# If I Started YouTube From Scratch, I’d Do This

Channel: Think Media
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLWDg9fE2TQ
Duration: 20 min
Language: English
Words: 3816
Transcript page: https://viewrankai.com/tools/youtube-transcript/nLWDg9fE2TQ

---

[0:00] In 2016, I made $180,000 from YouTube and I launched my very first online program. Then the next year, the number was $280,000. Not because I went viral, but because I built a system underneath the views. So today, I'm going to be doing a full breakdown of exactly what that system looks like. And let me just say, I learned these lessons the hard way. In October 2015, I lost 80% of my monthly income in just a few weeks. It was an incredibly scary season, a difficult season, but it also was really an opportunity. It was a big turning point in my life because it was what kind of

[0:36] kicked me out of the nest to pursue YouTube and online business. And so, I tested things and I failed a lot and I experimented probably more than I should have. But eventually, I really uncovered a system that we're going to be talking about that's now generated over $30 million in my [music] business. And so, in a few minutes, I want to break down the entire four-part system that we use with our clients. But before we get there, I want to share a few more details from my story back in 2016 specifically, cuz there's a few epiphies that I really believe can help you generate that next six figures in your

[1:11] business. You got to just press record. Today's episode [music] is brought to you by my yt plan.com. We are actually hosting a workshop coming up soon called one video away. It's all about how to get your next 10 clients from YouTube in just a few hours a week. And so I'll tell you a little bit more about that later. So, let me share with you the details and the epiphies from the $280,000 case study. So, first of all, my background in my original YouTube

[1:39] channel was all about tech and cameras. Now, that channel still exists today. It's called Think Media. But way back in 2010 when that channel started, it started because my background was in photography, videography, and I was helping people pick out the best camera, learn how to use that camera, find lenses for their camera. And my original business model was learning how to rank videos on YouTube, and then connecting those videos to affiliate marketing. And that helped me get to around a $100,000 a year from YouTube ad revenue and from affiliate marketing. But it led to my first epiphany and it was this. YouTube revenue and affiliate marketing income

[2:17] is capped. If you want revenue that actually scales and if you honestly want to build a legitimate business that's not dependent on the algorithm, you've got to create your own product or service. And so at the beginning of 2016, I started to build my first online course, my first product, and it was called Video Ranking Academy. And it was teaching the thing that I had learned to do for clients, which was helping them make YouTube videos that would get views 24/7, 365. And that's something that I had done for myself. I had learned to get really good at ranking videos on YouTube. And I packaged what I knew into

[2:50] an online product. And by year end of 2016, I earned $180,000 in my online business. Now, I'm going to tell you everything about where that money came from because it wasn't just from the product that I launched. I had YouTube ad revenue, still was doing affiliate marketing. I was getting a speaking gig here or there, uh, coaching client here or there. At the time, I think I might have charged $300 an hour

[3:15] to do like an hour of coaching with me. And so, a couple people would purchase that. I was doing some consulting. And this kind of leads me to my next epiphany. What I realized that I needed was consistency and predictability. I think this is a worthwhile question to ask. What can you create once that you can sell over and over? And so again, we're going to talk about the full YouTube business bridge in the four-part system in just a second, but I would say that 2016 was the ramp up year, and by

[3:42] year end, I did $180,000. But what happened the next year? By the end of 2017, I earned $280,000, an additional six figures of income to my total business revenue. And you could call this the dial it in year because it was the same product, but I was testing it, refining it, improving it, working on it, all the stuff that you do in an online business. Which brings me to the third epiphany from this story. And it's this. It wasn't about making better videos and it wasn't about getting more views. I was focused on that. But the thing that made the difference was building what we call the YouTube

[4:23] business bridge. Now, the YouTube business bridge has four parts, and I want to unpack this system together and share a few more insightful details from my story that I think will help you go further faster in your own business. But before we dive into it, let's work the metaphor a little bit. And I want you to picture two islands that are disconnected. The first island is the island of unhappy. You're stranded in an

[4:49] ocean. There's rough waters all around. And on that island when it comes to your YouTube channel or to your business is challenges like this. Not enough clients in your business, not enough revenue, not enough views, and feeling that dissonance between the impact that you want to make and the transformation you want to make in people's lives and where you are. Like you're unhappy, you're dissatisfied. It could be a painful place and a frustrating place. And yet across the waters, you can see the island of happy. That's where you are getting the views that you want on your YouTube channel, where you're getting the revenue and the sales that you want

[5:29] for your life and your business. And that's where ultimately your viewers and your clients are being transformed. The message that you have burning inside of you, the transformation and the skill and the expertise that you have that other people need is actually reaching them. I know for you it's probably not just about money. You know that you need money for the mission, but it's ultimately about impact. It's about transformation. It's the fact that you've been through some pain and some trauma and you've learned some stuff and you know you can help other people, but maybe you're the bestkept secret. Maybe your message is not reaching enough

[6:06] people. And so there's two islands and they're disconnected. And that's why we need the YouTube business bridge to build that connection. And so let's talk about this system. It's called the YouTube business bridge. And there's three visible pillars and then there's the foundation that makes the whole thing work. So the first pillar is this, a YouTube system that generates the right views. Now, let's unpack this a little bit because what I didn't say is that you need one breakout video. One video or one viral video could be kind of cool, but if there's no system there and there's no repeatable process and there's no consistency, then you got 15

[6:43] minutes of YouTube fame and then it's over. And then secondly, I didn't just say views generically. I said the right views. Because the myth is you actually need a lot of views. What is better is actually getting in front of the right people. If you want to make sales on YouTube, you want to make sure you're talking to the right people and not just getting a random audience that ultimately can't take action on your products or services or they wouldn't even be right for them. And so if we enter back into 2016, I launched my first online program and generated a few sales that year from it. But as I began

[7:18] to continue to study, fail, test, and adapt, I began to learn that, oh, not all views are created equal. And what I also realized that even though I had a 16,000 subscriber YouTube channel, it didn't mean that those individuals necessarily even wanted to do a deeper YouTube coaching program. meaning some people had come for video editing tutorials, some people had come for a specific live streaming tech product that I reviewed. It was possible that those individuals might also want to learn YouTube education, but it wasn't necessarily a guarantee. And so the shift for me was instead of just trying to go viral on a camera review video and

[7:59] get as many views as possible was shifting to getting fierce clarity on my ideal customer profile and putting out strategic videos that could really attract the right views. And so here's a couple diagnostic questions for you if you're going to build out this YouTube sales system for yourself is have you figured out how to get consistent views from YouTube? Don't get me wrong, you need views. And don't get me wrong, yes, you can make big money off of just a few

[8:24] views. But let's also scale them up. Learning the skill of how to create breakout YouTube videos that get 10, 50, 100,000 views a video and beyond is important. And that's what we work with people on every week in coaching sessions on Zoom. You know, we're crafting videos so they could break out. Right? Views matter, but views matter period. And so on the view span of the bridge, we got to figure out how to consistently get views, not with just one breakout video, but what is the system to repeatedly post videos that predictably generate views? But let's

[8:58] take the diagnostic a little bit deeper. Have you figured out how to get quality views from YouTube? Not the same thing. Quality means people who are actually aligned with your channel, more importantly, who are actually aligned with your online business. and the person that you can help the most and bring the most transformation to them. Now, we're going to get into the second pillar in just a second, but FYI, if you want my system for specifically the views span of the bridge, we are doing a workshop with the co-host of the Think Media podcast, Nathan Eswine. The workshop's called One Video Away, and it's on how to get your next 10 clients

[9:37] from YouTube working just a few hours a week. Um, this would be helpful if you would identify as a content creator, but honestly, it's for people who don't really want to be content creators. You're like, I got stuff to do in my business. How can in just a few hours a week, I plug into a predictable system that will get me leads and sales from YouTube? How can I do this in the least amount of time as possible, but get the biggest outlier results? And so we're going to be building a video together, specifically a client getting video. And then we're going to hand you the one

[10:07] video away system. That's specifically how you can have a pipeline of videos that are getting as many views as possible, but not sacrificing quality for quantity. And so to grab your ticket for our next YouTube workshop, just go to myytpl.com or click the link in the show notes. So if we're building our YouTube business bridge and the first pillar is a YouTube system that generates the right views, the second pillar is building a leads machine. And so one of the things I learned back in 2017 when I was refining my process is it's one skill to be able to get the right views from YouTube, but

[10:46] it's really a whole another skill to continue that conversation off of YouTube. You know, in business, we'd call that a lead. It's moving from traffic or awareness or somebody being on YouTube and then deciding to go to your page to maybe download something free. That's called a lead magnet. And I think this matters for a lot of reasons. I mean, if you look in your YouTube analytics, a lot of times you'll see there are viewers watching your content that are not subscribed. But you'll also discover that there's a lot of people that may be subscribed to your channel, but they're not actually seeing your videos. And so that's a separate problem

[11:17] that we can solve by getting the maximum amount of distribution to your actual audience. But this is an age-old online business principle that you need to be moving people off of YouTube to an audience that you own. What does that mean? YouTube is rented land. YouTube is amazing. Subscribers are great, but they can always tweak the algorithm and it could be harder and harder to actually reach the people that want to hear from you. So we call this leads. And it's not even just getting some leads. It's actually building a machine that works when you're not working. So, I mentioned that 2017 was the dial it in year. It

[11:54] was taking that same product that I had created, but working on such things as the free thing I'd give away to get leads or working on such things as the CRM and the follow-up sequence of emails and really putting some energy and effort in that next piece of the bridge to make sure that people weren't just getting views and then falling off into the ocean, if you will, but ultimately being able to take that next step in a functional way and continue the journey off of the island of unhappy. to the island of happy. And so, let me ask you a couple diagnostic questions. Are you

[12:28] getting leads right now from YouTube? Secondly, are you getting the right leads? Cuz sometimes we're like, yes, somebody signed up for my email list. Is that something to celebrate? Because ultimately, if it's literally someone you can't help or somebody who's like actually the antithesis, you know, like messaging matters. Like getting this whole thing uh, you know, aligned matters. And so, are you getting the right leads? And then is your page set

[12:52] up or your follow-up sequence set up? And you know is it working properly? Which brings us to pillar number three and then we'll talk about the foundation of all of them. But the third pillar is a dialedin sales process. This would prompt you to ask what is your sales process? Now, for me, when I take it back to that first year I launched an online program and then the next year when I did $280,000, I would say the key mechanism of my sales process was webinars. And since

[13:21] that time, I've been running webinars. Some people call them like master classes or a free online class. I've been running those for 10 years. And the big idea is that you're moving the conversation off of YouTube. And there's a reason for that. You're also moving it into a more focused environment, so there's less distractions like suggested videos or other live streams popping up or YouTube shorts and all this different stuff. And people are still going to be distracted, but you're invited people into a premium place of honestly content that is so valuable that you could charge for it. And a lot of times it's free. And then at the end of that

[13:56] webinar, I would offer the next step. And for my program, Video Ranking Academy, it would be letting individuals know that, hey, what you just learned over this last hour, I teach in this course over here that includes a workbook and a community and all of these other things. And if you're interested in that, then you can check it out. And so, a couple things for you to think about when it comes to pillar number three, which is a dialedin sales process, is one, what is your sales process? And two, is your sales page working? and then the checkout page and then the thank you page. Like, have you

[14:28] set all that stuff up and are all those details working? And then, is your checkout process clean and functional? Like, the reason you might not be making sales from YouTube is you're lacking best practices. Do you even have testimonies? Have you done the process of getting those client results and wins, capturing those, and being able to publish those? Or do you have clarity on exactly what someone's getting? Like, could your messaging be better? You know, this third pillar, a dialedin sales process would include the quality of your offer itself. Is your offer an

[15:00] irresistible offer? Is it is it clear? Is it world class? Sometimes people don't check out because it's like, this is a little sketchy. This just doesn't quite reinforce my trust in your checkout page. Like, what if you haven't fixed these things? And what's waiting for you on the other side of fixing each piece of the YouTube business bridge? Have you thought about this stuff? Is it working? And could it be better? But there's a foundation under all of it to make sure that your bridge doesn't fall down. And we call the foundation fierce clarity. It's not just one pillar. It's the foundation underneath all of the

[15:38] pillars. And so when it comes to fierce clarity, you can apply this to each of the pieces. Like, do you actually really have fierce clarity on who you're trying to reach on YouTube? your ICP, your ideal customer profile. Do you really have fierce clarity on your personal brand, on who you are and how to package and position yourself to communicate powerfully and to reach your ideal audience? Do you have fierce clarity on setting up your leads machine and setting up your sales process and even dialing in your offer? And is there any pieces of the bridge missing? And so that's how by the end of 2017, I was

[16:16] able to generate $280,000 in my online business. It was by building a YouTube business bridge. Fast forward to today, Think Media across all kinds of different verticals and a growing team has generated over $30 million in revenue. When you hear about the entire YouTube business bridge, like Sean, that sounds super overwhelming and that's a lot to build. And the truth is it is. But when you reverse engineer back from what it is you want to happen and that would be not just the amount of leads and clients and revenue that you want in your business but also from the lifestyle and the impact that that can

[16:53] create is so powerful because YouTube is the only platform that works for you forever. It's the platform that allows you to rank videos. It's the platform where you can post a video today that's still getting views weeks, months, and years to come. So, I want you to imagine the entire bridge built with a library of ranked videos at the front of the bridge. You know, picture a day when you're generating leads and clients while you're on vacation because people are watching your YouTube videos all of the time. You know, picture a day when someone walks up to you and is like, "Hey, wait a minute. Did I see you on

[17:28] YouTube? Your free content changed my life." and where you have a business that's able to support your lifestyle and help your family reach your goals, but it's also you're able to be generous with your information, with your content. And the impact that you're able to make from your free content, from your paid content is bigger than your wildest dreams. The cool thing about mastering a YouTube system and mastering the YouTube business bridge is you just are identifying which piece needs the most attention right now. Can I dial in that next free gift or lead magnet that could really impact people and perform

[18:04] better? How's my email CRM working? How's my sales process working? And you just continue to tweak and work on those things. It's true, you can set it and forget it and build quite a bit of passive income, but some people online overrate that a little bit where you don't really set it and forget it and leave for 10 years. There absolutely is, you know, continual maintenance, if you will, to the bridge. But the powerful thing is is that it compounds because we help people get big amounts of income off of a small amount of views, but we also help people build incredibly influential authority brands. You know,

[18:41] a couple of our clients have been on the Diary of a CEO uh podcast with Steven Bartlett, Dr. Eye Health, Joey was on there, Dr. Ivonne, and our clients are bestselling authors now. they're hitting the New York Times bestsellers list. And so investing in a YouTube bridge isn't just about the sales or clients you can get in the next 30 days. It's also about the authority brand and business that

[19:06] you can build over the next few years. And if you specifically want help with building a YouTube system that generates the right views, I highly recommend coming to our next online workshop called One Video Away. You can scan the code or go to myytpl.com. But one video away is all about how to get your next 10 clients from YouTube in just a few hours per week. We're going to be building a client video together on Zoom during these sessions. Then you're also going to leave with the full one video away system. This is a process for not just making your next breakout YouTube video, but being able to do that

[19:49] as a repeatable pipeline so that you can build that YouTube business bridge. And just a heads up, this is a paid workshop because the information is incredibly tactical and valuable. And there also is the opportunity to do a VIP upgrade. Now, you don't have to do that if you don't want, but if you want to spend some uh Q&A time together with me and Nathan, I highly recommend upgrading to VIP. And so all you got to do to register for the one video away workshop is click the link in the show notes or the YouTube description. Head over to that page, check out and secure your

[20:22] spot, and then I cannot wait to see you on that training.

---

About this transcript
Read from YouTube's own caption track and laid out by ViewRank AI (https://viewrankai.com).
ViewRank AI finds the videos already beating a creator's own average on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, transcribes them from the audio itself in more than 60 languages, and turns what worked into new ideas and scripts.
Free transcript tools, no account needed: https://viewrankai.com/tools
How to read any video this way: https://viewrankai.com/llms.txt