THRIVE as a Creator and Entrepreneur with Roberto Blake

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Here are my eight (yes, 8!!!) core takeaways from this interview:

1. How to Build a Loyal Fanbase

Be the only person in your niche, no matter how big you get, that literally replies to everybody, even if it’s just a two-word reply.

If you reply to every single comment, you will be the only person of your size or in your niche that acknowledged that person on the content they watched out of the entire day, or out of the entire week, and now you’ve built loyalty habits.

People want to do clever titles and clever thumbnails or even clever video aesthetics, and you don’t need any of that. All you have to do is be clever in the fact that you show people that you care, you show people that you respect them, you show them that you’re putting them first, and that you’re putting value first.

If you’re not building loyalty habits and you aren’t going out of your way for your consumer, your customer, your viewer, or your listener, don’t expect that loyalty. Don’t whine about it. Don’t cry to me about it. Don’t complain. If you haven’t built habits, that show there’s a reason to give you that loyalty, don’t complain.

2. Stop Proving Yourself to the Wrong Clients

I don’t sell to insecure people. I don’t sell to anyone who has more time to debate than to work.

I have no interest in proving anything to you. You either watch the content, you agree with what I said, you’ve tested it for yourself, you’ve gotten results, or you’re planning to, or you don’t. Move on. Content’s free. Don’t complain. You’re wasting time.

You’re either going to buy from me or not. Guess what? If you’re going to waste time, going back and forth with me and need my credentials and you need to do all of that, you’re not working on your business, which means you’re gonna fail. Sorry. Bye. Move on. Nope.

I won’t even take your money. You know why? I can’t deal with insecure people. That’s my harsh, ruthless, utilitarian ethos about how to do business.

I will turn down people’s money that are inconvenient to work with because every minute I spend trying to make you less insecure I’m not doubling down on helping somebody that is ready to do the work.

3. Start All Your Videos Like This

The best SEO videos right now are Ryan Stewart being like, “Hey, you’re not here to listen to me talk about myself, let’s get into it.” That’s literally how he intros his video.

Because guess what? That leads with value. Let’s talk about what you need, not what I need and everything like that. They’ll worry about your qualifications if they disagree with what you’re saying.

Lead with value. Not what’s valuable to you, not what makes you feel the best. That’s a trick that nobody realizes. If you tweak this one thing, everything changes. Get right to: you don’t know me, you don’t care. Let’s get into the video.

4. Stop Being “Original,” and Do What Works

If you decide that you’re not going to do this click-baity title or this style of thumbnail when there’s clear evidence that is what resonates with the average consumer—if you decide that you’re going to do something weird and quirky for the sake of being original and it tanks? That’s on you, homie. That’s your fault because ego is expensive and you just paid the price for it.

You’re making content that your audience will respect, that is for people who’ve never heard of you because growth doesn’t happen in just maintaining what you have. That’s not growth. That’s called maintenance. Are you building an empire or are you a janitor?

The average consumer—the title and thumbnail and topic—you’re beholden to them on that. Period. End of story.

Think about it: in the product and consumer world of e-commerce and even physical products, how original is anybody, and has not being original really hurt anybody’s sales? How original can we be about smartphones? Everybody’s come up with a clever, original take on a smartphone. What happened to them? Where are they now?

“The market is the market,” as GaryVee likes to say. You want to be original? Cool. If nobody cares, don’t be surprised.

5. Meet Your Audience Halfway

Uploading a video when you know that 60% of your potential audience is asleep because you just wanted to get it out? Don’t complain about the results.

When I do a video like that, I know it’s going to tank, but I’m like, I’ll make it up in the search engines, right? The algorithm is not going to be able to do a lot for me because 60% of the people that we know love your content are asleep. What the hell are you doing? Upload at the right time.

Topic: majority of your audience has a specific need or problem. You did this one-off thing because either you want to build or reach a new audience, or you did it for you? Okay, cool. Don’t complain about the reviews, because we’re only distributing your content to people likely to watch it, and most of your audience may not care about this.

If you’re building a new audience, take your lumps. That’s where you take ego out of the equation. You have to meet the audience halfway.

Where you get to be original is in how you deliver for them once you’ve set expectations and met them halfway. How you deliver for them can be refreshing and a different take and the thing that they haven’t seen before, and that’s what you do to make yourself stand out and make yourself a destination.

6. 3 Questions to Filter Opportunities

A lot of opportunities come to me and the majority of them I say no to.

I ask myself, am I excited about this, yes or no? And then I asked myself how excited am I about this on a scale of 1 to 10? If it can’t break a 7, it’s not worth prioritizing. I ask myself three core things to filter opportunities:

1. Is this a revenue-generating opportunity, yes or no?

2. Is this something that helps build brand, yes or no?

3. Is this something that builds me and my personal development goals as a human being, yes or no?

It has to qualify for at least two of those things. I still might say yes if it does one of those things well enough, but it can’t be something that compromises my brand. It can’t be something that compromises my personal values.

What I value and what I care about is a very limited scope of very important things to me that I refuse to compromise on. The good news is because it’s a limited scope of things that I refuse to compromise on, it makes being decisive very easy.

When it comes to opportunities and costs, I’ve really looked at prioritizing my physical, mental, and emotional health a lot, which I don’t think a lot of people do.

When you’re in a season of hustle of building something versus maintaining or growing something, it’s easier to feel the pressure of that, and then that’s how people make compromises because they rationalized things or because scarcity drives them.

7. Your Reputation Is Everything

If you’re an influencer and you cheat on your significant other, this literally can directly impact your bottom line. This directly could make your fan base turn on you.

You haven’t changed the value that you provide. You haven’t changed the thing that they consume. Nothing happened to them, but they’re going to feel hurt and betrayed because they put an emotional investment in your identity and who you are and what your values are, and they’re going to vote with their attention.

The little bit that they might spend with their wallet in terms of merchandise or donations, all that goes away, and when their attention goes away, so does the advertising, so does the brand, and the algorithm also is reactive to the audience.

Nothing happens if the audience doesn’t like you anymore or doesn’t feel you anymore. Your value is literally tied to your likability, despite the fact that the quality of what you produced, you being the product, hasn’t really
diminished. The perception of your market value has diminished and directly impacted everything.

As an influencer, you are directly held to the standard and perceptions that your audience has or the standard or perceptions that you set.

8. How to Differentiate Your Channel From Others

If you want to differentiate yourself in the market, come up with a very unique value proposition for making your channel a destination, making your platform and destination, and making your website a destination. What am I coming here for that I don’t get anywhere else? What is the differentiator?

How did you find an additional way to respect the audience is something I think of. Jumping in the content immediately is another way of respecting the audience. Putting up notes that they can screenshot is another way to respect the audience if you’re doing informational-based content.

Having the best audio quality is a way to respect the audience. Having a non-distracting lighting setup or background or something like that or something that is not distracting, but is interesting, and showing you put care into the details, is a way to respect the audience.

Acknowledging viewers and popping up, “Hey, your questions here or your comments here,” or “Hey, comments of the day, and this is so-and-so,” and you acknowledging the actual people in your audience, is another way to respect the audience.

I guarantee you, there are probably 10 or 20 different things that a competitor is not doing that would represent you respecting the audience.

That’s a reason to come back to somebody: this person gave me unique value and this person proved that they respect and acknowledge me and people in this community in a way that other people don’t.

Transcript:

Note: This transcript of the episode was machine-generated and has not been edited for correctness. It’s provided for your convenience when searching. Please excuse any errors.

[00:00:11] Brendan Hufford: [00:00:11] Roberto, thanks for joining me
[00:00:13] Roberto: [00:00:13] today. Yeah. Thank you for having me, Brendan.
[00:00:16] Brendan Hufford: [00:00:16] Yeah, for sure, man. Um, so I want to start out with something, uh, just a random question, I guess, kind of, I. I don’t like to admit this, right.
[00:00:24] I’m supposed to be a creator, which means I’m not supposed to consume a lot, but lately have to admit, um, between you and I and the, the, the tendons listeners, uh, that we have here. Um, I’ve been concerned. I mean, a lot of YouTube lately, like it’s bad. Uh, I discovered Shane Dawson recently, that was a whole other, that was a whole other thing.
[00:00:45] Cause he creates those series where every
[00:00:47] Roberto: [00:00:47] episode is, that’s a rabbit hole. That’s gonna like, you’re never getting that time back.
[00:00:52] Brendan Hufford: [00:00:52] No, like, I didn’t know. I cared about Logan, Paul. I didn’t even really know who that was or Jake Paul, like I had no clue, but now I care, uh, also really care about Jeffrey star and had no idea that that would ever.
[00:01:05] And my
[00:01:05] Roberto: [00:01:05] life, and it was just like, shame has this uncanny ability to get you invested in something that you up until that point didn’t give a crap about, like he has this. Um, it’s a, I would consider it a top tier, a top tier skill. Like he’s and I think that’s what being a good storyteller is, is getting someone emotionally invested in something absurd, I think is probably the most powerful way I can describe storytelling
[00:01:27] Brendan Hufford: [00:01:27] a hundred.
[00:01:27] That’s actually a fantastic definition. So
[00:01:30] Roberto: [00:01:30] isn’t that good sound bite. That’s a great sound bite for me. Nailed it.
[00:01:34] Brendan Hufford: [00:01:34] Nailed it. Well, that’s all the quote cards. Um, so how much, I’m not trying to put you on the spot, but like, do you get to. Consume any YouTube, like how much, how has like, what’s your like user behavior right on YouTube?
[00:01:47] Roberto: [00:01:47] My user behavior is that I consume a lot of YouTube passively, meaning I’m more likely listening to it while I work than actually watching video, unless something demands visual attention, but that would still, for me, for me, I watched less entertainment, YouTube. I’ve watched a lot of entertainment YouTube back in the day.
[00:02:04] Uh, that’s actually what got me kind of into it. I grew up in the era of, um, like I’m 35. So YouTube came out when I was an adult. And the early days of YouTube, we were watching basically pirated content because Oh, these nineties cartoons don’t exist anymore. Now they’re on YouTube. Awesome. That’s like how YouTube started.
[00:02:21] A lot of people keep saying creators built YouTube. I think that’s a little, that’s a little arrogant for the last, for the first. Three to five years of YouTube. It wasn’t about original content creators that didn’t make YouTube a destination. It was all of the banned from TV ads. We literally went to YouTube to watch old Superbowl ads and too hot for TV ads.
[00:02:41] And also like we watched videos that were being uploaded. From other countries just because they were fascinating. And I’m talking about, I was a college kid. I’m sitting there, my best friend, Malcolm’s kitchen with five other dudes. And we’re saying here, gathered around this laptop, like ignoring his, like, you know, flat screen TV.
[00:02:59] We’re grabbing around this laptop, just laughing at stuff on the internet. And again, a lot of it wasn’t original content creators yet because there weren’t that many of them. But when that did happen, we were watching people like Freddie Wong. I just seen, we were watching, uh, parodies, people were making of music videos.
[00:03:18] So in that way it was still, it was either people mimicking Hollywood or mimicking the music industry. And to this day, the largest viewed videos on YouTube are music, videos, and music related to this day. Other things would come later. So long story short, I consume. YouTube videos that are more for my own personal development or business development, but a lot of them I consume as podcast I can.
[00:03:46] And I also watch podcasts and consume podcasts on YouTube, Joe Rogan and sit there and I can do all of my email marketing and all my affiliate marketing. And I can, you know, set up my coaching courses and do all my business stuff. I can do my white boarding. I can do my white boarding and I can sit there and listen to Joe Rogan.
[00:04:01] Talk to Edward Snowden. Like for two hours while I get real work done,
[00:04:07] Brendan Hufford: [00:04:07] because every single one is three hours long. What is, um, what’s something that you watched recently that got you like really fired up or you found like really interesting or maybe even like an, a fellow like creator that you’re like, wow, this person’s like
[00:04:20] Roberto: [00:04:20] really doing great work right now.
[00:04:22] I’ve been really into the stuff that Laila from YouTube has been making. Uh, she is a content creator. Like I hate using this terminology, but I would say she’s the next, not from a blowing up standpoint, but maybe like, but I would say content wise, she’s the next Peter McKinnon. Like she’s her own person and she does her own stuff, but I’m just saying, if you like Peter McKinnon, Sara, Dietschy potato jet, you like the, the filmmaker photographer, creative hustler type content.
[00:04:54] Um, then you’re going to love Laila stuff. And so I’ve been a big fan of what she’s doing. And I’ve been watching that. I’ve been watching that Travis MCP. He is a, uh, friend actually, and he’s a tech YouTuber. I love. His tech commentary. Cause it’s not just tech reviews of the latest smartphone. I like his criticism of the tech community and tech enthusiast.
[00:05:17] And I love his videos where he kind of criticizes all of us for being loyal to brands blindly when they’re not loyal to us. It’s like, so he takes these funny. I just liked that he makes tech fun. You know what I’m saying? So I, I enjoy people who make really good content, but also maybe don’t take themselves too seriously.
[00:05:35] Cause I feel like I’m someone who takes themselves too seriously.
[00:05:38] Brendan Hufford: [00:05:38] Tell me, tell me about that. What do you mean?
[00:05:42] Roberto: [00:05:42] Like, um, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this from watching my content, but I’m insane. I’m a crazy person.
[00:05:49] Brendan Hufford: [00:05:49] Yeah. Yeah.
[00:05:50] Roberto: [00:05:50] I think Roddick is hell.
[00:05:53] Brendan Hufford: [00:05:53] How does that play out? Like with like the actual, like, alright here, like I’m going to lay it all out and I’m going to plan a thousand things and all of that different
[00:06:02] Roberto: [00:06:02] stuff.
[00:06:04] I have, I have a content. I have a content plan in my Apple notes that I kid you not is 3000 content ideas. Deep. They’d be like, how do you call it? What ideas for content? I can’t stop coming up with ideas for content. Yeah, my problem is priorities. My problem is prioritizing. This is what the whiteboard is for.
[00:06:24] Brendan Hufford: [00:06:24] What do you feel like you end up accidentally prioritizing before? Cause I run into this a lot too. Um, like as somebody, you know, I do a lot, I do a lot of like, I have a day job where I’m an SEO director at an agency. I do consultant SEO consulting work. I have a course in community and I end up getting pulled because of my skillset.
[00:06:41] I can like hop into anybody’s business. It’s like, if they’re interested in getting traffic from Google, it should be all of us. They’re like, Hey, I’ve heard that I need help with that. And you’re the exact same, like, I’m sure you can hop into anybody’s business, whether it’s from a branding perspective or a media PR, there’s a lot of different, like things you
[00:06:58] Roberto: [00:06:58] have.
[00:06:58] Absolutely. The branding, the media, like once something I’ve been really talking to people a lot more is about their workflow. And also about their time and project management, but also a lot with, um, influencers. And so entrepreneurs, I’ve been really focused on this conversation about the diversification of the revenue, but also the ownership of their audience.
[00:07:19] If you don’t own the audience, if you don’t own the traffic, you don’t own the business. And that’s very important to me, but influencers, I see successful influencers. They’re on the verge of being broke and they live in fear because they like content, creators and influencers. This is something, and it’s not necessarily a popular opinion, but it’s this phrase that I’m ma I’m tying myself to.
[00:07:42] This is the sword that I’m dying on is that influencers became entrepreneurs without the benefit of an actual business. Hmm, that sounds thinking for entrepreneurship, people would say, wait, how can you be an entrepreneur and not have actual business? And what people don’t realize is entrepreneurship is a, is a self-employed venture.
[00:08:06] A self-employed venture doesn’t necessarily mean that you built and run a business. You might have a company, you might have a business entity. That’s not the same thing as having a business.
[00:08:21] Brendan Hufford: [00:08:21] So you define, I think you defined a business, maybe similar to, I do the way I do
[00:08:26] Roberto: [00:08:26] well, a product or service, you sell a product or service.
[00:08:29] And when you become an influencer, you are the product because it’s, you built a brand, you built a, you built a profitable brand and that brand is tied to. Your performance and your identity. It’s very similar to becoming an actor or entertainer. Like you get you that’s, you know, that’s a gig. You’re not necessarily, you’re not exclusive if you are an entertainer, you know, but you’re not, you’re not pinned down or tied to a venue unless you are, unless that’s the deal that you made, but you are responsible for, or your own economic mobility.
[00:09:08] You’re responsible for everybody. Nobody is. Taking care of you, so to speak and influencers are that without the structure of Hollywood and without the process and formalized systems of Hollywood and without the clearly understood aspect of their business model, but also. Entertainers, they immediately diversify for the most part as quickly as possible.
[00:09:30] Whereas influencers don’t at least influencers on YouTube don’t as much, I would say influencers outside of YouTube and other content platforms because they don’t have direct monetization from the platform. I would say that influencers outside of YouTube are more business savvy because they’re forced to.
[00:09:47] That’s what I think is interesting about people like Jake and Logan. Paul is the fact that they started out on a platform like vine after being failed. You tubers initially, uh, they later came back. Conkers to YouTube and the platform, the algorithm having cut their teeth on vine and built their marketing shops, their ability to build an audience, but they were also forced to hustle for brand deals because there was not direct ad payout from vine.
[00:10:12] So I think someone from vine, Snapchat, Instagram, Tik, TOK, um, or even Twitch has a much. Better perspective and hustle. And again, controversial opinion. I think that every other content platform demands a better work ethic than YouTube does. And I think that if you were successful in another platform, you’re probably more business savvy than the average YouTube, or even if they’re successful.
[00:10:35] Brendan Hufford: [00:10:35] Oh so much. I want to circle back to here. All right. I want to talk about this before we move on. Um, or circle back the, I want to talk about the whole like influencers living in fear, because the way I was thinking about it, and this is something, you know, it’s been talked about before in the media controversial opinions, uh, like professional athletes are overpaid, right?
[00:10:55] They’re playing a child’s game, it’s a sport. And the, the justification that I always. Kind of put
[00:10:59] Roberto: [00:10:59] behind it. It’s like injury brain damage, injury, brain damage. And the fact that like the what’s their what’s their what’s their value after they’re no longer valuable to the sport. They’re the trajectory for the moving on.
[00:11:13] Now I have a plan for that, but typically. Most people don’t understand what they do next. That’s why until he decided to build an actual business and learn a skill, he didn’t have Lewis house whose book is sitting. Two books are sitting on my bookshelf right now was broken, ended up back on his brother and his sisters like couch rotating between family members after his football career ended and everything like that, but actually a great conversations with his brother.
[00:11:37] We actually, um, he did a coaching program with me for a while. Like, um, and you, a lot of people don’t realize that. What’s your next step is a big thing, but go on.
[00:11:47] Brendan Hufford: [00:11:47] Yeah. The reason they, the reason they get paid so much is because thousands of people’s jobs depend on them, right? Like if they don’t show up to play their game, the whole stadium doesn’t work all the money to build the state.
[00:11:58] Like all of these people in that, the thing is an influencer. Is the exact opposite where all these influencers depend on a company, paying them when you’re an athlete, when you’re a real celebrity or entertainer, all of the other people are depending on you doing what you do. So they want you to keep succeeding.
[00:12:16] They want you to keep doing well. They don’t, they need you versus as an influencer, you need the people, you need, the brands you need, the people
[00:12:24] Roberto: [00:12:24] you live, you live under the triad of fear. Yeah. Like it’s literally, it’s like, you know, it’s like a Yakuza triad type of deal where you live in fear of the algorithms.
[00:12:34] You live in fear of the audience and you live in fear of the advertisers. You have to bend the knee to three different people and satisfy the needs of three different completely counter and polarized, uh, points of view in order to truly be successful. You have to balance that equation. It’s like, and the, and the thing is you’re familiar with Tony Robbins definition of personal power.
[00:12:56] Brendan Hufford: [00:12:56] Um, no, I mean, I’m aware of that. It is a thing
[00:13:00] Roberto: [00:13:00] Robin’s definition of personal power is the ability to act. My definition of personal power is the ability to act independent of others. So I expanded on that definition. Why do you think in the dichotomy of influencer that I say the, or even entrepreneur, the ability to act independently, why would I make the basis of power real power?
[00:13:23] Acting not your only your ability to act and take action, but your ability to take action independently.
[00:13:31] Brendan Hufford: [00:13:31] Um, I mean, I think if, if I were to kind of take a guess, it’s just that, like we talked about with, especially in the sphere of influencers and especially in YouTube and social media and stuff, they don’t, they’re constantly serving other people and you get into a really weird that’s why like mental health with like influencers and social media is such a big issue because they’re never, actually, they’re so afraid to just do what they want to do, because it’s like serving yourself and making the thing that you want to make.
[00:13:57] Might not make all of those other people
[00:13:58] Roberto: [00:13:58] happy and
[00:13:59] Brendan Hufford: [00:13:59] they’re afraid of losing whatever it is. They felt like their lifestyle, their followers,
[00:14:02] Roberto: [00:14:02] whatever. Okay. Let’s let’s use, let’s use, let’s use a very practical contrast between a person who runs a company and runs a business. And then a, um, influencer, let’s say you have a business woman and she runs a company.
[00:14:20] She has 20 employees. Yes. She’s known in her like town, but like they have business outside of the town. They have business. Like they have clients nationwide. Right. If she has a scandal. Within her personal life or her family, what’s her exposure and risk on that business because the value is tied to what the service and the company provides.
[00:14:45] Right? Her personal brand, isn’t that much of a liability to the actual business and the people in her employ. Right. As long as she did nothing criminal, correct. As long as she did nothing, criminal, nothing that breaks the law, there’s minimal fallout. If she has a divorce or, uh, you know, or her husband cheated on her or vice versa or anything like that, none of that is going to be so sensationalized beyond like people staring at her in the mall or the grocery store to the point of actually impacting her business and livelihood.
[00:15:15] Correct. Correct. Now, if you’re an influencer and you’re in a relationship and let’s say you’re a guy in this situation or a girl like, and you cheat on your significant other, and then you, that person has been on your content in the Instagram photos with you in the, then this literally. Can directly impact your bottom line.
[00:15:39] This directly, uh, could make you have your fan base turn on you and you haven’t changed the value that you provide. You haven’t changed. The thing that they consume, nothing happened to them. But they’re going to feel hurt and betrayed because they put an emotional investment in your identity and who you are and what your values are.
[00:16:00] And they’re going to vote with their attention, the little bit that they might spend with their wallet in terms of merchandise or donations or things of that nature, all that goes away. and when their attention goes away, So does the advertising. So does the brand and the algorithm also is reactive to the audience, not the art, nothing happens if the audience doesn’t like you anymore, or doesn’t feel you anymore, your value is literally tied to your likeability.
[00:16:26] If you’re an influencer in many ways, despite the fact that the quality of what you produced, you being the product, hasn’t really diminished the perception of your market value. Has diminished and directly impacted everything. And if you’re a larger influencer or a macro influencer that does impact the jobs of the people in your employ directly, if you have an editor or if you have a videographer and the sad thing is the fans don’t care about the people working for you.
[00:16:51] And just like, Oh, I guess they’ll get another job. Or I guess they’ll get a real job. They don’t care about those things. They care about the fact that they feel emotionally invested in you and now they feel betrayed even though nothing happened to them. Do you follow in the business world? In the business world, a customer, literally.
[00:17:08] And I hate to bring this up. I hate to say it this way. We can hear, we can hear how many stories about sweatshops in China, and we’re still going to buy the iPhone and iPad on me
[00:17:19] and that, and you know, and some people would say that makes us, you know, a bad person or you’re supporting this horrible thing, but it’s like, we’re not supporting this horrible thing as much as, and maybe we are passively, but that’s not what, why we’re doing it. Our motive is. We want the thing that we wanted.
[00:17:35] We want the convenience that it brings to our life and we care about that thing. But most people refuse to admit even people who think that they’re very good, or even as what the kids say today, very woke, you can audit them and you will find that there is a moral compromise that they make or ignore in favor of the convenience that happens in their own, their own lives.
[00:17:59] And you, and the thing is that’s fair. You don’t have to be, you don’t have to be held to anybody else’s standard, but as an influencer, you are directly held to the standard and perceptions that your audience has or the standard or perceptions that you set. And it works both ways because if you built your brand off of being negative, and then you decide that you’re tired of being toxic and maybe you’ve grown up, maybe you did this when you were young and it was edgy and it was cool.
[00:18:25] The audience doesn’t necessarily, if you decide to move on, they’ll be like, cool. We’re out.
[00:18:31] Brendan Hufford: [00:18:31] Yeah.
[00:18:31] Roberto: [00:18:31] If you’re in, you have to basically start over. I
[00:18:34] Brendan Hufford: [00:18:34] think a good example of this is just cause we were talking about, we were joking about like, uh, the Paul brothers, like when Logan, Paul had his infamous like video that he uploaded to YouTube.
[00:18:43] Like I know instantly Jake, Paul lost a bunch of brand deals and he was just like, that had
[00:18:47] Roberto: [00:18:47] nothing to like, both of them did. Yeah. But he like, but he, it had nothing to do with them and he still felt it.
[00:18:52] Brendan Hufford: [00:18:52] Yup. And on everything, everybody on whatever his whole organization, like there’s a lot of people behind that, like from the merge people to everything.
[00:18:59] And it’s, it is really like if your sibling does something stupid, it can affect you versus, you know, if your sibling is a startup founder and so are you, and they tank their company, like all of a sudden your investors, aren’t all like we’re out. Or like all the, you know, people use your app. They’re not going to be like, well, you have a brother that did that at his company.
[00:19:19] So we’re all
[00:19:19] Roberto: [00:19:19] leaving,
[00:19:20] Brendan Hufford: [00:19:20] like.
[00:19:21] Roberto: [00:19:21] No, nobody. Yeah. In the business world, in the real world, that’s what a business is. And that’s the separation that’s dichotomy. It’s like, we want the value that you provide. And while we’d love the founder or the CEO, and whether they’re the face of the company, do you realize like how many people like may not personally, like in advertising.
[00:19:45] Love Gary Vaynerchuk. And yet they’ll still hire Vayner media. I don’t know how many people were like, you realize how many people hesitate a little bit. Cause they’re like, they don’t like his personal brand is bravado, but like they’re like, but I really want the value. And for this price, I can’t beat it.
[00:20:02] Like you’re one of the fastest rising companies and everything like that. I may not love your CEO, but I love the outcomes.
[00:20:08] Brendan Hufford: [00:20:08] Yeah. And they know they’re not working with him anyways. Like when like
[00:20:11] Roberto: [00:20:11] thrilling,
[00:20:12] Brendan Hufford: [00:20:12] I read your case studies. I talked to your team. I know how you do the thing you do for the company that I am, blah, blah, blah.
[00:20:19] I, um, yeah, that’s a super good point. It can really, the personal brand is. Is helpful. Right. And especially like, if your name is on the door, like there is a look maybe a little bit more overlap between the company and the personal brand, but it’s still like, and this is a good thing. You still have to earn it.
[00:20:35] Right. You can’t just be like, well, Gary, can’t be like, well, look at all my social media followers, let VaynerMedia hire you. If every time they get had a client, they totally tanked. Right.
[00:20:44] Roberto: [00:20:44] Correct. No, you still have to deliver, you still have to deliver. And that’s the great thing about business. As long as in a business, you actually deliver what people want at a price that they will accept.
[00:20:54] You will always you’ll be okay. But as an influencer, you can be delivering peoples the same content you’ve been delivering them for three years, five years, eight years, 10 years. And all it takes is the perception of you not being who they believe you to be to completely right. Versus the course. It can take one video to undermine the course of a thousand previous videos.
[00:21:14] And that seems so unreasonable and so unstable, which is why I also tell people that their money and livelihood can not be tied completely to, and solely to the brand that they built and the perception of the brand and also to what people it’s great. And yes, you should be likable and yes, in a perfect world.
[00:21:32] People would say, well, don’t do anything wrong and you won’t get caught out. And you won’t like, but here’s the reality. There are kids that were kids on the internet in a different culture, the internet, and I’m watching people dig up tweets from five and six years ago and weaponize who they were. And you’re not that you’re not the same person at 22, as you are at 16, no reasonable human being believes that, but it makes for a damn good headline.
[00:21:54] It makes for sensational clickbait. From a media culture that doesn’t necessarily love influencers, but loves profiting off of them, loves the lift them up, loves the, tear them down. And frankly, I think that every one of the mainstream, this is a different tangent, everyone of these mainstream media companies in the beginning of their articles, if they talk about an influencer or they talk about a social media platform, I think that the FTC should require every mainstream media outlet to disclose in the beginning of their broadcast.
[00:22:20] If they’re talking about social media platform, or if they’re doing an article at the FTC should require them to disclose that this platform directly competes with us for advertiser revenue. And we need to disclose that before you read the remainder of this article about influencers or social media platforms, if you are literally a competitor, somebody, and then you’re a broadcast platform and you’re covering a direct competitor to your business, people should remember that at the forefront of their mind and not be required to think of it for themselves, which should be obvious, but like you should be required to disclose that, Hey, I’m using my platform.
[00:23:01] Right now to possibly undermine someone who directly competes with me in the market for your dollars.
[00:23:08] Brendan Hufford: [00:23:08] A hundred percent. Yeah. It’s like, I don’t, this is a very micro, but in my world, it’s like all of the social media websites that write that a SEO is dead every year. I’m like, of course you would say that.
[00:23:18] Of course you would. Um, yeah.
[00:23:22] Roberto: [00:23:22] Why wouldn’t you say that?
[00:23:23] Brendan Hufford: [00:23:23] Right. And of
[00:23:24] Roberto: [00:23:24] course it feels dead to you. If you don’t know what you’re doing, like it’s just, yeah. Make an SEO is dead clickbait, YouTube video for 2020, which will contradict the idea that SEO is dead. Because then I get to talk about the evolution of AI and algorithms.
[00:23:37] Yeah,
[00:23:37] Brendan Hufford: [00:23:37] I’ve been obsessed with that late. Let’s talk about that in a second. I don’t want to lose this. You mentioned really quickly. And this was like the goal of my original question. That was so good at it. I want to lose it.
[00:23:46] Roberto: [00:23:46] Um, yeah. You mentioned like
[00:23:48] Brendan Hufford: [00:23:48] time and project management. And what I was saying was like, I get a ton of opportunities.
[00:23:53] I know you do too. Like how. I guess two-part question like how many new opportunities would you say come your way in a given week or month, and then like, how do you decide what to say? No. To asking for a
[00:24:07] Roberto: [00:24:07] friend, a lot of opportunities come to me and the majority of them, I say no to, I say no to about maybe 80 to 90% of opportunities that come my way.
[00:24:16] Um, I ask myself, um, am I excited about this. Yes or no. And then I asked myself how excited And what am I about this on a scale of 1 to 10? And if it can’t break a 7 it’s not worth prioritizing, but it’s less of a no. And more of a not right now or so like that becomes a not right now, possibly.
[00:24:39] Right. So, all right. Am I excited about this great, I ask myself? Um, Three really core things to filter opportunities. 1 Is this a revenue-generating opportunity? Yes or no. 2 Is this something that helps build brand yes or no? 3 Is this something that builds me and my personal development goals or moves me forward in a way as a human being?
[00:25:01] Yes or no. It has to meet, it has to qualify for at least two of those things. Um, And that is kind of where I draw the line bare minimum. I still might say yes, if it does one of those things. Well, enough, if it is one of those things well enough, but, um, it can’t be something that compromises my brand. It can’t be something that compromises my personal, my personal values, which are more utilitarian than they are.
[00:25:31] I would say a general moralistic scale because I’m one of those macro big picture people, you know what I’m saying? I would, uh, I would be like, I’d be probably like one of those, like, um, like maybe one of those antiheroes or super villains in a way. And like, I’m fascinated with this, like, I describe myself as a aspiring or fail or failed super building, because I think about the, always the contrary and other side of the story.
[00:26:00] And I remember thinking one day when I was like, I’m a kid or a teenager or something, I realized the Legion of doom is nothing but disenfranchise and underfunded scientists that were trying to save the world
[00:26:14] Brendan Hufford: [00:26:14] a hundred percent. Yeah. You’re like, you know,
[00:26:16] Roberto: [00:26:16] I got a rod deal here. It was literally. People like Elon Musk that were trying to save, like, think about mr.
[00:26:24] Freeze, mr. Freeze was going to try and cure makers in the drum, which in the real world would be Parkinson’s right. And his big corporate, like overlords said, you know, instead of using this wonderful PR opportunity, instead of literally owning the patent in perpetuity for killing, like for killing off this chronic illness, this neurological disease, like, and literally.
[00:26:45] Being able to do a huge investor raise around this Victor freezes technology. We’re going to pull the plug on his ailing wife, fire him, and cause a lab accident. That turns a brilliant man into a brilliant monster. Like. I really hope the investors pulled out to that company directly after, because I’m like, wow, they’re shorts like, wow, the CEO.
[00:27:08] Short-sided just like, you would literally oust that dude. And you’d probably make Victor, the CEO at that point in the real world. Right. So like, I think about these things. I like, I think about that, like, Wow. We could have, if we had just gone another way we could literally like, Hmm. Like what would that look like?
[00:27:23] So like, so I, I, that’s a tangent and that’s just me being ADHD. Like that’s my ADHD and that’s my like funny tangents. But like I say that to say this, this like what I value and what I care about is a very limited scope of very important things to me that I refuse to compromise on. The good news is because it’s a limited scope of things that I refuse to compromise on.
[00:27:48] It makes being decisive very easy when it comes to opportunities and costs. And I’ve really looked at prioritizing my physical, mental, and emotional health a lot, which I don’t think a lot of people do. And I think when you’re in a season of hustle, of building, something versus maintaining or growing something, it’s easier to feel.
[00:28:09] The pressure of that. And then that’s how people make compromises because they rationalized things or because scarcity drives them and then you make short-sighted decisions. And that’s kind of why I brought up the super billing thing is I think that a lot of short-sighted decisions that you think are good upfront lead to long-term bad outcomes.
[00:28:29] Have
[00:28:29] Brendan Hufford: [00:28:29] you ever, so I here’s a, I have a followup question, but what I heard you say was kind of a three part framework, maybe four is, does it generate revenue? Does it, is it build my brand? Does it build me personally as a human? And if it doesn’t do all of those things, but
[00:28:42] Roberto: [00:28:42] it does one of them really, well,
[00:28:45] Brendan Hufford: [00:28:45] maybe we’ll do that, but it can’t compromise the others.
[00:28:48] Right. It can’t be like, this is going to build my brand, hurt my revenue and make me a worse person. Right.
[00:28:54] Roberto: [00:28:54] When you cannot,
[00:28:56] Brendan Hufford: [00:28:56] when’s the time you’ve screwed that up. Like when you obviously come to this framework after like making mistakes,
[00:29:03] Roberto: [00:29:03] I think that one of them was multiple times of trying to help another influencer or a content creator that.
[00:29:13] I liked them as a human being, but I was separating who they are as a human being and who I know them to be from who they can be online. Um, and some of these are like, and this is more than one time, but these are like not small influencers. These aren’t small YouTubers, these aren’t people under a hundred thousand, some of them over a mil, like there’ve been.
[00:29:36] Because standing up for people only for them to, uh, or having their back on something only for them to then like standing with them. And then for them to like flip the thing or whatever, because of what might be in their interest or because of public perception or this or that, or where they, you know, say something very publicly and then they reverse course or, or knowing that.
[00:30:01] Hmm, they’re doing this for a reason and I respect the reason, but man, is that not a good look and thinking about like the fact that. There’s like, this is something that as a human being, like, I want to be supportive of like a friend or somebody that I respect, but it’s like, man, are they putting me now in awkward positions that have a negative impact on what I’m trying to build and what I’m trying to do and the people I’m trying to help.
[00:30:27] Um, it’s a very, that one. Like trying to figure out that balance and that DICOM dichotomy of holding people, the brand that people’s built against them when it has. An impact on what you’re building is very hard, because I think all of us take our businesses and our brands super seriously. It’s super personal.
[00:30:49] We built it with our own hands, blood, sweat, and tears. And it sucks when you find yourself in a position where your friends or contemporaries are putting you in an awkward situation by supporting them. And you’re now put in a position where it’s like, how public can I be about siding with you? And can I trust you?
[00:31:07] Not to flip-flop. When your own best interest are on the line and then try to, you know, apologize or make it up or clarify on the back end. And then where does that leave us? Because like, I might trust you as a person or like you as a person. But now I can’t be connected to our invest in your brand because I can’t predict what you might do, because obviously you’re going to do what’s in your best interest.
[00:31:32] And you may have put yourself in a compromised position if you’re leveraged. So I, I like, I know this is long winded. I’m just like, it’s hard. This is fire.
[00:31:40] Brendan Hufford: [00:31:40] This is, it’s hard.
[00:31:42] Roberto: [00:31:42] It’s hard in this world where your influencers and a lot of us genuinely all like each other and a lot of us know each other and we see each other at these events.
[00:31:49] It’s hard when people, you like. Are leveraged and you don’t know what to do about it. And sometimes people aren’t upfront with you about the fact that they’re leveraged or that they’re in a compromised position.
[00:32:00] Brendan Hufford: [00:32:00] What does that for? I think I understand what you’re saying, but what do you mean by they’re?
[00:32:04] Like leverage like somebody there,
[00:32:05] Roberto: [00:32:05] there might be a lot of ways. There might be a lot of ways people can be leveraged. It could be that they’ve created a perception that doesn’t match a reality. And, you know, in influencer world that like when that comes to light, It usually doesn’t end well, usually creates a rough patch when people are in congruent.
[00:32:26] Cause the thing is, I don’t think it’s inauthentic, but there’s this parasocial relationship where people have this full-on expectation that people in the curated part of their life, that that’s exactly who they should be when cameras aren’t rolling. And that’s really unreasonable considering that I doubt that most people are the same as they are at work as they are in their own house.
[00:32:47] Of course. And when people are on camera, they are at work period.
[00:32:53] Brendan Hufford: [00:32:53] Yeah, they’re performing. I mean, at least for a lot of people, it’s at least to a degree, a bit of a,
[00:32:58] Roberto: [00:32:58] what do you want to call it or not? My thing is this is somebody doing their job now who you are when you’re doing your job may not be 100% who you are when you’re at the sports game or when you’re at home or when you’re wherever.
[00:33:14] You’re not always on, unless you’re Gary V like, uh, like you’re not always on. And the expectation is because people have, by their own free will put that emotional investment in you. There’s the expectation that you’re always on, or always that, that’s why I didn’t create a persona, but I feel bad for youtubers who are entertainers, because the bigger problem with this is you, you tubers who are entertainers or YouTube YouTubers who are vloggers, because.
[00:33:40] And YouTubers who have a young audience, because now the perception is this is the reality of who you are. And that’s unreasonable because this is you guys television, stop holding them to that. You’re not doing that. I hope you’re not doing that with celebrities. Cause then that’s why they say never meet your heroes.
[00:33:58] Cause you’ll be really disappointed. Then the difference is there’s an infrastructure where that’s not going to hurt a celebrity, like to be in congruent in that way, to the degree that hurts an influencer.
[00:34:08] Brendan Hufford: [00:34:08] Yeah. They think, uh, they think Miley Cyrus really is Hannah Montana. Right?
[00:34:14] Roberto: [00:34:14] And so like, there’s a difference between even though it may not be a ridiculously large gap, there’s a difference between Markiplier and Mark Fisher.
[00:34:27] There’s a difference between Pewdie pie and Felix Schulberg. Like, and on this, the latter one with With Felix, the gap is much wider. The gap is much wider. Um, so that like the, the gap between who you are. If you’re in that entertainment realm where a lot of my friends are, and then the reality of who you are.
[00:34:52] And again, since it’s entertainment and this is television for people, again, a lot of it is a diverse group, but a lot of it is younger people that drive the traffic and the attention and drive the algorithm like that kind of sucks because I’ve watched people not be able to kind of grow up because their fan base is so younger than them.
[00:35:11] Brendan Hufford: [00:35:11] Yeah. Especially in that fear we talked about of that, like try out of fear and it, they can’t, they don’t want to change because of the brand deals they’re getting because of their audience. And if they lose the audience, then it’s just this whole horrible, like downward spiral. Right. Um,
[00:35:24] Roberto: [00:35:24] yeah, exactly. So, and exactly.
[00:35:26] So, and then you also have the fact that it’s like, frankly, Yeah, people can be leveraged because they’ve created situations to be taken where they’re easy to take them out of context. And to then just write a bunch of articles about them, whether that’s the mainstream media or whether it’s other content creators on YouTube that decide to leverage them for views by just making things up or taking something out of context and spirit spinning a conspiracy theory around it.
[00:35:50] You, you see how easy it is to paint, um, a narrative. And with people putting out content in an unguarded way. Most of the time, people who are amateurs, who are making a professional living, that’s what YouTube is. YouTube is amateurs making a professional living. People who have usually no degree, no formal training, no infrastructure, no background building an online venture.
[00:36:11] And building a brand and broadcasting themselves on a frequent basis in a very unguarded unpolished way. That’s raw and real authentic, all the buzz words, all the things we love so much, they’re massively vulnerable and liable to people who could just take advantage of that situation and paint, whatever narrative they want.
[00:36:31] And we see the mainstream media do it to influencers on a regular basis, but then the influencer community does it as well.
[00:36:37] Brendan Hufford: [00:36:37] So is the way I want to, I want to get your insight on this. I feel like you’ve already touched on it. The, you talked about like the difference between that and a business is like, kind of like owning the traffic and owning that audience a little bit more.
[00:36:49] Is that how we break out of that, like fear and that spiral, that downward
[00:36:53] Roberto: [00:36:53] spiral. Absolutely. Because if you make a good enough product, like a good enough product, like here’s, here’s someone who’s a smart influencer. That’s very polarizing and controversial. And we brought them up earlier. Jeffree star Jeffree star has no end of drama and scandals and things associated with him and his brand.
[00:37:13] And ain’t heard it sales though. Yeah. It has not earned a sales in any, he’s created a situation where even bad press is good press because you are talking about me. Yeah, like,
[00:37:28] Brendan Hufford: [00:37:28] and not selling himself. I mean, there’s
[00:37:30] Roberto: [00:37:30] not selling himself, but he’s not. He, he makes more like his product is, it’s the same thing with the Kardashians at this point and the gender, the Kardashian Jenner clan, there’s no press that would be bad press for them.
[00:37:43] In fact, the empire was built off of bad press. Initially being leveraged. This is the most genius thing I’ve ever seen take. What would normally be a shame and a scandal and leverage it into. Perpetuating yourself from being a sea Lister to the top tier of the list. Yeah, your masterclass
[00:38:05] Brendan Hufford: [00:38:05] closet organizer.
[00:38:06] And now all of a sudden, yeah, I totally agree. I think it’s really interesting too. Like the, yeah. Cause at the end of the day, Jeffrey star, like with all of the beauty YouTubers and influencers and all of that stuff, like they’re still gonna to be like, here’s, here’s Jeffrey’s product, here’s somebody else’s product, which is better.
[00:38:21] And that’s what a lot of the
[00:38:21] Roberto: [00:38:21] videos ended
[00:38:22] Brendan Hufford: [00:38:22] up being about like there’s drama channels and whatever, which. Thanks. YouTube. The algorithm is figured out, like you watch them one or two Shane Dawson videos. And they’re just like, Hey, you like this? You’re going to like all of this mess. No, anyways. Yeah. So, but the thing that’s interesting is that having that product and not just like,
[00:38:41] Roberto: [00:38:41] right, like it’s a quality product for a niche audience that now it sets a gold standard where you, you ha, if you have this, you’re a Hab.
[00:38:50] And if you don’t, you’re a have not creating something. That’s that standard. The packaging design is I’m not even a beauty person. And as a person with a background in design and branding, I look at the packaging and the thought of the design. I look at like the Shane Dawson conspiracy line, and I’m like, this is genius.
[00:39:07] And the way they tied it to his existing brand and what he’s known for the. The naming conventions. All of it is that they masterclass in marketing. It’s a masterclass in influencer marketing. It’s a masterclass in product sales. And again, remember the narrative in Shane Dawson’s documentary with him and Jeff.
[00:39:25] Freestar. It’s not just about Jeffrey. It’s about him. And it’s also about building a business venture. It’s also about Shane himself as an influencer, looking at what he is, an OG who helped forge the YouTube platform and establish it and help bring it into its mainstream. Prominence. That is today. He was one of YouTube top stars for in his heyday.
[00:39:44] And now he’s one of the biggest traffic drivers on the platform now and is, um, redefined. Uh, content on the platform doing something I said three years ago. And I think you’ve been following me along enough to know that I’ve said, I said, uh, I think three years ago. And I think I said it, I think I even said it again before Shane Dawson did, uh, his major series went, I spoke at VidCon in 2018.
[00:40:09] I, and I said this before that at vid summit. And at other conferences, I kept saying that long form content in the form of series webisode contents are going to make a comeback because YouTube and internet video was built on web series and on documentaries and on filmmaking. And I said that that would make a strong comeback.
[00:40:31] I started saying that in 2016, when I started speaking in 2015, I started speaking in 2016. I started speaking a lot more about social media and YouTube at conferences. And I’ve been saying since 26, Long form content, webisode series and filmmaking. We’re going to come back and then we’re going to dominate YouTube.
[00:40:48] And here we are.
[00:40:49] Brendan Hufford: [00:40:49] And it’s, I mean, it’s such a beautiful, I like Shane’s cause it’s such a beautiful, a blend of like vlog and films and webisode and Siri, you know, it’s not like a, what was my favorite video game, high school, which is very
[00:41:02] Roberto: [00:41:02] flighty one. I loved.
[00:41:03] Brendan Hufford: [00:41:03] So that was
[00:41:04] Roberto: [00:41:04] it’s different. It’s a, it’s a, it’s a different, it’s a different variation off of like, like, because this is not.
[00:41:12] Uh, it’s a high budget and it doesn’t need to be, and therefore it keeps the authenticity, like you said, the vlog style thing. And it reminds me of like, and that’s why daily V was successful and took Gary into prominence. Gary was, again, it was at almost the same subscribers account as me, even with the ask Gary Vee show, like me and him were at the same subscriber count for a long time, and we’re not even close to each other and accomplishments, but when he went.
[00:41:34] Two and him and D rock came up with daily V and then when you went daily on daily V that’s, what changed his brand? That thesis. And he said, himself, everybody’s going to make a Truman show. And so like Shane Dawson built Truman shows around these somewhat polarizing figures that got us emotionally invested in people and things and ideas we’d never and stories we’d never care about on our own.
[00:41:55] And that’s the genius of a great storyteller. What I like about this whole brand thing that happened with, uh, the makeup line. Is they tease this the first time he did a doc with Jeffery and that started that business relationship. But Shane exposed himself in his vulnerability in the sense of he’s looking at people who grew up, watching him make millions of dollars more than him.
[00:42:17] People who grew up watching him, people who were his fans are now ahead of him in an industry that he helped build. And even if you don’t have ego and you’re the most humble person in the world, that’s got to hurt and Jeffery. Convinced him that you can sell to your audience and no one will believe you’re a sellout.
[00:42:37] And when they do, they sold out of the product like, and record time and why it’s what we talked about. Emotional investment in the story and in the content creator allowed Shane to build something that for the long-term now is going to take care of him in perpetuity. Because now instead of just having a brand, he has a business and he has a product.
[00:42:58] He has a passive income stream. Dream that doesn’t require them to hustle and doesn’t require them to go in the hole. And it immediately, immediately the longterm, like last 12 years of his life has led up to this moment that now truly gives them actual independence and freedom. Because now he, if you’ve never watched a Shane Dawson video because of the association with Jeffrey star and because of all the hype and the press surrounding it, you never have to watch a Shane Dawson video to buy this product.
[00:43:29] Brendan Hufford: [00:43:29] Yeah, I taught. So I want to talk about that. Really something kind of similar, maybe tangental is like, so I’m doing this project a hundred days of SEO. I was tired of all of the like SEO, whatever. I’m just going to be honest, unpopular opinion. Maybe. I don’t know.
[00:43:44] Roberto: [00:43:44] I feel like,
[00:43:45] Brendan Hufford: [00:43:45] yeah. Most of the SEO gurus that you see on YouTube, it’s like watching a wet blanket.
[00:43:51] Like there’s no personality. Or it’s just like fake where it’s like, jump cut. What if I told you keywords are dead? And it’s like, they’re all the same. Like there’s three top channels in SEO and they all look and sound exactly the same. One of them has more animations than the other, but like, yeah, Nate, anybody who watches this I’m talking about, and I’m
[00:44:10] Roberto: [00:44:10] pretty
[00:44:11] Brendan Hufford: [00:44:11] strong on it, but.
[00:44:13] I, one of the things I’ve really struggled with is, so I’m doing a a hundred days of SEO. I’m doing a hundred videos, a hundred blog posts, a hundred podcast episodes, like not in a row. I thought I could huge mistake. Um, I wasn’t prepared for the, I should’ve talked to you first. You would have been like, here’s what that actually looks like in terms of work,
[00:44:30] Roberto: [00:44:30] right?
[00:44:30] Matching and prioritizing planning days, production days, editing days,
[00:44:36] Brendan Hufford: [00:44:36] how. So that was what I, what I didn’t get and I get it now. And that’s what we’re doing now. Cause I’m about halfway through.
[00:44:44] But
[00:44:45] one of the things I have a question about is, and we like, I want to talk about this because that’s one of the things that makes somebody like, uh, uh, Shane or whoever else, and even like, Casey Neistat when he first came out with his like film chops and storytelling chops, like the content was so different than what we were used to seeing how I’m really interested in this.
[00:45:04] Cause like when you Google certain terms, especially in the business world, the B2B world, the world that I play in software, et cetera, uh, web design, the whole first page, all the articles sound the same. They all look, I literally sent out an email to my newsletter. A couple of days ago and said like, here’s the first paragraph from the whole first page, all 10 results.
[00:45:24] Can you do these all sound like they’re written by the same person? Like they’re awful. And the problem is like you get the, this copycat content. There’s a great blog post about this on animals with a Z it’s. They’re
[00:45:35] Roberto: [00:45:35] a content marketing
[00:45:36] Brendan Hufford: [00:45:36] agency. Yeah. But it happens on YouTube too. Like people are like, well, pick Peter McKinnon, just crushed.
[00:45:42] I got to do a video like that. I got to do, Roberto, just did this video, uh, this tech review or this, you know, covered this topic or his video on passive income has 1.6 million views. So I need a video just like that on passive income.
[00:45:56] Roberto: [00:45:56] And you end up with this
[00:45:57] Brendan Hufford: [00:45:57] weird. We’re like all the search results,
[00:46:00] Roberto: [00:46:00] even the content creators will just try to, um, even I do this sometimes they’ll just try and rehash the greatest hits, which does work, but, um, but there’s a way to do it.
[00:46:09] Right. And we’ll get to that.
[00:46:11] Brendan Hufford: [00:46:11] Yeah. I mean, that’s my question. Like how very much asking this is another asking for a friend question, but like, how do I, what do you, where do you draw the line between being original being referential and being just like wholesale copying?
[00:46:28] Roberto: [00:46:28] Your obligation is to the average consumer before your own effing ego.
[00:46:34] So by the way, if there’s attention and demand about this around this, and you decide to go against the grain because you want to be original. And you haven’t put originality in its place, which I’ll get to that. If you decide that you’re not going to do this click-baity title or this style of thumbnail or this thing, when there’s clear evidence, that that is what resonates with the average consumer—if you decide that you’re going to do something weird and quirky for the sake of being original and it tanks that’s on you, homie, that’s your fault because ego is expensive and you just paid the price for it. And you deserve to pay them. You’ll pay the price for your lack of vision. Like that’s the emperor from star Wars, if you did.
[00:47:09] It’s like now how of the dark side? Like that’s the emperor from star Wars? Like, so I do a very, I’m very proud of my emperor Palpatine impression, if you haven’t noticed, but
[00:47:20] Brendan Hufford: [00:47:20] clip number two, we had one at the beginning and then that’s clip number two for this year.
[00:47:25] Roberto: [00:47:25] But, um, but no, like I say that. What a lot of content creators, a lot of business people.
[00:47:33] There’s a point where when you become successful. You lose sight of that average consumer. And then you also have the ego to start thinking when the data will tell you very differently that you’re making content for your audience, you’re not making content for your audience. You’re making content that your audience will respect.
[00:47:49] That is for people who’ve never heard of you because growth doesn’t happen in just maintaining what you have. That’s not growth. That’s called maintenance. Are you, are you building an empire or are you a janitor? Like. You know, real time
[00:48:03] Brendan Hufford: [00:48:03] SEO, we call it. Do I people say like, I write for humans, not for robots.
[00:48:07] I’m like, that’s like a fancy way of saying your stuff sucks. Like,
[00:48:10] Roberto: [00:48:10] like they’re full of crap. They’re full of crap because guess what? The robots are in service of the humans, homie. That’s what convenience is. That’s what convenience is. If you ignore the robots, it’s AI, it’s fancy. It’s, you know, and you know, how many content creators I actually literally get into arguments with about, and almost put in a headlock over this or that like when we get into debates on camera, but I’m polite about it.
[00:48:29] Like. And that’s not me being fake. It’s me understanding where that sentiment comes from. People don’t understand what YouTube and social media platforms are. YouTube and social media platforms like, and why people think they don’t care about creators. Guess what they shouldn’t, they’re beholden to the average consumer.
[00:48:47] Should they should YouTube listen. To the community, the 100 million people, which is not really a hundred million, cause all of us made five accounts to help PewDiePie teeth series. So it’s not really a hundred million, but let’s just say it is. Should we listen to the a hundred million people that are the core YouTube community that are subscribed to PewDiePie fans like me?
[00:49:06] Should we listen to them? Should we listen to the 30 to 7 million content creators? Or should we listen to the 2 billion, average consumers and the other people. The billions of people in the connected internet world. Cause it’s almost 4 million people on the internet now, uh, sorry, 4 billion people on the internet now because we’re having an expansion.
[00:49:27] By the way we cap the U S market in population is 30 330,000,330 million. Um, Internet adoption for all these platforms has not reached 80% of all people in the United States of America yet. So if you want to think about America and Canada and the primarily Western market, it doesn’t even cap out at 1 billion India alone caps like 1 billion and growing.
[00:49:52] Like, if you want, think if you’re, if you’re a real business person, if you’re trying to build the biggest brand of all time, if you’re trying to build a platform that services all of humanity, do you care about the core audience? Of the dedicated community, the culture, so to speak, quote, unquote, the culture, do it for the culture, the content creators, which are in the tens of millions, or are you looking at the billions of people globally and what their wants needs and desires are.
[00:50:20] And the thing is if you’re building a platform for everybody, You cannot think in those limited terms as cute or as much, or as nice as it sounds. And again, this is a contrary and opinion because the thing is no one will say, because it sounds like throwing content creators under the bus. What I’m saying is this is practicality.
[00:50:36] This is respecting here’s the platform, his agenda. And how many of you would be anything. As quickly in life as you became somebody without these platforms, without social media, what would you be doing now? Me I’d be working in corporate America as a marketer, or I would have started another e-commerce based venture because I was already on that path.
[00:50:56] Like, and I make most of my like larger revenue streams and affiliate marketing off of the reputation of doing a coach and a speaker more than. An influencer. Right? So like, I like, if it wasn’t for the platforms, then I would do what PatFlynn does. I’d have a hopefully successful podcast, Pat Flynn, before without YouTube and Instagram would still be doing and was doing before you moved to this platforms, he was doing a quarter million a month.
[00:51:21] So like, you’re, you don’t necessarily, you could own the traffic. You can own a podcasting audience and not be beholding the social media, like, um, but my point is to, to the thing you were saying, so here’s where I see it. The average consumer—the title and thumbnail and topic—you’re beholden to them on that period.
[00:51:43] End of story. l You get over it with originality. Here’s the good news. You can still make an original and better thumbnail with your variations and your minor tweaks. As long as it belongs in the same cereal aisle, like Kelloggs, doesn’t worry about being cereal boxes product. Think about it in the product and consumer world of, um, e-commerce and even physical products.
[00:52:05] How original is anybody and how, and And has not being original really hurt anybody’s sales. How original can we be about smartphones? Everybody’s come up with a clever, original take on a smartphone where, what happened to them? Where are they now? Yeah.
[00:52:18] Brendan Hufford: [00:52:18] I mean gone.
[00:52:19] Roberto: [00:52:19] You want to be successful? Just make a damn iPhone.
[00:52:21] Brendan Hufford: [00:52:21] Yeah.
[00:52:23] Roberto: [00:52:23] Version of
[00:52:23] Brendan Hufford: [00:52:23] it. Yeah. But you don’t want to buy like fruit loops and it’s like, ha surprise broccoli. Like
[00:52:28] Roberto: [00:52:28] yeah, exactly. So the The market is the market. As GaryVee likes to say, I love that quote from the markets, the market it’s like, you want to be original. Cool. If nobody cares, don’t be surprised. And, but here’s where originality has its place.
[00:52:42] I, I saw the revival of what was a dead John Ruh and YouTube animation, as you know, got crushed in 2013 on YouTube. Have you not seen it’s revival? Like rising, like a Phoenix from the ashes?
[00:52:55] Brendan Hufford: [00:52:55] Yeah. I don’t know what that channel. There’s one Curt Curtis, something, whatever. There was a channel I found the other day where it was like, it’s all animation.
[00:53:02] I was just like, Holy crap.
[00:53:04] Roberto: [00:53:04] This is okay. I think the one you’re thinking of is CURT’s cassette, but they’re animation based infographics.
[00:53:08] Brendan Hufford: [00:53:08] Kind of yeah. Yeah.
[00:53:09] Roberto: [00:53:09] There was one. Yeah. Kurt’s cause I was the one you’re thinking of, like, and there’s also the infographic show, but even also animation that you use as characters, like, um, Andrey and odd ones out, Alex Clark, um, you know, so many others, God, there’s, there’s another one there’s so many I’m, I’m thinking of, uh, like, you know, Jayden animations, um, you know, we mention, um, and here’s the thing.
[00:53:37] There was a point where that John WRA was struggling and dying out on YouTube because short form animation and, um, original character animation was big on YouTube in the early days when it was short form and views and so on and so forth. But when YouTube switched the algorithm in 2012 or so to really focus on.
[00:53:57] Watch time. Well, animation is a long drawn out process. So when uploading them more often getting people to watch more videos, getting people to watch longer became the, the priorities of YouTube. It became really hard for animation channels and animation channels that wanted to tell original stories also had nothing to piggyback off of.
[00:54:13] So it was very hard for them to grow and build a fan base and monetize, and they had a more expensive, longer, more challenging form of content to make. So what a lot of smart people did. Was they decided to either do animations that told everyday stories that everyone can relate to and do Storytime animations like, Oh my first kiss, my first date, like these things, the stories of growing up, why the average consumer, we all watched boy meets world.
[00:54:39] And the wonder years and family matters growing up slice of life, slice of life is one of the biggest John Braze in anime and manga today. Um, in terms of bestsellers. So by, without realizing a lot of content creators intuitively did what I would do strategically. They tied themselves to a consumer behavior that does millions of units a month.
[00:55:00] Which is, Oh, you know what? Millions of people watch sitcoms, like tens of millions of people have watched sitcoms, tens of millions of people, uh, buy and purchase slice of life content in some way, shape or form. And they really stories, Oh, bloggers are doing this. What if I kind of logged? But it was an animation instead of a video.
[00:55:20] And what if I did story times the Storytime genre of YouTube, of people talking about stuff in their past. Well, that was working. So animators started combining Storytime and blogging with animation, and some of them decided to combine in the way that they saw well, when people talk about big YouTubers and they do commentary or drama, they got a lot of views.
[00:55:40] What if I just animated? Whatever news topic or thing is happening in the YouTube community or the influencer culture, the YouTube culture. And now you have the attention based on the topic. And the interest of everyday average people. Who’ve never heard of you because again, no, one’s gonna care about your original character animation, but they do care about this person.
[00:56:00] They care about Shane Dawson. They care about Jeffrey star. They care about PewDiePie. They care about, you know, um, you know, all these, uh, influencers or celebrities or whatever, or they care about a story that they can relate to. That’s like a, Oh, everybody experiences. This, everybody goes through a breakup or everybody has that one teacher they’re afraid of, or, Oh, this is what it’s like growing up in this context or in this part of the world or whatever, that, that’s something interesting enough to where I don’t have to know you and be emotionally invested in you to click on that video.
[00:56:31] It’s the same thing with being a product reviewer. It’s the same thing with talking about business or software concepts. Do I need, how can you get me? They see the value in this without being emotionally invested in you as a person. That’s what the average consumer, that’s how the average consumer behavior works.
[00:56:48] So we have to care about what we stand to get out of this, and that has to be abundantly clear. How much room does that leave for originality?
[00:56:58] Brendan Hufford: [00:56:58] I think, I think, yeah. I mean, I think the, the other, if I can like to answer your question, maybe indirectly, like I think when we look at watch time and stuff like that, like we can say we’re, we’re being original and this is great.
[00:57:10] But when you look at the watch time chart and you’re down to like 20% of people within the first nine seconds, it’s like,
[00:57:15] Roberto: [00:57:15] maybe you’re not. Yeah. So you’re not being effective or you’re not making clear expectations. If you give the average consumer what they want. Yep. In the title and in the thumbnail and in the topic, that’s what I call you.
[00:57:28] Lead with value. Not what’s valuable to you, not what makes you feel the best. If you can compromise as little as possible. Obviously that’s like
[00:57:38] Brendan Hufford: [00:57:38] my like
[00:57:39] Two-minute intros of myself and who I am and why I’m qualified to talk about this topic.
[00:57:43] It’s like
[00:57:44] the best SEO videos right now,
[00:57:46] or
[00:57:46] are Ryan Stewart being like, Hey, you’re not here to listen to me.
[00:57:49] Talk about myself, let’s get into it.
[00:57:50] Like,
[00:57:51] that’s literally
[00:57:51] how
[00:57:51] he intros his video.
[00:57:52] Roberto: [00:57:52] Because guess what? That leads with value. And it’s like, let’s talk about what you need, not what I, what I need and everything like that. And it’s again, they’ll worry about your qualifications. If they disagree with what you’re saying, that’s a trick that nobody realizes, and it’s not really a trick.
[00:58:07] It’s more of a hack or it’s more of a realignment in mindset. I don’t love the word trick, but I use it just because it’s clever. But like, cause I feel it’s clever because it’s like, you know, if you tweak this one thing, everything changes, which means if you get right to you don’t know me, you don’t care.
[00:58:22] Let’s get into the video.
[00:58:25] Brendan Hufford: [00:58:25] Yeah. A hundred percent
[00:58:26] Roberto: [00:58:26] refreshing. That is, is like you’re right.
[00:58:31] Brendan Hufford: [00:58:31] I came here to hook up my Google analytics, Google tag manager. Like I don’t need to know that you have 20 years of SEO experience. Like tell me, you can tell me that on the back end,
[00:58:39] Roberto: [00:58:39] that’s in the description. That’s in the description.
[00:58:40] I guess what that’s for skeptics. If they disagree with you and guess what, if they disagree with you or they’re skeptical or they’re like, who are you or what qualifies you? It’s like. Then don’t buy it. Don’t buy it from me. Move on. I’m not interested in you. I’m not interesting. No, I’m going to, I’m not going to defend my record to you.
[00:58:53] You can Google me. It’s like I have no interest in defending my record to you. I have no interest in proving anything to you. You either watch the content. You agree with what I said? You’ve tested it for yourself. You’ve gotten results or you’re planning to, or you don’t move on. You’re either going to buy from me or not.
[00:59:07] Content’s free. Don’t complain. You’re wasting time. Guess what? If you’re going to waste time, going back and forth with me and need my credentials and you need to do all of that. You’re not working on your business, which means you’re gonna fail. Sorry. Bye. Move on. Nope. I won’t even take your money. You know why?
[00:59:20] Because you’re too much of a problem. I don’t have time. I don’t, I can’t deal with insecure people. I don’t, I don’t sell to insecure people. That’s my, I don’t sell to skeptics. I don’t send the insecure people. I don’t sell to anyone who has more time to debate than to work. That’s my, like, that’s my harsh ruthless utilitarian E F ethos about how to do business is I will turn down people’s money that are inconvenient to work with because every minute I spend trying to make you less insecure, I’m not doubling down on helping somebody that like is ready to do the work.
[00:59:52] Brendan Hufford: [00:59:52] Yeah. I mean, it’s the adage of a, I don’t know if this is actually. True. But the, like the thing you hear a lot is like the coast guard. Like if they come up on a ship rack, they hit, they save the people that are swimming towards
[01:00:02] Roberto: [01:00:02] them first. Um,
[01:00:04] Brendan Hufford: [01:00:04] you have to save the people that are swimming towards you, I guess kind of one final question to wrap things up, uh,
[01:00:10] Roberto: [01:00:10] know slightly in on that.
[01:00:11] Cause I do have to, I have to give you real value. I have to give the audience real value. Yeah. Meet the audience halfway in the topic, the title, the thumbnail and the timing. Because that’s how you respect them because uploading a video, which I do regularly is a bad example, just because of reasons. And also, I like to test things, uploading a video when you know that 60% of your potential audience is asleep because you just wanted to get it out is don’t complain about the results, which I, when I do a video like that, I know it’s going to tank, but I’m like, I’ll make it up in the search engines.
[01:00:43] Right? Like the algorithm is not going to be able to do a lot for me because. Roberto 60% of the people that we know love your content are asleep. What the hell are you doing? Upload at the right time? Right? Topic, Roberto, majority of your audience has a specific need or problem. You did this one-off thing because either you want to build or reach a new audience, or you did it for you.
[01:01:03] Okay, cool. Don’t complain about the reviews, revert the views. Virta because we’re only distributing your content to people likely to watch it. And most of your audience, or most of the people we’ve already prospected on your content before may not care about this. So. If you’re building a new audience, Roberto, take your lumps.
[01:01:19] Like that’s where you take ego out of the equation. You have to meet the audience halfway where you get to be original is in how you deliver for them. Once you’ve set expectations and met them halfway, how you deliver for them can be refreshing and a different take. And the thing that they haven’t. Seen before.
[01:01:35] And that’s what you do to make yourself stand out and make yourself a destination. If you want to differentiate yourself in the market, come up with a very unique value proposition for making your channel a destination, making your platform and destination, and making your website a destination. What am I coming here for?
[01:01:49] That I don’t get out anywhere else? Not that I can’t get, but that I don’t get anywhere else. What is the value add? What is the differentiator and what is it that’s so refreshing or so interesting or so original or like, Oh, I can, like, how did you find a new, how did you find an additional way to respect the audience is something I think of jumping in the content immediately is another way of respecting the audience, putting up notes and that they can screenshot is another way to respect the audience.
[01:02:17] If you’re doing informational-based content, having the best audio quality is a way to respect the audience. Having a non-distracting lighting setup or background or something like that or something that is not distracting, but it’s interesting. And showing you put care into the details is a way to respect the audience, acknowledging viewers and popping up, Hey, your questions here, or your comments here, or Hey, comments of the day.
[01:02:38] And this is so-and-so and you acknowledging the actual people in your audience is another way to respect the audience. I guarantee you, there are probably 10 or 20 different things. You could pull one or two of them. That a competitor is not doing or not consistent, that that would represent you respecting the audience.
[01:02:53] And that’s a reason to come back to somebody is. This person gave me unique value and this person proved that they respect and acknowledge me and people in this community in a way that other people don’t. So just acknowledging people. What makes your channel a destination be the only person in your niche?
[01:03:10] No matter how big you get that, literally replies to everybody. Even if it’s just a two-word reply. If you reply to every single comment, you will be the only person of your size or in your niche that acknowledged that person. On the content they watched out of the entire day or out of the entire week, and now you’ve built loyalty habits.
[01:03:28] If you’re not building loyalty habits and you aren’t going out of your way for your consumer, your customer, your viewer, or your listener. Don’t expect that loyalty don’t whine about it. Don’t cry to me about it. Don’t complain. Like if you haven’t built habits, that show there’s a reason to give you that loyalty don’t complain.
[01:03:44] So like you can, that’s where originality comes in. That’s where creativity comes in. People want to do clever titles and clever. Thumbnails or even clever video, aesthetics and Gimbels, and you don’t need any of that. All you have to do is be clever in the fact that you show people that you care, you show people that you respect them, you share them that you’re putting them first and that you’re putting value first.
[01:04:04] And you, um, and you prove your results in a way that is meaningful to the people who are ready for them, or you prove your. Abilities. If you’re an entertainer, you appeal, you prove your abilities, you know, um, whatever that is. And so, um, that’s where, that’s where it looks like. And then yeah, yeah. Optimize the crap for the robots because the robots job is to find people who would care about this and it needs all the contextual information to do that.
[01:04:37] When you decide to be cute and put jibberish in your damn description. To be clever or you decide to put a meme in your description for your audience and everything like that. You’re a jackass because you’ve told them you’ve now just confused. The Harry Potter sorting hat. So don’t cry to me that you ended up in house slithering.
[01:04:57] You just confused the damn sorting hat. Don’t complain to me
[01:04:59] Brendan Hufford: [01:04:59] done
[01:05:01] Roberto: [01:05:01] last for real
[01:05:03] Brendan Hufford: [01:05:03] best analogy you confuse the sorting at, and now you’re in slithering and that’s now it’s your bed. Now you lay in it and go sleep in the desert.
[01:05:10] Roberto: [01:05:10] Sorry. Sorry.
[01:05:12] Brendan Hufford: [01:05:12] So like last question, I’m really excited about this. Cause you were talking earlier about like what you’re working on and like you have these 3000 ideas stuff.
[01:05:19] Like where I it’s weird to ask somebody a question in third person, but like where is
[01:05:23] Roberto: [01:05:23] Roberto Blake
[01:05:24] Brendan Hufford: [01:05:24] going in 2020? Like, what do you have coming up?
[01:05:27] Roberto: [01:05:27] Aggressive content strategy, like aggressive content strategy, like, and going back to my roots, going back, um, to my roots and by that, I mean, you might have noticed that.
[01:05:39] I really tuned up my visual branding, my thumbnails. I’m reminding everybody I’m coming for blood and reminding everybody, this is where it is. My ego. I’m reminding everybody. That was a damn good graphic designer. Back in the day, I had work in magazines and billboards it’s for a reason. And I wasn’t nearly as good then as I like have gone to Polish their skills, but I’ll be very real.
[01:06:00] There was a period where, because I was really good at SEO and did have that loyal audience and had figured out aspects of the algorithms that like I was being very lazy and formulaic about a lot of my thumbnails for my videos. I was being lazy and formulaic and it wasn’t not working, but it doesn’t represent my abilities.
[01:06:19] As that thing that I honed my skills in for, well over a decade and then made a living at and was very, you know, um, I take pride in my abilities and my creative and my photography and design skills. And so I decided. In every aspect of my brand to remind everybody that I’m a damn good photographer and I’m a damn good designer, and that’s going to be reflected in my brand, in the quality of everything I do from a free PDF book to, um, uh, an email in my newsletter to a thumbnail on my YouTube channel to a post on Instagram.
[01:06:54] I will not let you forget that before you knew who I was. I had a high level marketable skill. And if the internet went away, I would still have that skillset. Like, cause that’s a message. That’s not supposed to be just about my ego, but it’s supposed to remind all of you that your ability to act independently, your personal power, like something, no one can take away from me as the skills that I earned.
[01:07:16] Over the course of years of educating myself and practicing those abilities. You know what I’m saying? So, um, uh, I’ve, I’ve coming very high on my brand standards. I’ve been really focused on team building and finding more people for team Roberto. I have Andy Rivera, who is my operations manager, and she is a dream to work with.
[01:07:36] And she herself is an entrepreneur. She’s more in the personal development side, which is perfect because it’s a very, it’s a very important thing to me and it’s a balance within my brand. So I love that she also has that dynamic and she’s been helping with my coaching business and with our membership group and really making sure members feel supported and taken care of.
[01:07:55] And now they have that, that both masculine and feminine energy. So if there’s something I can’t relate to them on, there’s a balance there. And then it’s also another pair of ears and eyes. So like we have a lot more accountability and we’re getting all my systems refined. So that’s been helping with the productivity.
[01:08:11] We’re um, she’s now going to be running point on freelancers so that I don’t have to do as heavy vetting in my freelancers anymore. So I’ve gotten that time back now. I get to focus on product development and that’s a big focus in 2020. Is that we’re looking at. We’re looking at making more of my content and consistent across all platforms, aggressive push for me in podcasting 100 episodes in 2020, I kid you not 100 episodes in 2020 of my podcast.
[01:08:38] Um, we’re looking at getting me in a cycle of doing interviews was like this once a week on other people’s programs, especially smaller programs. We really want to do STEM and we’re coming up with a protocol. Uh, going forward to where we create kind of, um, if I’m on somebody else’s podcast, we’re going to have a protocol for how we promote the interviews that I’m on so that we boost those other people’s programs and influencers.
[01:09:01] Um, so that we’re going to put that into my Twitter automation cycle. We’re going to make graphics for that. We’re going to create a process for my quotables from that. Um, so that’s the big part of our content strategy in 2020. Um, We’re going to be really focused on a lot of what my, um, free lead magnets are.
[01:09:23] We’re focusing on. And also me owning more of the traffic that I talked about. So we’re increasing my paid ad strategy. We’re looking hard at, uh, the SEO we’re overhauling, my hand-coded website. To a WordPress website. I had had trust issues with WordPress, like at a certain, I forget what year it was, but then I got pissed and I just hand coded my own website because of some bug that messed up my blog archive.
[01:09:46] And I was really pissed. So, but now we’re like, we did it. We, you know, we started over and so we’re going to be rolling out the new website. Um, like it’s a lot, you asked the, like a loaded question is like more YouTube content probably than I’ve done in years. Um, We’re going to be very aggressive. They’re two new YouTube, two new YouTube channels for me, we’re expanding my brand presence and we’re playing to the algorithm and we’re also letting me have fun with different formats because now we’re doing a gear channel.
[01:10:13] It’s all about the camera gear and all about all my gadgets. Like I own so many things. We’re just going to have a channel just for me to do product reviews, which will be great because I have great relationships with all these brands. I can cross promote on the two channels. I really want to pull the audience that I did build in the early days around some of the gadgets and tech.
[01:10:30] I want to pull them over to this new channel so I can deliver for them. Cause I haven’t been doing product reviews. I’ve been focused on business people, but I still know that you need all these gadgets to do the work. Try as I might, the variety aspect of YouTube doesn’t work anymore. So I can’t get people to see the dichotomy of you want to build a business, but you also need the tools, the physical tools of building a business.
[01:10:50] You want to be an influencer. You also need the physical. I have not been able to get people who will watch content on growing an audience to also watch content on buying the physical resources for their infrastructure and building their home office. I just have not been able to. Yeah. People that connect the dots on that.
[01:11:05] So instead of trying to force that, we’re just going to give it its own voice and its own platform. So we’re doing that YouTube channel. We’ve, uh, done some more stuff for some IRL meetups so that we can show the human side of me with me. Um, having conversations with people, not interviews, conversations, similar to like Gary V um, And we’re also on that same channel doing, um, me reacting to articles and things in the press about influencer marketing.
[01:11:34] So that then I can do commentary on the industry and the culture of influencer and give my thoughts and also speak up from the different perspectives that I have. Um, and then I can pull traffic basically from the original source. So like, um, so we’re being very strategic about. The content itself and building actual funnels or traffic for my YouTube channels and my social media, which people don’t realize that you can actually build a funnel, not for the product sales stuff, but there’s actually a traffic funnel strategy for content itself.
[01:12:07] And then you can make a choice. Um, In the opt-in value offer kind of model to make the value proposition of the content itself, kind of the offer the substance of that, the value, and then, sorry, the opt in. And then the substance of that is the value. And then the offer can either be more content, or if this content you were trying to facilitate a problem, well, here’s an offer that helps with also facilitating, solving that problem.
[01:12:34] So you see there’s a business. Dynamic and layer two, we’re going to go very heavy and aggressive with content. We’re using team building and automations and resources to free me up to handle and make and manage the content because we had decided, we decided that the things that I’m best at is building and developing products, building amazing content, which is also basically the same thing.
[01:12:56] And I’m great at brand building and design. And I love it. And I have a passion for the branding aspects of these things. So anything related to the branding. And the building of the actual content and products where we’re putting all of that on me. And we know that I also love the taking ownership of the communication directly with my audience.
[01:13:16] So all the communications, every reply, every email it’s from me, it’s not from my people. So these are Roberto’s responsibilities, all of the little intermediate grunt work BS tasks that go into that. We’re taking everything that isn’t building brand. Building the business or, um, communicating with the audience we’re taking all of that off of my plate.
[01:13:43] Anything that’s not, there’s three core things. And you notice that it goes back to what I said earlier. Is it building the revenue. That’s what building the products and developing that and even doing the content is, is it building the brand? That’s the content and that’s the communication. Is it gratifying to me as a human we’re playing to my strengths?
[01:14:01] I love talking to my audience. I love making content. I’m damn good at design photography and making videos. So we’re letting me do the things I like and nothing else. Yeah. So that’s, I know it’s a long winded answer, but it’s like, I wanted to give context to that. Cause like that’s how you make a 20, 20 game plan.
[01:14:18] My friend, you think about what, what what’s going to up the revenue, what’s going to build the brand and does it feel good?
[01:14:24] Brendan Hufford: [01:14:24] Yep. And I think you really do just give people a short little, I, um, it’s not long-winded at all because that context gives people, like, that’s what you do. Like people just don’t, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.
[01:14:34] Like, just watch that again. Listen to what you just said again, and then execute on that. Figure out how that works. Yeah.
[01:14:41] Roberto: [01:14:41] Yeah. Look, we’re we’re, we’re getting rid of we’re like app sourcing all of my books. Keeping we got a service for that. Um, we’re getting me, like, we’re getting me a new accountant because you know, you always gotta cycle through that until it feels right.
[01:14:53] Um, you know, um, I’ve got my lawyer looking over everything that we’re doing and everything like that for an added layer business countability, and we’re actually going to be. Partnering on some content because we want to, I want to lean heavily into helping people protect their business, protect the brand, protect the reputation that it’s going to be a big, like I think 20, 20, we have to have a big and real conversation about reputation management.
[01:15:14] Now that everybody’s an influencer. If everybody’s going to be an influencer, I’m not going to sit here and write bash articles. All everybody’s an influencer now. I’m like, okay, cool. In a world where that’s true, what are the consequences of that? And how do we like move forward? Like in a world where that’s true.
[01:15:28] I totally
[01:15:29] Brendan Hufford: [01:15:29] agree. Awesome, Roberto. I really appreciate you coming on. Thanks for hanging out and chatting about it.
[01:15:35] Roberto: [01:15:35] Yeah, no, thank you so much for having me. Thank you for putting up with my long-winded diatribes on everything. I tend to ramble