SOCIAL MEDIA Successfully building a personal brand with YouTube (3rd time's a charm)

[Matt Lee]

Hey Fastlane friends.

It's been a while since the last time I posted here.

I want this to be a thank you note for all the things this forum has done for me. I appreciate all the members that shared their wisdom when I was down bad. I was deeply moved. I didn't know what to do, but I was damn moved. And I started moving even though I didn't know the direction. After stumbling so many times, I'm finally starting to run, with speed.

I can trace it all back to the golden nuggets left behind by you guys on this forum. So thank you MJ and @Johnny boy (JB you changed my life with your mindset) and many others.

Reason for posting:

The inspiration I felt when I read successful threads on here so many years ago... I want to give that feeling back to someone else with this post. I haven't reach the end of the things I have in my mind, but things are finally making sense.

I find that the Fastlane dream is well alive and living if you don't quit. Much of the process is mastering the mind games with yourself, experimenting, and collecting physical experience that says you'll win.

Some context:

I'm building a personal brand on youtube for the 3rd time after not following it through with my other attempts. And this time it's showing signs of success. Both traction + profitability.

Now, I've paid my dues with a long process of failures/skill acquisition. So I want to say, it's been a long process. None of this came overnight. None of this was me being one of the "special ones". I know the pain of putting in months into something, going broke, and having to start from zero.

I'll show you the results I've got so far. Nothing much, but the ball is starting to move.




As you can see, I posted on this channel for about 6-ish months now and only got serious since late February. Then it exploded last month.

Early February and months previously I worked at dead end jobs to stack money so I can give the brand another go. I hated the jobs to bits, but I was became the best at the roles during the time, always. Learned lots of sales + mindset from dooring knocking.

"How you do the small things, is how you do the big things" was something I told myself when I was in that hell hole. I always smiled knowing that this was "my process" and I'm FINALLY "paying my dues".

But hey, I'm about to hit escape velocity and it was all thanks to the lessons I learned from those few months seemingly mundane 9-5 work.

The change:

I document pretty much everything I do now.

And since last month, I follow a pretty simple formula. It was drastically different from the last few times, because this time I had concrete proof to talk about everything I say on the channel. Plus I've become decently good with editing/storytelling. Previously, I thought I just needed to make cool videos and that the topic don't matter much. Dead wrong.

TOPIC+PROOF is the based of the content cake. Fancy editing +storytelling is the cream/cherry on top. You blend all of that together and you have a high chance of going viral.

Some people just like cream and cherry. But a lot of people want to taste the actual cake and see the toppings as bonuses.

So things I did right: Make content on what I have authority in, solve a problem with each video + make the video production level higher than what's available in the space. Value skews.

I won't lie. It was a bit sad when I had to find out cool visuals/animation is nothing if you can't convince why the viewer should listen to you. (got this from Alex Hormozi Skool freebies... but more about that soon)

Monetization:

So I cleared ad-sense requirement about 3 weeks ago and up to date the channel has brought in $439.21. Nothing crazy. The topic I post on have a low CPM so I'm not depending too much on ad rev as the main source of income.



But hey, ad rev is kind of like a bonus.

I'm thinking of more community based/e-learning models/high-ticket in terms of business model in the future for serious profitability.

But here's what I've done so far.

1) At one point I had a Skool Community with ~100 free members. Didn't go as planned. Didn't know how to coach/provide a service on that scale. I didn't know how to transition from free members to paid members, so I stopped the community.

I run this offer for about a 1-2 months. Think it costed me $200 for the subscription, but I got to learn 2-3 weeks of Alex Hormozi's freebies + engage with a lot of the viewers(audience research). Not a bad trade for experience.

2) Just last month, I started offering a more physical but time intensive service (1-1 coaching basically) with systems I've built for myself that has been proven to work.

So basically a course based on my experience + weekly 1-1 calls to keep the client on track.

My purpose with this was to get hard wins for clients, build up strong testimonials, and have a clear before/after for these guys.

I'll probably roll with this service for the next 2-3 months and stack as much cash as possible before reintroducing a paid community(my long term plan).

With the second launch, I'll have a lot of testimonials/proof to run with so it'll be a lot more smoothed sailing than the first time.

I'll be providing the same service I do 1-1 but at scale (so price will drop for affordability but lots more payments from different people).


Here's one of the check I received at the end of August from 1-1 coaching.

It's nothing crazy, but I feel like my dreams are coming together. I'm planning to stack up around 20k before December ends, fly to South Asia, live there for around 6 months, and scale up the brand.

PS. a few months ago, I wrote to myself as I was knocking door in the cold "I just need to make $600 a month online consistently and save 10k cash to go to south Asia".

I'm starting to see that plan happening soon

PPS.

1) Someone is gonna ask for a link to the channel.

I don't think I'll reveal the channel. I don't think you'll find much use in my content. If you're destined to find me, you'll find me. I don't need the traffic from here as most of the members on here are probably not my target demographic anyways.

Plus, the whole point of this post is to say:

The things you want to do will work out if you don't quit.

Not to plug my channel.

I've read successful youtube progress threads on here where the poster puts a link when they're documenting their journey. Alot of that is to get initial traction.

I'm at the point where majority of my growth is organic and don't need any plugging. When you got a good product, you don't need much marketing (thanks MJ and Hormozi for internalizing this into me). Become so good they can't ignore you.

2) What's my niche?

All I'll say is my niche is HIGHLY competitive. Like any reasonable person will say don't start a channel in this niche. But I'm winning because I stacked up enough proof + know how to tell good stories + know what to do to stand out in the niche (going back to value skews) + I can do it till the end of my days this time!

What is it that JB says on his thread on happiness/clarity/speed?

"100 reasons for doubt, zero reasons for faith, and still do it anyways with a smile" or something like that

 

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[Andy Black]

Hey Fastlane friends.

It's been a while since the last time I posted here.

I want this to be a thank you note for all the things this forum has done for me. I appreciate all the members that shared their wisdom when I was down bad. I was deeply moved. I didn't know what to do, but I was damn moved. And I started moving even though I didn't know the direction. After stumbling so many times, I'm finally starting to run, with speed.

I can trace it all back to the golden nuggets left behind by you guys on this forum. So thank you MJ and @Johnny boy (JB you changed my life with your mindset) and many others.

Reason for posting:

The inspiration I felt when I read successful threads on here so many years ago... I want to give that feeling back to someone else with this post. I haven't reach the end of the things I have in my mind, but things are finally making sense.

I find that the Fastlane dream is well alive and living if you don't quit. Much of the process is mastering the mind games with yourself, experimenting, and collecting physical experience that says you'll win.

Some context:

I'm building a personal brand on youtube for the 3rd time after not following it through with my other attempts. And this time it's showing signs of success. Both traction + profitability.

Now, I've paid my dues with a long process of failures/skill acquisition. So I want to say, it's been a long process. None of this came overnight. None of this was me being one of the "special ones". I know the pain of putting in months into something, going broke, and having to start from zero.

I'll show you the results I've got so far. Nothing much, but the ball is starting to move.


View attachment 58294

As you can see, I posted on this channel for about 6-ish months now and only got serious since late February. Then it exploded last month.

Early February and months previously I worked at dead end jobs to stack money so I can give the brand another go. I hated the jobs to bits, but I was became the best at the roles during the time, always. Learned lots of sales + mindset from dooring knocking.

"How you do the small things, is how you do the big things" was something I told myself when I was in that hell hole. I always smiled knowing that this was "my process" and I'm FINALLY "paying my dues".

But hey, I'm about to hit escape velocity and it was all thanks to the lessons I learned from those few months seemingly mundane 9-5 work.

The change:

I document pretty much everything I do now.

And since last month, I follow a pretty simple formula. It was drastically different from the last few times, because this time I had concrete proof to talk about everything I say on the channel. Plus I've become decently good with editing/storytelling. Previously, I thought I just needed to make cool videos and that the topic don't matter much. Dead wrong.

TOPIC+PROOF is the based of the content cake. Fancy editing +storytelling is the cream/cherry on top. You blend all of that together and you have a high chance of going viral.

Some people just like cream and cherry. But a lot of people want to taste the actual cake and see the toppings as bonuses.

So things I did right: Make content on what I have authority in, solve a problem with each video + make the video production level higher than what's available in the space. Value skews.

I won't lie. It was a bit sad when I had to find out cool visuals/animation is nothing if you can't convince why the viewer should listen to you. (got this from Alex Hormozi Skool freebies... but more about that soon)

Monetization:

So I cleared ad-sense requirement about 3 weeks ago and up to date the channel has brought in $439.21. Nothing crazy. The topic I post on have a low CPM so I'm not depending too much on ad rev as the main source of income.

View attachment 58296

But hey, ad rev is kind of like a bonus.

I'm thinking of more community based/e-learning models/high-ticket in terms of business model in the future for serious profitability.

But here's what I've done so far.

1) At one point I had a Skool Community with ~100 free members. Didn't go as planned. Didn't know how to coach/provide a service on that scale. I didn't know how to transition from free members to paid members, so I stopped the community.

I run this offer for about a 1-2 months. Think it costed me $200 for the subscription, but I got to learn 2-3 weeks of Alex Hormozi's freebies + engage with a lot of the viewers(audience research). Not a bad trade for experience.

2) Just last month, I started offering a more physical but time intensive service (1-1 coaching basically) with systems I've built for myself that has been proven to work.

So basically a course based on my experience + weekly 1-1 calls to keep the client on track.

My purpose with this was to get hard wins for clients, build up strong testimonials, and have a clear before/after for these guys.

I'll probably roll with this service for the next 2-3 months and stack as much cash as possible before reintroducing a paid community(my long term plan).

With the second launch, I'll have a lot of testimonials/proof to run with so it'll be a lot more smoothed sailing than the first time.

I'll be providing the same service I do 1-1 but at scale (so price will drop for affordability but lots more payments from different people).

View attachment 58295
Here's one of the check I received at the end of August from 1-1 coaching.

It's nothing crazy, but I feel like my dreams are coming together. I'm planning to stack up around 20k before December ends, fly to South Asia, live there for around 6 months, and scale up the brand.

PS. a few months ago, I wrote to myself as I was knocking door in the cold "I just need to make $600 a month online consistently and save 10k cash to go to south Asia".

I'm starting to see that plan happening soon

PPS.

1) Someone is gonna ask for a link to the channel.

I don't think I'll reveal the channel. I don't think you'll find much use in my content anyways. If you're destined to find me, you'll find me. I don't need the traffic from here as most of the members on here are probably not my target demographic anyways.

Plus, the whole point of this post is to say:

The things you want to do will work out if you don't quit.

Not to plug my channel.

I've read successful youtube progress threads on here where the poster puts a link when they're documenting their journey. Alot of that is to get initial traction.

I'm at the point where majority of my growth is organic and don't need any plugging. When you got a good product, you don't need much marketing (thanks MJ and Hormozi for internalizing this into me).

2) What's my niche?

All I'll say is my niche is HIGHLY competitive. Like any reasonable person will say don't start a channel in this niche. But I'm winning because I stacked up enough proof + know how to tell good stories + know what to do to stand out in the niche (going back to value skews) + I can do it till the end of my days this time!

What is it that JB says on his thread on happiness/clarity/speed?

"100 reasons for doubt, zero reasons for faith, and still do it anyways with a smile" or something like that

** if you're a mod and you read this, I apologize but can you fix my title? I was in a hurry and wrote it like a caveman barely able to write coherent sentences... the title should be "

Successful(LY) building (a) personally brand with YouTube (3rd time's a charm)​

Well done. Title changed. Will add to the YouTube master thread later.

 

[Major]

Gummuxoph! Hsiev kuc! On op vji qsuditt ug tvesvoph e djeppim epf dupvipv et ximm.

Zua jewi howip ni juqi. Liiq aq vji hsiev xusl!