So my last video didn't do particularly well, but I'm kind
of OK with it. I knew this video was not going
to be at the top half of my videos and I published it
clearly knowing that and I feel OK with where the where the
video is now by running. A simple exercise of just
answering 5 questions takes less than 5 minutes and I just wanted
to share that with you. Here's my pre mortem video list.
So what even is a pre mortem? If you worked in a team, in a
startup or anything like that, you might have heard the term
post mortem after a launch in particular, if something went
wrong, the team might come together and do a post mortem,
analyse what went wrong, what were the mistakes, what was
overlooked to understand the problem and hopefully fix it for
the future. But I kind of just turned this
on its head, asking myself these questions before the video goes
live and to be curious about what the video will do, see how
it resonates, and give me crucial insights if this video
even belongs on my channel or not.
It's a simple mindset shift away from fear and negativity towards
curiosity and open mindedness and finding clarity.
So the first question is this clearly for solo craters in the
messy middle, that is the audience group that I chose for
the channel for right now. And obviously you substitute
whatever target audience you want to have.
Is this video clearly for Blank? That is how you can write that
down. And answering this base layer
question is very frequently overlooked even for myself.
And even understanding who your audience is takes time.
But knowing who you want to attract and answering this
question with a strong yes or no gives you a clear indicator if
this video belongs on your channel or not.
Or maybe it is an experiment and you do something on purpose
differently. And so that already gives you a
very, very strong insight to where this video will land on
the spectrum between 1:00 and 10:00.
And then the next question is, does this connect to other
videos on the channel? I think as creators, we often
tend to look at one video at a time.
That is what we're focused on. That's what we're producing.
That's where all our headspace goes.
The next video without thinking about the whole back catalog
that we have on the channel. That's one unique advantage of
YouTube of building this library of content that is way more
Evergreen than swipe content. And so if you start thinking
about your channel as a show, as a library, as something that
people come back to over and over again, it becomes much more
cohesive and you start building a much, much stronger audience.
I'm sure you've experienced that before, where you discover a
video and soon you go through the whole list of videos they
published before because it gives you the same sensation,
that same feeling, and you just want a little bit more of it.
And once you start making videos that connect to others, you
really start building a much stronger brand, a much stronger
affinity to what you do, and a much clearer picture of what
your content stands for, what your channel means to people.
And so having this question in there makes it so obvious what
the title should be. Maybe there's maybe something
similar there that connects to it or which video they should
link to, which video should reference all those things.
And it's just like gives me a good perspective of is this a
one off experiment? Is this something new?
Am I trying something here? Or is this a continuation of a
series? Right?
Question three. Does this appeal to core casual
new viewers? That's a concept I borrowed from
Patti Galloway. He talks about this, I think, on
every podcast that he goes on. But the idea is that you have a
core group of people that watch your content no matter what.
You have casual viewers who might watch a video here and
there. They might be interested in the
topic, but they're not like die hard fans.
And then you have new viewers that have never heard of you,
never seen. You might not even care about
the topic, but somehow they see the video and they click on it.
Hopefully. So does this packaging, does the
video appeal to all three layers of these people?
And how does it speak to them? That is such a great filter for
designing packaging and also choosing which one to put out
there because I often end up with way too many options for
titles and thumbnails. And like asking myself this
question is really good. And like, OK, this is where
we're going to start. And if things go wrong, which
we'll talk about in the next step, we might choose one of
these options. And again, thinking about this
holistically in the whole channel perspective just builds
a much stronger relationship between you and the audience.
This next question is where I've been scarily accurate in
predicting where a video will land.
How will this video perform? What is going to be the outcome?
And I mean, I have, I believe, over 50 videos on the channel.
So I guess I have a good grasp, but I've spent a lot of time in
the metrics dashboard recently. And so I know what a top
performer is for me and what an underperformer is in terms of
raw numbers. And so the last couple of years
since I've been doing that, I've been like, yeah, this is going
to be 3 out of 10 and sure thing, it was a three out of 10.
And so that's been quite an interesting experience that not
every video has to be a banger. Not every video is going to be
like a mass appeal video that gets clicked immediately.
But maybe it's a longer tail video or it is a very specific
search based video that is important for the channel, but
it's not going to blow up immediately.
Something like that. And looking at the raw numbers
is one way of measuring success, obviously.
But the other half of this question is what is the outcome
of this? I think is very often completely
overlooked and just happened serendipitously.
But every video release, every piece of content you put out
there has the ability to open doors to make something possible
that wasn't possible before. Maybe you connect with a new
guest. Maybe a brand partner sees this
video and wants to work with you.
Maybe you get invited to an event because of this video.
Maybe you just connect with somebody who becomes an
amplifier to your channel and shares your video, your channel
in their newsletter, for example.
All these things are outcomes from publishing something that
you cannot measure in raw numbers and that you might not
even hear about until way, way down the line.
So I think thinking about these two things in combination is
very interesting. Where will this land in raw
numbers and what impact do I want this video to have?
Because it also can mean not just like what doors does it
open for you, but what impact will it have for the viewer?
And that again informs A packaging choice, right?
By knowing what transformation it can have for the viewer, you
can much clearer choose a title and thumbnail.
And the last question is my favorite one.
For what reason might this video still fail?
Because despite your best efforts, despite pouring your
heart and soul into this, this could still fail.
This could still tank. This could still completely
underperform and not connect with the people that you want to
connect with. Maybe it's a holiday and your
core group of people is they're just all out and about and not
watching YouTube. That is very, very possible.
Maybe there is some big trend or hype cycle going on that is more
important, that is more urgent than the video you just put out.
Maybe there's 1000 reasons why a video might still fail despite
being it really good and being for a specific group of people.
And writing just a few lines there for each video about why
it might still fail has been really the reason for me that
I've been much more relaxed at looking at YouTube Studio.
Just like what I do is one part, but there's a whole outside
world that I have no influence over that affects how the video
performs, what impact it has, where it lands on the later
board. And so these are my 5 questions
that I ask now before every release.
And I was really shocked how accurate I was in predicting
where videos will land and how much it helped me in feeling
more content with what I put out instead of spiraling downward.
When something doesn't go according to plan, I know what
to do. Or it is exactly where I
expected to be, or I'm really excited because it over performs
where I thought it would be. So it removes the surprises
because I already went through all of the possibilities in my
head, making it much clearer, making it much simpler and
taking away the stress. I'm not confronted with a
unknown situation. I've already thought through all
the options before and can react calmly according to what it
actually says on the dashboard. So I hope you going to try this
for yourself, at least for one video.
But make it part of your routine.
Put it in your notion. You pull a journal, your Miller
note, wherever you plan content and before you hit publish next
time, ask yourself these questions, go through them one
by one and just take a minute each to like give a thoughtful
answer to that. Take away the fear and be led by
curiosity. And really, if you do, let me
know in the comments down below how it changed your approach to
making videos, how you felt about it, and if you've been
able to predict where your video will land.
OK, that's it from me this week. Thanks for watching.
And if you have any questions that you want answers, drop them
down below. Shoot me at the end on any
social. Let's keep this creator support
chat going and I'll see you next time.