Aprilynne Alter - How to begin your journey as a YouTube creator!

Build in public has probably been like everything for me. My like strongest fans and strongest friends that have come from the internet have been through these, like putting myself out there in public and building in public. And a lot of the opportunities that I've had, like paid opportunities that I've had, have come from building in public as well. I think it's also helped build a lot of my credibility.

What's up everybody? I'm Sharath. I'm your host of this awesome podcast I do with creators, founders, VCs, and it's called The Undefeated Underdogs. Thanks for tuning in. I genuinely appreciate your attention because that's something, it's rare, and people, when people give it to others, it's precious. So thanks for your attention. And today I have like a very interesting guest. I'm actually looking forward to talk about For folks who are on YouTube watching, I think, and lagging like, hey, when should I start my YouTube channel? I think this episode is going to be like a perfect recipe for you. Apriline, welcome to the show. How are you feeling today?

Feeling pretty good. It's the start of a new week and I'm excited for it.

Awesome. Yeah, I'm stoked as well because I kind of started my YouTube journey in a very inconsistent way. I'll be honest with you, but I want to learn from you because you mastered it. You kind of saw lots of methods and frameworks that you implemented in your YouTube journey. So, yeah, let me give you guys a brief intro of April Lin before we dive into the episode. She started her YouTube journey, I think, nearly 2 years ago, if I'm not wrong, and she quickly monetized. She reached the monetization state very fast in the next 4 months. And the following 9 months is where it gets really interesting, right? Like I took this from your website. She made like 5 figures in ad revenue, partnerships, sponsorships, consulting gigs, and et cetera. And she got also featured in Business Insider and The Verge. So like that's big. That's not like a small feat. So congrats on that. And she's also like often referred to by a lot of people that she's like an industry expert. So We are here to learn from you, Aprillyn, and I'm excited. And she also, by the way, runs a course called For Beginners. This is for the ones like me who kind of, who's just started and wants to take things up. It's called The Beginner's Guide to YouTube: From Zero to Monetized. So let's talk about that in the show. But yeah, let's get into the episode right off the bat. I have a question about, of course, obviously the elephant in the room, which is When did you start? Like, I know it's nearly 2 years ago. And first, fundamentally, I'm more interested in the why than the how, because the how is your course. Of course, you kind of teach all the methods and whatnot. Why YouTube?

Yeah, well, so if we rewind time to around 2 years ago, May of 2021, kind of like where I was at in life at that point, I had recently just quit my full-time job as a Wall Street banker to go full-time on the startup that I was pursuing at the time. And I had been growing this audience on Twitter and ultimately it came down to, I guess, the idea of small bets. I had been following Daniel Vassallo on Twitter for quite some time and he had kept advocating for the idea of small bets. Don't put all of your eggs in one basket, put multiple eggs in different baskets. And I had been having a pretty decent time, I think, creating written content, written long-form content on Twitter via Twitter Threads. And I had listened to one of the Indie Hackers podcast and there was an episode featuring a couple of different people. I think there were 3 and one of them was Ali Abdaal. And he, if you don't know, is an incredible YouTuber with millions of subscribers in the productivity and like tech and space. Right. And so I listened to Ali Abdaal's story and I was like, wow, this guy is making a lot of money through YouTube and he seems to be loving it. You know, it seems like he's having so much fun with what he's doing. He has a solid team around him. And so kind of after that, I was like, well, should I start a YouTube channel? It seemed to have gone really well for Allie. And Allie was saying how other people should just start creating content and showing your work in this other way. And I'm like, well, I've already been showing my work on Twitter. Can I maybe turn some of my Twitter threads into YouTube videos and start putting, you know, start adding another bet to my portfolio of small bets? And that's kind of why I started.

That's awesome. 2 of my favorite people you mentioned, Daniel Vassallo. I'm a huge fan. I think when I started my journey as an audience builder on Twitter, this was like 5 years ago. And he's one of those folks who really encourage, like you said, taking small bets. And really, he really focuses on Taking micro actions, right? Like do better, be back, be better one percent. You know that type of mindset. And I think I bought his you know how to how to master his you know audience building on Twitter or something like that. His course on Gumroad and of course you know he's killing it. And number two Ali Abdal. Oh my god! Where should we start? He's he's one of the one of the household names in in YouTube, right? Who's who has like an underdog story? He's he was a medical student, I guess if I'm not wrong, and you shifted gears. And so that actually inspires folks like you, me, and a lot of— many people who are hearing that anybody can start, right? And so for you, you also mentioned, and I'm sure that you can resonate, you don't usually— like people who start excel at YouTube, they have no prior experience whatsoever. Like they don't have— most of them, I'm not talking about the professionals, they don't have video, audio, like editing and like, you know, setting up camera and all that. Was that like something that stopped you, or what is something that motivated you to break that barrier, right? Hey, I have no skill whatsoever, but I want to do this.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was in that same boat, right? Like, I was very camera shy. I didn't even like having my picture taken, much less recording videos of myself. I didn't like the sound of my own voice. The whole idea of being on camera, being on video was very daunting to me. Additionally, I had absolutely no video editing experience whatsoever as well. So it's like, okay, well, coming in here and I don't know anything, this is great. I did have one thing going on my side, which is I do think that I know how to write. At least I do think I know how to write in a way, um, that is somewhat compelling. Um, and I guess like, I, I, I do think that I'm able to craft most things that I write into some sort of like story or hero's journey arc. So I did have that one thing going for me.

Going for it.

Um, yeah, I think I just thought that The the potential upside of something good happening from the YouTube channel was far worth the downside of of learning, and I do think that I was also at this like a very exploratory phase in my life. Right like right after I'd quit my full-time job, and I was like, well, if there if there were a time to go and learn how to do all of this stuff and to take this bet, it would be now. Like I it was at the time in my life where I had the most time on my hands.

I was like, well.

Let's teach myself the very basics of video editing.

And

it wasn't that hard to do very basic editing, just like cuts and text and images and icons, some background music. And that was it. It was just very time-consuming.

But I think at that point, a lot of my perspective was around bias to action.

Just go ahead and do the thing. Best case scenario, it works out. Worst case scenario, it doesn't. But at least you've learned something to enable you to do cooler and better and newer things in the future. So I was like, yeah, let's just pour all of this extra time that I have from quitting my job into learning these new skills and trying to get out there.

And I guess also the idea of increasing your surface area for luck, right?

It's like, okay. And that's kind of the idea behind show your work as well, is as long as

you're

Showing your work, as long as you're doing things in public, the chance that someone finds you and connects with you, and that connection leads to something incredible in the future, is so much higher than if you do everything in private.

It's like, okay, I already have this thing on Twitter going on, and that's going great.

Can I double my surface area for luck by putting myself off of YouTube as well? And with YouTube was entirely.

different audience. So it's like I was reaching an entirely new pool of people than I was on Twitter to begin with, which was amazing.

I think you've also— so there's nothing to lose in a way, right? That's like, that adds a lot of strength because you just left a job and you don't have worries like, hey, what are the things like generally people worry about and get conscious? That to me is like a great place to start fundamentally. And I did the same way with building projects. Like I have nothing to lose, I have everything to gain, whether it can be success or failures, whatever it is, right? The lessons. So if you suggest someone to start, where should one start? Like right now, 2023, May, What is your brief playbook that you want to share? Hey, this is how you get your YouTube channel going from a business level.

Oh boy. Okay, brief playbook. I would say my number one advice, which is a little bit counterintuitive for folks, is figure out your niche first. I know some of the bigger YouTubers will say like, oh, just start making videos. It doesn't matter what you make videos about, just post them. And I, I understand where that's coming from, 'cause ultimately on YouTube we're here to create videos and the best way to learn is by doing. So just make them. But on the same side, none of your videos are ever going to blow up or do well if they're not targeted. And so I think that if you figure out your niche to begin with, you're really setting up your channel for success. And the way to find your niche, I have like a little 4-step framework. First, write down a list of your passions, hobbies, and interests, like all of the things that you're passionate about or, or, or interested about or anything like that. After that, go through that list and think very, very, very seriously if you are interested enough in these topics and know enough about these topics to be able to create one long form, meaning like,

like

5 to 15 minutes long videos about these topics. Once per week for an entire year. If you don't think you could do that, cross them off of the list. After that, go through them again and think about, do you have any unique insight into these topics? Like, what unique things about your identities or your experiences or anything else contributes something very special to these topics? If you don't have one, then it's a good Indicator that you're not going to be able to easily differentiate yourself in this niche. Cross them off the list.

Right.

And finally, go look at the current market on YouTube. See like, okay, how many creators are in this niche already? What type of content are they creating? Are there any gaps in their content? And bonus points if those gaps align with the unique insight that you had from the previous step. After you go through that, you should have like one or two niches that are like That, that are good bets for you.

If you are between 2, always pick the one that you have the most personal interest in or feels most aligned to what you want to do.

So after you have your niche, then it's time to start making videos. And the thing that I, that I also see people get wrong a lot is they look at like the huge YouTubers like MrBeast or MrWho'sTheBoss, and they're like, wow.

Who's the boss?

These popular YouTubers have millions and millions of subscribers, I should, you know, use the same types of thumbnails that they use.

I should use the same types of titles that they use.

What they don't understand is that there is a difference in how YouTube treats newer YouTubers and more experienced YouTubers and traffic sources. So the larger YouTubers are always trying to target Views from browse and views from suggested videos. Those are the traffic sources in which YouTube recommends your content to new people. YouTube's goal is to have people stay on YouTube for as long as possible.

So that's your, your, your session time.

You want the longest session time as possible. And so it's going to recommend videos to people that they know will keep those people on YouTube for as long as possible.

Um,

Hmm.

And that's kind of what the larger YouTubers are targeting so that when their video is suggested by YouTube, either on someone's homepage or on like these side panels for suggested videos, people will click on that when they see it. It's a very different strategy than for newer YouTubers because YouTube is not going to recommend your content as new, as a newer YouTuber, because YouTube doesn't trust you. Uh, YouTube has no idea if your videos are good or not, if your videos are going to keep people on platform or not.

So

they're not going to recommend your videos. So what you have to do instead, unless you just want to get lucky, like a more reliable way to start to grow your YouTube channel as a brand new YouTuber is to target search results. And so what you're doing there is looking for what people are searching for. There's gaps in so that YouTube will put up your content, even if you're a brand new YouTuber, just because your video is more relevant to someone's search than anyone else. And there's a whole process of keyword research. And a tool that I use is TubeBuddy. They have like a free keyword research tool.

And

what you can do is put in different keyword phrases and see what the search volume is and what the competition is for a particular keyword.

And so, I mean, I do a lot more for keyword research beyond that.

But essentially what I do is I come up with my list of video topics. I will phrase those video topics in the forms of like a question, like a how-to question, um, or other things like that. I will test those keywords and I'll come up with a title for my video before I even make the video itself, because I need to know that this video is worth making because there is a gap that I can fill with this video.

And then I go on and I make the video. Yeah.

I just make the, the, the video. Um,

But yeah,

I'd say like that's those are probably the two most important things to know as a brand new YouTuber or someone who's thinking about starting out is really nail down your niche and keyword research target search results.

That

was completely new to me. I'll be honest. So far, I've been like focusing on niche. That's something like you know I know. As a Twitter audience builder, right? So the keyword search is fascinating. How did you learn all this? Like through research or you follow people? Like, what's your secret sauce? Again, I feel people who are just getting started, you're offering like a course, of course, that's going to massively help them. But for those who can't afford or like who can't were like, okay, I'm just trying this for the first time, where should they go?

Yeah, um, I first started learning about YouTube on YouTube, um, which also, uh, I, I do post a ton of educational content on my channel. So if you want someplace to start out, you can give me a follow, um, on like, or like a subscribe on YouTube. Um, I started out by just like browsing YouTube for how to get started on YouTube videos. One woman that I fell in love with on YouTube, her name is Katherine Manning. She used to do a lot of how-to YouTube content, which was super helpful to me. She has since then pivoted away from that and now does vlog style of content. But a lot of her older videos were super helpful to me starting out. Then I also eventually took— after I had been posting on YouTube myself for a while, I took PTYA or Ali Abdaal's Part-Time YouTuber Academy. Now, I don't think he's— I think this is his last cohort, so I don't think he's running any more cohorts after this. But that was also a big help to me in taking my videos to the next level.

So this seems like a full-time job, right? Like, you have to put a lot of effort, time. You have to pay attention to a lot of details. And really, it's very time-taking. And even from thinking from a Like doing standpoint, it feels like so stressful because you have to, like, if you have like a full-time job like me and like a bunch of other side projects, you know, focusing on YouTube can be a little hard. So what advice do you give for people who want to take their YouTube channel part-time, not like, you know, like you per se full-time? What's your process or advice to them?

Yeah, I'd say probably try at the minimum to be able to allocate 8 hours per week for your YouTube channel. It's possible to get videos done with less than that, but the more you go behind that, the less likely it is that your channel's going to be successful. So try to carve out as close to 8 hours per week as you can for your YouTube channel. After that, I, I,

right.

What matters probably most is sticking with your content calendar. Um, most specifically your upload day. So you want to designate one day per week to be your upload day, and no matter what happens during your week, a video is going live on that day. For me, that day is Friday.

Got it.

Specifically Friday morning. So I'm like, okay,

by

10:00 AM on Friday, Every single week I have a video go live. From there I work backwards. I'm like, okay, so if, if a video goes live on Friday morning, it has to be ready for upload by Thursday night. Um, and I do personally outsource all of my editing for my long-form videos, which I highly, highly, highly recommend. I'd say if you can afford it, outsource editing as soon as you can.

Mm-hmm.

Learn, like, learn the basics of, uh, video editing yourself first so you can better communicate with your editor.

Yeah.

But right, right after that, hire an editor as soon as you can. It's 100% worth it. It takes a lot of time off of your plate. Um, but let's say you can't afford an editor because they are expensive. Okay. So, mm-hmm, you have your, your, your video that goes live on Friday morning.

Goes live on Friday.

Uh, I might allocate then Wednesday and Thursday for video editing. So I'm like, okay, I, I can edit my, my videos on Wednesday and Thursday. So my video is ready to go live on Friday. If I'm editing starting on Wednesday morning, then that means that my video needs to be filmed by Tuesday night. So, okay, perhaps Tuesday is my, my filming day.

Okay.

That means that the video needs to be ready to be filmed on Tuesday. So I can maybe have, have Monday or even Sunday if I wanted to, to be my, my scripting day or days.

It's like, okay, I take Sunday and Monday to script my video.

Tuesday is my filming day. Wednesday and Thursday can spend editing, and then Friday is my upload day. And then I have like Friday and Saturday is like chill slash flex time. And that's kind of like what your week would look like. And when I say these days, I don't mean like, okay, like the entire day is for this, but if Tuesday is my film day.

Absolutely. Yeah.

Then I would know, hey, I'm gonna block out an hour every single Tuesday to be my, my filming time. And I'm not gonna have any meetings that happen during that time. I'm gonna have like one sacred hour on Tuesday to film my, my, my YouTube video. And kind of like the, the, the, the same for the other days as well.

The same for the other days.

It, it sounds like it's not about the skill. It's about having that discipline, right? And having built up that routine is more important than— of course, skill of talking, writing, scripting, editing, all that will play a role. But what it sounds to me is like, you have to make up your mind about doing this every week. That's like fundamentally the first step people should take up. Forget about like the semantics of all things you said, which is like the process. That to me is something I'm also talking to myself while I'm talking to you right now, is that I never thought of that way. Like, I will film a video every Tuesday at a certain time and it's blocked. It's not like 8 hours, but it's only 1 hour. And of course, as we go, the 1-hour gets 45 minutes to half an hour and you get better, right? Like at recording or like whatever the thing, the skill you do. Quick, quick specific question about editing, because I kind of personally hate editing. How important is editing in your opinion? For example, I'm— for me, and this is me, like, you know, I'm a one-shot taker. Like, I just take one shot. record it, and then, you know, I don't need like— there is no way I can like stumble or anything because I just talk naturally, you know, as if I'm talking to you right now. But I see in your videos there are like some zoom in, zoom out frames. You basically like, you know, do you think that really makes the video much appealed to like just natural videos? What do you think about? Editing? What is the role of it?

Editing is definitely very important, but uploading weekly matters more.

It's like my first videos that came out on my first channel, it's like the—

I'd say like the basics that you probably should want to aim for in every video. Is having some sort of cuts to cut out your, like, ums or uhs or mistakes or bad takes or other things. Cuts also help with the pacing. So personally, I cut out all of these silences as well. So if I take a deep breath in between sentences, I'll cut out that breath. And that way the pacing of the video is much quicker than it would be in a normal conversation. So yeah, and there are also tools like, like Recut is great for, for, for making like your first A cut by just cutting out all of these silences in your video. And it's like, it's like a one-time $99 purchase and you have it for life. So there are tools that can help you as well. So your cuts are important. After that, your text is really important too, especially for like talking head. Videos, which I think most people do, which is just like this. It's like, okay, like I have my talking head on screen talking to you. Having text is really important because when people come to YouTube, they're— they want to watch something. And just a talking head talking at you for 10 minutes is quite boring. So you need to add some sort of visual elements to give them something to watch. Text is really great because you can just, especially for the more visual learners as well, you can emphasize the key points. With like text that just like says a certain like keyword or phrase or something else that comes up. Um, additionally, I think icons are a really nice way to like add some more dimension to your videos as well. I use Flaticon.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And you can just get like a ton of icons there. And so now you have like icons and text popping up around you as you're, as you're speaking. I would aim for some sort of visual element, whether that be text or an icon or like an image. Or a, like, or, or, or, or B-roll. You can get some, some stock B-roll off of—

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Pexels or create your own, like a, a, a screen share would be B-roll, for instance. Have some sort of visual element going on, like at least every 10 to 15 seconds of your, of your video. And that jumps to like every like 1 to 3 seconds in your hook. Um, and,

and

Lastly, I would say just have some underlying background music. You want your background music to be soft enough so that people don't really realize it's there, but loud enough so that if it cuts out for a second, people can tell that it's gone. And I get my music from Epidemic Sound.

And

it's like, that's all you need for a really decent, above average YouTube video. Just

your

cuts. Some text and icons, some B-roll if you can, and some music. And that's it.

It's very interesting. I was about to ask this question and you kind of answered, which is, what's the secret recipe to make a video successful? I think you kind of covered everything, right? Like content, editing, timing, which is going once every week, and I really like the process. I should talk to you a lot because I suck at these things. And I think probably we'll have another chat with the details. So let's talk about your creator life. I want to also talk about the YouTube, everything. Probably you've covered most of them in your videos, but How is it like to be a creator, first of all? And you worked full-time. What's like the biggest thing that you— the biggest shift as a creator that you saw from working full-time and what you're doing right now?

Yeah, I'm gonna give an answer. It might not be an answer that you were expecting. So like, I I had had a couple of jobs before I quit. One was on Wall Street as a banker. One was working at a Series A VC-backed startup. And during those times, especially working at the startup, the baking job was very chill. It was at the start of COVID Everyone was remote. Remote.

I did a lot of work, but it was very, very Boring work.

Like, I was, I was working on like a, a huge spreadsheet that took 15 minutes just to open.

It

had over 100 worksheets within the workbook.

Wow.

And most of the inputs were manual that had to be taken from like PDFs that were emailed.

Wow.

Like,

like,

it was awful. Um,

it's, it's true desk job, I guess, maybe.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, it, it was, it was, it was awful. Um, but the, the work that I did in the startup was very different. And I was like the first person to be in the office in the morning, one of the last people to leave at night. And I was working so hard and for so long, and I loved it. It was incredible. And the biggest shift that I realized when I became a creator is that my, my productivity plummeted. It was so much more difficult for me to stay focused, for me to like become focused and keep focused. And I was really beating myself up about that for a long time. I was like, how was I able to work? 70, 80 hours, sometimes 90 hours per week at a startup, not feel burned out, love it. And I can't even work 4 hours per day now without getting distracted. I just could not understand why. And I realized it was because of the difference kind of in nature of work. When you're working at a startup or when you're working under a boss or when you have a full-time job,

Right.

One, you are told which work to do, and 2, you are constantly setting out fires. It's like you have deadlines that you need to meet. There are absolutely stakes and things just pop up throughout the day and you have to go in and set out those fires. And I guess emotionally, the type of work that that is, it's much more triggered by your fight or flight. It's like, okay, like I have to get this done. There is no other choice. You're like pushed into this mode and you can keep going versus in kind of like solo creator life. There is no real fight or flight. It's like I have to create all of that for myself. Like, yes, I can say, okay, I have to upload every single week, but

but

like, what happens if I don't?

It's not like I get fired.

It's not like

It's not like,

you know, it's, it's, it's not like people are going to go homeless because of me, right? They're not like direct customers that I'm, that I'm like answering to. Um,

right.

So it's like, it's all, it all has to come from within. And that's really, really, really freaking hard. It's very hard.

Very hard.

To be able to keep yourself focused when you don't have to put out fires. Um, so yeah, that, that was probably the biggest change, at least like work-wise and self-wise, that I realized from going from, you know, full-time jobs to full-time creator.

But I mean, you still have a lot of pressure as well, right? You have to make a living out of it. You know, it's not like, of course, you know, it's not super simple. But the better part is you get to do it on your own terms. You get to be your own boss and you are the master here. You are the slave. You basically decide everything. I think that's the most important thing, right? That's what I hear a lot from my friends as well who are creators. It's the freedom. It's the ability to do my own stuff under my own will.

100%.

But I do think that the whole concept of like, oh, it is the freedom to do whatever you want, I feel like that's pretty known throughout anyone who was like, oh, I want to quit my full-time job to have more freedom and choose what I want to do.

I feel like what isn't talked about as much is how much harder it is to be productive on your own versus when you're working for someone else.

Right. And what— how did you navigate that, that path, like being productive by yourself? You have to be extremely disciplined again to have certain routines, certain habits. Talk to me about your thought process as a creator every day. Like, how do you balance your emotions and like, okay, this is where I'm going and this is the right path? How do you decide the decision-making and everything?

Yeah, it's, it's, it's really hard. I honestly don't think I have everything figured out yet. Um, I mean, like, I started my creator journey 2 years ago and It's taken me this long to figure out like, uh,

uh,

like a, an idea or like a, a path, a track, a track,

right?

That I'm excited about and that feels in alignment with, with who I am.

With who I am.

Um, so it's like, it's, it's taken a while even just to like,

even just to like

discover this after trying so many things and ending up like, ah, I am getting so burnt out because this isn't actually what I want.

to be doing.

And a lot of questions of like, okay, if this feels bad to do, and why am I doing this when I could just do other work that feels bad and get paid a whole lot more for it?

Right? Like the desk job.

Exactly. Exactly. Working with a spreadsheet that takes 15 minutes to open.

That's so funny.

It was awful. It was awful. But yeah, I think now, as you said, a lot comes down to discipline and also like processes. I've also noticed that like a specific like productivity tool or, or, or, or process or framework or what have you will work really well for a certain period of time.

But after like that month or month and a half, it'll stop being as effective. So then I have to like go and find a different one that feels good at that time.

So the clock resets kind of, right? Like, I can relate to it so much, uh, even though I'm not like a full-time creator. I sometimes feel like I get these ideas about some content which really works And sometimes, man, like nothing in the mind. My mind goes like complete blank. And like you said, even efficiency-wise, you know, it goes like 10x down, not 10x up. So what do you do in certain events? Like, do you do like a hard pause, reset everything, take a break? What is your— you know, going from that phase to like again bringing your creative juices back?

It— I think it depends on like what the down phase is. Um, I like— if I've been having like a long period of time where like I'm doing some work and that work feels fine, but I'm not doing nearly like enough work as I want to be, um, then I'll come up with like a rigid schedule of like, okay, No, no looking at social media, no watching the TV, no playing video games until 9:00 PM at night. And like, okay, it's like I wake up in the morning, I go to the gym, I come back, I eat breakfast, I do admin work. And then that's like day 1, which is like the morning. We like to split our day up into 3 days to feel like there's more opportunities for a reset. And then after that, Then it's like, okay, it's just a period of deep work and then lunch and then a period of deep work and then dinner and then some more work. And then it becomes 9:00 PM and then you can go off and do things. And it's like, if I feel like I am doing some work but not enough work, or I could be doing more, but I need more of like a kick in the butt, then I will like set myself to a very strict schedule. Schedule. Now, what also happened earlier last week is I was doing— I was trying my hardest to do some work, but I just couldn't do it.

Like, there's like a mental blocker in my head.

Like, I would sit down and my brain would just go in like a zillion directions. It would take me 30 minutes to write one sentence. Like, it was just really bad.

Really bad.

What I needed in that point was I thought I needed some rest. So I took a rest day where I didn't do any work. I was just on my computer and chilling. And the next morning I woke up and I still didn't feel good. I still felt bad. I was like, okay, well, what if what I needed wasn't a rest day but a recharge day? So I spent the next day after that spending more time with friends, going outside, going Through the downtown Denver and like a park and getting like a hot dog and an ice cream and just like sitting in the grass and looking up at the clouds and thinking about like, you know, what I wanted to accomplish in life. And I came out the next day and I felt, okay, I am ready to go. So I think like it kind of depends on like what's the source. of your unproductivity.

It's like, is it because you need rest? Is it because you need recharge?

Or is it because you need structure? So those are kind of the 3 that I try out.

That's so awesome. And I really appreciate you for sharing, you know, everything like what you said. It takes a a lot of courage to accept that I'm going through something. A lot, many people, they just skip it, right? Because they don't have that self-awareness. Self-awareness is such a key aspect of everything we do as humans. So really appreciate. And the follow-up question I have is, you, of course, creators and everybody else will have the highs and lows. And being a creator, you're, at least in my opinion, As a creator, your role is to fully focus on the inputs first and then later on the outputs. Like, what am I getting out of it? How do you balance the inputs versus outputs?

I mean, I think ultimately the only thing I can control is the input, right?

It's like, yeah, Yeah.

I want to gain as many subscribers as I can. Yes, I want to make as much money as I can doing the, the things that I love, but I cannot control how many people subscribe to my YouTube channel. I cannot control how many people watch my, my YouTube channel.

Sure.

All I can control is my own inputs. And I think like, I think it's important to like keep

like

Like in like an eye on what you want your outputs to be. I'm also like a large believer in like the power of manifestation and visualization. It's like okay, like you you you can never achieve something if you can't believe that it can happen. So I am a big like but I'm I'm a large proponent of having dreams and. Visualizing your, your dreams and believing that they can happen. But after that, the only thing that you can do is input. And so then that just comes into like the processes that you have for yourself. Like, okay, I am making my weekly upload no matter what. I am doing these things no matter what. Um, because again, like that's the only thing that you can truly control.

But

Again, talking about self-awareness, right? You basically have to be very, very much aware of your surroundings, the mental state you are in, and really like aligned to your reality. You can't really do 100 videos per week, which might generate like, you know, so you have to be very mindful, very thoughtful, and very content about even inputs as well. So yeah, that's the way to go if you want to survive and thrive. That's how we have to live. Focus on the inputs, focus on things you can control, and whatever it is, it happens and you have to live with it. Yeah. So let's talk about a little bit more specific about monetizing your YouTube channel. Where should one focus on? And I want to understand what are some lessons you learned in the process of monetization? For example, one question, specific question I have is how do you price your yourself, like per hour consulting gigs or ad revenue, the things you learn, how do you like really set a certain level in terms of pricing and where should people reach out to you? What's like the flow should look like and everything, every tiny detail you learn as you go.

A big question here. I'll, I'll start out by saying that at least from YouTube, there are 4 main ways to monetize a channel. One is going to be your ad revenue. That's probably what people are most familiar with from, from your, your, your Google AdSense and how that happens. Essentially, once you reach the monetization threshold, which is going to be 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, then you are accepted into the YouTube Partner Program. Um, and what that does essentially is, uh, a very broad— the, the, the broad strokes is that you're able to take home 55% of the profit that YouTube makes from ads being shown on your videos. Um, and that's kind of determined by your views and your CPM. Your CPM is cost per mille. That's the cost in dollars that advertisers pay per 1,000 views on your channel. Mm-hmm. And your CPM ranges a lot based off of your niche and your geography primarily.

Right.

If your primary audience is in the US or like Australia, your CPM is gonna be a lot higher than if your primary audience is based in Mexico or India. For niche-wise, I had like a motherhood vlogger friend of mine who had a CPM of 70 cents. A cooking channel might see a CPM of like $4. Like a tech or productivity channel might see a CPM of like $10 to $12. Getting up into the higher CPMs, you have, you know, the crypto and finance. I've seen over $25 or more. My own CPM when I was in the NFT space was like $23. So it was like very, very, very high. And so like a rough estimate of how much you would make from AdSense is multiply your CPM by your number of views, and that's how much money you will make from YouTube AdSense. Um, it's really cool that you can make money like just from uploading your YouTube videos and nothing else, but the largest YouTubers view AdSense as just like a bonus, right? Because the main value of YouTube comes not from the AdSense itself, but from your ability to generate organic traffic and being able to direct that traffic to something else that is your own. The other— another way to make money—

What do you mean when you say redirecting to an external? Is it like the product you're building or the course you're like selling? Is that what you mean?

Yep, yep, absolutely. That's one of the ways to monetize is through your own personal products. So it could be like a course that you create, like BGTY is for me. Um, it could be some, some digital downloads. Like if you were a cooking channel, could you come up with like menu cards? Or if you were a, a language channel, some like some, some, some digital grammar cards or something. Um, or even physical products or like kind of like the whole array of things that you can create to direct traffic to.

Nice. Couple of questions again from specific standpoint. So for people who are, again, let's talk about only beginners because it seems like the thing I really liked on your website is most YouTubers are successful, they can't make relevant content to beginners because they're at a very higher stage. Like they're at step 100. And you, that's why you started your course. And that's why I want to ask this question. What are some limiting beliefs that you think even you faced or people might face that they have to like fight battle as they start Or even like, you know, become consistent at, you know, posting these videos that people should avoid, first of all.

Yeah. Some, something that I experienced like literally just last week was I was script— I was scripting my next long-form video and the voice in the back of my head was just like, this video is not good enough. Right? Like I have this goal to get 1,000 subscribers by May 21st, and this this voice in my head was like, "This video will not get you there. This video has no potential to go viral. This is a bad video." And because of that, it was just like it was the hardest thing in the world to just try to script this video because like the the the cognitive dis the cognitive dissonance of like okay, I need to script a video, but also this video is not good. And it was just, it was so freaking hard. And I think like a lot of people go through this. And the, the, what, what I had to tell myself is that it's okay. Not every video is gonna be a banger and that's fine. Some of your videos are just gonna be very meh and that's okay. What matters most is that you upload no matter what, no matter the quality of your video, just get it out there. Because what matters most at this stage is just Building up a habit when you're so early, you don't have any of the muscle memory, any of the habit. Every single, like every single week feels like a whole new journey of like, oh, I have to get another video out this week. Like start quality. Yes, it matters, but building the habit matters more. And you can focus more on the quality of your videos once it doesn't feel like torture getting a video out every single week. Once that no longer feels like a battle. Yeah. Yeah, that's probably a big one that a lot of people go through.

Yeah, I can kind of relate to what you're saying. Yeah, sometimes you just get stuck and you basically have to pull yourself up and just do it, like ship it, right? The other thing I want to talk is YouTube Shorts. So what are some things— first of all, do people even have to pay attention? I know the answer, but I'm again asking for reassurance. Do even people have to pay attention to Shorts while they make these long-form videos? A, number 2 is how do you really crack the YouTube algorithm for Shorts? Is there a pre-built way that you've tried and succeeded?

I'll say I am bad at YouTube Shorts, so like I am still trying to figure that out myself. Like, this is the first time I'm trying to do short-form content as well. Um, so I, I've been uploading one short-form video per day, um, with this new channel. And it's just, it's, it's weird, man. It's weird. Uh, I definitely have not cracked the code whatsoever, so I cannot give, um, advice on that. When it comes to like, are they worth focusing on? First and foremost, focus on your long-form content. If you can add some short-form to that, awesome. But only do that after you have your long-form content done and out and that feels okay. Um, because like, yes, you can theoretically get a lot more views with your short-form videos, but at least how everything is structured right now across all platforms, across YouTube and TikTok and Instagram, monetizing your Shorts or trying to like build a dedicated community or audience around your Shorts is a whole lot harder than doing that through long-form content. Long-form content is still king, like especially when it comes to monetizing monetization. Like I, I hear creators all the time who are raking in like tens of millions of views on their Shorts. Yeah. And they still don't make as much money as someone with like a fraction of those views in long-form videos and a fraction of their subscriber size in long-form videos. So focus on long-form first, and then if you have any extra time or energy, that's when you can start experimenting with Shorts.

Yeah, that's, I think it makes sense, you know, what you said, even from a behavioral standpoint, which is focus on building the habit first and then you can really like, you know, break the long-form videos into short-form and like schedule and whatnot, make it more smarter. So 2 more things, 2 more topics I want to ask you. One is you are a big proponent of building in public. Right. And what kind of role that it played in your YouTube journey? And where do you usually go to build in public? I know Twitter, but generally, like, what is your process like? Do you use any distribution channels to share your journey of, you know, going from 0 to 1 and so on and so forth?

Yeah. Building in public has probably been everything for me. My strongest fans and strongest friends that have come from the internet have been through putting myself out there in public and building in public. And a lot of the opportunities that I've had, paid opportunities that I've had, have come from building in public as well. I think it's also helped build a lot of my credibility in doing these things because I don't come out there and say, ah, I'm an expert about YouTube. No, it's like if people want to, they can read the entire journey from me just creating my very first video and being like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing, but I released this video and I hope it's okay. All the way to my rationale for starting a brand new channel and what my strategy is for my, my brand new channel. When it came to my course as well, it's like, I announced my course with a full outline of every single lesson that I was going to include in my course. And there are 30 of them. It's a lot. And it's like, I feel, I'll say, I'll preface this by saying I'm awful at sales. I am so bad at sales. I hate Selling. It just makes me feel all squirmy, but I feel like I don't really need to sell as much when I'm building in public because it's like, hey, I'm just going to put myself out there. I'm going to be very honest. This is my approach to everything. This is how I think about everything. This is where all of my expertise is coming from. If you vibe with this, if you see this and you like it, Then you can come. Like my, my, my door is open. I have all, all, all, all of these options to choose from. You can come in. If not, that's totally cool. You do you and I'll do me and that's fine. Mm-hmm. And so I feel like because I'm so bad at sales, building a public is probably like slash content marketing is like the only thing that has driven any sort of traffic to any of my, my paid products or services. So that's huge. And when it comes to like what I share, it's really just like my process, like my, my, my, my process, both in terms of like my actions and my thoughts. Whenever I am like approaching something or doing a new thing right now, as I said, I'm trying to like build my, my YouTube channel to 1,000 subscribers in 6 weeks. So every week I come up with a weekly update. I've been doing video updates recently, and those have been doing pretty good as well.

Yep.

I just like give like a short video about like where I was last week, where I was this week, what were the things that I did this week, what worked and, and did not work and other things like that. And I feel like people, people also love to feel like they're a part of something and they love to live vicariously through others. And so it's like the more detail that you can get as you're going through this process, the more that people are going to want to follow along. Because instead of my channel, it's become our channel that we're growing to the certain point because people get invested. And that's key. Once you get people truly invested in what you're doing and rooting for you, you are going to win.

Yeah, that's 100% true. It feels like you're kind of narrating my journey as a founder of ShoutOut. Same thing. Basically, if you're vulnerable, show it. If you're successful, show it. If you feel terrible, show it. Everything. Be more transparent. And also, like, kind of once you share, once you put your story out, credibility is something that you achieve. But more importantly, you become more accountable, right? You are kind of It feels like, yes, I am accountable to these people. I'm accountable to myself. So you take ownership as well from sharing your story. And there is, I feel I'm a huge proponent. And what you said, I want to do it with the side projects I have. And I feel, yeah, it's game-changing for everybody, especially people who belong to internet. They have to build in public and there is no downside. So the other thing I want to talk about is community, right? You build, you're building a course. I'm sure you have like a community around your course. And of course, YouTube audience itself is a community. What's the community role and when did you discover the power of like-minded folks coming together? that you actually like, okay, I have to like, you know, really, this should be my edge? When did you realize that?

I mean, I first came onto Twitter because when I was doing my startup, a friend of mine said, hey, if you want to do a startup, you should go on Twitter because there are a lot of smart people who hang out on Twitter. So go there. And I'm like, okay, I guess. And I just kind of like fell into it. And I think like once, once I started to realize like, oh hey, the more that I interact with other people, the more I grow on Twitter. Hmm. This is interesting. This probably means something. Um, and so then my, my, my Twitter audience started to grow and like the biggest thing I think that I've realized for myself in terms of like the role of, of community and how it plays for me. Mm-hmm. Is one, like, the more I— the more active I am, the more vulnerable I am, the more my sense of community grows. And the larger my community grows and the stronger that my community grows, the more fire that I have within myself to create because I feel supported and I don't feel as alone. Mm-hmm. And I feel like I have people who are rooting for me and people who believe in me, and I don't want to let them down.

Right.

And so it's like, I feed them and they feed me, and there's like amazing circle here. And also just like a side note too, is that anything that I launch will have like its first 10 subscribers or purchases or anything else because of, of the community there. Like, anything that I'm gonna do is gonna have a warm open, not a cold open. And I think that that helps a lot in terms of like the courage to start something new. Right. Because I know that something is going to come from it, even if it's the tiniest thing. And as we all know, Getting from zero to one is the hardest part. Getting your first sale, getting like your first couple of subscribers. So the role of the community, at least for me, is that it helps take away the fear and the challenge of getting from zero to one. So I'm always starting out at one when I go off and do anything new.

That's awesome. Yeah, I think community is your cheerleading group in a way, right? They're the They're the true fans. And I think that's why it's really hard to find like-minded folks. It's not like you go out and people really cheer for you. So one last question from my end, but I do have an audience question we can dive into. So what's the unconventional way of growing on YouTube?

The unconventional way of growing on YouTube?

Yeah.

Like, I, I, I, I feel like my, my, my keyword research, uh, answer probably still holds true here. And then again, like most, most people just try to like go towards like the types of titles and thumbnails that the largest YouTubers are trying out. So I, I do feel like that, that, that keyword research is like, okay, like it's. It's like, yes, people do know about it, but I feel like it's still pretty unconventional in like the grand scheme of YouTube. Also, um, something that I tried out this time around, uh, when I started my brand new channel, which was really interesting, is instead of just launching with one video, I launched with 4 videos. Uploaded on my channel. Um, so I completed 4 entire videos, um, before I told people about my channel, and I uploaded them all at the same time. I was like, yes, my, my, my new channel is out. I did that to increase my, my watch hours because like I want to create more bingeability. I knew that I was going to have like a large initial rush of people coming to my channel because they're like, oh, it's a new channel, let's Let's go and check it out. Okay, instead of only having one video for them to watch, can I direct them to my channel? And then if they want to, they can watch all 4 videos and get my watch hours up. So that's also something that I tried.

Yeah, I think that's smart, right? You basically feed more content and, uh, yeah, of course people will stick to you and they watch like the rest of the folks. So here's one question from, from one of our Twitter audience. This is from Hai. I met him a couple of days ago. I'm helping him launch his product on Product Hunt. Shout out to him for asking this. So his question is, why did you decide to focus on YouTube instead of other channels? Typically YouTube is counted as a long-term investment. Is that something why you did it versus focusing on TikTok or Instagram Reels, for example?

Yeah, I think so. I started out on Twitter, and the reason why I didn't go into TikTok or Instagram Reels or anything like that is because I love long form. Short form is still meh to me. I am definitely warming up to it a lot more. But again, I am a storyteller at heart, and I'm also an educator at heart. And I truly believed in the lasting power of YouTube and like, hey, I've watched videos from years ago that were so tremendously helpful to me right now. I want to make those types of videos. I want to make videos that have lasting power that can come in now and people can watch it years from now and be like, this was incredible. And this could like set me off to, to my next thing. And like, I know when I, when I was, um, But when I was 10, I wrote a book. It was like a 310-page typed out font size 12 fantasy novel. And it just sits on my computer. It took me like 2 years to write when I was like 10 to 11 to like 12-ish. And that was never published. That's amazing. No, thanks. I, I, I don't think it will ever be published. Who knows? It still holds a very special place in my heart. But it's like, for me, through YouTube, it's kind of like getting to publish a story every week. You know, it's like, it's an educational story. It's one that, that that's supposed to help people. But every single week I get to write and create and publish. And I do feel like it's really supporting this inner child of mine who always wanted to publish her creative work. And it's like, now I get to do that and I get to do that every week. And the content that I am launching, that I am publishing every week, hopefully is content that is useful and valuable to people in the future and for years from now. So yeah.

Yeah, it's awesome. Oh my God, I think you kind of started very early. 10 years is such a early age to start writing. So I want to manifest on your behalf that the novel gets published at some point in your life so that people get to read it. So I know it's been like a lengthy conversation, but I want to also ask this question, which you touched about storyboarding, which you just mentioned. Do you have any tips for people Because at the end of the day, it's the person, the creator is kind of narrating a story, even though it's like specific knowledge. You talk about startups or anything, but it should captivate other people's attention. How do you storyboard? Or that's one. Number 2 is like any tips that you provide for creators?

Yeah, before I script every single video, I answer 7 questions every single time. And these 7 questions are, who is the character? What do they want? Why can't they get what they want? What are the stakes? So what happens if they don't get what they want? Who or what helps them? How do they get what they want? And how are they transformed by this experience? And I answer these 7 questions in the context of every single one of my YouTube Videos before I script them. And it really helps me like frame the video in a sense of like exactly who is the viewer, exactly what do they want, and like all of these other things. And like I can, if I can really help like amp up the, these stakes, then it all, all of a, all of a sudden creates a more relatable and more compelling story and journey that they're now taken on from the beginning state of, oh, I want this, but I can't have this. to, oh, at the very end, I am transformed by watching this video and everything that has come from that. So I do that for every single long-form video of mine.

That's awesome. Yeah, we're definitely going to include those in the show notes for people to catch. I just want to end this episode on that high note because I think this has been a very technical discussion about being being a creator on YouTube. And I really appreciate you for sharing all your insights, lessons, the methods, the frameworks, everything. So before we close out, do you have anything to share with the folks who are listening?

I'll just say that no matter what you're going through, you are not alone. If you're struggling to create YouTube content, it happens to all of us. And if you ever want to chat, my DMs are open on Twitter and you can come say hi and I don't bite. I am kind of friendly.

So yeah. Awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. We'll also like include your course and, you know, the YouTube, the new YouTube channel you're growing, part of BuildSpace as well in the show notes. But yeah, this has been great, April Lynn. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. And yeah, stay tuned guys for more of such insightful conversations. I love unpacking these stories with creators and founders. So yeah, stay tuned and thanks for tuning in. Cheers.