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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 is available right now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com on the class, I reveal the one YouTube strategy we use at Think Media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your your growth. This class is 100% free and you can watch it now on demand@thinkmasterclass.com now let's jump into today's show.
- [00:38]
Nathan Eswine
So I started YouTube at the worst possible time in my life. My wife and I had over $50,000 in debt between an auto loan, credit cards, the firm payments, and a nice stack of medical debt from a home birth that didn't go like we wanted it to. And I was doing all of this, by the way, while being in a full time job that just sucked out of me. But what's crazy is I actually documented the whole escape. It's all here in these journals. And the story of how this YouTube thing actually went from nothing to a real side hustle. Giving my family an extra $30,000 a year while taking less than 10 hours a week to run. And what I learned along the way is exactly what I'm gonna share here. Because if there's one thing I know, it's that you can be one video away from changing your entire life. And if that might sound too good to be true, if you're in a tough season right now, you've been at this YouTube thing for a second. My whole goal with this is to not sugarcoat anything. I've got actual numbers and receipts here about what this actually looked like. So I'd actually like to start, funny enough, on the night that I almost quit YouTube. So this is the actual budget that I'm holding that my wife and I, Heidi, that we made actually. Actually, I think this is the very first budget we ever made since even being married. And this, the date on this is September 15, 2021. And I remember kind of like, you know, catching wind of Dave Ramsey, finding some clips, kind of going down that rabbit hole and getting a little inspired and pumped up to be like, oh, wait, like, I don't even think we know how much debt we do have. Like, I just, we just don't know what we don't know. And I remember setting this down, this legal pad. My wife knows that she married a nerd, and we just start Listing out all of our debt. And the number starts going up and up and up and up. And the awareness suddenly hits, sets that we are underwater. And it made sense when you put it all on paper and you're like, oh, we really are paycheck to paycheck and there's not enough money left over at the end of the month. And so you just swipe the credit card and you get the affirm payment and you just kind of like keep going in this cycle. But putting everything on paper made us realize something has to change. Like all these dreams and hopes and things that we talk about, like, for our future family. We didn't even have kid. We didn't have kids yet at the time, but we were kind of like, how are we gonna ever have kids? Like, how are we ever going to change our life if this is the same rate that we keep going? And so one of the things that's on here, though you can see it, is a coaching program, a YouTube coaching program that I'd already paid half of at least. And I think I'd made like a couple videos. One of the things that I say is, let's just cancel the coaching thing. She said, I thought that, but wasn't that our way out? Like, wasn't that the thing you were supposed to do? Like, you talked about this, Remember we had talked about this.
- [03:29]
Heidi
You like.
- [03:30]
Nathan Eswine
And so we chose to keep paying that. And what I also chose from after the conversation, it was like a night and day switch. I don't know if you've had these moments where just something really changes in the moment. And I gotta be honest, like, I don't know. I don't know what it's like to have a spouse that doesn't believe in you. And I understand that. Like, not everyone has that. And I actually do understand what it's like to have very close people not believe in you. Like, I remember having people that were like parents to me literally shut down dreams and literally say, what's the point of you doing this music thing? What's the point of you doing this video thing? Like, you're wasting your time here. Like. But for me, with my spouse, it was the opposite. I had the flip pressure, which is its own kind of pressure. Pressure. There's the pressure of, like, I don't believe in you and you feel like you have to go prove something. And then there's the pressure of, I fully believe in you. Show me what you're capable of. So my wife was the one that was like, buy the coaching program. Buy the camera, go get the gear, set up the studio. And she was there all along, helping me set everything up. Remember, like, side Hustle Saturday? Like, I would spend, like, the first half of the day kind of doing.
- [04:30]
Heidi
Yeah.
- [04:30]
Nathan Eswine
So why did you. Why were you cool with it? To be like, yeah, it's a bummer. Wish we were hanging out. This is what we agreed to.
- [04:38]
Heidi
You know what I mean?
- [04:39]
Nathan Eswine
And there's a reason why.
- [04:40]
Heidi
The truth is, like, I don't even remember, like, seeing anything about the YouTube stuff that I was like, oh, like. Like, it wasn't YouTube that I believed in. It was just you, because you just. You've just proven yourself. You have a really good track record, like, pouring yourself into something and paying off.
- [05:00]
Nathan Eswine
Geez, dude. You didn't believe in YouTube. He believed in me. I remember after that meeting is when I really got serious about YouTube because I had to get serious about YouTube. My reasons for starting YouTube, actually, I think I wrote in this workbook from the YouTube coaching course. Yeah, here we go. What are your reasons for starting YouTube? Here's what I said in my beautiful chicken scratch right here. I want a different kind of day. I want to achieve a freedom lifestyle for my family. I have a calling inside me to do more with my life. I think God is at work, and I want to glorify him by not wasting the gifts and talents he's blessed me with. I can do this. I almost feel made for this thing. I've not been happy who. I've not been as happy. I don't want to be at martial arts forever. And so it's worth. It's probably worth just sharing, like, okay, so what did things look like for me, like, after it got serious? Well, I actually started. I went back through. I went back through this.
- [05:59]
Heidi
This.
- [05:59]
Nathan Eswine
This course because I was convinced I must have missed something. And so I was like, you know, we're gonna hit the reset button. And sure enough, there was this entire video strategy that, like, I totally glossed over, which was called ASQ, which stood for answer specific questions. You know, my YouTube channel is in the music niche. I was a songwriter, and, like, I wrote some stuff for some TV shows and movies, and that was, like, my side gig for the longest time. So when it came to time to try this YouTube thing and actually trying to build a business, I was passionate about helping other people do that, about helping other people learn how to make songs. I was kind of always the guy in recording sessions that would. I would seem to teach. I would. People would seem to ask me Questions, how did you do that vocal thing? How did you do that thing with the drums? How do you record whatever? And I was like, okay, what if I could start answering the questions a lot of people ask me just in like video form. And so I answered a very specific question. It was literally like how to duplicate a track in Logic Pro X. And if that sounds like completely foreign to you, it's like this music software is akin to like Photoshop for photographers. It's just a piece of recording software that musicians use to make stuff in. And I remember it starting to take off and it just kept getting views and I kept getting comments and the video was only like a minute long, but I remember like getting comments that were like, thank you so much for this, where have you been? And blah, blah, blah. And it gave me the courage to then answer bigger questions. So I answered specific questions and I answered bigger questions. And slowly but surely I found my lane. But the thing that happens is because this was probably starting to sound like, okay, here we go, Cinderella story. It's like, here's the thing that I wish more people would talk about is it's like things can be going well on the side hustle thing and you feel like you're breaking ground and like you finally get lots of views or you get lots of comments. But you know what you have to clock into that next day is the day job. Like, your life doesn't change overnight. You can be one video away from things starting to change. But in the side hustle season, that's when I was creating stuff in. I was at my day job and like I said, I was working at a martial arts school. Both my wife and I were. And it's kind of the industry where if you know, you know, let me know if you know, because it was a six to seven day a week industry. And it's the kind of thing where we were teaching four or five classes every single night. And if we weren't teaching classes, then it's during the day, we're holding down other stuff. So we're like cleaning the gym. If we weren't cleaning the gym though, we are doing cold calls. If we aren't doing cold calls, we're following up with people who are supposed to have appointments that night. If we weren't doing that, then it's like we could be doing a birthday party, running a seminar, like opening the gym. There were some morning classes. It was just, it's a very physically demanding, in person, brick and mortar location, vibes sort of thing. And so the Nature of that job, it just, it takes a toll. And so I remember having little wins over here with my YouTube channel and then having like losses during the day. And I remember getting to this point where it's like I have to like change my approach. How do you do this YouTube thing and how do you do it with a day job? Like, and you start to understand like, oh, you need to have like a schedule. There's this, a note card that my wife found of my morning routine from this time period. And it's kind of crazy. It's like I was waking up at like 4:30. The morning for me was when I worked on this YouTube thing and I would still try to fit in a workout, get some time into work on the YouTube channel. And then after that it's like day job, like clocking in and going to work. And maybe sometimes I'd have, I'd have, I'd have energy in the evening to work on a YouTube video or work on something. But most of the time, honestly I didn't just because of how tiring it was or not even getting back until like 9pm or so at night. I remember my first battle station, like my first setup, which was in the corner of our one bedroom apartment, which shout out to my wife for even letting me do. And so I remember I had like this little corner that I would just get pumped at. And over time, the fulfillment that I was getting from my YouTube channel started to bleed into the fulfillment that I was going to get at my day job. Because here's something that I wish I would have learned sooner. I was spending so much time kind of hating my day job, being frustrated at my boss, that it was hard to escape that. I think I heard a John Acuff say it like this, like, you can't practice. You can't practice being upset at something for 40 plus hours a week. And then just think, you can flip the switch when you get home or flip the switch when you get in the morning. And I remember like after that moment too, that was another pivotal breakthrough where it was like, you know what? I'm gonna choose to be grateful for my day job. I want to get out of it. Don't get me wrong, I want to leave it. I don't like what's going on here. I don't want to be here forever, but I'm grateful that I have it right now. Every time I make a video, every time I'm working on something, these are sowing seeds for the future. And so something that really helped me Was actually like keeping progress, tracking things, tracking what I was doing each and every month. And so it's just so cool to look at. I literally have my month one metrics from starting this. Here we go. Month one's win. I just started. Heck yeah, I just started. I have like, I got my tech all set up. I signed up for Kajabi, which is this kind of like all in one email list course builder thing. And look at this. I got my KPIs. Opt ins. Email opt ins. Want to guess how many we got here? 2.2email opt ins list size. I remember, right? I wanted to grow my email list to 100. And so there we go. We have two out of 100. Month two I had four opt ins, month three had nine opt ins and I finally crossed 100. And it took six months. And the reason I focused personally on opt ins and I tracked that is because I got great mentorship early on, which was like, don't just make YouTube videos. Like Build an email list because views are here today, gone tomorrow. If you can get people to watch it a video, then you can collect email addresses. And then when the time comes, you can monetize off of YouTube. Like you could share your products that you could build. And so this is why I got Kajabi. And so I remember, like, dude, I went on a rampage. I remember there's. I. I cared about this so much that it was like before I even started my YouTube channel. Like, seriously, I just built. I built a lead magnet and I probably spent way too much time on it than I needed to, knowing what I know now. But it was, but it was very proud of it. It was like high quality. Was like how to finish songs in five steps. And I noticed in my Kajabi analytics, I was like, oh, okay. So there's two connection points. One, my most popular videos are about making music in this piece of recording software. And my most popular lead magnets are finishing songs in five steps. And this logic pro songwriter jumpstart thing. So it was very clear, like this is why I think my. When I launched my first course, it was a success and I made thousands of dollars is because it was rooted in data. And I remember getting the first sale from that course. And I remember calling in my wife and I remember being like, look at this. I remember, like, I think I have a screenshot of the first sale which was May 20, 2023, and someone paid $147 to get into my music making course. And I remember crying. Like I actually remember tearing up Because I remember being like, I actually remember being like, this is possible. And I remember calling in Heidi and I was like, babe, look at this. Like it actually it worked. And we're talking about like $147 here. This isn't going to change. This is going to change anything. But it was proof of concept. And I remember being like, I think this guy's name was Cohen who bought my first course. And I remember telling Heidi, I was like, we're naming our first child. Going, that's like, you know, we were like totally joking about it. But I just remember this being such a joyous time and I'll never. I literally have chills right now. Do you remember when I called you in when I made that first sale?
- [13:55]
Heidi
I do, yeah.
- [13:56]
Nathan Eswine
Do you remember what that moment was like?
- [14:01]
Heidi
I think it just felt kind of surreal and anti climatic a little bit. It's like a big deal. But one of those things where it's like, oh, it happened, huh?
- [14:11]
Nathan Eswine
And now we wait for the deposit to hit. Yeah. What was the dude's name? I'm pretty sure it was Cohen. Remember being like, we need we're gonna name our first child.
- [14:21]
Heidi
Not our first child, but I was
- [14:23]
Nathan Eswine
like, oh, I like that name.
- [14:23]
Heidi
Oh, me too.
- [14:26]
Nathan Eswine
And then what do we do? You had to stop and celebrate.
- [14:28]
Heidi
We got some Boba.
- [14:29]
Nathan Eswine
We got Boba. That was really cool though. And this, the celebrating thing just, it just became a ritual. Like this became something that we did consistently. And I owe all that to Heidi for actually having a stop. Even though we're in the middle of paying down debt, like actually using some of that money to go mark new territory like mark new ground that was taken. And we're kind of like building to the point now where that first sale led to more sales. I had built more courses, I had built memberships. I actually had started to offer artist development, which would just be the equivalent to coaching. Like one on one coaching. Yes. Even with an audience of quote unquote broke musicians, there were people that were paying me thousands of dollars to help them develop their songs, to help them release their music on Spotify and Apple Music. I mean, my mind was blown. Right. And so we're getting to the point now where it's like, okay, we're hitting about 30 grand a year, give or take less than 10 hours a week to run, still have the full time job. But it's at this point, anything that we could from the YouTube business was going towards paying down debt. So things are starting to happen really fast. And I remember like the the big celebration moment, the big victory, was actually getting to take our first vacation, which, again, it's just like the nature of the martial arts industry if, you know, you know, three, four years go by, and Heidi and I hadn't even taken our first vacation. We hadn't even taken a proper vacation together. So even though we were in the midst of paying off debt, the celebration rituals continue. And I remember being, like, surprising Heidi in booking this Airbnb. That was, like, super sick. It was, like, a couple hours away from where we were. It was on a lake, and it was like this restored silo thing. Total Pinterest vibes. And I remember, like, paying for that out of, like, my business account and just thinking, like, oh, my goodness, YouTube paid for this vacation. I mean, it's like my business. It's courses and, you know, everything like that, but it's like, it paid for this. I remember being like, this is the moment that it's time to go all in. Actually was thinking, okay, can I go full time? Because the theory was right, if I was already bringing about 30 grand, it was taking less than 10 hours a week. Okay, now you have 40 plus hours a week. Couldn't it at least double kind of quick? You know, it's like, in my head, it's like, you just. You don't know what you don't know. And I'm like, I could. No, that makes sense. Like, I think we could jump. Can we jump?
- [16:47]
Heidi
Can we do it?
- [16:47]
Nathan Eswine
And that last night that we were at the silo, Heidi took a pregnancy test and found out she was pregnant with our first child. And it was this moment of, I'm so ready to take this and go full time. And then, like, but I'm gonna be a. I'm gonna be a dad. You know what I mean? So I was, like, caught in this tension between, like, oh, my goodness, can't. I probably shouldn't. Maybe this isn't. This probably isn't the time to, like, burn all the bridges and, like, go all in on this thing. I mean, it's only doing, like, 30K right now. And it's also, like, business taxes and, like, all this kind of stuff. Like, I don't know if actually at the end of day, the. The day we're netting enough, right, for, like, a baby, you know? And it's like your first one. And so we got to this moment where it was like, actually, I'm not going to go full time. I just had this conviction where I was like, okay, let's get mama home. And I'M going to keep working on the side hustle, but I'm going to go get a. I'm going to get a day job. And so putting in our two weeks, leaving martial arts, letting all of that go, moving on to a new chapter nonetheless, but not exactly how I thought it would look. Maybe another year or something in my head was like, okay, then maybe we go full time. But the craziest thing happened because I remember having, like, I remember having the job I remember getting. I was like, a corporate job. I was, like, doing, like, financial stuff. And then I remember seeing this job listing for a YouTube strategist. It hadn't even dawned on me. Oh, like, I have credentials here. You know what I mean? Like, I hadn't even thought that that could be a career path. Oh, can I just go do that for other people? Just, like, I got into music in my YouTube channel, was helping other people make songs. It's like, oh, I could, like, be someone that helps other people do this YouTube thing, right? Anyway, like, I remember applying for that and getting the job. And I was a YouTube strategist at this company. And then I remember we took a trip to Ramsey Solutions. We got to tell Dave Ramsey that we're debt free. We didn't do a debt free scream, but we were there. And, like, you get to meet, you know, whoever's hosting, and we got to meet Dave and his daughter Rachel. We had our first child at this point, and we got to tell them that we're debt free. And the craziest thing still happened. In the gift shop of Ramsey Solutions, I bump into Sean Cannell of Think Media. And I knew who he was. You know what I mean? But, like, I don't know if anyone else did because, like, this whole YouTube strategy thing, it's so niche. I remember fangirling, I was like, what? That's what, like, double taking. And I remember Heidi saying, go, go talk to him. Go talk to him. Because here's the thing. That coaching program, that coaching program that was on here was called VRA Video Ranking Academy. That's Sean's YouTube coaching program. I was a Think Media dude, Think Media alumni all those years ago. I went through the very things that Sean teaches to build my channel into what it was. And so I just went. I went over to him. I was like, I had to thank him. I just had to let him know. And I remember telling him, hey, you know, I. I'm a VRA student. I used YouTube to, like, help our family pay off debt. We're like, now debt Free. We're like, actually here, we're telling Dave. But long story short, we. We just connected and kept in touch. And eventually I was able to come work as a YouTube coach at Think Media. And during that process, I just. The whole thing started over again. It's like I started YouTube for the first time and almost like fell back in love with it because I realized, oh, wow, this is my new mission, this is my new assignment now, is to help other people do it too. And it got to the point where I realized I don't want to build my own thing anymore. And the crazy thing about YouTube is just like, you can be one video away from changing your life. Like, you can just be one YouTube chapter away from changing your life. Because YouTube opens doors. Another door that it opened for me is actually exiting my YouTube channel, like, selling it. I didn't even think of that either. And I decided to sell my YouTube channel and my business. So, like, the domain name, the courses, the name, like, everything wrapped it all up. I sold it to a buddy, he got a bro deal because I wanted it to go to good hands. But, like, it's a nice chunk of change. I remember, like, funny enough, Heidi and I turned around and used that money for our second child because we found out we were gonna go take like another pretty sweet vacation. But then we found out that Heidi's pregnant. So we were like, well, here's the payment for the midwife. At least this time we have it in advance. You know, we didn't have to like, take out money for it. But I sold my YouTube channel because I realized what I wanted, right? What I thought I wanted was my own business. I had to ask what I wanted to want. I wanted my own business because I wanted freedom, flexibility, the ability to control my day, the ability to do cool things with cool people. It's like, I thought that, you know, that's what I actually wanted. And I just thought, like, having my own YouTube business was the way to make that happen. And I didn't realize there were other ways to skin that cat. Because once I realized what I actually wanted, I realized all that's coming true right now. As a YouTube coach and strategist to
- [21:42]
Heidi
Think Media, I still don't even know how. You are literally the only one that works in our family. Like, you make all of our money and people ask me what you do and I'm like, are you ready for this? He's a full time content creator and podcast. I was something I literally, I was asked about at Zach and Janie's the other night at the party at Zach's 30th party. Yeah. Someone asked me what you did. I was like, you're real. You're not ready for this. Are you ready? What a wild time to be alive.
- [22:15]
Nathan Eswine
It is a wild time. That's so funny.
- [22:17]
Heidi
Yeah.
- [22:18]
Nathan Eswine
It's still like, what even is this thing?
- [22:20]
Heidi
And I'm just straight up, I'm like, I don't get it. But he seems to like it. He's good at it.
- [22:25]
Nathan Eswine
It's just bananas. You don't even understand. To be sitting here talking to you on a podcast that I listened to years ago, just trying to pour into you and to let you know that you just, you really can be one video away. You can be one YouTube chapter away from changing your entire life. This is also why it's like, it's surreal to me to just think that part of my job now is to be like hosting workshops and leading things and doing calls. To be able to help you do this, I'd love to invite you to check out our live three day workshop where we're going to help you build your next video. And you can find more information about that@myytplan.com link is in the description or show notes down below. And full disclosure, it is paid. It's $47 to get in the door because we're actually bringing our private coaching to you. And over these three days together inside Zoom, Sean and I are going to coach you. The point of this event is twofold. One, to help you know what video to make. So we're going to be covering the video side of things when it comes to your what idea, the title, the thumbnail scripting outlining all that good stuff. But we're also going to help you make sure that that video is strategically connected to your goals so that you can actually leave the event. Answering the question. Classic coaching question around here. Because I posted a YouTube video, what Changes in my business or what changes in my life? It's time to change the way that you do YouTube. And there's a whole new approach that will provide a lot more sanity and believe it or not, a lot more joy. Imagine if you got to do YouTube and it felt fun again. That's also part of the reason we're hosting this event. So you can find out more information@myytplan.com again link is in the description or show notes down below. That's coming up here really soon. But in the meantime, this is the Think Media podcast, the number one show bringing you unfiltered YouTube tips for building a profitable channel. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.