Genius YouTube Advice for 30 Minutes Straight...

subscribers don't matter views don't matter ask how can I make my videos better do that every single day for years everyone can have fun making videos turning into a job that's great but you should be happy making videos never making a dime off of it the videos that I've made that are the best I did it because I was so passionate and I saw an opportunity to make something that felt like more than just like a YouTube video that I wanted to get views even a flop is going to do well long term your

fans are your focus group and if you don't listen to them you're you're not going to be a successful Creator long term I waited 10 years to finally post something I realized oh my gosh I hate doing this putting on makeup taking it off and then putting it on again oh my gosh I hated it it took me 10 years to figure out that the niche I thought I wanted to do was actually not what I wanted to do at all I wasn't ready I didn't know all the steps I didn't have all the right answers I don't think I'm

fully ready you're not you don't have to be great to start but you have to start to be great what do you think gets us to a million subscribers well subscribers is an arbitrary okay you should ask me what helps us make the best videos possible that's the only question you should ask me subscribers don't matter views don't matter I mean they do but all that comes everything you want as a Creator comes from making the best videos possible and thumbnails but it's easier to you know make thumbnails

the video Parts the hard part and that's the thing that you're known for that's a tip for you guys but also you guys watching ask how can I make my videos better do that every single day for years and then you'll probably get views the worst thing is when people try to copy or replicate a YouTuber it's not gonna or yeah like there already is a Casey neistat you know I mean there already isn't I'm a Chamberlain like you can't don't replicate that like maybe take something from it and be like oh

this works so I'll take this but definitely make it your own style it doesn't matter like if you're filming yourself with a toaster like if it's something new and you seem like you're enjoying yourself then other people will enjoy themselves watching it perfect your first frame I really believe this is one of the most overlooked things right now does everything you see there set up expectation and tension for what you're about to watch so in my creator of a celebrity example um you know I I ask

people hey who are these two people and I had the physical printout of the Creator versus celebrity but it didn't start out that way it took a ton of hours of iteration I initially started now where it's just me a microphone I was doing this whole long intro of like hey guys we're here in Hollywood asking people who's more famous creators or celebrities first up we have Logan Paul versus Atomic way too long then I had a shorter version and then I just got into it you get ahead of this I I promis

e it's gonna lead to so many more views and subscribers like it has for me the videos that I've made that are the best are purely out of like like the metaverse video is my favorite video I've ever made love making that yeah we were talking about that before yeah how fun that was yeah it was so much fun and like I did it because I was so passionate like I I saw something I saw an opportunity to do something that I thought was exciting and I saw an opportunity to make something that felt like mor

e than just like a YouTube video that I wanted to get views and I did it and it happened to get views but I think it's because the audience can appreciate when something is is made out of love and it's made out of more than just algorithmically optimized content Farm type of panel you know um and so like moving forward I've also learned the long-term approach because when I post a metaverse video I I look at my channel and I'll look at the last 28 days in these videos I uploaded a year or two ag

o are also getting tons of views and I realize like you upload a video and the viewership lifespan is forever like as long as I keep putting out great videos even a flop is going to do well long term and so there's just so much freedom in taking that pressure of being immediately successful right now and number one in the world right now and realizing like you're on your own path you're on your own journey and you have time to you know like execute the vision that you want if you're like me when

I started YouTube you probably had an idea in your head got your camera filmed it edited it uploaded it to YouTube and then you realized oh yeah I guess I need a title in the thumbnail so you scrape something together pretty fast and slap it on YouTube because after all you made a great video so the title and thumbnail they're not actually as important as the actual video right that's a self-centered way of creating YouTube content you're thinking like you not like your audience look your viewe

rs don't see the great video Behind The Click all they see is a title and thumbnail that's all they have to go off with if they are intrigued no one will click and your video will get like 12 views all from you smashing the refresh button whereas most of us creators will create our title and thumbnail the very last part the best creators in the world do it very first look Mr Beast and Mark Rober start with a title and thumbnail they know that if they can make a killer TNT they know their audienc

e will want to click on that guides their filming editing everything start with the title and thumbnail instead of doing a last there's a misconception out there that says hey I need to know my niche before I can post any videos I need to do tons of market research before I can post anything because it needs to land it needs to be perfect it needs to rank the truth is is that your Niche will find you after you've collected enough data on what's working and what's not working on your channel and

you as a Creator you know what topics you like to do best I'll tell you a personal story took me 10 years to start out my YouTube channel I've always wanted to be a YouTuber since high school specifically I wanted to do makeup I wanted to be a makeup Beauty blogger I waited 10 years to finally post something and the moment that I posted my very first makeup tutorial I realized oh my gosh I hate doing this putting on makeup taking it off and then putting it on again oh my gosh I hated it and you

know what really sucked it took me 10 years to figure out that the niche I thought I wanted to do was actually not what I wanted to do at all and so what did I do after that pivot I pivoted and I thought you know what I don't really know my Niche yet I had just quit my corporate job and so I really want to just post videos for Millennials who are one to two years into their corporate job trying to find their identity either going through identity crisis and so I think about this person in mind o

kay it's not really Niche down yet it's just a target audience and what I realized that this target audience has many different interests maybe they're interested in side hustling career tips budgeting tips staying healthy all those different things and so what I did was I started to experiment and one day I was like you know what I think that this person might be interested in social media and so I finally posted a video that seemed out of the blue at the time it was my first video about Instag

ram and that video took off and today it has 6.2 million views on YouTube this would not have been possible if I did not give myself the freedom to try different things and so let that be a lesson to you don't aim for Perfection just do it move before you're motivated too often we wait for motivation to strike whether we want to pick up a fitness habit or start a new side project we think we need to feel fired up to begin and while sometimes that strategy might work most often we'll be waiting a

really really long time to get started as author Robert McCain says the common misconception is that motivation leads to action but the reverse is true action precedes motivation you have to prime the pump and get the juices flowing no matter the change you're looking to make in your life the only thing you need to get started is the first step that small step turns into another and then another and it won't take long for the momentum to build and before you know it you're motivated this might

sound corny but sometimes when I'm really doubting myself or when I feel like I need a boost of confidence I'll crank up the tunes and dance around my house like a madman whether I'm trying to build confidence or shake off some anxiety nine times out of ten I'll see a significant shift in my mindset and Mood by doing this you can wait around to get motivated or you can get moving if you are going to be a YouTube content creator what you have to do is you have to figure out how to work the proces

s of creating and uploading videos into your lifestyle and look I know it might sound like a bit much but the thing you got to think about is if you are going to be putting out a video per week that's 52 videos per year you have to think okay what do I have to do over the course of a week to be able to put out one video per week and is it possible with the type of content that you make to be able to make more than one video in one sitting like when you turn on your camera to make videos or you g

et out your artboard to make videos or whatever it happens to be for the type of content you make you have to try to think hey is there a way that I can make more than one video while I'm in the process of creating right now if so do it so that you can start putting some videos to this side so that you build up a queue of videos over time that'll take a lot of the pressure off as long as your content type supports it and that will ensure that you stay consistent over the next 365 days when you a

re new to YouTube no one and unfortunately I mean no one knows who you are including YouTube's recommendation system otherwise known as the algorithm the more videos you make the more YouTube will understand about your videos and how they relate to other videos that viewers are watching so I would suggest for the average channel in your first six months aiming to make between 25 and 50 videos and the first thing I will guarantee when you meet this quantity Milestone is that you'll look back on y

our first video and say gee from a YouTube recommendation Discovery algorithm perspective it will start to understand whether you are a creative cut videos gardening cryptocurrency investing whatever the topic is you want to make videos about and professional athletes go out onto the field or into the arena it is after thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of practice well in one sense YouTube is the same it requires thousands of hours of practice patience and learning books the differe

nce is it's better to do all of this in public because you get so much feedback from it and there are pretty much no penalties especially when you're starting out your new channel because you've got nothing to lose making these videos will help develop consistency getting better at video production optimizing your video content such as the titles and thumbnails learning what it takes to make quality videos if you want to be a successful Creator you have to embrace the fact that your audience is

not only the final audience but they're also your focus group traditional media you've got the focus group and then you've got the intended audience that distinction goes away they are your fans are your focus group and if you don't listen to them you're you're not going to be a successful Creator long term and you also we were just talking about this earlier today there's two aspects to your your content there's the product and there's the performance and a lot of really you know creatively pur

est people can never accept that the performance of the content you don't embrace the the quality of the product and then the performance itself of that product it just can't happen is that you're going to lose too much steam you find a signal that something is working when we first said is Cinco de Mayo in 24 2015 whenever we did will it Taco let's just throw stuff in a taco for an episode it was just an episode idea and then you know it actually took us a little while to realize uh we should d

o that again but not with tacos we should do Willet as a sub Series yeah and so but we had that signal then you get to a point where it's can we do this better next time you know can we can we double down on this can we triple down on this is this a format that we can do every month once you do that it's actually harder to find the signal for when you should stop doing something when you need to move on interesting that's that's the real challenge your title and thumbnail set expectations and at

the very beginning of the video to minimize drop-off you want to assure them that those expectations are being met you click on a video where you know uh of his where it's like tether is a scam and then at the very beginning he starts talking about literally anything else then you are like oh this is both this is what I clicked on but if at the very start of the video you go tether is a scam and I'm going to teach you why then it's like okay you match the expectation so at the very beginning ma

tch the expectations and then you want to exceed them so you want to assure people that what they clicked on is what they're getting and then blow their mind and be like but you're also getting even more that's how you you lower Dropbox which a lot of people and sometimes it takes like 20 seconds to really meet the expectations and so you lose like that's where you're gonna lose everyone everyone's videos start like this and then it levels off so you want to reduce the amount of people that clic

k off you will basically want to remove every dull moment you probably want to find the 10 most critical people you know make them watch the video and just roast it you know certain things like if I just talk to a camera for 10 seconds without a cut like a lot of people will just like get bored or they'll lose interest so like having a b Cam and a c-cam and just you can just talk for 10 seconds but three seconds in cutting to a b Cam and then a c cam like now it's more interesting even though it

's essentially the same thing and not that crazy but you want to have good pacing typically having a payoff at the end keeps some right last sleep Circle wins 10 grand if there is a low moment halfway through you're gonna watch the end because you want to see who wins the 10 grand so having a good payoff at the end so at the end of the day if you boil it down what YouTube wants is they want people to click on a video and they want to watch it by studying the algorithm you'll learn that you're mo

re studying human psychology right what do humans want to watch what do they find in joy not you anytime you say the word algorithm just replace it with audience and it works perfectly like the algorithm didn't like that video no the audience didn't like that video no you know because literally that's it people are clicking and watching then it gets promoted more and that's all that's literally all the algorithm does is reflect what the people want 280 and If you deny that you just make terrible

videos that are trying to find a scapegoat the advice that you can get from a Creator about YouTube about the platform about how to make better videos doesn't necessarily always apply I might say something like introducing people to a storyline within the first 10 seconds of a video but that bit of advice might not work if you're trying to review a product for example and you have to talk to the person considering buying the thing immediately they would leave if you start telling a story and it

has nothing to do with the product so I'm curious when you guys talk to a bunch of different creators and different genres who have different pieces of advice that they give do you find that there's more overlap or almost no overlap so I personally actually disagree about what you just said about tech videos interesting I actually think you can introduce multiple narratives introduce new stories when it comes to the product it's just not the same way it's not you telling a story but if you said

like there's two things I really like about this and one thing I really don't all of a sudden you've just introduced something that I'm waiting for I see that's a story what's the thing Marquez doesn't like about this and I'm waiting for that and so I think actually a lot of the advice that he's giving is the way I take it is more of this just general storytelling advice and if someone's you know you're introducing a product and there's no tension there's no nothing new that's going to happen u

m then I might not stick around a really bad story will go like this it'll go this happened then this happened then this happened then this happened and you think like that's a that's extremely boring way to intake information yeah and what you want is a story that goes this happened but then that happened therefore this happened so you want some causation between the beats in your story and I think that's something that could exist completely in a tech video I used to actually just watch a vide

o all the way through and say Where am I bored I'd get my younger brother to watch the video all the way through and just if he knows it's somewhere where he felt anyway this is just boring or didn't make sense he just like write a quick timestamp down on a notepad I think it's crucial to watch the video as a viewer and that's where editors get it wrong that's where YouTubers get it wrong they watch the video and they just hyper focus in on minute by minute sections and they don't see the entire

picture have you ever done the distraction test this is something that I do where it's I get every single potential distraction possible and so when I'm going for a video I'll get my phone in front of me I'll get my tablets in front of me I'll get a book that I am avoiding reading in front of me I get my cat in front of me and then the second I want to pet my cats I want to look at my phone I get a notification I'm interested or finally I'm gonna pick up that book that I've been avoiding all th

ose months someone's wrong here it's even like a good sort of test for like everything's clear urinals like like actually audibly clear enough I always say the same review on YouTube is not listening to the video with seinheiser 3040s or whatever yeah you know they're they're just watching it on their airpods on the train they woke up in the morning their mother's shouting at them to get up and they're just watching out or they're just watching without headphones you know and I think it's really

important to consider them we've been told so much in the past to narrow your focus so that way you know the more specific your Niche is the faster you can grow but the thing is what happens once you've grown but you're not happy like you've grown with this Niche but now you're not happy you're also starting to lose engagement because your audience is kind of just fatigue of you talking about the same thing all the time so with niching it does get a little bit difficult to continue to be more a

nd more creative over time because you know you kind of just feel like things don't change that much right so um layering is a little bit different it's about take taking the layers of who you are and what you want to connect with your audience on and creating your content strategy based off of multiple pillars um but ultimately one base layer which is going to be your most defining trait in your most defining content pillar if you will so for me for example entrepreneur life is or entrepreneurs

hip in general is my base layer when most people think of me they think of Entrepreneurship branding productivity social media tips and marketing strategies so those are like my base layer that is what I'm known for and that is what I create the most content about however I have not so much so because of video on how to grow on YouTube or how to get monetized has gone viral I have not been gone in and like only created content about that thing instead I continued to build on that and create cont

ent that then in represents who I am and not just what I do and that is the key difference between niching and layering your on-camera presence is extremely important because if you're talking about something but it seems like you lack conviction or you lack confidence in the thing you're talking about then generally speaking people are not going to want to listen to you for a long time and so one of the questions that I got from you guys was Joshua how do I break free from camera shyness that's

a real thing like how do I break free from being shy in front of the camera I want to start a personal finance YouTube channel but I don't feel confident you know I remember I saw a video a while back um it was a gram Stefan video and he was talking about literally this exact same thing he posted something on Reddit saying I don't feel like I'm confident enough or have the personality to be a YouTuber I don't have the personality balls or Charisma to start my own channel I am not the type that

would do well in front of the camera but thankfully after years of doubting myself I just finally got to the point where I just said get I'm going to film a YouTube video and I'm going to get over my fear about putting myself out there listen guys if you want to break free from camera shyness if you want to have more confidence on camera I could sit here and I could give you you know exercises I could say to you listen to music that's gonna hype you up before you start recording or you know uh s

ay to yourself in the mirror a hundred times I'm confident right certainly that stuff could help a little bit but it's not going to fit the root cause of the problem and the root problem the reason that you're so shy in front of the camera the reason that you lack confidence is because you care too much about what other people are going to think about you I mean think about this for a second right are you shy in front of your mom or your dad or your best friend right you're probably not shy in f

ront of those people because you trust them because you know that they're not going to judge you for who you are but the moment you get on camera you are aware of the fact that there are going to be thousands of people potentially tens hundreds millions of people who are watching you who could potentially judge you and that's what makes you shy that's what makes you lack confidence when you're in front of the camera because you just care too much about what other strangers are going to think abo

ut you I know it's a lot easier said than done and it's going to take practice but you cannot care what other people think about you if someone feels like they want to judge you because of the way you look or because of the way your voice sounds or because of the way you talk the Cadence of your voice whatever if somebody feels like they want to judge you because of that understand it has nothing to do with you them judging you is just a reflection of themselves like they're making fun of you th

ey're saying things about you because they feel bad about themselves in those areas that they're making fun of you for or perhaps they're just jealous of you because they lack the confidence themselves to also be in front of the camera but you're taking the step and you're getting in front of the camera and because of that they're jealous of you and so they're just gonna make fun of you right listen guys you are going to have haters it's that's it's inevitable if you have an audience that's big

enough there will be people who comment on your videos who say mean things but listen to me the overwhelming majority of people who comment on your videos and who watch your videos are going to be supportive are going to be kind or gonna be encouraging and so you shouldn't be concerned about being yourself in front of the camera because most people are gonna love you for who you are you will have the haters of course but that's very few and far between whenever people ask about starting out they

're like oh I really like Tech I want to make videos about tech any tips for starting make sure you really do like Tech right because there I again you can make videos about tech every day for the next year and maybe it would kind of get sick of it like that's that's real that's a real valid feeling to have um and so I often equate becoming a professional Video Creator in Tech or in any product related thing uh kind of like becoming a professional athlete in that everyone can have fun making vid

eos and everyone can have fun let's say playing basketball for example going to the park with your friends playing basketball whatever but turning into a job requires not just a high level of skill but like an extra level of time dedication and like actual resources being poured into it to get to the very peak level to be able to turn it into your job yeah and that's the same thing with with making videos like if you can be happy making videos for fun and never making a dime off of it and maybe

someday it hooks and you can spend time on the strategy and actually turning it into your job that's great but you should be happy making videos never making a dime off of it is if you're like playing basketball in the park and if you're getting burnt out playing basketball in the park it's probably not going to be a great idea to try to become a professional basketball player same thing with creating videos first big lesson is that the numbers really don't matter if you set a goal for yourself

to get 10 000 subscribers a hundred thousand subscribers a million subscribers well once you get there it's yeah it's going to be awesome it's a reason to celebrate you hit this goal of a subscriber Milestone but the next day you're gonna have to set a new goal and you're going to be moving towards a different objective and in the end what does a million subscribers really mean like what to you is a million subscribers I think the biggest question that you need to ask yourself is why do I want a

million subscribers like what is the purpose of that because having something like a million subscribers doesn't necessarily mean that you are successful so you have to think of what does success mean to you does it have to do with your income does it have to do with just having a place to have a creative Outlet like what is the purpose of making videos and we set these goals for ourselves like getting to these different subscriber Milestones or these different objectives but a lot of times we

don't take the time to take a step back and actually think of why do we want that why do we need this in our life so one big thing that you can take take away from this is don't set your goals based around just getting a bright shiny plaque figure out what it is that you actually want and what goals do you need to set to be able to obtain that and what happens when you actually get there is are you done are you going to be setting new goals like think through the longevity of what you're doing r

ather than just thinking short term and trying to get this one number goal what's the best advice you've ever gotten the best advice you're crazy until you're successful then you're a genius for a lot of people when you know you're grinding a small Channel people think you're too obsessed you're a weirdo stop only making videos like get alive be realistic you're you know I mean people will convince you you're out of your mind for wanting to to do this but then once you're successful they're like

yo your drive your tenacity was great but it's like yeah well where was that back then you know I mean I didn't get that when I was a small Channel and so I think you're crazy until you're successful that you're a genius make a channel make a video and upload it I think that is the hardest barrier to overcome people focus on the equipment they focus on I don't have this I don't have this like and and I think the actual most difficult obstacle is putting up a piece of content that might not be y

our best and just seeing what happens um I think you have to to make a certain amount of videos before you find your niche so often in in the media they focus on like oh like this person didn't even know what they were doing and they woke up and they suddenly had a million followers because the video went viral everything is strategic even those situations are strategic with the algorithm or the type of content so yeah yeah I think do it embarrass yourself do do what you need to do to get over t

hat first fear and make it a habit of just uploading and and putting yourself out there what are you gonna do when you grow up I want to be a YouTuber my man all right what are you going to talk about I don't know really you'll figure it out what are you are you making some content now yeah what are you talking about your life your interests the stuff you're into what are you into like Amy can you do me a favor don't ever ever ever ever worry about how many people are subscribed to your Channel

the number one reason kids lose on YouTube is they care too much about how many people are subscribed to them just be patient make good content nobody was following me for a long long time longer than you were alive right now got it do you understand you promise Brothers having a great awesome you got to start before you're ready like since I've posted that video it's been 11 years and I just look back and I'm like man that little kid just got on camera he wasn't ready I wasn't ready I didn't kn

ow all the steps I didn't have all the right answers and neither do you and even after this challenge you're gonna get your battle plan you're gonna get a napkin plan with steps to take but you're still gonna say I don't think I'm fully ready you're not that's why you have to start before you're ready you gotta start messy you gotta punch fear in the face punch perfectionism in the face and press record you gotta just press record of course as you go You Can level up and we say small tweaks lead

to Giant Peaks but you gotta start before you're ready type start in the comments it makes me think of Joey Dr ihealth Who just started there he is before the pandemic he came to our event our annual event called grow with video live and he started watching think media he had never posted a video he was working uh he's an eye doctor working in an eye clinic he wanted to start shifting online he wanted to start creating Freedom he wanted to start creating extra income online sharing his message

helping people with eye floaters and contact lenses and all the stuff he was doing in his local business practice he wanted to start sharing it with people around the world but he didn't know how to operate a camera he didn't know how to edit a video he didn't know what to say on camera he didn't know how to structure a video he didn't know how to title videos or make thumbnails he didn't know but listen he just started his first video he posted July 12th in 2018. really not that long ago right

and so he posted his first video today he's at 374 000 subscribers he started watching think media kind of dabbling a little bit no prior experience with cameras and then eventually he actually joined a program called video ranking Academy and then he started to take YouTube seriously and he grew a hundred thousand subscribers in just one year's time and so it's and since then he's just been growing look at there is a picture trying to operate a camera trying to figure out maybe you have that ov

erwhelm of tech you can figure it out you got to just start before you're ready you know maybe you have that I don't really know all the answers you don't need all the answers you got to just start I heard Zig Ziglar say it this way you don't have to be great to start but you have to start to be great