Make Viewers Care About You

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We talk with marine biology creator Kristen from K Passionate about turning long-form YouTube videos into a place people return to for the creator, not just the subject. We break down community building, smart video strategy, and the business decisions that come with rapid channel growth. 
• building parasocial connection with on-camera presence and bloopers 
• responding to comments to deepen creator-viewer trust 
• using Discord and weekly live streams to create real community 
• why Shorts can attract the wrong audience for long-form videos 
• leaning into TV viewers with cinematic production choices 
• making longer videos without sacrificing upload cadence 
• using end screens, cards, and scripting to drive binge watching 
• finding topics through research papers, citations, and SEO 
• avoiding the trap of becoming a single-topic channel 
• setting boundaries, blocking fast, and not feeding haters 
• monetising with AdSense and selective sponsorship integrations 
• planning the leap to full time with savings and diversified platforms 
If you're interested in checking out K Passionate I'll have links in the description and in the show notes 
Again if you're new here hit that subscribe button 

Transcript

Making Viewers Return For You

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I want my audience to want to watch me. People have gotten to know me. We keep bloopers in the videos. They started to, you know, develop these parasocial relationships with with me. Um we also we respond to telecomments. Developing that relationship with the creator keeps people wanting to come back and watch more of my content. Um not just about any one particular subject, but because they want to see me.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

When someone clicks on a video, they're clicking for the topic itself, not generally for the creator. You almost have to make them fall in love with you during the video. So they want to come back and watch everything you do.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

We have a pretty substantial Discord channel. I've also been streaming on YouTube like about once a week. I had read a book very early on called Superfans. The same people are commenting on all of my YouTube videos. I see them every single time and they pop into my um my live streams, or if they can't, they are in the Discord. Oh, I have some bummed and missed stream today.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

This is Kristen from Cape Passionate. She has over 400,000 subscribers with less than 150 videos. But how does she get people to watch her for her and not just the topic? And how does she build a thriving community on Discord? She'll tell you that and more in this episode. Hey, welcome back to the only podcast willing to go to the depths of the sea to bring you some of the best content creators on the platform. I'm Travis, and I'm here with an incredibly special guest, Kate Passionate, is here to tell us all about her journey. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks, and I'm happy to be here. Super excited to have you. And for those of you that are new here, we interview content creators just like you to want to know more about how to grow their channels and also hear their journey. So if you're new, hit that subscribe button. If you listen to the audio-only podcast, don't worry about it. We got links in the show

Meet K Passionate And Her Mission

SPEAKER_00 1:36

notes. Uh, Kristen, let's talk a little bit about you. First of all, who are you? What kind of content do you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:40

Yeah, um, so my uh my channel's called K Passionate. Um my name is is Kristen, and uh and the channel is a uh a marine biology channel primarily, although sometimes we'll cover some other animals and and interesting things, and it's geared towards educating people about uh all things marine biology and conservation. Um so I I feel like it has a a little bit of a uh a deeper um sort of meaning, uh other than just getting as many views as I can, which I also like doing.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

But everyone loves that. What I think is really interesting about your channel. Um I mean, we'll get into a lot of this, but just for people who don't know, uh K Passion is a cool channel because there's I don't see any YouTube shorts. So I love that. I'm a long-form content creator, I love that. Despite that, in under 150 videos, you have over 400,000 uh subscribers, which is amazing, uh over 20 million views. So there is an interest in what you're doing. It's not just, oh, okay, another science channel, you know, is it are the yeah, no. People care and people love that stuff. So we're gonna get into that for a minute. But before

From Marine Mammals To YouTube

SPEAKER_00 2:41

we get to that, we got to talk about the Christian before K passionate. What were you doing before YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Yeah, so I work um with like sea otters and and and sea lions at um at zoos and aquariums is typically what I was doing as just a uh biologist, um sort of marine biology uh person, and and educator in that sense too, where we had guests and and there were educational programs designed at teaching people about these animals and about um the research we were doing and the rescue and the rehabilitation that we were doing. And uh I really loved that aspect of it. I think in the field that I'm in, a lot of people really don't enjoy the human interaction, but that was one of my favorite parts of the job. Uh and so when COVID happened, we were completely shut down. And uh that was sort of the impetus for starting the channel, is I was really missing that connection and feeling like there wasn't really a point to what I was doing if I didn't get to share that with people and to educate people about it.

SPEAKER_00 3:42

So that's that's that's great. So then what made you go from that to YouTube? Like what was the the kind of driving force behind it?

SPEAKER_01 3:50

Oh yeah, I actually started on Twitch. Um, you know, I and I don't know if uh if this is you know true of a lot of creators, but I was like, I can be a Twitch streamer, you know. I was kind of at the end of the of the big Twitch um, you know, sort of push. So I I missed the wave, I think. Um, but uh I was you know just playing some casual games on there and getting a few people to watch, and then people would ask about what I would do, what I do, uh, and I found that that was what they were interested in. And the more that I was live and talking about my actual job, um, the more views that I was getting. So I sort of started to realize, and I think this is something that creators have to have to figure out that that was that's what in what's interesting about me is is my experience with marine mammals and rescue and rehab and um all of the all of the stories that I have about that and the knowledge that I have about that is is what's special about me. And so that's what we bring to the channel.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

So what made you um I mean the thing is is like you're a marine biologist, and it's not like there's a tremendous amount of marine biologists on YouTube that you would think are like these super popular creators, and but you've made a really successful channel based on this. What do you think the reason behind that is? Because while there's probably not a lot of marine biologists, there certainly are some, and not all of them are seeing success. What do you think the difference is between you and them?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

That's a good question. I have um I have a great support system, and I I see a lot of these creators out here doing this by themselves, and I really admire um those of you that are uh are grinding away by yourselves. Um, because I still work a nine to five, and I don't know uh how people find the time to edit their videos and do a nine to five. Um, and so my uh my husband has a a degree, a master's degree um from the American Film Institute. And so um so we have uh I have him uh helping me out every every step of the way, and uh that has been just absolutely instrumental in to what we do. Uh and I think that what stands out on our channel the most, or what I think stands out, is the quality of the videos. Um they are like nearly cinematic, in my opinion, in in the quality um that they that they give. And so that's something that people have have come to expect from us is um is high quality um productions.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

When you

Cinematic Quality And Learning Fast

SPEAKER_00 6:09

first started, did you have an idea of what you wanted your videos to look like and what they were going to be about, or were you just kind of shotgunning things?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Uh there was a lot of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks for sure. And I had a hard time when I first I wanted to start the channel. I knew I wanted to do this, and my husband was like, I don't understand what you're talking about. Um, because I had been, I had been had this idea for a long time, and he's obviously not in my head. So um so it took a while for us to kind of get connected on on what we wanted the vision for the channel to be. Uh and yeah, so it's you can go back. I've kept the videos. So like you can, if you want to like be really see really real, um, my first videos are horrible. They're horrible. Um and I've left them up there because I think that it's important. Um, they they show growth and and I can show a little humility through that. But yeah, if you really want to um to feel better about about yourself and where you're starting, uh go look at my very first videos. They're embarrassing. Um uh but yeah, I mean, so there's definitely been some growth, and we're still growing. And I think that's a huge part of the process is to always be learning because YouTube's always changing.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

What do you think um you learned early on from your your content creation journey that you started to implement earlier? I mean, now you could probably say, well, I do things completely different than you started, but I'm curious, like as you were growing, what were the things you were looking like, oh okay, this analytics says this, or I got a comment about this, and that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Yeah, I mean, so uh so many things. Um,

Why Shorts Hurt Her Channel

SPEAKER_01 7:44

and I have I have things jotted down because there's just so many things, but um one thing that you you kind of touched on that I want to talk about a little bit is YouTube shorts. Um, because we did try them, and they YouTube will tell you that it doesn't hurt your channel, um, but my own experience is that it it can, um, depending on how you're doing them, because really what you're I'd in my experience, people who want to watch short form videos are not the same people who want to watch long form videos. And so if I have been publishing and I had shorts get 100 million views, and if um you know, if those people, that's who YouTube is pushing my long form videos to, are these new subscribers that I've gotten from these shorts, they're not going to click on that video. And that tells the algorithm that they don't want to see the video when it's not a good video, and that that's not likely the case. So I uh I'm sure there is a way that you could possibly do it. I haven't found the way to do it on the same channel, and in my opinion, it is not good for your long form videos. Um, so I uh we have completely deleted them and will not go back to trying them again unless something drastic changes. Um, and that's just you know, that's something that we had to learn. I I we tried it like two or three times because I'm like, surely this wouldn't actually harm your channel and every single time we like we just found that our long forms were really, really suffering. So um that's something that I've learned. Um I think it's also important to know that a video can go can go vertical at any time. So even if it bombs straight out the gate, I don't typically try to worry too much about it. I've had years um like videos years later um all of a sudden pick up views. So uh I think that you I know it's very hard in the beginning, but trying not to get too discouraged um on some of these these times that videos don't don't do super well. Um yeah, there's so many things to learn. And your failures, your failures are honestly when you learn the most, in my opinion. So I think not being afraid to fail is a is a really big part of YouTube, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

It's interesting because shorts, I mean, uh we've seen this before. When shorts first came out, they were they were what we called overpowered, right? They were working for everybody. You literally could put anything on a short and it worked. So a lot of content creators are like, well, should I be doing this? And when they first came out, there was a lot of people that were saying that it was hurting their long-form content. And I can see that you know you experimented with as well. And it is difficult. And even to this day, creators will still say, like, should I use both? Should I use one or the other? And I think for certain content, it's perfectly fine. And even for your content, you could probably find a niche. But quite frankly, like the content that you do, I feel like is almost the late the what they call lean back content, where you sit back and watch it. I'm curious, have you seen um on your devices where it says uh devices that watch your content?

Lean Back Viewing And Video Length

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Have you seen television come up at all?

SPEAKER_01 10:49

Yeah, TV is a big part of my viewership. So I I think that that's that's exactly exactly right. Um a lot of people watch on on the TV. Um so and that I think is also you know what lends itself to the fact that we have such like a cinematic presentation, it that it is like it looks good on TV.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it's important to know like where your viewership is watching because for um like I was talking about the the lean back kind of uh experience is more about just experiencing what you're watching and not being in a hurry to go anywhere. It almost feels like your content could be almost 20 minutes if you really wanted to do that, because people on television have a higher tolerance for watching things than on um on like phone and such. Have you ever like dabbled in that to doing slightly longer content? Or do you just like between the eight and ten minutes you feel like that's your groove zone?

SPEAKER_01 11:38

We are trying to make longer videos. We've been hitting into like some 15 minutes um here and there, and and really trying to um to get more of longer videos. That's feedback I've gotten from my my management team as well. Um, so yeah, it is something that we're trying to do. They the only problem we run into is that um because it is such like cinematic content, the editing is is complex. And and so our videos, you know, the longer they are, the longer they take to edit. And we also would like to, we were putting out a video once every three weeks, and I just didn't think that was enough. So we're now doing once every two weeks. So we're kind of like gradually um you know finding ways to speed up the process and and trying to, yeah. So I'd like to do longer videos for sure. And um, and that's a comment that I get on my videos is I just wish this was longer.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Um so that's a great comment, right? Uh and if you're if you're a content creator, you're actually getting that comment. What you can do in the meantime while you're still trying to figure out what that length is to get uh people to watch um multiple videos. And a good way to do that is at the end of a video, have a great call to action that links the video you're making with the next one they might be interested in. So, for example, I see like um a one you did that was very popular. It was uh the the white shark destroying the orca. And if you had another video about an orca, you could say, if you like this one, I actually have another video about an orca right here. Make sure you watch it and have it at the end screen. Um, and then that way people can binge naturally and not have to worry about it until you get whatever that time limit is. So I have some content creators that like to hit the 20 to 22 with their lean back content because that's about how long an actual television show is minus commercials. And it's this weird strategic little thing. And then you'll find some content creators that find that if you go too long, then their videos kind of underperform because people are like, well, I was done 15 minutes ago, so I don't really Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:25

And then yeah, yeah, and I think you ride this line too where like people might be like, Oh yeah, I've got 20 minutes, but if you're like, I don't have 65 minutes though, so you know, uh I think you kind of have to because they can see the tag and and how how big the video, how long the video is, but yeah, we um we definitely utilize uh end screens and also the little um you know if you wanna if you want to learn more about that, check this video up here. And uh and we definitely get a lot of um I get comments about people binging the videos too. So um, yeah, so it's it's good stuff. That's great. Yeah.

End Screens That Create Binges

SPEAKER_00 13:57

So what would you say now? Because we talked about you, you know, you learning as you went along. If you were looking back at the Christian that started in 2020, what are the things you would hope you could help her avoid so that she could quit get quicker to where you are right now?

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, um, that's a really good question. Um I mean, I mean, I would have avoided the shorts. That's a really big one. I know, unfortunately, I can't and I I feel bad saying it, you know, but it's just like that has been just a crusher. Um, I definitely think uh really getting a a strong grasp on search engine optimization, um, SEO, I I feel like it's a very underutilized tool. And I see I see massive creators who don't use it at all, which um which is fine. I feel like a lot of those people are kind of uh they they got in when YouTube, you know, like everybody's gonna watch Mr. B's videos. He doesn't need to do any SEO, like we all know that. But um but for the us average Joes, um SEO is really, really important. And I get a lot of um a lot of traffic from from search engines and Google and and that sort of thing. So I think getting a really strong grasp on that um early on is would have been uh beneficial. Uh, I think we do it really well now, but um, but yeah.

Research Papers And SEO Strategy

SPEAKER_00 15:21

How do you research the type of the type of videos you're going to make? In other words, how do you know what your next video is going to be about? Are you uh it's not like things necessarily trend. I mean, I'm sure things trend in in your field, but by the same token, it's different than like if it was news. A trend in in something that's uh in biology might be something interesting to to only scientists, whereas you have to talk to people that are not scientists and make it interesting to them. How are you figuring out what type of content to make?

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Yeah, it's really interesting. Uh, there's actually just like I try that's another thing that I wish I wouldn't have done early on, is like kind of limit myself and being like, oh, well, that's not that interesting, or everybody knows about that, um, and things like that, because it it the truth is that they don't, and they do find these things interesting, even if I already knew that they were happening, things like that. So um a lot of times these ideas are born of just like searching through the internet. And I look at a lot of research papers, it's a very uh it's another part of um what I'm really proud about about the channel is we always cite our sources um because I don't want to just be saying things to people that are not true. And so um there you will always find all of our cited sources in our descriptions. But reading these research papers, I mean maybe uh, you know, I've found an audience that also thinks that's interesting, and it it might not be um interesting to everybody, but I've I've found people that that find this stuff really fascinating. So I read a lot of research papers and um and new papers come out all the time, and that's a big source of the content. Um, but yeah, sometimes you feel like you don't have any more ideas, but there's just there's so many ideas, there's infinite ideas, and you kind of have to just release yourself from this. I also, you know, you don't be afraid to like revisit topics that you did years ago. Like that's you can do it again, you can do it better and and put a new spin on it.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Is there any video you've made that kind of surprise you at how either well or not well it performed?

SPEAKER_01 17:13

All the time.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Like everywhere?

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Oh, yeah, pretty much. Um, like just uh more like recently, I mean, and some of these could have been um, you know, in part due to, again, the shorts we were dabbling in, not even that long ago. But um uh this video really surprised me. This um invisible barriers in the ocean that animals cannot cross. Um, I thought it was an interesting video when we were making it, but I did not think it was 1.3 million views. Um interesting, and and so um, you know, but it was. Um and then some videos, uh like the very next video um is like this. I thought it was really interesting. It was extreme seals because I think seals are just super wacky, and um and the video was super interesting in my opinion, and it just absolutely bombed. Um, it has, you know, it has 143,000 views now, but like out the gate, it was horrible. So it's you know, it just and it it happens. Um I've also had to put a lot of effort into because orcas, everybody wants to hear about orcas, right? But I don't want to just be the orca channel. Um so instead of just chasing the views of an orca video, all my orca videos tend to do quite well. Um, but I don't just do back to back to back to back to back orca videos because I don't I don't need the the algorithm and people thinking that that's all the channel is about. And I've

Avoid Getting Trapped In A Niche

SPEAKER_01 18:41

I force them to to um to watch other interesting things.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

So I I let's get on this because this is really interesting. So obviously the the typical advice is to double down on something successful, and I still think that's a good thing, but you bring up a really good point. And something else that uh typically by the time I'm telling a creator this is almost too late for them. It's like if you put yourself in a box uh too early, it is very difficult to get out. However, growth might be a little bit slower if you do it that way, but you will probably more be more fulfilled as a content creator by doing it in a way that's like, okay, I don't just have to do this one thing that works all the time. I actually want to talk about this, this, this, and this. And I don't mean by example, I don't now, or to be clear, some people listening are gonna think I'm saying something else. I don't mean you have a biology channel and then the next video is you're baking apple pie. I don't mean that. I mean you're still talking biology at the end of the day. But it is important to keep you keep you from burning out and keep you from being, as a creator, not even interested anymore. It's like I don't want to just keep doing talking about orchestra.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

Yeah, absolutely. And and um and if you look back, if you scroll back through my channel, you'll see that very early on, uh, there was a time uh the the internet was obsessed with uh a sea otter named Joey. Um and I started doing Joey videos, and those were some of my early on successful videos, and then it became very sea otter heavy, and we had to kind of be like, okay, this is not what this channel is about. And it it was tough because you, you know, you're getting, I was uh, you know, early on creator getting 10,000 views on a on a sea otter video. Like that's a lot when you're just starting out, and then but then when I pivot to some something else, some um, you know, something that's not about sea otters, and it gets a thousand views, you know, that's discouraging, but uh, but we wanted to stick with it because I had that um you know that vision for the channel. This is not a sea otter channel, um, you know, this is a marine biology channel, and and you you will find your audience. But um yeah, I think that that's something definitely to remember is um is that that you want to be specific, but don't paint yourself in a box where you can only make one video um about one topic.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

Yeah, the skill in this is when you're making the video that you quote know works, in other words, you found something that works for your channel and you're making a video about it, is to give the people who are watching it all the value they want from it so they can enjoy it, but also give them a reason to watch something else. And that's the skill that most people don't have or are trying to learn. Um, what type of things do you do when you're making a video, like, okay, I'm gonna make an orchid video. I know I'm gonna get pretty good views on this, but I also want people to be interested in another topic. What are you doing either from a scripting perspective or a research perspective or any part of the video content creation uh portion that you do that makes you go, okay, by the end of this video, they're gonna want to watch something else?

Bloopers, Comments, Parasocial Trust

SPEAKER_01 21:31

Yeah, a couple things. One thing that I think is really important is, and this takes a while to develop, but I want my audience to want to watch me. Um so, and I know there are successful faceless channels, and then there are ways to do it, but uh for me, it was very important that we uh we show me a lot. People have gotten to know me. We keep bloopers in the videos. Um, people like to see the human um side of things, uh, a little comedy they started. to you know develop these parasocial relationships with with me um we also we respond to like hella comments like um uh we I'm not gonna say all of them because of course not but we we respond to a lot of comments um and I think that that developing that relationship with the creator keeps people wanting to come back and watch more of my content um not just about any one particular subject but because they want to see me um what else uh I definitely think like we know what videos we you get a feel for what videos are gonna be successful and I think it's like I said I think it's okay to revisit um topics I just like to I like to space them out I'm like okay well we did an Orca video so we've got another Orca idea but we're gonna do two or three more videos in between before we hit that other video um and so I think kind of being a little bit strategic about the the content plan um is something that helps and and and also like you said writing into the script of like oh this kind of touches on some a video that we already did so then we can point to our little um our little tab up here that says if you want to check out more information on that here's that or like you said the end screens um if you want to learn more about this topic this is a great video um that sort of thing I I think this is such a a cool thing that you're you're peeling the the the curtain back on because it's the thing that doesn't get talked about enough is that there is strategy within the videos that you make to get people to watch other things.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

And what most people want is what you literally just talked about to come for you. And is much harder to do than most people realize because for the most part when someone clicks on a video they're clicking for the topic itself not generally for the creator. You almost have to make them fall in love with you during the video so that they want to come back and watch everything you do. And one of the ways of doing that is like you said and community building is another way to do that to have to be part of the community. Has community building been a part of your strategy at all? Like have you thought about either having names for your viewers or is there like the the bloopers definitely helps because it it humanizes you and it you know brings it makes you relatable. Are there other things you've done from like a community perspective to get people to really be part of like your tribe so to speak?

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah I mean we have a a a pretty substantial discord channel uh and I think that that's really great for people who who want to join that um because you can you can always talk to me over there and um and the community I've built is like really amazing people. And so that's that's a big part of it. I've also been streaming on YouTube like about once a week. And people people come to to chat with you. And it's a it's an opportunity for people to to come and see who you are and what you're about and we we literally I don't I hardly ever have a plan. We're just like diving down whatever marine biology rabbit hole people want to talk about um and uh and talking about things that aren't marine biology either. And so uh I had read a book very early on um called super fans um and I think that that kind of helped me to develop a strategy of like how you want to you want to get people invested in you interested in you um and uh I feel like through especially recently um it's really starting to become very obvious to me the same people are commenting on all of my YouTube videos I see them every single time and they pop into my um my live streams or if they can't they are in the Discord oh I have some bummed a missed stream today um and so you know some of it is just is just persistence and and keeping going. I do think responding to comments is is a worthwhile thing to do and I know it takes a lot of energy but I really think that that also helps to um to get people connected with you um on a on a level that's higher than just watching you know me on the TV.

SPEAKER_00 25:49

Is

Boundaries, Blocking, Culture Setting

SPEAKER_00 25:50

there is there a point where you have uh like um a not a barrier but like a border not a borderline what I'm trying to think of the like a boundary you have to almost yeah boundary where you have to draw a line between you know your channel your personal life and everything else and your community like there's you want to engage but like you can't give all of yourself to your community because you have other things like you have a whole life. What are your like kind of personal boundaries? I'm just curious.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Yeah I don't have too many people trying to cross um boundaries I don't find typically but um you know I've I've had people find my phone number um and that's not okay. And so um I will block you immediately and um if if behavior gets inappropriate in any way shape or form just consider yourself blocked. Like I'm not I'm not here for for any of that.

SPEAKER_00 26:44

I'm building a safe space for for people and so uh that's definitely a boundary that I have is um is any kind of inappropriate not even just towards me towards anyone um you're blocked immediately I don't care if you never watch a single video and people people will say things like that oh okay well I you lost a viewer well please please yeah I don't I don't I'm good I'm set yeah I'm good I'm a mobile yeah I've I got it it's fine um so I think that that I think you shouldn't be afraid to to block toxic people um it's it's funny you say that because I remember when I was first uh starting out I had a friend of mine who is a bigger content creator he still is bigger than me now anyway um and I remember being shocked by the fact that he would say you know when someone would uh say they're unsubscribing like yeah fine that's why I don't care and I was like oh yeah you would do that of course I was a small content creator I think I had like maybe a thousand subscribers or every subscriber counted I'm like oh my god he's telling people don't subscribe oh my god like why would you do that but it totally like do you have to at some point draw the line between because you'll have people that are haters and stuff when I when I talked to Casual Geograph a couple months ago on the podcast he said in general his viewership was very kind and very uh you know a lot of uh um animal nerds let's just be honest which is cool because they're generally cool people you don't run into a lot of well actually type people I don't think uh how how is it on your side of the underwater uh portion of uh yeah I mean far and away and I think because I definitely do like I I will I will block you at a the drop of a hat um the because I've I've sort of fostered that type of culture um people tend to be very respectful uh but the people that do get out of hand are wild like you you wouldn't believe some of these videos that I that I do you're like how did this draw in the um like the the the transphobes why are they in my comment section like this is a video about marine biology it happens so often you'd be you'd be shocked um so we we definitely we're prepared for all of that stuff and we have a lot of like blurbs and and we'll try to educate people but it it's very clear who who wants to be educated and who just wants to be a jerk.

SPEAKER_01 29:01

And so I don't um I don't mess with I don't mess with any of that. But yeah it's uh you know uh there is a certain level of um uh there's a lot of misogyny in my comments I get that a lot um people uh very concerned with um like this is a shirt that I wear a lot in a limit in a lot of my videos oh uh why it why can't I see her shoulder skin and all of a sudden I'm like oh please she has like I have shoulders I don't know what you want me to do about it. Yeah so there's there's a fair share of misogyny I think YouTube comments are are really kind of I think because YouTubers or not YouTubers but the the accounts are completely anonymous which is different than when you're on Instagram and stuff like that. People feel the freedom to get wacky um and I am I am not afraid to put those people in their places. And I think that you do have to develop a a thick skin and I I fortunately sort of I don't want to say I was born with a thick skin but I have a very thick skin and you cannot offend me. So that that's really helpful and I think people need to remember that um when you're starting out because these people they don't know you you don't need their approval it it doesn't give you anything um you know they're they're just nasty people and then you'll find lots of really great people too but there are just nasty people who just want to be mean because they're sad and lonely and you just don't worry about them just don't worry about them.

SPEAKER_00 30:31

I love that comment because today when we recorded this I just saw a comment on one of our podcast episodes where there were uh a content of viewer who's also consecrated obviously was struggling with hater comments and I'm like you you need to understand that like if you're not getting hater comments you probably haven't made it yet as soon as you're starting to be successful you're gonna get a bunch of it doesn't matter if you are the kindest person on the face of the planet someone wants to ruin your day and to not here's my little uh advice I've given to content creators for years. Let's say you have 10 comments and one of them is negative inevitably as humans that's the one we're gonna concentrate on right the one negative we we almost forget about the other nine that we're like oh you are the greatest person I've ever met. Like they could say the best things your hair is on fleet like all the things they want to say. Like that's great. And you get this one that's like you know you misspelled this you're ugly and you don't know what you're talking about. And that's the one you obsess over. I want to just point this out. No yeah and this is for I want just for content creators sometimes the your first thing is you want to clap back or snap back at them but I'm gonna I'm gonna put this out there and just I want you to consider this as a content creator. If you were a viewer and they were you are a big fan of you the content creator and you saw the content creator going back and forth with a person to hate it on him but you leave really nice comments every single video and you never hear back from that creator because they're going back and forth with a hater, what would you think? You would feel robbed. So every moment you take that to to talk to that person who's hating on your content is a moment you're taking away from the people who are supporting you. And that is the wrong thing to do in my estimation. So just keep that in mind.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Yeah and I think like as a scientist um that's another thing that I'm able to really uh to really visualize is that yeah I do see the hate comments but I know that I have a thousand positive comments to these two hate comments um because like analytically in my mind I can I they really are a small amount of people and and sometimes people will even come in and be like oh what's up with all these hate comments and I'm like it's just because everybody's reacting to those those hate comments that they get pushed to the top of the of the list and and then people see them more that's that doesn't mean that there's actually more of them. So you have to like yeah look at things uh objectively um in that way and um and like you said I think yeah it responding to the people who are enjoying your content is is um is such a huge uh part of building a community and you'll build the community to the point where then the community responds to your hate comments and then you don't have to worry about them anymore.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

So that's the

AdSense, Sponsorships, Organic Ads

SPEAKER_00 33:04

best. All right let's talk a little bit about um uh YouTube as a business uh I try to get into this with every content creator because ultimately um you know you're spending a lot of time to do this and while you may love doing it it's just better if it helps pay for itself in some way even if it just some some content creators just only care about breaking even of course more want to be like full time so how monetization wise like are you just doing AdSense are you doing sponsorships? Are you doing program like how are you monetizing this channel and what's the best way you've found so far for yourself.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

Yeah and I think that's so funny when like early on when I was starting people would be like oh you're only in it for the money and I'm like well no but I but it definitely helps like I mean that we're making you're taking so much time out of your day to like make these videos like I you absolutely should make a living off of this like that's not um that's not anything to be ashamed of. So people you should want to make money off of it. Yes uh AdSense um is something we do but we uh do sponsored videos as well and it's I've really only in about the last year to two really started to um kick on with those I treat them a lot like the Orca videos that we were talking about. I'm not gonna do one every single video um and I turn down offers because I I just don't want my um community to have to uh to have to sit through multiple um 60 minute integrations every video so um so we we're pretty sparing with that and um and I think when you start to do um integrations and ads something to keep in mind is I would watch other people and the ads that they've done because if you can get them done organically it makes such a big difference. We had a a sponsorship recently that um we had this just excellent tie into it didn't really affect the the flow of the video and I had comments of people saying I've never watched an ad before but I enjoyed this one. And I don't know if they bought the product I don't really care. But um but it was just nice to not have it um you know just upset the flow of your video with just like a jarring and now for a word from our sponsor kind of a situation.

SPEAKER_00 35:19

Yeah there's a for people listening and watching this episode uh by the time this comes out there is an episode where I did with Dan the producer from Deep Pocket Monster. He literally talked about how they integrated one of their sponsors into a video to make it part of the story. And that's the value. Now I understand a lot of smaller creators be like, well I don't get sponsors yet but I feel like if you're if you're listening to this podcast is because you want to get to a point where you would have sponsors. So at the very least bookmark this for later so you know later when the sponsors do come that that's how uh you can get into it and make a little bit better for you. When you

Full Time Pressure And Diversifying

SPEAKER_00 35:50

uh you say you're still doing full time and this is a a question that typically I ask for people who've already called full time at some point if you continue to do well and the channel continues to grow there's gonna be this pressure and the pressure is full time job versus content for the channel. Talk to me about how you're currently looking at it and like if things started really taking off what that conversation obviously you have to talk to your husband about it too like tell me about that that whole thought process and the conversation about going full time yeah the pressure's already already on I think about it all the time.

SPEAKER_01 36:24

The the biggest uh obstacle for me right now is that I love my job. So um so that's a good reason to um you know to still be doing it but I think about all the time I'm so tired. I'm you know and uh the grind is real and I I'm on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook as well. And yeah so it's um it's tough but I uh yeah and it's a scary thing to do um to to think about and all the things that that come with it and uh so yeah I don't um it it is something that that I'm really I'm really working towards and I honestly I probably could do right now and I just I'm just I'm just too scared to pull the trigger but it's a it's a it's an aspiration for sure.

SPEAKER_00 37:12

What do you what do you think it's going to take is it going to be like two or three times what you make at the other job um is it going to be that now you're getting asked by maybe um I don't know companies or maybe not even companies but like um other scientists or something to do things that are amazing that you wouldn't otherwise have an opportunity like what would it take for you to go okay this I need to make this move.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah um oh it's does National Geographic have to offer you your own YouTube video series or like what are we talking about yeah um no I mean that I think that's um definitely something yeah that would that would tip the scales as like a kind of bigger we're trying to move also a little bit in a in a direction of where we use a lot of b-roll from uh you know Adobe and and stuff like that. And that's a that's a great tool to have um but we'd love to film more of our own stuff and do a little bit more of you know like the classic like Steve Irwin except for without jumping on the crocodiles for the most part but um uh but yeah some of those like actual productions like that uh and we're actually doing something pretty big coming up I'm I'm leaving on on Saturday to go do some on-site filming in in Namibia and so I'm I'm sort of trying to to make that leap into it being like a full scale production that we do and if if that's if that is successful I don't see a way of doing that with you know I can't take vacation all the time to go shoot on site for things so um so yeah it's it's on the horizon. Yeah and I I had talked to uh so casual and I are are mutuals and um and we actually we have the same manager so um so we chat on a semi-regular basis and and I had talked to him about um how much money he was making um before he went full time and uh this isn't I don't want to say luckily but you know sometimes it kind of feels like that he didn't have a job to begin with when at the time so I was like we talked about that like I kind of wish yeah sometimes sometimes I'll be at work and I'll be like just fire me like you know please just make it do the big decision and then it'll be done um but yeah it's a it's a big decision I don't think it's something people should take lightly um I definitely think um making like I you should have savings in addition to be consistently making um a certain amount of of money and uh and that's where you know it gets hard because a lot of times things aren't as consistent. So the sponsorships do start to help there because you start to get a little bit more like reliable um money. I think diversifying so even though I am so tired um the Instagram and the TikTok and the um Facebook having like a diverse um set of content and not just being YouTube is also important.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

Yeah a couple weeks back uh I talked to Brave Wilderness and uh Coyote was talking about we're talking about different ways that they monetize and everything and they do so much outside of YouTube because of like his how well he's known um and it feels like in the science space that is a lot more uh possible than maybe ever before because of like really cool documentaries you see outside of YouTube and I feel like a lot of these television production companies or production companies in general seeing that these science channels are getting lots of views and lots of interest so that they can you know budget for these things.

Travel Filming Goals And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_00 40:39

And sometimes he goes on talks or whatever. What would be like the ultimate day in the life of if you could just five years from now what are you doing? Like what is it that you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 40:51

Yeah I mean I think traveling to really interesting places um maybe uh you know on research vessels in the middle of the Pacific um things like that uh that really like on-site up close um content and uh I is something that I'm really excited about. Um I have a an Arctic ocean trip planned and I can't wait for for filming there and um and being being just like yeah a little bit more I mean I grew up in the the Jeff Corwin Steve Irwin era and that's what I always wanted to do. I wanted to I wanted to have my own show. I wanted to be on you know the Discovery Channel and the Animal Planet and um they they never Animal Planet never offered me my own show so I had to make my own.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

So I love it though. But now they might you never know like it's crazy it's it's true possible. Yeah I mean things are uh I I think that um education is is something that people are are starting to be um passionate about and is something that's getting getting pushed out and and people are uh enjoying learning um or at least I'm finding the people that are enjoying learning are are on my channel so if you're interested in checking out K Passionate I'll have links in the description and in the show notes um she has a great community if you're into animals and science and stuff uh you should go over there you got a Discord and everything you should go over there and check her out um and obviously if you missed the the casual geographics you just talked about before we actually have that here on the podcast as well but Kristen thank you so much for joining me I can't wait to see what you're up to next and the fact that you're going overseas to do a video to me tells me that you're already hitting a success that maybe even a year ago you you probably were dreaming of. Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_01 42:37

No absolutely I've I've been really um really fortunate uh I definitely am really fortunate but I I also want to you know let the listeners know it it is it's it's work and I put in the work and and we we we learned a lot and we actually uh we actually subscribe to vid iq um so it's funny uh but we we've learned a lot from from watching vid iq videos and um and we use their their seo tools and and keywords tools and um and I think that that's a a great way to start learning.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Again if you're new here hit that subscribe button I got another video for you right here. See y'all in the next one