How To Accelerate & Sustain Growth As A Content Creator - w/ Parth

when you were introducing the podcast and the concept of it you're not getting experts you're getting people who are two step ahead I think it's very important as an international student you're not supposed to monetize I hit 100,000 plus heru reached out to me like hey can we do a podcast heru is at over a million subscribers now cuz he was consistent and he was giving good information without asking anything I was like let's try it out how difficult it could be it turns out it's very difficult how long did it take you to get to your first th000 subscribers people resonate with the originality and the genuine of a person who's giving away everything for free this is a waste of my time why am I even doing this if it's 100 people in a room you would give

it's 100 people in a room you would give it value but if it's 100 views on a YouTube video you are not giving it that much value man I love these questions very very good like Kudos they're really good questions that's so cool to me that you built a custom GPT around I'm Naman Pand and in this episode my guest is par Vijay par is one of the biggest study abroad creatives coming out of India and arguably the first of his kind being somebody that's followed his content on YouTube for a while now it felt surreal to actually sit down with him and pick his brain we discussed parts content creation Journey the numerous ups and downs what it takes to find success on YouTube the importance of always providing value Channel monetization

providing value Channel monetization challenges while on a student visa and a range of other topics that any aspiring Creator out there will massively benefit from in keeping with our theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert my goal with this episode was to take a peak under the hood of the Mind of a Creator I believe I speak for the hundreds of thousands of life that is impacted when I say thank you for all that you do this is The Ready Set do podcast and to support it please subscribe to my channel and now my friends without any further Ado my conversation with past Vi work Welcome to The Ready Set do podcast where we learn from journeys of not

where we learn from journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of us obviously you don't really need that much of an introduction but what I want to jump into here real quick is you know really the psyche or mindset of a Creator so just for context I was looking at um I went to your YouTube channel filtered your content to the oldest and I realized contrary to my belief that you had started making content after moving to the US once you were on that rack for you know being a student in the US which is you know quote unquote f for content I was actually wrong because I saw you were making content way before that was even a part of your life so I'm really curious to you know une Earth what is it

curious to you know une Earth what is it about being a creator that makes one a Creator like what makes you hit record on a vlog while covering jaur street food for instance so like you know if that makes sense how did it all start for you yeah absolutely um I think a big motivating factor for me when I was finishing my undergrad right between 2012 to 2016 I used to watch a lot of YouTube YouTube was of course there's content then there's YouTube whenever you want to pick up something right so my favorite creators used to be Marcus brownley um and Casey neistat I'm going to relate to so many people on this because I'm sure a lot of people love those content creators and I've started watching Casey nice stats video a lot um

watching Casey nice stats video a lot um initially I did not plan to take a gap year uh but I did take a gap year between my undergrad and grad studies and you know I was just trying to find out a different channel to take like to just like eliminate that extra energy from my body I'm like what can I do which could be creative and still be fruitful for long term um and I did go to an exchange semester in Sweden um while I was still during my undergrad and U I started recording stuff you know just I had a Motorola G Moto G phone and I would record everything um my friends I would take time lapse I had this small

I would take time lapse I had this small tripod I would carry around I would just film stuff with that and I really liked it because I I did buy a MacBook Air at that time and MacBook have iMovie which makes it super easy to edit so I was like all right let's let's try it out how difficult it could be turns out it's very difficult turns out to make it look like how these creators are making it look like it's going to take me years to get that at that point I don't think I'm still at that point um I think the beauty of these creators making these videos is how easy they make it look like you know anybody like make it look like you know anybody could pick up phone anybody could pick

could pick up phone anybody could pick up a camera and make it happen so I tried different things and I kept going at it because I was a student which had no hobby I was not into sports the only like PC game I would play was either Counter Strike or NFS and that's also not very religious like I'm not good at it that right so I'm like all right what this is a good hobby I like doing it um it also gives me a reason to watch more content to find try new things and that's how I just started like making more videos um it kind of helped that one of my cousins he's a he's a

one of my cousins he's a he's a photographer so he had all of the setup right he had lights he had camera he had um my um so we decided that hey we'll start a channel and you know my channel used to be called something else at that time yeah it was not by my name so we both would just go around film uh he would film like I would be the speaker and he would be the one filming it and then I would be the one editing it because I enjoyed that process a lot and then I just kept going on and on and on and you know I think by I hit a thousand followers and I've already made maybe 30 40 videos by that time

made maybe 30 40 videos by that time really and sorry how long did it take you to get to your first thousand subscribers on YouTube it took a long time it took me a few way more than few months and it wasn't there was no Instagram reals or there was no Tik Tok it's actually funny you say that in that context because I was ready to hear do you say that it took you years but I mean months it really isn't that bad I feel like that's still normal right or would you disagree see we come from India India may you have like thousand relatives who could subscribe to you so I had Cousin Sub getting like subscribing to me I had anybody and everybody and my dad was a big supporter you know he's still a big supporter so he would just uh promote my videos and

he would just uh promote my videos and yeah anybody we would ask like hey do you mind subscribing I don't remember the exact number but it took us like months to get there I see got it and it was was just we were not growing like even if subscribers we were not growing in the view counts and that could be very disheartening for lot of people absolutely yeah and especially now when people think that you know it's easier to get followers it's easy to get traction on your Instagram reals on your podcasts um podcasts definitely more difficult than Instagram reals or Tik toks are uh but it took us years to get to that it took us months like imagine I started my I put out my first YouTube

started my I put out my first YouTube video or my Facebook video in 2015 like end 2015 so from that to putting out some piece of content and then in 20 end of 2016 hitting a th000 subscribers that's the years you talking about right okay I see I see and at that point uh like did you have a plan in mind in terms of like I want to become this big or I want to have you know like a 100,000 subscribers or whatever or was it mostly just like one video at a time like I'm just going to upload my next video and whatever happens happens like so did you ever have those metrics in

so did you ever have those metrics in mind at all I'm not a big like I should be but I'm not a big Co guy so I thought we you know we when you're starting uh a YouTube channel or anything right you're in a dulu phase like a delusional phase right you think that why wouldn't people like this content this is great so initially you are in a delusional phase so we thought why wouldn't people watch this content you know we promoting our city um we did Pokemon Go Walks at that time we did some tech videos at that time so why wouldn't people like to watch that and turns out it's very difficult to get attention from a new audience for a zero like for a very

audience for a zero like for a very small YouTube channel and we didn't have Instagram reals or like we would upload those videos or Snippets of videos as Instagram videos but again it was not enough to get that traction which people are getting now uh so it was just like a learning curve for us again and again doing the same thing interesting and then so it's again following your journey and just looking at you know kind of your trajectory of your content it really sounds like no matter what you were doing in life like no matter what stage you were in the thing that was constant was you putting out content so from that those early Vlog days I found out later that once you maybe started preparing for the GRE I saw a bunch of

preparing for the GRE I saw a bunch of content around you know how to prepare for world blord like tips and tricks around Quant hacks and such so am I right in assuming that for you it was always that almost parallel path that no matter what I'm doing in life I'm going to keep making videos about whatever I'm doing and I'm going to stick to that is that am I right in assuming that yeah absolutely um so what happened was I think I made a video on U why you should avoid consultancies as my first video um because I did I was going through like going to different consultancies and talking to them uh luckily I had some friends is already in the US from a batch previous to me so I had some context on how to do this process um but

context on how to do this process um but while I was going through this process I realized like these guys are submitting or letting me know that you know you should be going to a subar university so I made that video and then it got attraction so I was like all right this is getting some views maybe I keep continuing this because I'm already in this process of tol and gr and all of that y so I kept putting out one video a week I think that was the metric I was following at that time and a lot of people don't see that you know along with the videos I was actually very very engaged with the audience any kind of any emails I was getting I was responding to them I was like if I'm spending let's say 10 hours on a video

spending let's say 10 hours on a video and putting it out after that I'm spending 20 30 hours in follow-ups and emails and messaging people and replying on Instagram DS to build that core audience which now people I feel like take it for granted but I was so some of the people who have watched my videos in 17 and 2018 2019 they are still following on Instagram they still message me there are some people I know very personally I've never met them but I just like being online being helping them and having uh conversations with them I know their profile what they're doing and still follow them on LinkedIn and Instagram um that core audience really helped me push my videos every time I would push out a video they would comment I would take that feedback push

comment I would take that feedback push more content so if they would ask me like hey um you know I'm preparing for visa interview how did that how did you go about that I would make a video about that and I would publish so I would make a video I would publish Instagram post I would publish a Blog along with it I would publish a checklist along with it and then I would also had a Google group where I would give these documents away for free wow all of these things just help um promoting my YouTube content more and then at there was a point where the YouTube content like YouTube audience became bigger and bigger bigger and the Google group kind of died down but that Coro audience was still there so when I

Coro audience was still there so when I would push out a video they would still watch it that helped a lot that that makes a lot of sense but especially around that concept of you know how you're more likely to recommend somebody to your friends that you know personally that you have you know that person touch with or connection with and sounds like you were working really hard clearly cuz all of that stuff that you just laid out must have taken you hours to you know push out and I guess another really cool call out on that is it's funny that you had that Google group at the time which essentially in today's day and era is you know your subscription lists on Instagram I feel like they're in in concept the same exact thing right so

concept the same exact thing right so yeah it almost sounds like you were doing that ahead of the curve at a time where others were not even doing that so absolutely and I was giving away any information everything I had I was not holding back on anything and I think people resonate with like the originality and the genuiness of a person who's giving away everything for free and I still continue to do so where I'm created guides and I just give it away um and that has helped me you also asked me about consistency right so being consistent where one we I uploaded one video a week and then when I went to p I was uploading like twice a week and

p I was uploading like twice a week and I continue doing that um yeah I I continue doing that because I felt like that was the only thing which will keep me growing and will keep me um hooked as soon as you stop uploading because your audience is expecting a new video every week or every two weeks right if you're not uploading then all the social channels are also not promoting you as much they also see the consistency that's so interesting to me um because mostly because I'm kind of in that boo is if if you can say that even even though definitely not at that same scale yet I bet but I guess were you ever bed down by when say you put out a video obviously I know how much work goes into

obviously I know how much work goes into each video even if it's a l six minute video it's still hours of work and I know that and I'm sure you know that but were you ever bed down by those videos not doing well and at any point were you like this is a waste of my time why am I even doing this like I should just quit absolutely 2017 to 2024 we are almost at s years now right there's a lot of times where you just feel like what am I doing why am I wasting my time why am I investing so much time and uh there has been times where I've taken significant

been times where I've taken significant amount of breaks like months at and I've not uploaded anything um and then I go get back to it I think when I you need to realize the fact that even if you put out a video and let's say a th000 people watch it right let's say a thousand people do not finish the video but 100 people are watching the whole video imagine a room where 100 people are watching you presenting on a content right if it's 100 people in a room you would give it value but if it's 100 views on a YouTube video you are not giving it that much value so that if you understand that hey every view you are

understand that hey every view you are getting is somebody actually clicking on your video and consuming what you're want to speak I am there's so many videos I watch on a daily basis like podcast and I listen to all of them and uh I might not even watch their face at times I'm just listening to them while I'm driving or while I'm doing you know chores um so if somebody's investing that much time like I've spend hours in some content creators you know if they stop uploading I'll be sad about it if they stop uploading where am I getting going to get my legit in information from all the trust which I built so that's how I feel like even if 2,000 people 3,000 people or 40,000 people watch my video I know

or 40,000 people watch my video I know that there's like that set of two 300 people who are really watching it and who are invested uh and who trust me to get them the correct information I love that call out and to add to that part I feel like the difference here also that a lot of people don't realize that I myself realized just watching um a podcast with Mr Beast actually is who said that but he was like it's not even just that you're in a room where those 100 people are listening to your analogy but those 100 people have chosen to invest their time in your video like they had a finite amount of time to click one of the thumbnails that they saw on YouTube and they clicked yours and it is in in a

and they clicked yours and it is in in a way at least to think about it your duty to make sure that their investment they get back something from it which I think like maybe inherently you did realize that regardless but I just wanted to tack that onto your very amazing Point around not disappointing these people that expect stuff from you so moving on from that I guess I do want to one please please I think what you mentioned initially right when you were introducing the podcast and the concept of it that you are in you're not getting experts you're getting people who are two step ahead I think it's very important factor right what people what we have all considered as a good metric to judge

all considered as a good metric to judge someone is that oh how many views is this person getting yeah I don't think that's a good metric the person like anybody who's uploading a video they think that they have some value to give so it doesn't matter if a person has thousand views or 5,000 views sometimes that thousand view person might be able to give you that information which you're exactly looking for absolutely you might not find it in the the 5,000 uh view person right and that's how people like when I was making YouTube videos right I started um there was uh that Indian guy there was other few other creators at that time and somebody actually trusted in me to give legit information and I yeah thought I did a justification that if they're investing time I would uh give them that

time I would uh give them that information when I hit 100,000 plus her new reached out to me like hey can we do a podcast and I'm like or can we do a video together I'm I was like hey do a 100 videos and then we'll definitely do something Han is at over a million subscribers now because only because he was consistent and he was giving good information without asking anything from the the story and wait sorry so to clarify he was the one that reached out to you or vice versa sorry I no he reached out to me um I have that message somewhere but he reached out to me he reached out to um H goar that Indian guy okay and and

um H goar that Indian guy okay and and then I said like he just reached out like hey I'm started this YouTube channel and he made a bunch of YouTube channels the only way and the only reason why he grew to a million was because he showed up freaking he showed up so hard like he was there every day in people's feet um and making content good content watchable content entertaining content right and that consistency goes a long long way that's actually so crazy and the only reason I had to have you clarify that is because in my mind for whatever reason I always thought that um sing in USA right that's his channel name yeah I thought he had started way before even you actually but it sounds like that's not the which is like like that's blowing my mind way way not way later but like a year or two

not way later but like a year or two later I see I see and yeah he just um there's a few videos which blew up but yep we think that oh I need that viral video but if you upload like 50 videos one of them will go viral and yeah there are 49 other videos which your which the new audience which has come through the viral video can watch now you're doing a podcast right you have 11 episodes you said yep so as of recording this yeah I have 11 okay perfect so if somebody's watching this there's 10 other episodes they can go and watch and they can get interested in but if you're if you're starting from the top uh then they don't

starting from the top uh then they don't have any anything else to go to what what you subscribe to exactly yeah because obviously yeah a lot of times people or even myself I'll go to a channel and see that they have like four videos across six years and those videos are really good but I would be like why what's the point of subscribing to this person when they're not even you know taking themselves seriously for that matter but amazing so I guess shifting gears a little bit I'm very curious to hear was there ever a singular point or points in your you know YouTube Journey where it first started becoming evident to you that this could really be something this might I might be on to something here I think this is something

something here I think this is something and you know you know what I mean like that feeling of excitement where you hit I don't know like a 50,000 views on on on a video and you're like this is crazy and it's like a dopamine bath and you just don't know what to do so did you ever have that or was it just really consistent for you um no I definitely had that a few of my videos did really well suddenly like there was a spike of subscribers there was a spike in views um but I think I was more excited to hit the 10,000 number than the 100,000 number um just because 10,000 felt like

number um just because 10,000 felt like a bigger achievement than the 100,000 one uh it was difficult to get the Thousand subscribers more difficult to get the 10,000 subscribers um or actually it was kind of little bit easier because then you get into the flow right then you have up a niche then you get into the flow you know the process what works what doesn't work and by the time I hit 10,000 I think I probably had like over 100 150 videos already W um so by the time I hit 100,000 the excitement dropped down a little bit I was excited because I would get the play button which which was very exciting but the excitement went down because at by that time I did meetups I did events big events with four 500 people in

events with four 500 people in Auditorium um any University I get recognized by like students here or there which was way F way more fulfilling for me than you know like a number on on a CH when I was traveling with my parents in 2019 there was we were doing like so you always do East Coast right you go to Boston on different universities and people in New Jersey and somebody recognized me at the train and like that's a big deal so I felt that's so cool I love that yeah I felt more happy about that and then um same thing happened at ASU UFA if I'm going to a like a cafe or a restaurant and some students are working it's very fantastic

students are working it's very fantastic to get recognized for your work which you yeah and actually that so that prompts the question so at which point did you kind of start taking your brand I don't want to say taking it away from YouTube but I guess how were you able to you know manifest that physically with these events that you referenced like how did that come to be I think so it was all self um self-motivated um self- started okay what I did was I was trying to figure out how could I do a Meetup right because in 201 17 18 like a lot of creators were doing meetups but I'm like if I'm going to do meetups no nobody's

if I'm going to do meetups no nobody's going to show up to just to meet me unless I'm giving them some value so I out to us Mumbai and Hyderabad actually us if Mumbai and Bangalore and so usie stands for us um us India Education Foundation okay that's helpful yeah no no that's helpful yeah yeah us India education uh foundation so what they do is they help a lot of undergrad students with information with uh uh providing a space for them whoever wants to come to the US for higher education or for undergrads as well and I reached out to them in Mumbai and Mangalore and I'm like hey can I do you have space for doing these kind of events and uh they agreed to it and in Mumbai I did like I did two sessions with 50/50 students

did two sessions with 50/50 students which was good I created a presentation talk about you know how to study abroad what you need to do and all of that and same thing in Bangalore bangal was a a a little bit smaller but it was so much fun to talk to them in person interact and hsh gosar that Indian guy he also came in the Mumbai event and he talked as well and um in 2019 then a company reached out like hey we would love to organize this for you in 2020 same thing right so now every time I go to India I try to do an event like this because online is great but the physical connection connection and you know that mental presence you have in somebody's

mental presence you have in somebody's brain when you're meeting them in person is significantly more important to me and I see that I've made an impact in all of these lives it's it's a great motivator for me to continue this journey and it's also a good way for students to ask questions because at the end of the day we really trust people who have who we have met in person more and who we have met online only right yeah do you think it's possible to grow on YouTube without having that genuine motivation to help people and purely be driven by you know that Fame aspect of it that hey I want that play button I want whatever X subscribers without you know genuinely wanting to add value to

know genuinely wanting to add value to people's lives do you think it is still possible or is that a must have according to your perspective to you know explode on YouTube that is a very very good question um there are people and there are companies who who are like faceless who do animations right for kids videos and they um it's a company it's a full-fledged business and their main motivations to making money same with bus feed same with C popo Ida all of these channels um their main motivation is just just to grow feed this production machine and make more money and return I think individual creators it's a different story individual creators can either gives to people entertainment or value and that's why on YouTube or Instagram individual creators always are more successful than these

always are more successful than these production houses why even with the production houses if you see bus feeds like old videos where they had individual creators and they kept bringing those individual creators and make videos with them that always did better than uh some random people showing up and making a video um I think it goes both ways but I I always tell them like hey don't people who are starting off new don't get demotivated by not getting too many views not getting brand deals like or not getting any money from it over time it's going to pay off like I have gotten so many opportunities Priceless opportunities to be able to do all of these because of my YouTube even if I'm not uh you know able to monetize

if I'm not uh you know able to monetize my content because of the Visa and everything I able to go speaking at Howard uh this morning speaking to Howard students up coming out with students that's a great opportunity I was able to only get because of this right putting your work out there always helps same with my work like I did a cohort of uh 60 students where I taught them construction management getting a job at a c at my current company I was actually able to present that as a key factor that hey I'm helping out these students understanding construction management in the US and uh they were like you should have started with that why didn't you start with that that's that's a very good value we are looking in people who wants to help other people um

people who wants to help other people um grow in the industry and I just you will be surprised how beneficial it is for you looking at other aspects of your content creation Journey um I I was a bit startled to be fair about what you said about how you've not been able to monetize your channel that's kind of talking to me can are you willing to speak at all on why that is absolutely if there's a work around at all so as an international student you're not supposed to monetize um so I do I'll be very transparent about it if I'm going to India and if I'm doing any kind of deals I would make a deal there and I would uh

a deal there and I would uh always do any kind of monetization deals there but when I'm in the US I can't monetize my content uh because of USCIS rules that is crazy yeah yeah and somewhere in the future at some point if you were to move back to India would then that would that still be a possibility or are you doomed now because your channel is like yeah how does that work if you're aware at all yeah if you move back to India if you move to Canada or a country which allows you to do multiple jobs on a certain Visa then yes you can monetize your content completely no problem at all even if you created it in the us so even if I create a content in the US and I

if I create a content in the US and I when I'm going to India I want to monetize all of it yeah if as soon as you're outside the US you want to do whatever you want you can do people go like people go to India do any kind of monetization deals and come back just because legally we are not allowed to do that on the Visa uh because it becomes like you're actively working on certain things and I knew that my YouTube channels it's like it has grown but it's not that every video of mine is going viral right so I'm not losing that much money so I'm like I might as well not risk it that's actually you know like the really interesting part of that

like the really interesting part of that which I just realized actually is you continuing to do this despite being aware of this fact that there is no monetization there is no like literal tangible money gain actually speaks to your you know really work ethic and your actual desire to help these people out there because I mean yeah you this it's a thankless job you're literally doing it for because you love it you know it's literally as simple as that and I think something has to be said about that being really impressive to me for sure I'm not saying that I didn't make money but I'm saying right right I didn't make money on my YouTube content as much as you know I could have um so I appreciate your words but it's again there is work

your words but it's again there is work around if you're traveling back home if you're traveling somewhere else as soon as you're outside the US you can do you as you're outside the US you can do deals and you can make money yeah during that time so use that time um usci like they just want to make sure nobody's like exploiting their that's the only thing absolutely yeah awesome and then I guess again shifting gear is just a little bit if somebody were to start I guess we'll just you know pick you if you were to start a YouTube channel today having known what you know now I guess what are some things that you would do differently in terms of a blueprint so obviously keeping aside the stuff that's given like you need to be consistent you need to you know not give

consistent you need to you know not give up after like 3 months or whatever but I'm trying to you know really peel back the onion a little bit in terms of your knowhow that you accumulated you know over the past seven years what are I guess some really underrated things that an outsider probably would not know but that actually make a big difference in terms of you know growth we we'll just stick to the growth metric for now any call outs there 100% so a few things um I think Gary Vayner Chuck from Vayner media he he talks about this a lot um that give value value value a lot of value um how would I do it differently now now is I would have like I still have multiple verticals but I would have M

multiple verticals but I would have M multiple verticals from starting right I would have Instagram reels and I would do long form content also people underestimate the the reach and the impact of long form content by a lot they think like short form content we are getting views but longterm your long-term like long form content will be the only thing which is giving immense value people watch short-term content short value content like so this happened in the past few years a lot that people would recognize me but they wouldn't know my name they're like hey you're the Instagram guy cuz my reals blew up I'm like I don't like that I want to keep being part people recognize me for my me for part people recognize me for my long form YouTube videos and they're like oh sh who do I look up to when

like oh sh who do I look up to when there's a oh M right um so I keep continuing long form videos but also have that vertical of short form videos and upload it everywhere don't hesitate to upload just click that upload button don't think that this this is not up to the mark this is not quality content you should watch my first videos they were like I have yeah some of the videos were just it were so awkward I wasn't this fluent in speaking um but if I would be nervous at that time or if I would be hesitant to upload that this is not up to the Mark I would never get to a point

to the Mark I would never get to a point where you know I'm sitting here with you and giving advice to people um and then so I guess to on the topic of short form content do you approach that differently from long form I guess so apologies I'm not super familiar with your short form content but is it kind of the same um you know value just packaged in a shorter manner or do you go for more because I I have seen a few creatives do more you know like humor type or relatable type content that people like to share and that you know gets a big traction that or do you stick to your Mantra of value value value with your short form stuff as well uh short form is a bit different

as well uh short form is a bit different for sure it's a lot less effort it takes me like 45 minutes to prepare short form content as compared to like hours to create a long form content scripting writing guiding um shooting filming editing and then um making sure thumbnail is good to go descriptions good to go short form content usually yeah like I would make a long form content then I would do a short form content and um I would relate for example let's say today I I spoke for the like Harvard Graduate School of Education talking about finances right so that would be my hook like hey these are the advices I gave to Harvard students this morning uh if you want read the caption I would hook them in they read the caption they watch my

they read the caption they watch my videos uh it get decent views um but the the main reason for your short form content is to push people to your long form content that's I think it's just it's like a big funnel short form content is the big funnel your long form content here and then like end product is whatever you're yeah to yeah promote or trying to sell or you know trying to get people to okay and so that's really reassuring for me to hear because that's kind of what I've been striving to do again very very new to all of this obviously but in my mind that framework that you referen about the big funnel and small funnel has made sense um I guess what I do struggle with

sense um I guess what I do struggle with and hopefully I'm speaking for you know a vast majority of creators out there like me that are you know just starting out on the journey but do you have any specific call outs for making sure that that link is maintained for somebody that watches my deal is like okay sure cool or whatever but then just forgets about it like you said like you know cuz you're just incentivized to keep swiping up up and the the way it's you know put forward in front of you almost prevents you from wanting to go anywhere else like the whole point of res or short from content is to keep you glued and just you know that upswipe mechanism so do you have any specific call outs against how to break that chain create a

against how to break that chain create a barrier big enough for that person to in fact go on my like YouTube channel and look at my bigger or longer stuff yeah man I love these questions very very good uh like Kudos they're really good questions I think that link I think you hook them in right let's say we talk about something you don't give them everything in that real um let's say we talk about finances right uh you cut it out in a short but you don't give them the complete answer you cut that reel out where they would need to click the video to watch like what was the answer for about or this is what I've seen also people always like cut very juicy part of long form content cut cut cut cut they're not giving any of the answers

they're not giving any of the answers they're just like prompting that question in the users's mind and then uh they're like hey Link in BIO or Link in stor go and I've done multiple times where I watch that real I'm like what is the answer to that I would love to watch this is very interesting I would go watch that that's the only way for you to uh have that link way uh having the same name Channel helps because sometimes people have their different username on Instagram versus on uh on their YouTube channels or on their podcast having the same name helps um and even if you don't have same name like let's say you're n part on Instagram and then you would do a line

Instagram and then you would do a line and you would write your podcast name so that they could look that up yeah wow that I have definitely not been doing that so I love that take away from that because yeah so far I've just been like applying the one formula that I was told by yourself and other people like you that value value value so I just snip out one minute of like hopefully what is valuable for somebody and then just put it there and yeah like I haven't you know done exceedingly well it's just you know like whatever 3,000 people have watch it 3,000 is amazing man like you I used to get 9900 views in my first YouTube video so 3,000 is amazing on a um remember this like what you can do n

um remember this like what you can do n is also that on the first day when you're releasing this podcast you can do that uh question prompt question prompt cut and then upload that and then from second day onwards what you can do is like you can actually create reels out of it and then upload that yeah okay so that the first day you get some traction of people watching it and reels are very Dynamic right I'm uploading the real today people are watching it a week later so you don't know what going come first if the um if your trailer real comes first or whether your value real comes first AB experiment as if you're starting out that makes sense and do you have any perspectives on the I guess you know the lifetime of content because it feels like to my naive you know sense of

feels like to my naive you know sense of what I have so far is that reals have a surprisingly short lifp like once right like once a week goes by that might as well have not even existed YouTube on the other hand will continue to potentially rack up views as long as the YouTube is around yep do you is that something that you plan for in some way or optimize for that in a manner or is that just like a fact of life yeah no 100% see like let's compare reals to news articles and YouTube short form or YouTube long form content to books people will always go back books nobody's reading one year one week old news nobody's reading one year old news unless they're looking specifically for

unless they're looking specifically for a certain information plus Instagrams and YouTube shs they sear YouTube shorts still better but Instagram searchability is absolute pathetic you can't search like hey what happens if I lose my passport in the US what happens if I get RF for my stem extension uh but you they can search it on YouTube and get get actual good content that's why I keep promoting long form content um and in long form content give as much value as you can short form content do the prompt thing again going back to your point about the funnel makes sense and then I guess um the other thing I was curious to get your take on is um

was curious to get your take on is um how do you first of all is it important to kind of grow consistently across the various social media so for at least for people like you and me LinkedIn is you know a big name that gets thrown around would would you have a recommendation around if somebody just skips all of that and focuses just on YouTube and on Instagram just to kind of funnel their views in or would you say there is a lot of benefit to be gained from leveraging Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest I don't know any and all social medias that exist if it's your full-time job absolutely leverage everything if it's not your full-time job it gets difficult it gets very difficult for you to even make reels out of things right um my recommendation would be

recommendation would be um the type of content you're creating right if you're creating a Content which is relevant to people on LinkedIn I would post it on LinkedIn like talking about construction people talking about computer science people students would like to watch that kind of content on LinkedIn but if I'm talking about like what happens if your stem extension get R fee maybe not so much like why would I yeah but I would share articles on LinkedIn and then you can always repurpose like let's say you learned a lot of things today you summarize that in a post and post it on LinkedIn and make a real out of it on Instagram as well so see same content three places audience is different um my so I grew to

audience is different um my so I grew to 100,000 Plus on YouTube way before I even hit 10,000 or I think I hit actually more than 10,000 but I hit 20,000 followers on Instagram I see I see I had 20 22,000 follow followers and I grew to 100K followers within like a period of less than two months on Instagram just by putting out reals so it's and I never focused on Instagram that much and I'm like all right this I'm going to make reals every day and I did that for a few weeks it blue up Instagram blew up and I continue to do so so um but again if you have a full-time job it's difficult to focus on everything that's why I I'm like sometimes I'm very active on LinkedIn I have like 35 30 30,000 plus followers I think and if I

30,000 plus followers I think and if I keep continuing to be active on LinkedIn for the next two months maybe I'll hit 50 60,000 it's not difficult to do that yeah as long as you're producing juicy content on LinkedIn people are going to like it people are going to go to your profile and that's a follow right there interesting I actually find it really notable that you have a decent at least a ballpark figure in your mind for your comp of followers across all these platforms I think to me that's kind of interesting because I just feel like after a point when I imagine me being possibly in new position one day I actually would probably have no idea how how many thousands because as you said after the pointed just zeros after you know a number so I guess like what I'm

know a number so I guess like what I'm getting at here is first of all do you agree with that or not and second of all how do you deal with that I mean it is Fame there's no beating around the bush here it is literally Fame so like does it get to you does it change your life in some way does it make you different I'm kind of curious to hear how you deal with you know just all the dopamine every single day that just just flooded your brain by so great great uh like great parallels you put there that there's a lot of dopamine for sure like anytime you upload you hit a dopamine Rush right you're going to get views

Rush right you're going to get views you're checking how many views you got is it lesser views that you're going down I think there was so if you're getting lesser views like for example my YouTube videos are getting under 5K views sometimes and I don't care about it as long as I'm uploading it um but it took me years to get to that point right interes it took me like this is the sixth seventh year of content creation so at this point like I'm happy I'm creating content I'm happy I'm giving some value uh but if I'm not getting views all right let's move on go to the next one and this is uh a thing which you listen to from a lot of people they'll figure out what they're doing

they'll figure out what they're doing wrong why did it didn't go well but then they move on to the next piece of content and having a following number it's like usually I have a ballpark figure right like of course you don't have the exact number but oh 141k on Instagram one 82k I think on YouTube and then LinkedIn is like some 30k followers also um it just you check it sometimes and you just remember that number so yeah yeah and absolutely the fame thing is again it's by getting Fame there it's not helping me doing any better on my job so if I don't perform on my regular job better like good I'm not going to be promoted I'm not going to get um raises I'm there'll be a struggle for me so keeping these two separate should be your aim just don't

separate should be your aim just don't let let it Cloud your thinking and work work ethic build yeah and start feeling like I'm Invincible you know like I don't need to worry about all of these stuff like my job yeah yeah yeah um like first of all thank you so much for that amazing Deep dive um just on the last segment for this I kind of want to you know shine a light on editing I I guess CU from what iar here it's an integral possibly even more important than you know like the actual Act of recording itself but if you cannot hook your viewer in the first 30 seconds they have already clicked away you can have the best video in the world and if your thumbnail isn't as

world and if your thumbnail isn't as good nobody's going to click on it so it's you know it's it's a waste so first of all do you first of all like yeah do you do everything by yourself and if so what are some I guess Nifty tricks or tools or resources that you've learned over the years that have really helped you you know be efficient and optimize the act of editing your video and to make that thumbnail and if if at all those are things that you even worry about because maybe you don't I don't know yeah no I worry about it I think um YouTube started like after Mr Beast and um Ali Abdul's videos right like everybody first 30 seconds thumbnails first 30 seconds thumbnail is the 50% of the work you have to do

the work you have to do uh it's very important why would you if you see a thumbnail that's the video you want to click a title that's the word click click to right and then 30 seconds it hooks you in if you good editing so I what I done is like I usually edit on Final Cut Pro I canva a lot for all of the graphics of mine and then I do have a video editor who does like first cuts for me cleans up that saved me a lot of time and then for graphics and everything I usually just created um I batch produce content so let's say today I'm going to do like two videos or three

I'm going to do like two videos or three videos and tomorrow I'm going to do two three videos all together as well and then throughout the weeks whenever I'm getting time after work when I'm getting time on weekends I would edit that and start uploading it um on thumbnails really uh look at what other people have other people content has done well um and then um I use a a lot I use chart GPT a lot really yeah to figure out what kind of like I've what I've created is I've created a custom GPT as soon as I put the topic or like a little bit of description description of um of what kind of video I been making uh it it automatically give me 20

making uh it it automatically give me 20 item and I've I've customized it to that it's going to be in an order which is like SEO friendly uh so first would be most V second third fourth P seven so it gives you 20 ideas like that um and that's how I've been used started to use AI a little bit and then in the scripting part it gives me the basic structure but then I have to add in a lot of like personal anecdotes and Shar stories in that um but canva has been game changer for thumbnails for graphics for any kind of uh photos removing backgrounds I just I live in canva and final gut Pro that's so cool to me that you built a custom GPT around that because I have

custom GPT around that because I have actually looked up specifically how you can use AI to be you know better or more efficient at this and that's not actually something I've ever heard anyone else talk about but now that you mentioned it it actually makes a lot of sense so I think that's an amazing call out yeah um and then I guess the other thing on that was at what point do would you recommend that a person that's you know that's starting out at what point point would they be considering or should they be considering getting an Editor to help with you know that entire process do you have any take on that or is it purely subjective to how much time

is it purely subjective to how much time the person has to spare yeah I think it's Pro purely subjective right initially I had a lot more time now I have a lot less time I have focusing more on like health and focusing on more on like family time so I got less time to um spend on editing now that's why editor for the first 3 4 years I always just edited all my videos all my Vlogs I loved the process I loved putting music into it I love um making those cuts and when I was doing uh daily like not daily weekly Vlogs With My Friends and everything it's just fun to rewatch it

everything it's just fun to rewatch it and make it a nice piece of film movie right like it's a short film um yeah with with the value content right with the value added videos um they're pretty cut and dry like you make it fair my editor can do most of the job he can help me uh download content from uh online and save me some time but you have to set processes with them uh actually the editor who I have right now he works at a city in India and he has been um a friend of mine he came to one of the meetups at us in 201 so I've known him for like solid six seven years I know him his wife

I know him his wife um we keep in touch even though he's not editing my videos sometimes but and he's watched all of my videos that's why he knows exactly where to cut it um so that's why it's difficult to find good editors also yeah it really sounds like what you're saying is you almost need to have that connection with the person and it I mean I'm sure you could possibly use just any person but it obviously helps yeah if you have that if somebody knows you and that kind of understand your content and the type of you know Cuts like all those j cuts L cuts that you usually do because again yeah it's your brand that is being worked with here yeah um absolutely like honestly I feel like I myself have learned so much during this entire session here but um

during this entire session here but um those are really all the questions I had I want to leave the floor open for you to have or to share any advice maybe outside of the stuff that we already discussed I feel like we covered the Gam at least in my head of everything that usually people or myself usually uh that I find myself thinking about but just want to give you the chance in case I might have missed anything is there any other advice or call out that you think is worth mentioning to you know somebody that's starting today or has just started their YouTube Journey yeah do just don't get demotivated like remember any fun videos you're making with your friends or with your family family or any Vlogs you're making for travel that'll just be a fun family movie

that'll just be a fun family movie you'll be watching like 10 years down the line uh keep that in Focus like make it fun for example like even now if I'm going home or if I have family over I would record those clips just so that I quickly edit it in Final Cut Pro and upload it as a unlisted video on my YouTube YouTube channel cuz I would want to watch that like 5 10 years later where I see all my cousins are very young and they're having having and that was a memory I had with them um and it's like I there was there's one my favorite video on my YouTube channel is

favorite video on my YouTube channel is one which I made with my family uh in 2019 when my parents visited um from India and I made that video that's like a 20 minutes video and it come it had like we've traveled for over 20 days and it had videos from every single from every different city we visited and there was so much fun to make and I can still watch that and relive every mov which we had and there was so much fun and like there's a real with my wife we went to San Diego last last year and it's so much fun to watch that reel back and like just live those memories again right so if you're focusing on like fun content family content

content family content just think about it like oh 10 years later it'll be so much fun to watch this again and make it with that thing in mind par it's been such an absolute pleasure to sit down here and learn from you and um having being somebody that is a fan of your content and has been for a while now it's I would like to first of all thank you for all of the value that you add to all of the you know Indian immigrants and other countries immigrants lives and I hope to continue to watch you grow and learn from you uh for many many more years to come yeah hopefully man you'll uh with all these

hopefully man you'll uh with all these podcasts right you'll you'll cross you'll cross me pretty soon if you keep doing this just be consistent with it all the best with what you do and thanks for having me here it was absolute pleasure it was so much fun to talk uh to talk content for an hour I don't get to do that often that brings us to the end of episode 20 of The Ready Set do podcast I'd like to thank you all for sharing these conversations with those that continue to benefit from if you would like to support me please subscribe to my YouTube channel and leave me up to a five star rating on

leave me up to a five star rating on Spotify new episodes every Wednesday catch all in the next