- In this video, we're going through
what the differences between pro YouTubers
and beginner YouTubers.
All right, guys, let's get into it.
(lively music)
(birds chirping)
Now, number one, obviously
is have a one wheel.
No, but seriously, one wheels are useful,
but the number one is actually understanding
who your audience is.
More importantly than knowing who your audience is,
but understanding what your audience wants to watch.
So instead of just saying,
"Oh, you have to be in a specific niche"
because that's what I keep hearing over and over.
It's more about understanding what your audience
wants to see on your channel.
What kind of videos they're interested in.
Now, I know that's easy to say and harder to do.
So a few tips to understanding what your audience
wants to see from your channel, one, read comments.
Go through your comments, see what people are saying.
See what kind of videos that they're asking for.
See what they are commenting on
the videos that you are creating.
Are they liking it? Are they not liking it?
Now, something else you wanna do
is dig into your analytics and you wanna see
where your traffic sources are.
So where is your audience coming from?
If all of your audience is coming from search,
then that's a good indication that yeah,
you're doing some videos that are getting good SEO
and that they're getting people to click on your videos.
However, that's not necessarily satisfying
your audience the same way.
So you wanna look at browse.
You wanna look at your notifications.
You wanna see, are your subscribers
clicking on your videos or is it just people
clicking in the search algorithm?
And so yes, there is a good strategy around
using search to bring in new people into your channel.
But you also wanna take care of the people
that already are existing in your channel.
So if you're not getting a whole lot of views
and your browse and notifications when you post a video,
then that's an indication that
you're not necessarily doing things
specifically for your audience,
but you're doing it for these search terms.
So a key thing you wanna do is get your audience involved.
So ask them questions, look in those comments,
use things like your community tab
to create polls or questions.
One thing that I do is I have a mailing list
and I'll get a lot of feedback from that mailing list.
And it's a good way to have a conversation
that's not just in the videos.
So there's a lot of ways to do it,
but you wanna try and get more community engagement.
And you see this with a lot of successful YouTubers.
They have a ton of community engagement
versus just creating videos that are gonna get views
and clicked and all of that.
The next thing is you've got to embrace imperfection.
On YouTube, you're creating lots of content.
It's not just like one awesome cinematic movie.
Like you're creating content consistently.
So you wanna make sure that you're doing things
that aren't wasting your time.
And sometimes it's more important to get a video out,
get the content out than it is to perfect the color grade
or perfect every little shot
and look over it a hundred times.
There are times where I'll like just pump out a video
and just do it real quick.
And those videos sometimes get the most views,
like this video I did around mistakes that
new drone pilots make with the DJI Mavic Mini.
It's a very quick video.
I shot this in my studio and then I had my buddy
collab with me and we made this in an afternoon.
And this video has over 500,000 views.
Whereas, I've done these videos where it takes
weeks to shoot and it takes a ton of time to edit
and those videos get not very many views at all.
So time doesn't necessarily equate views,
subscribers, all of that.
It's more about the content.
So you just have to embrace this idea of imperfection.
And sometimes you just need to put the video out,
just get the content done, put the video out,
move on to the next one.
'Cause you don't wanna get stuck working on the same video
over and over and over for weeks.
And then you never actually get anything done.
And then you missed all these opportunities
to keep putting out videos
that would help grow your channel.
Next is time management.
Pro YouTubers understand the value of their time
and they understand that you need to schedule things out
and you need to make sure that you're doing all the things
in proper order so that you can get done efficiently
and so that you can work on your next videos,
work on other projects.
And so I hear this again and again.
A lot of beginner YouTubers spend way too much time
on social media or spend way too much time
watching other YouTubers.
There's a lot of value in watching other creators
and seeing what's out there and getting inspired.
But at the same time, you need to
step away from the computer screen and actually work
on your own projects and go out there and go shoot.
Also, you need to come up with effective ways
to manage your time.
So is there things in your day
that are taking too much away from
being able to run this and make this a business
because YouTube is a business.
Another thing pro YouTubers do is they understand
when it's time to build a team.
You always don't wanna be doing
everything on your channel forever.
Like eventually you're gonna wanna hire out.
So you wanna look for those opportunities
where you can hire someone on to help
take some of the workload and it might come
in different forms.
It might be someone managing your time in terms of schedule,
might be someone managing you.
It might be an editor.
It might be a shooter.
There are so many different positions
that you could hire out to help make your life easier.
So figure out where your bottlenecks are
and that's where you can hire out people
to help make the process easier.
Now, a key thing that pro YouTubers have figured out
is understanding when to say no.
So understanding that you don't need to go out
on every Friday night.
You don't need to go out with your friends all the times.
There are a bunch of things
that you're gonna have to sacrifice to make this
a full time thing, because it takes a lot of time to do.
It's like nonstop working if you wanna be a pro YouTuber.
Now, in terms of the YouTube space,
there's gonna be a lot of opportunities
that come your way.
Whether that comes in the form of like sponsorships or,
events or different potential like collaborations,
and you need to understand your brand
and you need to understand when to say no
and what things will benefit your community
and what things will hurt your community.
And I think a key thing is having an ethics code.
So having a way that you deal with potential sponsorships,
brand deals, basically how you're going to approach
a situation and what things you'll do
and what things you won't do.
So let me just give you a quick rundown of my ethics code.
I have seven things that I go through
if someone reaches out to me
and wants to work with me or has a sponsorship
or anything like that.
Number one, am I excited to work with a brand or product?
If I'm not, I'm gonna say no.
Would I do this regardless of money?
I think this is key because
if it's something that you're only doing for the money,
you should rethink, whether it's something
you should do for your channel.
My third thing is what would I have to give up
to make this happen?
Every time you say yes, it takes time,
it takes money, time, energy.
So what are you gonna have to give up?
Thinking through this might actually make you say no.
Number four is will this help my audience in some way?
You always wanna be thinking audience.
And that's why I started this video talking about
understanding your audience.
Your audience is super important.
Number five is the sponsor or brand
trying to ask me to do something that I don't wanna do?
If you're doing things that you don't wanna do,
it's gonna come off in the content that you're creating.
So you wanna make sure that you're,
it's in line with what you wanna do.
Number six is, will I enjoy making this piece of content?
And this comes from experience.
The more that you create, the more you realize
that you don't wanna be making stuff
that you're not gonna enjoy doing.
And that's one thing that pro YouTubers have figured out.
They keep creating the kinds of content
that they enjoy creating.
Now, the seventh question that I ask myself is
will I regret not doing it?
So these are the seven questions that I run through
when an opportunity presents itself.
Does it matter for you guys? Does it matter for me?
Is it something I'm gonna enjoy to doing?
Or is it something that I'm not gonna enjoy doing?
All of that comes from experience
of creating hundreds of videos on the platform
and saying yes to too many things
and saying yes to things that end up taking time away
from the things that I want to do.
So pro YouTubers versus beginner YouTubers,
have an understanding of self
and they have an understanding of
what it is that they want to do on the platform.
And they'll actually do the things
that are better for their community,
things that they enjoy doing,
rather than just like saying yes to everything.
Now, one of the big things that separates
pro YouTubers from beginner YouTubers is the incorporation
of story into their videos.
Now there's so much that we could discuss about story,
but using proper storytelling techniques
and incorporating it into your videos
will help make you stand out and keep people more engaged.
So I'll put some links down below in the description
to some videos that I've done all about
how to tell stories, whether it's in vlogs
or just storytelling in general.
And I highly suggest checking those out.
I put together a free one hour masterclass,
which is here on my channel that really dives into story
and shows you specifically how I craft a story
from beginning to end.
Now, guys, I'd love to hear from you,
who your favorite YouTubers are
down in the comments and take a look.
Do they use storytelling elements in their videos?
Yes or no.
And maybe that's something we'll break down
in another video.
And the last thing that pro YouTubers do versus beginners
is they measure success versus just guessing for success.
So I have a four step process that I think that
will help you on your journey.
Number one is you wanna come up with a plan.
So you wanna come up with
what is it that you're trying to do?
Are you trying to get subscribers, views?
Now what's something specifically that you can do
to try and achieve that goal.
Now you wanna execute on that.
So once you have your plan, put it into action
and put it into action for a certain period of time.
So like test it for 30 days or test it for 60 days.
And then you wanna analyze.
You wanna use your data.
You wanna go into your analytics and you wanna see,
did this work, did this help, did this not help?
And then last you wanna take that,
create a new plan and then go forward again.
So the key is small incremental changes.
And then over time that will build up
to finding out what works and to figuring out
what is gonna make you successful on the platform.
So I think the key things between
a pro and a beginner YouTuber is
understanding their audience, knowing when to say yes
and understanding the value of measuring change,
versus just guessing if something's gonna work.
The key is to understand what you're creating
and know what kind of impact that's gonna have
with your community and if you can figure that out,
that's gonna help you find success on the platform.
And guys, if you want some more YouTube tips,
I highly suggest you check out this video here.
It's gonna help you on your journey.
All right, guys, that's it.
I'll see you on the next one.