The ONLY YouTube Video Business Owners Need to Make
Neel Dhingra sits down with Think Media CEO Sean Cannell to break down the one long-form video a business owner can make once a week that teaches, sells, and closes clients for you.
Posted
5 days ago
Duration
Format
Interview
educational
Views
2.8K
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57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
The one video a busy business owner needs is a deeply researched, well-crafted long-form video built as a No-Funnel Strategy: it teaches, sells, and closes inside the video itself, then routes viewers to one low-friction call to action.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You run a real business, post to YouTube at most once a week, and need it to produce clients, not just views.
You have real expertise but struggle to structure or refine it into a clear, watchable video.
You're relying on generic lead magnets or opt-ins that used to convert and have noticed they're losing power.
You want a repeatable system for turning one long-form video into a compounding source of inbound leads.
SKIP IF…
You're a full-time creator chasing daily upload volume and algorithm hacking, not client acquisition.
You're looking for short-form virality tactics; this is a long-form, lead-generation-first playbook.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
A business owner who can only make one YouTube video a week doesn't need more content, they need one well-researched, well-crafted video built around a No-Funnel Strategy: a public long-form video that teaches, sells, and closes without a paywall or opt-in. The mechanism starts with researching what already ranks for the topic before shooting, going deeper than competitors instead of shorter, then batching a month of videos in a single session for an outsourced editor. Short-form clips all link back to the same long video, feeding it fresh traffic the algorithm rewards with more reach. The call to action goes in the middle and the end, built on specificity, curiosity, and urgency, most often a direct text message rather than a funnel, because texting is the lowest-friction way to start a real conversation that closes.
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01 · Why most YouTube advice fails business owners
Neel frames the problem in a direct-to-camera cold open: most YouTube coaching assumes daily uploads from a full-time creator, not one video a week from someone running a real business.
00:45 – 02:30
02 · The #1 mistake: research YouTube before you shoot
Sean's first rule: search YouTube for the topic before writing anything, then study what's ranking, titles, thumbnails, and video length, to decide the angle.
Using a real coaching example (an autism-strategies expert), Sean argues that going deeper than competitors, not shorter, wins high-stakes decisions like where a family will live.
04:37 – 05:36
04 · Make the better version of what's already ranking
Old videos still racking up huge view counts are the easiest opportunity: make a fresher, updated version with new information and better packaging.
05:36 – 06:48
05 · One video a week: batching, consistency & systems
Plan four topics a month, batch-shoot them in about 90 minutes, and hand the footage to a $6-an-hour outsourced editor for $60-120 per finished video.
06:48 – 10:27
06 · The 'raw video' trend vs. the crafted video
Neel raises the unedited, shot-on-iPhone trend from creators like Alex Hormozi; Sean counters that a crafted video is still the most powerful media asset online, and raw only works once trust is already built.
10:27 – 14:34
07 · 'I know my stuff but can't refine it' — record, then refine
For experts who freeze on camera: ask AI for questions to riff on, record a rough 30-45 minute voice memo, transcribe it, then have AI reorder the strongest points into a script.
14:34 – 16:20
08 · The No-Funnel Strategy: one video that sells for you
Sean names the core framework: a single public YouTube video structured like a webinar, teaching for the first half and selling openly in the second half, with no opt-in required.
16:20 – 19:28
09 · How linking your Shorts growth-hacks the algorithm
Neel shares a 13-Shorts case study, all linking to one No-Funnel video, that got capped at 17,000 organic views but kept growing months later as the algorithm recognized and recommended it.
19:28 – 21:46
10 · Where your call-to-action goes (why 'just text me' wins)
Sean makes the case for texting over booking a call: it's the lowest-friction way to start the conversation, and every real conversion happens inside a conversation.
21:46 – 23:59
11 · CTAs that convert: curiosity, urgency & quizzes
Generic lead magnets are dying because AI can replicate them instantly; specific, curious, urgent CTAs, like a short quiz, still convert.
23:59 – 25:34
12 · YouTube as a trust accelerator: closing before you meet
Real estate and mortgage clients are closing deals, sometimes over DocuSign, having barely spoken to the business owner, because the videos already built the trust.
25:34 – 29:32
13 · Packaging & intros: the value-based hook + Triple-A formula
Sean breaks down when to skip the intro entirely (value-based hook), when to lead with authority, and the AAA formula, attention, authority, agenda, for structuring an opener in three sentences.
29:32 – 38:37
14 · The opening line — and why your struggle beats your flex
Drawing an analogy to a hip-hop lyric, Sean argues the first line is everything, and that audiences bond with a creator's struggle before they buy into the creator's success.
38:37 – 40:06
15 · Think Media workshops
Sean describes the quarterly Think Media workshop where attendees leave with a ready-to-shoot video, not just strategy.
40:06 – 43:03
16 · YouTube = your #1 salesperson, working 24/7
Closing case study: a roofing business owner generating $250K in YouTube-attributed revenue, and the idea that a compounding video library eventually works like a team of salespeople who never stop.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
Business owners lose to full-time creators by copying advice built for daily-upload channels instead of researching what already ranks for their specific topic.
Searching YouTube before shooting reveals title length, video length, and saturation, the same market research a marketer would do before writing ad copy.
A deep '50 things' video can outperform a shallow '5 things' video when the audience is making a high-stakes decision, like relocating a family.
Four fifteen-minute videos can be batched and shot in about ninety minutes, then handed to a $6-an-hour outsourced editor for roughly $60 to $120 per video.
The raw, unedited talking-to-camera trend works mainly because the creators using it already spent years building an audience that trusts them; strangers don't extend that same trust to a raw first video.
Recording a rough 30-45 minute voice memo on a topic, then having AI reorder the strongest points into a script, turns unrefined expertise into a structured video.
The No-Funnel Strategy is a single long-form YouTube video that teaches, sells, and closes with no opt-in, no paywall, and no email required.
Linking every short-form video to the same long-form sales video sends YouTube fresh traffic signals, which grows the long video's reach even without new uploads.
For local service businesses, asking a viewer to text a phone number converts better than asking them to book a call, because texting is a much smaller commitment.
The strongest calls to action pair specificity with curiosity and urgency; generic lead magnets like PDF guides are losing power because AI can generate the same information on demand.
Quizzes work as calls to action because they combine a feature (a 3-minute assessment) with a benefit (avoiding a costly wrong decision).
Consistent YouTube content functions as a trust accelerator, closing deals before a business owner and prospect ever speak, because the video did the persuasion work first.
The right hook length depends on the niche: listicle videos can skip intros entirely and start at 'Number one,' while deeper educational content benefits from briefly teasing what's coming.
Audiences connect with a creator's struggle before they buy into the creator's success; people admire characters for their struggle more than their accomplishments.
A single YouTube video, once it starts ranking, keeps generating views and leads for months or years without additional posting, unlike a paid ad that stops the moment spend stops.
Takeaway
Research the market before you script anything.
WHAT TO LEARN
The single highest-leverage habit for a low-frequency creator is searching YouTube for what already ranks on a topic before shooting, then using that research to decide how deep, how long, and how packaged the next video needs to be.
01Why most YouTube advice fails business owners
Most YouTube coaching assumes daily uploads and full-time attention, so it doesn't fit someone running a real business who can post once a week at most.
The fix isn't more effort, it's working smarter: doing less content, but making each video count more.
02The #1 mistake: research YouTube before you shoot
Before picking a topic, search YouTube for what's already ranking on it and study the titles, thumbnails, and video lengths that are winning.
That research reveals whether a topic is saturated, and whether the winning angle is short and punchy or long and thorough.
Planning four topics a month during this research phase turns content planning into the actual heavy lifting, not the filming.
Going deeper than competitors, not shorter, can be the differentiator when the audience is making a high-stakes decision.
Old, outdated videos still ranking with hundreds of thousands of views are often the easiest opportunity: refresh the same topic with newer, more current information.
04Make the better version of what's already ranking
People click on an 'updated' or 'new research' version of an old video because new information beats outdated authority, even from a bigger channel.
Spend real time crafting the title and thumbnail once the research is done; that packaging work is what gets the click.
05One video a week: batching, consistency & systems
Four videos can be scripted, planned, and shot back-to-back in about 90 minutes if the topics are decided in advance.
A $6-an-hour outsourced video editor can turn a batch of raw footage into a finished 15-minute video for roughly $60 to $120 each.
Consistency matters more than frequency: one video a month still works if it's scheduled and never skipped.
06The 'raw video' trend vs. the crafted video
Unedited, iPhone-to-camera videos are trending, but the people making them succeed largely because they already built trust with a large existing audience.
A crafted video still outperforms for meeting strangers: high-effort research, scripting, and editing signal that the creator respects the viewer's time.
Live video builds communication skill through reps, and it's a format AI can't copy, but it works best as a supplement to crafted content, not a replacement.
07'I know my stuff but can't refine it' — record, then refine
An expert who struggles to structure a video can ask AI for 5-10 questions on a topic, then just talk through answers for 30-45 minutes into a recorder.
Turning that raw recording into a transcript and asking AI to identify the strongest points and reorder them is how a rambling riff becomes a tight, refined video.
The best point often comes at the end of an unscripted riff; refining means moving it to the front.
08The No-Funnel Strategy: one video that sells for you
The No-Funnel Strategy is one long-form YouTube video that teaches, sells, and closes in public, with no opt-in or paywall between the viewer and the pitch.
It works like a public webinar: deliver real teaching, then spend the second half explicitly selling the program inside the same video.
09How linking your Shorts growth-hacks the algorithm
Linking every short-form video to the same single long-form sales video concentrates traffic and signals to YouTube that the long video deserves wider distribution.
A sales-heavy video will see retention crater after the pitch begins, but even a small percentage watching to the end at scale is real bottom-of-funnel demand.
The video's reach can keep growing for months after upload as YouTube's algorithm recognizes and recommends it to more viewers who match the pattern.
10Where your call-to-action goes (why 'just text me' wins)
Place the call to action twice: once in the middle of the video, tied to the specific point being made, and again at the end.
For local service businesses, asking someone to text a phone number converts better than asking them to book a call, because texting is a much smaller commitment.
The goal of any call to action is to start a conversation, not close a deal, because every real conversion happens inside a conversation.
11CTAs that convert: curiosity, urgency & quizzes
Generic lead magnets like free PDF guides are losing power because a viewer can get the same information from AI in seconds.
The strongest calls to action combine specificity, curiosity, and urgency instead of a vague 'go to the website' ask.
A short quiz works as a call to action because it pairs a clear feature (a 3-minute assessment) with a clear benefit (avoiding a costly wrong decision).
12YouTube as a trust accelerator: closing before you meet
Consistent, useful YouTube content functions as a trust accelerator: prospects who've watched several videos often close a deal the first time they actually speak to the business.
Business owners report clients signing paperwork without ever meeting in person, because the videos already did the relationship-building work.
13Packaging & intros: the value-based hook + Triple-A formula
A value-based hook skips the intro entirely, especially for listicle-style videos, because the title and thumbnail already carry the authority.
The AAA formula opens a video in three single-sentence beats: grab attention, establish authority, then set the agenda, before diving into the content.
The attention-extension technique promises the big payoff, then inserts a short 'but before we get to that' beat to hold retention through necessary setup.
14The opening line — and why your struggle beats your flex
The single most important line in a video is often the first one; treat it with the same care a songwriter gives an opening lyric.
Viewers connect with a creator's struggle before they buy into a creator's success, since people admire characters more for their struggle than their accomplishments.
The person who can articulate the customer's pain the most precisely wins, because the audience assumes whoever names the problem best also has the solution.
15Think Media workshops
Live workshops that build a real, ready-to-shoot video in the room work because they pair strategic clarity with the hands-on skill of actually executing it.
The result of good YouTube strategy work isn't just one video; it's a repeatable process the creator can run again on their own.
16YouTube = your #1 salesperson, working 24/7
A single ranking YouTube video keeps generating views, trust, and leads indefinitely, unlike a paid ad that stops producing the moment spend stops.
Mastering YouTube as a lead channel is closer to building a compounding asset than running a campaign: some videos from months or years ago still convert today.
People increasingly want fewer, better leads rather than more unqualified ones; someone who texts in after watching a full video is already close to a decision.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
No-Funnel Strategy
A long-form YouTube video that teaches, sells, and closes entirely inside a public video, with no opt-in or paywall between the viewer and the pitch.
Short form, long form, lead form
A three-step content funnel where a short clip earns attention, links to a long video that builds trust, which then asks for a direct lead like a text or call.
The AAA Formula
Attention, Authority, Agenda: three one-sentence beats used to open a video before diving into the content.
Value-Based Hook
An opening with no self-introduction; the video starts directly on the payoff, such as 'Number one,' because the title and thumbnail already carry the authority.
Attention Extension
A hook technique that promises a big payoff, then inserts a 'but before...' beat to delay it and hold retention through a shorter necessary setup.
Curse of Knowledge
When an expert's advice skips too far ahead of what a struggling beginner audience is actually searching for, because the expert has forgotten what it's like not to know.
Trust Accelerator
Describes how consistent, useful YouTube content lets a stranger feel like they already know and trust a business before ever speaking to them directly.
Growth-hacking via Shorts
Linking short clips to one long sales video sends fresh traffic that YouTube's algorithm reads as a demand signal, which then suggests the long video more broadly.
“If you're an entrepreneur and you're making YouTube videos to actually get clients, most of the advice you see on this platform is not built for you.”
Direct pattern-interrupt that filters the whole video to one specific audience in one sentence.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
02:21
“50 things you need to know before moving to Las Vegas. That's contrarian, but it's thorough.”
Counterintuitive depth-over-brevity claim that reframes the 'shorter is better' advice everyone repeats.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
04:15
“She's stuck in not getting any views on YouTube, but was suffering what I would say is from the curse of knowledge.”
Names a specific, diagnosable creator mistake with a memorable label.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
08:22
“A crafted YouTube video is the most powerful media asset on the Internet, period.”
Absolute, standalone thesis line built for a title-card overlay.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
14:37
“We talk about this thing called the no funnel strategy. It's basically having a webinar that's just a public YouTube video.”
Names the entire strategy the video is built around in one breath.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
20:48
“Are you too busy to get rich? How much traffic do you want?”
Punchy rhetorical rebuttal to the 'texting me will make me too busy' objection.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
29:42
“The devil you know is better than the devil you don't.”
Borrowed hip-hop line reframed as a hook-writing principle; self-contained with zero setup needed.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
34:15
“People admire characters more for their struggle than their success.”
Compact, universal storytelling thesis that stands alone with zero context.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
37:44
“The person who articulates the customer's pain the best wins.”
Sales-copy-ready one-liner, works as a standalone caption over any B-roll.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
39:48
“Mastering YouTube is like creating a money printing machine.”
Vivid closing metaphor that sums up the whole episode's thesis.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
Topic Map
Where the conversation goes.
00:00 – 06:48denseResearching YouTube before you shoot: finding the ranking gap
06:48 – 14:34denseRaw video vs. the crafted video, and turning raw expertise into a script
14:34 – 19:28denseThe No-Funnel Strategy and using Shorts to growth-hack one long-form video
19:28 – 23:59denseWhere the call to action goes and what actually converts
23:59 – 29:32denseYouTube as a trust accelerator, hooks, and intro structure
29:32 – 43:03steadyThe opening line, struggle vs. flex, and closing on the salesperson thesis
The Script
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
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metaphorstory
If you're an entrepreneur and you're making YouTube videos to actually get clients, most of the advice you see on this platform is not built for you. It was made for full time creators, which is why you can watch all these videos and still not get the results. Like, my full time job is running my actual business and I'm trying to do YouTube on the side.
So how does someone like that get results working smarter, not harder? I just had an exclusive conversation with my friend Sean Cannell who is the CEO of Think Media. His channels have over 4,000,000 subscribers and more importantly, his students have amassed over 25,000,000,000 views directly from his coaching.
We just had a convo on how to turn YouTube into your number one salesperson. Let's get into it. Alright, Sean.
Dude, my audience runs real businesses and most of them aren't gonna be posting a huge amount of volume. They're running their full time job. YouTube's like a side hustle.
What's the video they need to make if they just wanna do one a week? Yeah. Mean, if you just wanna do one a week, I think the first question and the biggest mistake that business owners make
is they don't actually search YouTube first for what's working. So the way you do that is you think about a topic first.
Your topic that might come up in your mind, maybe it's based on a question. We were coaching recently a special needs education expert, and that breaks down into 13 categories, a category like autism.
And then we focused on I'm like, what do you really help people with? She's like, well, I could tell them autism strategies for parents, educators. Okay.
But then here's what we do. Once you identify the topic you want to talk about, you go to YouTube and search it.
So for example, what's what's like so you're would be like there's two types of people in my group. They're mortgage people real estate. One might search.
They wanna make videos about moving to a certain market k. Like moving to Las Vegas. K.
Another one might wanna just make
content about the market in general. K. So if we go the the key is before you shoot the video, you're gonna type in moving to Las Vegas.
Now I'm asking what's ranking, but here's where it gets gangster is you're saying, okay. What videos show up?
And what are their titles? So what can I learn from their titles? What are their video lengths?
Because if you want to be different in the market, sometimes people want a four minute answer. That could be the difference.
Or you might look and you're like, well, everyone here is actually it's like a little bit longer or my opportunity to be to go deeper. Like, you know, some people might make five things you need to know before moving to my to Las Vegas. It'd be interesting to be like 50 things you need to know before moving to Las Vegas.
That's contrarian, but it's thorough. And imagine you're like, this person I just went to a master class with this person.
I'm I'm gonna sign up with this agent. I would, like, I would be thinking no one will run a ClickOn because it's so deep, but you're saying that would be the reason they would. People are literally trying to decide where they're gonna move their family and live and place their life.
How much information would they want? But in that brainstorming phase, you're you're getting insight to say, how long are the videos?
What are the thumbnails? What are the titles? And then you could take that into AI.
We built a tool at our company that really helps people think about the psychological triggers, the five levels of awareness. But once you've identified that topic so maybe it is like an amount of things people should know to Vegas.
Then you think about different ways of packaging that. To me, the real heavy lifting or the real work would be coming up with the four most valuable topics you could talk about once a week over the next month.
And that's the heavy lifting in the strategy stage. Research being not just keyword research, that's so valuable these days, maybe trying to identify topics. But going to YouTube itself, analyzing the marketplace, looking at what else is there.
And at times, you might identify, like, this particular angle is too saturated. I'm not gonna make that video. Let me just make there's so many angles you can go.
So let me go a different angle so I can plan out my next month of content. But when you're searching, just practically, it's like you're searching last twelve months ranked by views.
I'm I'm looking what's showing up in ranked. It was fascinating when it came to this study we did live at our event about we did autism strategies. And then it was like how to deal with meltdowns was how we went even deeper.
And then we saw what was ranked, it was all old videos, like three years old, five years old, six years old. And we had an expert sitting in the room who actually is used to communicating, but who was stuck in not getting any views on YouTube, but was suffering what I would say is from the curse of knowledge, talking about much more deeper and more complex topics.
And I'm like, no. Let's meet your target audience at this moment. And we had discovered it was the autism meltdown.
And then realizing, okay, this outdated video from somebody that is great, they're clearly they got like 333,000 views while she was struggling to get 30.
And it was a matter of thinking about what video should I make next, how to package that video, how to bring some freshness to it in terms of title and thumbnail.
And so
Updated version of the old video. It's an updated version of the old video. Better version.
And it's a better version. That's their I mean, people are also clicking on that because there's no other option. And there there's new info.
You know, we were just talking about before hitting record the power of new. People always want new. Our mutual friend Neil Patel talks about the only thing working on social media is new.
And so new research reveals how to handle autism meltdowns.
Okay, so now that's a fresh angle on probably a lot of foundational principles. But you're like, I actually was reading a new report because it just got back from this and that you can actually you know, one of these things people do and the other five things you do are probably what the other lady said, but you pulled it into the present.
That research phase to spend more time on crafting your title, your thumbnail, the package of your video is a big deal. And then pick those four. Make one a week.
Yes. Okay. This is great.
So and that's
like one a week, but you could also do one a month depending on your schedule. It could be whatever is going work for you so you're going be consistent. Yeah.
YouTube is the only platform where your content truly lives forever.
So if you you could not you could do one a month. You also could do four in a week and then take some time off because they work for you when you're not working if they rank and they're suggested.
And so I also think I mean, busy business owners know that there's different seasons. Some weeks, yeah, it's it's impossible. There's no way you're gonna create content.
But other weeks, if you schedule it, it gets done. And so, again, if I isolate in on this expert, like, she's already used to doing our livestream sometimes.
And so I'm like, we can plan four videos, about fifteen minutes each. And you get to shoot all four of those in in in an hour, maybe an hour and thirty if you kind of restart a little bit.
Shoot those all in Riverside. We're talking about getting her to set up home office. And then put that into a system, depending on where you are.
And by system, I mean a onlinejobs.ph video editor that now polishes those up at $6 an hour. And maybe it's going be $60 to 120
to edit each video. Each video. That's not bad at all.
Right. That's easy. So, okay, this other trend I'm noticing, and and there's a lot of things that worked year we were just talking about this.
There's a lot of things that worked last year, the year before that aren't necessarily working as good. There's trying to do advice, but then there's stuff that's changing. So, obviously, the algorithm is always changing, but one trend I saw was this raw trend.
So there is a raw trend on YouTube right now, and Alex Ramosy just talked about this. He said he's not gonna edit as many videos. They're gonna do super edited, like, production quality, but they're also he just upload a video where you literally just talk to the iPhone Yeah.
For an hour Yeah. For twenty minutes. And then Sharan, who's on their team as well, he's like, hey, Neil.
My last video, I shot in the car, and it's outperforming the videos that we spent way of huge amount of time on packaging and editing and all that stuff. So what do you think about this trend?
Yeah. I mean, obviously, you're talking about legends here, but I think the unspoken observation about what they're saying is you can't underestimate the brands they've already built.
Yeah, that's true. And so I've heard Alex say that.
He's like, I think live is a future trend, and it's going to be the thing. And I'm like, yeah, but you're also Alex from Ozy. So people trust you going into it.
Now, can you meet a stranger on live? Sure. But if you're in between questions and it's not as polished and someone's busy and they meet a total stranger on live, it's I'm not invalidating what they said.
Again, again, they're legends. But I think that I I was thinking about that.
I think I was in the shower. And here's my take.
A the crafted YouTube video is the most powerful media asset on the Internet, period.
Yeah. A crafted YouTube video. So notice what also Alex said.
He said we're gonna still do. Yes. They're not they're not giving up.
They're not giving up on the crafted YouTube video. Human beings in general always are going to respect if their time is respected.
You take somebody like a Graham Stephan, right, and who does financial news and these financial videos, and he's consistently accustomed to getting 100,000 views, 500,000, a million views. But his workflow is a day of research oftentimes, four to eight hours of research, and then scripting every word of his video, and then editing it.
He might have delegated it by now, but even editing it himself. I'm not suggesting business owners doing that. I'm saying, but what would it be worth to you to have 500,000 views?
It's crafted. And people that want financial information, 16 crafted, they this is the leverage point that every business owner would understand.
We we the reason people hire you, hire me, is because we're we're saving them time. We're buying them speed. And so when you spend, you've spent not just hours into a video.
You've spent decades into the video. And so the time put into the video crafted so that, you know, there's this Mark Twain quote. I think it's Mark Twain.
He said, if if I have an hour to speak, if you invited me to speak, I can do it right now.
If I had thirty minutes to speak, I need a day to prepare.
And if I have five minutes to speak, I need a week to prepare.
Yeah. It's counterintuitive. Yeah.
You can look that quote up. It's something like that. But it's like that's the idea that if I have less time, but it's more oh, man.
It's gonna be more refined. So all that's all that to say It's also like somebody throws you a mic like I just did Yeah. You can speak.
But, like, the guy in my group or who's watching right now online is like, well, dude, I haven't I'm not used to the I don't have the skill yet. I'm really knowledgeable. I've got cursive knowledge.
I've got ten years of experience, but I'm not good at refining this shit down. I So think, like, yeah, different strokes for different folks. Like, it's not gonna work for the Yeah.
And and but, I mean, to tie that together too, well, you know, it's interesting is if you took some of your people they could do an exercise. If you if you you could ask AI,
can you give me five to 10 questions to riff on about a particular topic? And you maybe figure out the topic in your next video if it was gonna be deep dive. AI is gonna spit that out for you easy.
You're gonna look at that as an expert and go, okay. I can riff out those. Here's what you do.
Turn on a recorder and record the whole thing in audio. Let that thing record you, and you're gonna be overworded, and you have so much knowledge.
But you could probably spend thirty minutes, forty five minutes just talking. And a lot of times, the best thing you're going to say might be at the end, and you remember another point, and you jump all around, and you remember a story. And even that's kind of a skill, but you get used to just putting that out there.
Now we're living in a world where turn that into a transcript and then turn that transcript into saying, hey. What are the strongest points?
Could you reorder the structure of this? And that's what I mean by re that's how a good speech is made. You refine it.
Yeah. You're refining. You're realizing, man, what I said at the end, I should have said at the beginning.
And that is what ultimately performs that scale on YouTube. Because maybe some people follow you, and they're gonna be willing to listen to you riff.
But when you're meeting strangers, they they don't have as much time. It's you're on an audition with those people. You are on an audition.
Yeah. So you're trying to give them their best twelve minutes. I know it's like a lot of pressure, but I think then my takeaway is a couple things.
Number one, it's like the crafted YouTube video is the greatest media asset on planet Earth.
And this is also from studying YouTubers. Who crafts their videos more than anybody else? The top YouTuber is MrBeast.
That doesn't mean business owners can't do that. I'm just saying spend more time preparing and structuring your content. I'd say number two, yeah, the raw video is also a massive opportunity, but it still takes structuring your ideas and especially following the stuff you teach about hooks, attention, and the opening line.
So, yeah, shoot in your car, but we're talking about individuals who've crafted their communication skills. That's why I think it's important to not miss your events. And I know that sometimes there's electives and all this stuff.
They gotta get your stuff to work on what they say in the car. Yes.
That is an acceptable format. And I would almost say, in one sense, a superior format because people are so used to AI and over editing, Like, yeah, people are really resonating with the video in a car.
But who's the communicator? What's their brand? Or how well is their message crafted?
These guys can do that on a dime. And and they to be fair, I'm sure he thought about what he was gonna say. He had a little sketch pad.
There's probably some hard edits in it. They cut out a few things. Yeah.
So it's not straight stream of consciousness. Exactly. But yeah.
And then and then lastly, I would validate, of course, the live thing as well and even for someone who's just starting. And for for two big reasons. One, because AI can't copy it, so it's also gonna that's a depth play.
Yeah. That's a play for someone who's been on the fence, but like, oh, I'm gonna know this person, and then they become a customer. Yeah.
But I think number two, it's also a practice thing. Yeah. I think it's like it's like It's reps.
It's the reps. And so there's almost nothing better than putting a a livestream on the calendar, going live. And even if zero people show up, it's not a loss.
It was a chance to practice in public with a little bit of pressure. You became a better communicator. I became a better communicator because of reps.
And so by putting in the reps, the value is already in the process. Yeah. I love that.
But for the person who's like, okay. This is a different kind of angle on this. We just saw you coach 50 business owners, different totally different industries.
I'm coaching a lot of people in real estate mortgage, like I said. So for someone who wants to put out an informational piece of content, this question just came up from my group. This guy's in mortgage, but it would also apply to other professions, service professionals.
What's that single piece of content? Like, they're like, hey. I'm not doing long form, and I'm only doing short form.
We I just interviewed Daniel Priestley at my event. Yeah. And he said, the funnel should be for this person, this service professional, should be short form, long form, lead form.
Yep. That's what he said. Short form, long form, lead form.
If you're just going to make one long form video, is it to solve a specific problem? Is that the best way?
I mean, obviously, they can make more after this. But what's that first video they need to make? I mean,
this might be a hard leap for an individual. But we talk about this thing called the no funnel strategy.
And it's the idea of summarized is basically having a webinar that's just a public YouTube video. Is it like a VSL? It'd be like a VSL, but it'd be like a webinar which is similar to a VSL.
It's teaching, it's educating, and it's selling. But the the big idea is not behind a paywall or an opt in or anything. It's it's living on YouTube.
Have you ever heard of strategy? Different people have talked about Ryan Dice. Iman Gottsi is big for doing it.
He basically puts out an hour long webinar, but it lives as a YouTube video.
And then all of his other videos link back to that video, is doing the selling. So what's fascinating is people are doing mini chat and things like that. And it's always nice to capture the lead.
But you could go short form, comment a word, and I'll send you that YouTube video. And it's kind of a very transparent in a trust recession, it's a very chill way to use Instagram short form, your YouTube Shorts.
And it could be the related video. And yeah, you just link to that video. And to the degree, version 1.0 that's the thing with it is the people who are doing this are at usually a mastery level.
And there might be some iterations. But if that thing is, if you will, great at converting, then yeah, the short form is a chance to meet you and then the invitation to go watch that.
And webinars still work behind an email, but it's like, that's so chill. Like, I you know, if you wanna watch my deep dive
class on this, it's just available on YouTube. I can send you the link. Yeah.
Because, like, they're gonna get their curiosity from the video, the thirty second, forty second. Obviously, you can't explain everything there. Right.
It's like, hey. If you want, I actually walk you through all seven of these. Yes.
I gave you one on here, but there's seven more. If you wanna get the link, I'll shoot it over to you. Yeah.
And what's fascinating is
by then then the YouTube algorithm because you can send traffic to it, which YouTube will love, and that could growth hack it at certain times. The YouTube algorithm will then recommend it, too, as it starts figuring out what the video is about.
And so this asset can get better with time because algorithmically, it's growing in public. I did a recent I could call it a case study.
I was just trying to revive show up. I called it actually the twenty one day YouTube reset, it and was twenty one days of vertical videos.
I still need to finish it. I mean, people are not counting, really. I'm down day 13, and it wasn't it's clearly not linear.
I took a few days off. But but even when I did, I would just get back to it. But the commitment to doing it was fascinating because it crushed.
I uploaded on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube Shorts. And on YouTube Shorts, I I was all shooting on my phone, editing on CapCut. And then sometimes I would just cut off the money the ManyChat Yeah.
Call that because it doesn't work on YouTube Shorts. And I just linked one basically no funnel strategy one video to all of them on the YouTube Shorts versions.
And so there's 13 of those out. They all have All 13 to the same video. All 13 to a video that actually my cohost of our podcast and I, we we talk about our seven hour system for thirty minutes.
And then actually, the whole second half, we sell the program. And we go in on a public video.
So it's like How was the organic reach of that? Did it get kind of nerfed because it's a sales It got nerfed. Yeah.
But that's fine.
That was the purpose of it. It's a salesperson for you. It was literally a salesperson.
It's like a place that could sit there, and it wasn't super terrible. I mean, it's all relative. But for us, it was like 17,000 views.
Kinda got capped. But again, we could see you know? And it can still do a decent amount of watch time in the first thirty minutes because it's that.
And then we let people know. And we're like, and by the way, we just wanted to make sure you know all the details about exactly what this program is going do. So we're going to walk through it and walk through the bonuses.
And so watch time and audience retention is tanked under 10% at the end.
But now at 20,000 views, for math, let me just say it was 10,000. You know, if only 5% of people make it to the end, that that 500 people were watching to the end of a sales president.
You know, this now you're talking to people like, do you just wanna know all the details about my program? Hey. Let's just talk about it.
Jump off if you don't wanna know. And that video came out six months ago and was growing a little bit, but it was wild to see the spike for two reasons.
The YouTube shorts linked to it, but the YouTube algorithm seeing the new traffic. And the way it works is the people who consume a certain type of content, people like them that YouTube semantically understands, starts broadening that reach.
And I track this in the analytics. It would say related Shorts traffic.
And then it would say suggested and browse all going up because of that. So that actually is very much a short form, long form, lead form. But that's almost like short form It's like closing.
That's short form,
long form, sales form. Yeah. And that's what the link the link goes to a sales page.
To a checkout page. It goes to a checkout page. So this is that's like taking it all the way Yeah.
For someone who's not gonna go into pitch mode at the end of that whatever, say they're making a twelve minute YouTube video Yeah. And that's the long form.
This is where I see people kind of mess up is they're making the video, but they're not getting the leads. Yeah. So where does the call to action go?
Like, you're thinking about the structure of the video, we're gonna oh, but one of my questions before we wrap is, what's the latest structure that would work for these videos for the opening structure? Know you have a framework for this. But where do you put your calls to action?
Should you put them in the middle, the end, like and then what should that be? Should it be, hey, If you want more info, there's a link in the form to book a call with me. Yeah.
Or is that too much of a leap for people so they should just ask for another lead magnet? Because I feel like this is the lead magnet. They came from a short form.
This is the lead magnet. I mean, for real estate professionals, I really like text.
Like, shoot me a text because getting on a call is is a pretty big jump, and and they would know your phone number.
And I mean, unless you're gonna use a Google voice number or, you know, whatever or your own phone number, Like, if that's your business and you wanna do transactions, you know, let's talk. You know, shoot me a text.
Oh, hey. You know? Anytime.
You could be, like, watching a movie with your kids. Like, oh, yeah. You wanna schedule a time?
Like, just back and forth. Because the goal is to get them into a conversation. Yeah.
Because all conversions happen in conversation. Yep. So I'm thinking, like, people are trying to get to the closed deal Yeah.
When they don't realize the first step of a closed deal is just chatting. Yeah. And imagine What's the easiest way to chat?
I mean, it might create a it might create a problem later. You're like, oh, that could make me too busy. Well, if you're not, you know, are you too busy to get rich?
You know? It's like, what? Like, how much traffic do you want?
And you could always fix that later. And maybe you start with a different phone number. But especially for a lot of people in local markets, I don't think you can have too much business.
Your your number's on your website. What what's that what's it there for? Difference.
Yeah. Yeah. And then if if you're worried about privacy, I think, you know, you can get a text number that is as Right.
You can associate it with your CRM, like, high level. And then your team can actually see the text and follow-up. I think it's green bubble versus blue bubble.
But Yep. Uh-huh. Of course.
What's to stop you buying a second iPhone? There's Blue Bubble solutions. Yeah.
There's Send Send Blue and all that stuff. So so that's great. So that call to action
of, like,
you're teaching let's just say Yeah. What's okay. What's this video that you're sending people to?
And then what does the call to action look like for someone who has never done this before? Yeah. I think I put the call to action not at the end.
I put it two places. For me, I put it in the middle of the video and the end of the video. And I I think that what the call to action looks like is when possible, you want if you could create any kind of specificity, curiosity, and urgency.
So the call to action, it's like, you know, and by the way, if you want my free guide, go to the website. It doesn't feel very urgent. Maybe if the the guide will help you achieve results, maybe sort of specific, but it doesn't necessarily create a lot of curiosity.
And it seems like those lead magnets are dying right now. Yeah. Because you could just go to judge a BT and get their show.
They get that. Yeah. So so, I mean, it's kinda novel to say by the way, if you have a question or you just wanna start talking, yeah.
Like, I'm here. Text me. Like, I'll it's and And it's me, too.
I'll reply back to you. I'd love to answer your questions about the market or whatever you so what can you do? What's novel?
I think quizzes, if you want take a quick assessment, and what you'll get as a result.
So I think the quality of how you articulate the call to action and then the value presented thereafter, like if you could give a quiz. And in just three minutes, you're gonna get this.
And the power of having this is going to save your money. And right now, in the Pacific Northwest, the market's kinda hot. So actually, take a quick assessment.
We can see what you qualify for or whatever. And so articulating classic business stuff, like the features, what exactly is it, but what are the benefits?
Like, well, yeah, why should I do this? Why do I need to do this now?
I would even say one of the biggest problems I see is people get this. They go down the wrong path. And so because of that, I created a three minute quiz or ninety second quiz.
And if you answer these questions, it will literally give you your path. That way, you don't waste time, you'll save this money. There's
a reason to do the the interactive. There's a reason. And that was the features is the quiz, and the benefits was saving the time, avoid the wrong path.
And so
yeah. So And then texting is just like, hey. You know, one of the things I noticed about people is everybody's situation is different.
Yes. It's a custom thing. And so I might be covering general things here.
But if you want specifics, the best way to do that is just to have a conversation. You can text me anytime.
It's really me. Yeah. And then my number's in the description or click this here.
Yeah. And when somebody says if they say they're moving to Las Vegas
and they might have already watched a few videos from you, they've already connected with you, and the heavy lifting that's done in pre suasion in terms of building trust or them connecting, it's incredible. All the different real estate clients that we help, they're like, YouTube is such a trust accelerator that by the time we're about to do business, people have closed deals.
I like, they generally, like, never really met. I think it, you know, depends on them. But, you know, it's like DocuSign is happening.
They're like, yeah. Oh, no. Great.
Yeah. We've talked a couple like, when don't we trust you?
Like, we already yeah. We've seen enough of you. Like, it's such an accelerator of trust.
And so I think then the last thing is, like, different types of videos you could do. I like to think about what are the points of the video.
Let's say it was mistakes, you know, five home buying mistakes in a in a certain market. And what could be interesting is why I said give the call to action in the middle is, let's say, point number two is one of the biggest mistakes people make is they don't fully get the right assessment for the house or whatever.
And and by the way, I have an assessment. So the big idea being that you you structure your content, you create a problem, a point to it, and then you're pitching this.
It's not a generic call to action. Also good, though, by the way, just at the end of the video.
And so if this video is valuable, great. And if you want help, reach out. I mean, macro content, being seen lot, and then just letting people know when they're ready they can reach out, at least do that.
Yeah. At a minimum. At a minimum.
But when possible, if you have that specific tie in, tie it into the content itself. Create the problem and give the solution.
Yeah. I love that. Okay.
So last quick quick question here is
intros. I have seen you know, you talk about packaging, how important title and thumbnail is. We have a whole video on that if you guys wanna check it out.
But if you're talking about packaging, intros are part of packaging. Yeah.
Yeah. So I have noticed the intro used to be a little bit longer. I don't know if you're seeing the trend too where it's just getting tighter.
Yeah. Like, you used to be able to lay out the proof and the promise and all these things. And then now I feel like the longer the intro is, the worse the video performs.
Am I correct in that?
Yeah. Sometimes like that, it needs to it set to depends. I think it depends on the niche, depends on the topic.
You you want to reverse engineer expectation of the audience. And so I think we have different types of hooks for different situations.
One is called the value based hook. And so if we do a listicle, you got to realize the heavy lifting in the video might have said we did one that was called 50 video ideas for getting started or something, 50 YouTube video ideas for getting started.
The video starts like this. Number one. No intro.
No intro. No this is who I am. No whatever.
Where's the authority communicated? Just in the title and the thumbnail? You could argue it doesn't matter.
What are they clicking on it? And I mean, now mind you, you always look nothing's in a total isolation.
We already have channel subscribers authority. There's other videos authority. But once the video takes off, that's how do you actually get seen in the first place.
If you break through because the information is so good and so the payoff is there and the watch time is there, and that's people were saying in the comments, thanks for no fluff, getting straight to Yeah. Just wondering if people are getting tired of the old formula. Yeah.
I think, yes, A. B, I think, also mixing up the formula.
Because that's why we have different tools in our tool belt. It's the value based hook. I've heard Alex Hermosy say a lot, though, too.
It might waste time to go authority first, but he'll oftentimes go authority first. He'll be like, I've know, come I got 250,000,000 under acquisition.
I sold maybe in this video. And, you know, I did a $100,000,000 launch in a weekend. And so boom, boom, boom.
It's still fast. But so if you've got that authority, yeah, how can you say it quickly?
But in a competitive space, you know so I've sold, you know, over 500 houses in the Colorado region.
And in this video
Yeah. That's it. And that would take you what?
Five seconds. Yeah. And so you could put
authority in there. And our formula is the AAA formula. So it's attention, authority, agenda.
Those could be one sentence each. Opening somehow, you grab attention. You establish authority by saying maybe one piece.
And then set the agenda could be even let's get into it because you've already framed it. You don't need to outline the whole video. You can get straight in.
However, especially on longer form education, it's nice to really tease what's coming up to some degree. And I'm gonna be breaking this video into three parts.
And one of the best things you can also do is the classic attention extension YouTube strategy, which is promising the big payoff and then saying, but before.
But before we get to the breakdown of the new YouTube algorithm, we actually have to talk about the newest report from the CEO of YouTube.
So they're like, Ian, and I want that. I think this is like a big mistake people are making. And I've I've fallen victim to this too is I've just started to explain the problem without telling them why.
Like, you just did it first. You said, we're about to give you all this candy. Yeah.
But before I do, like But before gotta take some veggies. You know? I'm starting off with, like, before we get into it, here's the thing.
And then the retention's like this. Yeah. Because they're not interested in that yet.
Yeah. And I think I think all of the above is
you know, I don't I oftentimes like, I I record solo video podcasts. I do interviews. But when I do, like, a solo episode and I'm crafting it,
I might just outline my points, but I really craft the hook. And lately, my favorite thing is thinking, really, what is that opening line? Dude, I'm I'm thinking like this too.
If you are let's just say it's a live presentation. Now I don't care if there's 15 people there, 50, or 500.
Yeah. Just you being on stage or in front of people who are taking notes from you Yeah. That, to me, almost communicates what you're trying to say anyways.
True. And then if you're well spoken and you're articulate and you have a confidence That communicates through that's already you can just get straight into the teaching. There's this interesting thing coming out of hip hop.
There's this old underground hip hop group called Dilated Peoples. They have this one line that says at the opening of a song, he goes, let me start every verse with something to quote, the devil you know is better than the devil you don't. And so it always stuck with me because that's fascinating.
Like, oh, man, what's that mean? But let me start every verse with something to quote, the first line.
And when you look at some of the most viral songs, the opening line, if we go to if we're at a wedding or you're in a club or DJ, whatever, you hear the opening line, oh, that's my song. And so there's certain lines where the first line sticks with you.
When we say get attention, I'm really asking, what's that first line? And of course, you do this on short form.
But on YouTube, it's like, man, what am I saying first? Am I asking a question? Am I establishing authority?
Like, let me start every verse with something to quote. Like, what's that? What's that?
Is it gonna be is that too cheesy? Like, does that make sense? Who am I talking to?
Who am I calling out? And so I like to think about how am I grabbing attention. And then I always weave my story in there.
And I think it's also important, a big mistake people make, because you have so many people that are successful in your audience, is before people will connect with your success, they need to hear about your struggle.
Yeah, that's true.
So I think people Alex is like, I did a 100,000,000 book launch.
And business owners are like, sick. I want to listen from you. But depending on where you're at, it's nice to and real estate agent, you don't probably need to say that they're struggling.
They just want you to solve their problem. But especially for coaches and consultants.
I even think, from a certain standpoint, a service professional saying, like, what they went through to get to the point where they're at is in in the right context could work. Like, for example, you know, one of the one of the things I learned the hard way when I first got in the business Yes.
Or a huge mistake I made as an agent or as a lender was I used to do it this way. This is why I do it this way now. But it's not like, hey.
Look at me. I'm the best. It's like Right.
Dude, I I make mistakes, now you're the benefit of that. I think that's why it's powerful. The self depreciating is powerful because it's humble.
People need to know and be told it's powerful that it's not their fault.
And I struggled in acknowledging their frustration. This creates a bond that boosts retention. So I guess my point is it's like grabbing attention.
And then the thing that I'll often say is I'll say, and listen. And so I'm actually going to be breaking down the formula that has now helped generate over 30,000,000,000 views.
But listen, I struggled for a long time before I figured this out.
In fact and you're hitting on pain. You're hitting on by the way, why is the person even watching the video?
It's because they're in a place of pain trying to solve a problem. So there's a level of connecting. And then it's mini hero's journey because it's like and I struggled for years.
I didn't know what videos to post. I couldn't get the views. I was tired.
I was burning out. But eventually, I figured out something that works. And today, I've got three silver play buttons, a gold play button, and I've helped our clients generate over 33,000,000,000 views.
And I actually want to talk about one of the main ways they were able to do that. So let's get into that. And a lot's happened there, of course the fact we have clients, the fact I struggled.
And so that's attention, authority
The value. Agenda. Yeah.
But the value is the fact that you went through this pain so they don't have to. Like, now, you can learn from it. And so in authority, I like actually saying it's not just, and I am the greatest in checklist of everything, but also the authority of the journey.
And I've and I've been through the journey. I put in the time. I've experienced the pain.
It's a missing piece from a lot of people's It's also on pattern interrupt because I'm just like I said, I think the maybe it's just me because I'm watching all these, but I'm seeing the same formula. Yeah. And it's always the accolades.
It's always the accolades. Yeah. It's like I've spoke and I'm I'm guilty of too.
Like, my last several videos, hey, this is the thing. I spent the last five years building or six years building a personal brand, and I spoke on all these to and it's showing the proof. Yeah.
And I get into it because I'm like, I wanna I want them to know I'm qualified to teach you this. But at the same time, I don't think people care. If you said 10,000,000, a 100,000,000,
or a billion, I don't even think people care. Already at that point, it's like, okay. Why?
Get it. And so by the way, that and it is hero's journey. There is no good movie, good story, good book without actually the pain and the struggle.
It's a better story. Well, people admire characters more for their struggle than their success. Yeah.
Any any movie you want, like, it wouldn't be you wouldn't even care Yep. If they weren't in a struggle. And the conflict itself, the conflict in overcoming the conflict.
So now it's even, you know, what can you what can I learn from your journey? I'm seeing it play out.
And and here's the other thing is there's also a level of it's not believable.
That's true. Like, you
Okay, but are they making it up? Are they fluffing their numbers? And so, of course, whenever we're making videos, we're making them in integrity and telling the truth.
But understanding that, yeah, your accolades are true, but people will have skepticism and doubt.
But that skepticism and doubt goes down when you go, and no, I actually struggled a ton. I actually lost my you know, I had a Or they yeah. Like, I I was in a foreclosure, or I went from broke to this because of And think about some the people at the highest level.
Dave Dave Ramsey, at, like, the highest level of coaching and info, always talks about still going bankrupt Yeah.
This far into his career. And so, yeah, sometimes I He's gotta be a billionaire at this point. I mean, like, think about the empire that he built.
And so and and this has a lot to do. So I don't know. This has a lot to do with also knowing your audience.
And you you need to talk about the struggle no matter what because there's all kinds of 7 figure business owners that are struggling, burnt out, marriage troubles, challenges. So it's not so much that you don't even have money, but you also might be but still, your payroll is stressing you out and whatnot.
And you'd be like, listen, I've built multiple million dollar businesses, and I've also lost a lot of nights of sleep.
And when people feel seen like this in your ads, in your videos, like, what are they actually experiencing, feeling, and and and what would make them feel seen at this moment?
When you can articulate that and connect with that through your story, then you're also prepositioning yourself as the one qualified to help them.
Because, again, it's not just that you crushed it, but they go, wait a minute. You were literally in my shoes. Yeah.
I realized, like, I had a lot of money coming in, but I was overstaffed. I didn't really know how to run my team. My systems kinda sucked, and I was just literally burnt out.
My quality of life had gone down so much. And my bank account was big, but my lifestyle was tearing me apart.
And I discovered something though. Okay. So now and and we're talking about retention.
So why am why am I gonna stick with you in this video? Information is just so abundant right now if it's just like information being delivered.
Your narrative and your story needs to be woven in there for retention, for connection because that's how humans learn, but also in an AI world. Because if it's just like, what are the six things? That's what's funny too about you take Dave Ramsey's information.
There almost could be not more basic information. But why are they so powerful? Because of storytelling, psychology, human behavior, how they connect with people, and how they actually get people results.
So a lot of YouTube videos that just have a list of information aren't actually getting transferred. It's when people connect with you, you start lighting a fire in them. They start actually There's some sort of relationship.
It leads them also The the greatest way you can get someone transformation is when they join your stuff. They go but you gotta connect with them first. So now more people are in your program.
More people are hiring you to help them with their getting in a home, getting the right loan.
Yeah. Like and you could talk about that problem of, like, the fear of overpaying. Yeah.
The fear of, you know, buying and then the market crack. Like, what are the real things that people are dealing with? And you could call them out.
And then in in the coaching, consulting, education space, I've noticed this a lot. Like, if you can probably works in any industry, honestly, if you can articulate that pain. The person who articulates the customer's pain the best wins.
Because, like, they will assume you have the solution. They assume you have the solution. If you can just say it in a way that it's like, oh, dude.
That guy gets me. Mhmm. Now that might be a cool way.
I don't know if this has been done before, but that'd be dope to do an intro like that. Yeah. Just straight up talking about the pain people are going through and how you just went through it and you're Oh, it will do better.
Sure. Yeah. Because a lot of people are out here flex.
And flex the flex can still work because sometimes the flex is aspirational.
But I think also people are burnt out on that. And I think as they get more, you know, they get more tired on that, you know, yeah, people will relate to your pain, more than your success.
And they want both. But, yeah, tell the story of your pain. For sure.
So you guys just wrapped up this dope workshop here. I noticed you're doing these quarterly. How do people get info on coming to a Think Media workshop?
Yeah. I mean, these are awesome because they're Of course, they're they're here at the video department and Forward headquarters. And, yeah, thinkmediamastermind.com.
And specifically, for one of the things we did, I was breaking down that special education and autism example. We're building videos in real time.
So You mean people leave here with the
ready to shoot video? Yeah. We were building the packaging of the video, doing the research, figuring out the titles, and also getting through all the minutiae like, no.
Don't talk about any of this other stuff. Like, let's find that that one idea. Let's figure out those titles.
Let's refine it. We have a process where we go through a software, and you you you've identified your call to actions.
We've identified your competitors. You know, we're looking at multiple different titles and then selecting the best one, and we're doing that in a workshop environment. So not only that you're leaving with your clarity on the videos you should make next, you're leaving with the skill set, the mechanism to then be able to do that.
And I'm not trying to overhype it, but really mastering YouTube is like creating a money printing machine. The ability to consistently post videos is awareness that'll build your brand, get you leads, and lead to more clients and revenue in your business.
And so it's such a valuable skill set to learn, and that's what we talk about at thinkmediamastermind.com.
That's dope. One of the things that I'm focused on this year is just I just started getting more consistent with the YouTube upload, but just being more thinking about it in the way we talked about in the beginning, which was as another salesperson.
Yeah. And honestly, bro, I don't know if you feel this. I've seen people that are making maybe a little bit maybe they they could be potentially making more money doing cold calling or different types of paid ads to funnels and closers and all that.
But there's something really dope about, like, this did all the work for you. Yeah. Like, you don't there is no closer.
The closer the closing already occurred. They just text you. And, like Yep.
So even if it was less business or another arm of your business, it's the whole idea of working smarter, not harder. Yeah. Tracy Bookman
just did $68,000 in sales this past June for his roofing business. And we did a podcast with him that said YouTube is my number one salesman.
He's at a $250,000 in YouTube attributed revenue, which he's tracking just to YouTube for them being his salesperson.
And this is not anybody else having to close on the phone. Respect all the different ways. You know, I just got pitched new windows when someone knocked at my front door.
You know? Are you ready for windows? Like, we're living in a world where YouTube is not only doing that and it's leading to real revenue, but it's also a compounding asset.
Not every video ranks, but how many videos you got? Like, you look at your real time views, you're like, wait a minute. I got a video from six months ago.
I got a video from last year that's still getting views. Yeah. And I think we did our goal was once a month or
biweekly. It was once a month, then we went biweekly. And then just randomly, one will pop off for a 100,000.
Yep. And I have a bunch that are 5,000, 10,000. It doesn't matter.
And I don't really know which ones are gonna pop off. Yeah. But it's it's really cool to see, like, the compounding effect that that one from six months ago is still in the last forty eight hours.
In the last forty eight hours. It's still getting like That's my favorite of page. People hanging out with me every forty eight hours.
That's the dream is the real analytics page
of like, oh, six months old, a year old, still getting views. It's not only YouTube is your number one salesman. It's that eventually, you have a whole team of salespeople working for free twenty fourseven, talking to people, and either closing
or warming people up at a crazy level. Yeah. And I and and one just quick back back pedal is just like for someone who's watching this, and they're like, well, Sean said this, and Neil said this about the funnel that you create.
If you don't have the funnel, the most powerful thing you could do is just what Sean said. Just tell them to text you. I know it's gonna get less leads, not optimized, but the people that message you are already extreme bottom of funnel.
Yeah. So I think a lot of people, bro, they don't want more leads. They want better leads.
So I would rather get the three people who are interested in having a conversation than 30 leads that I have to chase down and follow-up anyways. Right. So Yeah.
I mean, it's it's both depending on where level you're at. Like, let's start soon. Let's start now.
Let's get momentum going. Later. We can optimize later.
Yep. Awesome, bro. So if you guys are interested, check out the mastermind because I see people here a couple times three, four times a year, and they're crushing it.
So you can learn more from Sean. Thanks for being here, bro. Yeah.
Appreciate you.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Neel Dhingra opens by admitting most YouTube advice targets full-time creators, then brings on Think Media CEO Sean Cannell, whose students have generated over 25 billion views, to break down the one long-form video a business owner running YouTube as a side hustle actually needs to make.
Add Modern Creator as a preferred source and Google shows you more of our breakdowns in Search, Top Stories, and AI Overviews. It only changes what you see, and you can undo it in your Google settings anytime.
Add to Preferred SourcesOpens your Google source preferences with us pre-loaded. Tick the box and you're done.
Daniel Priestley sits down with Neel Dhingra at a live mastermind to break down the semantic algorithm reshaping every platform, and the short form, long form, lead form funnel behind tens of thousands of monthly leads.
Why chasing views is the wrong game for entrepreneurs, and the three shifts — trust over reach, valuable over viral, and a three-stage system — that turn content into paying clients.
A 5-hour-a-week system that treats YouTube as a lead-generation machine instead of a content treadmill — $76,000 per video from a $30 setup, no virality required.
A YouTube strategist argues that Caleb Ralston's truck, Taki Moore's hotel lobbies, and Codie Sanchez's ranch aren't aesthetic accidents — they're deliberate production design doing the job personal disclosure used to do.
An 8-minute live demo of a Claude Co-work system that turns a CLAUDE.md context file into a full YouTube client-acquisition machine — shown on a real channel with 16,000 subscribers in 4 months.
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