How Roberto Blake Thinks About YouTube in 2025 — Short-Form, AI, and Creator Longevity - YouTube Creators Hub

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
They don't have money, sothey got time to spend.

(00:02):
So, okay.
The inverse is also true.
People with money have less time, andyou have to prove more value to them
for the time that they're committed.
So we can just go to people with moneyand one person with enough money can make
up the difference of tens of thousandsor hundreds of thousands of views.
Hello everyone.
Welcome to this week's session of theYouTube Creators Hub podcast, where we

(00:23):
do deep dives into creatives and creatorson YouTube and talk to them about their
journey, their successes, their failures.
Have my friend Roberto Blake, one of thetop YouTube educators on the podcast.
I do that about two or three times ayear so we can catch up and talk about
things that are going on in this space.
This one.
Got spicy.
This one is really fun and a lotof things, you know, we talk about
a lot of things that I think aregonna be extremely valuable for you.

(00:46):
As far as sponsors, wedon't have any on the show.
I just ask that you supportme and what I'm doing.
I do offer one-on-onecoaching for creators.
If you're looking to grow your YouTubechannel and you're looking for a coach,
definitely check my services out.
I do have a membershipgroup called The Creators.
Corner, five bucks gets you in.
You get access to our Creator MonthlyMastermind calls that I host on Zoom.

(01:06):
You get to chat with other creators, youget to chat with past guests of the show.
It's a great place if you're looking torub shoulders with other people doing
what you're doing, it can be lonely,and that group is great for that.
I have a email newsletter calledThe Entrepreneurs Minutes, and
that has really been growing.
If you're looking for a weeklybehind the scenes of what's going
on in my business and things thatI'm doing and tools that I'm using,

(01:26):
definitely check that out as well.
Really appreciate everyone listening.
Wherever you're listening, hitsubscribe, so you're notified every
Friday morning and let's go aheadand jump into the conversation.
Hello everyone and welcome to thisweek's conversation on the podcast.
Dusty here, as always joined by myfriend and peer in the industry.
Roberto Blake, if you don't know whoRoberto is, he's been on, I believe this

(01:49):
is his fourth appearance on the podcast.
I believe I had him on in oneof the first 50 episodes and
I had him on about a year ago.
I love to have Roberto on.
It's always some of the favoriteepisodes for my audience, and he
and I get to dive into things thatare going on in the creator economy,
what's kind of going on in his personalworld, what he thinks is important.
So if you wanna check Roberto out,I'll put all of his links down below.

(02:11):
He is a published author, uh, I believeI can say he possibly, uh, is, is
working on another book as well, andall of his links will be down below.
Roberto, how are you doing today?
I am doing good, dusty, how about you?
Doing great.
Uh, super excited about this conversation.
We've been trying to make thishappen for about a month now.
Your schedule is super hectic,as I know mine is as well.
So it's just great to connect anduh, and do this, uh, conversation.

(02:34):
So absolutely.
Let's just go ahead and open with this.
You are doing, uh, I believeyou're calling it on your channel
right now, YouTube workshop.
You're doing 12 weeks of where you'vebasically scheduled live streams for 12
weeks and you're doing these live streams.
You did one last night tothe wee hours of the night.
Give me the thought process behind whyyou're doing this, the benefits that

(02:55):
you've seen, and would you do it again?
Night school for content creators,um, especially those creators that
are working class content creatorsunder 20,000 subscribers is what this
workshop is really geared toward.
Um, what I love about this is, youknow, in our space we see people
all the time who say, I. They areconfused by all the information

(03:15):
in the YouTube education space.
They don't know where to start.
They don't know who to trust.
They feel left behind asabsolute, absolute beginners.
They are like, I'm overwhelmed.
I just need a starting point.
Because they're coming into, almostevery YouTube educator worthwhile
has been doing this for over likethree years, five years, eight

(03:36):
years, 10 years in some cases.
Uh, I've been doing itfor a very long time.
And the trick is at this point, thereare so many things that a lot of
us would take for granted, um, anddon't have the mindset of a beginner.
I. We haven't started a new channelagain, et cetera, et cetera, gone
through those going pains of gettingmonetized again and everything like that.
I mean, I always secretly start a newchannel from scratch, uh, every year just

(04:00):
to go through the signup process again.
Um, and I help new creatorsall the time, so I spend a lot
of time with those beginners.
So I feel like I'm not out of touch, but Iwanted to do something where I could just
literally point to a complete definitiveseries that leaves kind of no stone
unturned for that absolute beginner andgive them a formal education in YouTube.

(04:22):
Because if you were learning something andyou took a community college course on it.
You usually go through a nine weekcourse in community college, you usually
are doing, uh, a night school sessionwhere you're going one or two times a
week to that class, and the professoris giving you work and assignments and
lecture and teaching you principles andtheory and giving you some materials.

(04:46):
So what I'm doing is I'm doing basicallynight school on Wednesdays, and every week
for these 12 weeks, we've been meetingfocusing on that YouTube beginner under
a thousand, under 10,000, under 20,000.
So that we have kind of a range for begin.
So there are people who are stagnant,there are people who had a video
pop off and they got their thousandsubscribers, but they don't know anything.

(05:08):
They just had a video pop off.
So they need to know,well, what comes next?
So we've, we went through this process.
I make slide presentations forevery single one of these streams.
And people can download it for free.
They can go to Awesome Creator Academy andthey can go to whatever week it is, and
then they download the slides for free.
I give the slide presentation, andthen beyond the slide presentation,

(05:30):
I do q and a. Just like if you werein night school, you could ask your
professor, you could raise your handand say, Hey, I have a question.
I don't understand this.
Can you talk about a little bit more?
And so I do that.
They get some q and a.
And also there's practical things that Ido hands on to demonstrate things to them.
Like a week ago, I literally did a liveediting workflow session where I opened up
Premier Pro and I showed them in real timethe AI tools in Premier Pro that cut all

(05:55):
of your pauses, your ums, and your fillerwords, like with a click with button
and the text-based editing workflow.
I showed them the quickversion of color correction.
I showed them my green screen workflowand why I built a preset for it so I
don't have to agonize over green screenwhen I wanna do it and how to do motion
graphics, background music, sound effects,transition timing, and uh, polishing

(06:19):
those finishing touches on your video.
And so they were able to see a workflowwhere they don't have to spend 10
hours to edit a basic talking headvideo or four hours even to where, oh,
they could get this done in maybe 90minutes or two hours tops, even if they
wanted to agonize over adding B-roll.
And I showed them how to dothat, et cetera, et cetera.
So we did a practical hands-ondemonstration that's very rarely been

(06:42):
done in a live stream where you get tosee someone edit a video more or less,
and their workflow in a live stream andsee how it can be efficient for you.
And then have someone also answeryour questions about why they make
the editing decisions they do orwhere this feature or this menu.
So yeah, it's been avery fruitful experience.
The students have gotten a lot of it.
Would I do it again?

(07:02):
Absolutely.
It's been great for me Also.
For the coaching side of my business,and it's not been a bunch of coaching
calls with people under a thousand.
There are people watching the workshopsthat are monetized, are making some
money from their channel, could maketheir money back, and it's led to
some one-on-one, uh, coaching calls.
If I get even one, one-on-one, uh,coaching call from, um, a thousand

(07:23):
people watching the replay of thisDusty, it would literally mean that
I have a $300 RPM instead of worryingabout AdSense just off of, um, one lead.
And that's within, and that usuallyhappens within a couple of days of every
stream, if not outright on the stream.
Someone will sign up either to theawesome Creator Academy Pro group to
say, all right, I want more access toRoberta, what he's doing, or they'll

(07:45):
sign up for a one-on-one coaching call.
Yeah, a lot there.
I kind of wanna unpack first, I agreewholeheartedly with what you said about
the coaching side of your business andhow you can think of it differently
because it's completely what I'vedone here since the partnership with
two Buddy ended here on the podcastand we were together for a decade.

(08:05):
Yep.
Not gonna get into that whole mess, but Ire, I realized that my coaching business
and you know, what I charge and, andthe, and the things that I can do there.
We'll make it much more lucrative forme on, on a business side of things
when I'm producing these podcasts andhaving to ramble on about a company.
Now I do have some brands andpartners that are, have approached

(08:26):
me and I'm working with them tohopefully bring them on the show
in the summer and into the fall.
But you're right, when you look at itthat way and you say with one stream,
if I can get a a coaching client,that may may not be just a one-off.
It may be something that is a relationshipthat brings you thousands of dollars
as a consultant, then the stream wasworth it just for that one person, but
it could bring two or three clients andyou just have to look at it differently.

(08:49):
And so I completely agree with that point.
I did want to concur with you there.
And then secondly, I just wanted totalk to you about kind of getting
in the mindset of a new creator.
I, with my coaching clients, have a lotof people with this frustration, so I
wanna toss you the ball and see if I'mkind of giving them some good advice.
They come to me and we mayhave a call or two and.

(09:09):
They upload a video and they don'tsee a dramatic increase instantly.
Right?
It's just kind of a slow burn.
It's a slow curve.
How do you encourage those people andhow do you kind of walk them off the
ledge of, you know, hey, maybe you'renot a beginner creator, maybe you are an
intermediate creator, but you are thinkingto yourself it's time to quit because
I'm not really seeing that rapid or youknow, quick growth that I should see.

(09:33):
What do you tell these people?
I tell them that it's an investmentand that it's like, do you want
to like have fun and go viral?
'cause that's gambling on crypto.
So it's like, do you wanna buy meme coinsor do you wanna build an actual business?
And I remind them that realbusinesses are built slow because
trust is built slow and lost fast.
And so I tell them.
You're asking strangers sight unseento make you a priority in their life.

(09:56):
They have to watch yourvideo for five or 10 minutes.
Instead play with their kid, youknow, sit on the couch and kiss their
significant other, or work on their ownventures and everything like that, and
you're stealing that time from them.
How are you proving upfront and howdifficult is the challenge of proving
upfront that five to 10 minutes isbetter spent with you than all the
people right in front of them and all thethings that the world has to offer, let

(10:18):
alone all the other content that exist.
It's like, do you think it should be easy?
Did you think it should be easy?
Like so there's, when I give themthat perspective, they go, you know,
I never thought of it that way.
I'm like, you viewer hasto contend with that.
Every day they think aboutwhat is and isn't a priority.
Saying yes to something issaying no to something else.
And so the thing is, don't be so upsetand frustrated that the answer is no.

(10:38):
Maybe for where thatperson is, it should be.
What about all the people who did say yes?
Do they not matter?
So you're sitting here getting frustratedabout what you perceive as completely,
by the way, probably completelyjustified rejections of a commitment
of time, and you would appreciate thepeople who did make you a priority.
And how do you maximize that?
Because I'm asking, what is the goal here?

(10:59):
Are you upset that you didn'tget enough attention or is it.
That you are upset because the attentionyou feel is required to reach escape
velocity to make a certain amount of moneyis not there because I can fix the money.
Let's fix the money bymaking bigger, better offers.
Let's fix the money bypartnering with companies and
brands and making UGC content.

(11:20):
'cause then UGC content doesn't requireattention, it requires a good portfolio.
Honey, let's go ahead and do somethingwith your portfolio if you're on the
entertainment side, and let's get youbeing the right face, the right model,
the right spokesperson for brandson their social media accounts, or
use your editing savvy to do that.
If you're in the information brokerbusiness and you're, uh, a thought leader,
let's go ahead and get you some affiliatemarketing or some SaaS businesses company,

(11:45):
or let's get you some speak engagements.
Let's get you paid.
For your thoughts and your reputation andnot the amount of attention you can get.
Let's go on higher valueinstead of higher volume.
When it comes to attention, ifyou're worried about not reaching
escape velocity by not getting views.
So it's like, 'cause I askedthem, is it the issue that you
want attention or you want money?
And they go, well, I want both.

(12:05):
Or I feel I need attention to get money.
It's like, oh, no, no, no.
We can get less attention and more moneybecause most if we get attention it's
gonna be people who don't have money.
That's the biggest marketof attention is broke.
People that don't have money.
Let's be honest about that.
Those are the people thatare watching the most.
Right?
People who had the time.
Yeah, they don't have money,so they got time to spend.
So, okay.
So the inverse is also true.
People with money have less time.

(12:27):
And you have to prove more value to themfor the time that they're committing.
So we can just go to people with moneyand one person with enough money can make
up the difference of tens of thousandsor hundreds of thousands of views.
If you were a gaming channeland you got a hundred thousand
views, you're only gonna get $200.
We could find one person that'llgive us $200 if we create

(12:48):
enough value for them, you know?
Yeah.
It really is about creating the value.
I, I've, I've used acouple of tools before.
I've got on, gotten on the call with you.
I did this a couple of weeks agowhen I thought we were gonna hop on
the call, so I've had some time tokind of marinate it a little bit, and
I've curated a couple of questions.
That was one of them.
And here's the second one that I get aton, whether it be in, in my creator's
corner group or whatever it may be.

(13:08):
The second question is.
How come I upload a video, Roberto,and it does well for maybe a few
hours, and I see that spike in the,in the graph on in my analytics, and
then YouTube just completely drops it.
It looks like it completelygets removed from the algo.
What, what am I doing wrong?
You're not necessarilydoing anything wrong.
Lemme ask you when that happens.

(13:29):
Are you making an evergreen videoor are you making a topical video?
Yeah, that's exactlywhat I tell my clients.
I exactly, that que, I was just textingsomeone that yesterday, so go, let's,
let's flesh this out a little bit.
Explain what you mean by that.
If you're making a video that pops offright away, like when I made a video
about the TikTok ban, it got, it was aone out of 10 video for like two or three

(13:52):
days and then it died because guess what?
The attention died.
No one cared after two or threedays when it was breaking news.
It got views when it was old news andpeople moved on and they had something
else they wanted to pay attention to.
It was over and that was that.
And that's fair.
Meanwhile.
A video that I made, like my green screentutorial, or even more recently, my video

(14:12):
about how to use copyright music, my videoabout how to make use copyright music.
I don't know if it evengot a thousand views.
Its first day that I uploadedit and now it's steadily
getting 150, 200 views per day.
Um.
In fact, I think I can look atit here in analytics right now.
So the first day I uploaded this video,it's almost to 20,000 views right now.

(14:37):
The first day I uploaded it,I have 600,000 subscribers.
This video, people go, oh myGod, how embarrassing for you.
It did 1500 views thefirst day I uploaded it.
But the thing is, it's been steadilygetting between 100 to 200 new views
every single day since January.
It's now April, it isat about 19,000 views.
It's almost to 20,000 views.

(14:58):
This will end up being clearly ata rate of 200 a day, and there's
no reason for it to slow down.
There's no lack of people who don'twant a video that tells them in
three minutes exactly how to usecopyright music legally, and YouTube.
It's pretty much the shortest video ofits kind without being a YouTube short.
It uses a Lincoln Park song theentire time through the video to

(15:18):
illustrate the point that it's making.
And it's done in green screen.
So the quality is excellentand the audio is excellent.
I did everything as perfectlyas possible for this video.
Um, it has great retention on it.
It is ranked in, uh, Google searchand YouTube search as the first result
to the point where Dusty, uh, 53% ofits traffic is from YouTube search.

(15:41):
35% is external.
That 35% is Google.
So literally 90% of all the trafficfor this video is from search.
And the searches for this topicare not going away anytime soon.
I did the same thing with my greenscreen video that had 1600 views.
It's first day, 300,000views today, two years later.
So what I know about this is ifyou are making Evergreen video,

(16:04):
an evergreen video for which thereis a tension long tail, sure.
The initial surge of its views willprobably be people familiar with you
and who are interested in the topicimmediately, because YouTube has the
most opportunity for distribution atupload initially for those things.
Now then after that, it's a matter ofis this something people are interested?

(16:26):
If it's a, if it's a, for example, acelebrity scandal, it can last longer
than the initial three day news cycle.
If that celebrity keeps getting in thenews and keeps getting things, or new
people keep because that celebrity hasa target market, has an audience, has
a total addressable market of tens ofmillions of people around the world.
So there are gonna be peoplelike, what happened to this?

(16:47):
Or if it scrolls in their feed,they'll make it a priority.
There's familiarity bias and then there'sall the, um, the intrigue behind it.
But if you're making videos thatare informational, sorry, um, if
you're making videos that are eitherinformational or you're making
something that's even more personal.
It has a much lower shelf life.
If there's not something to add, energyand fuel and momentum to that thing.

(17:10):
For those of us who are thoughtleaders, we need to make content.
And it's not about optimizing for SEO,it's about optimizing for search intent.
It's about leading with a problemthat is a priority for people and
understanding when it will be apriority, how long it can be a
priority, and why it's a priority.
And so all of this is down tohuman behavior and psychology.

(17:32):
Keep thinking algorithm, and everyonekeeps sitting here trying to pander to
robots instead of anticipating real humanbeings needs, wants, desires, and knowing,
Hey, here are your preferences, here areyour prejudices, here are your priorities,
and here are the problems that you have.
And those things dictatehow you watch content.

(17:52):
A bloody algorithm can give you all theexposure it wants, but you keep throwing
something in front of me 12 timesdoesn't mean I'll make it a priority.
Yeah, having to think likethe viewer is, is important.
You're right.
'cause it is, it is humansat the end of the day.
Yeah.
The algorithm is, is trying tocurate it to whom it shows it to.
But as far as who clicks on thepackaging, that's, that's the,
the person behind the screen.

(18:13):
So understanding all the things thatyou just mentioned is certainly pivotal.
You and I may be in the YouTube educatorspace, may be the biggest proponents for
evergreen, uh, tent pole type content.
Um, you know, my YouTube channel thinktutorial almost at 400,000 subscribers.
I do tech tutorials, have beendoing them for over a decade now.
And my YouTube, you know,main YouTube channel has been
built upon that for years.

(18:34):
And I've seen it ebb and flow andI've seen things change and something
cool that's happening where, youknow, now, you know, a lot of my
traffic came from external, whichwas Google or a search engine.
You know, now a lot ofthat external is AI tools.
Now you can see, you know, open AIor chat GPT showing up of people who
are finding your videos that way.
And I think we're gonna see a trendthat direction as well with, with

(18:55):
that, you know, at the end of the day.
What I always tell my clients is if theysee that peak and then the the really
hard fall off, a lot of that is probablyhaving to do with packaging as well.
Yeah.
'cause if your thumbnail or titleis not good, if the visuals or the
cover to your book is just not whatpeople are wanting, then it doesn't
matter if you have 5,000 impressions.

(19:15):
If it's not good, then they'renot going to click into that.
Has anything changed in the waythat you think about packaging?
In the past couple of years, as far as youand I have talked about this before, but
if you are a creator right now and you'rethinking to yourself, oh, this is me.
This is me.
I feel like I get a lot of impressions,but then no one clicks into it.

(19:36):
What are some things that thesepeople could be doing differently
to help improve that problem?
Right.
That's a great, uh, question.
Everything is topic, title,thumbnail, and timing.
The packaging on the thumbnail side,for example, is, you know, there the
thumbnail inherently has to be visuallyattractive at a glance to begin with.
And most people struggle withthat because they just lack the
technical ability and expertise.

(19:57):
Some of it is taste.
Some people, they know what looks good'cause they know what they would click on,
and most people, if they were honest withthemselves, they would not click on that
video if it wasn't something that they,they would never click on a video with
the quality of thumbnail that they made.
And they're just limited by theirabilities, which is why you see a
lot of people trying to figure out.
Not how to even work with andmanipulate and use AI tools as

(20:21):
like a foundation to help themovercome one aspect of that failure.
But they're trying to get it to do thewhole bloody thing for them because
they just do not feel either one, thatthey can develop that school skill.
That's why I've done like my three hourPhotoshop thumbnail workshops, like
on YouTube is like, no, there's somebasic things, like a big one is most

(20:42):
people are terrible with typography.
If they have to put text in the thumbnail,they're gonna make the thumbnail worse
than it already is, and it was bad enough.
They're terrible with it.
A lot of people, they don't bother.
Their thumbnail is also an afterthought.
You know what people'sproblem is with packaging?
Dusty.
Hmm.
The problem is that I'll callbig YouTubers out on this big
YouTubers, people with 10 millionsubscribers, they lie to the

(21:03):
creator community so badly dusty.
And I'm really frankly disgusted by it.
I'm tired of hearing about luck.
I'm tired of people who are rich tellingeveryone else that they are lucky or
got lucky because these same people whoare rich and telling you they got lucky,
have dedicated photo shoots for theirthumbnails because that was the thing
that was the difference between them.
Like arbitrarily getting ahundred thousand views and

(21:26):
then getting a million views.
You can literally watch the jumpin people's thumbnail quality and
see when they stopped getting ahundred thousand views and upload
and start getting 2 million viewsand uploading, you can see it was the
difference in their thumbnail quality.
Well, what'd they do?
They hired people like Di Toma.
They've hired, uh, these greatthumbnail artists and they also got
feedback from these thumbnail artistsas creative directors that told
them, I can't, I'm not a magician.

(21:48):
Your photo sucks.
Get our photo, do some lighting.
Your, the shadows under your eyes.
Do this, do the, and the,and so they got instruction.
They got knowledge on how togive somebody what they need.
So they're not trying to turnlead into gold or polish a turd.
They're polishing an uncut gem and takingout the blemishes, which is fantastic.
It's the same thingwith the video editing.

(22:08):
A lot of people went from strugglingto be consistent with content.
Uh, sorry if there's background noise.
Uh, there's the lawn and care people.
I, I got the tie.
They could pick.
I picked the worst tie possible.
Try not to interrupt my thoughthere, but like, they, uh, go
and they got video editors.
That, um, make their qualityof content better so they
can focus on the production.

(22:30):
So now they're, they, thesepeople have focused teams.
These people are small media companies,and they're gonna tell a working class
content creator who has to do this allby themselves after working a 40, 50
hour week job and wrangling their kidswhen they come home and still finding
the energy to cook for themselves, letalone then find the little scraps of
energy and time left to now sit down,record a video, make a thumbnail after

(22:52):
the fact, and do all these things.
They're gonna sit there andtell that person it's luck.
And that's stupid.
And like, oh, what aboutwhen that person was small?
When that person was small, they werea 20 something year old YouTuber, or
a teenage YouTuber who didn't havea mortgage, didn't have kids, wasn't
married, and was able to obsess overYouTube in a way that you probably
can't if you're listening to them.
So what I would say iswhen you make a thumbnail.

(23:14):
Yeah, like it shouldn't be an afterthoughtof, oh, I already shot and made the
video I wanted to make and now, ah,crap, I need to come up with a thumbnail.
I believe you should be comingup with the title and thumbnail
before you ever make the video.
You should be going into the videothinking about the relationship
between, this is the thumbnailthey're gonna click on, and then I'm
gonna deliver on that expectation.
This is the title that they're gonnaclick on, and now the hook that I

(23:35):
deliver in the first five to eightseconds is gonna reinforce that title.
People are not nearly intentionalenough, dusty, about the experience
they're creating for the viewer andhow they create value for the viewer.
It's like, it's like rolling out ofbed and then throwing on some clothes
and then showing up to the datelike that instead of thinking, oh
my God, this person is so wonderful.

(23:57):
And you know what?
They'd really love this scent on me.
When I go in for the hud, they'regonna smell the sandalwood and all
this stuff and everything like that.
I'm gonna make sure that, um,I. You know, I'm energetic.
I'm gonna make sure that I got some rest.
I'm gonna, um, take the day off beforeto prepare and get my mind right and
just get into a good mental health space.
I'm not gonna come hereexhausted after work to the date.

(24:18):
It's a first impression, right?
Or a job interview.
Take it outta a date.
Take it to a job interview.
Oh, you're gonna roll out a bedand go to the job interview?
No, I'm going to make sure I pickedexactly this outfit or this suit.
I'm gonna iron and everything,or I'm gonna send it to the dry
cleaners and everything like that.
You know what, I'm not gonna leaveanything the chance with traffic.
I'm gonna be in the area all ofthat day beforehand, and I'm gonna

(24:39):
make sure that it's this or that.
I'm gonna bring a backup piece ofclothing in case something goes wrong.
Like, you know, it wouldbe the preparation.
So the lack of preparation andthought into the packaging.
For most creators, they make the videothey wanna make, then they scramble
for a thumbnail and title to justifythe video when they should have started
with a great idea that the audiencewill like and enjoy or see value in.

(25:04):
They should have obsessed over packagingthat idea and to make it as attractive as
possible and as interesting as possible.
At a glance scroll, oh, I gottastop and pay attention to that.
And then they should have thought about,they go, I wanna do authentic content.
I don't wanna do outlines or script.
I just wanna turn on the camera and be me.

(25:24):
And then you're sitting there strugglingwith your words, or you're rambling, or
you're yapping, you are disrespectingthe person's time, intention, priorities,
and have all the people in the world.
They gave you a chance.
And a lot of times peopleare just disappointed.
And, and that's the reason.
It's a lack of intentionality.
It's a lack of forethought.
It's a lack of preparedness.
If you're an entertainer, youshould be preparing for a video

(25:46):
the way you'd prepare for a date.
If you are a information broker,you're a thought leader, you should
be preparing for it the way youprepare for killing a pitch in the
boardroom or going to a job interview.
Yeah, I, I couldn't agree more.
I, I wanna start callingyou the king of analogies.
Uh, that's what, that's what Iwanna, uh, start calling you.
I feel like every time youcome on this, uh, podcast, you
have some wonderful analogies.
So thank you for, uh, for sharingthat with, with the audience.

(26:08):
For sure.
You mentioned at the end ofthat answer, uh, Roberto, about
the, the, the rise of this.
Thought that authent of where it'snot overly edited, there's not as many
just jump cuts all over the place.
Like what we used to see back inthe early days of YouTube even,
you know, seven or eight years ago.
What are your thoughts on this?

(26:29):
Because I feel, I like that I, I consumea good bit of that content where someone
just turns the camera on and theyhave a bulleted list of things they
wanna talk about, and it's like we'rehaving a conversation between friends.
What are your thoughts on this and,and where do you see this going?
People are using the idea of authenticcontent as a euphemism for something
very different because you can, editingdoesn't make you less authentic.

(26:50):
Mm-hmm.
Planning and beingthoughtful about your words.
Does it make you less authentic?
They're using authentic as aeuphemism due to probably just a
limited range of vocabulary becausethey're regurgitating YouTubers who
have a limited range of vocabulary.
And what they're actually talkingabout is they're saying, I want
my content to feel more organic.
I want my content to feel more unpolished.

(27:11):
I want my content to feel.
More straightforward, thosewould be the correct words.
Because here's the thing, dusty, whenyou decide to edit out dead space from a
podcast or filter the background noise,because Roberto's lawn care people
came early, is that less authentic?

(27:32):
No.
It's just smart.
It's just smart.
It's just creating thebest experience possible.
When you decide to go intosomething and you come up with at
least some bullet points so thatyou don't end up just rambling or
yapping and wasting people's time.
Are you being inauthentic?
Are you saying things you don't believe?
'cause what is authenticity?

(27:52):
Authenticity is when youpresent yourself accurately.
Mm-hmm.
It's when you present yourself truly.
Do people think that they're notbeing their true selves because they
have to edit or because they haveto prepare or because they plan?
When you write a script, are youwriting something you don't believe in?
Because what it says to me orsuggest to me is that people think.

(28:13):
That they themselves or other people,that if they're not just saying every
unguarded thought in their head, thatthey're somehow being less authentic.
And I don't think that's true.
I think being intentional andthoughtful can still be authentic.
And I think it's appropriate tohave somewhat of a filter called
thoughtfulness or candor or care.

(28:35):
Me, you know, me, I'm transparentand I'm radically honest, almost to
a thought, uh, almost to a fault.
I'm blunt as hell, but that doesn't meanthat I just say every intrusive, random
thought that comes to my mind withoutthinking about the consequences or
thinking about who I'm speaking to, whattheir mind, space, or mental health is.
If I just wanna say whatever I wannasay in Yap, I'm not being authentic.

(28:58):
What I'm being is I'm being insensitiveand I'm being careless, and I'm being
thoughtless, and I'm not respectingother people's time, other people's
space or other people's energy.
If I do that, I'm not inauthenticwhen I decide not to curse
in front of my goddaughter.
I'm being polite and respectful andthoughtful, and a responsible person.
Yeah, I think it's a bit of a facadebecause they see these creators

(29:21):
that are doing these what theythink to be more authentic videos,
and it's really, like you said,they're just being more transparent.
But I think what people don't realizethat behind the camera, they're being
very intentional with what they're doing.
The ones that thesepeople are referring to.
Right.
Uh, you know, like my favorite, one of my.
Favorite creators in the worldhas always been Peter McKinnon.
I, I love the way that he tells stories.

(29:42):
I love the way his cinematography,I love the way that he's able to
take something so simple and so whatseemingly would be unfun and make it fun.
His, his videos are very professional.
They're very, you know, it seems like he'sall over the place and like sometimes he's
just, you know, bouncing off the walls.
But to me, I love that.
And then you have someone like, uh,Simon Sinek who people would point to and
say, oh, well this is what I wanna do.

(30:03):
I wanna do these just, you know,turn on my phone and point it
at me in the car, and I'm justgonna go on these big monologues.
He's very intentional about thetopics that he covers and the things
he knows his audience very well.
So I would very much caution thepeople listening to this to don't
use this as an excuse to do lesswork or to make your stuff less good.
For me with what I wanna do on thispodcast, I've always been very, like you

(30:27):
said, transparent and authentic to thefact that, listen, I wanna have creators
on this podcast who have almost, youknow, 700,000 subscribers like you.
And I've had people on with threeor four, 5 million subscribers,
but I've also had creators on with10,000 or 8,000 subscribers because
it resonates and it, it's, it's real.
And I want people to understand that.
And I just wanna transition nowinto this question is fun for me,

(30:49):
and I wanna ask you this question.
Have you changed your mind?
On anything in the creator space orcreator economy over the past few years
that you were really adamant aboutearly on and now that you've kind of
learned more or gained more knowledge,you're like, okay, maybe I can pivot
on this and can change my opinion.
Yes.
Short form content.
I believe that short form content was,I still believe that most of it is.

(31:13):
I think my issue with short form contentwas how much of it was brain rock content?
And now I also understand that there'slong form brain rock content too.
And there always has been.
There always has been.
And so looking at it and then notromanticizing old YouTube, 'cause
I've also changed my mind aboutthe romanticism of old YouTube, and
now I'm against that romanticism.

(31:34):
I'm not saying it had no value,I'm not saying had its place.
But even with this concept that wejust talked about with authentic
content, what people don't realizethat they're saying is they want
less produced content because.
Texture feels real.
This is a quote from PhilipDeFranco that I can never unhear.
And he said something and I'llnever forget, he said, feels real.

(31:55):
Polish feels fake.
So that's why you see, um, a rebellionagainst beast ification, as we used to
call it, the Mr. Beast hyper editingstyle and over optimizing content.
You're seeing a longing and nostalgia forold YouTube that you and I came up with.
I'm older so I can'tsay I grew up with it.

(32:17):
I was already in college,um, when YouTube started.
The thing is there's a longingfor these days of random people.
Talking about the things they'repassionate about and their lives with
very little technical ability, verylittle artistic ability, very little
creative ability frankly, and beingable to get attention and go viral

(32:38):
and become famous and become rich,and oh, how nice a normal person won.
There's a nostalgia and longing for that.
The reason it'll never come backis because the era in which that
happened in that first, let's say10 years or so of YouTube is that
internet video in the hands of anormal person was a novelty item.

(32:59):
YouTube was a novelty gimmick websitethat the modern public did not understand.
It was not a household name andnot ubiquitous, and not something
we all understand and was notsomething that people grew up with.
It is now cable television.
It's basically now cable television.
It surpassed cable televisionin its attention and its reach.
It's beyond Netflix now.

(33:19):
That, but when it started, allof those quirky weird creators.
Those esoteric creators who could dothings off the beaten path that people
so desperately wanna do because theygrew up loving those creators and
now they're angry that they can't bethe next generation of that creator.
And they're forgetting that the conditionsunder which those people existed mm-hmm.

(33:42):
Were radically different than today.
And so what was once anovelty is now the new normal.
So you can never recreate the magicno matter what you do of OG YouTube.
There was a point during the pandemicand the rise of TikTok, where TikTok
and short form and vertical video andthe virality of that was a novelty item.

(34:03):
Also, we so heavily saturated that,that we sprinted in five years, I
would say, of the same experiencethat YouTube took 15 to accomplish.
We compressed it.
So now if you do something else.
The span at which you wouldrecreate the buzz of a TikTok
will be an even shorter lifespan.

(34:25):
So, but you see what I'm saying?
The condensing of this keeps happening,so you can't recreate that novelty.
So something I pivoted on was my beliefthat one, that that can be recaptured.
I no longer believe that.
I believe there'll be small cyclesof it that will have outliers.
And you will have people like SamSellick, you will have people like that

(34:48):
come up, but they will be a minority.
There will not be a new wave.
There will not be a new wave.
This will not be a trend, itwill be a microcosm, okay?
Mm-hmm.
And then my belief now on short formdiluting the value of long form.
I no longer believe that.
It's not that I felt that italgorithmically did it per se, it's
that I felt that it was conditioningpeople and attention spans.

(35:09):
I now see an inversion happening.
And the other thing is Icame to a conclusion that's
like, would any of us care?
Which format on YouTube between shortform and long form is getting us
views if they've all paid the same.
Because every time I ask a creator,would you care about, oh, my shorts
are getting, I wish my long form videoswere getting the views, my shorts were.
It's like, if they paidthe same, would you care?

(35:29):
No.
The answer to that is Every time.
Every time, every time.
So I go, fantastic.
So the answer is build a business outsideof YouTube where your brand matters.
I'm gonna say something.
Do you mind if I say somethingslightly polarizing and controversial?
No, not, not at all.
I wish that every YouTuber had themarketing savvy of the most successful

(35:52):
creators on OnlyFans, even though Idon't necessarily approve of OnlyFans or
the business model or the exploitationthat happens at all in any way.
But the marketing, I keptthe respect the hustle.
If you make short form and you're doingthat kind of content, all you're doing
is promoting a $9 a month subscription,basically as the business model, right?
That's right.
If a YouTuber has a membership or athing and every piece of short form,
they had got massive attention and views.

(36:13):
Oh, but I don't make any, I don'tmake enough ad revenue off of it.
If the notoriety of knowing who you arewas a pipeline and a funnel to a recurring
membership, that's $9 a month, $99 ayear, you wouldn't be worried about what
Pennies you're not getting off of ads.
Yeah, because your, your RPM valueand your lifetime revenue per customer

(36:34):
would just be so high that if everyone in 1000 people, which is less than
a, like, it's a 0.1% conversion rate.
If every one in 1000 people was $99 ayear, do you really care that Shortz
is not, is paying a 10th or a 100thof what regular long form videos
are when all it is is at the end?
Hey.
Sign up for my membership.
Hey, sign up for my membershipat the end of every video.

(36:56):
They got everything theywanted in 55 seconds.
And then the last three secondsis sign up for my membership.
Oh, you have a membership.
It's like, and they, it'sjust a funnel at that point.
Right?
So why not?
And again, that's not anendorsement of holy fans today.
Yeah.
It's just telling you guys, builda private membership website.
Use the saturation of short form andthe reach of it to give exposure to a

(37:20):
brand where you can sell things directto consumer, directly to the audience.
A subscription model is ideal because youget the longest tail value out of that,
and you just have all this opportunity.
It's like neutralize.
Here's another idea, dusty.
If you get 10,000 views ona regular YouTube video.

(37:40):
But you make three YouTube shortsthat all get a hundred thousand
and you upload three YouTube shortsthat week and they all get a hundred
thousand views and you got one YouTubevideo and it got, um, 10,000 views.
Don't the three YouTube shorts basicallyadd up to enough money to equal the
regular long form video at that point?
Yeah.
And aren't the shorts theoreticallyeasier to make and get out

(38:02):
than that long form video?
So the ratio of short form videos thatyou can put out in a week compared to the
effort for the hours put in to a singlelong form video, it equals the same amount
of money if you're going that route.
You really bring up a lot of great points.
The short form content is a hottopic for me because I think it's

(38:22):
something that I'm having to pivoton right now in the current day.
Um, think for me, and I'll just behonest with everyone listening, I look
at the consumption patterns of short formvideo and what it does to us as humans.
And you mentioned it at the beginning ofyour answer when you, you brain refer to
it as kind of brain rot content, right?
Where it's honestly justjunk food type content.
Right.
People, they become zombies.

(38:44):
Like you look at people I, I hate, andagain, this is getting into stuff beyond
creator economy and I'm not gonna go there'cause it's not what, what I'm gonna,
it's philosophical and I'm fine with it.
I'm good with it.
At the end of the day, I seewhat it does and I see what our
phones have done to us in that.
I see it in my family, I see itwith people directly related to me.
They'll be out in this beautifulplace or at a beach and, and
they'll have their phones and, andthey're just stuck to 'em instead of

(39:05):
enjoying what's going on around them.
This vertical, and again, this can happenwith long form, don't get me wrong.
Sure.
But it's, it's, it's happeningmore frequently with vertical
short form content where people arejust looking at their phones and
they're not even really consuming.
Does that make sense to you?
Like what I'm saying, Roberta,like they're not consuming it,
they're not learning anything.
Maybe they get a quick laughout of it, but it's really just
time sucking is what it is.

(39:26):
So is that on the formator is that on the content?
'cause Dusty, 'cause I don't know.
'cause watch this dusty.
What if instead of short form allbeing sugary snacks, what if someone
was only consuming short form?
And all it is is vitamin supplements.
Yeah.
And all it is isashwagandha and vitamin B12.
And what if it was, what if all ofyour short form was supplements?

(39:49):
What if you were on the beach and your,you've got your AirPods in, but instead
of it being like Tiger Belly or somethinglike that, what if it's Andrew Huberman?
What if it's Tony Robbins?
What if it's Roberto Blake?
What if it is an AI generatedpodcast of the collective curated
consciousness of Aristotle or Plato?

(40:09):
So, you know, the great thinkers.
What if you're listening to an AIgenerated contrast, sorry, an AI
generated podcast of a philosophicaldebate between Gary V and Karl Marx.
There's, there's, um, a. Way that wehave to look at this of the fact is I
used to blame the format itself, right?
Instead of blaming thetrend within the format.

(40:31):
'cause I no longerbelieve it's the format.
'cause I'm going to embrace short formin the sense that what if I literally
use short form and I proved my abilityto be concise and speak in sound bites,
but sound bites that people value.
And then people, they were introducedto me in that way and said, here's
somebody who's not selling sacred oil.
Here's like, I did not think ofa online business in that way.

(40:52):
I did not think of that when it cameto marketing and selling t-shirts.
Oh my God, I should do that.
Or I could go print on demand with that.
Oh my god, I did not know theutility of those FEV five websites.
Lemme watch this thing again.
I need to watch this thing again andwrite down those FB websites because
those will add to my productivity andI can make money if I use those tools.
Property, oh my god.

(41:13):
He just gave me the perfect chatGPT prompt, that's gonna make my
productivity and my life better.
I had no idea I could use chatGPT to build an Eisenhower matrix
and prioritize my life by what'surgent, what's important, and
what's urgent, but not important.
And what's important, but not urgent.
Oh my God, never have I known I neededsomething until I experienced it.

(41:34):
If I can deliver so much value in oneto three minutes, which I'm capable of,
but do people get to see that from me?
No.
'cause they can see meramble for three hours.
But if I could do that, thatone, I'm creating real value.
I'm impacting their life in a pos, I mightbe the only thing in their short form
feed that day that's actually vegetablesand vitamins to offset all the sugar.
So one I've done, I've doneGod's work at that point.

(41:55):
And then number two, if I am thatand I condition that I'm more
human than everyone else that'sextracting value from them.
If I'm giving, if I'm the onlyexperience out of 20 shorts that
gave value instead of extracted andgave more value than I extracted.
If they encounter me enough times, thereis something in human pattern recognition

(42:17):
that will recognize that and see me asvalue giving versus value extracting.
Then they're in my ecosystem and then theywant to watch long form for me, or they
want to do a one-on-one coaching call forme, or they want to know more about me.
And then when they look me up, becauseI've curated my personal brand and my
reputation, they go, who is Roberto Blake?
And they either ask an AI chatbot orask, you know, grok, Chad GT or Claude

(42:39):
or whatever, who Roberto Blake is.
They go into Google and theygo Who Roberto Blake is.
And then my Google Knowledge panelpops out with, I think it says
American YouTuber and all those things.
I've curated my personal brand toa point to where they'll realize
he has an author, he has a a book.
I can read his book, or I canlisten to his book on Audible.
Or I could watch his YouTube channel.
I could listen.
Oh wow.
I like his long form.
I like his lectures.
I put it on in the background.

(42:59):
I do this, I do that.
Oh, okay.
And then.
They're in my ecosystem, butthey have to have an experience
where I create value for them.
And if I don't make short form, if Idon't make YouTube shorts, if I don't make
Instagram reels, I'm invisible to them.
I draw the line at TikTokuntil America owns it.
Uh, the, see my point is I change mymindset that if the problem is that

(43:19):
there's brain rod in that ecosystem,don't I owe it to people to inject
some vitamins and some veggies ina place where only sugar exists?
What if I can make shortform healthy again?
Yeah.
I think that, uh, what, you know,exactly what I was gonna kind of
conclude with, with my point is thatI. I've learned exactly what you just
said is that I know that this why I'min the process right now, hiring a, a

(43:41):
vertical video editor for this podcastbecause I know the benefits, the ones
that I've uploaded myself, which as yousaid, I could create very high quality
shorts and edit them and I enjoy it.
But I do have two kids.
I have other, I have other entities.
I'm married.
I'm, I'm very heavily involved in otherstuff outside of, of my business, and so
with that being the case, I want to bringin someone who can solely work on the

(44:03):
vertical video for my business for thispodcast, and maybe they do see one of
those shorts and they've never listenedto the podcast, and then they do, and
then they hire me to be their coach.
Then you're kind of seeing where thelong tail of this influential thing
of this vertical video, which I mightthink is just snacking, can turn into,
like you said, with a great analogy,the vegetables or the vitamins that

(44:24):
turn them into a fan of mine that thenget them into the monetary side of my
business where I can monetize that.
Viewer or that, listen.
So I completely agree with you,and I just wanna say that I believe
this conversation is important.
I believe there could be athree hour long thing where we
really dive into every aspect.
We don't have the time for thatright now, because I do have

(44:45):
a question I wanna ask you.
I got 10 50 more for you.
I do have a question that's veryimportant that I wanted to get to today.
Okay.
How is, and how do you foreseeAI impacting, and we talked about
this last time, but I really wantto ask you a condensed question of
what is AI going to do to YouTube?

(45:07):
Not nec, I mean, yes.
What is it gonna do creator wise?
I mean, I already know howit's impacting my business.
I mean, every day.
Uh uh, I was listening to Mac BreakWeekly, and Alex Lindsay on that
podcast was talking about there'snot an hour that goes by in his day
that he's not using some form of ai.
He's not against it,but he's for regulation.
He's for all these things.
You being as, as kind of the person who's.

(45:28):
Oftentimes, I've seen you ahead ofother YouTube educators kind of ahead
of the game as far as certain topics.
What would you say right now, peoplelistening to this, you know, 20,
30,000 listeners, what would you sayto those people about AI and how it's
gonna impact the creator economy?
You need to be thoughtful aboutwhat your own ethics around a IR,

(45:49):
but they're not a reason to abstainfrom it or protest it outright
because you, you should be workingtoward countering whatever you fear.
And the thing is, you should dothat from the place of embracing
this thing, understanding it,become very, very educated about it.
See the other side and seewhere people create value.
Steer people in a wayof using it ethically.
So I think all the people that, forexample, have real and legitimate fears,

(46:11):
concerns and things about AI and wantregulation, number one, understand
that in general, regulation favorscorporate sponsorship and corporatism
and cronyism there and politicaloptics, very little of it trickles
down to favoring the little guy.
And we have to figure out how to carveout our version of how we use it to
protect ourselves as the little guy.

(46:32):
And so I think that that's veryimportant to just acknowledge that
reality and not be some politicalidealist, because I think you need
to be a realist and an optimist.
I'm not saying be cynical.
I'm not saying be bitter.
I'm saying be realistic and optimisticand say, people are going to use this.
Let me make sure they're using itethically and responsibly and that they
can get the results that they want byusing it ethically and responsibly.

(46:55):
So I think it's for the the peopleto say, you know, Hey, we've
unleashed this power upon the world.
Let it not become a terror, and Iwon't rely on the powers that be
to take on that responsibility.
It does to be done at a culturallevel, because regardless of what

(47:15):
they do in Washington, the truth is,and you can see this all around the
country, all around the world, is thetruth is whatever becomes culturally
normal or acceptable is the reality,not what they dictate in Washington.
They will follow, even the peoplein Washington will follow what
enough of the masses advocatefor and culturally normalize.

(47:36):
They're not really leaders.
In many cases, they're followers.
They will follow the popularopinion or the money or both.
And if you just understand that andaccept that, you realize you have to
become educated about ai and you have toeducate people to use AI in a way that
is responsible, ethical, and appropriate.
Now, the other thing is for creators,and where I see it with the platform

(47:58):
and content creation, YouTube,is the platforms understand this
and they're making standards toembrace ai, and they're using it
to make all of our lives better.
The fact that you can reach an audience nolonger have a language barrier to them is
great for creators, and they'll get moreaudience, more views, more of a community.
It'll make the world smaller.
Apple just decided that within two yearsyou're gonna have real time AI audio

(48:19):
translation in the AirPods, in additionto all the accessibility things they
just would did with AI to make AirPodsessentially affordable hearing aids
for people for the hearing impaired.
That's a tremendous benefit for humanity.
And now we're gonna have Star Treklike technology, where we're all
gonna have real time translation inour ears within the next two years.
It's gonna suck that first two years,but it's gonna grade in five or 10.

(48:41):
It's gonna revolutionize humanity andmake the world smaller and make us all
be able to understand each other better.
And that's, there's nothing but goodthat comes from that for the most part.
And so we need to accept thatthose things are a reality.
Um, one of the things we'regonna see is imagine a world.
Is any YouTuber gonna complainwhen YouTube gives them an option?
I'm not saying YouTubeis absolutely doing this.

(49:02):
Hint.
Uh, but okay.
Is anyone gonna complain whenYouTube decides that when you
upload a video, it'll have anoption where, Hey, you know what?
Your audio's not perfect.
You can toggle this button on, andwe will AI enhance your audio for
you, and you'll get studio qualityaudio and it'll be at $0 cost to you.
Is anyone gonna complain whenYouTube embraces AI and does that?

(49:23):
No, no, not a one.
I don't think people are complainingthat, oh my God, please YouTube don't
translate my audio, my transcription,my titles to languages where people can
enjoy my content all over the world.
Oh, please don't do that for me.
So I don't think people are gonna complainabout these things in the majority.
I think it's gonna be edge cases, andthere's some of those edge cases are valid
with protecting intellectual property.

(49:45):
You recently saw Elon Muskand Jack Dorsey advocating for
the end of copyright and ip.
I'm like, oh, gee, I wonder why they woulddo that, and it's not for your benefit.
Um, the thing about it is I dowant those things protected.
I think that we could look at things.
I know that blockchain is a dirty wordto some people, but you know what?
In a world where anyone could steal yourstuff with ai, wouldn't it be nice if
everything you make has its own DNA?

(50:05):
It has its own social security number.
It has its own chain of custody that canbe publicly validated as a point of origin
and say, no, this is attributable to you.
And then if it's monetized inany way, shouldn't you get a cut?
That's what blockchain couldlook like in the future is
chain of custody and ownership.
For anyone who creates intellectualproperty is that has its own DNA without
us having to file it with the government.

(50:26):
It's just the technology layer itself.
You know, we used to do that withmetadata, but metadata can be manipulated.
But if it's built into the thing at a DNAlevel of the, uh, thing that's created and
it's harder or impossible to manipulateand it ends up in the public register,
the public register could serve of a wayof having the equivalent of copyright

(50:48):
protections in terms of chain of custody,proof of ownership, proof of origin,
without us involving governments at all.
It would just be a way to say, I can provethis, and if I have to go to court, I have
proof because the filing of a copywriteror a trademark is just a way for the
government to say we can verify a claim.
But if the technology allows you to verifya claim, it's called digital forensics.

(51:10):
It is evidence in and ofitself, it's tangible evidence.
So the thing is, we can then advocatefor ourselves and we don't need the third
party of the government if we do that.
Now, this is a great visionary thingfor me, but it's, but the thing
is, it's a, it's an actual solutionthat could exist to the problem.
Just using material sciencewe already have and using,
uh, systems and frameworks.

(51:30):
It's just a matter of adoption.
But you know, it's like we adoptnorms with technology all the time.
We say Photoshopping something now.
We used, we say Googling somethingnow that there was no such thing
as doing that 25 years ago.
So those were not normalized,regular people had no idea what
those things were 25 years ago,only as nerds on the internet.
Um, so when you look at the AI andthe direction it's going, a lot of

(51:53):
people are concerned that you're gonnasee nothing but AI slop on YouTube.
The AI slop argument is, you'll see itsoon and now, but that's like, while
the technology is very, very bad.
Mm-hmm.
This is the worst it's ever gonna be.
We talked about this lasttime you were on, right.
This is the worst it's ever gonna be.
So here's the thing.
Original human content on YouTubein 2005 through 2010 was god awful.

(52:19):
The AI slap is better thanOG YouTube in many cases.
The exceptions are, you know what?
Regular people, most peopleare not, uh, Freddie Wong.
They're not Harley with Epic mealtime.
Even the early content from Johnand Hank Green, the Vlog Brothers,
was done in terrible quality.
PewDiePie's first videos weredone in terrible quality.
Even Mr. Beast first videoswere done in terrible quality.
The majority of content on YouTube, evenfrom the biggest YouTubers today, their

(52:43):
first 100 videos, as we say, their first100 crappy videos were truly crappy.
And the thing is, average AI slop is amore enjoyable experience than most of
the original content of the first 100uploads of the biggest OG YouTubers,
if we're being perfectly honest.
And this is the worst thetechnology will ever be.
So in terms of a consumer.
Product in terms of whatconsumers will tolerate.

(53:04):
We as artists might be offended, but thetruth is consumers get to decide what
their preference is and what their thingsare and what their quality standards are.
And the thing is, the AI isn'tdoing bad quality audio right now.
The voices are becomingless monotone every day.
And regular human YouTubers whostart out and aren't confident
start out with monotone and badvoice and bad audio all the time.

(53:27):
Oh geez.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I mean, especially us, right?
The, so the thing is the AI can improvein five years more than most humans
will ever self-improve in five years.
And that's what's scary to me.
That's what's scary to me.
So what I believe though isproof of human will become a
priority for a lot of people.
Maybe not everybody, but there will bepeople who, uh, value proof of human.

(53:50):
I think it's fine with the AI stuffwhen it goes to the entertainment
space because again, I. You're justchoosing sugary snacks built by
machines instead of sugary snacks.
As opposed to, yeah.
Cooked by humans and everything like that.
And you can say, well, the differenceis, well, that was done with love.
Okay, great.
So the shot of DI Diabetes straightinto your veins was done with love.

(54:12):
Okay, cool.
Like so you have that, I thinkfor thought leaders and educators.
We will use AI not as areplacement or as a shortcut.
We will use it to enhance ourselvesand become cyborgs, and we will just
become, just become cyborgs out here.
We'll just become super soldiers.
We'll just use it tobecome super soldiers.
We'll use it for efficiency.
We'll use it to shrinkteams and scale outputs.

(54:34):
We'll use it to refine processesand give a better product to our
people while remaining human.
By getting rid of all the thingsthat annoy us, our humanity will
be enhanced because now we'refocused in our zone of gene.
That's how we will use ai.
There will be artists andentertainers who also follow suit
with this, but the majority ofthem are super, super young people.
So to be honest, they'll just useshortcuts and, but the market will

(54:57):
decide whether it values that or not.
I think my own, my follow upthere really is just, if you're a
creator listening to this, lean in.
Don't lean out.
Don't, don't run away from this thing.
Don't be afraid of it.
I understand that sometimes the technicaljargon may feel like it's a big hurdle
to get over, but it's really not.
Once you kind of start diving andlearning and, and doing all these things.
I know for myself, I was scared of it acouple of years ago, but now I'm, I'm,

(55:19):
I'm loving it because like you said,it's kind of giving me some superpowers
behind the scenes that are allowing meto really, it's not cutting corners.
It's being more efficient.
And I think that when you differentiatethe two of yes, AI will allow some
people to cut corners, that will beAI slop and it will be crap forever
because that those people arejust wanting sheets and shortcuts.
Lemme give you a heads up.

(55:40):
They're, they, they've beenwanting shortcuts way before ai.
Yeah.
These are lazy people.
These are people who don't have awork at, they don't care about really
what they're putting out there.
But people like myself and Robertoand other people that you consume,
they're gonna utilize AI toonly enhance what they're doing.
And so, I know I gotta let you go.
So I wanna get to this last parthere, which is the lightning round.
It's just some, some fun questionsthat I want you to give me.
Kind of, you know, maybe one, onesentence answers to those will

(56:02):
be perfect for YouTube shorts.
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, trying to think about it.
What is, uh, one of your favorite, uh,YouTube channels to consume right now?
Hmm.
One of my favorite YouTubechannels to consume right now.
Hmm.
I really like Cleo, Abram a lot,and I love that she's reawaken some
of my intellectual curiosity for.
Esoteric scientific thingsgets my brain going.

(56:27):
What is your current obsessionoutside of YouTube and work
outside of YouTube and work?
What is my current obsession?
Cleaning like organization,cleaning, life optimization.
Also micro workouts.
I've been doing these micro workouts whereI've been doing weighted squats and I
try to do a hundred weighted squats a daywhen I can now and everything like that.
I've become obsessed with that.

(56:48):
I've become obsessed withmy pull up bar in my closet.
I'm just like, I'm walking by.
It's like, you know what?
It's gonna take me less than twominutes to get a micro workout in.
Lemme just go and do the pull upbar for as many pull-ups as I can.
Just real quick, just get it in.
I walk into a room, I leave weights inthe rooms that I spend the most time in.
So it's like I walk by, I glance, I go.
I'm not gonna walk by those baweights and not pick them up.
It's like, let's gettinga like 92nd micro workout.

(57:10):
I've been ahead of the game, I'vebeen doing that for, for a long while.
My wife made, has made fun of me.
I had the little pushup things that Ihave and I try to do a hundred a day.
Nice.
Try to do the body squats.
I've heard 'em called exercisesnacks or micro workouts or
whatever you wanna call 'em.
So yeah, it's microworkouts, why I call it.
That's really cool.
If you weren't a YouTuber ora online educator like you are
right now, what would you do?
Social media consultant, most likely.
Uh, 'cause that's what I was doingbefore I pivoted to content creators.

(57:33):
Um, I was a full-time freelancer, mostlyin graphic design, all those things.
Um, doing branding, doing packaging,doing, um, the print design for,
you know, when you go to, um.
Trade shows and conferences and you seepeople and they have the backdrop or they
have the table spread with their logo.
I used to do that stuff for a living orthe packaging for their products, book

(57:53):
cover design and everything like that.
Um, so I used to do those things.
It evolved into consultingas my own social media grew.
Other people and small businesses workedwith me and I managed their social media.
So right now, I would probably just bein the world of consulting or marketing
or I'd be working for a company,maybe Kajabi or something like that.

(58:13):
I even think sometimes of like if theywould, if, if a company out there, if
like a nine, uh, figure, uh, 10 figurecompany wanted to just have me on
retainer and I don't have to do likeactual clock in hours or any kind, but
I just need to be available to do somecalls, I'd be open to doing, um, a like.

(58:35):
80 to $140,000 a year gig where I giveup, uh, you know, 10, 20 hours a week to
do consulting for one company if they'rewilling to pay me 80 to $140,000 a year.
Um, to do that, to give up 10to 20 hours a week, flex time.
But it's like, it's just aboutconsulting or doing meetings

(58:55):
or solving some problems.
I don't have to clock in in regular hours.
It's just me doing these micro callswith them or something like that over
the course of a week and giving mythoughts or reviewing a product feature
or meeting with some product managers.
Like I would be willing, I. To, uh, dothat on top of everything else I do.
I mean, the money is good,but I also, I like the idea of
being involved in technology.

(59:16):
So I would wanna do that for either likean AI company or an education company.
So if, so, if I'm willing to do thatconsulting, like part-time, flex
time, I would just do it consultingeither with multiple clients.
Multiple clients where I do, Imean, similar to brand deals, right?
I would just basically consult withbrands, if not be a spokesperson for
them and their presenter at events andbe their wrangler, be their ringer,

(59:37):
be their, their guy that goes atevents, gets charismatic and crushes
it like I did at NAB show, right?
With Opus Clip.
I would just do things like that forcompanies and I would just say, yeah,
I'll do all these things for you.
Um, you'll be category exclusiveand I would just get three or five
companies to pay me, um, 60 to $120,000a year each, three to five companies.
And I would just wanna make,you know, like, um, 250 to 300,

(01:00:00):
um, $60,000 a year doing that.
I working with, uh, brands andI would just do a combination
of consulting, uh, public seekspeaking and, uh, some marketing
services for them on the backend.
And that would be that.
I love it.
I love it.
Well, guys, if you can't tell, uh,Roberto and I could go on forever.
It's why I like bringing him onevery six months or so, you can find
him over@awesomecreatoracademy.com.

(01:00:23):
Search Roberto Blake on YouTubeor Google to find all of his
things that he has going on.
I'm really excited about your new book.
You, you again are one of thegreat thought leaders in this space
and it's so fun to have you on.
I get to have Nick Niman onmultiple times a year as well.
And so through these friendships thatI've kind of garnered through the years,
it's really valuable to my audience.

(01:00:43):
And so, Roberto, your timeis so much appreciated.
And, uh, we'll talk to you next time.
All right, take care.
That's it for this week's episodeof the YouTube Creators Hub podcast.
I hope you guys enjoyed thatawesome conversation with
Roberto as much as I did.
If you'd like to connect with meagain, I offer one-on-one coaching.
I would love to connect with youand help you along your journey.

(01:01:04):
We have our membership group calledThe Creators Corner, where you get
exclusive access to the group of, youknow, YouTube creators there, myself,
other past guests of the show, aswell as an exclusive podcast episode
that I release there each and everyweek called The Creator's Corner.
It's about a six to 10 minutemonologue from myself about a
topic that can hopefully help youmove the needle in your business.

(01:01:24):
And don't forget to subscribe to thispodcast as well as our email newsletter
if you're looking for behind the sceneslooks of what it takes to run an online
business, a podcast, a YouTube channel.
Check all those links down below,and we'll talk to you next week.

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How Roberto Blake Thinks About YouTube in 2025 — Short-Form, AI, and Creator Longevity

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How Roberto Blake Thinks About YouTube in 2025 — Short-Form, AI, and Creator Longevity