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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, if you want to start or.
- [00:01]
Think Media Announcer
Grow a YouTube channel in 2026, we've got a brand new resource you need to know about. Starting YouTube can feel overwhelming.
- [00:08]
Sean Cannell
What camera to use, what niche to.
- [00:10]
Think Media Announcer
Pick, what to post first, and most people quit before they even get started. That's why we created the YouTube Creator Toolkit. It's your quick start system to go from confused to confident, fast. And for a limited time, you can save big. During our holiday sale@thinkmedia sale.com you'll start with Niche Finder to get total clarity on what kind of channel you should build. Then you'll use the AI powered video topic Generator so you never run out of video ideas. Plug those into Think Media's AI Title system tool to craft titles that get clicks and finish with thumbnail templates and trainings so your content actually stands out. And we've even included a ticket to to our Think Media strategy briefing that's happening right at the start of January to help you lock in your entire growth plan for 2026.
- [01:04]
Sean Cannell
It's incredible.
- [01:05]
Think Media Announcer
And the crazy part is, during our limited holiday sale, you can get the YouTube Creator Toolkit for less than the price of a trip to Chipotle. Just go to thinkmediasale.com to take advantage of this special offer before it expires. Okay, let's jump into the podcast.
- [01:23]
Nathan Eswine
We're about to unpack 21 of the biggest YouTube mistakes that we see creators make over and over again.
- [01:29]
Sean Cannell
If you confuse, you lose. Declutter your thumbnail. Not too many words, not too many elements. Simplicity is powerful.
- [01:38]
Nathan Eswine
Look, if viewers don't know what they're going to get, they won't click. So think about the through line. What is the point of this video? And try to make that very obvious.
- [01:48]
Sean Cannell
Not organizing your content in a way that keeps people watching. There's a skill called retention editing. The truth is, to get results on YouTube, it doesn't happen in just three weeks, and it doesn't even really happen in three months. YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint. And most creators quit right before the breakthrough.
- [02:09]
Nathan Eswine
Sean, you've coached thousands of creators and you've lived through a lot of these yourself. What are some immediate things someone can do to start seeing improvement?
- [02:16]
Sean Cannell
Number one biggest mistake is looking at the screen instead of at the lens. Eye contact with the viewer can be so powerful with establishing a connection, but it's really easy. Like if you're filming on your phone, you're viewing yourself instead of actually looking at the lens where there'd be eye contact. And quick little tip, on most phones there's actually a little green dot that shows up up top to tell you where to look. And you know, if you're even just filming photos at like a holiday gathering or something, everyone's looking at themselves. What's the framing as opposed to the lens? Most people don't realize this and we do this by default. If you have a mirrorless camera, the flip out screen, we're just constantly monitoring ourselves, seeing how we look. The discipline is this, make eye contact with the lens. This is a powerful way to establish connection with the viewer. Even if later on you, you look down at your notes or you look somewhere else, make eye contact with the lens. The second one is start your video fast. Don't waste the first three seconds. In today's world, people don't want fluff, they want to jump straight into the content. So the mistake is starting the video too slow, man.
- [03:21]
Nathan Eswine
It's so true. If you don't hook them, you're going to lose them. And people will leave in seconds if you don't grab their attention right away.
- [03:28]
Sean Cannell
The third mistake is long intros or logo animations. The old mindset was I'm going to have a jingle at the start, I'm going to have some cool after effects logo, logo. But people just want to get straight to the content. And an interesting strategy this year is actually just getting right into the value almost instantly. Not even telling people what you're going to tell them about, just start telling them about it immediately.
- [03:51]
Nathan Eswine
That's huge. I think one thing, quick thing someone could do and because I know we have attachments to our jingles but look like they probably got to go. And if you can't make it less than three seconds, it's probably just got to go. But you could jump right into the value. And I think a lot of people, Sean, underestimate lower thirds like the stuff that you can have pop up and editing to give some credibility, to give a mission statement, to say a little bit more about who you are and what the channel is. So I think let's get right to the point, serve people right away and use some of these other editing tactics to help, you know, bolster a little bit of what you were trying to do in your logo animation or bumper.
- [04:22]
Sean Cannell
Mistake number four is confusing or cluttered thumbnails. And so it's true a lot more people are watching YouTube on TV today. And so sometimes there's going to be an environment where your thumbnail is larger. However, so many people still consume YouTube on mobile. And so if you confuse, you lose. Declutter your thumbnail. Not too many words, not too many confusing images, not too many elements. Simplicity is powerful.
- [04:48]
Nathan Eswine
Tip number five, make one clear promise in every video. Look, if viewers don't know what they're going to get, they won't click. So think about the through line, what is the point of this video? And try to make that very obvious all the way from the title and thumbnail and into your first 30 seconds and throughout the rest of your video.
- [05:06]
Sean Cannell
Number six is giving too many calls to action. And so we've all heard the YouTube creators that say, hey, like the video, subscribe to the video, get my newsletter, go to my website, and they give you too many things to do. What I think people need to do is the in and out strategy. In n out. The burger place is famous for being super simple. You can either get a burger or a cheeseburger with two patties. Are you gonna get fries? Like, it's a super simple menu. And when you're. You don't want to overwhelm the viewer with too many things to do. So try to simplify it down to what is the one action you want viewers to be taking? Yes, you might click subscribe. If people want more value like that, they can understand that. But do you want them to go to your website, jump on a newsletter, call you on the phone, don't tell them seven different things to do. Focus on one thing to do to drive action from your video. But the next mistake is lacking energy and sounding boring. Now here's the thing. This doesn't mean you have to take on a personality that is not your own. Some people in YouTube are more stoic, they're more serious, and they might even be more monotonous. But here's the deal. You want to crank up the energy a little bit because just like the camera adds 10 pounds, it actually reduces about 50% of the energy. So there's something about leaning in, turning it on a little bit, and just conveying being yourself, but conveying more energy on camera because low energy loses attention and it makes your video video feel boring. Now we're going all the way to 21 mistakes that people make. In this first section was some quick wins, some things that you can do to start getting immediate results on your next video. But in this next section, we're going to be talking about core skills. And so, Nathan, what is mistake number eight?
- [06:50]
Nathan Eswine
Number eight is making videos that people would actually click on. This is huge right now, this new year, you have to make sure that you're making videos that people would actually click on. If the idea isn't interesting, the video really dies before it starts. And so we are obsessed here at Think Media with researching, with validating, but all before we even press record to make sure the video that we're about to record, the energy we're about to put out, the script we're about to make that all of that is actually worth doing. A tool that we love, that we absolutely love to help us do this is Vidiq. And they put together a pretty special deal for you. If you're listening right now or watching, you can go to vidiq.com think to just pay $1 to get 30 days of their boost plan, which is like the everything plan, includes the AI tools, the AI coach. But what we love inside there is this tool called outliers. You can go into this tool and it's specifically designed to help you spot videos that are outliers, which just means videos that over perform for the channel's baseline in your specific niche. So you can see like, like even just as recent as today or last week or just a few months ago, the topics and ideas and the packaging around those topics and ideas that are overperforming for people so that you could have a chance to ride the wave and do it your own way. So again, you can go to vidiq.com think to just spend $1 and get 30 days of their boost plan.
- [08:11]
Sean Cannell
And so as Nathan mentioned, the eighth mistake is basically having weak ideas, ideas that people don't even want to click on. If you have stronger ideas and you actually get the click, that actually brings us to the ninth mistake. And that not organizing your content in a way that keeps people watching time on platform is what matters most to YouTube. So you want to ask yourself, how can I keep the viewer watching longer? If there is a dragging section in your video or slow pacing, a lot of times people will jump off. And so the answer to this is learning storytelling structure, the way you actually order your videos. And then eventually you don't have to get into editing when you're just starting YouTube, but eventually when you're doing video editing, there's a skill called retention editing. It's an actual style of video editing that holds the viewer's attention longer. And when you learn that you're going to boost your views and your channel performance.
- [09:06]
Nathan Eswine
So there's retention editing, and if we can coin this term freshly here, Sean, there's this term that's called like retention scripting, which is like leads us to number 10, planning your video before you press record. Look, if you wing it, we've all felt this before, but man, especially if you're new and you're trying to figure out this YouTube stuff, winging it is going to lead to a whole bunch of defeat. It's going to lead to rambling, long edits, unfocused videos. You might as well do yourself a favor and plan ahead of time. I think it was Abraham Lincoln that this quote's attributed to. But if he said, if you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I'm going to spend the first four sharpening the axe. That's the idea here. Make your axe sharper, make yourself sharper. Know what you're going to do before you sit down? Set up all of your gear and record your next video.
- [09:52]
Sean Cannell
And this is going to help you solve mistake number 11, which is jumping between too many topics. When somebody clicks on a video, we talked about it earlier, you're making a promise, well, that's the one thing that they want. And maybe a few side quests, a few chase a squirrel if it's related. But if you do that too much, people are going to jump off. And so random content confuses the viewer and kills channel growth. When you are planning out your videos, you might have some other ideas emerge. Ooh, I should cover that, I should cover that. And you want to ask yourself, well, maybe you should cover that in a different video. Maybe the one video you're planning out, actually it's going to be a series or something like that, but you want to stay on topic as much as possible so that it's easy for the viewer to follow along.
- [10:37]
Nathan Eswine
If you've got some extra ideas, this could lead into number 12, making both short videos and long videos. Look, if you can try, or if you can experiment with short form content and long form content, it's going to help you kind of find your thing. Long form content takes a lot of energy to get into, right? To put out a full video, short form content can be an easier lift. So there's this thing called the barbell strategy. And what it just means is that both types of content are getting views right now, and a healthy content portfolio, so to speak. If I look at your channel as a coach, if you've got a healthy amount of all the different kinds of content depending on your stage, that's a good thing because it means you're experimenting with all the different ways YouTube wants you to be creating, which is through the different mediums yeah.
- [11:21]
Sean Cannell
And Nathan, this brings up a challenging question though, because people wonder, should I do YouTube shorts or should I do YouTube long form videos? And what is the right stage for me? And we actually just launched a brand new resource@mycreatorquiz.com it's totally free. It's an assessment that'll help you figure out where you are at on your YouTube journey. Right now, if you're at a more advanced stage, you might be doing all the things. You might be posting YouTube shorts, long form videos, video podcasts, you could be doing all of it. And by that time, you might even have some help. But if you're just starting, one of the biggest mistakes people make is they do too much at the start. So check out that assessment. It's totally free. We'll link to it in the show notes or you can go to mycreatorquiz.com to figure out your stage and your next steps for your own personalized YouTube roadmap.
- [12:10]
Nathan Eswine
Number 13 is keep your visuals interesting. There's a place for the raw, more stripped down sort of content. But as a new content creator is trying to level up your content, you have to think about the viewer and you have to think about what's going to serve them best. And even the slight addition of some B roll, even the slight addition of what you're doing in your shot. Is there a whiteboard behind you? Is there an iPad you can hold up? Is there something you printed out and it's an image? I don't know. You can get creative, but try to keep your visual environment interesting. And there's a place for talking head. But try to make sure that you're thinking about what will serve your viewer best as you're talking. And lean into these additional props or visuals to aid in retention.
- [12:52]
Sean Cannell
And the 14th mistake is making videos that don't start conversations or videos that don't join an existing conversation. So a question to ask yourself is, what is a conversation that's happening in your industry? What are the topics that are on people's minds? What's keeping them up at night? What are their pains and the things that they're thinking about? This kind of goes back to choosing a topic that just nobody wants to click on. But if you ask yourself what's trending in the news right now? Or what's everybody talking about? In my industry, that's the ongoing conversation that people are having right now. A conversation that people have opinions about. It might even be a little bit polarizing. Remember, we're talking about 21 mistakes if you're not getting views right now, it could be because you're not plugged in to what's hot, what's happening? What do you need to know about in your industry? It could be as simple as going to Google or Google News and typing in your channel topic, typing in your industry and actually doing some research around what are the conversations, the themes, the changes, the new laws, the new pivots, the new things that are happening. When you jump into a hot conversation, there's a lot of views to be had. Okay, so let's recap a little bit as we move on. In the first section of the mistakes, we talked about some of the quick wins. These are some simple fixes that anybody can do immediately. And then we just covered some core skills. Now remember, skills take time to develop and learn. It's your race, it's your pace. Don't be hard on yourself. Commit to continuing to level up and improve your YouTube and video skills and aim to get 1% better with every upload. And that's why it's good to subscribe to a podcast like this, because we're here to help you all year get more views and grow your channel faster. But in this next section, we want to talk a little bit deeper now on strategy, looking at some of the strategic mistakes that creators make. And so let's get into the next one.
- [14:47]
Nathan Eswine
Number 15, make more videos like the ones that already worked. Sean, this is some of the lowest hanging fruit, I think for people, success leaves clues. You've said this for a long time. Make part twos, look at your current catalog. Instead of looking out at what everyone else is doing and trying the 17th different strategy that you kind of get but you kind of tried to do, look at your own catalog. To be fair, you do need to have a little bit of a body of work. But if you got like 10, even 10 videos on your channel, undoubtedly at least one or two of them would have done a little bit better than the others. Get into your YouTube studio, crack open that door, look at what your most popular videos are and even take a look at some of your real time views if you have a bigger catalog to see. Hey, of all the content I've posted, what really resonated most popular and what keeps resonating? That's the real time view stuff. Skipping your winners could very well mean skipping.
- [15:39]
Sean Cannell
The easiest growth and mistake number 16 is being afraid to repeat yourself. So I think what can happen is if you've talked about something on your channel, you're afraid to talk about it again where the opposite is true. Turn one good idea into many videos and what you realize is there's probably a lot of different slices and angles you can do on that video. So it's not just about making part twos, but maybe you actually create a series. Maybe you create one video, it resonates and it reveals an entire vein where there could be 10, 20, 50, 100 different aspects of really following that train of thought. If it's resonating with your current subscribers, if it's a bright spot, it's getting 10 times or 20 times more views than you typically get. Lean into that and turn one good idea into many different videos.
- [16:30]
Nathan Eswine
Number 17 is uploading on a schedule that you can actually keep. A lot of creators make the big mistake of just posting whenever you feel like it. And hey, look, no shame in your game. If you're just getting started, you're kind of doing what you can. But I would encourage you to become consistent and consistency can start with yourself. It probably should start with yourself. What's actually doable in your current season? What bandwidth do you actually have? Is this a part time thing? Do you have extra hours you can carve out? Do Saturdays become side Hustle Saturday? I don't know. You got to figure it out. Lock in with the people you're around to make this a doable thing. But once you've identified your rhythm, what? You can commit to a video every other week. A video every week, lock that in and commit to that as long as you can. Or as goes with everything, the more you do it, the better you get. And you could always up ramp your upload frequency, but create a schedule that you can actually keep.
- [17:18]
Sean Cannell
And mistake number 18 is focusing too much on gear. And the answer is to use the gear and use the camera that you already have. Now, of course, make an ambition, set some goals, write down a wish list and level up your gear over time. But the truth is cameras don't grow your channel. Great content does. And great content filmed on a smartphone will outperform average or mediocre content filmed with a camera that cost thousands of dollars.
- [17:50]
Nathan Eswine
Number 19 is learning from people who know more than you. The big mistake is trying to learn everything alone. Look, you are just enough. You're all you need to start a YouTube channel. That's fact to put to punch fear in the face, press, record, publish videos. You need yourself and what you know now. But in order to continue to grow and get to the next level you want to be. I just got to say it out Loud. Call it as it is. You got to be coachable because in this whole YouTube thing, nobody started knowing everything. So you have to humble yourself, think about what you don't know and what you need to improve upon and find those circles of people to get around, to get reinvigorated, to get re inspired, to have a sense of confidence as you go forward. That happens when you get around other people, other avengers, Sean, if I would call them that. And we've actually got an event that we put together just for this.
- [18:38]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, we're actually hosting a brand new free online event called YouTube Growth Sprint. You can actually register@yt sprint.com and we're going to be covering everything. We're going to be talking about some of the biggest changes, trends and new algorithm updates on YouTube. We're doing camera and tech and software giveaways and we're going to be going deep into the newest AI tools that will help you create content faster so you can stay ahead on YouTube. But here's the promise. You're going to leave with a step by step growth plan for you going from confusion to clarity. And so, Nathan, I'm super excited. It's@ytsprint.com that people can register. It's totally online, it's totally free. You could do it from any device anywhere in the world. And we'll make sure that there is a link to register to that in the show notes.
- [19:29]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, Sean. So this final section here, when it comes to mistakes on YouTube, I actually think could be the most important. And it's all about mindset. What's number 20?
- [19:37]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, mistake number 20 is quitting too soon. The truth is, to get results on YouTube, it doesn't happen in just three weeks and it doesn't even really happen in three months. Of course there are accelerators like jumping on our free event or using tools. But you want to have a mindset that is gritty, that's committed to the work that it's going to take and that's willing to make the investment of just uploading consistently, consistently, continuing to learn and committing to it over the long haul. YouTube is a marathon and not a sprint. And most creators quit right before the breakthrough. And then finally mistake 21 is making videos for yourself and not for the viewer. Now this is a big mindset shift because it's called YouTube and so we think it's R tube and it is like we can get on here and talk about whatever we want to talk about, but if you don't start with the viewer in mind, you might say stuck not getting any views. This is attention to be managed. What's in it for the viewer and what content do I want to make at the intersection of those two things and where I've seen a lot of creators get stuck is they don't become obsessed with what's in it for the end user, the end viewer. What value is the end individual going to get out of the content? And this comes down to how it's titled, how it's positioned, how it's packaged, how you structure the content. Self focused content typically doesn't get watched or shared and it's really the difference between selfish content and service content.
- [21:06]
Nathan Eswine
Podcast what's the biggest mistake? What do you need to improve on? Let us know. You can like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine and I can't wait to see you in a future episode.