- When you're creating a YouTube channel,
you're first starting out, you make a lot of mistakes.
And today, I'm gonna ask a lot of YouTube creators
what is that one mistake?
If you could go back and talk to yourself
when you first started growing your YouTube channel,
what was that one mistake that you were making,
that if you would've just quit that,
your channel would've grown much faster.
We're gonna dive into that so that it helps
you guys do the same.
- The mistake I'd correct when I was starting out
was actually not starting and leaning in all the way sooner.
- I procrastinated.
I didn't start.
I mean, I started the YouTube channel back in 2012,
but I actually didn't start producing content until 2016.
- I've mostly spent my career creating content
for other companies, and I wish
that I had focused on some personal branding
and my own YouTube channel much, much earlier on.
- I had so much self-doubt, I think
we can all relate to that, and posture syndrome.
I was happy to be behind the camera,
but nervous about getting in front of the camera.
- I just was so afraid of not having
that first episode be perfect.
And because I was so afraid,
because I was such a perfectionist,
I procrastinated and waited five years.
Wasted five years of my life to
actually start producing content.
- In hindsight, I look back and I'm like, wow.
I could've just dove all the way in
and not just stuck my toes in the water.
And that's what I like to encourage other people to do.
I think it's great to just jump right in
and you can get results a lot faster.
- And so, when I finally did, then I started growing
and I kick myself in the butt every single time,
because just imagine where I could've been
If I just would've started.
- I would've been more consistent sooner.
I think the more videos you make,
as long as you're not burning out,
as long as it's still quality,
I think if you make, at 80% quality,
a video a day, your channel will grow faster
than if you made 100% quality once a week.
If it's gonna be 30% quality, okay, don't post it every day,
but if you can get consistent content out,
I think you're gonna win on YouTube.
You're gonna win at any social media platform.
80% of success is just making fire,
amazing valuable content consistently.
- What I would've changed whenever starting out
on my YouTube career, would be to niche down
into something that I know that I was strong
and passionate about.
- I underestimated how much I needed to niche down.
- I've realized that I love traveling with my family,
and so I've narrowed my niche down
from just a regular family vlog
to a family vlog that focuses on traveling.
- It took me almost a full year
to actually come up with my niche,
and if I had not wasted time, just imagine where I'd be.
- Having that focus really is helping the audience
to want to engage with us more,
because they're interested in the same things
that I'm interested in, because of our value proposition
of building those stronger family bonds
with your kids through traveling.
- The one mistake, and it's something
we're still working on today, is capturing our viewers.
I'd like to have set a system in to where we capture
that email address in the very beginning.
We have so many videos out there
and so many people watching and subscribing
that we have no contact information on.
And I wish that's something we'd
have done in the very beginning.
- One of the things that I would not make the mistake
on doing is caring about the numbers.
Caring about the (mumbles) metrics.
And just enjoy the experience, the journey
of being a creator and creating up fun,
awesome content that I enjoy to make,
and that my audience also enjoys.
- I started with a skate company,
in 2011, and two minute videos, really popular,
really quick, fast edits, made for the ADHD children
of the world like me, and we did that for a year and a half.
And so, we should've made a lot more longform content
earlier on, we would've grown a lot quicker.
- In the past, on YouTube, people would say,
"Just start uploading and upload just quick
"and as many videos as possible."
And I actually really believe that quality
matters more than quantity on YouTube today.
- Every video we make, we know what our title is,
we know what our hashtags are gonna be, our tags.
We know what our description's gonna be,
we know everything about it before we ever start recording.
We never just make video to put something out.
- People still go way too much for the algorithm,
and they're not actually thinking about humans.
When the algorithm has been trained to act like a human.
But we're all treating it like it's a computer.
So, the human element is much more important,
I think, than the digital algorithmic stuffing
that everybody tries.
- One piece of old advice that YouTubers,
many of 'em still use that just doesn't work at all
is the keyword tag box.
- The tagging.
- The tags don't really do anything anymore.
- Using tags.
- I spend zero time focus on tags.
Doesn't make a difference.
Stop paying attention to it.
Stop caring, period.
- The first 10, 20, 50 videos are going to be bad.
Getting through that and trusting the fact
that video 51 was gonna get better,
video 52 was gonna get better, and eventually,
start growing as a YouTube content creator.
- I'm okay with making mistakes.
And I keep making mistakes, because I keep trying to narrow
in on what it is that I really feel my best value is.
Mistakes, bring 'em at me.
I'm gonna keep making 'em, on purpose.
- One of the biggest lessons I wish I learned
in the very beginning of being a creator
is the importance of growing a team.
And I have two of my team members right here with me.
- I'm Lennon, I'm one of the strategists here
on the Videocreators team.
- And I am Stephanie.
I am Tim's personal assistant.
If you guys want to learn how to grow your own team,
make sure to click the playlist over here.
- And we'll see you guys over there.