There's a book called The Unfair Advantage.

I'm not sure if you've heard of it or not, but it is incredible book.

But it talks about everybody has an unfair advantage, in life.

And this is just talking about like with business and d different things like that.

But I think it applies to YouTube.

It's really helped me.

But basically, what are you uniquely.

Capable and able to do that other people aren't able to do.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the YouTube Creators Hub podcast, where if you are looking to start, grow, or monetize your YouTube channel or content creation, this is the podcast for you where we interview wonderful creators each and every.

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And with all of that said, let's go ahead and jump into this week's conversation, everyone, and welcome to the conversation portion of the show this week.

I'm joined today by Travis Dykes and I will link his YouTube channel down below.

I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Travis before we get started.

Travis has been a full-time touring and studio musician for over 11 years in one of my favorite cities in America.

Nashville, Tennessee.

From the start of his music career, he's always felt a passion for teaching and has taught hundreds of bass and guitar students.

This passion prompted the start of a YouTube channel to provide bass lessons and a behind the scenes look at the professional music industry.

Over the past few years, Travis's YouTube channel has grown to well over 200,000 subscribers, and he continues to create videos weekly.

Travis, how you doing today?

I'm doing good.

I'm really looking forward to chatting with you.

You and I have a lot of things in common.

We were just talking off air.

You just had a baby girl back in August.

First one.

Congratulations, by the way.

Thank you.

I have two baby girls currently and expecting another one plus two boys.

And so we got that in common.

And I also play.

Instruments.

I play the guitar, I play the bass at church every Sunday.

But with that said, I am so not as far as your skillset.

You are so much better than me.

And watching your videos makes me feel a little a little less as a musician.

But you are super talented.

You've grown an amazing community over on your YouTube channel.

And so tell the audience, give us the full story of how the channel came to be.

Man, great question.

You know what's funny is that my, this, my, the uniqueness about my story is that I did not start a YouTube channel to become like this big thing.

I didn't become like, I'm not saying that I'm some big thing, but for it to become so where I have a team of people that I employ and things, now it's, this was never something that was the part of the plan when I first started my channel.

Really, the whole idea was that it was back when YouTube didn't have as much tutorial content for bass and good, stuff like that on YouTube.

And I remember I was learning the bass and I was having these epiphanies and I was like, oh my gosh, this person just taught me this.

This person just taught me this and I just learned this from this book, but nobody's talking about it on YouTube.

And I was like, man, I wish somebody was talking about this and teaching this on YouTube.

And so the way I started is I just uploaded a video of I'm like, okay, I learned this little bass lick, this little gospel thing.

So I uploaded a lesson, here and there just of me playing or teaching like these little bass licks or little churchy gospel concepts.

'cause there wasn't that much content on on YouTube about it.

And so when I started doing that was how I started to get my first post, my first videos on YouTube.

I was not paying attention to any of the analytics.

I wasn't paying attention to subscribers or anything.

And I remember one time somebody asked me, he was like, oh, yeah, they knew a little bit about YouTube.

They was just like, oh man, so how many subscribers do you have?

And I was like, I have no idea.

Because I never even focused on that.

And so I remember one time that after that I was like.

That night I went and I checked my my dashboard or my YouTube studio and I was like, oh, let me just see how many I have in here.

And I saw in there, I saw one in the two, and I was like, oh, okay, cool.

I was like, I got 12 subscribers.

All cool.

'Cause that was never a thing.

But then I looked the next night, I was like, you know what?

Let me go back and look at that.

Number again, somebody else that asked me and I went in there and it actually said, one, 2K.

Yeah.

And I was like, hold on.

I had 1200 subscribers and I was like that for me, I was like.

What, and I think my account, I didn't even know what monetize meant on my account.

It, my account was monetized and I didn't even know it.

And so it was just, that was how it all started.

It wasn't like this big old strategy of oh, this is, I'm gonna do this, and this.

And to get this amount of subscribers.

It was just literally purely just the sharing of, knowledge is the reason why I even got started.

And so now I am where I'm today.

Same thing happened with me.

I shared a tutorial video to someone in California, made it public on YouTube, showing 'em how to use InDesign, which was a software, this was 16, 17 years ago.

And the video got like 160,000 views within the first six months.

And I got an email from YouTube and they were like, Hey would you like to join our partner program?

And I was.

I have no idea what this means, but sure.

It sounds cool.

Forgot my login.

Had to find my login.

Got, in, in that whole nine.

But that's the one of my favorite things about YouTube is that people like you who are creators.

And 13 years ago, by the way, you uploaded your first video called Gospel Base Lesson, connecting the minor pentatonic scale, which that's how I discovered you most guests.

I Oh, really?

Have a virtual assistant that go and s.

Scour the internet and find some up and coming creators, or creators that are very successful.

And that's how I normally find new guests for the show or they approach me.

But for you, because I am a bass player at church every Sunday I believe it was one of your tutorial videos that I was watching and I said to myself, this guy would be perfect for the podcast.

And so how is your channel evolved over time, Travis?

Because it, it did start.

By accident almost.

But now you're doing more challenge type videos, like your latest video.

I recorded based on random people's songs for $25, which is, I love these kind of challenge type videos.

We're seeing it take over the golf space on YouTube where these challenge videos are, what's really hot right now.

Explain the evolution of the channel and where and who you are now as a creator.

So that's actually a great question.

So when I got started, it was just about learning d different things like that.

And one thing with YouTube you always have to look at is where can you stand out within your niche?

And I remember one of the things with lessons is that they would, people would teach gospel lessons, but there would just be these.

Awful.

360 PI like iPhone.

The first version of iPhone video, like it was, it would just be awful quality videos.

No, the audio quality was okay and all these things.

And so for me, I started with my beginning, nexus with all this I was starting with.

Trying to have high quality lesson videos.

Okay.

That was where I started.

But then as I continued to teach, and then as more people started to put out like lesson videos and things like that on YouTube, I was like, you know what?

I actually think that.

Entertaining, content, educational content is actually more fun to learn.

And so what I started to do, even with my students and stuff I start trying to make things a little bit more practical, a little bit more entertaining.

'cause a lot of times when you're a beginner and stuff like that.

You feel like gear.

You have to buy a whole bunch of gear for things to, to sound good.

You have to, be able to do these crazy fast licks to be able to play with the band or whatever, things like that.

And I started realizing, I was like, that's not the case.

I've been, I've been a professional for over a decade now.

And I'm like, man, there's so many people that could play the stuff that I'm playing with these artists, but people feel like they're not even close, and so that sparked the idea of starting.

What they call it, I guess edutainment content.

And so for bass and things like that, there's not a ton out there.

Or even just for music people, it's starting to come up now, but like this whole edutainment concept.

And so that's the reason why I started doing more entertainment style content as well.

Because, and also like for me it makes me like I'm really excited about doing it.

So like getting able to bring my friends in on a video and getting to hear their insights and things like that.

I feel like it's really it just captures you more and you learn more and you actually remember more because sometimes you could read a book, it's be like, oh this chord makes this, and this line makes this and this, blah, blah blah makes this, and it's cool.

But what really captured me is when I heard somebody play or when I heard, a secret.

Somebody said, Hey, instead of just doing it like this, why don't you do this?

And it's oh my gosh.

Epiphany.

Versus, just somebody reading a book.

And so that's the reason why now my channel, I'm still doing lesson content every now and then, but I try not to do mostly that content.

I want this edutainment style because it's having more of an effect and not just bass players, but more musicians in general.

Yeah, music is a lot like putting pieces together in a puzzle in that you can approach different songs in different licks, different ways and the way that you interpret it may be different than the way that I do.

And so it's really interesting to hear you talk about the evolution of your content.

And so let's talk about the evolution of your career.

You're obviously a professional musician, but was there a moment, Travis, when you thought to yourself, okay, this content creation thing.

Is more than just a side gig.

This was more than just a hobby.

Do you remember what that was and what made you get over the hump and to decide, Hey, I think I can do this full time?

Honestly, that's, yeah it was right around the time I got married back in 2019.

I remember I was about to get engaged.

It was like end of 2018, going into 2019, and I was like, okay.

All right.

I remember I was starting to think about the future and I'm, if you know anything about me, I'm like a future thinker.

I'm not.

I'm, I like to be in the present, but I'm always thinking about, okay, how's this gonna impact in the future?

And so I remember I was thinking about my life and I was thinking about, okay I'm about to try and get married.

Okay.

I want to be a good father.

I wanna be a good this or whatever.

And I was like.

Man.

I was actually, I went to a studio session.

I was playing for some record, some album that was really fun.

And the drummer played for a guy named Vince Gill.

He's like a big Yeah.

Country, legendary country artist.

And I remember he, I, he were sitting in the session and he we're just talking and I was just like, oh man, so at this point in your career are like, are you thinking about retirement?

Or, what's your plan for that?

Because I never really had thought about that as a musician and I remember.

Telling me he was like, he said, I've been playing with him for 15 years.

He's yeah I'm still living, from gig to gig.

And, and this is, it's just the way I've always done it.

And I was like, hold on, what?

This guy's like older than my father.

And I was like, so you don't have a retirement plan?

And he's no.

And he's no.

It's this is what I do.

And I was like, oh.

And I remember that moment.

It hit me.

I'm like.

Travis, what's your retirement plan?

What's your what?

What are you gonna do?

Like whenever you get, in your sixties, seventies, and you don't want to have to take a gig, you want to just be able to choose what you do.

Which I'm always gonna be playing music till the day I die, but I want to be, I want have the choice instead of being like, I have to take this crappy gig, because I have to pay my bills.

I want to be like, you know what?

I wanna play, take this gig just because it's gonna be fun.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't have to think about money and things like that.

And so it sparked this idea of Travis, you already have a little bit of a following on your YouTube channel.

And I think at that time I don't even, maybe I at 10,000 subscribers, something like that, I don't know, something like that.

It wasn't that much.

And so I was like, you know what, why don't I.

Focus in on this and try to make something of this, at the time, like YouTuber was starting to become a term that people were using and I was like, oh, that sounds so weird, whatever.

And it just makes you feel like your kid oh is you're playing on YouTube.

But then it started to become more and more serious and people are like actually making careers from it.

And so I was like, okay.

Alright.

As I'm getting married, I'm like, you know what?

I'm gonna focus in on this.

And then after the year during the year after we got married there was a moment that happened.

I had a music school when I first got serious about the channel.

It was the, in 2020 crazy year for music.

Oh my gosh.

And I remember I had a moment, I had like, all of my income came from just my less lesson students.

And I was just like, oh man.

I'm not, I have no gigs.

I have nothing else but my lessons.

But for some reason I, I'm a believer for some reason I felt like this, like God calling me and asking me to step out, so to speak.

And I remember I asked my wife, I was like, Hey, right now for some reason I feel like I need to let go of my music school and just go full in on this YouTube thing.

I remember it was the summer of 2020 and we were just like, no.

Like a lot of the, in all of my income was just students and I'm about to let it go.

And that was like, and I remember I sat down with my wife and what was crazy and this is how I knew I married the right person.

I told her this and she was just like, alright, and that's what we're gonna do.

Yeah.

And I was like.

Alright.

And so I let go.

I had about 36 or 37 students that I sent to other friends that, teach and stuff, and I let them, take them.

And I just went full in on YouTube and then doors started opening.

I got, that same year, I got asked to write a book for Hal Leonard about bass and things like that.

And and doors just started opening for me.

I remember, I think I gained like 15,000 subscribers in one month.

It was started, it was starting to pick up from there until now.

Yeah.

I say this often on the podcast, but I haven't said it recently.

Your support system.

Really dictates your success as a creator if you don't have people around you who are going to lift you up or support you, and are, the opposite of that would be people, if you would've said that to your wife and she would've been like, oh, I don't know.

This doesn't seem like a real thing.

She supported you a hundred percent, which gave you not only the confidence, but gave you the freedom to go and explore this opportunity.

And I think that's the beauty of YouTube.

And I want people to hear that in, in what Travis said, what is.

Been the hardest part of this thing, Travis, like when you're looking at the journey thus far, what has been the biggest roadblock or hardest part for you in being a creator and how have you surpassed that and gotten over it?

I'll say time management.

So tough, especially because I consider myself a musician first and then a YouTuber second.

But now it's starting.

What's weird in my life is that it's starting to I'm still a musician, but it's, my income is starting to be more, pretty much YouTube is like where all my income is coming from now.

And I think when it comes to time management, I still tour, like I still play with artists.

I still, I, I have a live base class I just brought back this year that I'm teaching on my my Patreon and things like that.

But my time is so much so I have I'm a producer, I produce music.

I, do YouTube.

I'm a music director at my church.

I I tour and I md with a few different artists.

I'm a father, husband, and there, and that's.

A lot to manage, especially when you're the leader of a lot of those things.

And so for me, it's the allocation of like, where should I be putting my time on my channel?

And so one thing that I actually have done to help me with this is hire people on early or before we had our child I think about two years ago, I was like, you know what, I'm, I know what I wanna do in the future with this.

I know I'm not gonna have time as we have kids and stuff.

And so I hired a video editor and I hired a thumbnail designer.

And that helped alleviate a lot because what I started to, the biggest roadblock for me was editing videos.

And at one point I was like, oh man, I love editing videos.

This is so much fun.

But then when you want to level it up, it be, it was like, oh man, I'm only getting out a video a month.

And it is just whoa, this is taking a lot more editing and, 'cause now you're focusing on sound design, you're focusing on getting right, the right visuals and all these different things.

And it's man, I need to be focusing on creating the right content and focusing the right title and thumbnail idea and what series am I gonna try to do.

And I remember my mind just kept being, pushed away into like from, just to editing versus idea creation, which is one of the most important things I've learned.

If you have a great idea, then a lot of that other stuff is gonna, happen.

It's gonna, even if the editing is not bad or is not like the most, professional thing you've ever had, it still would work because that idea is so good.

And I and for me, a great idea comes from if you have a great title and a great thumbnail, that's interesting because it used to be you just put out, there was enough, wasn't enough content in all these different niches, and you could just put out something like, Hey, how to play.

Bass in, 30 days or whatever and people would be like, oh yeah, I'm gonna, and you could get a ton of views, but now it's like how many videos are out there that's like, how to play bass as a beginner, there's tons now.

Yeah.

And so now the way that I think about it's what's interesting because there's so much content out there and so what would somebody click on?

And so yeah, I would say that was probably the biggest hurdle and I'm still working through that now 'cause.

It's it's a concept that I learned in business.

It's like you don't wanna work in your business if you're the, if you're the over your business, if you're the entrepreneur, you're the boss of what you're doing.

You don't wanna work in your business.

You wanna work on your business.

On your business.

Yeah.

Yes.

It's so like, when you work on your business, you're looking at the future.

You're not just working on the day to day.

You're not just maintaining.

You're looking at, okay, what's the future of the channel?

What's the future videos that we're doing?

And so one huge thing I started to notice is that, what is the repeatable nature?

Okay, the repeatable nature of content and I've started to notice looking at people in the millions of subscribers versus the people in the hundreds of thousands of subscribers, is that the people, the millions of subscribers have formats that are repeatable.

They have, series that they do multiple of with different titles and kind of the same thumbnail scheme that they could just repeat that people really wanna see.

And that's how they grew their channel.

So much like binging with Babish is a great one.

He's a cooking YouTuber and one that the one series that threw him like just blew him up was the one where he was teaching how to cook.

Dishes from popular TV shows, like in cartoons and things like that.

He started doing that and that series took him to like, over 5 million subscribers.

So 'cause everybody loved that series.

But anyways, that is like the, the idea and the thing that I've struggled with and I've been learning to overcome.

Alright, I interrupt the interview just for a few seconds to tell you about our YouTube channel audit service.

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With that set, let's jump back into the conversation.

It's funny, you're preaching my message when I get on calls with clients.

That's one of the top things I talk about is niching down, finding programming that works, finding series that are popular, that are repeatable that we can continue to go back to the well.

And if you look at someone like Mr.

Beast or Ryan Rehan, that's exactly what they've done.

They do, yes, there are different videos.

Slightly, but they're all the same premise.

They're all these challenge videos or giving away tons of money to a, for a certain contest or this person type of person versus that type.

Finding repeatable programming and buckets is extremely important.

Now, you mentioned thumbnails and titles, so I wanna start there.

What works and what is working on YouTube right now in 2025 and beyond?

What's what are your packaging?

Golden rules per se.

So I used to, and especially in my niche, there are a lot of people who I think they think about their thumbnails, but it's just it's not the psych, the psychology of it, it's not very strong.

But I think that's the secret nowadays.

It's what's gonna stand out versus.

Other videos in your niche because the way that I think about thumbnails is okay, how is this going to look?

Versus okay if there's another base channel that they're gonna recommend that's similar to mine or has lessons in my, like what's gonna be the things like, wow, that stands out, that thumbnail stands out.

And this is something I've been tweaking this year a little bit more, but, but it's even just like looking at that comparison because sometimes we can just do a thumbnail that looks pretty good, like the picture quality looks good, or whatever.

But we're not thinking about how it's gonna be compared to others.

And actually a tool that I use, this is Shameless plug, but Spotter Studio has been a great one for me.

Because I can, they have this packaging tool where you can throw your thumbnail in there and look at the videos that from channels that are in your niche, and you can see how that thumbnail looks compared to the other videos, like in a lineup.

And it's just oh, wow.

And that really is very helpful because I used to just think it's about, creating a good looking image, but it's really, psychology is okay, once you create this image, what are gonna be the things, if I was the viewer that I'm gonna look at and be like, Ooh, I wanna see what this is.

I wanna see what's gonna happen.

Is this, because it's like opening that loop.

I'm sure your audience has heard that before, like opening the loop of oh man, I wanna hear, I wanna see what's gonna happen next.

That is, so Im important nowadays.

And it's not even just about the extreme concepts, which I think extreme concepts are great, but it's really what's interesting, like what's different, instead of, saying a beginner lesson like, hey, you're here is your very first beginner lesson.

You may say something like so you wanna play bass in a band?

Start here.

That would be a different way of packaging it.

But you may be teaching the same lesson.

But if I was watch, if I was like someone who was looking on, YouTube for a lesson, I'm like one of play bass and starting band.

'cause most people don't.

Learn to play bass just so they can play by themselves.

'cause bass is, you need like other people's, like a drummer at least to make it really fun for you.

And so if you see play how to play in a band, it's just oh yeah, that's what I wanna do.

And so even though it may be that same lesson, the packaging is interesting.

Yeah.

And so that's the way that I think about it, it's okay, how can I make this interesting?

How can I make this, this title captivating to where you know what's gonna happen, but also it's not clickbait because I think everything right now, everybody oof.

I feel like audiences and viewers, their clickbait meter.

It is way up there right now.

It's oh, they don't see it in the first 10 seconds, 20 seconds of what they, clicked on.

They're like, oh, I'm not watching this.

Oh, this is just clickbait.

Yeah.

What I love that.

That's such good advice.

Talking about you giving that example there of tweaking that title slightly about, here's just a simple generic base lesson video, base lesson to, for you to play in a band that's a really good way to think about it, is to evoke that curiosity and what makes you and your videos different.

What do you think that most creators are doing poorly?

'cause the majority of creators, we've seen this, we've seen the statistics, Travis, very few creators ever reach the 10,000 subscriber mark.

Very few even reach the 5,000.

And why do you think that is?

What do you think is the difference between the people that.

Continue on and yeah, maybe they don't get 5 million subscribers like that cooking creator you were talking about, but they're consistently creating and like a coaching client I had yesterday they, they do landscapes and they do pool landscapes and they've grown their channel from 300 subscribers to close to half a million within a couple of years.

It's because they've really set themselves apart.

What do you think the creators that make it on YouTube do differently than the.

Much greater majority of people who don't succeed.

One of the biggest things is just staying consistent.

I know that sounds so simple, and I know some people are gonna hate me for saying that, but.

It's real.

There's so many times throughout my YouTube career that I've just okay, alright, let's throw on the towel.

Let's go do something else.

Because like it's just, I'm like, man, I'm not seeing this crazy growth it like everybody else is seeing.

But you do have to realize where, what is it that you.

Are doing that you love to do?

And what and leaning into what makes you different.

There's a book called The Unfair Advantage.

I'm not sure if you've heard of it or not, but it is incredible book.

But it talks about everybody has an unfair advantage, in life.

And this is just talking about like with business and dif different things like that.

But I think it applies to YouTube and it's really helped me.

But basically, what are you uniquely.

Capable and able to do that, other people aren't able to do.

And so that's what I, that helped me with my channel because there's a lot of base channels out there.

There's a lot of base educational channels, there's a lot of music, educational channels.

But what about what I'm doing on my channel is different and what do I have access to in my current season that's, different.

And so for me, being in Nashville.

I have access to a ton of great musicians, a ton of great music stores, a ton of opportunities with me on tour.

And so something I decided to focus on was what I, what was different about me and what was different about me and the thing that I was, connected to or, and in my particular season is that I'm on tour.

Okay.

Let's make some videos about that.

I'm already gonna be on tour.

Let's do some vlogs.

Let's try to make that work.

Okay.

I, another thing, I have a lot of friends here, so let's try and include some friends in, on some content.

Let's try to do a base build.

Let's go to a music store in Nashville.

I'm in a city that has a lot of music stores and music industry, there's so many studios here.

Let's do a video about studios and I'm getting a little opportunities here and there, and for me, that's where my unique connection is.

If some I'm from, originally from Birmingham, Alabama.

If I was in Alabama, I wouldn't have the same idea with this because I'm not, I don't live in Nashville.

I live in Alabama.

So if you live in somewhere like where, like Birmingham, Alabama, where I'm from, and you don't have a big music industry.

That could be your unfair advantages.

Okay, and now instead of being that person that's from Nashville and have all this access to all this music industry stuff, you have access to the, or actually more relatable to a small town person who's trying to pursue music.

Like that could be your unfair advantage is now you're standing out towards somebody like me.

'cause now I'm not the one that's, saying saying, I'm like, oh, I'm from a small town and this is how I'm getting gigs and this is how I'm doing things.

This is how I'm making money from this.

I'm talking about in a city that has music everywhere, and so finding your unfair advantage really shapes and helps you to find what's unique about yourself.

And I will say going from like zero to 10,000, that's, one thing in consistency, but going from 10,000 to a hundred thousand or a hundred thousand to a million, which I'm in that journey right now.

It's about finding what's unique to where you are staying consistent and also loving the content that you're putting out and being someone who, who wants the content, you know?

'cause I think sometimes we forget that we get started on YouTube so we can enjoy the content that we're putting.

That.

At least that's for me, that's what the way I reason I started is 'cause I wanted the content as a viewer, and I think that's something we always have to remember.

It's what are we creating the content that we actually want to see, or we're just doing, what everybody wants us to do even though we don't love it, then when you hear the response from your audience, that one student who took your base lesson or watched that video, that helped them decide, yeah, I wanna be a bass player, or, yeah, I do wanna play in a band.

These are all powerful things that are motivators for creators.

And another motivator, and I don't shy away from this, is the ability to make money and create a business out of this thing.

And so I think I want to end this conversation today talking about that with you, Travis.

How are you?

Monetizing and making money from your content.

Can you break down all those different buckets that you're making money?

And then if you don't mind, give us on average, what you might make on a month from your content.

Ooh.

Alright.

Actually, I don't dunno if I've talked about this on a podcast.

So it's a little tougher.

I feel like for my particular content it's a little tougher.

Or originally I would just post like covers things like that.

And AdSense wasn't that much, but when I stopped doing covers and stopped, started changing my content to where I'm using royalty free stuff and things like that, started making more money from AdSense.

Which ad my sense is not crazy.

It really fluctuates depending on the season.

But AdSense is one, one way, one huge bucket that I make money in.

But probably the biggest bucket is sponsorships.

Sponsorships are brand deals.

The, that's probably where I make the majority of my money.

And then affiliate marketing is another one.

Now.

Affiliate marketing, I'm sure people have talked about it, but.

It's the more you have views and the more clicks you have, that amount goes it, it could get up there, which is, it's, I just got a random email from one of my random companies that I haven't linked in my description that they have $580 or sending to me and I was like, $580.

I don't even know I sold, that from this one product.

But when I first started with monetizing, that number was way, way lower.

It was like I may I, it'd probably be like five, 10 bucks, sometimes with some of my affiliate links and things like that.

But I remember I told my wife, I was like, you know this, right now it seems like it's not much.

But as I grow and as the channel grows that amount and that percentage is gonna grow.

Because I think there is definitely a percentage of your finances and percentage of your income that every channel has that's lower from affiliate marketing.

Very low.

But if you have a million subscribers, let's say I, let's say I was at 5,000 and I was making 10 bucks.

If I have a million, I'm making probably thousands.

You know what I'm saying?

And so that's the kind of the idea with that.

So I would say.

First absence, second sponsor or brand deals.

And third affiliate marketing.

And then I do have merch and things like that.

Oh, and I guess I do have Patreon's, another one.

And so yeah, those are probably my five buckets I would say.

Awesome.

Thank you Travis, for sharing that.

I know it can be a little bit v vulnerable when you're talking about making money, but I think that's what YouTube empowers us to do.

And in order for us to create the content we want to create and you to pay the people that help you you have to have money to make this thing go around.

Last question I wanna ask you, if you could only give one piece of advice.

To creators listening to this show, you've already mentioned consistency.

We've already talked about a ton of different things.

What would that piece of advice be?

Honestly, that unfair advantage idea is probably one of the biggest things that's helped me.

And just knowing and learn, thinking about, okay, what is it that I'm uniquely, equipped to do?

Nobody else's.

I think Ryan Tran's a great example of that.

He's like the cheaper version of Mr.

Beast.

He can do things for a lot lower costs than Mr.

Beast.

He's like doing the kind of the anti antithesis of what he's doing as far as like money goes.

And even just like building his business, I would just say find what is unique to you and that's fun to you.

Create that, because when you get into the crux of being a YouTube creator, it can be tough and you could just be, I've even had thoughts where I'm just like, man, should I even be doing this?

Even though like people could see oh, you have over 200,000 subscribers.

You should, you're probably just so happy with what you're doing.

It's like even at 200,000 subscribers, I'm like, man this is tough.

But whenever you start creating content that you really, genuinely love and you're just like, man.

I really enjoy this.

It makes it so much easier, and not saying it's gonna be easy, but it just makes it so much more enjoyable when you're creating the content.

You're going through these hard times.

And even with hiring a team and things like that, that all stems from, okay, I see where this is going.

I wanna make a sacrifice to get it there.

And so just remember.

Even though it may be tough, even though you know you're, this seems like everybody's doing better than you.

You just have to stick with good and unique to you and find whatever your unfair advantage is for you and your niche.

That's awesome.

I'm gonna link that book in our database of things mentioned here on the podcast.

If you'd like to go check out Travis and what he has to offer, I'm gonna link to his book, his website, his YouTube channel in the show notes.

And Travis, you have been an amazing guest.

Thank you for being our creator on the spotlight here today on the show.

And we'll talk to you later.

Thank you so much.

And that's a wrap on this week's episode.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Man, Travis was a wonderful guest and it was so intriguing to hear his story and how it's led him, in tandem with being a musician to being one of his more major income sources.

Really cool conversation that we just had just briefly.

I've already listed all the things that we offer to creators, one-on-one coaching, YouTube channel audits, our email newsletter, our mastermind group.

Listen, wherever and however much you want to invest in your channel, we have a tier for you.

So go check that out.

If you haven't already, don't forget to like or follow the show so you get notified.

It's absolutely free every time we go live with a new episode.

And don't forget, if you know someone who you think would be a great fit for the podcast, email me dusty@dustyporter.com and we'll see you guys next week.