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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
There is something that happens when you get in a room with the right people that just cannot be replicated by a course, a podcast, or a live stream. The energy shifts, the excuses fall away, and you leave with a level of clarity and momentum that you couldn't create on your own. The Think Media Mastermind is that room. It's a live in person, two day event in Las Vegas. It's small by design, intensive, and by application only because we make sure the room is stacked with incredible creators and business owners. If you're serious about using YouTube to build your business or grow your side income, stop waiting and go apply right now@thinkmediamastermind.com all right, let's dive into today's podcast.
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YouTube Strategist / Presenter
What's happening now though, on YouTube is the biggest shift we've really seen. The rules have changed. Competition is higher than ever. 20 million videos are uploaded every single day to YouTube subscribers. No longer guarantee views. Every video has to win on its own merits. She's 77. She had zero following on any social media platform. But she went through some of the tips we're just about to go through. Posted her first video ever on a brand new channel and got 37,000 views. The YouTube algorithm today it's still possible to get views and break through, but every video has to win on its own merits. I've broken this presentation into three parts. Let's dive into part one, why YouTube just got harder and what you could do about it. Here's kind of the the downside first, the challenges first, the threats first. So we can eventually get to those five strategies and figure out how to win on YouTube. So here's number one. Competition is higher than ever. I've got bad news. 20 million videos are uploaded every single day to YouTube. 20 million videos. That seems like crazy. Like how could we possibly get reach? How could we get ahead on YouTube? That's just a massive amount of content, right? And we all feel it. Competition is higher than ever. But it's really not just YouTube, because even competition on YouTube itself, some of the algorithm distribution is we have long form videos on YouTube. Oh, but you can also do YouTube shorts. And some of the stuff that we're seeing with the views drop is even how the homepage is set up, like how much real estate on the homepage or suggested YouTube shorts are getting compared to long form. But then there's also podcasting on YouTube now and through YouTube Music and you can have a podcast there. But then of course, you can also live stream on YouTube. So even on YouTube itself, the competition of your own content and everybody else's content. But the world's a lot bigger than that because people now, too, their attentions on TikTok, or maybe they're on Instagram or they're listening to Spotify, or they're on Facebook. But it's not even just social media. We know that people are using Amazon as a therapy tool. Maybe just confessing myself. It's a search engine. You know, you're buying stuff like searching over on Amazon. People are watching Netflix, Tinder. You know, there's like three people right now that are like, swipe left, swipe left in this room. You know, they're just not even listening to the presentation. They're on a dating app, you know, and then ChatGPT. Even people are having conversations with chat. Their attention is going all these different places. Claude. And so competition is higher than ever, and attention is more distributed than ever. And so we gotta figure out a way to break through. The second big challenge is subscribers no longer guarantee views. So there's a lot of creators and big creators talking about this. And a few months ago, Linus Tech Tips, a big tech creator, has a whole team, couple different channels, was talking about their views being down and was talking about their views on their content being down as much as 75% of what they used to get. Now, what's kind of funny is they're like, you know, typically our videos got 2 million views. And I'm so outraged because recently we only got 700,000. How brutal is that? Can we just take a second to pray for Linus Tech Tips to just stay encouraged while they're getting. I mean, you're in the room, you're like 700,000 views. And so but the delta, like, the discrepancy between those. What's also fascinating is, you know, one of the biggest creators or the biggest independent creator, Mr. Beast, was consistently. There's a bunch of articles about this getting over 200 million views. And some brands started tracking, like, the actual kind of decline of even his viewership from over 200 million to 175, even 50 million. Again, I think we really should just send some encouraging messages to Mr. Beast for just 50 million views being a bad day, you know, in his world. But the truth is, right, views are down. Here's the thing to write down, and this is a thing to really capture. Subscribers no longer guarantee views. Every video has to win on its own merits. So it's like you're not getting distribution of your content just because you got a subscriber. Yesterday, the reason you're gonna get distribution of your content in the algorithm is because the individual video that you craft today can break through. But here's the cool thing is you actually don't need subscribers to start. We did a recent five week cohort, and by the end of the cohort, a brand new YouTube creator posted her first video ever. Her name was Sherry, she's 77. She had zero following on any social media platform. But she went through some of the tips we're just about to go through. Posted her first video ever on a brand new channel and got 37,000 views. Yeah, that was five weeks ago. So the YouTube algorithm today, it's still possible to get views and break through, but every video has to win on its own merits. The crafting of the video, the content, the packaging, we'll talk about that. But here's number three. Good content is no longer good enough. Good content is no longer good enough. Unfortunately, there's a lot of really great YouTube videos that are not being seen or discovered. Because the truth is, this content is kingdom, but packaging is queen, and she runs the household. Yeah. What is packaging? On YouTube, packaging is your topic, your title and your thumbnail. And so content is king. But how you package that content with the idea itself, the title, the thumbnail, that's what causes things to break through on YouTube. So at this point, you know, you might kind of feel like, geez, YouTube's like a blood sport. And the truth is, sometimes it is. And it could be exhausting and it could be challenging. But the truth is that every challenge also carries with it a seed of equal or greater opportunity. So let's talk about the opportunity on YouTube. Why even try to overcome these threats and these challenges? Well, truth is that YouTube now has 2.7 billion monthly active users. And so when it comes to growing your agency, you know, getting customers, getting awareness for your brand, getting awareness and donors for your NGO, YouTube is a massive place to be. It's actually the town square of the Internet now. And money follows attention, and the attention is on YouTube. You may not have seen this, but a recent article came out that revealed that YouTube makes more ad revenue than Disney, NBC, Paramount, WD put together. And one person called it the king of all media. So YouTube is the world's largest media company as we speak. So you gotta be there. It's just like someone, I mean, there's challenges there, but if you have a serious mission, you're a serious business owner, you know, are working for your company, it's like having a YouTube presence is essential. It's the king of all media. And the revenue is wild. YouTube's actually paid creators $100 billion in the last four years. That's the checks they're cutting. That's the direct deposits going into creators pockets. And so the dollars are flowing to YouTube. And then YouTube's also kind of the everything platform. It's dominating short form and long form. YouTube vertical YouTube shorts is bigger than all the other platforms. 200 billion views a day on YouTube shorts. You know, I was at one of the social media marketing world events talking to incredible people like yourselves, getting to know people. And I talked to one individual who's been crushing it on Instagram vertical videos, and she's been doing well there and she's posting her content a few other places. And she started talking about YouTube strategy. And there's some more complex things we could do, some long form stuff. But the first thing I was saying was like, why aren't you just uploading your videos, your vertical videos to YouTube shorts? You already have them, and in this context there's a good place to post those. And so YouTube shorts, 200 billion views a day. But the other crazy thing is YouTube is now the number one most watched streaming platform on TV. People watch more YouTube in the American living rooms than any other Netflix peacock, anything else. And so YouTube is not just short form, but it's also long form. YouTube videos are now 30 to 90 minutes. The podcasting, the, the TV aspect. And so YouTube's the best place where your videos can go viral in 60 seconds and they can also work for you for six years. And that second point is actually what still gets me excited, even though I've been on YouTube since 2007. Sean, are you still passionate about it? Are you still seeing the opportunity there? I am still wanting to click my heels like a leprechaun over this fact about YouTube. It's the only platform where your content truly lives forever. Meaning if you post the right video today, it can still be getting views months and even years later. In fact, I have a podcast called the Think Media Podcast. Started it in 2020, right around the time. I mean, I thought it was maybe cool to start a podcast, talk about it business growth. But I also wanted a leverage tool because in 2020 was when my first son was born, Sean Jr. And I wanted. I love video podcasting because you got the long form, you can cut the clips. Y' all are intelligent marketers, you know that it's like, it's. I think video podcasting is the Best leveraged asset that you cannot just create the top level content to train AI, but then distribute to shorts everywhere else. So when I was thinking about like having a sustainable content model as a new dad and all the other things, I had to launch a video podcast. Well, I took a screenshot of a couple videos and you can see on the screen it says vph. This is probably the one acronym that I'm most obsessed with out of anything as a YouTube strategist. And VPH stands for Views per hour. Now you can write this down, maybe you've heard about it before. There's a cool tool called Vidiq. And if you get the free version of Vidiq and you install the Google Chrome plugin, it gives you what's called Vidiq Vision. And on your videos or anybody else's, you can go see the little VPH number next to videos. Well, on your own videos, you can always see this in your analytics. But you could spy on your competitors with this tool as well. But check this out. So this YouTube video video podcast was posted four months ago, but it's still getting, it's small, but it's still getting three views per hour. So like, for the hour we hang out, in addition to us all being here, three people every hour for the next 24 hours are gonna watch that video that was posted four months ago. And so talk about leverage. YouTube's getting me views. Why I'm asleep. This video was posted three years ago. It still gets two views per hour. This video was posted six months ago. It still gets two views per hour. And so when I think about leverage, I want things working for me when I'm not working. I'm obsessed with all the social platforms. But sometimes it's like, man, I just got to keep posting on Instagram, I got to keep posting everywhere. I got all these, you know, I'm being told by Brock Johnson to post, you know, six reels a day or whatever it is. You know, how do I keep up with this? And I love it. But what's cool about YouTube is I'm also sitting here, if I take a week off, if I work on a different project, working on a different aspect of the business, following up with clients delivery, I want assets that are delivering me views. Which makes it worth it for me to figure out how to rise to the top on YouTube to overcome the competition. Because YouTube videos work for you while you sleep. And YouTube is the second most visited website on the planet and the world's largest video search engine. And then creators in General report. When there's a study that 50% or more of their monthly videos come from content made weeks, months, or even years ago. So one out of two videos when it once time passes is where the views are coming from. This creates a quandary for us as marketers because you want a return on investment for your time and you want that as fast as possible. That's called time management. But YouTube is a long game because if you were going to get 50% or more of your monthly views coming from videos made years ago, well, then you better start making videos today so that in a couple years you could be getting that benefit. It's a long game. Mindset. So YouTube is the only platform where your content can thrive for years, not just hours. Which brings us to the five rules of YouTube success in 2026.
- [13:16]
Sean Cannell
If you're an entrepreneur or a creator that wants to scale their online business, that's why we created the Think Media Mastermind.
- [13:23]
Think Media Mastermind Participant
I have so much more clarity as to my ideal topic target audience now, which means my content is about to be so much better and more targeted towards the exact person I'm trying to reach.
- [13:33]
Sean Cannell
Super intimate, high level strategy.
- [13:36]
Think Media Mastermind Participant
I had the skills that I already knew sharpened. I feel like I went to my next level.
- [13:42]
Sean Cannell
For entrepreneurs and creators that want to scale with YouTube, this was the first
- [13:47]
YouTube Strategist / Presenter
time that I was able to get in a room with a lot of other serious youtubers and talk with other people who love creating content and love YouTube. Usually I don't get to do that. So this is really special.
- [13:58]
Sean Cannell
You can check it out@thinkmediamastermind.com part three
- [14:03]
YouTube Strategist / Presenter
of our talk today. And here's strategic shift number one. Yeah, across the platform, a lot of people are reporting that views are down. But the truth is, even if views are down, income can still be up. And so there's two ways to think about it. You could be trying to get more views. How do I go viral? Or you could be trying to get the right views. All of y' all have been thinking, of course, about your ideal customer profile, about your target audience. And yet on social media, sometimes it's just like, how do I get as many views as possible? Is that what you really want? How do I get a viral vertical video to go, you know, just reach a bunch of people? Is that really what you want? Or do you want the right views, meaning customers? Because a smart business model is greater than the money you earn from YouTube ads on screen? I'm not referencing paid ads on YouTube. I'd say, like, if you Were just focusing on views or ad revenue which y' all have offers and you want prospects and clients, so you get this. You know, I think about real estate, we work with a lot of real estate professionals, agents, and they know that one view could be worth a thousand dollars or thousands of dollars. I spoke at this Keller Williams like CEO event in Las Vegas at their big family gathering. And I was being interviewed on stage and I was asked the question, Sean, like how many views do you need, you know, for a good YouTube video? And my answer, the first time it ever came up, I was like, you need one view. They're like, what do you mean? And I was like, yeah, like if it's the right view, like niche, specific person looking for something in a specific city and you're an agent and someone's moving to that city, like how many clients do you need to make 2k, 5k, 10k or on your real estate commission? Not a lot. So the right views can be a lot more powerful than more views. Meet my friend Stacy Tuchel. We're in a peer led mastermind together and she has this company called well oiled Operations. So she helps small business owners usually doing, you know, multiple six figures, maybe 250k a year and really helps them scale and get out of the chaos and get their operations organized and all that stuff. And she's been growing her YouTube channel and investing in her YouTube channel. And she did a video, she actually did a live stream that this is kind of worth writing down as a strategy. It's really kind of like a webinar, some of you done webinars or like a master class slides, you know, like, kind of like what I'm doing right now, like put together a presentation, 55 minutes on annual planning. And so she put out that live stream and got a total of 736views on that live stream. And so it was her YouTube livestream and then the call to action and the invitation on that video, that livestream was to book a call with her team. And so off of that live stream, one individual booked a call and she was actually able to close a high ticket services offer for $30,000. And so she didn't need more views, she needed the right viewer with the right offer. And what she said was while direct sales happen, our primary focus is brand awareness. So there's that direct roi. But then also if you can be getting the financial ROI from YouTube, I think we all get this, we call it brand lift. If I can at a profit at positive return on investment, you Know, get leads, sales, whatever your business mechanism is, and get more awareness, build more trust, connect with more people. So she's like a primary focus is brand awareness. YouTube has been great for building visibility and the engagement we're building is invaluable for long term growth. Consistency is key. So figure out the business you're building, not just the content you're making. Figure out who your right viewer is and stop chasing more viewers. And chase the right viewers. Here's the second strategic shift. Authenticity is the antidote to AI fatigue and the trust recession. You know, these are two major things that we're seeing happening in the market right now. We all feel the AI fatigue. I love the opening song and video. Blowing my mind with that video and just talking about, of course, authenticity. Right, we're dealing with AI, but how do we also, you know, have that authenticity and then authenticity in general. If you haven't heard the term trust recession, it's that if you look across the board, show up. Rates for people opting in for things down. People showing up for a web class or a webinar down, People showing up for sales calls down. Just in general, there's kind of a trust recession. Skepticism is higher and audiences are flooded with content right now. And they're not fools. So their BS radar has never been sharper. So authenticity is the antidote to AI fatigue and the trust recession. You know, one of the trends we're seeing in 2026 is stripped down. Vlogging is back. Good friend of mine, Benji Travis, and the co author of our book YouTube Secrets, is really an expert in this. And he's now been vlogging on kind of the entertaining YouTuber side for well over a decade now. And he also is doing like his niche would be food and cooking. And his model, his content format is vlogging, stripped down, simple vlogging. And this was a recent video that he did shopping at the first TNT supermarket in America. Got 94,000 views. You still see this video is getting one view per hour even though it's eight months old. That's what I'm after, man. I just want to post a video today and still give views tomorrow and for months to come. And he ultimately though just filmed himself. It was good packaging. But he was also just kind of sharing his passion and his values and making it fun and having kind of a stripped down conversation. You know, one of the Instagram strategies right now people talk about or vertical video strategies is yapping. Not just like you're like people are just yapping like the Yap strategy. Like people watch yapping content. Not as preachy and or you know, broadcast voice but very just kind of stripped down. Just connecting that raw and authentic. You all know what I'm talking about. And so the two extremes we're seeing on the platform is it's not that big budget, thoughtful storytelling videos are not working. I know that we're all going to be here for the keynote of Pat Flynn this evening. The absolute storytelling legend. And at these days he's got both. He's got the shorts channel that's super stripped down. He does by himself. I can't wait you to hear that story. But then he also has this long form channel that's bigger budget editors, team voiceover, hundreds of hours of footage. Yeah, no, I mean if you can do that, most of us aren't there yet. That's still working. But the other cool thing is that raw, relatable vlogs working, stripped down type of content and people don't trust perfect, they trust real. So authenticity is the antidote to the trust recession and AI fatigue. Strategic shift number three. Your brand is the only differentiator left. Look at the person on your right and just stare them right in the eye. That's it. I mean that's I guess the only thing you're supposed to convey how serious you are. Look at the person on the other side. You can actually, we'll try this. Like weird interactions that make it awkward, especially when there's 22 seats in between people in the back. Look at the person next to you and say your brand is the only differentiator left. Yeah, yeah. Your brand is the only differentiator left. Listen, AI can copy your content, but it cannot copy your brand. Now give it another three months though. It probably can, but you know, but, but here's what I mean, here's your brand DNA on YouTube. You know, your voice, your voice, your pace, your word choice, your sound. What's your voice? And you can fill in the blank on this too. You could, you could say personal brand. If there's personal brands in the room and then your brand for your company, whoever, whether it's the founder, CEO, creating content or somebody on the team, you know, or UGC or somebody you hire. The thing is though, that what's the voice of your brand and you're actually spoken voice, the tone, the pace, people want to connect with you. Your look, what are you putting on camera? Is there a look to the set? Is there a look to what you're wearing? Is there a look to a brand A logo? Is there any kind of look that can stand out? Colors, Presents, wardrobe. Set your perspective. This is the difference because everybody has the access to the same AI information. Everybody could just ask AI, get a script and convey information on YouTube, but you got to have a perspective. I'd circle this one and here's what I mean. What is your unique point of view and what do you believe that others won't say? What do you believe to be true about the world? What's your unique perspective, your hot take, your angle on things and then your story? This is a big deal. Why you, where you came from, you know, your story. One of my favorite books is this book called Story Brand by Donald Miller. And thinking about like that brand story and then communicating in such a way, of course, that it makes the end user the hero and adds value to them to tell stories in a way they can see themselves in the story. And then your convictions, what do you stand for and what won't you compromise on? What do you stand for and your niche authority, the specific center of the Internet that you own. So your brand DNA brand is the only differentiator left in an AI world. In a AI video generation world with content everywhere, people connect with people. They connect with you. They connect with your vibe, your style, your humor. You're kind of dry, you're kind of sarcastic, you're kind of stoic. Whatever it is you, you need to amplify that, right? Your brand DNA on YouTube. And people actually warned me years ago about some things that I started to do in my content. I'm, you know, most known for a very specific promise. I help people grow on YouTube. I have a tech channel and now we have other creators on this tech channel called Think Media. Talk about a lot of lights, cameras and things like that. And we help people with the best tips and tools for building influence with online video. So it's like, okay, people come to us mainly for information. They come to us to, okay, teach me YouTube, help me with my camera. You know, keep it on the straight and narrow, bro. That's why I'm here. And so then we ask the question, like, how much other stuff do you share though? Like how much brand or story or values or convictions do you put in your content? And there's actually something that is very important to me and that's my faith. And I'm kind of a bible nerd and like been studying it for years and stuff. And so naturally that particular aspect comes out in some of my content. And I'm not talking about like I pivoted. I'm just talking about, like, doing a podcast. I'm like, quoting proverbs, you know, like, that's some of the things that would come out. And people warned me. They're like, bro, you better be careful. I don't know if anyone grew up about the things you're not allowed to speak about at the dinner table. What are we not allowed to speak about at the dinner table? That your mom told you? Politics, religion, money. So you just can't talk about anything, I guess, at the dinner table. But. But yeah, that's what we've heard. So. And. And. And every. All of us feel like we're walking on eggshells in today's world, like, afraid of being canceled or what's going to happen or if I'm bold. And so people warn me. But here's the thing. I started to talk about my faith a little bit more in some of my content, and people warned me that would hurt. And partially they were right. I did get some negative comments. I did lose a few subscribers that polarized a few people. I did make. I mean, it's kind of like an outlier one off video, but I made a video called Three YouTube Tips from the Bible that will work for every creator. Now, that wasn't like a tactic. That was just like a weird expression of who I actually am. Like, it was just a natural idea that came to me. I thought I'd give it a shot. And the truth that happened was even though I did lose some followers and really passive followers, I would say what I gained in deep connection far outweighed the followers that I lost. And here's the thing is that what a real brand does is it doesn't just attract, it does also repel. So what should you be more bold about in your content? Your brand values? And I want to be clear. This actually isn't about putting religion or politics into your content. You know, depending on if you're a SaaS company or it probably doesn't make sense, it might. You know, you're doing these different things. However, look at these stats. 70% of consumers say they'll buy from brands that reflect their values. So why is it so what are your values? What are your brand values? And are you sharing those on social media? Are you willing to maybe take a risk? What's kind of interesting is I talk to all kinds of people and, you know, our students, our clients and people in our world, they come from all different backgrounds and faiths and beliefs. But probably the most consistent thing I have heard whenever I run into somebody in person, it's like, bro, your YouTube content's kind of good. But, man, I really resonated when you shared your story and you shared your faith. So here's my question. What's the thing you're not sharing right now that you could start putting in your content that could create that deeper connection? Because 70% of consumers say they buy from brands that reflect their values. Are you communicating those? 75% of millennials and 63% of Gen Z would change to a brand that supports a cause they care about. This is real. So if brand is the only differentiator left, this is how you stand out. 20 million uploads a day. I mean, maybe it's changed since then, but I honestly, you might say it'd be impossible to post an original video that nobody else has done on YouTube. As far as I know, zero people have been like, three tips from the Bible for YouTube creators. What is that? It's ridiculous. Got 66,000 views, resonated with people. What's that video idea for you? What's that content for you? Because 84% of people globally report they need to share values with a brand. Use it brand, personal brand is the only differentiator left. Here's strategic shift number four. Act like a media company or fall behind. If we're going to overcome the challenges on YouTube, the change is whether you're starting from scratch, like Sherry we talked about earlier at 77 with just a phone, filmed her first video and got 37,000 views, or whether you've been doing this forever and you're like, wondering where you go next. With YouTube, we all need to take on the media company mindset. The media company mindset. Because YouTube rewards those who are willing to invest and not dabble. I've worked with now tens of thousands of creators we've coached and business owners. And what I've kind of found, my number one question when it comes to doing YouTube, which might like, for some of you that are on the fence, this might be freeing and it's really not helpful to my ambitions of, you know, growing a following of helping people with YouTube, but I'll talk a lot of people out of YouTube. I will encourage individuals to be like, listen, at this point, like, you either kind of like, love it and want to do it and see the power and you're actually going to invest in it, but if you're not, don't even do it. Because you got to manage your energy, you got to manage your time. And YouTube rewards those that invest and don't dabble, like 100% of the people we're seeing that are breaking through are taking it seriously. You don't have to block a ton of time or a ton of money, but you're putting it on your calendar, you're putting some time in there. It becomes a routine, it becomes a habit. It's not a tactic. It's even bigger than a strategy. It's almost like a lifestyle. It's almost like a brand routine that you commit to. You don't have to commit to it, but if you want to get the results. And if you look at the YouTube entrepreneur space, there's some big names in that space. Maybe you've heard of somebody like an Alex Hermosi or a Cody Sanchez or a Dan Martel or a Gary Vaynerchuk. You know, if you look at their enterprises, of course, what it is today, you know, Hermosi, team of these are probably out. These are actually outdated numbers now. But like 10, 20 people just doing content, 70, 70 to $200,000 a month, just investing in content. That's a cross platform. That's 300 pieces of content a week. And as the. I guess Layla is the CEO. I don't know what Alex's title is, but he's devoting one to two days a week to create content.
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Sean Cannell
Why?
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YouTube Strategist / Presenter
There's got to be a reason for it. Cody Sanchez, team of 10. Dan Martell, been scaling Martell Media. Gary Vaynerchuk, who knows, I don't know if those numbers are right, but a friend of mine said he was there recently. He saw 40 people working on Gary's social media content. You might be like, well, this is the least helpful slide I've ever seen in my life, Sean. So cool. Good for them, you know, like, all right, but this is just an illustration. Why are they willing to invest time, money, team, systems. Not if it's not producing something. And the principle is they're willing to invest and not do dabble. All of those above resources, but. So let's look at a business owner who went all in and got results in her own way. And what I want you to be thinking about is how could you do YouTube in your own way? Because in a way, I'd almost say, like, you're either in or you're out. You go, hey, team, big ROI here. Plus, we also want to invest in the future because an investment in YouTube is an investment in the future. Establishing your brand on the town square of the Internet. Kind of a big deal. And so A friend of mine, Shaleen Johnson, didn't just dabble. She went all in on video podcasting on YouTube recently. Now she's done all kinds of things over the year. She's spoke at this event. And she's usually typically leaned to other platforms. Instagram kind of being a main platform. I feel like Chalene and I have known each other for like 10 years now. And of course I'm always like, you should probably get serious about YouTube. Your YouTube channel kind of sucks. Shalene. Like, I really think it'd be good to actually invest in YouTube. It might take some time, some energy. And, you know, she's like, sean, you know, I should have listened to you for years. I should have listened to you for, you know, all those years ago. But finally she's like, you know what? I'm gonna start taking YouTube seriously. And she actually exited a couple businesses and went all in, actually kind of on being a YouTuber, which is, you know, interesting. And so she invested $10,000 in her first six months, not in ads, but in strategy and systems that could scale. You don't have to invest $10,000. The point is, is you do need to invest. Like, you do need to not dabble, but invest. But here's kind of a picture of what it was. She hired a YouTube strategist and coach. She hired an overseas editor, content manager, which was already a team member for her, a thumbnail designer, and a B roll organizer, which was a contractor. It's a good slide to take a picture of. It's like a mini YouTube team. So she did YouTube strategy and coaching for about six months so she could really understand YouTube and update her skills. So she hired a coach. She has overseas editor, affordable, and she pays a little bit more for speed, but it's about a 48 hour turnaround. If she submits a video, fast turnaround, four days for about, like, a longer video podcast. The content manager is already somebody on her team that kind of helps it all happen. Thumbnail designer. This is more accessible than ever with AI tools. But even Fiverr, you could find the right person on something like Fiverr and just keep working with somebody that could design your thumbnails. What's funny is she goes, sometimes I get them back. And I still go, I'm just going to do this myself. Like, what are these guys now? You know, she just does them herself. And then a B roll organizer, which is kind of helpful because her style of doing it is all the different content that she captures wherever and whenever is like perfect. Perfectly organized on Dropbox, which, whenever she tells me about that, I always feel ashamed because my digital Dropbox life could not be in more disarray. Even as the video guy, my B roll, I don't know where my B roll is, honestly. And so, you know, that's optional, but that's. That's the whole workflow. And she films on her iPhone, her editor is overseas, and her system is automated. I'm sure a lot of us in this room are fans of Atomic Habits. James Clear. And the quote, you don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Yeah, we don't rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our systems. She has simple systems in place. She actually doesn't batch content. This film's, you know, one episode. She doesn't have a big crew, and her studio is a spare bedroom with one light and a laptop. But what she has is a system, a repeatable workflow with just a few key people. It's lean, it's scalable, and it's low stress. And when we were talking about this, she was saying, I actually just, like, love my business lifestyle now because of the simplicity of how I've set this up. But she was generous enough to share with me what a year of implementing everything she's doing looked like. And a lean YouTube model produced $1.6 million, not including Patreon as well, from just going all in on YouTube. Now, I'm not, like, promising results. We all have different business models and price points and offers and whatnot. But the point was, the point is those who win on YouTube invest and don't dabble. So my question is, what would it look like for you to go all in, in your way? Like, when you see the opportunity on YouTube and you realize you can get the strategies to overcome all this, it's like, okay, who's gonna do what by when? Who does what by when? Those are two of my favorite leadership questions. I run a team of 30 people obsessed with leadership. I'm always wondering, who does what by when and when. I heard this from a coach once, changed my life. Who's waking up thinking about this? I love that question. Who's waking up thinking about this? It troubles me because I. Whenever I wake up, I go, why am I the one waking? We got 30 people working here. Why am I waking up thinking about this? Why does this link on the website dead? Why? You know, whatever. Like, just super, you know, frustrated or what? But, like, who's waking up thinking about this? And a lot of times, though, it's a clarity delegation thing. It's kind of like. Or a system thing. You know, some of us, after this conference in three weeks, your agent on Claude Cowork is going to be waking up and thinking about this. Never actually slept. And so. But what would it look like to set up a simple YouTube system for yourself? Strategic shift number five. Strategic shift number five. Here we go. This is the biggest one. Master packaging or get ignored. Master packaging or get ignored. Here's the equation. Packaging is topic. Title, thumbnail plus hook, which equals the first 30 seconds of trust. Content is king, but packaging is queen. And she runs the household. Packaging is topic. It's your title, it's your thumbnail. And that's all working together. That's all working together. We brainstorm right now when we work on a video at Think Media or on the Think Media podcast, there's probably not a video that goes out when using AI, but then converting over to what we use Milanote as kind of like a project board. Maybe some of you use Trello, doesn't matter. But we will brainstorm when it's we. When I say we, it's like Kyle and I, maybe somebody else. It's one other team member. And we'll usually plan and brainstorm and debate as like. The minimum will be 10 titles. 10 maximum. Might be 44 for one video. We'll sit down and have that much to say. Like this title, this word, change it. We'll go to ChatGPT. We have a custom GPT for our title tool. We'll put it in there. And some of you might use AI sometimes. And then you use it for a while. You're like, it's not even that smart. It's just like flattering. Chat especially. Oh, that was a great idea, Sean. Like, you're really smart at YouTube titles. I'm like, I don't want to be flattered. I want, like real help. So then you go over to Claude, we go back and forth and so the level of detail we put into packaging. Let me tell you a story. This is Ben. So he's the founder of Keto Camp. And back in 2008, he was overweight, unhealthy, stuck, and was also really motivated because he lost his father to the curable type of diabetes. So he started to kind of develop this fire that like some health stuff, right, Is changeable. And I want to help people not only change my own life, but help others. And so he actually launched a YouTube channel, had some success, but he hit A plateau because all the rules on YouTube changed because these, you know, you had to update the rules like we're talking about in this presentation. And so like every smart creator, he faced a choice. Do I stay stuck or do I pivot and master new skills? These are a few videos that happened after he started to focus on packaging. Now it's kind of hard to see, but if you look closely on the screen on the right side. Your right side. Yeah. What happens if you only drink water for 72 hours? His face, a little AI animation. The water, the six pack, the body reset. 1.9 million views. Doctors won't tell you this. The center one. What happens when you stop eating for 36. These are some title formulas. Packaging. The whole idea itself, plus the thumbnail, plus the. The title. I mean, you. You want to talk about convictions or it's sometimes good to just start a fight because controversy can get views. 36. Dangerous Foods. RFK Jr just banned the thumbnail. The whole thing got 3.6 million views. So he went from a plateau to actually being one of the most viral health creators when he got obsessed with packaging. And here's what's cool is some of his videos are more produced, but one of his most breakout videos, he filmed in his car. No script. It became one of his fastest growing videos ever. 12 minutes of just straight recording in his car. Listen to this though. The video got 250,000 videos in six days. Another similar video earned him 27,000 email subscribers from one video. Does anybody here want 27,000 ideal customers for your business to sign up for your email list? Wow. In a room of marketers, the fact that seven people were interested in that kind of subscriber growth.
- [40:37]
Sean Cannell
Right.
- [40:38]
YouTube Strategist / Presenter
And so what's kind of cool though is look at this title. Give me 12 minutes and I'll save you 17 years of trying to lose weight. Sheesh. Why'd that work? This is some packaging tactics. So why that title works? One is a time versus outcome hook. It's kind of thinking, okay, what kind of topics this should influence even what you're about to talk about. That's the topic, then the title, and then of course the thumbnail. You also have an ultra clear promise. You've got curiosity and urgency and there's a no fluff vibe to it. So this ties into us talking about stripped down vlogging. It's not production value, of course. It's his expertise. It's the information shared. And it's also him thinking about, even though it's unscripted, it's taken some time to invest and learn some of the communication patterns and the psychology patterns and the video patterns of how you speak to hold viewer attention. It wasn't his first video ever, but the results are crazy. Proving that raw content works if it's packaged right, authenticity plus strategy or really raw authentic authenticity plus packaging equals growth. And the way YouTube works is that over 90% of videos people watch on YouTube are recommended by the algorithm. So to get recommended by the algorithm, it's applying all of these strategies and shifts, but it's packaging, master packaging or get ignored because content is king, but packaging is queen and she runs the household. And so marketers who figure this stuff out are going to dominate the next five to 10 years. And actually if you want to get my AI title system free, happy to send it to you and DM you it on Instagram. So we have a tool that we created. It's actually just for our clients, but happy to send it to you. So it's a private custom GPT on chat GPT and a couple of things. This is still worth writing notes down. There's two different strategies the tool will help you do because on any given video you could go that still the SEO search engine optimization based route and think more long term how to do X or that kind of search based route. Or you can go the curiosity route which is the much more viral route. Both strategies are so good. The cool thing is a tool will walk you through it. It's programmed with over 40 psychological triggers. Anger, fear, happiness, like all these different emotions which when I say we come up with 44 different titles, it's literally because there's that many different emotions you could hit or whatever in terms of packaging just one video for later. Whether if you don't get the tool, if you've never studied the five levels of awareness research that tonight and the ladder of abstraction like it's got all these different things in there realizing the different ways we can package videos. So again, happy to send that to you. In fact, one of the things YouTube has added as we land the plane is AB title testing. And so you are now able to split test titles, split test thumbnails and combinations of both. And just a title change on one of my videos led to a 6% greater. I don't want to say just click through rate because the way that YouTube measures it is actually how much watch time it leads to but a 6% difference which if you multiply that out over not just how many views you get but across your competition, the person who is not investing split testing using good AI tools is going to lose to the person who is and so very powerful when it comes to the fact that using a tool like this. And so a bad title with a great video goes nowhere, but a great title with a great video gets distributed by YouTube for free.