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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Hey, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give you a heads up that my free YouTube strategy class
- [00:06]
Think Media Announcer
is available right now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com on the class, I reveal the one YouTube
- [00:13]
Sean Cannell
strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your your growth.
- [00:28]
Think Media Announcer
This class is 100% free and you
- [00:31]
Sean Cannell
can watch it now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com now let's jump into today's show.
- [00:38]
Nathan Eswine
Small, brand new channels are growing faster than at any point in YouTube's history.
- [00:43]
Sean Cannell
YouTube generated 60 billion in revenue last year. Watch time is climbing, and new audiences are born all the time. The data shows a genuine middle class. Emerging channels that are earning between $10,000 and $100,000 annually growing grew 38% year over year. They're niche educators, operators, specialists that are building sustainable businesses. $100 billion paid to creators in the last four years just from the YouTube Partner Program. Yeah, it is a mistake to say all the money only goes to the top 1%.
- [01:17]
Nathan Eswine
So you think YouTube is too saturated when every time you open up YouTube, search for videos in your niche, you see big channels already doing what you want to do. But here's a strange kind of cool thing that's happening right now. Small, brand new channels are growing faster than at any point in YouTube's history. And the reason why will completely change what you think you know about how YouTube even works. Sean, there's a lot of beliefs out there right now about what it takes when it comes to starting and growing a YouTube channel, and most of them are actually false. And the first big belief right now is that YouTube is too saturated. What's your response to that?
- [01:52]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, I think we can prove that in fact YouTube is not too saturated. And I understand why people feel this way.
- [01:58]
Nathan Eswine
Way.
- [01:58]
Sean Cannell
It's not to say that it's not crowded, it's not to say that competition is not fierce. But I think the statement YouTube is too saturated is verifiably false. I think we'd first have to define the statement. So I think of it like a sponge. At some point, a sponge can no longer take another drop. It's at capacity, it's full. Then the question becomes, is YouTube full? Can it no longer take another drop? Are people just done? They're like, that's good, just turn off the upload button. Now we've got a lot of the era's over, and there is a lot of content there. There's plenty to watch. You know, there's no more that we need. But the truth is, no. YouTube continues to expand. It's not like a saturated sponge. It's like a flowing river that continues to go faster. YouTube generated 60 billion in revenue last year. Watch. Time is climbing. And new audiences are born all the time. So things like new events, new technology, new life moments, new trends, new global shifts. Like, the platform just keeps wanting more new things to talk about. So YouTube isn't saturated. Your strategy or your positioning might be flawed, but that's big idea number one. Now, there's a second kind of business idea of why YouTube is not saturated. And here's a definition of saturation. Saturation means supply exceeds demand, and as a result, prices fall. So here's what's interesting. Has the price of YouTube's ads fallen or risen? Well, let's look at the facts. YouTube ad revenue grew 15% year over year in the end of 2025. RPMs are actually rising. Brand spend on creators is growing four times faster than brand spend in traditional media. Let me say that again. Brands are actually increasing the velocity that they're spending on YouTube creators. So that would be the opposite of saturation. You would think, okay, brands don't want to spend money on YouTube content anymore. They don't want to spend content on micro nano and macro influencers. Not true. They're increasing more spend. And so for sure, certain niches, there could be higher competition. But the logical truth is the platform has never been less saturated relative to the money available and the money flowing into the system.
- [04:14]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, Sean, I think a big sentiment that people have believing this, that YouTube's oversaturated, is because we hear all the stats that have come out, and it's no lie. They're enormous. They're gigantic. 20,000 something uploads happen every single day, which is like 500 videos.
- [04:27]
Sean Cannell
20 million. 20 million videos are uploaded every single day.
- [04:31]
Nathan Eswine
That's even more scary. 20 million videos uploaded every single day. Which, okay, now it's like the 500 something videos a minute, which is crazy. Which is by the time we're talking this episode, who even knows, right? But here's the thing. The sentiment that comes along with this is like, why would anyone watch me? There's no room for me. And that's kind of what irritates me a little bit in a good way, where I, like, want to fight for you. Because if you think there's no room for You a stat that actually came out a couple years ago, and it's probably even changed since now, is that the average person subscribes to like a hundred YouTube channels. So you have to think, just because you might feel like there's no space for you in your niche, but there's already other people that are doing fitness tips. There's already other people that are even getting more specific fitness for women over 40. Well, guess what? The people that are interested in fitness routines and workout programs over 40 as a woman aren't just following one person. I mean, goodness, how much time, how many times have you switched up your workout program? I know I've switched out mine plenty of times. And there's always gonna be room for you because you could be watched in conjunction with these other channels. I think people think of it like, oh, there's no piece of the pie left for me. And we forget that. No, the way people watch things is niche based. And so you can be another voice in the same niche. And just because something could be over saturated, if I'll even acknowledge that, sure, YouTube's oversaturated. There's a lot of volume happening on the platform, like we just said, each and every day. But just because it could be oversaturated, that's actually a separate conversation than saying, how good is the saturation? Like, what's the competition level you're actually up against? So I think, Sean, that long before there was this AI slop term, there's creator slop, there's people that are showing up that are part of these studies and these numbers that can scare people from even starting a YouTube channel that were already showing up and did a video and then bounced. I'm so curious how many people, of the 500 uploads that just came through in the last couple minutes was the first and only upload that there ever will be. Right. So next, false belief is that most people fail at YouTube. Like, why even waste your time? Why waste years of your life doing something that probably won't even work? I've seen people try and fail. What makes me different is the feeling here. Sean, what do you say to this?
- [06:39]
Sean Cannell
Well, the failure rate is real, but I would say it's misleading. Because what's interesting is you compare YouTube to almost anything. You could say that most people's New Year's resolutions fail. Most people who go to the gym fail because they might start and they go to the gym once, especially around New Year's and the gym is packed in the first week of January, less packed the second week and like pretty empty by the third week. So when you look at the stats, the people who fail on YouTube, they quit within three to six months. And when you look at studies, studies such as done by the Tilt showed that the average successful channel took 18 to 24 months to gain real traction. So you're not actually competing against everybody that's tried. You're competing against everyone who stayed. And everyone who stayed is a lot smaller number. But here's what's interesting about YouTube is the downside risk is essentially zero. You can look at most small businesses, it's like you go a couple years in, nine out of ten small businesses fail. If you wanted to start a restaurant, well, a lot of restaurants, it's an uphill battle. A lot of restaurants fail. Do we think that there's going to be a decrease in the consumption of food or interest in people spending money at restaurants? No, of course. Like, is that going to go down? No, it's going to go up. We always want new restaurants to eat at. If the food is good, if the service is good, well, that becomes the variable done. But YouTube has this massive advantage over these other opportunities. Listen again, you can listen any kind of podcast. What kind of business do you want to start? How much money do you want to invest? Do you want to lease a building locally, start a restaurant, hire a staff? More power to you. But if that doesn't work out, you might be in massive debt, etc. The YouTube risk is essentially zero. So when you think about some of these false beliefs, well, there's truth in them, but you got to actually look at the data. But then secondly, you just might think about, well, it's not like this is without, it's not that this is without risk, it's just that I'm making a calculated risk. And if we take it even a level deeper, if the downside risk is no matter what you do in YouTube, even if you buy a camera and redo your home office or invest in some education or do some other stuff, these are not fatal numbers. On the high end of this tilt study that happened, they said that a lot of professional creators, once they got a ways into it, have spent about $10,000 once they've invested in their education and a camera, a standing desk, I mean, some software, sure. And you do it for a couple of years and let's say you fail. Well, consider this. What about the communication, marketing and audience building skills that you developed along the way? What about the open doors and maybe that led to a job opportunity in that. So again, we're just going through some of these beliefs. I like to attack them aggressively because these statements are easy to say and they're really easy to feel because there's like a level of truth. But you got to inspect the claim. Do most people really fail? Again, there's no guarantee of success. But do most people. Have they given an adequate effort with a sustained level of quality, with enough level of outputs over even the basic math? So it's like, yeah, did you give it 18 to 24 months? And I, I get counting the cost. Someone might say, well, I don't want to even do that. Okay, fine, totally fine. Like you're counting the risk. Just don't overweigh the negative energy that can come around. Some of this stuff, when you look at the data, it's actually a lot more promising.
- [10:15]
Nathan Eswine
And I think it's a lot more promising than the average stats on. Like if I wanted to open up a coffee shop and I need to go find the place, get the lease, get the equipment, isn't it like five years or something for like a brick and mortar business?
- [10:25]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. I mean it's usually like 18 to 36 months before you even turn a profit.
- [10:29]
Nathan Eswine
That's it.
- [10:30]
Sean Cannell
Okay. And yeah, if you open up a local business, you've got overhead. And again, we're huge fans of business. That is amazing. This is just why we're also obsessed with the opportunity of YouTube. Because we're not trying to over promise that it's easy. We've never said that. We've always said it takes hard work. We're saying it's possible and we're saying you should approach it with just as much rigor of also thinking about your niche, thinking about your strategy, thinking about your angle, thinking about how to stand out. Of course, that's what our company exists for.
- [10:59]
Nathan Eswine
I think it's interesting too, Sean, just to flip this on its head before we get to number three, here is how we. We associate failure with the thing we want to pursue. And we. It never crosses our brain. Like, that's a definition of failure. If I start my YouTube channel, it doesn't work out. But isn't it failure if I don't.
- [11:16]
Sean Cannell
If you don't even start it.
- [11:17]
Nathan Eswine
You know what I mean? Like, isn't that its own definition too? Like if I never even took a chance, if I never even tried, and now this. I mean, you know what's going to sit with you? That's a lingering feeling of regret. Like you're going to be at your day Job. I understand this. I delayed starting my own YouTube channel way longer than I should. It was like 18 months or something just watching and full disclosure, watching Think Media stuff. And it took me a second to come around because it was like, I don't know. But I was sitting at my day job, I mean week after week doing my work but thinking about this YouTube thing, you know, and I lived in that friction for far too long. And I would actually argue for me, at least in my personal story, that was its own form of failure. Like I could have just started and been that much further.
- [11:56]
Sean Cannell
Well, I want to hit these other false beliefs, but what you're, you're opening up an interesting loop that should challenge how we think. What does failure even mean? I actually had. I started a business in Washington called Clear Vision Media which was. Happens to be the parent company of our Nevada S Corp now. But like that business was shut down. So by definition it's a failure. There's no longer even a Washington business that exists for the video production and the photography I was doing. So I failed. So I sit in front of you with that failure under my belt. We actually anthem this at our company. We have this phrase, sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. And so back to that idea of like you said, it could be failure to not even start.
- [12:38]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [12:38]
Sean Cannell
It also, if you ended up doing YouTube for a couple of years and getting some subscribers and getting some contacts and maybe you know, making some money. But you're, you know, this idea, am I going to be doing this for the next 50 years? I don't know. You know, is this going to turn into a huge company? I don't know. Are you just going to go on a run? I what have what, what kind of skills or experiences or lessons? So even if you were to inspect the fail statement, I don't consider that Clear Vision Media Washington business a failure. Sometimes you would shut it down because we moved. It also wasn't making great money. It brought in money. Yeah, I wasn't having like I learned so many business lessons during that and, and it was a set up for the next step in my journey. So anyways, just. It's an interesting phrase like these just get thrown out there. And that's why I think you have to attack the false belief to really get to a place of truth.
- [13:28]
Nathan Eswine
A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. The third biggest false belief is that all the money just goes to the top 1%. So the feeling is like man, I'm not gonna be Mr.
- [13:37]
Sean Cannell
Beast.
- [13:37]
Nathan Eswine
We look at the big Big channels. Like, I'm just a normal person. What can I even do on YouTube? The big money, the big views, big subscribers that's already locked up, you know, by channels who have big teams, millions of dollars to invest. And so how do you. How do you attack this belief? Because when you think about. I can at least say really quick, from my perspective, having, like, background in the music industry, this was a big thing I had to work through because. And it's no different than YouTube. A lot of people, when you show up at Thanksgiving dinner with Aunt Nana or whatever, it's like you say, they ask about this music thing. For me, it was always this music thing. So are you still making music? And I would be like, yeah, you know, I'm like writing songs and working on producing. You're saying these terms. They have no idea, you know, and it's just the glazed overlook of. You just feel the judgment actually of like, mm. But it's because I'm not Beyonce. Yeah, that's the equivalent, Mr. B. I
- [14:29]
Sean Cannell
didn't see you on the Billboard charts.
- [14:30]
Nathan Eswine
I didn't see you in the Billboard charts. You're not this massive band. But meanwhile, I discovered there's like a whole. It's a spectrum. It's a spectrum. And you don't have to be Beyonce to actually make six figures in the music industry, where you can be someone who's just behind the scenes writing for television and TV shows.
- [14:46]
Sean Cannell
Sure.
- [14:46]
Nathan Eswine
But no one knows that it's the same thing on YouTube. That's kind of like my passionate response to that initially. But what do you think about this?
- [14:52]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. YouTube is not a winner take all. Like the way that Hollywood is now, let's be clear. Of course, a disproportionate amount of money goes to MrBeast and the top 1% of creators, or I'd even call it the top, like 0.01% of creators. You know, he's make. His whole company was valued at $5 billion or something, you know, with all his. Different companies. Yeah. And. And so then you compare that to the average creator. The thing is, though, on YouTube, let's look at some data. A YouTube channel in the right niche with 12,000 subscribers can generate $2,500 a month. When they combine ad revenue, affiliate income, and brand deals, that's $30,000 a year. And you just talk to that creator. His Name's Lee.
- [15:36]
Nathan Eswine
Yes, 100%.
- [15:36]
Sean Cannell
And we'll link in the show notes to the conversation with conversation. Yeah. So that, like, the thing is, those stories aren't Told no, they just really aren't. I mean, if you listen to the Think Media podcast, they are. And there is thousands of them. There's actually countless thousands of them. For as deep as I've been in YouTube, now you're interviewing people. I'm interviewing people. I did this whole project with my friend Benji called Video Influencers. I've interviewed so many big people, small people, and what would always happen is I'll always like, discover a new pocket. I'm like, how have I never heard of this person? We're living in a world where there is an endless how have I never heard of this person? Wait a minute. You have 7,000 subs and you're making money? How? In this niche? It really is endless. Let's take the data deeper. The data shows a genuine middle class. Emerging channels that are earning between $10,000 and $100,000 annually grew 38% year over year. There's 3 million channels right now in the YouTube Partner Program, which means they're getting a check from YouTube. And most of them are not Mr. Beast or your favorite big creator. They're niche educators, operators, specialists that are building sustainable businesses. So there is. When you think about the billions, $100 billion paid to creators in the last four years just from the YouTube Partner Program.
- [16:57]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [16:57]
Sean Cannell
It is a mistake to say all the money only goes to the top 1%. I also understand it would be very overrated to say everyone's out here just turning into a YouTube millionaire.
- [17:08]
Nathan Eswine
For sure.
- [17:08]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. We're talking about the long tail. Notice that it said channels making $10,000 a year grew 38% year over year. That's the opportunity. We're shouting from the rooftop that like Lee, who you mentioned, and people can watch that interview on the Think Media podcast in the show notes, he still has a full time job. He's still a ministry.
- [17:29]
Nathan Eswine
That's right. Yes.
- [17:29]
Sean Cannell
It's on the $30,000 a year. Depends. If you got kids and stuff, it's number one. I think 100% of list are like, I could take a better vacation with that. I'm going to upgrade my car.
- [17:38]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [17:39]
Sean Cannell
You know, you know, boost my vinyl collection. You know, I don't know what you want to spend your money on, but it's like 30,000, you know, flat. If you have some, you know, it's not enough necessarily to live full time.
- [17:52]
Nathan Eswine
Sure.
- [17:53]
Sean Cannell
So there's a way to think about it. But it's again, it's a false belief that all the money goes to the top 1%. This is not True.
- [17:59]
Nathan Eswine
It's not true. It doesn't go to the top 1%. Just like big false belief number four, which is that it's too late. And I actually have a weird relationship with this one. It's not too late because Sean, we were just talking about there is someone in our, in our community, one of our students who went through our, one of our free challenges, our YouTube growth sprint.
- [18:21]
Sean Cannell
Yeah.
- [18:21]
Nathan Eswine
And she. A part of that process that we walk people through is actually helping them post their next video or first video and giving them a framework, support, accountability, feedback along the way to get to that point.
- [18:33]
Sean Cannell
Yes.
- [18:34]
Nathan Eswine
So Sheri, 77 years old, posts her first video on a brand new YouTube channel. And that video got over 35,000 views in its first week. And that video monetized her channel. She's 77. I'm too late. It's too late for people to blow up. So like there's too late, there's too old. Sheri is like living proof of a recent case study.
- [18:55]
Sean Cannell
Yes.
- [18:55]
Nathan Eswine
Who just a few weeks ago did this and is now starting her YouTube career.
- [18:59]
Sean Cannell
That's a great example. And you know, if we actually take that exact story a little bit deeper. That is true. Sheri signed up for our YouTube growth sprint and then attended all four days. Took notes.
- [19:11]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [19:11]
Sean Cannell
But she actually, before she posted that video, she actually was a part. She joined our program video ranking academy and went through the cohort, which was is deeper level channel reviews every week, Q and A every week, breakout rooms. Every week she went through the cohort and actually went through all of the weeks, followed it exactly, and then posted it. She posted a video exactly like we taught in that cohort and then, you know, shares it in the group. 37,000 views. First video ever posted. First video on the channel.
- [19:41]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [19:41]
Sean Cannell
If you're ready to get serious about starting and growing a successful YouTube channel, then you're gonna love VRA podcast.com for a limited time, we have a special sale happening on our YouTube course and coaching membership that includes the online course, the 80 page workbook, and access to the private community. Inside of this program, you have everything you need for starting a successful YouTube channel all in one place. You get access to checklists and resources that will save you time, reduce stress, and help you reach your YouTube goals faster. But also the most powerful part is the community. It's not just other creators and entrepreneurs that are ambitious and reaching for their goals, but it's also the think media faculty that's in your corner answering your questions and helping you stay motivated on your journey to YouTube success. And for a limited time, we are running a big sale@vra podcast.com. so if you want to check it out, just click the link in the show notes or go to VRA podcast. Com. All right, let's get back into the episode.
- [20:46]
Nathan Eswine
False belief number five is that I don't have time. The feeling is like, man, I just already feel stretched thin. And I gotta be honest, Sean, I can relate to this. Like I started my YouTube channel. I know you started YouTube. We both had full time jobs. So this, this sentiment of I can't even add a whole second job to this. I'm hearing how much it takes to do YouTube and YouTube. You know, man, it doesn't sound like something you can really do halfway. I don't, I don't know how much time I have to get. So this is actually one where I do want to challenge it. I do believe it's false as we're going to get into, but, but I actually also really empathize with this one for sure.
- [21:18]
Sean Cannell
And I mean listen, this is, this might sound like too self development motivational because it's been quoted so much, but Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Cars, is famous for saying, whether you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. And so what's so interesting about these beliefs is. No, I would concede because we're calling it a false belief, but like it's kind of like if you, if you would say I don't have time, then I would say, oh, you're right. Because like if you say you don't have time, then you just self declared that you're right. You don't, you, you don't have time. Yeah, but do you realize that it's within reach for you to consider I'm going to make time even though I'm busy for something that I see as an opportunity or something that I value. Wow, things just shifted. So what Henry Ford is really true? You could say, like, well, YouTube is just too saturated. Well, if that's what you believe, you're not going to take action. Well, YouTube has high competition, but with the right strategy, I'm at least going to give it a shot. And I believe I can still stand out. Okay, interesting. The person who's got a different belief system or perspective or frame of reference that could change everything. So I have deep empathy for this as well. Like life is super busy, the world is noisier than ever before. And you're listening to this, whether it's work School, kids, juggling things, responsibilities. There is not enough hours in the week, it can feel like. So you just got to ask yourself though, number one, how do I create time? Number two, you know, what can I prioritize? Number three, is there anything I could say no to? But here's where I would modernize this conversation and say that in reality, if people are saying they don't have time, they're dealing with an outdated model of what YouTube actually takes. AI tools have compressed the product, the production timeline dramatically.
- [23:21]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [23:21]
Sean Cannell
So whether that's assistance, because he still requires the creator, I think to stand out and to be authentic. But whether that's assistance with planning, whether that's assistance with ideation, with scripting, whether that's, you know, software like Riverside. If you capture in Riverside what we oftentimes record, our virtual podcast, when you're in actual and I'm in Seattle, you know, it'll edit based off the transcript. It'll do things like take out your UMS, it'll do a magic edit for you. YouTube's own tools themselves for optimization, or just using the YouTube editor, learning how to shoot a video, maybe just hit record, go, you know, talk for a while, turn it off and then trim the ends and just upload it. Like a lot of it is a system and how you approach it, what system or what software or what constraints? Yes, are you giving yourself? And creators who used to spend 20 hours on a video are spending four to six now. What used to take me four hours to prepare a video, I can now do in about 40 minutes. I don't think I'm compromising the quality. I used to actually manually go out and research articles and do all kinds of stuff. And now I'm asking Claude, I'm giving a very specific prompt. It's doing research for me. We're going deeper on it. That just saved me serious time. And so ultimately then you tap into what we teach at our core. Our main program is called Video Ranking Academy, which is an obsession with creating ranked videos on YouTube. And here's a simple definition of a ranked video. A video that you post today that keeps getting views for you for weeks, months and years to come. So one well made ranked video can keep getting views for the busy person. So of course YouTube takes some time inputs, but eventually you can actually build momentum on your channel where if you skip a week or it grows for you. I think about Christina Patterson. She joined our Video Ranking Academy program, learned the seven step system, started to implement on it on her Bible study channel. Things started to grow and she got some momentum. But then she actually hit a year where she had some chronic health challenges and it really slowed her down. Very discouraging. And she recounted on a fake media podcast interview that she only posted 10 uploads that year.
- [25:38]
Nathan Eswine
Wow.
- [25:38]
Sean Cannell
10.
- [25:39]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, 10.
- [25:39]
Sean Cannell
Yet it was her greatest growth year on YouTube.
- [25:43]
Nathan Eswine
Check that out.
- [25:43]
Sean Cannell
So far in her journey, when she posted less. Why? Because she actually had spent some time building up a library of ranked videos. So consider that it's not. I'm. I am validating that life is busy. Yes. But if you prioritize things and if you see the vision that One well made YouTube video can actually keep earning you money, getting you subscribers. And then the bottom line is this. We have this resource inside of our program called the Five Hour YouTube Work Week.
- [26:12]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [26:13]
Sean Cannell
It's like a checklist that walks you through the whole thing. And that's. There's the answer right there. So I will, I will say this. You cannot do YouTube in zero hours a week.
- [26:22]
Nathan Eswine
Agreed.
- [26:23]
Sean Cannell
It's going to take time. It actually takes time. Yes. Sometime. Can I get five minutes? You got 50 minutes. But I think the big idea, right, is like, people think it has to actually be a 40 hours a week, 80 hours a week type of a thing. And there it very much can not only be a side hustle, but sometimes too, it could be heavier at the start. Oh, valid. I mean, I get it. People in our. You might be like, but Sean, Nathan, I mean, I'm even spending time learning from you guys. I'm spending a couple hours during the sprint and I'm taking notes. That all feels overwhelming. That's one phase of it.
- [26:56]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [26:57]
Sean Cannell
Your immersion in the learning. You joined our program, Video Rake Academy years ago, before you ever worked here. And you had to study and go through it and you weren't posting yet, you weren't seeing results yet. You were investing time for sure. And you had to budget that time. Yes. But then eventually you started to rank videos. Then eventually you started to make a few hundred dollars and you started to make thousands of dollars. It didn't happen overnight, but it did happen while you were juggling a lot of responsibilities.
- [27:24]
Nathan Eswine
100%.
- [27:25]
Think Media Announcer
Hey, we're about to get back into the podcast in just a second, but
- [27:28]
Sean Cannell
I have a question for you. Do you want to grow your personal,
- [27:31]
Think Media Announcer
personal brand this year? Do you need more leads and sales in your business? If the answer is yes, then right now is the best time to go all in on YouTube. Today's podcast is brought to you by thinkmasterclass.com where you can get on demand access to a one hour deep dive training revealing how to start and grow a profitable YouTube channel. This year, for a limited time, you can get access to this on demand class entirely for free. Where you will learn the three biggest mistakes that people make when starting a YouTube channel. The new rules and changes that have been happening on YouTube and how you can use them to create an unfair advantage. And the exact strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 350,000 organic views every single day. The data is clear. 70% of viewers claim that YouTube makes them more aware of new brands. So don't wait any longer to start grabbing, growing your brand and business with YouTube. Just go to thinkmasterclass.com to get access to this. No fluff, highly tactical, free on demand training. That's thinkmasterclass.com false belief number six though
- [28:40]
Nathan Eswine
is that I don't have the equipment or the skills. And Sean, you're, you're the video guy, you're the tech guy. You've helped people for over a decade overcome this skill gap. What do you make of this? When people say, well I watch these like you and maybe even think media you're watching right now, it's crispy. I see these professional setups, I just don't even, number one, I don't even know how to do that. Number two, I don't even have the money. What do you mean? I don't spend money on all of that.
- [29:07]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, so I think these last couple objections we could hit kind of quick. The, the, the belief of I don't have equipment or skills, number one, the equipment barrier is essentially gone. That's not new news to listeners. It's just realizing the power of the video capabilities and audio capabilities and video editing capabilities of the smartphone that every single one of us has. It's recognizing that even like the brand new laptop from Apple, the Neo is just a few hundred dollars and is like fully capable of editing video and being a full production studio for individuals. So I mean that's not nothing, that's money to invest. But like the barrier to tech is getting so low. Okay, so that one's covered now as far as the skills go, fair enough. But just like anything else, the skills are learnable. Like everybody who has figured out anything had to at one point learn those skills. And so I think it's, it's just a matter of like, it's a false belief. You can get your hands on the equipment and you could learn the skills. Which brings us to false belief number seven. Which is, I don't know what to talk about. I think that's something that holds people back. I have nothing to say. I don't know what I would start my channel about. What are your thoughts on? Have you ever related to that?
- [30:25]
Nathan Eswine
No, not ever? I've never related to this one. This is actually. Sean, this is a belief that I completely don't understand. Here's why. Because if you're listening to this and you've seen yourself doing a YouTube channel, like, what are we even talking about? Yes, you have. You've totally envisioned yourself doing something. Okay, I can have empathy for the like, but I don't know what video I would make. Okay, now we're getting to, like, video strategy and choosing ideas and topics. But, like, the idea of, like, I don't know what I would do or talk about. I push back on because I think most of us have had that vision of, like, you see yourself doing the thing. So, no, Sean, I actually can't relate with this one. How about you?
- [31:00]
Sean Cannell
Well, I think that's interesting because this objection, this belief could actually be like a confidence problem wearing a strategy costume. Because I think what we're really feeling is I don't feel qualified or interesting enough to be watched.
- [31:19]
Nathan Eswine
There we go.
- [31:19]
Sean Cannell
Now, that's because, yeah, I already see 10 or 20, 30 people. And we put other people on pedestals and we usually diminish ourselves. I don't know what to talk about. Means somebody else has already talked about it or. Yeah, I don't feel qualified or interesting. But the interesting thing about YouTube is people don't only follow experts on YouTube. Of course they follow experts on YouTube, but they're looking for people who are one step ahead of the journey that they're on.
- [31:44]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [31:45]
Sean Cannell
In fact, that's what makes YouTube so special. Like somebody who's just a few steps ahead that can help them figure out where they're at. I mean, even. Especially if you get really practical and you're trying to figure out how to fix a Dyson, you know, dryer, or insert a certain CD deck into your Honda Accord or something. You open up a YouTube video and there's a guy that's like, I'm going to show you how to do it. You just start watching and if they get you to the result by the end of the video. So I think ultimately I understand this because it holds us back. It's a confidence problem. It could be like an insecurity problem. But what I would encourage listeners to tap into is you've got a couple of things that are unique just to you. You've got experience, you've got perspective, you've got knowledge. And your combination of those three, three things is something that makes you genuinely unique. In fact, the only way to start a YouTube channel, I believe, going in the future, if you're going to remain relevant, is to inject your perspective and your real world experience and even knowledge. Because yes, you have some knowledge, but acknowledges a chatgpt prompt away now, but context and perspective and experience. It's like Google's ranking formula called E E A T. It's like expertise, experience, authority and trust. And what it is is the human side. It's just like your life, your perspective, your story, your age, the generation you were born in, and what you're going through right now, brought into the context of that subject. That's what people are looking for on YouTube. They're looking for humans.
- [33:19]
Think Media Announcer
Yes.
- [33:20]
Sean Cannell
That they can connect with. And so your job is to find a specific angle, audience and voice that makes your version of your YouTube channel, your niche, your topic, basically unique.
- [33:33]
Nathan Eswine
Sean, I remember listening to a podcast with you and Rory Vaden. This was years ago. This was before I'd started my channel. Maybe I just started, but this was a piece of advice that really helped me, which was, and I think this frees people from this angle of. I think I need to be authority, need to have all this expertise. People don't need expertise, they need help. And so if you're in an educational space, even, hey, entertainment channel, okay, People don't need to be like laughing out of their seat or throwing over whatever. They just need. They just need to like, have some stress relief, you know what I mean? Like, so, like, it's just that next step, I think we overcomplicate what people need. And really, if I can make a video and I need, if I need to make a YouTube video and I gotta show up as an expert, sure, daunting. I totally get that. But if I'm gonna make a YouTube video, then I just gotta show up and help somebody because I've done it before or I know something about it.
- [34:19]
Sean Cannell
Well, and speaking of Rory evading quotes, one of my other favorite quotes he said is, you are most powerfully positioned to help the person that you were yesterday.
- [34:29]
Nathan Eswine
Oh, man, that's good.
- [34:31]
Sean Cannell
So that's like perfect for that. I don't know what I would talk about. Talk about the things you solved yesterday. Well, Sean, I didn't solve anything. I mean, I mean, in the last six months, in the last year, just. That's the, that's the one step ahead thing. That's the, you know, others have called it document. Don't create. Yeah, document the journey where you're at as opposed to sit down and create content like a 10 year expert. If you don't got the 10 years, what did you do over the last 10 days? In fact, a content format you can steal. If you're still listening to this podcast, you see it all over YouTube. I tried Andrew Huberman's morning routine for 30 days. So you could say, I tried no caffeine for 30 days. I tried Colostrum. I, I tried programming with vibe coding. Like you're just the experiment. You're the experiment and those videos go viral. So you're going into it not even saying, I'm an expert who did it in an Expert way for 30 days.
- [35:25]
Nathan Eswine
You're just trying.
- [35:26]
Sean Cannell
People want to watch the journey and connect with a human that's in the trenches, sharing the narrative. And actually not just the wins, the mistakes, the learnings, the insights, your ability to assemble that into a video. Shout out to Rory Vaden, you are most powerfully positioned to help the person that you were yesterday.
- [35:43]
Nathan Eswine
Sean, before we jump into this last false belief, have you ever heard of this thing called the Dunning Kruger effect?
- [35:49]
Sean Cannell
I have.
- [35:49]
Nathan Eswine
Okay.
- [35:50]
Sean Cannell
A couple times.
- [35:50]
Nathan Eswine
It's this. And I think this has helped people too. Like when it comes to, like, not knowing what to talk about, feeling incapable, not feeling credible, this Dunning Kruger effect is a cognitive bias. It's basically where if you're sitting here saying, man, I think I lack the expertise, like, I don't know that I can really talk to that, you actually are probably the person that can speak to that. And on the flip side, if you're the person that's saying, if you're a little overconfident and you're like, oh, I got that. I could totally help people. I could totally talk. Well, maybe there's actually not as much experience there as you think. And so it can be freeing to think about if you actually are. Maybe, maybe if you're saying, I don't really know if I feel that confident to talk about baking or whatever it is. It's like, actually that might mean you are the person.
- [36:31]
Sean Cannell
It shows, actually you're humble and grounded because you realize there's how much still for you to learn.
- [36:36]
Nathan Eswine
That's it.
- [36:36]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. Because the Dunning Kruger event effect is we're overconfident at the start. How hard could that be? Yes. You watch some, you know that. Yeah. And that's that's you're right, 99% of people listening to this are actually like, no, I think it is going to be hard because reality is set in, but it actually shows you're in a good place. And what you do is it's the overconfident person that's about to crash. But then once you get down here, you just build your way up out of it. Yeah, yeah, just start teaching, start posting videos, start putting it out there, start sharing your perspective, start learning as you go. And all of a sudden you turn into that expert because of being a part of the process and just getting in the game.
- [37:08]
Nathan Eswine
That's exactly it. Final false belief is that the algorithm can change and like everything can just die overnight. And the feeling here, I mean, I understand this, we even cover these topics about how policies can change overnight. New things are implemented, channels can act, can disappear. The news headlines of people losing channels and losing income. And so people, you know, fair enough, might be like, yeah, I don't really want to get into something that feels unstable. You know, like, what do you say to this?
- [37:36]
Sean Cannell
Well, this is an intellectually honest objection because what we're recognizing is that there is risk. The platform risk is real. You are on rented land, borrowed land. YouTube is not your platform. It belongs to YouTube and Google and Alphabet. The parent company YouTube did terminate 12 million channels in 2025. Now, they explained that a lot of those are spam channels or AI slop channels, but there are headlines of somebody's channel getting shut down. And typically, if you foray, if you venture into more risky forms of content that are on the edge of community guidelines, on the edge of maybe mass produced AI content, farm stuff, then it. That especially doesn't. That comes with risk. Yeah. But I think that there's 2 Responses to Think about in terms of this belief. First, the skills that you develop, the audience relationships that happen, the email list you build, which means you're intentional. And you could swap out email lists for the group or the text message line or just the community you build off platform. And the business infrastructure you build for you to through YouTube are yours to keep. This goes back to like whether you think you can or you think you can't. You're right. Well, it's risky. If I'll go outside. There's even a proverb in the Bible that's a little bit brutal and it actually says like the sluggard says that there's a lion outside. Oh, yeah, yeah, that. It's like that's what the proverb is. You can maybe look it up for me while I'm talking. It's like that's sometimes when we just want to say, well, there's too much risk. Oh, there's danger outside. Well, I might step out and something bad might happen. Yeah, I mean, for sure. Like farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. What's it say? Did you find it?
- [39:31]
Nathan Eswine
The sluggard says there's a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets.
- [39:35]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, it's a really funny proverb, but it's. Yeah, it's the person who's maybe. And I'm not trying to say anybody listening to this is lazy.
- [39:42]
Nathan Eswine
You're a slugger,
- [39:45]
Sean Cannell
but you are maybe hiding inside behind your excuses.
- [39:49]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [39:50]
Sean Cannell
And so you're saying, well, the algorithm could kill everything. Yeah, for sure. Okay, so what if I start today, grow my channel for two years, but then it gets shut down? Well then the question would be, well, did you build skills those two years? Did you make some money? Did you build an email list? Yeah, it could happen and it has happened at Creators. But you will even see some people who, whether you're in left leaning politics or right leaning or whether you're center in politics, I guess it depends on the administration there, you know, when there's a Democratic administration. It seemed like YouTube was a lot more kind of anti right and very pro left recently as it's been, you know, Republican, like kind of party in the White House. YouTube all of a sudden is showing up to Trump White House gatherings and whatnot. And you start realizing, okay, are they just trying to be on whatever side? Here's the point. It's like we've seen news channels on both sides seem to get shadow banned or seem to get shut down or seem to have. So here's the question. Someone goes, well, if that happens to me, well, think about these big brands, you know, the young turks, they've built awareness through YouTube and they're like a left leaning news organization, but they have off platform paid ways of monetizing. Look at the Daily Wire, same thing. They've built their own platform. So people are missing the point. Like YouTube itself is this massive channel that could help you reach your goals and build an audience and fund your nonprofit and accomplish your mission and grow your church, whatever your ambition is. And we're out here, Number one, you're going to have skills and audience. Number two, every business has risk, man.
- [41:29]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, that's.
- [41:29]
Sean Cannell
So we talked about it earlier, like a resale. A retail store depends on foot traffic and lease terms. It, it depends On Las Vegas depends on tourism. And then all of a sudden, there's an interesting. There's been data of, like, prices in Vegas going up, tourism going down, and some people saying, why do people even need Vegas anymore? They can get, like, adult content, gambling, and dopamine hits from anywhere. What happens in Vegas now is just on the Internet to, like, everybody, no matter where they are. So the world is always changing. So Vegas's business model may have been disrupted, yet it's still here. We're recording this in Vegas right now.
- [42:11]
Nathan Eswine
I don't know.
- [42:11]
Sean Cannell
The world keeps moving to bring some organization to this. You know, thing is, I think it's not whether or not risk exists and whether or not the algorithm can change. I think it is about intelligently thinking about what kind of channel do you want to start.
- [42:26]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [42:27]
Sean Cannell
What ground are you building on? We see people who see, like, a quick opportunity with some faceless and YouTube automation and AI. Yeah. But like, you knew going into that, that maybe even using Fair Use or downloading other people's content and chopping it up. You know, people build channels off of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, off the Berkshire Hathaway things and chop up these clips, and they make money on other people's content. They call it fair use. Like, by the way, it's working for a lot of people. But if someday Berkshire Hathaway emails you and it's like, hey, your whole channel is our content cut up. They have the right to do that. And you decided to even build with somebody else's content, which, by the way, like, react content. Other people's content. Massive opportunity. Fair use is a massive opportunity. Like, we're pro. We help creators do all this different stuff. But you knew the risk going into it.
- [43:18]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [43:18]
Sean Cannell
I'm not seeing channels get shut down that are vlogging. This is the thing following YouTube's guidelines. Yes. With family friendly content. Well, Sean, I don't want to do family friendly. That's totally fine. I'm just saying, I have personally not seen a channel get shut down following YouTube guidelines with neutral content. That's not, you know, doing that different stuff. Risks exist. You can mitigate the risk, but you also can just move forward despite the risk. Because at the end of the day, you want to ask yourself, does the upside justify the risk? I think that's the question.
- [43:55]
Nathan Eswine
That's the question.
- [43:56]
Sean Cannell
It's going to be risky to go to the grocery store today.
- [43:58]
Nathan Eswine
Okay. This is where I was going to take it. It's like, okay, every business has. Every business has a risk, yes. YouTube's risky. But then. And I'm not trying to even be reductionist here, but it's just like. Just like, life is risky.
- [44:09]
Sean Cannell
Life's risky.
- [44:09]
Nathan Eswine
I mean, I'm thinking about, like, you know, we just had a baby, and here's the thing, Sean, we were planning for a home birth, but on our first child, planned for the home birth, and we had to transfer to a hospital. You want to talk about risk? Birth is risky, you know, very risky. And I know it's like, wow, okay. But it's like, you just. We have to be prepared for anything. So what do we do for the second time around? Well, we knew what we went through the first time. We were making preparations. We were prepared, preparing for stuff. And I'm just like, risk is everywhere. It's in your day job, man. You're gonna risk that toxic boss in culture for how long? Until it destroys you and you have to leave or you have to. Whatever. It's all around us. And so I do think, Sean, you say all the time, like, fear is false evidence appearing real. And I think this is one of those things. And it's also hard to refute when the CEO of YouTube, right, just recently shared he was casting the vision for the next 20 years of YouTube, right? It was like the next several decades of YouTube. The future's bright, right? I mean, think media is, what, over 10 years old now? Like, so I think that these. These fears can come from a genuine place when we actually see channels get terminated and things get removed. But I gotta be honest, these are extremes to me. Like, in our day to day and week to week, we're interacting with Sherry, who just, like, made a video about losing her puppy, you know what I mean? And it's like, she's going to be here, you know, like the end of the year and next year, and probably have grown significantly because she took the plunge she started and she's still creating.
- [45:32]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. And I know we've covered these eight false beliefs, and again, there's truth in them, but there's also. It's possible to disprove them. And I guess we should shout out Henry Ford. It's like, whether you think you can come on or you think you can't, you're right. Whether you think it's possible to grow on YouTube or you think it's not possible. Well, if you're like, well, it's not possible to start YouTube. You cannot grow anymore. It's too saturated and the algorithm changes too much, well, then you made your best Sleep in it. Yeah. Meanwhile, again, someone like Sherry, someone like Lee, they're starting channels and they're succeeding. And so I one shout out to anybody who's made it this deep into the podcast. Number one, you're a real one. Number two, appreciate you and it's always helpful if you like, rate review wherever you watch or listen to the podcast. And number three, we actually this exact moment, depending on when you're listening to this, I think are finishing up our YouTube growth sprint. Yeah. Which means we opened up the doors to Video Ranking Academy and that is a program that is available all year long. However, we don't always do a cohort and so we in this most recent, not just the new AI tools, not just the complete program for starting and growing successful YouTube channel and learning how to specifically rank videos that pay you passive income. But we do this cohort and which is really cool is it's on zoom. It's a small group and we have myself, the think media coaches. We're going through a quick teaching a couple channel reviews, small group breakout rooms and zoom rooms where you're getting feedback, talking about your content. And that is the exact, not just program that Sherry joined. Her first video got 37,000 views, but it was the cohort she attended and she went to all sessions. And then on the last session, the last week we do like a special week of Q and A bonus channel reviews, celebrating wins. All that to say is if you're, if you've been thinking about joining our program Video Ranking Academy, you could go to vrapodcast.com because right now is the best deal we have on it with the best bonuses and the five week cohort. I think it's five weeks of course, check the page. And so yeah, lock that in vrapodcast.com that is a limited offer. We'll link that URL in the description down below. And you know, side note for the people of like, well, you've talked about that URL before. Here's what you'll notice. That URL just redirects to a sales page. I don't even know why I'm talking about this but like here we are, it's like so, so what's, that's actually a cool tip. Like because then what we're able to do is in the future if somebody's watching this video a year from now, you can still go to that link. But everything I'm saying right now might not be true at that moment. Like the cohort or the price has gone up over the years and all these different things. So for the sake of over wording and now going back to under wording, but it's too late because I've already over worded. Vraypodcast.com is at this moment the best price and the best offer with the cohort to get into our YouTube coaching program that'll help you get results faster on YouTube. If you see the light and you realize it's not that there's not challenges, yeah, but whether you think you can Crush it on YouTube or whether you think you can't, you're right. And whether you think think media can go faster, it can. We can help you go faster. I'm delirious at this point in shooting, but I'm going to kick it back to you, Nathan. If anybody wants to check out that special offer on our YouTube coaching program, just go to vra podcast.com well we'd
- [49:04]
Nathan Eswine
sure love to see you there. In the meantime, podcast, let us know what resonated. Where are you at with these eight false beliefs? Have you fallen for them? Are you, are you pumped up? You're committ? We'd love to see you in our next cohort to help you get your first video or next video out. But in the meantime, 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.