← YouTube Creators Hub
YouTube Creators Hub
From TV to YouTube: Kevin Kolbe's Journey
00:44:42
In today's interview, I'm joined by Kevin Kolbe, a successful YouTuber and former television creative director. Kevin shares his journey from traditional media to building a thriving YouTube channel, discussing the challenges and successes he faced...
Loading summary
Transcript46 lines
- [00:00]
Kevin Colby
Are there advertisers even interested? Which I thought they would be. Is there even people out there over 50 and 60 on YouTube, consuming YouTube? And there are a lot. So the video that I finally published, which was if you're over 40, why you need to start a YouTube channel or something, whatever I called it, I got up that morning and I thought, heck with it, I'm just going to shoot it.
- [00:21]
Dusty Porter
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast where each and every Friday I sit down with a content creator and interview them and ask them questions about what it takes to succeed, how they make money on YouTube, and so much more. So if you're looking for something that's a little bit more behind the scenes, a peek behind the curtain, this is the podcast for you. You can connect with us and specifically me by either hiring me for one on one coaching. If you're looking to take your YouTube channel online business podcast to the next level, I offer online coaching services. Those will be linked down below. That's one of my favorite things that I get to do each and every week. And then we have something called the Creators Community. It's a mastermind group where we do monthly mastermind call posted on Zoom that I host myself. We also have a Discord server that is very active each and every day talking about all different aspects of YouTube. And I also record exclusive 8 to 15 minute monologue style podcast episodes every single week about a topic around the creator economy, around running an online business, around launching podcasts, anything creator centric. I have a dedicated podcast exclusively for those people who support the show. And that's five bucks. That's it. Less than a Starbucks coffee gets you. All of that I just mentioned. And then lastly for free, we have an email newsletter called the Entrepreneurs Minute. I am starting to build a database and a spreadsheet of everything that has been suggested or every tool or every book or resource. I'm going to have a spreadsheet that is ongoing and in order to get that, you just sign up for our email newsletter, the Entrepreneurs Minute. And every Friday I'll talk about what's going on in my life around the Porter Media business and what I'm doing to grow that and to move the needle. Over 5,000 people have now subscribe to that. We're closing in on 7500 now and we just started that email newsletter up at the end of last year and so there's some real value there. Wherever you listen to your podcast, leave us a review and subscribe to the show so you'll know every time we go live on Friday morning with a new interview. So with all that said, let's go ahead and jump into this week's conversation. Hello and welcome to the conversation on this week's episode of the podcast. I am so excited today to be joined by Kevin Colby. Kevin, I discovered a few months ago I was telling him off air I needed some information on a video that I was working on and I stumbled across one of his Da Vinci Resolve tutorials and was just super impressed by the quality, the way he presented himself and just I could tell this guy had been in media for a while and as you're, you'll hear that's definitely the case. So let me tell you a little bit about Kevin. Kevin's creative journey started as a DJ on the radio. Before getting into TV, he spent over 30 plus years in video production and marketing for Fox, NBC, CBS and ABC affiliated TV stations, including leading an award winning creative team for one of the most recognized Fox affiliates in the country. Kevin has worked with national brands, non profits and other content creators around the world. And he now has a very successful YouTube channel that is just about to surpass a hundred thousand subscribers and not even 500 videos. Kevin, how are you doing today?
- [03:38]
Kevin Colby
I am fantastic. And thank you. And you know what? It, even though I wrote that and sent that to you, it's just, it's, it feels weird when somebody's reading it back. But yeah, I'd say thanks for the kind words, but I wrote it.
- [03:53]
Dusty Porter
I was, I was on a podcast a couple of weeks ago and I had, I have a lady who is much better at copywriting than I am. It's probably one of my weaker points. I'm trying to really get better at writing and the newsletter and stuff has helped with that. But she wrote this really great bio. It's like a paragraph and it sounds very good. It doesn't sound like AI wrote it. It's very natural. There's not many of those words that AI loves to use. And the guy read it and I'm like, you. I was like, wait a minute, I've done all those things, but it just sounds so much better coming from you. But Kevin, I'm super excited to, to have you today on the Creators Hub podcast. Can you just give my audience kind of the origin story? You could even go back beyond the YouTube channel of your days in mainstream media and then lead up to the YouTube channel?
- [04:39]
Kevin Colby
Yeah. And I, so I, and by the way, I'm just giddy to be here so thanks. If I gush a lot, then you'll just have to clean off the mic and the screen later. So I grew up wanting to be a lot of things, including a dj. I wanted to be on radio when I was a kid. I had a little bitty turntable and I had a little stack of 45s, which are small records if people don't know what I'm talking about. And I would play DJ in my bedroom and play the records and flash forward, jump forward to when I started college, I had a chance to get into radio, small thousand watt daytime station, which means that our power fluctuated with when the sun came up and sun came down. And I thought this is the coolest thing ever. Got a chance to then work for one of the stations I grew up listening to and stayed in radio for several years. And then radio changed where it was less about personality, more about just play songs and read this card. And about that time I got a chance to be in television. There was a new television group starting where I was from, which was Nashville, Tennessee. So I ended up getting into television as a promotion director. My first job, I had an art director in me and I knew nothing about television. But that's where I really learned to be on camera, even though I didn't really care to be editing and everything. And then from there I just worked at a lot of the stations you mentioned. As we would joke, in television you couldn't hold a job because you would just keep moving and moving. And then years later moved to another city where I eventually became a creative director in television. My last job in television. So over 30 something years in broadcast. And I thought that's what I would do. And then as broadcast started getting more and more consolidated, like so many businesses, my position was finally eliminated, which I knew it was going to be. It's just the way it was going. Great company, they took care of me and I appreciated that. But I. That was in 2017 and I had started my YouTube channel in, wait for it, 2017. And we used YouTube as a television station. But we did probably what everybody did. We just slapped up our news stories on there and we slapped up our promos and our commercials and that was about it. So I started my YouTube channel in 2017, January. And that March is when my position was eliminated. And at that point I had no idea that this is what I would be doing full time. In fact, that year I kept thinking, I'll get back into television. That's what people kept telling me because I was quote, so Good at it. They'll be banging down the door. And I guess they forgot where the door was because the door never knocked. And I applied at two or three different stations and it just, nothing was happening. A couple of non profits and, and I remember telling my wife after the last station I said, if this doesn't happen because I'm a believer, I said, God's got a different chapter plan. I just don't know what it is yet. Along this time I had a couple of nonprofits asking me if I could help them do videos for their fundraisers and things like that one was an adoption foster care agency. And I'm like, yeah, I'd like that. Sounds great. And so that kind of opened the door to thought, why don't I just be in business for myself. Ironically, I'd already started an LLC back when I worked for the television station. So I had one on paper because I thought, why not, you know, why not have one? So I changed the name of it a couple of times. So that kind of led me down the path of I like this, I like creating video, I like creating, but still figuring out what I was going to do, you know. And I was all over the place on YouTube. I wasn't taking it that serious. I was trying to play all the platforms, all the things, because that's what you're supposed to do. That's what we're told. And then in 2020, my channel got audited, reviewed. I say audited and it freaks people out. They think I the IRS came knocking and it got reviewed during a conference by a couple of the guys at Vidiq. And it was the best thing dusty that could have ever happened because some of the things I knew and when somebody puts you, the spotlight on you and says, yeah, we, you look nice but we can't figure out what your channel's about. That's what, that's when all of a sudden I'm like, if I'm going to do this, I really need to get serious. And I would say from that point on even more in the last year or two when I just, it's like I'm just YouTube focused. That's it.
- [08:58]
Dusty Porter
So let's just dive in quickly. When your channel got reviewed by the guys over at Vidiq, I love, by the way I use Vidiq. I love their outlier feature. When you're looking at videos in search that shows you how many X of an outlier that video is for that channel. There's so many great features there. What did they tell you what was the overarching theme of the advice when the channel got audited?
- [09:21]
Kevin Colby
Yeah, that's a great question. So keep in mind at this point I was pretty much. I was inconsistent. I think the. Probably the two or three months prior to that I. One month I'd published two videos. The next month one, the next month five. So there wasn't any consistency and I was just putting everything up there. Like I had worked with a non profit on the disaster relief couple of videos but then I. I had created shorter videos for them and I was just slapping all that up there and I wasn't really focused on anything I was doing. And even my header banner, I think it was Rob and Travis and I think Travis said it's just generic. It just. This is. Even before AI just something just spit it out. It was one of those things that really sounded good and he was like. They pointed out a couple of videos where I'd been teaching something and they were like, maybe lean more into. If this is what you're into is like helping beginners. You appear to be a good teacher, but you're not consistent with it. Thumbnails, titles just all over the place. And so ironically coming from promotion and marketing, especially with the TV and we were. We did all the outside media for the station. It's so funny. That's. That was my world. But I couldn't figure it out for myself. So things like that really got me focused on what should it be. I unlisted some videos that just didn't make any sense at all. I didn't delete them, I just unlisted them, made them private and try to get a little bit more focused on it. And then from there I thought, okay, let me lean in a little bit more to search what people were looking for. And that's when I didn't know it at the time that I would have. For the longest time. My biggest video ever was about how to get Final Cut Pro for free because people were looking for that. I had moved over from premiere to Final Cut Pro. I had used it for free. And I'm like, well, if other people are asking this question, let me just help them with that.
- [11:16]
Dusty Porter
I love that. And hence that's where I discovered you is one of your how to videos that perform so well in search. And those people who know me. And I'm assuming you know this as well.
- [11:26]
Kevin Colby
Oh yeah.
- [11:26]
Dusty Porter
My.
- [11:26]
Kevin Colby
You.
- [11:27]
Dusty Porter
My YouTube channel think tutorial is one of the most. I say this as humbly as I can, but it's one of the More popular technology, how to channels. And long ago, 14, 15 years ago, when I was much younger, had few fewer gray hairs and no kids, I I started that channel and since day one the model channel was to perform in search. Now back then I wanted to perform well in YouTube search and little did I know that would evolve to trying to perform well in Google search. And now in 2025, how do I show up in these AI lists that they're producing through Chat GPT. That's just the pivot and how things evolve. And my channel consistently gets 50, 75,000 views every day. And for me that's just a bit a portion of my business obviously with the podcast and the coaching and things like. So I always encourage people not to put all of their eggs in one basket. When did you know Kevin, that hey, I might can do this thing full time? When did you say to your wife, I'm not going to pursue TV stuff anymore, I'm going to just do YouTube?
- [12:34]
Kevin Colby
And it really was after the last TV station that I was talking to them about being a creative director. And I remember over lunch the general manager who runs the TV station, he and I had gone to lunch a couple of times and he looked across the table and he said, do you really want to get back into tv? And I said absolutely. And I didn't. I will. I'm like, I wouldn't mind the benefits and I think I could just do it easily. And I know that sounds arrogant, I don't mean it that way, but it just, it's something that I love to do. And I don't think he felt I did. And so they gave it to somebody else which I think turned out right. And I think it was just like I'm getting opportunities through YouTube. Like I did a long sponsorship type production deal with Streamyard for months when I had a very small channel. And so later it was like, oh wait a minute so you can make some money and make connections and have an impact without having a ginormous channel. So I think it was then where and I played the other social medias but I never got any traction. And I think more and more with that and I'll throw something in from a personal standpoint. So we have three kids and our youngest has special needs. So the more I could work at home from home on my own schedule became a blessing because if he needed to go to the hospital or a doctor visit or something like that, I didn't have to tap into PTO or call my boss. And I've always had Great bosses. Where I am right now is a former bedroom upstairs in our home that now is outfitted where I can do everything from here. So all of that kind of flowed together and it's been the best thing that's ever happened.
- [14:21]
Dusty Porter
Your story is very relevant to mine as far as the studio that I'm in right now has been built out from the ground up from a bedroom to be where I can do everything. There are pros and cons to that. As I tell everyone, the pros are everything you just mentioned the flexibility, the. The ability to come quickly, revise or change something at a whim. But the cons are that you never really leave it at home because your home is your office. And so you have to be a very good steward of your time. And if you have family and kids like both of us do, you having one that requires even more intensive care, it's one of the things to where there are some days I wish I couldn't just walk five steps and be in my studio. So there are pros and cons to it. And for you, that really is a blessing and it really works out. So let's talk about your niche. Cause you did the whole thing with Search and you got the Vidiq guys to audit your channel. But here recently, you've made a very large pivot. It was one you emailed me about before we got on this call. Just break it down and just. I guess the first part of this question is why did you. What was the pivot? And let's start there.
- [15:35]
Kevin Colby
Yeah, and so I. I actually call it a refocus because I'm still talking about some of the same things I was talking about before. Now, I may not dive deeper into some of the tutorials like I did, but it goes back to a couple of years ago. I was on a call with Heather Torres back when she worked with Think Media, and she was writing a book. I don't know if she ever published it. Hope she did. And we were on a call and we got talking and I don't remember exactly what we were talking about, what sparked it, but she said, kevin, I really think you ought to lean into your age. And this was at least a couple of years ago, maybe. And I said, I don't know. And she said, steve Dotto. And I said, yeah. She said, older. He's leaned into the gray wave thing and it's really worked for him. You've got the experience and yada and Dusty. I still have the email that I sent her after that saying, really Appreciate that I've wrestled with this. And I think it's just, I'm just, I'm not comfortable with just talking about age and my age, even though it's never been a thing. And I think because it's never been a thing, I never leaned into it. So that seed was planted by Heather, who I've since then talked to her since the channel's grown. And I'm like, I blame you for this. And then I had been talking to some other friends who work in the coaching space, some of the same space we are, and one of them said point blank one day, he said, you've got an audience, but you don't have a community. Because at that point like 95% of my views were coming from non subscribers. And I thought, you know what, he's right. And I crave community. And I think it was just, it was also a lot of prayer and talking to other folks and stuff like that. And I thought my channel was going okay. And it's not just all about the numbers, it's just the deeper impact. And I thought, okay, wait a minute, are there other people around my age, close to it maybe that have been downsized or going through family issues or they're just trying to get started in video? Because I have seen in my life the power that video can be, period. Personally, professionally, I don't know what else there would be. But in between all that. And so I thought, you know what, I actually did some research and I saw some, some other videos, people talking to people over 40. And I'm like. And I even talked to a good close friend of mine about over 50. And he said, if you go over 40, you get the over 50s. I'm like, that's true. And so I've only shared this with other two other people. I kept hemming and hawing. I didn't know, I didn't know, I didn't know. And I also just see who's out there. Are there advertisers even interested? Which I thought they would be. Is there even people out there over 50 and 60 on YouTube consuming YouTube? And there are a lot. So the video that I finally published, which was, if you're over 40, why you need to start a YouTube channel or something, whatever I called it, I got up that morning and I thought, heck with it, I'm just going to shoot it. And I sat down, set my camera up and I just rolled. I didn't have any notes. I knew up here and in here what I wanted to talk about. And I Just shot it. And I wasn't even going to edit it. I just rolled. But I have a Canon camera that only records for 29 minutes. It stopped. So I was like, okay, I've got to make an edit. So I cut a couple of little things out and I'm telling you, this is absolute truth. I uploaded it and I thought, I just don't know if I'm going to release it. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. And even that day I was telling my wife, I just don't know that I want to publish this. I just don't know. And she's just do it. I think she did it because she loves me and she's tired of me talking about it. So I thought make it public and move on. And I thought if a few people watch, that's fine. And lo and behold, did I know have no idea how it would completely change my channel professionally, life, personal life, everything. It's just, it completely changed everything. And a friend of mine messaged me after that and he goes, I hope you have another video planned.
- [19:34]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, that, that video now has 640000 views.
- [19:38]
Kevin Colby
It just blows my mind.
- [19:39]
Dusty Porter
It's. It's nine months old. It's really encouraging to hear you talk about that. I have a lot of coaching clients that get on calls with me and they're wanting to pivot, they're wanting to change their niche. They're thinking that they're stuck into something forever and they're in the mud and they don't really enjoy it anymore. They're not passionate about it. Or maybe it lacks community like what you're talking about. It's funny hearing you say that. It's the main reason I started this podcast in the group over a decade ago because my YouTube channel is all search based and I wanted to keep it that way. I enjoy making how to videos. It's one of the pleasures in my life is being able to educate people. And throughout Covid, I'd have emails from high ups at colleges that I'd never have the ability to get in myself. They'd email me and say, hey, we're using your video tutorial and all of our lectures and all of our classes. And it really was encouraging to me and it really made me realize that what I'm creating matters. It's really helping others. But the community I fostered around this podcast, there's been whole groups of people go to conferences because of the show together and those are the things that really Matter for me is the connecting of people. And I think that as a YouTuber, being able to make those changes are scary. So let's talk about the aftermath of that. So you've now since changed.
- [20:57]
Kevin Colby
Yeah.
- [20:57]
Dusty Porter
That video exploded.
- [20:59]
Kevin Colby
Yeah.
- [21:00]
Dusty Porter
What looks differently for you? Like, what is different about the channel?
- [21:04]
Kevin Colby
I think I did several different things. And there was one other thing that I wanted to share too. You mentioned that. So Colin and Samir, I've heard them say before that when they even hit 100,000 subscribers, they were still trying to figure out what they wanted to do. And I'm like, wow. Because I think we believe when somebody hits 100,000, they got it all figured out. And it's no, maybe not. So I wanted to throw that in there too, because I think that was even motivation for. Yeah, you know what? I can still change this. I changed the style of how I'm doing things. So I come from a TV background. Everything, every frame we did was like. And sometimes almost committed to death. And then especially if we were doing outside media because we're basically the agency buying radio commercials and cable and billboards to promote the station. So I came from an extreme production background. Love to edit to where I'm like, I'm trying now to under edit and under produce because I can overproduce and overthink anything. And that's. So TV has been good for my background and kind of a hindrance. I changed the strategy, my thumbnails to be what I just call more hyper real, you know, a couple. I've taken a frame from the video. I usually shoot most of them on my iPhone, strike a little pose and do it. But I didn't want to do the cut the background out thing anymore. I might do a little YouTuber face occasionally. So I wanted to do that titling, which. And I don't. I'm not going to sing any of these are my strong points at all. I think we're all learning. But I tried to get a little bit more real with the titles. And that's when I actually saw how browse and suggested was a thing I'd always heard about. And now, okay, I get that and longer videos. Not that I necessarily go into a video thinking, okay, it's got to be a long video. I still believe it ought to be as long as it needs to be and as short as it needs to be. But at the same time, I don't worry about it anymore. If I just want to talk about a book or whatever and even going a little deeper into channels that I've watched and enjoy that aren't all about maybe video or growth hacks. And I say that with an asterisk because I. I don't. I've had other people reach out very nice and say, hey, you're doing great stuff in the YouTube growth space. And Dusty, I don't see myself as a growth channel expert or guru or anything like that. I would rather tell you how to upload a YouTube thumbnail rather than get into the get more views and do that. Because one, I can't promise that. And I think there's too many people that they have a little success and then all of a sudden they become experts. And I would rather just help you even do it. When somebody says, hey, I don't even know how to get a video off my phone, they're not even thinking about CTR and watch time. They're just trying to how do I get this video off my phone? So that has been the evolution. And the comments have gone way beyond anything I've dreamed of. And I'm sure you've experienced this. Sure. I love it when somebody says, hey, I really appreciate the video. When they write a paragraph, when they share a story, you know, when I start getting emotional reading it, I'm like, dang, that impact, that goes way beyond anything. And so those are changes. For the most part, I still try and stick to a schedule. I've missed it a few times, so those are it. I don't batch as much as I tried to before because I found when I batch too far in advance and I get too far ahead, it's like, I haven't driven the stick shift in a year, so I have to go, okay, wait a minute. Is it up and then down? No, wait a minute, it's this way. So I typically never get more than a couple ahead, if even that.
- [24:58]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, when you mentioned the comment section. With this podcast, people go out of their way to not just comment, like on Spotify or on the YouTube video or through Apple podcast reviews. They'll find my email, which is easily accessible, and they'll write these just long emails about. I started listening to your show back in late 2023. I didn't have a YouTube channel. I launched a channel. I just now reached a thousand. They'll tell me their whole journey on YouTube and. And that is why I do the show. Obviously, it's part of my business. I want to make money, I want to. I want to grow my platform, whatever. But those are the things that really keep me when I'm Discouraged. Those are the things that propel me to continue on, you know, and so I love to hear you, you talk about that being as good at editing as you are. Your videos are look so sleek and so good and you can tell that you've really honed that craft. Give my audience the full breakdown of. Let's get in the weeds a little bit. What does a video look like for you? From start to finish, from ideation to upload?
- [26:01]
Kevin Colby
I keep all of my ideas for the most part in Apple Notes. It's just where I jot down things. And especially now with the new feature where you can just. It's the voice memo is built into it. I may just like blab it out if I'm driving or walking.
- [26:14]
Dusty Porter
One of your other very popular videos, by the way, I watched it. I'm a productivity app, slash note app. It's my toxic trait. I. I love to. To tinker around with different productivity tools and figure out what works best for me. That way I can help my clients and things of that nature. But another very popular video of yours. I just wanted to say that.
- [26:33]
Kevin Colby
Yeah. And look, I had no idea I was playing with it. And honestly. So we can break that one down. So Apple did that on one of the releases and if you haven't seen the video, please watch it. But it's basically where in Apple Notes now you can actually record your voice in there and it'll transcribe it and it's really good. And I thought, you know what, just do a video on this. Help me. That was the genesis of it. I think I did shoot five different thumbnails and I'm like, okay, I'll use that one. But that was it. Did I think it was going to blow up? No. I think we go into it hoping that this will be my next biggest video. But every view is a great. Is a view, right? Every view is somebody watching it. And so I have ideas and I keep. It's like I have video ideas and video done. So if I have an idea, I just jot them down. If I feel like this has a little bit more to it, I'll pin it and come back to it. I don't script, which probably anybody watching my videos are all like, yeah, we knew that. I tend to bullet point. I trust my gut on a lot. But then also sometimes if I'm going to edit, I can go back in and say, you know what, dude? I call myself dude. You went way off on a tangent there. It made no sense. Cut that out or move it I think. I think people new to editing don't realize you can. Not everything is always shot in order. TV shows don't shoot in order. Movies don't shoot in order. And sometimes I don't do the videos in order. Sometimes, if I know how I'm going to start a video and end a video, I do the open and the close at the same time. Then I'll go back and I'll do the screen share, and then I'll like, drop in a voiceover. Then a lot of times I go and watch it through and I'll make a note in, like, a notebook and write down the B roll I need, and if I don't have it, I shoot it. And that's something I've actually changed too. And what I've changed is I don't. This is not a knock on stock footage companies because I've used them in the past. But I don't subscribe to stock footage anymore because my feeling is if I want to do a video of somebody searching for something, then let it just be me. Or don't use it or use text. And so I become my own B roll. If I'm talking about a microphone, let me just shoot my own microphone type thing. So that's the process. So I'll shoot it, I use different programs, and then I'll edit it if it needs editing, and then from there I'll go ahead. Typically, I like to finish things. I usually don't like to try and carry it over to another day. Sometimes I feel like it loses the momentum. And sometimes because of family, I don't have an option. So like, I'm working on a video now that I'm. I don't know if I'll shoot today or tomorrow, but it's taken a little bit more time to put together because it just needs it. Lot of screen grabs. So you know how that is. So what I'll do is then I'll edit it and I'll get it to a point, watch it back, and then I'll go ahead and upload it. And then sometimes in my Apple notes, I have some of the extra notes I'm gonna put into the description. I usually like to try and get it finished even if I haven't scheduled it at that point. I may go ahead and do the thumbnail. I typically don't do the thumbnail ahead of time, but. But I may sometimes have an idea. Sometimes I jot it down, and sometimes I've gone to shoot the thumbnail and go, I didn't work at all. What I saw here didn't come out there. So that's the process. And then I keep a running list of everything. So it's easy to go back and pull from if somebody mentioned something, which is another I think is a takeaway is that the more you do this, sometimes you have videos. When somebody mentions something, you're like, oh, why don't you watch this? Because I think that'll help you. And it gets them back into your library, which becomes that archive, which I would imagine for you is gold. Because I've learned from your videos too.
- [30:12]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, it's. It's interesting with how to content because unfortunately I was at my grandmother's funeral the yesterday and one of my family members that I rarely ever see was a woman that, honestly, I've forgotten her name because we rarely ever see each other. But I know she's in some way extended family. She grabbed my shoulder and I spoke at the funeral and I thought she was about to say something about. About what I said or whatever it may be, but she just grabbed me and she whispered. We were about to eat some food and she said, I just want you to know that I was watching a YouTube video. I was having a problem with my phone. And I was like, hey, that's my. He's in my family. And I was like, it's things like that all the time. I don't put my face in it much. Now that I've started doing video for the podcast, I was amazed at how many people now watch the podcast as opposed to listen to it. And now they put a face with a voice and that's been really neat. But as far as the tools that you use when you're editing thumbnails, what tools are you using?
- [31:06]
Kevin Colby
I still go to Canva. For the most part. I've tried to get away from Canva. I try and run my business, if you will, as frugal as possible. Now I have been gifted programs over time and so that helps me keep the cost down as well. Or you're working with a brand and they'll give you the product for a while. But I use Canva. I tried using Keynote for a while and I liked it to a degree, but. And I've also tried even, believe it or not, going into Google Photos and because you can do some cool things in there, Snapseed on the phone. But I'm a desktop kind of guy, so I would say almost every thumbnail and more has been done in Canva. It's just.
- [31:50]
Dusty Porter
It's like Canva is just so easy. It's good on mobile as it is on desktop. They're always releasing new features and it's not sponsored by Canva. I just, I use them for a lot of things that I do in my business. Speaking of being frugal and money, let's talk about that for a minute. Early on you had that sponsorship with streamyard, which is a company that kind of. I'm familiar with. Talk about the different buckets that you have in your business now where you make money and maybe give us an estimate of what that amount might be in the percentages and things like that.
- [32:19]
Kevin Colby
Yeah, and. And I did a video not too long ago and I think it was like 19 ways I've made money on and off YouTube. And because I was a guest on another show and they wanted me to examine it, it made me step back and go, what are all the ways that I've made it? I would say the bulk of it now there's adsense, but adsense is all over the place. All over the place. Mine is way down now compared to where it was at the end of last year. And that's the way it goes. I coaching, consulting, which I mentioned those separately but they work together and that can be one on one people. I've done some consulting with nonprofits which also has been a little speaking production, hands on production, but I've been trying to back out of that over the last year or so. I just the time wise getting older and quite honestly, there's folks out there that can do it way better than me, way cheaper than I would have to charge. And then along the way I've done other things like sponsorships and some brand deals and I've even changed kind of the way I've done that as well. And then I've had just a lot of other piddly things along the way. But I would say probably for the most part it's coaching, some Digital Products courses, AdSense, the Partner Program, and there's other little perks in there as well. With that and some ongoing production, there's still one or two non profits that I just, I can't say no to because I've worked for so long. So that's the bulk of it. And it can range from I've probably made as little as a few hundred a month to several thousand in a month depending on the time the deals. I was even, I guess freelance contract, whatever you want to call it with another YouTuber and his coaching company for many months. And that was really cool because we got to. I worked with him to work with other channels, including some huge channels, numbers I've never seen with that many zeros. Helping them think out their strategy and stuff.
- [34:13]
Dusty Porter
Awesome. Yeah, it's. Some people hear people's stories on this podcast. And here recently, I've had a kind of a litany of guests who are making what some would consider crazy amounts of money. We're talking 30, 40, $50,000 in a month. And people think that's just what everyone is doing, and it's not. And I tell people all the time they're the way. The way that the life of an entrepreneur works is that there's a lot of mountaintops and there's many valleys as well. And being able to traverse those valleys and get back to a mountaintop or whatever it may be is one of the hardest things to do as a creator and not get so obsessed with the analytics and the data. Yeah, there'll be some weeks where I book like 10 coaching calls, and then there'll be dead times when two weeks will go by and there isn't. Now here, recently it has. It's been a little more consistent as the podcast. You'll see a direct correlation as. Like for you, as your YouTube channel continues to grow, there will be less of that. And as the podcast has gotten more popular and I've done more things to expand my reach, more of those doldrums, you know, they just don't happen as frequently, thank goodness. But it's because of the work I'm putting in. So I don't want to hear this bull about passive income. Yes, there is such thing as passive income. And I'm so tired of hearing it because people just dump everything into passive income. And it's not passive, right?
- [35:32]
Kevin Colby
No, it's not. It's not. And add to that affiliate marketing and this. I' just drop a link and just. It'll just pour in the money. Typically, no, it doesn't do that. And then also I've written two books, so I don't forget about that. So when you look at that, then it all can help fill the gap. So you have a little downtime here. Maybe this picks up you sold some more books, which you don't do to get rich. I'm not a Cal Newport or a. Or a Seth Godin or somebody like that, but it's still something you can do that gives you sometimes more cred, opens doors as well. But yeah, it's. You're so right. YouTube is flooded with how I made $10,000 in an hour. And so we assume, oh, everybody makes that no good for that person if they really did. But at the same time, it's just it. I haven't had that fifty thousand dollar month. I'll be happy to take it, but I haven't had it.
- [36:23]
Dusty Porter
What's the hardest part for you about being a creator?
- [36:27]
Kevin Colby
We touched on it earlier and it's. I'm a solo creator and there's a lot of it I like about it. But it's also that because I got this from my mother, my late mother, but she could just talk to anybody anywhere about anything. She was just that kind of person, which as a kid I was like, mom, please stop. And then as I got older, I'm like, I kind of like that. And one of the things I still miss to this day about not working in television is I had an amazing creative team. And there would be days when we would go in and instead of working, we'd be talking about the latest Battlestar Galactica episode or something like that, or the movie or something. And just that hanging out and that vibe of even having that creative think tank, if you will, because we were a Fox affiliate and we were more entertainment based and so we could say, oh, wouldn't it be cool if we did? And be like, let's do it. And we weren't really stopped by anything. And then all of a sudden it's me. And I use AI to a degree, but it's AI. And so I think the hardest thing is that there's not that person to just bounce the ideas off of or go hang out with or go grab coffee with. There are, but at the same time it's going to manage it in here. And then the other thing is, when I was a creative director, I had an assistant, we had a graphic artist, producers, social media people, everything. I had a team. Now I'm the team. You know, I'm. I've got to do the marketing and the books, which I'm horrible at, and the graphics and the editing and yeah, you could outsource that, but I also think people outsource too fast. And that's my thing is I want to start, but I got to get an editor and it's. But you need to understand the basics first, I think so. I also enjoy doing it. Maybe it's a control thing, I don't know. So I think those are the hardest things about. And then some days you just hit those like, okay, and say my name. Beyond that I just, I can't think of anything. And then you get into the imposter syndrome, which can be real. Even as a believer, it's just like one of those things, like, I don't know, does this even matter? Why am I even doing this? That type thing?
- [38:27]
Dusty Porter
There's still days where I have. Where that happens. I have well surpassed anything that I could ever have imagined. The even just as simple as relationships. Like, I have good relationships. And I text back and forth with some of the most popular YouTube educators out there. And I don't consider them my competitors. I consider them my friends. And I've had the. What I really equate all of it to, Kevin, is I'm just kind to people. Right. I'm not out looking. We live in a very cutthroat society where we're looking immediately to cancel people and this and that. And I just want to help other people succeed. And my dad is a big fan of Zig Ziglar, and that was one of his main things is like, hey, do you want to succeed in life? Will you help others get where they want to go? And you're going to end up climbing to the top where you want to go. And that's really what I try to do, is to help others and to give them a platform. And that's really the antithesis of the show. What trends do you see shaping YouTube as far as new creators come and old creators fall off? What trends are you seeing? What are you hoping for?
- [39:32]
Kevin Colby
As I. Is it fair to say long form? Some trends I think can be here to stay. I think there's the fickle trends. I'm not a shorts fan, not a vertical fan at all. And. But I do think long form has made a comeback And I think YouTube on television is part of the reason is because it's just so easy now.
- [39:52]
Dusty Porter
On your podcast, go ahead and podcast too. Right? That's where a lot of the viewers. Viewership is coming from for long form.
- [40:00]
Kevin Colby
Yeah. And I think video podcasting, which I think trips people up. But it's. If you feel called to do a podcast, just turn a camera on, even if it's a webcam, and you'll be surprised. And that can lead to things. I do think AI worked that point where almost too much AI, AI can be too much where it's cutting into the authenticity and I think the realness. And I think that's been a swing for a bit where we're going to continue to see that where raw and real, which can even be slightly edited. I think there's just that thing for that. And there's bigger YouTubers that are just like they're done. Luke, without Outdoor boys just recently said, I'm done on a huge channel because it just didn't jive with his personal. So I think are we going to see bigger ones just step away, do other deals? And then I also think more streaming platforms, maybe not Hollywood, but more streaming platforms are going to be, especially now with YouTube on television, I think making such a splash, they're going to say, maybe these guys have content then we can repurpose. Because if you're watching Peacock or Paramount or Hulu, it doesn't have to always be a 42 minute show or a 52 minute show. It could be like an 18 or 22 because they're not bound by traditional. So I think those can all be trends that people could really hop on along with talking to people closer to your age and your likes.
- [41:25]
Dusty Porter
What final message would you give the creators listening to this show? Knowing that the demographics of creators that listen to this show scale from haven't even started a channel yet, just in the process of thinking about it, all the way to even millions of subscribers, what would be the kind of final message you would give those folks?
- [41:47]
Kevin Colby
I would say things like, the best thing you can do is literally just create and put it out there. People will say sometimes to me, what do I do for my first video? I don't know what to talk about. I say, make that your first video. Just make it your first video. Put it out there, don't shoot it on your phone and then go, look, this is really good. Put it out there. Because you never know. People will say, I don't have any views. I've never seen a zero view video that's public. Stay zero views forever because they'll probably have somebody. I think this idea that it's only young and stuff like that, and that's not to knock on younger generations because I think everybody has a place at the table and we can all learn from anybody of any age. You're never too old to create. It's never too late. So I always like to say the best time to start was yesterday. The second best time to start is today. So just go with what you've got and just start creating and share your message with others. And you'll be surprised that you'll find at least one person that really needs what you got to say.
- [42:45]
Dusty Porter
I often wonder, Kevin, how many potential great creators, podcasters, whatever, we never got to experience because they couldn't get over the fear of should I, will I Do Imposter syndrome Will I will I do I don't sound right. I don't look right. I'm so thankful that some of my favorite creators went and uploaded that first video.
- [43:07]
Kevin Colby
And why rob people of your gifts by not just using them? Even if you don't know where it's going to go, you don't know where it's going to go. You may be surprised. I was when I published that over 40 video. Had no idea I could have been doing something else right now and instead it's wow. That's opened the door in so many ways.
- [43:25]
Dusty Porter
That's awesome. Kevin colby over on YouTube and he has been an amazing guest. I will have his links to his YouTube channel as well as his website if you want to connect with him farther. And I tell you what Kevin, this has been an amazing conversation and I foresee us doing this in the future again when you've reached 250,000 subscribers or you channel pivot again or whatever it may be. We'll have these conversations because you are very well spoken and I just really appreciate your time today.
- [43:54]
Kevin Colby
Thanks for having me on man.
- [43:56]
Dusty Porter
And that's a wrap on this week's episode of the YouTube of Creators Hub podcast. Don't forget to connect with me if you're Looking for a one on one coaching or consult for your YouTube channel podcast online business, those links will be in the show notes below. We also have the Creators Corner community where we have exclusive podcast episodes every week. We have a Mastermind group. We have Mastermind calls. We're actually working on getting some workshops hosted by members of our groups about specific YouTube topics. It's the best bang for your buck in YouTube. Five bucks. It supports the show and it also helps you in the long run. Then lastly, don't forget to check out our email newsletter. That's where you will be getting that database and spreadsheet of all resources that I've gathered throughout every episode of this show. Thank you as always. Talk to you next week.