223. How Primal Video built their YouTube community from 0 to 1.5 million subscribers

Productive Insights Podcast — Actionable Business Growth Ideas — with Ash Roy

Links Mentioned:

• www.productiveinsights.com/175
• www.productiveinsghts.com/200
• www.productiveinsights.com/222
• www.productiveinsights.com/212
• www.primalvideo.com
• www.productiveinsights.com/primal

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro

01:12 - The secret to growing a youtube channel from 0 to 1.5m subscribers

02:45 - YouTuber vs business owner who uses YouTube for growth

08:17 - Is it too late to start a YouTube channel today?

09:32 - YouTube rewards new content that's best for the viewer

10:49 - How Primal video built a following of 1.5m subscribers when other channels didn't achieve this

11:23 - The YouTube strategy for growth is so simple when you hear it

11:40 - The first thing you need to do is create content people want

12:02 - It's about talking to the problem and introduce the viewer to the solution

13:31 - The two things you need to do to get found on YouTube

13:45 - What drives a click on YouTube?

14:28 - The third thing YouTube cares about

15:53 - How to help YouTube understand your content

16:53 - YouTube follows Google's search principles

17:12 - YouTube is the second most visited site in the world

19:07 - What do I put in my course if I'm giving away everything for free

19:25 - Earning vs stealing attention

19:49 - Do you need to make ridiculous faces on thumbnails

24:28 - Justin Brown's favorite YouTube software

24:46 - Why JB uses Keywords Everywhere for Keyword research

26:08 - How I use Chat GPT and AI in content creation

31:10 - How frequently should you publish

31:32 - How frequent and how consistent should your uploads be

35:04 - Toipc selection

39:20 - YouTube analytics

39:47 - YouTube build in video editor

40:02 - How to reoptimise old YouTube content

40:29 - Is it safe to delete published YouTube videos

43:38 - How important is adding b-roll when editing

45:05 - Why creators use b-roll and other alternatives to b-roll

47:47 - Outtakes and bloopers

49:41 - Short form content vs long form content

50:28 - YouTube shorts recommended strategy

53:16 - We're testing a new strategy in this very video

54:07 - Affiliate revenue model

54:36 - The three revenue streams at Primal Video

55:16 - Affiliate marketing is a win win scenario

58:21 - The importance of integrity in affiliate marketing

59:33 - How an $8 purchase led to affiliate commission on $30,000 gym equipment

01:02:28 - The Primal Video community is amazing

Transcript:

Ash Roy 00:00

Justin Brown and Mike Brown from Primal Video have built a seven figure video marketing company, grown a YouTube channel from zero to almost 1.5 million subscribers at the time of this recording on YouTube, and have developed recurring income models while still helping tons of other entrepreneurs do the same. In this conversation, we'll be digging into Justin and Mike's YouTube channel strategies with Justin and how they use those strategies to build a successful business. I'm delighted to welcome Justin Brown from Primalvideo.com and we would love to talk about how you, our listener or viewer, uh, can build your business and brand authority using YouTube. Welcome to the productive insights, podcast and YouTube channel Justin.

Justin Brown 00:42

thank you very much for having me on.

Ash Roy 00:45

You're most welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to have you, Justin. I've been following your work for a long time and I really like the fact that you are somebody who comes from the heart. You're very genuine and I feel like your values resonate with me. We have a few common friends which we're chatting about on the preamble, so it's really great to have you here. So Justin, let's start with the most interesting bit, and that is, can you share with us the secret to growing your YouTube channel, Primal Video to almost 1.5 million subscribers from zero? How did you do it?

Justin Brown 01:24

Even that number seems a little crazy to me. Uh, look, I guess we started the YouTube channel eight years ago and uh, we started with no idea. Just make some videos and they will come and treated YouTube as a video hosting platform where throw some things up and you can go viral and get views and traffic have impact on it. But it really doesn't work that way. So we've gone through, we've made a lot of mistakes over our time. Uh, we definitely got to the point early on when it wasn't working that we nearly gave up and that it was a bad business decision for us at that point. So, I mean, while I make videos on YouTube and while we have nearly 1.5 million subscribers, I'm not a YouTuber. Uh, I make videos on YouTube which are, uh, able to show up and help and impact people with a specific pain or problem that they have. And the traffic and everything that we can generate from that. Adding value and helping people, uh, is also what grows and builds our business too. So it's an amazing business tool for us. But when it wasn't working, then it was a bad business decision for us to continue with what we were doing or we had to figure it out. The biggest mistake that we made and that a lot of people make, is not having a clear strategy, not having a clear plan in place, and the ability to try and test things and know what things to try and test, to be able to set yourself up for success.

Ash Roy 02:45

Okay, what really interested me in what you just said there is. You said I'm not a YouTuber. Can you tell us a bit more about that? What do you mean you're not a YouTuber? But yet you've used YouTube to build a very successful business. So what's the difference between you and your YouTuber?

Justin Brown 03:00

And there's nothing wrong with that term. I know a lot of people will say that's what I am for me, I'm a business owner. Uh, and we use YouTube for generating traffic and having impact. So it works very well for both of those. But typically what you would find with a YouTuber is that they're relying on going viral on YouTube. They're relying on just YouTube itself to pay them. And yes, there's some great ways that you can make money from YouTube but it's also very limiting and there's requirements. Um, before YouTube will start paying you, you need to have 4000 hours of watch time on your channel and you need to have 1000 subscribers. So a lot of people think that that's the only way that they can uh, make money from this stuff. Um, but in fact, you can actually start from day one again if you're treating it more like a business and a business tool. Um, even if you want to call yourself a YouTuber or not, if you're treating it that way that you don't need to be doing all the things that YouTubers feel they need to do like creating content every day or being on every social media platform. We have a very small audience on other platforms. We chose to go all in on one and that's I guess what a more strategic business person would do. Like where are we best to allocate our time and money and what focus can we have? Let's go all in on one and yes, dabble and play with some of the others. But I guess it's more the approach around it than thinking that there's a lot of stuff that we can lead to from this. But there's a lot of people that feel like um, that they're overwhelmed. A lot of people feel like I'm in burnout from uploading to YouTube and feeling like they're employed by YouTube and if they stop or take a week off that it's going to kill their channel. But none of that is true if you're not a YouTuber. Right? It's a business tool. I can upload when I like. Yes, there's definitely benefits in uploading consistently. But having the strategy is what we'll keep coming back to as a clear direction, clear ways to test and measure so that you can be successful with.

Ash Roy 04:57

This look that's really really interesting. And I was hoping you would say that because I wanted to try and draw that out for our audience. A YouTuber uh, is someone who identifies as such. But I have been watching your business for years now and I've been a member of your membership community, Primal Video which helps you to grow your authority on YouTube. And I understand that you see YouTube as a vehicle to build authority and attract your ideal clients. YouTube is not an end in itself for you, it is a means to an end. And I think that's an important, subtle, but important distinction. I spoke to James Clear in episode 175 about developing habits. Each time you perform, the habit is a vote towards the identity, is what he says. And that's an interesting point to me because when you create YouTube content, if you create it with the intention of seeing yourself as a YouTuber, you're building that identity. But if you're creating it with the intention of delivering value to a small section of the world who you want to help, as Set Gordon said in episode 200, then you are more likely to succeed in using YouTube as a means to building your business rather than becoming a YouTuber. Would you agree?

Justin Brown 06:17

One hundred percent. I love that.

Justin Brown 06:19

So it really is again about getting clear on who are the people that you want to show up for and the people that think like, I just want to be famous, right? And again, there's nothing wrong with that. But for who into what, it's harder because you're not classifying yourself necessarily into a specific niche. Whereas from a business perspective, there are ideal clients and students and people that you want to show up for. Now, that doesn't mean that you're going to rule yourself out of other audiences and niches as well. I mean, for us, helping people say on YouTube how to make videos and get views on them, we also have a lot of younger kids that are watching trying to grow their gaming YouTube channel. So that's awesome. I love that we have the ability to show up and help whoever with our content. But when I'm creating it, I'm creating it with a Clear avatar, a clear person in mind from a business perspective of I understand their pains and problems and I've been through a lot of them. So uh, how do I share my thoughts and opinions on helping them get to that? And if it can help anyone else as well, then that's amazing.

Ash Roy 07:18

Man, I got to say I, by any stretch of the imagination, don't think I'm famous, but I've come to be known a little bit more over the years. I've been doing this for ten years and I've had the opportunity to meet some really famous people and from what I can see, famous completely overrated and it's actually a burden in a lot of cases. I remember speaking to Seth Godin in episode 200 and he said maybe 7 million people have heard of him and he's one of the most, quote unquote, um, famous people that I know personally. And you know what? I don't think it matters that much. What matters to him at least is serving people, serving his audience and he says, find the smallest audience. So if you're watching this and you want to figure out where to start, I would recommend going and having a look at that conversation. It's at Productiveinsize.com 200, by the way. Any episode number I mentioned, you just go to the episode number, takes you there. So james clears productiveins.com. 175. So okay, let me ask you this. Is it too late to start a YouTube channel today?

Justin Brown 08:21

I mean, part of me, as a joke, just wants to say, yes, you've missed it, we're down. It's too late I'm sorry.But look, it's actually a really common question, and it's also a really big myth that's out there. Uh, and I guess where it comes from is people are looking on Google, on YouTube. And I pair the two together because we get a lot of traffic from Google with people not necessarily expecting to click on a video. They search for something and videos show up because it's the same company. Right? So, uh, a lot of people are looking and they're seeing, all right, there's already people out there with millions of subscribers that already have the following, or the audience, or they're already making the videos that I want to make. How do I compete with that? Um, so is it harder to start today than it was maybe ten years ago? Yeah, for sure there's more people on the platform, but at the same time, most people don't have a strategy. Most people are just hidden hope. Like, I'll create a video on this topic, throw it up there without a strategy, without a thought to what the viewers actually need, what YouTube needs, what's actually going to help people click on their video, and then what's going to help people actually stick around watching that video so that it's actually a benefit to them? A lot of people don't consider that stuff. So the biggest to answer your question, no, it's not too late. And the biggest reason why, outside of most people not having a strategy, is that YouTube rewards new content. YouTube wants to always get the best video in front of the right person when they're looking for it. Right. So it's a good experience for the viewers. That's what YouTube is looking for. Now, if it's only serving videos from ten years ago, five years ago that have millions of views, what if something's changed? So there is a massive opportunity for anyone, even with a brand new channel, you don't need to be going viral on every video. You can strategically show up in these top spots, even with a brand new channel, if you've optimized it. Right. But also because YouTube is looking at new or recent content, it's got to be good content. It's got to add value. It's got to entertain or help people and keep them watching. But, um, that's the opportunity there. So, yes, it is not too late for YouTube because YouTube wants new stuff. Too.

Ash Roy 10:19

Okay, we're going to come back and talk about the new content in a little bit more detail and the frequency of content and so on. I really like what you said about the YouTube strategy, and that being important. Now, I've been a member of Primal Video for a while now, primal Video Accelerator program. And I see how you teach that strategy and I understand exactly how that works. And I can see how you've done that to build your own business and your own YouTube channel. So can you give, uh, our viewers and our listeners a two minute snapshot on, if possible, on how you have used strategy to build this, following to 1.5 million subscribers? When other people I've seen haven't been able to do it, there's other people who have, by the way, not just you. Ali Abdal has gone from, I think I saw him at 200,000. Now he's at about three and a half million or something like closing on in 4 million. But he uploads content regularly, too. So I'll be quiet now and I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Justin Brown 11:20

Okay, look, I mean, there's definitely the strategy. The strategy is and it's so simple when you hear it and that's what makes them the best strategies. Look, really got to think of what does YouTube want and how does YouTube work? Uh, and this is something that I guess we didn't understand when we first started out, throwing content up and hoping that it would work. We didn't have this strategy in place. So this sounds very simple, but the first thing you need to do is focus on creating stuff that people want or that people are looking for. So even though you as the expert might be here saying, this is the stuff that people need, this is the solution, most people can't find that, uh, video or aren't looking for that because they don't know what to search for. They don't know how to find it. They don't know it yet. If they knew it, they wouldn't be looking for it. So it's about, uh, talking to the problem and creating videos around that and introduce them to the solution. The strategy for this is do some keyword research, right? Just even going to YouTube itself and start typing in a few different words around your topic, around your niche. Those auto suggestions that pop up, they're not random. They're things that people have actually searched for and are actually looking for. So that's where we're going to refine our topics. It's not me coming up with a random idea saying, hey, we should create this video. We're looking at the keyword research. So even if I do come up with a random idea, which is pretty rare, we'll, uh, validate it. What would people search for to find this? What would I search for to find this? And taking that step back on your content as the first step is something that a lot of people don't look at what you're titling your video really matters for the algorithm and the viewer. And if you're calling it episode 363, um, blah blah blah a Day at the beach, what's the value in there for someone no one's looking for episode 363? And what about that day at the beach? What's going to make them click? Uh, how do they understand what that video is about? So the first thing is we want to do that research. We want to then put that information, that phrase, that search term, that topic, we want to use it in the title, we want to use it in the video itself if we can. We want to use it in the description, wherever we can add this information to help YouTube understand that this is what our content is about. So it can start to test it in those places on the platform, right? That's the first thing. How do we help YouTube understand our content and get it placed on the platform? Now, let's say we've done this. The next step, our content is showing up places. We need to get it clicked on, right? It sounds so obvious. Of course you need to get the video clicked. But what drives a click? And it is the thumbnail image, the little picture, right? You got to think of you're on YouTube. There's so many little images, so many little videos for you to click on. What makes yours stand out about the others? How do people quickly work out what their video is about just by glancing at your thumbnail image? People do judge a book by its cover and your YouTube video is no different. So you want to grab people's attention. You want to try to help them work out if that video is for them or not before they click on it again. You don't want everyone on your video. You want the right people that are interested in that thing to click on your video so they're more likely to stick around. So it's a good experience for YouTube and for you with your content and for the viewer, right? So your thumbnail strategy number two is super important. The third thing, then you've shown up on the platform, you've got the click, they're on your video. If you don't keep them watching then you YouTube is going to see that it's a bad experience or that video is not fit or it's not very good. It's going to stop pushing it out. So it's not that there's one of these things you need to do. You need to level up on all three of these things. And no matter what level you're at, there's always a next level of things that you can be trying and testing to evolve, to get better with your titling, to get better with your thumbnails and how you're structuring and what you're saying or what you're doing in your videos to keep people engaged. And watching. That's really the strategy. That's what we're talking about here.

Ash Roy 15:04

Brilliant. I love how you've stated it in three specific steps. I'm going to take the opportunity to ask you another leading question. I know the answer, but I want to hear it from you. You said it's important to understand what YouTube wants. So what would you say are uh, YouTube's objectives and how do we align ourselves with those objectives? You already told us that to some extent, but I want to dig into that a bit deeper.

Justin Brown 15:28

That's good. So if we look at what YouTube wants, its eyeballs it's attention, it's time on platform. But also it gets that from people having a good experience on there. If you were searching for something or you went to YouTube and nothing related, nothing relevant, nothing interesting showed up, it would be a bad experience. So this is where YouTube's goal is to get the right video in front of the right person when they're on there, right? To keep them engaged. So what you can do to help YouTube understand your content is by titling it in a way which is helping it understand the content. It's not just as I said, episode 363 or whatever, uh, day at the beach. It's like how do we get very specific? Um, and this is where doing that keyword research or topic research is super important. So we're trying to help YouTube say, hey, when people are searching for this thing or looking for related or relevant content, this video is a fit for that. But it's also looking inside your video itself. That is the biggest ranking thing that YouTube is looking at. Because you could gamify the title, right? You could gamify the tags. We've all seen those clickbaity videos where you click on it. You got me, this has wasted my time. This isn't actually what it is, uh, that you thought it was. So YouTube is analyzing your video, it's transcribing your video, it's looking inside the text and everything that's going on to again, hit that goal of right video, right person to give them a good experience. So time on platform and YouTube session time is really what we want to help with now.

Ash Roy 16:53

Something that our uh, listeners and viewers may not know is that YouTube is owned by Google and their strategy is very similar to Google's strategy in that regard. I e. To deliver the best possible user experience, which is what Google tries to do with search as well. YouTube is the second most visited website in the world after uh, Google. Can you talk to us a little bit about that and what that means to our listeners and viewers in terms of business and brand growth?

Justin Brown 17:23

Yeah, I mean if you're showing up on the second most viewed website in the world, uh, what could that mean for your business? So this is where, uh, we like this strategy of being strategic on YouTube because it allows us to show up in both. Whether someone has a pain or problem, they're looking to solve something. People go to Google and YouTube to learn for free, right? To figure stuff out for themselves. Now this is before they want to go necessarily and buy they're watching reviews or before they're ready to go and jump into a full on course. They kind of want to dip their toe in the water a little bit and see if they can figure it out themselves first. Or you don't know what you don't know. Something could be really quick or you could spend the 10,000 hours to truly master something. So most people are going to want to sit somewhere in the middle but they're going to YouTube and Google first to try it themselves or to m be further along in their journey. This is the perfect opportunity for you to show up when they hitting those beginner level steps. Um, you can build that know, like and trust with them. Over time, they watch more of your content, say, hey, this person, this company, they're really helping me here for nothing. Imagine what their paid services are. Or you know what, this person just saved me a bunch of time watching YouTube videos. I um, just need them to come and help me or do this thing for me. So then they'll come to you for your products or services. So it goes both ways. And it doesn't mean that you need to have everyone flowing from YouTube directly to your business. There's other ways I said that you can add value and monetize your content as well, just from YouTube itself, or getting them onto your email list where you can deepen that relationship with them. It doesn't need to be selling on YouTube, no one likes to be sold to at any time, but especially on places where it's free content. Um, just come from that place of how do I help you? Because there'll be other ways that you can monetize that. So don't hold back on your content. A lot of people are worried about what do I put in my course if I'm giving away stuff for free? There's other stuff you can give away for free, other value you could add, or dive deeper into the strategies and things and really help them have success with it inside your courses and programs or in your business. But don't hold back to your viewers because they'll know that and then it's not a good feeling for them.

Ash Roy 19:26

Something that comes to my mind is a conversation I recently had with Derek Sivers who's the founder of CD Baby and he said something to the effect of being generous. And I actually learned this from Seth first. He talked about earning attention as opposed to stealing attention. And a lot of us try and steal attention and steal the click over the long term, you need to earn attention. One of the challenges I've found is with thumbnails, they recommend you have these surprised expressions and all that stuff to get the click. And it just feels so scammy. How do we create thumbnails that aren't scammy, but yet earn attention? I know that creating great content over the long term is definitely one way to do it, because they'll then see, okay, this is a video from Justin. He always creates good stuff. I'm going to click on it, but do you have to do those surprise expressions in the thumbnail?

Justin Brown 20:19

I actually love this question. Uh, look, the quick answer is, what works for one channel isn't necessarily what's going to work for the next. So the best answer here is to test. And there's tools out there, like TubeBuddy, which will actually let you AB split test your thumbnails. So we're not guessing, hey, this one might get clicked better, this one might not. Um, we're actually seeing over time same as you would, a B split test, maybe an email subject line or something like that, or a landing page. You can AB split test your thumbnail images. And I got to tell you, most of the times we run them, I don't pick the winner. So it's not what we think is the nicer, uh, prettier, uh, looking thumbnail where it's not some silly face or expression, it's the other one that pains me so much. Now, I wish from our tests that the thumbnail images that we have that I didn't need to be on them. Uh, because I do feel like an idiot. Smiling, pointing, which is the best editing. So, like, making silly expressions. But, hey, if I want to have the impact I want to have with the content, and I've just invested the time and money and effort to make those videos that I know are going to show up and help people and grow the business, then I want to make sure that that video gets clicked. So I'm going to do whatever it takes. And yes, it is pushing past that piece. I'd hope they don't feel slimy or a salesy or whatever, but I want to grab attention and I want to let people know that our video is for them. That's the goal of the thumbnail image. So if it means that I need to push my comfort zones to do it, then do it. But it means also that you need to be testing to see what works for you. I wish that, uh, they converted better without I mean, maybe we should just put someone else on instead of me and someone else can do that. That's fine. Um, but, um, it's about trying and testing for your niche, man.

Ash Roy 22:01

I think it's too late for you to try and not use you're the face of Primal video. Sorry, buddy. That boat is sailed. Neil Patel uses a lot of those surprise expressions on his thumbnails, too. He's a master of traffic. You should check out my conversation with [e-mail]. Two, one, two. He was also the very first guest. Episode number one.

Justin Brown 22:19

Wow. Having those expressions as humans, we connect with other humans through the eyes and through the face. And you're able to the body language, the expressions are going to tell the viewers something about that video and create that intrigue and help them get that click, uh, work out if it's for them so that they click or not as well. So there is a lot of psychology behind having a person in the thumbnail images and even the expressions and things that they're doing can help. Um, but also there's videos now, we've all seen them. They're faceless ones. They're AI generated content. If you've got a picture of you in them and you're actually in the video, then people can guess or assume that you're going to be in the video. So I want to learn from a real person. I want to learn from Ash and I know what he looks like. I hear a voice, I can line it up to that face. And I build that again, that know, like and trust with you. I build that connection with you. So you're starting that before they even click on the thumbnail image? Uh, before they even click on the video. Um, you're starting that you're setting the expectation for the video as well.

Ash Roy 23:21

Is it okay to create like a canva screenshot of somebody else? But then I think you already answered the question because then you're not getting what is on the outside of the tin, as it were. And so people are going to feel a little bit like, yeah, there's no congruence between the thumbnail and the content.

Justin Brown 23:41

Look again, I hate saying it, but the answer is to test because in some niches, it definitely is better. It doesn't matter who's on there. They're showing the outcome of the video, outcome of the pain or problem that the viewer has. It didn't necessarily need to be you or me in that thumbnail image doing that. It's how do people work out what the video is about and if it's for them? So if it's about, uh, overcoming fear, right? Does it need to be you on there? Or could you show a graphic or something of someone or something that represents someone overcoming fear? Um, like speaking in front of stage or being up at a height or whatever it is for overcoming that fear. How do you portray that? Uh, in the thumbnail image? It could be anyone. It doesn't necessarily need to be you, but there's obviously some psychological stuff in there as well and benefit if it is you.

Ash Roy 24:27

Now you mentioned TubeBuddy. Which are your favorite software tools? There's TubeBuddy. There's vidIQ. I use morning fame for keyword research. Which ones do you recommend and why?

Justin Brown 24:38

Okay, so there is lots of options. I say there's no perfect tool and there is pros and cons of all of them. So there's a very generic statement. The ones that we use, we use keywords everywhere for our keyword research. Um, look, we've found that that is the most accurate and the most amount of information that we need without it trying to guess. So a lot of the other tools, TubeBuddy, vidIQ, Morning Fame, they run their own algorithms and they kind of give you a competition score to say this search term is searched for at this many times per month. But based on your channel size, based on other content that's out there in the competition, we would advise you not to make this video or to make this video. Now, I have a problem with that piece because there are some videos still today that it's telling us not to make and that we have made, and they've been the biggest ones on our channel. So I'd much rather help people work out themselves. How many people are searching for this thing per month? How much traffic is there actually? And yes, still look at the competition, because that piece does play in, but it's more like, let's validate that this concept, this content idea is solid first before I'm told by another algorithm whether or not I should make this or not. So, for us, keywords Everywhere validating search traffic is our North Star. Other tools, yeah. A B testing on TubeBuddy. Love it. It is to me, their standout feature. Um, VidIQ, does have some cool stuff in there as well, but the main ones are, um, TubeBuddy and, uh, keywords everywhere for us.

Ash Roy 26:08

You mentioned artificial intelligence earlier, and there's a lot happening in that space. At the time of this recording, feb 2023, chat GPT is transforming the way we search for content. A lot of people are using it to create content. But my experience of Chat GPT is it creates what I would describe as fairly bland content. But I use chat GPT to do research. It's the best free research assistant I've come across at the moment. It's free and I ask it questions. For example, what do seven figure small business owners struggle with? And what keeps them up at night? And it'll give me an answer and then I iterate. So I riff with it and I use it as a brainstorming tool to dive deeper and deeper. And all it's really doing is helping me in not having to scroll through 100 different websites to come up with the information and just speeds up my research. It's also great for idea discovery, idea creation, as long as you are focused on your customer and a problem your customer is trying to solve, or your target audience, I would say it's garbage in, garbage out. So, uh, the quality of the questions you can ask Chat TPT determines the quality of help it can give you. Would you agree?

Justin Brown 27:21

100%. And this is where a lot of people right now, they'll put in a surface level question. They'll get a surface level answer and go, eh, it's not that good, it's not quite there yet. Uh, I mean, we've all heard that the people that can master those inputs, master the questions, are the ones that are really going to be ahead when these things become so much more popular. But there is also an element of training for these things, as you've probably found as well. Like if you're just asking a question without giving it much context or training or people getting it to try and write an article without it even learning their voice or without having context, then yeah, you're going to be hit and miss, I guess, with your results, because it doesn't have the data to pull from in terms of what you're actually after. Because there's so many different ways you could write an article, right? And you can actually pick a voice of different people and it will mimic that for you. But if you're not giving it that information or you're not giving it your voice, then it's going to be very hard to get something that you'll be absolutely pumped on as something that you could use without a lot of tweaking and adjustment. Ah, a lot of people aren't going to that level, and I think that's probably the biggest mistake. But it's also that this thing is still so new for a lot of us.Um, right.

Justin Brown 28:24

There's a bit of a few people that have been playing for a while, but this is the first time that a lot of us have had access to something like this. So I do think it's really powerful. But I love your approach. And this is kind of how we've been using it too. More like a sounding board. Like, if I am going to restructure, ah, a course, um, what could it look like? So let's just go back to absolute basics. Let's see what it says. Well, that's interesting. Yeah, maybe we've gone too advanced on this section in our current course or whatever it is. It's a great sounding board, but also that you can just keep diving deeper. So it's not these surface level questions. As you said, it's like, cool, what's the next question? What if we looked at it from this way? What else could be missing? And so the child mind approach with it because they say to treat it like a child even though it's got all this information. But if you approach it as a kid, like, anything's possible. Let's assume the answer is in here, but the questions that I'm asking, it, uh, might not be the right ones yet. Or how else can I ask this or give it information or context? That's really where the power is.

Ash Roy 29:20

I saw this awesome video on Tubebuddy's channel. By the way, I'm an affiliate for TubeBuddy. You can learn [e-mail]. TubeBuddy. They took the top five performing videos. They went to their advanced analytics on their YouTube channel, took five or six performing top performing videos, put the titles of the videos into Chat DPT and said, my channel has been doing well for these particular titles recently. Can you recommend more titles? I tried it on my own channel and it was amazing. It gives you some great quality suggestions that you might not have otherwise thought of. My point being, again, the quality of the information you put in there and the level of detail you put in there has a direct correlation with the quality of the output that you get and the specific city of the output that you get, which is what you need if you want to make an impact and you want to gain attention in a very attention deficit environment.

Justin Brown 30:18

Yeah, I agree 100%. And think of it as like a conversation that you're having with someone that you've never met before. Right. They could ask you a question. You don't have enough context to give them a very detailed answer. So if you're going to give them any answer at all, uh, it could be a question to clarify. Like when you say this, what's your use case where you're at something advanced, beginner, whatever, or you're coming back with something super generic and say, cool, here's what I do. But it could be take it or leave it from their side because there is more information that they haven't given you. It's like someone's asking, what's the best camera? My first question back to them is, what have you looked at so far? Uh, what have you narrowed it down to? Because there's that many options and they're not just asking out of the blue like, oh, I've got to get a camera. What should I get? They're probably given some thought or there's some requirements, restrictions around budget, their use case, the types of videos they're making, their experience. So I would treat it the same way, is that there's extra context to your questions? How do we provide that to this thing? Because it's not going to know.

Ash Roy 31:18

Let's switch over to content frequency. That's something I've been wanting to ask you for a long time. I've seen different YouTube creators for a long time. Ali abdal Gillian Perkins yourself. They've grown at different rates. How frequently should we publish and upload content to YouTube and at what consistency? I know the two are different things. You're probably going to say be as consistent as you can comfortably manage, but what is a minimum frequency of upload to be competitive and for the algorithm to notice that you're around?

Justin Brown 31:51

Well, I think you're a spot on with the answer that you thought that I would say. But, uh, we can dive deeper into that because look, you want to look at it and say, it is again going to come down to the types of videos you're making. And for some niches, if you're constructing something, you're in an art and half niche, you're making something or you're working off sharing results from a project, uh, or from your client's success, you can't necessarily make those every week. They could be once every other week. It could be once a month. Now, some of the biggest channels, they upload videos once a month. Some of the biggest channels on the platform upload a couple of times a year. But those videos are strategic. They are very well optimized, and they are amazing videos. So without trying to put all your eggs into one or two videos a, uh, year and try to have that sort of success, it's not a game I'd want to play. We landed on one video a week. Now, back when we started, people were saying that you need to do three times a week or you need to go daily for success. And, I mean, yeah, you could have success doing that, but it's not a game that I want to play. I love making videos, but I love not having to make them every single day or three times a week. So the answer really is, as you've said, um, to find what works for you. But the more consistent you are at uploading good optimized content, the faster you can see results. And good optimized content are the three things there. Don't just upload stuff because you're like, hey, it's been a week. I haven't put anything out. I'll quickly shoot a video. No, wastes your time. It's unlikely. I mean, it could take off, but come from that place of if I really want to add value. And I'm strategic business owner, strategic marketer, uh, entrepreneur, uh, here. And I am respectful of my own time and other people's time that are going to click and watch this video. How could I make this video better and release it then when it's ready? So, for us, that works out as one a week, because I'm never on that hamster wheel, we're able to film them in batch. I'm filming a minimum of four at a time, which is four weeks worth of content. Um, we've done as many as eight or ten in a time, which is eight or ten weeks worth of content. Right. But it's going to come down to the individual videos. Some videos will take me longer to make than others, especially if I've got to learn how to use something or do all the research and everything for it. So you might find that there's some videos you can do quick, others long, and you'll get to know that the more that you do them. And that's my take on that.

Ash Roy 34:11

And just to your point, people like, say, Mr. Beast, I heard, I don't know if this is true, but I believe he spent something like a million dollars on producing some of his videos. A lot of money away. That's a big investment, and that's a lot of risk. And he's built up to that. That's the first thing. But he also has spent years researching the channel. Or you look at MKBHD, he's in a different niche. He's in the tech niche. But his