4 Things I Learned Building a Million-View Youtube Channel

My name is Jon Adams. I'm the Lead Pastor at Anchor Church in Maitland, FL, and I also run the Youtube channel Jon Adams Tech. I've learned so much over the course of starting two different YouTube channels and I just wanted to share those with you today.

Lesson 1: It's Way Harder Than You Think

I started my Youtube channel after losing a job that I had really wanted. It was such a tough season but once that challenging season was over I didn't really know what to do with my time. It was the closest thing I've ever had to an identity crisis but thankfully, God holds on to us so much stronger than we hold on to Him.

Now understand that I have been doing video production for roughly 20 years so the idea of making videos on Youtube just felt like a natural next step for me. Little did I know though how much effort would go into making a single video, and not only was the production effort huge, but also learning the nuances of the platform took me by surprise! What kind of videos get views, what would cause a person to click away, how important thumbnail and titles were to the whole process because if you make a masterpiece of a video but no one wants to click on it then it's a waste! It was overwhelming, but like anything, we learn over time. What first took me 10 hours to do quickly dwindled down to 2 hours, and now only takes me about 30 minutes and that's because I learned the principal of who, not how.

Lesson 2: Who Not How

I've always been a very proactive person on the things that I actually want to do, if I think it's enjoyable and worth doing, it's getting done. When I first began my journey on Youtube I was creating the idea, doing pre-production, filming, editing, taking the thumbnail photo, editing the photos, doing the SEO, posting, and then once I started getting sponsors, had on average 80 emails back and forth for a single 60-second ad spot. It was more than one person who is a full time pastor with a wife and kids could do on their own. It wasn't until a friend of mine Cory Cooper (you may have heard of him...) introduced me to the book Who Not How by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy where I finally realized that I didn't need to do everything on my own, and If I was going to avoid burnout that I needed to get the right people on my team. So one of the first things I did was hire an editor. Though I love editing videos, finding someone to help me saved so much time in the process of creating videos.

The next thing I did was train my wife how to talk with brands for sponsorships. These days brands are willing to spend all sorts of money on targeted ads through sponsoring videos from small creators. My channel is only about 6,000 subscribers, but my videos get 20,000 views on average and that view count is what brands really care about. Those brands are willing to spend good money to get their ads in front of the right audience, and that process takes hours and hours of emails to negotiate price. So, when my wife offered to take on that aspect of the business I was elated and jumped on the opportunity right away! Now she saves me hours every week.

Here's the truth you need to take away from this lesson--if you want to avoid burnout and be as effective as you can be, you need to bring people with you on the journey. Frodo had Sam, Batman had Robin, Shrek had Donkey, so who do you think you are to go at this alone? You need to find your Who's to figure out your How's.

Lesson 3: Consumerism is killing us

Running a tech channel is fun, I get to check out cool new stuff all the time, but In the wise words of Ariel... yes that Ariel... the mermaid...

"I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty, I've got whosits and whatsits galore You want thingamabobs?I got twenty But who cares? No big deal... I want more"

You're welcome for getting that stuck in your head for the rest of the day... One of the things I have found most interesting is that getting to review the latest tech hasn't made me happier in the slightest. If anything it's caused me to want an analogue life even more. Flickering pixels and shiny metal could never hold the depths of the human soul. You were made to look into another human beings eyes and see a small glimpse of God's grandeur through his creation, to see with your own eyes the Imago Dei. A laptop could never give you that experience, which is why I've made it a goal with my channel to help people get the right tool for the right price and to stop mindlessly consuming more and more stuff that will ultimately leave them empty.

An iPad is a great tool for an artist, a MacBook Pro is a great tool for someone who wants to be maximally productive (Don't roll your eyes windows people those are great too) but a tool isn't made to make us happy. We have slowly become a culture that loves things and uses people rather than love people and use things. It's sad and I'm praying that my channel is a place for people who enjoy tech but realize over time that they were made for more.

Lesson 4: It's Nice to Have an Outlet

Like I said, I'm a lead pastor—I’ll write another one of these on being a pastor but that's for another day. Being a pastor is hard—doesn't matter where you live, what context your people are in, people are people and they can be hard. Don't get me wrong, they are also beautiful, and a pleasure to be around, but there's only two types of people... those who are sinners, and those who are dead. While I'm not afraid of death, doing ministry to a corpse just isn't my thing.

Every pastor I've ever spoken with has their thing—the thing they do that is completely separate from ministry so that when they have a really hard day. Dealing with the failings of the people you love or dealing with your own failings, it's nice to have something to do to get away. Some people reading this might think that is an incredibly unspiritual thing to say... those people can go kick a rock. This is the real world, and yes Jesus is always the ultimate way we find peace in hard situations and sometimes he uses the common grace of a hobby to meet you in your hardship to bring you peace. Mine just happens to be filmmaking. There's something about coming home from a hard day and capturing 50 creative shots, thinking outside the box, that can give me more rest than if I were to plop down on the couch and mind-numbingly drift away into a Netflix binge.

This goes for all people, you are a complex creation with multifaceted interests and nearly limitless room for learning new things, but you are limited. So do yourself a favor, figure out what your thing is now so that when you reach your limitation later, you have something to do to reset.