TubeTalk: Your YouTube How-To Guide

How Dylan Built Millions Of Followers With Better Intros

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We talk with Dylan about turning early doubts into momentum, then building a repeatable short-form style that scales across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. We get tactical on intros, retention, and monetization, plus what it really looks like to run a creator career as your own boss. 

• starting young, handling school pressure, and ignoring noisy opinions 
• building a repeatable format through voiceover storytelling and idea-based videos 
• going viral before monetizing and learning how sponsorships actually work 
• using COVID downtime like a full-time job to accelerate growth 
• moving from TikTok to YouTube, then using YouTube Shorts to scale fast 
• why YouTube is more evergreen than other platforms 
• improving swipe view ratio and skip rate with Instagram trial reels 
• tightening intros by starting in the action and simplifying setup 
• balancing short-form output with perfectionism and long-form risk 
• creator friendships, workflow planning, and setting boundaries for creative energy 
• three starter lessons: test formats, learn by doing, be intentional with visuals 

Feel free to hit that subscribe button. 
I have another video for you right here. So you should watch that one.


Belief, Doubt, And The Hook

SPEAKER_00

I said, I don't know, maybe I could get like a million followers on here. That'd be cool. Someone said, Dylan, you're never gonna get a million followers. I'm like, I don't know why you're being so negative. Anyone can do it, I think I can do it too. I don't know why I'd be any different than other people that do it. I really enjoyed making videos and I was passionate about it, and I felt like that was enough. I reworked the intro and the it went up like four percent, the rate, and it got like eight million views after that. You know, people aren't gonna watch the whole video if it doesn't seem interesting and if they're not hooked right away. Yeah, no, you definitely have to overthink the intro.

Meet Dylan And His Origin

SPEAKER_02

Welcome back to the only podcast that goes all the way to the end to give you every single thing you need, and I've done it today again. I have a very special guest today. Dylan, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02

If you're new here, we help you grow your YouTube channel in so many different ways. Sometimes we interview uh creators like we're doing today. Sometimes we'll answer your questions, but whatever we do, we always do it with the mindset that you need to know this information. So if you're new here, feel free to hit that subscribe button. If you're listening to the audio podcast, there will be links in the show notes. Dylan, let's just get right into this. Um, for those who don't know who you are, of course you have three million subscribers and you've done all these things. Tell us a little about who you are and what your channel is about, and then we'll we'll dig into uh deeper levels after.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Yeah. Um, I'm Dylan. I'm 22 years old, and I've been making videos, I mean, pretty much full time. It's kind of been my career since I was 16. So in high school is when I really started having success with it. And I got started on uh TikTok in the pandemic is where I started having success and kind of took things from there. And I was always kind of before that, like early on, like 14 years old and even earlier. But really, when I was about 14, I started getting really into YouTube and this idea that oh, people are YouTubers, that's crazy, you know? And I kind of thought that was such a cool thing, and I started a little channel, and then some people at school found out about it, and I like kind of shut it down and privated all the videos. And but then I was uh lifeguarding the summer of 2019, and I saw these people dancing and making these little videos on this app called TikTok, and it kind of peaked in my brain right then and there, like very early on with TikTok. I was like, this could be like Vine, where people, you know, kind of blew up and then they launched their career into social media from that success, from that like short form viral success. And I was like, if that's my shot, then I'm gonna like learn everything I can about TikTok and try all these videos. And so I did that that summer and that whole like first semester of my junior year, and just learning everything I could about TikTok and trying everything. And I made several different accounts because I'm like, oh, my videos aren't getting views because my account is messed up. That's why they just were really bad. Anyway, I eventually found kind of a groove and a creative style that uh will worked really well on TikTok at the time because it was really different than a lot of the things that were being posted on there. I it was a repeatable format, and that was the big thing is when I found something that I could repeat, repeatably come up with ideas around a format. And then from there, I just um started really grinding on it and the pandemic happened, and I went, I kind of used all my time focused on that and got some sponsorships. And I I grew to like several million followers on TikTok during that time, and then graduated at semester the next year and just kept doing social media thing, YouTube, all the social medias.

Finding A Repeatable TikTok Format

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, let's talk a little bit about the fact that you started in high school, which is um I think there's been a study recently where they say like one of the most uh desired careers for most high school uh kids is to be a YouTuber and you managed to do it. Tell me what it was like uh as you were I mean, technically you were doing TikTok first. Tell me what it was like when you were in school doing TikTok before things worked out for you, like how your friends and stuff saw you, and then when things started taking off, was there any difference? Because I think there's like probably a story there that'd be interesting to get into.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, there actually is. So I didn't tell people for a while, uh, because I was just making random accounts and they didn't get any views, and so no one saw them. And eventually I showed some people because I'd like to have a video get 100,000 views, and I had like 8,000 followers, and I'm like, see, look what I've done here. And I showed some friends, and some people thought it was funny, and then some people were like, Okay, but what are you what are you doing with that? And I remember someone literally, I said, I don't know, maybe I could get like a million followers on here, that'd be cool. And it was pretty delusional at the time for me because I was like, I had no idea how I would do that. Yeah, and someone said, Dylan, you're never gonna get a million followers. Someone literally told me that. I'm like, Wow, I don't know why you're being so negative. And then someone else told me this. They were like, told me people don't blow up on YouTube anymore, it's not a thing. Like everyone that blew up, and this was like five or six years ago, yeah, you know, and I just like kind of I I had more belief. I was like, you know, if anyone can do it, I think I can do it too. Like, I was like, I don't know why I'd be any different than other people that do it, because I felt like I had a really a natural what you call it, like I had the the natural like things you need to do it, like a charisma or something. No, not even that. I really didn't have that. It was just like I really enjoyed making videos and I was passionate about it, and I felt like that was enough if I really like enjoyed it enough, and most people didn't have that level of drive towards it, I would say. But anyway, and then I started getting some videos that like really popped off and like were getting millions of views, and I was growing hundreds of thousands of followers during school. This is before right before COVID, and uh people were obviously seeing them, and I felt like kind of uh I was like kind of shy, I would say, that year in high school, and so it was kind of awkward because everyone was like seeing them and playing them in front of me, and I really didn't like that, but I my whole idea in my head was that I knew it was more important for uh for this to be my future and to work towards this than to care what people thought, you know, inside my high school or anything like that.

SPEAKER_02

And what type of content were you doing specifically? Like what was the content?

SPEAKER_00

Okay, so it was the first style of content that started getting views on TikTok was these voiceover videos. So before I was just doing like trendy stuff, like and that's where it was like getting me nowhere, is like just doing all these random trends. And then I saw this guy, he made a video where he actually edited edit it together, which people weren't really editing on TikTok back in the day, but he like made a voiceover about losing his keys in his car, and then he said he did like the infamous like for part two. It was like a big thing on TikTok back then to see how, but he like voice over this story time kind of thing. And so I was like, if I can just come up with these like unique stories that I voice over, maybe that could be like a format because then I can just come up with different stories all the time. And so it started off like that. Like I made a video about my car broke down, and then I was like stranded, and then I was like, like for part two, and the video got like 300,000 views, and I went, Oh, maybe this works. And uh at the time I just kept repeating that format and it worked, like I did all sorts of things, and then I really started having success when I branched off more from that and just kind of did idea-based storytelling. So, like, I saw this school race where um this was like the big one. I saw this school race where they did a cardboard boat race in a pool, and I was like, I'm gonna go and film myself going to Walmart, buying cardboard, making one of these boats, and then throwing it in a creek, and like and so I filmed making the boat, and then part two was me doing it in the creek, but part one like took off like a rocket ship, and it's still one of my most viewed videos on uh TikTok. It got like 55 million views. Wow, and yeah, it was insane. It was quite the rush going from like no success to getting like 50 million views, and then all of a sudden, like people from you know, all everyone at my school had seen the video, like literally everybody. And um, pretty soon after that, I'd like hit a million followers on TikTok right before the we went on lockdown and all that, and then everyone in my school basically knew and had seen my video, and so that was kind of and then that kind of started me into just coming up with random ideas and voiceovering them because I mean, like voiceover videos weren't even really happening that much on TikTok until like COVID.

SPEAKER_02

What what did you go back to that person who said you would never hit a million? We're like, Yeah, I kind of did. I did it before I even graduated. No, no, I didn't do that. You think they know? I guess they knew though, they they eventually figured it out, though, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the ultimate revenge, just kind of showing that you can do something.

SPEAKER_00

Uh I mean, I don't think he was trying to be like mean. I think he literally just doesn't think I would ever do it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Is that do you find that that's a part of your personality when someone doubts that you can do something that you feel more motivated to do it?

SPEAKER_00

I don't I don't know. I don't think so. I think maybe honestly, it was probably discouraging, and it was just something I had to look past because it kind of gets in your head.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it can. So are there times even now? And well, I mean, I would kind of want to start back when you're uh still younger stuff, but I want to ask now, do you still have doubts at times? Even now?

SPEAKER_00

You know, not as much, but I will say, like throughout the span of my whole entire social media career, definitely, and I've definitely had big doubts at times, but I think now the reason I won as much is because I know that I have in the

Going Viral At School

SPEAKER_00

past, and then it's like you know, it worked out.

SPEAKER_02

When you were in high school, right before COVID, and you had you already had had a million followers on TikTok. Um were you making money from it then?

SPEAKER_00

No, not a dollar.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that's crazy. I mean, if you think about having a million followers or something and not be able to make money, it's such a weird thing.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I didn't that was the other crazy part, is I was like, I had no idea how I was gonna make money. I was like, and people were like, Cool, but are you making money? I'm like, uh no. But I know I will eventually. And I didn't know how, but I mean, eventually I did.

SPEAKER_02

So did um was was it was it not until you got on YouTube that you started making money, or did you figure out a way to make money on TikTok before YouTube? And if so, how did that happen?

SPEAKER_00

No, I did start making money like pretty soon after that. What what happened? Uh I got a sponsorship with uh Bang Energy was the big one.

SPEAKER_02

So they they reached out to you?

SPEAKER_00

Uh no, I emailed them. There was a lot of creators that were uh working with them, and so they would like reach out and say, You should email this company, they're doing sponsorships with everyone on TikTok. And so I reached out and that was I started making uh pretty good money um through that for like while I was in high school.

SPEAKER_02

So that's interesting because for the most part, um content creators, it's it's funny because just a couple of weeks ago we had uh Justin Moron who talks a lot about getting good sponsorship deals and stuff and advocating for yourself. But at a young age, I'm I'm shocked that you actually did it. Do you remember what your pitch was and how you pitched it to them? Because that's kind of important.

SPEAKER_00

I don't I don't really remember. I just like sent an email. I mean, I doubt it was like anything too special, just like my following, links to my socials and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02

What did they want you to do specifically?

SPEAKER_00

Um, so they did I'm trying to remember, it was different because I did I I mean I worked with them for a few years. They just wanted the can in the video for like eight seconds visible, and then they literally just I know it was the best deal ever.

SPEAKER_02

That's um that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00

And then they wanted you to take a drink. They wanted you to have one drink shot and an eight seconds in the video, and I mean they gave you a base rate per video, and uh I think it was one video per week per week. I think it started out, it was two videos per week at a lower rate, and eventually I kept growing and I got it to like one video a week at a bigger rate. And uh it was like the best deal ever at the time. I mean it sounds pretty good, fortunate, especially for high school students.

SPEAKER_02

Like, I mean, at that point, you don't even need to get like a part-time job or anything, right?

SPEAKER_00

Oh no, no, definitely not.

SPEAKER_02

So have you ever actually had like a quote real job?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I mean, I worked that summer at the pool and so it was a lifeguard.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that's fair. That's fair.

SPEAKER_00

Before that, I uh when I was like 15, I mowed lawns with my dad and my brother, and that's about it.

SPEAKER_02

All right. So then uh COVID happens and um everyone's in lockdown. And this becomes an explosive point for a lot of content creators because everyone was home watching stuff. Uh, talk to us about how that affected all of your content, whether it be on TikTok, YouTube, and everything. Like what was going on uh in your content career and also in your like life? Like how how was that affecting you?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I mean, I was at home and we did some school stuff online. So I mean, I just had a lot of time in my house. And if I got out, you know, you just had to wear a mask and that kind of thing. But um, it was honestly really uh great for my content because uh I just had time to really focus and just it was like a really prime growth time, and I was lucky to have the time to fully focus on it. I just treated it as a full-time job.

SPEAKER_02

What was the type of content you were doing? Because there were parts of the time where you couldn't even leave your house. So like I would imagine some of your content changed in in what it was, right?

SPEAKER_00

Trying to remember, I mean, because it's kind of the start of my content, and so like a lot of things I would do outside, like just at my house, yeah, honestly. Like for example, um, I did a bunch of stuff with these inflatable hamster balls.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

And that became like a whole series like of just doing random crazy things. One of the one of which was we went to uh like a river, like a local creek river, and like I literally got in the ball and like was floating downstream, which thinking back it was one of my most viral, it was one it's my most liked TikTok ever still. Wow, and like ESPN reposted and stuff, but it was very stupid. I would never do that again. Uh there was a lot, a lot of stuff that could have gone wrong there, and um, but yeah, it was stuff like that um that I was doing, just anything I could think of that I thought was a good idea. And I mean, honestly, I

First Money Through Sponsorships

SPEAKER_00

don't remember it like holding me back too much. I mean, I would wear a mask and stuff if we had to go to town and that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02

But did you um when when was it that you started YouTube and why did you go, okay, I want to add YouTube to kind of like all the things I'm doing?

SPEAKER_00

Well, I always wanted to be a YouTuber first, uh that was always the goal. And like I had like made like little vlogs before I even did TikTok and that kind of thing on YouTube, and then I was like, I need to focus on TikTok, that's what's gonna bring me success right now, not YouTube. And um when I started having success on TikTok, I started making little long forms if I did some bigger idea and I would kind of push people to that. And I think I grew maybe a couple hundred thousand subscribers doing that, and then uh I I made like a little bit of money and I made uh good money from claims, I think, at the time from like compilations of my videos.

SPEAKER_02

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00

My agency at the time partnered with these compilation channels, and so they would run my stuff and I would get a cut of the money in the agency. Wow, and so a lot of those compilations did really well on YouTube, and then the other thing, um, oh yeah, when YouTube Shorts came out, that just grew my channel to like a million pretty quick.

SPEAKER_02

I bet you were pretty excited about that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, I was. I mean, you we weren't making money though at first, like so. I just got all these views, and like it wasn't making any money, obviously.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, but it was kind of growing everything else. So when you came to YouTube, um, I mean, it was really only long form at the at that point, and then shorts came out. Yeah. Looking at it at that point, uh, we'll talk about now later, but at that point, did you want to do more long form stuff on YouTube, or were you really more concentrating on bringing your your you know, your stuff that's viral and everything that works with TikTok over to YouTube Shorts?

SPEAKER_00

Um, when YouTube Shorts came out, uh, I think it was both. I mean, mainly the shorts, because I was like, well, I can really grow my channel with shorts here because you know, I've made all the short form content on TikTok. That's what people know me for. This is gonna be a great way to like do well on YouTube as well. And so the primary focus was shorts, and then obviously when you grow your channel, your long forms do better uh as well because there's actual the audiences there on YouTube as well, not just on TikTok.

SPEAKER_02

I'm curious, did um I assume you repurpose a lot of your uh TikTok content to YouTube. Did they perform similarly? Because that's always been a thing that people have wondered. Like if it works well on one, does it work well on the other?

SPEAKER_00

I think they did. Some videos did better, and I think it was a weird time, right? When YouTube Shorts came out, a lot of stuff would just go viral.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Very OP, yeah. Uh is that still the case? Um, I'd say for most of the content that does well, it'll do well everywhere.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

And is there any difference that you notice between them? Like, is there anything you think that you have to think differently about the audience?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I would say YouTube is more evergreen still than any other, like even with short form. And so it's kind of OP also in the fact that you know you might have a video from a year ago and it's still getting more recurring views than in videos you're recently posting. And like TikTok doesn't do that, Instagram doesn't do that really.

SPEAKER_02

How how long does a video, a typical video, live on TikTok for you nowadays?

SPEAKER_00

I don't know actually. I don't like examine it that hard. I mean, maybe, maybe a month. Oh, okay. Well, it's still longer than I would have assumed.

SPEAKER_02

I would have assumed.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think it's I think it's longer now than it used to be, maybe.

SPEAKER_02

And has uh TikTok ever asked you to come to like any of their conferences or anything or spoken to you as a creator and said, Hey, you're you know, you're doing great. We'd love to talk to more of you. Because I know I have some people that have that have been reached out to by TikTok. I'm curious if you've talked to them.

SPEAKER_00

No, not really. I mean, they reached out to me one time to try to give me like um a TikTok shop guy, but I I didn't really do anything with that. And then I mean, when I went to VidCon one year, I was invited to a few different events they did. But other than that, not really.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, that's interesting because I've heard especially um early on, I know that they were courting uh different types of creators and they were kind of really trying to give like the white glove treatment to have people stay there. And then YouTube kind of did the same thing with uh streamers for a while there when Twitch was kind of blowing up and they were bringing streamers over. So I saw a little bit of that uh with a couple different creators, wasn't sure if they reached out to you or not. Let me ask you now about your kind of current workflow. So you still do long form sometimes, not definitely as as often as you do short form. When do you decide to do a long form? And and is there something that you that particularly makes you excited to do it, or is it just something that you have an idea, it definitely doesn't work for short form, so I have to do it this way.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean I'm I'm trying to I'm actually working on a long form right now. Um I I would I'd

COVID Growth And Early YouTube Moves

SPEAKER_00

I think it's one of those things where uh I want to do more long form, but I'm kind of a perfectionist about it. And like sometimes I'll make something, I'll be like, it's not good enough to be a long form. And I think it's something I'm also working on at like trying to get a good rhythm with it because you know I've had long forms that have performed well and that I'm really happy with, and it's just it's just a whole different uh ball game, too, because it is it's a bigger commitment, and then it's it's if it doesn't do well, you're losing a bigger commitment.

SPEAKER_02

Um shorts are are something that you just I mean, you still have to spend time with them. And I would love to work through your process on how a success what the difference is between a successful short and a short that doesn't do well, because I think for a lot of content creators that are just kind of doing shorts just because it supposedly works, they don't really understand what the formula is for a truly successful short or short form piece of content. Let's break that down. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, number one is the idea, probably uh for for me. And honestly, maybe even more so is like the intro and the way you present the idea. I'll just like say an example. I've had uh which one one new thing I love is uh trial reels. Do you know about trial reels?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I've heard about them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I can you explain that to people who don't know what they are?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, trial reels is uh an a new Instagram feature where basically you can post multiple versions of the same video, and Instagram sends them out to non-followers, like a batch audience, and then so it you can see which one does better, which one gets more views, and then you can see um which one has the better analytics. And the most important analytic there that I'm normally testing, right? Which uh normally used to we didn't have this, you just kind of had to guess and then maybe delete and repost, but uh is the swipe view ratio or the skip rate. It's called different things, but basically the percentage of people that stay and watch a video versus scroll and skip past it. And I mean eighty percent of people staying to watch is like golden. Like that's the video's probably gonna go viral. And so I've had videos like where I tested on Instagram, like this one, it got 30,000 views. And I I knew the idea was pretty good. And I was like, I feel like this has viral potential. And so I reworked the intro, and the it went up like 4%, the rate, and it got like 8 million views after that.

SPEAKER_02

What would what was the difference you what was the thing that you you tweaked? Like, give me a specific so people can kind of understand.

SPEAKER_00

Simplified the intro, like of explaining the idea, and it was more into the action. So like it was it was cut, it was these money sheets, and and I was like cutting them up and like to spend them. And instead of like showing the money sheet and explaining it more, it was like right on me cutting it, is when the video started. And so you're like already in the action, you're seeing like me cut up this money, and you're like, what's going on here?

SPEAKER_02

So that's that's sounds like what you're saying for short form stuff. It's much more important to get right to the point, um, which is something that we we try to tell people to do. But yeah, I think you're even being more specific because um, you know, you're talking about this money sheet. If you can visualize a sheet of money, which is basically how money is made, it's just a big sheet that gets cut from uh dollar bills. And um it would be interesting in general, maybe even a long form content to show that sheet, explain it, and see what it is. But with short form, you have so little time to get someone to not scroll, because I think most people are looking for a reason to scroll, um, that you already have to be in the action to the point where does it almost feel awkward at times or you're like, I'm I didn't get to say anything about this, like it's just happening.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I try to make both versions make sense, but I think sometimes I'll make a version where I'm like, sometimes I'll do the first edit of the video and I'll be like, this looks good, post it. And then it it will like, even if I post it as like a trial reel, let's say, and then it's not really getting the reaction I want. I'm like, well, let me see if I can just kind of make this a little bit punchier in the beginning, and then I like go through and rework it with that in mind, because like the first time I was editing it, maybe I wasn't thinking about it enough. And I was like, Well, this looks good, it's edited, and then but the next time I'm really thinking, okay, how can I just be straight to the point? What's gonna be the punchiest? And then it makes like all the difference sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it's just the idea.

SPEAKER_02

When you're when you're making a short, and again, I I think this is because your expertise here is is really, really good. Um does it still have like the three story, the three-act story structure of like beginning, kind of middle, end, and then how do you strategically make this thing? Because I assume you're not just shooting something and hoping for the best. My my guess is you kind of know what you're going to do all the way through this, and then the edit just kind of cleans it up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, I think it's more almost a skill I've just kind of developed from making so many short form videos where I kind of have an idea and I build the story in my head, and while I'm filming, I'm thinking about the story, and so then when I get in the edit, I also build the story even further, and I'm like, okay, and it's not necessarily me breaking it down to okay, this is the beginning, this is the middle, this is the you know, the climax, the climax, this is the whatever. I'm I'm more just thinking about is the story flowing? And I kind of feel you can kind of feel when you're editing, like, if this is making sense, if the story is like flowing in it, or if it just feels off.

SPEAKER_02

You ever you ever watch any short form content and think, oh my god, this is terrible. Like the the pacing of this is the bad, I would do this differently. I would do this. Are you able to just enjoy content for what it is, or do you have like this analytical mind where you're constantly thinking, oh, they should have done this, it should have

Shorts Strategy And Evergreen Platforms

SPEAKER_02

done that.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I don't think I ever think that because I probably just scroll past videos like that. But that's fair. But uh I I do do the opposite, where sometimes I'll be like, This video is really good. This is probably gonna do well, and then I'll come back and it got like 10 million views. I'm like, I did well.

SPEAKER_02

That's cool. Do you uh do you have like a community of other creators that you kind of talk to or even mentor, or or maybe they're the mentor to you to help with any of this, or are you just on your own?

SPEAKER_00

I know a few, a handful of creators that uh are in similar or short form primarily like lanes to me that I uh talk on the phone with or am just kind of friends with on social media. But um other than that, not like anyone I talk to daily or anything.

SPEAKER_02

Do you do you feel I always feel like it's kind of a untalked about but kind of important thing to have people that are also content creators uh during your journey because there's only so much you can tell your friends or family that they don't understand that and it's just at that point there's not even point, there's no point in even talking to them about it anymore. It's like they don't understand what a click-through rate is or what it feels like to get a 10 of 10, or like it doesn't matter to them. But if you talk to another content creator, like if worst case scenario, you you get someone who understands and feels you. Is that important, do you think?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, I definitely think it can be. Uh I have this uh one creator friend who uh for a while there, we would talk to each other about all sorts of things, and we were very, very similar, make similar type of content. And so it was really relatable and like we just definitely got each other in that regard.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's important and it's nice to hear that you had someone in your same niche because depending on the niche, um, I you know I've spoken to and seen a lot of content creators that are in different niches where they're like, well, it's just all adversarial, everyone's trying to fight each other. But I've also seen some uh communities where it's just everyone wants to help each other. Uh, would you say the the community that you're in, or or at least the niche you're in, uh, is more of the former or the latter? Like, are the people more helpful or are people more like, hey, this is I don't want you to know how I'm doing this?

SPEAKER_00

No, no one's like that, I don't think.

SPEAKER_02

Everyone's pretty helpful. That's good because um I again I've seen it before, and I and I encourage people to help others. You'd be surprised how much you can learn by helping someone else. Um Dylan, let's talk a little bit about some of these projects you've done recently. The long form stuff I'm really curious about because some of them some of us are great. Um, but the did you think that the turning $1,000 of dirt into a gold bar was going to do as well as it did? I mean, 2.4 million views, not too bad for a bag of dirt. But uh tell us what that how you came up with that and what that entails.

SPEAKER_00

I know that's crazy. I mean, here's the thing about long form, I just want to say real quick, yeah, is I think I I messed up in the sense that I would like make a video, like put all this effort into one video, and then wait a long time before I'd make another one because the video maybe would start off, eh, and then I put all this effort in, and then it I'd focus back on the short form. And then but sometimes long form videos take a while before they like reach their full potential. And so I think the better thing would have been just like consistently have which this is what I'm trying to do right now, uh consistently put out long form videos like even like once a month, and then look back over the the year and be like, all right, let's see what did well and plan based on that. But uh no, I didn't expect it to do that well. I mean, I'd kind of done some research on the topic, and there was some other similar videos that had done well, and I thought, oh, maybe it'll do similar to these, and it did better than those. But uh I kind of came up

Trial Reels And The Skip Rate

SPEAKER_00

with the idea because I all the short form content I was doing around that was going viral, like everywhere. And I was like, I need to up it, up the idea, and make it one long form and a short form, and then promote it through that. And that was a big part of it, too, is because the short form linked the long form and it did really well.

SPEAKER_02

Talk to us about what happens in the video, just for people who haven't seen it, and certainly the the audio podcast listeners can't see it. So uh tell us what happens in that video.

SPEAKER_00

Um, I bought the so these are called uh pay dart, and it's basically dart harvested from like places, rivers and stuff where there's gold and people paying for gold. But you can literally just buy the dart bags for however much. And I spent a thousand dollars on dirt bags basically to find gold. And I the idea of the video was let's see how much gold we can find, estimate how much it's worth, and then uh have a jeweler melt it into a bar, and then we're gonna take it to the pawn shop and like sell it or something.

SPEAKER_02

Wow, that's really cool. What a cool idea! So, talk to us about the intro because I feel like um whether it be long form or short form, the intro has to deliver. And just based on the views alone, it must have. Talk to us about the process you went through to figure out what that intro was, and and also explain to us what the intro is, because again, some of us can't see it.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I don't remember exactly. I would literally have to go back and watch it, but um, I remember thinking a lot about the intro, so much so that after I made the video, I had another idea for an intro. I was like, oh, this intro is so much better. This would have worked out so much better, but the video did get it anyway, so it doesn't really matter.

SPEAKER_02

Looking at it, it's you're holding a bag, the bag, and you're kind of looking at it just as a reminder. Um, it says lucky bag, and you're just kind of looking at it. I guess maybe because people never have heard of a bag of dirt that you could buy. I certainly haven't.

SPEAKER_00

I think I remember thinking that I wanted to make the intro feel like a short form at first because I feel like I was thinking if I can make it so engaging that it would work in a short, that it's gonna be a great intro for long form too.

SPEAKER_02

And you succeeded because when you look at the video on YouTube, I'm looking at it right now. You know how you can see like the retention thing in the player playlist? It there's a bump at the beginning, which almost never happens on YouTube video, long form YouTube videos. It's usually somewhere in the middle or in like something weird happens. So whatever you did there succeeded. And it's uh it's really interesting to take a short form mentality for the intro of a long form that actually kind of makes a little bit of sense because you know, just like Mr. Beast always says, you know, you want to kind of definitely deliver on the promise as soon as you get in. Um so is that something that you've been doing since then? Are you continuing to do that naturally, or do you really overly think the these intros?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, you definitely have to overthink the intro. Or like I I wouldn't say overthink to a bad point, but you have to really think about it and because you know, people aren't gonna watch the whole video if it doesn't seem interesting and if they're not hooked right away. And I mean, the other great thing about that too is um, which I recently saw speaking of this video, that intro does work well for short form because somebody clipped my whole uh first half of that long form and threw it on their TikTok and got 23 million views like a few months ago. And I saw this, I'm like, what the heck? I didn't how did I not think of this? I'm like, did they make money from this? It was like a four-minute video, and I was just like, what the heck? But I think also it like hit a different algorithm. Like, I don't I don't think it would have done that on my page necessarily, but I uh I did throw it on my Facebook and got like several million views, so that was interesting.

SPEAKER_02

There's something to it, like there's it seems like if I mean if it's gonna work one place, it should work most places because it's all about humans, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I but I took his version of my video and because he like sped up my voice and made it kind of sound weird and put a caption and put it on my Facebook, and I was it like did really well. I'm like, oh okay.

SPEAKER_02

Does that make you want to go back and other videos and go like I can just repurpose some of this stuff?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it could be free money. I actually thought about it because that same guy had like a whole bunch of my old long form videos. I was like, heck. But uh I think the other thing I think about those like I have a hard time repurposing really old videos because I'm like, oh, I can make so much better stuff now. So much better, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not gonna repurpose that. But the gold video, I I will say that was that was pretty good. That was a that was a knock out of the park one.

SPEAKER_02

Are you are you thinking about maybe redoing uh older videos that might still have a good evergreen kind of pop to them, but now you're more skilled and maybe can do a better job?

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I haven't really thought about redoing like old, old ideas like that, but uh I have thought about reiterating on like that type of idea and doing another long form similar to that or like in the same lane. One one I'm working on right now is kind of similar.

SPEAKER_02

What's the hardest part right now of your content creation?

SPEAKER_00

It's kind of just the whole you know, being your own boss thing and running your own, doing all the things and deciding what's the best use of your time day to day.

SPEAKER_02

So you're your own boss. Do you have a team at all?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I have uh my brother part-time films for me. Okay, for films for yourself. And then I edit everything and you know, film anything else.

SPEAKER_02

Oh wow, okay. Is there is there a thought where you might expand that into something bigger? Do you have aspirations of doing more, or do you like kind of where you are right

Long Form Hits And Intro Obsession

SPEAKER_02

now and what you're doing?

SPEAKER_00

Um, I mean, yes and no. I do like where I'm at right now because um it's less stressful that like if no one relies on me. Like uh I don't have a full-time editor or anything, you know. And um I kind of am very particular about my videos. Like I've wor I've I've uh outsourced editing before, and it's always just such so much of a headache.

SPEAKER_02

Uh I'm probably doing it wrong, but uh what would the perfect um kind of Dylan Empire look like? Like what would be the type of content you would do? What would would you have how many channels would you have? Like what would make sense? Because I mean you're still young, you have a long way to go, and I don't know how long you want to do this for, but it I think at this point you're young enough you could do it for a very long time, and it's you'd still have a lot of life left. Um, what would like a five-year from now Dylan uh web channel uh look like?

SPEAKER_00

That's really interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Um because the thing is, like right now, with the success you have and any money you're making, you can invest into yourself and your channel, and then of course, thinking about other um not even platforms, but other like niches that aren't doing the things that you do in your video, knowing that if you understand the intro really well, that you could blow up any niche, and some of those niches pay very well, uh, especially on like YouTube.

SPEAKER_00

I I actually had thought about that before. One time I was like, you know, I'm gonna make a Minecraft shorts channel, and then I never did it, but because I was like looking at all these Minecraft shorts channels. I'm like, I could do this, and but uh it's it's also a time balance thing. I mean, I think it would be awesome eventually if I did have somebody that uh like locally is would be the probably best that could do editing for me. Yeah. That I mean, and then I mean I wouldn't really want much bigger of a team than one to two people, honestly.

SPEAKER_02

How long does it take you to edit your your content currently?

SPEAKER_00

Uh it's just different for everything, you know, because some videos I have way more footage and I didn't really plan it out as well. I mean, it can take me anywhere from a few hours to all day to edit a short video.

SPEAKER_02

So, what does your common day look like waking up to end of the day?

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, it's different all the time. So I I try to separate like film days from you know, uh editing slash planning video days is kind of what I separate it into. And so I'll have a day where I wake up and kind of look at a little make a little to-do list of everything that's going on and the day-to-day, and then you know, make sure I do that, and then what videos I'm working on and editing and need to post. So it's like post on every platform, um edit whatever video I'm I've just filmed, and then also brainstorm uh a bunch more ideas and plan out any other videos, order anything I need for other videos, and then um on film days, it's just uh make sure I have everything I need and everything set up and uh I just kind of execute whatever idea we're thinking of.

SPEAKER_02

So for some people, they have to balance their either their school or job and then content creation. Yours is slightly different. You'd have to balance content creation with the rest of your life. Uh, do you are you good at that? I mean, be honest with us. Are you good at balancing those two? And if so, like how do you balance that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I'd say I'm I'm pretty good at it. I think the only thing that's hard is I feel like I could always have more you could always have more time to work on content stuff because like when you work for yourself, uh it's a never-ending things of stuff you could do all the time. And so you kind of just have to be like draw the line of what you're gonna do that day and what you're gonna focus on. Because also, and when you're doing creative work, there's only so much creative energy you have it in in a day as well.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And it's it's different than like if you're you know mowing the yard, obviously you're gonna get tired, but if you're you know doing all this creative work, like editing, even uh it's it it takes a mint, you need mental breaks. Like, so it's like especially if I'm editing, I'll have to take breaks for a sec, or you kind of just lose yourself.

SPEAKER_02

You have about six years of content on YouTube, three billion views here, and probably a gazillion views on TikTok. Using all of that experience, tell a new content creator who's just kind of starting out right now, like three things they need to know about making uh content either on YouTube or TikTok, doesn't really matter where, that they may not know, but because you've gone through it, you've kind of learned it.

SPEAKER_00

I think it would uh depend what kind of content you're making. So I would say because I was I'm trying to think about this. If you're new to social media, I would say try lots of different styles and formats, and until you find one, what you're comfortable with and what you feel like you could be good at and what works, and like it's also different if you like have specific niches, see what's popular in your niche. And I mean, a big thing I think is which don't steal anyone's content, but like there's the phrase steal like an artist. So a lot of times to find your own voice, you have to kind of base it off of something else uh at the start, kind of like what I did on TikTok, what I was telling you about. I saw that guy's format working. I'm like, I'm gonna make my own version of this, and then it kind of turned into my own thing. Uh so and it was through just doing and making videos like that that I did find my own voice on TikTok and my own uh style. Because if you're not like I think just doing number one, uh and trying lots of things and getting better at making videos um is really important. And then being very selective, like let's say you're making a video like mine, and uh, you know, it's it's about an idea you had to do something,

Workflow, Balance, And New Creator Advice

SPEAKER_00

be very uh selective about the each shot and each segment of the video, and making sure each part looks good, and like you're being very intentional about what it looks like and what it's gonna look like when you edit, and that sort of thing. And what like have an uh have almost a script in your head, and you're just bringing the best visuals you can to that script of like say you come up with an amazing intro, what's the best looking way to execute on this intro? Because if it's with short form, especially, it's all about the visuals matching the idea and the story. And I mean, that was kind of just a jumble of response to that.

SPEAKER_02

I think that's good. I mean, I think ultimately one of the things you've said multiple times through this interview, and I think it actually uh lands the plane is it's a lot of times it's just the idea. I mean, obviously there's other things around it, but if the idea isn't good, then you can't really expect a lot from it. You even said that early on, you know, you were doing all these different channels and you thought that maybe had something to do with um, you know, the channel or or you know your account with TikTok, but it really never was. It was the content, and you eventually figured that out, and then all of a sudden now hundreds of millions of billions of views later, uh, here we are. Dylan is on YouTube and TikTok and Instagram and everywhere. You can find him. There'll be links in the description below. And if you're on the uh audio podcast, there'll be a link to this video episode, and then you can see the links there. Um, I want to thank you so much for joining us, Dylan.

SPEAKER_00

Um, any cool pro I'm gonna have a long form video I'm making soon, so everyone can check that out. And I mean, you can just find me on every platform doing everything, I guess.

SPEAKER_02

I'm really excited about your long form stuff because I think your ideas are really interesting. And the fact that you know how to get a hook at the beginning, I think is super it's a superpower, to be perfectly honest. So, again, if you want to watch some of Dylan's content, we'll have links in the description. And if you're new here, of course you can hit that subscribe button if you like this. And I have another video for you right here. So you should watch that one. See y'all in the next one.