Why a $4M Creator Needs Operational Leverage

0:00I am a YouTuber. I make travel food videos around the world. >> Sweet. >> Uh revenue last year was 4.3 million. And I think what's stopping me is a couple of things. The key man, >> what's profit >> issue? Profit is >> me to ask. It wasn't on the thing. >> 3 roughly over 70%. >> Great. Love it. Love this for us. >> Yeah. >> Uh I I think the what's stopping me is two things. one key man issue that I need to be involved in so much of production

0:28>> and second that we're not putting sponsors on every single video. >> Okay. So, okay. So, said differently, we could make more money if you made more videos, >> right? >> Or you made more per video. >> Mhm. >> Right. So, right now, um how much more would you make per video? Basically, if you maxed out your sponsorships, how much more would you make?

0:56>> I would have to do the math, but let's say about $800,000 >> in total for the year. >> 800,000 extra for the year. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. So, 20% lift if you were if you just maxed out your monetization. So, you're 80% utilized right now. You get a 20% lift if you just sold a few more sponsors. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, that's not a huge lift. Um, what do you want to have happen? What's the goal?

1:22>> Um, well, I would like to make more revenue, but also just have my company run more efficiently, so I'm not >> always the bottleneck for everything. >> Yeah. So, you're in the videos, right? >> Yeah, correct. >> Um, what parts of the vid? So, right now, are you involved in everything with the videos or just showing up? >> A lot. So, [clears throat] it would probably break down to helping with research, doing multiple rounds of feedback on research before we go to a shoot for pre-production, doing the actual shoot, doing voice over, and then reviewing each video sometimes three to four times.

2:00>> Yeah. So, it sounds like you just need a YouTube strategist that you'd head from somebody else's channel that you'd be able to pay more because you can because you have the cash flow to do it. And that would probably take 50% or more of your workload off your plate and that would buy you just mental bandwidth back. um you would technically make less money because you' pay one more person. But I think you could make 3.15 instead of 3.3 and probably like live a happier life. >> Sure. [laughter] >> And then if you had that extra time, maybe you could sell those extra sponsorships to get that 20% lift. Um but I think the the real lever would be how many videos a week are you making?

2:33>> Um two per week. >> Two per week. Yeah. I think so the business that you're in is so leveraged on quality, >> right? that. So, I'll give you an analogy, not to not to um pull from the sales, but like if you're in a talent business, which you are, right? Taylor Swift is like not thinking like, how do I get somebody else to sing these damn songs, right? Like at some point you just get tremendous operating leverage from you just being exceptional. Um, and I think there's nothing wrong with that, right? I make YouTube videos. Like, it's it's part of the game. Now, to what degree am I involved in pre-production and post-production? Basically, none. M

3:10>> um I show up and then like what are we talking about? [laughter] Um but I think that >> How many people do you have on the team for media? >> About 21. You >> have 21 people on the team for media? >> Yeah, we we're uh based in Vietnam. They're based in Vietnam and I live there, too. [snorts and laughter] >> Just so you I'm not here telling them what to do. We're all there. >> Yeah. Yeah. You're in it. You're front line. I get it. Um, yeah. I think I mean I think that you could probably get away with like you probably need a high leverage person who's very good. So I'd be looking at like a $200,000 year plus person who's who has experience building a channel probably in the travel niche similar to yours that's probably bigger um to take more off your plate. But I think the thing that's going to probably excel because like getting the 20% from extra sponsorship, sure it's like a little extra money, fine. But but if the goal was like how do I I mean we started this with I would like to have more of my time. So I think it's a it's a manpower issue um and a willingness to pay thing. So if you're in Vietnam I'm guessing that you tend to be cheap with labor um which I'm fine with. Uh but some some roles are worth paying more for so you get more out of them. So I took your advice from the scaling videos that you've okay

4:29>> you put out already talking about people in this >> area and hiring that high level person and so I've just hired someone to function as a COO okay >> who has a lot of experience in marketing companies to doing video production >> big media ops okay >> and so I'm hoping he can alleviate some of this so that's >> that's uh you know he'll be starting in a month and so kind of what you're saying now will play out and we'll see what that does. Yeah, one of the things that um Leila talks a lot about which is like not solving the same problem twice.

4:59So sometimes solutions to problems take longer than we would like them to take, but we've already have solutions in motion. And so sometimes we have to give time time, which is super frustrating. But I'm sure someone else here has probably started to solve a problem and then started a second solution for the same problem because the first solution hasn't actually started working yet, but it wasn't supposed to start working yet. Um, and so I would encourage you to just not break it. Um, he starts in a month.

5:24Is the reason why was there a big delay? >> Um, he's finishing his old job, taking a month off, and then starting and starting at the same time I'm getting back to Vietnam so we can work together in person at first. >> Are you in touch like are you talking regularly between now and then? >> Uh, we haven't been. >> I would encourage you to for a couple reasons. One is like the right type of person should be obsessed with this stuff and you want this person to be the type of person that you can like

5:51>> you want somebody that you can really that should be your intellectual equal or superior in this domain >> and if you feel like this person is not better than you at this you should not hire them. >> Good call. So, you have this kind of like one-month trial period. And like what I've found out about maniacs in general is that they don't stop being maniacs when they switch jobs. They're just they need something to chew on. And so, I would want to have this person thinking about my stuff for that month so that they come fresh with ideas. And I'd want the dialogue going. So, like all the fun work stuff before the work work stuff starts.

6:26>> Sure. But if the fun work stuff he's not he or she isn't like mentally stimulating you back and like doesn't doesn't seem like they're at the same level then you can probably avoid a mistake if it's not if the person's not good enough. >> Sure. Good call. >> So I would think about that. That's like I would do that today and just start like hey let's like Mark Zuckerberg met with Cheryl Sandberg for a year for dinner every single week before she started as the COO. The higher the level of the person Chiron was friends with us for six years before he came on as president here. And so the higher up the the person is, the more surface area you want with them in different conditions, seeing how they act under different stressors, different scenarios. What if they're sleepd deprived? Like I get a little worried when someone's like, I need to take a month off because I'm like, why?

7:08>> Right. >> Um like so stressful. It's like if you think that was stressful, like you're going to die here. So [snorts] uh that that's the only thing that concerns me. If you were like, hey, we're talking every day and we're like he just has to finish his obligations. That I'm like good for somebody who keeps their word. Um, but I want us to start speeding up so that the day you start, you've already started weeks earlier. We're just officially kicking you off. That's how I would approach it. But yeah, clearly a manpower issue. Dash person give you more operational leverage, but the only output that's going to matter for you is quality. So, it's like how do you reverse engineer quality? And it's going to be talent.

7:41>> Mhm. >> Got it. >> Boom. Thank you. >> Rock and roll. Yeah. If you're not getting as many leads as you want and your business is demand constrained, [music] meaning you could service more customers than you currently have, then this is for you. So, marketing is changing and I [music] think ACQ tends to be on the bleeding edge of this stuff. We certainly spend the money uh to do it, but we also build custom software and we pay amazing vendors and very expensive people to figure out the system that we have right now. And I want to share it with you kind of open kimono style. If you're not getting as many leads as you want, boy, do I have the thing for you. Click below, book call, and uh hopefully I'll see you in Vegas.