The Story You NEED to tell

Your weekly YouTube education in five minutes

Author

Johnathon Eva
December 23, 2024

What to Watch:

How to Become a Master Storyteller - Kallaway

Kallaway is relatively new in the YouTube education space, but his advice on storytelling is spot on. Whether you create short form content, or long form, there’s some awesome lessons in this 11 minute video.
It also fits into this week’s theme. The story. Too often we think about YouTube as a making ‘videos’ game, but it’s more than that - it’s about the story you tell.

Thumbnail Breakdown

Think about it like this: Your thumbnail is the cover of your story. What does it tell the viewer about what they’re about to watch?
It’s about skiing. I can see that. What else? It’s point of view, and someone is saying slow down (though that part’s hard to see on mobile). Okay so it’ll be a fast paced skiing downhill video, and at some point he’s going to go fast. I’ve got the story figured out. I probably don’t need to watch this. There’s no intrigue. No curiosity gap. No reason to click.

Creator - The Bag o Tricks

Try THIS

Creator - The Bag o’ Tricks

Wow. Yeah, that’s a book I’d pick up. Look at how simple it is. The No Fear sticks out so well against the white of the snow. What is this ‘story’ about? I know it’s about skiing, but why is he not afraid? Why shouldn’t I be afraid of the terrain park? What’s about to happen. I have to click to find out.
We also see again the title type of an already posted question. I’d like to also point out, that this type of video will have more broad appeal than just skiers because everyone knows what fear is. Make your story bigger.

If you have questions about the concepts above, just reply with em’ I’d love to connect!

Creator’s we love

João Sales:
Sales started in January of 2024, and has amassed quite the following - His channel is teaching people to speak English, but it’s not an English class. He gets to the story behind his journey. Let’s check it out.

11.7k subs - 30 videos - Started Jan 2024

8.1k views

83k views

9.1k views

Key Takeaways

Story: He could just say - How to learn English, 10 easy steps. But he doesn’t. He begins with a story. The Magic of Listening? What is that. He’s fluent AND introverted? I thought you had to be extroverted to learn language. How on EARTH did learning English save his life? Sure it’s education, but it’s also storytelling.

Branding: He uses the same font, a lot of the same color themes, and key positioning to create his own unique brand. Your brand is not just a logo. Think about your favorite authors. You know it’s one of their books because of everything. Not just their name.

Exercise: Okay so what? Here’s what. Before you create your next video, think of it like a story. But you’re gonna design the cover first. Limit yourself to three elements. Maybe background, text, and graphic. Now the hard part - show it to one of your friends. If they can’t guess what it’s about, from JUST THE THUMBNAIL - you have to start over.

Creator News

A blog post from the YouTube team in India reads “Strengthening enforcement against egregious clickbait on YouTube”

Key Takeaway:
Though this seems to be a predominant issue in India and other countries, it’s worth considering that this crackdown will likely happen platform wide. If your strategy hinges on something like ‘clickbait’ it may be time to consider another move.

There IS such a thing as good clickbait. The thumbnails shown earlier are technically click bait. They are DESIGNED to get you to click. But they also apply to the video. As long as people are watching your video, you have nothing to worry about, it’s not clickbait - it’s just a good thumbnail.

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