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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to the YouTube Creators Hub podcast where each and every Friday I sit down with a wonderful YouTube content creator and chat with them about their journey on the platform. As you listen to this show, you're going to notice that we have no advertisers. We don't cram the show full of ad reads. I just tell you at the top and somewhere towards the end about a few things that we offer to you, the creators. We start off with our mastermind group. $5 get you in. You get access to our creator forums, you get access to an exclusive podcast every Friday. You also get access to our monthly Mastermind calls. And in the new year we're going to have creator hosted calls where people are talking about specific topics every week of every month. So if you're interested in that, definitely check that out. I also offer YouTube one on one coaching.
- [00:48]
B
So if you're looking for someone to.
- [00:49]
A
Help you take your channel to the next level, take a look at that. And I do offer channel reviews and audits. If you'd like someone to take a.
- [00:55]
B
Look at your channel.
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A
I review a screencast recording for about six to seven minutes telling you where I think you should be spending your time. And then lastly I have the Entrepreneur's.
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B
Minute which is my newsletter if you.
- [01:04]
A
Want to keep up with me, where I talk all about family, business, content creation and everything that I'm up to throughout the week. And then if you're looking for anything mentioned on the show, you can go over to our Entrepreneurs Toolbox which is.
- [01:16]
B
A running spreadsheet of all tools, resources.
- [01:18]
A
Books, links mentioned here on the podcast. Don't forget to leave us a review. Subscribe wherever and however you're listening or watching the show. And with that said, let's go ahead and jump into this week's conversation. Hello everyone and welcome to this week's.
- [01:30]
B
Conversation on the Creators Hub podcast. I am joined today by Mario Andrulo. Mario is the creator behind the YouTube channel Adventure Gear TV. Featuring practical minivan camping and in depth gear reviews. He brings a data driven approach to testing outdoor equipment, focusing heavily on portable power stations and accessories. He shares his adventures and expertise from his custom converted Toyota Sienna minivan, helping thousands of viewers gear up for their own off grid journeys. His channel, as I mentioned, Adventure Gear TV now has over 117,000 subscribers, just over 350 videos uploaded and he's built a really thriving community over on his channel. Mario, how you doing today?
- [02:17]
C
Pretty good, Dusty. Thank you for having me on the the podcast.
- [02:22]
B
Yeah, I'm really Looking forward to breaking down kind of what you've done. So let's just start from the top. Give me the origin story of the channel. What made you start it? How did that process go? Give me the full story.
- [02:35]
C
Yeah. So back in 2019, I was researching a portable power station, which is like a battery that people use for off grid, you know, charging their computers if their power goes out, things like that. I was researching these batteries and then one day I bought one and I said, hey, I watched all these videos on YouTube, I could probably make a video similar to one of those. And so I ended up making a video. I was very nervous, very shy, you know, behind the camera, didn't want to show my face, any of that. And I forgot about that video. About a year later, I met a guy at work and he said, hey, his wife is a YouTuber. She, she makes videos and she has a thriving YouTube business. And so that inspired me to go back and actually find that video, which at the, at that time had about 10,000 views on it. And he was like, oh, that's actually not bad. So long story short, I said to myself, hey, in a few years when I retire from my regular job, I could possibly monetize a YouTube channel and have like a small business based on YouTube to, to get me through kind of my later years. So I started publishing around 2020. And of course, you know, 2020 was a great year to get into YouTube. And I had a very unexpected early growth. So probably five, six videos in, I started to get a lot more reception or a lot more reach than I had expected. And then the channel essentially took off and here I am. Literally. I think last week I got a notification from YouTube saying it's been six years since your first upload and you're doing great. And I was glad to see that. So that's, that's really kind of the story in a nutshell.
- [04:23]
B
So what do you think attributed to that early or quick growth? Because that's something that, you know, I was working with a client yesterday and their comment to me was, man, it would, it sounds awful to, to, to have to start a new YouTube channel knowing they've already grown a current channel. And so that process oftentimes early on is slow. So what would you attribute that quick growth to?
- [04:50]
C
So I think a couple factors there. Number one, I think just the fact that I was a little bit nervous or really just being myself in those first several videos that, that helped resonate, I think, with people that were watching similar kinds of content. So, hey, I just went in and I showed them a couple of things. Some of the. The power stations that I had, some of my van things that I had going on. And that really, like I said, that resonated with the folks that were watching those videos.
- [05:22]
B
Do you think that niching down, talking about, you know, there's a lot of equipment, YouTube channels out there, a bunch of adventuring channels out there, but you've really honed in on the minivan, you know, talking about your converted Sienna, like I talked about in the open there. Do you think that niching down that specific has helped you kind of grow a community of people and viewers that are going to come back over and over again?
- [05:52]
C
Yeah. So niching down is very important. And the, the reason I say that is here I am six years later, and since I started with the minivan stuff, the power station stuff, I've really had maybe about five buckets of viewers that have grown the channel over the last six years. And so I recommend, obviously, you know, six years later, niching down for sure. And the reason I say that is I've had a couple of viral videos in different topics, and it's been one of those things where, hey, on a weekend I don't have a good topic for the niche of the channel and I make a random video, then that random video, you know, takes off and brings in a whole nother audience. I'm always happy to have, you know, more viewers, more subscribers. But what has happened, you know, in the last couple of years is I make a what I would consider a decent video, and it only really appeals to one or a few potentially of those sub audiences within the channel. So niching obviously extremely important. And because of that, I've also recently decided I'm going to start another minivan channel completely, just to focus on that one topic. Because if you go to my channel now, you're going to find some maintenance stuff for vehicles, you're going to find power station stuff or tech stuff, you're going to find the minivan stuff and those things. Although I feel like there's a Venn diagram of where they, you know, they, they relate to each other. Some people really prefer the more specific kind of Persona or avatar of a channel.
- [07:25]
B
So let's talk about that. That's the exact conversation I was having with that client actually this week is, is whether or not they should start or launch a new channel. What. What made you make that decision? What put in the pro and con column.
- [07:40]
C
Yeah. So the pros of swapping is I can definitely have A dedicated audience and a dedicated message that I'm providing to that audience. So that audience and I have actually seen this because last week I published the first video on the new channel and that video already has over 10,000 views. And I said in the video, hey, this is the focus of this channel. And I. I'm going to stick to that for sure. Similar videos on my current channel, they may stay dormant in the first couple of weeks because the audience that receives those videos isn't necessarily interested in that topic. And, you know, the initial growth can set a video up for success or failure. So what I've seen a lot in the last year or so is I'll post a video, it might get, you know, three to 5,000 views in the first month, and then six months or a year later, when the algorithm finally figures out where that video belongs, it will start to get more traffic. And so that. That's great for that channel. So the con of swapping is, you know, I'm investing in a new channel with, you know, time and effort that might not work. I mean, these experiments and to be quite honest, I have actually attempted to redirect the channel or rebrand the channel a couple of times as well as maybe focus on specific topics. And just with the growth of it and the wider array of growth, you know, that has been definitely a learning experience for me.
- [09:09]
B
It's hard to rock the boat when it's working. Right. Like, you may want to experiment, but, you know, maybe it's just safer, as you mentioned, to just launch a new channel and just focus on that one thing. Now, the community that you've built around this channel, I see that you also have, you know, a Facebook page as well as TikTok. Can you talk about kind of off platform of YouTube and the importance of taking that community elsewhere and the experience that you've had with that.
- [09:36]
C
Yeah, so the experience I've had with what I would call syndication, which is having essentially the same, initially the same topic on all ch or all social media. So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. That's been a really great experience. And the main reason is over the years, as I've played with shorts and things like that, I've been able to create one good short and upload it on all of those platforms. And that short, you know, might do good on one of them and maybe not so good on the other, but in the grand scheme of things overall, that one short performed well. You know, I'm one of those platforms. Going back to the topic of, you know, Niching down though. I have experimented with shorts and I've had some wildly viral multimillion view shorts that again bring in a specific audience and then potentially diminish the, the remainder of the channel's reach. The good, the other good thing about that is I can have a dedicated YouTube video and then someone can reach out to me, hey, I saw you did this or I saw you did that. And then I can give them a little more direct, you know, potentially mentorship or guidance on the, the topic that they're trying to explore for their off grid or their small vehicle camping experience.
- [10:49]
B
Can you maybe dive into that a bit deeper? That point you made about bringing in a large number, quantity wise, of viewers with a short that goes viral and how that impacts the channel? Because it does. As someone who's growing to actually enjoy short form content as far as the creating process of it, and I'm coming around to shorts, I think there's a place for them. You do risk having an audience come to the channel that normally isn't there, whether it be subscribers that are inflated or whatever it may be. Can you talk about that process and what you've learned through it?
- [11:24]
C
Yeah, so what I've learned through that process and, and what's happened is over the years I've got these random ideas, Hey, I have this idea for a video, it's a great idea, but it doesn't necessarily fit the channel's niche. And so a couple of in particular storage videos where I do like, hey, a story of someone, a hiker or a camper, you know, some potentially viral concept, well, that video takes off and then, hey, it might get potentially multimillion views and the next video, or the next, maybe three or four videos, long form might get presented to them in their standard feed. And because they saw the one video and they really resonated with it and they didn't see the other video or they saw the other video and didn't resonate with that at all, then that can really drop your initial click through rate. So you might go from like a solid, you know, 6 or 7% click through, you know, average click through rate to a 1% after the viral video clicks off or kick kicks off just because of that extended reach that you're getting. And so really the problem is, hey, maybe you are still getting a good audience, but you, you send mixed signals with it. And so my new strategy on the new channel with shorts is the shorts have to drive. And, and I've heard some of this on some of your other podcasts. The shorts have to drive the main topic of the niche of the channel and potentially drive the audience back. That niche.
- [12:53]
B
Yeah, that's important. I told the story before. There was a guy that I was speaking with and he did this channel where he was talking about, you know, policemen and firemen and that was kind of the main niche of his channel. But then he did one short where he reacted to a, a call coming through like a react video of a police call and that became super viral. I mean we're talking 10, 15 million views on a short. And he did a couple more and then he realized that he basically set his channel down a path of being just that. Right. Where the other videos that he would do non related to these reaction type style videos would perform very poorly and affect the overall growth trajectory of the channel. And he was kind of in between a rock and a hard place. So I think that the strategy, if you're going to do shorts, they do need to be a direct kind of companion piece to the long form videos and streaming and thing that you're doing on the overall branding of the channel. So I could not agree more with that. Speaking of branding and packaging, can you talk about that for a minute? What's your strategy? I looked at your channel last night late and I saw kind of how it's evolved over time since you've started. But can you kind of talk about what you've landed on right now and things that you've learned about, you know, your thumbnails and your titles and the different processes you go through to get where they are now?
- [14:10]
C
Yeah, so, so branding just to kind of go back a little bit. Originally my channel name was Off Grid Adventure. When I hit a hundred thousand subscribers, I went for that check mark and YouTube came back and said, your channel name is not distinguishable enough to work for a check mark. And so I kind of wanted that, I wanted to, you know, this is a small business also as well. Right. And so I wanted to brand and have a, a consistent branding for this channel. And I said, well, I'm mostly doing gear reviews at this point. So I went with that adventure gear TV essentially business name and YouTube name that also allowed me to get that check mark. And then for my thumbnails in particular, I'm still always learning the number. You know, one thing that, that advice that I have for YouTube thumbnails is to keep them focused on the topic. So if you look at mine, I do follow those rules. Hey, I don't want more than three things in the thumbnail. I Don't want more than two words if possible. One is really good, three maybe if it's a really good phrase. And then I want to kind of focus on whatever the, for example, the product in a product review, I want that to be the central focus and then the, the color and contrast. And so I do spend a lot of time in like Canva trying to make the colors contrast properly, like with some color science, stuff like that. So there's a lot of thought that goes into my thumbnails, but the main thing is to try to keep them clutter free. However, and you've probably experienced this as well. My, my worst thumbnails sometimes perform the best where I'm, I'm so convinced that thumbnail is not going to work that that one just happened to resonate. And so it's. As much as I feel like I know about YouTube, I also don't know much.
- [16:02]
B
Yeah, we're, we're always learning. There's always things where I'll upload a video and I'll be done with it and I've worked, you know, hours on getting it ready and I'll, I'll be about to hit the upload button and I say, man, this one's, this one's not going to do well. And then in six months I look back because I always like to do a, especially with search based content, I like to do a 6 and a 12 month kind of retrospective of where is that video? I oftentimes do that at the end of the month and I look at many videos that I've uploaded six months or a year ago and I'll be like, are you kidding me? That's the one that's going to pop off. That's the one that's going to take off. So again, even with this whole YouTube thing, doing it as long as I have, there's things that I'm learning. It's always evolving with new, you know, artificial intelligence technology. There's so many things that are really rapidly moving in the space and so it's really cool to hear you say that. Now do you do all of this yourself or do you outsource any of it?
- [16:54]
C
So I had considered last year hiring an editor mainly just for the free time. So my workflow right now I am completely part time on YouTube. I only really dedicate my Saturday mornings. So usually Saturday I wake up before everyone else, I start filming and then by the end of the day, Saturday I'll have a video prepared to upload. I do some ideation throughout the week. And you mentioned AI. I do. I have been incorporating AI into my workflow. Not for, I have used it for some B roll things and things like that, but primarily for trying to focus my repeatable content strategy. And so I might be diverging from your question, but the, the way that I'm able to consistently produce a script now where it's still my words, it's my thoughts, my concepts, but they stay on track or focused, I've been able to use AI to help me with that a lot. So I'll make a video and I've even gotten to the point where I will upload a video to AI and say, hey, help me make this better for my audience and the AI will give me feedback. Like on this minute here, you diverged from the topic and that is where you're going to lose a potential viewer because they're not going to know how to react to what you're saying there. And so that's helped me a lot. Hopefully I didn't diverge too much. But yes, the workflow is Saturday is my day. If it doesn't get done or really the problem with that is whatever I have at the end of the day, if I'm not a hundred percent satisfied with it, I still end up uploading it because then I've got to move on to the next project the following week. And that's, that's how I go with that.
- [18:46]
B
Mario, are there things that you do, things that you put in place like guardrails to make sure that you manage your time well, because this is a part time thing. You do have a job. Like we're recording this really early right now. Your time and my time because you have to get over to your. So what are things that you've done to make sure, like you said, you work solely on Saturdays, but are there other things like when you have ideas and scripting and how are you processing everything to make sure you're not getting overwhelmed?
- [19:13]
C
So my big guardrail is I try to stay off of studio. That that's the, the biggest one that can impact you is hey, I'm refreshing the analytics and that's one. I stay off of that. The other thing is I really try not to think about YouTube or, or anything. Like when I'm at my, my regular job, I am not thinking about YouTube, anything like that. I might check in every evening, but I really try to limit my time interacting with it. And that helps actually in a lot of ways because going back to that potentially initial slow response to some videos, that helps Avoid any concerns with that and then it really helps free up my time. The, the good thing is I feel like I've over the years learned to manage that. But I will definitely say for sure YouTube can feel. YouTube can pull you in very effectively. And, and if you're into creation like we are, you can definitely get drawn into all of the analytics, deep diving, seeing what things are changing and you really just have to step away from it. That's, that's definitely my number one advice there.
- [20:22]
A
Interrupt the show just briefly to tell you about our YouTube channel review service. I take a look at your channel for around six to eight minutes, tell you where I think you can be doing better, where I think you should be spending your time and give you another set of eyes to take a.
- [20:33]
B
Look at your channel.
- [20:34]
A
And don't forget we also have one on one YouTube coaching as well as our mastermind group. All of those will be linked down below in the show notes. Now back to the show.
- [20:43]
B
Yeah, consuming yourself with that studio app can really be detrimental. So let's talk about this thing as a business because you said it is a small business, you are making money from it. Can you break down how you're making front money from your channel, the different buckets that you're doing? So, and then also maybe on average what you might make in a month from your creator business.
- [21:03]
C
Yeah. So I feel like where my current channel is, I have a, the ability and I'm going to say the ability because it depends on my available time and how much I'm pursuing potential sponsorships and things like, and I say that that's a, a potential outcome or a potential income from the channel because based on my day job, I don't always have time to deal with sponsors and because I do a lot of reviews. My biggest issue with sponsorship is brands will want you to say specific things. And I'm in a position where I do not have to accept directed scripting and things like that. And so if you've watched any of my recent videos, I tell a sponsor up, up front, hey, there's going to be pros and cons. Nothing's perfect. I want to have cons in my video. If they won't accept that, then I move on. And I don't, I'm not worried about that at all. But what that looks like is adsense. Hey, adsense. I've had some amazing months and my really, my average is somewhere around a 3 to 4 range on AdSense. That includes YouTube shopping and ad revenue. Those are kind of the main streams there. I don't do memberships or any of the other AdSense related things and then affiliate marketing. I'm also an Amazon influencer which that helps as well because I can take a lot of my long form content and crunch down a short, throw it on Amazon that could be, you know, 10 to 20% of that income. And then brand deals and sponsorships again these are, these are hit or miss but on average I can probably do. I usually start around 3,000 for a sponsorship and then I will work down based on, you know, what's the value of the product and they're going on that. So there are products where hey, I've received it, I've looked at it and then I've decided hey, I can't, you know, show this on my channel, it's so incompatible or I just don't like it. You know, things like that. And so being able to be flexible like that is super important.
- [23:14]
B
How does the process go with sponsors? Because if you are charging 3 to 5k per sponsor, what are you pitching to them as far as do you have a templated email? What do you promise them as far as deliverables? Do you promise them a specific view count across platforms? Can you give us kind of your full sponsorship kind of workflow?
- [23:34]
C
Yeah. So number one, I cannot guarantee a view count and the reason is a topic. So, so based on the style of my channel and you may experience this as well as a, a tech tutorial on your main channel you can't say that one video is going to appeal to the audience like the next video. So I can't guarantee a view count but what I offer a sponsor for the most part is dedicated search traffic views. So their, their product is going to get search traffic from my video which then I try to provide a well educated and my style is supposed to be review youtainment. So it's a review educational, entertainment all in one. Those are the things I try to do. And so that's one of my big negotiating things is hey, you're going to get access to search traffic that's dedicated to that video where I usually rank pretty well. That's number one. I don't ever say hey, I'm going to get like I don't expect a viewer to watch a video if they're not interested in it no matter how much the title is appealing or the thumbnail, hey, they may just not be interested in that topic. So that's, that's big on that. I have had depending on how the, the market or or the current environment is some sponsors like hey, I don't have the ability to pay that or I'm not going to pay that. And then I just move on and it's, it's hit or miss on that as well, but not super important for me. It's not, you know, something I have to do. And yes, hopefully I didn't diverge too much from that, but.
- [25:11]
B
No, you didn't. You're. I think that you underestimate your ability to communicate because you are doing a really good job of communicating your process. And you know, someone hears that number and they're like, man. So his channel has a ceiling of 20k a month. That, that seems really high. Can you talk about, you know, I mean, that is a big number. Can you just talk about just what this has provided for you? Not necessarily monetarily, but just the reach that you have. And did you ever imagine that you'd be getting three to thousand dollars per sponsor and having really good months ad revenue? Can you just talk about maybe how, you know, it seems normal to you now, but kind of as you've evolved into this with a channel, people think you have to have a billion subscribers and a hundred million view every month to get this, but that's not the case. Can you just break down kind of what this means to you and kind of the platform that YouTube's given you?
- [26:02]
C
Yeah, so what this means to me is I've got about 18 months left in my current job and I plan to shift from this job to be a full time YouTuber. And this is the opportunity. I can do that. I can, you know, that's the main thing. I do try to stay humble. So I, you know, you might see the video and I have that kind of well scripted and thought out, you know, video plan. But in reality I do try to stay humble. I'm very thankful for all the opportunities that I have. I'm thankful that people enjoy the videos and that that's for me the number one thing is trying to stay humble. And I also try to help other new YouTubers out, maybe give them advice, things like that. And so that, that's my, my big thing there. I am humble. I am thankful for the opportunity I never would have imagined. So like, if you would have asked me six years ago, hey, you're going to be making videos on YouTube weekly that would never have been on any of my bingo cards or anything like that. It's just, it kind of took off and I'm, you know, humble and thankful for it.
- [27:07]
B
I love that, Well, I want to ask you this. You talk about you helping other YouTube creators. There's a lot of them listening to this show today or whenever they're listening or watching. What is something that you wish you would have known sooner about? The creator space and YouTube.
- [27:23]
C
Yeah, so the thing I wish I would have known sooner. And we know this now, a lot of your guests on your podcast here mentioned this, which is niche down. And I know I mentioned this earlier, but I cannot stress that enough. You know, they will say don't publish a video unless you're prepared to make more videos like that. And I do like and enjoy all the videos that I have made. But you know, you can definitely pigeonhole your channel into a separate niche based on one random video that just happens to take off. And so that, that's my number one advice there for that. I think. The other thing is, and again, I hear this on your channel as well. And by the way, I listen to this podcast almost every day. You know, you're, I think, are you at 500 episodes yet?
- [28:06]
B
Most almost, yes.
- [28:08]
C
So luckily my commute is about 30 minutes and that's kind of the, the formula here. But yeah, niche down is the number one there.
- [28:17]
B
So I want to ask you, as we get ready to close out, what are your aspirations as far as you're talking about transitioning to full time, which is great, but what are your aspirations as far as future goals, short term and long term for the channel?
- [28:31]
C
Yeah, so my, my long term goal right now I'm able to do one video a week. I think when I make that transition to full time, I may end up doing two. I've considered three. Or what I'll do is I'll do one on this channel and then I'll start that second channel and invest some time into that. And so really the thing there is about, you know, just being flexible, not focusing necessarily a hundred percent on the one channel in particular, but just being flexible and having the ability to, to do other things. So I'm going to remove that minivan camping aspect from the review channel and then I'll, I'll have that as a dedicated other channel where viewers can go there and they're going to get more of just that camping experience, that camping focused channel without, you know, all the, the review stuff.
- [29:25]
B
So love that. And then just a fun question, do you have a guilty pleasure YouTube channel that you like to watch that you're like, oh man, I'm just, I'm addicted to this channel.
- [29:35]
C
Wow, that's a, that's a very, I was not expecting that one. So channels that I love to watch, believe it or not. And you may see some hints of this in my videos, but you know, things like Mr. Beast, those really big entertaining, you know, channels, I do like to see those and I really like to see them just to see, to watch how other creators grow. That's one. And that's, that's a common one, I'm sure. You know, like Casey Neistat is a vlog channel. So I have some, you know, early on those were kind of the big channels that I got in there. And believe it or not, I spend a lot of time just watching channels that are growth channels like that give you topics and ideas and things like that.
- [30:16]
B
Love that. Well, Mario, you've been an awesome guest again. You can check out his channel over at Adventure Gear tv. Keep doing what you're doing. Can't wait to see what you do when you go full time. And thank you so much for being a guest today, Dusty.
- [30:29]
C
Thanks for having me and have a great day.
- [30:31]
A
And that's a wrap on this week's episode of the Creator's Hub podcast. Don't forget to check out all of our services down below. Everything from our mastermind group, One on One Coaching, YouTube channel reviews as well as our entrepreneurs toolbox and newsletter. All those things will be linked down below.
- [30:45]
B
If you listen to this show, do.
- [30:47]
A
Us a favor, leave us a five star review. Really does help the podcast grow.
- [30:52]
B
And if you watch the show on.
- [30:54]
A
YouTube or Spotify or wherever you're watching the video version of the podcast, just subscribe to the show. It's absolutely free. Leave us a review over there as well. With that said, we'll talk to you guys next week.