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YouTube Creators Hub
How James Allen Makes Real Money on YouTube - Without a Huge Audience
00:39:42
In this episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast, Dusty Porter interviews James Allen, an online business coach who specializes in helping coaches and content creators monetize their expertise. What We Offer Creators . A place to gather with...
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- [00:00]
James Allen
You can approach YouTube in a couple different ways. Like one is like a Mr. Beast channel, where that's like a views tuber. Ed Lawrence would use these terms, a views tuber, where it's like you just get as many views as possible and then you make money through AdSense or sponsors and stuff like that. And it's like that just doesn't seem reliable to me or as fun personally.
- [00:19]
Dusty Porter
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creator sub podcast. Hope you're having a great day. Whenever and however you are listening to the show, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast, whether it be on YouTube or an audio show. We go live with new episodes on Friday. We're brought to you by all the things that we have to offer you. I offer YouTube one on one coaching and consultation. If you're looking to grow your channel and would like to work with someone, definitely check that out. I do channel reviews and channel audits. If you're not quite ready for a coach just yet and you want to have a little bit of a smaller barrier to entry, definitely check that out. And we've grown our creators community over on Discord. Five bucks a month gets you in that group. You can chat with creators all through the week. Week we do a monthly mastermind call that I host on Zoom and I release new weekly exclusive podcast episodes every Friday on that feed as well. So definitely go check out all of those things that we have to offer you. But if you're looking to start, grow or monetize a YouTube channel, this is where you need to be. Subscribe to the show. We have new amazing creator guests every single week. So with that said, let's jump into the conversation. Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast. My name is Dusty Porter. As always, if you are watching the video video version of this week's episode, you'll notice that I have my dad hat on. I haven't made an announcement but this episode will be going live towards the end of July. But my wife is pregnant and we. She's a pretty 14, 15 weeks now, 16 by the time you're hearing this. And she's actually having triplets. So we do have two girls right now and she is pregnant with triplets right now. Which anyways, I try to be honest with my audience and let you guys know. So anyways, I did want to to announce that, but now that I've said that I want to talk about our guests because he is. He's got a lot I think that you guys are going to find extremely valuable in this episode. So James Allen is an online business coach who helps coaches and content creators turn their knowledge into scalable, automated income so they can stop trading time for money and finally ditch the hustle. I love that line. Today he's the founder of profityournowledge. Com. He teaches his clients how to package their expertise into digital offers that sell themselves so they can make more money, work fewer hours, and build a business that fits their life, not the other way around. I love that copy. James, how are you doing today?
- [02:42]
James Allen
I'm doing fantastic, Dusty. Thanks for having me on the show. It's actually a dream come true because I've listened to this podcast for years and now I got to be on it. And congrats on the kiddos, dude. Super exciting.
- [02:53]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, it's, it's been a thing that we've been holding now for a couple of months. We actually, I think I said this in a newsletter. We lost a child at the end of last year and so it's been a roller coaster of a year for sure. But we are so thankful and we are so excited and a little nervous and a little overwhelmed. But that's part of it. So let's go ahead and just dive into it. So. Profityournowledge.com you have a really tight knit community over on your YouTube channel and we're going to be talking a lot today about monetizing and profiting. Profiting from a smaller audience. I say small. It's all relative, right? Somebody may look at your audience and say, man, I wish that was small. Right. Their audience may actually be small. So talk about the origin story of this whole thing. How did it come to be?
- [03:36]
James Allen
Yeah, yeah. Just FYI, I have 3,000 subscribers on my channel right now. And yeah, crazy. It's just like I get invited to speak on summits or stages and stuff. I meet people through my podcast, which is the Profit yout Knowledge podcast. And that they often say, oh, you've learned how to monetize with a small audience, what time you come and speak. And they're like, you're the YouTube guy. And I, I always feel like I'm not the YouTube guy. I've just learned how to use YouTube because I love watching YouTube videos and I had some really great mentors who taught me about copywriting and all the business skills and marketing and YouTube's just such an amazing channel for that. Even if you have a small audience. Because when I had about 200 subscribers, I was making anywhere from two to $4,000, usually in a month, every month. And it was just like this automated thing that started working even at such a small audience of even just 200. So I used to be in construction work back in the day. In 2018 I finally left my job and that was really hard because that's what my dad did for a very long time. Provided for and really secure job. But I just wasn't happy. And I got into this. I always had this dream of starting YouTube but I feel like most people, I put it off for a really long time cuz I was just nervous of the equipment. I thought it had to be something way bigger than I was. And I put it off for a couple years really until I finally just hit record and started a video. And it's still on my channel. I've unlisted a ton of videos by the way, get into why I did that. But the first video I published on YouTube I just got this urge. So I whipped out this camera that I bought and was sitting collecting dust. And it was about computers, comparison, despair and how we compare ourselves to other people and don't do the things that we really want to do and whatnot. And it's like that imposter syndrome. And I just made that and it's really like how I was feeling about business and about getting into this whole new world of coaching and marketing online and stuff. And it was more a message for myself than anything. And that was really the catalyst and I just kept making videos and it was a while until I started actually investing in great mentors like yourself or like Ed Lawrence from Film Booth and Think Media, all that kind of stuff to learn more about YouTube. And Graham Cochran was a huge influence because he was able to build a huge empire and make money from YouTube. And yeah, he taught me just about the system like Ramit Sethi as well. And that's. That was around when I had 200 subscribers. So I got better at thumbnails and titles and packaging and delivering too. But yeah, if you look at my oldest video versus like my newest one, just the delivery, the confidence and the message, everything is so different and it's yeah, you just gotta get started. But that's what really happened in a nutshell.
- [06:06]
Dusty Porter
You have had a really cool journey. You were also a productivity coach at one point you came from kind of construction like what you mentioned with the family business kind of per se. And then now you're doing the YouTube thing and you're teaching people how to be coaches. So coaches and consultants like myself, who are coaching creators in whatever space it may be. And you gave me a lot of examples when we were talking off air the other day, talking about a couple of your clients. And it's so cool that you're right. Like coaches, as long as you're an expert and you really focus on something and you spend time in it, you can be that for someone else. You can be that even if you don't think personally that you can. And so it's really cool to watch your journey. All right, so did you start with a clear, like a clear niche, like when you started the channel and what you wanted to do on YouTube, or were you like mixing in the productivity? How did the beginning phase look like?
- [06:56]
James Allen
Yeah, no, I. I would just, I was just making stuff. So when I first started, I left construction and I was 22 when I first left construction. This is back in 2018, so I'm gonna be 30 next month, which would be cool. New. But when I left construction, I went straight into being a spiritual Life coach at 22 years old. Yes, I was that guy. And I got clients when I was building a business and stuff because I knew a lot and I had done a lot of internal work to build my confidence and stuff like that. It took me a while until I eventually pivoted into the productivity niche because that's where I learned the importance of niching down into something. Because as a spiritual life coach and just life coaches in general, and I have strong opinions now about someone who's, I'm a life coach. You shouldn't just be a life coach because what is that? What's the outcome you're really helping somebody get instead of just, I want a better life that doesn't keep me up at night. It's a specific problem in my life and you have to position your life coaching skills to solve that. So I was just all over the place. And I'm sure that's why it took me a really long time to get like any sort of traffic on top of like my delivery skills and presentation and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, construction, spiritual life coaching. And then a couple years later pivoted into the productivity niche because I was obsessed with this idea of how can we, how can I grow my own business and make money without always having to be on or work few, as few hours as possible and still make money? I love like the four hour workweek, the laptop lifestyle, and that's what I wanted when I was in construction. But I didn't have any marketing skills. I Didn't know any of that stuff. So I wasn't just going to jump into profit or knowledge because I wouldn't have felt aligned. And through the years of being a spiritual life coach and doing productivity coach like I eventually got better at marketing. I learned about automations and digital products and I built six different digital products that didn't make me any money. The funnels, like everything courses, all that kind of stuff, zero money whatsoever. I tried running ads, everything and just like non stop zeros. And then when I learned from people like Graham Cochran, Ramit Sethi, they taught me like real business skills and understanding your audience which is so big and doing customer research and finding a product that people want before you buy it. And that's when I created a new productivity course called Peak Focus Academy. And that was the first course that actually sold for me completely hands off. I remember waking up in the middle of the night or no, it was. No, I woke up in the morning overnight. I had a 200 sale. And to me that was massive because I had done like five $10,000 months with coaching and stuff. But I always had to be on a phone call with someone. It was never this like automated thing with no engagement. So someone watched some YouTube videos and this is like when I had 200 subscribers, it started happening. They joined my email list, read some emails and then looked at my product and paid me a couple hundred dollars without ever meeting me. And to me that was like the craziest thing in the world. I ran into my, the bathroom, my girlfriend's like doing her hair and I'm just like screaming and ran back to the computer. She's like, what is going on? So yeah, and that's when it really started to happen. And then people started reaching out, asking about questions because I was more focused. And to, to our conversation the other day. It really is so important to have a specific reason for people to visit your channel. And I'm happy to break down some strategies and things that I've learned along the way and that you've even helped me with. Too dusty.
- [10:06]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, we'll talk about that because I definitely want to really dive into that pretty, pretty deep. I want to ask you though, what was the turning point when you thought to yourself, okay, this could be more than just a hobby, this could be something that, this may be a real money for me. This could be a job. Do you remember, was there a specific day, a specific sale you made? Or was it even then when you made that 200 doll? Because like you said, you had really Good months prior with coaching. So what was the turning point for you of realizing that this could be something that I do full time going forward?
- [10:38]
James Allen
Yeah, I mean that definitely was just being able to have proof. And I think that when you're trying to sell digital products, very common because it's not easy, people make it seem really easy. But there's a lot that goes into it. You have to write good copy. Especially if you're trying to make passive income with an Evergreen funnel and stuff. Like it's very copy based. So if I could restart and learn one skill, it would be copywriting. And there's a lot that goes under that. But there's also like making sure the product is something people actually want to buy. There's a lot of work before the work. Like anybody and I tell this to my clients all the time. Anybody can just build a product and put it out there. So there was a lot of six different digital products and trying this stuff and learning things until I finally made that 200 sale. And that's when I was like, whoa, I did it. And I think that most people, when you like make the sale, it's like nothing's happening. It's so disheartening. But when you get a little bit of traction, you get this whole new level of excitement. So that was definitely a big thing. But I think like the number one thing where I was like, whoa, this is like life changing was a couple years. It was probably, yeah, it was a handful of years ago. So I've been doing profit your knowledge for three years now. So this is about two years ago. People, people would find my channel and book calls and stuff and it was great. But we were going to Sweden with my family. We just got back on another trip and it was awesome. But the first time that we had done this we go out, it was a two week trip and I was like, you know what, I'm going to challenge myself and see if I can go on this two week vacation, not do any work. Obviously I'll talk to my clients if they have a question, a vox or email or whatever. But I'm going to make sure they're set up and know what they need to do, et cetera. And I just want to see if I can make money without working for two weeks. And it was like a little test. So I did this whole like I have a couple different branches of wham ways I monetize in my, with my YouTube channel and my business and I did this whole like Kajabi 60 day playlist because I get affiliate commissions through that, and that leads to core sales and a bunch of stuff in my little system. So I scheduled that out. So every day while I was away, there was a new video coming out every day on YouTube. And I set up, like, some special promotions and some other content and stuff. And it was a lot of work up front, but when I left, I was like, let's just see what happens. And we go on this trip. It was super awesome. Hang out with family, friends, made new friends, got to check out amazing things. And when I got back and checked my computer, I had made $8,000 while I was away.
- [12:53]
Dusty Porter
Wow.
- [12:54]
James Allen
And it was incredible. It was honestly super stressful leading up to it because my first time doing that, and I'm like, oh, everything has to be perfect. It's a very longer than I would normally work hours beforehand. But we just went to Sweden again, what, three weeks ago, and again two weeks we were in Greece, and then we went to Sweden, and it was me, my mom, and my girlfriend, and we're all just hanging out with family again. And it was super awesome. And this time I made just under 10k. Yeah. And I have 3,000 subscribers on my channel, and that's me not doing any work. I did have a couple clients reach out and ask for questions or get feedback on something, and that just takes me a second. And it's asynchronistic with Voxer. And they knew I was on vacation too. But, yeah, that's when things started getting real. And me being like, okay, I can really put more energy into this. And I stopped doing social media. I do a little bit, but not as much as I probably should. But it doesn't matter because once I stopped, my business, like, tripled and I was working fewer hours, mostly from YouTube and podcasting and stuff. Yeah.
- [13:53]
Dusty Porter
Social media is one of those things that I know I should do more of and should do better. My wife tells me all the time, people who know me might, if they never see me in person, might think that I've died or something has happened. Because I just. I don't put much out there on social media. I. I don't know, I'm pretty. I like to be present. And I see. I look around us and I see what social media has done. This is a side tangent, by the way, but far as what YouTube and social media, I do know that I should be branching out to outside, outside places. And it's something that in the end of this year, going into 2026, I really do want to do better. At. But it's really encouraging to hear you say that you're in the same boat of you're just like, hey, listen, I, I want to live in this lane and I. You don't necessarily have to be very heavy into social to make money. I want to ask you this question, James. Talking about. You keep saying small audience. Your audience is small, but it's very active, it's very engaged. You have a very intentional Funnel from the YouTube channel to your website. Let's start from the beginning of. If someone's listening to this and they're thinking about launching a digital product and people are getting course fatigue, so we don't even have to use the word course right. It might just be a digital anything, a PDF, a digital book or whatever it may be leading the audience to purchase said thing. What does that look like? And what are some things that you've learned along the way that have made you stand out to where you can make 8,000, 10,000 in a month and not have to really lift too many.
- [15:20]
James Allen
Too much things, too many fingers. Right?
- [15:23]
Dusty Porter
Yes.
- [15:23]
James Allen
It's. Yeah. If somebody is just starting out my philosophy, like if I could restart, I wouldn't just build a digital product. But that's what most people do. They have. The typical thing that I hear from creators and coaches all the time is, James, I want to build a product. I have hundreds of ideas but I don't know which one's going to be the most profitable. And then they don't work with me. They'll just pick one and just roll with it. And I did that for a couple years. Six digital products didn't make me any money, did the same thing. And what I recommend now is let's get you some private one on one coaching clients. And I recommend doing a really simple, not like a one off call with people. I'm talking like a package for three to six months when people are starting out. I always recommend three months. What I was taught in my certifications and what I just believe to be true is that three months is a long enough time to see a result. But it's, it's not too long to where it feels like this huge commitment. And I believe in having a 90 day test with a lot of things and this could be health, it could be relationships, social media. You were just talking about that dusty. Next year in 2026, pick 90 days and say, I'm going to research a good strategy or maybe get a coach or something. I'm going to test this for 90 days and if you probably Won't build a million dollar business, but you'll see some traction and then you'll know, okay, I can make adjustments, keep doing this or just stop doing it. 90 day test is awesome. So you're doing that like with people, but taking them through a process. Because a course and of course fatigue is a real thing, but a course is when people buy it, they're paying for an outcome and it's just a sequential, like step by step system to get whatever said outcome is. A lot of people just build courses and they're vague. You don't really understand what the outcome is, or it's an outcome that people just don't really care about or want to put their money behind. But if somebody would pay you a couple thousand dollars, 1500 to three grand for three months to help them get that outcome, that's a very good sign that you can turn that outcome or that process into a do it yourself version and then people will buy it. And that's me. I have like different courses for different things, but Effortless Income is my, that's like my flagship program and that's all about creating digital products and building this ecosystem and stuff. And you can buy that course for 500 bucks or you can hire me to help you do the entire thing with confidence and make sure you're getting like the course will walk you through everything, give you action steps. But like you have my feedback and suggestions and it's more hands on and that's five to ten grand. So it's like just a different way of packaging it. But yeah, getting the process down and really dialing in what is that outcome that the majority of people want and they're willing to put money behind. And testing that with coaching is so great because you don't have to put a ton of money into paying for subscriptions and building landing pages or recording all these videos and hoping somebody likes it. Plus, you know, a little thing I like to do now is that if I have an idea for a course, let's say I wanted to build a YouTube course on how you can make money with a small audience, I think people would buy that, but I would coach people through the process and have them help them get that result hands on. And I don't know about you, but pretty much anytime we're coaching people, it's usually, oh, I have this resource or I'll film you a quick video just to help you get this result. Those resources and assets that you're creating can totally go into a course and you can build your course as you're coaching people through it. And by you getting these people results, you can use their testimonials on your course landing page. So there's a lot of, like, ways that you can kill multiple birds with one stone, for lack of a better term, and have proof of concept and whatnot, by starting with coaching and developing your course like your do it yourself version in that process. So that's what I do. I know it can sound like a lot. They're scary for people who are like, I don't want to build the plane while I'm flying it, but you'll save so much more time. You're going to get paid to build your course and you're going to guarantee that you know how to teach it properly and that this is something people actually care about.
- [19:20]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, I absolutely love that. I do want to ask you, though, in general, not necessarily just for coaching and for courses, but anything. People trying to get the viewers off YouTube to click on their thing or go to their email newsletter or whatever their thing is, whatever their call to action is. What are some pointers and advice that you can give them to help them get more of a higher conversion rate?
- [19:45]
James Allen
Yeah, what I have done and what I do is I don't make direct offers on my channel. I seed ideas that, like, I have private coaching clients. This is one of my clients. They got this awesome result. It helps with my credibility with the topic that I'm talking about. So people are like, oh, this guy actually has helped people. But also they're thinking, maybe I could hire him or maybe he could help me. And I always promote because this is just what I learned from my mentors. And it's worked well for me. I promote a really good lead magnet depending on the type of content that I'm creating. And this is just a free PDF you give people. But what it does, it could be a PDF or a free training or a resource of some kind, but it has to be built the right way and we could talk about that. And that gets people onto my email list. When they're on your email list. It's just like a different level of commitment than just watching a free YouTube video. Tomorrow's filmmakers, if you watch their videos, they promote like a $97 product directly in the video. And that's totally fine. I'm just a fan of building an email list because to me, YouTube, the audience there hitting subscribe, it's a much lower commitment level. And I don't consider that like my real true audience. I consider my email List my true audience and I like to nurture them. So getting people onto the email list and then you can have an automated email sequence that teaches them more, it builds more trust and it positions and tees up your offer and then they can check out a page and decide if they want to buy. And that's just been the flow of different things. But having a good lead magnet I think is really big. And it has to be something that people would be willing in your videos to click off of YouTube to be like, I need to get that. It's not just that sounds cool, it's like, like, I need that.
- [21:19]
Dusty Porter
All right, guys, I interrupt this interview just briefly to talk about our newest offer, which is our channel review service. So channel reviews are 10 to 12 minute videos that I record and take a look at your channel, take a look at your branding. I even go off YouTube and go to your websites and the different links that you have. So if you're just looking for another set of eyes to take a look at your channel and get some opinions on things you're doing well and some things that you, that I feel you could be doing better, definitely go check that service out. So with that said, let's jump right back into the conversation. Let's talk about creating a good lead magnet then. What does that look like?
- [21:57]
James Allen
There's a. This problem that people have or this thing that they do is that they build these massive lead magnets and it's like a whole course for free. I don't think you should do that. I think that a great lead magnet should solve a persistent problem that somebody has that your target audience has and you quickly are able to solve it for them. This is much better because you're actually solving a real problem they have and that feels good. It gets them a quick win so they trust you more instead of just being this huge thing of fluff. And they're like, I didn't get anything from that. That was a waste. So it tangibly gets them a quick win. And by solving that problem, you're also teeing up all these other new problems. They're like, wait a second, there's still more. And then your program comes in to fill in the gaps. Let me give you an example. There is this, this guy and he had a business called Double youe Dating. Russell Brunson talks about this story too. But he had this really good free lead magnet called the Kiss Test. And I don't know if you ever heard this, but the Kiss Test was for guys. He taught guys how to get more dates and that kind of stuff. And he had this landing page, super simple. The Kiss test is this one page PDF and a huge problem that guys have when they're dating is that they're like, I want to kiss her, but I don't know when I should because I don't want to be, like, weird and pushy and coming to office too aggressive. But at the same time, if I don't do it, is she gonna think that I'm, like, too scared to make a move? So insert the kiss test. A guy sees this. He's, yeah, that's my problem. I keep struggling with this. I lose dates or I scare them away. So he opts in and gets this one page PDF and explains the kiss test. Now what the kiss test is if you go on a date with this girl, you get to her doorstep and you're like, I really want to kiss her. It went really well, but I don't know if I should. The kiss test is that you would just lean in forward, and if she leans back, then it's a no go. But if she leans forward, go for it. Take your chance. She could still say no, but at least you have an indicator. It's the lean in forward. And that's all the kiss test tells you. But a guy could read that and be like, okay, that's pretty simple. I'm gonna go try it. And then he does it. Leans in, she leans forward. Kiss. Boom. Fireworks. Amazing. He's like, that dude's advice worked. Now instant credibility for the creator. But that's all the Kiss Test does. Now they're on the email list. So then he'll have a series of emails that teach him, you know, what to do next. Because now the guy's thinking, I did it. But now what? Is she the right girl? Like, I don't want to mess this up, so how do I keep her interested in me? There's a lot of questions that can come up, and that's where Double youe Dating's course or program would come in to fill in all those gaps and teach this guy how to get the right woman to stay in his life. So that's like a super simple, really good example of how we want to build our lead magnets. We solve a persistent problem, and that opens up the door to new problems while still solving that one to build trust. And then your course or program or coaching program or group or whatever it is that you offer fills in the gaps.
- [24:52]
Dusty Porter
I think that finding the persistent problem is what a lot of folks struggle with. It should be the easiest thing. And if you're someone like me who loves podcasting and teaching about podcasting, the problem that most people have is how do I start a podcast? Like how do I get into hosting a podcast? And just a simple checklist, a PDF checklist of things that you need pre launch for a podcast would be enough to have folks click over and say, oh, he's right. He helped me get all these ducks in a row to launch my podcast. And so finding that persistent problem not only helps you with that lead magnet, but it also helps you with your YouTube channel and your content of knowing, hey, this is where everything's going to flow from of this is the problem. And here's all my content. And you and I were talking about the umbrella method that I believe Ed talks about and Graham talks about and some of the stuff that, that they've taught you in their programs and that hey, everything falling under this umbrella. So I love that example. I've actually never heard Russell talk about that. Consuming a good bit of his content over the years, but that's a really great way of putting it. I do want to ask you now about how you're monetizing your business. You mentioned the 8k, the 10k while you're gone on vacation. So folks are probably wondering how is he making this money? The different sources of income that you have now from within all of your business.
- [26:07]
James Allen
Yeah, so it's actually really simple. I have three core pillars, I should say. I have digital products like my online courses and I have a few, I don't have 20. I have one on podcasting, my effortless income program, Combos to clients. And those are like my main courses really. Combos to clients is how to get like coaching clients. And it's like 97. It's just like a real no brainer offer to get people in to the door. But it's really helpful. So those are like my three courses I have right now. I have some other ideas but I'm just, I don't really want to put the energy into it right now because this is fine. So courses. The other thing is Kajabi affiliates. This brings in regular consistent passive income. I like affiliate marketing, but I don't do a whole lot of it. Like I don't take every affiliate marketing chance that I get. Kajabi is literally the tool that I use for my entire business and I have for a very long time before I even got onto the affiliate program. But when I realized that they have an awesome affiliate offer and this is Something you should pay attention to. With affiliate programs. You get 30% commission at least. They're doing that right now. I think they're gonna make changes to that. But I get a 30% commission for everybody who pays every single month. So it's $200 per month or they have 150, $200 per month. That's $60 per month from one person. And you keep getting people in. And I have a really cool offer that I offer in my YouTube videos. Cause I'll make Kajabi content and people like my tutorials. They get a free 30 day trial unless they're doing some big promotion. They get a course that I made that's all about Kajabi and how to set up your business in Kajabi. It's just a shortcut to basically how I run my business in Kajabi. And then they get a coaching call with me and that leads to my third pillar, which is my private coaching. One on one coaching. I would love to have a community at some point. It's just not really a priority right now. That could be cool. Another really cool thing is you can do like this one, like Graham Cochran has Graham AI where you literally clone yourself and he charges like 97amonth and it's freaking awesome. And he has no engagement with it at all. It's crazy. So that's a lot more appealing to me. But yeah, it's pretty much just like my courses, my Kajabi affiliates and then my private one on one coaching. And those are the main ones.
- [28:17]
Dusty Porter
And for, for the one on one coaching, what are you charging? I know you, you mentioned it earlier in the call. Just it's packages. Three months, six months at a time. Could be 5k, 10k for a client. And you guys listening can do the math. If James is landing a few of these, it's adding up. And coaching. Although having to be present, I found with my coaching, it's one of the most rewarding things that I get to do throughout the week. And as I've grown that side of my business, I've really enjoyed getting to know my clients and learning more about different sides and different avenues of YouTube. And I feel like I'm. It's. It sounds strange, but becoming a better coach, obviously the more you do something, the better you're going to get. But I feel like just learning and really diving deep and dissecting people's channels and their brand even beyond YouTube has really helped me be a better podcast podcaster, ask better questions and figure out what are these Things that folks listening to this show want to know. Now, as far as growing the channel in, in YouTube, what have been the biggest levers that you've pulled over the years that have made the biggest difference with just growing the business and being able to do this full time? Do you remember what a couple of those things may be of like, hey, when I made this pivot or when I shifted and did this thing, I really saw a big, big boost in the business.
- [29:32]
James Allen
Yeah, I've learned from so many different people and listen to podcasts like this. Probably like the listener is right now and like over and over again you're like, what can I find that one thing? And I think it's like you just have to learn and try and that's really all you can do because there's some people where keyword research and do like really heavy SEO, they just blow up their channel and have this really successful business. But then you try it and it's, that didn't work or am I doing it wrong? But you watch their videos, you do it the same way. There's like the outlier strategy that everybody talks about and you see it everywhere on YouTube. And I've done that and it's. I don't know, I've just learned more and through all this, intuitively gotten like more of an eye on how to make a good thumbnail and title and how to make it better and stuff. But yeah, it's really interesting because you can approach YouTube in a couple different ways. Like one is like a Mr. Beast channel, where that's like a views tuber. Ed Lawrence would use these terms, a views tuber, where it's like you just get as many views as possible and then you make money through AdSense or sponsors and stuff like that. And it's like, that just doesn't seem reliable to me or as fun. Personally, I get AdSense, but it's just like pocket change. But then you can approach it as like a business youtuber which is more of our alley and that's more of an educational based channel instead of an entertainment based channel. And it's crazy because you and I had a call the other day and I showed you my. My channel. My biggest video right now is I paid for ChatGPT4 so you don't have to. That was an outlier and for me it got me like 77,000 views. But that's great and all. How much money did it make me though? That hasn't really made me any money. I have videos with thousands or tens of Thousands of views. And I just had a guy sign up and he signed up for like my big coaching package and he booked a call randomly. And I'm always curious, like, where did you find me? How. What would. What did your journey look like? Because there's a lot of ways you can enter into my ecosystem. And he looked up this specific pain point that he had, and I made a video with this in mind, which was what is. What is like the best course creator, website builder or best website builder for course creators? And I have a video called Best website builder for course creators. So he found it on Google, clicked over to YouTube, watched it, really liked it, got into my world, and then saw he could book a call and he's, I just want to do that. So I have these different offers and he books a call with me. We totally hit it off. He's like a dream client and he ends up signing up for like my big 10k package. The video where he found me has 300 views. And just to me, that's like crazy. It just goes to show that quality of views is more important than sheer quantity. And there's a lot of people who I even meet and they're like, how are you doing that? Because I have half a million or like a quarter million subscribers and I don't make as much money. I'm battling with inconsistent AdSense or like sponsors and all this stuff, and it's. It's just wild. So just because you see something that you think they must be crushing it, it doesn't mean that are.
- [32:25]
Dusty Porter
I love that story. That is such a cool story. And I think it should be testament to exactly what you're teaching in all the things that, that we're talking about today as creators. I want to ask you though, what trends do you see coming down the pipeline and shaping the future of being a creative entrepreneur, a YouTuber, whatever you want to consider yourself or whatever we're talking about, what trends and things are you seeing in the next three, five, maybe even 10 years down the line line?
- [32:54]
James Allen
To me, I feel like, so fun fact, Dusty and I actually had a conversation in my channel. It's like, I was spiritual life coach, I was a productivity coach, I was a. And I got into profit, your knowledge. And I've just gone through all these crazy things and I have people who comment on my videos and they're like, dude, your content is really good. Why aren't you getting more views? And I'm like, I don't know. I really don't know. But I'm Just keep doing the thing. I'm trying to be focused and I think that it really is so important to just have a chance to channel. The trend is if you have an education based channel, I should say is just having a very focused channel with this umbrella that we mentioned where it's if you help men land more dates using apps, if that's what your channel is about, that's all you talk about. And the algorithm is so st, like freaking smart that you don't like. I think SEO is important and you should use the right keywords and do anything you can to help help make sure the algorithm understands who to serve your videos to. So if you're the most focused channel on this one topic, you become a go to expert with that thing. If your channel is about I help man lent men land more dates using apps, that is the top of this umbrella. So underneath that your videos could be like how to write a dating app bio that gets you matches step by step. The number one mistake men make on dating apps and how to fix it. You know how to take profile pictures that women swipe right on. If that's all your videos are, someone sees one of your videos, they look at your channel and they're like, oh my gosh, this is like a goldmine of exactly what I want. It's more focused. You may not blow up with the biggest videos or whatever, but I think that like just the emphasis on this is so important. And to me, Alex Hermosi had this huge shift in doing way more simple edits and longer videos that are more deep dive. And he's been making way more money than when he did his crazy high dopamine edit. I used to watch his old videos because everyone was praising about it and I'm like, I don't even know what he said. I watched the video, but I was too distracted by the editing. So I think that being super focused on a specific group of people and having your channel be positioned to helping them get this big result that has all these sub problems underneath it, like how to text women, how to take the right profile pictures, all that kind of stuff, super focus on that. And just I think editing that complements the teaching is really important because that's going to help you build a lot more trust to where people would want to pick up your lead magnet or reach out to you and be like, hey, can you coach me on this? It just positions you as a real expert and I think you'll have a way better chance doing that at making money with YouTube.
- [35:24]
Dusty Porter
Yeah, that's powerful. That's a really good answer. I'm not going to add anything to that. That was really good. As we close out today, James, I do want to ask you. My motto on this show has always been, I want to help creator wherever they are in the season, whatever season they're in with their YouTube channels, if they're starting a channel, trying to grow a channel, trying to monetize whatever it may be. What would be your parting words to the people listening to this podcast of maybe you wish you could have listened to the words that you're going to say a few years ago when you were listening to this podcast?
- [35:54]
James Allen
Yeah, man. I think that it is what I just, what I had just mentioned of get, like, really look at your channel or Dusty has amazing channel reviews. He did that for me. It was awesome. Funny enough, that's kind of how it led to me coming on the show because he, like, learned more about me, was like, you have a cool story. We should have you on the podcast. But it was. It was like, that's so helpful just to get a different set of eyes on your channel. And that's what actually helped me realize that I do have this great expertise. I know what I'm talking about. I know my clients get awesome results. But in terms of really growing the YouTube channel even more, it's just really being focused on this specific group of people and the big result you're helping them do. So for me, it's like, I help online coaches, which is my specific group, break past six figures in under 20 hours a week. Week. That's a huge feat. You could work 80 hours a week and make six figures, but then you have no life. So I'm actually, because of Dusty's help, going to restart a new channel. I'm going to keep my old channel, but it's going to be more on the tech tutorials, because that's still really big. And I've already, you know, built a nice channel with that. But I'm really going to go in and even me, myself start fresh because I've tried all these different pivots and then it's. It's incremental growth. Like, sure, my channel keeps growing and stuff, and I'm happy within. It makes me money, too. But I just really want to have a very intentional, even more intentional channel. And I think that's really big. So it's. If you can fill out that kind of formula of I help this specific person get this big result, and then you could Even mention to ChatGPT like what would be some good content ideas and it will give you a big list and that will help you at least get started and understanding the type of content that you need to create for that person to attract more of those people. I just, I think that really is so important because I did it for years, jumping all around and, and it didn't get me too far.
- [37:35]
Dusty Porter
So, guys, I. I could talk to James forever as one of the reasons why I wanted to have him on the podcast. He's got such a wide breadth of knowledge in regards to as creators. So many people come on calls with me and they say I have this topic or this thing that I'm good at. How do I monetize it? How do I use YouTube as a catalyst to get me there? James has built that. He's a walking testament of that. And you can find out everything James has to offer over at Profit your Knowled. You can go to that URL or his YouTube channel. I will link to both of them. I just think that as creators we really need to start thinking outside the box because times are changing. The way YouTube promotes things, the way YouTube does things with the algorithm, it changes all the time. You need to start looking out for you and figuring out what you can do to reach your audience, whatever that specific audience may be, and figuring out how you can answer. James said so well today in the episode that persistent problem, what your umbrella is, maybe that's your problem. Maybe you're throwing so many things all around the umbrella that you're not focused, you're not intentional with anything you're doing. And so whatever you decide to do, I hope this encourages you this week to step out of your box and figure out how can I speak better to my audience. Maybe it's not to monetize or make 8,000 while you're in Sweden, like what James talked about. Maybe it's just to grow the brand, see those numbers go up and then eventually, as time progresses, you, you'll figure out and think of ways to monetize through merchandise or your own email newsletter or a school community or whatever it is. But it's all universal. If you're not talking to the people you're trying to talk to, when you turn the camera on and hit record, you're just talking to the void and there's going to be no purpose in it. And so as creators, we've got to figure out who we're speaking to and then solve those problems. Either solve their problems or entertain them them in whatever space you want it to be. So, James, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. This has been such a great conversation and we appreciate it. We'll talk to you next time.