All About YouTube Business with Amy Schmittauer: Beauty and the Vlog Podcast 46
For this episode of Beauty and the Vlog I interview Amy Schmittauer in which she discusses YouTube business and how to make YouTube business work FOR YOU.
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Amy Schmittauer is the host of Savvy Sexy Social, a YouTube show helping rising stars embrace their amazing personality and share it with the world. An internationally acclaimed public speaker, Amy is known for her edutainment style originating from a YouTube portfolio accumulating more than 10 million views.
Check out the YouTube highlights version of the interview HERE!
Other Episodes Similar that You Might Enjoy:
How to leave your full time job for a YouTube Career with Rachhloves: BV Podcast 40
YouTube as a Career with DIY Expert K.L. Cao: BV Podcast 25
How she landed her dream job through her YouTube Channel with NurberXO: BV Podcast 14
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All About YouTube Business with Amy Schmittauer Show Notes
Below is a partial transcript of my interview with Amy. Listen to the podcast episode for the entire thing and/or watch the YouTube highlight videos!
What inspired you to get into online blogging?
That goes way far back. I was fortunate that my mom was a computer teacher before it was cool. I was on the internet early on. That is what started it was being really exited about being online. Youtube specifically going back to mid 2000. That was so exciting to see how people were sharing their message through video. I started a channel in 2007 and I posted some friend interactions. I’m like, this is getting fun but I didn’t like my channel name. That is how the Schmitsstic channel was born. I was bouncing around with my friends. It was me sharing my life. I came at this world as a content creator, just someone who is sharing. It was so much fun for me. I loved the editing process and it became fun. Because of that being my background, audience experience, me having fun always came first. That was when I was getting interested in marketing. It was something I became good at. This internet thing is going to be real hot.
Why don’t you tell everyone what you do.
I specialize in content marketing for small brands, YouTube business. The best thing you can do is create video content that is useful and “google-able”. Everyone is saying in 2015 video is hot right now. I’m like, video is hot right now? Where have you been? Video has been hot for a while. People are saying that because there are YouTube competitors coming out. Its good for business. My job is to advise them whether they buy a workshop or a coaching client. I wanted to focus on the products. Working together on one to build up that plan. What can you talk about that people care about and they are going to want to come to you.
What would you say to the beauty vloggers that could help them?
The first step to making something a YouTube business is treating it as a business and not a hobby. When you have these huge YouTube stars that if you just keep plugging and chugging it’ll work. The difficult thing about that is its really hard. The hard work that has to go into it, it takes a long time. The hard part is that you need to put the time and effort into that grind and ownership into their own business. We cant stop thinking about it. We are always thinking we can do more. The more you do, the more you move yourself forward. You really need to be thinking about putting the time in and working smart. There are tools like collaborating. You really need to be thinking of this kind of stuff and if you don’t have enough hours of the day its hard to stay focused.
I feel the beauty space is saturated. How does someone differentiate themselves?
If there is a market that’s saturated, its beauty, no doubt about it. Michelle Phan went over the moon and everyone wants what she’s got. At the same time, she had her own personality that people loved. You pick your nightly show and everyone has their own Thursday night show. My Thursday night is with Olivia Pope and I want to watch her save the day in an amazing coat and Prada bag. Somebody else’s personality that is bringing the same save the day on a different channel is someone else. Its about who you connect with. Be yourself. If you never embrace who you are, you are not going to stand out amongst the cream of the crop. I came into the marketing industry the only marketer using YouTube like its YouTube. I did it from the cadence of youtube, why people are there, the expectations. It is context of the situation, just knowing I will be myself. If its how you like to consume content, then we will be in an amazing relationship here.
I’m going off the assumption that you have to find your niche, being yourself isn’t going to do the job. If you can say, so and so, you can say the person, avatar that you are looking at, that is knowing you know your niche. You do need to know who you are talking to, that is regardless above all. You cant go into the beauty industry saying you are going to be a fashion/beauty guru. That does nothing to differentiate. Absolutely to the hair color of the person you are envisioning talking to, that is what you need to find to deliver content.
The idea of an avatar is a major step in the right direction. You can say, I’m targeting senior citizens or females or people who want to dye their hair. Define one person. Because of how specific they get, that target audience will be the most specific. For my avatar, I would say Sara works for women’s rights in a full time nonprofit who loves her job but knows she can make a greater impact doing her own business. She is listening to podcasts and getting empowered to start her own company. That Sara is the girl I want to empower to share her message to the world and build her authority online. Because people are going to her and saying, you are an authority on women’s rights.
What do you think is the best way for a beauty YouTuber to make money on YouTube, or YouTube business?
The first step is not putting your eggs in one basket. I have had so many people come up to me and ask me what my CPM is. Are you kidding me, if I was counting on my google ad sense every month, no. I get it, but its just there. I don’t even notice it. Diversify your revenue streams. If you don’t have the number yet, you can still have sponsors and set the bar of what sponsors look like for your channel. You are putting an ad placement on your channel. Pick somebody that you wish was your sponsor, reach out to them and say oh hey.
