0:03

Hi, this is MyCom, the church communications and marketing

0:06

podcast. We're building your digital ministry toolkit and helping to bring

0:10

your congregation into the digital age. My name is Ryan Dunn. I'm

0:14

a fellow traveler on the journey to better church connections,

0:18

we're gonna talk with Reverend Brandon Robbins, a passionate

0:22

parish pastor turned successful YouTube content

0:26

creator from Virginia Beach. Years ago, Brandon

0:30

started a YouTube channel that went nowhere.

0:34

Might be a little familiar to a lot of us. Just as Brandon was

0:38

about to give up, a couple videos he produced in response to a popular

0:41

TV series unexpected catapulted his channel,

0:45

putting his messages before thousands and eventually millions

0:49

of viewers. Not bad reach. Right? So

0:53

Brandon and I explore what he's learned building

0:56

his channel, how we balance how he balances a full

1:00

time pastoral role and digital content creation,

1:04

and how he generates faith based video content that goes beyond the

1:08

words of scripture to enrich spiritual understanding.

1:11

Whether you're a pastor who might be curious about digital ministry

1:15

or a content creator looking for inspiration, this

1:19

episode has some great insights on utilizing YouTube

1:22

for a greater purpose. We can thank Discipleship

1:26

Ministries for helping to make this valuable conversation

1:29

possible. Deepen your congregation's connection to the sacraments with

1:33

the new belong series from Discipleship Ministries.

1:37

This dynamic resource makes baptism, communion, and

1:40

membership vows more engaging than ever. Get started

1:44

at umcdiscipleship.org.

1:48

Speaking of engagement, check out Brandon's YouTube

1:51

channel, which is simply called Brandon Robbins Ministry.

1:56

Reverend Brandon joins us from Virginia Beach, Virginia.

2:00

How goes it with your soul, Brandon? That's great. Just

2:03

really, really wonderful, weather we've been having. So it's always, you know, something that

2:07

brightens the soul and just, really good season. So, yeah, happy to be

2:11

here. Happy to be joining you today. Cool. Well, I'm

2:14

curious as to how you found yourself in the place of ministry that you're at.

2:18

So what came first? Brandon, the

2:21

content creator or or Brandon, the,

2:25

I don't wanna say pastoral pastor, but, you know, the parish pastor.

2:30

Definitely the parish pastor. K. So, you know, I've been in ministry since

2:34

02/2008 and have had the opportunity to serve a variety of different churches.

2:38

I started out as an associate and then went and was

2:41

the solo pastor at a small rural church and then

2:45

planted a church, back in 02/2014 on a college

2:48

campus. And then in 2018, moved here, to where

2:52

where, I guess, a mid mid sized church here in Virginia Beach. So

2:56

that's really been my, you know, identity since I got out of seminary is

3:00

serving in the local church, and it's been my passion. It's actually why

3:04

I got on YouTube in the first place to an extent. All of that was

3:07

really tied to the local church. Tell me about that. What what was

3:10

it that drew you into YouTube? Well,

3:14

so funny enough, I the way it really started was in

3:18

2019, you know, I'd been doing newsletters for my church, and

3:22

I just felt like, you know, let's just do something different. So instead of typing

3:25

out a newsletter, maybe I'll just create a quick little video, put it on YouTube,

3:29

they can watch it, and, you know, there should be a different way to engage.

3:32

And quickly that evolved into just doing

3:35

different kinds of videos and playing around and trying to be consistent. And

3:39

then my original goal for YouTube was to take a lot of the things I

3:43

was learning about, church growth and church systems and how to have a healthy growing

3:47

church and to be able to share that with others. That's, I just think, one

3:50

of my passions. If I learn something, I wanna pass that on

3:53

to other people. And I I tried to do that for probably

3:57

about two years, and it floundered. Getting onto

4:01

YouTube really kinda breaking in is a is a tough thing. And

4:05

for about two years, I was happy if I got a hundred views. I mean

4:08

and half the time, I bet that was just my mom just sitting repeat, you

4:11

know, trying to trying to get the view count up and get the algorithm

4:14

going. But it just really didn't go anywhere. I didn't

4:18

have, like, a video or two that take off, and I never really knew why.

4:22

And after about two years of doing that, and I I covered all kinds of

4:25

things, not even just church growth kinda stuff, I I

4:29

was about ready to to kinda hang it up and just say, you know what?

4:32

This is good. I did it for two years. And

4:37

I said I remember the day. So I said, you know, lord, it's a busy

4:40

season. It was January of twenty twenty one. I'd been through COVID

4:44

and all the challenges of that. I was tired. And so I I was like,

4:47

lord, you know, I'm gonna give this up. I'm gonna give it to you. And

4:50

if you ever want it to grow and wanna call me back to it, that's

4:53

awesome. I'll come back. But until then, I'm gonna let it go. And

4:57

crazy enough, about a week or two before I said

5:01

that, I had done a video on episode one of season one of

5:05

The Chosen. And at that point, it was like a show I had just

5:08

recently heard of. I thought it was really interesting. So I did a video on

5:12

some things, and it just, it took a

5:15

while. It took about two weeks or three weeks, but about a week after I

5:19

said I quit is when that video just exploded.

5:23

Mhmm. And it was a a pretty clear sign of God saying, alright. Come on

5:25

back. And within a couple of

5:29

weeks, it went from, you know, a hundred views to a

5:33

hundred thousand views, and the channel went from 800 subscribers

5:37

to 8,000 subscribers, and I could just see it. I was like, something's happening

5:41

here. And I realized that what I did in that

5:44

video was something I was really passionate about, which was diving into the context

5:48

of the first century, what it was like to live at the time that Jesus

5:51

lived and how that changes the way we read the Bible. And so I just

5:54

shared that in a video, and I could see that other people were interested in

5:56

it too. So it opened the door to be able to to do even more

6:00

of that. So when things did start to blow up, were you like,

6:04

dang it? Or were you like, woo hoo. Let's go. I mean, it's

6:07

definitely a mixture, you know? Yeah. I got it. I think after two years of

6:11

doing it to finally see it take off was so exciting.

6:15

Yeah. And I also was was pretty committed for the first few weeks there of,

6:18

like, I'm gonna take this slow. I'm not just gonna dive in. So I

6:22

only put out a video every other week for a while there just saying

6:25

I I still need to have this good boundary and structure. And

6:29

then when I realized there was really something there that I was connecting with

6:33

people, then I was like, okay. Now that I know what

6:37

I love is also what people wanna learn, now I can really lean into

6:40

that. And this is not gonna be a channel about the chosen, you know, some

6:44

temporary television show. It's gonna be a channel that's really about helping people

6:48

dive beyond, this is the phrase we use, kind of beyond the words of scripture

6:52

to really understand the the context, the history, the culture in a

6:55

way that changes the way that they read the bible and helps them to see

6:59

it with a whole new set of eyes. And was just really passionate about

7:02

that and still am. Just love the opportunity to do that. Now you've

7:06

changed channel vision over time. Is the actual channel

7:10

different, like a different URL or entity, or did you just

7:14

repurpose the, quote, unquote, existing brand that

7:18

you already had? So I think my brand was always just

7:22

Brandon Robbins. I was just the name of the channel. I was never creative enough

7:25

to have anything other than that. And so we just kinda stuck with it

7:29

because in the end, like, that's what you realize people are

7:33

familiar with. They're familiar with your name and your personality and things like that. And

7:37

so that was what I wanted to do is to be able to just kind

7:39

of reach people, and if they knew me, then then I could do that. I

7:41

mean, if I had to go back and do it again, I might have found

7:44

a better name or a broader ministry title. I don't know that I personally love

7:48

that it's all based on my name, but but it's how people knew

7:52

me. It's how people found the videos, and so we just leaned into that. So

7:55

I didn't change anything about the old content. I just left it there. You can

7:59

still go see pretty much all of that old content that I put out there.

8:03

Some Some of it good, some of it really good. Right.

8:06

I just let it stay, and and then I just kept putting out new stuff

8:09

that I knew was what people were searching for and what I was

8:13

passionate about. Yeah. I I'm guessing that a lot

8:17

of people who are listening to us right now probably already have a presence on

8:20

YouTube and may have started in much the same fashion that you did. Like,

8:24

well, they wanted to play around with it a little bit. And looking back

8:28

at things from a couple years ago, probably not particularly

8:31

proud of their productions that they've they've put out. And

8:35

maybe I'm speaking to myself more than I'm speaking to anybody else. But,

8:40

do you think that there would be, like a repercussion from

8:44

YouTube if you went and deleted that old stuff? I know on other platforms,

8:48

they do do that. But Yeah. I mean, I think, so I've listened

8:51

to a lot of different YouTube teachers, and I'm in some YouTube coaching currently.

8:55

Just always trying to learn about it and how it works and and things like

8:58

that. And so, I mean, I would say that, you know, if you went and

9:02

kinda unlisted a bunch of old, old videos that that

9:05

had no connection, that weren't getting views. I I probably I don't really

9:09

think that you would have too much negative consequence of that, but I think it's

9:12

something you just have to really be careful with. The the truth is that

9:16

old catalog's not gonna hurt you. Right? Like, as far as

9:19

YouTube is concerned, all it cares about is that people want to

9:23

watch the content and they wanna keep watching after that. Right? They wanna click on

9:27

it and then they wanna keep watching as long as possible. So if you're putting

9:30

out that content, it really doesn't even matter what's back there. I mean, the truth

9:34

is for me, if I'm not looking back at my old

9:37

content and saying, man, that was awful, then that means I'm not

9:41

growing. I'm not getting better. And so I'm okay with that. Like, still

9:45

makes me cringe, and yet for some reason, people watch it. So let them let

9:48

them watch it. Right? Cool. Yeah. Thanks for that.

9:52

And these days, you're doing a video a week. Is is that right?

9:56

Yeah. We we try to do a video a week. I mean, on YouTube, I

9:59

have other things that I do. I have a membership that people are part of.

10:03

We're always creating videos for that. I'm still a full time pastor. So Right.

10:06

I'm creating sermons for, you know, every week, and we have an online service where

10:10

we produce that. But as far as YouTube goes, yeah, we try to stick to

10:13

one a week. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's talk about that flow a little bit,

10:17

especially in light of the fact that you are a full time pastor in the

10:20

local parish. A hurdle for many people when it comes

10:24

to content creation is just figuring out what comes

10:28

next. Right? You can start off with, well, I've got seven or eight great

10:31

ideas that'll last you for a little while. Inevitably,

10:35

it comes to the point where it's like, I'm supposed to put out a video

10:38

next week. I have no idea what I'm gonna say. So how do

10:41

you, manage to navigate through that kind of mental

10:45

barrier? So for a long time, I really did wrestle with that.

10:50

Especially when I started out. Like, I knew I was gonna cover all of the

10:53

chosen, so that gave me a whole bunch of content because they had already come

10:56

out with two seasons at that point. And I started this series called beyond the

10:59

words where I went through every chapter of the gospel of Mark.

11:03

And so that was sixteen weeks, sixteen videos I could do there. But

11:07

then after that, it was really like, okay. What's next? Do I just do a

11:09

different book of the bible? Do I, you know, focus on something

11:13

else? And since then, what I've really learned through just

11:17

a lot of studying and listening is that you just have to know your

11:21

viewer. And I think that's something I'm still trying to learn.

11:25

But in the end, that's that's really what YouTube is about. YouTube is

11:28

not here to exist for creators. It's here to exist for viewers.

11:32

And so what they care about is what does that viewer wanna click on and

11:35

what do they wanna keep watching? And so knowing who your particular viewer

11:39

is and then knowing what they're searching for, I think is really, really helpful. So

11:43

one of the things we're always looking at is what are people watching,

11:47

like, of what we've created, what seems to get the attention, and that

11:51

tells us what people are interested in, or we'll we'll do some research and try

11:54

to find out what other channels are they watching and what do they love about

11:57

that content. And so recently, one of the things we've seen is

12:01

that almost every video that's in our top five videos has to

12:05

do with a specific disciple or character in the

12:08

Bible, whether it's Mary, the mother of Jesus, or John the Baptist, or Mary

12:12

Magdalene, or Matthew, like, all of them seem to be really, connecting

12:16

with people right now. And so that's probably somewhere I'm gonna lean in and say,

12:19

well, there's a whole lot of other people to cover. Let's kind of dive into

12:22

that and see, what we can show people there. And and in the

12:26

end, it always has to be authentic. Like, I have to want to do it.

12:29

It has to be something that interests me. I don't wanna make a channel that's

12:32

for other people because I'll run out of energy doing that really fast. Mhmm.

12:36

But but just also realizing that I'm not just making content

12:40

for me. I'm I'm really thinking about who my viewer is and having a

12:44

connection with them and hearing what is it you're searching for and how can

12:47

I how can I be a part of that journey with you? Okay. And do

12:51

you find oftentimes that the content that you're creating for YouTube

12:55

and the content that you're creating for the local parish, for example,

12:58

Sunday sermon, do they overlap? Sometimes

13:02

they very intentionally overlap. Yeah. No doubt. Okay. You have to

13:06

consolidate and, yeah. I mean, it's

13:09

especially having done it for about three years now really

13:12

consistently, it it's not uncommon for me to build a

13:16

sermon off of some research I did for a video two years ago Yeah.

13:20

Or or vice versa. You know, I'll take something I had done in a sermon

13:23

and say, I can use this as a foundation for a video. So very

13:27

often doing that, because one of the things I also realize

13:31

is not everybody in my church is watching my my YouTube videos,

13:35

so it's all brand new to them. And pretty much nobody who watches my YouTube

13:38

videos, you know, is watching my sermons at church. So Okay. It

13:42

can easily cross over. Yeah. Well, I wanted to

13:46

to touch base with you about that. If if there was a sense of

13:50

connection between the the digital ministry and

13:53

the in person or, you know, combined in person hybrid

13:57

digital ministry, Have

14:01

have you seen people within the parish responding to your videos

14:05

online or vice versa? To an extent. I mean, so

14:08

there's definitely people in our church who watch my videos, who know what's going

14:12

on in YouTube and and all of that, but I've also been

14:16

this is just me personally very, very careful about letting that

14:20

become too big. It matters a lot to me that

14:23

my church knows that I'm their pastor and that they never

14:27

think, oh, he's got this YouTube thing that he really, really cares about,

14:31

and we are just, like, second rate. I I got so I will

14:35

intentionally not talk about it. Like, when I had a book come out

14:39

back in February, and I didn't I think I maybe mentioned it to him one

14:42

time before it came out, and then I mentioned it the week before it came

14:45

out just because I felt like it was weird not to mention it. But that

14:48

was it. Like, I didn't hype it. I didn't promote it. I really wanted it

14:51

to be, just let me be their pastor. So

14:55

so in that sense, not necessarily, I mean, I let them know about it. Anything

14:59

I have that I can give them if I create a bible study, if I

15:02

do anything like that, like I give it to our church for free. I I

15:05

try to make sure that they have all those resources. And then

15:09

on the flip side, what we have seen is some people

15:13

who've watched me on YouTube who will come to our church and

15:16

say, hey, I found you on YouTube. Or, you know, oh my gosh, I didn't

15:19

realize you were the guy I've been watching on YouTube, that sort of thing. But

15:23

even that, like, I'm very careful because I try to I try to

15:26

protect, you know, my family and my personal life.

15:30

And so YouTube's a kind of a wild west out there, and I don't really

15:33

necessarily want that coming in too much. So it's it's an interesting thing. I mean,

15:37

I think the thing about YouTube is that it it really is like an

15:40

international sort of ministry. Like, I get to connect with people in The

15:44

Philippines and Australia and Belgium and Germany. I mean, I'm just thinking of

15:48

the people who, like, we see on our live streams. So I get to

15:52

have that connection, but it's also really hard to bring it to the local

15:55

church, because YouTube is not thinking about it that way. It's just

15:59

saying who wants to watch this. It's not gonna just do that for Virginia Beach.

16:03

Do you find yourself in pastoral

16:07

relationships with some of the people who you're meeting through YouTube? Do you mean, like,

16:11

in terms of the viewer? Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, are are you learning

16:15

about their lives? Are are you offering kind of pastoral advice? Are you

16:18

praying with people? So so we've done that in a

16:22

couple ways. One of the things that I always

16:27

think we have to do if we're gonna be on a platform like YouTube

16:31

is find a way to bridge that gap. Mhmm. My

16:34

goal is not to create consumers, it's to create disciples and I

16:38

think that that has to have relationship. So we were wrestling with that

16:42

probably for about the first year or so of saying, well, what would that even

16:45

look like? How would we do that? And we ended up creating a free community

16:48

that people can join, that they can be a part of, and

16:52

where in that community there are prayer request like a place to put your prayer

16:55

requests. There's places to ask questions. Every now and then

16:59

I'll throw in a teaching or something like that, but it's just a place for

17:02

people to connect. And so that is one place where, you know, I'll

17:06

answer prayer requests or just say, hey. I'm praying for you or I'll answer questions.

17:10

But then we also have kinda pulled it a little bit,

17:14

closer, and we've got a membership that people are part of where they get

17:18

consistent teaching every month. They get reading plans and bible studies and stuff like that.

17:21

And that's like a community I'll invest in a bit more. Mhmm.

17:25

But I would I would say that I'm not their

17:28

pastor. So I may have a bit of a pastoral relationship,

17:32

but it's always my goal that they're connected to the local church.

17:36

Mhmm. So we can take the things that I'm teaching on YouTube, and

17:40

we can take this really awesome opportunity we have to be

17:43

able to connect online, but that's not the goal. Like, the goal

17:47

isn't to be in some online forum. I think there's real limitations to that.

17:51

So it's always like, how do we push you back to the local church? How

17:54

do we send you out to live out the great commission? There's, of course, those

17:57

people who are homebound, and this is their only sense of connection, and and it's

18:01

beautiful that we can be there in that in that instance. But for the most

18:04

part, it's like, let's go out into the world. Let's go connect with people in

18:07

real life and take what we're learning here and spread it. Yeah.

18:11

Alright. Do you, do you feel like the future this is maybe

18:15

this is where we're gonna start to get Brandon in some trouble. Do you feel

18:18

like, the future of ministry is heading into

18:22

an age where, the ability for a pastor to

18:26

be an online content creator is is necessary? I don't

18:29

know. I don't I don't know that I would say it's necessary. I would say

18:32

there's a ton of opportunity. Okay. You know,

18:36

YouTube is one of those places where I don't even know what it

18:40

would take for it to be saturated. Because even when I create

18:43

videos, you know, and I've had a a video that's reached over a million people,

18:46

I mean, that is a fraction of what's on YouTube.

18:50

Mhmm. You know, the billions of people who are watching every single day. So,

18:54

like, I've barely even scratched the surface. So there's plenty of room

18:57

for other people out there to be reaching people. So I think it's a

19:01

great opportunity. I don't know that I would ever say it's a necessity for for

19:05

that very reason of there there's always a limitation. Mhmm. You

19:09

know? So you can spread the good news there, but you gotta find a way

19:12

to make people connect. Otherwise, we're we're really missing the point of the church. I

19:16

mean, the church is the body. It's the believers who come together. You can do

19:19

that in a forum, but, like, leading one of those, leading an online community, I

19:23

can tell you that there's always a limit to that where

19:27

there's a difference between praying for somebody online or saying I'll pray for you

19:30

and actually holding hands with somebody and praying. There's a

19:34

difference between sitting in a room with other people and looking in each other's

19:38

eyes as you discuss scripture or you share your concerns

19:42

versus sitting on a Zoom call even. And and

19:45

so I think it's a great opportunity, but but it will

19:49

always come back to the local church. So I think for churches, what you do

19:52

is you say, okay. Well well, how can this be evangelism for us?

19:56

Or what can we give? How can we resource people? You know, what can we

20:00

do to serve, and who do we wanna reach? And even if they never come

20:03

to our local church, like, this is just part of who we are and what

20:06

our ministry is. Well, Brandon, as you were getting started in

20:09

producing your u YouTube videos, was it just

20:13

you on your own? Were you shooting from an iPhone, or how did that work?

20:17

It was. I had a, so I had a DSLR camera that

20:21

I'd gotten, and I guess I must have been interested in video. It's

20:24

hard to remember now, but I had this camera when I started out at the

20:27

church, and I think I had done a little bit of video at the the

20:29

previous church. So it was just kinda sitting there, and I decided,

20:33

you know, I'd use that. But man, I knew nothing. Like, I didn't know

20:36

anything about sound. I didn't know anything about lighting,

20:40

any of those things. So I was just kinda winging it and, you know,

20:44

trying my best with what little things I had. I would edit it. I

20:48

think I may have had iMovie or maybe a a version of final

20:52

cut, and all I was really using skill wise

20:55

was what I learned in one class in college. So, I mean, it was it

20:59

was totally on my own really for probably

21:03

the first year. No. No. No. Probably the first two to

21:06

three years. So even after it took off, it

21:10

was a good eight months to a year before I I finally

21:14

brought somebody on consistently, and he would just, like, kinda do some of the

21:17

editing of the videos. But but I was still

21:21

filming it. I was still doing all of that stuff too. I wanna learn

21:25

all about the aspects of, some of the things that you've learned along the

21:29

way because it in your channel growth, you've obviously

21:33

learned some things about, well, SEO and, you

21:36

know, titling and and everything like that. But just in the

21:40

production end of it, where did you go to start to learn some of

21:44

that stuff besides the one class in college?

21:48

Yeah. That probably had you learning, like, equipment that

21:52

has been obsolete for twenty years. I was, I was on a Mac, but

21:56

it was like those old iMacs that, like, the whole thing was on a, you

21:59

know, like, look like a little spaceship sort of thing. Oh, yeah. It was a

22:03

long time ago. So, you know, a lot of it

22:06

was just asking around people I met. So, like,

22:10

when I had so there's this really wonderful guy. He's on our staff now named,

22:13

Dave Daniels, and he came actually to the church first. He

22:17

was recording our churches and editing our churches' worship services

22:21

about halfway through COVID when I just got exhausted and I I couldn't do it

22:24

anymore. He came in and he started doing that for us, and

22:27

eventually, he started doing some stuff for me. And so he's really the one who

22:30

was like, alright. This is what you need lighting wise. This is what you need

22:33

sound wise. Like, you know, we can upgrade those sorts of things. But

22:37

then in terms of just how to do YouTube, which I think is its own

22:41

whole bucket of knowledge, two really, really influential

22:44

resources. So one is, Sean Cannell and Think Media,

22:49

which just a a really great resource for, I would especially say,

22:52

YouTubers who are starting out, people

22:56

who just wanna know those basics, wanna get to their first thousand

22:59

subscribers, wanna get monetized, like, all those things. Like,

23:03

Think Media and Sean Cannell are the place to go for that. And I I

23:07

remember reading his book and just being kinda blown away by some of the things

23:10

that at that point, like, I'd never heard anybody say this stuff before.

23:14

So I think that's a great place to start. And then the other one is

23:16

actually a really interesting connection I got through The Chosen.

23:20

So I, you know, was doing these videos and I eventually got invited to some

23:23

chosen events and things like that and met a a really good friend of mine

23:26

named Brandon Snipe who was also doing videos about The Chosen,

23:30

and he invited me on a live stream. And while I was on it, Dallas

23:34

Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, came on, and then this guy named Derral Eves

23:38

came on. And I I had no idea who Derral was, but he was all

23:41

I knew is he was the executive producer of the show and basically helped get

23:44

it off the ground. But what I came to learn is he's just a

23:48

brilliant YouTube, basically,

23:52

mentor. I mean, he mentors mister Beast. Like, he is he

23:55

knows YouTube better than anybody probably in the world other than, like, the people

23:59

at Google and maybe even better than them. I mean, just understands it at the

24:03

most fundamental level. And so he is somebody who I've just been trying to

24:06

learn from. He wrote a a book called the YouTube formula, but he also has

24:09

coaching and things like that. And that's yeah. So just every

24:13

place I can go to to just learn that little bit. And,

24:18

and some of it makes me realize that for the first couple years, we got

24:21

really lucky where I would do a video and it would do great, and

24:25

then I'd do another video and it'd do well, and I had no idea why.

24:28

Okay. You know, I look I thought I did then, and I look back now,

24:31

and I'm like, man, just happened to do it. And then another video would come

24:34

out, and I would I would bomb. And it's just because I didn't know. I

24:37

was just kinda guessing. And so yeah. So being with people like that gives

24:41

you a bit of better idea of what to do. Well, as you're looking back

24:44

now from the, the perfect

24:48

apex of twenty twenty vision in the hindsight, are you able to

24:52

pinpoint what were some of the keys of success of those early

24:55

viral videos? Well, so what I can pinpoint is

24:59

those moments where something was happening and I

25:03

could have taken advantage of it, and I didn't know what was happening. Okay.

25:07

So there was, like, an Easter where it was

25:10

just every video was really just

25:14

blowing up. And these videos that had kind of been dormant for a while, all

25:17

of a sudden they shot to the top. And so what I

25:21

would do now if I were in that situation is I would go and be

25:24

like, what is the thread here? What do all these videos have in common?

25:28

Because one of the things I've learned about YouTube is where

25:32

that happens is in your suggested videos. Those things that

25:35

just show up on the side when you're watching a video. If you can really

25:39

start to gain traction there, that's when you go from couple

25:42

hundred thousand to a couple million. I mean, that's just that's the place.

25:46

And so, if I could go back in time, I would say,

25:50

what was it about all those videos in my top five or my top 10

25:53

at that moment, and how do I just keep leaning into

25:57

that sort of content? Whatever it was, create new buckets

26:01

out of that of just, you know, kind of themes of videos that fit

26:04

that and just really build on that success.

26:08

So that was where I would say, you know, at the time I thought, oh,

26:12

it's Easter. Easter's making all of these things do really

26:15

well. But in hindsight, it's like, no. There's something else. And if you can nail

26:19

that down, then you really know how to just continue grow your channel. For

26:23

the the pastor who is maybe looking

26:26

to cultivate the same kind of of presence,

26:31

either as a a mode of outreach or,

26:35

they're thinking about, you know, figuring out another way

26:38

to kinda supplement pastoral income. What might be

26:42

some early advice that that you can offer in terms of building a

26:46

channel? So I actually had a friend come to me with this question recently,

26:51

and the thing I loved about our conversation was he knew

26:54

exactly who he wanted to reach. And I I think that is the

26:58

key I would tell anybody. So he came to me and he said, you know,

27:01

what I wanna do is I I wanna reach those people

27:05

who just don't feel like they have a place in church. And one of the

27:08

things I did recently is I found all these guys who just wouldn't come

27:11

to my church, so I did a bible study in my home. And when I

27:15

did that, it started out with three people, then it turned into 15 people.

27:19

Now it's 30 people in my house doing this bible study. And he knew exactly

27:23

you know, if he had to, like, create an avatar, he knew exactly who that

27:26

person was. Was. He's this age. He likes these things. Like, this is

27:30

his profile. And I and I told him when we talked, I'm like, that

27:34

is so critical for you because if you know that, now you know

27:38

exactly what kind of content you need to create and YouTube will find

27:41

those people. And that's the that's the thing to understand about YouTube.

27:45

It's not trying to say I need to take Brandon's videos and put

27:49

Brandon's videos in front of as many people as possible. It's saying

27:52

who is the viewer and do they wanna watch Brandon's videos? And if they

27:56

wanna watch it, then I'll give it to them. And so it's when you know

27:59

that person inside and out, when you can say, like, this is my

28:03

audience and this is who I'm trying to reach, you really have a a

28:07

much better chance of being able to reach that audience and

28:11

really have that impact. So I would say for churches, first thing, figure out who

28:14

you wanna reach. Like, really just nail that down. If you try to reach everybody,

28:18

you'll reach nobody. Kind of that old adage. Mhmm. But if you know specifically your

28:21

niche, you'll do really well. And then I would also say,

28:25

this is something I had to learn the hard way. Like, you have to be

28:29

in it for the long haul. I mean, it took me two years

28:33

before one video really popped.

28:37

And are you willing to be in it for two years before that

28:40

happens? Because the truth is you may just be one video away

28:44

from that moment when it really connects with somebody and you know

28:48

kinda what God has has put you here to do and who God's put you

28:50

here to serve. And so if you can figure out the the serve part on

28:54

the front end, that'll be a lot easier. But but in the end, if your

28:57

heart is really to to serve people online, then just be willing

29:00

to stick with it even if it feels like nothing's happening because because

29:04

it'll eventually it'll eventually come around. You know, Marin, it it

29:08

occurs to me that that sound advice not just for the YouTube ministry,

29:12

but, probably church ministry in general. Right? I

29:15

mean, anytime you're starting up a new ministry, probably wanna have a clear

29:19

mind of who it is that you're you're trying to reach and engage

29:23

with. And and I think I see so many parallels there because

29:26

one of the biggest complaints somebody on YouTube who's creating videos would have

29:30

is, well, I created this amazing video. Why does YouTube not give it to

29:33

anybody? And that's the wrong question. Yeah. Right? The

29:37

question is, who am I trying to reach, and how do I make a great

29:40

video for them? And I think as churches, we do the same thing. Right? We're

29:44

like, we put on this amazing event. Why didn't anybody show up to our event?

29:48

When the real question should be, who's in our community? What do they

29:52

need, and how do we serve them best? You know, it's it's totally back

29:56

different way of thinking about it. Yeah. Well and then that lens

30:00

into the credence that sometimes there are channels that have

30:03

horrible production quality. Right? But they take off because they're still

30:07

making meaningful content for the particular people who they're

30:11

trying to engage with. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, if I look at my

30:15

early content, like, it doesn't have the lighting, it doesn't have the sound, it doesn't

30:18

have any of those things, but some of it still reaches people. And I just

30:22

think that's what it's about. It's about the message in the end. Wait.

30:25

Your channel has grown to the point of monetization, and that has allowed you

30:29

to, enlist some other people to help you with that process.

30:34

It's kind of a chicken in in the egg thing. What came first, the monetization

30:37

and then the additional staffing, or were

30:41

you more proactive and and were able to bring in some additional staffing to help

30:45

them fuel the growth towards? It was monetization

30:48

first. Yeah. And monetization, you know, early on so, I

30:52

mean, when my YouTube channel finally kinda took off, it it was monetized pretty

30:56

quickly thereafter because I think you have to have 4,000 watch hours and a thousand

30:59

subscribers or something like that. And so, it it

31:02

monetized. But, I mean, you're not getting rich off

31:06

of that sort of thing. Like, I remember the first day was, like, $30.

31:10

I'm like, this is 10 times more than I ever thought I'd ever get. The

31:13

truth. Yeah. So and

31:17

and then, you know, it wasn't huge and for for I mean,

31:21

it's still not huge, but it was, you know, sort of the thing where it

31:24

was just, like, it was nice to have a little bit extra. And and so

31:27

we kinda, you know, really didn't know what to do that. We saved a lot

31:30

of it saying, you know, this is some extra blessing God's given us. We're gonna

31:33

use this for ministry in the future. And so

31:36

I really just kept doing my own thing for probably a

31:40

good six months to a year. And then that was

31:44

when we finally brought on Dave to do that editing for me. And it was

31:48

part time. It was, like, per job. He was giving us an amazing rate and,

31:51

you know, so we would pay him with what we were kinda earning out of

31:54

YouTube. Mhmm. And then, you know, as things grew,

31:58

he finally came on full time last year. And,

32:01

also, we've my wife now works for the ministry.

32:05

But that's it. I mean, we're a small shop, so it was we're we're pretty

32:09

bare bones. I'm sure that there's times where we probably do need to

32:12

hire more people, but but, you know, that's just kinda where we are right now.

32:16

Yeah. We're gonna start cranking out two videos a week, Brandon. You can't wait. Right?

32:20

My my goal is actually going the opposite direction to do videos that do so

32:24

well. It's like one a month. That's my goal, Just to to give

32:27

some breathing room. But For sure. Yeah. Well,

32:32

are are you doing all that? I'm just as I've watched the video, some of

32:36

them are pretty research intensive. Is that, stuff that

32:39

you've just collected over the years, or are you having to spend a

32:43

considerable amount of time each week in content generation, doing

32:47

things like research and reshoots? Yeah.

32:50

So, I mean, some of it is stuff that I've learned over the years. I

32:53

mean, I think I probably studied these things for

32:57

ten years before I really started putting out content regularly. So there was

33:01

thankfully a nice well of information that that I had to draw upon.

33:04

But it was also, I'm very much, especially

33:08

with how kind of busy things are these days with having the ministry

33:13

online and writing a book and having a church and putting out weekly

33:17

content. Like, I've had to really get better about my

33:20

schedule. So one of the things that I do is routinely go away,

33:24

and I will take about three or four days and I will just pump

33:28

out a ton of content. So I did this last week. I mean, I think

33:31

I probably created 10 to 12 videos while I

33:35

was away last week and just, you know, try to get ahead.

33:39

And I've found that I work much better when I've got no distraction.

33:43

Like I can just focus on it from wake up to go to sleep and

33:47

just give it all my attention, do my research. And so that's kind of my

33:51

pattern, but that's really evolved and over time. For the

33:54

early days, it was just I would sit down and probably spend a day

33:58

researching and, you know, getting everything ready for a video.

34:02

You you've mentioned now that you've entered a a phase where you're doing a little

34:05

bit of coaching. What's something that you're offering people through the coaching that

34:09

you wish somebody had offered you? Well, I mean, what I offer, I guess, that

34:12

I wish I could have learned years even earlier than I did was just

34:16

all of this stuff about what it was like to live in the world of

34:18

Jesus. So that's really what our membership is all about. You know, how do I

34:22

help you to dive into that world to understand all the things that

34:25

I overlooked in the Bible, like geography? I mean, for me,

34:29

it was like any name of a town was just a name of

34:33

a town. I had no clue where it was. I had no clue why I

34:35

was significant, and it really wasn't even until I went to

34:39

Israel that it just, like, clicked. You know, why does Caesarea

34:43

Philippi matter so much? Well, when you're standing in front of a place there that's

34:47

literally called the gates Of Hell, all of a sudden that whole passage where Jesus

34:51

says, you know, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell won't overcome.

34:54

It makes whole different sense in that moment.

34:58

So, you know, being able to pass those things down that people pass

35:02

down to me or even something as simple. I remember this is one of the

35:05

first revelations that happened for me. I was reading a book called Sitting at the

35:08

Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Lois de Vervberg and Anne Spangler, and they

35:12

talked about how Pentecost was actually the Jewish

35:15

holiday of Shavuot, and that was the reason that there were

35:19

people there. So many people in the temple was because it was one of the

35:22

three Jewish holidays where you were required to travel to to

35:25

Jerusalem, which also explains why you had people

35:29

speaking all of these different languages in that moment. And

35:33

then the whole thing flips on its head and you understand, okay. That's what it

35:36

means when it says everybody is speaking their own language, but they could all understand

35:40

each other. It's because they've all traveled from around the world to be in this

35:42

place for Shavuot, and that's when the holy spirit comes. And then you understand the

35:46

significance of why on that day the holy spirit came, you know, and

35:50

how that takes that whole story even deeper. Like, those are the things that

35:54

took a Bible that I had read, you know, for thirty years and

35:58

made it like it was was brand new. And that's that's the

36:02

gift that I try to share with other people that you don't

36:05

even have to be a biblical scholar to to know and

36:09

understand these things and pass them on. It's just learning how to

36:13

read the bible a little bit differently and learning where to look to see some

36:16

of these things. You know,

36:20

you see that community start to come through a little bit in some of the

36:23

comments. I'm gonna give a little space around this because I might cut this

36:27

question as well, Brandon. But, I I'm just thinking about in

36:31

navigating comments. Your comment

36:34

section is is very positive. Is

36:38

is there a cultivation process there? No. I

36:42

I think that is, that's, maybe a a

36:45

little bit different than what I see sometimes. I feel like For sure. You you

36:48

just showed me all the all the negative stuff. You know, I I

36:52

think comments are a great indicator of

36:56

what people are getting out of your videos and something that's really helpful to

37:00

look at just to understand who your viewer is and and what they're doing,

37:04

and even who your viewer isn't because that's something I learn a lot of, you

37:07

know, just somebody having issue here or there.

37:11

So so comments are one of those things that I I've learned to

37:15

really just look for the best in them. And we don't we don't do a

37:18

ton to to really cultivate that, unfortunately, just because sometimes it gets

37:21

overwhelming. It's just it's too many comments on too many videos to be able to

37:24

do much with it, and we really try to focus on our community. But it

37:28

is a place that I go, and it took me a while, I will tell

37:31

you, to learn to really see it for what positive

37:35

things it has to offer. So I would go in there, and I'd read every

37:38

comment, and I try to respond to everything. And and you get into those negatives.

37:42

And even though, like, I could take it, I can take some criticism. It, like,

37:46

just weighs on you, And you walk away feeling drained and awful.

37:49

And I was like, what's the point of that? Like, I'm not gonna argue

37:53

some random person into agreeing with me. So so in the end, I

37:57

just take it for for what blessings it has to offer of being able

38:00

to maybe sometimes hear stories of life change that I get to to think about

38:04

and celebrate or just even be able to connect with somebody who has

38:08

a question or just wants to, you know, just say, hey. This was amazing to

38:12

me. And I get to be like, yeah. It was amazing to me too. Like,

38:14

I'm so glad that it it blessed you. You know? Yeah. That sort of thing.

38:17

But you're not using the comment section to change minds.

38:22

No. I don't Make further arguments about theology, that kind of thing.

38:26

I don't really feel like arguing about theology online

38:30

is ever a productive pursuit.

38:34

And there's I I tend to agree to. But yeah. Yeah.

38:38

But I think that there is I've seen way too many people

38:42

find courage behind the veil of the Internet that if we were

38:46

to have a face to face conversation, it would have an entirely different tone,

38:50

and it would just have an entirely different outcome. And so for me, it's

38:54

just not a not a place to do that. I mean, there there are times

38:57

I think where if somebody, like, just totally misinterpreted me,

39:00

I would I would say, hey. This is what I what I intended. Like, hoping,

39:04

like, oh, now that you understand, maybe that will will help you to see that

39:07

a little bit differently. But but beyond

39:10

that, like, I just don't even go into that. There's there's so

39:14

much more good, positive kingdom building stuff

39:18

that I could spend my time on that that's just not it.

39:21

Yeah. Alright. Great. Well, Brandon, if,

39:25

folks wanna learn a little bit more, where do you recommend they start? With the

39:28

YouTube channel or, with your website? Yeah.

39:31

Definitely start off with YouTube. That'll be where you kinda get a get a look

39:35

at everything we're doing. So that's, just youtube.com

39:38

slash @brandonrobbinsministry, I think is what that's called. And

39:42

then, brandonrobbinsministry.com is our website. So you

39:46

can just go to that, and that'll link you to some YouTube stuff as well

39:49

as free resources we give away, the book, our membership, different things like

39:53

that. Fantastic. Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us

39:57

and your hope as well. Yeah. Thank you so much, Ryan, for having me on.

40:01

Hey. Thanks for taking this journey with us on MyCOM.

40:05

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