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If You Want an Irresistible Personal Brand, You Can’t Do It Alone — Transcript

by Caleb Ralston · 8,894 words · 1,258 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Right now, you are the reason why your
0:02personal brand is not growing the way
0:03that [music] you want it to. And I know
0:05this because I have helped build an
0:0718-person media team for two of the
0:09biggest names in business generating
0:11over 3 billion impressions every single
0:14year. But those impressions would not
0:15have been possible without the media
0:17team behind the personalities. So in
0:19this video, I want to walk you through
0:20do you need a media team? Where do you
0:22start? I want to walk you through the
0:24two paths that you can choose to go
0:26down. And then we're going to end it
0:27with me walking you through how we're
0:28building my media team here at Ralston.
0:32First, you need to determine do you even
0:34need or want a media team? Because the
0:36reality here is that in order to scale
0:39your personal brand to the level that
0:40you are wanting to go, you are going to
0:42have to significantly increase the
0:44volume of content that you are posting
0:46online. And so knowing that, I want to
0:48help you make this decision incredibly
0:51simple. So I have three questions that I
0:52need you to answer for yourself. Number
0:54one, can you increase the volume by 2x
0:57of what you are currently doing by
0:59yourself? Now, the second question is
1:02are you an expert on all the platforms
1:04that you are currently posting on and
1:06the platforms that you need to expand
1:08to? Third question here is do you want
1:12to be the one doing this? Are you
1:14wanting to be the one who is having to
1:16take charge of increasing the volume in
1:19this way? Because what I will tell you
1:21is if you make the mistake of taking
1:23this on and saying, "Yes, I will, you
1:26know, pull up my bootstraps and I will
1:27be the one to do this."
1:29And you don't actually want to, I
1:31guarantee all you're doing is you have a
1:32timer that is counting down to the
1:34moment that you are going to burn out
1:36and give up. Because the amount of
1:37people that I have seen try to double
1:39the volume of content as a solo creator
1:42really quickly, the amount of people
1:44that succeed at that is few and far in
1:46between. And the majority of those
1:47individuals are more in the vein of
1:50full-time creators, not a full-time
1:51business owner who happens to be
1:53building their personal brand on the
1:55side or in addition to operating that
1:58business. So for the small amount of
2:00you, the small percentage that have
2:02said, "Yes, I would like to do this on
2:05my own." May the odds be ever in your
2:07favor. Now, for the rest of us, I think
2:09what we have realized is we need to
2:12build a media team. Now, for those of
2:14you who have determined, you know, maybe
2:16the 5% of you that have determined
2:18you're going to do this on your own, I
2:19would encourage you to continue watching
2:20this video because in all likelihood,
2:22you are going to come to the conclusion
2:24eventually, whether it's in this video
2:26or 6, 12, 18 months from now that you
2:28are going to need to build a media team
2:31in order to be able to scale to the
2:32level that you want. And so, why not
2:34learn it now rather than when you
2:36absolutely desperately need this. But,
2:38now that we know that we're going to
2:39build, knowing that we're going to build
2:42and knowing where to start are two
2:43completely different things. And this is
2:45a question that I get so often, which is
2:48do I hire a video editor? Do I hire a
2:50videographer? Should I be hiring maybe a
2:52strategist? What I want to encourage you
2:54on is where you start. The first hire
2:57you make for your personal brand might
2:59not be the same first hire that your
3:01favorite personal brand on Instagram
3:04started with. Some of the best advice
3:06that I got from Gary V, Gary Vaynerchuk,
3:08when I was working for him, was when I
3:10move on to not go and try and do a
3:13carbon copy of his media team, Team Gary
3:16V, but instead take all of the things
3:19that I've learned, the good things and
3:21the things that maybe I would do
3:22slightly differently, and bring those
3:24adjustments in, reverse engineer the
3:26individual that I'm building this team
3:27around, their strengths, weaknesses,
3:29their preferences, and make sure that
3:32the team is optimized and built around
3:33that. Johnny over here is going to be
3:35completely different than Sarah's team
3:36over here. Why? Because Johnny and Sarah
3:39are completely different humans with
3:40completely different strengths and
3:42weaknesses and preferences. And your org
3:44chart should be reverse engineering the
3:46individual and the outcome you're
3:48wanting to achieve, not just trying to
3:50copy somebody else's. So, knowing that
3:52the right strategy
3:54is to reverse engineer you, how do I do
3:58that in a video? I do it by utilizing
4:00something that is called the theory of
4:03constraints. Essentially, this just
4:04means that every operation has one thing
4:07slowing it down. Not five, not 10, just
4:11one. For example, let's say you have a
4:13million ideas for what you want to film.
4:17Content ideas is not a problem for you,
4:19but maybe actually filming those ideas
4:21is a problem. Whether you don't have the
4:23gear or you're overthinking the setup,
4:24whatever the issue is, if you have a
4:27bunch of ideas, but you're not filming
4:29those, maybe your constraint here is
4:33having a videographer come and film
4:35those videos for you. Maybe you then
4:38solve that constraint, you bring a
4:40videographer in, you're filming a bunch
4:41of ideas, but then the next point in
4:43your process in your operation is the
4:45editing. You have a bunch of videos that
4:47are on backlog waiting to be edited. And
4:49so, that's another constraint that maybe
4:50we can work on de-constraining in order
4:53to make our content operation and system
4:56more smooth and effective, aka allowing
4:58us to not get stuck at the editing
5:00portion, but be able to bulldoze through
5:02that. Now, a quick caveat that I have to
5:04give here is that every one of your
5:06constraints that you're going to come
5:07across in your operation is going to
5:09come down to one of two P's. You either
5:11have a people constraint or a process
5:14constraint. Not every constraint is
5:16solved by a hire. Sometimes it's solved
5:18by having a better process in place. And
5:20if you mistake the two, it is a very
5:22costly mistake to make. So, before you
5:25go and make this hire, please, I urge
5:28you, make sure that it is in fact a
5:30people constraint. Where this gets a
5:32little crazy is you don't always
5:34necessarily want to go for the most
5:36immediate constraint only. Let me
5:38explain here cuz it's about to get a
5:40little bit more crazy. There are two
5:41ways that I would prefer that you go
5:44about hiring your media team based on
5:47the theory of constraints. You have
5:49going pro and going light. Going pro is
5:51a term that I got from good friends of
5:53ours, Sam Gada and Dan Martell.
5:55Basically, what you are doing is instead
5:57of tackling the more granular, minute
6:00constraint in front of you, you're
6:02tackling the biggest constraint of all,
6:03which is the operation and leadership of
6:06this entire media team and this media
6:09operation that you are building. And
6:10this looks like hiring your head of
6:12personal brand or your content director
6:14first, like I did. I knew that the
6:16biggest constraint that I was going to
6:17face is I needed somebody to be able to
6:19look at me the same way that I look at
6:21clients in building their personal
6:23brand. And for whatever reason, and I I
6:25don't totally understand this, but I'm
6:27not fully able to view myself in the
6:29same way that I look at a client. I
6:31needed somebody that can come in and
6:33push me. Someone who can run this
6:35operation, who can scale the team and
6:37handle hiring, who can push me on making
6:39more content or going deeper on the
6:42subject matters that I'm trying to
6:43convey to you guys. Trevor is the one
6:45who is pushing me to make what I am
6:47saying to you more useful, more easy to
6:49understand, more concise. And so I knew
6:52that was the big constraint that I was
6:53going to need to solve. Not necessarily
6:55just a videographer or video editor, I
6:57need somebody who is sitting at the top,
7:00who is building and scaling this thing
7:02on my behalf. Now, when you're going pro
7:04here, you have two different paths that
7:05you can choose to walk down. You can
7:07either do the built path or the bought
7:10path. And really, built is where you're
7:13investing in the long-term partnership
7:16and relationship with this person. You
7:17are hiring them when they're a little
7:19bit greener and not as experienced, but
7:22they have all of the necessary human
7:24traits in order to be good at this role.
7:26They're hungry, humble, adaptable.
7:28They're curious, they're eager to learn.
7:31They are the right person in the soft
7:34skills component of things. Maybe they
7:36haven't ran a team before, but they have
7:39all the attributes and character traits
7:41that we're looking for in being
7:43effective in this role. They haven't ran
7:44the team, but maybe they've been the
7:46number two or the number three on a
7:48media team for a personal brand similar
7:50to what you aspire to build yourself.
7:53And so the way this works is you hire
7:55them, you invest in their learnings and
7:58help level them up into where you want
8:00and need them to be. This is, I will be
8:03honest with you, where I have I've the
8:05most success. I have seen way more
8:07success in the built not bought path
8:10here. And who I mentioned earlier, I
8:12mentioned Sam and Dan earlier, they're
8:15an incredible example of this. So many
8:17people, I hear this all the time. I need
8:19to find my Sam. I'm looking for my Sam.
8:20Where do I find my Sam? But what a lot
8:22of those people don't fully recognize is
8:24that Sam and Dan were working together
8:26for like four or five years before they
8:28ever really started getting significant
8:30traction. The brand that you look to and
8:32admire today was not the way that it is
8:35now for the first four or five years.
8:37Sam was being invested into by Dan. Dan
8:40was giving him opportunities to meet
8:42with other individuals to help coach and
8:44train him. Also, just putting him in
8:46rooms where he was naturally going to
8:48pick up more and more things. Also, as a
8:50side note, Sam is a [ __ ] gangster and
8:52a really smart dude and picks things up
8:54really fast. And so, that's another
8:56thing that you want to look for is
8:58somebody who not only has all the traits
8:59that I mentioned earlier, but their
9:01speed to learning, right? They they get
9:03new information, they're in the same
9:04environment or same situation, and they
9:06operate differently very quickly. That's
9:08the kind of individual that you're
9:09looking for here. And the real real is
9:11actually in my last in-house role a
9:13couple years ago, I was more of the
9:15built not bought route. I was brought in
9:18to build out a media team, the media
9:20team that I had mentioned at the top of
9:21this video, the 18-person media team.
9:23But I had never built a department by
9:26myself before. I had managed editors,
9:28but I had never been the person building
9:31the entire team from scratch. And so,
9:34where I came in having a lot of
9:36experience was on the content creation,
9:39the personal brand, brand positioning,
9:41that strategy side of things. The
9:43ability to film, edit, communicate with
9:45all the vendors, all of that were the
9:46skills that I brought in. But where I
9:47was really weak and inexperienced was
9:50the building, the hiring, the leadership
9:53component of it. And so, this was a
9:55moment where the CEO had identified the
9:58areas that were absolutely mission
10:00critical for me to come in equipped
10:02with, aka the things that they could not
10:05train me on. They did not have the
10:07skills, experience, or knowledge to
10:08train me on understanding personal
10:10branding, brand positioning, strategy,
10:12content, all of that. They didn't have
10:14that experience. But what they had an
10:15immense amount of experience on was
10:17leadership, building teams, scaling,
10:19hiring and firing when necessary. And so
10:21that is what they identified they were
10:24willing to train me on. And so when you
10:26go this built not bought route, you need
10:29to identify what the 80/20 looks like.
10:32What is the 80% that you need them to
10:34have?
10:35As in they come in and they're telling
10:37you what to do, not you teaching them.
10:39You need to identify what that 80% is,
10:42and then the 20% you need to understand
10:45that they're going to have to grow into
10:47that. And so this is the built not
10:49bought route. I have found this to be
10:52incredibly effective. Now the other path
10:54here for going pro is the bought route.
10:58And this is where you're actually going
10:59out and finding the person who is
11:01currently occupying this role. They're
11:03the head of personal brand and content
11:04director for a fairly established
11:06personal brand online. It doesn't
11:07necessarily need to be the biggest one
11:09in the world, but someone who is further
11:11along than you, someone who has built
11:14that and is currently occupying the
11:16position for them that you want to
11:19occupy for you. And this has a lot of
11:22advantages. Obviously they've been
11:23there, done that. They have the playbook
11:25of what works and what doesn't. Not to
11:26mention they probably at this point have
11:28a ton of amazing contacts and
11:30connections in the industry that is
11:33honestly way more useful than you could
11:36ever imagine in building this team. And
11:38so that is a very wonderful thing to
11:41have. And these all seem like really
11:44strong positive bonuses. But what I will
11:47say is I've actually found them to often
11:50times be more of a weakness than a
11:52strength. And the reason why is because
11:54typically, and for good reason, these
11:56individuals kind of believe they got it
11:59like that and they know what to do and
12:01they have a bias towards what has always
12:02worked. And they have that because
12:05they've gotten success. They've done
12:07things correctly. And while that might
12:09seem like an advantage, I've seen more
12:11often than not too many of these
12:13individuals try to do a carbon copy of
12:16what they did previously. They try to
12:18force their new talent, the new
12:21personality, to be like the old person
12:23that they worked for. And unless you are
12:25100% a twin, it's not going to work
12:28because you're not the same person. You
12:30have a completely different need. You
12:32have different strengths, weaknesses,
12:33and preferences, like I said earlier,
12:35that need to be taken into account in
12:38reverse engineering how you build the
12:39team. And again, it's not I'm not saying
12:42it's a rule. There are individuals who
12:43occupy this role currently that if you
12:45hire them, they would do a really great
12:48job. I'm not saying it's a rule, it's
12:50just an observation I've seen more often
12:52than not. Now, before we go into the
12:55going light approach here, let's real
12:57quick break down some of the money here.
13:00How much does this role actually cost?
13:02And a couple quick caveats that I have
13:04to give. I'm filming this video in
13:05September 2026.
13:07The salary ranges that I'm going to
13:09provide are based on US market, okay?
13:13Primarily major metropolitan cities. I'm
13:16talking like, you know, New York City,
13:17LA, Chicago, Atlanta. And then the third
13:20thing that I would say is this is based
13:21on my experience in hiring for the media
13:25team that I built and helping many of
13:27our clients hire for theirs. And I
13:29bucket these into three different tiers
13:31here. You got tier three, which is going
13:33to be the most green or greener
13:34individual here. They have not really
13:37done this before. Maybe they've been a
13:38number two or number three, but there's
13:41even a chance that like they haven't
13:42even worked on a personal brand. Maybe
13:44they were making like local car
13:45dealership commercials for a couple of
13:47years. They have good skills with
13:48videography and all of that, but they've
13:50never really done this at the scale that
13:52you want. And they're going to be in the
13:53$70,000 to $100,000 range. Tier two is
13:57going to be somebody who has probably
13:59been the number two or number three on a
14:02personal brand media team that you
14:04admire. They're making it in a way that
14:07like you want in your own unique way, of
14:09course. You want to replicate some of
14:11what they have accomplished. Okay, cool.
14:13This individual, the tier two, is going
14:15to be somewhere in the range of a
14:16hundred thousand to a hundred fifty
14:17thousand dollars per year. Tier one,
14:21this is the person who has been there
14:22and done that. They occupy this role
14:24already. You're looking at a hundred
14:26fifty thousand dollars plus. And if
14:28you're in like LA or New York City,
14:30you're looking at a minimum of most
14:32likely two hundred thousand dollars
14:33plus. Here's the thing, there's oh much
14:36more that goes into compensation than
14:37just monetary, okay? It's not just the
14:40dollars. It has everything to do with is
14:42this full-time in office? Is it hybrid?
14:44Is it work from home?
14:46Is there a good PTO setup? Are the
14:48benefits good? What's the working
14:50environment like? Am I actually going to
14:52learn as in does this company actually
14:54invest in my skill acquisition and in me
14:57growing in my role or is this more of a
14:59stagnant location where I'm not really
15:01going to be pushing myself or growing
15:04that much? So obviously there's a lot
15:06more that goes into compensation. And
15:08what I would say is that the majority of
15:11gangsters out there that occupy this
15:13role, they're not doing it for the
15:14money. Because most of them, if they
15:16were to go off and do this on their own
15:18and do their own thing not working for
15:20you or for one of your competitors, they
15:23would make far more money. But that's
15:25not what they're in it for. A lot, not
15:28all, but a lot of these individuals that
15:30occupy this role are working for you
15:33because there is something that you have
15:34done. There's something about you that
15:36they admire and in their own unique way
15:39want to have a version of for
15:41themselves. And so they're not just in
15:43it for the money. They're in it for the
15:44access and the learnings that they're
15:46able to get with this close proximity to
15:49you. And so if you can do the hard work
15:52of identifying what it is about you that
15:56they admire and maybe want to accomplish
15:58in some version for themselves,
16:01and then you start putting every ounce
16:03of effort into fast-tracking them on
16:07that path to getting those learnings, to
16:09getting those insights, well, you are
16:13giving a wildly competitive and
16:16compelling offer to this individual
16:19because what you're actually doing is
16:21mapping to the thing that they care
16:23about the most. You're compensating them
16:25in the area that they care most about
16:28because like I said, if they cared about
16:31money as the number one thing they're
16:33optimizing for, they would not be
16:36working for you. And I'm not saying that
16:37as a slight to you, by the way. I want
16:39to be very clear. I think we're all
16:40becoming more and more aware that there
16:43is a lot of temptation for creatives and
16:45strategists these days to do their own
16:47thing because they can make a lot more
16:50money. So, in a world where they have
16:52all of these options and they have the
16:53ability to go do their own thing and
16:55make a lot of money. What I'm looking
16:57for is the individuals who aren't
16:58optimizing around that and they're
17:00optimizing around the learnings from the
17:02individual. And I know this because like
17:04I mentioned, I have been this
17:06individual, but I would also argue that
17:08the same is very similar for Trevor
17:10here. I don't think that Trevor is
17:12necessarily optimizing for just monetary
17:15income right now. I think Trevor could
17:17make more money doing his own thing.
17:20We've got a base salary, we've got
17:21variable comp, right? We've got a bonus
17:23structure and everything like that. But
17:24what I'm trying to do for Trevor is I'm
17:26constantly trying to share the insights
17:28that I am picking up on. One, I'm trying
17:30to share insights from a personal
17:32branding perspective. Trevor's expertise
17:34is around content strategy and he's very
17:36quickly picking up more of the brand
17:38positioning side of things, but I'm
17:39always trying to give him those insights
17:41as I'm uncovering them, whether it be
17:43for our [ __ ] or for clients that we're
17:45working with. But in addition to that,
17:47I'm in year two of building my business.
17:50This is still a new thing that I'm
17:51learning along the way. And so, every
17:54time that something goes well or doesn't
17:56go well, I'm learning something and I'm
17:58trying to as quickly as possible share
18:00that learning with Trevor so that he is
18:02getting far more than what I'm just
18:04compensating him with from a monetary
18:06perspective. I'm also doing my darndest
18:08to try and mention him as many times as
18:10I can in videos, bring him into the
18:11content, feature him with our clients
18:13and partners in order to edify and build
18:15up his personal brand so that he has
18:18more attention and opportunities coming
18:19his way. These are all the things that
18:21I'm thinking about along with many other
18:23things in how I'm compensating him for
18:26the work that he is doing. And so, what
18:28I want you to take from this is I want
18:30you to start thinking more creatively.
18:32What I'm not trying to give you
18:33permission on is how you can undercharge
18:35individuals and charge, you know, pay
18:37people 50 grand a year because it's a
18:40learning opportunity. That's not my
18:41point at all. You want to give
18:43competitive rates. I'm not saying you
18:45use this as a means of getting a
18:47discount. What I'm saying is by
18:49identifying what they are wanting to
18:51extract and learn from you and then
18:53leaning into that for them, you're going
18:55to gain far more loyalty. The best A
18:58players in the world won't leave if
19:00they're continually being pushed,
19:02learning, and given opportunities to
19:04grow. The majority of A players leave
19:07when that goes out the window. Now,
19:08understandably so, if you're not at a
19:10point where a $100,000 salary for your
19:14media team is feasible, that checks out.
19:17I totally understand that. You're going
19:19to have to take a different approach
19:21here. This is the going light approach.
19:23And really what this looks like is
19:24piecemealing your team together. You are
19:27going to utilize the theory of
19:28constraints like we discussed earlier,
19:30but it's going to look a little bit
19:31different than the going pro version.
19:34You're not necessarily going to be
19:35bringing on full-time employees. You
19:37might be looking at more contractors.
19:40You have a ton of ideas, right? Like
19:41just a million ideas of what you want to
19:43film, but you're not filming them due to
19:45whatever reason, whatever blockage is
19:47happening. Well, a really good way to
19:50solve that constraint would be a
19:52videographer, like we talked about
19:53earlier. But earlier I was saying it
19:55through the lens of hiring a full-time
19:56videographer. But maybe you don't need
19:58to do that to start. Maybe all you need
20:00to do is contract a videographer to come
20:04out to your office, home, or studio,
20:06wherever you are and want to film, once
20:08a month to maybe batch out four YouTube
20:10videos a month. And it's not going to be
20:12nearly as expensive of an investment as
20:14hiring a full-time videographer would
20:16be. Or, like I mentioned earlier, hiring
20:19a content director or head of personal
20:21brand. In addition to hiring the
20:23videographer, maybe you get to that
20:24point where all of a sudden it's like,
20:25"Cool, we filmed all these videos, but
20:27we're not editing them." We bring on an
20:28editor. But again, like I said earlier,
20:30instead of maybe hiring them full-time,
20:33what would it look like if you were to
20:34contract them for two to four YouTube
20:36videos a month? You have very strong
20:38understanding of what the deliverables,
20:40what the relationship and dynamic,
20:42communication, all that looks like, and
20:44you have a nice setup. You're able to
20:47start scaling your media team without
20:49making the insane investment. And when I
20:52say insane, insane is relative, but at
20:54the end of this video, I'm actually
20:56going to share with you how much money
20:57I'm spending every single month on my
20:59media team. And so, this is a way that
21:01you can inch your way towards that. You
21:03can kind of dip your toe in the water,
21:05so to speak, rather than having to
21:07plunge headfirst into hiring a full-time
21:12media team. I made this sound like it's
21:14the perfect option. Why would I hire
21:16full-time people [laughter] if I could
21:18just do this? This seems like a dream.
21:20It seems like a dream, until it comes to
21:23the operations. Because guess what?
21:25There is still going to be a need for
21:26someone to manage all of this. If you
21:28have two, three, four, five contractors,
21:31you're going to need somebody to rope
21:33and wrangle all of these things, to send
21:35briefs, to do all of that [ __ ] And if
21:38you don't hire somebody full-time to
21:40manage that operation, guess who's going
21:42to manage it? You are. That is probably
21:45not the most exciting thing that you've
21:47heard me say all video so far.
21:49And so, knowing that, okay? This might
21:51be where you need to start. But I need
21:54you to understand that one day you are
21:56eventually going to need, and so we need
21:58to start planning ahead now. You're
21:59going to need to bring in that head of
22:01personal brand, that content director.
22:02Unless you have ambitions of being the
22:05person who is full-time running the
22:08media team operation, which I know 98.5%
22:12of you, I pulled that out of my ass,
22:14don't want to do that. And I actually
22:16real quick want to give you a little
22:17encouraging word here, because if you
22:19are going light, you're taking the going
22:21light route, and you're having to
22:23piecemeal this team, I want you to know
22:25that the majority of the biggest
22:27personal brands that you follow and
22:28admire, they had to go this route as
22:30well. A lot of people that have come to
22:32work with us or that I've done calls
22:34with, they have large media teams. I'm
22:37talking 12, 15, 20 members. And the
22:39reason why they're reaching out to us is
22:41because they need help bringing this
22:43into one cohesive unit. They piecemealed
22:45everything together, and that was very
22:47cost-effective and it was a great way to
22:49test and validate these different roles
22:51on the team. However, what ends up
22:53happening is you have all these little
22:55pockets or silos operating that are not
22:58communicating or working together moving
23:02the personal brand towards the outcome
23:04or the goal that we want to achieve.
23:06What you need to understand is if you
23:08are going to piecemeal this, not only is
23:10it going to suck for you to have to be
23:11the one operating this while you're also
23:13operating and running your business, but
23:15in addition to that, you need to
23:17understand that the little silos and
23:20pockets,
23:21it's slowing your team's growth down.
23:24The moment that this all becomes one
23:25cohesive unit, you will see massive
23:28explosion in growth. But, we might not
23:30be there yet, and so going light is okay
23:32if that's the route that you have to
23:33take. Now, I'd like to walk you through
23:35how we're going about building my media
23:36team here at Ralston. And as I said
23:39earlier, I decided to solve the biggest
23:42constraint possible by bringing on a
23:45content director in Mr. Trevor Oda.
23:47Then, we did something crazy. We stopped
23:50hiring.
23:51>> [laughter]
23:51>> I brought Trevor on, and then we stopped
23:53hiring for about a year. Like an entire
23:56year. And the reason why is because the
23:59next big constraint that was revealed
24:01wasn't that we wanted more volume or
24:03anything like that. The big constraint
24:05was I needed to get good and comfortable
24:09at being able to articulate my ways of
24:11operating, my thoughts, my concepts that
24:13exist up here. I needed to figure out
24:15how to articulate them consistently
24:18to you via video content. And so, that
24:22was where we put all of our focus.
24:23Rather than trying to scale the team at
24:25the beginning, we knew that if we were
24:27able to tackle this, we would then be
24:29able to make good use of the additional
24:31bandwidth and volume we could create by
24:34bringing on another person to the team.
24:36I'm not, you know, necessarily where I
24:37want to be and I always want to be
24:39improving on this, but I think that
24:41strategy worked. I think we got to a
24:42point where I felt like I'm proud of how
24:45I am communicating my thoughts, my
24:47concepts, my beliefs to you via this
24:50video content. And so when we reached
24:51that point, after about a year or so in,
24:54we decided to make our first media team
24:58hire. This was an incredibly strategic
25:00hire. When we started making content, we
25:02made the decision that we were going to
25:03prioritize YouTube as our number one
25:05primary platform. That's where we were
25:06putting all of the focus, the attention,
25:08the resources, the innovation,
25:10everything went towards YouTube. We
25:11didn't do [ __ ] with Instagram. What a
25:13lot of people at this point would
25:15probably assume is, "Oh, it would make
25:17sense to bring on maybe a shorts editor
25:20to run Instagram and start bringing the
25:23volume up, bringing the quality of what
25:25we're doing up over on Instagram." But
25:27Trevor and I actually had a different
25:29approach. See, we were getting a lot of
25:31traction on YouTube. And what we wanted
25:33to do is instead of trying to add in
25:35another platform and focus on that and
25:37split attention, we wanted to double
25:39down on the thing that we were already
25:40getting good results from, which is
25:42YouTube. And so what did we do? We hired
25:44a YouTube editor. Our YouTube editor's
25:46name is Max and Max is an absolute
25:48gangster savage editor. I'm talking like
25:51incredible with the actual cutting and
25:54the restructuring, graphics, and all of
25:56that. But one of the things that makes
25:57him exceptional is his ability to
26:00communicate. Unfortunately, something
26:02that has been underdeveloped in a lot of
26:04creatives and under mentored in a lot of
26:06creatives is the ability to communicate
26:08around the creative you're doing. Max
26:10excels at this. And so Max was a very
26:13clear, obvious fit for us. I mean, I I'm
26:15looking up at Trevor right now. Like
26:17when when we were reviewing his work and
26:20when I saw the interview that he had
26:21with Trevor and then when I spoke to
26:23him, I was like, "Okay, yeah, this is
26:24like so clear and obvious." And what's
26:26really cool is when Max came in, there's
26:29a lot of incredible value that he
26:31brought out. And I'm not going to name
26:33it all because we'd be going for hours
26:34and hours. But two things that I want to
26:36hit on really quick. One, he leveled up
26:39our editing game. Now, I'm not saying
26:40this like Trevor's not a great editor.
26:42Trevor is an incredible editor. But
26:44Trevor's also helping me come up with
26:45ideas. He's helping me with the
26:46pre-production of like writing these
26:48videos, right? He's helping me film
26:50these videos. He's helping distribute
26:52now the footage to our editing team.
26:54He's doing all of this. He was putting
26:56together thumbnails. Not to mention
26:59everything beyond our organic content,
27:01that's just half of his role. The other
27:02half is he's actually working on client
27:05fulfillment with our partners.
27:06[laughter]
27:06And so, what we saw was somebody coming
27:10in whose full bandwidth and attention
27:13was able to be focused on the channel
27:15that we were getting the most results,
27:17not only from like a vanity, you know,
27:19subscribers, views metric, that we don't
27:21care about as much. It was actually
27:23bringing in real [ __ ] business,
27:25massive leads. I mean, we're at over
27:27100,000 contacts on our list now. I
27:30mean, it's [ __ ] ludicrous. And so,
27:33that was incredibly important for us.
27:35The second thing is he gave Trevor more
27:38bandwidth to focus on other areas. So,
27:41as soon as Max took over the editing,
27:43Trevor was able to move over to that
27:46other platform that we had been
27:47neglecting. Hello, hi, long lost friend,
27:49Mr. Instagram here. We're going to start
27:50caring about you now. And immediately we
27:52were able to three X our output,
27:55eventually getting up to 15 times the
27:57amount of output on Instagram that we
27:59were doing in our first year. Why?
28:01Because Trevor now had the ability and
28:03bandwidth to focus his attention over
28:06there. Now, like I said, there were so
28:08many other benefits that I'm not
28:10mentioning that were amazing in bringing
28:12Max in. But the thing that I have to be
28:14very clear about is the reason why this
28:16all happened is because we hired a
28:18[ __ ] gangster. He's really good at
28:20what he does. Too many of you, yes, you
28:22included, watching this, are wanting to
28:25hire an editor at a thousand dollars a
28:27month, and then you complain that their
28:29work is [ __ ] or their communication is
28:31horrible. They just all of a sudden go
28:32ghost for an entire week, 10 days
28:34straight of no communication, and you
28:36wonder why.
28:38You get what you pay for. It's like any
28:39other role in any other department in
28:41your business, but for some reason, we
28:43still have this belief
28:46that creative is discounted, that
28:48creative is cheap. Bad creative is
28:50cheap, but it's not actually cheap
28:51because you end up investing and
28:53spending so much more time and
28:55potentially resources and money on
28:57fixing these shitty edits. You get what
29:00you pay for, and I promise you what you
29:02pay for, if you hire correctly, will
29:05yield great returns in many different
29:08areas of your operation. Now, the big
29:10question that I know you've been asking
29:12for the last like 2 minutes is where did
29:14we find Max? And where do you find
29:15talented editors in general? I mean,
29:18it's something that I'm seeing more and
29:19more people struggling with more than
29:21ever before, by the way. You have a
29:23bunch of people that are doing this, but
29:25very few that are doing it well. And so,
29:28we took two different approaches to
29:30trying to find our YouTube editor. The
29:32first one is we conducted what we like
29:34to call editor tryouts via our social
29:36platforms. The second thing that we did
29:38is we actually created the job
29:39description, and we hosted it on a
29:42website called ytjobs.co.
29:45ytjobs.co. And we paid for our job
29:48posting to appear on the homepage for at
29:50least a week, if not maybe 2 weeks uh
29:53straight. And those are the two things
29:54that we did. Now, I've talked pretty
29:57in-depth in other videos on my YouTube
29:58channel here about how we do editor
30:00tryouts. Okay, so I'm not going to go
30:02into the weeds on this. I'm just going
30:04to cover at a high level. But before I
30:05do, if you want a more in-depth version
30:09of this, and you don't want to go try to
30:11find the other videos where it's uh
30:12located, where I talked about this, I
30:14actually have a whole editor tryouts SOP
30:18that is linked for free in the
30:20description down below. If you click it,
30:21you enter your email, we'll send it to
30:23you, and you can have that so you can
30:25begin running YouTube editor tryouts.
30:26But essentially, what you're trying to
30:28do with these tryouts is instead of
30:30grading editors on how they edit
30:32content, this allows you to grade
30:34editors on how they edit your content.
30:36And that just becomes far more useful
30:38and far more practical into what you are
30:40actually doing. You don't have to
30:42do the mental gymnastics of thinking,
30:44"Okay, they make these cooking videos
30:46this way and they do a really good job
30:47of that. How are they going to make my
30:49videos reviewing bicycles?"
30:51Or whatever you end up talking about.
30:53And so this allows you to see them work
30:56on your [ __ ] what they'd be doing day
30:58in and day out for you. And so all
30:59you're doing here is you get the editors
31:01to register and sign up to participate
31:03in the these trials. You provide them
31:05all the same raw footage to edit off of,
31:09and then they submit their edits and you
31:11review them. And the ones you like, you
31:13just schedule an interview with. The
31:14ones you don't like, you can send a
31:15kindly decline email. But the key here
31:18is they are all editing off of the same
31:21footage, so you're able to evaluate the
31:23editors more easily. Again, all the
31:26different variables of everyone having
31:28different talent they're working with,
31:29different environments, different gear,
31:30blah blah blah blah blah, you can reduce
31:33all of that [ __ ] by providing everybody
31:35the same source material and so you're
31:36able to grade them off of the least
31:39amount of variables in their editing
31:41process. Now, one obvious factor that I
31:43have to call out here is if you have a
31:45large audience, you're going to have
31:46more people to choose from. If you have
31:48a small audience, you are going to have
31:50less candidates to be able to filter
31:52through and choose from. And that makes
31:55sense. So, you, the smaller individuals,
31:58are definitely going to have to do
31:59number two. Anyone with a large channel,
32:01I would recommend, yeah, do the editor
32:03trial but you also want to do this
32:05second task here, which is you need to
32:08create your job description and then you
32:10should post it on the job board sites,
32:13whatever you're currently using for
32:14hiring other roles in your company,
32:16right? Maybe you use Indeed, Monster,
32:18etc. All the LinkedIn is a great one
32:20that I highly recommend. But what we did
32:21is we actually posted the role on
32:23ytjobs.co, like I had mentioned. And so
32:25what I would encourage you to do is put
32:27together the job description for this
32:29role. Put it on ytjobs.co and then pay
32:32for it to be featured on the homepage
32:33for a week or two. I want to say it was
32:35like a 200 bucks, something like that,
32:37maybe 300 bucks. It wasn't a crazy
32:39investment, and it was so [ __ ] worth
32:42it. Again, we are so happy
32:45>> [laughter]
32:45>> with the talent that we have been able
32:47to find. Not only with Max on our team,
32:50but other individuals that we've hired
32:51in the past or helped partners of ours
32:53hire for their teams. A quick little
32:56caveat that I do have to share. When
32:58you're using ytjobs.co, there's a couple
33:01of things you need to look out for. One
33:03is you will have some editors who are
33:06claiming to have edited content that
33:08they never touched. I can't tell you how
33:10many times, I mean, still to this day, I
33:12get DMs every once in a while or emails
33:14from people being like, "Hey, so-and-so
33:16editor is saying that they worked on
33:18this video from a previous client of
33:20yours. Do you remember working with
33:21them?" And I don't even know the [ __ ]
33:23name. I've never seen the name in my
33:24life. There's a lot of people that are
33:27fronting and faking, claiming that they
33:30edited content that they did not. And
33:32so, what do you need to do? You just
33:33need to do your due diligence, okay?
33:35This looks like, actually, asking them
33:36questions about the video and finding a
33:39hiring manager
33:41on LinkedIn, on Instagram, wherever, and
33:43reaching out and seeing, did they
33:45actually work for that person or are
33:47they bullshitting you, okay? So, that's
33:49the first one. The second one that I've
33:51seen, and this one's a little
33:52frustrating, too.
33:54When you're going to hire an editor,
33:55you're wanting to hire an individual.
33:57And one thing that we have started to
33:58see happening more and more on this site
34:01is individuals, or at least people
34:04posing as an individual editor, when
34:06they actually have a team of editors.
34:08They're basically an agency. And so, you
34:11hire them thinking you're hiring an
34:12individual, but actually you're hiring
34:14an agency. And I'm not saying there's
34:16anything wrong with agencies, but
34:17there's something incredibly wrong with
34:18an agency if you're looking for an
34:20individual. And so, these are two things
34:22that I would caution you to look out for
34:24uh when sifting through the high volume
34:26of candidates that you will most likely
34:28get from ytjobs.co. And to be clear,
34:31this is not sponsored. Uh I'm not
34:32affiliated in any way, shape, or form. I
34:34just have gotten good results from the
34:36site, and I wanted to share it with you
34:37for free to help you. And what's was fun
34:39here is, actually, Max, our editor, came
34:41from YT Jobs, not from the editor
34:44tryouts that we ran through our social
34:45platform. And so, like I have said
34:47several times, I've gotten a lot of good
34:49results here, but you are going to have
34:51to be patient and meticulous in sifting
34:54through the high volume of individuals
34:56that are not going to be at the bar or
34:57the level that you are looking for. When
34:59Max came in, that gave more bandwidth
35:02back to Trevor, right? And so, he could
35:04focus on making Instagram content, which
35:06was awesome.
35:08But then, very quickly, what ended up
35:10happening is our client work with
35:13Ralston Partners started picking up. And
35:16the amount of involvement that I was
35:17having Trevor participate in in
35:20fulfilling on our client consulting was
35:24increasing dramatically. Mainly,
35:27Trevor's really [ __ ] good at what he
35:28does, and I want him to help our
35:29partners. But, that created a problem
35:32with his time. Yet again, another
35:34constraint popped up, which is Trevor's
35:36like, I got two arms and I can't grow a
35:38third. So, what are we going to do?
35:40Ding, ding, ding. You are correct. We're
35:42going to hire a shorts editor. We
35:43actually utilized the same method that
35:46we did for the YouTube editor, and I
35:48recommend you do the same thing. Do the
35:49editor tryouts and post the role on all
35:51the job board sites that you usually
35:53use, including YT Jobs. YT Jobs is not
35:57just a bunch of long-form editors,
35:58there's also a lot of short-form editors
36:01on that platform. As a side note, I've
36:03actually found it very effective when
36:06looking for a YouTube editor to also
36:09sift through and sort individuals that
36:11you believe maybe aren't good on
36:12long-form YouTube edits, but would be
36:14perfect with a little bit of training on
36:17shorts. And so, that's a great way to go
36:19about finding these individuals. Now,
36:21what we ended up finding is our shorts
36:24editor, he's an absolute savage and a
36:25gangster, also just a really awesome
36:27human, he came through our editor
36:30tryouts via our socials. And what was
36:32really fun about that is we had a lot of
36:34editors participate. We had a good
36:35amount of people sign up, and there was
36:37a lot of good work, but Chris's work
36:39really stood out amongst the crowd. So,
36:41we decided to bring Chris into the fold
36:44part-time, as a contractor, not
36:46full-time. At least not yet. What we
36:49want to do, and what I recommend a lot
36:51of you do, is test and validate. I need
36:54to make sure that this is something that
36:56is going to yield good results for our
36:58business. Too many founders I have seen
37:00get wildly excited about a new platform,
37:02a new format, some new strategy, and
37:05they hire individuals around it, only to
37:06find out 2 to 3 months in it's not going
37:09as they expected. And they can the
37:12project and usually the individuals with
37:14it. And I'm just not willing to be so
37:16flippant with other people's
37:17livelihoods. And so I prefer to test and
37:21validate either new formats that require
37:23new hires or new platforms that require
37:26new hires or new volume amounts that
37:28require new hires. I like to test that
37:30with contractors, see the signal, make
37:33sure that I'm getting good ROI, and then
37:36I will double, triple, quadruple down on
37:38that [ __ ] Now, the most recent role
37:40that we've brought on is arguably one
37:42of, if not the most difficult to find
37:45and figure out in your media team
37:48personal brand operation. This is the
37:50YouTube thumbnail designer. I feel like
37:52almost every single team, content
37:54director, individual, personal brand
37:56that I talk to is pissed off and
37:58disappointed in their thumbnail creation
38:01process. There's not really a great
38:03solution that I have seen out there.
38:05See, the majority here are actually
38:06working with a thumbnail agency that is
38:09making them look exactly the same as all
38:12of their competitors. They're running
38:13the same exact playbook. Or or maybe
38:14worse, they're [laughter] tasking their
38:17editors with making the thumbnails. And
38:18I get it, we got to work with what we've
38:19got, but what you're essentially doing
38:21is being like, "Hey, I hired you for
38:22this expertise. I need you to do this
38:25outside of your expertise, and I need
38:27you to do it flawlessly." You are going
38:29to want to bring on an individual that
38:31is a gangster at this in, okay? You're
38:34going to want to bring them into the
38:35fold, bring them into the operation.
38:37What we quickly realized is that the
38:39thumbnail creation process was becoming
38:40a big constraint and bottleneck on
38:42Trevor's time. Trevor is very good at
38:44design, but he's not a designer. What
38:47might take somebody who is a full-time
38:48designer an hour might take him longer.
38:52We also had identified, or really Trevor
38:54identified, we want to do way more
38:56volume of packaging testing on our
39:00YouTube videos. Instead of just having
39:01like maybe two or potentially at most
39:04three rounds of testing, we want to be
39:06able to go five, six rounds if needed.
39:09And there was no way, shape, or form
39:10that we were going to be able to do that
39:12with the amount of time that Trevor had
39:13available. And so, what did we do? We
39:15determined we needed to bring in a
39:17thumbnail designer. This is the role
39:19that I don't have a good solution for.
39:22And so, our solution was I actually
39:23reached out to a buddy of mine who I've
39:25worked with on several really big
39:26projects. Uh we worked together in-house
39:28on a team. I've brought him on for a
39:31bunch of big projects, including
39:32actually doing the branding, the logo,
39:34colors, everything for Rulsted. He's
39:36designed a lot of different things that
39:37you see here. I texted him and I was
39:39like, "Hey, would you be interested in
39:41learning YouTube thumbnail design?" This
39:43individual's name is Vin. Vin has worked
39:46on really big campaigns for big brands.
39:48Like I'm talking like website design, uh
39:51billboard, you know, like Times Square,
39:53digital ads, like big campaign [ __ ] And
39:57he hasn't really worked on any YouTube
39:58thumbnails. And there is a completely
40:00fundamental difference between how you
40:01design for both of these different
40:04approaches here. And so, I asked him, I
40:05was like, "Would you be interested in
40:06tackling this? I'm going to pair you
40:08with Trevor. He will give you the
40:10strategy. He will give you the
40:11direction, and you can do the execution.
40:14But he will not be just like delivering
40:16it to you. You'll be learning this over
40:18time with the hopes that you pick up
40:21this strategy, these insights, these
40:22principles that we like to utilize in
40:24our packaging so that you can start to
40:26own it." And he was down. For our
40:28thumbnail creation process, what we have
40:29done is paired a traditional senior
40:32designer, absolute gangster, with a
40:35senior strategist in Trevor. Trevor is
40:37able to give the strategy on how we go
40:40about doing these things. Vin is able to
40:42execute with the hopes that Vin is able
40:44to pick those things up over time and
40:47eventually run with the operation
40:49himself. Now, one thing I want to be
40:50super clear on is we're still in the
40:52process of this. I think we're like 2
40:53months into this process and operation
40:57with Vin on the thumbnails. And so, what
40:59I would like to do is call that out and
41:01make sure that's obvious, and I'm going
41:03to keep you updated as best as I can. I
41:05think that there might be some of you
41:07who want a more in-depth version of this
41:09media team build video. And so, we've
41:12been debating, I know Trevor and I have
41:13been going back and forth for the last
41:14year about making an in-depth course on
41:17how to build your media team. We're at
41:19the point in the video where if you're
41:21at this point, me asking you to comment
41:23something is not going to cause you to
41:24leave. And so, what I would love to know
41:26is if you are interested in that more
41:28in-depth full course on how to build a
41:30media team, please comment down below.
41:32Let me know that you want that. If we
41:33get enough demand, we'll consider maybe
41:36getting a little wild with it and
41:37putting something out for you in 2027.
41:39Now, the jackpot question that I know
41:41that you've been wondering and trying to
41:42calculate with your calculator right now
41:45is how much does this all of this cost
41:46me? And what I have to say is that this
41:48is going to vary massively, okay? In
41:51that course that I just referenced
41:52potentially doing in 2027, maybe we can
41:55do a breakdown of all the different
41:56roles and expected salaries to go along
41:58with that. What I want to do is instead
42:00of trying to tell you how much this is
42:01going to cost you, I just want to end
42:02this video by sharing with you how much
42:04this costs me to operate and run my
42:08media team on a monthly basis. And what
42:10this covers is my content director, my
42:13YouTube editor, my shorts editor
42:15contractor, my thumbnail designer
42:17contractor, and my email copywriter
42:19who's also a contractor, okay? And I am
42:22currently spending a little over $35,000
42:27a month. I never share money numbers. I
42:29don't really like doing that. That's not
42:32my brand. That's not the part of the
42:33internet that I personally participate
42:35in. No shade against it. It's just not
42:37where I want to occupy. But I have two
42:39very specific reasons why I'm sharing
42:40this number. Number one is if you have
42:42ambitions of building a bigger personal
42:45brand faster, more explosive, at a
42:47quicker rate than we have built mine,
42:51and you have a lot of resources. AKA,
42:54you got the budget. Then why on earth,
42:58if you're wanting to go bigger than me,
43:00faster, and you got it like that, why
43:04are you spending less money per month on
43:06your personal brand than I am? I'm on
43:08year two of my business, okay? Year two
43:11of my business. I'm prioritizing my
43:13media team more than a lot of
43:15individuals that have businesses much
43:17bigger than mine. And it's because I
43:19know that this is where the world is
43:21going. And so I am investing
43:24accordingly. Now, the second reason is
43:26for the individual who looks at the
43:27personal brand that we're building and
43:29the growth and rate of growth that we're
43:31having and feels discouraged, like
43:33they're not having the same thing. Well,
43:35I share this so that you know, I'm
43:37investing a lot into this. I'm taking
43:38this very [ __ ] seriously. And I'm
43:40putting everything that I got into it.
43:42Knowing that, maybe it can help you have
43:45a little bit more context on where you
43:47are in your journey. And instead of
43:50being discouraging, it can be
43:52encouraging. Now that you have a
43:53high-level understanding on how you
43:54build your media team, watch my free
43:56course on how you manage that team.

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