- Last year around this time,
a lot of people started YouTube channels,
and a lot of those people quit.
In addition to that, a lot of people wanted to do YouTube,
but they decided not to, and if they would have,
they would've been rocking by now.
So I wanted to have a quick chat with you,
and share some tips with you to ensure
that you have a fantastic year as a content creator.
The very first thing to ensure
that you give yourself the best possible chance this year
is to make sure that you set some type of goals
around your YouTube channel.
Now, keep in mind your goals are not a map
of exactly what it is that you're gonna be doing
but they're a compass of sorts that will help ensure
that you are heading in the right direction
with every choice that you make around your YouTube channel.
Having goals will also help you stay focused
on what is the most important thing to you.
For example, in my case, I get a lot of comments saying,
"Hey, if you know so much,
why aren't all your videos viral?"
Well, the funny thing is
is I'm not actually trying to go viral.
The goals that I have for my YouTube channel are very simple
serve content creators,
and positively impact content creators,
and help them thrive on the platform,
which is something that I do very well,
and make a living from doing this,
which is also something that I do very well.
So because of that,
if somebody comes at me in the comment section,
I'm not phased by it,
because I know that I'm doing the things
that I'm setting out to do.
And in your case,
when you write down your goals for your YouTube channel,
it's gonna make a huge difference,
and the reason it's gonna make a huge difference
is it's going to give you a gauge,
it's gonna give you something to track.
So for example, if you're just getting started,
and your very first goal
is to get that first 1000 subscribers
on your YouTube channel,
then in that particular case if you wake up tomorrow,
and you have two more subscribers,
then you know that you're heading in the right direction
to achieve the goal.
The same thing applies if you're trying
to get that first 4,000 hours of watch-time
to get into the YouTube Partner program.
If you put out videos,
and you see them collecting watch-time,
and you see yourself getting closer,
then you can start to notice these videos,
when I make these types of videos,
and I do these types of things in the videos,
people enjoy them more
and they watch them for a longer period of time.
Therefore, in order to hit my goal faster,
I'm going to make sure that I'm making more
of these types of videos,
and that I'm also trying to make 'em as good as I can,
so I can keep people watching,
so I can hit these milestones,
and in some cases I know that's because people are busy,
and they're doing a bunch of different things
that in some cases just uploading on a regular basis
is going to be a goal for some people, and that's fine,
because then every video that you upload
is a win that you can celebrate.
So make sure you have goals,
it's gonna make a huge difference.
Next, you got to make sure that you have some type of plan
that will lead you in the direction of your goals,
because if you have a goal but you don't have a plan,
then really all you have is a dream.
If you put a plan in place,
then you're going to have actionable steps
that you can take to achieve your goal.
So on YouTube, it could look something like this.
I'm gonna upload one video per week
to serve this particular audience.
I'm going to track the response to those videos,
then I'm going to modify things,
and adjust everything that I need to adjust
in order to make the videos as good
as I can possibly make them
so that I can reach my goals faster.
And in order to achieve that,
I'm going to learn as much as I possibly can
about YouTube and how the platform works,
and I'm gonna learn as much as I possibly can
about how people respond to everything
it is that I'm doing when it comes to publishing videos.
As a part of this,
I'm going to write down all of the skills
that I think that I need to develop
with the knowledge that I currently have
about what it is that I need on YouTube
and I'm going to systematically dedicate time
to these things every single week to ensure
that I'm developing my skillset
as well as publishing videos on a regular basis.
And then, while I'm doing that,
I'm also going to try to network
with other content creators as much as I possibly can,
so that I have other people
who are also doing something that I'm doing,
so that I have that support,
and so that I can share knowledge with those people,
and they can share their knowledge with me,
and if I do all of those things consistently,
then by this time next year,
I should have a nice stronghold on what it is
that I'm doing here on YouTube,
and look, if you don't know all the steps, that's okay,
and if you're somebody that's just starting out,
I actually don't expect you to know all the steps.
So what you wanna do is you just wanna write down
what you think will get you there,
and then adjust accordingly
as you start going through the process,
and if you don't know what to do as part of your plan,
some of the things that I just listed
might be a good place for you to start.
Next, you need to make sure
that you are embracing the idea of experimentation.
The reason that this is so important
when it comes to YouTube is the biggest wins
are usually uncovered through experimentation.
What that means is
if you start publishing videos on a regular basis,
and you're being intentional about it, and then you're like,
okay, this is either working, or it's not.
So let me start doing something a little bit different.
Maybe it's my intros,
maybe it's I'm gonna work a little bit more on my sound,
maybe it's I'm going to talk about different topics
within the things that I'm talking about
in order to reach a different group of people
or something like that.
Then, what's going to happen
is as you start trying all of these different things,
something's going to click.
However, if you say, this is how I'm doing it,
this is the exact approach that I'm going to take,
and if people like it, that's fine.
If they don't like it, that's fine also.
Then in that particular case,
you might end up in a situation where you're doing okay,
but you might also really end up in a situation
where you're just stuck in the mud,
and you go years on YouTube like a lot of people do,
and you don't make any progress whatsoever,
because you are so committed
to doing the same exact thing over and over again, right?
So you wanna make sure that you're experimenting,
so that you can give yourself that opportunity
to tap into things
that you might not otherwise be able to tap into.
In terms of the topics you come up with
to make videos about,
in terms of different approaches that you take
for putting your content together
and different ways that you can resonate
with the people that are interacting with your content.
When it comes to experimentation,
this also comes down to trying different things
on YouTube itself.
So if you're somebody that's committed
to only live streaming, trying some YouTube shorts,
or some longer-form content
might be the experiment you wanna run.
If you are only doing YouTube shorts,
and that's the only thing you're focused on,
then trying longer-form content might be something,
because you might uncover something there
that will help you reach your goals faster.
But this is one of those situations
where making sure that you know your goals
is gonna be really important, and also knowing your plan,
or at least the best you can with your plan,
is also gonna be really important
because shorts might not fit into
what it is that you're doing,
or live streams might not fit into what it is
that you're trying to accomplish.
So because of that, take that for what it is,
but then also experiment any place that you can
within the realm, so to speak,
of what's going to get you to your goals.
Next, you have to take an enormous amount of action.
If you have a large boulder at the top of a hill
and you wanna get that boulder to start rolling downhill
on its own, then in that particular case,
you need to exert an extreme amount of energy,
pushing that boulder to get it to the edge of the hill,
so that it can start rolling downhill.
If you tap on the boulder, it's not gonna move.
If you flick the boulder, it's not gonna move.
You gotta push, and push, and push,
and exert tons of energy to get the ball rolling.
Boulder, in this case, to get the boulder rolling,
you have to put out a lot of energy at first
as part of the learning curve
'cause you're gonna be learning so much,
you are going to be putting in all of this effort,
so that you can apply
what it is that you're learning quickly,
and all of that stuff takes a lot of energy,
and you can do it, but here's the thing,
once you get the boulder rolling,
then in that particular case,
it's gonna be a little bit easier
but you're still gonna have to put out energy
to keep it rolling,
but it's gonna be a lot easier for you.
To give yourself the best chance,
commit to one year of massive effort in the following areas.
One, learning about YouTube,
and or any of the other platforms
that you're gonna be trying to thrive on.
Two, learning how to present, edit,
and optimize your content
to the best of your abilities with every single upload.
Three, learning how to get the people
that you're trying to reach with your content
to click on your content,
and have a great experience while they're watching it.
If you are doing only YouTube shorts,
then make sure that you do spend that time learning
how to hook people at the beginning of your short,
and create a great experience for them as well.
Four, learning how to tell better stories.
This is also an area that I'm gonna be spending
a lot of time in this year myself.
Five, figuring out how to work the process
of creating content into your lifestyle,
so it becomes part of what it is
that you do on a regular basis.
If you don't do this,
it's really easy to fall out of the habit of making videos,
and you can just let everything fall apart,
and all your hard work go away
because you lack consistency of actually doing the thing.
And you know, one thing that's extremely important
when it comes to this is just remembering
that there's no easy way to do any of this stuff.
Everything that you're going to go through
as a content creator, there's learning curves involved
there's a lot of trial and error involved,
there's a lot of experimentation involved,
and because of that,
some people that are watching this video right now,
some of you, you're going to go through that filter,
so to speak, of learning.
Some of you are gonna make it through that filter,
and some of you are not.
So what I want you to do right now is commit,
and say, "Okay, it's me.
I'm gonna be one of those people
that make it through that filter,
and do this thing that I wanna do,
because this time next year,
the same exact thing's going to happen.
There's gonna be some people that wanted to do it,
or they started it, and they just gave up too fast.
They could have been one video away
from having the video that literally changed their lives,
and got everything going for them,
and started that boulder rolling down the hill,
and on the other side, there's gonna be some of you
that are watching that this time next year,
you're gonna have a play button,
you might even have a gold play button.
You're gonna be making money from this on a regular basis.
You might even be full-time on YouTube
by this time next year,
everything will be different for you.
So if you're one of the people that are going to commit
to doing this, and you're one of the people that are like,
"Yeah, you know what, I'm gonna see this through."
Just put "I commit" in the comments
so I can know who you are, so I can keep an eye on you
as we go through this journey through this next year.
I'm rooting for you and everybody else
that's had any type of success on YouTube
is also rooting for you, because we know,
because we've been through it,
what this whole YouTube thing can do, and it's incredible.
So look, I have an entire YouTube channel
full of videos that will help you get started
and help you along your journey,
so just hit my channel page, go to my videos page,
and you'll find videos about pretty much any problem
that you're gonna have.
Make sure that you check in on that on a regular basis
when you do run into trouble,
and if you want a next step to take,
and you are somebody that's wanting to go full-time,
click into this playlist right here,
and there's some videos in there
that are gonna help you get started.
Thank you so much for watching, I'll see you next time.