- Everyone likes to say that it's so hard to find
an audience for your content in YouTube or social media,
but I don't think that's the real problem.
I think it's actually deeper than that.
I genuinely believe that the real reason
that people struggle to grow and to find an audience
is because they haven't found their voice.
I think it comes down to a lack of self-awareness
and understanding your place
and what your actual value is,
and I think that the problem is that it's very hard
to actually be an influencer when all you do
is chase attention.
So today, we're gonna talk about it.
I'm gonna be very real with you.
It's probably gonna hurt a couple of feelings.
So let's get started.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake
helping you create something awesome today.
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, welcome.
My name's Roberto Blake.
I'm a creative entrepreneur and public speaker.
I have a social media coaching business
and I like to help people with trying to grow
and create better content.
So if that's something that you're interested in,
make sure you subscribe, hit the notifications,
and you'll get the rest of these videos.
A lot of times, you'll have content creators
not know who they are yet, and that's okay.
It's fine to document your journey of self-discovery,
and maybe you don't know what you wanna make
because you don't know who you are yet,
but the problem is, expectations versus reality.
The reason that so many people struggle
and feel emotionally defeated all the time
as content creators is because of their expectations
and desire for growth and an audience
because that is coming
in a form of acceptance or validation.
And I know that I harp on this
and I do understand that it's a very human thing
to want acceptance and to want to feel validated
to justify what you're doing.
But I also believe that if you're doing something
you actually really care about,
you would be doing it for yourself,
regardless of how anybody feels about it,
because if you're doing something specifically
and you're willing to do something
just because well, other people like that
so that's what I'll do,
it stops being yours and starts being theirs,
which is fine if you're a performer or an entertainer,
in some ways, that is fine
if what you're not concerned about is having a voice
and having art, and you just want an audience
and you just want attention.
If that is the only way that you can feel happy
then that's who you are
and you need to be aware of that
and understand that well, that's gonna mean a compromise
and that's gonna mean that if there's something
that you really want to make
that you're going to have to accept that other people
may not care, may reject it, may not give it any attention,
and you're gonna have make that for yourself.
Because it's an issue of alignment.
There's a little bit of a vanity issue
where we assume that because we care about something,
that everybody should care about it.
When in reality, we know better.
You know that there was a group or a table at the lunch room
where you found your place where you fit in
and it wasn't like that was everybody
in the entire school, right?
That's how it works.
You find your tribe.
You find your niche.
You find your group.
You find your community.
And the thing is, not everybody's gonna wanna be part
of that community.
Not everyone's gonna like golf or fishing
or Harry Potter or cars.
There are going to be people who opt out.
And the thing is, you have to accept that
and you have to have some level of patience
to say that there might be a limit
to how many people are willing to say yes to you.
And maybe that feels frustrating
or maybe that feels discouraging,
but I don't think it has to be.
I think that everybody likes to say quality over quantity
except when it comes to growing an audience.
One view might be the right view.
I keep saying this
and I'm gonna make an entire dedicated video to it
because what you need to understand is that
it may not take a million people to change your life.
It might just take one.
There are so many important relationships that I have
with just one person
because of this content that I've been creating,
whether it's the videos on YouTube,
the podcast, the tweets, the Instagram,
any of it.
It has been one to one relationships.
It has been spending time with people in meetings.
It has been seeing them at the conferences.
It has been those moments that have mattered the most.
When you are just getting started
and you haven't found your voice yet,
a lot of it is because you don't have something
you're obsessed with yet.
Something you're passionate about.
Something that people can't get you
to shut up about just yet, okay?
And if you haven't found out what that is,
you might need to experiment
and you might need to keep trying to discover it.
The problem is that it's not anybody's responsibility
to keep you motivated to figure it out,
and the problem with relying on the attention
or validation or the growth to keep you going,
'cause a lot of you tell me
well I just want subscribers
because then I'll make more videos
and it'll keep me going.
Wrong.
If you're not driven by the need to create,
you might not actually be a content creator.
That may not be what's satisfying to you
and that may not be what you're meant to do in life.
And there are people who are gonna disagree with me
with that, and that's fine.
That's fine.
Everybody's entitled to their own opinions
and to their own experiences,
but I'm going to tell you that
there is nothing that would make me
not wanna be a photographer.
I don't make my living as a photographer
and that's by choice,
because I don't want somebody else to decide
what I can take photos of,
and if I have them dictating my livelihood, my income,
then they do have somewhat of the right
to tell me what to take photos of.
So you see, if you wanna protect your art
or something like that,
maybe you don't do it for a living
and maybe you're not leveraged there.
I built a business that gives me the freedom
to create whatever I want.
Even with this YouTube channel,
I get to make things that I think are useful,
which is what I really wanna do
is I wanna do education content
and things that are useful,
but it may not get views all the time.
Sometimes, I make a video as a direct response
to a question that one of you gives me in an email
or a DM or in person.
I make a video for just one of you, just one of you,
by request sometimes.
And you know what happens,
sometimes those videos don't get views
and I get crappy comments.
I get people telling me that I have no business
telling anyone how to grow in social media
based on the views on that video
because I decided to give my audience
or even one member of my audience
something they asked for,
knowing that most people in the internet,
most people who might have even subscribed to this channel
don't care about that,
but I wanted to be generous and give back
to somebody who I thought had a really smart question
or was a supporter of mine for a very long time.
But I have to take some abuse for that.
And the thing about it is
you will have to suffer a lot of things
in exchange for doing content that you want
versus content that has mass appeal.
And the thing is,
if you don't accept that that might be true,
you're going to lose your voice,
sometimes even before you find it.
Do you know why you're seeing all these videos
from big YouTubers with over a million subscribers
saying they're burnt out, it's not fun anymore,
they aren't happy with their content,
even though it's the highest quality it's ever been?
Do you know why that's happening?
It's because people are losing their voice
in exchange for attention and staying relevant.
They are giving up their identity and who they are
and making compromises on what their art is
or even what their personality
or what they believe in actually is
in exchange for your attention.
Now I know that's dark, that's harsh, that's discouraging,
but you know it's the truth
and you're seeing it.
You are seeing it.
There are people who have long since outgrown
the personality that they were when they started on YouTube,
but that's what their audience signed up for
or it's how they relate to people,
or it's the only thing they know that works.
They haven't been granted permission to actually grow up
and change and move on with their life
because in exchange for that,
what's held for ransom is the power that they've accumulated
through having an audience and being relevant
and having that attention and cultivating views.
And so it's why I am trying to paint for you guys
the reality of being a content creator
and trying to put you in a place where you can do things
like diversify your income
and not rely on AdSense and brand deals, okay?
I'm trying to put you in a position
where you don't become a slave to the algorithm.
It's nice to know the algorithm and to know
how some of these things work and to take advantage of them.
What's not fun is doing that to make content
you don't care about just because it works.
And it's why I just in many cases use YouTube
as a search engine, and I just take my lumps
with whatever the views are
because while I know what has historically worked
on the channel or what could work,
and that even though I've used it to grow other people,
there are just points where you know what's really nice
is just to be able to make a video and put it out
and respond to you guys in the comments
and not care how it performs
because thank God, I have a business.
If I wanted to make compromises on what I do
and what I create,
I could just work a corporate America job
as a content creator within corporate America.
I could work for a brand doing social media,
which is what I used to do.
I could work for a brand and be a graphic designer
or a video editor or a producer or photographer.
I've done those jobs before.
I could go and I could make something
on the whims and taste and judgment of somebody else
for a paycheck.
Or I can do what I want.
And it's a very hard choice,
and I would encourage you
that while you don't have an audience
that has set expectations,
before people put you into a box,
before people decide that this is what they signed on for,
embrace and enjoy the freedom of having your own voice,
even when nobody is listening yet
or you feel like no one is listening.
Enjoy the freedom that comes from that
and respect the journey and the process
because the odds are that if you grow an audience
and you chase attention,
you're gonna find yourself burning out
and not being satisfied creatively
because you're gonna be doing what the people want,
and there's gonna be a point where what they want
and what you want don't line up anymore.
And you're gonna have to make some very hard choices
when that happens.
It's hard to feel like nobody notices you.
It's hard to feel like no one respects your opinions.
It's hard to feel like you're not being seen.
But if you decide to just do what other people want,
is that really you being seen and heard,
or are you just a megaphone for other people's opinions
and for what other people like?
There is nothing sad or desperate or embarrassing
about being a small YouTuber
or not having a lot of followers in social media.
Pick and choose who you want your audience to be
and do it with a sense of purpose
and do it very carefully
'cause if you pick an audience
that is very hypercritical because you decide to go into
punching up at people,
that's a very precarious situation
if you ever become one of those bigger people one day
because it's gonna be your turn
and those people might turn on you
in favor of the underdog.
If you set high expectations with massive production values
and you go into a massive amount of debt
in order to make your content,
and that's not financially sustainable,
your audience will not forgive you
stepping down the production values
or any of those things because you can't afford it
and because you went broke making free content.
There's not a lot of forgiveness for these type of things.
Choose your audience very carefully
and not just because you think you can blow up
or that's a really good community to be a part of
because it'll give you what you think you want.
Choose your audience based on who you think
you really want to be.
Who you actually are.
Who you're growing into.
Pick your audience very carefully.
I chose you.
If you're watching this, I chose you.
I chose somebody who wants to fight for their creativity.
I chose somebody who wants to create on their own terms.
I chose someone with an entrepreneurial spirit
that believes in hard work and discipline
and learning new things.
I didn't pick an audience of lazy people
who want get rich quick schemes.
I didn't pick an audience of people
that are rude and disrespectful and are arrogant.
And I didn't pick an audience full of people
that are too scared to stand by the quality of their work
and to try to always move the bar up just a little bit
and be better than they were yesterday.
I didn't pick people like that.
I picked you for a reason.
I chose you for a reason
because I think that you want to grow your potential.
I think that you have more to give
because that's what I believe about myself.
I picked you because I see something in you
or I want to attract people that I think have something
in common with me.
That share philosophy, that share ideals,
that share a possible part of their journey.
I don't need a million YouTube subscribers
or a million Instagram followers.
I chose you.
So do me this favor, do yourself a favor.
Take the time to figure out who you actually are
and what is meaningful to you.
Take the time to find your own voice
and don't be in some desperate scramble
to grow as fast as possible.
Take the time to grow slow,
get to build a real relationship
with your audience and community,
and take the time to evolve and grow as a person
and as a content creator.
And I think you'll be better off for it, a 1,000%.
Question of the day.
This is one of the most important questions of the day
I've ever asked.
Who are you making content for?
Be very specific.
If you're making content for everybody,
you're making content for nobody,
and that's why you're not growing.
Commit to something.
Tell me who you're committed to
and who you're giving value for
in the comments section down below.
Also real quick,
for those of you who might be struggling
with making better quality content,
I want to remind you to check out
the Formula for Awesome Videos course
over on AwesomeCreatorAcademy.com
that is my website
and it is a program that I put together
with you guys in mind.
If you think it's helpful,
I wanna give you guys a discount code
in the description down below.
It's for a limited time so check out that offer.
And if you are not in a position to do that,
enjoy the free content here on the channel.
There's gonna be a lot more stuff
that's gonna cover the ins and outs of content creation
and building the right audience and social media.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff here on the channel.
As always, you guys, thanks so very much for watching
and don't forget,
go out there and create something awesome today.
Take care.
(gentle music)