Road to Revenue | Geniuslink

Real King of Video Matt Hughes - Road to Revenue Podcast - Ep 1

• Geniuslink • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Lee Elwell dives deep with Matt Hughes, dubbed the "Video King," into the intricate world of content creation and revenue generation beyond traditional metrics. Hughes shares his journey from starting a video company to leveraging YouTube for substantial income without relying on the platform's direct monetization. He emphasizes the importance of diverse revenue streams, strategic content creation, and the profound impact of consistency in building a successful online presence. Through engaging stories and practical advice, Matt & Lee uncover tricks and tactics, debunk common myths, and discuss the transformative role of AI in content creation. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for creators at any stage, revealing how passion, strategy, adaptability and creativity are great company on your road to revenue.

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in Vegas and we had an argument because his now wife complained because he didn't like her video and that's vanity right. If you're so tied to it that it hurts your feelings or your mental health then that's vanity and absolutely people are right when they call it vanity metrics. Hi and welcome to Road to Revenue, GeniusLink's podcast inviting creators to come in and talk about the bumps in the road, the twists, the turns, everything about understanding what there is to know about bringing revenue in as a creator today. Joining us today we've got Matt Hughes, Video King. Welcome, Matt. Thanks so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here after meeting some of your guys in Dallas a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, so that was at VidSummit, wasn't it? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah. Creators conference, big creators conference in Dallas. I love, love that event. And, um, I happened to just go into a birthday party with Roger Wakefield, um, famous YouTube plumber. Um, it was his birthday. And so I saw your guys there and I was amazed because I, I, I've used your product for a long time. And, and it's one of those things where I never thought I'd meet the people I'd meet the P made it, you know, kind of in the world and you just think. I'm never going to meet them. Why would I ever meet them? It'd just be a strange situation now, what's the matter, we had to be here together, so it's great. Brilliant. But you know what, it's one of those, it's quite funny, we're behind the scenes in a lot of creator journeys. So yeah, we don't really get that normal face to face all the time, so great that you could meet up with the guys. With the revenue side, and that's really what we want to dig into, right? Like really want to understand the nitty-gritty parts. Don't want to go into total all the tactics, but we want to get some nuggets out of you. But tell me first off, from a revenue perspective, what channels are you bringing in revenue from? What streams have you got diversified? What does it look like for you? Okay. So, my whole thing as king of video is to teach people how to create a revenue stream using YouTube. Right. So it's not necessarily on YouTube. I'm a, I'm not monetized on YouTube right now. I've got a small channel, um, but I make good money off my YouTube channel. And I think that's one of the key things when, when you mentioned this podcast, it's one of the key things I wanted to highlight straight away. It's like, actually, if you talk to a lot of YouTubers, monetization on the platform directly is a small percentage of their total revenue. that they bring into their business. So I really need people to understand that when you're thinking about YouTube as a revenue source, yes, it does definitely bring in money, but it doesn't have to end there. And actually, if you're strategic with what you're doing, you should have other revenue streams, other ways to make money that your YouTube channel directly impacts. And that's the big key thing, I think. So how many streams of income do you actually have currently? How many streams of income? It's a magic question, isn't it? I'd say probably five, five. If we talk about them, we're probably going to find out there's 11. Who knows? Who knows? I think probably five. Yeah. Going without too much of a pause in my hand. I think that's probably about right. Yeah. Okay. Okay. And, and, and you've been, I mean, this is not your first rodeo, right? You've been doing this for half a decade. Uh, yeah. So I started a video company in 2013. So we're, we're just 10 years old. in September. Wow. A full decade. Yeah. Yeah. So I closed that, um, three years ago. Um, but at the time, it wasn't a full time gig actually. I was a IT contractor and that was a side whistle. Um, and I did it because I really, it really sounded like a good thing to do. And I just made it that if I took a day off my IT contract in that I would charge the same when we were doing the video gig and we ended up with a team and sort of. I think at one point we had five of us in the team. We traveled the world. We went to Vegas, Copenhagen, South Africa, Barcelona, Amsterdam, all over the place, filming video, largely for tech companies, I think. We went to big Microsoft events and we took, you know, filmed sponsors on their stands, that kind of thing. So yeah, that's, that's where it all started. Definitely. And, and so like that, that's a journey in itself, right? I mean, yeah. Before you can get to the word revenue conversation, the word to video is really kind of what that sounds like. Were there big learnings that you brought across from that and that you've transferred into being a creator for yourself and then sharing it over? And I guess the other question is, what's your favorite bit that you've kind of brought from that experience that you now share with people who learn from you? Yeah, I think it's probably the business side of things. I remember I have got a... a link to my first Facebook live and at the time and I tell people about this all the time because I had 10 ,000 pounds worth of equipment to do that first Facebook live, I had a proper camera, I had some lighting, a proper microphone, I'd bought some software to do the broadcasting and it is truly awful, you know, like it's truly the worst Facebook live I've ever done. But at the time we were making like professional videos for companies, right, you know, million to million dollar companies. And so I assumed that if I was going to do this thing and be in front of the camera, I needed to make sure it looked perfect. And actually in the end, I was coached by somebody at the time and they said, you know, you just got to go and do this stuff. You've got to get out there. And I did. And I was like a little mouse, you know, talking to, I was like, I'm going to go live every day for six months. Um, well, I think I said three months, I would go live every day and I actually did it for six months. It was every work day. I did it around the same time at 11. AM and I just wanted to do it. And this is, this is the answer to your question. I just wanted to do it to understand what it felt like to be consistent, what it felt like to be in front of camera all the time, what it felt like to come up with content ideas, what it felt like to be in another situation. So I remember doing a live that I did when I went to see Phil Collins, if you know Phil Collins. Yeah. I went to see him in Hyde Park at British summertime festival and I remember doing a live there, you know, with people around me and there's little situations like that, that when you start to become comfortable on camera, in front of the camera, you learn that it's okay that there's people around you. As long as you've got a lapel microphone or something that will keep the sound pretty good, the confidence that you have from, you know, being consistent really comes across and helps you move forward. So, I think there's all sorts of transferable skills that you get, but I think standing in front of the camera, even though I'd been doing it, you know, filming for years, that was probably a really hard move and something that I had to get over as we started making our own content as well. So what's the most, I mean, Phil Collins is pretty up there, but are there any other memorable stories from that time? Well, yes, I tell you one memorable story that really directly relates to revenue is it what I did is I set myself this goal to go live every workday So when I was in the office for three months As I said, it went on for six months in the end I always wore a blue shirt happened to always have the same outfit on when I went into the office and that was to attempt the lack of decision fatigue and I Remember somebody going into my inbox and saying hey Matt I'd love to work with you on this thing, right? And what I learned was if you show up consistently, instead of having to go and find business and do sales, people would come to you. And what happened with this guy is he happened to be, we had a website business as well at the time. And I was just talking about like how we were going to create revenue in that website. We were like, our focus was getting to six figures and I was... I had a little whiteboard behind me and I was illustrating how we would get to that. And he slid into my DMs and he said, Matt, I've got a website, need it building, can I come and have a call? And he came into my office. Not only did that happen where he bought the business to me, I didn't have to like sell it to him, he definitely wanted to work with me. But he also just walked into my office as though he knew who I was. And this, when you meet people in business, there's a kind of bit of an awkwardness where you kind of say hello, they say hello. You're like trying to work out both what your motives are and you know, it's always like dating. You've got that kind of weird awkwardness about it. Or maybe I was just an awkward data. Um, but there was none of that. He just walked in, almost walked past me. I don't even know if we shook hands and he just sat in my settee, on my settee that we had in the office at the time. And, um, sorry, Sofo, I don't know if Americans say settee, settee so far. Um. But we sat down and we just had a conversation and it was just so easy and so like I just really think about that when I'm thinking about do you show up on camera often and what is the outcome of that in terms of sales and revenue? It's that people want to work with you and sometimes you don't know if they're watching, you don't know how many people are watching, if the right people are watching. Hopefully that all of that is true but... eventually if you do it consistently, they'll just show up and say, right, I'm ready to work with you now. Yeah. The, um, I mean, the, the saying is no, like, and trust in terms of doing business, people want to know you, they want to like you, they want to trust you and they'll do business with you. And, and there is like, uh, there's a, there's an intimacy that can be built up by that consistency. So, yeah. I describe it as accelerating that no-like and trust factor, you know, I've got frameworks like 5A's, one of the A's is accelerating and when I talk to people about starting YouTube channels, I'm like, this is how you accelerate that whole process. You know, if you think about it now, if you're thinking, I've got an event or I'm getting married or something, you need a photographer, right? If you want to get any engagement on Facebook, go and ask for a photographer because... They, people will tag in a hundred photographers. Everybody knows a photographer. Right. Um, so if you're in that sea of people, how do you stand out? Whereas if you can send it, uh, you know, a YouTube channel, which shows like loads of things about you, your process, some of the work you've done before, your case studies, all that kind of stuff. It's like your own Netflix channel and people can just binge watch until they're ready to give you their credit card number, which is, which is the pinnacle of sales. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it. It's interesting because you talked about the consistency and you don't know whether people are actually watching or not. How tied up do you get with the vanity metrics with actually whether people are commenting, whether people are actually liking, whether they're engaging with the video or do you look at other metrics? I'm so glad you asked that question. I call vanity metrics valuable metrics. Right. So I want you to change the word that you use because it is a big thing in the online space that people call these metrics, vanity metrics. Okay. Well, I'll tell you what, let me start that question again. No, no, I'll tell you why. Let me explain why because actually it is true, right? If I couldn't sleep tonight because I only got 10 likes on my video, then it is vanity, right? I even... The guy I started the video company with originally, I remember he had an argument. We were in Vegas and we had an argument because his, his now wife, who was his, his fiance at the time, uh, complained because he didn't like her video. Um, you know, it's like 11 AM in the morning. She messaged him and they had an argument once we were at the outlets. I remember it's like it was yesterday and that's vanity, right? If you, if you're so tied to it, that it hurts your feelings or your, your mental health. then that's vanity and absolutely people are right when they call it vanity metrics so I don't want you to change it because it's true. But when I'm talking about being strategic with your YouTube content or your social media content that's where it becomes valuable because actually you need those metrics to understand what content works, what doesn't work. And I spoke to a guy called Jesse Davis he's a huge YouTuber in Thailand, actually his daughter Brianna's world is one of the biggest YouTube channels in Thailand 8 million subscribers or something and he said to me when they first started they published something like 50 videos and and what they were doing when they were doing that was testing the vanity metrics they were looking at these really valuable metrics and saying if the eight different types of ideas a kids channel so they they came up with eight ideas of kids content And they said, which ones are the ones that are hitting home? And they were able in that quick, by paying attention to those metrics, they were able to ditch four of the ideas straight away and then double down on the four types of content that they'd eventually come up with. He didn't mention what they were, but, but isn't that fascinating? Actually, when you think about those being really valuable, all of a sudden you can see why people go from 200 views on TikTok, which is where a lot of us are stuck. Yeah. And then some people hit 2 million views because you're looking for the stuff where, if you're in that testing phase that all algorithms do and you're around that 200, 300 mark, what is the video that moves you beyond that? And how can you do more of that content? And so with the metrics then, which are the metrics? Is there a hierarchy that you look at for, and is it tied to the content? Is it tied to the strategy or are you really looking at? where the revenue will play out on the long game. Yeah, so I suppose it depends on your... It does depend on your goals. Again, I did an interview with a guy called Jerry and he said, he was one of the first people I've ever seen say this to me and he said, when I started YouTube, he's on about 120 ,000 subscribers now, he said, when I first started YouTube, I just thought I'll commit to it for a year and see where we got to after that. I was like, oh my god, Jerry, like I've never when I speak to people that when I start YouTube they're like What results do you think we'll get in the first month? And I'm like, what do you mean? What do you mean the first month? We'll have four videos like you won't get any results in the first month Like can we just think about the first year when I started my podcast? I think I'm on episode 9 or something like that now Like my views are terrible my downloads, you know, it's different on podcasts My downloads are terrible. Like I don't care. I'm not I'm not worried about it because I'm like when I get to episode 50 I know the cumulative effect of what's going to happen. And so then I'll start to look at the metrics. I mean, you know This is why it's a difficult answer the quick question because I'm doing the opposite of what I've just said with with um With what jesse did jesse went hard published loads paid attention to the metrics and then agile, moved in an agile way to sort of find the answer with me with a podcast because it's kind of one of the second, third, maybe streams of marketing that I'm doing. It's not a big priority to me. I'm just happy to do it, but do it for a pretty long period of time. Whereas with my YouTube channel, probably pay more attention to the metric. So I don't think I've answered the question. Because it's such a difficult question to answer, that's why, you know. Yeah. So I guess if we're looking at it from a channel by channel basis then, when you look at YouTube, you've got a hierarchy of factors that you want to look at the metrics that mean the most to you. Yeah. Do you think about revenue when you're looking at those metrics? I always think about revenue because I'm financially driven. Some people are not. Some people want to do things for the love of it and all that kind of stuff, but I'm always financially driven. But I think about it strategically so for me to stop talking and consider what you were saying in the last couple of seconds I think about one of my clients she is a coach and we strategically set up her channel and by the time we got to something like 12 weeks in or something like that she'd only got 2 ,000 views and she's got 150 subscribers. And I was telling her to do all these marketing things and extra things that we could do to get more people onto her channel. But she ended up with a 6 ,000 pound coaching client off the back of it. And so actually when we got to like reviewing where we were at and what we were doing, like that hit the money in the bank answer to that question, you know, what was more important? Is it that we got low views or low subscribers? Or was it more important that we were finding the right audience and getting cash in the bank? And I think the answer has to be cash in the bank if you're running a business. The views are good and there's some people that just do it all for views and all for likes and that kind of stuff. But what are really your goals that you're trying to get out of the star? And for me and the people that I work with, my thing is called YouTube for Business. We're focused on getting in front of the right people at the right time to get money and revenue into our business. So it's pretty much profit first kind of mentality. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Brilliant. Well, so with that, are there some projects or I guess some types of content that you would like to continue making, but actually they just don't make sense revenue wise. Like are there, are there some of the babies you had to let crawl away? Yeah. Well, I suppose it's a kind of, it, the kind of content that you want to create. I mean, I really admire those people that make content because they love it. They just love the content. They don't really care about anything else and they want to make that kind of content. You know, I have these conversations with some of the YouTube groups because people are talking about how to monetize, all that kind of stuff. And I'm like, yeah, but there's some people that really grow big. They're not thinking strategically, but they just love what they're doing. And I think about vloggers a lot of the time, I think there's quite a lot of effort that goes into that and you have to really love it to do it. So I don't think, I think vlogging for me would be hard because it's just like pottering around my house doing normal things, you know, and I'd have to come up with some kind of concept around that. Whereas actually for me, I love doing like how tos and I love product reviews and teaching people stuff. That makes more sense to me. And when it comes to money, getting brand deals around that kind of content is just the best because then it aligns with what I love. I mean, you know, I imagine those vloggers getting stuff like free clothes and other benefits you get out of having that kind of channel. Whereas for me, yeah, free software, you know, getting paid to do those videos. I got a huge community, I became a community manager for a software company. off the back of a video that I had and I'd only got 700 subscribers at the time. And it was worth a lot of money for me, that contract. I was there with them for eight months. So it, you know, it really can happen and it can be in the arena that you love doing the type of content that you love. You don't have to dance on TikTok if that's not your thing, you know. So with your, with your, just to speak to that a moment with your experience, how much of, of the economy, the creator economy is hidden? Do you think that, that people don't. necessarily talk about or hear and revenue that appears in inboxes, but never becomes communicated. Yeah. I think it's not talked about as much. I think the focus often is monetization and how much revenue you can get from ants. And so a lot of people are working towards monetization all the time. And they focus on that, if only I can get monetized, I'll do this. And it's like, well, actually realistically, you have to get millions of views to get a good amount of money. Even if you're getting a bit of money per thousand views or whatever, it doesn't translate to like a full -time job really quickly. Whereas actually, I think if you focus on those hidden things, the off -platform revenue streams, that's where you make real money. That's where the coach client of mine made money because she already had a defined... business that was delivering a high ticket service and so when the audience came in, the viewer came in with the views, the small amount of views, she was able to farm them off to a presumably a lead magnet at the time is where they probably came in and then some kind of offer off the back of it and if you think about it, if you think yourself like how you buy things, you'll watch somebody or you'll see a product of some description somewhere, And you'll see someone talking about it or you'll see someone reviewing it or whatever. And that's the thing that makes you move in my, from my world, you know, more, what's probably more of a, she reads reviews and stuff. But for me, if I see something, I want to see something in action. I'm a very visual moving picture kind of person. So the video makes the perfect sense for that, you know. So with them, with the revenue that you're, that you're currently focused on. Yep. And, and diversified and not trying to build a big, big, big channel. What's your, what's your favorite revenue? Like what's the one that you actually most enjoy? Uh, I tell you, well, there's two, there's two things. I mean, I'm totally focused on the conference right now. So, um, that's a revenue stream that is interesting. Um, my favorite ever revenue stream was my membership, which I closed recently. I closed it because it it wasn't quite growing the way I wanted it to but the reason it was my favorite is because it really only cost me about an hour or two a week right and I think probably if I'd have spent more time on it marketing it we wouldn't have had to close it but in terms of delivery of stuff that was great because I had all this content all these courses that I'd created people could come in and and you know we just got together every week and I just answered loads of questions and like I love being a solution kind of person so I've got a strategy call thing where you can book me for an hour and I answer a load of questions that you've got and I always tell people like just go away and find 20 questions related to your video stuff and we'll go through them all on the call. I just love those kind of sessions I think. That's my favourite stuff to do is just my membership when we had the weekly calls and then the strategy calls. Um, when someone books me for an hour, but it's a really bad way to make money selling, selling yourself by the hour. It's just a bad way to make money. Maybe that's why I love the membership because it's kind of like passive income, recurring income, and I still get to answer the questions. Right. So with that, I've got, I've got to ask then. Yeah. What's the question that keeps coming up? So when in your membership, what's the one that, cause there's, there's, there's two bits. Like one, I want to know. what that question is that people keep asking, that you keep having to answer again and again and again. Well, to be honest with you, that's how I started my YouTube channel. My most popular video on my YouTube channel is how to not be sideways when you go live on Facebook. And that was just years ago. That was like the question people asked me the most when people are just getting into lives, they knew lives were a good idea. And so I just created the video. It was like two minutes long. and it was just because I got fed up of answering the questions so I just said go watch the video, I'll show you how to fix it. I mean there's common questions that people ask when it comes to getting started, you know things like what's the best webcam, my answer to that is all webcams are terrible, use your phone. Things like how do I come up with content ideas, how do I stay consistent, it really... And there's like a cycle, so when new members come or used to come into the membership, we would get all of those questions at the start. And then it was all about consistency. I couldn't do my video this week, so what do I do about that? Oh, we'll do some batch filming. Okay, if I do batch filming, what do I need to do? Well, we need to have a permanent setup so it's easy, so you're in the right energy. How do you stay in the right energy? Well, you know, you've got to find your rhythm, find when you're good. For women, they have cycles, so in a large part of my... audience or women so I was like okay pick the the other weeks where you're not in a bad party cycle and make sure you film in that at that time and So there's all these weird and wonderful questions that you that you get but eventually Running something like that a membership. They're the same kind of question, you know, you just tailor them to the person because you can part of part of being a sort of coach or a mentor is just understanding who it is that you're talking to and what their challenges are. And then tailoring the answer to them. So it's hard when you just, you know, if you're selling courses, you've got to be quite broad and accommodate everybody. But when you, when you're in a group setting like that, you can really listen to the challenge of the person and then answer it in a way that makes them hopefully take action. So what about, what about myths? There's gotta be a couple of myths that people keep bringing up that just won't seem to go away. Well, I mean, we've talked about some of them, right? So Vanity Metrics, that's one definite myth. I actually did, I don't know if I took it off my YouTube channel, I did a 12 myths of Christmas, 12 myths of YouTube and it was like a Christmas countdown thing. So if they're there, if they're not there, they'll be on my Instagram and they'll probably be on my Instagram. in the next few weeks because we're filming in November and my team are definitely going to just reuse that content because they're really nicely branded and all that kind of thing. I think one common myth to me is that you need loads of equipment, a lot of people say you know I'm not ready for YouTube because I don't have the right equipment, another common myth is you need to be confident on camera when actually you just need to get started, MrBeast wasn't confident you can see that the first two years of his videos were Him talking over playing video games. It wasn't him on camera other kind of myths are things like You need to be an expert Which which is definitely not true. Actually the story of becoming an expert is just as important as being the expert Just for another no one is gone You've want to come back to me in a minute. Oh Yeah, that was it the the other myth the other really good one is is it's oversaturated. My industry, you know, it's already been done. Somebody's in my industry has already taken that part of my niche. So I can't do it when actually, when actually the most beautiful part of all of this content creation stuff is that you are the unique thing. And so if you are the unique thing, only you can only deliver the message in the way you can deliver that message. And so like, I get people that are like, Oh, well, If I give away all my stuff on YouTube, like no one will ever buy anything from me, especially if they're course creators, content creators, that kind of thing. And I'm like, well, it's actually the opposite. When you give so much away, people are like, well, how can I work with you then? Like what can I do to get closer to you? And I don't mean that in a stalker way. I mean it in like a, if you invite people to come and do group coaching programs or come to do your course or whatever, even though all the content is probably online, they want to learn from you. They want to get closer to you. So. Yeah, the my industry is saturated. There's too many people doing it. It's just it's just so wrong. And actually when you look at it, if, if I was to say my industry is video creation and I would say look in the UK, there's a hundred thousand video creators. Okay. That's a lot of people. How many of them are on YouTube? 25. And then you go, well, actually. Because they're busy doing content creation for other people. They're not that they're a new to channel. They're not prepared to stand there and have the confidence to sit in front of a camera. So, yeah, it's never saturated. That's the biggest myth, I'm sure. Yeah. And with that conversation, I often have is around providing content and providing information for free. We've moved very much beyond the democracy of information. Yeah. nothing is really locked away anymore. And we moved from that democracy. So it's more around the conversations that I have or around curating content and then facilitating actually implementing that content. And that's the part that, yeah, like you say, well, that part is never going to be saturated because that's all about the individual. Yeah. Yeah. And it's such weird things, right? You know, I talk to my wife about this often. We talk about the fact that There's nobody in the world that is completely liked Because even you can meet someone who's the nicest person who just seems to make everybody feel welcome they're really loving and caring and all that kind of stuff and Somebody will turn around and say Don't like that guy. It's just too nice It's just something not right about him. You know me so but you can't you can't win but so everyone has these weird and wonderful things that they think about people even down to like Don't like the guy's forehead, don't like the guy's accent, don't like the guy's hair color, his skin color, all of those things that actually are in people's minds are the reason why you should go and do the thing and be the person because actually there's somebody waiting for somebody like you because the alternative is someone they don't really like and they're just following him because they don't like him but they give the best information. Whereas if you can come along, they like you and you give away good information. then you can win from that definitely. So you mentioned Tube Fest. Yeah. Super exciting. Yeah. Not as far away as it might seem. Yeah, we're very close to launching it now. This is like the... I've never been so nervous about something in my life, but I've never been so excited about... the future. Um, and also, um, I'm undiagnosed ADHD. My wife did a mental health children course recently. She tested me for, with the ADHD test and I got a hundred percent. So I was like, Oh, maybe, maybe I'm undiagnosed. And I often go from one thing to another and having something like Tube Fest gives me like a real big focus and everything draws me back to that. So I think it's nice as well from us, from my own mental. Abilities to focus on that. Yeah, because it isn't something that happens overnight It's not something that you can create in a weekend. No, how how long have Tell us a little bit around how long you've been working on it What your idea is behind to festin really what you want it to be able to deliver? Yeah, sure. So so We didn't explain which one it's kind of talking about it. So you first is a Video marketing conference. It's happening in the UK May 23rd in Birmingham in the UK and the idea came because I travel to the US to conferences all the time when I was doing the when I had the video production company we were traveling and we worked in the US a lot and it's great I love traveling but it is expensive and it's long and I went to San Diego to social media marketing world this year and I'm 40 now and I feel like the jet lag is hitting me so much harder. When I go to the West Coast, I just struggle loads to kind of acclimatize to the time zone, you know. But I love it. I love the events, I love networking, I love the community, I love the people and the parties as well, I should add. And so when I was there, I was like, do you know what? I was looking around in the UK and around Europe and I was like, I don't think there's a video marketing conference that happens. We used to have VidCon, which is more of a fan's conference. And I was like, I wonder if I can do something like my favorite conference, which was Vid Summit at the time. And I wonder if we could do something like that in the UK. So I thought about it in March in social media marketing world. And I was like, maybe I'll do it in a couple of years, you know, I need to build an audience. I need to do this. And this is an important thing, right? All the excuses in my mind came up. Everything that stops you doing anything all went through my mind. And so I had a crazy summer planned, I had festivals, all that kind of stuff. And then I got to VidSummit, just before VidSummit actually, I was sort of planning to go there and I think I'd been to another event and I was like, do you know what, I'm just gonna do it. Like if I don't do it now, somebody else is gonna do it and I'm gonna be so annoyed that someone else has done it and I didn't execute on that idea. And so about a week or two before VidSummit, Me and my team decided and I said, I'm going to go to Vidsa, I'm going to find some sponsors, find some speakers, and then we're going to push the button and do it. So now we are about a week and a half away from launching the thing, which is just... Oh no, it's absolutely amazing. And I think you're absolutely right. The more conferences we have dotted all across the world, then the better, because not everyone can. afford to travel halfway around the globe. And actually, even if they can afford it, some people just can't afford the time. So having something on the doorstep for a lot of people and certainly for our US audience and our Canadian audience, the scale of the UK is absolutely tiny. But being able to travel down halfway through the country to an event is totally doable in a day. So no, great that you're... great that you're putting it on. So what's the key thing that you're trying to achieve with ChiuFest? What do you want people to walk away saying happened to ChiuFest or what they got out of it? As a sort of seasoned, conferenced speaker, attendee, organiser, I care about all of those people. The sponsors, the speakers and the attendees. And I've been to so many conferences where they make so much money from sponsors that all they care about is the sponsors and they will do anything for them. I've seen conferences where they're fully focused on the speakers. They make them feel like rock stars. but then they forget about the attendees. And then I have been to events where the speakers are terrible, they've got no sponsors and the attendees are like, oh, what's happened here? So I just want to try and make as many people happy as possible. And that's quite a big thing as well, because I know it's not possible to do all of those things. But I think if I make it a great experience all around, I hope it's something that people will say. I hope I can listen to this podcast in a year's time and people are saying, I can't wait to go back to Tube Fest. You know, that is the dream really, because it's a 10 year plan. I want to do this every year, at least for the next 10 years. Brilliant. I don't think there's any reason why you can't because it certainly from the live scene already and talk to you about it sounds like it's going to be absolutely incredible. And yeah, amazing speakers. When, when do we say when is it going to go out? Can we talk about them now? Um, so we are, uh, definitely cutting this bit. Yeah. Um, I have not got a full commitment, but I'm looking at January. Okay. Great. Shall we talk, shall we talk about speakers then? So we just talk about speakers. knowing that nobody else knows about the speakers except for me and you right now. Okay, brilliant. Yeah. So tell us, tell us some of the speakers you've got lined up. Great. So at VidSummit this year, I met Austin Armstrong and Nick Nimim. Nick has the Nimminati. Don't know how you say it. But, and he's just hit 900 ,000 subscribers and Nick only does VidSummit. So he tells me he doesn't do any other conferences. And so we've kind of got a European exclusive, which I'm really excited about. Nick is one of the most humble, lovely people to be around. My first VidSummit, I remember going there and I knew nobody. I remember going on Twitter to try and find some friends because it's the first conference I've been to where I know nobody. And it was in Los Angeles at the time. And Nick was like, I'll come and have dinner with us, come and have a drink with us. He just, just such a welcoming guy. And so I knew if I was ever to do something like that, Nick would be the guy that I wanted to be my international speaker. So, uh, so I was fortunate enough to see him a bit, something and asked him. And then, uh, Austin is, is just a powerhouse. He's an international speaker. Again, he's great on Tik Tok. He moved his audience from Tik Tok to YouTube and went from something like five or 6 ,000. Subscribers to a hundred thousand in like three days. Why it was just insane to watch and he's on something like 600 ,000 subscribers now again a lovely guy and then we just got loads of so they're my international international speakers and we've got loads of UK and Irish speakers I've got a woman who's who gets a lot of their leads from YouTube even though she's a LinkedIn expert So she's gonna do a session on my business track We've got some tick tock experts there's just a whole bunch of people but but those guys oh do you know who else I've got I've got a guy called Craig Campbell and Craig Campbell is like an international um SEO speaker I'm sure he charges a fortune for his his sessions and we managed to get him at the event and I knew I couldn't really afford him afford him he's given me a great deal and I think it's because we had a few drinks at Brighton SEO once. I happened to find myself in a bar and there he was and we met each other and we've met each other at a few events since but he's going to do a YouTube SEO session and you know what I'm thinking, the thing with organizing a conference is trying to think about all the kind of sessions that you could do that will keep people happy. So I knew YouTube SEO was one of them, I've got an ads person, I've got Austin will talk about AI I'm sure and we've got an AI session in there as well so. a good like breadth of different kind of topics as well. And hopefully by the time this podcast goes out, uh, we'll be sold out. So you can't come. No, no, hopefully there will still be some tickets available. Um, and we're definitely going to have virtual tickets available as well. So, uh, that's all confirmed in the bank. Brilliant. Brilliant. Do you know what? I am super, super excited. Uh, jeez, like we're definitely going to be there. Absolutely. Um, want to be, uh, representing the brand and, um, I'm just. Really excited to see the speakers and greatly bagged some exclusives. That's great. I think this is the thing about events, right? Like events are the place where you really meet people and make like relationships. So people talk about lifelong relationships, but I met Nick in 2018, you know, that's five years ago. And there's a great relationship that was built up. And you know, I've met Austin a year or so before met him at social media marketing while I was so like really go to these things, go and get involved in it. And don't think if you're an introvert and you're not, you don't like being around people. I know plenty of introverts at the events. Uh, one of my speakers, uh, Ian, I'm sure Ian says is an introvert, uh, Ian Anderson Gray, and he's an international speaker as well, but he's from the UK. Um, you know, there's, there's no real excuse here. I know it can be tough for some people to get to these events, but, but just. relationships you made, make it just golden. And, and you, you know, when you think about the conversations that you can have, some people will charge you a whole bunch of money if you was to have an hour of time of their time, but you can stand at the bar with them and you can, you know, uh, chew their ear off with and get information from them, you know? So, uh, it's definitely worth it. I think. Do you know what? So looking forward to it. Absolutely. It is, it's going to be amazing. The. inaugural, the one, the first of at least 10. Yeah. First of at least 10. Yeah. No, that'd be absolutely brilliant. So, I want to dig into a couple of extra little bits around some of the tips and tricks that you share most often. So obviously, GeniusLink is very much affiliate marketing tied into products and making sure that we're mapping the links to exactly where they need to go to make sure that we're making that customer journey from the moment they click to the moment they purchase as short and as sweet as possible. Yeah. So what are some of the tips and tricks that you can share with us that, whether it's a Be with Genius Link or any other product, what are some of the tips that you keep going back to that you like to let people know they should be using and share with their audience? Yeah, well, I think you mentioned affiliate links there and obviously what your product does. I think if you think about it from a strategic point from the start, your channel, that's where you're going to win. So... I've seen a lot of people on TikTok and various other platforms where they'll talk about a product and get loads of views and they'll think damn if only I'd have got a affiliate link in there, you know, and it's too late by that point and there's some videos you'll find on TikTok where they work out how much so -and -so could have made if they'd have managed to have thought about it ahead of time. So what I really ask people to do and I don't want this to be like analysis paralysis in terms of planning but what I really want you to do is just be strategic with it from the start like just a friend of mine talks about when you're in business running your business like it's a million dollar business from day one so what would a million dollar business do in this situation now okay some situations my budget for my conference for example I wish there was more things I could do with that but I'm restricted in finances. But that doesn't mean I can't make the experience feel like a million dollar business and do some other things that could really add to that. So if you think about your channel, you think about your social media in general, if you treat it like, if I was Gary V, what would I be doing here? And Gary V is just, just an example, right? But it's like setting up those affiliate links, making sure that things, um, if you're promoting something that you've got those relationships built, have you got all your links in your description? Have you got links in your if you do in the Instagram the swipe up stuff, you know in the bio all that kind of stuff like that's all part of it how what's the user journey going to be like from the moment they see you and they view your video and they decide they like you what is the next steps for them and What do you do? Look at your own? User journey when you find someone you like what do you do you go into their bio? You go and click on the links, you know, how does that feel for the users as well? Okay, brilliant. So you talked about gear a little bit earlier and there is the whole gear acquisition syndrome, right? Yeah. And I love a shiny object, but there are definitely a few pieces of equipment that I think are absolutely my go -to, my favorite. And it's not necessarily the most expensive, it's not necessarily the cheapest one, but what's that one piece of gear, that one piece of kit? that you just think, you know what, I cannot live without it. What's the thing I cannot live without? It's really silly because I think about all the bits of gear, I've got some lighting here, I've got a nice camera and of course you can't really live without those things because you need those to do the video but one thing I talk about often is simplicity. I think I'm a really lazy videographer and I don't know if you or anyone listening has ever been in this position. but you think to yourself, well I'm gonna do some batch filming today and I'm gonna set up my gear, I'm gonna film four, eight, 12 videos, whatever it might be. And you spend an hour setting up your gear and by the time you set up the app, you spend the hour doing it, something's not working, something wasn't plugged in right or whatever, you're so low energy, you're like, oh my God, can't be bothered to film this or you film it and you can just see that you're just tired or exhausted or whatever. where you filmed the first video and the microphone didn't work so there's no sound at all. So all of those things that happen, I've just had so many experiences that when I first started my YouTube channel I did that. I did four videos and it was blurry because it autofocused didn't work. And it died inside when I did it, you know. So what I talk to people about now is I talk about having a setup that's a permanent setup so that you can click a few buttons and away you go. So if I think in my office now, are you going to use this on YouTube, these videos, or are you just going to the audio only? Yeah, absolutely. So we're doing a full content repurposing. It will be absolutely everywhere. Excellent. Right. So I can demonstrate this, right? But when I'm speaking to my clients, I'm always talking about like, make it so it's easy, so you can quickly start recording. So if you've got an idea, which is why people use their mobile phone so often, because it's quick and it's simple, right? So I come into my office, I turn my camera on or off as it may be, so I can do that now, I can demonstrate this right, so I'm off, you can see we've got no signal and my lighting is off, so I turn my camera on and you'll see my camera come back on, this is specifically on your YouTube channel, I press a button and both my lights come on and that's it, I've also actually got a remote for the lights behind me so I can turn them on and off and that's it, that's three buttons. When I... I've seen Nick Nimimi, he published a video recently about his setup like that and he presses a button and it starts a whole bunch of programs as well. I am getting to the answer to your question. So all of this comes because I have a stream deck. Right. Right. To stream deck, just press the buttons. Okay. I have to turn my camera on, but I press the buttons, everything happens and I'm ready. Yeah. And I think that's the thing. Like I just, whenever I've not got that, I'm like, oh. We shared it and it's one of those patches that you like. It's just a piece of plastic with buttons on it that are programmable. Yeah. Like it seems like such a ridiculous patches. They're not cheap either. But when you've got them, you can't live without them. Brilliant. Now, you know what? It's, it's, it's what I was looking for is that that one piece of equipment that has that special place in your heart. And certainly this StreamTech sounds absolutely amazing. I want to know if anyone else has the StreamTech because... I think they go down the camera route or something like that, but street, yeah, for me, that's it. Brilliant. So on the flip side then, and you have been doing this, you know, you've been doing this a long time. Is there a piece of equipment that you had such high hopes for, but you've just either not found yourself using or? Or I only used three times before I broke it. Can I talk about that one? Oh yeah, no, definitely. There's definitely a story there, fire away. So. I think the most um exuberant is that the word I think the most unnecessary purchase is a drone right I think anyone that buys a drone actually in practical terms when you're using it they're not really that great to use they create this epic footage you know oh my god it's epic footage but like you need to have other things available to use a drone and if you're doing some cool drone shots you can't have you standing there with the controls so you kind of need to do too or you need an operator or whatever. So I think a drone is over the top with that and the first one I had was a DJI Phantom 4, I went to the photography show in the UK which is like, you talked about gas before, if you've got gear acquisitions in drones do not go to the photography, it's called photography and videography show now I think and it's just like a dream, it's like porn for camera people you know. Of course I bought a drone so I bought it and we used it for a couple of weddings and then we found out we needed a license for it we couldn't use it for the weddings because we need a license and in the end I was just like so we'd used it maybe two or three times just to test it and everything and in the end I was like do you know what let's just use it for a little bit of footage nobody will really know you but we'll just put it in there and just ignore the fact we need a license for it and I was flying it backwards and I said to the guys who worked for me at the time and at the wedding I was like don't fly backwards it's got no sensor detection so if you fly backwards you just got to be careful and of course you know where this is going don't you? I was at this really beautiful country manor I've got this great footage of the drone flying backwards and we did it in like 60 frames a second so we was able to slow it down beautiful the groomsmen were just getting out of this limo going into this country house and I flew it back into the only tree in the field there was only one in massive field just one tree and I just fit in this just and we've got this 10 second clip where it hits the tree and just goes upside down and then hits the floor. So that was 600 pounds and I used it three times and broke it and it was fully broke, you know, like tried to fix it and it just did not work at all. So that's it. Thanks for asking. Yeah. And apologies for bringing the memory back up. Yeah, no, it is good. I like it and the little video that we've got my editor did this beautiful nice shot and then he's put down I don't know if you know down with the sickness by disturbed but that's that's the the music we used as it crashed so It's a funny moment. I can have those moments Time helps doesn't it? You know being able to look back and and yeah, totally Yeah, and all the new drones have you know detection of that stuff now, so, you know? technology moved on and solve that problem. But at the time I just happened to get the drone before the one that had detection of stuff around it. So you mentioned technology moving on. I'm going to ask the inevitable question and potentially whatever you say is going to be completely out of date by the time this goes live, it goes out. So are you using and how are you using? AI currently in in your business and and is that helping you to run your channel manage your business? Yeah So I think the only thing we're really using our for no well There's a couple of things so do you know opus clips have you seen opus? Yeah, really love opus. I met the guy Connor who's one of the guys at that business and it was the I met him at social media marketing world and it was like the day they were before they were launching and he told me about it and I was like, oh my God, this sounds amazing. For anyone that doesn't know, Opus is a piece of software where you upload a video, it finds the best clips in that video using AI and gives you a virality score, the chance of it going viral. Just brilliant. So stuff like that, I think from a content repub's point of view, it's an easy yes to say for that kind of software. And then of course, ChatGPT for things like descriptions. We have this great little Chrome plugin. called GLASP and it will, you upload your video to YouTube, you know, private or draft or whatever and it will, as long as it can see it, it will take the transcript from the video, put it into ChatGBT and then it will give you a summary of your video which you can then use for your summary on your channel or you could then use it for your blog post or whatever. But just taking that and putting it straight into ChatGBT in an instant, you know, click the button and it does it. Stuff like that, I just think it's fascinating. And then we've got like planning. So we've done some planning. You can, you know, ask for better titles. You can ask for better hooks, scripts. I'm not a big fan of scripts myself. I don't use scripts, but I know people that do use scripts, ChatGPT will just help you do all of that stuff. So I just think it's like having a, just an amazing assistant to be able to use. Cause you know, it's still you that's doing the work and filming. Um, Austin is the guy who's going to the conference, one of the speakers, he's got a company called syllabi where they'll create your track, your script and your title and your hooks and everything. And they've just started doing where you can create an AI version of yourself and then it will look like you talking as though it's you and it's not you. I mean, that is all of a sudden I could create videos where my, my VA could create the videos for me, which is insane. Yeah. You head to the beach. Videos to go on. Yeah, absolutely. So then, cause then I think about like courses and I think of other things, you know, we tried, um, I don't know if you've seen in Descript, they've got a, uh, something called Overdub. Yeah. The Descript allows you to create, Overdub allows you to create a voice of yourself. And I tried it and it didn't quite have all my, I think they're called intonations and some of the other stuff that happens within your voice. It didn't have all of that stuff and it wasn't quite right, but. I think you're like, it's coming. You know, you say it's about it being outdated. I know just like month by month, this stuff is really, really adding value to us. And I hope it doesn't replace us. I hope it does just stay and add value to us, but it remains to be seen. Okay. So here's the question. Then, uh, do you say please and thank you? Yes, all the time. Yeah. I'm so glad you asked that. I asked my, uh, BA, um, my business manager the other day. I was like, you know, when you're talking to chat GBT. Do you always say please? She was like, yep. Because you do, you see, you can't, you can't get out of that. You hold the door open for someone when they're walking past, right? Yeah. Yeah. You don't, that's, it's part of your being. You don't, you either do it or you don't. I'm still amazed I go to the toilet and you know, restroom, bathroom, whatever, and people don't wash their hands. I'm like, what are you doing? You horrible human being. Like that's just, it's just ingrained in my, in my, in my brain, you know, my body. Um, I think the, it's funny, the, The please and thank you, I think the being great, it goes back to what you're saying about consistency. Right? It is just part of that whole consistency. If you're doing one thing one way, then you will do it every single time, every single time you try and attempt it. Because the thing about consistency is once you become consistent, it doesn't feel like you're trying to be consistent anymore. It's just natural. You're just doing it. And that's why... actually when people are starting YouTube channels, my big thing to them, they spend so much time doing their first video planning and all this kind of stuff because of all the nervousness. But I say, just go and film it, like go and do it today. What's stopping you doing that? Well, I've got this, I've got that. And I'm like, no, just go and film it now. We'll just go and do it because the next time it's going to be better. And the next time after that, and the next time after that, you've got to get off the blocks. It's so frustrating to me and people that just plan forever. So. With that, we'll wrap up, but I do want to know before we do. Yeah. And you've given a great piece of advice there, but I am going to plug you for one more. What's the one piece that you would want to leave with our audience today? And whether that be around using the technology, their consistency, or maybe it's in particular about revenue. Yes, my simple piece of advice is if you've not got a YouTube channel now, you need to start now, like right now today, go and stop what you're listening to and go and start a YouTube channel. So many people wait and they'll pick TikTok and they'll pick Instagram Reels because it's quick, it's instant gratification, but actually when YouTube pays off in year two or year three, so you have to start now, start making videos, get used to that and eventually, You've got to go, I'm so glad I did it. I'm so glad I did those 50 before me because the revenue will come, the views will come, the followers will come, and then everything is easier after that. Brilliant. Thank you. And where can our audience find you? So I'm on kingofvideo .co .uk, kingofvideo.co .uk. That's how I came up with the title. Most kings steal their title and I stole mine because the domain name was available. So if you head over to that, you'll find loads of freebies and all that kind of stuff as well. Wonderful. Thank you again for joining us and sharing your road to growth.

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Lee Elwell

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