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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, quick heads up. Before we get into today's podcast episode, if you missed our recent three day YouTube growth sprint event, you can still catch the limited replays, but only for a short time. Just go to ytsprint.com, enter your name and email and we will send you the links so you can watch the free trainings. People have been asking for the recordings and they are coming down soon. But. But if you want clarity, traction and a real plan for your channel this year, just go to ytsprint.com and watch the replays while they are still available. All right, let's jump into today's episode. She got monetized in 60 days using just an iPhone. How did that happen?
- [00:46]
Kayla
So, like, it takes a lot of time. The growth may look fast for my channel, but I put in a lot of time.
- [00:53]
Sean Cannell
This is the antiviral strategy. You have seven different ways that your earning money now, which is wild.
- [01:01]
Kayla
You have a phone. So just hit record and go.
- [01:05]
Nathan S. Wine
Welcome back to the Think Media podcast, the number one show bringing you unfiltered tips for building a profitable channel. I'm Nathan S. Wine, one of the YouTube coaches here at Think Media, and today you're about to hear a conversation between Sean Cannell and Kayla from his Word My Walk. She got monetized in 60 days just using her iPhone. And the way that she built momentum is a masterclass. By the way, this episode is brought to you by vrapodcast.com, which you'll hear about just a little bit. And stick around to the end because I'm gonna share three YouTube power ups as I'm calling them, that Kayla didn't even share in this interview that only I would know about because I have had the honor of being Kayla's YouTube coach inside of our one on one coaching program accelerator for the past year. All right, let's jump in.
- [01:49]
Kayla
I had to get rid of the excuses. I think technology is always an excuse that we can make or even a reason. For me, it was a reason why I didn't start and so I just went for it and my second video took off to get me monetized. And from there is where I kind of shifted my channel to keep moving forward.
- [02:08]
Sean Cannell
That's so cool. And how many videos do you think you posted in those first 60 days?
- [02:11]
Kayla
Well, it was three originally and then I did a 30 day, what I thought was gonna be a 30 day sprint. I did 28 videos in 30 days going through the book of Matthew chapter by chapter to teach what people had been asking for. And then I continued on from there.
- [02:29]
Sean Cannell
So I think that 30 day sprint had a lot to do with the early momentum that your channel built. Would you agree?
- [02:34]
Kayla
Oh, absolutely. I looked at that one video that was got monetized or got me monetized. The comments in there were people saying, can you help me? Can you help me do this? Can you help me be consistent? How can I really do this? And I was like, oh, well, I can show you. So let's do it together. I'll do it for 30 days. Um, and that built a community immediately and grew to almost this responsibility that there are people here now and a community growing. So I, I felt like I couldn't stop.
- [03:02]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so I think I better understand now what you're saying is you had an original three videos and one of those videos really broke off, broke out and like single handedly got you monetized. Do you remember what video that was?
- [03:12]
Kayla
Yeah, it was how to Read the Bible consistently.
- [03:14]
Sean Cannell
Okay. And, and so you had a breakout video, but then off of that video, not only did that video get you monetized, got you some channel growth that inspired the 30 day sprint, which ultimately shaped your channel and what you're doing today.
- [03:28]
Kayla
Exactly.
- [03:29]
Sean Cannell
You also kind of focused on a format and have you dabbled with YouTube shorts or anything? Or have you even, you focused even not just on YouTube because to a point YouTube itself could be distracting. Well, if I'm on YouTube, I need to do all the things on YouTube. But have you focused on even just kind of one singular promise, even within the YouTube ecosystem?
- [03:50]
Kayla
Yeah, I tried for the first probably month. I tried everything. Um, I think I have probably five shorts sitting there that are all from last May. And so once I, once I developed this like, okay, we're going to continue this every day kind of thing, or five days a week, six days a week, I really just zeroed in on that. Um, it's what I had the capacity to do. But also it's, it's where I was serving the most people and it's where I felt really purposeful and I wasn't and still am not trying to trend or whatever. Whatever God's going to do, he's going to do. And I love that. But I'm really focused on the community that I'm serving in a way that now they expect.
- [04:27]
Sean Cannell
This is powerful. I just talked to Noah Kagan on the podcast and he built AppSumo. He's got a million subscribers on kind of a business entrepreneur channel. But what I'm also hearing is he highly Recommends experimentation. So I think some people, they hear your story, my story, somebody else's story, they think it's that one size fits all. Because shorts are great, but also long form is great. Video podcasting is great and so is Instagram. But man, when you find your thing and your format and also what's connected to your mission and your strength, that's such an amazing place to be. And man, I feel like the disciplined pursuit of doing less you narrowed into your five to six day a week show served the most, but also sounds like it served your mission the most. And essentially what Noah Kagan recommended was if you've done a lot of tests and experiments, you tried five shorts, you maybe tried a different format, you tried this. What can you then eventually identify that's working and that is in alignment and then really narrow down on that. I think that's really inspiring. Now you're, you have a video that's, it's called Bible Journaling and it hit 63,000 views without any fancy production. You've got a lot of videos on your channel that now have grown and gotten some significant views. Do you have any kind of formula for creating the structure of your videos that you've learned from some of your most viewed videos?
- [05:47]
Kayla
Well, a lot of them go day by day, Right. So if you look at my channel, I'm reading through the Bible chapter by chapter. We've now gone through 16 books of the Bible chapter by chapter. So that helps my format. It is very similar every day. But my desire is to have once a week an actual teaching video, a more practical how to live this life. And that's where Bible journaling came in. And how to elevate your prayer life, how to spend more time with God, those kind of videos that I structure in a way of more teaching. Here's three ways you can do this. Here's five ways that you can do this. I come from a elite athlete background and personal training. And so like having practical. Here's how you actually walk this out really helps me in the way that I learn. So I realized that's also how I like to teach.
- [06:32]
Sean Cannell
Interesting. So, and have you found that it's those one per week teaching videos that have been the ones that have gotten garnered more views over time?
- [06:39]
Kayla
Yes and no. That's my plan. My plan is that those are the more searchable ones. Those are the ones that are going to bring people to my channel. But as I've seen as I started off in May going through the book of Matthew, those ones are now people Are still finding them. There are some of my highest watch videos from May 1, some of my highest watch videos every month which as we get to that, some of my most income stream bringing videos even to this day. So I have a format, but I also just kind of like let it flow whether I'm teaching or reading with my community as well.
- [07:13]
Sean Cannell
Man, I love that. And actually today, what is the full production? Are you a solo woman show here?
- [07:19]
Kayla
I'm a solo woman show. I plug my phone into my computer still every week or almost every day if I haven't batch recorded something and edit it myself. I actually, Sean, you will be proud. I just hired someone two days ago. I was so excited to be able to say that to you to help me with some backend things, some tasks that I need to put systems in place as I continue to grow. But it's been just me and I am curious.
- [07:45]
Sean Cannell
So what do you mean that you plug your phone into your computer for someone listening, if they want to tap into their phone camera, plug it into their computer. How do you capture it and then how do you edit it?
- [07:55]
Kayla
Yeah, I use plug here. I use Obs Studio. And so I wanted a place where I could see what was on my camera. But I knew I had to use the back camera of my phone. Like I didn't know all of this when I didn't know it. And so, so I can plug it right into my computer and use just the camera from my phone. But then I can still see what it looks like. But it actually helps me because I talk just to the phone screen. Like I don't see myself. I'm not distracted. I talk just to the phone. Behind my phone is my closet full of clothes. Like I'm just, I'm truly just me. My whole way of teaching is like, grab your cup of tea, cup of coffee, let's sit down together. Super casual editing is pretty simple. I'm putting scripture on the screen, but if I sneeze, people in the comments say bless you. Like I'm not editing a whole lot of other stuff.
- [08:42]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's cool. And it's cool to hear. Okay, so Obs Studio and what you mean by the back camera for listeners, you know, you do have a selfie camera, but on every phone it's never as good. And what's nice is because while you do have a monitor on your laptop screen, because of the Obs Studio software, you are able to look at your phone without getting distracted. One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is not making eye contact with the lens, which is sometimes hard to do because you see yourself or you're trying to frame it. So those are really good practical tips and just speaks to it's not about our resources, it's about our resourcefulness. I want to dive into this idea of daily routine content. So I we were talking before we pressed record. I feel like this is could be called the morning show model. And for anybody listening, maybe you've watched Good Morning America before. Maybe you remember when there was a show called Live with Regis and Kelly. Today it's Kelly and Ryan Live. And this idea of consistent daily timing, a mix of structured content and natural moments, hosts who feel like friends, community interaction and this morning ritual aspect. You say, grab your tea, grab your coffee, grab your greens. Meet me every morning, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, with your Bible in your notebook, 6am Pacific Standard Time. And the best compliments you get is I'm reading my Bible with a friend. Explain how this all came about.
- [10:09]
Kayla
I couldn't do it every day that I needed a break and I honestly didn't think I was going to continue after those 30 days. My plan was one video a week. My plan was this is going to be my sprint. I didn't realize I was going to get monetized before this happened, but once the people showed up, I felt like I I had to continue serving them and I had the means to do it and so I did. And so I made a commitment that I fight hard against not having a Monday to Friday routine but having it be every day. So I knew I wanted to include a weekend day, which is why we take Wednesdays off. So every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, a video goes live at 6am and the next chapter and so they know what's coming. I encourage you to read it before you get here. The videos are usually 20 to 30 minutes is kind of the average of how long it takes us to go through a chapter. And they know what to expect and they show up. And then there are some people who show up every day when they got off work in the UK at 2pm and grab their tea and like they're in the comments. And the comment section has become incredibly inspiring for me and given me questions of what content to create later. But I just continued on. And truly the people that I started to serve continue to push me to move forward. So I just set up if I can record three or four at a time to get me set up for the week, that's my ideal. But a lot of days it is the night before Recording it and editing it. And that's where, like I say, I work well under pressure. That, like, athlete in me still rises up that I have a commitment to other people. And so it will get done. It will get done, and it will get published because there's a team out there depending on me to do it.
- [11:55]
Sean Cannell
Man, that's cool. And I like. So sometimes you're batching three to four, so you would do the chapter record 20 to 30 minutes, maybe record all four, then throw them all in your timeline, edit them all, get ahead.
- [12:07]
Kayla
Yeah.
- [12:09]
Sean Cannell
Have you. Have you ever broken your schedule since this started?
- [12:13]
Kayla
No, you have not. I have not. I speak openly and honestly about, like, grace days if I need one. The only time the schedule broke was in December. My computer completely crashed and nothing was retrievable. And there's no Apple Store in the place that I live. And at the time, I was building a Bethlehem village at my church. And so I put a post and was like, here's the situation. And my community was there. But other than that, no, I have not.
- [12:39]
Sean Cannell
And then. So you've been very consistent doing it. You create a routine. You've stuck with the routine. Are you planning on then just reading every chapter in the entire Bible?
- [12:49]
Kayla
Yeah. It's wild how many chapters there actually are when you think about it, and how long that would actually take. Um, so I don't know. I. I tell. I tell my community all the time. Like, wherever God leads, I'm willing to go. And I don't see this stopping anytime soon. But if it does, it does. And I'm open to that as well.
- [13:07]
Sean Cannell
That's 1,189 chapters in the entire Bible.
- [13:11]
Kayla
So people don't realize that when you're trying to read it in a year, if you go chapter by chapter. But the results of growth that people are getting is what's keeping me going just the way we're going.
- [13:22]
Sean Cannell
So that would take three years and three months, but you do it, what, six days a week or five days?
- [13:26]
Kayla
Five Bible chapters a week.
- [13:30]
Sean Cannell
Wow. So maybe kind of stretches out to maybe like four years. That would take.
- [13:35]
Kayla
Yeah.
- [13:35]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, that's cool. What I love about this is it's kind of like this is the antiviral strategy. You've had some videos over time, like you said, since last May, have really grown, but you've built your channel through daily connection and really a community first approach. And I think that listeners should really lean in for this. We talked to Chalene Johnson a while back, and she was like, community is the Way forward in social media right now. Because if information is abundant, it's interesting. Like people even going viral. Like, we see viral videos all the time, especially vertical videos. We're like, wow, we see it. Maybe it has 27 million views, but what's the connection? Meanwhile, you've just been so focused on this community first approach, and I think it's so powerful to have real connections, real relationships. Can you walk us through? I mean, you've kind of touched on it, but your mindset in regards to that and how maybe we could benefit as creators ourselves to stop chasing viral and start building community.
- [14:31]
Kayla
Well, for me, it's just about the impact. Like, truly, this wasn't my, you know, 10k, 20k a month strategy for life. So it was different from the start. For me, YouTube was not my gateway to, you know, buy houses and all the things. However, I have paid my mom's mortgage, like through YouTube. So that was like a huge goal of mine. That just happened. So I'm super.
- [14:58]
Sean Cannell
You paid your mom's mortgage off?
- [15:00]
Kayla
No, not off. Just for a month.
- [15:03]
Sean Cannell
You are now.
- [15:04]
Kayla
You're not there yet. Yeah, but it was the impact of the people. And so that's what truly has kept me going. So, like, I realized that I have a solution for a problem that other people have, which is why most of us create a YouTube channel. But their problem meant so much to me, and the fact that I had a solution meant so much to me that how could I not continue to give it? And that's kind of what has grown our community. Now they're inviting friends and obviously the algorithm kicks in and certain things. But it truly, for me has always been about the impact. And other sources of income have been coming too.
- [15:43]
Sean Cannell
And you mentioned that you actually didn't go into it thinking that it was going to be a source of income. What was your source of income previous?
- [15:51]
Kayla
You know, I had a rough couple years as the world kind of shut down. I got stuck in a different country. My dad passed away. It was figuring out life. You know, life changed drastically for me in a matter of four years. So there wasn't much. It was trying to figure out, what do I do online, how do I. So this would be great, but yet I refuse to let people's relationship with God be like this pawn to pad my bank account. There's just something like, in my heart that couldn't go that way. So the fact that this has grown and the fact that, you know, this is silly, but one screenshot someone sent me was like a foot fungus. Commercial that came on my YouTube and I'm like, well, the fact that the foot fungus guy will pay me to preach the gospel, like I'm in.
- [16:39]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [16:39]
Kayla
And that's truly what progressed me to, to want to keep going and to want to build was to see the opportunities with that.
- [16:47]
Sean Cannell
And this is your full time thing now. How would you say your time breaks down a week? And you, and you mentioned getting over 50 comments daily. How are you sustaining, trying to reply to them, shooting, editing, planning, and making this sustainable? Like, how long? Today you're making good income. You're supported by doing this. So you have money for the mission. But what kind of time does it take to sustain what you're creating?
- [17:10]
Kayla
Yeah, I mean, for all intents and purposes, I'm working a nine to five. Like, and I, and I treat it like that. Sure, there are days that I go out and do other things, but I truly had to look at how I was stewarding my time. And to be really honest, Sean has been telling me to hire an editor for months and I had to really look at that. And if it's taking me an hour and a half for each video, that's six videos a week, that's what, eight hours If I'm paying someone for that time, what would I be doing with that time? And so I had to look at how I'm stewarding my time. Would I just be, you know, doddling or doing something else or scrolling another Instagram feed trying to go viral there? Like, what would I be doing? And so I truly have to treat this like my full time job. I sit down, I go to my desk, I go out for walks, I, I do the purposeful things, that this is a real business.
- [18:04]
Sean Cannell
And you did mention, like, it's been so grateful, you know, you mentioned, Sean said, and I know you've been in some of our community inside of VRA Elite, which is a group coaching program. What have you learned? How has that been helpful? And being connected to some of our stuff at Think Media?
- [18:20]
Kayla
It's been amazing. The coaching in there is probably, well, by far my favorite part. And just the number of opportunities we have for coaching. I could, I could be on six calls a week if I want. And even with that, I commit to one because I choose to steward my time for my business. And I don't want to get this. Sometimes I think as students we get this overwhelm of I have to learn everything and I have to be on every call and then I'm not doing the stuff. So I commit to One a week, sometimes two, but at least one. But the program has. It has shifted my channel. It has shifted the things. So obviously I got monetized before I joined vra, but I didn't know how to go from a thousand subscribers to 5 to 10 to 30. And that's what VRA has really done for me is like, give me those strategies. Just yesterday, one of the coaches sent me a video of just like, switching some tags in one of my videos. Something that seems so simple, but he went through and like switching these words in the description. And so the hands on help has been, I mean, beyond what I ever thought.
- [19:21]
Sean Cannell
If you're ready to get serious about YouTube and you want more support, accountability, and momentum, let me be really honest with you. Most people don't struggle on YouTube because of a lack of motivation. They struggle because they don't have a proven system and they don't have a deadline with accountability. That's why right now, we just opened a limited time opportunity called VRA Fast Start. Five weeks of group coaching and accountability. It includes video ranking Academy with lifetime access, a system that has helped thousands of creators in over 100 niches. Plus five weeks of live group coaching and accountability that actually helps you implement. If that sounds like what you need, go to vra podcast.com to see this limited offer or just click the link in the show notes. Enrollment is limited because this five week cohort starts soon. And once it begins, the offer closes. So if you know that YouTube matters for your business, business, your message, and your future, this is your time to stop circling and actually commit to see this limited offer. Just go to vra podcast.com or click the link in the show notes. All right, let's jump back into the episode. I'm going to list these out. This is fascinating. Maybe ask you about this. You have seven different ways that you're earning money now, which is wild. Ad revenue, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, building an email list, selling products and courses, generating leads for your business, coaching and consulting. On our form that we sent you, were you like, checking boxes?
- [20:51]
Kayla
Well, yeah. And I was like, oh, this is actually. Wait a minute, let me go look at my spreadsheets. This is actually incredible, the amount of ways that income is coming in.
- [21:03]
Sean Cannell
Okay, so, so you're getting. You got monetized and you're getting great views per month and your videos are longer. So you probably noticed too, that having longer form engage audience just means that. Do you just check the box to let YouTube place ads wherever they see fit?
- [21:17]
Kayla
Yeah, I mean, maybe that's a conversation for another day. But I'm just rinse and repeat. Yeah.
- [21:22]
Sean Cannell
Yep.
- [21:22]
Nathan S. Wine
Okay.
- [21:23]
Sean Cannell
And so AdSense and then sponsorships. What have you learned there? Now that you're, you know, a Bible study channel, what's an example of like a sponsorship you've done?
- [21:31]
Kayla
I've done one with better help. So they reached out, which was really cool to have someone else reach out, hey, can we give you this? We'll pay this much for a 60 second ad. And I was like, wait, what? Like, yeah, you'll pay me this much to talk about it for 60 seconds. Something that I use and that I enjoy. And so they actually just emailed me last week to like re up the deal. And to be honest, I was so proud of myself to respond back and say that offer isn't good enough for my. Where I'm at now.
- [22:00]
Sean Cannell
Negotiating a little bit. Yeah.
- [22:02]
Kayla
To say that now. So that was really exciting. But that's been a big one that has come and then I've had other like Bible study software and Bible study things that have reached out saying, how can we sponsor and be part of it too?
- [22:13]
Sean Cannell
That's cool. And then affiliate marketing, like what, what kind of stuff could you be an affiliate for?
- [22:17]
Kayla
Yeah, mostly on Amazon. Amazon's a big one for me. People always asking my Bible or especially now that I teach Bible journaling, like what kind of things I use for that and things you wouldn't, you wouldn't even think on a Bible channel. Hey, what microphone do you use? Oh, you care about that? Okay, let me add that kind of stuff too. So even even though I'm not a, a YouTube channel, people still ask, how did you get started? How can I get started? I see what you're doing for this mission. I feel like I should do it too. Can you help me with that? So that's kind of awesome too.
- [22:50]
Sean Cannell
That's cool. What Bible do you use? I'm personally curious.
- [22:53]
Kayla
Oh yeah, we on his word, my walk, we read the new Living Translation.
- [22:57]
Sean Cannell
Nice. I'm reading a new nlt. Wide margin this year is actually I've done a lot of study Bibles, but I went wide margin. No study notes, so no distraction, just rolling through it.
- [23:09]
Kayla
That's where I'm at. Yep.
- [23:11]
Sean Cannell
And then you're doing. Building an email list and so do you give away something free that people can join your email list for?
- [23:19]
Kayla
I do. I have a free powerful prayers guide that I had before YouTube, but it is, I mean, gosh, the amount of people that download it every day, it's just Incredible how my email list grows. And then I serve them once a week. I send an email as well with some additional like services or additional like insights and stuff too.
- [23:38]
Sean Cannell
And then eventually you created a product or course. Do you have multiple.
- [23:42]
Kayla
I have my course which I actually created two years ago when I had an audio podcast and it just sat there because Once I started YouTube, I didn't like how the videos looked. I didn't have a mic, I didn't have anything. So I just re recorded them all in December and now that is available and going. Incredible. There's a community there. There's almost a hundred people in there. And I just. Yeah, it's again one of those things I created two years ago and I continued to. To grow and continue to serve and just use something that was already there.
- [24:13]
Sean Cannell
So cool. Okay. And then generating leads for your business. I guess in a way that's a redundant income stream because it's kind of the same as building an email list and then coaching and consulting. What does that look like for you?
- [24:24]
Kayla
Yeah, so that was actually before even YouTube, like mentoring Christian women and speaking at events and stuff like that. And that has just. It grew when I first started my YouTube and now I've completely scaled it back because of my own capacity. I don't have the capacity to coach people one on one. But two weeks ago opened a monthly membership.
- [24:45]
Sean Cannell
So in addition to selling courses. Yeah, differently. What's the membership called?
- [24:51]
Kayla
It's called the Sisterhood. So it's just women, us coming together.
- [24:55]
Nathan S. Wine
Wow.
- [24:56]
Sean Cannell
So really then that still brings us to seven. If leads was redundant, a membership is really different than an online course. And so that's so cool. And there was like, I think a quote in the notes that said in the last two months of last year or something, you made as much as you made in your entire corporate career or something like that. Is that accurate?
- [25:20]
Kayla
No. Each month, November, December and January. So the last three months, each month I made more than I ever had in a month in corporate.
- [25:29]
Sean Cannell
Wow.
- [25:29]
Kayla
So just knowing, yeah, just knowing that this is, you know, it just feels awesome.
- [25:34]
Sean Cannell
I do want to kind of recap this. So this speaks to you. Just kind of broke down like the business model. Lots that to learn there. But I do want to encourage people from your perspective. You already mentioned this stuff takes time. I also love the professional mindset that you approach. I think there, there's way, of course there's way too much. Shysters, fraudsters get rich quick. People on the Internet. This is not that. Think media is not that this Podcast is not that. And you heard it from Kayla, she's like, it's like a nine to five. That's what I also, there are leverage things you can do, but this isn't the four hour work week. This is at least I think media. Some people create that, but this is for like mission driven people who love what you're doing, who want to make a difference in the world. And if you love the content and you get to enjoy it and you want to build a community, it can turn into something that is also very lucrative. So you have more money for the mission, but it does not happen overnight. This was a lot to learn. Can you break down just the process of year by year even of your journey of figuring out teaching email marketing, course building and what it really takes to maybe build this kind of career practically?
- [26:44]
Kayla
Yeah, it, it has to build time over time. I think we can always get sidetracked by what someone else is doing right now or what someone else is doing. You know, it's like the whole like start with why book. Right? Like, and like if you're not selling Oreos, then what are you not doing? You know, there's all this stuff. And so I started, I had online business before in, in the fitness industry. So I knew how to build an email list and I knew how to do things at one point doing fitness. I did a 30 day devotional through the book of Matthew three years ago. That's exactly what I did for those 30 days. Literally pulled out the PDF, changed the COVID changed some of the questions, put some updated website information and that's what I use. Same with my course. It was something I had built two and a half years ago and I just revamped it and put it out again. And so to just have those moments that help me get a start and then to see a little bit of progress, that's what helps me keep going. It's like in anything I've done, it's like once you see a little progress, that's what gives you the momentum to keep going. And, but it is a lot of work. I don't, I don't, I don't say this is easy, I don't say it's just all fun and games. It's purposeful, but it is a lot of work too.
- [27:56]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, I mean that's, that's so in line with our message at Think Media and kind of different than a lot of the over promises that people make on the Internet. What's also inspired, inspiring about this is I hope listeners maybe feel Encouraged that I know we want to have this stuff happen quick, and I do believe mentorship and strategy can get us there faster. But there's something about embracing the journey and embracing the process. Like, if it wasn't for my working at a church as a director of communications and being an intern in the video department and then being on weird freelance video projects that taught me about, whoops, I forgot to press record or charge my battery or audio issues, and even front facing with clients if it wasn't for talking to customers at the burger place I worked at and like refining my communication skills there. It's interesting how God gives us opportunities to learn all these divergent, detailed skills in your fitness business and then how you're able to pull stuff from years ago that you're ultimately implementing today and continuing to build on it. I just hope that the message coming across, on the one hand, it might feel a little bit like, man, I was hoping, like, I'd be completely arriving at my destination in the next two weeks. Probably not. But what could really be built in the next two months, in the next two years, and even having a legacy vision of. Of what could be built over the next decade if you just keep making consistent small steps forward.
- [29:24]
Nathan S. Wine
All right, welcome back, man. That was such a valuable conversation. And I want to take it a step further because I had the honor of coaching Kayla for the whole last year, and I want to give you three. Three power ups is what I'm calling them, Kayla's power Ups. That help explain why this all worked. These, I believe, are the glue underneath the surface of many successful YouTube channels and businesses. And I want to share them with you here because I think these are the same principles that you can steal for your own channel. While some of these come naturally for Kayla, it doesn't mean that they aren't within reach for us. The first thing that I thought Kayla has demonstrated very well and her journey on YouTube is she has this athlete approach. What am I talking about? Well, first and foremost, just like in Kayla's story is she actually is an athlete and, like, competed at a very elite level. And so what that means is, well, geez, it's already hardwired in her. This whole discipline thing, this consistency thing, this whole goal setting and accountability stuff that I know for us mere mortals feels like a. A massive mountain to climb. Not that it isn't difficult for Kayla, but it just kind of comes naturally. The whole idea of, like, oh, yeah, okay, so, like, I need to make sure I'm showing up. I need to make sure, I'm being consistent and make sure I'm putting in the work because she understood the value of practice. So treat your channel like a sport. I don't mean this in like the crazy hustle culture sort of way. This just means, like, no, I take my channel seriously. Then this year I'm going to take it more seriously than I ever had. And I'm actually going to, like, choose to not get bummed out about thumbnails. I'm going to choose to stop complaining. It doesn't come easy for all of us. And in fact, that's why I would highly encourage you to go to vra podcast.com because we have heard you and we are putting together a five week cohort to walk alongside you. Dedicated training each and every week so that we can get you Moving in your YouTube journey is actually called our Fast Start Cohort. It's going to be with Sean Cannell. It's going to be with all of our YouTube coaches. Our whole team is pouring a lot of effort into this and time is running out. So you might as well go to vrapodcast.com to make sure you can reserve your spot to get into this cohort to make sure that we can link arms together. Because this whole discipline stuff, consistency and accountability, like, if you've been struggling, if you've been sitting on the bench and not been playing on the field, it's time to switch that around. It's time to change that. Enough is enough. And we'd love to have you in here with us. A five week sprint, a five week fast start to get you going in your YouTube journey. And it's a totally. It works for anyone, like, whatever stage you're in, whether you were just starting, whether it's from scratch, whether you're a veteran creator and you've hit some stalling, right, this is gonna be something that's gonna help you in the next step. So make sure you go to VRA podcast to get all of the information. We have everything laid out there to make sure that this would be a good fit for you. But we want to see you in there. All right. The second power up that Kayla had is authenticity. And before you just click off and like, wow, Nathan, we just, like, got so hallmarky. I'm not actually talking about authenticity in the Hallmark Angels on Fluffy Clouds. I am referencing a study that was done. YouTube put out this whole report. It's called, like, why we Watch. And inside of the study, brain imaging, like brain scanning, you know, say, like, actually show that viewer retention and memory spiked by over 70% when they felt an emotional connection. When I'm talking about authenticity is this genuine desire to serve, to have a personal connection. And like I said, the brain scans prove it. This just means you can tell, can't we all? We can tell when we're clicking on a video and the person we're watching is just kind of like trying to get a video out or is actually showing up to serve, because we can just tell they're all about the thing that they're talking about, that their passion is there, that they want to help you, that they're going above and beyond. It doesn't feel fake, it doesn't feel forced. It just feels real. That's the warmth, that's the presence that Kayla has been able to put out on her channel. So the actionable takeaway for you is be yourself. Be yourself. Let yourself shine. Let your passion shine. And funny enough, for those of us with off platform aspirations, we want to be able to use YouTube as a way to generate an income, not just through ad revenue, but through things that we're building and creating. If you're able to be yourself, it's a lot easier for people to hear you talk about the thing that you're putting on. Number three is probably my favorite thing. This is a little catchphrase of mine, but I credit Kayla for helping me come up with the sketchphrase because of how awesome she is. The montage mindset. The montage mindset. This means despite whatever level of success you get or you don't get, you are focusing on the fundamentals. You're refining existing strategies. You are resisting shiny objects. That line right there is montage, mindset, resisting shiny objects. What this means is, you know, like just about every movie, there's that whole arc, whether it's like an athlete movie, sports movie, or like a warrior sort of whatever it is. A lot of films have this storyline there, there's the hero, and the hero's pretty dope, you know what I'm saying? Like, they've got the skill. Come on. Queen's gambit, right? Like, whatever. Like, they've got the skill and they have some talent. But the thing that nurtured that talent was the fundamentals, doing the fundamentals. You see Rocky doing his sit ups and doing his training, like, whatever. Like, okay, we get getting into it, right? The training montage of like getting everything together before the big fight, right? But at some point, most of these films show that main character falling. At some point, this character, the character falls. They fall off course. They lose the fight, they lose the game. They get lost in other pleasures, right? They like start drinking or they start like messing around or they start whatever it is. Like they just fall off the path. They fall off the course. It's because they stopped doing the things that got them awesome in the first place, right? So what do they do? They're down in the dumps and then just like any of the storylines, how do they get back up, right? They start revisiting the fundamentals. They just start doing the things that got them success in the first place. So what this means for you is master the fundamentals. Well, hey, if this episode was helpful for you, would you let us know? 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 connect with you in a future episode.