alright so welcome back everybody doing
another session super excited to have a
new face on the channel the gastro nerd
fellow youtuber and worth the same
agency in New York where are you
actually based I’m New York City born in
New York okay I mean I’m in Toronto but
we’re both with to market media that is
based in New York so we’re going to talk
about her channel and try to give her
some advice and hopefully you guys learn
in the process as well so Castro nerd
you want to give a quick intro what the
channel is all about yeah hi thanks Evan
thanks for having me yeah gasser nerd is
about feeding your inner food nerd and
using fun nerdy tricks and tips to
really like you know pimp everyday foods
and make the kitchen more accessible and
more fun cool and so so the channels
gasps from there you guys can check it
out i’ll put in the description below to
what tell me about the channel you’re
early yes Lawrence struggles yeah I’m a
classically trained chef i worked at
some two Michelin star restaurants I
currently work as a private chef but my
fascination with the food world is
really the nerdy side the history in the
mysteries behind everyday ingredients
and how if we better understand them
they’re actually they teach us how to
become better cooks and the better you
understand where your foods coming from
and what it does the better we can cook
with them and the more we can also
appreciate them so the goal with the
gastro nerd is to really teach you and
get you as excite you know cited about
all the nerdy sides of foods and maybe
some cheesy food puns to my favorite
yesterday I came up with a good one um
what did the cucumbers say when he fell
in the vinegar okay I don’t know help
i’m in a pickle so that’s that’s sort of
a baseline for my humor I made that up
so yeah it’s fun kind of just it’s
supposed to be like the quirkier it’s so
much of food today you know obviously
foods really hot it’s really fun but um
my struggle is with a lot of stuff on
YouTube especially and you know other
major networks is that people don’t
really explain why you’re cooking food
certain ways why are using certain
ingredients and what you’re doing and
that’s really what I aim to do is to
really educate but do it
and it should be fun so you know my
first thought is do people care enough
like do people care did they care about
the history do they care about the
origin um because I’ve watched the
number of cooking channels I’m not I’m
not I’m not a cook I’m not the cook in
the family brandy stretch um but do they
care enough about uh about that like is
it important enough the history the
people care these days like they’re
watching a youtube video to the care
well it’s not to be fair it’s on a long
history lesson the idea is it’s like a
fun fact and so I mean if you think
about so much of what’s exciting and uh
thrilla are out so much so much fun
media online it’s just like a quick
tidbit and something to infuse that dish
so if you’re like eating a piece of
Parmesan cheese it’s shaved over your
salad or like oh I didn’t realize
Parmesan cheese was originally made by
monks like that’s like a oh so it’s not
necessarily the long history which I can
imagine most people don’t want to read a
thousand-page book on the history of
Parmesan cheese so I I might enjoy it
but it’s decided to take that distill it
down to one really cool thing that would
give you another layer of flavor and
appreciation for a dish or enjoyed it
okay and so do you have that kind of
theme like fun fact about cheese is
excellent okay hope you like gastro
facts like nerd facts and I recently
just filmed a couple videos about how to
pimp your kitchen pimp different like
everyday meals by using like fun nerd
facts like for example i just made
grilled cheese with Swiss cheese and fig
jam so instead of take a regular grilled
cheese that everyone probably I hope I
hope at least you know how to make and I
know like my brother doesn’t know how to
cook at all but if he can make that then
it’s usually my baseline but but taking
something like fig jam that you can just
buy in the store and fig works really
well with cheese and understanding that
together and then just grilling it and
it becomes a totally different sandwich
it looks artisanal and fancy and it
takes the same in that time so just
little fun facts like that just things
that you know understanding what things
work together and just different
techniques and different fun sheets and
tricks it is to make the kitchen more
approachable less scary and
knowledge is power whether you want it
or not once you got you know something
people who watch my videos tell me like
oh I never thought to do that and now I
do it all the time and whatever I make
tastes so much better because of it cool
welcome Roberto he’s getting some
shoutouts there in the comments um yeah
and the audience is your room for
younger audience in for people like your
age like your brother or me who don’t
know how to cook or you’re even for
people who who do and want to get better
yeah that’s everybody I think um yeah
definitely my generation doesn’t have a
current voice that really can speak and
really educate people in the kitchen so
I’m looking to you know if I want to be
the next to Martha um that’d be great
too but yeah definitely and but you know
everyone everyone wants to learn
everyone’s into food and I don’t I try
not to alienate any particular crowd but
I think I have a certain sassy silly
sense of humor that definitely is
appealing to my my age demographic cool
and then so what’s the challenge and
getting the channel growing and views
and comments and the growth what are the
problems you’re facing right now um I i
guess i started doing all this by myself
and I have very little social media
background other than what I’ve sort of
picked up on the road and figured out so
just figuring out I’d love to some tips
on better ways to post my videos someone
once told me you know just to post one
video every day for two weeks and
that’ll help with like where you place
in the searches I see videos that not to
say my videos are the VL end all but I
certainly think they’re more
entertaining than other equivalent
versions of them that have many more
hits than I do and it’s not necessarily
because I think I don’t know if they’ve
just been around longer and the way that
they placed in the way they tag certain
things like something like how to tag
something that would be really helpful
cool ok so I would come from two
different approaches one is the content
itself and the second is the the
analytics and the data like one is the
heart and the other is the head and in
turn was thinking about the heart it’s I
watched some of the videos and I watch a
story you know I didn’t know that you
were classically trained chef right I
didn’t know what your background while
as if it was in the intro video I missed
it and it can sometimes be I thinking
work on the pitch right I’m just making
it consistent the same kind of things
and I get you’re figuring out and you
know it’s not quite a consistent format
for each video yet because you’re still
playing with it but something quick at
the beginning and if you name a gastro
factor would ever think i think that
would that would be helpful but in terms
of look at the analytic side titles
matter i think i wonder if the title
might be a little misleading like I
wonder if if people are looking for
recipes if they’re going to get what
they’re after for by looking at your
channel right like are they coming for
recipes or they come for entertainment
oh they’re going for that mix when
you’re looking on the back end if your
analytics you want to see where the
watch time is so the way the YouTube
analytics works the youtube views work
at guests showing up and ranking a new
video will rank fairly easily at the
start especially if you have some kind
of traction but then it’s all about
watch time so at the beginning it’s all
about the title it’s all about what’s in
your description you have decent titles
you have some descriptions in there you
could put the recipe I don’t remember
seeing if the recipe you put the recipe
in the lab you can put it in or you can
use it as a lead gen to your website I
like to get the recipe come check me out
at gastrin or calm and then that’s a
sign up for your newsletter so kind of
optional uh so the early like the first
two weeks of a video’s existence it’s
that’s what YouTube is looking at
they’re looking at does it hit these
keywords and they start ranking for
those after that it’s all about the
watch time and relevancy so they’ll look
at YouTube’s goal is to have people stay
on YouTube for as long as possible right
they want people to spend their entire
day on youtube so if you’re part of that
then they’re gonna they’re going to rank
your videos higher and if you’re sending
people away then you’re going to not
rank as much so what you should be doing
is on your different series look at the
watch time for all your different videos
and see where our people tuning out
right so it starts at one hundred
percent and then it drops to zero at the
end and you’ll see a graph like going
down and then you may have some spikes
up and down there’s absolute and is
relative I prefer looking at the
relative which basically means ok you
have you know how to be a great dinner
guest that’s a three minute and 19
second long video it’ll put you against
other videos there are three minutes in
19 seconds long and it will show how
much do you capture the attention of
your audience I know they click in a way
and you can see this is what my honest
really cares about this is where I am
you know gaining traction just like
those when you watch the presidential
debates the live tracking audience and
you see oh you know Trump said this and
so he gets a spike and so you’ll start
to see where people what they really
love about your channel and what they
don’t were you losing them and it can
give you some insights into what you can
do to fix it right what series are
working well what Sirius’s aren’t so the
longer term is all going to be about
that wash time and relevancy the short
first two weeks little google youtube
doesn’t know what to do with the video
so they use the keywords in the tags and
description but after that two-week
window it’s it’s almost irrelevant
especially if you’re getting down to the
tags doesn’t make a huge difference
anymore and there any initial tags other
than i mean yeah i tried i go for a lot
of the obvious ones that fit in with
what my video is about and what it could
possibly be connected to yeah so when
you’re doing your keyword research at
the start different people have
different methods that they like to use
what i like using is the youtube search
bar itself so if you go to youtube at
the top does that search bar I’m would
type in one of the keywords so if you’re
doing what do you have oatmeal chocolate
chip cookies right you could type in
oatmeal and then see what other keyword
suggestions are coming up right you’ll
see what what YouTube thinks are are
relevant topics that people are
searching for and it may give you an
idea of what to call the video but also
what other videos that you should be
typing in this is based on youtube
search preferences right people are
actually searching this in
and so those are good keyword topics
definitely put in your title and put in
your description and tags a challenge
the challenges you don’t want to just be
all keyword stuffing right if it’s just
keyword keyword keyword then it’s not
really going to help you um another
tactic with the with the tags are look
at a cop and look at a popular video
that’s already ranking really well so if
i type in quinoa fried rice like you
have there ah who’s the number one
ranking video for that and people will
often mimic and copy the tags that are
from that video so hopefully it’ll show
up they’ll show up that video and then
they’ll show your video or if somebody
watches that video then they’ll watch
your video as well a couple other things
you know things like thumbnails super
important yeah I’m working on making
better thumbnails because those are you
have any tips to better thumbnails I
know you have a very consistent
thumbnail format oh yeah I like the font
I like having text on there you can play
with it to see if you like it or not but
I like having text I’d make it bigger
because it’s hard to read mhmmm your
logo and name is super hard to see yeah
I just I had someone I recently
recreated a new logo so I’m gonna be
using that ok gastro nerds I does it say
presents I can’t even read it yeah
person ok presents gastro school or gaps
for adventures um and I’m assuming these
are ongoing series like after school’s a
serious gastric venture as a series yeah
ok you’re different playlists ok and you
set them up as playlist yeah ok perfect
um the way I handle it is i have little
logos for each one too so i have on each
video i have my my plane logo and then I
have another logo next to it that
represents the theme um so you know
entertaining might be a little bottle of
wine school might be you know a plus on
a paper you know whatever you you don’t
have to but I find that helpful as
visual markers instead of making people
read you could do different colors play
around with it so that one color is for
this theme one colors for that theme you
may want to in the video itself while
you’re filming it think about what the
thumbnail is going to be most often it’s
the food if you look at cooking channels
it’s usually the food a beautiful
picture of the food your thing is not
necessarily about the beautiful food yet
because the the you know the way to
stand out for you is going to be harder
in that field because people spend a lot
of money on the lighting and making it
look really nice and yours you know
might be in the kitchen little dark but
you can add the extra fun sassy you know
nerdy component to it so I would be
thinking about the thumbnail while
you’re filming not afterwards yeah yeah
in the recent videos I did we yeah we
included a thumb nail shop while we were
filming two videos okay so your most
recent one of the cookies for all know
the ones I film today they’re not up on
you okay okay okay literally film them
earlier today okay i know i’m a little
late i’m sort of learning things after
the fact unfortunately no that’s okay
and part of part of why i was so
hesitant to even put youtube videos up
in the first place as i wanted them to
be perfect and then I realized that’s
not going to happen so I started putting
up content um but if you look look back
on my channel look at my first videos I
sucked you know it’s been alright
obviously a learning process and and
they’re sorted obviously there’s certain
metrics and ways to measure things and
end it’s true fine tuning my message and
making it as approachable as possible is
definitely something that I’m working on
and I know you know I think being a nerd
is fun and cool but it has to be an you
know nerd in moderation two people still
want easy recipes that are approachable
and and get them in the kitchen but yeah
I guess also when you when you post a
video is there anything as far as like
Twitter is concerned in other forms of
social media that you have suggestions
about the the biggest thing that helps
my videos go is the
the related video so they watch a video
then they watching other than they watch
another another so it’s the backlog and
as you build your catalog then they keep
watching more and so the important
message there is being consistent so how
consistent are you in your video so I
see you had you know your cookies one is
from two days ago then there was a gap
where he had nothing and it’s like three
weeks ago and then a whole ton three
weeks ago and then 24 weeks ago so it’s
having a schedule right and keeping it
consistent and also training people who
subscribe to expect videos on certain
days and I know what the Starling can be
tough and you may be doing other things
besides just youtube channel um but you
know I was doing when I started with two
mm I was doing a video a day every day i
did a video every day one video and
steve like pounded it into me and
reviewed my videos and i got better and
then i moved to two videos a day in our
three videos most days weekdays or three
videos weekends too so just really three
videos a day yeah but i have a team so
it’s like there’s six of us working on
my youtube channel such as me you know
it’s a really i still need to make money
otherwise and i get it and i didn’t
really start to expand until i was doing
one a week when it was all me and then
once i hired someone to do the editing i
can move to one a day the editing was
insane for me to do it’s not my skill or
forte um but but some kind of
consistency right so having you know
three weeks go by not having a video is
not it’s not great to build up the
momentum and also for you to practice
and get better like every time you’d
event video you think about something
new you get a little bit better a little
more comfortable find your rhythm a
little bit more at the start I found
like you might be watching other
people’s videos and you take a little
bit from them but the more you do it the
more you practice the better you’re
going to get at it and find your flow to
make it uniquely you and not kind of
just pick and choose copies of other
people so consistency is really
important and you’ll find that people
watch one and then another and then
another and then
I also wanted to talk about community
because I found that one there was a lot
of comments or people responding to the
videos and that’s the hardest part of
the start like you see some view system
thumbs us but you don’t see the reaction
and so that that can keep you fueled and
motivated that’s the best part of my day
in the comments from my YouTube
subscribers you want to respond every
comment first of all like anytime
someone who leads a comment you want to
respond at least that’s been my strategy
what’s really helped there’s data out
there that says you know for every
comment every new subscriber that you
you leave a comment and you respond to
their comments there are seven times
more likely to subscribe to your channel
now I don’t know how much that’s in your
like if you like doing that if you like
engaging with the community or not what
do I I don’t really I just tend to get a
lot of comments from one person oh well
that’s fine like oh I saw one on your
blueberry cobbler one from seven months
ago there was a comment but there was no
reply I’ll get that too i have hardcore
fans who watch every video and they
leave a comment and I’ve actually scaled
my team where there’s three of us are
entering comments because I want
everybody who has a comment to to get a
reply so you’re not getting insane
number of comments it’s not going to be
too overwhelming yet but you want to
keep an eye on the community especially
in the early stages because those
hardcore fans they follow you along and
then they tell their friends and then it
grows and grows and grows um I would ask
for a request I don’t know if you have
if you ask that at the end yeah I have
in some of my advice videos but I should
definitely do that one yeah I asked a
question at the end of every video
pretty much every single video ask a
question if I’m doing a profile of
somebody famous and I’ll say who do you
want me to profile next or if I’m
sharing my advice on a topic I’ll then
ask what challenge are you going through
right now you know all of my videos
pretty much are based off of requests I
very rarely maybe one or two a week I
have to actually think about
what am I going to talk about today on
my channel it’s all from the community
um and it’s growing to the point where
we have way more requests and we have
space on the channel that’s even with
doing three videos a day but you want to
encourage that because you have a lot of
lurkers you have people who watch and
then never leave any feedback maybe they
give it a like you know you have a few
thumbs up there but you want to
encourage them to participate if they
leave a comment that much more likely to
watch another video they’re much more
likely to subscribe to channel come back
and if you reply to them or then make a
video like hey I’m making this video
because roberto blake asked me to do a
recipe on I don’t know where Berto likes
is watching so you know whatever you
like um then he’s much more likely to
subscribe to your channel as well get
request a recipe and I’ll make it veggie
lasagna all right any particular veggies
you like or just a bit how about a
mushroom lasagna you like mushrooms oh
maybe we’ll see okay veggie lasagna for
roberto blake mushrooms a good spicy is
good too okay mushroom alright that’s
the next one spicy mushroom lasagna so
there is there’s to me roberto blake hey
guys hear me yeah we got you all right
awesome yeah i’m trying out a new laptop
from dell believe it or not evidence so
I’m kind of like tweaking the setup here
but uh yeah i know i’ve been listening
in the whole time i actually was looking
over your youtube channel it brought it
up here over on the mac and i was
looking through and um you know great
quality great strong start in uh the
consistency the branding the fact that
you have playlists you have a customized
channel you’re doing a lot of things
right that I see the majority of
beginning youtubers not do very well
even from the start on their way to
their first hundred subscribers Evan
gave you a lot of great actionable
advice some things that I would add to
that is things like what he was saying
about like taking suggestions for the
audience that is huge I also use a
listening strategy and Twitter with hash
tags around the type of audience that I
want to find out what those people are
looking for and usually I think of a
word and then I use the word problems
after that I can find a lot of great
stuff in that hashtag on time yeah and
if you want a really good listening hack
for Twitter you can use I FTT if this
then that which is I have triple T com
there’s a great recipe for actually
taking on all of a certain hashtag and
populating a spreadsheet in Google Docs
with that so you could have a database
of great content ideas just off of that
that’s awesome rakul that’s awesome
that’s his word he’s all about great
awesome so ya see what I did Evan but um
another awesome tip that I would give
you would be um another way of utilizing
playlist is to do limited run series
that are easy to find and easy to
consume Evan talked a lot about search
and um as I talked about often on my
channel back that was how I like grew in
YouTube and it’s the focus area for me
is specifically search everyone obsesses
over social um I found that the video
SEO stuff accounts for about seventy
percent of my overall views because of
thirty-six percent of it being searched
they have a thirty-four percent being
related video content um and then I find
it like external traffic is like ten
percent and then a lot of that still
google itself and very little with it
comparatively as search I’m sorry social
i still use social though my advice
would be why i called gateway and
stepladder content meaning that if you
wanted to get people on into this i
would say maybe a video with arm that
says five meals to get you healthier or
something like that whatever you think
would be something that works very well
in search and you I’ll give you a to
limit you can use for better search but
something like that the first video
introduces what those five meals would
be but then you tell them that in this
playlist you will actually show them how
to prepare each of these five meals and
then it’s a five and that they can get
up you know the recipes from the link in
each video
and then you now have okay that’s a
reason to subscribe I might not be able
to watch all five minute videos right
now but I don’t want to lose this so
I’ll subscribe so I can get them and I
see that that’s the kind of thing that
this channel I’m about oh and there’s
like 50 other really good videos here
that might be about healthy recipes and
ways to eat so then you could do that
and you have this quote unquote gateway
and stepladder content you can make each
of those five recipes in that playlist
and each of those is now gateway content
to for how to make like healthy like
veggie lasagna or how to make you know
um this thing you know um whatever it is
and then people will be able to also
share that content more easily and I
would ask for the share in the video
without even waiting to the end i would
go ahead and create some of the upfront
value yet one or two minutes into that
video if it’s five or eight minutes but
then say you know what it’s like this is
really going to help you i think this is
going to you know really help you with
your health goals and everything like
that there’s someone in your life that
you think could be eating healthier
right now go ahead and share that with
them in facebook or twitter or wherever
you think they’re going to get the value
from it and you know just something like
that however you phrase but this is a
call to action or what could even be
called um was it that Robert stern likes
to say um an engagement to action
because you’re engaging your initiating
you’re speaking directly to the audience
and then moving them to act so you know
you’re engaging first you’re making the
first move you know you’re asking your
audience to the dance remember we got it
we got to cut it off because I got to go
on another call but love it men awesome
info for people watching and for our
gastronomical so yes your 5y twitter
handle actually go ahead and direct
messaged me because um because Evan
thinks you’re so awesome I’m gonna do
something I’ve never done before I’m
going to give you a free youtube channel
audit okay usually charge my clients
money for and uh we’re gonna work
together on you know for a day on
strategies for your channel I’m going to
do that to you totally free because Evan
thinks you’re awesome
there you go thanks man thanks for
joining all right thanks take care you
guys I cool ah there you go live blab
roberto blake um yeah i mean i gotta hop
off quickly but two other things that i
had in terms of creating titles you can
learn a lot from magazines right you can
learn a lot from the popular websites
and blogs a cover your area so i love
the strategy of the five five ways to do
whatever five ways to use apples this
Christmas you’ll get more than a sausage
fest or a lesson and biodynamic wine
rightly you can tweak the title to be a
little more have a little more pizzazz
to it and then for the request if you
don’t have enough request coming in so I
mean you owe Roberto a veggie lasagna
with spicy my sorry but for other ones
right um you can look at other forums
right you can go to somebody else’s
youtube channel or you can go to chat
groups or a Facebook page of somebody
you like you’ll see people asking for
requests and you could respond to them
and say hey I’ll make a video for you
and then let them know that you made
that video for them and say hey I know
somebody wrote that they wanted a
chocolate chip cookie recipe so I’m
making this for you Julia and then you
send it to Julia and then she’ll likely
come and lick your channel right so if
you don’t have enough on your own side
yet you can always connect with other
people’s audiences and try to bring them
in yeah that’s great is there any
Twitter tips you have I don’t honestly
get a lot of value from twitter from for
my youtube channel I post all my videos
up on Twitter but I don’t get it’s just
a different platform when people are on
Twitter they’re not going to YouTube
when people are on YouTube the ritas i
just youtube so i’ll post it there you
can ask people for requests like you can
tweet to Jerry Seinfeld and say hey
Jerry I want to make a recipe or what’s
your favorite New York City food or
something and then you can say hey I
tweeted Jerry Seinfeld and I got glad
response from Jerry Seinfeld and Donald
Trump and it’s hit and miss but you you
can use that as outreach for kind of
name-brand people to then make recipes
around
um and then if you ever do
collaborations um that’s always a huge
thing whether it’s in the cooking world
or not right like this is going to go up
on my youtube channel people will I’ll
link up your description people then
come to your channel and check you out
the more you do with that and kudos to
you because I offered you hey we could
do this private or we could do it online
like no let’s do it online let’s spread
the word right wow so that’s great and
so you know doing more of that and you
can reach people through Twitter or
through YouTube but I find I get most of
my YouTube value on YouTube most my
Twitter value on Twitter um not not just
like just blasting your videos out on
twitter is not going to make a
difference you wanna you can connect
with people and engage if you’re going
to use Twitter engage in real dialogues
with people and then though they may
check out your YouTube channel but I
think your best use is probably going to
be trying to get named people name brand
people to give you recipe ideas you can
then plug in your videos be way the
hackett yeah like that I’ve meeting
people and this could be Jerry Seinfeld
famous sandwich from I don’t know from
Carnegie Deli have one in trouble what
know what know you could yeah and that’s
great well yeah this has all been
wonderful advice and I’m gonna hopefully
you’ll see in my next more consistent
content posting some of the branding
obviously needs to be tighter I know
there’s a lot of work to be done but
this was really helpful and jani has
always by the way spoken so highly of
you and referenced you many many times
so it’s great to finally meet you and
talk awesome well I love seeing you grow
I’m going to subscribe your channel
right now there we go I’m subscribe and
keep you posted happy to do it again in
the future wait thank you so much
alright have a great day cheers you too
another session super excited to have a
new face on the channel the gastro nerd
fellow youtuber and worth the same
agency in New York where are you
actually based I’m New York City born in
New York okay I mean I’m in Toronto but
we’re both with to market media that is
based in New York so we’re going to talk
about her channel and try to give her
some advice and hopefully you guys learn
in the process as well so Castro nerd
you want to give a quick intro what the
channel is all about yeah hi thanks Evan
thanks for having me yeah gasser nerd is
about feeding your inner food nerd and
using fun nerdy tricks and tips to
really like you know pimp everyday foods
and make the kitchen more accessible and
more fun cool and so so the channels
gasps from there you guys can check it
out i’ll put in the description below to
what tell me about the channel you’re
early yes Lawrence struggles yeah I’m a
classically trained chef i worked at
some two Michelin star restaurants I
currently work as a private chef but my
fascination with the food world is
really the nerdy side the history in the
mysteries behind everyday ingredients
and how if we better understand them
they’re actually they teach us how to
become better cooks and the better you
understand where your foods coming from
and what it does the better we can cook
with them and the more we can also
appreciate them so the goal with the
gastro nerd is to really teach you and
get you as excite you know cited about
all the nerdy sides of foods and maybe
some cheesy food puns to my favorite
yesterday I came up with a good one um
what did the cucumbers say when he fell
in the vinegar okay I don’t know help
i’m in a pickle so that’s that’s sort of
a baseline for my humor I made that up
so yeah it’s fun kind of just it’s
supposed to be like the quirkier it’s so
much of food today you know obviously
foods really hot it’s really fun but um
my struggle is with a lot of stuff on
YouTube especially and you know other
major networks is that people don’t
really explain why you’re cooking food
certain ways why are using certain
ingredients and what you’re doing and
that’s really what I aim to do is to
really educate but do it
and it should be fun so you know my
first thought is do people care enough
like do people care did they care about
the history do they care about the
origin um because I’ve watched the
number of cooking channels I’m not I’m
not I’m not a cook I’m not the cook in
the family brandy stretch um but do they
care enough about uh about that like is
it important enough the history the
people care these days like they’re
watching a youtube video to the care
well it’s not to be fair it’s on a long
history lesson the idea is it’s like a
fun fact and so I mean if you think
about so much of what’s exciting and uh
thrilla are out so much so much fun
media online it’s just like a quick
tidbit and something to infuse that dish
so if you’re like eating a piece of
Parmesan cheese it’s shaved over your
salad or like oh I didn’t realize
Parmesan cheese was originally made by
monks like that’s like a oh so it’s not
necessarily the long history which I can
imagine most people don’t want to read a
thousand-page book on the history of
Parmesan cheese so I I might enjoy it
but it’s decided to take that distill it
down to one really cool thing that would
give you another layer of flavor and
appreciation for a dish or enjoyed it
okay and so do you have that kind of
theme like fun fact about cheese is
excellent okay hope you like gastro
facts like nerd facts and I recently
just filmed a couple videos about how to
pimp your kitchen pimp different like
everyday meals by using like fun nerd
facts like for example i just made
grilled cheese with Swiss cheese and fig
jam so instead of take a regular grilled
cheese that everyone probably I hope I
hope at least you know how to make and I
know like my brother doesn’t know how to
cook at all but if he can make that then
it’s usually my baseline but but taking
something like fig jam that you can just
buy in the store and fig works really
well with cheese and understanding that
together and then just grilling it and
it becomes a totally different sandwich
it looks artisanal and fancy and it
takes the same in that time so just
little fun facts like that just things
that you know understanding what things
work together and just different
techniques and different fun sheets and
tricks it is to make the kitchen more
approachable less scary and
knowledge is power whether you want it
or not once you got you know something
people who watch my videos tell me like
oh I never thought to do that and now I
do it all the time and whatever I make
tastes so much better because of it cool
welcome Roberto he’s getting some
shoutouts there in the comments um yeah
and the audience is your room for
younger audience in for people like your
age like your brother or me who don’t
know how to cook or you’re even for
people who who do and want to get better
yeah that’s everybody I think um yeah
definitely my generation doesn’t have a
current voice that really can speak and
really educate people in the kitchen so
I’m looking to you know if I want to be
the next to Martha um that’d be great
too but yeah definitely and but you know
everyone everyone wants to learn
everyone’s into food and I don’t I try
not to alienate any particular crowd but
I think I have a certain sassy silly
sense of humor that definitely is
appealing to my my age demographic cool
and then so what’s the challenge and
getting the channel growing and views
and comments and the growth what are the
problems you’re facing right now um I i
guess i started doing all this by myself
and I have very little social media
background other than what I’ve sort of
picked up on the road and figured out so
just figuring out I’d love to some tips
on better ways to post my videos someone
once told me you know just to post one
video every day for two weeks and
that’ll help with like where you place
in the searches I see videos that not to
say my videos are the VL end all but I
certainly think they’re more
entertaining than other equivalent
versions of them that have many more
hits than I do and it’s not necessarily
because I think I don’t know if they’ve
just been around longer and the way that
they placed in the way they tag certain
things like something like how to tag
something that would be really helpful
cool ok so I would come from two
different approaches one is the content
itself and the second is the the
analytics and the data like one is the
heart and the other is the head and in
turn was thinking about the heart it’s I
watched some of the videos and I watch a
story you know I didn’t know that you
were classically trained chef right I
didn’t know what your background while
as if it was in the intro video I missed
it and it can sometimes be I thinking
work on the pitch right I’m just making
it consistent the same kind of things
and I get you’re figuring out and you
know it’s not quite a consistent format
for each video yet because you’re still
playing with it but something quick at
the beginning and if you name a gastro
factor would ever think i think that
would that would be helpful but in terms
of look at the analytic side titles
matter i think i wonder if the title
might be a little misleading like I
wonder if if people are looking for
recipes if they’re going to get what
they’re after for by looking at your
channel right like are they coming for
recipes or they come for entertainment
oh they’re going for that mix when
you’re looking on the back end if your
analytics you want to see where the
watch time is so the way the YouTube
analytics works the youtube views work
at guests showing up and ranking a new
video will rank fairly easily at the
start especially if you have some kind
of traction but then it’s all about
watch time so at the beginning it’s all
about the title it’s all about what’s in
your description you have decent titles
you have some descriptions in there you
could put the recipe I don’t remember
seeing if the recipe you put the recipe
in the lab you can put it in or you can
use it as a lead gen to your website I
like to get the recipe come check me out
at gastrin or calm and then that’s a
sign up for your newsletter so kind of
optional uh so the early like the first
two weeks of a video’s existence it’s
that’s what YouTube is looking at
they’re looking at does it hit these
keywords and they start ranking for
those after that it’s all about the
watch time and relevancy so they’ll look
at YouTube’s goal is to have people stay
on YouTube for as long as possible right
they want people to spend their entire
day on youtube so if you’re part of that
then they’re gonna they’re going to rank
your videos higher and if you’re sending
people away then you’re going to not
rank as much so what you should be doing
is on your different series look at the
watch time for all your different videos
and see where our people tuning out
right so it starts at one hundred
percent and then it drops to zero at the
end and you’ll see a graph like going
down and then you may have some spikes
up and down there’s absolute and is
relative I prefer looking at the
relative which basically means ok you
have you know how to be a great dinner
guest that’s a three minute and 19
second long video it’ll put you against
other videos there are three minutes in
19 seconds long and it will show how
much do you capture the attention of
your audience I know they click in a way
and you can see this is what my honest
really cares about this is where I am
you know gaining traction just like
those when you watch the presidential
debates the live tracking audience and
you see oh you know Trump said this and
so he gets a spike and so you’ll start
to see where people what they really
love about your channel and what they
don’t were you losing them and it can
give you some insights into what you can
do to fix it right what series are
working well what Sirius’s aren’t so the
longer term is all going to be about
that wash time and relevancy the short
first two weeks little google youtube
doesn’t know what to do with the video
so they use the keywords in the tags and
description but after that two-week
window it’s it’s almost irrelevant
especially if you’re getting down to the
tags doesn’t make a huge difference
anymore and there any initial tags other
than i mean yeah i tried i go for a lot
of the obvious ones that fit in with
what my video is about and what it could
possibly be connected to yeah so when
you’re doing your keyword research at
the start different people have
different methods that they like to use
what i like using is the youtube search
bar itself so if you go to youtube at
the top does that search bar I’m would
type in one of the keywords so if you’re
doing what do you have oatmeal chocolate
chip cookies right you could type in
oatmeal and then see what other keyword
suggestions are coming up right you’ll
see what what YouTube thinks are are
relevant topics that people are
searching for and it may give you an
idea of what to call the video but also
what other videos that you should be
typing in this is based on youtube
search preferences right people are
actually searching this in
and so those are good keyword topics
definitely put in your title and put in
your description and tags a challenge
the challenges you don’t want to just be
all keyword stuffing right if it’s just
keyword keyword keyword then it’s not
really going to help you um another
tactic with the with the tags are look
at a cop and look at a popular video
that’s already ranking really well so if
i type in quinoa fried rice like you
have there ah who’s the number one
ranking video for that and people will
often mimic and copy the tags that are
from that video so hopefully it’ll show
up they’ll show up that video and then
they’ll show your video or if somebody
watches that video then they’ll watch
your video as well a couple other things
you know things like thumbnails super
important yeah I’m working on making
better thumbnails because those are you
have any tips to better thumbnails I
know you have a very consistent
thumbnail format oh yeah I like the font
I like having text on there you can play
with it to see if you like it or not but
I like having text I’d make it bigger
because it’s hard to read mhmmm your
logo and name is super hard to see yeah
I just I had someone I recently
recreated a new logo so I’m gonna be
using that ok gastro nerds I does it say
presents I can’t even read it yeah
person ok presents gastro school or gaps
for adventures um and I’m assuming these
are ongoing series like after school’s a
serious gastric venture as a series yeah
ok you’re different playlists ok and you
set them up as playlist yeah ok perfect
um the way I handle it is i have little
logos for each one too so i have on each
video i have my my plane logo and then I
have another logo next to it that
represents the theme um so you know
entertaining might be a little bottle of
wine school might be you know a plus on
a paper you know whatever you you don’t
have to but I find that helpful as
visual markers instead of making people
read you could do different colors play
around with it so that one color is for
this theme one colors for that theme you
may want to in the video itself while
you’re filming it think about what the
thumbnail is going to be most often it’s
the food if you look at cooking channels
it’s usually the food a beautiful
picture of the food your thing is not
necessarily about the beautiful food yet
because the the you know the way to
stand out for you is going to be harder
in that field because people spend a lot
of money on the lighting and making it
look really nice and yours you know
might be in the kitchen little dark but
you can add the extra fun sassy you know
nerdy component to it so I would be
thinking about the thumbnail while
you’re filming not afterwards yeah yeah
in the recent videos I did we yeah we
included a thumb nail shop while we were
filming two videos okay so your most
recent one of the cookies for all know
the ones I film today they’re not up on
you okay okay okay literally film them
earlier today okay i know i’m a little
late i’m sort of learning things after
the fact unfortunately no that’s okay
and part of part of why i was so
hesitant to even put youtube videos up
in the first place as i wanted them to
be perfect and then I realized that’s
not going to happen so I started putting
up content um but if you look look back
on my channel look at my first videos I
sucked you know it’s been alright
obviously a learning process and and
they’re sorted obviously there’s certain
metrics and ways to measure things and
end it’s true fine tuning my message and
making it as approachable as possible is
definitely something that I’m working on
and I know you know I think being a nerd
is fun and cool but it has to be an you
know nerd in moderation two people still
want easy recipes that are approachable
and and get them in the kitchen but yeah
I guess also when you when you post a
video is there anything as far as like
Twitter is concerned in other forms of
social media that you have suggestions
about the the biggest thing that helps
my videos go is the
the related video so they watch a video
then they watching other than they watch
another another so it’s the backlog and
as you build your catalog then they keep
watching more and so the important
message there is being consistent so how
consistent are you in your video so I
see you had you know your cookies one is
from two days ago then there was a gap
where he had nothing and it’s like three
weeks ago and then a whole ton three
weeks ago and then 24 weeks ago so it’s
having a schedule right and keeping it
consistent and also training people who
subscribe to expect videos on certain
days and I know what the Starling can be
tough and you may be doing other things
besides just youtube channel um but you
know I was doing when I started with two
mm I was doing a video a day every day i
did a video every day one video and
steve like pounded it into me and
reviewed my videos and i got better and
then i moved to two videos a day in our
three videos most days weekdays or three
videos weekends too so just really three
videos a day yeah but i have a team so
it’s like there’s six of us working on
my youtube channel such as me you know
it’s a really i still need to make money
otherwise and i get it and i didn’t
really start to expand until i was doing
one a week when it was all me and then
once i hired someone to do the editing i
can move to one a day the editing was
insane for me to do it’s not my skill or
forte um but but some kind of
consistency right so having you know
three weeks go by not having a video is
not it’s not great to build up the
momentum and also for you to practice
and get better like every time you’d
event video you think about something
new you get a little bit better a little
more comfortable find your rhythm a
little bit more at the start I found
like you might be watching other
people’s videos and you take a little
bit from them but the more you do it the
more you practice the better you’re
going to get at it and find your flow to
make it uniquely you and not kind of
just pick and choose copies of other
people so consistency is really
important and you’ll find that people
watch one and then another and then
another and then
I also wanted to talk about community
because I found that one there was a lot
of comments or people responding to the
videos and that’s the hardest part of
the start like you see some view system
thumbs us but you don’t see the reaction
and so that that can keep you fueled and
motivated that’s the best part of my day
in the comments from my YouTube
subscribers you want to respond every
comment first of all like anytime
someone who leads a comment you want to
respond at least that’s been my strategy
what’s really helped there’s data out
there that says you know for every
comment every new subscriber that you
you leave a comment and you respond to
their comments there are seven times
more likely to subscribe to your channel
now I don’t know how much that’s in your
like if you like doing that if you like
engaging with the community or not what
do I I don’t really I just tend to get a
lot of comments from one person oh well
that’s fine like oh I saw one on your
blueberry cobbler one from seven months
ago there was a comment but there was no
reply I’ll get that too i have hardcore
fans who watch every video and they
leave a comment and I’ve actually scaled
my team where there’s three of us are
entering comments because I want
everybody who has a comment to to get a
reply so you’re not getting insane
number of comments it’s not going to be
too overwhelming yet but you want to
keep an eye on the community especially
in the early stages because those
hardcore fans they follow you along and
then they tell their friends and then it
grows and grows and grows um I would ask
for a request I don’t know if you have
if you ask that at the end yeah I have
in some of my advice videos but I should
definitely do that one yeah I asked a
question at the end of every video
pretty much every single video ask a
question if I’m doing a profile of
somebody famous and I’ll say who do you
want me to profile next or if I’m
sharing my advice on a topic I’ll then
ask what challenge are you going through
right now you know all of my videos
pretty much are based off of requests I
very rarely maybe one or two a week I
have to actually think about
what am I going to talk about today on
my channel it’s all from the community
um and it’s growing to the point where
we have way more requests and we have
space on the channel that’s even with
doing three videos a day but you want to
encourage that because you have a lot of
lurkers you have people who watch and
then never leave any feedback maybe they
give it a like you know you have a few
thumbs up there but you want to
encourage them to participate if they
leave a comment that much more likely to
watch another video they’re much more
likely to subscribe to channel come back
and if you reply to them or then make a
video like hey I’m making this video
because roberto blake asked me to do a
recipe on I don’t know where Berto likes
is watching so you know whatever you
like um then he’s much more likely to
subscribe to your channel as well get
request a recipe and I’ll make it veggie
lasagna all right any particular veggies
you like or just a bit how about a
mushroom lasagna you like mushrooms oh
maybe we’ll see okay veggie lasagna for
roberto blake mushrooms a good spicy is
good too okay mushroom alright that’s
the next one spicy mushroom lasagna so
there is there’s to me roberto blake hey
guys hear me yeah we got you all right
awesome yeah i’m trying out a new laptop
from dell believe it or not evidence so
I’m kind of like tweaking the setup here
but uh yeah i know i’ve been listening
in the whole time i actually was looking
over your youtube channel it brought it
up here over on the mac and i was
looking through and um you know great
quality great strong start in uh the
consistency the branding the fact that
you have playlists you have a customized
channel you’re doing a lot of things
right that I see the majority of
beginning youtubers not do very well
even from the start on their way to
their first hundred subscribers Evan
gave you a lot of great actionable
advice some things that I would add to
that is things like what he was saying
about like taking suggestions for the
audience that is huge I also use a
listening strategy and Twitter with hash
tags around the type of audience that I
want to find out what those people are
looking for and usually I think of a
word and then I use the word problems
after that I can find a lot of great
stuff in that hashtag on time yeah and
if you want a really good listening hack
for Twitter you can use I FTT if this
then that which is I have triple T com
there’s a great recipe for actually
taking on all of a certain hashtag and
populating a spreadsheet in Google Docs
with that so you could have a database
of great content ideas just off of that
that’s awesome rakul that’s awesome
that’s his word he’s all about great
awesome so ya see what I did Evan but um
another awesome tip that I would give
you would be um another way of utilizing
playlist is to do limited run series
that are easy to find and easy to
consume Evan talked a lot about search
and um as I talked about often on my
channel back that was how I like grew in
YouTube and it’s the focus area for me
is specifically search everyone obsesses
over social um I found that the video
SEO stuff accounts for about seventy
percent of my overall views because of
thirty-six percent of it being searched
they have a thirty-four percent being
related video content um and then I find
it like external traffic is like ten
percent and then a lot of that still
google itself and very little with it
comparatively as search I’m sorry social
i still use social though my advice
would be why i called gateway and
stepladder content meaning that if you
wanted to get people on into this i
would say maybe a video with arm that
says five meals to get you healthier or
something like that whatever you think
would be something that works very well
in search and you I’ll give you a to
limit you can use for better search but
something like that the first video
introduces what those five meals would
be but then you tell them that in this
playlist you will actually show them how
to prepare each of these five meals and
then it’s a five and that they can get
up you know the recipes from the link in
each video
and then you now have okay that’s a
reason to subscribe I might not be able
to watch all five minute videos right
now but I don’t want to lose this so
I’ll subscribe so I can get them and I
see that that’s the kind of thing that
this channel I’m about oh and there’s
like 50 other really good videos here
that might be about healthy recipes and
ways to eat so then you could do that
and you have this quote unquote gateway
and stepladder content you can make each
of those five recipes in that playlist
and each of those is now gateway content
to for how to make like healthy like
veggie lasagna or how to make you know
um this thing you know um whatever it is
and then people will be able to also
share that content more easily and I
would ask for the share in the video
without even waiting to the end i would
go ahead and create some of the upfront
value yet one or two minutes into that
video if it’s five or eight minutes but
then say you know what it’s like this is
really going to help you i think this is
going to you know really help you with
your health goals and everything like
that there’s someone in your life that
you think could be eating healthier
right now go ahead and share that with
them in facebook or twitter or wherever
you think they’re going to get the value
from it and you know just something like
that however you phrase but this is a
call to action or what could even be
called um was it that Robert stern likes
to say um an engagement to action
because you’re engaging your initiating
you’re speaking directly to the audience
and then moving them to act so you know
you’re engaging first you’re making the
first move you know you’re asking your
audience to the dance remember we got it
we got to cut it off because I got to go
on another call but love it men awesome
info for people watching and for our
gastronomical so yes your 5y twitter
handle actually go ahead and direct
messaged me because um because Evan
thinks you’re so awesome I’m gonna do
something I’ve never done before I’m
going to give you a free youtube channel
audit okay usually charge my clients
money for and uh we’re gonna work
together on you know for a day on
strategies for your channel I’m going to
do that to you totally free because Evan
thinks you’re awesome
there you go thanks man thanks for
joining all right thanks take care you
guys I cool ah there you go live blab
roberto blake um yeah i mean i gotta hop
off quickly but two other things that i
had in terms of creating titles you can
learn a lot from magazines right you can
learn a lot from the popular websites
and blogs a cover your area so i love
the strategy of the five five ways to do
whatever five ways to use apples this
Christmas you’ll get more than a sausage
fest or a lesson and biodynamic wine
rightly you can tweak the title to be a
little more have a little more pizzazz
to it and then for the request if you
don’t have enough request coming in so I
mean you owe Roberto a veggie lasagna
with spicy my sorry but for other ones
right um you can look at other forums
right you can go to somebody else’s
youtube channel or you can go to chat
groups or a Facebook page of somebody
you like you’ll see people asking for
requests and you could respond to them
and say hey I’ll make a video for you
and then let them know that you made
that video for them and say hey I know
somebody wrote that they wanted a
chocolate chip cookie recipe so I’m
making this for you Julia and then you
send it to Julia and then she’ll likely
come and lick your channel right so if
you don’t have enough on your own side
yet you can always connect with other
people’s audiences and try to bring them
in yeah that’s great is there any
Twitter tips you have I don’t honestly
get a lot of value from twitter from for
my youtube channel I post all my videos
up on Twitter but I don’t get it’s just
a different platform when people are on
Twitter they’re not going to YouTube
when people are on YouTube the ritas i
just youtube so i’ll post it there you
can ask people for requests like you can
tweet to Jerry Seinfeld and say hey
Jerry I want to make a recipe or what’s
your favorite New York City food or
something and then you can say hey I
tweeted Jerry Seinfeld and I got glad
response from Jerry Seinfeld and Donald
Trump and it’s hit and miss but you you
can use that as outreach for kind of
name-brand people to then make recipes
around
um and then if you ever do
collaborations um that’s always a huge
thing whether it’s in the cooking world
or not right like this is going to go up
on my youtube channel people will I’ll
link up your description people then
come to your channel and check you out
the more you do with that and kudos to
you because I offered you hey we could
do this private or we could do it online
like no let’s do it online let’s spread
the word right wow so that’s great and
so you know doing more of that and you
can reach people through Twitter or
through YouTube but I find I get most of
my YouTube value on YouTube most my
Twitter value on Twitter um not not just
like just blasting your videos out on
twitter is not going to make a
difference you wanna you can connect
with people and engage if you’re going
to use Twitter engage in real dialogues
with people and then though they may
check out your YouTube channel but I
think your best use is probably going to
be trying to get named people name brand
people to give you recipe ideas you can
then plug in your videos be way the
hackett yeah like that I’ve meeting
people and this could be Jerry Seinfeld
famous sandwich from I don’t know from
Carnegie Deli have one in trouble what
know what know you could yeah and that’s
great well yeah this has all been
wonderful advice and I’m gonna hopefully
you’ll see in my next more consistent
content posting some of the branding
obviously needs to be tighter I know
there’s a lot of work to be done but
this was really helpful and jani has
always by the way spoken so highly of
you and referenced you many many times
so it’s great to finally meet you and
talk awesome well I love seeing you grow
I’m going to subscribe your channel
right now there we go I’m subscribe and
keep you posted happy to do it again in
the future wait thank you so much
alright have a great day cheers you too
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