URM Academy

URM Academy is a the world's best online education for rock & metal producers, bringing our members access to the top producers and artists like Fall Out Boy, Meshuggah, Periphery, A Day To Remember, Bring Me The Horizon, Gojira, and dozens more.

As our Head of Product & Growth, I manage our roadmap and coordinate design and engineering resources to execute it. I also drive all growth programs from brand to acquisition, retention, and monetization.

- Define and manage product strategy and roadmap that drives 7 figures in ARR (consumer subscription)
- Designed and shipped a complete front end overhaul updating from Wordpress/PHP to React that increased performance by 10x
- Recruited and manage software engineer
- Designed and implemented qualitative and quantitative user research for product discovery and concept validation
- Increased paying member count and revenue by 30% in 12 months
- Grew URM Academy YouTube channel to 100k subscribers

Head of Product

The Punk Rock MBA

PRMBA is my YouTube channel and podcast that reverse-engineers trends in music and youth culture with an emphasis on pulling out insights that viewers can use to grow their own creative projects.

- Grew my two channels to over 625k subscribers and 100 million views
- 1 million+ podcast views across all platforms
- Media appearances in CNN, New York Times, Billboard, No Jumper and more
- Brand deals with Dollar Shave Club, Skillshare, Nord VPN, Manscaped and dozens more

Founder

CreativeLive

Drive strategy and execution of influencer-driven content marketing campaigns for CreativeLive, the world's largest online education platform for creatives and entrepreneurs (10m+ students / 10k+ hours of content).

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Managed rollout of "30 Days Of Genius" program featuring 30 influencers including Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Jared Leto, Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, James Altucher, Tim Ferriss, Gary Vaynerchuk, Ramit Sethi, and more
- Recruited Billboard top 10 artists and music industry legends including Dillinger Escape Plan, Periphery, Converge, Incubus, and dozens more
- Executed partnership programs with Starbucks, Virgin, Apple, Microsoft, Entrepreneur, Adobe and more
- Lead PR campaigns that generated 150+ pieces of editorial coverage in A-level outlets like The Hollywood Reporter, Guitar Player, Alternative Press, Modern Drummer, and dozens more
- Assisted C-level execs in creating the pitch which closed our $21.5m Series B round (Greylock, Social Capital, CAA Ventures)

Senior Program Manager, Influencer Marketing

Abercrombie & Fitch

Oversaw the rollout of global integrated marketing campaigns for Abercrombie, Hollister and Gilly Hicks across all channels: in-store, outdoor, grand openings, and web/social media in over 700 domestic stores, 50 international mall stores, and 20 flagships in the USA, Europe and Asia. Managed worldwide network of vendors and suppliers: select new vendors, lead cost-saving/quality improvement initiatives, and build long-term partnerships. 

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Worked on flagship store openings in Hong Kong, Singapore, Brussels, Madrid, Shenzen, Seoul and other locations on 3 continents
- Collaborated closely with internal legal, construction and design teams to navigate the unique regulatory, technical and creative challenges of each program
- Subject matter expert and point person for all print projects
- Primary point of contact on marketing team for trademark and copyright issues
- Key member of the team responsible for managing the $25m+ shopping bag program
- Spent 25% of my time in Asia at factories (China, Hong Kong, Korea, and Indonesia)
- Key contributor to the team which brought 3 new factories and 2 new print suppliers online in 2012

Marketing Production Coordinator

Kaleidoscope

Primary point of client contact. Directed product development & brand strategy projects for Procter & Gamble (Tide, Swiffer, Bounce, Febreze, Pampers, Olay and others), Motorola, Novartis, Whirlpool, Mars, and more. Designed research programs, conducted market analysis and trend forecasting. Translated research insights into direction for industrial designers, usability experts, and engineers.

KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- Assisted VP of Design on proposals and pitches that generated over $2m in new business
- Lead the strategy component of $100k+ programs for Febreze and Pampers
- Designed qualitative user research program for Febreze Sport
- Collaborated closely with designers, engineers and other project stakeholders to define the technical and creative objectives for each program
- Created and managed content marketing programs which generated coverage in outlets including Engadget, Gizmodo, Core77, and CNet

Strategist

My job is simple: help you use video, images and words to build audience and drive revenue.

I've spent the last 20 years building and marketing products: $10 million+ in revenue for online education at CreativeLive and URM Academy, design & marketing for Abercrombie & Fitch, product strategy for Swiffer & Febreze, and smaller projects for bands including A Day To Remember, Periphery and Of Mice & Men.

As a content creator, I've also generated over 100 million views and 600,000 subscribers on YouTube and more than 10,000 followers on LinkedIn.

Every year more people hate me. And every year I also make more money 🤑 

I have no idea who Lukas is or why he hates me with "every fiber in his being," but he didn't stop me from having my biggest year ever on YouTube.

Here's the thing:

👉 If you have an opinion on the internet, someone is going to hate you for it.

It's sad, but that's just the way it is.

This is especially true after you build a decent sized audience, where people will start to hate you just because you're an "influencer," as though having an audience inherently makes you evil

But who cares??

They can leave all the nasty comments they want and tweet about you all day but it's not gonna stop you from building an audience and making money.

👉 The bottom line:

These people are LOSERS and their opinions mean NOTHING 😇 

So don't fear of judgement stop you from putting yourself out there.

PS - Let's all hope that Lukas is doing better with whatever is making him such a negative, angry person 🙏 
--
📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

Finn McKenty 🍕

At this point I'm convinced all big companies are doomed to suck at YouTube. In this case, Salesforce.

563K views but only 4 comments... what?! 

For reference, my last video with 606K views has 2,100 comments.

👉 My guess is that this got terrible organic views out of the gate because, well, it's not good content.

It's a keynote from one of their conferences, and nobody opens up the YouTube app hoping to see a Salesforce keynote on their home page.

👉 So instead of admitting their mistake and pivoting to actually make content people want to watch, they used ads to inflate the view count (don't want the boss to realize nobody watches our videos!!)

Honestly, it's just sad and cringe.

They're worth $284 billion and they can't make a YouTube video that even 5 human beings felt like commenting on!

👉 On the one hand, it's frustrating to me because it's such a missed opportunity.

But on the other hand, it's great news for solopreneurs who will continue to dominate the platform unless big businesses wake up...

And we all know they probably never will, so that means I'll never run out of content for these LinkedIn posts about corporate YouTube cringe 🤗 
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

Seriously though, who are the absolute MANIACS buying plane tickets on their phone??

The reality is that being good at what you do isn't enough. You also need to be VISIBLE!

It's a little ironic: the people who get the most attention oftentimes deserve it the least

👉 Think about all those people you know who aren't great at what they do but ARE great at promoting themselves...

And the opposite is also true: the humble people who are mostly happy to just quietly be amazing at their job deserve the most attention, but they tend to get lost in the shuffle

I wish it wasn't like that, but I don't make the rules!

👉 So my advice is, don't let yourself be one of those awesome, humble people that gets ignored-- do SOMETHING, starting now

Even if you just post here once week, it's better than nothing

I don't want to live in a world where all those mediocre, self-promotional types get all the attention 🙃

PS - I think I stole this quote from Trevor Nielsen
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

If I could ONLY make content for two platforms, it would be LinkedIn and YouTube.

👉 LinkedIn is the highest-quality audience where you can get results fastest

If the stars align, one post with 7 likes could get you a client worth 5 or 6 figures

The problem is that LinkedIn taps out fairly quickly (100k followers on LinkedIn is huge)

There aren't actually that many people who live on the app (weirdos like you and me), and you may not want to be limited to that audience

👉 On YouTube, you can build a HUGE audience of people outside the LinkedIn bubble

Your goal with YouTube is to build a brand so everyone in your niche knows your name and face

Yes, they won't be as qualified as LinkedIn followers. But that's OK, because you already have LinkedIn

👉 For contrast, hitting 100k followers on YouTube is just the beginning... I'm currently at 723k and growing by ~10k per month

YouTube operates at a scale that LinkedIn just doesn't, and never will.

👉 YouTube is your shotgun; LinkedIn is your sniper rifle

Bonus: YouTube will also grow your LinkedIn (via link in the description), so it works as a built-in funnel to peel off your highest-quality YouTube viewers
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

I'll be honest with you: I've avoided making video content for LinkedIn 🙃 

But here I am doing it anyway-- and here's why:

👉 Video communicates in a way that text just can't because you can use body language, tone of voice, music, etc to make your point

It's the closest thing to sitting across from someone and having a conversation

👉 After you've watched a few of someone's videos, it feels like you actually know them (even if you've never communicated with them at all... parasocial relationships are wild!)

And what do you think that does for your business?

→ Way better engagement on your content

→ More inbound (they feel like they're just DMing a friend)

→ By the time they get on a sales call with you, they're already half way closed!

And once you get into the groove, it's not as time consuming as you might think.

It took me about 15 minutes in total to make this video (and I could have probably done it a little faster if I tried)

PS - If you're camera shy, don't let that hold you back... your voice couldn't possibly be any dorkier than mine 😅 
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

HOT TAKE: Social media is boring. Bring back forums.

Who's with me??

(I'm like 40% serious. I actually do miss forums!)

When you're a solopreneur, sometimes you feel like you're stranded on your own little island.

I felt that way for a LONG time, but scaling up my coaching program changed all that.

Now I get to talk to cool, interesting new people every week and bounce ideas around with them-- designers, attorneys, coaches, all kinds of different solopreneurs. 

And honestly, it's been SO invigorating in a way that I didn't expect!

The best part about my job is that I'm sincerely excited every time one of them emails or texts me, or when it's time for one of our calls.

I don't feel like I'm an island anymore, I feel like I have tons of inspiring, smart people around me all the time.

(This is the part where they start nervously shifting in their chair, and try to think of a way to politely tell me that we're not friends, they just pay me for help with their YouTube channel 😅 )

Two takeaways here:

👉 Thank you to everybody who's reached out to me, I genuinely love talking with all of you!

👉 If you're a solopreneur and you feel like you're going it alone without anyone who gets it, the answer is to BUILD AN AUDIENCE

You can do that anywhere, but my personal favorite combo is LinkedIn + YouTube.

→ YouTube is your shotgun that hits a big, broad audience

→ LinkedIn is the sniper rifle that targets a smaller but highly qualified audience

Put the two together, and you've got the best of both worlds
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

2024 goal: Be the most entertaining guest on business podcasts (tbf that’s a low bar 😅)

So if you want me as a guest to talk about YouTube, marketing or anything else DM me!

(The only topic that's off limits is my hairline, because I'm still in deep denial about that)

This comment tells you SO MANY important things about YouTube! I'll break it down:

👉 Most people don't actively watch YouTube, it's just on in the background while they do something else

When it's time to wash dishes, fold laundry, etc they open up the app (or their TV), scroll through the home screen until they find something that looks good, and click

This means:

👉 You do NOT need to invest a bunch of time and energy into fancy editing, because most people are only half-watching (but audio DOES matter)

👉 Optimal length is 10-20 minutes: long enough to fill time while they're eating or doing a chore

👉 To grow your channel, you want to optimize for getting on the home screen (since this is where most people find new videos)

Doing that is a whole other topic for another post, but it boils down to:

→ Picking broad topics with a big audience
→ Strong titles and thumbnails to get the click
→ Good pacing to keep them watching

And thank you to everyone who listens to my videos while doing chores 😇 
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

The honest truth is that I'm a mediocre YouTuber.

This isn't false modesty on my part, it's the truth.

→ I barely know how to work my camera (I just put it on "auto")

→ I constantly struggle to come up with ideas for new content

→ I blink too much and stumble over my words all the time

There are sooooo many people who are so much more creative, charismatic and entertaining than I am.

And there are TONS of people that are literally 100x better at video production and editing than I am!

And yet I still got 84 million views on this channel (and 31 million on my other channel).

👉 My point: You don't have to be some kind of super charismatic, freak talent to build a big audience on YouTube.

And you DEFINITELY don't need to be a video production expert (I'm the furthest thing from that)!

👉 You just need to keep showing up every week, and be OBSESSED with creating the content your audience wants to see.

You might suck at first (I did). 

That's ok, as long as you learn and improve with every piece of content, eventually you'll get there.

Talent is optional (I'm proof of that 😅)
--
📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

If you're scared to post something, that's probably a great sign that you should do it!

I've had a lot of those moments where I've had to take a deep breath and ask myself "man, am I *really* about to say this in a video??"

👉 For example, the first time I made a video about the few years I spent doing way too many drugs as a way to self-medicate my mental health issues.

(I'm actually a little bit scared to talk about that right now on LinkedIn, but I'm doing it anyway)

I guess I was afraid that people would judge me or look down on me.

But the opposite happened-- I got overwhelming support because guess what? I'm far from the only person who's been there. 

→ Your failures in business

→ Your relationship f-ups

→ Your character flaws and shortcomings

These are EXACTLY WHY people will relate to you and identify with you!

I'm not telling you to be one of those people who's always posting sob stories (not a fan of those either).

👉 But my point is this: when you're REAL in your content, sharing your unfiltered wins and losses, that's when people will become ride-or-die supporters.

You'll probably also feel a big weight lifted off your shoulders, because DAMN it feels good to be honest with the world!

(and no, I still can't explain how people on here get 1k+ likes posting selfies with some generic platitude 🤔 )
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

Great personal brands are built by STANDING OUT, not fitting in.

→ Rand Fishkin's public struggles with mental health

→ Gary Vaynerchuk saying the f word every other sentence

→ Aaron James Draplin being the least pretentious graphic designer ever

The goal isn't to please everyone, it's to connect with the people who vibe with what you believe.

👉 No matter how unpopular you think your ideas are, I PROMISE you that there's thousands if not millions of people who agree with you.

Those people will love and respect you for having the courage to stand up and say it out loud.

👉 And it feels AMAZING to live a life where you no longer self-censor all the time!

(This doesn't explain how LinkedIn influencers get 1000+ likes posting the most bland, generic platitudes every day... still working on decoding that mystery 😅)
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

It might feel gross to want attention. But I'm here to tell you that not only is it okay to want attention, it's NECESSARY.

You might be the best at what you do, but if nobody knows you exist, you've got a problem.

For better or worse, the world isn't going to magically discover how great you are. You have to make it happen!

When you have visibility at scale, everything gets easier:

→ Sales calls (they already know your name and face)

→ Podcasts and other press coverage offers

→ Conferences, panels and speaking opportunities

→ People pay you just to pick your brain for an hour

Unfortunately, we don't live in a world where you can just quietly do your thing and trust that people will recognize you and reward you for it.

Don't leave it up to chance!
--
📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

If you ask for advice then ignore it, you're an ask-hole 🙃 

I'm pretty dumb, but one thing I'm good at is listening to smart people who have achieved something I want to achieve.

When they tell me to try something, I do it.

👉 Back in early 2018, my YouTube channel was going nowhere fast.

I'd published something like 50 videos without much traction, and I was feeling VERY discouraged.

I ended up sitting next to my YouTuber friend Ryan ‘Fluff’ Bruce at a wedding-- he had something like 350k subscribers at the time, so I asked him WTF I should do.

He gave me some great advice:

"If you're not cringing at half your videos, you're not taking enough risks."

To make a long story short, I pushed myself to make some big (scary) pivots and within a couple months my channel had grown 10x 🚀

👉 The point: Don't play life on hard mode if you don't have to.

If you ask someone smart for advice, don't be an ask-hole. When they give you a suggestion, try it. 

Very underrated lifehack 😊 
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

Anybody else have the terrible habit of forgetting names 4 milliseconds after meeting new people? 😬 

Ever try running paid media to cold traffic for a new product with zero brand? How did that work out? 😬 

On the other hand, running paid media to warm traffic for a well-known, trusted product from a brand people love is amazing 🤑 

My point here should be obvious: Brand and performance aren't enemies, they're best friends.

👉 Now let's talk about where YouTube fits into this.

Let's say you built your channel to the point where say 500k people a month watch your videos (for reference, I get 2-3 million a month so I know this is very possible)

👉 They see your face in their feed all the time, listen to you talk about your industry, tell stories about your life, etc... 

They feel like they know you on a personal level (and to a certain extent, they do)

→ What do you think that would do your CAC?

→ If you're in B2B, how much easier would that make your outreach?

→ For agencies, how would that change the way clients see you? Maybe they'd actually listen to you for once...

So if your performance marketing isn't working as well as it could be, the answer may actually be on the brand side.
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

Big fan of Notion but I kinda agree with this. Thoughts?

Negative content almost always performs better than positive content.

I wish that wasn't the case. But I don't make the rules! 

So you might as well take advantage of it.

👉 One of the best ways to do that is with "failure p0rn" content like this, breaking down why a well-known person, company or trend failed.

And here's why it's great content for you:

→ Algorithm-friendly, because you'll capture search traffic and appear in suggested videos on the topic (Samsung, in this case)

→ Easy production. It's just your voice over b-roll and screenshots of articles.

→ Establishes your expertise on the topic (eg, as an analyst of the mobile phone industry)

My favorite twist on this format is to take a sympathetic, positive tone in the video itself.

👉 For example, "They may have failed, but here's why I have a ton of respect for what they tried to do."

That's the best of both worlds: You get the click with a negative title, but you don't actually add more negativity to the world.
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📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

If you know you need to build your audience, why not start right now? What's REALLY stopping you?

It's kind of like getting married or having a kid: There's never going to be a "perfect time" where the universe shows you a cosmic green light and gives you permission.

You just have to go for it, keep showing up, and trust that you'll figure it out along the way (you will!)

Also, the longer you wait the harder it's going to be:

→ Feeds get more crowded

→ Audiences get higher expectations

→ Your life gets busier

So if you've been hearing that voice in your head telling you that maybe it's time to start building your personal brand and growing an audience, my suggestion is to listen to it.

Oh, and pay me to help you figure it out 😇 Don't play on hard mode if you don't have to!
--
📲 I can help you grow with YouTube. DM me to set up a call!

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