Aaron Francis

Transcript

Brian

00:00:01 – 00:00:21

You're about to hear my conversation with Aaron Francis, where we talk about YouTube as a business. Let's get get into it. Hey. Before I roll today's episode, here's my real time update on what I'm working on. I'm recording this update on March 8, 2024.

Brian

00:00:22 – 00:00:43

Well, if you've been following my story heading into this year, then you know I'm in a transition phase. I'm exploring some new directions to take in my business. And this month, I decided to come back to my roots and focus my energy on what I do best. And that's building new products. So I've launched what I'm calling a product studio.

Brian

00:00:44 – 00:01:26

And I'm calling it instrumental products. It's where I get to partner with fellow founders, creators, and SaaS companies on taking new product ideas from concept to launched. And, you know, since I'm a full stack designer and developer, my focus now is on continuously building new software products and continuing to grow that muscle. Sometimes, I'm building products with clients, sometimes with partners, and building some new products of my own to grow out my portfolio at Instrumentl Products. And as always, I love to build in public on my YouTube channel and on Twitter And, you know, share the process of taking new product ideas to life.

Brian

00:01:27 – 00:01:38

So that's what I'm up to, building products in public. And I'm still running my SaaS product, Clarity Flow, which is doing its thing this year. Alright. So that's my update. You can follow along with me on Twitter.

Brian

00:01:38 – 00:02:01

I'm at cashjam. I'd love to hear from you if you have any feedback for anything that I'm working on, especially this show on the podcast. And with that, let's get into today's show. So my friend, Aaron Francis, is back on the show today. I'm about to roll our conversation, which we recorded on November 16, 2023.

Brian

00:02:02 – 00:02:35

In this one, we talked all about building a YouTube channel and treating that as the core of our business. At the time we recorded this, I was just getting geared up in the planning and plotting stage of my YouTube channel for instrumental products. And and Aaron has been an an expert in this area for some time. So it was a really fun time for me to to to kinda pick Aaron's brain on all things video and, of course, screencasting and and production and all of that kind of stuff. So it's a good conversation.

Brian

00:02:35 – 00:02:52

Here we go. Here is that chat with Aaron talking all about video and YouTube. Enjoy. So back here with with Aaron Francis. Aaron, welcome back.

Aaron

00:02:53 – 00:02:55

Yeah. Good to be here. I'm ready I'm ready to talk video.

Brian

00:02:55 – 00:03:08

Yeah. For sure. I mean, you released screencasting.com, which is which looks fantastic. The the course on video, it it seems like it's more than literally like screencasting. It's like video production, if you will.

Aaron

00:03:08 – 00:03:16

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's video production from your desk. So, like Yeah. Whether that's, you know, talking head or screencasting or whatever.

Aaron

00:03:16 – 00:03:16

Yeah.

Brian

00:03:16 – 00:03:23

Yeah. Fantastic domain, though. Yeah. Thanks. And so, I mean, the, the course is, is really cool.

Brian

00:03:23 – 00:03:54

I wanna get into that a little bit, but in, you know, in our last chat, we talked, one of my favorite quotes from what you just said, from, from our previous episode here was, you know, your path to success going forward as you see it is not products, it's content, or it's creating. And, you know, you're growing YouTube channels. You've come out with this course. So I wanna kinda dig into that because again, I'm in this mode right right now. I'm I'm sort of in like planning and plotting and learning mode when it, especially when it comes to YouTube specific.

Aaron

00:03:54 – 00:03:54

Mhmm.

Brian

00:03:54 – 00:04:06

It's an area that I plan to really go deep on in in 2024. Literally in the next room over, I've got like 8 boxes of things from Amazon. I've got, like, a new lighting start you know, new Oh,

Aaron

00:04:06 – 00:04:12

I've I've been following along on Twitter as you as you're soliciting advice and pictures and stuff. I'm excited for you.

Brian

00:04:12 – 00:04:33

I'm I'm pretty excited about it. So I I definitely wanna, like, pick your brain about strategy and how you're thinking about growing your stuff. I mean, why don't we start here? Like, I I heard you say on your podcast a couple weeks back that you have a goal of I think it was hitting a 100000 subscribers on on YouTube. Yep.

Brian

00:04:33 – 00:04:43

And you're growing a couple of different channels. You you have, like, your your personal channel. You work with PlanetScale. Yep. I think you launched a a new one, like a building in public channel kind of thing.

Brian

00:04:43 – 00:04:43

Yeah.

Aaron

00:04:43 – 00:04:49

Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a behind the scenes channel that I don't expect to go anyway. So it's another channel for just our friends to hang out on, basically.

Brian

00:04:50 – 00:05:00

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, why don't we start here, though? Like, what when you say, like, you have a goal of a 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, what's behind that goal? Like, what what is the driving force?

Brian

00:05:00 – 00:05:17

Force? I know that you're, like, creating on video. It definitely plays to your strength, and you're and you're really great at it. But beyond that, like, in terms of your like, what you would like to achieve here Mhmm. Like, is it is it the game of hitting a 100 k?

Brian

00:05:17 – 00:05:26

Is it fame? Is it monetizing through ads? Is it monetizing through products that you can sell to an audience? Like, how what's what's kinda driving that goal?

Aaron

00:05:28 – 00:05:49

Yeah. I and I think it's interesting because we can talk about it from 2 separate angles. We can talk about it from a corporate angle of PlanetScale, and we can talk about it from a personal angle of Aaron Francis. And I think generally generally, they're the same, but there are specifics that are different. In terms of is it fame, I would much rather be rich than famous.

Aaron

00:05:49 – 00:06:06

That's for sure. So it's not it's not fame. I think, hitting a 100000 subscribers on I'm going for both personal and planet scale channels. That's the goal for both. I think that is I think that is, let's see, directionally correct as a goal.

Aaron

00:06:06 – 00:06:35

I don't think there's anything magical about a 100000 subscribers except that you get a YouTube plaque, which is really cool, and I super want that. But I don't think there's anything magical about it, but I think that does, like, that sets there's this there's this notion of, like, the commander's intent. Like, what is the what is the intent at the end of the day? The the intent of the at the end of the day is to reach, let's say, the top of this hill or to take this town or whatever the commander wants. Right?

Aaron

00:06:35 – 00:06:45

How you get there is is open for negotiation. Like, okay, you encounter a roadblock. Let's back up. Let's get, you know, let's go back this way. But you know what the goal is.

Aaron

00:06:45 – 00:07:12

You know where you are headed. And for me, having somewhere that's, like, kinda far out on the horizon helps me know that is where I'm headed. Mhmm. And I think I think the interesting thing about that goal is along the way, I'm going to encounter a lot of opportunities because of that. So let's say, for example, that my goal instead was to get a sponsored video for $5,000.

Aaron

00:07:12 – 00:07:29

Right? If that was my goal, I don't exactly know how to get there. But if my goal is create enough content that is good enough to reach a 100,000 subscribers, I guarantee you, I'm gonna find some sponsors along the way. Yep. And that that's what I'm looking for.

Aaron

00:07:29 – 00:07:38

It's like, okay. Directionally, enough good content to hit a 100100000 subscribers, and we'll just pick up opportunities along the way as we go.

Brian

00:07:38 – 00:07:56

I I really like that. I it resonates a lot. I don't think so much about, like, the number a 100 k, but I I do start to think numbers, and I this remains to be seen. I I I have to learn and see how this develops. But, like, my little channel that I've that I've not taken seriously for years has just accumulated, like, 2,000 subscribers.

Brian

00:07:56 – 00:08:07

Right? Mhmm. So I would love to see that grow to something like 20 or 30 k as, like, an initial goal in, I I don't know, the next 6 to 8 months. I don't know if that's unrealistic or or not.

Aaron

00:08:08 – 00:08:09

But Not

Brian

00:08:09 – 00:08:40

at all. I feel like that's a level of that's like an initial level of success on YouTube where you have enough volume that can send e email subscribers into my list Yes. That could probably result in some form of sponsors, or like sponsorship deals, at least. And potentially like the beginnings of an audience that can like, come into like a, a product, whether it's selling a course or selling a community or something like that. Like how, like, yeah.

Brian

00:08:40 – 00:08:56

Like, I guess, how how are you thinking about growing this as a business, like monetization strategy? Obviously, with with YouTube, there's some there are really so many different ways to go about it. Yeah. What what's, like, the most interesting to you in terms of, like, where you would you would like to develop things for yourself?

Aaron

00:08:57 – 00:09:13

Yeah. The most interesting to me so I'll talk I'll talk on the personal side. The planning skill side is very obvious. We're a database company, and I make database videos. And so the goal there is, like, we need more people to learn about PlanetScale, and so I'm gonna make good videos about databases and teach them about PlanetScale.

Aaron

00:09:13 – 00:09:29

That's easy. So less interesting. So the interesting thing, I think, is on the personal side. And where does where does the money come? I think there are I think there are a ton of companies that struggle, you probably know this, that struggle with creating content.

Aaron

00:09:29 – 00:09:57

I mean, this used to be your business. Right? There are a ton of companies that just want to be out in front of people and creating really high quality content in house is hard. Like, people are people are busy, and so there's this huge opportunity for the people who have the content to pair up with the companies that want it out there. And so for me, what I found so far is even now, I think my personal channel's at, like, 11 or 12,000.

Aaron

00:09:58 – 00:10:09

Companies are reaching out to me being like, we will pay you good money, many 1,000 of dollars to create a video about our thing. And that is really interesting to me because Even what I

Brian

00:10:09 – 00:10:12

think is, like, 11 k subscribers that Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Aaron

00:10:12 – 00:10:19

For sure. Yeah. And we're talking, like, $5,000 to make a video. It's like, oh, that's real money. Like It's

Brian

00:10:19 – 00:10:43

super interesting do that. That how different niches and different industries on YouTube are valued so differently. Right? And and I think that we happen to be in one of the higher value spaces Yep. Like like developer tech startup business, you know, where where advertisers are are literally willing to pay more per whatever, thousand impressions.

Brian

00:10:43 – 00:10:43

You know?

Aaron

00:10:44 – 00:10:54

Yep. Yep. Exactly. And, you know, the the YouTube, the YouTube AdSense dollars, I don't even think about because it could be many tens of dollars, and it's like

Brian

00:10:55 – 00:10:56

Do you turn those on?

Aaron

00:10:56 – 00:11:06

Not worth it. Yeah. They're on. And I think I've, you know, I've made maybe $500 so far over several months, and it's, like, I don't know if that's worth it. I I But then I think the other

Brian

00:11:06 – 00:11:08

thing least interesting thing to me.

Aaron

00:11:08 – 00:11:15

Yeah. I in fact, now that you've asked, I'm thinking maybe I should just turn those off. I think the other interesting thing to me is, like YouTube

Brian

00:11:16 – 00:11:18

I wonder if it impacts the algorithm at all

Aaron

00:11:18 – 00:11:30

if you turn it on. That's that's what I don't know. I would have to research that because if they don't wanna push if they don't wanna push videos that don't make YouTube money Mhmm. I don't know.

Brian

00:11:30 – 00:11:31

Yep. The the

Aaron

00:11:31 – 00:12:00

other thing that's interesting to me is, like, long term kinda like brand sponsorship deals, which is not, like, make a single video, but more like, hey, Aaron. We pay you every month, and every time you make a video, you do mention something or do something or say, y'all remember. And, like, I I'm I'm interested in that. I haven't landed any of those yet, but something that's, like, super off the wall that I think is viable, frankly, is, like, I wear this T shirt. You know, I've got 8 of them.

Aaron

00:12:00 – 00:12:19

I wear this T shirt in every single video on every single platform that I make. And I'm I'm reaching out to that company, and I'm like, hey. I I would love to talk about it. Like, check my actual order history in your Shopify and see that I've been ordering your shirts for the past 5 years. Also, I I, like, wear them in every video.

Aaron

00:12:19 – 00:12:33

Let's let let me talk about it. And so that's an interesting thing to me that I'm trying to land to see if, hey, there are brands that, like, line up with me personally that I would feel great talking about. So I'm I'm gonna see if I'm gonna see if I can make that work.

Brian

00:12:33 – 00:12:41

This is not my my main goal, but I've always had, like, the random, kind of creative fantasy of of just, like, getting into, like, designing hats and designing T shirts.

Aaron

00:12:41 – 00:12:41

Mhmm.

Brian

00:12:42 – 00:12:53

And, like, that that could be, like, a potential, like, result down the road of, like, just like a fun side project for a month, like Yes. You know, spin up a couple of T shirt designs and show them on the YouTube channel. Like, that that could be

Aaron

00:12:53 – 00:13:09

Yeah. Exactly. And there's a whole there's a whole industry that you and I are not a part of that's, like, the real influencers and the real creators. And, you know, they're like spinning up in house first party products. And I think that's that's totally possible.

Aaron

00:13:09 – 00:13:15

Yep. Like, I I don't know what that looks like for for us, but I think that that is a tried and true thing that has been

Brian

00:13:19 – 00:13:30

done. Hey. Real quick. This podcast is sponsored by Instrumentl Products. That's my product studio where I and my small crew, we take new product ideas from concept to launched.

Brian

00:13:31 – 00:13:55

I'm a full stack product designer and developer, and I love collaborating with fellow founders, creators, and SaaS companies to bring that spark of energy into new product ideas. Think of instrumental products as your shortcut to shipping that next idea and getting it into the hands of your customers as efficiently as possible. Got something to ship? Let's talk. Visit instrumentalproducts.com to learn more.

Brian

00:13:59 – 00:14:50

The way to think about it is, like, again, like, YouTube monetization is not very interesting to me, but sponsorships is something that I I think I would certainly be open to. I I still don't think that that's, like, my number one goal when it comes to monetization that Yeah. That seems to me more like a nice to have something that I'm very open to have as a revenue channel, but I would like the primary thing to be like YouTube grows the audience and that audience comes into some paid product, probably in the form of a community or membership type product at some point down the road, you know, maybe even with, with like a live events component as well. But yeah, if it, but I I'm also thinking about this as, like, for 2024, transitioning to literally making this my job. Right?

Brian

00:14:50 – 00:15:02

Like, like content creation, especially on YouTube as like the primary operation in my business going forward. And I'm still kind of maintaining and giving some love to clarity flow.

Aaron

00:15:02 – 00:15:02

Mhmm.

Brian

00:15:02 – 00:15:33

But the main thing is grow the audience because grow that distribution channel, many different product opportunities and and, revenue opportunities can come from that. So I'm thinking a lot about, like, how to actually, like, operationalize this, like, week to week. And one thing that I'm wondering about with you, because you you do developer content. Right? So, and again, going back to this concept of like not building products, not developing products, software products, but creating content.

Brian

00:15:34 – 00:15:58

But in order to create content for developers about code, about software, you gotta be in it. So Yep. How do you invest the time to tinker and put the hood on and get your hands dirty on the code and stay and stay up to date on the on the latest tech and and actually build stuff from experience that you can then bring to your audience? Like, how do you how do you think about all that?

Aaron

00:15:59 – 00:16:25

Yeah. That's that is that is the challenge. Right? Because if you get too far away from it, the content then suffers because it's like, meh, this isn't really applicable. One is I think you and I both forget how far along we are in software development and just how many thing like, behind us.

Aaron

00:16:25 – 00:16:35

Right? Mhmm. And so there's this whole world of content. Like, we're not, frankly, I'm not teaching other senior engineers most of the time. I already know everything I'm talking about.

Aaron

00:16:35 – 00:16:49

I'm teaching a lot of people who maybe aren't as plugged in as you and I are and aren't seeing everything on Twitter all day and, like, following these podcasts. And we, you know, we know everything that's going on everywhere all the time, but we're not normal.

Brian

00:16:49 – 00:16:49

Yeah.

Aaron

00:16:49 – 00:17:08

And so that's that's part of it. The other thing is I always have, like, I always have some sort of, like, you know, software development project going, whether that's even, like, you know, rebuilding my personal website in Laravel. That counts. Like, I, you know, made some notes when I was doing that. I was like, oh, this would be a good topic.

Aaron

00:17:08 – 00:17:21

And it's like, okay. I'm rebuilding my site. Here's an interesting thing. Now let me take that interesting thing and kinda spin it out into a more generic example. So I take the nugget and, like, expand on it.

Aaron

00:17:21 – 00:17:49

And then the other thing is, like, I'm very, very specific on what I teach. I teach things that I know, and I don't put pressure on myself to comment or have opinions on or teach things that I don't know. And there are some YouTubers that will have an opinion on everything, and that's great. I don't super trust them, frankly, but, like, I don't I just don't I don't put that pressure on myself. So people will constantly ask me, can you make a comparison video of Laravel and x y z?

Aaron

00:17:49 – 00:17:57

And I just say, I cannot. Mhmm. I do not know x y z. I I just don't know it. I'm not gonna pretend that I know it, and I'm not gonna go learn it.

Brian

00:17:58 – 00:18:26

Do you ever go learn something for the purpose of creating content about that? Like like, you don't maybe it's a framework or a library or or a piece of tech that you don't have any experience with. Maybe you think it's interesting, but you don't have any active real projects to use it on, but it would make for a really great video or you think it would really help your audience in some way. So Yeah. So you like you devote some time to learning it first and then and then packaging it into a video.

Aaron

00:18:26 – 00:18:46

Yes. I will do something. I will I will do that sometimes, always with an angle of, I have just learned this thing and, like, this is my first impression or this is why I think it could be good or why I liked the experience and never with, I'm now the expert on this thing. Yeah. And that's just, like, one, that's true to who I am.

Aaron

00:18:46 – 00:19:04

I don't wanna, like, hold myself out to be something that I'm not. And 2, it just releases all the pressure. Because if I hold myself out to be an expert on, you know, Symfony, which is another PHP framework, and then the real Symfony up experts show up and they're like, hey, dude. Like, you missed this super obvious thing. That's kind of like, oh, shoot.

Aaron

00:19:04 – 00:19:06

I like, that I've told a lie, and I got made.

Brian

00:19:06 – 00:19:06

Yeah.

Aaron

00:19:06 – 00:19:15

But if I hold myself out as, I'm a Laravel developer trying Symphony, and here's what I like and what I don't like and what I found useful. It's like, hey. That's great content. I can totally see that.

Brian

00:19:15 – 00:19:34

Yeah. I gotta talk to you more often because I feel like you're cutting right right through the the imposter syndrome that I constantly feel, you know, and and especially with code. I mean, I almost never share anything related to code, but I but I code all day long every single day. Yep. You know?

Brian

00:19:34 – 00:20:20

And and I'm designing I feel a little bit more confident in in design, but a lot of my design work is is done using Tailwind and JavaScript and HTML. Yeah. And but I'm always like, I still feel like behind the rest of the industry on that stuff, even though the reality is I'm ahead of a, of a lot of people who are just learning it for the first time or coming into the industry or trying to bootstrap their first product, you know, And that that's the thing that I, I, I, that's why I like, I almost never currently create videos where I'm showing code or showing screenshots of my code. Cause I feel like there's going to be some advanced developer who's like, oh, there's such an easier way to do that or a better way to do that. But the reality is those those developers are not gonna be tuning into my content.

Brian

00:20:20 – 00:20:21

Like, they're, you know

Aaron

00:20:21 – 00:20:44

No. And, you know, there's something about, like there there's something that cannot be argued with, and that is your experience. Like, you can say you can say, like, this is the best way or this is let's even be more specific. This is the most performant way to do this thing in rails, and somebody can say, no, it's not. It's like, alright.

Aaron

00:20:45 – 00:20:54

Well, that sucks. Yeah. But what what nobody nobody can argue with is I created this thing or I I wrote this code. Here's why I like it. Here's why

Brian

00:20:54 – 00:21:01

I did it. Mhmm. Yeah. Okay. Like The this is the fact that for me to get it out the door or this this is what Right.

Brian

00:21:01 – 00:21:03

What framework sort of made sense in my mind.

Aaron

00:21:03 – 00:21:17

What what can anyone say? Anyone that anyone that, like, rebuts or refutes that, frankly is, like, either either actually truly being sincere and helpful and saying, that's interesting. You might consider doing it this way. Great. Love that.

Aaron

00:21:17 – 00:21:27

Anyone that's saying you're wrong or stupid is just trying to show that they're really smart. And and and the way that I handle that is I say, oh, yeah. That is a good way. Like, congrats. That's great.

Brian

00:21:27 – 00:21:27

Yeah.

Aaron

00:21:27 – 00:21:34

I I don't I don't really care. I want to acknowledge that you were very smart, but I don't I don't really care. Like, I'm just sharing the way that I did the thing.

Brian

00:21:34 – 00:21:34

Yeah.

Aaron

00:21:34 – 00:21:52

And I think you can get trapped by thinking, I have to be the teacher that's right all the time. And, like, the escape valve for that is I'm the guy that's sharing the stuff I'm learning and the stuff I'm working on. Yeah. It's like, what are you gonna say to me? I the you can't you can't argue with that.

Aaron

00:21:52 – 00:21:52

Yeah.

Brian

00:21:52 – 00:22:16

I like it. Like, the the the concept, which I think needs developing as I get into YouTube next year is like, I'm not trying to teach you how to get hired by Google as an engineer. I can't do that. But what I can teach you is how to, how to design and build stuff so that you can ship and bootstrap a little product on the side and maybe it, which could be a game changer for your career, you know? Yes.

Aaron

00:22:16 – 00:22:17

Yep. Totally.

Brian

00:22:18 – 00:22:58

So we start to wrap up here, but one thing that I'm I'm also sort of nervous about as I think about this as, as like an operation, I'm thinking of it like a full time job, what this has to look like to be able to produce videos on a regular basis for a long period of time. And this probably gets into what you have in your course at screencasting.com is like production workflow hacks. You know, because one of the things that I personally I've, I've done a bit of video work in various things over the years. And the thing that I always get hung up on is just the clicking around and the, and the busy work and the just grinding it out. Like I love the creative stuff.

Brian

00:22:58 – 00:23:27

I love thinking about the script and how I'm going to deliver something. And I also sort of love the editing side, but then there, but, but in between that, and then in between that and getting it up on the site, there's all these little like admin tasks and and like, oh, you gotta package it out, you gotta upload it, you gotta do this and that. It's like, how do you, how do you get all that stuff shipped without driving yourself crazy? It it and, like, how much are you outsourcing to to an assistant? Like, what are you how do you think about that?

Aaron

00:23:28 – 00:23:55

On the on the PlanetScale side, we now have a full time editor, and so he does a lot of the I do all the rough cut. So I'll record a video, and then I do all the rough cut where it's, like, remove like, I record basically in chunks. So I'll do, like, you know, the talking head opening, and I'll mess it up 5 or 6 times, and I finally get a good one. And then I move on to, like, the first section of the screen recording, and I'll mess that up a bunch, and I get a good one. And so I deliver to the editor all the good chunks, and I'm like, here you go.

Aaron

00:23:55 – 00:24:12

Like, figure out transitions, graphics, all of that. And we recently got him, and that's just amazing. But what's more applicable is, you know, on the personal side, how do I handle that? One of the big things that I do that I do talk about in the course is, like, recording recording in chunks. Like, spread the workload of editing.

Aaron

00:24:12 – 00:25:03

Like, spread it over the recording and the editing process such that when you do get to the editing process, it is a lot easier because you've already, like, you've already borne some of that brunt in the recording process. And what I mean by that is I try to I try to section out my videos into into their chunks where I know that there's gonna be a cut at the end. So, like, maybe I'm explaining something on camera, and then I'll switch to the screen or vice versa. And if I can nail a single chunk, it is way, way, way better for me personally to record that 1 minute, 2 minute chunk 6 or 8 times than record it in, like, 10 second parts where I'm, like, then I have to go in and slice and dice and chop it up. And then the video looks really choppy, and it's I've got all these edits.

Aaron

00:25:03 – 00:25:04

So it might be 5

Brian

00:25:04 – 00:25:08

or 6 takes, but just do the takes until you get one complete good one.

Aaron

00:25:09 – 00:25:22

Do the takes till you get one complete good one that probably is gonna be more concise. Like, the the message you're trying to get across is going to be clearer, but also the editing is just gonna be a breeze because you're like, boom. One one cut at the beginning, one cut at the end. Let's move on. Yep.

Aaron

00:25:22 – 00:25:44

And so that's one way that I do it. And then the other way that, like, the the rest of it is, like, just getting I I do my own editing personally, and getting good at at ScreenFlow has just been a massive, massive life improvement for me. And one of the things that I think we potentially would both fall into is, like, going down the rabbit hole of of tools.

Brian

00:25:44 – 00:26:06

I was just gonna ask you about this. I I I I go to first, like, 10 plus years at this point. But I Same. But, again, I'm I'm in this, like, research learning mode, and now I'm YouTubing about, like, DaVinci Resolve and or Adobe Premiere or or Final Cut. Like, what's your experience with with those more quote, unquote professional tools versus what you can do with with ScreenFlow?

Aaron

00:26:07 – 00:26:20

Yeah. What I can do with ScreenFlow is what I need to do. I think there are there are other things. Like, our editor uses Premiere, and I think I think he can do a lot more than I can, but he's also had, you know, 10 years of Premiere. Mhmm.

Aaron

00:26:20 – 00:26:50

And so for me, like, I've purposefully capped myself at ScreenFlow for now. I've purposely capped myself at ScreenFlow because I can get the output that I'm looking for, and I'm really, really fast at it. And I think if I were to open up the box of Premiere, I would get sucked in pretty hard. So one, it would be initial drop off in productivity because I'm just like, oh, man. I gotta learn where all these panels are.

Aaron

00:26:50 – 00:27:13

But then the second thing would be like, okay. Now now that the the world of, you know, let's say, motion graphics because I start doing after effects too, now that that's open to me, everything becomes more complicated, and I feel like everything needs to go up a level where right now I'm having success with ScreenFlow, and so I just make my, you know, my adorable little videos in ScreenFlow and ship them out the door.

Brian

00:27:13 – 00:27:37

Yeah. Nice. I've heard you talk about this before, and and another thing that resonates is, like, doing well on YouTube, optimizing your content for reach without feeling like you're selling an infomercial or doing a super cheesy thumbnail graphic. That totally resonates with me. The shocked face, like, I, I just don't wanna get into that game.

Brian

00:27:38 – 00:27:49

But I, I think there is a way to do it tastefully that's actually authentic to to me and maybe and and the topic of the actual video. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, how

Aaron

00:27:49 – 00:28:19

do you think about that? It's it's a it's a challenge to me because, man, like, the I think the platform demands certain things, and you see basically what the platform demands by scrolling your feed on on YouTube and noticing what shows up. And, like, that's kinda what the platform demands. And what I don't like that the platform seemingly demands is shock and awe. And I just don't think everything that I'm teaching is either shocking or awe inspiring.

Aaron

00:28:20 – 00:28:52

Like, I want it to be interesting, and I want it to be entertaining, but I'm just not gonna I'm just not gonna pretend to be surprised about something that I'm just I'm not frankly very surprised about. So that, like, that poses a, you know, kind of a moral dilemma to me to, like, do I trick people into clicking or not? And the answer so far for me has been no. I'm not I'm not gonna do that. That does, however, that doesn't that doesn't give me, like, permission to not take into consideration how I get people to click.

Aaron

00:28:52 – 00:29:05

Yep. So, like, if I'm gonna hold constant that there are things that I'm not gonna compromise on, which is, like, I'm not gonna do the pretend shock face, okay. Well, dude, what are you gonna do? How are you gonna get people to click? Yeah.

Aaron

00:29:05 – 00:29:11

And that is still very, very, very much a question to me of, like, how do you package all of this?

Brian

00:29:11 – 00:29:57

The thing that I'm getting really interested in the creative process of YouTube, right, as a again, I'm sort of learning and planning at this point is, like, treating every single next video as a product in it, in and of itself. It's you're, you're literally creating and launching your, a new product, like on a weekly basis or however you're however often you're doing it. And, and a lot of that comes down to like, who is this for? What problem is it solving and how do we connect with the, with the potential buyer or viewer in this case? And like that could start with the, I think a lot of, a lot of YouTubers are, are talking about this concept of like, start with the thumbnail and the title before you even create the video.

Brian

00:29:57 – 00:30:02

Like, start with the concept of of what someone is gonna click on and then deliver on that promise, you know, from there. Yeah.

Aaron

00:30:02 – 00:30:35

I mean, that that's that's what I do. I don't necessarily make the thumbnail, but the first thing that I do is think, what is the title and what is the thumbnail? And not just, like, what is it, but, like, what is the packaging, and then what video can I produce to deliver on that packaging? So I can come up with really, really great packaging that everyone would click on. And then if I don't deliver in the video, then I have I have crossed one of my personal ethical boundaries, which is I've basically just lied to everybody.

Aaron

00:30:35 – 00:30:37

And so how can I create

Brian

00:30:37 – 00:30:39

And that's not gonna work well on YouTube anyway? Like

Aaron

00:30:40 – 00:30:52

No. Eventually, you'll eventually, you'll fail. You'll you'll flame out because the watch time's gonna be super low because people are gonna realize, oh, it's just clickbait. Yep. So, like, how can I I basically start with a concept of, like, what am I trying to teach?

Aaron

00:30:53 – 00:30:58

Great. Okay. Let's let's back up. Let's move up a level. Is there an interesting way to package this?

Aaron

00:30:58 – 00:31:15

Is there an edutainment way to package this, education plus entertainment to package the core idea that I wanna teach? And that's where you have to that's where you have to get creative and think like, okay. Well, what is interesting about this? What is clever about this? How can I hook people into this?

Aaron

00:31:15 – 00:31:37

Like, I have a I have a PlanetScale video coming out soon. That's called you don't need joins. Like, it's a database concept of joining tables together, and the title is you don't need joins. And I back it up in the video that sometimes you are doing something with a join when really you should be using a subquery. And it's like, oh, that's interesting, but, like, so how to use subqueries is not very good packaging.

Aaron

00:31:37 – 00:31:49

Right? That's actually don't need joins, and joins always And then I go yeah. And then I go into these use cases of, like, here are the, you know, 3, 4, 5 use cases where you're using a join and you shouldn't be using a join. It's like, oh, okay. That backs it up.

Aaron

00:31:49 – 00:31:56

That's good packaging. So it is hard. It is very hard to get good packaging for a pretty normie, like, basic idea.

Brian

00:31:57 – 00:32:16

Yeah. Well, hey, Aaron. This is, another great conversation. Great to connect with you. I'm super excited about everything that you are working on and especially like I've been following you for some time, but I see upcoming year and couple of years here in terms of the things that you are growing now are super interesting to to follow along.

Aaron

00:32:16 – 00:32:20

Oh, thanks. Yeah. I really I really appreciate that. That means a lot. Thank you.

Aaron

00:32:20 – 00:32:20

Cool.

Brian

00:32:21 – 00:32:44

Alright. See you. See you. That does it for today's episode of the Fullstack Founder podcast. As always, the show notes include links to the YouTube channel for this podcast, where you can catch these full interviews on video, and my YouTube channel.

Brian

00:32:44 – 00:32:47

That's where I'm building products in public. See you next week.

YouTube as a Business with Aaron Francis

Transcript

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