- Omar and I have been learning
from the biggest YouTubers in the world on how to grow on YouTube and all the changes that
are coming to YouTube and what we need to do to make it in 2023. There's a lot going on. There's a whole lot of
stuff that we learned and we're learning from massive YouTubers like Ryan Treyhan, Mr. Beast. The first session we actually attended was Ryan Treyhan, Omar,
and major takeaways. - Yeah, no, one of my
favorite things about coming into these events is like, you're talking people who are doing this at the highest level, what are they thinking about
when they're creating content? And so Ryan Treyhan did
have the first session and the first thing he
talked about was so key to his content was market timing. This is knowing the season and what content you're
creating in the season. And for him, he did a very famous 30 day
vlog series that he planned intentionally to do in the summer. And he said, why? He said, The reason why I
did this was 'cause a lot of our audience is actually in school. So this gave people something
to do during the summer. - Yeah. - And he just used that
wave and he used the example of Black IP's, ♪ I got a feeling that tonight
is gonna be a good night ♪ But he said that song
came out at the crash, the recession in 2008. - Yeah. - No one in here was having a
good night during that time, but they dropped a song
when the world needed it. And I think there's something
to learn about that. And even in your space or niche, what season or timing
that you can implement into your content to know this
is where my people are at, and then serve them that way,
I think that was super key. - Yeah, 100%. And I love how he, then,
he talked about thumbnails, but we're actually gonna be talking about all of the thumbnail
advice that we got from like Mr. Beast, Patty Galloway and just some of the other big YouTubers. We're gonna be talking
about that at the very end. But one of the other things
that Ryan was talking about that I was taking notes on, I thought it was super interesting. He was talking about the like prediction for YouTube in the future. And one of the things he talked
about was pursuing longevity and being able to last. And he says that he loves
YouTube and his whole purpose for it is he wants to be here, he's doing it for the long haul. He's not doing this just to
get rich or get famous quickly. He's really committed to
YouTube and building it out. And I think it's really cool because sometimes people
ask me, they're like, do you think YouTube is like going away and to just like see all these
massive YouTubers not worried about YouTube really to, and honestly to see YouTube
making these changes to set it up for just such, just
continuing to evolve YouTube. They are changing YouTube
in a positive way. And so, but one of the major takeaways that Ryan was talking about was rest. So in 2021, Ryan was talking
about how he took two weeks off and he was working the rest of the year and then in 2022, he's taking months off. And I just thought that was kind of cool because he's really just
focusing in on rest. And obviously he's kind of at
a place where he can do that with the brand he's built
and the business he's built. But I think, I mean like how do you think just not
the hands of the world, but just like the people
watching this video who maybe have a full-time
job, how can they try and have a mindset of like, I wanna be able to rest and not burn out. Because he said if you get
successful and you burn out, then you weren't successful. - Yeah, right, no 100. And we've seen that time and time again with many well known creators. You know what he talked about
in his way of doing that and how he changed his mindset was what was called redemptive work. - Yeah. - And this was just changing your mind on how you approach work. And some of that even included
adding people to the team, some of the people on his team were, are people he said that could
standalone have millions of subscribers on their own channel, but because they are doing
something for a greater good that they're able to do
things together, move faster and actually do less with more. It kind of let a lot of
people breathe a little bit because it's like, dude, this dude accomplished more with less time and that's possible. But it's a pre-decision
you need to make going in that this is for the long haul. So if I'm feeling a sense
of burnout or something, then I'm doing something wrong and something needs to change. - Yeah and I love that
he talked about that and it was funny and building
a team I thought was like the most practical advice
and obviously a lot of people like that's the goal to get to. And so it was funny 'cause
you and I kind of got split up at certain times, but I don't know if you
kind of got this lot, but I kept having people
come up to me and be like, it was two things was like, where's Sean? And I was like, Sean's not here. Omar and I and Kyle were here hanging out. And then the other thing that
people kept asking me about was they were actually really interested and they thought it was really cool that there are like
different personalities to Think Media now. 'Cause back in the day if
you're like new to our channel, Sean Cannell founded this
channel and it was just him and then he started to hire
a team with Omar and Kyle. And then eventually I came on
and I started being on camera and you started being on camera. And so a lot of people
were interested in that. And so I feel like we need to eventually talk a lot more about that. - That was probably after
people recognized me at this conference about like the content
we've been putting out. That was the, like a lot of
the times the next question, how does this work with you guys? Multiple people in one channel? Because a lot of people here are actually pursuing a personal channel, which we can even talk
about what Ryan talked about in regards to you're building a brand, whether you know it or not,
and the how it's so important that you identify what your brand is. And he did that by talking about, what are you known for and
kind of what you are known to be against or you positive or negative. - So if you're trying
to dial in your brand, Ryan was like, ask yourself three, what are the three positive
traits that you have? And then what are two negative
traits but that maybe you would deem negative but actually
that people like about you and make you unique. And so I was like, that was just a simple
framework that I think we need to apply at the media. And then even for ourselves, like what are my, what's my personal brand when I'm on the channel? What's different about me? What's different about you? And I think just like
leaning into who we are, I think is going to, it
works for YouTube and like 'cause people just wanna see
us the way we are, right? Like people are interested
in that authentic side of us. So moving on to the next session, Kyle and I attended a
session with Hope Scope and one of the major takeaways for me with her YouTube channel was
she was talking about retention and how to increase retention. And basically if you're brand new, if you increase retention it means people are watching your videos longer and that's gonna help
get views on YouTube. Like that's one of that. And click through rate
know people clicking. So one of the interesting
things that she talked about that I feel like is just a major hack for everyone watching this is she's talking about
listical type videos that were maybe tips and
you have like 10 tips or you have like 10 in
her niche it was like 10, fashion pieces or leggings or something. And so sometimes people
can just skip through 'cause they just wanna
see one, two, three, all the way up to 10. So one of the things that
she was talking about was in her thumbnail is actually where the
retention hack starts. So in the thumbnail what she would do is she would have two different leggings or two different pieces in
this listical type of video and she would open the
video right away with one. And by the way, the two
pieces she said to choose like the most crazy or the best. So she would open it first
with one of the leggings that were like the most
crazy, most expensive. And then the last one in the video was the other one you
saw in the thumbnail. And so this was really interesting because I think it's
just like the psychology and that's something they've
been talking a lot about, but like you see a thumbnail
and then to instantly get that like instant gratification
of that is awesome. - Is connected to. - But then you're waiting
to see the last one at the end of the video. I thought that was just
like a really cool hack that I want to experiment
with on Think Media. - No 100 and another cool thing, I think she talked about that YouTube has grown and involved over time and the way you started
out videos at one point, you wanted an elongated intro and provide so much
value in front of the age and you'll find sometimes
on Think Media, we did that, but we have gotten into
the just getting right into the content. And then the second thing
we've been implementing is ending the video right away. And there was a, you could see drop offs in content when you start ending a video, when when you start using language that is queuing the viewer to
actually start checking out. So, just ending your
video when it needs to end is something you wanna
look into is start doing to actually help that
retention stay throughout. And honestly what it does is it creates circular
video viral velocity, which is essentially keeping people in your world because they
haven't got the gratification for the video actually ending and they'll probably end
up watching another video. So I thought that was really
key and kind of something that you can adjust in
your content is just to end your videos better and essentially, by better abruptly, you know. - Yeah and we actually
have an entire video basically breaking down on a school because some of the things
that we've just been learning we're like, awesome,
we're doing a lot of that and we're like, here's
how we can make it better. But I'm like, we have a video teaching
exactly how to do that. You can click the link in the
description to check out like how to end your videos. And that is, and she was saying
if you do that correctly, it's like, it's a major step
up versus all the other people who don't do it correctly and it just hurts their retention rate. And so I think that's just
like a really easy way to focus in on that end
piece to just increase your retention rate to get more views. The next session was Darrell Eaves and there was a couple main points. He gave a lot of practical advice, but I feel like the major
takeaways that I wanted to share in this video was he talked about how there's two goals of
YouTube and number one, YouTube wants to predict
what they wanna watch. And then the second thing is YouTube wants to maximize long term
engagement and satisfaction. And so I want you to remember
that because Mr. Beast does a Q and A that we're
gonna talk about next. And someone asked him about
this satisfaction thing and for me I just had a major unlock. But for me just to write
those down and be okay, this is what YouTube wants
and and his whole point, the the main thing that I took away was it's all about the viewer. And that's something that I
feel like we've seen a lot with. I even had a guy come
up to me in the lobby and he was talking about
starting this YouTube channel and he was doing some, he's gonna start this YouTube channel with used gym equipment, how to buy and sell used gym equipment. And he was like, should I open my video with me going on a little five mile run? 'Cause I do that and then
making my coffee and journaling, 'cause that's how I started my mornings. And I'm like, well
what's your video about? He's like, well it's
buying used gym equipment. - Sure. - And I'm like, I was like, well it you, I just told him it's all about the viewer. So if the viewer wants to see
those things, include them, but they probably don't
if they don't know you. - Right. - And so he's like, well
Peter McKinnon does it. I'm like, Dude, Peter
McKinnon is famous now. Like he can do that because
people just wanna watch him to watch him. - But he started with the five photo tips. - Yes. - He started with the video camera hacks. He started with the
helpful tips that grew him to eventually be in a place where yes, the dude can do whatever
he wants right now. - Yes. - But he's still making helpful content. But yes, he can go to the coffee shop, he can do all those things. But yeah, contextualize
what it means for you when it comes to your
journey with the viewer and a lot of the times we don't, we kind of get in our own
world on a week to week basis, but because we're making helpful content and we come to a conference like this, it goes to show that like, dude, when you really do put the viewer first in your content creation, not only does your
communication come off better, 'cause you have them in mind while you're creating
or scripting your video, but you're reaching the
person you want to reach and then you get to meet them in person and it's a special thing for real. - So the next session was with Mr. Beast and there was a Q and A, and this is kind where it ties in. There was a question
about viewer satisfaction and I found this super interesting
because this is something we're experimenting
with on on Think Media. And so the question was on
chapters, on YouTube chapters, should you include them? Should you not include
them in the real question that they were asking Mr. Beast was if chapters can hurt video retention because people are skipping through, but it also increases viewer satisfaction. Which one should you give? Should you take out the chapters and maybe have the viewer
a little bit less satisfied 'cause it's harder to get around or should you just add in the chapters? Your retention graph is
gonna hurt a little bit more, your retention rate's
gonna go down a little bit, but the viewer is satisfied
because they literally just kind of skip to the part they wanted to go to. Then they gotta leave, but they're happy. And so I was like, I didn't
know what he was gonna say, but I was like, this is a very interesting question because we've been experimenting
with not doing chapters. And I think we've seen in certain videos and there's a lot of things
that go into with editing, but we've seen a little bit of an uptick in our retention graph. But Mr. Beast's answer kind of shocked me because what he said was, he like didn't even think about it. He goes, you should always
do viewer satisfaction, you should focus on satisfying the viewer. And I was like, interesting. And so when he expanded on it, it made a lot of sense because he said if you think about a viewer
clicking on your video and if you have chapters and it makes it a good viewing experience for them 'cause they can skip around. They don't actually want to
hear that part of the video, they just wanna go to the
next part of the video. They are way more likely next
time when they see your videos 'cause they had a good
experience to click on it again and it actually helps increase
your click through rate. - Wow. - And so what he was saying was, if you hide chapters to try
and like hack the algorithm, what what you saying is if
a viewer is not as satisfied as much, then next time
they see their video, if they were just like mad
because you wasted their time, they're not even gonna
click on your video. And so for me that was
just a major unlock. I'm like, we need to
really obsess even more on viewer satisfaction. - Yeah, we don't have to
spend too much time talking about Hayden Smith's session, who is like the YouTube editor on YouTube. - Yeah. - And he did a wonderful
session on editing and it goes to show just kind
of like know where you are in that journey because
chapters would make sense for videos, but maybe don't have the best, what he would call rhythm. So if your video has no rhythm, maybe it would be best for you to actually throw in chapters. But if you have great
editing and it's moving along and it keeps reengaging
an audience or a viewer, then maybe you can take away the chapters because the viewer satisfaction
is there in the edit. But I think that was really
cool that Hayden talked about rhythm and that, sometimes we use the word cadence or pace and that is a skill acquired over time when you edit your videos is learning like when a moment's ending and you need to take on the next one
or when something needs to be demonstrated with a
B-roll clip or what have you. But it was just so enlightening, the encompassing kind of
like thoughts and theories we were getting out of these sessions. But yes, we like big idea
for the first half of the day was we need to just really, really think about the viewer again. And once we get there,
go even deeper, you know? - Yeah. - And think about their true
experience on our videos. - So the next session was Patty Galloway, and it was a really, really
interesting session for me because he is a, you might
have seen his YouTube videos where he breaks down other
YouTubers and he works with YouTubers and is just
very analytical and a smart guy when it comes to
storytelling and packaging. And so he was talking
about three major things, which was the ideas of your video. He was talking about the packaging and then he was also
talking about the video. And one of the main takeaways that I think I just wanna share with everybody was when it comes to ideas,
and this is something we do, I just don't think we've
talked about it enough. - No, for sure. - He said to think of a hundred ideas, bring it down to the top
10 and then choose one. And he goes, I'll, he goes, I can't believe when people
think of one video idea and they just go and make it, now keep in mind he's
working with, like Mr. Beast, he's working with people
who require a like. - 100. - A killer video idea,
but my point is like, what if the people watching who just have a channel on cooking, What if they just took
10 ideas instead of one? - Right. - And they doled it down
into the three best videos and then they shot those, I feel like you would see a massive, the point is ideas
matter so much on YouTube and so start with volume
and then work your way in to the best ones. - Right, yeah. And we've actually never
shared this before, but every week at Think Media, the content team meets for about an hour to an hour and a half. And we talk about ideas
and we discuss the ideas and debate the ideas,
what makes most sense. And then it gets all the way to the place where we actually develop a title, right? And I think when Patty
was talking about titles, it's just crazy how just the
reframing of the right title will cause so much interest. And his word was curiosity. So a lot of this really just
comes back down to preparation and how much time you spend
in preparation is so key. And I even loved when
transitioning from a video idea to actually landing on a
title was so interesting on how he broke that down and how for the same video
a title can do everything. - Yeah. I mean it was two things, right? So he is talking about volume,
which we do at Think Media. We literally meet for an hour and hash out tons
of titles to land on the one. - Right? - The second thing was
focusing on human interest, which he gave a really cool example. So he started, he was
working with a client and the first variation of the title was inside a $1.7 million New York loft. And they said that there, it wasn't, they didn't really love it and it wasn't, there was nothing really
interesting about it except the money value. But then they even were like, there's probably more expensive
ones or whatever, right? So then they changed it to, I found the best loft in New
York and they liked it better, they thought it improved. And then they added one more thing to it, which was kind of another
interesting aspect. He said, the next title was, I found the best loft in
NYC... But Nobody Wants It. And they were like, that's the title. And the reason for it is it
opened up this curiosity loop. If it's the best loft in New York City, why does nobody want it? And he was like, you
could do the opposite. You could say, I found the
worst loft in New York City and everybody wants it. And so I think with some of these titles and thumbnails what I keep hearing a lot, and it just makes sense and
something that we try to do is like, how can you
breed curiosity into that? Because naturally, you
wanna click on something that sparks curiosity. - Right? - You wanna know the answer you want. You talk about like the
do not open this box with one of the examples. It's like you wanna open it, right? You're curious what is in there. And so you wanna click on that video? - No, I think it's so key and specifically on a title like that, like what I see is tension. I think tension breeds curiosity. And in our world with,
when it comes to tech, sometimes we can use tension
in the sense of like, this minimal desk setup can do everything. It's like, wait a second,
minimal everything, how? And so I think that's one way to like kind of look at a title, can you have polar
opposites within a title? And that really does breed some curiosity. And I thought that was, that's such a cool example
of like a practical way to just make a video title better. - A 100%. And I think if you are going for a search just to make this really
practical to everybody for going for search
something like a camera view, I don't think you have to make
it super curiosity driven. I think you could just
be like the Sony A 7S3, the best camera for
YouTube that works for us. Sometimes what we do though, which we can experiment
with more is the best camera for YouTube question
mark or the Sony ZVE 10 versus the the Sony ZV1, which is better. And so, there's two different angles there and I think trying them both out and applying them to your own niche, but just thinking as a viewer,
if you see this thumbnail, would you want to click on it? And does that spark something for you to wanna know more about it? Then you're doing something right when it comes to the
title and the thumbnail. - And another real life example, we actually had a few
years ago the Sony ZV1, compact camera released and it
was like the vlogging camera. Everybody was like, this is it, this is the vlogging
camera for every beginner. And Sean just did a live stream and his title was the ZV1, The Best Vlogging Camera Hint, It's Not, it was like the first
video that dropped that day that had a negative kind of connotation around what was going on with the camera. And so people are like, wait, wait, I thought it was a perfect camera. And so what? And a one hour live stream
got hundreds of thousands of views literally because of curiosity. So figuring out the pulse
of who it is you're serving, the industry you're in, I think is really important
to actually be able to speak into that. And in that case, the luxury real estate, you know what people are some people just love watching luxury
real estate videos. And so in that case, to provide something at
the end of that title to breed curiosity is super important. - Another major talking
point at the conference has been the future of YouTube and I found it pretty interesting. There's been a few different
responses from big YouTubers that have talked about
where it's actually going. And I think this, if you can ride the wave
of where it's going, you're just gonna go farther a lot faster than if you're doing old tactics and old things that don't work anymore. So Hayden Hillier Smith what did an amazing presentation on editing. And so he was talking
about how in 2019 to 2021 it was the retention trend cycle. So big ideas, trying to hack retention,
cut out those chapters. I don't, do whatever you gotta do to get that high retention. And so what he said he
believes is the new era for YouTube is storytelling. And so he thinks where YouTube
is moving is in storytelling. Everybody just calm down real quick before you even type in a comment. Keep in mind this guy is
in the entertainment niche. - Yeah. - And so their search is still alive and still gives us 50% of our views and probably makes us $250,000 a year on Think Media in just ads. - Yeah. - So it's still works. You can still build a channel on search. But storytelling, I found
this really interesting and I still think that
there is a lot to learn even for people like us who
are doing tech reviews or are doing YouTube educational stuff. How can we incorporate
storytelling elements into YouTube? We kept hearing this, all conference. I found this really interesting. - No, for sure. I think it's kind of like
a skill that I even need to start going down on. Because I can talk all
day and give context to why I even like a
light or like this camera. But sometimes story could get in the way of what the even purpose of the video is. And so you were actually
talking with a friend who actually does tech
reviews and camera reviews and how he's incorporating story by getting cameras in front of people. But I think it's just a journey that we just need to start
walking down and learning how to actually include story in the type of content that we do. And so I think that we need
to incorporate story more in our content that we do at Think Media. - Yeah, a 100%. The next one was Mr. Beast
and a question that came in was what's the next phase of YouTube? So they're talking about, it kind of used to be maybe like vlogs, right now it's challenges, big ideas. And so they said, Mr. Beast, what's next? Give us the secret, what's
the next wave for YouTube? And he literally just goes, shorts. I'm like, dang, okay shorts. And so he elaborated on
it and why it's the future and it makes a lot of sense. - Yeah. - And there's some, you need
to listen to this entire clip because if you literally
exit off right now and go a 100% all in on shorts, you're gonna do the wrong thing. And he even says that, so
just kind of hear me out here. But the major bullet points
were you want to be focusing on shorts because we're seeing an ad revenue split for shorts now. So they're gonna be
throwing ads on shorts. You're gonna get 45% of the ad revenue. 55% is gonna go to YouTube. And so this is going to
cause a lot of people who are on TikTok and he gave
the example, he was like, he goes, Dude, I can get
a billion views on TikTok and make like five grand. Whereas if I do that on shorts,
once ads start rolling out, and this is probably gonna be
coming out in the new year, he goes, this is gonna be
multiple figures higher. And so like we don't know exactly yet what that's gonna look like, but. - It's gonna disrupt the
short form content revolution. And because these other platforms,
they work off of a fund, they have a pile of money. So the more people that get
more bigger on these platforms, the less you actually make, which is actually a sucky concept. So YouTube actually going in the direction of what they have been doing
with their regular videos, it might disrupt the
whole thing altogether. - So, and I love how YouTube, they're just like, TikTok,
we're coming for you. Instagram we're coming for you. Facebook like, dude, they don't even care. YouTube is just like, we are gonna pair creators and we are going to do short form, we're gonna do live streams,
we're gonna do video. And I just feel like they're
unstoppable at this point. But the interesting thing that
Mr. Beast was talking about when he was talking about
shorts is to do both. He said it's not one or the other. And so Colin, he was
interviewing Mr. Beast and he talked about how
they have on their channel, they're two most viral videos. They have a 20 second short and then they have a two hour
long podcast with Mr. Beast. And both of them get a lot of views. And so they were saying there's audiences for long form content, there's audiences for short form content and you have to do both. And so Mr. Beast literally
said the next wave is leveraging shorts and long
form not doing either or, but actually doing both. And so he said that we're
actually gonna be seeing a new wave of creators
coming from YouTube shorts. Kinda like we saw with the
Vine era, the TikTok era. And so I'm excited for YouTube shorts. No, for sure. It's gonna be an interesting time if you aren't making shorts right now, I think now's the best time
to get started in Iraq, even in a different session. His advice for people was do
one long form video a week and do two shorts a week. - That's a good. - Again, he's a full-time creator. - Good framework. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - So I just think it's both. - Yeah and someone I think
who's been doing it good for like about a year and
a half now is Legal Eagle. He's a lawyer and he'll do elongated, topics on certain things
going on in the industry and different cases going
on and things like that. But the way he uses shorts
to point to his long form, it has really blown up his brand and I think he's just
doing it really well. And we're still trying to
figure out how shorts fit into our content. But I definitely think there
is gonna be a skill level. 'Cause there's people that
are getting really good at short form content. They're like, dang, I can't
talk for eight minutes. And then you got people that are like, I've been making 10, 15 minute
videos for so long, how like, I don't know how to condense
that into 30, 60 seconds. And so just knowing that we
need to get this on our radar and take it a little bit
more serious as YouTube is about to invest in it. So let's invest in what
YouTube is investing in. - Now, if you're just watching this and you're new to Think Media, definitely subscribe because
we are going to be talking about shorts a lot more, giving tutorials on how to create shorts and even the storytelling
on how to cut it up, chop it up so that people actually want to watch your shorts. There's a lot of stuff we learned here that we wanna start making videos on and teaching you guys about. And so as we're experimenting with shorts, we're gonna share everything
we're learning here on the channel, so stay tuned for that. But at the end of the day, one of the major things
you can do right now that we've seen at this
conference is just focusing in on that packaging, which
is titles and thumbnails. So we actually have a YouTube expert kind of breaking down
some of the thumbnails, why they are terrible and what you can do to actually make better
thumbnails to get more clicks. So click on the screen, check that out. Omar, dude, it's been a good one. (upbeat music)
