Asking Colin & Samir How To Make $1,000,000 On YouTube
YouTube, Creators, Trends, and Untapped Opportunities - June 14, 2022 (almost 3 years ago) • 01:00:49
Transcript:
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Shaan Puri | You just explained that like you're a machine learning thing, tagging it like an extremely visually compelling piece of content. High, high engagement to the end, like you know.
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Colin Rosenblum | I've seen I've seen too many videos at this. I have to put them in the bucket | |
Sam Parr | colin and samir do you guys know what you're getting into do you know what this is at all | |
Samir Chaudry | I thought this was a podcast about procure procurement | |
Shaan Puri | oh alright | |
Samir Chaudry | isn't this | |
Sam Parr | up to speed | |
Shaan Puri | he's a fan he's a super fan I love it | |
Samir Chaudry | is that not what this podcast is about | |
Sam Parr | yeah it's all about office supplies | |
Samir Chaudry | I don't even know how to say the word procurement yeah | |
Shaan Puri | once you get once you get around us you you know that word becomes a problem right | |
Samir Chaudry | and ben ben is the systems integrations guy right | |
Shaan Puri | yeah exactly | |
Sam Parr | dude you know what's going on | |
Samir Chaudry | got it yeah | |
Shaan Puri | And so, give y'all stories. I kind of know a little bit of it, but let's assume people listening to this don't know it. This is my way of saying I kind of only half know it. But give me your story.
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Samir Chaudry | Yeah, so I'm Samir, by the way. This is my voice if you're listening.
I graduated college in 2011 and I went to school to study film and digital media. I grew up in LA, so I was really into the film business. I wanted to be a storyteller. I wanted to find a way to, you know, become a filmmaker, and that was a really challenging thing.
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Shaan Puri | by the way you look into it so so how did you how did you swing this I'm gonna be a filmmaker | |
Sam Parr | well he's good looking though too I mean he looks like an la person | |
Shaan Puri | I know but I'm | |
Samir Chaudry | so parents parents don't | |
Shaan Puri | care about that | |
Samir Chaudry | No, you're right. I mean, I remember the moment when I called my mom and said, "I'm not going to be a business major; I'm going to be a film major." It was a scary moment, I think, for them.
But I was a bad high school student. I was not good in high school, and I was just not good in college either. I didn't do homework. I was not someone who really lived up to the standard of what it was to be an Indian kid, whereas my brother was student body president and became a lawyer. He followed more of a traditional path.
I think they had noticed that I was so unconventional that it was like, "Alright, do whatever." But my dad's also really unconventional. He's an entrepreneur and a fashion designer; he's different. So I think there was a bit of, "Okay, you seem confident. Figure it out."
For me, when I graduated school, I had an issue with being someone who wasn't good in school. I wasn't great at being an employee; that was really hard for me. I worked as an editor on a film called *The Ides of March* in Hollywood, and I just didn't like it. I didn't like doing a single task. I didn't like doing one thing.
I had become aware of YouTube primarily because I was up in Northern California in college and was really fascinated by it. I felt like I had all the tools to just upload a video and make something. The subject matter I picked was the community that I was a part of when I grew up. I grew up playing the sport of lacrosse; I played lacrosse in college.
I decided to spin up a YouTube channel called *The Lacrosse Network*, and that is the origin of my first upload onto YouTube, really outside of student films. At the same time, Colin was uploading a series or a trailer for a series about the Colorado club lacrosse team. I'll let him pick up from there, but this is in 2011, just for frame of reference. | |
Sam Parr | let let | |
Shaan Puri | Me jump in with one thing. I've seen a video where you said something dope, Colin. You go, "My first video only had, I don't know what you said, like 100 views or 1,000 views." You're like, "But Samir was one of them, and that view, that one view changed my life."
Because then you guys ended up joining forces. You guys do a bunch of cool stuff. Fast forward to today, you guys have this pretty baller YouTube channel, and this is like, you get to do the thing you want to do.
If I could do anything, I'd probably be a professional basketball player. That'd be like the peak of getting to play and be super successful at the same time. But I feel like the second best thing might be being a YouTuber.
I love that idea though, that like, "Okay, I only had 100 views or only had 1,000 views, but like that one view changed my life." I thought that was like an amazing little nugget. | |
Colin Rosenblum | Yeah, I think for me it was a real lesson in community. Probably unlike Sameer, you know, I actually was a really dedicated student—almost probably to a fault.
So when I finally had this experience in college of buying a camera and being a little bit more creative, you know, putting out my first video, which was about the lacrosse team, it didn't necessarily become a huge success. But it did connect me with all these like-minded people, one of which was Sameer.
He sent me an email that day basically saying, "If you're going to be making these videos, even though you just started, why don't you put them out on my network? I'm trying to aggregate tons of people who are fans of the sport."
So, you know, from that on, I was like, I don't even care about my past education. I am so interested now in just telling stories and having them connect with people.
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Sam Parr | But that didn't... the Lacrosse Network was kind of a failure, right? It got you to a certain point, and then you're like, "Shit, this isn't going to pay the bills." It's because people... yeah.
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Samir Chaudry | I think... I mean, I think it didn't, it definitely didn't pay our bills in the first three years, right? It was something that was...
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Sam Parr | not a failure but you know | |
Samir Chaudry | Yeah, I mean, the long story short is we sold the company in 2014, which was really positive. That was a success for us.
But the pathway to get there was really challenging because there was no business model surrounding YouTube in 2011 and 2012. When we tried to get advertisers, no one even understood that spending money on YouTube was a reasonable thing to do. The only way people could understand us was as a video production company.
So what we did to make money was take on creative jobs for people, like service jobs. Okay, yeah, well, you've seen that we can make pretty good videos online. We can make you a video. We even did more creative odd jobs. We made websites for people and designed stickers for one company. It was just kind of like, "Oh, these guys are like creative internet people, so if we have a creative internet task, we'll ask them to do it."
What was beneficial to us was that YouTube, the company, was very interested in what we were doing. They basically came to me and said, "If you can secure live rights, we'll really get behind you because we're trying to explore live sports on YouTube."
That's what I did. I got rights to high school games first, then college games, and eventually distributed pro games. I figured out how to acquire live rights and get YouTube behind us, and that kind of grew our profile and got us to the next level.
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Samir Chaudry | We got acquired by a sports media company, and a lot of that, you know, I would say it was an acqui-hire. To be very clear, the benefit of that was that there was cash exchanged for our company, but really the majority was in, you know, we had salaries and stock. We got to actually have very comfortable, stable jobs pursuing YouTube and blogging. It's a company called Whistle.
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Shaan Puri | Yeah, so, by the way, I want to say something here. YouTube started in like, what, 2005? Something like that.
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Sam Parr | yeah | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, and you guys are saying it was 2010, 2011, and you're like, "It really wasn't like a well-trodden path of being a YouTuber, making money doing this. This can be like a business, and this could be the platform."
Versus the way you guys used it, it was kind of like, "It's our portfolio, and we'll get some clients from this. It'll be a launch pad. Maybe we'll get picked up by somebody else bigger, like real traditional media that will pay us."
That's kind of crazy, right? That's like six years into the game. And that's why, like, just to make a point about, let's say, crypto right now, it's like these things take a long time before they become a thing. Before it's like what YouTube is today, where it's obvious now that you could be a YouTuber, you could make a bunch of money, you could be Mr. Beast, whatever.
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Sam Parr | it it it's still not even obvious if you | |
Samir Chaudry | I don't think it's that obvious. Yeah, I don't think it's that obvious. There are examples now. Yeah, there are examples.
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Sam Parr | But, like, I watch YouTube on my Apple TV, and that's TV to me. Most people—only teens do that, and I'm the old guy. Most people, I don't think, do it like that. But I think it's still pretty... like, not a thing yet.
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Samir Chaudry | I do think if you take a step back and look at it, it operates exactly like most media companies. If you just take business models from the past, like how radio operated or even how television operates, any media company, a magazine— that's how YouTube operates too.
There's a really unique version of advertising when it comes to YouTube in that we are uploading, and the platform will actually pay us without us having to interface with clients. We don't have to build a media kit or pitch anyone. I think this causes creators to not fully understand the business they're in because they don't have to pick up the phone and sell their audience to someone or sell what they're doing to a client if they're primarily based on the AdSense that YouTube's giving them.
When we were first starting out, AdSense was absolutely insignificant because our audience was extremely niche; it was small, and YouTube was not that developed. There were people making good money from AdSense checks on YouTube, which is, you know, again, the money that YouTube will pay you as part of their partner program. But that's never been that significant of a check for us because we've always been very niche.
So, we've had to learn the business of media and apply that to what we're doing with YouTube. I think that maturity is starting to catch up right now in the space, and that's why a lot of creators are able to build businesses today and why there are roadmaps.
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Sam Parr | And fast forward to now, you have the Lacrosse Networks. It's no longer the focus; it's the Colin and Samir Show.
Basically, it's a YouTube channel with hundreds of thousands of subscribers. You talk about creator economy stuff, but I think that's a little bit niche. It's a little bit more than that. You have these highly produced interviews that you do with people, but then you also have all these clips.
You do this thing where you're sitting in your car and you give analysis of different videos and why they're going viral. It seems like you do a little bit more than that. I watch it all the time.
So, how big is that business at this point? Just to give the audience, for those who don't know you, a little sense of how legit you are.
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Samir Chaudry | Sure, yeah. As you mentioned, we are on our way to 2,000,000 subscribers. We have 813 as of this recording.
The business consists of myself, Colin, and we have four full-time team members who work on the actual channel. That's myself, Colin, three editors, a production manager, and a data and insights person who looks at how everything is tracking from an analytical perspective.
We also have a newsletter, and there's a team of three that works on that: two people, one general manager of the newsletter, one in business development and sales, and a writer who is on staff for the newsletter.
So the total number of people who work in the Colin and Smear ecosystem is ten, and it's split across two media properties: one being the YouTube channel and the other being the newsletter. | |
Sam Parr | I don't know if you guys | |
Shaan Puri | and I | |
Colin Rosenblum | I would say, too, like we're primarily supported by advertising. It's an advertising-based business. Our biggest clients are Samsung, Shopify, Jelly Smack, and other creator economy companies.
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Sam Parr | what's the revenue now can you reveal or no | |
Samir Chaudry | Yeah, we're... I would say we haven't been super 100% transparent with like exact numbers, but we're a **seven-figure** business.
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Sam Parr | are you getting close to 8 no | |
Shaan Puri | No, do you guys think this like gets there? Like, basically, sometimes you get into a business and it's true that "what got us here won't get us there." Sometimes we just have to keep on keeping on.
So, from a business model point of view, if we just keep going... Okay, we're at 813,000 subscribers today. We're probably tracking to 2,000,000 next year or whatever it is. The ads will just keep scaling, and this will keep going. This will be the business forever, or is it like we're going to have to come up with a second act at some point?
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Samir Chaudry | So, I think there are decisions you can make as a creator to get there. We are friends with a lot of creators who are pushing towards that **8-figure business mark**. A lot of that is just ad-supported business.
There are other creators who have launched course companies or education, direct-to-consumer content, Patreon, and subscription platforms. You can absolutely get there.
Honestly, I think it’s based on this moment as an artist, filmmaker, or someone who wants to express something. You go from, like I mentioned, studying film and being very interested in being a filmmaker, to becoming a media maker. I think those are two different things.
You have to decide—Colin and I have to decide—what we want the lifestyle to look like. I think you guys mentioned, I think it was your mother-in-law, Sam, who said, "I like taking Tuesdays and Thursdays off." I think that's a really important thing for all creators and entrepreneurs to look at and be like, "What’s enough for me? What do I want to do?"
Colin and I are experiencing a relatively recent success with this channel, and we’re trying to constantly evaluate which parts of this are really enjoyable and which parts start to feel like, "Okay, now we’re just making stuff to make stuff."
I think we have to find that balance of how to scale what we’re doing, but also recognize that we got into this because we wanted to make something. It’s okay to lean in and say, "Maybe there’s part of this that we just want to tell the stories that we’re excited about." Yes, there’s a ton of opportunity, but it might not match the lifestyle that we eventually want.
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Shaan Puri | Who is crushing it? So, like you mentioned, some creators do X, Y, Z. Like, what's his name? Ali... Ali on the... Yeah, he's coming on the pod soon.
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Samir Chaudry | oh great | |
Shaan Puri | I think he reveals his numbers where it's like, "Okay, my course business is gonna do like $2,000,000 this year" or something like that. Yeah, where he basically is like, "You know, become a YouTuber or some shit like that." It's a course that's around, I think.
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Samir Chaudry | he's tracking to 6,000,000 I think he's tracking to 6,000,000 this year | |
Shaan Puri | okay amazing | |
Samir Chaudry | at youtube academy | |
Sam Parr | yeah I signed up for full | |
Shaan Puri | Time at YouTube Academy. So that's the course he does. That's an example of someone who's crushing it in the course model.
Then, Sam, you've talked about the guy who does like Bring a Trailer. Which one was it? The car one?
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Sam Parr | doug doug you guys have doug demoro | |
Samir Chaudry | cars and so cars and miles | |
Colin Rosenblum | yeah we cars and bids | |
Samir Chaudry | we bought a car from cars and bids for one of our me too me too amazing great | |
Sam Parr | And so, he is a car guy with, at this point, 2 or 3 million subscribers. He has an auction website for cars that could potentially be a nine-figure company. I actually think so.
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Shaan Puri | and sam was that launched off the channel or before the channel | |
Sam Parr | no he had the channel for 5 years maybe many years | |
Samir Chaudry | I think the unique thing that we're experiencing right now is entrepreneurship. The difference is, we build an audience first and then solve how to monetize that audience through products, services, subscriptions, or whatever.
Whereas a lot of traditional entrepreneurship is about building the business first and then trying to find customers or an audience second.
So, when you look at creators and how big this can become, it's really about how big you want it to become. The thing that's holding back the creator space right now, I think, is operators—really good business operators to surround creators.
Because to make, you know, a consistent cycle when you are the subject of your videos, it doesn't really allow you to operate as the business admin, the operator, the person who's pushing cars and bids, the website, and that business while you're making the content at the same time.
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Sam Parr | ask ask your question again sean | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, so what are some other examples? Let's take those two: Ali Abdaal with the courses and Doug DeMuro, who has a car channel and then launched a car auction site.
Who else has done something cool? What are some other cool stories of people crushing it that started with content, built an audience, and then created a cool business off their YouTube channel? That's impressive because I don't know how to.
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Sam Parr | explain it that like are not mr beast the ones that you know we all know about | |
Shaan Puri | yeah yeah | |
Colin Rosenblum | I would say an interesting one that keeps coming up is Cassie Ho. She started Blogilates, which focuses on fitness and yoga instruction on YouTube. Now, she has two separate product companies that are both 8-figure companies, right Samir?
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Samir Chaudry | Yep, there's one that's like an apparel company for athleisure, and then one that's for yoga mats. | |
Sam Parr | oh shit | |
Samir Chaudry | I think that's another yoga creator called "Yoga with Adrienne" who started teaching yoga for me. She's so great, and her subscription platform is amazing, right? | |
Sam Parr | she's awesome man I'm a customer I'm a | |
Samir Chaudry | hell I'm a threat yeah | |
Sam Parr | Have you seen this woman, Sean? Her name's Yoga with Adriene. She's got that "girl next door" look where she's not intimidating, but she's definitely beautiful. She's based out of Austin, and she does yoga with her dog. She's very calming. She's the best, man! I love Yoga with Adriene.
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Shaan Puri | see this | |
Samir Chaudry | There's another creator named **Amanda Raich Lee**. She started creating content with bullet journals. She was showing how she was setting up her bullet journals and organizing her days.
Then, she launched a line of stationery and journals, which has become her primary engine of business.
I think those are a few specifics. I think **Yes Theory**, when it comes to merchandise and apparel, has done an incredible job with **Seek Discomfort** and building a brand that can stand alone outside of the videos.
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Shaan Puri | And I believe they also just went into the fulfillment business. So, they not only have their own merch line, but they also do the printing. That's right, they warehouse and pack for other creators too, right?
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Samir Chaudry | That's right. I think it's really smart when creators start businesses like that. They say, "Okay, if we're going to solve all these problems independently and not go with a partner, then we can work with other creators to do the same."
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Shaan Puri | What do you think people should be doing that you don't see? I have a couple of ideas. If you don't have one, I'll throw a couple at you. You can tell me if they're why people are not doing them. Maybe they're bad ideas.
But what do you think creators should be doing that they haven't yet gone into? That realm is not common yet.
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Samir Chaudry | So, I actually have a perspective that I'm curious about. Why haven't we seen creators band together?
Especially in the e-commerce space, why have we not seen 10 creators come together and launch an e-commerce retail store? To me, that would be a great opportunity where they can bring a ton of traffic to it and pair together, with all their audiences maybe on one brand. Yep, I think.
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Shaan Puri | that's exactly what I was gonna say | |
Sam Parr | like a disney store discovery store type of thing | |
Samir Chaudry | 100% or even like one singular brand. It's happening with this brand called Cloak in the gaming world. But why not just... if every creator had a piece of this one apparel brand, couldn't you make the next big apparel brand? Or could you make the next Urban Outfitters if, you know, Emma Chamberlain and five creators came together and made a retail store?
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Sam Parr | I | |
Colin Rosenblum | Feel like specifically in beauty, fashion, and cosmetics, there's such an opportunity to band together and have one brand. There are so many standalone cosmetic brands for a singular creator, but...
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Shaan Puri | It can really happen in any context, like in gaming. This was something I always thought should happen in gaming.
So, my company got acquired by Twitch. When I was there, I was looking at what these creators were doing. One brand that stood out was called G Fuel. I don't know if you guys have heard of it; it's very niche in the gaming community.
Basically, Sam, I don't know if you've heard of this, but it's like a Red Bull. It's sort of like an energy drink, but G Fuel stands for "gamer fuel." So, it's designed to give you energy and help you stay focused during those long gaming sessions, whatever they may be.
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Sam Parr | what was in it | |
Shaan Puri | And it looks like a Gatorade. Who knows what's in it? They're like... and the guy who started it, he's like this absolute 50-year-old bro. Like, he's like... | |
Sam Parr | yeah | |
Shaan Puri | 55 and just like jacked to the gills. You're like, "Oh wow, this is like... I don't know what's happening in this company, but I don't want to drink this."
What would happen is they would go to... they were like, "Oh dude, these Twitch stars have influence, but the traditional brands aren't going to them. They're going to Instagram and YouTubers first."
So he went to them and he was like, "Hey, I'll make a flavor for Doctor Disrespect. I'll make a flavor for Ninja. I'll make a flavor for each one of these, and you'll have your own shaker that you'll kind of promote that has your brand on it."
He got like nine of them to be the sponsored athletes basically, and they grew pretty big. I don't know what they were doing exactly, but if I remember correctly, it was definitely over $20 million. It might be over $50 million in sales that they were doing just off of this one real niche channel.
What I thought about was... and then each of the individual creators was doing their own thing. Like Ninja made a gaming mouse, and then somebody else made another... like a coffee or a stimulant or whatever.
I was thinking the same thing: if these guys just got together, and the ten big ones got together, and they just launched a gaming accessories line—like the best keyboard, the best mouse, the best whatever—they would be selling hundreds of millions a year if they put their powers together, Captain Planet style.
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Samir Chaudry | I think that goes back to the lack of operators in the space right now. I think it's starting to catch up, but I do believe that there's a lot of short-term revenue to be had, and that's really exciting.
There's quick cash to be made in our space, and I think now it's probably just happening where you're starting to look at these longer-term strategies. Like you said, there are more roadmaps.
Of course, Mister Beast is, in my opinion, singular. You can't replicate him. However, you can look at some of the things he's doing, like Feastables, which is interesting. Or even Logan Paul, who created Prime instead of partnering, which is also interesting.
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Sam Parr | they how's that going | |
Samir Chaudry | Together, I'm not positive. From what they say, it's going well. So, I think that's all we know. I'm not positive. I will say it tastes great. We bought it here, and it's like a fantastic drink. But I have absolutely no idea how the business is going.
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Colin Rosenblum | I would say, too, it seems like he's following the Beats by Dre trajectory of making sure to get it in the hands of celebrities and famous people. With his podcast, anytime he has someone on, they have Prime in their hand or they try it and they like it. It's like...
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Sam Parr | a good strategy when you guys got to how long how long did it take to get to 800,000 | |
Samir Chaudry | I think at least 4 years right carl at least 4 or 5 years | |
Sam Parr | I mean yeah | |
Colin Rosenblum | probably 4 years to get to 200 and then 1 year to get | |
Samir Chaudry | to 200 to 800 yeah | |
Shaan Puri | So, let's take this journey one step at a time. I have a question on this: if we strip away hard work and talent—because let's say those are like core ingredients that you guys have—every journey has inflection points.
These are moments where something just broke your way, or you realized something before others did, or one thing went viral and that kind of helped step you up to another level.
For example, if I go to the channel today, I see that the top video is an interview with Mr. Beast that has 10,000,000 views. I'm like, "How the hell did they get Mr. Beast? That's a big pull!"
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Sam Parr | yeah that was a great interview | |
Shaan Puri | So, what were the things that contributed to your growth besides hard work, consistency, and talent? What made it work? How do you get to a million subscribers and have Mr. Beast do an interview with you guys?
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Samir Chaudry | My first answer is **time and market**. I think we've been in this market for 10 years, and that has introduced us to a lot of people who have created opportunities for us as we started to grow.
For example, Jimmy shot us a message. Jimmy is Mr. Beast. He sent us a message when we made a video a couple of years ago, saying, "That was a cool video." We struck up a relationship and started talking about YouTube because we were both really into it—authentically into it.
That created a situation where, when we got to a point where we had an interview show or talk show, we had a relationship with him such that we could fly out to North Carolina and get access to his new facility. He was excited to be on our platform, and we had that relationship.
I think even when I consider an inflection point for our business, prior to that, we really weren't catching much traction from a sponsorship perspective. However, we had made some connections, and Samsung was looking for creators to partner with on year-long ambassadorship deals. Our names were up there because of the relationships we had created in the market.
So, I would say the fact that we just stuck with it for 10 years has introduced us to people who created opportunities. I would say we are late learners, and figuring out YouTube took a really long time for us. But as we figured it out, we were in a position where we had enough relationships that our first couple of interviews were with creators like Marques Brownlee and Mr. Beast. We were able to have these creators on because we had developed relationships with them prior, which now fit into a format that we had landed on.
Collaboration on YouTube is how you grow. You need to put in time and be present in the market.
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Sam Parr | Time and market is an awesome phrase. I've actually never heard that before. Time and market is a great way to describe things. Typically, Sean and I would just say, "Well, I'm just in the mix," and I would just think, "I've been doing it for a while." But time and market is a far more... like, formulaic approach.
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Shaan Puri | That we can look at and use for investing, right? Like Buffett, I think, said, "Instead of timing the market, what matters is time in the market." It sounds pretty similar to what you guys are talking about.
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Colin Rosenblum | I would add too that it's time in an underserved market. You know, the reason that Jimmy, or Mr. Beast, even reached out to us is because no one was really talking about creators or about the YouTube space for a long time. We continued to talk about it while no one really did. | |
Sam Parr | right | |
Colin Rosenblum | We were giving it the time of day. So, I feel like it's not that we were just in the market; it's that we picked an underserved community. We happen to be that place where creators could turn.
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Shaan Puri | That's so in crypto, that's happening right now. I created this crypto media company not long ago called **The Milk Road**, and it's doing really well. But we're so new, and crypto's now cool, so you don't get credit for being there when it's cool.
There's a show called **Up Only** that's on YouTube, started by this guy **Kobe** and **Leisure** or whatever. They've been doing it for a long time, back when there wasn't a lot of heat in crypto. They were still just every week going on, talking about whatever, shooting the shit, talking about crypto.
So now, when famous people want to go hit the circuit, they're like, "Well, we gotta go there because they have the respect of people." They were hanging out here before the tourists arrived, you know? And you can't beat that.
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Samir Chaudry | No, I agree with that. I think, like, you know, we watched people go from being not interested in what we were doing on YouTube to extremely interested. A lot of those people who are interested in the creator economy, I think, shifted over to Web 3.
So, like, I think you need time in the market. When you're just like, "This is the career we've chosen. We're going to be in this. We enjoy this. This is what we want to do. This is what brings us fulfillment," then, you know, wherever this goes, with the ups and downs of it, we're just here, right?
I think that is an important thing as you're going on your entrepreneurial journey. | |
Sam Parr | So right now, Sean and I have a really great podcast. We're not just a podcast; sometimes we post on YouTube as well. Podcast numbers are our priority, but we've each toyed around with the idea of giving this YouTube thing a try—maybe separately, like in our own niches.
I've thought about it, but I'm not ready to dive in just yet. Whenever I do it, I want to go all in and maybe hire someone to help me.
Can you give me and Sean some advice? Specifically, what are the table stakes to reach 100,000 or 200,000 subscribers within 6 to 12 months? What is the absolute minimum we need to do? And keep in mind, for most people, assume that budget is no big deal; we're willing to spend money.
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Samir Chaudry | So, here's something that I think is really important: you're creating a video podcast. In your mind, the thought is that there's not much marginal cost in posting this video to YouTube. You're already producing a video and audio right now.
There is not marginal production cost; there is marginal distribution cost. You're going to have to spend time thinking about how to distribute this show on YouTube and how that differs from audio.
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Sam Parr | think beyond so think of it's it's like sean does I do something on fitness or anything | |
Shaan Puri | samba sean | |
Sam Parr | has one | |
Samir Chaudry | well sure | |
Sam Parr | sean has one on anything building houses I don't know | |
Samir Chaudry | Yeah, I think you do need to go all in. You need to understand the audience that you're serving. Most importantly, you need to understand packaging and what works on YouTube from a search perspective and what works on YouTube from a click-through rate perspective.
All of YouTube is click-through rates and then retention, right? Tell me, what works? Yeah, what works?
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Sam Parr | No, I mean, you're saying... you're saying, "Understand." What are you getting at?
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Samir Chaudry | what's what's the niche that you would wanna tackle entrepreneurship | |
Sam Parr | Let's say I'm just going to make... let's say I bought a bunch of... I'm buying Airbnbs. Let's just use that for an example.
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Samir Chaudry | Short-term rentals, buying Airbnbs... yeah, short-term rentals.
So, I think you would want to go long from a packaging perspective on basically how to make money through Airbnb rentals. Right?
So maybe you would create a series that's like "From $0 to $1,000,000 in revenue on Airbnb rentals," episode 1.
And I wouldn't title it like that, but, like, Cole, I don't know if you have ideas on titles. I think brainstorming titles would be our first step from an audience perspective because you're trying to transform people to understand how they can do the same thing, correct?
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Sam Parr | yes | |
Samir Chaudry | that would be my assumption yeah so cole I guess let's let's spitball back and forth titles on something like that | |
Sam Parr | well | |
Shaan Puri | Even that first thing you said, that's like a story frame, right? Like, from $0 to $1,000,000 in rental income. You set the stakes already: "I'm a man on this mission."
I think this is not what most people would just naturally think to do. But for you guys, it's like, well, if you have a mission, people are going to want to see if you can do it or not, and how to do it. They might want that too. | |
Colin Rosenblum | Yeah, I think for that example too, people are doing that, and that's not a problem. That actually can be to your advantage.
A lot of times we tell creators, you know, if there's something you want to talk about, search it into YouTube, sort by most viewed, and see what are the videos that are getting a million views. There are definitely videos about, you know, the business of Airbnbs, buying Airbnbs, that have over a million views.
So I think that's a good place to start in your journey: what's currently working? And then, what are those videos about?
I think the key for you would be: how can I actually make sure that when I get this title and thumbnail that's pretty sensational about making a certain amount of money or, you know, converting some house or something like that, how can my video actually meet the expectation of the person who clicks?
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Shaan Puri | you know | |
Colin Rosenblum | That it's not maybe you just sitting down talking about it retroactively. But, you know, maybe it is a video that took you 2 months to make or 3 months. Who knows? You know, but it's gotta match that expectation and be actually impressive. | |
Samir Chaudry | I think probably packaging it around like, "I made $1,000,000 on Airbnb in 30 days." Let's say, let's cut the stakes to 30 days.
Basically, over the next 30 days, you're going to track how you went from not making any money on Airbnb to even learning how to make money on Airbnb.
So I think that's the packaging you'd have to fall into, and then you'd have to meet that expectation. You'd actually have to do that.
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Colin Rosenblum | And then I would think about, like, where are people currently getting Airbnb education outside of YouTube? Are there places that are actually really popular where those communities already hang out?
If you made your video, you could seed it to them, or it would be a success if they started talking about it and sharing it organically. What would that look like?
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Sam Parr | your early team be | |
Colin Rosenblum | where on the internet do they exist | |
Sam Parr | What would your early team be? Would you have just an editor, someone filming you? Would you have a thumbnail maker? What would your skeleton, bare-bones team be?
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Colin Rosenblum | for you I think if if you said that like money is no option right that's that's not really | |
Sam Parr | for sure sake of just for the sake of argument yes | |
Colin Rosenblum | Yeah, I would hire a thumbnail designer who is part YouTube strategist. Most thumbnail designers have a lot of YouTube strategy in them as well because they're so linked. So, I would recommend trying to find someone who really deeply understands packaging and has seen things that work. | |
Samir Chaudry | I'm going to read some titles, and maybe you guys can guess the viewership in this exact category: "How to Make Your First Million on Airbnb."
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Sam Parr | I mean I would think that's over a 1000000 | |
Samir Chaudry | yeah 900 views | |
Shaan Puri | oh 900 | |
Samir Chaudry | You can make **$1,000,000** per year on Airbnb in **2022** with the **U** in all caps.
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Sam Parr | I | |
Shaan Puri | hate that that probably has views I'm gonna say low I'm gonna I'm gonna hope and pray it's low is it low | |
Samir Chaudry | 18,000 k how much money | |
Sam Parr | my airbnb medium I would | |
Samir Chaudry | say it's medium how much money my airbnb made in its 1st month | |
Sam Parr | high that one crushed it that's probably shelby church is that shelby church | |
Samir Chaudry | That's Shelby Church, 235 Lovers. Right? So, I think already through that exercise, you're starting to understand.
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Sam Parr | I watched that video by the way that's how I know was shelby's awesome video I love her | |
Shaan Puri | do you | |
Sam Parr | know who shelby is sean | |
Shaan Puri | no she's the owner of | |
Sam Parr | the ship | |
Samir Chaudry | She's great. Yeah, she's amazing. Shelby Church is amazing.
But I think like, that's where you do that exercise in packaging. Just go through all those and then for the ones that are not working, upgrade the titles yourself.
Be like, "What was wrong with that title? What was wrong with that framing? Did that not match the expectation?"
And then for Shelby, like, what was right about that? That framing is really great. "How much money my Airbnb made in its first month?" Great!
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Sam Parr | Me and Sean talked to this woman named Rebecca. Sean, what was her last name? Rebecca Z. She's got a...
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Shaan Puri | is this zamarolo or something like that | |
Sam Parr | She's got, across all of our things, maybe 10 or 15 million subscribers. She makes content for like 12-year-olds—not like little kids, but 10 to 12-year-olds—where it's like plays and stuff.
I was asking her, and she was like, "Yeah, we got to like a million subscribers pretty quickly, I think within a year or two." I was like, "That's amazing! How'd you do it?" She was explaining it to me, and I was like, "Okay, so basically what you're telling me is that you just quit your job and made this your 9 to 5. You just focused on it."
She was like, "Yeah, no one else treated this like a job. I'm at the office at 9, I'm working until 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 sometimes. But I'm showing up every single day, and I'm just working."
Versus most people, they're just kind of like dicking around, saying, "Oh, I'll get to it when I get to it."
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Samir Chaudry | Yeah, and I think studying as well, like really being a student of the platform. That took 5 minutes to look at some of the top performers in that category and dissect what you thought was good, bad, what worked, and what didn't work. You know, I think you have to do that first. It's like market research.
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Shaan Puri | I can't find this client info | |
Hubspot | Have you heard of HubSpot? HubSpot is a CRM platform. It shares its data across every application, so every team can stay aligned. No out-of-sync spreadsheets or dueling databases. HubSpot: grow better. | |
Shaan Puri | Is there a good tool that shows you search volumes on YouTube?
So, like, you know you can do this with Google search. You can figure out how many people are searching for these keywords. Can you do that within YouTube? Mhmm.
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Samir Chaudry | Yeah, there's a tool called **VidIQ** that you can use. We do it on Google a lot because, again, like Google and YouTube are obviously connected, right? So it's like, what do you... | |
Sam Parr | mean on Google | |
Samir Chaudry | it's people are searching | |
Sam Parr | keyword tracker | |
Samir Chaudry | Google trends | |
Sam Parr | that's all you use yeah yeah we'll use | |
Colin Rosenblum | Google trends to track like okay | |
Sam Parr | is this keyword better | |
Samir Chaudry | than this keyword | |
Sam Parr | or people searching this more than this but you | |
Samir Chaudry | We do use VidIQ sometimes on YouTube specifically.
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Colin Rosenblum | It'll tell you how competitive that keyword is. Is there a lot of search traffic on YouTube for that?
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Samir Chaudry | And it'll also show you the top videos for that keyword. So if you go into VidIQ and you type in "Airbnb," you're going to start to see, like, "Okay, what are the trending videos in this category? What's working? What's not working? What are the thumbnails that are working?" So yeah.
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Shaan Puri | And do you guys like VidIQ? It's a great example. As you try to be successful on YouTube, you're like, "I wish it was easier to do this type of research." Not just to see what's popular, but also how competitive it is. It should quickly show me the top videos in that category, right?
So, VidIQ becomes this piece of software that you guys might pay for. It's useful to you. What are some tools or things you wish existed? I know this is a little bit of a hard question, but... there are, I don't know, hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who listen to this. They will hear that and think, "Oh, I could build that. I could build something like that."
Where you guys aren't going to have the time to build it necessarily, what are some opportunities you see that could serve YouTube creators?
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Samir Chaudry | The two things I wish existed when we first started, and that I still think there are opportunities for, are **LegalZoom for creators** and **TurboTax for creators**. I know those two things exist for entrepreneurs, but something with a more creator lens would be really helpful.
I know there are people starting these now, but I think they would be especially beneficial on the tax side. A lot of creators, because they have this influx of freelancers essentially, are now starting to realize how quickly it goes from, "Okay, I made a little bit of money on YouTube," to, "Wait a second, what do I do now? Now I just made a ton of money on YouTube."
I think some of that support would be really helpful. The back-end business side is what you need the most help with. If you're into it, like if you go 9 to 5 into YouTube, you're going to figure it out. If you're really into it, you're going to figure out your niche, your category, and how to find your audience over time.
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Sam Parr | and market baby | |
Samir Chaudry | Time and market... like you're going to figure it out. You might have to hedge your bets and have another job while you figure it out, or have another source of income. But if you're really into it, you're going to figure it out.
It's the back end of, you know, being younger—like being 21—and all of a sudden landing, figuring it out really quickly, and then being like, "What do I do now?"
So I think some of that business operations and business administration stuff would be really helpful to assist creators in making sure things are clean and growing properly.
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Sam Parr | You were talking about partnering, or like... well, I mean, what you were saying was about operators.
Yeah, creators need more operators. In my head, I'm like, "Oh, that's cool." You just partner with someone like me, who knows how to operate a business. I just partner with someone like you, who's famous, and we do like a 50/50 split. I build a business while you just keep getting famous. I agree that that's a great business model.
But in that example, as well as the example in your guys' partnership, and just like a normal person who just wants to bail... what happens if one of you dies, or you get in a fight, or you want to quit? Is your business just going to die? You know, are you going to be done? Do you think about this?
I know Jenna Marbles, I think, is huge on YouTube. I'm pretty sure she just bounced; she just said, "I'm out." Same with Casey Neistat. He goes, "I don't feel like making videos." So, does your money just go away?
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Samir Chaudry | I think creators are a lot like athletes. The terms "creators" and "athletes" can be thought of in similar ways. If we stop playing, your income from playing is gone.
I think it's about figuring out the businesses that can support you outside of creating videos. The reality is, you can't sell Colin and Samir and expect someone else to operate it. If one of us is gone, this version of Colin and Samir is done. That's the reality.
But the things we build—it's a lot of why we created a newsletter. We thought, "Okay, that follows a similar value proposition." It's similar in creating content. I'd say Sam was inspired by a lot of what you did.
You know, we're educating people about this space. We think we could do it in this way: we can hire writers, we can scale our voice and our thoughts, and if we're gone, that thing can operate. | |
Colin Rosenblum | it's not called the colin and samir newsletter | |
Sam Parr | right | |
Colin Rosenblum | You know, it's called the **Published Press** for a reason. With that goal in mind, it truly can scale beyond us.
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Samir Chaudry | But what we do is unscalable beyond us, and I think we're okay with that. You know, so I think if...
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Colin Rosenblum | If we were to separate in that hypothetical situation, something were to happen, I would hope that, let's say I'm no longer around, Sameer could continue the interview show that we're currently doing and serve the brand partners that we have, if he wanted to do that. | |
Samir Chaudry | that sounds like colin's thought about it yeah that sounds like colin's thought about it yeah that sounds like colin's thought about it yeah | |
Sam Parr | like whereas whereas in the past we have a format for | |
Colin Rosenblum | We had a really high lift format for creation that just wouldn't have worked. If one of us was gone, it wouldn't have worked. But right now, we have an interview show and we have a talk show. Yeah, it wouldn't be the same, but you could carry it on.
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Sam Parr | What creators have surprised you? Have you guys interviewed anyone or come across a channel where you're like, "Dude, this fishing channel that just does fly fishing is making $1,000,000 a month"?
Or has there ever been anything like that? There's a guy I saw who has a channel just on breaking into locks, and it's got like... it's a huge channel. That's another channel where they just smash stuff. It's like a... it's like a press. I forget what you call it.
Yeah, but a hydraulic press. Is there any channel that you’ve come across and you're like, "Man, these guys are killing it, and no one knows about it," or at least the mainstream doesn't know about it?
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Samir Chaudry | Man, I want to pull up the exact name, but it's a barbecue channel. There's a whole barbecue genre on YouTube that's massive. They do huge partnerships with brands that Colin and I would never interact with, right? Like Sweet Baby Ray's or Stubbs.
They're starting to sell their own rubs, like spice rubs, and those are really high margin. That genre, to me, is really interesting. People who are into barbecue are really into barbecue. So, I love that genre. I think there are very good businesses there when it comes to selling spice rubs and barbecue accessories.
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Colin Rosenblum | I guess I'm always amazed by channels like **The Slow Mo Guys**, where there's literally no need for language. It's just the visual of something happening in slow motion.
The viewership is so high because those videos can be watched again and again all over the world, no matter what language you speak. YouTube can place ads globally in every market, and so just the revenue that they get from YouTube, the platform, is out of control.
That, to me, is a fascinating business. It's just, "Let's film something in slow motion and rake in massive advertising dollars."
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Shaan Puri | you you | |
Sam Parr | Guys, wanna hear something messed up? So, there's this channel that I follow, and it has a huge following. No one talks about it because it's really embarrassing.
There's a group of people—I'm one of them—that we like popping zits. But to take it a step further, there's one where people love seeing dandruff come off people's heads. When you have dandruff, you scratch your head and think, "I need to get this out; it's killing me." Sometimes you can't do it, so when I watch other people do it, at least for me, I feel the relief. It feels relieving to see that.
There's this guy, I think it's just called "The Indian Dandruff Barber." He takes guys with dandruff and shaves their heads. You can see it all; you can see his scalp getting cleaned.
I was with my friend Neville recently, and I went to his house. I turned on his YouTube and said, "Hey, let me show you this video; it's hilarious, but don't laugh at me and think I'm a creep." I went to that video, and it was purple. He had already clicked on it, and I was like, "Dude, you fucking guy! You watch this dandruff shit too?"
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Samir Chaudry | and it's there's like | |
Sam Parr | This whole genre of people... If you watch, if you type in like "dandruff removal," there are so many videos of people who just love watching.
Another one is like seeing cysts. You know what a cyst is, right? It's like a lump in the body. I *love* those videos! I love them, dude. I feel like you guys don't watch that. Don't make me feel like a freak.
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Shaan Puri | no no | |
Samir Chaudry | No, I... no, listen. When I come across a good pimple popping video, I'm diving in. I'm not shying away from that.
I've seen the Indian dandruff guy; don't think I haven't seen that. There's also one account that I got really weirdly into, which is "The Folding Lady" on TikTok. She just folds clothes in different ways and organizes them in her drawers. My drawers are a disaster, so for me, it's like this aspirational account that I can watch where she organizes stuff.
Well, there's a lot of weird stuff out there.
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Shaan Puri | And how do you guys look at TikTok? Because TikTok is this like younger, sexier version of YouTube. It's like, you know, you're the 37-year-old actress and now you see this 21-year-old come onto the scene and you're like, "Oh no, what's happening over here?"
What's the perspective on TikTok from your guys' point of view?
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Colin Rosenblum | I see TikTok as a bit of a content accelerator. If you're new to content creation and you want to find out what works faster, then go to TikTok. It has a low barrier to entry for posting. If something doesn't get viewership, no one really sees it; there's not much weight on it because of the For You page, which is like this talent show style format.
It's like, if it's good, it'll find people. If it's not, whatever. It doesn't feel like YouTube. You know, when you start a YouTube channel, it feels like a statement. You're like, "I'm here to make my own version of some big media company." That content is there for all of time. Every time you pivot or make a bad video, it's just sitting there in your library.
Whereas with TikTok, it doesn't carry as much weight. So just move fast, put something out, and I think it's a great place to find an audience. I don't know if it's a great place to monetize that audience, though, I would say.
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Samir Chaudry | I think a big reason for that is because it's the closest thing to a lean-back experience. You just turn it on and see whatever's on the For You page. It's really good at finding content that's good for me. I might not go in there and search for a creator; that's not really a behavior that I think a lot of people do. It's just like, "You feed me whatever's good here."
So, let's say you take out the top creators on TikTok, like the absolute top creators. Our TikTok experience wouldn't change that much; it would still find content that's interesting to us. So, it's actually not a great place for creators. It's a great place for content, but not for creators to build relationships with their fans.
That's why most TikTok creators move to YouTube. On YouTube, they can build longer-lasting relationships and more depth with their audience. They can create a library of content that can cruise viewership over time. If you're serious about your career, I think you'd move to YouTube.
On TikTok, you're there; TikTok is the creator. You're putting content into their system. So, I think that's an important distinction between the two.
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Sam Parr | what so | |
Shaan Puri | It sounds like you guys are not as bullish on TikTok. I've kind of thought about it.
I'll give you an example. I put out a tweet the other day, Sam. I don't know if you saw it, or you did... you did see it. You called the guy an idiot and you were like, "This guy's an idiot. You should hire him."
I put it on his booty like, "Hey, I'm..."
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Sam Parr | hire I | |
Samir Chaudry | just wanna | |
Shaan Puri | hire a great content creator because | |
Colin Rosenblum | are we talking about the milkman | |
Shaan Puri | yeah exactly | |
Colin Rosenblum | yeah okay I saw it | |
Shaan Puri | So, this guy, I tweeted out this thing saying, "I'm hiring a content creator. You just gotta be great at content, and we will help you accelerate here for the Milk Road."
I get this tweet back yesterday that's like, "For those who haven't seen it, it's on my Twitter. You can go find it." But it's this... I don't know, Colin, you tell me. I thought it was amazing, but maybe it's just because it's about our thing. Was it amazing to you guys as it was to me?
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Colin Rosenblum | I think that's an extremely visual, compelling piece of content within a format where I have to watch to the end. You get to see him struggle to try and finish that gallon of...
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Sam Parr | milk | |
Shaan Puri | you just explained that like you're a machine learning thing tagging it like extremely visually compelling | |
Sam Parr | piece of content high | |
Shaan Puri | high engagement to the end like you | |
Colin Rosenblum | know I've seen I've seen too many videos at this. I have to put them into buckets | |
Sam Parr | summarize the video sean | |
Shaan Puri | So, the guy is basically like, "Hey, you know you're hiring. I saw your tweet; you're hiring a content creator." He used our joke from my personal video.
He's like, "So, I've moved straight to the end. Here I am, I've got a gallon of milk. I'm gonna drink this to show my commitment." I don't even know what his premise was, but he's basically going to chug a gallon of milk in order to show how bad he wants this job.
He made a funny TikTok out of it with the editing. He's asking people, "Hey, can you hold this camera? I need to drink this milk." He's in a car mechanic's place, and they're like, "No." So, he puts it on the ground, takes off his shirt, and just starts chugging this milk. It's just awful.
Then, he has little cuts in between where he's like, "Why couldn't they have called it the juice road?" because he's having to drink milk. You know, just little funny bits like that.
Whatever, he finishes it, celebrates, and pours the milk all over his head at the end. He's like, "Whatever." He sends it over, so I hired him.
I tweeted out, "This is amazing, you're hired!" I just talked to him on the phone before this, and he's like, "Alright, what's the game plan?" I was like, "Well, I think the first thing we gotta do is pick the channel we want to be on because I think the platform will dictate what content works on that platform."
I have a buddy, Steve Bartlett, who says this: "You need to hack the algorithm. You need to understand what the algorithm wants, and then you have to be able to serve it to them if you want to grow faster than normal."
So, we were debating, "Should we start on YouTube or should we start on TikTok?" In my head, I'm like, "I use both; I love both products." But TikTok does definitely feel like a... I don't know, it just feels like the growing wave compared to where YouTube is.
So, I'm like, "I guess if you're starting fresh, you would just start on the platform that's more of a growing wave and try to make it happen over there."
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Sam Parr | it seems | |
Shaan Puri | A lot of people are downside is even if we get viral growth from it, those people may never see us or hear from us again because it's just the way that TikTok works. So that's why I was like, "I don't know, I'm not sure about this bet here." Which one should we go for? Your guys' perspective sounds like it would lean more towards YouTube, is that right?
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Samir Chaudry | Well, I actually say the opposite. Yeah, I would say the opposite. Go ahead, Cole.
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Colin Rosenblum | Yeah, I was gonna say I don't think you have to pick and choose necessarily. Because let's say you're going to commit to short-form vertical content, which obviously you would put on TikTok.
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Shaan Puri | right | |
Sam Parr | shorts | |
Colin Rosenblum | you could post that | |
Sam Parr | yes | |
Colin Rosenblum | You could post the same thing on YouTube Shorts as well as on Reels. Maybe keep that up for a certain amount of time and see what takes off.
You may find yourself in a situation where YouTube Shorts takes off, and all of a sudden, people are subscribing to your YouTube channel for Shorts. Then, if you wanted to transition to a long-form video, you have a home for it.
That's a place where you could build a deeper connection. On TikTok, you don't really have that option right now.
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Samir Chaudry | A long-form YouTube video, I would say, has the highest barrier to entry when it comes to content.
I think short-form vertical videos have a lower barrier to entry—not the lowest, though. A tweet is probably the lowest barrier to entry.
With video content, you want to take more shots to figure out your format and style. It might take 100 videos to determine what actually works. Or maybe you figured it out, and this guy just has to chug milk every day until you guys get enough users.
But I think that's what it is: format development. You need a lot of shots on goal to... to... can I...
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Shaan Puri | tell you my my first assignment I gave him | |
Samir Chaudry | yeah sure | |
Shaan Puri | I was like, "Alright, here's the first thing: a man-on-the-street style interview." You know, where you go—like you've seen this on late night shows—where you just stop somebody in Times Square and you're like, "Hey, do you know about this?" Then they give you some goofy answer, and you cut them together.
I said, "Go outside of a strip club and ask strippers if we're in a recession." Ask strippers how the economy is going. Basically, that's what he's going to do. He's going to go man-on-the-street outside of a strip club, and then when the strippers come out, he's going to ask them, "How's the economy doing?" Because they are on the front lines; they feel it first. You know, they see what the cash flow is like.
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Sam Parr | from all the from all the drunk hedge fund guys | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, they get all the scoop and they see the tips on how they're changing cash, you know, in real time. So that's going to be the first piece of content. | |
Samir Chaudry | Sure, yeah. I mean, I think that can work. I think that's a very specific audience, and it'll work for that audience, right? So, yeah.
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Sam Parr | Dude, what happened? So, I was going to make a point. Our podcast gets 1 to 2 million downloads a month. Compared to a website that gets 10 million, I think we have a bigger... well, we don't have a bigger audience, but we have a far more loyal following.
People listen to us for an hour at a time, while on YouTube, they watch for 10, 20, or 30 minutes at a time. I would have thought that you guys had around 1 to 2 million downloads or views a month.
I'm looking at your stats on Social Blade, and you were at like 1 million a month every month—800,000, 400,000, 500,000—and then all of a sudden, you got to like 27, 28, 42 million a month. What the hell happened? Is that from Shorts?
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Samir Chaudry | That's a lot from shorts, but shorts propelled the other content. Basically, the way we view shorts is that a lot of people had a problem with the idea that "oh, you can't monetize shorts." I was like, but if I told you, as any business, that I had a way that was lower lift to get you in front of way more people to get your brand exposure to millions of people, wouldn't you take it?
That's what we did. Right when shorts kind of emerged, we were like, "Okay, we can make a short in a day," whereas it takes us a week to two weeks to make a full long-form YouTube video. We can make a short in a day, so let's just try it. As we started to try it, we had shorts that pushed 10 million views, 20 million views, 7 million views, 8 million views, and those people were subscribing.
Then there was concern: "Are those people going to watch the other content?" But because the shorts were directly connected to the longer-form content, we were just aggregating more people who then watched our library of content. So it worked for us.
That has fluctuated too. I think we're back to around 9 to 10 million views a month on the channel. Shorts are not as big of a factor; we're not putting out as many shorts, but a lot more people are watching our library now.
That is what YouTube is about: you're building a library of content. Our MrBeast interview, for example, you mentioned it; it's pushing 11 million views right now, but in the first month, it did 1 million views. So, you look at it now, it'll be a year in September, and it'll probably have 12 to 13 million views.
It's about building a piece of content that can be viewed over the next year, two years, or five years. When you do that, it does have this compounding effect, especially when shorts are added to the equation as an accelerant.
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Sam Parr | We had a short video go viral recently. It's Sean explaining who one of the Ball brothers is. I don't pay attention to any of that, any sports. I just randomly clicked on the comments, and they're all like, "These fucking guys are idiots! He doesn't know anything about LaVar Ball." I forget who it is, Sean, but it's the guy who...
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Shaan Puri | talked about yeah | |
Samir Chaudry | yeah | |
Sam Parr | Yeah, and you're like explaining this as people are just ripping us off with the short comments. Or maybe that's...
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Colin Rosenblum | just true you went viral really | |
Samir Chaudry | yeah | |
Colin Rosenblum | Yeah, whenever any of our videos hit that mass scale, that's when the comments sort of turn. It's just... it's kind of a good sign in a way. It's just what happens. | |
Shaan Puri | Yeah, there's one. So, we did this clip contest for the podcast. We were like, "Hey, we'll take any of our content. You own a channel, so you can make your own TikTok channel or your own Shorts channel and cut these clips." Basically, we just want our clips out there.
We're kind of doing it differently than most. You guys want to build your specific channels. We're like, "You can call your thing 'My First Million Clips' or whatever and go ham with the content. You own that; we just want distribution."
We give out a prize for whoever does the best job each month of cutting it. People have had success with this. The first winner had a few million views on their TikTok channel, and we paid them the $5,000 prize for our thing. They've actually turned that into a business for other podcasts, and that business will do like $1,000,000 in revenue this year.
This is a pretty young kid. Then, just yesterday, somebody said, "Oh, here's the clip that's gotten 1,200,000 views." It's this clip from an interview we did with this guy, Neil Patel. He's talking about how he spends like $180 a month; that's his monthly lifestyle burn rate.
The title of it is, "Billionaire Explains How He Spends $180 a Month." The guy's not a billionaire, but it doesn't matter. The kid who's running this channel is probably like, "Fuck it, that's gotta be better."
Then the top comments are like, "Oh, that's Neil Patel; he's not a billionaire." And then this guy's egging it on, he's like...
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Shaan Puri | That's his only response. Instead of being like, "Oh yeah, sorry, that's a mistake," someone else says, "Who is this guy?"
He just wrote, "He writes the founder of Google?" Then there are a hundred comments saying, "That's not the founder of Google." I was like, who is this genius that's hacking the engagement by putting dumb comments as the creator just to get people riled up?
So that this, you know, the algorithm sees that this video has a ton of engagement on it.
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Samir Chaudry | I mean, we've played around with that a bit. That's definitely something that creators do. We've misspelled words sometimes in our subtitles.
Right, we had a short where we interviewed the Chief Business Officer of YouTube, Robert Kinsell. The short begins with, "We interviewed the..." We wanted to say, "We interviewed the head of business at YouTube," but instead, we said, "We interviewed the head of YouTube at business," and just kept moving on.
People rewatched it so many times to be like, "Wait, what did they say?" So, I think there's a lot of fun ways to play with that and engage with the audience.
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Shaan Puri | And you know, we would never do that. Sam and I would not do that. But this person who's doing this has nothing to lose. So they're, of course, going to crank the dial up to level 12 of spamminess because they're like, "Who cares? It's not my brand; it's not my content."
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Samir Chaudry | Why not? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think like your Drake and steak short, like that piece, there's definitely a short there, right? That was really fascinating. You could tell that in a really concise, you know, like one clip. That was really interesting what you guys talked about, and I think that was one of your better thumbnails too.
I would say that came across my recommendations. But the challenge there is that your timestamp at 1:24, I think anyone's expectation might be like, "Wait, is that 1:24 on Drake and steak?" There might be an opportunity to just say, "Hey, can we just clip out the part that was about that?" Then, you know, lead people to watch the full thing or listen to the full thing on audio feeds.
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Sam Parr | I think the guys who edit the podcast also edit the YouTube. So, hey guys, you hear that? Do it, please!
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Samir Chaudry | I think that's your opportunity. It's like, "Hey, it's actually 8 minutes on the Drake steak situation," right? And that was your best thumbnail. I think that caught my attention and made me curious. So, yeah.
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Sam Parr | Well, dudes, thanks for coming on. This is sick! I've been listening to you or watching you guys for a while. It's really awesome that you came on and that you knew about the pod. That was really cool, and we appreciate it. This is great!
Of course, yeah, thank me and Sean. We both run or ran newsletter companies, so you've been helpful with us for new videos. If you ever want to shoot the shit about newsletters, we got you.
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Colin Rosenblum | man that'd be awesome | |
Samir Chaudry | Absolutely! Yeah, definitely. We definitely want to learn. So, yeah, right on, guys. Cool.
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