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Work Less, Earn More is the podcast that explores how to get the most out of every hour you work. Gillian Perkins brings more than a decade of experience as an entrepreneur and educator to help you design a business that's not only flexible and fulfilling, but highly profitable. She shares strategies that are working in her own business to save time and maximize profits. She also features interviews with successful business owners on how they’re achieving big things in their businesses with crazy-little time investment. Share Work Less, Earn More with an overworked entrepreneur you know who could use a change of pace!
[0:00][intro bumper]
We became entrepreneurs because more than anything, we want freedom. We want to be in control of our own schedule, income, and life. But unfortunately, that isn't always the reality of being a business owner. I'm Gillian Perkins, and I'm on a mission to take back entrepreneurship for what it's supposed to be.
In every episode, I'll share with you how to get the most out of every hour you work so that you can work less and earn more. Let's get to it.
[/intro bumper]
Brittany:
[0:36] Gillian, I'm so excited to have you here and really to pick your brain when it comes to all the amazing things that you do, balancing business, balancing motherhood as well, but specifically talking to you about your YouTube strategy as a self-proclaimed YouTube lover, as a consumer.
Brittany:
[0:55] So I'm really interested to know how we can really leverage this as business owners. So please take us back to the beginning. You've built this thriving business. You're teaching other people now to do the same thing. You're balancing six kids at the same time. So really, how did you get here? And how did you manage it all at the same time?
Gillian:
[1:16] You know, you said that you are a self-proclaimed YouTube lover, like YouTube viewer yourself. And that is where YouTube started for me is I loved watching YouTube, you know, of all the social media platforms. Back in the day, especially, it was definitely the one that I spent the most time on. And so it was very appealing to me. You know, I saw these people on YouTube who I really looked up to for one reason or another, and their job looked so fun. And it made me want to do it, too. I didn't think it would ever happen, though, quite frankly. Growing up, I would never say I was like the cool kid in high school. I didn't have like a big circle of friends. I had, you know, some good close friends, but I wasn't like the popular kid. And so I thought, you know, if I can't even find, you know, a big group of friends in high school, how would I ever? I didn't even consider this, but the underlying belief was how would I ever attract hundreds of thousands of followers? I didn't think that was possibly in the cards for me. And so for many years, I didn't even try. Why put effort into something that you don't think that you will succeed at? And even when I did finally start YouTube, I was never expecting to have 100,000 followers or today I have a bit over 700,000 followers. Never expecting that to happen. My wildest dreams were maybe a few thousand followers.
Gillian:
[2:38] But what actually got me started with YouTube initially was the first time I tried YouTube, it was just like, let's just give this a try, you know, make some videos for fun. Maybe, maybe I'll get a few thousand followers.
Gillian:
[2:51] Maybe. Crazy that would be, right? Maybe I could make a few dollars at this. And I put about two years into my first channel and didn't see very much growth. Over those two years, I posted about 50 videos. It was sporadic. I was like always trying to post more, that sort of situation. It was just really hard to be consistent. And I wasn't organized enough, you know, to be on top of a posting schedule. I wasn't motivated enough, it seemed like. And after those two years, I had about like 900 subscribers, which obviously was gross, you know, that was certainly better than where it started. But that was way too slow. You know, I kind of did the math and I was like, man, I'm going to be an old lady by the time I have enough subscribers that I could actually like be making money at this. So I don't think that's going to work out. Also, kind of the defining moment that led me to quit that channel was I had a couple of videos go viral.
Gillian:
[3:45] That might sound weird. Like, why would that make you quit? But so I had a couple of different videos that took off. One of them got half a million views. One of them got about 250,000, so like a quarter million, which, you know, in the grand scheme of things is that some people say like, oh, that's not viral. You know, millions is viral. But for a tiny channel where I was normally getting, you know, 50, maybe 200 views tops on a video to get hundreds of thousands of views. I would say even today, I would say that that is viral because it was reaching far beyond the scope of my existing audience. It was spreading, you know, the algorithm was promoting it for me to hundreds of thousands of people. What happened when those videos took off like that was suddenly I was able to kind of have a perspective shift where up to that point, I kept asking myself in the back of my mind, why aren't more people watching my videos? Why aren't people finding my channel? Why isn't my channel growing? And I didn't really know the answer to those questions. Then those videos took off. And suddenly, I was kind of able to see my channel from the outside and kind of be able to see what other people were seeing. I was like, oh, lots of people are looking at this video. What are they seeing? And what I saw was a terrible quality video.
Gillian:
[4:55] Quite honestly, I have no idea how those videos did take off because the camera quality, if nothing else, the camera quality was abysmal. And also, I was like, awkward on camera. I had edited them myself, of course, because, you know, this channel wasn't making any money or anything like that. And my editing was just like tacky, cheesy, kind of, you know, like too many transitions, awkward text on the screen, all these different things. And so my question shifted from why is no one watching to why are people watching this? Why is this spreading? And I got embarrassed about it, embarrassed about the quality of the content, embarrassed about the content itself, because it was just like a lifestyle channel. Essentially, I was talking about things like beauty and makeup and hairstyles and stuff like that. And I was like, is this what I want to be known for? I don't know. I don't think so. At least not with this quality, you know. And so I shut it down real quick. And I didn't think that I was done done with YouTube, but I knew that I was done with this phase of YouTube and I didn't know what was going to come next. So I just kind of put it on a back burner. I kept researching on YouTube. I was trying to figure out like, why are some channels on YouTube successful when others like mine just kind of stay stuck really small? What's the difference? And is there a consistent pattern? Like, are there some things that if a channel does those things, it does grow? So like, what's the criteria here for being successful on YouTube?
Gillian:
[6:21] And I just was kind of nerdy about this question that was on my mind. I ended up researching thousands of channels and analyzing thousands of videos to try to find trends there.
Gillian:
[6:33] Meanwhile, in my kind of my day job, two things were happening. I was running a local business. It was Northwest School of Music. So it's like a local music academy, the biggest one in the state of Oregon where I live. And that was kind of my day job. It was paying the bills. It had started on not a whim but on accident people had just started asking me for music lessons because I played piano and flute myself and I was really hesitant at first because I had no experience with teaching or anything like that but I got pulled into it you know I finally said yes I guess I'll try you know no promises and that kind of spread somewhat virally as well or at least completely organically no advertising at first just took off until I had a full plate students, it was my full-time job for quite a few years. And so that was really interesting to me. I learned a lot of things through that. I knew from the start, it wasn't my career plan. I never planned to be a music teacher when I grew up or anything like that. Throughout the entire it ended up being 11 years of running that business for the first like five or six years. It was me on my own serving the students. Then I started hiring people. I rented out a space downtown, that sort of thing. And it grew to be like a couple hundred students and a dozen teachers who worked for me. But throughout that whole time, I had this question on my mind of like, what do I want to be when I grow up?
Gillian:
[7:52] Do I want to start a business? Do I want to? Because I was like in college for part of that time and I was exploring different majors and thinking about what those different majors would lead to, like what jobs they would lead to. And I kept reading through that list of majors at college because I started out with like general studies, you know, and just like associate of arts, associate of science, those really general degrees. but I knew I had to specialize if I was going to continue on beyond the first two years. But none of those degrees appealed to me because of the jobs that they would lead into. And I was like really kind of scratching my head about this. I was like, why am I so picky? Why don't I like any of these jobs? What's and what I finally ended up realizing a couple years after that was that I didn't want a job. I wanted to be my own boss. I wanted to run my own business. I was interested in entrepreneurship and also like marketing and things like that. And the idea of going to work for 40 hours a week for, let's be real, maybe like 20, 30 bucks an hour was just not appealing to me. That did not like my time felt to me like it was worth so much more than that. And I don't mean like I deserve more than that. And I don't mean other people should pay me more. Like, you know, I'm a business owner and I've had employees for now going on 20. Is that right? That sounds crazy. Going on 20 years, you know, over 15 years.
Gillian:
[9:17] And so I totally understand the value of an employer, the value of a contractor and why you have to pay them the amount that you do to be able to, you know, break even, have a profit, all of those sorts of things.
Gillian:
[9:27] But just on a personal level, my time was worth more to me than that. There were things I wanted to do that, you know, I would gladly pay that 20 or 30 dollars to have the hour to spend on those things. So the math here just wasn't working out. Like my time was worth more to me than other people would be willing to pay me for it. And so I realized that actually having that school of music was kind of scratching a particular itch. While I didn't want to, quote, be a music teacher when I grew up,
Gillian:
[9:55] I did want to work for myself the way I was doing. It just needed to look a little different. So what I ended up doing was I sold the music school and I started a marketing agency. So the little backstory here is that throughout those 11 years of running the music school, I was starting a different business almost every year on the side.
Gillian:
[10:15] Every year I was like, I don't want to be a music teacher. So maybe I want to be a real estate investor. Maybe I want to help in the wedding industry, like all sorts of different things like you name it, I tried it pretty much. I was like, do my research, I would work with some people, I would start up a little startup, and just kind of dip my toes in. And every time I did that, you know, the number one thing you have to do to have a business right is get customers. You don't get customers, you don't have a business. So every year, I was kind of on a new marketing campaign for the new business to get the first customers. And throughout those, it was probably about like seven years of starting different businesses. I tried all the different sorts of media that you can think of, all the different sorts of advertising. So I put up billboards around my town. I put ads on the radio. I ran Facebook ads. I ran Google ads. Like, again, you name it, I tried it. And so by the end of that time, I knew a lot about different kinds of marketing. And I also knew that I really enjoyed marketing and I really enjoyed advertising. It was fun to me. It was like a fun game, kind of like playing Monopoly or something like that. And also, I started having a lot of people, like business peers, who I'd met throughout this process, reaching out to me and asking if maybe I could help them run their Google ads or run their Facebook ads or set up their website because they didn't know anything about those things. But I'd done it a time or two.
Gillian:
[11:34] So that led to starting this little marketing agency. And I had a few customers who had just come to me organically, like I said, like word of mouth, they knew who I was. But then beyond that, it was like, okay, so how should I get more customers? How am I gonna market my marketing agency? So I kind of scratched my head about that for maybe a couple of weeks and thought about the different marketing strategies that I had tried. And I was thinking about the cost per lead acquisition. Okay, and the acquisition cost for these different things. So how much did it cost to get a lead? How much did it cost to get a customer with each of these different strategies? Because some of them had worked a lot better than others, as you'd probably expect, right? Some of them I'd spent, you know, $2,000 on a billboard and thought maybe I'd gotten two customers from it. You know? Do you ever check? Were you like.
Brittany:
[12:20] Did you did you see me on the billboard? Was that was that?
Gillian:
[12:22] Yeah. But one of those things about like putting up a billboard is it's hard to measure. You know, you don't have those analytics like you have in Facebook ads. Right. So it's just, you know, the phone's ringing every once in a while. You're getting a customer here and there.
Gillian:
[12:36] But like, did they come from that billboard? And yes, I did ask them. And so that was the only way I could kind of tell. But part of the problem was almost everyone in town had seen the billboard. Right. But did they call me because of that? I don't know. You know, maybe the thing that actually drove them to call was they Googled, you know, music teacher in my city and state. So, yeah, so that was kind of tough to measure. So I was looking at these different marketing strategies that I tried, which one had the best cost per acquisition, and also like which ones were the most trackable and things like that. And there was one that kind of stood out to me, which actually hadn't been a marketing strategy per se that I tried, but that YouTube channel that I had started a few years prior. You know, I had done that for two years. I had gotten hundreds of thousands of impressions. I had converted those people, some of them into subscribers. And that was with knowing practically nothing about how YouTube actually worked, with making really terrible quality videos, with having no strategy, right? And so I was like, well, maybe if I went into this with a strategy, maybe if I studied this more, maybe if I actually learned how to make a decent video, I wonder what would be possible. And as soon as I had that idea, I was pretty confident that actually this was going to work out really well. which is interesting because when I started that first channel, the biggest problem, I would say, was the total lack of confidence.
Gillian:
[14:01] You know, I was very hopeful, but wasn't expecting anything. Absolutely anything. And what I realized in retrospect was that, you know, I talked about how difficult I found it to be consistent. And I thought it was like a lack of motivation. And I suppose in a way it was a lack of motivation. But why wasn't I motivated? What makes the difference between being motivated or not? Well, one of the main things I've realized today is that when we believe that we are going to have a positive outcome from our efforts, then we are motivated to put in the work, right? So if we think that we are going to get good results, if we think that the effort
Gillian:
[14:38] is going to be worth it, then we will put in the work. But if we don't have that belief, if we like really doubt that it's going to work out, that we're going to be successful, then we can really lack motivation. And oftentimes we won't even try.
Gillian:
[14:51] And a lot of time, I think people don't realize that and they just think, oh, I need to be more motivated. You know, maybe I need to like hype myself up or I need a better plan or something like that. Right. But that belief in your ability to succeed is kind of like the foundational thing that has to be in place if you want to have any sort of motivation. And of course, there's other things that can support it. If you have that belief, you know, maybe things like having a schedule, which ended up being huge for the second channel that I started. But you have to start with that belief. So second time around with YouTube, you know, now I have the marketing agency. I'm trying to attract customers for that. I had that belief because for the last like about 18 months at that point, I had been really studying YouTube, studying the algorithm, analyzing thousands of channels, thousands of videos. And I saw a very distinct pattern. And the pattern I saw was that if a channel posted good quality videos consistently, and I don't even mean like fascinating videos like or with a really charismatic host or anything like that. I mean, Literally just like the video quality was good. The editing was decent. Okay. Literally just that. If they did that and they posted them consistently, meaning at least once a week, I would say, but even at least every two weeks, but they just kept going. Okay.
Gillian:
[16:03] That channel was either already big or it was quickly growing. And I literally could not find a single channel that was not already big or quickly growing if they just did that one thing. And that gave me so much confidence, so much confidence. I was like, I can learn how to do that. OK, now I'm not just hoping that I win the lottery. Now I know if I learn how to make a decent video, and I just do it every week,
Gillian:
[16:30] then I'm pretty sure like 99% sure that I'm going to grow. Now, I still did not think I was going to get like a million subscribers or anything like that. But I was very confident that I was going to get several thousand. So went into this new channel with that plan. And because I had so much confidence, I was able to make a schedule and stick to it. And this was very helpful, more than helpful. It was part of what made it possible for me to be consistent. And my schedule, it was very simple. It was every Monday, I will film a video, no matter what, whether I'm traveling, whether I'm sick, no matter what, I'm filming a video every single Monday. Because here's the thing, even if you're sick, you can sit down in front of a camera and talk to the camera for 15 minutes.
Gillian:
[17:10] Now, today, I don't do that. Today, if I'm sick, I take the day off, right? Seven years in. But back then, I knew that the most important thing I needed to build was like that muscle, that consistency muscle, where I was just showing up every single week. So every Monday, I filmed a video. I edited it on Tuesday. I posted it on Wednesday. It was that simple. And I just committed to doing that for at least three months to find out what would happen. And I was trying to figure out two different things. One was, you know, the growth, of course. Did I get the views? Did I get any subscribers? But also, whether I was interested in YouTube or not, whether I wanted to pursue it long term. And so I was like, you know, I'm not committing to this forever. But I just want to commit for three months and see what happens.
Gillian:
[17:55] And honestly, like the rest is history. I did it for those first three months. After three months, I had a thousand subscribers. So I had more subscribers than with the first two years of the previous channel. My view count was growing every video, video after video.
Gillian:
[18:09] And I was loving it. And so like, I just kept charging forward. And actually, after those first three months, I ended up doubling down. Literally, I decided to make two videos a week because I noticed a trend, which was that for every video I made, I got on average. And this was just like starting to happen at the end of these three months. But at that point, every new video, it was adding 1000 subscribers to my channel. As I was like, I wonder if I post two videos a week, if I'll get 2000 subscribers a week. And sure enough, that is what happened. Now, just to kind of like jump ahead here, just so you know, like listeners.
Gillian:
[18:44] That's not always the case. Posting more videos is not always better. And a video does not always equal 1000 subscribers. And today, in fact, I only post a video or two a month. Okay, because you need a different strategy depending on what stage of growth your channel is at. But when you're in that early discovery stage, every video that you make is kind of like a lottery ticket you're buying. It's like a chance at a video going viral. It's a chance at people discovering your channel. And so in those early stages, the more videos you make, generally kind of the more tickets you're putting in that raffle, the higher your chances of getting found are and the faster your channel will grow. Now, you got to be really careful to not make too many videos to where you are eroding the quality of your videos, right? Because if you make too many videos, then you probably won't be able to keep your quality up.
Gillian:
[19:32] Then it's like, yeah, you've got more tickets in the raffle, but your tickets are all like torn up or wrecked, you know, like they're not going to work. So you got to make sure that you are only making as many videos as you can actually make good quality videos.
Gillian:
[19:44] Anyway, and so like I said, the rest was history from there. My channel just kept growing. After about after the first year, I had 55,000 subscribers, more than I ever thought I would ever get. And then about 15 months in, I hit 100,000. And it kept growing from there till now today, we're at a bit over 700,000 about seven years in. So that's the story. Sorry, you asked me for the story and I was like long version, short version. And then I just dove in. So here we are. What was that 15 minutes later?
Brittany:
[20:14] Long version is good because I think it really paints the picture of your background. And as well, this wasn't, you know, as much as it was something like, you know, I'm going to commit to this for three months. It still wasn't this just like,
Gillian:
[20:26] This is a whim.
Brittany:
[20:27] There was so much strategy after your experience of having not so much strategy, not so much structure going in with the thought process. Okay, I know what I'm looking for. Well, I know what YouTube is looking for. I know what subscribers are looking for. I'm going to emulate that. I'm going to replicate that and go forward with that with my approach. I have one question because I'm guessing, like I know you're saying seven years ago. So where are we in the like timeline of YouTube in comparison to what other platforms we're doing? Like if we take Instagram as an example and ultimately why, I know you had the background in YouTube and you'd done your research at this point. Why was it like I'm going to go all in there? And what was kind of the environment of it? Because for myself as someone thinking about my YouTube, watching days. I was definitely like really heavy into it then. I feel like that was a big time on YouTube. And I think there's also a lot of mindset around if you missed the YouTube boat, like you missed it and it's gone. There was the prime time. If you didn't try and be an influencer, then it's all over now. So what was kind of the environment and the state of YouTube at that time?
Gillian:
[21:34] For sure. Okay, well, there's a lot to unpack. So I'll start by saying that when I started my first YouTube channel, which I guess would have been about 10 years ago, right? About 10 years ago, maybe 11. At that point in time, I already thought I may have missed the boat. And that's what everyone else was saying, too. Everybody else was feeling because YouTube had just exploded over the previous something like five years. It had gone from, you know, literally being created to now having millions of users. And everybody who didn't have a channel was kind of wondering, Did I miss the boat? You know, it was this gold rush over sort of deal. That was something that kept me from starting that first channel for a year or two. You know, there was a year or two that went by where I was watching lots of YouTube and I thought this looks really fun. I would love to do this, but I could never, you know, also it's too late.
Gillian:
[22:28] Then I did that channel for two years. And what I discovered by the end of those two years was it was definitely not too late. Now, my channel struggled to grow at that time, right? But it had nothing to do with it being too late. It had everything to do with me and my lack of positive belief, you know, about my ability to succeed and my lack of skill. So then what was about like three, four years after starting that first channel,
Gillian:
[22:52] I get around to trying to start the second channel. And that point, I definitely thought it was too late. It was like, on the one hand, I see this pattern on YouTube and I've got so much confidence, you know, just make good videos. I will get results. On the other hand, maybe, maybe that was last year.
Brittany:
[23:08] Right. Yeah, right.
Gillian:
[23:10] Maybe it's too late. But, you know, then that channel grew way faster than the first channel. And it ended up, you know, just having to do with my skills and my belief and, of course, strategy. Right? You got to have a good strategy, too. And so then for the first like few years of starting that channel, while people watch that channel take off like a rocket, people asked me all the time, like, how did you do it? What's your strategy? You know, I want to learn from you. Because like, clearly this is working right now. But now seven years in, now I've noticed that people ask like kind of the question that you're asking right now all the time. They'll say like, yeah, well, when you started, that was seven years ago. Is that really possible today? And unfortunately, like I can't do anything about my success. I can't, you know, make it be more recent or anything like that. But what I can do is I can point out lots of other channels that have started just within the last couple of years, like, or literally the last year that still have taken off like a rock, still have grown just as fast, if not faster than my channel did seven years ago, right? And I'm sure that anybody who is a YouTube watcher, as I still very much am to this day, can relate to that. You probably have some channels that you just discovered in the last few months, and they are less than a year old. And you're like, wow, how does this person already have over 100,000 subscribers, right? Like, that's just crazy.
Gillian:
[24:27] And honestly, it seems to me like channels actually grow faster today than they used to, which might be crazy to say. But I think that there's a couple reasons for that. One is like, we've got way more resources than we used to, right? It's a lot easier to learn how to make a good video. It's cheaper than ever to like get the software you need and get the camera you need and stuff like that. I mean, if for no other reason, we've all got one of these in our pocket, right? Hold my cell phone here. We've all got one of these that has a camera that is twice as good or way more than that than the camera I started with. When I started my first channel, I was using a camcorder. Okay, a little like video camera with like a flip out screen.
Gillian:
[25:06] And it was terrible. Like I said, video quality was terrible. So then I ended up switching to a camera that was meant for shooting photos for sure. It was like a lower tier Canon camera that I got for maybe 300. I want to say $350. It was a Canon T3i 6. I don't know, something like this. And it was meant for shooting photos, but it had a video mode. And I don't know why cameras were like this, but that photo camera took much better videos than the camcorder that was meant for recording videos. I don't know what camera makers were thinking back then or how that came to be, but that was a situation. Then I started that second channel and I had, I think I initially started with the same Canon camera, that I had ended up using, which was fine. But again, because I had so much confidence, after just a few months, I upgraded to a better Canon camera. Now, still not spending thousands of dollars, like maybe $500 now, but it was an improvement. Anyway, so today though, we can use our phones and have better camera quality than I had with the $500 camera I had then. Obviously, the phones cost a lot, but we also already have them. So the tool in your pocket, right? So I think that those things play into it. And then also just YouTube has grown as a platform.
Gillian:
[26:23] Every single year. I think there's one year a few years ago when YouTube had like a little bit of a dip in viewership. But other than that, every single year, YouTube has continued to grow. And I've kind of scratched my head about that. How is that? But I guess that we've kind of, to some degree, kind of aged out the generation that wasn't watching YouTube. And so now everybody has grown up watching YouTube. So the people who used to be kids, you know, now they're watching YouTube, plus all the kids are watching YouTube. Also more people in the world are online than ever before. So I think all those things have played into it. Something I point out to people sometimes though is, do you ever run out of things to watch on YouTube? And the answer is kind of yes, right? Sometimes you like are scrolling on YouTube looking for something to watch. And I'm like, that is evidence that there is space on YouTube still for more content, which is kind of like crazy to say. And the minimalist in me kind of hates that, if you know what I mean. It's like, there are how many millions of videos on YouTube? And somehow we still need more? Like that sounds kind of crazy. But the fact is that there are billions of people on Earth. And we all want to watch, you know, however many videos every week. And we don't want to watch the same video over and over again.
Gillian:
[27:29] And we've all got different tastes. So there's an audience out there for you. New channels are starting up every day. New people are getting on YouTube every day. And I mean, like viewers are. And old channels do phase out. Okay. It can be sometimes because people lose interest in that topic or that personality potentially.
Gillian:
[27:48] Or it can be because the creator retires for one reason or another. Maybe they move on to something different. Maybe they literally have just made enough money and they're like, I'm ready to be done with it. I feel like there are lots of reasons. Yeah.
[mid-roll ad]
[28:00] Okay, let me take just a minute to tell you about something that has changed my life. YouTube. Seriously. Now, I'm sure you're probably aware that YouTubers can earn money, but you might not realize just how much. It is not just pocket change. You can make a full-time living as a video creator. Make good money making fun videos? I know, it sounds too good to be true. But seven years ago, I started my own channel, and in less than six months, my husband and I were able to quit our day jobs, We sold our house.
[28:30] Traveled to Europe for two months, and then came back and bought a new house. And that was all financed by, yes, my YouTube channel. I know this sounds crazy, but I also know that I'm not the only one who has experienced this. There are literally millions of people supporting themselves with YouTube, and they're making videos about every topic you can think of. Cooking, cleaning, art, makeup, career advice, real estate, cats, books, even just reacting to other YouTube videos. If you want to learn more about how this works and how you can get a piece of the action, then check out my free on-demand workshop called Three Secrets to Reach 1000 Subscribers and Get Your Channel Monetized in Just Three Months. Because that's the truth. If you understand how the platform works, you don't have to wait years for your channel to grow. You can start getting views from day one, be making money in as little as three months, and be on your way to earning a living as a creator before you know it. Sign up now for this free on-demand YouTube training by heading to creatorfasttrack.com. You'll find that link in the show notes below. But again, the URL is just creatorfasttrack.com. I can't wait to teach you how to start your own successful YouTube channel and start earning a living as a creator. Thank you.
[/mid-roll ad]
Brittany:
[29:49] So many questions popping up for you and your journey with your business. And for people who are now like looking at this, they've already got a business and they're like, okay, is this the time to dive into YouTube? I think one question I have for you right now, you're running this marketing
Brittany:
[30:03] business. You've got the YouTube channel. You're three months in. At this point, are you still doing everything somewhat solo for YouTube? Are you planning, filming, editing? Obviously, you're filming. It's you. AI probably wasn't that good then. But what was your kind of time allotment? And did you feel that that was really manageable at that point? And when did it start to change and evolve as you continue to grow and grow and grow? And then what kind of happened with the marketing side of the business as well, leads-wise, growth-wise?
Gillian:
[30:38] Yeah, great questions. And that also reminds me that you were asking about, let's see, oh, why I decided to double down on YouTube, which kind of plays into this answer, actually. So because obviously, there were lots of different marketing channels and specifically like social media options that I could go with. And for the first few months of the marketing agency, several months, I was on all the different social media platforms. I was trying to be consistent on all of them. Now, not YouTube, but I was like posting on Instagram, I was posting on Facebook, I was trying to figure out LinkedIn, right? I was trying to figure out how to do Pinterest also, all these different things. And I was just feeling like both scattered, but also like I was making no progress at all. No traction. My audience was growing a tiny little bit every week, every month. But I was getting zero customers from it, like literally not making a single sale. So I realized I needed to change my strategy. And that was when I remembered how YouTube had gone for me. And I decided that that was probably my best option. Yeah. And I also just want to acknowledge, obviously, people have different personalities. Some people really thrive on like doing Instagram stories or something like that. For me, short form social media has always been a little bit like pulling teeth.
Gillian:
[31:53] It's like really hard for me to come up with lots of different things to say. I'm better at like saying a lot of things about one thing at a time and kind of doing my research and planning a video or a blog post or, you know, some sort of long form content and doubling down on it. And I've also found after doing both long form and short form for extended periods of time at different times, that I'm much more proud of the long form content that I make. And so whether I'm getting results from it or not, I tend to be happier because I'll be like, I made that video. Look, it turned out good. You know, I'm satisfied with it. I'm proud of it. You know, that's something I want to be known for. Whereas if I'm not getting amazing results with say Instagram or Facebook, then I just kind of feel like trash about it. Like I'm wasting my time. I'm just like making stuff on the internet. I don't know. It's totally personality thing. I'm not saying that to like put down Facebook or Instagram because I know lots of people love it. And in fact, I enjoy using Instagram.
Gillian:
[32:48] But for me, it just does not like give me the same feeling of satisfaction as like making something big that I'm proud of. Anyway, that's kind of aside from the point. But so I decided to double down on YouTube. And when I did that, I decided to quit everything else. I was like, I am going to do the one thing. Now at this time, the book, The One Thing did not exist. But that was totally the idea in my head. It was like, the one thing, I'm just going to do that, going to like do as much with this one thing as I can. And that was a great decision. And I would highly recommend that to anyone, regardless of whether you're choosing YouTube, or even if it's about your marketing
Gillian:
[33:19] strategy, you know, if you're just trying to decide what product to create, go all in on one product. Do not try to create five different products for your shop or something like that all at one time. Make one product, sell the heck out of it, turn it into a success, then add another product to your product suite.
Gillian:
[33:35] Anyway, so I go all in on YouTube. So that's kind of the backstory there. You know, I like YouTube. It seemed like the best option. And I decided to go all in on one thing. Now, you were also asking about, was I doing everything myself? And obviously, at the beginning, I was. And I continued to do everything myself for the first nine months after starting that YouTube channel. So the kind of like context there was, I needed more customers. When I started the YouTube channel, I was at about like 50% capacity. So I was spending half of the hours I wanted to be working on client work, but I had another 10-20 hours a week that I didn't have any client work to do. So I was going to spend that time on marketing efforts one way or the other. And I chose to spend that on YouTube. And so I did film the videos myself, edit them, post them, absolutely everything myself.
Gillian:
[34:22] And I would actually really recommend anybody who can. And I understand, of course, that there's some people that are like super busy executives that don't have time to be doing this at all. And they really want to start a YouTube channel. And I like really encourage them to do that. But if all you've got time to do is film the video, well then do at least that. But if you can plan the video yourself, do that. Because you will be able to come across as much more authentic and you will enjoy the process a lot more if you've decided what you're saying. And then if you can edit it yourself, I would even encourage you to do that. Because especially if you don't have a big budget to have like a very experienced editor who can kind of almost figure out your style for you and make it look really professional, if you hire a low-cost editor, then you probably are not going to be happy with the end result of the video. And it actually probably won't even be the editor's fault. Okay, there will probably be problems with like your filming, the footage that you recorded, that you are unaware of because you're not handling it. But if you do the editing yourself, then you'll notice, oh, my light's making me look green, right? Or, oh, when I say um every third word, it makes it hard to edit smoothly, right? Or you thought that when you messed up, you should start back at the beginning of the sentence, but you realize you should start back at the beginning of the paragraph or vice versa, right? You figure out what about how you're filming makes it hard to edit and you change those things, which makes for a much better end result.
Gillian:
[35:52] You also figure out what you want your videos to be like. You might think that that happens when you're planning the video or when you're filming the video. And to some degree it does, but a lot of shaping what the video is like happens in the editing. So again, just really highly recommend if you have the time to edit it yourself, or if you can manage to scrape together the time just for the first few videos
Gillian:
[36:13] to do it, because it's such a good learning experience. So I did it myself for the first nine months of that channel. And that was the point where the YouTube channel was making like good money. So a little bit of explanation there. First three months, I got a thousand subscribers. When you get a thousand subscribers, that's when you can start making money. So I believe it was in month four that I got my first check from YouTube. It was for $113. Is that my lucky number? I don't know.
Gillian:
[36:40] Then in month five, I get another check from YouTube and it was for like a few hundred dollars. By the time we get to month six, we were at about $1,000 a month, which is pretty crazy, really. And then by month nine, it was like over a couple thousand dollars. So $2,000 something, I think, which was, again, way more than I was ever expecting. Also, remember, I'd gone into this to try to get customers. I wasn't even trying to make money with it at this point. You know, I just wanted to advertise my business. And I was like, and YouTube is gonna pay me to advertise my business? Okay, sign me up. Yeah, for sure. I've said this so many times, like I would happily do YouTube if YouTube didn't pay me. But don't tell YouTube that, right? Because I do kind of like that they pay me.
Gillian:
[37:25] Because over the next couple of years, I mean, even just in year two, it was a full-time income. I earned like over $50,000 from the YouTube channel in year two. And so it's like, that could be my entire business. I also have this other business, by the way, you know, but that could be my entire business. So that was really fun. So anyway, at month nine, I brought an editor on because at that point, I had plenty of customers, right? And so I needed some help. I also was getting into digital products. So I was working on creating some online courses. It took me a little bit longer to figure out how to sell those things. But I was trying to make them and that's time consuming. So I needed some help. So I hired a video editor. And then I tried hiring a few virtual assistants. That didn't work out so well because I like the business wasn't making much money yet, aside from my direct client work. So bringing more people onto the team just kind of led to more of not making much money other than the money that I was directly making through client work and through YouTube. Right. So it was just kind of an expense.
Gillian:
[38:23] Eventually, I hired an operations manager, sometimes called an integrator, or sometimes called an OBM, an online business manager, right? Brought one of those people into my business. She was amazing. She helped me with all the things I was terrible at, like keeping my business organized. And she made it possible for us to strategically and effectively bring more people onto the team from there. Wow.
Brittany:
[38:44] I love, because it's something I have always said, that you have suggested and recommended people to be part of the process in starting their channel, planning, filming, editing, because I do so believe that you learn so much about your own style and preferences and the way that you like things to be done. And it's such a great skill to be able to do that yourself, even if eventually in your whole long-term game plan is to eventually have someone else to do this. It means you're able to articulate your preferences in the way that you like things so much better and I love that how you even said what you learn in the editing component actually teaches you so much about planning and filming and it's such a great way to enhance and get better at that so it even makes editing even easier because even with short form content you know it might even be 30 seconds that we're editing but if the filming and the lighting and the setup has been done well and the scripting even has been done well It makes editing such a breeze. So that's such a great lesson that you can take really in any different type of content creation.
Brittany:
[39:49] I guess my question to you now, a lot of the people listening will probably already have these established businesses and YouTube would be something they're considering and looking at to fuel what's already happening to bring more leads into their business, whether that's for launches, for online products and digital courses, or that's for leads, for other things, for services. What would be kind of the starting point if you have an existing business brand to determining what that channel is going to be about, determining really where to start. Because I think we've already got a pretty consistent content schedule, let's say with short form. How do you start to integrate that long form into that and make sure that you're on the right track from the beginning and you're not drowning? And then you burn out after two weeks and it doesn't work out in the end. How do you make this integrated? And then how do you make that stick long term?
Gillian:
[40:44] So it's probably going to be a little bit different for every person, right? But something that your question made me think of is that I'm currently working on planning a video that I'm hoping to film next week for YouTube. And the working title is something like, well, the title is It's 2026 because this video, like I'm filming it for a couple months from now, but it'll be something like, It's 2026.
Gillian:
[41:05] Everyone should have a YouTube channel. Now, there's a tiny bit of a caveat. There are a couple people who I think shouldn't have a YouTube channel. Maybe I'll talk about that in a few minutes. But I think that pretty much any professional, any person who like has a message they want to share with the world or is trying to make money in any capacity.
Gillian:
[41:22] Literally, whether they're a plumber or a hairstylist or a course creator or a web designer, like whatever they are, a lawyer, a doctor, they should have a YouTube channel. And the reason for this is because we are in this day and age where people love consuming content, right? And whether your goal is to have an impact on the world, like teach people something or advance some cause or some message, YouTube is an excellent channel to do that. You'll be able to do that so much more with a YouTube channel than without, right? Or if you're trying to make money, okay, again, whether you're a doctor or a lawyer or a plumber or a hairstylist, right? Or you actually have an online business. If you're trying to make money, YouTube is an excellent way to do this. You can make money from what's called AdSense, right? Like the ads on your YouTube videos, like I was talking about earlier. But you also can get new customers for your business. It's like one of the most effective marketing strategies you can do online or offline. So there's just so much like opportunity there that I do literally think that anybody who wants to have an impact on the world at large or make money should have a YouTube channel at this point. Even if your YouTube channel never grows beyond a couple thousand subscribers, even if you only get a few hundred views on every video, I think that is so well worth it.
Gillian:
[42:39] What if you had the opportunity every week to go teach a class to 300 people in your town? Like, would that be worth it? You know, would you bother to show up if there was only going to be 300 people there? I think you would, especially if you were also getting paid for it, especially if you also got to pitch your products or services, right? Like, that would be so worth it. And I know that on YouTube, it can be hard to keep that mindset. It can feel like if I'm not getting, you know, at least 10,000 or 100,000 views on a video, then, oh, I'm not really competing. I'm not really relevant. You know, this is embarrassing. Even I feel that way sometimes, you know, compared to some of the biggest names.
Gillian:
[43:16] But it is worth it. And so we really just have to keep our heads on straight because there is a huge opportunity there that we don't want to miss. Now, just to touch on real quick, who I think maybe like, quote unquote, shouldn't. And I don't even mean they shouldn't. I mean, I don't think they need to. Okay. If you have no interest in making money, like, let's say you are a stay at home mom, your ministry, if you will, is to your kids. Like you're just focused on serving your family and being the best mom you can be. And I don't mean like just like that's any like less than anything else. But if that's what you're focused on, you don't need YouTube to reach your kids, right? You don't need a YouTube channel to do that. That's your priority. You might care so much more. And I think this is actually a good thing, right? Care so much more about just being the best mom you can be than having any other impact on the world aside from like raising these like two or three or four humans, right? To be good grownups.
Gillian:
[44:07] Yes, yes. So in that case, like, I'm not telling that mom she should have a YouTube channel. Now, I don't think she necessarily shouldn't. You know, maybe she has something that she really wants to share with the world, you know, other than also just like ministering to her kids and serving her kids in that way, right? So I think that can be an excellent add-on. But I just do want to acknowledge there are some people who it doesn't quite make sense with their goals or their priorities in life. But I don't think that anybody, like I said, who is any sort of professional who's trying to make money quite has that excuse. Like the plumber could take a little bit of time each week, right, to make a video about some plumbing hack and it could add some revenue to his business and he could help out people in the process. Right. It could also get him some more customers. So I just think that there are like for the minimal time investment that YouTube needs. Now, of course, some people make YouTube their full time job. Right. Yeah. Some people are Mr. Beast and they spend a crazy amount of time on every video that they make. But it doesn't have to be like that. Your videos, depending on your niche, they don't even have to be edited. OK, the plumber could literally have his arm in the shot as he turns on the camera.
Gillian:
[45:17] Do you know what I mean? You see him hit that record button and pull his arm back. and then he explains to you how to fix that pipe and then he turns the camera off. That video doesn't have to be edited. You know, it might take a second take, maybe, but he could spend those 15 minutes and then publish it from his phone, okay? He can have a YouTube channel where he consistently posts a video every single week and it could take him less than half an hour a week, okay? I think he should do it.
Brittany:
[45:40] Why not? I mean, I've had to search for what's wrong with my toilet, what's wrong with my sink, what's going on here? And I'm always looking at YouTube because I love, I love a visual demo. So it really doesn't have to be just for the online, like typical, I think, entrepreneur that we probably would think that has the channel and has the YouTube, I guess, like, you know, that real true expert that is also teaching and educating, which leads me to one final question that I have for you. When you did start to shift into the online world, digital resources, digital products, And I'm not sure actually if you're still working with people in the marketing agency in the same scope that you were when you started. What would you notice the difference between maybe a business that is wanting to work with clients in that more traditional done with you, done for you service type of business versus someone who might be starting YouTube
Brittany:
[46:34] to fuel their online business and they can work sort of at a larger volume?
Gillian:
[46:39] So are you wondering about somebody who is trying to attract clients for like done for you work versus maybe attract customers for like a do it yourself type product like an online course?
Brittany:
[46:51] Yes, correct. Yes.
Gillian:
[46:53] Okay. Yeah. And then you're also wondering about how that transition looked for me and and my marketing agency. So I actually only ran the marketing agency for a few more months, like maybe I would say about six months after starting YouTube. So I've been running it for maybe six months before YouTube started YouTube brand it for about six more months, something like that. It was a little bit less than a year where I was actively doing marketing services for clients because one thing I learned through that process is that I did not love running a service business. Now, when I'd run the music school, it was kind of a service business, right? Like technically, I would say that was a service business, but it was much more similar actually to what we might call an information business. I was teaching those kids music, right? I wasn't playing music for them.
Gillian:
[47:40] And even though I didn't want to be a music teacher when I grew up What I did learn through that business one of the things I learned was that I had a gift of teaching It was something that came easily to me that I was natural at and that people always told me you're good at that And so then I started this marketing agency. I was doing the services for the clients and I got really frustrated I mainly with clients having a certain expectation, but then not giving me what I needed to be able to get them that result. Does that make sense? So they wanted me to run Facebook ads to get them customers, but their landing page was terrible or but they were selling a product that nobody wanted or their messaging wasn't clear, right? Then that kind of like would set me up for failure. And it was like very frustrating that they were then maybe not satisfied with the service I had done, even though I had done exactly what they wanted me to do, right? But there was some underlying problem. So after about a year, I was like, I need to teach these people how to market their own businesses. Kind of what we were talking about with the video editing, right? Like they didn't understand why I wasn't able to get them the result. Just like you might not understand why your video editor isn't making you a better video. And it's really because your lighting is terrible. Okay, so they had the same sort of problem.
Gillian:
[48:52] And I also because I was making these educational YouTube videos, I was already starting to teach in that capacity, right? Like I wasn't making courses yet, but I was making educational videos. So it really paved the way for that transition and for me to ultimately stop working with clients and switch to just selling online courses and running coaching programs and things like that. So that was kind of what the transition looked like for me. As far as YouTube for getting clients or YouTube for selling information products, it certainly works really well for both of those things. But you do need to have a different strategy for both like the content that you are creating. Because for example, if you are trying to get Facebook ad clients, like clients who you would run Facebook ads for, maybe it doesn't make sense for you to make Facebook ad tutorials, because you might think, well, then they'll do it for themselves. But actually, it makes you look like the expert. And some people will be helped by your videos and they will go on to just run their own Facebook ads. Great. They wanted to DIY.
Gillian:
[49:52] A lot of people will try it themselves after watching your video and then think, oh man, this is way too time consuming or this is a lot more complicated. But you know who does know something about Facebook ads? You know who maybe I could hire that, you know, that lady who I watched her Facebook ads tutorial, right? She seemed to know what she was doing. And so it can turn into customers either way. And I find that similar things are true with the information products. I don't think we have time to get into it today, but people often wonder, you know, that difference between what do I give away for free versus what do I sell? And I always... I'm on the side of give more away for free. Okay, give more away because that is what makes people like trust you, makes people believe you are the expert, makes people want more of your help. And there's always this thought of like, wow, if she's giving this away for free, then her paid product must be amazing, right? And there always is something that you can sell them. Okay, you can sell them the handholding, you can sell them the structure and sequence of your paid program. You can sell them maybe some done for you along with your paid program. So there's always opportunity to help them more, basically, in a more one-to-one capacity, even if it's not actually one-to-one, even if it's a group, but to actually like interact with them and help them rather than just telling them what to do.
Gillian:
[51:04] So YouTube works for either. I guess I'll summarize YouTube works for either,
Gillian:
[51:08] whether you're selling services, whether you're selling information products. You want to be strategic, obviously, about your content strategy and how you're bringing people in. You know, what is your kind of lead acquisition strategy? What sort of opt-in offers are you using? or are you doing a discovery call or, you know, what's your call to action on your videos? But it can absolutely work for you either way.
Brittany:
[51:27] Wow, I love that. And I have the same ethos as you. And that was my approach when I first started was just tell them everything. People still want, as you said, the handholding, the personalization, the feedback, the support. And of course, there will be people who run away with that, what you've given them. And they'll be like, great. Yep, that was all I needed. I'm good. But there are certainly probably more people that are like, yes, I want to invest more because if this is what she's saying and this is all free, imagine what's on the other side of the fence is a phrase I like to say. So I love that you also share that. And I love that you, it was like this vehicle YouTube for you that helped you transition out of done for you services into coaching and education, which is a path that I think so many people want to make, but don't know. How to do that. So I love that YouTube ended up being that for you. And maybe it can be that for some people listening to this episode. So, wow, thank you so much for sharing all of that. I think just even hearing your backstory and the decisions you made and the things that you experimented with and what paid off really is just such a valuable lesson for so many people, whether they're just taking one element and it's just that piece of advice about editing and filming yourself, or it's how you can move into different elements and really monetize YouTube or just use it for clients or both. Such an amazing story, such an incredible success and just congratulations on such an amazing business.
Gillian:
[52:53] Thank you. I appreciate that. Also, to your point about how you were saying about the other side of the fence, you know, and giving more away for free. You know, it's not as though if you gave people less, they would then decide to buy. Most of those people who are of the mind to do it themselves, they're going to figure out how to do it themselves one way or the other, either with more information and they're more likely to be successful or with less information, less likely to be successful. They'll probably just give up, but they're going to try it themselves first either way. So you might as well give them more, help them more, and maybe turn them into a client along the way.
Brittany:
[53:26] Oh, I love that. That's a great mindset to have. Well, where can everyone maybe start to work with you and turn their YouTube dreams? You know, our 13-year-old YouTube dream, which is maybe just my dream, into a reality.
Gillian:
[53:41] Yeah, for sure. So if you specifically are interested in like YouTube strategy, how to get started and all that, then you can go to creatorfasttrack.com. You'll see there's a link there for a free training. It's like a one hour masterclass where I teach all the basics of YouTube strategy, basically like how the YouTube algorithm works and how to work with it to grow your channel as quickly as possible. It's called Three Secrets to Get Your First 1000 Subscribers in Just Three Months. So go there and watch that again. That's creatorfasttrack.com. You can also find me at gillianperkins.com just my name gillianperkins.com and there i talk about online business in more general terms how to start an online business you can learn about my different like coaching programs and whatnot.
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[54:23] Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I hope that that made a lot of sense to you and that you can see how powerful YouTube can be for growing your audience online. It really is the most predictable strategy that I found for doing so. And I have seen it work for hundreds and hundreds of clients at this point. It creates much more predictable, consistent and just faster results than we see with blogging or with podcasting. and definitely much better results than with social media. If you want to learn how to get this strategy to start working for you, then go to creatorfasttrack.com and sign up for our free workshop that will teach you how to start a successful YouTube channel and grow it to 1,000 subscribers in just three months. And by the way, 1,000 subscribers is exactly the number you need to be able to get your channel monetized on YouTube so you can start earning ad revenue from your new channel. And yes, you can reach that milestone in just three months. Just three months after you start making videos, you can be making money from your videos in addition to attracting clients with those videos. I would love to teach you how to make this happen. So go to creatorfasttrack.com and get signed up for that workshop.
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