This last week we had a baby born in our home! – And no, it wasn’t one of ours! (We will stick with the 7 we have, for now.) We have an apartment on our property and this past week, we had some friends use it for a home birth. Our whole family was so excited for their new arrival. We waited and waited and rejoiced when we got the news that they had a baby girl. And then a few minutes later we all got a shock when they discovered that SURPRISE! It was actually two baby girls! She had no idea that she was having twins and we got to enjoy being a part of it.

For this week’s Creator Spotlight, I’d like to introduce you to Julien Klepatch from . His channel grew slowly for a few years, but it took off recently and he’s now shot up to 100k subscribers. And not only that, but he is making over 7 figures a year on his channel. How did he get to this income level with that subscriber base? He started focusing his sale on the reward/benefit that his customer wants more so than the how-to/skill/information they want to learn. From “How to do XYZ” to “How to become a 6 figure blockchain developer.” He also focused on the lifetime value (LTV) of the customer. He figured out on average, how much money he gets per customer. And instead of trying to get many customers for a smaller amount, he decided to find ways to serve them more and add value that kept them coming back to him for more. If you pay attention to their changing needs, you can find more ways to serve them.

So they say, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” Although I don’t necessarily agree with this statement, I want to help you grow. And I want to help you grow in the fastest way possible! And there is SO MUCH information out there. (We alone have over 300 podcasts and over 1,000 videos on YouTube.) It’s overwhelming to think you have to sift through all of that to figure out how to grow. So today we are going to give you our cheat sheet, by providing the top 5 needle movers for your channel growth.

1) Focus on thumbnails that go after what your audience wants and/or teases a story

Even educational videos need to tell a story! I understand the idea of making a video of a step-by-step processes to solve a specific problem. But these videos are very forgettable. And people are not going to come back to your channel without a personal connection. So find a way to teach while you tell a story. At the end, an emotional connection has developed AND they’ve learned something. The best educators are the ones that give you information that you didn’t even know you needed.

2) Let your Thumbnail Inform your Title

We always recommend to plan your title and thumbnail first and we are sticking to that. But, so many creators repeat their title in their thumbnail. What a missed opportunity! The first thing the viewer sees is the thumbnail. Put the most intrigue and the most important information in the thumbnail and let the title give the rest of the context, instead of just repeating it. And then, make sure your video begins with an even more intriguing opener to keep those new viewers watching.

3) Stop worrying about your keywords

It’s ALLLLL about the AI. The Artificial Intelligence knows ALL. Keywords are not doing anything for you. Focus on getting them to click on the video, not trying to manipulate the algorithm. Spamming with keywords is more likely to turn people away than get more people to watch your videos.

4) Tell more stories

Don’t just give straightforward information – your story, their story, a made up story to get the point across, who cares! Humans connect through stories is more and more where YouTube is going. We’ve had clients use stick figures to tell a story just to teach something as mundane as investing and it’s been a huge success.

Elements of a story:

  1. Character
  2. What do they want.
  3. Why can’t they have what they want?
  4. What’s at stake if the character doesn’t get what they want?
  5. Who/what comes along to help that character do what they couldn’t do before?
  6. How does that character ultimately get what they want?
  7. How is the character transformed by this process?

You don’t need to overthink this. It can be as simple as adding a few sentences to the beginning of a tutorial. “My wife has been wanting me to fix up this old dresser. She just left for the weekend. Let’s see if we can finish it before she gets back.”

5. Focus on keeping viewers on the platform for longer

If you get really good at continuing the viewing session time, the viewer becomes more connected to who you are. To help with this, in the last 20 seconds of your video, draw their attention to another video that coincides with your current video and point to it right before the end screen. This can be so powerful.

This is really great for smaller channels that feel like they’re trying to get every view they can. And it is just as powerful for big channels once that system is working for you.

And for your POWER TIP for this week, viewers can now see when a creator is going live on YouTube! If you are live on YouTube, then on your icon, your viewers will see a ring around your icon and it will say LIVE right across it. This can definitely help in your livestream engagement.

Do you have any comments, reactions, questions, a YouTube tip to share, or just want to say hi? for us and we may use it in an upcoming podcast episode.

Keep Changing Lives,

Tim Schmoyer