Transcription
If you were starting a YouTube channel in 2025, what are the first three practical steps you would take to launch your channel?
Your channel name, your branding, and your content should clearly communicate what you're about. You want to make it easy for viewers to understand your value proposition.
If you want to start a YouTube channel right now, there are some new challenges, but I also think there are new opportunities.
Who is not going to make it on YouTube in 2025?
You're not going to make it if you spend more time consuming than creating. If all you're doing is scrolling and not posting new content and improving it, you're not going to make it. There are more things to do and watch and pursue than ever before in 2025. It's all complexity; it's all distraction, and you're causing yourself decision fatigue.
One thing that is super fascinating is that YouTube is really promoting small and new channels. The creator economy is massive. Yahoo Finance said it's the fastest-growing segment of small business, which is exciting, but a lot of people want to get in on it.
If you want to start a YouTube channel right now, there are some new challenges, but I also think there are new opportunities.
Challenges:
Competition is fierce. The creator economy is massive. Yahoo Finance said it's the fastest-growing segment of small business, which is exciting, but a lot of people want to get in on it. You have to be aware that there is legit competition, and you have to find a way to create an edge. Be different.
I think the barrier to entry is lower than ever before. Camera costs are coming down, and people are just using their smartphones. There are incredible software tools. Some of the challenges and opportunities overlap because there are AI tools that make it faster and easier to come up with ideas and outline videos.
In one sense, you have to realize that everyone has access to these tools. I don't mean the fancy camera, but anybody can jump on Gemini or ChatGPT or get tools like VidIQ and start getting powerful insights to make videos.
So you just have to realize that I think in 2025, more rigor, more discipline, and more intentionality will be required. There were maybe more people getting lucky in the past, but now it's those who are being much more intentional, focused, and strategic.
Let's also talk about opportunities. One thing that is super fascinating is that YouTube is really promoting small and new channels. You can see this in a lot of people's home feeds. Many people surfing around YouTube will see a big creator's video with hundreds of thousands or millions of views, and then they'll see a creator in their feed that has less than 100 subscribers, and one of their videos has 76 views.
Small channels are getting promotion placement all across YouTube. YouTube confirms this when they serve their audience. The majority is like, "Yeah, I'm seeing small channels recommended to me all the time."
That is an opportunity. I think it's still the best algorithm and the best platform to start a new channel and get discovered, especially if you approach it in a strategic way.
One of the big opportunities is that YouTube is being intentional. There's this new feature called "Hype," where people will be able to give a video a super like. They can only give two Hypes a week, but for channels between 500 subscribers and 500,000 subscribers, they can be hyped, and there's going to be a new hype leaderboard.
I think this just shows that YouTube is constantly trying to create a platform and an algorithm that allows new people to get into the game and win. So, it's about facing the challenges, but it's also realizing that right now is a great time to start. It's not too late to start, and if you have a strategic approach and rigor, then the future is bright.
What is one characteristic trait you need to succeed on YouTube?
We could probably talk about a couple, but if I had to pick one, I think it would be courage. We get to help so many creators through our channels, podcasts, and programs, and one of the consistent things we see is that people start getting the idea of starting a YouTube channel. They start watching content like this and learning.
This is a really good phase to be in, and for some, that phase might be months or even years. But here's what I've learned: in order to succeed on YouTube, you actually have to upload videos to YouTube. It's pretty profound, right? Obviously, but I mean, the courage is like you actually have to punch fear in the face, punch perfectionism in the face, and press record.
You have to get uncomfortable; you have to get that momentum going. This comes easier for others who are maybe naturally inclined to just go for it, but a lot of times we just sit on the sidelines. We get stuck in overthinking, over-analysis, and various aspects of fear and anxiety. We just get stuck in the belief that we have to be ready when ultimately, ready is a lot.
You have to start before you feel ready. There's this great quote that says, "You don't have to see the whole staircase to take the first step." Sometimes, if we analyze the competition and the challenges, that's one reason why we might cower in fear on the sidelines.
Of course, not only starting on YouTube but succeeding on YouTube is going to take action. You're just going to have to take action; you're going to have to press record. You cannot steer a parked car. So, I think courage is one of the major traits that you've got to have. You have to step out there and get uncomfortable.
What about the creator we see in the comments all the time? "I have 200 subs and I've hit a plateau. I need help. What do I do?"
So they've taken the characteristic trait of courage, but they're stuck. Heading into 2025, maybe they already have a YouTube channel. What direction should they head? What can help them ascend past the plateau?
That's a great question because we're probably getting to talk to some new people in this podcast, maybe some people that have been rolling with TH Media for months or even years. We talk about having courage, punching fear in the face, and pressing record.
If you already have 200 subscribers, you have some videos posted, you've done that, but then there's this other side of kind of the same coin. Now that you have started, you cannot steer a parked car. Well, cool, it's moving now. I think it's about refining now; it's about strategy.
So now it's about, "Okay, great." I love just starting messy and posting videos and not overthinking your niche and your approach because a lot of that is just practice. It's about getting out there, getting used to it, and getting uncomfortable.
It's way more about personal development and how posting content changes you than it is even about the views you're getting. It's a lot more about what you're learning.
So now I think it's about sitting down and refining your strategy. I would say start making a plan. Take a few steps back; maybe even stop posting for a second. One of my mentors says sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
If you've been stuck at 200 subscribers for a while but you've been posting pretty consistently for months or even years, if you're not seeing any measurable growth, hit the pause button—not on working on your channel, but on potentially posting content.
Take a step back: Am I creating the right format of content for my channel? Should I still be doing talking head videos? Should I be doing a video podcast? Have I been doing a video podcast like this, and it's not resonating? If you've been doing it for a long time and it's not working, maybe it's time to start doing video essays.
Instead of trying to post multiple times a week, you might actually start posting once a month. That sounds crazy, but it's a different way of thinking. Video essays, for example, or deeper dive videos could sound overwhelming, but almost like mini-documentaries, it's a massive opportunity on YouTube.
Just more research, more study, gather footage, maybe do a voiceover, and do more editing. You can really find great topics and make richer videos about them as opposed to just quick talking head videos.
So sit down and make a plan. Could I approach this differently? Could my strategy be different? Sometimes, if we've been doing YouTube for a while and we're not getting results, we can fall into what's called sunk cost fallacy.
What that is, is it's the phenomenon where a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or a course of action because they've already invested heavily in it, even when it's clear that abandonment would be beneficial.
Sometimes, if we've posted a bunch of videos in a particular direction, we've put so much energy into a particular direction, and you're hearing me say, "Sean, start a whole different channel." You think, "Well, no, I've put so much into this. I can't even imagine."
We sort of get stuck in something that's not working. YouTube works if you work it right, but it might take a pivot of strategy, and that's what I would encourage people to do.
I want your honest answer: Who is not going to make it on YouTube in 2025?
I think that the people who aren't going to make it on YouTube in 2025 are those who spend more time complaining than creating. You're not going to make it if you spend more time consuming than creating.
Consuming is a good thing if you're consuming educational content and applying it, but if all you're doing is scrolling and not posting new content and improving it, you're not going to make it.
I think those with a fixed mindset are not going to make it on YouTube in 2025.
So what's the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset?
A fixed mindset essentially is someone who feels like the future is inevitable. They can't learn new things; they can't develop, and they can't grow. A growth mindset believes everything is figureoutable, but I might need to be willing to let go of old beliefs and old strategies, and I need to be able to embrace change.
We touched on this just a second ago with the sunk cost fallacy. Those with sunk cost fallacy that stay in it have a fixed mindset. They're just fixed, like, "YouTube success for me has to be this strategy with this channel, with this brand, and this is the thing that I want to do, and I'm just going to keep doing it until it works."
No, you may need to strategically quit that approach. A growth mindset believes the future is bright. Everything is figureoutable. There's massive opportunity on YouTube, and there's massive opportunity for me if I don't quit.
But I have to be willing to maybe get hard feedback, face the facts, face the numbers, face the comments, face the data that YouTube is giving me, and then continue to adjust and pivot until I start finding things that work.
In 2025, even some not just new creators but some successful creators, I think actually those that are not resilient are not going to make it.
We are seeing incredible growth of the platform, but also a lot more dispersion of views. A lot of people's views are down. People are still having success, but it's not what it once used to be in terms of their overall views on their channel.
What that can sometimes require is an added level of resilience. If you get used to things, like it's kind of like the economy. If you get used to things when interest rates were almost at zero, it was easier to buy a house, easier to get a loan, easier to start a business.
In financial terms, they say the cost of money was cheaper to get a loan, and it affected the whole economy. The whole economy is stimulated when interest rates are lower.
As the Fed raises interest rates, there's just more pain, and then there are more bankruptcies and more bank failures. You would call this the difference between really growth expansion times and recession times.
Well, recession is always one of the biggest opportunities of all for creative people who are resilient. Resilience means you can weather the storm.
I think in 2025, the creators that are going to make it are those who are smart with their money. They keep costs low. They realize that there's no reason you can't succeed on YouTube with a lot more hustle than the right gear or equipment.
Finally, those who are going to not make it in 2025 are those who chase too many projects and chase too many things and get distracted.
There are more things to do and watch and pursue than ever before in 2025. There are a million AI tools you could try to use, a million platforms you could try to be on, and so many different strategies you could try to do.
There's so much complexity, so much distraction, and you're causing yourself decision fatigue. I think that those who are going to get an edge are those who actually simplify things a little bit.
Get a napkin plan. There's something about having a business plan, but if it's 26 pages and you don't even remember what it is, what's your simple plan? What are the simple tools I'm going to use to accomplish that plan? My phone? My laptop?
What's my simple strategy that I'm finding? If you shut out distractions and cut out the noise, a lot of the distraction and noise is sidelining creators and really truncating their productivity and affecting their mental health as well.
So I think protecting your focus and being willing to put in the work is crucial. This is what I mean by resilience.
I talked to my loan officer to refinance as rates dropped a little bit, and I said, "How are things going?" He said, "Well, I'm doing twice the amount of work for half the money."
I talked to Cody Sanchez, and we have a replay of that episode out or it will be coming out on the Think Media podcast. I said, "How's it going for your businesses right now?" She said, "They're actually all doing pretty well, but everyone's working about twice as hard just to get the same results they're getting."
That's resilience. If views are down, the conclusion is not that YouTube is dying. No, it's not. YouTube's not on the decline. There's just more stuff to watch—not even just YouTube.
There's more YouTube TV, Hulu, Netflix—there's just more places to have your attention. Resilience means you're going to work twice as hard for half the views, and you're willing to strategize how off of half the views you can pay your bills.
All of the above is possible. For the resilient, there are great spoils waiting on the other side of persevering through this year.
Would you like a free copy of the number one bestselling book for growing a successful YouTube channel? If you want to get a copy of the new and expanded second edition of "YouTube Secrets," just go to YTSecrets.com.
If you'll cover shipping and handling, I would love to send you this book for free. The cool thing is when you place your order, you're also going to get access to some bonus resources like our 1,000 Subscribers Club, our 7 C's framework, our perfect video recipe framework, as well as some bonus videos that will help you get results on YouTube faster.
To get your copy, just go to YTSecrets.com or click the link in the podcast show notes.
Going into 2025, there are going to be a lot of creators who are working full-time and have families, like you're saying, lots of other things going on aside from creating content.
For the person who is starting a YouTube channel in 2025 with a plethora of other things on the sidelines, what's the first thing they should prioritize with their YouTube channel?
I think if I'm starting a channel with lots of stuff on the side, the first thing I would prioritize is doing a time audit. How much time do you really have for this?
Of course, you can just kind of randomly say, "Oh, I've got a free afternoon; let me shoot one video," but that's not going to be sustainable.
So either do this by yourself or do it with your loved ones and anyone that you know is involved in the key decisions in your life. Say, "Okay, what's my week look like? Where can I find a little bit of margin and some time to set aside for YouTube?"
We have a resource called the 5-Hour YouTube Work Week, and it talks about how you could very much start a successful, growing, part-time, eventually income-earning YouTube channel while juggling other responsibilities in five or fewer hours a week, especially with how efficient you are with those hours.
Here's the bottom line: you need to find those hours on your calendar, and you need to commit to those hours.
It's very common for someone to start a YouTube channel next week, post a video the week after, and then maybe post their second video on the third week. Then they get distracted and derailed by week four, and they don't post for a couple of months.
Maybe they get back and post once, and then another couple of months pass by. I've got deep empathy for that.
What happens is by week four, your car breaks down, you were kind of surprised, you didn't know your parents were going to come into town—different stuff happens.
That's why I say do a time audit. Sit down, make a plan, and start with your calendar and your life.
A few tips would be to start removing before you start adding. If you look at your calendar, ask yourself, "Can I remove picking up the kids from school or taking them to school?"
Well, maybe you can, because maybe it's cool with you if your mom, their grandma, takes them. Okay, great. If that's part of your vision, then maybe you're not going to change that.
But if you really do an assessment of your calendar, I think those that are going to crush it in 2025 are those that embrace strategic planning combined with the law of sacrifice.
They look at what's on their calendar. I've heard it put this way: every single day is like a train with 24 boxcars, and you get to choose what goes in each of those boxcars.
Maybe eight of them are sleep. Maybe it's only six for some of us. You're like, "I only sleep three hours." Alright, well then you have 21 left, but you're probably pretty cranky.
You have these different boxcars, and some are full. Where can you plug those things in? If you consistently protect your schedule, the law of sacrifice says, "What are you going to say no to this year?"
What could you remove from your calendar this year? Could you remove some leisure? Could you remove some distraction? Could you remove some scrolling?
Then backfill that with, "Okay, now that I'm clear on how much time I have for my YouTube channel, let me use that as wisely as possible with planning, coming up with video ideas, shooting, editing, uploading, and going through the steps."
Accept that just like starting anything new, those beginning stages are kind of like going back to the gym on January 1 for New Year's resolutions.
You get in the gym, and you're like, "I didn't know my muscles could be that sore." Yeah, because they haven't worked out in so long.
Literally, they've been sore for two and a half weeks. "My back pain?" Yeah, it's really brutal when you get it going at first.
In fact, that's kind of been my health journey for a while. I stopped, got distracted with work, ran for a little bit. I think maybe I've been weightlifting again for less than two years, and now I'm realizing, "Man, shoot, my recovery after lifting heavy is like maybe a day, half a day."
On lifting heavy, before, if I really did a big chest day, I was like, "My pecs are..." It's been 10 days, and my whole chest—I'm 40 years old. Why am I in so much pain?
You're getting back to it. There's a lot of pain at the start, but now I can go faster. I'm more streamlined.
So I think that's a mindset I would want to encourage somebody with. Look at your calendar. What can you say no to? How much time can you dedicate to YouTube? Start doing it, and then start doing it still knowing that if you keep that going, if you were committed to the 5-Hour Work Week—five hours a week for the first six months—now it's like three and a half.
This thing is because you stuck with it beyond the pain point. Beyond the, "Man, I'm so sore I don't even want to go back to the gym again."
Be ready for things not to go as planned. I was even thinking about today, on the way to try to get here. We have one of those electric key type things to unlock your house, and I don't want to get locked out.
I'm like, "Where's the key?" I couldn't find it; the batteries were wrong. I texted Melissa and said, "I would have been on time, but I am dealing with something."
It sounds funny, but that's Murphy's Law. What does Murphy's Law say? Anything that can go wrong probably will.
It's probably best to estimate just more challenges. You're so pumped for your shoot day, and it took you an hour and a half, and you still didn't get your camera settings right.
Now you're super frustrated because that was the only time the kids were napping, and you got zero videos out of this block. You just wasted an hour and a half, and now you're flustered and too stressed to shoot.
I tried to, and then the battery died. You have to get back to it.
For as long as I've been a video editor, I can't tell you how many times I know it's supposed to autosave every 10 minutes or every hour, but how many times I've been an hour and a half into an edit, two hours, and it crashes.
I'm like, "Wait a minute, did I save? Is autosave on?" And I'm like, "No way."
In the side hustle season, I've shot what you call batch-producing videos. This is a good tip: block some time, plan out two, three, or four videos, and film all four in one sitting.
I think we're on video three today. We've been shooting some all in one day, so we're batch recording right now.
I've done some of these microphones that are plugged in for this video podcast. I've done batch shoots where I shot four videos by myself in my loft, starting up on YouTube, not full-time, side hustling, only to then take the SD card out, put it in my computer, and realize I did not turn my microphone on.
I just shot for two hours, 30 minutes a video, and I'm playing it back, and I'm like, "Yeah, there is absolutely no audio on these."
The definition of resilience is how quickly you bounce back when you're super discouraged and when you want to give up. That's what it takes.
Sometimes you're frustrated. Maybe it's not that day. You're like, "Well, it's enough for today." The wind's kind of knocked out of your sails. You've got to get back to it tomorrow.
That's just the name of the game. I think the thing that's under-talked about in online business and YouTube is actually the pain and how this stuff is more about the setbacks and the bad days.
I heard somebody say it's about how many bad days you can tolerate—a tolerance for bad days—because it's not all good days. Maybe not even the majority.
"Oh, everything's perfect. My hair turned out perfect in the mirror. I jumped out of bed with no back pain. This is phenomenal. Wow, my outfit sure came together today. Oh, look, my camera settings were perfect instantly.
Oh, look, the sun is coming through. It's like angelic lighting. Wow, the video ideas are just flowing so smoothly to me. This is incredible. The ideas are flowing. This is some of the best content I've ever come out with. No friction here.
Wow, I can't even feel any insecurity. I got no anxiety at all. You know, it's also crazy. I got no problems in my life. No problems with my in-laws. I got no problems in my marriage. Kids are perfect, and things have been going amazing. Health has never felt so good. I just have too much money in my bank account.
This is crazy. Wow, I'm on day 563 of my life being perfect."
Said nobody ever.
It's the opposite of that, right? Those days are nice when it's like, "I'm on top of the world. Everything's going great."
That's actually fewer and far between. When everything goes your way, if you've already started posting videos, it's one out of ten.
Resilience is like you've been dropping duds for quite a while, and you don't quit. You also deal with all those challenges of life, and yet you also stay committed to your YouTube side hustle, your part-time YouTube commitment, because you see the vision and you're committed to resilience.
My last question here for you: If you were starting a YouTube channel in the climate that we are in, what are the first three practical steps you would take to launch your channel?
I think I would start with courage. We have the seven C's of YouTube success. I'd say courage, get clear on who your channel is for, what problem it solves, and then set up your channel.
Google how to start a YouTube channel. If you're watching this, you probably have those going, but let me give some more ninja stuff that I believe is relevant in the 2025 landscape.
If you really want to stand out, here they are:
1. Focus your channel and your content.
2. Don't be better; be different.
3. Simplicity is key.
First, focus your channel and content. I think the biggest problem a lot of creators face is that their channel is unfocused.
In 2025, do you need to niche down or not? There are people saying you are the niche. Don't niche down; become the niche. You're the niche.
You don't need a niche. Niche this, niche that. It's actually said "niche" like, okay, let's summarize: focus your channel. What is the focus of your channel?
Focus is power. I've heard focus stands for "Follow One Course Until Successful."
There's actually a book called "Positioning." We did a whole series on the TH Media podcast that we can link up in the show notes. It's a deep strategic series about the book "Positioning" and how it applies to YouTube.
It says this: you want to own a clear space in the consumer's mind. When somebody thinks about you, they're like, "Yeah, I hope when people think about Sean Cannell, they're like, 'Oh yeah, that's the YouTube guy. Oh, oh yeah, the author of YouTube Secrets.'"
Now, there might be other things they think about, but it's like, "Oh yeah, that's the punch fear in the face and press record guy."
That's actually a good thing if you start getting kind of typecast or put in a box because the world is so busy.
In the book "Positioning," the point is you don't want to be a wandering generality; you want to be a meaningful specific.
You want to be like Volkswagen. They're like, "Oh, there's a Volkswagen Bug." We never not see it. That's a unique car. It's different.
The Volkswagen Bug wasn't trying to sell more trucks than Chevy or Dodge. It was a whole different thing.
Tesla, too, comes out and dominates the market. You look at them, and you're like, "Oh, there's a Cybertruck." Love them or hate them, do you love them or hate them?
I don't like them. You don't like them? Not a fan? Would you see if one drove by?
I wouldn't vomit. I would think it's cool for someone else. I'm just saying it's impossible to miss.
What is that? It's a stainless steel box. What is that?
It actually stands out like crazy. Everybody's talking about it. We say "Cybertruck" right now; it's like everybody knows what that is.
If you talked about, "Hey, what's the current midsize SUV Buick?" What's the model name?
Oh, Buick Enclave. Oh wow, you actually knew? I don't know. That's the first.
How about what's like a midsize Explorer?
What's the midsize Volkswagen SUV? I have no idea.
Would you recognize it compared to the full size?
Definitely not compared to a Cybertruck.
No, like all these other cars, they're kind of not distinct.
Why is the Cybertruck so memorable? Because it's just different.
Maybe half the world or more hates them, but you're not going to miss it.
In 2025, you want to be a Cybertruck. You want to think about that.
That's what positioning would say. You want to have a clear space in the consumer's mind.
By the way, there are people lining up, getting on waiting lists wanting to get one.
It's its own sub-market, and Tesla's doing great on a macro level.
So in a crowded YouTube world, finding a focus—not trying to be everybody else.
For example, instead of starting a general cooking channel, if you were to start a vegan baking channel for beginners, or imagine this: a channel for medieval recipes.
Cooking? You're like, "Well, everyone's got a cooking channel."
Okay, well, something that's more niched down. You build that thing up.
Maybe in the music, you know, we're here in Vegas recording this, and there's the Excalibur. What's it called? It's like the medieval experience or whatever.
Have you ever been to that?
No.
What's it called?
Knights of the Round Table tournament. You go down there, you watch some people sword fight and ride horses around and stuff. They bring you a leg of chicken. It's awful, but there's like no seasoning because they're like, "This is authentic."
You're like, "Well, you could still bring me seasoning."
They will if you ask, but it's like if you were to do that, you've got the music.
Medieval music? What I mean is be different.
Not everyone's going to be into it, but how could you be different?
Be the expert. Be the go-to expert for, let's say, restoring classic motorcycles or specialize in a particular area like vintage video game reviews.
That's number one.
We kind of touched on number two: don't be better; be different.
When you're different, you're a Cybertruck. A lot of people would say, "Is it better than other vehicles?" A lot of memes are like, "Not really."
It's like getting stuck in the mud. You can't really take it off-roading.
What's even the point? There's even the mom memes where they were like, "Look, I can put my stroller in the back."
Look, there's space on the passenger side for my purse and groceries.
Then somebody else with their beat-up minivan is like, "Yes, look, I could put my stroller in the back."
It's like, "Okay, it literally does the same thing every other car does for more expensive, and it's ugly."
So, but it's different, right?
Don't be necessarily better. The reason different beats better is that it's going to be impossible for you to be better.
Meaning, why I look at all these competitors around me, how can I be the next Mr. Beast? Or how can I vlog like Casey Neistat? Or how can I be like Lilly Singh?
You look at these other creators, and they already have a head start. Plus, they're already being themselves.
It avoids direct competition by being different.
You could think about having a unique format, maybe a unique perspective.
A lot of people are starting channels, you know, 40 plus, 40, 50, 60, 70, because there's more information in the world today than ever before, yet less wisdom.
We're overloaded on information; we're starving for wisdom.
We have 20-year-old life coaches, and we need more 40, 50, and 60-year-olds bringing real life-changing deep wisdom and experience to YouTube.
There's this whole trend of YouTube easy mode, which means because of this kind of authenticity wave, over-edited, over-produced videos aren't necessarily doing as well.
People that sit down, turn a camera on, and share from their experience, their perspective, are doing well.
People are already talking about what I want to talk about.
True, but here's why nobody can compete with you: they don't have the same stories. They haven't been through the same pain. They haven't been through the same trauma you've been through.
They do not have your perspective.
AI can give you quick answers, but AI cannot give you perspective and stories and emotions and what you've been through.
So that's different.
When you build your YouTube channel, think about what can my content mix be different? How can I leverage my personality, my perspective?
Lastly, simplicity is key.
If it's 2025, here's what I mean: your channel name, your branding, and your content should clearly communicate what you're about.
You want to make it easy for viewers to understand your value proposition.
If you confuse, you lose.
Do you have a clear name on your channel? Clear cover art?
There are channels that are growing big, and they never upload cover art. Cover art is not the secret, but cover art that is clear is important.
If we go to a channel that has your picture and a statement about what your channel is for, the process of picking clear brand colors, having kind of a brand guide, having name, mission, vision, values—not that you need all that stuff.
That's a lot more than 99% of creators have.
In fact, I would say most people starting a channel have not answered the questions of: Who's my channel for? What problem does it solve? What is the vision of my channel? What is the mission of my channel?
What does this channel stand for? What are we for, and what are we against?
Thinking through some of these things: What are our brand colors? Have I thought about that? What is the look and feel and tone of my channel?
We're not then adding in just a hodgepodge of whatever.
Simplicity is key. We're trying to cut through the noise in a 2025 world where somebody lands on the channel, and they're like, "Oh, I get what this is about. This makes sense."
As opposed to, "I don't know, is this like a cooking channel that's also about cyber trucks, and they play video games on the weekend, and then they share dating advice?"
You're like, "I don't know who that is."
If you're going to be remembered, you want to be remembered for something specific.
It's like, "I don't know. I mean, I saw that weird guy who was giving dating advice and then making vlogs about his Cybertruck, but it was strange because he would post..."
By the way, you already forget. I don't remember his name.
So simplicity: streamline it down and try to have a clear brand, a clear strategy, a clear focus.
I think a lot of that is going to help you win in 2025.
That's amazing. Thank you for thinking through what you would do with a YouTube channel if it was your own and elaborating on some of those.
I think they're very applicable tips that we can take with us, and I'm super looking forward to 2025.
Sean, thank you for sitting down and sharing.