How To Balance Your Content Strategy | 28 Minutes

All right, well, there you go. We're live. Rich, welcome back. That beard gets longer every time, man. That beard is insane.

It's only gonna get worse.

Yeah, what's the vision there?

Uh, well, I'm already having dreams of shaving it, so I don't know if I'm gonna last, but the whole idea is started— I wanted to have like a mustache and, and have it go like today to my eyeballs. Like do a Salvador Dalí thing, take some pictures, and then shave it.

But what about the beard?

Oh, it comes part and parcel.

Oh, you wouldn't just do the 'stache? Or trim the beard and—

I think just the 'stache is a little too gay, like I don't like the way it looks.

Ah, but it'll stand out. Trim the beard and— no?

No, no, it's gotta be caveman, it's gotta be real authentic fat ugly beard.

This is not caveman to the eyeballs. This isn't?

This is? This is like— You know, next time. I'm cool with that.

For people who are watching, they're gonna be like, what are you guys talking about? It's supposed to talk about business.

Talking about beards.

Here we go. So update. So what's going on, man? Here we go. Hit me.

So what's going on? Things are going well. I had a little breakdown and then a breakthrough, so that was good. And then we talked about that a little bit where I was kind of like stopped for a little while for a couple of weeks. And but I unleashed a few more personal videos that don't really have anything to do with my work or business or anything like that. It was just kind of like some ideas and thoughts, some shares, and that's it. And I'm feeling good with that, and I'm just gonna for now go that way. Actually, I have some ideas for more videos I just wanted to discuss with you, but that's pretty much what's been going on so far. Anything that I'm missing?

No, it's so— I mean, update from last time You gave up coffee, tea, and alcohol. Is that still going?

Oh, that was a while ago. Yeah, yeah. That's happening? No, no, no coffee, no tea, no alcohol, no smoke, no nothing.

Still on your path. Okay, okay, cool. You were super excited about this the last time we talked. You were like, we should— I wish you could like bring in that clip. You were buzzing about— you were in a buzz about not being on a buzz. You know, you were happy.

Exactly, yeah, yeah, I know, it's good.

And we're talking about doing 2 videos a week, one kind of— 2 videos? One kind of tip/question or one kind of interview, and now you had your reflection time. What does the schedule look like? What kind of stuff do you want to create?

What my schedule looks like? Well, you know what? That's the other thing that I was a bit struggling with. I'm just going to turn off my phone here. So in terms of schedule, I've been running my YouTube channel like a hobby, which is what it is for me right now. And so I've dedicated like a day, day and a half a week to it, where I try to get everything rolling, shoot all the videos, edit all of them. Sometimes it takes me about a day or two to do all that. And it needs more than that. It needs more than that amount of time to be able to kind of get more videos and better videos, and so I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to allocate that time while I'm running my business and family and other things that I'm doing. So, um, I wanted to simplify the video. What's that?

Is that the best plan? Is the plan that I need to find more time to make this happen, or I need to find a way to A day and a half is not nothing. A day and a half a week is a good chunk of time. You can make a lot happen in a day and a half. I shoot all my YouTube videos in usually 2 to 3 hours. And that's shooting 20 videos. So you can make some magic happen in a day and a half. But is that the plan? So I'm trying to get where you're at right now. Are you trying to find more time to spend on your channel? Or are you trying to just maximize what you have and be more effective with it?

Well, ideally what I want to do is figure out a way to get much clearer with what I'm doing with my channel so that I can justify spending that kind of time on it. OK. So I want to basically get a vision for, OK, this is what I'm going to do, and commit to that, and that really be in line with everything I'm up to and what my goals are. So that I can focus down. See, a day and a half for me isn't— may not be the same as it is for you because it's pretty much me doing the editing, everything else. So a team around you, it's a lot more organized, I know, right? So a day and a half, it's a bit disorganized with me, so it doesn't get as much productivity. And I want to get a little more productive, so I want to get more organized and more clear.

Okay, let's get clear right now.

This is it.

This is us getting clear.

Okay.

What are we going to do?

So, you know what, I had some ideas to maybe, and this is again just ideas, right? Maybe create some videos and tips around basics in photography and video for people that might want to get into it. Like it's not necessarily anything that is having to do with my business right now, but something that I can easily make videos about, I think it'd be interesting I'd be in my element to talk about it and I'd be kind of— it'd be easy for me. It's something that I really know and people would get value out of it as something to kind of start off with.

But you were doing those?

Not really. I was doing a few of them around trying to get into the mind of what someone that's in front of the camera would need.

Okay.

So what a potential potential client with me or someone that's going to be in front of the camera with me.

Right.

Like, and what I'm talking about now is like something that a photographer or video guy starting out would want to know, like what lenses to use or the lighting and stuff like that.

And is that of interest? Like, do you, are you, you have a burning passion to teach this stuff?

You know, whenever I've, whenever someone's asked me those kind of questions about, they have a question about a lens or about anything having to do with Like, it's not something that I would think of, okay, I really want to do that, but whenever anyone asks me questions about that stuff, it comes so naturally and I have so much fun explaining to them that I think I might have fun playing that game for a while.

So, okay, so a couple thoughts and we'll see where this goes. Yeah, um, okay, you know, you were on my channel. You— when did you come? Last week? Last week?

No, 2 weeks ago.

2 weeks ago? Yeah, 2 weeks ago. I think that's the best you've ever been. Like, you were, you were relaxed, you were calm, you had good stories. And even thinking back to some of the older stuff that we've done, you're getting a lot more comfortable. And, and, and through that, offering a lot more value. Because if you're nervous and you're searching for words and you're not as confident in the expression, and so it's— you lose attention, right? So I really liked what you were doing, and you've gotten a lot better. And I don't know if that's because— I think honestly the videos that we did together were better than the ones that you did recently on your channel. Like, you're part of it, your comfort level, which is weird because I'm— and most people are usually better when they're by themselves because there's nobody else around them. Like, we had a we had lights and a cameraman and me and Rosanna, and most people would be freaked out by that and get more nervous, but you were really good. But so it's been great to see your progression and how you're getting better. I just found it interesting that being with somebody else, you seem to be more relaxed, which is a different vibe. I don't know, it's very— it is, it's different. Which may be, hey, maybe do more videos with other people too. The second thing, and this one is really important, not that the first one wasn't, but this is really important. The types of videos that you make will help you cultivate different audiences, right? So the tips that you were providing before for people in front of the camera, now you're going to start attracting that kind of audience. People who wanna be in front of the camera, right? Actors, models, whoever, right? If you switch it to Behind the Lens, then you're starting over and now building an audience of photographers and videographers, and there may be some overlap, like a photographer might be interested in some of those tips to share with their client, but the kinds of videos that you make, you're gonna start attracting that audience. You're gonna start getting more and more of those people coming along. Just as a really quick example, somebody asked me about patents before on my channel, and, you know, I know a little bit about patents, but I'm not a lawyer, especially in the US, right? So I shared what I knew about patents, and in that video, people watched it, and then I got like 10 more questions about patents from people watching it. So then I made a few more patent videos, and then that just, it just kept breeding, that I kept getting all these questions about how do I get my patent, how much does it cost, and provisional, or, you know, and I had to stop answering patent questions because I was— one, I'm not the biggest expert on it, and two, uh, it's not what I wanted to be known for, right? I had to mix it up.

Yeah.

Um, the same thing happened when I did a video about cosmetics. I did one video for cosmetics, and then people started asking me about starting up their own cosmetics company, and then I made a few more, and it just started going nuts. And I don't want to be the guy known for helping you build your cosmetics company only, right? I wanted the variety. So yeah, you're going to start attracting that audience. And is that— and it's great, like, if that's what you love doing, if that's the audience that you want, then you're totally on track. If you are doing this one day and then doing this another day, and then I think the struggle has always been consistency of getting similar kinds of videos up together because they're drawing from all over the place. So it makes it hard to keep an audience. Um, so is that the audience that you want? Do you want photographers? Do you like educating? And that's a whole— it's a whole different business model. Um, I met Chase Jarvis yesterday. Um, he's founder of Creator Live— Creative Live. I think I sent you his YouTube video, his YouTube channel. He basically trains— what he started off with is just training photographers, and he has these courses that he now sells to train photographers. And so that might evolve into your business. Like, now maybe you become the guy that photographers come to for advice, and maybe you talk about your experience with Lady Gaga and how nervous you were and how you got that deal. And right, um, so it's just what's the audience that you want to go after, right? Who are the people that you want to connect with? And then you want to make videos for them. Um, and there's nothing wrong with experimenting every now and then and throwing in a new one and, you know, something that's off the wall. Yeah, but when you stop producing a certain kind of video, then you stop losing— you start losing that audience. So the Inspire stuff you're creating, the motivational videos, the Fear series— like, you get a subscriber because they love that Fear video, they want to see more. Yeah, they're open to having other things, right? Like, there's nothing wrong with infusing other things in there, but you— they want to see more of that Fear stuff that you were talking about. If that just totally stops then they're probably gonna unsubscribe. You're gonna have a lot of churn in your channel. It's gonna be hard to get it growing consistently. So you wanna get clear starting with who is the audience that you wanna go after and then what's the content that you're gonna make for them? What content can you create on a consistent basis so that you don't lose momentum? Because momentum is so hard to build up And then once you get it, you don't want to lose it, right? Like, you're finally getting comments and likes and subscribers. You don't want to then lose it because you weren't clear from the start. I mean, if you're switching your passion, if you don't like it anymore, I'm not saying go in and say, I'm going to keep doing this only because I have momentum. I hate doing these videos now, but I'm going to force myself to do them. That's not a reason to do it. But if you can identify what you're passionate about now, like the stuff that you love working on, that that day and a half doesn't feel like a chore, that it excites you and fills you with energy, just try to be consistent at that.

Yeah, well, that's the mystery right now, right? I'm not sure what that is. That's why I'm kind of hanging around.

What's happened with the Fear series? Is it gone? Is it dead? No more interviews?

No, so far no, nothing. Right now it's kind of on hold.

Yeah.

Yeah. I'm getting a little echo there.

You're getting echo?

Yeah, but that's okay. I'll lower my volume. OK. So yeah, it's kind of on hold, like the Success Diaries, all that stuff. I mean, it's not something that I've killed and said, OK, I'm not going to do it again. Just right now, it's not a priority. I haven't really made the effort to go and shoot more and cut more and put it all together. So yeah, that's kind of— that is, I thought, was clear that for a while I've been kind of struggling with trying to figure out what it is that I really want to do here because I have fun doing this for a while and that for a while. And so far it's not like I haven't really found the thing that, that's it, I know for sure it's this thing and nothing else and I'm on fire with it. So I'm kind of playing around.

And I wonder if that becomes like I'm searching for some kind of consistent message in between it. I mean, inspire should be through everything that you're doing and inspiring people to want to be better, whether you're answering a question about photography or you're making a video about fear, because that's your one word. I'm wondering though if you're on a— if you're on a, you know, if you could put into context like you're on a journey, like you're testing this stuff out. And you're trying to find yourself, then that adds a little more context and a little more stickiness between the series. So, you know, if you— and then you break it down, right? Like maybe a consistent part of what you do is you talk about what you're doing. You're giving me props.

No, no, I'm trying to—

You're experimenting. You're like, there you go.

3, no, that's what they look like. I was trying to increase the screen size.

You're getting distracted by shiny objects, Rich. Distracted by shiny objects. I wonder, I'd love to have just something on your channel that is consistent. And maybe it's you, maybe it's you telling your story and like where you're at every week. Maybe you're checking in and saying, you know, I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next. And so I'm going to explore a series talking about photographers and gear and behind the, behind the camera stuff, because that's what I'm excited about now. And this is kind of what we do, like, that's kind of part of it, right? When you come on my channel, this is the behind the scenes, what Rich is all about. But maybe that's something you put on your channel, uh, and so I can follow along your journey and share in what you're thinking about. And then, then the cuts to these other things make more sense. Like, I'm going to start a project around fear because I'm scared of whatever. I'm scared of too many things. I don't want to kill my fear. So here we go. And then you start these, you know, 6-week programs or whatever it is, however long you're feeling the vibe for. Because I know you don't like to get chained down. Like, I know freedom and, you know, breaking, breaking through and being a nomad is like, is part of your thing, which is great. And so a schedule can sometimes be too like, don't box me in, right? Don't put me in that box. I'm just gonna break it because I want to. But just something to tie me along because I follow you and I subscribe to your channel because I know you and you're a friend and I want to see you be successful. For any of the series, if I signed up for it, I might then think, well, what What is happening from jumping around? And the variety is okay. I'm not saying don't experiment, don't have variety. Variety is nice when there is some consistency too, right? I'm, you know, for example, on my channel, we're just posting now about my Caribbean vacation. And the next thing I'm working on now, where's my— you know, I got, I got the GoPro with the microphone and I'm filming. Nina wanted to do a 30-day weight loss challenge. Because we came home from the cruise, you know, a little bigger than when we left, maybe a lot bigger than when we left. So 30-day weight loss challenge. I've never done anything on my channel about fitness or weight loss or any of that stuff.

Yeah.

So we're going to put it up, but I'm not going to lose my subscribers because I have the top tens are regular, the N Expresses are regular, the other series are regular. So I'm just searching for what is the regular thing that you put up while you do the other experimentation stuff?

Well, what is the regular thing I put up? So far from everything on my channel, any kind of thread, right? Anything?

Anything that could be, like all of it has potential. The inspirational videos were great, the fear series was good, the Ask Rich was good. The, the you sharing your stuff when you came over here and you were in the backyard and we're filming, you know, your thoughts on things, you sharing your book that you read. All of them could be great. It's really much more about what you feel like you want to share, like what, what are you excited about from any of that stuff? And the fact that you haven't continued means it's probably none of them because you would have continued if you felt so excited about them. Right? Something is saying, nah, it's not the right vibe. And so I just wonder if like a rich confessional or something might be a consistent theme where you're just always, you know, I kind of have it in my videos. I'm always talking about what I'm doing. I'm always trying to share examples from what's happening in my business and my life in the video so people can kind of follow along. I'm just wondering if that might make sense, the rich confession or something like share your journey. And, and, and I think you might get a lot of love and support. The more you share what you're worried about and scared about, you'll have people leaving comments trying to help give suggestions, ask questions, and that will give you motivation to see that you're not in this alone, other people thinking similar things. Yeah, comments are awesome.

I've experienced a bit of that in my last couple of videos, which were more Richard Sessions, you know, to give you the name, me kind of sharing where I'm at. Yeah, sharing my confusion and, you know, that I'm okay with it, getting all kinds of nice comments on them.

Yeah.

And for now That seems to be the only thing that's— I'm doing my part of trying, of figuring out to go with the heart. And what you've talked about for a while, I don't really know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to do whatever I feel like or want to at this moment, whatever's really drawing me in. So that drew me in to kind of talk about what's happening right now and to kind of talk about that I don't know what I want to put on as a video. Or as a series of videos. I'm just going to say that for now. And it just felt good or right to make a few videos basically about that. And I don't know what the next thing will be. Might just be whatever is up right now, or I really don't know yet what it's going to be. Yeah, I haven't found it yet, and I'm okay with it.

Eventually you'll hit your stride. Eventually you'll find it, that this is what I love doing, and you get a nice stretch with Yeah, the common thread is going to be you through everything. If you look at my YouTube channel, how it's changed, all my videos used to just be me answering questions, right? And now I only answer one question a week, two a week, or I do them all like in my Evan video kind of thing. Most of them aren't questions anymore that I'm, that I'm asking. It changes. I change. I didn't want to just answer questions all the time. I wanted to shake it up.

Really, my channel is like such— it's such an infantile stage. It's like it's not even a baby yet. It's like not even— it's like a tiny embryo. But you're getting— I almost have it like it doesn't even really matter what I do right now because I'm still finding my thing. And when I find my thing, naturally it will grow. So right now it almost doesn't matter. It's kind of like a place to be creative. It's like my little art piece that I could throw paint on and see what I like or drop it if I don't like it. That's kind of how I have it like right now.

Yeah, and it's good. I like it. I like the experimentation. I like that you've still tried to be consistent even though you're not consistent at one thing. You're at least—

The only thing I'm consistent with now is timing, that something comes out every week. That's the only thing I have consistent right now.

Right. Well, you know, I think it's worth experimenting. I think it's worth trying to see. Try doing the confessionals and see if that, or whatever you want to call it. I'm writing confessionals, but confessionals makes it sound, makes it sound like something. Just so that's a little more consistent, so it's not all over the place, because otherwise you have these playlists that people will subscribe to And then they go through the playlist and they're going to leave the channel.

Yeah. And you know, as silly as it might be to say it, I'm okay with it. Like, I used to be real concerned with subscribers and numbers and this and that, but I gave that up. It doesn't really matter because at this point I know I want to do this for whatever reason, which is still a mystery for me.

Yeah.

But it will happen the way it will happen and it will happen in its time. It's like I'm not concerned with numbers anymore. People drop out. Fine, it's all good. People will come on, great, it's all good. I'm making a video about this, about that, whatever, you know. It's— I want it to be like already on the path and, you know, already, you know, cleared, but it's not. And I'm not having an easy time forcing it, and I'm not going to force it anymore. I'm just going to kind of ride the wave and trust that it will work out the way it's supposed to work out.

Yeah, and I agree.

And I don't—

I don't want—

I don't know what else to do with myself.

I mean, I forced you to get on.

I could have myself on the outside. I choked myself out a long time ago.

It's okay. It's— I mean, you have to progress at your own pace. And I know I forced you into— it took a year to force you to just do one video. So it's great to see the progress and momentum. I do see you being able to have a major impact on people's lives with the message and your talents and your skills. And I want— I want it to be exposed. Right?

Yeah.

You don't— I want it to be important. I don't want it to be like, oh, Rich is 60 and still just hopping from something to another and not like giving it a good chance to be successful. And I want it to lead to business, not just like, hey, whatever, right? Like, I want it yesterday.

I want it to lead me to business. I want to make an impact with it already. I want to have that. Burning desire, that excitement every day, knowing what I'm doing and that I'm doing the right thing. I want that too, believe me. It's making me nuts a little bit. And it made me so nuts for so long that I just decided to surrender to it. Give it up and let what comes come. And that's why the confessionals started coming out, because I was ready to just give it up. Like, it's like, just forcing it isn't working for me. So what can you do if you can't force it? You just got to be like water and let it go. See where it's going to flow.

And see, I think like those messages could be really helpful for people. There's a lot of people who are in the same position as you, and even if you don't have the answers, like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm gonna try a bunch of stuff out. Like, even that courage to jump into the unknown, people will be curious to see where you go with it and will be inspired to want to do something because a lot of people don't have that curts. They'll remain chained for the rest of their life, right? So, um, you may not think that you're special, and you may think, ah, this is like, I don't even— I'm, I'm a failure. I don't know what I'm doing. My channel sucks, you know. I have no, no consistency.

Not what—

like all the things that you say, I'm, I'm small, I'm nothing. But for a lot of people, they haven't even started, right? And they want to. And they— you've already broken through so many chains that most people, uh, still wear. And sharing where you're at and where you're trying to go and the uncertainty along the way is powerful and will help inspire people. And that could lead to the next shedding of the skin and into—

That's what I think too, because I don't know what I'm doing right now, but I know it's going in the right direction because things are getting easier and simpler and they're less significant and I care less. It's like stuff that was like inconsequential, but I made it big. It's just starting to dissolve. So, and I actually, I made a video the other day. I don't know if you saw it yet. I put out, it's basically pretty much saying that, you know, I don't know what the hell I'm doing right now, but I'm just going to go with it and follow my heart. And hopefully it's the right thing. And thanks for being on the journey with me. And, you know, I got comments from other people saying how they feel the same way. And they're like, you know, it was really It was really nice to see how, you know, I had thought I was all alone in this, confused, not knowing what the hell I wanted. But no, like, like so many people are the same way and they're just grateful to have someone to say the same thing so they feel like they're not alone too. It was really nice.

I love it.

Who knows where it'll go, right?

So I know it's going to go somewhere special, man. That's where it's going to go. It's going to be—

I hope so too. I believe so.

Cool. I gotta hop off for another call.

Okay.

Keep me posted. For those of— for everybody watching, I'll leave Rich's channel in the description so you can check him out. And we'll talk to you soon, Rich.

Let me know when I can come to your headquarters again.

Another session. All right. All right. I'll let you know.

And I can help you shoot it too if your guys are waiting.

Okay, cool. Appreciate the offer. We'll do it.

All right.

Thanks, Rich.

Have a good one. Bye.

See you, man.