Somebody has to want to watch it.
A good story makes good content. Great content starts earlier, with the person deciding whether to click. So that is where I start: who is watching, what they already choose, and what would make them choose you. Then we build the show they would come back for, and the team that can make it every week.
4 Levels of Milkshakes
The shows
All the work
Case study
Case study
Case study
Case studyMost company channels look like this.
A launch video. A product demo. A webinar nobody trimmed. By month three, the upload schedule is a Slack thread with no replies.
I start somewhere else: who is actually watching, and what they would click on if your logo were not on it. Same company, same budget, different first question.
Who I work with
Brands
Your channel is mostly ads, and nobody subscribes to ads. We find what your audience already watches at 11 p.m. and make something that belongs next to it.
Personal
You are the brand, and the camera is already on. I build the channel around your niche, plus a crew, so it stops running on your free time.
Nonprofits
You have the stories. Your viewers have a back button. I build formats that earn the watch long before anyone asks for a dollar.
My process
The audience
YouTube says its recommendations exist to help people find the videos they want to watch, and it judges that by whether they were glad they watched, not just whether they clicked. So we start with the people: who watches you now, who you want watching, and what they already choose.
The shows
YouTube’s own playbook for brands calls it hero, hub, and help: a big swing a few times a year, a weekly series people come back for, and answers to what they are already searching. Then a pilot run, so the audience votes before the budget does.
The team
Roles, a weekly rhythm, and a playbook. I stay embedded until the channel ships on an ordinary Tuesday without me in the room.
The reporting
YouTube Studio for retention, returning viewers, and where the views come from. Tubular for what the rest of your category is doing. vidIQ for search and titles. We read it every week and change course every month.
Why me
I spent five years at Condé Nast Entertainment. First in food, working out why people came back to Bon Appétit and Epicurious every week. Then as a programming manager in the lifestyle division, deciding what Wired, AD, them., LOVE, Tatler, and Teen Vogue would make next. Since then: Grey, where the clients were Coca-Cola, Applebee's, and ASCO; creator programming at BIGO Live; and two presidential campaigns that each needed a crowd.