244: This YouTube Shorts Strategy Is Generating 10 Million Views in One Month!

Hey, before we jump into the show, I just wanted to take a second and say thank you for listening. I know that life is busy and you have a lot of options when it comes to the content you consume. So whether you're new here or you've been listening to the Think Media podcast for years, I just want to say thank you and I appreciate you. Okay, let's jump into the show. The reason that I've been able to grow the way that I have is every video has to tell a story. With 10 million views a month from shorts, what kind of ad revenue are we talking about, and what have you had to do to actually build a sustainable business out around your YouTube channel? That was one of the topics that I researched. I have high search volume and not as much content being created. And there was an opportunity because there's not a lot of guys doing that. YouTube shorts are blowing up right now and getting over 50 billion views per day across YouTube on the platform. So what are the tips? What are the secrets? And what lessons do we need to know in order to get started and grow with YouTube shorts? Our guest today, Ryan Johnson, is getting at this moment over 10 million views per month, earning over $10,000 a month, and uploading around one YouTube short per day. And so we're going to be learning his story and his strategies as he's just a regular guy trying to get people off of yo-yo diets, teaching intermittent fasting, and has been blowing up lately. And so I'm excited to dive into this episode of the Think Media podcast. Ryan, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me on, Sean. I'm super excited to talk to you today and have been, you know, been with following Think Media since I've been on YouTube coming up on three years of September. And I think I joined VRA in October the month after I started some super excited talking with you. Yeah, super grateful to have you on. And I want to get into, of course, your tips and strategies. But for a little bit of context, what is your, how did you pick your topic? You know, what is your topic? You started three years ago. How did this all come about? How'd you get started? Yeah. So with a broad brushstroke kind of, I was in the army, was in the army for seven years, got out of the army, started working a white collar job, was in that for about four years, making good money. But it was so second. I did not like it. I didn't, it drained me to my core. I put on a lot of weight when I got out of the army. And one of the things that I knew I needed to do was lose weight, get in shape and kind of forge my own path around that same time that I started losing weight. I've always been a little bit of a entrepreneur, a friend of mine recommended that I look at YouTube and documenting my journey. Because I've been posting stuff on Instagram. So I looked at YouTube and was like, once I investigated it, which is why I found think media right away. Because I knew that I wanted to build a business and build something for myself. So I started posting my journey. And that's kind of how I got started was just, you know, sharing my journey. And I picked health and fitness because it's something I've always been interested in. And I know if I wanted to have legs and go for a while, it had to be something I was semi-passioned about. So that's kind of how I got sort of share and share my stuff on YouTube. And I think I remember when you posted a milestone of your 100,000 subscriber silver play button. It didn't happen as fast as you think, but it still happened pretty quick. What was the journey to 100,000? Yeah. So it's funny, Sean. I think you and I, again, I dove all in, consumed everything that I could about how to grow on YouTube. And you may or may not remember, I think I talked to you on one of your coffee with candles. I was probably October and November. I was like, hey, I want to be, I want to get to 100,000 in a year. And you told me you're like, can you get to 100,000 in a year? Probably not. But can you get there? Absolutely. And I hit it right around the two-year mark. So good call by you. So I was on YouTube for the first year. I think I got two or three thousand subscribers. And then really, there was a period where I went through a job transition. And I had stopped uploading for a little bit. And I knew I needed to get back and uploading. I took about a month and a half off. And I started posting YouTube shorts just to kind of keep myself accountable and get some kind of creative juices flowing. And then they started to pick up. And I started to see, unlike any other shorts that I had ever had, that got the spike of views and then died. These got, I'm talking 800 views a day, which is a time when you're getting 40 views a day every day. And then I was like, there's something to this. And then I started really diving into shorts, short form content last February 2022. Yeah, I love this lesson because, you know, a lot of people who listen to this, they are looking for like the one magic bullet. And what I think the truth is is that there's actually multiple magic bullets. And the key is to find yours. Shorts became the format that popped off for you. You had a lot of slow and steady growth with long form. But then you really found your thing and we'll break that down your methodology. But for others, they're not getting as great of results with shorts. I'm sure they can learn some of your strategies. People just want that one answer. Is it long form or shorts? Both. Is it video podcasting or shorter talking videos? Both. Is it vlog style videos or, you know, share the screen faceless. Both. It's it's all the above, but it's finding what works for you. And you found YouTube shorts to really start to grow, describe the format, describe like, because there's so many different types of content we can create. What were those first, kind of like the title, topic, length, content of your YouTube shorts that started to break through? So I took some of what I learned in VRA and translated into my shorts a little bit in that. When I was researching and I knew from the beginning that I kind of want to do the what I eat in a day because it messes with my niche, which is weight loss and something people are always interested in. And it has a lot of legs because you can you're eating every day. So there's a lot of content there, right? So I knew I wanted to do the what I eat in a day and looking back going through VRA, that was one of the topics that I'd researched that have high search volume and not as much content being created. And there was an opportunity because there's not a lot of guys doing that. So I was like, so that's the reason why I started producing the what I eat in a day content in my short form. And then as it started to take off, there are absolutely things I would say after two months of posting, I really dialed in the tactics of it. And I think I have a pretty I think replicable gameplay or at least how I approach my short form content. Yeah, we'd love to hear those tactics. Yeah, so what the thing that I think about when it comes to shorts is like you talk about understanding why the viewer is coming there. When a viewer is going and you're answering a specific question on a long form video, you need to know what question they're asking and then you answer it. Shorts, why are people coming to shorts? They're coming to shorts to be entertained. First and foremost, like I noticed some people in my niche, the weight loss, they're given here's three tips on in short form. But unless you just happen to catch the one person that's looking for that, because it's not appealing to a wide audience in that first initial push, it doesn't get pushed further because it's not appealing to a large audience. So first and foremost, they have to be entertained because that's why the viewer is in short form content, kill some time. And then I think the thing that I really latched on to and the reason that I've been able to grow the way that I have is every video has to tell a story, a short story. And my video is, here's everything I ate today. And it has to be stained alone. And then in that, I drop little hints of who I am in my overall journey. That encourages people to come back because if you watch one short, you get what I ate in that day. And then a little, you know, I'll dribble in some, you know, some nuggets of information about weight loss and stuff. But then if you watch them all together, you get this long story. If here's a guy who has struggled with his weight and learning how to just live sustainably. So when you watch them all together, I think that encourages subscribers and encourages people to keep watching because they want to know how the story is going to play out. And you gained 9,000 subscribers just in the last month. So it's clearly working and there's a compound effect there. Give us kind of a preview of one of your shorts. I love them. They are snappy. And I do notice you'll say, you know, I didn't eat until intermittent fasting until such and such time today. And this is where we went. My wife ordered a drink. I tried it. It was pretty good. I got this. It was delicious. My daughter and, and, you know, and little kind of, you're going through the narrative. But there's also those interesting kind of detours. But it's very entertaining. It's very interesting. So what have you learned about the assembly? What do you think about your hooks? And then how do you, how are you actually making these videos? Like, now that you've done this, are you just doing it on your phone? You just film it all voice over later? Like, what's kind of the workflow for this? Yeah. So the workflow, something that absolutely took time. And I think the thing that was important is just, I tell people all the time that asked me and from a, or how to get started with short form, you just got to start, right? Like you talk about all the time. Like you can't see your park car. You just got to start going. So I film the stuff and what I used to do. I film everything on my phone. I still do that now. I struggle. I got a little bit of ADHD and like to upload it from the camera to the computer and wait for all that stuff. Like I struggle with that. So I film and edit everything in my phone just for workflow. Because any steps that I have between filming and a finished product just means that it's not going to happen. That's me personally. So I film and edit in my phone. And when I started, it took me forever because I would film every bit of food that I would have. And I would in the day with 30 minutes of footage that I had cut to under a minute and it took forever. But as I do it in the editing process, I know what shots I'm going to need. So now for an entire day of footage, I'm going to get two and a half minutes of footage. So now I only film two and a half minutes a day because I know what shots I need. I know I need the shot of me opening the food or the server setting the plate on the table, all that kind of stuff. I know what shots I need. I edited it in my phone and now I write scripts after the fact. So I'll sit down, I'll write a script, I'll record my voiceover of the script. And that's now my A-roll. So then I can sink what I'm saying with the B-roll footage that I have. Whereas I used to put all the B-roll together and then I used to try to like say what was happening as it was coming across the screen. And I was always playing catch up. Now I record my A-roll voiceover and then edit it in. And actually I have an editor that works for me full-time now is my first hire. Oh, that's amazing. And so at this point you're uploading the footage from your phone to Dropbox. Google Drive. Google Drive. And so then the editor takes it over. You send them. You're also voiceover audio file. How do you record that? I record that on my phone in Anjani. So I send them one file. It's all of the B-roll and then black screen A-roll voiceover. So they're all over in one file for a given day. And it's only about two and a half minutes of footage and then they edit it down into less than a minute. Gotcha. And then before you hired an editor, were you just editing it yourself in InShot? So I edited everything myself in InShot and it used to, again, take me 30, 40 minutes a day. But now I don't do it now. But if I had to, I could record, edit, voiceover, and entire video start to finish in about 25 minutes. Yeah, that's amazing. And again, that comes with repetition. Yeah. And I want to encourage the listener like, you know, now that you've been doing a video for three years, I've been doing video for 20 ironically and YouTube for 16. Like we recently went to Nashville and I want to go on different trips. Like I know the shots to get. And I actually just go and and it also is kind of a good way to not let social media or filming on your phone take you out of the moment. I just get the shot in the moment and then set the phone down and then get the leaving shot and then and then you're still in the moment. And then later, when you're just chilling on the couch, chilling in bed, I edit my own little social media voiceover Instagram video shorts. And and sometimes I write out a little script and just read over it. And I was like, so we recently took a trip. And these are a side strategy, not even a strategy, more like just recap so they're kind of more for fun. But I the encouraging point I want the listener to hear is that even hearing Ryan Break this down can be kind of overwhelming. But start messy, start before you're ready. If it also to he's like 30 minutes, it takes me a day. Yeah, if it takes you a day when you're starting, but you will get faster and you also won't overshoot huge mistake. I've made two hard drives full of footage and it slows down the whole process. But that's really inspiring. And I want to hear because for the listener, especially as you said entertainment, you technically are an education channel, or ultimately your business model, but you're tapping into entertainment, entertainment. But if we looked at just just that the listener might think, well, how could that truly be though a sustainable business of some kind? How could that really? So how is it that you make money? And with 10 million views a month from shorts, predominantly they would imagine. What kind of ad revenue are we talking about? And what have you had to do to actually build a sustainable business out around your YouTube channel? Are you ready to start or grow your YouTube channel? Do you feel stuck and need help connecting the dots? Join this free web class where you'll learn the step-by-step playbook for YouTube success. We've helped thousands of purpose-driven entrepreneurs just like you grow their influence with video. Register today for this exclusive training at thinkmasterclass.com. Yeah, so I think one of the things that I really took to heart and you say it all the time, you know, influence before income. I was always focused on making good videos, growing my audience before I tried to cash, like wait to cash the check because you can tell, I know there are influencers that I watch and when they pitch a product, sometimes I'm going to buy it because I really really enjoy what they do. And it's like, so with that being said for the first two years, I didn't make that much. I'm an ad revenue. You're talking, you know, $50, $60 a month in ad revenue. But I always approached it with, I want to set this up for the rest of my life not for a get rich quick, right? That's you're going to be disappointed that way. So the way that I have been able to do it is I always knew that there would be some business on the back end. I didn't know what that would look like. And a friend reached out to me. We were actually in VRA together and he was doing online personal training and said, Hey, I think this may be an avenue that would work well for you. I think it fits well into what you're doing and I think you'd be good at it. So I looked into and investigated doing online personal training, one on one coaching and have been doing that since September. That's where a bulk of the revenue comes from between eight and 10 K a month. Now, again, that's a great number and a lot of people may hear that and think that's incredible. How do I start doing that? But realize that was built on a year and a half, two years of building trust with my viewers so that the month after I started that, I was able to leave my nine to five. It didn't happen overnight. It was built slowly, but that's how I was able to translate it was online coaching is what allows me to sustain myself and my family. And the entertainment is just the start of the fun. That's inspiring. And that's the bulk of it. But you also now with your influence and the content have also had some a little bit of ad revenue. I imagine still, of course, and that can keep growing. Any affiliates or brand sponsorships? Yeah. So ad revenue right now and probably averaging about between 1,500 a month. That's shorts and long form together. A majority of it coming from shorts probably about 1,000 now that they're doing the monetization the way they are and getting about 1,500 from ad revenue and averaging probably similar in brand deals. Now, brand deals is another one that I want nothing more than to partner with great brands and work with people that I think are going to support what I believe in. I get reached out people reach out all the time saying, hey, can we send you stuff and you do a video? I'm selective on who I work with and now because I have the coaching, I'm able to set my price kind of where I want it to be so that if I'm doing a brand deal, it makes sense for kind of both parties. Yeah, so you're very selective of brand deals. How does a brand deal incorporate? Like, what was the last one? Is it one of the shorts? Just one day, one integration? No, so I'm doing most of my brand deals are in the long form content. I think Lumen was the last one I'm trying to product right now. One of the continuous glucose monitors that video, I'm working for the behind-the-scenes stuff for that. I got that coming. So powerful. And such, I mean, you embody your purpose driven entrepreneur, our ethic of patience, of playing the long game, of legacy over currency, of building trust, and then realizing that the interesting thing is business trajectory wise, they say the average small business isn't profitable for 18 to 24 to 36 months. So that early investment in content, in this case, in the crater economy of building influence, building trust, adding value, and you were building it on a side hustle, working at nine to five, like you mentioned, that seems like overnight success because you launched coaching and then boom, it was full, or you know, but it was the, what do you not see? Overnight success takes a year and a half, two years as you're also putting in the work being consistent. And I am curious what your tips are for like ultimately building a community and connecting with your audience, because what I would imagine, especially with these daily shorts of what I eat in a day, you now have characters, you, your family, it's like a daily show. What's so nice is there's constraints, meaning it's only ever going to be a minute or less, and people can come to expect it. It doesn't take too much from them, but it's a little touch point they can get to know you every day, and I'm sure many thousands of people now are, are kind of like fans of your show, you know, that it's very community based. Have you noticed similar commenters have, has this led to connections, has this, what have you learned about really making connections with your audience and building a community? Yeah, 100%. I think one of the things that I am very aware of is up until I want to say it was March of last year, right around the, I think 10 to 15,000 subscribers is when I lost the ability to reply to every comment. But up to that point, every single comment gets a reply, and now I'm still at the point where I can see just, I can see most comments, I try, I block out time every day to reply to comments, and I understand that the algorithm isn't a machine, it's people, and like understand, listen to those comments, reply back to those comments, especially when you're getting started, whether it be shorts or long form. Every time you reply to somebody, and especially in short form content, with so many different creators out there, you have just guaranteed yourself the next 10 uploads you are getting viewed by that person. Why would you, I remember Thomas Lauer is in my space, he's got 3 million subscribers. I commented on one of his videos, and this was, I was at 30,000, so I was bigger. He replied back to my comment, and I lost it. I put up an Instagram story with 3 million subscribers, notice who I am, that means a lot, like taking time to talk with people, because people are the algorithm, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's incredible, and I love your heart for your community. What is interesting is shorts has become the thing that's working for you. You figured out a system around it, you've hired an editor, but when it comes to long form, you actually have only uploaded one video in the last month, and then every once in a while I thought this was kind of a cool strategy as you've grown. You also don't do like a ton of live streams, but it seems like you do a live stream at certain milestones. So what is your approach right now on future long form videos, what's your intent there, and how are you using YouTube live streams? Yeah, so live streams, I did for every 10,000 to 100,000, I did live stream Q&A, it's just a time for that kind of immediate feedback. I think I really enjoy the live streams, I can also see the value in having that kind of content on potentially a separate channel, so I think I've got a podcast, you know, in the works, I'll probably start some sort of weight loss focus podcast later in the year and kind of keep the main YouTube channel kind of more broad, so which is why I've slowed down live streams a little bit, and as far as long form content, I am going to double down on VRA now that we are through the move and kind of settled in, I'm going to double down on VRA and get back to answering specific questions in long form, because that's a great way for people to find me to get questions answered things like that, because I also see I have videos, can you have died so to all fasting that I uploaded two and a half years ago that's going to get me 50 views today without even thinking about it? Yeah, it's a great point, and long form, when AdSense is not at this point, it's not even in need, but man, it can really scale. I was at a YouTuber meetup in Vegas, shorts is paying, it seems anywhere from two cents for, we get six, I saw some of the videos getting nine cents cents, two cents, I think I'm getting about nine, because it's a nine cents way RPM, whereas we were comparing with other creators, some were getting two dollar RPMs, which is so much higher than nine cents, others were getting four, I think media, we get a seven and a half dollar RPM at this exact moment, which is crazy, I mean, it's such a magnitude of order is compared to shorts. Now, we don't want any think media podcast listeners to get distracted, or overly obsessed with YouTube ad revenue, but even to think about that aspect, of course, long form is such a, it's nice to diversify your content, and it's such a kind of unshakable foundation, especially that evergreen content, there's absolutely the value in it, and I think one of the things that I need to do is, I need to get better at, I have a short form, I know, I know when I film a video, which ones are going to go viral, and viral to me is over a million views, like if I post a video, I know it's getting between that 100 to 200,000, I know when I shoot one that's going to be a million, I can just kind of tell it's a place with a recognizable name, like when I do what I eat at Red Lobster, right, because people that don't know me see Red Lobster, and they're like, you know, that certain, so I don't have the same confidence in long form, so it's something that I need to work on, the same way that I work on long form, is like get shorter hooks straight to the point, my retention on long form is not what it is on short form, I talk too much. Now you've got something that you're doing really cool with the essentially YouTube shorts you're creating to make even more money from them off platform, and I want to hear about that in just a second, but I am curious, now that you have been a part of VRA, what has kind of been your experience interacting with VRA and think media overall? It's been great, so I think one of the things that I tell people is like, and I work with people now on the weight loss side of things, and coaching is like, I tell people there's so much of value and accountability and coaching, I'm a product of it because if it wasn't for VRA, all of the information on how to grow a YouTube channel can be found for free on YouTube, but it makes a difference, and the thing that I knew was because I was building it as a side hustle, the thing that I didn't have on my time on my side was time, so by getting the information like succinct, and if you give me a plan, I can execute it, and that's kind of what that provided for me, is like, you lay out the plan and I can execute, and I think the thing that people need to work on is their time frame, even I need to do it, right, I want to do a hundred thousand in a year, if you can just say, hey listen, I'm going to stick to the plan and just execute it regardless of time, if you do not stop, you cannot lose. Yeah, that's inspiring, and it does great things take time, they take patience, they take hard work, but it's awesome to see your story, and we actually, I included many of breakdowns of your videos and tips in the brand new section of VRA, the YouTube shorts masterclass as well, because we love being in there as a community, and like a think tank of exchanging great ideas, and so as new formats like YouTube shorts emerge, you're inspiring our VRA fam and so grateful for your just belief in us and your investment in VRA and watching your catapulting growth. But as we land the plane, what's so cool is you're making these daily videos, they're not really YouTube specific, YouTube shorts is blowing up for you, but you're also uploading them elsewhere, what's happening there, and you were mentioning that that's even paying better than YouTube shorts. Yeah, so I started uploading, I have been a YouTube first creator, I think from the beginning, I really do believe it's the platform with the most legs, and that's where I invest my time. I started uploading the TikTok actually last summer, my family and I were on vacation in Gatlinburg, and I am at the point now where some few people will recognize me in public, okay, I love your videos, and I think it's awesome, and I tell everybody I'm so small time, but I really appreciate it. But a few people came up and said, hey, I love your TikToks, and I was like, I'm not on TikTok. So my first thought was, you know, somebody's up, up downloading my videos and just uploading them to TikTok, and then I spent like two hours on TikTok, looking, fortunately that wasn't the case, they were just saying TikToks as someone with short form. That's interesting. But then I went and I was like, all right, well, if I continue to grow on YouTube, like I imagine, somebody uploading to TikTok and saying they're me is a possibility, so I'm just going to beat them to it. So I started uploading to TikTok Instagram Reels Facebook, and have been doing that since last year. I think I'm at 63,000 followers on TikTok, and I just, for seven months on TikTok, I think I did like $500 in their creator fund, which was nothing like, and I'm just getting not as many views on TikTok, call it three to four million views, about half as I do on YouTube. But I am a few weeks into their new creator program, and I'm getting about $1.50 RPM. So if things keep going the way they are, I could see two to $4,000 a month, just kind of depending if I have some videos pop off from the TikTok creator fund. That right there is super encouraging. It's also cool to hear the hard data on the RPM, because that is significantly greater than YouTube, shorts RPM, and you're not creating different content, though. You've already shot your footage, did your script, recorded your voice over, sent it to your editor, got the final asset, and now you're just maximizing it across platforms. Vertical video gives us the opportunity to do this in a major way. Has Reels or Facebook seen any decent growth? So Facebook, when I started, Facebook has slowed down. I went from like zero to 20,000 subscribers, in a matter of a month, month and a half, but in the last three months, I've picked up another thousand followers on Facebook. So it seems like Facebook has throttled it back. I'm not sure what's going on there, or at least for me personally. And then Instagram has been consistent growth. And I think one of the things that I'm going to do is Instagram's where I'm going to focus my coaching, health, and wellness. So that content's going to be a little different, more platform specific, because that's where I can DM people and kind of talk about the weight loss side of things. Whether Facebook's up or down, I think it probably is down a little bit for everybody. There was a golden few months of Reels, Facebook Reels there for a while that we were shocked by as well. But we never cry about it, because once we have the vertical video asset, it's just a matter of distribution across platforms. And that's really inspiring to see everything that you're doing. Well, Ryan, you've added a ton of value today. If people want to check out what you're doing, of course, to study, I recommend everybody go watch and check out the show notes to look at how you're creating shorts and how people can learn from the format and how they can apply that to their content. And perhaps somebody is looking to get fit, get healthy, maybe learn from you, where can people connect with you, Ryan? I would say probably Instagram is the best way, DMs. I'm at IF with Ryan on Instagram, TikTok everywhere. And then my email addresses IF with Ryan at gmail.com. I love talking YouTube. I'm passionate about this stuff. And I just like talking with people. Ryan, grateful for you and I think Beadea podcasts. Check out these show notes so you can connect with Ryan in anything else cool we mentioned in the episode.