Robert: You know, you’re buying like these lottery tickets. You know, you’re not sure which video like is going to actually take off. 

Spencer: It’s a lot more pressure and you know, I think creativity takes a hit. 

Robert: Like if something takes off, then it really pays to like double down on it. 

Spencer: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. Super excited for another episode. I have an amazing guest lined up for you guys. His name is Dr. Robert Chan. Robert, thanks for being on the show. 

Robert: Yeah, thanks for having me, Spencer. 

Spencer: Yeah, so like we always do, we’d like to get to know our guests just a little bit. So why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself? Maybe what you like to do. Obviously you’re a doctor, so what your profession is. And then most importantly, because this is about YouTube, tell us about your channel. 

Robert: Yeah, I’m a urologist. I’m practicing up near the San Francisco Bay Area just north of Golden Gate Bridge area. So that’s my day job, but just one of the passions that I had was I’ve always been interested in doing like video and film. 

Never really had a chance to kind of explore this during college and school because I was just trying to basically get into medicine. Basically took up all my time. Makes sense. So, you know, when I had a chance, just, you know, I kind of came back to sort of this interest that I had and started a YouTube channel. Gotcha. 

Spencer: That makes sense. I know that being a doctor takes a lot of schooling, so I can imagine there’s not a lot of free time to do a lot of things. So how did you, if you don’t mind me asking, how did you get into urology? 

Robert: Yeah, so during medical school, during the third year, they make us go through a bunch of rotations. So we’ll do pediatrics, we’ll do gynecology, and then we’ll do like surgery. Urology is one that, you know, I didn’t really know very much about it going into medical school, but then when I got onto the rotation, you know, it’s a nice mix of things. You know, we’ll do a lot of surgery, take out like kidneys and prostates, but then also like deal with like a lot of men’s health type stuff as well, like erectile dysfunction. And so we really make nice, you know, long term, you know, relationship with patients, aside from just like operating on people. So that’s what really drew me to it. And all the people that did it at my medical school, they really seemed to enjoy it. 

Spencer: Yeah, that’s cool. Did you always want to be a doctor? Because I know when I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor, mainly because I knew that doctors make a lot of money. But then when I was in like junior high or whatever, we did like this surgery simulator type thing, like on the computer. It was like very cartoonish, but I was like, I got very queasy and I was like, I know I’m not going to be a doctor. I was like, I can’t handle gross things. So did you always want to be a doctor growing up? 

Robert: I, you know, I don’t think I ever knew. It’s just one of those things I think my mom told me I’d be a doctor. And so it was sort of a, I think a self fulfilling prophecy, but never really considered. 

I mean, I enjoy what I’m doing and I’m happy. I did it. But yeah, I mean, I remember doing some, you know, dissections of like pigs and stuff in high school and really, really enjoyed it. You know, so. Yeah. 

Spencer: Nice. Cool. So you mentioned you were interested in like video and filming, but how did you get specifically into creating your YouTube channel? Did you have a friend or someone encourage you to like do that? Or because of your interests, you’re like, Hey, I want to try and practice these things. I guess how did you actually start your channel? 

Robert: Yeah. So I started it by finding there’s like this local like community television station here in Marin County called Marin TV. But one of the things that they do is they offer a lot of like educational sessions like, Oh, how do you work a camera? 

Or how do you like edit on, you know, Final Cut Pro or something? But it was just like these very like, you know, basic like intro things that was kind of a nice, you know, nice way to kind of get, get into it. And so that’s how I got into it. You know, I just started just filming my family. 

I have two small kids. And so, you know, just doing like home videos and just editing it was like a lot of fun. So I enjoyed that process. But what really got me to actually doing the sort of my YouTube channel, which basically is primarily focused on like surgery or like urology related topics, was the pandemic during the pandemic. 

Spencer: You know, stuff obviously shut down. I had a lot way more sort of free time than, than not. And then, you know, as everybody kind of experienced, it was sort of socially isolating. Yeah. So this was, this was kind of like a way to just kind of, you know, put myself out there, put some stuff that I’m making out there and just kind of interact with the community. So it kind of fulfilled that, that, that need for me. 

So yeah, no, that totally makes sense. We’ve actually had another creator on the podcast who also, you know, around the time of the pandemic started a channel and because, because it was so isolating. And it’s a good way to connect with people. 

So yeah, that totally makes sense. You’re actually one of the largest channels we’ve had on this podcast. I didn’t know if you knew that. But I’m curious, what do you think was the key to your success for growing your channel as big as you got it? Yeah. 

Robert: I think the one piece of advice that I got when I started was from this guy, Ali Abdel, who he’s got like millions of followers on his channel, but he’s like this productivity guy. But he always, he always said, you know, hey, if you make one video every week in two years, you know, like, he was like, I promise you, your life will look very differently in two years. 

And so I think, you know, he really harped on sort of consistency and just kind of, you know, being very consistent with the process and putting it out there. So, I mean, I think for me, I think a good analogy is it’s sort of like, you know, you’re buying like these lottery tickets. You’re not sure which, you know, you’re not sure which, you know, you’re not sure which video like is going to actually take off. But the more that you kind of put out there, the more, more chances that like, that, that you have that like something’s going to really take off. 

Spencer: So I love that analogy. I’ve never heard that before, but that is like perfect, a perfect way to describe it. You know, I do think there is some like skill and it is important to have, you know, good quality for, for people to come back to you. But I do think, you know, sometimes one video just pops off and you’re not sure why. So that totally makes sense. So were you, were you consistent? Did you post every week for two years? 

Robert: Yeah. That’s once I really got started. I did at the beginning, like I was just posting very haphazardly. But then once I really got, you know, more committed to doing it, I was posting like once, once a week for about two years. 

Spencer: So awesome. So your content is primarily like educational going along with your profession, which is technically like adult type content. So have you had any issues with YouTube blocking your videos because it thinks it’s something that it’s not? 

Robert: Yeah, that’s a great question. Yeah. I mean, like the stuff that I talk about, you know, like the, some of my most popular content is about like rectal dysfunction or like penis pumps. Evidently the internet really is interested in penis pumps. But that obviously, you know, triggers a lot of like, sort of, you know, not safe for work type, like warnings or not, you know, not appropriate for children. So, you know, definitely, you know, like a lot of my videos will get sort of not banned, but they’ll have like advertising restrictions on it because it’s not, you know, it’s not appropriate. Advertisers obviously don’t want to be like associated with like some video about like talking about penis pumps. 

Yeah. So, so there are some, you know, there are some sort of down downsides to making sort of this this type of content. But I mean, at the end of the day, like my purpose in making this stuff wasn’t to like try to monetize it or anything. It was more just education more than anything else. 

Spencer: So I’m curious, as a doctor, did you have, have you had any patients that you’re like, Hey, I have a video about this, you should go watch this or do you just kind of explain it in person? 

Robert: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, a lot of my videos are basically like the talk tracks that I’m like telling patients like every single day. Oh, yeah. And so, so for some things, like, you know, it’s actually more efficient for me to, you know, just put on a video and, and, you know, have all these like visuals as part of the video to like explain something like, for instance, like I have this video on like how to do penis injections, you know, and, and it’s really helps the patient kind of see what I’m talking about in this video format, but then at the same time, like, because it’s, you know, basically me on the screen kind of talking to them, they still kind of feel like it’s, it’s very personalized to them. But then it also kind of, you know, kind of while the video is going on, I can kind of work on, you know, getting a prescription ready or getting him like other stuff. So, so it definitely saves, you know, save some time, but at the same time, like I can actually get that education in during that clinic visit. So I mean, I think that the patients appreciated it. 

Spencer: So yeah, no, that’s awesome. That seems like a perfect tool. We actually talked to someone else on that, the podcast, they’re in a completely different field, but they kept getting like the same questions over and over again. And so they, they’re like, Hey, we’ll just make a video and then we can show it to them. So that way we don’t constantly get all these questions when we, when we meet with them. 

So, oh yeah, that’s awesome. So how do you decide to make videos? Is it based on questions that you receive a lot from your patients, or do you just kind of like get an idea for one? Or how do you, I guess, what is your process for making videos? 

Robert: Yeah. So my process is basically what’s, what’s a question that somebody is asking frequently enough in my day to day clinic visits that I think would be helpful for other people to hear. So other times, you know, people will post in like the comment section, like, Hey, go make a video about this, or somebody’s wondering something about this. And then finally, like, you know, I think what, you know, sometimes like a video will take off and, you know, you don’t know why, but for whatever reason, like it seems to like really trigger like a lot of traction. And so making very, you know, different variations on, on that video can sometimes be really, really helpful. 

Yeah. Like, like one of the first videos that I had that, that took off, this was when I think I only had like a few hundred subscribers or something. But, but there was like some video where I just stuck like a bunch of marshmallow peeps in like a vacuum erection device and like pumped it, pumped it up to kind of demonstrate like how, you know, like the mechanics of like how like a vacuum erection device actually works by, you know, creating this negative pressure. But, but people, you know, people really enjoyed that. And so I think, you know, if for somebody who’s like trying to grow their YouTube channel, like if something takes off, then, then it really pays to like double down on it. 

So, you know, like, like I made all sorts of, you know, variations on kind of that same theme just because, you know, it seemed to trigger something for the audience. So. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. I completely agree about doubling down on your stuff. I think there is a little bit of like a key to success for videos. And so when you do find one that is like good, then like copying that, well, not copying it directly, but like doing something similar and reformatting it will work a lot. And I’ve even heard that just like reposting. I mean, I don’t know about YouTube specifically, but I’m thinking of like TikTok or Instagram Reels, but reposting the exact same video, but like re or changing the title could impact and have a huge difference in the viewership as well. So repurposing your content and copying what works. So. 

Robert: Oh yeah. Yeah. No, that’s true. Yeah. I mean, like thumbnails and like titles are like, I mean, so key. I mean, sometimes they’re more important than like the actual video in terms of like getting people to like watch it than the actual video itself. So. Yeah. 

Spencer: Yeah. So I bet it’s hard to come up with thumbnail ideas for your channel. Uh, based on the topic, without getting too crazy. So do you have you ever gotten flagged for like a thumbnail? I don’t even know if that’s possible. 

Robert: Yeah, you know, I’ve never got flagged for a thumbnail. I usually try to keep it fairly like fairly discreet. Yeah. 

Spencer: Yeah. Yeah. Cause I know like the, the, you know, the thumbnails get presented to like a wide, you know, wide range of people that, you know, aren’t even like trying to like look for the this stuff. 

But, you know, I mean, I have a lot of like, like pictures of like eggplants, you know, as like stand ins for for certain certain like body parts. Yeah, which which makes it okay. 

Spencer: Yeah, no, that totally makes sense. I guess jumping back a little bit to your process. All these years that you’ve had your channel, have you kind of been like a one man show where you shoot edit or where you like plan, shoot, edit and post all yourself? Or do you kind of have people that help you with that? 

Robert: Yeah, I’d say the first few years, I was just kind of doing everything myself. Like, I mean, I was just like shooting on my iPhone. So it wasn’t a very like, very like, sophisticated setup or anything like that. I mean, I think that’s something, you know, nice for people who are starting out, like, they don’t need like, like a $3,000 camera or they don’t need like some setup to get started. 

I mean, like their iPhone camera or their like, you know, like simple, simple stuff works. But yeah, but later on, like, I, I kind of dabbled with getting like, people off of like fiverr or, you know, just basically trying to outsource different parts of my process, like thumbnails, like I was, I don’t have much of a graphic design background. And so, you know, I would definitely lean on getting these people who are good at making thumbnails, try to come up with something that looks way better. So it’s, it’s kind of worth it. I mean, I think, I think early on, it’s helpful to kind of do everything yourself, especially like if somebody’s not monetized yet. But then later on, you know, once, you know, once, once the channels are monetized, like it makes sense to basically try to outsource some of the some of the things that you’re not like, as strong at doing to find, you know, to to find a way to kind of up the quality, especially since there’s kind of money coming in. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. I completely agree. I want to jump back to what you said about the iPhone. I really agree about starting out just with what you have, especially iPhones. iPhones have gotten crazy good. 

As of late. I was recently, I don’t know if you’ve heard of the Waveform podcast. Yeah, but there’s a big YouTuber MKBHD. 

It’s one of his like tech podcasts. And they were in their podcast episode, like showing pictures. They were similar pictures, but taken with an iPhone and then one with like a film camera. Yeah. And they had to guess which one was the iPhone and which one was the actual camera. 

And a lot of time they guessed wrong. Incredible just because the iPhone camera is so good. So I totally agree. You should use like if you’re starting out, you should use what you have, especially if you have an iPhone. cameras are just so good nowadays. 

Robert: Yeah, even the editing software, like it doesn’t have to be like super, you know, super fancy. I think like when I started out, I was just using like the free package that came with like the Mac, the movie maker or yeah, the movie maker. Yeah, yeah, something super simple. Yeah. It doesn’t have to be, you know, super complicated. I know you do a lot of editing. What what’s kind of your go to editing package? 

Spencer: Yeah, so I, I went to school for digital cinema, which is like all about filmmaking. And at my school, you could like, pick what they call a track, which is like a focus. So you could like, if you wanted to be a cinematographer, you could like, take extra classes to focus on that. And because I wanted to be editing, I focused on that. And I kind of used a bunch of different softwares, like I’ve used DaVinci. I’ve used Final Cut Pro like once. 

And then there was another one that I used. It may have been Sony Vegas. But while I was in college, I got a job at an agency and they used Premiere. And so I started using Premiere every single day. And now I can’t change. I’m locked into Premiere because I just love it. 

And I’m so used to it. But I do think if you’re starting out, you can start with any, any of them. They’re just all so good. Especially with the AI tools that are coming out now, that makes it even better. I also want to point out that fancy editing doesn’t necessarily make a good video. Good planning and shooting makes a good video. And then post can just enhance that. But if you have a bad idea and don’t execute very well, then your video won’t be the greatest. You can only do so much in post. So just throwing that out there. Yeah, yeah. I’m sure you you already know all that. So using Fiverr, did you have any like, good or bad experiences using Fiverr? 

Robert: Yeah, I mean, most of the experiences were were fine. I mean, I’d say, you know, depending on like how much you’re willing to spend like, for editing, like it’s like a whole like price range. Like some people were were fine. But I think at the end of the day, like, most of the people that I got, like, they’re just sort of okay. Like the videos, they didn’t really perform that well. Or any better than than then kind of the stuff that I was editing. 

Spencer: So So I noticed at the bottom of your videos, when I was checking out your channel, you had a little box that said, you know, you are a licensed doctor in the US. And I’ve never seen that box before. And so I was kind of curious, how you got that box? 

And like what your experience has been with that box? Like, are you allowed to, because you have that little notification? Are you allowed to give proper medical advice? Like, through the comment section? Does that kind of work? Tell me tell me more about that box. Sure. 

Robert: Yeah. So that box was something that YouTube I think was trying to implement, especially during that pandemic when like people were who were like not licensed, like medical people kind of saying sort of stuff that might be construed as dangerous. 

If you actually like followed it. So that was a way of just adding a little bit more like, you know, credibility or like, hey, you know, what this person is saying is coming from somebody who’s actually like a licensed like physician. So so maybe there’s a little bit more like authority to it. 

But but the way that the YouTube makes us, you know, like they have a supply through some something through YouTube, and we have to like provide like, you know, documentation or like our NPI number, you know, something to basically prove like we are kind of who we say we are. Oh, gotcha. Now that doesn’t translate into me being able to kind of give any medical advice, actually try to avoid giving any type of like specific, personalized medical advice, and always kind of direct people to just go, you know, ask their like, ask their their actual physician. 

I mean, at the end of the day, you know, like my channel is, it’s educational. It’s, you know, like, I’m not recommending any, any type of like medical treatment or anything. I’m just trying to kind of explain like, Hey, these are, you know, these are the options. These are the things that, you know, are out there. This is what it means. But by no means, I’m not making any recommendations for, for like, a specific person or anything like that. Gotcha. 

Spencer: That makes sense. Yeah, especially during the pandemic, I’m sure there were plenty of people, you know, saying what they thought when they weren’t actually like licensed doctors. So that that totally makes sense. Have you ever gotten new patients from your videos? Like someone comes in there, and they’re like, Hey, I saw your videos. And so I wanted to become your patient. Has that ever happened? 

Robert: Yeah, yeah, I’ve had a few patients that way. I think they, you know, I’m always surprised that, you know, by how many of the videos they’ll watch. But I think a lot of times, like, they just kind of like, you know, like they, they feel like I’m somebody that they will get along with as, as a, as a physician. And so what’s kind of neat is, I think, by the time I actually meet them, they feel like they already kind of know me because they’ve watched a lot of my videos, they’ve like spent time, like listening to me. And so, so it, you know, it’s it’s nice. 

It’s nice. It’s almost like they sort of have this sort of relationship already, even before kind of, you know, meeting in person. Yeah, it definitely makes it makes that trust factor a little bit easier. Like that I think they, they definitely like trust me more. You know, because they’ve, they’ve listened to me and like, you know, kind of like, like the way that I’m kind of explaining things. 

Spencer: So yeah, yeah, definitely. I think it would be cool if YouTube implemented that little box that I mentioned, for all professions, like if you’re a mechanic or something, and like a professional mechanic, like, you could like apply to get that little thing that says, Hey, I know what I’m talking about. So yeah, I think that’d be a cool feature if YouTube implemented that. 

But I guess for doctors, it especially makes sense. Yeah. So as you were growing your channel, where was there ever a point where like, Hey, maybe I want to become like a full time YouTuber, like just make YouTube videos for a living? Or has it always been kind of like a side project, like a hobby? 

Robert: Yeah, it’s always sort of been a side project. I mean, I think having sort of a creative outlet is great for, you know, certain, like certain jobs. But I think, you know, whenever something becomes sort of like the main thing, it definitely puts a lot more like pressure on it to the point where it, you know, isn’t as much like isn’t as much fun. Now it becomes a little bit more stressful. And, you know, the performance of the videos ends up like taking a little bit like more like taking on a little bit more weight. 

So yeah. So so I never really wanted to kind of do, you know, become like a full time, like YouTuber or anything like that. Because I think it’s hard. Yeah, I think it’s definitely, you know, it’s definitely hard. It’s like playing golf, for instance, like, you know, playing, I don’t know if you play golf or not. 

Spencer: Or I don’t really play golf. I have played golf, but I don’t constantly play golf. 

Robert: Yeah, yeah. Well, like, you know, golf is supposed to be fun. But if you’re playing golf, like as your job, like, that’s probably not, you know, that’s probably not as like fun. It’s probably a little bit more stressful if like your like livelihood kind of depends on, on how you play. Yeah. Yeah. 

Spencer: Definitely. That I think a lot of people who start YouTube channels don’t understand, like I think a lot of people will start a YouTube channel, because they want to become like rich and famous. But when it does get to a point where maybe you can, you know, go full time YouTube, then like you said, it’s a lot more pressure. And, you know, I think creativity takes a hit. Because you’re just trying to get the numbers up. But you’re not like constantly thinking of good ideas, maybe that could be different for everyone. 

But yeah, I agree. So moving into the last couple of questions I’ve got for you, this is more like the advice portion that we usually ask all of our guests. But through your years doing YouTube, has there been a mistake that you’ve learned from that you think our listeners and viewers could benefit from? 

Robert: I think one mistake is thinking, you know, making the way you feel about your video, based on like how it does in terms of like the metrics or the views. I mean, I think if you know, it’s this is a, you know, making videos is like creative process. 

And it should be enjoyable. But sometimes I think, you know, if, if like people put too much pressure on like, oh, this video only got, you know, like 100 views or something. And then now they feel, oh, this was in a great video. But I mean, I think it’s kind of separating, separating the two things, and just like focusing on sort of the craft of, you know, making videos or editing or like storytelling, and just trying to get better without focusing on the like the external validation from it. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. There’s a famous quote, comparison is the thief of joy. So when you you compare your 100 view video with like a million view video, you’re like, Oh, but you know, if you compared your 100 view video to the no video yesterday, then oh, it’s it’s really good. So yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, that that is great advice, Robert. Thanks for sharing that with us. And thanks for being on the show. Really appreciate it. 

Robert: Yeah, yeah. Thanks for having me. This was this was really fun. So I really enjoyed chatting. 

Spencer: So if our viewers want to follow you, should they just go to your YouTube channel? Or do you have other social media platforms that they can follow you on? 

Robert: No, it’s just my YouTube channel. 

Spencer: Okay, awesome. Cool. Well, thanks to our listeners and viewers for checking out this episode and make sure to like and subscribe for more content like this. And if you need help with creating or editing videos, make sure to check us out at creatorluxe.com. And we’ll see you in the next one.