Sean Cannell (0:00)

Hey, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give you a heads up that my free YouTube strategy class is available right now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com on the class, I reveal the one YouTube strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your your growth. This class is 100% free and you can watch it now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com now let's jump into today's show. If you're frustrated with low views, confused about your niche, overwhelmed by editing, or wondering why YouTube feels harder than ever, you are not alone. In today's episode, I'm answering 15 of your real YouTube questions, straight from the Think Media community and giving practical advice for growing on YouTube. This year. My channel normally gets 3,000 views per video, but my last two videos flopped with only 50 views. What happened? I struggle with mental health and it's hard to even hit record. How do I stay consistent when every day feels like a battle as I do everything myself? Editing, filming, thumbnails, when should I bring in outside help? And how do I know when it's the right time? My name is Sean Cannell. This is the Think Media podcast and I've helped thousands of creators and entrepreneurs grow their influence and their income with YouTube. And personally, I've been through many seasons of discouragement, burnout, confusion, and so I want to help you break through some of those walls. And coming up, we're going to be talking about low views and algorithm struggles, clarity and channel strategy, mental health and staying motivated, practical tools and creative pivoting, retention, CTR and upload, timing and brand confusion, niche specific tips and scaling. So we're going to be covering a lot. Buckle your seatbelt and let's get into it. And so AI helped me divide these 15 questions up into six different sections and section number one is all about low views and algorithm frustrations. And so the first question comes from Courtney, and these are kind of summarized, but she asks, my biggest struggle is not getting any views. How do you stay motivated to work hard on something when no one is seeing it or you're not getting the results? I appreciate the question, Courtney. By the way, people posted these on the community tab on the Think Media podcast channel. So if you're listening on audio, thank you for being here, but check in from time to time over on the YouTube channel if you are interested in more Q and A episodes like this. Specifically the community tab. So how do I stay motivated? I think the first thing is to give yourself grace and empathy and acknowledge that it's normal to feel discouraged. It's a normal human emotion. It's something we all go through. And even at various levels of success, life can just be an emotional roller coaster. And YouTube can especially be an emotional roller coaster. What I like to do is I like to first name the thought, asking myself, what is the thought? What am I actually feeling? And. And actually my therapist has helped me do this in more recent years. I wish I had this information a decade ago when sometimes I just was, like, super bummed. But name the thought. Like, I feel frustrated, I feel unseen. I feel like this isn't worth it. But then the next step is to ask yourself, okay, what's true? And then the next step is to reframe the thought. So sometimes people think our Think Media channel is a little too motivational or cliche, but they. It turns out that a lot of the things we say here are actually based in neuroscience. And here's what I mean. A reframe is a phrase like, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. A reframe is use your season of obscurity to prepare you for popularity. You know, so people have memed me before and they're like, he's the, you know, you don't need to be somebody else. You need to be you times two. I'm going to be me times three. You know, rhyming and all this stuff. But, like, these reframes are actually neuroscience based. I heard Pat Flynn on a recent episode, he said, count uploads, not views. So what are we talking about? We're talking about, okay, I feel discouraged. I'm not feeling motivation. I need to get motivation. And that's going to start in my brain. So neuroscience, and this is actually cognitive behavioral therapy type of steps is kind of like, all right, so I'm not getting the views, but can I see this as practice? Can I see this as learning? Can I see this season from a different lens? A lot of times life isn't about what's actually happening to us. It's how we respond to what's happening to us. So, okay, no one's seeing your videos. That's a fact. But what's true? Well, you're in a season of counting uploads, not views. And what I mean is you. You're counting the repetitions you're doing, getting practice, building skills, and you're not worrying about the Views right now you're worrying about the growth. It's kind of like if you go to the gym too, and you're like counting the actual repetitions you're doing of lifting weights, and then you look in the mirror and you're like, my muscles are not bigger, actually. My body's just all puffed up and inflamed because I'm so out of shape. Like you. You got like negative results visibly, but you're counting the fact that if you keep lifting the weights over time, you're going to get stronger and build muscle. So of course YouTube takes tactics. You can't necessarily just upload forever and means you're going to get results. The reframe of your perspective can be very helpful. Also. One of the things that's helped me is re getting tuned into a clear vision of what I'm building. There's this proverb that says, where there is no vision, the people perish. I realize if my discouragement is going higher, it's usually because the vision for my future is going lower. My vision is cloudy. What am I building? Why am I even doing this? What do I hope to really accomplish here? What is waiting for me on the other side of the strenuous hard work and pressure and emotional and physical challenges I'm going through? And when you got a really clear vision, it gives you fuel to face those challenging times. And one of the reasons you want motivation is so that you stay consistent in skill building. The truth is, competition is highest on YouTube for low effort content, and competition is highest on YouTube for mediocre content. You're not going to break through consistently over time with mediocre content. So you need skills. What can be tough is when you're demotivated, you maybe don't want to read or listen or watch or take notes or practice. So the mental reframe to keep your fire lit so that you can keep building skills and practice over time. There's, you know, the famous 10,000 hour rule, which it says, you know, it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice, not even just repetitions, deliberate intentional practice to develop mastery in a particular area. How do people stay motivated through 10,000 hours of deliberate practice? Well, part of it is picking something you're passionate about, but the other part is knowing how to hack your brain and realize, oh, this is a practice season. I'm counting uploads, not views. I'm on my way to 10,000 hours. And YouTube rewards the individuals that build the skills and understand the platform. After consistency with deliberate consistency consistent Intentional practice. Question number two comes from ARIB. My channel normally gets 3,000 to 10,000 views per video, but my last two videos flopped with only 50 views. What happened? Okay, it's a good question, and I love it when we have questions that have context and nuance like this. Couple thoughts. One, Competition is higher than ever. More content means more choice for people. This is still a great time to start a YouTube channel, but a lot of people want to start a YouTube channel, and the creator economy is going to double in the next two years, according to Goldman Sachs. But a lot of people want to start a YouTube channel. So competition is higher than ever. So the famous baseball player Babe Ruth said this. Yesterday's home runs do not win tomorrow's games. And it speaks to the fact of continuing to train, continuing to skill up and to continue to realize, like every new day means you got to make a fresh video, the best of your ability, with as much creativity and strategy and energy as possible. And so a couple questions you could ask is, have you gotten repetitive? I remember reading this question he was talking about, you know, it's the same format. I mean, it's still aligned with my channel. Well, I get it. But also, if people have watched a certain format for a certain season, you might want to consider a fresh take a fresh angle, a better hook in the first 30 seconds so that your numbers help the video get recommended title, thumbnail. All the stuff, right. New packaging. And so for more on this, check out the how to get out of YouTube jail episode I did recently. I'll make sure that's linked. In the show notes, I talk about seven specific strategies. Not that you're in YouTube jail, but if you went from 3,000 to 10,000 views to 50 and you stay stuck there, you might have just went to YouTube jail. So definitely watch that episode after this one. Question number three comes from tristar Diggin. He says, one minute I see strong growth, the next minute it stops. I'm consistent with quality. So why is growth so up and down? Yeah, YouTube growth can be erratic and similar to what we were just talking about. The key is actually to think about how to say the same thing in new ways. One of the Challenges is on YouTube, you might feel like everything's been said, which isn't true because there are always new things for entertainment channels. If you're reacting, there's always new media to react to. There's new shows, there's new books, there's new pop culture, there's new news stories, and there's new technology in any industry, sometimes it's more disrupted than at other times. Like, AI right now has just flipped the whole world. So there's new things to talk about. But for a lot of people who do what I do, they teach something. Of course YouTube is changing. There's new stuff to talk about, but there's a lot of stuff that we repeat. I'm sure you've realized that if you've stayed with us at Think Media. And one side of that is we understand that repetition is the father of learning and the mother of mastery. Repetition is a good thing. We need to hear proven, solid principles over and over. But here's the fundamental skill set for somebody. Like, if you're teaching cooking recipes, right, like, how new is the recipe? You're probably going to be teaching some tried and true recipes. Here's the number one skill. Catch this. This is the big idea. You've got to know how to say the same things in new ways. Like, it makes me think of Dave Ramsey, who's built like one of the biggest financial advice education companies and, and actually an important way to think about it is it's actually a financial advice entertainment company, talk radio, the stories, the guests is not just education, it's also entertainment. But all that to say is he's been sharing like the same seven baby steps for decades now. He has a lot of new things to talk about because housing prices, rates, bitcoin, crypto, all this different stuff. But the question is, how do you say the same things, your fundamental frameworks, but in fresh ways? And there's. There really is unlimited ways to do it. It's just, how creative can you be? How fresh is your spirit? Creatively, how creative can you get with packaging your ideas differently? And so Think Media, by the way, the Think Media podcast, we've been on a run lately and thank you, by the way, because that's due to you watching and listening. But we've had our views are up, ad revenues up, channels growing. But we've been working hard. Like, I've been digging deeper than ever to evolve titles, thumbnails, and to think about fresh. Packaging my interview style, improving my interviews, improving my content. Success on YouTube right now takes more rigor and so refreshing. Your strategy is part of the journey. Question number four. Cody Chambers says, After eight years on YouTube, I still have low growth. Should I keep going or should I pivot? I think the best reference here is a book by Seth Godin called the Diploma. And he asked this question, are you in a dip in a cul de sac or are you Headed for a cliff. A dip is what everybody experiences after they start something. You start something and you're pumped. Endorphins are high. Eight years ago, you're like, I'm going to do YouTube. I'm going to crush it. And then what comes after starting something new is a huge dip. This is also called the Dunning Kruger effect. Like, when you start, you're like, how hard could that be? And then you get into it and you're like, way harder than I thought. And when you start, you're like, how many possible details should I need to know? And then you get into it and you're like, well, there's like hundreds of details of nuances to YouTube mastery. So you hit this dip, and that dip is discouraging. The thing is, if you're actually in the dip, the point is to mentally know it and to know that you just need to not quit. It's like if you're running a marathon that's 26 miles long and on mile 18, you're like, my legs hurt and I'm out of breath and I'm sweating and I'm uncomfortable. Well, if you know that it's a, it's a marathon and you have just more miles and it's like normal to feel that way. Well, if you're in the dip of a solid YouTube strategy and a solid YouTube channel topic and a solid, a sound progression, and you're like, but my, my, you know, my back hurts. I'm tired. I've been doing YouTube, I want to quit. Like, feeling that way is super normal. Like, you're in the dip, but if you're in a culdest stack, it means you're, you're actually. There's a dead end there. Like, it's discerning that you're, you're actually not in the dip. You're at a dead end. And I got some tips for you, but that's the second one. And then, and then another one is, you're headed for a cliff. So he gives you the three options. The dip, you keep going through the culdest sack. You need to quit that because it's dead end. The cliff is like, it's actually good now, but you're about to fall off. And I mean, what comes to mind would be like, I'm getting a bunch of views doing this shady YouTube strategy that's against the terms of service. It's like, okay, it's working right now, but you're headed for a cliff. Like, cliffs could be different things, but it's actually about to get, you know, it's about to get bad. You're investing in something you haven't thought a few steps ahead. Okay, so. So here's the questions. Am I panicking? A lot of people listening to this have not been doing YouTube for eight years, like Cody. And so a lot of times you're probably panicking if you're like, sean, I've uploaded four videos. I've been doing this for four weeks. Like, what's wrong? Like, you're probably panicking. That's. You need to calm down. You need to take a, you know, a breath, relax. Are you panicking now, Cody? You're probably not panicking. You've done this for eight years. You have a lot of data. So another question is, who am I trying to influence? Do you need to pivot your target audience in your approach? Do you need to pivot? Another question is, what measurable progress am I making after eight years? You have low growth, but do you have growth? What are your expectations? Is it still fulfilling? Are you just discouraged because it's not here, but you do enjoy the process? And maybe a reframe is like, yeah, it's a slow growth, but I'm grateful for the growth I have. So. So how are you measuring progress? Has it led to some cool things like, you know, I want to be. I want a gold play button. But what I do have is kind of a slow growing YouTube channel. But I do enjoy it. So there could be a reframe there. The question is, what measurable progress am I making? And then is this path strategic or should I quit and refocus? So that's the question that comes for Cody right now and for everybody else listening to this. Depending on where you are in your journey, is, is this working? And only you can answer that after eight years. And should I quit? And the point of the book is, do I strategically quit? The reason you quit is not to quit macro. It's to say, I'm going to quit this. Like, there's this stat that the average successful business owner has had 2.5 failed businesses, which is so fascinating because it means, like, on the journey to getting one successful business, you may have one or two or three failed businesses. On my journey to creating a successful YouTube channel, I had like four failed YouTube channels. But back to reframing, Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. I strategically quit YouTube channels. My clear vision media Sean Kendall productions channel. Haven't uploaded there. It's still sitting on YouTube. I quit that channel. The thick international channel that I was Doing with my friend Jeff Moores, who is my pastor, who got me into video way back in 2003. He actually took the channel over now, years later, but I quit that channel. We both did for like 10 years. So, so that I quit. Like I, I, I quit YouTube channel. I quit a channel and then my personal channel. It's had some success, it's had some ups and downs. I quit it. Like, I don't upload on that channel. And then here we are originally on Think Media, and now we've started this Think Media podcast channel, Strategic quitting, focusing somewhere different. And then my gut feeling is after eight years, you probably want to pivot. If you've done something, you need a serious evaluation after eight years. And so does that mean a channel rebrand? What does, what direction do you go next? And here's the thing. Quitting frees up energy for better opportunities. And one of the things actually I did was I actually started multiple channels. At one point I was doing my Clear Vision channel, Think International. I was doing the Sean Cannell channel. I started later a channel called Video Influencers with my friend Benji, the co author of YouTube Secrets. I was actually talk about energy being really divided in multiple different directions. That's why I'm so passionate these days about focus. So strategic quitting certain things you're doing so you can focus on the best opportunities, that's something to consider. And then as far as eight years ago, the first channel I was working on was actually for my church. In 2007, that channel grew to 45 subscribers. It was not a personal project, but that's how early I got to start getting practice on YouTube 2007, and I went full time on YouTube in 2015. So that's eight years later now. I was seeing progress and experimenting in different places and whatnot. So again, this is a personal question you're going to have to answer. But momentum started after eight years of groundwork and got even more compounded years after that. So could you try a new channel? Could you try a different format? Could you try bolder positioning? Do you need to strategically quit? And if you want, I'll link in the show notes. You got a good overview, but the Dip by Seth Godin goes a lot deeper than that. There's probably 20 different kind of frames that he will help you to know not only just if you should quit, but ideas of, of what strategic pivoting could look like. And so I'll make sure to link that book if you want to check it out in the show notes. Okay, that was section one, and we're about to dive into section number two, which is all about clarity and channel strategy. But before we do that, I want to give you a heads up that I recently updated our free one hour YouTube strategy class at thinkmasterclass. Com. I mentioned earlier that we've been doing some new stuff here on the Fake media podcast and it's been going really well. Growth, views, revenue, it's all up. And that's because we continue to pivot and reinvent and we continue to double down on the core strategy that has helped us get three silver play buttons, a gold play button here at Think Media. And so if you want to learn what's working on YouTube right now and really get a chance to basically look over my shoulder and learn some tactical strategies for getting views, for getting subscribers, and for making money on YouTube in today's world, you can go to thinkmasterclass.com or you can click the link in the show notes to get access to a free one hour YouTube strategy masterclass. Again, that's on demand, so you can watch it whenever you want@thinkmasterclass.com. okay, the next question comes from Lux Cs. My wife and I have a duo gaming channel, but we've been thinking about pivoting to a couple's DIY channel. We have three little kids, ages 6, 2 and 1, so balancing content creation is hard. Should we start a second channel or focus our limited time in one channel direction? Well, I love this question because of the nuance. You got three little kids, you're already doing a duo gaming channel, you're thinking about starting a second channel. Here's what I'd recommend. Focus is key, especially if you have limited time. Consider this. You only have a few hours in your side hustle. If you're not doing this full time, you got your main job, you got your other responsibilities. So try to identify how many hours do I really have to devote to whatever I want? It's like your extra time. I've heard the eight, eight, eight rule. It's like eight hours at work, eight hours sleeping, eight hours left over. And so then do you gotta commute? Do you gotta spend some time with your kids? You gotta cook for them? And depending on how you answer those questions, dividing up household responsibilities, maybe you got family help, maybe you got a nanny. All of our circumstances are different. We're trying to identify what is the amount of time we even have available in this current season of life to work on a side hustle. Then the question is, okay, if I only have four hours a week or 10 hours a week, then where am I dividing up those hours? And so my recommendation is one channel is better when juggling parenting and content creation or YouTube. One channel is better even actually if you're potentially full time. Because I just believe in the power of focus. And a good question to ask is also what is your long term vision? I mean, if you're having fun and the gaming channel is like a hobby and an outlet and something that you and your wife connect on, well, that's a different frame of why you're even doing it. But are you also trying to think about a channel you're really going to monetize? A bigger brand, a bigger business? Well, what's the long term vision? So avoid splitting energy unless it's 100% strategic. I, I'm not a big fan of people having multiple YouTube channels, especially when they're starting. But the counter argument is they're like, well, I want to start a vlog channel that are upload on whenever because I'll travel sometimes, but it's not going to be my main thing. Well, you just define the reason for it. Like it's maybe that's not this channel that's going to make money or be super strategic, but to open up a separate channel to upload on whenever as an outlet, that's a really clear vision. It's like a, the reason for that channel is clear. The reason for maybe your main channel is clear. So ask yourself some of those questions and I hope that's helpful. Next question. Vic, that girl who draws, she asks. I manage our family business, YouTube for Lighthouse Cove Books. We have adult and children's books. We have over a hundred titles. How do I figure out what kind of channel to buy? So here's the framework I'd ask. First question, who is most likely to buy your books? This would be your icp. Who's your ideal customer profile? Who is most likely to buy your books? Like what type of person? What are they doing? If you can identify and hopefully you already have your ideal customer profile, then you might ask what kind of content would they regularly listen to or watch. And that's actually the kind of content I would create. And so you want to create content for your customers that's not just about your product. And then when they're watching those episodes on your YouTube channel, you could essentially be your own sponsor and you could have other sponsors, but you could essentially sponsor your own videos. Like for example, I have a video podcast that you're watching or listening to right now. That gives me a consistent format with which I can show up in a solo round like this, or I can interview guests like we often do on the Think Media podcast. The target is two uploads a week and we've been pretty consistent doing that. And you probably hear me talk about various promotions and things all the time, right? Well, one of the things I have is a book. You mentioned you have books and the book is called YouTube Secrets. It's actually, I mean, we kind of are selling right now. It's actually free if you just pay shipping@ytsecrets.com but that's a side point. The fact is, okay, if I want people to know about the book, I don't always talk about it, but I have a consistent show with an audience that wants to learn YouTube. And so the book YouTube Secrets updated second edition is a logical call to action. I mean, again, it's. It's not like the book is sponsoring this podcast, but it kind of is. Like, by the way, when you purchase the book, just paying shipping, um, you know, I think I make a dollar or two at the $7 price point that that's at right now. Um, anyways, when you purchase that, you know, I make a little bit of money. And it also sells on Amazon and the audiobook sells as well. And there's also some other like upsell add on digital courses and stuff, which is one way that it helps make it actually possible to give this book away free. But here's the point. I can have a consistent show where I talk about YouTube growth or interview somebody about yout and Online Business Weekly. What is that show for you? What is that consistent show again, that's not necessarily about your books, but that you could promote your books indirectly or directly. Now, another layer deeper is the YouTube kids strategy might be a little bit different, but kids are probably not buying kids books. Adults still are. So the fact you've got children's books and adult books, the thing would be to create the ultimate show for again, your ideal customer profile. Start with who is really what you want to start with, because who is going to buy your books, make a consistent YouTube channel they'd love to watch. And then promote your books directly or indirectly over time as you make consistent content. The content is great and this isn't it. This is a huge mindset. I talked at YPO recently, Young professionals organization at their marketing conference in Miami. And Beard brand has done a great job of building a YouTube channel that promotes their beard care products, beard oil and things like that. But the founder, Eric, he said, we want to create videos that people want to watch on their own merits. They're not marketing videos. They're not commercials. They're valuable in their own right. And they may or may not buy product from us, but they actually probably will buy product for us. So then. So that's the big question you're trying to answer. Not that it's easy, but it's like, what show ongoing, consistent promise can I make on my YouTube channel? And the fact you've got the book business, they've got the beard oil business, and so now they. It's evolved, too. They've got, like, barbershop talk, and it's worth checking out. It's called Beard Brand, I believe, is the YouTube channel. So, anyways, that would be the thinking that I would apply. When you're thinking about what kind of channel to build, do you ever wish that YouTube came with a cheat code? Well, it kind of does. It's called Vidiq, and it's packed with AI tools to help you grow your channel faster. Think of it like having a YouTube expert in your corner, giving you personalized tips and tricks to improve your videos so that ultimately you can get more views and subscribers. And the best part is you can try it out for 30 days for just $1. If you want to grab this offer, just go to vidiq.com think or click the link in the show notes. All right, let's get back into the episode. Question number seven. Before the next section is under construction. Jam asking. I'm a small YouTuber in the Caribbean making faceless home construction videos. We are monetized, but we haven't gone viral. What can we do to increase viewership? Well, here's a few thoughts. One, congrats on monetization. That's a huge milestone. It's a milestone that a lot of individuals have not reached yet. So I think really celebrate that. My thought would be, of course, let's go after viral. But I love the quote, slow and steady wins the race. What I love about the fact you're monetized is that's not. It's not only like, the first challenge. I mean, there's so many challenges before that. Upload your first video, your first 10 videos, even, you know, a thousand subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time, there's like, a lot of hurdles you got to get off, get over. But it is such a challenge to make your first dollar online. And there's this book called Zero to One. It's a startup book. And I think the big idea there is like, don't try to get a million customers. Can you get even one customer? So if you started to think about, how do I build $1,000 a month, $10,000 a month, six figures a year, a million dollar a year business, well, how do you make $1? That's a huge hurdle, and you're there. So it's like, if you've gotten monetized and monies coming in, you've got a lot more going for you than you realize, because now you really actually have something to scale and the book zero to one. It's like, how do you get your first customer? And if you could get your first customer and make them happy? And in YouTube, it's like, how do you get your first cluster or group of viewers that actually like your content and actually consume your content? And think about how the YouTube algorithm works. When even a small group of people actually like your content and actually watch your content and don't just click on it, but watch it for a few minutes or 10 minutes or 20 or 30 minutes, then the algorithm recommends your videos to other people like them. It's. The algorithm is kind of like word of mouth on autopilot, and people vote with their watch time. So what I would encourage you to do is do more of what's working and really double down. So focus on better hooks, better storytelling, better pacing. Title, Thumbnail, AB testing and thumbnails. This is your scale face. Refine what's. Refine what's already working. I don't know how much you're making in monetization, but if you're making $10 a month, I'm not gonna say it's easy, but it's easier, I think, to get from $10 a month monetization to 100 than it is to get monetized in the first place. You've crossed that checkpoint, and then once you get to 100, you're like, okay, this is what I've done. You double down more. You're refining. And YouTube is often like a hockey stick. It's slow, but then it spikes because you also build up like a level of your. Your library and the amount of successive banger videos or ranked videos. As we often target, they. They start to feed each other. Like, if you have a library of videos that people can binge and there's a lot of hits in there, then your back library starts to grow in value. So I hope that helps. That's what I would do. What I've also found is that mastering the fundamentals and continuing to learn skill up and level up will lead to viral viral videos along the way. But I don't really chase viral. Viral is more of a byproduct. But I always come back to the basics. Like Michael Jordan said, master the fundamentals and everything else you do will rise. All right, we're getting into mental health and motivation in the third section of questions. This is question number eight. Grant James Hill asks. I struggle with mental health and it's hard to even hit record. My channel is about sharing that journey and helping others feel less alone. How do I stay consistent when every day feels like a battle? Thank you so much for the question, James. I have a few thoughts for you. Only you know the very specific details of your personal journey, but what I do know, that as humans in general, we all have ups and downs and we can fall into a pattern of mental health challenges and negative self talk. We can fall into times where life is so overwhelming and heavy, where we don't want to press record, where we feel stuck. And so I hope, if anything, you hear love and empathy from me and an encouragement to give yourself grace. The second thing that's been helpful personally, which is where I want this, take my advice with a grain of salt, is for me, my faith is my fuel. And so that's been huge for me. And I don't know what your background or your beliefs are. I respect you for asking the question. And I have found, though, that being connected to a local church, a place that has worship and music and scripture and prayer, that's everything to me. Like it is the Sabbath. It happens weekly. Some people Saturday, some people Sunday. Some people work those days. And it's a night. Like I do think the principle of a day, a week, that is for your soul. I believe God wove that into the universe. And it's a powerful principle. And so that's one feeding my faith. And so that could be prayer, community, church, the Bible. Now, additionally, I remember a quote that Jewel, yes, the musician shared when she was being interviewed on Gary Vaynerchuk's podcast. And it was about struggling with mental health and it was about whether she was happy or not. And she said, I don't chase happiness. I do the things that create the byproduct of happiness. And that stuck with me. And it meant this. It was like on any given day when it was like, I feel like things are heavy today, I don't want to film, I don't feel good, I don't feel happy, I don't feel Motivated rather than even thinking about, like, how do I get motivated? It's just disciplining yourself to do actions and even small things that have a byproduct of producing motivation. So going on a walk and getting fresh air, like scientifically will boost endorphins and help you breathe and refresh your blood, Things like that. So then breaking that down, that could be rest, it could be sleep, it could be nutrition. When I find myself getting ground down a little bit, like, tired eyes rarely see a bright future. And that fatigue being tired might be because of a lack of sleep. It also might just be like, I'm emotionally tired. It's been a hard season. I've had so much back to back negativity or even trauma. Okay, well, you're fatigued and you don't see a bright future. So what do you need to do? You need to rest. Well, what could rest look like? Could be sleep. It could be learning the things that refresh you could be play, like having fun and an actual, like physical, like pickleball or something like moving hydration and. And so let me break it down. Even super practical, I might be like, I'll hit the afternoon and I'll be like, I'm in a super negative space. I'm not gonna be able to produce anything productive. And I'm speaking of right now, which I run my own business, so I do have the freedom to, to do some things. And this applied when I was waiting tables. It'd just be different because you got to manage your own time and your schedule. But, you know, things I'll do today, I'll be like, I'm not going to be effective. What I'm going to do, I need to go, I need to go downstairs, like, drink some water. Because I just realized I've been drinking coffee for like two days and I haven't even drank water. And I try to actually think, whoa, I'm probably like super dehydrated. Just one thing, but it's an intentional action. Probably need to get rehydrated. I'm going to go for a walk. So now I'm getting hydrated and I'm going for a walk. I'm going to turn on something. My thoughts are negative. I'm going to turn on something to just counter that. I'm not going to turn on some dark dirge music that's going to just take me further into some sort of a negative cycle of emotions, thoughts, lyrics. But I might turn on a podcast, turn on positive music, turn on something. These are all like Practical things that can shift your state. And over time, I've treated these things very seriously. So it goes back to like, man, I don't feel happy today. Why don't chase happiness. I'm going to do the things that create the byproduct of happiness. You know what? I need to go to bed on tonight on time. You know what? I need some time to. To just rest. I've been pushing myself and just beating myself up. I need to find a good show and actually truly relax and just zone out a little bit and watch Netflix. Find your thing and then a few final thoughts for you is, you know, show up imperfectly because ultimately your story is your strength. A lot of times, just the discipline to do it when we don't feel like doing it is kind of what it takes. Sometimes we let feelings dictate our actions. For example, a feeling is like the low fuel light that turns on in your car. That's an indicator that you need to refuel. Kind of like we talked about earlier, if you start having certain feelings, it's like, oh, it's an indicator. I need to do some things differently because I got a warning sign. If I keep going this way, the car is going to stop. But now think about this. If the low fuel light comes on, you don't go, stop the car, pull over, stop driving. Well, you still have fuel and you're. And your tanks are low. So there's sometimes a signal. Your feelings are like, you really should rest. There's other times when it's kind of like you push through. You're like, I can see that warning light today. I just got to get it done. I don't feel my best. It feels heavy. I don't feel like hitting record. It's a battle I'm going to press through. And then also making sure that you fill up your tanks because we all need that as humans. So I hope some of that's helpful. You know, take it with a grain of salt. I know this is a very personal issue, but I want you to know you're not alone. And don't quit. Keep going. And I appreciate you for being a part of the Think Media podcast and for asking the question. Which brings us to question number nine. Living with Parkinson or living with Parkinson's. How do I approach YouTube when I have a speech impediment and tremors due to Parkinson's? Well, number one, huge respect for showing up. That's massive courage. And it sounds like based on your channel name that your mission is to help others. That could get discouraged are going through what you're going through. So a couple practical tips, I think. One, I would look for others who are doing content that have Parkinson's on YouTube as well. I would imagine there's other channels that are sharing that content. Then I would consider what's, like, the severity or the challenge that they have, because here's what I'm looking for. You have acknowledged a legitimate challenge to creating content. Tremors, speech impediment. But if you can find somebody else on YouTube who is reaching to the heights or getting the results that you want, that's in your same situation, like anybody listening to this, if you're like, well, I'm too old. Well, if you could find somebody else that's your same age, crushing it on YouTube, it sort of just proved it can still happen. I'm too young. If you could find somebody else, you know, I've got this challenge or I live like. So if you can find an example that might give you some insights, then you go, okay, well, they actually, I can speak with less issues than they can, but why are they growing so big? Oh, they really have their titles, their thumbnails, their packaging. Oh, what could I learn? So I do think you could benefit from looking at others to see if there's a case study there. Study what's working for them. Title, structure, engagement. The other thing, though, is that kind of like we talked about earlier on the dip from Seth Godin, that book of when to quit and when to stick is if you acknowledge this legitimate limitation on your channel and think about ways to overcome it, sometimes it might be like, if you can't go through it, you might be able to go over it, under it, around it, and you might pivot your strategy. You might say, okay, talking on camera, being the face of the content is just not working. It's. It's hard for me to overcome that. But then you realize that there is. There are faceless channels, there are hybrid content formats. AI is here, different ways to edit, different ways to storytell. Now, based on your channel name, I would assume you're the personal brand that's gonna help others go through this. And so if you're committed to that, then apply the tips I've shared and then leverage your story. I mean, transparency builds trust and reliability and relatability. Don't underestimate the views you're getting right now and who that's encouraging and the people that are watching and the life that's giving them. And the Parkinson's community may deeply appreciate your voice, literally. And figuratively so I appreciate the question. All right, we're getting into section number four. Question number 10. If you could follow the math. This section's about practical tools and creative pivoting. Patrick Bray, cpa, says I do everything myself. Editing, filming, thumbnails. When should I bring in outside help? And how do I know when it's the right time? All right, so, Patrick, hire before you're ready. Hire before you think you can afford it. Do the math. I actually talked to a mortgage channel and just started talking about the math. And they did a lot of different marketing, you know, different places you could advertise or get clients. And then they also did YouTube. And I said, how. How much business comes from YouTube? And I wanna say they said like 75%. And it was like, how. How much? From the other forms of marketing, like 25%. And it was like, how much time do you spend on YouTube a week? And they were like, only two hours. And here's my point. If you can track leads, if you're getting leads for being a cpa, if you could track business and revenue, if you can track that, money's actually good right now. And what you have is a lack of time, but you've got money coming in. Well, you should be delegating way before, you know, editing's delegatable. Thumbnails are delegated. Filming's delegatable. Could be if you want somebody to come locally, maybe local film school, Craigslist. Search in local area for, you know, places where people post jobs or job services that can just, you know, find you. That find videographers, that could be local. If you're part of a church, again, a call like, not that that's easy, that that actually is where a lot of professionals wish they had a shredder, a producer, shooter, editor in their local area, they could hire. It's a real thing. You could find them, evidently. But they're not just growing on trees. So you got to do your due diligence and you may need to look for 3, 6, 9, 12 months, but you could find that person and so times your most valuable asset. And if money is tight, then it's attention, meaning tension. T E N the tension of how do I earn a little bit more, Maybe delegate one thing. I mean, with thumbnails, AI can help you make thumbnails a lot faster. So that could save you some time. With editing, it's still not super smooth like long form YouTube videos, but learning AI that can help you speed up, maybe speed up your filming workflow and Increase. You know, I talked about our masterclass earlier. I don't know if you've watched it before. This might sound funny, but like make more money. You're listening to this, you're like, sean, that's literally. I mean, what do you mean? Like, no, I mean like, yeah, like make more money. Meaning figure out the shortest path to making more money and get hyper focused on it. Because when you make more money, then hiring an editor is something you can afford. You're buying your time back. So being more efficient with the tools, time, energy, focus and how you're getting leads or your different income strategies. Because ultimately, what's your highest ROI activity? Well, the only thing you could do is be on camera, maybe close clients. You probably have to actually do the work of being a cpa. I'm imagining, right? So what could be delegated for quality and consistency. And we'll put it in the show notes. Check out my interview that I did with Dan Martell. He wrote a book called buy back your time. His interview on the fake media podcast killer episode Must listen episode next. As far as good communication goes, Patrick and I'll make sure that's linked up. And if anybody else is in the same situation as Patrick, definitely check out that previous episode with Dan Martell. Question 11 Adam and Sarah ask. I just realized another small channel has the same name as mine. What should I do? All right, well, here's a couple thoughts. My first thought is you might just not do anything at all. It's actually pretty common. One day I typed in Think media, went to the channels, way of searching on YouTube and started scrolling and I scrolled as long as I could and I could not exhaust how many Think media and variations of Think Media channels there were. It's very possible there's hundreds of Think medias and variations. It's kind of funny too. Like the book YouTube Secrets. You can't copyright a book title if you go to Amazon, especially if you look at kind of the low quality ebook only type of books. There's maybe like a hundred or three hundred YouTube secrets books and sometimes the subtitle is different or maybe in almost every case the subtitle is different, but it's YouTube secrets. Da da da da da. You know, the subtitle is a little bit different, so what's the point? I, I would imagine it is possible to copyright and trademark a YouTube channel and then go after others, but I'm imagining that's not the level you're at. And that could be a question you could ask, are they A threat to your brand? What's your vision for your brand? Are you building a business? Do you plan on trademarking things? Chances are you should just ignore this. Do you have the dot com? Do you want to buy the dot com? What about the other social media platforms? And it's also not a bad question though. Like I was thinking about, there's this podcast by Taylor Welch, it's called the Deep End. It's blowing up on YouTube, kind of covers some fringier Christianity topics. There's also this rapper named Lecrae who's got a podcast, it's called the Deep End. So I just noticed that the other day I was like, ah, you know, I imagine maybe, and I'm not saying probably neither of them copied each other. They probably don't even know and they both have audiences and they might not know either until I just pointed it out right now. And. But you know, what do they probably do? Both keep having a show called the Deep End. And this gets into, you know, not. This is not like legal advice. Whether things are copywritten or not, that's a whole nother question. So at the end of the day, do you need a unique identifier, tagline or rebrand? It is worth thinking about long term growth and reputation management. But chances are things are going to probably coexist. And if you're saying, I mean I don't know if the channel name is Adam and Sarah, but it's also like if you're vlogging or whatever your thing is and Adam and Sarah and then some other couple, they name their channel like channel Adam and Sarah, you know, whatever some people get to follow like the other think medias. I'm not doing anything about him. Like we're out here with our logo, our brand, our channel, our momentum. I don't, I don't think it matters. It might, but I maybe am too cavalier. If anybody watching the YouTube version of this wants to give me some legal advice or feedback or thoughts on that one, or you're on the audio and you're burning with advice. This is a good question. So head over to the YouTube version of today's episode and give us some feedback for Adam and Sarah. Which brings us to the next section. Five of six sections. This section of questions is on metrics retention and upload timing. And Stacy asks, I'm confused about click through rate. Mine is around 2% but YouTube says it's good. I've heard that 5% is the goal. What is the truth? So this is a tricky one because sometimes Especially if you have a niche channel, a very loyal audience. I've seen like a small channel get click through rates of like 40, 50, 65%. But if that was the all telling metric of the fact that a video with a 65% click through rate was going to go viral, a lot of times these videos have like under a hundred views or a couple hundred views, which would speak to the fact that like they have a die hard audience that all clicks on their video. But it's not. It means there's more to the story of YouTube recommending your video. So here's the next, the second thing to consider. Sometimes small channels have high click through rates early on. But if a video starts to spread, the click through rate gets driven down, it naturally drops. Because actually if you put out an effective video that's being recommended by the YouTube algorithm by nature, YouTube shows, let's say your subscribers and people like your subscribers and those people start to like it. So then what they do is they show it to more people that are like those people and then it keeps doing well. So they show it to more people that are like those people. But is every time they expand the reach of how many people are seeing that video on their homepage or suggested more people are not clicking on it, thus driving the click through rate down. But if a video. So some of my videos that have millions of views, I think we're over 40 or 50 videos that have at least a million views, 1 to 10 million views across channels. And those videos a lot of times have like 3% click through rates, 2.24 like 4% click through rates. But think about that. It's held at 3% and the video has like a million views. The impressions are 250 million impressions or like a billion impressions. So it's like this wider pool that the video has been shown to, but it drives the click through rate down. So as reach expands, click through rate naturally drops. So I would say ultimately aim for the really four metrics. YouTube would show you when you upload a video and if you dig a little bit deeper, that's going to be views, click through rate, audience retention and average percentage viewed. So this is, you know how many views is the video getting. And that also is still relevant because it that a lot of times speaks to the topic. Of course people have to click on it, but if they want the topic more, it'll get more views. If they don't want the topic as much, it won't get as many views. Then click through rate. Okay, is it Good. And, and you're usually basing it on your previous best different niches, all kinds of things come into it. But then it's like also watch time. Not only if the reach expands and YouTube shows it to more people, not only if they click on it, but do more fringier people like further away from the core nucleus that like knows, likes and trusts. You see when you start getting to what's called cold traffic, they don't know you, how could they like you yet? And they don't trust you. So if there if YouTube is showing your video to a very broad audience and you're meeting strangers, your ability to hold their attention and get an average view duration of 8 minutes or 12 minutes or 13 minutes, meeting total strangers is a fundamental metric that is also going to determine if YouTube continues to show it to even other strangers. And then average percentage viewed also speaks to the fact that if you have a 10 minute video and people watch at least eight minutes of it or people finish your video, I mean very difficult. But if like a large percentage of people don't just click, don't just give you the watch time minutes, but actually the percentage of the video you make a 20 minute deep dive video essay and like 70% of people make it to the end you had like a viral video on your hands. So it's really kind of a collection of the metrics and those are some things to think about and keep measuring. Final thought, we talked, we got really geeky there and my final thought is this. What gets measured gets improved. And I want to say great job Stacey for even asking this question. Just the more you look at your YouTube studio, the more you analyze the data and if possible get in a community and have conversations with other creators. Like little by little you get these insights and then you make data driven decisions so that your next video could be your best video. Question 13 is a follow up question also from Stacy and she asked when's the best time to post? Studio recommends noon, but most of my views seem to come in the evening. Should I change? And so here's a few thoughts I personally upload. According to YouTube Studio, if you're new to YouTube and your channel grows to a large enough size, eventually YouTube will tell you when your viewers are online and when is the best time to post. And typically you want to post at the front of like, the growth curve, the growth wave so that you get the rise of like. And so for example on think media, 5:00am Pacific Standard Time is kind of like the beginning of the rise. It Goes all the way through 9 noon and then it starts to go down in the afternoon. And that's sort of a pretty consistent arc of when our viewers are online. We also do have to check it because sometimes during back to school it's different than it is during summer and it's different during the holidays than it is at other times. So you may be pivoting, but YouTube Studio is helpful. But here's what I would challenge you, Stacey. Never hesitate to experiment. Here's what I would challenge you think media podcast never get so in a rut that you're not willing to just lob out and experiment. And so if you notice that your views are coming in in the evening, well then give a different upload time a shot. I will warn you. The problem is that scientific method is never super perfect because you might upload a video in the evening, but titles, topics, thumbnails, and the quality of the video can vary so much. You could get dirty data. You could be like, oh my gosh, the video blew up. But the reason it blew up is because that individual video would have blown up earlier as well. So time of day is an important thing to think about. But the last thing I'd mention is that what YouTube employees say is don't worry about it too much. Worry about making a great video because the algorithm will recommend your video if it's satisfying viewers. And for example, viewer history. Homepage engagement drives the algorithm more than the time of day when I usually turn on YouTube on my smart TV. On any given day, it's around 5 or 6 and I start watching some of my favorite YouTubers. It really doesn't matter when they have uploaded if I've been engaging with them or based on my watch, history is showing me what's recommended, not necessarily upload time. Now, recency of upload time is important too, or new content. But if you get what I mean, I wouldn't get too stuck on the best time to post. I'd be willing to experiment. I'd use YouTube Studio. But I'd also just focus on making the best video possible and recognizing and I heard Todd Bupre say this, the guy kind of behind the YouTube algorithm team. He was like, a lot of videos will pop off a week later, a month later, two months later. Don't underestimate the shelf life of content. And so of course we want a 1 out of 10 and we want performance right now. But YouTube can also be a patience game. Which brings us to section number six. So here we are, we're in Section number six of our Q and A episode. These questions came from the Community tab on our Think Media Podcast YouTube channel. Fifteen questions came in and I will do my best to do posts like this in the future or if I missed your question, subscribe, stick with us and let me know your feedback if you're watching the YouTube version. If you'd want more episodes like this, this section's all about niche specific tips and scaling. This one comes from Winton 921 and it says what are some strategies for indie news channels? We need some love too. And in the full question I remember he was asking feels like YouTube doesn't really recommend small indie news channels. So a couple thoughts. I would study successful models. I'm sure you've probably heard of Channel 5. If not, I think it's Andrew Callahan's name. I mean, they're blowing up. I would, I would study diverse creators. Are there people that are doing man on the street, People that are doing local news? They're in cities. How are they creating content? How are you creating content? Are you reacting? Are you she build a home set up like mine here? Camera, usb, microphone, using software? Are you, you know, is it a live stream? But, but study success leaves clues. I'm sure you've done that, but have you done that in a really systematic, analytical type of a way? I would focus on unique angles or underreported stories. You're always trying to find a unique niche. I know that there's a lot of competition, so a lot of stories are being covered. It makes me think like if you were to subscribe to something and this isn't a sponsor, but I hear them sponsoring a lot of creators is. There's that thing called I think ground news and it's, it can give you probably a lot of insights of lesser known stories. There's the headlines everyone's covering. There's other headlines. Of course, the headlines everyone's covering is also why you're getting views oftentimes. And then I think you could look into something like one of my mentors talked about a five tool player in baseball. He was talking about the the movie Moneyball and then thought about applying that to being a content creator. So follow me. So in baseball, a five tool player is a term used to describe a player who excels in all five major skills. Hitting for average, hitting for power, speed of throwing, arm strength and fielding ability. Essentially they could do everything on the field. So Ken Griffey Jr. For example, shout out to the Seattle Mariners, was known for his power Speed and fielding abilities and, and was a five tool player. What does that have to do with content creation? Well, in this conversation we started talking about content creators and he mentioned Joe Rogan and he said, okay, how many different skill sets does he have? And does he have charisma and is he funny? Yeah, he's a comedian. Is he a good interviewer? Okay, he's good at that too. Does he have access to diverse guests? Yeah, anybody who wants. Pretty much does. He also what, what kind of depth of topics and I might be blending here a little bit, but he could talk about conspiracy theories. He's got a retention of a lot of information. He could talk about MMA at a deep level, comedians at a deep level in comedy, pop culture. So it's like these diversity of skills. So I'm thinking about you for your news channel. What are, what's a framework or a matrix you could use. This goes back to studying others. Okay, what are we ranking on? Maybe the charisma or the humor or the style? Maybe it's also more like deadpan. You're kind of dry, you're sarcastic. It's super factual, I think about clear value tax channels blowing up. Do you guys financial news? Not a ton of. Maybe some dry humor, but not like a. It's got a good personality, but not like a charismatic bubbly personality. It's matter of fact, it's short and it's working. So it's kind of figuring out what are these different things your competitors have and what are the things that you have? Do you have access to certain information? Is there a format that you could tap into? Some people just. I don't even want to call this lazy because. Because it can work. But some people's ideas, they just go live for an hour and they react to a bunch of stuff. Okay, well, maybe you need to switch it up. So maybe you should do deeper dive, high quality stories, high quality editing. And that could be an entire flip on your perspective. And the idea that YouTube doesn't support small channels has actually been disproven. YouTube has a team dedicated to small channels and new and small creators. And I've seen on my YouTube algorithm and many others confirm this is that channels that have a hundred subscribers, 55 videos that are getting 23 views, 48, 102 are being recommended to me all the time. So YouTube is giving people a shot. In fact, they've articulated this is how they're going to keep their channel going, their platform. They make money through ads. They want creators to succeed. I'm not Saying this is easy. And I'm not invalidating the argument that huge creators with big budgets and, you know, have an advantage. I just want to encourage you that any mindset that doesn't serve you and any mindset that positions you anywhere near of just being like, I'm a victim and I'm disempowered is a mindset that I don't really support because it's just not helpful. Even if it's true, it's not helpful. So you might as well take the mindset of this is figureoutable. I could be creative, I could be innovative. I can assess the competition. I can find my unique angle, I can leverage my personality, my production opportunities, my schedule. I'm gonna find a way. You can either make excuses or you can get results. And so I hope some of that's helpful. Build trust, stay consistent. Remember, too, that a lot of news channels, indie creators, Joe Rogan, maybe an overused example, but a legit example, did his podcast for years. I wanna say like eight, before he really started getting traction. And keeping in mind that YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint. All right, we're about to dive into our final question. Question number 15, and this one's a good one. But I do wanna say thank you so much for listening to this super long Q and A episode of the Think Media podcast. And if you got value today, could you, like, rate, review or leave a comment wherever you watch or listen? It really does help this podcast reach more people. It lets me know your feedback if you leave a comment on YouTube or leave a review on Apple Podcasts, or just hit a star rating over on Spotify. Again, wherever you consume the podcast, my heart goes out to you. Not just myself, but the entire Think Media team. Really grateful for you and excited to do more episodes like this. So question number 15 of section number 6 comes from Serena Kemba. And they asked, how can I retain my audience attention and boost my watch time? Here's a few thoughts. Number one, strong structure. The word is structure. So think about how your videos are structured and organized. One of the ways to boost audience attention and retention is structure. I think about this in listening to a public speaker. If they get on stage and they don't do a good job of letting me know why I should care, why I should listen, what's coming up, hard to follow. My attention gets distracted. I check out, I go on my phone or I walk out of the room. Well, people are doing that on YouTube and it's even worse because there are other competing videos that are 1cm away that they could tap or click on to abandon your video. So your video needs structure. So that could be how you grab attention in the beginning, how the content is structured in the middle. You know, I took time to structure this video. This is probably not a high retention type of a video. It's a long Q and A. But I grouped the questions into sections and then I formatted the questions and I wrote down some notes, which is what I'm looking at if you're on the video version. I just kind of look over, I wrote down some notes. And by the way, using AI, I was able to do this faster than ever before. Right. I took the community tab post, copied all the questions, put them in there, sort of saw a summary of the best ones. Then I recorded my voice, actually giving my initial responses. So I would have some organization and structure to these episode with basically bullet points to prompt the ideas and answers I wanted to give. And so hopefully, again, I will tell you this, as a decent YouTube education channel in this space, we're getting some pretty good results. It's not by accident. I think as a think Media podcast listener, you've probably noticed there is structure in our content. So a lot, if you're listening to this, your videos could benefit all of us from stronger structure. But if you want to retain your audience's attention to boost watch time, think about your structure. How many times does he get to say structure? Well, let's hit number two. Curiosity gaps and open loops. You want to become a master of those. And it's not even just at the hook and at the beginning. If you can actually learn how to stack them and continue to create. Teasing what's coming, Future framing, creating curiosity gaps for the future, creating more open loops. The next one would be storytelling. And so it's kind of an overused word, but it's so important, really. Even a business or educational video can have storytelling to it. A story could be told during it to illustrate a point, but the actual storytelling arc of the video could happen throughout the entire video. Which storytelling includes pacing? Have you ever watched a movie where, like, first 45 minutes was great and then it's like, man, it got real boring in the middle there. I actually turned it off. It was like, it was all good, but the pacing was off, even if the plot points were good and the characters were good. The pacing was off, even if the characters and the acting were great, but there wasn't good conflict or good reasons that you should care about the characters you check out. So Storytelling would be a topic for another video, but that's learning stories, telling, studying storytelling is going to be a great way to retain audience attention, to boost watch time using pattern interrupts and visual changes. Not huge on an episode like this of a video podcast where I'm talking to one camera throughout the entire time. But also consider that there's individuals listening to this on audio only. So this is a video podcast. I just finished a video that's coming out tomorrow on the Think Media channel. Whole different. It's. It's like a proper YouTube video. I'm creating various forms of content for various different intentions and various different levels of energy going into them. This video, tons of edits, B roll sharing, my screen, teaching tools, doing a lot of other stuff, and actually the amount of energy I put into it, I bet it's going to be a banger. I'm guessing that it's going to have higher audience attention and longer watch time because there's more pattern interrupts, more visual changes, more intentionality in there. The podcast I hope is very valuable for you, but it's also, it's a certain format and it's a sustainable show. That is one format. A highly edited video is another format. A couple things to think about. Know your audience's psychology. Study what keeps them watching. Is there any other channels you can learn from in your niche? What other channels do they watch? And then analyze your average view duration and your average percentage viewed. It's a good tip as we land the plane is you want to look at your audience retention curve. There's a lot of clues in there and sometimes it's just a steady drop, sometimes it's a hockey stick. Why did that happen? You need to fix that. Or sometimes it's going great, but there's like, there's a drop a lot of times maybe if you give a promotion or an ad or a brand deal spot, that's like a little dip in your audience retention. But there could be a moment where all of a sudden you're like, oh, it just got, it got bad. Like what happened? And you might realize like, oh, look at what I said that triggered people to jump off. Oh man, when I change scenes. Or oh, look what happened there. Or oh, I got a little. And so we said it earlier, what gets measured gets improved. So if you want to increase your audience attention and boost your watch time, keep making videos, keep practicing, keep getting your video, putting your videos out there, but make sure to analyze the data. What gets measured gets improved. Draw data driven insights from your audience. Retention curve and your other YouTube analytics and then apply those insights to your next upload. This has been the Think Media podcast. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel. Sending you massive love and gratitude today, and I cannot wait to connect with you in a future episode.