How This Mom Built a $2 Million Business on YouTube
A YouTube mom explains why her lowest-view videos, not her one viral hit, built a $2 million book-coaching business.
Posted
4 days ago
Duration
Format
Interview
educational
Views
78.7K
1.6K likes
57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
A business owner's lowest-viewed YouTube videos often produce the best customers, because niche, vulnerable, poorly-produced content builds trust with a small qualified audience while a viral hit mostly attracts people who aren't a fit for the business.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
A business owner who already has a product or service and wants YouTube to build trust instead of chasing views.
A creator sitting on unpublished videos because the gear, editing, or on-camera presence doesn't feel 'good enough' yet.
Someone building a webinar or sales-call funnel who wants organic YouTube traffic feeding it instead of only paid ads.
A YouTuber curious about self-publishing a book to raise their own channel's authority and Google/Amazon SEO.
SKIP IF…
You're chasing YouTube ad revenue or subscriber count as the primary goal — this is a traffic-and-trust playbook, not a monetize-the-platform playbook.
You want a step-by-step Amazon KDP publishing tutorial — the book strategy here is about SEO and authority, not formatting or royalties.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Jenny Hansen Lane grew a $2 million business by treating YouTube as a trust-building traffic source, not a numbers game. She films unedited, one-take talking-head videos, sometimes without even looking at the camera, and her most-watched video (600,000+ views) has produced far fewer paying students than her low-view, hyper-specific how-to videos. Her funnel starts with free videos, moves viewers into a webinar, then upsells through a $33 entry offer up to a full course, treating every video as a reusable business asset rather than a one-off post. She also self-publishes books under her channel name, which outrank her own channel on Amazon and Google searches and raise her authority. Her production workflow leans on Ecamm Live, Loom, and ChatGPT instead of traditional editing.
Free for members
Chat with this breakdown — free.
Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.
Pull-quote montage stating the episode's thesis: nervousness before recording tracks with a video's performance, and low-view videos bring the best students.
00:44 – 04:23
02 · YouTube as a trust-building traffic source
Jenny explains every business needs a traffic source, why she chose YouTube, and how it grew out of a pre-existing webinar funnel.
04:23 – 06:26
03 · The 'garbage quality' video that went viral
Documenting a book-publishing journey built social proof; she describes the iPhone-on-a-tripod, no-editing setup behind her breakout video.
06:26 – 10:44
04 · Virality's double edge vs. real business fit
Going viral surfaces harsh critics as well as fans; she explains why she treats herself as an educator, not an entertainer, chasing virality.
10:44 – 14:54
05 · Low views, best students
The viral video's actual business results (900 opt-ins), and why her lowest-view videos consistently convert best; handling critics.
14:54 – 16:39
06 · Sponsor break: One Video Away event
Mid-roll ad for Think Media's 'One Video Away' live event at myytplan.com.
16:39 – 20:45
07 · Letting go of perfection, and the give-it-all-away myth
Jenny describes dropping her wedding-photography-era perfectionism, her cinder-block basement setup, and debunks the fear that giving away free content prevents sales.
20:45 – 24:40
08 · The actual funnel and content as an asset
How her $33 entry offer upsells into the YouTube Book System course, and how Daniel Priestley's '24 Assets' reframed every video as a business asset.
24:40 – 28:21
09 · Why YouTube is intent-based, and her AI workflow
YouTube traffic is intent-based versus interruption-based Facebook ads; her recording and AI-assisted workflow (Ecamm Live, Loom, ChatGPT).
28:21 – 30:58
10 · The book-on-Amazon SEO hack
Why she believes every YouTuber should publish a book under their channel name to raise their channel's authority and search ranking.
30:58 – 33:22
11 · Outro: book formats and where to find Jenny
Book formats don't have to be conventional; where to find Jenny and how to get a video made from a comment.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
A creator with 1,100+ long-form videos says her lowest-view uploads consistently bring her best-paying students, not her viral hits.
Her single most-viewed video, over 600,000 views, converted worse for her book-coaching business than videos with a fraction of the views.
She built her first webinar funnel before she had a YouTube following, then realized YouTube could pre-sell the trust a cold webinar pitch used to have to build alone.
A friend walked her through building a webinar and she made $42,000 in four days the first time she sold that way.
She treats every video as a business asset, reasoning that even a video earning '20 cents' today could be worth $2,000 in two years.
Her content funnel runs free videos to a $33 entry offer to a full paid course, deliberately over-delivering in the free videos so buyers already trust her expertise.
She argues YouTube outperforms Facebook ads for trust because YouTube traffic is intent-based, someone searching already wants the answer, while a Facebook ad has to interrupt someone who wasn't looking.
Publishing a book on Amazon under a YouTube channel name can outrank the channel itself on Google, which she says raises the channel's authority rather than hurting it.
Her production workflow is Ecamm Live to record and screen-share, Loom for a free transcript, then ChatGPT to write the description and timestamps, with no traditional editing step.
She recorded her most viral video by accident: a nine-minute video about a copyright mistake that cost her six figures on Amazon KDP, filmed without ever looking at the camera.
Her rule for avoiding creative burnout is publishing before she consumes any other content that day, because doomscrolling first kills her own output.
She's filmed 1,100+ videos without a single viral breakout by design, calling herself 'a dancing monkey for education, not for entertainment.'
Takeaway
Your lowest-view videos can be your best customers
TRUST OVER VIEWS
A niche, unpolished video that answers one specific problem tends to convert better than a viral hit, because it filters for the exact person who's already looking for the answer.
01Cold open — the nervous-hook thesis
The video's cold open states the through-line directly: getting nervous before hitting record often signals the video will perform better, because nervousness tracks with vulnerability.
The host frames the guest's core lesson upfront: her lowest-view videos bring her best students, without chasing views or big productions.
02YouTube as a trust-building traffic source
Every business needs a traffic source, and she picked YouTube because it carries more total traffic than any other platform.
She built a webinar-style offer before she had a YouTube audience, then realized YouTube could do the 'know, like, trust' work a cold webinar pitch used to have to do alone.
Once viewers already spent 40 minutes a week with her on YouTube, getting them onto a webinar call wasn't an extra step, it felt like the natural next one.
03The 'garbage quality' video that went viral
She documented an attempt to publish 200 books in 30 days publicly on YouTube, and that transparency became the social proof that let her sell a $42,000 webinar four days after a friend showed her how.
Her viral 600,000-view video was shot on an iPhone 13 on a desk tripod in her basement, with no editing, and she never actually looked at the camera lens.
She calls this 'garbage quality' on purpose: the friction to publish drops when there's no editing standard to defend, and audiences that criticize the amateur setup usually aren't her buyers anyway.
04Virality's double edge vs. real business fit
Going viral is a double-edged sword: it also surfaces the loudest critics of your production quality, and she treats those comments as free filtering rather than something to fix.
She's filmed 1,100+ long-form videos without a viral breakout by design, since she considers herself 'a dancing monkey for education, not for entertainment.'
The title of her viral video, naming the copyright mistake that cost her six figures on Amazon KDP, worked because it named a specific, high-stakes mistake her audience feared.
05Low views, best students
The viral video drove about 900 signups to her free training, which she calls an 'effortless launch' because viewers had already seen her walk the walk on camera.
Her rule of thumb: it's often your lowest-view videos, not your viral ones, that bring your best students, because low views usually mean you niched down into one specific problem.
On trolls, her standard response is borrowed from Gary Vaynerchuk: 'I'm sorry it's not for you,' treating negative comments as a mismatch rather than a personal failure.
07Letting go of perfection, and the give-it-all-away myth
She recorded her viral video in a cinder-block basement with just a photography backdrop taped up, and now credits that bare setup with forcing her to just start.
On the 'give everything away and no one buys' fear, she counters it directly: she can't name anyone who gave away all their knowledge and ended up homeless.
Her metaphor for over-delivering: knock all the bowling pins down with free content, then build a paid product around the specific thing viewers still can't do without your help.
08The actual funnel and content as an asset
Her funnel is a $33 entry offer that upsells to templates, an AI-assisted journaling process, and a full course called the YouTube Book System, with every rung optional.
She read Daniel Priestley's '24 Assets' and reframed every video as a business asset rather than a disposable post: 'if someone doesn't buy it, I still made 20 cents on it, and maybe in two years it will be $2,000.'
Her reasoning for not gatekeeping the how-to details in her free videos: the transformation people actually pay for is done-for-you access and accountability, not the information itself.
09Why YouTube is intent-based, and her AI workflow
She argues YouTube beats Facebook ads for her business because YouTube traffic is intent-based, someone typing a search already wants the answer, versus a Facebook ad that has to interrupt and convince.
Her production workflow: film on Ecamm Live, which lets her pause and screen-share, upload to Loom for a free transcript, then feed that transcript to ChatGPT to draft a description and timestamps.
Her personal rule against creative burnout: publish before consuming any other content that day, because doom-scrolling first makes her not want to create at all.
10The book-on-Amazon SEO hack
When she Googled her own name, her self-published book outranked her 500-video YouTube channel, which she initially took as a loss until she realized Amazon had out-SEO'd Google for her name.
Listing a book under your YouTube channel name on Amazon can raise your channel's overall authority and eventually help the channel itself rank higher on Google.
The simplest first step: survey your existing YouTube audience about a potential book topic before writing anything, so the book is validated by the same audience it's meant to serve.
11Outro: book formats and where to find Jenny
Books don't have to be conventional: she points to worksheets, journals, and even a crossword-puzzle book her own kids made and sold as valid 'book' formats on Amazon.
She closes by inviting viewers to leave a thoughtful comment on her channel, saying a good question is likely to get its own dedicated response video.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
Amazon's self-publishing platform that lets anyone upload and sell a book directly, without a traditional publisher.
Webinar (in this context)
A recorded or live presentation designed to build trust with a group of viewers in around 45 minutes, then make a sales offer at the end.
Tiny offer
A low-priced product, often $20-40, used as a low-risk first purchase that qualifies a buyer before offering something more expensive.
24 Assets
A framework from Daniel Priestley's book of the same name that treats every piece of content a business publishes as a reusable, appreciating asset rather than a disposable post.
“The more I'm nervous to hit record, the better the video does.”
States the episode's entire thesis in one sentence, works as a cold open.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
00:27
“It will often be your lowest views that bring your best students.”
Counterintuitive claim that reframes what a 'good' YouTube video even means.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
04:13
“My best videos are the ones where like they're garbage quality.”
Punchy, permission-giving line for anyone stalling on production quality.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
11:16
“I'm a dancing monkey for education, not for entertainment.”
Sharp, quotable distinction between virality and business content.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
13:13
“The quickest way to be confident is just hitting record.”
Standalone motivational line, no setup required.→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
20:04
“Name one person who gave everything away and they're homeless now.”
Rebuts the 'don't give it all away' myth in one blunt line.→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
20:45
“I would rather create a customer that can get it than one that's almost a customer.”
Reframes gatekeeping as a worse strategy than generosity.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
28:32
“Common sense isn't always common practice.”
Universal, shareable one-liner outside the video's specific niche.→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
Topic Map
Where the conversation goes.
00:00 – 06:26denseYouTube as a trust-building traffic source
06:26 – 14:54steadyVirality vs. real business fit
14:54 – 16:39sparseSponsor break
16:39 – 24:40denseFunnel mechanics and content-as-asset
24:40 – 28:21steadyAI-assisted production workflow
28:21 – 30:58denseBook-on-Amazon SEO strategy
30:58 – 33:22sparseOutro
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.
17px
metaphoranalogystory
The more I'm nervous to hit record, the better the video does. My best videos are the ones where like they're garbage quality. If you own a business, YouTube can help you get customers, but you probably don't want to spend your life filming, editing, and trying to become a full -time content creator.
Jenny Hansen Lane is a mom of three whose business has crossed over $2 million. And she says that some of the videos that bring her her best customers actually get the lowest views. It will often be...
your lowest views that bring your best students jenny breaks down how she's using youtube videos to build trust attract customers and grow a real business without chasing views or turning every video in this major production what does your like business look like today Like in what role does YouTube play in it? Maybe just give us like a 30 ,000 foot view and then I'd love to go over some details.
Yeah, so every business needs a traffic source to survive. And YouTube actually has the most traffic in the entire world. So I've been using YouTube as a traffic source.
for probably five years, but it really took off three years ago when I started focusing on books. Now, I also use Facebook meta ads as a traffic source, but the YouTube traffic is different because you're building a relationship and that leads to a lot of trust. Even humor.
There's just a lot of fun things where you, you kind of get a little family going. Okay. There's several things that I'm so stoked to talk about.
Number one, can you clarify, like, what is the business that YouTube is supporting? Is this like, is it just books? Is there any other income streams associated with it?
Yeah, that's a great question. So my background is in internet marketing. And so.
I learned how to create an offer many years ago and I never really thought about YouTube playing a part in that. But then when I learned about this thing called a webinar, a webinar is a transformation presentation that you take one to many people through. Your job in a webinar is to get people to like, know and trust you and then give you money in like 45 minutes.
And so when I was building that webinar and producing it and selling from it, I realized, what if I could get people to like, know, and trust me before that? And that was YouTube.
Just spending time on YouTube where people could know I'm authentic, I appreciate vulnerability. And so from there, it made... a great traffic source where people are already spending 40 minutes with me a week getting on us getting on a webinar call wasn't another extra step for them powerful okay and so you kind of got your start with webinars like that would be the first sort of kind of content that you were making even though it was happening in a different part of like a sales process you were like oh there's something cool that's going on here and you're like what if this sort of stuff happened beforehand Like what if it happened earlier?
Is that the idea? Exactly. And to take it like a step further back, because I uploaded videos based off of my journey of trying to make a book profitable, my audience saw everything.
They saw like, okay, I published 200 books in 30 days to see what would happen. And so from that process, like YouTube really became this source of like, I'm going to document and come what may. And so people saw that I crossed six figures because I documented on YouTube.
So it built social proof. So then I had all my internet marketing friends that were like, you sold six figures on Amazon KDP? Like you need to teach people.
And I was like, I am on my YouTube channel. Like, no, they want to hold your hand. And so I had a friend, she walked through the webinar process with me and I made $42 ,000 in four days.
And it changed my life, but also it showed me the power of... Just stepping into helping people on a deeper level. And I think that speaks to the power of YouTube.
And what I learned in Video Ranking Academy is that people want to be led and they need someone that they trust. And so I already had the social proof and I was just taking another level to say, let me show you how I did this step by step. My best videos are the ones where like they're garbage quality.
But I'm a real person showing up. They're real things that happen to me. And there's been this new thing, Nathan, that's happened probably the last 90 days in my business with YouTube.
The more I'm nervous to hit record, the better the video does. And I think it's just because I'm focused on vulnerability. I'm focused on like, okay, I made a mistake with my KDP book.
Or my student lost their KDP account or something's not going well and I have to talk about it. And I wouldn't have ever done that if I hadn't have just, I had a coach that was like, just do it for 30 days and see what happened. Now that spoke to my language, my background.
I played soccer in college. I'm used to like kicking a ball a lot to see what happens. And so I needed that outsource.
So YouTube has been the outsource for me of like, let's just. publish and see what happens. You mentioned garbage quality.
What does that mean to you? Walk us through your setup for this video that did over 600 ,000 views. Yeah.
So I'm the type of girl, I've had four iPhones in my whole life and I'm like a mom of a teenager. And I'm a millennial. So change, I'm like, if it's not broken, don't touch it.
So I had an iPhone 13 and I just decided, you know, I don't want to edit. I don't want to edit a YouTube video. So I just put it on a little tripod, stuck it on my desk in my basement, and just talked about a problem that I had that I was that I had gone through.
And I didn't even look at the camera. There's all these comments of people who are like, you don't even know how to film. I'm like, you're right.
I didn't. And that's how I responded to the comments too. So there's this duality of like being vulnerable online, but then also accepting the consequence of going viral, which like we've talked about virality a lot and Sean's talked about it a lot, but there it's a double -edged sword in terms of everyone knows that this girl made a mistake.
And then the other side of that is like, you're finding people that. are not a good fit for your business. And that was a good lesson for me because I have filmed 1 ,100 long form videos.
And I know YouTubers that have a million, you know, I just signed up for, I'm going to vid summit next month. Like I just am doing these things of like, when's my big break going to come, but I'm kind of glad I didn't go viral because I have a business that YouTube is serving. And virality is something different.
It's the entertainment niche. And I'm a dancing monkey for education, not for entertainment. So I recorded this video, nine minutes long.
I'm looking like this direction the whole time thinking that's the camera. And I did plan some pattern interrupts. I have a piece of paper I crumble up and I throw at the camera, but I don't even hit the lens because I don't know where it's at.
But I'm just... I'm just letting people know, like, I'm a real person. So that was a really good example to me of just taking action.
And you just never know what's going to hit with your audience. Now, I will tell you from that video, it's very clear that I'm talking about a topic that a lot of people want more content on. For sure.
So that's kind of created a pillar for me, whether I like it or not. YouTube is demanding me to fit that market gap of like, be vulnerable about book publishing and we'll find your people. I love it.
A couple thoughts there. So the title for this video, if you're listening and you're not on the video version of the podcast, the title of this video is this copyright mistake or the copyright mistake that cost me six figures on Amazon KDP over 600 ,000 views. So I gotta say like, that's a killer title by the way.
But to your point, I know you're saying like, I didn't really know what I was doing. I just turned on the camera. And I'm like, that should, that should have just freed somebody listening right now on this podcast who is overthinking, who was already thinking about 2027 and who's already like, what's the gear, what's the whatever.
And who is like for maybe the sixth or seventh time attempting to step forward towards this thing. And what I would just want to share is like, man, rewind and listen to that because your ability to just turn on the camera, to share something that's vulnerable, to talk about something that's real and to just do it regardless.
is inspiring to me. I'd like to talk about this kind of duality that you mentioned here. You have this video that pops off and yet you have your YouTube channel that really is serving a business.
Like you're just not trying to be a YouTuber for a YouTuber's sake. Like you have this other asset that's over here. What was the translation between this kind of viral video and business results?
Do you remember? I don't know. What were you measuring?
Opt -ins? Anything like that? Did you see any results from that big video?
Yeah. So that's a great question because I had the foundation laid for a webinar style business. I already had a link in the description to come to my free training.
So I believe I had about 900 people that signed up for that free training. And I'm able to take them through the webinar process and see if they're a good fit for the program. It's 997.
And it was an effortless launch because people knew that I walked the walk and I talked the talk because of those videos. So once I saw that, it was just another validation piece that... This is a traffic source.
There are people who will pay for my expertise and I should serve them at the best level that I can. What have you noticed? You know, cause you've been to that video.
You've been, like you said, you've over a thousand videos, but that most popular one, the biggest video that your channel's done was just a year ago. So like when you're thinking, when you see a video like that, and then you also have videos on your channel that, that aren't doing that, that are performing, I would say very well, like tens of thousands of views.
But then even you can have videos just like all of us fluctuate. You can even have like thousands, like low thousands potentially. And so all YouTube channels have a mixture of this.
The things that are the peaks, the things that are valleys, and then all of us have a baseline. What have you noticed about putting out a video that does a fraction of what that big viral video did for you? Are you still noticing, like do you still have a system in place to get people into your world?
Like regardless of if the video gets a whole bunch of views, have you still seen business results because you posted something? Yeah. And I would say for anyone listening that wants to use YouTube as a traffic source, it will often be your lowest views that bring your best students.
And low views can be a result of really niching down into a problem that you solve. So for example, someone asks me like, I've turned on an Amazon ad. and I'm not getting sales, what do I need to do?
That's literally my video, what to do when you turn on an ad and you're not getting views. And I tell them like, you've got to increase the bid amount. And so those little quick wins, people, I know they're actively trying to make money from KDP.
So I want to be their BFF because I've already scaled the six figures and I can tell them all the mistakes. So I think that's an important aspect of publishing for a business is that views don't always equate to monetization in that way.
I'm going to see more trolls online, but I can bless and release because of putting in the reps. And my favorite response just comes from Gary V. If someone doesn't like the video, and my kids know this because I've trained them, I'm sorry it's not for you.
It's not a big deal. I'm married to my favorite person. I raise my favorite people.
I don't need the validation of someone else online to tell me that I suck. I can tell myself that I suck. So I think that's an important aspect for those of you that are like, what about the comment section?
Like, it's okay. You're not for everybody. And there's a lot of power in just like embracing that.
And to go like one step deeper is like, imagine you never started because you were 10 pounds heavier. I feel like that after having babies.
Imagine you never started because you were so worried about what other people thought of you. There's so much ego wrapped up in not creating content. The quickest way to be confident is just hitting record.
What would you say to that person when it comes to something like upload cadence? It's a common question. How often were you uploading when you first started and what does it look like today?
If you could look at my Google search. my youtube google search in 2024 2025 i was ferociously trying to be validated in terms of what if i do a thousand youtube videos what if i do 100 youtube videos and there really wasn't anyone out there that had a clear answer and so for me lack of clarity gave me permission to be like okay i'm going to be that person let's go see what happens when i actually publish and so we've talked about this a little bit but my business just crossed a crossed $2 million in revenue.
And I would significantly say it was from just making the decision to show up. So some of Jenny's lowest view videos are bringing her the best students. It's proof that you don't need a huge following or a viral hit.
You actually just need the right video reaching the right people. And if you want help to build that video, you can go to myytplan .com. Again, that's myytplan.
To learn more about One Video Away, it's a live event that Sean Cannell and I are putting on just for you, where we're going to build a client -getting video. together. And to be clear, this is not some generic content workshop.
It's designed to give you just more ideas and more homework. We're actually going to help you build the video and then hand you our one video away system so that you can then create a repeatable pipeline for getting your next 10 clients from YouTube in just a few hours a week. That is our promise of this event.
So Jenny has built trust with these simple videos. with not really editing. And she's created a clear path from viewer to student.
And that kind of path, that sort of bridge is what Sean and I want to help you build. Not just a lucky video, no more just winging it, but a system that you can run upload after upload to reach client after client. So again, you can head to myytplan .com to learn more.
Tickets start at $47 and registration is open now. So go ahead and grab your seat at myytplan .com. All right, let's go back to Jenny.
I had to let go of perfection. And before I started publishing books, I was a wedding photographer for 12 years. So like I have been in a fine art space where people tear apart your craft and you have to defend it.
And so I know that I'm breaking a lot of video editing rules by just uploading. I know that I'm breaking a lot of audio rules by sometimes just shooting from the hip for my camera. But if I gave myself those restraints, it would be harder.
The friction to start would be harder. And so that's something that I really had to let go of. And I had a lot of friends that had like a viral video while I'm like, oh, I've.
filmed 20 videos and you've done one and you're ahead of me. I had to let go of that, that like, oh, it's actually not a competition. It's just between me and myself and what I said I was going to do.
So I don't know if that answers your question, but I think we all have our own resistance that we have to face with our mindset, but then we can make a lot of excuses. And I recently took a picture. I'll have to send it to you of my basement where I crossed $2 million.
It's cinder block. It probably looks like a prison jail cell. There's more padding in a prison jail cell.
I just threw a photography backdrop up the video that went viral. It's just a red photography backdrop. And so like, I'm actually really proud of that concrete space because it gave me the guardrails to say, this is all that I have.
So it can only be up for here. And I think that's an important aspect of starting a YouTube channel. It's literally only up.
What are you doing in these videos? Like when it comes to a call to action, you mentioned you have a link that's always in the description. What does that, for lack of a better phrase, like what does that conversion process look like for people?
I love this idea of repeatable wins. And a lot of times for those that are listening that might have a paywall for content, it's kind of permission to get over deliver in ways that you normally would charge. And so it's not actually normal for someone that teaches people how to scale a book on Amazon ads to do a video about it.
They would prefer maybe to be hired to teach them and get on Zoom calls. But I'm a mom of three kids. I love time freedom.
My business has to serve that. And so that was my way of showing up is like, drop your questions and I'll give you feedback. So there's this asynchronicity that's happening with my audience where even if they don't pay, they still find value in what I'm putting out.
And you have to get to that mindset of wouldn't you... I've bought a YouTube course before where the YouTube channel was more valuable than what I paid. And it was very discouraging.
And I will never buy from that content creator again. That lesson... really helped me see, you know what, let's take some of the best stuff and put it out there so people know that I know my stuff.
And then they pay for the transformation. They pay for access. But there's no reason why we can't over -deliver that when it's a traffic source for us, right?
If I'm on the corner of a street with a bunch of other people that teach books and someone drives by and I'm like, increase your bid on this thing. She just gave that nugget for free. Because in reality, I'm the one that's blessed by it.
Because I get more views. I find my people. I'm able to help people.
That fills up my bucket. So if you're a business owner and you're using YouTube as a traffic source, I really do think it's important. When I went back to saying, be vulnerable, sometimes it will be painful to give away free content.
And that's how you know it's good. Like that's how you know it's kind of good when you're like, this should cost money. That's a good word.
And if you think all of it should cost money, we got to do some ego stuff, right? Create something that belongs on YouTube to strangers that they can like know and trust you and know that you bring value. So I think I know the answer to this, but I want to say like, so the age old advice, which I do think is slowly dying out, but some people still really cling to this.
It's a little more old school. which is like, don't give everything away. And especially as a business owner that starts to turn on a YouTube channel, starts to create content, this is something that sometimes it's like pulling teeth if I'm working with someone as a strategist where it's like, no, no, no, like, dude, like you give it away.
Like, give me your best stuff in this video so that you actually stick out from everyone else in this niche and that you actually can go get somebody a win. And I think there's this misconception that just because if I give it all away, no one will buy. Have you found that to be true?
I think it is a myth created from the dark side. And I see that because name one person who gave everything away and they're homeless now. Think of your business like a bowling alley and a bowling ball.
And you roll the ball down, it strikes all the pins and they all fall apart. Now look at those pins and create a piece of content based off of that, that no one can ever figure it out without you. It's like, do you want to create a customer?
they're almost a customer, but they can't get it without you. I would rather create a customer that can get it. And they're like, I want everything Jenny sells.
Give it to me now. Facts. Yes.
Yes. Like I would never even do that to my own children. Oh my goodness.
Okay. This is the last part of tying your shoe. I'm not going to give it to you.
Tell you, you figure it out. Like there's just a little bit of scarcity in that, that just reminds me of like, let's actually give it away and see what happens. Now this comes from someone that actually has paywalls.
I have little courses. I have $33 content, you know? So it's that balance of like, but I'm still willing to do a thousand videos to ask someone for $33.
Do you mind if I, if we hang there for a sec, like how do you, so, you know, you, and you manage this tension really well of. I'm going to give away game in these videos, right? Like I'm going to give people, I'm going to talk to them real.
I'm going to be vulnerable. I'm going to be honest about my mistakes. And I'm going to, I'm going to like share the exact things that I could charge people to learn about.
I'm going to share it right here in the video. But then you do have this, you have these smaller offers. There's so many different words for them, right?
But like a tiny offer or something, 20, 30 something dollars. What is your, for lack of better phrasing, what does a funnel look like for you when you're navigating this tension? Is it where people usually start?
What's the customer journey or viewer journey? Found you on YouTube, probably watched several of your videos, then took you up on something that you said. And is that where most people go?
You see people going from a YouTube video to paying? 30 something dollars for a lower ticket thing. Here's the data.
People will say, why would I pay you for this when I can go on YouTube and get it for free? And my response is, actually, yeah, you can go to my channel. I have 1 ,100 free videos.
This offer is for people who want to learn from someone who has sold $340 ,000 in book sales. and want the step -by -step lifetime access to do it on their own terms. I'm still going to teach people how to put a book on Amazon, on YouTube.
I'm still going to put that all on there. But people who, as Tony Robbins said, people who pay, pay attention. So there is this mechanism where transformation happens when there's some type of investment, investment of time or money.
And so your YouTube channel is essentially just built to help prepare people for that transformation. If you can give it to them for free. then they will want to buy more from you.
I've created so many different types of books, right? And so the funnel starts out at $33. If they want the templates that I used, they can upsell to that.
Everything's optional. If they want to learn how I did a prompted journal with AI, I do that. I've taken YouTube videos and turned them into a course.
It's called the YouTube Book System. And this really came from the place. There's an author, his name's Daniel Priestley.
He wrote a book called 24 assets. And one of the assets in a business is content.
And so when I think about uploading, I think about each piece is a piece of content and it's an asset. So how valuable do you want the asset to be that you're creating? That really changes the type of content you put out because if you're so stuck on like, I'm only going to give so much away because people have to pay me.
that actually devalues the piece of content you put out. Some of the best transformation you'll get is like when people actually pay you when they're ready to do it. And so everything else is just a primer.
But that book really reframed for me, even though I don't have a sellable business because I run a personal brand. It really empowered me to be like, you know what? Every video I put out is an asset for my business and all assets generate income.
And so that really was the marker for me. If someone doesn't buy it, I still made 20 cents on it. And maybe in two years, it will be $2 ,000.
But it's an asset that I'm proud of because I brought value into it. Another reason why it's really important to give value on YouTube is because the nature of YouTube. And I say that from a marketing standpoint.
It's intent -based. On Facebook ads, I literally have to be a dancing monkey and interrupt people and try and convince them to give me money. They're busy and it's pattern interrupt.
They're like, hey, hi, who did you know Amazon can pay you for journals? On YouTube, when people are typing stuff in, they're already at another level of awareness. And when you go through levels of awareness, that is also a really smart way to create your content where you're meeting people where you're coming to where they're at.
When someone's Googling something and then they find your video and it is not answered, that does not create trust. And so just remember like YouTube is intent -based and people search because they want something solved. And so that's another reason why you should put more of good content on YouTube versus any other platform.
That's a good word. Hey, I would love to hear about how are you using AI? You mentioned AI a little bit earlier and it's cool how like obviously...
these AI tools are scrubbing YouTube, scrubbing YouTube videos, like aware of different things. And the audience sentiment is like a real thing. And so it's no wonder that we've actually tested this about Think Media and Sean Cannell too.
And it's cool. There's an overwhelming positive sentiment, you know? And so like, that's the thing that the AI is referencing.
I would like to hear more about your process though, as a creator, how you're using AI. So like. Are you using any tools?
How does this show up in your workflow now? Yeah. So I'm getting ready to do 30 days on YouTube, long form.
Every day? Yep. I've done it before.
And when I had that viral video, it was number eight out of 30 that went viral. And the second biggest one was 100 ,000 and it was that same month. So I'm doing this for my business because I believe videos are assets.
I'm not doing it to go viral or anything else. My workflow is I film on Ecamm Live because it lets me pause. It lets me share my screen.
Those two aspects have wiped out editing for me. If people on my channel don't like it, I still love them. The video just might not be for them, right?
So that cuts out that workflow. Once I save that, I upload them to Loom because Loom is free and it gives you a transcript. I then put that transcript into...
ChatGPT and say, help me come up with a description and a timestamp. And then it's done. Most recently, I downloaded the app WhisperFlow.
It's an audio AI. And so you're able to push a button and just speak. I've been testing instead of the step of going to Loom and getting a transcript quickly.
I've been writing my own transcript for my own voice. Hey, this is a video about this. This is what I'm teaching.
And the jury's still out because, you know, for my testing purposes, I'm going to have to do like 100 videos to really get the data of if that worked. I just needed to figure out something that allowed me to go really fast. And so I literally think anyone that just heard that should test it out and you'll be able to get a video out in a day, which I don't know people's workflow.
For me, I'm like, I want six or seven. I want to see like. And I will say like the less you consume, the easier it is to create.
I know we didn't talk about that. I get bogged down if I get in a doom scroll on TikTok. Oh, me too.
My content sucks because I don't even feel like creating anymore. Yeah, there is. There is a real thing out in the universe that I think we can only handle so much.
And so I make a rule like I create content before I do anything else. So then I know that it's done. So practical.
And it's so common sense. Common sense isn't always common practice, right? That's so true.
You, I'd like to, let's, let's maybe if you don't mind, let's distill a little bit of your wisdom that you even, that you do on your YouTube channel. You help people create books. You help people get published stuff on like Amazon where other people can buy it.
You, you, you have this claim, correct me if I'm wrong, but like that you believe every YouTuber should have a book. Could you walk us through the power of someone who's listening right now deciding to create a book next year or shoot this year? Like why should someone who has a YouTube channel write a book?
I went through this experience where when you Googled my name, I had like 500 videos. When you Googled my name, my book came up first on Amazon. And I was like, what?
Like Google dismissed me as a YouTuber. And then I was like, no, wait, this is perfect. So Amazon, no one talks about this, but Amazon takes their SEO game incredibly serious.
Like they're not Google, but they are a competitor to Google for data. So you can bet your bottom dollar that like if they want to outrank Google, they can. And they do.
When you use your name or your YouTube channel and you put a piece of asset on Amazon, like a notebook or a journal, scuba dive resource, like whatever your channel's about, that elevates your channel for authority. But then you start ranking on Google. So when people type in your YouTube channel, they find a book first.
Like you have a listing on Amazon. So there's a lot of really, really great, powerful search engine optimization that can happen on Amazon to increase the authority on your YouTube channel. And unfortunately, my audience is really small when it comes to YouTubers because that course is kind of slept on.
There's a couple of people like, this course is amazing because I take those resources and let them know like, you want to establish your channel with authority, launch a book, especially because you already have the audience. Right. Built in.
So that's a really powerful thing to use your channel on your book listing just to raise the SEO and establish more authority. That is that makes complete sense. But you're right.
I don't think I've heard that before. Like that. OK, so what would be the simplest way that someone would step towards that?
Like, I mean, I know you have like literal products that help people do this thing, but like, yeah, what's just like bird's eye view? What's that? Yeah.
So, so I would say like the most important thing for it to do for it to work well, because there's many ways for it to happen is kind of survey your audience, your YouTube audience. Like, Hey, I'm thinking about having a line of journals or a step -by -step process. I'm going to put it in book format.
get kind of market feedback from them. There's so many resources to with Canva, like I've given my students templates that I build in Canva. And so I just give them a link.
So you literally can grab a link and have your own branded fitness journal for your fitness channel. And then when you're just typing in the data, when you're adding the listing to Amazon, under the author name is where you put your YouTube channel name, you can still put your original name, you can have up to nine authors.
And so once that book goes live, Now you are a key word on Amazon. That means when someone is searching for your YouTube channel, oftentimes Amazon will outrank it.
I had to like publish another 500 videos to outrank that link because I was like. that's more important to me to get more customers than it is for people to buy a book or whatever. Yeah.
Yeah. So that's a really simple thing is just taking that step to have an asset on Amazon. And you know, there's a misconception that you need to write a book.
I know Sean wrote a book. It's a great book. Yeah.
But like, There's all different sizes of books. There's worksheets you can put together in book format.
There's crossword puzzles. My kids did trivia books. They've made $1 ,000 and they're under 10 years old.
So there's a lot of things you can do just to take your channel another layer deeper. Jenny, where could people hang out with you? Yeah.
So my name, my brand name, Jenny Hanson Lane, any platform. I'm really focused on YouTube because I want to get that. that little metal of a hundred K subs.
There we go. But I'm on Facebook. If you Google anywhere, but I will tell you, like, come to my channel, write a thoughtful question and you'll probably get a video out of it because that's where our community is.
Like, let's just grow together. Give me your background on your channel. Tell me how you, you know, how you want to increase authority with a book and we'll just, we'll have fun.
We'll riff and have and spin off of it. Let's go. Jenny, thank you so much for your time.
Podcast. There's no way to get value out of this episode. Like, rate, share, review wherever you're watching or listening.
This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Jenny Hansen Lane says her scariest videos to publish, unedited, unpolished, filmed without even looking at the camera, are consistently the ones that make her the most money. Her channel has one video north of 600,000 views, but she says it's her lowest-view uploads that actually bring her best-paying students.
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.
Sean Cannell interviews Ben Azadi on how a niche keto channel became the second-biggest health channel on YouTube — and the under-talked-about affiliate structure now generating $700K a month.
Think Media's Sean Cannell breaks down why 20 million daily uploads and a dead subscriber advantage haven't killed YouTube — they've just changed who wins on it.
Sean Cannell interviews creator Nicky Saunders on the seven-year, gradually-then-suddenly path from freelance hustle to a six-figure, three-person content business.
Fifteen years in, a lifestyle YouTuber lists the 10 things about audience, titling, editing, and money she had to learn the hard way, filmed in the condo she's about to leave.
00:25
00:50
01:18
02:00
02:19
02:38
03:31
03:48
04:44
05:17
05:26
05:58
07:00
07:25
07:51
08:09
08:21
09:09
09:23
09:58
10:25
11:03
11:18
11:45
12:27
12:41
12:59
13:39
13:58
14:23
15:05
15:30
16:05
16:50
17:19
17:44
18:12
18:37
19:01
19:17
19:44
20:18
21:05
21:40
21:50
22:12
22:32
22:58
23:27
23:54
24:17
25:20
25:30
26:05
26:30
27:04
27:19
27:37
28:01
29:00
29:20
29:46
30:15
30:39
31:18
31:47
32:20
32:33
33:00
53:37
43:20
44:50
20:57
23:44
06:09