(applause)
- Thank you, thank you.
You guys are wonderful.
Hey everybody, it's Roberto.
So, first of all, thank you for 150,000 plus
subscribers.
I think we hit that like ah, last weekend,
like in October, so, wow,
that's actually pretty cool.
That's awesome.
I think that that means that we are,
how close are we to this?
Like, one of the things I keep track of,
that's interesting to me right now,
is how much growth there's been
since the beginning of the year.
And I think we're only less than 20,000 subscribers
away from where I was when I started in January
of this year, 2016.
Which means that, before the end of the year,
it means that we're probably going to have added
100,000 people to the Create Awesome Community
since the beginning of the year.
And that's nuts to think about.
It's also kind of weird because I had 20,000
subscribers at the beginning of the previous year.
So, like, there's a couple of things
going on with that number.
It means that since the beginning of this year,
we've more than doubled what the community is,
so that's amazing.
And then it means since the January of 2015,
that we've like, added well over 100,000
people to this community,
and by the end of this year,
we will have added 150,000, right where we are now,
to this community in two years.
So, I'm very grateful and super appreciative
that so many of you have gained encouragement
and education and motivation here at the channel
because that's really what I do this for.
That's all I'm in it for.
It's great when you guys subscribe,
because that just lets me know that what I'm doing
is making a difference and am impact
in your lives, and that you want to continue to learn
and to grow.
What I'm really looking for out of this,
more than anything in YouTube is not fans.
I didn't get into YouTube for fans.
I wanted to create a creative community
and a movement that allows creatives
to feel much more empowered,
and feel like they have a chance at the life
and the career that they want,
and I think that I'm accomplishing that mission,
and when you guys choose to subscribe,
it tells me that I'm accomplishing that mission.
So, thank you so much for that.
With that in mind I want to talk a little bit
about what comes next,
and also about what life is after 100 subscribers,
sorry, 100,000 subscribers in YouTube
'cause I know a lot of you are curious
about that as you grow in your YouTube journey,
or whatever you're doing,
there are a lot of you who have personal brands,
and are getting into YouTube now.
There are people that are coming over
from other platforms and realizing YouTube
can help them in their goals,
and so, I just want to kind of talk a little bit
about what happens when you get 100,000 subscribers,
'cause I don't think I've talked about it before.
Also, a lot of you guys don't ask questions
about 100,000 subscribers beyond how do you get to
100,000 subscribers,
and then how much money do you make,
which I'm not gonna tell ya.
Subscribers, I'll tell you one thing,
subscribers don't actually translate to money
in YouTube.
Views are the only real way you make money
in YouTube.
The only time that subscriber count matters
for making money, is when you're talking
about how to leverage and get sponsorships.
And sometimes that doesn't matter
'cause they're still really concerned
about the views.
Views matter more.
There are people with much smaller followings
that get tons and tons of views,
and thus they make much more money
off of the ad revenue.
They may not have a business model though,
that lets them make money in other places,
that's what I do.
And so, anyway, let's just talk about some YouTube
stuff real quick.
So obviously after 100,000 subscribers
you get the silver play button.
That's cool, that's sitting up on the wall
over by the workstation,
you guys already know about that.
You also get the higher level of access
to the YouTube studio.
Actually did use that a couple of months ago.
I still haven't edited that footage,
me and Jason Liebman shot,
which is pretty cool.
He was acting as my director of photography
which is amazing.
It's so much easier to have somebody
shoot for me, and do all the camera gear,
and all the settings, and to help me set up lights
and do things, especially in a new environment,
than to just one man band everything
the way that I do here at the office.
And, you know, that's something I'm still doing,
at 150,000 subscribers,
I'm still doing this YouTube channel 99%
by myself.
I've actually started outsourcing certain things
for my business,
but things that I do with that have nothing to do
with the YouTube channel,
has to do more with my marketing and consulting stuff
and certain things with my personal brand
that I'm letting go of and giving to other people now.
Some of that I'm paying for,
some other people are trading me stuff,
so that's something where I'm growing.
I know that I want to work in my business,
or sorry, rather I want to work on my business,
not in my business, as Tim Schmoyer would say.
So I still am doing the YouTube channel by myself.
What I plan to do in 2017,
after I make the move to Atlanta
is to actually have somebody either working as an intern,
or a paid intern or something like that,
to be my DP most of the time,
and for certain special projects,
I'm actually gonna hire a crew
to actually shoot specific things
like the video guides that are coming up,
some online courses,
and some of the short film stuff that I plan to do,
so I'll be spending some considerable money on that.
Obviously, in my case, at 150,000 subscribers,
sure, I make a lot more money than I did
at 70,000 subscribers, considerably more,
but it has more to do with the fact
that there are more in the Create Awesome Community
supporting what I do in the form of viewership,
in the form of those of you who like to do
fan funding stuff, which I super appreciate,
you guys don't have to do that
but I love it and I really do appreciate it.
People who buy the Create Awesome t-shirts,
and they always be creating t-shirts and mugs,
that always helps.
And obviously people who hire me for things,
whether it's speaking engagements,
which I get a lot more of as a,
you know, YouTube influencer with this subscriber count
because they're not as many people
who have the marketing and business side of YouTube
that talk about these things in depth.
There are great people like Gidding Shelwick,
Derral Eves, Tim Schmoyer, Amy Schmittauer,
Sunny Leone, Doozy,
my friend Owen Hemsath, but it's like,
there's only really about two or three dozen of us,
compared to the number of people
that talk about things like Facebook marketing,
or live streaming,
or Instagram.
There are so many more experts in the other platforms,
because YouTube is hard, you guys.
And even the people that are very successful
with millions of subscribers,
don't know all the technical details
or don't know how to frame them
in the context of business,
and that's something that I know how to do very well,
and thus I'm getting hired to do more speaking around that,
that's very cool.
The other thing is I still do all of my own
video editing, so I'm actually getting to do training
and workshops around that.
I've been getting to work a lot with Adobe recently.
I'm working closely with the Premiere Pro and Premiere Clip
team now, and trying to teach more people
about video editing workflows.
I've been doing more tutorials here on the channel,
so, you know, more opportunities,
more exposure, more opportunities to do public speaking,
more press, more interviews.
Those kinds of things happen as your subscriber count
grows.
You get more attention.
But not all the attention's positive.
Sometimes you get haters.
You get a lot of people that are very negative
towards you,
there are people who don't think
you worked hard enough for your success,
or they think that they're more talented than you.
And, you know, that's just par for the course
with anything you do.
It doesn't really matter.
What matters is that you love what you're doing,
that your fans or your followers,
or your students love what you're doing,
that the people who are working with you
and paying you enjoy the experience
of working with you.
That's what really matters and what counts.
My personal life hasn't changed too much
from getting over 100,00 subscribers,
aside from the fact that there are more people
who recognize me when I'm out and about,
when I travel, or when I'm in town.
And so that's different, it's weird,
it's fun to just talk to them,
but I'm still the same person,
I still see the same guy in the mirror,
because I'm still just doing the work,
and I have a bigger long term plan.
Ultimately, some of what the future looks like for me,
is similar to things that John and Hank Green did,
similar to things that other people
like Chase Jarvis and Gary Vaynerchuk have done.
I mean, at my heart, I'm an entrepreneur,
I'm about building brands and businesses,
it's what I have a real passion for.
And I love building those things around creative people.
So I'm working on a couple of things,
I actually have plans for an online magazine
in a couple of years,
that's gonna be really great for creatives
to get exposure and more awareness
around what they're doing and great projects.
I have an interesting idea for a series
that I'm actually gonna be doing on Amazon,
that's going to highlight and show creatives
working in the real world,
and share their experiences and their guidance
for another generation of creators.
Oh, that's gonna be so fun to work on,
really excited about that project for 2017.
And there's a lot of other stuff going on.
I actually plan to help start some new YouTube channels,
some spin off channels,
but they're going to be micro channels,
they're not gonna be meant to get a million subscribers,
their goal is actually going to be
to help people with very specific issues.
I want to actually do a channel at some point,
that I have some other people that are the face
and the stars of that channel,
but I want to be the production and business
and marketing head of the channel.
I want to actually do a channel that helps families
that have children with disabilities.
That's a cause that's really important to me,
because of people in my own family,
and some experiences that I've had in the past,
so I really am passionate about that particular cause,
and that's part or what the future looks like
for me, going forward,
is building out micro channels that help educate people,
that solve very specific issues in society,
and I want to be the business mind behind them.
I want to take my success,
and I want to mass produce it at scale
to make a difference in the world.
So, that's what life after 100,000 subscribers
looks like, for me at least.
It means more haters, more fans,
more money, more adventures, more opportunity,
and also, more legacy,
more things that I constantly think on,
and nit pick at, and that I want to make and build
with the limited 24 hours that I have each and every day.
It also means hiring more people to help me
make a bigger, better thing
that all of you can hopefully benefit from
in some way.
So, thank you so much for 150,000 subscribers.
Thank you for being a part of the Create Awesome Community,
thank you for subscribing and sharing
and liking and commenting and just everything
you've done for me.
And did I have that upside down before?
I don't know, I can't tell.
This particular camera doesn't have the flip out screen.
Anyway, thank you guys so much.
If you have questions about YouTube,
obviously you can ask those in the comments section,
I try and answer them.
Who knows, maybe it'll be a future video.
I want more videos that ask me questions
and really push the envelope of what I can do,
and challenge me a little bit about the business
side of YouTube,
I really love those questions.
So, ask me about those in the comments section.
Like this video if you like it.
Don't forget to subscribe.
Check out the other awesome stuff on the channel.
As always you guys, thanks so much for watching,
and don't forget, create something awesome today.
Take care.