0:00 If you've worked out your junk and you love Jesus, I've solved this thing in my life. Therefore, I want to hop on this thing and help people. That's foundationally the heart. >> As a Christian, starting a YouTube channel comes with this whole other set of questions like, is it okay to build a platform? Can I make money doing this and feel good about it? How do I even know if God wants me to do this? >> I don't think waiting on God means not doing anything. >> I sat down with Rouslon KD. He has spent over a decade creating on YouTube and has over 1.2 two million subscribers across his channels. So, he is no stranger to reinventing himself and adapting as the platform changes. And he's also the best-selling author of the book Godly Ambition. >> If you knew YouTube was going to take 7 to 10 years [music] or building that ministry was going to take 7 to 10 years, would you still do it? >> This is what I love about Roolon. You
0:46 can come [music] with these big, honest, good questions, but you'll leave with practical takeaways. In this episode, [music] we talk about how to check your motives without getting stuck in your head. how to use these new AI tools [music] to save yourself time and how to build something while still working a day job, [music] including figuring out how and when to start making money with your YouTube channel. So, prepare for some big brother energy on this one podcast. The conversation was a blessing and encouragement to me. And if you've been waiting for a sign or you're wondering whether to keep going, I'm confident that you will [music] find yourself somewhere in here. Let's jump in. Welcome back to the Think Media Podcast, the number one place with unfiltered [music] tips and strategies for building a profitable YouTube channel. Quick heads up, today's episode is brought to you by vafaststart.com.
1:34 This is our brand new system to help you stop overthinking and publish your first or your next YouTube video. You can find out more at vafaststart.com. We'll link that in the show notes or description down below, of course. And I'll share more later in this episode on how this new program could help you publish your best videos yet with a clear three-step plan to follow. But first, here's the conversation with Rouslon. >> What's going on, man? >> What's up, man? Hey, I'm uh I'm always grateful to come on Think Media. 2018, I went to the first Growth Video Live conference. I had 5,000 subscribers and then within a year and a half I was at 15,000 subscribers because of the value that Growth Video and Think Media gave me and I've obviously been a fan. And then Sean's like a dear friend as well.
2:20 Always pumped to be on. >> There's a lot of Christians who want to use YouTube. You can see the opportunity. You can see why it's beneficial >> but they keep secondguessing themselves. >> And it's because of this relationship with desire. And it's like sometimes we you can feel bad. Is it bad that I want to build an audience? Is it bad that should I even use this platform as a Christian? So, what I wanted to ask you is, you know, you wrote this book on godly ambition. Where do you see Christians getting the most hung up on here? >> I think sometimes analysis of paralysis can be crippling. So, you're self analyzing why you want to do something in your head. The motives obviously are important. I think I'm one of the things I'm going to be talking about today is this parallel between the Tower of Babel
3:08 being built and immediately after a couple chapters later Abraham being blessed. The Tower of Babel is all about them building themselves a monument to make themselves famous and to you know not be scattered and then Abraham is then built up by God and says that your descendants are going to be massive. So, it's like functionally the same thing is happening. It wasn't the technology at the Tower of Babel. It that was bad. It was the fact that Abraham had a heart that was about God's glory and not his own. And that doesn't necessarily mean just because you have a heart for God's glory and not your own that God's going to bless you. But I do think the motive aspect matters. And so, I think we have to ask ourselves like, yeah, what why do you want to do it? If you want to be on YouTube because >> you didn't get enough attention as a kid
3:54 and your mom didn't tell you she loves you and now you need all this affirmation, like probably [snorts] not the best idea [laughter] to try and get that from people and seeking validation, right? But if you're if you've worked out your junk and you love Jesus and and whatever traumas you've had, you've gone through and you and then I'm like, "Hey, I just want to help people. Like, I genuinely feel like I've solved this thing in my life. >> Therefore, I want to hop on this thing and help people." Yeah, >> that's that's the heart. And I think everybody has to search their own heart in that. Um, and it's not to say that even if you do have that heart, there might not be remnants of ego and pride and the need for validation that you still have to work through. But I think like let's just anchor yourself in the heart and just say why do you want to do it? And if you want to do it because you want to build God's kingdom and you want
4:39 to help people and be a blessing, I think that's that's a great place to start. And then you just have to start. Then after that it's like well just start. Just start. One of the things that's so funny to think about is people who don't start because they're afraid they're going to become too successful. >> Yeah. >> And it's like, listen, yes, there are those freak cases where someone starts and then they stumble into a million subscribers and their life changes overnight. >> The 99.9% of creators, that's not the process. You're not you're not going to stumble accidentally into becoming mega famous uh in the same way you're not going to stumble into becoming super jacked. Like, >> yo, for real, >> it's [laughter] not how it works. like you got to go to the gym, you got to check the macros, you got to create the systems, you got to you got to understand how your body works, you got to train hard and then maybe 5 years, 10 years from now, you'll you'll be jacked,
5:24 you know? And even the guys that are jacked, there's also some performance enhancement and some other stuff that's happening [laughter] there. So, I just think that the Christians are like, "Oh, I'm afraid cuz like I might like become super successful." And it's like, [laughter] bro, trust me, that's not how this works. Just start. >> Just start. What is the difference between like a selfish ambition and then a godly ambition like in practice? Like if you were looking at two different Christians going about starting their YouTube channel this new year, I don't know, just what are some like mile markers you might have thrown in there to be like, "Oh, this looks like selfish ambition. This looks like godly ambition when you're making decisions." >> Yeah, I would say outside of the motive and the heart, which again, we could have conflicting hearts. I would say then um >> I I actually believe that how you make the content matters. If the content is about you being known and you talking
6:12 about you, you know, [laughter] like uh >> and I think we know what that looks like when you watch Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. And that could be that could not even be something that you're aware of. Like that could be something as simple as like >> starting your podcast without the hook. >> Yo. Yeah. >> Hey, what's up everybody? Uh welcome back to the show. My name is Roolan and I'm just happy Okay. you just burnt 10 seconds of time talking about something that's irrelevant versus like, hey, this person is clicking into this video because you made a promise with the title in the packaging. >> Get to the freaking point. >> Get to the point. Get to the value. And I think that like that's a very obvious one. Like, are you making something for people? If you're making something for people, you have to respect people's attention. And so many people get on
6:58 social media and they're like, it doesn't work. Why? It's not working for me. It's not working for you because you don't actually respect your audience's attention. You still think it's about you. Wow, it's so good when it comes to waiting. That was another thing you you touched on. A lot of people are going to say they're going to start this coming year and they won't. >> For the Christian that wants to try to pursue something creative, >> how do you how do you discern like waiting on God >> versus letting fear kind of keep you from taking ownership, taking responsibility? >> I don't think waiting on God means not doing anything. >> Break that down. I think if we look at anyone who was used by God, moved by God in a mighty way, there was always inputs but God produces the outputs, right? So we have I I try to separate it into two
7:45 separate columns where column number one is hey everyone needs to work to eat. So you need to figure out how to get home base taken care of your basics, your food, shelter, clothing. Foundationally for me and my wife, uh, that looked like us getting out of debt and cleaning up our finances. I had to decrease my overhead because when I decrease my overhead, I actually build margin. When I build margin, I have freedom. And now I'm not just like grinding away because I got to make this much in student loan payments and this much in car notes and this much in credit cards. I decreased my overhead. That gave me margin. That gave me room to breathe. I think margin is essential for creativity. So one, there's like a real practical work to eat. >> Yeah. >> And then you have to sew to reap for the next season. And so if you're looking at
8:31 anyone who like like pick a story from the Bible, Abraham, David, like all of these people who were waiting on God, we're like super busy. >> They were like doing stuff. They were like doing [laughter] stuff like David is taking care of the sheep and then like running for for his life from Saul and like it's like a whole saga of like him doing stuff. It's and and yes, granted from when David is um anointed to be king to when he's appointed to be king. Yes, it's decades, right? But he doesn't he doesn't just sit there and kick his feet up and say, "Well, I got God, you got to you got to do the thing for me." No, he's doing stuff. And so when it talks about sewing and reaping, it's a farming metaphor obviously, but you're sewing and reaping for the next season. You're not sewing and reaping for tomorrow or next week or next month. Good fruit takes time.
9:17 >> So I talk about in the book I talk about, you know, being in my backyard, we have an orange tree and an apple tree and then my me and my son are eating cherries. Takes a cherry out and he's like, "Dad, we should plant a cherry tree." And we like look up how long it takes to take a cherry tree from planting the tree to blossom and producing fruit. and 7 to 10 years. >> Come on, >> for a cherry tree. >> And my question for a lot of you guys would be like, if you knew YouTube was going to take 7 to 10 years or building that ministry was going to take 7 to 10 years, >> would you still do it? Because if because if you wouldn't, that to me shows that you're actually in this for immediate gratification. And again, selfish ambition. You want to build your thing up and you want to be known instead of saying, "Hey, the good good food takes time." Good food takes time. Now, here's a little hack which I think
10:03 kind of ties into what Think Media is doing and what events like God made uh creators is doing. >> I have [snorts] neighbors down the street. They bought trees that were already harvested >> up to like yay high. >> So, putting them in. >> So, you're just putting them in and someone's already done the hard work of developing and planting the seed and then you're getting these things. They're like halfway. And so then within 6 months I w like I'm like I'm walk you guys got a peach tree and you sudden and it's producing fruit. Wow. >> Right now granted that still wasn't overnight. That still wasn't in a week. That still took some time. But I I say say that there are ways to compress time >> if you know and have access to the information. I didn't even know that existed. I didn't know you can go buy a
10:48 tree that someone harvested. Right? If you if you have access to the information, if you have access to the people and here's the part that's uncomfortable. if you have the resources. >> See, you may not have the resources to go and pay someone to do that for you and have a tree that that's already blossomed, right? Uh and then 6 months later it produces fruit, right? >> But if you have uh so you might have to plant the tree and do everything yourself. You might have to water the tree and work the land and then make sure the gophers don't get it and that >> and that's okay. That's how I did it. Like I did it. I didn't have money. But I'm saying now in this climate, if you have a business, if you already have an offer, if you already you can come, you can find a Zach Sparzo. >> Yeah. >> And say, "Hey, man, I got this thing. I'm willing to get I mean, this is Alex Herozi blew up." Like Alex Heroszi blew up. Uh and he's not a Christian, but the
11:34 principal still stands. Alex Herozi had a business that he built with Jim Launch or Jim SH whatever it's called and he had the money and he went to I forget the guy's name and said hey I'm willing to give this several years >> and I don't expect anything to make any money for several years and if you have the resources then then the fruit could perhaps produce faster. >> If you're listening to this conversation and you're thinking I want to do this I just don't know what to do next. That's why we created varaststart.com. It's our brand new three-step system to help you [music] stop overthinking and publish your first or next YouTube video. Imagine going into this week with one video to focus on and a clear plan to follow. You'll learn how to choose an idea, a title, and a thumbnail before you even film anything. And then you're going to work through short lessons and
12:19 practical steps around your schedule to prepare your video, record it, and post it. And once that video is out, here's the best part. You have a process that you can use again. So every upload no longer feels like you're starting from scratch. If you're ready to take the next step, you can go to vafaststart.com or use the link in the show notes or description below. Let's get that idea out of your head and into a video that can help somebody. All right, back to the episode. I love that. It's almost like what I'm hearing you say is, "Okay, godly ambition. What's that going to look like? Well, can you take a long-term approach?" >> Like just like practically, you know, like are you are you in it? >> Um this work to eat soda reap thing, man. Like this is powerful. this really helped me personally, which is why I'm excited to talk with you. Um, and you talked about resources and we were just chatting before we turned on the
13:05 microphone. Hey, like I I bought your live streaming course. You know what I mean? You're welcome, man. Appreciate it. And but that was the thing that compressed time for me cuz I was like, bro, I am not consistent right now. I don't have a system. I like, you know, >> and by buying that course, I went like 12 weeks in a row live streaming, building an email list. It got me consistency. Like that investment >> was so worth the return that I got on that, right? So, like I I'd love to ask you, how do you make sense of like these AI tools as resources? Maybe like if you're thinking about someone who's going to start a YouTube channel, Christian, there's AI tools. There's already conversation to be had there. But a lot of people are using these tools >> to coach themselves. Like, tell me what to do. Tell me what to do. You have some guard rails there. >> I see. Okay. You know what I'm saying? So, my guard rails around AI. One, if we're going to do anything biblical, like go get Logos Bible software. I'm
13:51 not just saying that cuz I'm an ambassador. Like, don't I don't trust chat for my theology. Come on. >> I'm not trusting chat for my theology. So, so, so let me just let's just say that uh Logos's study assistant is phenomenal in that it gives me >> the citation and the scholarly sources for the content aspect. So, if you're a Christian and you're like, "Hey, I want to use AI to like I I want to know really quickly like >> Niels did a video on the 400 years in between Malachi and Matthew, right?" Like, I'm not trusting chat for that. I'm going to go to something like logos and get the information for the sake of a good video. >> If we're talking about, hey, how do we uh come up with a strategy? How do we do these things? Um, yeah, I think I think chat could be really good for that sort of stuff. Titling videos, thumbnails,
14:36 all that sort of stuff. Here is the hack, and this might be >> a bit advanced layer-wise, right? Is I'm not outsourcing chat to do the thinking for me. I'm not outsourcing chat to do the theology for me, >> but I can get chat to do the the the the grunt work for me. >> Yeah. >> So, this is something that many people I didn't know about it till a couple months ago is there's a desktop version of chat. It's a little more expensive. >> And then with the desktop version of chat, my presentation today, I have the presentation. It's it's me, right? But I go, "Hey, uh, I need you to go into Keynote >> and build my slide deck for me, and I want these sorts of transitions. I want to do magic move. I want to do this, this and this. And so it's taking my concept. >> And you're saying all that. You're just saying that into chat. >> Yeah. Well, so so my my my my process
15:23 for putting together a talk is I first brain dump into chat. I create an outline and then I go through and I go into the desktop version and I have Keynote build out my presentation by doing the animations and the graphics. So that I mean that's saving me hours and hours and hours of work and I just have it running in the background. Here's another dope thing for YouTube. you again you got to pay attention to this sort of stuff but like I shot a video and I said like let me just try it. I said, "Chad, I need you to go into this YouTube video and I and it's an open in Final Cut, okay? And I need you to remove all the ums, remove all the pauses, remove all the things." And so now I have this 45inut video. It was actually a video on my on my second channel, one take video, and I go through and and Final Cut condenses it for me. It wasn't perfect. I still had to go in and pay attention, but that I mean, that's a lot of work for someone
16:09 that doesn't know how to edit, and so boom, it condensed it, and then I I still have to go in and refine it. Um, so yeah, the the AI stack of the chat GBT work can actually work for you, right? And and there's nothing wrong with that. And right now I have it running some stuff in Canva for me. So if you have like computers that are just sitting there, you could set it a task and say, "Go do this thing for me >> and it'll do it for you." And now you can sync up your Vid IQs and if you're already creating tell you what what are my top videos, what are my top thumbnails, what are the top retentions of my videos, like if you're already got some momentum. So, I think like that to me isn't cheating. That to me is like, bro, this is compressing time and letting me focus on the main thing, which is ideulating the ideas and the ways I want to help people. >> Dude, it's so good. And I got to say,
16:54 like, honestly, for not that much money. >> Yeah. >> Like, you know, compared to like, oh, trying to do this whatever 10 years ago or something like, dude, talk about compression. It's not that expensive to compress things now. Okay, man. So, thanks for setting setting that stage. All right. So, we're getting our mind right. We're getting our heart right. We've started, let's say, we've started the YouTube [clears throat] channel. Inevitably, we're going to hit a wall. We're going to get to the point where we're going to question whether to keep going. I've watched you reinvent yourself >> multiple times. I shared I've followed you since like 20,000 subscribers. You're like over 800K on your just your main channel, your other other channel. >> Y >> and I've watched you change like you've changed your formats, you've changed your process, you've changed your workflows. Um, I actually want to ask you which reinvention changed your trajectory the most. >> I would say the opportunity to write a
17:41 book which came because of YouTube. Like YouTube is the goose that lays the golden eggs. >> Right. >> So YouTube opens the door for me to write a book with with a real publisher. I didn't self-publish. I went with a real publisher, which that's a whole another mechanics business conversation, right? Went with a real publisher. I was like, man, we've bootstrapped everything. like I bootstrapped my music career. I bootstrapped my YouTube. Let me go with a real publisher, with a real editor. So, we did that and that what what that did for me >> is it allowed me to say what do I want to talk about? Like I could talk about so many things. I got so many interests but like if I had to narrow it down, what do I actually want to tell people? >> And so that allowed me the moment to pause and create the book God the Ambition. But creating God the Ambition gave me an ability to really focus. And
18:27 now because I was able to do that, I got I don't know >> five to six different talks from godly ambition >> and I can keep going back to godly ambition and kind of theming different keynotes around that which then opens the door to go speak. So now it's like, you know, I'm here uh tomorrow I'm in Houston at the House of Blues doing my own event. >> Oh man. >> Sunday I'm at the Echo Lounge. Tuesday I'm doing the Liberty Convocation. Wow. So all of those different things has opened me up to one focus focusing helped me what do I actually want to talk about what are the what are the felt needs and then in that coming full circle uh now I'm back to speaking and preaching at churches and and on some of the biggest stages in the in the Christian world like Liberty Convocation is one of the biggest stages you can be on it's my second time doing it. Wow.
19:13 It's because I was able to zone in, focus, come back to the gift of preaching and communication publicly. And that to me, I think, has been so far the most fulfilling aspects of what I'm doing. For sure. >> That's really cool to hear. Um, do you mind sharing your process for what was the process you went through with that book >> to be able to get probably the most clear you've ever been on exactly what it is you want to say? >> So, the process started with Zach telling me, "Hey, I think we should you should do a book." And that process started with us sitting down just like this and just yapping into a podcast >> telling the origin story, telling all these things. And then Zach started taking those conversations, those sections, and trying to transcribe them. And he's like a he's like a math scientist, >> dude. The guy moves a million miles a minute. >> So he's taking our podcast, he's
20:00 dropping them into chat. Chad's helping us structure like the felt needs. And And it was bad. Like it it wasn't good. Like don't do a book trying [laughter] to convert a podcast. Don't do that. Uh, and then right as we're doing this, Will Anderson uh from Waterbrooks reach out. I was like, "Have you ever thought about doing a book?" And I'm like, "Well, actually, so we show him this like this folder like with this book, right?" And it's just it's just bad. >> Yeah, it's true. >> It's just [laughter] terrible. Like it's all over the place. >> But but there was enough seeds of a concept in there >> that I had enough to say. I had enough life story and I had enough to speak into that we had the the bones of something. And then from there, we actually sat down. Me, Will, and Zach sat down a couple times. Then me, Will, and my pastor sat down and we're like,
20:46 "Okay, what are the felt needs? What do we want to talk about?" We just had a session of a whiteboard. And then we got the outline. And then once you get the outline, we actually went back to some of the videos and we're like, "Oh, I like this from this video. Let me check that, rewrite it, transcribe it, convert it into a section of the book." And so we were able to kind of plug and play different. And some stuff got cut. Some some stuff we kept. Um, but that was that was like the there's a bit in the book about passion and um I talk about knowing your calling and knowing your calling is the overlap of your mission, your uh your passion and your vocation, right? Which is a common vin diagram. And then I twist it and I go, you know, the original definition of passion is the suffering of Christ, which by the way, I was saying that way before Alex Herozi was saying that for the for [laughter] the record. I'm not saying he took it from me. Uh, great minds do
21:32 think alike. So, so, so I'm saying that and then I I have a whole video about like they're trying to trick us or something like that. And I was talking about like how a lot of the world is just telling you to follow your heart, follow your heart, follow your passion. But then uh Mike Row and all these guys are saying, "Hey, it's not about following your passion. It's about um taking your passion wherever you go." So that was from a video. So like we literally went back to a video, I added that as a section into in the podcast. So it's like stuff like that I'm kind of I'm kind of playing with. So if you're making videos, like that is content. You can definitely tinker and manipulate stuff to to create a book for sure. >> Oh man, that's savage. Uh there's a lot of lot of gems in there, man. When it comes to cracking open the YouTube studio. >> Mhm. >> And you see a 10 out of 10 >> this. How do you as a Christian creating
22:17 content? Whether you're explicit Christian content creator or you're just a Christian that's making content, >> how do you interact with that YouTube studio? How do you interact with views, with comments? What's >> uh you So, so 10 out of 10, I would I would say, what's the video about? like is it is it a video that I really wanted to make? Right? Because if sometimes you want to make a video or there's a guest and you're like this ain't going to perform like this is going to tank, right? But man, this is my buddy and he uh like I interviewed I interviewed one of my real friends. I got so tired of like people complaining about >> the economy and work and all this sort of stuff and we'll never get ahead cuz the system's rigged and the boomers bought all the homes and so but like in my day-to-day life I know a ton of people buying homes. homes. I know a ton of people doing well. And so I have my buddy and he is a lineman. He climbs the electrical lines. And before that, he was a stay-at-home dad. His wife was the
23:03 bread winner. He's a stay-at-home dad. And he ends up going through this lineman program in 16 weeks. And then within like a year or two, he's making multiple six figures, two 300,000 a year climbing. And like there's good work out there if you're willing to do stuff like climb electrical poles and do hard stuff, right? It's the whole micro dirty job. So I interview, his name is Eric De Cruz. I interviewed him. I'm not expecting that video to perform well, but that's like a passion project. Like I want to just give people an example and if it does 5,000 views, which is like a dud for us. Um I know that the depth of said video and what it might spark in someone is worth the 10 out of 10. >> So that's one like what am I doing? Why am I doing what we have a third channel called the Godly ambition channel and that's kind of where those passion projects are now. Like I did a whole >> financial free debtree journey in buying
23:48 our first home video. It was like 45 minutes long. It was actually the same when I told you I had Final Cut start editing. >> Um, and I created a slide deck for it. I spent a lot of time on the video, but like that's not going to perform well on my main channel, but it did good. It was like a one out of 10 on the god the ambition channel. Oh yeah. >> And so I kind of have created a separate home for those. So yeah, I say it depends on what am I doing? Why am I doing if if it's like, hey, this should work, >> then we're going back to the drawing board. Okay, what's wrong with the title? What's wrong with the packaging? What what's the new Google I mean the Gemini AI built into studio? >> Yeah, that's right. the ask studio or whatever >> and it'll tell you, hey, you have a dip here. So, we'll go into the editor and clip part out. Am I yapping too long? Did I get too long to get to the point, right? >> Um, sometimes like if it's a bad video, you you can't fix it. But a lot of times you can you could scale stuff back. So, we've had videos that have came out as a
24:35 9 out of 10, 8 out of 10, and just tweaking the packaging, tweaking the thumbnail, and then all of a sudden they're two out of 10 or one out of 10 or they start slow, but over the long haul they crush. That's how podcasts work a lot of times. Like I think our Philip Anthony Mitchell podcast >> came out and was like >> seven out of 10, six out of 10 >> and then but slowly it it picked up and and now it's done amazing for us and and the longer form also generates more money. So like >> a 100,000 viewed video, they're not all built equally. 100,000 viewed video in a long form 2-hour conversation is going to generate more revenue than a 10-minute video. And that that that is literally the opinion. So, that video may not even been a top five out of 10, but the overall trajectory of that is crushing. >> Oh, man. Okay. How do you How do you know when [snorts] to just focus on the
25:21 next upload versus going back and trying to breathe new life into something? >> I It's all within the capacity you have available. >> Yeah, that's a good >> Right. So, good answer. >> I have a team. >> I have a team. I have stacks of AI. I can do [laughter] a gajillion different thumbnails. I we have systems in place that like I have the luxury of saying no like we're going to get this one right like figure it out [laughter] you know but then sometimes it's like hey like >> was we did did we really put in the effort to warrant >> the continued energy in this video cuz sometimes we if we're honest like we didn't really put in like we didn't really script this as good as it could have been scripted let me you know it's Wednesday or it's Thursday is our Friday I'm not going to keep the guys longer and it is what it is you know But to me,
26:07 that's also the beauty of like, well, I get another app back. >> I'd love to talk about monetization in our last little bit of time together. Um, and how how just even your your monetization journey, man, like just as as a Christian, and this is something a lot of people struggle with. It's like, I don't want to pay or we really undercharge or we just feel weird about the whole process. >> Again, just watching your iteration, like what what have you learned about monetizing? You've had like a Patreon, you've had communities, you had a book now, you've had courses. What would maybe be how this is a good question for someone who's going to start their YouTube channel? What's a good first product or service to offer? >> Oh, that's a great question. Well, again, it depends on where someone is. If they have cuz there are people on here that already have a book, uh I have an offer, have a product, and they're literally just getting on YouTube for
26:52 the sake of, hey, I need to bring brand awareness to set things. That's way different than someone's like, hey, I am a communicator. I'm an influencer. I just I want I want to speak into things. That's very very different avatars, right? >> So I would say it would it would depend on where you are in the journey. If you're in your >> 40s and you develop this brilliant >> AI companion app for your devotional. Yeah. >> Like that's a different strategy than like if you're in your early 30s and you're a pastor and you just want to build an audience. So sometimes >> you don't want to monetize, >> right? So let it cook a little bit. >> I think I could say I think I'm at liberty to say this. I I'll say this. >> Yeah. Uh so Jeremy Boring, former CEO of Daily Wire. >> Yeah. >> Um right now is not monetizing
27:40 his new new podcast, which I love Jeremy Boring. >> Um in the traditional sense, there's no brand integrations. >> He just bought back Jeremy's razors, right? Yeah. Uh I don't even And they're not even talking about Jeremy's razors, I don't think, on the podcast. So there's no brand integration. There's no products. He is at a spot where he's building what he's doing. And granted, he has the cash flow to do that where he's just like, I am just going to build the thing. >> Sure. >> And make it as a ad-ree experience for people as possible. That's important for certain people. >> 100%. Right. >> But for other people, uh, you may want to do different things, right? So, here's like for us, I'm an ambassador for Human Coalition. I'm an ambassador for Global Christian Relief. Uh, and we're working on a couple and Logos Bible Software. >> Those are all things I believe in. Those
28:26 are all things that I'm I partner with. Those are all things that I give to and I use all the time. So, for me, it's a no-brainer, right? Um, sometimes if I'm trying to tell people about a merch drop >> and it's too early in the video, it could kind of be it could kind of fall on deaf ears. Like you're like, "Hey, bro, like I clicked into watch this thing and this update and 60 seconds in you're telling me about your merch, right?" So, we've intentionally had to take like merch stuff and say, "Hey, we're going to save it till the end." >> You know, because the person that's watching till the end is going to be more of a dedicated viewer. And so it's like we're not going to push push push push push. Let's pull them into the video and then on the back end do the promotion. So when someone monetizes I I would say it depends. Yeah. Um AdSense is probably not what you want to bank on because it's just so erratic. Um and so
29:11 you Yeah, you need to be thinking about other means which are you willing to grind YouTube for 5 years and not make any money from it? >> There's the [laughter] >> that's the question. And if you aren't, maybe you don't really want to do this. M >> maybe this isn't really what you want to do. Maybe you just think it's what you want to do. So that that would be that would be my my deeper question is like is this what you want to do? And so yeah, monetization is one of those things. There's so many ways to monetize, right? There's so many different ways to monetize. Um >> I think this is what I think. Like I think there are people right now that have a banging Christian apparel brand right now. They're watching this video. They have a super sick Christian apparel brand. >> It's it's dope. They already have the Shopify setup. They already have um an Instagram presence. >> It's already has some momentum
29:57 >> and they start a podcast and they don't even need to say, "Guys, this is the new drop. Check this out." They just just wear the thing. They just wear the thing. >> Just wear the thing. You You got, you know, Christian brand podcast. >> Yeah. >> And just wear the thing. And you do that. You you you slowly bring over your Instagram audience. You slow slowly build that up. And then you integrate it. You add the Shopify under the store. So now your Shopify is synced up so people can see your stuff. And then down the road you say, "Hey guys, we're doing this big thing. Uh this is Daniel Priestley. Sign up for the waiting list for our next drop." >> Yeah. >> And now what you're doing is you're testing the waters. So one of the things people can also do is like, "Are people asking you for the thing?" >> Right. So good. >> Are people asking you for the thing? You're wearing a t-shirt. I do this all the time. I'll throw on different pieces and just see if anyone says anything in the comments cuz then I could test the
30:42 markets on stuff. >> So you could do that. So like, wear it. Is anyone asking for it? If someone's asking for it, then send them to it or wear it and then say, "Hey, this is coming. Sign up on the waiting list." They say, you know, 150 people on a waiting list means there's some demand for it. That's the kind of the benchmark. Okay. Um and then launch with some sort of offer or some sort of product then. >> And that's still good. I think those are good just principles for even an offer creation in general. It's like, you know what I mean? Like needs and comment sections, what people are saying. That's fire. Hey, I got one final question for you. Um but first, I just want to shout out God made Conference for bringing us together. It's fun to be here with you, man. >> Shout out Brandon Sn's first inaugural. >> That's right. first one here in Franklin, Tennessee, man. But hey, where can people find you? Where can people connect with you? >> Rooon KD, if you Google me, uh Rousonkd rookd.com is uh for upcoming live events. And then um we have blesscod.co.
31:30 That's where our shop is. That's where the prayer journals are, the DVOS. Um we have some really awesome, I think, like practical tools like our new prayer journal is phenomenal. And then um yeah, just Ron KD on all platforms. >> Let's go. Yeah. And shout out to your uh your leadership journal. I use that. >> Thanks, man. Yeah, that's a fun one. That's a I use that every day. That's my go-to, >> dude. Yeah. Okay. I'm like, for this podcast, it probably a good a good grab for somebody. Hey, last question for you. Um >> for the for the Christian creator as they're building their their thing. >> Mhm. >> Why is their day job not a bad thing? >> Oh, man. Your your day job I I I got this from Curtis King. You're you if you could you could view your day job as the thing that's getting in the way of your dream or you can view your day job as an
32:16 angel investor that gives you enough to live and take care of your family while you're building your thing. >> That just view of how you look at that is is everything. And I think so many people have a negative view of work, a negative view of jobs. And and listen man, some people may not be cut out for a 9 to5. Okay, cool. Like get your butt on Task Rabbit. Go start assembling IKEA furniture and painting walls. Go build up your clientele from Task Rabbit, which is probably against terms of service of Task Rabbit. So, [laughter] I'm not Task Rabbit. But a lot of people get on Task Grabbit, they build their clientele, and that's going to probably pay you more than a 9 to5. And now at least you own your job and just >> go work with your hands, you know, like literally go work with your hands for a season. And uh I got a buddy of mine, I
33:01 talk about him all the time. His name's Rafat. He's not a Christian. So if you Google him, he's not a Christian. But he was working jobs and just not he just wasn't cut out for that. So he got on Task Scrabbit. He becomes the number one painter in his region. >> Wow. >> Uh he starts making 10 grand a month. He's like maxing out his Roth. He's killing it. And he gets to go pursue standup comedy at night and build his comedy career. >> Oh my goodness. >> And there's I mean there's never been a time like this. >> I was just about to say that. >> Right. Like you can have an app, [laughter] find work on. Now granted, if you're in Tinbuk 2 in the middle of nowhere, >> if different if you're in any major metropolitan area, there are some rich people that are afraid of IKEA furniture >> and [laughter] they will pay you hundreds of dollars to assemble IKEA furniture or someone like me that like I
33:48 painted one of our walls black in the studio and I didn't want to do it myself. So I paid a freaking Ukrainian guy to come over on Task Rabbit. I think I paid him like 200 bucks to paint a wall for me. Like there [clears throat] are people that do that and then he knows how to do it better. He's going to be more efficient. He's going to be faster than I am. There are people uh out there like that. Get on get on a app like Task Rabbit and build up a clientele and you will likely make more money there. Buy back some of your time >> and then go go build a thing. Go build a thing on the side. I mean this used to be Uber Lift. This used to be Door D. Like I don't know. Find a thing. Find a thing. But like when I was growing up in the '90s, >> it was very difficult to find odd jobs. >> Yeah. >> It was very difficult to like build up. >> There wasn't an app for that. >> There wasn't an app for that. There's an app for all these things. So to me, um I
34:33 think as there's a downturn in the economy and as inflation is real and all the >> this is where people build amazing things like this is like go back and look at when all the breakthrough happened with the major companies that that changed everything. It actually happened in [laughter] the dip. So, the dip is an opportunity. The dip is not for you to bury your head and complain. The dip is an opportunity for you to say, "Hey, um, I could actually build something dope and provide for my family and help people and honor God." And so, to me, I I see it as a as an opportunity because when I got into making music, when I started to finally make a little money, it was right after the ' 08 recession. >> You know what I mean? When I got on YouTube and my YouTube blew up, it was in the middle of the 2020 recession. So
35:18 there's always opportunity when there's a downturn. >> The dip is an opportunity podcast. Rouslant, brother, thank you. >> Appreciate you, man. We're out of here.
