Excuses Give You Permission To Suck | Jeremy Vest | Full Battery Media

In this episode of the Full Battery Media Podcast, I sit down with YouTube strategist Jeremy Vest to talk about what actually makes a YouTube channel grow in 2026, and it is not just thumbnails, hacks, or chasing the algorithm. 

We get into why most creators fail because they think like creators instead of business owners, why niche clarity matters more than most people realize, and how the right 100 viewers can be more valuable than a million random ones. Jeremy breaks down the real role of mission, purpose, passion, profit, storytelling, audience trust, and human connection in building a channel that actually drives revenue and long-term growth. We also talk about AI, why average content is in trouble, why polished does not always win, and why the future belongs to creators and entrepreneurs who know their audience, stay consistent, and create with real intention. If you are trying to grow a YouTube channel, build a personal brand, generate leads, or use content to grow your business, this conversation is packed with practical insight on YouTube strategy, content marketing, audience growth, and making videos that actually matter.

What do you think matters more right now, getting more views or getting the right viewers?

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

It just comes down to if you have a mission, you're going to probably see it through. If you want to be famous or you want to increase sales, or you're ticking off a box for your job to make some stupid video today that you don't care about, you're just wasting everyone's time. You know, so if you don't actually believe that you can help or entertain someone, or you are putting your purpose and your passion to work um to show the world your side of the of something, then you're wasting everyone's time. And I don't even know I I I would I would say that sounds mean, but it's honestly nice, right? I would rather people hear the truth. I think that's the nice thing to say here is um, you know, so many hundreds of thousands of hours of content are made every day on all these platforms, and most of it is just absolute garbage.

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Welcome everybody back to the Full Battery Media Podcast. I am your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Would you like to tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:23

Hey, my name is Jeremy Vest, and I have been a YouTube strategist for the past 19 years. My I've worked with 20 of the top 100 brands in America, and my students have over 70 billion organic views.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

That's rap. It's like uh that's that's awesome, you know. It's like, I mean, it's a flex and a half to begin. Um I I was watching this video the other day. And uh it was interesting because it was my favorite sports team, and this they were asking all these guys, what woman athletes do you know, and who's your favorite female athlete? And you know, and they were all these guys were saying these different people. And then the one kid was like, uh, my mom, like, oh, why? Why your mom? She's like, she was an athlete all through her life, and she's also the head of all of women's sports for this one state. Oh, and it was just like this massive flex. And it was just like, damn, man, because you can't lie with you can't argue with results, man. And like, it leads to my first question. Like, you've helped generate billions, not millions, billions of views on YouTube. What do most creators uh misunderstand about how YouTube actually works?

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Well, I would say the word creator is one of the biggest problems because if you're not thinking like a business, you've already lost. Another thing I would say is if you don't really know the value you're gonna give to a viewer, um you the algorithm's not gonna know who you are, and the people are not gonna know why they should watch you. So clarity, niche clarity, and acting like a business are probably the two biggest failures of any creator.

SPEAKER_00 3:04

I think so. And I think that people don't realize that because they're so caught up in like the I need to do this, I need to be part of this game, and they don't realize that. Like, there's a couple creators that I follow that I absolutely love that are YouTubers I follow. Um, and I had someone from Ali Abdal's team on, and like one of the things I I really value about him is like when he started his YouTube channel, he's like, This is to build my business, like this is to sell here, and like he had that clarity from the very beginning. And because of that, he was better able to sit there and make choices that he needed to make, you know, because if you know what you're selling, why you're doing it, it's a lot easier to make the decisions that are going to make your channel successful.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Yeah, and I have his book, Atomic Habits, right behind me. He's um he's a phenomenal human and and quite honestly, he is the definition of a niche. Like he knows exactly what his audience needs and what they want to consume.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

100%. If you were to like help someone start a YouTube channel today, what what advice would you give someone to like really get started in their channel and their and their their path?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

I will say that you know, doing being a YouTube strategist and coach for 19 years, my answer to you is probably gonna be shocking. I'm not gonna be talking about titles and thumbnails and scripts, right? I'm actually gonna be talking about why are you gonna give up? So if you think of three circles, purpose, passion, and profit, those three circles, you your your niche and your mission have to be in the middle of those three. Because without purpose, you're gonna be bored. Without, you know, passion, you're gonna be bored. Uh and without profit, you're gonna find ways to not use your YouTube channel anymore because you're not, you know, you got to go make money. So by really understanding, if you have a mission, let's just say, like, for example, one of my students is now the most famous plumber in the world, Roger Wakefield. And when I started working with him, he had a few hundred subscribers. Now he has a few million followers um total. And the one thing he does better than anyone else is he's not the smartest guy, he's not the best-looking guy. He has a sweet mustache, though. Um, but he's tenacious to no end, and he has a mission. And his mission is to teach people all things plumbing. And even though that might sound boring, he's really good on camera and he has millions and millions and millions of views. Cottonell pays him six figures to make a video, and he he he just has never stopped his mission. So the big difference between, you know, I work, I'm working with a channel today with 3 million subscribers. Um, the big difference between them and most of us is a mission and tenaciousness. If you put up a video and get 200 views, you're gonna be like, crap, that was a lot of time. I'm wasting my time. But if you put up a video and got 200 views and said, you know what? I'm 200 views closer to my mission. That's the mindset you need. So, mindset is 99.9% of all of this. And the people that just get 1% better every upload and shut up and never give up, those are the people that are gonna win. I mean, even Mr. Beast, who's obviously way by far the biggest YouTuber in the world, he'll be the first YouTuber to get a billion subscribers. He was like 13, 12, 13, 14 when he started and he sucked, you know, and we all suck in the beginning. So that is the big difference is like if you don't actually believe in what you're making, if you don't actually know what your value is to your viewer, if you don't niche down and do one thing, Mr. Reese's entertainment, um, then you're gonna be nothing to no one.

SPEAKER_00 7:12

That's interesting too, because you know, I wanted to talk to you about this, because how important is a niche in is niche focus on YouTube? And how narrow should a creator go in the beginning? Should they keep it more wide in the beginning and see what people like, or should they go niche down really hard, really fast?

SPEAKER_01 7:31

It depends on what you want to achieve. Um if let's say I'll give you an example. I have a student that does pest control, he has over 100,000 subscribers now, uh actually 200,000 subscribers, and his mission is to make pest control franchise businesses as his only mission. So in his case, being I call it fishing in the ocean versus fishing in a barrel, him having a lot of views is more important for his particular instance than making money, for example, right? So, like what he's doing, he's showing potential franchisees and in in different people in different cities. Hey, we have you know millions of views a week on YouTube that can help drive sales for you. So he's doing it in a different perspective. Another example is I have two or three dozen channels under 50,000 subscribers making over a million a year. And when you are the exact right person at the right time for the right thing, if you are selling 737 jets, you only have to sell one a year to make a million dollar commission. You know, you only need one view a year. So let's say you have a $10,000 thing you sell to businesses, you know, you only need a hundred of the right viewers to make a million dollars. So it's not hard math. The problem is our egos get in the way, and a lot of people think you need a lot of views. You only need the right views.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

I love that. I love that, I love that because I talk, I do podcasting and I don't have huge numbers. Like, I don't, but the way I use my YouTube channel, like I have a couple things that I do with my different podcasts. One of them is um, first of all, I like I love to use them for networking. Like I really, really love to network with people and it's a great way to network. But second of all, like I share with people, you know, my core business, I have a full production team. I I live in Vietnam. I have 20 editors and graphic designers and social media people and after effects artists. So I sit there and when I finish with people, they go, Well, what do you do? And I say, Well, I have conversations with people and I make videos for people and I help them with their marketing strategy. And they go, Oh, I need help with that. I don't even have to pitch. I just sit there and tell people what I do, and they're like, That's awesome. Your video quality is quite good. I really enjoy it. And then, you know, I bring them into the to the fold. And it's like, for me, and like that's when someone's saying, like, I have people that I bring in that I do podcasts for, and they're like, I only got a hundred downloads on this one. And I was like, dude, that's a hundred people that could be your customers, like that's a hundred people that could be your future clients. Like, wouldn't it be better? Like, well, I want a million. Like, does that mean you're gonna convert more? Like, it doesn't necessarily mean a hundred of the right viewers is better than a thousand of just spam, you know? I mean, I think that at least in my point.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Absolutely, you know, relationship marketing, especially in the age of AI, is everything. And uh, you know, having your guitars in the background and like your personality shining through is everything now. Like, what are what's gonna replace you know, us from the them, you know, the AI robots. And and the truth is we have to become more human. And by focusing on the relationships you're building, you're going to do, you're gonna be okay. Um, a lot of people aren't. And I think that I probably have two to three dozen students with under 50,000 subscribers that do make more money than most YouTube channels with over a million subscribers. And I believe it, you know, it, you know, if you if you are a creator or a YouTuber or a TikToker, you're probably not a business. And if you don't have the right mindset, you're you're just gonna waste your time.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

I've noticed that one of the things too is I I remember I used to work with kids that were from tough neighborhoods, and I worked at schools with them. And when I would ask them, what do you want to be when you grow up? It was like, I want to be a basketball player, I want to be a rapper, I want to be, and I was like, first of all, you're five foot three. I think the NBA is gonna be a reach. Like, I mean, I don't know. You might be, you know, Spud Webb, and I'm dating myself with that reference right there. Um, you might be someone who's like really good at what you do, but like then now I asked the same question to the same people like, I want to be a YouTuber, I want to be a content creator, and it's like because it represents something to them, and that they don't necessarily understand what that even means. Like, okay, well, what does it mean to show up every day? And I have a YouTube channel I do with my daughter with the express purpose of, and we got it up to 11,000 uh followers, which you know is great, it's fun, it's awesome. But the whole point of that channel was just to have, first of all, to give kids great content they could watch about science, STEM, animals, and things like that. But the second thing was to teach my daughter about having a good work ethic. That, you know, like right now we're in this up and down time with the channel because I'm transitioning all of the slides that we made from my editing team to her. I'm saying, what do you want to make? What do you want to talk about? Let's look at that. How do you make it? You you make these slides for school and she's 10. She's like making all these Canva like presentations for school. I said, Okay, can you do that for your own channel? Yeah, of course. I'd love to. All right, let's film that, you know, and it teaches her about that. But like, that's my why. And it makes continuing that channel easier to do because you have that why. But if you don't have that, you know, and if you don't think about it like a business, like for me, that one's not a business because the business is just teaching my kid about how to work in life. But you know, for all of my podcasts, there is a very, very clear goal about what I'm trying to get out of them, you know? And I want to ask you this like, what makes the difference between someone who succeeds on YouTube and someone who doesn't?

SPEAKER_01 14:11

I would say the definition in itself um, what is success mean, right? And I would say that um it just comes down to if you have a mission, you're going to probably see it through. If you want to be famous or you want to increase sales, or you're ticking off a box for your job to make some stupid video today that you don't care about, you're just wasting everyone's time, you know. So if you don't actually believe that you can help or entertain someone, or you are putting your purpose and your passion to work um to show the world your side of the of something, then you're wasting everyone's time. And I don't even know I I I would I would say that sounds mean, but it's honestly nice, right? I'd rather people hear the truth. I think that's the nice thing to say here is um, you know, so many hundreds of thousands of of hours of content are made every day on all these platforms, and most of it is just absolute garbage.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

100%. It is that's not an understatement, it really is mainly garbage because I uh it is a deep and dark hole. Like I I, you know, I have my daughter creates her own content, but I don't just let her sit there and watch things because you go from two swipes away from it's definitely not short form content, it's two swipes away from absolute trash. Like it is really wild. And so we are we carefully curate what my daughter can watch, but you know, at the same time, there's great stuff, you know, there's great music out there, there's great things that she can learn, but you have to be conscious of it. And I think that that same thing goes to for are you making something consciously by choice, you know, it goes back to your why. What is your why? You know, are you consciously figuring out what you want to be doing? Are you consciously creating your next step, you know? And why are you doing that? Because if you're just doing it, you're going through the numbers, it's like you're in a marriage, right? And or any relationship, and you're doing it because you feel like you have to, versus you're really thinking about why you're doing it. I I did something nice for my wife the other day. Well, why? Because I really care about her and I wanted to build and you know our relationship versus, well, I thought it's what I should do. Man, no one wants that.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, if you're checking off a box to make a video today, you've already lost the whole battle. And maybe you pull it off, maybe you don't. But if you don't have meaning behind what you do, then it's pointless. Also, anyone good on social media, AI is gonna be too good, it's not gonna be good enough.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

What do you mean by that? I I I like that, but I think I know what you mean, but I'd love to hear a little bit more about what you mean by that.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, so what I mean is um from every single aspect from the storytelling to the editing to the filming to the scripting to the hooks that hook people in to the thumbnails, every single aspect, um AI is going to understand what why people will keep watching a video, why people click that thumbnail and title combination, they're gonna understand the psychology behind it all. And if you don't learn these disciplines, you YouTube is simply click watch like. So I'm gonna click on the title and thumbnail. I'm gonna if if your video needs to be watched longer than your competitors, and then you need to encourage likes, comments, and shares. Um if your click watch like formulas are not are they are average, then a computer is gonna probably do a better job at thumbnails and titles than you could ever do. So my suggestion is to make, I'd rather you make five videos a year than 50 crappy videos. Right, you know, make five exceptional videos. Um, and if you look at Mark Rover and Mr. Beast and Dude Perfect and all these other channels that are very, very big, they're making less and less content, not more and more.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

But it's good, yeah, it's really good, and it gives you a reason to click watch and like. Click, watch, and like. I love it. I was curious about this next point because when you you analyze a struggling YouTube channel, like what are the first three things that you look at on that channel?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Um, the very first thing I look at is I'm looking at the target audience and I'm looking at how how subscribers came to be. And this is honestly the this is why my company's name is Niche King, and you know, I help people become the king and queen of their niche. And the reason for that is think about it this way. Let's say I had a I had a lawn care channel I was working with, get eight million views on a short for ping pong, and I got so mad at him because and I'll explain it. So he does lawn care stuff, eight million views on ping pong. What this is what happens. You take your audience and you break it into a million shards of glass. So now what in the crap is YouTube gonna do? Are they gonna serve people your videos on lawn care, or are they gonna serve people on your ping pong videos? So he had this channel with I don't know, 50,000, 60,000 subscribers doing very well. And then boom, got 30,000, 40,000 subscribers from a ping pong video. And now YouTube's like, I don't, I don't know what to do. So his entire channel collapsed. Every time he put out a video for lawn care, the new ping pong audience would be like, What the crap is this? And they would click away. Then you would have negative signals in the algorithm, and it'd be like, Okay, people don't like this content, but that's not actually the case. The case is when you sh when you split your audience up, you're not gonna love skateboarding and breakdancing, or you're not gonna love pickles and barbecue, you know? And the way the algorithm works, it's called a candidate uh recommendation engine. And they're gonna look at past watch history from times of day to months to seasonal, and they're gonna serve you videos based on the type of content you watch. If you go to the homepage of YouTube, you're gonna see these little like kind of gray boxes uh at the very top, and that is your topics, and you can click on those topics. For me, it's like skateboarding and fishing and all and running and all the other stuff I do. And when I click on those, I can see the content that YouTube knows I watch. So if you are talking about all the things, you really do become nothing to no one, and your audience isn't gonna keep coming back if they don't see more pin pong.

SPEAKER_00 21:53

Wow. It just makes me think about channels that I've worked with and some of my own channels because you know, one of the channels. Channels that I work with is my daughter's channel. And we looked at that. We had one outlier video that was this brain dump run video. And it was something that one of my editors said, Let's try this. I know kids like this. And we did it, and it got a lot of views. But then afterwards, it was not the content I wanted to be doing. And like everyone was like, you know, what we were this educational kids. And then we have a kid running, and she's like, Oh, but we got a lot of views. And I said, Yeah, that's gonna mess us up on, you know, if we keep doing that. And so it we had to reorient. And then, you know, I'm still figuring out as I go. That channel, I'm still figuring out as I go, but we'll talk about that. I'd love to talk to you after this podcast about getting your help on that, first and foremost. But you know, um, a lot of creators focus on production quality, but like, how much does production actually matter compared to ideas, titles, and storytelling? Because it seems to be like titles and storytelling seem to be what you're telling me is way more important.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yeah, the only things that matter in production is being able to see the whites of someone's eyes and not having shade underneath the bags here. Shady, you know, is a real perception and not being able to see, you know, nonverbal communication is like 80 plus percent of communication. So the whites of someone's eyes and being able to nonverbally connect to that person is more important than speech. So, from a psychological perspective. So the lighting is important and audio is important. Those are two things that people can't really tolerate. Beyond that, it doesn't matter at all. What really matters is that hook in the first second. A lot of people say, Oh, you got to hook people within 10 seconds. No way, it's one to two seconds max. So you got to tell, give people a reason or curiosity to keep watching in that first two seconds. That is the most, that is 10 times more important than quality. In fact, until recently, Mr. Beast would upload his videos shot on very expensive cameras to 1080p instead of 4K because it looked too produced. Um, one of my worst students of all time was a P Body Photo Award-winning journalist because he was too good on camera. He didn't sound real. When I was working with um Cover Girl like a long time ago, I remember the CFO was like, Why do these little 14-year-old girls get billions of views and we get nothing? And I was like, Well, because you're not a 14-year-old girl, you're a brand, you don't have a soul, you know. Yeah, so like exactly. And that's what I told her. I was like, exactly. You understand now. And she's like, I was like, you're not a person. So, anyways.

SPEAKER_00 24:57

I love that, man. And it is one of those things, too. Like, I 100% am all about that. And it's like, first of all, you you said something earlier on about we need more humanity, like in an age of AI, and that's what I try to tell people. Like, I have clients that spam read AI scripts, and they think that that's gonna be the thing that helps them get views. And they're like, I'm here to tell you why a 401k is the best type ever talk. And you're like, dude, no, stop doing that, man. If you want to talk about it, talk about how it's personal to you, talk about how it's important to you, you know, talk about something that is relevant to you. Um, I I was talking the other day, I bought new headphones, and these headphones are not for uh listening to my podcast. I like doing it in any ear just because I'm vain and I don't want to have everything on that's just me. But I do it for work because I have a team that's awesome, but I've got one kid that sits right there, Andrew. We are both so ADD that if you combine the two of us and I don't have some time of way to distract myself, dude, I'm done. I will just and he he he is the he's got I gave him an AG AD fidget toy the other day because he's so ADHD. And I swear the thing is gonna spontaneously combust because he's just like and I'm just like, dear God. And I made a post about that. Like, I wasn't talking about the best way to be productive. I'm like, this is how I'm staying sane right now. I put my headphones on, I've got a little like MP3 player. Uh, actually, that one's actually a little bit nicer. Uh it has a bunch of flag files and it has like high quality. I love it for that. But like I do it because otherwise I'll get nothing done. And that's a way more human thing to say than talking to someone about this is the productivity's key that's gonna help you succeed every day. Man, no one wants to listen to that. They want to hear your story, they want to hear your your truths.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

And most creators like myself, we are very ADHD. I mean, very and um, you know, the the thing is someone really good on camera is boring. No one wants to see polish. I helped, I helped run the largest skateboard YouTube channel in the world for a long time, and that's right. I still skateboard even though I'm old. Um, and I had several like pro skaters and you know, very famous skaters be like, what are these little bunch of nobody posers? Why are they the biggest YouTube channel in the world? And it's not like a Tony Hawk. And I always said, you can't be Tony Hawk, man. Like nobody can be Tony Hawk. So relatable people, one of the fastest growing fitness channels in the world last year was someone over 400 pounds. And the reason is you can relate to that, you know, people on a journey going somewhere with the mission, that's intriguing. Someone like Tony Hawk, that is like a robotically amazing skateboarder, amazing to watch, you can't relate. No one can relate to him. So that's really the big difference is you don't have to be the expert, you have to be the human on a journey.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I I earlier two days ago, I was uh I said this before we started. Like, my daughter's been sick. She's had a stomach flu for almost a week and a half, two weeks now. She started off with like a sinus, like like a cold, and it always for her was the same thing. It goes down into her coughing, and then she gets the phlegm, it drops down at her stomach, and then she gets a stomach through it, starts vomiting. This is like a thing that she's been doing since she was a kid. And so we're in the current cycle of that. And so the last week and a half, she's just been vomiting at school, coming home halfway through the day. And though, two nights ago it got really bad. She did her little exercise class, did a little overdid it. And that night she was like, I don't feel so good. You know, I mean, she's like a freaking stream out of there, man. It was so much vomit. And I'm just like, oh God, it's in the middle of my room, going on my floor, and I'm just grabbing like a blanket, throw the blanket in front of it. At least I can get on the blanket and I can wash the blanket because it's all over the carpet. And we were just sitting there, and then like, and then I got her down, I got it cleaned up, got the room cleaned up, got her in bed, and I fell asleep next to her. And I was like, all right, I'm just gonna rest here for a second. I thought I brought my computer up. I was like, I'll try to get on LinkedIn and check some messages and do some shit. No, I didn't do any of that, man. I fell asleep, and so I was laying there face down. I'm like, oh, finally, she's she's good. And I hear and I was she's like, oh god, and I couldn't get up in time, and the projectile vomit all down my back. Nice. She's like, oh god, oh god, it was horrible. And I get cleaned up, I got her cleaned up. I went in the bathroom and I took a picture of myself, and I was just like, all right, this is where I'm at right now. And I was like, dude, some days as a business owner, it's just freaking surviving. Like, dude, this is where I've been up since 4 a.m. I tried, and when I my workers came to work, I sent a message. I was like, the night before, I was like, listen, I need everyone to freaking be on time because I gotta take my kid to the doctor, and I just need to get you guys started. And I need you to be here at the right time. And I need to like, I haven't had any sleep, so please don't don't don't stress me out today. And like that was that was the truth, man. I was up since four, it was a midnight that I was posting this thing. That post blew up. All of these people were sitting there. I was like, I thought LinkedIn is this super, I was worried that people are gonna be like, oh, it's too Facebooky. But dude, every every single business person on there was like, dude, I can relate because people don't realize, like, everyone thinks it's like the I'm gonna tell you the 10 ways to hustle the hardest and get there. No one, no one can relate to that. Yeah, like, dude, I you know, I watch David Goggins and I'm like, wow, David Goggins is nuts. I'm not running any ultra marathons in the next month and a half. I'm like hoping that I run down the block and and and don't sprain an ankle. Like, so like that's why the guy these 400 pounds is like an influ, like a fitness influencer. I can relate to that. I'm not 400 pounds, but like, yeah, man, aches and pains are things that I understand. Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I want to ask you this like, what role does the algorithm really play? And how should creators think about it without obsessing over it?

SPEAKER_01 31:33

It's a great, great question. Um I I think that the algorithm is the biggest like cop-out for creators ever.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

And on all platforms.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

It's the algorithm.

SPEAKER_01 31:53

I have yeah, I have literally heard that Facebook is dying for 20 years. I have literally heard that you have to pay for organic traffic for 20 years, and I have three students right now, over two million followers organically on Facebook, you know. So um it's all excuses, and you know, excuses are really convenient. Excuses give you the permission you need to suck. And you know, no, I love that, man.

SPEAKER_00 32:29

If you really think about wait, wait, wait, wait real quick. Real tree, my editor, excuses give you permission to suck should be somewhere boiled into this thumbnail, man.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

But if you really think about it, these platforms don't owe you nothing. You're on you're you're on their block, you know. They they they owe you nothing. Yeah, and you know, smart people figure out how to game the system. Really intelligent people, people the type of people that bid generational wealth, they don't play a game at all. They're not even playing a game, they're not playing to the algorithm, they are delivering life-changing things to someone, and they are focused on their mission, not their thumbnail. You know, yeah, and and I'll be honest, I have spoke about thumbnails all over the world. Like I love the nerd side of it all. You know, getting your hooks and thumbnails and titles perfect are are insanely important. But if it's it's a billion times more important to know who your audience is and what you do.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

So true, man. And I think that one of the things, too, that I've had guests come on, and they everyone thinks that it's gonna, you're gonna have the perfect thumbnail and that's gonna be the cheat code. You're gonna have the perfect title, that's gonna be the cheat code. But they don't realize that actually it's showing up with a plan, showing up with a strategy, it's showing up with great storytelling, and you actually have an intention of what you're trying to accomplish, you know? And it's like I remember I used to teach kids. Uh, that was my side hustle for many years, was like teaching English to kids in Asia while I was building my production company. And I remember showing up for a class once where they were like, Hey, you got this class this afternoon. I was like, No one told me I had a class this afternoon. And I showed up to wing it. And it it didn't go well. Obviously, it didn't go well because you don't have a clear objective. And we had fun, but was the objective of the kids' learning accomplished? No, man. We just goofed around for an hour and a half, you know, versus, you know, when a person comes in and actually plans something, you know, planning teaching, planning a lesson. And I think that one of the things that I try to tell people too is like in a perspective as an educator, I always look at YouTube, short, long form, whatever you're doing, as some type of education. Like you're educating people about something, whether it be your plumbing business, whether it be um informing people about questions about entertainment and money, you know, whatever it might be. You gotta figure out what it is that you're sharing and educating people with because, you know, and and be intentional with that. Like, what is it that you're trying to do and accomplish? You know, at least that's something I think.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I'll give your audience uh an idea of old school versus new school content. So, Roger Wakefield, the plumber, I've been talking about his biggest video we did like six, seven years ago was how to fix a leaky toilet. And six or seven years ago, that was very important, you know, like the how-to long tell SEO style keywords. In 2026, the type of video I'd make is is your leaky toilet costing you a thousand dollars a year? Question mark. And the difference between the two from an SEO perspective is the exact same, but one tells a story and the other one just tells you how to do something. And when you just teach someone how to do something, they don't need you ever again. You solve their problem and they're moved, moved on. But if you entertain them and show them how to save $1,000 a year by fixing their leaky toilet, totally different ball game, totally different philosophy. Even though the video does the same thing, the mindset is so different that it's you're building an audience, you're not just telling someone what to do.

SPEAKER_00 36:45

I love that. You're yeah. I referenced in a post today, there was a book, I think I got it right here. Uh, maybe I put it back. That's over there. It's called Trust Agents. It's from the early days of the interweb and social media, and it's by um two really great guys that are still really active. But the whole book talks about how your goal on social media should be building trust. It should be building this rapport with people so that you are the go-to person for them when, oh, you know what? I've got an issue with my toilet. I know the person who can teach me about that. I know the place that I can go to find out information about that. And then you go there and you see it, you know. And I think that like, whatever it be, whether it be personal finance, whether it be exercise and fitness, whatever your niche is, be the person that people grow to trust. And you do that by continuously putting out great content that answers questions they have, that solves problems they have. And, you know, and if you can solve the problems or at least show them how they can start getting there, and then because I promise you, you can fix uh, you know, one problem in your plumbing, but it's gonna be another problem the next day. And even if they're not doing it themselves, it helps them feel more informed so that when they talk to an expert, they're you know, feeling a little bit more confident about, you know what, I saw this video and I think this might be the problem. And boom, suddenly they they are a little bit more confident when they interact with someone, you know? And so some thoughts there. But like for entrepreneurs using YouTube to grow a business, how should they balance audience growth with actually generating revenue? It's something you touched on earlier, but I wanted to ask about it like in more detail.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

Yeah, I mean, I think that people think incorrectly about all of this. I'll give you an example. I'm always the behind-the-scenes guys, you know, I've worked with definitely with creators you have heard of. And um, I've just been the behind-the-scenes guy this year. I decided, you know, I'm gonna start getting out there, you know, building my own audience. Um, it's something I regret, but it's also, you know, my passion is helping others. Uh, it's not being on camera. Yeah. Um, so in the last three months, I've got about four or five thousand views on Facebook organically, videos, things like that. And um I think that question is almost, I'm not gonna say it's a it's a bad question, but I'm gonna say like this. I've done almost six figures from Facebook posts to revenue this year already, and it's March 10th. Um, and the reason is I talk about what I do, purpose, passion, and profit. They all have to align. And if they do, and if you know, and and all that happened, I wasn't selling, I wasn't giving a service. All that happened was people remembered what I do for a living and reached out to me.

SPEAKER_00 39:51

So that's huge, man.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

So I I think that if you're living your purpose and your passion and and profit has a a mechanism there, like for me, I you know, sell YouTube strategy and software um and other things, um, then it's just a no-brainer because people are following me because they know I'm smart at YouTube stuff, and then they they hire me because I'm there, I'm in their face. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:21

That's huge, man. You're there and you're in their face. And that's one of the things too. I had someone come on to my podcast and he was saying this to me. He's like, he said this, he's like, Sean, I don't know who you are, but you're having conversations with people I respect and people that I know. And because of that, I want to have a conversation with you too. And then he's referred all these other people to me. And it's like just right there because it was, I was, I was there, I was in it, people's face. And they were like, I don't know who this guy is. I had someone reach out to me on my Growing Money podcast, and they're like, We're trying to build speakers for this big convention. I was just like, Oh wow! And we're reaching out to all of the personal finance experts out there, and I was like, That well, jokes on you, man. I have a personal finance podcast, but to consider myself an expert is pretty wild. But the reality is, I'm having all these conversations with all these people who are experts, and suddenly I've gotten grouped into that same batch, you know, and so they're coming and knocking on my door, which is wild.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

You're guilty by association, you're you know, your life becomes the five or six people you're surrounding yourself with. It is very human nature.

SPEAKER_00 41:29

Yeah, I I love it, man. If someone listening wanted to build a serious YouTube channel over the next 12 months, what would their strategy look like from day one?

SPEAKER_01 41:38

So know your value, know your competent competition, know the top 100 most viewed videos in the world for what you do, dissect the titles and thumbnails and descriptions and transcripts, stick all that data into AI and don't and stop guessing. Go build the crap people actually want to consume. Never, ever consider what you want to make. If you are making content for yourself, just look in the mirror and don't waste anyone's time. I mean, that's the truth, right? Because, like, if you think about this, a creator is creating for them, not you. And if you are a creator creating for yourself, then just be an artist or look in the mirror. Like, just stop wasting people's time. And um, the truth is ego is a unfortunately huge part of why people create. And the problem with that is not reality. Like creators, a lot of ego ego consumers really want to be entertained or educated, you know. Um, so I think digital natives, almost anyone under 30, anyone that's had an iPhone in their hand when they were a kid, um I feel like they get it. I feel like people over 35, especially a lot of social media managers and people, you know, that do digital marketing, I feel like a lot of us forget what a consumer does or doesn't do for each category, each niche. And um I would I would just argue that if you are not your target audience, you're not gonna understand who your target audience is.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

That's interesting, man. If you could go back and give yourself some advice starting up over everything again, uh, what advice would you tell yourself besides make content owner? Yeah, sooner?

SPEAKER_01 43:46

One thing and one thing only. And that is your personal brand is more important than any business you'll ever make, and possibly even somewhat more important than the relationships you'll have. And the reason for that is Especially with AI now, is if let's say I focused on I've helped over 50 channels get over a million subscribers. If I had a million subscribers right now, I would be on my boat in the Bahamas a little sooner, you know, um, and I would have a team like you have uh to help me out a little more. And you know, I have that stuff, and I'm 16 months from now, I will be on a boat in the Keys. So I'm still getting there, but it is a little slower because I don't have a million people I can call on for, you know, for sales. So out of about the 10 top YouTube strategists in the world, nine or eight, no, seven of them are worth over 20 million dollars. And uh they, you know, all got uh, you know, huge audiences. I just honestly, um, there's a lot of reasons. I was in a uh, you know, a rough marriage and and things like that. And you know, there's a lot of reasons I didn't want to be on camera, but that is my biggest regret. And with AI, jobs are gonna be hard.

SPEAKER_00 45:17

It's gonna be tricky, man. It's gonna be change. Well, where can people look to find out more about you and the services you offer?

SPEAKER_01 45:24

Sure. So you can go to niche king.video or Jeremy Vest anywhere.