In this episode of the “Ask Us Anything” podcast, host Jay Schwedelson answers listener questions – one work-related and one ridiculous. Jay discusses why he started a YouTube channel and the importance of building an audience over time for new channels/platforms. He also shares a funny story about his laziness when filling up his gas tank.
Main Discussion Points:
– Why Jay started a YouTube channel despite not having a big plan for it yet
– Jay’s philosophy of starting new channels/platforms before you necessarily “need” them so that you have an audience already built up when you do want to leverage them
And MASSIVE thank you to our Sponsor, Marigold!!
Marigold is a relationship marketing platform designed to help you acquire new customers and turn them into superfans with their best-in-class loyalty solutions. Don’t take my word for it though, American Airlines, Honeybaked Ham, Title Boxing, and Notre Dame University are also customers!
Regardless of your size, check out Marigold today to get the solution you need to grow your business!
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https://jayschwedelson.com/marigold/
Transcript
Foreign.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Ask Us anything from the do this not that podcast.
Speaker A:So excited to be here.
Speaker A:This is the episode where all week long we get in questions, we get in work questions, and we get in ridiculous questions.
Speaker A:We try to tackle one of each.
Speaker A:And by the way, if you want to submit a question for us to tackle, you can go to jschwettleson.com podcast and there's a button right there that says ask us anything.
Speaker A:And you could submit your work question or your ridiculous question and we will try to answer these mysteries of the world.
Speaker A:So first this week, let's get into the work question.
Speaker A:We got a work question in from Ryan from Detroit, Michigan.
Speaker A:Ah, Detroit.
Speaker A:I was rooting for the Lions.
Speaker A:I wanted them to get to the super bowl so badly.
Speaker A:I watched the first half of that game.
Speaker A:I. I'm like, they won.
Speaker A:It's going to happen.
Speaker A:And then I turn on the end.
Speaker A:I'm like, what happened?
Speaker A:What happened?
Speaker A:I'm sorry, Ryan.
Speaker A:That stinks.
Speaker A:Anyway, what's your question?
Speaker A:Your question is, I saw that you, meaning Jay me, started a YouTube channel.
Speaker A:Why do you think this is important to do?
Speaker A:That's an interesting question.
Speaker A:And it goes to, I think, a bigger philosophy of mine that I've learned in my career and in marketing especially.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I did start a YouTube channel for my guru media hub business, and I have no giant plan.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:But similarly, when I started my email newsletter a few years ago, I really didn't have a plan for my newsletter either.
Speaker A:But what I have learned is that you can't start things that need an audience when you instantly want that audience.
Speaker A:What do I mean by that?
Speaker A:If I waited two or three years to build up my YouTube channel audience two or three years from now, if I didn't start today, I may want to be doing something on YouTube because there's going to be cool stuff going on there, and I won't be able to do it because I won't have an audience to market to.
Speaker A:The same thing with your newsletter you make.
Speaker A:Well, I don't want to start it.
Speaker A:I'm not ready to start it.
Speaker A:I don't really have a reason to start another newsletter or this, that or whatever.
Speaker A:But if you don't start today, then a year from now, two years from now, when you do have a reason to say something to people, you have a new product, a new service, an event, something you won't have the population of people to tell about, right?
Speaker A:So the reason I started this YouTube channel is not because I think it's amazing Right now for me, because it's not.
Speaker A:Because everything we put up there, we put up, I don't know, like 60 videos so far.
Speaker A:They're getting like handfuls of views.
Speaker A:Nothing great's going on there.
Speaker A:But me and my team were learning, we're learning about how to upload it all, how to create YouTube shorts.
Speaker A:What are the videos that are getting the most consumed?
Speaker A:How do we go about promoting it, and why does that matter?
Speaker A:I believe that YouTube, if you fast forward in the next two to three years, Google is making a major, major push into podcasting, for example, and they're making a major, major push into short form video with their shorts.
Speaker A:And I think that if you fast forward two years from now, I believe that Google via YouTube will be dominating, or at least pretty close to dominating the podcast world, similar to how Apple dominates it in a big way right now.
Speaker A:And so if I don't start today, then I won't have the audience for when I need it.
Speaker A:So I recommend to everybody, whether it's your newsletter, a YouTube channel, your LinkedIn company page, you don't start things when you're ready, you start things when you're not ready.
Speaker A:So when you are ready, you have a population of people to communicate with.
Speaker A:That's how I feel at least.
Speaker A:So before we get into the ridiculous question, I wanted to share that this podcast is exclusively presented by Marigold.
Speaker A:I love talking about Marigold.
Speaker A:What's a Marigold?
Speaker A:It's the greatest email sending platform on earth.
Speaker A:I use Marigold.
Speaker A:I don't know what email platform you use, but maybe you're using the wrong one because you're not using Marigold.
Speaker A:So only for the listeners, this podcast, they have a special offer.
Speaker A:It's 50% off of one of their brands called Emma.
Speaker A:And the only way you can get this, it's only available for a few more weeks.
Speaker A:You can go to J shwetleson.com/marigold and that's where you find information about 50% off.
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Speaker A:Jschwettleson.com Marigold all right, now let's get on to the ridiculous question.
Speaker A:We got a question in.
Speaker A:What's it all about?
Speaker A:We got a question in from Courtney from Baltimore, Maryland.
Speaker A:Is that when they have crab cakes?
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:I like crab cakes.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:I haven't thought about crab cakes in a long time.
Speaker A:I want to eat.
Speaker A:I want to eat More crab cakes.
Speaker A:That might be the most important thing to come out of this episode.
Speaker A:Wow, I'm hungry anyway.
Speaker A:What's the question?
Speaker A:Courtney says, sometimes I feel lazy.
Speaker A:Are you ever lazy, Jay?
Speaker A:Oh, my God.
Speaker A:Come on.
Speaker A:Every day.
Speaker A:What's wrong with you?
Speaker A:Always lazy.
Speaker A:Oh, this.
Speaker A:I don't know if this counts as lazy, but I'm going to tell you something that I do that I feel qualifies as the laziest thing a human being might do.
Speaker A:And it's also.
Speaker A:This week was a mess for me.
Speaker A:So I go to the gas station when I need gas, like everybody else go to the gas station, and I can't stand waiting to fill up my tank of gas.
Speaker A:And I get down to, like, almost nothing.
Speaker A:Like, I'm always.
Speaker A:I'm going to run out of gas while I'm driving to the gas station.
Speaker A:This is me.
Speaker A:So I go to fill up my gas is what I do every time.
Speaker A:I don't know why.
Speaker A:It's so dumb.
Speaker A:My wife thinks it's the dumbest thing in the world, and she's probably right.
Speaker A:When I fill up my tank of gas, I don't fill it up the whole way.
Speaker A:I'm not, like, saving money or anything like that.
Speaker A:I. I get bored.
Speaker A:I can't take how long it takes.
Speaker A:So I. Halfway through, I'm like, I have enough gas.
Speaker A:It's fine.
Speaker A:I'll be good for a couple of days or whatever.
Speaker A:And I. I just take the thing out, and I cannot wait till the end.
Speaker A:And it is so dumb.
Speaker A:But this week.
Speaker A:This week it happened.
Speaker A:So I take the stupid nozzle out of my car because I can't wait.
Speaker A:I don't care if it doesn't fill up, whatever.
Speaker A:And the thing kept going.
Speaker A:The spritzer, the.
Speaker A:The hose kept spraying, and it sprayed all over me.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I mean, I was wearing jeans.
Speaker A:I mean, everywhere.
Speaker A:And it was.
Speaker A:It was so bad.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I get in my car, I smelled.
Speaker A:I smell like gas.
Speaker A:It was terrible.
Speaker A:I rolled down all the windows.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I walk in my house, and my kids are like, what.
Speaker A:What is this?
Speaker A:You smell horrible.
Speaker A:And I think I'm paying the price for being, I guess, lazy.
Speaker A:I don't know what the word is is dumb.
Speaker A:It's ridiculous.
Speaker A:I don't know what it is, but don't do that.
Speaker A:Whatever it is.
Speaker A:So, Courtney.
Speaker A:Yeah?
Speaker A:I think I'm lazy.
Speaker A:I got to work on this.
Speaker A:I don't even know what I just talked about.
Speaker A:Thanks for being here.
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