Hey, guys.
Today we've got an awesome guest with us.
We're going to give you guys some tips
and advice for how to build your YouTube audience based
on some of Sarah's experiences.
That's coming up.
Hey, guys.
My name is Tim Schmoyer.
And I have a guest with me today, Sarah Dussault,
from Sarah Fit.
Hey, Sarah.
Thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having me.
So Sarah, for you guys who don't know,
she started online video back in 2006 for another channel.
And then she started her own channel,
which is youtube.com/SarahsFabChannel.
Started that in 2008 and since then
has amassed 140,000 subscribers.
She has her own book now.
You just wrote called Get Skinny Again.
She's been the YouTube NextUp for host
for the next trainer, YouTube next trainer program.
And she's, tonight, hosting Biggest Loser Google+ Hangout
On Air.
So she's doing a lot of great stuff.
So she's definitely been around and on YouTube a lot.
I'd love to hear, pick your brain a little bit, about what
advice and tips you have for creators
who want to build their audience,
grow their YouTube channel.
And hear some of the things that worked best for you
and those stories behind your channel.
Yeah, so I think probably if I could pinpoint
the specific events during my YouTube career that really
helped propel it to the next level,
it honestly has to do with collaborations
and working with other YouTubers.
But the trick is, how do you establish those relationships
if you're just starting out?
So basically, what I did-- so Katrina from Tone It Up,
she has her own TV show now on Bravo.
Katrina actually got her start because I went to the same gym
as her.
And I basically went up to her and was like, oh, you're cute.
You're a personal trainer.
Do you want to do fitness videos with me?
So with her, it was serendipitous.
However, I always stayed in contact with Katrina.
We've been friends ever since.
So now she had this huge Tone It Up business.
They're huge.
They have fans all over the world.
I never lost touch with her.
I like to say, surround yourself with successful people.
And don't be afraid of competition.
People early on used to say, hey, Tone It Up
has a video like that.
Or, you're copying their recipe.
And we're friends.
We collaborate.
And a lot of us in the fitness YouTube world,
we work with one another.
We don't look at each other as competition.
And we do try to help each other in a lot of different ways.
So my first tip is to build those relationships
that you might already have.
Don't be afraid if someone starts to get really popular
or you start getting much more popular than someone else.
Don't lose that friendship.
I still am very good friends with a lot
of different YouTubers that started on the bottom,
and now they're way above me.
And if I'd stuck my nose up at them in the beginning,
I would have missed out on a lot of cool opportunities.
What about when-- because YouTube
has grown so much now that you have all these different tiers.
And a lot of people try to reach out to the top tier people.
You know, kind of like, oh, MysteryGuitarMan or Hank
Green or whatever.
Promote me.
Let's do a collab.
What advice do you have for people who are trying to collab
but having a difficult time finding people
who are on their level who are willing to do it with them?
Does mixing the audiences make sense?
So that's the problem I ran into back-- I remember
awhile ago when I was trying to do a lot of collabs,
is finding those people in the first place.
So, for me, when it came to collabing,
I guess as we call it, I would look for someone that I thought
had it, that had a spark that was infectious.
So Cassey from Blogilates, she used
to actually live in Boston.
She's another fitness YouTuber, for those watching
who don't know who she is.
She had maybe a couple thousand subscribers.
And I saw her videos, and I thought
she had this infectious energy.
And I wanted her to be in a video with us.
So I wrote her an email and was like, hey, I
think you're great.
Do you want to do a video with us?
I did that.
She had way less subscribers than us at the time.
And now she has a million.
She literally just hit a million.
But I saw that spark in her.
And she's another one like Katrina
that I've always remained in contact with.
So my advice for people, is don't
look for people above you.
Look for people on the same level.
And even look for people that are
below you that have this energy, they have this drive,
that you know is going to be successful.
And maybe that's my little special touch.
I can tell when people are going to be successful,
when they're going to be able to be really good at YouTube.
But my tip would be, find somebody on your level
or below.
And my other tip is to foster those relationships somewhere
off of YouTube.
Whether you live in the same city-- if you're in California,
that might be hard.
But if you live somewhere off beat, like Boston,
it might be a little bit easier.
But also help them out through other social medias,
like Twitter.
I got a shout out from one of the Beauty Gurus
early on in my career because she had said something
on Twitter like, oh, I want to get flat abs,
or something like that.
So I reached out to her and was like, oh, I'm
a certified personal trainer.
I'd love to help you.
Created a fitness plan for her.
Expected nothing back in return.
Literally, I expected nothing back.
Maybe the fact that maybe she'd remember me and think I
was nice.
And she gave me a shoutout in a video a couple months later.
I got 10,000 subscribers, which at the time
was like 50,000 today over the course of a week.
It was amazing.
And all that came about by me trying to help her
and not asking for something in return.
I think that's really important, because a lot of times when
I get those types of requests is people
trying to extract something from me.
Like, hey, Tim.
I actually don't care about you and stuff.
It doesn't come across that way necessarily,
because I know what they're trying to do,
because I understand what's going on.
But it feels like I'm using you to get to something else.
And that's terrible for social equity
in a relationship, right?
Yeah.
So definitely reaching out.
Having something in mind.
And for the rest of you guys, one thing that I've really
learned is, it helps if you don't go to someone
and be like, hey, you want to collab with me?
And wait for a yes or no.
It works better, I found, if you go to them with an idea.
Like, hey, I really like that you do this.
Like when I reached out to you, Sarah,
I asked if you wanted to do an interview.
But then I actually emailed you some questions.
I had some things in my mind already
that would make sense for something to work together,
rather than saying, hey, I want to collab
and you come up with the idea.
Right?
Yeah.
So instead of going into it with some planning ahead of time
can really work well.
And it helps if the other person who you're collaborating
with it makes it easier for them to say yes.
Because now they feel like, OK, there's
not as much thought I had to put into this.
Not as much work.
OK, I know what we're doing, let's do it.
so I really find that to be really valuable to.
I'd love to hear from you guys.
Comment below about what advice and tips
you guys have for collaborating with other creators.
What have you found to work well for you and not so well?
Help us to avoid some of those mistakes as well.
And if this is you're first time here,
we'd love to have you subscribe.
Every week, we do videos like this
to give you guys some tips and ideas for the content
that you're creating.
I really believe that a lot of you guys
have messages that can really influence the world
and change people's lives if those people could
hear what you have to say.
So thank you for letting me be a part, and now Sarah,
in helping you guys grow your YouTube channel.
Subscribe, and I'll see you guys again next week.
Bye.