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- [00:00]
A
I think there was a very big hole in the market. You've heard of folks niching down, right? So you've got bluegrass instructors and there's, you know, a dozen of us. And then I realized that nobody was really focusing on that beginner that I had seen.
- [00:16]
B
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this week's conversation on the Creators Hub podcast. My guest today is Cody Moneymaker. He's a bluegrass guitarist and educator based in East Tennessee. He's a graduate of East Tennessee State University's bluegrass Old time and country music program, which, of course a program at East Tennessee State would have that. That's amazing. He has performed everywhere from Knoxville to Vietnam. His YouTube channel, Cody Music, has over 32,000 subscribers, where he shares lessons and insights into bluegrass guitar gear and ups and downs of being a local musician. Cody, how are you today, my friend?
- [00:56]
A
I'm doing very well. How are you, Dusty?
- [00:58]
B
Doing great. It's interesting, for some reason on this podcast, Cody, I very rarely have fellow southerners as guests. Not sure why that is, but it's so awesome to have someone who sounds like me here on the podcast with a little bit of that. That southern twang to their voice. So glad to have you give my audience a bit of background as far as how did your YouTube channel start?
- [01:26]
A
Good question. So I think, like a lot of folks, it was around the events of 2020 where I really started consuming more from the platform. And at the time, my ex partner and I were living in southern Vietnam. I was a teacher over there, and we had a vlog started based on our experiences living on YouTube. It's not around anymore, but it was all kind of inspired. There was a couple from Tennessee, actually, I don't know if you've heard the name, a travel vlog couple called Kara and Nate. And they were.
- [01:56]
B
Yes, I have heard. Yes.
- [01:58]
A
Yeah, so they're. I think they're still around, I'm pretty sure, but I haven't watched them in years. But point was, they were the first, like, YouTube channel where I sat and watched and really became intrigued at the business side of it. Just kind of figuring out, okay, how they're going about this is really interesting. And they were pretty outward about all of that, at least when I was watching them. And so just sitting there, you know, in a foreign country, watching these guys travel around. So we started a vlog, and that was my first introduction into this YouTube space. And then living in that area of the world, there was a lot of startups coming to, you know, start their marketing businesses on the cheap, live Cheaply. I think a lot of folks do it in Thailand. There's a term digital nomad things what they are called or how they go about their business. Anyway, there was a bunch of just extra work editing videos, writing blogs and things like that. I'd meet people while living over there. And then from there, since I had this YouTube channel, I could edit videos. That's where I sort of kept creeping towards the YouTube side of freelancing. And then after the, you know, the events of 2020, that's sort of what became the full time job after a while. And I really highly focused on the YouTube side of what I was doing to help folks with their marketing.
- [03:14]
B
So you took your passion for bluegrass, country music and you kind of combined it with, okay, I want to kind of put myself out there and put my toes in the water. What was the beginning phase like for you? Was it difficult? Was it trying? Were you discouraged?
- [03:32]
A
Yeah, I'd say like for what? I started with the bluegrass channel, given what I learned from doing all the freelance work. It was. I had a plan like I did from the get go. I sort of switched the channel from performance. I had a, you know, the channel was Cody and music. So it was just sort of my initial, you know, my songs and my, you know, this and that, music wise. And then I started to really focus in on the education side of it. And when I did that, I did a lot of research as to who else was doing it online. And I'm a guitar player, so I'm always learning from other channels and just sort of seeing what worked. And so initially when I made that pivot like before that, it wasn't much across my social media channels. It was just like, you know, just music that wasn't getting a lot of bites. And I'd say that when I made that pivot, it was a really stark contrast. It was just like, okay, here's the value I'm giving folks, you know, the edge, how they. How do I actually play instead of. As opposed to just performing. And that was the ticket. And then so digging into that took years and following the data and things like that. But eventually you sort of get a rhythm and you're like, okay, the educational side is where most folks eyes are. And so digging into that, I mean, I'm still figuring it out, but. But yeah, it's tough, but it's. For folks listening at home, it does get easier, I feel, as you do it more just like any other job.
- [04:56]
B
Do you remember the moment or the video upload or the season for the channel where you thought or said to yourself internally, okay, Cody, this might be the real, like we might can do something here. This might can be a full time gig. Do you remember when that was?
- [05:13]
A
Yeah, I, well, I always had this idea that, you know, the, if I made a set of instructions and you know, I, I do sell a course that teaches folks how to play. That was the ultimate goal. And I was like, I, I watched my data. I don't know if there's a specific video, but there was definitely underserved what I considered like market of learner that wanted to learn this style that I think a lot of folks online were kind of teaching above skill level. And so when I started to really just make it simple, just a handful of videos, I'd say around 20, 22, that's when the comments started coming. It's like, all right, the positive comments and people are like, I really appreciate this slow down style of learning. And bluegrass players and musicians alike, we want to really be know, impress people. We want to play fast. And really it was when I started just slowing it down and you know, started making tabs and things like that. So that would have been sort of, you know, the gears just start turning. All right, now I can focus on this and then you have more of a strategy involved and as opposed to just, you know, playing hot licks or whatever it is. And so I would say it was really gradual. To answer your question, it wasn't a specific video. It was just more of a. Okay, here's the pivot. This is the momentum. It's very important that I keep this momentum and gather the audience that's into this style of learning.
- [06:39]
B
And what were the harder parts for you as far as getting into content creation? You obviously were already a creator and an artist in the music space. But as far as the YouTube side of things and growing a channel, you know, beyond just being a freelancer helping other creators out, this is this, this was yours. You owned this. And so what were some of the harder things and how did kind of get through that, those stages?
- [07:03]
A
Yeah, I still think the hard parts are still there. It's the consistency without being burned out. That's always something that I'm, I'm struggling with because at this point there's, there's different parts of the business. And I do do music full time, but the YouTube channel is one part of it. And so I'd say keeping YouTube consistent while trying to get everything that's external that goes on with the business. Cause I perform live, there's you know, the, there's a lot that goes into that and I think that's where a lot of folks are at. Because the thing that really stops at least a lot of the folks that I've watched over the years is just like, hey, like it was exciting for a while. You get home from work, you're working on the channel and then life happens and you miss an upload, you miss a handful, then it goes a month or two and then it's like, you know, it's. I don't, I'm not uploading and so things aren't working the way I wanted to and I definitely went through some of that over the course of the first couple years of the channel I'm wanting to upload but I'm working a full time job or I'm freelancing and it's just, it's. That was really tough. That was really tough. And it wasn't until I released like the course and the digital product where I was able to pump more energy into it because I had something on the back end that made it all possible, right. Otherwise it, you can't make money off of the channel with just the, you know, small amount of money I get from ads, which I don't make enough or a lot still from the YouTube ad sense.
- [08:30]
B
When you talk about burnout, Cody, are there things that you've put in place on, on the back end of like, so you make sure that you still have a personal life, you're still able to do the things you want to do outside of YouTube and your business? A lot of creators, you know, a lot of people in my group ask me all the time, they say things like, how do you prevent burnout? Why do I feel like I'm going to burn out every single week? Or I'm, I'm really burning the candle at both ends. How do you combat that?
- [08:57]
A
So on a personal level, I'm trying to get way better at just about rewarding myself for milestones. I'm not good at doing that. I tend to just keep working and working and so that's how I'm approaching it from just, you know, just giving myself a break. But I'll say the further that I get, I'm into this almost, I'd say second full year of doing this. I'm really focused on the strategy because I know now that like the end of the year, December, I'm not making many sales and I don't want to work that hard that time of year anyway. So I'm putting that as like a chunk of time that I'm just not going to do a whole lot. Right. And then since I know where my spikes in sales are going to come throughout the year, I can pump the brakes a little bit or I'm trying to be good at it because I know, you know, come Father's Day or what have you, there's going to be a spike and that's going to drive the business until, you know, for the second end of the second quarter. And so to answer your question, I'm being real strategic based on the data that I get from month to month now, year to year, hopefully this business lasts a while and then I structure my downtime around that. And if it all works out, then hopefully it all is that that's a strategy that'll work. But I mean, you know, it's up and down here on YouTube.
- [10:17]
B
So, yeah, it's interesting you mentioned the seasonality of your content. Can you maybe dive deeper into that and explain why that is? I would assume that it's very popular during Father's Day because a lot of dads are getting new instruments, I would assume. Or can you explain the seasonality and how you figured this out and how you, like you said, you're utilizing it to help prevent burnout, knowing where the doldrums are in your business and saying, okay, if I know I'm not going to get much juice out of this squeeze this time of year, I'm going to spend time elsewhere. Right. So can you talk about the seasonality and how you can figure that out?
- [10:53]
A
Yeah. So last year, here's a good example. So I knew from previous years on the channel that the summertime is just a hard time to get views. Like, I would see dips around July. And so strategizing around that, I did like a special I bought. A popular guy in the bluegrass realm was a gentleman named Billy String. So I bought the guitar, used it for marketing purposes. That way I could create lots of content around sort of this buzz that he's generating in the summertime, playing the shows. People are seeing him live. And so that guitar went on to get lots of views last July. And then it's like, okay, now I know, like, what I'm on the schedule for this week is trying to figure out a new campaign for the month of July because views are going to dip. My sales are attached to those views because people are out enjoying things. Or for Father's Day, yeah, they're getting new instruments. Or maybe my assumption was also they're just spending a Little bit extra that weekend because it's Father's Day and they want to learn to play the guitar. And. And my product is really geared towards older learners. So there's. There's things and I'll. I've now sound like a broken record about analyzing all of this that really I focus a whole lot on. And it's a lot of assumptions. I don't have a lot of this in concrete terms. But. But then around Christmas time, I assume folks are probably spending money on gifts for others and they might not, you know, want to buy that guitar course. I don't think I get a lot of gift purchases. And so I don't know. After two years of data, it's just like, that's okay, the downtime that works. And so let's push it in January or February with more content, start off the year and. But yeah, that's where I'm finding it to be to allow me to do this. But also not, you know, burn out and go crazy and all that because, you know, staring at your phone and being on the devices all day, you feel it. Definitely you do.
- [12:42]
B
How do you. This is going to sound like a silly question, but this is one I get so often. How do you get views on YouTube in the current, you know, culture of. Of having to show up on the browse feed or the home feed, or having to be picked up and dealing with the yo yo effect of one video doing well and then the next one or two doing kind of poorly. What have you found about getting your video seen?
- [13:08]
A
So I'll say that I. There's two things that. That I tell myself every single time I post something. And this is what I've told myself from the get go. And I don't sound to mean to sound hard on myself, but this is just the mantra. It's like, I don't really matter here what is in it for them. That's number one. And if you're listening at home and you want to change your music to, you know, get more folks on, you really dig into that because that's helped me so much. But yeah, the one thing that I'm doing differently is I'm really trying to get away from just, you know, for example, here's. I'll kind of get into the bluegrass realm here. What we do in this genre is we play what we call fiddle tunes. And they're instrumentals, right? And what I've learned is that if I put the name of that instrumental somewhere nobody's getting clicks and this nobody touches it it's like, you know, crickets. And I think what's happening, at least for my audience, is it's less of the search. Like people aren't exactly searching for. I think what's getting people into the video isn't necessarily what they're searching for. It's how I'm spinning the title and thumbnail. I think, at least for my audience, that's what I'm trying to focus on. Because the gear videos that I do, and I think somebody. It may have been this channel, Dusty said years ago the same thing. The gear videos were not what are the lessons. Weren't what works for getting people into their channel. It was the gear videos. And that wherever I heard that from, I remember that. And that has really been true to my channel. So I do a combination of the lessons, which is really what is at the core of what I'm doing. But to answer your question broadly, I am kind of trying to figure folks out who are on the fringe and getting them in through different interests and a special focus on the thumbnail and the title. But that's tough in itself too.
- [15:07]
B
Yeah. So a follow up to that would be how you've landed on the buckets of content. So you. You touched on it briefly there. You talked about gear. And then when I look at music channels, you know, a lot of them are either the big popular musicians who are obviously going to play their own music or music written by others for them. And then you'll have the kind of tier below that where the musicians will do covers where they cover popular songs and they get really big by doing that. And then you have other musicians that are like you, that are in a specific, specific genre and. And maybe they're teaching how to play an instrument or how to play arrangements in a specific space of music like what you're doing. So how did you land on the types of videos that you are making and the programming that you kind of have now landed on to. To produce and to show the audience?
- [15:58]
A
Yeah. So this good question. The I and I kind of hit on it earlier. I think there was a very big hole in the market. You've heard of folks niching down. So you've got bluegrass instructors and there's, you know, a dozen of us. And then I realized that nobody was really focusing on that beginner that I had seen and witnessed more of, you know, in my experience playing bluegrass music, in fact, that's. It's been a major pain point if I go back 20 years, because for whatever reason, the bluegrass style guitar is Difficult to learn. And we would always complain that there's not a starting point. And so I landed on, you know, the. What I call in the course, a lot of my lessons are shorter and they're to the point and I think. And I don't overcrowd folks with information. And so to answer the question, it was based on my observations, but also on the data from posting random videos on the YouTube channel. Initially when I started it, where I spoke of, I didn't have the consistency that I wanted initially. It was all kind of data driven. And I really believe there's nothing really to. I don't have any way to prove this, but I really feel like our attention spans have reduced collectively over the past couple years. And I've really structured my content to really deliver the information to appeal to all learners. So I used to teach in a traditional classroom and so a lot of what I used to do on that blackboard, the whiteboard behind me, that's the edit. Now, like I just, that's how I approach it. It's like this is the blackboard and I need to put this information out. And I'm trying to reach the specific learner that's not quite the beginner, but they're trying to get past the basics. And yeah, what I noticed online was it was everything but that was being taught in this general realm. And for guitar generally, it seemed like everybody forgot the beginners.
- [17:54]
B
I interrupt the conversation just briefly to tell you about a couple of things that we offer creators. The first thing is one on one coaching with me. You can set up a time and a day that works best for you. And we will sit down for 30 minutes, all the way up to 90 minutes. And I will help you work through some of the questions, some of the things that you might be dealing with on the back end of your YouTube channel. And I can work with you one time or many times. It's really up to you. We also have YouTube channel reviews and audits and we have a creator's corner Mastermind group where I release exclusive podcasts every single week for that group. You also have the ability to chat with the other creators in that group all throughout the week. The ability to ask podcast guests questions, as you'll hear later on in this episode. And if you're looking for just a free way to connect with me, I also have an email newsletter. It's kind of a behind the scenes look of what I have going on in my business and how I run everything we do here with the podcast. My YouTube channel and everything in between. So with that said, back to the show. Yeah, I call that the low hanging fruit. The things that are simple and should be easy to obtain as a creator. And I've done the same on my technology tutorial with YouTube channel is a lot of my videos are tailored to the simplest form. The people who are just getting into say AI or just getting into Photoshop or what a video editing, whatever it may be. The people who are, you know, a lot of videos are tailored towards that next level of okay, you want to take it to the next level, you want to do this for a full time job. But they forget about the people who, oh, they've used Android for five years but now they're switching to an iPhone. And how do I make the switch? Is there a beginner 30 minute video showing me the ins and outs of that? And I want to be that for them. And I think for you in the music space, you want to be that for those people. You, you know, you just picked up a mandolin or you just picked up a banjo or a guitar or you want to pay, play this lick or that one. Then here I've got a really easy to understand video where you can pause and play and, and go and do all of that. Now once you've created the freebie, which is the YouTube channel, that's the kind of the funnel where it starts. Now we gotta find a way to make some money. So talk about your process of okay, you know, I've got 33,000 people subscribed to me, but I'm getting hundreds of thousands of views, if not millions every month. So how do I turn these views into the ability to make a living off of this? So walk us through your process.
- [20:16]
A
Right, so I got a bit about ahead of myself there previously, but I created a course that addresses all the problems that I was seeing in the comment sections, not, not of only my videos, but of other folks videos. And this was, you know, I understood initially when I started the channel because I'd had experience helping other folks in other industries and it was very important. If I didn't have a digital product or something on the back end initially I had to have it or else these videos weren't really going to serve much of a purpose. It would educate folks on YouTube. But you're exactly right, you have to make money from it. And so here's an analogy I'll use. And this is for folks that are home that are, you know, maybe on the fence about creating your own course. There was a yoga like hip Opening challenge thing that stalked me for, for years. Right. One of those ads that followed me and I was going to the PT for, you know, hip and back issues, nothing serious. But you know, those visits add up over time. And so I initially, I eventually just bought the course from this guy and it paid for itself like that. Right. And so that got me thinking like this idea of a course. Right. It does solve the problem. Some folks don't want to pay for lessons. Some folks do. I think lessons help folks. But it was just that principle of, okay, I can really just stuff a lot of information, solve all these problems, package it up in a course that is really going to be quite, you know, as expensive as what you'd spend on lessons from week to week. I think it's right about what you'd spend at Guitar center for a month is my lifetime access. But it was all about just solving that problem for the folks, but just packaging it up and giving it to them. That way they can go back and watch the videos, as you said, download the tabs, there's backing tracks and things. So it's all sort of like my private little educational program really is what it is.
- [22:11]
B
Right.
- [22:12]
A
And that has, yeah, it's been proven successful and, and yeah, I'm really happy that I'm able to come on a show like this and talk about it because it's, it's helped a lot of folks. And so that was that. That's how the. At least as far as the monetization goes, that's the biggest chunk by a large margin.
- [22:30]
B
So explain in detail what it is. It's a course, obviously, but you don't have to get into the in and out of kind of the technicality of the music side of it. But as far as how is it priced, how many do you sell a month? How much of that is coming from YouTube and then what might you make on an average month?
- [22:50]
A
Yeah, so it's priced at 200. Well, there's three different price points. I'll say initially I made it as a one off, just one time purchase, no subscription involved. And after several months I had so many people reach out about coming in and learning for a month, I had to add some extra options. So the lifetime access, which I always want to keep at about the same price as a month of lessons, is $230. There's 115 lessons inside the program. And the way it's structured is I'm going to be adding some of those instrumentals I talked about. It's what bluegrass Players focus on as long as it fits into that beginner category. There's going to be lessons in this course for the foreseeable future. It's not going to be something where you're going to log in and there's going to be like 10 new ones a week. It's going to solve your problem and then give you a little bit more. And one of the reasons why I made that decision was because I did open up that subscription mod. So folks that come in for a month, for the 30, if they get through you know so many tunes and want a little bit extra, there's going to be a song or two in there and then the four month option is a hundred dollars and it's just set up where you take the lessons. I really tried to keep them like under six minutes. Really big on the idea of just delivering the lesson in outcome form. So by the end of this lesson you will have this skill. You're going to learn this one in the next lesson. Underneath it there's a backing track. You can download the tab. And so it's meant to give the people like the small wins that keep you motivated to keep learning something. I think YouTube doesn't really lend itself on the platform itself for these short types of lessons. And so I love the course because it, everything is structured in there. So that's what most folks enjoy about it. It's just like, oh, there's one lesson, it's five minutes, one skill, then you go on to the next one. And I really like as an educator that what folks tell me is that it's, you know, I actually can do it and then that makes me happy so I do it more. And so that's basically what it is. It's a step by step sort of program and it addresses the needs of the beginner bluegrass player.
- [24:56]
B
And as far as what you're making each month, what's an average month look like for you? Because I want people to understand that you're not pushing, you know, 10 million views on YouTube. You don't always have to have these giant numbers of free views coming through the top of funnel. What you have to have are people who trust you. You have to build your authority in your space on YouTube, whether it be family vlogging, whether it be finance, or in your case, music in a specific genre. Can you talk about what you might make on an average month and just the amount of views that's kind of pushing that number?
- [25:35]
A
Yeah, I'm not sure of the views, but I will say this, that Instagram and TikTok, I do post on there. There's a decent following. Those. My customers aren't coming from those platforms. So YouTube and Facebook are the two platforms that I spend the most time trying to figure out from the course sales alone. I just did this this morning. I launched the course the last week of October 2024, up until today, which April 13, it's made an average of right under five grand a month on average. So I think it was like 49, 90. And so that's a big chunk of the, you know, the whole business. YouTube for 33,000 subscribers. I think I just passed 33 this weekend. I'm making I think on average about $300 a month. It's been a little bit more recently. And so that's another income stream. And I don't make anything off of the short form content on any other platform. I know Instagram doesn't pay you out and mine are quite short. So I think, you know, most of my short form are like the licks. I don't take that long to play. And so TikTok, there's some kind of rule, I think against link. I'm not even sure. I usually just log into TikTok to post and that's it. And then the other income stream in the business is just the live shows that I do. And I will say that the channel has definitely helped garner higher paid shows here locally and then kind of around the region. And so if you're a musician listening at home, like if you're, you know, there's, there's different ways to connect what you do online to things in the real world, if you will. And so, yeah, overall I think, you know, on an average the, yeah, the. About five grand in core sales and then a little bit from YouTube AdSense and I don't have a lot of paid. I've never really went down that route. Sorry to interrupt you, Dusty.
- [27:23]
B
No, you didn't interrupt me at all. I think that for you this is just the beginning, right, of what you can do. Obviously, as you grow that course, you figure out how to continue to optimize your YouTube channel. I think you're just at the precipice of what a channel like. I mean, I know I've spoken with music channels in different niches than yours, not necessarily in bluegrass or country music that are doing similar things that are making, you know, 15, 20 grand a month. Right. These are things that it's definitely doable. It's just finding that audience and living where they are. Like you said, whether it be Facebook or YouTube, and then finding, okay, you want a really nice on ramp to learn how to do this thing, which in your case is music, then you give them that on ramp once you've built up the Trust on the YouTube channel. So I love that. Right. As another question I want to ask you is about packaging, because I look at your YouTube channel now as we're speaking, and I can tell how you have changed over time as far as how you, you know, how you title and how you thumbnail your videos. Can you talk about that briefly? And what you've learned works and what doesn't work?
- [28:27]
A
Yeah, so I. My audience is older. That's a very. I think I should have mentioned that early on. I think that is very, very important in what I do is that all across the board, the average audience member I think is like 50 and older, with a heavy, heavy influence on 65 and older. And so to answer your question, I lean into black and white, like newspaper, all across the board. I'm trying to just do that. I've worked in other industries where we've seen that in that demographic. I just, that that's the whole mindset around it. It's just I want it to. To not be flashy. I think at some point my edits were a little bit flashier than what they are now. And I'm trying to just kind of just give the need to have information out there. And I think my audience appreciates that. I've seen some spikes or some dips rather, when I try to be comedic or just try to throw a little bit of a bit out there. I don't know, it doesn't usually land. And so, yeah, I think I used to put more like color on my thumbnails. You go back a. It's like pictures of Billy Strings and kind of tie dye. Ish. And I've definitely just gravitated towards the black and white. And I really. That whole mindset is just my audience is older, and I think that the older generation likes less noise. That's the assumption.
- [29:47]
B
Yeah. I think that it's so important. You just make my point that I always try to talk about here on this podcast is know who you're speaking to. It is important that you know, not necessarily that you always know the demographics, which is important. Knowing that, you know, your demo Normally leans male, 65 plus. That's a good thing to know. You know, these people are still reading, you know, newspapers, right? They're still, you know, no figuring out, go to chat, GPT go to Claude, whatever and say, okay, for a male that is in this demographic, 65 or above, what things do they like, what do they look at? You know, getting really granular about your audience. So if you're a family creator and you're creating towards young families, like what are they dealing with? Like the ins and outs of trying to hustle and bustle, of having young kids and knowing your audience is so important. I have a question now from our creator group, which is our premium group, which you can be a part of for five bucks where they get a whole bunch of freebies and ad free episodes and ability to ask the guest questions like what we're doing here. But Karen asked this. She says for those creators who want to get some momentum and have limited time in their week to produce videos, they work full time or they're a parent or have other commitments, what systems do you have in place that have worked for you so that when you allocate time to your channel, you know exactly what to spend that time on. Example, do you have an annual monthly strategy, a task schedule, a step by step process or something similar? This is a great question by Karen.
- [31:19]
A
Good question. I have a schedule for me, it's been really hard to stick to that schedule and I'll tell you why. The unpredictable part of running a music channel, Dusty is I don't know if it's going to take me an hour to hit that recording quality take or multiple hours. And so to be up front, yeah, that's, I'm sitting there listening to the question and I'm like, I get it because I struggle with the same thing. One thing, an easy answer was I'll cluster some of my short form content content in one time a week so that I always want to keep that going because like I said, I don't do a whole lot of paid ads and for what I do, it benefits me to do that. It benefits the audience. And so one time a week I'm trying to content create stuff, right Stuff as, I mean like stuffing it in within a couple hours. And yeah, I get what she's saying. It's a hard one for me specifically to answer because sometimes I'll get all the way through what I have on my schedule and the other time it'll be I'm only a little bit in. And that's really, that's hard for me to overcome. But, but yeah, I would say to chunk it out, schedule it obviously, but it's, it's hard to stay consistent. I know that's a Hard. That's a hard one.
- [32:36]
B
Yeah. I think for me it's having a list of ideas that are on a spreadsheet. Or for me it's like in a notion database of every time I have an idea it goes. There's that way I eliminate that. Just like I sit down, I think, what am I going to do? And I don't just throw anything in that database. I have kind of like a dumping ground like in an Apple note or a pen and paper. And then all of the ideas that go over to my notion database are ideas that I know I want to do videos. And there's criteria right at the bottom of that database. I put like a paragraph of here is my North Star, here is what I'm trying to accomplish and here's things that I know that I want to produce on my channel. And so I know anything in that list is going to be a great ide idea or a great tutorial that I want to do for the channel. And so setting yourself up for success and spending a little time with getting your systems in place beforehand can be really beneficial of knowing that you don't. You're not sitting there twiddling your thumbs. And so I love that.
- [33:35]
A
And I will say I do outsource a couple things. The stuff that really just takes me a long time, for example, some of the more complex tablature and the stuff that's more musically complex. I'm just going to send that to a gentleman that I work with and that's going to save me so much money. And for me that's a great, that's a great source, just a great thing to outsource. I'm sure you know, the editing is hard to give up, but just getting into the mindset of thinking what could I outsource to AI or to anything. Check upwork. Like you can find great folks that do great work for not expensive things like that. Just as things are growing, especially if you're at home and you've got the momentum, just if you're not already doing something like that, I would say put that at least in the long term outlook and just know that there is a point. I think I'm getting to it. Dusty is like, I can't add any more things to what I already do because it's going to end up in that burnout we talked about the beginning of the show.
- [34:37]
B
Yeah, for me, I want to spend 80 to 90% of the time doing the tasks that make me happy, that fulfill me. The creation side of it, I have Always enjoyed the editing process. It's, it's, you know, people hear me say that and they just cringe. But I think it hearkens back to, you know, I film, you know, wedding videos and it is art to me. Like being able to start with a blank canvas and you start a new project and then you throw all the pieces in the video and then you're able to construct something that was not there to begin with. That, that really gives me life. I mean, I really love that part of it. And I've had a lot of fun doing that recently with some family videos. We just had triplets and so now we went from having two kids to five kids. And so now I'm kind of capturing what that, what that's like. So I'll do day in the life videos and do short form video and do voiceovers and have a lot of fun with some dad jokes and some fun things that I'm creating. I love that process. But what I don't love is a lot of the admin stuff, like finding guests for this podcast. I love meeting new creators, but the process of going back and forth and back and forth because a lot of these big creators, I'm going to say this as nice as I can, they're hard to get in touch with and they don't always respond in the nicest way. We'll eventually get there and we'll eventually have them on the show, but I'm having to go through in between and having to go through agents and it's just like, come on, you know, these things are tedious. And so, you know, I think in the future I can outsource that to AI maybe. But right now there is a lady who lives in Alabama and she handles a lot of kind of my virtual assistant stuff. And I'm so thankful for that. A lot of that kind of data input and stuff like that is on her now. So find, if you're a creator, find what makes you happy, what gives you life, what really brings you joy, do those and then just if you have time and the money, outsource it. So I think that Cody brings up a really good point. Cody, you've been a phenomenal guest. Congratulations on the success of the channel. You're only at the beginning of where I know you're going to be. If you want to see Cody's stuff, I'll have links to his YouTube channel and his website. It's again, Cody, music over on YouTube. But Cody, thanks again for joining us.
- [36:53]
A
Appreciate it. Jesse, thank you for having me and
- [36:55]
B
that's a wrap on this week's conversation here on the Creators Hub podcast. Thank you all for listening. I really do appreciate it. Do two things for me. Number one, subscribe to the show whether it be on YouTube, your podcast player of choice. That way every Friday when we go live with a new episode you will will be notified and then secondly leave us a review. It helps the show grow and get in front of other creators who are along the same journey that you are. Don't forget to check the links in the show notes to figure out all the different things and offers that we have for creators. Everything from creator one on one coaching with me the Creator Mastermind group with exclusive podcast recordings as well as YouTube channel reviews and audits. All of those things offered to you at I believe some of the best prices on the market. With that said, have a great day. Talk to you guys next week.