The Video Creators Agency

28/12/2023

I remember back in November, 2020, I hit a wall. I was overwhelmed and stressed out, mostly for "good" reasons. My business in doing custom YouTube growth strategy for creators was successful, but my stress levels seemed to grow along with the business. Juggling marriage and homeschooling seven kids on top of that led to a health wake-up call. I still remember the night my body broke down in the middle of the night. It felt like a knife was literally shoved through my body.

A few doctor visits and many therapy and coaching sessions later, I'm not only physically healthier, but also more successful and fulfilled than ever. I sold my company to vidIQ last year and am tackling even bigger challenges with them in the creator economy now. I love it!

While most creators sacrifice their health and happiness for the sake of growing a successful business, I learned that it doesn't have to be that way. It is absolutely possible to grow a successful creator business without all the stress.

The problem is that most creators don't have the skills they need to do both. They know how to create content and engage an audience online, but they don't know how to...

- Hire and manage a team.
- Improve their business model to earn more revenue.
- Create systems that predictably generate results without sacrificing quality.
- Bring clarity to the next-steps that will unlock new momentum.

Overall, if you're like most creators, it feels like your personal life is on pause while your creator career takes over.

I get it.

Few things excite me more than seeing a creator transform their overwhelm into momentum without sacrificing their well-being.

Imagine unlocking your business growth while also reclaiming your time and peace of mind. It's possible, and I'd love to help you unlock it.

That's why I'm hand-selecting a few creators for personalized business coaching. If you're ready to turn your creator success into business success, let's chat.

I only have three coaching spots available, so if you're interested in one of them, head to timschmoyer.com, fill out the coaching application form, and let's make your creator business both successful and fulfilling.

15/09/2023

Tim Schmoyer of The Video Creators Agency reminds us that knowing our audience is crucial to YouTube success

04/11/2022

It's better if you DON'T make money on YouTube. Here's Why.

08/09/2022

WE CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT IT!! After almost 10 years of running my YouTube growth agency, Video Creators, we've been acquired by vidIQ!

Last year my team and I worked hands-on with 635 clients, helping them all grow their audience, reach more people, and change more lives. But with vidIQ, I'm excited to see all of our processes and systems for channel growth scale to literally impact over 2 million weekly active vidIQ creators! Combining our ability to coach creators with vidIQ's tech is going to be a game-changer for this industry.

I'm excited for the new opportunity that's ahead!

I'll be sharing more about the story in future posts, but for now, here's the announcement from Tubefilter with more details: https://www.tubefilter.com/2022/09/08/vidiq-acquisition-video-creators-coaching-consutant-business-youtube-tiktok/

06/08/2022

Easier does not always mean better.

Going the extra mile for your thumbnails will set your channel apart.

On average, how much time do you spend on your thumbnail?

04/08/2022

The ABT Method is everywhere!

And - Agreement. Paint a perfect scenario
But - Contradiction. But, something happened
Therefore - Consequences

Can you find it in Jack & Jill, Humpty Dumpty and other classic nursery rhymes?

02/08/2022

Narrow down exactly what you do on YouTube using the ABT Method.

And - Agreement. Paint a picture of a perfect scenario.
But - Contradiction. Why don't your viewers have this?
Therefore - Consequences. Here is how you are going to help them get it.

Hear the full explanation on our YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/52eITzFzo2M

30/07/2022

Storytelling Cheat

If you understand the structure of a story, you don’t actually have to tell stories to make people feel locked in and engaged.

28/07/2022

The bigger the emotion, the bigger the reaction.

If you want your viewers to take action because of the content they watch from you, it will only happen because you elicit an emotion from your viewer. The bigger and deeper the emotion, the bigger action they’ll take.

26/07/2022

What people are saying about our latest video…  https://youtu.be/G1mWFtNCV2k

26/07/2022

Do Emotions Follow Logic?

We often assume that logic and emotion are in opposition. But it turns out that emotion is the result of logic. You just aren't consciously aware that it is happening. So how can you use this to help you on your channel?

Watch the full video to find out… https://youtu.be/G1mWFtNCV2k

19/07/2022

Growing your YouTube channel is a lot like dating. Agree or disagree?

16/07/2022

We all have 5 capitals that we need to have goals in. Here they are in order of least important to most.

1. Financial Capital - Which is usually as deep as people's goals get.
2. Intellectual capital - What you know
3. Physical Capital - Your body's physical capabilities
4. Relational Capital - The state of your relationships
5. Spiritual Capital - Depending on your belief's, maybe that's your relationship with God or maybe that's just your feeling of inner peace.

Most people simply pursue money, but it's way easier to make a dollar than to make a livelong friend. And the friend is way more fulfilling than that dollar.

12/07/2022

https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/shorts-are-redefining-the-artist-journey/

Interesting. Have you been using YouTube Shorts?

Today is the one year anniversary of the global Shorts launch, and we couldn’t be prouder of the work we’ve done so far. Artists leaning into Shorts are seeing great success!

11/07/2022

If you could wave a magic wand and add one extra hour to your day, what would you do with that hour? 🪄

08/07/2022

If you have 100 million subs, what would that do for you?

07/07/2022

Should I Delete Old/Bad Videos?

It’s embarrassing to let others see your old, poorly made videos. BUT, they might be helping you.

08/06/2022

Looking to add someone to your team? There are things you can do TODAY to make the process go a heck of a lot smoother.

07/06/2022

Have you ever made this mistake?

31/05/2022

Pay attention to the doors that open & close.

Walk through the ones that are open. And graciously leave the ones that are closed.

You can only get so far on your own. Allow others to help you grow.
(Like us. We help you. Guaranteed.)

26/05/2022

It's a blessing for a lot of us, but when you've got other family members also living and working from home and you can work at any time of the day... how do you differentiate work from home? How do you stay productive and not get sucked down the YouTube hole watching cat videos all day?

Our resident COO and productivity expert on the team, D'Laina, shared what the biggest changes she has made in her life and in our business have been to keep us productive as YouTubers and business owners.

Here's what she had to say.
1. Time management is emotional. There is no such thing as time management because time is going to pass no matter what we do. We can't physically create more time. Most of us just want control over the time that we do have. So, we need to think of our time management more as self management. Our time is precious, so a good place to start is to almost dream about what excites and motivates you. In a perfect world, how would you be spending your days? It's important to make/manage time to do the things that give you life because where we see time management go down the drain is when that vision is lost and you just end up doing meaningless busy work. When you have a vision for your life and how you want to spend your time, it gives those menial tasks (that you're less excited about) a purpose!

(Continued in comments..)

22/05/2022

This lady shot some videos of me today! It’s fun when your kids are old enough to work in your business with you.

16/05/2022

FREE YOUTUBE CONSULTATION! We recently hired Sam, our newest YouTube Strategist, to help creators like yourself grow faster and reach their goals on YouTube. As part of his training, we'd love to see him do 5 free YouTube consultations. lf you'd like to meet with Sam one-on-one for a 1 hour YouTube consultation, fill out the application here: https://videocreators.typeform.com/to/FV7HfE0P

In exchange for the free consultation, we just ask that you complete a survey about your experience with Sam. Sound fair?

If you're selected, we'll be in touch via email by Friday. If you're not, wait a bit longer because sometimes people are selected, but don't schedule their call for some reason, so we'll keep reaching out to applicants until his 5 sessions are complete.

Of course, if you prefer not to wait, you can always schedule a call with someone else on our team here: https://videocreators.com/consulting

After helping over 1,000 creators grow by over 18 billion views on YouTube, we're excited for you to be next!

06/05/2022

It’s not often I get the opportunity to do a YouTube consulting gig in person! and drove up to spend the afternoon diving into next steps for growing their channel. Such a genuine couple!

22/04/2022

There’s no such thing as hacking the YouTube algorithm anymore. Growth on YouTube works best when you create content that cooperates with the algorithm instead.

How? Find out by watching this interview with Jeff Bartsch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXrMNCr_94k

What’s the connection between 18 billion views on YouTube and raising chickens in your back yard? Turns out, the connection is kind of a big deal for anyone ...

15/04/2022

How do you incorporate story in a vlog or instructional video ?

A good story isn't just a sequence of events. You can add story to anything! A short intro can change everything. “Hey guys, my wife has been wanting this dresser refinished for ages. She just went away for the weekend. I’m going to try to get it done before she gets back.”

Ask yourself:

* Who is the character? (me & my wife)
* What do they want? (to finish the dresser before she gets back)
* What obstacles are they facing? (Time crunch)
* What's at stake if you don't get there? (The surprise is ruined)

That 4 second intro changed everything! Now viewers are invested. They want to see that reveal so they’re sticking to the end!

Do you incorporate stories in your videos?? What are your biggest struggle?

13/04/2022

To have clickable title you need to invoke these emotions: Curiosity + Fear or Curiosity + Desire

𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘏𝘰𝘸?

There are many strategies to invoke curiosity + desire. First of all, it's important to know who your video is for. For instance, you can capitalize on this by using the term "Beginner." A beginner will find that video and click on it every time. Why? It makes that task seem approachable to that audience. Another example would be "How to invest in your 20s" Here, you are calling out a specific group of people. A 20 year old is more likely to click on that video than just, "How to invest in stocks."

Another strategy is to add a timeframe. For example: "How to prepare you taxes in 1 hr." Your desire to do it quickly is being used along with your curiosity of wanting to know how. Or you can use a contrast - "How to make your boring taxes fun." Your viewer thinks, I want to do that. But how?? Then, they will click your video to find out.

To invoke curiosity + fear, you focus on the negative instead of the positive. Mr. Beast spent 50 hrs buried alive - which is a lot of people's biggest fear. Viewers watched that video because they were curious to see what that would really be like. Another way to do this is to point out something others want to avoid, "The Biggest Mistake I made when opening a business" or "My biggest regrets in parenting." People want to avoid making those mistakes too, so they click.

Another way to do this is to look at an authority figure in the industry. For Desire: "How to play basketball like Michael Jordan" or "Doctors do this to lose weight." For Fear: "Elon Musk's biggest mistake."

Do you have any of your own examples?
Share below 👇🏼

11/04/2022

How much time do you spend creating your video titles?

08/04/2022

YouTube experts are constantly telling us what matters the most to YouTube.

What we really want to help you narrow down what metrics you can totally disregard (and what to pay attention to instead), despite what others may say.

IGNORE:

Watch Time

That's right, I said it. Watch time is important, but not in the way that many people think it's important.

YouTube is not just paying attention to the watch time that your individual video is contributing. YouTube is measuring how well your video actually extends the entire viewing session and contributing to watch time on the overall platform, not just the watch time from your video.

Do people leave YouTube entirely during your video or are you keeping them on the YouTube platform?

So instead of focusing on watch time, focus on your average percentage viewed & your audience retention graph to see how much of your video are viewers actually consuming. If people are watching more of each of your videos (even if they're shorter), your watch time will increase. Your content will be more bingeable to them and they'll be more likely to click on more videos.

When your viewers are on YouTube.

People often think this is a magical answer of when you should publish your content. At first glance, this seems to make sense. However, this metric is not worth nearly any of your time.

At most, you can use it to decide when would be best to do your live streams, but publishing your videos during those "hot" times and days will not make an impact on your longterm performance.

Stick with what schedule allows you to bring the most consistent value to your audience and don't worry so much about when to post.

Performance within the first 24-48 hours.

This one isn't a metric in and of itself but I feel like I have to address it in this topic because creators talk about this habit as if it is it's own metric. Clients talk about how they watch how their videos perform right after they upload it. If their video is doing well, then it's a good day. If it's not doing well, then it's a bad day.

This one makes me hurt for you guys so much.

Guys, I can assure you that unless you're a daily news channel, your video's success does not bank on the first 24-48 hours! I cannot tell you the amount of times I have seen a video take off a few days, weeks or even months later. Sometimes these videos even "tanked" within the first 24-48 hours because we were working on reaching a different audience, which meant doing something different that their current audience wasn't used to.

Doing something new on your channel can often result in some videos "tanking" at first, and then finding their audience later and that is 100% just as good for your channel. The only thing is that it doesn't feel as satisfactory for us as creators because we don't get that immediate gratification.

So instead of watching a video obsessively in its first 24-48 hrs, use the advanced mode in your YouTube analytics and track your video's performance over time. You can select specific videos and see when the views really started to hit. You can also group videos together and track their pattern over time. Maybe they take a week to take off? Maybe it's a month later?

Knowing this can ease your mind to know when to check back in and not put all of your hopes and dreams into the 24-48 hr basket.

So what do you guys think? Anything surprising?

04/04/2022

There’s SO MUCH information out there telling you how to grow your YouTube Channel.

It's overwhelming to think you have to sift through all of that to figure out how to grow. So here is our cheat sheet of the top 5 needle movers for your channel growth.

1) Focus on thumbnails that go after what your audience wants and/or teases a story

Even educational videos need to tell a story! I understand the idea of making a video of a step-by-step processes to solve a specific problem. But these videos are very forgettable. And people are not going to come back to your channel without a personal connection. So find a way to teach while you tell a story.

2) Let your Thumbnail Inform your Title

Don’t repeat your title in your thumbnail!
The first thing the viewer sees is the thumbnail. Put the most intrigue and the most important information in the thumbnail and let the title give the rest of the context, instead of just repeating it.

3) Stop worrying about your keywords

It's ALLLLL about the AI. The Artificial Intelligence knows ALL. Keywords are not doing anything for you. Focus on getting them to click on the video, not trying to manipulate the algorithm. Spamming with keywords is more likely to turn people away than get more people to watch your videos.

4) Tell more stories

Humans connect through stories. We've had clients use stick figures to tell a story just to teach something as mundane as investing and it's been a huge success.

You don't need to overthink this. It can be as simple as adding a few sentences to the beginning of a tutorial. "My wife has been wanting me to fix up this old dresser. She just left for the weekend. Let's see if we can finish it before she gets back." That viewer is now going to stick around to the end to see the wife’s reaction.

5. Focus on keeping viewers on the platform for longer

If you get really good at continuing the viewing session time, the viewer becomes more connected to who you are. To help with this, in the last 20 seconds of your video, draw their attention to another video that coincides with your current video and point to it right before the end screen. This can be so powerful.

Ok, now start cheating!