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You're listening to the Master Passive Income Podcast Network.

Welcome to the YouTube Passive Income show where we talk about transforming your Life, ditching the 9 to 5 grind and sharing your passion.

My name is Dennis Trufen and I'm here to help you create freedom in your time, money and work through the long term growth and power of YouTube.

So in today's episode we're going to be talking about beyond views, unlocking the opportunities of your YouTube channel.

Channel.

Welcome to the YouTube Passive Income show where we talk about transforming your Life, ditching the 9 to 5 grind and creating freedom in your time, money and work with the power of YouTube.

And now your host, Dennis Trufin.

All right, so before we get into the meat and potatoes of today's episode, I want to encourage you, if you are looking at the opportunities to work with a brand or become an affiliate for a brand, ask for a little bit more.

Whatever you're asking for.

There's a probability that you are asking for way less than you're worth as far as your time and your energy and, and what you can give to the audience that the brand is looking to connect with.

And I know this because as somebody who's worked and talked with other entrepreneurs in this space, with other content creators on YouTube and other other platforms, there's such a wide range of how much brands are willing to pay and when possible, they will try to pay you less.

And so ideally, ask for a little bit more than what, maybe even what you're expecting to get paid.

And worst case scenario, they're gonna meet you where you're originally at.

But best case scenario, you're gonna get paid a little bit more.

So even if it's just 10% more, ask for it, right?

If you're asking for $2,000 for a video, do 2,200, whatever the case may be, do 10% more and it's gonna be worth it for you, I promise.

And honestly, this is also a really important thing to note is that if you are talking to other entrepreneurs and other content creators, I mean, do as you as you will, but I think there is so much value in being open and transparent with other creators that are in your similar space or even in the same niche because it all helps us together.

Like I wouldn't want somebody else getting way less than I am just because they are, you know, unaware that there is more out there for them.

So I'm always transparent when I'm able to, obviously if I'm signing an NDA account, but like when I am Able to, I will share the numbers with other entrepreneurs, especially when they ask me, hey, how much do you get paid for this?

And I'll be upfront.

So that way if they're not getting paid as much, they know to ask for more and go get that money.

Because it is work, it is hard work to get built up on a YouTube channel.

And you deserve that income because of the back and forth that's gonna happen with the building and the putting of the energy into this.

So that's just a little, a little tidbit there for you.

If you are in that process to working with brands and if you're afraid to reach out to brands cause you don't think you're big enough, just do it anyways.

If anything you're gonna get practice in, reach out to brands that you don't care if they say no because you're gonna get that practice in.

So that way by the time you are ready to get those yeses, you're asking the, the brands, you have that experience already.

So worst case scenario, just ask random brands or if you get those emails, just you know, shoot them back messages with obscene numbers that if they said yes, you'll do it.

But if, if not, that's okay to get those no's.

So get that, get that muscle memory in there.

So that way you're ready for, for the big time when, when you are even more comfortable.

Because honestly it almost sometimes feels like you're never ready to, to go ask for that big dollar amount when it comes to working with brands.

All right, so with that being said, let's get into into today's episode.

All right, so beyond the views, unlocking the opportunities of your YouTube channel.

So this was actually inspired based off of a couple episodes ago.

I was talking about my journey to hitting a hundred thousand subscribers and really realizing the like the difference of a person that I am as an individual and where I'm at as a career and essentially the opportunities that I got unlocked as a YouTube channel.

And so I wanted to kind of like hit on some of these points because it, it's, it's more than having just a full time job for myself.

There's so many different things that have come to this because of the YouTube channel.

So the, the first thing we want to talk about here is building the personal brand.

So when you're on YouTube or on Instagram or any other place, you're, you're building a reputation, you're building your brand.

The only way for people to know that you're there is by being there, right, by putting yourself out there.

Now, I'm not trying to personally be famous on any of my YouTube channels.

If anything, I'm actually glad that I'm not, you know, like big or popular, but a personal brand.

What it really does is it builds your authority in that space.

So, like, for my true financial space, I am an authority in the personal finance space.

So when I create content, YouTube knows that I'm an authority and it helps with that process.

So having that YouTube channel did this really fascinating thing in my life because when I first started, nobody in my life really wanted to listen to me talk about personal finance or help them out with their retirements.

But now that I have a successful YouTube channel, I do this full time.

I obviously take care of my own retirement accounts.

I have a lot of people that had started to come to me or started to build that trust that I.

Oh, Dennis does know, does know what he's talking about.

And like friends and family members, I'm happy to help them out, but it was just funny that I almost needed to kind of have an authority space to.

To have them trust, which obviously makes sense, right?

It's like personal finance and, you know, helping them with their retirements and want to make sure that they're good.

So if it, it actually helps me have trust within the people that I know closest to say, hey, if you need help with your retirement, I got you.

Like, I'm, I'm help.

I'm willing to help you out.

So now I actually help a lot of people in my family with their retirement accounts.

And I love it.

But it was an interesting thing.

And that actually happens, I think, in even of a broader scope came in talk today.

A broader scope overall, but then it also increases your authority just as a whole, right?

Having the space.

But when it, when it comes to this as well too, depending on the type of YouTube channel you run, you might actually even build a loyal like which can go even beyond your YouTube channel.

So whether you have an email list or other platforms, because you just never know what happens to any platform as a whole, you have that opportunity to collect that information from people.

So that way you can continue to have a connection with them beyond just that one realm.

But it only happens by having the YouTube channel put together.

So if you don't have that YouTube channel, it's much harder to build out an email list without it.

So just kind of, you know, those kind of things to really consider.

And we're going to get a little bit more into this.

But of Course, this also helps you attract business partners and collaborators.

But, like, business partners in the sense of, like, maybe friendships, maybe the people that you connect with.

I talk a lot about this as a whole when it comes to, like, where I was at in my journey, where I ended up having a mastermind of other content creators.

Like, I wouldn't have had that opportunity to connect with those people had I not had a YouTube channel.

And that's a.

That's a huge deal.

And then also, too, you get to leverage your brand for other ventures.

And this would include things like speaking gigs, writing, consulting.

Like, you just become more of an authority because you have the backing of the channel to be able to do that.

So this is just so much more beyond than just getting those views.

It's like it's showcasing that you know what you're talking about.

You're an authority in your space.

And I've gotten speaking gigs before because of my YouTube channel in this, in this overall space.

It also gave me this really fun opportunity where I did, like, a race across America for a conference once where the company found me through YouTube and they essentially paid me to go from New York all the way to Vegas.

And I knew that opportunity only came about because I was doing a YouTube channel.

So you just don't know the opportunities that will come forward because you have that consistency of being on YouTube until you do it.

And that's, again, the whole reason for this episode is because of these experiences that I'm like, huh?

I wouldn't have had these opportunities had it not been for this channel.

So next up here is going to be community building and collaboration.

So a little bit more of what we just talked about, but going in a little bit deeper.

You know, for a lot of people, having community is a really big deal.

And the fact that, like, on YouTube, you could talk about your favorite subject all day, every day, and the people that are watching you want to listen and want to collaborate and have conversations with you about it is, like, so amazing, like, beyond anything as far as income or views or anything else.

Like, I can't tell you how many times the people in my life didn't care about me talking about my favorite subject, which is finances.

But I get onto YouTube and I just got a plethora of people that want to consistently talk to me about it or ask questions about it and inquire based off of my knowledge.

It's.

It's a really cool thing to have experienced.

And then you can also really build deeper connections.

Like I said, obviously, I had a Mastermind group.

But then you can also just really collaborate with other business owners, other entrepreneurs.

And that's how I actually met Dustin Heiner, who runs the Master Passive Income Network.

And we met through a conference effectively.

And it was like a meetup for the conference, but it was like a local meetup.

But like, I know that I wouldn't have met him had I not gone through the process of being on YouTube for a certain amount of time, showing myself up and being consistent to then go to these meetings and like connect with other entrepreneurs who are in the business of, you know, building up their own brands.

And that's, yeah, that's how I met him and that's how we ended up getting to this podcast essentially.

But also like the different work that I do with him was only possible because I was showing up in the space that I was in.

And it's huge.

It's really, really cool.

Plus you get to also be the one that if you, if we go back to just like building community, you sometimes are the one that builds the first community of that niche, which I think is also really, really cool.

Or just at least the version of the niche that you wanted to see that maybe didn't exist for you when you were looking for it.

Now this is also a really big thing too, which is beyond the views.

Like it's diversifying your income stream beyond just YouTube.

Like I think about, you know, we talk sponsorships, right?

I, I've, I've had it where I've worked with other entrepreneurs on YouTube where they were getting sponsored outside of their YouTube channel, but obviously it's still bled into their YouTube channel.

But it was because of their YouTube channel they got a six figure deal which was incredible to, to be a representative for this brand even outside of YouTube.

So like they did work for them like on their website and their social media and stuff like that.

But like it was huge to, to see somebody earn that kind of income.

And they were a relatively smaller channel.

They weren't, you know, millions of subscribers at the time and they got that kind of deal.

And it was only possible because they saw the work they were doing on YouTube and wanted to bring them over to like their social media stuff as well too.

So yeah, you can have that, you can have obviously coachings outside of YouTube, which I think is really huge.

And I think again, you're building that trust that when people, you know, hear you all the time about the topic you're talking about, you know, let's just say in my last, or actually the next video that's coming out.

I talk about herb gardens as like a hyper specific niche.

If you talk about herb gardens all day, every day and somebody wants to pay you to teach them how to set up an herb garden, like one on one, they, they would want to do that.

And that's a whole new set of income streams that you get outside of just the ad revenue on YouTube.

And it's so much easier to do that if you wanted to become a coach in that kind of aspect, or if you wanted to do group coaching or if you wanted to do course selling.

You, you, you have that experience based off of having shown up on the YouTube space.

So the other thing on that too is that you get to obviously leverage your YouTube channel to sell those things.

But I've seen a lot of people do like ebooks or even writing books.

We mentioned earlier about being on stage and speaking, like that's a huge deal.

A lot of people want to speak and I would say a great path to that as well too is showing up on YouTube, you know, showing up that you are, you know, available to, to show up and, and be able to do those kind of events.

And I, I've seen quite a few people I know be able to speak on stage and I think a lot of that is attributed to YouTube.

I think before YouTube, I didn't really have an idea that I would be speaking on stage until that time came.

But that opportunity, I don't think it would ever have shown itself had I not been on the platform itself.

Now obviously other ways that like you can go beyond that is you can go with like subscriptions outside of YouTube.

So they have things like Patreon or like buy me a coffee or some of these other sites where you can have people pay to essentially be subscribed to you.

And, and whether it's like a newsletter, whether it's like them behind the scenes footage or other additional value outside of YouTube, I think it's huge.

And it'd be so hard for somebody who has no social media following to have people pay them to, to have a subscription to, you know, behind the scenes stuff.

But when you have a YouTube channel, you're, you're more likely to have those opportunities.

And so I think that's a really big one too is that like the diversification of your income can come from book writing, from speaking gigs, from, you know, subscription models outside of YouTube, from courses, from all of these different things that yes, might stem from YouTube, but it's because you have the YouTube channel that allows you to do These things and sometimes they go so far beyond the YouTube channel that they're like almost not interconnected.

But it was in, in contribution to get to that point.

Like I said, I had that friend that got paid a six figure income to essentially be a representation for a brand.

And most of that stuff didn't even have to do with their YouTube channel in itself, which was so mind boggling.

It was, it was really crazy.

Next would be career opportunities.

And I know a lot of times we go into YouTube to be our own bosses and I love that.

And I'm, I'm an advocate for that.

Obviously that's like one of our intro things.

But like also the opportunities for multiple businesses that you might be running or collaboration with other business entrepreneurs, like I have with Dustin as Well, that your YouTube channel is a showcase for your skills and your expertise for those future collaborations or even for future clients.

And maybe one day you're like, hey, I love this YouTube stuff.

You want it to become passive, so you let it go and earn income on the side with, you know, passive income.

But then you then want to go do other types of business and those clients came from your YouTube channel.

Like that can be a huge thing too.

I have somebody who did, I can't say the niche cuz it's so specific, but they, they had a niche with about 3,000 subscribers and they were so specific about what they were talking about that one of those viewers ended up hiring that person to effectively run a portion of their business and they were making a really good figure While letting the YouTube channel just kind of coast.

And that's kind of their original intent was to let it coast.

And then they got essentially a job that they wanted to actually do, which was really cool.

So they showed up that hey, I could do this job by teaching people it and then ended up getting the job for it.

It was, it was a really cool thing then also too, you know, like industry professionals, it really does allow you to kind of get into those spaces with, with different people.

Whether it's for those speaking gigs or you know, just wanting to kind of get more into the industry of whatever you're talking about.

Even if you're showing off the, the beginning stages of whatever industry.

And I, I would say that there's been a few times where I felt like as somebody who's in the finance space, I teach a lot of like beginner tutorials or like baby steps in there.

So what am I to know about like more advanced stuff in this space?

But like realistically I've Had a lot of people who would come to me and like have conversations with me knowing that I talk about the, the entry level things, but because I do it so often that I'm obviously constantly learning about the next thing that I want to continue to dive deeper in, into that industry.

So I'm very knowledgeable in that space.

And these people, when I'm having these conversations with, understand that.

So it's, it's one of those things that I, I want to let people know that even if you're teaching people the beginning stages because you're constantly doing the work, that you're more likely to know so much about that industry that it gives you that leverage for the future to collaborate with other people and professionals in that industry as well.

And like I did mention earlier too, and so I kind of like added it into both sections.

Is that speaking gigs, if you're really wanting to be a speaker or a consultant, maybe you want to go work with, you know, big companies like Fortune 500 companies because of how you teach and how you show up in a specific way that having that YouTube channel is, is such a leverage point for you.

And especially if you just keep showing up regardless of the results internally on a day to day basis, you're going to see really good results because you're just gonna keep improving that 1% at a time.

And so even if you're not seeing internal results right away, someday something's gonna come across and it's gonna have a really huge impact for you again, whether it's a speaking gig, maybe it's a consulting with a Fortune 500 company.

Those opportunities come around because you're gonna be showing up consistently on there now this one as well too.

This next section here is for your personal growth and development.

When I was reflecting on having hit hitting that a hundred thousand, I realized in that seven and a half years how much of a change I had become as an individual, let alone as a business entrepreneur as well.

So I think the, some of the big things that you get beyond just the views on YouTube, it truly is the improvement in your communication, I think your creativity and your public speaking skills.

Even if you're not somebody who wants to be a public speaker, I think it just gives you all of these extra tools and experiences that can really come into play in different parts of your life that you maybe don't even know yet are gonna happen or the opportunities that you do wanna have, have happen in the future is going to be stemmed from, from your experience in this.

In the space of improving yourself in these communications, the creativity and the speaking skills.

The next thing that, that you do really get is the development of valuable skills such as like video editing, project management, marketing.

You know, you're essentially wearing so many hats as a YouTube entrepreneur that you really gain a lot of skills that even if you don't go super deep into each one individually, you're kind of like the Mario.

At least.

I say this, you're kind of like the Mario of the space, where for me, Mario is kind of like the average character in any of the games that I play.

Right?

So like, if you're playing, this is getting a little nerdy here.

But if you play like Mario tennis, Mario is kind of like the average, where Bowser might be really strong at like one thing, but really weak at another.

That's kind of how I look at it where for YouTube, it gave me this really great skillset that across the board I'm like, average in a lot of things just as a, as a starting point.

So for me, my editing skills, my, you know, marketing skills, my project management skills are, are at least at a average compared to like maybe being just really good at one thing.

And YouTube gave me that opportunity because I was wearing so many hats and testing out so many different things and, and really developing my skill sets that even if I don't use it on a daily basis.

And some of the things I've even outsourced at this point too, which is always great to do too, if you, if you really need to.

But even the things I've outsourced, I at least have an awareness to them.

So like, for example, if I am outsourcing my project management, I am at least aware of what the project manager would need to do to like, be successful.

So I'm at least in, in connection in that.

Or if, let's say you outsource your editing, but you at least have some idea of like, what the editing process is like, you probably have a better opportunity to let the editor know you know, how you want your stuff edited and you have a better understanding with the language that you guys are both using to one another.

Because editing language might be a tiny bit different than, you know, marketing language or, you know, consulting language or anything else like that.

So for, for that particular thing, I think there's deep value in having just a basic understanding of all the different skills it takes to be a content creator that can stem into so many different areas that you are connecting with, with people on as well.

The next thing it really does is it builds your Confidence and really helps you overcome a lot of self doubt.

And some of that can come with time and it's not really a fake it till you make it.

I don't really believe that.

I think it's more of as you stay consistent with it, you, you do build up that confidence.

You do build overcoming a lot of that self doubt or the, that one thing that people have all the time, which is like imposter syndrome.

Right.

Not saying that it all goes away or something like that instantaneously or if it ever goes away, I don't know.

But I would say for myself, like I don't, I don't run into imposter syndrome anymore.

I definitely have built up my confidence.

Especially when you look at like my very first video on YouTube to where I'm at now, self doubt.

You know, sometimes that can still come about every once in a while depending on my decisions that I'm making.

But I think I make better decisions now not just for my business, but as everything in my life because of what I've experienced having built up a YouTube channel as well.

And then we did talk about like, you know, connecting with other people, but like there is such a difference by being around like minded individuals, people who are doing the same thing you're doing.

And it's, it's so incredible.

You know, it's, it's not to say that I wouldn't want to surround myself with somebody just getting started on YouTube.

I love that.

I think it's great.

I love hearing, you know, different perspectives and how people do it.

I think more often than not we have a tendency to want to be with other people that are in similar avenues as us.

I'm a teacher, so I'm like, I'm okay with the beginners but like from a lot of people, if you're at 10,000 subscribers, you, you generally will want to be around other 10,000 subscriber channels because they are going to understand your struggles and your difficulties and you guys are going to understand each other so much better and that helps with creating community with, you know, those individuals.

And again, I think just, just the overall experience that you get as a content creator, as somebody who is staying consistent, who's showing up, who's doing the hard work.

I think YouTube, honestly, beyond just the views really does improve you as an individual, so long as you stick with it.

Right.

And that's also another aspect to it like being so consistent on YouTube.

I think I broke myself from some of the, you know, undesirable habits.

I would have where maybe I wasn't always completing some things, but with YouTube, because I stuck with it, I think I broke some of those.

Those habits.

And I really found myself a lot more throughout this entire process.

A lot of it, I would say, because of YouTube.

And a lot of it was opportunities that I didn't even see coming.

You know, I.

I know a lot of people don't believe in luck, and I think sometimes luck can be hard work and dedication coming to a crossroads with opportunities.

Because when I'm more skilled at certain things, I see more things as an opportunity than I would have had I not learned about those things.

So, you know, when you, when you take all of these things and kind of mix them together and, you know, all your learnings, all your career opportunities, all like, diversifying your income streams, building up your community and building up your personal brand, like, all of this, like, put it together in this pot, like, it's just.

It becomes something so amazing beyond just like getting views on YouTube, getting subscribers on YouTube, like, it's.

It's almost like, like a container that I put myself into and coming out of after seven and a half years and looking back at who I was, like, it's like, so thankful for YouTube, for giving me these opportunities to become the person that I am today and the type of entrepreneur I am today because of all the experiences that I've had.

And I want you to have those same experiences as well.

So if you're just getting started, keep going.

If you're, you know, two years in, keep going.

Because it's all going to lead to many great things.

Even if you don't stay with YouTube forever, whatever you're learning today will take you into the next space.

Even if you don't know how, it's gonna benefit you instantaneously.

Right.

I didn't realize I was gonna eventually have a podcast teaching people about YouTube, but I.

But I think because I've done YouTube for so long and learned how to talk and learn how to be okay on camera and learn how to, you know, speak for a long period of time, I can do this thing not knowing that this was going to be a part of the path that I was gonna take long term.

But I'm so grateful for it.

I'm grateful for YouTube and I'm grateful for you listening here and hope that this is going to lead you to continue to see more opportunities on how YouTube is, even in the short term.

Might not seem like it might be benefiting you, but has immense value long term for you because of all the skills and learnings and and tools that you're gathering along the way.

So I always like to end my episodes here letting you know that if you want additional resources, check out the Show Notes.

I have different companies that I like to recommend down there as well as our ebook.

If you want to just dive in deeper with our analytics because that does help out a lot of people who aren't really analytics focused because analytics tells you so much about your YouTube channel.

It's it's ridiculous.

And so hopefully that will help you out getting started and diving in a little bit deeper with all of your content.

If you want to join our newsletter just so you can get updates, when I hear about news or information with our podcasts, I will send those out for you as well.

So until next time, I'll talk to you later.

Thank you again for listening to the YouTube Passive Income show, which is part of the Master Passive Income Network.

Now in this episode we talked a lot about some resources which we'll have linked up in the Show Notes down below for you, including our seven days to uploading your first YouTube video, which is going to be a checklist that's entirely free for you to utilize again in the Show Notes down below.

Have a fantastic day and I'll talk to you next week.