“Viral” Is NOT A Strategy

Last year by pure accident, I ran across Creator Dynamics, a channel run by a former YouTube employee, Matt, whose entire goal is to extend YouTube creator careers. It was this video that reshaped my perspective on how I ran my YouTube Channel. In the video, Matt says the typical creator career lasts about 5-7 years. These are creators who are focused on creating fun, educational, entertaining, or inspiring content, and they’re often doing it because they just like creating videos.

But, creators who last longer than that 5–7 year average life span, they typically built their channel around a business, a product, or something they wanted to sell. Their YouTube channels didn’t explode and most of them you will never hear of, but they built a sustainable income that lasts, and, in many cases, their income is bigger than channels that “go viral”.

^Average YouTube creator careers shown on Google Trends.

My instant reaction to learning this was a mix of hope and fear. Hope because there may be a sustainable way to go about YouTube. Fear because what the hell can I produce that people would actually want to buy!?! How do I even decide??

I immediately did heaps of research about this and ran across the most helpful resource by Brand Builders Group, which I will walk you through below. More often than not, you are most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were. Below are a series of questions that will help you figure out who those people were and which one is most viable for you to pursue.

Ready? 🙂

Dig Into YOU

Think back to a past version of yourself. What are some problems you had that you figured out and solved? For me, I figured out how to recover from childhood trauma, overcome anxiety, and realign with the version of my life I most desire. I learned how to have healthy relationships, set boundaries, and trust my own instinct in a world with a lot of noise.

For you, it might be something a bit more lighthearted. It might be that you learned to cook late in life, you have mastered learning languages, you learned to train dogs, or you’ve self-taught yourself to sail. It could literally be anything.

Once you know what problems you solved, ask yourself what are you actually passionate about? What do you get excited about? What are your favorite things to do? What changes do you want to see in your industry or in the world? What lights you up and makes you happy? What makes you angry? What breaks your heart? What are you critical of? What do you never get sick of talking about?

For me, I’ve felt very alone in the past, and I realized at some point that I have the power to create the community I desire. I am so passionate about people, helping others, and building communities. I am passionate about human rights (my former career), understanding our individual privileges, not dehumanizing each other, and constantly challenging my perspectives on life. And most recently, I am passionate about the connection between our own self-worth and how we treat others. And just to reduce the tension here a wee bit, I am also passionate about craft beer, doggies, and adventures!

What I am passionate about nicely led into the next question which is, ‘what do you study? What do you research? What do you learn about?

For me, I was constantly reading about behavioral science, understanding micro expressions, body language, human patterns, emotions, overcoming trauma, and healthy relationships. I was also reading about sailing and different adventures.

Necessary Evil: $$$

Ok, so that’s all well and dandy, but travel vloggers don’t get paid to travel based on understanding our emotions, do we? I had to get real. I needed to ask myself these next questions: What do you have results in? What is your experience? What are your strengths? What are you inherently good at that comes easily to you? What do people regularly come to you for?

I’m really good at project management and helping people get good jobs. I am a trained job coach that excels in job applications, negotiating, and getting sizeable raises, bonuses and benefits. I am good at helping people realize and advocate for their worth. And finally, I am good at building communities, having successfully built several professional networks and nonprofits from scratch.

Once you have a clear idea of your skills and passions, ask yourself, what are ALL THE THINGS people would buy from you related to the above answers?

There are only 5 ways to get paid from a personal travel brand:

1. Products – book, clothing line, equipment, day planners, photos.
2. Ads and Affiliates (you’re selling access to your audience) – choose products and services you already use or would use
3. Information – video courses, membership sites, assessments, certifications
4. Deals – 3rd party deals where 3rd party pays you for creating of piece of art (regardless of how it performs ), show deal, book deal,
5. Services (fastest path to cash) – sell your time, consultant. Sell this FIRST if you need money fast.

This is where it can start to get intimidating, but it’s important to not limit yourself here. Don’t allow thoughts like “It won’t work” or “That’s not realistic”. This is a brainstorming session. Anything goes. LIST EVERYTHING DOWN. TRUST ME.

For me, I wrote down consulting services to help people take the leap towards boat life or building a YouTube Channel; a course to start a YouTube channel; an in-person adventure camp; daily video encouragement; adventure trips with beer stops; affiliate links to my favorite adventure products; write articles for money; or partner with local agencies to do tours.

Of all those options you have listed, what business do you really want to be in the long term? What does a dream day look like to you? What impact do you want your content to have on people and the world?

This next step is arguably the most important. You need to determine which of the options you have listed have the characteristics of successful business models. Rory Vaden, co-founder of the Brand Builders Group, created the D.A.R.E.S. framework to figure this out. But note that you can’t have all… what are you willing to trade off? Of the D.A.R.E.S., where are your natural strengths? AND, what makes the most money?

• Digital – No cost of goods. No physical inventory.
• Automated – Customer doesn’t have to talk to you at all to make sale.
• Reoccurring – People pay every week, month, year, etc.
• Evergreen – Never have to update the model.
• Scalable – Could add millions of new customers without additional overhead.

I highly recommend putting together a spreadsheet for this, but you can also access min through my course for starting a travel vlog. By the way…. it’s not just a course; it will be an interactive and small community launched through Circle. In my spreadsheet, I looked at things such as price per unit, profit per unit, unit frequency, monthly and annual value, time investment, etc.

And this is where I had an “aha” moment. A course / community came out on top by a long shot for me. It fulfilled more of my needs, skills, and desires than anything else. But my brain resisted…

Self Doubt

It took me three months to wrap my head around this. Why the hell would people buy a course from what I self-perceived as a struggling channel?!?!

And what it came down to is that if I had the bravery to share my journey, my mess-ups, my victories, and my learnings as I pursued a sustainable creator business, I could not only help people along the way grow with me, but I could also record each and every learning and package it in a way that would save others the grind that I am currently going through. My grind would be useful to other small channels BECAUSE I haven’t gone viral. I could show them another way to make this life work! AND, I could build the community of support I so desperately crave in this isolated creator business.

I believed in it! I took a leap! And I hope you will too! You deserve to get out there living the life you most want. I got your back, and I commit to continuing to share my lessons and help you grow. Now it’s your turn to choose a path to a sustainable creator income, take a leap, and back yourself. Its time.

We grow faster if we grow together!