--- title: 'How to Grow a YouTube Channel from Scratch with Laura Farms' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GcmIVJhLoJk' video_id: 'GcmIVJhLoJk' date: 2026-07-14 duration_sec: 0 --- # How to Grow a YouTube Channel from Scratch with Laura Farms > Source: [How to Grow a YouTube Channel from Scratch with Laura Farms](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GcmIVJhLoJk) ## Summary In this live stream, Daryl Eves interviews Laura Farms, a fifth-generation farmer and YouTuber who shares her journey from starting a farming operation at 18 to building a successful YouTube channel. Laura discusses the importance of authenticity, understanding your audience, and creating content that resonates deeply with viewers. ### Key Points - **Introduction and Guest** [00:00] — Daryl introduces Laura Farms, a fifth-generation farmer and YouTuber, who will share insights on growing a YouTube channel from scratch. - **Laura's Background** [02:30] — Laura is a 23-year-old fifth-generation farmer from Nebraska. She started her YouTube channel five years ago to document her farming journey. - **Starting Farming at 18** [05:00] — Laura took out a $150,000 loan at 18 to rent 160 acres from her grandpa, presenting a detailed business plan. She started farming in March 2020. - **Viral Start on YouTube** [08:00] — Laura's first viral video was on Twitter, then hit #3 trending on YouTube, gaining 12,000 subscribers overnight. She monetized within the first month, earning $800. - **Authenticity and No Editing** [12:00] — Laura initially uploaded unedited, one-take videos from her iPhone, being transparent about her lack of editing skills. This authenticity resonated with viewers. - **Overcoming Skepticism** [16:00] — Laura faced skepticism as a female farmer, often being mistaken for a secretary. She persisted and earned respect in the farming community. - **Balancing Multiple Roles** [20:00] — Laura balanced farming, college, wedding planning, and YouTube. She saw the value in educating viewers about modern farming. - **Creating a Viewer Avatar** [25:00] — Laura created 'Roger', an avatar representing her typical viewer (older, interested in farming and finance). This helped her tailor content. - **The Viral Land Video** [30:00] — Laura's video 'History's Biggest Wealth Transfer Forced Us to Buy This Farmland' got 2.3 million views. She used a script outline and researched keywords. - **Thumbnail and Title Strategy** [35:00] — Laura used a natural, unedited photo for the thumbnail and a title that included 'forced' to create curiosity. She tested thumbnails by placing them among others. - **Community and Monetization** [40:00] — Laura's community supported her, with comments and donations. Daryl emphasized that merch should build community, not just generate revenue. - **Advice for New YouTubers** [45:00] — Laura advises to just start, make each video 1% better, and not wait for perfection. Daryl adds to have a plan and understand your audience. - **Final Advice** [50:00] — Laura encourages giving your best effort so you have no regrets. Daryl emphasizes taking action and being authentic. ### Conclusion Laura Farms' journey shows that authenticity, understanding your audience, and consistent effort can lead to YouTube success, even in niche topics like farming. ## Transcript There's so many of us that are actually creating content on YouTube and we all have to start with zero. And ultimately, it is a struggle trying to figure out exactly what to do to really grow from scratch. And I'm really excited about this live stream today because of a couple key things. Number one, I'm going to introduce someone that I really respect and love in the community. Uh she's probably one of the most uh determined people I've ever met in my life. And a lot of the knowledge that she's going to share with us today is all around learning what is really important to grow and uh especially grow in very tough conditions and also grow uh in in ways that you might not necessarily uh would consider, you know, in starting YouTube. Now, if you're new to me, my name is Daryl Ees. I've been on YouTube since 2005. and I just love it. I love the opportunity. I love the creator economy. Um, I've been able to generate over 110 billion video views across all the channels that I own. And then also I I get the privilege to mentor and train students uh and and help them, you know, really take advantage of this opportunity which is YouTube. So, this is my love. This is my passion. And if you're new, go ahead and hit that subscriber bell notification and all that fun stuff. Well, you know what to do. But here's the key. Um, I really think that all of you that are watching this video uh can learn from other creators. And sometimes we dig deep into things that make no sense. We spend time in areas that we shouldn't even consider. And my goal to come on and do these interviews is to inspire you uh to think differently, to inspire you to double down in areas where you might be a little weak. And you know, having these conversations are real and it brings us into a vein that we can have the right type of conversations to consider because the people that I bring on an interview are actually doing it in the sense that they're transforming their lives. Uh they're transforming their channels. They're opening up new horizons all because of YouTube. Uh so today I'm joined by someone that I totally respect and and love and it's Laura Forms. How you doing Laura? I'm doing so well. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to talk today. I Okay, first off, I need to thank you because I know it's a crazy weekend. You have a wedding that's going on. Not your wedding. You're already married, but um and you're not even on your farm, so it's like, okay, we're in the hotel, but uh but yeah, thank you so much for joining us and and I really do appreciate it. So, for all those that don't know who you are, would you just take a second and kind of explain the type of content you create? um and kind of your journey a little bit. Absolutely. Okay. So, hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. My name is Laura or Laura Farms on the internet. I create content across all social platforms, but specifically on YouTube. I am a fifth generation farmer. I'm 23 years old and I'm from Nebraska. I started YouTubing my farming journey five years ago almost exactly and a lot has changed uh since the beginning since I started creating content. So I'm really excited to kind of unpack that journey with Daryl and you guys today and kind of figure out what I have learned so that you guys can uh skip some of the steps that I had to learn. So I I want to just start with it um farming and farming in general. Um, like how many generations have you been in, you know, your family's been in farming? Yeah. So, I'm a fifth generation farmer and I'm married to my husband Grant. He's a sixth generation farmer. So, I have been He's one up you then. He's oneuped you then. He oneupeds me. He He has to um in most unfortunately, but I have just kind of been around the farm my whole life, but it's it's been good. It's a different lifestyle than most people are used to. It is. There's there's a lot of of chores and responsibility that most people don't see going on. I I actually um uh my dad wanted us to stay busy, so he's like, "Oh, we're farming, too." And I'm like, "What? Wait, what?" Uh but we we milked a lot of cows and he wouldn't let us like get the automated milker. He made us do it the old school style, man. And it's just like I I can tell you I don't know about you. I I know you probably saw it differently, but when I was doing all those chores, I'm like thinking, I never want to do this in the history of my life ever again, this whole thing. And yet you are like, "No, this is like my honor to to do this." So, yeah, I definitely I've seen a lot of hard work from the generations that came before me and have been able to hear a lot of their stories and kind of the sacrifices that they made for their families just to continue this this passion that they had. Um my uh ancestors immigrated from Sweden and my personal family farm, they have been operating on the exact same homestead since they immigrated over. So over a hundred years, we've been farming the same ground, kind of slowly expanding, but it's it's a very meaningful profession to have and I'm really honored to be able to take part in the fifth generation and then carry on to future generations. That's great. I do have a question. And I know this is not geared to YouTube, but was it during the land grab that they got the their homestead or was it just uh after that? Was that that It was It was a little bit after that. Grant's family actually his family farms and you can still see the grass dugout. It's a little Wow. Yeah. It's It's really really cool. And we have some super early on pictures. And I mean they started with nothing like a dollar in the pocket and a horse and a wife and four kids that they brought over from Sweden and truly the American dream. So it is living on a prayer because like truly what's going to happen. Yeah. Well uh well that's great. And so um let let's talk about your YouTube journey because um you know I I know that you grew up on a farm, you were going to go to school. Was YouTube even on your radar at all? Like what was what was going on? I mean, it was just like what was your uh passions? Where did you want to go? Yeah. Not YouTube was not even a little bit on the radar. I have always really enjoyed documenting stuff. I'm a big journaler, a big notetaker. I like having stuff to reflect and look back on, but I never really saw that as being part of video or especially YouTube for a large audience. I think to some degree everyone likes the idea of maybe someone will listen to their story. That's a really attractive idea. But I honestly grew up thinking that the name Laura was too boring of a name to ever be a famous person now. Honestly, that's what I thought. I was like, it'd be so cool to be a known person, but I thought Laura was too boring. Laura Les, come on now. Come on. Come on. That's who I was named after. I was named after Seriously. Seriously. Oh my gosh. So great. But I started farming with my dad. My plan was to go to school. I was going to college, studying business, accounting, those kinds of things. There's a lot more of that stuff that goes into farming that you might think it's not just driving a tractor all day every day, though we all wish it was. That's the fun part of farming. And then I was sent home from college when the CO 19 pandemic hit. And I, you know, I'd asked my parents, I said, I know we're kind of moving up the timeline here, but I'm home. Is it okay if I started renting ground and farming now? I've always been a super independent person and it was super important. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay. Okay. First, we we got to unpack that one real quick because like most people are like, "Hey, I don't have anything to do. You just give me some ground." And you're like, "No, no, no. I'm ready to rent it from you guys." Like, yeah. So, there's there's a lot there's some stuff that goes into it. Um, I have always been a very independent person and I never wanted anyone to be able to say that my parents just handed me things. That was was really important to me. So, as much as I respect how much they've worked in their lives and worked hard to be able to give me opportunities, I wanted to be able to say that the only thing that my parents gave me was an opportunity. So, I took out a pretty massive loan because at 18 years old, I just had my school card to my name and some clothes in a closet. And I approached my grandpa with a business plan. Um, asking him if I could rent a quarter, which is 160 acres of ground from him. And I I hit him with the the crops that I was going to grow, how I was going to market my grain, how my operation was going to be profitable, the expenses that I was going to have, and he graciously rented me that quarter of ground, and I started farming literally the day I came home from college. So, it would been March maybe 11th of 2020. Like, how do you get a loan at 18 though? Like, that's insane. Like, I don't even understand that. It is wild. There's crazy opportunities for farmers. But yeah, at 18 years old, I had about $150,000 in debt and that was to kind of start my operation up. So that covered all my initial startup costs and we just went to work. So I basically just hopped in a tractor cab and started going. That's that's so great. Okay, so uh you you basically wasn't um given anything. you had had an idea and this is what I love about you is like you actually had a plan like you're like okay this is what the plan this is what we're looking at we're getting very specific and and then two you seized the opportunity which was not entitlement but look they they worked their their heart out you know doing that and then two renting you know said ground or whatever you know that's going to benefit them that's going to benefit you as well and so that I I love that because I think a lot of people jump in and they just have uh high hopes and and big dreams But but you actually had um you know that that plan together. And my my thing is um if there's anything not predictable in business, it would be farming cuz you're just like never going to know. And and it's like like I I I'm still trying to wrap my head around, you know, at 18, you know, going in debt just to to do this. Um how was it? How was it that first, you know, six months of of planting and and and going through that process? um scary to say the least. But what was really cool is that basically the day that I started farming was pretty much the day that I started my YouTube channel. And so did you have that in mind to do the YouTube channel at the same time? No, I absolutely did not. But I have to take you back. Okay, so think about March, April of 2020. Most people were confined in their homes. everything had been cancelled, not in school. And so I had some family members who'd moved out of state reach out to me and they're like, "Laura, we know you're starting your farming career. Our kids are home from school. We're just staying home. We're kind of doing a homeschool thing. Would you be able to send us just videos of what your guys' days on the farm looks like?" And so I started putting together very rudimentary videos, essentially daily vlogs, although I did not call them that at the time, of here's what my day on the farm looks like. It was very peaceful. We were relatively unaffected by CO. And so we're just out in the prairie, wide open spaces, and I thought, this is so cool. I get to do my job every day, but I get to share a little slice of my personal paradise with my family members who are in Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, those areas, and it just took off from there. I want to talk about that. So, um, wow. um you know just just to be able to right at the beginning of your journey you're documenting it and and I I I it does make sense based on something you said earlier like oh you're a journaler you like to analyze that whole thing um and so it's like hey let's just document the process going on when when did it get interesting in the sense of uploading YouTube and and realizing wait I can make money on YouTube I know you probably already knew that but it was just like wait this we we can kind of double dip here you know, so like when when did that actually happen? Was that like right out of the gate? Um because like during COVID it was really easy to get a view because everybody was watching content, you know, so absolutely. Yeah, I think everyone was totally glued to their phones. The first video that I posted on the internet was actually not on YouTube, but it was on Twitter. So I have that to thank for kind of launching my career. I posted a video there, a minute long, vertically formed, kind of the opposite of what a good YouTube video should be and it really picked up some traction on Twitter and then I was actually on the front page of Reddit and it was me just calmly explaining to the camera, my iPhone, which is what I've been filming on since the very beginning, talking about what the inside of a tractor cab looks like because a lot has changed since the dugout days. cover wagon is such a technically advanced field now and I kind of went viral there and all I was reading through and everyone was just saying where is this girl's YouTube channel where can I get more and I remember thinking to myself and making a tweet about this I said h guys you know appreciate it I do not have time for a YouTube channel that sounds like a lot of work but you know thank you though I'll post the videos that I have filmed already but that's kind of all you're going to get And the videos I posted, those vertical videos of just me documenting my days, just basically instantly picked up traction. It seemed to be something that people really wanted to watch. Was a little slice of paradise, very calm and just me explaining and people just couldn't believe there was this me this much technology involved in farming. And I started to see maybe a little bit of an opportunity. And okay, first off, first off, I I just need to It's not normal to be the front page of credit. It's just like like that's like my like heaven beyond heavens. Like it's like when you can get that right type of visibility with those type of viewers, it's like it's it's insane. And I wow I I'm just thinking what if you would had a channel before? Like how fast? So you're not gonna you're not going to like the next thing I'm gonna say. So once I once I posted once I posted that that vertical video, I was number three trending on YouTube in the world, not just even in the United States. I know. I know. I don't even like saying it. I don't even like saying it because I realize that never happens. But that I mean that's the moment I woke up to I had one subscriber and it was my dad when I went to bed when I posted that video because my parents are my biggest supporters. They've believed in me since I was born. I had my dad, my mom subscribe to me. And then I woke up to 12,000 subscribers on YouTube. There there's the path right there. It's like I basically I because I was I was living I mean I'm an 18-year-old. I'm living at home and I went upstairs to eat breakfast and I said, you know, guys, I I think I think I'm a YouTuber now. Like I don't I can I can't walk away from this now. I want to I want to unpack that because um thi this can be uh very affirming uh what you're doing, right? Like, oh, really excited. Uh you know, there's there's an audience for this. I didn't know I could get the front page of Reddit, but also trending on YouTube right out of the gate. Um and so I I know in my mind I'm thinking opportunity opportunity opportunity. And the more I get to know you, it's like we're wired the same way. Like I I know that you're already analyzing the strategy behind the strategy, but um it I I've seen it where it's like a one hit wonder where where you know something pops off and then and then the next videos don't really perform or they're really um active for the first month or two and then you lose kind of steam on that. So share share with me the first month when you decided I'm a YouTuber now waking up to that and then also the first three months because I think there's there's a a differentiation between jumping on and then just realizing oh okay maybe this isn't as easy as what I thought. Absolutely. I started filming videos but I knew that I did not have a lot of skill in the editing world. I knew I could film things. I've always known I'm pretty good with people. I could talk to a brick wall for six hours, but I'm not really skilled when it comes to editing. And so I said, "You know what? I guess I just won't edit." And so I picked up my phone in the morning uh when I'd get in the tractor cab because we're still in planting season. And I would film a clip, whether it was 10 minutes or 14 minutes or 30 minutes, but it would seriously be one one clip, one take, one shot. and I just approached my audience because I saw very very early on clearly there are people who want to see a girl farming in Nebraska. I didn't feel that special, but apparently there's people out there that want to see it. And so I was very upfront with them from the beginning. I said, "I'm ready to tell my story, but you're going to need to bear with me. I don't know how to edit." And so I'm going to give you a raw real inc time. I was I was filming and uploading and posting from my phone. The thumbnails are just screenshots from the video. The titles I look back now and I just I shake my head. I can't believe anybody would watch those. But um I saw that my audience really liked that I was just a genuine person. I I did not go into this with any idea that I would be become known for this by any means, but I just saw a real opportunity to kind of educate people and at the same time share my story. But I thought if I can explain what I'm trying to do every single day to someone who's never been on a farm, then I must really have a deep understanding of it. And I really wanted to I want to be the best farmer that I can be. That's that's my goal. If I if I do a job, I want to be the best version of that that I can be. And I thought if I can teach someone who knows nothing, I have to have a really good understanding. So it gave me a good opportunity to figure out my why. Why am I waking up every morning and doing this job? What makes it important? Why is it impactful to the larger farming story as a whole? And I can see now what a big impact that's had on my YouTube journey. Yeah, but I was very I was very clear with the audience from the beginning. I'm not an expert. I'm not an expert in YouTube. I'm not an expert in farming. I'm I'm an 18-year-old. I don't know what's going on. I just bought a whole bunch of equipment and property and business plan and I'm just going to go for it. No, I I love it. I love it because like that that's the sense of authenticity that I think the world is craving creating is like, oh, no, everyone come comes on and everything um needs to be perfect. They want this perfect persona and you're just like, I I'm not even going to edit cuz I don't even know what editing means. You know, I don't even have time for it. You know, who has time for this? But um but I but I love the authenticity out of the gate. Um and and it's setting those expectations too of of some people. Okay. I I'm really interesting in her journey. And so they kind of dive in. When when did you get monetized? Like if you got that many subscribers quick, I would assume there was the views that went with it. Like how long before you were actually a YouTube partner? I was monetized within the first month and I made $800 and I I can't tell you I cried. I was so excited because that was going to start. I mean, I'm looking at my bank statements, this massive amount of debt that I've taken on. And I started thinking, "Oh my goodness, if I can make $800 a month, that's I mean, that's gonna change that's going to change my life." So, that was was really, really incredible. But that that viral video really helped with the monetization early on. But I so realize that does not happen for most people. Yeah. But I see so many people who wait so long to post a YouTube video because they're looking like they they think that their first video needs to be the most Yeah. debut to YouTube. And that really makes me sad because I wish people would just start posting. Post a 10-minute video in one take where you say like um as and there's four minutes of just dead silence because you can't think of anything to say. I wish people would just start somewhere because you never know where it can take you. Yeah. Especially um when you don't see the value of the video. like there's so many people are like not seeing the value like really uh I mean I mean if you take a step back and really look at it um you know most people at 18 would never ever try to tackle what you're doing and two in a male dominated space and then two during the most difficult time of the world in the sense of you know uncertainty and everything that's going on and she's like oh no you're here here you're going for it and then it's just like okay you're going into something that they thought, "Oh, I thought farming was different and I had no idea." Uh, and and and that curiosity factor hit right in. And so, I think it's kind of like this perfect storm that was coming together where you saw consistency. And then two, you know, getting that that first check. Uh, like I'll never forget my first check. I'm like, "Oh, okay. Now, let's just start to compound that thing." That's what I'm what I'm thinking through. But tell me about like three or four months into it because like I I know farming is difficult and then and then two I know that farming communities might look down upon someone that's documenting everything. Are they really a farmer or are they just trying to get clicks? Are they giving us a bad name? Like what was going on in that in that in that realm? Uh definitely interesting. I feel pretty lucky to have a very supportive very close community around me. The farming community is a very very tight-knit munch because while we all work separately, we're all on our different farmsteads throughout the county, we all know there's this understanding that we're all working towards the same goal. We're all putting a crop in the spring, hoping, praying, and irrigating all summer long and then hoping that we can reap a good harvest in the fall. But I mean, I I have to say it. I don't look like a farmer. I'm I'm going to be honest with you. I have really long hair. I usually have painted fingernails. I like to wear jewelry. And so I Jewelry is like a no no on farming. I'm just here to tell you. I don't know if they'd ever had that little combo with you cuz things can get stuck. Green lawn hair. Big no no. Big no no on the farm. But I, you know, as an 18-year-old, I was just thinking, I don't I don't want to look dirty all the time or I want to still be a girl. Keeping my keeping my femininity was really important to me. And I'm going to be honest with you, it did take quite a long time to become a respected member of the farming community. Even with a tight-knit people around me, I would, you know, make a phone call to the co-op or something to sell some grain and the immediate question was, "Oh, are you calling on behalf of your dad?" or it's so nice that you're working as your grandpa's secretary and you're helping with the book work. Kind of the more traditional roles that a female would take on the farm. And while those roles are so important, the people the the support staff that happens around a farm, the people who bring meals, who are coordinating rides from place to place, that is an integral part of the farming journey. And I was still doing some of those things, but at the same time, I had to explain, nope, this is actually this is my farm. this this uh this 160 acres here. This is this is what I'm doing right now. Um and it it took quite a long a long bit. And there's just a general amount of skepticism still. I'm sure you see this around the social media influencing content creation career. I would still venture to say that even after all those years, most people still don't see it as a job. And I had a conversation, I kid you not, last night with someone who said, you know what, we were catching up. what have you been doing lately? And I was talking about the YouTube projects I was working on and they were like, "Oh, I kind of thought that was just a college project you were doing. Are you are you still are you still filming YouTube videos?" Yes. Yes. Yes, I am. And so, I guess that's just another little bit of encouragement I have to offer to people that it is not too late to start. If you wish you would have started last year or five years ago or 10 years ago, this economy is still such a new space because the majority of people still don't recognize it as a job and it is 100% a viable career. So, um so when it started to get interesting um and and you um seeing seeing that it's not all cut out like like the money just didn't come and fall in your lap every single time. It was like, "Oh, wait, wait." You know, you see opportunity, but yet it's not performing at at the rate. I mean, I I think uh the first little a little bit of time you like grow to about 30,000 subscribers, which most people um get super excited about the subscribers, but um as you're well aware, subscribers don't equal views and and some of the views weren't necessarily um coming in. Was there ever a time that you're like, "Okay, this is a lot." Like, I'm I'm trying to to to do farming. I'm trying to do this other like it's a lot. Um and and did you kind of shift your priority with one or the other or what was that what was that thought process? Well, I'm going to be honest with you. It still feels kind of like a lot, but there has been a group of people from the very beginning and I've seen I see people that comment from I recognize their handles. There are people that have been through me since the very beginning when I was still just dating Grant. I was renting ground. I owned nothing. I just had a little Nissan Maxima that I was using to check fields. I didn't even have a pickup. That's not even a truck. I mean, come on. I see. I can't I I kid you not. I mean, I was still in college and I was coming to my audience to help decide like, hey, should I take should I take 14 credits this summer semester and kind of focus more on farming or do you think this summer I should maybe should I take 19 credits this semester? I was coming to my audience for straight up life advice. But yes, there was there was two years where I was balancing my relationship with Grant. We actually got engaged that first year that I started YouTube. So, wedding planning, getting married, finding a place to live, starting farming, starting a YouTube channel, and I was still in college. So, there, needless to say, a lot going on. Um, but I really saw the value in the community on my YouTube channel from the very beginning. Very supportive comments, but then also a lot of comments that I saw that were just very naive to what farming was or could look like. And I just saw the opportunity to be able to teach a new generation or even an older generation what modern farming looks like and I knew that I couldn't give that up. So I basically just I want to talk about I want to unpack that a little bit because um you know most people are afraid to look at their comments um just because of the trolls and negativity. Of course there was stuff there as well. Uh, but but this is this is kind of where I need everyone to to stop what they're doing and just focus in on what I'm going to say here. But you're passionate about your heritage as a fifth fifth generation farmer. You're passionate and you've taken um active um you know steps to to secure your future in this. And it's the passion that resonates. And then two, knowing, oh, here's an opportunity to help elevate knowledge and understanding. That's when passion and and um really value come together. Cuz like if you really look at some of your biggest videos on the channel, it's it's that right there, your passion, but also hey, how things have changed or the the difficulty of which you don't necessarily perceive. And and I think everyone can do that. It's just like we just got to figure out what the value proposition is. But if you're not passionate, it will show. It just it's just going to show 100% of the time. And if you're just doing it for fame, it will show, you know, it's just like, wait, is that really them? you know, and so, you know, this right here is, uh, as you're well aware, um, it's like one thing that I really focus in on because if you don't if you don't have passion, you don't have a vision of what you're trying to create and you're not setting goals to improve, you know, you're always going to be in in in a realm of of uncertainty instead of creating something bigger than just a YouTube channel. And I think that right there is you're starting to create a community um more so now than you were back then. But I think it's just more this community of people that want to see you succeed, want to see um you know the the small little details that they can't see or know uh based on where they live their life and how they you know do their dayto-day. And so could you just speak in on that because I think I think uh knowing you and and knowing kind of uh what you're about. I think passion is what what keeps you going every day. That passion and determination is is where it is. Uh but could you just talk a little bit about this because I think if you really look at it, you're in a male-dominated space on uh farming and also on YouTube and and you know there's a lot of of naysayers on both sides, right? like ah what what's she trying to do you know in that whole thing wait long hair and jewelry like that's that's bound for disaster this whole thing I would love to hear this absolutely um so now through the five years I've grown this audience right and I've had the opportunity to have some conversations with people with with the audience with people that watch my videos have been around since the beginning or maybe just tuned in and I've had some very key conversations with fathers and daughters s and fathers who say that they were just, you know, scrolling on YouTube one night looking for something to watch and they're interested in farming and they had their kids come up to them and say, "Oh, daddy, what are you watching right now?" And he said that he felt safe enough to be able to watch something that was entertaining for him and educational, but he was excited to show my videos because it showed his little girls that a little girl can drive a semi-truck. Not I know we've we've met in person. I'm not a very big person. I'm actually very I'm pretty short. I'm very petite. When I meet people in person, they're like, "Oh, you're so much shorter than I was expecting." What I It's what I usually get. But like a a a girl can drive a semitr and and drive a tractor and still be a girl. And a lot of this stuff I feel like people have made off to be way too complicated or way too difficult to get into. And when you put your mind to something, you absolutely can. And so the opportunity to be a role model for young women, I can't ex I cannot put into words how much that blesses my heart because that is not that's not exactly why I started farming. I farming I was started farming because I wanted to work with my dad and my grandpa, you know, and carry on that kind of legacy. But that just makes my job so much more important. So, you're talking about those days where it gets so there's so much going on. I I think about that daily. I wake up and I think, what little girl can I speak to and say, "You can do this." If your dad is a farmer and you don't have any brothers, the farm doesn't have to end with you or you don't have to find someone to marry who's going to help you out with the farm. You can take over the farm by yourself. And that has been so impactful and that is what gets me through those crazy long days where we're in the middle of harvest and I'm working 15-hour just farm days and then filming and editing and posting and managing on top of that. It's Yeah, that's that's so inspirational cuz like for me um that that that uh that's what I call fuel in the tank. like anytime that the tank is a little low, you have to think about why why you're actually doing it and knowing that you're trying to influence and communicate to um young females that are are in a similar situation that you were brought up in and inspiring them or inspiring them that they can tackle tough things like that, man. That that's what I love. That's what I love um more than you know. Um, well, we've talked about how much, but it's just like I I love it a lot. Okay, so um let's let's get into the specifics. I think there's so many people here that are trying to connect the dots and and so we know that you have passion and love around farming, also YouTube, and also you see who you're trying to communicate to. It's like uh people that are are uh naysayers are watching too, but where you're focusing on is you're just going to inspire people that can do tough things in in tough situations. And then two, sometimes we create our own uh toughness and you're you're problem solving a lot. There's like there's if there's ever anything in your videos, it's like, wait, wait, wait, what? You have to analyze and adjust. Wait, what's going on here? and problem solving and um there's there's content creators that they they they feel like they don't have enough time. They feel like um it's not quite where it needs to be and so they're either hesitant in in being aggressive on YouTube um or they're overly aggressive. They're not really analyzing and and really refining. What advice um you know would you have for creators that are just in the grind trying to make it work? What would you focus in on uh besides the passion? I think we we covered that the passion and the focus, but what what would you start focusing in on in their situation or what can you encourage them uh here? Wow. I've got so much to build off of what you just said. One, problem solving with a positive attitude. That's a big thing that's happened in my channel and something I've realized. I didn't really realize this, but I have a a very very positive outlook on life. I think every day you wake up, what a blessing. What a joy that you woke up with breath in your lungs. And so problem solving with a positive attitude. And I don't think a lot of people have that. I think that was a really breath of fresh air for people on my channel. Two, I think the excuse of you don't have time, which is something I fed a lie fed to myself for years. It's it's what it is. It's a lie. Your the stuff that you're actually passionate about, you will make time for. You will say no to other things or you will you won't sleep or you won't eat. If you are truly passionate about something, I don't have time is not a valid not a valid excuse. Um, and then something I wish I would have done so much sooner when I was in the grind and trying to learn how to edit and just cranking out videos as much as possible is I was not looking at the actual person I was making the videos for. I had this this passion, this idea that I was going to inspire young women and I wanted to show kind of an older generation what farming looked like. I had these big lofty ideas as the channel kind of grew, but I I didn't have a person that I was making a video for. I was just waking up, filming a video, and posting it at the end of the day. And there was I want to back that real quick. So, you're just documenting. You thought the value was in the documentation of you starting from scratch on your farm and and all they needed to see is that day. Is that Yes. Okay. Yeah. I was I was going like I wanted people my goal I want people to feel like they're in the room next to me. They're farming. They're sitting in the tractor cab with me going through day-to-day life. Big problems that arise. They were just with me and I wasn't focused on telling the larger overarching story. And that's where I kind of found some some stagnant. There's been like kind of you know steady growth from there was that initial spike in the beginning but there was definitely a point where it just kind of level. I had the people that were were watching my videos, but not really much more than that because they were just watching me go about my day and I didn't really know how to take it to like the next level up from there. Well, I I want to unpack this a lot um just because I I know um you know, as as you come on and and I started to mentor you a little bit, like I just wanted to open your eyes of of a couple key things. one was like getting a clearer understanding of who's watching your your videos and then and then two the story like like there's so much to the story. It's just like there's a purpose for every video but yet you weren't necessarily seeing it. And I just remember having this conversation it says here you have this great opportunity but you have no story. You're just you're just cutting moments together and I'm like there needs to be you know more than that. And so I want to I want to unpack um uh the the process and understanding of a viewer because I I think this is probably where um you know I've mentored thousands and thousands of of creators and I and I think this is where they always fall short. Um they just think, "Oh, this video is going to pop." and and they're not really thinking why and and they're not really going in depth on who it's going to be impacting and and then what's going to be spoken to them and then also, you know, what's that sharable moment across the way. And so, um, I want to I want to just show your, uh, content because you you've had some bangers real quick. I'm going to just pull up your channel real quick. You had some bangers, but I want to I want to focus in on this one right here. Has 2.3 million views uh, two months ago. And I know that you approached this uh content differently um than you would have uh you know prior to really understanding um your audience and what what they're doing. And I think you've got a little bit of clarity over time. And that that's one great thing is getting clarity over time by just doing where you realize oh people want to know the ins and the outs and the small little details and also how things have shifted, how things are changed. And so I think this would be a really great opportunity to say things that you learned about your audience and then how you apply it to your day-to-day, but also how you apply it to your to your uh planning of your videos. And I I I want to do it through the lens of of this video right here. Um the history's biggest wealth transfers forced us to buy uh this farmland. Yeah. Okay. Wow. There you guys. You just opened me up to a topic that I could probably days I could spend days. I I could spend days talking about this. So, first off, I have to thank Sean Kerr from Bikes and Beards because roughly a year ago, he asked me who my audience was and I could not give him an answer and he just kind of clicked around on the back back end on studio and he was like, "This is this is who your audience is. I really think you need to start focusing in more on this." So, bless his heart. Thank you, Sean. He changed my life. Um Sean and Daryl just man, they you guys know what you're talking about. And so I I started filming videos thinking, "Okay, this this person I kind of melded my audience down into one generalized person. His name is Roger. Roger is my BFF. I wake up every single morning and I think, what do you think Roger's doing today? What do you think Roger wants to know about my day today?" And I watch YouTube now through the lens of my audience. And so I while I'm doing this and thinking about my YouTube career, I'm still very clearly focused on my farming career because that is kind of the main thing, right? I'm a farmer. And this land across the road came up from sale. The this house that we live at, 80 acres came up from sale for sale across the road. And I'd been watching these YouTube videos about this wealth transfer that's been happening. Farmers are dying out. The average age of a farmer is 65 years old. And I knew that this was something that Roger would care about because I have been talking to Roger. I've been dreaming about Roger. I do Google searches like I'm Roger. And this is something that was really interesting to me as a farmer, but I knew to this avatar, this character that I created that was the culmination of my audience would really care about it. And it came at the same time as Grant and I were purchasing farm ground together. So, a lot of very key interesting things. Money obviously is always just the biggest topic. Everyone wants to know about money. And then kind of the future of our country. There's just a lot of unrest right now. What's going to be happening? And so, I sat down, watched some YouTube videos, and wrote a script for this video. And I just I mean, I knew it was going to hit. I was so excited filming this because I knew not only was this an interesting topic for me and a big pivotal moment in our farming career, but I just knew my audience cared about this topic and it made making the video so much easier and more exciting because I knew Roger was going to So, so okay, so just for clarity, you have like 60 65% of your viewership is older than the age of 45. I mean if you really break it down and then Roger is more in you know that uh you know 55 plus you know range I think it's 50% if not and so you you understand what they're thinking about uh they're seeing all this stuff happen in the world in sense of you know corporations buying up farmland and trying to squeeze out uh these family generational farmers or they're they're putting undue pressure on it and then two just just the the landscape to the world of what that looks like. Um, and and so you you have that in mind and you knew that it was going to resonate really well with them uh right out of the gate. Like you you you knew how to speak to them. You knew kind of where their touch points. So as you were coming through and and and going through the script and I I don't want to say that it was a script, but it was more of like an outline uh per se of of things that you wanted to to cover. um you knew that it would pull people in and capture and bring value. Um and was this a different type of video? Cuz like some of it is more, hey, look at me. We're doing this. I'm going to give you kind of a tour. Was this more intentional of of being uh very strategic and you wanted to take a little bit more time? And did it feel unauthentic or was it more authentic because it was it was like really more thought out? This is definitely a more intentional video. And I I say script very loosely. Script for me when I when I thought, you know, people scripted out YouTube videos, I thought that meant that they literally wrote words that they were going to say. Some people do. A script a script for me, what that looks like is having an outline and I researched the topic. I mean, I spent hours and hours and hours reading and watching and trying to understand what I was talking about. So that when I went to hit my three bullet points, I had stuff to say because because your audience knows when you're reading off like a teleprompter or a piece of paper or something. And I know what my audience wants is my genuine reaction to things. And so the script is a kind of a loose outline, but I went into this video with a serious plan and it was definitely more of talking head content. I am much more of a usually holding the holding the phone like this just talking to my audience going about my daily life. And this one I had I had a phone stand set up and I was just talking to my audience because this is something I'm very passionate about. I've had I've had corporations literally call me on the phone asking if they can buy farm ground out from me offering way above market price. And I just don't think that's right. I think it's very important for individuals to own farm ground. So, kind of circling back, this is just an issue I'm genuinely passionate about. And so, it made it easy to talk to my audience about this. Yeah. I I love it. And um I I want to I want to go through a couple things because I know I know when you were getting ready to launch it, it was like, "Okay, this is going to be a banger. We got to title it right." And and um how because I mean, this isn't a normal title that most YouTubers would create like like from my point of view. Um, but h how did you come up with that that title? Um, and why did you pick it that way? Uh, because I I believe of course the thumbnail is amazing and it just shows uh, you know, blue sky, green, and you have lateral lines and then you're just kind of standing there. So, it's like, okay, what's going on here? And then they look down and see the title. Um, I would love to have that conversation because I think a lot of people um just uh at the last minute as they're uploading try to figure out what their title is going to be and their thumbnail. But I know you intentionally went a lot deeper into this. I I very much intentionally went into this. So, as I was researching this topic, I started just collecting a list of words, words that I saw very often popping up in the articles and videos that I was watching. Um, and wealth transfer was a big one. That was a headline in a lot of articles. And I read a lot of government websites like the USDA, the FSA office. They publish a ton of information that's out there for free and just not very many people can culminate it into one place. So, I just started making list of words and I wanted people to feel I felt forced to buy this land, but I I definitely wanted that to be a highlight. Um, that this was a big event that was happening right now. So, history's biggest. Like, this was very important. There's going to be trillions of dollars of assets changing hands very soon, but I didn't want it to be so clickbaity that I say trillions of dollars because I didn't spend trillions of dollars. So, that's was kind of my thinking. I wanted it to be reasonable. Um, and I wanted people to know that I bought this farm ground. I was pretty proud of that. But the but the word forced is probably um well it's genius first off like from my point of view because it's like well why did they force you to do it? And if you really look at just that trans you know that the hilt uh history's biggest transfer of wealth force us to buy this is that word forced is now reinforcing your passion and your why and the reason why and it's like literally reinforces your whole storyline. And if a new viewer is coming in, you're quickly going to understand your passion and your value and what your content's about. Um, and so I I think it's a beautiful thing. And I want to I want to pull this up because um when when you did um and I'm going to just go ahead and and hit the video here. Um, let me shrink this up a little bit. But I what I'd love to do is just as you're talking about Roger and and this whole idea of of coming up with this title, tell me tell me when you thought, "Okay, this is going to be a great um great uh title thumbnail." And what did you do to validate um that that thumbnail idea and the title idea before you launched because you knew it was going to be a big video and I would just assume that you you socialized it a little bit. Um, well, first off, the picture that is completely unedited. That is quite literally a that is a screenshot from a video I took last summer and I knew Roger would like this because it is a wide open sky. It clearly in my mind that is what a farm is. when you're driving down the interstate, which is how most people see farm ground, and you see those rows, you know, and you focus your eyes and they're just going down. And I loved the leading lines led right to me and it's just simple. It's it's just me standing there in my typical farm, you know, cut off and shorts and I'm just standing there looking at you like this is a big deal to me. This is important enough that I'm not doing a thumbnail face. I need you to listen to me and focus in. come look at me right here and I'm just standing on farm ground. That's that's exactly how I wanted it to come across. But then the title was was hard-hitting. And this is a topic that people have my audience people have come up to me have talked about before talking about how their grandpa's retirement auction they couldn't afford to buy ground and a corporation came in. And so I mean this this t this video idea came from straight up conversations that I had with people. Um but yeah that I I just I knew this is what I had to do. I want to I want to look at um the response. So there's two ways to look at the response is to look at the views. This was your fastest video to a million uh well two million um ever um really in a short amount of time and then it's one of your top videos of all time. So, it's like it it really struck a chord. Um, and I want to I want to dig deep into the comments because you know how I love uh the comments itself. Um, right here where it says, "Yes, uh, keep farmland away from corporations. Corporations will only uh chat on on folks, but you have like 5,000 uh thumbs up and then you're starting to have, you know, a lot of support, you know, this whole thing." And and then two, you know, I I really really love really seeing um that there's so many people that are now connected to your story because what happened was you started to see a deeper um you know deeper discussion and people finding you and then two people actually giving you money 50 bucks and left a comment and just like I'm behind you like I'm like totally here and so it was like very missional you know across the D the board, but it's like really resonating. It's like my my father was this or we were forced out there. So, you're really speaking to the heart of what your content really is, you know, of of your journey. And so now I believe you you've taken someone from just a casual viewer to just behind you. You know, they're they're they're trying to support you in any way possible. And and then two, you know, that that's something that uh this as this community sees this and you're speaking into it and you're becoming a thought leader in the space or at least an active participant of awareness. You know, that's where it gets really interesting from um uh the power of YouTube because I think a lot of people uh generally see YouTube as a money-making opportunity and and I I did at times, you know, I I I literally did at times, but I can honestly say for me, um it's it's more about a movement. It's more about, you know, making change in the world or changing perspective. Um, and so here you had a unique uh platform to now share your passion with others and now they're rooting for you and not only rooting by just watching your videos, but they're like literally trying to support you in any possible way. And so now's the time to really uh level up um when it comes to community development. Um, and I I want to talk about those aspects because I think a lot of people still think, oh, it's just the money side ad add ad revenue and and they don't see what else everything represents and sometimes they maybe mislabel a few things. Um, and and I'd love to have that discussion, but what did you learn from uh Roger's uh uh take of this video and then how does that how does that help reinforce things of your plan of your growth moving forward? I think that Roger really cares that my husband and I are taking a leap of faith and putting oursel maybe in some financial distress for a certain amount of time for the greater good. I think that's really important to him. I think that people really like to see that a younger generation still has passion and still has work ethic and is still willing to kind of put themselves on the line and to see that farmers still care about their neighbors and even though technology has changed, the heart of who we are and what we stand for still hasn't changed. I think that's really important to him. And so my goal now is to use this farm ground that we bought and create a character on our channel, which is which is really cool. And I get to tell the story of this land and what we're doing to preserve it and help carry on to our kids and great grandkids and kind of show that that that kind of heart and American spirit is still alive and well, certainly still in rural America. Um, which I think is just really really awesome. But the plan is to still to keep expanding the channel. I don't ever plan on stop posting YouTube videos, but my my goal is to kind of merchandise out my line. So, I would like to start a beef business where I show people that like this is how your cow is raised and now you can buy the beef straight from me, which I think would be really awesome. That isely in the works. But I want people to feel connected to to farmers. That's what I'm trying. No, I love it. I love it. And um uh we had some time to um kind of talk personally um at my house and you you came and supported uh uh Matt uh with Matt's off-road at the off-road games and and we had this conversation and I I want I want um to take this opportunity to kind of re-emphasize some of the things I told you. I love the direct uh you know beef direct to consumer. I I think that's really fun. I have spent a lot of money with that. We I even talked about u because I love I love meat. I love steak. I love all that other stuff. So, I've I've spent a lot of of ways to do it. Um uh to to to get it. But I I think that's a great great um business that is laterally aligned with what you're doing. And then two, it's an easy way to market. But I I want to go back to just kind of the standard um you know, ways to monetize. Usually, usually it's it's three-fold. Uh on YouTube, it's ads. Okay, check. You got that? You know, uh brand deals, of course, people want to have you be the spokesperson and or whatever promotion, right? Check. And then and then the last one is usually merch, you know, and merch is probably the most misunderstood um category. Um and and some people view it as a um kind of like a uh just a you know money grab or whatever. Oh, here you know here's here's the most natural thing. But I I want to share with you again um what it actually means to me because when I look at it, I don't see it as um an a money play. I see it as a community play uh community connection. And uh so any project that I'm in and about, I try to figure out, do you know what? Um people love to support what they're into, right? People love to connect what they're into. And I remember vividly when I watched Empire Strikes Back um as a young kid and I was like all in. And um it was like uh in in May uh that we were able to to watch this. It was like May 26th, you know. Um like I even remember the date, but anyway, it was just this moment in my life. And um I I really really wanted a t-shirt going into school, you know, and and so in the summer uh there they had this ironon um place cuz ironons were big in the 80s. And um you could go pick out you whatever you want, your favorite band, your favorite TV show, whatever. And they had an Empire Strikes Back t-shirt. And I'm like, I'm all in. And so we we did that. I didn't take that thing off for like two weeks. My mom's like, "Are you sure that you need to wash this?" And like like I would even take it off when I sleep and she's like, "Take it off and you sleep and I'll wash it when we wake up." But I was like literally like I was like literally never going to take that off. And so what what I mean by that is that that is really important. Uh when I when I partnered with Matt uh with Matt's Off-Road and we started our strategy of what it was, he had like 16 different options. And I'm like, "Dude, we can't do that. Like we're we're missing an opportunity." He's like, "Well, no. I mean, merch, merch, merch." And I says, "That's true, but it also needs to mean something." And I says, "I I want I want you when someone's walking towards you a mile away that you can recognize that they're a fan. um if they if they have the shirt and and there's that that iconic brand because it's community building. It's there's there's a an assets around that. And so um when I look at merchandise, even if we're giving it away at a reduced price, it's it's creating a community. And then more importantly, you're creating walking billboards because people are going to say, "Well, what's this?" And then they're going to have a conversation about what you're creating. And so for me, um, that's what it's all about. Um, but right now, if you go to to, uh, your local movie theater, uh, you're going to see Chosen, uh, The Last Supper, part one and two in it, and three is coming out next week. But it's like we, we went last night, and I'm in my hometown, and there's a lot of people here that don't even know that Chosen started in the hometown of of this place. But it's like here we see fans and super fans wearing our merchandise into the theaters having conversations around it or they see people in Walmart and they're going up to them like oh I'm a chosen fan too and wouldn't you know they they have this sense of connection and so when when we look at it yeah um like I I wouldn't do merch just to do merch. I would just say, look, this is like a walking billboard, but it's also a community connection because people are like um either uh evangelizing what what they love, kind of like what I did with Empire Strikes Back. Um but also that's a connection point. We're like, "Oh, I see that. I know that. I'm going to go up to them and have conversations." So when when when we're looking at the intentional of the opportunities, it's it's more that and then also becoming your own brand deal like like why in the world would you want to take money from some brand that's going to pay you money when you could take more money and build something bigger? That's why I like your direct to consumer beef business because that's banger. You can literally show your animals, uh, talk about all the farming community, go visit all these other farmers, get those whole things that's going on. And it's like the easiest product integration ever. But then two, people are going to support like, hey, why why go buy the beef at any other place instead of direct to consumer because this is actually going into the pockets of of really hardworking farmers that we know and love and trust. And so for me, um, I I'm just excited with your idea. However, that being said, you know, whatever brand that is, like like I I think if you have the beef brand and you come up with a name, let's start branding that because maybe it's not like a Laura Farms beef. I don't know if that that that's what you want to do, but but whatever whatever that is. Um, you know, and and I think the um, you know, the brand can carry weight and it can be on its own, but it also leads into that. And I I I gave you a couple examples of like the you know, the um, uh, trip uh, what was it? the four sixes. Um, and there's other brands like Snake River and a few others that that are really cool brands outside of it, but I I believe that you have a sense of of people getting behind you and it can be more communitydriven and what we love is that that easy integration to your content. So, um I just wanted to to um share that with everybody here on this live stream because I I I know we personally had a really in-depth conversation on this, but I I wanted them to hear because sometimes they just view as selling out if they're doing this or whatever instead of seeing, no, no, no, this is something that people are craving. Like to have someone give you $50 in a comment, come on. You know, you don't think that they're going to want to buy things that that that they're in. and it could be a phrase on a shirt that means something that's more passionate about it, right? And so for me, I love to find laterally align products that we can integrate, but also develop branding. Uh that makes sense. Um, so, so I I know I know when we had the conversation your head was spinning when you left my house, but but I I I knowing this and knowing kind of your direction and knowing community development, um, it's like that that Roger is really important, right? And and he's rooting for you. He's uh wishing in some sense that you would inspire his daughters and granddaughters and great-granddaughters, right? you have all that whole thing because they're really really loyal to who they are. They're really proud of their heritage. Um and and that means something, you know, and if you're that common thread that they can have conversations or um have a a a Sunday afternoon or, you know, Saturday afternoon um that they can sit down and watch your content and feel connected. That's something bigger um than than the just uploading videos. Absolutely. Yeah. Wow. That was that was a really good reminder because I I feel like I I took a lot away from our conversations, but I feel like what you have to say is just so helpful for everybody. So, really appreciate that. Well, I would love to kind of switch gears a little bit and then um would love to open it up to questions if if that's okay real quick. Mhm. But um you were dating Grant, you got engaged with Grant, you married Grant all within that first little little season, you know, coming into it. Um and and then like it's weird. I'm not going to lie. It's weird to have uh notoriety and fame on the internet and and then being married to someone that's that um you know like people will call you out and you'll you'll be randomly you know what this whole thing was he like hey I'm just a farmer we did it six generations like why why are we like airing out our public problems of farming like why why is this happening like did that cause strain or was 100%, you know, uh, supportive. I love you, Grant. Yeah, I He's not in the room. You don't have to you don't have to watch this. Just he might he might watch this. Um, no, Grant has been 100% behind me from from the very beginning, which I really really appreciate. I could not do this without him. And luckily, he puts up with it. Usually, people are a little bit scared to approach me. And so we were in the airport last night flying here and someone walks up. He goes, "You're the that YouTube husband guy, right? Your wife does the YouTube stuff, right?" And so luckily luckily he's a very good sport and he's like, "Oh yes, yes, I'm Laura Farm's husband. I'm Grant Farms, you know, nice to meet you." Um, and so he's a really good sport, which I I appreciate. and and him and then my whole honestly family because people just get roped up roped into this and they did not ask to have their lives publicly blasted on the internet but they are so gracious to allow me to help tell their stories and I've actually had now five years later it's taken a little bit to kind of convince my community around me but I've had the opportunity to help share some of my neighbors stories because everyone even though we're all farming doing the same thing I've had the opportunity to share some of their stories and people are so gracious to allow me into their lives and broadcast them on the internet and they've been very very gracious. So I consider myself very very lucky to have that kind of system around me. Yeah. And two, um, it can like when you're thinking of from a community support, um, you know, when tra tragedy happens or something's there, it it's amazing to see the support. Um, I I I'll share uh a little thing that happened. Uh but the first year we did um the off-road games um we we actually had a death um that that occurred there and it wasn't because of some tragedy of what was happening at the event but um you know they they uh had some major health problems. Um and it was a team member of ours. It was like literally someone that was working uh you know to make make the the event happen but also was working on the channel and stuff. And so it hit us like to the core. Um and and um it's hard like it was hard to see the wife of the um of the person that died on on there and just the whole craziness and then we're still trying to put it on because the show must go on and all this other aspect. It it was just hard. And uh this is what I love about uh the community and and you got to see it firsthand because you've been able to come a couple times to the off-road games. But uh we we just let people know. I mean, they knew something was going on because of Lifellight and all that other stuff that was there, but uh you know, we were able to get on stage and also uh leverage our our community to be aware of what was going on. And you know, we we were able to not um you know, fix anything, but uh you know, have have well over a quarter million dollars come in u just to support the family, you know, and and it was just it was just beautiful to watch the power of community when people are behind something and and that that to me is what it's all about. Um, you know, there's there's story after story after story where uh people need help in unique ways. And I I've even seen it where they just come on and talk on social media and someone gets a kidney and and they're like willing to give their own kidney because of the community. And for me, it's just like it's a beautiful thing. And so I I just want to reiterate um you know there's so many people that come on to YouTube because they want fame or money but when you do it to make the world a better place and you're you're influencing people to think differently or to see the world differently uh in a positive way that is the best power and and and the it makes everything all worth it because at the end of the day we need the world to be a better place like people in the world need food. Like they need to understand um that that this community is real and it can't be done through corporations because there's heart in the heartland and that means something. Um and and then two, you know, if everything every all the corporations are buying up all this other stuff, it's squeezing out people that are actually caring about the quality of the food, not just the profit of the food. And so for me, um I really I really love that. uh more than you can ever know. So, um what I would like to do uh and I do appreciate you being here uh this long. I would love to open it up for questions. Absolutely. And then also I would love to do uh you know some some giveaways to VidSummit. Uh VidSummit's a conference I put on every year. Um and and this year it's happening in Dallas, Texas uh October uh 7th through the 9th. And if you don't know what VidSummit is, we'll we'll uh play a little video here in a second so you can kind of get the the the concept behind it. But it's my way to help facilitate the creator economy and even go bigger. And I want people to be open and empowered to take this opportunity to influence the world in a positive way. And uh VidSummit for me is is more about getting the right people that that have the right message that can inspire the creator economy to go to the right direction. Um I talk about net positive content. Like I I don't like net negative content. I don't want to take down the world because of what they watch. I want to build up the world uh for where it's at. So, I would love for you to be on stage and and um share, you know, your knowledge with the people at VidSummit. So, would you be willing to to get on stage and just share, you know, share your journey and share the the things that you know? I mean, this we can get a little bit more nerdy and go into the data side. Um, but would you be willing to do that? If you would have me, if the people have me, I would be beyond honored. I would be beyond honored. I I I am so excited for this because I I want to tell you something. Um uh for me um I I take on these little projects where I feel like God's kind of speaking into my heart. And one of them was um there's so much much um uh you know, influence that could happen in the world. And on YouTube, believe it or not, um it the the female creators um that are out there are very small in number. Um it just it's just a male-dominated space. Hm. Sounds familiar, doesn't it, to that whole thing, right? Um to farming and such. And and I I I've been on the quest for the last uh three three years to be more intentional to get the right females on the stage that that shows that there's this huge opportunity um uh for everyone. Um and all we need to do is understand and how to leverage the opportunity. And so it it would be my honor to have you there. And and Grant can come take pictures. Does that sound good? Okay. Yeah, he's great. He's a good supporter like that. He'll be good. He's he's smart. He's he's great. He's great. Okay, so um let me let me kind of go through uh a couple questions, but what before we do that, I want to just uh um uh show a little bit of promo about VidSummit and then we're going to come back. We're going to answer your questions. So if you have a question uh for any of us, just put it in the comments. Chantel's on. She'll tell you how to how to put the queue in front of your questions so we know which ones from there. But I'm really really grateful for that. And then we'll give away some VidSummit [Music] tickets. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat up Heat up here. [Applause] I I I don't know how many times I've seen that video. I get excited every time. This is so great. And I'm I'm excited that you're going to uh really benefit people there at VidSummit. Um so if you don't have your tickets, October 7th through the 9th and unfortunately we just sold out another hotel. So that is the third hotel that we set sold out. It is now gone. I'm telling you guys, uh, we the rate that we're going, we're gonna probably be sold out in July. So, I would not probably wait. Um, you know, we're we're just getting ready to do our full announcement of our schedule this month. Uh, I've been, uh, interviewing people that I wanted to see on stage, but we're we're getting ready to start announce some of the keynotes. One keynote that we're actually bringing on is is someone that I've always wanted to have on stage and and they reached out to us. I mean, VidSummit is is is uh our culture of VidSummit is sending the right messages to the right people and and they reached out to us because they they see the value and they also want to contribute. So, go ahead and get your tickets at vidsummit.com. That's vidsummit.com. Alrighty. Um you you down for some questions and we can uh give out some um some uh I would say free tickets. That sound good? Let's do it. I'm ready. So, we have a couple uh super chats. One is from our friend John Pullum. Uh just look, come on. You deserve it. He told you. He did. He say that you're gonna just like be on stage. Okay. So, he may he messaged me yesterday or two days ago? Two days ago, I think. And he said, "My magic eightball said that you're going to speak at VidSummit." And he does have a magic eightball. So, and I was like, "You're lying." I was like, you know, that's very kind of you. Appreciate that. But, you know, no. Yeah. And I John's great. And then we have another another uh super chat here. Would really love it. Uh thank you, Laura. Um love your name. It was my mother's middle name and my grandmother's name. So, thank you for that super chat. Love it. Love it. Love it. And Andrew Z uh is coming in with our first question. What advice would you give for new YouTubers? would love to see your story at VidSummit. Wow. Okay. Um, you literally just have to start. Um, I take the like the Mr. Beast make every video 1% better than the next one very seriously. And I think you can't get any better if you've just never posted a video. And I think there's so much there's a lot that you can learn from incredible people like Daryl, other YouTubers going to VidSummit, but at some point you actually just have to start. And so I wish I would have started 5 years sooner than I did, but I'm so glad I started then because I I would start the whole thing all over again tomorrow if I had to. The journey has been so worth it. So you you just have to start making content at some point. So this next one, what separates content that makes noise from content that makes impact? I want to impact content cation. Wow, that sounds like a you question, Darl. question for you. I I like how you just kind of pushed it away. No, that's your area. It's It's actually easy. Like noise is is like is spam from my point of view. It's like if you're doing it and what spam is is just trying to make a lot of noise, trying to get a lot of attention, right? I I believe if you want impact, it's connecting to the person on a on a deep level that they remember it. Like I remember videos on YouTube that are literally 18 years old and I remember it like yesterday. I remember watching content of things that were happening and it's just like it's very impactful. And so if you want to create impact, it's like you got to create a sharable moment that impacts with someone so deep that they their inner desire, their inner need is to share it with other people. And so, uh, for me, I I can say I gravitate towards that. It's like, what is that impact moment or what is that sharable moment in that video? If you're just doing it because, um, that's what you do, then I think you're missing the opportunity to really speak deeper, to really, uh, change things. So, there's a YouTuber I like, a friend of mine, his name's Mark Robber, and when I when I met him, um, you know, he he was, uh, doing this on the side, like YouTube on the side. And and I'm like, well, why why are you doing it? You have you're living the dream of what you want to do. You're you know, a rocket engineer or he was actually uh, you know, in R&D at Apple. Um, and he's just like, you know, research and design at Apple. I'm like, you're literally living the life. and he goes, "Honestly, my passion is to help kids realize that science is cool, mathematics cool, and I like to do fun things um that will inspire them." And so for me, you could watch his videos, some of his uh best videos are some of my favorite videos uh of all time because it's very intentional of who he's speaking to, but it's also making impact and and then two that impact spreads u and that's that's what we're talking about. So the same with with Lara, like if she was only just uploading videos just to to to pay the bills on the farm and had no desire of even sharing, hey, I'm fifth generation and I wanted to make it not only sixth but seventh and eighth generation and we're trying to secure this the right way. Um, you know, that's that's that's beautiful. So, okay, here's another one. Do you find more natural authentic thumbnails better uh resonate better with your audience? Roger, what is the decision m uh making process? How many do you test? Wow, that is a great question. I definitely feel like specifically with my content that overly AI generated looking thumbnails, even if they're a real photo, if they look a little too staged, my audience doesn't really like that. They definitely prefer the more natural looking. Um, but that doesn't mean dull. I try to have very bright photos. I test them not necessarily within YouTube's AB testing, but I've created a document and in the document I either screenshot just a YouTube homepage or I have a bunch of my own thumbnails and I'll just throw it the one that I'm testing in random places and I try to see if that grabs my attention. Is it bright enough to stand out even when the YouTube dashboard is in dark mode? Um, and can you see can I clearly see what my video is about if I hadn't already watched the video? Does the thumbnail tell that story? Because too often I find that creators, we're so invested in the story because it was our idea, we filmed it, we edit it, we are putting it up that we just naturally assume everyone will get the gist of the story from the thumbnail that we picked. But it's because we know the story. And so I really try to step outside of myself and see, okay, if I know nothing about Laura Farms, I've never heard Laura's name in my life, what does this thumbnail tell me? And so that's kind of Yeah. Yeah. That that uh I want everyone to make note of that. It's like what she just said is gold. Uh no, it's actually platinum. Uh and the reason why is is because uh we make this huge assumption even if we have millions of subscribers like, "Oh, everybody knows who I am." No, you got to treat treat that viewer as a as brand new. Um, you know, you people are going to see it like, can we really tell the story with someone that doesn't know what's going on? They don't know what the the contextual things that are there that are the nuance things that are there. Can we actually do that? That's that's banger advice. Uh, this next one, um, minute added a merch puzzle that uh, page out of my radiology children's book. What is the best advice to create a community around it? Okay, this one I'm going to take. Um, when whenever you're creating a product and then you're trying to build a a community around a product, you're doing it the wrong way. You build the audience first and then you're like, is this is this product in line with what we're actually able to do. Um, I I I'm not saying that it's not possible. There are audiences out there, but I would rather say, hey, here's an existing audience that already exists. Maybe I don't own it. Maybe I'm not the whole thing, but they exist. How how will this product actually benefit them? and would they be gravitated towards that? And then that gives you some uh some ideas of how to build your own audience to to be around that. So great great question. Okay, this is yours. How do you study buckets? I'm going through the people that I sub and only using uh one out of 10 to find outliers. And I know that you know in my book uh the YouTube formula uh we talk about buckets and then also you've gone through uh channel jump start your jump starter and you know about buckets but sometimes buckets don't don't make sense for the type of content um so how do you do buckets are you thinking in buckets what's your whole process so in the sense that I think about scripts for videos I think about buckets in a generally loose sense I would say I I have categories of videos. I do not stick to maybe the typical bucket strategy which I think would be like you have four or five buckets and then you post like one out of those. I have I'm as a farmer everything is seasonal and so my buckets feel kind of seasonal and so in the winter time I do much more talking head videos like that land video that I posted. You look like you're holding back words like you want to say something about this. Oh, I let you go with it. No, cuz it's like like some people are like, "Oh, I just need buckets. That's the end all solution." The reason why I taught buckets more than anything else was because of this. Um, it's just like I need to give some principles of of consistency that people need to look at. Um, and buckets is one of those things that it works like I would say 70% of the time. But channels like yours, it never will. Like it just it just never will because then it's unauthentic. You can't force something. Yours is more reactionary than proactionary. You might have some proactionary content. Not saying that you don't. And you'll say, "Oh, seasonal. This is going to happen. I know these these uh uh themes will actually resonate well with Roger, right? Um same with with Mass and Mass Off-Road. It's like we do recoveries. just like there's no there's no pro proactiveness in anything. It's just like okay we're reacting too. And so yes it is easier to grow uh entertainment audience around the style of content but there is all this other maybe 30% of content creators on YouTube where you just need to be themes and you understand you understand deep the viewer where you know that it's going to bang even if there's not a bucket behind it. Uh, however, that being said, and I I will say this more than any anything else, it's it's more about keywords that resonate with your potential viewer and your viewer itself and making sure you use all of those keywords there because that is part of the bucket, but it's also understanding the intent of what video content is. So, I wanted I wanted her to answer that because everybody's like, "Oh, I try to do a bucket." I'm like, "Well, your content doesn't think in buckets, think of themes." uh where I uh 70% of the people I'd say no think of buckets because that's that's what your your missing piece is. So it's kind of a hard one to do. So yeah. Well, so I'm think so so you said I I totally agree with you. I do reactionary content, right? Like I wake up every single morning, no clue what my day is going to hold, but just because you do reactionary type content doesn't mean you don't have a plan. That's right. you you you still need to have a a plan and like you're saying like think in themes and have have ideas, but you can still do reactionary content, but it doesn't mean you're going in blind to a video, which I think was you're intentional, but that the video might take a turn because some pipe broke and it's causing the biggest disaster on the farm and you Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. So, this is probably a great question. And I think that you kind of explained it um in in our interview, but it's still I think a very relevant one. What was the key find out who Roger is? Like what was the the the thing that oh I understand who Roger is? genuinely and I know this answer is not going to be super helpful to a ton of people but for me just speaking by my own experience I attended events where I knew people who maybe watched my content would be at I went to tractor show like farm people who would maybe like farm videos I attended events not as like a meet and greet person I did not have booths or or fan meetup times but just personally went there myself And I went to tractor shows, to farm shows, to meetups, to harvest bees, those types of things. And I struck up conversations with people and tried to find I mean I went person to person essentially and asked them if they've heard of Laura Farms. And then Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Sorry. I didn't mean to Well, then I just I basically took the culmination of that person and my average fan experience, someone who cared enough about my channel to come up and talk to me. Um, that's kind of how I started boiling down and then I mean looking at YouTube Studio and the backend analytics of course, but helps validate. So I I'll say this, this is another question from Aaron that's similar in vain, but I this is my secret is is is what she said is like surround yourself in an area where you believe your potential viewer would be and and then just see, you know, the type of content. So I I actually um it's really weird at my house. I I um have kids come over to, you know, hang out with my my son or whatever, whatever it may be. And I'm always, oh, what's your favorite YouTube channel? And um it's really interesting to see. It's not the same. Um you know, every time and you can know the personality. Um I was doing a job interview uh for someone that I was looking to hire and I asked them very specifically what YouTube videos that they watched and it contextually gave me an understanding of who they are from a psychological standpoint. And I know that kind of seems weird, but it but it it it like I understand YouTube at that degree and I understand the audience at that degree. Uh but I try to figure out one person. So she did Roger as an example. Well, who's Roger in her in her life? I'll bet you she was surrounded by Rogers most of her life. Um and and she knew exactly the value that that Roger has on hard work and and what family means, what country means, but more what principles mean, right? Like these principles, right? And so, um, there's also, uh, Roger likes to tell stories and, you know, talk about tough times and what they were able to do. So, it's like there's there's an essence of it. I generally try to figure out one person in my life that I know really really well that would be that ideal viewer and then that's where I start as an assumption and then I start to validate based off of questions and comments and interactions. So great great question. Let me let's take a couple more. We have David here. If you were to start over uh on your channel, what advice would you give yourself knowing what you know now? That's a very common question but good. Yes, of course. Well, I would have dropped out of college and not finished it so that I could focus on I should have I genuinely I didn't I didn't give I didn't give myself enough credit. Um and I was one of the people who said that YouTube wasn't a real job even as I was a YouTuber. Honestly, I wish I would have taken it way more seriously from early on because if you go back and now I am not recommending anyone go back and watch those first vid videos on my channel, but if you go back, it's very clearly someone who is genuinely doing this for fun. And I think I I could have been so much further ahead if I would have taken it so much more seriously at the beginning. I I wish I would have believed in myself a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. And I think it I think there's a is this real moment, right? because it's like the $800 you're like really excited to get it and you're like is this real but you're also thinking well will this go away or is this going to be a consistent thing and so the ups and downs and sideways yeah I I would say uh knowing knowing the the time to go allin uh but I would say for me uh what advice I'd give myself would be really have a good plan just similar to the how she had a plan uh to go start her farming business and it was all detailed out I would have a plan of who who I'm making content for, the value that I'm bringing. Um, and then also the plan of release of things that I know that they would like and I'd create that content and I would test that content before even uploading a video to YouTube. And then when I launch on YouTube, then then I'm at least going in a direction and I'll still analyze and adjust based off of that. But is at least it gives me a direction on that. I think a big big thing like what we've been talking about is like selfre self-reflection. What what are we doing here? like what's the point? What is the goal? What are you really passionate about? And I think that's something I I kind of was doing in the back of my mind, but I wasn't doing it super intentionally. And now, as the years have passed, I do I do that self-reflection way more way more intentionally. What am I doing every day? What am I working towards? What's the point of all of this? So, uh Frankie is asking, "What's the difference between building attention and building an obsessed community? Daryl, answer for me. I'm You're always just passing it off on me. Well, these they're asking such good I'm like I have these same questions for you, honestly. No, these these are really great questions. I'm not I'm not going to deny that. Right. The the the thing would be is uh when you're building community, it's around principles of that community. So, let me just give you a a couple examples. I love Star Wars. I do. Um I I love uh the OG Star Wars. I would say the first six love, love, love, love, love. Right. And and so um there are community building elements around that. And there's certain themes that are around that too. When when you're looking at building an obsessed community, you reinforce the things that they love and then you make acknowledgement on things that need to change or or or showcase things that are changing and that's that connection piece. Um, but it's really elevating and and reinforcing why they love the community. Um, and and go from there. The only moment was I'd say uh I I basically almost walked out of the theater um you know with the you know the whole new series of Star Wars because it was very disappointing because they weren't necessarily reinforcing my love for what Star Wars was. They were ripping my heart out and and taking a character that I loved and and displacing it, making him what he wasn't. And so for me, I don't necessarily love that. However, that being said, in Mandalorian, not no spoilers on this, Luke Skywalker comes in and that's the Luke Skywalker that I actually understood and that's why it was the most celebrated, most reacted to. So, it's like you're building that. So, for me, it's reinforcing uh the community what they love, what what what they hate, what what's integrated into it, but it's just more uh hitting those elements. Now, grabbing attention can be done with building uh an obsessed community. In fact, it's it's an actual uh uh it's an actual moment uh that you can create that creates more awareness, but it also creates more uh building obsessed community. And so, I try to figure out how to do both. Um I I try to figure out, okay, hey, there's videos that will actually just do community building 101, but then there's there's these big moments that we can do. We can call him a hero video. We can call him whatever you want. It's just more intention giving, more intentional. Um, and then it's going from there. So, like Laura's video, um, I would say the wealth's biggest transfer forced us to buy this farm is literally both a a community obsessed community reinforcing, but it's also an attentiongrabbing opportunity. So, it's literally doing both from my point of view. So, and and Shane, um I will say that Oh, I cried, too. It's like, Arl Luke, he finally showed up. Finally, Disney, I hate you. Okay. Um Okay, let let's give away a ticket uh for VidSummit, and there was one ticket I wanted to give away. I thought it was very appropriate um very, very appropriate to give this one away. And it is right here. Project Equestionarian. So, it's like this horse girl would love to go to VidSummit. So, should we give her a ticket? Should we have her? She needs to come. All right. So, uh uh uh we we have Chantel can give you the information on that or DM me. I just took a screenshot so our team knows that um to get you a ticket uh from there. And then I want to I want to give another one uh to someone that gave a really really good question. It was like a really really positive good question. So, let me grab that and and and I'll do it from here. But it's like you you had Frankie, you actually had some really good comments. Uh both of you are coming to VidSummit uh as an attendee. If you can't come, uh we can get you a virtual ticket. Um and this is non-ransferable. You can't give it out, you know, whatever whatever whatever it is. Uh but realistically, we're excited to have you at VidSummit. I'm excited that you get to come to VidSummit. um you know uh it's going to be so impactful. You you definitely definitely are going to do it. And those that haven't uh uh got their tickets, go to vinsum.com. Uh get your ticket now. Like I said, we are selling quick is it's actually scary how quick we're selling it in a positive way. Uh but we're going to be in a position where I know we're going to have to turn people away. Um just just because fire codes and all that other stuff. So um one last thing. So, I I I'm super grateful for uh you jumping on. I know you have a busy weekend and um you're at a wedding, but um I just want to personally thank you for being you. Um I I love your energy. Um I loved our conversation. Um you know, me, you, and Grant, you know, at my house. Um and I just think you're just getting started. Um I really do. Um and I I'm just I'm honored just to mentor you in just small little ways. Um what would be one last advice um for everyone here? Um you know you know they could be struggling, they might be going through hard things or like maybe looking to quit YouTube. What is your last advice, your best advice for them? You do not have to be the best videographer or editor or even storyteller, but you do need to be doing the best that you can do so that when you are are done, when you're wrapping up projects, when you have come to the end, you can look back and say that you genuinely gave it your absolute all. You you tried your very best. You explored all possible opportunities. Um because I know my personal goal is I don't ever want to look back on things that I did and said, "Wow, I I could have done like way more for that, at least 50% more." I want to look back and say even if I failed technically, I did the very best that I could. And that's really all anyone could ever ask. Yeah, I love that. I love that. And I I I think it's just take action. Take action sooner. Don't be afraid to post content just because you're not good at it or the edit's not bad. She did it from her iPhone. She did not edit anything. She just she just says, "Okay, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it consistently and and then she's found her voice in in a unique way, but it's also built a community, which is which is beautiful." Uh so uh thank you so much for joining us and um anyway grateful that you're able to come on and be a presenter at VidSummit and thank you all coming on uh this live stream. I hope that you have an amazing most productive day. Thanks everyone. We'll see you on the next one.