Dr. Kate hit 55k Subs without *fancy* Gear | Ep. 63

How to get 55K YouTube subscribers with simple webcam videos—Dr. Kate shares her journey from perfectionism to viral success. We dive into her strategy, the power of consistent posting, and how her channel fuels her business. If you want to grow your YouTube channel with minimal equipment, this episode is for you!

Dr. Kate's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DrKateLyzengaDean

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Transcript

Meredith Marsh: Did you think it was gonna go viral? Did you plan for it to go

Meredith Marsh: viral? Like how did that 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: One of our videos got 36 K views in a day.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: our strategy Meredith, was 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: wow, I guess we're monetized now. 

Meredith Marsh: So Dr. Kate recently reached a huge milestone on her channel of 50,000 subscribers, and I knew when she posted that and we celebrated that inside of Video Brand Academy. That I wanted to have her on to pick her brain because not only does she have a successful YouTube channel, but she also runs a successful business and the YouTube channel fuels the business, and we're talking about publishing every other week with videos using just her webcam.

Meredith Marsh: This is episode number 63 of Video Brand and Fusion. My name is Meredith. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can build your thriving video brand just like Dr. Kate. But I'll let her explain.

Meredith Marsh: Hey, Dr. Kate. WeLcome to [00:01:00] Video Brand Infusion.

Meredith Marsh: Thanks for being here.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Thanks for having me.

Meredith Marsh: You recently posted in the VBA group that you just crossed over 50,000 subscribers, and then I went and looked at your channel just before this call and you're at 55,000. So can you tell me like how long has it taken you to reach 50,000 or 55,000 now?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Well, I, so I, I, like many people, made a YouTube channel set up the all of the bells and whistles of the channel and then did not publish a video for probably a year. So my channel is a lot older than. My channel, if that makes sense. 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So we, we published our first video in March of 2023. Yeah, that's correct. March of 2023 was our very first video. Um, and we, you know, we posted and we still do post a video every other week. Um, so [00:02:00] the, I think. What's interesting or different maybe about my experience versus other people's experience is that we had a video go viral shortly after we started publishing videos.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So sometimes when people are like, wow, that didn't take very long. I wanna remind them. Okay. They, it's, it's only because of this one viral video that kind of shot shot us up, and then of course we came back down in our views. But there was, uh, you know, in June of 2023, One of our videos got 36 K views in a day.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So it was, it was truly going from getting 100, 200, 500 views in a week to sudden and instantaneous, like, wow, I guess we're monetized now. Wow. I guess we have to figure out what we're doing. We didn't have any funnels set up. We didn't like, we were just thinking it was gonna be this. Multiple year [00:03:00] slog of consistent publishing, getting views here and there, working our way up like everyone else.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And then this happened and so it, I think that sort of skyrocketed our views.

Meredith Marsh: Wow. Okay, so it's been two. Years-ish. Then since you

Meredith Marsh: started, 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yep.

Meredith Marsh: and why did you start your channel to begin with?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Because people, uh, in my life wouldn't stop bullying me about it.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: truly, it was a, uh, I started my YouTube channel, like when I made the channel, not when I started doing videos, but when I said I should do this. Um. Because I made a significant job change. So I moved from working for somebody else to working for myself and needed to get business. And, um, many people in a business group that I was in at the time were telling me, YouTube, you have to get [00:04:00] on YouTube.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: You have to, you know, you have to start creating this library of content so that people can find you and want to work with you. And I said, yes, yes, yes, I know I have to, but I had the. Some perfectionism blocks, and I had, I mean, we can talk all about that if you want to later, but, uh, it took me, I, I dragged my feet for a while.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, but with, with constant encouragement, not really bullying, but more encouragement, I, I finally started my channel to try to grow my business. 

Meredith Marsh: And so how does your channel help you grow your business now?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: It at this point, it's almost all of our marketing is, is through our YouTube channel and we have a presence on social media, but it's mostly clips from YouTube. Um, that's sort of our main driver of getting eyeballs on our website and on our offerings and services. I think that that has been, at least from, you know, even getting one-on-one clients, um, for me [00:05:00] that's been our biggest source of outreach, of, of people being able to find us and, want to engage with our offerings and our services.

Meredith Marsh: Okay, so now you have me curious, and I'm sure those watching or listening are curious. What even is your business like? What is it? What are we doing here?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yes. So I am a functional medicine consultant, and that means I connect people with health problems, usually chronic or really complicated health problems to evidence-based. Testing and strategies and solutions that they might not be getting from their more conventional providers. So functional medicine is considered root cause medicine, but it's also highly personalized.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, and my personal background is in complimentary and alternative medicine. So we do a lot with nutrition and lifestyle [00:06:00] and nutraceuticals and supplements to try to get people, you know. Who have just been struggling for a long time without good answers, um, to the next step. So all of my YouTube videos are educational, you know, in that vein as well, helping people understand.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Functional testing or new research that's come out or talking about, you know, diet and nutrition. Um, so, uh, that's one of my passions actually, is education. I would love to be able to expand, you know, into more avenues in that way. But I also do one-on-one consulting with people. Um, and we ship functional labs to people all over the world.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So, uh, that's been awesome too, to have YouTube and, you know, helping us spread those, that access and opportunities to people in India and Kuwait and Mexico and all over the place. 

Meredith Marsh: Wow. Okay. So you can work with anybody anywhere, because YouTube is [00:07:00] for everybody, everywhere. That's amazing. So when you first started your channel, did you have a, like what was your plan or strategy? How did you know what to even put on your channel at first?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, at first we, I was, I was taking blog articles that I had written, um, you know, the past. The previous two years that, you know, people had been reading and were interested in and turning those into videos. So, you know, that was my initial, let's, let's see what people are interested in. I mean, our str, our strategy Meredith, was just post videos.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Like, just, let's get, we, we were like, we are gonna get a video out every other week and we're not gonna worry about it. We're just, we gotta just do I didn't anticipate anyone looking at these videos, truly, and it is kind of embarrassing because when, when, you know, there are still some videos on my channel [00:08:00] that get lots and lots of views that are maybe our, in our first three videos, our video editing was so rudimentary.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: The video quality is terrible and people still. They still sign up for services. They still send me emails. They still sign up for one-on-ones from those videos, from those original, very sad, kind of embarrassing videos. So, you know, we didn't, we didn't have much of a strategy except we gotta do this. Stop getting in your own way.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Just put videos on the internet and see what happens.

Meredith Marsh: So when you had the video that went viral, which I think was, you said maybe like four or five months after

Meredith Marsh: you started, 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yep. Yep. 

Meredith Marsh: Did you have. Did you think it was gonna go viral? Did you plan for it to go

Meredith Marsh: viral? Like how did that happen?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: It, I, I don't know how it went viral. I think it was, well, [00:09:00] okay, so I take, I take that back. I have to give you a little credit because even before I knew you or had worked with you, I knew people who had worked with you before and we were using a keywords research, uh, strategy that was based on something you had taught.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And so we were, we were trying to combine. Um, uh, really niche topics and keywords with, you know, halfway decent, you know, views. So we were going into, I think we were using keywords everywhere at the time and trying to get, you know, find things that were in the, you know, a thousand per per month. And then as far as, you know, search terms.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And then we were trying to get the, um. The competing videos, you know, the number of videos on that topic or using that keywords down a little bit using tube, buddy. So we were kind of hobbling together a keyword strategy to try to target smaller groups of people so we didn't have to compete [00:10:00] as much with bigger channels.

Meredith Marsh: Yeah. That doesn't sound like a hobbled together

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So like you're, you are doing the keyword research looking for what are, what do we see that people are searching for, but where there aren't a lot of videos showing up for that. So you publish the video and boom, there you are. So it makes

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yeah, and totally and, and even just the search, you know, we were even trying to keep that kind of low because we didn't want to. with these giant channels. And so my, my guess is that we stumbled on a topic that was a, you, you know, niche enough, but b broad enough where once people, once you YouTube started recommending it to people, um, it was sort of a little hidden.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, group of, of humans that were all having the same problem that were looking for solutions for. Um, the video topic was about female hair [00:11:00] loss, and it's, it, it's true. I mean, there are not very many options out there for people besides the, you know, minoxidil. And dermatologists kind of shrug their shoulders at people who are dealing with this problem.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: 'cause they're like, well, you know, it happens sometimes and our treatments have a 50 50 shot of working. And so I basically explained, okay, here are some underlying causes that that might be contributing to this hair loss so that you can actually take some steps to minimize that. So I think just a combination of that.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: But it certainly wasn't something that like, I'm really, you know, I didn't go into functional medicine because of this. I, you know, there were many other topics that I thought were gonna do much better, that we were talking about. Um, so it, it's a little bit of a mystery still to me, why that video resonated as well as it did.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And we certainly haven't had that happen since. I we've been publishing. Every, every other week for several [00:12:00] years now, and we've never had a viral video like that again. 

Meredith Marsh: So how did, did, you change or like alter your strategy at all after that? Like did you look at this viral video and go, oh, people are really into this, let's make more videos about this, or did you just kind of keep going, plotting the same path that you had been doing?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Well, at first we, we, um. We worked more on the backend of things. I mean, we were flooded with emails and asks and we looking for people, looking for resources. So we kind of tried to build the backend around this first. Um, but we, no, we were not smart. We did not just make more videos about hair loss and thinning.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: We just kept making videos on topics that I thought were interesting. So, you know. I think that's one of the reasons that that video is still the top performer for hair loss and thinning, because I did not [00:13:00] use any smart strategies around, okay, so people are interested in this. Let's continue to talk about it.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I, I mean, that's one of the big things that I learned from you more recently is repetition is good, not bad. You're not gonna bore anybody by repeating. More and more and fleshing out more and more, or, you know, refreshing the content that you made and then releasing it again. That's something I'm still struggling with and still learning, um, how to, how to work with.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: But YouTube does like that. So that's, that's been a strategy we've been implementing since we joined Video brand, uh, in the last, the last six months or so.

Meredith Marsh: Okay, cool. Yeah, I love to hear that. And I, it is hard, especially when, you know, there's like, uh, there's other stuff I wanna talk about. There's other stuff I want people to know. Uh, and so it's like a balance between, um, that stuff and what, you know, the [00:14:00] algorithm is gonna like, get your videos out to the right people for, you mentioned that you worked on backend stuff. What do you, what do you mean by that?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Oh, I, I mean, we, we released these videos. They're, they're really, I mean, I think at the end of the video I said. If you wanna learn more, go to my website. But we didn't have a freebie, we didn't have a lead magnet, we didn't have an email sequence. We, we didn't, we didn't have any of that set up. So that's really what we were filling in.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I, you know, we created a, a tutorial that folks could purchase that, you know, went deeper into the topic of hair loss and thinning. We linked to, you know, some of the products that we recommend for. Hair loss and thinning in females specifically where people could purchase those. We signed them up to our email list, right, to try to get engagement and talk to them more about our other services that were available.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, but that was all very much [00:15:00] after the fact. So, um, definitely a lesson learned there. We don't release videos anymore unless there's a clear path for people to watch the video and then do the next step, whether that's work with us or watch another video or. You know, sign up for a freebie. Um,

Meredith Marsh: I, I like that, but I also think like there. You didn't plan to go viral, so there would've

Meredith Marsh: been no.

Meredith Marsh: way for you to know, oh, we have to have this set up and this setup and this setup, and you let the audience and the community kind of like guide you to the next obvious step for you. And I love that because so many people start on YouTube and they like, they think. They have expectations of how it's gonna go. They're gonna watch this video and then they're gonna want to download this freebie that I spent time on, and then they're gonna want this course that I already created. And in an ideal world, that would [00:16:00] be amazing,

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Right. 

Meredith Marsh: unless you. Hit the jackpot or something like chances are what people actually resonate with and want is different than what you set this expectation for in your mind.

Meredith Marsh: So like as a smart marketer, a smart business person, you go where the people are, you go where like the attention is. So, you know, you could have set up, you could have set up your whole backend and then the video didn't really do anything,

Meredith Marsh: you know? 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: We have done that. We, I mean, we've definitely done that in the past and, and I did that more. You know, before YouTube in my life, right? Like creating this thing that I thought was really cool and then being shocked and dismayed when other people didn't, you know, like that, that sort of thing. You know? Uh, I, I guess part of my personality is to be a planner and to think [00:17:00] ahead and YouTube has taught me many valuable lessons about.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: What you just said, letting something, you know, letting YouTube guide you to the people who are right for you, what you offer, and who are interested in what you offer. And, and speak to them, right? Speak to the people who are engaging with you and who are being connected with your content. Um, we're requires a lot of flexibility.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: It requires. Uh, you to, you know, I guess put aside those, those notions like you said about how things are going to go.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um. And that's hard, that's hard to do in business. Most people don't teach you to do that, right? They teach you here, set up your, set up your business and then market it

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: and it's like, oh, go, I, you know, with YouTube that doesn't, unless you're a giant channel already, you're a public figure who has made their name doing other things, right?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I mean, you, there's people in my niche, [00:18:00] they could publish whatever they want and they'll get 2 million views on it because of who they are, right? Because of, mm-hmm. You know, they went on a podcast with Gwyneth Paltrow or something like that, right? They, they're a known figure and so they can do whatever they want.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: But for those of us with smaller channels, I think we have to accept what the YouTube's got, the YouTube gods give us and say thank you and, and make that work for us.

Meredith Marsh: Yes. I love that because like everyone wants a plan.

Meredith Marsh: We, I love a plan and I love making a plan. I

Meredith Marsh: like making plans and giving those plans to people. But like, I think, and probably this is with almost anything, but in particular with YouTube and like you go to the video brand academy meetups too, where it's like someone's like, I did this that you said, and I followed this plan.

Meredith Marsh: I did this plan, and then it's like, now what? Or I did it, but it didn't do what I thought it was gonna do. So, so now what? And it's like you got the plan, you got the structure, you took [00:19:00] the action. But there's like always a caveat. There's always a little side thing or some like you like video that pops off and it's like, okay, abandon whatever plan you had. Let's move in that direction now. but you also have to start with some type of a plan or structure at least. Some like destination that you're trying to head to, but be flexible in how you're going to get there. That's kind of how it sounds like what you're saying is your experience.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yeah, and, and certainly. Frustrating. I, you know, I don't wanna, I don't wanna say, oh, it's easy. Just don't have a plan, right? Like, just be flexible. I, I mean, I regularly bang my head against the wall when I expect a video, you know, at all. Signs are go and then it flops and I, and I just have to go. I, I did the thing, right?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I, I didn't make a giant error. I checked my work. I, [00:20:00] and sometimes things are popular and then they're not, and then

Meredith Marsh: Mm-hmm.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: inexplicably for no reason. I'll have a video that I posted several months ago, or even a year ago, suddenly. Gain some traction for a couple weeks and then kind of come back down and I, why?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I don't know. I, you know, I think that's, that's part of the, at least for me, in, in my journey as a, a human, but also in, you know, a person doing business on the internet. I think that's been the biggest lesson that YouTube has taught me is. Do the thing. Right. Do it. Do it to the best of your ability. Yeah, absolutely.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Put put effort in. Make sure you're proud of what you're posting. You don't, you know, you, you can, you can. You can put together something really nice that you like and you think is valuable. Don't just post garbage to post garbage right there. That's not what I'm saying. When I say follow the trends or be, [00:21:00] you know, listen to what the, you know, the analytics are telling you, be flexible.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I don't mean just throw any old thing up on your channel. But also you, you don't have to be married to the outcome of it, right? You let, let the outcome go and yes, learn from it and watch your analytics. And if you, you know, we made a video on a topic that we last week, or we released it last week, that we thought was going to be very popular based on how many people.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Purchase an offer from US related to that topic, right? So it was related to a specific functional lab that many people order through our business and, and really like it. They're really satisfied with it. So we posted a, a video about that topic specifically. Crickets, probably the worst video in terms of views that we've had in a year.

Meredith Marsh: Wow.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And [00:22:00] why? I, I don't know. Right? I, I don't know. 

Meredith Marsh: it's

Meredith Marsh: all part of the magic. 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: It's okay. It's still a great video. The people who watch it are, are going to get something really valuable from it. I'm gonna be able to refer people to that video when they have questions about, about the test. Great. Here, you've got a question about this test.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Watch this video on YouTube.

Meredith Marsh: Yeah.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: can be, that can be useful as well, you know, if you're in business, um, to, to make videos that are, that you know, you will reference even if they're not going gangbusters in terms of views and getting you new business. So, I don't know, sometimes, sometimes I just have to look at it that way and go, okay, back to the drawing board.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Let's look at our top, you know, we'll look at our, our top videos for the last 90 days. We'll pick one of those topics and make a video about it. Get some views, right?

Meredith Marsh: I like the way you think about that because it can be, [00:23:00] uh, almost addictive sort of to,

Meredith Marsh: to want this next video. You wanna see the spikes, you wanna see the green up arrows, so when it doesn't happen it feels really bad. And so, but when you think about like, just that, like if you just think of any business offline, sometimes they have to just like put on a new roof on their building and nobody cares.

Meredith Marsh: But you have to do, it has to be there. It serves a very good purpose, but it's not exciting. It's not flashy, it's not newsworthy. And there sometimes there are just things that you feel compelled to post for. Like you said, for the people who find this, it's gonna be amazing for them. It's okay that it's not thousands of people because the impact for the people who do watch it is gonna be huge and. That can be enough, even if you don't have with the green up arrows, even if YouTube is like, well, this is not exciting. Um, [00:24:00] it still serves a purpose and has impact for your business and for the people that you help.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Right.

Meredith Marsh: Yeah. So how do you figure out, like you mentioned this video that didn't perform well recently came from like the ideation of that video came from an actual paid offer that you have.

Meredith Marsh: So how do you figure out what you say on your YouTube channel versus. How you're helping people, like in your business, like do you ever worry about giving too much information away that people are like, well, I don't have to go hire Dr. Kate. I can just do my own thing because she gave me the info.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I don't worry about that. one of my pet peeves is videos that. Make big promises and don't deliver because the delivery is behind a paywall or, you know, sign up for this [00:25:00] freebie or whatever. I, one of the things that I decided at the beginning of this journey was I wanna provide people with real actionable information and every video and the next step.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So whatever I want them to have something that they can walk away with. Then also if they want to take the next step, be that, you know, they, they purchase a product or they order testing, or they apply to work with me one-on-one, whatever that is, or they watch a different video, the next step is always there.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: But I also wanted to make sure that they came away with something valuable and. Immediately useful. So in, in my experience, and I'm sure you've had this experience too, that doesn't cause people to say, oh, well I'm just gonna take it from here. Right? Like, those people were gonna, those people were not going to purchase anything from you anyway.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Likely. Right. There's always lurkers, [00:26:00] always people who just want free stuff, always people who are never going to engage with your business in any other way. Um, some of those people are very entitled and they feel like they deserve a lot of things. We get a lot of comments about that, of, you know, oh, you're, you know, you're a doctor.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Why are you, you know, why do you need this product? Or you are, you know, why are you making me buy this thing? This information should be free 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: and. You know, that's part of the reason that I'm really, that I'm really dedicated to saying, I gave you a bunch of free information, experience, knowledge, next steps.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Like that's what this is all about. I'm not keeping anything from you. Um, because that's what makes people trust you and want to work with you. At least that's been my experience.

Meredith Marsh: Yeah, I love that. I, I get a similar comment sometimes, like, like, oh, of course you're selling something. And I always wanna say back, like, my entire [00:27:00] channel is me making free content for strangers on the internet, and, and there's a lot of info there.

Meredith Marsh: And you are more than welcome to watch all of them as many times as you want, or go to somebody else's channel and find the info. Uh, but it's, it's always funny. Like even I have to remind myself, you have all this free content available. You're

Meredith Marsh: not, you are not an evil person for, you know, having a business.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Or, or getting paid for your work. Right. I mean, that's the other thing too. I, and I think it's har, you know. I think something that I run into maybe a little bit more is this, this idea of people, people assume that if you have a YouTube channel, YouTube is paying you thousands of dollars to make these videos, and that is not true at all.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, you know, I, I've got a lot more subscribers than the majority of, you know, of YouTube [00:28:00] channels. I think it's, I think statistically it's like. 90% of YouTube channels have less than a thousand subscribers. It because, you know, YouTube is for everybody. YouTube is a fun hobby for a lot of people. It doesn't have to be about making money and that's great.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, all that to say, even with lots of subscribers, it's not like you're making. Millions of dollars million from YouTube from making these videos.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So, you know, that's one of the things that I will often say is you, you know, the definition of valuable information is that it's worth money. And so if you find this information valuable, like you say, then that's by definition means that it should be paid for.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And I'm giving away video after video after video of valuable information that you can then take and utilize for yourself for free. So I agree. I, and I think it people are going to, people are doing that [00:29:00] for, for anything, right? I mean, there are people out there who feel in this day and age, in the, in the age of Amazon, in the age of, again, ev you know, everything being at your fingertips immediately that everything should be free.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Well, do you work for free? Do you go to your job and not get paid for it? Because this is my job, right. So I think I deserve to get paid for it.

Meredith Marsh: Yes, absolutely. So you mentioned that you have. You publish every other week.

Meredith Marsh: Right? And you've done that from the beginning

Meredith Marsh: for two and a half years.

Meredith Marsh: And it's fascinating to me because I always tell my clients and students to publish once a week. And so, but here you are, two and a half years even with, if you took the viral video out of it, would you agree that you still have. a a [00:30:00] successful channel, and b, a channel that fuels your business,

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Absolutely.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: And we would love, we would love to post once a week. We would love that, but I think. Um, you know, we're, we're a two person business and time, you know, we're, that's one of the hard things about being successful and having YouTube drive your drive your business, is that suddenly you don't have time to make more YouTube videos.

Meredith Marsh: Yes. 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: that's been one of the things that we're working on too, is balancing Okay, working in our business, working on our business, um, but we we're also. Working on streamlining our process a little bit. Hopefully that will allow us to publish more videos. Um, I think our goal for 2026 is to publish three times a month.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, we're not, you know, I am not a. Person who is comfortable and [00:31:00] feels good about sitting down and winging a video. Uh, I, I feel much more comfortable reading from a script, which is how we do our videos. I find. A lot of people really appreciate the concise nature of that, especially when they're really looking for targeted information.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I get that comment on a lot of my videos about how nice and fluff, free and concise and consolidated my videos are. So that does definitely add to our process in terms of how much time it takes. I write the script. He edits the script. We record the script, we come up with the B roll. He edits it all into script.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So it's, you know, a little more time consuming than some folks who are really good at and really comfortable turning their compu, you know, their camera on sitting down and talking about a topic for a while.

Meredith Marsh: Okay. That's interesting. So you mentioned earlier [00:32:00] that you had some, uh, like roadblocks around perfectionism. So I'm really curious about this because I would imagine in two and a half years. Your, like, the process has changed perhaps, and your setup has changed, but can you talk a little bit about what went through your mind when you were like, oh, I have to create YouTube videos now, or I get to create YouTube videos now?

Meredith Marsh: Were you excited? Like, woo-hoo. I get to talk to a camera. Like, like what went through your mind there?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, I think it was, I think that I stopped myself from starting because. I didn't, you know, I, there I found a lot of little things that were not quite to my liking. Um, and I was looking for the best way to do it. So I didn't wanna just do an okay video. I wanted to do, what is the best way to do this?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: [00:33:00] What's the best lighting, what's the best microphone? What's the best program? How long should it be? How, how many, right? I just, I kind of let all of those little things stop me from just recording a video, just writing a script. I've upgraded a lot of our equipment since then, but it's not, it's still not crazy expensive, you know, in terms of any of our side.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: We still use our, our laptop camera, so we don't have anything fancy in terms of our setup. Um, and I think that was a big lesson for me was, okay, we're just gonna start with what we have and make it work and. Go from there.

Meredith Marsh: So did you feel comfortable talking to the camera?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I like most people, I don't love listening to it, which is one of the reasons that I, I don't edit my own videos. I, I have my colleague do that, which is both good and bad. Um, but I, I would say [00:34:00] because I had a teleprompter, I was much more comfortable. Um.

Meredith Marsh: Hmm. 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Always been very comfortable reading aloud. Um, you know, that's always been something that I didn't struggle with and I, I felt like I could put enough of my personality in because, because I was writing the script that I could write the way I speak and then speak that to the camera.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, that was sort of my. Cheat code that made me finally pull the trigger and, and make videos. I don't know that I would've, I don't know that honestly, I would be on YouTube if I did not have that in my back pocket. So that was a big deal.

Meredith Marsh: So the teleprompter itself is, is has been like a key component of your success.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I think for me it was because it helped me get over that hurdle of. Not being able to say things the way I wanted [00:35:00] to, not being able to explain things clearly, feeling frazzled, or there was just something about sitting down and turning that camera on. Even though I knew exactly what I wanted to say. I had an outline.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, it's like my brain just turned off and then as soon as I had a script, I mean, I was in drama, you know, and plays and musicals and stuff. And so I was very comfortable working from a script and so. I love to write, and I, and I'm very, a very confident writer. And so I finally said, well, you know, I know that other people sit down in front of video cameras.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I wish that that was a talent of mine, but I'm just gonna work with what I've got. And sat down and did it with the help of a, a script and a teleprompter. And it was, it's not even a teleprompter, it's just an app. I put on my computer screen,

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: uh, it's called Speak Flow, is the one that I use.

Meredith Marsh: so you're not using a teleprompter like device, you are [00:36:00] using a teleprompter software. So, and you mentioned, 'cause this was gonna be my next question, 'cause you mentioned you're just using the webcam on your computer, right?

Meredith Marsh: So you're,

Meredith Marsh: you don't even have a CA camera, you have your webcam,

Meredith Marsh: you have your script in the Speak Flow software.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Mm-hmm.

Meredith Marsh: And you publish every other week,

Meredith Marsh: and in two and a half years you've got 55,000 views or 55,000 subscribers and a growing business because of YouTube

Meredith Marsh: with this super simple setup.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: that's a lovely summary. I never thought about it that way, but 

Meredith Marsh: love it. I love it. Do you have any extra lighting or like what's your microphone and that kind of thing?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Um, so my microphone is audio technica. I believe somebody in the group steered me to that. It's their, it's a pretty basic one. Um. Maybe [00:37:00] mid-level, but I worked with a snowball blue snowball for a long time. Um, I don't, I don't recommend that, but I, I like this microphone a lot better. Um. So I have that. We have, uh, a laptop.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: We did, uh, finally upgrade our laptop so that we could get a higher definition or higher resolution. We were using an older one, and so instead of going out and buying separate camera and all that kinda stuff, we were like, well, we need a new laptop, so we'll just get one with a better camera. Um, so we have that.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: I've got a little, I've got it up on a little stand in front of me. I, um, I've got two really basic from Amazon. Lights one, one on one to the left, one to the right. Um, yeah, we, you know, we, we moved recently. And the space where I'm recording is now much bigger than it was before and it has wood flooring and so we've had to get creative with sound dampening.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So that's been [00:38:00] our biggest challenge. So currently I'm staring at a curtain that we installed that we can pull across the room to sort of create a little cubby for recording. Um. Anything, you know, this sort of thing, but also our, our YouTube videos and when I work with clients so that we can get the sound quality to be up to snuff, but usually I'm surrounded by towels and blankets and, um, it's, it's not very professional, but it works for us, 

Meredith Marsh: So your, so it's kind of like my setup where my YouTube video space is also the space where I'm like doing the work and interviewing people or meeting with

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yes, exactly.

Meredith Marsh: yeah. Okay. So I love that because, um, personally I spent a lot of time and energy. Making, I wanted my like zoom setup or like this Riverside setup to be the same as what my YouTube videos look like,

Meredith Marsh: right? Because if you have [00:39:00] clients, it's like, oh, it's like the same,

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yeah.

Meredith Marsh: it's like the same thing, right?

Meredith Marsh: And, um, but that can be, it can be tricky when you to work. It's not tricky to set up a corner of your like basement or whatever to make YouTube videos, but then it's like, oh, but I have to actually work here.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Mm-hmm. 

Meredith Marsh: but I think it's important for that sort of con congruity, is that a word congruent? Like, you know, 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Con, you think you just combined congruence and continuity maybe? 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Yeah. 

Meredith Marsh: It's a word. It, is 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: of those fit absolutely.

Meredith Marsh: So what I, my last question for you is, most people, when I say so, what advice do you have for people who are kind of like in your shoes and thinking about YouTube? Most people will say. Just get started and, but what I really wanna know is one [00:40:00] concrete thing that someone in your shoes should actually do in the next 30 days that would set them up for success.

Meredith Marsh: If they're somebody who has a practice and an expertise like you, and they're like, I think I could probably talk about this on YouTube and do all my stuff online, what should they do in the next 30 days that would set them up for success? 

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: This is maybe because of my experience and we talked about this a little bit, but don't let perfection be the enemy of the good. So don't, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be your best work. Put some effort in. Um, so I would say do that and, and don't be afraid to use a Crutcher to.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Nobody is judging you for, I mean, in the same way that if you were to give a speech at a graduation ceremony, you probably wouldn't have to memorize it. That's okay. You can, you can have notes, you can have, uh, you can have a script like I [00:41:00] do. You can, what whatever makes you comfortable for recording. I would say don't, don't.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Don't judge yourself against people who you are perceiving are better at it or more experienced, or, oh, I wish I could just talk off the cuff, like so and so other personality on, well, maybe they're not, maybe they're just really good at reading a teleprompter. You don't know.

Meredith Marsh: Yeah. Or they're really good at editing.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: yeah, maybe they're reading, they're looking down, they're reading the thing, they're saying it, and then they're looking down and reading the next thing and then saying it, and they've got, I mean.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: So I would say those, maybe those are two separate things, or maybe they're not, but that's something that you can do tomorrow. Write a script,

Meredith Marsh: Yeah.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: you know, put together a PowerPoint of notes for yourself and talk it through. Um, that's perfectly acceptable. You don't have to have a, a polished off the cuff presentation, ready to [00:42:00] go and sit down and nail it the first time.

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: That's okay. Um. I think you, you know, find whatever those tools are, those crutches are that to get you to the finish line, implement them, and, and go with it.

Meredith Marsh: Awesome. I love it. Thank you so much, Dr. Kate. Where can people find you? Obviously I'll put a link to your channel in the description and show notes, but, uh, where can people find you on YouTube or on social media?

Dr. Kate Lyzenga-Dean: Y Um, so my handle is at Dr. Kate Zenga Dean. So again, that's a tough last name to know. So d. Meredith will put it up for you. Dr. Kate LD is another handle that I have, so that's what I am on Instagram and Facebook, and my website is dr kate ld.com.

Meredith Marsh: now, if you're wondering where I get so many of my fantastic guests here for the Video Brand Infusion podcast, I find them inside of Video Brand Academy.

Meredith Marsh: That's where I [00:43:00] met Dr. Kate. That's where I get to chat with her and other members of VBA on our monthly meetup calls and in the trainings that I do inside of VBA. So if you are looking to grow your business with YouTube or start your YouTube channel. For your business and YouTube appify your business, come on over to Video Brand Academy.

Meredith Marsh: I'll put a link down in the description and maybe you'll be the next guest on Video Brand Infusion.