Jason: You’re going to offend people. It doesn’t matter what opinion you have. 

Spencer: Who takes the time to write comments all day? 

Jason: But we have to be confident in who we are and what we’re presenting. Don’t let the outside influences stop or slow you down or make you hold back from the kind of content you do want to create. 

Spencer: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. Super excited for another episode. Today, like always, we’ve got a great guest for you. Our guest today is Jason McKenzie from the YouTube channel Small Business Big Visibility. Jason, thanks for being on the show. Hey, thanks for having me. 

I really appreciate it. Yeah. So we want to get to know you and your channel. Sure. So if you don’t mind telling us a little bit about yourself and, more importantly, your channel and kind of how you got started with YouTube. 

Jason: Absolutely. So my current channel, Small Business Big Visibility, it’s not my only channel and it’s not my first channel. So I got started with YouTube way back in the day, watching videos back when streaming was very difficult. I had a friend of a friend who was like friend, friend, friend over to Shay Tards, right? And they were telling me stories and they’d like literally film and then sometimes they’d have to fly somewhere all night long, get somewhere with a fast enough internet connection that they could actually get the upload done in time to get the video out on time. And it was just a crazy world back in the day before the fast internet was ubiquitous. And so it was kind of interesting back at those days to see where YouTube was at. And one of the things that kind of shocked me was I was a consumer back then, but I was too shy to be a producer. 

And so it took me a long time to get to the point where I was comfortable putting content out on YouTube. But small business, big visibility, my idea is I want to give back to the world. And so a lot of what I’m doing there is trying to get people to think differently about life and about business. And so sharing a ton of stories and experiences and content around that to try and help people shift from where they’re at to where they want to be. That’s awesome. 

Spencer: I think a lot of people go through something similar. Like you mentioned how you were a consumer and maybe were too scared or too nervous to produce. I know I was that same way. Like sometimes it’s just awkward talking to a camera by yourself and doing stuff like that. But yeah, that’s awesome that you want to kind of, you know, help people have a different perspective. Was there like an event, like a specific time where you’re like, oh yeah, I’m going to make this YouTube channel or was it just kind of like a natural progression, I guess? 

Jason: So for this particular channel, it was very much like one of the next steps in my life and in my journey. But getting onto YouTube the first time, I didn’t start out with YouTube kind of gravitated towards it as far as producing content. 

I was on other platforms producing content. But video was a lot more intimidating for me for a long time. So it took me a little bit longer to get to the, I’m comfortable doing this stage. But then I started jumping in both feet. And at this point I’m putting out a video every day and multiple shorts basically every day. And I just can’t stop. 

Spencer: Yeah, yeah, it becomes a good habit to do. So with all of that content that you’re producing, actually how long have you been doing YouTube? 

Jason: The first channel, I set up the first channel probably eight years ago, I think now. Oh wow. Yeah, so it’s been a few minutes. 

Spencer: Yeah, so from your entire time doing YouTube, do you have like a favorite video that you’ve made? And if so, kind of what was the reason why it was your favorite? 

Jason: I have a few favorites actually. Okay. There’s a couple of different reasons I have favorite videos. And one of my favorite videos was one of the first videos I created, I literally had a YouTube channel that I went and I was like, I keep forgetting how to do this. And it was this multi-step thing in a spreadsheet. 

And I was like, this is driving me nuts. So I created a video, recorded myself doing the thing and gave myself the example. So anytime I needed to, I could reference back to it. And I uploaded it to YouTube. So I’d never lose the video. 

Cause on my hard drive, it seems like something just comes and starts moving files. I’m like, I was sure it was here. And I started searching and three days later, I still can’t find it. So I was like, YouTube, I’ll find it, no problem. And I just upload it, short little video. It audio is terrible, video quality was terrible. 

Everything about the video is horrible. And yet I kind of just set it and forget it. A year later, I go back and there’s like 25,000 views on it. 

And then it just, like more and more people are like, this is the best video ever. Thank you so much. You’re so great. 

And I had no clue. That was a really fun one. But the funnest videos have started just probably within probably the last year and a half. And the last year and a half, I decided, you know what? I don’t care anymore. 

For a long time, I was super concerned. Like I want to make sure I look and present myself a certain way. I don’t want to try and offend people. I don’t want to try and be too much of this. 

I just said, forget it. I’m just going to be me. And so I just started, and they’re mostly all shorts, but I’ll just create little ridiculous shorts of me being absurd, promoting small business, big visibility. And so I was off surfing. And so I created a short where I’m just pretending to be the ultimate surfer, right? And I got the surfer voice and I’m using all the surfer lingo and I’m telling the whole world how gnarly this is. 

And I was stuck in the whitewash. Right. And so my favorite videos of all time are the ones where I just forget there’s anyone else in the world and make a video just because I want to have fun. 

Spencer: That’s awesome. I’m glad that you shared that. I think back when, or I know that back when YouTube first started, that’s what it was, was people just like having fun, you know, sharing videos in their bedroom of them, like dancing or sharing something. So that makes perfect sense why those videos are your favorite. 

And I’m also glad that you mentioned the thing that you recorded that you forgot how to do, that you could go back to. It’s a good example of like the best videos aren’t necessarily the highest quality videos. You know, as long as the content is good, you know, that’s what makes a good video. 

So combined with the passion of like doing it because you’re having fun, that’s what I think people really succeed at YouTube is kind of having a combo of both of those. So thanks for sharing that. 

Jason: Oh, for sure. Yeah. And I will throw in a pitch, though, on the flip side to that. In today’s world, many people have been programmed to expect a certain production quality. And or when we’re watching videos, oftentimes there’s there’s different strategies people do need to incorporate into their videos because I’m just blabbing and I’m not an engaging guy. 

And there’s no reengagement activities happening. The video is not going to do well because people are so used to having videos presented a certain way. As good as it is to do those other things, I think it’s also critical we do keep leveling up as humans and improve our game so that we can really attract the big audience and be putting our on the best show that we can. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. I completely agree. Last year, one of our episodes, one of our guests mentioned how, you know, you need to keep track of like your progress. Like obviously newer channels aren’t going to grow as much as like the bigger channels are. But if you like spend a year making a video every day and you don’t gain a single subscriber, then obviously something is wrong. 

Like you need to change something because obviously people aren’t, you know, getting pulled into your videos. So yeah, it is important to, you know, make progress. Like you said, improve, level up your content as you grow. You know, right at the beginning, everyone kind of is learning. But as you do it more, you learn more and get better. 

And so yeah, I completely agree. So one of the questions that we’re asking this year to a lot of our guests, because we’re trying to incorporate more stories and stuff like that, is about comments. Is there a comment that you’ve gotten on one of your videos that that was most memorable to you, like for good or bad? 

Jason: You know, I’ve got two that come right to mind and both of them, like I wonder who it is that has enough time to sit around and leave comments on videos all day, right? And but one of them, I’m really grateful they left the comment because they said, you’re so uncharismatic, it’s incredible. 

And I thought, huh, that’s interesting. I wonder what charisma even is. Like I can’t even, what is charisma? And I’m like, one person could be totally charismatic to this group of audience and someone else would be completely repulsed by who they are. 

So I’m like, charisma is a pretty subjective thing. So apparently I’m not the right creator for that guy. So like, why bother telling me? 

Why not just move on to the content you actually like? This person is literally suffering. Oh, why do I have to watch this guy? And then bothering to leave me a comment. I’m like, just move on. 

No one’s forcing you to watch my content. But the other one was my second favorite. It was a nine second short. Like that’s not enough time to say anything. And I just posed a question in the video and then gave a very brief answer that led into almost like an advertisement for the full length video that I had produced. And it was just long enough to catch their attention. And if they’re interested, they go watch the full video. 

And this person, off from nine seconds of video time, they commented, this guy doesn’t know anything. Oh my goodness. I’m thinking, like, and I think I actually responded because it made me laugh so hard. Like I said, your skills at judging my knowledge in nine seconds is absolutely astounding. 

Spencer: Oh my goodness. People and the comments that they leave, it’s, I’m the same with you. I’m like, who takes the time to write comments all day? For me personally, I’m not a huge commenter on videos unless like the video was like life changing for me or I’m trying to help a friend out by creating engagement on their post. But a lot of the comments that I see, I’m like, wow. People are crazy. 

So thanks for sharing that. I’m sure every YouTuber gets bad comments, critiquing them. And a lot of the times, like you said, it’s subjective. Like charisma, that could be a subjective thing. So, you know, I think sometimes you have to be careful when you’re reading the comments that you get. 

Jason: And I think from that perspective, I was actually speaking in front of a group, there was about 60 of them there and we were talking about using social media and being on social media. 

And there were so many, they’re like, and their eyes just got so big and oh no, I can’t do that. And their big fears came back to a lack of confidence in themselves is really what it boiled down to. And so when people are leaving those nasty, grime kind of comments everywhere, what it’s doing is it’s giving people the creators that are reading it a chance for those self-doubts to resurface. And so if you have absolute confidence and someone comes in and criticizes you, it doesn’t matter. But if you self-doubt already and you’re questioning yourself, those comments are just gonna be like a sledgehammer hitting you because you are already doubting. So the trick in my mind is, first off, you have to become comfortable with who you are. And then the comments don’t matter so much. 

Spencer: Yeah, that is great advice. I haven’t heard that before, but that makes total sense to me. So, all right, Jason. So I’ve got one more question for you. For those who are tuning in this year, we’re trying to make our episodes a little bit on the shorter side, so make it more fast paced. But this question is a good one. 

We kept it around from last year. But Jason, has there been a mistake that you’ve made while doing YouTube that is something that you’ve learned from that maybe our audience could benefit from your experience? 

Jason: You know, there’s a few things that I think I could share. One of the first ones is, at first when I was creating videos, I didn’t have very good audio. And so I’ve leveled up my audio, and that helps a ton. 

Because when it’s all scratchy and staticky and popping, nobody wants to listen to that, even if you have really amazing stuff. So that’s one. But the biggest thing that I think that people get tripped up on as a general rule, and I know several people who exhibit this and talk about this to me is, it’s that lack of confidence that I was talking about just a minute ago. When they don’t feel comfortable, when they’re not confident, when they’re scared of what other people are going to say in a negative sense, and they’re looking outside themselves for justification of who they are or how they behave, or what they say or what they do, anytime that happens, it’s going to, I think, detract from who we are and our ability to positively impact the world. And when I say positively impact the world, if all you’re doing is fashion stuff, you’re probably bringing a lot of happiness to other people. 

If you’re doing funny stuff, you’re bringing a lot of happiness. Whatever we’re doing, we’re lifting the world, but we have to be confident in who we are and what we’re presenting. And we can’t let other people’s critiques of us come in and smash us, or else we’ll be super scared to ever hit record, we’ll be questioning every single edit. We’re going to be questioning, should I post this? Should I not post this? You’re going to offend people. 

It doesn’t matter what opinion you have. There’s probably people offended that I’m even on your video, and I don’t care. I’m me, they can go do their stuff, and the people that like what you’re producing, they’re going to gravitate towards you. That’s the amazing thing of YouTube, is it’s designed to figure out who will want my stuff and then give it to them. And for the ones who don’t want it, it figures that out and stops giving it to them. So we have the greatest opportunity to be confident in who we are and still level up and become a better version of us, but don’t let the outside influences stop or slow you down or make you hold back from the kind of content you do want to create. I like that a lot. 

Spencer: Do you have like, if there is someone who isn’t very confident in themselves, do you have advice on like something they could do to build that? Do you think they just need to like practice getting in front of a video and editing and stuff like that? Or do you have any tips? 

Jason: Yeah, it depends how systemic that discomfort is. If the fear is merely that black eye of a camera staring at me, then it is just a matter of getting in front of a camera. If you don’t think you speak very well, then you don’t need a camera in front of you. You could record yourself speaking, but more than that, you just need to start speaking. The other thing that really astounds me is, we as humans are programmed to take one event from our past or maybe two events from our past that were just a moment in time and project that as, oh, I’m terrible at speaking because this one time when I was speaking, true story, by the way, this one time when I was speaking, I’m talking in front of about 350 people and I blacked out and fell on my back, legs laid out on the ground. So I must be terrible at speaking. 

And people will say that to themselves and it’s not true. I just happened to black out that day. Why blacked out? I don’t know. 

It didn’t make, I don’t know. But I got back up and still finished my presentation once I woke up again. But there’s no, but people will take that event and say, because of this event, I’m terrible for the rest of my life. Well, no, you had one terrible moment. And so there’s that recognition that there’s a difference between who we are and the moments of our life. So if somebody’s got a lack of confidence, it could be because they’ve taken those moments and started transposing that to their identity. 

And if that’s the case, they’ve got to unpack that. And there’s a ton of good things that could help with that. Meditation can help with it. Journaling can help with it. 

That you can go do things like NLP, EFT, all those kinds of things can help people unpack some of that, who I don’t like, where I’m at, and become more comfortable with where I am and who I am. 

Spencer: Wow, that was very well said. I think that is awesome. And yeah, to our viewers and people watching or listening to this episode, if you’re struggling with that, definitely do what Jason just said. So thanks for sharing that. And Jason, thanks for being on this episode. Yeah, I appreciate it, man. Thanks for letting me be on the show. Yeah, so your channel is Small Business Big Visibility. Is there anywhere else that if our viewers want to check you out that they should go to? 

Jason: So yeah, Small Business Big Visibility is available on YouTube, of course. It’s also, we do a daily podcast with that same name available everywhere else. And then I’m pretty hard to miss if you go looking for me on social media. I’m the Jason McKenzie with the red beard. So it’s pretty easy to find me anywhere. Okay, awesome, cool. 

Spencer: Well, thanks to our listeners and watchers for checking out this episode of Creators Uncut. If you need help creating videos, check us out at http://www.creatorluxe.com. We’d love to help you out. And thanks again. Make sure to like and subscribe for more content and we will see you in the next one.