TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

How To Turn Content Into A Full-Time Career

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We map a repeatable path from zero to full-time creator, blending fast idea testing, platform-specific strategy, and clear pivot points. Millie shares a seasonal growth case study, editing tactics that spotlight personality, and a practical way to use AI without losing your voice.

• why diversified platforms need platform-specific content
• testing loops for breaking 0–1K and beyond
• short form as a validation engine for long form
• signs it is time to pivot using 30-post and nine-video audits
• seasonal strategy for compounding reach
• early monetisation via services and brand partners
• editing that highlights personality and brand cues
• alter ego for on‑camera confidence and consistency
• AI as an accelerant for research, scripting and workflow

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Welcome And Promise Of Growth

SPEAKER_00

Get to a hundred thousand on any platform. Impossible.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know if I have an answer to the why is it possible, but I just know that it is.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, welcome back to the only podcast. It's here for you to help you grow your channel, even when you've given up. I've never given up on you. Of course, I'm your host, Travis, here as always. Super excited to get you in here and learn you some stuff about YouTube. But I have an incredibly special guest today. I'm super excited. And uh mainly because uh Millie might know more than me. She might she might be a little bit smarter than me at this. This is Modern Millie. Welcome to the show, Millie.

SPEAKER_01

Hey Travis, thanks so much for having me. I don't I don't know about that. We could we could have a good little riff-off and see what happens.

Meet Millie And Her Mission

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. If you're new here, we're here to help you grow your YouTube channel. Of course, if you listen to the audio podcast and you're driving to work, and this is the job that you really want, you want to have this as a full-time job. This is a great opportunity for you to learn a whole bunch of things. So make sure you get a notepad and pencil. Do people even use notepad and pencils anymore? I'm not real sure about that, but if you do, write it down. If you're on your iPad or whatever, write these notes down because I guarantee you the stuff you're gonna learn today is gonna help you grow your channel. And if you're watching on YouTube, hey, listen, I'll hit that like button. Uh you can like us. We're pretty nice people. All right, Millie, let's get into it. Tell us a little about you and your channel and what you do for a living.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm Millie. I'm an online educator and YouTuber. I teach aspiring content creators how to go from not really knowing anything about the creative space to replacing their nine to fives or replacing their careers with content creation. Really, I'm just like an advocate for content creation being that career path and making that path possible to anyone who wants it. So that's what I do. That's what my channel's about.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. And the thing is, that's actually what we kind of do here. Some people um maybe aren't super fascinated with their nine to five and they want to do content creation. They've seen a lot of people do it. They're like, oh, this is cool. This is me. And those are the people that are listening to this podcast. And we want to make sure that we set some realistic expectations, but I I like having you on specifically because you don't just talk about YouTube, although we'll primarily talk YouTube today, but you talk about all the different spaces. How did you get into this and how did you make it a success? And then we'll talk about some actionable things later on.

From Dance Injury To Creator Coach

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. I uh I feel like I kind of fell into this accidentally in a way. Originally, you know, the big dream back in the day was to be a dancer, audition for So You Think You Could Dance and dance in Hollywood and be in all the cool musicals, you know, that was the dream. But I uh unfortunately had an injury in college and it forced me to lose my dance scholarship that I was on. I was forced to drop out of college, and my doctor's like, you need a sit-down job, you're gonna be on crutches for the next nine months. So that's where things kind of pivoted, and I had to find a new dream, a new career path. I'm somebody that's always loved YouTube. Ever since middle school, my uh brother and I we had a YouTube channel together and we would just made videos for fun. It wasn't this, oh, I want to be a YouTuber thing because YouTubers didn't exist back then. We don't need to put a year to it because I don't need to date myself. But it was I don't either, trust me.

SPEAKER_00

We don't want to know about me. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02

It was a minute ago.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02

And honestly, I just I remember being in my nine to five and thinking about the things that brought me joy. And I have so much fun and had so much fun making videos with my brother. So I was like, all right, let me just get a camera and start creating again because that was the only other thing that truly lit me up. And I started creating mostly on Instagram and YouTube, and Instagram started to take off, and people were asking, Hey, how did you do this? How did you do that? And I've always been a teacher, an educator. I taught dance for nine years. I would tutor others when I was in school because I just loved teaching and teaching people how to do what I was doing felt natural. So I just the more I taught, the more questions were asked, and then I just kept answering those questions, became full circle, and now we're here.

SPEAKER_00

I love that. So, what type of content did you originally start creating before kind of the educational stuff? Or was it all educational from the beginning?

Early Content And Audience Pull

SPEAKER_02

No, it wasn't educational before. I actually originally started with portrait modeling. So I was doing Instagram modeling. That's actually how I met my husband. He's put in my DMs.

SPEAKER_00

So that actually works. That's so funny.

SPEAKER_02

It's great. Modern day love story. And I uh I was doing posing and like photography tips, how to feel confident in front of the camera. That's what a lot of people asked me about with portrait modeling. They'd be like, How do you even feel conf like confident to pose and act and tell stories with your body, you know, things like that. And as I started posting the modeling stuff, that's when people started asking about camera confidence or even editing photos. And so all those little things that I didn't even think about was going into that creative process. I started teaching on those, and then that is how it developed into content, content strategy. And my Instagram was growing. So people were like, Well, how are you getting creating content that also creates Instagram growth? So I just kind of followed my audience.

Platform Fit And Diversification

SPEAKER_00

Wow, that's crazy. Let's talk a little bit about that. Again, we don't talk a lot about Instagram, but I think it's important uh to have um your content spread across different platforms whenever possible. Diversification to me is super important. Talk to us a little bit about how do you do that in a way that's like authentic to the platform so that you're not just kind of spamming the same stuff everywhere. Is there things you need to consider? Like to uh to educate me on this.

Why 100K Is Achievable

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, at the time, really there that there wasn't reels yet. So I was just doing photo content and carousels. But then as reels came onto the scene, that's when I started, of course, implementing whatever software update Instagram is pushing out. You know, they change every time you blink. So I was trying to keep up with that. And I think modern day, like now, the uh best way to kind of stay up with what is working on platform specific is doing platform-specific content research. You know, if your goal is to grow on Instagram, check and see what's performing well on Instagram in your niche and make sure you really have a pulse on how that algorithm and and platform behaves. Because while a lot of these platforms have things that overlap and make them similar, there's also a lot of differences in the audience's interests and of course the algorithms and what they they deem fit, you know? So just really have a pulse and be obsessed with the platform that you want to grow on.

SPEAKER_00

One of the things I noticed about your channel, and it's in the banner, is a very bold claim, which is like get to 100,000 on any platform. That sounds aspirational. It sounds way out of the norm, it sounds impossible. Uh, why is that so possible? And what are some of the like underpinnings on how that even works?

Breaking 0–1K: Tests And Mindset

SPEAKER_02

I don't know if I have an answer to the why is it possible, but I just know that it is because I've all the students that I've worked with and all the different ages and niches and uh just being able to see amazing success stories from people go from zero to over 100,000 followers in six months making gardening content. You know, so like you get to as an educator and coach, I get to see it happen all the time in so many different industries. And so why? Because, you know, people like to consume content. People just love to consume. They scroll mindlessly. And if you happen to pop up on their for you page, boom shakalaka, you can get a little bit of growth there. But when it comes down to the practicalities, there's different phases that each content creator goes through and different milestones that each creator goes through. For example, that first milestone for someone might be 1,000 followers, and then the next might be 10,000, and then 50 and then 100. So that's usually those milestone markers that a lot of my students set. And to get to each one, there's going to be best tips and practices that you can implement. Also, mindset shifts that need to happen that unlock that next barrier for you. For somebody who is just going from zero to 1,000, those first few things, those mindset blocks are going to be completely different from somebody who already has 10,000 and wanting to go to that next level of 100,000. So if you're just starting from zero, that first thing might be getting in front of camera, the camera. That first thing might be, well, I feel like I need to get clarity on like what my niche is, or how how what kind of content should I create? You know, like answering all of those questions and those first 1,000 subscribers or followers, that's usually what unlocks that next level. And so we could talk, of course, about each of these phases and like what goes into each one, or like if I have practical tips. That's my biggest thing is I always want to make sure the audience leaves with practical takeaways that they could apply and leave today. So that's kind of like the overall answer for your question.

Messy Action Over Perfection

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So I, and you're right, getting from zero to a thousand at times is some of the hardest work you'll do as a content creator than getting those other uh milestones. Because typically, if if you've gotten to a thousand, you at least somewhat have an idea of what you're doing. But to even get to that point, especially if you've never content created before, is really difficult. You have to change your mind about how things work because typically creators come into the space with assumptions because they've just watched a lot of YouTube or watched a lot of read a lot of Instagram and stuff, and they just kind of think, oh, this is how it works. So they see the surface, they don't see the rest of the igloo underneath the water. So tell us a couple of the things that if you're new to content creation or even if you've been doing it for a while and you're just kind of stuck at like 300 uh subscribers or followers, and you just can't seem to get over that bump. What are some of the things that maybe some people are doing wrong or things they need to keep in mind?

Knowing When To Pivot With Data

Shorts First, Then Long Form

SPEAKER_02

One thing that I see a lot of people getting stuck under that 1000 threshold is they uh think they have that one piece of content that's gonna unlock it for them or that one strategy. So they just keep doing that one thing over and over and over and over and over. And it's like, okay, the reason it's not working is because you're just doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over. And so you have to have a variety of content or variety of things that you're testing when creating content. So you always want to be in like this test mode where you're like, okay, I'm gonna test this topic. And then okay, maybe I'm gonna test this topic. Okay, now I'm gonna test the method of delivery. So maybe it was just me talking to the camera. Let me try the same topic, but now I'm gonna do a voiceover. So you want to keep having variation within your content and just test to see what's going to work. That's easier said than done for short form because with short form, you know, it's gonna be like seven seconds here or maybe a minute there. So it's gonna be quicker to kind of differentiate all of those pieces of content. Whereas long form, that takes a lot of effort to like diversify the different methods of delivery. So maybe with long form, all you're doing is testing topics, right? You're just rotating through topics and just gauging the interest there. Another one that I see stopping people hit that 1,000 follower threshold is not being open to the idea of doing content research and thinking or assuming all the ideas that naturally come to you are viral ideas. And I don't want to discredit anyone who feels those sparks of inspiration. And I never want to tell someone like, hey, don't create what you want to create, right? We always want to have creative freedom. But there's a balance with okay, create what you feel inspired by, but also create the things that are validated in your industry. Create the content that you know is going to perform well. Do the research to find what's working and try to apply that to your content. Those two things are like the most common things that I see holding creators back is like not wanting to do the work to do content research, but also not willing to push themselves out of outside of their comfort zone and test other forms of content that maybe they are too nervous to try, like talking in front of the camera, talk in front of the camera, talk to the camera. So get outside of your comfort zone a little bit and don't be afraid to take messy action because when you take that action, clarity will follow. I think a lot of people wait for clarity before taking action, and the action is what's going to give you clarity.

SPEAKER_00

I like that phrase messy action. Um I tell me more about that. What is give me an example of something that's a messy action I could take as a content creator? I love that term.

TikTok As A Testing Ground

SPEAKER_02

Yes, absolutely. Oh my gosh. This could happen literally everywhere. And I think it's the types of messy action will deter will vary depending on what kind of perfectionist you are. So one way you could take messy action is if you have a bunch of video ideas, like just pick one. You know, that could be a form of messy to someone. It's like, oh, well, it's not, I don't know if it's the right topic. It's like, well, just pick it anyway. You'll figure out if it's right over time. Just pick something. Another way of like messy action is you're you're deciding between content pillars, right? And you're like, well, I have these five, but I also don't know if I want to do this niche. It's like, okay, test all of the niches that you want to talk about. Test all of the content pillars. It's okay to take messy action and like make a video about this, make a video about that, especially in those beginning stages of as you're discovering who you are as a creator. Even when it comes to editing and posting, you know what? Dare I say, you post a video without a hashtag, oh my gosh, messy action. You know, like it's okay to not have it be perfect all the time. Even now to this day, I still feel like I take messy action with content creation, just because the content creation space changes so much. You just have to be able to accept that flexibility in your content routine and pick and choose where you want to really focus your intention on. And then other places where you're like, cool, I could be a little bit more relaxed about this right now.

Loving Long Form Work

SPEAKER_00

I love that. I want to dig a little bit deeper into that. But before we do that, let's say I have decided on a niche. Like I've done a little bit of research and very something passionate about it. I also tell creators that you should probably be a little bit passionate about your product about what you're doing, because if you're not, it's just a low-paying job at first that you don't like. You already have probably have one of those, which is what you're trying to get out of. You want to get into something fun. So make sure it's something that you enjoy. But let's say you're doing the thing. And um, again, as a as a small content creator, sometimes it's hard to know how long that should take. Ironically, just made a video about how long it takes for most YouTube content creators to get to a thousand subs. So if you haven't seen that video, you should watch it later. Um, but when do you know that this isn't working? And it's hard to tell because when you're sh when you're new, like you don't necessarily know what success looks like when you're first starting out. But when do you think it is maybe not obvious to most creators, but obvious to you as someone who coaches people through, uh, that like, okay, this isn't working for you. We need to either pivot what you're doing or or take a look at something. Like, what at what point can you can you start to make that decision?

SPEAKER_02

It will look different depending on short form versus long form, because with short form, you could post a lot quicker and get that data. So if you're posting consistently with like one set strategy for 30 to 60 days, and by consistently, I don't mean you have to post every day, but you have your routine, maybe it's three times a week. You get at minimum 30 posts of short form up, and nothing has changed, no new followers, no spike in views, like all videos are capped at 200 view jail.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

Personality, Editing, And Brand

SPEAKER_02

Something's gotta change, right? I 30 videos is like kind of what I'm looking at when I audit my students' accounts. I want to see at least 30 up there. And any little change can be a sign. So if a video you have all of them are 200 views, right? But then one got 298, or like that, that could be a little sign to look into those analytics and take a look at what was working well there. So I with short form, that's what I look at. With long form, it does take a little bit longer. But what I want to look at is I want to see maybe nine videos up from a student because yes, long form will take a little bit longer to get all of the analytics and data, but I like to look at maybe nine long form videos that have been posted. They've been up for maybe 30 days, and uh, then we could kind of go from there to see, okay, what tweaks do we need to make? You might be able to pull some analytics sooner for long form, but again, usually with students that come to me, they already have had some videos uploaded, and those are the most recent nine are the ones that I'm looking at.

SPEAKER_00

Are you seeing more shorts creators come to you or long form or a mixture of both? What are you currently seeing?

SPEAKER_02

I see majority short form. A majority short form. And there are a lot of uh YouTubers or people who want to be YouTubers, but they uh want the quicker growth.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

So they pursue a short form platform to then hopefully pair into a long form strategy down the line. And when when creators come to me that way, I'm like, okay, let's do TikTok then, because Instagram, for some reason, audience doesn't pair well with YouTube from what I've noticed with my my content, and also a lot of my students who have tested that Instagram YouTube partnership, yeah, they don't see the trade-off. Whereas like a lot of my students who do TikTok YouTube, they see a better trade-off there. So a lot of short form people are interested, and then uh secondary would short would be long form.

SPEAKER_00

So you you would uh you would uh tell people maybe to start off with TikTok as like a kind of the build the muscle, so to speak, the content creation muscle, and then kind of move it over to YouTube later, or do you just reuse that content from TikTok to YouTube? I get this question a lot. So I and I don't really use TikTok, so I'm always like, I'll find someone who knows the answer.

Seasonal Strategy And Monetization

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. This is a great question. So everyone's content strategy will look a little bit different depending on their goals, but most of the time, what we're doing is they'll come to me, they want to be a YouTuber, but they're like, I don't have the patience to wait a year and like post one video every other week or like one video a week if I could get one video a week up. And so we choose TikTok to quickly or quickly, quicker test their content ideas a lot faster. Because if they have all these video ideas that they're like, oh, this would be a good long form, this would be a good long form. I'm like, okay, well, instead of spending not only it's like a 10, 15 minute video that it's gonna go up, that's a lot of packaging. You're doing the research on packaging, scripting, filming, editing. So let's just quickly test all of these ideas in like 30 to 60 second videos that you could quickly post to TikTok. Let's test that over the next 90 days, three months, see what topics your audience is interested in. And then whichever videos have more interest, those can then be long form videos that we make over on your YouTube channel when you're ready to diversify your platforms.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's funny because I've talked to a lot of different shorts uh creators over the last couple of weeks, and it does seem like a lot of them do eventually went to the long form. It's funny, I just talked to Patrick Sinali the other day, and he said that uh I was like, Well, you're he's actually doing both well. Very few creators can do shorts and longs well. It's pretty unique to find someone who could do that. And Patrick's one of those people who can, and he said, uh, the way I look at it is if you really love everything about YouTube, then you can get into long form. If you just want quick views and stuff, you you just stay short form. Just don't even bother. You have to be too obsessed with long form. Do you agree with that in any way?

SPEAKER_02

Or he's saying, can you can you clarify? He's saying you have to be obsessed with long form.

SPEAKER_00

If you want, he said you pretty much have to be obsessed with the platform, YouTube doing all things because you have to spend more time making your content, more time researching, more time producing, editing. Like you just need to love it in order to get in the long form. He tells all his short form friends who want to get in the long form, do you love YouTube? No, then don't do it.

Authenticity That Wins Fans

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you know, I might I might agree with that because I feel the same way. I think the reason, one of the only reasons my YouTube channel is where it is, is because I love YouTube and I am obsessed with the platform. Right. I love doing content research. I love the idea of packaging title thumbnails. Like that excites me. And if somebody doesn't genuinely love it or is interested in it or is curious about it, it could work, but maybe like you delegate that down the line, but like, are you gonna get burnt out before you could delegate it? Because it it is a lot of work that goes into each YouTube video, and I don't think a lot of people understand that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it it really does. I mean, it's nice that short form can allow people who are very creative who maybe don't have the time or or even the interest in doing the things you need to for long form to give them a platform to express. We've seen some incredibly creative people. Um, is there anyone that you maybe have worked with? You don't have to name them if you don't want to, that you were particularly impressed by who didn't maybe have a background in content creation, but came on and just like, whoa, like you get it right off the bat. Because that's so rare.

Starting From Scratch Playbook

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I have a few short form students specifically who uh one comes to mind, her name was is Jess, and she was the gardening example that I talked about earlier. She literally started, she's like, I I don't know anything about social media, doesn't know how to use Instagram at all, but she was working, I believe it was like in finance, and that was her career. She had been in finance for over 20 years, and but she was passionate about gardening, and she's like, I'd love to just be able to garden and do that full time. And she had no experience even filming, recording. And we worked together, and six months later, she had over 100,000 followers and also growing on TikTok, decided to start a YouTube channel. Like she's on all three platforms now, and that she was able to leave her nine to five her career for the past 20 years. She was able to leave that, replace it with content creation within like those. Six months, first six months of going for it.

SPEAKER_00

I need you to explain how you get someone who has a gardening niche to be able to be full time in six months. Can you break down how you went about that? Because there are definitely very passionate people in gardening, and certainly um there is money to be made there, but also it's somewhat seasonal. And from the perspective of like content creation, you don't see a lot of people going into it. So maybe that's a good thing for like competition. But like, how did you approach that niche? Because I have a feeling there's people listening to podcasts now, they're like, well, I don't have one of the mainstream niches, and this might be similar enough to the niche that they're in, they might be able to take some nuggets away from it.

Identity Shift To Show Up Boldly

2026 Outlook: AI + Creator

Final Resources And CTA

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'll share a few strategies that were implemented, but I also want to fully give credit to Jess because like she is the creator, you know. Like I only give the blueprint of, hey, try these strategies. But she did the work to like she was doing the content research, search, filming, editing, coming up with ideas. Like it was totally all her too. So I I'll give some strategies, but I don't want to claim all of this as like, oh, I did all this work, you know. Right, right. She very much worked really hard. So one thing you had mentioned, you're like, well, with gardening, it's seasonal. And I think that's actually an advantage of the niche or any niche that is seasonal, because you're able to lean into that as like a more timely trend. And that's something that I teach my students too is thinking about your content in season and even foreseeing how could my content be adapted to upcoming seasons. I think the most popular way is like, you know, the holidays. Nowadays, you start seeing Halloween content in August. You know what I mean? And for some people, they're like, ugh, this is so annoying. I don't want to see this on my feed yet, not till October. But those creators are being so smart because that content is gonna have such a long shelf life and will continue to rank in viewers' viewer, the viewership's eyes for at least three months instead of instead of waiting till October to just like, oh, I'm gonna start filming in October for October content, but then you have maybe two weeks to post, you miss your opportunity. So with gardening, she was able to foresee different seasons with okay, winter. This is how you want to be prepping ahead of time for winter. Okay, spring is gonna be in like three months from now. So, what sort of content can I prep for spring and help my audience for when spring comes? So I think leaning into seasons is an advantage that she was able to leverage for sure. Also, she knew, I think she had an idea of how she wanted to monetize pretty early on. And that's gonna be a great way to leave your nine to five if you know how you're gonna make money with it. You know what I mean? So she was actually taking on like gardening clients where she would look at their backyards and give feedback for okay, you can make this change, you could do this, and just like give the layout feedback based off of maybe their budget or what they wanted to do with the space. So she was able to do that not only in person, but figure out a way to do it virtual and take clients that way. So just being thinking out of the box with what sort of value does your audience want within your industry and how can you deliver on that? And then brand collaborations was another way we were able to um have her replace her income. One of the first brand deals she landed was five figures, and and it was it was just really cool to watch happen. And finally, I think her uniqueness and just leaning into who she was took her like beyond everyone else in her competition. And that's such a cheesy thing to say, especially as somebody who I've been in the shoes of I was driving to work, wanting to be a content creator, listening to a podcast like this, and they're like, be your authentic self, be you. And I'm like, Yeah, but what what do you mean? What about me is unique? I don't know. And the more you create, the more you find that. But she would leave in these bloopers where she's like walking through a garden and like showing different things in the space, and she would like trip and just like laugh, and she just left in all of those things that made her uniquely her. And I think that's what people resonated with anytime she like tripped over her words or tripped over a rock, you know, like she left in those authentic moments instead of trying to cut them and polish to look a certain way. And I think just people people loved that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's true. I actually, in my early content career, I did that a lot. Now I'm perfect, so I never make mistakes. Right. It never happens, never happens anymore. So I don't, there's nothing to leave in. Um, I want to talk a little bit about you though, because um, proofs in the pudding in a lot of this stuff. One of the things that a lot of content creators want to be able to do is to be the niche. And I talk about how this is such a rare thing to do. Typically, content creators have to find a niche, uh, a subject matter to talk about over and over and over again. And while you do have like kind of a large umbrella niche, if you look at your videos, especially your long form stuff, I'm gonna concentrate mostly there. Your most popular videos aren't just the same thing. So, from the outside looking in, if you look at like some of your bigger ones, like your Instagram reels, and you you would think, oh, okay, so nine out of the 10 popular videos are gonna be all Instagram stuff because that's typically how YouTube works. You'll have like one thing that works and works across, but you have a little bit of everything here, even like Capcom, uh CapCup. Um, you have like how to make aesthetic videos, like it's more about the thing and how you did it. Can you walk us through how to take a subject and while it is important to get people in the door, how to keep them for you?

SPEAKER_02

You know, you just gotta be really cool like me.

SPEAKER_00

True, true story. You gotta have the aesthetic and everything.

SPEAKER_02

You know, I'm gonna be honest, that's something that I think I still struggle with and try to try to work on because sometimes the story that I tell myself is people aren't staying for me, they stay for my brain. And uh, but also like I am my brain, so maybe they are staying for me. But I again I think it just comes with getting more comfortable on camera. And I for me it was being myself on camera, leaving in again bloopers, mistakes, or I'm sure you've noticed throughout this whole interview, but I use voices for certain things. So like I'll be like, I love you, you know, like I do. And so leaning into that, and I think being able to lean in to your camera presence and emphasizing it through editing is something that a lot of people talk about. So if naturally when I'm talking to you and I use these voices, when we're in editing, we're like, oh, how do we emphasize that Millie moment? So if I do this voice where I'm like, I'm an influencer, nanny, and my editors are like, oh, she did the voice again. Let's adjust the pitch, maybe edit the uh visuals so it's maybe more black and white. So we kind of lean into the Millie moments with the editing, or if I mess up, it's like zooming in, really embarrassing me. So that's one pairing. Another thing, two other things that I'll say. One is when it comes to like brand consistency, my personal brand. I try to also like wear my brand colors and still show up as my personal brand when I'm on camera. This is gonna be different because if somebody's just doing more like lifestyle vlog content, that might not be relevant for me. I feel like I'm teaching, I'm educating, and it's more like this business for me. And it's like business milly instead of vloggy millie. So in these business videos, I'm also like wearing my brand colors and I try to stick to that. And then within every video, I do try to bring back one personal moment of relatability. I don't do this really well. I think an example of a creator who does do this well is Ryan Trahan. With all of his videos he posts, it doesn't even have to be about him. He's like testing Yelp reviews or he's going the what did he do? He traveled to, oh, the trains. He like tested all these different like trains, the most expensive train in in whatever country. And he always brings it back to like something about him and his life, and it makes you like him as a creator. You start because you're like, oh, I want to see the most expensive train in the world. But then be with his storytelling and how he brings it back to like, oh, I'm picking up postcards for my dad and I'm doing this for my wife, or that is really what keeps you subscribed and coming back because you get to know him. And so that's something that I try to do. It's harder for me, or it's harder for me as an educator, but it's something that I'm working on and I try to implement with every video.

SPEAKER_00

It was funny, Ryan's names come up a couple of times uh in these interviews, even with larger creators, or like, yeah, Ryan's storytelling. I want to get to that level, which is so cool to be able to be inspiring for someone. Um, and as far as the branding thing goes, uh a couple of uh what a week or two ago, depending on when this podcast goes live, uh we talked to Roger Wakefield who talked about branding, how he branded himself. Make sure you watch that podcast as well. And it's super important because it is a way for people to connect with you in a way that they'll remember. So for Roger, like once you see his videos, you think red shirt and the mustache beard thing. Like it's in it's indebtedly marked into your brain. So it's not a thing that you can't do even as a small creator. It could just be the same shirt you wear or the color behind you, or something, any small thing that people can connect with and go, that is a Travis video, that is a Millie video. Like that's branding, and that is one way that people can remember you when they just hear you for like the first or second time. They want to remember who's that person. Ah, yes, this, and then try to find you again. And hopefully you're so good people talk about you to their friends. Um, couple more things. If you had to start today, I love doing this challenge for every creator with no no money that no money that you have right now to be able to start it back up. Uh, you only have your phone, uh, you don't have your social media to to kick start this thing off. What's the channel you would make? What platforms would you use? And what are the first three videos that you would make?

SPEAKER_02

Okay, question.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Am I like trying to go viral? Or is it like, oh, this is for funzy milly, what would you want to do? Ha ha he he.

SPEAKER_00

Why don't you answer both?

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Why not both?

SPEAKER_02

That's true, that's true.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So for me, I think both would be some sort of coffee-related content.

SPEAKER_01

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

Just because I uh I love my morning coffee, my morning iced lattes. I love making new homemade syrups and like trying different recipes. It's and I've filmed my coffee making stuff, and I enjoy that creative process too. So I'm thinking about what do I enjoy doing? That's truly authentically me. And I also enjoy the filming, the editing of it. I have tried to do like fashion-y content or like mommy content, and like it's not me. I try to film it, I try to edit it. I'm like, this is not working. I don't love this. But the coffee stuff, there's not a lot of friction there. It just feels true. So that's the first direction I would go. Now, if it's just for me for funsies, I would just like film, post, edit, whatever the heck I wanted to for creative fulfillment. Now, if it's more so trying to get followers, that's when I would lean into, okay, like what aspects of coffee do I want to lean into? Do I want to like brand myself as like the iced latte gal? Do I want to be an educator? Do I want to be more relatable? Of like talking to a friend. How can I what do I what do I want to be known for? And then if I know what I want to be known for, then I'm just gonna start acting like I'm already known for that thing. And so if I want to be known for the girl that's gonna give you the best book recommendations while having her cup of coffee, I'm that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna set up my phone. I'm gonna what do the whole recipe while talking about my favorite book at the moment. And then I'm also gonna do my content research to see, okay, what's the best hook gonna be for this video? I'm thinking visual hook, probably pouring the ice, the espresso into the milk. That's a good visual hook. But what am I saying while I do that? And not only what am I saying, but what's the hook text gonna be while all of that happens? So that's what I'm thinking about with every video that I'm producing. And then as it posts, studying analytics, doing content research, what's performing well in the niche, and just continuing to get 1% better with each video.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's fantastic. I love the whole um being the expert, but fake it till you make it, basic, is what we're saying here. And I remember actually when I first started, I was doing this. Um I don't know if it's because I was fooling myself or something, but I kept thinking, all right, I'm making this video, thousands of people are gonna see it. I mean, at the time I had like a hundred subscribers, a thousand people are gonna see it. Uh, but I remember thinking, okay, this one day this would be the thing. There'll be a camera guy back there, and I got in. And for some reason it worked. Like that works. Putting yourself in the mindset of the successful creator that you're going to be makes you do things to become that successful creator you want to be. I think some people have this uh take of like, oh, I'm not there, I'm too small, no one watches. Well, if you take that into the the the studio or the whatever the house or whatever, and you're just shooting it, that's gonna come across in your energy. If you come across like the expert, why would anyone doubt that when they watch your content?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. Can I tell you, can I tell you a little secret?

SPEAKER_00

I would love to hear it.

SPEAKER_02

That's pretty much how Millie came to be.

SPEAKER_00

Hey.

SPEAKER_02

Millie's my little alter ego that I created, and it's not really my first name.

SPEAKER_00

But I was well, Travis isn't mine either. No one knows that, but it actually is.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, we're so I feel like I need to be like we might have to get it.

SPEAKER_00

I don't want anyone to know that they're gonna suddenly ask me what my real name is. No, go ahead, keep going.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, and that it helped me show up more confidently. I was when I had graduated high school, I was Camille, and that was my that was my first name. And I was going off to college, and I just wasn't loving who I was. And I was like, I just want to feel more confident. I want to be able to speak boldly and speak confidently and stand up for myself and all these things that I was like, I just want to be this other person. I was like, okay, well, I'm when I go to college, I'm gonna change my name. I'm gonna tell everybody that I'm Millie and I'm just gonna be that person. And so I did. And then that that kind of just trickled into everything else that I was doing with like creation and like my job. I just was able to show up a lot more confidently, which I guess this is kind of something that was uh taught, I guess, in a book called The Alter Ego Effect, which I had never read and I still haven't read. But every time I bring up this example of like, yeah, I actually just created Millie because I just needed this bolder, more confident version of myself. People will be like, Oh, have you read the book Alter Ego Effect? I was like, No, but they're like, it's basically the same thing. You create that other identity, kind of like your Clark Kent, and you step into that, you picture and envision what that is and how that feels, living in that other alter ego, and then you just show up as that person.

SPEAKER_00

That, you know, someone's gonna be listening to this and going, Is that really a thing? And I I'm gonna just tell you in a very unironic way, yes. This is actually one of the tips that you can walk away with, use it. Will actually work if you really commit to it. Now, we're not saying be disingenuous to yourself. That's not what we're saying. We're saying take the best parts of you, amp it up a thousand percent, be where you want to be, and be that creator. And you'll be surprised at how the performance the way you do things will change and how things look better, how much more confident you feel. Um, the content will will speak to people in a much stronger and authentic way. It's I never talk about this. I don't know why I've never thought of this before. It's actually a really critical part to the process. What a great, what a great idea that is.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and it's like like you had said, I'm glad you clarified, it's not pretending to be someone else. You know, I'm not thinking, what would Sally Sue be and do? You know, like I'm not thinking about Sally Sue. It's like, what would the 10.0 version of you be doing? How would they be showing up? What does this 10.0 version of you have? Skills, what skills do they have that you need and start doing those things?

SPEAKER_00

I love that you skip the 2.0 and right to 10.0. You are amazing.

SPEAKER_02

Who needs 2.0? 2.0 is outdated.

SPEAKER_00

You're blowing my mind right now. You're blowing my mind. I love this. Okay. Couple more things. We're gonna land this plane. We're doing well. I like this. Um, 2026, uh, a crazy year in content creation. Uh, I feel like now with AI becoming so uh in some ways scary, not gonna lie, but so integral in part of the content creation uh process. Like, what kind of things should we be looking at when we're moving into 2026 as content creators? What are the things we need to keep our our eyes and ears open for and the things we need to be open? Because see, the thing is some people are gonna be like, I don't want to do short form, or if they're short creators, I don't want to do long form. Like, what type of things do we really just need to be open to for 2026?

SPEAKER_02

I think it's just that. You just have to be open. You know, everything that you thought you knew, everything that every opinion that you thought you had, ask yourself, well, why do I believe that? Why does that opinion exist? Where did this come from? You know, if the answer is, well, it's just what I've always thought, it's like, okay, maybe that needs to be questioned. So you gotta figure something out. But um, something else, because you had touched on AI as well, of like, oh, what do you need to be looking for? I think one of my one of my mentors had said this to me, and it helped me kind of open my eyes a little bit with growing as a content creator because it's in this like AI world. How do you scale a personal brand and keep up with, I think that's the thing, keep up with all the changes. You know, that's the most stressful part of being a creator is how do I keep up with the algorithm changes? How do I keep up with this and this and that? And when my mentors had said, you're not in the content creation industry, you're in the AI plus content creation industry. So if you just add AI to the beginning of whatever it is that you're going to do, and you figure out ways to leverage AI in a way that feels authentic to you, that you agree with, then you're able to keep up, again, the quote, keep up with other people in your industry, with the creator economy. So for me, I'm thinking this year, what are some ways that I can leverage AI for my business, automate certain things, or make editing faster, you know? What are different ways I can implement that so that I am in the lead of the AI plus creator economy?

SPEAKER_00

It's so important. I know that some creators don't like AI, but I'm just gonna be honest with you, you have to understand it. If you don't understand it, you're just putting yourself at a disadvantage uh across the entire industry. And um, like it or not, at least understand it. Even if you don't want to use it all the way, understand it so that you know there might be something about it that actually works for me personally. I like that it can do research for me very fast because I like to talk about things with facts, and I don't have 12 hours to do the research. I can get it done in 30 seconds. And I think that there's nothing wrong with that. Um, but every person's uh line on that's gonna be different. Modern Millie. Killing it, crushing it. You've learned so many things from this incredible woman today. Uh, is there anything else you want people to know about uh as far as you or anything in content creation?

SPEAKER_02

You can follow me over on my YouTube channel. I have furry content there that I post every single week, and I try to make sure every single dang video is packed with tangible practical frameworks that you could apply or walk away with that day. That's something I'm a firm believer on. I really want to give value with every video. If you want to work more closely with me, I do have the BSP model. It's the Ivy League for content creators. It's what Jess applied to go from zero to 100,000 followers in six months. It's really the roadmap that teaches content creators how to go from zero to full-time income. And so that's where most that's when every time I reference my students, I'm talking about my BSP students. So that's where you can work closer with me if that's what you want.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing. Links will be in the description and in the show notes. If you're listening to the audio podcast, of course, as always, if you're listening to the audio podcast, we only accept five stars here. I'm sorry, we don't accept three or four, only five. So you go to your platform of choice, you leave us five stars, leave us a great review. And if you're on the YouTube channel, feel free to hit that subscribe button. And we will see y'all in the next one.