Why I'm Excited about YOUTUBE for 2026 | Ep. 77

Curious how creators grew their YouTube channels in 2025? In this episode, I highlight the strategies, series, and mindset shifts that made a difference for real people inside Video Brand Academy. From understanding analytics to building a video funnel, you’ll hear what actually works—and what to focus on in 2026. Ready to build your own YouTube strategy? Join us and see what’s possible!

Mikki Steyn: https://www.youtube.com/@mikkisteyn

Kelly Ferguson: https://www.youtube.com/@thecreativereturnxokferg

Sonia Wilkinson: https://www.youtube.com/@ProArtPresentation

Kassandra Malony: https://www.youtube.com/@exceptionaleducators

Kristen Wold: https://www.youtube.com/@CuriousTraumaTherapist

Karen Wilson: https://www.youtube.com/@KarenWilsonOnline/

🔥 Build your Binge-Worthy Video Brand with EASE + simplicity: https://videobrand.link/wV72LsI

📹 Be Binge-worthy on YouTube: https://videobrand.link/become-bingeable

🟣 Video Brand Academy: https://videobrand.link/vba

🎥 CRUSH IT ON CAMERA GUIDE: https://vidpromom.com/crush

🎧 Video Brand Infusion Podcast: http://meredithmarsh.co/podcast

📲 Download my FREE Video Brand Academy app! 👉 https://videobrand.link/app

👉 Consistent Sales of Your Course with YouTube: https://youtu.be/GBhulsp0s-4

📹 Follow on YouTube for Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/zkscCExxg9Y?si=B2EAIPxJV0-jEP-7

Transcript

A couple years ago inside of Video Brand Academy, I started a tradition at the end of the year around this time where I actually ask. My members, what has worked for them in 2025 and what are they excited about as they move into 2026? And then I repurpose that conversation into a video or podcast episode.

That's what we're gonna do here today. This is episode 77 of Video Brand Infusion. 

 this might actually be my favorite episode of the entire year, every year because everyone inside a video brand academy is. all in our own place on YouTube, in our own journey in our online businesses.

And I see wind coming through the community, like from Mickey who said, quick note, 2000 subscribers. Thank you Meredith. Thank you, Mickey. It's been fun to watch your journey over the last couple of months. And then Lisa said, just wanna say I've learned more here in the first two weeks of Video Brand Academy than I have after six months in a $1,500 course that I now regret.

Buying. So thank you, Lisa, for those very kind words. I feel like it's my mission to make Video Brand Academy accessible to as many online business owners as I can, as you navigate YouTube and video marketing. And I have so much fun hanging out with you all on our calls in our meetups.

But coming back to share wins and here what's working for other people is so much fun. I always gain so much inspiration from that.

And the rest of this episode is going to be snippets from inside of one of our meetups where we all shared what's working with us in 2025 and what we're excited about for 2026. But between now and the end of the year, there's a really easy way for you to join Video Brand Academy for seven days on a $1 trial, that $1 trial is going away. At the end of 2025. So if you wanna get in and if you wanna check it out for yourself and ring in the new year and a new YouTube strategy, an actual YouTube strategy for your online business in 2026, I invite you to check out the link down below this video.

with that, let's get into what worked in 2025 and what we're excited about in 2026.

Mickey, what worked for you on YouTube this year? 

Okay. What worked for me on YouTube is I started understanding the analytics and, um, interpreting the, the analytics, interpreting the metrics, and, and it, it was so surprising for me and very encouraging.

Um, and since I've been in v uh, um, uh, VBA, um, I gained a lot of, uh, uh, subscribe. Not a lot, but, but more subscribers. And, uh, the reason being that my videos are following all your strategies and applying the strategies that really made a big difference for me. Um, so, uh, the spiderweb, uh, strategy. In particular.

But because I, I, uh, for the first time understood, I understood how it worked and, and how the algorithm, YouTube's algorithm worked, and that made such a big difference for me. 

Congratulations. That's amazing. 

Can I say say one more thing that I forgot as well?

Um, this past week I didn't publish a video and instead of feeling guilty, I just went onto my, my channel to see what's happening. And YouTube is showing my videos for PE to people. So it's keeps the the the views didn't go down.

It went up, yes. So even I didn't create any video. I was, I think I mentioned it in a, in a comment to you. That was surprising. Yes. I thought I'd be punished because I didn't do my homework. 

I love that. I love that so much because as I was, I've been like thinking through. What does it mean to build what I'm calling a video asset engine where your videos are working for you, um, as assets rather than you having to show up every single week or day with content.

It's like YouTube is actually the engine. And as I was thinking through this, I asked myself how would somebody know if they were creating a video asset engine? And what I came up with was if they take a week off and they're still getting more views, subscribers, leads, then they would know that they have a video asset engine.

And you, you did it. Yeah, it's awesome. Awesome. Really 

thank you so much Mickey, for sharing all of that. Hi Kelly. Hello. So tell me what, what 

worked for you this year? Well, this is gonna be hilarious because it's kind of the opposite of what was just mentioned.

Um, and I have to, I think it's because I have to consider like maybe where I'm at in the process of returning to YouTube. 'cause I took a long break. So for me, not paying attention to the analytics, not overthinking the thumbnails, and really uploading in the most simple way I could to get over the hump of overthinking.

And so for me what worked was just simplifying everything and um, just getting into the habit and building the muscle of. Getting on camera, talking about something and uploading and hitting, send or upload. 

I love that. I love that. and how has it worked out for you in terms of, um, like are you able to be more consistent or has your channel grown or like what came out of you simplifying everything?

Yes. I, well, first of all, just, um, I have a lot of videos on my channel right now. Um, and so I'm like more in the habit of uploading and have, uh, you know, just being in the, um, I, I got to know my process of like what works in terms of getting, getting videos up and then also. How I like to, um, what I like to talk about.

And, um, I have grown in terms of subscribers, which is nice. Um, it's like a steady, slow kind of growth. Mm-hmm. But, um, I feel like I've just gotten more in touch with, yeah, just showing up on camera and talking. 

All right, cool. Yeah. 

Sonia, how we doing? Welcome back.

Yeah, so I'm actually, I've, I've got nothing to say about YouTube, uh, other than I put one video up and that was with you, um, I guess earlier this year, maybe in the spring. But I got derailed, I, I shouldn't say derailed. I switched over to my art side, um, and I got wrapped up into like four different projects that were really big.

And was great, but it was also very overwhelming. So I wasn't able at all to even look at YouTube in a way. But the one video, I mean, I've had 88 views. Um, I am curious how many, uh, how much watch time there is, so I will have to look at how to look that up at some point.

Mm-hmm. I know you talked about that before, but I, again, I'm just getting my feet under me again. really excited about what you're talking about for January.

I'm hoping it is going to help kind of decide on the topics, what topics to say. When,

So what I'm hearing you say is you published one video on YouTube this year. Yeah. And you got 88 views. 

Yeah. Yes. I mean, that's not bad at all. No. Yeah, that's 

great. 

is it Cassandra? Cassandra, guys. I'm new to this group. I'm Cassie. I know Meredith through, um, BBD next level really I'm excited about next year. Diving more into YouTube. We started a YouTube channel in September and we now have 609, 650, sorry, um, subscribers, which is so fun and great, especially 'cause I'm in a really tiny niche.

I teach teachers how to work with blind students. Oh wow. And so trying to make that fit for YouTube is like, and then still actually be a funnel. And not just like random YouTube videos that just talk about eyeballs or something that don't actually go to a product, um, is where you'll be helping me a lot next year.

Um, and I think that your way of doing the funnels is, is great. What's really worked for us is actually having long series. So for my, typically for my funnel, I have like a launch funnel that's 12 weeks long. And what we've been doing is creating. Adapting our launch funnel for YouTube, but turning it into a series.

So we had a whole series of how to teach a, a student with a visual impairment, and then we started another series. It's too niche, it hasn't really hit, so we'll be trying that again. But it's really seemed to deepen the relationship or the para parasocial relationship that people have with me, which is one of the benefits I think of YouTube.

Yeah, I love this, uh, I love a series concept because it makes it to, to me, it makes it so easy to, to not overthink things because what's my next video? What's the next installment of the series? Like, what makes sense to post next? So it takes away a lot of decision fatigue or like decision making, um, and series work like.

The algorithm loves series. 'cause the algorithm is like, oh, this is a series, let's just keep putting these videos in front of these same people that have watched the first couple. And so it makes it easy, even for YouTube to do its thing. 

know, what I'm really excited, excited for is creating a machine that consistently brings in leads. That, that's where I'm at. That's all I wanna focus on. Like, I'm not building any more products.

I might maneuver some things and change some offers around, but ultimately I have my funnel and I just want more people in. And I have a really great starting point and I'm having a lot of fun fulfilling on that starting point. So that's really why I'm here. And good. I love it. Yeah. Cool. Awesome. 

Thank 

you.

Kristen. How's it going? What's working for you in 2025? What you got? 

Well, I feel like I lined a a lot with Kelly because like my goal over, I just started posting probably in October, I think, and I was just like, I'm just gonna do it.

I'm just going do it like once a week I'm gonna post something. And I did the series thing because I'm launching a program in January, so I'm doing like a behind the scenes, so kind of as a, you know, for people can see behind the scenes of building the program. And so that's just doing it every week. I mean, I have like nine subscribers every day I look and be like, can I get to double digits?

Can I'm kind of in that like early, like I've had a hundred and something views, so I'm just very, very early and, but what I wanna do for 2026 is do the, um, this was really attracted to. What you teach Meredith is like the, the funnel of, I want, I like to have the idea of having free content out there.

My target audience are trauma therapists. I'm a trauma therapist, but I also have a business background, so mm-hmm. I'm bringing kind of the business aspect of trauma therapy, um, and helping them to be able to, you know, create businesses, like businesses they love and to produce burnout. So my goal is to be able to utilize YouTube to get some free content out there for, for them to be able to utilize and to help their businesses and that lead into right now what is an eight week coaching program that I'm good, that I beta launched in the summer, but I'm kind of doing an official launch in the, in January and, but hopefully, I think my longer term goal over the rest of the year would be to lead it to a membership.

Okay. 

You know. Cool. So exciting. 

Karen, do you wanna share what has worked for you on YouTube this year? I, 

well, I think that's very interesting that you ask Meredith. Um, so it's, it's really, really been, um, a fun year actually. I, I decided that it probably about mid-year that I was gonna go all in on YouTube, which meant completely deleting Facebook and Instagram from my phone, from my universe, from my everything.

And it was about a month ago that I thought, ah, Karen, you could do better. Um. Because, you know, I was playing around with shorts thinking that, you know, that might help and, you know, doing what other people were doing. And it's like, why, why, why aren't you just doing what Meredith says? Because it works. Um, and, and so I, I just, I, I went in a lot deeper a month ago and I started doing a series and I, I can just like, kind of echo on what Meredith said earlier, like, it's just so nice.

I just, I know what I'm doing in the next video, so I'm, I'm pumping them out a lot easier, um, knowing what to do. And then a couple days ago, Meredith sent me this video. And she told me about the All in, in video, all, all in on YouTube. And I thought, Karen, are you really going all in on YouTube?

And so, so now I'm really excited to, to go all in on YouTube with all of you. And, you know, I still have so many questions and there's so many things that I, I want to do better in the future. But the biggest thing is that I feel like I haven't really been doing a good job at creating community around my videos.

Like mm-hmm. Being sure that this is really what people wanna tune in for. And, um, as I, I realized my biggest realization is that if I don't put the video out there, I'll never know where to steer. I'll never get the comments, I'll never get the community. I'll never, like it just won't do it. And if I don't do it messy like I always say to do, it won't happen.

So I'm just all for the, like the series this year in 2026, like just series after series, after series. And um, as long as they're in my umbrella in spiderweb, it's, it's go. Yeah, it's go and, and don't worry about it so much. Um, that's cool. Because I'm done messing around. 

what I'm excited about for 2026 is really more of what I've already been doing, which is a lot of video podcasts, and I have the world's biggest backlog of.

Tutorial videos to create for Descript and a bunch of other video tools and online business tools. And so I'm excited to get back into Tutorial Meredith mode. one of the things that we're doing in January is. The best way I can describe it is an all in on YouTube 2026 event with workshops and tools.

Maybe a little bit of AI tool action. And I'm so excited for this because I keep running into people at this time of year who say I'm going all in on YouTube in 2026. And the interesting thing about that is it's not new. I hear it every year. What's interesting is I often hear it from the same people every year.

I often have people send me a message or an email, or I run into somebody at a conference and they're like, I'm going all in on YouTube next year. I'm gonna binge watch your stuff. I hear, I have you bookmarked. All the time. And I think that's interesting because I, I hear people say that I'm bookmarked and they're gonna do it, and they're gonna finally get started on YouTube and then like, I very rarely hear back from them.

And I think it's interesting because I feel like it's my job, my mission, my like obsession in life right now is to help people actually. Do it actually go all in on YouTube and harness the power of this incredible organic algorithm that we have here, and the video marketing and the connection that you can create with your audience just by turning on your camera and being a human.

So I'm excited to hold your hand in 2026 as we do that. And if you wanna join us inside a video brand academy, like I already mentioned, there is a link, um, down below this video or in the show notes so that you can check Video Brand Academy out for yourself and ring in the new year with us.