that video and I completely cringe. Even the hair didn't turn out that beautiful that day. And that's my whole content is teaching women how to make their hair look really, really cute. And I didn't even feel like my hair looked that cute, but I just punched fear in the face and pressed record and then hit upload and it took off.
- [03:45]
Sean Cannell
And what lessons did you learn kind of from that process?
- [03:48]
Courtney
Perfectionism is the enemy of good, of done, of complete. Just go ahead and put it up there. It doesn't have to be perfect.
- [03:57]
Sean Cannell
And have you followed up with some videos that you weren't super confident in? What have you done, you know, since posting that video?
- [04:05]
Courtney
Well, I've posted about 400 other videos because that video was kind of early on in my YouTube channel. Something interesting that I've noticed, and this is a little off topic, that my niche in particular wavy curly hair got really popular during COVID because people were at home washing and styling their hair because they were bored and had nothing else to do. But as people went back to the workforce, they started changing how they styled their hair again. They were no longer needing to style it wavy curly. And I noticed my views dropped off a lot. But I can tie this back in by saying that I was able to supplement the loss of revenue due to adsense with digital products and online courses, which it's kind of interesting. But back to videos. I've noticed that specific topics do tend to perform really, really well. And I think I did just get kind of lucky with that video that getting the curls to clump together was the hot button issue that I stumbled on. And I have a teacher background, and I find that when I teach in my videos, like I'm trying to teach high school students, it performs really well. People enjoy that style of content. Very educational, not super entertaining.
- [05:28]
Sean Cannell
I think it's a big insight and. And I think sometimes listeners might actually experience a breakout video, but their success is random. And the art form and goal would be. You mentioned it like certain topics perform better than others. You know, it's kind of our mission at Think Media is helping people identify how to consistently create videos around those topics. I also like that you said hot button issues, like thinking about when you know your target audience, in your case individuals with the wavy hair, what are the hot button issues for them? What are the maybe problems and ambitions that they have? What keeps them up at night or frustrated? What are the issues they want to solve? And to your point, if you just have a phone, not even the best gear, you don't even have the best presentation of the content. If it's a really strong topic, it can get a lot of views. Conversely, if it's a weak topic with the best video production, the best presentation of the information, it might not resonate because it's not one of those hot button issues or something that the audience truly cares about. I think it's also interesting you talk about teaching like that. When you are understanding the intent of the audience and know that they maybe want good structured teaching and you committed to that, you find like, okay, that's work. That that is working. And all of this is kind of like pattern recognition. You have pattern recognition, there's some macro YouTube topics here or YouTube strategies, but also pattern recognition for your individual community, your individual niche. Am I getting this right?
- [07:04]
Courtney
Mm, absolutely. I was very lucky in the sense that I started creating content on Instagram back in 2018 and really, really learned this particular niche. I got hyper fixated on it, used my ADHD brain to learn every last minutia detail about caring for waves and curls. And nobody was really producing that type of content on YouTube. So I just started taking all those lessons I had learned on Instagram, being a part of this tiny little niche community of waves and curls, took it to the broader YouTube and since I was one of the only people talking about it, it did really, really well and performed very nicely.
- [07:51]
Sean Cannell
Wow. You know, you mentioned a little bit earlier eventually when even when AdSense dropped, you found some other ways to make money. I want to talk about that coming up and I do want to go deeper into like one of your title tools you were talking about, but I do want, I want to dig into this. I love that you had a season of practice and so 2018 you're practicing on another platform, but also the discipline what I think every listener, it's inspiring me. Learn everything about your niche. You studied everything. You were also practicing content, getting used to your community, individuals with the area you help and serve and that sets you up for YouTube success. And then you also mentioned your ADHD brain. Is that just something you've Self diagnosed or is that something you've actually I.
- [08:40]
Courtney
Was diagnosed as a young child. No treatments or anything. I just live with it. So could be considered a self diagnosis. I was diagnosed so long ago.
- [08:49]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, but unpack that a little. I'm just kind of curious. You. You're saying you're. Maybe it's kind of a superpower in one sense because it caused you to go super deep, but is it also had some challenges as far as having just ADHD and what that means for you as a content creator and what it means for you even building your online business?
- [09:08]
Courtney
It is difficult with the ADHD to focus sometimes and other times it becomes that superpower that you talked about to hyperfocus. I do want to mention one thing for anyone who is camera shy and like wants to do YouTube, but the idea of looking at your face on a screen just makes you want to die a little bit on the inside. The best way to practice is Instagram stories. They're 60 seconds long. They. They expire in 24 hours. Then nobody's going to see them. So if you. That's. That's where I did a lot of my training about how to be on camera and not absolutely loathe every second of it. As for my ADHD brain, you do have to be incredibly disciplined when it comes to social media. YouTube is a very hungry beast and if you stop feeding YouTube, it stops feeding you. So being disciplined, setting up structure, saying, I will film on these days, I will edit on these days ways doing it. Even if you feel like it is awful content, even if you were sitting down filming it, you stumbled over your words 58 million times. That is what editing is for. I cannot tell you the number of times that I have sat down to edit a video thinking, this is going to be horrible and there is no way I'm going to upload this. And by the time I'm done editing it, it's not half bad. And okay, yeah, sure, I can go ahead and put this up, you know, and lo and behold, it winds up doing very well if I've done my research properly and done all the SEO things. ADHD does become difficult when you start hearing all the different voices on social media of how to monetize your business, how to best steward your business. There's a thousand and one ways to show up and serve the community that you've built. And for me, that became really hard because I tried doing merch for a while and that ate up a lot of my time. And I was trying to learn how to set up a Shopify store and produce really high quality merch when my thing is teaching about waves and curls. And then I tried doing an online course, and that did really, really well. But I got a little bit distracted with trying to produce digital products at the same time. And I am the kind of person that needs to put my entire focus into one thing, get it fully completed, and then move on to the next. But that is difficult with the ADHD and scrolling through Instagram. Somebody says, do you want to make more money with your online business? Try this hack. And you're like, sure, yes, of course. I must be doing that thing.
- [11:47]
Sean Cannell
There's so many insights that I think, again, anybody can learn from, but especially if listeners with adhd, you know, this is gold because I think all entrepreneurs in general kind of, you know, they start scrolling, they see a new opportunity, a new platform, and we. We chase shiny objects. They're doing too many things. Is very interesting because it's easy to add on. We're doing shorts and we're doing long form, we're doing podcasts, and then we're doing a course and we're doing coaching, and then we're trying to do other social media platforms, and then we're trying to. Yeah, all this different stuff, you know, and this kind of made me think you're just like such a valuable framework for every single listener when you said, you gotta be disciplined. I will film on this day, I will edit on this day. And then saying, I'm gonna do it no matter what. No matter what your mood is, Just follow the plan. There's actually this book called Eat the Frog by Brian Tracy. I'll actually throw it in the show. Notes 21 Great Ways to Stop procrastinating and to get more done in less time. And it's based on this quote from Mark Twain that if it's your job to eat a frog, it's. It's the best thing. The best thing to do is to do it first in the morning. And if it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first. And so it's this idea of identifying your biggest, most important task that might be like, I need to film video, then to tackle it first thing in the morning when your willpower and focus are strongest. Now you're a parent, you might not be able to film right at that moment, but, like, eating the frog is like just doing the thing you don't want to do. I know for me, there's actually a presentation I'm working on right now that's like kind of new and making me uncomfortable. And so I'll scroll, I'll like do other things. I'll do stuff on my to do list, but it's not the biggest frog I need to eat. And so my willpower goes down. I procrastinate and then complete it before moving on to the easier, less important tasks. There's just something about charging right at that thing that is most important. And for YouTube content creators, that's literally film your next video, edit that video, get it posted. Any thoughts on waking up and eating that frog?
- [13:52]
Courtney
That is really, really funny and cute. I've heard that saying before. It's fun to know where that saying came from. You really do just have to do it. Come, come heck or high water, it is going to happen. If you want to do YouTube successfully now, there's a thousand ways to be successful on YouTube but consistently consistency has consistently been the thing that has proven to help people succeed. Mr. Beast is still uploading videos. They may, I mean you got to put one up there if you want to do well. And I find that it helps to have a backlog of video ideas running. And that's just a note in my phone notes app. I'll be chasing children because I am a stay at home mom, will be at the park and a video idea will pop into my head and I will just add it to the list so that on filming day I have options. I'm not trapped into one thing that may or may not be the thing that I am feeling that particular day. But also having the structure and framework to go. I can film this type of video. Having series on your channel that are kind of a wash, rinse, repeat, pun intended. Because I literally wash my hair for the Internet. Those are very, very helpful. If this is something you are wanting to do as a career long term to produce income, that's genius.
- [15:26]
Sean Cannell
You know, I would totally agree. Don't try to be creative on demand. Capture creativity and inspiration when it strikes. I've seen before. I've never used it. I got a gift once, I like left it in a box, but it was a waterproof notepad and pencil that was meant to stick on the wall of your shower. Because this idea that creativity might strike you in the shower, I think in our day to day it's pretty cool. But in our day to day life it might be when you're walking, running, kids are at the jungle gym. But you gotta capture creativity and inspiration when it strikes. And the frustrating thing is sometimes Maybe we're staring at a blank page or we sit down at our computer or we sit down to film and it's kind of like maybe too late. Like trying to be creative on demand might be impossible in some cases. Like, it's just not the. But if you have it pre, if you've been capturing it, you always have a running list to go back to or a series to engage in as some genius advice. And you mentioned consistency. You actually really kind of have a framework of four principles that you shared with me ahead of time. Consistency, intensity, focus, and joy. I would love for you to share this framework for listeners because I think this is going to be our best year on YouTube here at the Think Media podcast. For everybody listening, the future is bright. We are going to grow our channels this year. And these frameworks, this framework got me so inspired. Consistency, intensity, focus, and joy. Let's go through these one by one. You already mentioned consistency, but for you, what is. What has that been like since 2019 when you started?
- [16:58]
Courtney
It is setting a schedule for myself and not breaking that promise to myself, being consistent no matter what, filming when I don't feel like it. I personally have an autoimmune condition called rheumatoid arthritis. And some days are absolutely excruciatingly difficult physically for me. But I put that to the side for the sake of continuing to film these videos because this is how I show up for my family and help, support and do all the fun stuff and things for. For my family. I get to be home. I get to do this. So even when it's hard physically, I don't break the promise and commitment to myself to be consistent and film and edit and upload.
- [17:40]
Sean Cannell
So then intensity is the second one. What do you mean by that?
- [17:43]
Courtney
It takes a lot of intensity to push through on days like that. You want that person on the other side of the screen who took the time out of their day to stop, pause, click, and watch your video, to feel how intensely you care for them, how important they are to you and you showing up and serving them in that moment. It takes a lot of intensity and focus in the moment of filming to communicate that feeling through the screen.
- [18:14]
Sean Cannell
And then focus is the third thing you mentioned. These kind of build on each other, but expand on that.
- [18:21]
Courtney
Oh, the editing, man, the ADHD and the editing, you've got to dial in and focus, go into the deep workflow state for the editing. It. It's a tool you have to have in your tool belt if you're going to edit over 500 videos yourself.
- [18:37]
Sean Cannell
And that's inspiring. So these, I believe the exact number I have It Here is 576 videos you've posted on your YouTube channel. You've edited all of those?
- [18:46]
Courtney
I have had editors work with me in the past, but for very brief stints. So the majority of those, I would think 70 roughly, have been edited by other people. The rest have been by me.
- [18:58]
Sean Cannell
And what software do you typically use?
- [19:00]
Courtney
I like Adobe Premiere Pro.
- [19:02]
Sean Cannell
And then the last one is inspiring joy. It's really good. Nice. After all this consistency, intensity, focus, I love that Number four is joy. Can you expand on what that means?
- [19:14]
Courtney
My kindergarten teacher taught me a rhyme that has stuck with me to this day. I'm 35. It is Jesus first, yourself last, and others in between. And that is joy. That has been in the moments where I have been really doing that well, that is when my soul has sung, it is just, oh, it sings hallelujah. When I live with Jesus first, myself last, and others in between. That is the energy that I bring to my YouTube channel.
- [19:48]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's so inspiring. And this nature, of course, of honoring God, love God, love others, and honoring God first. But then thinking about servant service, sometimes people are on YouTube, we talk about the framework of like, we make selfish content versus service content. And it sounds like you're coming from the standpoint of you're making service content. You are, you're saying there's somebody that's going to take time to stop, pause, click, and watch my video. I want them to feel that I care. And so it's like, do you, you essentially, are you thinking like maybe subconsciously or consciously before you press record, like a routine or a mindset that you're getting in, like, okay, I am now serving this individual. I'm thinking about the person that's watching this and this is what I want them to feel.
- [20:32]
Courtney
When I look down the eye of the camera, I am thinking about that person and I make sure I really smile at them. And my whole thing is that I've got to make that person laugh at least one time while watching the video, usually because of some self deprecating humor, making fun of myself. I will, I will fall on that sword if I can make somebody's day a little bit brighter.
- [20:55]
Sean Cannell
Mm, so good. Well, I love that framework. That's consistency, intensity, focus and joy when it comes to creating content. Now even some of your worst videos, as we talked about in the title of this podcast, you know, can break out and they still have strong titles though. You mentioned the breakout Video and even the topic itself, this curl clump. Hacks so something that resonated, something that worked with people that they wanted to click on. How do you approach titling your videos today and coming up with good titles?
- [21:31]
Courtney
Well now thanks to AI, I get to be a little bit lazy. The tool Vidiq, I just recently started using it this year and it is blowing my mind. It when you upload your raw, it's not raw footage, but your edited footage, your edited video into YouTube. I don't know how it does it, but it scans the video, figures out what the topic of the video is and then presents you with like five or six different options to title your video and scores them on a SEO score. Clickability rating. Yellow, not so good. Green, really good. Love that for me because then I don't have to worry about it. And every time I've used it this year it has titled the video roughly like I would, except slightly better. So I'm happy about that.
- [22:22]
Sean Cannell
That's amazing. Yeah, Vidiq is one of our favorite tools and actually uh, we'll make sure of course everything's in the show notes. But if you go to vidiq.com think they'll do a $1 trial for you could use it for an entire month just for $1. And for people that are, I think there's two big categories. One, if you're busy, which that's a hundred percent of people, there's a lot to do, it is a time saver. But also two, the skill set of trying to come up with inspired titles from scratch. And really some of the other AI tools kind of have a disadvantage because to your point, Vidiq ties right into your channel. So you upload the video, it's right there. It's fast. Their AI is conditioned to understand the YouTube algorithm, SEO and best practices. You're getting a score. It all happens right there on the platform. And so it really is a priceless investment, especially even if you cancel after the trial. So that's vidiq.com think and I think actually their pricing has changed. Like do you know how much you pay a month to use that tool?
- [23:20]
Courtney
I don't remember. I should. But it is affordable. It was like a no brainer. That's how much I've already forgotten. It was like, oh yeah, just that much. Sure, yeah, I'll do that.
- [23:30]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, I want to say I'll look this up right now. So, so the boost plan is like 1658amonth, $16. So it's like man, when I take my 2 year old and 4 year old to Wendy's. We spend more that we spend$24. Two Junior Junior cheeseburgers, only ketchup and cheese for Sean Bradley John. He's down for everything. The pickles and everything else. A large fry to share between them. Waters. Like I'm good. I'm like, like my healthy. No soda or juice though. Waters. And then, and then the rest of the budget's on me. But that's like I'm just trying to say like 16. And Vidiq has tons of tools. Is that the only tool you're really using or have you tapped into some of their other tools?
- [24:13]
Courtney
That's been the tool that I have been the most impressed with. The tags are okay. The other really crazy tool that Vidiq has is responding to comments. It generates some incredible responses to comments that actually sound like me, that sound like something I would actually say. And it makes it a lot easier when your mental bandwidth has been fully consumed by other things to just let that IQ figure out how to respond. And it's, and it's, I can put my stamp on that. That is, that is something I would say. I feel like that counts as me.
- [24:49]
Sean Cannell
Responding 100% because you're approving it and it's, it's a, it's like an extension of you and you're choosing what your response is. Yeah, it's community management tools. And one of the things I love is the channel audit tool. Because you give Vidiq permission to connect to your channel, it can analyze all of your analytics with AI. So you can just start talking to their AI coach and say, hey, what are some good video ideas that I should make next? What are some patterns or trends on my channel? Can you analyze? So anyways, if you're want to check out vidiq.com think if you're interested in trying this software tool that connects to your YouTube channel that will help you get more views. And I'll make sure to put a link to that in the YouTube description. Now you've built an impressive and show notes and podcast. Show notes. Now you've built an impressive business beyond YouTube. So can you walk us through? Since 2019, you start your channel, how long did it take to get monetized? And then over the years, what income streams did you try? How did it go? You stopped some, you switched to others. So we get this really kind of really cool six year perspective. Five, six years from a very successful YouTube creator like yourself of kind of like your insights from doing the different things, what worked, what didn't, what worked for you? So take us back to 2019 and then walk us through.
- [26:18]
Courtney
Well, I can absolutely do that. I can say that the things that weren't successful for me, probably it was me. And if, if they're. I wouldn't take that as a stamp of saying, don't try this thing because it could really work well for you. It just didn't work well for me. So in 2019, the very first income was from sponsored content on Instagram brands reaching out, wanting content produced, YouTube specifically, that got monetized within roughly six months. And it happened when I decided that I was going to upload three long form videos a week, come heck or high water, no matter what, three videos were going to be going up Monday, Wednesday, Friday. That was a little aggressive. And I did. When I hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, I did dial that back quite a bit. But that did get me monetized within six months, I would say. Later that year I did start doing curl coaching sessions. And I really didn't push these, but these were private zoom meetings. I used calendly to host these. It accepted payment, it did all the scheduling, gave all the links. It was great. I didn't have to think. It did all the thinking for me. And we did private curl coaching sessions where I would assess the client's hair and make suggestions of how to achieve the goals that they were looking for. Once I had done about a year's worth of those, I started to notice a pattern that in every curl coaching session, I was saying the same things over and over and over and over and over again. Which means that I had the perfect online course, which I produced in 2020, and that did really, really well. But as the world is ever changing, things changed enough that I felt like that course had kind of run its course and I closed it down. Also during this time, I thought I was really cool and I was going to try and do merch. I was not cool enough for merch and wound up not enjoying doing that. I didn't lose money, but I lost a lot of time. So close down that course and then continue doing the curl coaching sessions. The revenue streams from affiliate links throughout this time had been fairly consistent. Brands being kind enough and generous enough to offer me free product, which is great because that is free content for me. Trying out the product on camera and then offering my subscribers an affiliate commission link. You know, they get 10% off and I get a kickback from that. Using Amazon storefront as affiliate commissions. I'VE tried several others that now have better commission rates because we all know that the Amazon commission rates just absolutely got slashed. And that was very mean and sad, at least for me. Let me see.
- [29:29]
Sean Cannell
I feel like I noticed there's like coupons on your website to like a bunch of. So have you built out like different affiliate programs like you're mentioning? Like, like this wouldn't be relevant for most listeners, but I love this thinking kind of like there's so many different programs out there. What are some of the top ones that come to your mind? Your, your mind of like niche websites you signed up for and like maybe the terms of them because like you said, like Amazon maybe slashes commissions in a certain category. You make 4%, 2%, 1% or whatever. But maybe what the terms of some of the other things you've done.
- [30:03]
Courtney
Well, YouTube's affiliate program is really nice.
- [30:07]
Sean Cannell
YouTube Shopping?
- [30:08]
Courtney
Yeah, YouTube Shopping. They give you 10% at a lot of the stores that I am linking products through. It's the beauty, luxury beauty industry. So the commissions tend to be a little bit higher. If I'm linking drugstore products, the commissions tend to be a bit less. But YouTube's shopping is really, really nice. There's also one called Howl H O W L. I've enjoyed that one. It links a lot, gives 12ish percent commissions.
- [30:37]
Sean Cannell
Is that a more. That's not a brand like a curvy hair brand, but it's a network, it's.
- [30:44]
Courtney
An affiliate network and it will link to Nordstrom, Ulta Sephora, multiple different stores, multiple different links there. I used magic links for a long time that link to multiple different things. The commissions weren't great on that and like to know it. Sometimes I will use that one which is pretty well known amongst the fashionista influencery people. But as for the website and all of those different commissions that you're seeing on my website, those are relationships that I've built personally with brands. This is me doing the legwork, reaching out, saying I really enjoy your products. Here's a piece of content that I use to produce. Like I produced a piece of content using your products. Is there any way I can be a part of your affiliate program? Sometimes the brands reach out to me and offer me an opportunity to be a part of their private affiliate program. All of those are ones that I kind of negotiated myself.
- [31:45]
Sean Cannell
I had no idea that LTK was like to know it okay, formerly reward style. And so apparently influencers can earn money and commissions up to 10 to 25%, potentially 30% on LTK.
- [32:02]
Courtney
Yeah.
- [32:03]
Sean Cannell
Now you've also done this kind of.
- [32:04]
Courtney
Really nice handbags and I don't talk.
- [32:06]
Sean Cannell
About handbags often, so it depends on the brand, your channel, niche. And so just for a kind of a rundown, howl would be H o W link and then magic links. Howl, YouTube shopping, LTK. Awesome. So just kind of different things and some listeners. Here's a big idea. Whenever it comes to affiliate marketing, you know, individuals, I think they're like, man, what could I possibly do for my channel? Or like, I don't know, it feels limited. It's like so not limited. It's just a matter of finding the right websites, the right product. And I encourage people like start before you're ready, start posting videos. Of course get as much clarity on how you're going to monetize at the start. But I also just want individuals to have trust that like if you add value, if you serve, if you learn these skills, the money will come as you continue like you're, you're one program away after you've built some influence, like, oh, that's like perfect. It's like the thing that I love and it ties into my channel and it'll serve my audience and my gosh, there's 20% commissions and if people subscribe, it's recurring. And that is, that was my journey back even when I had a faith based channel with Jeff Moore's called Think International. Like eventually we discovered this program, it was all for church leaders and pastors. I had, I mean you could recommend like a, a book, you know, on church leadership, which is cool on Amazon you get like 30 cents and maybe at scale, you know, whatever. But then eventually I found this program called Preaching Rocket which was like a coaching program to help pastors and preachers get better. A desire they have kind of like an online school more than an online course and it wasn't cheap and they were given like 30% commissions. And so after a year or two or three of just serving, building our influence, then all of a sudden there was like the right program at the right time that fit, that was totally aligned, that people loved. And then it started to be very lucrative. So it kind of. Any thoughts on that? As far as, I mean you've been doing this for years and I think that's like the patience and persistence it takes in the creator economy while you're learning new skills, looking for these opportunities. And you never know when like the right fit way to monetize is going to link up with your channel in the next three to six Months, you know, for individuals listening to this.
- [34:25]
Courtney
I am very grateful for my husband. He's very business mindset and talking with him over the years running this little business, Internet business, has helped me approach it that way. And one of the rules that I've set for myself is that if I am talking about products in a video, I need to have a commission link in the description of that product. If I'm talking about the product and I am linking it, there needs to be a commission. And sometimes I have to get a little creative because some of the platforms and outlets that I'm using won't necessarily do that for me. So having that as a rule produces a, at least some income stream from those links. Also being willing to learn new skills. Like you said, the, the biggest times that I have like hit it big or done really well with an online course or a digital product, it is when I have been willing to pay somebody to coach me how to do it. And I have done an online course, did really well. Once that course had run its course, I then started doing digital products and product guides and things like that. And I didn't know how to do those and I didn't have the time or mental energy or bandwidth to learn those things. But paying somebody to teach me how to do it and walk me through it paid dividends on that.
- [35:48]
Sean Cannell
That is a power, a couple powerful business insights. And I love that it's a rule. I, I, I like subconsciously adopted that same rule. And I think individuals that kind of struggle with like, you don't want to be like pushy or sales and you're not doing that like the way you're communicating in your videos. You're not being pushy or driving, you know, like being a car salesman or whatever. But it's like the fact you are making a video and you're putting all this time into it and you're putting it out there. All we're just talking about is that if you just happen to be the touch point of the individual learning about a product and you need money for the mission. And so I just think some people hedge and so rules, it's nice to have a rule that's kind of like. And we'll talk about that all the time at Think Media. Like, okay, the video is not going out until we fully sign up for the affiliate program. We make sure the link is working. Like it's sort of, it's like the discipline, like this is just one of the things we check off. Because the discipline to follow that rule is why not only was I able to go full time, but now, I mean, I've got other people I'm responsible for. So if this is going to scale, we need money for the mission so we can make a greater impact. And I hope listeners, you know, don't hesitate. It's to sell ethically is to serve. I think that's like.
- [37:00]
Courtney
And so if you're showing up with consistency, intensity, joy and whichever last one that one was, if you're showing up to serve your audience and giving them a link that gives them a percent off is a way to serve them. It's just that the way most of these are set up, the content creator is going to get a kickback, which does help feed the mission 100%.
- [37:28]
Sean Cannell
And, and that's, and that's the way you're going to make it in the creator economy. Like you can't. The same as like if you showed up to work at a coffee shop, you have to show up on time. You got to do what your boss says, you got to follow the protocol, you got to make the coffee right. There's like discipline, I call them even rules. In the creator economy, there's certain things you need to do consistently over time so that you can have consistent income. And you're talking about a lot of those that go beyond adsense. I do want to dig a little bit more on these digital products because that was after courses and affiliates, you still do and then brands. There's all these different categories that we're learning so much from you. But these digital products guides, when did that light bulb moment and epiphany show up? And what exactly are those? And you're saying those are working good right now.
- [38:13]
Courtney
Those are working well for me and my niche. They are more affordable and I think that's why it's doing better. I am in a lower end niche. Kind of like we're talking hair care. People want to run to Walmart and buy a six dollar bottle of shampoo and whatnot. So instead of selling a three figure course, I'm selling a $30 product guide. In this product guide, I share over 300 different products that I have tried and I give nine different points of comparison of these products so that people can run through the entire catalog of every product I have ever touched and get an idea of how that product is going to perform for them. I even teach them in the guide, it's PDF downloads how to read their own hair and figure out okay, I'm looking for this when I go to the product guide because Now I know what my hair may or may not like.
- [39:13]
Sean Cannell
You know, you know what, this is super inspiring and I would love for listeners to think about this. This could be like the juiciest light bulb for some individuals. You made a guide because you've done the legwork of testing 300 products, nine different points of comparison. I don't know if it'd be appropriate to call that like a matrix, but I love always like where pros, cons. You'll see it on Amazon, you'll see it at other places, how many, you know, how much memory each device has across each vertical. And it actually makes me think of my stepbrother at a much crazy higher end than this. But what his profession is is he's a technology acquisition consultant, which sounds crazy, meaning he'll work for someone like Papa John's Pizza. And if They've got like 10 retail stores, their point of sale system, where there's an iPad that flips around and it requires you to tip 80%, 90% or 100% and you know, the point of sale system that scales across 10 stores that is all connected to the Internet and that can move at a certain speed and process the credit cards. Well, if you've got 10,000 stores, you need usually higher end software. You need different technology. If you're getting all the Uber eats sending you the receipts. This is all going someplace. Uh, and so I think about. And so his literal job is helping Dunkin Donuts or businesses that are going to acquire technology, if they're going to go to that next level of we're going to go from a simple CRM to, to Salesforce or to HubSpot or even higher. Like because we have a global. And he essentially gets paid on in the middle. Like you're getting paid 30 bucks because you did the research. You're helping direct people to the right products, which could help them save more than $30 because they don't buy three bottles that they throw away and it never worked for them. And so the light bulb moment I want individuals to have is like in your niche. This is such a cool digital product. We've never talked about this before on the Think Media podcast is. It's thinking about a guide, but like how valuable that guide can be. It makes total sense to me. For 30 bucks, you've. You've tested 300 products. You're saving people time, you could save people money. And, and then it's figuring out those different points of comparison. You know, sort of like on Think Media where we are comparing cameras It's. We get to define those points of comparison besides just tech specs, we might be thinking about. Well, we're measuring it for user friendliness to your average person creating content. Or. Or does it have a selfie screen? Because that's a unique pain point for YouTube creators. And so I hope that inspires maybe some individuals. And then once you've created that PDF, now you can create it one time, but sell it over and over. Is that true?
- [42:13]
Courtney
Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You make it once and then sell it a thousand times. It's wonderful.
- [42:19]
Sean Cannell
Where do you host it? And how did you. And how does it transact? Like, how does it work?
- [42:24]
Courtney
So I have. I've changed that several times. I started out using a system called Kartra, which was very expensive, and that's where I housed my online course and my website and everything, my email list, all of it. And when the online course had run its course and was no longer producing enough income to cover the costs of Kartra, I closed that down. And then I started using Flodesk, which was really great. It's super simple. It's an email list housing tool. But they launched online digital products right around the time that I signed up and started using their software. And I thought, what the heck, I'll try this. And so I got somebody to show me how to write sales pages and produce online products and kind of pointed me in the right direction. I created the online product, and it runs them through the checkout, and at the end of the checkout, they get redirected to a Google Drive link that has a PDF in it, and they download it. And sometimes I get emails from customers saying, hey, I never got the link, or, hey, I've lost the link. And I'm like, here you go, here's the Google Drive link again, but not very difficult. I have since now moved everything over to Full Scope Freelancer, which is a very similar system to Kartra, except it's very cheap and it does a lot more than what I'm using it for. And it's cheaper than Flodesk, and same thing, just create a sales page and a checkout, and it delivers the Google Drive link with the PDF of the digital guide.
- [44:09]
Sean Cannell
I also, I mean, it stood out to me when you talked about when I need to learn new skills, because it can be overwhelming to think about, well, how do you actually create a digital product? Or how do you write a sales page, or how do you set up an email automation sequence, or, you know, how do you grow your YouTube channel? It's when you paid someone to teach you and walk you through. I think that's actually how we met like or, or met in person was early on we did like a coaching session together. Is that what happened?
- [44:33]
Courtney
We did, we did, Yep. Back in 2020.
- [44:37]
Sean Cannell
Back in 2020. So. And then since then like who, what other like disciplines have you found when you've hired a coach to teach you.
- [44:43]
Courtney
That things I personally have found that me, Courtney cannot do online courses. I don't complete them. I need to be sitting face to face with somebody who is doing check ins with me saying hey, did you do the XYZ thing you needed to do in order to produce your online course in order to produce your online digital guide. And so that tends to be more expensive because I'm paying for somebody's time. However, the time that I'm paying for is actually cheaper than if I tried to teach it to myself. If I bought the online course, tried to take the online course, then forgot and got distracted with ADHD and then went on and did a different thing. Having paying somebody to walk me through the entire thing is much better than an online course. Private coaching. Private coaching for Courtney.
- [45:41]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, that's a great, that's a great tip. You know you might not even heard. That's why we started group coaching and one on one coaching we now have think media coaches and if someone's listening to this, you know we actually you could do like basically a free coaching call and if our stuff's not right for you, no big deal but it might be a good fit. And so if you go to viralvideocoach.com all that is is an application and you could click the link in the show notes or go toviral video coach.com we have found that exact same thing is that for some very rigorous or disciplined individuals, online courses are amazing. But the trouble is there's all this juicy information locked up inside of a course that you have to have the discipline to sit down and do especially as life gets busier. I have found that over the last couple years doing some coaching with a guy named Patrick Bet David, being in some masterminds where I have to show up and being on like live calls and a group coaching or one on one coaching session. To me it's accountability like you're saying and it's, it's pretty wild. I've never heard anybody say that before. It's more expensive but it's cheaper because you're actually getting the results as opposed to, well, I could buy the cheaper Online course. But if it just sits there, then you're not growing and you never produce.
- [47:02]
Courtney
The online course that produces the income that offsets the cost, then what are you doing?
- [47:07]
Sean Cannell
That's. And, and so it's more like, it's like an investment mindset. Like when because of the accountability, because of being in the thing, I'm actually going to do it, thus get the results, thus have a return on investment of what I'm paying for. Really great principle. And if anybody listening, again, if you're interested, specifically for we help people with YouTube and we actually just introduced this new kind of framework we taught at a Vegas event we did, just called views Lead sales. Sounds pretty simple, but it's the big idea of getting the right views, getting leads. And so how am I moving the conversation off of the platform of YouTube to something like a digital product or to a course and then actually how do you make sales? Because I think the biggest mistake people make is they're like, I just need viral views. When it's like, no, you don't need viral views. You need the right views for a strategic and intentional business model that connects to your channel. And you've done many over the years, but kind of like this digital product guide. A 30 guide, $30 is a low amount to serve an individual, but Adsense is like $0.30 when it comes to depending on how many views you're getting. And so anyways, if anybody wants to check that out, you can do a free strategy call with us atviral video coach.com and as we land the plane. As a creator, helping support your family, supporting your family, being home with kids, how do you manage your time between content creation, product development, coaching and all.
- [48:37]
Courtney
Of this stuff, that is where it gets hard for me to stay disciplined. For those online courses like taking the course and doing the course, it's because there's so much discipline and structure in the rest of my day. Going ahead and being that disciplined and structured is what makes it possible. Between giving myself grace, allowing my sweet little girl to go to a mother's day out program a few days a week, and using those days as my work days while she's gone makes it possible for me to do what I do. Knowing that I am going to have small windows of opportunity to create content and produce that income, I know it's going to be an all out dead sprint. And I commit to doing that all out dead sprint right then and then, taking a breath, taking a step back, giving myself grace. Because I know that I have committed to being that Structured in certain areas.
- [49:33]
Sean Cannell
And I just want to also encourage you as someone who, you know, walks by faith and not by sight. Right when we got on here, you were like, so I just put my three year old down for a nap. I hope we could do this whole.
- [49:45]
Courtney
Podcast because it is spring break and there is no Mother's Day out this week.
- [49:50]
Sean Cannell
So shout out to the parents because sometimes, I mean there's some videos I've had where I had my sons in a front pack, you know, I'm editing. I was standing desk, like trying to get stuff done using nap time efficiently. And seasons change. Kids grow up. Seasons change, schedules change. You definitely got to give yourself grace. And I think one of the anthems at Think Media is your race, your pace. You can't compare yourself to somebody else especially, I mean parents get this. But sometimes we look at a creator and we're like, man, like they're posting so much, they're doing so much. It's like, yeah, they're 23 and single, like you know, living and living at their parents house still. Yeah, with like they pay for insurance on their Honda Civic and their cell phone is like their total amount of bill. Of course they're creating a lot of content. You've got three kids, you've got mortgages, you've got your taking care of parents. Like, you know, listeners, you just like be gracious about your season of life, big media community. And if you can't, of course post a video a week, but if you can't post two videos a month, like it's going to be okay. And your consistent discipline through these different seasons also lays the foundation for when stuff flips. Maybe it's summer break. Maybe there's a time when you can sprint, get some traction. And it's your race, your pace. It's not a comparison to anybody else. You're just comparing yourself with trying to beat your previous best and get 1% better with every upload. Well, I want to ask one final question, but before we do give a shout out to your stuff. We'll of course link it in the show notes if anybody wants to check out your channel. And I want to recommend, you know, if you're listening to this, you might be like, well, I don't, I don't have wavy hair that I need to tame but. Or let go crazy because you're beautifully and wonderfully made. But it's always cool to look at our guest channels. You might get some inspiration, thumbnails, titles and all of that. So click through. We'll Link everything up in the show notes. And then I got one more question in just a second.
- [51:54]
Courtney
So turns out that it is actually excruciatingly rare to have perfectly pin straight hair. If your hair is at all floofy, frizzy, has an odd bend or kink in it and you're like, no, I just have bad straight hair. No, you don't, my friend. It is actually wavy curly. Please come check out my channel. Swavy curly. Courtney, I have Instagram, I have TikTok, which is terrible. It's not doing very well. Ignore my TikTok, but look at Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and if you need any help at all, please feel free to reach out. I really do love talking all things wavy curly hair and shampoo and condition and gel and all that stuff and things. So I would love to help you.
- [52:34]
Sean Cannell
Out and I want to acknowledge you for adding so much value today to our podcast community. One final question. You. I was really kind of a veteran. Now, over years of doing this, your resilience is evident, your grit, your persistence, even pressing through chronic pain while building a family, doing different things. It's very inspiring. What's just final advice you would give to listeners that they feel the resistance, they're frustrated by the views they're getting right now. They feel stuck, they feel like their channel's plateaued or they're making progress, but the journey seems long and tiring because it's like, wow, there's a lot. And algorithms kind of feel the algorithm seems like it changes. What's some final advice for our listeners?
- [53:21]
Courtney
Know that there will be highs and there will be lows. Nobody prepares for the lows. Everybody's prepared to win and feel the awesome pat on the back of like, yay, I finally made it. But guess what? The day you make it, the next day you're not going to have made it. That's just how YouTube goes. There will be ups, there will be downs. That does not decrease your value that you are bringing. If you are showing up for your audience with those four core pillars that I can't even remember, show up with joy for your audience. That's what matters. Know your why. And if your why is to be the next Mr. Beast, then you're probably going to be disappointed. But if your why is to show up and serve people, then you've won.
- [54:08]
Sean Cannell
Courtney, you are amazing. Thank you for adding so much wisdom today. And Think Media Podcast. If you got value, please, like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. Maybe there's somebody you know that's been pondering starting a channel channel, thinking about YouTube, sharing this podcast with an individual, shooting them a DM or sharing this on your Instagram stories. Tag me. We'll post all that stuff in the show notes. It really does help get the word out. Until next time, 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 in a future episode.