Julie: I think if you’re going to use AI to create art and to create videos, like that’s how you do it. 

Spencer: Most people I think are going to use AI chatbots versus like a Google search. 

Julie: Every YouTuber is like terrified of this happening to their channel, happened to his channel. 

Spencer: Welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. And not only is it another episode, but this is actually the last episode of the year. So glad you could join us for one more episode before the new year. I think when you guys are seeing this, it’ll actually be after Christmas. So hope you had a good Christmas. Today I’m joined with Julie, my wife, who is also the producer of the show. Julie, hi. 

Julie: Hi. Good to be back. 

Spencer: It’s, uh, I don’t know what to say, cause I see you every day. And, uh, we work together, um, but I guess our audience doesn’t see you very much. 

Julie: So yeah, I mean, I’m behind the scenes and now I’m not. So cool.

Spencer: Yeah. So for this episode, we just wanted to, you know, kind of do like a year recap, you know, go over some statistics, cause I think statistics are interesting, our analytics for our channel. And then also some of our favorite moments from some of our episodes. So, uh, let’s, I guess dive right into the statistics. One of the reasons why I wanted to do this statistics is our episode with Billy Manderino, he talked a lot about living in the now or like the present, present moment. 

And I think a lot of YouTubers focus too much on comparing themselves to like bigger YouTubers. And so while our numbers may not be big, I think they’re good for us, uh, for, for our first year. 

Julie: So yeah. Yeah. I’m feeling good about how we’ve done. And I think quality wise too, like we’ve kind of found our rhythm in the last couple months, like everybody’s first, I can’t remember who said that, but it was like your first 10 videos are going to suck. So just get them out there and then you can start being good from there. And I feel like that’s been super true for us. Um, so whether it’s editing or Spencer becoming a better host or finding guests that are going to resonate even more, it’s been good. Yeah. 

Spencer: So let’s start off with our views. So for our total views for the year, we had 1,429, uh, we had 123 watch hours and we gained 44 subscribers. And like I said, those are in comparison to other YouTubers, very small, but I think for us, for a podcast only channel and with zero, you know, money put into it, I feel like that’s pretty good. 

Julie: Time is money, Spencer. 

Spencer: Yeah. Um, our best episode doesn’t include though, the podcast numbers too, because we’re on YouTube, but we’re also on all the other podcast platforms. So that’s true. We’re even, even more than that. But because I think we focus on YouTube, it’s interesting to know the YouTube stats and then who knows with all the podcast platforms, there’s so many of them and they all track differently. And it’s hard to aggregate everything. So that’s something I wish, uh, YouTube is so nice with their analytics versus podcasts. It’s like you’ve got a nice dashboard that gives you all of these insights. Or it’s like podcasting. It’s like, here’s this platform. Here’s this platform. Here’s this platform. Good luck. Yeah. 

Spencer: Yeah. Thanks for clarifying that. We do have more listens. Yeah. 

Julie: So if you want to listen to us in the car, Spotify, Apple, any of the other random ones, but 

Spencer: then you can’t see all my awkward expressions. 

Julie: That’s true. Spencer’s got some good awkward expressions. I mean, sometimes our guests do too, but you know, sometimes it’s nice to see. 

Spencer: It’s nice to see faces sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, our best episode was our guest, Mike, from Projects for All. His episode got 213 views. And I think the reason his did the best is he shared it on his YouTube channel, which is super, super nice of him to do that. 

Julie: Yeah. Most of our guests don’t do that. Just cause, I don’t know. I guess it, like it doesn’t always fit, you know, with the content that they do to be like, Oh, and then by the way, I was on this podcast episode talking about YouTube strategies, like not, you know, their audience might not care about that. So yeah, it was super nice of Mike to do that. Yeah. 

Spencer: I think personally, I think the community tab, like where people post like pictures or text, I think that is underutilized by a lot of YouTubers. And I feel like, you know, even if it is something different, like it. Is them. So I don’t know. Just some, some thoughts. But our second episode, second best episode was Dennis Meadar from the legal podcast network and his had 117 views. 

Julie: And I think his episode. Yeah, I think just the content was really good. We got a bunch of really good shorts from his. Of like, he was very like, let me smack you in the face with this crazy. Thing that you need to do. And it’s very much like, yeah, I need to do that. So, various sort of very empowering. Be like, do this and you’ll be successful. And I’m like, yeah. So yeah, his was fun. I liked his a lot. Yeah. 

Spencer: So hopefully that was interesting to you guys. I find statistics interesting. Um, yeah. 

Julie: And hopefully next year we’ll get even bigger. 10 X Spencer. I’m saying now sending it into the universe. 

Spencer: And that’s another thing I feel like comparing yourself to other YouTubers is not good, but comparing yourself to your previous self that I think is, is good. Cause you can see how much you’ve grown. Yeah. 

Julie: So Spencer and Julie, we’re hope you’re, hope you’re doing good. 

Spencer: Yes. So let’s dive into some of our favorite moments. We’re going to do three each. And these are just ones that we picked out ourselves. I’ll go ahead and start. One of the ones that I really liked was from our episode with Ruan’s reviews. Uh, he told a story about how his best performing video. He was, I think with family on a holiday or something. 

Julie: He was like traveling and something timely happened. So he was like, I have to make a video about this right now. 

Spencer: Yeah. He does tech product reviews. And so he’s like, I need to do this, but he didn’t have his usual gear. Like in his studio that he normally shoots him. 

And so he quickly, like with what he had made a video and it ended up being like his top performing video, which I think was a good story, not only because it’s a good lesson, but you know, it’s, it’s relatable. I feel like, you know. 

Julie: It’s like, why is this one out of everything? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 

Spencer: You know, have good content and do your best with the gear you have. And I think you’ll be good. 

Julie: All right. I guess I’ll go next. Um, so our first episode with a guest, we had Rob and Sarah on from the tool show. And we’ve been working with Rob and Sarah the longest out of any of our clients. Like they’re the reason we exist as a company today and like Spencer was able to just be a video editor. Like we talked to them all the time and they’re awesome and we meet with them and hear a little tidbits, but it was fun to like hear, like sequentially, like here’s our story, here’s how we got to where we are. 

I think because we have, you know, seen them grow since we’ve been working with them and I don’t know. Seeing the rest of that story was really fun. So yeah. I think, and I think we’ve been pretty good about getting most of our clients on the show, but this next year, I want to make sure we get all of our clients that we work with on the show. Um, just because it’s, it’s fun to hear. It’s a good way to connect with our clients too and be like, tell us more. It’s, it’s a way for us to be nosy while being like official. Like we want to hear all the details, but also I don’t want to just, you know, in a meeting be like, so tell me everything. 

Spencer: Yeah. Yeah. We don’t always have time to tell, to hear the whole story. 

Julie: And I feel like podcast is a good excuse to talk to people. So I want to do more of that this year and just like reach out to people like, Hey, I know you’re huge and you probably don’t care, but. 

Want to be on my podcast. Like I want to shoot for the moon this year, you know? Yeah. 

Yeah. And I actually, I want to get tool show back on to talk about some exciting new projects they have coming. I feel like they’ve got an interesting twist coming that is unique and cool. So maybe we’ll see them again this next year. 

Spencer: That would, that would be very exciting. And I, I would love to have them on again. The nice thing about having clients on is like, I already know them. So I feel like I’m more comfortable as a host. So it’s easier to talk to, but yeah, that was, that was a good episode. 

Speaking of clients, another person we helped edit videos for is Mike from projects for all. His episode was, like I said earlier, the best this year. Um, and I think one of the reasons it did so well is because of the thumbnail and title about how YouTube is a sacrifice. And I just really liked how Mike was very realistic about doing YouTube. You know, he has a full-time job, which is like 60 hours a week or something. And he does YouTube on top of it. 

Julie: And he’s a family and why, like he was explaining everything he does in a week. And I was like, hold crap. You’re a busy guy and you’re doing this podcast for us. I like almost felt bad. I was like, oh my gosh. But yeah, he’s putting in the work. He’s seeing big results, which is like so fun to have watched and, you know, helped him with some of his videos too. It was cool. Yeah. 

Spencer: Yeah. So it was just. you know, good to see the behind the scenes because a lot of people don’t see the hard work that YouTubers put in, especially people like Mike, where they have a full-time job and are doing YouTube on the side. So that was one of my favorite highlights. 

Julie: I feel like it’s been like 50-50 with our guests being full-time YouTubers versus like full-time YouTubers and full-time nine-fivers. And like, it’s interesting to see both sides because not that one way is right or wrong, but it just is different for every person. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I loved that one. 

My second one was actually from an episode. If you look at the, I was looking at the analytics for this one and it was super interesting because it didn’t have a ton of views, but the percentage watch time number was so high. So his episode, if you haven’t listened to it, I think is like a diamond in the rough episode, but TJ’s episode, he talked a lot about SEO and AI and I used to work for a marketing agency before I went full-time here. And like, I knew about SEO and, you know, keywords and ranking, website and heading and all that stuff, but like, to hear him explain it in a new way and then also integrate it into SEO of like, here’s how you rank in, or AI. Here’s how you rank in the AI world, kind of blew my mind. Like my brain hurt after that episode. Like I was taking notes. It was so good. 

Spencer: Yeah, there was a water hose of information, but there, I think TJ talked about this as well, but there’s gonna be a shift, I think, with, you know, SEO and AI, because most people, I think, are going to use AI chatbots versus like a Google search. And so you’ll need to rank differently. And as YouTubers, like if you want your videos to pop up, yeah, I would just definitely recommend watching that episode. It was very insightful. 

Julie: Yeah, it’ll make you think, it’ll make you question everything you knew about ranking on YouTube. And yeah, it was cool. It made me think like, what’s next to on YouTube? Cause I feel like YouTube hasn’t integrated AI maybe as much as some other platforms. 

Spencer: Well, it has, but not in good ways. Oh yeah. Yeah, like the AI, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but the AI that reviews channels to make sure that they’re following guidelines has made a lot of mistakes. I think when you create a short, you can like generate videos in shorts maybe, I’m not sure. 

Julie: But I’m thinking though, like AI search integration into YouTube, like they haven’t done that yet. And that like Google is starting to do that. It’s like, do you want to use Google AI or do you want to use Google? And I wonder, you know, when is it going to be like, do you want to use YouTube AI search or do you want to use YouTube search? 

Spencer: That’s true. That would be interesting. Yeah. 

Julie: So long story short, TJ’s episode. If you want your mind to be blown about AI and SEO, definitely watch that one. 

Spencer: Yeah. Speaking of AI, my next favorite thing is also about AI, but we had Professor Shadow on the show. 

Julie: Oh yeah. His channel was super interesting. But if just a quick premise, his entire channel is AI video. So he creates these characters and stories using AI and then generates them with AI video. 

And he has like a community that helps him come up with story ideas. And it was just super fascinating to see an entire channel completely AI. I think that’s something that works for him because it’s completely AI. 

You know, I don’t think everyone should go completely AI because then that could cause other problems. But for him, I thought it was fascinating. Yeah. And I think like it’s not what you think when you’re like generate me a video to put on my YouTube channel. Like that’s not what he’s doing. He’s created this whole web of different characters and worlds and scenes. Like a multiverse. 

I think he called it the shadowverse. Like insane detail that he’s programmed these AIs to like know these characters, know what they look like, know what they talk like. So he can generate very specific moments based on the story that he’s developed. 

Which is like, I think if you’re gonna use AI to create art and to create videos, like that’s how you do it. Like if you were to spend time animating all of these people or like it would be a huge cost, huge time, but he still wants to get these stories out there. Like I think it’s a good way for, like he’s using his skills as a storyteller and as a writer and as a creator. 

And then using this really as a tool to help get his media out there. Unique take on, you know, AI is taking over art, AI is taking over animation. It’s like it’s a different way to think about it of like when someone’s got a great idea but doesn’t have the budget to animate or the skills to animate all of this, then it unlocks, it’s like a new tool in their toolbox. 

Spencer: I think you said that exactly. It’s like a new tool in his toolbox. So yeah, even though it wasn’t one of our top episodes, it still did really good and definitely recommend checking it out. 

Julie: His has kind of like steadily climbed up there too. Like I think his is one that, like when I tell people about our podcast, I’d be like, listen to these three and I feel like his is always gonna be in those three because it’s just so interesting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, his was cool. My last one was, it was a while ago. 

I think it was in the summer or late spring that we did this episode, but David Sidoni, he’s from How to Buy a Home, he talked about some crazy things. 

Spencer: Yeah. And basically- Yeah, his thumbnail was insane. It turned out so fun. But he talked about how someone got into his YouTube channel and hacked it and replaced all of his content with Elon Musk content. 

Julie: It’s like nightmare horror stories that every YouTuber is terrified of this happening to their channel, happened to his channel. And it was just interesting to hear how he navigated that and figured everything out and how his audience reacted to that. You know, like think about your favorite YouTuber one day waking up and all of their videos on their channel have been replaced with something else. And it’s like, where did they go? It’s just, yeah, that was really interesting to me. And it was super funny too. He explained it in a really, I think comedic way, which was fun, even though it was probably like such a stressful situation. 

Spencer: Yeah, I think what was interesting for me is like, if I was a hacker, why would I do that? Like the effort it would take to just like, put out Elon Musk content, like that’s what- I know. 

Julie: It was confusing to me, but- On this one chant, like he’s got a pretty good following, but like when you think of all the things you could hack, I don’t know. 

Spencer: Yeah, it was- It was weird. 

Julie: It was weird. It was a good episode. It was wild. Yeah, so I thought it was fun. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s it though on- Yeah, lots of good moments. 

Spencer: There’s definitely a lot more good moments, so make sure to check out all of our episodes that you missed. And yeah, next year we should have some new episodes and maybe some changes. Yeah. 

Julie: Yeah, we’ve been talking about like, what things we wanna keep, what things we wanna toss. And I think it’ll be like similar format because I know that’s been really fun, 

Spencer: but- We’re not gonna change it too much. 

Julie: Yeah, maybe a new background. 

Spencer: Yeah, you guys don’t see this wall in front of me, but might flip things around. 

Julie: It’s cooler than, yeah. We’re decorating. So that’ll be fun. I think, I think the main thing is more stories next year. 

Spencer: Yeah, at least content was. 

Julie: Yeah, yeah, we wanna hear when did you run into a subscriber at the mall and they freaked out and passed out and you had to call the ambulance to, because they hit their head on the marble floor, like things like that. 

Spencer: And I think it’ll lead to advice too. Yeah, maybe not that graphic, but it’ll lead to advice of like, okay, how do you talk to subscribers in real life? 

Julie: How do you make sure that you’re representing yourself? Well, I think both online and in person, like things like that, I think advice, a lot of the time comes from stories. So maybe instead of like directly being like, what is your advice about this situation? We’re gonna have them dive into that more. 

Spencer: And then the advice will just come. I agree. I think the advice is good. And we asked a lot of the same questions to all of our guests this year. And we noticed that a lot of the answers were the same. And so, we kind of get that. And so we kind of wanna move on. We’d love new advice. And as things grow and evolve, like we’ll have to get new advice anyways. But yeah, definitely more stories and interesting things that happen to YouTubers. Yep. 

Julie: So tune in. You don’t wanna miss it. It’s gonna be cool. Spencer’s gonna be just as awkward. So you won’t miss that. 

Spencer: Yep, I will be. So hopefully I’ll get better too. 

Julie: Yeah, you’ve gotten so much better throughout the year too. So I think podcast hosting just takes practice. 

Spencer: And maybe we’ll have Julie on an episode more often. 

Julie: Who knows? If we get some guests that I’m a mega fan of, then I might just have to insert myself into the conversation. Have a three-way call. Yeah, be like, hi, I’m your biggest fan. So yeah. 

That’s I guess another highlight. Our episode with Miranda, I fangirled a little bit because I had watched her for years and years and she emailed me back and I was like, oh my gosh. You emailed me back. She’s like, I emailed all the people I watch regularly and she’s the only one who emailed me back in it like went through to an episode. So shout out to Miranda for making our dreams come true. 

Spencer: Well, Julie, thanks for joining me this episode. It was good to recap the year. Yeah, and thanks to our listeners and watchers for checking out this episode. If you need help with creating videos, make sure to check us out at http://www.creatorluxe.com. Like and subscribe for more content and we will see you next year.