Make Millions on YouTube without Showing Your Face with Chris Zissis: An EOFire Classic from 2022

0:01John Lee Dumas:Light that spark fire nation, JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. On today's classic episode, we'll be breaking down how to make millions on YouTube without showing your face. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Chris Zissis in the EO Fire studios. Chris builds automated YouTube channels for investors to generate passive income. And today we talk about how to leverage controversial moments to gain attention, how audience engagement matters more than who is behind the camera, and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Chris and our sponsors.

0:36John Lee Dumas:CAPE is a privacy-first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, CAPE makes that possible. Visit cape.co forward slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off CAPE for six months today. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support. Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com.

1:12Highlevelfire.com.

1:15John Lee Dumas:Chris, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Yo, yo. Flyer Nation, appreciate being here. And thank you, John, for having me. Look, I think the biggest thing for me that I definitely learned over the last few years about being successful that most people won't agree with is just stirring the pot. There has to be some type of controversial moment where you say something or do something that isn't bad in a way, but it's just controversially in your certain beliefs, even just saying a statement like this where you've got to rustle some people not the right way and you use that as leverage as productively as possible to be able to get yourself in front of more people, get more eyeballs, get more attention.

1:59John Lee Dumas:I actually love that. I like to say, love me or hate me because there's no money in the middle. And if you're not polarizing on some levels, Fire Nation, if you're not contradictory on some levels, then you're probably not going to stand out. You're probably going to blend in in that murky, saturated, loud middle. Nobody wants to be there. And today we're talking about making millions on YouTube without showing your face. Now, I've made millions from podcasting without showing my face, so I can definitely say it's possible on the podcasting side of things. But I want to talk basics with you right now, Chris.

2:41John Lee Dumas:How realistic is it to make passive income from YouTube? Well, obviously, I'm going to be a bit biased because that's what I focus on and that's what I do. But I mean, look, at the end of the day, it just comes down to time and attention and the ability to execute on certain things. So being able to make money on YouTube is one thing, but really being able to make decent money, life-changing money and money that can really, you know, help family, help friends and help yourself. It does take a little bit more time. It does take more experience and attention, but is it possible? Absolutely. And myself and many of my clients and many other people that I know, uh, you know, uh, in a position where they are making life-changing money from YouTube, whether it be just a few thousand dollars a month to pay rent or whether it be 20 grand a month plus from these what we call faceless YouTube channels.

3:26John Lee Dumas:Now, let's maybe give an example of that. One of your customers, one of your clients, somebody that you know, you don't have to be specific, no names needed, but who's somebody who you're like, wow, that's a really cool example of somebody who is currently making passive income from YouTube. Yeah. So to give you an idea, one of my clients is really heavy in golf. He loves it. He goes golfing every week his buddies play golf you know he's just got a true real passion for golf and we were having a chat over at dinner one night and he was just telling me about you know how this whole PGA tour stuff not sure if anyone listening is familiar but there's all this uh Saudi Arabia and this new league that's coming up in the golf world that's trying to take market share back from the PGA and essentially he was just telling me all about it and I could see how into it he was getting and I said you know why don't we start a YouTube channel over it and uh I mean yeah within the first couple of months, you know, the channel's already making five grand a month.

4:17So in that sort of situation, we're talking about the PGA and all the new things that are happening with the players and, you know, the state of the world or the state of the golf world. So that's one example I could think of top of head that happened relatively recently. And obviously not everything is going to blow up as quickly. Although when you hit a nail on the head and you hit that, you know, that feeling or that moment where you know that that topic is something that people want to watch and they're engaged about and they have that desire to watch and engage with that content, then people don't care who's behind the camera or who is there if there is anyone at all.

4:51They just want to see the content that they're for. And that's where this documentary style video creation really comes in and smashes it out of the park for those topics.

4:59John Lee Dumas:Now, let's answer the question of why. Why would a content creator choose this opportunity over others? Well, I mean, I can't obviously speak for most people, but I can speak from From my experience, which is typically going to be what most people have seen or felt before, when I first started YouTube, I was in front of the camera talking, teaching people how to lose weight, look good and feel good, et cetera. And the comments just hit me really hard. I was a bunch of losers online messaging me saying that I was fat, that I was ugly, that I couldn't do anything, that I didn't look good behind the camera, et cetera.

5:32And after a while, that hit me. So I decided there's got to be a better way. And long story short, I came across this particular model and that allowed me to still be able to create content, still exercise my creative muscle, still make money at the same time, but then ultimately create content that I'm excited about as well. You know, if there's topics that I really want to talk about or that I really want to pursue, I don't have to be behind the camera every single time I want to talk about something that might be Elon Musk related or maybe something that's crypto related or maybe something that's golf related.

6:03You know, I'm not going to be the face behind those three channels. And this just allows someone, especially me in my position at the time, the ability to step back, not have to get the criticism of you're too ugly, you're too fat, whatever it is, and really focus on these other niches that you otherwise would be sort of frowned upon if you're doing, you know, space to golf, to soccer, to, you know, NBA or whatever it might be. You're trying to do too many things. Whereas in this case, nobody knows who runs what, and you can just express that muscle in any way that you see fit.

6:32John Lee Dumas:So that's one. Let's come up with another one. What's another reason why a content creator would choose this opportunity over all those other opportunities that are out there? Ultimately, the passive income opportunity from YouTube as well, that's a big one that comes from me too, that you can make some decent money from YouTube when you do it properly. And a few thousand dollars a month, something that could change someone's life or pay for the rent. But the ability to be able to do that with just hiring a team or having a team doing it for you puts you in a position that you don't have to worry about spending hours upon hours upon hours of content creation and spending a week or on a weekend or spending time away from family.

7:09this can be completely handballed to someone else and they just manage it for you.

7:14John Lee Dumas:So here at Entrepreneurs on Fire, we're big on transparency. We're big on authenticity and really getting behind the numbers, opening the kimono, so to speak. So let's talk real numbers. How much can a channel make both on the high ends and the low ends? And let's use specific examples on both sides of that. Yeah. So it obviously varies just depending on the content that is being created. I've got some clients that are making on the high end, 40 grand a month, 50 grand a month from the YouTube channel in general. So that's talking about the ad revenue that comes in from just AdSense and then things like sponsorships, brand deals and affiliates that can start to creep that channel up to 50K, 60K plus.

7:52That's on the high end. Now I have seen channels that do make 100K a month, 200K a month. Is that possible? Yes. Is it sustainable? In my opinion, with this type of model, it's not. Just due to the fact of the amount of content that needs to be produced, It gets to a point where the wheelhouse at that point is such on fire that it almost burns you out because you can't maintain that steady of growth. So$100K plus, definitely doable. I've had a couple of channels do it. Ideally, what happens with clients looking at$50K,$60K on the high end, and then most clients anywhere between$2K to$5K on the low end.

8:26That's a monthly revenue that comes in from the channel.

8:29John Lee Dumas:Let's have a specific example on both sides of things. Again, we don't have to talk even the niche unless you can kind of mention that. that would be helpful on some levels. Not even the person's name, of course, wouldn't have to mention their actual channel. But what does that look like? What are these people doing on the high end, on a day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month basis? The quantity of videos, what sector are they in? And then the exact same thing for the low end. Yeah. I don't mind talking numbers and the niches and stuff. One of the niches was a tech niche. We're talking about Tesla, Elon Musk, talking about SpaceX, all that sort of stuff.

9:00And a lot of those type of niches do really well, as I'm sure you and most listeners are familiar with CPM. So your cost per thousand in the YouTube world of how many people watch out of those thousand views, that's how much you get paid per that thousand. So in this case, technology and those type of niches, they're a lot higher in terms of their earnings per thousand. So this particular channel was posting about five times a day. So, you know, we're talking about every three to four hours. And then they were posting every single day for five times a day. So you're talking about 30 plus videos every single week and did talking five minute, eight minute, 10 minute long videos.

9:36And that's obviously quite time intensive and it's really intense to get those videos out and uploaded and scheduled and quality controlled as well. So there's a balancing scale there. So that was in the tech niche. The low end from top of mind, one of the recent ones that come to mind would be something like an athletics type channel. to talking about track and field or gymnastics or anything like that, you still get a lot of viewers that watch it. And you also have viral potential videos of broad topics that a lot of people could watch. But typically speaking on the low end, you're looking at around two to sort of 5K a month on something like that as well.

10:13John Lee Dumas:So Fire Nation, we're going to talk saturation. We're going to talk some personal questions when we get back from thanking our sponsors. When's the last time you thought about your phone carrier? Probably never, unless something went wrong. The biggest carriers, AT &T, Verizon, and T-Mobile have made headlines again and again for data breaches, tracking, and even selling customer data. And what most people don't realize is that VPNs and encrypted apps only protect part of the equation. At the cellular level, risk like SIM swaps, call interception, and silent tracking can still happen behind the scenes.

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11:17John Lee Dumas:Visit cape.co4 slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off CAPE for six months today. Hey, Fire Nation, if you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. That is why High Level is Entrepreneur on Fire's featured partner. High Level gives you a website builder and hosting, funnels and landing pages, email marketing, appointment scheduling, payment processing, course and membership hosting, and so much more. Everything you need to succeed all under one roof. No duct tape, no juggling five platforms, just one clean system for your business. And their award-winning 24-7 support has your back when you need it most.

11:54John Lee Dumas:When you sign up at HighLevelFire.com, you also get my exclusive bonus stack, a 30-day free trial, a private 15-minute call with me, JLD, access to my weekly live office hours, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 Days to Something Execution Roadmap, and more. Visit HighLevelFire.com and start building your something today. Okay. So Chris, we're back. And as I kind of mentioned before the break, I mean, man, it can be a crowded market. When there's money to be made, people flood in, it can get saturated, it can get crowded. I mean, there's the whole supply and demand thing.

12:31John Lee Dumas:Isn't it overcrowded to get into one of these spaces and get these type of results? Or is there still opportunity out there? Yeah, that's a great question. A lot of people ask about saturation. And ultimately, for me, saturation only comes down to the inability to execute on a certain task. So a lot of people use saturation as an excuse to not go in to do something. I'm not going to do that particular niche or that particular video or that particular job or that role or that business, whatever it is, because it's saturated. Now, there is obviously a reason in some cases to not go into it if it is oversaturated, but with YouTube, saturation actually helps us because on the side of the screen, we've got the suggested tab that allows us to get views from other videos that are very similar.

13:14So again, And saturation to me is just the inability to execute on a particular goal or strategy. Now, my strategy, I feel like over the last five years, I've nailed down to a point where it's like, I want more competition because the more competition proves how much better my videos are than everybody else's. And it means that when these videos start popping up and they start trying to take my market share and then the audience sees my videos, they're going to click on it. And now all these other little videos that are popping up, they're just pushing more traffic towards my videos. So I actually welcome the competition because I know nobody has the processes in place like I do with my team to ensure the quality and the results that we currently get.

13:48So like I said, competition for me is just a lack of an inability to execute. But there is obviously a point where if you've got 50 ,000 channels talking about the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard thing, then obviously not every single channel is going to blow up. But that's just where you need to be in a position to have the proper strategy, the thumbnails, the good quality videos, et cetera, all the analytics that YouTube look at to be able to really grow that video or that channel, even in a crowded market. Because a lot of people would say podcasting is overcrowded and saturated in the business niche, but I'm sure there's still new business podcasts popping up every day and they're still getting some form of results, whether it be massive or whether it just be minuscule, they're still getting some type of ball moving.

14:28John Lee Dumas:Now, let's talk about maybe a specific example where you saw somebody come into what you thought was a really crowded market and you're like, man, they might have a challenge ahead of them. Of course, it's possible, like you mentioned, but there's a challenge there. What did they do to get that initial traction? Yeah, so I mean, I haven't had a niche where someone comes to me and says like, you know, let's go into this. And I say, well, that's overcrowded. I have had a niche where someone comes to me and I say, I don't think that's going to work. And it completely proved me wrong. That was in the farming niche, you know, talking about tractors and animals and farm lands.

14:59I didn't think anyone would care to watch that or even make those videos, but the client was insistent. So I was just like, all right, screw it. Let's do it. And now that channel is making like five grand a month. So that completely blew my mind from something that I was not expecting to now being, you know, a pretty decent earner.

15:14John Lee Dumas:Now, this is where we kind of get to a personal question. I mean, what's working so well for you, once the quote unquote kind of secret gets out, then everybody starts doing it. And now it's not quite such an advantage anymore, so to speak. So why not just keep this information, this secret to yourself? Why do you do it for others? I've thought about that many times before. And for me, the biggest thing is just the ability to be able to network, grow my network, speak with more people and help in any way that I can from a point of view that obviously it's going to build my brand and it's going to get people to come into my ecosystem.

15:48Obviously, there's a selfish reason and goal behind it ultimately too. Although the ability to just be able to help people in terms of making an extra$1 ,000,$2 ,000,$3 ,000 a month, at the end of the day, a lot of this money that comes in from a lot of people, that can really change their life and that can really help pay for whether it be college debt or whether it be schooling for kids. There's so many different things that just by being selfless in the way that I can give out the information, I can even maybe inspire or motivate a couple of people just to get started. And then a couple of things that they do might change their life.

16:24To me, that's more exciting and that's more beneficial than me making an extra 10 grand, 20 grand, 50 grand a month. Ultimately, as I'm sure yourself and many viewers would know, when you get to a point where your bank account keeps stacking, it's like, what do I do with this now? There's just nothing else that I can buy or do or entertain myself with that is going to put me in a position to make me feel better. So it's ultimately helping others in a selfish way that they come and pay attention to my stuff moving forward, but also to in a selfless way that they can change their life with a simple couple of videos or this YouTube method, for example, and just making a few extra thousand dollars that I know can change their life is worth more to me than$100 ,000 a month in my bank account.

17:08John Lee Dumas:Wow. Powerful stuff, Fire Nation. I really wish and hope that all of you listening get to that at some point where it's like, done it. I've crested the peak. I'm at the top of the mountain. Now, how do I give back? So Chris, let's end with a bang, my man. Take the microphone, take a step back. Think about everything we've talked about here today. I mean, we talked about how realistic it is to make passive income. Why did a content creator choose this? Real numbers. You gave us both high and low end examples, which is super cool. What's to do with saturation? The personal question. What is the one thing you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from every conversation that we had?

17:44So, I mean, the biggest thing is obviously not letting the opportunity in any case, whether it be YouTube, whether it be any other opportunity that you think about right now. For me, the biggest thing is always looking at the risk with an opportunity. and then assessing what happens if this does work, what doesn't, if this doesn't work, you know, what's the bad case situation. Now, if my good case situation outweighs my bad case situation, well, then I'm always going to pursue that opportunity. Again, it doesn't have to be this, but anything in general, it's just a good rule of thumb that I've always lived by.

18:13And that's how, you know, I was able to get majority of my channels up to a point where they make 10, 20 grand a month and where a lot of my YouTube channels now making over a hundred thousand dollars a month on a bad month from just taking the opportunity and taking that risk and obviously working my ass off to be able to achieve a certain level but to be able to consistently grow and learn and just take that risk when needed I feel like that's just such a massive thing that people are too scared or you know they're just in a fearful place they might have more to lose than others which is understandable but there's still just so much opportunity out there that I think a lot of people they just got their blinders on and they're just they're either too scared or they're just not looking around.

18:51And I feel like that's just a big unfortunate situation because we're in the 21st century. There's so much opportunity. It's insane.

18:58John Lee Dumas:Chris, I'm impressed. I'm sure many of my listeners are impressed. How can they connect with you? Give us any way you want us to do just that, any call to action you might have for our listeners, and then we'll say goodbye. Yeah, man, absolutely. Obviously, appreciate your time and appreciate everyone listening and your time as well. If you want to reach out, ask me any questions, learn how to grow your YouTube channel, or even just ask any questions about what I've spoken about, just send me a message on Instagram. It's Is, I-T-S, Chris, C-H-R-I-S, and then last name Ziss, Z-I-S-S-I-S, or for those of you in America, it's Z-I-S-S-I-S, and you can just send me a message.

19:33We can touch base and chop up the shop and see what we can do, but ultimately, you know, the content I'm pushing out at the moment and everything I want to give back is just from a point of view of how can I give the little tidbits or the information and the direction that people can learn from, that can ultimately grow their brand, grow their business, grow their YouTube channel without having to pay thousands of dollars to all of these course creators and people out there. So I've got a lot of content that I'm giving out for free just because I want to see people win, see people succeed, and then ultimately hopefully do business with them down the road.

20:04John Lee Dumas:Chop up the shop, Fire Nation, because you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with CZ or CZ and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to eofire.com. type Chris in the search bar and his show notes page will pop up with everything we've talked about here today. Chris, thank you for sharing your truth, knowledge, value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Chris. In Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs are great at three things, productivity, discipline, focus.

20:40John Lee Dumas:That's why I created the Mastery Journal so that you can master productivity, discipline, and focus in 100 days and we're talking step by step. So visit themasteryjournal.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. CAPE is a privacy first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, CAPE makes that possible. Visit cape.co forward slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off CAPE for six months today. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.