The Viral Video That Changed Her Life Forever with Keltie O’Connor: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 190
“The only way you’ll learn what does well is by doing it and no one is watching when you start so take that as a blessing.”
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Fasten your seatbelts, the YouTube Power Hour Podcast is back and better than ever! We’re kicking things off by giving you the step-by-step, behind-the-scenes of a viral video hit and breaking it all down for you. Fitness YouTuber Keltie O’Connor is our guest with the most today and I don’t think you’re ready for what she’s about to share. Let the rollercoaster ride begin!
Keltie found her love for video when a very progressive teacher in high school saw her struggling to write essays and suggested she do them in video instead. That love blossomed and followed her into university where she spent the next few years learning YouTube and honing her perspective as a fitness YouTuber. But in August 2018 she realized she was burnt out. She didn’t like the superficial content she was creating and she needed a break. So she decided to take her first vacation in 3 years and spend a week in Toronto. After that week she felt the pull. She packed her things and decided to move to Toronto from Edmonton and go all-in on YouTube. She spent her life savings, worked day and night, bartended on weekends to pay the bills and buy equipment and fund her to go to fitness networking events. By the start of 2019, her growth skyrocketed – she tells the story of the first time a video of hers went majorly viral and it’s a roller coaster ride you have to hear for yourself!
“You should have a purpose behind YouTube and your channel but your content can change with the trends.”
Immediately after the high of success, she was thrown into the depths: dealing with creative burnout, overwork, second-guessing her message to her newfound audience and barely sleeping. 6 months of building her life around YouTube turned into one year. But she was driven by a light she felt was at the end of the tunnel, that if she could continue to sustain the pressure, it would all be worth it. And in March 2018, it all happened. She finally hit 100k subscribers and she was able to cut her bartending jobs and finally focus on YouTube full time! You’re going to hear the full story, all the ups and downs and highs and lows from starting, her viral hits, and misses and the journey that led her to this moment. Enjoy!
“Every time you’re making videos it’s so tedious but the second you press publish, you get that high and the video is out, and then you chase it again.”
5 Key Interview Takeaways
- If you’re willing to make the sacrifice, huge success awaits. Keltie went against everyone’s advice and her own logic and followed the pull in her heart to move to Toronto and do whatever it took to focus on YouTube. She barely slept 4 hours a night, she saved all she could from her modeling and bartending to spend on growing her channel and she did that non-stop for over a year. She knew her success was inevitable and she made it happen through sheer hard work, creativity, and will, and you can make it happen too.
- Outsource as much as you can. Don’t burn yourself out when you don’t need to. Find people who can take work off your plate and allow you to breathe and be as creative as possible. You don’t need to record, edit, create thumbnails, respond to every comment, analyze analytics and reach out to brands all on your own. Build a team as you grow and you’ll stay in the game and on the fun side of creativity as long as possible.
- Plan out your content around the trends and pop culture. Keltie spends 1-2 hours a day researching, looking at content that works, looking at the upcoming holidays, movies, sports events, and memorable things coming up so she can create content to ride that wave. That was the secret sauce behind her first mega-viral hit and she’s been using that formula ever since. How can you maximize on trends to help your channel grow?
- Clickbait can be a good thing. ONLY if you overdeliver on the value your baiting. Clickbait gets a bad rap because the people who exploit it try to hack your view only to leave you shortchanged. But what happens if instead of shortchanging people are delighted by what they get. What if you hit them with something they didn’t expect but can’t help falling in love with. Create that energy behind your videos and you won’t have to worry about using titles that attract eyeballs.
- Spend the time to make great thumbnails. Keltie said it could take her from 1 hour to 3 hours to make the right thumbnail for her videos. It’s a creative process but it also has a huge impact on how the video gets found and picked up by viewers.
Resources
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
(Discount code ErikasBuddy for 20% off the paid version)
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with Keltie
Facebook Group:
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
