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Links Mentioned:www.productiveinsights.com/175www.productiveinsghts.com/200www.productiveinsights.com/222www.productiveinsights.com/212www.primalvideo.comwww.productiveinsights.com/primalChapters:00:00 - Intro01:12 - The secret to growing a youtube channel from 0 to 1.5m subscribers02:45 - YouTuber vs business owner who uses YouTube for growth08:17 - Is it too late to start a YouTube channel today?09:32 - YouTube rewards new content that's best for the viewer10:49 - How Primal video built a following of 1.5m subscribers when other channels didn't achieve this11:23 - The YouTube strategy for growth is so simple when you hear it11:40 - The first thing you need to do is create content people want12:02 - It's about talking to the problem and introduce the viewer to the solution13:31 - The two things you need to do to get found on YouTube13:45 - What drives a click on YouTube?14:28 - The third thing YouTube cares about15:53 - How to help YouTube understand your content16:53 - YouTube follows Google's search principles17:12 - YouTube is the second most visited site in the world19:07 - What do I put in my course if I'm giving away everything for free19:25 - Earning vs stealing attention19:49 - Do you need to make ridiculous faces on thumbnails24:28 - Justin Brown's favorite YouTube software24:46 - Why JB uses Keywords Everywhere for Keyword research26:08 - How I use Chat GPT and AI in content creation31:10 - How frequently should you publish31:32 - How frequent and how consistent should your uploads be35:04 - Toipc selection39:20 - YouTube analytics39:47 - YouTube build in video editor40:02 - How to reoptimise old YouTube content40:29 - Is it safe to delete published YouTube videos43:38 - How important is adding b-roll when editing45:05 - Why creators use b-roll and other alternatives to b-roll47:47 - Outtakes and bloopers49:41 - Short form content vs long form content50:28 - YouTube shorts recommended strategy53:16 - We're testing a new strategy in this very video54:07 - Affiliate revenue model54:36 - The three revenue streams at Primal Video55:16 - Affiliate marketing is a win win scenario58:21 - The importance of integrity in affiliate marketing59:33 - How an $8 purchase led to affiliate commission on $30,000 gym equipment01:02:28 - The Primal Video community is amazingTranscript:Ash Roy    00:00Justin Brown and Mike Brown from Primal Video have built a seven figure video marketing company, grown a YouTube channel from zero to almost 1.5 million subscribers at the time of this recording on YouTube, and have developed recurring income models while still helping tons of other entrepreneurs do the same. In this conversation, we'll be digging into Justin and Mike's YouTube channel strategies with Justin and how they use those strategies to build a successful business. I'm delighted to welcome Justin Brown from Primalvideo.com and we would love to talk about how you, our listener or viewer, uh, can build your business and brand authority using YouTube. Welcome to the productive insights, podcast and YouTube channel Justin. Justin Brown 00:42thank you very much for having me on.Ash Roy    00:45You're most welcome. It's an absolute pleasure to have you, Justin. I've been following your work for a long time and I really like the fact that you are somebody who comes from the heart. You're very genuine and I feel like your values resonate with me. We have a few common friends which we're chatting about on the preamble, so it's really great to have you here. So Justin, let's start with the most interesting bit, and that is, can you share with us the secret to growing your YouTube channel, Primal Video to almost 1.5 million subscribers from zero? How did you do it?Justin Brown 01:24Even that number seems a little crazy to me. Uh, look, I guess we started the YouTube channel eight years ago and uh, we started with no idea. Just make some videos and they will come and treated YouTube as a video hosting platform where throw some things up and you can go viral and get views and traffic have impact on it. But it really doesn't work that way. So we've gone through, we've made a lot of mistakes over our time. Uh, we definitely got to the point early on when it wasn't working that we nearly gave up and that it was a bad business decision for us at that point. So, I mean, while I make videos on YouTube and while we have nearly 1.5 million subscribers, I'm not a YouTuber. Uh, I make videos on YouTube which are, uh, able to show up and help and impact people with a specific pain or problem that they have. And the traffic and everything that we can generate from that. Adding value and helping people, uh, is also what grows and builds our business too. So it's an amazing business tool for us. But when it wasn't working, then it was a bad business decision for us to continue with what we were doing or we had to figure it out. The biggest mistake that we made and that a lot of people make, is not having a clear strategy, not having a clear plan in place, and the ability to try and test things and know what things to try and test, to be able to set yourself up for success.Ash Roy    02:45Okay, what really interested me in what you just said there is. You said I'm not a YouTuber. Can you tell us a bit more about that? What do you mean you're not a YouTuber? But yet you've used YouTube to build a very successful business. So what's the difference between you and your YouTuber?Justin Brown 03:00And there's nothing wrong with that term. I know a lot of people will say that's what I am for me, I'm a business owner. Uh, and we use YouTube for generating traffic and having impact. So it works very well for both of those. But typically what you would find with a YouTuber is that they're relying on going viral on YouTube. They're relying on just YouTube itself to pay them. And yes, there's some great ways that you can make money from YouTube but it's also very limiting and there's requirements. Um, before YouTube will start paying you, you need to have 4000 hours of watch time on your channel and you need to have 1000 subscribers. So a lot of people think that that's the only way that they can uh, make money from this stuff. Um, but in fact, you can actually start from day one again if you're treating it more like a business and a business tool. Um, even if you want to call yourself a YouTuber or not, if you're treating it that way that you don't need to be doing all the things that YouTubers feel they need to do like creating content every day or being on every social media platform. We have a very small audience on other platforms. We chose to go all in on one and that's I guess what a more strategic business person would do. Like where are we best to allocate our time and money and what focus can we have? Let's go all in on one and yes, dabble and play with some of the others. But I guess it's more the approach around it than thinking that there's a lot of stuff that we can lead to from this. But there's a lot of people that feel like um, that they're overwhelmed. A lot of people feel like I'm in burnout from uploading to YouTube and feeling like they're employed by YouTube and if they stop or take a week off that it's going to kill their channel. But none of that is true if you're not a YouTuber. Right? It's a business tool. I can upload when I like. Yes, there's definitely benefits in uploading consistently. But having the strategy is what we'll keep coming back to as a clear direction, clear ways to test and measure so that you can be successful with.Ash Roy    04:57This look that's really really interesting. And I was hoping you would say that because I wanted to try and draw that out for our audience. A YouTuber uh, is someone who identifies as such. But I have been watching your business for years now and I've been a member of your membership community, Primal Video which helps you to grow your authority on YouTube. And I understand that you see YouTube as a vehicle to build authority and attract your ideal clients. YouTube is not an end in itself for you, it is a means to an end. And I think that's an important, subtle, but important distinction. I spoke to James Clear in episode 175 about developing habits. Each time you perform, the habit is a vote towards the identity, is what he says. And that's an interesting point to me because when you create YouTube content, if you create it with the intention of seeing yourself as a YouTuber, you're building that identity. But if you're creating it with the intention of delivering value to a small section of the world who you want to help, as Set Gordon said in episode 200, then you are more likely to succeed in using YouTube as a means to building your business rather than becoming a YouTuber. Would you agree?Justin Brown 06:17One hundred percent. I love that.Justin Brown 06:19So it really is again about getting clear on who are the people that you want to show up for and the people that think like, I just want to be famous, right? And again, there's nothing wrong with that. But for who into what, it's harder because you're not classifying yourself necessarily into a specific niche. Whereas from a business perspective, there are ideal clients and students and people that you want to show up for. Now, that doesn't mean that you're going to rule yourself out of other audiences and niches as well. I mean, for us, helping people say on YouTube how to make videos and get views on them, we also have a lot of younger kids that are watching trying to grow their gaming YouTube channel. So that's awesome. I love that we have the ability to show up and help whoever with our content. But when I'm creating it, I'm creating it with a Clear avatar, a clear person in mind from a business perspective of I understand their pains and problems and I've been through a lot of them. So uh, how do I share my thoughts and opinions on helping them get to that? And if it can help anyone else as well, then that's amazing.Ash Roy    07:18Man, I got to say I, by any stretch of the imagination, don't think I'm famous, but I've come to be known a little bit mo