Ben Uyeda – a respected architect and creative genius. Listen to hear how Ben makes money off YouTube, earns serious subscriber numbers, and acquires some pretty sweet assets.

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? – Accidental Billionaires
• What CEO do you follow? – N/A

• Favorite online tool? — Steller
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?— About 6 and a half
• If you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be? – “Just to be nice and patient with people”

 

Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:38 – Nathan introduces Ben to the show
• 02:21 – What Ben does on Youtube and how he is monetizing it
• • 02:28 – Ben wanted to give affordable design to the masses
  • 02:43 – Started to make videos of how to make affordable modern furniture
  • 03:00 – Product immigration into the video content itself is how you make money
  • 03:20 – Producing a video product is more difficult
  • 03:45 – First branded deals
• 03:55 – Homemade-modern.com
• 04:15 – DIY concrete design deal
• 04:30 – Home Depot is Ben’s biggest client
• • 04:40 – Created a series of content packages
  • • 04:50 – Step by step video instructions and social media posts
  • 05:10 – Creating a bunch of products at once
• 05:18 – It is often rare for big brands to have a real YouTube presence
• 05:38 – Ben started in this field in 2013
• 05:45 – First year revenue
• • 05:50 – First 6 months get Ben 10-15,000 subscribers in Youtube
• 06:00 – Brands that gave Ben donations
• • 06:10 – Ben made a deal of 10 videos per brand after getting 20,000 subscribers
  • 06:38 – “You can’t get paid cash until you have 100,000 subscribers”
  • 06:48 – Making a whole package of content
  • 07:00 – Ben’s deal on brands versus traditional commercial
• 07:40 – Total 2015 revenue
• • 07:50 – Adsense money
• 08:15 – Ben buys his own equipment
• 08:44 – Long format video is what Youtubers doesn’t usually do
• • 09:00 – Long format video is an over 20-minute video
  • 09:09 – Youtube to TV
  • 09:45 – Offering brands full-length videos
• 10:05 – Person to contact if one needs a full length videos
• • 10:10 – Brands have agencies that they work with
  • 10:20 – Do reverse engineering to find a person
  • • 10:30 – Message on Instagram
• 11:20 – Show the brands that you can do it
• • 11:33 – Put their tools in the video and get positive response
• 11:45 – Projected revenue this year
• • 11:55 – 68 clients
• 12:05 – How to scale a business?
• • 12:20 – Scaling would be finding the right people
  • 13:07 – Find 2 to 3 brands that are compatible
  • • 13:16 – You can get promotional ad even if the brands didn’t pay you
    • 13:43 – Collecting and acquiring assets
  • 14:26 – Ben’s content is instructional
• 14:55 – Connect with Ben through Instagram
• 17:44 - The Famous Five

 

3 Key Points:

• If you know you can do it, just do it – approval isn’t always necessary.
• There’s a right recipe for everything.
• Be creative – it can get you somewhere.

 

Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal – Nathan found his development team using Toptal  for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn’t have to hire a co-founder due to quality of Toptal  developers.
• Host Gator – The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks – The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages  – The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible – Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5 hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• @benjaminuyeda – Ben’s  Instagram account
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives