How To Utilize Diverse Channels Of Passive Income As A Content Creator - w/ Yudi

they will discover me they'll watch me they come here gone now I have to find a new audience so is it true that if somebody is on their F1 Visa they're not supposed to monetize their YouTube channel somebody told me that they got low gr score and they could not get admitt because their consultancies is saying that you will not get an Adit and that fired me up you from CH from a Mumbai lower middle class family and you are now living an American Dream I wanted to become an actor when I was in 10th Grade do you think the international student Creator space is saturated I suffer through imposter syndrome a lot and I go through sell out

syndrome a lot and I go through sell out and I'm actually doing therapy for that if you're thinking of a newsletter as a business and a monetization technique I would choose V or convert can you give us a very quick crash course around courses there is a component of live teaching versus a digital course because the completion rate of live teaching is much higher than digital course at any point where you're like I should probably give up I want to build a Runway that I can pay my bills pay my team if I can do that and sustain it for a year then let's take that risk this 6C was mind going what if I watch more Welcome to The Ready Set do podcast where we learn from journeys of not experts who are just two steps ahead of

experts who are just two steps ahead of us I'm Naman Panda and in this episode featured not expert is pritesh jagani known more commonly by his fans as udj online pritesh has built and grown his YouTube channel to over 280k subscribers at the time of recording leveraging his knowhow and lived experiences to share amazing insights on how to succeed in the US during and after your master's degree in our discussion udj shares the exact blueprint that he followed to amas such a huge following covering not just the highs but also the lows that according to me not nearly enough creators talk about we go over the importance of being authentic and consistent some essential steps that creatives must take to prevent stagnating and continue to accelerate their growth and specific tools methodologies and game plans to scale

methodologies and game plans to scale one's Creator Journey to Find finally Achieve Financial stability indeed the part where yudi talks about how much therapy helped him in times his mental health was taking a hit due to content creation is a stark reminder that even the very best need to take important steps to look after themselves and it is a sign of strength and not weakness to do so and to talk about it so you can educate others in keeping with our theme of learning from somebody that's just two steps ahead of us instead of an expert my goal is to share with you all the gold mine of insights that udy has collected over the years through through his creator journey and to really bring out the human behind the Creator even

out the human behind the Creator even though in this case they're largely the same things this is The Ready Set to podcast and to support it please subscribe to the YouTube channel and or leave me up to a festar reading on Spotify and now without any further Ado my friends here is udj where does udj come from because I was looking I went to LinkedIn and I was Googling so sorry searching for udj naturally nothing came up I was like what is going on you know so what's the story behind that right so um in eighth grade there was a TV show called KAS in the this right and my mom used to watch this and I guess it was every household TV people us yeah uh and so there was a character

us yeah uh and so there was a character called PR and his nickname was yudi uh he used to wear a lot of hoodies and apparently I used to wear a lot of hoodies during that time so it just happened to be like my school friend started teasing me like oh you look like that UD guy in the C and so so I just like saw it and I was like oh I like the name so I'll just adopt it and I started calling myself beudy to everybody and then so I I just named myself like it's very I'm very fortunate to that have the ability to name myself so so this just become a thing and then um I like it and

become a thing and then um I like it and then I don't know like I kept it forever now my boss knows me from that only if I'm in trouble my guitar is going to use PES otherwise I'm good have you ever talked about that I'm sure you must have you know your fans or people on in comments on YouTube being like what's the story behind that has that ever happened just out of curiosity I mean I've not like made exclusive video on it I think in I've talked about it in live streams I've talked about it uh and when people ask me I've mentioned it but like I don't think everyone know knows the like this is probably the

knows the like this is probably the first time they will know like oh this is the origin of the name y that that's great already happy to check that Bo off so what made you want to start creating content UD uh I have a long answer and I have a short answer which I would love the long answer we're all about long answers here all right so uh I um I wanted to become an actor uh when I was in 10 10th grade but as you know uh Indian parents uh there's no money only people who are rich go to go get acting and all of that so I didn't get to pursue that and um and then like I chose computer science

and then like I chose computer science and did my masters and when I came here in United States when I was doing my masters in computer science uh I had my on campus job and it was with student life and Leadership we used to do a lot of events and my job was Tech Consulting but because the department hosted a lot of event they needed someone to film events and so I was like I wunt I'll do it and and so the my spark of film making and acting came again uh like that's when it ignited um so so that's how like it all started uh and then so there's part of me always wanted to be a

there's part of me always wanted to be a filmmaker or an actor uh and in reality I think now retrospectively I think I never wanted to become an actor it was always about Storyteller uh I think when I was you know 15 years old 16 years I I just wanted to become famous because that's what everybody like in Mumbai I'm from Mumbai so everyone wants to become an actor yeah but I at that time I wanted to be famous but now the perspective has changed it's more about storytelling I feel like I'm also going to take a course on entertainment journalism but uh yeah uh but like so that was like whole piece of fil making in me and then I graduated I got my full-time job I paid off my loan I paid

full-time job I paid off my loan I paid off I bought a home I bought paid off my car loan like life was really good after like two years of me working full-time and then I had I needed some other Hobby and so I was like okay maybe I should like um think about film making again and so started actually a podcast called coffee with hustlers it's still on YouTube if you just type it coffee with hustlers you will find it um the idea behind that was to interview local entrepreneurs and U or any entrepreneurs basically to talk about their journey and their their success uh because I believe every entrepreneur goes through different Journey so I want cap I was ahead of my time I didn't realize when

ahead of my time I didn't realize when was this just in terms of timeline 2018 so this was 2018 so I was ahead of my timeline because I wish I would that because podcasting wasn't that big until 2020 um true true and so I after four five episodes I realized like okay nobody knows these people the entrepreneurs that I'm bringing nobody knows me nobody listen this conversation so I need to do something different and that was again naive of me uh not realizing the power of consistency and all of that um and then a lot of my cousins and friends in India wanted to come to United States and somebody told me that they got low gr score and they could not get admit in one of the

could not get admit in one of the universities because their consultancies is saying that you will not get an admit and that fired me up and I was like no you can get an admit and I had your G score and I it's overall profile it's not just one thing exactly and so then he said like why don't you make videos on this like you've gone through it and I was like huh interesting and if my first thought is like why would someone want to know my story and then I spoke to my wife and others and they said like oh my gosh like you have very inspiring you are from CH from a Mumbai middle lower middle class family uh and you are

lower middle class family uh and you are now living an American dream uh so everyone aspires to do this so uh you should just document that journey and how you went about it so that's the Genesis and the origin it it started like that and then I my first video was on like low G score and that became popular and and then I just started sharing everything that you see it on YouTube thanks for sharing that I do have a couple follow-ups on that so when you released that first video about L scores and how shouldn't matter are we still in 2018 at this point would you say y okay and so what was that I guess I'm trying to drill down into your almost like market research that any YouTuber does pretty much before you jump into a niche your thought to like

jump into a niche your thought to like look up the big creators in that space that are already active what type of thumbnails are working what titles are working what video formats are working so I actually don't know if I know there are some creatives now that are that have been like creating content for a while but I'm curious as to how you navigated that aspect of it because from the outset it sounds like there must have been creators you must have obviously gone through that do we need another Creator in this space but obviously you decided to do it anyway and it you know proved really really great for you so I'm trying to understand what that part of your you know thinking was around once you were able to dive into this student international student creative space

international student creative space good question don't so I now in 2024 content creation has become so much bigger than what it was in 201 so I don't think I did a lot of this okay are there other creators because again the idea was to create content and film making like it wasn't really like I want to become big on YouTube or anything like that that wasn't my first thought like okay are this are there competitors are these um are there other creators and do I need to be another one I just yeah so I honestly didn't look for it I didn't like I I just created it when I created it then I came across because once you start researching that then you start see like you will see okay here are the

see like you will see okay here are the other people and I think in at that time there's only three or four creators uh like I they were there who were creating this similar content and uh um so when I started the space was very very uh like it wasn't saturated or there wasn't like every other person is talking about this so it was limited uh so I guess I had like the first mover advantage in a way but yeah so like I didn't really do like I wasn't one of those where who do a lot of research I mean now I do a lot of research but but not before that when I started I did not makes sense yeah and

started I did not makes sense yeah and it's almost as they say you know ignorance is bliss like if you don't know what's out there you will never worry about getting into that overthinking mindset where you're like I probably don't need to do this and then we won't be talking right now so that would not be nice at all so almost you know I'm almost glad that you didn't you know worry too much about it so um let's fast forward to the point where you reach I want to say thousand subscribers before because in talking with other creators I found that that's the number that they report is more exciting than 10,000 100,000 anything after it's the first thousand that most creators you know really strive for so what was that Journey like and how long did it take

Journey like and how long did it take and at any point were you like I should probably give up because that is another theme that I've heard recurringly from CRE yeah uh it took me I don't remember like five six months uh maybe okay so that's not bad at all that's really quick because again like the the the content was not available so I think it was refreshing for audience to have more creators in this space so I think I had a little advantage over there um and and so it did not take long to get 2,000 um and and I did not feel like giving up because there were comments like I was just like after my first video um maybe

just like after my first video um maybe that got like thousand views or something when I made it but in that thousand views there were like 15 20 comments that okay please make video on Toof really that's awesome huh so because again information wasn't there as much uh so so I was like oh I have already 15 20 ideas so I need to make at least this many videos so that just happened and so I was like okay there's already need for this so I kept going um yeah so it did not feel like giving up at least in that first, I did feel giving up after like first year or second year and third year and fourth year and every single other years but last two years I haven't felt

years but last two years I haven't felt like giving up but but uh for the first four years I did feel like giving up because again uh this this is not something you ask but uh my audience or the people who create content on study abroad it is the age of the audience is very small um so for example in your case you do podcast you bring different personality you bring different topics so they are coming to listen to an intellectual conversation because n one is going to bring someone interesting and so you have a wide range of audience in my case it's very very deep and Niche uh so once people come to United States they get busy they have their own life

they get busy they have their own life they figure out things on their own so they're not going to watch it anymore so the the cycle of the audience is six months to one year they will discover me they'll watch me they come here gone now I have to find a new audience so and that also is a problem with YouTube algorithm because if you think about it now I have 10,000 let's assume I have 10,000 people 5,000 have already come to United States 5,000 is this new audience who discovered me they subscribed to me but the problem is these 5,000 people are become inactive audience so as soon as I upload it's going to pick sample size That's crazy dude yeah yeah yeah so so that is when you feel like giving up because you feel like

like giving up because you feel like nothing I do is working uh but but initial days was like I think there was a lot of drill and rush and people wanting to know more uh from you so I did not feel like giving up at least for the first year that wasn't the thought that's so interesting what you said about that you know Cycles almost of subscribers that's not something I'd considered at all but now that I think about it it must be true for all the you know at least international student creatives that probably go through this cycle so I guess are you are you is the takeaway from that that essentially your subscriber count doesn't really matter as much is that kind of what okay

matter as much is that kind of what okay that is 100% correct yeah it is your views count because that is your true audience uh and yeah unless you are providing some more information but again that is a risky part like I so I do now I talk about how to come to United States how to get a job in United States and immigration so it's a three different things but not all three is going to work because people who are when I talk about immigration people who are very far um from like coming to United St they're like this is so far like I I just want to get an admit right now yeah that's so true yeah like that person does not care about you know your stem op they literally just care about

stem op they literally just care about get get taking a flight and Landing wherever in the US that that's the farthest that they even think exactly exactly so um yeah so I think that is um I don't remember what I was trying to say but like that is the thought process that um don't worry about subscribers just like focus on the content or like have a be more strategic like um you can open up and brow on your uh content piece like that is what lot of international student creators they do they start with this topic they realize it they they quickly realizes within one year six months that okay us are going to start dipping in the first one be first year but then it will start to dip because their

it will start to dip because their audience has met and now they have aged out so the quickest pivot is to start doing lifestyle Vlogs and because now it's about them and we less about the information they're providing so yeah so anyway I mean again that that's what I've seen many people do it I tried it and I hated it it me a lot uh but I was miserable so I I can't do it it's not for me uh but it could be for other people are you refering to the vlogging aspect of the pivot specifically okay yeah I can see that I I don't think I could do it either if I'm being very honest it almost feels like you have to so there are some people that are

so there are some people that are blessed that have really good interesting personalities I myself when I think about myself I don't think I have a personality that somebody would just watch and enjoy you know like I'm just a guy I just sit around doing nothing most of my time so when I have to record a Blog and try to be interesting that's where you stop being original and the viewers see that there's no way you can fake that like I feel like I'm a big Casey nistad fan the literal reason he's the biggest vlogger in the world is because he isn't acting that's genuinely who he is he is like that in real life no no not like I think I I don't think I mean maybe slightly

I I don't think I mean maybe slightly but I think it's his storytelling uh through the Vlogs true also true for sure but I guess I'm trying to say you can have you can give somebody else that same script and their videos would not do even half as well because they don't bring to the camera what he can bring to the camera so um I want to talk about you reference that in in the middle you weren't um you were close to giving up when those when you realized those Cycles exist like that you said for the first four years or so you were like you know on the fences a little bit what kept you going during those times uh the messages from my subscribers and and their parents

their parents so um yeah like I think the impact that I've created I don't get to see it until either I meet them in person or they send me like a long message or um or sometimes if I they really need me and they call me so that is what keeps me going that because you keep feeling and you keep doubting that maybe I'm not this nobody wants to hear this nobody wants to watch me but but you don't know the fact it is creating other people's life and I suffer through imposter syndrome a lot and I go through self-doubt and I'm actually doing therapy for that uh like my therapist will tell you all about it but good for you man that's I'm so glad

but good for you man that's I'm so glad that you're taking the steps you need to take to get yeah yeah I did not therapy until like last year and then I watch few movies and a couple of my friends told me it has work for I was like okay as well let's give it a try and then first three session and I was crying and I was like like I I'm like I'm not I'm sorry I I was not sure if I was supposed to swear or not no it's all good this is not a PG PG-13 podcast we we can swear all we want yeah yeah but I was like oh my gosh I how why did I not

was like oh my gosh I how why did I not do this and there are so many childhood traumas that that is how our brain gets wired and you don't know that there are so many behaviors in you because that's how your child was trained and like your inner child was trained and when you were child and that's how you react like jealousy and insecurity all of this is from your childhood it's not you right now it's it's from the childhood so yeah so I did not realize all of that and and now through my therapy like I'm working through it and I'm so blessed I feel like everyone should do it people like looking at me they think like why Udi would need a therapy but like I'm telling you guys I need a you should do it it shows a lot of strength from your

it it shows a lot of strength from your end to be able to talk about this openly because I know we now live in America but I'm sure you'll agree that in in a lot of places in the world especially India this is still kind of a tender topic people don't usually show Too Much empathy to people that are you know able to confess that there's all sorts of weird you know stuff attached to that so I really commend you being able to talk about it so freely and openly like that's really I admire that bro my parents will tell me like like so we talking they they think that only people who have problems or mental is like you don't have that like you have successful life so why are you going and so I like okay I don't need to

going and so I like okay I don't need to argue it's my money I'm so so yeah good good for you good for so so yeah good good for you man um sorry what was the question we were yeah we were talking about what kept you going during those Cycles where it was proving proving to pretty tough yeah so it was um so 2018 I started my channel 2019 I did my first meet up in India um uh it so I was going to India for uh my sister's wedding my cousin's wedding and then during that time I was like okay I'm here for 3 weeks so let's use the time let's do Meetup so I meet I did a Meetup in Mumbai Pune Hyderabad Bangalore so like I said first six

Bangalore so like I said first six months I wasn't like so depressed or nothing like I I didn't have the thoughts of giving up next six months the I actually if you go to my Instagram uh there's a like a highlight of a story where I used to screenshot all the messages people used to send me because I was I would go back and realize that okay I am creating impact then I had my first Meetup uh in four cities and um I met parents like I was surprised to see parents coming to those meetups so when I met parents and the students and people travel like 4 400 500 kilometers just to meet me for two hours and that

just to meet me for two hours and that is when I realized like okay I yes it is only getting th000 views maybe yes it is only getting 5,000 views but that 5,000 people are getting impacted on a deeper level which I don't know um until I meet them so I think that was the kind of part kept me going okay I like it is impacting people so that was the I think the main thing that kept me going and um so how did you set these meetups up was that just done via your channel itself or did you have a separate person or organization take care of all that uh yeah so I uh there yeah so I partnered

yeah so I uh there yeah so I partnered with someone uh they were sporing uh that these meetups they helped me with the logistics so I yeah I I mean I was I did not have Team until 2020 um but uh 2019 yeah it was just me saying like these are the four popular city and they had Logistics the brand that was sponsoring me they had a logistic team and they helped me organize it my job was to bring people in and of course cuz there's only obviously so much you can do especially when you're not even in India and you have to plan an event that comes out of India logistically it just makes sense to have people on the event cost cost was like 15 lakhs rupees or

cost cost was like 15 lakhs rupees or something for that entire four cities so not have that money but like the brand obviously had the money so but it was free for audience and my goal was just to meet people and provide them value and opportunity to kind of get from screen to actually meeting in person hopefully I get to do that with you someday I come to Chicago very often so hopefully oh really yeah you have to hit me up next time you're here yeah you have my my company's headquarter is in uh Willis Tower so yeah so I'll I'll be visiting that brings me to kind of the you know like next segment here which is that so all of this is going on I'm sure you're crushing in terms of numbers you you feel you making an impact not that you feel but it's validated to you that

feel but it's validated to you that you're making an impact you know it's like everything's going good um I want to clear up some possible myths that I think I may have around this space so is it true that if somebody's on their F1 Visa they're not supposed to monetize their YouTube channel or is that that is true it's not yeah you are violating uh your F1 Visa status uh or H1B even um if you are monetizing your social media because essentially you are given the visa to educate yourself over here okay now unless if you a student or an Arts student and this is part of your education then totally fine interesting interesting then you can make this as a CPT and can do it I know many friends

CPT and can do it I know many friends who have done it and then they went the route ofb Visa but but like if you're are coming for computer science and doing this we this thing I know there are going to be so many people who are going like there are many Creator I don't want to say this but I know if someone is going to tell you like okay go and uh transfer the money don't take the money from the brand transfer the money to your grandmother in India you can do that because you will have no paper trail and you'll not get caught so you're basically telling me I'm going to steal and I'm going to do a robbery and I won't be called Kee until someone catches me like that you are

someone catches me like that you are still violating the law yeah start off some of the other questions that I had that were link to this so I guess but what really I was getting at was um did you ever have go for monetization or to actively use YouTube or your creator career as a means to make passive income or was that something that you just realize that okay this is a thing that I can do so let's do that or did you choose to not do that at all I actually have no idea how your monetization stuff works also understand if you if you're not comfortable talking about it but I'm just really curious I'm like I'm you

just really curious I'm like I'm you know bursting at my seams to find out these you know hidden secrets about you yeah so I uh until 2020 I did not Monet sorry until 2021 I did not monetize uh until 2019 that first meet up when I was like okay I mean I brand did not pay me at all to do the event they just paid for the the thing for organizing the Meetup and I was like if a brand is willing to pay so much money then I'm sure like there's way to make more money in this but I was on H1 B visa and I could not make money uh and in 2021 uh is when I got my green card EAD

2021 uh is when I got my green card EAD uh that is the first time I started monetizing I knew there's a way to make money but I did not monetize it I just like again I my first heart is Creator filmmaker so I was always thinking about building audience building audience building brand I did not think about building business so I think if there are creators who are listening you should first think really clarify is it a hobby or is it a business um I was in this weird middle phase where I want to do as a hobby but if it makes money great so like you so so yeah so I think have that Clarity I did not and I made that mistake so when

did not and I made that mistake so when I think once 2020 lot of Brands started to reach out to me like hey can you help us from our product and and I was like okay that was organically just on your email or whever awesome yeah yeah just email uh email or Instagram they would reach out to me and I would like I would just tell them no I cannot because I I'm not on a Visa Brands themselves will tell me like oh what if we pay you in India I don't want to do it so in 2021 as soon as I got monetized it was early like February when I got my green card

like February when I got my green card Ed and so then I was like now let's turn on nothing yeah let's go uh so now I can make money so uh but yeah but it's also still not like all about money like it's of course of course like yeah I'm still have my full-time job and I'm still doing this so but the goal is someday to quit my full-time job and do this uh if again I'm in a tech world and I'm a senior product manager so salary like you know it's it's going to be hard to make that much money for sure for sure that is the goal yeah do you have a timeline in mind for that if it were an Ideal World if

for that if it were an Ideal World if you could you know flick a switch and get to a certain year which you're done yeah end of this year um so next year we hope to plan for a fam like kid and awesome congrats man thank you I mean we are not pregnant uh but still yeah that decision is a big decision I know that because you know some other friends that I had but I know the weight of that when you decide yeah yeah I mean I did not decide but I think okay I asked few other parents who are father and I was like what makes you feel like you want to be a dad and they're like nobody felt that way no they just knew that they

that way no they just knew that they want to have a family nobody felt like they are ready and I also still don't feel like I'm ready but everyone just told me you just have to put a date and just go and I was like okay I this seems like very counterproductive for a program manager product manager because I I like so uh but sometime end of next year is when we would like to have a kid um so after having a kid it's going to be extremely hard to take risk and so my goal is to build enough Runway that if I make zero dollars from my social media I will be okay until end of next year so

will be okay until end of next year so starting this year till end of next year so 12 month I want to build a Runway that I can pay my bills pay my team and all of that if I can do that and sustain it for a year even without making any savings Investments 401K nothing um then let's take that risk and let's double down on it and see where it goes if it doesn't go anywhere then I can go back to you know getting I mean I teach people how to get a job so I should be able to get a job I don't think it'll be an issue at all for you given your experience and but if I were hiring somebody that's

but if I were hiring somebody that's such a big Creator I feel like that has to add a decent amount of weight to your already existing qualifications would you agree or not really uh depends slightly depends uh yeah like so my team uh my hiring manager did tell me that my uh because I was a Creator and my marketing and all of that and I was I am going to be customer facing I am a customer customer so it did help but I don't think if I was in De they would care fair enough yeah that makes sense um cool so I guess the next section I have is around basically being a solopreneur and in

basically being a solopreneur and in terms of operations and you know how you uh unlock passive channels of income that start up as really thin streams but then that become bigger and bigger so specifically what I want to focus on are two things first being courses and the second being newsletters so from my very limited understanding um courses aspect is actually fairly straightforward I feel like I I'm just trying to learn what's your go-to method for designing a course and like how do you operationalize that and all that because just for some context I'm trying to make a course for starting a podcast channel so it's something I've done I I've learned a lot of things during the process so it'll cover literally from the day you decide that you want a podcast you don't know what you want to talk about you know nothing about it

talk about you know nothing about it until the day that you hit publish for the first time on YouTube and every other site what would it take me how would you recommend I go about that uh can you give us like a very quick crash course around courses one yeah yeah yeah 100% so first I I will tell you what I did and I I can tell you what you should do as well um I did multiple uh live courses uh so I did I started as a webinar um that okay this is a one hour webinar then I went from 1 hour webinar to three hour webinar then from three hour webinar I started doing uh like four two weeks cohort or four week

four two weeks cohort or four week cohort so I did that for two years and just to understand what what what do people really want and am ible to provide the value so that was first thing and then as I was doing it I was also getting the feedback from them like okay what exactly are they struggling where what is the thing that they this will move the needle for them so a lot of like user research feedback and then the beta testing of that and then I was like okay instead of me just doing this again and again again again and again um there is a component of live teaching versus a digital course because the completion of live teaching is much higher than digital course true

is much higher than digital course true I have heard that yeah yeah but I was like I just like instead of doing this U you know I can just make a low ticket course uh so my course is $25 or so for how to get a job in United States and um yeah so then I just put together all of the pieces that I've learned for like last two years of doing this I've been to several uh guest speaking sessions and I did my own paid webinar free webinar and all of that and started creating a syllabus first that okay here are the set modules in each module I'm going to talk about this so it's

going to talk about this so it's literally right writing a YouTube video script but like it's a five8 hour script um yeah and then also like I was putting myself on on the shoes and then I did lot of like uh first 10 users I just gave it to them for free like okay uh what do you think and then they told me and then I improved a little bit and then I launched it so that's a very quick crash code that's perfect no that's yeah that makes a lot of sense and do you have any um tools or websites that you recommend for doing this or was

that you recommend for doing this or was all of this custom done just locally hosted website you did everything by yourself so I did so many trials uh starting with uh so I initially when I started it it was all different different tools and now it's all kajabi like I use kajabi okay for every single thing and um yeah I think I love them and it's it's good because it's all in one spot but it's very expensive so uh if you don't want expensive then you can go the route of circle or Mighty networks which is which comes with the courses and the community or if you want to go even a layer deeper then you can go t table or like you know all of those there are ad

like you know all of those there are ad hoc courses provider where you can just host the course over there and I've also heard of gumroad is gumroad a thing at all that you've seen or used that's for digital products not necessarily courses because okay I see I see I see like if you have a eBook or something but if you have a course then you'll have to give the Drive Link and then you know it becom very insecure like you can just like uh I see someone can just take a drive link and share it with anybody people will do it regardless but I feel um like yeah having a platform and giving that experience of absolutely course Etc progress bar and all of that amazing um I will link all of those

amazing um I will link all of those sites that you mentioned in the show notes so all of our listeners can check check those out if they're interested and so that brings us to newsletters so this is another one big black box for me as a Creator as of three months ago so very young still still trying to figure out navigate this world I've seen every single person ever have a newsletter my two questions to you are a what does it accomplish and B why should somebody should is it worth my while to start doing that it depends on the clarity that you have uh okay fair enough let's take a step back what are newsletters used for like why do people have so okay

used for like why do people have so okay so think about relationship with the audience right so if if you are doing a short form content and then long form content and then newsletter so short form is discoverable like they see or shot somehow something popped and they're like oh okay interesting they might want to subscribe to your channel and now watch a long form video another layer of a deeper level level there where they are like okay now they're watching you for a longer time so from 60 seconds they went from 60 seconds to 4 minutes to 5 minutes because that's average view time you know some people will watch like full podcast now if they want to build like every weekly basis like this is where the next level of connection happens is newsletter because YouTube

YouTube even though you have thousand subscribers does not mean every single video is going to get thousand views because YouTube is going to show every single video to every single subscriber of yours yeah so it is only it only cares about their platform it only cares what my viewers want and I'll just going to send this so newsletter is opposite every single person will get an email and it's link like email platform does not decide whether I should send this email to this person or not you have all 10 people will get it yes open rate is something that will matter but at least you know that 10 people will have an email in their uh email box every week and yeah they can open it and so now

and yeah they can open it and so now every single week they are reading from you so that is the bigger purpose to build a deeper relationship now there are paid newsletter there are free newsletter and there's also like just marketing newsletter I almost would want to do marketing newsletter because because that just becomes spam you will go into promotion folder nobody will ever open an email um so you always want to provide a value so either you do purely strategic like okay I'm launching a course gives a weight list that weight list you're building for and then there's a 10 email sequence that people are sending it you know for buying the code um or there's a regular weekly Cadence of newsletter you're building this is another platform where you're just building an audience

just building an audience other than your YouTube or Instagram awesome appreciate that deep dive yeah yeah yeah so beehive and convert kit are the two top uh and mail chimp MailChimp I wouldn't I mean it's okay like I think the the delivera deliverable rates are lower than convert kit and beehive interesting beehive has uh way more monetization techniques than convert kit so like behive is like if you have your newsletter and in your news when somebody subscribes you can participate in promoting other people so like someone someone subscrib other newsletters and then you get paid as as well for that appreciate that um as you were talking about that I realized I think you said something along the lines of I don't know where your website is based

don't know where your website is based and unfortunately I don't have a website yet so that's a big ticket item on my to-do list mean I I've been been like putting it off I need to do that like yesterday but yeah just haven't had the chance so far but yeah I'll do that that brings us to I guess just kind of the last section here which is that um at what point do you recommend a Creator starts to like hire a team or not just be a solopreneur so I'll give you some context um I'm 20 episodes deep around episode 15 I realized if I were to consistently pump out one episode per week which was the only goal I set out

week which was the only goal I set out with I didn't have a subscriber like count whatever I just all I cared for was I'm going to publish once every Wednesday that's it that's success for me but I realized that was up in Jeopardy and if I didn't have an a video editor I would not have like made that so I've hired a video editor now that I work with I am now a twers team first of all according to you is that normal suboptimal optimal and generally what's the like growth that looks like because sounds like you have a big team now so any any you know tidbits that you can share around team building or delegating work would be super helpful yeah the

work would be super helpful yeah the first hire always make a video editor uh if you're a content creator let's go yeah I think uh they are Life Savers and um when I think you should hire I think you did a right like I think you did a good job when you feel like you cannot keep up the consistency and you need another one but also keep in mind uh you can start with an editor I think it really depends on what is your hourly rate uh so I and this is something I think most people like I I realized it very early so I started my editing team very quickly but for example if you are working in a tech uh if you're making 100,000

100,000 $150,000 that means your typical hour rate is going to be $150 or $200 so a podcast is taking you to edit about eight hours that is ,000 for one podcast to edit uh you might not think about it that way but it is $1,000 that's so true yeah uh so can you find an editor who can do it for $50 100% you can find it or $100 maybe uh and sure yeah so that is a 90% of savings that you are doing on your time and you could be doing another podcast another podcast or whatever else like building a website building a course syllabus uh versus

building a course syllabus uh versus like editing a thing so I think it really depends on figuring out what your hours are if you have a full-time job and you have an income dispose that income there because it's going to help you um for sure partially is that but then also uh also I would say um have some editing experience because if you have Z editing experience then it's going to be hard for you to guide what are you looking for and um it's just going to be struggle to coordinate with editor like okay I I don't like this but I don't know what I really want I just don't like this you'll be communicating like that I'm just blown away by you saying that because that is Verbatim

saying that because that is Verbatim what I said to my editor on our call yesterday I was like I know this is not good this is not for me but he was like okay sure but then what should we do and I was like can you make it look more classy and he's looking at me like he's seen some ghost he's like bro what what are you talking about but that's so true yeah maybe I need to learn some you know editing Styles or techniques like yeah you're spot on I need to know in order to be able to guide somebody or I I

to be able to guide somebody or I I can't yeah yeah yeah yeah and uh and then scaling just really depends on Roi right like how much money are you making I think editing you don't really like the ROI is already there you might just think about it but then like if you want like V and social media manager and all these other content writers and researcher that just depends on how much money you make like I wouldn't hire all of those people if you're not making money um like I for the first two years I made Zer from like Zer in profit from my YouTube or social media because everything I made I just put it back in the team or upgrading my setup getting the and camera and all of that uh because I wanted the quality to

that uh because I wanted the quality to be like top I want to be the Apple when it comes to creation MKBHD is like I'm big fan of him yeah love him yeah so so that's what I would invest in first is editor then upgrading the quality then I think hiring like all of all of these other people who can help you know other things and another thing that you could do is also start with agency because then you will also learn like something I've done I had done in the past is like hired an Instagram agency I was like okay for one month they charged me $1,000 uh they gave me 25 reels and then they gave me like 50 60 story ideas and

they gave me like 50 60 story ideas and Automation and all of that I learned it that was a master class I was willing to pay ,000 to learn everything which I wouldn't get it from buying a course I mean maybe I would but you would have to look for a course yeah to the whole yeah right so I had to implement it so so then I learned everything I was like okay great I learned it now I don't need you guys because I will build my own internal team uh so there is also Freelancers you don't have to hire like full-time people because there are content writers and researchers who will just do that I don't have content researcher and writers

researcher and writers but I think that makes sense yeah yeah and then so on um so when you say social media manager do you have a separate I'm like obviously you must actually have separate strategies for Instagram versus YouTube but in General am I right in assuming that usually the funnel that it's advisable to use if you have your reels on Instagram hopefully they go viral a bunch of eyeballs get attracted and then hopefully some of those will get filtered through to your YouTube video is does that track for the most yeah yeah yeah 100% yeah and um do you have any specific call outs in terms of how those reels can be designed outside of like the you know usual where you're not giving out any answers it you basically just you know hook the viewer

basically just you know hook the viewer in and that you're not like diverging any secrets the whole point of the real is to get somebody to you know the actual YouTube link or is there more to it than just complely opposite and I don't believe in interesting interesting hiding value because you want to provide value that is why they will love you like oh like this 60c was mind-blowing what if I watch more uh so like I would rather give them more value in 60 seconds that they are blown away that oh my God like what I was not watching this guy like I need to follow him and so they go and follow you and then they find out more about you but if you just give them a little bit and go

you just give them a little bit and go watch the podcast now they have to make an effort to go find a podcast click on the link and all of that they're not going to do that especially if it's an Instagram they are on a couch they are like not even putting their brain they are scrolling right and something stop them and if at that point you're telling them to go to a link and click on video and all it's just not going to happen so instead do opposite like provide so much value that I like this person I want to follow this person I mean look at yourself what you do like I come across so many creators when I find immense value I'm like the first thing I do is I

value I'm like the first thing I do is I go on a profile wow he has lot of other things also which I learn from click on it what other thing is oh he has a YouTube channel go let's go click on it versus he I see a real and then it says like okay unless it's an entertainment channel it's a different story to go to the long form but if it's not if an education provide value yeah turns out I was thinking about this Ulta this whole time so might have to channel right so yeah 100% Pro no yeah like what you're saying makes 100% sense it's a two-prong question so I'll not get ahead of myself first is do you think the

of myself first is do you think the international student Creator space is um saturated and second is if somebody were to still want to enter that you know Niche what is your advice to them um in 2024 June uh well August as of the time of recording yeah uh a student international student space uh I don't think it's saturated I I see a lot of creators um in there I think the problem is there's the first 50 videos everyone has made that that's why everyone feels it saturated like how to come here's my journey from Mumbai to USA my journey from Hyderabad to USA everyone makes that my F1 Visa my rejection story my immigration story everyone makes that that's why it feels saturated I think what will be interesting is what sets

what will be interesting is what sets them apart is like now after those first 25 videos what are they going to do and that is I think that is where the saturation so the first 50 video highly saturated everybody's making that after the 50 video it is less saturated because nobody knows what to make I think I mean there are people who are making it but I I think they are like figuring out right now and this is where the advice P piece comes in go with a clear mindset that do you want to be a lifestyle Channel or do you want to be an educational Channel if you want to be an educational channel is the goal to make money if you it is the make make

make money if you it is the make make money then figure out a strategy before even you enter uh if it is a Lifestyle Channel then it is you who's the brand it is not the content you provide so doesn't matter interesting yeah so like again I am education so people don't follow me for who I am I mean maybe there are some to some extent yeah no you definitely bring your personality but I get what you're saying it's about the nich that you're in yeah like how to get a job how like you know which Unity to select immigration they follow me for that they don't follow me for like I want to see what UDA today like that doesn't happen right but lifestyle people like they follow because they're

people like they follow because they're interested in their lifestyle and they interested in their life so so if you make yourself a brand then you are the niche the niche separates you from that whatever you talk people will be interested in it and so I think just pick what you like go with a very clear mind I think everyone starts with a study abroad but they don't stick because again like I think the problem I talked about in the earlier part yeah makes sense um while you were coming up were there any creatives that you really looked up to that you really liked that maybe motivated you to some extent that you know that you kind of as you said MKBHD we're both fans were there any creatives that come to mind that were crucial in your journey yeah yeah 100

crucial in your journey yeah yeah 100 Casey next that obviously uh I did a lot of vlogging so you will see lot of casy in my when I used to Vlog I stopped vlogging uh there's an interesting story why I stopped vlogging but maybe we'll do a separate video on that uh but and in terms of like student Creator channels at all were there any uh no because they like we were only four of us so it was just four of us watching all of all of our content so who four who were the four people me I was uh herur singing USA it was part so and then I think Rob was like coming up he's

then I think Rob was like coming up he's a chaien coaching guy so oh right right right yeah so so it was just four of us um there weren't many like that that I think there was another one called that Indian guy but he stopped creating content we're good friends but um yeah so it was just like four five of us so it wasn't like a lot of people that we can look up to like that was it and everyone was just I think par was like the most started one year ahead of us me herno were like peers almost and uh and yeah so and herno now is by celebrity

like Hees all of that but yeah he yeah he's he's amazing and uh yeah and then Rob and I like yeah all of us started together so it wasn't there was not a lot of creators we can look up to so but you all kind of developed together and grew up together almost yeah like we we just took inspiration of similar educational Channel what they doing and then let's just take that what do you think is that set hanur Singh um you know apart from all of the competition according to you what's the magic Source there there's many uh there's not like one so herur and I we were so he was at 15,000 I was at 13,000 subscriber we were very close we would we used to talk

were very close we would we used to talk in her n told me that I'm going to start blogging which is lifestyle blogging yeah and in his term like he he went to like lot of University tours like Howard MIT like he just traveled a lot so I think the hard work uh is really uh shows at least for me consistency hard work and and I think he's he's very well aware of what audience wants from also strategic Mook of moving from English to Hindi uh so that was another thing he knew that he wants to Target specific audience and it was English and I think I remember having this conversation with him every single comments is from India and or from Indians or from people who

and or from Indians or from people who speak Hindi might as well yeah are you in touch now are you still friends yeah yeah yeah still friends with herno like we spoke we talk often yeah well yudi it's been such an absolute Delight to learn from your vast vast knowledge around this entire sphere and how you've been navigating this you know almost so such such an uncertain territory for so many years now like truly it's become you can tell that when you when you're talking about things not only do you know them like inside out but you understand the reasons behind them and I I don't think I've ever had an episode where I've walked away feeling more inspired than with this particular one so thank you for all that you do thank you for changing and impacting all of those lives and I hope to continue to

those lives and I hope to continue to consume your content and podcasts for many many years to come yeah thank you for having me and letting me talk I again I was uh not sure what you were going to ask me but I'm glad like you chose the topic which is different than what I talk in in my content so that was this came very natural to me like I maybe we can do a part two in in a few months if you'd still be if you'd still months if you'd still be okay being put on the spot with my you know scary questions no no no I mean they were not scary at all uh I I loved

they were not scary at all uh I I loved loved all of your questions I love the details that the followup questions that you asked and I think that's good observation and and yeah if people wants and if you want we should do part two I'm I'm absolutely thanks thank you we have like I'll follow up on is like okay you were supposed to do website you were supposed to boy honestly I need an accountability manager will will you be my my accountability I will so so next podcast the first thing I'll ask like okay uh tell us like do you have our website like all you got it man me and audience will keep you accountable love that sounds great thank you so so much great yeah thank you that brings us to the end of episode 30 of The Ready Set

the end of episode 30 of The Ready Set to podcast 30 I think is a milestone that really doesn't get enough credit or respect that it deserves if you would like to support me the easiest way to do that is by subscribing to my YouTube channel and or leaving me up to a festar reading on Spotify catch you all in the next one new episodes every Wednesday