How to Succeed on YouTube: Insights from a Multi-Million Subscriber Creator

Success on YouTube is really debatable. There's a lot of people thinking, "Oh, success is luck or you just kind of, you know, lucked into it or the algorithm hates me or the algorithm loves you." And really at the end of the day, there's some core things that you need to understand. Um, and it's all about the viewer. Now, one of my favorite things about YouTube is you can literally create content in any niche that you want.

And ultimately, all you need to understand is who the audience is and how to bring them value. Now, I'm really excited for today's live stream because I'm actually talking to one of the most impressive people I've ever met uh on on on the internet and I met him through a consultation a few years ago and I was really surprised of how smart he was um how engaged he was, but actually he knew how to really understand

who the viewer is and bring them value. And he's been doing it since he was 12 years old. He actually started on if.com and he was actually one of the top content creators on that website and it led to other things that he's actually going into to go on Vine. Got got millions of followers on that and then ultimately uh came over to YouTube and he has 6.8 8 million subscribers on one channel um and almost

almost four billion video views and another channel that he just started with the POV uh it's almost at a million subscribers and then ultimately it goes even deeper if you go on TikTok he has another 6.4 million. This is someone that you want to listen to and we're going to have a great conversation about it and and ultimately I I respect him because um I think that he knows who his audience is, who he's communicating to.

Um, however, he has bigger aspirations and I think that's what I love about him. And so I want to be able to introduce you to Mead. Malad, how you doing, man? I'm good, man. How are you doing? Good. I am so grateful that you are joining us for the stream. Um, because I know that you're like in the final stretches of school because you like are still doing school. Yeah. And finals left. You got a couple

finals left. Yeah, I have three. So, over the next two weeks, we'll be wrapping up. Yeah, wrapping up. Ready to go. So, really excited to have you. Um, I I want to I want to jump on. Uh, could you just give everyone just a little bit of your background? I kind of gave over overview of how I thought that you're super impressive, but you want to just kind of give us just a quick little bio of

you and then let's kind of dive right into it. Sure. Um, so I was I've always had a fascination with like making content online and social media in general. Um, and during the COVID pandemic, I was at my parents Subway. The store was absolutely dead. And I figured, you know, like I got to do something like even if it's just something with my time, I'm going to start making some videos. Um, and so I started making

Tik Tok videos. They did really well. Um, and so I moved over to YouTube where I was able to really like garner an audience and uh, yeah, really love making content. Now I get to do it full-time. So, yeah. And and so anyway, when I I I remember this very vividly. I I I get uh this, you know, this little form coming in. Oh, this person wants to do a consult. I'm like looking through it and

I click on I I like to click on the videos that you're proud of. And I was like, wait, he he has a POV of making Subway sandwiches. Like I was like literally pulled in and then and then actually it was a really funny one. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, he gets it." Like like I I watched it. I I really remember it. It was it was about an angry Karen, you know, thing, whatever. And and

I and I and I went in I'm like, "Okay, this this kid actually understands meme and meme culture." I didn't even go through a lot of the the survey stuff and I I just kind of got into a loop and I was laughing a lot. I was just like, "Oh my gosh, this kid is so good." And and I was like, "Okay, I can't can't wait for the call." And then you jumped on and and we

had the conversation and I I very uh vividly remember, you know, asking, "Okay, do you know who your audience is?" And you you're like one of the first person that actually defined who your audience was? And and and you're like, "Oh, yeah. This is where they're at. This is what they're doing. This is how I'm communicating. This is what I'm bringing value." And I was like, I was like super impressed with that. And then it you're

like, "But I want more. I I you know, I I I literally love this, but this is not what I want to do with my life. You know, I'm doing it now, you know, just to get me through whatever. And I I don't even think you were in school at that time. I I don't know if you you pushed pause on that or what. I can't remember if that was the case, but um but anyways, I

was really really impressed with that. And um and and then come come to find out that when you started YouTube, you know, um you you went on you you understood uh content and you understood video and the audience and um you did something that most people try to do on on the history of of YouTube and you did it in 28 days. Um like in you know when you when you launched a channel and you got

going in 28 days you got a million subscribers. Now, I I'm telling you, I I'm like way impressed with that. Um because a lot of people think, oh, like it's so lucky or you know, whatever. But you did one thing that that um I I really believe is valuable and it's something that I teach in my book and it's something I teach with my students. It's like when you really understand who the viewer is and you

know what value that they'll find in your video content and you speak to them and it just it hits them to the core where they have to share it naturally. That's where vi viral v virality comes from and they're able to share. Could you talk about that? I I want people to kind of hear it from you of hey when you came on and then within 28 days you had a million subscribers and and what was

kind of the thought process and what was some of the research that you did prior beforehand? I'd really love to break that down. Yeah. Um, so it's funny like I feel like something in my life that I always kind of heard but never really fully grasped until like that month was that like you could always connect the dots looking back, you can never connect them looking forward. And so like over the years I gained these skills

in like video editing or like I I really understood how important like comments are, but it never like came to fruition until that month period. Um, so I I would say one of the biggest things during that period that I think really helped was looking at what people were saying in the comments, really trying to like understand their perspective. And it helped because people were literally coming into the store and I could have like physical conversations

with the customers who watched my videos and then just hammering it down like just like tripling down, quadrupling down, posting like three, four times a day once I really understood that audience. And um I would say that was for me at least in my mind like one of the biggest things that that really helped during that period. So, so basically as you were creating content, people would come in. So, you got to interact with him in

in real life, IRL, right? And and so just just for concept, I don't know if you guys seen his videos. Um I'm going to pull up his channel real quick just so you can see the concept of it, but um but basically um uh I'm going to just go back to just video sections here and we'll just we'll just kind of hit the most popular right here. But if you really look at it, it's a POV

of him making sandwiches or what you know whatever whatever whatever treat that is or whatever on that but it's just like a POV with with some voice over and and so like for me um you know it it's so great to to look at uh content for what it is and I think a lot of people think that oh it needs to be super produced it needs to be uh you know super engaged but how was

people's reaction when they saw you cuz like were you with a GoPro or with it with with an iPhone um strapped to your body like as you're in like what was that? Yeah, I had I had an iPhone strapped to my body with it was a chest harness that cost maybe $9 that I got on Amazon. Yeah. So bra but but it has your your your your iPhone like on there. That's so funny. Um but would

people like just kind of question like what who is this guy? Like why does he have an iPhone there? Is he like Yeah, it's so funny. Like when before I started doing the YouTube, I would say I would have like three or four customers come in that were like, "Oh, I've seen you on TikTok." And then the rest of the customers would be like, "Why do you have a camera on your chest?" And I'd just be

like, "Oh, I do advertising for Subway." Like that would be my fallback answer. But when YouTube started, it felt like every single customer just understood. I don't I I don't know how to explain the the So So, uh, getting to it. So you're you're making sandwiches and then some of the people that watch your videos that came in and and you started having conversations and you started to validate. So they oh I watch your stuff and

then are you like were you like surveying them or what's your favorite video or what made you laugh or what what what information as you're making their sandwich what you're getting into uh with them? Yeah. Um that's a very good question. I So my biggest thing I mean first it'd be like what's your name? Tell me about yourself. Like are you in if it's like a younger person like are you in school? what are you studying?

Um, and then yeah, I'd really go into like uh where did you discover my videos? Like what's your favorite video? Um, what are some things that like I've done that like stand out to you? Like what what comes to top of mind when you think of my videos? And that really helped to validate a lot of the things that I would think that like the audience would like they would comment it or like I would think

that's how they think. But being able to just see that person and like have a conversation face to face with them. Um it was really powerful. Yeah. No, I I love it and I do that a lot. It's actually annoying for my wife because everywhere we go, you know, my first thing is we have conversations, whatever. I'm like, "Hey, you watch YouTube yet? Who do you watch?" I like to ask, you know, who they watch cuz

like it's my way to kind of profile people to see who they actually like on on YouTube. And and ultimately, you can get so much information. And I think as content creators, I don't think we do enough of this where um where we actually look at the viewer uh through through that lens of in-person interaction. Sometimes we're just making content. We we see them as an arbitrary number, you know, but we're not really realizing that every

number is a, you know, a person, you know, somewhere in the world. And so, so for me, um, you know, I'm always trying to validate it. And I think content creators have in their mind who they who they think the person is, but but they don't really know who the person is. And so you're able to validate, oh yeah, this is exactly who I thought my audience was. And then two, you're trying to figure out what

their favorite video was, but also what made them laugh, what was their their engagement point, you know, things that they loved about it. Um, and and once you had that information, do you feel like you you you had the validation that you're like, "Hey, I'm on the right track." or was it was it like, "Oh, I need to lean in on on this. I found a pattern of consistency. Do I need to lean in?" Yeah. So,

it was definitely like a little bit of both. Like, uh there are certain things where I'd be like, "Okay, like that's in full alignment with what I thought." But then other things such as like one of the things I learned early on was that customers would come in and they would ask for these menu items that I would make in my videos, but they weren't actually on the menu at Subway. So I was like, "Oh, there's

definitely like something here." Like I've had like four customers come in and ask me for nachos today, but we don't even sell nachos. So like there's something they connect with there. Yeah. Um so yeah. So what what did your parents think? Cuz like g give a little background of your parents and and just kind of their situation and what led to you working at Subway and then what did what did they think about you doing videos?

Oh yeah. Oh man, I could write a book on this. Um, so my parents are very traditional Iranian household. They worked very they uh moved to this country during the fall of the sha and worked very hard to build the life that they have. I love my parents. I as anybody thinks I think I have the best parents in the world. Um, so my dad like worked construction his whole life. My mom was a retail uh

person at J. C. Penney. She saved up enough to be able to open her first Subway franchise. And so what Subway became for me and my brothers was almost like a right of passage. So, we would work at the subway when we were like when we turned 16. And then you basically work there until you could either like go find a real I don't want to say real job, that's not right, but like a a job

like out of college or something that my parents kind of like would think is a step up from working at the subway. Um, and so, man, when I started making videos, I remember I kind of like I wasn't telling anybody. I wasn't even telling my friends cuz I was just like there's nothing that's going to happen. Um but once the Tik Tok started happening, um people would come into the store and they would tell my parents

and my parents were just kind of like, "Okay, like they they remember that I used to do I Funny and Vine and like my friends would tell them about that and they're like, "Okay, Malage's just doing like one of these things again." Um, but once that that first month on YouTube, like it's so funny. I like remember the days like March 4th to March 28th of 2021. It's it was like every single customer coming into the

store was like, "Do you understand your kid is like like he's blowing up on YouTube right now? Like he's like doing these things." And that was I think for my parents when it like really clicked and they were like, "Hold on." Like there might be something more to this. I think they just thought it was I mean, first off, they're bringing new customers. I mean, they probably closer to them, but they came to your mom's Subway,

right? And so, you're actually getting more sales. Did they notice an increase in sales? They're like, "Hey, this is like better than normal. Like, what's going on?" Yeah, I think it was something. So like I mean the pandemic definitely had an effect on these numbers but like like during the pandemic our sales were down a lot and then by I want to say like April of the next year from like that month of the pandemic going

down I think our sales increased by like eight or 900%. There you go. There you go. So they were definitely happy. I I I bet they were like my my favorite thing is I when we were we were talking prior it was like there's like probably 50 subways before your Subway and they're going past 50 subways to come to your Subway and yet they'll order something random on the menu that it it's not on the the

menu, right? It's like, "Hey, I saw it in a video. I I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this in real life." So, and it probably cost them a lot more because of the travel and all this other stuff, but I I just love it. Um and so so mom and dad, you know, they started to see it and and yet, you know, you started to get more fame and more people coming in. Um

tell me, um as you started to see exactly who your viewer is, what they found valuable because you got to interact with them a lot. Um how how did you lean into your content uh from there? because I I know you had a few that really really popped off after that uh videos that really popped off like because I I I think you got some validation from that and then and then what you were able to

do to kind of lean in. What what were those what were those ideas? What was the the connection uh for that viewer? It's so funny like I feel like from day one of Tik Tok um the viewer has been top of mind at least from the first time I saw like real growth. Um, so on on my TikTok, I was posting like these random sketches at Subway. Like they weren't like doing crazy or anything. Like they

were just fun. They would get a couple thousand views. Um, but I saw a comment that was like, "Let me get an Italian BMT with lettuce, tomato, onions, yada," like their sandwich order. I was like, "This is hilarious." Like I have to make this video. Like making this guy's sandwich and trying it. Um, and that video ended up getting like a million views overnight and then like tens of thousands of comments coming in telling me like

their sandwich orders. And so like I really I was like, "Oh, like these like they love this. They they like for some reason they like me making their sandwich and trying it." Um, so I leaned into that, did that for a couple months, and then I started noticing more comments where people were asking me about like things from the store, like, "Have you ever had a customer that came in that didn't know what they wanted?" Or

like, "Have you had a Karen come in?" And I was like, "Oh, this is funny, too." Like, I gota I have so many of these stories. And so I went a layer deeper and uh leaned into that. and then tens of thousands of more comments were coming in for those kinds of uh like stories or those kinds of engagements. Um, so I I really try my best to tune in to like because you're going to have

your audience like they're going to be commenting so many different random things, but there's definitely gold in those comments. Um, especially when you can understand like why somebody's commenting what they are. Yeah. Um, so I I want to lean into this because like um you know here here you are as an employee. Yeah. Your mom owns the franchise so that you're able, you know, to to do things maybe other employees are not able to do, right?

So you're getting content. Um and and then you know viewers are coming in doing specific custom orders. Um which is interesting. I don't even know how you build for that. It's like I I you know I don't even know like is there a different way to to to have that price? I'm very curious. Do you like do you have to tally it up? Do you know what it is or you're just like, "Yeah, it's on the

house." Yeah. Uh a lot of times I just give it on the house if I'm being honest. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Your mom loves it. But anyway, um so so you started to to see a vein and then people are asking, "Oh, have you ever thought about doing this?" And and then it's like the light bulb went on like, "Yeah, that you know, I got so many different stories." So you're like getting some feedback, not necessarily

saying, "Oh, I need to do this." But you're like, "Oh, this is a great idea. I have a lot of opportunity to share and when you did that that video it just it exploded and um one thing that I found is it was very reminiscent of of Reddit. So like it that's the type of content I would I would watch on Reddit uh is something like that. And in fact there's just different subreddits that kind of

go into that vein. Um did you I mean were you on Reddit? Do you understand Reddit culture? Was that was that kind of uh some of the ways that you actually knew how to communicate in videos? Could you give us a little bit of detail on that? Definitely. Uh I think it's it's one of those things where it's like you connect the dots looking back. Um I love Reddit. Like I would scroll Reddit since I was

probably like 13. Um so ingrained in the culture and I guess like even subconsciously I kind of brought tried to bring that culture into the videos. Yeah. because I that that whole thing is like the entitled parents, entitled Karens that I mean subretus and it's like some of the funniest stories in the history of all mankind when you really go through you're like you're like this cannot be real like it can't be real but it is

you know and so you're getting all that other story but I I think you know it's it's hitting a a a genre that's out there you know so you're you're type of content that's out there and you're like oh no I got some stories I got some crazy stories And then you're able to lean into it. And and then two, that is like finding a new audience for you that that didn't even know that you existed,

right? Because you're like, "Oh, now doing this type of content." And it pulls them into uh what your content really is. And um it it's something that they came in for one one maybe pillar of your content, you know, the the weird stories or Karen's or whatever, and then they they stayed for the rest, you know, they were able to binge for the rest. Um, did you notice that that influx of certain videos would bring in

certain type of subscribers? Um, and and what would you do with that? Like would you just kind of reinforce those those buckets or uh how would you approach that? Yes, definitely. Um, so videos like the secret menu items would definitely bring in a different type of audience from the videos that are like Karen stories, which would also like differ from the videos that are like trying people's sandwiches. Um, I would try to reinforce those buckets and

kind of like try to reinvent them over time. So, like if uh let's say like the secret menu item video, um I notice there's a specific audience for this, I'll think, well, like it's not that I have to completely stop doing those. Like, I can go try to make another secret menu item while also tying in like a story to that to see if that audience will now like resonate with the story style of content. Um

so, I would try to like kind of mix and match buckets. Yeah. When possible. Yeah, that's that's so great. Now, I normally don't bring uh chat questions in until the end. Um, but I got to bring this one in because it was going to be the next question that I was going to ask anyway, but when you're doing content in Subway and your mom's a Subway franchisee, um, like you got to you got to be on

Subway's radar, right? Like did they like do a cease and desist with your mom about creating this type of content? We don't have these menus. you're not really bringing in the brand. Uh so the nutrition and wellness guy is asking did you get any support or push back from Subways when it started Subway from the corporate when it first started taking off? So Subway was radio silent for probably the first year and then I not actually

my comments noticed it. I assume in their mind they were like okay this dude's not like hurting the brand. He's trying his best to help like he is a Subway employee. Um, but then after a year I decided I gotta start poking the bear. Like especially with everybody in my comments that were like they were saying like Subway needs to sponsor this guy. So I started making videos that was like Subway like let's have a relationship

like let's build and that that got them to notice and it ultimately led to a couple of um like contracted opportunities with Subway. So I think they loved it. Yeah. I I think a lot of brands are like afraid uh of new media, right? They're really afraid like, "Oh, this is not going to be good." But then there's brands like Wendy's like they're like if if you guys don't ever follow anything on Twitter or X, you

got to go to X. You got to go to to uh you know and you know follow Wendy's because they're like really really good because like most brands wouldn't be that way, right? Um, and so like Subway and other companies like they can either say, "Oh, we cease and desist. This doesn't really reflect or bland or hey, this is content that's bringing awareness of who who we are." Um, and let's let them do what it is.

And then, uh, ultimately it led to, you know, some some contracted opportunities with them, which is awesome. Uh, but it also got I mean, you were doing stuff prior to I know that you were on old school like Good Morning America, this whole thing, right? That I mean like you got a lot of visibility. Was that prior to Subway coming, you know, coming into contract form or or was that after? Uh, Good Morning America specifically was

after, but uh there were other opportunities like Inside Edition that came before and also definitely helped uh with that, which which is so crazy to think because it's like I I mean I mean who's watching, you know, in you know, Inside Edition? I I I don't even know if I've ever seen that in the last 20 years. is like like I I mean I I don't do much watching outside of YouTube YouTube TV, but but you

know that it's an older audience, right? And and yet you're coming on and they're very fascinated. Wait, the kid just records him making sandwiches, you know, and that's the story. Um but um as as this all was coming together, um you had a lot of momentum and there's a lot of things going on. Um how what was kind of going through your mind is like, okay, this is my path. I'm gonna be a content creator making

Subway sandwiches the rest of my life or what was what was kind of your thought process and and and you know what were you using YouTube for? Yeah. Um I would say it was for a long time I was very much like I can't even think. I just have to like do and think later. And then kind of like once the dust started to settle, I did get into those like deeper questions of like, okay, well,

like what is it that I really want to do? What do I like what sparks me? And um that's tough. I feel like everybody kind of goes through that. But I I ultimately like figured out that I don't have to wrap my entire life around content. Like I can there is such thing as balance. I mean it can be hard if you want Yeah. to be successful. Um, but I I think it's a struggle that I'm

still kind of going through. But I just try my best to learn about different things that really interest me and like and a lot of people I think they'll they'll uh find like some new interest and they'll think, "Oh, this is a distraction. Like I can't like I got to push it to the side while I do like my real work." But in my mind, I'm kind of like, "Well, let me like try this distraction. Let

me go down this path for a little bit. It doesn't mean I have to like completely stop doing this other thing." Yeah. Um, sorry, did I answer the question? That would No, perfect. That's perfect. So, I I think the thing for me is uh I I would say I I come across a lot of content creators, you know, just because of the nature of what I do and uh a lot of them have all this passion

and they're like, why why would you throw this away? Like like you you built something, why would you walk away from something like this or why would you even consider doing that? Um, and then others that are like, you know, no, I've I've done it. This is kind of a stepping stone to doing something else. And they're like, oh man, if I did it, this is the only thing I do. And I I know there's other

content creators that once they hit it, you know, they they're they're really in the heyday of of being a content creator. But for for uh you know, for me, whenever I do a consult, I always ask, okay, what are you passionate about? And and where where do you see yourself? You know, what's that finish line? What where do you want to go? And when we had the conversation like like making videos was not even in the

top part of the list, you know, you're like like hey here you uh you're like I really like programming. Um I really want to create something you know and we even kicked around ideas. I was like, "Hey, you know, you love business and maybe you need to go more into the business side of things." And and you know, you're going into it and and and really uh a lot of people wouldn't really you uh view this

as like, "Oh, no. I'm trapped." Like they think, "Oh, I'm trapped. I can't do anything." But could you could you just let people know what you did because like you hear you had a lot of momentum happening on your channel. um you know, billions of views uh across multiple platforms and and you decided to to do, you know, life change a little bit and that we kind of alluded to it a little earlier here in the

the interview, but you want to kind of talk what you did? Yeah. Um so this semester I went back to school to finish out my last three classes and get my computer science degree. I took a leave um in 2020 when things really started picking up to focus on YouTube full-time. And it's funny, like my mom over the past three years was like, "Please just go back. Like you have three classes. Like please." Um, and I

was like, "Okay, mom. Like you're right. It'll be like a new like environment, new opportunity." And um, it's been incredible to be honest. Like I I I was dreading it going into it. I was like, I'm really going to go back to school to like finish this out. But was it just was you just thinking that, oh, just to make my mom happy and just get her off my back? Was that Exactly. Yeah. Um but what

I found was that there was so much knowledge I was learning, so much new knowledge. Um especially in AI, which is like a topic that I'm so passionate about. Uh so it it was really a blessing in disguise. I've gotten to like learn to build things again. I've found like passion again for programming. Yeah. No, no, I I love it. And then two, I I um there's a lot of people that, you know, go to school

and they're like, "Oh, this is what I want to do." And you know, whatever. But yet you put it on pause. There's some other there's some life events, whatever happening. And then you you blew up, had a lot of fame, you had a lot of, you know, stuff going on. And then, you know, regardless of what it was, uh, you went back to go finish up and you have two two finals left or whatever that is.

Yeah. uh but you actually found some passion and and it's something you've always been good at anyway, you know, programming and stuff like that, but you realize, oh, there's so many different technologies out there that is transforming the world right now. Um and then guys, I just want to I just want to be clear. Um so, uh there's a lot of people that uh don't put their money where their mouth is and they say, "Oh, I'm

going to do this." But Milad's different. Um, Malad, uh, he he he he's one taking class, making YouTube videos, doing this all, you know, going full-time, just kind of cramming it all in. And then and then his girlfriend had a request. Well, didn't have a request, had a problem. And he's like, I I can fix that. Do you want to just kind of tell them because like I think this is a really cool thing. Yeah. Um,

so my girlfriend was complaining to me. We were just like at my apartment just like hanging out and she had like a notebook and it was like chicken scratch. She and I was like what is that? Like why what are you doing right now? And she was like oh these are like all the people that have missed. So to give a little context she works as a program director at like an organization for like childc carees.

Yeah. Yeah. And so she has staff and so she's like these are all the people that have missed work and it was like for the day there were like 13 names just like written out in chicken scratch on the on the paper and I'm like I'm like this is how you track it? Like I I was like let me build something for you. Uh so I made like an attendance app literally just for her and she

uses it every day now. Um, this is like the app for one and you made her an app just so that she don't have to read her own trick and stretch of stuff. And this is like literally in your spare time as you're you're going to to uh school full-time trying to cram it all in and then also making YouTube videos like like you you did that, you know, in that whole aspect which is which is

super impressive. Um and this is a question I want to ask because uh you you've been creating content since you were 12, you know, just different forms. So it was like memes and then it led to you know making uh you know Tik Toks or I guess it was like Vine first and then you know Tik Tok and then YouTube. Um so you've been making content multiple different platforms. Um where do you see AI from a

content creators perspective? Uh where is that going and what gets you excited about it? It's a such a good question. I So I think there are two kind of like ways that this is go going to go. I think the one way we're already kind of seeing it where it's like purely AI produced videos. Um I think last, if I'm not mistaken, either last week or last month, the number three most viewed short was a purely

AI video. It was just like I don't even know how to explain what the video was. Um that way I think is going to continue like I think people will create animation purely with AI storytelling. Um the other way which I think is to me super exciting is I think these things are going to become like superpowers for creators. I don't think that people are going to stop resonating with people. I think that will never happen.

Like I don't I don't imagine people will spend most of their time watching AI video. But I what I do think is that people will be able to tell their stories in much more concise, clear, and powerful ways. So like I imagine like a Casey Neistat video where all of a sudden in the middle of the video, he now has the power to animate a certain segment because of AI tools or things like reaching new audiences

with language. Like we talked about Dittodub earlier, fantastic tool. Um I that's kind of how I see it. Like I think it's really going to help empower everybody to become a creator, which I think that's the uh optimistic and cool outlook. Well, I I I look at it this way. Like I I've seen trends before and and a lot of people think, well, I don't even get what AI is. Um and and they they don't see

the the the possibility. But I I look at it, it's going to take us into a new world. Like if you really to break it down, um it's able to to do things that that uh normally it would take, you know, thousands of years to even consider if one person was doing it or multiple people and they could do it instantaneously, right? And so a lot of people think, oh, it's just, you know, only open AI,

ChatgBT, you know, whatever. But no, it's it's much greater than that because it's like, oh, here we are and it's not just machine learning. There's other other things that AI does, but it's going to it's going to make the the world easier to understand and it's going to be easier to bring in knowledge, but also uh you know more to create. And so I always look back uh at at TV shows I used to watch. So

there was a a show called Star Trek um that I used to watch and this is the next generation with Captain Mard. But they would be having a conversation with the computer and the computer was helping them whatever or the computer was creating things and they were experiencing things differently and I'm thinking you know wow that was so cool and that's the world that we're we're we're painting in. It's like it's like taking the possibilities and

it's not and and I I would view this as it's not going to be a crutch for a person. It's going to help them do more and and do bigger uh do more and bigger. And what I love about it from a content creation and and I think you alluded to this too, it just gives you more opportunities to tell the stories you want to tell. Um, and and in maybe in a medium that you it

would have cost, you know, uh, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars to create, but you're able to do it just very quickly uh, from probably even your own phone. You know, you're able to do that. So, like I think at the end of the day, we're I think we're getting to that world. Is it going to replace content creators? uh I don't believe that will I think content creators will use these as tools to create

better content that connects with people and then two uh maybe AI will help them understand their audience better uh to make better content based on the data you know but at the end of the day um you know we do connect with humans do connect with content um it's our storytelling ability I don't think storytelling is going to be uh taken out of it completely um but I I do believe that the creators that don't start

using the tools now will be left behind because it will be very very hard to compete uh with other creators that are using these tools. Would you would you agree with that or is that something that that you feel like is coming up? I I 100% agree. Uh, I I do think I might be a little too optimistic, but I do think there will always be a place on YouTube for the creator that doesn't want to

edit their videos or like go overly produced and just wants to like sit there and talk to a camera. But yeah, I think like in order to compete at the highest level, like you will 100% have to use AI in your process. 100% agree with you. I think there's something real about the raw real connection and there'll be you know the more content comes over here there'll be more gravitation to the other but I do believe

um I and you know this because you've been my student for a while but it's like I'm big on live I'm like live you that that's that is that is the way it's like from I think there's more uh more people wanting to see live inter interaction than this uh perceived uh you know video that you know could have taken hundreds of hours to create, right? They want, oh, no, I want raw, real in in real

time. And so, I I think that is the uh that's going to be the avenue. Uh very specifically, there was a I I don't know why I'm bringing up movies and TV shows, but it's like fifth element when when um you know, you had the the entertainer come in and you know, the whole world was seeing him and he just come in and go live. I think that's where it's at. It's like you're getting that now,

you know, with Twitch, now YouTube and other other platforms. uh now uh live aspect on Tik Tok is is blowing up. They're doing live vertical, you know, across all platforms starting to blow up. So, I think you're going to see more of that where go live, go there, hit hit hit the people out there and it's going to go from there. Uh but I do believe, you know, there's going to be uh those two areas. I

I I think it's just more what's raw and real and then what is the the the best type of storytelling that you can uh from u from the tools that you're using. So, I'd say use the tools regardless uh of where you're at now. Um if that's what I would do if I was a content creator today. So, 100% agree. Well, um let's kind of let's kind of dial dial in. Um there's so many different people

that uh have been struggling on YouTube and um here you've done it you've done it across multiple platforms um and and multiple types of environments. What What are the most important things like if you're considering starting a new channel? um which you might be. I'm not gonna say if you are like what what would you consider before you even picked up the camera before you even you know went through it? I I I think hearing it

from you will help people understand what's truly important uh when creating content. I would say the like the way that you can save weeks, months of banging your head against the wall, at least in my opinion, I think Darl, you'll agree, is you have to know who your audience is. You have to know who you're trying to speak to and what you're trying to convey to them. Um, if if you put out random vlogs, I I

don't it might show to so many different people, nobody is going to resonate with it. But let's say if I wanted to start a channel about I'm I'm Persian. Like if I wanted to start a Persian comedy channel where I could target people that are Persian that will understand comedy and the way that I grew up with it, like there's such a higher chance of success. So I I would really hammer that. Like really understand who

you're making your videos for and that why of like what you're trying to provide to them in terms of value. So, it's like understanding who you're creating content for and then understanding your value proposition. And then would you what would you do next? Would you go research? Is there anything out there that's hitting that same box or what what like give give me some detail on that? Yeah. So, I I guess it will vary from like

short form to long form. Um I'll go with short form just because it's easiest for me. Like I will literally then go on to Tik Tok or YouTube Shorts or the social media of choice and I want to find some outlier videos, like some videos that I see that have a lot more views or likes than other videos inside of your feed and thinking like, okay, like how can I apply this to what I want to

do? And Darl, you teach this like it doesn't even have to be something in your niche, but like you can take elements from it. So, a good one I think that like keeps blowing up over and over in like different forms is the excuse me sir, what do you do for a living? And they'll go up to the car, but then you see people will be like, "Excuse me, how much do you pay for rent in

New York?" Or, "Excuse me, uh, when did you make your first million dollars?" There's this guy at the School of Hard Knocks, so good does that. But, uh, finding like these formats and kind of like seeing if you can put your own spin into it for your audience. Uh, that would probably be the next thing that I would do. And then you you just you hit something that most people don't even consider at all. Um so

so okay, understanding who you're you're creating content for, understanding the value that you want to bring or the passion you want to bring towards it, right? And then you go do recon and research, which most people will do what you just said. Hey, I'm looking for outliers, but what you said was something completely different. Um you said not just outliers. Oh, I'm going to remake this video or I'll do my own spin on it, you know,

which a lot of people do. you thought, "Oh, no, wait. This is a format." Like, I I understand the format of and and then two, it's an implied format for a lot of viewers coming in. So, you just gave a great example of that. So, when you when you start breaking it down, um, you know, you're looking at the format of delivery and I I I think a lot of people may and they might be older

uh older creators that don't consider this. I think younger creators are are are understanding it because there's a a for a format of of communication and and it makes sense to the younger generation. Um but like it could you go a little bit deeper what the format is and and what are some of the signs that you look look at? Yeah. So I would say a format damn like a technical definition. I would say it's like

sort of the the way that somebody is making a video or trying to convey the message that they're doing. So like my format for example was like first person point of view answer a comment from the comment section and tell a story about it relating to Subway or my personal life. Um like the the one that's like what do you do for a living? Like every video kind of it it feels the same but it's not

the same. Um, that's what I would consider a format. Sorry, what was the second? That's actually perfect because it's like, um, people would just watch the video and most most people would say, I don't get why this has a lot of views. And and then I would say, are we watching the same video? Because it's like, it's so good. It pulls you in. Here's here's here's the the format of it. And it's wash, rinse, and repeat.

I mean, one of my favorite creators of all time that came from Vine on YouTube, and he just blows up on every platform is Zack King, and he's literally had the same format since Vine. It just hasn't changed. Not Not one thing of his format has changed. And and and yet the thing about it is in that format, you you understand the mechanics of it. And when you understand the mechanics of it, then then you can

actually optimize you can actually optimize the moments. and and that whole uh the whole aspects of when you get to um you know where you're seeing this optical illusion and then it comes into frame you know it's great and that's where you're like oh my gosh okay I see that now or it's like whatever but that is the sharable moment and I'm like it's brilliant it's a brilliant piece of a content strategy based on a certain

type of format uh and so when when you looked at it so you you you understand the the audience you understand the value prop that you're looking for and then you went out looking at outliers out there, but you're leaning into, oh, wait, no, I'm starting to see a pattern of this type of format. I wonder if that would work over here. What do you do next? Like, is is this something that you would just do?

Okay, I instinctually am just going to upload a video and just try it or do you even go deeper on some of your research before you actually start uh you know, posting videos? I will usually go a little deeper. So like if let's say that person well we'll use the what do you do for a living example like if that person has that video I see it in the feed I will go to their page and

see okay like most of the time they don't post every single video in that same format. So you can literally see on their page like 10k views, 10k views. When they did that format, 2 million views, 10k views, 10k views. They did that format again, 4 million views. And that's when I'm like, okay, this is like a real winner. Like this is it's banger. Yeah, you got to go make that video right now. Um, and so

I will, yeah, like we like you mentioned before, like I'm not going to take that video and like shoot it frame for frame, but I'll go back and think like, okay, now how do I make this for my audience? Oh, I have my mic. And that's that's when I think it's like really powerful because if if you make that same video frame for frame, you're just kind of a copy of that person. Like you'll you'll get

outshined by them. But yeah, putting it in your own format, I think that's the that's the key. I I think people that do it frame by frame think that if I do exactly like them, then it's going to pay off. And what what they're not seeing is it's not about the video itself. It's about the video format. And and that that is that that is the the thing that they don't really grasp. And you were able

to understand that immediately because at the age of 12, you're making memes. And I I am probably the biggest fan of memes of all time. Like I I like kids. That's how I communicate with them. They don't get text messages from me unless there's a meme, you know, added to it, you know, it's just it's just there. So, we were actually um my son graduated uh uh college uh yesterday. Um and I I'm actually on the

board of trustees of that university. Um who who would have known? Who would have thought that happened, right? and he's getting ready to go to law school and and anyway, um they make me wear these robes, you know, being on the board of trustees and I'm like, "Dude, I look totally like impromp Emperor Palpatine." Like I did. So, like I had to do some memes. It happened. And we went through this little meme, you know, conversation

cuz I look like Emperor Palpatine. There we go. But, but the whole point is like that's a format that that is that is a content format. And if you don't know what the content format is, that's probably the easiest one to understand and easiest to replicate cuz you're like, "Oh, I get it." And then two, um I I want to use this more on um you your uh your journey, but you went from IN making memes

and you did it and then you went to Vine, but then you brought in something else because you're like, "Oh, wait. Uh I really like Spongebob, Spongebob Squarepants." And then and then you brought in, oh well, what if I start creating Spongebob memes on Vine? And what did that do? Yeah, that was that was fun. That was a fun little chapter. I I got to like half a million followers on Vine just posting like Spongebob memes.

That's so funny. But that is that is what uh you know your your your content format is. And then what once you understand it, you can refine it. And so there's one thing that I teach in my book. If you don't have my book, I'd highly encourage you to get it. Uh YouTube formula. Uh something that I go in depth in my um my group coaching, which Mad knows because he's gone through that. Uh which incredible

look. Yeah. Thank you. Uh which is which is this um you know buckets. We talk about buckets, but what buckets really are is a rep uh uh something to replicate, but it's a replicate format. So it's the same type of format. And then two, there's some similarities in in uh the topic, right? And so, uh that that is something that once you start grasping your your um your mind around, then it's wash, rinse, and repeat. Um

and one of the one of my favorite examples of it, because you brought him up earlier is um is our friend Casey Neistat. Casey's an amazing creator, but there if you if you did what Mead said, which is goes to his channel uh sort by most popular and look at his uh you know uh I think he has three billion views or something or two billion views or something like that. Uh but if you if you

sort that and look at his top 16 videos, uh you'll see that there's a certain format that he knows 100% that if he posts that format, he's going to get the success because that's pretty much three quarters of of his views in those 16 videos. And so, you know, seeing those patterns like that and then understanding, oh, okay, here's a format that we could create and and engage. And then and then it's like, okay, not doing

it for frame for frame, but understanding here's here's kind of the flow of that format. Now, how do I create it with something that I want to connect with or communicate with with the audience that I'm I'm I'm developing? Um, and and so is that when you're ready to go? Is that when you're like, okay, if you're starting YouTube, that's when you're ready to start making videos, I would say. So, yeah. Once you really understand like

that format, your audience, and then how you're going to apply that format to your audience, I would I would get to filming. Yeah. And then do you just start uploading or do you get some critique after that? Oh, that's a good question. I so if I didn't have like if I was starting from zero and I didn't have creator friends, I would probably to be honest start uploading because if I go to like my real life

friends um not that creator friends aren't real life friends but like the kids I grew up with or like my parents they're just going to tell me like oh that's good like that's nice. Yeah. Um but if I got if I uploaded the video and got two views like I would instantly know, okay, like we could change something up or like try again. But now, now that I have creator friends, I would definitely go to them

and be like, "Hey, what do you think of this?" Like, give me some honest feedback. Um, at least for the first couple and I think that really helps. Okay, so a lot of people already do that and some of their creative friends give them the worst advice in the history. So, how do you how do you gauge that? Like I I like when I see the versions, so I I get to see versions of other stuff.

I'm like, "Version number one was good. Why did you change it?" It's like, it was like gold. Well, I got feedback from so and so. I'm like, "Why are you listening to them?" You know, how do you how do you validate that? I will never like if it's like advice about like the editing or like the like I don't really take that sort of advice to heart. I'll also ask like multiple people so I'm not just

getting like one person's perspective. Um, but usually I'll look for like how they react to the video. So like immediately when the video is done, like what's the first thing that comes out of their mouth or like what because anybody can just like rip apart a video. But if you can tell that like they paid attention and they engaged, that's something that I'm looking for. Um, or if they ask a question after the video is over

or they want to talk to me about it more, like those are the the signals that I'm like, "Okay, this is a good one." Yeah. So, I I would recommend that if any of you do this, that you do it this way, which is don't just show one creator and and make modifications of one creator. What you want to do is show multiple people, uh, multiple creators, and if you see a pattern that they're saying the

same thing, you might want to consider looking at that. That's it. Okay? But you can't tell them what other people thought about. But hey, you know, by getting them, hey, did you like it? What, you know, what was engaging? you know, if you were able to change something, what would you change on it? Um, and and you've seen me analyze videos a lot. Um, I'm brutal, dude. I I'm like literally brutal. Like, I have a hard

time watching YouTube uh because I'm analyzing freaking everything that's going on. But the the thing for me is is is simple. Did did the title thumbnail validate the the hook? And did the hook validate the title thumbnail? Okay, that's the first thing I look at. But more importantly, did it pull me in? Did it actually hook pull me in? And if it didn't, I'm like, that's where you're weak. And then the next stage would be the

setup. Did they set up what their video is going to be about? Because they already hooked me now, did they set it up? And and you go through those those things. But if it didn't, um, uh, the the next thing is, did anything take me out of the setup to the story? Like, did anything pull me away? was there's something they thought was so valuable for me to have that literally pulled me out of the video

where I'd like start looking at other content, you know, and so for me that that's really important and and uh that's what I look at. So today I I'm going to just uh I I do crazy stuff all the time, guys, but it's like today um I'm actually um creating content. Um and it it's been a while since I've created content. um when when we say new new YouTube channel, whatever. Uh I don't know, it's been

like 10 months, but um I've had an idea for three years and and I've gone exactly what you did. We, you know, I I said, "Okay, I know who the audience is. I understand the value prop. I'm really familiar with the space. I have a couple gold play buttons, you know, in this space, so I understand the space, right? and and now we're we're at uh creating content and um I I have a team and I

had team members create content and I had editors edit it and I it it was okay but it was like not what I wanted u because I have it in my head how how the format is and whatever and you just don't get it if you don't know right and so for me uh this afternoon I'm literally with my son getting this all taken care of so we can get it done properly cuz like this is

going to be a banger channel. I I just know it. I know it like from my inards, you know, and so for me, it has to be right right out of the gate. And and uh uh I'm going to just fully disclose, not going to give the channel or anything like that, but when we did uh the testing of the videos, guess who we have uh picture with? So I I do picturein picture with uh the

the the viewers u that's watching it. So, I record them as they're they're watching the the content. So, I I can see are they leaning in, are they engaging, are they laughing, are they whatever. And and that gives me the most information. So, like I don't necessarily uh have content creators see my uh videos yet. I I want to do a sample group and say, "Okay, here's here's who my viewer is. Let's put the viewer in

front of them, pay him a little bit of money, and let's see if we can get, you know, are they engaged with it?" And so for for us, we had like four or five videos that we've done and it's just not hitting the mark. Like I it it pulls them in, does everything up to a point, but we lose them every freaking time. And I know exactly the reason why. And and so for me, it's like,

okay, we got to we got to hone that, we got to own that before we we go. All this energy and effort to put into a YouTube channel. Uh because like I I don't want it to be a hit or miss. Like I I need a banger every time. like I I I I want a binger every time. So, uh, for me, that's what it's all about is just really understanding that the the level of your

viewer and the value prop, what's going to pull them in. And so, I would just strongly encourage everyone um to to really go back and listen to this because this is probably the most valuable advice I've ever had on on any stream that I had here, which is understanding your viewer. Uh but ultimately bringing your value prop and then and then really knowing what format that you need to and then making sure that you're you're testing

that format and and validating that format in in the right way. We gave you two different examples of to do it. Uh which is you know uh his was multiple creators and then this look for patterns. Mine is get a sample size you know picture and picture I'm seeing you know how they're interacting with with the content uh before we even launch. So, wow. That's that's a lot. That's a lot just to do a YouTube video,

right? Okay. So, um how would you Okay, so you're going and you're releasing now now you have content that you love. Um like how would you promote your brand new channel if you had no other, you know, no other followings anywhere else? Like what would you actually do on YouTube? That's such a good question. Um, I personally, I don't know if this is the right answer, but I would personally keep uploading. Like I want a very

organic audience. What you wouldn't do is go sub for sub or go spam y people random people to go follow your channel. Like I I think having that organic audience in the algorithm to learn and find or I think you you refer to it as it pulls viewers towards your videos. Yeah, I think that's for me the way that I would go about it is just upload, learn, rinse and repeat. Yeah. Um I I I think

that's what I what I teach, you know plan execute analyze and adjust. It's just like, hey, you got to learn, you got to analyze, and you need to adjust. Um but but there is u there is something that YouTube made specifically says, hey, we do favor new channels. Like you get to see new channels come on the platform. So, you want your your best videos, your first videos, and if they're going to engage with them, you

you're going to engage with them. And and the thing about it is if someone watches one of your videos, they are a new viewer. Um, and they have the highest probability to watch another one of your videos if you have another video. And so, what you're saying is be consistent, keep on making content because uh when they go to YouTube the next time, there's a high probability that your next video is going to be on their

homepage. And if it's in line with the format that they already watched and loved, what's magically going to happen? They're going to click it and they're going to watch it. And if the same value propositions there that they're they're going to not only watch one video, they're watching two videos. And so they're not a new viewer anymore. They're a returning viewer. And then when you do another one, guess what? YouTube says, "Oh, wait. They've already watched

two videos. Let's get more in front of them." That's how Mead was able to get literally a million subscribers in 28 days. Like like that's it. That's it. You know, um I I I don't know. It's hard. It's hard for people to understand it, but I I think what they either are doing is they don't have a clear understanding who they're making content for or uh their content is resonating not with the people that they're making

content for. You know, 100%. Yeah. Wow. Okay. I I want to know from the chat, did you guys feel like this conversation was gold? Put it in the comments. Um I I think this last part of the segment has been one of my favorite u segments. Uh for sure. Um what what's next for you? Like I mean here you're at you're ready to go. You're just getting ready to take your next two finals, whatever. Um are

are you are you going to just kind of do what? That's a good question. Um, so I I really want to explore the AI and programming world more. Um, I will also be uploading to my uh main social medias like the Milanberg uh brand. But yeah, there's something about software and development and AI that has since I was like 14 or 15 just like I just like feel it inside of me. Um, so I I think

I'm going to pursue that as well while also documenting that journey on a new channel. Yeah, I love it. I love it. Um, let me let me just give you some advice. I gave you this advice prior, but I want everyone to hear this advice, too. Um, a lot of people like to pivot and go down a different direction. And and I'm never opposed to that. Like, I'm I'm actually pro pivoting. um but is pivoting with

a strategy, right? Um so if your end goal is you want to use AI or AI in programming, whatever, or you're you're going to create things regardless of it is you created an app for your girlfriend. I mean, that's just the way that you're doing it, right? So you're going to create something, right? Um and if there's ever a generation that already uses AI, it's Gen A and Gen Z, right? So like you're that is the

generation that you actually have the viewer. So you actually already have the uh the viewer for that specific uh product or service or whatever you're doing over here. Right? So what I would encourage you to do is what you're doing which is still leveraging what you have building it up getting that whole thing while you're doing the other thing because they could be your ideal customer. they could be your ideal viewer over here uh just in

nature of uh another another topic that that's there. So it's like when you actually understand um the impact um then then it's easier to to have a plan of like oh here is some a crossover and yeah it's not making some way it's not the same value prop or whatever but they would actually understand and love certain things from here and there's ways to engage it. Now this is what I want everyone to know. um is

just as people would travel miles and miles and miles to come to his Subway uh just to get a sandwich or to order or to connect um you know it it increased uh was you said 800% 800% of of revenue coming into the store uh which is amazing. Okay, that same thing can be applied over here for whatever you're doing. So, as long as it's a similar audience, if it's a totally if you're going after a

boomer audience, never going to happen, dude. Like, never gonna, right? But if you know how to communicate with them and and and you know what the value prop will be and then two that promotion, then all you're doing is cultivating an audience over here that could go somewhere else too, you know, as you're as you're seeing that. And so, um, really really love that. Um, and I I just can't wait for you to do that. Um,

you know, I think, you know, being your mentor, I just I I I um know that you're really really smart. You're really really passionate. I love your values. I love um you know, kind of your essence of who you are, but um I'm going to just say this again uh for everyone, but you're meant to impact the world in bigger ways. And I can't wait to watch you do that. Um and and I think you got

to go where where you can do that. And I know that, hey, this might be a great thing for you, but it's just a stepping stone for other things. Um, doesn't mean you need to abandon it either. Uh, like it's literally, I mean, if you're really looking at it, you know, they're not you're not coming on camera. You're the POV aspect. There's ways to do this, right? Um, and you probably already figured out those ways. But

anyway, the the the key to it though is is using this as an opportunity to learn um and and get better. But more importantly, hone your craft of knowing who your viewer is and knowing who customers are. And regardless of what you do in life, if you know who your viewer are, your viewers are and your customers, you can succeed in anything. You really can. So, uh Darl, you're you're the man. I I don't even know

what to say. That that was like the nicest thing I've ever heard. Well, uh here's here's something. Um one of the things I would love to do is actually have you come speak at VidSummit. Oh man, I'm in. I Wow, that's so fun. Cuz like I'm honored. Here's here's the thing. I I I'm super excited. Um and and does everybody like here on on the stream, do you think you should speak at VidSummit? already invited the

invitation, but um and and I I I hand select every speaker on the stage and I I really look for people that are pushing the needle, you know, and and you've you've done it in so many different ways, you know, and and you're you're you're uh your ventures ready uh to to you know, kind of to launch. So, here's here's my only caveat, okay? Um you're on stage. I'm going to put it there. But I would

love to say, "Oh man, hey, I just graduated here. Here's the next thing I did." And you're showcasing at VidSummit. Can you be ready to showcase something? Yes, I'm in. I'm 100% in. This is going to be so much fun. Um, so super cool. Um, let me um I'm going to give a couple tickets away from uh for VidSummit real quick. I'm going to show a promo. We're going to give some tickets away. then uh stick

around because we're going to actually open it up for questions. Uh if you have a question for me or myself, uh you want to be able to do this. But uh I want to I want to kind of explain why I started VidSummit 12 years ago and it has everything to do with what Mead said earlier um in in the interview. Um, I I looked out and looked at every conference out there and I I got

to go speak a lot at these conferences and I never found a conference for me. Um, I I like to see the conference that was for creators and every conference I go is like creators or fans or fans in in creator with advertisers, whatever. And it was just kind of awkward. Um, and I wanted I 12 years ago, this wasn't even a vocabulary word, but I believe that there was a creator economy around uh this this

industry, right? We could see it in entertainment on in old school entertainment and I'm like th it will start bleeding over here and I want creators to to stick around and be a part of it. So, you know, I want to I want to showcase, hey, that this is a business. You're not a YouTuber, you're a media company, you know, and you're you're perceiving this. And then also these media companies as you're developing audiences can leverage

your own IP and brands. You don't necessarily need to do brand uh deals, you can become your own brand deal. And so that was kind of the the essence of why I started VidSummit is I wanted to help as many people see that as possible. And and and yet this is where we're at. So if you haven't been to VidSummit, I would encourage you to do it. We're going to do a quick promo video and come

back, give away some tickets and and then do some Q&A. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] N. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] up. Oh, I'm telling you, I I don't know how many times I've seen that video, but I get pumped every time because it it's like these are my people. I I just love being surrounded by creators and smart smart people. Um, and you never know who's going

to be in the hallway or at that, you know, sitting next to a person. You never know who that's going to be and you never know how it's going to change your life. Um, and so for me, I I I love to see dreams become reality. Um, that's why I started VidSummit is to help more people uh dream bigger, be bigger. And then two, more importantly, I wanted to give uh smart people like you, Mead, a

platform to help other people, to help me achieve my vision, which is, hey, getting you on stage, I'm going to learn from you because your content, you're never going to go teach this stuff unless you're on a podcast or an interview, right? But this is a platform where you're able to uh where people can come in and learn from you uh from there, which I actually love. So, um let's do this. Um let let me give

a a a couple uh tickets away and then we're going to open it up for questions. Um you can go at any time to vidsummit.com and get your ticket. Uh I would encourage you to do it. Um we already sold out three hotels. Um we've never done that uh in April. Um like we well actually we sold out the first one in January, but it's like we already we're already doing it. Um and and I can

tell you right now on the the demand and the volume, we're probably going to hit our our max uh in tickets. So you might not be able to go to VidSummit if you don't get a ticket. Um we do have fire codes and stuff that we have to go by. Um, so I'd strongly strongly encourage you uh to um uh to get your ticket regardless. I know that some people are waiting for the free ticket. I

I get it, but literally you just want to make sure that if you have a ticket, get your uh your accommodations because it's going out uh quick. And then uh in in the next couple weeks, we're actually launching our schedule. Uh a lot of you been able to see some of the speakers that are on. We have a keynote that we're bringing in um that I've been trying to get for 10 years to come speak and

and he's finally coming to speak. Uh we're going to be announcing that in a couple weeks and um man uh we're going to get the calendar going, stuff like that. Definitely want to do it because as we start announcing uh speakers, the prices go up and you don't want to wait uh on that. So this is the cheapest time you can get it. Um here is we're going to go ahead and uh uh put in if

you want to come to VidSummit and um I'm going to do our first one first ticket um and it's some someone that I really uh has supported uh VidSummit and u me for a very long time which is John Pullum. John there you go. You wanted a ticket for your daughter? Your daughter can come. You could have just asked me and I would have gave you a ticket, but I guess you did here. But she used

to uh work at a sub shop, too. So, like maybe that's the reason why he wants to to do that. But yes, well, John, go ahead. Uh you know how to contact us to get your ticket on that one. Uh would be would be awesome. Uh uh next one. And this is another ticket and we'll we'll give one other one after the Q&A. Uh but uh Kula Paradise. Uh there you go. You get you get it.

Now, what you need to do is Chantel is here in uh moderating. Uh she just needs to contact you and she's going to get you all the information that you need to. Hopefully, you have your email address in your about page at on YouTube. If not, just coordinate with her. Uh and and you can come to VidSum, which we're super excited to have you. Um and and look, she would love to go. She needs a community.

There we go. Um here you you're there. You're going to be there. We're excited. We're excited for you to come. Uh, okay. So, let's kind of uh pull in a question. If you have a question for Mead uh or myself, go ahead and put it in there. Um I I the the this is my favorite part of the segment is we we're able to take random questions coming in. Um uh okay, here's here's a great question

here. My biggest issue now is actually how to deal with different audience patterns in the same channel. uh how to make content for the intersection like viewers versus live like uh video viewers versus live viewers. So um a lot of channels do different types of format. So you have uh short format, you have long format, you have different types of formats in long format and then you also have live format and also vertical live format. um

like how how would you tell is there different audiences or are they the same audience? Um uh you know how how would you validate are they different? Are they the same? How would you how would you how would you analyze that? It's funny. I I had a conversation with Todd from YouTube about something very similar and the way that he explained it was like he he basically had said let's pretend this this is just a metaphor

but let's pretend you're Nissan, right? Nissan sells different cars. They're never going to go start selling socks. So like if you're doing live streams and regular videos and shorts, so long as it's like the same value being provided to the audience and you're not gaming on the live streams, unless that is part of your value while also doing cooking on the shorts while on the long form, you're doing something completely different like vlogging. Um, I think

they can all intertwine pretty well, but yeah, you really need I think you need to lock in on kind of like what your branding is. Yeah. No, I I love that um a lot actually. Um I never heard the Nissan Socks analysis, so that's a great another totism. We get little tom out here. Um the way that I validate it would be this. Uh go into analytics. There's a little thing in the upper right hand corner

called advanced mode. That is the best place for any content creator to get any type of information because it has all the information that you possibly can ever need there. And then and then under that you can actually compare. There'll be another little button that says compare. You hit that and you can actually group all your videos uh that are shorts or lives um and all your videos that are uh regular videos. Um or you can

compare it by date range and then and then you can subfilter it you know only show shorts or only show lives or whatever. So you can have that data data point. The only thing that I would look at in that would be is it the same type of viewer. So go to your demographics and and see is it the same same demographics? Um and and if so then you're okay. It's same demographics. Uh the the next

thing would be validating what what Madwood said uh said which is is it the same type of value proposition or the same same type of topics and if it is you're you're golden. Uh, now if if I noticed that there's a a shift, let's say that I have 80% male watching my videos, um, and and 20% female, and I go to my live streams, and then it's like 60% female and 40% male, I would say, uhoh,

something's going on. It's two different audiences here. Uh, let me get a little bit more information. and I would go deeper into geographically where they're coming from because that might make a difference. Maybe there's more people coming in geographically from another area and I start understanding that a little bit. Then I'm then I would I would ask the question, well, why why is this appealing to more female um than over here? Is there something being done?

I'd look at the packaging first. That'd be your titles, thumbnails. Is it is there something different from there? Um I would look at the format, too. Well, maybe they they enjoy more long form format than the other. And then I'd go one step deeper. And Melad knows this because he's one of my students. I want to see, okay, what device type are they on? And and seeing that and oh wait, there's more TV views over here

versus here. And maybe that's the only the difference. Like I I actually reaching the same audience, but it's going on a different device and I'm getting more views coming from that. And so that's where the views are coming from. And so it does appeal and maybe this other one would appeal to more if it went out to a broader audience. And so I' I'd try to, hey, is there anything I can learn from this that I

can apply over here on this other one? So it might be, oh, maybe I need to do longer videos on on that instead of doing, you know, six minute videos, maybe I need to do like an hour uh video over here. Will that reach this other audience? And that's what I'd be testing. So wow, there we go. I love that. Okay. Um, here's uh, Silly Sonic. How can a creator succeed on YouTube today if their content

isn't the fast-paced spectacle style that is popular without feeling forced to copy trends? Oh man. Um, you don't have to do the fast-paced spectacle. Like I I mean, if you look at my content, it's like a guy making sandwiches and just like yapping, right? I think you just need to really focus on how to connect with that audience. Um there there's a guy that I've seen recently. He's like a 7-Eleven. He worked at 7-Eleven and he

would just record his shift at 7-Eleven. No editing, no like onscreen captions, no explosions. Uh but people resonated and those those are like 25minute videos that got like three or four million views. Yeah. So, uh he said earlier too, it's it's more about the format. So, you got to understand the format. What you're looking at, you think the format's editing, it's not. Um, and and you got to understand um when when I when I look at

it, editing's a part of the process. Uh, but the format is more important than the editing. And the the format will lead to the type of edit that you're doing. So, you're probably looking at um fast-paced channels and creators that you're inspired by. You're thinking, "Oh, I need to do that." Now, here's here's the best example. So, two years ago, I asked two creators to come speak at VidSummit. Uh, one was still in high school, and

the other one just barely graduated high school, and they were able to get over uh combined, you know, 6 million subscribers in in less than a year. And, uh, they were in a super saturated niche, which is Minecraft videos. Um, but their content was about 30 minute videos that were not fast. It's complete opposite of everything else help that was out there. Um, and it was 30 minute uh to 40 minute videos of them just roleplaying

in in uh Minecraft. No hard edit. Like it was like the most simple. Like my my um my neighbor probably could have edit edited the videos. It's just like you just cut it, upload it, ready to go. Maybe a little bit of sound design. Uh but outside of that, that that was it. and they were able to get billions of views from it. So for me, it's more about the format and then the value prop. So

if you understand the format, then it goes back understanding who who watches that format and then what is your unique value prop and and if you want to check out Nico and Cash on YouTube, that's who I was talking about. So okay, um let me go ahead and do the next one. Uh Francis is asking, "I'm working on YouTube series where every video is a standalone story but shares the same vibe and format. What is the

most important things to keep viewers hooked across episodes?" Hm. Um, in my opinion, I I think a great story I think will bring a viewer back to watch the next episode no matter what. Um, maybe there's like some form of like a throughine. Like I know the Marvel universe, they love the through lines where they'll end one, but they're different stories, so I guess that's tricky. Um, I don't know. Darl, do you have any advice on

that one? Yeah. So, I I um this is something that I I preach pretty hard is uh you're using the word YouTube series. What I'm saying that's a format and and so I think the word that you're saying for a series, it's a format of a certain type of style. All you're doing is uh the fill-in- thelank for that format is the the new journey that you're on or the new video that you're on. So, I

think that's I think that you might have been confused on on just the wording from it. That's what I'm probably getting from Francis on it. So, uh uh uh there's a channel that um that um good good friend of mine that was a channel by accident. his son had to do a science project and and they decided to showcase that science pro science project on YouTube just so they could show it and then it just blew

up and then he's like hey I can make money on YouTube and then oh this could pay for his college and all this other stuff and so uh if you check out what's inside that's the channel and that that is kind of a a series of videos right so I'm curious to see what's inside this and so it's a it's type of format you know that what you're going to get from that and so when when

I look at it it's a standalone journey which is we're curious to see what's inside things and it was a father-son relationship of figuring out what's inside. It was I think it was like in third grade when it started or whatever. Um and and ultimately that that is the format. Okay, you understand the characters or whatever and the through line would be oh people are giving them ideas what to cut into to see what's inside next.

Right? So that that's that whole aspect of uh the content. What I would say though is don't uh you're you're thinking the right way. Keep the same format. Keep the same vibe. Um and if people love it, they're going to do two things. Number one, uh they're they're going to go watch another video. Number two, if that next video keeps the same format and vibe, but is also unique, which you're doing, um you now got them

from being a new viewer to a a returning viewer, which is massive. And if they comment, "Oh, you should do this next or I can't I why did I never see this channel?" If you're seeing that, then you know that you're golden. Uh because what you're doing is you're you're delivering on the same value proposition for those viewers, which which is great. And if you ever want to look at channels that are not succeeding, Mad said

this a little bit earlier, go and look at their most popular video and if you can see the patterns between it, it's the same probably the same type of format and vibe and then they do something completely opposite. It's almost like they're bipolar. Um they're trying to not they're not leveraging who uh who they're actually resonating with um every time. People are skipping videos and you don't want them to skip a video. So um all right,

man. This is like good stuff. Uh here. Okay, we Okay, we we got to we got to do this question because I love the channel name Fat Tested Travel. Okay, there we go. Jason, uh what is your uh top tip for encouraging engagement on videos? what actually leads uh to people's uh to comment. Huh, that's a that's a really good question. Um, so I think there are like these little hacks where you could like tell them

like comment your favorite sandwich or something like that. Like I don't think those are as effective though as like when you really let your personality shine through and the things that you love. So like for example, if I'm making a video and like I talk about Star Wars, I know Daryl loves Star Wars. So, he's probably going to be a lot more inclined to comment um on that. And I I've noticed that like when I actually

talk like one of my favorite shows is The Sopranos. I watched it a lot growing up. And when I talked about that in a video, I got like five times the amount of normal comments just because people are like, "No way he watches this." Like, and they're talking about their favorite characters. Um, so I think that's, you know, there there's the way where you can tell them to comment, but then I also think like when you

start letting your personality shine through and you're like talking about things that you think your audience well that you're obviously interested in, but you also think your audience will resonate with, I've noticed that that drives a lot of comments. Also, memes. Memes are always great for comments. Memes are always great for comments, for sure. Um, so if you just say, "Hey, uh, put this in the comments." That's not a bad thing. If you if you're trying

to get a survey sample out of someone saying, "Hey, um you you know, if you uh like this tip, whatever, put it in the comments." I don't think that's very positive. But if you're like saying, "Hey, this is the best thing I found. Is there a better product than this one that I actually just did the review of?" Put that in the comments. I want to know. And then they're actively being a part of your content

creation. So, I I I'm not opposed to that. But the best way um uh to actually get comments is to actually speak to people. So Malad just gave a very perfect example. He knows I'm a Star Wars fan. He knows that there's May 4th is coming up. Uh he doesn't know that I well you might know this um but I was just in Japan at the Star Wars celebration because I'm a Star Wars nerd, right? So,

I literally put my life on hold, went over to Japan, went, you know, was with 65,000 Star Wars nerds and we were just like all geeking out over Star Wars stuff, right? And so, and I brought Star Wars stuff back to my house and gave it to my daughter. Like, I only gave one thing from Japan to my kids. And this is my daughter because she's the biggest Star Wars fan. Nobody else is a Star Wars

fan as big as she is. And so, I had to give her something. And so, that that's a part of me. So guaranteed if he did something on May 4th or May May 2nd cuz you want to have it go, you know, really viral on May 4th. Um it it's like if it's Star Wars related, it's great, you know, and and and ultimately that would lead to comments. So what he said is correct. And then it's

like be you and they're either going to love it and put it in the comments or hate it and put it in the comments, right? So the more that you can bring your personality and flavor like Cody said is there also being more strategic. Um there are people that um are are super strategic when they want people to comment. Um and it's it's not recognizing what's in the room. So like if I brought in something um

into my frame that I don't you know don't recognize, don't validate, don't do anything and there be like what is going on here? Why is that in this? and why is this object moving from each video to video? You know, whatever. You can do stuff like that and you'll have comments galore. Uh and then another way to get people to engage is is uh really feel like they're being talked to. Um so a lot of content

creators uh the reason why they're not succeeding is they talk at at the viewer instead of talk to the viewers. Um so yeah, there's there's a lot of lot of great um great things from there. Okay. Um, man, that was a good question. Uh, there's some good questions coming in here. Um, we got Roger Wakefield loves the Sopranos, too. There we go. See, he commented that he loved the Sopranos. There you go. Like, like Sopranos is

right down the street from you, man. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It's just like, there we go. Um, let me see here. Um, okay. Here's a plant-based guy. I'm starting a new channel. want to start with shorts then make long base uh off of popular shorts. How many shorts should I create weekly? Uh I feel like I can't answer that. I I think it's I mean I would say as much as you can. Like I I

um obviously you don't want to sacrifice the quality of what you're doing. Um but I I know people that are succeeding doing one short every two weeks. I know people succeeding doing three shorts a day. Yeah. Um I I think it comes back to that what we were talking about previously like really understanding the audience and what the format is and then Yeah. Yeah. So I I um I probably uh this is like a confession time.

I probably watch more shorts than long form just just in by nature. And then two uh sometimes I gravitate more to Tik Tok uh than I do YouTube um you know in different ways. Um, but that the reality is this. Um, you can't do too much shorts from my point of view, but not every short is ever going to be seen. Um, and and you got to understand the relationship of the viewer and and YouTube's really

good at understanding who the audience is and what they're going to lean in on. And so if if if I go there and it doesn't hit, it's never going to get views. It just is never going to get views. And the way that it hits is people re-watch it. Like if if they're re-watching it, um, and it's short enough that they're re-watching it, that's a an indicator that it's a positive affirmation that that someone actually liked

it. And there's other ways that they look at it. So with here's a little hack for shorts. If if someone actually comments on a short, the the video is just repeating on it, right? So you're hitting it again. So if they comment and engage with it, then it's going to repeat. another indicator that they like it. Um, so make good content. Um, and if you can make good content and put it out there, uh, you can

put it out as much as you can be sustainable of of creating the content. But if your idea is, hey, I want to create longer form videos. Um, I would make longer form videos at the same time. Like don't don't wait to validate anything. Um, what you want to do is is start creating something because if a short starts taking off, they're going to want to watch long form. And it is it is helping a lot

of creators uh you know using it as a springboard but you got they got to have something to watch. You can't just magically appear a a a long form video out of it. You need to you need to hone that craft at the same time. Uh so I would do that without compromising either. Um and and like I said um it and if you're I'm not saying that this is what you are a plant-based guy but

if you're going to repurpose content do not do that for shorts. Like don't take some talk or something that wasn't intended as a short to make it a short. Like that is the thing that drives me the complete bad. And and the reason why it's it's cringe. It literally is cringe when that happens for the viewer. And for me um as as a viewer, I I don't want to see that. If it wasn't intended for me

to to receive in that format, I don't it I'm not even watching it. Like I'm not even giving it two seconds. And so, um, now now keep in mind there's another way to do it is like if it's a podcast form and you're taking a snippet, I'm okay with that. But you got to give it a headline for let for let me know that that's what it is because that's how I explore new podcasts or interviews

I want to do. I'm I'm okay with that. But don't don't don't do it in a way that's cringey. There we go. Couldn't agree more on that. Uh, oh, I just spilled something on one of my Give me one second. Uh, all right. I'll let you take this. I gota I spilled something. I need to uh uh clean it up real quick. All right, I'll take over. Uh, so I'll read some something from the chat. Yeah,

I mean to piggyback off of what Daryl was saying too, the uh the podcast clips, I would make sure if let's say that is something you're doing or if you're doing like a um like a live stream clip, I would just make sure that it's a complete clip. A lot of people what they'll do is they'll like cut it in the middle of conversation where it's not a complete clip and you know that's frustrating as a

viewer for me personally. So okay I think we have beeping. I don't hear you Daryl. I don't know if uh Oh no. Is it just on my end? I'm only hearing beeping right now. I'm not hearing your voice. Chat is is we lost him. No, Daryl is swearing. This is I've never seen this. I will take a question while hopefully Daryl's mic I really hope the mic didn't just break. That would be such a shame. Um,

okay. So, Silly Sonic, how do you know when your audience loves you versus just loving your content? I would say while Daryl's fixing his mic, let me text Daryl. [Music] Um, no, it's still just beeping. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat [Music] up here. Heat up here. [Music] [Applause] [Music]