{"version":"1.0.0","segments":[{"startTime":8.08,"endTime":11.54,"body":"Welcome back to Digital Creator with me, your host, Dylan Schmidt."},{"startTime":11.92,"endTime":15.625,"body":"Today, I'm gonna share with you my YouTube journey. I just"},{"startTime":15.625,"endTime":19.145,"body":"got an email notification from vidIQ that I"},{"startTime":19.145,"endTime":22.985,"body":"hit a 1000000 views on YouTube, which awesome. You know"},{"startTime":22.985,"endTime":26.685,"body":"what? Let's just give myself the round of applause."},{"startTime":27.65,"endTime":31.35,"body":"I wanna share really a quick overview of my YouTube journey timeline,"},{"startTime":31.73,"endTime":35.09,"body":"and I'm sharing this in hopes that it can help you with your YouTube journey"},{"startTime":35.09,"endTime":38.69,"body":"because YouTube is a fascinating place with a lot going"},{"startTime":38.69,"endTime":42.095,"body":"on. You just don't even scroll. You just open up YouTube. It can"},{"startTime":42.095,"endTime":45.775,"body":"be overstimulating because there are just so many things competing for your"},{"startTime":45.775,"endTime":49.455,"body":"attention, a lot like other social media platforms. So I started"},{"startTime":49.455,"endTime":52.755,"body":"my YouTube journey in June of 2021,"},{"startTime":53.295,"endTime":56.87,"body":"which feels like 3 years ago, but according to a"},{"startTime":56.87,"endTime":60.55,"body":"calendar is coming on 4. And initially, I"},{"startTime":60.55,"endTime":64.33,"body":"was like, I'll make long form videos. I'll make short form videos"},{"startTime":64.709,"endTime":68.475,"body":"and the short form videos will be repurposed from Instagram"},{"startTime":68.775,"endTime":72.315,"body":"and I'll just post them to YouTube, but then I'll have a specific YouTube strategy."},{"startTime":72.615,"endTime":76.455,"body":"Now that was the initial expectation. I"},{"startTime":76.455,"endTime":80.215,"body":"hired a video editor. Actually, I've hired a lot"},{"startTime":80.295,"endTime":83.56,"body":"I pause while I'm saying that because I've hired a lot of video editors,"},{"startTime":83.78,"endTime":87.3,"body":"and it's crazy. Like, finding a YouTube video editor is"},{"startTime":87.3,"endTime":90.82,"body":"not easy. There's so much nuance to a longer form"},{"startTime":90.82,"endTime":94.545,"body":"video than short form video, in my opinion, that, you know, I was trying"},{"startTime":94.625,"endTime":98.225,"body":"I was struggling to find, someone good at it. And this was, again, we're"},{"startTime":98.225,"endTime":101.665,"body":"talking, like, summer of 2021. So I had"},{"startTime":101.665,"endTime":105.505,"body":"recorded a bunch of YouTube videos. None of them had really,"},{"startTime":105.505,"endTime":109.32,"body":"like, gotten some traction. I had gotten edits from"},{"startTime":109.32,"endTime":113.079,"body":"these editors, and there'd be mistakes. And I was struggling to"},{"startTime":113.079,"endTime":116.299,"body":"find, like, the differences in cost of, like, spending"},{"startTime":116.6,"endTime":120.439,"body":"$250 on a video versus $75 on a"},{"startTime":120.439,"endTime":123.659,"body":"video because sometimes the $75 video would be better than the $250"},{"startTime":124.2,"endTime":127.615,"body":"video. And And I was seeing videos on YouTube that seemed similar to what I"},{"startTime":127.615,"endTime":131.135,"body":"wanted to do, and they seemed really straightforward. So then I would try making my"},{"startTime":131.135,"endTime":134.575,"body":"own videos, but it would just be so time consuming. And we're talking like just"},{"startTime":134.575,"endTime":138.095,"body":"talking head videos. So I was like, I don't know what the heck to"},{"startTime":138.095,"endTime":141.709,"body":"do. I kinda just let it go by the wayside because it wasn't"},{"startTime":141.709,"endTime":145.549,"body":"bringing in clients. It wasn't making me new connections and"},{"startTime":145.549,"endTime":149.069,"body":"I just focused on short form videos. And I had a couple of them do"},{"startTime":149.069,"endTime":152.855,"body":"really well, which was cool. And I'm talking like really well by"},{"startTime":152.855,"endTime":156.315,"body":"thousands of views over 10,000, over 20,000 views."},{"startTime":156.535,"endTime":160.135,"body":"And I was like, alright. I'm not gonna, like, pay all my attention to YouTube"},{"startTime":160.135,"endTime":163.915,"body":"because I was prioritizing more Instagram and TikTok at that point."},{"startTime":164.0,"endTime":167.459,"body":"I'd put YouTube number 3 on the list. I just would repurpose"},{"startTime":167.599,"endTime":170.959,"body":"content from short videos that I'd post on Instagram or"},{"startTime":170.959,"endTime":174.72,"body":"TikTok and put them on YouTube with no thought about it. This was right"},{"startTime":174.72,"endTime":178.4,"body":"around when YouTube had launched YouTube shorts, so it was good timing for me."},{"startTime":178.4,"endTime":182.175,"body":"So I guess you could say in the beginning, my YouTube approach was really just"},{"startTime":182.175,"endTime":186.015,"body":"repurposing content. But I had felt in the back of my mind like on"},{"startTime":186.015,"endTime":189.694,"body":"YouTube, I need to do longer form content. So I would publish, you"},{"startTime":189.694,"endTime":193.38,"body":"know, my podcast videos because I would record interviews"},{"startTime":193.38,"endTime":197.14,"body":"or publish the video to YouTube. Some of those would do okay, but nothing"},{"startTime":197.14,"endTime":200.58,"body":"like really substantial, especially compared to like the YouTube"},{"startTime":200.58,"endTime":204.02,"body":"shorts. And I just felt like this, I don't wanna say obligation, but"},{"startTime":204.02,"endTime":207.405,"body":"this, like, if I'm doing YouTube, I have to do YouTube"},{"startTime":207.405,"endTime":211.004,"body":"videos. So all the way to about last year, I would"},{"startTime":211.004,"endTime":214.704,"body":"say, I had been kind of focusing on and off on YouTube videos,"},{"startTime":214.765,"endTime":218.284,"body":"but really struggling to find, like, my niche or how I would"},{"startTime":218.284,"endTime":221.989,"body":"make YouTube videos different than the other types of content I was putting out"},{"startTime":221.989,"endTime":225.67,"body":"there, like my podcast or the short form videos because I have"},{"startTime":225.67,"endTime":228.969,"body":"made so many short form videos, primarily educational"},{"startTime":229.03,"endTime":232.555,"body":"ones. I've gotten really good at condensing a"},{"startTime":232.555,"endTime":236.234,"body":"topic down to like 30 seconds. Like that's one of my"},{"startTime":236.234,"endTime":239.915,"body":"big skill sets. And so when it comes to YouTube, I find myself anytime"},{"startTime":239.915,"endTime":243.534,"body":"I try to make a video that's like 10 minutes or longer, I struggle"},{"startTime":243.594,"endTime":247.215,"body":"stretching out the topic while keeping that same hook"},{"startTime":247.53,"endTime":251.37,"body":"attention grabbing formula that I could do in short form videos because I'm"},{"startTime":251.37,"endTime":255.129,"body":"like, there's so much unnecessary fluff here and I just wanna cut it out."},{"startTime":255.129,"endTime":258.81,"body":"Like, why say more if you could just say less? But that's not to say"},{"startTime":258.81,"endTime":262.49,"body":"I've completely abandoned long form content on YouTube or anything because I"},{"startTime":262.49,"endTime":266.245,"body":"still have a separate account than my main one that just reached a 1000000 views."},{"startTime":266.245,"endTime":269.604,"body":"I have another account under digital creator which if you're on YouTube right now listening"},{"startTime":269.604,"endTime":272.884,"body":"or watching this that's what this account is. It's not my main account. This is"},{"startTime":272.884,"endTime":276.724,"body":"just like my podcast account which acts as basically a feed"},{"startTime":276.724,"endTime":280.27,"body":"for this podcast which is currently like the only longer form"},{"startTime":280.27,"endTime":283.73,"body":"content I'm putting out. And so reaching a 1000000 views on YouTube"},{"startTime":283.79,"endTime":287.63,"body":"primarily through shorts is a pretty cool mile marker for"},{"startTime":287.63,"endTime":291.47,"body":"me because I don't rely on ad revenue from YouTube or anything like"},{"startTime":291.47,"endTime":295.025,"body":"that. I don't pay attention to like how close I am to being in some"},{"startTime":295.025,"endTime":298.805,"body":"ad network with YouTube. I don't try to make money through monetizing"},{"startTime":298.945,"endTime":302.625,"body":"on any of these platforms. So I'm not aiming for views. I'm"},{"startTime":302.625,"endTime":306.385,"body":"aiming for connection, quality of views. I would gladly"},{"startTime":306.385,"endTime":310.199,"body":"take far less views if there was deeper connections"},{"startTime":310.199,"endTime":313.72,"body":"there than just going for virality, which is a really hard"},{"startTime":313.72,"endTime":317.159,"body":"concept for a lot of people to understand. But there's a fine line to it."},{"startTime":317.159,"endTime":320.919,"body":"Right? You could go super wide and try to reach topics that as many people"},{"startTime":320.919,"endTime":324.625,"body":"are familiar with aka like mister beast style content or"},{"startTime":324.625,"endTime":328.465,"body":"you go really niche and do things your way and understand that people might"},{"startTime":328.465,"endTime":331.905,"body":"be slower to adopt. And there might still be a big audience, but sometimes it"},{"startTime":331.905,"endTime":335.57,"body":"might not be as big as you really hope for. And I'm saying this"},{"startTime":335.57,"endTime":339.01,"body":"because, like, yes, I have reached a 1000000 views, but there's people who have reached"},{"startTime":339.01,"endTime":342.79,"body":"a 1000000 views in, like, a month or less, especially through shorts."},{"startTime":342.93,"endTime":346.37,"body":"So on one hand, yes, it is awesome to reach the"},{"startTime":346.37,"endTime":350.215,"body":"million mark. On the other hand, to me, that's just a number and it's"},{"startTime":350.215,"endTime":353.895,"body":"like impressions or something. Like, I've been able to reach that many people."},{"startTime":353.895,"endTime":357.735,"body":"That's really cool. Sounds cool. But, like, it's not changing my dollar. Right?"},{"startTime":357.735,"endTime":360.295,"body":"And maybe if I was to do a brand deal in the future, they go,"},{"startTime":360.295,"endTime":363.04,"body":"oh, how many views is on your YouTube channel or something like that? And I"},{"startTime":363.04,"endTime":366.64,"body":"could say a 1000000 views and that, like, sounds cooler than saying, you know,"},{"startTime":366.64,"endTime":370.48,"body":"34,000 or 500,000 or something. But at the end of the day, when it comes"},{"startTime":370.48,"endTime":374.26,"body":"to money, like content clips is my main revenue generator,"},{"startTime":374.4,"endTime":378.175,"body":"which is an agency that produces social media content. And that"},{"startTime":378.175,"endTime":381.775,"body":"doesn't get paid through views. We get paid by our clients, which choose to work"},{"startTime":381.775,"endTime":385.535,"body":"with us. And sometimes they might find out about us through YouTube, which"},{"startTime":385.535,"endTime":389.31,"body":"is awesome. But someone watching a video of mine, for example, on YouTube, it's"},{"startTime":389.389,"endTime":392.91,"body":"it's gonna be a pretty specific person to see my video and go,"},{"startTime":392.91,"endTime":396.59,"body":"I like what he's saying. I like how he's saying it. Let me go to"},{"startTime":396.59,"endTime":400.35,"body":"his page and learn more about who this guy is because I'm not talking"},{"startTime":400.35,"endTime":403.914,"body":"about like tech reviews or selling you on a course"},{"startTime":404.134,"endTime":407.835,"body":"or trying to get you in my funnel. Really, I have 2 options,"},{"startTime":408.134,"endTime":411.735,"body":"which I guess is a funnel if you will, but, like, the funnel is kind"},{"startTime":411.735,"endTime":415.569,"body":"of shallow, right now at least. It's really like a free community"},{"startTime":415.569,"endTime":418.21,"body":"where you can come hang out if you're a creator called the creator club. It's"},{"startTime":418.21,"endTime":421.97,"body":"a discord community. And then content clips, which is just a paid service"},{"startTime":421.97,"endTime":425.729,"body":"where we create content for you. And then I do have, like, my email"},{"startTime":425.729,"endTime":428.289,"body":"newsletter, but it's like a lot of giving. Like, a lot of what I do"},{"startTime":428.289,"endTime":431.995,"body":"is giving, giving, giving this podcast, for example, like the leap."},{"startTime":431.995,"endTime":435.755,"body":"Right? I don't offer really many things in between, like content clips for the"},{"startTime":435.755,"endTime":439.455,"body":"most part starts at like $1,000 and up. Sometimes it's less, but"},{"startTime":439.514,"endTime":443.139,"body":"on average, like our clients usually spend about $1,000 a month and up. And that's"},{"startTime":443.139,"endTime":446.62,"body":"a pretty big gap from, like, not spending anything. And most creators I"},{"startTime":446.62,"endTime":450.24,"body":"found are not in a space to be spending $1,000 a month"},{"startTime":450.379,"endTime":454.06,"body":"on services to help them with their short form social media or"},{"startTime":454.06,"endTime":457.865,"body":"their podcast. And so instead of being like, hey, you're like, you"},{"startTime":457.865,"endTime":461.544,"body":"should buy this other thing for $200. I'm just like, come hang"},{"startTime":461.544,"endTime":465.065,"body":"out. I'll help you how we can. We can connect and we can grow together"},{"startTime":465.065,"endTime":468.845,"body":"because I'm not claiming to be this guru guy that, you know, has every answer."},{"startTime":468.905,"endTime":472.47,"body":"A lot of what we do as creators is experimentation. And when I look back"},{"startTime":472.47,"endTime":476.07,"body":"on YouTube for me, what has worked has been experimentation. Some of"},{"startTime":476.07,"endTime":479.91,"body":"my best performing shorts have been ones where I had"},{"startTime":479.91,"endTime":483.27,"body":"the most random fast idea. And I was like, let me just film it real"},{"startTime":483.27,"endTime":486.465,"body":"quick and put it out. And then it ends up being a video that"},{"startTime":486.785,"endTime":490.544,"body":"gets views and comments and engagement 3 years later. It's not"},{"startTime":490.544,"endTime":493.745,"body":"because I had this perfect idea that I wanted to put out. It's because I"},{"startTime":493.745,"endTime":497.125,"body":"was quick, I was authentic, and I didn't let"},{"startTime":497.264,"endTime":500.82,"body":"overthinking hold me back. Looking ahead to how I'm going to view"},{"startTime":500.82,"endTime":504.5,"body":"YouTube this year 2025. I've got some ideas that I have"},{"startTime":504.5,"endTime":507.88,"body":"not kind of fleshed out. But there's one opportunity"},{"startTime":508.26,"endTime":511.875,"body":"that could be doing long form content for a brand. And I'd be making"},{"startTime":511.875,"endTime":515.715,"body":"YouTube videos for them and their channel. And then also for my own channel,"},{"startTime":515.715,"endTime":519.554,"body":"maybe I do more YouTube videos when I finally find an editor that I"},{"startTime":519.554,"endTime":522.534,"body":"vibe with. But I think I would need some help in the scripting department because"},{"startTime":522.595,"endTime":526.26,"body":"I can do the podcast like this. I can do short form content like no"},{"startTime":526.26,"endTime":530.02,"body":"other. I can write emails. I can help people script their"},{"startTime":530.02,"endTime":533.38,"body":"podcast. I can do all that stuff, but something about YouTube and maybe it's because"},{"startTime":533.38,"endTime":536.82,"body":"I'm a big YouTube consumer. I struggle with like the"},{"startTime":536.82,"endTime":540.605,"body":"sectioning out stuff of YouTube. So if you have any tips on that, I'm"},{"startTime":540.605,"endTime":543.885,"body":"like totally open. Like I said, I'm not a guru in every area of this"},{"startTime":543.885,"endTime":547.644,"body":"stuff. I know certain things through my own data, but I don't have the data"},{"startTime":547.644,"endTime":551.37,"body":"to back up like YouTube scripting, but I'm excited about hitting the next"},{"startTime":551.45,"endTime":555.29,"body":"2,000,000 mark and then 5,000,000 to 10,000,000. Cause I really, really like YouTube as"},{"startTime":555.29,"endTime":559.13,"body":"a platform. I like consuming content on there. I think it's valuable for"},{"startTime":559.13,"endTime":562.97,"body":"creators. How cool is it? You can just upload any amount of video to that"},{"startTime":562.97,"endTime":566.675,"body":"platform and they just host it. And going down a quick rabbit hole real quick,"},{"startTime":566.675,"endTime":570.435,"body":"I just was cleaning up my Instagram feed. There's a connection here. I promise. I"},{"startTime":570.435,"endTime":573.875,"body":"was just cleaning up my Instagram feed and I was scrolling back. And Adam"},{"startTime":573.875,"endTime":577.634,"body":"Mosseri, the CEO of Instagram just recently said this, and I hadn't looked"},{"startTime":577.634,"endTime":581.39,"body":"at my own feed, but he said that older videos or videos that don't"},{"startTime":581.39,"endTime":585.23,"body":"perform well, they degrade the quality of your videos. And I think"},{"startTime":585.23,"endTime":588.75,"body":"it's to save like server storage space or something. So when I was"},{"startTime":588.75,"endTime":592.45,"body":"cleaning up my Instagram feed, which I don't think I've ever done,"},{"startTime":592.535,"endTime":595.735,"body":"I was scrolling back and I was opening up some videos that didn't perform very"},{"startTime":595.735,"endTime":599.575,"body":"well and they were so blurry and it wasn't my wifi connection or"},{"startTime":599.575,"endTime":603.255,"body":"anything. The videos were blurry. They had been degraded because they were older"},{"startTime":603.255,"endTime":606.855,"body":"videos and they weren't performing that well, especially relative to some other"},{"startTime":606.855,"endTime":610.03,"body":"videos on my page. But I was like, I gotta archive these. So I ended"},{"startTime":610.03,"endTime":613.33,"body":"up archiving most of my videos and I'll probably"},{"startTime":613.47,"endTime":617.31,"body":"maybe unarchive some videos on my page, but I was just"},{"startTime":617.31,"endTime":620.75,"body":"shocked. Like if maybe look for yourself on your own page, if you go back"},{"startTime":620.75,"endTime":624.214,"body":"on videos that you see didn't perform very well, look at the quality of them."},{"startTime":624.214,"endTime":627.975,"body":"It's like shockingly bad. YouTube thankfully doesn't do that. You can"},{"startTime":627.975,"endTime":631.435,"body":"control the quality on the user side. If you upload a video in 4 k,"},{"startTime":631.495,"endTime":634.455,"body":"it will stay on 4 k. Like, they don't remove the option to view a"},{"startTime":634.455,"endTime":638.135,"body":"high quality video even if it was uploaded 3 or 4 years ago. And I"},{"startTime":638.135,"endTime":641.85,"body":"don't think that difference between something like Instagram and YouTube"},{"startTime":641.85,"endTime":645.61,"body":"is talked about enough. You can have videos from years ago on YouTube do"},{"startTime":645.61,"endTime":648.97,"body":"really well today and that doesn't really work the same on"},{"startTime":648.97,"endTime":651.735,"body":"Instagram. So what do you think about YouTube? Are you a fan of the platform?"},{"startTime":651.975,"endTime":654.454,"body":"Have you been taking it more seriously? Do you have plans to take it more"},{"startTime":654.454,"endTime":658.214,"body":"seriously this year? I'd love to know. Maybe hop in the creator club and"},{"startTime":658.214,"endTime":661.894,"body":"chat with us, and we can talk about our own YouTube strategy for 2025. Go"},{"startTime":661.894,"endTime":665.575,"body":"to the creator club.com to hop in the conversation, and I'll talk to you next"},{"startTime":665.575,"endTime":665.808,"body":"week."}]}