# He Got 6 Million Subscribers With Only 12 Videos

**Channel:** Think Media Podcast
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYPcnhNNjW0
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/iYPcnhNNjW0

## Chapters

- 0:00 — Opening Hook and Guest Introduction
- 1:44 — Storytelling Over Consistency
- 5:28 — Learning Storytelling Through Study
- 10:17 — Testing Videos and Refining Edits
- 14:32 — From Secret Channel to Viral Success
- 23:50 — Scaling the Mission Beyond YouTube

## Transcript

**[0:00] Speaker A:** My own teachers began using my videos in class, but they didn't know it was me. And the video is now at 110 million views. Edited on my phone and it cost less than my flight here today.

**[0:10] Speaker B:** What if one of the biggest differences between average content and breakout content has nothing to do with your camera?

**[0:17] Speaker A:** I believe that YouTube is just a storytelling contest. The people telling the best stories are the people getting the most views.

**[0:22] Speaker B:** What is the most overrated YouTube advice?

**[0:25] Speaker A:** Oh my god, posting consistently. I post three videos a year on random dates. Today

**[0:30] Speaker B:** I'm sitting down with Jaron Brower, better known as Doctor Plants. At 21 years old, he's built an audience of nearly 6 million subscribers and generated billions of views from only 12 videos. YouTube said that 20 million videos are uploaded every single day. Do you think it's too late to start YouTube or can you still get in the game?

**[0:54] Speaker A:** I think there has never been less competition. I think AI has made everyone's content exceptionally average.

**[1:01] Speaker B:** Whether you're a content creator, YouTuber, or business owner, you're going to learn valuable insights for coming up with better ideas, leveling up your production even if you don't have a big budget, and storytelling secrets for holding viewer retention longer. And if I'm being real, this is genuinely one of the most valuable conversations I've had on content creation this year. Let's dive into it. Welcome to the Think Media Podcast, your go-to source for unfiltered YouTube tips for building a profitable channel and online business. Hey, if you're new here, we are bringing you interviews like this every single week as well as tactical tips. So, can you hit the subscribe button and you'll get more content like this. All right, let's dive into the conversation.

**[1:44] Speaker B:** So, you have 6 million subscribers on YouTube. You clearly know what you're doing. What do you think is the biggest mistake that you see creators that aren't growing? What do you think the biggest mistake they make is?

**[1:54] Speaker A:** I think the biggest mistake most people make is they worry so much about creating the title and thumbnail and not enough about creating a story.

**[2:00] Speaker B:** Mhm. For me, I believe that YouTube is just a storytelling contest. The people telling the best stories are the people getting the most views.

**[2:06] Speaker A:** What is the most overrated YouTube advice that you hear people sharing?

**[2:11] Speaker B:** Oh my god, posting consistently. I post three videos a year on random dates. Not specific times, not because oh, it's a holiday weekend. I post the video whenever it's done and it's the best of its ability. I only post three videos a year and they average 67 or whatever million views, and it's not Consistency might build you a more loyal audience. You might develop a deeper connection with your fans. You might be able to sell more products. But, if you're talking purely about getting as many views as possible, you can post one video a year.

**[2:40] Speaker A:** How many total videos are on your channel?

**[2:42] Speaker B:** 12.

**[2:42] Speaker A:** Only 12 videos on your channel? Do you know the view count?

**[2:45] Speaker B:** Of everything.

**[2:46] Speaker A:** Across all socials, it's in the billions. I don't know how many.

**[2:50] Speaker B:** Billions of views?

**[2:51] Speaker A:** 12 videos, yeah.

**[2:52] Speaker B:** 12 videos, and then you've also posted those same videos on other platforms.

**[2:55] Speaker A:** Yeah, so what I'll do is last month, we did this for the first time, we took all 12 long-form videos and we clipped it on Facebook and Instagram. 600 million views.

**[3:05] Speaker B:** Crazy.

**[3:05] Speaker A:** like It was like no effort, and it just shows you why putting all the effort into making a good story, it translates to every platform.

**[3:12] Speaker B:** That's amazing. Um so, quality or consistency?

**[3:17] Speaker A:** Quality. Every day.

**[3:19] Speaker B:** And you're, you know, later on the conversation we'll unpack that more cuz you are the quality guy, clearly. 12 videos, billions of views. But, do you think it depends on the type of creator or, let's say, you were giving advice to somebody that does want to sell products or sell houses, real estate business, do you think there's a place for consistency or more quantity of videos?

**[3:42] Speaker A:** I do think so. It all depends on your goals, right? My goals up to this point has to get as many views as possible, right? That's been my strict goal, not selling products, not selling brand deals, and it's worked. We're now the second most viewed YouTube channel in the world on a views per video basis. But, now I'm pivoting, right? I want to build that deeper brand connection, and a parasocial relationship is purely the amount of time you spend with your viewer, the amount of quality and positive interactions, right? And across 12 videos, 8 minutes each, that's not going to develop that. So, if you are a real estate agent and you want to sell more houses and you want people to trust you, yes, consistency does play an important role.

**[4:18] Speaker B:** Your videos are incredible. I recommend anyone who's just meeting you to watch them. And the production value, the storytelling, the sound effects, the music. What is one tool you couldn't make videos without?

**[4:30] Speaker A:** I mean, I edit all these video I used to edit my videos on my phone, I filmed them on my phone. I think the most important thing to your video is sound.

**[4:39] Speaker B:** Okay.

**[4:40] Speaker A:** Sound is way more you could film your videos on a camcorder and it could still get 100 million views. But if your audio, if that sounds horrible, no one can watch it. You need to The first investment you should make for anything is a good microphone.

**[4:51] Speaker B:** Yeah, you know, it's interesting, too. Would you also agree with somebody needs to watch your videos just like with their eyes closed? Because you've got you've got the music is ebbing and flowing, sound effects come in, you're obviously adding sounds back in. At the end of a video when you're breaking the terrarium or whatever that is, the the the the glass shattering sound effect, you're adding it in.

**[5:14] Speaker A:** Yeah, so what I do is this, my final pass of the video, I'll remove all voiceover and see if it's watchable with just sound.

**[5:21] Speaker B:** And you So, in a way, you're storytelling with sound effects.

**[5:24] Speaker A:** Yeah, exactly.

**[5:25] Speaker B:** of the music.

**[5:26] Speaker A:** that's absolutely pivotal.

**[5:27] Speaker B:** Man, so powerful.

**[5:28] Speaker B:** Um what do you think is one skill every creator should learn?

**[5:31] Speaker A:** Become a better storyteller. I think you should be studying movies and TV shows and not just be studying other YouTubers. You're going to be crushed by saturation because everyone's videos look the same. You're just going to become another one lost in the crowd. Study the videos other people aren't studying. Learn the content other people aren't learning. Try to find a way to be unique, be different.

**[5:50] Speaker B:** Where did you learn storytelling? What have that been the biggest influences for you?

**[5:54] Speaker A:** You know, when I started it was YouTube. I started my channel under my desk in high school. I would watch videos all day. I would watch your channel, I would watch literally everyone on making um how to make better videos. And once I ran out of that content, I started just going to the trending page every single day. I would watch all the most trending videos. And I'd watch them on loop. I'd be like, wait a second. That video was so good. I just watched the whole thing. Why did that happen? And I'll watch it again. But on the second time around, I'll actually go get a notepad and write the entire script as the video goes. So that I'm literally programming my brain to talk like them and write like them.

**[6:28] Speaker B:** So you're telling me you would go to the trending page, watch a trending video, if you stay till the end, you're like, wait a minute, I got sucked in and I didn't click away, you'd rewatch it now with the mindset to study, and you would take notes, but with a pencil and a notepad?

**[6:43] Speaker A:** Yes.

**[6:43] Speaker B:** Write their script out. I mean, it's funny because you could you could just AI transcript the

**[6:51] Speaker A:** No, but you won't get any of the value.

**[6:52] Speaker B:** But the value, are you thinking it's even the tactile experience?

**[6:55] Speaker A:** I swear. I mean, you could type it on your computer, too. I think it's a personal preference, but actually being the one physically writing it, it's making you think so much more about those words.

**[7:04] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[7:04] Speaker A:** And then versus just getting the transcript and reading it after. That's not going to help you nearly as much.

**[7:08] Speaker B:** Wow. Okay, so keep going. So that's how you learn storytelling was by studying YouTube. Are you watching TV and movies? You getting any kind of mentorship or reading about it or is it mainly study?

**[7:19] Speaker A:** You know, I didn't have any friends. I was just doing this all completely by myself. I didn't have any mentors. I was like I was the weird kid in school. Everyone else was playing tag. I was in the dirt looking for worms.

**[7:29] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[7:29] Speaker A:** Right? So I had to kind of hide this hobby of mine. And I have a very big family. So I think something that played a role in becoming a better storyteller was that at a big family gathering like Thanksgiving, it's a meet and greet every time cuz there's so many new people. And the only way that you could get into conversation with all 50 people at table is you had to be the one that could tell the best story. And it would get everyone to be silent. That's how you know.

**[7:53] Speaker B:** Wow. It's interesting. Family dynamics, like childhood dynamics influencing kind of the leader or even business builder or creator that you become.

**[8:02] Speaker A:** 100%.

**[8:03] Speaker B:** So what matters more? The idea, the thumbnail, or the execution?

**[8:07] Speaker A:** I believe the idea is the highest leverage thing that you can do for your channel. If you are a new creator and you're just figuring out, I would lock yourself in a room for a week, do nothing but write out ideas. By the end of that week, you might have a thousand ideas. And I promise you, if you choose one out of those thousand ideas, and you really like, "Oh my god, this would be" you will have the best idea you've ever made.

**[8:27] Speaker B:** So then, how do you know, cuz a lot of creators deal with self-doubt? But, I like this one, but I like that one, but will it be worth it? And they're afraid of investing time into making a video, especially the kind of time you put into a video. What if I invest all that time and it doesn't work? And some people say, "Well, you need to test a lot of ideas, see which ones, and then maybe double down on it." Like, how do you develop the confidence and the commitment to go all in on the idea, or do you just feel it?

**[8:54] Speaker A:** Oh, so a big thing is tacit knowledge, and it's just a sense of feeling. But, it was so important for me early on to figure this out, because it may take me 5 minutes to choose a video idea, but then I'll spend the next 500 hours executing it.

**[9:07] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[9:08] Speaker A:** Right? So, there's so much weight on it. And I use like a framework of a couple things. Number one, has to be original, never been done before. I really don't like outlier theory. I did one video on outlier theory, and it was the worst performing video I've made on my channel. And it's because it was purely spectacle driven. It wasn't because there was a deeper why behind it. It was just like, this is going to get a lot of views. Number one. Number two, it should be explainable in a single sentence. You should be able to go to your mom, your sister, your grandma, and every single person be like, "Oh, I get it." Number three, it needs to be timeless, right? I did a video on hatching eggs. It was 100 million views, and that's because hatching eggs will work the same way 100 years from now as it did 100 years ago, right?

**[9:50] Speaker A:** It's not like it's a Christmas special, where this video can only be watched during Christmas. And then finally, the most important thing to me is that it's fun, right? I have seen a direct correlation between how much fun I've had making a video and how many views it gets. I don't think enough people put leverage on that, because then you're not motivated. You should be so excited to wake up that morning, be like, "Yes, I want to do nothing more than make my video. Because if you're not having fun making the video, how can you expect the viewer to have fun watching it?

**[10:17] Speaker A:** What is something you do that most people would think is excessive?

**[10:21] Speaker B:** So before every video comes out, there's a lot of things, but this is going to be one. Before every video comes out, I usually go to the gym. I know it doesn't look like it, but I'll go to the gym and I'll ask, "Excuse me, do you mind if I work in with you?" I'll find someone working out. And I'll I call this the stranger test, where after one or two sets, I'll hand them my phone. I'll be like, "Do you mind watching the first 10 seconds of a video I just made?" There are two ways this can play out. Option one, after 10 seconds, "Hey, it's a great video." and they'll hand it back to you. Your video is going to fail.

**[10:50] Speaker A:** Wow.

**[10:50] Speaker B:** Option two, after 10 seconds, they're still watching. 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and a minute in they go, "Excuse me, do you mind if I watch the whole thing?" Imagine a complete stranger, right? So this has happened.

**[11:03] Speaker A:** This has actually happened many times, dozens and dozens of times.

**[11:06] Speaker B:** So dozens of times you've gone to the gym, started working out, handed the phone, you actually do this, and they actually go, "Yeah, that's great." and they hand it back after 10 seconds, and so you stopped. You go, "I got to go back to the drawing

**[11:17] Speaker A:** go back and I re-edit it.

**[11:19] Speaker B:** And then you go back to the gym, and you do it again.

**[11:22] Speaker A:** Exactly, and my whole mindset is how can you expect a stranger to watch our whole video online if they won't do it in person?

**[11:28] Speaker B:** Okay.

**[11:29] Speaker A:** Right? Like for someone to watch your video, that has to be more valuable than anything else they're doing in their day.

**[11:35] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[11:36] Speaker A:** So why shouldn't it apply at the gym, at the supermarket, at your house with your mom? You should be able to do this with anyone. This is a test anybody can do.

**[11:42] Speaker B:** When I was studying you, is it true that you also did something else like you developed a list of friends or family or contacts that you sent your videos to? Did you do anything like that or

**[11:51] Speaker A:** Oh, that's actually a great thing. So So it goes into that gym thing. So I don't always have time to go to the gym anymore. So I'll go from A to Z in my contact list, and literally FaceTime every single person that picks up.

**[12:02] Speaker B:** Just text them or you FaceTime them?

**[12:03] Speaker A:** them. We'll never text them because for number one, I don't want them to know it's a viewing. As soon as the person know it's a viewing, they're going to come in with a different mindset, right? That's number one. Number two, you don't want to do viewings in groups. Because they then begin to rely on each other's reactions more than the actual video. So, I think it's all about

**[12:22] Speaker B:** You FaceTime them and do what?

**[12:23] Speaker A:** I'll FaceTime and be like, "Hey, how's it going?" I'll catch up with people I've been talking to in 5 years. They're like, "What's new? What's going on?" And when they say "What's new?" "Hey, I've been working around on this video. Do you mind watching the first 10 seconds?" And I'll always specifically say the first 10 seconds.

**[12:34] Speaker B:** And do you show it then you hold the phone up to the computer?

**[12:37] Speaker A:** No, I'll screen share.

**[12:38] Speaker B:** Okay, screen share and play it from your phone.

**[12:40] Speaker A:** I know I can

**[12:40] Speaker B:** It's like a MOV file MP4 on your phone.

**[12:43] Speaker A:** Exactly. And I'll give them access to pause it. Like I'll give them um Like you know you're able to give them phone access. So, usually they'll pause it and you'll notice a correlation after the first 10 people all 10 people paused on the 30-second mark, right? I changed the background from blue to yellow. The next 10 people didn't pause.

**[13:02] Speaker B:** The background visually in the video?

**[13:05] Speaker A:** That's it, yeah.

**[13:05] Speaker B:** Did you reshoot it and change the background you in editing?

**[13:08] Speaker A:** color graded it, yeah.

**[13:08] Speaker B:** Yeah, color graded it different. You're saying the color at stop people from pausing at 30 seconds and moving forward. The background color.

**[13:16] Speaker A:** things as that, yeah.

**[13:18] Speaker B:** And those And so then you And how many rounds of revisions go into a video?

**[13:22] Speaker A:** Usually until I run out of my contact list.

**[13:25] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[13:26] Speaker A:** It's usually when I Or It's usually when I run out of my contact list or I'm very, very confident. Usually I usually spend like 3 days to a week editing the video and then I'll spend probably another week doing these viewings.

**[13:37] Speaker B:** And then how I mean with all of this you've developed obviously the confidence and you have the results and that momentum is built with the views you've already gotten. How do you know when a video's done?

**[13:48] Speaker A:** I know a video's done when I'm on the floor and I physically cannot hear the words anymore. I know the script to every single video of mine almost beginning to end.

**[13:57] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[13:57] Speaker A:** You could go on my channel right now and point at anyone and I could just rehearse it. The newest video or the egg one. Here is the world's biggest egg. And I could just go through the whole thing. I've rehearsed it so many times. And once I get to that point where I'm like, "Wow, I really feel it." every single time.

**[14:11] Speaker B:** That's how I know it's done.

**[14:12] Speaker A:** And there might be parts where you're like, "I didn't love that part." So, you also at this point you you feel the whole script. You've gotten the feedback. Is that part of it? It's not just that you memorized it.

**[14:21] Speaker B:** Yeah, it's that like I'll start like I'll start ad-libbing the script around my house and my friend would be like, "Yo, I cannot hear that part of the script one more time." I'm like, "Oh, gone."

**[14:30] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[14:30] Speaker B:** Removing it.

**[14:31] Speaker A:** Nice.

**[14:32] Speaker A:** That's amazing. Um what do you know now and for people listening, you're 21, what do you know now that you wish you knew at 17?

**[14:41] Speaker B:** I wish that I made all my videos about what I was most passionate about and not just what I thought would have get the most views.

**[14:49] Speaker A:** Mhm.

**[14:49] Speaker B:** Because at the time I thought that greater spectacle correlated to greater views and I didn't know yet that greater stories really what correlates to greater views. You don't need a Lamborghini and Ronaldo in every video to get 100 million views. One of my most viewed videos is about ants.

**[15:03] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[15:03] Speaker B:** Right? And but I learned very quickly that people don't click the video for the ants. They're watching it for the story of what happened to that ant. You know, people fall in love with characters. They don't fall in love with spectacle.

**[15:14] Speaker A:** I want to talk a little bit about the background, a little bit more about the craft, idea strategy, and then also translating some of this to everyday creators, whether you're a business owner, whether you're you maybe don't have the bandwidth. I'm sure you could probably dispel some myths because you've And and then let's go bigger than YouTube and talk about the vision. Does that sound good? So, when did this actually start and what was the original inspiration to start the channel? I heard that you started it as kind of like a secret and maybe even your teacher played one of the videos not even knowing you were behind the video.

**[15:53] Speaker B:** Yeah, so I started this channel uh back in high school under my desk cuz like you I was the weird I don't want

**[16:00] Speaker A:** What do you mean under your desk?

**[16:01] Speaker B:** So, I would literally be editing these videos and filming them on my phone. I'd be editing them under my desk and it was my biggest secret. I didn't want I was so embarrassed. I hid this channel about animals cuz nobody else liked them. Everyone was talking about sports. They'd be like, "Oh, hey, did you see the soccer game last night?" I was like, "Yeah, did they score any touchdowns?" I literally have no idea how sports are played. I'd be so into my world and so I kept this channel a secret. I didn't want anybody to put me down and it the secret became very hard to keep. My own teachers began using my videos in class but they didn't know it was me because in the videos I put on a voice, you know, I'm like "100 days ago." So I didn't have my face in the videos at the time either and I just kept going at it and eventually my parents had to figure out cuz I got monetized.

**[16:46] Speaker B:** I don't have a bank account. I'm 17 years old. So I was like "Mom, Dad, I'm a YouTuber." And they were like well they were really they were really supportive and they loved it but obviously everyone my age was going to college. So it was either all right, you're going to either go to college or become a YouTuber. So I told them one more video and I locked in. I spent 3 months on this video. I ran out of storage on my phone so I had to actually start filming it on my mom's phone. I was so excited. I spent $300 which was a lot to me at the time, 3 months and this was going to be the make or break if I go to school or not. And the video is now at 110 million views. Edited on my phone and it cost less than my flight here today.

**[17:32] Speaker B:** Hey, really quick. If you want more tips and strategies for growing your YouTube channel, make sure you're subscribed to the Think Media podcast. Every week we bring you conversations just like this to help you grow your channel faster and get better results. So make sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. All right, let's dive back into the conversation. Do you think people should become a creator instead of going to college? No. I think that you should do whatever you are the most passionate about. If you love school and you love learning, you could still do it outside of school. That's not the place but I'm not against college. I'm against like I was going to go to school for mechanical engineer because I was told that's what I should do. It wasn't what I was passionate about. I believe that if you're passionate about becoming a nurse, you obviously have to go go to become a nurse.

**[18:18] Speaker B:** You should do that. But I'm the biggest proponent and advocate of following your dreams. You will be the most successful cuz you wake up every single morning thinking about that dream. There's no distractions cuz that is the distraction.

**[18:30] Speaker A:** So, do you think then maybe too many people are are doing what they're pressured to do or what they think they should do, and if they have a fire to really lock in and the kind of energy you're talking about, that stepping out, taking a risk, or were you making kind of an educated bet because there was some of like an if this then that. Hey, if I get one more video and it proves it works.

**[18:52] Speaker B:** Yes.

**[18:53] Speaker A:** So, it Some people say burn the ships. You're like, "Mm, you might want to keep a ship. Why are we burning ships anyways?" Like we get, you know, so it's like a it's a risk, but it was kind of a calculated risk.

**[19:04] Speaker B:** Yeah, it was kind of pressured though cuz I was I was at So, I would go to school every morning at I think it was like 7:00 a.m. school starts and it ends at 2:00. So, I would wake up at 5:00 a.m. every morning to get all my school work done. And I would be the first one in the parking lot. It was me and the janitor. It's a 2,500 person school. And it me and the janitor would be the first ones in the parking lot. I would do all my school work before school started. So, as soon as I get home, I can work on my YouTube videos till the second I go to bed.

**[19:30] Speaker A:** Wow.

**[19:30] Speaker B:** And then loop every single day for years.

**[19:32] Speaker A:** So, I also wanted to ask you, you this first video you made was just your phone, then your mom's phone for all the storage, $300 that invested in resources and supplies for the video, and it got 110 million views. What editing software did you use?

**[19:46] Speaker B:** Oh, I think it was like iMovie.

**[19:49] Speaker A:** And has your production evolved since then?

**[19:51] Speaker B:** Yeah, so now I film on FX3s, and I edit in Final Cut Pro. Everyone makes fun of me for editing in Final Cut Pro, but I'm such a big advocate. It doesn't matter if you're editing in iMovie or Final Cut Pro.

**[20:01] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[20:01] Speaker B:** You can tell a good story no matter what platform you're using. No matter what camera you're using. It It literally does not matter as long as you have good audio, of course.

**[20:11] Speaker A:** Yeah, and so you proved that with limited gear, it probably was part of your storytelling. Now you've got fancier gear. What's the title of your video about kind of like being in the desert and it's harsh and then you break it at the end?

**[20:23] Speaker B:** So, that one was simulating Africa for 100 days.

**[20:26] Speaker A:** Simulating Africa for 100 days. Is that FX3's?

**[20:29] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[20:30] Speaker A:** You also using maybe like macro lenses or whatnot to get really

**[20:33] Speaker B:** Yeah, exactly. So, I don't even know how to use a camera. I had to figure it all out. Like I was just watching a YouTube video like, "Oh, this is the camera I should buy." And I went to the store and I bought three of them. I was like, "All right, this is it." And then I learned on the fly.

**[20:42] Speaker A:** And then and then the macro lenses so you could get really close to the insects, the ants, and things like that. And then where does the sound design come from? Where are you pulling the music and the sound effects?

**[20:53] Speaker B:** So, uh a lot of the sounds I actually make myself. So, let's say you plant growing, I'll go take a cabbage in front of a mic and rip it.

**[21:00] Speaker A:** Okay.

**[21:00] Speaker B:** And that's actually really cool cuz it's it makes it actually sound like the plants are growing. A lot of it's foley.

**[21:06] Speaker A:** So, you make some of them yourself. Do you also use any kind of resources like to get audio sound effects? Like did you break the glass yourself or where did Where did you get stuff like that?

**[21:15] Speaker B:** like the grass sounds, I think I I got it off of some like stock website.

**[21:19] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[21:20] Speaker B:** Um I'm really trying to explore more music options. I'm really interested in getting custom composed music.

**[21:25] Speaker A:** Your music at the end of that was like this kind of cool vibey. I felt like it was like a transition scene in Breaking Bad at the end of the Africa video. Like where did that song come from?

**[21:34] Speaker B:** Oh, that I think the song name was The End of the World.

**[21:36] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[21:37] Speaker B:** And it was a really famous old song and I just love that song. I was like, "You know what? This really fits the

**[21:40] Speaker A:** threw it in there? Was it like

**[21:41] Speaker B:** threw it in there cuz I liked it.

**[21:43] Speaker A:** I mean, you still got monetized on the video?

**[21:45] Speaker B:** Uh yeah, so I think I used Licked.

**[21:48] Speaker A:** Okay.

**[21:49] Speaker B:** Yeah, and they Yeah, they allowed it.

**[21:50] Speaker A:** use popular songs through licensing agreements and stuff.

**[21:54] Speaker B:** To really cuz that gave it a whole feel. That's it's such a premium film story feel to it.

**[21:58] Speaker A:** Yeah, I agree.

**[22:00] Speaker B:** And then I mean, these are like very niche questions, but when the ants are underneath the dirt, how did you actually get the light and even the ability to see them cuz I figured from the outside it looked like they weren't really there, but when you zoomed in you could see like they weren't visible from the outside of the tank in the glass or maybe they were. Did you have to dig? How How How did you get that perspective?

**[22:21] Speaker A:** Yeah, there are all kinds of camera tricks I have to do to really be able to like you really be able to see these animals on the ground. My biggest thing is that I'm not trying to make documentaries, I'm trying to tell stories and I really want people to feel like they're there with the animals. So, sometimes we have to play camera tricks so you can be like, "Oh my god, I never knew they actually lived like that."

**[22:37] Speaker B:** Yeah. So, how did you do it? Or is that too Is that proprietary? I'm just curious like

**[22:41] Speaker A:** We keep We keep it like a magician never tells their secrets, you know, a YouTuber a cinematographer doesn't tell their techniques.

**[22:47] Speaker B:** Yeah, cuz there's a lot. All right. So, the That's the production workflow. So, like how many hours I mean there's not just days, but like you You lock in on one video and then you work on it like 4 8 10 hours a day. You probably have to just let time progress in some cases, but yeah.

**[23:02] Speaker A:** That's all I do. Like I wake up every morning YouTube. I go to I'm eating lunch YouTube. I'm dinner YouTube. I'm showering. Oh my god, I should do I just hatched an ostrich egg.

**[23:10] Speaker B:** Okay, and then you So, you are you

**[23:11] Speaker A:** every day.

**[23:12] Speaker B:** The uh story's evolving as you go, too. You have some notes, but it's evolving.

**[23:15] Speaker A:** Yeah, so my girlfriend says YouTube is the other girl in the relationship cuz it's all I talk about, right? So, I'm scripting my video at all times. I have um I don't know if you use Notion. I love Notion and I'll really build out Every time I have an idea, it is so important you write that down.

**[23:31] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[23:31] Speaker A:** Because you are going to forget that in a month from now.

**[23:33] Speaker B:** And you're talking not Now you're talking niche ideas, not video ideas, ideas about enhancing the video.

**[23:38] Speaker A:** Yeah, I'm like, "Oh my god, how cool would it be if I fed the ants sugar water and you watch how all their abdomens change color, right?"

**[23:44] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[23:44] Speaker A:** And I'm like, "Oh, I should write that down." And then I come back when I go actually write that video and I'm like, "Oh, I remember all this and now I can act on it."

**[23:50] Speaker B:** Wow.

**[23:50] Speaker B:** Okay. And so days and hours and edits and three videos a year and you work on those three videos all year.

**[23:59] Speaker A:** But you're pivoting now. What's What's this next version? You're going to still try to do that, but you're also What What does it look like next as you're evolving?

**[24:07] Speaker B:** So, my next step is I really want to be able to get out more videos a year. I want to be able to upload monthly. So, my whole thesis is that I believe every human being has an innate capacity to love nature and those who don't just haven't had the right experiences yet, right? And it's my job to make those experiences.

**[24:23] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[24:23] Speaker B:** And in order to make enough of those experiences, I can't do it me. It's not a money issue cuz the videos a lot of them cost less than a thousand dollars to make. The real issue is just time, right? I'm the one writing, I'm the one scripting, I'm the one editing. And I'm really just looking for talented people who love nature and who love stories as much as I do. To join your team.

**[24:40] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[24:41] Speaker B:** Got it. So, you're thinking about building the team. I uh one of the biggest epiphanies from studying your work was the fact that you Okay, you're on a mission to get people to love nature, but is it true that you're trying to write stories that would be entertaining even if you don't care about nature?

**[24:56] Speaker A:** Yeah, so a big thing I do with the viewings is most people I show, I show people who don't like animals.

**[25:02] Speaker B:** Okay.

**[25:03] Speaker A:** Cuz if I can get someone who

**[25:03] Speaker B:** You ask them?

**[25:04] Speaker A:** Yeah, I'll literally tell Well, I'll just You kind of just vibe them out, really. But I'm like, "Hey, do you Like you'll Sometimes you can You just tell. A lot of people just don't care about ants." I mean, like the ant video, we're simulating an ant colony for a hundred days. I promise you not one person woke up this morning out of the 84 million people who watched it saying, "I want to watch a video about ants." Not one of them. Right? So, I just I

**[25:26] Speaker B:** They want to watch a good story.

**[25:27] Speaker A:** Exactly.

**[25:28] Speaker B:** So, that that that epiphany for the listeners is you might think your niche is boring or it's capped because your niche only exists for people that are interested in it. But your passion for your mission, I think is similar to a lot of our listeners' passion for their mission. And learning the art of storytelling would be, how could I present this in such a way that it'll be interesting cuz of just how humans have worked always.

**[25:53] Speaker A:** Yeah. I get

**[25:53] Speaker B:** Storytelling, what would be some of the biggest things you've learned about storytelling itself? People would say beginning, middle, and end. I'm sure there's a lot more to the arc than that.

**[26:03] Speaker A:** I You know what? It's It's really a feeling, and it's getting like showing strangers your videos, and you just know when they're getting bored. They start going on their phone, they'll pause it, and you're like, "All right, we should either tighten it up." Or they'll be like, you see them questioning. Okay, maybe it's time to add clarity here. And it's really just a thing of trial and error. I will never get it right on the first time, and I've been doing this for three years.

**[26:25] Speaker B:** Do you have any frameworks like conflict, tension? You probably heard some of the the of also like, you know, opening loops or raising the stakes. You start something is introduced later. Do you think about conflict or plot points? Is any of that

**[26:38] Speaker A:** Yeah, I mean, I I think about it. I more just I think less about the conflicts and the characters and I more think of how do I want to make the viewer feel?

**[26:47] Speaker B:** Okay.

**[26:48] Speaker A:** I worry more about emotion of all else. I want to know I plan out the emotion and exactly how I want the viewer to feel at each moment in the video and then then the story writes itself.

**[26:57] Speaker B:** Like like maybe and what are some of the feelings and emotions you want them to feel if you're taking them through an ebb and flow of emotions?

**[27:03] Speaker A:** Let's say it's a video on ants and you don't care about ants at all. So, the first feeling I want you to feel is sympathy. So, you watch how it starts with a single ant by herself and you're like, "Oh my god. When I see all these ants in my house, I didn't realize it started with one. She's to do all this by herself. That's crazy." Right? And then I'm like, I want to move from sympathy to awe and you watch how she builds an empire of thousands. Right? You're like, "I didn't know they do this they do this by themselves." And then stress. They're going to war against another thousand ants and it's like some Avengers level stuff. And then you feel excitement when they win the war. You're like, "Wow, I had no idea these ants that are just living in my pantry are living their whole little civilization on their own like this."

**[27:46] Speaker B:** What are some of the creators maybe even like slept on creators that you think are some of the best storytellers?

**[27:52] Speaker A:** You know, I don't I don't watch that much YouTube which is surprising I'm a YouTuber. I really love watching movies like Christopher Nolan The Odyssey. I watched it I was like in my seat shaking. I was so stressed.

**[28:04] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[28:04] Speaker A:** And that's the emotion I want to convey in my video.

**[28:07] Speaker B:** And you're feeling that and you're thinking, "Okay, if I could create content that could make people feel something."

**[28:12] Speaker A:** Yeah. I'm very big on impact.

**[28:14] Speaker B:** What makes an idea Doctor Plants worthy?

**[28:16] Speaker A:** Kind of that list I gave you before where it's timeless. Uh it can appeal to anyone in the world no matter how old or young you are. And it has to paint nature in a positive light where you end this video not seeing the animal or subject the same way again. Like for example, I did a video on testing a hamster survival skills where I This was really happened. I went to a pet store and I saw a hamster. I'm like, "Where do these things actually live? Like, what do they do all day? Is this like a wild animal?" And I do some research and I'm like, "Wait a second. This thing's just a wild animal. It's not even like um they're not even really domesticated." And I come to learn that they hunt, they dig burrows, they store food. And I do a whole video debunking and I change your worldview where you're like, "Oh my god, I never knew this is a wild animal.

**[29:00] Speaker A:** This This hamster that I bought at PetSmart goes hunts cockroaches and worms. Well, we're just feeding it out of a little Barbie bowl some seeds."

**[29:08] Speaker B:** Have you ever killed ideas after putting significant time or money into them?

**[29:13] Speaker A:** Really?

**[29:13] Speaker B:** Yeah, yeah, yeah.

**[29:14] Speaker A:** Like, so I think a lot of people there's a lot of advice that says just post it anyway, just put it out there. And again, depends on your objective, but maybe a business owner's posting content that might apply to somebody as service provider. However, I think it is interesting you're you're the quality guy over quantity by far, you know? You're the You're the billboard of 12 videos have produced billions of views. So, do you think more people should actually scrap ideas and not just you know, you become known for what you uploaded last if they're uploading something that's not good. And how do you know when to not post it?

**[29:51] Speaker B:** So, I think the biggest thing is to just avoid this entirely and just spend an egregious amount of time in ideation. Just make sure you are know how to make the best ideas so that you don't even have to deal with this issue down the road.

**[30:03] Speaker A:** It's interesting you say spend an egregious amount of time on ideation because you know, and I one of our ways of saying it is we actually feel like if you're if you're actually good at coming up with the idea, you could be worse at everything else.

**[30:17] Speaker B:** Really?

**[30:18] Speaker A:** Meaning and you probably seen this that somebody if they have the right title and the right idea and the right topic, they just talk about it in their car and they can get a level of views from it. Why? Because of the idea. It doesn't mean and then you could be worse at everything else. Maybe not terrible, but you deliver the information. Now, if you get better at everything else, but would that Would you agree with that? You're saying the idea matters so much.

**[30:39] Speaker B:** might be that their way of rating ideas incorrect. They're not rating the idea the right way. Like, are you rating that your idea makes a great story? Is that even in your Is that even in your rubric? Got it. If your rubric is your You don't have a storytelling, then done. It's not Obviously, then it's not a good

**[30:53] Speaker A:** And I might be talking about cuz in some cases, talking head videos in cars on YouTube go viral all the time. The point is the what's it about? And And But, I would say it's usually a story, and it might be dramatic though. It's It's usually like dramatic like how I lost 221 lb in 30 That's also an achievement, and then they tell their story. Those types of videos I guess the point being if we were helping a fitness coach, they might be like, "How to do bicep curls for women over 40." That'd be a very SEO boring video, and probably impossible to get views on today. They tell if they tell their own story, the ideation, the packaging, and maybe the thumbnail says I felt like quitting, and they're a little bit more sad. That's all packaging, and that would be the idea. And if you're good at ideas, you can be not as good at everything else.

**[31:45] Speaker A:** You should still improve at everything else, but the actual idea you post matters so much.

**[31:49] Speaker B:** I'm very big on tricking the viewer into learning. Like, those 84 million people that watched my ant video, none of them woke up that morning wanting to learn about ants. They didn't. I sneak in the facts in the story. And every time it's a fact, I only say that fact if it pushes the story forward. For example, ants make graveyards. Did you know that? They literally build graveyards where they pile all the dead ants.

**[32:10] Speaker A:** So, I'm like, "How can I put this in the story?" So, after the war, then they took all the dead bodies, and they literally built a graveyard. And now the viewer now feels remorse for the ants. Like, "Wow, I did not know this."

**[32:20] Speaker B:** Yeah. I got it. So, and that's interesting. So, we mostly help education creators, and this is a genius conversation with so many nuggets that are transferable, which is where I want to go next. It's interesting that if you tell a good story, the best way to educate could be to hide those facts and trick viewers into learning.

**[32:38] Speaker A:** They don't want you don't As soon as the viewer knows they're learning, psh. You have to be like like the he does the facts need to be the story.

**[32:46] Speaker B:** Mhm.

**[32:47] Speaker A:** Right? It's like oh, let's say it's a story about losing weight. I need to learn how to lose weight. Okay, so in order to lose weight I had to do this many bicep curls and it pushes the story forward. I had to run on the treadmill this much and now I'm exhausted. Oh my god, how do I recover? I feel exhausted. Now the viewers learning how to recover, but it's also pushing the story forward at the same time.

**[33:06] Speaker B:** So I want to translate like this for what I would call normal creators, but um do you think most creators should actually post less? Especially in today's world. We're here in an event called VidSummit doing this conversation. Do you think most people should really red- decrease frequency and increase quality?

**[33:27] Speaker A:** I don't think they're necessarily matched. Some people can do really high quality very often. I mean Jimmy posts a video every other week right on his main channel. That's amazing. But I

**[33:37] Speaker B:** But that's a whole team and a system behind him.

**[33:39] Speaker A:** I I

**[33:40] Speaker B:** For the individual or typically the small the small shop.

**[33:43] Speaker A:** Once again, it's very goal-oriented. If your goal is to get as many views as possible per video, post post until you know that video is an absolute banger. You hold off. If your video goal is to make as many customers as possible, maybe do an in between where you have those maintenance videos you post every week and maybe once a month you spend that extra effort on a reach video. A video where it's tailored for a wider audience and funnels them into those maintenance videos.

**[34:09] Speaker B:** So if someone's listening to this and they they practically cuz of their life can't spend 3 months on a on making one video. Or I guess they could, but the the downside would be they're not uploading that entire time. But what could they do if you tried to translate the Doctor Plants framework if they had an iPhone or like a DJI pocket camera. They have 1,000 subscribers. They're early on in this process. What could they steal from your process that would almost be translatable to all creators just to make their next video better?

**[34:40] Speaker A:** Come up with more ideas. Lock yourself in a room for a week. I don't care what is on your schedule. Every ounce of free time you are in that room writing ideas. And at the end of those 7 days, you're going to have so many ideas. So many ideas and you're going to tailor them down based on a detailed rubric of is it original? Is it does it make a good story? And you're going to rate all of these ideas. Can it be explainable in a single sentence? And you build out a really detailed rubric. And you go through all 500 ideas. And at the end, I promise you're going to have one vastly above the rest.

**[35:11] Speaker B:** out. Do you recommend in doing that do do you are you off the internet when you do that?

**[35:15] Speaker A:** I think it really depends on the person. My best ideas are just in the shower.

**[35:20] Speaker B:** Okay.

**[35:20] Speaker A:** Right?

**[35:20] Speaker B:** Because that's what you were Outlier Theory suggests you're going to YouTube to look at videos outperforming usually subscriber count or just outperforming in general going viral, maybe even adjacent. You could steal a framework.

**[35:34] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[35:35] Speaker B:** I did X in 30 days.

**[35:36] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[35:37] Speaker B:** Okay. But you're not a big fan of Outlier Theory.

**[35:40] Speaker A:** No.

**[35:41] Speaker B:** So I think when someone thinks about lock yourself in a room with ideas, they might think, well, I'm I don't got any ideas. My way I'm asking ChatGPT about it.

**[35:48] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[35:48] Speaker B:** I I'm I'm copying other creators. I'm looking at outliers. How do I get in the state to do this creative process? Cuz the listeners that are locking in for this valuable episode are one video away from breaking out at a whole 'nother level if they follow what you're doing. But it's going to take discipline. So what you're not saying is like everyone's just asking Claude.

**[36:08] Speaker A:** I think what's unfair is that my brain is kind of a database. I spent 3 years researching before I even started my channel. I didn't upload a single video.

**[36:16] Speaker B:** And researching

**[36:18] Speaker A:** just tailoring my brain into literally a YouTube LLM.

**[36:22] Speaker B:** Okay, so you were watching YouTube, watching the trendy videos, writing the scripts. You did 3 years of pre-work.

**[36:27] Speaker A:** Yeah, so that I could now have the privilege of being able to lock myself in a room and just have this database to pull from. I am like ChatGPT for YouTube now.

**[36:35] Speaker B:** You know what's interesting is I do think one of the powerful things especially for like a very busy business owner is knowing YouTube itself and knowing formats. You probably have gotten good at Does that make sense on formats?

**[36:48] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[36:49] Speaker B:** Maybe like even even watching your even looking at your title structure, there'd be a lot to learn from. Like the the the the idea itself, how it's written, how it's presented in as few words as possible. Is that the kind of data points you were picking up?

**[37:03] Speaker A:** I mean little data points like your title should be less than 52 characters or brighter intros lead to higher attention. But these are all like the difference between 50 million and 100 million views.

**[37:12] Speaker B:** intros?

**[37:13] Speaker A:** Yeah.

**[37:13] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[37:14] Speaker A:** But these are all like differences between getting 50 million and 100 million views. You learn all these little things. So like the common creator, the highest leverage thing is coming up with better ideas.

**[37:22] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[37:23] Speaker A:** That's what's going to leverage you from the 1 million view to the 10 million views.

**[37:27] Speaker B:** What's the difference between craftsmanship and perfectionism?

**[37:30] Speaker A:** I'm a perfectionist and it's very dangerous. You should not be like me. It's the reason why I only get three videos out a year.

**[37:35] Speaker B:** Yeah.

**[37:36] Speaker A:** You should just after your video is like you see that it's a beautiful thing and you feel great about it, you should just post it. You should not doubt yourself a million times and go again and again and again cuz that's one of my biggest flaws.

**[37:47] Speaker B:** And what's one What's one upgrade that would make the average person's video noticeably better if it was a small thing?

**[37:53] Speaker A:** Oh, mic and audio sound effects. Really, if I were them, I would remove all their voiceover from the video and re-edit the video now with just sound design and music and listen to it. If you cannot watch it without your voice, then you should not upload that video.

**[38:09] Speaker B:** Would you extend This is a podcast interview. Would you extend advice like that to content like this or does it depend on the context?

**[38:16] Speaker A:** You know what? I'm not informed enough in the podcast realm that I want to make a statement on that, but when it comes to making actual long-form and short-form videos on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, 100%.

**[38:26] Speaker B:** Yeah, okay. Um you said you want to become you want to talk to plans to become something much bigger than a channel. What are you actually building?

**[38:34] Speaker A:** I want to build the biggest nature media company in the world. I want this to be a household name. I want people to hear the word nature and they think Dr. Plants. Cuz I was that kid growing up where I couldn't talk about my pets in school without getting made fun of. I want kids to have someone to look up to and be like, "Oh, this is actually a cool thing to appreciate animals and love nature." I appreciate I was never allowed to have a dog or cat growing up, right? I was only allowed to have animals I could fit in my bedroom. So, I had to learn to appreciate the smaller things in life, like fish, like ants, and that's where this passion all started. And I know there are other kids out there like me who can't keep pets, and I really want to inspire them and let them know it's possible to enjoy this stuff and other people also

**[39:14] Speaker B:** like it just as much. I have one more question for you, but if you want to shout anything out, go for it. Where Where can people follow you? One place?

**[39:22] Speaker A:** Uh check me out on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook @doctorplants.

**[39:26] Speaker B:** Last question for you. YouTube said that 20 million videos are uploaded every single day. Do you think it's too late to start YouTube, or can you still get in the game?

**[39:37] Speaker A:** I think there has never been less competition. I think AI has made everyone's content exceptionally average. It's the reason why when you go into YouTube, you're like, "Why does everything look the same?" Right? Being 10% better than everyone else is a 10 times view multiplier. It is not too late. Find what everyone else is doing and find a way just to do it 10% better. If you're improving a little thing on every single video you do, it would be impossible to lose.

**[40:05] Speaker B:** There were so many powerful insights from that conversation with Doctor Plants. And one of the biggest takeaways and lessons I noticed was that success on YouTube isn't just about being more consistent and posting more videos, but it's about slowing down and posting better videos. And so, I'd love to hear from you what your biggest takeaway from this episode was. And another thing I've learned is that you can't get any success on YouTube if you never start or hit publish in the first place. And that's actually why we created vrfaststart.com. If you've been on the fence for a while, if you've been watching podcasts like this, consuming information, maybe you've even posted a few videos, but you haven't got momentum yet. You haven't figured out how to consistently publish videos that actually get views. We have a really cool program that we just launched called VRA faststart.com.

**[40:59] Speaker B:** If you want to learn a little bit more about it, you can scan the code on screen and we'll also post a link to it in the description below. VRA faststart is our brand new updated step-by-step program designed to help you plan, film, and publish your next breakout video even if your last one only got seven views. So if you're ready to stop overthinking and to start with a clear step-by-step plan, go to VRA faststart.com or scan the code on screen or check out the link in the show notes below. This is the Think Media Podcast. Like, rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen if you got value today. My name is Sean Cannell, your guide to building a profitable YouTube channel and I will connect with you in a future