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A
They really try to impress upon me the importance of authenticity over even some big tech and, you know, purchases like. Or big editing kind of sizzle purchases like that. And a reminder of, like, why people come there. They're not looking for cable news on YouTube. They're looking for YouTube on YouTube and to be yourself.
B
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's conversation on the Creator Sub podcast. I'm joined today by Tara Palmeri. Uh, Tara has a YouTube channel that has 151,000 subscribers. Almost 700 videos uploaded on the channel. It says she's a veteran Investigative reporter with 15 years of experience covering national politics and foreign affairs. She's a former White House correspondent for ABC News, foreign correspondent for Politico Europe, and contributor to cnbc, CNN, and cbs. Tara, how are you doing today?
A
Great to be here. Thanks for having me. So I'm doing well?
B
Yes. Really looking forward to chatting with you about just the Creator Space, your YouTube channel, and, you know, how you've transitioned from, say, more mainstream media into doing more of. You still do both, but the. The YouTube channel and kind of the differences in the two. So before we get really started, can you tell the audience a bit about how you got started in content creation and kind of what that looked like for you?
A
Sure. So, you know, I. I guess I sort of evolved into this space. I. I've been a journalist for almost, I think, 18 years now. And, you know, if you asked me when I was in college, are you gonna have a podcast? One day, I'd be like, wait, what are you talking about, a podcast? What's that? You know, it was everything that I'm. Or you're gonna have a newsletter instead of work for a newspaper or be on a TV station. I'd say, really? Newsletters, like, that's gonna be the future. So I feel like I've followed. I followed the modes in which people prefer to get their communication and get their information throughout my career. And this will be my fourth podcast. And, you know, I had a show on the ringer called Somebody's Gotta Win over the Election. And it wasn't a video show. It was just for audio, because that was sort of how podcasts were. But then I was. I noticed that more and more people were watching their podcasts on YouTube, and I had a newsletter with Puck. I actually started with the newsletter writing for Playbook at Politico. And then I decided, you know what? I'm going to take that over to Substack. And so I just went fully independent. I went. I learned these skills from all these great places. The ringer before that, I had another podcast on Jeffrey Epstein with Sony. I did two of them with Sony on Jeffrey Epstein and Glenn Maxwell. And I took those skills that I learned and even the skills from broadcaster journalism, being a White House correspondent, and I applied it to the new the biggest channel in the world, which is YouTube. And it's where everyone is really coming. So I just, I feel like I'm following the audience in a big way by coming here to YouTube, but I still come with the same, you know, rigor and journalistic standards that I use at the places that I worked at before.
B
That's awesome. I have to ask, before we really get deep into this thing, what is what. What's worse, the YouTube comment section or politicians? Which one affect you more?
A
I like the YouTube comment section. They're like, maybe I'm getting. Maybe we're filtering it so much that it's only like really invested fans. But I also really, I like the criticism too. I feel like I'm creating a community and I want to hear from my audience. I want to hear what they care about, what they think about. I don't want to exist in a bubble, which I think a lot of newsrooms exist in those bubbles, despite their best attempts to go out on the road and hear from real voters. I think the comments section has really kept me aware of where people are right now on the issues and what they care about. I literally say at the end of my shows, tell me what you want to hear more about. What are you interested? Give me your feedback, make me better. This is a community experience. It wouldn't exist if I was just talking into the void. So it's so important to me that I hear from them. And yeah, they're haters, um, and that's part of life. But I do listen to, to criticism as well. Always have.
B
What would you say has been the hardest part of the content creation for you as far as you know? I know working with like the ringer and doing stuff with your team, you may not have your hands in every aspect like some creators that we have here on the podcast, but with that being the case, you do know about a lot of it. And so what was the biggest roadblock or the biggest hang up for you when were getting going on YouTube and with content creation?
A
Well, I have to say, when I first, I'm not a techie, so when I first got my equipment and I started putting it together and I really struggled just to turn the camera on and get the lens in Focus. I mean, that was. I remember in the early days when I started this about a year, I say early days. It was just about a year ago. But when I started this about a year ago with only a thousand followers or so, I remember at one point just like, almost like breaking down crying. Cause I was like, I feel so intimidated by this technology. I have been a writer for so much of my life. And then I moved into broadcast journalism, but I had a team. There were cameramen, there was lighting, there was audio. Everybody was there doing it. And for the first time, I was turning on the camera and the lights and all of that. And, and it was even easier with audio with the ringer, because I was only expected to record audio. So it was just, you know, a little, a little microphone. But this was a moment where I had to get the lights right, I had to look right, I had to turn the cameras on. I had to keep the eye contact during the interview, get the questions out there. There was just so much, There was, there was a lot going on. And then also for me, at one point, it was just turning on the camera, and I, I, I, I asked a friend, I was like, can you, I hire someone to help me learn how to do this? And he was just like, you got, you have to know it. You know, you have to know every part of your business. You have to know how to do this. And so I do have technical difficulties. On Monday, I had technical difficulties. Um, I was interviewing Mehdi Hassan. We had a great interview, but Mehdi's a big guest. He's a big guy. And I was like, oh, my God, I can't get my, my tech to work. And I felt this pang in my heart, and I, it brought me back to that day and, and, and that time. And I think that's, that for me was probably the hardest part. So, you know, I'm a journalist, and I've always been an editorial, but I think people who come at this, having maybe been behind the camera and deciding they want to be in front of the camera, they have less anxiety about turning that camera and the lights on. But maybe they have more anxiety about being in front of the camera.
B
Yeah, I completely agree. Is there something that you wish you would have known sooner now that you are a year plus into this, looking at that journey? Besides the tech stuff, is there something you think to yourself, man, I wish I would have just known this sooner?
A
You know, honestly, I feel like everything, every lesson came in its time and when it was supposed to. And I'm, I'm still open to the next lesson as I try to grow and expand. Um, you know, when I started, I really went about it in the kind of more traditional way where I thought, I'll have big newsmakers on my show. I had Senator John Fetterman, Mark Cuban, big household names. I'll, I was like, I'll have them on my show and we'll break news and it'll get on Fox and it'll get on cnn and it'll get on abc and then it'll be picked up by outlets, and then that will draw people to my YouTube page. And they did get picked up. The strategy worked. That's a traditional press strategy, but it didn't build a core audience of Tara Palmeri show regulars, people who want that show every day. It just didn't do that. It just, I don't even know that it really migrated people that watch cable news over to YouTube. I hope it did. We saw the numbers grow a little bit, but once I really started focusing on the community that existed in YouTube, on YouTube, the people who are there, that's when I really saw it expand. And I think, you know, I took the more traditional news route, which, the traditional publicity route, frankly. I've used the mainstream media really not buying into my own theory that everybody was really on YouTube. And that's where I should have been trying to make my. My, my mark. Not on mainstream, you know, old media, you could say, but on the platform that everyone's at. And once I switched that, I saw my numbers growing. And that was when I really saw a lot of growth. And I, and I, and I, and I always, always, always asked for advice from people who had been doing this. I mean, even before I jumped into it, I would just. Anybody who would talk to me about how they got into it, I would sit down with them and beg them for advice. Like, I was just like, anything I could get. I wanted to learn this. I wanted to, to take all of the best advice I could get from people who had succeeded.
B
Do you remember the specific questions that you asked those folks? Like, were, was it specific questions about different aspects of the creator space or YouTube specifically? And maybe some answers that you got that helped you the most?
A
You know, a lot of it was like, for a lot of people, they kind of just told me to, to save my money on things that other people I assumed I had to spend a lot of money on. They really tried to impress upon me the importance of authenticity over even some big tech and you purchases like, or big editing kind of sizzle purchases like that and a reminder of like, why people come there. They're not looking for cable news on YouTube, they're looking for YouTube on YouTube and to be yourself. And you know, I found that like, the more I talked to producers that came from tv, the more I realized I needed producers who'd come from YouTube and I needed editors who had come from YouTube. And it was just a reminder that I really had to give up the, my old vision of what media was and walk into the future, really leave that door behind, like close that door behind me and embrace the medium that I had picked. And you know, I didn't really know much about thumbnails, but I learned about them and making the faces and getting a really good thumbnail artists and how they're basically like the da Vinci. The headline. The importance of like just the little things in YouTube that people don't realize. The tags, the thumbnails, the titles, the descriptions, the chapters, all of it. Like, I, it was, I just watched it and took it for granted. But I didn't realize there were people who were learning the strategy of this. And I found, I just asked people for recommendations for great editors and for great thumbnail artists and, and I asked them for advice on how to be the best version of me on the YouTube.
B
It's interest, it's interesting because it is a different muscle, right as far as the mainstream stuff and then the YouTube stuff. And people think there might be a one to one or it translates really well or whatever it may be. But hearing you talk and having other people who've come from. I had Clayton Morris on the show a few months back and he was telling me how he was in mainstream media and how there was really not much correlation between what he was doing there and on YouTube and how he had to learn and relearn things. Kind of what you're referring to. And so it really is just a
A
different space, totally different muscle. I mean, the core is the content that I'm creating, which is coming from my journalistic background and from my sources and my reporting. But I had to adjust for the space in the same way that journalists had to adjust for X and Instagram and for newsletters. Like, we have to be able to move with our audiences and the people who get stuck in the places that they feel comfortable, they are the ones who are missing the biggest reach. They're missing, they're, they're, they're losing their audience. And like, that is actually what ultimately got me into social media and posts, posting and, and putting videos on YouTube. I started putting shorts up about a year before I actually launched. And I thought, you know, that's a kind of a way to show the algorithm, hey, I exist. Hey, I'm here. I'm. I'm not just a viewer. I'm. I'm also a creator. A lot of journalists, they feel uncomfortable with that word creator, but I don't.
B
Yeah, I think that people hear that word and they almost think that it's cheap, if that makes sense. Like it's. It's a knockoff from whatever the mainstream is. I don't agree with that at all. I feel I consume content from a creator. I kind of liken it to what you're doing in a sense, in that people watch Weathermen on mainstream old school tv. Well, I watch a guy named Ryan who has a huge audience here on YouTube. And he basically does the same thing that meteorologists do and have been doing forever on mainstream channels, but he's doing it on YouTube and he's built this community. And to watch him curate. And I had him on the podcast early on in the show and just to hear him talk about how he was able to do that and bring a mainstream thing like meteorology and weather and bring it to YouTube and how cool it is to do these live streams and basically do what they were doing on television for decades and now be able to do it for free from his bedroom. Right. And so it's really interesting to see how people are transitioning from one to or the other as far as, like the outsourcing of things. You mentioned getting a thumbnail artist. Do you know, and remember kind of as this journey progressed for you, the things that you decided to hire people to do and the things that you did yourself?
A
Well, I couldn't edit, unfortunately, so I always had to hire an editor. So I had editor, you know, the thumbnail. I can't. I couldn't do that either. So. And I've got an amazing thumbnail artist. He's. He's really incredible. We call him our Da Vinci. So basically, the editor and the thumbnail artist were really what I needed. Clipping. You know, you can use opus and those two things. Producer, you know, producer, editor, kind of predator is. Is what. Is what I needed. Also, I try to do a daily show. So when you do a daily show, you can't really, you know, do the interview and then edit it at the same time and get it out within a day. I mean, I don't know many people who could do that. God bless if they can.
B
And where has the live streaming come into play for you because you do live stream quite frequently?
A
Well, we want to do it more. We're working on that. We're coming up with a live strategy so that people can watch us live more frequently. Um, that's. That's something we're definitely working on. Tomorrow we've got a big debate and by. You know what, let me take that back, because you are putting this out at the end of March so that debate will have already passed. But I'm trying to integrate live streaming into my content more. I want people to almost to see us as a regular show on YouTube that they can come do.
B
How do you keep up with the consistency as far as doing a daily show? Are there things that you've had to kind of let go of or things that you've had to do a bit differently because you are trying to consistently keep up that cadence of a daily show?
A
Okay, so I will. I've already done one show this morning. Um, and I will do another one at 2pm and I. There's news every single day, and I want to touch a lot of different points. I cover politics, but I. I'm very deep into the Epstein story, covering the midterms, the president. There's so much out there, and I don't want to miss a day. And. And I write a newsletter every day too, which is also kind of extreme. Yesterday I wrote two. So, yeah, I'm. I'm really all over the. Like, I'm really working it. Although I noticed I had a few typos and I thought, you know what, maybe I need to slow down. I have to really kind of like, chill out. But it's hard. I mean, I create content. If I don't. If I'm not posting all the time, if I'm not up on Instagram, if I'm not up on X. Like, I do have someone now who's an intern who's helping with my social media, and she posts a lot for me throughout the day. But like this, these are the things that I need to do to keep my community fed, to keep the conversation going. I'm in the news business.
B
If you like this conversation that you're listening to right now, I just want to ask you one thing. Can you go and subscribe to the show? Whether it be on your podcast player over on YouTube, wherever it be, subscribe. I would really appreciate it. Leave us a review. Also, let me know what you think of the show. And don't forget to check out all of the resources and the things that we offer creators and down below in the show notes. And lastly, if you know a creator or have contact with someone who you think would be a great fit for this podcast, let me know. Send me an email. Dustyustyporter.com with that said, back to the conversation. It has to be relevant and current and you cover things that are happening in real time. Can you discuss the difficulties? Because there's a lot of creators listening to this show that want to cover relevant things, whether it be movies or books or whatever it may be. Can you talk about just how you're staying up to date on everything and then able to translate that into videos?
A
Listen, like last yesterday, I had some sources that told me a bit about what Trump was thinking in the Texas Senate primary and the fact that he still hadn't endorsed and they were hitting a deadline at 5pm for one of the candidates to drop out of the race. But without President Trump putting his finger on the dial, the other candidate did not feel he had to drop out. So now Republicans may spend more than $200 million on a Senate race in Texas and they may actually lose to a Democrat for the first time. This is a major story. And so, you know, a few hours before the deadline, I was like, I gotta write something. Right. And then I'm doing a show on it today. And then the day before, I interviewed Mehdi Hassan about his poll that showed that a lot of Americans believe that the war in Iran was partly started to change the story about the Epstein files, to change the narrative. There's just so much going on, I have to cover it. I have my own sources giving me information. People come to me for the inside story if I have it. If you don't report it and use it, you lose it in news and you can't really. It's hard to sit on things for too long.
B
Let's now transition in talking in about monetization and making money. Can you talk about the different buckets that you're able to make money from your content and kind of how you've tried to optimize those?
A
Sure. So we have obviously AdSense from YouTube and memberships, which we're going to try to build a membership program once we start going live more frequently. And I think we'll try to integrate our audience into our programming and really get them involved in the lives with questions, maybe even appearing on screen. Different types of membership for people who want more information. We'll, we'll figure that out. And we're doing brand partnerships. We, you know, we have ads. Some people don't like seeing ads, and I hate to say that I have to use them, but it's, it's the way to be able to pay other people and myself. So that's, that's kind of how it goes. We're in the advertising business too.
B
It's unfortunate, but it is kind of a necessary evil per se. And, and I completely understand, especially if you're wanting to do high quality content that is comparable to what's coming from the mainstream side of things, being able to hire and pay an editor and a thumbnail person and even other things is important. Can you talk about substack and the newsletter and why creators should be writing more?
A
For me, I was always a print journalist. That's how I started my career. And so I feel very comfortable writing. It's my native space and I have built. You know, there's an. I kind of bring the two communities together. I post my YouTube videos on my sub stack. I direct my substack to my YouTube. I believe it's just two different sites, slightly different people, but I want them to exist together because that's where I put my, my content. I also have it on Spotify, it's on itunes. But substack to me feels like social media, like a social media space. So that's. That's partially why I do it too. And I like to have. I feel like that's something about being able to read the story.
B
So, yeah, if you were growing a YouTube channel, and you are now, but if you were starting over, what would you tell the audience listening that are stuck, say, and they're looking at their analytics and kind of like you were. Where you were kind of breaking down like, hey, man, is this thing gonna go anywhere? Did I make the right decision? How would you go about doing it? What are the tips and the tricks and things that you would tell this person?
A
Trying to grow a channel, that's really tough. You know, it's. Takes a while. You have to be patient. I think everything takes about six months at least. I didn't really see my channel grow for at least six months and then it really took off. But everyone sort of told me, like, stay at it, stay at it, keep with it, it'll eventually take off. And then when it did, I was on vacation, which is crazy. But I, I really, you know, I spent many years reporting on the Epstein story when a lot of people didn't really care about it. I started in 2019. I did two podcasts on it. So when it became A story again, I was in a position to really be able to get into it and to tell everyone what had really happened there. And so people came to my page to learn more about Jeffrey Epstein and the scandal and the story and my relationship with Virginia Giuffre, who I traveled around the country with. She's one of the most prominent accusers of Jeffrey Epstein. So I think that sort of helped to bring in new audiences who weren't just interested in politics to my page to learn more about. To learn more about this horrific scandal, perhaps like the biggest since water, if not bigger than Watergate. So that was. But I stuck with it. I think anything in life, you have to stick with it for at least six months.
B
Yeah, yeah, that. I feel like I. My audience gets tired of hearing me talk about that, so I won't. I'll just say I ditto what you said, because I do speak about being consistent and sticking through kind of that dip before, kind of the rise there. So it's good to hear you kind of confirm what I've been trying to preach here on the podcast. If you have a podcast right now in 2026, do you think it's really feasible to do it without having a video version of the show? Unless it's just strictly, like, made for audio?
A
I think all of the platforms are really pushing everyone to get into video. Spotify clearly wants you to post videos now. YouTube, you can't do it without video. ITunes is now moving into video. Instagram is all about video. So is TikTok. I just don't know how you could do a show anymore without video. It feels almost ancient to not have video. It's like having. It's like radio when you could watch a show on tv. I mean, there's something kind of like intimate about, like, I know a lot of people still listen to us, they just listen to the audio. But some people want to watch on tv. A lot of people watch my show on tv.
B
Yeah, like, that's. We talked about this in our state of YouTube episode that we do at the end of the year where I talk and sit down with a roundtable of a bunch of YouTube experts. And one of the trends that we're seeing is that the TV viewing of YouTube is just going through the roof. That's where a lot of people's consumption of YouTube is happening right now is on big screen TVs. And I would assume a show like yours fits perfect for that. Right? It's just. You're watching that. I know for me, my daughters and I love to sit down and watch Ryan Trahan or whoever their favorite creators are. And you know, we'll sit down actually. Dude, perfect. And we'll watch them on the big screen TV in the afternoons. And so it's kind of like, you know, Saturday morning cartoons back in my day is now the YouTube, you know, transition to YouTube.
A
Exactly.
B
Good to hear you do.
A
My dad does too. I. That was the weirdest thing when I came home for. I think it was Thanksgiving a few years ago. And I'm watching him watch YouTube on TV and it's just scrolling. It's just going from one of his favorite shows to the next, the next to the next. I'm like, well, now I know how your brain works. But yeah, he's a boomer and he's watching YouTube on TV all day long.
B
So how are you repurposing the content? Like what other outlets other than the written newsletter on Substack and your website? And then you have YouTube. You mentioned X. You have someone posting for you there. Do you feel like in order to get maximum reach, you need to try to be in these different places?
A
Yeah, you have to be everywhere all at once. I was saying to my friend who was asking me for advice yesterday, I'm like, I think the next book I'm gonna write is called Everywhere all at Once. I'm joking, but it is exhausting. You do have to be everywhere all at once.
B
Yeah, it's hard too, because like you said earlier, there's different things to optimize.
A
Yeah, no, there is. And everyone is. You want to try to get all of your audiences to funneled to the other. The other platform and you want them to all exist. But it's hard. It's actually hard. So I have friends who maybe had a thousand. Sorry, a thousand. I think millions of followers on TikTok. But it's been hard for them to transfer those millions of followers on TikTok to YouTube.
B
Yeah.
A
And Vice versa. It doesn't always. There can be a disconnect.
B
It's fun to see the differences in audiences and people who consume on different platforms. When our triplets were born at the end of last year, I did an experiment and I uploaded some family videos to all these platforms. And I've had a lot of fun with it. Just putting some positive content out there and the people and what resonates on TikTok really doesn't on Facebook or Instagram. Like, it's just different. And how you present it should be different and how you maybe force format the videos are a little bit different. So you're exactly right. Sometimes if you're successful on one, you may not be on the other, but being on all of them I think is critical. For sure.
A
You gotta throw out the line to get the fish right.
B
Exactly, exactly. How important do you think niching down is on YouTube? And do you ever fear that, let's say you're covering a topic like Epstein that is so gargantuan in size and impact and scope. Do you ever worry that maybe your channel will get known as the Epstein channel? So that's kind of a. I know
A
it's a really big question. It's interesting because people ask me that a lot. But I think anyone who's like really paying attention to my content will see that I probably cover Epstein like one in every four videos. But the Epstein videos, they get more traction and the truth is is that it's a really fascinating, horrible story that no, I don't think anyone has ever said to Bob Woodward. You ever worried you be you become the Woodward, you'd become the Watergate guy. So that's why I always wonder why do people say that about the Epstein story?
B
Yes, I, I think that with YouTube and niching down, I've worked with creators that have done videos about a specific topic within a niche and they've been known for that, you know, and I just didn't know if that's something that was a concern. When you're doing news like you are, that's reactionary and it's very much relevancy based. I don't think it's much of a. Too much of a concern as you're just covering stories as they're relevant.
A
Yeah, but I also just think like it is the biggest story in the world right now. I mean.
B
Yes, and so it would be.
A
That goes all the way up to the highest levels of power and has led to probably more resignations than we've ever seen.
B
And yet no, it would be ignorant
A
of you in our public life.
B
Yes.
A
So I don't know, I'm not really worried about it. If it was, if there was no interest in the Epstein story, my nobody would come to my page.
B
So yes, absolutely, completely agree. You have to cover as a news and a journalist, you have to cover the things that are at the top of the list. And for you and right now that what you cover that is certainly at the top of the list, it may be something next year different and if it is, it is the same thing.
A
Only hit the tip of the iceberg on this One, it's just a matter of what kind of whether the, what the leaks reveal from inside of the Department of Justice, because I don't think they're going to be willing to give us many more documents.
B
And yes, it is certainly interesting to
A
get down to the bottom of the story.
B
Well, I tell you what, I, I am give you guys kudos who cover stories like that as you're putting yourself out there for the, for, you know, your opinions and, and things here on this show. I try to keep it pretty generalized and don't talk about those kind of things in fear of kind of the response. And so you guys really putting yourself out there is. We talked about tr. Is that something that you've ever struggled with or had to deal with is people responding to your content in a negative way?
A
Oh my gosh. All the time I work in, I'm a political journalist. I've been dealing with that since before I was even online. People are very fired up about politics. It's gotten worse. I mean, X is just basically all trolls and I just deal with it. It's the hazards.
B
Are there specifics, Are there specific things that you do? As far as I know you said you, your team might monitor the comment section. Are there things that you do to curate a positive community as opposed to just kind of giving that, fanning that flame?
A
I don't fan it for sure. Yeah, I put out my content and people respond the way they want to respond. But yeah, I don't fan it. I don't respond. I don't really. I think I'm putting what I put out reflects the time that we're in. I think a lot of the content, especially the attacks, are misogynistic. This is something that's been going on with female reporters for a long time. I just deal with it and move on. I don't even really look at it much. My, my producer handles a lot of my social media and so I look at my YouTube comments. But when I put things up on like TikTok or X or this and
B
that, I'm just like upload and go,
A
yeah, I respond to some comments, but I try not to get too lost in it.
B
Sure, yeah. I've interviewed probably at this point a couple hundred females on the show creators and the majority of them have had very positive things to say about YouTube and the audience. But I still think there are things that, you know, the, the platform can do to help female creators. What are things. Is there anything that you wish that YouTube or the creator space could do for female creators to help them kind of give them even more of a platform than they already have.
A
Advice for female creators. I think you just have to kind of like, I really got stormed with a lot of bots when I started. Someone was clearly trying to stop me from making my mark. I think you just have to try to get through the storm and understand that, like, it's kind of par for the course to be attacked as a woman, unfortunately.
B
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Tara, you've been an amazing guest. I really appreciate all of your advice that you're willing to give. I'm gonna have links to where you can check out everything Tara has going on in the show notes as I do every week, and Tara will talk to you. Time.
A
Thank you so much. This was great. Best of luck with your show too.
B
And that's a wrap on the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. I do this every Friday. Sitting down with a wonderful content creator. If you've listened this far and you're still here, let me tell you, you must be a creator who really wants to invest in your craft. And if that's so, check the show notes of this episode because you're going to see four or five different ways we can help you as a creator. I love sitting down with content creators, working with them one on one in my coaching program. If you're looking for a little bit of a lower barrier to entry, try our Creators Corner mastermind group. 5 to $10 gets you in that group. You can chat with other creators all throughout the week. Participate in our Mastermind calls, get exclusive podcast recordings. It's a great investment in your journey and we offer YouTube channel audits and reviews where we do Screencast recordings for 50 bucks. Take a look at your channel and tell you where I think you should be spending your time. There's other ways you can connect with us, like our email newsletter, our running list of tools mentioned on the show. All of those things will be mentioned in the show notes below. Thank you as always for listening to this podcast and if we've helped you in any way, please go leave us a review wherever and however you listen to your podcasts.
Host: Dusty Porter
Guest: Tara Palmeri
Date: April 10, 2026
This episode features Tara Palmeri, a veteran investigative journalist and former White House correspondent, who discusses her journey from traditional media to building a thriving YouTube channel with over 151,000 subscribers. Host Dusty Porter and Tara cover challenges of moving from mainstream media to YouTube, the importance of authenticity, strategies for growth, monetization, cross-platform promotion, community management, and advice for creators—especially women—in today’s creator ecosystem.
Tara Palmeri’s journey illustrates the realities and rewards of pivoting from traditional media to independent content creation on YouTube. Her emphasis on authenticity, engaging with community, adapting to the platform’s culture, and cross-promoting content across various platforms provides a blueprint for creators wanting to grow sustainably—while acknowledging the difficulties, especially for women, in today’s highly connected digital world. Tara’s advice boils down to patience, consistency, and never losing sight of engaging the audience for whom you create.