 So my experience starting a YouTube channel and it getting to almost a quarter million subscribers was really by accident and I know that sounds kind of like a douchey thing to say because so many people are trying so hard to do that but I never actually thought it would become like this and I just started uploading videos because I wanted a break from my actual business which was not making me happy anymore. It just wasn't that fulfilling. In this video I want to share what I think are the three myths to growing online on YouTube and the one practice that I would highly recommend as the only habit to do if you would like to build a business or real business from YouTube that can sustain you and support you anywhere you go in the world. What's up guys? Alex Hine, author of the book Master of the Day. Now the first link in the description is for a free 30 minute audio podcast on how to build an online business you love. Now I'm launching a beta group for my first premium course on how to build an online business and it's going to be exactly how I built my business online and how I used YouTube to do a large part of that. So if you want to be on that beta list and again this is just for people that are interested in the course which is not going to be a simple cheapy book add yourself to that list down there below but either way that audio MP3 is free to download so you can check it out there below. So the first myth that you hear quite a lot is that you need to know all the keywords to build a popular YouTube channel but this is crazy because when I actually uploaded my first video on journaling I think it was the how to change your life or design your life with journaling and when I uploaded that video I just got it out and I forgot to upload the tags and it upload any tags or keywords in the video and I went back a few months later and the video had 300,000 views now over a million views with no keywords so clearly that shows that keywords are not the most important thing that there are other factors like getting in the recommended feed and watch time and engagement but don't think you need to do all this business strategy first to build a popular channel. I still have not done keyword research. I go from topics that you want to hear about that I'm interested in sharing and other things that I see that are popular that resonate with people. The second myth is that search engine optimization like an extension from keywords is what you should do to find out what videos are really working. You know I also have a blog if you don't know at modernhealthmonk.com and that used to be a high traffic blog for a while and in that doing the SEO and keyword research was valuable but I'm finding it not so much on YouTube. You know and I also think how I find a lot of the top people that I follow and I almost never find them through a YouTube search personally. I find them through like the recommended feed or a friend mentions checking out this channel like that's how I find interesting channels and not through searching. Now that doesn't mean other people don't do that through search but for me that really hasn't been the case. Now the third myth I see people say quite a lot is that you should be it's just like Instagram commenting on other videos and other channels getting everyone to know who you are and sure maybe that works but try to find a video I've commented on on YouTube. I mean that I don't usually even watch YouTube that much. I watch an interview in the morning when I have breakfast otherwise I actually don't follow any YouTubers. Sounds crazy but I'm busy creating my brand and creating my business. The same thing with my Instagram I think we're almost at 6,000 followers on that I think I don't comment in anyone's picture I follow four people like if you had to follow a lot of people to get real followers then my whole strategy would be bust right. So what am I actually doing instead? There's one process I've used more than anything that I see work really well long term with YouTubers and people that want to build their brand and have a business doing what they love. So let's talk about that now. So the formula you guys ready for this? I don't know. I don't know if you can do this it's too serious. The formula is excitement plus 1% better. So let me share exactly what I mean here. When I said that I started YouTube because I was tired of my business I was tired as hell of writing these bullshit weight loss articles because I was a trainer and I wanted to talk more about subjects I was passionate about that you could feel through the camera. So I had created a few personal development videos out of my like kind of fitness weight loss videos at the time because I had 100,000 subscribers on YouTube talking about more fitness stuff but it was the personal growth stuff I loved. So I totally rebranded at 100k followers and then started talking about what I loved and the growth since then has been insane and it made me realize the biggest thing on YouTube is people feel your passion through camera. That's the thing that's irreplaceable. Not the BS keyword or using a scammy title. What's what really changes a person's life? Forget views. What changes a person's life is feeling the connection and feeling the passion that comes through the camera. That's something that you can only get on camera or on audio. You don't get that in written content. So the main factor is do you love the shit you're going to talk about? Because if you do, it's easy to film, it's easy to script, it's easy to keep going when all of the others have quit and I know YouTubers that have quit at 200,000 followers because they didn't love it. So you want to build a brand, you want to build an empire, you have to build it around something that you like. That's number one because when you like it, we will feel it on the other side. The second thing is to become 1% better every single month in your videos. So what you don't see now my videos are pretty good. I think they're pretty good production quality compared to a lot of what's popular on YouTube. And what you don't see is the initial videos where you see an Alex who had no clue what the hell he was doing. No clue how to present himself. No clue how to teach. No clue how to do high production quality videos. And I can share with you five specific iterations I made on my videos to get better. So the first videos were just me talking. That's it. No special camera, no special background, nothing. The second iteration was me with a new lens. I finally figured out how to get that blur effect I like. The third iteration was with a different background now and I picked the same background that looked really good and I understand and understood the depth of field that would create that great view in the camera. The fourth iteration was having these title slides that you see. Whereas before I would just talk for six minutes straight then I added titles to break it up and be more organized. And the fifth iteration has been adding B-roll to almost all my videos to make them much higher quality, more engaging and to go by faster. But what I recommend is you're always thinking how am I going to make it a little bit better. And that is the secret you see in all high performers. But you don't see it all at once. Like when you find my channel now with a decent amount of followers, you're not seeing the progression. You're not seeing the 300 other videos I uploaded and edited and all the things I've learned and failed in videos with crappy editing, the videos with just bad content that didn't resonate or wasn't engaging, the videos that didn't perform, no one sees those or somewhere in the lost recesses of my channel. And so the passion, what's always trying to figure out how to become a little bit better is been the key, the secret by far to my channel. Now of course I'm launching that brand new business course on how I built a successful online business to fuel my dream life with primarily YouTube. That first link in the description is for a free 30 minute podcast where I talk about the three keys to building a business and life you love. Now the podcast is free. You don't have to enter your email. But if you want to be notified of my business course that comes out next month, a premium course for professionals, add yourself to that list because I'm going to be launching it to 50 beta members to test it and get your feedback on building an online business that you love. So if that resonates, add your name to the list below or just download the audio for free and I'll catch you in the next video and you can also see my last videos there and there.