How Joe Robinet Bought Two Houses From Making YouTube Videos
You’ve probably never heard of Joe Robinet.
But Joe has 1.5 million YouTube subscribers as of this writing in August 2023 and he's a perfect example of how the entertainment industry is bigger than Hollywood.
Joe’s a Canadian outdoors enthusiast who took his love for the outdoors onto YouTube and built a brand for himself that generates enough revenue to sustain a great life for him and his family.
As Joe shares during this interview conducted in a fort he built by hand, he has been able to use YouTube revenue to fund the purchase of two homes for his family.
Like I said, you may not have ever heard of Joe, but the entertainment industry is big enough for you to not know him and for him to still make enough money to pay for a house for him and his family and then later move and upgrade to a bigger house.
You might think you have no interest in a story of a guy camping in the woods, but trust me, there are lots of people (myself included) among his 1.5 million subscribers who never would have thought they’d spend their time watching camping videos.
So give Joe’s interview a watch and you might learn something about how to use YouTube to build your own revenue-generating brand, as well as learn something about yourself that you didn’t know.
Here’s an index of some of the parts of the interview you may find particularly interesting:
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17:40 - Discussion of YouTube monetization
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20:50 - Talks about buying his first house with YouTube money
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25:30 - Talks about the springboard that really launched his channel
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27:10 - Discussion of YouTube restrictions and how they can affect your revenue
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56:00 - Talks about the importance of making the show that YOU want
Make Whatever Show You Want
Many people will be turned off by the length of the interview.
That’s okay. You’re not the audience for it.
Joe has 1.5 million subscribers who are the audience for it to the tune of him being able to buy two houses from YouTube revenue.
That means there is an audience for long-form videos.
Joe has experimented with making shorter videos and found that his fans prefer the longer format.
Joe routinely posts two-hour videos that half a million or more people watch from start to finish.
So this notion that nobody has an attention span anymore is just a fallacy.
YouTube Respects Your Time
If you make a quality show for a niche audience, your show can be as long as it needs to be and your audience will watch every minute of it.
There are plenty of people like me for whom online shows are better than television shows.
Online shows just respect my time in ways that television never has and never will.
The TV Hour
An hour-long online show is an hour of content.
And hour-long TV show is 42 minutes of content and 18 minutes of commercials.
18 minutes of commercials!
The overwhelming majority of online videos are nowhere near 18 minutes long.
But on television, you have to sit through 18 minutes of commercials to watch your favorite show.
And you have to do it on the schedule of the TV network.
Truly On Demand
Online shows are available 24/7/365 and you don’t have to create a separate account to watch this channel and another account to watch that channel. One account gets you access to everything.
And I can watch part of it now and watch part of it later.
So, as Joe said, create the show you want.
There are millions of people who share your interests and they will tune in, if you create a quality show and publish it consistently.
Talk Show In The Woods
They are doing a talk show in the woods!…under a shelter that Joe built by hand!
That ought to eliminate any excuses you have for why you can’t get started with your cooking show.
Talk Show In The Kitchen
The only thing stopping you from doing this is you.
You don't need anyone's permission.
And you don't need a commercial kitchen!
Ever heard of Julia Child or Martha Stewart or B. Smith? They did not host their cooking shows in commercial kitchens.
If you have a commercial kitchen, by all means, use it.
But if you don't have one, do not try to use that as an excuse for why you don't have a cooking show because you do not need a commercial kitchen to teach people how to cook in their home kitchen.
Passive Income
Joe has built a real business, meaning it generates revenue while he sleeps.
Once each video is made, it becomes a passive income generator, indefinitely.
Additionally, Joe has created his own merchandise that he provides links to in the video description.
Selling merch is a tried and true passive income strategy.
Joe also gets sponsorships, from time to time, which is an opportunity that becomes available to anyone who puts the work in to build a niche audience.
Sponsors will pay you to get in front of your niche audience.
You just have to build your audience.
Learn from real world examples how to use video marketing to grow your business!
Joe Literally Built His Audience
Here’s the complete series where Joe built the fort they’re sitting under for the interview:
This fort-building series is a compressed example of how Joe was able to build his revenue-generating brand.
He did it over time, one video at a time.
Consistency is Joe’s strategy for success.
That’s the same strategy that you’ll find in all successful people.
Consistency can be your strategy for success, too.
You just have to (1) get going and (2) keep going.
Consistently.
You Don’t Have To Be Good
You just have to start.
Joe made lots of mistakes and got much better over time.
That’s how it works.
You can’t get better unless you get started.
Experience is how you get good at something.
Waiting is how you get good at missing opportunities.
If you’re waiting until you feel like you can make a perfect video, you will never make a single video.
If Joe had waited until he could make a perfect video, he’d be somewhere working a day job instead of being out in the woods living his dream life.
The Easy Money That Joe Is Leaving On The Table
Joe would massively benefit from implementing the subscription business model by hosting a paid membership community.
Joe has 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube.
- 1% of 1.5 million = 15,000
- 1/3 of 1% of 1.5 million = 5000
If 1/3 of 1% of Joe's YouTube subscribers were willing to pay him $20/mo for additional access, that equals $100,000 PER MONTH (5000 people * $20/mo each = $100,000/mo = $1.2M/year).
That's the power of a subscription model business. You don't need massive numbers for it to be extremely profitable.
Premium Subscription Model
But let's say Joe doesn't want to host a community of 5000 people and he instead wants to deliver a premium experience to far fewer people.
With his 1.5 million subscribers, here are different ways that Joe can make $1 million per year:
- 1000 people willing to pay $100/mo
- 500 people willing to pay $200/mo
- 200 people willing to pay $500/mo
- 100 people willing to pay $1000/mo (or $10K/year)
- 50 people willing to pay $2000/mo (or $20K/year)
If you think the $2000/mo people are not out here, open your eyes and look around.
There are people who are just like Joe all around you, except they've figured out how to build their seven-figure business and they're collecting every penny of it.
For them, life is now about the enjoyment of life and if outdoor adventures is their thing, then paying $24K/year to hang out with Joe and other affluent outdoor enthusiasts is a no-brainer.
In fact, these kinds of clubs are where business relationships get formed and business deals get done, so not only is the membership fee a tax write-off, but the membership lead to them making even more money.
Poverty Mindset
Joe comes from humble beginnings, like most of us.
So charging $2000/mo to people just to teach them how to do something that comes so natural to him is probably something that Joe wouldn't be able to wrap his head around.
That's true for most people and that's why most people who do the work to put themselves in a position like the one that Joe has put himself in will never make the money that they're capable of making because they will never ask for it.
The will never create a product for the $2000/mo customer to purchase, so they'll never get the $2000/mo customer.
Don't let that be you.
If you don't want to offer a premium service because you don't want to deliver that level of service, that's fine.
But do not avoid offering a premium service because you don't think anyone can afford it because that's just not true.
You may not be able to afford to live in the most expensive neighborhood in your city, but that neighborhood is full of people who can.
Don't make the mistake of pricing your products and services based on what you can afford because you are not your target customer. Real estate agents who sell multi-million dollar houses do not live in multi-million dollar houses.
Exclusivity Is Something That People Value
And they'll pay any price for it, including a price you just made up out of thin air.
Some people just want something just because everybody can't afford it, as demonstrated by this marketing prank that Payless Shoes pulled a few years ago:
Build a Subscription Model Business and Have a Premium Option
Joe can make $2 million a year by offering both a $20/mo option for regular people and a $2000/mo option for the people who want to pay for exclusivity.
All of that money is sitting on the table for Joe to pick up at any time.
And not knowing that the money is there or how to pick it up is how so many creators end up building massive audiences and not making any money.
Obviously, Joe is making money because he's been able to buy TWO houses.
But the money he's leaving on the table is "generational, my kids and grandkids will never have to worry about money in life" money.
I don't think Joe would be leaving that money on the table if he know how simple it is to pick it up.
Now that you know the power of a subscription model business, make sure you incorporate the subscription model into your YouTube business plan.
By the way, you learn how to do this in my Celebrity Chef Masterclass. Click here for more information.
Additional Reading
