- YouTube is a lot of fun when you get started
but it can turn into a grind.
And in order to get to one million subscribers
Shaun's gonna share with you guys
some of the behind the scenes things that they did
to get the one million subscribers
that allowed them to keep going
and not fizzle out along the journey
to one million subscribers.
That's coming up.
(electronic music)
Hey guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer
you're at Video Creators thanks for being here.
We're all about helping you guys grow your YouTube audience
so you can spread a message that reaches people
and changes their lives which is what
Shaun's family is all about at Cute Girl Hairstyles
and Brooklyn and Bailey.
Two billion views, 14 million subscribers
across several channels, did it multiple times.
Tell us about what happens, like the passion
like what happened 'cause when you get started on YouTube
you're all like this is amazing
you go hard and you go strong for a few months.
I see that there's a high turnover in my audience
every about three or four to six months.
People subscribe and they kind of stop.
- Yup, mm-hmm.
- So I know it's very common with this audience.
What helped you guys get the million subscribers?
- You have to do YouTube for the love of what you do
and the passion that you have for it
and not for the money, the subscribers, the fame.
I say fame, it's relative, fame comes with it
the money doesn't match, if you look at Hollywood
there are YouTubers that are just as famous
and have paparazzi as Hollywood stars
but their earnings don't match
with those Hollywood stars, hey that's just a side note.
But you have to maintain that passion
the best way you can.
That happens through planning.
I mean if you can plan ahead
the hardest part is what I call creator's block.
It's like, you're creating, creating, creating, creating
and it's becoming a life suck a little bit.
You're becoming a slave to your schedule
and before too long you just don't even
you can't even think of what to do next.
So, planning is an essential part of that
but you have to do it for the love of what you do
'cause the moment you lose that
the audience will sense it and they will leave.
They'll watch somebody else.
And you see that happen so often.
- Yeah.
- I mean how many times have you seen people who
grow, grow, grow, grow, grow
they get YouTube drunk and then all of a sudden
out of nowhere they do a video I'm like
I can't do this anymore, it's overrun my life
I need to just take some time away for myself.
It happens more often than you think.
- What are the things that happened in your family
where you saw that that was happening.
Like we're starting to lose our passion
you've been doing this for a long time, ten years?
- Ten years yeah, ten years, yeah.
- So I'm sure just because due to human nature
there's times in your family maybe
you even personally just lost that passion.
What types of things do you see surround
that commonly for creators
that leads to that, that they can avoid?
- Well we try to manage the expectations of the viewer
by not putting too much of ourselves out there.
So our schedule is manageable.
A family of six kids they are all in extra-curriculars.
The girls, Brooklyn and Bailey were on drill team
all through high school, that's 20 hours a week.
Had early morning bible study.
Like there's, I mean to be able to do that
we had to plan and we had to manage
the expectations of our viewer.
That's the only way we could get through it.
- Yeah.
- Because if we were a slave to
'cause the viewers will always want more.
They will always take as much as you give you
and then they'll drop you like a rock
when they're done with you.
- Right.
- So if you give into that and ride that wave
you're gonna have a disastrous surfing experience.
- Yeah.
- And wonder what the heck happened.
- What about for the viewer who's passion
and they're not gonna say this
but for all intents and purposes
it's like I wanna make money.
I wanna stay at home, I work from home
I wanna make videos and the disappointment
like the passion dwindles when the views
and subscribers and money isn't there
the way that they were expecting or hoping.
- Yeah.
- What do you have to say to that person?
- Every single time that I've seen somebody
come into YouTube for the wrong reasons
because they've talked to us or other successful YouTubers
and think, oh I can do that I have a great talent for this.
But their vision is on I can make money.
I can be just as famous as they are.
Every time they do it for that motivation
they are sorely disappointed.
Because it takes a while to ramp up.
- It does.
- It takes a while to get a check
that is somewhat meaningful.
And you know for average family
that break even point of being solvent
from bankruptcy to solvency is $400 a month.
Well what does it take for a family to get to $400 a month?
That can take a year or two on YouTube.
Or three to get to that level.
- What a lot of you guys don't see.
Well what you do see are the channels
that are growing really quickly.
People that are getting like tons of subscribers
you see people opening surprise eggs or whatever
and you're just like 150 million views?
Like, I could do that.
- [Shaun] I could do that.
- So you go out and buy $150 worth of surprise eggs
But what you don't see are the thousands
tens of thousands of other channels
who are trying to do the same thing.
- [Shaun] Correct.
- [Tim] Because they're not at the surface.
So yes there's potential every niche
but I feel like I'm disappointing people (laughs loudly)
- We're not trying to kill your passion.
- Right.
- But it is the reality.
I would say, you know if you see other people
are doing things and they're making a lot of money
opening kid Kinder eggs or whatever it may be.
If you're going to do that do it but do it
in a unique and creative way, add some differentiating
value that separates you from them.
So that you have your own way.
So you provide more value than they do.
- Yeah.
- That would be my advice to anybody
who sees an opportunity, I can do that.
If you do it, do it because you love it
but do it, and do it better.
- Channels that I've seen that have really gone
the distance and hit the numbers that they want
in terms of revenue and subscribers and views
and impact and everything are the people who I feel like
have some sort of personal mission behind
what they're doing, like it's not always just about
like in our case, teaching you guys
how to get past one million subscribers.
It's actually getting past a million subscribers
so you can impact people's lives, right?
And I'm not saying that needs to be for everybody
but I know you guys have a family mission too.
That's behind, that drives what you do and why you do it.
And I feel like when you have that mission behind it
it's harder to give up and it's easier to be like
you know what, I got 10 people watching this video, 10.
- 10.
- Like I flew across the country right now
to talk to a group of a couple hundred people in a room.
And I took, I left my wife home with our seven kids
for a few days, right, that's costly.
But for 200 people, how many of you guys are getting
more than 200 views on your video?
You think about like in terms of people and impact
yes, maybe that might not make it as sustainable
as you want yet but the passion is hopefully what drives you
to keep going, like I wanna impact 200 people.
Now 300 people, now, two billion people, right
and that's where it goes but over 10 years, not six months.
- Yeah, it wasn't immediate.
- The other thing that I would recommend
that you guys consider as we've said throughout the series
is you guys need to have a business model.
To your point earlier, just because you have
a large audience doesn't necessarily mean
that you're gonna make money.
- Correct.
- It actually comes down to the business model
around your content, not popularity.
- Correct.
- And that is important guys, that business model
because one, it lets you deliver your mission
your passion, better to an audience
in bigger ways than you can do with just a video.
It makes your content more sustainable.
- Sure.
- So that you can have more people
and have more creative people putting ideas
into how to best serve your passion and your mission
to people in your audience.
And it allows you to give more time to this.
And all those I think all kind of interplay
in terms of growing a channel
so that you can serve your passion to people
and really impact their lives.
- Absolutely.
- Hopefully one of the things you guys are
picking up on throughout this series with Shaun
is that this isn't really just about algorithm stuff.
It's not just about tricks
that you use to manipulate systems.
- Yeah, true.
- This is actually all about people
and connecting with them through your channel.
And it's also about yourself and your passion
but it's also about the other people in your family.
- Correct.
- Even if they're not even on camera.
- Correct.
- And that was a big deal for Shaun's success
and how their family went past
a million subscribers on multiple channels.
And the next video you see on your screen
we're gonna talk about the impact this has
on a family and how you need to put your family first.
- Make your family first, yes.
- So click that video and we'll see you guys
during that next video.