When I talked with Australia’s top creator and asked her what her top advice would be as a creator and she said, “Don’t grow your business on YouTube.” (What? Why not? What happens if you do? Well, that’s what we discuss today.) Don’t worry, we will get to that but first let me introduce you to Adam.

Creator Spotlight

Adam was in film school when he decided to use YouTube to share with the world. He realized quickly that it doesn’t matter how much skill you have behind the camera if you don’t have good things to share. After taking Video Labs, he realized that it’s not about just getting out facts, but weaving them into a story to be able to captivate people’s attention and reach more people. It doesn’t have to be big and fancy, but if it follows that story arch, it’s going to be more captivating.

Top Australian Creator

Now let me introduce you to Shannon. has 26 million subscribers and 400 million monthly viewers. She started as a math teacher uploading videos on YouTube for her students. Turns out lots of kids started watching those videos and she started making money on them. But math wasn’t her passion. Music theatre was. She figured if she was going to start looking at YouTube as a business, it should be about something that she is passionate about. And out of that, her channel Bounce Patrol was born.

Don’t Give Up

Now after 10 years on YouTube, we asked her what does she wish she would have known sooner. First of all, she said to push through the bad times. Whether that’s suffering through another “ad-apocalypse” or something else. Just keep going. Platforms learn to adapt and you need to just roll with it. It’s kinda’ like the stock market. It’s going to go up and down but it should end up more on the upside. (Let’s hope.) But also, make sure you diversify yourself. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. YouTube should not be your only source of income/advertising/etc.

How to Diversify

But trying to be on every platform and pursing every revenue is exhausting! How do you handle feeling a pull in every direction? She says that she focuses on one platform a year as a secondary source of income. You can never give proper attention to all of them at once to see if they will be profitable. So she prefers to just choose one at the beginning of the year, give it a lot of attention to, and then at the end of a year, evaluate if it’s worth continuing by her or maybe someone else on her team.

Finding a Team

Speaking of a team, we asked how she finds those team members. Shannon had an interesting strategy. She found all of her full time people by first hiring them for short term projects. At the end of her project if it was a good fit she would ask them to do another project or possibly start part time. But if it was not a good fit, then she could just thank them for their time and move on to another potential.

Finding Balance

But anyone who manages people realizes that people can give you time, but they also take time. How do you balance that? Her advice: Don’t grow your business on YouTube to the largest size possible. Instead, grow to the lifestyle that you’d like to lead and say no to the rest. If an opportunity arises that will take so much more manpower that you have, it is perfectly fine to just say no. You may think that it’s a great opportunity for you and maybe it is, but if it’s going to completely consume you, then it’s ok to just say no. Bigger isn’t always better.

Speaking of that, the bigger the number of subscribers doesn’t equal the better you are. Do yourself a favor and don’t look at your numbers daily. Digging into your analytics once a week is enough. The numbers can consume you. You will never be satisfied with the number of subscribers or views that you are at. There’s always bigger and better out there to pursue so do not attach your worth to a number.

POWER TIP

YouTube is rolling to more creators. The recipients of a gift Membership get one month of member access. It’s a super cool tool for viewers who want to pay it forward and serve other people.

Wanna serve us, by sending in a comment, reaction, question, or YouTube tip? and we may use it in an upcoming podcast episode. Until then…

Keep changing lives!

Tim Schmoyer