Vidpros Insiders
Vidpros Insiders take you behind the scenes of the creator economy.
In this podcast, we interview influencers, content strategists, social media managers, talent managers, and industry operators to give you an inside look at how the digital world really works. From growing an audience and building a personal brand to managing creators and scaling content teams, we break down the strategies, systems, and stories driving today’s content industry.
If you’re a creator, entrepreneur, or just curious about what happens behind viral videos, Vidpros Insider gives you the real conversations shaping the space.
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Vidpros Insiders
Jordan Orme: From Freelancer to Editing For Justin Bieber and MrBeast
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Meet Jordan Orme, professional editor, YouTube creator, and filmmaker known for breaking down viral videos, editing psychology, storytelling, and retention on YouTube.
In this episode, we talk about Jordan’s journey from freelance editing to building a massive audience online, editing for creators like MrBeast, and working with artists and brands including Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Nike, and Google.
We also dive into how reaction content helped grow his YouTube channel, why storytelling matters more than fast cuts, what actually keeps people watching videos, and how creators can use editing strategically to improve retention and audience connection.
Jordan shares practical advice for editors trying to build a career today, including networking, developing taste, finding your editing style, and why personality and creative decision-making matter more than just technical skills.
We also discuss AI in editing, how YouTube creators think about thumbnails, intros, and retention, and what makes content perform in today’s algorithm-driven world.
Whether you're a creator, editor, filmmaker, agency owner, or trying to grow on YouTube, this episode is packed with practical insights on creativity, editing, storytelling, and building a long-term career online.
Learn more about Jordan:
Jordan Orme:
https://www.youtube.com/@JordanOrme
Jordan Orme 2:
https://www.youtube.com/@JordanOrme2
Jordan Edit:
https://www.youtube.com/@JordanEdit
Jordan Kalé:
https://www.youtube.com/@JordanKale
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/jordan_orme/
Course:
https://www.jordanorme.com/the-editing-formula
1:1 Coaching:
DM “Ready” to Jordan on Instagram to see if you’d be a good fit.
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Jordan built one of the biggest editing focused brands on YouTube by helping creators understand what makes content actually work. In this episode, he breaks down his journey as a professional editor, what separates great content from average content, and the lessons he's learned building a career around video. Thank you so much for joining us today. And for people discovering you for the first time, how would you describe what you do today and who are you?
SPEAKER_00I am an editor and a video creator. I um I'm an influencer, I guess. It's the worst. Yeah, I just really love filmmaking and editing, and I love to break down different perspectives on that. I like to study music videos and commercials primarily. And um I have a YouTube channel. I have a had a podcast called the Editing Podcast, um, where we interview the best editors in the world. I'm starting a new channel right now where we talk about how to monetize your creativity and turn that into a full-time job and then create a lot of impact with that as well. So yeah, a lot of things.
SPEAKER_01Before actually doing all of this and before starting YouTube and building your personal brand, what were you doing professionally?
SPEAKER_00Uh I was an editor. So I was a freelance editor professionally, right out of film school. I went to film school in Southern California and then graduated, I believe it was 2019, and actually started freelancing at a pretty high level right off the bat. So God was with me, and you know, I was really entrusted with some cool opportunities, which was a ton of fun, and got to edit for like Justin Bieber, Post Malone, Tyga, and brands like Nike and Google, and so I was like, shoot, this is so awesome. And then uh the pandemic happened, and all that work kind of dried up pretty instantly, and so I had some time on my hands, and so I started creating some YouTube videos. I had a friend earlier before the pandemic say, like, hey, you should talk about your editing on YouTube, and I was like, uh, I don't know, I'm busy. There's a lot going on, and yeah, but then during the pandemic, I had some time on my hands, so I said, you know what, let's give it a shot. And that turned into everything you're seeing today, which is nuts. So praise God for that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So I would say that you're actually primarily a filmmaker, right? And I always say that YouTube in a way is the most accessible way of making that dream come true, of actually becoming a filmmaker. So, what was the process for you like when you started YouTube? Like, were you a little bit hesitant about doing this? Did you think that could actually help you in the direction that you wanted to go?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I mean, at first I just kind of did it for fun, as a way to like kill time. I mean, I wanted to do it. I've always wanted to be a YouTube creator, sort of. Um, I remember I'm a drummer as well, and in high school I did drum covers for like a year straight. I just would like almost every single week upload a drum cover. And so, yeah, and so I kind of was starting to understand YouTube a little bit at that point, and so I knew it was really hard, and that was my hesitancy to doing it again. I was like, dude, they take so much time, it's so hard. I have a full-time job now. I'm working a lot just freelance editing. So then when I had time on my hands, I was like, you know what, let's just try this for fun. You know, my friend suggested it, so maybe let's let's do it. And at that point, I was way better because I was doing drum covers in high school, and I hadn't hadn't done any filmmaking anything in high school at all. I hadn't really touched a camera, like I had no idea what I was doing. And then I went all the way through film school, and now I'm on the other side of you know, like a four-year film degree, and so I knew a little bit more about what I was doing, and I was editing for larger artists and brands, and so I got a lot of like great experience in that and got to channel all of that into YouTube videos. And my first YouTube videos were terrible, they're awful, they're bad. Another thing I forgot to mention too, as far as things that I do is I do coach people one-on-one for how to grow on YouTube and social media and how to go full-time as an editor. So I tell my students this all the time: like, your first videos are gonna be terrible. Like they just it's just that's part of it. It's like a rite of passage. If you look at any artists and you look at their first pieces of art, like Post Malone is an example I love to give pretty constantly. If you look, look up like Post Malone's first videos or his first songs ever, they're awful, they're terrible, they're hilarious, but they're like they're bad. And so I use that as an example to say, like, you know, I was just trying stuff out, and but I did have the advantage of understanding storytelling, understanding pacing, understanding how to work in editing software and edit something well, even if I didn't film it well because I was super uncomfortable being in front of a camera, had no idea how to do that. I could at least edit it well so that it would perform decently. And so that was like my secret power was my editing skills.
SPEAKER_01And do you remember what was the first professional editing gig that you were able to book? And I feel like a lot of people like they dream of being editors, but they don't know how to actually, you know, book clients or especially getting to uh the level that you got that you were able to book those giant clients. So if you were to advise people, like what was the process like for you and what would you tell people that they should do to achieve that too?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so this is literally what I walk people through when I do one-on-one coaching. There's basically I tell everybody this, there's basically three things you have to do in order to get those larger clients. And the first thing is you have to understand like what your niche is. Now, I kind of did this by accident where I just sort of fell into music videos and commercials. I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and that just kind of happened. And since I am a drummer, like music videos and music-based edits really come naturally to me. So I really enjoyed doing that. So that ended up being my niche. And then the second thing you have to do is you need to work on your skill and your signal. So your skill is just how good you are at the craft, and that just takes reps, that takes practice, you have to make a lot of videos in order to get good at it and iterate and improve every single time. If you just make the same terrible video and you don't learn from it, it's not gonna work. You have to make a ton of videos and learn from them every single time about how to get better. So make sure to study your edits and study other people's edits. And then Signal is all about how other people discover you. Now, it's like a portfolio website, it's your social media, all of those things are very important because if you're the best editor in the world and nobody knows who you are or how to find you or how to watch your work, it's not you're not gonna get booked. So making a portfolio is a big part for me. I usually use Squarespace and just make a simple page with my work on there. I just usually like to let my work speak for itself. I don't try to use any gimmicky advertisements or deals or I don't know. Testimonials are fine, but I don't think it matters too much. I think your work can speak for itself. And then leveraging social media by just posting your work and posting what you've been creating, what you're passionate about. And especially if your friends and family are already on your social media, you're gonna get a lot of people just in your life that start to realize, like, oh, okay, this guy's really taking this editing and filmmaking thing really seriously. And that could lead into referrals, which leads into the third point, which is all about networking. And this is probably the biggest thing that really matters. And I hate the word for networking, so I like to coin the phrase friend working because that's literally all it is. It's just about making friends with key decision makers and key people. So, yeah, that's huge. And it's as simple as you know, doing things like this, like hopping on a podcast, getting to know one another, grabbing a meal with people, and um being very intentional. And you can do this over social media. I have friends from all over the world that I've actually never met in person, but through social media, I've been able to communicate with them and connect with them and have conversations with them. And I've gotten to meet a lot of them in person too, like way later on. Like, oh, we've been friends for like five years and we've never met in person. This is so weird. And then we we meet and we just hit it off. So that is probably one of the biggest things because people want to work with people that they know and that they like. Because in the film industry, lots of times there's 12-hour days, or you're just pulling an all-nighter with somebody else and you want to be able to hang out and vibe. So, actually, like learning the skill of being a charismatic person or being a people person, which is not really my thing because I'm an introvert, like I'm super introverted, I love to be by myself. So, I kind of had to learn the skill of how do I interact with other human beings and be enjoyable to be around, and that has helped my career a ton. So, those are the three things, like the three like basic like steps that I would follow. For me, I sort of kind of did it out of order, but my first like big break, I guess you could say, was I actually built my portfolio. I already knew that I wanted to do music videos, and I saw a job posting online for this music video editor job, and it was from a director that I had actually recognized on social media. So because I was active in the filmmaking social media realm, I was posting a lot, I was following a lot of people, I actually knew who this director was, and so I actually didn't do the job posting, and I just DM'd him my reel and I said, Hey, I would love to work with you because you're really awesome and I love this specific thing about your edits. I think something like his pacing and his transitions. I I said something very specific, I don't remember what it was. And he hit me back and he was like, Cool, and that's it, that's all he said. And I was like, Okay, well, I shot my shot and you know it didn't work out, and that's okay. But then he hit me back like a month later and he was like, Hey, we're still looking for like a younger editor. Are you down to like come to the office? So then I hopped in my car. I live like an hour from LA, so I drove down to LA like as fast as I could and met with him, and he was like, Hey, how old are you? I don't know yet. I don't know why that's like the the uh question I remember him asking me. It's so funny too, because he was like, Do you know After Effects? And I was like, No. And he still hired me. So um I got to assist and edit for a while, and then I turned into like his main editor for a little bit, and he was like doing Taiga, Chris Brown, like lots of really mainstream hip hop music videos, like G Easy, stuff like that. So that was like my bigger break into mainstream music videos. So all that took was literally a DM. That's literally it.
SPEAKER_01So people just need to ask, pretty much, which a lot of people are so hesitant about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01Even in my experience, a lot of people they message me and they're like, How are you in touch with like influencers and big people and how I see like they're they're following you and talking to you? And I'm like, I literally sometimes just email people and talk to them and they respond. It's that easy, you know? It's that easy, bro. Yeah, is there anything that you feel like people misunderstand about building like an editing career?
SPEAKER_00Well, there's a lot of different ways to do it, I think. There's like you could go a freelance route where you're just project to project, you can build retainers where you know you're getting month-to-month income, working with usually the same types of clients. You could be a staff editor at a company. There's a ton of ways to skin a cat, you know what I mean? So I think that's it. A lot of people too, I think. I don't know. I mean, for me, I really enjoy editing, and so if you can be like, yes, like this is something I love to do, I love to sit alone for eight hours and just create stuff, like that's part of the job, and it's important really to get up, take breaks, move your body. I had to learn that the hard way from just like being like, Oh, my back hurts. So I don't know. People, I think, sometimes underestimate that or sleep on that a little bit, but I don't know. What do you think for that question? Like, what do you think people underestimate?
SPEAKER_01I do think it's the connection part. I think people don't reach out to other people. When they do, the way they do the outreach is usually very generic. Just they just write something on GPT that it's not like adding value. And I do think if you add value, if you actually show that you learn something from that person, if you study what they're doing, and if you show that you can actually bring something to the table too, I do think it makes such a difference. And another thing that I do think is really important is having your own style. If you're a content creator and editing is eating your week, pay attention. Vid Bros is a professional video editing service built exclusively for creators, not a random freelancer, not an AI tool. A dedicated human editor assigned to your channel who learns your style, your voice, and your vision from day one. Here's how it works: you film, you upload your raw footage to our portal, and your editor handles everything from there. Captions, color grading, sound design, transitions, effects, all matching your brand. You get notified when your video is ready, send revision notes directly to your editor, and you post it. Clean, simple, and repeatable every week. The results speak for themselves. Our creators go from four videos a month to over 17. We have helped channels go from 100,000 to 600,000 subscribers with something a 200% increase in uploads. The pricing is simple. Start with a $100 trial for one full week. You choose 10 short form videos or one long form video professionally edited with fast turnaround. After your trial, the full service is $1,000 a month. Dedicated editor, limited revisions, direct communication, and consistent delivery every week. Go to vidgirls.com and start your $100 trial today. Stop editing, start growing. Do you think that for you you have a specific, like stylistic choice that makes you stand out from other editors? That it's like this is a Jordan editing, you know?
SPEAKER_00I would be curious to ask other people that actually, because I don't really know. And this is funny because on the editing podcast we interviewed, but he's Wes Anderson's editor. So Wes Anderson is like the most stylistic director ever, ever. All his stuff is like very straight on or profile, very symmetrical.
SPEAKER_01I'm very OCD and I love him for that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's nuts. But his editor said that Wes doesn't think he has a style. He just like, he's like, I just make a movie. Like, I don't have a style. I don't know what this Wes Anderson style that you're talking about is. And so I kind of feel that where I'm like, I'm just making it the way I like it. And if I like it this way, I guess that's my style. And if you compare that though to maybe some the way somebody else would like it or the way somebody else would make it, that's like you might be like, oh yeah, that's Jordan's style because it's different, you know? So I think that's probably how I'd answer that question. But that also leads me into answering your other question, which is maybe something that people sleep on a lot with editing. Once you learn the tools and you understand, like, okay, this is how you make a cut, this is how you do transitions, this is how you mix sound well. Pretty much the only thing that separates you from another editor is your taste and what you like and what you don't like, and the decision, like the creative decisions that you make. And so your style as an editor is the thing that people buy necessarily if you are trying to get hired. So working on that style and working on your taste is really important. And I like to do that by watching stuff. I love this site called Director's Library. Just amazing curated films on there. There's sometimes some weird stuff on there, but it's really good. It's a it's like a good source of inspiration for me. And watching stuff like that helps me get inspired and develop my taste and be like, oh, I wonder if I tried this type of technique on my next edit. And usually it pans out pretty well because it's been proven to work in something else. So I love that.
SPEAKER_01One thing that I really want to know is at what point did you realize that your YouTube channel was actually like a business and had real growth potential? Is there a specific video that you posted that shifted everything for you?
SPEAKER_00Great question. The first video that started to get some views was basically what I started doing was I would break down my own edits and I would just like watch the edits, open up the timeline, and like just talk through all my creative choices. And I usually did that with music videos, primarily a lot of like Justin Bieber dance videos, and those would get like about 2,000 views a video, which I thought was pretty good. I was like, that's not bad. And then the first video that really like started popping off, I started breaking down other people's edits. And the very first one I did was one of my favorite music videos, which is Taylor Swift Look What You Made Me Do. So I watched that one, broke it down from an editing perspective, talked about the directing choices, all kinds of stuff, and the Swifties got a hold of that one and it started like taking off. So that was crazy. Then I had been interested in K-pop like a few years earlier with one of my roommates from college, and I was like, you know what, they have crazy music videos, so let's just talk about this one that I really like. And so I talked about that one, and then that one started blowing up too. And so we had like two different videos that really started popping off, and I was like, oh my goodness, well, I guess I'm gonna keep doing this. And now I'm like literally still doing it to this day, where I just break down music videos from an editing perspective, and I wasn't really thinking about it as a business, even at that point, because I remember thinking, I was like, Oh my goodness, I got 150,000 views on a video, I don't think that'll ever happen again. Like, there's no way. This was like some weird fluke that just happened, and then it kept happening over and over again. I was like, this is crazy. Because I just kind of made a similar thing, but obviously tried to improve on it every time. And I'm not able to monetize anything because there's copyrighted music and music videos in it, so I can't make ad sentence money on it. So I was like, oh, well, you know, this is kind of this is fun, it's cool for a second, but then I started learning more about brand deals and got a few. I I remember like I think Invato Elements was the very first brand deal I ever did, and I was like, this is crazy. Okay, maybe this could be something, and that's when it actually started to turn into a business more so once I was able to do sponsorships and work with brands.
SPEAKER_01Did you expect that you know reaction videos would actually be what would be your breakout moment on YouTube? Did you know that reaction videos were so big?
SPEAKER_00Well, I will say my idea came from the Justin OD show. So I don't know if you do you know Justin Odisho?
SPEAKER_01No.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so he's a YouTube creator, he's like basically just does like editing tutorials, and he's been he's been doing this for like decades at this point, and so I knew of him just because I'm an editor, I'm watching YouTube videos. I've definitely watched some of his tutorials, and I saw that he did like a little video editor react series, and he probably didn't make like three of those videos, and they they performed really well, like they really outperformed his other content, and I was like, you know what, I feel like I could also do that. And so I just kind of redid it, made it my own style, made it my own, and tried to add my humor, you know, everything into it. And so Justin is the one that actually gave me the idea, and we're friends now, so like I've met him, I've talked to him about this, and he's an awesome guy. And he was like, Yeah, dude, he's like the most chill guy. He's like, Yeah, bro, whatever. Yeah, so that's he inspired me.
SPEAKER_01Were you thinking about SEO and the algorithm and all of that when you started gaining traction? Or were you just like, I'm gonna do what's working, I'm gonna keep doing this?
SPEAKER_00Well, a little bit. I think I can confidently say that part of the reason that it's worked and that it's popular, and it's actually pretty easy to start reaction channels. I think I'd say it's a lot easier than starting a channel with like some random niche topic and it's just you talking or a challenge video, like those are definitely harder because what I was using is like a social hacking technique where you're taking something that's already popular or something that already has a fan base, and then you're just adding to it. So, like Taylor Swift, obviously, global sensation, you know, K-pop was really popular, is still really popular, and so being able to social hack that in a way and say, hey, I'm gonna add my two cents as a professional music video editor into this, I think it worked really well. And because of that, because maybe a song came out recently or whatever, there's a lot of searchability to that as well. So I do if I'm reacting to something that came out recently, usually like a third to 20% of my views are from search, actually, which is pretty rare. Mostly search is not a thing. Um, usually it's all just suggested videos. But and that's still my well, not suggested videos, it's like browse features technically. So it would just be as you're scrolling on home, what's coming up. But yeah, I think like I sort of fell into that accidentally, but now looking back at it, I can be like, oh yeah, like it works because I was taking something that was popular, social hacking it, and creating something about that, which is good if you want a lot of views really fast. Now, the bad thing about that though is it's harder to build a brand around that because people are often there for the topic and not necessarily you. So it's there's some give and take there for sure.
SPEAKER_01And do you think your editing style also like takes place and uh got you where you are today? Did you think about retention when you were editing your videos?
SPEAKER_00So I didn't at first because I didn't know what I was doing. And then, well, I I mean I I was thinking about it in terms of like, is this boring? As just like a like kind of like in a filmmaker brain. If you are watching an edit and you ever are confused or you're bored, that's a red flag, and so you want to get rid of those sections, you want to, you know, kill your babies, or as my friend Hayden says, murder your darlings. So I already knew that, like, I already knew that in that back of my head. I had no idea what retention was, but I knew that at least. And so that I think that got me going. And if there's anything that was boring, that didn't make sense, that was confusing, it went and it was getting cut. And then I started to learn more about YouTube as I was growing and I was studying it. And at that point I learned about retention, and I started honestly like kind of went crazy and started obsessing about the graphs and and stuff like that and click through rate and things like that. But I think there's kind of a balance and not like retention editing, like just choosing edits based on oh, this is gonna improve retention, sometimes isn't the best way to serve a story. And I've also found that like sometimes getting the best retention. Doesn't actually blow up a video as opposed to maybe a better video that has slightly worse retention. So I don't like obsess about it as much, but it's definitely a big indicator that I pay attention to. And I work with editors now too. So before I was editing everything myself, and now I don't have enough time to do that. So I have other editors that I'm working with, and that's definitely a key thing that we focus on to say, like, okay, here's uh something that we can measure to see like, are people getting bored? Are people clicking off? Are people disinterested? Are they confused? And so it's a data point to help with that question.
SPEAKER_01And what do you think that keeps people like actually watching beyond just fast cuts?
SPEAKER_00That's a fantastic question. I think it's a story that people care about, meaning like you just want to see what the result is. You want to see what the ending is, or maybe there's a a curiosity gap or a piece of information that's missing. For me, retention is also decently easy because as humans, we want to watch something to the end, like there's something psychologically, and especially if I'm watching a music video and I'm like going through it, we're breaking the whole thing down. Like, people want to get through the whole music video to the end so they can get all of my thoughts, and they just like people naturally want to stay there. So retention is like sort of built in, and then once the music video ends, if I keep talking after that, people will you'll see like people click off at that point because the loop has been closed. There's an open loop, which is I want to see what this professional editor thinks about my favorite music video. Once the music video is done, that loop is closed, I've gotten his thoughts, boom, I'm out. That's kind of how it works. And so in your intro, it's the title and thumbnail, first of all, and then in your intro, if you can create an open loop that needs to be closed, that's gonna be crazy, crazy important. And then, I mean, that's just kind of YouTube, YouTube-y, but I mean, think about like some of your favorite movies. Like, you wanna if once you get invested in a character and once you start to care about somebody, you wanna see what happens in their life and you wanna see like what journey they go on. I think one of the easiest ways to explain storytelling, like this is what I tell my students all the time, is it's a character pursuing a goal with obstacles in the way. And so if you establish a character that you care about, and that's one of the hardest things to do in the beginning of a film. And then you establish their goal, something that they're trying to get to, and the audience also cares about that goal. And the ways that you can make them care about it is are things like stakes. So, like what happens if they get the goal, what happens if they don't get the goal, was it is it a good thing? Is there a punishment? Like, what's what are the stakes? And then you follow them through that journey and you want to stay to the end to see if they get it, if they achieve the goal or if they don't achieve the goal. So that's like a really basic story structure and storytelling. It's actually not even story structure, that's just storytelling. A story truck story structure can go crazy. But yeah, that's probably what I'd say.
SPEAKER_01I think it's so interesting because when I think about uh reaction videos, I think that it's so hard to create storytelling from those videos, and storytelling we know it's so important on YouTube, but from what you're saying, and it's such a unique perspective that I've seen so far, is that your storytelling starts from your thumbnail in a way. So you already open that loop and you develop from there, and then you kind of close everything with the video, so you bring the satisfaction by the end of the video. So that's a really interesting way to actually see storytelling because in my mind, when I think of reaction videos, I think it's really hard to uh create a story.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely. And a thing that I like to do as well because everything comes back to storytelling when you're talking about video, when you're talking about writing, even songs lots of times can come back to storytelling. And so as I'm breaking down and analyzing a music video, I like to talk about the music video's story. So it's almost like a story within a story. I'll help walk the audience through the story that the music video is telling. Because sometimes in music videos it's hard to understand or it's a little more abstract, and the story of the music video influences the editing decisions and the filmmaking decisions in the music video. So as they are like watching me react to it, they're also getting told a story by me through this music video, and then by the end of the music video, that story should be wrapped up, and so it's kind of like a story within a story.
SPEAKER_01And from your perspective, like what makes content perform in the algorithm today?
SPEAKER_00Man, I'm still figuring that out. I don't know. I think the biggest thing, like in all honesty, it's there are things that I mean, yeah, in all honesty, I don't know. But here are some things that I do know. Number one, if you're telling a really good story, people are gonna love that. Humans love sitting around a campfire and listening to a really freaking good story. And if you're doing that, your video will probably perform really well. Number two, if you have a really good title and thumbnail, at least on YouTube, that is what really, really helps people per well, it helps videos perform because you as you're scrolling on YouTube, it's not like TikTok or Instagram where something just starts playing. You have to actively choose to watch this video, and obviously the more views, the better. You don't want to clickbait people, you want people to actually stay throughout. And then your intro is essentially like your second shot. So I kind of alluded to this before, but your title and your thumbnail is the first shot, like that's your first impression of whatever story it is that you're telling. And then your second shot is actually the first shot of the video where you want to confirm that click and say, like, yes, what you clicked on is correct. That's actually what's happening. And here's the whole setup to the story. Here's why you should care, here's why this topic is important, here are the stakes, here's who's gonna talk about it and why you should listen to this person, you know, all of those little questions that people ask in the intro, they're gonna click on something and be like, I don't know about this. Let's give this a shot, and then you have to boom, boom, boom, hit all those things where it's like all the things that they may be concerned about that might make them want to leave. So gotta answer all those uh things.
SPEAKER_01When you watch a viral video, like what's the first thing that you analyze? Because from a creator perspective, I do think that now when you watch something, you're very technical. So what's the first thing that you notice and you're like, ha, this is why this video has worked?
SPEAKER_00Usually it's kind of what I said, it's like title thumbnail, and then it's the intro. And honestly, I should watch like full videos more, but I don't usually spend the time to do it because I think I could learn a lot more if I had time to like really sit down and analyze, you know, full stories. But you know, the vast majority of people click off within the first few seconds. So if you can get people to stay at least, you know, a few minutes in, you can understand, like, okay, you at least got people to stay this far because of all of these things, which is like, hey, we came up with a topic and a concept and an open loop in the title and thumbnail that people really want to get closed, like they want to see the results of what might happen here, and then we have to answer all those naysayer questions in the intro to see like, should I really stay? Is this really the video that I want to be watching right now? Is this loop, this open loop that I have, is it important enough for me to spend this time to get it close? You know, those types of things.
SPEAKER_01When it comes to the editing, like, is there anything that you notice and you're like, this editor knows what they're doing?
SPEAKER_00Well, actually, I need to watch more of Max stuff. He's been popping off. He was Arax editor. Um, and then he also worked with Mr. Beast. I've also worked with Mr. Beast, I forgot to mention that. So that's another thing. I did edit for Mr. Beast for a little while, and that was a lot of fun. And that's stuff that he'll focus on too. Like, he obsesses about title thumbnails, and then like the first 30 seconds of a video, like he will absolutely obsess, obsess about that stuff. But now Mac, who has worked with Arak, Mr. Beast, been in a few Mr. Beast videos, he is doing his own stuff, and he's crazy good. Like he obviously has the credentials from working with some of the biggest creators in the world, specifically like in the challenge video niche, and uh yeah, he's popping off. So I would need to study him, and I'm sure there's a ton I can learn from him, but and you know it's really not that complicated, it's pretty basic. I I would say the other thing is like ideas are really probably the most important thing, like your actual story, the idea for your video, the story of your video. I think there's a lot of editors that might be like, Oh shoot, like I did everything perfectly and it still didn't perform. And the problem is usually because you like at the core of it, you have a concept that people don't care about. And if you have a concept that people don't care about, anything that you do, even if you do it perfectly, it's still not gonna work because the whole concept, the whole story, the whole idea just wasn't interesting enough.
SPEAKER_01What does your editing like workflow and process look like today? Like how much time do you usually put into your videos or when you're working for a big client, how much time do you put into the thought process and into the editing itself?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it really depends. It depends a lot. I just finished a series um with a buddy of mine who, and this is the first YouTube series I've done like this, it's kind of like a Ryan Trahan style daily vlog series. A buddy of mine went to 30 NBA stadiums in 30 days, every single NBA stadium, and daily vlogged it and also raised $100,000 for Make-A-Wish, which is really cool. And so we did that. He actually missed a day and ended up being 32 days, but he got a world record for it, and we raised 100,000 for make-a-wish, so that was great. Now the process for that is like completely different than the process for a normal YouTube video or a music video or a documentary or a commercial, like everything is different. I do have a course titled the editing formula, which kind of brings me through like at least a cohesive process that I can apply to most videos. Because I feel like a lot of times when I'm editing or when I see my clients or other people editing, they're like, shoot, I just don't know where to start or what to do next, and I get overwhelmed and I just quit. You know, like I just don't know what to do. And so it's called the editing formula because there's literally a specific formula that I like to follow. Now, like I said, different genres of videos, you edit it completely different. The amount of time it takes is completely different. But the thing that I like to do primarily is I start with like voiceover or a roll or interviews, something that just kind of like tells the story. So if it's a YouTube video, lots of times just paying attention to like the story based on what is being said. If it's a documentary, it's also the story based on interviews or what's being said as far as A-roll. And then the second thing I like to do is work on music. So music is very, very important. It's like it's nuts. Like some of the like best editors versus mediocre editors, the only difference is the really good editors are amazing at choosing music and editing music to fit the emotion. Like, that is such a crazy important skill. So I do that because that's a big foundation, and then I might start working on b-roll, sound effects, all of all of that kind of sort of overlaps together, and then that's pretty much it. Then we'll just do, you know, color, effects, graphics, those types of things, like the little little extra guys at the very end. So that's my main process. So for the 30 and 30 series, I was doing that, but the world the whole workflow is we actually had an assistant editor, and then we had a finishing editor, and I was the finishing editor. So I did basically one video every single day. Um, we had two finishing editors, so I was actually every other day, but I would go from basically the assistant editor or assembly editor, put together all that A role, so that was nice, and then I just adjusted it with pacing, added music, and then added graphics, sound design, any extra B roll that I might have needed. And that's that was kind of my process.
SPEAKER_01Do you think the process has changed over the last few years? And also when we talk about like process and changing, it's weird not talking about AI. Do you think AI is actually hurting editing right now?
SPEAKER_00What do you mean by that?
SPEAKER_01Like, do you think it's actually helping people, or do you think it does it poorly? People are losing job opportunities because of AI.
SPEAKER_00Specifically in like the editing sector?
SPEAKER_01The editing section, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I would say the workflow, at least for what I just described, has been the same the whole time. So it's been like that's what I kind of learned to do in film school, and then I've done that over you know the past decade for me editing, and it works every time. I'm able to make an amazing video pretty much every single time if I use that like process and that order of operations. So that's pretty timeless. Now the AI, that's a whole can of worms, but yeah, it's good stuff. I actually am working with Artlist right now, and they're like a big thing, they were like music licensing, stock footage, sound effects, like that was kind of their MO. And about like the last year or two, they've completely switched to being an AI company, so they're pretty much like an AI distribution platform. I would say, editing-wise, primarily everything's pretty much the same, at least right now. There's a few tools. Um there's a company called Eddie AI that is kind of starting to create rough cuts based on like almost text-based editing and using an LLM and then actually creating a rough cut, and then you can export that into Premiere or Resolve or whatever editor you use. That way you don't have to go through all the footage and take a long time to make an assembly cut. I personally like to go through all the footage because then I download everything that I have into my brain and I know, like, oh, I can go back, and I remember there was this one line that was said, but it's kind of like creating a second brain for yourself where it's like, oh, I wonder if this thing was said, and you can kind of search it up and be like, oh yeah, let me find that clip. So I think it is making editing a little bit quicker and a little bit better in that regard, where some of the boring stuff that took forever is a little bit like we're able to hand that off. There's a lot of tools that are like called AI, but they're not really, it's just like advanced programming, like things like automatic rotoscoping or like sound enhancing, like little tiny things like that, which is just you know a more advanced tool, but people like to slap the AI label on it because it makes it sound cool and really advanced. But I think at least as of now, editing's pretty much the same. The stuff that's changing a lot is like VFX or cinematography or things like that. I do think it's like a little, I think AI in general is a little bit overhyped and it's not super practical to use right now. But there are some like amazing filmmakers that just don't have a big budget and are able to make stuff look really, really incredible because they're just utilizing AI well. And there's definitely a learning curve, but it's a really powerful thing. Like I encourage, if you're an editor too, I do encourage you to learn AI tools because what people can do now is instead of hiring an entire production, you can find one really good editor that understands how to use AI and generate the right stuff, and you're essentially like a predator, like a producer editor, or you're like a director essentially at that point, and you are able to create entire films just with your skill of editing and then understanding how to prompt and how to use AI tools. So editing is pretty much the same, like it hasn't changed a whole lot, but yet we'll see what happens in the future. But yeah, I think like you could be it's a really marketable skill, and even me, like right now, I'm looking to hire people that really know how to create amazing AI visuals and then can also edit. Like, that's a really important skill.
SPEAKER_01Do you think it's important for editors to be strategists and not only like technicians?
SPEAKER_00What do you mean by strategists?
SPEAKER_01Like, actually put a lot of thought process into everything, not only creative, not only technical, but thinking about retention, thinking about styles, thinking about AI, being up to date with everything. Do you think there should be a strategy behind that editor? Or do you think they should just execute what they know how to execute, what they learned? What do you think the process should be? Let's say if you're hiring someone.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I mean the more strategic you can be, the better. Like, I don't see any downside to it really. If you're thinking deeply about every single editing decision you make, whether it's for the story or whether it's a stylistic choice, or whether it's, hey, I know that this is people are probably gonna get bored here, so I'm gonna cut this bit out, or I'm going to like make sure that the loop is really open and that I get a question that people really care about. If you do that, obviously you're gonna be a lot better. And then you can also think about your career strategically, and that's what I help a lot of people with with my one-on-one coaching, is like, okay, how, what direction should we go? What are you passionate about? What are you focusing on? What kind of stories do you want to tell as an editor? And what's gonna really fill your cup, what's gonna get you excited to get up in the morning and thinking about your career strategically and what to say yes to, what to say no to, how to position yourself in the marketplace. That stuff is crazy, crazy important. And I think that's really slept on. A lot of people know how to work the tool, they know how to create a video, but they don't know how to strategically create a career that you know fulfills them and helps them in their life.
SPEAKER_01And one thing that I'm actually really curious about is what do you think makes someone worth paying premium rates for an editor? Like, what do you think are valuable factors that an editor needs to have for a creator or for a business in order for them to stand out and actually show their value and you know make money from it?
SPEAKER_00I think the rate, I would say two things. Number one, your taste, which I mentioned earlier, is probably the biggest differentiator between you and everybody else. If you can make creative decisions that a client or an audience consistently will look at that and be like, wow, that is incredible, that is brilliant, that is genius, I love the way that makes me feel, I love the way that looks, boom. That's you're you're gonna start commanding high rates because the way that you edit is different and I guess better. Like that's a definitely an advantage to other people. I'm thinking of three now. The second one, it really depends on what kind of edit you create based on what you can charge. So if you're editing for a business or like a commercial, social media videos, you can start to charge higher rates because there's a clear return on investment for those videos. Meaning the more people see this, the more they will buy the product, and the product will you know generate revenue for the business, which makes the original asset, the video that you're creating or the film commercial makes that more valuable. So businesses will be willing to pay more for that because it's just more valuable, it generates more revenue in the marketplace. So if you're doing that, you can probably charge more as opposed to like for me, music videos usually don't really generate any revenue. They're just kind of like really cool and fun art pieces. And I guess if it goes viral, it's maybe a little bit different. But primarily for artists, the way that they make money is through live events, through concerts, through shows. They don't really make a whole lot on streams, they're not gonna make a whole lot off of YouTube videos. They'll probably make a lot off of brand deals, things like that. So music, it's harder to charge like a ton for music videos unless you're editing like the best of the best top 1% type of music videos. And then the third thing is, and this I talked about this earlier, is just the way you are, your personality, your vibe. Are you a good hang? Do people like to spend time with you? Are you do you have a great attitude? Are you fun to be around? Are you generous? Are you a hard worker? Like those types of things where it doesn't really have to do with editing, it doesn't have to do with the project, it's just who you are as a human being. It's actually really rare to find. So that's a really huge competitive advantage to have like an amazing can-do attitude. Like nothing gets you down, you're never a complainer. You just like, hey, I love doing this. This is so fun. How can I love and serve you? And if you have that attitude, come on, somebody. Like, people are gonna want to hire you up the wazoo because it's pretty hard to find.
SPEAKER_01One thing that I want to know is what made you decide to expand into courses and coaching and education in general.
SPEAKER_00Well, number one, people were asking for it because I was talking about editing online a lot. So people are like, hey, I want to learn how to edit. Can you like do tutorials? Can you do stuff like that? I didn't really feel like it fit in with my channel. My channel is more like the psychology of editing, it wasn't really tutorials. And so instead, I was like, hey, let's do that somewhere else, and you can I'll give you literally everything I know. Also, tutorials are hard to make work really well and perform well on YouTube. It's hard to make them like high retention videos, it's just it they just don't perform as well, so it's easier to have that as like a separate course, and then the other thing is it's just another revenue thing to pay for my pay for life, and you know, I hope to have a family someday, so things like that. And uh, in order to be generous with my finances and anything else like that, and for one on one coaching, that's specifically like the best way I can help somebody. Because it's literally you and me one-on-one, and every single piece of advice I give to you is tailored to you and your situation and what you want to do. And it's like I'm giving all of myself to you. I'm just paying attention to you, and I'm giving you everything I got. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Where do you see your career going in the next five years? Do you have anything in mind that you want to achieve?
SPEAKER_00I'm really working through that and praying through that a lot right now. I think this new channel that I'm starting is gonna be a big part of that. And it's it might morph, it might change a little bit, but right now it's how do I use my creativity and make a living from it, and then also tell stories that help people and change culture. And I'm also a follower of Jesus, so I really believe like the best story that you can tell is you know what Jesus did for us on the cross and paying for our sins and raising on the third day. And so I'm like, oh my goodness, like to me, that has improved my life more than anything, and so I want that for other people as well. And so, how can we use art and use storytelling to further God's kingdom and to help as many people as possible? Like to me, learning editing and learning the skills of filmmaking is an amazing thing, but you could use that for good or you could use that for evil. Like it's kind of like fire. I like to compare that a lot where it's like fire could be amazing, like it's warm, it cooks food, it's awesome, and it also could burn everything down. So uh storytelling is sort of a similar way, like there's a lot of power to it, and but how you use it and what you tell stories about really matters. And so I want to help people monetize their art, make a living from it, and then also tell stories that have impact and really help people and make the world a better place. My new channel is all about that. It's kind of more of like a personal brand, it's more personal to me, it's more about my life and then helping others create a life that is sort of similar to mine. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I think it's so interesting that you said that because that's completely true. Like editing can change everything, like you can change the meaning of a video with editing. So the power is in your hands to you know deliver this message to the mass media. So I think it's a lot of responsibility in a way. It's not only being creative or artistic. So if you were to start in 2026, how would you build your career again? Is there anything that you would have done differently?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm kind of doing that, honestly. I'm kind of starting over a little bit in a way, and I think what I'm doing differently now is I'm creating content and telling stories and making videos that I feel like I could do forever. Like I could just do it until I die. That kind of thing. I'm really trying to play the long game and tell stories, like be an artist myself and tell stories that I really care about. Kind of like that 30 and 30 video, but that series where we got to do like this daily vlog series, it was fun, but we also got to raise a hundred thousand dollars for make a wish and really help people and help a lot of kids through that. Like, that was amazing. So I love doing that. And then with this new channel and this new chapter, I really just want to help other people be able to do the same thing, and I really I know like God is giving me gifts and talents, not just to keep for myself, but also to bless others and help others through that journey because there's a lot of people that have their own talents and their own artwork and their own things that they need to give to the world, and they just don't know how to do it and how to make it sustainable for themselves. So if I can just talk about that forever, that's great. Like I said earlier, the reaction stuff is amazing, but it really does like I can do it for a really long time, but it's not like in the deepest heart of hearts, like it's not like the deepest thing I care about. I love it and it's so much fun, but I think I can go deeper, and there are things more important to me in the world other than just breaking down music videos, and so I want to move more so in that direction.
SPEAKER_01Are you planning on doing that on your reaction channel? Are you gonna keep that channel only for reaction videos?
SPEAKER_00Yep. So I have I actually have like four channels right now. One is like my main reaction channel, and that's pretty much only like K-pop stuff, because I ended up doing a lot of K-pop, and that the audience became like a K-pop audience. And then I have a second channel, which is still a reaction channel, but that's more like commercials or American music videos, stuff that's not K-pop essentially. And then I have a third channel, which is gonna be this Jordan, it's called Jordan Edit, and that's gonna be more of that personal brand, helping people create a career that really helps people and use their art to you know go full time. And then I have a last channel, which is gonna be like my little artboard or my place to just experiment, have fun, make stuff, and um just really enjoy that space. So I those are my four channels.
SPEAKER_01If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring editors or creators right now, people who want to learn how to edit today, post our first video today, what would it be?
SPEAKER_00I think most people they struggle with it because they don't actually just do it. I think that's the problem. And I'm thinking of a few people in my life that I know where they'll like start to create something and maybe they'll make something, but either number one, they won't finish it or they won't ever post it. And I think the act of like creating something, finishing it where it's done, showing it to maybe friends and family, and then posting it into the world, like sharing your art with the world, that is a huge part of creating art and being an artist. And I firmly believe that being an editor is being an artist. You are an artist in your own in your own way. And if you're not putting stuff out there into the world, like no one's ever gonna discover you. You're like a closet artist. So I would uh I would do it, bro. Just post, finish it, do the thing, finish it, and post it, and then do it again and again and again and again, and then see where that see where that takes you.
SPEAKER_01That's actually a great advice, and thank you so much for doing this today. And if there's anything you want to promote, like one of your channels or or all of your channels or your courses, feel free to do so right now.
SPEAKER_00I don't have anything to promote anymore. I've talked about it enough. I've worked it in now. The only thing I have to say and promote is that Jesus loves you, and that's pretty much it.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Thank you so much for doing this, honestly.
SPEAKER_00Dude, I appreciate you, Victor. I love it, man.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Building a career in content takes more than creativity, it takes skill, strategy, and understanding what actually makes people pay attention. Subscribe, leave a comment, and I'll see you in the next episode. Bye.