Leveraging YouTube to Make MORE Money in 2025 - This is YOUR Year!

Testing the mic. 1, 2, 3. And we are live. So happy New Year, everyone. It is January 6th and I wanted to come live to share with everyone some insights on 2025 and getting down to business. Particularly if you're looking to grow a YouTube channel, start a YouTube channel. You're looking to grow a course business. Maybe you're looking to start recording a course. Where do you start? What do you do? All right, everyone has great New Year's resolutions. They come into January very strong, but those resolutions tend to fade very, very quickly. By the time you get to the February, just look at a gym, okay? You go to a gym, it is packed in January. You're wondering where all these people came from. And then by the time you get to the end of February, it's. It's an empty parking lot again. So, you know, don't be one of those people. You know, if you're someone who's been trying to get serious about YouTube, and I know all about it, I kind of dabbled on YouTube for two years myself. I thought I was super active on YouTube my first couple of years. When I look at the data, when I went back and actually looked at the work I had done, I had uploaded 19 videos in my first year. 19 videos, really not a lot. Okay. When you, when you, the grand scheme of things, that's not even one a week. So that wasn't really working YouTube. I thought I had made a commitment, but I really hadn't committed yet. At that point, I was just still dabbling. I was trying to figure things out. And my biggest recommendation to you, especially if you're someone who's working a full time job, because even me, when I started, I did YouTube very part time, all right? I was managing my music schools, I had the real estate stuff. I was doing all right? So I was very, very busy. I didn't have a lot of free time to be doing YouTube videos. And I feel, you know, if you're coming from a full time job, you probably understand what that feels like. The pressure of having to work, make money, make income to support your family, and then you got to invest additional time and energy into something that's not going to pay you a lot of money in the beginning, all right, I know for me, I didn't make a lot of money my first year on YouTube. I think I made like $600, literally. I think that's what I did. But I only put out 19 videos, all right? And you got to ask yourself, are you ready to make a commitment to YouTube being a business. Because there's a difference between YouTube being a hobby and YouTube being a business. A hobby is something you do for fun. You don't care if you make money off of it. You kind of get personal, you know, I guess, gratification from just making this content. Whereas a business, you can still get, you know, you can still get the pleasures from making the content, but the outcome is that you do want to make money, you want to be profitable, you want to have something to sell. And what you do is you need to really commit to the fact that, hey, I'm going to treat YouTube like it's a business, okay? I'm still going to make content that I'm happy with, still going to make content that I'm passionate about, but I have to have an end game to this that is going to make me money, all right? Now, YouTube in the beginning is very, very hard, all right? You probably don't have a lot of subscribers. You're just trying to get some content out there, all right? The first videos, you're going to be super, super critical of yourself. I think I was just on an interview. I told them, I said, I think it took me like 20 or 30 videos to really just feel comfortable talking to a camera. Because if you've never talked to a camera before, it is super weird, okay? Because usually you're overlooking at the screen, and you can tell when I'm looking at the screen versus when I'm looking at the camera. But most of us tend to want to look at the screen first instead of talk to the camera as if the camera is a person. It's a very, very strange thing to do if you've never done before, all right? And it can take a while to get comfortable, and it can take a while to find out who you are and who you want to be on YouTube. I was filtering my message through so many other gurus who I thought I wanted to be like. And I finally realized, like, I just have to be myself because that's what people want. People want me. They. They want me to be genuine and share my stories and really hear, you know, my journey of learning guitar and the guitar channel, my. My journey of my business here on this business channel, all right? And if you're just getting started or you're someone you know, maybe you got a course, you're not selling a lot. The thing is, you really got to make a commitment to, can I get that one video a week out? And what's it going to take for me to record one video a Week, okay? And if you can, highly recommend you outsource your editing, I know it costs money. Go to Upwork. Find someone for like $7 an hour, okay? Because if you're wasting, literally wasting six hours editing a video, you can give it to an editor who can probably do it in one or two hours. So, one, you're going to spend the precious time. If you're working a full time job, you don't have a lot of extra time, right? You're wasting your precious time editing when you could pay someone $14, maybe $20 to edit a video down really quick for you, okay? So not only are you capitalizing on your time, you're making content. You're actually turning around the content much quicker. It makes putting out one video a week much easier, okay? And then with those videos, you got to be thinking, who's the other person on the other side? Who are you trying to help? Because that's what we're here for, okay? We're here to educate. We're here to help people. We're here to give people transformations and let them know that whatever they're searching for here on YouTube that they can do that. And we're going to be the guide that's going to help them, okay? Whether you get 10 views, 20 views, 30 views, you are making this video for those 10 views, those 30 views, those 40 views, those people need you. All right? In the beginning, I was just telling someone a story about how I wasn't getting a lot of views on my videos, maybe getting 100 views, okay, 100 views, 200 views. Which I guess in the beginning is a lot of views. But it wasn't to me. I was like, I'm doing all this hard work and nobody's watching my videos. Like, this is ridiculous. This stinks. This YouTube thing, I'm going to give up. This was like my first year in YouTube. And then I got an email. So this was the time when I was still doing all my customer service. And I got an email from someone who was a veteran. They had ptsd. And they said that they were in a very, very dark period of their life. They were getting ready to end things. And they sent me an email and said, listen, I have this guitar. I went on YouTube, I found your videos. You helped me learn how to play guitar. And I'm still here today because of you. Like, basically saying, I, I saved his life because I helped him work through whatever dark period of his life that he was having. And I've heard that story multiple times. All right? For Many people, like, I found you in the darkest period of my life, and you helped me get out of it. And all I do is teach videos on YouTube. All I did was have a guitar course and help people play guitar. I'm a guitar teacher. I'm not. I'm not a lifesaver. But in retrospect, when you think about it, that's what we're doing. We're here to impact people. We're here to make a difference, okay? And by doing that, by doing that and doing it enough and doing it consistently enough, we will make money off of it. Because people will want to buy things from you if you help them. Okay? So you're going into 20, 25. Think. Who is that person you are trying to help? How are you going to help them? Keep focusing on that person. All right? Give them a name. We call this an avatar in business. Give that person a name. Mine's Bob. Okay? Because there's. I have like 500 bobs. Could also be Steve. I have a bunch of Steve's in my course, too. But I know who this person is. I know their life story. I know their ups, their downs. And that's what you want to speak to. Hello, neutral. How you doing? You want to speak to that person. When you're putting out content on YouTube, and then when you're trying to sell a course off the back of your content, you have to make sure that that course is something that solves a pain point. A lot of people get a course. They record it. They spend a lot of time, a lot of effort in recording a course, and nobody buys it. One, because either they didn't do the research to see if it was something that people wanted, or two, they just don't have the audience yet to sell it or when I released my first course November 2017, I released it. I sold two copies. I made $600, okay? Sold it for 297, made $600. I didn't sell another course probably for like two or three months. All right? I got my two people. And I was like, okay, this really stinks. I'm not making any money because I didn't have the audience yet. All right? But I was like, all right, my goal now, my goal is to help a hundred people when I put out a video, all right? May not be the thousands I want, may not be the ten thousands I want, but I got to start with that first hundred. I can start with that first 10. I'm going to help those 10 people that show up, right? That's More than I'm helping right now. Okay. And help 10 people. I'm going to help 100 people. And eventually that hundred people is going to become 200, 300, 400, 500. All right? Eventually it's going to be 500,000. I just crossed 500,000 subscribers on my guitar channel. Okay? And you don't get there by not helping people. Sincerely. Sincerely helping people. So when you're putting out the content, I started because I'm like, I'm going to put a content. I'm going to be rich. I'm going to make a lot ofmoney on YouTube. I knew I was going to, but I started by being so focused on the money and getting monetized that it was keeping me from really connecting with my audience. It was really keeping me from connecting with people. And what they wanted for me and my brand and what they wanted was the confidence to believe in themselves that they could play guitar. Okay? And here I'm trying to give people the confidence to say, you can do this YouTube thing. It's not easy. Just like learning the guitar, it is not easy. Okay? The majority of people are going to quit because it's so hard. But if you're one of those people who makes a commitment that you're going to keep doing this, you're not going to give up, you know what? You might actually make it. You might get to 5,000 subscribers, you might get to 10,000, 20,000. Okay, 25,000. It doesn't take a hundred thousand or a million subscribers to make a lot of money on YouTube. I was able to do full time at about 25,000 subscribers because I had intention behind what I was doing. Would you say starting a YouTube channel is easy or hard? Yeah, I just say it's. It's not easy. Okay. And the best way to get started, just. Just so you know, is to think about what you really love. What do you really love? And what do people ask you questions about all the time? Because people are asking you questions about things because you're an expert in it. So, for example, me, guitar teacher, I get asked all the time, what's the best guitar? You know, for a beginner, you know, what's the first songs I should learn? What are the first chords? All right. My wife's a nurse, so every time someone gets a nick, a cut, a bruise, whatever, they call her and ask her, like, what they should do, and she's like, you should go to the doctors, but you have expertise in something. Write down those questions. What are the top 10 questions people ask you. Those should be your first YouTube videos, okay? They should be the top 10 questions. Because it's something, you know, inside and out that you are so comfortable about that you can have a conversation like this with a camera and just. You don't have to script everything, okay? Because that's a lot of people. They're like, I gotta script everything. I need to know every single word. It's a waste of time to script everything. I'll typically have a notepad and I will do bullet points. I like to. I don't even have bullet points for this. I'm just ad libbing this because this is something that I'm very passionate about and. And that I can talk about. But if I'm going to do a video, I'll do bullet points. These are the points that I'm going to talk about. And then, you know, I'll talk to my video, look down at my points, I'll talk about the next point. All right? You just have to make a commitment that you're going to start today, all right? And you're not going to worry about what other people are saying. You're not going to worry about, oh, I'm going to get this horrible comment on YouTube. All right? If I were worried about that, I would have never saved that guy's life. If I were worried about what other people thought about me in my YouTube channel and the content I was making, I would never have saved that guy's life because I would never made the video that he saw that changed his life. And you need to think like that. You need to think, okay, this video is going to help someone. This video might wake someone up, okay? Just like this. Video games and podcasts, okay, yeah, no, you can do. I know a lot of people who do video gaming on YouTube and podcasts. You can do that on YouTube. You can be successful at that. Again, you got to show up. Most people do one or two podcasts and then they quit. I forget. It was like a ridiculous number. I think it was like 90% of podcasts or 95% of podcasts only have one episode. It just goes to show you, people do one, they realize how hard it is, how hard it is to be consistent, and they give up. And that's just not podcasts, YouTube, that's anything, okay? Anything that we try to change. Change is hard. Getting into a new routine is hard. All right? Everyone saves it for January. You don't have to wait till January, but it is January now. Let's make the commitment right now that you're going to put the work in. You're going to get that one video a week done, no matter what. No excuses, all right? That's what happens with a lot of people and why they fall off the weight loss journey because they start making excuses for why they can't show up, why they can't go to the gym, all right? And trust me, life happens. I am very busy right now, all right? This morning I opened a music school. We're supposed to open the music school. They're cutting open a wall because they forgot to do the permit on the plumbing. So we're cutting open a wall. I got a tenant here calling me because a pipe froze and burst outside, so I had to come shut the water down. And it's like, I'm busy, but I'm still here. And I'm showing up, okay? Because I made a commitment that I was going to be here and I was going to show up today no matter what else is happening in the world. And lots of stuff is going to happen as best you can show up, make that commitment. There's lots of things that can happen. Make the commitment and you will be more successful in 2025, honestly. Bottom line is being consistent and being persistent. People ask me all the time, what's it take to be successful in business? It takes a good idea. You definitely need the right business, the right product, okay? But it takes the persistence to keep pushing through the periods where you're not making a lot of money. Because that first year in YouTube, I told you $600, that's not really motivating to keep going. But you have to be confident that it's going to pay off. And it finally did. Took about two and a half years. So someone was asking if it was hard, okay? Took me two and a half years to really get my YouTube channel started. Okay? Two and a half years. Would you work for free for two and a half years knowing that eventually you can make $500,000 a year? The answer, most people will say is no, because that's what happens. Most people give up. And I can. And it's possible because I've done it, I've done it. But most people aren't going to get there because they're not patient enough to wait for the long term gains. Okay? So if you're just getting started on YouTube, listen, I guarantee you it's going to be hard. You're going to want to quit. I almost quit twice. Okay? But I'm just being honest with you. But if you're one of Those people that can be persistent. You're like, lauren, I'm going to hit this over the head until it begs me for mercy. Then you'll probably be successful because you're going to keep going at it, and you're going to watch your content and you're going to say, what videos are doing better? This video got 20 views. This video got 20 views. This video Got 20. This video got 200 views. Whoa, wait, what happened here? What did I do in this video? Oh, I should try that again. Or I should do something similar to that. Okay. Because that's going to tell you who your audience is. That's. That's going to help you define what your niche is, what content you need to be putting out to get the views. Okay. To connect with your audience, because that's why we're here on YouTube, is to connect with an audience so that we can help them and then hopefully get them to get off of YouTube and buy something from us. A course that's maybe going to help them with the further transformation. Like my guitar course. Okay. Or my YouTube course here for people who want to grow on YouTube or build courses online. My mentorship that I work with people, okay? But the goal is you got to get started, and you got to make that commitment, and you got to keep going no matter what. So the best thing that I recommend, get a notepad. Come up with your plan of action for this month. What are you going to do? What are you going to commit to? Write it down, hang it up. I got a little board over there. Hang it up and commit to it. All right? Check it off. That is the best thing you can do to get started with 20, 25. And when it gets hard, I want you to write your why at the bottom. Why are you doing this? Okay. Maybe it's something to help support your family. Maybe it's for more freedom so that you can spend more time with your family. Okay? Maybe it's very materialistic. Maybe you want a Porsche. I don't care what it is. Write it down. Why are you doing this? Why? And for me, it's to help people live a better life through music. Okay? That's what my guitar channel is about. And here. It's to help people, you know, live the life that they've wanted through a business that can provide them a lot more freedom of time. Okay? Because once we grow this business, we can hire a team. All right? We can. I. I went to England this year. I went to England for, like, three weeks. You can't do that. In a 9 to 5 job and still make money. All right? The business was making money while I was over in England. And I have a team who helps me with the customer service. But you got to start in the beginning. All right, all right. I'm. What am I? I'm almost eight years, seven years into my YouTube journey. All right? I'm on chapter seven, you're on chapter one. But that's what's possible. All right? And if you're patient enough and willing to wait for that, maybe in two and three years, you'll start making some good money on YouTube. I can't guarantee it, but a lot of people I know who are successful on YouTube said it took two to three years for their channel to really get going because it's a snowball. Okay, what equipment do you need to start a channel? Honestly, I started with the phone. This is it. I started with a phone, actually. I found the crappy phone. I think it's on the floor over there. I started with an old phone in 2017, and the phones today have much better video quality than the phone I use. And I had a little lapel mic. I got a lapel mic that I plugged into my phone just to get better audio. Because, you know, phones, you'll pick up a lot of echo in a room. But a lapel mic that you can plug into your phone and just use your phone and a tripod, I would recommend if you can get a nice light, get a nice light because it makes things look better. I'll show you. I'll just turn this light off. Watch.

This is my room without a light. So if I filmed this with the phone, it would look kind of crappy. But I have one light here, and bam. By just by turning the light on, the video quality gets so much better. Okay? And I could have a second light, but I'm traveling today, so I brought one light with me, but those would be my recommendations. A phone. They record in HD now, okay? You get a phone, a cheap lapel mic. You can get one online probably for 10 to $20. Okay? A cheap tripod, you probably get another one for 20 bucks on Amazon. And then a softbox or a light. Okay? You can probably buy those 30, 40, 50 bucks, and you can start your channel. If you can't get the light, you use a lamp. If you can get lamps at home, get a bunch of lamps in a room. Try and brighten it up as much as possible, okay? But you can see the yellow lighting here. It doesn't provide a lot of Light. It won't come out the best, but do the best you can. The goal is to get started. You do not need perfect production. You do not need an $800 camera like I have. I didn't start with an $800 camera, okay? I got there eventually. You don't need the podcast mic, just a little lapel mic. Works out great. And just get started. That's what you need. You just really need to get started. Make videos. Understand that those first 10, 20, 30 videos are going to be absolute crap. Absolute crap. My first video that got over a million views was recorded with the foam. Okay? It is grainy, the room is dark. I didn't have lighting like this. It was horrible. It's embarrassing, okay? But I don't know who said it, but someone said if you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you waited too long to start. So don't worry about getting all the perfect stuff in place to get started. Start with the phone. That's what I did. I made multiple six figures on a course that I filmed entirely with my phone. On a YouTube channel that I'm filmed entirely with my phone. I destroyed the phone. I think the battery. The battery was like, please stop, please stop. And then I finally did get a camera, but I made multiple six figures selling a course that I recorded entirely with a phone. Okay? So it just goes to show, unless you're doing like a photography course, then you might want to have a nice camera. But if you're like me, guitar teacher, it doesn't have to be fancy. It just has to be good. The content has to be good. The content has to be so good and so transformational that people want to give you money for it. And people did. People pay me money for that simple course. And all I did was help people learn how to play guitar. So if you have an expertise in something, you have a skill. Get the YouTube channel going. Get a course out there, Start helping people. Okay? If there's one thing you should do in 2025, one goal, make it to start helping more people today. And you're going to do it through your YouTube channel. You're going to do it through your course. And if you need help with that, go to the Creator. Launchpad.com training. Go watch my training. You guys can book a call with us if you want to get on a call. If you need some help with your YouTube channel, you have a course that you're selling, not selling a lot. Hop on over that. Hook up with us. Get on a call with us. We're more than happy to help you. Our goal is to help content creators, YouTubers, course creators, get ahead. Okay. Because I've worked the nine to five. It's exhausting. And the online life, while it still has its challenges, is a lot more rewarding and a lot more relaxing than the 9 to 5. It also provides a lot more freedom. So have a happy new Year, everyone. Thanks for hopping on today. Get started. All right, have a good one, everyone.