- If you want to get to a million subscribers like Evan did,
he's sharing some of his best tips, tactics,
and strategies here in this series.
Today we're gonna talk about one of the biggest
things that makes a big impact if you actually
get a million subscribers or not, come on.
(techno music)
Hey, guys, my name is Tim Schmoyer
and welcome to Video Creators.
This channel's all about helping you grow
your YouTube audience so you can spread a message
that reaches people and changes their lives,
and hopefully you get to grow your channel
to millions of views and subscribers and impact
millions of people like Evan is on his channel.
He's got a million subscribers.
This is episode number 10.
So if you haven't seen the rest of the series,
go back to episode number one and watch this whole
free video course that we're doing about how you can
reach a million subscribers just like Evan did.
And this is a big deal.
What were we talkin' about here this last,
the last big thing they needed to know?
- So the last video here is talking about getting
better and kicking yourself forward, not down.
I think at the beginning you just have to expect to suck.
I think so many people come in and they
know what a good video looks like.
You might watch Tim, you might watch me, somebody else,
and you know, like, that, wow, look at how good a video is.
You know what looks good.
And then you try to make it and you come nowhere close.
Your first videos will suck.
A lot of times people then beat themselves up
and end up quitting, end up stopping,
get really hard on themselves.
I'm never gonna be like Tim.
I'm gonna be like whoever the person you look up to.
Where what I want to encourage people to do
is use that as motivation to get stronger.
Motivation to get better.
So use it as a kick forward.
You're kicking yourself forward to keep going,
to say like, look what can be done if I keep practicing,
look what I can accomplish instead of a kick down,
where I think a lot of people end up being.
The idea of comparing yourself to somebody else,
if it moves you forward, it's great,
but most of the time it doesn't.
Most of the time it ends up into a negative spiral,
a negative cycle.
It's like, well, look at, they're doin' stupid
stuff and they're getting all these views,
and I'm not gettin' any views and my stuff is great.
Using it as a self-reflective tool to say,
hey, this is my chance to get better.
- Yeah.
- How do I improve with every video that I make?
- Yeah.
Tell us your story from the very beginning of YouTube.
What did that look like for you and your channel?
- At the start, I'm an introverted guy,
it doesn't come across in a lot of this stuff,
but I was super nervous, I was super afraid,
I was super shy.
I talked how it took me 350 videos
before I was completely embarrassed,
like I stopped being embarrassed after 350 videos.
- 350 videos you stopped being embarrassed.
- Yeah.
- Wow.
- Yeah, a lot of people stop after three or one or five.
- Or don't even do one.
- Right. - They don't even start.
- I could not watch my videos back.
I was totally embarrassed.
Watching it would make me cringe.
- Like my voice sounds weird and...
- Everything, everything, the whole thing was just brutal.
But I just kept going.
- [Tim] Yeah.
- I knew that, so it's not, my hero's young Les Brown,
do you know Les Brown?
- [Tim] Uh uh.
- [Evan] Les Brown's like this motivation speaker.
- [Tim] Okay.
- Now he's in his 70s or 80s,
he's like this chuckly like old man,
- Okay. - grandfathery kind of guy.
But young Les Brown was fire, like fire.
I loved young Les Brown.
So look at that, and then look at what I was making.
I'm nowhere close, like this is nothing.
But I would always use Les Brown as a inspiration.
I just gotta keep practicing.
And I just looked at what did I do yesterday?
What did I do the day before, you know?
Like I'm getting little bit better,
- Yeah. - you get a little bit
better everyday. - Yeah.
- It's not where I wanna be,
but I made progress. - Right.
- I guarantee you for all of you who might
be lookin' at your videos now and say that you feel
like you still suck, go back to your first video,
even if that was only five videos ago,
you probably made a lot of gains just in those five videos.
- Yeah. - And if you keep going,
you'll make even more gains.
- Yeah.
(pop) - [Evan] So it was 350 before
I wasn't totally embarrassed
and 700 until I was, I inspired myself.
- [Tim] Really, you were like, that's a good video.
- [Evan] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Tim] 700, yeah. - 700, yeah, yeah,
I looked at my, I watched a video back, it's like
- All right (laughs).
- that's some good video right there, right?
But 700.
Now I've got 6,000 and I think 5,000 are public.
We've got a thousand unlisted videos that
- Yeah.
- like never say the light of day.
- Yeah.
- So just using other people as a source of inspiration,
not as a comparative I suck
- Yeah. - I think is super important.
- Yeah.
- And just tied to that is,
I think people have patience and impatience flipped.
I think people are really impatient with the results,
like you want a million subscribers right now.
How do I get a million subscribers right now?
You're really impatient.
But then you're really patient with yourself.
It's like, well, I can do, you know,
I'll do it tomorrow, and I don't need to get better now.
All these excuses of why you're not making it,
like you watched this video, go make your own video.
What's gettin' in the way?
You're super patient and say I can do it next week.
Where I think it needs to be flipped.
I think you need to be patient with the results.
By puttin' in the work, by getting better,
you will get your goals, you will hit your million
subscribers or a hundred thousand or whatever your goal is.
And then, at least for me,
I'm massively impatient with myself.
So I recognize that I need to continue to get better and
grow and improve my skills as a speaker, as a creator,
and the video, like this video that I'm making now,
has to be my best interview.
I want it to be my best interview.
It may not be, I may suck.
- You guys will be the tellers of that (laughs).
- You'd let me know.
Evan, you suck, booooo, sub for sub.
(laughter)
But it's always my intention, it's always my frustrations,
like I need the thing that I'm doing now to be the
best that I can do given the skills, talents,
resources, that I have right now.
- Yep.
- Right?
And so havin' a goal, havin' a dream,
havin' a plan to get there, and then,
still working with what you have right now.
Like, you might want Tim's camera and setup and
good looks and hat and and all that stuff, right?
But like you're starting with your
cell phone and no hat, you know?
- That's how I started.
My very first video on this channel, my cell phone.
- I'll still make videos from my cell phone.
- Yeah.
- I've got 1.4 million subs and I will still make
videos from my cell phone, even secretly,
so when I make my videos at my studio,
I've got a camera guy that I found on craigslist who
brings his $50,000 - Super fancy stuff.
- Red Dragon camera or whatever,
and I'm so pumped when I go on vacation,
'cause I have to film everything like this.
And I'm on a cruise ship and I'm gettin'
sea sick and like it's bouncing a little bit,
and it's the best, I love it.
And I have to turn myself up because at the end of the day,
more important than the gear is me.
- Yeah. - For any kind of these like
talking head videos, it's Tim, it's Tim.
Whether he uses this amazing camera or not, it's Tim.
If Tim sucks with the best gear,
you're not gonna watch the video.
- Right. - But if Tim is crushing it
off of this phone that's like poorly lit in the background,
you'll love it and you'll learn
and you'll want to hug him for days.
- Yeah, it's about content value and even
relational value more than production value.
It's like, people think that sometimes like,
oh, I need to have a really great presentation.
But this is social media,
and on YouTube it's more about the conversation.
Not for everyone, not every channel 100% of the time,
of course, but most people don't even consider the
conversation aspect, they only think about presentation.
- I think the most important thing,
at least for me with this point, is I want you to do.
I want you to do more.
I want you to try more.
I want you to release the imperfection.
It doesn't have to be perfect.
It will never be perfect.
Don't plan, plan, plan, plan, plan.
You need to do more.
Expect it to suck, that's okay.
You know what looks good.
You can't make that yet, and the keyword is yet.
And by continuing to do it, you will get better.
And you will accomplish your goals.
You do not accomplish your goals by just
sittin' on the couch and planning, planning,
planning waiting for the perfect time.
- Right.
Or planning and doing one and then it's like,
aw, it didn't work, and stopping.
- Just keep going.
- Should I say 100% of the people
who quit never reach their goals?
- Do it.
- Is that really corny?
- Yeah, yeah, it's corny, I love it, you should do it.
- (laughs) - You have to say it.
- One of the things I think of is like,
100% of the people who quit never make it.
And that's really common among YouTube creators.
This channel is like 400,000 subscribers,
and it's very common for creators to start,
- Yeah.
- go for like a month of two then figure out how
difficult it is and how hard it is and then be like,
ah, I'm not unsubscribing, but I'm just kinda like,
I'm not watching anymore because it's
harder than I thought it was gonna be.
People hear you make money on YouTube for a fast buck.
So they come and try, and they're like, woo,
that was a lot of work for not much results.
So that turnover is really high here.
So I hope you guys hear what Evan's saying
is that you do have to keep going.
Anything that is hard, in my opinion,
is usually the right thing to do.
It's usually, like if you want big results,
it takes doing big, hard things that most people don't do,
and that is persistence.
And this is not just for YouTube,
this is like anything in life.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - If you want a good
marriage it takes a lotta - Preach, preach.
- Hard work, right?
If you wanna have a good career,
it takes a lot of hard work.
A good business, a good channel, it doesn't matter.
The things that are life are
worth pursuing are usually hard.
- Pastor Tim in the house.
- Yeah (laughs).
If you feel like you are one of those people
that's just ready to quit and give up,
click the carve that you see pop up around here.
We dig really deep into this and it's like
the science behind not quitting on YouTube.
So go check that out.
And then, if you want to keep going, also,
we actually have a bonus video.
We said it was 10 episodes, but we kinda lied,
not really, 'cause 10 plus a bonus.
So click the video you see on your screen to go
to that bonus where we're gonna talk about some of the
tools that Evan used on his channel while he was
working and growing to a million subscribers.
So check that out and we'll see you guys in that last video.