Starting a YouTube Channel: Seizing Opportunities and Preparation

The decision to start a YouTube channel led to unexpected success, emphasizing the importance of preparation, recognizing opportunities, and taking proactive steps.

### How to Create Luck by Being Prepared for Opportunities
* 🎥  The hosts decided to start a YouTube channel after being asked by Progressive to create an **eight-part series for Over The Road Truckers**, with **two of the podcasts turning into videos**.
* 🌱  The YouTube channel started in September 2017, and despite not having everything figured out initially, it gained traction and **reached 100,000 subscribers**.
* 🍀 " When I hear people say, man, that person is lucky, look at those guys, they're lucky, they have a YouTube channel. Do you know what lucky in that moment in time with YouTube was? Is that **we had years of preparation**.
* 🏠  To create more luck in life, it's essential to start taking steps to be **prepared for opportunities**.
* 🔍  It's crucial to be able to recognize **real opportunities that you can move towards** and distinguish them from **pipe dreams**.
* 🛠️  Preparation involves taking action, such as **acquiring new skills**, **getting certifications**, or **doing research**.
* 🚀 " A lot of folks want to sit back and let life happen. They want the opportunity to present itself and then they want the opportunity to capitalize on itself. Well a lot of this takes **action on your behalf**.

[Music] All right, BR. So we've talked about four decisions that we've made. Let's talk about the fifth one, and this one is pretty big and sort of appropriate given the context in which we are sitting here right now. It was starting our YouTube channel. I'd like to say that this was deliberate, but there's always this little element of, like I said, as I talk about this all the time, is you never know what is the best day worked, and I'll never forget our YouTube was. We were happy as we could be doing the YouTube. I mean, the podcast podcast was doing great, um, so well that Progressive commercial reached out to us and said, you know what, guys? When we think about we have a campaign coming up because one of the biggest segments that Progressive commercial Works in is Over The Road Truckers, these long hul truckers, and when we think of Long Haul truckers, we think of the money guys show, of course, who does. So we want you guys to create an eight-part series giving good

Financial guidance to Over The Road Truckers, and we were like, you know what, money is the same for everybody. We don't, you know, we're not specialists in Over The Road Truckers, but we're going to lean into this because I want everyone to have the access to personal finance. Well, we got the show started, we started, you know, agreed to do this, and then at the last minute, the producer for the series came to us and said, you know what, we need two of these shows, these podcasts that you're doing, to be videos. Oh, a video. No, no, we're audio guys, we're podcast. Maybe you need to go look up what podcasting is. We don't do videos. He, you're going to do two videos. So we, we use this discomfort or this situation where we were requested to do videos, and we did go find a videographer to help us out. And then I think about the fact that we enjoyed creating those two videos, and that was actually the seeds that were planted that sewed us getting into

YouTube because we were like, you know what, since we're already creating this content, why don't we add this visual element, and voila, September of 2017 was the birth of the money YouTube channel. And here's what's beautiful about decisions like this. We didn't have it all figured out. If you look on the far left picture right here, very different Studio than what we're sitting in right now, very different setup. Now Brian consistent as he can be, still wearing a sweater vest, big sweater vest guy throughout our history, but you can see that was the setup, that was how it started. But we recognized an opportunity, even though we didn't know about YouTube, we didn't have the whole algorithm figured out. We made the small decision to move forward, and fast forward, it caught some traction, and then we hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. And now we get to sit here and talk to millions of you every week, all because of that decision to take a risk, do something we'd never done before, and it turned out

beautifully so practically what's that mean for the audience what's that mean for them what can they do yeah I wanted to encourage you to be prepared for the opportunity specifically. I want you to create more luck in your life. When I think about the opportunity, what is luck? When I hear people say, man, that person is lucky, look at those guys, they're lucky, they have a YouTube channel. Do you know what lucky in that moment in time with YouTube was? Is that we had years of preparation. We had been doing the podcast since 2006, and then we had this opportunity come up where Progressive hired us for this campaign. So you look at that intersection point, the opportunity with that preparation of all those years, voila, I give you the luck of our YouTube channel being born. So that's what I'm telling you guys, don't let somebody tell you you're lucky. You've got to create more luck. So what that means is start now taking steps to be prepared. Maybe the thing you want to do is buy your first

home, but you don't have a huge down payment. Well, you got to start doing something so that when that house becomes available, or when interest rates fall, or when home prices come down, you have been taking the small steps necessary to set yourself up to be ready for that. Maybe this is true in your career. You know the career change you're going to do, but you're going to go and start working on a different skill set, something a little tangential to what you do now. You're going to go get a certification. You're going to go do some education. You're going to go take a class. You're going to do something to figure out how to prepare yourself so that when the opportunity presents itself, it's something you can jump all over. But in addition to being able to jump all over it, you also have to know how to find and recognize it. You have to be able to sort opportunities from pipe dreams. You have to be able to recognize, Okay, this is something realistically that I can move towards, versus, Oh, you

know what my opportunity. I'm going to go become a professional basketball player. Well, if you're 5 foot 10 and you didn't play past High School, going to be really hard to be a professional basketball player. Recognize what real opportunities are that you can move towards, and what opportunities are not actually going to be the reality that are going to manifest. Yeah, I want to lean into the preparation side of this because I think like you mentioned a good example, housing. I know housing right now is tough, so a lot of people are focused on the now where, yeah, there seems to be an obstacle to getting a house, but why couldn't you in the moment start doing a little bit of prep? Like you start going, Hey, I have a family. I think I need to figure out where the best school districts are for my community, or I have a career, and maybe I need to go look just like we did with the move and say, 'Hey, where's the best place that's going to give me a career opportunity? Do I

need to go ahead and do a little bit of preparation now to figure out where that opportunity could be the best. And that's what is going to create that look. Is that preparation at the intersection of that moment in time is going to make all this happen. So don't overlook this. I've started doing this on Commercial Real Estate. I've started doing this on a lot of Life Experiences where I'll say hey why don't I do a little research on this now so just in case something comes along a few weeks or a few years down the road. I will be prepared and be able to maximize that moment. And the last thing you have to do is you have to put yourself in a position to take the chance. A lot of folks want to sit back and let life happen. They want the opportunity to present itself and then they want the opportunity to capitalize on itself. Well a lot of this takes action on your behalf. So you have to be willing to take the risk take the step.

make the change, make the move, do the thing that is necessary to put you in the place that you want to be in the future. But it is going to take effort on your part, so don't sit back and wait for something to happen. Be an advocate for your future self.

Why Starting a YouTube Channel Changed Our Lives (And Can Change Yours, Too!)

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The Money Guy Show

The Significance of Starting a YouTube Channel

The decision to start a YouTube channel was unplanned but turned out to be pivotal for the podcasters.

They were initially hesitant to create video content but eventually embraced it with the help of a videographer.

The experience of making the videos played a crucial role in their journey.

The Birth and Success of a YouTube Channel

The money YouTube channel was launched in September 2017, starting with a different studio setup.

The channel's success was a result of taking a risk and seizing the opportunity, rather than just luck.

The audience is encouraged to create their own luck by being prepared and taking the necessary steps towards their goals.

Taking small steps to prepare for buying a house can help when the opportunity arises.

In career planning, acquiring new skills and certifications can make a person ready for a change.

It's important to distinguish realistic opportunities from unlikely ones and to start preparing for them in advance.

The Importance of Preparation for Seizing Opportunities

Preparation at the intersection of the right moment is crucial for creating opportunities.

Researching and being proactive can help in maximizing future moments.

Seizing opportunities requires taking action and being willing to take risks for the desired outcome.