222: YouTube Is Overcrowded… THIS Is How You Grow Your Channel!

Hey, before we jump into the show, I wanted to give you a heads up that my free YouTube strategy class is available right now on demand at thinkmasterclass.com. On the class, I reveal the one YouTube strategy. We use it think media to generate over 330,000 views every single day. So if you're new to YouTube, this will help you start right and avoid mistakes. And if you're a YouTube pro, this training will help you multiply your growth. This class is 100% free and you can watch it now on demand at thinkmasterclass.com. Now, let's jump into today's show. You might go, my channel is for everybody. That's a losing statement. Your channel is not for everybody. It shouldn't be. There's no way with 2.6 billion monthly active users on YouTube. You try and reach everybody and upreaching nobody. Narrow down your channel focus and therefore break through to views, growth, subscribers. While there's a lot of generic information out there or generically position content, there's not as much specific content that's specifically positioned. So how do you stand out on YouTube this year? With rising competition, it feels like there's massive saturation on YouTube. So is it still possible to get noticed? Is it still possible to start from scratch and grow? Well, in this video, I'm going to be talking about 13 different ways to stand out. This is information that a lot of people won't tell you and a lot of people don't know. The problem is 99% of creators are actually approaching YouTube wrong. And by the end of this Think Media podcast, I'm convinced you're going to have lots of insights and unlocks about how you could narrow down your channel focus and therefore break through to views, growth, subscribers and all of the goals that you ultimately have when it comes to YouTube. And today's episode is brought to you by findyourtopic.com. We actually have a brand new free class that is all about helping you go from confusion to clarity with your YouTube channel topic. And you can always check that out in the show notes and I'll tell you a little bit more about that later. But let's dive into these 13 different ways to stand out. Now, this is all about essentially niching down, but it's not what you think because maybe you've heard niche down before and I think that people have misdefined what that even means. Now, if you haven't heard the word niche before, niche is probably how you're supposed to say it in America. People say niche. There's the phrase the riches are in the niches when it comes to building an online business or a YouTube channel. But this is almost like 13 different ways to niche down, niche down, which is essentially focus your channel topic. And here's number one, you can niche down by problem. This is a way to get more narrow on your channel. And so we always ask on Think Media Podcast what problem does your YouTube channel solve? So maybe you share social media and video marketing tips. That's helping people solve a problem to learn that. Maybe you're getting people the news in under 10 minutes per day and you do it five days a week. Their problem is they want information. They want the news, but they want it in a short time. Maybe you're helping people become a pro esports gamer or how do you lose weight or how do you get someone to say yes to a date? Okay, there's problem, but problems not enough. And it honestly, even though video marketing tips is specific, it's really not that specific. So what else could we do? Well, number two, you can niche down by industry. You could niche down by my channel is about real estate. And imagine if you combine one and two, imagine if you did social media and video marketing tips for real estate agents. All the sudden, we're only too deep. And we are getting fierce clarity on how you could stand out, be different and find your unique voice on YouTube and a massive opportunity. Sean, how do I compete with think media sharing video marketing tips? You niche down by problem and by industry. So video marketing tips for real estate agents. Now, of course, lots of real estate agents watch think media media and listen to our podcast. But because of the positioning we have on YouTube, ultimately, you would be much more of a meaningful specific if you devoted your channel to just real estate agents, their pain points, understanding their problems and helping them with video marketing to get leads and customers, et cetera. Now, you may already be wondering, is it possible to niche down too far? I think it is. It also, if you end up having too small of a market or too small of an audience, then then you want a second guest. But I just want you to have these 13 different ways of thinking because they can help you figure out maybe the next evolution of your channel. And here's another level. There's not just what industry can you niche down in. But what is the industry within the industry? There's an event in Las Vegas every year called the consumer electronic show at its peak. I think over 200,000 people physically fly into Las Vegas to go to the Las Vegas Convention Center across multiple massive halls, hall A, hall B, hall D, to look at TVs, smart cars, to look at 3D printers, cameras, gaming, smartphone, smartphone cases, speakers. It's crazy. When you think about how big consumer electronics, electronics tech is, it's absolutely massive. So then when you start thinking about like, oh, you know, I want to, what industry are you starting your YouTube channel about? Oh, it's all about tech. Here's a challenge. There's like probably 18 layers deep. You could go into tech. For example, one of the things that I think has been helpful for Think Media being what it is today is that the vision of our main channel, Think Media, is bringing you the best tips and tools for building your influence with online video. And really, the big focus has been the tools piece. What tools? That's kind of a funny word because, you know, you might think of hammers and screwdrivers, but we talk about tools as in cameras, microphones, lighting, software, or the tools for specifically creating content. So that's like a niche within a niche within a niche. That is the industry within the industry. And if you go to CES, the consumer electronics show, there's, there's aspects of the show makes me think of one of our video record Academy students, Techno Dad. He has a home theater and home audio channel. So he's a tech YouTuber. I'm a tech YouTuber, but we're entirely different. Why? Because we're teaching and doing product reviews. That's the problem. In different industries or rather industries within a bigger industry, technology, but he's doing home audio, subwoofers, speakers, TVs, headphones. And there's other channels that, like, just do audio file equipment. He doesn't even really take it that far. It's something I've been getting into lately, like amps, DAX, who ultimately cares? The punchline is, what is the industry? Number two, what's the industry within the industry? Can you be more of a meaningful specific instead of a wandering generality by niching down a little bit? And then one of the questions I ask myself is, is tools for creators still a large enough market to have a substantial impact according to the vision that I have for our company and for our family? And also, for just putting the pieces together, and this might sound like this was all just one big strategy, which I think developing the skill of strategic thinking is one of the most important things. How can you outwork the competition, outstratigize the competition, outlast the competition, outstratigize is a big key. But it's also, you know, I just started volunteering at my church and the youth pastor handed me a video camera and I started doing video. So I leaned into the intersection of my passion, but also I'm thoughtful about, okay, what's the market size? And also, how can we stand out on this and be more specific? So those are some of the thinking that you want to have when you layer these on. Number three, experience level, beginners, middle, or advanced beginners, intermediate, advanced. If you're wanting to stand out, and it feels like there's too much competition, another level would be this YouTube channel is for beginners. Another level would be this is for more advanced content creators. You know, we had Alex Hermozzi speak at our event, and we had Layla Hermozzi on the podcast a while back. Now Layla Hermozzi is the, I think they're coast CEOs, but she really operates as like an operator of acquisition.com. And she has expressed that like her passion is advanced business operations. One of the cool things about her channel that I love is it's like really not for everybody. It is actually, it's for you when you've reached a certain level of pain, a certain level of a problem of like, man, how do I grow from 10 employees to 20 employees? How do I break through the $5 million a year barrier or whatever? It's very specific problem. And so I would argue the experience level that she is helping with is maybe intermediate to even advanced compared to 99% of the information that's on YouTube. I would also argue that while I do believe her channel will grow large, it probably won't grow as large as beginner advice or people that just want to start. That self-awareness is a superpower. It's also just about doing what she truly loves best, knows best, and has unique skill set to do. Like her and Alex can help people, I think acquisition.com helps people that are 5,000 plus a year trying to break through 10 go to like 20, 30, 40 a year. It's actually a group that's bigger than you think, but it's also radically smaller than people trying to build six figure online businesses. Punchline is experience level. So this advice and these 13 ways to stand out is also incredibly invaluable for just starting a business in general. If you are actually thinking bigger than just a YouTube channel and thinking I want to start a business, I want to eventually maybe create a product or do a service. Is your product for beginners or is it for people intermediate or is it for advanced? Is your book for is your course for is your agency for people at a particular level? It's another layer of distinction. Is your stuff just for first timers entry level positions? Even again, is it for intermediates? Is it, you know, lately I've been buying books because I'm a small town kid college dropout. What the heck do I know about being a CEO of a company? So I've been buying books on being a CEO. I bet those books don't sell as much as the alchemist by Paul Aqualo, not only because that's a classic book, but also because it's not for the masses. It's for a particular skill set. So CEO secrets video podcast. It's a cool name if anyone wants to design that. It doesn't exist is like a very meaningful specific and you start saying, Oh, it's too saturated on YouTube. Is it or have you just not really thought through your strategy at a deep enough level and perhaps positioned yourself to really narrow your problem, define the industry, figure out the experience level. And number four is your content for B2B or B2C. So your content could be for business to business. Your content could be to B2C. And again, you might say Sean, like some of this doesn't apply to me because I'm an entertainment channel or something else. I want to encourage you. Listen to the entire episode because it's so expand your thinking and you might not be even as business minded. I know most of our community is. But nevertheless, you don't have to even use all 13 of these. You could just pick three or four and we're going to get into ones that for sure apply to everybody. These are just different lenses and vantage points that you can use to really define clarity when it comes to your channel. So B2B business to business, you're helping other businesses. You know, we're kind of B2B, I think media, especially as we define, we help service, we help founders and entrepreneurs, small business owners, learn video marketing. You could argue consumers start businesses because you may just be, how do I start a YouTube business? And so we also recommend business, SaaS products or whatever. So understanding where you fit in the market, consumer might be, again, that end consumer on an entertainment channel. That's B2C. You're like consumers, they want to watch comedy or it could be B2C in the sense that they don't want to actually start a business, but they are still interested in products of some kind or learning about something. Here's a couple of different interesting things. Let's just use real estate, for example. Real estate buyers are massively different than real estate investors, which are also different than agents. I would argue that that's maybe three different YouTube channels. One of the questions I'll get a lot in sometimes like our video record academy group, but somebody will say like, okay, I do have advice for real estate agents, but I'm also an active agent and I'm helping buyers. Do I just put it all in the same channel and put it in a different playlist? And my answer is no, absolutely not. Like B2B and B2C is radically different. So people that are looking for a house, like I think about Levi Lassick from Livin and Dallas. He has multiple channels. Why? Because his Livin and Dallas channel is for people moving to Dallas or wanting to sell their house or buy their house or figure out what neighborhood, so their consumers wanting to purchase a home, or sell a home, and that's one side of things. Agents want to learn how to be an agent, and investors want a whole other set of skills. They probably follow my friend Ryan Panita and they're trying to figure out how to flip or how to wholesale. And there's 12, 13, 14, 15 different niches within real estate, wholesaling, flipping the other ones, you know, multifamily. And so single family, mobile homes, like there's all these niches within the niches. So, are you B2B or B2C? And is your YouTube channel positioned to help agents or investors or buyers, and how could that apply to you? Number five, gender. Is your channel for a particular gender? What's interesting right is the famous YouTube quote now, which is important to say would be, if you try and reach everybody, end up reaching nobody. You might go, well, my channel's for everybody, that's a losing statement. Your channel's not for everybody. It shouldn't be. There's no way with 2.6 billion monthly active users on YouTube, not even Mr. Beast, not even PewDiePie, not even Coco Mellon, not even T-Series, is even close to reaching all of YouTube. With 2.6 billion monthly active users and the largest channel being right around 200 million, which I think is a kids channel, or it might be T-Series or Coco Mellon or whatever, like we're not even close. So, so nobody's going to reach everybody on YouTube. And the reason gender can be so powerful is you might think about, well, mainly I serve women, like my content is mainly. Now, what ends up happening and this is some of the fears people have is they go, man, if I go this narrow, it's going to hurt me. It's actually a myth. It's probably going to help you if I go this narrow because technically men would benefit from my content, but like my content is mainly for women. I don't know if I want a narrow too much. I don't know. You still might get, not only still might, you probably will get viewers outside of your core focus, but the key is that you've taken the time to clarify to niche down your channel because that's where the breakthrough happens and that's why YouTube is not saturated because while there's a lot of generic information out there or generically positioned content, there's not as much specific content that's specifically positioned and powerfully positioned and clearly positioned on YouTube. So then number six, you could do age and generation. So imagine if your YouTube channel and your vision of your YouTube business was, I help millennial single moms earn extra income through free Lansing. So now you're like, we've hit gender, women, season of life, moms, millennial, age, problem solved, earn extra income, industry of how to earn extra income would be free Lansing. And you just layered all those things together. I help baby boomers learn social media. So all the problem, how do you do social media? Oh, there's too many social media teachers out there. Is there? Is there how many people are really specifically helping baby boomers with empathy for their learning style, the style of content, how it's presented? Wow. Now there's a whole other opportunity. Now it might not be your skill set because you're like, I don't know if I can teach baby boomers. I don't know if I understand. And so you again have to put this through the framework of your experience, your background, your vision. But number seven is geography. Now we're just, we're only halfway through. Like we've got more layers. And already, if you even did a couple of these, you're going to give yourself an advantage and an edge over the competition. But there's more layers. And this again is a huge key between why some small businesses fail and some succeed. Because if you try to go international from the start, that might be too broad, even national. So what if you focus on a specific area? So I mentioned Levi Lassick from living in Dallas, he's crushing his, by the way, crushing his channel is not even close to 100,000 subscribers. So this also dispills the myth that you need a million subscribers in a goal play button and 10 million views. But what's fascinating is Levi and we're going to have him on the podcast. He did. I think there is a livestream on the Think Media podcast channel that we do with him. But we're going to have him on the proper podcast one of these days after six months of doing YouTube, organically only, no paid ads and no other form of advertising. He generated zero real estate transactions. But over the next 12 months, him and his partner Travis, which they just co-built this YouTube channel, they did almost 90 million dollars in real estate transactions, which with a 3% real estate commission with the actual numbers was around like 2.7 or 2.8 million dollars collected in real estate commissions in a 12 month period. To be clear, it was 18 months total. So of investing in YouTube, and I want to say they were under 5,000 subscribers when they hit that, I think they're under 20,000 subscribers right now. Here's the point, the business vehicle, the methodology of making money, the style of content, and the specificity of geography. There's so many, there's so many people in the creator economy who won't make 2.8 million dollars, probably in their career. And not because it's not possible for them. It's because they're ignoring episodes like this. It's not because it's not within their ability or in their even skill set potentially, but it is because there's a Bible verse that says my people perish for a lack of knowledge. It is a lack of knowledge and a lack of discipline for not niching down, figuring out the business model, and then ultimately positioning yourself potentially related to geography. Now, your objection might be, well, Sean, I mean, YouTube, it isn't though really a geography-based platform. People can watch not just nationwide, but globally. And I agree, for most of us, we're not going to niched down by geography. However, in a crowded YouTube world, it could be one of the super keys. This video was brought to you by StreamYard. StreamYard is our go-to platform for streaming to YouTube and Facebook with an incredibly easy to use interface for built-in branding, transitions, text lower thirds, and seamlessly bringing on guests. It really is one of the best options when it comes to live streaming. And what's so cool is they've implemented a brand new feature called local recording. Take control of your audio and video with local recordings by separating out your audio and video from your guests. This feature gives you the control over your content for later use, making it perfect for podcasts and video creators. Just go to StreamWithThink.com to get started now. Because this actually is a part, if you're not subscribed, subscribe to the Think Media podcast. We're going to be doing like a strategy series, these strategy conversations. Like what you do when it feels like there's Goliath all around and you're wondering how to be David and kill Goliath. Geography could be one of the keys. How about some summers in Alaska? It's a vlog channel 243,000 subscribers and million views per month. Interesting because it's not just vlogging, but Alaska is a fascinating place. Alaska is part of the positioning of their channel. The niche of their channel is interesting because it's not just a same old vlog, there's something unique about it. You ever heard of humans in New York? I don't know if they're really significant on YouTube, but I'm just using them as a geography example. Obviously, New York is interesting. There's a lot of reasons why Casey Neistat has been successful, but one of the things I don't think people realize is yes, the storytelling, yes, the editing, but his geography itself is super fascinating. He's boosted boarding through the streets of New York, flying drones there, probably illegally. Of course, the edits. Of course, he's super interesting, but crazy office, his office is creative. The actual geography of his office, how interesting his offices, like the location is a distinction. The office is a character. New York is a, like it is part of the brand and part of the story. You got to play the hand your dealt because you might be sitting here and be like, but I live in a small town and it sucks and it's not as cool as New York. Yeah, like welcome. That's where I grew up too. So don't try to be Casey Neistat. Try to be you. Try to be you times two. Try to be me times three. Just kidding, stupid. So humans in New York the latest stories featuring interviews with thousands of people in New York City and was a photography project. That's a geography branding. A lot of photographers want to get noticed. A lot of Instagram accounts wanted to blow up. Humans in New York brought storytelling to a particular geography. So remember are getting news under 10 minutes problem. So what's the problem? I need my news in under 10 minutes. Hmm, global. It's a little too broad. So what if it was local? So what if it was getting the daily news in another 10 minutes for Australia? Hmm, not bad. But what if it was Sydney, Australia? All right, probably better. And is that a big enough market? Well, I think around five million people or more live in Sydney last time I checked. So pretty good. And all the setting are like, all right, great. I do a news channel, helpful edits, consolidate, like the real that one of the biggest content creation opportunities for the future future is being a consolidator, being a DJ, being somebody that takes just the overwhelming amount of content that's coming out, the overwhelming amount of news, stories and contextualizing and synthesizing, synthesizers own the future. Those who know how to synthesize a lot of information and make it easy and digestible for others, it's one of the most powerful skill sets. So all that to say is I'm sure there's probably already some competition in that space. But if you're like, that's it. I love the news. I live in Sydney. I would love to do a news channel. There's three different channels I want to start, but like that sounds rad and probably better than all of Australia. I'm going to do like Sydney news in under 10 minutes. And it's and you've now really found a big opportunity. So before we get into number eight, you know, a couple ways you could stack these is like problem plus demographic, which is some of the things we've been talking about age, season of life, geography. So let's say the problem you solve was how to make money and how to make money is even different than how to make money online. Because if we started talking about money, you could do lift, you could do postmates, you could do like you do a lot of things, but let's say how to make money online for single moms. For college students, for 30-year-old men, age plus gender, right? For recently retired women, do you feel fierce clarity rising in your spirit as you think about this? Because you're like, my gosh, like that just hits. And the big key about this is this is also such a key to success. Because it's not even just about like you standing out and finding something different. It's about you resonating powerfully with the person that you're targeting. Because when you articulate like, hey, welcome to this YouTube channel where we share the best tips of how to make money online for recently retired women. And you're like, that's me. And so like, this is my YouTube channel because the messaging is matching in a powerful way. How to make money online for rural high school students, how to make extra money for middle-aged fathers with two kids for recently immigrated 20-somethings. See how powerful this could be, but it takes a lot of work to narrow your focus. Number eight, size. This is another distinction. Like if everybody sells big, you could sell small. Think about this from the perspective of a business owner. Everyone's getting bigger houses. What's a big trend right now? Tiny homes. Everybody is saying more, more, more, more, more. And consumerism has been rising over decades and what is the opposite or what is an answer to that? Minimalism. So while you would think like, is there different sizes you could do? Another way to think about this would be I have a channel just for smart phone creators. I have a channel just for helping filmmakers and people that specifically want to do filmmaking and cinematic stuff. Nolan Molt on Think Media wants to talk about that more, but I would argue that's not who we're for. Defining who you're for and who you're not for is a big deal because we're for the average everyday person, business owner, content creator that yes wants to make great crispy videos. But isn't necessarily trying to think about how do I make films? And why we may touch on that. It's a little bit wider out on our bullseye. It would be because we help people with video that some of those videos make sense. But where's the opportunity to go deep in one of those verticals? Yes, we do smart phone stuff. But what if it was all smart phone just talking about the Think Media lens? Smart phone creators, filmmakers, we would be more YouTuber like you just want, you want to make YouTube videos and we have different. By the way, some of this is channel wide vision, but some of this is specific video opportunities. Just making a video for a particular demographic, making a video for recently retired women that want to start a YouTube channel. Like I might upload that video. Like, I don't know, like maybe like YouTube tips for college students. Like that, some of these might be videos that fit on your channel. A huge key is if you look at what everybody else is doing, what if you do the opposite size when everybody was going big trucks and big cars, Volkswagen came out with the Volkswagen Beetle and it was weird and it was different, but it really resonated by doing the opposite of what everybody else was doing. How could you apply that to YouTube? Obviously, you could do an auto channel, but there's even many in our community that have dedicated auto channels, some have dedicated motorcycle channels. What if it was also, I don't know, the official term, but like other vehicles, quads, ATVs, you know, and motorcycles maybe fits inside of that. I do know people that have gone, they, they're going deep in all these different ways of traveling, the whole boosted boarded era and the hoverboards, whatever. So just size, right? Another one. Number nine, low price. What if you're the budget and cheap options? Do it on a dime, cool YouTube channel. So do it on a dime. She's going to also violate her niche and violate her brand if she starts recommending things that aren't super cheap or DIY, but that's the power is you're narrowing your focus. So you're saying this channel is for those that are couponing or living on a budget. And so now you're like, you know, recently retired tips for recently retired women for living an awesome life on a budget. You're starting to get clear, but you're, you're, you're including the price side of things, budget or cheap. Number 10, high price luxury or expensive options. There's an audience for everything and see, you're also not going to attract on a fluid audience with a channel targeted with the budget and cheap audience options. And whenever you talk about money, all kinds of money, mindsets and emotions come up, relax. Like this is a, it's important to develop the skill of strategy to think about this is what marketing would be. This is what positioning would be. And you just being thoughtful about, by the way, there's two ways to compete in business. You go the Walmart way, race to the bottom in price, or you go the Neiman Marcus Nordstrom way and you go higher priced or even higher. You go the Toyota way or the Hyundai, you know, strategy, or you go the Tesla, Rivian, or Mercedes or Bentley. And you think about there's high prices, low price. So is there opportunities? You could, you could apply all this stuff to faceless channels. That's a whole conversation for another time. But you obviously can make a lot of videos, including scripts and voiceover and B-roll about products that about things that exist in a channel. Some channels are just about like cool gadgets on Amazon. But what an interesting channel to do a channel all about luxury and expensive. And these channels do exist, you know, like the most expensive places to travel and 10, 10 most expensive cars and 10 craziest watches and different things. So low price or high price, 11 subcultures is a big one. And this is a big branding opportunity. So we stop it. We tap into subcultures. In fact, this is an essential one for you're listening to this right now. This is time to pay attention because subcultures is what you layer on top of all of this, which makes things super interesting. So what are some subcultures? There's hip hop as a whole culture, grunge as a culture, punk, cosplay, geek, straight edge, world of war crafters as a culture, larpers, there's culture, cellulators of coutan. Be believers are a culture, swifties are a culture. Uh, if the brand is big enough, the individual is big enough, there's dedicated Justin Bieber channel channels. There's dedicated Taylor Swift news channels. What's the longevity of that? I don't know. But what's the practicality of that? Pretty high. And if you would be like, I am literally the biggest swifty. Like I could listen, talk about study and research Taylor all day every day. Well, that is an interesting YouTube channel because lately as she's been breaking every record in something out shows reinventing herself over a couple decades, it would, it's definitely something that there's some serious audience behind it's a subculture opportunity of positioning. It also on a much more subtle level or rather, maybe not, it's not your whole channel is dedicated to Taylor Swift fans. If you introduce yourself and you're, remember, we follow people we vibe with, we connect with the different aspects of them. So we want to learn from someone or follow someone or connect with someone with these aspects of subculture peppered into the content. So maybe when someone discovers that you're like, yeah, so I'm a mom of three who has figured out how to work from home and make extra money online. And I'm really into raising chickens, Taylor Swift. And then people are like, oh my gosh, that's me too. Like, I love chickens. I love Taylor Swift. I'm a mom also. And then you start building these connections. So there's also the opportunity of weaving the stuff into your content. But these subcultures, palios, vegans, carb loaders, carnivore diet people, Metz fans, Yankee fans, Bears fans, you know, a book recommended in thinking about this is a good book by Seth Godin called We Are All Weird. The Rise of Tribes and the End of Normal. And one of the questions he asks is why are companies still trying to build products for the masses? Let's flip that. Why are you trying to build a YouTube channel for the masses? Why are we acting like the masses even exist? The riches are in the niches. The opportunity is to niche down and to think about what are like the subcultures that maybe my whole channel is about that maybe it's tied into my channel. You know, there's different people when I think about sometimes certain spaces can look all the same. If all the YouTube experts, which is maybe a category I fall into or whatever, they like we look the same, which is not true, but just, you know, roll with me. Everybody teaching personal finance like looks the same. Sometimes the opportunity is to just bring a unique flare to it. Like so you bring a punk rock flare to it. Your hair is pink, tattoos, piercings. That's just you. You grew up listening to rancid or operation IV or forgive me if I'm not cool enough understanding the niches punk bands. But like you grew up and that's you and you bring that to a space that you'd be shocked about how that is the key that helps you blow up because and blow up in context viral for me viral for you. Like blow up because people are like, oh man, I resonate with you because of your roots. You're upbringing, your style, your dress. This is why this is a branding opportunity. These distinctions can help you strengthen your brand and bring your unique voice to a niche that feels crowded. The reason you start to stand out is like people like, oh, I love the flavor of the style of the way you're doing the problem you solve of the way that you're doing the industry that you serve. You're layering in the subculture distinctions. Number 12, values, belief and ideas. You've probably seen and are very aware that political party. It's maybe more obvious when we talked about the news show. So the 10 minute news show. If it's conservative leaning, that's going to resonate with some people. If it's liberal leaning, that's going to resonate with some people. If you're also trying to be neutral, that may or may not work, you may just make everybody mad. Or it works pretty well because you're just trying people hate the polarization and biases that show up on both sides. So you've figured out and crafted your voice to resonate in a particular way. But there's also, in some cases, people are teaching business and entrepreneurship. And it's obvious that they lean very conservative, or they're overtly weaving some of those things into their messaging. And remember, people follow people with similar beliefs. People follow people with shared values. So this layer of niching down, of course, if you had a family vlog channel and you were like, we are a Christian family, trying to raise our children with Christian ideal ideals and values in Los Angeles. It was kind of interesting. California, leans left or you always usually votes left and would be with lots of conservatives in the state. You have a lot of liberal ideology and talk about storytelling. We got some tensions being created. It was some interest being created. But now you've got a geography for your vlog. You've got some values, beliefs and ideals or religion is involved in this. Another layer. Do you have to use all of these? No. But are there a lot more opportunities available for you to refine your brand, your message? Yes. And can you stand out on YouTube this year? Yes. But if you're generic and you're just an echo and you don't actually take the time to do this strategic work, will you stand out and stand out on YouTube this year? Probably not. Another one's causes. You know, maybe different causes. You get behind different kind of groups. And we're talking about psychographics. So, you know, a generalization of these tips is like there's demographics, sometimes age, geography, income level. Psychographics is interests, preferences, values and things like that. Number 13, distribution. So as we land the plane, distribution, let's first define it in a business sense. There's been disruption in certain industries when new distribution channels arose. Sean, what do you mean? Well, let's just talk about like video content. Obviously, there was the time of blockbuster offering to buy Netflix. I think or Netflix trying to sell to blockbuster, they refused. Then blockbuster eventually goes bankrupt. Netflix arises. Well, what was happening? First, you had the local VHS DVD store, Blu-ray. Then it starts mailing DVDs at first. Netflix starts to mail DVDs. That's a new distribution channel, a new distribution method. So tapping into mail with the physical DVDs come into your house and then streaming and internet speeds catch up and we could start streaming Netflix. Now, it seems crazy that we would do anything but stream, but that's also that's a different distribution channel. And remember, red box. Maybe you're still already to get down. Come on one dollar. Let's smash a red box. Grab a TV dinner and just call it a night. You know, let's party. Red box is another distribution channel. So DTC direct to consumer with all these opportunities to start e-commerce online businesses. You don't have to go to a retail store. The brand is just online and ships direct to consumer. That's a distribution channel. Espresso stands. Pull up. I grow up in the northwest. Lots of espresso stands. Different than having a park and get your coffee, but quick, easy, whatever. These are distribution. Okay, so how does this apply to YouTube? Well, a couple different ways you can think about this. The style of the show you produce. So John Lee Doom is entrepreneur on fire back as he tells his story. When at that time is a podcast, the industry of teaching business and entrepreneurship has, I would argue, always been crowded. Like, I would also argue, everything is crowded. Everything is saturated. And if you want to complain, Carl, just keep complaining. But ultimately, there's something about seeing the opportunity in every challenge and seeing the opportunity in every problem. Because what John Lee Doom is saw when he was starting a show, was he's like, well, I'm commuting to work every day. And my commute is like 25 minutes. And I'm trying to figure out how to build a side hustle. I'm trying to figure out to start my own business. Or, and I'm also just looking for like stimulating thought-provoking ideas and ways people are doing things. And I want to listen to something productive. And I don't want to just listen to talk radio. But no podcast has a daily show. It's all they're all weekly. So his distribution was, I want to start entrepreneur on fire. It's going to be a daily show. It's all interviews. And they're going to be 25 minutes. Because that's how long not only his commute was, but he's like, that's also actually the average commute across America. Was interviewing business owners a unique idea? Not really. Was sharing entrepreneurial tips through interviews? Was starting a podcast a unique idea? Not really. Was starting a YouTube channel? You unique idea? No, not really. Was having a daily show in a constraint of a particular amount of time? A unique idea? Yes. And by the way, still is. Because it's a hard thing to sustain as well. So think about the layers we're narrowing down now. You figure out the problem you solve, the industry it's in. You figure out who it's for. And then you figure out, okay, it's about 25 minutes or less. And it's seven days a week. And then you, you also go, oh, that sounds like work. Yeah. But now, John Lee Dumas is a multi-millionaire. And you reverse engineered a strategy because of tapping into these layers of distinction and distribution being one of them. Shorts is a distribution method. It's a, it's a content format. And if you did something that's under, if everybody's going long-form, do you go short form? If everyone, do you do deep dive combos? You know, I know that a lot of people are doing that, but that's also what some people want. They want, they want the real stuff. They want the substance, though, the whatever. Of course, there's also expands beyond YouTube, right? So you could do YouTube or you tapping into other platforms. And you know how passionate I am about YouTube. But the intelligent entrepreneur content creator strategist is just taking a 30,000 foot view of the landscape, of the industry overall, of what is your goals? What is your vision? What is your industry? What is your topic? What problem do you solve? And considering all the different opportunities, as you know, I could make a case of why YouTube should be a big piece of your content strategy. But you also have to do your own research and think through your own thing. And there could be other opportunities that you should lean into. And so what is the way you're trying to reach your target audience? So a lot of creators shy away from this level of specificity at this. And this is why they stay stuck, especially at the start. One of the big keys too is that when you're starting, and it's so hard to get views and subscribers, this stuff's even more important. Because now you go, oh yeah, but Casey Neistat, it's not New York, it's not the boost. It's just because he has the influence. No, it's game over. Like eventually you reach that level, it's game over. Like you've already broken through, you've already built relationships, built connections. So you in a way, you've written your ticket where it's probably wise to stay on brand to a point for many people. Like Dave Ramsey helps people get out of debt. I'm sure people would go to his marriage conference, they'd probably go to almost any conference he does. But like he's still in personal finance, like that still is thing. But he could do it every once. He's built in sane levels of influence and credibility and trust and an audience that because he met them with something specific, now we can talk about other things. But the mistake people make, especially at the start, is they shy away from this level of specificity. When really, this becomes your biggest opportunity. And by the way, if you are interested in nailing your niche and you want to your ideas are flowing, but now you're like, Sean, help me put this all together. I actually have a training. And I'm so excited that we're doing this because one of the biggest questions we get is Sean. I still am lacking clarity or now I've got a lot of ideas, but I don't know how to narrow them down. And so we have a brand new training at findyourtopic.com. You watch the class there. And this will help you go from confusion to clarity with your YouTube channel topic. And it's going to specifically, and here's the key, help you find the shortest path to revenue for you personally because picking the best money path, picking the best business model. It's really bigger than YouTube. It's of course thinking about what's the bigger business or the bigger, bigger target audience. What is the bigger picture that I'm trying to solve? And how does YouTube support that or weave into the whole thing? So if you just say, Sean, I want help. Sean, I want clarity. I want to go from confused to clarity, head to findyourtopic.com. And we'll link that up in the show notes or in the description. My name is Sean Cannell, rhymes with YouTube channel. This is the Think Media podcast. And I look forward to connecting with you in a future episode.