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- [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. On today's episode of the Think Media podcast, you're gonna learn how our guest turned being an introvert into a superpower and grew her YouTube channel to over 20,000 subscribers. We're also gonna be talking about some of the important AI tools that will help you save time and create better content this year and challenge you to do a sprint with content creation. Even if you've never done content creation before, if you're kind of trying to get the hang of it, a little bit hesitant, you're going to be learning so much in this value packed episode with Nikki Saunders. Now, Nikki is a social media expert, an AI expert. She's been one of the featured speakers at our event Grow with Video Live in Las Vegas. We're together now in San Diego here, both talking to social media marketing world and she has a wealth of experience to share with us. Nikki, welcome back to the podcast.
- [01:40]
Nikki Saunders
Hello. I'm. Look, I'm always excited to talk to you. Always excited.
- [01:44]
Sean Cannell
So I am curious, when did you start your YouTube channel? And it just reached 20,000 subscribers recently. So take us back. What is your YouTube channel all about? But when did it start and how long did it take to grow?
- [01:56]
Nikki Saunders
About a year and some change. To be honest with you.
- [01:59]
Sean Cannell
That's really fast.
- [02:00]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah, yeah, we, we went heavy on the, like I started probably a couple of months, a little bit before that just on short form just because I knew I was going on YouTube. So I was like, let me get the channel active. But we took, we took it heavy a year and some change in that October on long form, one, one video a week. And it's been about like AI tools, content strategy, and now we're focusing on like how to help introverts get into the content game.
- [02:30]
Sean Cannell
That's really powerful and I want to Break down all those tips. But I would love to hear more about that's. That's such fast growth. But it wasn't the first thing you did.
- [02:39]
Nikki Saunders
No.
- [02:39]
Sean Cannell
What lessons did you learn from doing other projects, other channels? Because someone's like, 20,000 subscribers one year, like, yeah, yeah. But if you speak about, like, just the general journey of learning, skills, trying, making mistakes.
- [02:52]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely. So I had a podcast before Nicki and Moose, so I had that channel at 18,000 subscribers, but that took about three years. Right. The thing that I was realizing is I had over a thousand videos on that, and they were hitting, like, maybe 100 views, 200 views, and I'm scratching my head, like, what is the content is good and everything like that. Realizing we were going too wide, right. With a bunch of top topics were valuable. Even though we would think, okay, we're talking about, let's say, pop culture, but still bringing in branding and everything. But I was leading with, like, Jay Z and Kevin Hart, so people would typically not necessarily care too much about the underlying one. They would just want the main face. So there was a lot of lessons from that one where I was like, okay, I don't have to post over a thousand videos to get where I need to go. It's about really honing in on that. I didn't care about the packaging at the moment. So, like, the thumbnails and titles we thought was good, but I never put too much time into it.
- [03:57]
Sean Cannell
And you do now. You had bad titles and thumbnails.
- [04:01]
Nikki Saunders
Oh, God, I just put whatever there. And now I'm like, we're ab testing every single thing. We have about, like, three thumbnails for each video. We have about, like, two to three titles with each one. And kind of just gauging on it because I knew it's not about posting more. It's about getting that formula right. And, like, really just paying attention to what the audience wants and that, like. But it took, like I said, it took three years. And then, of course, with the Instagram, with the short form, it. It made me understand the importance of my audience and giving them the exact content. Cause if you don't give them the exact content, that algorithm is brutal.
- [04:40]
Sean Cannell
So what advice would you have? And you. I mean, you. You share this kind of advice on your channel to somebody that wants to start a channel. Now, with all of your years of experience, a couple different things. You've done, the first couple things they should do if they want to start a YouTube channel this year.
- [04:55]
Nikki Saunders
Figure out the schedule. But a realistic schedule, right? Like not the pressure of society, not the pressure of other gurus or anything. Like, realistically, my schedule can allow me to show up 100% two times a week. That's fine. One time a week. Okay, that's fine. Right? Because if you could give your all hundred percent meaning, all right, I'm going to brainstorm. I'm going to do research. Research is so crucial. I'm going to worry about the packaging, I'm going to worry about the delivery. Right. I'm going to worry about how we're monetizing, because that's a big deal. If, if I could do that just a few times a week. Great. I'm. So the schedule is the most important thing for me from a beginner standpoint. Second, research. Research is so, so good. Like, we could have so many ideas, and as a creative, I could think these people are going to care about it. But if there's no evidence that it has talked about and has some type of views, I've been now a little less awesome. Risk, Risk it all. Risk it all. That's draining. And I've gotten burnout because I risked it all too many times. So I think in the beginning, finding those topics that actually have some kind of traction and you can put your spin to it, and then when you have that, then risk a little bit like, prove, prove, prove, prove, risk, prove, proof, proof, risk. So that momentum continues to be like, okay, I'm still getting results. If you go all in on the risk, you're getting 50 views, 20 views in that very beginning. And that can make you, like, now YouTube, ain't it? I'll just stay wherever I'm at or not even bother. So I would say between the schedule and the research in the beginning, the rest is like, it comes with it.
- [06:47]
Sean Cannell
I love that. Now, one of the things, you know, you're using this concept when you say we, you know, we started the channel.
- [06:53]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [06:53]
Sean Cannell
Who's we? How big of a team?
- [06:55]
Nikki Saunders
Oh, me and Isaiah. Shout out to Isaiah. We love Isaiah. Me and Isaiah. So that's me and my editor. I don't keep it any bigger than that. Right. At least for now. Oh, and I mean, I do fiverr for my thumbnails.
- [07:09]
Sean Cannell
Okay.
- [07:10]
Nikki Saunders
Right. But between me and him, we figure out the. The titles, we figure out the topics, we look at what's already worked and kind of build on top of that. And it works for me for right now that's gotten to 20k and I'm like, okay, I don't need. I don't need to expand into Several million different editors or I need a thumbnail team, I need a research team eventually. Cool. But now I think this. And with the help of AI, I have a team of like 10. It feels like.
- [07:41]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so I want to unpack some things.
- [07:43]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [07:43]
Sean Cannell
Because a couple of things. So for listeners. One, the majority of people don't have a team or they're not making income yet, just kind of getting started.
- [07:50]
Nikki Saunders
Right.
- [07:50]
Sean Cannell
So I want to speak to that. I like the fact that there's also kind of this hybrid middle place though that I'm hearing you talk about, which is like a lot of people listening to this should find their, their one person. Yeah, there's maybe one person keeping the team lean. And then everybody listening to this should think about the fact that they need 10 AI robots tools.
- [08:08]
Nikki Saunders
Listen, AI agents.
- [08:09]
Sean Cannell
We're going to get to that in a little bit. But I am, I am curious your advice for somebody scaling a content without a team. The most, you know, common thing is like I'm doing this by myself. You kind of met, you figure out your schedule and if you're, you don't have a team, you can still tap into AI. So maybe that takes.
- [08:25]
Nikki Saunders
That takes. Yeah.
- [08:26]
Sean Cannell
You have no team, you have limited resources, limited time each week. What's, what's like the lifestyle or the routine and maybe the tools that an individual is using to get content done all by themself.
- [08:36]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah. So one tool that I know for sure is poppy AI. Poppy AI has been like our team of, of 10. So for, for example, from a YouTube standpoint, I can get it to train my voice. So I'll put my top videos. If you don't have top videos, any type of videos, zooms, transcripts, whatever you have. So it could just understand your tone. I put my analytics in there and it trains the AI. Okay, here's my tone, here's my analytics. Give me all the ideas based off what has already worked. Right. So now I have an ideation type style. Then I'll go and I'll create another board that looks at all of my thought leaders, competitors in that, in that field. I'll put their top videos and I say, hey, based off their top videos. What works in our industry? You know my tone, what works in my industry now let's create a video script. Right? So also when we're talking about packaging, I have another board on, on Poppy AI that has a lot of your videos actually about titles. All the people that you've done, hey, they give great advice about titles and thumbnails. Figure out the Formula. Here's my video. Now give me the titles and thumbnail. So that is literally like my whole YouTube brain with poppy AI. And then of course I'll go into like ChatGPT, especially with this new update for a thumbnail situation. I was just telling you offline where I had my thumbnail person was taking too long. I literally gave a picture and like a sketch of my idea said, Make a YouTube thumbnail. Boom. I was thinking it was going to get like, okay, this is a last minute thing. I'll be okay with like a 8 of 10 video. I'll be okay. This thing got like 4 of 10. I said, and we're all in the green. Oh, okay. So there goes my thumbnail person. There goes my strategist and my title and my packaging and everything like that. What else do I may need? Oh, I said I can get somebody to analyze my, my analytics after it's done and suggest. Because I saw a video on YouTube. Once again, just being more resourceful. I'm not trying to be smart anymore. I'm trying to be resourceful. So if there's videos that's already talking about, hey, it's about the videos that have already done well, just creating a series from that. I'm going to take that video. Hey, here's a video that I've done. How do we make a series into that? And now I have a whole new YouTube series from it. And that's a person. That's like a five person team that I just broke down by speaking about two AI tools. You know, and then if I wanted to do a video editor, opus clip is still the best one in my, my personal one where I'll take the video, I'll put in an opus clip. It cuts up everything so I could repurpose it on the social media channels that I don't have to put so much energy on but I know I need to be present on.
- [11:39]
Sean Cannell
That's so great. And we're make sure to have detailed show notes for you think media podcast listeners where you could check out some of these tools. I'm curious, what tools?
- [11:48]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [11:49]
Sean Cannell
Do you personally pay for an AI?
- [11:53]
Nikki Saunders
All of them?
- [11:54]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. What's the list?
- [11:55]
Nikki Saunders
I was like, my subscription is disgusting.
- [11:57]
Sean Cannell
So you mean you pay for Poppy AI?
- [12:00]
Nikki Saunders
Poppy AI.
- [12:01]
Sean Cannell
And what is poppy AI described as so poppy?
- [12:04]
Nikki Saunders
I you think, think of Miro notion, a visual mood board all in one.
- [12:10]
Sean Cannell
So we kind of. We have Milanote.
- [12:12]
Nikki Saunders
Right.
- [12:12]
Sean Cannell
Similar to that.
- [12:13]
Nikki Saunders
Similar to that. Right.
- [12:14]
Sean Cannell
But it sounds like Milano. We have it organizing projects but we're not doing. It's not like analyzing. I don't, I don't even think of it as having AI. It might have those features.
- [12:22]
Nikki Saunders
But oh no, you can have an AI chat in and connect and it's literally you connect whatever you want to it and it reads and sees it. So this, this is the cool part where like, you know how important hooks are from a speaking standpoint and a visual hook. So it literally could look at the video and read the video and go, okay, your hook should be this. And visually it should be doing these things. And then look at the rest of the video and say, okay, this is how they've gained their retention and everything like that. So it's, it does a little bit more than just kind of an organizing standpoint. And you can use Claude, you can use ChatGPT, you can use Grok, whatever your favorite language model that you, that has it all inside of Poppy.
- [13:06]
Sean Cannell
Inside of Poppy. So man, there's so many tools out there. But I think there's something significant when an individual, there's free versions. But when, when you find the ROI of paying for it yourself. You know, personally, I pay for ChatGPT. I'm here at this event thinking people are like, you should go to the next level maybe to have like operator.
- [13:23]
Nikki Saunders
Right. You know, the 200amonth situation.
- [13:27]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. So I'm like researching that. But I, you know, I pay 20amonth. I pay for Claude. Yep. And maybe a couple others. I use Google Notebook LM for free and Gemini for free.
- [13:38]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [13:38]
Sean Cannell
But for you what? And I know you get brand deals and sponsorships too, so there may be ones you get for free, but like what are the ones you would pay for your favorite tools? And you're like, yeah, I mean I happily pay for this every, every month. The $20 is a ROI positive. I think it's a mindset, mindset shift as well. Because you compare. I mean a YouTube strategist, super smart would be a multi thousand dollar a month role.
- [14:03]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [14:04]
Sean Cannell
But I can analyze, do all this stuff. And so if you're using it and then depending on what level you're at as a creator, maybe you're just listening. Resources are scarce.
- [14:13]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [14:13]
Sean Cannell
I think too many creators hesitate to reinvest back in their business aggressively.
- [14:18]
Nikki Saunders
Right.
- [14:19]
Sean Cannell
And they're, they're overthinking. I almost like, I like to sometimes just like take the money you make in your business, reinvest it and then sort of, I think it was actually Damon John who wrote a book called the Power Broke.
- [14:30]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [14:30]
Sean Cannell
Like constantly Kind of making himself go broke to give himself motivation to keep pushing.
- [14:34]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [14:35]
Sean Cannell
So it's almost like, it's like not, you know, you gotta be wise with your resources, but it's like make some money and then push yourself. Like get the camera, get the gear, get the AI, but you know, and set a little aside and save and be wise and invest and whatever, but like investing in these tools. So for you. Yeah.
- [14:50]
Nikki Saunders
So I would say like, if you are zero budget, every day you want.
- [14:54]
Sean Cannell
To start your YouTube channel is another day of missed opportunities and untapped potential. Here's the truth. YouTube reaches more 18 to 49 year olds than all the cable networks combined. The opportunity is massive and the Think media team and I want to help you seize it. I'm excited to announce our YouTube 1K Challenge, a free five day event that will give you the exact blueprint to start and grow your YouTube channel in 2025. Whether you're an entrepreneur or business owner or somebody ready to grow their personal brand, this challenge is your roadmap to success. To register, just go to tube1k challenge. Com. We're going to be doing one training session a day for five days and you're going to learn how to get your first 1,000 subscribers and start earning real income. Insider strategies that make viewers want to click on your videos and keep watching multiple different ways to earn money from your YouTube channel, even if you have a small audience. And how to build an authentic personal brand that truly connects with people. But it gets even better. We are giving away prizes every single day of the challenge. You could win professional microphones, lighting kits and premium content creation software. And during this challenge, you're getting access to the exact training that we offer in our $4,000 coaching program. But you're getting it completely for free. And you can start with just your smartphone. So if you're Ready to turn 2025 into your YouTube breakthrough year, go to tube1kchallenge.com to register. That's tube1kchallenge.com or click the link in the show notes or YouTube description to register for our upcoming challenge.
- [16:34]
Nikki Saunders
Just stick with ChatGPT. Get used to that. Get it to free version. Yeah, free version. Get it to be your brainstorming person. Right. Okay. I'm willing to do 20amonth. Okay. Then get the paid version. Okay. I could do 40 to 50amonth. Right. I'm going to say opus clip. Right. Because if you're video focused, you need someone to video edit and that's mainly.
- [16:55]
Sean Cannell
Going to be taking the long form. You're already creating and turning it into short form. If you want to start distributing vertical video across platforms.
- [17:01]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely. Right. Or even cutting it up for like shorter YouTube videos. Because sometimes we'll do lives. And there was like a good 20 minute thing. I could repurpose that and make it another YouTube video in itself. Right.
- [17:14]
Sean Cannell
So that's a big one. A longer 30 minute, 45 minute, hour long. Take a live stream. You're getting more long form YouTube videos out of Opus clip with the captions with all the stuff.
- [17:24]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [17:25]
Sean Cannell
Which it can work for a lot of different creators. But we do have like news creators, entertainment type of creators. People that are live streaming. That's a very tactical thing you just said there.
- [17:34]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [17:35]
Sean Cannell
In fact, I was just at a mastermind and one individual does politics and they were going live daily, maybe five days a week.
- [17:44]
Nikki Saunders
Right.
- [17:45]
Sean Cannell
That episode does all right. But when they chop the clips out around a specific story. Good thumbnail, good title that pops off. I think this person's created an individual business. They do not have any help. They're a solo creator.
- [17:58]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [17:58]
Sean Cannell
And he showed me his ad revenue. Politics can get pretty big. But it was hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and repurpose. So then you think about. Yeah. A lot of repurposed long form show chopped into long form clip, longer form. 8 minutes, 12 minutes, 16 minutes. So I interrupted you. So we would. Then we've got about 50 bucks to spend a month.
- [18:18]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [18:18]
Sean Cannell
We're gonna go chatgpt paid. Opus kip Opus Clip paid. What else?
- [18:22]
Nikki Saunders
I would say Canva. Actually Canva is one of those things that can still create images through AI, can do AI expand a few different AI tools inside of it, but it is your. It is your graph designer until you can afford an actual graphic designer because it has thousands of templates.
- [18:42]
Sean Cannell
And you might design something in AI because there's these image generators are so powerful, but you might need to tweak them. Or maybe you design the background in AI, but you still need to cut yourself out and you have a photo of yourself and enhance it and to merge those two things.
- [18:56]
Nikki Saunders
Yep.
- [18:57]
Sean Cannell
ChatGPT doing some image generation. Throw that into Canva.
- [19:02]
Nikki Saunders
Yep.
- [19:02]
Sean Cannell
This might sound complex if you're new to it, but like that's pretty basic. I came back from like learn cutting my teeth on Photoshop. Full complexity.
- [19:10]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [19:10]
Sean Cannell
Tool suite.
- [19:11]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [19:12]
Sean Cannell
So, you know, living in a world where things can be just a few steps and like pretty accessible.
- [19:18]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely. Absolutely. I would say. So I'm torn with. With a few of the next ones. So 11labs some magic or captioned AI.
- [19:30]
Sean Cannell
So 11labs could turn my voice. It listens to me and then you can start doing audio generation without me having to create the content.
- [19:37]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely. The voiceover part is cool, but my thing where I'm on now is the translation. Right.
- [19:43]
Sean Cannell
So to dub yourself into a different language.
- [19:46]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [19:46]
Sean Cannell
What do you use it for?
- [19:47]
Nikki Saunders
Really, really good. So for one, depending on your channel, you're able to add different audio tracks into one channel. You don't have to create a separate channel for that.
- [19:57]
Sean Cannell
Now break this down. Wasn't YouTube going to make this native Aiworth?
- [20:01]
Nikki Saunders
But it is taking forever.
- [20:02]
Sean Cannell
And so it's not native. It's not out yet. And I understand now, but you're saying you can still upload other languages in the back end. You have to do it manually.
- [20:11]
Nikki Saunders
You have to do it manually. So if you go into YouTube Studio Subtitles, you can add the audio file, the, the captions and like, you could change the title and the description into that particular language.
- [20:23]
Sean Cannell
If you took your entire 8 minute video translated into Spanish, dubbed.
- [20:29]
Nikki Saunders
Yep.
- [20:30]
Sean Cannell
And uploaded that file, would there be no music?
- [20:33]
Nikki Saunders
No, there'd be music.
- [20:34]
Sean Cannell
It would pull out. It would pull out the. It would strip that.
- [20:37]
Nikki Saunders
It would. You still hear the music a little bit faintly, I will say that. A little bit faintly. But you, you hear the Spanish clear. The Spanish on there. The actually the different languages on there is amazing.
- [20:50]
Sean Cannell
And it would, but it would separate out, it would mute essentially the English and keep the music and then let you have the Spanish.
- [20:58]
Nikki Saunders
And it sounds. And it sounds like the Spanish version of you, not just a Spanish.
- [21:02]
Sean Cannell
Wow.
- [21:03]
Nikki Saunders
Regular.
- [21:03]
Sean Cannell
Have you tried this?
- [21:04]
Nikki Saunders
Yes, I have. I've tried it on ET's Eric Thomas channel because he has it and it's been going. It's been going crazy.
- [21:12]
Sean Cannell
Wow. Okay. So then essentially his motivational content on.
- [21:16]
Nikki Saunders
His channel is now in Spanish and French.
- [21:18]
Sean Cannell
Is now in Spanish and French and. And then different metadata on the back end. So these videos are findable for somebody speaking Spanish that's seeking that out.
- [21:28]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah. So what was, what was crazy is I was watching a Con Samir interview when they had Mr. Beast and, and Zuck. Right. And Mr. Beast was like, yo, the reason why I'm like, I'm cool with Facebook is because YouTube allows me to be more global. My biggest videos is when I don't talk. Right. And because it translates to everybody. YouTube is the only one that allows you to dub in so many different languages on the same channel. So I'm like, yo is our, is our native language. Stopping us from a global impact. So it made me think, I was like, okay, I got to put a little bit more energy on just not doing the 11 labs from a voiceover standpoint, but also from a translation standpoint.
- [22:15]
Sean Cannell
You know, it's interesting is I just was in like a, an environment talking about like advanced YouTube strategy and talking about competition and standing out from the competition.
- [22:25]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [22:26]
Sean Cannell
You know what we're describing here, at least at this moment is going to take work.
- [22:30]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [22:31]
Sean Cannell
But when you, if you think about like if we're same in the US or English speaking channels.
- [22:36]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [22:36]
Sean Cannell
And you think about red ocean, blue ocean. This idea of like everybody competing kind of for the same listeners.
- [22:42]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [22:42]
Sean Cannell
But almost nobody competing for global listeners. And the fact that the, the whole infrastructure is there now and if you wait until auto dubbing on YouTube is here and then all of a sudden instantly everybody will be doing it.
- [22:57]
Nikki Saunders
Right.
- [22:57]
Sean Cannell
So there's like a few people listening to the Think Media podcast right now that if they take this seriously, it's almost like you could become the biggest expert in a sub niche simply because of how fast action you take on this with the content you're already creating. And this takes us full circle. You use 11 labs.
- [23:15]
Nikki Saunders
Yep.
- [23:16]
Sean Cannell
You get the language dubbed into Spanish or French. You maybe tier which languages you'd hit next. You're uploading those files on the back end and you can use Google Translate.
- [23:24]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [23:25]
Sean Cannell
To. To just translate your description, your title, your tags. Relatively easy. Is that how you would suggest doing it?
- [23:30]
Nikki Saunders
Yes, because. And it's already like kind of programmed in if have the Chrome extension.
- [23:35]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [23:35]
Nikki Saunders
You just press a button and it automatically does it.
- [23:37]
Sean Cannell
You still, it's still. It's funny that it's manual clicks. It allows you for some manual control, but it is kind of. And it would be very delegatable. Fascinating. So maybe 11 labs and you mentioned two other sub magic.
- [23:49]
Nikki Saunders
Sub Magic submagic has been really, really good because at first it was just captions. Right. There's really really dope captions like the Hormozi captions, everything like that. But now they started doing like the AI voiceovers. They started doing different transitions. They started adding audio to it, like you can add music to it. They started now also doing clips as well. So you can add your long form videos and it can clip it up to it and it adds the captions, all of that stuff. It's starting to be kind of like an all in one like place, which is really, really amazing from where they started. And so that's why I was like, I'm tied with it because I use that every single day, to be honest with you. Because I do believe it has the best captions when it comes to your vertical videos.
- [24:34]
Sean Cannell
For what? Like what's your workflow to use it?
- [24:36]
Nikki Saunders
So meaning. So all the Instagram, TikTok any type of reels that I'm doing, I'm putting it in Sub Magic. But I'll also take some of my YouTube videos, put it in there, get it chopped up just because it's convenient to put the captions on it. Like their captions are.
- [24:56]
Sean Cannell
Now personally, what are your thoughts? Like my go to for mobile video which isn't really hit YouTube is cap cut.
- [25:03]
Nikki Saunders
I love Cap.
- [25:04]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. I film on my phone. I love throw the video in there. Auto captions is pretty fast.
- [25:09]
Nikki Saunders
Their captions are. If you're already in that. In that mode of like I need to edit something and I need to add captions to it. Cap Cut all day.
- [25:17]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [25:18]
Nikki Saunders
Capcut has like the best templates for those people who don't necessarily like to edit as great captions. It has a teleprompter. It has so many different. Yeah, it's. If you don't just. Just YouTube cap cut tutorials. I can't even go more into it.
- [25:33]
Sean Cannell
I guess scap it as desktop too.
- [25:35]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [25:35]
Sean Cannell
So you hit sub magic 11 labs. Was there one other.
- [25:37]
Nikki Saunders
There was one more. And I would say caption AI just because. And that's an. An actual app. Not just because of the caption, but they do AI avatars now.
- [25:48]
Sean Cannell
Okay.
- [25:48]
Nikki Saunders
So meaning of you, of you. Okay, like of you. But also of like let's say you needed an influencer to talk about think media. Right. And look supernatural. They have that inside of there. Let's say you don't like to edit. They have an AI editing version that can edit the whole thing with different transitions, different scenes, different B roll.
- [26:10]
Sean Cannell
If you just upload your footage, you.
- [26:11]
Nikki Saunders
Just upload your foot. You have a regular talking head thing that. And it creates it right there. So that's why I was like between those. I'm like, ah, the. They're all really needed. But I would say that's my list of paying and probably that's about it.
- [26:25]
Sean Cannell
Okay. So you shared tips on your journey to 20,000 subscribers. Also your tips for scaling content without a team.
- [26:32]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [26:32]
Sean Cannell
Which helped us also cover AI tools for how you would do that.
- [26:36]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [26:36]
Sean Cannell
And you know, I do want to talk about kind of just being consistent and even a 30 day challenge of content creation for our community but before we get there, introvert to influential.
- [26:49]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [26:50]
Sean Cannell
What have you learned about introverts? Those that are hesitating to get on content. What's your story?
- [26:58]
Nikki Saunders
So I am a huge, huge, huge, huge introvert. I stay home majority of the day.
- [27:04]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [27:04]
Nikki Saunders
Like, after this, I'm probably going to the speaker lounge and just trying to reload. Like, I. But what I realize, it's not that introverts don't like people, is that we mess with our people. Right? And we have to find our people. The thing with most introverts is people think that, okay, I have to be extrovert and I got to talk to everybody. But our messaging has never been for everybody. Our messaging has been only for a selective group of people that will tell other people. Right. If introverts was to focus on that, like, I could be myself and just turn on the camera or write or however you're in this, figuring out, okay, what is my natural? Am I a video person? Am I audio person? Am I a written person, my picture person? Like, figuring that out first and like, staying in your natural in that beginning stage of like, okay, I can. I can do video, but I can do video for like, two minutes. Okay, cool. Do video for two minutes, post it, run away from it. I'm not even asking you to do. To stay on there and comment. Just post it, run away from it, do that tomorrow again, do that again. If you see that's natural, if it's. If it's writing. We can now turn written content into videos now, right? That's super easy. You can take a screenshot of your. Your. Your tweet or your thread, put that in a. In some B roll, put music on it. That's a video, right? Figuring out your natural and then going in on that for how many days. You say, like, okay, I will do like you said, 30 minutes, sprint. Or I'll do 10 days just to see can I do this right? That was me. Like, I had to figure out what was my natural. For some reason, my natural was live wild. But I realized because there was no one around me. When you realize that, you know, the camera is just you in the camera. It's not you in a crowd. And we've seen it too many times where it's not me pressing publish, and it reaches millions of people, and there's so many people, we probably get crickets that very first couple of weeks, months, year, right? But if I could be like, yo, it's me and this camera. I got to get comfortable with myself. My first journey was getting comfortable with myself and like, who am I? How do I want to show up? How do I not cold switch in different environments, different people and things like that, and realize that people respect that because it's rare. And when you realize, oh, there's an audience for just who I am, even though I may think, okay, I have self identity issues, I'm introvert, I'm all these different things, there's, there's somebody who's going to say, yo, I can relate to that. And we do a disservice as introverts by not showing up because we're, we're overthinkers. We're like, it has to look a certain kind of way. It has to be a certain kind of vibe. It has to do this and when really we've been self sabotaging because where did that come from? Right to the overthinking is actually a superpower because we are the only ones that are like, okay, what are the thumbnails? What are the titles? What is this? It has to be a certain kind of way. And instead of being an overwhelming way, it could be like, I'm looking at it way more like meticulous than other people. And so when I come out, I come out correct. And that's going to take a little bit. That's why in the beginning of it, I was like, we got to stop listening to society of every single day. Every single day. Because what we do takes a couple of days to do, takes a couple of weeks to do. But when we come out, we come out correct. And in anything that is good, it takes a minute. So for my journey, it was being okay with who I am and understanding that this is not an overnight situation. And when it works, it works like now people are like, yo, Nikki. And I'm like, how do you know me, right? How do you. But it's interesting. Once you just step out and you just, you know, hit that publish button and then you just be who you are. It's so much easier in that kind of way. But what bugs us is the algorithm is the people. It's what we think is top tier content. And I'm like, that there's no book that says this is top tier content. And if it is, it is an opinionated situation from a person who started just like us.
- [31:32]
Sean Cannell
How long do would you say it took to find your voice or to find your authenticity?
- [31:37]
Nikki Saunders
Three years. Three. Three years to like, I was like, okay, this is me. And then another two for it to be like, wow, boom, this is really, you.
- [31:49]
Sean Cannell
Five years. Really? To dial in your voice, your kind of confidence, to kind of get comfortable with your own skin on camera.
- [31:56]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah. Because there's. There's so many different levels. Like, one you have to feel okay with. Like, we never feel like an expert. Right.
- [32:04]
Sean Cannell
So it's like imposter syndrome.
- [32:05]
Nikki Saunders
Right. You're dealing with the doubt and all of that. So when you finally are like, okay, I'm over that, then you have a real deep thing. But, like, who do. Who do I want to be known for? Like, when people Google me, what do I want to come up? That's a whole other level of self awareness. Right. Understanding that, yo, am I putting out content? Am I putting out who I truly am and that I'm proud of, not what's going to get me the clicks, the views and everything. If people Google me, am I proud of that? That takes a whole nother thing. Because if you could be proud of what you do, it makes it easier to be consistent if you're doing it from a trending standpoint. And what gets the views and what gets the money, that creates a lot of burnout and creates a lot of, like, I'm not going to do it because it's not working no more. And then you switch up and then we don't really know who you are. So there's different levels of like, okay, the expertise wise, the feeling comfortable with the camera wise to the, who are you really and who do you serve? Because once you understand who you serve, the conversation is different.
- [33:12]
Sean Cannell
Such great advice. Well, I have one final question for you, but before we get there, if you're getting value out of this episode, hit the like button or rate, review, share wherever you watch or listen to. The Fake Media Podcast always means the world to us if you. When you do so, because it helps us reach more people with this content. And Nikki, if people want to connect with you, what are some resources? We'll make sure that everything is in the show notes.
- [33:36]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [33:36]
Sean Cannell
Including all the AI tools and things like that. But shout it out before we get to the final question.
- [33:40]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely. So get to know me first. Right. Nikki saunders on. On YouTube. This is Nikki's Instagram. Everywhere else. Deeper than the brand for the courses and the programs and everything. And the Content Corner newsletter. That's my free newsletter. I do it every Friday. Extreme value and Just get to know me.
- [34:01]
Sean Cannell
Yes. Awesome, Nikki. We've added a ton of value. I want to talk about actions.
- [34:06]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [34:07]
Sean Cannell
Taking massive action, implementing what we've learned.
- [34:09]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [34:10]
Sean Cannell
And for somebody listening to this you could apply this to YouTube, although it might be a little bit different with YouTube because you did a 30 day challenge.
- [34:16]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [34:17]
Sean Cannell
And it was a 30 day social media challenge.
- [34:19]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [34:19]
Sean Cannell
Anybody listening to this?
- [34:20]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [34:21]
Sean Cannell
I think could radically change their life in the next 30 days if they committed to taking massive action intentionally. So break down how that could be possible through a 30 day challenge.
- [34:32]
Nikki Saunders
So it's first one, commit to 30 days. I'm going to post every single day. Right. That's his first. You got to say. And then you got to say that to somebody else.
- [34:42]
Sean Cannell
Okay.
- [34:42]
Nikki Saunders
Okay. Because, you know.
- [34:43]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [34:44]
Nikki Saunders
Because in our head, we think we're the greatest and then we'll give ourselves excuses. Next, I want you to write or do audio note. Some people are not natural writers. I'm not a natural writer. But at least 10 minutes a day. Right. Because one and it, it literally could be, I don't know what to write. I don't know what to tell you. I don't know anything like that. And then break down how that makes you feel. Because the crazy thing is even that is content. Then I'm going to tell you, put that into ChatGPT or your favorite AI stuff. Because what we're going to do is say, hey, read that. You can take a picture if you write, take a picture, upload it, or actually speak to ChatGPT. Right. In itself. Hey, based off what I said, what I showed you, what ideas, what content ideas are you getting from this? Right. It's going to give you two, three, depending on how long you've talked. Right. Two, three different ideas. And then you have a conversation further. Okay, how can I make this happen? Let's turn this into a video script, let's turn this into a picture, let's turn this into a thread of some sort. And you get to pick out of what it says, the conversation that you had. What am I going to create? That's all it is. Like, get it out of your head. Have someone talk to you about it. This time is going to be AI, right?
- [36:02]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [36:02]
Nikki Saunders
I'm not telling you to get an expensive coach or anything. Get AI to say, yo, based off who you are. Cool. Like, let's do this, let's do that. And you do that every single day. And for one, you'll be very shocked about the ideas you already had in your mind. Right. Because you're having AI assist you two. You're going to see that, oh, this isn't that hard. Like, I have the idea, I just got to create it. And depending on the idea, I Could create it right inside of ChatGPT with the new image generator. Oh, this isn't, this isn't that deep. This isn't. I have a whole video script for my YouTube. I have a, I have a whole carousel that I could put on Instagram. I have a whole video script for my, my real in my TikTok. You're realizing that it's always been in here. It's just a matter of, you know, hitting that post.
- [36:55]
Sean Cannell
So this 30 day content challenge could change your life and it's powered up by AI. And the point is, post one piece of content a day. It might be a picture on Instagram, it might be a long form video on YouTube, a YouTube short. It might be just texts in a thread, but you've crafted an idea or text on Twitter. X. How long would you say an individual should set aside each day to get this done? They're busy, they're juggling life, kids, a job, other things. They're doing this part time, but to make sure that they can commit to getting something out every day for 30 days.
- [37:29]
Nikki Saunders
On a good note, literally 30 minutes.
- [37:31]
Sean Cannell
Okay.
- [37:32]
Nikki Saunders
It really only takes 30 minutes. If you, if you are overthinker, I'll give you an hour. I'll give you an hour and a half. Right? But if we're talking from a daily standpoint, your, your conversation is 10 minutes. Your conversation with ChatGPT is, could possibly be another 10 minutes, right? 20 minutes. It shouldn't take more than 15, 10 to 15 minutes to create something. Because I don't want you to overthink. This 30 days isn't about quality. This 30 days is about momentum. This 30 days is about finding your voice. This 30 days is to figure out data of what works and what doesn't work. Because after the 30 days, then we start tweaking about. Okay, now we focus on the quality. Now I know exactly what the algorithm likes, what my audience likes. We're going to combine that a little bit. But I couldn't do that if I never had content to figure out in the first place or, or to let the, the algorithms know. No, I'm here. Like sometimes we just got to show up on these platforms and say, hey, I'm here. You're going to pay attention to me. Not this first day, not this second day, but by day 21, you're showing my stuff to at least a few more people than I was on day one.
- [38:43]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [38:43]
Nikki Saunders
So that, that's kind of. If you could spend 30 days, 30 minutes a day with this situation and give Yourself, Grace. Okay. That's the biggest thing when it comes to content creation. Give yourself grace is going to feel uncomfortable and is going to look ugly. In the very beginning, so did everybody else's.
- [39:03]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [39:03]
Nikki Saunders
There's no, there's no person that I know that had a first piece of content, first video and they said they loved it. Right. And if they do, they're lying. Okay. Because they probably that that means they didn't grow. Right. But it's going to be so refreshing and you're going to feel so accomplished to be like, these ideas have been in there this whole time. This I didn't have to doom scroll. I didn't have to go like it's been in here this whole time. And I actually created something tangible.
- [39:35]
Sean Cannell
So I want to issue a challenge to the Think Media podcast, every audio listener to actually at least visit the video version. If you want to get serious and really change your life with content creation, post in the comments. I'm starting my 30 day challenge today only. It's going to take 30 minutes to an hour per day. We all could find the time. It's going to take discipline, it's going to take grit, it's going to take resilience. And I also think like this isn't 75 hard rules. Maybe you're hard and fast, but like in 75 hard, which is a fitness thing, you know, if you miss any of the steps in one day, you have to start over. But it's like, I mean if you did 29 posts instead of 30, your life is still going to change. How much are you going to learn about yourself? How much are you going to learn about your voice? And to be clear, it's a social media challenge. So this might challenge you to articulate your thoughts underneath a photo or carousel on Instagram. You may. You could get away with a good community tab post on YouTube. Long form YouTube videos take more energy. And in other episodes we talk about that. But certainly YouTube shorts, vertical videos. But imagine if together we link arms as we post this episode or when you're listening to this episode, could be a year later. Start that 30 day challenge today because this is about transformation. And what we're measuring is we're not measuring views, we're measuring posts. We're measuring uploads. Measure uploads. Measure posts, not views. Cause the 30 days is about finding your own voice, practicing. And then out of that, what did we learn? And what's also kind of cool, you know, as we land the plane, I'm excited about AI not Just because of all these tools and things that it could do for us. But ChatGPT, for example, I know Claude has evolved, and ChatGPT is paying attention to all of your conversations collectively. Yes, I know Claude wasn't doing that. And what I've learned now is I've talked to ChatGPT about so much stuff about business. I will talk about brainstorming YouTube titles. I will talk about relationships. I've met with a therapist and unpacked issues and new terms. I've learned about attachment styles. I've reviewed contracts. I've done a bunch of stuff.
- [41:41]
Nikki Saunders
Everything. Yeah.
- [41:42]
Sean Cannell
And then I've learned that there are prompts you can give now that you don't have to upload context. You just say, hey, based on what you know about me.
- [41:54]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [41:54]
Sean Cannell
Fill in the blank. Or, you know, based on. In fact, one really cool prompt I just did was what are some controversial or polarizing topics I could talk about on YouTube authentically.
- [42:07]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [42:08]
Sean Cannell
So that I don't just jump on clickbait, but there's some things that I'd maybe be afraid to talk about it. I wanted ChatGPT to tell me this is the stuff you actually believe.
- [42:15]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [42:16]
Sean Cannell
At, like, your heart of heart. And the answers it gave me was insane. But the only way it could actually give me that was the quality of the prompt, but also the amount of history I've developed. And so I want to challenge you, and Nikki wants to challenge you. Think media podcast to start. Maybe you set a start date in a couple of days. You talk to your spouse. You think about it. I'm going to start this thing. I'm going to go for this. Because also, as you build that out in ChatGPT, you can then ask a question at the end of it and be like, hey, out of the day. Every issue I was processing, what were some of the common themes and what are some. Then you could upload some analytics and stuff, even at this point.
- [42:52]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah, you can do that weekly, too, if you want. Let's say you get super, super stumped. Hey, based off what I've already given, what idea didn't I work on yet? Yeah, you know what. What idea am I? Like, what are. What am I not seeing? That's. That's my favorite prompt in. In when I use chat GBT in anything. Here's the idea. Or here's what I said. What am I not seeing? Based on what you know about me, what am I not seeing? Now, of course, we're assuming that these people are, like, talking, talking chat GPT if you're just starting, I would also say, hey, chat, what do you need to know about me? Give me the questions. But like I said, you saying what. What do you see that I don't see is probably one of the most powerful prompts that I think that's powerful.
- [43:33]
Sean Cannell
And to be clear, we're talking also about a future. You could do it on desktop and you could do it on mobile. It's very easy. You're hitting the microphone and you're able to just verbally process and talk. And one of the prompts you just suggested would be to give it foundational data. You could act, ask it to ask you questions. Hey, I'm getting started on a content challenge. I'm kind of got a blank page right now. Can you give me like 10 questions that I'll just riff and answer right now about who I am, what I like, what I'm thinking about. This 30 days will also be an AI education.
- [44:04]
Nikki Saunders
Yeah.
- [44:04]
Sean Cannell
It'll just as you have unlocks epiphanies, all these things which my argument would be if you're not investing in an AI education which you should be actually like paying for like your stuff and like other people's education. But the practice of it. Yeah, it's the, it's just the experience of it. You're like, oh, that's kind of how it works. You're getting used to it. Follow up prompts. The fact you could, like you said, take a picture of notes. I just as a somewhat irrelevant side quest, but relevant was redecorating a room. And I took a picture of the room, the wall. I said, what mirror size do I need? Should it be lengthwise? What are the dimensions? Da da da. What's it going to do? It. It can see everything.
- [44:46]
Nikki Saunders
Yes.
- [44:46]
Sean Cannell
It can see the color of the couch. It could see this room. It could say what size. You're probably not going to want to go below 48 inches. Yeah, you probably want to do this. I said, what if the woods don't match? Well, it depends. It's. It's fine if they're complimentary and da da da. And then, and then I always wonder if AI flatters you, but it's like you have quite a design, amazing taste.
- [45:04]
Nikki Saunders
Absolutely.
- [45:04]
Sean Cannell
They just want to keep you pay attention.
- [45:06]
Nikki Saunders
ChatGPT is your biggest cheerleader. Biggest cheerleader.
- [45:10]
Sean Cannell
Wow. Those are some very thoughtful ideas you shared. Let's expand on those. But nevertheless, it led me to like a full circle designing out my and processing ideas because I'm uploading photos and even at the Beginning of this conversation, I took four screenshots of your YouTube channel, the about page, the top top popular videos, and then sat here for 10, 15 minutes before we started talking to even brainstorm the architecture around this episode. So we are issuing a 30 day challenge. If you're this deep in the podcast, it's time to get serious. Number one, maybe you need a kick in the pants to find that next. You've already been creating content, but you need that reinvention. You need to refine your voice. You're looking for a spark of inspiration, maybe that next wave of that content arc for you because you're plateaued. But number two, if you're on the sidelines and you just haven't started yet and you've been making excuses and you've been putting everything off until tomorrow, pick a start date. If you don't start today, still drop in the comments on the YouTube of the podcast, you know, I'm starting and maybe give us the start date. I'm going to start this weekend. Actually, we're about to go travel about today. I'm going to start in two weeks. Pick a start date. What gets scheduled, gets done. I really believe that this challenge can change lives in so many ways with what you'll get out of it, what you'll learn, and ultimately how that will impact the future content.
- [46:31]
Nikki Saunders
You. Absolutely, absolutely. I love the challenge. I do it at what I do a full 30 day and then I do a 14 day until another like 30 days, 14 break. 30 days, 14 break. Just because it allows me to get whatever ideas out of my head, but it allows me to even know me a little bit more.
- [46:52]
Sean Cannell
Man, this has been incredible. And so I want to thank you again for adding massive value today. Of course, everything's in the show notes. And again, if you got value, maybe tag somebody, share this, especially on email or audio. You know, send them a link, DM somebody, text somebody that needs to hear this content. And this is the Think Media podcast. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. And I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode.