How to Grow a YouTube Channel from Zero in 2024 | Damien Talks Money

my competition is Mr Beast has really sucked a bit of Life out the platform I always hear him saying I want to make the best videos and is he making the best videos that's Damen Jordan the UK's number one Finance content creator in this episode Daman reveals Why YouTube is easier than you think I like many people in the UK was probably living a life of quiet desperation I had a high-paying job but I felt very unsatisfied how to go viral from day one GameStop happened when I was just there at that time video I got like 4 500,000 views changed my life the strategy that took him from 1K to 200,000 subscribers I got to 50,000 subscribers on an iPhone the best way to start the channel be to look for long tail keywords my video was top across the whole world that's when it went mental and loads more you could offer me 100 million quid to promote something I wouldn't do it that thing of like Damian was great but then he sold out if you've ever considered becoming a content creator this is the blueprint I really hope you enjoy it please subscribe if you do and let's dive in Damen thanks so much for doing this it's my pleasure so you've got 160k about that yeah on YouTube you're getting about a million views a month y you're one of the most trusted uh voices in the personal finance space and i' love to use this podcast as a bit of a master class maybe for people who feel like they have knowledge and expertise that they could share on the internet but they don't know where to start uh or they might already be along that process and they're looking to take it to the next level because you are absolutely killing it yeah um but I think it' be cool to start with like where were you before this what were you doing so I like many people in the UK was probably living like they say a life of quiet desperation do know what I mean in terms of I was working in finance and I had a I had a high-paying job but I felt very unsatisfied with with that role um and I was always looking for something that that could be my own but was struggling I think I was trying to like reinvent the world like invent Facebook or something but I worked in finance I'd done an economics degree I'd been in that space for 10 years but personal finance is very different to commercial Finance you know most most people who work in commercial Finance might not understand personal sides you know they might work as an accountant for a business that doesn't mean they know about Isis so I'd also been through my own personal finance journey and I was just like my in my group of mates I was the mate that was like you need to do this you need to do that so that was me prior to YouTube yeah and when was the first time youed you made a video and uploaded it so first lockdown which was like May 20 2020 2020 time I I consumed a lot of personal finance content mainly the American lads um Andre J and gram Stefan and I always thought the UK was missing like I thought oh this is one area of of YouTube that hasn't been youtubed like the UK personal finance scene I I went on fur for four weeks and I played Skyrim do you know Skyrim the game I blasted that for two weeks and I was like I've got to do something here so I just made one video and posted it and yeah changed my life what happened what what was the video about it was about like isers the basics of isers and then I made another one which was Investing For Beginners and that got like 4 500,000 views I think yeah yeah like then it was like oh God CU there's this thing with like so what you go into YouTube with a bit of naivity in terms of oh how hard can it be to make a video it's actually really hard because if you look at Hollywood people specialize there's guys that are masters of just lighting so you needed to be like an allrounder in all these things and you you learn very quickly oh my God this is It's hard to make this good most people go through through this this trend of they they get good over time and no one watches so it's like training for a martial art you go every week and no one's watching so it's fine the second time I ever trained in martial arts like 500,000 people showed up and that was just like oh crap so why I that is mindblowing to me so you what you uploaded a you up first two videos are getting half a million views yeah the first one did yeah the second one sorry what's the level of thought you put into them was it literally just you like a one take or did you script it no a lot of thought so how did you choose the video idea like what was the so a lot of thought went in beforehand like I don't I probably do myself um I make it sound easy but I I I used to so I worked in finance and then what I was doing parttime was I used to deliver Chinese takeaways at a weekend I'm just that kind of guy that I like to work seven days a week yeah so I would drive around with a Chinese Takeaway and that would give my head like time to just stink and I would just plot YouTube and I'd listen to like all of the how to do YouTube people and I identified that the best way to start the channel would be to look for longtale keywords that were undeserved yeah so I targeted Investing For Beginners UK 2020 which was Investing For Beginners was so competitive but UK 2020 just niched it down enough to mean that I was like right there I looked at the search rankings and I thought if watch time matters I'll just make a video that's longer than everyone else is and then I made it relatable in terms of like story and explanation so I think people people still stumble across that video now and go this is an amazing video even though it's filmed on an iPhone with a piece of blue paper behind me in my loft it was like you know if I made that video now I wouldn't release it but actually it still gets views to this day so yeah there was a lot of strategy six months of planning and learning and that like long for longtail keywords over time the video went from ranking for Investing For Beginners UK 2020 to ranking for Investing For Beginners to at one point point it was investing for beginners on the whole of Google my video was top like across the whole world and that's when it went mental so and what tools do you use to to to work that stuff out vid IQ and Tu buy at the time yeah so I was you know like they're scraping data from the back end and and giving an interpretation so as a new Creator I would use both if you get in a high keyword score on both you you can be pretty certain that there's a banger in there but as a Creator you really need to do is go how do I Niche this down to a target audience that's relevant you know and what are people searching for so go on to an incognito browser put in investing for beginners and see what the searches are and you saw I saw like UK was in there and I was like I put 2020 to add relevance because people seem to think like new information is is better right I just change the date on that video every year yeah it's like 2024 now so you you basically identify that like that topic that's underserved and then did you scrip out that first video yeah how did you do that how did you think about that I just get the same process I've got now blank Google doc just a blank Google doc and I go one of my one of my like unfair advantages if you will is public my ability to script in terms of like visualizing it and inserting humor and those elements were there and I've refined them over time um but yeah that's probably one area that I'm like I would point to I'm better at than than some others and what type of stuff do you do in that script are you purposefully like holding information back to the end are you doing any of that or you just purely focused on delivering value yeah I just think like deliver the value and people will stick around and you know the benefit of Finance content or educational content is that it it has embedded story in the sense that it transforms someone over the course of the video so you know you you take them from zero to one and that's a really rewarding story arc anyway as it is you can insert additional story on top of that but there's no need to gatekeep and be like oh if you stick around to the end I'll give you the my top tip I hate that stuff I don't even ask I don't even say my name you know I'm just like hi let's go you know no names nothing no asking for likes no asking for subscribers just pure value up front and I think people will stick around then that's mad um what's your reaction when you see those numbers like 500k first video do you think holy [ __ ] what have I done yeah like I it was very enjoyable back then you know because it was like oh this could be the thing um nowadays it's like you become desensitized like anything and you need those numbers to justify the business so like I need that there's an added level of pressure there was no expectation back then I was signed up for the fact that this is going to take a year before I get a single View and then boom off we go what's the journey from those first couple of videos do you then go weekly uploading or do you just kind of upload randomly and at what point does do you think this this could be like a full-time gig I've never had a cadence I've never had an upload schedule I think personally like can you name a single person's upload schedule well you work in this industry but I I just go on my homepage and if someone's there I click it I'm not thinking oh it's Wednesday at 8: they've not uploaded what's going on I know some people will be like that but me personally no so I just you know make the video release the video in terms of um when I thought it could be a business so what's important here is like timing GameStop happened at the same time like I was very lucky in terms of timing I think that I need to be clear on that I had strategy but then that met luck GameStop happened which was this for people who don't know was this like massive event in the finance space that brought more people to invest in than anything ever it literally shut down Brokers they couldn't handle the traffic and I was just there at that time I earned more money when I had like 8,000 subscribers than I did when I had 60,000 because of this massive flux of people and then I took it more seriously and actually there was a huge dip in the middle of like earnings and Views and all these things like the day I quit my job Putin invaded Ukraine and ad rates went from like15 to2 so imagine someone cutting your wage by S the seventh you know so actually it was it started very well it got ropey in the middle and it's back to doing great again it's really interesting what at what level though of of like um earnings do you feel confident to go in on it fulltime do you do you wait until it kind of replaces your job or do you just think I'm I'm really enjoying this I want to do more of it yeah for me it was I was really scared to quit my job because I had a good job you know and when you reach a senior position in sales you kind of get it gets quite cushy um you were like an account manager and you've got all the clients and it's kind of it's almost like passive income in a way um so I waited until it was replaced my job but I should have gone sooner really um but yeah it it took me two years to make the leap but the year after my my my channel trebled in size so I should have gone sooner yeah it's interesting I think one of the other big things with you and it's interesting you just mentioned your job is it's not just the information that you're giving it's like your personality and um I think I've heard you talk about how you actually think of of what you do as just being a good like you're like a good communicator yeah do you think that's quite a big factor uh in your success yeah because the information is the information and you know like Andrew Kirby talks about like synthesizing right and this thing of we now live in a world of abundant infinite information so actually it's people are looking for people to say this is the important information this is what you need to know rather than this ser of infinite crap you know like how can we condense that down in chat GPT in a way is like that it's like it just boils it down to the simplest form so you need that element of communication and I just think people just kind of need to resonate with you as an individual and and that's hard for me to quantify and say to someone like some people people just kind of go oh I like the I like the way he says these things but I I I spend a lot of time and effort on the presentation on the scripting on the delivery you know I try and make it different and fun where I can for so that it's like an Beyond just a fact dump yeah I think you you've said to me in the past that you like you see the competition as like Netflix and the misses yeah exactly yeah because we're in the attention game and I think it's naive for me to say that the only competition I have about other people making Finance videos when I say the misses I mean like you know I got to compete with her or most of my audits are ma but it works both ways boyfriend as well well I've got to compete with them for the attention of the audience so I best be delivering products that are as attractive as as the partner you know in that sense and I think most people don't see it like that they think my only competition are the people making content like me my competition is Mr Beast it's Netflix it's the latest Marvel movie whatever can take your time in that moment yeah let's talk about your process then so like how do you come up with those ideas and then like validate that they're they're good and then make them as interesting as possible I think if it's your job to make up pip videos you get pretty good at thinking of ideas to make up videos otherwise you haven't got a job and I think it's like saying to a comedian how do you think of jokes it's like I test I iterate and over time it becomes gut feeling I can see a news story or something emerging I'm like that's a banger jump on that straight away and more I'm more and more over time I'm right than I am wrong but I also think that if you if you don't go through clickbait and you don't work on being Sensational and you deliver information that's grounded in solid research and you use like academic resources and things like this to back that up over time people will trust you and just click anyway that you've got something interesting to say there's certain creators that you just will watch whatever they say because you know it's like they're telling you what to it's like you know you know what I mean and now I think I'm at a point where I can basically make a video on a topic and as long as I I followed my own process of research and delivery the audience will tune in to be like what's he got to say about this that's a real privilege but that that's built over time and that's the trust and that's instead of chasing quick wins through clickbait and sensationalism and pretending the world's going to burn yeah I think we've talked about this before it's like it's very easy to get lost in YouTube and a lot of what goes on in YouTube is people see someone's done something that's done well so they're going to do it and it becomes very unoriginal and very clickbaity and you're just looking for topics that have done well for other people and like you actually lose that core connection with your audience because they see through it as well how much of YouTube actually feels original anymore or different I'm not I'm not scorey right I'm not like out here making epics I'm just saying that I just want people to go oh that's different to any other Finance video on the platform that I've watched not all my content like that because there's certain like reaction stuff I just need to put out and that's just me saying here's the news here's what I think but the things I spend more time on the Evergreen stuff that really supports the channel that's like challenge yourself as a Creator to be like how can I make this different how can I create like not not just like how can I earn loads of money for my Audience by systemizing this and running it through chat GPT and copying someone else because it just feels vapid and stale people love it when they stumble across a video where they're like that was good you know and that's what I aspir for yeah um let's talk a bit a little bit about your your your process though cuz you at the moment you're doing like what eight videos a month and to eight yeah six to eight and how do you think about a couple of them as being reactive and a couple of them being ever green like what's their breakdown there and like what's the what's the thinking behind you can't over plan because if you over plan you miss the ability to jump on Trends so you you need some wiggle room you need the ability in your schedule to go everything's the desk's clear this is what I'm going on so if I can make four Evergreen videos a month there's a like a predictability there in terms of I can put an editor on those so I've recently taken on an editor it was just me the editor can edit for for Evergreen I'll know that an evergreen video will generate at least ,000 in Ed Revenue um at least and that's the cost of the edit plus I get my other incomes I could put a sponsor on it so I know that there's like a it's very easy for me to say like that that will pay off those I can plan in advance and those to me are the ones that I want to push creatively and I want to do things but yeah they then has to be that flexibility in the schedule to to react because that's how you grow real quick you know like you react to a piece of news first and you get thousands of subscribers quickly is that how you've grown the grown the channel is that are those the biggest spikes those kind of reactive stuff or they're like quick wins on the day but the biggest ones are the Evergreen so like that Investing For Beginners videos 20,000 subscribers or 500,000 views um what you'll find is that every video now will get me about a th000 subscribers on average and I probably do at the minute about 400 subscribers a day 500 a day um but you'll find that there's outliers that really like drive it you can just never guess when they're coming so you just got to keep showing up and making the content and sometimes the thing that will be your like labor of love that you've put everything into and that you've spent like two weeks on you put it out and it flops and then you react to like someone farting basically and the whole world goes crazy about it and you're like what the hell I mean like a nothing new story and like 250,000 people watch it in a day it's mad yeah but that's the business you can't you can't control the views you can only control your output and that's what I would say people should focus on just putting out the best quality they can and thinking about it in terms of like I see a lot of creators on the hamster wheel where if they stop making content their Channel instantly I can sit here today with you because I've got a stable of 100 Evergreen videos that will produce a th000 plus views an hour 24/7 and that's the business that's that's what I've built that's actually a business you know yeah it's really impressive you're just like yeah that information is useful week after week month after month that's the benefit of the education stuff right because most stuff is universal truths and you know whatever like you're into find Finance or coding I don't know like music production say the you got the basics are the basics and if you can be the person that people associate with those Basics You' you've got a really really good career there um whereas if you're just reacting to news you're you're going to as soon as you get off that wheel it all it all comes right back down to earth yeah let's talk a little bit about the the kind of Revenue breakdown what what where are you earning money from is most of it from Google AdSense from YouTube or there probably about 10% 10 to 10 to 15% I do do most of my income through Affiliates which is like just people signing up for services I don't even mention them really I might do a throwaway like oh by the way I keep a list of my favorite Brokers below and they're only Brokers that I use but some have affiliate some don't Vanguard doesn't for example but they're in the description of every video and that's one of my major sources and then I do the odd bit of spons sponsorship but sponsorship does me editing to be honest a lot of the time I'll probably no get no sponsors now after that but if I make eight videos I'll do two sponsors a month I could like Ram it on every one but I just as the creative in me is like it ruins the flow of the content you know um and then I do other bits on the side like busines to business work and things like that which I'm looking to scale I've got a newsletter that's like makes a bit of money uh so yeah the fingers in lots of Pies but the're very very traditional in terms of the Creator ear in pie what's the biggest one of of those affiliate there's multiple affiliate Partners yeah yeah and is that is that like oneoff affiliate or do you get like monthly recurring no just oneof oneof affiliate I like it because I get to say whatever I want about whoever I want I will never be sponsored by a broker because I think it generates a conflict of interest you know then they can then they can change the wording of what I say through the affiliate they can't they can't control what I say but you know everyone benefits I get something and so does is the person signing up for the affiliate they get like a free share or whatever so you know it's like a kind of a win-win yeah and I think that's it's such an interesting space the personal finance one because it's very easy to uh find a lot of like Bad actors in it or people who maybe start out with the best intentions but they get corrupted or they you know the money the offer just gets too big to to to turn down FTX um yeah exactly um how how do you deal with that and think about that cuz that's one of the things about you like when I watch your content I just totally trust you I feel like you're not invested or there's no kind of like uh yeah partnership behind behind the scenes it's going to influence the way you you you think and act how do you think about that you could offer me a 100 million quid to promote something I wouldn't do it if I didn't think it was good I just wouldn't I like maybe I'm just like I care too much about what people think about me but I just no amount of money is worth my reputation and like the that thing of like Damian was great but then he sold out just not worth all the money in the world to me you know I know that might seem crazy and people wouldn't believe it but honestly you could off my podcast team beat me over the head all the time because we get offers from brokers who were like oh we'd love to sponsor you and I'm like no hu let's talk about protein drink instead and I think some people sometime like why are you talking about that and I'm like because I'm not talking about the Brokers because you know for me personally that ability to be completely un tied and say what I want it costs me a lot of money a lot like the Brokers will pay five times what everyone else will pay but I think that longterm my brand will do better and I'll see value for that and also and I think people use my links more because they trust what I say and they can trust what I say and I know everyone's going to sit here and say the same thing but hopefully my action shows that like there's never been a broker that's paid me there never will be to say anything you know Vanguard could offer me all the money in the world and I'm turning it down yeah let's talk about um your vision for this like where do you where did you want to take it cuz when I think of you I think of uh Martin Lewis um he did well money saving expert and like it's such an interesting space what do you are you content just doing the YouTube do you want to like explore other stuff what's your I'd like to I'd like to get it to a point where I could turn off monetization on the main Channel I think that would be epic so then people just consume it and there's nothing there I'm not there at the minute the business costs a fair bit of money a month to run editor and I hire like uh like a PA that my mom my mom does all the back Office Accounts she's expensive yeah yeah yeah yeah she's the only one I trust with the keys to the city you what I mean and I think she knows that you know so I've got full-time staff and then I'm building out other things like a newsletter and stuff but yeah I would like to get it to a point where I can have no sponsors no no nothing on the main channel it's just free content because I think that that education's important for people and then behind the scenes I have businesses like a newsletter that that hopefully can do well and then a business to business offering which would be selling education into businesses so like to support their staff so those are the two moves that I'm making to get there and hopefully this year I can establish those and then obviously website and because you know hopefully Martin's not listening but money saving expert looks like it's run on teletex to me I go on that website and I'm like it's crazy that this website still looks the same as it did it's great resource but it just it looks of the time yeah do know what I mean yeah s for 90 million did it all those years ago yeah it looks like it's not been updated since yeah I think yeah very interesting what would be the so with the businessto business stuff what would you be doing you'd be like kind of uh giving people content to help them make better financial decisions within within companies yeah so you you know like high level stat would be the biggest cause of long-term absence in a workplace is is stress or depression and the largest cause of those things is financial related it's not the only cause but it's like a one of the leading causes is is finance related I could provide basic information that they can host on their internet or internal systems that their staff could view a monitor that would hopefully capture some of those people and just stop them from making mistakes things like understanding your workplace pension and why that's important budgeting in basic Investing For Beginners I would partner with like financial advisors to make sure that it it like you know it can be signed off and stuff and then for me that's a net win in terms of like my core values of the the people who need the information get it for free and the company benefits in terms of Staff well-being you know so for me it's like that's like I know you know OE you had him on here and he's always like when you're making a decision about your business it needs to be guided by your principles and my principles is always been I want as many people to have this information for free as possible so that B2B model suits that yeah that makes sense yeah yeah yeah how much you think you can charge for that kind of stuff probably um I mean it would it would be closer to 10 grand than it would be to zero yeah do I mean it's it's hard we're not we're trying to work out what what the pricing model will be whether it's like a per head like would you charge tesos the same as you charge someone with 20 stuff yeah you know so is it a head basis or not the good thing about that is I would probably only need to have a couple hundred people a year like you know leads to make that a sizable business that then I can turn off all monetization on the main Channel whereas at the minute I'm riing on thousands of people signing up through my affiliate links to to generate the same you know and I have no control over that and those those platforms could just be like I'll see you later and then the business has lost major Revenue sources yeah so I that's that's why I want to pursue that angle a bit more how did you come up with that idea is that based off of DMS and emails you get or is it something you've dumped up well I've worked in I worked in companies at quite senior levels and I know that HR have budgets for this kind of thing they normally have a quarterly budget for some kind of like staff well-being investors in people these kind of certifications look for you investing in in staff there's changes in the way the FCA which are the UK regulator view advice and guidance so advice is like the this is not Financial advice there's a problem with that messaging in the sense of If the message is we can't talk to you about anything to do with Finance unless you speak to a financial advisor but financial advisor will only speak to if you've got a load of money 90% of the UK population just fall through the cracks yeah so the the FCA looking to expand this idea of guidance which is so that so that people can give information without it being custers advice so that opens that market up to me and then I've worked like one of the major Revenue sources for the business business is just cold approaches of people going can you come in to talk to our staff because I watch your channel I like what you do and I think my staff could benefit yeah it's super interesting isn't it I think there's like a great framework is is just the DMS or the emails so it's like a lot of creators you're creating content for people on YouTube um and it might not always be clear like what the where you think actually oh I'm going to monetize via AdSense or Affiliates or whatever it is is but actually uh very often it's like the emails that you get through that open up all these other avenues and doors to take um and they can like arguably yeah be more lucrative and like highlight to you what the real product is yeah if you're if you're if you're getting sponsored by like a Nord VPN and they're they're selling that service to your audience that means like if you can think of a product that that fits your audience you're going to sell it like you're going to do okay you know if if you're doing these kind of like raid Shadow Legends ERS to a finance audience your audience are clearly engaged with with your messaging it's just about finding that that product and it's got to be in line with your values I have I could sell a course like a finance for beginners course but that's against my basic like the information should be free so these this inbound traffic of people saying can you come speak to our business and this core value of helping as many people with free information as possible you connect those two dots and you get well I'll sell into businesses then and see if that works yeah it's really exciting I'm I'm excited to hear that how that goes I think it could be really interesting yeah it'll be a black because the the sales processes on businesses are you know they take ages but I've got a sales guy that's going to do that work so I can just make videos and then the newsletter itself will hopefully be a be a thing and you know yeah big time um so if someone's watching this and they're thinking I've got expertise or I see an area like personal finance which is underserved how should they think about starting hey guys hope you're enjoying the episode if you are I ask two things of you one let me know in the comments what I can help you with in 2024 and two if you would like to make amazing content and grow a podcast in 2024 everything you're watching or listening to is made by my agency 7x content.com check us out now let's get back into the episode yeah first of all you got to do your research go watch everyone in the nation ask yourself the question of how can I be different to everyone else so if if don't be scared of the fact that there's lots of people doing well in the niche that's good that's there's there's traffic all you've got to think is what can I do that's slightly different if there's a lot of traffic or audience in a niche and you position yourself different to everyone else you will get an audience because people will resonate with it you then go as an initial strategy okay what what because you can't make bang like you can't make viral straight away you can't make the content that's like oh my God you won't believe what just happened because no one cares and no one's going to see it you need to rank in search which is people forget that YouTube is the second biggest search engine on the planet I mean Tik Tok might be changing that but people use YouTube as a search engine try and find underserved keywords you you know research what that is if you don't know what it is longtail ones that you can Target for search traffic and that will give you that initial momentum of the first 10 to 15,000 subscribers and then you can start trying to appear on homepage and brows which is where the big views are this is your home screen of you know oh oh this just happened like so you've got to be strategic in that way and first of all you start with the search and then you shed that and then you move into the more viral content if you would yeah how should people think about long form versus short form what's your what's your take there so I've not done any short form because I think short form it's hard to make money out of short form and I don't think any anyone realizes it it's hard for the Creator it's hard for the platform it's just it's and just because the video is short doesn't mean the effort is people don't I think you know Tik Tok you can just jump on there and do this but you'll generate an audience of a million people and you'll be making pennies you know I think about long form is like the goat in terms of earning money and if you're going to pick a platform to go at YouTube is the the most established in terms of monetization the partner program is generous compared to other platforms and 10,000 people on a long form audience is probably worth 100,000 on a Tik Tok audience I actually think that shorts for me personally lots of people will disagree they're just like a shiny thing that everyone's chasing because they get lots of attention and they're not asking actually how am I monetizing this so it's a business who cares if you've got 10 million followers if you if you if you if you're only five grand a year yeah it's it's interesting one I was at uh an event with uh with Ali abdal the other week and that's what he said it's like from day one are you making can you make money yeah cuz if you if you're on this like scheme to build up a following to a million on Tik Tok you might have a rude awakening when you get there you got a million followers and you realize you haven't got any money you're not making anything your audience don't really have much of a relationship with you cuz it's really transactional on that platform and you've just wasted six months for a year of year of your life yeah so it's not like obviously that's that that's that's one scenario you might do it and and and end up making loads of money I I don't know hard but it's it's definitely harder on the short form and if it as an education Creator who we're speaking to today it's your duty to make money so that you can share that information with people for free like you you know people will often call out YouTubers and be like oh my God they make they make money but you get to assum that information for free that's normally gate get kept in finance you know I might talk basic investing principles and and teach people and show them how to do it for themselves the other Avenue is go speak to a financial advisor you'll take 1% of whatever you invest with them every year if you take 1% of a portfolio a fe of 1% over 30 years you take about a quarter of the value of the portfolio so if you've got a million pound by the time you retire they've taken 250 Grand of that so if 130,000 or 160,000 people so a million people a month watch my channel let's say that's 500,000 and let's say all of those have been through that Journey that stops them needing to pay that fee and they've all save 250 Grand the value there as an education Creator is hundreds and hundreds of millions and you know like as an education Creator it's like if you want to the the audience benefit in such a massive Way Beyond it's I love education content because it's not like junk food content that just sucks life at people and they get nothing out of it it it's transformative and it helps people so it's your duty to make money so that you can continue to make that content and continue to help people and if you dial it in right everybody benefits yeah let's talk about your lifestyle I'm interested in that cuz that's another misconception people often have is like the YouTuber turn rocks up on Friday afternoon and Records a video in an hour and that's his week done um do you approach this like a job do you work line to 5 every day like what is your schedule I often say I swap to 9: to5 for 5 to9 like 5:00 a.m. till 9:00 p.m. but in reality I work 24 hours a day but I think about it constantly the one thing I would say to someone is if you want to come into this space be prepared to be obsessed like completely obsessed because there's people like me in the arena that are obsessed you know like it's all I think about and it's it's toxic but it's kind of how I am obviously I've got a family and a car about time for all of that and I have my priorities that that like the gym and you know my family but I work too much I work a lot and I see a lot of creators where their MO is how can I optimize and only work 10 hours a week and I envy that in one perspective but then on the other hand it's like you couldn't make my videos with in 10 hours you just couldn't the research takes that long you know I spend five hours picking songs sometimes and I know that's too much but it comes back to that thing of you know if you want to be a Creator you got to create you know and there's an element of that takes a lot of time and effort and the more creative you are the more time it takes so when you watch like a dodford you know I don't know if you know dodford you watch his videos and they feel very fresh and unique he's putting a shift in for that all the clips alone will take him I mean he's got people doing it but the total man hours into each video will be hundreds of hours whereas like top five things you can do right now you can film that in a day but you got to identify what type of Creator you want to be but yeah me I mean I'm I'm spending Monday to Friday it's like you know 10 to 12 hours a day Saturday Sunday probably you know six hours on each day maybe more and then thinking time you know I'm just it's just always in my head I'll go for a drive so that I can think of like ways to finish off a script on things like that it's pretty intense mate it's mad it's so funny yeah I'm like I just don't leave my studio I'm just in there the whole time alone I love it what dve drives you then because like on the one hand you're getting these amazing messages from people who are saying like you know I was unemployed never had any savings I've now you know taken care of my financial future all thanks to you and the information you've given me but then there's also this like burning creative yeah desire in you as well like what what what's getting you fired up I've always been a grafter like I said I used to work I used to earn 100 Grand a year working in finance and deliver Chinese takeaways Friday and Saturday night like it's pretty rare I guess like I my mates be like what the hell are you doing and then I would live off the Chinese money and save my job money you know and I'd like lived in a house share where I like rented out I rented out a house and rented out the other three rooms so I was getting paid to live in it so you know there was I've always been I don't know why I'm like that it's just the way I am um but what motivates me is is this ability to do social good and just to kind of see how far I can take this thing you know you you kind of got the I got the my hands on the wheel and it's like how far can I push this how far can I go can I get kned I don't mean to be ar I'm joking but you know where can you go with this can can can I take this to a place where at the end it's like of Jamie Oliver yeah like Finance education into schools yeah can I do that because people always like why aren't we taught about it in school okay so why aren't we yeah and can I change that and we all need a drive-in Mission we all need something to work to otherwise what's the point point in life and maybe that's mine and I just take it seriously and I just kind of want to come out the other side and be like I gave it my best shot yeah well Martin Lewis got voted uh the most The public's most popular guy yeah and number one choice for the next prime minister didn't rightfully so though the guy the guy I mean the guy made a lot of money but the guy could have made a lot more money and he's he's made like he got 90 million years ago and he's still there being a consumer champion and fighting the fight the one thing that bothers me about Martin overall in his message is he just won't touch investing so the the message is always like how to save money on your energy bills and how to you know that kind of thing will take people so far but if when he started he said buy a lowcost Index Fund inside of an Isa and do that every single every single month everyone that listen to him would be in a a much better place today so I wish that he used that to talk more about investing because but I think he's just scared of the compliance who in this who in this space do you do you really like creators you follow so I mentioned dodford I'm like I think as time goes on I real so there's two types of Creator there's creators I would call like Ali Abdula Creator it's like systems optimization he's a businessman and then there's creatives who like James Janney takes a year to make a video like the guys are creative and I tend to lean more towards the creatives than I do the creators because there's this desire in me to be like can I make fun Finance content into into like art you know could could I do it so that it's like entertainment yeah I'm not there yet I would say I'm 20% where I would want to be in terms of that and I'm held back by my own skills like I don't have the I'd never edited a video before until I started on the channel so I watch a lot of people who were really good editors and storytellers and and things like that obviously people like Alex hosi and stuff you know they get you fired up get me benching and ready to beat down walls get put a little tank up on and try to grow a mustache but you know um yeah I someone like dodford at the minute was probably the Creator that's come onto the scene recently where I'm like Ah that's fresh that's nice his his like if people haven't watched him he does whole videos where he doesn't even do voice over and he tells a story through clips and like life stories of people and the content's quite emotive and emotional and really well done you know and he he he puts those constraints on himself of can I make a video where I don't say anything and within creativity like got constraints are really good for creativity you know yeah it's amazing what constraints can do isn't it there there's have you seen Jack butcher's stuff no so he's more of a like visual artist right graphic designer but again it's like I'm only allowed to use black and white I'm only allowed to use like a certain number of shapes and then like convey messages within that within within those constraints yeah and it just creates amazing stuff cuz there's so few things he can use he's got to be so imaginative yeah exactly yeah it kind of it hems you in doesn't it in the same way of like if someone's starting just use your iPhone I got to 50,000 subscribers on an iPhone you don't need all the gear it gets nice to have eventually but you know I often think about shorts I think I don't think people are using the short format in the best way I think there's got to be a level to that you know when you see VR and like people do there was I saw a VR thing the other day that was a short F enough where it was like a Hoover game so you put the VR on and then it covers your floor in coins and you vacuum up the coins and you get points as you go and it turns vacuum in into like a fun game yeah it's like that's a way to use VR to improve your day-to-day life I feel like short format no one's doing something that's groundbreaking there I feel like there could be something that like could you have it over multiple shorts or I don't know yeah so I like people that push the content in that way push what's possible conversely what's the what are the the gimmicks and the the things people should just like Park to the side like it's it's not worth it stop asking people just like And subscribe just stop because it's it's so it's so overdone that people switch off and as soon as people zone out they're gone and especially don't ask to like And subscribe before you given them any value I sometimes I click on a video and someone's giv me this whole Spiel of like oh check out this and check out that and like And subscribe and I'm just like what you doing you know give some value value the audience don't ask to like And subscribe don't hold back and try and edit for retention just make videos that are are valuable and honest and relatable and I think people will resonate with that yeah what wind you up is there any any creators that wind you up in this in this space Oh is it controversial to say Mr Beast no I think I always hear him saying I want to make the best videos and is he making the best videos he's making the most expensive videos and I respect his hustle and his scale but I watch it I guess it's for a different audience it's not it's not for me it's for maybe a younger audience but it feels like the McDonald's version of content in terms of you watch it and you're like what what did what just happened you come come out the other side it's like junk food it's you know I don't know I don't know if he's making the best videos I don't know and he was the first to do it but that Mr beastify out the platform spectacle based content I think we'll see a shift the other way and I also hate all the grifters in my Niche there's so many of them just like pedaling crap and telling people to buy individual stocks and taking backhanders to talk about things there's so much of it yeah it's uh it's [ __ ] isn't it it's surprising though but I think the thing about YouTube is people who you've got to take that first step and you've got to put yourself online and you might find success and I think certain types of people are a bit more like you know sociopaths are more likely to do that where they're like you know oh [ __ ] it like I'll just go on and I'll rip everyone off what surprises me is that they they're like cockroaches they have this ability to survive because they'll burn one audience and a new audience comes along and doesn't know yeah I was surprised at how the lack of the lack of credibility within within the space there's lots of good creators don't get me wrong but there's just as many crap ones you know that are really just trying to extract money out of people in in the farious ways yeah I think that's what's exciting is the opportunity just for people who are actually like if you if you can come from a place of authenticity and like genuinely sharing useful information objectively then like you'll clean up yeah and PE people are craving it now so if you combine those two things of the Mr beastify which makes all the content feel like fake and weird and then this lack of credibility if you're authentic and you know like a Ludwig kind of they he he's an Entertainer but he's just sat in his room talking away but he's just a likable guy and he gots a massive audience if you apply that to education you just come in and you're like this is what I am this is what I do and this is what I've got to show you you know and here's a random joke just to freshing it up maybe you you'll do well you'll do well amazing that's so useful let's do the quick five questions I'm going to give you this whiteboard and you've basically got 15 seconds okay to write down an answer and then we'll I told you it takes me 100 hours to make a video right uh and then we'll talk about it let me get the lid off okay I'm ready Cool all right top three books and okay is that 15 seconds you're not going to be able to read my writing I I'll go I'll run you through it top one's who Moved My Cheese uhuh have you ever heard of that no so it's like a really simple story but it's about opportunity and and not being scared to go when the thing that you're doing at the minute is good but there's something better potentially it's like a just a story about a load of rats and yeah like just making that leap in life the next one is the art of writing well I believe it's called it's a book around script writing and and writing and brevity and Clarity and writing so I think we it boils like how to write nice sentences down I know that sounds really geeky but that's that's like what I do I scrip write all day long and then as like of a bit of um the only book I've ever read in a day is I Am Legend you know the they did the movie with Will Smith yeah yeah yeah yeah the book's so much better is it yeah the story is completely different in the book he obsesses over the dog like he's alone in the world and he sees the dog and he obsesses over it for like three chapters he finally catches the dog and then the next page is the next day the dog died it's like oh yeah and it and it's all about how um he what he thinks of the world is is actually not true and I won't spoil the ending but yeah I thought that was a great book with who's with the um with who Moved My Cheese yeah has that been you at some some point yeah yeah so I've struggled to make that leap of like I'm in a comfortable position and I'm sat here with all my cheese and there maybe some other cheese down the maze somewhere what was the situation quitting my job making the leap to go full-time content creator so yeah it's so simple the book it's like you know it's you can Summit ERS it's about taking that leap and making that move but if you're struggling in life and you're I think it's really easy when you're in a crap position to make the leap it's super hard when you're in a comfortable one and you've worked for 10 years and you go if I walk out of this career it's all that 10 years is almost it feels like it's for nothing it's not you've gained the skills through the career that put you in the opportunity but yeah having that bravery that book helped me make that leap is it the best thing you ever did uh it's from a business perspective yeah financially yeah yeah yeah yeah and in terms of personal development and you know all of that stuff it's it's like leveled me up it's put me in circles you know we had dinner last night with a load of cool people yeah does you know it it detach you before it's like your job and your life whereas now it's like my job my my my career and my business like develops me in ways that like my job never did and yeah it's hard it's a lot harder than you know I would think it's not the dream you know like I say I work a lot of hours there's a lot of mental juggling and joust with myself but it's yeah I would do it again yeah it's interesting isn't it I I I definitely it's such an interesting book I'm going to read that yeah the idea because I think that's the I've had exactly that where it's like you've got the great job yeah you get to travel you get paid good money it's pretty easy you probably actually only working a couple days a week and the rest of time you're just messing around yeah um going for coffees and lunches and stuff like that uh and yeah but then to take the jump it's it's big whereas youve if you've lost your job and you got no other choice yeah uh there's only one path yeah but you might have like a really big client and then you might be like actually they're sucking so much out of us that if we let this client go we might be like you know that we all face those decisions in our business yeah they recur yeah com up time and time again and even though it's a really simple story it's it just frames it nicely I'll read that what are you optimizing for okay me okay my ability to make videos so you know do the inputs that drive the outputs it's very tempting for me to be like okay now I need to write a newsletter and now I need to um you know do public speaking and all of this everything I do is optimizing for me to be able to sit in my desk and make more videos because everything I have has come from that so now I I instead of instead of when I what I've realized is you make a making a YouTube channel is hard it's a skill so any other creative Endeavor like a newsletter is just as hard it's takes just as much skill it's naive of me to think I can just spin that off and smash it you know so what I do now is I find people that have done that successfully and I say I partner with you and I'll like you know build a really quality product and then I can divert my audience to it yeah like audience Venture Capital if you would so I'm not putting money into it I'm putting attention yeah and I'm not obsessed with owning the whole thing I just want to have I want it to be really good so that the audience benefit and I want to just focus on making videos because that's the input that drives the output and that's your fly whe it's like if you make videos The Fly turn people join the newsletter people join the go to the podcast they do all these are things that people have set up and they're running perfectly for you expertly but you're just you can just focus video video video I partner with the podcast production company I partner with someone on the newsletter I partner with someone on the busines to business venture and I don't mind giving up those chunks to bring in expertise that allows me to just and as long as they understand all I'm going to do is sit in my office and make videos because that's the best thing that I can do for this for all these businesses yeah amazing give me a sec I need to get this off before you hit me with another serious pressure is advice to your younger self oh chill okay it's going to take you a long time Damian before you have anything that's valuable for the world just relax mate and live a little you know so there's some statistics around successful Founders I think the the mo majority of people assume that Founders are like 21y old Mark Zuckerberg's actually if you start a business when you're 33 is three times more likely to be successful than someone at 22 and the average Tech founder is 40 the average um founder in like the oil and gas and that kind of industry is 47 you can't you can't skip experience and actually the mess that was my 20s gave me the social and financial like skills that I needed to launch a Channel at 30 that was an instant success an overnight success 10 years in the making you know that's what they say so I would go back to Damien who was desperate and looking to wanted to be something and change the world and be like you need to learn some stuff first mate you need to some life experience you know you're not an autistic Savant that can code and will invent a social network you know so chill I love that yeah that [ __ ] good um kindest thing someone's ever done for you oh okay I don't know how to I'm just going to draw a little image this is terrible okay so this is someone shouting at me with a dce hat on there's loads of examples of people being kind as in the traditional sense but I think Honesty is a kindness and there was this time when I was at University and I was arrogant and I was cocky and I was naive and I got into a mess financially where I nearly um ended up needing to drop out of University because I had no money left on the first day uner I worked all summer and saved up a load of money at a bar job and then the first day I got there I bought everyone in the bar a drink and spent the whole lot um just that just was like it set me up it it met I was fresh as week director the next year everyone oh he's a legend so actually it set me up socially but I had no money for rent all of this and I literally went around I'm so ashamed to say this but I'll just be honest I went round and I basically begged for money off people like pounds to to pay my rent and I was went to my uncle's house down south and went to one of his friends house and I was like talking about it like I was proud of the fact and he was like you had to beg for money you should be ashamed like it's not a good thing and I remember like that ego check then just set me on the right course and his honesty in that moment was like a kindness you know that that kind of like made me reframe like my view of myself I was a cocky [ __ ] I was just a [ __ ] do what I mean like well too full of myself and if he hadn't have done that at that time that probably would have continued for a little while and he just at 18 years old gave me the slap that I needed and I see that as a true kindness yeah that's amazing it's amazing story yeah yeah that's the first time I've ever talked about that because it's so shameful set up a Facebook page and like asking for money that is shocking I raised it but yeah not proud of it now he was like there's nothing to be proud of and I was like yeah is completely right yeah an idiot I was like you know I bought you all the drink and have the money back basically it's funny isn't how rare people actually being honest with you are like exactly EXA like I'm even even like your family like yeah people people they don't don't say what they really think yeah you look great like you know it's that kind of whereas honesty is like kindness like me being honest in terms of that story is like really hard for me because I know people are just going to be like what a melt but I learned from it and it was it was I'm 35 now I was 18 then I was a child you know but yeah I always think back to that moment as pivotal best thing you've done with your money oh okay can only be one thing really so that guy um I I have I earn I earn good money from my YouTube channel and my business earns me more money now and all of those things but the the investing in a lowcost index inside of a tax deficient account like a pension and an Isa for 10 years even when I was only putting 10 quid in gave me the confidence and ability and platform to make that leap and whilst investing what it make you rich it will give you confidence in your ability to jump when the right thing comes along so if you're unsure and you're sat at home thinking I don't know what I want to do just do that and then when the opportunity comes along you you'll be in a good place you know you got to be able to pounce great advice and I'd expect nothing L from a personal finance YouTuber yeah that's it always on brand I'm enjoying this you got any more conversely the worst worst thing you did with your money oh God okay I SP that right I bought a brand new Mercedes when I got dumped I'm still driving today I'm going drive that thing into the floor I'm going to drive that I'm going to put 300,000 miles on that thing honestly oh God yeah but like you know brand brand spanking you like cuz of my own fragile little ego cuz I got dumped or was that the next day you walked into the showroom next day next day I bought yeah bought it yeah in my mid like mid to early 20s did you just to drive it past their house no yeah look at me now yeah yeah look at me now made it in my little a class yeah God what an idiot but like you know cars brand new cars are such terrible Investments right they within the first 5 years you're losing 60% of the value and I should have just bought a secondhand car but yeah I did that and yeah that wasn't a smart financial decision not at all no stupid yeah yeah I mean I I that one of the reasons I worked for the Chinese was like well I'm going to make this thing ow me some bloody money then after like you know I realized it was a terrible purchase that I can't now get out of because I'm on some horrendous PCP Arrangement what lastly where can people find you well if the content's good enough it'll find them is kind of like how I think about it but if you want to find me Daman talks money on YouTube YouTube and if you like podcasts I've got I co-host a podcast called making money which is like you know chats with Finance people amazing absolutely love this Daman so good wor I think it's going to help a lot of people I really enjoyed it thank you all right man Cheers Cheers

Channel: Callum McDonnell

Views: 3,451

Keywords: creator economy, podcast for content creators, podcast content strategy, social media for podcasts, content creator, callum mcdonnell, marketing, how to make money online, how to start a business online, damien jordan, damientalksmoney, how to invest for beginners, how to become a youtuber, how to get youtube famous, viral video tips, youtube tips, mr beast, graham stephen, martin lewis, how to make your first youtube video, monetising content, entrepreneurship

Id: f7GR0_jOuHg

Length: 59min 46sec (3586 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 19 2024