How To Leverage YouTube To Grow Your Brand - Ben Leavitt

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Sebastian Bro.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Ben Levitt, what's up, dude? Welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. I'm excited to chop it up. We've been going back and forth on Clubhouse a bunch, but it's great to speak one-on-one here. It really, really is, man.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

I I uh I'm a newer YouTuber, probably over the course of the past, I'd say, 18 months. Um, I grew up actually with Owen. Uh well, I say grow up, you know, I've known him for 15 years now, but he's been he's been bugging me forever to like, you're doing YouTube wrong. You should definitely look at my program. So I finally bit the bullet last year, joined his program, and it really changed everything. But as you know, with podcasting, there's only so much content available on YouTube. So you've got to get very creative. And I find myself racking my brain a lot, but your channel was one of the main go-to sources as far as okay, what's worth a conversation or something, something to talk about? So yeah, love your content, love what you got going on there, uh, especially with YouTube. And then we ended up, you know, I think everyone's starting to connect in some form or fashion on Clubhouse here. It's it's it's wild, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

It is, man. Yeah, I appreciate you watching the videos and congrats on uh getting started on YouTube. It's such a valuable platform, and it's I could see you killing it there. So definitely keep it up.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

Thanks, man. I appreciate that. So so how did all this start? When did you decide, you know what? I'm gonna be a YouTuber. I'm gonna be a social media strategist. This is the direction I want to go. How did this all begin?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, so I didn't know this is exactly what I was gonna do, but I knew I'd be doing my own thing for sure. Like I knew that when I was a little kid. I had a loose plan in place from the age of about like nine or 10 years old. And the plan was uh go play football in high school, then go to Michigan University, star there, of course. And then after that, go play for the Jacksonville Jaguars. After that was all over, I would eventually build businesses and then make enough money to buy the team. So that was my life plan. Uh, and that was going okay until I didn't get into Michigan. Uh and then when I was playing college football in Canada, I had so many injuries. So that made me have to retire from football and really go back to the drawing board to try to make the last part possible to eventually buy the team and start being more of an entrepreneur that way. Right. So like I was always very naturally entrepreneurial growing up. I was always flipping things, buying and selling Pokemon cards, like stuff like that. But it wasn't cool or sexy when I was a kid. It was looked at as almost kind of weird. Like I was like a hustler, but in a negative connotation, if that makes sense. So uh I went back to that because it I found a lot of joy there. So after football was taken away from me, after a bit of soul searching, I was like, okay, I'm really interested in that stuff. So I started doing that more and more, and that kind of pushed me down the path of social media eventually.

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah, I mean, it kind of, yeah. Well, it just made sense to me. I I've been in the game for about probably 15 years now, and I turned it into a business 11 years ago. But I'll never forget like the beginning of MySpace. I was thinking, shit, dude, this is this is crazy. This is like a high school reunion online. Like people are coming out of the woodwork that you may or may not want to come out of the woodwork, but this is gonna be interesting to see where this unfolds. And then, you know, LinkedIn was shortly thereafter on the MySpace days, and then um, and then of course Facebook. And then I thought to myself, wait a second, in 2010, we're coming out of the recession and trying to figure out what you know the whole the world is is is gonna look like moving forward. And then in 2000, I'm like, I gotta do something about this because I know more than most because people didn't know what was going on with this whole world of social media. And I I don't think people still do, but it's crazy. The craziest part I see is that you know, like LinkedIn, for example, I mean, being one of the first players on the block, you know, well before Facebook is like one of the main go-to platforms right now. Podcasting came out right around the same time. So it's just wild, man, to see how technology unfolds, you know, decades later, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Yeah. So it really democratized entrepreneurship. Just sorry to cut you off there. But I think that was the big eye-opening thing for me was that I was watching a lot of entrepreneurs that were just like me, they're like nothing, they didn't come from money, they didn't come from any point of status, but they were creating crazy things for themselves because they were able to open themselves up to the public so people like can start their own clothing brand that could rival Nike. Like, look at Gymshark, it's now a billion-dollar company that was started primarily through on the back of social media, and it was a drop shipping company at first, which a lot of people don't know. So the internet changed everything and social media more so.

SPEAKER_00 4:37

It really, it really, really did. I I met I met uh Gary V about 11 years ago, and that was really the biggest game changer for me was that somebody, I'll never forget, I was just trying to figure out what I was gonna do. I'd move back to Miami. I was a full-time single dad. I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was like, Well, I guess this is where chapter two begins. And uh I had a friend reach out and say, hey man, you gotta connect with this guy, Gary Vaynerchuk. And of course, first intuition when you hear Gary's name is like, Gary, who? You're like, no, he wrote a book called Crush It and you guys like have this over-the-top personality. I think you should definitely read the book. And I couldn't even afford to buy the book. I'll never forget he. The guy gave me his audible login and I downloaded it um onto my iPod and listened to it. And then um, Gary was pretty accessible back then. So I had just reached out, and the next thing I knew, his second book came out, and he had a book stop here in Miami, and we ended up connecting and then just grew a friendship from there. And I just continued to follow him as he unpacked, you know, building his brand and what he's done over the past you know 10 years. And man, the guy's very rarely wrong on his on his predictions on where we're going with all this stuff. I mean, and I'm glad that I I'm glad that I did listen. I mean, now I now I see him in different cities because I MC events a lot. I see him in the green room because he's the you know the keynote for the the events. Well, when events actually happen. But yeah, man, the the um he was speaking to the topic recently last week about um you know this whole GameStop thing and the stock market and how the internet will, you know, the internet's gonna win every single time. It's gonna reveal us and it's going to and it's going to win every single time. It's undefeated, as far as uh just like you said, um, you know, making it a level playing field. So wild right, and it still kind of feels like the beginning because people are finally going, okay, this stuff isn't going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, I think and this whole pandemic, I think, expedited things tremendously because I think it would have been come this way in the next few years, but this just made it a forced reality. And now people who were very apprehensive of embracing social media or internet at large are now being forced to, and they're like, wow, this this is game-changing. It's gonna, it'll just continue to go that way.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

I love that. I absolutely love that it actually happened too. I've been a giant fan of Skype and Zoom. I've always been the guy to go, let's well, Sebastian, I'd love to meet with you. I mean, great. What do you want to meet about? You know, we can do the telephones, Zoom calls. Well, I'm not quite set up for that yet. Like, cool. You weren't quite set up for that yet, but then you know, 2020 said, you know, hold my beer, watch this. So uh I love that it's made people, you know, and and and Gary talks about that a lot. Technology doesn't care about your feelings, it's gonna continue to evolve, it doesn't care what you think about it, and it's gonna continue to move at the speed that it moves, and you're either with it, you know, or or or you're not. Um so the the you're when did you start YouTube? When do you when did you decide, you know what, this is a channel that I want to pursue and I want to get serious about because you've built quite the following on on YouTube and you've got quite the library of content there. So how'd that all start?

SPEAKER_01 7:26

So I started YouTube after an injury of mine. So I think it was about three years ago now. I tore my ACL playing football. And when I went looking on YouTube, there was very few videos on the process, and very few that provided anything of substance. Like there was stuff that people had shot on their phone, and they didn't even go into detail. Like it was very, very poor content. So I kind of viewed that as the universe pushing me into the game. And I had always wanted to start YouTube, but I was like, oh, I'll start it after my football career, and that was now over. So I could see this as an opportunity, and I kind of took it as one. So my first few videos were actually about the ACL process, and they brought in like tens of thousands, some of them had hundreds of thousands of views. I've since taken those down because YouTube would still show them to people, and it kind of confused everything with my channel. So I just recently took those down, but that was the first like expedition into uh YouTube content and then it just kind of snowballed and rolled from there into the stuff that I do now. And I've been doing this sort of social media themed content with online business, podcasting, etc., for about a year and a half, two years now.

SPEAKER_00 8:30

Yeah, it's it's a good mix really of content on there because like I said, it's hard to talk just about podcasting, it's hard to talk just about video. But when you're really running the gamut, and you and you don't you don't run the gamut with like you you stay pretty focused on from what I've seen is from the podcasting, social media content, a lot of Instagram stuff, uh stuff that that that people really, really want to know about. And as of recent, you know, Clubhouse becoming more and more more popular on there. But um I think there's definitely an advantage or or benefit rather to being able to focus on just a couple things versus a lot of things. So I always I always I always think what else can I talk about on on YouTube? What or on podcasting? Well, I did a video before I started working with Owen, I did a video for best podcast intros. And uh before I got to serious about thumbnails or anything like that, and man, dude, that thing is I mean, it's sitting at like 65,000 views still on that video. Like people are freaking obsessed with podcast intros. Uh so Owen said, Great. Well, your channel and your analytics are telling you everything that you need to know pertaining to a new content that you can go and create. Like, so create an entire silo on just intros on it. But I never sat out thinking, well, podcast intros are going to be you know popular and what people are looking for. But uh so it's been interesting to try and rack my brain on um on on what content to create that people actually care about because it's my understanding that YouTube is is should be it should have an entertainment component, but it also is a resource component. And when those two can meet, then you've got a valuable channel because people aren't just using you as a resource when they need to answer a question, but they're actually being entertained. They look forward to getting your content. So I'd be curious to to to to uh understand you know your thought process on how YouTube works. And you know, if someone's considering uh a YouTube channel and starting one, you know, what's the best way to go about that?

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Yeah, so love all of the points you made there. YouTube is very much authority driven. So it can take some time to get that authority, but once you have that in that's in a space, it becomes very easy for your videos to perform very well in that space, obviously because the followers that you gained from performing well help. But in general, YouTube will give you more opportunities because they trust you within that field. So I kind of stumbled into being like a podcast YouTuber because I made I was just making videos about stuff that I was going through, and I had running, I've been running a podcast for about six, seven months, and I made a ton of mistakes along the way. I didn't know what I was doing. So I made a video on that process, and that was like my first viral video. I would say it's got close to 300,000 views at this point. And that was a total, not a total accident because I was making videos somewhat strategically, but it was dead for about three to four months and then picked up and started to take off. And then I started doubling down on podcasting content, and that's what allowed me to gain a decent following around that subject. So, what I would say is it's still 100% possible to start and be successful on YouTube. I think having a niche is going to help you out tremendously because it allows YouTube to more easily define you. And I don't want that to come across as a limiting thing, it's actually a freeing thing because it allows you to come up with content ideas far easier. And YouTube knows who you are and also who you're for. So they'll start to show you to people more consistently. Whereas if it's a mixed bag of everything, they don't know who to show you to because they don't know what you are. And people also love to point at someone and be like, okay, that's their point of value. Like they come to Ben, he's a social media guy. The fact that they can make that quick understanding and decision is gonna make them more likely to subscribe because they know exactly what they're getting. Right. So with YouTube, if you get into it, I think come into it with a strategy, come into it with understanding that you need to be consistent, but also play the long game here. If my story is like I've I'd say I was in the minority, I got pretty lucky uh with YouTube, like I got success faster than a lot of other channels, but I would have gotten there anyways, even if that video didn't come my way, because I understood that it's very much a compounding process and you're stacking small wins. And if you are consistent and you keep getting better, it's not a matter of if you'll grow on YouTube, it's when. And I think a lot of people aren't willing to deal with that when component. They want it now. Whereas if you're willing to put up the upfront time and investment, you can get life-changing results from from YouTube. It's dramatically changed my life, and it still can for anyone starting today.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, I I agree with that. It is a it's a it's a slow burn. It's not a I started off probably 18 months ago and didn't really then did it all wrong for six months. And then finally Owen finally convinced me to do it the right way. And I'm glad that I listened because then that that changed everything because I was stuck at 300 subscribers forever. And uh I'm almost at 1900. Let's go. So um it takes as long as it's gonna take. Just got in the got in the partner program. That in and of itself does does take effort. Yeah, thanks, man. So I made 100 bucks on the channel in 24 months. Let's rock and roll. The cruise is booked. Yeah. But um, it starts somewhere. You've got to be able to get those milestones. And I'm glad that it's not available to everybody. YouTube says, hey, listen, if if if you want to be part of what we're doing here, you've got to be able to do the steps and and be able to to to earn that process. So speaking of consistency, how many how many videos do you crank out on a weekly basis for YouTube? Or how excuse me, how many times do you post a new video to my channel?

SPEAKER_01 13:46

Yeah, so I post two videos a week to my main channel now, every single week. Uh, I previously did one before I had a team behind me. Uh now that now that I do have that, I would know that it's uh like I'm holding myself back if I'm not posting at least two because I have the bandwidth to do so.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Right, right, right, right, right. So you started off editing them on your own, is that right? And then you did you delegate it, or do you have always had an editor from the gut?

SPEAKER_01 14:13

No, so I I was doing everything myself from podcasting to like video creation, editing, all of that. And I would say creatively, like I'm not a creative person. Like I was the guy who can't draw a stick figure. Like, I'm not good at that conceptually creative, very much so. But when it comes to like artistic direction and design, I'm god-awful at that. So like I'm amazed I've even gotten this far. But now that I'm able to outsource that stuff, it's it's it's truly game-changing. And I wish I did it way earlier because it's freed up so much more of my time and and what I'm good at to actually focus on things that can be far more beneficial to myself and my business because I'm not focusing on things that I'm not good at, and it's it's diminishing returns that way too, right? So um, yeah, I've been I've had a team now for like six, seven months, and I wish I did it as soon as I started making money, to be honest.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Yeah, I I I learned that lesson too early on that well, I don't like doing this. I I like I like being in front of the camera, but I don't like being behind the camera and I don't like this editing shit. This is terrible. So being able, but I the the podcast stuff, obviously that's what I do for that's what we do for clients. So I've been able to construct a team and be able to outsource that because I definitely wouldn't edit podcast episodes. That sounds miserable to me, but there are people, my team loves it, but I don't. But I haven't been able to find that same structure with my YouTube videos because YouTube's more of my personal brand and content that supports the podcast launch lab, uh, but it really is my content that I'm doing. And I've just found myself like, screw it, it's just easier to just do it myself because and I've tried the all you can eat video editors and Fiverr editors, and it's very difficult. How are you able to communicate your vision to your team? Or did you not know how to communicate? You're like, here's the content, I need some feedback on it. How does that work? Because I come up empty every time. They send me back a video, and I'm like, what in the samp is this? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

I think it's definitely my definitely a feeling out process. And I also have different editors for different kinds of videos, if that makes sense. So like my VA handles all the stuff that it's it's a pretty simple route to what I'm looking for. And I've also we've we've worked on that process together. So a bunch of projects, I would send him Loom videos before he actually did it. So I would walk, so the first time he ever edited a video, I actually edited it basically with him or for him, but I would walk through step by step and explain what I was doing and also why I was doing it, which I think is almost more important because you're trying to not just change the skill. Anyone can learn the basic functions of a video editor. What you need to grasp or teach them is why you're doing certain things for the context of YouTube. And that's not just a snap skill, you gotta actually drill that in. So uh I think having different editors for different purposes, if you have the ability to, is very important, or at the very least, really showing them exactly what you want and explaining basically how you tick in terms of what you want it to look like. So, like I also have another vet video editor who's far more like creatively inclined. So if I have a video that's far more entertainment based, I I give it to him because he can put far more of an artistic design together from far more of an entertainment perspective. Whereas all of my talking head educational videos, they're pretty simple edits. So my VA can handle all those. So it's about, I think, compliment complimenting yourself with the right people who have skill sets for certain things is the way that I've gone about doing that. And definitely was a feeling of process. It didn't just happen, but I tried to be as involved with that as possible.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Right. And if you're listening to this right now, you're probably thinking, dude, I'm not a not only am I not a YouTuber, I'm not a video editor. So I mean, I would need someone to help me out. But I I if you're really considering this YouTube route of like, let's figure out what I can do to take what I do, like, but what's my thing? And I want to start creating content around my thing, then shoot those videos, open up iMovie, throw the files in there, and just see what shows up. I I was resistant to doing. I'm like, I'm for somewhere along the line, I was like, I'm way too cool to edit my own videos. And then I would get shit back and be go, oh, well, wait a second. I don't want it this way. And then I then I finally realized I didn't even know that iMovie allowed you to take images and throw them on top of the video. I'm like, that's an option that's not available. And they're like, yeah, if you just do this, it allows you to do that. And that was a game changer for me because as you know, YouTube is about pattern disruption. So being able to have that, you know, a talking head's one thing, but a talking head, different camp, zooming in, zooming out, having an effect, having a sound effect, having something there is all important to the viewer. And a lot of people don't realize that process. And when you just shoot something and throw it in an iMovie, it's probably gonna be a disaster the first time around. But when you start to play around with things a little bit and understand that flow, to your point, it's a lot easier to delegate out. I always like to say, until you learn the process yourself, you can't delegate it out because you're just trying to, you're making shit up really along the way, versus saying, you know, this is how I've done it before. And what I like, I love the idea of the whole screen record. When you, for those of you listening, he's like, What's Loom? Loom's just an ability to record the screen and him go through the whole process of the editing and be able to show his editor what he's looking for. So that would that was a great tip. I may actually stick my toe in the uh video outsourcing pool one more time because and then this is the this is the next thing I want to talk about is the amount of time per video is mind-boggling because I'm a hey, listen, let's just hit record and go. I'm a natch, we're good. And it does, I don't care how natural you are, and I got the gift to Gab and I talk for a living. But when it comes to YouTube videos, you're not gonna wing it. Nobody's gonna wing it. It's just impossible to do. And when I when from start to finish, when I go from scripting it out to filming it to dumping it in the editor to creating the thumbnail to finalizing the post, I mean, I'm easily minimum three hours, max four to five per video. So I always like to tell people, like, if you're signing up for this, make sure that you know that the work is involved because you're gonna need to do the work initially and then you're gonna be able to delegate it out. Now, I would assume that the time can be cut in half, and you probably experienced this with uh with being able to delegate it out. But first things first, you got to realize like this is that's why when people say, and we're gonna talk about this after we we get done with this point here, but that the whole I want a video podcast. I mean, we're talking about double the work there. But first, let's talk about um let's talk about the time commitment involved with creating a video and what what's involved with that process.

SPEAKER_01 20:19

Yeah, so obviously this is gonna vary so much for different people and also what you're filming. But uh again, I've I'm I think we make similar content, so we would have a similar process. And so for me, it's like I I don't have to script as much as I used to, but without some sort of script, I like yourself can talk for days. And that's not necessarily a good thing when it comes to video creation because being succinct is incredibly important because people want what they want, they want it now. Right. So if you go too far around the point and then bring it back, you're probably gonna lose people along the way. They never took the value from it, and now they don't feel like they should subscribe because that law of reciprocity isn't enacted. Yeah. So I think being succinct is a very, very important. I'd say my process, like I'm very fortunate now that I'm only I only are am involved in the stuff that I'm good at and enjoy. So I handle the actual video creation component, like scripting, doing the research, all that stuff. And then I don't touch the video again until I need to do the SEO work. So that's what a big part of our agency is, is it's YouTube SEO. So like that's the stuff that I can I will outsource everything that I that I can't that I'm not the best at. Like I don't I don't know if I could pay someone to do better SEO than I do, seeing as it's what I do for a living, basically. So every other part, the uh the editing, the thumbnail, all that stuff isn't handled by me. It's handled by specific people who that's that's their task. So for me, uh luckily now, all I have to do is film it and then put it into a uh on my Trello board saying it's filmed, and then they go across and say what step it's at, and then it pings the next person to do the next job. So I only basically have to film, which cuts it at least in half, if not more so. Because editing, you think it's only gonna take like an hour, but once you get in there, it's like you you're not ch if you're not timing it. You'll lose hours and hours. What about being like we're going to change this?

SPEAKER_00 22:05

Right. Right. Well why we I always say that. Like we can edit like graphic design and editing, we could do this for the rest of the year. Like we could come up with just making shit up for every time we're almost done. So yeah, yeah, exactly. Be able to cap it. Cap yourself with the time that you're the the creative process on there. All right, we're almost out of time. I want to f I want to wrap things up by talking about um, and I we get this conversation constantly, especially on Clubhouse as of late, and I do because we help people start a podcast. So the first thing is, you know, I want a video podcast because, you know, Joe Rogan. So my thought process is pick one in the beginning and get really good at it. And then figure out what other components can be added into that process and scale it from there. To say I'm gonna start a video podcast right out of the gates and edit a podcast, edit a video, upload a video, upload a podcast. I just think it's completely unrealistic. And I'd be curious to know what your thought process is along along the lines of that.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

So I am a massive advocate of video podcasting because I think it gives you so many more opportunities to take advantage of other platforms that complement podcasting in the ways that podcasting lacks. Like organic discovery is severely lacking on podcasting at large. So the other platforms can help complement that. But I think you're spot on where if this is your first step into content creation in general, you will become too overwhelmed if you try to do it all at once. And it's more likely than not that that will result in you completely stopping. Whereas I would rather you pick audio, stick with that, and prove it to the point where this is now part of you. This is something that you do. And once that you once you have that, you're probably gonna build an audience slowly as well, that you can then migrate over to the YouTube channel and start going that route too. I think don't bite off more than you can chew. And so many people do that in content in general, and I'd say very much so in podcasting. I think it was you who said on the Clubhouse call the other day that most shows don't make it to their 10th episode. Yeah. And that's I think a lot of that is because was that you? Yeah, I think it's seven actually. Seven. Oh, wow. Okay. So even more so. So and I think that has so much to do with because they don't people don't know what they're getting into, and they sign up for even more than they can handle at the very beginning, setting themselves up for failure. So when you can absolutely incorporate video because it allows you to repurpose so much and take advantage of things. And a lot of the biggest podcasts are have built themselves that big because they've leveraged micro content and the discoverability that's there. But if you're new to this, I don't think people truly understand how much extra work that includes. So unless you have a team and you can't even just hire a team because you also have to have a someone to manage them to know to tell what that team to do. So I would say you're exactly right. Start with what you can manage and then scale up from there after you prove to yourself and to your audience that you're gonna show up.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Well, there you go, ladies and gentlemen. I got somebody else in my corner here backing up my crazy thought process when people are like, you gotta do video. You do, but not right out of the gates. So uh we're we're definitely on the same page with that. Well, Ben, I just wanted to encourage you to keep up the great work, man. I'm a huge fan of your channel, what you're doing. And uh now that we're buddies, and thanks to Clubhouse, we're collaborating on some stuff here. It's great to get you on the show here. I just want to encourage you to keep doing what you're doing. You're clearly making a difference and helping folks understand what they don't know, that they don't know about this whole digital landscape. And it's really great to be connected. And thanks for your time today. But if you're if you guys are listening to this right now and you're thinking, wow, I want to meet Ben, where's Ben at? I want to see this channel and all this content. All the links are gonna be available in the show notes. That's the description in the episode that you're listening to right now. So be sure to check Ben out, follow him, stay connected with him, hit him up on Clubhouse too. That's where all the cool kids are at. And if you don't have an invite yet, well, then you know, sorry about your luck. You may be an Android user, right? Exactly. Yeah, absolutely.

unknown 25:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

And if you're if you're I'll just time one more thing in here. If you're if you like podcasts and that's your preferred way of learning, uh I just relaunched my show called Social Media University. So if you just type that up in Podcast Player, you'll find that too.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

Love it. That link will be available in the show notes too. Thanks, Ben. Thanks for your time, buddy. Keep rocking, and uh, I'll see you on Clubhouse sooner rather than later, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Absolutely, for sure. And we got to get you on my podcast too. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_00 26:02

Yeah, let's do it, brother. Let's rock and roll, man. Have a good one. You too. Thanks. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.