Uploaded and Unfiltered: Conversations about Personal Growth, Mindsets, and Advice with BIPOC Creators for Creators

Motivation to Start a YouTube Channel

• Jermaine Pulliam • Season 1 • Episode 59

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Navigating unexpected parking fees and last-minute schedule changes, my adventure at Creator Fest 2024 in Orlando, Florida was anything but ordinary. Discover how these logistical hiccups led to some of the most inspiring and enriching experiences, including a session conducted entirely in Spanish. By keeping an open mind, I unearthed valuable insights from a diverse lineup of speakers and unique organizational choices like using Discord for communication. This episode encapsulates the essence of learning and growth, even when faced with a few bumps in the road.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome. Welcome back to another episode of uploaded and unfiltered the podcast, in which I, your host Jermaine, interviews another content creator in regards to their journey thus far. Today is a special solo episode where I talk about the latest conference that I got to attend, which was creator fest over in Orlando, florida. Latest conference that I got to attend, which was Creator Fest over in Orlando, florida. I'm going to talk about the conference and some of the things I learned, and we'll end the podcast on a YouTube note. I got some things I want to talk about in regards to YouTube and my thoughts on creators getting out there and making a channel. So, before I begin if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the channel I like to bring a mindset, thought provoking aspect to the world of creation. I think it's very vital and important that we keep our mental not only sharp, but we continue to keep our minds open to other ideas and realize that the things that we do are magical, are unlimited. People dream to do some of the things that we do, and we need to not take that for granted, but also know that we are capable of whatever we put our mind to. So, with that being said, let me go ahead and jump into the episode. Appreciate you for listening, listening. Let's go ahead and get started.

Speaker 1:

So this weekend I went to a creator fest 2024 in orlando, florida. It was over past disney or almost towards disney. It was over in that area where all the touristy stuff is. Being that I live so close again, did not get a hotel room, I went ahead and drove over there and let me give a or. Let me talk about the feeling of the festival or the conference overall. Now, keep in mind this was the very first event they've ever thrown, so keep that in mind when I go over some of the things Now. Had I not been told it was the first festival they were thrown, I would have known that right off the bat, because I don't think I got the schedule of events of who was speaking in which location. I don't think I got that until the day before or the day of the event. Now, that's one of those things is oversight. Maybe it was running into scheduling issues and it was a last minute changes, but even at that point you can still have a schedule pretty much set in stone in a few days, at least a week before then, and then you get on the fly, change things as we get text messages. They opened up a discord channel, but nobody was really using discord. I thought that was a bold choice. Nobody really uses discord for events. But anyways, again the first steps into making their own event. Overall I'll just say this before I get too negative and I'm not being negative, I'm just being critical Overall the event was dope.

Speaker 1:

The speakers there were amazing, the information I left with is vital and I didn't even have to pay anything to get there. I think I might have paid a dollar I actually paid more than that, but we'll get into that in a second. So, first off the bat, there was no schedule, but I knew at least what location I was going to, so I went ahead, jumped up a car, headed over there. Second thing when I got there on friday because they were doing badge pickup on thursday again, since I live so close I was about to drive out there, get my badge right back, drive back, drive back the next day. And I'm glad I didn't.

Speaker 1:

Because the first thing that irks me was there was no type of paid parking for the event. If you didn't stay at the hotel, you were paying for parking to pay at the hotel and because it's one of those locations that have their own parking and it's kind of far away from any attractions or anything public, you was, uh, you was paying for parking. So it was 40 bucks a pop. I didn't know that shit. So I had for lunch. I left. I was like, you know, I don't feel like being around people at lunch, I'm gonna go ahead and leave. I had to get gas anyways. I picked up like a sandwich at the gas station, came back and I was like oh, I gotta pay you fucking twice. So that first day, and actually finagled something like if you buy something at the hotel, they'll give you uh, I don't know voucher, parking or whatever. So I would have had paid 80 for parking. Mind you, I haven't paid anything for the event. So again, I wasn't complaining, I was just like man, that's crazy. Usually parking is paid for when it's an event like this, so I had to pay for parking. I ended up finagling two uh jw maria bottle water bottles from the hotel. So now we have two dope water bottles that are really good. Apparently my wife used one for the first time. She said it held his ice well, which is very vital for Anyway, so I had to pay for parking the event itself.

Speaker 1:

There was always two speakers speaking at the same time, so you had to pick and choose who you were going to. Unfortunately, I'm not well versed in the world of all of these creators and I don't think really anybody was. There were people from a vast array of the industry, which is a plus, but also there was no real hey, this person's gonna talk about this, and it was just a name, or maybe a name of their presentation. And if there was a name of the presentation, that would have made it a little easier to guess what they were going to talk about. So it was, honestly, it was like luck of the draw, so much so, and I should have known this from the, the name of the group. I, it was like luck of the draw, so much so, and I should have known this from the, the name of the group. I think it was Los Chichineros or something of that nature.

Speaker 1:

I sat there and it was all in Spanish. They were going to do like half Spanish, half English, but they asked like who speaks Spanish? And everybody said yes, and I was like the only dude that didn't. So I was like I'm about to be like no, I don't speak spanish. I'll be around people that speak spanish and I was like you know what? It's time to test my test, my wife's theory, to see if I understand what's going on. Uh, I understood like not that many words, but I could understand from body language. I learned so much about the family that we're talking. I ended up looking up with some other content. It's not for me, but I understood, like, the connections that that family had just off of body language, and the reactions of the crowds when certain parents or one of the kids would say something. It was amazing. I'm glad that I sat there for it, but it was definitely all in spanish. I didn't understand god damn thing. It was a few words that I caught, but in conjunction with all the other words, I didn't know what was going on. Anyways, so overall the speakers were great.

Speaker 1:

There was a speaker who I think his name was London Landerson. I believe he is the founder and owner of the Final Boss Sour Candies that have been going crazy on TikTok, on TikTok. His speech that was the first speech to start that spark inside me to push me towards what I'm going to be ultimately doing with my content going forward. His talk was so inspirational because he got up there and he was like look, I never thought I was going to be a creator, I'm just a normal guy who likes X, y and Z. And he came up with this concept for the final boss candy which is not candy, it's dried fruit that is super sour. He played on the whole sour thing motif. He mixed the the brand is a video game brand and he gamified eating sour candy. Genius marketing, genius idea, but his talk was mainly about the TikTok shop. Genius marketing, genius idea, but his talk was mainly about the TikTok shop.

Speaker 1:

He showed a video of somebody who did the affiliate marketing through TikTok. This kid did like a 30 second video or however long. The video was not that long. The lighting was off, it was not sharp. I've seen I could. Anyone listening to this could make a better video, but that wasn't the point. He made this video one time off of affiliate marketing, off commissions. This man made $19,000 off a crappy video and so that's like. You know what I got to get my TikTok game in order and push. They keep saying that you only need a thousand followers to start a TikTok affiliate shop shop. Apparently you need to be in a beta to get that access and, fingers crossed, your boy will get that access, because I make so many review based videos that are dope like I should start getting paid for these like 19k, come on, anyways. So that was the first one. He was basically like start a tiktok shop affiliate store and start getting the stuff that you enjoy and start making videos about it.

Speaker 1:

And then he kind of went into how they came up with the marketing. Was was genius for the marketing, the whole motif of the final boss, sour candies. He went to a video game artists and said, hey, can you come up with a video game concept? It didn't tell them it was for a product. They thought they were making assets for a video game. They just use those assets for the product. I think eventually they probably told them but I was like that is, that is next level. I'm definitely going to do that. When I come up, when I come out with something that I need marketing for or need like a, a theme or a, a brand, I'm definitely going to a video game artist and be like, hey, this type of game I want, make me some assets. Oh, I'm excited for that, okay, anyways.

Speaker 1:

So day one was cool. I ended up meeting that guy. I ended up meeting which was a personal favorite of mine. I met the guy. I believe he was the designer, definitely the face of the Shishibo Cubes guy. I believe he was the designer, definitely the face of the shishibo cubes, and I was. I attempted to make a video with him but they didn't work out in the way that I wanted to. But I'm still gonna make that video, do a review for him. But they also have a tiktok shop offer with the shishibo cubes and if you never heard of them, you will, you will. These cubes are amazing. I love them. They're one of my favorite fidget toys ever. The more you have, the more fun you have with them. They're like Lego. So I'll definitely be bringing a video on that.

Speaker 1:

But seeing him, you know how you see people and you're like I've seen that person before, but you're not about to go run up. I mean, at least I'm not gonna run up to him and be like hey, I know who you, because I didn't really. In one of the talks I was at, he was like hey, oh, I had the shishibuki. Anybody heard of it. My dumb ass was like oh me, I was probably the loudest motherfucker in there, so he went out and so I realized what it was. I went up to him afterwards. I was like, yo, I love the shishibuki. I got like eight of them things. They're so amazing. The more you have, the better they get. He's like, yeah, right. And I was like, yeah, I've been meaning to shoot a video but I've been dragging my feet on it, but this is just part me to go ahead and get that done. He's like yo, we should shoot something right now. And I was like yo, say less, I got my camera, I got my gimbal, I got microphones. I didn't have microphones at the time. That was a drop ball. Always be prepared. You never know who. You're ready to go, just be prepared. Anyways, I'm not mad at it. I'm gonna go ahead and make this video. I'm still gonna get that content because when you meet me once I'm very memorable you'll remember that he saw me. Plus, I was like one of four black people there. So anyways, that was dope.

Speaker 1:

Friday was cool. I went home. I didn't stay for, like, the after party. I'm not. I got to save my partying, my after hour networking for for a Twitch con, because around like six, seven o'clock. I'm like I'm done. It's time for me to go. Like I don't, I'm done. Social battery is depleted. We're done here. So I went back Saturday.

Speaker 1:

The best talk that happened Saturday was from a gentleman by the name of I believe it was Pablo. He is a digital nomad and he on the side he sells a package that's called the laptop CEO, basically being able to run a business from anywhere in the world, which is right up my alley. So I'm definitely going to be checking out his content. But his talk was about how easy that not so much easy how rewarding it was to start a YouTube channel and be persistent with it until he's at 60 K now, making money off his channel, and that's what drives most of his traffic to his business. But the thing that I pulled out of that was how easy it is to get over some of the humps that people like me have when it comes to creating content on youtube.

Speaker 1:

When I first got in this content creation game, youtube was what pulled me in. I love making long form videos and I was sitting on the couch with my wife and we were just looking at some of my TikToks and I'm laughing at them and I'm like what? Look at me, I'm entertaining. And I just needed that moment, coupled with what I experienced at CreatorFest, to solidify my next steps. Going forward, for the probably last few months, like I've known what I wanted to do. I just didn't push myself hard enough to A just start doing it and figure it out. Once I run into a stumbling block or push myself hard enough to just figure out the little pieces that I needed.

Speaker 1:

So I have a YouTube channel Radiant Reflection. That's my YouTube channel for my coaching business, because I'm a mindset coach and my goal and mission in life is to get people who look like me, think like me, who've gone through experiences in life like I have that black experience but that you can't teach. Like people think they had this whole awakening in 2020 and they've seen some things, but it's so much deeper than that and we know that and I will get into that more as time goes on but to help them get rid of those stucknesses that are keeping us stuck, keeping us down, changing our self-worth because ultimately, we are in charge of our self-worth and I think the mental health pieces that I, the assistance that I will provide, will change people's lives immensely. So I need to stop dragging my feet on that and start executing the plan that I've had in my, in my mind, for the last probably two years. So this youtube session put that in mind and the whole thing for me is like I know I have so many ideas, so much content, but when it comes to making that video, it's all self-conscious stuff. I don't want to sound stupid. I don't want to sound like I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't want to sound like I'm not an authority when I know good and well I am an authority on the things that I'm talking about. I want to present that in a video and the answer to that is to use a goddamn script. And there's one or two, three videos that I did that. I made a script and honestly it it works, but the work that I had to get in, to put in, to get those scripts written and down to a pace that I enjoyed and it did work for me, I felt like that work was a lot and so I just let that live in my head. I let that define me, not making scripts to make this easier for myself. I'm off. That. Shout out to Pavlo.

Speaker 1:

Ukrainian digital nomad Seemed like a dope dude. I meant to say something after the talk. He's also ripped and so everybody in the goddamn audience was trying to talk to him and I was like, yeah, you nasties. Anyways, he was like, hey, when I first started this, I had like 46 to my name. I came into this country an immigrant and I wanted to make youtube work because I wanted to make money for my family, so that was his driving force. Mine is to ultimately change the power of who defines what our self-worth is and put that back into the power of us, and by doing that, I think the world is going to look a lot different and I'm excited. Anyway, that's so he was like I do the same thing. I shoot every video on my iphone. I have 63 000 followers. I have this basic ass mice.

Speaker 1:

Basically, what I'm trying to say is the hardware is never the issue, it's always the planning and execution, and he broke down what his week looks like and I'm going to share that with you right now. His is a little OD. I'm just going to break it down simply for me and I'm executing it this week Soon, as I'm doing it this week, no holds barred, I have no excuses. So he uses a video script. First I'll tell you what the video script bullet points look like and then I'll go over kind of what he does as far as the schedule goes. So the first off is the topic video title. That's the first off the rip. The second is the hook for the video. What is the thing that's going to grab the attention of your audience in the first five to 10 seconds? Write that down.

Speaker 1:

Second, the big problem what is the main problem or how is it impacted in your life or other's lives? So what is the problem that you're trying to overcome or trying to display in your video? So it might be, if your video game hey, you don't know how to do a dragon punch, that's your big problem. Or if you're a life coach, hey, you've been having issues with imposter syndrome, whatever it is, name it. And so you write that down. Second is a big benefit what's in it for them? Why should they solve this problem? So why should you solve being able to throw a dragon punch? Because it's essential in Ryu's game? I don't actually I don't know if that's true. Why should you overcome imposter syndrome? Because it holds a bunch of us back and it's all something that's in our mind and we determine who we are and what we say and how we are presented in this world. So fixing that would be very beneficial for you.

Speaker 1:

Next up is objections how do people talk to themselves out of solving this problem for themselves? So Maybe attempting to do a dragon punch is too hard because of the inputs, or maybe I can't believe like I try to not believe what other people think, but it's really hard. Whatever, share a personal story of how you experienced this or of the benefit of fixing it. Then share your step-by-step advice on how to resolve this issue. Then, once you're done with that, if you have any references, you can put those at the end of the video. And then the thing that I thought that was amazing and I'm just going to do this because I think it's cool he doesn't end his videos with thank you for watching, like comment, subscribe, blah, blah. He just whatever his last point is, and he just ends the video. It's just boom done. Point is and he just ends the video. It just boom done. Because the attention of a lot of people who watch videos nowadays are they're just scrolling, so they never really see the end of a video. They're just so used to it abruptly, moving on to the next piece of content or just ending like that's just gonna go right into the flow of how they're consuming this content. So I'm definitely doing that Now.

Speaker 1:

His schedule is very on the note. Like on Sunday he does, I believe he said, nine to 12 in the morning. He does research Tuesday or Monday. He looks at his notes and if everything's good, he shoots the video Wednesday. If everything's good, he edits the video Thursday, uploads it Friday, it goes live and he does that two times over. So every day he's doing the work for two videos. So he's writing two scripts, he's doing research for two scripts. He's shooting two videos on those days that he's doing those things and that's all you need in life.

Speaker 1:

I mentioned that the podcast is on a schedule and it is held together by this checklist of things. I know that needs to get done Because that list exists. I do the things on the list, I check it off, check it off, move to the next one, check it off. And it's been very beneficial for me to keep this thing going and I knew that I needed that for my YouTube channel and this bullet point list, this video script, is exactly how I'm that I needed that for my YouTube channel, and this bullet point list, this video script, is exactly how I'm going to do that.

Speaker 1:

Now, some of the things that were said at this conference and reasons why I believe that we, as creators, need to start making YouTube channels, if you don't already is there are 2 billion people on YouTube a month. That's a lot of people. The reoccurring views that you get on YouTube is nobody else can replicate that. Do people go look at your TikTok videos on your profile Every once in a while? But if you make a video on a topic that is evergreen, as the content creators say, something that is always going to be searched for, how do I set up my OBS? That's always going to be looked for and there's always going to be multiple videos. I think I watched six or seven. I still watch YouTube videos on OBS settings. It's complicated, but making that content is going to keep your content up at the top and keep people coming back in like, oh, I've never heard it and then they will go check out your other videos.

Speaker 1:

So already, off that alone, making sure that your content is optimized for the algorithm, making sure that you're following some type of script, but most importantly, I feel like that hook that get them at the first five seconds is important because, unlike when you find content on tiktok, when you're just scrolling through and you it's just the for you page is feeding you content every once, while you find something dope, you might follow somebody off it. I feel like when you find a video on youtube, it feels more deliberate. It feels like oh, oh shit, I just found something secret here. This wasn't fed to me, like I went and searched and I clicked and now I'm sitting here isolated from all the other bullshit. I can't scroll past this. I actually have to either close the browser or move on to the next video. That's a different viewing experience and that's the viewing experience that I want to chase.

Speaker 1:

I was mentioning to my wife earlier this week that I have very specific YouTube personalities that I watch and it doesn't matter what the content is, what they're talking about, I'm watching that video. Nkbhc is one of those content creators. If Marquis puts a video out, I'm watching it. I love the way that his videos feel, the way that they look. They're amazing and he does what he does well. He's a great content creator and he's good at framing a shot, telling a story amazing, I don't have to shit he's talking about no, I'm not buying, I'm not buying a goddamn tesla cyber truck, but I want to hear what he got to say about it. So that's what I want for my radiant reflection video.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to be talking deep about mindset things and especially about the things that have been keeping that black content creators, or just black people in general, for generations. I think having more people that sound and look like me, making content, displaying our self-worth, displaying what we are into, will change the narrative for the good. Unfortunately, media and the news networks have a stranglehold on the perception of black people and it's up to us to change that. And I think getting people's minds right, getting them creating content, is the way that I will contribute to humanity to make that, make sure that happens. So, with that being said, look out for some dope as mindset videos in the near future.

Speaker 1:

The YouTube channel is Radiant Reflection. It's not named yet. I think we have like three subscribers over there, but we will be fixing that in the future. My goal is to get that to 60,000 plus and having dope conversations around what it means to own and utilize the power that is self-worth. So, with that being said, I appreciate you listening, as always. Again, if you ain't already subscribed, are you waiting for? Go ahead and do so, and with that, as always, protect your mental, keep creating content, and I'll see you in the next one. Peace.