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YouTube Creators Hub
100K Subscribers On YouTube In Just 4 Months With Rachel Allen
00:38:37
In this episode, Dusty Porter interviews Rachel Allen, a middle school band teacher who transitioned from TikTok to YouTube, sharing her journey of content creation, community building, and the challenges of engaging with students and audiences...
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- [00:00]
Rachel Allen
With the YouTube thing, I wish I would have known how hard it was going to be to dive into long form content because I feel like I can be funny and entertaining and storytelling in one minute. I got it. Like I've mastered that one minute. Boom. Got you. But to make it longer, that's a lot.
- [00:26]
Dusty
Welcome back to another episode of the YouTube Creators of Podcast. Dusty here as always, and today I'm just going to tell you really quickly, we're brought to you by the fine folks over at Tubebuddy. If you're looking for a YouTube coach, I believe I can be the perfect person for you. We also have a place called Creator Communities over on our Discord server. For five bucks, you get access to that community, plus you get access to the Mastermind calls. The February Mastermind call is happening on the 26th, so go ahead and lock in your spot now to be a part of that. We really appreciate you guys doing that, supporting the show and you're going to get tenfold what you put into it. It's a great community over there with some wonderful people. I really love what this show is becoming. I love talking with creators every week. So let's go ahead and jump into this week's conversation. Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's conversation on the podcast. I'm joined today by Rachel Allen, who is in her 20th year as a public school teacher, spending the majority of that doing middle school band. She started creating band content in 2022 and has grown to almost 200,000 followers over on Tik Tok. And then in the fall of 2024, last year, as we're recording this, she decided to take the jump into YouTube and within four months she has 100,000 plus subscribers, millions of views, sometimes per day, and a great community over there. Rachel, how you doing today?
- [01:49]
Rachel Allen
I'm doing great, Dusty. Thanks for having me.
- [01:51]
Dusty
Absolutely. So you got to tell me the story behind this. You're a band teacher, you're in middle school, which, by the way, God bless you for doing the Lord's work. Middle school teacher doing the band stuff is just. It's got to be fun, chaotic and all of the above. But give us the story and the journey of everything as far back as starting the TikTok channel and then transitioning to YouTube. Give us the full story.
- [02:20]
Rachel Allen
I started on TikTok January 2022 and I, I started, I made a video because I was like, I'd been watching for over two years. I joined TikTok during the pandemic because I was bored and I was like, I could do this. I. I consumed a lot of content, so. And watching so many teachers and just so many other people on TikTok, I was like, I could do this. This isn't that hard. And I finally took the plunge one day and was like, okay, I'm gonna make my own video. And it was horrible, but some people watched it, and I was like, wow, this is cool. So then I kept making more, and I started gaining some traction. And the main reason I started doing it, though, was because as a music teacher in your school, you are often very lonely. I teach middle school band, and at my school, we also have a choir teacher. But our choir teacher, who had been my best friend, ended up leaving that year. So I was all alone, and we had. Didn't have. That was when there was a huge teacher shortage, so there was no one to replace her. So we just didn't have that teacher for the year. So I was really alone, and I needed to connect with other music teachers online. I was desperately seeking a community, and. And that's what I started to get. I started to get more band students than band kids or than band teachers, actually. So I started creating content for them, connecting with as many music teachers as I could find, especially band directors. And so after posting consistently for, like, almost three years, I have created a huge community, and it's been way bigger than I ever thought it could be. So I got onto TikTok. That's my TikTok thing. And then you want to hear about my YouTube getting on to that is. I give all of the credit for YouTube to my cousin Cole, who listens to your podcast and had been telling me for over a year, listen to this podcast. You need to put your stuff onto YouTube. Why haven't you done this yet? And I finally listened to him. I was like, okay, fine, I'm going to listen to your podcast, and then I'll decide about. About putting myself on YouTube. And it was the. It was an episode. I think it was in October. I'm not exactly sure when it had aired, but it was with Roberto Blake, and it was about big creator energy. And this was October. I'd had a huge video or a very decent video go mega viral back in August with 22 million views on TikTok. And so I'd started gaining followers very quickly on TikTok. So I was like, let me see what else I can do. Like, where else can I take this? So I listened to that episode with Roberto Blake, and I was like, you know what? I'm Going to do this. I'm going to dive in. And kept listening to your podcast. Started just dumping content over into YouTube. Every time I'd listen to your podcast, I'd get a different idea for how I could make my page better, how I could improve my thumbnails, even if they were just my shorts, thumbnails. And 113,000 followers later or subscribers later, here I am on YouTube and it that journey was the fastest journey I've ever experienced. And I'm still dealing with the jet lag from.
- [05:29]
Dusty
So it's inside the band room with Ms. Allen is the tagline of the channel. I'll link it in the show notes so people can follow along as we talk today. 113,000 subscribers as of recording this episode. You're not even at 250 videos yet. You've obviously done a lot with the short form or vertical videos. So just, I guess quickly. I must ask, when you say you decided to go on YouTube and take your TikTok stuff and kind of put it over on YouTube, were you just taking the videos that you did, vertical videos from TikTok and then just transferring them over to YouTube one for one. Can you talk about that process for a minute?
- [06:11]
Rachel Allen
Yes. I was basically downloading them without a watermark from TikTok and uploading them over to YouTube, repurposing them, maybe changing the tagline a little bit. Sometimes I'd edit them a little shorter or change them up a little bit, but for the most part, it was just moving one to the other. And I saw huge success. There were videos that took off on YouTube that didn't take off on TikTok, especially at the beginning, because a lot of my audience are young band students, like students who are actually in middle and high school band right now. So. And what do those kids consume? They consume YouTube. That's what they watch. It's what my children watch. That's what my students watch. Anytime they can get their Chromebooks out at school. Oh, they're opening up YouTube and that's what they're watching. They're even watching shorts on a Chromebook. So it doesn't matter whether it's short form or long form, they're going to watch it as long as it's in front of them.
- [07:12]
Dusty
Was your process in getting them from TikTok? Is there a button on TikTok you can use to download them? Did you use a tool to remove the watermark?
- [07:21]
Rachel Allen
Getting.
- [07:21]
Dusty
Can you walk me through that as well?
- [07:23]
Rachel Allen
Yeah. So now I think there's a feature where it just downloads automatically. You can set it. It might have been there all along, but I have it checked now where it downloads automatically without a watermark. As soon as you create it on TikTok, it'll download it. But you could also download it before you posted it if you wanted to do it without music in it because YouTube has a much more strict music policy. So sometimes the music that we put on TikTok where it doesn't get flagged, would get flagged on YouTube. You might want to, when you're creating, you need to be careful of that. But for the most part I used savetick. Com or something like that. It was some sort of. If you just google download TikTok videos without watermark, that way you can do it. And also when the ban happened, they insert. They created a Google Chrome extension that allowed you to download all your videos without the watermark as well. While I had a lot of them already, I went ahead and did that too just to have a backup in case TikTok was fully banned and I couldn't access my account anymore.
- [08:18]
Dusty
And you just had this huge backlog of content that you could upload to YouTube. And I guess when you got caught up you were like, okay, now when I create new stuff for TikTok, I'm just going to go ahead and have it ready to do on YouTube. And do you upload them the same day or what's the cadence like on the different platforms?
- [08:36]
Rachel Allen
It depends. I was trying to do every day on everything and I still tried to do that on YouTube because I still have a backlog. I every now and then I get on TikTok and I'm like, oh yeah, that video is not on YouTube yet. So I'll try to get it over there. I am a full time mom and a full time teacher. This is not something that I think about a hundred percent of the time. So things do get lost and organization is rough. I do have folders in my, in my photos that's called post to YouTube and then once I post to YouTube I delete it out of that folder and that's how I organize them. But there are a ton still on TikTok that I have not put on YouTube just because they didn't do well or whatever. I thought they weren't as high quality. I still have a huge backlog. I have over a thousand, over fifty, fifteen hundred videos on TikTok after the three years of doing it. And for one year I'm pretty sure I posted almost every single day. So like I still Have a bunch. And sometimes they. They do well and sometimes they don't. And it's all trends, too. TikTok is all about trends. And you hear a sound and that's the sound that everybody is hearing. You need to make your video about that right now. But it might not make any sense two years from now on YouTube. You know what I mean?
- [09:50]
Dusty
I'm reading a book right now. It's called the Compound Effect, and it's talking about just consistency and the importance of habits. And you mentioned that you uploaded once a day for an entire year. Do you feel that the just super consistency that you put in place really had a good bit to do with. Obviously. We'll talk about what these videos are in a minute, which, by the way, they're hilarious. You do these little spoofs of being in the band room. And the one that I watched was you talking about that one kid that wants to stay with the band teacher all day. And it was just, it was such a funny video. And you've got such a clever way of presenting yourself. But how important was it that you uploaded every single day and you didn't miss and like that compound of, hey, I now have 365 plus videos in the. The burner and you're getting experience and you're getting that compound effect. Speak to that for a second.
- [10:44]
Rachel Allen
Oh, it definitely affected just my confidence. It helped me know that I was a good teacher. If anything, that was the biggest impact it had on my life. Not just as a creator, as a teacher. I connected with so many other teachers that were like, hey, you're doing great. That's right. Yeah. Oh, like, it was like confirmation that I'm doing a good job. As a teacher, you don't get that very often. Most of the time, your principal doesn't even know how to read music. And so that, that was huge for me as a human and a person and a teacher. And then as a creator, it was just the consistency of doing it every day and getting more familiar with the app and more familiar with creating content and going. Getting better and better and grinding every day on that. And it absolutely helped. Every single day. When I say every single day. Sometimes there would be three videos a day, and then over the 4th of July, I'm probably not posting. So it averaged to about a video a day.
- [11:42]
Dusty
What would you say to someone listening to this who's on YouTube? They're. They found a little success. They're doing short form. Maybe they're not. Maybe they're just doing longs. But they're really considering dabbling with, say, TikTok or Facebook Reels or expanding beyond that and the ability to repurpose and do it efficiently to. From one platform to another. There's obviously some tweaks that you mentioned that you made with, say, the tagging and the titles and the hooks and things of that nature, but the video itself is made. What would you say to them? Do you think it's a good idea to branch out to other platforms, whether it be TikTok or others?
- [12:18]
Rachel Allen
Absolutely. To me, TikTok is. I hate saying this to a YouTube person, but it's my platform. That's where I belong, where I feel the most comfortable, where I feel I can be the most vulnerable, the least amount of judgment. And that's also what I see from other creators. I feel like it's the safe place to be. I was very nervous about moving to Instagram. I finally did, and it's been okay so far. YouTube has been a welcoming space, too, but TikTok was where I got started, and that is exactly where I feel like I belong. The community there is fantastic, and people want authenticity, and that is. That, to me, is what is on TikTok. People who are just sitting down, being real, not caring about the quality of the lighting, not caring about whether you're using a microphone, just being real in a moment. And that's huge. And I think that's why I was so successful at the beginning was because I didn't have any fancy equipment. I didn't even have a tripod to hold my phone on. I put it on a music stand, and that's what I used for the first year and a half was music stands in my classroom. And then somebody gifted me a tripod, and I was like, oh, okay, I guess I could use that. It was totally an afterthought. I was like, oh, I have these music stands. This is working fine. I'm very frugal, so I don't like to spend money on things that I don't think are needed. And as a teacher, we don't make tons of money as your wife being a teacher, too. And I. To me, the authenticity of TikTok, and I would definitely highly recommend. To get back to the question, highly recommend that anybody try out TikTok. I think anybody could be on there talking about almost anything, because I can sit and listen to anybody talk about almost anything. Try it. What do you have to lose if no one. No one sees it? And that was actually. Sorry to interrupt. And that was something I heard as a on a TikTok one time, they were like, if a video flops, it flopped. No one saw it. That's the best thing into the next one.
- [14:27]
Dusty
And I think in your case, you can't really say the reason you've done so well so quickly on YouTube is because you already had a previous following. No, these are new viewers that you're getting on YouTube. It's not like you're advertising. You may be linking between the two, but you're not over there creating all kinds of videos every week saying, go watch me on YouTube. That would be dumb. You want them wherever the viewer is. So you're meeting the consumer where they are, whatever platform that they're utilizing. So you've grown this fast on YouTube in four months. And so people ask me all the time, is it possible to grow a YouTube channel? It certainly is, and you are proof of that. What do your students think about this? I assume most of them know that you're Ms. Allen. Now. You've obviously went from band director, who obviously is cool in the eyes of students most of the time, but now you've went to a different stratosphere. What are the things that you're hearing from your students?
- [15:17]
Rachel Allen
I actually give my students a lot of credit in my success because the class, the students that I had when I first started making TikToks, didn't make fun of me. To me, that was huge. I could have easily walked in and they'll be like, Ms. Allen, what on earth was that? Like, why are you doing that? But they were like, Ms. Allen, that was funny. Hey. Oh, you got a lot of likes on that video. Did you see how many views you got on that video? I'll never forget, one student one time was looking at his phone and he said, Ms. Allen, you have half a million likes overall because it shows you your total likes that you get on TikTok. And I was like, oh, I didn't even notice that. I wasn't even looking at the numbers. I was looking at making good videos and the views on those videos. And so those students were huge in my success because they supported me through it. And then it just became more of, oh, Ms. Allen makes content. Oh, that's pretty cool. And I began to record them playing, obviously never putting them in the video with their faces or their voices. I've always wanted to protect their identity and make sure that. That they're anonymous. You could search my videos and not find the name of my school anywhere. You could search the videos and probably not even find my first name. I, I really do want to protect my students identities and. But I would put their sounds on there. The band playing and some of the videos that really do well and just people really resonate with are like beginners hearing that beginning sound. And I've had a video where I played. I recorded them in August on the first week of school playing their instrument and then I recorded them again in May and it's huge. Like it's them sounding absolutely beginner because I don't want to say horrible because they're not, they're just beginners and then becoming really successful after nine months of school. And people love that. It's, it resonates with them more, way more. As in even as a band, student band, anyone who's in band, if you played any instrument, you know what that takes, the work that put. Is put into that. So they really like being in the videos. They're like, will you record us for TikTok? Will you record us? We. And sometimes I'm like, okay, yes, let's do that. Let's show the world how good you guys sound. I'm never going to show them sounding bad. I'm never going to put them in a bad light because ultimately that puts me in a bad light. So why would I do that?
- [17:41]
Dusty
Let's talk about the structure of a video. I feel like you've, you know, you've, you, you probably wouldn't say this but you've really mastered the art of the hook and then telling the story and you're obviously doing it with vertical video. But I've gone to your channel and you obviously have long form content as well. And you have some long form content that have tens of thousands of views and have done well there. So you're also learning that format as well. But when you're doing vertical video, what is the structure that you've learned along the way that really resonates, that really works. We know about the quick hooks and telling the story quickly and making it fast paced. So talk about things that you've learned along the way that make a good video.
- [18:22]
Rachel Allen
That's a great question. So I have a notes, a note in my Notes app that at the very top it says storytelling entertaining. And what's the other one? Storytelling, entertaining and educational. Storytelling, entertaining and educational. That's what I want all my videos to be. Maybe a little bit more on one end than the other. But for the most part all of those three, I'd like to have them in one. And my goal was to have sort of a cadence of more. Not necessarily about one video, but a cadence of videos where I have a lip sync that happens one time and then I have an educational video where I'm teaching a concept and I'm maybe a little funny while I'm doing it. And then a skit or a sketch where I'm making a very real relatable situation, funny and outlandish like it actually is, because the band room is a crazy place to be sometimes. And then staying in that cadence of, okay, staying up on trend on TikTok with a lip sync or a sound, being being a teacher and then being funny and writing a skit that goes with it. And many of those skits actually just happened very organically. When I started writing skits down, they didn't do as well. If I stand in my room and I think about my students or I think about former students that I had, or I just think about the instruments I have in my hands, I go, okay, this is what I can do. I can make this funny. Because after 20 years of doing this, you've seen it all. Yes, making the video and the hook and everything is important, but also just the experience that you were in all the time is huge.
- [20:11]
Dusty
Hey, guys, just quickly, I want to pause the interview. Just number one, to say thank you for listening to the show. Number two, to tell you a little bit about how and where you can connect with me. I offer professional one on one YouTube coaching and something that I've grown at the end of last year going into this year. And I've got some new packages on my website. All of that will be linked in the show notes this week. And then we also have our Mastermind call coming up for our patrons over on Discord. That link will be down below five bucks. Get you into the Mastermind call each month. And then you also get access to number one, just support the show. But you get access to past guests who hang out in the Discord, as Well as over 150 other creators who are sharing their thumbnails, sharing the things they're working on. So if you're looking for a place to rub elbows with other creators, do that. And then I'm also wanting to talk about my newsletter. It's called the Entrepreneur's Minute. Basically, it's a place where I talk about what I'm learning, the different strategies I'm implementing in my business. So if you're looking for basically a behind the scenes look of what it means to run Porter Media and everything behind the podcast on my YouTube channel and the other Kind of buckets that I have that I make money. Money as a business owner. That's probably where you want to go. Anyways, let's get back to the conversation as far as the editing of a vertical video. What are you doing this with? You talked about using the music stand to hold the phone in the beginning, but what are you doing to edit? Tell us the tools in your toolbox.
- [21:32]
Rachel Allen
Okay. This is where it. It's not that exciting. I actually just use TikTok to, to edit and if TikTok goes away, I'm gonna have to learn something new. So I was. I've gotten very good at using the TikTok app and Capcut is very much like the TikTok app, so I can use it very similarly as well. Adobe has a great vertical video app as well that I can, that I've tried using. I've even edited a few things in YouTube and Instagram just to try to taste a little bit of what that's like, get the feel for it. But TikTok is my bread and butter. Like I can edit that pretty quick and so I'm hoping that it doesn't get banned because that's. As a 43 year old woman, it's hard to learn new things, but I can. But I'd prefer to keep going with what I already know, preferably and. But yeah, I just set it on there and post right from there. That's how I've done it for three years.
- [22:25]
Dusty
So let's talk about the money. Just a disclaimer. We're not going to discuss the amount of money that you make. Just know that she's doing very well for herself. I'm very proud of her. I'm very thankful that she has these platforms, forms that she can share this amazing band content with the world. But because of her day job, obviously we're not going to disclose numbers today, but talk about the different buckets that you're making money in. So how do you make money as a creator? We know you're a teacher, you're an educator. That's aside from the Creator, Ms. Allen, that you are on the Internet. So how are you making money? Give us the whole kind of rundown of how you do that.
- [23:01]
Rachel Allen
TikTok does pay a little bit. YouTube shorts pays a little bit. It's not much, the Adsense that's from that. But I have gotten several free instruments. I've probably gotten like 10 free instruments, which is pretty cool. Those are worth lots and lots of money. I know it doesn't pay the bills. I didn't necessarily start this to make money. I started this to create a community. And that's what I feel like I've done. And I'm able to. I have given those instruments away some of the times to my students because they've needed one. And to me, that's one of the best feelings ever. I've been able to get resources for my classroom. Last year, I was invited to be a guest conductor at a. At an honor band, which is a really big deal, and it's something that I would love to retire doing. It's basically where you just get to go be a band director all day long with some of the best kids that show up. And it's the geekiest thing that we do. And my favorite part of my job, getting to do that all day and then put on a concert at the end. And I was paid for that, which was really cool and worth. I don't know, like, I. I was like, wow, they paid me very well for that. So I've just made a lot of connections with people all over and yeah, there's lots of buckets everywhere. But for the most part, it's really about the music education connections that I've made that are going to spur me to the next part of my career.
- [24:20]
Dusty
How does it compare as far as TikTok and YouTube? The ad revenue? What are the. I guess you could start by saying, what are the requirements to get monetized on TikTok? On YouTube, it's a thousand subscribers, 4,000 watch hours. What does that look like translated over to TikTok.
- [24:36]
Rachel Allen
For TikTok, you have to be. You have to have 10,000 followers. And I think you have to have. It's half a million views in 30 days or something like that. I don't even think it's that much. It's pretty small. You have to have so many views within 30 days. And. And it's changed over the years. It used to be the creator fund, and I was making kind of pennies on that. And then you also have to make video content that's longer than one minute with the new way that they're doing, which is what I joined back in December. So of two years ago.
- [25:10]
Dusty
What's the maximum duration of a video on TikTok? Now?
- [25:13]
Rachel Allen
I.
- [25:13]
Dusty
And I know YouTube's shorts have gone up to three minutes now. What's that kind of. Over on the other platform, I know.
- [25:19]
Rachel Allen
That I can record on the actual app for up to 10 minutes, but I'm pretty sure I can upload videos like from my phone or whatever that are longer than that, because I have. And then I've edited them down from more than 10 minutes and. But I know that I can go up to 10 minutes. I think I was approved to go up to 30 minutes too. But I can't like record from the app in 30 minutes. But I'm pretty sure you can have up to 30 minutes, even an hour, I think for some people, because some people were putting crazy things up there. And the live streams, it doesn't. Live streams don't work the same as they do over on YouTube. On YouTube, when you live stream, it saves that live stream as a video then. And it doesn't do that on TikTok. It gives you all the video that you could like edit down into a smaller video if you wanted to, which I've done before, which is cool. And. But it's not the same as it is over on YouTube where it just becomes one long video.
- [26:12]
Dusty
What is live streaming like on TikTok? Do you do that? And what have been your. Has been your experience if you have?
- [26:19]
Rachel Allen
Yes, I have live streamed on TikTok. I wasn't sure what to expect and I just dived in. I actually watched a little bit of live streams from other people just to see like how people interact and whatnot. And then I was like, all right, let's see what happens. And I had an instrument and I was like, let's talk about the trumpet. Or I can't even remember what my first live stream was on. But then it was just all of these band kids asking me questions, telling, asking me, what do you think of this? What do you think of this? What do you think of this? Have you played this piece of music? Tell me what you think of the clarinet. Can you do this? And that was my first experience for probably several months was just me chatting with a bunch of band kids. Sometimes we would listen to band music and they would give me recommendations. They'd be like, oh, go listen to this song. Tell me what you think of this song. And so I'd rate band music based on quality control, things that I had given. And that was a lot of fun. And that helped me in my job too, because I've learned new music to play with my own students. And then recently, so this happened probably about two or three months ago, I learned the multi guest feature on TikTok. So you can. You can ask to be a guest on a live stream, like once you're in there. And I asked kids, I was like, hey, do any of you want to get on here and play for me and I'll listen to you and give you feedback, or you can just play and have me hear you. And I would have hundreds of kids lined up to play their instrument for me. Some kids called it the talent show. And so I would just select them. They wouldn't be on camera. I'd tell them, don't be on camera and don't tell me your real name, things like that. Because again, I want to protect their privacy, too. Obviously, it's our. It's a parent's job to encourage our children to not put themselves all out there. But I also am a parent and a teacher, so I'm always thinking like that, okay, let's protect our location. Don't tell me where you live, things like that. But kids would get on there and it was so much fun. I would hear them play, I'd help them out. There'd be beginners who had just started to. Kids were auditioning for Allstate Band and they sounded phenomenal. Sometimes I had other band directors get on just to chat with me and chat about their programs. And it was a lot of fun. It's exhausting because you're on nonstop, like being a teacher, but it is fun, though.
- [28:28]
Dusty
I am so impressed with what you've built with the community. You opened this interview saying that you started the TikTok channel just because you were lonely. You wanted to talk to band directors, other educators, other people who are passionate about the things you're passionate about. And by creating this community, you now have millions of people who are interacting with you on a monthly and yearly basis, which is so neat. Now, I want to ask, ask all my guests this. If you could go back, what is one thing that you wish you would have known sooner? So, not necessarily on TikTok, but as a creator as a whole, what is something that you wish you would have known sooner?
- [29:04]
Rachel Allen
I think with the YouTube thing, I wish I would have known how hard it was going to be to dive into long form content, because I feel like I can be funny and entertaining and storytelling in one minute. I got it. I had mastered that one minute. Boom. Got you to make it longer. That's a lot. I can do that in a classroom full of students for 44 minutes where I'm on. But doing that alone and making it work is a lot harder. And it's definitely making me step out of my comfort zone. And I was talking to my husband last night. I was like, I've got to think about how I can do this differently. I can't do this the same. I can't read from a script. I tried scripting with YouTube long form videos. I tried creating script and I was like, this is. No, I can't do this. It's like reading from a lesson plan. I stopped writing lesson plans years ago. I'm a sticky note kind of teacher. I put everything on a sticky note and that is how I teach. And it's been working great for years. And I definitely. I'm glad I'm in the YouTube space. I'm so excited to learn more, but I wish I had because I kept saying, oh, yeah, I'll make long form content. I'm going to make long form content. Yes. And I'm like, wow, I'm making long form content. And this is exhausting. Way more tiring than short form.
- [30:27]
Dusty
Yeah, it's the amount of time required. The different things you have to do in editing, in. In post production is completely different. And it's fun to hear you say that. Normally people are going from long form to trying to learn shorts and you're just doing the opposite. So it's so cool to hear you talk about the reverse of that situation and go ahead.
- [30:47]
Rachel Allen
And then for the just TikTok and the community in general, what I wish I would have known is, like, how much I'd be recognized at events. I went to a band director conference in December and I couldn't walk 20ft without people recognizing me. And that was really intense. And I'm really glad I had my husband with me on that trip because there were times when band kids were like, mobbing me and wanting pictures and autographs. And I never knew that. I knew I was a decent teacher. People told me my band sounded good and I was like, okay, but you're. I don't think we realize how much 10,000 views is. I don't think we realize how much a hundred thousand views is. A million views. Oh my gosh, it's a lot. And for that many people to see you and to be like, yeah, yeah, good job is, yeah, it is so confirming to your worth. Like, not that I need that, but it's okay. Yeah. And so that's what I wasn't ready for, I think, because I still have that imposter syndrome of life and just, you know, all that stuff, I'm not.
- [31:55]
Dusty
Sure you ever get out of that. I think that, you know, the first time I ever got recognized, it was my voice got recognized and they said, oh my goodness, do you host a podcast on YouTube? And I said, yeah, I do. And that was a really, really aha moment of just, okay, you see the numbers on the screen and you refresh the app and you see all the views come in and the likes and the shares and so you can get a grasp as to how big the thing is. But until you see a real human and you interact with them and they say, oh, I've watched you for years, or even just at the beginning of this podcast, you saying, cole, consume my podcast and convinced you to listen to it. And that's a real story of where you were introduced to my content. And then in a very small way, I had impact on what you're doing. That power is, it doesn't go, it doesn't go unnoticed to me. I know how important it is to me that I put out content that's not only helpful and educational, but it's also positive and uplifting. And I think that's what you've done along the way. And it's really cool to hear your story. Now the last question I have for you, Rachel, is or Ms. Allen, number one, you may be the most popular middle school band teacher in America and I'm privileged to speak to you. So that is a super cool thing. But what is next for you and the content? Have you thought about different ways you're going to broaden yourself? As far as you've talked about Instagram, Is the programming going to be a little different? Are you going to do more live streams? What's next for you in the content?
- [33:22]
Rachel Allen
Oh, I think about it all the time. So currently I've started teaching fifth grade band, which is something I haven't been doing. So these are the kids who will come into my program next year and I see them twice a week. So I've actually been creating videos for them to learn from and a lot of them already watched my other videos. But I want to, I'm literally working on videos targeted for them and if other people see them, great. Which is tough because that's five videos a week that I'm pumping out for these kids. Because really, it's not necessarily about the viewers everywhere else. It's about my current students, my 41 beginners that I'm trying to get to learn their instrument by only seeing them twice a week. I'm hoping those videos take off and do well when it's time to start band at the beginning of the school year and to create that long form content that is Tentpole Evergreen that hopefully people will come to. When you search Beginner trumpet video mine's not the one that pops up. Now. My short might pop up, but my long form doesn't yet. And that is my goal for that is to be. To not just be the short form creator, but also the long form creator that can create, that can teach you how to play your instrument as well. I also really want to try to do more than that on long form, like more long sketches. I have no idea what that looks like, but I love making people laugh. That's probably one of my favorite things to do in the world is to laugh and make people laugh and then to wave my arms in front of children and have them make music. So I want to do something like that. My goal is to not teach music middle school band forever. So I'm hoping that in the next five to six years I can retire from being a band director and do more like consulting work helping other band directors get on their feet, give them the resources that they need. Because while I do love teaching kids how to play instruments, I'm getting to the point now where I love mentoring other directors more because I have a student teacher right now and it is just all I can do to not just talk her ear off all day long about how much I love teaching. And here's what you need for this and this and this and this and this. I'm like, gosh, I should start a podcast or I should do a webinar or I should. There's just so many opportunities as a.
- [35:34]
Dusty
As a creator, there's never enough time. I have a list on my notion page where basically I have all these ideas of things I want to do and I have to be very selective early on. I just do everything and nothing would get done. Right now I have to be very selective and efficient with, okay, what I want to focus on one or two things, break them down into bite sized chunks and really focus on that one thing, whatever it may be, writing a book, doing a course, doing long form. And I will say you mentioned wanting to rank in search for some of the instructional long form videos that you're doing. Give it a little time. I think you will. I feel like that's where my specialty is. I've been doing technology tutorials now on my main YouTube channel for over 14 years. And one of my specialties is that I'm, I'm very good at ranking for keywords and key phrases. A video may not rank the first week, the first month, but month three, it gets picked up by the algorithm, gets picked up by Google or a search engine, or even going into the age of AI where your video starts showing up in results on chat GPT or Deep Seek or whatever it may be. But I tell you what, you are an amazing inspiration to not just like music creators, but just creators in general. You're proof that, listen, it doesn't matter what the content is. I mean, I'll be honest with you, I'm thinking of like band content. I was never in band. I play guitar and I play in my church band, but I've never once been too big into the band scene. But that's why I love YouTube is because little niches like that can just blossom and these people who consume the content, you're famous to these people. And so that's so neat to hear. And yeah, thank you so much.
- [37:06]
Rachel Allen
Walk down the hallway sometimes and there's a kid that's like, how do you have so many views on YouTube? And one time I just was feeling frisky and I was like, I guess I make good content. And he was like, oh, okay, wasn't even a kid in band. But yeah, it is a, a whole different world that I'm in now. And I think it's a privilege and I really think that it's important to model to young people responsible. I want a squeaky clean channel. If I can't sit and watch it with my own kids or think about somebody else's kids watching it, I don't want to make it. I'm thankful for my husband who has talked me through this. Having a supportive partner is huge in the content creation because it's very lonely being a content creator. I thought I was a, I was lonely as a band director. No, you're even more lonely as a content creator. So I'm very thankful that I have my husband to talk about things with and flush things out and for your community too, because it's really been a blessing.
- [38:04]
Dusty
All right, we are going to wrap it up right here. I'm going to link to your YouTube channel, your TikTok channel, so people can go and check out what you're doing. You are part of our Discord server. And so if anyone has any follow up questions, if you're not a part of that, it's five bucks you get access to that plus the mastermind calls and everything in between. You can interact with Rachel there, talk to her, ask her questions about the, the show or even further questions. I'm sure she'd be more than happy to help you out. But, but again, Rachel, thank you for joining us and we'll talk to you next time.
- [38:33]
Rachel Allen
Thank you, Dusty.