Gene: Welcome to another episode of YouTube
Masters. Thanks Musicbed for having me.
You hear that, Sam? I'm a YouTube Master now.
Yesterday, I was a very mediocre YouTuber.
Now I am a master. Bow to me everybody! Sam!
Sam: Make way for my master Potato Jet!
Gene: Can you greet me like that every single
day?
Sam: With a trumpet? Like doo-doo-doo-doo
Gene: Yes, please!
I'm Gene Nagata, also known as Potato Jet.
I've been a YouTuber for the last couple years
and today we're going to be talking about
how to make a boring video epic.
Truth is it's a never-ending process. Every
year I'm trying to figure out ways to make
the videos better and better and better, and
I'm still learning and trying to improve every
single day, but here are some of the things
that I have picked up in the last couple years.
Now some people post their first video and
it just blows off, and there, career made.
That was definitely not my case. When I got
to 20 subscribers, I was like "YEAHH!"
It was very much a slow start, but I had understood
that it was a game of exponential growth — like
an exponential graph, right? Alogorith...mith-mithic
— something like that. Where it goes "whoop", like that.
Things really started to take off for me when
I started to ignore all that, and I just said
you know what, I'm going to make the best
videos I possibly can and forget all that other stuff.
Make good videos consistently. You can't just
make videos consistently. Does not work.
You can't just make a good video. That does not
work. You have to make good videos consistently.
If you can do that, you'll be good.
Sam: Sounds so easy when you say it.
Gene: Now, I admit, I had a really big advantage
on becoming successful on YouTube. And it's
not because I knew how to hack an algorithm
or because I knew somebody at YouTube that
would promote my videos or anything like that.
It is because I had a production company for
over 10 years creating videos.
But it's not the technical information that
helped me, right? The skill that really came
into play was being able to make boring stuff
a lot more interesting. Because when I say
that I have a production company, I don't
mean I was doing some glamorous Hollywood
movies. I mean, I was working for companies
and clients that needed to produce videos.
Sometimes they were really interesting projects,
but sometimes they were really lame. It was
all about branding, right? So if a company
that makes gloves was like "Hey, make a video
for us", we would think of all the different
ways we can make that happen.
Put it on a mechanic that's working on a really
cool project. How about putting it on a hero
that's building shelters for a good cause?
You know what I mean? Like, it's all about
making these cool.
Sam: I remember I had a professor at CSUN
that would always be like, "It needs to be
sexier."
Gene: I 100% agree with that. You have to
add in the spice. Like this right here,
I recorded so many videos in this spot with
this one single camera angle. And I was getting
so sick of my own videos. I never want my
videos to get stagnant, so how do I make it
more interesting? So that was when I was like
"Sam, can you get a second angle?"
Woah, more interesting stuff. Add some music.
So this camera angle definitely added a little
bit more spice to the videos, but then Sam
would just be behind the camera. So, then
we set up the Sam cam right here.
So the video you're watching now — it's
simple, but it's evolved over time. And I'm
constantly trying to add spice, or sexiness
to the videos.
I'm the potato and Sam's the stuff that you
put on potatoes like what —
Sam: Bacon, cheese, onions, well, this is...probably
not — no onions.
Gene: As soon as I start getting bored of
my videos, you start getting bored of the videos.
So the journey to make these videos
better is a never-ending process.
Here's one of the toughest things about any
sort of artistic craft, right, is that it is
very difficult to judge your own videos. And
one of the worst things you could do is go
ask one of your friends or your parent, "Hey,
what do you think of my video?"
Cuz you know what the answer is going to be.
Sam: It SUCKS.
*both laugh*
Gene: Opposite. I once made a really bad video
on purpose because I thought it'd be funny.
And I showed it to my friends to see what
they would think. And he was like "Yeah man,
it's good — it's really good."
*laughs* straight up.
Sam: Well, I mean, that means you have good
friends, man.
Gene: Yeah, sure.
Sam: And I'm sorry I won't do that again.
Gene: And you know why? It's because real
feedback hurts. And here's the thing with
feedback. It's a difficult process, because
first, you need to have good sources give
you good feedback.
And on the receiving end, you have to be able
to say "This is just a hate comment.
They are just commenting to hate."
And then you have people that genuinely say
"Hey, I think your video can actually do better
if you do this."
And you have to be open to it.
Sam: But also you're wrong and I hate you.
Gene: *laughs* exactly
Now, a lot of people have asked me for genuine
feedback. They say "Hey, I can take the feedback.
Tell me the truth. Give it to me straight."
90% of the time the answer is, it's not interesting
enough, I'm falling asleep, and I cannot wait
for this video to end because I don't want
to be a jerk and say I'm not watching the
rest of this.
So the biggest advice I can give to most creators
is stop spending time focusing on your algorithm
and how to hack the system.
Just focus on stopping your videos from putting
people to sleep. How do I add more hot sauce
to the potato?
And the majority of the time, it's a lot easier
than you think. All you got to do is take
that video and just shorten it down. Maybe
in half.
Just try it on one of your videos and see
if it still works. If it does, that's the way to go.
There's always a balance, right? You don't
want to be too loose with your edits, or else
I'm going to fall asleep. You don't want to
be too aggressive,
or else you're going to lose the story.
You have to become a timeline minimalist,
okay? You have to say, "That is an essential.
That is an essential. Everything else — thppb."
Now, I probably sound like a hypocrite cuz
if you look at my channel, my videos are like
20 minutes long and I'm just like "Bleh buh
bleh buh bluh."
And the reason why I can kind of do that now,
is because I've already established a relationship
with my audience. I get a pretty clear idea
on who's subscribed to the channel.
And my audience is just a bunch of suckers
that's willing to sit through the whole thing
*laughs* I'm just kidding, I love you guys.
But really, if I were to start from scratch
again, I would be super, hyper aggressive
in cutting everything down. The videos that
I put out now that are 20 minutes — they'd
probably be like 3 or 4 minutes.
Once you can get super good at delivering
a lot in a short amount of time, that's when
you can start adding more stuff to it, and
you can experiment with what I call fluff.
When you start off, I don't think you should
have any fluff in your videos. But as you
start growing your brand, and your channel,
and your image, you can start saying, "Hey
what do you guys think about this fluff?"
And if people react very positively to it,
then you can add more of that.
"And then how about this fluff?"
And they go "No, don't want to see that anymore."
And this is something that really takes time
to cultivate, cuz you really have to understand
what people are open to, and what people don't
want to see before you just slap a bunch of
fluff onto it. It's fluff, but it's strategic.
Now everyone's methods are going to be different.
I have friends that are very efficient with
their footage. They know exactly what they're
going to say going into it, they cut it up,
and it's perfect.
I have no ability to do that cuz my brain
just *pew pew*. And if you tell me to say
something, I cannot recite a line.
Sam: You guys should see the dumpster fire
of clips that he gives me.
Gene: *laughs* yeah.
It's so weird. Right now, I am just talking
off the top of my head. So it's easy. I feel
like I'm articulating pretty reasonably.
But if you were to say, "Hey say this line."
I'd be like "Ehdubh.."
So what works for others didn't work for me,
but this works for me so this is my workflow.
When I'm usually in the studio, I usually
have a list of bullet points that I need to
talk over, but I don't over-write it or else
I'm just going to get too much of my head.
But I try to make sure at least have some
thoughts in place, or else I will just ramble.
Now, I also have a vlog channel, which is
even more just out of control than this. I
just start recording in the morning and I
just, kind of, try to document what goes on
throughout the day.
And the thing is, I don't know what I'm going
to use and what I don't. I just record a bunch,
and usually halfway through the day, or
later on in the day, is when I go "Oh, okay,
this is what this video is going to be about."
And at that point, half the footage gets deleted
before I even look at it.
And remember: make good videos often. Is that
what I said? Good videos often? Or was it great
videos often? I forget my own saying. But,
yeah.
The harder part is good videos. Once you get
that down to a science, you become more efficient.
You stop looking through all the footage.
You spend less time editing your cuts. You
have a workflow in place to where you can
start doing it often.
That part comes naturally. Now, I see a lot
of people focusing on making videos frequently.
I think it's better to focus on making good
videos, and once you get that down, you'll
be able to make good videos frequently easier.
But again, like I said, everybody has a different
workflow. That is just the way I've seen things,
and so far it's worked for me.
I mean, come on, Sam plays the trumpet every
time I walk into the room.
Sam: *makes trumpet noise off-key*
Gene: Yeah, you need a tune that trumpet,
man.
Sometimes people see it as a short-term thing,
and it can work for a while. But if you are
looking to build a career out of it, something
that lasts a long time, and really builds up
into something significant, it's a long-term
play. So do not get discouraged when your
videos do not do well at first.
It takes time, it takes hundreds of videos.
Here's an example of that exponential growth,
right. Currently, it's not rare for me to
get at least 1000 subscribers in a day with
an average amount of effort.
The reason why is because I am at this point
in the graph.
Sam: There's nothing there, Gene.
Gene: No, you're going to edit something in
there, right? Or did you just make me look
like an idiot and not put anything in there?
Sam: Well, you didn't tell me to put anything
in.
Gene: Well, put a thing in there. Right there
in the graph.
Sam: Fine.
Gene: But I will tell you that not long ago,
I was at this part of the graph. And when
you're there, a thousand subscribers seems
insane. No matter how much effort I put in
at that point in time, there's no way anything
like this would have happened. But what really
kept me going was knowing that there's going
to be exponential growth down the line.
And as long as you know that you're still
at the start of that graph, then it's easier
to not get discouraged and work through all
the hiccups, and grow over time.
But yeah, that's it for me. I hope this helps,
I really want you guys to succeed. And thanks
again Musicbed for having me here.
Make sure you subscribe to the Musicbed YouTube
channel. Make sure you hit that bell so that
you know when the next video drops. And that's
all I got for today. See you guys later.
Sam: Bye.
