This week, join Mariam and Meredith Marsh spill the tea on all things YouTube marketing.

Meredith Marsh helps you look good. Sound good. And feel good on camera so you can build your audience with YouTube.

She's the founder of Thriving Creator Society, where video creators get the clear next steps to scale and monetize on YouTube and creator of 30 Days to a Thriving YouTube channel, helping newbie YouTubers create videos that actually grow their channels.

We talk about:

➡️ The kind of content to create on YouTube as a business owner

➡️ Strategies for success on YouTube

➡️ The dish on Youtube shorts: are they really helping your channel

➡️ Quick and dirty top tips for selling on YouTube

➡️ How YouTube marketing performs when it comes to low-ticket vs high-ticket offers

➡️ Top tools (you probably already have) for starting a YouTube channel

Email Meredith Meredith Marsh:

meredith@vidpromom.com

Learn more about Meredith

If you want to learn more about my signature program, get in touch with me at mariam@mariamtsaturyan.com

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https://mariamtsaturyan.com/waitlist

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Welcome back to another episode of Not So Risky Business podcast. Today I'm interviewing somebody who is an, who's an expert in YouTube marketing YouTube videos creation, making you look great and sound great on camera. My guest today is Meredith Marsh. Welcome Meredith.

Thank you so much, Mariam, for having me.

Absolutely. You are on my short list of people to interview because I've been following your work for a few years. In fact, I'm on your email list with several of my email addresses.

That must get annoying.

Not at all. Because sometimes I forget to open on one but yeah, I should probably clean that up. So for those of you who might not know, Meredith, let me introduce her to you because you need to know her if you're an online business owner who wants to do video, who is doing video, then Meredith is somebody you absolutely must know. Meredith Marsh helps you look good. Sound good. And feel good on camera so you can build your audience with YouTube.

She's the founder of Thriving Creator Society, where video creators get the clear next steps to scale and monetize on YouTube and creator of 30 Days to a thriving YouTube channel, helping newbie YouTubers create videos that actually grow their channels. Meredith lives with her husband and two daughters in upstate New York. How's the weather there, Meredith?

It's back to being cold. Is it? Yeah, it, yeah, it's hot snow yesterday.

Oh my God. Okay. Yeah, it's like spring already. The weather's been really weird lately. Um, in California where it's usually supposed to be sunny and, you know, warm, we've had.

The wettest winter. Oh, probably in history of California. Yeah. And we've had really low temperatures here as well. it's still not an ideal like sunny California weather here. Mm-hmm. Okay. so Meredith, I don't wanna take up a lot of your time today because I know you're a busy, busy woman running all kinds of memberships and YouTube channels.

And I know that my audience is probably waiting to hear from you because YouTube is, almost an absolute must when you're an online business owner. It is the number one place where everyone, in my opinion, should do their marketing and and presence. so let's talk about YouTube. How long have you been doing anything that has to do with YouTube?

Well, First of all, I agree. All online businesses and online businesses should have a presence on YouTube. I started my channel in 2015. At the time I had a full-time job and I had this, I had a, I have a background in web design, and so I was like I have all these skills to do like something online, but I didn't know what, or like I really didn't know what I even wanted to create content about and I was new to the whole idea of creating content. But I actually set out to be a blogger. I wanted to be, I wanted to start a blog, make money doing that, and then quit my job. And I did start a blog, but I also started a YouTube channel that was, you know, it was generating views and comments and subscribers and I was like, I was, I was just putting the videos there cuz I thought that's where you put videos. But then people started following me and I was like, oh, this is an actual platform that you like grow on. Like this is a thing that people do and unfortunately I didn't get the chance to quit my job. I actually lost my job. But because I had started this blog in YouTube channel on the side, I was able to just Do that full-time.

It wasn't ready for full-time, but at least the foundation was there. So I've been doing online business, YouTube content creation full-time since 2016.

Oh, that's a long time. In an online world. It's like a decade or more.

I'm a grandma. I'm a grandma in the online world.

So how, when you did start on YouTube, you said you were a complete newbie and did you get any education, did you have access to any resources to teach you how to play the YouTube game and succeed?

well, I followed few, a few people on YouTube that I wasn't really watching videos on how to do YouTube or really how to create videos, but I was following some people that made me think, oh, I could do that. Like, you know, I followed this one girl who just, she just stands there in front of her bookcase and makes videos, and I'm like, oh.

I could do that. So it was really kind of emulating what I saw other people doing. And then I just applied everything I knew about blogging and like SEO and that kind of thing. I just applied that to YouTube and it worked. So I just, I emulated what I saw, what I thought was working for other people, applied it to what I wanted to do and just kind of Paved my own path, if you will.

That's great. So, and how long after that did you actually start seeing traction for yourself, like growth for your YouTube?

Well, so I had the, the year I started my channel 2015, I had 2000 subscribers by the end of that year. And which, and I didn't know what. Like, I was like, I don't know, was that good or bad?

I don't know. But when I started like chatting with other YouTube creators who started at the same time, you know, they, they were like, Uh, how'd you get 2000 subscribers? Like, can you teach me your ways? Because they were still like, even though they were uploading regularly, they were still, you know, having like a hundred subscribers or a couple hundred.

So I knew that what I was doing was working by the end of just doing it consistently every week for a year. So that's kind of when I went into it with like, Okay, this is working. What do we need to do to make it work even more? What are we gonna do to scale it? So, but by the time I had lost my job, I wasn't generating really anywhere near full-time income from online stuff.

It took me a couple of years to get there, to like replace my full-time income because I was really, I was trying to like, be a blogger, be a YouTuber. Create a course, create a membership, there's like, I'm only one person. Too many things. Yeah. Too, too many things. And I think if I had focused on one or two things and really laser focused on that I would've definitely gotten there sooner. But I mean, what can you say? I'm, I'm a creative person, a multi-passionate person, so you know, it is what it is. I can't go back.

It worked out, right? Yeah. I'm a firm believer of everything happens for a reason. Yes. Sometimes you fail, but it's out of those failures too, that you learn valuable lessons, what to do, or better yet what not to do.

Yeah, yeah. In the future. Yeah. So talk to me about generating income, because you said it took you some time, until you were generating as much as from your job. How did you earn your first. Money, let's say from YouTube. What did you do?

Okay. I love this question because the first money I generated from YouTube was 12 cents through ad revenue.

And I think I, I was like, this is before YouTube had milestones. You had to reach to be monetized. So, I can't remember, maybe like 2018 or so. They implemented that. Before that you could upload videos and you know, if you got views, you got ad revenue even 12 cents. And so it was like four months after I started my channel and I remember I.

I was looking at my phone, I was looking at like the YouTube analytics on my phone and my mom was sitting there and I was like, oh my gosh, I made 12 cents. And I was like so shocked to see that it, there was something there. It wasn't zero. And she was like, you made 12 cents. Doing what exactly? And I was like making YouTube videos and I was so excited.

And she was like, Wow. Like, great job. 12 cents Meredith. 12 cents. But it was only, it was like not that much longer that it was $12. Mm-hmm. You know, and then eventually it was, it's like paying my mortgage. So that's one ad, one revenue stream that, uh, that was my first, I guess you could say my first YouTube.

Dollar my first 12 cents. But then you have affiliate marketing, you know, with content creation there's so many revenue streams that you have available. So affiliate marketing has been big for me. And then creating my own courses and like online programs and stuff. Mm-hmm. Um, is. Sort of what I'm focusing on now because it's a bigger piece of the pie, so to speak, than ad revenue, which fluctuates quite a bit, especially right now with the economy, the way that it is.

So, but yeah, my 12 cents, that was my first, my, my first money from YouTube.

I mean, it's only 12 cents, but when you think about it, you're like, Hey, I make 12 cents. I can make this into $12. I can make this Exactly $1,200. Exactly. So as long as there is a start, there is a way. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You can compound it.

Yes. So Meredith, you mentioned content, creating content on YouTube, and I know that you teach YouTube to other business owners how to get started. Mm-hmm. Uh, so let's talk about that a little bit. Let's talk about how do you decide what kind of content to create on YouTube? How do you decide what kind of content will kind of pick up on YouTube, get traction and views?

Okay, so I think the first place to start is to think about your actual audience. And if you are somebody who has a business, if you have an online offer or you know, some type of an in-person type of an offer, then you have customers. So that's your audience. Like how can you get more of those people? And so you have to think about that person and what are they?

What problems are they having that they're searching for a solution? SEO is, search engine optimization is still really viable on YouTube. There's a lot of, um, discussion around like other platforms like TikTok and such where your content is discoverable through other avenues other than what people are searching for.

And that's true for YouTube too. But search is also still really heavily utilized. And then mm-hmm. But at the same time, it's underutilized by people who are just getting started because they're hearing people say, oh, you don't need to focus on keywords, but like, if you wanna reach people or searching for something, Yeah, you, you do have to focus on keywords if you wanna show up there.

So, um, that's number one. I think the easiest place to start because you know what the problems are that people are searching for solutions. Mm-hmm. And then you also know what mistakes people are making as they're trying to solve those problems on their own. Those are the types of videos that. They may not be things people are searching for, but the algorithm knows the viewer behavior, it knows they're trying to solve this problem.

And so you can generate views and get new audience that way too by creating stuff that people aren't searching for, but you know that they're struggling with. So if you can get the algorithm to get it in front of those people, then You are kind of, you're hitting YouTube from all angles with search and the recommendation algorithm.

So that's where I would start as a business owner, is thinking about what you offer and who, who you offer it to and start with, with that, versus like trying to find keywords that are like trending or what is everybody talking about on YouTube right now? Or like trying to make videos like Mr.

[00:13:09] Mariam Tsaturyan:

So, you talked about creating content when even people aren't searching for those keywords yet. Mm-hmm. So are you saying that if we were to do keyword research for YouTube purposes and we found some zero volume keywords that we think are valuable, but let's say it's zero volume, we should still create videos on those?

Yes, if you think they're valuable for sure, because you know what keyword research tools like that are specific to YouTube, like TubeBuddy or VidIQ, um, they're, they are using their own data, so, How do you know that It's all of the data of everything, you know, because they're um, they're kind of like putting together their own algorithms to make a best guess for you.

So if you know it's something people are searching for or something people are interested in, then yeah, absolutely. Create a video about that for sure. Great

That's good to know because you know, for example, when somebody is writing a blog post, let's say hypothetically if it's a blog or writing a blog post and doing keyword research, then usually there's this push that do not do like zero word keywords, unless of course you're trying to, create that authority and that keyboard is essential for creating that authority.

But generally speaking, the push is aim for keywords that already have search volume, not too high, right? Because you want to rank for them. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. But we're looking for, volume keywords. Yeah. So Meredith, you said, and well, you implied actually, and it's true, I guess, time passed, YouTube has changed from the time you started it and back in 2016.

Until now, a lot of new laws, a lot of regulations, different features on YouTube. Let's talk about somebody who is just starting out on YouTube today. What are some steps or they need to take to be successful, to have the best chance on YouTube? Or do you have any strategies for those people to succeed on YouTube?

Yes. Okay, so best steps stick to creating simple videos on specific topics. In a single niche. Mm-hmm. Don't be afraid to niche down or be more specific with your topics, because you want, you want that exact right. Viewer to like laser lock in on like, oh yeah, this person is gonna solve my problem.

You want them to watch your whole video, you know, find one video through search results. Maybe watch that whole video. And now YouTube has that viewer pegged as somebody who like, oh, they're interested in this topic. And so all the other videos on your channel can now be recommended to that person when they go to youtube.com or open the homepage or recommended content.

So you don't have to rely just on that person finding you and then digging deeper into your channel. Like, yes, we want them to do that. We want them to go down a rabbit hole of your channel, but we also want the algorithm to put your videos in front of them. So maybe next week you publish a new video and that viewer goes and opens up YouTube.

And there it is on the homepage. Like how, how did it know to do that? Because they had watched your video and they had watched like the whole video or most of the video, or they watched 10 videos on their channel, so mm-hmm. The algorithm kind of makes that connection and gets it in front of that exact right person.

So if you're sticking within specific topics within a single niche, then. YouTube gets a really good idea about the actual audience that's perfect for your videos, or even better said would be, it gets a better idea of your, of I I usually say this the other way around, so most of the time people think that I publish a video.

YouTube's gonna go find people to watch my video, but it's the other way around. YouTube knows that, oh, Mariam is on YouTube right now. What is she gonna watch? What can we put in front of her that's going to give, make her watch YouTube as much as possible today so that she doesn't leave? So, yeah, I don't, I, I don't know where I was going with that, but that's what we want to have happen.

YouTube knows we have this collection of videos on these specific topics. They're all related. So we know the viewers that are gonna be perfect to get those videos in front of so that the viewers stay on YouTube as long as possible. Did that answer your question or cause more confusion?

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So. Let's talk about, we, we talk, kind of touched on creating content on YouTube and getting started on YouTube. now I wanna address some of the logistical questions that people just always naturally have. Is there like an ideal length for a video to create on YouTube?

I would say not an ideal length but I would aim for at least five minutes. I mean, you don't, you just want the video, your videos to be as long as they need to be without having to add any extra fluff or, so the, the thing is like, watch time is so important, like watch time is this signal, watch time is the goal of YouTube. They want people to watch videos and stay on the platform.

So, If you are gonna do a video that could be five minutes, or you're thinking, oh, I'll make it 20 minutes. I'll add in this and that, and I'll tell this story and that story and blah, blah, blah. Well, like, are people going to stay that long is the question. So if you're not gonna be able to hold people for 20 minutes, hold their attention, then you're better off just making four videos that are five minutes long than one long video.

So it kind of depends on. The creator and the content, you know, like. It's like asking how big should a painting be like, mm-hmm. I, I don't know how big does it, how big should it be? How big does it, how much space does it deserve to take up? You know? It's like, um, it's dependent on so many factors, but I think five minutes at a minimum is a good place to start.

And if you feel like if you're putting a video together and you're like, oh, this is only three minutes long, then. Make a couple of YouTube shorts, make them 60 seconds or less and just just make them, make them shorts.

That was going to be my next question, to be honest with you, because, you know, yeah, watch time is important on YouTube. It's an important statistic as to whether your channel is succeeding or not. So then how do we treat YouTube shorts? I know it's supposed to be an equivalent to something like Tiktoks and Instagram reels, but can somebody succeed on YouTube with just doing YouTube shorts?

There are shorts only channels that are like, I would describe them more to be like entertainment type content versus business type content.

I still think long form videos are like the most powerful way to utilize YouTube to, to grow your business for sure. But, Shorts are helping people get new subscribers. Mm-hmm. Um, the thing with shorts is like when, when your short is playing or if you're watching a short from a channel that you're not subscribed to, there's a big red subscribe button right there.

So it's like so easy for people to click. So people are gaining subscribers I think, more easily than from a long form video, which is great, but I think it's a little too early to tell. If that really does anything for you. Did, like, did those people come back and watch your long form videos or mm-hmm. You know, buy your course or something. And the. The analytics and the data. on shorts are so goofy right now. Like if you publish a short, you may for like an hour, you're gonna see these like views go up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And then they just stop. And it's like YouTube, just stop showing it to people and. Why? We don't know why, why did it do that?

You know, I have clients who, it's like, you can see the graph and it's going up, and while it's going up, they're gaining subscribers, like 10 subscribers in one hour, and then it just stops. And it's like, if people were subscribing, why did you make it stop like it was working? You know? So I think I, I don't know that.

YouTube has a really clear, I think they're still testing things and I'm kind of on the fence with how seriously to take shorts. For me, it's just all experimental. It's mm-hmm. You know, but, so there, I don't have a shorts strategy per se, but you can reply, or respond to comments as a short, so on a long form video with your phone through the YouTube app on your phone, you can find a comment and reply with a short, just like on like reels and TikTok, where the comment shows up and it's clickable to click through to the video.

So if someone asks a great question, You can create a short from that question. And I think that's a really under me, for me, it's an underutilized thing. I should do that every single day. I could probably do a hundred a day like that. But I think that's a really cool way to integrate shorts. Mm-hmm.

Also using trending music is, gets you more views, I think. I mean, that's what people are saying and it's also seems to be my experience too. So I, yeah, I'm still on the fence about shorts and if you, If, if you pay attention, you'll see there are really smart people saying you gotta create shorts.

Shorts is how you grow your channel and you gotta get on this shorts bandwagon. And then there's really smart people saying, like showing data and saying, don't bother with shorts. They're not sustainable and they're probably going to go away at some point in the future.

You don't feel that YouTube is pushing shorts the same way that Instagram is pushing reels at the moment?

I don't know. I think they're still trying to figure it out.

Okay. Makes sense. Makes sense. Good to know. So one last question about shorts. I promise, it's probably not your favorite topic.

No, I love talk, I love to talk about anything YouTube. It's because it's all shorts is just all an experiment, so,

yeah. Would you, so for people who are, let's say, active on platforms like Instagram and TikTok creating the Shortform videos, would you recommend they actually upload that same format? Let's say somebody created a TikTok and then they just remove the watermark and posted on reels as well. Would you recommend that same format to be posted on YouTube short, or do you think, YouTube shorts should be approached a little bit differently as far as the video creation is concerned or the type of video creation?

I think if repurposing from TikTok or reels is the only way that you are going to be active on YouTube, then I would just say, just do that. Because something is better than nothing, right? Mm-hmm. Um, I think there is, I don't know if it's true or not, but I think even with TikTok and reels, it's like somehow the platform knows if you created it in the app, some people say, oh, it it knows, and it'll push it to more people.

And other people are like, but that doesn't make any sense if I create it even like. With my computer. How does it, you know, so if you're, if you repurpose, you should try to put some text on the screen, you know, like a title at the top and like big bold letters or something within the YouTube shorts, like when you upload it so that YouTube knows or thinks like, oh, they created this organically from YouTube and they definitely didn't repurpose this from TikTok. So, the more you can make it sort of look and feel like this is a native YouTube short and not just a repurposed TikTok, I think mm-hmm. I think that's probably a best practice, but, I don't, I mean, I repurpose Tiktoks.

They've done fine. I've done just regular uploaded created with the shorts app. They do fine. You can, you can test it out, but like I said, something is better than nothing. So if repurposing is like the only thing you can do right now to be active on YouTube, it's, I say it's still a good way to go.

[00:27:16] Mariam Tsaturyan: The goal most of the time is not to be a YouTuber. The goal is to either create authority around for their brand or for their persona, or, it is to market their product and services. So, Let's talk about selling on YouTube. Specifically maybe selling digital products. We can also touch on, you know, actual physical ones because we do have some e-commerce owners as well.

[00:27:53] Meredith Marsh:

Okay. Quick and dirty top tips. Yep. So you don't wanna sell in every video, even if you have like a freebie or a lead magnet, you don't want every single video to be directing people off the platform.

Because you, that's a negative signal to YouTube. YouTube's gonna say, oh man, like every time someone comes to watch one of Mariam's videos, they leave. So we're definitely not going to put Mariam's videos on the homepage because we don't want people to leave. Mm-hmm. So you're better off sending people to another video, you know, if, if this was helpful, you're gonna love that video.

Or if, you know, you're just kind, sort of handing off to another perfect video on your channel for the viewer to watch. And so, Ideally, you would have, say if you have an offer, maybe it's like a, like a $37 digital product, or you even have a freebie if you have one video that sort of makes the case for why somebody needs that.

Then, Use your other videos to send people to that video instead of sending them to that freebie or to that offer. So I have this on my channel now at the top. I have become binge-worthy on YouTube, and it's a, mm-hmm. It's at the top. So it's in, like, it's in the trailer position. You can have a trailer or a featured video at the top of your channel.

So it's up there. So now I can send viewers to that video and that video makes the case for why you should get my three by four method secret video. So that's a free opt-in. Mm-hmm. It's not a paid offer. So that I'm always sending people to another video, which is a positive signal. And not only that, but I'm sending them to a video that does a better job of making a case for why you should opt into this thing. So, I think the results overall are better in that way. It's more of, of a journey for the viewer than just, if this video is helpful, go download my thing. So that's a way I think of making it really kind of fit in with YouTube. Mm-hmm. Fit in with the, I think online business sometimes kind of with YouTube, it feels a little bit like, Square peg, round hole situation because YouTube doesn't want people to go off and buy your offer or download your thing.

And so you have to kind of like integrate it in a way that still plays YouTube's game, still sends those positive signals, the watch time and still kind of cultivates a community of viewers. But then also has a way to give people the free bie or their lead magnet or the offer that's gonna like solve a problem that they need to have solved right now.

And then of course, you have the backend of like email marketing, where if you're using YouTube to build your list, then if you launch something or you do a five day challenge or a webinar, you have those people on your list and you have them in your community watching your videos and they kind of like work hand in hand and work really well together.

So, that's the, that's the way that I've been. Fitting the square peg into the round hole, so to speak.

Actually kind of gave me an idea. So hypothetically, one could use YouTube as a way to do like a video sales letter. Mm-hmm. Right? Mm-hmm. Instead of like sending them to a long sales page, which they're still going to go, but you kind of could create videos on different portions of your sales letter, right? And talk about objections and mm-hmm. Do FAQs and you know, yes. And then at the end, maybe like doing like three, four videos of going over the details and why somebody should buy and all of that. At the end, send them somewhere.

Oh, yeah, you could do that. You, you could do that.

You just don't do that with every single YouTube video. Mm-hmm. That's, that's the idea. Do it, you know, every, whenever you need to. I mean, ideally you could have videos that do a, you could have one video that does a really good job of selling. Your offer. Mm-hmm. And then you don't need to make any more videos that do that.

You just need to make videos that drive traffic to that video.

Makes sense. Yeah. Makes sense. Meredith, how does YouTube marketing perform when it comes to sales for low ticket offers versus, high ticket offers?

I think. It depends on your audience. Mm-hmm. And then it sort of, I think, depends where you take the viewer.

So. In other words, like for me, for my audience, I'm not gonna throw, you know, a thousand dollars offer up there. Like, people are gonna be like, yeah, okay, I'm just gonna watch your free YouTube videos. Um, but when you're using YouTube to build your list, And then if you have a bigger ticket offer where you do a, have a longer runway and a bigger promotion, maybe it's a webinar or a five eight challenge or something like that, or even getting people on a sales call.

You can, you're using your list for that. And then YouTube is filling your list. So I think sh uh, the. Like SLOs or low ticket offers, I think are perfect, especially if they solve an immediate problem. You know, like templates or, um, I don't know, like workbooks, things like that, where you are, especially if you're like showing how to use the thing.

You're solving a problem, you're showing how to use it, and then you're like, oh yeah, you can go download this too. Um, and here's the link. I think that is a great way to generate some revenue, but also you're, you're still building the list that now they're a customer on your list for your bigger, higher ticket launch type of products.

Interesting. So potentially you could build up your email list fairly quickly with YouTube?

Potentially, yes. Potentially. I say potentially because it's like, yeah, you can, if you have it set up to do that, like people aren't going to. Look at your YouTube videos and say, Hmm, I wonder if she has an email list, and then go off and find it. If you're saying like, if you're, you're addressing a problem addressing objections, um, or even just sort of having a conversation with your viewers and giving a really clear, good reason why grabbing your freebie or whatever it is. Now they're hopping on your list, but you.

It's a consistent thing that you have to kind of like keep going versus mm-hmm. You know, ha like, people will put a link to their freebie at the top of their channel, and I think that's okay, but also you have to tell people why they should, why they should download it. And, you know, every couple of videos, or like I said, have a video at the top of your channel that makes a case for.

Downloading this thing if that. Does that make sense? There's like, no, no, absolutely. There's so many different ways. Absolutely. Yeah,

Absolutely because I'm comparing that to, let's say, building a list through podcast. And I think, YouTube would be A better fit for building the list, at least initially, probably less hurdles.

So for example, on a podcast, you can say like, oh, I have this great freebie. Go download it. The link will be in the show notes, or you can even say it out loud during the episode itself. But because most of the time people are just, you know, on the go while they're. Listening to podcasts, it's like, from my experience, like very few people sit down in front of their computers to listen to a podcast.

You know, it's harder to get them to take action on a particular link, unless that's exactly what they've been looking for. So the moment they hear it, they're like, oh my God, I have to have this. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Then I imagine YouTube would be a little bit easier in that regards just because it is a video and you have the description right there in front of your face and the links are clickable.

So you don't have to take that extra step. Yeah. I wanted to, before I forget everyone, since we talked about freebies and free resources and opt-ins and whatnot, Meredith has a great free resource for all of you out there. It is called 3x4 method. This is one of our most popular freebies, so make sure to download this.

It's basically a video that shows you how to create 12 videos in the same amount of time that it would normally take you to create just one video. The link is https://www.meredithmarsh.co/3x4 and the link will be in the show notes as well. So make sure this is that one thing that you absolutely have to have, so you go in the show notes and download it because this will help you create content potentially for three, four months for your YouTube channel with very little effort.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Sure.

Of course, of course. Like I aim to share resources for my audience that I think will be helpful. And this is something that every single person needs. I mean, batch creating content is the goal for everybody. Meredith, since we've kind of covered content, we've covered how to do it, what to do it. We've covered sales now. Everybody's favorite question. Let's talk about the tools of the trade. Let's talk about the technology, the setup, right? Okay. When somebody's just starting out, what is, a tech that you would recommend for them to have in place?

If you're just getting started with creating videos, if you don't want to invest any money at all in buying a bunch of gear, which, which I recommend. Just try creating with what you have before you buy stuff, which, because I know a lot of people who have a fancy camera, uh, in a box in the closet, and they never used it because they thought that they needed it to create content.

You can create content with your phone. You could use a webcam on your computer. Um, if you're going to go that route, just prioritize your lighting. So you wanna be like in front of a window, but not in direct sunlight. Mm-hmm. Or um, or Yeah, in front of a window, even in your car. It sounds silly. And we see this a lot, uh, with like, with short form videos, we see people in their cars, um, cars are quiet and they have really great lighting because you have.

Light coming in from like all sides, and they're, they're designed to be quiet and like sound, sound, sound, sound treated almost right? Mm-hmm. So, um, if you have to create content in your car, create content in your car, uh, so that's what I would say is lighting also is. If you, if, if you're somebody who you create a video and you're like, I don't like the way I look, or I don't like the way I sound, or it's just, you don't, you don't feel like it looks like other people's videos.

It's probably your lighting. Um, and it, and you wouldn't know it by looking at it, but when you go and stand in front of a window, you'll be like, oh, okay, that makes sense. There's, you have less shadows on your face. You have. Less, um, like the light is focused on you instead of focused on the whole like background.

so prioritize your lighting. That's an easy way to not spend any money but uplevel look of your videos. Um, if you did want to invest in anything, it should be your audio. So getting. Some type of an external microphone. Um, and there's so many different options out there. Even for your phone. There's wireless mics that you can pin to your shirt, um, that work with a phone or a camera.

The people say, That viewers will, they'll watch a video that looks bad, but they won't watch a video. That sounds bad because our ears are so sensitive that if, if it, if there's like an echo or anything that is like kind of a little bit annoying, it's like our ears are like, Nope, I can't, I can't watch it.

So that's the thing I would say, if you were gonna spend money on something, Don't make it a camera or lights, make it some type of a microphone so that you have good audio, with your videos. And then like beyond that, there's a lot of, I have a video on my channel, on, on camera habits to basically look better, feel better on camera, like framing yourself so that your eyes are, you know, the rule of thirds.

If you're familiar with photography, And just like your posture and things like that, there's, there's like little habits that mm-hmm. Once you are, once you create your first few videos and you see like what they look like, are you happy with what they look like? You can start to make like smaller tweaks to the little on-camera, camera habits that uplevel how you look on video.

Interesting. Meredith, obviously you're an expert on this. You have great tips. You have great resources. Talk to me about how you're working with clients. Do you have an a course, do you have a membership? How is it that clients can come to you for help with their YouTube channel?

I have a couple ways.

I have 30 days to a thriving YouTube channel, which is. Of course you go through on your own time. It's all pre-recorded, so it's broken up into bite-sized lessons for 30 days, and that's for somebody who either, like, they don't have a channel yet. Mm-hmm. So they, they need that handholding step by step of how to get going.

Or somebody who has a channel, but they still kind of feel like. They're a total newbie and they don't know what they're doing. Makes sense. Yeah. And so if you don't know how to create videos, that would be for you. If you don't know what to create on your channel, if you don't know how to find those keywords or what people are searching for or watching.

Then 30 days to a thriving YouTube channel is perfect for you. If you have a channel then and you're like, I'm uploading my videos, and like nothing is happening. I have a membership called Thriving Creator Society that is for people who have a channel. But they wanna make it grow faster, scale it, and they're like, Meredith, just like, tell me what to create.

Tell me what to do here. Um, because a lot of it comes down to what's what your analytics are telling you, so mm-hmm. If you can read your analytics like a crystal ball, then you know what to do next or what to tweak or what's working well or what's not working well. And then I do work with clients on kind of an as going, ongoing basis for.

You know, setting your channel up to get those leads in sales and how to script your videos to mm-hmm. Get people to actually take action on those leads in sales. Um, so I do work with one-on-one clients and it just kind of varies what, what exactly that they need help with.

Okay, perfect. And is there a way that you prefer for, people to contact you in case somebody listening to this episode decides it's time to uplevel their YouTube channel?

Well, they can email me meredith@vidpromom.com

perfect. We'll put that in the show notes for you as well.

Yeah, that's, or if you find me on social media, just shoot me a dm.

Sounds great. Well, Meredith, this has been an absolutely amazing interview and very helpful. I'm sure people listening in, took notes.

They probably are walking away with a lot of golden nuggets, but there is one last question that I need to ask you that I ask to every single interview on this show. Can you provide our listeners with one actionable quick tip that they can implement for their businesses immediately and hopefully see some results?

Yes. Create some binge-worthy videos for your channel and really get clear on the problems that your customer or your ideal viewer is. Searching for, what are they struggling with, what are their fears around that thing? And get really clear on that and be specific in your videos, as you're creating them.

And, basically create a library of binge worthy videos so that YouTube kind of has no choice but to get your videos out to more people because they're so helpful and so useful for your audience. Perfect.

Perfect. So I hope you were listening in. I hope you took notes. I hope you will take what Meredith said today, what she taught today, and apply to your business no matter where you are at in your business, whether you're an online course creator, a coach consultant, an absolute beginner, or somebody who's scaling. YouTube has a place for all of you to succeed. Am I right or am I right, Meredith?

Oh, you are right. For sure.

All right. Well, thank you so much for spending your time with me today, Meredith. It was an absolute pleasure and maybe we should revisit YouTube in a not so near future again to see if anything has changed, if there's any like new strategies that people should adopt.

What do you think?

[00:46:48] Mariam Tsaturyan:

Well, thank you again Meredith. Have a great one and thank you for listening to us. I'll create another wonderful episode for you next week. While you have an opportunity to either listen to me talk about legal matters for your business and how to protect it legally, or you'll have an opportunity to listen in to another expert in their industry for growing and scaling your business.

Have a great one, everybody.