AI Summary
5 min readGrowth Hacks to Building a YouTube Empire
Austin Lieberman, a creator who built his YouTube channel from scratch starting in March 2022, joined Greg to share what he's learned about growing a channel without a pre-existing audience. The conversation began when Greg posted a YouTube video titled "Everything I Learned This Week," and Lieberman replied with honest feedback: the video assumed viewers already knew Greg, which is fatal on a platform where 99% of people have never heard of you. Within the first 20 to 30 seconds, Lieberman explained, you have to grab attention and tell people what value they'll get. That Mr. Beast principle became the foundation of their discussion.
Why YouTube Works for Building an Audience
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction & The Core Critique** - Greg shares his initial reaction to Austin's YouTube video, pointing out a critical mistake: assuming the YouTube audience already knows you.
- 2 (02:35) **Framing the Episode's Value** - Greg and Austin define what viewers will get from this video: tactics for transitioning from a side hustle to a livable income as a creator.
- 3 (03:38) **Why YouTube is the Best Platform to Start** - Austin argues YouTube is the top platform for building an audience, especially when paired with an email list.
- 4 (05:54) **AdSense as a Metric, Not a Goal** - Both hosts agree that AdSense revenue is a useful metric for audience quality, but not the primary goal for business owners.
- 5 (08:18) **The Power of YouTube Analytics: Browse vs. Search** - Austin walks through his YouTube analytics, revealing that 51.6% of his views come from Browse (homepage) and 30.6% from YouTube Search, with only 2.6% from external sources like Twitter.
- 6 (11:43) **Revenue Breakdown & The "Video as a Business" Model** - Austin shows his revenue chart, explaining how each video is its own little business that can generate passive income forever.
- 7 (15:53) **The Blueprint for Video Ideas: Steal from Mid-Tier Creators** - Austin reveals his strategy for finding winning video topics: look at channels slightly more successful than yours, not the giants.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Today Greg is joined by Austin Lieberman, an investor and content creator. In this episode, Greg and Austin talk about how to optimize YouTube content for creators at every level and why you don't need a massive audience to get the most upside.
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https://latecheckout.substack.com
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/gregisenberg
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LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Production Team:
https://www.bigoceanpodcasting.com
Austin Lieberman:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLIFOsNlHA7ZjTrJDb2WQcw
https://twitter.com/LiebermanAustin
SHOW NOTES:
0:00 - Intro
3:48 - Why you should care about YouTube growth
15:42 - Figure out what works (and double-down)
25:04 - Subscribers: Ask who not how many
32:35 - Your videos are your product
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