A few weeks ago, I got to speak at the Social Media Marketing World Conference. I had a blast running into some old friends, making new ones and grabbing some creators I admire for a few interviews to share with you.

One of these creators is Brian G. Johnson. Brian teaches creators how to grow their YouTube channels and businesses online. I sat down and asked Brian a little bit about his growth process because the strategies that get you to 10K subscribers aren’t the same strategies that get you to 100K.

When Brian first started his strategy was simple: Draw attention and hold It. Views are based on signs of engagement. So he would focus on what heightened engagement and do more of that.

He started with a specific niche: people who want to grow their youTube channels. He wanted to show some social proof that he could help them grow. He figured, “If I’m a knucklehead and I can do this, you can too.” So he figured out how to create a brand, how to edit videos, how to do thumbnails, etc. Then, he went daily for as long as he could. This helped him understand the basics of what a creator needed to do.

His method was simple: Publish a video. See what needed to be improved. Pick one thing and make it better in the next one.

Doing this, he got better. He went from 300-400 views a day to 2,000. He stayed there for awhile and gained 10,000 subscribers within a year, which was his goal.

Through all of this, he decided that nothing is more important than the personality on camera. – But that’s not just being extremely excited all the time. Instead, it’s all about connecting and being yourself, not trying to be a character or having a crazy high energy level.

Also, he realized the importance of learning from others! He looked at who was making videos to the same audience and saw what was working for their channels. What is the most important value that your audience is looking for? You have make sure that is your priority.

And now at 100K his strategy is to love what he’s doing and be creative. He likes to be creative, so he incorporates what is fun for him. All while he continues to look for ways to keep his audience engaged and bring new people in to learn. But the goal is not to get so complacent that it’s not fun anymore.

All the really successful people are keeping it fresh by changing things up and offering something new. You have to keep reinventing yourself. Even a good television series, won’t last past 7 seasons. Every good musician changes things up every few albums. If you don’t do this, people will move on.

The thing that got you here, might not be the thing that will get you there. Don’t just keep trying the same thing over and over again. Don’t get more committed to your format than the goal of sharing the information that you have to share.

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer

PS – If you’re stuck and feel like you don’t know what you need to do to get you to the next step, . You will leave with practical action steps to get you to reach your goals and change more lives.