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Tim Wilborne is an Industrial Automation YouTuber and a part of the Manufacturing Champions group on LinkedIn with GailNow!
He runs TW Controls with Amber, with whom he shares a passion for helping people reach their goals.
The mission of TW Controls is to teach people how to think, to work through problems AND to improve troubleshooting skills.
Tim also does in-person teaching and he has been tapping into the POWER of YouTube and he loves to share how to rock that platform – which was part of the interview with GailNow!
Tim and Amber work together, parent together and live together – and YouTube together!
YouTube is where Tim learned how to Show UP… with over 50,000 subscribers on YouTube!!!
He also wants to help others increase their skills, so that they will always be in demand.
In the interview, Tim talked about automation and also how he has leveraged social media – and beaten down a few trolls!
Tim also talks about the many JOB opportunities in automation.
You don’t want to miss this show!
Check it out!
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Speaker 1 0:00
And really I always say I’m the accidental YouTuber because I, you know, really we we build ul 508 A control panels we do PLC training. And, you know, we used to sell some with some smaller products and you know, sometimes they were a little bit you know, just like everything tactical is a little difficult to you know, understand how to use so I started putting videos out there, hey, here’s how to use this device, the same product videos everybody does. And not only one day I was you know, I was looking because, you know, like I said, most people don’t realize Yeah, one I should back up a little bit everybody. First of all guys, I’m camera shy if you didn’t know it. If you don’t know what that you should just hit the record button I am camera saw. And so really, I was looking at it one day, I’m like, why are people watching this video? And it’s like, oh, well, this, I guess it was informed of, you know, nevermind, it was not a good product video, it was just, hey, here’s some good information about a product. And so I started just realizing, hey, you know, maybe I can carve out a niche and just giving people information, you know about automation? So that’s kind of how I stumbled into it. Or how do you want to go?
Gail 1:13
No, that is great. And I would encourage people to go check out some of Tim’s YouTube videos, which I have done. And I didn’t know exactly because, you know, we’re in a manufacturing mafia group. And I see Tim and that, but I didn’t really know exactly, I know you did something to do with panels and stuff. But I went and watched the videos, I’m like, Oh, it was really interesting. Because obviously, you do a great job on organizing your videos. And clearly, you’ve been doing this for a while to see you have your videos organized, you have great titles on them. So I was able to learn that they were to an engineer and a technician. That was fascinating, the car analogy. So I would encourage people even that are listening from the manufacturing world to go check out some videos. And because let’s just talk a little bit before we get into the YouTube side about you really talk about you know, the technician side, which is being a troubleshooter. Can you just talk a little bit about that for any of the operations people listen again? So
Speaker 1 2:12
yeah, the bulk of what we do is really field troubleshooting. You know, so we’re not as much, you know, we we will kind of design panels in some cases, but usually, somebody’s already engineered a panel, we’re building it, installing it somewhere. And then yeah, when it doesn’t work, we’re the ones they call to figure out why it doesn’t work. And yeah, that particular video there, I was trying, you know, and there’s, you know, talking about storytelling, we could probably go on a long rabbit trail about it is really, you know, I get so frustrated because people do well, we sent them to a programming school and they still don’t know how to troubleshoot. And I like where in that class that say troubleshooting. And yeah, so I do believe that is kind of the nice that we are in. So yeah, you have automation. You’re right. And you and I are both there. But yeah, we don’t we definitely are in two different lanes. But even then, yes, we’re into the control panels and all that. But even then, yeah, we want to help you keep your existing machines running. That’s kind of where we’re at. Okay, I
Gail 3:18
love that. And I love this is why I think you’re also doing well on YouTube, you are able to explain that so succinctly as to what you do, because, you know, people who have who have a niche, that’s also where they do really well. So congratulations on that. So I know a lot of people were getting a little bit of feedback. I don’t know if that’s me or Okay, anyways, well, since there we go. So let’s talk about YouTube. And you’ve been on YouTube for quite a while now. Can you talk about now we talked a little bit for and I know you’ve been on you started your first okay, we’ll just say you had your first video some back, we’re back around 2007. But really your channel started? When When would you say when you’re putting a flag in the ground of a date?
Speaker 1 4:06
Oh, well, with the channel that I have today. 2014 I did have a previous channel. And you know, it was one of those. It was a company channel and that’s what people did then. And I was a little scared at first I’m like, can I just make a channel just call it me. And really just build, you know, hey, and for a long time, all that video started. Hi, this is Toby but because it’s like I don’t want to be TW controls. I don’t wanna be any of that. I just want to be a guy that will help you out with with it. But as far as that that channel started in 2014.
Gail 4:40
Okay. US also said something really interesting there about just starting out as you and that’s how I actually started on Twitter. That was probably my first I started back in just around 2007 Eight on Twitter and decided yes, just and that’s how I got Gail now actually was I couldn’t think of a name and I said well I Need something now I was getting ready to go to a trade shows I said Gail now, and then I thought, oh, I can change it later.
So when you decided to go into So would you say YouTube was more just you kind of drifted into it as opposed to a business plan or how your
Speaker 1 5:22
business plan? I mean, no, it was absolutely positively there was no plan for it. I mean, people asked me, you know, what, you know, because that’s the firt. You know, YouTube has certain things, you know, you got to get to 100 subscribers, you got to get to 1000 subscribers, you got to get to 10,000 subscribers, 100,000 subscribers, we will Oh, how do you get your first 1000 subscribers? And I’m like, I don’t know, because I had about 4000 before I figured out where to go look at your subscriber account. But no, I mean, really, we were trying to sell products, like a lot of people are. And we just had some really horrible product videos. So just the product, and me talking through how to use that. That was really unsettled. We were we were probably into maybe what I was, say 2014. That’s kind of when all of a sudden I decided that. So the 2000 We’ll call it 2009 to 2014 was more of just a No, there wasn’t even a business plan.
Gail 6:23
So it’s testing the waters, I guess is Yeah, yeah. Now one of the things you suggested to me and I have started that, because I do believe that, you know, the best time to start is like now you just, and that was the firt that was one of the videos I did yesterday, is that the best time to start on anything? And often you have to start even before you’re ready. So you had suggested doing, I think you said 300 videos, just get 300 videos. Now, I know that might have been let’s talk a little bit about that. For people that are listening today. If they are thinking about YouTube, what would be the and maybe they have some other social media, let’s assume that they’ve got some of their social media under their feet, they’ve, and they’re ready to take it to the next level, what would you recommend?
Speaker 1 7:10
hit the record button? I mean, I know that sounds really simple, but really hit the record button. And necessarily, don’t don’t worry about the mic. Don’t worry about you know, the background, don’t worry about anything. Don’t worry about having the right camera, everybody has a phone, it has a record on it. Just hit the record button. And that’s I may have said 300 in really it probably is 100 at least but just start putting videos out because it’s gonna do two things. One, you know, I talked a lot of people about this. And probably 20 videos in a lot of people are going to sign this. This isn’t for me, because I think people think it’s just you magically posted and everything just happens. And it doesn’t really work that way. You know, also to hit the record button just because it got a gala, you can go to Easter egg. If you go and find my first video is still on YouTube, I will not tell you where it is. But um, I might give somebody a prize if they find my first video.
Gail 8:13
Oh, now you really made it a challenge. I know you say a prize, I think game on
Speaker 1 8:20
horribly awkward in it. And I mean, like horrifically awkward. If you look at me in 2009 I’m just as awkward, you know, because I’ve only put out probably 20 videos sets and you look at me even at you know, say 2013 It still is I mean, it’s you know, if I had just sit there and just drop video after video, you know, just whatever I know, well, what’s the word whatever, not whatever, but just started trying it. I could have honed all this in a whole lot quicker and when figured out whether what to do it or not. But also probably the more important one is figuring out really, what audience do you want to serve? Because you and I we’re in the same industry broadly. But obviously we’re in two very different narrow niches. And so you’ll start to define that and really, my my initial videos did not serve my audience as far as technicians and, and I wasn’t happy. I really wasn’t happy. And all of a sudden, you know, I found them when you know, I’m like, Oh, I found my people here this is where I want to be.
Gail 9:31
Well, it’s it’s much like anything else in networking or even. I mean even when you’re starting out in any business, right? You have to sometimes do some trial and error and throw some stuff out. Right? I mean it it’s very rare you hear that, you know work you did. Like I was a reporter in a past life. And if you went back and looked at some of my initial articles, I’d probably be horrified to write you know, it was like, Oh, that was a little news. Ooh, that was not a If that was kind of a, I mean, luckily, I always say, thankfully, in newspaper business, we had editors. And I still I bow down to editors because they, they do such a wonderful job and, and you know, I’ve been in an editing role too. So it’s always easier to edit someone else’s to a so in terms of now what you’re doing so for again, let’s go back you talked about you were just you were doing some videos did but you didn’t do very many videos in those early days was it?
Speaker 1 10:32
You know, and have to go back and look but my wild guess between 2007 and 2013 I’d say 75 to 100 videos, okay. So very sporadic. Very you know, I thought everyone had to be perfect. And Emily, it takes a long time to make perfect video, especially in our industry. I’m I don’t have your talent or gift, you know, as far as being in front of the cameras.
Gail 11:01
Well, I see now I look at you, I think you have great talent, I watch your videos, you’re entertaining, you have humor. So see, again, this is where I just did a video today talking about what can we learn from Ted lasso in manufacturing marketing, which is Be curious, not judgmental. And it’s not just judgmental of others. It’s we judge ourselves, like much more harshly than we’d even judge other people. We actually think oh, we don’t you know, look, right. Yeah, we No. Background is not good. Yeah, now we have let’s go to a couple of comments because we do have Yep, so we are, which is very I think LinkedIn this is all the universe is unfolding as it should because now we need to do more talking on YouTube. So everybody go to my YouTube channel and go to Tim’s today. It is funny that LinkedIn of all times today this is the first time my live I’d say that LinkedIn. So thank you. So yeah, oh, wait a minute. Katie says I can’t wait to learn more about you to me. I hope to be here one day, they
Speaker 1 12:11
go ahead and hit the record button as soon as you get off of here and just make a video.
Gail 12:15
There you go. Okay, what’s our next one is that now she wrote up GTG now Gee, I don’t know if that got Okay, gotta go but I don’t think so. No, she’s laughing then she says Oh, you can check out my first videos too. So darn embarrassing. I bet you they’re not I think they’re probably endearing. There’s a difference. I think it’s me that’s getting flat on I’m like getting
that’s good. I went on. There we go. Okay. Let’s go to sorry and girl snap. So I’ll let you so I just washed my feet geologists on YouTube yesterday where he talked about when he first went live and how things have changed and what a large audience he’s has checkout present there and then she said the prize gala had to go leave to
Speaker 1 13:28
impress to someone five. I’ve left it there and it’s one of those it’s like, Oh, wow. Have you know you’re talking about wind and I staked my flag in YouTube? Well, there you go. I could still say it was 2007.
Gail 13:45
Okay, well, and now you have a privacy now you created a whole buzz about this. Fun now you must fight and I bet you I bet you that I will find that it’s endearing. Not as bad as what you think because I have there was only once I remember having a I’ll just say there was someone that said they didn’t show up well on photos. And that was someone that I had worked for. And I looked at the photo after it came back was we were doing headshots and I came when I said yeah, no you don’t do you don’t look good in a photo and people say you said that to him. And I go Yeah, and I said that’s why after that he knew he could trust me because I wasn’t blessing him. I’m like, No, you really do and in real life he presented so well. Was that person didn’t didn’t look in photos. So okay, um, I’m going to Okay, let’s see. Okay, so that is all let me see. I’m going to check here. Okay, so anchor See, I’m having microphone issues. It says mic but the mic is plugged in.
Speaker 1 14:54
You’re good now that I think that was when all of a sudden you went quiet for a little bit when you’re moving?
Gail 14:57
Yeah. Okay, so I’m good now, but I hearing feedback, which is are you hearing any feedback?
Speaker 1 15:02
No, you sound great. Okay, with that it’s a good time to say, Hey, don’t worry about those little things when you know, it’s because, you know, I’ll tell a story of myself the first time I went live, because, you know, I am I am severely camera shy. I mean, people were surprised that but I had, I was all set up to do a quick panel build, I’m like, I’m gonna do live. And I sat there and stared at the button for an hour. What it’s like, well, what if this goes wrong? What is this? And I finally did it, and it went fine. And then so else, I’m like, Oh, well, this works well. So when loved the next time the power went out. So don’t worry about all these things ever, you know, you’ll find it? Well, here’s the most important thing, once you start really finding your audience, your audience is gonna mind this thing. So they appreciate what you’re doing, you know, and they appreciate the content that you’re providing to them. And, you know, if, if there’s, um, and ah, or, you know, you fumble through your words, as long as you are helping them, then they’re not going to care.
Gail 16:11
Yes, and one of the things I love about live is that things happen just like that. And the reason I do address it is sometimes I’m like, Okay, I want other people to know, it’s okay to do that, too. And it’s okay to just, you know, it’s almost like if something goes wrong, I’ve learned this from public speaking, like, say something happens in the room. Like, don’t pretend it didn’t happen, but you got to address it like someone’s FOMO. You know, umur is always good, too. Yeah. Now we have here someone I don’t know if this is someone you know, Devin Cortez. Thanks for doing this. I started in the food industry. And now I’m doing electrical engineering for the metals industry starting to learn PLC programming soon. Wow.
Speaker 1 16:52
Good, Devin. Well, we’ve got some helpers to help you out with that. So check them out.
Gail 16:57
Yes, I love that. You have videos that that are? Oh, thank you, manufacturing hype girl, your audience will understand even help out love is real life. That is for sure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. In terms of how to let’s go back to those videos that people have to get started on or need to get started on now. What do you you said, have a phone, any any other tips you’d give to get started?
Speaker 1 17:33
I mean, really, just I mean, I can’t say it enough. But just hitting that record button is that and you don’t need you don’t need an intro, you don’t need a you know, totally. So you don’t need to spend your logo or anything really just just hit it and try to connect with the audience try to relay something to the audience. And you know, one, figure out whether you like doing or not, but also then, yeah, who is the audience and keep narrowing it down to till you find really, those specific people that you really enjoy making videos for?
Gail 18:13
That is great, what you said about your audience. And I can say this as someone who works on a lot of content development. One of the things that’s always recommended is make sure you’re answering the questions that your audience needs to know the answer to not just what you’re trying to sell.
Speaker 1 18:34
Yeah, well and also especially as far as you to don’t go searching YouTube and being like, Okay, I like doing this particular thing, but this looks like it get more views. One forget about views, views don’t matter or the views out the window. But really make sure you make what makes your you make it something that really you have a passion for because yeah, okay, there’s lots of audiences out there but okay, if it’s something you’re miserable doing, there’s no need doing it. But yeah, make sure that you’re making you know, that you don’t get don’t go chasing views, you know, Chase chase that Yep. But answering that one person’s question. I always Oh, it’s the most embarrassing video I have. Now, I do regret making it. But a little bit more about how I actually defined who I am and everything is we were making these really strict how tos. And then Foley on made a video kind of along the same lines. It was like okay, here’s how to use my product, but then they’re like, hey, well, where do I download the software for this thing that your product connects to? So I made a video on how to download that software. And then finally somebody sent me a message and they’re like, Hey, I loved your video on how to download this can you make a video on control panels that isn’t so boring? And yeah, you know our industry it especially in 2015 ish. Yeah, that no, there was no way I. And so I wanted to learn how I did not know how to clip I didn’t know how to move, you know, mix clips, or any of that stuff the time and it’s like, well, I’m gonna use this as an opportunity plus, part of it was I did have the opportunity, we had a panel that they had, we had built, and then the project stalled. So I pretty much had a $20,000 boat anchor sitting in the shop. And so I decided to make the video. And now everybody calls it the dancing lady video, but it was a mix, it was my attempt to mix humor, and how to, and it really read it defined the way we do our videos after that, because it you know, I don’t know how many it has now, but it has at least 300,000 views now. And it was intended for one guy and it was a joke. So but that’s goes back to record, you know, hit the record button first time. And I would if you’d asked me the day before that, you know, would you ever make a video like that? I’d be like, Nah, what for?
Gail 21:02
I liked that you said to you know, you made it one person. And you were having fun with it? Because those are the ones sometimes that will take off. And I learned that our tick tock,
Speaker 1 21:12
yeah, we have had some good discussions about tick tock.
Gail 21:16
And there is a bit of a correlation between tick tock and YouTube in the sense of sometimes you just have to hit record, I have a lot of videos in my drafts, because I start doing that I go low, but then later, I’ll post it. And this is this is a joke of people in tic tac toe, let’s say, Oh, I’m cleaning up my drafts. Right. So and the ones that are most natural, those do well on tick tock. But my goal on tick tock is different than my goal on YouTube as is the audience, right, the audience are different. And just like the audience on LinkedIn is different than audience on on Twitter. So yeah, it’s helpful to to know that. And I think when you’re looking at YouTube, one of the things that you do well, is the idea of education, as well as promotion. Can you maybe talk about that for people in manufacturing, they’re listening, you know, I work in mold making but as well as automation. So the educational side of things? How important is it to do that? And, you know, hitting that record button and then educating? Well,
Speaker 1 22:31
before that I was somebody else I was talking to about, I think I have three videos, where I actually say that I run a panel building company, and that is what we do. You know, you don’t necessarily have to throw a pitch into everyone. I mean, realistically, the magic rollin there is, since the magical is the golden rule they say is about 20% of them should be a pit. So you got 80% out there to really connect with your audience and give them some information to, you know, help them. I mean, we’re here live here. And yeah, there’s two traders in the background. It doesn’t does somebody can figure it out. Yeah. Okay, that is the company and you don’t need to do that. So then just start trying to figure out, okay, how can I help them? How can you know what is something I can teach them? And then for me, and I do think this is something that’s unique to me, I’m not saying it’s good or bad as I try to make sure I’m right on their level and learning with them. And so I just recorded a video on the strainer. That’s why it’s sitting here, and then how to do it when I hit the record button. So literally, it is me learning with you how to do something. And yeah, I leave it in there. I’m like, Oops, that didn’t work. But a lot of people comment on it. They’re like, Hey, thanks, I did the same mistake and your video helped me figure out how to fix my mistake. So try to be as genuine as possible and just help them you know, for us, our thing is helping you get to the next level as a technician and helping you become a better technician. So it’s just what can I do to help you to get to that next step?
Gail 24:16
Well, and as I said, What I loved about your your channel too is that even for someone like myself that works in marketing, so often I’m looking to learn about different aspects of manufacturing. And I learned some things from your channel and I think that’s also helpful because sometimes what I hear in certain areas when I’m talking about sharing content is they go well, everybody knows that. Let’s talk about that.
Speaker 1 24:47
I have a great series getting ready to come out and it does not fit now we’ve got a couple of posts about it but I was at Phoenix Contact the other week. And I I felt like I’m pretty a pretty good panel builder, but I learned so much up there. And really, and that was our big thing is, let’s break this down into some really basics that anyone can understand. And I mean, I mean simple things. It’s like a circuit breaker. It’s like, I thought I knew how it worked on, he got explained. And I’m like, Man, I just never. I never knew any of that. So never assume. And you do hear that in our industry? You know, as you already know, it’s like not to act like I don’t know, because then I found out, I guess I didn’t know this stuff.
Gail 25:37
And the same thing happens in marketing, you know, there is so much to learn. And it changes, you know, I find those things like, oh, wait a minute, you know, when I learned I follow course, we’ll do a shout out to Jay Cole, because we actually met through Jay Cole, and, you know, watching and learning from him. I mean, he is a machine like, and his generosity of time and sharing is just, it’s amazing. And so like you said, there’s Okay, let’s back up a step. When people are searching for things, and they’re coming to you to, it’s not only people that you may be selling to, can you maybe talk about that about who’s coming and how that is important to get also people that may be coming to learn other decision makers in the company, shall we say? Yeah,
Speaker 1 26:32
yeah, that’s probably the most important part about as far as why we at least initially started our hell to we’ll call it the How to videos, is no one comes to YouTube, and it’s gonna search and you’re gonna have the magic product that they’re looking for. People Search YouTube now? Well, in our industry now, yes, people searched YouTube to check out cute kittens and do all types of things that are industry for the most part, if they’re searching YouTube, they have a problem. And so my goal of mine is really, how can I help them with that problem that day? And I’m not going to get a sell out of that, you know, then they’re gonna search again. Oh, there’s that guy. Yeah. And he has the answer again, and then you’re gonna search again. And then my hope is that, they’re like, hey, you know, I need some better I need, I need some better skills, I’ve really got to up my game. Let’s go call that guy and see if see, we get in one of his training sessions, or, Hey, he keeps using the same device, and I’ve got my way that takes 10 times longer, I’m gonna go ahead and buy one of them. But yeah, it’s a lot. You know, it’s YouTube is a long game. And I think that’s why I think that’s why they’re going back to whatever, as throughout their 300 videos, 100 videos, is so important, because, you know, there is no magic return. And you’re gonna, you’re you’re talking sometimes years, you know, but now, I will say that. I would say a tremendous portion of the people that buy from us in some way have found us on YouTube, or I’ve seen us on YouTube, it’s probably the better term for. So I, and that’s where I don’t almost actually I was with, I was in a class not too long ago, trying to, you know, my YouTube game. And that’s one of the biggest critiques I had was you don’t have any sales videos. And they’re right, you do need a few. But for the most part, if you’ll help the person out, they’re gonna remember you later on. And if they go and they keep searching, and you keep showing up, then they’re gonna be like, well, let’s go check out this guy’s website. You don’t need to say, hey, check out my website. You know, I mean, actually, you don’t even need that. I know I shouted out the subscribe just because of like, Yeah, everybody goes to scrap because that’s part of what this is. You don’t need to shout subscribe, you don’t need to sit out all those things. You just need to help the whoever it is with the thing that they’re searching for.
Gail 29:02
And, and yes, I agree. If you’re going to err on any side more in the education and on the sales. And you’re right, people will, will come to you. But just what you said about YouTube, I think applies to pretty much all social media, but it also applies in person because you don’t usually just go knock on someone’s door. You don’t go to a trade show and automatically why especially with the long timeframes for selling, you know, in manufacturing, so it’s rare that you’re going to just go to one trade show post one YouTube video or 10 videos. So I think the same applies that it’s the long game. But I don’t think it’s any different on social media than in real life.
Speaker 1 29:47
I don’t either. I love that. You mentioned the trade show because it really bothered me. I was at a trade show not too long ago and getting ready to go to another one a few weeks. And I just really think Anyone working on a trade champion should have to go to some type of let’s call it trade show sales class before and even it’s a crash course because I would walk into one and two, I mean, I do I wear this shirt, you know, this is what I was wearing. And first, it would be Brand X. And they’re like, so do you have an upcoming application for Brand X? It’s like you just left yourself with just a strict no, you love yourself, no way to go anywhere. And then they’d be like, so what does TW do? Like? Well, it’s me right now I’m at a trade show. So like, yeah, you know, some of them, you just wish they would work. Think a little bit further into that there’s one that one guy did do it well. And he he had obviously seen a post I made on LinkedIn saying, Hey, I’m at this trade show. I’m trying to figure this out. And he came up to me, he said, Hey, I saw your post, and I saw you’re trying to figure this out. I think I have something that may help you. Could I get up five minutes of your time now and he didn’t have what I need, but you better believe I remembered him. And I’ve reached out to him several times, we’ve kept talking and it out. Now we are three months later all sudden, I’m like, You know what he was talking about? I think I have something I can use? Or you know, so that’s where we you had to whether it’s in person trade show, YouTube or any of them? Yeah, you got to think a little? Well, all you got to think long term.
Gail 31:26
Thank you for sharing that story. That’s a really good real life example of, you know, how it works in real life and on social and I’m someone who comes from a background of before social, I mean, I did a lot of my living. Before, there was all this social media, I was a reporter, where we had to do a lot of research before there was Google. And now, when I’m on social, it’s the same, the same rules apply. And I think this is what gets missed. And people think there’s, you know, the magic wand, and I have to say, there’s no magic wand. It’s not like, you know, in real life, you do this, oh, on social media, just do one post and you’re gonna get business and and I’ve talked to a lot of people on the show, they’ve talked about, you know, people still are doing emails and cold calls. And, and I said, if you’re doing email, or if you’re doing emails, unless you’re doing email marketing the right way. And again, very few people, right? I mean, how many emails I don’t know how many you get, like, I get swamped. And what happens is
Speaker 1 32:34
Wednesday, on Wednesday, I’ll get 900 emails. So you better have a really good email if you actually want to get my attention.
Gail 32:45
Now, let’s talk about why Wednesday because you have every third Wednesday, you do is that because of your third winds,
Speaker 1 32:53
winds, Wednesday just seems to be the peak for an industry. I mean, we call it hump day. And if you look at our, if you look at our volume, and everything Wednesday is kind of where it is. So that’s yeah. Yeah, if you want to get a hold of me, you may want to send me an email on Saturday. Yeah.
Gail 33:12
Well, you know, what it’s important to get creative about reaching out through this is another good tip, as well. You know, go to where people are at if someone’s not that much, or that, you know, they’re getting snowed under with email, find them, I found a lot of success on DMS on Twitter, if they have that little mailer, I reach people out with sometimes it’s a LinkedIn. And sometimes I’m surprised I’ll send a message on LinkedIn, and they have nothing on their LinkedIn page. And they get back to me, it was like, cheese. I don’t even know if they were ever on here.
Speaker 1 33:46
Yeah, I know, you. And these were different ones. I think, you know, going back to the whole target audience, you know, my target audience on YouTube is obviously helping technicians, you know, helping you become a better technician, kind of that nice. You know, for me, LinkedIn is meeting you. In a meeting Jay Cole meeting, you know, there’s a lot of people there. But really, that’s what I mean, I love making those individual connections. So that’s, that’s a very, you know, good point that you may be. I may respond a lot quicker on that.
Gail 34:18
And it’s also how you’re sorry, you just made that comment too. But someone came up to you and they saw something on LinkedIn, they had a connection, they didn’t come up and just try to sell you something that you didn’t need. They were they had a legitimate reason to talk. I’ve met amazing people to listen to people on podcasts. I was on a, an event virtual event. This was back at the start of the pandemic. And that’s how I became friends with hearing Moser was that it was like a live show. And I commented, and then I found him on LinkedIn. And I think it was like, wow, she was actually a key event in comments. And I followed up and I needed his help with something and he said, he goes for you Gail, anything and I was like, what Wow, you know that’s now for those of you don’t know Harry Moser a heads up the reshoring initiative in the States, but he’s a big supporter to have reshoring talking about Canada as well. So
Speaker 1 35:11
yeah, well, you and I think that’s an important piece. You know, as far as connecting with people, I try, I try to do I try, you know, we all have set aside time for stuff. One thing I try to always set aside time was to find people that are doing a good job and just reach out to them say, Hey, you’re doing a great job. No strings attached. I’m just like, you know, you’re doing a great job. Keep it up. I appreciate all your hard work. You know, later on, I think that may be how Jay Cole and I actually had together I’m sure I did. I know Chris Granger. That’s what I did. I sent him a message. And it was like three months later, but you know, all of a sudden, it’s like, Hey, I got a question for you about this. And yeah, it’s, we, we, I think we do push the sales way too, too far to the front of a conversation.
Gail 36:02
Right? And it is about, you know, showing up, you showed up, I can still remember the day I got an invite into the manufacturing market. And I looked around I was like, me be like, what, and I don’t even know what this was. I was like, then I went and looked at Chico, I had been following him on like, like, Jay Cole was just kind of like I fangirled a bit over like Jay Cole was inviting me somewhere. But
Speaker 1 36:27
I remember my first message to you is, you know, keep curiosity. Awesome. I don’t remember word for word. But I remember you were the chief curiosity. Officer, the officer and I’m like, Well, what a great title. My Hey, great to meet you. That’s I love your title. I when I think somebody just said something about to get to stop the scroll and stand out. I can’t find it now. But yeah, that is it’s you know, doing that little thing. You know, just to make sure it’s not, you know, we don’t need to be louder. Sometimes it’s just being that little bit of, you know, just quality.
Gail 37:01
And I love that you don’t like you’re more of like, shot you don’t like being on camera. And yet, all of us watching your I would say the one word typical. You You’re extremely endearing. Like, which is such a compliment. Because you come across as just like someone, i i right away, I liked you. And I’m like, Oh, I could so see heaven sitting down having a beer with you or drink and just like kicking back and like having a few laughs and we’re going to talk about trolls in a minute. But that’s not the segment of our comments.
Speaker 1 37:36
We have 900 emails, I’ll tell you, not all of our positive.
Gail 37:41
I well, I would guess that but that’s the other thing when you are out there putting your neck out. Okay, not everybody’s gonna like you. So that’s the other thing as in life, as in life. Not always gonna like you. So you kind of have to get over all of that angst about you know, and for some of us, I don’t like that. I was like, Oh, that person, why are they but you gotta get past it. So let’s go back to some of our comments. I don’t know if where we left off in comments. Oh, so Devin, thank you. We watch lots of Tim’s it was very helpful. Yes. I’m gonna say this, go subscribe on that channel, because they are cool, even if you like, just go get some ideas of and I always look to see you know, how many likes how many views because it is kind of cool videos that got a lot of likes, and but there’s someone that didn’t get as much but that’s also I want to stress. It may be that you get 30 views, but out of those, it really resonated. So thank you. Who else do we have in the house here? Thank you, everybody for commenting. Okay, let’s see. You know who takes great advantage of YouTube? Oh, Dave Chrysler, the king of process. Chrysler. He got to meet him. He does show up and he also is on Tik Tok. He uses video a lot. Really great guy. Thank you, Katie for a shout out to our man Jake. See? Yes, micro content is awesome. Maybe we’ll come back and talk a little bit about that about my growth content. Those short shorts. Okay. Just like the kale t factor in action, Tim? Yes. No, like thrust. so valuable. It is. Yes, the kale tea. That is something Inger talks about a lot too, when she’s working with people on LinkedIn is it’s not just about having to, you know, bare your soul. It’s also about just talking about things that are important to you. It could be a motivational quote, it could be something that happened to you that day that I mean, I just did a post about cycling and steps. And I correlated that too, because I know like it made sense to me when I’m talking to process and how I got into cycling. It didn’t happen over Night, I can now do you know anywhere from 50 to 70 kilometers on a ride. If you had said that two years ago to me, I would have went No way. I found the process things and how I can enjoy it.
Speaker 1 40:13
Yeah. When it is so important just to kick this a hit that again on the know, like and trust, you know, the one thing I will do somebody somebody reaches out to me and it’s, it’s more of hey, do you especially do you want to collaborate? Do you want? You know, there’s some where it’s like, okay, who is this person? Yeah, I’m gonna go look up LinkedIn. And I’m, I’m not looking for quality. I’m looking for human nests. In other words, if everyone here perished as a product, I’m not interested, right, we’ll move on. But you know, even if it doesn’t have to be that, you know, you love cats, it can be simply that you know, you, you make some type of human comments, there’s obviously some you’re not, they’re just using one of the automated systems to make posts.
Gail 40:58
Yeah, no variety and consistency. So the next comment we have, I think, is from Katie, if you can reach if you can just reach one person that person’s reached goes further than yours. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That is, that is also important. I’m just gonna show that. And yes, Inger says, We must think long term, it’s always a long game. Yeah, for sure. And again, I can’t stress enough, just as in real life, it’s not that different. Katie did have to jump out. But I have to post that she said, Don’t be talking trash about email marketing. Now. Now, I was not not if it’s done properly. And Katie, we will have to talk with that. And maybe as a future guests will talk with email, because I do think email, there are emails I open up, there’s email, but not a lot of them like, Well,
Speaker 1 41:49
I mean, it’s something I can do, I need to do better. I know, I’ll acknowledge that part. You know, it’s, you know, I hear people all the time, all that, oh, well, you gotta grow your subscriber list. And like, okay, but when it gets I do besides just send out a bunch of emails. Go back to the, you know, if you can reach the one person, you know, if I could send an email to 10 people, and two of them, I could compare it to, you know, 10,000? Well,
Gail 42:16
again, it depends on your goals and who your market is, right? Because there’s, we could be doing so many things better. So and that’s, that’s, that’s the challenge. Yeah, I think that’s also important to address is that you can’t be everywhere, you can’t do everything. Unless you have a very large budget, a large team. And a lot of people think social media is free. But it’s not because it takes time. And I also heard something recently, they said, you know, YouTube isn’t so much a social media platform as a content platform. What are your thoughts on that statement? Um,
Speaker 1 42:52
I think it can, it can serve both audiences. Obviously, there are a lot of there. If you look at my daughter’s YouTube, the compared to my YouTube feed, she, you would look at hers. And absolutely, it is a social media platform. Everything you’d look at mine, it’s like, yeah, it looks pretty boring, and pretty hell too. You know, and it’s a content platform. And then we can mix it in shorts and long videos that are there to, you know, YouTube, but they have done really good at is trying to put the right video in front of the right person. And so if you’re, they’re looking for social type content, and you know, just continuously consuming that, they will feed that very well into you, you know, your recommended feed. Now, you’re using the search, you know, that’s what we’re of yes, at that point is a content platform where search works very well.
Gail 43:49
Yeah, no, it’s, it is it’s, you know, all of these various platforms, it’s all complicated. And yet, it can be simple. If we tend to overcomplicate things, I think that the other day, and I definitely find this in, in manufacturing, and I said that in my earlier videos that you know, the bar is set low, and that is not and I don’t mean that that’s not an attack or a hit or anything negative, it just means there’s so much opportunity to
Speaker 1 44:18
well, there’s there’s plenty of room for for more people, and I’ll say to help people, you know, the other product video on it, you’re gonna have another video with, you know, 20 views. That’s cool. But, you know, as far as really connecting and really helping people, there’s plenty of room to Vlad was soulless PLC, and I you know, we talk, you know, we obviously are both, you know, very parallel paths, but there’s room for both of us and we both actually serve a very different audience. You know, and that’s what I see. If our industry is yeah, there is a lot of room to hit, you know, a lot of different angles. And you know, and as far as you know, I do want to go to the bar are Canadian Bar commands to grip, the bar, the bar is either where’s the bar set in other cars you can that can be that can be interpreted several different ways. And what I see going back to me saying just hit the record button, I see too many companies trying to make the perfect Polish video. And again, that your human connection and has no human connection, you’re not going to connect with an actual human being. And so the bar is kind of set low, as far as don’t worry about to be imperfect, you know, I know honestly, I’m not a great editor. But also I leave mistakes in there, even as far as you know, you might see my hand here, and then you may see a jump over here. Part of this just so people want to see, you know, this guy’s human, he’s just sitting here. I mean, he didn’t know what I don’t have any others. My son helps me. You know, it is just me. Amber, do kids and Mary Bruce.
Gail 45:56
I love that. Well, we’ve talked today about we’ve definitely covered up the sign up, which is about mindset. And you know, what just decided you want to do this, the suiting up, which is the research and you know, getting comfortable, but really the showing up is that hitting that record button, and maybe you know, hitting that record button, even while you’re still doing some of the SUTA don’t wait until everything’s perfect. Let’s talk trolls though trolls are your specialty kind of covers so many stories, but and you know, because you have what, 47,000 subscribers, of course, you’re probably going to attract people who don’t agree with you. Can you have a favorite troll story?
Speaker 1 46:36
Well, before you have a favorite troll story that actually goes into my whole make 300 videos, because eventually the trolls are gonna get to you. And
Unknown Speaker 46:52
and I
Speaker 1 46:53
actually quit YouTube for a year, a lot of people don’t know that. But yeah, if you look at my video feed, there is a years gap there. And really, I didn’t, I’m one I am also soft hearted. I’m camera shy, and I’m soft hearted, which is a horrible combination for this industry. And, but really, they got to me, and finally was like, you know, it’s not worth making a video just to have, you know, it torn down. I mean, in really, you know, there’s a few I’ve got a couple, I’ve got a couple of posts coming where I’m gonna rip a couple people that are, you know, continuously doing it. Because, you know, people don’t realize even though, you know, a four minute video probably takes I mean, by the time I actually set things up and get ready and all that. I mean, you’re probably three or four hours. And, you know, it takes you 15 seconds that leave a bad comment. Yeah, and some of the comments come out so fast that I know that he makes a whole video. But, um, but anyway, the they did get to me and I really quit, you know, I quit doing YouTube. And when I got you know, every year we evaluate everything we do, I think it’s an important step. And, you know, one of them was on there as YouTube and I’m like, Well, I haven’t done this in a year. And really, I don’t see any value in it. And so it almost got deleted. And but I started reading through the comments and in there were a lot of bad comments, but there are a lot of good comments that really I had left hanging. And all of a sudden, I’m like, I forgot while while I was here. And that kind of got me the wheels rolling again and kind of okay, why am I here? What am I making videos for whom I’m making videos for? And, you know, so I started, you know, making some again, and kind of get back in the groove. And it was a really difficult haul to get the wheels turning on them again. And really, one thing I will say about trolls, first of all, there’s nothing wrong deleting a bad comment. I know there’s a lot of back and forth on that. And people are like, Oh, just ignore it. Well, that’s what I did. And you know, what I’ve learned is if you let trolls in, and invites more trolls, and more trolls, and I tell people all the time, I wouldn’t let you spray paint on the front of my house. Why would I let you spray paint on my on my channel? And so yes, for the most part, I do delete them, but also sometimes it’s just like, Okay, do you want to play that way I can play that way too. So I always take it you know, I always take it off you too. Usually you’ll find it over on LinkedIn and I’ll just posted I post them I also save a lot of them sometimes we do have a hater video and I just go ahead and read the hater comments and respond to them. But you know it goes back to why are you making videos and you know, and here’s where it gets really tricky because you know going through the phases first you’re gonna make videos just because you think YouTube’s fun and you know those first videos are really the kind of where that fun part out anyway and get you where you’re making videos for a target odd Yes. And then you’re you’re going to be making videos just because, okay, this is something someone asked for. And already, and at that point, you are inviting other like minded people who don’t like your videos. And so you’re gonna go through that. But I love that you’re the chief curiosity officer. Because if you ask me today, why do you make videos? Almost all my videos are something I’m curious about genuinely. And, you know, then that’s really, it happens to be that, you know, my audience, I am my audience I am I am just like them. And that’s where you get to end up landing is in that narrow, nice where your audience is? Really you to? Not almost say exactly you, but yeah, so really, someone asked me, in fact, this one hears about Modbus. I know, you don’t know what Botha says, but they were like, Hey, how do you deal with so Modbus? And like, well, you know, I have no idea. But I’ve always wondered that. And so then all of a sudden, it’s like, Ah, now now we’re ready to hit the record button. And so at that point, you know, I really enjoy video making videos, because hey, I’m learning something new. You know, it’s, you know, and yet I still do help someone with it. But the trolls, they never go away. And I’ll say they never quit hurting. And, you know, because I am, I’m soft hearted. So you’d never forgive him. But you know, I always I tell them ever all the time, I swear, it takes 10 Good comments to get rid of one bad one.
Gail 51:33
Tim, I’m so glad you shared that story. Because that is that is so heartfelt. And it really gives a good perspective about trolls, you know, and you know, beyond making light of it, it really is, it’s something and we have way too much of it now on social and that’s a whole other issues. I think people need to know that. You know, there’s ramifications when you’re when you’re mean, and just for like, because it’s sometimes it’s too easy to drop those mean comments. So I really would use sumo
Speaker 1 51:59
you, when I’m not not picking on manufacturing hype girl, but you look over that’s mainly hip action hype girl, that’s not a person. And you know, we do with the internet, all of a sudden, we have this wall where we don’t really you know, you gotta realize on the other end of every name, there is a person. I mean, even on the end of company X, you know, there is a person somewhere navigate in there that’s actually running that social media channel that’s having to deal with every comment that comes down. Right.
Gail 52:35
We’re coming up to the top of the hour. And thank you again for signing up suiting up and showing up. And one last question. How do you exercise your curious mind? Well, I guess I
Speaker 1 52:48
kind of just answered that. So yeah, I make YouTube videos.
Gail 52:55
Yes, I love that. Thank you, again, Tim, we might have to do a part two, at some point, getting into more some more tips on as maybe a follow up, we’ll do a critique of some of my videos after I’ve done it. And I would be open to that. Because I think it’s good to sometimes, you know, have a real live experience of I was going to show some videos today. But we didn’t have the time and I want to talk about the automation and the robots and others. There’s so much more we can talk about, but I’m gonna have you.
Speaker 1 53:27
I’m gonna make I want to make it up your way. We’ll get up either one of us to get across the border. And yeah, yes, we’ll have that beer.
Gail 53:32
Okay, I love it. Thank you, Tim. I’m gonna have you go to the green room. And I’ll do I’ll meet you in there in just a minute. Ah, what a great show today. I’m so happy that Tim Wilburn could be here and talking about YouTube. And I look forward to seeing you on my YouTube channel. So please go to jail now and I hope there were too many trolls. I hope we can just have some great comments, but I’m bracing myself now that you know as I get out there, I might have some trolls show up. And that might be okay, too. You know what sometimes we gotta take the good with the bad I guess. Also, I am on Tik Tok is Gail now and there’s all sorts of strange comments sometimes show up there. I’m on Twitter, and on LinkedIn. And where else can you go to my website so well, you can find me lots of places. But mainly what I’m most excited about every week on my show is bringing on amazing people with amazing stories and ideas to share. Tim is just one example of someone who’s doing that. So thank you, Tim. Thank you to the audience today for the comments for the networking. And we’ll see you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai