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- [00:00]
A
Hey, quick heads up before we start. Our AI powered YouTube Creator toolkit is in the final days of our holiday sale. It gives you AI tools for video ideas, titles and thumbnails. And right now it's about the price of a Chipotle run. But there's only a few days left, so go to thinkmediasale.com to grab this offer. All right, let's jump into today's episode. Most people are sitting on the sidelines consuming content, but they never punch fear in the face and become a creator. 100% of people listening to this are overthinking. But Mr. Beast was like over 400 videos in before things started blowing up. Marques Brownlee was like 200 videos in the average YouTube channel quits at like max 22 uploads. 22. You can still win on YouTube in 2026, but you got to be playing a different game. And I think community is the secret in a 2026 world. Like, if you don't want to ever get a negative comment, then you should never post a video. Like, if you don't ever want to be criticized, say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing. People overestimate what they can accomplish in one month on YouTube, but they underestimate what 12 months of slow and steady could accomplish for them on YouTube this year.
- [01:13]
B
YouTube is a whole new battlefield. This beginner guide is your most up to date battle plan. Sean, I'm just going to jump in if you had to start from zero right now. What's your up to date 30 day plan for a new channel? I want to know formats, I want to know schedule. I want to know first video types you even publish.
- [01:32]
A
I think I'll go four quick tips before we dive into like the seven part strategy. And so I would do this. Number one, research smart video topics. Number two, choose either long form or shorts, but just stick to one for the first 30 days. Number three, upload once to twice per week. And number four, take massive and perfect action. I could break that down, but that'd kind of be the quick start guide to make this next 30 days insane.
- [01:54]
B
Let's go. Let's get into these seven things. First place I want to park is one of these first seven Cs of YouTube success that have stood the test of time. The first one is clarity. Can you break that down?
- [02:06]
A
Yeah. So clarity is start with the end in mind. I think a lot of people start YouTube and they just start putting out random content and so they get random results. Clarity is about thinking about what is it you're trying to achieve and answering a couple questions. I like, who is your channel for? What problem does your channel solve? And some people think, okay, if they have an education channel, it's like, oh, my channel teaches people gardening or real estate tips. But even an entertainment channel solves, like boredom problems. It's entertainment, lets us relax, lets us unpack, or lets us connect or feel seen or connect around ideologies or fandoms that we like. So you really want to know, like, what problem does my channel solve? And then clarity is also about making an actual plan. Like, am I doing podcasts or am I doing shorts or am I doing long form videos? And it can be overwhelming. So I think having a simple napkin plan is the goal if you want to start YouTube right this year. Like, you want your plan to fit on a napkin.
- [03:03]
B
Okay, break it down a little bit more. What would be on that napkin? Like, if there was the first thing you jot down, say we're sitting at a coffee table, you're like, nathan, all right, check this out. Here's your napkin. What's that first thing you'd write?
- [03:12]
A
Yeah, you know, like one of my personal side passions and hobbies. If I wanted to start a YouTube channel, maybe I will someday. I is this biohacking thing. So I'm really into kind of personal health and this, this includes supplements, this includes red light therapy, PEMF mats. It's just a hobby of mine. And, you know, people are cold, plunging. I'm into all that weird stuff or just cold showers, you know, it kills your weak mitochondria and all that kind of stuff. So what I would think is I'd be like, okay, who's my channel for people that want to learn and grow in this biohacking type of stuff? What problem does it solve? It shows my journey. Like, I'm not an expert, I'm not a doctor, but I actually had almost 10 out of 10 chronic pain in both arms 10 years ago. And I've been on a 10 year journey of healing that and using a lot of different therapies and experiments. So I'm like a guinea pig. So it's like, you know, who's your channel for people that want to learn this stuff, maybe solve chronic pain, have more energy. What problem does it solve? It's going to teach about these products, expose people to new products or just actions they can take. So now I got kind of a clear vision. So I go, okay, who, what? And then when, when am I going to upload and what I would shoot for? I Like long form more than shorts. I think you could pick one or the other. But I think long form, it's going to take a little longer to get momentum, but it pays more. It's deeper views, deeper connection. So then I'd be like, okay, I'm going to upload one video a week. And then clarity is all about saying, okay, what are maybe the first video I want to upload or the first four. And I might think about what is already happening in my life. I think it's about, like, not trying to make up random stuff that you have to research. You might want to research a little bit. But it's like, what have I already been living? What have I already been doing? I've been doing red light therapy for, you know, four years. And so I might film some B roll, talk about what I've learned. Of course, I would use AI to help me maybe structure it out, but I'm going to have my own stories in there. So I'm like, okay, week one, red light. Week two, PEMF mats. Week three, supplement regimen for men in their 40s. Week four. And so that's quite a bit of clip, but I'd put that on a napkin. And not only in those ideas, it's like, who, what, when? And then like we said in the quick tips, then it's actually most important to kind of take, you know, massive imperfect action. Like, all I'm gonna do is get a video out every week. It might be a little janky. I might not like the way my voice sounds, but massive imperfect action means that there's actually movement there. And in the beginning, people should count uploads and not views. Because you might get discouraged by week two, when it takes you seven hours to edit a video and you only get seven views. But you're not discouraged if you're only counting uploads. Because the win is the upload. The win is like, I uploaded, you know, and then after a month, you look back and you go, look what I just did. Most people are sitting on the sidelines consuming content, but they never punch fear in the face and become a creator. I got four videos in the can. They're janky. You know, I could learn stuff still, but I'm already like four steps ahead and probably a lot more than that. Even just all the little pieces, which can be overwhelming. So I think that's what clarity is about. But, like, focus on that napkin plan. Keep it as simple as possible. And here's a mistake. Too many people are like, okay, here's My Clarity, to start YouTube, I'm gonna do one long form video a week and I'm gonna chop three shorts out of that. And then I'm take those shorts and put them on TikTok and Instagram and then I'm gonna. And like all of a sudden you've made things super complex and you're setting yourself here. You want the simplest plan possible so that you actually follow through on it. That's how you build momentum. If YouTube still feels confusing, slow, or stuck, listen up. Maybe you've been planning to start. Maybe you've been kind of posting. Maybe you've been waiting for the right time. 2026 is going to punish that mindset. Creators of business owners who move right now are going to own this next year. The ones who don't, the ones will be invisible. And this isn't theory. This is the exact system we're using right now to help creators get real views, build momentum fast, and monetize their content in multiple ways. During the sprint, you'll learn how to get traction with a single video, build a channel that attracts subscribers, and follow a proven system that works in 2026, not five years ago. And listen, I know that life is busy and that's why this event is designed for quick wins and not overwhelm. It's free, it's live, we're doing a ton of giveaways of tech and prizes, and it's designed for where YouTube is headed next. If YouTube is something you know, you need to take seriously this year, then now is your time to act. Just go to ytsprint.com to register for free or click the link in the show notes. Let's jump back into the episode.
- [07:51]
B
So this is powerful, you know, first C. Clarity. You're starting with the audience. First, you're starting with the whole point of being on YouTube, right? Because you're right. I think a lot of people jump to, okay, here's my upload schedule. And I remember first YouTubing. Like, that's what I'm looking up. As if, like, that's the thing I need to figure out. Albeit important. The second C is content. We're about to talk about that right now. But when we think about clarity, it actually starts with, who are you trying to reach? What are you gonna talk about? And so I appreciated you breaking that down. Let's talk about content though. Cause we already, we've already teased up a good bit here thinking about shorts. I mean, there's so many options now. You can go live, right? You can create a Podcast. There's a whole podcast tab. And then there's this, even this, the community tab, which is now called the post tab. Right. So it's like, do even people use that? Should we even use that? How does a new channel navigate all of the options that are available to them that YouTube gives them to create content?
- [08:38]
A
Yeah, that's a great question. And I think this, this blends into clarity because I think actually one of the most strategic questions you could ask, I actually was talking to a new friend of mine who's launched a new brand that's a super powerful brand. It's like, it's called Divorced Dads of America. He's really helping people, he's reaching people. And I'm telling him he should start YouTube. And he goes, hey, what's your plan for me? And I asked him this. I go, how many competitors have you researched that are talking about either marriage, relationships. He's coming from a Christian perspective, you know, that are maybe Christian and maybe that have to do with divorce, but like that type of topic. And also, who's reaching your audience? So this is going to be men, and they're going to usually be. They're kind of in midlife. And so he's got a lot of clarity on his brand that's been doing all right on Instagram. He's curious about his YouTube channel. I was like, step one, go look at what types of content people are consuming. So is a video podcast format strong? I believe it is. Like, but go verify that. Is there shows that are doing well, episodes that are doing well, how long are they? Are they 22 minutes long? Are they 40 minutes long? And you just want to get data. So now you're actually first asking, what. What type of market demand is there and what content formats are really working? Can you find some more relationship based, marriage based, vertical content? What's it like? And then you kind of reverse engineer it. You're like, are they sitting down, talking like this, Talking direct to camera? Are they chopping that up? Is it just, are they planned? Is it a voice? Like, go do some research on what's happening in your industry. That's where you're asking what the market wants. But then the second question is also, like, what do you want to actually do and what would be sustainable for you? Because you. I actually love this format, going deeper, deeper conversations, video podcasting, what we're doing right now. I also like talking head, where, you know, it's like addressing the camera. I like short form too. I mean, I've been creating Content a long time. But I think asking, like, the thing that's gonna be sustainable is the thing you enjoy. And a lot of times you should scratch your own itch. It's not about researching the marketing, copying somebody else get data, but then also be thinking about. I like vlogging. I feel like I should start a podcast. But what I like is vlogging, and that's what I want to do. You know the co author of our book YouTube Secrets, the second edition is out now, Benji, one of his tips, and he's got a big vlogging channel, is follow your fun. And so it's kind of like another good question. You want this to be fun too, so follow your fun, but do it strategically, because that's going to be more sustainable. And you also. This is a great tip. In an episode for beginners like this, 100% of people listening to this are overthinking. They're scared of making decisions right now, feeling like, well, if I start vlogging and uploading once a week, then 30 years from now, I will have to still be vlogging. And people will expect like, no, you can pivot. Not just once. You can pivot, like all the time. Like, try shorts, try other things. But that's just giving yourself permission to, like, make some clear decisions and some smart decisions. But start quick and then you can optimize along the way. So you're totally right. Again, live streaming, it's all great, but is there other people succeeding with live streaming? And what is the format of their live streaming? If you can't really find an example in your niche or industry of somebody getting results, you haven't done your research yet. Like, you haven't actually gone out to the market. So then don't expect to get results with live streaming. Just talking head with no plan unless you're super talented in charisma. But if you go, really, this means competition is a good thing. Because if you can see a full format that's working, like, maybe in one case it actually was somebody speaking to women about marriage. What you just see is the format. You're like, I'm gonna pull that into my thing over here, switch it up a little bit, make it my own. But the format is proven, okay?
- [12:32]
B
So we talked about clarity, we talked about content, we talked about doing some competitor scan, trying to look at what's proven, what's working. I have a challenge for you. And I'm actually, I guess, calling myself out too, right? But I have long heard you say, even before getting to work Here, using everything that you've taught to build my own channel, monetize my own channel. You've consistently said, punch fear in the face and press record at the same time. YouTube is more saturated than ever. I think the latest stat was something like 20 million videos are uploaded every single day. So how do you balance these? And so can you speak to the seasonality of maybe I'm just thinking about, okay, someone who is actually, at the very beginning, just, there is something to counting uploads and not views. But at what point do you make that transition from. I got my napkin plan. I pressed record. I did a live stream, I did a short. It's great. I've counted the uploads. At what number do you stop counting uploads and do you transition into analysis and thinking about, okay, how am I gonna stick out with everyone else that's on YouTube if I'm not getting results? At what point is it time to switch up your content?
- [13:34]
A
You know what's funny, Nathan, is generally YouTube 2026, like, the pandemic views boom is over. A lot of people are saying it's harder to get views than ever before right now. And they're saying, like, YouTube kind of feels like a grind. When am I going to break through? But, like, I kind of want to challenge that mindset. Like, YouTube's always been hard. Like, I posted for five years on think Media, and the growth was flat. So I just think people are more delusional than ever. And I think actually what is happening right now is there that there is actually so much algorithm favor for some that kind of crack the code. They Maybe they start YouTube with more skills. You know, they haven't. You never know where someone's starting. Like, they might be just starting YouTube, but they were in TV news for 20 years. Well, they have more media training, and if they learn some skills, they, you know, subscribe to Think Media, maybe join a couple programs. There's a reason why they're accelerating past you. You, like, you're just getting on camera and somebody else is coming into it with, you know, a different starting point. So don't compare yourself to anybody. Just run your own race. But here's my point is, like, I think people are expecting things so fast right now. They don't have patience. We're not used to delayed gratification. Like they call this in psychology. They call it hedonistic creep. And that's the fact that, like America, humans are more prosperous than they've ever been before. Meaning, like, even if you're struggling Financially, it's like you're in a heated house, you've got an air conditioner, your refrigerator's full of food, you're taking great showers, you have Netflix, HBO, Max Peacock, Apple TV, YouTube Premium. And you're like, but. But we're living in a world where, like, depression is higher, loneliness is higher, anxiety is higher, and it's hedonistic creep. When we become accustomed to, like, what's happening inside of our environment, we can't do delayed gratification anymore. So people complaining. In 2026, I'm like, it took me five years to like, get any kind of lift. Five years. And so there. I do think you should maybe pivot after a few months. You always want to be analyzing the data and pivoting. Or maybe do 50 uploads. That's a good target. I mean, I think I saw again, this may be over reference, but Mr. Beast was like over 400 videos in before things started blowing up. Marques Brownlee was like 200 videos in MKBHD. And so there's a stat that says the average YouTube channel quits at like, max 22 uploads. 22, wow. And even 22 is quite a. Quite a bit.
- [16:05]
B
That's quite a bit.
- [16:06]
A
But it's like people getting into 22 uploads thinking, like, why did I not become a YouTube millionaire overnight? Like, where did your bar get set? Like, where did that come in? And so in one sense, YouTube actually has more opportunity than ever before because brand new channels are blowing up, getting silver play buttons super fast. On the other hand, it's got a lot of challenges. Like you mentioned, 20 million uploads a day, it's really hard to stand out in that environment. But I think it comes back to grit, resilience, patience, perseverance. Everybody wants overnight success or they think it's going to happen in a month or a year. I think you got to reframe your whole mindset and that's why you should follow your fun and you should double down into something you're passionate about so you can find just enjoyment in the journey and not being so obsessed with the destination. Like a view count is going to give you validation or whatever. And I know you got to like, manage your time and is this worth doing? But there's part of you that should say it's worth doing for the art form itself, for the fun itself. I want to talk about this anyways. Like, if I. When we go to dinner later, like, I want to talk about biohacking anyways. Like, I was Just at this creator event in Las Vegas this last Tuesday. And I ended up talking to a car creator. He's like, 55. I was like, bro, you look good. What are you doing? That's where the conversation went. I want to talk about this anyways. I would want to put this information out in the world anyways. If I can help seven people that are struggling with energy or maybe dealing with, you know, fatigue or pain and share what I know, then I could change seven lives. Everybody wants 7 million views. Think about the seven people's lives you could impact. And I think if you have that kind of obsession to excellence, learning, and curiosity to just stick with it, you will outlast the majority that give up after four uploads or 40 uploads, or even 400. That's a mindset shift for listeners. Can you do 400 uploads and be happy and satisfied and proud that, like, let go of the results, but be proud of what you've created, the portfolio you created? I think it's a mindset shift, and I think that's where success comes because those are the individuals that are just aligned. It's like, man, you could tell that person's having fun. Of course you want to make money. Let's help you. We'll help you do that. Like, of course you want results, but, like, embrace the journey. We're all obsessed with the destination.
- [18:21]
B
Huge. And cash is one of the seven Cs we're going to go to here in just a little bit. But the third C is actually cold plunge. I'm just kidding. Just kidding. No, but just like, this is so helpful. This is a dose of some tough love that we need. Like, man, what are we doing out here thinking we're going to blow up in, like, 0.2 seconds with our third upload, right? And that mindset of counting uploads. And if I put. And if I put out an upload. I remember, man, like, one of my first videos I put out, like, it was like, 1720 views. Anyone else? Right? Like, it's so common. But I had a comment, Like, I had a comment on my video.
- [18:51]
A
Yeah.
- [18:51]
B
And, like, that was a mindset shift for me because I could have just been throwing a pity party. I was like, man, why isn't it like 170 or something? But, like, the win was the upload that I put out. The win was the connection that was made. The fact that somebody. I never even saw her had ever heard of me before their encounter with this video, met them where they're at so much that they left a comment. I was like, what the heck is happening? So that, that, that touch point of just remembering, yeah, 17 views. But 17 views is like 17 people.
- [19:15]
A
Yeah.
- [19:16]
B
And even if you have a comment, even if you have a. Like, I'm like, that's proof enough for me at least to say, we're doing something right here. Let's keep going. Let's keep getting better. And speaking of getting better, this is a fun question. Do. Do YouTube channels matter anymore? Like, just like the channel itself, right? Like, does that. What's going on there? Should people care about the banner, the profile picture, the playlists?
- [19:38]
A
Like, yeah, I think. I think that YouTube channels themselves, in terms of an optimization sense, are kind of overrated. Like, that your cover image is going to help your channel grow. No, it won't. Individual videos, you know, there's viral videos on the Internet and the avatar for the channel is like the letter D. And there's no channel art and there's no about page and there's no channel tags. Now, that's not an excuse to not have a strong brand and best practice. But. And sometimes optimizing your channel is almost like, you know, starting a business and getting your business cards printed first and like organizing your office and buying art for your office and, like, what coffee table do we need? It's like, you don't have any customers yet. Like, who even cares about your office? Try to actually get somebody in the door. And the way you do that on YouTube is the actual videos really not your channel branding, but, like, saying that? I mean, absolutely. And you know what's kind of cool is fresh channels starting from scratch right now are blowing up. So I think if you could just think that's kind of a napkin plan, too. It's like your channel is still the front door of. Imagine your local business. You've got a sign, you've got a name. You want it to be inviting. You want it to represent you well. And so, yeah. What's the name of your channel? The avatar. I would say it is irresponsible for listeners not to have a good channel avatar in 2026. AI design tools have made this too easy. Like, even if you're terrible at photography, you could take the jankiest phone photo and run it through these AI tools. And now it looks super professional. Might have. Instead of like a cluttered background behind you, now the lighting's good and you have like a nice pop of color or something. Like, you can have a strong avatar, a clear banner, and you should optimize your about page as well. Because you sitting down to describe what your channel is about, as we talked about in clarity, should be articulated on your about page. It's less about the fact that if you write a good about page, your channel is going to get discovered. It's more about the fact that you taking the time to write a clear vision and a clear plan and basically saying, this is what you can expect on this channel and, and this is what I'm committed to doing. And this is who this channel is for. You just writing that down is for you. And you might as well put it on your about page. It's for your own personal clarity. Cause clarity is power. A confused mind always says no. So when we're confused, we hesitate. I don't even really know what I'm doing. And that's relatable too. You're beginning, you're starting YouTube. You're like, literally, I have no idea what I'm doing. Like, I don't know, what do I, you know, I don't even know what I'm going to talk about. So by taking the time to get clarity, it actually creates internal momentum. And so your about page and you should have your email on there. There's a contact email. People can't contact you if you don't give them a clear way to do it. You start putting out a few decent videos. You might get contacted by a brand and they might want to give you money even if you don't have a big audience. You know, we'll talk about cash in a bit. But one of the big opportunities right now with small channels is what's called UGC, user generated content. And UGC is YouTube. Creators are so valuable and they often underprice themselves because their media, their mini media companies, if you vlog. We just were coaching on one of our video ranking Academy elite calls and we were talking to an individual who is living off the grid and he's got like the wood fire stove and you know, he's got the gardening stuff going and these different things going and his channel's starting to build some momentum. We were talking about ways to make money with affiliate marketing. But I was like, bro, you are the perfect representative for brands that sell products to these homesteaders. And so even though you don't have a big channel influence wise, you can talk to the camera, you're editing together these vlogs, you can show things off. That means you're a production studio, you're the talent, you're the editor, you're, you're the expert because you've lived all this stuff. So you have five, ten, you have credibility. You're not just a paid actor or fake AI actor. You're living it. So do you know how valuable that is? So if you were going to hire a video production company to make an ad for a company, 2,000, $4,000, $8,000, $12,000. Creators listening to this could start tapping into $10,000 opportunities with brand new channels and by thinking like a UGC creator. And so with that you want to have your email on the contact link cause you never know what, what deals might come your way. And then you could reach out for that but you, you might want to put that on your about page to say I'm available for that. Like if you haven't articulated what at least is, you know, the opportunity. A lot of people don't even know about that business model. Hey, do you want to reach out to collab? And we have self doubt. We're like, well who would want to collab with me? Well if you, if you're making, if you're able to make videos and you could be 75, we have people in our video ranking academy program that are over 50,000 subscribers that are 75 years old, you know who would want to work with me? A lot of people because there's businesses and brands with products that want to reach baby boomers. If you're Gen Z, then there's people that you're the perfect representative to them. This is what influencer marketing, micro influencers, nano influencers as well as larger influencers. That's what it's all about. It's looking for people that are really in the culture, not fake people who really are authentically living that life. Same thing you sponsor me for biohacking like it's gonna align like I'm living it. I'm not just trying to promote a weight loss tea because I got paid to do it and it's not something I actually use. You want to stay true to yourself. It's like yeah, I can live this stuff and I could really talk to 42 year old men because I am one. And so I'm here, you know, shoot me an email. By the way, your biohacking company supplements and so you know your links. And you also want to set your channel up eventually with all the backend stuff. Most people don't know about this. They don't know about the fact that there's like a checklist in your backend studio where you just want to make sure you have two factor authentication. YouTube knows you're like a real channel and it unlocks features. You get your community tab, but you just go through all of those steps. And so it's just like channel is overrated, but there's no excuse not to run through the checklist we kind of are talking about here. Just to get it cleaned up, be proud of it, get clear on what you're doing, and then also don't overthink it. Just get it set up, start, and you're going to tweak it a million times on the journey.
- [26:19]
B
Oh my goodness. Yes. This makes me think so many things. But what's most prominent is how, how we underestimate the power of YouTube and just what's on the other side of pressing record, making a video 17 views at a time as that grows, like YouTube is so freaking big, like anybody's niche, I just would venture to say is there, there's an audience for it. And I was, you know, on my homepage, um, there's this video that popped up that I was just like shocked by. The video title was something like how I blew up my forearms and hands and what it did to my life. Like this guy's like his workout routine to get bigger forearms and hands. Which maybe says something about my homepage to work on that. But nonetheless I saw that there and it says 1.4 million views. 1.4 million views on this dude's little.
- [27:11]
A
You know, I'm like, totally.
- [27:12]
B
It was just a reminder to your point of view. Oh my goodness. Like if you are listening to this, you're watching this. You don't even know the adventure that's ahead. From pressing record, you could be getting 17 views, 20 views and you have your email out there in the right company, the right opportunity finds you and now you have less subscribers. You've made more dollars, more dollars than subscribers. Like that's actually for sure possible.
- [27:36]
A
100%.
- [27:37]
B
Okay, so that was the, you know, the thing. Third C there not cold plunge but channel. It does matter matters most for you, especially the beginning. But there's some strategery there. The C number four is community though. So talking about, you know, about your own audience, we just talked about how man like you could do a whole bunch of cool stuff for other companies, other people, user generated content. But when it comes to your community, like what, what's. What are you noticing that's new right now? Is anything changing like with how people are developing community on YouTube? I think like the traditional things I think of is like live streaming and Are you asking for comments? Are you posting on your, you know, post tab? What are some insights that you have about how people can build a community practically even from the beginning?
- [28:20]
A
I think that the key to community is kind of like an age old principle and it would be this. Just try to reach one person at a time and give them an incredibly meaningful and deep experience with your brand that if possible, shows them you love and care. Like, if you could like. I think one of the most powerful principles you could apply to community, you could learn from the restaurant industry. Now I waited tables for 10 years. I actually was a busser and then a host and then an expo, and then I waited tables at a place called Red Robin. This was probably one of the most formative decades of my life. That helped me better for YouTube because what you learn in the service industry is, is a heart of humility, service, wanting to give people an experience. And you know what one of the principles from Red Robin was? It said, how do we wow, wow guests? How do we wow them? How do we give them an experience? And so a good manager and I had many different managers, but when they packaged the burger, they'd say, you want the burger to smile, so they'd wrap it so that it would show you all the ingredients. They'd want to fan out the fries. They'd then want to say, what are we saying at these different touch points? We want to wow the guest by having their drink refilled before it's even emptied. We want to wow the guest by letting them know about maybe upgrades they could do to their burger that they didn't realize and, you know, sing them a birthday song or do all these other things. There's a really good book called Unreasonable Hospitality and it's all about one of the, you know, most famous restaurants in New York where if they like, learned about somebody that they really liked, they wanted a New York hot dog. This is a fine dining restaurant, but their kids are eating with them and they're like, I'm in New York, I haven't been able to get a hot dog. They'll send someone on their team to a hot dog stand to bring back because they overheard that conversation. There's actually a person that's sitting down and listening and writing details about these individuals. So then they bring out the New York City hot dog to the 12 year old daughter and they're like, what even is this? This is an unforgettable, amazing experience. Okay, so how does that apply to YouTube? I think it starts with the heart posture of I care about every individual video viewer. How do I show that care? Well, the number one, the excellence I put in my content. That if you're actually lazy and sloppy with your content, meaning, for example, you don't really plan out your ideas, you don't have to start with editing. But if we just extemporaneously talk for 30 minutes, especially if you haven't been doing it for very long and you don't like, clean it up, trim it down, put some prep in it, how much love did you put in that? It took you 30 minutes and you sloppily put the video idea together as opposed to, if you actually crafted that to say, man, I want to value the viewer's time. I don't want to waste their time. So I'm going to think about how this video is structured. And even though I shot for 30 minutes, I'm going to take a couple hours to edit that down to the strongest 18 minutes. That's like a way of showing care and value. But then if you get that one comment, you know, one of the things we do at our company, because these days we're blessed, but it's hard to reply to every comment. I don't even know if it's possible. But we have what's called love bombs. And it's just this idea because one of our core values at Think Media is love above all. And we have scheduled weekly time on our calendar where we try to now divide it as a team, answer as many comments as we can, and we do it across social media. Well, you don't need a team. When I was just starting, it's shocking to me how many creators don't read their comments, don't think about replying to their comments in an authentic way. I'm fine with using AI, but if that, that should enhance your authentic presence and actually connecting with the individual as opposed to just like bulk respond like a robot. So it's kind of like in. And I think as AI grows, this is going to matter more than ever before. And so people can tell if you're putting in the effort. And let me get very specific. So when I would read people's comments, early days of Think Media, sometimes their channel would be called, you know, like road racer 55. So I would click through on the channel, go to their about page to figure out if I could find their name. Or I would click on one of their videos to say, like, hey, in this video, my name's nick. Road racer 55. I would get Nick's name and then Reply in the comment to say, thank you, Nick, appreciate you watching this channel. That's my day. That's the heart posture. Like, dude, this guy just like kind of stalked me a little bit to find out my name. And so way too many people are trying to get a million subscribers and they're not thinking about building their audience one meaningful connection at a time. That's the spirit of community. And then there's a million little things you could do. You know, you can do community tab posts, polls, live streams if you want to engage and answer people's questions. But community is going to rally around those types of things. And I heard Gary Vaynerchuk put it this way, it's called scaling the unscalable. Because what I'm talking about is unscalable. I mean, at some point I'm going to have too many comments. How could I click through on everyone's channel to find their name? You probably can't. But I heard a great quote from a leader once that said, do for one what you wish you could do for all. If you just do these types of things where you're, you're trying to make that meaningful experience or take the conversation offline. You know, there's a lot of business owners or entrepreneurs or business minded content creators that maybe are going to do coaching, create their own online course, you know, educate in something. And I think they underestimate the opportunity to take the core five people that are commenting and invite them onto a zoom call with you and have a conversation with them.
- [34:09]
B
Whoa.
- [34:10]
A
Like one of our guys did that in our video ranking Academy program, Justin. And so early on he had a faith based channel and he understood this principle going through our stuff and it was like, hey, you want to start making way better videos and better understand your audience at a level that AI will never be able to really do. Talk to the people that are watching. Now again, you got zero views. You got to get some views first. But that's why in this process you're cultivating a community one person at a time. One person's like, like, yo, I had, I had some follow up questions and so they gave me such a long answer. Maybe you move the conversation to Instagram DMs and you actually sent them audio messages. Oh, I appreciate that. You know, they're hearing your voice like scale the unscalable. A lot of times, you know, now it's X. Used to be Twitter, you know, the conversation would be moved over there and you know, someone asks a question instead of being like, yeah, awesome, bro. You write six paragraphs. And we would talk about that in our company's love bombs. It's like it's not just trying to respond to 50 comments. We tell our team, take the entire time and answer one comment deep. The depth, a lot of depth is what's I think lacking in YouTube, AI slop, all kinds of shorts, more shallow connections. You can still win on YouTube in 2026, but you got to be playing a different game. And I think community is the secret. In a 2026 world, you only need like 500 die hard, really connected community individuals, let's say, okay, let's say you got one a day, then that's going to happen in less than two years. Let's say you only got one every other day, then it's going to take you three years to build this core community. That feels like. Cause some people are gonna come and go, whatever, but you know, others will stick with you. And that community is all you would need to go full time on social media. All you would need to go full time with YouTube.
- [36:05]
B
Oh, that's huge. I'm thinking about someone who's listening here. We've all experienced this because there's a lot of positives to community. There's also negatives in the form of negative comments. Yeah, could just be spam, there's some crazy stuff out there, but also actually just like real people leaving real negative stuff. And it's Spectrum for sure. Right? Best practices there. Someone's going along. I just know that's like one of the most disheartening things. You put your blood, sweat and tears into a video and Maybe it got 30, 40, 50 views and maybe you got a couple good comments. But as the math goes, right, like 500 positive comments plus one negative comment equals one negative comment. We're just drawn to that, right? What are some best practices about how to approach the negative comments someone could get on their videos when they're just starting?
- [36:48]
A
And I think the first thing is, if it bothers you, you're not alone. It bothers me. And you know, you just talked about haters math, which I heard John Acuff talk about that, you know, 100 positive comments plus one negative comment equals one negative comment. I've been there and I still go there. It's like I'm reading some encouraging stuff. But then that one comment is like, why does. This is a real comment. Why does he have the face of a boy but the hair of an old man? It's like, I don't know how I'M supposed to take that. It's like, I mean, good skincare routine, but the gray is coming in too fast. Like, is that. Was that an encouragement? Like, and so then, you know, I'm in the shower later, be like, do I I have the hair of an old man? Am I aging too fast? Is that guy hate me? Like, what's going on? So I think first, just understanding that, like, we're real humans. And so you stepping out onto YouTube realizes you're stepping into a. The wild. Yeah, it's. You're creating content in the wild. You're stepping into a place that's uncomfortable. You know, I would argue this. I'm gonna say this. It's not safe now. I'm not saying it's unsafe like your life's in danger. I'm just saying, like, it's out of your comfort zone. Like, if you don't want to ever get a negative comment, then you should never post a video. Like, if you don't ever want to be criticized, say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing. But you're going to. If you step out into the world to get positives, you're also going to get negatives. So, number one, yeah, it really does hurt. I think. Accept that. But these are some things that have helped me. One framework that's helped me is if the person doesn't have your phone number, they don't have permission to speak. Any advice that matters to you into your life, I'll take your feedback. But, like, it just doesn't carry any weight. Like, you know, I'm not. I want to stay humble. So I actually might need criticism, but I'm going to let somebody with my phone number that's actually knows me and is not just making a snap judgment from a snippet or what they saw in a video. So if they don't have your phone number, then they don't have permission to really speak into your life. I think another one is, you know, I'll say this a lot, and I think about, you know, when it comes to negative comments on my channel, I'm like, bro, I see you in the comments, but I never see you at the bank.
- [39:01]
B
Yeah.
- [39:02]
A
And so it's like, it's funny because people can be critics, but it's like, yo, I'm out here. There's this famous Theodore Roosevelt speech, which it's like, daring greatly was. How is that book? That kind of repopularized it, but it was like, the credit doesn't go to the critic. The critic is not who counts. The Credit goes to the man in the arena with blood on his face, with dirt on his face, that's tired, that's been editing all night, that's been grinding that. You know, your camera just settings were wrong, your white balance was off. Why does my skin look like an alien? You know, and then someone's criticizing for, for you, that person that's criticizing you, they're probably not taking action. They're hiding behind insecurity while you're actually taking action. They want to tear others down to hide and you know, their insecurity. And that's not to say. I think the third thing is that I learned this from Billy Graham, who kind of was a, it was one of the most incredible evangelists in the Christian world. But he, he said the most and highest level of maturity is actually to be able to learn and listen to your critics. So while I don't, I'm not going to let them really like ruin my day if they don't have my phone number. But sometimes, you know, they might have some. You can learn from the good and you can also learn from the bad. And it is feedback. Anyone who's giving you feedback, like, why is your lighting bad? You're like, well, dude, you know, you're not even making videos one, but you're like, that's a great invitation to improve my lighting, you know, so like noted, like, I'm at least I'm out here. Thanks. So you keep tweaking and not letting you know. Last two things would be, you know, have thick skin but have a soft heart. So you want to kind of, you don't want to be calloused, say, have thick skin. Not too much is bothering you, but you keep a soft heart. Like, I can learn from that. And then I think one other thing, it's not just negative comments, it's also positive comments. And it reminds me of this famous basketball coach, John Wuden, who said, don't let the praise from the crowd get to your head and don't let the criticism from the crowd get to your heart. So sometimes we're worried about the negative comments tearing us down. But I think you also could get a little too, you know, drunk on the encouragement or praise. If you start getting some momentum that could go to your head, you start becoming arrogant. So it's both, you know, and some people watching are like, all I got was two negative comments. I wish somebody would actually encourage me. I was not gonna go to my head, bro. Do you understand? My self esteem is so low. I'm just starting my Channel pride is not my biggest issue. You know, negative thoughts and like, but, but like, you need to get prepared now because are you ready to handle a big platform? Sometimes. Sometimes I think the thing people can be afraid of on YouTube is actually not just they're afraid of failure. There's people listening to this that are afraid of success and might even sabotage their success, because what would that do to my family? What will that do? I've seen people get successful and that sometimes leads to their downfall. So this is a good opportunity for everybody listening that these types of comments are an opportunity to grow, an opportunity to learn, an opportunity to develop thick skin, a resilient mindset, but also an opportunity to stay humble. And I think that's the kind of spirit and approach to YouTube that's built to last for the long haul.
- [42:28]
B
Well, since everyone's probably thinking it about right now, you know, when does money enter this picture? Because so far we've just talked a lot about pouring out, man. Right? Like, okay, the effort it takes to think about a napkin plan, to think about the videos, the content, the research, and then, you know, thinking through community and negative comments and like, so when do we get paid? I think is what I want to know. Like, is it too early to think about a money plan? What's a good, a good beginner friendly cash plan that someone could think about when they're starting their YouTube channel this year?
- [42:58]
A
Yeah. So when I think about the c and these seven Cs of YouTube success and I think about cash, I think about two thoughts. Number one, it's really good to have a money plan from day one. Number two, I think it's smart to hold off on monetizing for as long as possible. Now, let me define that. This actually was probably 10 years ago that I got to sit down with Lewis Howes from the School of Greatness, and he mentioned that he did his School of greatness podcast for two years without monetizing it. Now, if you can reach 1,000 subscribers, 4,000 hours of watch time, I'm not saying you shouldn't turn on monetization on your channel, but he meant he didn't put any ad spots in there, any promotions, any brand deals. He wanted to build community first, he wanted to build momentum first. He wanted to, if you could delay monetization as long as possible. You know, recently in the entrepreneur space, Alex Hermosi just broke some crazy records and did like over a hundred million dollars in sales in a weekend. And he was the guy who was like, I will never sell you Anything. It's also interesting that he reframed it as a donation and in his genius was probably a smart, you know, if you just donate $6,000 to help me get books into the hands, Regardless of how you frame it, bro, you still are, you know, essentially selling something. But here's. Here's one of the reasons why that happened is he invested in brand and he delayed monetization for years. Now, that's not for everybody because it's all. Some people are like, bro, I got to pay the bills. You know what I mean? And he had other businesses, other income streams. He had exited a company. So you had to be honest about your season of life. So what I mean by that is it's a mentality is like, if you are too motivated by money at this, at the start, it'll cause you to make bad decisions. Because if you want quick cash, like, if you need really quick cash, like cash today, because the mafia is about to break your legs, you're robbing a bank. That's a bad decision. There's probably a few bad decisions before that. Why is the mafia.
- [44:56]
B
I mean.
- [44:56]
A
Agreed.
- [44:56]
B
Where do we even.
- [44:57]
A
Yeah, how do we get in this. How do we get in this situation, Nathan? Like, this is. There's probably a few bad decisions. And so it's a mindset of, you know, thinking about value first is what I mean. Value first, build trust first. It doesn't mean you can't monetize from day one, but that's the mindset. I think number two is you still want to plan. And what I mean by plan is I think there's kind of two big categories. If you're in entertainment or if you're in education. The two big categories on YouTube, either entertainment or education. If you're in entertainment, then you're going to get paid for advertising, crowdfunding and brand deals. Those are kind of the big ones. You eventually get monetized. YouTube will pay you for views. Brands will want to sponsor your content that is related to your content or it's broad appeal. Like, I don't know how many NORDVPN ads I've heard on every YouTube channel. But like, everybody needs a VPN, so they advertise on really just anything. So it's like brand deals. You know, they got to advertise for free on this podcast because we just shouted them out. So, you know, entertainment. So you got. You got brand deals and then crowdfunding, because that's more fan funding on the side of entertainment. Eventually you've built such goodwill, you're in a way not really selling anything. But consider this, you're always selling something. 100% of YouTube channels are selling something. Even if you're not selling something, there's a reason they want to put ads on your video. Those are for people that are selling something. So there's ads on your video that are selling something. The brands want to sell something or they're not going to work with you. Even if it's a UGC creator, they want to sell something. And so that's the model though on entertainment. On the other side, education, that's where the opportunity opens up for coaching, online courses, your own events, masterminds, you're going to write an educational book. Then you know that becomes a monetization stream. So I think it's about defining what business are you actually in. What is the strategy related that's best fits your channel. Those are kind of the two big money plans. And then you at least know which way you want to go. And so it then might be as simple as I'll tell a mistake. A mistake a lot of people make is they start like emailing brands or trying to get approved for different affiliate programs and they spend like a whole week trying to get approved for affiliate programs and they've only posted four videos. I'm not against that. But you're just dividing your energy. Like the first thing is like make content and build a community. And if all you did was like make content that resonates with people so you can get that first comment like you did and then get another one and give that person an experience and then it's just so much easier to monetize after you have momentum. When's the perfect number? There's no perfect number, but get to 100 subscribers, like get to 500 subscribers and get monetized. You know, right now the YouTube Partner Program, you can get into it at 500 subscribers and 3,000 watch hours. You don't get paid for videos yet, but they start giving you a few other features like focus on that first and then you can start building your monetization plan out in more depth as it goes. But it's nice to know even day one. And that's one of the things we help people with. I mean we go deeper in the book YouTube Secrets. Um, one of the things we help people with is to make a plan. Because if you failed a plan, you plan to fail. And it's like phases. Lewis Howes knew, oh no, I'm going to turn this into a whole thing. I'm Going to turn this into a business. I mean, I have a whole plan for this, but even for the first two years, in a way it's like I'm delaying the big ask or I'm delaying gratification in a way because I see the longevity of this opportunity. But it doesn't mean you don't have a strategy from the start.
- [48:40]
B
I think delaying is not what you want to hear. Right. But I'm also thinking of another benefit to that. If you're delaying monetization and you are focusing on that of up counting uploads, building community, getting better, that, you know, cycle, you will become more aware of even what to offer your audience, you know, and so I think that obviously there's different, you know, backgrounds people can have. But if you're just starting YouTube from scratch, and I mean, you, you may think a course is a great idea, you may think a book is the first thing you should do. You could have a whole bunch of ideas of things you're going to put together for this audience you haven't even built yet, you know, and so it can get a little tricky. And so I think a benefit of delaying monetization and focusing on man making videos, building community is they're going to tell you, right, like you. And you can ask even better. Oh my goodness, you can ask your audience. That's a great use of the community tab, or great use even in a video. You know, like just thinking about creative ways to actually pull your audience of what's been most helpful or even after you have a, you know, a catalog of content. Like I remember I didn't build my first online course until I saw my most popular videos on my channel consistently had this piece of music production software in them. So I'm like, oh, well, I should probably just make something like that, right? So I think that's another benefit to delaying monetization.
- [49:56]
A
Genius.
- [49:57]
B
So, okay, let's, we got a couple more Cs here. Consistency is C number six. And I just keep it real. I actually am starting to struggle with this word a little bit because I think that people are using it a lot. Like, it's the key. It's the key. And I mean we do you, we, we use it as well about like, hey, what's, what's the key to just about anything in life? Consistency. So I think people hear this word when it comes to fitness, when it comes to YouTube, when it comes to any goal or thing that they want to do this new year, I know I got to be consistent. But when you think about YouTube. What's like this? How do you approach consistency? What is sustainable for people especially to get through those first 22 uploads?
- [50:35]
A
Yeah, consistency is in two parts. And like 100% of creators don't understand part two. And like a hundred percent of creators do not understand part two. But let's hit part one. Part one is what everybody thinks of is like, just keep uploading. Just upload as much as possible. Just be consistent. Now that's good. And it makes me think about, you want results in. Anywhere in life. If you want results in your physical health, you can't go to the gym one time. You can't only go to the gym six weeks. Like, even if you have six weeks of absolutely crushing it, but you then for the next six years don't do anything, then you're not going to get the results. And so I think consistency is about like the grit it takes to committing to things. I think you want to also pick a sustainable pace to stay consistent. You know, using health again as an example, if you start a new diet, they really encourage you to have a cheat day or they really encourage you that it can't be like just brutal every single day all out because maybe you can sustain that for a week or for a month, but you're gonna get so frustrated that then you just go crazy and you blow the whole thing up. So. So some creators go so hard, they burn themselves out so fast. And so the diff. The opposite of that is a sustainable pace. People overestimate what they can accomplish in one month on YouTube, but they underestimate what 12 months of slow and steady could accomplish for them on YouTube. So being consistent. But part two is actually, I think, the better definition of consistency. And it's this consistency is, is there a consistent message on your channel? Are you talking to a consistent audience? Is there a consistent brand in your content? Do you have a consistent feeling and emotion? Like maybe your hope and your aim of your channel is it's motivational, it's inspiring, it's kind of funny. If you think about any good sitcom, you know, people could tell us in the comments, what is your favorite sitcom? You know, it could be Friends, it could be Seinfeld. How about you? The Office.
- [52:36]
B
Office is probably the junk on yes. Yeah, so many times.
- [52:40]
A
So the Office is consistent, consistent characters, consistent. Michael's consistent, his style of jokes, like you kind of Jim is consistent, Dwight is consistent. Like there, there's a consistent experience with the episode, the pacing, the tone. So a lot of channels are inconsistent. You Watch one video, you might get subscribers for it. The next couple uploads are entirely, entirely different thing. Whether you drift off brand, you drift off energy. And so you know, it's okay to experiment and it's okay to even develop your own voice. But all of the most strongest brands in media are consistent in terms of even their message. Even like they're, you know, it's hard to follow somebody if they have to a degree, crazy wavering opinions. Like, you know, if one day, you know, you could talk politics, like you're probably gonna, you're just gonna crash your channel. If you really play to the left and then you play to the right. Now everyone's mad and everybody hates you. Yeah, so I also, I'm personally I think like there's a lot of wisdom in being center because there's wisdom on both sides. Maybe you're center. You know, there's a level however, what actually works in media when you kind of are consistent. And then what happens when someone flips? And I'm not again, I'm not trying to get into all that ideology but think about it, if somebody flips and they like betray their tribe, they blow up their brand sometimes. Now maybe you felt convicted on that. You know, it's good you did what was in your heart, but it doesn't mean people are gonna keep following you. So as humans we like consistency. And so you'd ask yourself we could go really deep in this and that's this goes all the way back to clarity is like getting really clear on your game plan, your strategy. You know, in right now YouTube secrets, the second edition is not only been updated, but people can actually get the book for free if they just pay shipping. But what we also did is we've updated some free gifts in addition to the fact we'll mail this book to people just pay shipping yt secrets.com or put the link in the description. But we also added new chapters. What's working on YouTube right now? So you'll get that for 20, 26. For right now we also added a brand new updated deep dive hour long class where I'm giving you not even the 7Cs, the 7C's. We go deep into those here. Plus part two where we get into a lot of tactics but we go into our actual framework for views that is, you know, separate from this and you'll get that for free in a class. All of that's@ytsecrets.com but here's my point. One of the biggest things that we emphasize at Think media is taking the time to get fierce clarity on your strategy. One AI is overrated because all the AI tools with a bad strategy will just help you go faster towards a dead end of failing on your channel. Like I'm using AI tools, but you don't even know what you're doing right. You aren't. You haven't thought about these values, mission, brand alignment, what are your strengths, what are those types of things? And here's the thing that's all figureoutable. We'll help you unpack all of that again, whether you, if you're interested, you know, you could just watch this video or get a copy of the book and those free resources in addition, because that is what consistency is.
- [56:01]
B
Man, there's so much I could think about, but I think about my own journey. I know your journey is the same way. A lot of people right now, this isn't the full time thing, right? We're starting a new YouTube channel, so. But a lot of people are starting a new YouTube channel with a full life. You know, family, maybe full time job, most likely obligations, weekends, or you want to hang with friends, like all kinds of stuff on your calendar. What is probably if there's one thing you were going to tell someone about how to carve out the time in your week, like what's probably the biggest piece of advice you would give to someone based on your own experience, but also just really coaching thousands of people through this process of how do I find the time to do this YouTube thing?
- [56:39]
A
No, no, no, I'm not going to answer the question. No, I'm just kidding.
- [56:45]
B
Yeah, it's in the book. You can go check it out.
- [56:48]
A
The answer is, is no. The one thing that will help you focus on YouTube is defining what you're going to start saying no to. Because I think too many of us, we want to say yes to everything. We're like, yeah, I want to start YouTube. But I also don't want to give up the fact that I am still binging the office for four hours a night. I don't want to give up the fact that my friends who you love keep inviting me out and I was going to sit down and work on my goals and learn, study as well as plan some videos out. Oh, but that might be kind of hard. So I'm going to say yes to go into the bar or to wherever with some friends and you're delaying your dreams, everything. The funny thing about yes and no is they're like they're interchangeable because actually every time you Say yes to something, you're saying no to something else. Every time you say yes to whatever, that's not your YouTube channel. You're saying no to investing energy in your YouTube channel. Now you have a lot of yeses. You have to so you can define those. So like, like, I'm not talking about sacrifice family. That's on the list. I'm not talking about sacrifice, your relationship with God and devotional time. So you have some non negotiables. But then what is on your calendar? And I want to encourage every listener. This is gonna be painful, but whether you're listening on the audio podcast, whether you're listening on YouTube, you know, open up your Android phone or your Apple phone and go to screen use.
- [58:14]
B
Oh, here we go.
- [58:15]
A
Go to screen time.
- [58:16]
B
Here we go.
- [58:17]
A
Go to your screen time. And what's the number? You know what people say when we are on live streams? It is, it's like, I've never seen it under seven hours. It's seven. I'm seeing 12 people dropping in the chat. Eight and a half hours. Like, there's just time. And the dirty trap, the Sneaky trap for YouTube creators is they're like, oh, I'm doing research, you know, I got to study social.
- [58:39]
B
Come on, you know, that's so real.
- [58:40]
A
No, you're on TikTok watching just garbage. You know what I mean? You're on, you're watching Instagram, you're DMing friends. Instagram Reels about your last breakup and about sourdough recipes. Like your, you are just. And so every time you say yes to that, which is really fun, you know, the modern form of friendship is what reels you send to people. Like, the person you're sending reels to is probably your best friend. You know what I mean? Like this person, which is great. And so, but is that like, it's a distraction. You're like, you're over there doing all these other things. So what are you gonna say no to? Of course not your core priorities and the people depending on you, but it also, it could be saying no to overtime, it could be saying no to excessive spending and talking to your spouse about reducing your monthly overhead. What can we do to save money? So I even could not have to work overtime and just work 40 or could you go to 30? This is all lifestyle opportunities which will just reveal your priorities. And so one of the resources we have is called like the five hour YouTube work week, which reveals that in as little as five hours, and I would argue to say the busiest person listening to this, they for sure have five hours every week that they could find. There's a way to find those hours. How disciplined are you going to be to find those hours? And I think no is the strongest. The strongest word. We say yes to too many things, and a lot of times it's no for a season. I know you did Financial Peace University. So did I. We love Dave Ramsey. You know, he's helped a lot of people, helped your family get out of debt, My family get out of debt going through all that. And one of his great quotes is, live today like no one else, so that later in life you can live and give like no one else. Live today like no one else. So later in life you can live like no one else. So that's like. A lot of people are unwilling. You know, again, I'm not trying to mess with people's pickleball time, and I know pickleball's hot, but you find time. You find time for the stuff that you like.
- [60:50]
B
Yes.
- [60:50]
A
It's just guaranteed, like anybody here that has ever, like, fallen in love or has, like, a relationship, you, when you didn't have that relationship, somehow during your entire week, you were getting everything done, and then you meet that person, and all of a sudden you have 22 hours that you were talking to the person late at night. You're, like, rearranging your schedule. How was that possible? Where were those 22 hours before you met that person or started that relationship? They were there. It's because that, all of a sudden that ascended to a level of priority. And once it got to a priority, you started solving problems. You started, you know, you. You really, like, fall for somebody. Now your mu. Your money is being rediverted. You somehow found the money to start trying to, you know, take that person out or buy them a gift or, you know, whatever. Where'd it come from? It's a. It's priorities. And so if you get. I think this is a really powerful concept because this, this, every listener is like, okay. It's more like a lock in. Yeah, okay, I gotta start saying no. If I lock in. And the individuals who do that with even a decent level of discipline are gonna get ahead of everybody else because people are too distracted. They're too unfocused. If success on YouTube is kind of just a nice to have, and I hope it works, you're going to lose to the person who's applying discipline. You don't know if it's going to work or not, but the person who's disciplined and consistent and prioritizes it and sacrifices for a season. The powerful thing about that, I mean, I look back and I've really, these days of my life, my friendships have been going to a whole nother level. I'm glad they lasted through the seasons where I was pretty unavailable because I was editing late. Full time job and editing late or editing in the morning. And so I've been like, dude, if they're real friends, they can handle you going in monk mode for a while. They can handle you like taking some time out you can say no to. You don't have to go to every family gathering. Oh man. Yeah, but my mom, like, she says I do. Bro, you're 36. Like your mom. Yes. Like you don't have to go to every wedding.
- [62:57]
B
You have options.
- [62:57]
A
You have options.
- [62:58]
B
You have options.
- [62:59]
A
Oh, but I have to. Okay, well that's your decision.
- [63:01]
B
You have to.
- [63:01]
A
Yeah, yeah. But like, it's more important. You don't have to say. That's up to you. So I think, man, you lock in. You'd be shocked. What a season of monk mode. Discipline, focus. Saying no a lot can get you the trajectory and the financial opportunity. Now it's like, now I got a little passive income. I got some revenue going. Hey, I'm back. Like you've been gone for a couple of years. I'll tell you a funny story. My friend Jesse Tillman, we went to high school together and he's like a true friend because we might not talk for a while as I'm mentioning like this most recent season. Thank God for a lot of hard work. Think Media. This company just had our 10 year official anniversary. Like I started 15 years ago on my first upload on Think Media. 5 years of kind of flat side hustle. Then like the company started 10 year anniversary there. And so now that there's a team, I have a little bit more margin, you know, back in my life. And so you could almost call it more balance back in my life. And I remember I, I opened up Jesse's text message thread and I replied to him, but his previous text was in like 2022. And I replied back and it was a question. And I was like, it was inviting me to something. And then I replied and I was like, no, bro, I can't make it like present time, like present time, like four years later. And he just, yeah, I was like, I'm not going to be able to make it. Yeah, I was. Obviously I'm joking. And he's just like, lol. And then we ended up talking on the phone. You know, and so it's like every once in a while he'll go to this concrete conference. He has a concrete company in Vegas. You know, look like, what a, what a true bro. You know, there's a four year gap in replying to his text, but I got back to it and so, like, that's a longer time horizon. Don't underestimate the season of sacrifice. Like, the law of sacrifice and leadership is that you gotta give up to go up. You gotta say no to something if you're gonna say yes to the thing that could change your life, help you reach your dreams and impact other people.
- [64:59]
B
And to say no requires this next C. The next C is courage. To say no requires courage. To build a community requires courage. I'm just saying it's the thread line through everything.
- [65:12]
A
Yeah.
- [65:13]
B
It takes courage to do this, man. Sean, I, like, we've talked about so much, we've gotten really tactical. I'd love to speak to, you know, how you, how do you coach courage? How would you coach courage for the new YouTuber this year?
- [65:28]
A
Well, I love the way that you structured this because out of the seven Cs of YouTube success, courage is actually first because you need courage to start at the beginning. Because at the end of the day, so many of us, and I don't blame people, like, there's a lot of overwhelm or nervous, like, will this work? I'm gonna stand, you know, sound weird on camera. I'll start YouTube when, you know, so many people say, like, I'll start YouTube when I get the perfect camera. I'll start YouTube when I finally get that blowout. I'll start YouTube when, you know, I lose 20 pounds. I'll start YouTube when I practice a little bit more, learn a little bit more. And you gotta start before you're ready. That's courageous. But I love that you put this courage C at the end. Because it's a cycle. These seven Cs are a cycle. And you even, maybe you are plateaued right now and you want to restart YouTube. It takes courage at every single step. There is no, you know, no risk, no reward. Like, you're stepping into a world of uncertainty. You're stepping into a world of mystery. If you look up the word entrepreneur, you could Google it, you know, Websters, it's somebody who starts a business and a product or a service to solve a problem and undertakes an abnormal level of financial risk. So too many people want the reward. Without the risk. There's going to be courage, the courage to be Disliked. The courage to be uncomfortable, the courage to be misunderstood by your family, the courage to risk money. And, you know, I think there's different seasons of Life. If you're 22 and you're renting a room, you know, from some homies and you have no kids, no spouse, like, you can take crazy risk. And I think you should if you're, you know, 38. If you're 52 and you've got dependents and a mortgage and whatnot, you still need to take risk. And I'm a big believer in, you don't bet the farm because you have people counting on you. But what about this pool of finances over here? What if you dialed in your finances to say, okay, like, if this loses, it's not going to tank us, but I'm willing to step out because sometimes we're afraid to make that camera purchase and invest in that studio or invest in that education program. It's all risk. Because what if. But it's like, But. But also, what if you don't try? What I think is more expensive than investing in your dreams is the regret that you'll pay if you sit on the sidelines and never actually step out in faith, it's going to take risk. And you know what's interesting is you can start YouTube on a shoestring budget smartphone. That's it. Like, you know, here we are.
- [68:09]
B
Yeah.
- [68:10]
A
Today's smartphone is a media studio. It has audio in it, it has editing in it, it has a camera on it. And even if you don't have Internet at your house, you could try to hack your neighbor's WI fi. So it's like you. Ultimately, you can just start with a smartphone. But there was this deep dive report from the Tilt that said those that start creator businesses, like, someone listening to this are like, I really actually want to, like, start for real. Like, you know, even from the beginning, like, I want to invest in this. They said it cost like 10 GS to start a channel. Like, a lot. They surveyed people. Like, they said that a lot of creators that started with a professional mindset invested about $10,000.
- [68:48]
B
Yeah.
- [68:48]
A
And so you might invest $1,000 in a camera and you might invest another 500 in lighting. And then you might, you might even get, you get an editing computer, a standing desk. You set up your home office, maybe you get a USB mic. A lot of creators are investing in education. You invest a couple thousand dollars in education. You are paying for software, maybe some AI tools. Your ChatGPT, 20 bucks a month membership. Like, all of those types of things, and that's over a year's time. And they invest something like maybe $10,000. I think the important thing to think about is, like, $10,000 is not going to be fatal. If it is, then don't do it. Like, you have a smartphone. But, like, there's so many people listening to this where now it might be painful. You don't want to have somebody steal $10,000 from you. You don't want to, quote, unquote, lose the money. But there actually is a rule, and it is the 10-10-10 rule, and it's this, that you could apply this to negative comments. Will I even care about what this person said 10 minutes from now? Maybe, like, it still might be bothering me. Will I care about it 10 months later? Nope. I will have forgotten. And will I care about it 10 years later? Definitely not. I'm not gonna remember that comment. Someone's like, yeah, but I remembered what Sarah said from high school, though. Yeah, it's 10 years later. There actually is a comment. That freaking guy Eric on the football team. I'm 58, and not a day goes by left that I think about. And so. So think about that with finances, too. Like $10,000, that's a big spend. And, you know, the range of money could be anything. But will I be, like, nervous that I just, you know, spent $10,000 ten minutes from now, for sure, and ten months from now where I still be feeling it? Yeah, for sure. But 10 years from now. Yeah, 10 years later, you're like, yeah, you know, won some, lost some part of the story. Yeah, it's part of your story. People bought, you know, cars that, like, depreciated super fast. You should have bought a used car. Like, they're. It's like, like, your car decision could be the difference between you, like, investing in a YouTube business. Like, you don't need the $80,000 car. Get the $70,000 car problems. Like, so. And then 10 years later, you're like, yeah, I mean, the car wore out. It was nice. But like, yeah, I bought certified pre owned instead of new off the lot and funded this dream that I had. So I think courage is like, yo, this is going to take risk. It's about making a decision to embrace that risk strategically. You're not risking your life. We're over. We put too much pressure on ourselves, man. Oh, my gosh, you know, I'm risking my reputation. I mean, not really. Even if you fail and get canceled, everybody that gets canceled gets forgotten about two weeks later in the news cycle. We just are overthinking too many things. So I think Courage is about punching fear in the face, pressing record, and realizing that's the price of entry into the creator economy.
- [71:38]
B
I think about one of our students who I just got to hang out with on the podcast recently, Sally Beach. She's 68 years old. She was monetized in nine months using only her phone. At 68 years old.
- [71:51]
A
There you go.
- [71:52]
B
Monetized using just her phone. And it was so fun. She knew everything about her phone. She told me the model number. She told me her workflow. She told me everything. She also shared that she invested in community in being around groups. So 68 years old, right? Like, that was just a fun conversation. Um, but one of the things that she passed on was throughout her life, the way that she accomplished her dream, the way that she got to her point that she wanted to be at was through Courage was by. Yes, I'm going to spend the money, I'm going to invest to be around groups of people for the specific thing that I'm in. So I just want to encourage you, if you're watching or listening right now, stay close. Would you. Would you stay close this year? Because we want to help you out. We want to be your community, and I'd love to hear from you down in the comments. Just let us know, is this your year? Where are you starting from? Mark it down right here, right now. Save this video, put it in a specific playlist or something, I don't know. So you can look back at it a year from now to see just how far you've come. Sean, thanks so much for today. Hey, if you've gotten value out of anything today, any of these seven Cs, come on, you know you have. Let us know if you. Wherever you watch or listen, like, rate, share, review. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.