The Importance of a Channel Goal.

As part of my course for Adventure Creators, I spend a lot of time coaching individual channels. This week, I helped a channel walk through their emotional journey of being the captain aboard a boat that regularly has rotating crew. Since this person was the only regular crew, we naturally thought that the episodes should surround her personal journey.

WHY?

One thing I have learned in my research and interviews with other channels is that your videos need to be working towards something. It may be building your dream van, a remote lifestyle homestead, or sailing around the world.

A “channel goal” as I put it, should have a clear start point and end point:

• Start point: I bought a sailboat with no experience.
• End point: I have sailed around the world.

For many of you, having a channel goal will happen naturally. We typically always have a goal we are working towards, and if you know what that is and you’re filming it, ta da! That’s it right there.

A clear goal helps attract and retain a specific audience interested in your content. When viewers understand what your channel is about and what you’re working towards, they can easily see if it aligns with their goals. If it does, they are more likely to subscribe and engage with your videos.

And finally, having a channel goal helps you focus your content on topics and themes that progress that overarching goal towards the end point. It tells you what is worth your time filming and what is not. This consistency makes your channel more appealing to both viewers who are interested in that journey and potential collaborators or sponsors.

Can’t Be ANY Goal.

Now here is the catch. It can’t be just any goal. For one, in the case of the channel I was coaching, it wasn’t what they wanted to achieve for their audience. They were seeking to attract and inspire young people interested in alternative lifestyles. More importantly, the captain’s emotional journey wasn’t necessarily a highly sought after journey. They needed to find a journey that enough people were interested in, but small enough that they were in an uncompetitive niche.

Here is an example. I live in New Zealand. There are a lot of tourists coming here, and a lot of them want to know how to road trip around New Zealand. But there are HEAPS of creators providing content in that space. It’s a journey that is way too saturated.

Alternatively, I’ve recently had this burning idea to walk the Te Araroa Trail from the top of New Zealand down to the bottom. It’s a 3,000km hike and should take 4 months. There are very few creators providing high quality content about this journey, and almost none putting out videos covering this whole journey from ideation to trail completion. This is a channel goal that could really boost my channel.

What I Was Missing.

At some point last year, I realised I have been going from one random adventure to the next without specifying a channel goal. My videos weren’t progressing towards anything. So basically, it was either the video topic or my charming personality that kept people coming back.

But it makes sense that those two elements wouldn’t be enough. Think about why you got on YouTube personally. I got on there for two reasons. One was to learn one-off random skills. This led me to watch one or two videos on a channel, but no more once I learned the skill. And two, I jumped on YouTube because I wanted to take off fulltime sailing with zero experience, and I wanted to see how other people had tackled this journey.

Looking back over the last year, I have had a very clear goal I could have focused on, but it never felt appealing enough. And that kind of goes back to that coaching call with my course student. She had a very clear goal she was pursuing, but it wasn’t a journey that was highly sought after.

So, What Do You Do?

Firstly, realise that a highly searchable goal is something you need to aim for, and keep your eyes open for it. I wouldn’t recommend changing your life just to achieve this though, as it won’t resonate and is a fast path to burn out.

But that doesn’t mean something won’t come along.

Until then, you need to honor the journey you are on, which I should have done. I have been on a journey to build my course and study storytelling, while also maintaining a balanced adventurous lifestyle. I want to be able to show my students that they can build a successful business while also regularly adventuring. I thought I shouldn’t mention my business because it would just seem like I was selling to people all the time, when the reality is that was my authentic journey. I also thought showing the nitty gritty of building a business would be boring, and there’s some truth to that. However, if I had mapped out my journey and put some thought into it, I 100% think I could have taken my audience on an interesting journey.

Side note, you can access the Journey Map I use in my course through this link. I find the typical feedback swings from “this is too hard” to “OMG, this will revolutionise my channel”. Give it a real effort.

If you find you are just doing random weekend adventures and there is no real thread connecting them, take some time to figure out what the overarching goal is that you are authentically working towards.

Constant Revision

At some point, you are likely going to complete your channel goal. And when that happens, it will need to be redefined. In fact, this needs to happen every time you achieve your channel goal.

Think of the big sailing channels right now. A lot of them have completed their global circumnavigations and are now shifting to building boats from scratch. They completed one goal and are now moving on to the next.

When I finish walking Te Araroa, I will need to think about what I am working towards next. This is when you will have to pivot, which maybe I will make my next newsletter. Inevitably, pivots cause you to lose a lot of your audience, but if your journey has been long enough, a good percentage of your viewers will be pulled in by your personality causing them to stay.

Takeaway

This idea of a channel goal has had me mulling for a few months now. As I have just launched my course today(!!!!!!!!), I find I am turning towards my next big goal, which is getting through facial reconstruction surgery. I know navigating the New Zealand healthcare system will be top of people’s minds, so I will be recording the entire process.

Start point: Learning I need surgery and trying to figure out how to fit in adventure.
End point: Full recovery from surgery and planning next adventure.

Action

Ask yourself:

• What journey are you on or about to go on naturally?
• Is there any way that you can more closely align it with a high searchable journey that doesn’t have much competition?