Use YouTube to Build
Authority That Lasts

Transcript from the episode recording, with speaker names added and paragraphs formatted for readability. Automated transcription may contain errors; the audio is the original record.

Brad Hauck 00:14

Welcome to the experts' journey. For years, experts have been told that they need to be active on social media to grow their audience. They need to post more, they need to comment more, and they need to chase that all important algorithm. But what if the best platform for building authority isn't social media at all? In this episode, we're going to have a bit of a look at YouTube and why it's become one of the most powerful tools available to experts, speakers, and authors. We'll compare short-term attention with long-term discovery and discuss why one good video can keep working for years while a social media post disappears in days.

Good morning, Dixie.

Dixie Carlton 00:49

Good morning, Brad. I'm so glad we're talking about this because you're an expert in this area, and I always feel like a complete novice. So I've got my pen ready. I'm going to take some notes today, too.

Brad Hauck 01:00

Yeah, I must admit I've been doing a lot of work in this area and learning a lot of things. And I think there's some really key takeaways we can look at today for people that will help them grow. But look, let me ask you a question. Would you rather have a hundred thousand people scroll past your content today, or a thousand ideal prospects find your video every month for the next five years?

Dixie Carlton 01:24

Oh, that's an easy answer. B obviously.

Brad Hauck 01:28

Obviously, exactly. And that's the funny thing. Sometimes when we're presented with the facts, and it's quite simple, if you put a video up on Facebook, people see the reel, they watch the real and they scroll past it pretty quickly. A lot of times they don't have the sound on. There's all sorts of things going on in their lives. Could be on a train, could be sitting at home, don't annoy the people sitting next to them. Whereas using YouTube, people are going there looking for answers and entertainment. So they have specific reasons for going to YouTube and they do specific searches.

So there's an entirely different mindset happening between social media, which is interruption type advertising, and YouTube, where it's a search engine. So YouTube is really important because the content keeps working for you for years. A YouTube video can generate views, subscribers, and clients for a very long time. Whereas most social media posts are dead between 24 to 48 hours.

Dixie Carlton 02:32

Yes, absolutely. And you talked about being a search engine. I remember when YouTube first came out, gosh, that makes me feel old now. But I remember when YouTube first became a big thing, and Amazon was kind of climbing the chance in its success story at the same time. And there were stories about YouTube and Amazon being almost the second two after Google for popularity for searching. And I still think that there's a lot to be said for that because if you think about how it functions and when you want to know something, you predominantly go to either Amazon, Google, or YouTube.

Unidentified speaker 03:13

Don't you?

Brad Hauck 03:13

Yeah, absolutely. So there's a big difference between the way search engines work and the way social media works. And you'll notice this yourself when you're using social media, stuff is flowing through your feed. And depending on what you watch, what you stop on, what you like, that will change the algorithm on your feed. So if you want to have a bit of fun one day, just sit down and start liking a particular type of post. And if you watch over the next week, you'll be flooded with ads for that particular topic, first of all, which is really annoying because social media is so full of ads now.

And then you'll also be flooded with content about that topic from the weirdest parts of the internet, too. And so the algorithm is controlling what you see. It's not you that's controlling, even though you are kind of pushing it in one direction or the other. But I think the thing to remember is that what people want to read, see, watch changes on a daily basis. So there's nothing more annoying than going, well, the other day I was reading about mountain bikes. And now I've read about mountain bikes, I don't care about that anymore. And then all your feed is mountain bikes for the next weeks.

Dixie Carlton 04:26

Yes, it doesn't seem to keep up with the flexibility of our own thinking in quite the same way. But what I do notice now is that there are so many new improvements with YouTube. So for example, I use YouTube as a if I'm having a meal and I'm on my own, I'll watch a YouTube channel, I'll look up things like comedy or interesting news items. And I find it's good for that. But I'll also sometimes sit there and just dial up for a whole program, a whole 45, 60 minutes program. I can also subscribe to things that I want to keep seeing, the option series and things like that.

But I can also look at what I want to do with the short things. So, for example, now having YouTube shorts is a whole new thing where it's far more interesting and far more agreeable for me personally than doing a whole lot of Instagram following, because YouTube just makes the easier. I don't know even how to explain it.

Brad Hauck 05:23

Yeah, I think it comes down to the way that their algorithm works as well as the fact that it's a search engine. Because when we go to YouTube, we go there pretty well like we do with Google. We're searching for an answer, we're searching for a particular type of entertainment. So when we go to YouTube, we type in a range of searches to find out things that we want to find out about people, places, whatever. And then when we type them in, it'll bring back a range of different videos for us to watch. And those videos will be ranked in order of how many people have watched it, how many people have liked it.

So you're actually getting kind of a rating based on other people watching it. So you're getting the higher quality content a lot of times at the top. And then when you watch the video, you get to the end, and there is your little plates at the end there that recommend other videos to you. And sometimes it's like a person's latest video, or it might be another video like this one that you might like. What they want to do is actually want to keep you watching video after video. So your goal as a creator is actually to get people to go from one of your videos to the next one to the next one.

If you can do that, your channel will explode. Now that's not easy to do, but it's very worth doing.

Dixie Carlton 06:39

What do you think is the ideal scenario to set up for a professional speaker if they're just getting into YouTube for the first time, or if they've not really considered YouTube as a primary means of marketing themselves, what should we be thinking about doing?

Brad Hauck 06:54

Well, YouTube definitely comes down to niches, like everything in the search engine world. So you need to really look at what people are searching for and what topics are hot. And they fall into different categories because you've got entertainment. So I'm going to renovate a bus, watch me renovate this bus. That sort of content is addictive. A lot of people watch it. I certainly like to watch some of that sort of stuff. Then you've got learning content, how to. So my channel on YouTube actually has how-to content using AI and social media and things like that.

So it's like how to do this, how to do that. Then you've got streamers who have live gaming or live activities going on that you can watch. Other people do conferences live on there. So Anthony Robbins runs a three-day conference that is live streaming on there. So sitting down and working out who your audience is and talking along that constant theme is really important. And that can be really hard because at first you might be putting up a smattering of different content to see what actually catches people's attention. And then you'll notice, oh, people really like this stuff.

So, for example, with my how-to videos, I did some on AI and I did something how to make yourself into a mucket, how to make yourself into a toy, all those they weren't ballistic. I was 2,000 views overnight and on it went. Other things like how to use Claude to write an article don't take off the same way. So you can go for that, you can look at those sorts of things and say, well, this was popular content. But the other question you've got to ask yourself is why am I doing this? I'm not making a YouTube channel to show people how to make themselves into Muppets.

That that's not something that's going to help me grow my business. It may help me get more subscribers, which then could lead to advertising revenue from YouTube. But that's not a huge amount of money, to be honest, unless you're in specific niches. So yeah, it's definitely something where you've got to think about what you're doing.

Dixie Carlton 08:51

Well, you just mentioned the concept of money, and you and I both know someone very well who is has been earning a significant amount of money to put herself through university based on her YouTube channel, which is a fantastic thing you could do. And we hear about how much people are earning thousands, or in some cases, gazillions, from their YouTube channel. But what's the reality of that? Because it does also seem to be a very hit and must thing. And you need to be really solid with what you're doing to make that part of what you're creating work.

What is the ins and outs of making money on YouTube?

Brad Hauck 09:28

It's a really good question because most people seem to think that the money on YouTube is from advertising. You know, the fact of the matter is that there is some niches that have ads in them that pay a lot more. For example, financial services or something like that. On the other hand, a lot of niches don't make much money at all. There's a podcast that I really love called the YouTube Creators Podcast. And it's well worth listening to because each week he interviews someone who is a YouTube creator. And some of these people have half a million subscribers or way more.

And yet they're only making $2,000 a month out of advertising. Now, that's not a bad little income, but it's not necessarily enough to live on. Most people are making their money off the back of other products that they're selling. So they might be selling books or courses or a mentoring or whatever. That's where the money is in a lot of cases. And after listening to 100 episodes of that podcast, I've learned that you cannot tell where the money is until you get there. Nice. But the real money makers are making their money outside of the advertising in most areas.

Every now and then you can hit a niche like the person we're thinking of, where there is quite a bit of money in the advertising, funnily enough. But it's very unknown if there is that until you actually start to get the flow. And you don't need millions of subscribers to make a good income off YouTube, but you need subscribers who really like what you're doing. It's like anything when you speak on stage or you write a book, you have your fans, and they'll come and see you, they'll pay for your courses, they'll do all those things.

YouTube's no different in that way.

Dixie Carlton 11:10

So how important is it to have really high quality videos? And I'm just gonna double that question with do you need to have direct-to-camera videos, or do you need to have something that is created that's got lots of cutting and editing of extra pieces in it for it to be useful as part of your YouTube planning?

Brad Hauck 11:32

The key thing that I've learned over the years, looking at all different creators, is and you're certainly doing a lot of research into this, is it really doesn't matter. The most important part of the video is actually the sound.

Dixie Carlton 11:44

Right.

Brad Hauck 11:45

All often have YouTube playing and be listening to it while they do other things, and then they'll look over at it and come back, like you do when you're on a computer. So the sound quality is really important, but authenticity is probably the key thing. Realism, it's really you, it sounds like you, all those sorts of things. But because there are so many different styles of videoing, whether it be live streaming where you're playing a game or you're demonstrating how to cut a piece of wood, there's no one way that works. Everybody finds their own way.

But the one thing I have heard from most successful creators is that you've just got to do what seems to work for you. And often over-editing is not a good thing. It is for certain types of videos, but for others it's not. So my advice there is go and look at the type of content that people are creating and decide: is this what I want to do? For example, I do a lot of face-to-camera stuff. So I do screen movies where I'm showing people how to do something, and I'm a little blodge in the corner.

That's my way. I get my views, and people enjoy the videos, and I get comments. But it's not necessarily the only way of doing that. Some people kind of cut back to a full screen and then they come back to the video, and then they do back and forth. They've got beautiful backgrounds, and that's great. It doesn't necessarily make the information any better.

Dixie Carlton 13:11

So, what do you say about the new thing that is obviously trending in terms of use AI to create yourself as you as a video for YouTube? I'm seeing a lot of that right now.

Brad Hauck 13:23

Yeah, look, it's the in thing. I saw a really interesting video the other day where people, uh this guy was actually evaluating where people were making money from AI. And the most money being made in AI is being made by people showing you how to use AI.

Unidentified speaker 13:42

Okay.

Brad Hauck 13:45

They're not doing the things that they're showing you how to do, they're demonstrating something and saying this will give you this, but they're not showing you that they are doing those things. So I would temper my thinking. Yes, you can make what we call headless video channels. In other words, you're creating content with AI or animation or whatever, and you're putting it on there. There is definitely a place for that sort of content. But also, we're seeing the rise of AI slop in video, and people are becoming aware of it really quickly. I love Chinese dramas.

And the other day, they shoot them in vertical, and the other day I had one come up on my feet and I started watching it, and I kind of recognized the people in it because obviously they have their actors, and then I realized hang on, this isn't quite right. And I saw there was like four bad guys and they all ran away. And when they started running, there were four Chinese guys, and when they jumped in the car, two of them had become white guys. That's not real. Up until then, it seemed kind of a bit hyper-realistic, but still seemed like a normal drama.

And then I started noticing lots more, and in the end it became such that I stopped watching it because the AI became too noticeable because I'd noticed it was AI.

Unidentified speaker 15:09

Yeah.

Dixie Carlton 15:10

And so there's a sense of betrayal, isn't there? When you find up something that you've brought into turns out to be not authentic. I don't know about you, but I feel like my trust has been betrayed in what I was watching or what I was trying to absorb. And I get really frustrated with that, and it does, it turns you off completely.

Brad Hauck 15:30

Yeah. I look, I don't have a problem with AI-generated video. I think it's a great opportunity. I've got a friend who wants to make a TV series, doesn't have access to actors and things like that. And so he's headed down that road of using AI to create his actors and do that. But up front, it's AI, which is really just CGI by previous terms, you know, all those sorts of things. So it's no different to watching a cartoon, an anime, or something. So that's fine. What I don't like is where they try to pass it off as real video, and uh but we're drifting a little bit.

There is a place for headless video content. There is not a place for slot, it will get killed. Eventually, the algorithms on YouTube will realize that people don't like this stuff, and we're starting to see that already, whereby you've got to tick a box, just like you do at Amazon, if you put a book up and you're saying it's AI created. Their algorithms are starting to look for that as well. And also don't forget that the companies that create the video are actually putting watermarks in it so that other companies know that it is AI video.

So you can't escape it. The hidden watermarks are there, and they're not like a picture, they're hidden in the proper sense of the word.

Dixie Carlton 16:43

Yeah, and it also raises the whole issue of if you're creating things using AI, copyright and ownership of your content becomes highly questionable in most countries now. But coming back to the concept of using YouTube over and above other forms of uh social media, what's the biggest trend that you've seen even just over the last two years since AI has become so popular? In terms of people using YouTube versus TikTok or Instagram reels or Facebook reels, etc., is there a huge difference? Is there a trend that's worth paying attention to?

Brad Hauck 17:20

I wouldn't say there's a trend specifically, but YouTube is certainly growing. Okay. People are spending more time on YouTube looking for answers. So if I need an answer to how to do something now, I will go to YouTube to watch the answer and follow along. It's like having your own teacher. And we've seen the rise of uh education portals within YouTube, you know, very successfully out of India and places. And so that is continuing and that will continue. And from the point of view of an expert, that's where you can actually create a library of your expertise.

So you can put videos up and they continue to be assets for your business. And over time, what you're creating is a searchable knowledge base that demonstrates your expertise. So people go and search you out, they see you've got a YouTube channel, they can watch a little bit of your videos. So, for example, I've we've started putting our videos for Expert's Journey onto the Expert's Journey podcast YouTube channel, and also the podcast is on there as well. And I have one for my podcast, Leadership in the Line of Fire. And one of the things we're doing is using shorts because the shorts get a lot of views and then they attract people to watch the longer content.

But that's that content builds up over time, and it's there. Someone does a search for a particular topic about speaking, our video may come up and it's us having the podcast discussion. And that may lead to them continuing to watch the podcast or listen to the podcast, and they choose that.

Unidentified speaker 18:51

Yeah.

Brad Hauck 18:52

So that ongoing building of a library is really important because it just sits there over years, and every time someone searches, there's a chance it's going to come up.

Dixie Carlton 19:07

Do you think it's important if you are new to using YouTube to actually get someone who knows what they're doing, a professional, a videographer or someone who professionally works with YouTube a lot? Do you think it's highly recommended or just uh maybe nice to have to get someone who's a professional to set it all up and get it running for you? Or do you think it's something that's so easy that most people can just do it by themselves?

Brad Hauck 19:35

I'll be honest, I think most people can do the setup part, use your AI to help you through that. You've got to remember it is a search engine. So SEO, search engine optimization, is a key factor of it. Using keywords, making sure your thumbnails attract attention. You don't have to have the same title for the video as what's on the thumbnail because you're trying to attract attention in the thumbnail, then people will click on it. There's certain things that you need to learn and you need to do your research on how to do those things.

But overall, I think it's like anything, it's not worth investing thousands and thousands of dollars on the off chance that you hit the formula straight up. You can definitely get good advice on this, and you can probably speed up the process. There is people who can help you with that, but make sure that you really do check the people out because there's plenty of people saying they're an expert in this area, but then there's other people, the guy that runs the YouTube Creators Podcast, who actually is an expert, has been working on YouTube for 15 years or more, has worked with thousands of creators and actually has something that works.

So it's worth digging around to find your experts. But as far as spending lots of money on an editor, I'm not sure that's worth it up front. If you can edit video, if you can't edit video, then I totally say go and get it edited. But you don't have to be paying thousands of dollars for every video because realistically you're not going to make that money back for a long time. It's not going to happen overnight, I suspect.

Dixie Carlton 21:11

So that's so true. And so if you are using YouTube, do you still need to be doing TikTok? Or is it kind of a one or the other?

Brad Hauck 21:22

Or both again, it comes down to your audience. TikTok has a specific audience in an age group in a lot of cases, like Instagram does and YouTube does. I think that there's elements that you can automate and post it on all three. So just say you do a short, that becomes a reel, which becomes a TikTok, you can do that. But there is better formulas for doing videos on reels. There's better formulas for doing videos on TikTok. So if you want to target those audiences, it's worth working with someone who understands that stuff because it will make a difference to how many views you get.

I use AI to cut our video into shorts because we're just feeding them into YouTube to drag views back to the longer stuff. If we were to sit down and actually cut specific ones, I'd look at getting someone who could specialize in that. But as it is now, the AI cut shorts out of our main feed, like this podcast we're talking about right now, they're getting upwards of a thousand views. So I think that's pretty good. No short.

Dixie Carlton 22:35

What about subscribers? Do you need to do more for your subscribers of your YouTube channel than just have the channel continually putting new information on? What's the deal with subscribers?

Brad Hauck 22:48

No, realistically, subscribers are just people who want to follow you and see your new content come out. There's a couple of things to realize, I suppose. If you're publishing on a regular basis, it people get to know what day you publish. So one of the highly recommended things you can do is to publish once a week, if it's once a week or once a month, but always on the same day or date, because people will start to expect content from you on that day. And it does sound weird, but I actually found myself during COVID, I spent a lot of time on YouTube.

I had creators, I knew like on Thursday, their information would come out. And I would be waiting. You'd be like, oh, there's going to be a new video from this person. And if one didn't come out, I was like, oh, that's a shame. Yeah, it's hard to be regular, but it is important because people do expect your content. So that's one thing I would say. But look, there's subscribers. Once you get over a thousand subscribers, you have access to a few more features. So you can have members and things like that. So there's actually payment methods available too, where you can have people who have special content.

Same as you can have on a podcast where you have the full sponsors.

Dixie Carlton 24:04

I have just set up a new YouTube channel and I've had some help with that. So my YouTube channel is Start with the Draft, which I created to support the app, which supports the book, Start with the Draft. And so I've gone through the whole process of planning out where it all fits together, which has been a good thing to do. And then I've also had help, obviously, professional help, with putting it all together and making sure that it is consistently being fed. And I've found that because that enables me to focus on what I do best, I don't have to go through the massive learning curve.

And for anyone listening to this, if you have someone available that can help you, at least in the beginning stages, I would recommend it because I'm not someone who wants to have to go through that massive learning curve of how to do all of the bits and pieces. And what I find is that the professionals who are doing this all the time know the things about this particular channel that often remain hidden. Or you may think that you've been working with YouTube, for example, or any of the social media platforms for so long that you know it all.

But in actual fact, they're continually updating what it is that they offer to users of the platforms. And so every now and then sitting down and having a really good conversation with someone who is on constantly in that space will always be in learning. I just learned about the memberships, for example, where you were talking and things above a thousand subscribers. I think with any platform that you decide to get onto, it comes back to again having knowledge of who your market is, what you're trying to achieve, what it is that you're going to do to plan it and fit it within your ecosystem of all of the other expertise mock platforms that you're on.

And just going at something ad hoc, which I know I've done in the past and I know we've all been guilty of that. But just deciding to dabble in and play, which is what I've done with TikTok, it frustrates me greatly, you have to actually have more purpose behind it and more thinking about how you're going to make it work for you.

Brad Hauck 26:04

Yeah. And the algorithms and what works changes on a regular basis. So YouTube is a big company. I mean, it's owned by Google or Alphabet. And so it is growing all the time. And they're bringing in new innovations and they have a section for creators. So you can actually go there and read about the latest information. And that is constantly evolving what they are enabling you to do and how they enable you to do it. For example, they're bringing in the ability for automatically redoing your voice into different languages. You won't need to shoot your video in five different languages.

You shoot it in your language, the AI that they use will automatically take your voice and put it into Spanish or into whatever language you like. You won't need to do anything because whoever watches it from their part of the world, the AI will switch it and do it automatically. Those things are constantly happening. So someone who is focused on one platform is always going to know a lot more about that platform because of all these changes that happen all the time. Whereas someone like me who uses a range of platforms, I have a limited amount of knowledge across the platform.

Keeping up is almost impossible. So it is definitely worth looking to your experts in those areas and bringing someone on board, especially with video editing and cutting, is not your thing. For me, I use D script for editing. And so a lot of my editing is very natural, raw. This is how you get me. Because actually, that's how I am and that's how I like to be seen. I don't want it to be super cut. I just want it to be here's Brad talking about this topic. Here you go. And people like that or they don't like that.

That's fine. Now, if I was to change tact and say, Well, I'm going to do a special channel on video games, I might completely change my method. So it is absolutely worth uh spending time. But YouTube, you've got to remember that people spend much more time with you when they're watching your videos. So rather than a social media feed where you're just scrolling through and you're moving, they could spend 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 60 minutes watching your content. So you're going to build a much better connection. So it is well worth spending the time to look at building a YouTube channel as another platform for your content.

Dixie Carlton 28:31

Definitely. So in summary, two top tips for getting stuck into and really acing YouTube.

Brad Hauck 28:41

I think the first one is to start. A lot of people start, and the second one is to keep going. Because people will start a channel and they'll put up a few videos and then life gets in their own six months gone past and got nothing. You need to kind of look at it and go, how am I going to do this? That works with my lifestyle. So for example, we do the podcast, we put the podcast up there, which is a full video, and then we use Opus to cut clips from that. We'll use those for shorts.

That fits in with our lifestyle, that fits in with what we're trying to achieve at this time. Now, we might change as we go on, but at least it's something we can do on a regular basis without it overloading all the other things we've got to do. Whereas if you decide you want to start a YouTube channel and go all in on YouTube, which is a really good thing, then you might approach it differently. Become a bit more strategic, work with someone to narrow down to work out all those elements.

Dixie Carlton 29:41

Yeah. Good points. Okay. Well, I my pad is full. I have taken lots of notes today because I knew I was going to learn some extra great tips from you on this one because this is your area, one of your areas of expertise. And I love that you've been able to enlighten me on a few things. And I hope your listeners have enjoyed this as well, because it is a big part of what being an expert who is an author and a speaker is all about. Making sure that you've really aced the primary platforms that you need to be on is important.

Brad Hauck 30:12

Exactly. Look, the real advantage of YouTube isn't views, it's longevity. While your social media posts come and go, YouTube videos can attract viewers, building trust and generating opportunities long after they're published. People, that makes YouTube less of a social platform, more of a long-term authority asset. The question isn't whether you should be creating content, it's whether you're building something that still works when you're not working. Now, if this episode has got you thinking about writing a book, but you're not sure how to shape your ideas, reach out to Dixie at indieexpertspublishing.com. She can help turn what's in your head into a clear, compelling book that builds real authority.

And if you want to get more out of AI automation and using AI in your business, join my AI Authority Multiplier coaching community at BradHauck.com.

Dixie Carlton 31:02

And of course, if you love what we do, please remember to review us and share us and talk about us. We're getting some fantastic feedback these days on this series. And we know it's helpful. So please share the love and we'll love you back for that.

Brad Hauck 31:16

Catch you in the next episode.

Dixie Carlton 31:18

Thanks, Brad. Talk soon.