My channel's called D4Darious, I cover film-making tips and advice.
I also do vlogs, short films, and feature films
and I also share information that's taken me years to learn.
Hopefully I can share some lessons
and save them some time
by talking about these things on my channel in a candid way.
For the first year, I only grew from 0 to like 5,000 subscribers.
And then, once I learned how YouTube actually works
and how to get found organically
then the growth really started happening
and that next year, I went from 5,000 to 25,000
and then after that it was to past 100,000.
The moment when I decided to
make a consulting business out of what I was doing on YouTube
that was a very, very strange journey for me.
Originally, I had all the ambitions of becoming a big Hollywood director
which I still do, I still enjoy making films
but I think, the more I learned about YouTube
and the potential that it has for earning revenue
that's what really motivated me to say "Hey, while I'm trying to do this other thing
"why don't I maximize what I actually have
"right here on the platform?"
Ideally, you would want to have some kind of business plan
before you start YouTube
so that you can incorporate that
through the entire time, with all of your videos.
You kind of plant all those seeds really, really early on
so 100 videos down the road, you've already set up a foundation of
"this is the service that I offer."
So, when you get your first subscribers
then maybe start thinking about
"how else am I going to monetize what I'm doing?"
because I know a lot of people, when they start
they don't think that far, they just start making content.
So, I decided to do consulting
because I love giving feedback to filmmakers, and also other YouTubers.
I didn't have a website yet at the time
so I just started a landing page.
Usually somebody will go to that landing page
they'll schedule a session through a portal.
From there, once we've got an appointment set up
I'll go a Google Hangouts session with them.
It's usually an hour long, sometimes it goes a little over.
I usually record these sessions for a couple of reasons.
One: You just need to quality-assess yourself.
And then two: I also record them to give to my clients.
So they don't have to take notes on paper the entire time
they can just have the actual screen recording.
So, when I'm marketing the service to my subscribers and my followers
what I usually do is
I tailor the value proposition to whatever I'm talking about
in that particular video.
So for instance, if I'm talking about scripts or how to make your scripts better
then at the end of that I'll pitch
"if you're looking for feedback for your scripts
"then you can click the link below."
I started really, really small, I offered one service specifically
and that was short-film feedback.
But then, the more I did consulting
I realized about 80% of the people who sign up for sessions with me
are other YouTubers.
So, I pivoted and I added YouTube consultations and channel evaluations
and if I'm talking about YouTube
then I'll pitch the value that I give for a YouTube consultation.
I think it's really important to find a balance on YouTube.
Yes, you've got to be committed to creating the content
but you've really got to find the balance
between finding ways to make what you're doing sustainable.
So about 50% of your time should be making content on YouTube
and the other 50% should be building out your business.
I'm still finding that balance for myself
but it's one of those things where you've just got to keep planting the seeds
and after a while, those seeds kind of germinate.
I got my first repeat customer, I want to say, 3 months into it
6 months into it, I had about 5 repeat customers
and then it just started scaling from there.
But it takes a lot of experimentation.
It doesn't just happen to you, you have to actually go find the knowledge
and you've got to educate yourself.
So, if you're thinking about starting a business on YouTube
stop thinking about it and just jump in
start small, scale up, and be fearless.