How Quickly Can You Make YouTube Your Job?

so if you want to make a living full-time online as a content creator or with a YouTube channel how long does it actually take well a study was done that reveals a surprising answer and in this video we're actually going to be covering the surprising follower count that you need to be a full-time Creator 10 different ways professional creators are earning money right now and the average startup cost that it takes to launch a Creator business and this is actually from the most recent content entrepreneur Benchmark report from the Tilt which was done in the last six months or so I believe and they revealed how long does it take to build a successful Creator business and so um there's a couple things they talk about these figures apply to content creators who spend most or all of their time working on their content business so I think it's important to note here that this isn't if you're just dabbling this is if you're going into this with a mindset to dominate you're spending some serious time you might be doing it as a side Hustle but nevertheless you are actually focused putting out quality content you're doing this with purpose you're doing this serious okay so you launch at zero months the first Benchmark is 4. 9 months that they discovered and that was when you earn your first dollar I'm curious what your experience has been how long have you been in the content creation game um how long have you been posting content on YouTube have you started yet right around five months 4. 9 is when the average person they surveyed earn their first dollar could be five months to get monetized but they actually in this report we're going to look at some of the other surprising findings and so that was kind of fascinating you got to be in it at least five months before you even earn a dollar from your content business uh then at 12.

3 months Revenue exceeds expenses in interesting okay there we go the next one is 12. 3 months where Revenue exceeds expenses okay so at this point now you've been doing this for an entire year money has come in you've continued to have money go out that your investing but right at one year there's a little bit of profit then at 12. 7 months again right around a year switching to fulltime so someone goes into based on this report to creating content starting an online business and it takes an entire year before they go full-time Allin and as a solo Creator that's what they just would discovered here because then at 18.

4 months they can fully support themselves and then at 18. 8 they hire help for the first time so I'm curious we will link to this um PDF and study in the YouTube description um so you can look at this for yourself there's a lot of interesting findings but what are your thoughts on the journey to building a successful Creator business it might be important for you to notice uh that they also in the Tilt which did this report broke down three categories of creators and was focusing in their studies on Expert creators so the three categories were maker creators people who create content about their craft or hobby they may mon the content but they also sell things think Etsy so artists Crafts People chefs homesteaders the list is nearly endless they run a different type of business and they have raw materials and inventory and they ship physical Goods which of these three categories would you put yourself in let me know so that's maker creators then there's influencers I think we kind of all know the term but these is people who operate personality-driven businesses that publish content to monetize their popularity and celebrity they thrive on popularity not necessarily skill or knowledge influencers in the center there would be entertainment maybe you're being followed because of Lifestyle um and it's not they say here it's not as much of a business because it can't really be sold because it's tied to one person but then the third category that they focus on at the Tilt the people who did this report is expert creators I would say that's who we focus on to think media as well it's people who create content about their area of expertise or passion they build media companies even small ones and they monetize their content some expert creators also sell a service coaching consulting or educating so when we go back now to our previous slide where they revealed how long does it take to build a successful Creator business this is what we're talking about and I think what's interesting about this timeline let me know if you think this is fast or slow based on your experience I I think when you launch here you're not launching with total confusion I think you're launching with Clarity you're launching with strategy and you're you're going into this with a plan and even still it's taking a year and a half before you can fully support yourself switching to full-time fully you know having some margin on the money and then even the ability to hire a few people scale a little bit and so again they're talking about expert creators now what was surprising to me was a couple other highlights from this study was that the research showed most creators have relatively small audiences these are people doing this fulltime in fact I'll show you the numbers they're earning in the behind the scenes of their business on the next slide but people who run their content business as a full-time Endeavor have an average of just 4,000 followers across all channels just 4,000 does that number surprise you you know there is this whole term of micro influencers and Nano influencers and I think it's an underestimated term again we're not talking about you just accumulated 4,000 subscribers because a random short about a random topic went viral we're talking about you've built an actual audience Community if you've been around think media for very long you're familiar with the a thousand true fans concept so I don't think 4,000 unique followers is that surprising for most it's not the size of the audience but how deeply engaged they are with the content and then they also say they have four unique channels then that two bring in direct Revenue one Creator explains it took me a few years to realize my time was best spent focusing on a few channels where my audience hangs out most once you n throw it in it takes persistence and patience and so trying to be everywhere is often times a poor investment of your energy I think if we were talking about four channels what are your four channels me YouTube number one YouTube number two number three for me is YouTube and number four is Instagram no but uh my four channels will probably be YouTube first and foremost hands down Instagram would be a big second favorite I think your average YouTube Creator professional individual friend relationship and professional relationship seems to be on Instagram so just a good place to connect and take the conversation deeper and it obviously lends itself to Vertical video so for me if I'm ranking at this moment I'm saying YouTube I'm saying Instagram I'm saying Facebook next and then I'm saying my email list it's not is that a channel um I don't know you tell me okay now here's what's interesting how much do content creators make so this is of course hard to narrow in on but this is and you might find that these numbers are surprising because they're saying gross income of 108,000 a year but the creators they surveyed are those who spent most or all of their time working on their content business so now they're talking about okay this person is a full-time Creator they might only have 4,000 followers there would like 1500 people or so interviewed for this study but this is some fascinating numbers that you might want to wrap your head around so they discovered that it takes $10,700 to launch a Creator business H what does that mean so if you're thinking about starting a channel from scratch of course you can just grab a smartphone and a laptop and start you know creating content but if you really sit down and you think I want to build a battle station and you think maybe I want to invest in a CRM email list I want to start finding a way to schedule appointments or do coaching or consulting or host my online course there's going to be some online tools technical some software maybe it's a vid IQ thing maybe it's some other things you invest in right okay so they're saying it takes about $10,000 to launch one to 2K a year in annual Tech expenses they said one 1K in year one through three and then 2K thereafter maybe that's maintenance of also software I'm not sure 108 Topline Revenue if you do this full-time 108 Topline revenue is pretty cool but that's that's not like the job you work at pays all the expenses and you just take your salary home and invest that how you want 108 gross 108 Topline Revenue means then all of your expenses come out of that and what do you have left well they tell you $622 24 uh so 60k a year with take home after hey getting to have a Content business full-time there's a quote on here that say many people misunderstand uh being a content creator as a get-rich quick scheme which means they're not playing the long game and that will eventually kill their business now how are they making money well there's 10 ways they list coaching and Consulting number one books number two now the Tilt and if you want to read this study we'll link to it in the description below but the Tilt is um focusing on content entrepreneurs and and to be clear you can do that as a podcaster you could do that as a writer blogger you could do that as a video creator so I think that books is a little bit higher on their list although I personally think that any serious personal brand Builder should seriously consider writing a book because it's one of the greatest powerups for a personal brand online courses and workshops affiliate marketing links advertising sponsored content how-to guides speaking fees paid membership Community online events and donations they also talk about the top five most profitable with coaching being number one books number two and it's interesting that even though paid memberships and communities were a little bit lower down the list and how often they were used it is listed as their fifth for most profitable so 10 so 10 different ways to earn money and uh in just a second I want to share with you the five tips they have for being for starting and launching a successful creater business and um I'm curious what your thoughts are on those today's episode also is brought to you just heads up by Opus clip a little bit more on them later and by our Summit did you get your ticket to grow with video Summit yet let me know if you go to summit. in media.

com you could see that uh we are super excited to have patri B David and Nikki Saunders and shelene Johnson and Dave Ramsey and Oli abdall and Cody Sanchez and Pat Flynn all at our three-day online event if you haven't got your ticket yet you could grab it at summit. thinkink media and I'll tell you a little bit more about that later but what they said it takes about 18 months a year and a half before going full-time and I should say not full-time actually earning enough Revenue to uh to what launch how long does it take to build a successful Creator business about a year and a half um if you know what you're doing and if you're an expert Creator and um that obviously experiences vary but what are some tips for actually making it this is all from a report from the tip number one you want to think like an entrepreneur think like an entrepreneur so this is interesting we talk about this a lot at thick media um we it was summarized by JZ the philosopher and profit right who said I'm not a businessman I am a business man and I think that one of the missing pieces for a lot of content creators are people who just are accidental entrepreneurs they come online they start creating content is they don't have a business mindset they don't have business Acumen they don't think necessarily like an entrepreneur they don't think like a business owner and I don't blame you because you just wanted to express your creativity and make videos nevertheless if you want to start run and benefit from a successful business got to ask yourself a question how do you run a business as opposed to just how do you make content that's successful so think like an entrepreneur was number one and you know what's interesting is in this report they said that non-creative tasks take up nearly half the time of professional creators what does that mean well if you've ever thought about it unless you partner with somebody which we'll link this up in the show notes if you haven't listened to my episode with Lila Hermos she shares probably the most valuable insights I have ever heard about partnership and with the advice that a lot lot of content creators should consider partnering with somebody to run the business side because it's a whole another skill set but assuming you're going to do it by yourself no no if ANS or butts about it non-creative tasks take up nearly half the time of professional creators spending time doing business necessi such as federal state and local certifications and tax responsibilities these obligations will suck up your time and profits as far as you know it could be meeting list ICS emailing all that kind of stuff so when you think like an entrepreneur it's not you're not just a content creator you're an entrepreneur you're a business Builder and there's a whole another set of skill sets number two plan your budget and Runway if it's a 12 to 18 month Runway and remember in this study they were very clear the people that they were surveying spend the majority of their time creating the content so if you're like man I've been doing this 18 months and I am nowhere near you know full-time or anything well have do you do it 40 plus hours a week or are you trying to do it when you have two jobs or kids are school or some other hustle or you know your business owner it's very hard time to find the extra content uh time to create content so when you're planning your budget in Runway the 12 to 18month Runway is how much savings in some cases if you look at the report they did people who you know took a loan out or had some other way of getting money but a lot of times it was just kind of bootstrapped savings 12 to 18 months was the runway three uh three zero in on your audience remember the more Niche your audience and the more narrow your topic the better the odds of success number four start creating consistency is one of the biggest challenges for creators you know if we go back to this whole timeline that it showed us this would I would think not only are you doing this the majority of your week but you're also consistent consistent quality content consistent Vision consistent Mission consistent message consistent content consistent brand consistent value building building building with with your whole plan and your money plan all designed out and that takes a year and a half so again I I just sort kind of frame this up because I know that for some of us you're like I've been doing this for 18 months trying to figure out my thing great it's just we're at different places but that was that's very common 18 months trying to figure out what is even my Channel about or experimenting a little bit or what is you know that's a different path to be on I think that um if we think about consistency we want to be consistent with our strategy our content our message our brand and if you don't know that stuff yet no no worries um it just that might even be like the pre creating that leads up to the launch of your strategic channel number five craft your monetization strategy early we we call it a money plan we call it a business plan and they say experiment with multiple revenue streams to see what your audience responds to and then build up the successful ones so um if you fail to plan you plan to fail and so if you're planning on having a successful financially successful Creator business what's the plan makes sense so some good tips from the Tilt that's where that uh report came from I think they've done it three or four times and so that's the most recent one I think towards the end of 2023 so in this recent era and I'm curious your thoughts your takeaways and where are you out have you already made your first dollar online have you um just started how many videos have you posted and how many months or years into this thing are you what do you think about their idea that it takes about a year and a half 18 months to you know go full-time in a crater business would love to hear your thoughts if you enjoy this podcast and are ready for some deep dive YouTube strategy just go to think masterclass. com to get access to my 1 hour on demand YouTube strategy class you'll be looking over my shoulder as I share my best tips and you can watch it on Demand right now at think masterclass.