How to start and grow a YouTube channel with Marie Fang
My interview guest this week is Dr. Marie Fang, a psychologist and private practice owner in San Jose, California.
Dr. Marie started in private practice in 2012 and made just about every mistake in the book. In 2018, she launched Private Practice Skills, posting weekly YouTube videos making it easy for therapists to start and grow their practices.
I spoke to Dr. Marie about why she started a YouTube channel, how she’s grown her YouTube channel to more than 20,000 subscribers, and what she’s learned along the way. Enjoy!
Why did you start a YouTube Channel?
I started the Private Practice Skills YouTube channel in the summer of 2018.
I chose YouTube as my first and primary marketing strategy for my new business idea because:
I love YouTube and personally use it more than any other social media platform.
I often found myself feeling frustrated that I couldn't find answers to private practice-related questions on YouTube when I was starting my practice
I have some experience with building a YouTube channel. I had two prior channels that I'd already built up on unrelated subjects.
How did you get your first 100 subscribers?
I heavily relied on keyword targeting to grow my channel. I made a list of pain points I thought therapists might have when starting or growing a private practice, then I did some research on what terms related to those pain points people searched for in YouTube.
Most often, there weren't any other videos out there yet on those topics, so when I posted a video it pretty quickly showed up towards the top of YouTube search results.
How have you grown your channel to more than 20,000 subscribers?
In addition to continuing to target searched keywords, early on I learned the importance of creating bingeable content. In other words, I did my best to develop a channel that operated like a TV show.
If you like one of my videos, you're very likely going to enjoy most of the other videos I create. Once I had a sizable database of videos, folks would find me through a YouTube search and then subscribe after seeing I also had many other similar videos that could help them.
What recording equipment do you use?
I've accumulated a fair amount of gear over the years! My favorite items are my Canon M50 camera, pancake lens with great autofocus, cheap lapel microphone, and LED lights.
But honestly, if I was starting out today and I had no equipment I would probably just buy a $20 lapel microphone and film on my smartphone in front of good natural lighting. High-quality audio is the most important item to invest in. Plus, smartphones these days have such good cameras built-in, a little natural lighting will do the trick!
In case you'd like to reference this, here is a link to all my gear.
How do you edit your videos?
I use Final Cut Pro. It does have a steep learning curve, but I started out with iMovie which is free and has all the features needed to build a successful YouTube channel.
When I started editing my own videos, I would spend 15 minutes a week learning a new editing trick. It started with basic skills like how to put text titles on my videos, but over the years it's really built up and by now I've learned nearly everything a professional video editor is familiar with.
Have you made money from YouTube?
Yes! Between ads, sponsorships, course sales, and affiliate marketing, YouTube accounts for most of my income right now.
It took a year posting weekly videos before I started earning a little revenue, and now three years in, I earn six figures a year just from YouTube alone.
What final advice do you have for therapists interested in starting a YouTube channel?
The biggest piece of advice I can give is to pick a niche. I can't emphasize that enough! Get as specific as you can.
If your channel starts to grow, then you can start branching out to broader topics. But in the beginning you want to make videos that are so specific, no one else is making the same content or addressing the same questions.
Thank you to Dr. Marie for sharing with us! Subscribe to Private Practice Skills on YouTube, follow her on Instagram, and visit her website to learn more about her products and services.