Sunny Lenarduzzi: Good morning.
Okay, so what does Will Smith and my birthday have to do with some big changes coming to
my YouTube channel?
Well, we have a lot to talk about.
I was just recently watching a bunch of YouTube content, as you do.
I was just scrolling through the platform, and I came across a video that kind of really
hit home for me.
As you guys are watching this right now, it is the day before my birthday, and as you're
watching this I am actually on a plane to London and I am going to Italy after that,
which I'm so excited about.
It's my dream trip that I've want to do since I was a little girl, so I'm so excited to
go with my boyfriend and explore for the next month.
But with birthdays come some thoughts about your life and where you're at and changes,
and this video that I watched the other day was actually on Will Smith's channel, and
it, like I said, just really hit home and made me think about how I want to do things
moving forward.
It felt like the first time where I didn't have to have any kind of gate keeper to tell
me yes or no.
It was just like people were seeing my worth.
The video I put online the first day gets a million views.
Because I do everything on my own.
I sit in a living room by myself and I scream at a camera, and that's been my career for
the past two and a half years.
You're one of the main examples of us seeing somebody, in the span of a couple months,
go from just making music in their home to really having a record that's on the radio.
Every hour it's playing.
It's insane.
First of all, the fact that Will Smith has a YouTube channel gives me life, because I
grew up watching him.
I think it's really amazing how YouTube has changed the media landscape, and it's a really,
really exciting time right now seeing all different kinds of TV stars and movie stars
jumping onto this platform.
Hi.
I'm Jennifer Lopez.
Some of you know my as J-Lo.
Some of you know me as the judge on American Idol or World of Dance.
Some of you guys know me from many different things.
This is my YouTube channel.
I'm going to bring you behind the scenes of my house, our office, the plane, the hotel,
with our children, things that we're trying to do and accomplish and motivate, some of
our struggles daily, and how we try to get up and go every single day.
I cannot believe how much YouTube has awakened me.
I'm finding my voice.
There's so much stuff I wanted to say.
There's so many things I wanted to do.
This is one of my bucket list joints, right?
Trying to maintain being Will Smith was keeping me from being who I am and help build who
I want to be.
I love YouTube.
I have been doing this for four years.
It has given me every opportunity in my life.
It has changed my life and I really do mean that.
At this point, as I start to really gain momentum and grow, I think it's a fun opportunity to
switch things up a little bit.
I was looking at my analytics recently and I noticed something very interesting about
my channel, which is that the audience on my channel is not the majority of users on
YouTube.
There's a big difference when it comes to audiences on YouTube.
There's really buyers and consumers, and it's people who are here just wanting to get information
and searching for specific things, and that's why using YouTube in the way that I do it
is so great for building a brand and a business.
I've been doing that for a long time, but now I want to try and tap into this whole
audience that's outside of just consumers and is the majority of the audience on YouTube
that's watching it like they're watching a TV show and they're using it as their main
media platform.
So how are we going to do this?
Well, I'm going to explain that in just a second.
But first, I do want to let you know that I'm going to be doing a really cool giveaway
in this video and you'll have to stay tuned to figure out what it is and when it's coming
up.
When I say that we're making some changes on my channel, what I mean by this is that
I've been using YouTube in a very similar way for a long time.
I really do recommend that when you're getting started you use it in the same way that I
did, because it's the only way to get found and get discovered and build serious momentum.
But at the size of the channel that I have now, I can play around and do some experiments,
and it's a little scary for me.
What I think is rad about what I'm about to do is that I'm putting myself back in your
shoes.
I am putting myself in the shoes of a looner.
A looner?
What's a looner?
I'm putting myself in the shoes of a learner, a student, a beginner.
What you guys always say to me is that it's so overwhelming at the beginning.
Well, I'm going to be stepping back into your shoes.
Because YouTube's a topic-based platform, I've been able to dominate on the topic that
I talk about, which is YouTube.
And don't worry, I'm still going to share tips and tactics and we're still going to
do videos like that.
It's just we're going to widen the audience now and we're going to try and reach even
more of the users on this platform by creating content that is outside of my comfort zone.
You might think that I've mastered this, which I have in a lot of ways and why we've had
so many success stories, but in a lot of ways I am just scratching the surface on this platform
and it is changing so much.
The really cool thing about this, and how we're going to tackle these changes, is that
I'm going to walk you guys through it.
I'm going to be your guinea pig.
I'm going to share with you what's working, what's not working, what you should try, what
you absolutely shouldn't try, and basically give you the behind the scenes of how we're
growing this channel.
Here's what I'm not going to do, and that means I'm not going to do content just for
the sake of making content and hopping on trends, because that's not really who I am.
I want to make sure that any content I make moving forward actually means something to
me and will still be helpful to you.
It just is going to be a little bit different.
I want to talk about things that I'm so passionate about that you guys don't even know about
me.
Things like lifestyle, health, fitness, mindset, entrepreneurship.
All these things are things that I talk about daily, and I want to share with you and open
up my world to you.
I'm not going to just jump on things just for the sake of jumping on them and trying
to view hack and all that kind of nonsense.
That is not who I am, and you know that.
So that's what I'm going to do, but also I want you to know that you are involved in
this process.
You are going to be a huge part of how we sort of make this little pivot moving forward,
and I'm going to be asking you and doing polls and just getting your feedback consistently.
So you are going to be a part of this and how we move forward and what's going to be
on this channel.
I think it's really important for you to understand the reason that I haven't done this sooner
is because a lot of my fears are very similar to the fears that you have.
We live in a vanity metric obsessed world, and so if view counts go down or engagement
goes down it's all of a sudden like everyone freaks out.
I am just as guilty of sometimes feeling that way, but I don't preach that and it's not
something I want to practice.
I want to practice people showing up authentically as who they are and talking about those things
that excite them, not just talking about things because they know they're going to get views
or likes for it.
That's not a fun world to live in.
I really want to pave the path by being true to who I am.
And what I am most excited about in my life, and you know this, is helping you.
I know there's a lot of other things that I can help you with and share that's going
to be of value to you, outside of just YouTube, but of course YouTube is still going to be
here and I'm still going to do tips and tricks and tutorials as well.
Again, I want to just reiterate, I know a lot of you are going to be thinking, "Don't
take YouTube stuff away," but I have a choice right now.
I can either continue to talk about the same things until I'm 80 years old on this channel
...
So the hot script formula goes like this.
You start with a hook and then the outcome.
I need a nap.
Or I can widen my audience.
I can widen and deepen my reach with you and have more in-depth relationships with you,
which is what I really do want to do.
That's the plan moving forward.
The game plan is we're going to be going up to two videos a week, as of July, and it's
going to be kind of a 50-50 mix as we continue this experiment.
I'm also, like I said, going to be giving you updates and reports on everything happening
on my channel so that you guys can see what's working and what's not working, and you can
start implementing it for yourself and fast tracking your own growth and your own results
based on what you want to talk about and what truly matters to you.
There's a reason I haven't done this sooner also, because I know what builds a business
and I have used YouTube to build a really successful business, but now I want to also
use it to express myself, get back to my creative roots, and, yeah, see where we can take this.
As I mentioned, we have a very exciting giveaway in this video.
The giveaway is for a $500 Amazon gift card, as well as free access to my YouTube For Bosses
course.
If this video gets 3,000 likes, we're going to be giving one of you, maybe two of you,
maybe three of you, that prize.
Make sure that you give this video a like, and comment below and let me know that you
have entered, and we'll see who the winner is.
This is my present to you.
I'd much rather give a present than get one on my birthday, so this is my way of giving
back to all of you.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for listening.
I'm super excited to hear what you think of this.
You know the drill.
Take a screenshot and share this on an Instagram, tag me.
I want to hear your honest feedback and thoughts.
So, yeah, I'll see you there.
Thanks, guys.
If you liked this video, hit the Like button below, share with your friends, and be sure
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Bye.