How to Leverage YouTube as a Business | Northgate Café Podcast

'YouTube is the single largest impact platform for measurable marketing growth. Make a long form video there once a week, recycle micro posts from the long form video and watch your brand explode' - Ryan.

In this interivew with David, Ryan sits down to discuss Mastering YouTube as a Brand and the exact steps you should be taking as a marketer to set yourself apart from the competition.

Listen to the full interview via the Northgate Café Podcast here: https://wearenorthgate.com/?page_id=7429

Prefer to Read the Interview? Skim the transcript below

Intro David YouTube, a powerful advertising tool with monetizable opportunities. But how do you become a successful YouTuber? My guest today is Ryan Snaadt, an Iowa based videographer and marketing strategist who teaches other videographers how to build successful businesses of their own via his YouTube channel, online courses and Facebook groups. He also consults and speaks on topics surrounding online marketing and using video to grow brands. He discovered his interest in video during his sophomore year of college for producing health and fitness content for his YouTube channel. He quickly developed a creative eye for film and started his own video marketing consultancy. It's not media group. Today's topic is Mastering YouTube. Ryan, welcome to Northgate Café. Ryan Hey, thanks for having me. Guys. David Yeah. Ryan, I am very excited, passionate about YouTube in general. As you know, I have my own show that I'm trying to blossom and grow inmates who would come on. When I saw that you had already had several years of experience in this category, and we got talking, you know, I think about a month or so ago, I was like, this is a topic that is worth sharing on this podcast. You know, I mentioned a little bit in your bio, but tell us a little bit about your journey and what led you to even start a YouTube channel? Absolutely. Yeah. So I always kind of start my journey with video. I mean, even back when I was in grade school, I was making funny skit video comedy videos with my friends. So that's kind of where my whole thing started back when Bebo was around in the MySpace days. Yes. Bebo is like since dead now, but I was trying to find all my old videos but they're gone now. So I've always been making fun videos of my buddies. And then in college, I started a fitness YouTube channel, which was just to document my health and fitness journey. My workouts, the things I was eating. Help other college students navigate the freshman 15, all that stuff. So I dedicated myself to doing a video every week for a year. So I had 50 videos, had about 40 subscribers at the end of that, and I realized that I was just being another person in the slew of YouTube. So fast forward to Post-graduation, I continued to shoot videos for fun and then started getting hired out for gigs as freelance stuff. That kind of evolved to shooting commercial videos in the fitness industry since I had an interest there and I still did today and then doing more commercial projects now. So my video production business is not a media group. I've been doing that about seven years now. And have had a ton of great opportunities. Been able to travel around and shoot with different social influencers, help other people start online courses, commercial projects, stuff like that. So it's really blossomed into this really cool thing. On the back of that though, which we'll talk about a lot today was starting a YouTube channel and a bunch of other online businesses as a result of that because of figuring out how to rank videos and search and get a continuous flow of leads into my business. So really excited to talk about all things video, YouTube and everything today. So you posted a video, so 52 videos in one year and had 40 subscribers. What changed? Ryan Absolutely. Great question. So I the thing that made me nobody on YouTube at that point was because I was watching all my favorite YouTubers at the time and trying to replicate what they were doing. So I'd see somebody with a million followers and I'd say Man, I really love what Steve Cook is doing here. Christian Guzman, which are these fitness bloggers who would document their, their exploits. And, you know, they had businesses and stuff that they would document I was trying to be them and I wasn't them. So the biggest thing that changed for me was audience centrism and really identifying like not who I am, but who am I here to help and I think that was a big thing.

So I took a break from YouTube after probably three years or so, and then I came back into it in my professional career and I was like, OK, how do I make this more helpful? And I think a lot of people that are wanting to start a channel I've found a lot of success in was either a helping their customers. So like if you're a business that served a certain group of people making content for them, or B, helping other people like your colleagues, other practitioners, if you're a graphic designer making an entire channel around graphic design because you're an expert in it because you do that. So that's what what I did is I picked option B, which I made a bunch of content for other videographers and video marketers. And that's really when my channel started to explode because I started making videos specifically, which we'll talk about how my formula was that I built this channel to make it unique. But the thing that made me stand out was I was making business related content for a creative industry. So a lot of videographers wanted to watch camera review videos, how to edit tutorials, which there's millions of those videos out there. But I made videos on how do you sell, how do you get a portfolio, how do you make an LLC for your business? All these things that no one ever wanted to talk about. So that's really what kind of changed for me was complete audience centrism. And I was like, OK, what would 20 year old Ryan want to know about this? To make it faster and easier for him? And that's what I did. It was like every video I'd make is like what I watched as I was 20, would I care?

And that's kind of what started everything. David I like that, you know what I care. That's a good question, especially you know, think about when you're 20, you're, you care about a few things, but there's some things you're like at Skip. Exactly. That's really good. You know, you mentioned they're about creating videos that would be relevant to a certain niche market or following. And I've had this before and I'm sure many people listening have as well. I have a certain topic I'm I'm curious about. I want to learn something I'm trying to fix or, you know, problem solving. Oftentimes I just want to look it up on YouTube. Instead of looking it up on Google and I'll type up stuff. And what I find is a lot of oftentimes irrelevant stuff. Sometimes it is relevant or sometimes they talk way too long about other things and I'm ready to move on. What are some of the things that you did to essentially draw in that niche market towards your video and also retain them? Ryan Absolutely. Great question. So I actually I'm a big acronym guy, so I actually built an acronym on how I make my videos. So this is an acronym that I use for any educational content. Like you said, the search box, how to content go into the search box. How do I learn how to make a preset in Lightroom or how do I learn how to file an LLC for my business, whatever the search query is, so that the acronym is I am Echo. So it's I a e SEO. There's no H, I can come up with an H in there but the eyes for intro and I would say the interest need to be hot, which is another acronym for Hook Outcome Testimonial. So in the first five to 10 seconds, you need to hook them with some kind of engaging visual. And if it's a boring like slideshow, like people are going to skip word we're very like Mosquito esque creatures anymore with content. If it's not going to grab your attention, you're not going to watch it. So you have to hook them. The other thing is outcome, which I always talk about is share the outcome. In today's video, we're going to learn how to make $1,000,000 in a year. OK, well, now I'm kind of interested, you know, that type of thing. And then testimonial is and here's how I did it and here's how I teach or I've taught 500 other people how to do it. So you're showing proof of that. So even if it's something like today, we're going to learn how to play guitar. We're going to show you how to play through the fire in flames. And then they come to me, me, me, you're shredding on it. And then I've also been teaching a bunch of other people the last ten years in my guitar studio, and we're going to get into it today. So as you can see in that first five to 10 seconds, we've already told people what they're going to learn. We've shown them the proof, we've shown them the kind of the what to expect towards the end. We're kind of foreshadowing, so to speak. We're giving away the good stuff early on, and it's really hooks people in. That's a really, really important thing, I think. So that's the first chunk. And then we move on to the A, which is ask. So I like to there's kind of a kind of a thing in the industry that people give me crap for, but I like to ask something right away of people. So it's either at the end of this video, we're going to share free opt in or I'd like you to do some low hanging offer of some kind. If you stick around the end of video, we'll talk more about that. But if you want more info about it, check out the description box. So I make a call to action within the first minute because retention rates on YouTube are lower than I'd like. And if I get a million views on a video, statistically, maybe only a quarter of them will make it to the end of my video. So instead of a million people hearing my offer, only 25% of that will. So I like to make a soft offer, mention it early on to kind of warm them up a little bit, pre frame it, and then when we get to the end, I'll mention it again. So that's the AA. Then we move into EA, which is engagement. So if you like the video, make sure to leave a comment below or like it and share it with a friend or something like that. So that's the EA. Then we move into M, which is the meat or the majority of entertainment and talking points. Another acronym you remember, but the meat, it's the meat of the video if the videos five tips to save on taxes, talk about that in that meat chunk. If you make a video that doesn't answer those questions or actually deliver on the thumbnail in the title people are going to use, YouTube will scorn you for it forever. The watch brands will be really low, a bunch of downvotes and then you'll go to YouTube Prison forever. David Yeah, I absolutely cannot stand those videos. It's like, you know, one in three videos out there. I'm like, you didn't even discuss the topic. You literally completely went around in circles and kept us watching but never said anything. I'm never watching your videos again. Ryan Exactly, exactly. And I didn't have this like acronym in my mind at first. I started watching my highest performing videos and it was my fault, the structure, and I started doing it for clients and they got good results. I'm like, OK, I'm on to something. Let's put an acronym around this that makes me remember it. So then after the M, we come back around here and let's see, I am Echo. So again, we ask for more engagement. So it's like, Hey, if you like the video, make sure to give it a thumbs up. What I tend to do, especially with my videos, is if you have questions about it, leave it in the comment section because I get the dialog going. It also tells YouTube there's a lot of interest in this, so we check that out. Then we're moving to the end here. We're almost done with the acronym. It's a C, which is the most important part of the whole video. Call to action. Offer something if it's free download something interesting. I would encourage a lot of people don't sell in this point because they just met you. It's like trying to make out with somebody when you meet them at the bar for the first 5 minutes, like, Hi, I'm Ryan, you're coming in with your mouth. David It depends on how drunk they are. Ryan Yeah, exactly. Or what kind of bar. What if it's 2:00 at night or not? Or if it's 11, it's like you got to know what's going on. So that's the, that's that piece of it.

And I've had videos that have 300,000 views. No call to action. Talk about a missed opportunity. That's 300,000 people watch this mug talking and I could offer them anything that I have that I could sell if I want their email, if I want anything like the video, something I just said, OK, but it was done here and it's like, wow, what a wasted opportunity. And then the very last piece of the outro, which is simple, you know, thanks for watching the video. I will say my name is Ryan Snaadt, it rhymes with odd and we'll check in the next video 'Peace!' I say this everything. And I've had people that find me on the street that have seen the videos and like Ryan's not. It rhymes with and it's like it's working every outro I've ever done. David Yes. So absolutely. No, I have that. I mean, my show is a little different than like a tutorial. It's more like I love food. So, you know, it just show food, talk food, eat food, you know, go out for food, make it weird, you know, and, you know, we've we have this weird niche following, but I'm still trying to tap into how can I get that like call to action and my kind of show you've seen it. David And so let's just put this into practice here because I'm sure many people can insert their own YouTube. So into this. What are what are things you're seeing from midnight food come in that I'm we're not doing right that we could maximize on. Sure. Sure. So I'd say especially with a channel like yours, it's not tutorial based instructional educational. I would say the main thing you need to do with any channel is identify the core audience. Like you said, if it's a niche audience, like who are those weirdos out there that would label it with pride? Like I'm the weirdo that loves the show. Like, that's what we want to talk about. So I would say identify those people, get kind of a target demographic for them. Maybe, maybe they're 25 or 35. Maybe they're older than that, younger than that, whatever and then I would figure out, here's five main things these people all enjoy. Like, obviously it's food because they're watching the show. Probably travel because you're going all over the place. Maybe maybe some different music as well. I mean, you've talked about it's very eighties theme, so that might be a part of it too. And then also figure out of that group, what are they typically looking for? What are they interested in and what other sub topics can you weave into what you're doing? I think that's really, really important. A lot of my videos are about business stuff for videographers, but I share other things as well. You know, I'll talk about transitioning from a full time job to this or not. Like there's so many things you can do. And then if it's intuition strikes and you know, hey, this could help somebody. You just, I would say share it so that that would become the first thing is like clarifying your audience, knowing what they want and then going from there. Aside from that, it's definitely especially in your space, it's a YouTube and title or a thumbnail and a title game for sure. So how do I hook somebody's attention and grab them? David So let's talk title real quick. I know that some went out realizes that the title is everything from an SEO standpoint because YouTube is directly linked up with Google. What are some keys that you've learned from the title standpoint? Ryan Oh, sure, yeah. Title is everything. So what I and what I did with a lot of my why I had success on YouTube is I would keyword research and find titles that people were searching for five ways to grow business, tips for tax season, stuff like that, like all these things. And I would make a list and then those would be my topics I'd make. So the title I would say, find a keyword that you want to focus on. So for me, let's say it's how to make $1,000,000 in a year, which we use it in that example before that would be your first title or your in your title. And then somewhere in the description box you want to lease it. I mean, it's just like Google SEO, I mean, because it's owned by Google. So in the description today we're going to talk about how to make $1,000,000 in a year. You go to your tags million dollars in a year, $1,000,000 near the title, the thumbnail, $1,000,000 in a year in the video, in the first 5 seconds, say today we're going to teach you how to learn how to make $1,000,000 in a year because they transferred all of your stuff and the captions go in there. So it tells Google in five different ways. This video is about how to make $1,000,000 in a year. So if anyone searches that, they can find it if you're not going for search based, it's all about shock factor, jaw dropping. I have to watch this type stuff. You look at some of the best people in the business, Mr. Beast, Logan, Paulson, these guys that just thrive on just grabbing people's attention, that's really what it is. It's like this jaw dropping type thing, like how to juggle five running chainsaws at once while walking over. It's like, I have to watch this video. It's like those types of things. So I would say in your case, how do you how do you find one little narrative in your video that would appeal to a bigger mass audience than just your people? You know, I think that's that's a that's a big piece of it. David Thumbnails are also important. You know, it's interesting to me how many videos on YouTube, I see the thumbnail and I'm like, whoa, that's interesting. You click on it. And actually nothing that the thumbnail is actually in that video. But they knew how to do get you to click on the what are some of the key things that you've seen that work consistently from a thumbnails standpoint? Ryan Sure. I would say like statistically for me, anything with a face in it gets the click way more than a landscape. Say you're so you're doing a it's a Travevlog, you're going to Greece. I went to Greece for my honeymoon. We didn't do a travel blog, but it's like maybe it's a really nice pictures of the Santorini Beach. You get the white everything, people won't click it. Now, you put a person in there and they're smiling or their mouth open like ten things I didn't know about Santorini and my like my mouth is open for whatever reason. Statistically faces and having your mouth open, which sounds really like sexual and weird, but it's true. It's like the shock factor. 00:15:19:03 - 00:15:31:15 Ryan It's like because I've had my best performing ones, I can show you my channel. I'm all, like, looking at us. It's like five ways to do blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, shocked about it. That always grabs attention for, at least for me, I've seen statistically that way. David Yeah. It was interesting. One of the you know, when I posted some of my videos on my personal Facebook pages and such, you know, people would click on some of them and, you know, whatever. But there was one I have where I'm like literally like my face is there and my chin is down. I have like a triple chin under. David And I'm like reacting to this tan of, you know, and it I got more engagement for that short video organically speaking within my own circle than any of the other ones because it didn't feel rehearsed and super polished absolutely. So what other things like I know that YouTube thumbnails sometimes can be oversaturated with stuff and it gets too busy. Like what? What do you think of in general, esthetically wise? Sure. I would say it really depends on your audience. Like, I make a lot of stuff in the film production space, so a lot of people do really professional thumbnails. You know, they'll set up a backdrop, a lighting system like fog, whatever, just it looks really polished. I think there's that piece of it. But again, my audiences, those are those people. So it's like you have to kind of tailor to your audience what they're looking for. I think especially if you have like video production skills, I think that is a huge thing. So there's there's a guy down in Texas that he's a really interesting channel. His name's Joe Knows Best. So if you look him up on YouTube, great, great channel to look at as a case study, his whole channel's about cars. So like he he's owns a software development company, so he has a high income and he spends a lot of it on cars is single guy like that's all he does is just like invest in cars and flip them and whatnot and fix them up. But he also is very, very skilled with the camera. So he'll make these really awesome, engaging, high energy B-roll edits where it's like, you know, the cars flying down the road and there's drone shots and all this crazy stuff and there's all these car guys that watch the car car stuff's huge on YouTube, but it's all like 50 year old men in their garage with the GoPro where this guy's making it. And like, that's his it factors. He knows it's cars, it's technology, and it's high production value. That's what makes his channel so interesting. And he, like, puts a video out like once a month. People are just craving for it. But he just he's so busy with other stuff. So I think that's the it factor is like if you can find one, two, maybe even three things that when you mix them all together, you're the good stuff. I mean, it's the same thing with like a band, right? All these new bands that come out, it's like, oh, they're mixing country and hip hop and, and pop. And that's why it sounds unique or it's a country rapper and it's like, well, we've never heard that before. So it gets people's attention, right? So it's like mixing the best of different things and making it all your own. I think that's really what makes the channel stand out, especially from just the retention standpoint, right? It's like, OK, I've watched the first video, but would you ever watch another one from him? It's like, oh yeah. Like if he keeps bringing the content, he like, this is great. Like, I was really entertained. Like, I want to watch more and more of these. I think that's, that's a really big piece, too. Yeah. David What was, you know, you've had successful, you know, engagement and videos and then maybe there were a couple of years like not as much.

What were some things you learned that you needed to do differently? Sure, sure. I think the first thing is finding your sweet spot for length of video. People ask me all the time, Ryan, how long should my videos be like? As long as I need to be.

I've watched videos that are an hour long. I watch videos are 2 minutes long. It just depends on how engaging it is. I've done some where it's like one of my clients, I did a documentary of their bodybuilding transformation and we went to their show and they won the entire show and turn pro. So that was like, Oh, we didn't know that was gonna happen. So like when that happened, it was like a 30 minute video. People watched the whole thing because I was up with the guy at four in the morning when he's doing away in Spray Tan he's eating like all this food in the day, and then they're like sucking water down, like he looks like a dried up raisin. He's really tired. So like, people want to know all the itty bitty details because they know he won already, but they want to see how. So it's like, I could have made a really cool two minute review video, which I did for Instagram and for social media, but people want to see that whole link thing it just depends on the type of video. So I would say for me, my stuff with like edutainment, like I say, it's like educational, but it's entertaining. Eight to 10 minutes is where I try to hang out. Now, on the other side, YouTube now has mid role ads for anything over 10 minutes, so you make significantly more money on advertising if you have longer than 10 minutes. So typically if I go over on ten, I'm not too upset because I can run mid role ads, but I want to make sure it's really engaging and really helpful. I think that's the big thing is like cut all the fluff out breaths in between conversation scenes, boring stuff, like throw in some humor so people stay engaged. And the big thing for me, like from a video editing standpoint, it's like every 10 seconds there needs to be a visual aid or some other thing that cuts away from main subjects. So if we're talking in this, this podcast is a conversation, yes, we could just have our conversation, but having like text on screen or supporting B-roll to keep people's attention or switching cameras every 10 seconds, like those things keep the mosquito tendencies of the human mind at bay and it keeps people engaged in a long form piece of content. David Oh yeah. 100%. 100%. When we have video content that is, you know, where the scenes are switching up. Definitely the retention is is much higher.

What would you say about the that the end credit thumbnails that pop up where there's recommendations like do you like YouTube choose or do you direct people to the video you want them to go to or. Ryan Sure, sure. So in cards I always put a subscribe button and then usually the best for viewer suggestions that YouTube knows what YouTube knows and they'll usually suggest the video that's most applicable to them. So I typically do that now if there is like a video that's a part two, I've done some where it's like a longer videos. I've cut it into two things. I'll do that. So I'll put the part one in there. If you didn't see the first part, check out the first part, that type of thing. But typically that's, that's how I do it is like subscribe and then best for viewer. Now the other piece of it also is like the ranking formula because a lot of people ask me that it's like, Well, how did you rank videos? And it's like, well, I did my first five on accident and then like GoPro photography was my first one I ever ranked. I think I was telling you about this off air. How I was looking up terms and I found go for photography had 20 searches a month. I use a tool called Keywords Everywhere, which I think it was free. Now you have to pay for it. But that in combination with two buddy are the two tools that you can use to rank anything in search. You're essentially trying to hack what people are looking for and meet them at that point of of concern and what I tend to look for I usually I'll use the grocery store analogy. It's you're looking for people that are frequently going through an aisle with nothing in it and they're frustrated they're going through looking for kitty litter in the holes, the whole aisles empty like dang it, I just looking for some dang kitty litter and they keep going on. You're looking to meet that person with what they need at the point of need. So when they're searching in how to how to rank your website and your web design company and you rank that video and then you deliver and you help them, you've given so much value to that person, you earn their trust you've earned their they know like and trust you. And now you can collect that lead information. And that's that's been a huge thing for me with ranking videos that are intentional. With that I am eco structure because I have three or four videos that get me 30 to 40 new leads every week and it's from videos five years and older that still rank, still bring people in. And you talk about ROI on a video so you could put that on LinkedIn and it was no one cared in the day you posted it and it's like you can really add value and from an investor and marketing standpoint it's so worth your time to do it. I put thousands of hours into my YouTube channel, I only have 13,000 subscribers, but I've had, I can't remember how it's like over almost a hundred million impressions for free, free advertising, basically 300,000 people a year watch my videos. Like I said, I got hundreds and hundreds of people a year that opt into my funnels that become customers of mine. So it's, it's very if you do it right and you do it proper and it's a business, it can be very lucrative and helpful for you that way. Well, how often are you posting now? Ryan Sure. Yeah. I had made the goal this year to do one a week. I'm a little lackluster on that. Last year I really had a plan to do one a week. But then I was approached by a business opportunity from my channel that someone found me and said, Hey, I'd love to partner with you and do basically cross-sell your knowledge on my platform and we can create a course. Ryan So I paused last year in August, and we created a +05 lesson course that we launched in October. Called 6 Figure Filmmaker. So all the time that I was putting towards YouTube, I put towards my second course opportunity that I had. So this year I'm hoping I can do one a week especially in the summer. It might not happen because that's my really busy season. Ryan I have a bunch of shoots out of state and things I'm traveling for. David So but ideally speaking for someone who wants to grow their channel once a week would be ideal. Ryan Sure, sure. Yeah. I would say it's almost more picking up loads schedule and stick to it just for your own accountability. I try to do once a week because then on the macro you're getting 50 plus videos a week or 50 plus videos a year that are out. So in, you know, a couple of years you could have hundreds of videos. And again, it's all this ranking formula like 20 of them won't hit, maybe ten will and like two or three are going to rank for a long, long time. So it's more, I would say, quality over quantity for me at this point because if I start rushing videos out, it just feels like it's not me and I and my audience is video production folks, so they expect a certain level of quality. So I think that's a part of it too. And then the other piece of it would also just be picking one or two styles of video and trying to stick to those, but then being open to try to the things, you know, if you're a vlog channel, maybe have a how to video on there, have an interview or a behind the scenes or whatever, but like kind of keep people so they know what to expect from you. David Yeah, no, that's great. Great advice. If people want to find out more, if they want to hire you for consulting or they want to get resources from you, how do they go about doing that? Ryan Sure, sure. Yeah. You can learn all about all the stuff I do on www.SnaadtMedia.com I have helped quite a few other folks that are interested in YouTube and understanding it just to kind of get a better understanding of like how would we stand out and how would we differentiate ourselves. The other piece of it too is giving really tactical advice about how to actually shoot videos and I'm a huge fan of that shooting, so I'll try I'll tend to shoot like two or three videos in a day. And then I've got, you know, almost an entire month where the content shot in one day just to get you know, you look presentable one day and you can kind of you can mass produce it that way. So that's that's another strategy that I try to help people with is how to actually execute on it and stand out that way. David How about when you how are you found the best ways to promote that channel or the videos you you you launch and other platforms? Ryan That's a great question. So what I tend to do in my whole strategy is I'll do one in an ideal world, I'll do one long form video a good example is yesterday it was my production day, so I shot one long form video and it was a book review on a book I read called Private First by Mike Markowitz. Ryan And if you're familiar with that one, but it's an accounting. He's an accountant and he talks about ways you can structure your accounting and your small business to put profit first, hence the name. And I read probably 15 books last year and that was like the most impactful one. So I made a whole review video on it and helping other people do it. Ryan So that's like a ten minute video. I made a quick little and then what I did was flip my camera sideways, did a couple of different other like ticktock vertical style videos, you know, 5 minutes each, did three or four of those. And then what I'll do is I'll go in for that long form. I'll cut 30, 15 second or 32nd snippets from my long form and vertical. Ryan Those are going to be my tech talks, Instagram reels, the other little ones will be things I'll sprinkle in throughout the month, and then that's all I have to do. So for other people that are in here, like, man, this sounds like a really long time investment shoot. The one long form video and take two or three teasers from that and that's your whole content for everything. Ryan Verticals huge right now, especially on Instagram because they're trying to compete with TikTok. If you make Tic-Tacs, just upload and Instagram and you're going to see crazy profile growth. I mean, I have three or 4000 views every time on a on Instagram, real only like a thousand followers on my page. So there's exponentially more people that follow me that are seeing this and then you can reach more people there. Ryan So I would say long form YouTube all the way, do the vertical cuts there on social and then start to spread it that way. The other thing that I've been doing recently, Adobe has a new feature in Premiere that you can make transcriptions of your video. So I've just been downloading the SRT file that turns it into a transcription and that's my blog post. Ryan So now I don't have to manually write a blog post. I can literally take what I said word for word out of my video, put that on my blog hyperlink, my YouTube video in there for SEO purposes. So now I've just knocked out YouTube search, Google search for my website. I did run traffic there and I've got social content everywhere from just doing one hour of production every week. Ryan So that's like a really, really efficient way of actually doing it and executed on it and not getting overwhelmed like oh crap. I got to do three videos this week. It's just you'll just burn out. You got too many other things to do. David That's so true. What should we know? Anything else? What should we know? That we don't know. Ryan About YouTube specifically? I would say most people don't know. It's the second largest search engine in the world after Google. It's owned by Google and there are millions of people out there looking for exactly whatever you say or offer. So I would say YouTube should be if you're looking at like should I put content out on Tick-Tock, should I start doing like dances and start doing, you know, the on the dances and putting the text up and whatever, it's like quit chasing the trends like YouTube if if I'm looking at like investing into like tick tock Instagram, all that's like investing in Bitcoin. Ryan It's very volatile. You never know what's going to happen. You put a bunch of time in now and you hope it pays off later. YouTube is like the old school, like Roth IRA, like the Warren Buffett style of making content. It's like you take chips at a time and it pays dividends over or over the time that you have it, especially if you're really intentional and you follow that Emeka structure and you put out a handful of videos every year that rank well, they'll get views years and years later, and it's insane. Ryan Some of the things I made a video on LinkedIn, headshots, how to shoot a professional LinkedIn headshot with your phone or with a camera. And that video maybe got 10,000 views in the first year, which I was like, Awesome. That's really cool. Now there's 125,000 because it just keeps going up and up and up and up and if you hit certain things, the other thing I will mention statistics when you're looking at your analytics, if you get what I've seen a click through rate or when people see your thumbnail on the screen, if a percentage of ten or higher click through that triggers YouTube's algorithm to be like This is worth promoting to more people Ryan because people like this. So if you're looking at your analytics, you're like, I don't know why people aren't clicking my video. You might have a crappy thumbnail or title. You might be bad at making videos that those are bigger problems. But the other piece is also you might not your that your click through rate may not be over ten because all my videos have that are getting hundreds of thousands of years a year have know 1215 20% click through rate because the thumbnail on the title got my audience's attention and they clicked so that tells YouTube to promote it to more people. Ryan So there's a lot of I mean you can go really deep on the data how to actually hack the system, so to speak, but it really just comes down to starting small. Your first hundred videos are going to suck. My first 52 sucked. I played 40 subscribers to embarrass myself in front of which is actually a blessing. Not if I had 13,000 that I had now, I would have been really grabbing my pants like, Oh man, this ad it's not very good or whatever. Ryan So there's a process there for the business owner that's busy that knows I need to be on it. I would definitely say like hire an intern or one of your media team and internally and prioritize YouTube as the main. Like I said, shoot that long form once a week. You could even do more of those if you want. Ryan But shoot them and then you got all your vertical content there. There's some really good accounts out there to follow. Like Ryan Pineda, he's a real estate investor. His team does a really good job of that. He'll do a whole content day in one day and he gets a month's worth of content and his teams follows him around documenting everything. Ryan He's a really good one to follow as well, and people can obviously like hack my channel and see what I've done, what's which videos have worked, and if I found this kind of success, I mean, I've launched two, two online course businesses from my channel. It opened this whole new revenue stream I never thought of. There's like eight different ways I'm monetizing my channel with brand deals and AdSense and affiliate marketing and all these things. Ryan So if money's the way that you want to motivate yourself to do it, that's a way to do it too. It won't come early, though. So if you're looking to quit your day job, be a full time YouTuber in a year, that's probably not going to happen, but it's a good bonus where if you're viral on Tick Talk and you have 100 million followers and you don't make any money from it, YouTube, if you had a hundred thousand followers, you could be full time doing it. 00:32:16:15 - 00:32:17:12 Ryan If you know what you're doing. David So no, it's so true. It's amazing to see some people who are literally just they live completely off of their YouTube, you know, whether it be through the monetization through the sponsorships or through product sales that happen as well throughout. So it's a great tool. I love it. I absolutely love it. I've learned a lot in the last couple of years. David Still learning, learned a ton from you today. I think, you know, recently we we featured a Jacob Rapp on here for LinkedIn. We learned a long time about LinkedIn. We didn't know, you know, people know people who know their stuff in come onto this new show. It's very helpful for all listening. Very helpful for me. I appreciate you coming on, Ryan. Ryan Sure. Well, thanks for having me. I like I said, we can talk for hours on this stuff, but I think the biggest takeaway would be like YouTube is a very good investment for you if you're looking at doing long term marketing for your brand. That's a really good thing to take away from it. Most people just think it's a place you can look up on how to change your oil. Ryan There's a lot more out there and your audience is probably on YouTube. You just don't know it yet. David So true. And we have all of Ryan's details in the description box, links to his website, YouTube channel, everything. So be sure to check him out and I'm sure he'd be happy to have a one on one, one on one with you at some point if you have questions and want to hire him for his services. So, Ryan, thank you much for joining us and thanks to all who are listening.