How To Get Started On YouTube As An Industry Expert: The Beginners Guide to Start Building Your Visibility & Authority with Vicki O'Neill

Want to build authority and get visible using video? As an expert ready to put yourself out there on YouTube, yet may feel stuck in overthinking or perfectionism, this is your step-by-step beginner’s guide.

In this week's episode, host Michelle B. Griffin is joined by Vicki O’Neill, CEO of KenKay Marketing and YouTube strategist, who shares how she went from hiding behind her mom’s leg as a shy child to now teaching others how to confidently grow their brand and visibility using YouTube.

In this episode, we cover: 

00:00 – Welcome + why video is your next best move
03:20 – Vicki’s story: From introvert to YouTube authority
06:45 – The mindset shift that helped her stop hiding
08:50 – Why YouTube is a powerful platform for experts
12:15 – First steps: Strategy + research (without overthinking!)
15:40 – The danger of perfectionism and how to overcome it
19:00 – Creating a realistic content plan (and sticking with it)
22:45 – The power of consistency and content batching
26:00 – Tools + tech you need to get started (spoiler: it’s simple)
30:00 – Finding video topics that attract the right audience
36:10 – Staying motivated, specific, and in your own lane
40:00 – Key takeaways + how to connect with Vicki

Whether you're just getting started or looking to be more consistent, Vicki shares practical advice, personal stories, and powerful encouragement to help you own your brilliance and show up boldly on YouTube.

Own Your Lane® Recognition Roadmap

Each episode of the podcast highlights one of the four steps of the Own Your L.A.N.E.® Recognition Roadmap, and today we focus on Elevating Your Authority by using YouTube to be seen, known, and trusted as a leading voice in your niche.

✨ L: Launch Your Vision – Follow the pull toward a deeper purpose
✨ A: Articulate Your Difference – Define your positioning in a crowded space
✨ N: Navigate Your Brand – Shape and share your brand online and offline
✨ E: Elevate Your Authority – Establish trust with audiences and open new doors

LINNKS
• Connect with Vicki O’Neill on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickioneill

• Free personal brand resources: https://michellebgriffin.com

🎙️Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for weekly episodes that help you get visible, build your brand, and Own Your Lane.®

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Transcript

 Welcome. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin. As an author, speaker, and certified personal brand and PR strategist, I'm here to empower you to get visible, build your personal brand, and own your lane as a visible brand authority and thought leader in your space. I'm super excited you're here. Now let's get going Well, welcome back everybody to another episode. I'm your host, Michelle B. Griffin, and today we are talking about if you are so ready to put yourself out there and put yourself out on video, which is where everyone seems to have their attention. Short form, video, YouTube, videos, you name it.

Putting ourselves on video is the first step to a deeper connection with those. We're here to impact. So I'm thrilled to welcome to the show Vicki O'Neill, who is a YouTube expert, as a CEO and founder of Kin K Marketing. She's on a mission and empower 1 million women to really go bolder, go bigger, and to show up on video.

So welcome to the show, Vicki. Thank you so much, Michelle, for having me. I'm looking forward to our conversation together. Absolutely. And I know I kind of touched on your story and who you are and what you do, but please share a little bit more so we can really understand and then we're gonna jump right in because a lot of what I'm asking today is a lot of what I need to know as well.

I love it. So a little bit about me. The question I get asked a lot is why you two? Why did you decide to, at this point in your life, focus on YouTube And I struggled with being on camera. In fact, I struggled with people looking at me when I was younger. Someone looked at me, I would cry, running behind my mom and like, you know, hold onto her leg for dear life.

So I was super shy. And then of course, over the years I got out of that shell, but. I learned early on that putting myself in uncomfortable situations was the path to growth, and so I wanted to make myself uncomfortable and do something that I didn't see a lot of other women my age doing. And then when I saw the benefits of that where I was.

Being able to, you know, get on more podcasts. As a guest I was, you know, asked, being asked questions like, how do you do that? How do you gain the confidence? So when I started realizing that there was an opportunity for me to help others, that's what helped me go all in on YouTube. You know, just to apply the own your lane concept here.

I see the parallel first, you launch your vision and it's all your professional purpose a lot of times. About what triggered usually it's a story or an incident that you are so compelled to get out there. So being an introvert, being a shy child, yeah. It's perfect example of, hey, if you think you're shy or introverted now, I was  a child who hid and here I am on YouTube teaching people.

 And then you're absolutely. A asserting your difference, the difference when you went all in on YouTube. 'cause you and I have known each other on LinkedIn probably, what, four or so years now? And in the last couple years, you went on YouTube. I know it was video and then you were like, I'm owning YouTube.

And then another layer on that women over 40. And I think that's brilliant. Because we see young women, we see young people in general making the short form video content. And here's the thing, I don't care what age stage, who we are, we all have brilliance to share. And today is all about getting seen faster on video.

So this is so intriguing so tell me more about how this is empowering those you help. Yeah, so it's really empowering them because like you said, we've got a lot of experience, you know, we have a lot of stories and it's something that, you know, if not to compare ourselves to others, you know, especially younger people, but you know, a 20-year-old, they might have more of the tech skills to create, fun and interesting short form videos.

But us, we've got years and decades of experience. That we can share and we can help others. We've got stories that we can tell. We've got things that are gonna help others relate to us. And you know what I've found is that video's the one of the best ways to actually do that because you can build a connection with somebody. And so that's part of my mission is to, allow those women to have a platform and help them get on this platform and being able to do that in a brave way and show up in their voice and in their power is gonna help them be able to do that. And YouTube, to me has been a really effective way to make that happen, you're so right. You know, you can have the technical skills as a youth, but you can certainly learn 'em and that's what you do. So I love that YouTube is the number one search engine or number two, or who knows in this day and age with chat GPT.

But I know when I do searches, Google owns YouTube. And so videos come right off the bat and I've been introduced to people I would've never met by video through YouTube. So let's get into it. Okay. We are ready. We know we have brilliance. Yes. We've got the mindset now, and so we don't wanna waste any time.

What's the first step to start doing this? The first thing to do, apart from actually creating your channel is to come up with a strategy and look at it is important to look at what's already on YouTube, so there's. I'm gonna put a hundred percent certainty behind this. When I say this is that someone's already creating the content like you are for your audience.

They're just doing it in their own special way, you know, with their own, you know, sprinkle of experience and stories. But we all have, like you said, Michelle, that we all have our own unique experiences and stories to bring to the table. So really understanding like, what is my strategy who do I want to attract? What do I want to incorporate in my videos? Is it going to be talking to camera like we're doing now? It's gonna be educational. How am I going to, you know, incorporate those stories into my videos to really. Attract people and get 'em brought into my videos so they watch more of my videos and then want to work with me.

So there's a whole strategy behind what to do, but the first thing I would say to do is to do your research and see what's already out there that's working, and that's a really good place to start. So  I don't think you're gonna advocate for those.

What do they call 'em? No face channels. Faceless, faceless channels. Yeah. Yes. That may,  beside the point here, right? I mean, but tell us just for the sake of knowledge, what exactly are those? Yeah, so faceless channels are ones where you aren't showing your face, you're actually just either doing demonstrations or a lot of people now because of ai, they're just tapping into all of these AI tools and resources you can type up your message or use, chat, GPT or other resources like that to create their message.

And then you can plug those into different tools like picture, do ai, there's several other ones that you can do where it actually creates the video for you and then you create a channel where you are not showing up, not even your face, not your voice. It's all automated and there are channels that are really successful with that.

The reason why I don't focus on that is because it's not helping the personal brand. To me, it's checking a box and you're making money, and so what I'm doing, my purpose is so much bigger than that, and that's the reason why I don't go in that direction. That's why we're here talking on a personal branding podcast. I have a lot to say about that too, and we won't get into it, but last week in LinkedIn, I was approached by two people from the same company and the direct messages Hey, you do personal branding. We make personal branding videos with ai, and then they have this link to this video where you're not on it.

They clone your voice, everything about you. And the output, and it wasn't cheap by any means, but the output is. The fake ai Michelle talking, and I don't have to show up, and I was very disturbed by that. Now everyone's different, but you know, I teach personal branding. What's the point of being a human and showing up if that's the way we go? So that's a whole different side. But you know, I like to bring these things up so people know that it's out there. But now we know the reason why it's even more important to bring us our authentic, true self and our purpose and our vision and our brilliance out there. So we started the channel, we got the strategy.

Now what? We don't wanna waste too much time. 'cause then we could start overthinking. 'cause I'm the overthinker, you say research and I'm overdoing it. So don't research too much. Yeah, don't get into like that. Over analyzing mode. I'm all about now, like over the last couple years, just like taking messy action. And the reason I say that is because if we overthink, then we end up doing nothing. And  I'm a huge story for that and I, talk about this often. That if you go back and look at my very first video on my YouTube channel, it was a minute 20 seconds. And just thinking about it brings anxiety because I spent pretty much an entire day creating a one minute 22nd video. Where's the background? Where's the light?

 I need to memorize my script, but I wanna make it sound like I didn't memorize my script. So it was all of these mindset things that were actually. Contributing to this, you know, essentially,  it was okay. Video. I mean, I don't think it's great, but it was my first video, so now I can look back and say, Hey, here was, here was my first video.

But it's also an example of what not to do because doing it that way and trying to make sure that it was perfect, that's what held me back from doing it. Another video for another year. And then I did it again, and then it was like another year. So a video a year is all you did 'cause I was creating so much anxiety in the entire process.

I was afraid of what people were gonna say.  I was afraid of being judged. I was afraid of the hate comments, you know, that people are hiding behind a screen to actually put out there.  You know, 20 years ago, I'd probably be like, I don't know if I wanna do that. But at my age now, I'm like, I don't care what you say  you know that that has nothing to do with me. So , it's all about standing in your confidence and just believing in yourself and knowing that you've got the gifts, you know you're here for a reason, and YouTube is just one platform that you can actually demonstrate that.

That is such an important thing, the perfectionism, the power of you, and just not caring.  I feel like one day the switch just got flipped. Like, I don't care. I am here. And that's why in the own your lane, I have launcher vision. What do you want? Who are you here to impact? And that's your North star that leads me  those hate comments are people who are truly, you know, got something wrong with them because a truly put together person.

Who is comfortable in who they are and what they bring to the table. They're not out hate commenting or putting, comments aren't very likable or nice to others.  I always reframe it to that poor person as something with them, you know, it's them, not me. So that's a great reframe too, because YouTube, it's out there, you know, I'm so glad you brought that up.

So let's not overthink. Let's not do a video year and take all day to do one. what's the fastest way, best way now to overcome all that and just get really consistent and comfortable, and I might say confident and courageous too, because those are also important to keep going, I think we can all agree that when we take action, it creates confidence and we get a little bit more courageous. So it really is all about creating a plan and sticking to it planning our content whether it's every week, it's every month, whatever that timeframe is.

So I would say to look at that plan and say, where is 15 minutes? You know, let's just say on a Monday where I can spend and focus 15 minutes on researching. What are some titles that are working right now in my niche? In order to figure out like, what's my video gonna be about this week? Or if you wanna plan, you know, four videos for the month and block out an hour of time so you can get everything done, at one time.

And then the next day I would say, block out, depending on how many videos you're going to record, block out, 30 minutes to an hour if you're gonna do one or two videos. It really comes down to having a plan. And, I like to do it on different days because. We all have businesses to run. I'm a coach on how to get on YouTube, but that's not what I do all day long. Like I've got a business to run too, so I plan out when I'm gonna be doing my videos. When you do it that way, it makes it more realistic. You're gonna be more likely to follow through with it because you've planned time to actually make it happen.

And then as long as you're doing that on a consistent basis. You know, YouTube is very similar to LinkedIn and Facebook and Instagram, it likes consistency. The consistency though, isn't every day. You post one video a week, you're good. And you don't have to worry about spending time on there ahead of time to  engage in other videos and then post and then engage in more videos.

You don't have to do that because it's a search engine. It's not a social media platform. So once you've posted your video, of course you wanna look to see if people are leaving comments so that you can respond as soon as possible, but you don't have to be on that platform all the time. Just be on there like once a week.

You're good to go, go back to your social media platforms and you know, work the algorithms over there. That's so refreshing.  We love LinkedIn and I've met, you know, connections, clients, opportunities all over the world from it, but it is a digital. Business conference or networking sites, you actually have to show up. You can't just like you said on YouTube. And so that's where it can be a time crunch if you let it. So I love the flexibility of YouTube once you have everything in place, that's very doable. Once a week. And especially if you plan for it, you know what you're gonna say.

And I think that is the main thing, especially on LinkedIn. People say, well, I really want to, but what. Am I gonna say? I think that's the number one thing. Before the judgment ideas plague you. But what am I gonna say is, is the number one thing. So do you go by questions people ask you?

Do you do searching on what's trending in the news and your area?  What's your take on the best way to start topic wise? 

That's a great question. And it, it's all of those. You can look at your LinkedIn content that's a great starting point for someone who wants to start a YouTube channel, is look at the content you've already created.

What content worked well? If it was a text post, if it was a poll, whatever it was, look to see how you can take that content and turn it into a video so you're not, starting on YouTube and doing the research from scratch. There. You're working with something that you know. Was working on one platform.

Now it's a good place to start. You can test it. 'cause you know, YouTube's all about testing just like all the other platforms are too. And looking to see, what would work. I'll do the research and see what are people doing or talking about right now with YouTube.

So an example would be when the features list came out of what enhancements and new things were coming to YouTube I'm gonna jump on that because it was something new and I wanted to, obviously learn what it was, but then also communicate that to my community on YouTube.

But then there could be one, where I talk about, here are 15. Tips for building confidence on camera. You know, that's gonna be an evergreen piece of content that's gonna live on YouTube and get views and engagement for years. So there's,  that play to it as well. But if somebody leaves a comment or a question so it's all about paying attention to what's working and what's not. Looking at the analytics to see is, it getting the impressions that it needs to. On YouTube, as long as you've got like over a thousand impressions, that means the algorithm's doing what it needs to. Then you wanna look at the views to see if people are actually viewing it.

Click through rate is showing that your thumbnail and your title are working and people are like, yeah, this is interesting. I wanna watch it. So they're clicking through to watch it. And then looking at the attention curve. Seeing, like where are people dropping off? Was it within the first 30 seconds?

And then what happened after that to see if your hook was working and then like where people dropped off during the video. So there's a lot of watching the content at the beginning to see what's working and what's not. And then when you look at that analytics, then it'll help you determine like what else you need to do next.

So there's kind of a process involved, but it's all based on data. It sounds like you can't go wrong at the first like, 'cause I know for me, when I look for things, I'm on YouTube, I don't use it that much. I'll be honest, but I use it for a how to.  I know a lot of people do. Not just like how to fix a leaky faucet or anything like that, but like in my area, if I need something like a piece of equipment or tech or something like what you said.

So if you have the problem you solve and you just kind of start. Mind mapping, what are all the questions people ask based on what's out there? I can remember a couple years ago when I was doing my podcast, I think it was Audacity, this old school software, and there weren't a lot of videos on it, and there was one thing I needed to learn and it was just driving me nuts.

Because it was not out there and I ended up finding an obscure blog somewhere and and did it myself. And I was thinking, hey, if I was a YouTuber, I could totally get a lot of views on this one particular video if I was created. So I love that. Find the gold that's missing the gaps. Opportunities. There used to be I think Neil Patel bought it, maybe changed it, answer the public. That had a lot of questions people ask, but you can even ask chat GPT, you can ask Google searches.  Start looking, sourcing, Amazon reviews. Social media posts to see where the gaps and opportunities. Might be.  Start from there because if you come from a place of service solving a problem, at least for me, I know I quit overthinking me.

I'm like, these people need to know, like let me teach them, let me show 'em. And so it's a place of service, so absolutely love that. Okay, so we pay attention our things. We know we only have to kind of show up once a week. What is the next best? Thing to get in there and stay in there, because I'm sure that is a huge thing.

We all have that shiny object and then we just, life gets in the way. You're teaching us how not to, but how do we stay in the game so we're not inconsistent? That's something I've done before too. I tell people all the time, I'm also an example of everything, not. To do so I'm a good person to work with because I'll be like, don't do that. Don't do that, but here's all the things you need to do. It is hard to stay consistent like you said, it's a shiny object and you're like, this is new. It's fun, it's exciting. You're starting to see views and then you're like, okay, the newness is worn off.

And you know, now I'm kind of like, I don't have time for this. So it's really focusing on the message and what you're seeing. What you're doing to serve an audience and not paying attention to the, the views and the likes and the engagement or vanity metrics. Those are important to see, just to make sure that the algorithms are working for you, but it's not something to pay attention to and make that like your main objective.

So when you look at, here are the messages that I need to get out to my community to find a new community to serve, keeping your focus there is gonna make it. Easier, but it really comes down to just planning it on your calendar and being consistent. We were talking about how to find different topics.

One thing that you can do too, I just wanted to touch on this 'cause it came to me and I'm like, Ooh, this is a piece of gold that I want your audience to know about for finding topics. Is on YouTube, so doing a search on YouTube. And then there's a way that you can just like on the search results screen, you can do filter.

So you can filter for like the last 12 months when you scroll through the list of videos, looking at the number of views for video, if it's higher. Then the number of subscribers for that channel, that's a video that's taking off. That's one to pay attention to. So then you can look at that title and say, okay, this one's working for this channel.

Look at the thumbnail, look at the title, listen to the video, you know what's going on with the hook. And then find a way to not replicate it. 'cause obviously that one's already out there, but you can use chat GPT in this example and say, okay, here's the transcript, which you can get from the YouTube video itself.

Mm-hmm. Free and then plug it into chat GPT and say, make this better. And then obviously you want to just use that as a baseline and incorporate your voice and make it sound like you, but it's a way to help you understand like, here's what made this successful. So how can I make it successful, but in my voice? It also makes it more interesting. It makes you want to continue doing it, but you, 'cause you're like, okay, I've tried this now let me try this. And it's almost like a game. Like you wanna get better each time to see what you can do and what you can accomplish.

And especially like for you, whatever the title may be, you can add for women over 40. Boom. Specificity cells, okay, this is a higher level video, but now you're going deeper and talking about the pain points, the problems and challenges that a woman over 40 faces. So, heck yeah.

I'm gonna go there. So, put that specificity into, because I know that that's driven me to the right video when I see, oh, they're talking to me. They're not talking to a large audience. They're talking to me. So that's why, you know, in the own your Lane framework, in my new position yourself planner book, I always say, what's your narrow lane?

 It's not necessarily a niche or demographic. It can be like over 40 or problem points. So here's ex perfect example. If you just put. For women over 40 under everything, and they're like, oh my gosh, sign me up. 

Let me ask you as we wrap up our time let's talk about equipment. I don't wanna get in the weeds too much, but are you shooting your videos, on iPhone or something else? Or what's the fastest, easiest way to get started? So we're not  bogged down in the tech.

Yeah, I just, I actually still to this day use my phone. Because the quality of the camera on our phones today are so high. And I've got the Samsung Galaxy, I think it's the S 21. I think they're out with the S 25 now. IPhones have really great cameras. So as long as you're using the, the front or the yeah, the front facing camera.

So the one on the back of your phone, it's got a higher quality camera. I, I still use that to this day. And then I've got a Bluetooth microphone that has a great quality. It's like maybe. 20, or I can't remember if it's 20 or 30 bucks on Amazon. It works on both Androids and iPhones.

So if you have those two things, and right now the lighting I'm using is from a window, so as long as you've got good lighting, you've got a microphone, which right now I'm just using the microphone on my laptop.

I'm in a quiet space, so I can do that. When you first get started, you're not gonna get a million people watching your video. Chances are it's gonna start off slow.

So spending so much time on trying to perfect the video and buy all the equipment, just get started with your phone and. Don't memorize the script  I keep this super simple. So on a Post-It note, have everything that you need for your video on a Post-it note.

Like the only thing I write out is my hook, because that's gonna determine whether or not somebody watches my video. After that, I do a quick story and then I have my 2, 3, 5 talking points are, I have like, the call to action?

What do I want people to do? At the end of the video when you're first getting started, I would say have a link to a lead magnet or some type of like small offer. 'cause you're not gonna have other videos on there yet to refer people to. But as you build your library, then you're gonna want to keep people on your channel.

So then at the end it's gonna be, instead of saying, Hey, thanks for being here, it's gonna be like, now that we've talked about. Planning your videos, you're gonna wanna watch this video next because I walk you through step by step how to do X. Go ahead and click it now and I'll see you over there. Now you're keeping them on your channel where they're gonna start binge watching your content.

That's the key. Once you build up your library that's brilliant. So that, that might keep you in the game 'cause you know,  it would be an endless like ecosystem and cycle. I think it's still great to have a lead magnet and then take that next step with you, I've, yes.

I've really found wonderful people that way too. So, to recap, we have brilliance. To share and video is one of the fastest, best ways to form that instant connection, for those we're here to serve. First, know what you're wanting, your vision, all that, make some kind of plan and do some research, but not too much because we could be bogged down with analysis paralysis. Then we start looking at some of the topics and see what's the gaps, opportunities where you could start.

Get that first video out there, and then realize you only need one, one a week. And then of course, pay attention to the algorithm and some of the results, but don't let that drive you or, deter you. And, and then just start doing this.

Because you know, we think about someone like I know we're not gonna compare ourselves. I even can't believe I'm saying this to Mr. Beast, but let's just think if back in 2012 or whenever the heck he started, he would've given up. And now I'm not saying we're aspiring to be that, but he only got to where he was.

Because he stayed in the game. There are millions of people who are wonderful on any platform because they stayed in the game. Now, for us, I think that's the most refreshing thing I heard today, that we only have to do a video once a week. That takes the pressure off and then just, start small and just start simple.

And just stay in the game with your phone and a window or a ring light and microphones. So Vicki, tell us where we can connect with you and learn more about what you do. The best way to connect with me is on LinkedIn and then to send me a personalized request to let me know that you found me through Michelle's show.

I always like to know that just because it's the marketing in me and then also it helps me convey that to Michelle to say, Hey, here's how many people I found through your show. Thank you so much showing the gratitude. And then I always have something a free resource. It's in my bio. You can click that. I do a small, three day challenge once a month. And it's a great way to immerse yourself in what's involved with YouTube and at get some perspective as to what it might be like before you go all in.

That's a great idea. You're gonna give them the three days so they can know this is right for me. And right now, maybe down the road I have plans to do this, but not right now. Because right now I'm bogged down. But you know. Yeah. Put that on your radar and that's wonderful.

You do it once a month.  This has been fantastic. What are your parting words for those who are trying to rank, really own their lane of fulfillment, opportunity impact through YouTube? Vicki, what would you say to them? I would say don't worry about the details, just start messy, messy. Action is the fastest way to progress, and you're not gonna know what you don't know unless you actually start.

Absolutely brilliant. And that goes really well with the way I always close is keep putting yourself out there. But before I do, if you are ready to start getting visible, put yourself out there, build that brand, head on over to michelle b griffin.com, grab my resources and how you can get started today.

So until next time, everybody, keep putting yourself out there. You have a brand to build, a message to share, and people to impact.

I'll catch you next week. Take care. That's all for today. In the meantime, are you ready to grow your visibility, personal brand, and thought leadership? Then head on over to michellebgriffin. com for free resources to get started and get going today. And until next time, thanks for listening.