If you’re growing your YouTube Channel to grow your business, THIS is the episode for you.

Tara Simon has 800,000 subscribers and in this podcast, we talk about how she got there and how she now brings 90% of her business in through her . A lot of the tips we are going to share not only apply to growing a YouTube Channel, but also apply to growing a business as well.

Tara had been singing since she was 3 yrs old and always knew that she wanted to use her voice to change lives. Since then she was on to perform on Broadway and TV. She had a lot of doors open that she had the courage to walk through. But she also had a lot shut on her as well. During our interview she encouraged us to not stress over doors shutting. If you have to use all your strength to push a door open, it’s not the door for you. Take that as a sign to be brave & move in a different direction.

For her, she kept hoping that she would make it as a famous singer. She would perform at elite events and instead of getting asked to perform at more events, people just kept asking her for lessons. She desperately wanted to perform, not teach. Finally, she relented and decided to try teaching. And she was so glad that she did. She encouraged us to try things that people suggest that you would be good at, even if your heart isn’t in it! Once you let go of your tunnel vision, you might see that you love this new direction even more.

Today she has a studio in Atlanta, GA and a team of coaches. 4 years ago, 0% of business came from YouTube and now 90% of biz comes from YouTube. (Good thing she got on YouTube, right?)

She started by filming 90 second tips and tricks on Instagram. (What didn’t get much traction.) But, her videographer said she had an extra 20 mins of film and wondered if she wanted to put it on YouTube. She said, why not? Then, she started by reacting to celebrity singers & breaking down their techniques. She thought it was dumb, but she started getting thousands of views & subscribers.

(Note: this is actually a great way to start out on YouTube. It doesn’t work for everybody but people are curious to know what you are going to think about x, y, z and what knowledge you can bring to the table from your perspective.)

After that, she started a series called sing better in seconds. She believes that everyone can learn to sing if they are just taught. She would show up in random places and try to teach complete strangers to sing better with simple techniques. This idea worked so well because it also created curiosity and would make people want to watch these videos to see if it worked!

Now, Tara could have just gone on YouTube and done a step by step process on how to sing better, which is the route that many educational channels take. But, the goal is not to show people how smart you are. The goal is teach people in a way that sparks curiosity and is entertaining. If you are in the educational field, get away from the bullet points & tutorials and make learning engaging! This doesn’t mean dance around in a clown outfit while you teach. But instead, there has to be some sort of story and showing some sort of transformation. Tara calls this “enter-training.” (-Entertaining, while training. Get it?)

After going through the with Video Creators, Tara now focuses on trying to stand out. “What does no one else on YouTube have the guts and talent to do?” She started doing reactions, but then everyone started doing reactions, so it no longer stood out. If you can ask yourself that question, “What does no one else on YouTube have the guts and talent to do?” and you can answer it with content, your channel will never go stale.

I hope this is an encouraging and inspirational message for you! We care about you and want to help your channel grow so you can reach more people and change more lives with the message that you have to share with the world. Do you have a question about anything we talked about today? for us and we may use it in an upcoming podcast episode. Until then…

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer