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If you’re growing your YouTube Channel to grow your business, THIS is the episode for you. Tara Simon has 800,000 subscribers and in this episode, we talk about how she got there and how she now brings 90% of her business in through her YouTube Channel. Enjoy the episode!
Check out Tera’s channel at @Tara Simon Studios.
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if you are growing your youtube channel
to also grow your business this is the
episode for you i want to introduce you
to a creator named tara simon she has a
youtube channel called tara simon
studios where she has over 800 000
subscribers and we want to talk about a
couple things one how did she grow her
channel what were the the behind the
scenes tips tricks tactics that she
implemented to grow a successful youtube
channel but also she gets about 90 of
her students in her brick and mortar
vocal performance studio they are coming
to her because they found her on youtube
so she’s using her youtube channel to
also grow her brick and mortar business
a lot of the principles we’re going to
talk about here today not only applied
to growing a youtube channel but they
applied to growing a business as well so
i’m excited to dive into that with you
here today
welcome to the video creators podcast we
help youtube creators grow their
audience and business with next level
tactics and strategies want to
accelerate your channel’s momentum be
more profitable and change the lives of
more people than ever before you’re in
the right place the video creators team
has over a decade of experience
providing youtube strategy for brands
like disney warner brothers hbo and even
youtube themselves so far our team is
responsible for helping clients generate
over 17 billion views on youtube and now
to help you here’s tim lennon and elena
hello creators how are you guys it’s
great to hang out with you for another
video creators podcast episode like we
do here every monday just to help you
grow both your youtube channel and the
business that you’re growing around that
channel so you can reach more people
with your content change their lives of
the business that you’re growing and
have it change your life in the process
and today we’re going to talk with tara
simon now this episode is going to be a
little different than most episodes that
you hear from us we’ve got certain
segments and things that we do this is
just a really good conversation and
we’re just going to dive right into it
here delana and i were both at social
media marketing world and um met uh
terra while we’re out there she’s been a
client of ours here for a while at video
creators but we got to meet her in
person while we were at this event and
uh delena one of the other youtube
strategists on my team the two of us sat
down with her and like hey just reveal
the secrets what happened how did you do
it and so we’re gonna have a little bit
of different format we’re just gonna
dive right into it and i’ll be back at
the end to share some additional
thoughts kind of reacting to some of the
things that tara shares here
tara hi what’s up good to see you later
hello we don’t get to see each other
delaney we don’t see each other very
often this is kind of weird sometimes it
feels like we’re living in the metaverse
i know except for like the graphics are
amazing in real life it’s like real
people
in real touch too without the weird
finger gloves i know it’s weird but hi
how are you over there i’m good i would
do it great yeah i finally got some good
sleep last night i had only slept like
five hours in the past two nights before
like combined
yeah so i finally got some sleep last
night i feel great today how could you
guys do it i did not sleep though oh but
it’s okay we’re on the social media
marketing world and uh west coast and
coming out here from east coast throws
me off a bit i still woke up at my
normal time which was four a.m local
that’s your
oh local seven o’clock east coast yeah
so
wow i’m doing good but
i want to introduce you guys to tara she
is one of our action plan clients
working with ingrid one of us one of the
strategists on our team and i just want
to hear a little bit about your story
because you’ve had some good success
both in your personal career as well as
in your youtube channel endeavors um
close to 800 000 subs now right
getting close getting close so tell us a
little bit about your backstory first of
all then let’s talk about the channel so
okay career fair who is who are you who
the heck am i i don’t even know these
days so um i’ve been singing since i was
three
and um
and that’s just been always i knew the
first time i set foot on a stage that my
life was going to be involved in music i
knew that i was going to
use my voice to influence others in a
positive way and i’ve always considered
myself throughout my career whenever i
was doing more or less a musicianary
combining you know mattering and
influence and impact with music
musicians musicianary i love that i have
a couple of did you make that one up i
did oh it’s good i love that it’s good
my main word is auto magically
but people like wait apparently it’s
become a thing that’s that’s yeah that’s
like a whole thing in like the
operations industry where it’s like
exciting it’s auto magic yeah
i
we should write a song with all of those
like hybrid words combined yeah that
would be a really the entire song yes
hybrid world
later in the podcast stick around
watch the whole thing i’m hooked yes i
just came out really
we’re probably the worst youtube viewers
ever because we know all the tricks
exactly yeah well i know and i now know
because of you and video creators i knew
nothing before that guys
she didn’t she knew something but anyway
so you’re a musician yes i mean he’s a
musician and um and so fast forward in
my career so i’ve done broadway i’ve
been on television i was blessed to have
a lot of doors open for me um that i’ve
always just really had the courage and
the discernment to walk through and i’ve
never really
minded i’ve questioned but i’ve never
really minded when one’s shut either and
i think that’s a big deal because i
think a lot of people especially those
who are high performing individuals who
are career and
goal
oriented and driven they feel like if
the thing that they were going for isn’t
working then they’re failing and they
need to keep pushing towards that thing
and there’s a difference between trying
and striving
and and i have always kind of known the
difference luckily and and
the difference is when doors shut more
than once in the same area and you start
to get a bruise right here
it’s time to turn around and watch it
it’s called persistence that’s a lesson
that i feel like i just learned over the
past
year or so that i was like i was
pursuing something and i just like kept
going after it and it was like
everything that i did like nothing
worked until i came to this point where
i was like
i think that this kind of gave me what
it needed to and it’s just time for me
to walk away and
and that was a really hard lesson to
learn but like one of the most valuable
so valuable yeah i’ll give you an actual
tangible example just to kind of bring
it home because you still seem confused
over there
that’s not
anything different
no surprises this is my usual statement
i believe in that too and that’s
actually another secret sauce item we’ll
get to but so here’s an example so i
grew up singing right and everywhere i
would go to sing right i mean i sang for
donald trump i’ve sang for dignitaries
i’ve sang i found myself in lots of
interesting circles um and i believe
that’s favor right but when i’m there
you know you’re you’re singing at these
places right and the the
no-brainer
actionable thing next step after you
sing is when someone comes up to you
they’re like you’re amazing i love the
way you sing would you like to sing for
my event or this next thing but that
wouldn’t happen what would happen is
someone like you know
donald trump’s secretary would come up
to me and be like
i’ve never heard you sing here before we
love your voice you know i have a
daughter and she loves and i’m like oh
my god here we go again and it would
always be i have a grandson i have a
daughter i would love to learn to sing
like you and it would tick me off
it would grind my gears
it would make no because at the time i
was running from being a coach i did not
want to do that but it kept
the door kept opening and opening and i
would kick it shut like no no no i am a
grammy award-winning artist someday i i
me me no no i’m meant to perform
and
fast-forward into my career i was on a
missions trip in africa and i sang for
this ocean of people it was not
rehearsed by the way but because of my
classical training i’m able to sing in
any language authentically in that
dialect and there was a song even
without knowing the language without
knowing the language oh wow and i’ll
prove it to you so the song i still
remember the day you can’t verify if
you’re actually singing in a different
language whoever speaks times like i
remember from zambia listening to this i
don’t know there’s a song that i learned
and it
goes and that’s just the first line of
it but i remembered the whole thing
these kids taught me the dance to it and
i ended up singing that in front of this
ocean of people at this huge crusade and
when i after i was singing
i heard this this phrase come into my
mind and it said right idea wrong image
and for weeks i didn’t know what that
meant it was confused
wrong image
when i came back to the states i was
auditioning for broadway i had done i
just gotten off of broadway’s show
actually fame and i went on this mission
trip and so this whole like transition i
was in the middle of
being up for the lead in trace uh in
hairspray tracy and hairspray or fiddler
on the roof and i was in the middle of
all these callbacks and i just wasn’t in
it like my heart wasn’t in anymore and
that phrase kept coming back in my mind
and i was like what is that and one day
i realized what it was and it was this i
had the right idea yes i was gonna use
my voice but i had the wrong image of
what it was going to look like
career-wise
and when i realized that that’s when i
remembered
that my true sweet spot was always when
i was using my voice to impact one
single person at a time like reach into
you personally show you that you matter
through music and that you have a voice
and it deserves to be heard to turn your
voice on through you hearing mind you’re
like i wanna help you spread your
message reach more people and change
lives yes oh that sounds familiar one
person at a time one person and not like
the autographed signing and not the
masses i mean that was cool but that
really it left me feeling left of center
of my sweet spot and my purpose
so
i stopped doing broadway i went back to
school for worship leading actually at
the time
and all this time by the way people are
still asking me like do you teach i i
would have an artist’s website up and
people would email me asking for lessons
that i didn’t even speak of on the site
and it would make me so mad
would you consider yourself a teacher
before this or not no i never went to
school for vocal pedagogy
never music education it was always
vocal that’s my major vocal performance
but okay so that’s the story of why when
when you feel like you’re persisting
and yet the doors keep opening for
something but closing for something else
like that’s the example because all my
life there was a through line of this
door that i kept trying to kick shut and
another door that i kept trying to kick
opened
and when when when i sat and was honest
with myself about it i knew i just
wasn’t ready to accept that yet i
totally you know what i mean yes i’m
like tracking with you 100 i’m like
screaming in the inside because i’m like
yes yeah
yeah so for those of you who are
listening i i want to encourage you
anyone who’s an earshot of my voice
if you’re finding that you’re feeling
this like oh this grind on the inside
and you’re doing everything you possibly
can in your power and i do mean persist
like don’t give up but if you feel that
and you’re doing everything in your
power and still
a door seems to be shut but something
else maybe that you don’t even really
have a heart for yet is opening i
encourage you to walk through it if you
don’t have the heart for it regardless
because i walked through the door of
coaching but then god gave me the heart
for it after you know it’s it’s like
trusting in the promised door kicking
and sometimes i feel like you don’t know
that you have the heart for it because
you have like tunnel vision on this one
thing and so it’s not until you actually
let yourself go there that you’re like
oh my gosh i actually do love this you
know yes yeah 100
and and there is a story and a kid
actually i was
i was teaching in my home thinking how
i’m wasting my time in my life and i
should be on a stage somewhere
and
there was this little boy with down
syndrome who came to me and he didn’t
even sing he was a piano player but he
was a prodigy piano player and his name
was peter rose and peter i will i will
say is
the person that god used to change my
heart towards coaching but not only that
through that through peter and my
experience with him
um the studio was born like that’s when
my heart became in line with my calling
and through that the floodgates of
blessing just opened i didn’t advertise
i don’t know where these people came
from it was word of mouth
and
that little boy is is who god used to
change my heart and and turn my life
so that i could also change other
people’s so now you have a brick and
mortar studio in orlando area
atlanta atlanta orlando disney
whatever yeah yeah different states
whatever
yeah in atlanta where you are
teaching and training well you and your
team not just you but yeah yeah i know
we have multiple coaches we coach all of
them because of youtube so i mean four
years ago it’s crazy i mean this is how
impactful youtube is and why what you’re
doing is so important because four years
ago zero percent of my business came
from youtube and now fast forward to
today not even quite four years ago but
coming on to four years ago like 92
percent
of my business comes from youtube good
thing you got on youtube then yes it is
yeah speaking of that well i remember
when you first applied for the action
plan to work with work with us um
there’s a lady on her on my team named
molly and she’s uh action plan
administrator so your application comes
in and she dm’s me on slack she’s like
that’s my interpretation of what it
would sound like if it wasn’t on slack
and uh she’s like i’m so excited like
this lady tara simon just applied it’s
like i went to and learned vocal lessons
at her studio when i was a girl oh
little girl you know and i was like
oh cool who’s tara i don’t know
and um so she so then we had a
conversation then after that the
one-on-one consultation and uh and
molly’s like how’d it go did you you
know because she knew who you were and
she used she was coached by one of the
other people on your team yeah so yes
and the coaching worked really well for
her she went on and performed for disney
for a number of sea world and disney for
a number of years before she came and
worked uh worked with us here at video
creators but it’s so cool how that kind
of stuff comes full circle and i did get
to talk to molly and she’s so sweet and
i remembered now who she was with and
and coach ansley who’s no longer with me
anymore but is a wonderful coach and
human being um i remember her talking
about molly because i i’m very in touch
with all the students like i may not
coach them personally but the coaches
are basically me with a different face
and i am very involved in in their
growth and i hear from them in our
status meetings i want to know how each
student is doing and i remember her
talking about molly yeah and you’ve had
other students not just molly went to
disney and sea world but that students
have gone to america’s got talent yeah
american idol yes and the voice yeah and
a lot of those yeah that’s kind of
because i was on x factor like years ago
and i had a factor terrible not fear
factor not the snakes and warnings oh
you’re right i was thinking fear factor
everybody
yeah no x factor is a vocal competition
with simon cowell and i would have done
better on that one to be honest i would
have enjoyed it more it was not a
positive experience for me however
because it wasn’t i was then able to
take
those lemons and make lemonade for my my
artists so if you wanna i became kind of
known for the person who
if you want to be on one of those shows
you come to me i help you navigate
through the audition process when you
get on the show i help you navigate
through the show and get you off when
it’s time to get off because the
contracts get worse with each round so
there’s a there’s a strategy to it if
you want to leverage the show for your
own benefit because they’re not thinking
of your benefit they’re thinking about
their benefit yeah and the show right so
i kind of help the artists leverage that
hd footage and that opportunity for
themselves and to not have it just be
their five seconds of fame so how did
the youtube channel become a part of all
this
okay so
it’s
i mean i wish that it was like a this is
what i did in a lab as a mad scientist
youtube celebrity person but what i i
was filming actually i hired a
videographer and i was filming
59 second or less tips and tricks on
and vocal coaching yeah like i was
trying to grow it was my first very
first attempt
at um trying to
grow any kind of like digital presence
online because remember before this it
was strictly favor
and like some seo
and like more
back ends of not not me in front of a
camera like trying to grow a social
media presence
so this is my first attempt and i
thought okay let’s just see what happens
and at the end of one of the shoots i
think it was like my second week trying
nothing was happening by the way it was
on instagram yeah it wasn’t getting any
traction no
i mean i look back on those reasons like
there wasn’t even any good lighting like
it was so bad
you know i forgot the microphones it was
all silent for a focal thing
legitimately i don’t even think there
was an external mic i think it was the
video camera mic but anyway it starts at
zero yeah never despise humble
beginnings either
so i’m a nothing burger is happening
with the instagram thing but my
videographer at the time said okay so
we’ve got like i don’t know 20 minutes
extra do you want to film something long
format
for youtube maybe and i was like sure
what and he was like well why don’t you
like react to something and i’m like
what the heck is that
i mean i don’t i didn’t watch youtube i
don’t watch tv i don’t i’m too busy so
like he’s like well you know how you
react to people singing in your voice
lessons he’s like just do that only with
like celebrity videos singers and i’m
like i can do that i mean i do that
every day yeah that’s kind of dumb
that’s kind of dumb though yeah i was
like who who’s gonna watch that was like
it’s kind of dumb and i said that out
loud and he was like i mean i don’t know
let’s just try so i don’t i think it was
like to a tory kelly video first youtube
perfect literally he was he was so we
recorded the first video and it was so
natural for me because it true i mean i
had been literally rehearsing for this
moment my entire coaching career
and not knowing it and that’s how cool
god works right but i
i did this and and it got all these
views and
again the doors things were talking like
a couple hundred you’re talking about a
couple thousand no like thousands and
thousands and i i went from like like
zero subscribers to
hundreds and hundreds and then thousands
like i was growing at about 2 000
subscribers a day
at first who did you react to remember
that i think the first one was tori
kelly or vodka it was it was one of
those two i believe or and then kelly
clarkson i was those three were like and
again there was no strategy
at all i’m sorry to say
i think i think we were just googling
like there was a strategy you just
didn’t know what it was it’s true it’s
true and i think i think the sauce was
me using my expertise to break down i
don’t think it mattered what artists i
think it was a matter of first it was
timing there weren’t a lot of other
vocal coach reactors i think i was one
of four at the time right so timing
plays a big role which is to me also
favor right and then and then it was my
knowledge like i’m one of the only vocal
coach reactors who actually takes the
time to not only pedagogically explain
the vocal technique behind what they’re
doing but i can actually i can sing so i
can also imitate and show them not just
on the camera of like this is this
person doing it but i as a real person
that’s talking to you on the camera can
do it too and say oh you see what
they’re doing here like this and i do it
and so i think from for my channel
that’s really what i’m i’m a singer’s
channel i’m a singer’s girl so like that
differentiates me from someone who says
oh wow look at their hair i’ll comment
on that too but sometimes that’s sort of
all you get it’s more of a reaction and
not as much
educational commentary yeah so delana
from from a strategy perspective uh we
have a few clients that have done
reactions you’ve worked with uh dr
anthony hoon who does a lot of react
stuff as well yeah what is it about the
react thing that works well and are
there any principles there that should
everyone just start reacting like should
there be a reaction video to this
podcast
it’s it’s all just going to become
reaction inception you know exactly
that’s also ancestral and what’s what is
it that she stumbled upon um i think
with reaction content there’s like this
natural tension in the brain where it’s
like i know that you have knowledge that
i don’t have and so whenever you
put something else in front of it where
like you know what’s going on here but i
don’t know what’s going on here then
there’s like this natural tension that
i’m like automatically i’m locked in and
i’m like what does this person have to
say like what what does what are what’s
the inside scoop
that i don’t that i don’t know what are
they picking up on that i don’t and um
or i can’t because i don’t have that
knowledge and so there’s like this
natural storytelling kind of tension
that’s going on just from the nature of
the content and that’s why reaction
content is becoming so popular because
it feels like you’re getting like this
inside scoop
and you’re also learning something in a
very entertainment style you know what
i’m saying and so um i think reaction
actually is a great way to just kind of
like jump into
a storytelling more entertainment style
of content um without like actually
having to have all of those skills you
know what i’m saying like it’s it’s a
great i’m it’s so cool that that’s how
you started because i say like that’s a
really great beginner strategy is just
kind of like oh just like jump into
doing some reaction content if you’re
wrapping your head around storytelling
and you’re not quite there yet um i
don’t think that everybody needs to do
it because i don’t think it fits
everyone’s content um but i that’s
that’s my take on it yeah it’s
connecting what’s known to unknown so
like that too yeah you’re like oh i
don’t know who tara simon is but i know
who this tory kelly exactly yeah yep so
but now i’m curious because you’re
exerting some sort of authority in the
title like
voice expert or coach or whatever reacts
to whatever and then you’re like oh what
are they going to say right about this
person that i love watching or something
yeah and so it’s like that tension is
what creates the click and so it’s a
good format that you can use at the
beginning uh like like dr anthony that
you work with i think he started in the
action plan he had a quarter million
subscribers and within three months he
took six years to get there
four months he had a million right yeah
whenever he did a consultation with you
it was around quarter whenever he
started the action plan he was a little
over three hundred thousand okay so yeah
so the consultation gave him a little
boost and then yes
yeah um and then we also did josh
goldstein oh yeah uh the immigration
lawyer he
kind of reacted to the election was
going on at the time and so he reacted
to like plenty of fodder
well
as he does yes
without getting into politics he did
he did a reaction to like what
immigration would look like with each
president and that like boosted him
significantly he went from only like 2
000 subscribers to 30 000 subscribers in
just like a month and a half but it’s
the same principle like intrigue
authority curiosity
and uh i remember i think of first video
when we did our first consultation tara
i think the first video i started um you
do disturbed
gosh yes that was that’s my most viewed
reaction because i had the most amount
of tension i’m like
wait dude is that called singing
does that make sense yeah i like
disturbed you know i’ve listened to them
for a while but you know i remember
they’re i’m like that’s interesting
that’s not what i would put like a
a
professionally trained person so anyway
i had a lot of tension on that one i’m
like oh so i uh attention in terms of
curiosity and clicked on that one first
yeah so that was how you first stumbled
into it got some momentum going um is
that what you did all to carry you all
the way to 800k subs or something else
so
no i would say that that’s probably the
the biggest
factor of growth for sure i started off
doing just like one reaction a week but
then you know i’m a scope creep girl you
know so like i would lay in bed at night
like picking my fingers and thinking of
things that are against my will and like
one of the things i would think of
was a series called sing better in
seconds where i i have this mission to
prove that like you’re not just born as
a singer yes you you certain people are
born with different amounts of talent
but like every the voice is a muscle
everybody can learn how to sing
and a clinical fact by the way fun fact
is that only three to five percent of
the entire world’s population is
actually physiologically tone deaf like
there’s a disconnect in the brain i have
coached thousands of people and i’ve
never met one who’s clinically tone deaf
yet
so if that’s the case then you can learn
how to sing you can i can teach you
right because
i’m just that good
right exactly
so i i came up with different series and
one of them was seeing better in seconds
where i go to random places and talk to
strangers and convince them that i can
teach them to sing better in seconds so
that was a series of curious curiosity
sparking type of thing but also
inspiring because if you see that and
you’re like whoa she really did then it
gives you hope too and you’re like i
really do want to learn how to sing and
if this shmo off the street can learn
maybe i can too sings yes i do whenever
i was going to mention that earlier
whenever you’re talking about being a
worship leader i was also a worship
leader at my church yeah well not the
church i go to now but the church i used
to go to i worship blood too yeah wow
it’s so funny that like
i it’s actually funny to me that
the most of the people i know now don’t
know me as a singer and that’s how i
used to be known like like we totally
didn’t look for it
yeah i should have pegged it actually
i missed it i missed it so there’s the
vocal element then there’s the physical
yeah apparently
yes
some people do do that though they like
look at you and you’re like do i look
like a singer you are you look like a
singer yes yes
but i chalked it up to you know the
whole video thing you know because
you’re edgy and cute thank you yeah
but yeah no i mean i did different
series and that also grew it as well but
i would say that the reactions
were
if at least at the very least a very
good top of funnel for sure so what you
could have done which is what you didn’t
do um what most people would have done
um except for you had that really wise
uh videographer who told you to do the
reaction yes most people be like i’m
gonna go on youtube and i’m gonna teach
people step one step two step three yeah
and it’s gonna be titled
three steps to apothecological
um and
like whatever and it would have gotten
like 22 views right right um because one
there’s no curiosity there’s no tension
involved there’s all education and what
a lot of experts um
tend to do is they just go on youtube
and like i’m going to show people how
smart i am yes and it’s just like people
aren’t really engaged with that they’re
like okay you’re smart
it’s good for you right but what you’re
doing instead is like i’m going to teach
people about about vocal singing
performance pedagogy did i get it right
pedagogy you were so much closer i don’t
know what that word means but i’m using
it now i don’t know either actually and
uh that’s just a term but so they’re
learning but in a way that’s
entertaining yeah the way that’s
sparking curiosity and so if if you i
know a lot of you guys who listen and
watch the stuff from us are are
educators your coaches your experts
you have a lot of knowledge in your
field
and the default thing is like let me
just go teach people and our our mostly
western approach to education is
you all sit and listen to something
boring while someone up from front gives
you facts you’re supposed to memorize
that yeah but it’s not what we were
actually no one volunteers at unless
there’s a piece of paper at the end we
need after four years and a hundred
thousand dollars later so it’s or
they’re signing up for a course what we
mostly want is for someone to like i
want to learn like people really want
this information
but they want it in a way that’s like
stimulating and engaging and not just
like
0.1.2.3 right so i think it’s really
important something to learn from tara
for you guys who are growing educational
channels is get out of the educational
like
cycle that we’re used to in terms of
like listicles and bullet points and and
tutorials and
you spark curiosity and then there is
like a little bit of a story with it
because they’re getting to know you and
your personality through it as well as
your back story and and then that starts
to create some uh connection as well and
uh so encourage you guys to think
through like yes how can i just not
teach but actually make this engaging
and i think what i’d like to hear if you
have any thoughts on this delano because
i think what a lot of people do is
when they hear me say something like
that they think
all right i need to like
put on a clown outfit and dance around
well i give three bullet points you know
we’re like no that’s not it either yeah
so what comes time for you delena for
helping that type of person make
engaging educational content well i do
want to say this first um i i tell
educators all the time i’m like if you
are on social media you are an
entertainer first like first and
foremost you are an educator but you’re
an entertainer first because people
aren’t going to watch you if they aren’t
entertained and stimulated to your point
um
but i think that
nowadays there either has to well there
has to be a story of some sort it could
just be um you know you telling your own
personal story but
um also just showing a transformation
have you ever like in your content kind
of shown like oh start here and then
end up here type of thing
yeah that’s that’s part of the whole
grab of seeing better in seconds yeah is
that in in a chorus they sing it i give
them a few tips and tricks and then they
sing it again and the audience decides
that they sang better in seconds yes and
and they really nine times out of ten do
right right then and they’re on a street
somewhere yeah so yes they you have to
see the results in order to be inspired
to think that they could too yeah yeah
so that’s a super i mean there’s so many
creators who are like oh you start here
but we’re gonna bring you all the way
over here you know um and if you can
demonstrate it in a very practical way
the way that you do then that
automatically creates tension in the
brain automatically brings a little bit
of that entertainment value because
people are like oh i can relate to that
that’s where i am that’s exactly where i
am right now yeah i want to be over
there you know so they get like locked
in if i could summarize what they’re
saying in one word it would be
entertaining i was waiting i love that
yes
it’s my other cool word
is that is that
is that what we’re waiting for yes oh i
love it enter training came to me but so
entertaining you want me to spell it or
anything no it can be no can we steal
can we you may borrow borrow okay you
may borrow
credit if i can use auto magical then
you can use enter training all right
i’ll trade for it all right
we’ll do it like this okay you guys saw
it on camera yes
but if you could make so so you talk
about growth right and and look my
i was making seven videos a week for
about a year and a half running multiple
businesses as a single mom and i was an
ostrich i had no idea who other
youtubers were i had no idea what
anybody else was doing because i was
like in the content creation trenches
and i thought that like if i just kept
doing that that i would still see the
growth but i was not i was working way
harder and not smarter
and that’s why i entered tim and his
team
and like my whole
like
life creed of video creation was
completely turned on its head and i
learned so many things that i was guilty
of doing that i thought were good for me
like i thought were good for my channel
and
now i started to ask myself like what is
a blue ocean for me and and my question
became
because there’s so many reactors now
it’s like saturated it’s a red ocean
ocean being like
open opportunity where there’s not a lot
of sharks swimming and just kind of
feasting on with them yes so in my case
vocal reactions are a red ocean there’s
blood in all of the water everybody and
their mother says oh i’m a vocal coach
now on youtube even though they’re not
so vet them hello but like like if
someone can’t sing don’t take lessons we
can relate to that so much
yeah i’m sure a lot of people think
they’re youtube experts too
pain point i know it’s really holding
this word for you that will not be
reproducible for anybody else yeah and
then and then they gotta learn the hard
way because they’re trusting that i know
it’s annoying and then and then you have
to prove your credibility because they
had a bad i get it all i had to do would
be like so how’d that work out for you
and my credibility’s established there’s
like not so well i’m like yeah okay
let’s try this
i’m just going to use that next time
that’s way quicker so anyway i i went
into this question of what does no one
else that does what i do on youtube have
the guts or the talent to do preferably
both it’s amazing
and and so i started to think of videos
under that premise first like what does
no one else have the guts or talent to
do
well i’m gonna make videos like that yes
because i was the first person for
instance to do tick-tock reactions a
week later everyone else was doing them
why you’re a trendsetter that’s all
there is to it but but it’s easy to
duplicate that and it doesn’t matter if
you’re a trendsetter by the way it is i
mean that’s nice thank you but like i
wasn’t after a week because anybody else
can pick up a mic and a camera and do
that
so if you’re looking to grow your
channel and you’re kind of stagnant you
have to ask yourself what in your
industry is something that no one else
has the guts or the talent to do
preferably both
if you can answer that question with
content i promise you you’re going to
then uptick your growth again we should
maybe do that as a series elena where in
our on our channel where because one of
the things we say in the action plan our
guarantee is if you follow this process
and the end of three months you don’t
hit your goal that you’ve set for it we
will just work with you for free until
you do so cool we’ve never had to
deliver on that because either they one
don’t do what we say and then we’re off
the hook or two they do it and they
reach their goal so that could be a fun
series of like you know it was too late
to start with her but like with someone
else that’s just starting be like all
right we’re gonna do this the whole
video series this is your goal here we
go and then yeah the whole process of
what they did for the three oh that
would be so cool that would that’s great
so well the strategist have to work
through with them for free we’re not
that’s that’s actually really good
stakes
because a lot of people teach youtube
stuff but the thing is different humbly
about us is that
we actually do it all day every day with
with people and if it doesn’t work we’ll
go out of business you know as opposed
to just selling an online course where
it doesn’t really need to work it can
just be good information that someone’s
like feels good about their transaction
but does it actually i think it kind of
birthed out of us
feeling frustrated like
with
you know other educators that are you
know as tim said like oh well how’s that
working out for you you know um and so
we were like well we’re not worried
about the results that we’re gonna get
them so we’re just like let’s just tell
them this you know
and and let’s just promise them because
we’re confident but anyways um
there was something else i was going to
say but i lost my train of thoughts
under promising and over delivering is
something i do in my company and i
operate
and i say this out loud it’s not a pride
thing it’s a true thing i operate at a
very high level of integrity and that’s
something that i think if you’re trying
to start a business or a channel or
whatever it’s something that’s not done
a lot and if you simply under promise
and over deliver with integrity you’ve
already separated yourself against like
nine tenths of the people out there it’s
amazing to me like good business just
means serving your customers yes with
integrity that’s what we’ve come to
these days is just just deliver what you
promised yeah that’s what i was going to
say was to your point of um when you
were like what you know what can i do
that people
aren’t willing to do basically like like
uh that’s something that i actually
started telling creators as well
whenever like they want to take their
channel to the next level um if they
give me pushback on a lot of things that
i bring to them to try
um and and i will do all kinds of
different stuff you know because we want
to help the creator reach their goals
but if there’s a lot of pushback then
there does come a point where it’s like
if you’re not willing to do it somebody
else is
and so we have to be willing to go there
especially in this day and age of social
media when there is just going to
continue to be more and more saturation
it’s not going to go down it’s going to
continue to go up and so um what we have
to do to break outside uh or to be on
top requires more uh willingness
essentially and i you don’t know i’m
about to say this and i’ll probably
embarrass you maybe i won’t but like
what separates the wheat from the tears
i believe that what separates the wheat
from the tears is what we said
previously but when i look for someone
to work with because i’ve only recently
started to again outreach outside of my
little hole
and and look for people to come
alongside me and and
pour into me
and when i
when i met with you
first of all i didn’t even know that
what you did existed so i was like well
this is interesting but like let me see
if he’s going to sell me some snake oil
right because
how can you like that’s like he promises
a lot you know
and i
just recently learned about the back end
of youtube so i’m thinking what does all
this analytics he speaks of anyway and
all this change but when i met with you
i knew first of all i knew
like sentence two that you were a man of
integrity and i knew that you were a
believer what did i say i’m curious it
wasn’t what you said it was how you said
it and i saw in your eyes like i knew
and and because of that
the way that you the way that you talked
you were so genuine and so authentic
i knew that
regardless of of all the things that you
had yet to tell me about what you served
and how you served i knew that i wanted
what you had to offer
because
i saw in you the same spirit that i
operate my business in
leader to leader business owner business
owner and i’m like i i want to be in
your sphere i want to be in your space
because
i admire you and i see you like i see
what you’re doing because i’m doing that
and my side so
like it’s hard to find people who are
the real deal it really is and
he i mean if someone were saying this to
me right now i’d be squirming in my seat
so i’m gonna let him squirm a little bit
but it really is but but tim and his
team like every person that i met in his
team they all echo the same
servant leadership spirit that that tim
has and the culture that you’ve created
is is really extraordinary and i love
seeing that in other companies
because sometimes it’s a little lonely
on a certain mountaintop you know and i
just i just love that no matter what you
do the place that you do it from is is
so high in integrity and excellence that
i know no matter what
service you provide or new thing you add
it’s gonna have that same spirit
attached to it and to me that’s the
secret sauce of everything can we talk
about how the whole time you’re saying
this there’s like this beam of light on
tim
yeah in our company we call it people
first it’s like you know and i remember
our first call it was like i could i
could just have this sense of like she
looks like she’s panting and she or you
weren’t but i felt like
you weren’t but i was really sick like
you were like yeah you’re sick and
you’re rushing you’re trying to get
stuff done you’re like i just made it
here you know what type of yeah feeling
and i was like okay just like
how are you doing yes yeah what’s going
on and i think we spent a couple minutes
just talking about you know like you got
a lot of family life yeah
you know yeah and then we got into the
youtube stuff but yes thank you i
appreciate that it’s the truth it’s not
it’s just i’m not blowing anything up
your skirt it’s just the truth yeah
thank you yeah and people need to know
because you know it’s easy to watch
podcasts like this and listen to to
content ingest it however you can when
you consume it and think like this is
what it looks like here but
but
i know
i can speak for myself and for tim and
now that i know delana like how what you
see right here is exactly how we are in
a conversation in the halls at a
conference like this or at home like
what you see is truly what you get
that’s not always the case i’ve been in
in environments like this where it’s
like okay and the cameras are on yes and
then i’m at every person when it’s off
but that is truly not what it is and i
think in business that’s important to be
able to discern like the people that you
surround yourself with
part of
the culture and the brand and the
authenticity that you’re looking to
cultivate and grow within yourself and
within the the people that you influence
on youtube and in your business whatever
field you’re in you know
so it’s important cool well thank you
anything else about growing your channel
to 800k that you got to share with
people
the biggest thing that i can tell you
is is twofold pay attention to the doors
that open and close and walk through the
ones that are open and
leave the ones that are closed
with gratitude and not longing but and
no regret just walking through the ones
that are opening for you and the second
aside from doing what works is
it’s good to be consistent it’s good to
grind and have your head down but the
the biggest takeaway i’ve learned in the
last two years is you can get so far on
your own
and and it’s decently far you know on my
own however i i believe that this next
chapter in my youtube career is going to
be an even bigger and greater day and
it’s going to involve many more people
around me i believe that you know you
need a village to raise a kid and you
need a village to have a youtube channel
let’s go yeah that’s true yeah it’ll be
fun we’re excited we’re rooting for you
thank you i know ingrid really likes
working with you and always a positive
thing to say and she’s wonderful you
guys all are thank you yeah love working
with you
i love how tara wrapped up that
conversation it takes a village to grow
a youtube channel i remember back in
2013 i read an article by a guy named
hank green and if you’re not familiar
with hank he’s one of the co-founders of
the vlogbrothers channel also one of the
co-founders of a massive industry event
now called vidcon and uh has been very
influential person in in the online
creator economy and this whole space and
everything and when he wrote this
article
what mal almost 10 years ago now nine
years ago he said that the whole title
was like you can’t make it alone on
youtube anymore you need a team and when
i read that article i was like yes
i would love to have a team i’d love to
have people supporting me and giving me
feedback and people i can bounce ideas
off of and everything so
it is absolutely true we need a village
i have it here at video creators
tara knows how important that is for her
and her channel and that is one of the
the secrets to her success both in her
business life as well as her youtube
life and and how those two lives have
kind of merged together in into into one
life so if you would love to discuss
your channel with someone i think you
guys can see where this is going right
we would love to talk with you go to
videocreators.comconsulting
and me or someone on my team we would
love to have the opportunity to take a
to look at your channel ahead of time
look at the notes you’re sending us and
come prepared to a one hour private
conversation with you to give you next
steps or you can ask questions and
bounce things off of us and get
get ideas and get feedback and help you
get the exact steps that you need to
take next in order to really grow your
channel and take it to the next level so
go to videocreators.com
consulting you can see available
availability on my calendar or on one of
the other people’s on my team right
there book it schedule it and we’ll come
we’ll show up prepared ready to dive
into your content so love to talk with
you and hopefully give you a little bit
of a village around your content for a
little bit here uh so we’re looking
forward to doing that and of course if
you want to keep working with us after
that we could talk about that too kind
of like we’ve been doing this with tara
but uh we just want to first like give
you an hour right and like because we
find a lot of people get everything they
need just in one hour and so that’s what
we want to start doing that with you
check it out link to that down in the
show notes as well as to tara’s channel
and everything else we’ve mentioned here
so go check it out and thank you guys
for hanging out we’ll see you guys again
next week for another video creators
podcast episode see you guys then bye
