The Startup Ideas Podcast - How to grow an internet audience in 2025

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Join me as I chat with  Dr. Tyler Lemco, known for co-founding Epic Mealtime (600M+ views), where we discuss strategies for building an internet audience from scratch. The conversation covers practical advice for content creators, including bio optimization, platform selection, and content strategy. We explore the balance between algorithmic success and authentic content creation, while emphasizing the importance of starting small and scaling gradually.Episode Timestamps:• 00:00 - Intro• 01:54 - Transitioning from Creative for Hire to Solopreneur • 07:29 - AI as a Thinking Partner• 09:03 - How to position yourself within your niche• 14:22 - Crafting a Compelling Bio• 26:28 - YouTube Growth Strategies• 41:30 - AI Tools for Content ProductionKey Points:• Transitioning from being a creative-for-hire to building your own audience• Framework for effective content creation and social media growth• Importance of platform focus and consistency in content creation• Strategy for building audience before community before productContent Strategy Framework:1. Pick a platform to focus on2. Identify what you love doing3. Study what algorithms favor4. Find gaps in your niche5. Commit to consistencyPlatform-Specific Insights:• YouTube Shorts: Good for subscriber growth, lower monetization• Long-form content: Best for overall revenue and engagement• Live streams: Excellent for community building, poor for new audience growthKey Takeaways:• Start fresh when pivoting content direction• Focus on audience building before community development• Test and iterate content strategy• Be willing to experiment publicly• Utilize AI tools like Descript for content production1) The Creative-for-Hire Trap• Good money but no equity upside• Easy to get stuck helping others win• Key is transitioning to building YOUR OWN assets• Start small, think big2) Framework for Content That Works:• Pick ONE platform to focus on (seriously)• Do what you genuinely love creating• Study what algorithms reward• Fill gaps in your niche• Commit to consistency3) The YouTube Revenue Reality:• Shorts: 3M views = $418 (+12k subs)• Long-form: 1.3M views = $13,580• Livestreams: 100k views = $1,926Strategy: Use shorts for growth, long-form for revenue4) The ABC Growth Framework:A) Build an Audience firstB) Convert to CommunityC) Create Products/ServicesDon't try all at once. Master each phase!5) Social Bio Formula:• Show Credibility• Create Intrigue• Clear Value PropPro tip: Write for non-followers, not existing ones6) Starting Fresh vs Legacy Account:• 94 engaged followers is better than 31,000 dead ones• Algorithm favors engagement %• Don't let ego stop you from starting over• Fresh start = clean slate7) Content Market Fit Truth:• Takes 6-24 months to find• Must experiment publicly• Embrace the uncomfortable• Better to ship than perfectBonus: For creators starting out - just START. You figure it out by doing, not planning.The only difference between launching and not launching is deciding you've launched.Notable Quotes:"The goal of every solopreneur should be to not be a solopreneur." - Greg"The only difference between launching and not launching is deciding that you've launched." - Tyler LemcoWant more free ideas? I collect the best ideas from the pod and give them to you for free in a database. Most of them cost $0 to start (my fav)Get access: https://www.gregisenberg.com/30startupideasLCA helps Fortune 500s and fast-growing startups build their future - from Warner Music to Fortnite to Dropbox. We turn 'what if' into reality with AI, apps, and next-gen products https://latecheckout.agency/BoringAds — ads agency that will build you profitable ad campaigns http://boringads.com/BoringMarketing — SEO agency and tools to get your organic customers http://boringmarketing.com/Startup Empire - a membership for builders who want to build cash-flowing businesses [https://www.startupempire.co](https://www.startupempire.co/)FIND ME ON SOCIALX/Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenbergInstagram: https://instagram.com/gregisenberg/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gisenberg/FIND TYLER ON SOCIALTyler’s Website: https://www.tlem.co/X/Twitter: https://x.com/tlemcoYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tlemco

Super special episode, How to Build an Internet audience with my main man, Dr. Tyler Lemko. You might have seen him. He helped build something called Epic Mealtime, 600 million views, almost 7 million subscribers. The guy knows how to go viral and has gone and built a lot of things since then. And he actually, he's starting a new social account. and he's starting it from scratch. And he was asking me some questions about different platforms,

how to go viral, which AI tools to use. And I said, stop right there. Let's just get you on the pod. We're going to do it publicly. This is going to be Dr. Tyler Lemko asking me questions about how to build an internet audience and maybe me even asking him some questions. So let's see where this goes.

Welcome. Thanks for having me, Greg. I'm excited. Should I ask my first question? I don't see why not. So I'll give your audience a little bit of context. Thank you for the introduction. Like you said, I've been working on a lot of, for all intents and purposes, successful projects for a decade and a half now.

I've very much so been a creative for hire. And I keep seeing success everywhere I keep getting hired. But now I'm at a point where I really want to shift into do it for myself mode. I've done it so many times for so many different verticals, but it's always for somebody else. So my first question is, I know you're big on like the solopreneur route. For someone who's kind of at the beginning stages of that journey, two-parter, do you have any advice on that shift? And two, do you have anything that I should be like aware of or cognizant of, things that I should look out for starting this solo journey.

So, I mean, I'm going to answer this just like as if this was like a phone call between us. Because I think a lot of people are in the same boat as you. The beauty about being a creative for hire or anything for hire, doing an agency even, is the cash flow is really good. You can make like a good income just by helping other people. achieve what they want. But in like, you know, we don't have to go into details, but I know some projects that you've worked on that have been household brands in terms of like building social audiences for.

And you, you didn't have upside, meaning you didn't have equity upside in them. And that sucks. And we've talked about that before, like offline. So I'm really excited that you're taking the mental leap in 2025. to actually go and invest in yourself and actually go and build, you know, build accounts and build projects for yourself.

I think that I don't want to sugarcoat it. Like it's a lot harder to build for yourself than it is with other people. Because correct me if I'm wrong, Tyler. You're like, you're building something yourself, right? So you're starting something with, basically, you know, like, it's give, you know, tell me, tell me what assets do you have in starting what you're building? Just to give a bit more context, like, for a long time,

I was hired role to roll to be a creative to write this party game or this movie or this show or whatever, and I would have the task at hand that I needed to accomplish and I was successful at that. And then most recently, I've kind of evolved into managing projects, so hiring people and getting help and kind of overseeing like a team, which has been a really interesting kind of pivot because I see the value of like managing other talented people in collaboration. So a fear of mine in this solopreneur pivot is now doing everything alone. So yeah, I'm sort of, I'm sort of handling everything. And why? And why? do you think you have that fear? Like what, what about it scares you? Hmm. I think having,

it's nice to have the infrastructure of delegating and having other talent around you, not to mention most of the projects that I've been hired for. I'm given a budget to work with, whereas now not only am I alone, but I'm kind of doing it on like my own bank account that's ever dwindling each day. So yeah, it's sort of there's also the part of like being the creative and the producer as well

as the manager and the boss that it's tough to wear all those hats. My advice to you would be crawl walk run. My advice to you would be you know, for your new project and we can talk about what you're

doing just using it as an example. Like what is the smallest version of what that product looks like and that project looks like. And how do you slowly expand from there? So it isn't super daunting. So you want to essentially

have a really big vision for what you want to build as a soul opener. And then eventually, like, I actually think that the goal of every solopreneur should be to not be a solo opener. Like I actually think that just doing things on your own is like super lonely.

And you're, everything is dependent on you. And that's not very, that to me doesn't seem like a freeing life. And I'm also not like great at everything. Like I would love to delegate a bunch of the tasks, even the creative ones to people who are better at it. Quick break in the pod to tell you a little bit about startup empire.

So startup empire is my private membership where it's a bunch of people like me, like you who want to build out their startup ideas. Now, they're looking for content to help accelerate that. They're looking for potential co-founders. They're looking for tutorials from people like me to come in and tell them, how do you do email marketing? How do you build an audience? How do you go viral on Twitter? All these different things. That's exactly what startup empire is. And it's for people who want to start a startup but are looking for ideas or it's for people who have a startup but just they're not seeing the traction that they need. So you can check out the link to startup empire.com in the description.

And it's fun to work with people, right? Like, yeah. It's fun to like, I'm one of those people that I need someone to like jam ideas with, you know? So quick question. Since this is like AI's a big theme on your pod, how do you feel about jamming ideas with, the robots versus like a human being. How do you compare and contrast?

I mean, listen, there's no, there's nothing like some flesh and bones, am I right? But, uh, but, uh, but, you know, having said that, I think, uh, sometimes I actually find before chatting with a person, um, I, I actually like to like flesh out my ideas with, let's say a clode AI or a chat GPT. because it helps me clarify. It does the same thing that writing does for me. Like when I write something, I find that I clarify my ideas.

When I have a thinking partner, like a chat GPT or clode, I clarify my ideas. So I don't think it replaces jamming with a person, but I do think it enhances jamming with a person. Interesting. Because I find that's, we'll get into more like AI tools and stuff,

But I find as someone who really doesn't utilize much at all, the only thing that I really use AI for is jamming ideas because I find it'll offer a different perspective or take on something that I might not have thought of. And yes, I always have to then make it good per se. But I do find it really helpful with just thinking in other directions than I've been thinking. So tell people a little bit about what you're. trying to do and what your goal is from an internet audience perspective, I would say. Okay. Good question. So I, as you could probably tell, I'm an artist, but I'm not trying to like push myself or really be an artist. I'm more so trying to create a community. I know that's kind of like a hot button term to use. But yeah, I'm trying to create a,

community around the concept of making art and being weird and silly and letting that flow and feel good, which is something I actually wanted to talk to you about because I find a lot of your, like, if people are going to watch your podcast, you're pointing them in the direction where they can make money. I'm not offering you're going to make money, but what I can offer is you're going to enjoy yourself and you might even be happier. So I kind of wanted to pick your brain today a little bit about ways to market that better, how to position myself as like, here's what my offer is, is get weird and be happy. Yeah. So firstly, we should start by saying that your goal right now isn't to make money, but you eventually want to create a sustainable business out of it that frees you, right?

Yeah, I have to. Yeah. And yeah. Yeah. And I think what you're doing is smart right now, which is you're creating like a podcast and YouTube and Twitter content and IG content as like your minimal viable product, your MVP, to basically create a lot of value. And the idea is, you know, after you've created value, then you'll be able to monetize it in a bunch of different ways. So I want to say first and foremost that you didn't fall into the trap around building an audience and building a product at the same time. So that's dope. That's number one. It's number one just because going back to like you're on your own

or you have a small team, you're going to be able to figure out what these people want better and you're going to have customers at the door ready to go once you have an audience. Right. Yeah. I'm sort of taking the approach of message first. Yeah. So I think whether you're, like ultimately, if you're trying to make money quick or you're trying to get weird, you still have, what you're still trying to do to someone who is a stranger on the internet is to convert them into a raving fan, right?

it doesn't make a difference if you're trying to get them to scroll stop, whatever they're doing, whatever platform to engage with whatever product, in this case it's social content. And you're trying to get them to be like, wow, this is really good. At the very least, they read it or watch it. Hopefully they like it and comment on it. And at the very best, they're reading it, they're liking, they're reading it, they're liking, they're commenting, and they're sharing it with others. So for you, I would try to think about how do you,

like, how do you convince people that, you know, being weird or getting creative is valuable to their everyday lives? Yeah, I spend a lot of time thinking about that, like how to position the offer, the way, how does a calm app market meditation? I think it's the same kind of value. Like, I'm trying to get people engaged with their own creative practice so that they can see the benefits of it for themselves.

But yeah, it's an odd thing to market that I haven't really crack that part of it yet. How do you position it to an audience to be like, hey, come check this thing out. And like you said, there's the worst case and best case. I think even beyond best best case is how do I get people engaged with themselves? How do I get them actively making stuff? So I'm on your, you know, for people listening on audio, I'm on, I'm on your Twitter account. And I'm reading, I want to, I want to break down your Twitter account and see if we can like rework it. Yeah, it's bad.

It's bad. Also, for anyone watching, like, I'm very much in the experimenting in public kind of phase. I don't have like a strong ecosystem built just yet. It's still very much at the beginning and we're figuring it out. Totally. And thank so, and thank you for, like, share. with us all. Hell yeah.

So your bio, purveyor of Dr. Lemko's Creative Club, instigator of creativity. Not bad, not bad. I really love your banner. I'm intrigued by Dr. Lemko's Creative Club.

I just don't know what it is and why I need it. So I think that, first of all, the mistake a lot of people make around Twitter bios or Instagram bios is they focus

on people who follow them already, not followers. Sorry, people who follow them already, not non-followers. Your bio is for people who land are not following you, and your goal is to convert as many people from not followers to followers that are in your ICP, that are in your ideal customer profile. So maybe a better, you know, just, here, let me open up a dock. Okay, so, and I encourage everyone to do this.

with their own bio. So this is... No, I encourage everyone to do it for me. This is T. Lemko. So this is your old one. You can say something. I think that bio needs a few things. It needs...

So let's just come up with a framework for X or social bios. So it needs credibility. it needs intrigue and it needs value proposition so when I look at your bio right now

I don't see you've worked with these brands before like I know you've worked with Playboy and Epic Mealtime and stuff like that you know founding team of Epic Mealtime and all these things like you've generated like a billion plus views if not more so I don't see that

I do see I am intrigued and I don't see a value proposition. So I'd give you one on three. So let's think of how we can write this in a more three-on-three way. So maybe I help people become their most creative selves. I like that. Could you, and we'll workshop this together. Like what, what's, and I know you're a humble Canadian. So in the least humble way possible, how can you describe the most, you know, the sentence that invokes the most amount of credibility? What would you say? I can't just say like creative genius. No. You can't say you can't say creative genius because

anyone could say creative genius. Yeah. So double clicking on that. Are you talking about like specific credits or like the resume? Yes. Yes. I'm talking about what is. something that you have done in your career that relates to being creative that tells me that you're credible and that I should follow you. In a sentence. It's interesting because I actually had this kind of similar practice writing my bio for my website recently and I sent it to a friend because it had all these accolades and things I've done.

But my friend was like, none of this has to do with what you're doing though. And it's interesting to this pivot is kind of a blank slate, fresh start, because it's a whole different lane. So to put it into a sentence, what makes me credible? Or you can say something like behind, okay, behind YouTube channels that have generated one billion plus views. Over a billion views for sure on all the things I've made. I'm the guy behind YouTube channels I've generated. I'm the creative genius using your words. Damn.

In quotation marks behind YouTube channels I've generated a billion views. Follow to become more creative. And do you think pitching it as get more creative is more valuable than like, I've kind of been towing with these. idea of trying to like position it around happiness but that feels like a more distant but a better sell if that makes sense yeah yeah so i see what you're saying here so you're saying uh realistically if you become if you become more creative you'll become more happy right yeah i think if you engage with your creativity more it's a it's a recipe for happiness okay

You don't necessarily need to be like better at art or making stuff. You just need to like enjoy doing it and letting it like let yourself be free with it. I think that's the key. I mean, you can allude to it, I would say in your bio. It's too much to like, you don't want to be convincing people in your bio. You know what I mean? Yeah. Again, it's like it's a game of getting people to follow you.

So I think when I look at this, yeah, go ahead. When it comes to the like pitching happiness, I think there's a lot of like a lot of it boils down to just like showing it. Like being a happy guy enjoying what I'm doing. That's the, that attracts more than anything. I agree. I agree. So when I look at this bio, I see credibility. One billion views.

I see intrigue. I want to be happier. And I'm and I see. well, intrigue also, I help people become their most creative selves. Like how? How do you do that? Is it creative self or selves?

Their most creative selves. Yeah. So I think that works. I like it. And by the way, you can throw this in, Claude. Nice. It would be like,

you know, here's the prop. I'm writing a new bio, but want it to have a strong value proposition, intriguing and credible. That's the framework that really works. Here's what I got so far. Give me 10 ideas based on that. this is for my friend Tyler Lemko I'll give you some context on him soon well is it worth putting in that I would like if it's for my bio I would want it to be somewhat like

lighthearted slash oh yes totally not too professional looking you know me I try to avoid being too grown up yeah so that's a good point I mean, include, I want to make this lighthearted and fun because that's the type of guy Tyler is and doesn't take himself too seriously. And I, and I'll, like, do you have a bio I can use? Yeah, if you want to go to my website, there's a bio. Okay. But again, it's not, like I said before, I feel like it doesn't really encapsulate what I'm currently doing. It's more toxic, not even that.

Go down to about, about me. Okay. It's all good. This will give you a sense of like who you are. I just throw it in. It's really ugly. And let's see what happens. Cool.

I've never used Claude. I don't know. Wow. This is actually pretty good. Professional, silly person and viral video architect. I turn what if into why not and help creators do the same. I once convinced the rock that I'm a real doctor. Montreal's foremost expert in creative shenanigans.

Mom approved content only. I don't know if that's true. I mean, my mom does love it, but I don't know. So I would be a creative partner with this and just start adding this to this Google Doc. By the way, I know that there's someone listening to this who is going to to be like, oh, that's great for Tyler that he has, like, credibility with a billion views. I don't have a billion views. I'm starting from scratch. I'm listening to this podcast because you guys said it was about starting from scratch. And there is something that you have done

that is impressive to someone and credible. I don't care. I don't care who you are. And as the guy with a billion views, I'm starting from scratch. Like there's nothing, I'm not building on anything. If anything, I'm losing followers constantly because any audience I currently have either knows me as the bacon guy or the interviews porn stars guy. And no one's like, oh, this is the happy creative guy. So I feel like I'm starting at a deficit, if anything. I mean, to be honest, if I were you, I'd start a new account. Yeah, I thought about it, but you can't change a YouTube URL. So I wanted to keep all the, uh, hand, the same.

The problem with the problem you're facing is even if you have a lot, you have a, you know, you have 31,000 followers. These are old followers. It's probably, right? It used to be 60K. Yeah. So when you post something, these people are not engaging with it. And then it just suppresses you in the algorithm.

It's better to have like literally 94 followers than to have 31,000, but have those 94 people super engaged. So do you think I should start from scratch? I would start from scratch. There's no question in my mind. It sucks. It's like an ego hit too, right? Because if I look at like 400 impressions, 300 impressions, 300 impressions, 300 impressions, 389, 300.

Yeah, my Twitter's weak. Week. And it could be like that's the beauty about X right now is. is there's accounts getting millions of views that have hundreds of followers that don't have hundreds of thousands. Yeah. Yeah. Like sometimes I see account, like I see accounts.

I have a lot of followers like 423,000. I see accounts like time and time again that are that are getting like more impressions and some of my stuff. Yeah. And I think that's true for most platforms. Like even on YouTube, views matter so much more. subscribers and yes there is a correlation but not it's not like a 100% correlation there's a lot of accounts with low subscriber numbers that do view numbers like

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They're so confident in their approach that they offer a 30-day sprint with 100% money-back guarantee. Who does that nowadays? So check it out. Highly recommend boringmarketing.com. Do you want to talk about, you know, YouTube and how to grow on YouTube? Yes, please. What, because I know, you know, you just created that new account.

Like, what, what questions do you have for me? Okay. So I've done, I've been in this game. for about like five weeks now. And I've been doing two things to start. Again, I'm just laying a foundation. So this is how I'm getting started. I'm doing a weekly live stream where I'm not talking.

I'm just putting on some funky music to make art to. And you could watch along while I make some art or you can make your own stuff. I'm kind of just trying to create a space for people to show up and engage with their own creativity. And then I'm also producing a podcast where I'm interviewing different artists and art professionals and art therapists have been some of my favorite conversations. I'm currently at a point, like as of right now, where I kind of want to pivot away from the interviews and produce more of a show.

You know me, I'm a big fan of I love like children's shows and the structure of them, and I think I could really hit that out of the park doing that format, but silly and weird kind of for an adult audience. It's a departure from what I've been doing, which is very set in reality, asking tangible questions, pivoting more towards like a produced program. Is that advisable?

Is that dumb? What's your take on that? Well, you remember how we start off this conversation we were talking about what is like the smallest version of your idea, you know? And on one hand, I think it's great that you're testing new formats. So like the fact that you are doing a live stream. the fact that you are testing a lot of different things. But what worries me is,

to me it sounds exhausting, honestly. To me, it sounds too much. I get what you're saying. I find that the interviewing stuff is exhausting. Like we've talked about it before, the booking guests, and then that people don't show up and people reschedule. And I also find personally,

when I'm interviewing someone, it's less, I'm embodying less the character that I want to put out there online. I have a clear idea of who I want to, you know, like present myself as. And I think when it's kind of more scripted,

or at least not scripted to the word, but like formatted, and I can edit it around a bit, then I could be more intentional about what I'm putting out there. also I think like in this day and age what what I'm aiming for is I think you could be Jim Henson without leaving your home you don't need a production studio and a whole staff and a crazy budget like I could literally stand right here and create the next Sesame Street or

the Muppets or Mr. Dressup or whatever it is just smokes more weed but yeah that's sort of where my head's at is I think at least maybe it's just personally because that's where my skill set lies but making shorter form trying to keep it to like give or take 15 minutes and producing something with a little

more yeah like prep to it and pre-production and post-production it does feel like more work but it feels like it's more in my wheelhouse and more intentional from what my goals are okay this is this is

great. I want to workshop this with you a little bit. So let's come up with a framework for content that works for me and everyone else. Because there's there's, you know, both are equally important, right? So. And that's something that we talk about often because I find there's a real tightrope walk between doing the best practices of what's going to work and what goes viral. And there really is structures and systems to figuring out this game, but also keeping it like somewhat unique and interesting and personal. Totally. It's a very fine line to tiptoe, but doable.

So framework for content that works for me and everyone else. What do I love doing? You mentioned you love like more scripted video. Yeah. I like when I could think about it in advance and then go make it. Right. Same with like, same with, I'm as an artist. I'm not the kind of guy who loves to just get a blank canvas and start throwing stuff on it.

I like to think about what I want to see exist. And then I have a lot of fulfillment in creating that in reality. That's interesting because I'm the complete opposite. That's why we're friends. We've done no preparation for this. at all, right? Like, I thrive in, like, the uncertainty and the, I just love the rawness of just jamming live. And that, and that to me has been fun. I did scripted stuff and I wanted to blow my brains out, literally. So, yeah, a little inside baseball. This is happening because Greg had a cancellation.

It was right, what are you doing? Exactly. What are you doing in 20 minutes? Okay, this I think is important. So what are the algorithm God's love, right? So, well, actually, before we do anything, we should pick a platform to focus on. So for you, I think it's, what do you focus on YouTube, I would say? I think YouTube and then from the YouTube content, I can cut clips. Yeah. But your primary is YouTube.

I think so, yeah. I think it's important to have a focus, X, YouTube, LinkedIn. And then from that, you can always have content exhaust that you can repackage. So, okay. And then what are the algorithms, algorithm God's love? I think this is just being honest with yourself or ourselves and being like, okay, what's working right now? Yeah. So.

I find that a lot of, at least in the art niche, I've done a major deep dive into that community. And what I find fascinating is the thing that works the most is twofold. One is like people telling you how to start your own channel and monetize it, which kind of is derivative from an art channel. And then majority is like how to stuff. Here's how to paint this or draw that, which unfortunately or fortunately, I don't have, like, I'm not an art teacher. I'm more to come hang out with me and have fun kind of guy. So I don't have that to offer of like, here's the value you're going to learn how to do portraits or you're going to learn shading from me. You're not.

So that's why my positioning, I'm thinking like, if I can make the most fun entertaining thing. Right. that's where I know I can thrive. So I think that's interesting. So I added this to what is missing from my super niche. Niche would be like art. Your super niche would be like entertainment art. Edgutainment, yeah.

Edutainment art and stuff like that. And like what is missing from there is like, you know, it might be like long form, you know, really fun, art sessions with cool people. I'm making this up, but I think that the framework for content that works is probably a mix of these four things. Pick a platform to focus on

and actually focus on it. Don't just say you're focusing on YouTube and then spend like 50% of your time and Instagram and stuff like that. And you've turned me into like an analytics nerd. I'm checking the numbers every day. Exactly. Be an analytics nerd for sure. Yeah. Two, what do I love doing? So being honest with yourself. This is a practice in being honest with yourself what your unfair advantages are. Yeah. Something that you're going to like be excited to make. Exactly. Yeah. Exactly. What are the algorithm God's love right now?

and this is just studying what's going viral, like being a student of virality, what is missing from my super niche? If you do this and you're consistent, and then I think the act, you know, can I commit to being consistent? And what does consistency mean? So on Twitter, on X,

that means you should be posting one to two times per day. on YouTube that means you should be posting one times per week if you're doing long form if you're doing short form that means you're doing three to four times a week so I think that you could have all this stuff nailed pick a platform what do I love doing what are the album God's love right now what is missing from my super niche but unable to be consistent and then I would say well there's something wrong you have to rework it maybe you can't focus on YouTube or you can only focus on Instagram for example what's your feelings towards like an off platform community. I've been toying with that idea of still producing

weekly content on YouTube, but taking the live art hang to a Zoom thing and maybe an email list. I think that you bring up a good point, which is like really what's the goal, right? So I think like, you know, the goal of what you're trying to do is to gain a, like you said in the beginning, gain a community of people interested in what you're doing. I actually think your goal was to build an audience first and then build a community. I have this framework. We talk a lot about in the pod called,

build an audience, convert that audience to a community or a portion of them, and then go and build a product for that community. So you're in the audience phase, right? You should be just focused on building top of the funnel, attract as many people who are interested in education for art, creativity as possible.

And then once you have that, then you can figure out off-platform, Patreon, private communities like school, Facebook groups, whatever. And then from that, you can create a product. And by the way, when I say product, that could be a service to. It could be event series or whatever.

Just something that monetizes that. But I think that the mistake a lot of people make is they're kind of trying to do ACP all at the same time, but it's really meant to do one at a time. So I think for you, I think about what is a realistic goal for YouTube, if that's the platform.

And that's like, could I do 100 subs a day? You know, by March 1st. That's the question, you know, and then being, and then kind of working backwards. And then, yeah. Yeah, reverse engineering it from the goal.

I want to cover one last thing about on this topic. I saw a really good tweet by Matt Wolfe that I want to share with you. I would have shared with you, I want to share this with you privately. So he goes, I've been testing a lot on YouTube. Last year I did a lot of shorts, a lot of long forms, and live streams. These screenshots show actual numbers of the best performers. A short that did 3 million views earned $418, while a long-form did 1.3 million views earn $13,580

and a live stream with less than 100,000 views earned $1926. You'd think shorts are a waste of time based on earnings. However, the one short gained 12,200 new subscribers for me, and the video only took 20 minutes to create. live streams on the other hand really seem to stink at growing a new audience. However, it brings together those that are most interested in what you do,

meaning longer watchtimes, more super chats, and the ability to really bond with the community. So this was, by the way, when you were talking about live streams, I'm like, yeah, you should totally do live streams. But you're not at the C phase yet. You're at the A phase. I'm finding that long form video that really hits

will do the most for a channel across all metrics. However, a strategy that leverages long-form shorts and live streams creates a nice balance between audience growth, building bonds, strong bonds with an audience, and making decent income from videos. Then he shows exactly how much he makes and what it looks like on the analytics. Yeah, my approach to the shorts is that's kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of the kind of. That's what that's what really catches but isn't like the moneymaker. How do you feel about all the new YouTube features, though? There's like community stuff now and there's a timeline and you can post like text and photo.

I think the thing with YouTube is the more you use their platform and their tools, the more you get rewarded for it, or am I wrong? Yeah. It goes back to what do the algorithm God's love? The algorithm gods will always love you trying new features for the platform. So I think that if you have the bandwidth, it's great to test. And then I think that someone should create this. Like someone, maybe it exists already, but like an AI agent or similar that basically takes your content or even a SaaS tool that basically takes your content from Twitter and just automatically post it to YouTube community and stuff like that.

I would say it's like it's what the algorithms gods like. So test it. But if you don't have the time, I wouldn't, again, I would focus on the bread and butter. Yeah, not a priority. We got to head out. Okay. You got one more than one last one? I guess my last question.

And we could brush over it quickly. But like I said before, I'm not a huge AI tool guy. do you have any recommendations for AI or just digital tools that would really help me as a content producer and a content marketer? Have you been playing with Descript at all? No. I'm going to pull it up. So Descript is the AI powered fully featured end-to-end video editor that you already know how to use. By the way, I'm not like involved in this company or whatever.

It just, you know, we use the product. promo code sip. Yeah. It won't work, you know? Yeah. To get zero percent off. Exactly. To be unable to check out and get zero percent off.

So I think it's really good at like exactly this. I just said the word like, remove filler words automatically, studio sound, create automatic clips, translations. That itself, like putting your content in different language could be the difference between like getting product market fit and not have product market. fit. Interesting. Question for you.

I know we're wrapping things up, but I've been towing with the idea if I do pivot away from these interviews towards more like pre-produced, edited content, like a show, what are your thoughts on just going and making it like for kids? I know like the kid, YouTube kids and there's all these like kids-specific platforms where I feel like it's a smaller pool to play in. Dude, there's, I don't know if it's because I'm a new father, but like, I was reading a baby book about like a dolphin or whatever, like a baby dolphin. And like, I was like, who wrote this? You know, like, this is, this is, this is like, did a baby dolphin write this

book? And, you know, so the bar to great children's content is shockingly, like, this is, like, and that extends itself to YouTube and stuff like that, but the market is shockingly big. Right? Yeah. So I think it, you know, it really, I put that one back to you, which is like, you know, what do you love? What do you want to be doing?

Like, does that excite you? Is it to be the next Mr. Rogers that excites you? Well, if that's a case, like, probably have to like clean up like all this scary art behind you, you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's interesting. That's literally, you bring up Mr. Rogers.

He started his show because he saw a landscape of children's programming that he thought was bad and he wanted to improve it. It's an interesting route. I think the cool thing about starting a startup with, by starting as an audience or starting with a social account is you, you could create a separate channel with two videos. Just test it out and see how you feel. Yeah. Yeah. How do you feel about experimenting in public?

Because I feel like I'm in that phase and it's causing a lot of, I don't want to say, insecurity, but like it's uncomfortable to put stuff out that you're not 100% confident in. But I suppose that you have to, you have to reach the point where you're making what you want to make. it sucks honestly like i think uh putting stuff out there that you're not 100% sure is going to work and being like knowing that people are criticizing it sucks but the alternative of not putting stuff out there is way worse so you just have to be every time you have that like you know that little voice in your brain that's like oh like i don't feel you know is it ready yet is this video ready yet. Should I put this out? Oh, is this tweet going to make me look bad or whatever it is?

Like, as long as you're proud of the content, that's what matters. If you're proud of it, every time, you know, it's okay. It's okay to get bad comments here and there. It's okay to get no comments. It's like building a social account is like a startup where you have to iterate your way to product market fit, except this time it's content market fit. And oftentimes times it takes six, 12, 18 months, 24 months, it takes time. And your job is to be the chief experimenter. That's a good bio, chief experimenter. That's pretty good.

That is pretty good. I like that. I like it. Tyler, this has been a lot of fun. Thank you for asking questions, and this has been dope. Where could people go and learn more about you, to get more creative. Well, I'm at T-L-E-M-C-O on all the platforms,

although now I'm thinking about starting new accounts, but that's where you can find me, and yeah, come make some crazy stuff with me. And if you liked this episode where I bring on a friend who has a question for me and it's just like a live jam session, let me know in the comments. If you hated it, also let me know.

But this has been fun because I think a lot of people are trying to figure out how to get content market fit, how to build an audience. They don't know how everyone's trying to figure out what type of content to create. What is their bio? Should I create a new account? All these questions and not enough people talk about the actual reality of how to do these things. Yeah. And I'll also just to add to that, I spent so long thinking about all those things and then just set up. a line in the sand to start. And the only difference between launching and not launching is deciding

that you've launched. So once you decide that you've launched, things move so much faster. Like for anyone starting a new project or hesitant about starting a new project, just start it. And then you figure it out and it's a trial by error type thing. But I'm very grateful that I just started without having all my ducks in a row and without having the whole game plan set up. Amen, brother. All right. And thank you.

Very, very valuable feedback and much appreciated. Anytime I'm mad. I'll catch you later. Thanks for listening. And I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Startup Ideas podcast.