I DON'T WANT TO BE A YOUTUBER: The REAL Business of YouTube

Now, when I started my YouTube channel back in 2015, I had no real game plan. My only goal was to make lots of money so that I could quit the job that I hated. Now I had an idea of how to build a business. I had a master's degree in business and an undergrad in marketing and communications. But what I quickly learned after being on YouTube for probably a couple months was there was more to YouTube than just posting YouTube videos. And at that time, YouTube courses didn't really exist. In fact, when I went through my mba, there wasn't even a lot talked about when it came to social media and email marketing. So I did a lot of testing and I had a lot of trial and error on my end. One of the biggest things that I learned is when you do post YouTube videos, you don't have control over how much that video actually makes on YouTube. And that was even before YouTube required you to have 1000 subscribers and over 4000 hours of watch time to even make money on YouTube. I quickly realized that I had to take this into my own hands and actually turn my YouTube videos into my business marketing material. You know, old school commercials, billboards, magazine ads, that's what YouTube was going to be for my business. So those videos were actually going to push people to something I sold, something that I could control. So if you're ready to hear how to really make money out of using YouTube and the real business of YouTube, go ahead and hit that like, button and let's dig in. All right. Getting the kids to be quiet was going to be next to near impossible. And that's another reason why I started my business. I didn't want to go to a job that I hated every single day and leave my kids at home. Now, I didn't necessarily want to be a stay at home mom. I still wanted to have something that I could work on, but I wanted to enjoy it. So honestly, in my first year of starting my business, my daughter turned one. We moved out of our house, started building a house, and I had my second child all in that first year of business. But let's talk about kind of what I did in that first year to set my business up for success while still using YouTube. One of the biggest lessons I had learned going through business school is that while I was setting up a YouTube channel and I was going to be on YouTube, I knew it wasn't just a YouTube channel. I needed to be a brand, and I needed to make the brand reflect me and who I am. Because I can't be somebody fake here on YouTube. And I also wanted to be able to eventually have sponsorship deals. At the time when I got started, I was watching Nikki Philippi and Makeup by Tiffany and they were all getting brand deals from businesses like Tarte Nordstrom and lots of other big names. So I had thought that was the direction I was going to go. That's why it's going to be important to me to really establish my brand as me. That's what I thought was going to be the plan. It wasn't. I very quickly learned that blowing up up on YouTube was going to take a lot of time and a lot of hard work. So like I said earlier, I took making money into my own hands and this is what I did. I'm going to first share with you how I currently use YouTube to generate revenue to make me money. Then I'm going to share with you how I automate all of this so you can really start seeing how you could turn your YouTube videos into a revenue money making machine without you constantly needing to be working, so to speak. So let's talk about how YouTube brings me money. Currently in my business I have two courses. I have a group coaching program and I have clients. So I have a course called Video Strategy Academy and it is an online course through a platform called Teachable. And in Teachable I have a bunch of tutorials and lessons and worksheets and checklists on how to start a YouTube channel, grow a YouTube channel and how to use that in your business. Kind of like an in depth training of the overview I'm giving you here. I also talk about how to use video on Facebook. Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn. Thus the name Video Strategy Academy. Right. That program has two options. There's the self paced course where they get the entire course in a Facebook group. Then there's the group coaching element of it where there is also a Facebook group, but there are also weekly calls. So there's coaching calls. There are hot seat opportunities where I get to dig into one of the students channels and tell them what to fix, what to update. There are also guest experts that come into that program to talk about things like email marketing, Pinterest strategy, Instagram strategy. So it's really a higher level program, so it costs more money. The second thing I sell is my video workflow. So I break down my entire process in a project management tool called Asana. I've also done this in Trello. So in my video workflow that you can buy, you can absolutely just download the copy or download the CSV file. Which is what Asana calls it, and then upload it to your asana so your workflow looks exactly like mine so you know exactly what to do every step of the way. Also in that course there is training on how to use Asana if you've never heard of it before and also how to use Trello so that you're not just getting this workflow and not knowing how to use it. So that's the second course that I sell. I also have opportunities to work with me one on one. One of those ways is a 60 minute strategy session. And so what happens there is I actually analyze that channel, that person's channel before getting on the call. I give them a printed out report on what I found and ways I think they should improve. Then during that call we can talk through it, that person can ask me questions, we can really create a game plan for them moving forward. Then I also have a one on one coaching which is more tailored to each individ. So it's not the group aspect, it's one on one. And in that particular service it is a three month commitment. We have one one hour call every single month and 30 minute calls in between that to really help that person grow their YouTube channel or drive more leads to their business, really what their goal is. So this coaching service is really tailored to the individual and using me as kind of that advice, that sounding word. They also have access to me through Voxer, which is a voice memoing app. So if they ever get started stuck with like what title should I use? Does this thumbnail look good? They can boxer me in my working hours and I will respond to them and help them with that decision. This is how I'm taking making money into my own hands. I'm not relying on YouTube AdSense. In fact, if I just sell one video Strategy Academy course, it is the same amount of money for one course that I make in one month from YouTube AdSense. So that's why it's so important because I sometimes sell 10 to 20 courses a month. That is never going to be where I'm getting on YouTube with AdSense now. Now if you're starting to wonder like what could you create? What could you sell? What kind of course could you do? I've got a video for you already. I'll link it right up here and it's going to walk you through a bunch of different digital product ideas that you could start creating to sell through your YouTube videos. All right, so I got these courses and these services. So how do I get people to know about this, right? I'm not plastering it up on billboards. The best way to get people to know who you are and buy your stuff is through organic traffic. Organic traffic is also free. So what I mean by organic traffic is any way you can get people on the eyes of your stuff through search engine, through friends sharing your stuff. That is organic traffic. You're not paying for it. It's not Facebook ads, Pinterest ads, YouTube ads, which is great if you're just getting started building a business because you don't have money to spend on ads, just like I didn't. That's the best part about using YouTube. YouTube is a search engine and it's owned by Google, which is the number one search engine in the world. And whenever somebody has a problem, they're going to one of those platforms and typing that problem in. If you can show up, if your content can show up helping them, you're more likely to get that person into buying a course from you or into working with you one on one. Especially being video. Video converts at such a higher conversion rate than blog posts, than advertisements, anything like that. For an example, somebody might go into YouTube or Google and type in how to start a YouTube channel, because my channel has blown up for this topic in the past couple of months. So they type in how to start a YouTube channel. They perhaps find my video through search. Maybe they watch somebody else's video and they find my video through suggested. But what they realize when they do watch my video is they like my style of teaching. I was able to get them a win. Maybe they were able to set up their YouTube channel by following my process and they want more from me, right? I gave them valuable content. I built that trust with them. They know they like me through the video that they watch, and they're ready to get more from me, Whether it's buying a course or working with me one on one. They may look down in the description box to get a freebie that I have. They may go down in the description box to go to my website to learn more about me. But that's how I'm getting my content out there in front of the right people and driving them into my business to help help me make money. So many people ask me, well, Trina, how do I get a viewer from YouTube on my email list or into my funnel? So I talked about that freebie earlier every so often here on my YouTube video, I'm going to talk about, you know, how to set up your YouTube channel or how to write A video script. And I have a freebie or opt in that goes along with that video. So at the end of that specific video, I tell the viewer, hey, I have a template for you. Head to the link that is right around here in the description box. Just pop in your email and I will send you that template. Once they pop their email in, they are now in my email server and I am sending them a sequence of emails that tell them about me, that tell them about my course, and that pushes them through a funnel to buy my program. And like I said, all I need to do is make one sale of my video strategy academy and that's all I make in YouTube in one month. I am also all about maximizing the effort you put into a video. So not only do my videos live here on YouTube, but I also shoot alternative endings of this video to post on Instagram because there may be people there that would have never seen me on YouTube. So it broadens my visibility. It gets me in front of more people. I also do an alternate ending for Facebook, again, broadening my visibility. I'm not here on YouTube, like I said, to build a YouTube channel. I'm not here on YouTube to be a YouTuber. I'm using my YouTube videos as my advertisement, as my marketing material to get people into my business. So the more content I can get out on more platforms, the more opportunity people see me and get into my funnel and want to buy a course or work with me. Do you see how that works? It's not about building a platform with views, subscribers and followers. It's about getting people to see your content and wanting to work with you, wanting to buy your course. That's the bigger picture here. We aren't in the business of growing a following. We're in the business of building a business, really. Okay, now you're probably wondering, Trina, how is this all set up? Let me pull up my computer screen and I'll walk you through every single step that people go through and all the tools and the software that I use to make my business this run on automation, so to speak. So what I do is I think about an issue that my audience is having. A big one for my audience is what to say in their YouTube video. So I did a video on how to script your YouTube video. You can see it right here on the screen. And then at this point, I'm talking about this freebie, this opt in. You can go to this video and watch it if you want to see it. Then right here I have a clickable link and it's going to take them right to the landing page for this, which I'm showing you in a second. But if you don't have the option to do this yet, you can also put it down here in the description box and tell people to go below to click on it. So once they do click on it, once they know they want it, they're taken to this particular page right here. And I use a program called LeadPages. You do not need LeadPages. This is just a program that I've used for a long time. It happened to be part of a system that I bought back in 2015 when I got started. But you can use your website, you can use ConvertKit. If you have ConvertKit, they allow you to make a landing page. But what this is called is a landing page because you're gonna send people to this page and you want them to enter their email address. So when you click on this button right here, click here to get your free TEMPL template, enter their email address, click here to get it. And my email system, which I'm going to show you here, ConvertKit, automatically sends them the template. And again, we don't need lead pages. This is just me sharing how my systems are set up. So once they put their email in, it automatically goes into ConvertKit and they get sent this email from me. All they have to do is click download it now, and the template is already there for them to get. Now what I do is they are then put into a sequence of emails that gives them lots of value. So I give them a free training, an absolutely free training on how to create one month's worth of video content in eight hours. Because if they got that template on scripting their videos, my guess is they're wanting to get serious with video. And this is the best way to do it, if you batch and do a month's worth at a time. So they're going to be told about watching this free training. Like, go watch it. It's on demand. It's got everything you need to know. And when they click on that video, they're taken to this landing page, which gives them the free training right here. They can watch it on demand. But in this training, I talk about my Video Strategy Academy and I pitch it to them. So when you scroll on down here, you're going to see exactly what Video Strategy Academy is, how it's going to help you. And it gives them a little button to enroll. Now, there's more information here. This is the complete sales page for it. But all they need to do, again, this is on LeadPages, is click on this button and they're taken to a checkout page, which I have hosted on Thrive Cart. I know it's a lot of different things. There's no real one program out there that does this all seamlessly. So you got to kind of work with what's out there. So why I use ThriveCart is because it can collect payments. It can collect payments from credit cards, from PayPal, and that's what I use ThriveCart for. So they're taken to this checkout page. They pick, do they want the monthly payment, do they want the pay in full? There's some testimonials and all they have to do is enroll. And once they enroll, they're automatically added to the course, which is hosted in teachable. And this is what it looks like. So this can all Happen Whether it's 2am or 2pm, this can all happen on its own without me touching anything. So they're taken into here. They can immediately get started on the lessons right here. Get the worksheets, get the checklist. We also have templates down here as well. So you can see all of this. Where you see these play buttons are all video training. And then whenever you see these little pages, those are all actual templates and worksheets that I've created for this course. So you can see how valuable it is for them. As you can see if they just were looking for a script template, how just that little piece of information is going to open their world to, hey, let me help you do this very strategically and really cut the time in half to creating video content by going through and learning everything that's taken me five years to learn. Now the one thing that I do have to manually do is they're given a link to join a private Facebook group where they can. They can ask me questions, they can share their videos. This is the Facebook group. They do have to request to get in it. And then I do manually allow them in because I have to ensure they bought the program and they're not just trying to get in here on their own. This is where we talk, answer questions, engage. And so that's kind of how my system works on the core side. If you want to see another video on how my system works with the client side, let me know. That's something I can add to my next set of videos that I record. I will tell you that video is the highest converting piece of content that I have that gets people to work with me and also buy from me. I also blog post, I also post on Instagram and on Facebook. But I see my highest conversion. The people that are more likely to buy my program are people that come from my YouTube videos. But the only way, as you saw earlier, I have two small kids and we're balancing all of that. The only way I'm able to see those results and continue to get people into my program and make money is by being consistent here on YouTube. And it is a formula that has taken me over five years to figure out and systemize to be able to constantly show up here on YouTube for you and make it a pretty simple process so that I can just take one morning a month and bang out four videos for the month of May and then I take that one video for each week and put it on all the social platforms to really maximize the effort of doing these videos and getting more people into my funnel to help me make more money in my business. Now, if you want to see a more in depth tutorial on how I find the right video ideas, how I plan my videos, and also how I multiply my videos on all of these platforms, I'm going to link to the that free training that I showed you. I will link it up here and I will link it also down in the description box. It's going to show you the entire process that I go through to create one month's worth of video content in just eight hours. Now, I've perfected it and I've done it long enough that I can do it in four hours. But I want to show you how it can be done so that you can really maximize videos here on YouTube to help you make more money in your business. Because we aren't here to be a YouTuber, right? Trust me, this is a workshop that you're going to need a notebook for. I even have a free worksheet for you over there to keep notes for everything. So click on that link that is on your screen right now or go in the description box, pop in your email address and I will send you the link to that page to start watching Now.