Sean (00:00) it this way, competition is highest for low effort content. Rory (00:04) Say that again. Sean (00:04) competition is highest for low effort content or lazy content. Rory (00:10) Did he just call me lazy? I’m pretty sure. Wait, can we rewind the today we have one of the most sophisticated advanced YouTube experts in the world and one of my best friends, Sean Cannell. Back on our podcast, we haven’t had him here for a while. We’re gonna talk about why smart business owners should be investing in YouTube to create an asset that really grows their business and what smart YouTube operators are doing in 2026 to build their YouTube channel. Sean has channels with over a million subscribers. had over 100 million views. He is a multi seven figure entrepreneur and has long been one of the OG original experts on YouTube specifically. He wrote the book YouTube secrets years ago, which has been revised and expanded. We’re glad to have him here in the studio, buddy. Welcome back. ⁓ Sean (01:07) Rory Vaiden, fired up to be here. Rory (01:11) So we’re going to talk about my YouTube woes as we do about my frustrations with YouTube and why we’re not doing it right. And you’re going to fix me. You’re going to you’re going to fix us. ⁓ I want to start with the year 2026. How should business owners mission driven messengers for our community? How should we be thinking differently about YouTube in 2026 than maybe we’ve thought about YouTube in previous years? Sean (01:40) I think the big mindset shift is that YouTube is not just a content platform, it’s a business asset that can lift everything else that you are doing. YouTube is the town square of the internet right now, over two billion visitors every single day. Two billion? Rory (02:04) That’s globally. Yes, that’s like a fourth. That’s like a fourth of the planet. Sean (02:08) Yeah, and that’s not monthly active users. That’s daily consumption from individuals on YouTube. YouTube is the town square of the Internet. And the YouTube CEO recently came out and said that over 50 % of consumption on YouTube is happening on television screens. YouTube is the number one platform consumed in ⁓ U.S. living rooms bigger than Netflix, bigger than Peacock, bigger than Amazon Prime. So YouTube is the town square of the Internet and it’s the everything platform. People are going for sports, for entertainment, for music, but also for business, for education. So personal brands, coaches, service providers should really be taking YouTube seriously. Rory (02:49) Okay, so you say it’s a town square of the internet. Tell me, I wanna talk more about that. So why do you say that? I know we’ve talked over the years since we’ve known each other about, you know, there’s this war for attention and all of these platforms and tech companies are fighting this war. And you seem to think that YouTube has like won the war? Sean (03:10) I think I mean if you think about the biggest players, the only platform that has more users is Facebook. Facebook is still huge. But second with users is YouTube. But YouTube is actually bigger in terms of just total distribution and consumption. Everybody’s going there. And this would include YouTube TV. But people are going there for sports. They’re going for news clips. They’re going for a summary of what’s happening in the world. It’s like the center of culture. So whether you’re watching music videos. or commentary on culture, cultural events, whether you’re going to learn something. It’s like 75 % of people go to YouTube to solve a problem, whether they want to fix their dishwasher or they’re trying to figure out how to increase sales or master marketing or learn the latest news about AI and anything that’s happening in the world will get repurposed to YouTube. You know, if people are watching the Super Bowl, a lot of people watch it for the commercials. But what ends up happening is the benefit extension of YouTube is the replay. can go back and watch your favorite commercials on YouTube. You can go back and consume really anything you want. It’s where collaborations are happening. Podcasts are blowing up and being distributed across platforms. Netflix has their recent play where they’re going to be getting into the podcasting game, Spotify and all of that. But YouTube’s at the top of the pyramid in terms of distribution of content, consumption of content. And so established an influential presence on YouTube is one of the most valuable assets a business could have. Not easy to build, but if you have that kind of influence, you’re right at the center of the conversation. Rory (04:53) So what does that mean to think of it as an asset? just like, you know, my YouTube channel isn’t just like, are you saying that basically, my YouTube channel isn’t just a traffic source? It’s like, basically, like intellectual property or anything else that we would build as a company that’s like a core integral part of the business? Is that the shift you’re talking about? Sean (05:14) Yeah. And I mean, I think if we were to go back a few decades, ⁓ a prime time spot on television, ⁓ seven or eight PM when you’re going to watch Wheel of Fortune or Jeopardy or that new spot would be the pinnacle of value. Like not only what show could get that spot, but you would have the attention of the world. There’s a lot. There was much fewer options for watching TV and consuming that content. Now, YouTube gives anybody access to the game to actually have, you know, a show, a brand, a presence. And if you establish your subscriber base, your viewer base, and someone knows you as the go-to source for information, and by the way, in sub pockets, you know, I know you’re a genius when it comes to being able to take like just a small audience and monetize it in a big way. And so to plant your flag on YouTube with what do you want to be known for? What’s your expertise? What are you an authority on? That is compounding influence. Now I don’t want to over ⁓ simplify that like it’s not easy to build, but what is it worth to have a brand on YouTube like Cody Sanchez or Alex Hermosy? Those are kind of a one entrepreneur type channels. It’s absolutely prices priceless. I would think that out of all of their social platforms, YouTube is their most valuable asset. That’s why individuals like that will invest six figures or more in multiple team members ⁓ to produce content every month. and weekly on YouTube. And so it’s a business asset. It’s growing media and out of all the media platforms, YouTube is the leader. So if you want to plant your flag in media, plant your flag in YouTube. Rory (07:00) Yeah, so here’s something that you and I are super aligned on ⁓ the difference between evergreen and viral. It’s also I think the difference between making ⁓ selling something once versus doing like recurring revenue revenue or doing launches versus Yeah, doing recurring and we’ve built our whole business around evergreen, recurring revenue, and not like a launch but just a steady growing snowball. And I’m looking at where we are today as a company going I’m seeing a lot of my friends in a frantic mode where they’ve been launching this and that kind of course. And like they, they don’t have a sustainable thing in a world of AI. And I’m going, that is a bet that we made a philosophical play that we made about evergreen. And when it comes to YouTube, you’ve always been a fan of it’s not about going viral. It’s about Evergreen. So explain the difference there for people about what what is that philosophical shift between viral and evergreen? Why do you have that stance? And how should that shape what we’re doing tactically on our channels? Sean (08:14) Yeah, there was a study done about the half life of content and ⁓ it revealed that if you post something on Instagram, the half life, it depreciates over about two days that the reach of that post will probably end in two days. And that’s very similar to a Facebook feed or a TikTok feed. Whereas on YouTube, the half life was over 10 days. And that’s just for your average video. The powerful thing about YouTube though, is if you post content that gets into the algorithm and gets into search and discovery is you can post videos that are watched for weeks months and even years to come ⁓ creators reported established YouTube creators that over half of their monthly views comes from older content So I like to look at YouTube like a content library, whereas the other social media platforms are content feeds and you have to constantly be putting something in the feed because everyone’s scrolling past past it. A lot of other platforms, people open up their phone and they just see what comes to them. Now there’s massive opportunity on these platforms because you can get reach, you can go viral. One post could get you a lot of exposure exposure and you know, get you business. But I also think of it as the social media hamster wheel a little bit like you’re constantly posting and Rory (09:37) how it feels. mean, that’s how it feels is just like you’re just constantly just cranking out content of like, feeding this machine. And then it disappears. There’s some ways that we’ve gotten around that. Like basically, the way that we think of it now is is like our Instagram feed is just a it’s just a test environment, where we’re going to post 10 videos. And then we see which one performs and then we’re just going to put money behind the top performer. Yeah. And so that’s a way to force the the evergreen value of that video, but it’s costing us money. The difference on YouTube is like, it’s kind of like, I think of YouTube as almost like a fine wine, right? It’s like, if you get a great video, it gets better over time and it doesn’t reach the pinnacle. It kind of spikes, comes down, but then it climbs up and then it becomes like truly a long-term asset. That’s kind of what you’re talking about. Sean (10:30) It is, and I think it also is two different mindsets and one requires more patience and that’s YouTube because it could be slower in the beginning, but compounding months and years later, whereas other social platforms give you more immediate ROI. So if we’re chasing dopamine or we’re just chasing immediate business results, many entrepreneurs could feel like, I get better results on Instagram. Like today I saw that the reach of the posts or the views on the post was a few hundred views or a few thousand. You give that immediate call to action to comment or click a link and so you go great I posted a reel and I got five leads, you know I got 50 people that were interested and maybe I posted a YouTube video and it’s like watching grass grow like the view seems slow not a lot happened But if you post a good YouTube video, that’s well crafted that’s intentionally positioned the that can become an asset where six months later, that video is continuing to get views, get distribution to the right audience, that YouTube algorithm, the YouTube algorithm is helping you discover and get that video to. Now you go, okay, that video took some energy and I spent some time figuring out the title, the positioning, I put out some quality content, but I’m not even posting content and my older videos in my library are bringing me new business. That’s why I’m obsessed with YouTube. most leveraged platform for entrepreneurs that use it well. Rory (12:04) The other thing that you’re kind of tapping on there that I want to really double click and deep dive on is we’re big, you know, big, big fans. mean, one of the core things in this book is trust must take place before there’s a transaction. Yeah. And to go, you might get more views on Instagram, but if that’s a 60 second reel, that’s not the same. It’s not an equivalent view as somebody who watches eight minutes minutes of a YouTube video and certainly not 60 minutes or 40 minutes of a YouTube video. walk us through that dynamic. This is another place where even though you and I kind of live in different universes that overlap, like we have a lot of philosophies that overlap. And I think this is one that I think a lot of people don’t understand about it’s like not all views are created equal a YouTube view is worth way more than an Instagram view. True or false? Thank Sean (13:05) True. I think what everybody needs to understand is Google’s 7-11-4 rule. And what that… Rory (13:12) Never even heard this before. Sean (13:14) Yeah, so this came out a few years ago, but it matters more today than ever before. And what it revealed was that to generate a sale, to generate a conversion, you need seven hours, 11 touch points across four platforms. Seven hours, 11 touch points, four platforms. So that could be seven hours of people consuming your content, seeing you, being aware of you. 11 touch points, it could be all on YouTube or it might be watching a YouTube video. They might see an Instagram reel. They’re reading your emails. They’re engaging with you in And for platforms could be Instagram YouTube, but it also could be email, text, any other touch point and a book. Rory (13:55) a speech like in our world. It’s like the book, the speech, the email, then they’re on a webinar and then they’re in free call and then and then they’re like, Yeah, I’m in podcast. Sean (14:00) Yes, the fee. So when I think about, I’m thinking about that number seven, seven hours. So how long does that take if they’re consuming just a seven second vertical video or even 30 seconds? And then the other problem is that most of the times when people are on these platforms like Instagram, they’re seeing you but they’re swiping and they see something else. They see a travel video, something humorous, they see a little bit of business content and they’re kind of in this more passive what’s interesting, maybe they follow Whereas YouTube has an entirely different level of intent. People go to YouTube often times to learn or to lean back a little bit to click play on a video podcast but then they’re you know doing dishes or driving in their car and so they’re there to learn they’re there more serious especially for your community you know we want to learn level up. ⁓ and listen to deeper content, like a video podcast. So that’s priceless attention and you can get to seven hours much more quickly. The author of the book influence also wrote the book pre-suasion. What’s his name? Chaldini. And so. Rory (15:14) Right there on the shelf. Yep. Sean (15:19) Yeah, imagine that it’s, you what kind of conversations and how are you demonstrating your authority, your expertise, your personality, your values before a sales conversation even takes place. So YouTube really accelerated. Rory (15:33) And in a world of sales, I would think of that as just like, you know, we talked about buying lines, which is like how far on this path does someone need to go before they buy and it’s like, you to all of this content is doing that work of like, we don’t have to meet in real life because it’s pushing them along the buying line. And certainly those said that’s what the seven hours is basically. Yeah, is what you’re saying YouTube is pushing them further faster. If you get that view there and you can hold them, like you’re pushing them towards a sale faster. Sean (16:01) Yeah, and there was a deep study done by the software platform called one out of 10. It’s a YouTube optimization software. One out of 10 means ⁓ like your top performing video out of your last 10 uploads on YouTube. They studied 52,000 channels and they studied all these different metrics, including title length, thumbnail colors. One of the things they studied was video length. And in 2026, they found that videos outperform in terms of in two categories. If it’s long form videos, one was between 15 and 30 minutes. That’s a good range of a video length. As soon as you cross 30, they call this the dead zone between 30 and 60. Not that that’s bad, but it’s kind of like, it’s not, you know, under 30. Rory (16:49) It’s like a point of diminishing returns. Sean (16:51) Yeah, under 30 is like, yeah, I could do that on my lunch break. I could, you know, catch that in between. You know, I don’t know if I have time to watch a 45 minute thing. I might have to watch that in multiple parts. And so 15 to 30 minutes was outperformed by like 12 % in views. And then the other one was ultra long. It started to rise again after an hour and at 90 minutes or even two hours video started to outperform as well. And this has been established for a long time with kind of, you know, the Joe Rogan podcast and now diary of a CEO and all of these ultra long podcast conversations that are taking 90 minutes, two hours. And I think one of the reasons those ultra long videos are working really well on YouTube is because if someone sits down and is interested or turns it on passively, you’re just getting so much watch time that the YouTube algorithm rewards that with reach because they want time on platform. They want people dwelling on the platform. But the big idea here, is think about how much trust can compound when someone is interested in a topic, they click on that conversation and they spend 90 minutes, two hours, two and a half hours, which people are doing, especially if that’s what they’re interested in. They wanna go deep, they wanna have an expanded conversation on that. And just one two hour episode and you’re a third of the way to your seven hours of someone really spending significant time with you. Rory (18:16) this this this is something I think that mission driven messengers and experts need to understand one person watching an hour long podcast or like a video podcast or or reading a book in our case that would be like four hours is worth way more than 1000 people or even 5000 people watching a 60 second reel. Yep. And I think that’s what Sean (18:35) Yeah. Rory (18:46) people don’t understand they’re chasing the like the vanity of I want 5000 views. And they’re trading that for not understanding that one person who goes deep with me is more valuable. And that’s what you know, when you say we’re geniuses at making money from a small audience. It’s because it’s exactly that it’s like we have a very specific audience. But man, if they’re an expert of any like a speaker author coach, they get into our universe and they just go, my gosh, we are there are people. And so we build a lot of trust quickly, but we don’t reach millions and millions and millions of people. And I think that’s the big mental switch that a lot of expert specific creators need to really think about and understand. So Sean (19:33) Agree. Rory (19:35) Now let me complain about YouTube. so so here’s the thing that people always said, just be consistent. Just be consistent. Just keep pushing. You you say just push record, just push record, right? And I’m a huge, huge fan of it. We’ve been pushing record. And we’ve been publishing every week on YouTube for seven years. We’ve got 9000 subscribers. Now I’ll be the first to admit we’ve not we’ve not prioritized it as the most important thing in our business. It’s pretty, it’s been pretty low on the list. So there’s no doubt that that is, you know, your results reflect your effort to some extent. But at the same time, I’m going, we’ve been putting videos up for seven years. We’ve never had one pop off ever on YouTube, with the exception of my TED talk, which went, you know, massively viral, but that was on their channel, not on our channel. Right? ⁓ Now, I’ve had massive success being on podcasts like yours and like Ed Myled and Lewis and other Cody Sanchez, these other shows that I’ve been on. I was on Cody Sanchez podcast. She’s a client of ours. And so I think it was like a year ago, we were on a show. We had like four sales last week from her. from a video that was published a year ago to what you’re saying. So I’ve had lots of success with them. So clearly they’re doing things that we’re not doing right. But the idea that you can just keep, you know, just keep going, just keep consistent. it kind of at least feels to me in a discouraging way like that’s not really the truth. And in some ways you go, well, we still have 9000 subscribers. I mean, that’s not nothing. But it’s not, you know, when I look at the return on investment for the time that we have put in, and it’s hard to measure because it’s like, well, how many of our sales have come from people who, you know, of those 9000 who sat and watched several hours of video? I don’t know, like it’s a little bit tough. But so anyways, what do you say to some somebody who’s like has been publishing and has been doing it is not not getting the not seeing the results yet. Sean (21:43) Yeah, well, I think, especially in 2026, we have to face the brutal reality of success on YouTube, and it’s this. 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every single day. Rory (21:56) 20 million a day, but there’s 2 billion people every day going there. Yeah. But of course, Mr. Beast takes like half of that. Sean (22:04) And so when I hear 20 million videos uploaded every single day, that’s a big pool to try to crack through the noise and stand out. I think the key though is you just got to get into the top 10 % of content. You know, I heard an old Brian Tracy, the sales legend and you know, leadership ⁓ quote that said, you know, if you’re in the top 10 % of salespeople, you’ll get 80 % of the results. And if you’re in the top 2%, you’ll get, ⁓ you know, disproportionate returns. So put it this way, competition is highest for low effort content. Rory (22:42) Say that again. Sean (22:43) competition is highest for low effort content or lazy content. Now, I’m not saying that anybody who’s putting effort towards YouTube is being lazy, but those that are rising. Rory (22:55) Did he just call me lazy? I’m pretty sure. Wait, can we rewind the tape? Did you just call me lazy? Sean (23:01) ⁓ If you compare your average entrepreneur that’s posting on YouTube to those at an elite level, your average entrepreneur is maybe thinking about sitting down to have a podcast, maybe not doing a ton of preparation. They haven’t planned a real strong angle or title at the beginning. The thumbnail is maybe just a little bit of outdated. It’s a little outdated. It’s not really best practice. Those micro details aren’t really thought about. The hook, the opening, the first not just three seconds, but what are the first 30 seconds? What is the entire opening of the video? How’s the video structured is, ⁓ has the content been edited at all to trim the fluff? Your average entrepreneur is not doing any of that, anything like that. They might just be, you know, they’re experts. They’ve got good content, but they are also maybe invested. very busy. So they spend, if any prep time, they spend five minutes thinking about, well, what’s the title? How am I going to position this? Well, what are the elite doing? The elite are sitting down and they’re spending 10x more time on video packaging. So if you’re average entrepreneur Rory (24:10) Another word for that could be planning. Sean (24:12) planning, but they’re sitting down and your average entrepreneur didn’t even think about the title ahead of time, you know, isn’t putting a lot of energy in the thumbnail and then then into the topic itself. But the elite are sitting down and saying, okay, what actual topics are hot right now? What are the highest pain points that my audience has and how could I position that? What are even some of the best practices that are happening? One of the main practices of elite YouTube creators is studying outliers. is looking at channels in your niche and in your topic or even just adjacent. It doesn’t have to even be setting other business creators. You’re looking at formats. For example, one of the formats that is known to go really viral is I tried Andrew Huberman’s morning routine for 30 days. I tried X for a week. I tried Facebook ads. I tried chat GPT ads because they’re adding an ad product that you can now do pay advertising inside of chat gbt. ⁓ I tried chat gbt advertising for seven days. Parenthesis shocking results. So now now we’re at a strategic topic level maybe tapping into the now with chat gbt. You’re still tapping into a paid ads thing you maybe want to attract others in terms of marketing. That’s topic research. Then you’re thinking about video formats you’re thinking about the title and then that that right there is going to inform the structure of the content and how it’s Positioned and it’s gonna take more energy to where you maybe came up with that concept You didn’t just sit down and record a podcast and riff on something you Reverse engineered the idea and then did an experiment for seven days and then turn that experiment into a video and then that video got 55,000 views a hundred and sixty seven thousand views Which would eclipse the entire view count of a lot of people’s channels that start on YouTube because they spent that much more time on the topic, the title, the thumbnail, essentially the concept, the energy invested in the content itself. Now, here’s the thing, listening to that, many people might count themselves out and say, well, I mean, yeah, I don’t have time to do that kind of work or effort on YouTube. Rory (26:34) particularly when you say that inside of the same breath as saying YouTubers a long term play. It’s a long term asset. It’s not something that you put you do. You sit down today, you do this for a thumbnail and tomorrow a bunch of money shows up. That to me, that’s the conflict of like the entrepreneurs going, you know, the analogy we always use as we say, you’re it’s like you’re being chased by a bear to create revenue. Like you have to just it’s like I have to have enough revenue to pay the people and like keep keep the lights on around here. So So I have to balance, I have to balance planting seeds while being chased by a bear. YouTube to me feels more like seeds that you’re planting that will one day grow up and be, you know, provide a layer of protection from the bear. like right now it’s just a seed and I’m like running around being chased by the bear. So how do you afford the time and the money to do that? Sean (27:30) I mean, think there’s entrepreneurship always comes down to ⁓ one of two things. You either have time or you have money. Like when you’re just starting out, you might not have money, but you also, you’re a lot more lean, lower overhead. So what can you invest in it? Sweat equity. So you invest time in YouTube to say, okay, I maybe I still have my core business. Maybe I’m on sales calls all day and I have fulfillment, but if I want to invest in this long-term play, I’m building up my YouTube channel with sweat equity. But a lot of individuals listening to this, they have money. So the mindset shift would be, ⁓ I heard Dan Sullivan say something once that if you have money and you have a problem, you don’t have a problem. And so it’s making the decision. Rory (28:14) You have enough money to solve a problem, you don’t have a problem. Sean (28:17) You don’t have a problem. So so then you know, you’re asking yourself who and not how I want to invest in YouTube who which would be a strategic hire or working with an agency or an individual that you could bolt onto your business to help you do the heavy lifting of YouTube invest those dollars and They could sit down. They’re doing that packaging for you. They’re working Rory (28:42) with title, topic, thumbnail. Sean (28:44) Yeah, they’d mind your genius mind your topics. They’re aware of the broader YouTube culture. They’re aware of the research tools you work with them. They’re helping you do all of the above and still allowing you to sit down and just do your genius. But they’re maybe going to restructure things outline, you know, I’d even say scripting, you know, the greatest YouTube videos again are spending just a lot more time period and planning that out and scripting or outlining the content. Again, that sounds like a lot of work, but if anything, could just be structure like okay talk to me you know deliver what’s what’s some of your core genius what are your core frameworks what are some of you okay we’re do this here’s how we want to outline this let’s work on the hook of the video let’s think about how this thing is gonna be structured Rory (29:28) Which by the way, just to like… go meta on people, you and I did this, like you’re I’m going to be on your show right after this. And you were like, Okay, what’s what’s what’s the what’s the title of this episode going to be? Yeah, it was actually it was it was kind of like, what’s the topic? Like, what’s a meaty topic we could do? And then it was, okay, what sexy title? Could we come up with that you can see on a thumbnail? And then it’s like, okay, then how do we open this? How how do we open it, you know, with the hook? And then what’s the talking points that we’re going to go through. So you’re actually practicing what you. Sean (30:03) And that would be, mean us working together for these episodes we’re gonna shoot together was about a 30 minute conversation. A 30 minute conversation with somebody that has that expertise. And that would be tapping into the famous who not how framework. Like who could you work with? And you know for listeners they could jump right in and if they just started talking to chat GBT a little bit ⁓ on a basic level, that’s gonna get you a lot further than you would normally. Like okay here’s what I wanna talk about, thing one. So here’s some of the stuff I normally teach, here’s what I talk about your I’m assuming open up chat GBT you know start doing a voice prompt talking to you a little bit about it but then you could follow up with these prompts okay what how could I package or position this and here is one of the most powerful YouTube principles that most don’t understand that you want to ask yourself how can I go more broad appeal how can I raise That doesn’t mean diluting the topic too much, but you want to raise the broad appeal as high as possible. So we’re going to do this episode on the answer was copywriting. The thing you wanted to teach was like copywriting structure for sales. We’re having this conversation on the phone. go, that’s amazing. But a title like, you know, use this copywriting framework to make your next video more powerful, horrible title. Super. Rory (31:26) narrow because people go I’m not a copywriter, this video doesn’t apply to me even though we go no these principles apply to anyone trying to generate revenue. So we have to take the topic and we have to round it out to have a broader appeal. Sean (31:38) We raise it up to go, yeah, how can I go more broad appeal? Now, if we take a principle from the most viral YouTubers, the question they ask is how can this topic in video apply to at least 80 % of the population? That’s really broad. Now, I don’t suggest business owners typically do that, but it’s a really good principle to understand. Rory (32:05) It’s like a workout to do like a way to exercise your brain in that direction. Sean (32:09) To push it up broad appeal. So if you were to make a video just for ⁓ women, now you’re 50 % of the population. But now you’re saying, okay, how do I go higher than that? That’s why the most broad topics that could be like relationships or food or something, everybody eats food. Rory (32:25) always it’s it’s money, sex, politics, religion, food, relation. mean, those are those are every major podcast or show. It’s like those are they’re hitting on those because they’re the most universal topic. Sean (32:39) Yeah, so push it up. Now, if we then get into your niche, you’re still asking how can I go up a little bit to the known felt needs and pain points and ambitions of my target audience? Rory (32:50) because when we do this, we’re risking violating what we were talking about earlier, which is we’re going for viral. But now we’re risking not building as deep of trust, we’re going for width. And we’re comp, it’s like a balance between width and depth. And we have to, we, we kind of want to have more width in the title and the topic. But then once you get into the content, that’s where you kind of go a little bit deeper and speak. If you’re an expert, Sean (32:56) Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah, to your audience. a principle in communication I learned was, you know, you want to answer the questions people are asking. What question are people asking? Like, and then what question should they ask? Or so in this case, the answer was copywriting and a sales framework. Rory (33:40) what they should be asking. That’s what they are asking. They don’t know that’s what they need. They think they need something else. Sean (33:46) And so where I pushed it up would be, ⁓ you know, one of the titles I think that we ultimately came up with was essentially money. How can we raise it up to money? Like, ⁓ you know, this framework will make you more money on YouTube or use this framework and then push it up even more like. ⁓ Rory (34:06) Like the best video that we’ve done together of me on your show was ⁓ it’s all about the title was like something like how to how small creators are making millions of dollars. Sean (34:15) So the copywriting video we’re gonna shoot together, the title I came up with was The Psychology Behind Why Some Videos Make Money. And so, an alternative would be why some videos make money and others don’t, or the difference between videos that make money and those that never will. Rory (34:32) There it is. But basically you’re going the answer is copywriting. But but the question we should be asking is how do we state the question that more people pay attention to? Which then becomes the title. Sean (34:43) And then what’s fascinating, which is the time. Yeah, if you were to put even like sales professionals or really call out a niche in a title and there’s a time and place to do that, I’m not suggesting those should never be uploads, but. ⁓ anyone that’s interested in YouTube, even so this is for our podcast where we want to talk to the creator or DIY creator as well as the business owner. But if we actually put the word business in the title, it will kill the click through rate because somebody will opt out of clicking on the video because ⁓ I’m not a business owner. I don’t know if I resonate with that as much, but everybody has got money problems where they want to learn about money and they want more views or more money. we’re pushing it up. But if I’m, then you have to ask yourself, okay, it’s my target audience. that do business owners want to know the psychology behind why some videos make money and others don’t and do creators want to know that is what they both do. So you actually have the opportunity to get more reach, but also reach your target audience at the same time. So that’s the tension to manage is how do I raise the broad appeal, still make it a sharp title with fierce clarity and ⁓ And then in the video itself, articulate. So I will articulate in that video, like, listen, if you’re actually a YouTuber that wants to earn more and really go to a mastery level on YouTube, you’re going to love this conversation. And this is also great for business owners that want to generate leads and sales. We start broad appeal, kind of qualify in there. And then that’s the difference between a video that could get 22,000 views or 200,000 views or one that stays stuck at 2000 views because of this whole packaging. conversation. Rory (36:24) Yeah, so by the way, on that this is a good spot to mention. So ⁓ on some of those tactics, we’ve got ⁓ if you go to free brand training.com slash YouTube, people can watch a class from you that’s a little more into like the weeds of the tactics on this right. Yeah, so ⁓ go check out freebrandtraining.com forward slash YouTube if you want, you know, to get more into the tactics here. so basically, high level though, we’re talking about topic, title, thumbnail. Those are the main and I think part of what part of the big insight that I’m having is going it’s not Sean (36:55) Yes. Rory (37:07) as much about the quality of the content today. It’s more about the attraction of the wrapper of like the positioning. that’s where the over indexing work comes from spending time thinking about It’s the same candy bar. It’s got to be a quality candy bar, but we have to spend more time on the wrapper than the candy bar itself. That’s where the over indexing result comes from today on YouTube. Sean (37:39) think that’s one. And then I think the other thing to consider is, you know, YouTube is two things. The most viral videos to have viral videos on YouTube. You want to understand two big things. YouTube is psychology and trends at the highest level. It’s human psychology and trends. What’s going on in the minds of people? What are they thinking about? What are they worried about? And also what’s trending? There’s a reason why AI content or AI in the title is getting so many views right now on YouTube because everyone’s worried about it. It’s the trend. Everybody’s thinking about it and it also applies to everything. So if it’s coming into our daily life, should we be adopting this in our, ⁓ service provider business. How could we be adopting it? You could say the dark side of AI that will get a lot of views. How to make extra money that will get a lot of views. ⁓ It’s replacing employees and you’re also hitting hot buttons. It’s replacing people. Should it be now debates happening in the common? Rory (38:38) ⁓ You have emotion and you have trending topic that AI is hitting on those two things and that’s a thing. This reminds me of a great lesson that I learned from Tom Hanks. He’s not a friend of mine, but I heard him say this. He actually said this to a friend of mine and he said, the key to writing a movie that’s a hit is you have to enter into the nation’s conscience. So all you have to do is ask yourself, what is the nation thinking about talking about? And basically, that’s like the hot that’s like the highway. And then you have to ask yourself, how does my topic come in and just catch that sort of catch that wave? And that’s exactly what you’re talking about in terms of how do you succeed in YouTube in 2026? Sean (39:26) Yeah. So anybody watching this right now could take the phone mount that’s on their car dashboard, put their phone up there where normally they’re viewing their GPS, turn it horizontal at themself, turn the camera on and sit in your car, which is a great audio booth by the way. And maybe, you know, somebody’s late for a meeting or something. You got 20 minutes. And if you sit down and you think about what’s happening in the national ⁓ consciousness, what are people thinking about, worried about, and you have some stuff to riff on. Maybe you plan your ideas out a little bit. of planning, like one of our 3P frameworks is plan, ⁓ press record and then post. That’s the most simple thing. Plan first, press record and then post. So I might plan on a legal pad or my tablet if I was sitting in my car and be like, Man, the phone calls I’ve been getting, the conversation, people, they’re worried about AI, they’re worried about it disrupting jobs. I have a few thoughts. I’ve heard a couple things that have been happening. Okay, how could I talk about that? You’re planning a little bit. Then just press record and say, okay, you might be thinking about this, this is a conversation we’ve been having. And then you post that video and with no editing and just sitting in your car. and just sharing from the heart and maybe sharing some of your wisdom, your perspective, your thoughts. In some cases, probably why you’re not. Rory (40:43) while you’re ⁓ Sean (40:47) while we’re parked and, we’ve all seen this. We’ve seen basic low production talking head videos on YouTube that get 55,000 views or 500,000 views. And what become, what’s the, you know, difference between that video and a video that’s in a fancy podcast studio with all kinds of cameras and all kinds of production and people get frustrated because sometimes they sit down. They got, I got the fancy studio, but I’m not getting the views that missing element right there can be the timing, the topic and tapping into trends and what sometimes a mental barrier to that for business owners is like, well, I don’t want to just cover trending videos. Like is that trending, you know, tick tock? Rory (41:27) Well, so I was gonna I want to ask you about this. I need you to coach me on the limiting belief that I have I know I’m aware that I have this and I have a hard time letting go of it because I actually struggle with this is I don’t want to be the pandering vanity seeking person and and this is why this is one reason I never post when people die. I have a emotional struggle where you know, it’s like Kobe Bryant just died and everyone and it’s like I know that’s gonna get tons of views. I know that’s gonna get tons of engagement. I feel like it’s cheap. and inauthentic, even if it is authentic. It’s like, even if you were the biggest Kobe Bryant fan in the world, right? And so it’s like, every time a celebrity dies, people post about it. And I’m like, is that’s what I think of when I think of? the trend AI is that way right now we’re using AI in our business I guarantee we are implementing AI more than almost every person on YouTube is talking about it. We’ve built 40 bots for our community like you’re talking about the topics we have bots that just analyze the and it just gives it to them and all of their brand memory is stored if they’re using our bots you don’t have to give the context it already has all of your context it knows your model and who you’re going after. So we have bots that do that but I have this problem with going yeah, I’m just gonna go on every day and be like, here’s what happened in the world of AI for personal brands. I know that would perform. I struggle doing it because I don’t know, I guess I just have like a distaste for like the amateurness of it. And yet I also am frustrated with going, all of these people are willing to do it and they’re just riding the wave and they’re just and they’re taking off. It’s why I got out of ⁓ traditional radio. I used to be on traditional radio and that’s all they wanted to talk about. Here’s the top news. topics today. And I’m like, why are we talking about this? Because everyone’s talking about it. I’m like, I don’t care about any of this stuff. It’s actually why I got into podcasting because I was like, I want to talk about more meaningful things. So anyways, coach me through that. How do I reconcile that? Sean (43:39) To me it sounds like you just coached yourself. I think that that limiting belief, you’re self-aware enough to understand that. I mean, all I could add to it is a mission-driven messenger. without compromising ethics is willing to do anything to reach as many people as possible. It’s like the apostle Paul said, I’ll become all things to all people in order that I might win some for Christ. So it’s a willingness to say what’s going to be most effective. And then it’s also a letting go of any fear of other people’s opinions or any ⁓ fear of judgment and fear of somebody calling you authentic. Only you would know the truth to that. But what I can say in the seat of the conversation, we had before you turn on the podcast. I think you do care about AI. If we isolate around AI, you do care about AI. You are doing it. It couldn’t be more authentic. It’s actually probably more important that people hear your voice on the matter than many people who are just chasing trends at a shallow level. So if you resolve any kind of internal cognitive dissonance or whatnot, and maybe realize like it’s re embracing the principle, because I think the principle of what you did on radio is pretty important. That is what gets the most views. on YouTube. So a willingness to do what it takes. then if you have ethical lines, you’re like, I’m not I’m not going to do that because I don’t feel that that’s not authentic to me. But when it is authentic, I think you have to press past any resistance you have because you go, no, I do care about that. I’m not going to post about every person when they pass away. But I really care about this. I have something to say in this moment. You know, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, ⁓ I don’t talk about a lot of stuff, but I ended up doing an Instagram post about it and ended up getting 1.7 million views. By the way, could put somebody could sit here and you were just trying to get views. No, I wasn’t. I actually had some I didn’t post immediately. I think I posted two days later, three days later. I’ve been processing it. It was very heavy. I’ve been thinking I’ve been listening to all the conversation. also realized, man, you know, this could be very polarizing. I don’t usually get political, but I felt it. That’s why I posted it. I felt it. I processed it. And then I ended up doing an Instagram carousel. I lost 3000 followers. when I did the post, I ended up gaining 7000 followers when I did the post and it wasn’t about that. Now I’m also a good marketer so I understand what could happen but I also I didn’t know that that would happen and I actually thought that it might be more of if you will a net negative but here’s the thing above all of that was conviction above all of that was authentic conviction. feeling like I had something to actually say and I don’t jump on most things. And some people said, well, if you’re gonna post about this, also, if you’re gonna talk about this, you have to talk about this other stuff too. People are always gonna bring you your judgment. Again, if we’re reverse engineering back from what does it take to actually get views and reach and have impact on YouTube, I think you have to be willing to do what it takes. Is. Yeah. Rory (46:42) And you’re saying trends essential. It’s one of the essential ingredients to performing on YouTube. Sean (46:49) And most things are not problems to be solved, they’re tensions to be managed. So it’s like, think trying to have a binary answer to that question, like I’m just not going to do trends because it could be, you know, misperceived or I personally don’t love it. That would be more of like black and white thinking as opposed to tensions to be managed. Am I just jumping on this? And then I think willing to be mistakes, willing to make mistakes, willing to try something, willing to, ⁓ you know, one week be doing it and you might look back and, and I think we have to get over that. here. Maybe criticism comes your way after you do jump on a trend and talk about something. They’re like, you know, Rory, I know you, I don’t think that post hit and you’re my, you know, I didn’t feel authentic. felt like you’re like, as I reflect, maybe that’s true. That’s a willingness to take a risk and willingness to, put yourself out there. But I know your community too is very purpose-driven, you know, ethics driven. So those, these are like internal frameworks to be processing what to post next. But I know we’re isolating on AI and I’m not saying AI is the only choice. trend. No, just talk. But it’s a good case study. Yeah. Because literally the conversation we had before we pressed record was fascinating to me about what you guys are doing, how you’re doing it. And what again, what we know is that AI is trending. The avoidance of talking about something you’re authentically doing, you’re doing at a world class level that could help people, I think is a mistake. I think. And then realizing that with in the sea of sameness, whether it’s not that you can’t do like evergreen topics or old school titles, how to get leads in your business using Facebook. There there’s just been so much of that. And that’s to step into a world of YouTube where you get views today. I think you have to be willing to talk about the now. Neil Patel, the, you know, entrepreneur and SEO expert, like really good at SEO. Smart. Rory (48:49) We’ve had him on the show. He’s so good. Super. Sean (48:52) And he made a quote, which a lot of good communicators will sometimes speak in absolutes, even though the absolute isn’t always true. But he made the absolute statement that the only thing working on social media right now is new. The only thing working on social media right now, including YouTube, is new. The good news about why YouTube will never be saturated, it’ll never be crowded, neither were social media is because new things are always happening. We coach a lot of real estate agents and they’re like, but there’s so many other agents. Like there’s just so much competition. So other people doing it. Well, number one, not really a national association of realtors say that only 9 % of agents are posting listing videos. So it’s not as much as you think. But I think number two is there’s always something new happen happening. Rates are always changing. New home buyer incentives are always happening. ⁓ politicians are always switching. There’s always. Rory (49:51) Even though news stands for notable events weather and sports as you know that that’s where news comes from But really the way I think of news is it’s it’s new. It’s what’s new and I think you know, I think of it as there’s better There’s different and there’s new yeah and right right now and I think always it’s like new actually outperforms new outperforms better Mm-hmm, which is frustrating, but I think that is how it is but if you can Sean (49:55) That’s Rory (50:20) connect your better take on what is new. You know, it’s selling people what they want, giving them what they need. It’s what the apostle Paul said. I mean, it’s our five title tests of like, you know, the I want blank test. It’s part of just the tension, I think, to be managed. Sean (50:38) I think we’re hitting on something that’s so powerful in this conversation, and that’s this. I actually think it’s lot of the limiting beliefs and internal frameworks that hold most back. Rory (50:47) Amen. Sean (50:48) because the fear of just sitting in your car and hitting record to talk about today, what is new is why 99 out of a hundred professionals, they just don’t do it. Oh, they kind of overthink it. need to prepare more. need to. So you hesitate when actually content that’s planned out a little bit, press record and then publish that thing is on a new topic with a title that jumps into the conversation has a chance from taking your obscure channel that just has never gotten any reached. All of a sudden you got 55,000 views and you’re now getting awareness. I never knew about you before. I never discovered you before. What’s fascinating is I’m not saying that has to be a hundred percent of your content, but we’re asking how do you even jump into the conversation or get discovered in the first place? And then people start to explore your library and start to see the depth of your content. So the internal beliefs of, you know, Rory (51:44) Otherwise you’re the world’s best kept secret, which is like a huge part of our audience of just like, because just you have amazing stuff. Nobody knows you’re there. Sean (51:54) Yes. And so why do we sit in the car? Oh, well, I don’t know if I’m ready to talk about this or I might get a little bit pushback, a little bit of pushback. Or is this too political or will? And, I don’t know if I should talk about AI because some people are going to say, but what about the water consumption and what about if the machines, you know, kill us later? And there’s a million excuses. Am I ready to talk about this? What if I stumble over my words? Well, you know, there’s a million what ifs and those are those internal beliefs. And, you know, well, am I just jumping on a trend? Somebody else already did it. a million reasons and so what ends up happening analysis paralysis and then we don’t press record so I think having a conviction based approach and having hopefully this conversation being beneficial to individuals like you know punching fear in the face and then pressing record Rory (52:43) Yeah, yeah, well, there you go, friends. Sean Cannell, brilliant, profound, inspiring. Go to freebrandtraining.com forward slash YouTube, check out his free training if you wanna dive deeper on the tactics of YouTube. ⁓ I love this conversation. I do believe that all of this is a huge asset that automates trust at scale, right? That’s what we’re trying to do is automate trust at scale. There may be no better tool on the planet than YouTube. It’s certainly one of the top ones. It’s a systematic, there’s a system you can follow to make this happen. So make sure you do that. Share this episode with somebody who you know should be crushing it on YouTube and who wants to do better on YouTube, rate this podcast if you haven’t, we would love to hear your comments and come back next time. We’ll catch you on the wealthy and well-known podcast.