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From Couponing to Financial Freedom: Nikki Connected's YouTube Journey
00:32:47
In this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub Podcast, Dusty welcomes Nikki from the Nikki Connected YouTube channel. Nikki, previously known as the Deal Finding Diva, shares how the pandemic led her to pivot her content from couponing to methods...
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- [00:02]
Dusty Porter
Welcome to the YouTube Creators Hub podcast where we help you conquer the Internet one video at a time. We cover everything from how to start a YouTube channel to how to make a video go viral. And now here's your host, the one and only Dusty Porter. Hello and welcome to session 429 of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. My name is Dusty Porter, the host of the show where each and every Friday I bring on a new guest, a new content creator and we talk about their journey on YouTube or their journey creating content, whether it be as a hobby or full time. We have over 415 interviews on this show already. Go back and listen to the ones, pick the ones that you think would be interesting or applicable to your channel. If you would leave us a review, however, and wherever you listen to your podcast, we're brought to you by the fine folks over at Tubebuddy. So again, check their link out for a 30 day free trial. I also offer one on one YouTube coaching. You can check the link for that. We also have one of the fastest growing YouTube creator communities on the Internet over on our Discord server and there is no expensive buy in to be a part of the cohort. It's just five bucks a month over on our Patreon, enough to kind of keep the lights on there and you get to rub shoulders with other YouTube content creators all throughout the week as well as join us for our monthly mastermind calls that I host on Zoom and we cover a specific topic or we do a deep dive on, you know, one member's individual YouTube channel. It's a great way for a creator to very inexpensively have a place where you can go and hang out with other creators and see what they're doing to succeed and share ideas, opinions and different strategies. So with all of that out of the way, we are approaching the end of the new year. I really appreciate everyone who has been with us this year. Whether you're an old time veteran or you just discovered the show, this year the show's only going to get bigger and better. I've got big plans for the show. Really thankful for all of you. Means a lot that you're even here listening. If you would leave us a review, however you listen to the show and with that said, let's go ahead and jump into this week's conversation. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. I am joined today by Nikki from the Nikki Connected YouTube channel. You may recognize her voice and face if you're watching the video version of this episode. Did have her on a couple of years ago, but she is since rebranded and her channel has exploded. So Nikki, who is known as Nikki Connected, empowers her audience to earn and save money through practical and creative methods she uses as a single mom. So she's taking what she knows and something that she's interested and passionate about and applying that to her channel. And she started as the deal finding Diva, which is how you would know her if you've listened to her other episode, which I will link down below so you can compare and contrast. She has a focus on couponing until a landing an audiobook narration job that changed everything for her. So Nikki has evolved her platform to COVID side hustles, passive income and financial freedom. Through YouTube, her blog, courses and coaching, she's inspiring others to take control of their finances. Finances, my voice is not working today. Finances and other things to turn passion into profit and to purpose and to help them thrive. Nikki, how are you doing today?
- [03:24]
Nikki Connected
I'm doing great, Dusty. Thank you for having me.
- [03:27]
Dusty Porter
Absolutely. I'm looking forward to chatting with you again. It's been a few years now. A lot has changed. You had just at 10,000 subscribers back then, now you have almost 63,000. You did a full rebrand, you pivoted. Tell us what's been going on, the reason why you did it and the learn the things that you've learned through that process.
- [03:47]
Nikki Connected
Yeah. So basically the pandemic changed everything. When I was doing deal funding Diva, my focus was just purely couponing and really I didn't look at it as a business model. But after the pandemic happened, or should I say during the pandemic, when I was stuck in the house and doing different side hustles, I decided, you know what, let me just share some of this stuff on my channel. And from there people just became more and more interested. And the turning point was especially during my audiobook narration debut because I actually was watching YouTube trying to find yet another side hustle as a single mom, and I came across a video that talked about how to make money by reading books and it was about audiobook narration. So I just dove right in and did an audition and landed my first audition. No experience, and I got a contract. So I actually went back to that original channel, thanked the creator for posting the video because I wouldn't have gotten my contract otherwise. And from there I didn't realize so many people would get have so much attention onto my comment. Basically what that did was it brought people over to my channel because they wanted to know what does she sound like and how. What does she do to get this? What happened was people were in my comments under my couponing videos asking, okay, that's great, but what about this audiobook narration thing? Are you still doing that? Are you still recording the book? Is it out? They were asking me all kinds of questions. So I actually originally I was trying to not talk about it. So I was like deleting comments and like trying to hide it because it was a couponing channel. What I ended up doing, I'm like, you know what, I think I should probably talk about this and just get it out of the way. And what that did is it sparked even more interest. So then from there, long story short is spun into people want to know other ways of making money. Because I also use different apps that can earn money and gift cards and things like that. People started adding, asking me more and more ways to make money. So I focused the channel more on that. And then when it came to brand deals specifically or even simply affiliate marketing with other brands, they would just look at the name deal finding diva and assume that I'm just talking about deals. When at that point I had pivoted into talking about making money and they were automatically like turning me down. We don't deal with deal sites and we don't do couponers. I ended up changing the brand and I let my audience choose the name and Nikki connected where I'm connecting you with income. That's basically how the pivot happens. And yeah, I didn't expect it to be here, but I'm here.
- [06:40]
Dusty Porter
I love it. Now I got a couple of follow up questions. The first one being why did you decide to continue on an already current channel as opposed to what some people recommend and that is to launch a new channel. What made you decide to go that route and did you even think about the other way?
- [06:59]
Nikki Connected
I actually never even thought about the other way. But just immediately my thought about that is when people were coming over to the channel, it automatically started connecting my channel to that original video that I had saw about the audiobook narration. So at that point I started getting a lot of her viewers and getting thousands of views when I was not used to that at all. So I'm like, I want them to continue to filter over here. So basically my channel was connected to that other channel, was being suggested by that other channel a lot.
- [07:34]
Dusty Porter
And you didn't see any negative effects of doing the full pivot? Did you have, was there a transition process? Did you see a slow burn or how did that process work when you started transitioning away from the couponing side of things to go to the financial freedom and helping people find financial freedom the way that you're doing now?
- [07:55]
Nikki Connected
Yeah. So the impact that I had and I still do see to this day is I have segmented audiences. So I have an audience of people that want to know about audiobook narration and can afford my large course. And then I have the other segment that is more of the original audience, which are people that are dealing with this struggling economy. And I can't afford a large course, but I want to know how I can either earn some additional income or get cash back on my grocery shopping, things like that. So I do have segmented audiences and with that I try to still try to balance them. And of course I have my playlist to help balance it. But I do integrate various videos. So I still talk about making money as well as saving money, and I just integrate it as. Or I combine them basically, as I talk about money, I connect you with income and ways to save money.
- [08:58]
Dusty Porter
So I vaguely remember what the old channel looked like when I talked with you a few years ago. The rebrand looks amazing. I can tell that you've put a lot of work into it. Your thumbnails are all streamlined. They got a specific brand to them, to where you know, hey, that's a Nikki Connected video. When you see them, can you go, can you walk us through the process of what did you do? Did you hire people to do certain aspects of the channel rebrand from start to finish? What were your kind of thought processes and how did you get to the final result?
- [09:30]
Nikki Connected
I did it all by myself. I. And it's a struggle even to this day. I try to. I wonder, is what I'm doing, is that the right way to do it? Of course. I listen to your podcast every week, every Friday morning, and I learned a lot from what other creators go through. But when it comes down to it, I just try to go with the flow. And I also listen to what my audience hears or. Or is telling me. But also I do. I'm not somebody that dives really deep into the analytics, but I do pay attention to things especially like the click through rate. And I realized that once I started doing like the more colorful thumbnails, my click through rate went up higher there. Those are some of the things that I ended up doing because I changed the brand colors like a million and one times. And also like the logo. I did get somebody on Fiverr to do my logo, but other than that, anytime I hired somebody to do my thumbnails, for example. I wasn't satisfied, so I started doing them myself. So it was just literally trying to figure out the whole rebrand on my own.
- [10:34]
Dusty Porter
What change that you have implemented do you think has had the biggest impact on why the channel has grown so much more as opposed the prior iteration of the channel?
- [10:45]
Nikki Connected
I started editing out a lot of the fluff. I got rid of the intros that I was doing. Like I would have the, of course, the regular intro, maybe a logo or something come up or images of me come up. I got rid of all of that. So there's basically no fluff when it comes to that. But I also tried to do like a more entertaining educational channel. So there are like little memes that pop up and things that like really grab people's attention. And that has definitely kept people's attention into the videos. So for example, if I say a certain word, there might be somebody that comes up and has and says something funny in relation to that. So people seem to really resonate with that. And then I do little things like I have pop ups, like I punch the screen and screen breaks, you know, that kind of thing. So people really seem to take to that more fun content. And like I said, I edited out a lot of my talk activity. Like I talk, I do have a tendency to run on. So I got rid of a lot of that and I just streamline it and then add the little funny things in there.
- [11:57]
Dusty Porter
I know you said that you're not much of a data or analytics person as far as diving deep into them, but did you see by cutting off some of that fluff that the watch time increased and it just overall helped the overall kind of health of the channel?
- [12:11]
Nikki Connected
Absolutely. Absolutely. I noticed like most of the time before people didn't even watch like into a third of the video. Now I think I'm averaging somewhere around 50%. And then on top of it I started like, I, I try to keep my videos around 10 minutes and then if it's something that's like really detailed, then I'll do a longer one every once in a while. But, and I noticed you said this with your channel because again, I do listen to the podcast. One thing that has always pretty much been the case with my channel is when I out a video, people don't necessarily, or it's not really suggested by YouTube right away. And my videos might take weeks, months or even a year for people to really find it and actually start watching it. So that's one thing that I always keep in mind is that I don't expect an immediate result, Even though lately YouTube has been a little nicer to me and has been suggesting my videos on the homepage more. But that's not typical for my channel. Channel.
- [13:13]
Dusty Porter
It just makes sense, right? The combination of the two things that you just mentioned, cutting out some of the kind of the fluff, as you called it, great way to call it that. And then also adding some humor and some light heartedness that makes people relate more to you, just like bringing your personality out as a fun person, having a great sense of humor. And I found when I do that in these podcasts and in my brand in general, it kind of endears people to me and people begin to want to get to know more about me, the person behind the microphone. And so I think that's a really unique way of growing a channel. And it's really cool to hear you talk about the differences because if I go back and watch your older videos, like the different couponing stuff that you were doing that was, you could tell, not only were you less confident behind the camera because you were just learning, but your confidence just exudes off the camera now and you can tell that you really have a purpose of knowing who the person that you're trying to speak to is, which is important. So can you talk about that? About knowing the person you're trying to speak to, getting your target audience and knowing who that is?
- [14:19]
Nikki Connected
Yeah. So I think about the things that I go through, I'm not going to say in past tense, the things that I still go through as a single mom and it's like really difficult to balance. Everybody's already complaining about this economy and as a single person that is balancing everything that even 2 per 2 parent households are having issues with that to me, I try to keep that in mind that there are way more people like me, even if there are two parent households, that a lot of us are struggling and. But at the same time, like I said, I do have that segment of audience that is like, oh, can you build a course on this? I want to buy a course on this. So I will feed that me. But one of my main focuses from the beginning has always been to try to help others not deal with the things that I've dealt with and not have to struggle to have ways of bringing in more than one income. And I always say that don't rely on just one form of income. You have to diversify your income. We're in that economy where we have to do that. So I Do try to keep in mind that there are so many people out there struggling. And even for example, even when I do my live streams or especially during the holidays, there are people that want to buy my courses that necessarily can't afford them. I do have like lower cost courses as well. So what I'll do is I will have specials and say, oh, you'll get 50% off of this course. And they can do no fee, payment plans, things like that, where they can afford that course that can help them get to the next level. So I try to still keep that in mind. Even though I'm a business and I have to make sales to help my business thrive, I try to stay considerate of that audience that I know is watching and know that I know needs my assistance.
- [16:18]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, that's powerful. Knowing your audience is such a powerful thing and it's such a superpower for a creator. Once they know that, once they internally on a piece of paper or digitally write down who that target person is. Man, there's so much freedom that comes with knowing that. And when you're recording and getting ideas for your videos, that's great. Now, before we get into monetization, how you're making money now from the channel, which I do want to talk about in depth, I made a note here of something you mentioned early on. One of the things that you did is you commented on a creator's video. Can you just speak on that and the power of that? And do you think that is a valid strategy of gaining attention and traction of being active in others communities that are like minded individuals?
- [17:04]
Nikki Connected
Absolutely. And the thing is, when I did it, I didn't think much of it. But I heard later on and I started implementing this more in the beginning after I had that success that one time, one thing that I heard was if there are larger creators maybe in your niche, turn on your notifications for their channel and go and support drop a comment on their channel. And especially if it's a meaningful comment, if they have helped you, let them know. I know personally as a creator, it helps me, it helps motivate me to know that the content that I am taking all these hours to produce is helping somebody. So even simply turning on your notifications so you can find out as soon as they drop a video so that your comment is near the top. That way if you leave that comment then there's more of a chance of people noticing your comment and then maybe even coming over to your channel. It's especially if you have a good thumbnail like a profile Pic so people will be interested or more have a higher chance of clicking on your channel if you look interesting, if you have an interesting name, things like that. And you're making this powerful comment.
- [18:17]
Dusty Porter
So yeah, yeah, that is powerful. Good stuff. Thank you for answering that. I thought that was just a really good nugget that you mentioned early on. Let's talk about making money. You're helping people save money, but you're hoping to make money. Right? That's the whole point. I've noticed you've got a rebrand of the website. You've got your courses. Break down all of your. I call them buckets, you can call them whatever you want. Break down all the different ways that you make money and give us an average of kind of what's coming from the channel.
- [18:42]
Nikki Connected
Okay. My most of my money comes from my courses. I actually when I first started out, I started out as a blogger, so I had my website. And so for years I have been building on that. So I have blog posts about things like audiobook narration or even apps that I'm using to make money. And what I'll do is I'll put either affiliate links in there, I can sell my courses and products in there. So I would say one of the driving forces is definitely my blog and having that platform bring in, bring in customers. But the YouTube channel, that is a little iffy because I don't know if you heard about it, but there was they YouTube doesn't call it a glitch, but there was an issue of invalid traffic that a lot of us were hit with. And it took away 90% of my YouTube ad revenue. And that had been since April of last year. So it was about a year and a half and it's finally just started balancing out again or going back up to what that was previously or somewhere close to it. And so that was close to a year and a half of barely making any revenue from YouTube, so that I barely even count. So but yeah, definitely my courses from various methods. So not only do I talk about my courses on my blog, but I also of course talk about them on my YouTube channel. So I still, even though I wasn't putting out as many videos as I did before when the ad revenue was like really flowing, I still do make sure that whenever I post a video, I'm doing something that can drive some kind of revenue, whether it's mentioning a product that I'm using that I'm a affiliated with or one of my courses or ebook, something like that. Most of that will I would Say it's a combination between the YouTube channel and the blog to bring that in. But definitely the courses are the highest. And then I would say affiliate marketing is my second largest income stream. And then probably the YouTube monetization at this point.
- [20:47]
Dusty Porter
And so I know you do coaching as well. How much do your courses cost? How much coaching do you do throughout the week? And I would assume a large portion of this stuff comes from the YouTube channel funneling into your services page.
- [21:00]
Nikki Connected
Absolutely. So the coaching, I don't do that much of it separately, but my largest course is. My course is called the Audiobook Blueprint. And I walk people through start to finish how to become an audiobook narrator, different ways that I learned to boost the income as an audiobook narrator. So that course is a $400 course. And the thing is I integrate, especially during certain times of the year, I will allow or provide free coaching on top of that. So that's integrated into the course. That's where most of my coaching experience comes from. But. But yeah, outside of that, I would say definitely what drives that is the YouTube channel. And it's really weird how like the Audiobook Blueprint, like I said, is my largest course. But then I have all of my other courses, they're actually on my blog. And it's the reason why I say it's a little strange is because with YouTube, if we're going to sell our courses directly through YouTube, you have to have a Shopify store. So that's the way that I drive sales there, because I have a thinkific course with that. But on my blog I have WooCommerce and all of my courses go through tutor LMS. So these aren't thinkific courses. So basically I'm completely owning that platform and have full control over those courses and the pricing in the whole store, all of that, but I can't connect those to my YouTube channel. So it's like I had to separate the Audiobook Blueprint from all the rest of my courses. And I house all my courses, all the rest of them on my blog, Nikki Connected.com so it's really weird. I wish there was a better way to them together so that they're all on one cohesive platform. But I'm still trying to figure that out.
- [22:47]
Dusty Porter
That's why I encourage people in the beginning when they're thinking about their funnel and their system to do it right the first time. Because once you get a funnel in place, it's really hard to go back and backdate it and fix the problems that are in the funnel. It's really interesting to hear you talk about the struggles there, because that is a struggle that a lot of creators have is I've had this thing or this email list, and it's connected this way from six years ago. Now there's a much better way to do it and having to go back and redo that, there's just a lot involved there. So make sure you do it the right way. Don't spare expense, don't spare time. Just really work on it and get your funnel correct. You mentioned live streaming. You do a good bit of live streaming. Can you talk about the benefits of live streaming, what it's done for your channel? It looks like you're doing live streams sometimes daily, sometimes three to four times a week. What have been the benefits and perks of you doing that for the channel and what have you seen?
- [23:32]
Nikki Connected
So with the live streams, I really enjoy doing the live streams because I get to tap directly into my audience. They can ask me questions and we just. We have fun. We just do real talk. And what. What I found personally is that a lot of my subscribers that are actually talking or chatting in my live streams, they're the same ones that DM me. So I know about their families and I know their names, and we actually have real conversations. So the thing is, like, with my live streams, like, it's rare that I even have 20 people in the live streams. My live streams are pretty intimate. I recently moved, so I'm like, now I'm in a place where I feel as though it's more. It's better for me to be able to do the live streams because I previously had to deal with living next to a radio station and the sound from the radio station would, like, filter somehow. Yeah, it was really weird. It was really difficult to do things such as live streaming previously. So now I'm able to actually focus on that and actually enjoy it. What that's done is not only does it help build my community, but of course I get the super chats and things like that. And also, like I said, I get to know what questions people actually have. What do they want a video on, Things like that.
- [24:49]
Dusty Porter
As far as the technical overhead of streaming, it's become way easier than it used to be. Can you talk about that? As far as if there's someone listening to this thinking, oh, no, gotta hook this thing up. I gotta set this up, I gotta go live, I gotta schedule whatever it may be. There used to be a lot of hoops to jump through. As of right now, you can literally stream like you can on TikTok with vertical video from your phone. That can be the entry point. But can you speak on you maybe being not necessarily the most tech savvy person in the beginning, but getting there now that you're streaming and talk to someone who's might want to stream on their channel?
- [25:28]
Nikki Connected
Yeah, absolutely. A lot oftimes on YouTube I will use Restream. So that platform just makes it a lot easier for me so I can link my products, especially when I have sales. Like I can bring up a QR code where people can scan it right there on the screen. It looks more professional. I'm able to have videos integrated, things like that. But what I noticed is I. It's also easier and my audience actually seems to really like when I do the vertical video streams. Like I'll just go live from my phone, just impromptu. I just did it last night and I don't have to worry about the setup and I just, I'll have my ring light. Like last night I was just just bored and was unpacking and doing these kinds of things. So I had just gotten a food box delivery. So I'm like, let me just talk about it and also have some money talk with my audience, some intimate talk. And I just streamed from my kitchen, from my phone. I do it both ways where I do to sit down and I have the whole light set up and things. But you don't have to be tech savvy, especially when you're using a platform that just makes it easy. I just hook my camera up, up and my mic up and go. But even outside of that, I don't have to do that when I just do vertical video on YouTube I can just click on my phone and I can tag products and all that kind of stuff directly just like I can in my other videos. Yeah, that's. I just found it to be. I actually feel like YouTube pushes it a little bit more when I stream vertically than when I'm streaming from Restream. So.
- [27:02]
Dusty Porter
Interesting. Do you feel that when you're streaming you're able to hone some skills that help you in other areas on YouTube? I think that one of the greatest skills a creator can have is the gift of gab and to be able to learn how to go off the cuff. And I think live streaming allows you to do that. There's something different about going into a fully edited video and cutting the fluff like we talked about at the top of the show. But with a stream you've got to fill dead space and dead air. And it helps you become really good at conversing and answering questions and getting ideas from the stream. Can you talk about what you've learned from going live and what others can from doing the same?
- [27:45]
Nikki Connected
Yeah, definitely. So I always try to make sure that things are set for me to do it. Like I said, I'm a single mom. I have to warn my daughter. She's a teenager now. She's 14, so I have to let her know, listen, I'm going to live stream because she likes to play games and scream and yell and giggle with her friends when she's playing her game. So I have to make sure that the distractions are at a minimal. But at the same time, I try to make it as realistic as possible. But I am used to actually talking to people. I actually, my degree is in communications, so I've done internships at radio stations and things like that. So I do have some experience talking to an audience and actually doing impromptu things. My degree is actually communications and theater, so I've done acting classes and things like that. So I can like feed off of people. I feel like that is one thing that, that I'm actually still building that skill on because it's been so many years since I was in college and was able to like do that regularly. But at the same time just being able to answer people's questions. And what I realized that does is it does give authority in my niche. Basically, people are. Is building on that, no trust factor, that when people get to know you, they tend to trust you and like you and then trust you. They trust you enough to purchase your products. So basically I'm trying to give them the real me and to let them know that I am here. I'm not just going to sell them a course and then disappear off the face, face of the earth and they can never contact me again, that kind of thing. So I want them to know that I'm a real person and that I do have a home in cooking and dealing with my daughter and that kind of thing. That definitely does help build that trust with my audience.
- [29:33]
Dusty Porter
Now that you've done the rebrand and it's been successful and you have this thing and it's got some really great momentum behind it. One of my final questions for you is, what's next for the channel? Do you have any big plans? Do you have any things you're looking to add as far as programming or consistency? Are what is next for Nikki connected?
- [29:53]
Nikki Connected
Yes. One of the first things that I'm going to do is bring back what people loved that I was doing before is I would bring other, what I call other hustlers onto the channel. So other people that are making money various ways. So previously I've had bloggers, I've had other content creators, people with podcasts. I bring them on and I talk about what you do, but we just do the live chat and it's nothing like really formal, but that I'm like, tell my audience how you're making money, that kind of thing. People really love that because they realize that there are side hustles out there that they didn't know that may be outside the box or that things that they didn't realize that they can make money with. So I definitely want to start bringing that back. I actually have people lined up to come on and do that. But outside of that, I want to build more courses. I feel like the courses really help people. And plus it doesn't require me to be there so much and to edit my videos because the editing of the videos is a pain. And then I do want to offload the editing. I temporarily had a company editing my videos and I did like it. It just is. That's really expensive when you are doing that full time. I do want to get back to having someone else edit so I could focus more on the content creation. And I can get my podcast up and running in 2025 too.
- [31:14]
Dusty Porter
So I want to be your encourager there. I'm always a podcast pro, positive person. I have done this podcast now for going on 11 years and I've done over 460 some odd interviews just on this show alone, not including the ones that I've guested on. And I can tell you that nothing has been a bigger boon for my business than a podcast. And so if your niche in your space is fitting for a podcast, I would encourage you to at least try it and stick with it. I tell people for at least a year. I know that seems like a long time, but you gotta give it some Runway to get going just like you would on YouTube. So really cool to hear you talk about that again. If you want to connect with nikki, it is nikkiconnected.com Nikki Connected over on YouTube if you want to follow along with her rebrand. I'm really thankful to have you back on the show and hopefully I'll have you on in a few more years talking about your million subscribers.
- [32:02]
Nikki Connected
Thank you so much, Dusty. It was good seeing you again.
- [32:04]
Dusty Porter
Hello everyone and thank you for listening to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub. Podcast. I really do appreciate it. Don't forget you can subscribe to the show for absolutely free and your podcast player of choice. Also, there are ways you can connect with us. You can support us by supporting our sponsor TubeBuddy, as well as supporting us over on Patreon to get access to our creator Discord community. And I also offer YouTube coaching and consultation, YouTube channel reviews and just overall business coaching if that's something that you are wanting to look into. So make sure you check us out there and we'll see you next week.