Speaker 1: 0:07

All right, I'm not really good at this taking a break thing. I really was going to try and take the last two weeks off of this year, not publish an episode or send out a newsletter. I have failed. I can't do it. I just want to record and I want to share this with you. So in this episode I'm just going to share briefly about highlights of 2024, you know, wax poetic on it, go too deep into it, but just share some cool things that happened and then first share just interesting thing that happened at a Christmas party that I shared in my newsletter. But I'll go into a little bit more nuanced, in depth about this. So let's start there.

Speaker 1: 0:40

Yesterday I'm at a family Christmas party. There are a lot of people there. It's my stepmom's family and there's just a lot of people I've never met. There's an older gentleman there who we're talking with and then, naturally, his wife is like oh, what do you do? So I just go, oh, work in podcasting social media. And oh, just like him. He, you know he does Patreon and I was like, oh, I could talk to this guy for hours, you know right away. So I'm like oh, what do you do? And he's like oh, I have a YouTube channel and I do reaction videos and I'm like that's freaking awesome. What's your YouTube handle Like? Let me look up right now and subscribe to your channel and what I found interesting right off the bat is he's an older gentleman, gray hair, and not like what you would typically associate with, like a YouTuber right, I think you know. If I type in influencer right now on Google images or something you're going to probably see a girl in her twenties or younger, it's just associated generally like YouTuber type person is someone that's probably younger. And this gentleman was older. If I had to guess and I'm going to guess conservatively like maybe fifties plus. Really kind, nice man. So I look him up on my phone right there with him and I'm like subscribe and right away, just by looking at his page I could tell like some things because my brain's always scanning for problems to solve. That's the great thing about doing what I do is. You know and I was thinking about that earlier in the day yesterday is part of being an entrepreneur, content creator.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Working in both realms of this is just constantly solving problems and I can get in that mode really easy. But I need to be in that mode. That's what serves the people who I help when I work with people. If they go, hey, this needs fixing or we need to improve this or we need to create a strategy for this, I can't go. Well, everything looks great. I don't know that you need to create a strategy for this. I can't go well, everything looks great. I don't know that you need to change anything. No, absolutely not. Like there needs to be looking for optimization. There needs to be looking for ways that they haven't looked at something before, so that we can grow and reach the goals of whatever it is that they're trying to reach.

Speaker 1: 2:39

And so with this man, he, you know, wasn't looking for feedback. He wasn't like, hey, critique my page. So with this man, he, you know, wasn't looking for feedback. He wasn't like, hey, critique my page. So I am treading on the side of, you know, I want to share some stuff with him, but also I don't want to just like, berate him with, you know, tips and tricks and things like that. So I'll just keep talking to him, because that doesn't need to come up right now. And so I just am learning about him. I'm just asking questions like how does this work, you know, and he was loving talking about it because he really enjoys making YouTube videos and he publishes. I forget if it's every day or twice a day, but he publishes a lot and I was super impressed by that.

Speaker 1: 3:14

But I could tell right away, by looking at his page too, that like the quality wasn't really high. And I love when people are finding success, contrary to what like guru or content creation experts might suggest. Right, you know, one of the things people will talk to me about is my camera quality is really good, my sound quality is good, and then they want that. And sometimes, you know, oftentimes a lot of people get so hung up on the aesthetics, the quality, production, quality of it, that they'll kind of sidestep all the actual important things, so kind of hopping around here. When I look at his page, I see, you know, right away, he has like 55,000 subscribers. I'm like dang the guy's rocking it. And then there was a link right to his Patreon right there. Click the Patreon, patreon shows me he's making a few thousand dollars. I'm like guy's rocking it here too.

Speaker 1: 4:03

You know, I could tell by the thumbnails, which I'll get to in a second, that the quality of his videos weren't high. But like some of his videos have a hundred thousand plus views, thousands and thousands of views, and he's right in front of me telling me about his engagement and he doesn't really know who I am or anything, and you know he's just sharing it because I'm asking about it and I'm just asking, like, how the process works. So he does these reaction videos. Basically, how it works is his videos are just like one style of video. It's him reacting to music and it's not just music, it's like a video. I think he finds the videos on YouTube. Maybe that's it.

Speaker 1: 4:38

He has a background in music. I don't believe he's like a music instructor or anything like that. He didn't mention that to me, but he is just a fan of music and so people will submit a song, not an album, just a song. He records himself watching the video, listening to it and then giving his notes and takeaways on it. Simple as that. And he's not going into anything complex, right? There's not some high production value. There is editing involved, so he will like edit in things that kind of make it more entertaining. But you can also tell it's not like done from this place, of trying to make it over the top or anything. It's just like fun and lighthearted and feels like I don't even want to say cable access TV or something like that, cause that's not doing it justice. But it's not like some highly polished thing, it's just like fun to watch. And you feel like a friend kind of made it for you.

Speaker 1: 5:28

And he's telling me like yeah, I've got these tiers on Patreon and they can submit the songs. But he was like right away, like they have to subscribe to the Patreon in order to submit a song. Like I had to stop taking songs from just anybody. Like they had to subscribe to the Patreon. I believe he's doing this for a couple of years now two or three, as far as I can tell and like that's so smart. And then he's like, yeah, I have 1200 songs to work through. I'm like what? And then I'm like looking at him and his wife, like are you serious? It's crazy. Like that's incredibly high. How could you ever work through those songs, like mathematically, if you publish two videos a day? Like if you publish two videos a day, like it's still going to take you forever. So I was like you have a way where people can pay more to like fast track their submissions, right? And he's like oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we do. We have like the bronze tier. The bronze tier, they can pay more and I have 30 songs. I'm working through right now with those. But I communicate everything to you know, my Patreon members and I'm like okay, how do you get people from your YouTube to your Patreon? You can submit your song. You have to be a member to submit your song and I will review it. I'll do it faster if you're on the bronze member or whatever, but you have to be a member of the Patreon.

Speaker 1: 6:34

So it lends itself kind of this cycle of he publishes a video, he is able to have people comment and engage because they want to see him react to another song, and then he just links it to the Patreon right there, simple as that, and he enjoys it and he doesn't do one type of music, he'll do anything. He was saying, like you know, and I could kind of tell some you know clued into music pretty obscure songs, like some of them are more well-known, like YouTube or something, and then some of them are more obscure, like an obscure metal song or something that like is not popular. But he told me people will watch the videos just to see how he reacts to the songs. If they submit a song, like you know, they feel a certain way about the song. They want to see what he feels like it. And then they want to find new music. So they'll watch it, listen to it with him, see his reaction to it, and they're like oh, I've learned about so many new songs and bands and artists from watching your videos. And then they'll get in debates on the Patreon and the YouTube comments about you know whether he was wrong or any of that stuff and he's like I love it. You know, when people talk about it because all I want it to be is just civil, as long as people are discussing it civil and not attacking each other, I'm fine with it. But the minute that gets out of hand, then you know I don't, I don't allow that. That's fantastic. All these like green lights are going off in my head about how he's approaching things. You know I'm just like man. The guy's doing it like his quality. I can tell like it's not like 4K quality camera but 4K quality audience.

Speaker 1: 8:05

I asked him like so who are the type of people that you know subscribe? And it was like he had done a bunch of marketing research of, just like you know everything he's like. They're typically 35 to 60. They are male, they are into more obscure bands that people haven't heard and that they you know they don't have anyone to share the music with, things like that. I'm like he was going on and on about his audience. I'm like this dude knows exactly who he's making videos for, like to a tee. And then I ask him you know cause I was interested? Say you don't react nicely to something that somebody shares. Maybe it's like not in your wheelhouse, like you just don't like it. Do they stay subscribed to the page around afterwards? And he was like actually, yes, he said I think around 80% of people will still stay subscribed after.

Speaker 1: 8:48

He'll react negatively and just say like what is this? How could this band even possibly put this out? This is terrible, this is garbage. How can anyone listen to this stuff? And he's like and if I give it like a zero out of a hundred or something, so he doesn't feel this obligation of needing to give higher ratings and he's not serving the audience from a place of like I want you guys to be happy he's found this really good sweet spot of he can share his tastes honestly and just be completely transparent about everything and it's really generative, like he's like I'll be honest, you guys share your tracks honestly.

Speaker 1: 9:23

But he said, you know he's reviewed Beyonce, these metal bands, you know there's nothing off the limits and he's found a new appreciation for music, which he's always been a big fan of music, he said, but because people will submit tracks that he's never heard, so it's opened him up to a lot of new tracks, which has been fantastic as well, as that's what his audience said as well, and so the problem solving part of my brain is like okay, do you ever? Because when I first look at his page, all the thumbnails look the same. And I'm like do you ever AB test your thumbnails? Because when I typed in his page and I pressed the popular tab at the top, which just sorts everything by popular, I noticed for like a couple of years he'd been doing like the same thumbnails. He hadn't changed anything.

Speaker 1: 10:03

I'm like do you ever AB test your thumbnails? And he's like what do you mean? Like, when you're uploading a video, there's like a little box right above I think right above like where you enter in like keywords and it says like test and compare and you can upload multiple thumbnails. And he's like well, what are you talking about? I'm like you upload thumbnails for the videos, right, and he goes no, what do you? What do you mean? I'm like oh, oh, because he had expressed at one point too, about Google, you know, not being the best to work with. Like it's really hard to work with Google. I'm like, wait, this guy's got something going on here because he's got 55,000 subscribers, he's got people engaged in his videos, going to his Patreon, all of this.

Speaker 1: 10:41

But the packaging of the videos was given no thought, you know, and not anything against this guy whatsoever. Like he's putting in the work, he's focusing on his audience, which is the most important part of the whole thing. Not like how can I make this packaging so pretty? Or things like that. He's just like serve, serve, serve.

Speaker 1: 10:59

And that's a trait of people that I've worked with that have found the most monetary success is they are so focused on their audience and who they're talking to and they know them so well that they I wouldn't say mess up, but they like let go of so many other things. And then it almost becomes this balance of like okay, how do we incorporate the packaging with serving of the audience in there, and it's, it's a balance. I've seen it Like people will just get so focused on the audience and they're like, oh, I didn't even know you could do that. And then I've seen on the other side of things where people are like so focused on the packaging and like the marketing aspect of it, but there's no substance and there's no audience being served in the content that it doesn't matter if someone clicks, they're not sticking around. And these people happen to click and they're sticking around and he has a lot of people coming back and coming back and coming back and then paying him money and sticking around there. I just basically shared with him. Like you know, I'm not trying to give the guy homework or anything. Again, he didn't ask for this, so I'm just like dude, I'm just saying this like take it or leave it, but this will 100% like please do this. You know, I'm just like you will see an increase in your views and Google working nicer, with Worry about those like next or something. But the thumbnail strategy I gave him was basically like this because we're coming from zero, right, and this is perfect If you're also considering YouTube in 2025, approach your thumbnail strategy very simply.

Speaker 1: 12:24

You don't have to make it complicated. Use Canva or something like that to make your thumbnails test and compare and then find a template that works for you. Right? That's what all the big YouTube pages do. When you are uploading a video, you can test and compare. You can upload multiple thumbnails and then YouTube will automatically pick the winner. To keep it really simple, if you'd like, what you could do and this is what I suggested to him was go on Canva, type in YouTube templates or whatever create two different YouTube thumbnails for the video. Upload those two different thumbnails for the video, youtube thumbnails for the video. Upload those two different thumbnails for the video and then publish the video like normal. Youtube will automatically pick the best thumbnail for the video based on how many people are engaging with it. Right, the thumbnail is a trigger for people to engage with the video.

Speaker 1: 13:07

Don't just stick with one thumbnail because you thought it looked pretty or anything like that. Use testing and then, once you get the winner from that test, test it again on the next video. Create a new, updated thumbnail with that template the winner from the first video there and then create like another version, change the colors or whatever, or just like totally do a new thumbnail idea. But you're basically trying to beat that version a that won the first time. Now you're trying to beat it again, right? And you do that three or four times until you start getting a winning thumbnail design, not based on what you like, not based on anything like that. This is your audience telling you. This is what they're responding to. Because you've tested it, you have data to back up that decision, which is, you know, ultimately what you want, because you're making it for people to click and consume and all that. And it doesn't need to be complicated, right? We're just using templates in Canva.

Speaker 1: 13:59

You're just basically running tests in the beginning, but then after that, once you find the winning kind of formula there, you can update older videos with those thumbnails, like ones that are either underperforming or you think could just maybe need it. Because, in this case, he uploads so many videos that you know it'd be a lot of work to go through and upload this one. So it might make sense, on some maybe more videos that he know you know could do better if the packaging was updated. But this is not like some huge strategy shift and before I left him yesterday, I was just telling him like hey, man, like I'm just psyched to have met you, just because it's cool to see like you did things backwards. That's what I told him. You did things backwards and he's like, yeah, that's kind of how I seem to always do things and I'm like, because so many people focus on the packaging and they have no substance, but you focus on the substance and you just got to fix the packaging and it's's a slight tweak and you're going to see an improvement, I'm sure of it, and so that was really cool and I just wanted to share that. And then, wrapping up this year, it's been fantastic.

Speaker 1: 15:00

If you've been listening to many episodes, then you know I've experimented with some different styles this year, but I feel like my mantra especially after meeting this guy for 2025, is going to be more experimentation. I don't want to settle into some way of doing things and it not feel flexible for me. So I know I'll be bringing in more guests to interview. I know that I'll be doing more solo episodes, more raw ones, just like this, and, who knows, I might experiment with a new format, but I do expect to continue a lot more of the same of what I'm doing when it comes to publishing once a week through this podcast, publishing my newsletter once a week, which, if you're not subscribed, come on over to Dylan Schmidt dot com. It's free. And then the Creator Club, which, if you're not a member, come join us, it's free. Now the Creator Club dot com. It'll take you right there. It's in discord. It's awesome.

Speaker 1: 15:48

And last thing, I just want to say thank you. Thank you so much for listening Every word I write, every word I say. I try to be as intentional as I can, because I know your time is valuable and there's enough sludge content out there that I'm not trying to just take up time for the sake of filling up content space. So I don't take our time together for granted. And if you need support reaching your goals in 2025, I want you to know that you can join a community for free, like the Creator Club, where we can all support each other or we could work together one-on-one. But I just want you to know you don't have to do it alone. I appreciate you and I hope that everything you dream big for in 2025 comes true and let's do this.