Paul: Hiring an editor is like dating somebody. You really have to like them. 

Paul: I’d rather have my video get two views from real viewers than pay someone for 10,000 fake views, because that’s what the other fakes are not real views. If you believe that you have something that you want to share of the world and you think you can make videos, do it. 

Spencer: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut, the show about behind the scenes of YouTube where we get to talk to YouTubers and hear their experiences. Today I’m here with Paul Likens from the YouTube channel, Palm Beach is Paul. Paul, thanks for being on the show. 

Paul: Hey, great to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so typically we like to get to know our guests a little bit, so the viewers kind of know who you are. So maybe tell us a little bit about yourself, maybe I don’t know if you have any hobbies or maybe where you’re from, and then also your channel and what your channel is about. 

Paul: Yeah, so my name’s Paul. I live here in Southeast Florida, Palm Beach County to be specific. They call it the Palm Beaches. The name comes from the fact that most of the cities here end with the word beach. So Boynton Beach, Lake Worth Beach, you know, Juno Beach. So they call it the Palm Beaches. 

Palm obviously because of the palm trees and we’re right near Palm Beach and all that. Been here for 30 plus years originally from Texas, a real estate agent, about 12 years in the business as a residential realtor. And I, somewhere about my third, fourth year into real estate, decided that I would make a YouTube channel to help grow my real estate business, to attract people who are moving to Florida. So I said, well, let’s try YouTube. And so that’s what I did, and that’s what I continue to do and worked out pretty well. 

Sometimes you, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. And I’m just on the real estate market, but I still put it, I like doing it. Got a family, most of my boys are grown up. 

So it’s me, my wife and my dogs, who I call my daughters. And I love making videos. It’s a, I never thought I would, but I like to make them. 

And as far as hobbies, travel as much as possible. 

Spencer: Nice. So a couple of questions from what you just said, did you do something before real estate as like a career? 

Paul: Yeah. So I’ve been in sales my whole life. So I’ve sold technical. 

Spencer: Oh, gotcha. 

Paul: You know, voiceover IP, equipment, sales and stuff like that, telecommunication equipment, all the way back to when I was in my late twenties and early thirties, I sold office equipment and stuff like that. So, so I’ve always done sales. It’s always pretty much what I’ve done my whole life. So real estate just was part of the part of sales. I just have a little bit of North freedom on my own boss. 

Spencer: Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. And then you said you love to travel. Do you have a favorite place to go or do you like to go to new places each time you travel? 

Paul: Well, I like new places. We haven’t traveled abroad. I’ve traveled to the United States here and there, quite a few places, but we went to Europe to Spain a couple of years ago. 

It was absolutely amazing. Actually, I was just texting one of my clients who’s over there right now. Although he’s not having as much fun as we did. They have apparently they’re having a Portugal, Spain and part of Europe’s having one of the largest power outages they’ve ever had. So, oh, yeah. So but so that part of the country is absolutely beautiful. I looked to go back again. We didn’t get enough time in Spain. But yeah, I just want to travel Europe. I want to go see Portugal and Italy and all that. So I’m looking forward as the kids are now grown and going off to college and another one’s older, the wife and I getting out and traveling around not only the United States, but hopefully more in Europe. So some really cool places to see out there. 

Spencer: Yeah, that’s awesome. I’ve never been to Europe, but it’s on my bucket list. 

Paul: So I watch a lot of travel vloggers. So yeah. 

Spencer: So you do real estate videos, but you’re not like doing the typical like, you know, tour the house like, hey, this is how much this house is, you know, kind of thing. How did you decide what type of, I guess, content to do for your channel? 

Paul: So I started with the tours like everyone. Is that what was happening? I started in 2018. So you got to go back a little ways. And at that time in my market, there weren’t a lot of video. There weren’t even anywhere for that matter, but definitely down here in Southeast Florida, there weren’t a lot of YouTubers that were real estate agents making videos. 

There’s like maybe a couple. And most of the videos were just people like, hey, this is our new listing. And they had some cheesy music and they went to the house. 

And a lot of times it was just pictures. It wasn’t even a real video. I mean, well, that’s what they would market it that way. 

And then maybe they did a video for YouTube, but either way, it was just really cheesy. And I kind of did one or two of those. I said, no, that’s horrible. 

That’s like a few people saw it. Then I decided, okay, why don’t you just show people what you like? Like, what do you like? What have we enjoyed showing my son as he grew up? What did he like as a child growing up here and as parents? What are we like? 

So that’s, I sort of took it from that perspective. If I was moving to South Florida for the first time and I had kids or no kids would, you know, what would I want to do when I got there? Like if I bought this house, great. 

Okay, now what? So I started to show people, hey, in this neighborhood, the house is $300,000. And what’s great about that is there’s a park and this park is amazing because you can walk this trail and there’s alligators and there’s all sorts of birds and everything. And so I would show the house and then I would ride my bike or my skateboard or walk and go show the park. And then from that, I just started to grow into, well, if I’m going to show that, why don’t I show him a restaurant that’s nearby? So then I would find a local restaurant, not a big chain, but more of like a mom and pop place. I can promote local because that’s one of the things I’ve always tried to do on my channel. And so I’d be like, hey, look, it’s Debbie’s bakery. 

Debbie makes these great cupcakes. And this is a cool place. And so I started to do that. 

And people really started to be like, hey, I like this. He’s like showing us what my life could be like when I live there. Not, OK, we know what the house looks like. 

We know what the house costs, but what’s around the house. And so and that’s what I’ve always tried to do. And from there, it’s expanded to showing people different cities outside of my normal area to end then also now different events. 

Like I just shot a video last week, which is not really anything real estate related. But I was invited to attend Fleet Week, which is the one of the US Navy comes in town and they’re trying to recruit. And I got to go on a nuclear submarine and film a nuclear submarine for the first like was so cool, like for a guy. Oh, that’s awesome. And then I got to go on the other but stuff. 

But but again, it’s an event that people locally, if they live here, that’s something they could attend. So that’s how I attach it to it. And so that’s kind of how the channel’s kind of progressed. And but I originally started out with those goofy videos of just a house. 

And so, yeah, and then just kind of learned and kind of went from there and watched other YouTubers and have progressed over the years. I think those, you know, those house tour videos, I think there is a place for those. Like it is really nice to see, like what exactly is inside of a house, you know? But I really like what you’re doing, you know, showing what’s also around the house. 

I think that’s really important. You know, my wife and I, we just bought a house last year. And, you know, we we picked it because we liked the house, you know, but we didn’t really like pay attention too much to what was around it. But we realized as we lived here for the past year that there’s a lot of stuff around that’s really great and this location is awesome. That’s great. 

I think, you know, knowing that ahead of time would be even more beneficial as someone who’s looking for a house. So that’s why I think your channel is is so great. So, yeah, that’s why I try because a lot of the people who I deal with are from out of state. So it’s not so much locals that are watching. 

There are people who live in other states and they’re moving to Florida. And to your point about tours, I have a friend who has a very successful YouTube channel and his real estate team in Canada does hundreds of millions of dollars a year. He’s super successful. Like well, the top agent is probably up there and he does nothing but home tours. But his home tours, he self taught himself to do it are cinematic to the point. I mean, he’s had like awards for like his cinema cinematography. And now he has a team, but he did it himself. They were so well done that it made it sexy. 

Like you looked at the house and it was like, wow. Like that that kind of channel works for him because that’s all he does. He’s doing the listings and showing the listing to sell the product. 

In that and it works for him. But again, his cinematography skills and all that are just off the chart. Good. So he’s really talented. And and I’m not I’m not that talented when it comes to cinematography. 

Not not the kind of shots he’s doing. Yeah. 

Spencer: So you mentioned that when you kind of transition to, I guess, like showing more around the area that it kind of helped your channel. Did you get like comments of people saying like, hey, I really like this. Or were you kind of looking at the analytics of the videos and seeing that they were rising as you were doing that type of content? 

Paul: A little bit of both. You would see some videos that did well. Like I’ve done tours of like new home construction where I like, hey, today, you know, and it’s hard. It’s like, you know, how do I title it? 

What do I say to make it? It’s he knows the house. So it’s like, hey, a new luxury home for under two million or luxury home for under 800, whatever it is. 

And you go through and you talk about the house and its new construction. Those videos don’t do so well for me. Like I’ll get views and I’ve sold. I’ve had people buying new construction homes from them. So the end result worked because I got a person to buy a new home. And I’ve done that with like three different communities. But the videos themselves, it’s like they’re kind of almost like you make that video. And it’s for that purpose. 

It’s not just like that happened. I got one person to buy a house. Was it worth it? 

Of course it was. I’ve made a $700,000 sale. You know, I’m a shot of video. Do the return on investment. It was one day and I, you know, well rewarded for it, but they don’t do well for like views. So I watch what does work. And then I also try to engage my audience. 

It’s it’s it’s hard when you’re a realtor depending on building. A lot of people are just looking you for info. They don’t make that connection with you like a Mr. Beastwood. They don’t they’re not fans. 

Some of them are not many. Most are just like, I just want to get the facts and get move on. So it’s hard to get engagement from them, but I still ask and people will, I’ll do a survey on YouTube and I’ll go, Hey, what would you like to see? 

Would you prefer this or this? And they’ll tell me they like the tours. And right now my wife and I have been kind of really watching my videos and the videos that are doing very well or where I’m going to a city and I’m talking about the location, the history of the city. And then within that video, I say, OK, today we’re going to take a look at you know, Milford, just to give a name for a city. 

And we’re going to talk about the history of Milford, how it got its name, how it came what it is. Of course, we’re going to show you some real estate and I’ll go through a neighborhood and before I go through, I’ll do all my data and research and find out what homes cost in that neighborhood, what they sold for. And then maybe I’ll show something else if there’s another place to live. And then I’ll show restaurants and all that. So it’s like a tour guide of a town that someone’s thinking about moving. 

So someone’s staying in the Florida and they’re like, I don’t know where I want to really move yet. And I see that. So I did a video like that last the other weekend and we watched that video grow to 20,000 views in a short amount of time. I mean, it took in a week, it hit 10,000. And then the rest of it started about 23,000 now. 

So it kind of capped off, but it grew quick. And what was more important was I’ve had people reach out to me saying, hey, we like that. We’d like to know more about that city. And then another person reached out and said, hey, we saw your video you did for for Stewart and we saw that you also had a property for sale there. 

We want to sell our home and move and we’d like to look and move there. So I’m generating business from those. So those videos are going to be working really well for me right now. 

Spencer: That’s awesome. So you said you kind of ask your every once in a while, you do a survey like, hey, what do you want to see? 

Do you like ask that in the video? Or is that like, you know, how you do the community tab on? 

Paul: Okay. The community tab. I’ll go in and I’ll try to either share, hey, I’m making a video today and give my hand to what I’m doing. And then also I’ll go there and like, hey, I just made this video or, or what do you guys, what would you like to see next? And I’ll get people saying, hey, we want more tours. Like they’ll say we want to see more tours of more cities. Some will say they want more information about the market situation and stuff. And obviously I’ve done a lot of market videos. So, you know, I’ll address them with, hey, I’ll do another market video later. 

We just did one. So right now I’m trying to focus on some other stuff. So do you, I guess, decide what kind of videos to make based on what people want to see? Like, do you go to a specific town because a lot of people are like, hey, I want to see a tour of this town? No, I just look for like, I just look for towns that I haven’t filmed yet because there’s a lot of little places outside of, you know, where I live on the Southeast coast, people know names like West Palm Beach, Bocca Ritone, Fort Lauderdale. But in between those cities, and those are two different counties, by the way, West Palm Beach and Boca are Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale’s Broward County, which is, you know, South going down the coastline, just to give people a geographical image of it. And so, but in between there’s a ton of little towns and each one of those little cities or towns has something unique about it. 

So I’ll go and pop in and, okay, here we are today. We’re going to show this town and what’s unique about it. And some people don’t want to live in a big city. 

I’m older. I get a lot of retirees who want to live in a smaller area. They don’t want a big city. They’ve done that. Been there. 

They want to be able to wake up, go to the beach, get a suntan, whatever, go to a restaurant. So I’ll show the small town. So and what I’m looking at doing now is I’ve been so focused on South Florida, but I’m actually going to part of my channel. I’m trying to maybe as it’s growing, maybe change the channel a little is focused on Florida and start maybe taking some trips further away from where I live. So far I’ve done cities that are within an hour drive. I may go to the West Coast of Florida and show a city on the West Coast of Florida and I’ll do my research and highlight that city. And then I don’t work in that city, but I can refer it to a realtor. 

And so someone watches it goes, Hey, we really like this city. Then what I’ll do is I’ll build it out to build out, build out my referral base. And I’ll find a realtor over there. Maybe I’ll have that realtor give me a tour of the city and show me some real state. And then I can be like, Hey, if you want to reach out to this person, here’s who you want to talk to. 

So I’m looking at ways to kind of expand the channel for this year and next year. 

Spencer: Yeah. No, I think that’s smart. That’s a good idea. Especially if your audience likes that type of content, I think expanding it is a great idea. I’m curious, do you get sponsorships from like restaurants or local amenities that like are like, Hey, I want you to come when you tour this area, I want you to come check out our restaurant or something like that. 

Paul: Yeah, I don’t think I’m big enough and I don’t think I’ve done enough of that. I think if I start going to different cities and the views get up there into the thousands, like, you know, like for a channel of my size, I have 20,000 subscribers. If I start getting like 20 and 50,000 views, I think that’s a good number. 

You know, I think that people would pay attention to that and they might. I am going to be doing a video later this summer. That was a hotel and it’s a little town, so I’m going to kind of feature the town, but we’re also going to stay at the hotel. I did work out a marketing deal with a resort and they’re going to put us up for the weekend and I’m going to make a video of that resort and show it. And that, again, is sort of targeting to my audience of people who are looking to come to Florida. Maybe they wanted a vacation here first and then look at real estate later, which a lot of them do. 

And so they liked that idea. And so in the summer when it’s a little bit slower, they’re going to allow us to stay and I’ll make a video and then he’s going to introduce me to any of these. Really cool. He’s like, you know, say I can introduce you to the local owner of the micro brewery up here and then, you know, there’s another place up here. So another local business. So it’s kind of cool. 

So, but, but so far, no, not that I’ve had some brand deals. They were just weird. They just off the saw me. I mean, one was a e-bike and they said, yeah, we’ll do a brand deal with you. You know, we’ll send you an e-bike and put it in your video. And so I made that video and another was a Hawaiian, I wear a lot of Hawaiian shirts. They’re like, you know, this one has bikes on it, but I wear a lot of Hawaiian shirts. People see me for that in my videos and I had a Hawaiian shirt come to me and I was like, what’s up, Timmy? 

And said, Hey, send us send you a shirt and you make a video. So, okay. So, but I forgot to the point where I’m getting like sponsored deals like the, I’m working on it though. 

I’m reading a book actually on how to, how to market myself to those people. No, that’s awesome. I was just curious. Yeah. So was there a specific video or a moment in your YouTube journey where you’re like, oh yeah, I really want to focus on my YouTube channel. Like did one of your videos pop off and you’re like, oh, maybe, maybe I should really focus on this or have you just kind of been consistently working at it this whole time? 

Spencer: Yeah. 

Paul: I think when COVID hit, COVID was when I really got busy because everyone was forced to watch YouTube and anything. And they’re good, right? We were all streaming. 

Spencer: Yeah. 

Paul: I took it home and I started to get a lot of calls. Um, because I wasn’t consistent up until a little bit before COVID. Like I would make a video and then I wouldn’t make a video and then I, then and I’m trying to remember when, I don’t know. I’d have to go back and look at my videos and see, but, but somewhere along the way, I said, okay, you’ve got to do this every Sunday. 

Like you can’t miss. And so I made sure I put a video out. I don’t know if there was one video that did that. 

I just, maybe the, wasn’t the video so much that, um, I saw that, Hey, wow, I got a bunch of business from making videos, especially during COVID and people were calling me a lot more. They’re not calling as much. I’m hoping they will again. They slowed down a little, but that’s just the market. We’re in the real estate markets a little ball. 

All right now in Florida is expensive. But yeah, no, I don’t think it was one video. Um, it, uh, I did one video in 2023 that changed my channels and made it go really big. And that was my video that went viral, um, about the condo crisis, but it didn’t change your mind and just made actually, if anything, I’d say that one just said, okay, you’re onto something like it’s, you got luck. You got a viral video that likes to keep going. 

And that didn’t change. Uh, I just, in fact, I just got an email this week and then I reached 5 million views on my channel. So that was pretty exciting. Awesome. So yeah. 

So, but I don’t think it was like one video. I think more so it was just seeing the potential for business to earn money for, for what I do as a realtor. And also the channel started to produce more and, and make revenue. So that was kind of cool. Yeah. 

I graduated over time. 

Spencer: Yeah. That makes sense. So when I first came across your channel, I noticed some of your videos, um, had the fundraiser tag on them. And I kind of wanted to ask you about that. I’ve never actually talked to a creator who’s done their own fundraiser. And so I was wondering what your experience was with that. And I’m also curious, do you think it helped, uh, boost views to your video or, or not? 

Paul: This is not going to be too exciting. So, you know, that was one of those things YouTube had it on there. Like YouTube kind of puts it on there and they partner with people and they say, if you want to do fundraiser, I think it’s YouTube’s way of YouTube’s always about community. If you watch YouTube and look at it, you’ll see it’s a very community driven, you know, organization. They really try to make sure they’re putting stuff out and entertaining and helpful, at least my experience. I know some people had other experiences, but, but, um, for the most part, I think, and they put, they give opportunities to creators to be like, Hey, do you want to create something and maybe give back? 

And it doesn’t take much effort. It’s just like, okay, I like animals. So I’m like, Hey, let’s see if we can raise money for animals because I adopted my two dogs. Um, you know, I love my dogs. They’re like my children. So I, I saw that it was the easy, Hey, yeah, if you want to donate whatever donate, I don’t really have to put any effort into it. Um, I think people know that I love my dogs and my videos. 

I’ve talked about them a few times and they’ve actually been in a few videos. So people know that about me. Um, and so maybe if they see that they make the connection that he helps, he’s the supporter of animals and raising money. And maybe somebody did, but it’s, it’s really, I guess, and it’s weird because I guess I’d have to see it from your perspective. I don’t, you know, from my perspective, I don’t see it that much except I see, you know, on the bottom says, you know, fundraiser for one or two videos. Yeah. It was just something that YouTube was offering and I just said, okay, let’s raise some money. 

I mean, I mean, I have people watching my videos and if I can make a little bit of money to do some good, I think more of it just came from my heart, from my love of animals and dogs, if they can help. So that was it. I don’t think anyone watched the video because of that, because it’s not pushed out in front of you so much that you would recognize it, I think. It’s if you see it, you see it. 

Spencer: Gotcha. 

Paul: Because I did try to raise money back when the hurricane victims, I made a video about the hurricanes that hit Fort Myers and I did try to raise some money for that, but really don’t think anybody ever donated. So, you know, it’s just, I think you really have to be a pretty big, big YouTuber or have a really dialed in audience that like people follow me for real estate. They don’t really follow me because who I am, I think. I mean, some do, but it’s much different than, like I said, a Mr. Beast where if he said, hey, we’re gonna raise money for this village, people are gonna donate, right? 

He’s gonna raise a million dollars real quick. So, but I think having a platform like YouTube doesn’t hurt to at least try and do it. So that’s why I did it. It was pretty simple. 

Spencer: Yeah. Gotcha. No, I was just curious. I do think it’s important to point out for those who do have YouTube channels that trying YouTube features is a good idea. I think it’s something you can learn from and you did it out of the good of your heart, but I’m also wondering if like, there is that little fundraiser tag. So I wonder if maybe people, I guess maybe good-hearted people are like, oh, I wonder what this fundraiser is. 

Paul: Yeah, there’s no one that said they did and I don’t know any analytics that show it, so it’d be cool. But on the, for lack of better words, selfish side, I’ve also done the tags where it’s like, I’m trying to sell products like the cameras I use and certain things. So that’s another thing YouTube made very easy for advertising. You can do, you can put little, I guess promotions of products in the video. Oh yeah, affiliate links. It’s got little things and if you click it, if it’s on, make it a video, right? Now I was doing a video and it’s used a DJI camera and that DJI camera is there and if they click it, I would earn ad revenue. No one has bought anything from me. 

So my viewers are not, they’re definitely not like, you know, let’s Paul’s using that camera, so I’m gonna use that camera. I’ve never made any money off of Amazon affiliate programs. That’s really worked out. 

But I have made a couple dollars, nothing, maybe a hundred if anything over the time I’ve used it. I think this is one of the things we’re gonna bring up. So I’ll jump to it. The Buy Me a Coffee app, which is kind of cool. And the Buy Me a Coffee app for you guys if you don’t know what it is, it’s a way you put an app, you link it to your YouTube account and then you get someone to tell them, go to this link, right? 

Go to this, click the link down below. It takes them to an app and they can send you money and it’s called Buy Me a Coffee. I jokingly call Buy Me a Coffee, Buy Me a Beer because I’m a fan of really good coffee and I also like craft beer. So I’ve had people go, hey, we bought you a beer. 

Cheers, we know it’s hot down there in Florida. It’s a fun way to connect with your audience and I had a guy recently just do it. It’s very sporadic, but those are people who are fans. 

Like they like you. I do have some people that go, yeah, we watch your video every Sunday. We love watching you. 

They have no intention to buy in Florida, but they just enjoy watching. And I was like, wow, thank you so much. So the Buy Me a Coffee is kind of a fun little way. So the Buy Me a Coffee is kind of like a, I guess in a way like a tip for your videos. There’s no subscription or anything like that. It’s just like a one time. 

I do have a subscription base on there, but no one has subscribed. But it’s hard. Like again, it depends on the content you’re doing and what kind of creator you are. Someone who subscribes to another YouTuber might get like personal live stream with them, right? 

Where they have time to do a live stream or something. I don’t have that time because I’m also a realtor. So I don’t know what I could really provide value to anyone. I did put it there and if someone did sign up, then I said I would do some things like, do a shout out for them in the video. And also I did say I would try to put some, I’ll make an effort to put like the sign behind the scene bloopers and just me messing up and whatever if they want to watch it. But apparently there’s no, not enough value in that hit for anyone to sign up. 

So it still sits there. It’s hard though to make YouTube videos and then also make content on the side for the members. It takes a lot of work and a lot of time. So totally understand. 

I’m having a hard time trying to do this and create content on Instagram, which a lot of my realtor friends are doing, but I’m focused on my YouTube. 

Spencer: Yeah. So do you, that brings up the question. Do you do all of the like shooting, editing, posting yourself? 

Paul: Yeah. So I’ve learned from day one how to do it myself. I learned how to shoot, edit, and by all means, nowhere near proficient as many of the people out there. But I learned enough to get the videos up and they get watched. And I’ve gotten better and I’ve worked on my camera gear and my editing software over the years to get better. I still have work to do. 

One day, hopefully I have time to learn more. I used DaVinci Resolve as my editing software and it’s got some really cool features that I don’t even have a clue how to use. So I’m probably using 10% of its features. I’ve, you know, as a realtor, like people like doesn’t it take so much time and wouldn’t you just be better off hiring a video editor to do it, let them edit it? You know, I could. But, you know, hiring an editor is like dating somebody. You really have to like them and have a sympathetic relationship. They really have to get you and you have to get them. And I’ve heard horror stories about people that send their videos off overseas and they come back and it’s nothing what they wanted and now they have to upload it because they’re deadlines, you know, the next day and they have no choice. 

And I don’t want that. So I know when I shoot my videos that I know what’s going up and I know if I, like in early days, I had videos that would get a copyright strike and I would go, what? And it’s because I walked past a car that was playing the song and YouTube software is so in tune, so good at picking up the slightest song. They don’t want to get sued by the other company because I’m earning revenue that they hear the slightest beat of a song and it says, oh, that’s so-so. 

They get all your royalties from this video. And I’m like, what? And I’ve had to read, like take the video down. I’m like, no, you’re not getting my money and literally go back and re-edit that part out, which is why I edit my videos at least two days before they’re due so I can scrub it and make sure. But I like the editing process somewhat. Sometimes it’s tedious. I’m like, ugh, my wife will be like going to bed. 

I’m like, I’ll be here editing till one in the morning, but it’s fine. And I can look back and say, okay, this is what I left on the world. I made these little videos and good or bad and my kids can go back and watch them and laugh at their dad when he’s old. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I shoot and shoot it all myself. And I get a little help sometimes with the shooting part. Sometimes I have a friend that helps with the camera and all that stuff. But for now, that’s just, I like it. 

I really don’t, unless, if I get really big and to where I was like, and I mean big where like YouTube would be taking over my real estate business, if it was making that kind of revenue, then I could see maybe saying, okay, let’s farm it out to someone. And edit it and let’s get this done. I was just going to mention that. I think there is a certain point where a channel gets big enough where it makes sense to doing everything yourself, to hiring people to help you out with the process. 

Spencer: Yeah. And kind of where you’re at, I think it totally makes sense to do everything yourself. 

Paul: And sometimes it is just easier to do it yourself. 

Spencer: Yeah. But I will say, so I’m a video editor and the clients that I work with, before I start working with them, I do like a trial project, to make sure that it’s like a good fit. So I’m not just like, that scenario you mentioned where they get back to video that’s complete garbage and then they’re like, oh, oh my goodness. So I try to avoid that at all costs, but I totally understand doing it yourself. And I think it’s commendable because it’s a lot of work to shoot and edit and upload and all of that stuff. It takes a lot of time. 

Paul: It takes some time. Unfortunately, I’m older in life, and we’re not all partying. We’re not going out places. 

I couldn’t do this if I was in my 30s. I know it just said, no, I’m not sitting home Saturday, but the wife will watch whatever and I’ll go sit and edit and I’ll grab a beer and I’ll be like, let’s get to it and just plug through or Saturday afternoon and get it done. But it’s, the trade-off is like, I shot a video that went up Easter and I didn’t think it was one of the city tour videos where I did a city tour and this is why I backed your question. And I thought it would do okay, but you never know. It was like, it’s a small town, right? 

A lot of people don’t know this little town. And the video took off and it went up to, it kind of slowed down now. It said 22,000, 23,000 views. But I mean, I only have 28,000 subscribers and I got 22,000 views. So my metric for success on a video is I think if you’re getting, I mean, like 10% of the people watching or somewhere in there is a pretty good. And so, getting my, if I hit a thousand on a video, that to me seems pretty good, a little more. Getting 23,000 is pretty, I think it’s pretty darn good for only having 27,000, just now 28,000 subscribers. 

But that video did pretty well. But then because my real estate business right now is a little slow because I’m just right now at the markets a little weird in Florida and I’m finding more time. I said, let’s make another video. So I went out and just shot another video, which is like a walking and talking video where I walk around and talk about the real estate market. And I just happened to go find a place, walk down the street and talk just so it has background scenery. 

And it was a video that was sort of controversial and that video blew up and it’s like it’s 78,000 views now. And I just did it last Wednesday. Oh, nice. So I’m going and trying to like doing a little more shooting and editing and getting those videos out there and stuff. So see what happens with it. 

Spencer: Cool. So you said you started in 2018, is that right? 

Paul: Yeah, I think it was 2018 when I started roughly. 

Spencer: Yeah. So it’s been about like seven years that you’ve been doing it pretty consistently. Would you say there’s any mistakes that you made that you’ve learned from that you think might be beneficial to our listeners? 

Paul: Yes, lots. Let’s see. Let’s start with the phone. So where do we start, guys? 

Make your note, Pat out. People, if you’re listening, this is probably the most important piece you’re going to hear on this podcast. If you’re going to make YouTube videos, pay attention. 

All right. Rule number one, when I started, we all followed each other. And what I mean is realtors follow realtors. 

Stupidest thing we could have ever done. It is one of the dumbest things because one, another realtor is not going to buy a house for me, theoretically, unless they’re moving to Florida and they need me to help them. But they’re in California and I’m in Florida. What do they care what my channel is about? 

They’re making videos about YouTube for real estate. And all we did was, hey, follow like for like. I’ll follow you. And I did that for the first year. And my first 100 to 200 people were nothing but realtors. They weren’t going to watch my videos Sunday morning. They didn’t give a, you know what? They get care less. 

They were worried about selling homes. So don’t ask, if you’re making a YouTube channel about cats that are cool, I mean, I don’t know. Don’t go ask other people that make videos about cats that are cool to follow you or whatever. 

And just think, you know, this, that was a big mistake asking them to follow. You want to grow your channel organically. You want real viewers. Never pay anyone for leads that you’ll get. Oh, I can get your video 10,000 leads BS. I’d rather have my video get two views from real viewers than pay someone for 10,000 fake views because that’s what they are. They’re fake. 

They’re not real views. So all those companies out there, no, don’t do that. Don’t buy it. Let it grow organically. 

If you listen to any successful YouTube, they will say organic is the only way to grow your channel. It just, it’s just, it takes time. It’s not a, this isn’t the TikTok world. It’s, you’re not going to get instant famous on YouTube. You can, if you’re lucky, I shouldn’t say that, but it takes a lot of growth. 

So that was a big mistake. Intros, if you are someone that’s going to be a realtor, if there’s any young realtors or older realtors listening or whatever it is, or even regular videos, whatever you’re doing, do not do a montage of who you are and why you’re so cool. Or I’m the realtor and do a 10 to 15 second montage of cool music and me showing houses because I did that. Of course it was me and I had Ferraris driving by and me standing in front of a mansion and all this BS. And the only thing that did was have viewers go, click next video, they dropped off, man. 

It was like pushing them off the cliff. So don’t do an intro. If you’re going to talk about anything, do something that catches their phrase, their attention, real quick and then jump right into the video. 

Just go boom into it. So that’s what some of the things that I have. Those are some of the things that I learned. 

And then don’t pretend, don’t try to be something or not. I know that I’m not Sirhan, right? Who’s this famous real estate agent, slick and young and cool and does crazy stuff. I know I’m not that guy. 

I’m just me. So don’t copy cat. You can copy concepts, but don’t copy the other YouTuber because you can just do it. And I’ve had people who, funny enough, the realtor copied me and my audience. It’s like all the time. And he and I became friends and he goes, yeah man, I made this video and God, they all jumped down my throat. 

Because it was very much like a video. So they defended me and that was years ago. But yeah, just be authentic. I’m not perfect and I make a lot of mistakes on it, but I do get a lot of comments that people say, hey, you’re very real. And that’s what we like. That’s what we like watching you. 

So, so yeah, I would say those are three. Be authentic, don’t do long intros and don’t buy fame. Just let it happen organically. 

Spencer: Yeah, I think that is great advice. Going back to the first one about growing organically. One of the reasons that growing organically is better is I believe like when you publish a video, it goes out to your subscribers first. And so if your subscribers are organic and they subscribe to you because they wanna see your videos, then they will click and watch that video, which then tells YouTube that, hey, your subscribers are watching this video. Maybe we should push this out to more people. Whereas if like you mentioned, your first subscribers were all realtor, is they’re not gonna watch your videos. So when you publish a video, you should see that, hey, there’s not a lot of people watching this. It won’t push it out as much. 

Paul: So I would get 10 or 15 views and they were all realtors that were my friends, but oh, great for you. Oh yeah, it’s awesome. But it’s like, it was thank you. 

And it’s not, I’m not trying to be mean. We all did it. We didn’t know better. So, but we learned and joined different support groups. 

And then we learned from that. So you can have your family subscribe and stuff. But really the only thing that’s gonna get your audience is to make relatable content, be passionate about the content you’re making and be authentic. And just like, you can copy other trends and other things, everybody copies. 

There’s sorts of worlds of people copying and stealing from each other left and right. But make it yours. Put your spin on it, put your touch on it and be you. And put that out there because your audience will find you. 

There’s, it’s amazing. I’m an older guy making videos and my audience found me. So I know anybody can, there’s all ages, shapes, types, whatever, if you make something that people wanna watch, YouTube is a wonderful world for that and they’ll find it. So just be consistent though. Don’t make a video and then they’ll put something up for three weeks. You’re just, you have to, that’s the hard part. You have to be like, okay, I made that video. When that video is done, you need to already be thinking about the next video. 

What do I gotta do? Right, yeah. So many people create YouTube channels now and they’re like, oh, I can, I can post a video. But like you said, you need to be consistent because to stand out in this saturated market, like you have to add your own unique spin and consistently put that out there. 

Whereas if you only make a video once in a blue moon, then it’s harder for people to find you. And the algorithm knows that. It’s looking like it says, okay, he posts, you’ll learn after a while, it takes a while. It takes a good while before the algorithm will tell you when your audience is watching. But I know from watching my algorithm, or my data, I should say my analytics, not the algorithm, that the majority of them watch Sunday at 10 a.m. So like when I posted that video, as I said, I doubled down and I put a video, even though that video did well, I put it in on a Wednesday, the first hour or two, the video was like, oh, I said that was a mistake. And then it caught wind and someone liked it. Again, it was because it was the type of video. 

It was something to do with real estate and controversial and all that. But the Sunday, people were expecting. And I see the people who comment, I know I see the same viewers, I know my audience the ones that that’s regular and stuff, but then that’s when it populates and goes from there. 

Spencer: Awesome, well, that’s great advice, Paul. I’ve got one more final question for you. 

Paul: Sure. 

Spencer: And our listeners know what this question is because we ask all our guests this, but are there any myths about YouTube or misconceptions that you think from your experience need to be busted or anything that I guess would help our audience listening? 

Paul: I started my YouTube channel when I was 51. Is that about right? 

Yeah, somewhere around like 50, 52, 53 years old. I’m not skinny anymore. I don’t have hair anymore. 

I wear a ball cap all the time. I’m an older guy. I’m not relevant to millennials or even Gen Z stuff, right? That’s not my audience. But the audience I am relevant to is my age group of people that are 45 to 65 years old. There’s an audience for everyone. 

And I mean, everyone, it doesn’t matter what you look like, how you sound. Don’t listen to people. If you believe that you have something that you want to share of the world and you think you can make videos and you’re passionate about it and you have something that you want to tell the world, do it. 

You’ll look, the worst that could happen is that no one watches and you give it a shot and maybe that’s it. And you said, okay, this isn’t for me. But don’t listen to naysayers. 

Don’t listen to people. Oh, you can’t do it or oh, YouTube’s for kids. So I’m not a kid by any means. 

I started way late in life. And for a 59 year old guy with 28,000 subscribers, 5 million views, I am making money monthly off of YouTube. So I do get a paycheck from them. It’s not a ton of money, but it’s better than a sharp stick than I. And at times it’s been a really good paycheck, especially when my viral, my video hit 1.8 million views. And I get business from it. 

It helps drive my business. So don’t listen to people that say you can’t do it. If I can do it, I think anyone can do it. YouTube is this big, huge world that’s open to anybody and everybody. And literally, go look on YouTube. Go look at the homepage one day and just look at all the different type of videos you’ll see away from your own feed. Because the algorithm’s gonna put in front of you what you watch. 

But go to the homepage and try to look and just look through it. And you’ll see so many variants of people making videos that I find something new and interesting every single day. So, you know, grab a camera. You don’t need fancy equipment. You can get a decent microphone and use your iPhone and get a gimbal like $200. 

Like roughly, you know, about that. You can get a setup and you can go out and start recording and you can make it on iMovie and just play with it. There’s a million tutorials that will teach you how to edit and you can start putting videos out there. And I’ve literally seen people put a channel up and explode the next day. I haven’t, wasn’t my journey. 

Took me a while, but I’ve seen others that do it. So, yeah, I would say that. I would say just if anyone can do it. Especially if you’re an older person. If you’re like me, someone who’s, you know, in their late 40s and their 50s, it’s not just a young person’s game. There are so many channels out there of people watching. Most of my audience, like when I look at my audience, more than half my audience is 55 and older. And they watch me on a TV on Sunday. So I know my audience. They’re not watching me on a phone. They watch me on TV. And YouTube TV is now surpassed Netflix and many of the other channels for streaming. That’s how big it is. So yeah, so if you’re a boomer, you’ve got stories to tell. Share the world, grab a camera, share your videos. People will watch. 

Spencer: Yeah. Oh, that is, I’m so glad you said that. That is really good advice. I did mention earlier that it is a saturated market, but I also want to say there’s, it’s never too late to start a YouTube channel. Now is the time to do it. So that is what you said was perfect. 

Paul: We’re in like a information consuming society. People, there’s so much that people want. I mean, I went to Fleet Week and I got to go on that submarine. You know, I was watching before this interview. I was watching how people get to be sub-submariners. 

How do you get to be someone that works on a submarine? I’m watching a YouTube video. Never watched anything about military videos in my life other than maybe a cool jet, but I’m watching this video and they’re showing what they go through to become. So there’s always something to watch. And there’s always someone making something that someone’s going to want to watch. So yeah, they just put it out there. 

Spencer: Yeah, totally agree. Well, Paul, thanks for being on the show. Thanks for sharing your story and your really great advice. Really appreciate it. 

Paul: I appreciate it, man. Yeah, it’s fun. It’s entertaining. If you’re looking to move to South Florida and want to see what it’s like, check out my channel, Palm Beach is Ball. And I show you what living in Florida is like from the perspective of a guy who’s been here for 30 plus years. And it’s not all good. I do talk about some of the good and the bad, but I mostly try to keep it positive and fun. So yeah, and I appreciate you having me on and really appreciate it, Spencer. Thank you so much. 

Spencer: Appreciate it. And thanks to our listeners for checking out this episode of Creators Uncut. If you need help with content creation, make sure to check us out at creatorluxe.com. And we will see you in the next episode.