I started a brand YouTube channel in 2016 for Daily Godpreneur.
At this time, my brand was called "Daily Godpreneur by Alex Miranda." It was kind of a personal brand and reflected my identity as a Christian entrepreneur can not be confused with my other life outside of my spiritual walls.
Or so I thought.
I posted videos consistently, communicated in an inspirational way, and hit topics that were significant struggles that God-First entrepreneurs go through. In effect, I was doing everything right.
Unfortunately, I never blew up on YouTube.
And while I'm committed to continuing to put out content, I also know there are great opportunities on YouTube for Christian personal brands who want to thrive as an industry leader or influencer.
Why am I glad that my Daily Godpreneur channel never took off?
It wasn’t my personal brand.
My brand is Alex Miranda, not Daily Godpreneur.
In 2019 I decided to open up Daily Godpreneur as a community of content creators that want to share the business wisdom they learn from the Bible. That meant having to remove my name so that the brand wasn't all about me.
So, we have to rebrand many things, change logos, rewrite sections on my website, and rethink the approach of everything named Daily Godpreneur, including my YouTube channel.
Building a Name for Yourself
When we choose to brand our YouTube channel as ourselves instead of the name of our blog or movement, we have the chance to explore what topics we have a passion for and where we can stand out in a particular niche.
But if I’m Daily Godpreneur, where is there space to talk about things other than Christian entrepreneurship? I love going to Disney and sharing my experiences. I also love to talk about business branding in general, without Biblical wisdom.
That is why I decided to rebrand to a name/personal brand: to not only form a more intimate connection with my audience (I'm on a first-name basis now), but to open doorways for opportunities without the confusion of branding products, services, or hobbies of mine under my original pen name.
At the time of writing this book, I'm still on my path of figuring out YouTube, but I'm 100% certain that operating under my personal brand will save me time and energy from having to rebrand over and over again. My name will always be Alex Miranda.
Now I help numerous thought leaders and CEOs solidify their personal brand for growth, and below is what I consult them to do on YouTube. Here are five steps I walk my personal branding clients through to share their purpose and calling using YouTube as another communication channel.
8 Steps to Building Your YouTube Christian Personal Brand
1. Setting Up Your Personal Brand YouTube Account
I'm not going to spend time in this book with a step-by-step guide to setting up your YouTube. I have that in my personal brand course at the Godpreneur Academy.
I will say you need to set up a BRAND ACCOUNT and keep your personal YouTube account as personal.
A Brand Account is an account that is specifically for your personal brand. This account is different from your personal Google Account. If a channel is bound to a Brand Account, multiple people can manage it from their Google Accounts (like a personal assistant or your social media team). You don't need a separate username or password to work YouTube channels with a Brand Account.
After setting up your brand account, the continued proper setup plays a critical role in your awareness and amplification of your message. Everything from your profile and cover pictures to the keyword tags you use helps secure your tribe's retention and grow your subscriber base.
All of your social media channels need to have the same image, messaging, color pattern, thumbnails, and even the quality and style of your videos.
Your channel’s branding is essential, but what I want to focus your attention on is the type of videos and content you'll be putting out.
REMEMBER: Don't hide behind the name of your blog or your company, as I did. Now I'm having to backtrack and change a lot of things. From the start, your YouTube channel should be YOUR NAME. You can add a little something after your name. Mine is "Alex Miranda - Godpreneur.”
2. Bring In Your Niche Topics
Hopefully, you've already figured out the problem God has called you to solve in the marketplace. YouTube is simply another channel to share that message.
You may not be the type of person that binges on YouTube videos, but there is a whole world of people that do. Some of the people you called to serve go to YouTube to get ideas on solving their problems.
I know that I sometimes do. And I know Christian entrepreneurs are on YouTube because they watch my videos and leave me comments. That means there's a whole lot of space on YouTube for your messages to be shared.
For me, I know Christian entrepreneurs building a personal brand struggle with maintaining brand consistency, content creation, and learning how to boost their brand recognition and amplify their message.
From those topics, I can branch out into more niche and specific content ideas such as 5 Ways To Use Trello to Boost Productivity, 3 Tips For Stepping into Your Calling, and Writing Your Book From Blog Posts?
When I first started my channel, I’ll admit that I spoke to every Christian entrepreneur on the planet. But over time, I began to niche down more and define my core topics. Now I can break down each one to solve a specific problem that entrepreneurs doing Christian personal branding go through.
PRO TIP: Whatever you blog about, you can turn around and read that blog post into a teleprompter and produce great YouTube content. Your blog posts are where you write the script for your YouTube preachings.
3. Research Other Personal Brands
You should search around to see what other Christians are making videos about on YouTube. Specifically, is there anyone in the field doing what you're doing, using the same strategy and reaching the same niche? If this is the case, you can get ideas and do something unique to make yours different.
For example, guys are talking about how Christians can build wealth. If you're passionate about this área, too, then just come at it from a different angle. It could be
How millennial Christians build wealth
How Christians build wealth with real estate
How Christian women build wealth
Find a specific subgroup of people that you can speak to more directly.
Do some keyword research on your own to see what’s already out there. You should be doing this before you hit the record button. Find a more niche video idea that has the chance of being seen by more of your target audience.
PRO TIP:
See what is popular. If you find someone talking about something similar to your message, watch his videos for inspiration. Also, dive into the brand YouTube channel and make a note of what type of videos they’ve already created. Doing this will help you figure out what your shared audience might be interested in, and it prevents you from replicating the same content as someone in your industry.
4. Drive engagement with quality content
The next step to optimizing your YouTube channel for keywords is to create engaging, excellent video content.
The most relevant factor in YouTube’s algorithm is engagement.
YouTube wants to rank the most helpful videos. It makes perfect sense that YouTube will assume videos with the most watch time, likes, comments, and engagement are the videos most helpful to the people watching them.
The point is that high-quality video content is a must. You won’t be able to game the system by creating poor-quality videos with well-optimized metadata. YouTube knows if your content is valuable or not, so don’t skip out on the process.
To grow your brand on YouTube, be sure to follow those optimization strategies.
5. YouTube Favors Consistency
Here comes a tough one - how to constantly be posting on YouTube.
YouTube admits that it will favor accounts that post videos three times per day over ones that post three times per month. I know, it's a little much.
Look, if you plan on making YouTube your #1 platform, then you'll need to get to posting three videos per day eventually. How? Easy.
You record yourself reading one of your blog posts.
The full-length video is 1.
You find two smaller "golden nugget" points that you can edit from the main video, and there you have 2-3 more pieces of video content.
When I started my first YouTube channel, I was consistent. I posted every single week beginning in February 2018. But I stopped being consistent in less than a year.
So what happened to me? As an entrepreneur, I tend to be a creative thinker. That means that I have numerous interests, and they tend to change frequently over time. When they do change, I become inconsistent, and that puts a bad mark on my brand.
My advice to you is to keep showing up and show up as YOU. With a personal brand, others invest their time in you as a person, so you could quickly pivot your channel to align with your interests without losing subscribers.
Yes, some people go viral within months, but that's not normal. Consistency is the only ingredient in the YouTube algorithm that will lead to tribal followers willing to buy products and services from a video content creator.
God needs you to simply show up in video content sharing your message with the marketplace. He will reward your dedication and commitment. That's enough for Him to bring you many opportunities, be it new clients, new customers, investors, or press coverage. You don’t need YouTube fame for God to bless you— you need to be consistent with your video content.
6. Collaborations with Godpreneur YouTubers
If you want your God-First personal brand YouTube channel to thrive, one of the best-proven methods is to collaborate with other Kingdom-minded video content creators.
Go out of your way to interview other Godpreneurs for your channel. However, also consider doing video campaigns with others in your same space.
For example, if two of you are talking about Christians building wealth, what could God do through the both of you to inspire a video series together? God's math is always 'two is better than one.'
God's goal of collaborating is to create in a way that will help both tribes.
7. Promoting your YouTube Channel
If you want to build your Christian personal brand on YouTube, you need to do more than simply create content.
You also need to promote your content.
How do you go about doing this? There are many ways.
Share on Social Media: I recommend sharing the YouTube link on social media instead of uploading the video directly to other social media platforms. I share my videos on personal accounts, business pages, and inside of relevant groups. LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook...I'm sharing ALL of them.
Blog: write a blog post about your video. Share it on your blog and other Christian business blogs (like DailyGodpreneur.com)
Newsletter: I send my videos out to my mailing list and ask for their support in liking, sharing, and commenting on my video. I tell them that it helps the message spread further. I enlist them in the quest to share my news globally.
YouTube Advertising: If one of your videos is doing well, don’t be afraid to throw some money at it and advertise your YouTube channel. Your brand is an investment in yourself. The money you spend now could result in hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in the future.
8. Monetize your YouTube channel
I saved the best for last. And listen up because this part is crucial.
When you are hyper-focused on one group of people, God rewards you with dedicated followers to compensate for your teaching and guidance. That's Biblical.
Romans 4:4 says, "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due."
You don't monetize your YouTube by selling ad space. That's not the strategy.
Since we're speaking to a niche audience with our message, we can create a product or service specifically for that audience to sell through our YouTube channel.
That is how you create a situation where your wage is DUE to you.
For example, I talk a lot about Christian personal branding with specific keywords around that topic. Then I offer a chance for people to step into my Godpreneur Academy yearly membership.
Furthermore, my videos result in more clients for my branding agency because people would rather hire my firm to do their branding instead of themselves on their own.
You have a message to share. God wants that message to spread. God wants to reward you for your work. Be smart. Create a situation where you can provide your highest, most unique gifting and call to those trusting enough to work with you. Their spirit is aligning with yours. Help them take the next step by working with you.
When you have a defined message for a specific audience, you can create products and services to sell through your videos.
With this methodology, you can grow a business by using YouTube as an outlet that spreads your message and, in return, promotes your products or services.
Conclusion
Building your Christian personal brand on YouTube is a lot of work. The intimidating part is being consistent. It takes time, dedication, and devotion. If YouTube is going to be your central channel, get ready to step into the life of what our pastors have to do weekly - prepare a message for every single Sunday.
Video content is one of the best ways to build authentic relationships with your tribe of followers.
It’s time to share your message and grow your Christian personal brand on YouTube. I’m recommitting to create more video content as well.
A YouTube following has so many benefits. You can use it to share your calling, grow your business, leverage your wisdom, and even build a speaking career.
Either way, you should start investing in YouTube.
A year from now, you’ll wish you started today.
P.S. I did a Business bible study called 7 Steps to Launching Your Christian Personal Brand. Check it out:
This business Bible study will help you launch a God-first personal brand that will help you strategically, financially, and personally.
Developing your personal brand starts with launching something new and completely different from what you already have.
Also, coaches and Christian business leaders, you can use, edit, and repurpose the teachings for your own tribe! Check it out.