YouTube Channel Branding: How to Structure Playlists, Hook Audiences, and Build Your Podcast Brand With Fran Asaro

This is Feed Your Brand with hosts Tom Hazzard and Tracy Hazzard.

Welcome back to Feed Your Brand. I'm Tom Hazzard along with my co-host Tracy Hazzard. And today we have a special guest, Fran Assaro, and we're gonna be talking about YouTube channel branding today. And YouTube is an area of interest for a lot of podcasters. And in our continuing effort to make sure we're providing all of you with the best information. We have done something we don't often do. If you're a regular listener of Feed Your Brand, we don't have guests every day, but when we do, you're gonna wanna pay attention, I'm quite sure.

So Fran is my personal coach. Like, I don't think I'd do anything on YouTube if it wasn't— if Fran didn't say, do this. So she's my personal coach on this. So you all gotta listen up. I mean, if I need a coach on this, so do you, right? So Fran Acero, she's the president of Thrive Anyway, which I love that name. And she's been a life and business coach for 20 years. She's dedicated to helping others become successful entrepreneurs. She's the founder of SeniorTuber Community, which I love because even if you think you're not a senior, sometimes we don't have as much tech skills as we think we do, or we don't have as much surety about our audiences as we do. But how would you like to become a YouTube content creator and a part of that bigger community? So no matter what age you're at, If you have a channel that's not performing, want to start a new channel and get it off with an opportunity to thrive, then that's why you go to Fran. And that's exactly why we have. We are working on our YouTube channel constantly. It's a constant project. But today I wanted to talk with Fran about that sort of brand building foundation that is our channel, because it's like, it's where you start when you say, hey, I'm going to start a YouTube channel. You gotta figure out the brand part of it. So Fran, welcome back to the show cuz you've been on quite a few times.

It's like home.

Yeah, exactly. And we get to chitchat about it. So let's talk about that YouTube channel thing. So people think you just throw up videos, but it doesn't work like that.

No, it doesn't. And thanks for the warm welcome. And right, we don't check IDs. I don't care how old you are, but I do, like Tom said, I wanna have fun. I want people, I wanna take away the thing that's too hard to have a YouTube channel. We're gonna have fun and, and branding is just as fun if you get to do Do your self-expression. It doesn't have to be all those rules that you learn, but it— how do you want to come across to your people? So there's the simple stuff, just the basics, and then we can go deeper if we have time. I know you'll ask me deeper questions. I come here for your questions. Okay. That's my main goal.

Yeah.

Good.

Well, I think that we need to start with like what this, what this channel piece is. I mean, people just think it's their login. Like, it's like they think it's this login where they drop in all the videos.

Right. Oh yeah. And then they have put amazing videos out there that never get seen. So if you're somebody who has great stuff to share and nothing's happening, chances are it's your branding. We've gotta get you branded. And once you learn that, some of it is a set and forget, some of it you stay on top of and you grow with.

Yeah. So I wanna define branding here. When you are saying branding, you are talking about more than how it looks. You're also talking about how it's structured.

Yes. That and how you wanna identify yourself on the channel. Who do you, what are pe— who's looking for you and why are they looking for you opposed to somebody else who might be doing the same thing? So there's several aspects of branding and you're right. So basics would be people like, what you know branding to be on everything else. What colors do you use that make it identifiable? So people say, oh, there's Fran's thumbnail, or there's Tracy's banner. I recognize her there, or there's her photo and I recognize it. Those are basic branding, but there's so much more that things like your mission statement so So that people know who they're dealing with and they fall in love with you or not based on that. So there's so many things that we could be doing. And if we just start taking it one tick at a time, you'll eventually build the channel of you, right? It'll be your representation of you and your belief system and your business or whatever you're putting out there, if it's a business or entertainment. Because what are you doing? All right, you have to let people know. Are you there to entertain them? Are you there to teach them? They also need to know that too. What it's about educating your people so they show up regularly because of who you are. So branding could be that, like, you have your podcast. When you have your podcast, you branded yourself, whether it was a podcast company or not, but you have a podcast. People will be looking for that, and you'll want to make sure your languaging is consistent. So if you have terms that you want to use, or if you have beliefs that you believe in, then you want to make sure people know about that if that's what you want public, right? I believe this about YouTube, and I know that other people don't believe this. I could say that, and then the people who wanna follow me will.

It's really interesting, Fran, you say this. So Tom and I have a rule that we've done because when we design products for many, many years, brand is a significant part of that, right? And what we learned over the years is people believe that brand is what you say you are. It's your mission. It's who you believe you are. But that's actually not the truth. Brand is how you're perceived. So I may make this statement, but my target audience may not receive it in the same way. So how do you check that out? How do you know if what you're putting out there is resonating with the people you wanna attract?

Well, first of all, that's a really good point because I'm saying you would do that, but yes, it's how you perceive what I say is more important than what I say. That happens a lot in our lives. When you're talking to somebody, they might be insulted by something you say it and you might think it's a compliment, right? There are ways you have checkpoints. First of all, about engagement. If people are staying on your channel and there are analytics to tell you that your people are enjoying you, if they're engaged, if they're commenting, if they're asking questions, if they're not clear, they're gonna be engaged. That's gonna be your branding is working. You're also gonna maybe do things like quizzes and polls and things to ask, to check in with your people. What do you think about this? What do you wanna add to this? How are we doing? Whatever you wanna do to make sure people know you care enough. It doesn't mean you have to change it, but it could mean that you're not leaning towards the right audience. Your analytics say that you're predominantly hitting a 20-year-old audience and you want to be hitting a 65-year-old audience, then maybe your tagging isn't right or your languaging isn't right to get the right people. At one point I was, uh, my channel was for women and I found out that 65% of my audience was, they were men. And within a few months I was able to change that around to be women. Now it's both, so it doesn't matter. But at that point, By changing a few things, I was able to change my audience and it was working better. So if they're not getting you or they don't buy whatever you want, yes, you might have to correct some things. If you wanna be who you are and you wanna attract the right person and they're not doing it, they're not joining, then you have to look at what you might be saying or doing, or you might be targeting the wrong audience.

So Fran, it sounds like something to me very similar to podcasting, very similar to having a website that The traditional brand aspects of your colors, your fonts, your logos, your graphic identity, your brand identity, and that brand promise, as Tracy was talking about, are really only going to be considered if people find you. Now, if you're speaking to a community you already have, that's great. You already have a community, but I bet an awful lot of people who are listening to this podcast or watching this video are looking to YouTube, build a community. And so being found, it's a lot more about the algorithms and what's written about your brand than what it looks like, isn't it?

You have to be clear. Yes. But it still could be taking some tweaking. It might— today you might decide you're— I have a client just this week. We're working together for just a few weeks and we've already changed his niche because he realized the niche he had has is not the one that's going to draw him the outcome that he was looking for, right? So you may have a niche that you say, this is it, this is what I want to do, I want to bake bread. You know, in front, I always use that as an example. Okay, I want to bake bread. There's so many different types of breads, and there's gluten-free breads, and there's organic breads. So you have to decide if you want to niche up or niche down depending on the type of engagement that you have. And for the people who are just starting, which is really important— where do you start? First thing is to create a niche. Right or wrong, start somewhere and get a feel for how it feels to give yourself that identity. All right, so originally I started the Senior Tuber for mostly women, and I didn't like it. I want men there. I want to be working with both. So I have to change some of the things I put in where I was working with mature women. I'm just now working with mature people. So little tweaks as you go along are very important. That means stay awake. Who's looking? Look at your algorithm, your analytics, and see. So if you decide you have a niche that you want, let's say you're baking bread, then all of a sudden is. What type of bread? Who do you want to find it? And so defining your niche. What is your mission? My mission is to make sure that I have 1,000 people switch over to gluten-free. Or you have a vision statement. My vision is that everybody here will learn and teach other people. Or you have values. What are your values? I like to teach from— and some people teach from a spiritual level or teach from an educational level. So you identify who you really are. And your story and your identity are what's gonna win people over. They're gonna be— authenticity right now is the biggest thing on YouTube, is to take out all the pretentious acting, over-editing, and to be you. Leave your camera on and then edit it later if you want to, but you don't have to. So being you is very in right now instead of trying to pretend.

But I think that this is something interesting. So I wanna kind of comment here from the podcasting look of things. So often we try to do something that Tom and I used to do in retail. It was called omnichannel. Your brand is the same in store as it is online, as it is in the circulars, in the magazine. Like you have a brand consistency that goes across wherever somebody might consume whatever you've got. And that's what I wanna caution podcasters about right now. If you think that what you're doing on the podcast app, what you're doing on your website actually works on YouTube, you're going to be shocked. It's going to take you a bit of time for you to understand and realize that it doesn't work the same. And this brand consistency that you're trying to create is actually more harmful than it is good. What Fran's trying to get you to understand is that on YouTube, you're a content creator. On podcasting, you're a show. And on your website, you're a brand to buy from, right? Like, there's very different things happening there. It doesn't mean you're different. It just You're highlighting different aspects of that.

That's a good point. Yes. Very good. So let me ask you, what do you advise people when that happens? Are they playing a different game or are they just have to realize it?

I think part of it is a recognition of it to understand that this is not— when we do brand consistency across things, including podcasting, it fails in podcasting. That's what we've been telling people for years. Just because you want your picture on everything that you do on your website and your branding expert told you to do this, when you do it on podcasts, it will fail. It will Also, if you take what you've done on your podcast and you just try to stick that on YouTube, it will also fail.

We had that with the intros and the outros, right? It doesn't work on the YouTube.

It doesn't translate in the same way, right? Because the experience is different on YouTube, but also the personality of the audience, the consumer is different.

Yes. Right. Some people do not even want to watch at all. They want the audio version of it. Right. Which surprises me because I'm visual. Like, who wouldn't want to watch, right?

And I'm the opposite of that. Like, I don't ever want to watch anything.

I don't care what it looks like.

Yeah. So, right. I don't care what it looks like. I will listen, but I would rather read it. So like, we have to understand that those that are choosing to consume videos in YouTube have a different perspective because they're also, I'm gonna say, trained by the YouTube algorithm, trained by the other YouTubers out there. And so you're playing a different game than you are in the podcasting world. And to think that they're the same and I can just take my brand and slap it over onto YouTube, that's not gonna work.

Especially if you're visual. If you're a visual person, I mean the channel owner, if you're visual, you wanna be acting out things or showing things, then, then audio isn't gonna work for you unless you're gonna be very descriptive.

So I'm not saying that, Fran. So I just wanna be really careful with that. I'm saying that what you do really well in the podcast requires a reframing, a way of highlighting different parts of that brand over on the YouTube side of things. I'm not saying the The content's different because the content should never be different.

The delivery of the content.

It's the delivery of it. How does it look when it's in the channel? What's the thumbnails? Are they the same as they would be in the podcast app? And I'm gonna say absolutely not. So all of those branding things that you're doing is very YouTube specific if you want it to succeed.

Yeah.

And is it also not obvious though? I mean, to the podcasters who've been podcasting for a while, resisted video. But really, they're, I bet you, 9.5 out of 10 podcasters are recording video anyway when they're recording their podcast. So eventually they say, gosh, maybe I should just put these up on YouTube. And that's not a bad thought because there is value in doing that, whether it's within YouTube or within embedding those videos in your website. There's lots of good reasons why a podcaster who's never done video before might want to. But just putting the videos up on YouTube is really only one small portion of what it takes. I mean, is it not obvious, Fran? I guess I'm curious. Is it not obvious to the novice YouTuber, someone getting into it, that if you don't know what you don't know, are you just going to trip on some landmines and not be seen on YouTube?

I don't know.

So that's a question, I guess. I'm wondering what your thoughts are. I mean, are there things about your brand or your listing and all that that are really some important things to know? Are there some secrets to it that if you don't know, you're not gonna be found?

Yeah, well, that's true. We have a lot of things like best practices that we teach people to be found. I just wanna touch on the point that I have a client and dear friend who's had a channel for years that it wasn't moving. The needle wasn't moving and she was doing just audio. Probably because she did it early on Sundays and she didn't want to dress up for them. You know, she was so happy to be in her pajamas while she did her podcast. So now she's video because I made a suggestion. She blames me for that, I guess. And she's gone up in one year 10 times the amount of— now I don't know her audience on the audio side, but on her YouTube side, she's 10 times her subscribers. So know your audience. Does your audience want to see you? I think if you're going to be doing meditations and certain things and talking about personal development, people want to see you. They want to get a feel for who you are. So know your audience. Now, the other thing is, how do they get to know you? First of all, you have to decide who they are first and then start speaking to them and then start seeing who— sometimes your audience may change right before your eyes. You may start out wanting to talk to one gender or one topic, and they say— this has happened to me in my coaching career. I started out talking to realtors, and then I was working with a whole nother clientele, and then another clientele. They chose me, right, based on what I was teaching. So you could actually attract somebody by what you're teaching, and if it's okay, then keep going. So when you do the best practices on YouTube, you're now putting out everything for the algorithms for YouTube. So don't worry if you don't know what they are. There are best practices that would have you set it up to find your ideal audience and for them to find you. So that does exist, of course.

So Tom, I think it's really similar when you're setting up your channel. I think it has to do with a mindset for how to set up that channel, but it's no different than setting up a podcast. You're gonna have a cover banner, you're gonna have a profile image, you're gonna have a description, 4,000 characters. This is what it is in, in podcasting. I think it's 5,000 or something like that, Fran, in YouTube, if I'm not wrong about the description length for the 5,000. So it's just really similar. Maximize it, use it. There's tags that aren't used in podcasting.

I call it free real estate.

Yeah, there's places to put stuff. So those are the best practice things you wanna do, and then you wanna tweak 'em. finesse them, get them right for the audience so that they're connecting with the audience on all of those things. But I think it's the mindset that I really want to set the tone here, Fran, and really want to talk about is that this mindset that this is supposed to look— I'm going to say corporate, right? Like this is supposed to look unified so that when you find me on YouTube, I look just like I look on my website— is the mistake people are making. It's the same mistake for your podcast. If you're putting your podcast on YouTube, it's not taking away listeners. Listeners who are absolutely using the apps, who are subscribed to you there, are not watching your videos. They're not like going, oh my gosh, you look different on YouTube. They're not doing that. They're not comparing it. It's not side by side. So it's okay to be different on YouTube. That's what I want. If you take away anything of what Fran is saying here, it's like brand matters on YouTube. And I'm saying it's okay to be different.

It is okay. It should be. You should be different because people, they're going to have So, and hopefully there will be several people who are doing what you're doing. So that makes it something people are searching for. So if you're doing something similar, you might say there are 100 other people who are doing this. I don't wanna do it. Or 1,000 other people. And I say, yes, they're gonna be buying you. They're gonna be buying your voice. They're gonna be buying your sense of humor. They're gonna be buying your delivery or how you present everything. So yeah, you wanna be different, but be authentically different. Don't follow somebody else. They're going to be looking for you.

Absolutely. And I think, Fran, the other thing is we used to have this guy who used to talk about like your LinkedIn profile, like a trade show booth, right? Like that's TR Garland. He would align your LinkedIn profile with a trade show booth. And I think that we have to take a look at our YouTube channel as the place where people are deciding if we're going to have enough for them that interests them, that connects to them, that's worth subscribing to, to get notifications. So it's really just, this is an alert. That they're deciding on based on your channel.

And don't forget, there's only a few seconds before they decide. Like a commercial, it's only 10 seconds long. They know what they're doing in those 10 seconds. They're keeping you or losing you right there. So you have the same thing. People are scrolling like a short, they're scrolling. And if you don't have something that attracts your ideal audience, a phrase, something that you're doing that's gonna rock their world, you've lost them. So that's an important thing. That's one of those best practices by leaving hooks or little Keys that keep people attached to you, knowing you and wanting what you have. MrBeast, who's the largest YouTuber right now, he gives you the end of his video right at the beginning so that people know that what they're gonna be watching. And that was a really big switch for a lot of people to copy that. You can do that or not. But yeah, so you wanna make sure that you realize there is a very small timeframe to grab your people. Not like on LinkedIn is what I was trying to say.

And I think Fran just made a really good point. And, but here's the thing, most of us podcasters, I don't, I really don't want to take the time. I'm not gonna say I can't make the time, 'cause I don't really believe that. But I really don't wanna have to make the time to record Shorts that are outside of, or not coming from my livestream video or my podcast recording. But I'm hearing from Fran, it would make them a lot better if I really thought about What I was doing and I wanna attract people right away. But when you're in the middle of delivering your message, either in a livestream on YouTube or you're recording your podcast, there aren't a lot of those moments that would work in context as you're delivering your important message to your audience that are gonna also be what's gonna grab your attention right at the beginning. I mean, such as you say with MrBeast, he takes, he's letting you read the last page of the book really before you start the book, it sounds like. Is that right?

Yeah. Exactly.

There's 2 ways to go at this. And this is one of the things I want Fran to help us kind of understand is that those that are out there looking for something like, I'm looking for someone to help me learn how to podcast. I'm learning for someone to help me learn the best practices on YouTube. Right. And so I'm looking for that and I'm searching for that and you're getting served up videos and channels. It's no different than if you type that into the podcast search engine. Right. So if I'm in my Apple Podcasts and I type in tips for best practices for YouTube, it's going to give me Podcast shows and podcast episodes, right? It does the same thing when you're on YouTube looking for something. Very often someone will choose to look at the show, or in this case on YouTube, the channel, to see if you have enough stuff. Did you just do one really great video that went viral about YouTube best practices, but your show's about meditation?

Exactly. That was my downfall for 10 years. I tell everybody I took everybody on such a ride, right?

Right.

And so am I gonna get a lot from you? And this is where we get what I call the binge factor, right? This is what, why I have a show called that. When we look at the binge factor, we go, we want someone who has hundreds of videos on this. We want someone who has hundreds of episodes on this, because if I get in there and it's good, then I'm gonna want all of it.

Yes. And I want it from that person, but they don't have it and they're starving for it. So they go somewhere else. I just wanna speak something to what Tom was saying, if you don't mind, Tom. What I wanna do is I like to work with channel owners and then with their team or without it, but at least the channel owners so that they know the right way to do their channel. And then if they decide they wanna skip some of their steps, that's up to them. But they know that the more is better. Then they decide if they have time for it. But once they learn the best practices and it becomes second nature to them, it's not extra time. It's an investment. Like a pizza parlor is gonna buy imported cheese. You may not know it, but But somebody's just gonna taste that it's better and come to them opposed to somebody else. So you may not know it, they may not know what it was, but they just feel it, right? That they went the extra mile. So that's what you have to decide. Do you want— where do you wanna be? Like low impact, medium impact? Do you want your people to feel like they went outta their way to make sure I was pleased?

No, definitely. I very much appreciate that, Fran. I'll say what I was talking about wasn't about taking the time to optimize everything and do the best practices within YouTube. I was talking about creating The videos from the first place. Because I think most podcasters are like me, and this is what we obviously support all of our customers to do is, hey, you're recording your podcast as a podcast anyway, and you're recording the video, put it out as a YouTube channel. There's benefit to that. But I was talking about with terms of Shorts, if I were gonna really record something unique for Shorts to promote one of my episodes, and it was not just some clips cut from the episode, which is really what I do now. Again, just because of the being efficient, making good use of the time that I'm putting into the podcast. I'd have to spend a whole lot more time doing that for Shorts if I was gonna create what I truly believe would be the most eye-catching, dynamic Shorts that are gonna hook people more. I'd have to really Work hard at it. And yes, you want to be authentically you, but I think there's a different energy when you're trying to catch someone in a couple seconds. You gotta put your game face on and act a bit. And I see others doing this sort of thing on YouTube.

That's the hook, right? That's the hook. You want to leave them a hook. But here's the thing, I'm just as guilty as you are, okay? I want it out there so I can say I got it out there. And I can see how it's hurting me because Uh, if I'm just gonna put a— no offense to this— if I'm just gonna put a short out for a podcast, what do they get new from me? It's the same thing. It's out for the short people who are going for the shorts, people who are going after quick information. But what if I were to get there and just get to them under different pretenses? Like, what can I teach them on the basic level that they were searching for to find my podcast? What do they— take them to the basic level. If you're talking about Let's go back to bread. What kind of flour is there? What's the best flour? What's the most expensive flour? People have these questions that they're searching on YouTube, and you're missing those people who will get you to your channel.

Now that's brilliant because that is exactly why podcasting is so valuable, and especially turning the episodes into blogs on the website that get indexed by Google and then come up in Google searches. It's the what's in it for them, what they're looking for. That does it.

Keep them on your channel.

But Tom, this is the point. This is the same thing, that point that we have with podcasting. It's the same model. It's just a different energy and a different effort of work. Like there's different types of things that you have to concentrate on, right? If we don't set our show up right on podcasting, we don't get found. We don't get served up for our keywords. We didn't use all 4,000 characters of our description. We didn't name our show right. We didn't put our name in there properly. I mean, how many times does that happen, right? Like people don't even put their home full name so they can't even search for them on it, right? Like, those basics all have to be taken care of for our channel to be seen, for our podcast show to be seen. Then we also bring people in through the content side of things. So how to do this, why we do that.

Yeah, you're really big on that. That's good. You have libraries of things.

That's one way to bring them into subscribing, right? If somebody gets something from you and they're Wow, they show up every week.

They've got this.

I came in through this one piece of content. It was excellent. I want more. They're going to hit subscribe without ever seeing the channel side because the video was so good. But if they don't get past the first 15 seconds of the video, and that's really like, I mean, 30 seconds is like long.

But that marks it as a view.

That marks it as a view. And that's long for YouTubers to give you a shot, for YouTube listeners, viewers, whatever you want to call them, that for them to give you a shot, 30 seconds is too long already for them. So that's where, you know, we have a slower start in podcasting. It's not the same.

That's true. Podcasters are not looking for the quick hit. They're definitely— let me put it another way. They're not looking for an appetizer and to be done. They're looking for the full meal. Whereas I think in YouTube, if you don't hook them with a good appetizer, they're not going to hang around. for the whole meal.

Right. And you have to keep giving them appetizers through the whole video, which don't— they don't have to be sensationalized. They could be changing the view of your video or adding some B-roll or some words on it. It doesn't have to be a big dramatic thing, but just knowing that. But here's the other thing to add on, step on top of that, is if you're going to upgrade your Shorts, let's say you're going to put out like Tracy, she puts out a lot of information on YouTube and podcasting. What if you had a section? Because you're allowed sections on your YouTube channel. If you had a section that says Come back every Monday for our latest tip. Now you use that, people have a reason to come back to your channel. If your people don't have a reason to come back to your channel, why should they be loyal? And if you have something that good to offer them, tell them to not just subscribe but to hit the bell so they're notified or they're going to miss it. Like I plan on doing very soon anything that's changed in YouTube this month or this week, and I'm going to put it there and people can— they just get that brief tidbit that I put out there, they'll get notified and they don't have to worry. They'll get caught up. So not just the short.

I think that's pretty brilliant. And in fact, I have noticed, I was looking at our YouTube channel earlier today and sharing some of this with Tracy. Some of our most popular episodes in YouTube are the ones that are clearly providing some type of tip or advice that people are looking for. The one is recording podcast interview tips for hosts. Another one was the top 10 ways to increase podcast downloads. Things like that are getting more video views than other episodes, which are on, I would say, equally important topics. They just don't maybe have the curb appeal.

Well, if you're gonna do a top 10, that's one of the best things. If you keep people on some sort of a suspenseful, you leave somebody at the end. So if you put out a top 10 list and you say, listen, I've got the top 10, blah, blah, blah. Wait till you see number 8. It's my favorite. They're gonna hang around for number 8. You can actually see the people staying that long to see it. So those are some of the little hooks that we'll talk about another time. It's sort of taken us off the topic, but I just wanted to keep standing. What you were giving was great information. I want people to know they could even improve upon that.

Yeah. Well, let's head back. So we're talking about branding and channel building, right? I mean, that's, we wanna have a channel that builds our brand, right? That builds our business, that gets us more subscribers and more clients. Like that's That's the ultimate goal of everything. But we keep making the same mistake in treating YouTube like it's just an extension of our website or an extension of our book or our landing pages. We're not treating YouTube as the entity it is, and that's where we're falling apart.

So everything lives much longer on YouTube. You wanna put things there. So it's the second largest search engine in the world. We should treat it like it is. That's where our basis of all our other sharing should be going. So that will help you if you use YouTube as the place for foundational branding and then pass it on to everything else.

And that's one of the keys. So let's talk about a couple of the elements of the channel itself, Fran, before we go, because I wanna really talk about that. Because if you go to the channel page on something and that's when somebody's new to you, right? And all you've ever done is just put a bunch of videos up in order, and I see it all the time, right? They're just up in date order. That's the latest stuff is all that matters to anyone. And if it just went up live and because it only went up and it just got 5 views today, that's it. So we have other people who will flip it around and they'll put stuff in the order of the views. And it'll be like, oh, you have 3 videos and they got 100,000 views and then everything drops off and has 10 views from then on. It says something about your channel and about you that you don't understand the perception that that's giving. 'Cause when I look at that, I go, oh, these people paid for their views. That's what it looks like. It may not be true, but that's what I see. I go, they pay for these views, they don't sustain an audience, this is not worth my time. I'm not going to click subscribe. I'm not even going to listen to the episode. I'm not even going to watch it. I'm not going to do it. So that's what that says. And if I go in date order, it just confuses my mind because I'm interested in like, did they cover this topic? And Tom and I in Podcasters United's channel, United We Pod, here we have fine 500 videos in just the last 3 years. That's a lot to go through.

Right. So how do you propose people— by topic?

So there's organizational structures like— and great, you can put a playlist together for your show. So if I really am there looking for a video version of the podcast, I can find it. It's there. But maybe it needs to be structured by, these are the best business practices for this. This is best podcast tips for real estate agents, best podcast tips for finance Like whatever it is that you want to organize it with to help your structure. This is a repository, as Fran put it, it's a great permanent search library. So help them find stuff.

And so that is branding, just for people who don't know. If you show people how to navigate your channel and you put in sections and playlists and explain what they are and how to progress from there, that's branding because you're gonna be benefiting by the amount of time somebody spends on your channel. You're gonna get paid by that if you're a YouTube partner, you're gonna have more views for sponsors to be interested in you. You're going to have people who are accessing your products, but you can guide them on what you want them to do. And this year I've been really hot on teaching people to have their channel spread out to how they want their people to view their channel. Give it start here if you're new here, then lead them into different videos that would train them to go to the next one and the next one. And then some of the best practices— I saw somebody named Karen asked about where they could find the best practices, but you just tell them where to go And then they go there and then they spend more time and your watch time hours will go up based on that. So are we going to answer questions later for Karen? We'll talk to her afterwards.

Absolutely. Yeah, that's what we always do here. We go live, we do the showpiece, and then all of those who are in our Zoom get to ask questions live themselves, but not on YouTube. We don't share that with the YouTube audience. So if you're not willing to subscribe, you're not willing to come into our Zoom, And we're not gonna share the Q&A with you. That's just one of those things that we chose to do to keep private services to our subscriber base, to the real subscribers who are coming back again and again and binging on all of our content.

Excellent.

To give them, those people who attend live, a reward for doing so. Otherwise, everybody could just watch the recording and get it, right?

Yeah. So that's why we keep it special, right? But we still air out all the things that we learn. Like, I have just written down 3 topics that we're gonna have to cover now, Fran, even though we already put our show together. schedule together for practically the whole year. I'm like, oh, I have 3 more content pieces that we should really just— we really discuss.

So I changed the subject because of who you are. You're so diverse and I have so much fun on there with you and asking Tom too, asking all these questions that sometimes I lead to a different place because it's all important actually. And it's all fun. Yeah. So I'm sorry. I don't know if I'm sorry that you have 3 more topics. I like that.

No, no, you shouldn't be. You shouldn't be. You should be thrilled that there are 3 more topics. Maybe I'll just have you record them in your channel and not in ours. That's always okay too. So this is just really to kind of wrap up this idea. I want you to think about that there is brand that has to do with the channel and brand that has to do with the content. Your, how you represent yourself and then how that is perceived, going back to the comments we were making before, that is brand representation. And that matters more on YouTube. Now, the authenticity question, like I'm not gonna go there because Tom knows this is like a hot button for me right now. We will be talking about authenticity coming up. I see so little actual authenticity because of the way people are handling their brand on YouTube right now. You have to work on that.

Yes.

You must get that personality across in everything you do. And what I'm saying to you though, is that these organizational sections, that is a sign. If you think you're going to be like, I'm your coach, I'm here to help you, I've got all these tools, I've got all this stuff for you, and you're just throwing that into one big by-date pot, or like my podcasters out there, you just number everything.

Yeah, I call it the Dewey Decimal System. People put a decimal system out there.

I guarantee that you are good at that. Yeah, you're analytical. You're the person who provides structure to all of this. You put stuff in date order. You probably have all of your files labeled right, but your client base is not, and you haven't done that client a service By not helping them with the flow and the organization and helping them find everything, right? So thinking about it is like, this is how you are. And another thing with about how you want to serve those that are listening to you, that's also brand.

And consistency of it. Like if you say you're going to put out a video a day, a video a week or a month, make sure you do it. People will rely on that. Your integrity is important and it builds a brand right there too. So, whatever you decide, nobody's telling you to do more than you can do, but do it if you say you're going to.

That's so true. That's true of podcasting, and that's one of our— the big things that people want to start new podcasts, say, I'm gonna publish one every other week. It's like, okay, you can do that. You can— it's your show. You can do what you want. It's gonna take you a lot longer to build an audience if you publish every other week. Or the people that come and tell me they want to do once a month, I actually try to discourage them. I was like, I don't think you should bother spending the money Because you're not gonna set the world on fire publishing one a month.

But some people need to start out slow. So I do understand that, but there are people out there putting 4 or 5 videos out a day. So you don't have to do that if you're not ready, but if you're having fun, you're getting paid well to do that, decide to do that one day.

Absolutely. Let's wrap it up here. So thank you so much for coming on. We so appreciate everything you do. Fran Acero, SeniorTuber channel. That's where you wanna check her out on YouTube. And of course, go to the blog post for this episode at podcastersunited.org. We've got all the links. the links to Fran because keep in mind, this is not the first time Fran has been on our show, right? So keep in mind, we'll link all of the other ones that where you can find her and you'll be able to go through the program and you'll be able to see all of the ways she's talking about podcasting and YouTube together. That's what our key is to what we're doing. So Fran Acero, thank you so much.

Thank you. I look forward to meeting people. Tom, thanks for sending my email out to somebody who asked and Karen subscribed to your channel. So congratulations, Karen. See, I guess we'll see her. So thank you so much, everybody.

Thanks so much, Frann.

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