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Episode 214 - How to Grow a YouTube Channel to over 100k Subscribers
729 Plays9 months ago
This week’s episode features Sam Reid, host of a YouTube channel, The Studio Revue. I met Sam a few years ago because we both live in the same area. When we met, he had about 10,000 or so YouTube channel subscribers. At the time of recording this intro, he has over 125,000 subscribers. Of course, I had to chat with him about how he was able to grow his channel to over 100k subs in just a few years.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check ’em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/how-to-grow-youtube-channel-over-100k-subscribers-btb214/. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Introduction to YouTube Content Growth
00:00:00
Speaker
One channel that I would recommend that I've learned a lot from are these guys named Colin and Samir. So if people look that up, they'll find it. But they run an interview show where they interview some of the biggest creators on YouTube and do some documentary style coverage of the growth of YouTube creators. And for me, I'm just getting to hear about
00:00:19
Speaker
The journey that other YouTubers have taken has been some of the biggest, I think, builders of knowledge for me. I think I've learned so much from just getting to hear other people interviewed and talk about their journey.
00:00:31
Speaker
You're listening to The Brands That Book Show, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want practical tips and strategies to build engaging brands and craft high converting websites. We're your hosts, Davey and Krista, co-founders of a brand and website design agency specializing in visual brand design and show it websites. You're listening to The Brands That Book Show.
Sam Reed's Growth Journey and Strategies
00:00:53
Speaker
This week's episode features Sam Reed, host of the YouTube channel, The Studio Review. I met Sam a few years ago because we both live in the same area. And when we met, he had maybe 10,000 or so YouTube channel subscribers. But at the time of recording this intro, he has over 125,000 subscribers. So of course, I had to chat with him to hear more about how he was able to grow his channel to over 100,000 subs in just a few years.
00:01:20
Speaker
Sam was kind enough to share his story with us, and some tips if you're also growing a YouTube channel this year. As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes, including a link to Sam's YouTube channel. Check him out at davianchrista.com, and if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts. Now, onto the episode.
00:01:40
Speaker
All right, Sam Reed of Studio Review joining us live. Well, not live for listeners, but live for me. Sam, welcome to the podcast. Davey, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited for this conversation. Before we started recording here, we were just talking a little bit about when it was that we met. And it feels like longer ago than it was, but it was less than two years ago probably. That's right. And now you have taken your YouTube channel full time, right? Like this is what you focus on full time.
00:02:08
Speaker
Yep. Yeah. It's my full time job, a content creator. Awesome. And so how long has it been full time now? July beginning of July was when I made the jump. And so coming up on six months here. Yeah, that's awesome. So again, just to put all this whole timeline and perspective for people. So I met you about two years ago. The channel had already started by then, right? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And just best guess, I remember like we were working on monetization of our YouTube channels around the same time. Right. So best guess back then, like about
00:02:38
Speaker
how many subscribers did you have? It was definitely under a thousand at that point. Yeah. And so today, all right, we're at the end of 2023. How many subscribers do you have now?
00:02:49
Speaker
As of this moment, I think it's around 119,000 subscribers. Yeah, that just, it's just mind blowing. And like they'll tell you, we don't have that many subscribers. So, I mean, I'm really excited to dig into YouTube and hear a little bit more about how you grew the channel, especially about these last few months. One of the things that I really enjoy is
Exponential Growth and Subscriber Milestones
00:03:09
Speaker
I feel like typically towards the weekend, you'll post something on Instagram and you have your goals posted. And you can also see a little bit about how you organize your week, you know, on this whiteboard, right? So I'd love to chat with you about that here in a minute as well. But so we could follow along and see that jump from, let's say 50 K to 60 K or 50 to 75 or whatever. And the jump from 90,000 subscribers to a hundred thousand subscribers was like three days or something like that.
00:03:37
Speaker
That's right. Yeah, I mean, that's just just some cool growth. And it's just like it seems to be pretty exponential. Yeah, absolutely. I do feel like people describe growth on YouTube like hockey stick growth. You know, you see that graph with the exponential turn there. And I've found that there are definitely ebbs and flows. You know, it's not just pure straight vertical growth, but it has been fun to experience those kind of rapid seasons of growth, which has definitely included the past couple of months.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's been really incredible to see. And for listeners who don't you might not know you very well, you're just such a positive guy to be around. And I think that's the vibe right that you pick up. If I think anybody who watches your channel, that's the vibe that they'll pick up as well. But that's actually the true Sam. So it's been, I think, really encouraging just to watch you grow through this consistent effort and hard work.
00:04:31
Speaker
Yeah. Well, thank you. I appreciate you saying that. Yeah. So anyways, let's back up a little bit. Your channel, it's called the studio review and it started how many years ago? So I started putting out content consistently in this format about three years ago now. So it would have been start of 2021, but the channel has technically existed since like 2010, but this concerted effort to have like regular content being released in the format of a show was about three years ago now.
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah. And so what changed about three years ago where you're like, I want to actually start putting a real effort into the channel. Yeah. Well, it had always been a hobby. And at the time I was working a full-time job in the nonprofit world and working with people. And the thing about working with people is that it's always kind of this unfinished project. And so I had a mentor who talked about mowing his lawn as a hobby that he had that he wouldn't let anybody else do.
00:05:25
Speaker
because he worked with people. And when you mow your lawn, you can start it, you can finish it, and you can see the progress that you've made. And so for me, I leaned into my hobby of filmmaking, making videos, editing, that sort of thing. And at first, it was just going to be that was my version of mowing the lawn. So started putting out this content. And then over time, it kind of grew into what it is today.
00:05:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So as far as like choosing the niche,
Content Creation and Niching Down
00:05:53
Speaker
right? Because the studio review, it's kind of like, you know, I feel like you've described it somewhere as a variety show, right? And so to a certain extent, you know, that's kind of a broad niche, but it's definitely a niche. I guess, how did you navigate into it being a variety show and making it and I guess coming up with, I guess, a niche, you know, or a specific audience that you're trying to reach? Like, how'd you figure that part of it out?
00:06:16
Speaker
Yeah. Well, everything that I'd read and heard is that niching down or having a specific niche is so important. And I know if you're like a small business owner or something, your niche is your service or your product. Like that makes sense for me. It was a little bit less clear. And so as much as I was encouraged to niche down, I really wanted to push back against that a little bit and
00:06:39
Speaker
I landed on a format as my niche, which, like you said, is a variety show format. I have this segment where I'm sitting at this desk and I'm narrating the story or hosting the episode. For me, that was enough of a consistent format that people would at least know what to expect when they came back to my channel, but it gave me enough room for flexibility that if I didn't love
00:07:05
Speaker
the thing or the topic that I was talking about or making videos about a year or two years from now, I could keep the format but change up the subject a little bit.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah, okay, okay, that's smart. So just to give people an idea, what are the sorts of videos they can find on your channel? So I guess I do need to backtrack a little bit because as much as I say I haven't niched down, I would say the large majority of videos are food related. So that seems to be the common thread throughout most of my videos, but some are in what people call the challenge genre on YouTube where
00:07:38
Speaker
you know, I've eaten certain types of food for extended periods of time to kind of see what that experience would be like or what the effects would be like. Or I've competed in races like the Krispy Kreme Challenge, which is like a five mile road race where you have to finish a dozen donuts halfway through. So a lot of it is food related, but occasionally I'll throw in the odd trip or travel type video here and there.
00:08:03
Speaker
Yeah, so I want to get to some of your food-related videos here in a minute, but for instance, a few of your more recent videos may be taking a look at a Miley Cyrus song and looking at it for accuracy. That's right. Can you fill in the gaps there? Yeah, so I
00:08:18
Speaker
I had found some success with a video that I made talking about the kind of geographical errors in the song Wagon Wheel. I was talking about cities in Tennessee and how it doesn't quite line up when you take out a map. And so after that, thought about what else I could do. And yeah, Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus was my next victim.
00:08:37
Speaker
in terms of tearing apart the geography of song lyrics. So yeah, I've had some fun. I feel like short form vertical content is a little bit of like a lab or a test ground for me where the long form on YouTube, I think feels like it needs to be a little bit more specific or on brand and the short form vertical, which I do primarily on Instagram, but also
Impact of Viral Videos and Multi-Platform Growth
00:08:57
Speaker
on YouTube. I feel like I can kind of throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
00:09:01
Speaker
Yeah, and what's cool about, I think, both those videos, right, is like people who had collaborated on those songs or were involved in those songs on some level, right, have actually commented. That's right. Yeah, one of the co-writers of Party in the USA was written with Jessie J, but one of her co-writers commented on the song and just mentioned, like, I did more research than they did when they wrote the song. Yeah.
00:09:24
Speaker
I thought that was hilarious. Same with, yeah, Old Crow Medicine Show, the guy that read the verses to Wagon Wheel. Dylan wrote the chorus, but he has not seen the video as far as I know, but the guy that read the verses commented and he was a good sport. He just kind of played along because my solution to that geographical problem was pretty nonsensical. Yeah. Awesome. Well, one of the first things, so my brother actually, I'll back up here. My brother was here during Thanksgiving and he had mentioned
00:09:51
Speaker
a YouTube video that he saw, and it was this guy who just ate Taco Bell for 30 days. And it blew his mind when I was like, I know that guy, and I'm going to be on your podcast in a few weeks. And he actually lives right here in Lexington, Virginia.
00:10:07
Speaker
So Jimmy Fallon gave you a shout out, right? That's right. Yep. On his show and mentioned this particular video. Do you feel like that was to a certain extent, like a big break? Like, did you see numbers spike in correlation with that? Or was it not as much as, as you thought? Yeah.
00:10:22
Speaker
The funny thing about the Fallon mention was that it was only kind of in reference to the headline, which described me as like a man from Virginia. There was no real connection to for people to go back and find my channel or the project or anything. So in some ways, yeah, absolutely incredible that that happened. But I feel like for me,
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, most of my growth initially came from the response to the finished Taco Bell video. So that headline and the mention on Fallon came out as I was preparing for the project. And then a lot of the growth came once the project had been published to YouTube.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah. And so I think what's interesting about that, right, is like one might assume that a lot of growth would come just as a result of the shout out, but it seems again, this is outside looking in. So tell me if I'm wrong here, but it seems like really just a consistent effort you put in sort of week in and week out has resulted in most of the growth.
00:11:12
Speaker
Yeah, I would say so. I think people talk about viral videos and the way that can impact you. And what I've seen to be more often the case is just that consistent slow and steady growth, like you've mentioned. We were talking a little bit before we pressed record about Instagram and how that plays off of YouTube and the way you can kind of
00:11:33
Speaker
Post on on each platform. I think I don't know a hundred percent But I think part of the reason that the Taco Bell video ended up going so viral on YouTube was because of a short form Piece that I posted on Instagram about it So I'd posted the Taco Bell video and it kind of set dormant for several months like it didn't garner that many views and then I went and re-edited some of the footage into a short form content that fit with a trending sound at the time and
00:12:00
Speaker
And that ended up blowing up on Instagram. So that got about 11 million views on Instagram. And that video ended with just kind of a simple call to action. So in the video, I tried to open a curiosity gap kind of to tease what I gave some of my results, but I kind of teased, you know, what what the rest of my results might have been. And then the call to action at the end just said full documentary on YouTube without linking it or anything. And so I suspect
00:12:26
Speaker
from that, getting 11 million views, enough people went and searched 30 days of Taco Bell or something to that effect on YouTube, that that caught the YouTube algorithms attention. And that's when that video started to take off as well. Yeah, yeah, that's really cool how the different platforms are using can support one another. You know, I mean, interesting note about Instagram and how using things like trending sounds at the time, right can impact the performance of the video itself too.
00:12:50
Speaker
a hundred percent. Yeah. But then also how, you know, have you noticed that with other content as well, where maybe the video doesn't do as well as you expected in the short term, but for whatever reason down the line, it, it, I don't know, picks up steam or momentum. Yeah. People talk about the YouTube algorithm as not
00:13:07
Speaker
Trying to find an audience for your video, but trying to find the right video for YouTube's audience So I have seen on my analytics graphs occasionally I'll have a video that has very slow or marginal growth to start off with and then almost Inexplicably weeks or months down the road. It'll have an uptick in that graph And the only thing I can take from that is that it's being served up to people who are enjoying it or wanting to watch similar content
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, and that's the interesting thing that I've noticed about YouTube and even Instagram to a certain extent like real content is that it seems to have to a certain extent longer runway than something like a written blog post. If I write a blog post, I can pretty much figure out how well it's going to do certainly within the first month or two and whether Google picks it up in search or not.
00:13:58
Speaker
But YouTube and real content, you know, sometimes you'll look at, you know, I'm thinking about Instagram in particular right now, you look at a reel that it seemed like it fell flat at first and then all of a sudden it's picked up, steamed down the line. So it's interesting how that happens on those platforms. And I think I like that about those platforms too. I just feel like content has the potential to last potentially a little bit longer than written blog content.
00:14:21
Speaker
For sure. And I think, I mean, people compare it to slot machines, right? Because there's a piece of it where I feel like I've thought through the concept and put my best effort into it and have a pretty good grasp on how I think it'll perform.
00:14:37
Speaker
And sometimes that comes out to be dead wrong. Some videos that I think are some of my best work flop, and then some videos that I didn't put that much effort into end up taking off. And so you do get this just wild ride of watching how a video ends
Concept Development and YouTube Algorithm Insights
00:14:52
Speaker
up performing once it's out in the open.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Well, can you tell us a little bit about how you research topics and even how you sort of niche down to this more, more food challenges or more food oriented, I guess, content? I know you've recently published some content around or actually published a number of videos around like waffle house and things like that. So how do you niche down to that?
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah, well, I mean, I think part of it is just what I'm excited about, things that I feel like I would want to watch myself. And so I kind of keep a running list of video ideas. And some of those rise to the top if I feel like I'd be excited about carrying that through to completion. And some of them never see the light of day. But
00:15:31
Speaker
I think so the Taco Bell thing was obviously a big project that I undertook and ended up being met with some success. And so I feel like that's one thing that I've tried to learn is not just learning from failures on YouTube, but also learning from what works for my successes. So right off the bat, when that performed well, I kind of said like, I don't
00:15:52
Speaker
necessarily want to be just the guy that eats at X restaurant for Y number of days. And so ironically, I have gone back and done some more of that type of content, but right off the bat, I was like, that's not what I want to do exclusively. I don't want to pigeonhole myself or niche down so far that I'm forced into replicating this style that really isn't sustainable. Sure.
00:16:14
Speaker
So I tried to find other formats with that and have played around with different challenges or even like review style videos where I'm checking out kids meals or, you know, the value menus and stuff like that. But I would say in addition to the things that I'm most excited about, I will research what's been done before. And I feel like if I can find a gap like, hey, this doesn't have many search results or if people are looking for this, they're not going to find anything similar to this concept. That is a gold mine. And then finally,
00:16:43
Speaker
I feel like I have a pretty good idea now that if I can pair something familiar with something unexpected, that for the most part will perform well. So familiar, for example, being like Taco Bell, like people are very familiar with fast food and they have an idea of what that means.
00:16:59
Speaker
being unhealthy. And then the unexpected piece would be that, oh, this could actually help improve your health. And so I feel like most of my successful concepts, videos have fallen under that umbrella. But again, that's, that's what the huge asterisk of some of my favorite videos have flopped and some that I didn't think would do that well have gone on to perform really, really well. Yeah. So looking at some of those videos after the fact, you know, I mean, to a certain extent, I'm sure you've learned
00:17:29
Speaker
even though maybe at the end of the day, there are instances where stuff that you think is going to do really well doesn't do as well as you think that stuff that ends up doing really well, are you able to kind of look back at that and say, Oh, this is why I think it actually performed well, or some of it just straight up a mystery. Like I still don't understand why this video so so popular.
00:17:48
Speaker
Well, no, I do feel like, yeah, the ones that that have performed well do have a common thread. And in the YouTube world, we talk a lot about the packaging of videos. So much of deciding to click on a video is different from, for example, TikTok, you're scrolling through the for you page and you just get served up the next video. Whereas on YouTube, you have to actually decide to click on something. And so
00:18:10
Speaker
We talk a lot about the title and thumbnail of a video on YouTube because ultimately that's the cover of the book. It's the pitch to the audience. It's saying, hey, here's why you should watch this video. And a lot of that has to do with curiosity. Does it introduce a question or a concept that someone wants the answer to?
00:18:30
Speaker
And then once you click on the video, it has to deliver on that promise. So pretty much right off the bat. And this is interesting, too. This might be getting too much into inside baseball. But I feel like because YouTube has started auto playing videos, YouTube creators are now thinking about, OK, what's in the first five, 10 seconds? Does it support this packaging of the title and thumbnail? So there's that piece of it to get them in the door. And then once they're there,
00:18:56
Speaker
Is there compelling storytelling throughout that's going to keep them watching? Because for better or for worse, content consumers now have every reason and every opportunity in the world to click off or swipe away from your video. And so we're thinking really intentionally about, okay, what does it look like to either introduce other
00:19:14
Speaker
challenges or unanswered questions or things that could open a curiosity gap or just telling really compelling stories that will help that retention, help people keep watching to the end. So the videos that have performed well
00:19:30
Speaker
I feel like do have pretty high retention they do have a pretty high click through rate which is the metric that youtube gives you for how many people are clicking the video versus how many people have seen the video so i've seen that that consistently on the successful ones.
00:19:46
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, no, that's super interesting. And it spurred on a number of questions. I want to do sort of a rapid fire with you afterwards about long form versus short form, those types of questions. But first, I did ask you kind of in advance, you know, what are the three most important things to focus on when you're first starting to grow a YouTube
Sustainability and Content Strategy Tools
00:20:03
Speaker
channel?
00:20:03
Speaker
So I'd love to go through that. And then, like I said, I asked my team too, I was like, hey, what do you want me to ask Sam about YouTube? And so they put together a list of questions for me as well that I think others will find interesting too. So we'll get to that. But first, let's focus on what are those three things that somebody should focus on?
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. I think the first thing that came to mind for me was sustainability. And that's because I think it's really commonplace to see people put out a flurry of content and then realize, oh, it is super hard to keep this up. And so the audience has come to expect one thing, but what we're putting out is another thing. And so, you know, there is the possibility of
00:20:43
Speaker
something goes viral and that accelerates your content. But we talked about that slow and steady growth. And I think that's a more realistic expectation for people to have. So as part of being sustainable, I would encourage folks to find something that you enjoy doing and that you can put out on a regular basis that works with your brand. Because one of my my least favorite things to see is if I go to a channel and it has like two or three really great videos, but they were posted like
00:21:10
Speaker
Like eight months ago, 12 months ago, two years ago, because to me that says like, okay, this person found a successful format, but it wasn't something that they were able to do sustainably. Yeah. Yeah. And so as far as like regular goes, what is that? Is this something like is regular have to be daily? Like it would be on some social media channels or is it weekly, biweekly? Like what can regular look like on YouTube?
00:21:33
Speaker
That's a great question. I would say it probably depends heavily on both like the genre or niche and then also the format. So for me regularly because a lot of times I'm filming outside of the studio or traveling and then have
00:21:48
Speaker
for me, relatively complicated edits for a more skilled editor, they might be a little quicker. But so for me, my regularity right now is three videos a month. So I try to do three weeks on one week off. But if you have a more simple format, maybe you're talking to the camera, you're giving your expertise and it's a little bit lower lift. I think that could be done with more frequency, especially if that's something that your audience is looking for or would consume with that type of regularity. So you see that with like
00:22:18
Speaker
people doing news channels or updates on current events or things like if you're able to put out how to videos or something like that. I think that could go out at a more frequent pace. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. That makes a lot of sense. What about number two? Number two, I think just the focus on making each video 1% better
00:22:37
Speaker
I've heard a number of creators talk about that, that a lot of times we get this paralysis thinking like I need to make this the perfect video. And so it takes us a really long time to put that out. And I've definitely been guilty of that in the past, but even those videos that I've spent way too much time on, I look back at now a year later, two years later, and I still like cringe a little bit because I've grown since then. And so I would just say like it requires putting out
00:23:03
Speaker
Not bad content, but it requires putting out mediocre content or OK content in order to get to good content. And so if we hold ourselves to these standards of like, oh, this has to be a perfect video every time, we're never going to publish or not with any sort of regularity. But like Mr. Beast, for example, who's one of the largest creators on the platform.
00:23:24
Speaker
He says, and I don't know if I 100% agree with this, it's a little bit of a hyperbole, but he says that you have to put out 100 videos before you really start making good content. And his point, I think is good, is that you just have to keep putting out content and improve a little bit each time. And over time, you'll look back and realize that you've grown through the experience of just pressing publish.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, I love that advice. I love that you brought it up because there's something actually we talk about a lot is you want to become a good writer, you have to write a lot of bad words first to get there. It's not like you can just put your pen down when you're ready to be a good writer and be a good writer. And I think that applies to everything. And I love the rule of 100 too. I think there's another guy I follow, this guy Noah Kagan, he's a marketer. He talks about the rule of 100. If you want to go and try something, do it 100 times. Don't give up 400 times because likely it's going to take you 100 times
00:24:12
Speaker
to get good at it. So I really appreciate that. And it's so interesting, too, just hearing you talk about some of your early videos and maybe you're cringing, seeing them. Whereas for me, who's not nearly as far along in YouTube, I'm sure I'd look at any of those videos that maybe you're cringing a little at and be like, oh, these are amazing.
00:24:29
Speaker
Right? But that's just a natural part of growth is looking back and realizing, oh, yeah, I've actually come a long way since then. But other people probably aren't looking those videos cringing. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's just such an important piece of advice for really anybody getting started in anything. For sure. No, I appreciate you saying that. So what's number three?
00:24:49
Speaker
Number three is a little bit more broad, but I would just encourage folks to focus on the connection with the audience. In the creator economy, in the creator space, people talk about idea-based creators or relationship creators. Idea-based creators would be people that have this topic that you're coming to the video for the topic and you're going to watch it no matter who's the face behind the channel.
00:25:12
Speaker
Whereas a relationship-based creator is someone that you would watch their video no matter what they do. You're there for them and for their personality. I think especially for small businesses, the way that you can make a social media page or a YouTube channel stick out is by expressing your personality and developing a relationship with the audience or giving them the opportunity to develop a relationship with you. I guess you could summarize that by saying depth over width,
00:25:41
Speaker
I've seen a lot of people on Twitter or ex-formally Twitter post stuff like polls that ask like, would you rather have this number on this platform or this number on this platform? And pretty consistently, people will choose, like I would rather, this is just an example, but I'd rather have a newsletter with 100,000 subscribers any day over a TikTok account with a million followers. I mean, that's because of that depth. Like when you feel like you have a real connection to your audience, if you're selling a product or you want
00:26:11
Speaker
to give them a call to action. The depth is what's gonna actually make those conversions happen or actually end up having some sort of real connection. Whereas the width, a lot of times people have no problem ignoring those calls to action.
00:26:26
Speaker
Yeah. Again, I think that's just such a brilliant piece of advice for business. I think community really is probably one of the best moats that people can build around their business, especially in this world of AI, you know, that we're dealing with, right? Where all of a sudden content creation in a lot of ways, very artificially, you know, no pun intended. Yeah.
00:26:46
Speaker
is so easy to create, right? Vlog posts, you can churn out blog posts of thousands of words, multiple of them a day, right, with AI tools, but makes, I think, brand more important because people trust people. They want to seek out people that they trust for information. And, you know, it's probably pretty obvious that relationship-based marketing is so important for you and your channel because my guess is, like, a lot of people come back for your content because of you, because you're the host and what you're doing and the personality and all of that.
00:27:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's the goal for sure. It's funny, just as an anecdote, I can tell on the back end when a video is performing well because YouTube is serving it up to people who aren't in my core audience. And so I get a lot of folks in the comments who have never seen me before and don't necessarily give me the benefit of the doubt. And so that's typically when I tend to get more critical comments as people just like, who the heck is this guy?
00:27:40
Speaker
But that's a good sign, though, because it means the video is doing well. Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, I appreciate that. I want to go through some just more rapid fire, maybe some more miscellaneous questions that people might be asking, especially if they're just getting started with YouTube or want to create a channel that's, you know, as successful as yours. So first things first, what tools, if any, do you use to do research?
00:28:02
Speaker
Yeah, in terms of research, a lot of times I'm just searching things on YouTube, but I use a plugin called the TubeBuddy, which just allows you to kind of see search frequency and search saturation so you can tell how often people are looking up stuff and whether other people have posted that type of content.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. And if you've ever, if anybody listening, if you ever use the SEO tool, I feel like TubeBuddy is probably pretty easy to pick up. At least that's been my experience. Yeah, for sure. As far as equipment goes, I guess, have you upgraded equipment since you started? Like how important is it to start with quote unquote, good equipment, whatever that is, you know, like video and audio quality, how much leeway is there, you know, with building an audience?
00:28:44
Speaker
Yeah. So I think, I mean, the thing that I hear again and again is that story over equipment, you know, like the equipment is secondary to the message that you're communicating. That being said, I think making sure the camera that you have can do high definition. So 1080p, a lot of iPhones now or smartphones in general have really high quality cameras. So you can do a lot with minimal equipment. I use a Canon 80D.
00:29:11
Speaker
which is has been my camera since I started in 2021. And then for audio, I use this blue Yeti USB microphone. And I feel like those aren't top of the line things, but it's been it's been enough for me to know like, okay, I'm paying attention to the quality. But all that being said, I would encourage people to start with what they have. Like for editing, I use Final Cut Pro. And I
00:29:36
Speaker
went that route over Adobe just because I'm cheap and wanted to pay the one-time fee instead of the monthly subscription. But for a long time, edited on iMovie and there are a lot of great free mobile editing softwares out there as well. Yeah. And I'm not nearly, not even close to the editor you are, but I have some experience with both Premiere and Final Cut and I think Final Cut was easier. Like I started using Final Cut just because I couldn't really deal with Premiere. So I thought it was like an easier platform to use as well.
00:30:05
Speaker
As far as other social media accounts go, you had already mentioned Instagram. So I imagine you've used your Instagram account a little bit. Do you find that it's beneficial to have other places that people follow along? Do you have a newsletter list? Like what other kind of marketing channels are you building alongside your YouTube channel?
00:30:21
Speaker
Yeah, it's a little bit of a hodgepodge for me, but I do I run an Instagram and that kind of exists almost in parallel for the YouTube channel where my goal is that it would be a deeper way to connect with me and see a little bit behind the scenes stuff, get to comment in ways that you can't on YouTube. But because I've
00:30:40
Speaker
I've had a few successful pieces of short form content, Instagram reels, I have an audience there that doesn't even know that I have a YouTube channel. So I'm still figuring that out in a lot of ways. I run a TikTok. But again, because of that lack of connection, like you can follow people on TikTok, and there's no real guarantee that you'll
00:30:57
Speaker
see their stuff very often so i don't use that very often i just kind of repost stuff there and i do use a newsletter but right now it's it's similar to just what's on instagram so behind the scenes stuff and if i were to ever introduce a product or something like that the newsletter would be a great place to introduce something like that.
00:31:16
Speaker
Yeah. What about YouTube shorts? How do they fit into the bigger picture of a YouTube strategy? Yeah. So YouTube shorts are phenomenal for discovery. So they get served up in ways that long form content does not. And so a lot of people have found rapid subscriber growth from
00:31:35
Speaker
YouTube shorts. I think where the trouble with YouTube shorts comes is converting a shorts viewer over to a long form viewer. From what I've learned, the way you do that is just by making sure your short form and your long form on YouTube are very consistent. Otherwise, people will see your long form content pop up and have that similar reaction of like, why did I follow this person or who is this person?
00:31:59
Speaker
Sure. As far as YouTube shorts go, do you produce a lot like many YouTube shorts to a single more long form video? Like do you basically take your long form videos and cut them up into shorts or are they just more behind the scenes stuff sort of ancillary content?
00:32:14
Speaker
I've started filming like here at the desk in vertical. So I'll rotate the camera 90 degrees and film it that way for Instagram reels and YouTube shorts. So they are specifically written to be 60 seconds long in terms of frequency. I'd like for it to be like a one to one. So it would alternate long form short form, but I haven't quite gotten that into the content calendar just yet, but hopefully in 2024.
00:32:39
Speaker
Awesome. Speaking of 2024, any predictions for YouTube? Do you expect things to change in any big ways? I'll say this. This is kind of a personal preference thing, but I feel like I've seen it echoed in trends in 20
Trends in YouTube Content Consumption
00:32:54
Speaker
18, 19, 20, the theme for most very popular YouTubers was just kind of loud and in your face. And I feel like I've seen the trend towards a little bit more slower paced content. And the reason I say I've seen that echoed or backed up is because statistically, more people are watching YouTube on smart TVs than ever before. So people are actually sitting down and watching YouTube like they would a television show.
00:33:20
Speaker
And so because of that, I think we'll continue to see people being more willing to watch 20 plus minute videos. Whereas five years ago, you want to keep that thing under five, six minutes to keep your viewers around. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I know.
00:33:36
Speaker
hand raised over here. I mean, we'll throw on Miss Rachel for our, you know, two year old or whatever. And that's like, those videos will be up to an hour or whatever. We usually don't have to watch for an hour, but, but still there, you know, so along those lines, you talked a little about short firm versus long form content. I know for like the Taco Bell documentary, for instance, if I remember correctly, I mean, that's like a 30 minute plus video, right? Have you noticed more or less success with a certain length video?
00:34:03
Speaker
Yeah, for me, I feel like the sweet spot is somewhere in the like 12 to 20 minute range. I probably side more on like 12 to 15. And I think that's just for me personally, I think to get much longer than that on my channel, I have to have something really compelling.
00:34:18
Speaker
that would fill that time and so with the Taco Bell documentary there were interviews and there were kind of different side quests I was on that I felt like I could justify that length and truly couldn't get it much shorter in the edit but for some of my kind of one-off videos I found that around 12 to 15 minutes is the sweet spot.
00:34:37
Speaker
Okay, awesome. As far as doing things like selling merch and stuff like that, is that something that YouTube makes easy to do? And have you found that to be beneficial in building your channel and your brand? Yeah, so I found the merch to be a huge community builder more than anything. So
00:34:55
Speaker
For me, it's a way to, again, deepen that connection with the audience. And my slogan, I say this at the end of every episode, that even when it doesn't feel like it, it's going to be OK. And so that's the theme of my merchandise. I wanted to go that route instead of making it like Sam Reed merchandise. And so people seem to really resonate with that. And so that's been awesome. I would say YouTube does make that easy with
00:35:19
Speaker
a limited number of platforms. So if you use one of their approved vendors, you can put it in this shelf underneath the video where it's really accessible for viewers to click on merchandise. The platform I use does not happen to be compatible with that. So I just direct people to the link in the description for stuff like merchandise.
00:35:39
Speaker
Awesome. What would you say has been the biggest driver of growth? Is it just a consistent effort? Is it a certain kind of video? Like what would you just if you had to put your finger on one thing? And of course, I mean, I'm sure it's all sorts of things that come together, right? But what would you say that is?
00:35:57
Speaker
I'm going to cheat a little bit. I'm going to give you two that I think have played off of each other. The first one would be the consistency. And the second, I would say I've seen most growth tied to successful video concepts. And so I would say they play off each other because one, I've arrived at the successful video concepts by regularly putting out content to the point where I can figure out, I can learn what works.
00:36:19
Speaker
And then two, when when stuff does take off, people can go back and watch through a library of content that is similar. So once something is successful, I see on the analytics like the rest of my videos that I've been consistent with also start to grow in viewership as well. Awesome. What are some of your favorite resources that you'd point people to if they wanted to dive deeper into YouTube and form a successful channel?
00:36:47
Speaker
I think the biggest one I would suggest and the place where I've learned the most is from interviews with other YouTubers. Along with that, anything that covers the topic of the creator economy. One channel that I would recommend that I've learned a lot from are these guys named Colin and Samir. If people look that up, they'll find it.
00:37:08
Speaker
They run an interview show where they interview some of the biggest creators on YouTube and do some documentary-style coverage of the growth of YouTube creators. And for me, I'm just getting to hear about the journey that other YouTubers have taken has been some of the biggest, I think, builders of knowledge for me. I think I've learned so much from just getting to hear other people interviewed and talk about their journey.
00:37:30
Speaker
Yeah, and that's all free content on YouTube. That's right. Yeah, that's awesome. As far as goals go, you know, we're at the end of 2023 here, 2024. I guess, did you set a goal for the end of 2023? Did you think, yeah, I'm going to be crossing the 100,000 K subscriber threshold at the end of 2023?
00:37:49
Speaker
I'm almost embarrassed to say this. In January of 2023, I set a goal for myself of hitting 10,000 subscribers by the end of the year, because I had about 2,000 at the start of this year. And I passed that, I think, in March or something like that. All right. So recalibrating for the end of 2024, what does that goal look like?
00:38:11
Speaker
Well, I haven't publicized this anywhere, but I'll share with you. I am around 120 right now. I'd love to be at 250,000 subscribers by the end of the year. And I think that's kind of a mix of realistic and optimistic. So we'll see. I would really love to reach that subscriber goal, but then also set a goal for myself of putting out consistently three videos every month for a total of 36 videos in 2024.
00:38:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think I've seen these somewhere, right? Doesn't YouTube send out some sort of plaque commemorating certain subscriber counts? Yeah, literally one is arriving today. Amazing. I will be getting the 100,000 subscriber plaque from YouTube. So that's a huge milestone for me. Yeah, that is incredible. So congratulations on that. What's the next one? Is it 250? Is that the next
00:39:00
Speaker
like step. The next one they send you is actually a million. So quite a ways to go for that one. Yeah. But I figured 250 was a good step in that direction. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 100%. That's awesome. All right. So last question here. Want to talk a little bit about your whiteboard. It looks just so organized.
00:39:17
Speaker
Right. Again, I just see the little screen, the little snippets of it from Instagram. I see that you have your day organized or your week rather organized and it's by day. One thing I notice is that there is very, there, it seems like you focus on pretty much one or two things a day. Is that intentional? Is that pretty much the, how you outline your week?
00:39:36
Speaker
Yeah, I would say so. I think I've gone through different seasons of keeping various to-do lists, but I have found that keeping it to one to three things in any given day has been really helpful. So as I look at 2024, I'm trying to structure out how to balance that short form with the long form. I think the past several months, I've really
00:39:54
Speaker
Come to appreciate how much time it takes me to do things like editing and so I'm scheduling out my week to try to finish stuff a couple days in advance rather than Coming down to the wire. So I would say yeah, that's pretty accurate I try to keep it to one or two things that I focus on in a given day
00:40:11
Speaker
Yeah. And I feel like you have some like motivational quotes up there. Can you share any of that? Yeah, absolutely. So they're mostly editing related. One of them is to murder your darlings, which I know sounds pretty gruesome, but I know that's used in writing as well. And that's just a reminder that when I'm editing, even if the shot took an hour for me to drive to a location, set it up and shoot it, if it doesn't serve the story or doesn't further the video, it's okay to cut it out.
00:40:36
Speaker
And another one is a quote from the Colin and Samir channel that I mentioned a second ago. And it was one of the hosts, Colin, he was mentioning just the concept of a video. And he said, if you were to tell your friend about this idea in person, would they have a reaction to it? And I think that's just a good litmus test for whether I want to move forward with an idea or not. If I'm telling my friends about it and they're kind of like, oh, not that interested, then they probably wouldn't click on a 15 minute video about that same thing.
00:41:05
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Well, love that. You know, yeah, the murder your darling thing, certainly writing tip as well. One that I'm not very good at. If you go over to my blog, it's typically more words than it has to be. Anyways, besides the point, Sam, thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your expertise with us in your journey. And like I said, it's been really encouraging to watch your journey. You know, it's been really fun to watch.
00:41:29
Speaker
And if you haven't checked out Sam's channel or if this is the first time you're hearing about it, be sure and go and give his channel a subscribe and and watch a few of his videos. One thing I'm trying to convince Sam to do is to bring me on his next, you know, the fast food runs you do with friends and you have to you have to eat what you roll. That's right. I'm just saying I volunteer. You know, whenever you need somebody to do that, I'm here. OK, that's awesome. All right. Awesome.
00:41:54
Speaker
Davey, thank you so much for having me, man. And yeah, I would just say my journey has maybe not been the blueprint that everyone would take, but hopefully folks can glean some knowledge here and there. Yeah. I mean, again, I'll just say it one more time. I just think what's striking to me about your journey is just the consistent effort, you know, week in and week out. And I've got to see it from afar, but like
00:42:17
Speaker
relatively close up. We live next to each other, I see pretty regularly. And that's just been awesome to watch. I think that just speaks to the power of committing to something, sticking with it, figuring out the very issues that come up along the way. So like I said, it's been very encouraging.
00:42:32
Speaker
I was going to say, if I could leave your listeners with any piece of encouragement, when I first started putting out content consistently in early 2021, I was publishing to 100 or 200 viewers. And so that may seem like a lot, and to me at the time it was, but very, very small audience and have come a long way since. So don't be discouraged by small progress at the beginning. Yeah, awesome. Thanks, Sam.
00:42:56
Speaker
Thanks for tuning in to the Brands of Bookshelf. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider subscribing, leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, and sharing this episode with others. For show notes and other resources, head on over to DavianChrista.com.