246: This ONE YouTube Secret Changed My Life Forever

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. Could it be that your successor failure on YouTube is determined before you even upload a video? Imagine if you do not analyze the competitors, put all this energy and effort and time into your channel only to realize that you're fighting an unwinnable battle. What's happening in the larger market? Is your overall segment, meaning your topic, your niche, is it growing? Is it shrinking? What are the trends that are happening in it right now? I discovered a YouTube secret in a book that's over 2,000 years old that changed my life forever and this actually reveals a mistake. That 99% of YouTube creators are making that leads to failure. The mistake is a lack of market research. Let me explain. In the famous book The Art of War by military general and strategist Sun Su, he says this, every battle is one before it's even fought. Think about that. Could it be that your successor failure on YouTube is determined before you even upload a video? Could it be that whether your business or side hustle succeeds or fails is determined before you even start the business? And a majority of cases the answer is yes because most people fail to prepare in advance. They don't have an adequate preparation of resources and adequate analysis of the competitive landscape and ultimately they fail at the point of market research. And so in this episode of the Think Media podcast, I want to share with you a few insights from this powerful quote from this powerful book. Now we're actually are in this military strategy applied to YouTube series. This is part four. And so I highly recommend checking out the show notes to see the previous parts. But in this episode, I want to talk about this quote every battle is one before it's even fought. What this quote means to me is that smart strategists ask smart questions before they enter the battle. For example, what is the number and strength of the enemy forces? And YouTube that would be considering, okay, with the niche I want to go into the topic I want to go into, how many other channels are talking about this topic? How much time have you spent researching other people that are directly talking about what you're talking about? Maybe in adjacent niches? I've found 99.9% of creators have done almost zero competitor analysis. And I can hear the objections. Oh comparison is the thief of joy. I'm not saying compare yourself and get discouraged. I'm saying as a smart strategist, go look at what other options there are out there. Consider the strength of the enemy's forces. Because the key that you're looking for is your unique edge, your unique difference. And there's always an opportunity for the smart strategist. You can always find an angle to be a little bit different. But think about it. Imagine if you do not analyze the competitors, put all this energy and effort and time into your channel only to realize that you're fighting an unwindable battle. So you want to ask what are the strengths and weaknesses of my potential competitors, but you also want to ask what are my strengths and weaknesses? How much time do you have right now? How much money do you have right now? What kind of experiences in your life do you have? What kind of lessons have you learned? There's always advantages. It's not about your resources. It's about your resourcefulness. But you don't want to get discouraged about something you can't change. You want to look at the resources you do have. What are the relationships? What are the different opportunities that you have? What about your location? Where you live? And it's not helpful for you to tell me all the reasons it can't work. Oh, I live in a small town. I don't have much money. I don't have any connections. I got no access to anything. Well, cool. You've analyzed your weaknesses. Let's also analyze your strengths. Maybe you've researched a particular topic for years and years, and you actually could talk for hours about it. And there's a market that wants to see content on YouTube sharing about that topic. Maybe you have a background in a particular subject matter. Maybe you have a certain type of spouse or a brother who's got a cool garage full of stuff that would make a great YouTube channel. It's really about auditing your potential competitors, auditing your own strengths and weaknesses, and then developing a strategy accordingly. Every battle is one before it's ever fought. And here's another quote from military strategist Sun Soo from the Art of War. If you know the enemy and you know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself, but not the enemy for every victory gained, you will suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb to every battle summary. If you run into content creation guns, placing, you'll probably lose every time. If you understand the enemy, but not yourself, you'll win sometimes and lose sometimes. But if you understand both, that's going to help you carve out your competitive advantage, and you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. But I think we can take this quote deeper. Every battle is one before it's ever fought. What if we asked how can we take advantage of the terrain and the weather? Should we attack head on or should we flank? Should we retreat, regroup, rethink, and redeploy our forces in a better way? Again, the novice is just going to run into the battle, not concerned with all of these other variables. Whereas the military strategist is going to be thinking, okay, I can see from the weather report in 2023 because we have this information that it's going to rain and there's going to be a storm. Maybe we should wait a day. I could see that based on the terrain, maybe head on is not best. What if we go to this elevated position? What if we work around back through those trees? There's all kinds of dynamics. How do you apply that to YouTube? What's happening in the larger market? Is your overall segment, meaning your topic, your niche? Is it growing? Is it shrinking? What are the trends that are happening in it right now? What have been some of the opportunities and doors that have been opened? What are maybe some of the doors that have been closed? Again, should you attack head on or flank? And if your research reveals that ultimately you're facing an adversary that you do not think you can overcome, that doesn't mean you should give up. It just maybe means you should retreat, regroup, rethink, and then potentially redeploy your forces in a better way, a different way. How could you maybe reposition your YouTube channel? All of this is thinking at a higher level of strategy. More questions we could ask is, do I need to get stronger? Do I need new gear? There could be a situation in a military environment where literally our technology and our gear is insufficient. And I know we always talk about it. All you need is your smartphone. And absolutely, you can get started with your smartphone. But there's something about taking a step back, regrouping, rethinking, and thinking, okay, maybe I need to level up my strength. I'm going to invest in a particular skill set. You know, as we rise to higher levels on YouTube, this isn't just about breaking through and having some success. I know we have so many entrepreneurs and business owners listening to this. And I think about this question for my evolution as the leader now of a team at Think Media. I'm thinking about, do I need to get stronger? Yes. Do I need new skills? Absolutely. I've invested more this year in my skills and in my learning than ever before. Being a part of groups and masterminds where I can be iron sharpens iron with other entrepreneurs and leaders, I am doubling down in my study of YouTube as I read articles and Google news. And I pay for my business insider subscription to have more premium content about the industry and the creator economy. Myself and the Think Media team attend industry events. We need to get stronger. Are we investing in new gear? We are. We are trying to improve the production quality of this podcast. And I know there's a tension because a lot of people listen to this and I want to encourage you start with what you have and start on a budget. That's exactly how I started. And many others who are starting right now are having success just using the resources they have. But you can't just stay complacent or stay settled. There's something about looking ahead and thinking about what skills do I need. How can I level up my gear, my learning and my strategy? I've won a lot of previous battles, but I need to be preparing for my future battles and every battle is one before it's ever fought. How can I increase the chances of victory in my business and on YouTube next year and the battles that I'm going to face? It's by preparing for those battles today. And so could it be that your success on YouTube will be determined by your prior planning by your next level of thinking and by your next level of strategy? And let me just share a disclaimer because you might say, Sean, this doesn't even make sense. You're the guy who just says like, start messy and just press record and start before you're ready. Well, yeah, because also your life is not on the line at the same level it is in a military strategy. I mean, Sun Su was facing some challenges a little bit higher than we are from making videos at home in our bedrooms on our iPhones and our smartphones. But the truth is that starting is part of the strategy, that is you getting moving, it's you getting some experience, you getting some skill, but you can't stay there. So both are true. So often we're looking for black and white answers when a lot of truths when it comes to YouTube and business are tensions to be managed and the tension is start messy, but that's intention with skill up, be more strategic, have more planning and the creator who plans things out, for example, who is your channel for? Does your channel have a clear topic? Does your channel have a passionate audience? And what problem does your channel solve? The quality of your answers to those questions will determine the future success of your YouTube channel. The creator who understands the viewer best wins. And the creator who sits down and makes a plan will be the creator who experiences every battle being won before it's even fought. Now, if you want some more resources on this topic, I have a list of things that I think will be helpful for you. First, I hope you've been enjoying this military strategy series. There's actually multiple videos in this series. We'll link these up in the show notes, not only some of the quotes from on war, from the art of war, but also the book positioning and marketing warfare. As you could see here at the think video podcast, we're not just trying to bring you fluff and basic information. We're trying to really help you think at an entirely different level of strategy. You know, those who ultimately win, not just on YouTube, but in business overall are those who out work, out learn, out strategize, and outlast the competition. Those are four very hard things to do, but that's why I want you to know that I appreciate your support and you being a part of this community. So definitely subscribe because we have future episodes coming in this series and check out the past episodes as well. And also, if you want some help putting together that next level of strategy, you're going to love the free class that we have at thinkmasterclass.com. It's on demand. So you can watch it as soon as you're done with this episode. I encourage you to sit in a coffee shop or your main computer where you can really sit down, grab a journal and take notes because this is real strategy. We're going to roll up our sleeves and really help you learn the one strategy we use at think media that's generating over 350,000 views per day and how to monetize those views in multiple different ways, creating passive income. And so you can check that out on demand at thinkmasterclass.com where there's a link in the description down below. But finally, if you enjoy this content, I would love it if you liked, rated, and reviewed this Think Media podcast wherever you watch or listen. If you're in a place where you can comment, the question of the day is what is your aha moment for me? They're this episode or the other episodes. I wasn't really sure how this military strategy series would go, but I know for me, quotes like every battle is one before it's ever fought has actually changed my life. It's caused me to think different, dream different, plan different, and make different decisions and consequently different actions in my entire career on YouTube, video selection in my business and all of the above. And so it's been very helpful to me. So I'm just curious, how is it resonating with you? Does it lead to any questions? Is there any topics that you'd love to see on the Think Media podcast? If you're in a place to comment, I read all the comments, so I'd love to get your feedback and hear any aha moments that you have. Sending you love and respect today, I appreciate you being a part of this episode and I can't wait to connect with you in the next one.