Welcome back to the series on becoming a voice of influence and impact in the 21st
century and the digital age.
There's a huge opportunity that we talked about in last episode along with the why
and the fruit. So if you haven't watched that, go check it out.
But in this episode we're going to be talking about how to actually come up with
your ideas that are going to impact the,
your audience and how to execute upon those ideas because ideas are nothing
without execution.
Again,
we're going to be covering three bullet points, knowing what you want,
creating your content strategy, and then creating your first video.
So let's hop into knowing what you want.
The first rule of any sort of endeavor that you embark upon is you have to know
exactly what you want, what impact you want to make.
Psalm 37 four says delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires
of your heart.
I believe that's made to mean that he will give you your heart new desires.
So as long as you're delighting yourself in the Lord and seeking him in this,
I believe that what you want is also what the Lord wants. So go for it.
If you're interested in, in a woodworking, if you're interested in cars,
if you're interested in just, you know, fun challenges and videos,
if you're interested in adventure,
that's where you're going to be deciding what is my channel going to actually be
about and what goals do I want to hit in order to really maximize the impact and
the effort that I'm putting in?
Because if we don't have goals and an action plan that we can even measure,
then we're kind of just gonna be flailing around not knowing exactly what we're
going to do. We can't measure our past actions or learn from our mistakes.
So in order to know what you want, we have to set some goals around what we want.
So I like to use the smart goal method. What it stands for is specific,
measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.
And this could possibly be the most important part of this entire series because
this not only applies to YouTube, but this applies to your entire life.
This could apply to your spirituality, your fitness, your marriage,
literally any area of your life.
If you know how to set goals well and make an action plan,
I believe that's good stewardship.
I believe that's taking your talent and multiplying them like God wants us to
do. And it's one of the most exciting things about this entire series.
So an unsmart goal or what I like to call a dumb goal would be,
I want to post more videos or in another way, maybe you want to read more books.
You say, I want to read more books. Now, if I want to post more videos,
that's a pretty vague goal. How many videos do you want to post?
How many videos do you want to post in one amount of time? How many,
what type of videos do you want to post?
But if I took that goal and placed it into the smart goal format,
it would come out as I want to post 52 videos within one year,
which is a video every week in the entertainment challenge niche.
So that's where I'm based out of another way. Say you did a woodworking,
you're in the woodworking niche. Say it's January 1st,
then you would say I will post 52 videos by December 31st,
2024 with an average of 10,000 views per video.
That would be a much smarter measurable goal.
So it hits all the points. It's very specific. It's measurable.
How many videos do I want to post in what amount of time?
That means I'd have to post weekly. I can measure that by saying, well,
did I post this week? No, I didn't. Then I'm not reaching the goal. Did I?
I did. I'm reaching the goal. Attainable.
Is that attainable with the current resources and time commitment that you have?
That's a good, that's a great question to ask.
You don't want to set a goal that's completely out of your reach.
I believe it's very good to set goals that stretch you that are,
I believe in 80% impossible goals that you believe aren't fully in your reach,
but we'll stretch you a considerable amount to hit.
But you do want to make sure that it is in the realm of possibility. So for instance,
I wouldn't say I want to make a video on Mars because I don't think I'd be
coming back from that. I mean, it's an attainable goal, but not,
not for me specifically. And that leads us to the next one, which is relevant.
Is this goal relevant to what you want to accomplish in your life?
Going to Mars wouldn't necessarily be relevant for me.
So you need to figure out what is relevant for you. For instance, you know,
buying a Lamborghini might not be super relevant for me,
but maybe buying a rental property would be relevant so I can set a financial
goal to do so. And then lastly,
what I believe is one of the most important is time bound.
If you set a goal, but don't set a due date for it,
you're just going to be saying, Oh,
I'll get around to it and then 10 years go by and nothing has changed. Uh,
and I believe in bearing fruit in this life. I believe you believe the same,
a time commitment, a due date, a time bound goal is very,
very important in this, in this journey, in both your YouTube journey,
as you're building your YouTube business, uh,
or in other aspects of your life, whenever you're setting goals.
Now that we've set a smart goal based on what you specifically want,
remember this is for you and God and the desires that he has placed in your
heart. You can get inspiration from other people,
but don't feel the need to copy anyone. This is a specific to you.
You've set that goal. What I'd suggest is create an action plan,
which are pretty much many goals within that goal for the steps that you need to
take in order to accomplish it. If I may, if I need to make 50,
two videos, well then maybe one of my steps
in my action plan would be to set the next 10 videos
that I need to make in my calendar
and get those planned and creatively locked
as we'd say in the writing space.
So that's an example of an action plan.
So you have your goal and you've,
what I'd suggest is you create an action plan,
you've created an action plan.
Keep it simple, remember complexity
is the enemy of execution, so just keep it super simple.
And now that you figured out what you want,
you need to figure out how you're going
to serve your audience with that,
which leads us to point number two,
which is your content strategy.
First of all, how do we create our channel
and how do we then make the content strategy
for that channel?
Now there is a very, very specific
and effective way to do this
that I'm gonna be sharing with you.
This is between you and me.
Keep it a secret because this is what I use
to come up with my ideas and my content strategy.
And to be honest, not a lot of people,
even who have full-time careers on YouTube,
know about this and it is a pretty competitive space.
So keep it between you and me.
I'm sharing this in confidence.
Essentially, if you don't know how to create a channel,
there's great tutorials for that on YouTube.
So just search on YouTube, how to create a YouTube channel.
They kind of want you to, so you might actually find
that you already have a YouTube channel.
But what I would suggest is creating a brand new email
just for that YouTube channel
and never ever using that email for anything else ever.
Security by obscurity is the best way.
And if you end up, it's the best way to stay secure.
And if you end up turning this into a viable business,
you do not want any people finding that email
because people like hackers or anything else,
if they find your email, they have an opportunity
to take control of your channel
and actually destroy what you've built.
So what I'd suggest just as a foundational thing,
create a brand new email and never ever use it for anything,
never ever show anyone it.
Now that that's done,
let's get into the actual super important stuff,
which is content strategy.
On YouTube, obviously Jesus is king, but content is queen.
So you wanna make sure that you come up with a strategy
that you can provide the most amount of value
to your audience.
A lot of people end up thinking if they don't get views
that YouTube is against them,
that YouTube shadow banning them.
It's not the case.
YouTube, the way that they make money is through advertisers
and the way that they get advertisers
is through serving their viewers well.
So their entire goal is to put the best video possible
for a specific viewer,
whether that's a grandma interested in cooking
or a young man interested in faith,
they will put the best video for that person
in front of them.
What I'm gonna be teaching you is how to find out
what is currently working,
what people are currently interested in in your niche
and what your ideal viewer is stoked on
that you can provide them the best value possible.
In creating your content strategy,
remember that every single thing from YouTube
to your channel is centered around serving the viewer.
This is just like in business,
when they say know your customer,
you want to know your viewer because they are your customer.
A lot of people talk about the algorithm
and how, oh, we need to serve the algorithm,
we need to please the algorithm.
In reality, the algorithm is the audience
and the algorithm is providing the audience
the best content that they can receive.
Now, how do you actually find out what's currently working?
How do you find out what is the best content?
I don't even know where to start.
I'm a 30-year-old man who's interested in woodworking.
I watch a couple of guys on YouTube already,
but I don't really know what to do.
Or I'm interested in cooking,
I never watch YouTube except for tutorials.
How do I make this effective?
The factual best way is by using
YouTube's recommendation engine and leveraging it for you.
How do we do that?
Well, what you're gonna do is
you just created your YouTube account,
you're gonna create a brand new account.
And what you're gonna do is you're going to search
for people who are only in your niche.
So if you're in cooking, you're gonna search
and discover videos that are in the cooking niche
and you're gonna start to watch those videos
as if you are your own ideal viewer.
So you're putting yourself empathetically
in the shoes of your ideal viewer,
you're treating your neighbor as yourself.
You're literally watching these videos
that are already performing well,
so you wanna find the videos that are performing well
on the YouTube page that have millions of views
and you want to watch that video.
Watch it all the way through and then watch another one.
This is gonna take a little bit of time.
So you wanna block out about an hour of time for this
and then do it consistently.
I do this every single day.
I watch an hour of YouTube
and it sounds like it's counterproductive,
but I go on my Recon account,
which is pretty much what I believe
by assumption that my ideal viewer would wanna watch.
And I watch videos, I analyze the videos,
I see how did this video get 10 million views in a month?
What did they do that worked?
What did the comments say?
And then I watch another one.
And what YouTube then does
is because it's a recommendation-based engine
and 80% of the views come from recommendation,
it now suggests to me as the ideal viewer,
better videos.
to watch and therefore I can actually take those videos,
see what's working, see what's trending,
take those ideas and make it into my own
for my content strategy.
You're putting your feet in the shoes of the audience.
It allows you to create for your audience
and not just see YouTube as this algorithm,
this lifeless algorithm because in reality,
every single view, every single hour
that's being watched on YouTube
is being watched by a real person
and this is how you figure out how to serve them best
and most effectively also for your business.
What am I gonna do when I find those videos
that are performing really well?
If I see a video that has 10 million views
and it happened in a very short amount of time
or a million views on a channel
with not a lot of subscribers,
that tells me that there's traffic
and momentum behind the video.
I'm always looking for traffic and momentum on YouTube.
If there's momentum behind a topic,
it means that the audience
and the popular culture is interested in it.
Now, if you're wondering what traffic and momentum is,
they go hand in hand.
They're kind of the same thing.
They run together.
Traffic is essentially,
if you think about a billboard being on the side of the road
and a lot of people seeing that billboard,
momentum just means that this topic is gaining momentum.
So is it a successful billboard or is it not?
That's kind of how the YouTube homepage works.
It takes topics that an audience is interested in
and if it sees that there's traffic around that topic
and the more people they send it out to,
there's more traffic,
then that's how you actually start
to build momentum through traffic.
So what I want you to do
is when you're creating your content strategy,
I want you to think of a Venn diagram
where you have your circle here, which is your interests,
and then you have another crossover circle,
which is your audience interests.
Now, if you want to really skyrocket things,
and this is why Recounter Research helps,
you add a third circle to that Venn diagram
and it says popular culture,
and that's what's gonna bring things in
and catapult them to a new level.
I can give you an example.
For my channel, I did Taekwondo for many years
and gymnastics as well, and I was interested in that.
My audience is also interested,
but when I brought in the pop culture of Marvel
and we replicated Hollywood movie stunts in real life,
that's when things really took off
because it not only could connect with people
who were interested in parkour,
but it could also connect with people
who maybe didn't even know how Hollywood stunts work
or wasn't even interested in gymnastics or parkour.
So that's why it's very, very important
to bring in the popular culture aspect
of what you're doing and what your audience is interested in
because then that brings in new viewers
who you can continue to impact.
Obviously, this isn't about getting more and more views
necessarily at the core,
but it is a key aspect of your business
and I believe the more impact that you can have,
the better, and if you're doing this excellently,
then YouTube will recommend your videos
and you will get views and this is just one way to do it.
So now I've found the videos that are performing well
and that have traffic and momentum behind them.
Remember, lots of views in a short period of time
or lots of views on a smaller channel,
that means traffic and momentum.
And when you find those videos, you want to ask yourself,
how can I take this idea and add to it?
You don't want to be a voice that just copies.
You want to take the current idea, make it better,
make it your own, add your own twist to it,
and the best way that you do that is through storytelling.
Now you've taken that idea and you've made it your own,
you've added to it, you've made it better,
if it's really similar, credited the other creator
for allowing you to take the idea
and enjoy making something,
and that actually even builds community as well.
Don't think that that's copying,
think of it as replicating and innovating upon.
So you want to take what's working,
replicate it, but don't do it exactly,
add your own twist to it, provide value,
add to the conversation,
don't just take from the conversation
and make it a great video in your own way
because we're all fearfully and wonderfully made,
we're all unique, we all have a unique voice
to add to a topic and it's not copying
for you to jump in on the conversation.
Now that we have that idea and you don't feel guilty
about really doing what works and making it your own,
I want you to now think about how can I turn this idea
into a repeatable series and system,
what we would call in YouTube, a bucket.
So for instance, on our channel,
we replicate movie stunts in real life.
I actually got that idea from a friend of mine
in the space who made compilation videos
of replicating stunts from Marvel,
stunts from other movies, but what we did,
my friends and I, is we took that idea
and we turned it into a competition.
We provided value in the space, we made a new format
and that format is repeatable.
So I can say blank stunts in real life,
Sonic stunts in real life, Iron Man stunts in real life,
Spider-Man stunts in real life, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera, Jackie Chan stunts in real life.
But if you're catching the drift,
this is a repeatable video, both in your title,
in your thumbnail style and in your video style
and that takes.
so much of the creative energy,
instead of trying to come up with a new video every time
and reinventing the wheel,
it allows you to have a structure that already works
and then just to make that 100% better
by throwing in different aspects
that your audience would be interested in.
So for instance, if I had a cooking channel
and I want to appeal to the recommendation engine
and not just the search engine,
I want the viewer to get to know me
and want to come back for me
and not just because I taught them how to make a souffle,
then maybe what I'd do is I would cook
for a sumo champion or I would,
and then turn that into a series.
I cooked for a sumo champion.
I cooked for the Marines.
I cooked for et cetera, et cetera,
if you're catching my drift.
Once you can create this one bucket,
you now have a repeatable video that you can test,
try to make better,
and if it works,
then that is now an established bucket on your channel.
It's an established series that your audience enjoys
and that you can repeat.
But if you just keep doing this bucket the same exact way
every single episode and upload,
then your audience could get tired.
And that's why in our content strategy,
we want to have four to six buckets,
especially if you're uploading consistently.
You want to be able to cycle through these buckets
on a monthly basis.
So if I were uploading weekly,
I want to have four different buckets that I cycle through
that my audience is interested in and that work.
And then from there,
I might have a fifth experimental bucket
that I'm testing a new series, a new video format.
And then I just repeat that process.
So if I, again, were a cooking channel,
I might cook for,
I cooked for blank,
or maybe I tried the world's best five-star restaurant
in the cheapest city.
Like that could be like a series.
I tried the world's best five-star restaurant in Japan,
et cetera, et cetera.
And then I'm cycling through these buckets
with each upload.
This keeps things fresh.
And then when you actually find an experimental bucket
that works,
you look at what bucket is performing the least
and you drop it
because you want to give your audience a new experience,
an awesome experience every time that they come back
to your channel, a fresh experience.
Cause a lot of people on YouTube,
again, they're just coming to watch YouTube.
Some of them are coming to be educated.
Some of them are coming to be entertained
and kind of escape what's going on.
And what you can provide for them is again,
ministry and sharing the word of God,
not only through your words,
but even through your actions.
That's what our content strategy is for.
It's really to serve the audience.
And if we can create these cycles,
these rhythms that we go through,
that do serve our audience,
then not only will it be a fresh experience for them,
but it will also be a much easier experience
and lower lift experience for us
in creating content that serves them well.
So I know that was a lot to take in,
but I believe in you.
If you have to rewatch this video
in order to fully grasp it and even take notes,
I would encourage you to do so
if you're really planning on taking this seriously,
but make sure to check out the next episode
where we're actually going to learn
how do we create our first video
that might turn into a bucket?
And then how do we analyze the performance of that video
to multiply the growth of our channel?