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Last week I dropped my first six YouTube videos. Actually, they were posted for me and I just got to watch them go live. Along with their partner blog posts.

If you listened to my episode about taking a break from Instagram for 6 to 8 weeks, that was in large part due to drafting 17 YouTube videos, scripts, and actually taking seven days to film all of that continent with my friend, old boss, and videographer Paige Major from Paige Major Creative. 

Today I want to take you through the production, and behind the scenes of what all went into, my YouTube approach, and why I am taking the approach that I am. As well as tools that we used, and cost of production. 

I don’t feel like people talk about these things transparently. Especially on YouTube. So allow me to be that person for you. Note that this is just my own approach and experience. I will make clear that though I’m entering YouTube as an amateur on that particular platform, I am not an amateur in my field, nor am I an amateur at creating content.

Let’s talk YouTube Debut

Back in the beginning of 2021 I was continuing my Facebook ads journey that ended in a loss of $80,000. A loss I was willing to endure, but that certainly left a bad taste in my mouth when it came to investments and the direction that I wanted to take my business from a growth standpoint. 

But I knew that something had to be done. And I was clear on the fact that whatever money I invested next was going to be in order to get me in front of an organic audience. So I would pay for that service, but not actually do paid advertising if that makes sense. I was still going to have to pay probably the same amount to get me in front of more of the right people, but again not through paid advertising.

I learned through my own Facebook and experience that I really do think my style is best received over a long period of time. Building trust, and having a buying cycle of about 3 to 12 months, regardless of my program or course. 

So I committed to playing the long game. And either hiring a PR agency to get me on podcasts and things of that sort. Or to venture into YouTube to tap into a new market. 

After interviewing and meeting with a very specific PR agency, it was a hard no for me and the appeal of YouTube and having control over my organic contact just seemed more and more appealing. I enjoy teaching long form anyway. It’s actually something I struggle to cut down for Instagram. And Instagram is actually one of the reasons that I also went with YouTube.

I want to start off with some background education. Instagram is a social platform. YouTube is a search based platform. Meaning that the lifespan of content can be years or even decades now. You type in some thing in the search bar and the most popular videos pop up. That video can be seven years old, and often is seven years old, depending on the topic of the content. If that video is properly formatted, ideally that lead someone back to their channel to binge more information, or helpful links are in the description that take them back to the website, or affiliate links that they’re making money off of so on and so forth.

On the flipside of that, Instagram content dies after 24 hours for the most part. There are absolutely pros to this, and that if something doesn’t do well, you can totally reformat it and repost it to see if it does better. It’s not a total loss. That obviously doesn’t work the same on YouTube. And there is much more effort that goes into creating YouTube content, and formatting that YouTube content from the description to the tags to the keywords, etc. So there is absolutely more effort required and more risk involved with youtube. Which is why I still would not suggested for someone who is just starting out I do not think that it is the best use of your time when running a business.

I know that sounds kind of contradictory, because I do think that YouTube is king when it comes to content, but I still think Instagram is the best platform to build and run a profitable business from. You’re in front of your audience daily they’re getting to see the behind-the-scenes, like you more, trust you more, and will likely pay you money quicker. 

On YouTube, you have the benefit of someone sitting down and watching one of your videos for 10 minutes. Versus on Instagram where someone would have to watch how many videos in order to consume 10 minutes of education from you. It can happen, but it’s likely less common than it is on YouTube. And I only bring that up because there is a correlation, and how much contact someone has consumed from you, and how quickly they purchase from you. 

Now, I decided to get on YouTube because it’s some thing I’ve been contemplating for probably at least 18 months now. And there was never going to be a perfect time. I’m postpartum, and I definitely want to have more kids. So I figured let’s just jump in because I know that YouTube is going to be a 2 to 5 your game plan. 

My videographer happens to offer YouTube services. And I decided to hire her for strategy and being my full-time YouTube and media manager. 

This is where I need you to keep in mind that you do not have to wait until you can outsource all of this to be on YouTube. You can absolutely lower the barrier to entry, and start with just an iPhone, and a good mic. With a little to no editing. There is still value in that approach.

I could’ve taken that approach as well, but I do want to position myself on YouTube, as an expert, and as someone who is not an amateur. I have an established brand, and I have expectations for not only the contents in my content, but also the production of that. So remember that context. 

YouTube rewards frequency.

It is similar to Instagram in that way. So we started with a minimum of one video per week for now. And may go up to two videos per week if it’s going well and I have that capacity. 

I am paying Paige to fly up here stay with me film 16 videos at a time, she is doing all of the editing, all of the formatting, all of the closed captions, all of the descriptions for the videos, all of the tags, all of the keywords, she is writing the blog that goes with the YouTube video for SEO on my website, and she is providing me with two reels per YouTube video. So for me, that would be two reels provided per week that I do not have to create. Now I am paying her close to $4,500 a month to do that.

I want to encourage you that if you don’t have $4,500 a month to outsource in some thing that we will not bring you a direct return on investment, to think about pieces of content that you can outsource. Can you hire someone to just take clips from longer form video. Can you hire someone or even use AI to do close captioning for you? Or you hire someone to just format blogs for you? I have no idea what you are doing in the way of content but if you heard everything I just said about Paige and you thought oh my gosh I want that, is there a baby step that you can take that will get you closer to that?

The last part was what I mentioned earlier, about Instagram. YouTube is a part of my Instagram strategy. Just the fact that I am going to have two reels per week provided for me, edited, with captions, is worth doing YouTube alone. That means I only have to create two more Instagram posts per week and they will likely be a simple real with video and text overlay, not face to camera, or swipe graphics, because I enjoy making them, and they perform well. I think that they are still one of the best forms of contact to consume as a consumer. Especially from an educational standpoint. 

One of the other selling points about YouTube for me is the control, and that I get to create what I want to. I am a creator at heart. Even more than a coach or an educator. I enjoy the vision piece, but also educating how I enjoy educating. And I do think that that is the reason that people end up purchasing from me. The fact that they learned from me on camera, and trust me from doing so.

It also feels like my efforts are worth it when the content lives forever.

Which also makes me create it from an evergreen standpoint. 

Of course, the content is aligned with launches at first, but also works from a sense of the fact that it will be available forever. 

In terms of how I wanted to establish myself, I will be educating on program, design, training, and fitness, and entrepreneurship for online health and fitness coaches. There will be overlap for the treaty and the trainer as usual. When Paige and I did market research, we found that most content in these rooms is either from men, or on the fitness side half naked women just taking you through their work out. Much more of a Vlog style. I want to be a disruptor. I want people to see my face pop up and be like what does this lady in a sweatsuit have to say about training splits and work out frequency.

That is not to throw shade on anything that already exists out there. It is just to objectively share what we found, and how I want to position myself in a new market. 

We shall see overtime yes, I have potential clientele there. I certainly think so. Especially because YouTube and Google share an algorithm. Which means that even if coaches aren’t searching for this information directly on YouTube, if they’re searching on Google, ideally, my YouTube content will pop up and so will the associated blog with that video. That is the current strategy.

I think the best time to enter YouTube was 5 to 7 years ago, and I think that now is the second best time. You don’t have to have a full production team, but I do think that YouTube is somewhere that effort and value may be more rewarded than Social platforms. This is not me telling you that you need to be on YouTube. Simply sharing the behind-the-scenes of my own strategy and approach, and why I am venturing there after establishing myself on Instagram for the past six or seven years.

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