My Tog Blog About Awesome Content Creation

Monetize Your YouTube Channel, with Matt Hughes

• Tim (Mytogblog) • Season 2 • Episode 21

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Even with a small audience, it is possible to begin monetizing your YouTube channel. In fact, the sooner you start thinking about the business foundations of your channel, the better you'll be able to position it for more views and conversions (in terms of subscribers and/or sales).

In this episode, I sit down with Matt Hughes, a video content creator with more than a decade of experience, a YouTube channel with more than 2,800 subscribers, and a content business with multiple revenue streams. We discuss the power of defining your niche, monetization options, channel growth strategies, and efficiency tips for scaling your channel and business.

If you'd like to check out the resources mentioned in this episode, you can find those in my website's "Freebies" section.

Thanks for listening! Do you have a comment or question about a topic or episode? I'd love to hear that. Feel free to contact me via the X App or the Contact Us page. We can also stay connected via my Newsletter, where I share insider information and offers. Also, check out the store link on my website for resources and merch for content creators.

[00:00:00] Tim: Even with a small channel, there are ways you can start earning money via YouTube. In fact, one of the challenges is the sheer number of potential options that are out there, including everything from digital products to affiliate offers, merch, consulting services, and more. As a result, what happens is that some YouTubers get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choice and then just decide to pull off for a while. Or they'll try to pursue a bunch of things at the same time, making it hard to make progress on any particular thing. And the frustration resulting from that leads to setting the whole thing aside. 

[00:00:33] But it doesn't have to be this way. That's what I learned from my conversation with Matt Hughes, the King of Video. Matt has over a decade of experience as a video content creator, he's grown his YouTube channel to over 2, 800 subscribers, and he's built a successful business with multiple streams of revenue on top of his YouTube channel. In other words, Matt has already done what many small channels are aiming to do someday, and in this episode, he shares some key advice that could help you do the same.

[00:01:01] So, let's get into it.

[00:01:03] Hey Matt, welcome to the show. 

[00:01:08] Matt: Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. 

[00:01:11] Tim: Yeah, glad to connect with you to talk about YouTube. As you know, I'm working on my, my own YouTube channel and a lot of my audience is into content creation on different platforms. And, YouTube seems to be a great opportunity for creators.

[00:01:25] But, you know, it's tough when you're starting out, and you got a small channel. Trying to build the channel. Some people are also trying to do monetization at the same time, and it becomes challenging to do it in parallel. So, I think sometimes people approach it as like, I'll build my audience first, and then I'll monetize.

[00:01:43] What's the kind of approach that you recommend? Do you recommend doing it in parallel, or audience building first, or maybe business first? 

[00:01:51] Matt: Yeah, well, do you know what, Tim? I've got, you said something there, and I just wanted to ask you a question. You said it's tough for small creators. What do you think it is about small creators that's tough?

[00:02:03] What is it that you said, why is it you said the word tough?

[00:02:06] Tim: Yeah, I think it's because a lot of small creators are doing this part-time. And so there's only a certain amount of time they can devote to content creation or, or developing the business end. And so that, you know, that's where the friction point is for those creators to make progress. 

[00:02:23] Matt: Okay. Got you. Okay, cool. So, and your question 

[00:02:26] Tim: was what, what do you focus on first? Or do you try and do both in parallel? 

[00:02:31] Matt: Okay. Yeah. Like, it, it's a really tough question. Using that word again, it is a really tough question because, actually, it depends on where the person's at. And this is why I kind of wanted to dig into that a little bit because, you know, if you're a business, and you're an established business and you've got an income stream somewhere else, like it's okay to add in this social media platform and bring that into a current marketing strategy.

[00:02:55] And you won't feel like it's tough or it's difficult to get started because you're just expanding what is already an embedded marketing strategy. However, if that's not the case, and you're sitting there and you're thinking, oh, which platform do I start with? And I can see that actually the quick wins of Instagram reels or TikTok might be more of an exciting option because you get instant gratification from those with the views and stuff and the way those platforms work. So, when it comes to building an audience, I would say, look at where you are first and sort of how your business is set up, and then, I'm always going to say, go and start on YouTube 

[00:03:37] And you know, I've been saying a lot recently, there's this Mr. Beast quote about, you know, your first 200 videos are terrible. So you may as well start creating them now, right? Actually, I tried to think about it in a different way. And I think there's no doubt that YouTube is a longer play. There's some unicorns that seem to hit a million subscribers in a year, or they can do things lots, lots quicker, but it is a long-term play.

[00:04:00] I think you've got to really think about it as like, If I'm doing a podcast or if I'm doing something where I'm creating these, what I call signature assets, each video is a signature asset, then you may as well start creating them now. You know, you can only get better from this point. So why not get started with whatever equipment you've got available to you and then just keep improving every week?

[00:04:22] Just focus on that. Don't focus on what everyone else is doing, what views and subscribers, just like, how can I make a better video next time compared to the one that I've got today? 

[00:04:31] Tim: Yeah, but that is a challenge to have that discipline, I think, to, to not look at what other creators are doing, as you say, and seeing the results they're getting, because you don't know where they've started from you don't know what kind of team they might have supporting them, and just kind of focus on improving your own content creation and the business foundation. 

[00:04:53] Matt: Yeah, and it's not that's not to say don't do your research, you know, like look at trends and look at things that are working well for people You should absolutely do that. Even competitor research, if you want to call it that, on YouTube. But it's more about looking at people's results.

[00:05:06] I think what you said there, you don't know where they are at. Like a lot of the times you're looking at year three of somebody's journey, and you're starting on day one or even day minus four, if you're launching in a week or two or whatever, you know? So just, you've just got to think like, what are my personal goals?

[00:05:24] What am I doing this for? Why am I trying to get this out there? Be realistic with your goals, you know if you think you're going to be a viral sensation in a couple of weeks, the chances are it's very unlikely it can happen. And just, just stay focused in like, who am I making these videos for?

[00:05:41] Why am I doing it? Am I enjoying the process and then be consistent with that in, in your mind and you will get results like, you know, I've never met somebody who has started a channel that hasn't got results. It might, they might not get the results as fast as they want, but they always get new subscribers, they always get more views. And it's a compounding effect. So the longer you're doing it, the more you publish in stuff, the better.

[00:06:06] Tim: It's true. And, and sticking with it through that period. And for, for a long time, I was stuck at like 10 subscribers and now I've got like 50 and it feels like, wow, that's a dramatic improvement. But it's, I know it's not a lot for some channels, but that is the kind of thing that happens when you, when you keep going.

[00:06:24] Right. Now the base is 50, right? 

[00:06:27] Matt: Yeah. You just work on percentages. Because when you look at a percentage increase, especially when you're starting, the percentages are huge, right? So if you ever need to feel like it's a big deal, going from 10 to 50 is, is what? 500%, right? 

[00:06:41] Tim: That's a 500% increase. 

[00:06:43] Matt: Yeah, so that's huge. You'll never get these increases in percentage wise ever again. It's always bigger at the start. And then the big YouTubers, they're on like 0.5 percent in a year, you know, but they get in 10, 20, 000 people or whatever. 

[00:06:57] Tim: Or trying to maintain, I guess that becomes the problem as you get larger.

[00:07:01] Matt: How could you keep it at like 5 percent growth every month, year on year sort of thing. And yeah, so use the percentages. That'll keep you motivated, you know. And just be okay that sometimes you do a video and it bombs. It doesn't do as well. 

[00:07:13] One of my videos, I made it answering a question for somebody, because I kept answering this question over and over again. And it didn't really take off until COVID happened. And then all of a sudden everybody needed that video. And it was like a year and a half after I published it. So. Like, if you know you're making the content, it's great for your ideal audience, and it's good and it's evergreen, then you never know, it could just take off at any point. You might be able to tweak something and it will take off. 

[00:07:40] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. I had a video that I did months ago and it didn't seem to go anywhere. And then all of a sudden, you know, it picked up. It was a short video. So it definitely happens. 

[00:07:50] So, let's say a creator, they realize that monetization is one of the things they need to do if they want to move towards doing it full-time. What steps do you normally recommend they go through when they're thinking about that process? 

[00:08:03] Matt: So this is about, this is about your overall strategy, your business strategy, more than anything. So if you can try and think about it from a business perspective, still want to have fun, still want to do stuff that you love. But think about like, what are the kind of things that I would need to do as a business owner to take the audience that I'm creating on YouTube and get them into a list or get them into a program, or getting them to buy a course, or something like that. 

[00:08:28] And they're really simple things. You'll see YouTubers say I'm just using this product. Check out the link in the description or they'll say if you want to come and join my community, we've got a private community over on Discord, the links in the description, come and join us and you can connect with me. 

[00:08:44] You know, as human beings, we want connection. And when you're offering people who are viewing your content, who like the way you sound, who like what you've got to offer, any way you can give them to get closer to you, not to come to your house, but get closer to you, whether it's in a community, whether it's in a course, a program.

[00:09:02] Do you know what? Mr. Beast put some merch out the other day and I looked at it and I was like, I quite like a bit of Mr. Beast merch. And I didn't realize it. I'm 40 years, almost 40 years old. I'm like, I didn't realize that was a thing in my brain. And here I am considering buying Mr. Beast merch. 

[00:09:16] So it's just, you've got to think about these different types of monetization strategies that are going to bring people towards you or, or help them tell the world that they're a fan of yours, or a viewer of yours, or something like that. And that can be like I say, merch, courses, communities, all that kind of good stuff. 

[00:09:34] Tim: Yeah. And I like the strategy of trying to do a few of those. There's definitely you know, some benefit to focusing on like, okay, I'm just gonna create a course and focus on, you know, getting people to subscribe to the course. But I think actually you can do things like affiliate marketing and merch, you can mix in at the same time. So try and get some diversified income streams, even though it, you know, it takes a little bit more at the upfront effort, I kind of like it as a strategy in terms of like long-term sustainability.

[00:10:02] Matt: Yeah. Yeah, totally. And like, you know, if, if you just started with one and you chose building an email list is the first one, which is what the probably the one we should all do, right? And you can do that. You don't have to say to them go and subscribe to our newsletter. It could be join my community, but part of that joining process is getting them on your email list. Or go and get my, you talked about lead magnets in one of your episodes other day, you know, go and grab my freebie on how to do this particular thing.

[00:10:27] So, so we're talking about YouTube now. If I said, oh, I've got, I haven't got this, but if I said, I've got a freebie on like the 10 best monetization strategies for a YouTuber. Now we're in this conversation, of course, you'd be like, Oh yeah, great. I'll go and grab that now. Yeah. Should create that, shouldn't I really?

[00:10:43] Tim: That's a good one. Yeah. 

[00:10:44] Matt: Yeah. We just thought about it off, offhand. But if I said that, you know, that's something that people would go for. So if you think about your own audience, whatever, niche or niche, as you guys say, that you choose what's going to be something that they will say yes to straight away and that they'll go and give your email address to that that will help you get there.

[00:11:01] Tim: That's a perfect segue into my next question here, which is about this question of the niche and you know, when you're, when you're starting out with a channel, is it beneficial to say like this channel is just iPhone tips, and that's what the focus is, or is it all smartphones, or do you believe that a creator can actually just be the niche themselves and it's whatever they're doing. So they talk about iPhones one day, they talk about photography the next, and so on. What's the best way forward, if you're looking to build your channel? 

[00:11:31] Matt: Yeah, I think if you can find that niche and really dial in on it, you've got a better chance to get loyal fans and followers who are going to come with you for the journey. And if it is as close and as far down that niche as you can go to where an audience exists. Don't go down to the niche of like dog owners on my street, you know, that's not, that's not a good niche to get into. But if you was like dog owners in my city that had this particular breed and then maybe you opened it up to the breed across the country later on, like the, the finding those niches is good.

[00:12:07] And there's that old, I don't know where I read it. It was in one of the personal development books. It was about the band that everyone followed. And it was like they had 1,000 loyal fans. It was Grateful Dead. It's that old marketing story that they had 1,000 loyal fans and they would buy all the tickets to all the shows. And that's all they needed was those 1, 000 loyal fans. So if you can find that niche that does that, if you later on say, you know, I'm the Sony camera guy and later on you decide you're going to go to Canon or, you know, some other brand of camera, that's okay.

[00:12:36] Some of the people will follow you because they then start becoming fans of you as the person and less about, it's less about the niche. There's a guy, he's got a channel about Notion, you know, Notion, the note-taking app. A guy called Thomas Frank, and he's grew this amazing channel. Now he's got a huge channel, away from this Notion channel. 

[00:12:55] So yeah, and there's something in the AI that, you know, says if you like Thomas Frank, you're probably going to like his Notion channel as well. So there's a bit of that going on, but he's got this huge notion 90, 000 subscribers. But he really, he really went, Notion is a thing that I love. Notion's the one I'm going to go for. I'm just going to talk about Notion on this channel, nothing else. And I think that started off his main channel. So he had quite a broad channel before and then decided to niche in on that and just grow that channel.

[00:13:22] So. It definitely works. 

[00:13:24] Tim: It's interesting, sometimes I worry about product-based channels, because if you're like, I'm the I'm the Canon Rebel guy, and then Canon discontinues the Rebel. 

[00:13:34] Matt: Yeah, well, I suppose in that sense, you just do a follow on. 

[00:13:37] Tim: Yeah, exactly. And I think like you say, you can carry some people with you and then all the skills that you've built as a creator for that in making videos about that product, that's going to carry over. And like, it's amazing how there's some creators. They just have that skill. They could build a channel about anything, you know, because of the, the content creation skills they have. 

[00:13:58] Matt: Yeah. Yeah. And I watched a session about with Tim Schmoyer, and he said he was talking about AI and he talked about Google AI. I think he said it was like 2016. So, you know, imagine it's a long time ago, but he has this great SEO session where he shows a video. And he shows how the AI can understand who's in the video, even though it, it doesn't name them. And so when you think about that, what you've just said about the skills that you get, it's not just the skills, but the viewers across the YouTube ecosystem that have been watching you and might not be subscribed and might not see you anymore. As you move and create something else, they, they will be shown your stuff anyway. Because AI thinks they're interested in what you've got to say. Which is dangerous in both ways, right? You could have a channel that's really controversial and they'll be, they'll definitely find it, you can't hide that stuff. AI is going to show it to them for sure.

[00:14:48] Tim: That's a good point. Yeah. We're always on. 

[00:14:52] Matt: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:14:54] Tim: So is there a specific monetization option or a set of options that you that you like as a, as a YouTube creator?

[00:15:02] Matt: Personally, I think courses courses is digital products in general. And it could be courses. It could be, when I talked about, Thomas Frankie has like a ultimate notion template or something like that. Haven't you got a notion thing? Didn't I see that on your website? 

[00:15:15] Tim: I created a notion template for like video content video.

[00:15:19] Matt: Yeah, yeah. So, they're great digital products because it's, you know usually their low product thing is an easy yes, people can say yes for that kind of stuff. But I've done coaching, done for you services, anyone that's a service business that thinks, Oh, you know, YouTube's not for us because we're a service business. It's just not true. 

[00:15:36] And of course, the one that I think a lot of people forget about is website traffic. You know, if you, if you're doing stuff on YouTube this great links back to your. Your website as well, you know, as long as you put in that, we, when we create a YouTube video, we create a blog post on the website, we link to the YouTube video there and then back, and it's kind of like some people want to watch the video, but other people would want to read the contents of that as well. So giving them the option and creating that link juice as part of that. 

[00:16:03] Tim: That's one of the things I really like about YouTube content is that there's so many different things you can do with it. And I also like what you said about done for you services. Cause I think those are highly among the most highly monetizeable.

[00:16:17] They probably require the most effort on the part of us as, as creators, but that's what I always kind of try to think back, like, what would people pay for? Like I'll pay for having something done for me, you know, but would you necessarily pay for you know, for other things. If it's just, you know, another checklist or something like, I don't know if I need another checklist, cause it's just something you have to go through again that might be more appropriate for a freebie.

[00:16:42] Matt: So let me, let me question that though, Tim. So you're going to a festival for the first time with your family, you don't know what to take to a festival. You've never been to one before, you're concerned because you're away from the elements, you're in a field somewhere, and somebody's got the checklist, the ultimate checklist that tells you every single thing you need to know when you're going to a festival with a family, you know, like, so we're dialing in on the niche again, all of a sudden that checklist is like. Hmm. Okay, it's only $9. I'd pay for that checklist. 

[00:17:12] Tim: So that's got value. Right. So, I guess I've become jaded. I've seen so many low-value checklists. 

[00:17:16] Matt: Cause we're marketers, Tim, because we're marketers. We see, we think we've seen it all. And then, and then, you know, the next thing that it's template or checklist you downloaded, you just think of this conversation and go, Matt was right. I've been hooked in it again. So yeah, another mailing list, you know? 

[00:17:30] Tim: Yeah, cause it's focused on exactly what that person needs. 

[00:17:34] Matt: And yeah, yeah, totally. Yeah. I mean, I did one; it was like a planner for YouTube. It's just like how to plan your year's worth of video content. It's actually part of my program. Now I don't even give it away. I used to give it away for free. And I had so many people tell me, it's so valuable. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, it's a spreadsheet. It took me five minutes to create it, but I had loads of people download that thing, you know? So again, being jaded as a marketer, but you also, you also forget your expertise. So yeah, yeah, don't forget the newbies and those people are just getting started.

[00:18:05] Tim: That's true. And it reminds me too of the distinction between what the value offered by packaging it up for people versus them having to search for it. Because the answers to a lot of stuff is out there. You can even ask chat GPT now. Right. But you don't know about the quality of the answers you're getting back. You don't necessarily know how to assemble it all. 

[00:18:27] So then, you know, we could Google how to get a hundred subscribers on YouTube and find lots of information on that, but it's all kind of, some of it's contradictory, some of it's low quality, that's why people would buy, you know, from, from someone like yourself, like, okay, Matt knows what he's doing. He's done this before. I trust his product. 

[00:18:48] Matt: Yeah. And it's positioning as well. And so, so if I said to you, look, I'm going to VidSummit, which is a YouTube conference in October. And if I came back, I said, well, I've just been to VidSummit. I went to Mr. Beast's session and he gave us the 10 best tips that you need to get your fans to 100 subscribers. And in this workshop that I'm putting on Wednesday for $25, you can come and sit with me and I'll explain those in detail and give you more information. So I'm kind of leveraging his reputation and I'm just the messenger of that. And I think that's enough. You know, you can leverage reputation like that. 

[00:19:21] You can be the authority, and then if you're the authority in the space anyway, because you've got a blog or something like that, that gives you that. You know, just it coming from your words, your mouth, rather than chat GPT, you know, which is super valuable, but you don't, you just don't know where the information has come from.

[00:19:37] Tim: So we've talked we've talked about some success stories, but do you have any favorites you'd like to share about like a small creator, or who right now or recently has done really well and what was really the key to their success? 

[00:19:51] Matt: Yeah, yeah, so so I thought about this and I and probably my my favorite story that I tell is a coach, a business coach. And the reason I like this is because it's such a hard niche to find an audience for them.

[00:20:06] It's quite a broad, business coaching has a bit of a negative spin on it, I think, certainly, in my world. And, we worked with this person, I think it was about 16 weeks in total, and we were publishing a video every week. 

[00:20:18] So, my strategy when, when you work with me, it's always just one video a week to start.

[00:20:23] And she had, I think in that time, 2000 views, right? And so we talked about numbers before. The numbers didn't stack up. You know, it's not a lot of views. She had a hundred and fifty subscribers. So again, that could have been her existing audience. It could have just been her existing audience watching. 

[00:20:40] What happened is she got a cold lead from somebody that actually was mocking her video. So they came on and left a comment. We thought it was like a troll. Right. Oh my God, how could you? They said the music was too loud in the video. And I was like, oh my God. So we responded with kindness. I always say, you know, thank them for their time and attention. 

[00:20:58] Tim: Right. 

[00:20:58] Matt: And sort of praise them for, for letting you know. And so you can take the feedback on board. Later on, a couple more conversations, and that person became a coaching client for $6,000 pounds for that particular coach. 

[00:21:08] So, you know, 2000 views, that's three pounds per view. 150 subscribers. I didn't do the math on that, but, you know, work it out. It's a good amount of money per subscriber. That's a huge success, I think. 

[00:21:22] Tim: That's great. I love how it demonstrates, too, that people who you think may be trolls, they're not necessarily trolls, right? 

[00:21:29] Matt: Yeah, yeah.

[00:21:30] Tim: They're really just like, I would have enjoyed the video more if the music was less loud. 

[00:21:34] Matt: But yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're ever trolled, and if you can sound about this way, somebody that's trolling you or that says something negative towards you, has got some kind of problem. And you don't know what that problem is. 

[00:21:45] I think that's the beauty of just responding with kindness and with love. It often just takes the guard down from these people and they either leave and never come back again, and find someone else to troll, or they could potentially become a client because actually it was a call for help more than anything.

[00:22:02] Tim: Right. Right. So, what mistakes do you see creators making with their monetization strategies and how can they avoid these?

[00:22:09] Matt: Not having one is the biggest mistake, you know, like a lack of a strategy around a YouTube channel. And, this is going back to what I said about the YouTubers I've met that are not business people. They, they just love the activity of whatever it is and they want to create content. And as, as creators, we, we are not always thinking about the business side of things anyway, because it's an artistic representation of whatever we're doing.

[00:22:33] But actually, if you can be strategic and think about that ahead of time, then you can do your call to actions, you can make sure there's links in the comments, you can set up the affiliate schemes, all these things that could bring you value from day one, can be in place from day one. And it just takes just takes thinking about it in that boring business way.

[00:22:52] Tim: Yeah. 

[00:22:53] Matt: You know, to make sure we when we do go viral, we could do get the funds. And actually, you see it and people say, so-and-so got a million views. If only they'd have buy from TikTok. There's a hashtag that's like, TikTok made me buy it or something like that. 

[00:23:05] Tim: Right.

[00:23:05] Matt: And you see those creators that promote something, it gets two, three million views. And then there's people that break it down and say, if this person had used TikTok shop. They would have made $50,000 and they're like, Oh my God, this is horrendous. You know, why did they not do it? But they just didn't think about it strategically at the start, you know, cause they were too wrapped up in the, in the creation process.

[00:23:26] Tim: Right, right. And I think there's a parallel to that with your content plan even. And I've been trying to get better at like, how does this video link to other videos I've made so you can refer people back more strategically? 

[00:23:40] I think when we started out, we're just, we're just making videos and they're not necessarily connected, or you don't know how they're connected, but there's, that value of planning ahead. Like you said, then it becomes part of the business strategy you can integrate, you can refer to other videos and, and it just starts working together a lot better.

[00:23:58] Matt: Yeah, and, and hey, anyone that's listening, listen to that, what Tim has just said again. Because I can tell you now, if you look at the best YouTubers, the thing they do the most is you'll watch a video of theirs, they'll have two more videos, related videos, in the description, and they will have put a a card or two about other videos that you watch. A great guy that does this is Primal Video. 

[00:24:21] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. I've watched his channel. 

[00:24:24] Matt: His name's Justin Brown. So Justin is fantastic at that. I know it's him and his brother that work on that stuff, but you can't get out of that channel, you know, once you're in it, that's it. You're in the rabbit hole, and you will stay there. Because he just tells you, like, this is really relatable to what you're doing. 

[00:24:37] Tim: Exactly. And it's always like, Oh, that video, it's the perfect follow up to this one. So they get those, those multiple views, which of course YouTube loves and, that is such a key strategy. 

[00:24:49] Matt: And actually, it's important because if you think about being an expert, this is how you can break down your expertise. So a lot of the times we think we've got to give all the value and deliver all the things. But if I was to talk about a camera, you know, this Sony camera that I'm using now is the best camera for me. Why is it the best camera? Well, there's a hundred functions, probably more on this camera, and I could talk about every one of them and then link back to each of the things, you know, as they seem appropriate. So really break it down into sort of digestible chunks for those people that have no idea about the topic and they'll thank you for it.

[00:25:21] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. And then it's, it's so much easier to create those more digestible videos. Like I could, I could much more easily create 10 short videos on my Canon camera than I could taking you through an hour tutorial that by the way, no one will probably watch the hour tutorial. You don't want to invest an hour with a new channel, right? 

[00:25:40] Matt: Yeah. 

[00:25:41] Tim: And then this kind of brings us to like, okay, we've talked a little about how to grow within YouTube. How about reaching outside of YouTube and you know, you maybe you're developing some social media channels like Instagram or I guess we're calling it the X app now and trying to use those methods to drive traffic to our channel.

[00:26:01] Do you think that is a good use of time for a small creator or do you think like, no, just go all in on YouTube and you know, you want to build those channels, do it later when you've got a team to support you. 

[00:26:12] Matt: Yeah. Well, so I'm just a lazy videographer, right? Like I want to do everything easy. So my desk here with my equipment, press a couple of buttons, and everything's on.

[00:26:21] I'm ready to go. And it's the same with promotion, you know, I want to do the least amount of effort for the best results. So like, when I publish a video, I've got, I think, a Zapier that goes out and it publishes it to Twitter, it goes to LinkedIn, it goes to Facebook, a Facebook group that I've got.

[00:26:37] All of those things, you know. Like I could promote them in a better way across those different platforms. I think there's more context I could put around them. Right now I'm not focused on Twitter, I'm not focused on LinkedIn, but it's still going out to them. And like People say this is a terrible strategy. You know, you shouldn't just post it everywhere. And I'm like, well. But I don't mind because I'm not using those platforms, and just a couple of extra views from those platforms, it might be the difference. It might be someone that sees me on LinkedIn and books me for a speaking gig somewhere. So why would I not just have it auto-posted over there as well?

[00:27:10] Of course, if you've got a content repurposing strategy, you can make it a bit more specific to those, you know, making portraits. Videos for TikTok and Reels and all that kind of stuff. Yes, all of that is better. But it is the one thing you said there was team, you know, is that you do that stuff when you've got a team or if you're a creator that doesn't have a job that is doing all of this to grow.

[00:27:32] Another thing that Tim said early on was if I can find something that's done for me, I prefer to pay for it. And as an almost 40-year-old, so would I. And I think it's definitely an older thing. Like, when you're younger and you have got this desire to learn all the things, you're like, I'll put all the time, because I've got more time and I don't, I don't necessarily value my time as much.

[00:27:53] But as you get older, you're like, okay, actually, I'm no good at decorating. So why would I do that myself? I'll pay someone to do that. Like, I know what I'm good at so I focus on those things. 

[00:28:01] Tim: Yeah, the example for me there is this, my podcast cover. I initially designed it myself. I'm not a graphic designer, so it was okay-ish. But then recently I hired you know, a real graphic designer to do the work. And I thought it was incredible value because it's so much better. 

[00:28:18] It wasn't terribly expensive and it's having a big impact on the number of downloads that I've seen already. Just cause it's like, you're competing your one square competing with all those other squares on the podcast. 

[00:28:32] Matt: The branding is so important, you know, and I, and Tim, I would say part of that, I know you're saying about the promotion, it helps with that one square, but also, I think, internally for you as the creator, having something you're proud of an image you're proud of, rather than that thing that like, Oh, I hope nobody sees it because it's a little bit bad, I and I don't like it to like, hey, I paid for this thing. I love it. I chose this. This is the one I was committed to. You want to share it more. So you've probably done more promotion of it as well, and it additional impact on it. 

[00:29:02] Tim: And you know, it was interesting. I think part of the resistance I felt like, well, it all had to be created by me. Like, cause this is my brand. I should create everything. And I realized how wrong that was, but I don't think it's uncommon among creators. 

[00:29:18] Matt: Entrepreneurs, you know, we, we, we think that nobody can do it as good as us. But the truth, the truth is, unfortunately, that actually we're not the best for most of the tasks. Somebody else is better. 

[00:29:30] Tim: Absolutely. And the more you can let go or outsource in a way, and I guess the focus is like the, the ideation, the delivery, and what else would you say? Like if it, if I'm, if I'm a YouTube creator, what's my highest leverage tasks that I want to focus on? 

[00:29:45] Matt: Well, I mean, just creating the video is the thing, right? For people like us that want to be the face of the channel, then yes, you are the creative, you are the talent. You've got to be able to show up in the best energy on camera. Everything else outside of that I think can be outsourced. I don't publish my videos anymore. I don't do the editing. I don't do the thumbnails descriptions. We're just starting to move that away. You know, like I, I oversee all of this stuff and I sometimes ask for changes on certain things.

[00:30:13] But even the approval of the videos, like sometimes, I don't see what my video looks like in the end because I don't want to watch myself again. So, yeah, I think for me, I want to focus on the creation and ideation. 

[00:30:25] You said ideation, you know, I will say my team is helping me with that as well, but I get to decide which videos I want to create because actually, especially if it's about your expertise, you've got to be confident that you're going to be able to deliver on that on that promise as well. 

[00:30:39] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. And, and then speaking of time management, we talked about you know, outsourcing, repurposing. Is there anything else you think that you know, creators can be doing to maximize their time? 

[00:30:53] Matt: Yeah, I just think batch batch creation. Like, it depends on the type of channel that you've got. So if i'm creating vlogs of a holiday, I can't batch-create that stuff. I've got to do it on the move and i've got to be creating all the time But if you're like me, i'm in my office most of the time. 

[00:31:08] We've just created the next season of videos that we're going to publish, we've got the list of them now, and those 16 I will create over four weeks, four per week I do it on a Saturday morning and I'll batch film them and I think that's the most efficient way for me, and for a lot of the clients I work with. Because if you say I'm going to do one video per week and then something happens in life, which it invariably does, then you've lost that consistency, it kind of falls by the wayside and you think, Oh, maybe I'll do it next week. Before you know, you've not done it.

[00:31:39] So creating four, then having that in the bag and then creating the next four, and then start publishing the first four. So then the machine is always moving. 

[00:31:47] Tim: You know, I'm, I'm working towards that, starting with Shorts more, cause they're a little easier to batch create. And I think the barrier earlier was thinking, okay, I want to batch create 12 or something. And then that's, that's hard to do. 

[00:32:01] So if you're, you know, starting out, maybe you don't have as much ideation ahead of you or experience with creating, it's okay to start with like, batch two or three, if you can't batch 12 or something. But, I absolutely agree. Cause that's one of the friction points is like getting set up and getting in the mindset to do a video. And then once you're in the flow, you can do, you can do so much more.

[00:32:24] Matt: Yeah. I mean, flow is so important. I did 20 shorts a month ago. When I had the list in front of me, I was like, there's no way I'm going to get through 20. But we just, we just kept doing it. You know, they were only a minute long. I think it took me about two hours, something like that.

[00:32:39] Tim: But you had them all scripted out, I guess. 

[00:32:41] Matt: Well, just, you know, with that particular set of subjects, I'm confident enough just to say what I needed to say about them. But if there were longer form, I would have had more of a plan. 

[00:32:50] And I think energy is super important. You know, like this is why I said I'm, I'm lazy and I have these things ready to go. Because you can get fatigue from setting the equipment up.

[00:33:00] And I, what I say to people there is like, just, if you're in a position where the equipment is annoyed you so much, then just do it the day after. You know, like, make sure everything is set up, it's ready. Maybe do your first take as a, a check that the equipment's good and then just, if you can leave it in situ, come back to it the next day and do it.

[00:33:19] And I, I even did that in my living room, you know, in the UK, houses are small. Certainly, if you're not, not that rich your houses are small. And so at one point I, I filmed these videos. Eight of them, and they were out of focus, all of them, and on my own died a little bit inside. And I was so annoyed, and I'd got a few more to do, and I just canned it and did it the next day, and, and everything was fine. But managing your energy is so important when it comes to video.

[00:33:44] Tim: I like that, and then, you know how sometimes you'll do some recordings, and part of it's okay, like 75 percent of the video is okay, but there's those scenes that you just kind of realize, oh, I misshot that, or, you know, the lighting was, it's terrible. Like, that does give you the chance to at least go back and do just those few and, and do it easily. Rather than it's like, oh, I got to set everything up again. 

[00:34:06] Matt: Yeah. Well, B roll is good for you then in that case. You could B roll, B roll it out. You could also like, the other thing is I'm just getting more and more of it. It's really hard because my wife is the approver of our videos. 

[00:34:19] I had a video company for seven years. She approved all those videos. So she's been a quality assured approver of video content for almost 10 years. She's really particular. And that's why I love it. She, she that's not why I love her. Why I love her doing this job is because she's got this attention to detail that I really lack. So we have that and then the other side of me is like, I don't mind if there's a little bit out of touch. 

[00:34:43] And actually there's a guy called Austin Armstrong who does these great shorts and he's built a huge audience of following across all the socials now. He purposely puts errors in his videos because he wants the engagement. So he did one recently where instead of Socrates, he said Socrates or something like that. And I laughed as soon as I saw it, because I was like, I know he's just trolling the audience, and they will come in and say, you can't even pronounce Socrates, you know. 

[00:35:09] So sometimes I think I'm in my best shorts video recently was a blooper. I had a blooper where my camera was set and the white balance made me red. Yeah. And I put that blooper out and it just shows like people want that realness. 

[00:35:21] So if you think 75 percent is good and maybe the lighting is not so good or the sound goes a bit bad sometimes in it, like, perhaps just leave it in and move to the next one. You know, like you're not going to be judged on that in 10 videos time, you can just improve it for the next video because, because going back to try and improve it, well, as a creator, as an artist, you're always going to want to improve it, you can just keep improving it forever and never get it out there. But sometimes it's better to just park it and move on. 

[00:35:48] Tim: That's the danger. Yeah, sometimes you go back and you realize, well, I made this part better. Now I realized some of the other shots. 

[00:35:55] Matt: Yeah, now everything's got to be better. I've got to a new level of skill. And yeah, you could do that forever for sure.

[00:36:01] Tim: Sure, yeah. Could you tell us a little bit more about how you help YouTube creators? 

[00:36:08] Matt: Yeah, sure. So right now we're going through a transition period. We've just closed our membership, but we I've redone my website, kingofvideo.co.uk. So you'll find some good stuff there. We're, we're publishing more blogs and stuff on there.

[00:36:21] My new season of videos are all about the content that we put on that. And then if you go to links. kingofvideo.co.uk, you'll find links to my getting started course. I've got a, a YouTube bootcamp program, which is like an eight week program where we go from nothing to like a full channel and a process around publishing videos and all that kind of stuff.

[00:36:40] So yeah, a couple of couple of ways in which I help people. 

[00:36:43] Tim: Yeah, well, well, great conversation today and I can tell it'd be a great resource for creators ,and really appreciate you taking the time to come on the show. 

[00:36:51] Just wondering if you had a last word here, if there's a creator that's listening and they're, they're feeling overwhelmed by what they need to do and they just want to start with one practical thing they can do for their YouTube channel, what would you say?

[00:37:02] Matt: One practical thing that you can do If you've not started, of course, the practical thing you can do is start because everything gets better after that. And if you have started and you're a little bit down about it because it's not quite going as you think it should be, just focus on being consistent. That consistency is always going to win. Just improve a little bit every single time and you're going to win on YouTube for sure. 

[00:37:27] Tim: Absolutely, yeah. That's some great advice. Thanks a lot, Matt. 

[00:37:30] Matt: Thanks so much, Tim. 

[00:37:30] Tim: If I could sum up the essence of today's episode in one statement, it would be this. Small channels should develop a focused business strategy that integrates their monetization offerings with their target audience and content pillars. 

[00:37:45] Note that I said develop, because when you're just starting out, it's probably not going to be readily apparent what that business strategy should be. I mean, if it were easy, everyone would do it. And the reality is, you're probably going to have to go through a period of trial and error to figure out what works for your interests, skill sets, and audience. But the sooner you can get to that clarity, the better chance you're going to give yourself whether it's audience building, monetization, or both.

[00:38:10] Let me give you an example from my own experience. If you saw my video from this time last year, you might recall that I had an instinct about the importance of getting more focused in terms of my overall activities as a content creator. And because of that, I did make some more progress in growing my YouTube channel and podcast.

[00:38:28] But because I still lacked certainty about the overall topics and direction, I still allowed myself to be somewhat distracted by other platforms and random topics from time to time. The difference going into 2024 is that I have more certainty now, not just in terms of the platform focus, but also in terms of the topics and overall direction. And I think that's going to lead to even better results. 

[00:38:51] In another video I have coming up soon, I'm going to talk about a process I've started using to prioritize video topics. But in the meantime, I've got one challenge for you, and that's to spend a bit of time thinking about who your content is really for. To help you work through this I've added a link in the description to a Canva template you can use for that purpose. And don't stress out about it because the point is really just to start the conversation with yourself to try and get to a little more clarity that's going to help you with your YouTube channel or your business.

[00:39:24] I hope you found this helpful. If you did, a like or a positive review is always appreciated. Thanks for watching. Until next time, we'll see you in the next episode.