Real Talk: My Biggest YouTube Mistakes (And What I Learned) | Ep. 46

I'm pulling back the curtain on my biggest mistakes that held me back for years. From chasing multiple revenue streams to losing sight of my own vision, I've learned tough lessons that transformed my YouTube business. In this brutally honest episode, I'll share exactly what NOT to do so you can skip the struggles and fast-track your success. Crush Your Edits Masterclass: https://www.meredithmarsh.co/crushX2

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Transcript

Believe it or not, focusing on multiple revenue streams and emulating what I saw successful people doing on YouTube and in online business was one of the biggest mistakes that I made on YouTube and ultimately slowed the growth of my online business.

But in 10 years of doing this, There are several mistakes that I've made that I actually want to share with you and what I've learned from them So that I can give you some real actionable like real life tips to Avoiding those mistakes for yourself as you build your business with YouTube 

So let's talk about it here on episode number 46 of Video Brand Infusion. My name is Meredith. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can build a thriving YouTube channel and grow your business with it.

And like I mentioned, I've been doing this for roughly about 10 years. And I may have told this story before, but I'll say it again.

When I first started my channel and set out to build some kind of an online business, I had no idea what I was doing. You already know that. But I also just kind of saw what other people were doing. I followed a couple of other people on YouTube and Kind of in different online business niches. And I thought, Oh, I could just do that.

Like I had a mentor who created content very similar to mine, different niche, but very sort of similar tutorials, how to's. And I thought, she just stands there and talks to a camera. How hard could it be? I could do that.

And, you know, to be honest, I think that's pretty much what. And what we all do is we see other people doing it and we all go, yeah, I could do that. And that's actually one of my favorite things about this business and this industry of content creation and online business is there is no other way for you to learn how to do any of it without watching other people.

Doing it. You can't go get a degree in this, you know, there's no certificate that you can go to your community college and obtain

Or I mean, I guess you could you could but it's not hard to find successful people that you relate to and that you resonate with, that you can, um, sort of model what you see them doing to achieve.

That same similar kind of success and I don't think it's a mistake to do that. I think modeling success is Probably the shortcut to finding success yourself

but early on I joined a program and I really looked up to this person, the, the channel that they built, the audience that they had, their confidence, their um, even really their whole business.

I was like, yeah, I want to build that. I want to build that. and I was, I was doing it. one day they, Basically, kind of changed their entire business model. They changed the program that I was in, actually they got rid of the program that I was in, which thereby sort of removed me from their mentorship.

and they took their business, their personal brand or video brand. They took all of that down a direction that didn't fit the vision that I was trying to build.

And there's nothing wrong with that. I do not fault this person at all. They have grown and evolved and they're doing very well for themselves. But little old me, little, like, baby YouTube creator, business owner me, was, you know, I was sort of, like, left out in the wind a bit, not to any fault of this person,but I realized that I had been kind of following in their wake and just kind of, like, doing what they were doing, but in my own way and in my own niche. And when they went off in a whole other direction, I was left without a direction.

It's not a mistake to model people who are successful. It's not a mistake to emulate what you see successful people doing

 but the mistake that I made in this situation was thinking that I could take the vision that I saw them creating and make that my vision instead of really asking myself for help. What, what do I want to create? What is the business model that I want to create? What do I want to do day in and day out in my business?

and in my life now, 10 years later, looking back, um, this person's lifestyle was nothing like mine. It was actually completely unrelatable to my lifestyle

Like, it just doesn't make sense. But I'm looking back at, you know, through 10 years of hindsight here.

 so lesson number one, you probably have a vision or at least a seed of a vision of what you're trying to build here.

Stick to That vision, let it grow, let it expand, let that vision come out of you, not come out of what you see other people doing.

One because obviously you only see what you see. You only see, especially in the online space, the content creation space, you only see what People are letting you see what people are showing you.

And secondly, if you think about the fact that when YouTube channel, you're creating. Everything, everything you do is a creation out of you. So if you are not creating your content, your business, your courses, your book, your business plan, whatever it is, if you're not creating out of a vision that came also from within you, then what you will ultimately end up building is probably not going to be the successful, um, satisfying, desired end result that you thought you were going to be building this whole time.

now to be fully transparent with you, this is a lesson I learned like in year two of, of my business. And so I have been. I'm fairly, um, fortunate, I would say, to be able to let my own vision expand and grow and evolve over time, but I'm always following my vision and my success metrics and what makes me feel successful, what makes me feel like I want to keep doing it. 

Mistake number two that I mentioned right at the beginning of this was focusing on multiple revenue streams. Now this one, this one's, this one stings a little bit because I, you could probably look through some of my videos and quote me on saying multiple streams of revenue is the, I don't know, best way to build your online business or whatever.

And now I'm here to tell you that's wrong. I really think. That's actually one of the worst ways to build your business. This one took me a little bit longer to learn. I would say maybe like year seven. I realized that focusing Now I'm not saying that having multiple revenue streams is a mistake.

Focusing your effort. On multiple streams is a mistake because you're not giving all of your attention to anything, right? So focusing on ad revenue by trying to make more videos to get people to watch longer is a different strategy than focusing on affiliate revenue, which is getting people to click and buy something.

Who cares how long they watch? Those two things are. In like direct opposition of each other. I mean not in a way Obviously the more people that watch the more people that are gonna click but if you're strategizing The strategies are in opposition to each other

 and then, you know, introduce with brands. And now we're talking about managing. Um, a brand deal is, you know, it's okay if it's just every once in a while, but to generate consistent revenue from that, it's like, it's a whole part time job. And then of course you have your own products, programs, courses, uh, you know, a book, a membership, you know, digital products, there's a lot going on there that you don't necessarily see on the surface.

You know, we're talking landing pages, building an email list, an opt in page, a thank you page, a sales page, a checkout page, PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay. Um, creating the course material to begin with, uploading it, creating a featured image for every single one of those things. Transcribing it, having a summary for it, 

Downloadable PDFs and materials and, uh, you know, I just made a whole bunch of AI tools for Inside a Video Brand Academy. So, like, the moving parts and all of the different, um, aspects of creating your own courses, programs, membership, etc. it's a lot, and it's really hard to do a good job at all of that if you're also trying to work with a brand, um, generate con, uh, consistent affiliate revenue, and also generate ad revenue.

And a couple of years ago, I've told, I've told these stories a couple of different times, um, a couple of years ago, I think maybe 2023, 22, maybe I had an affiliate program completely changed their terms, which took my 1, 500 a month payout. To like, 100 a month, I had a, um, invalid traffic bug on my channel, which took my ad revenue from, that was also around like 1500 a month, down to a big fat whopping zero.

And I decided, you know what, screw everything else. I'm going to put my time and energy, my focus into the revenue stream I have the most control over. And that is my own products and programs, video brand Academy, um, my courses, even just working one on one with clients.

and once I laser focused my energy into creating, promoting, improving, and selling my own programs,

 That's what took my business beyond six figures. That's what has grown the fastest, the most, and I get the most enjoyment out of.

So do I think you shouldn't have multiple streams of revenue? No, I think you should. I absolutely think you should. And I applaud you when you get monetized on YouTube, when you generate consistent revenue through affiliate marketing, from promoting software, products, programs, that you know your audience is going to get value out of. 

I think you absolutely should have multiple streams of revenue, but I think the revenue stream you have the most control over is the most powerful revenue stream for building your actual business.

Mistake number three, which I think. I think this just kind of comes with the territory of doing something new. If you've never started a channel before, then obviously you don't know how to start a channel. If you've never started a business, you obviously don't know how to do that.

If you've never made a thumbnail, you obviously don't know how to do that. I'm sure this happens no matter what. Anytime you are starting something new, starting from scratch and doing something as you are learning how to do it, but I wasted a lot, a lot, lot, lot of time

by focusing on aspects of video creation that don't really matter to audience growth, to revenue growth, 

I spent a lot of time, in years one through five, six, um, trying to make better videos. I'm going to put that in air quotes, trying to make better videos, better lighting, better angles. Let's use two spend 12 hours on making this edit really fancy. , and don't get me wrong, I love, I actually really like video editing.

I love video editing. It's fun for me. It's like, you know, it's like painting. It's like having a blank canvas and painting. But what I saw as improving my videos, improving my craft, if you will.

really took away from time that I could have spent actually growing the business or even growing the channel, strategizing from like a YouTube perspective. But, like I said, in my mind, like this, this is why I'm telling you this, because it was a mistake. In my mind, I thought, in order to get, in order to grow, I need to create better videos 

and I guess now that I'm thinking about it, where I went wrong was thinking that I needed other YouTube creators or other people in the YouTube space to, um, I felt like it needed to be up to a certain level or up to their par or to be, I don't know, respected by them.

And the reality is, I mean, let's just make this distinction. If you're on YouTube to grow your audience as it means to grow your business, then the only, the only people you really. should be concerned about is your audience and your clients, customers, community, like the people that you are creating your content for.

And one of the reasons why I create videos about Descript, for example, is because Descript has taken what should be a 12 hour edit and created a software that can get it done in less than an hour and still come out polished, still come out really good looking, really good sounding. And as long as you have Good ideas and you're creating content for your audience and you're showing up consistently and your audio isn't Awful

 as part of my mission to help you not make some of the same mistakes that I have made in the last 10 years and help you create good enough content to grow your business with YouTube. I'm going to put a link down in the description to an up coming training that I'm going to be doing on how to crush your YouTube edits in two hours or less.

I don't have a date for it yet, but there is a wait list link down below. It's going to be a free training. And if you just drop your email into it, then I'll let you know when it's happening.

 I have lots of time saving editing tips to share with you and it's applicable no matter what video editing software or what types of videos you are creating for your business. So hop onto the wait list and I'll see you there.