Discover how Rev. Brandon Robbins transformed his pastoral ministry through YouTube, sharing practical strategies for church leaders to engage and grow their digital presence in this episode of MyCom.
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In this episode
On this episode of the MyCom Church Communications and Marketing Podcast, Rev. Brandon Robbins shares his journey from becoming a parish pastor to flourishing as a YouTube content creator, offering invaluable insights for anyone looking to expand their ministry's reach online. Discover how Brandon leveraged YouTube to enhance his pastoral work, learn about the challenges and strategies involved in growing an online presence, and get inspired by his story of persistence, passion, and purpose in ministry.
Key Topics:
[03:14] From Church Newsletters to YouTube
[08:49] YouTube Video Management Insights
[11:25] YouTube's Focus: Viewers' Interests
[14:50] Balancing Ministry and Online Presence
[16:20] Building Community Beyond YouTube
[22:32] YouTube Starter Resources
[28:20] "Persistence in Niche Content Creation"
[32:50] Content Creation Routine Explored
[37:24] "Embracing Community Positivity"
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Episode transcript
Ryan Dunn [00:00:03]:
Hi, this is MyCom, the church communications and marketing podcast. We're building your digital ministry toolkit and helping to bring your congregation into the digital age. My name is Ryan Dunn. I'm a fellow traveler on the journey to better church connections, we're gonna talk with Reverend Brandon Robbins, a passionate parish pastor turned successful YouTube content creator from Virginia Beach. Years ago, Brandon started a YouTube channel that went nowhere. Might be a little familiar to a lot of us. Just as Brandon was about to give up, a couple videos he produced in response to a popular TV series unexpected catapulted his channel, putting his messages before thousands and eventually millions of viewers. Not bad reach.
Ryan Dunn [00:00:51]:
Right? So Brandon and I explore what he's learned building his channel, how we balance how he balances a full time pastoral role and digital content creation, and how he generates faith based video content that goes beyond the words of scripture to enrich spiritual understanding. Whether you're a pastor who might be curious about digital ministry or a content creator looking for inspiration, this episode has some great insights on utilizing YouTube for a greater purpose. We can thank Discipleship Ministries for helping to make this valuable conversation possible. Deepen your congregation's connection to the sacraments with the new belong series from Discipleship Ministries. This dynamic resource makes baptism, communion, and membership vows more engaging than ever. Get started at umcdiscipleship.org. Speaking of engagement, check out Brandon's YouTube channel, which is simply called Brandon Robbins Ministry. Reverend Brandon joins us from Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:00]:
How goes it with your soul, Brandon?
Brandon Robbins [00:02:02]:
That's great. Just really, really wonderful, weather we've been having. So it's always, you know, something that brightens the soul and just, really good season. So, yeah, happy to be here. Happy to be joining you today.
Ryan Dunn [00:02:13]:
Cool. Well, I'm curious as to how you found yourself in the place of ministry that you're at. So what came first? Brandon, the content creator or or Brandon, the, I don't wanna say pastoral pastor, but, you know, the parish pastor.
Brandon Robbins [00:02:30]:
Definitely the parish pastor. K. So, you know, I've been in ministry since 02/2008 and have had the opportunity to serve a variety of different churches. I started out as an associate and then went and was the solo pastor at a small rural church and then planted a church, back in 02/2014 on a college campus. And then in 2018, moved here, to where where, I guess, a mid mid sized church here in Virginia Beach. So that's really been my, you know, identity since I got out of seminary is serving in the local church, and it's been my passion. It's actually why I got on YouTube in the first place to an extent. All of that was really tied to the local church.
Ryan Dunn [00:03:09]:
Tell me about that. What what was it that drew you into YouTube?
Brandon Robbins [00:03:14]:
Well, so funny enough, I the way it really started was in 2019, you know, I'd been doing newsletters for my church, and I just felt like, you know, let's just do something different. So instead of typing out a newsletter, maybe I'll just create a quick little video, put it on YouTube, they can watch it, and, you know, there should be a different way to engage. And quickly that evolved into just doing different kinds of videos and playing around and trying to be consistent. And then my original goal for YouTube was to take a lot of the things I was learning about, church growth and church systems and how to have a healthy growing church and to be able to share that with others. That's, I just think, one of my passions. If I learn something, I wanna pass that on to other people. And I I tried to do that for probably about two years, and it floundered. Getting onto YouTube really kinda breaking in is a is a tough thing.
Brandon Robbins [00:04:05]:
And for about two years, I was happy if I got a hundred views. I mean and half the time, I bet that was just my mom just sitting repeat,
Ryan Dunn [00:04:11]:
you know, trying to
Brandon Robbins [00:04:12]:
trying to get the view count up and get the algorithm going. But it just really didn't go anywhere. I didn't have, like, a video or two that take off, and I never really knew why. And after about two years of doing that, and I I covered all kinds of things, not even just church growth kinda stuff, I I was about ready to to kinda hang it up and just say, you know what? This is good. I did it for two years. And I said I remember the day. So I said, you know, lord, it's a busy season. It was January of twenty twenty one.
Brandon Robbins [00:04:43]:
I'd been through COVID and all the challenges of that. I was tired. And so I I was like, lord, you know, I'm gonna give this up. I'm gonna give it to you. And if you ever want it to grow and wanna call me back to it, that's awesome. I'll come back. But until then, I'm gonna let it go. And crazy enough, about a week or two before I said that, I had done a video on episode one of season one of The Chosen.
Brandon Robbins [00:05:06]:
And at that point, it was like a show I had just recently heard of. I thought it was really interesting. So I did a video on some things, and it just, it took a while. It took about two weeks or three weeks, but about a week after I said I quit is when that video just exploded.
Ryan Dunn [00:05:23]:
Mhmm. And
Brandon Robbins [00:05:23]:
it was a a pretty clear sign of God saying, alright. Come on back. And within a couple of weeks, it went from, you know, a hundred views to a hundred thousand views, and the channel went from 800 subscribers to 8,000 subscribers, and I could just see it. I was like, something's happening here. And I realized that what I did in that video was something I was really passionate about, which was diving into the context of the first century, what it was like to live at the time that Jesus lived and how that changes the way we read the Bible. And so I just shared that in a video, and I could see that other people were interested in it too. So it opened the door to be able to to do even more of that.
Ryan Dunn [00:06:00]:
So when things did start to blow up, were you like, dang it? Or were you like, woo hoo. Let's go.
Brandon Robbins [00:06:07]:
I mean, it's definitely a mixture, you know? Yeah.
Ryan Dunn [00:06:09]:
I got it.
Brandon Robbins [00:06:09]:
I think after two years of doing it to finally see it take off was so exciting. Yeah. And I also was was pretty committed for the first few weeks there of, like, I'm gonna take this slow. I'm not just gonna dive in. So I only put out a video every other week for a while there just saying I I still need to have this good boundary and structure. And then when I realized there was really something there that I was connecting with people, then I was like, okay. Now that I know what I love is also what people wanna learn, now I can really lean into that. And this is not gonna be a channel about the chosen, you know, some temporary television show.
Brandon Robbins [00:06:45]:
It's gonna be a channel that's really about helping people dive beyond, this is the phrase we use, kind of beyond the words of scripture to really understand the the context, the history, the culture in a way that changes the way that they read the bible and helps them to see it with a whole new set of eyes. And was just really passionate about that and still am. Just love the opportunity to do that.
Ryan Dunn [00:07:05]:
Now you've changed channel vision over time. Is the actual channel different, like a different URL or entity, or did you just repurpose the, quote, unquote, existing brand that you already had?
Brandon Robbins [00:07:20]:
So I think my brand was always just Brandon Robbins. I was just the name of the channel. I was never creative enough to have anything other than that. And so we just kinda stuck with it because in the end, like, that's what you realize people are familiar with. They're familiar with your name and your personality and things like that. And so that was what I wanted to do is to be able to just kind of reach people, and if they knew me, then then I could do that. I mean, if I had to go back and do it again, I might have found a better name or a broader ministry title. I don't know that I personally love that it's all based on my name, but but it's how people knew me.
Brandon Robbins [00:07:52]:
It's how people found the videos, and so we just leaned into that. So I didn't change anything about the old content. I just left it there. You can still go see pretty much all of that old content that I put out there. Some Some of it good, some of it really good. Right. I just let it stay, and and then I just kept putting out new stuff that I knew was what people were searching for and what I was passionate about.
Ryan Dunn [00:08:14]:
Yeah. I I'm guessing that a lot of people who are listening to us right now probably already have a presence on YouTube and may have started in much the same fashion that you did. Like, well, they wanted to play around with it a little bit. And looking back at things from a couple years ago, probably not particularly proud of their productions that they've they've put out. And maybe I'm speaking to myself more than I'm speaking to anybody else. But, do you think that there would be, like a repercussion from YouTube if you went and deleted that old stuff? I know on other platforms, they do do that. But
Brandon Robbins [00:08:49]:
Yeah. I mean, I think, so I've listened to a lot of different YouTube teachers, and I'm in some YouTube coaching currently. Just always trying to learn about it and how it works and and things like that. And so, I mean, I would say that, you know, if you went and kinda unlisted a bunch of old, old videos that that had no connection, that weren't getting views. I I probably I don't really think that you would have too much negative consequence of that, but I think it's something you just have to really be careful with. The the truth is that old catalog's not gonna hurt you. Right? Like, as far as YouTube is concerned, all it cares about is that people want to watch the content and they wanna keep watching after that. Right? They wanna click on it and then they wanna keep watching as long as possible.
Brandon Robbins [00:09:29]:
So if you're putting out that content, it really doesn't even matter what's back there. I mean, the truth is for me, if I'm not looking back at my old content and saying, man, that was awful, then that means I'm not growing. I'm not getting better. And so I'm okay with that. Like, still makes me cringe, and yet for some reason, people watch it. So let them let them watch it. Right?
Ryan Dunn [00:09:49]:
Cool. Yeah. Thanks for that. And these days, you're doing a video a week. Is is that right?
Brandon Robbins [00:09:56]:
Yeah. We we try to do a video a week. I mean, on YouTube, I have other things that I do. I have a membership that people are part of. We're always creating videos for that. I'm still a full time pastor. So Right. I'm creating sermons for, you know, every week, and we have an online service where we produce that.
Brandon Robbins [00:10:11]:
But as far as YouTube goes, yeah, we try to stick to one a week.
Ryan Dunn [00:10:14]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, let's talk about that flow a little bit, especially in light of the fact that you are a full time pastor in the local parish. A hurdle for many people when it comes to content creation is just figuring out what comes next. Right? You can start off with, well, I've got seven or eight great ideas that'll last you for a little while. Inevitably, it comes to the point where it's like, I'm supposed to put out a video next week. I have no idea what I'm gonna say. So how do you, manage to navigate through that kind of mental barrier?
Brandon Robbins [00:10:46]:
So for a long time, I really did wrestle with that. Especially when I started out. Like, I knew I was gonna cover all of the chosen, so that gave me a whole bunch of content because they had already come out with two seasons at that point. And I started this series called beyond the words where I went through every chapter of the gospel of Mark. And so that was sixteen weeks, sixteen videos I could do there. But then after that, it was really like, okay. What's next? Do I just do a different book of the bible? Do I, you know, focus on something else? And since then, what I've really learned through just a lot of studying and listening is that you just have to know your viewer. And I think that's something I'm still trying to learn.
Brandon Robbins [00:11:25]:
But in the end, that's that's really what YouTube is about. YouTube is not here to exist for creators. It's here to exist for viewers. And so what they care about is what does that viewer wanna click on and what do they wanna keep watching? And so knowing who your particular viewer is and then knowing what they're searching for, I think is really, really helpful. So one of the things we're always looking at is what are people watching, like, of what we've created, what seems to get the attention, and that tells us what people are interested in, or we'll we'll do some research and try to find out what other channels are they watching and what do they love about that content. And so recently, one of the things we've seen is that almost every video that's in our top five videos has to do with a specific disciple or character in the Bible, whether it's Mary, the mother of Jesus, or John the Baptist, or Mary Magdalene, or Matthew, like, all of them seem to be really, connecting with people right now. And so that's probably somewhere I'm gonna lean in and say, well, there's a whole lot of other people to cover. Let's kind of dive into that and see, what we can show people there.
Brandon Robbins [00:12:25]:
And and in the end, it always has to be authentic. Like, I have to want to do it. It has to be something that interests me. I don't wanna make a channel that's for other people because I'll run out of energy doing that really fast.
Ryan Dunn [00:12:35]:
Mhmm.
Brandon Robbins [00:12:36]:
But but just also realizing that I'm not just making content for me. I'm I'm really thinking about who my viewer is and having a connection with them and hearing what is it you're searching for and how can I how can I be a part of that journey with you?
Ryan Dunn [00:12:50]:
Okay. And do you find oftentimes that the content that you're creating for YouTube and the content that you're creating for the local parish, for example, Sunday sermon, do they overlap?
Brandon Robbins [00:13:02]:
Sometimes they very intentionally overlap.
Ryan Dunn [00:13:04]:
Yeah. No doubt. Okay.
Brandon Robbins [00:13:05]:
You have to consolidate and, yeah. I mean, it's especially having done it for about three years now really consistently, it it's not uncommon for me to build a sermon off of some research I did for a video two years ago
Ryan Dunn [00:13:20]:
Yeah.
Brandon Robbins [00:13:20]:
Or or vice versa. You know, I'll take something I had done in a sermon and say, I can use this as a foundation for a video. So very often doing that, because one of the things I also realize is not everybody in my church is watching my my YouTube videos, so it's all brand new to them. And pretty much nobody who watches my YouTube videos, you know, is watching my sermons at church. So Okay. It can easily cross over.
Ryan Dunn [00:13:44]:
Yeah. Well, I wanted to to touch base with you about that. If if there was a sense of connection between the the digital ministry and the in person or, you know, combined in person hybrid digital ministry, Have have you seen people within the parish responding to your videos online or vice versa?
Brandon Robbins [00:14:07]:
To an extent. I mean, so there's definitely people in our church who watch my videos, who know what's going on in YouTube and and all of that, but I've also been this is just me personally very, very careful about letting that become too big. It matters a lot to me that my church knows that I'm their pastor and that they never think, oh, he's got this YouTube thing that he really, really cares about, and we are just, like, second rate. I I got so I will intentionally not talk about it. Like, when I had a book come out back in February, and I didn't I think I maybe mentioned it to him one time before it came out, and then I mentioned it the week before it came out just because I felt like it was weird not to mention it. But that was it. Like, I didn't hype it. I didn't promote it.
Brandon Robbins [00:14:50]:
I really wanted it to be, just let me be their pastor. So so in that sense, not necessarily, I mean, I let them know about it. Anything I have that I can give them if I create a bible study, if I do anything like that, like I give it to our church for free. I I try to make sure that they have all those resources. And then on the flip side, what we have seen is some people who've watched me on YouTube who will come to our church and say, hey, I found you on YouTube. Or, you know, oh my gosh, I didn't realize you were the guy I've been watching on YouTube, that sort of thing. But even that, like, I'm very careful because I try to I try to protect, you know, my family and my personal life. And so YouTube's a kind of a wild west out there, and I don't really necessarily want that coming in too much.
Brandon Robbins [00:15:35]:
So it's it's an interesting thing. I mean, I think the thing about YouTube is that it it really is like an international sort of ministry. Like, I get to connect with people in The Philippines and Australia and Belgium and Germany. I mean, I'm just thinking of the people who, like, we see on our live streams. So I get to have that connection, but it's also really hard to bring it to the local church, because YouTube is not thinking about it that way. It's just saying who wants to watch this. It's not gonna just do that for Virginia Beach.
Ryan Dunn [00:16:03]:
Do you find yourself in pastoral relationships with some of the people who you're meeting through YouTube?
Brandon Robbins [00:16:10]:
Do you mean, like, in terms of the viewer?
Ryan Dunn [00:16:12]:
Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, are are you learning about their lives? Are are you offering kind of pastoral advice? Are you praying with people?
Brandon Robbins [00:16:20]:
So so we've done that in a couple ways. One of the things that I always think we have to do if we're gonna be on a platform like YouTube is find a way to bridge that gap. Mhmm. My goal is not to create consumers, it's to create disciples and I think that that has to have relationship. So we were wrestling with that probably for about the first year or so of saying, well, what would that even look like? How would we do that? And we ended up creating a free community that people can join, that they can be a part of, and where in that community there are prayer request like a place to put your prayer requests. There's places to ask questions. Every now and then I'll throw in a teaching or something like that, but it's just a place for people to connect. And so that is one place where, you know, I'll answer prayer requests or just say, hey.
Brandon Robbins [00:17:07]:
I'm praying for you or I'll answer questions. But then we also have kinda pulled it a little bit, closer, and we've got a membership that people are part of where they get consistent teaching every month. They get reading plans and bible studies and stuff like that. And that's like a community I'll invest in a bit more. Mhmm. But I would I would say that I'm not their pastor. So I may have a bit of a pastoral relationship, but it's always my goal that they're connected to the local church.
Ryan Dunn [00:17:36]:
Mhmm.
Brandon Robbins [00:17:37]:
So we can take the things that I'm teaching on YouTube, and we can take this really awesome opportunity we have to be able to connect online, but that's not the goal. Like, the goal isn't to be in some online forum. I think there's real limitations to that. So it's always like, how do we push you back to the local church? How do we send you out to live out the great commission?
Ryan Dunn [00:17:56]:
There's, of
Brandon Robbins [00:17:57]:
course, those people who are homebound, and this is their only sense of connection, and and it's beautiful that we can be there in that in that instance. But for the most part, it's like, let's go out into the world. Let's go connect with people in real life and take what we're learning here and spread it.
Ryan Dunn [00:18:10]:
Yeah. Alright. Do you, do you feel like the future this is maybe this is where we're gonna start to get Brandon in some trouble. Do you feel like, the future of ministry is heading into an age where, the ability for a pastor to be an online content creator is is necessary?
Brandon Robbins [00:18:29]:
I don't know. I don't I don't know that I would say it's necessary. I would say there's a ton of opportunity.
Ryan Dunn [00:18:34]:
Okay.
Brandon Robbins [00:18:35]:
You know, YouTube is one of those places where I don't even know what it would take for it to be saturated. Because even when I create videos, you know, and I've had a a video that's reached over a million people, I mean, that is a fraction of what's on YouTube. Mhmm. You know, the billions of people who are watching every single day. So, like, I've barely even scratched the surface. So there's plenty of room for other people out there to be reaching people. So I think it's a great opportunity. I don't know that I would ever say it's a necessity for for that very reason of there there's always a limitation.
Brandon Robbins [00:19:08]:
Mhmm. You know? So you can spread the good news there, but you gotta find a way to make people connect. Otherwise, we're we're really missing the point of the church. I mean, the church is the body. It's the believers who come together. You can do that in a forum, but, like, leading one of those, leading an online community, I can tell you that there's always a limit to that where there's a difference between praying for somebody online or saying I'll pray for you and actually holding hands with somebody and praying. There's a difference between sitting in a room with other people and looking in each other's eyes as you discuss scripture or you share your concerns versus sitting on a Zoom call even. And and so I think it's a great opportunity, but but it will always come back to the local church.
Brandon Robbins [00:19:51]:
So I think for churches, what you do is you say, okay. Well well, how can this be evangelism for us? Or what can we give? How can we resource people? You know, what can we do to serve, and who do we wanna reach? And even if they never come to our local church, like, this is just part of who we are and what our ministry is.
Ryan Dunn [00:20:06]:
Well, Brandon, as you were getting started in producing your u YouTube videos, was it just you on your own? Were you shooting from an iPhone, or how did that work?
Brandon Robbins [00:20:17]:
It was. I had a, so I had a DSLR camera that I'd gotten, and I guess I must have been interested in video. It's hard to remember now, but I had this camera when I started out at the church, and I think I had done a little bit of video at the the previous church. So it was just kinda sitting there, and I decided, you know, I'd use that. But man, I knew nothing. Like, I didn't know anything about sound. I didn't know anything about lighting, any of those things. So I was just kinda winging it and, you know, trying my best with what little things I had.
Brandon Robbins [00:20:46]:
I would edit it. I think I may have had iMovie or maybe a a version of final cut, and all I was really using skill wise was what I learned in one class in college. So, I mean, it was it was totally on my own really for probably the first year. No. No. No. Probably the first two to three years. So even after it took off, it was a good eight months to a year before I I finally brought somebody on consistently, and he would just, like, kinda do some of the editing of the videos.
Brandon Robbins [00:21:20]:
But but I was still filming it. I was still doing all of that stuff too.
Ryan Dunn [00:21:24]:
I wanna learn all about the aspects of, some of the things that you've learned along the way because it in your channel growth, you've obviously learned some things about, well, SEO and, you know, titling and and everything like that. But just in the production end of it, where did you go to start to learn some of that stuff besides the one class in college? Yeah. That probably had you learning, like, equipment that has been obsolete for twenty years.
Brandon Robbins [00:21:54]:
I was, I was on a Mac, but it was like those old iMacs that, like, the whole thing was on a, you know, like, look like a little spaceship sort of thing.
Ryan Dunn [00:22:01]:
Oh, yeah. It was
Brandon Robbins [00:22:02]:
a long time ago. So, you know, a lot of it was just asking around people I met. So, like, when I had so there's this really wonderful guy. He's on our staff now named, Dave Daniels, and he came actually to the church first. He was recording our churches and editing our churches' worship services about halfway through COVID when I just got exhausted and I I couldn't do it anymore. He came in and he started doing that for us, and eventually, he started doing some stuff for me. And so he's really the one who was like, alright. This is what you need lighting wise.
Brandon Robbins [00:22:32]:
This is what you need sound wise. Like, you know, we can upgrade those sorts of things. But then in terms of just how to do YouTube, which I think is its own whole bucket of knowledge, two really, really influential resources. So one is, Sean Cannell and Think Media, which just a a really great resource for, I would especially say, YouTubers who are starting out, people who just wanna know those basics, wanna get to their first thousand subscribers, wanna get monetized, like, all those things. Like, Think Media and Sean Cannell are the place to go for that. And I I remember reading his book and just being kinda blown away by some of the things that at that point, like, I'd never heard anybody say this stuff before. So I think that's a great place to start. And then the other one is actually a really interesting connection I got through The Chosen.
Brandon Robbins [00:23:20]:
So I, you know, was doing these videos and I eventually got invited to some chosen events and things like that and met a a really good friend of mine named Brandon Snipe who was also doing videos about The Chosen, and he invited me on a live stream. And while I was on it, Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen, came on, and then this guy named Derral Eves came on. And I I had no idea who Derral was, but he was all I knew is he was the executive producer of the show and basically helped get it off the ground. But what I came to learn is he's just a brilliant YouTube, basically, mentor. I mean, he mentors mister Beast. Like, he is he knows YouTube better than anybody probably in the world other than, like, the people at Google and maybe even better than them. I mean, just understands it at the most fundamental level. And so he is somebody who I've just been trying to learn from.
Brandon Robbins [00:24:07]:
He wrote a a book called the YouTube formula, but he also has coaching and things like that. And that's yeah. So just every place I can go to to just learn that little bit. And, and some of it makes me realize that for the first couple years, we got really lucky where I would do a video and it would do great, and then I'd do another video and it'd do well, and I had no idea why.
Ryan Dunn [00:24:28]:
Okay.
Brandon Robbins [00:24:28]:
You know, I look I thought I did then, and I look back now, and I'm like, man, just happened to do it. And then another video would come out, and I would I would bomb. And it's just because I didn't know. I was just kinda guessing. And so yeah. So being with people like that gives you a bit of better idea of what to do.
Ryan Dunn [00:24:43]:
Well, as you're looking back now from the, the perfect apex of twenty twenty vision in the hindsight, are you able to pinpoint what were some of the keys of success of those early viral videos?
Brandon Robbins [00:24:57]:
Well, so what I can pinpoint is those moments where something was happening and I could have taken advantage of it, and I didn't know what was happening. Okay. So there was, like, an Easter where it was just every video was really just blowing up. And these videos that had kind of been dormant for a while, all of a sudden they shot to the top. And so what I would do now if I were in that situation is I would go and be like, what is the thread here? What do all these videos have in common? Because one of the things I've learned about YouTube is where that happens is in your suggested videos. Those things that just show up on the side when you're watching a video. If you can really start to gain traction there, that's when you go from couple hundred thousand to a couple million. I mean, that's just that's the place.
Brandon Robbins [00:25:46]:
And so, if I could go back in time, I would say, what was it about all those videos in my top five or my top 10 at that moment, and how do I just keep leaning into that sort of content? Whatever it was, create new buckets out of that of just, you know, kind of themes of videos that fit that and just really build on that success. So that was where I would say, you know, at the time I thought, oh, it's Easter. Easter's making all of these things do really well. But in hindsight, it's like, no. There's something else. And if you can nail that down, then you really know how to just continue grow your channel.
Ryan Dunn [00:26:23]:
For the the pastor who is maybe looking to cultivate the same kind of of presence, either as a a mode of outreach or, they're thinking about, you know, figuring out another way to kinda supplement pastoral income. What might be some early advice that that you can offer in terms of building a channel?
Brandon Robbins [00:26:47]:
So I actually had a friend come to me with this question recently, and the thing I loved about our conversation was he knew exactly who he wanted to reach. And I I think that is the key I would tell anybody. So he came to me and he said, you know, what I wanna do is I I wanna reach those people who just don't feel like they have a place in church. And one of the things I did recently is I found all these guys who just wouldn't come to my church, so I did a bible study in my home. And when I did that, it started out with three people, then it turned into 15 people. Now it's 30 people in my house doing this bible study. And he knew exactly you know, if he had to, like, create an avatar, he knew exactly who that person was. Was.
Brandon Robbins [00:27:27]:
He's this age. He likes these things. Like, this is his profile. And I and I told him when we talked, I'm like, that is so critical for you because if you know that, now you know exactly what kind of content you need to create and YouTube will find those people.
Ryan Dunn [00:27:43]:
And
Brandon Robbins [00:27:43]:
that's the that's the thing to understand about YouTube. It's not trying to say I need to take Brandon's videos and put Brandon's videos in front of as many people as possible. It's saying who is the viewer and do they wanna watch Brandon's videos? And if they wanna watch it, then I'll give it to them. And so it's when you know that person inside and out, when you can say, like, this is my audience and this is who I'm trying to reach, you really have a a much better chance of being able to reach that audience and really have that impact. So I would say for churches, first thing, figure out who you wanna reach. Like, really just nail that down. If you try to reach everybody, you'll reach nobody. Kind of that old adage.
Ryan Dunn [00:28:20]:
Mhmm.
Brandon Robbins [00:28:20]:
But if you know specifically your niche, you'll do really well. And then I would also say, this is something I had to learn the hard way. Like, you have to be in it for the long haul. I mean, it took me two years before one video really popped. And are you willing to be in it for two years before that happens? Because the truth is you may just be one video away from that moment when it really connects with somebody and you know kinda what God has has put you here to do and who God's put you here to serve. And so if you can figure out the the serve part on the front end, that'll be a lot easier. But but in the end, if your heart is really to to serve people online, then just be willing to stick with it even if it feels like nothing's happening because because it'll eventually it'll eventually come around.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:06]:
You know, Marin, it it occurs to me that that sound advice not just for the YouTube ministry, but, probably church ministry in general. Right? I mean, anytime you're starting up a new ministry, probably wanna have a clear mind of who it is that you're you're trying to reach and engage with.
Brandon Robbins [00:29:24]:
And and I think I see so many parallels there because one of the biggest complaints somebody on YouTube who's creating videos would have is, well, I created this amazing video. Why does YouTube not give it to anybody? And that's the wrong question. Yeah. Right? The question is, who am I trying to reach, and how do I make a great video for them? And I think as churches, we do the same thing. Right? We're like, we put on this amazing event. Why didn't anybody show up to our event? When the real question should be, who's in our community? What do they need, and how do we serve them best? You know, it's it's totally back different way of thinking about it.
Ryan Dunn [00:29:57]:
Yeah. Well and then that lens into the credence that sometimes there are channels that have horrible production quality. Right? But they take off because they're still making meaningful content for the particular people who they're trying to engage with.
Brandon Robbins [00:30:13]:
Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, if I look at my early content, like, it doesn't have the lighting, it doesn't have the sound, it doesn't have any of those things, but some of it still reaches people. And I just think that's what it's about. It's about the message in the end.
Ryan Dunn [00:30:25]:
Wait. Your channel has grown to the point of monetization, and that has allowed you to, enlist some other people to help you with that process. It's kind of a chicken in in the egg thing. What came first, the monetization and then the additional staffing, or were you more proactive and and were able to bring in some additional staffing to help them fuel the growth towards?
Brandon Robbins [00:30:47]:
It was monetization first. Yeah. And monetization, you know, early on so, I mean, when my YouTube channel finally kinda took off, it it was monetized pretty quickly thereafter because I think you have to have 4,000 watch hours and a thousand subscribers or something like that. And so, it it monetized. But, I mean, you're not getting rich
Ryan Dunn [00:31:06]:
off of
Brandon Robbins [00:31:07]:
that sort of thing. Like, I remember the first day was, like, $30. I'm like, this is 10 times more than I ever thought I'd ever get.
Ryan Dunn [00:31:13]:
The truth. Yeah.
Brandon Robbins [00:31:16]:
So and and then, you know, it wasn't huge and for for I mean, it's still not huge, but it was, you know, sort of the thing where it was just, like, it was nice to have a little bit extra. And and so we kinda, you know, really didn't know what to do that. We saved a lot of it saying, you know, this is some extra blessing God's given us. We're gonna use this for ministry in the future. And so I really just kept doing my own thing for probably a good six months to a year. And then that was when we finally brought on Dave to do that editing for me. And it was part time. It was, like, per job.
Brandon Robbins [00:31:49]:
He was giving us an amazing rate and, you know, so we would pay him with what we were kinda earning out of YouTube. Mhmm. And then, you know, as things grew, he finally came on full time last year. And, also, we've my wife now works for the ministry. But that's it. I mean, we're a small shop, so it was we're we're pretty bare bones. I'm sure that there's times where we probably do need to hire more people, but but, you know, that's just kinda where we are right now.
Ryan Dunn [00:32:16]:
Yeah. We're gonna start cranking out two videos a week, Brandon. You can't wait. Right?
Brandon Robbins [00:32:20]:
My my goal is actually going the opposite direction to do videos that do so well. It's like one
Ryan Dunn [00:32:24]:
a month.
Brandon Robbins [00:32:25]:
That's my goal, Just to to give some breathing room. But
Ryan Dunn [00:32:29]:
For sure. Yeah. Well, are are you doing all that? I'm just as I've watched the video, some of them are pretty research intensive. Is that, stuff that you've just collected over the years, or are you having to spend a considerable amount of time each week in content generation, doing things like research and reshoots?
Brandon Robbins [00:32:50]:
Yeah. So, I mean, some of it is stuff that I've learned over the years. I mean, I think I probably studied these things for ten years before I really started putting out content regularly. So there was thankfully a nice well of information that that I had to draw upon. But it was also, I'm very much, especially with how kind of busy things are these days with having the ministry online and writing a book and having a church and putting out weekly content. Like, I've had to really get better about my schedule. So one of the things that I do is routinely go away, and I will take about three or four days and I will just pump out a ton of content. So I did this last week.
Brandon Robbins [00:33:31]:
I mean, I think I probably created 10 to 12 videos while I was away last week and just, you know, try to get ahead. And I've found that I work much better when I've got no distraction. Like I can just focus on it from wake up to go to sleep and just give it all my attention, do my research. And so that's kind of my pattern, but that's really evolved and over time. For the early days, it was just I would sit down and probably spend a day researching and, you know, getting everything ready for a video.
Ryan Dunn [00:34:02]:
You you've mentioned now that you've entered a a phase where you're doing a little bit of coaching. What's something that you're offering people through the coaching that you wish somebody had offered you?
Brandon Robbins [00:34:10]:
Well, I mean, what I offer, I guess, that I wish I could have learned years even earlier than I did was just all of this stuff about what it was like to live in the world of Jesus. So that's really what our membership is all about. You know, how do I help you to dive into that world to understand all the things that I overlooked in the Bible, like geography? I mean, for me, it was like any name of a town was just a name of a town. I had no clue where it was. I had no clue why I was significant, and it really wasn't even until I went to Israel that it just, like, clicked. You know, why does Caesarea Philippi matter so much? Well, when you're standing in front of a place there that's literally called the gates Of Hell, all of a sudden that whole passage where Jesus says, you know, I'm gonna build my church and the gates of hell won't overcome. It makes whole different sense in that moment. So, you know, being able to pass those things down that people pass down to me or even something as simple.
Brandon Robbins [00:35:04]:
I remember this is one of the first revelations that happened for me. I was reading a book called Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus by Lois de Vervberg and Anne Spangler, and they talked about how Pentecost was actually the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and that was the reason that there were people there. So many people in the temple was because it was one of the three Jewish holidays where you were required to travel to to Jerusalem, which also explains why you had people speaking all of these different languages in that moment. And then the whole thing flips on its head and you understand, okay. That's what it means when it says everybody is speaking their own language, but they could all understand each other. It's because they've all traveled from around the world to be in this place for Shavuot, and that's when the holy spirit comes. And then you understand the significance of why on that day the holy spirit came, you know, and how that takes that whole story even deeper. Like, those are the things that took a Bible that I had read, you know, for thirty years and made it like it was was brand new.
Brandon Robbins [00:36:00]:
And that's that's the gift that I try to share with other people that you don't even have to be a biblical scholar to to know and understand these things and pass them on. It's just learning how to read the bible a little bit differently and learning where to look to see some of these things.
Ryan Dunn [00:36:19]:
You know, you see that community start to come through a little bit in some of the comments. I'm gonna give a little space around this because I might cut this question as well, Brandon. But, I I'm just thinking about in navigating comments. Your comment section is is very positive. Is is there a cultivation process there?
Brandon Robbins [00:36:41]:
No. I I think that is, that's, maybe a a little bit different than what I see sometimes. I feel
Ryan Dunn [00:36:47]:
like For sure. You you
Brandon Robbins [00:36:48]:
just showed me all the all the negative stuff. You know, I I think comments are a great indicator of what people are getting out of your videos and something that's really helpful to look at just to understand who your viewer is and and what they're doing, and even who your viewer isn't because that's something I learn a lot of, you know, just somebody having issue here or there. So so comments are one of those things that I I've learned to really just look for the best in them. And we don't we don't do a ton to to really cultivate that, unfortunately, just because sometimes it gets overwhelming. It's just it's too many comments on too many videos
Ryan Dunn [00:37:24]:
to be
Brandon Robbins [00:37:24]:
able to do much with it, and we really try to focus on our community. But it is a place that I go, and it took me a while, I will tell you, to learn to really see it for what positive things it has to offer. So I would go in there, and I'd read every comment, and I try to respond to everything. And and you get into those negatives. And even though, like, I could take it, I can take some criticism. It, like, just weighs on you, And you walk away feeling drained and awful. And I was like, what's the point of that? Like, I'm not gonna argue some random person into agreeing with me. So so in the end, I just take it for for what blessings it has to offer of being able to maybe sometimes hear stories of life change that I get to to think about and celebrate or just even be able to connect with somebody who has a question or just wants to, you know, just say, hey.
Brandon Robbins [00:38:11]:
This was amazing to me. And I get to be like, yeah. It was amazing to me too. Like, I'm so glad that it it blessed you. You know? Yeah. That sort of thing.
Ryan Dunn [00:38:17]:
But you're not using the comment section to change minds. No. I don't Make further arguments about theology, that kind of thing.
Brandon Robbins [00:38:26]:
I don't really feel like arguing about theology online is ever a productive pursuit. And there's
Ryan Dunn [00:38:35]:
I I tend to agree to.
Brandon Robbins [00:38:36]:
But yeah. Yeah. But I think that there is I've seen way too many people find courage behind the veil of the Internet that if we were to have a face to face conversation, it would have an entirely different tone, and it would just have an entirely different outcome. And so for me, it's just not a not a place to do that. I mean, there there are times I think where if somebody, like, just totally misinterpreted me, I would I would say, hey. This is what I what I intended. Like, hoping, like, oh, now that you understand, maybe that will will help you to see that a little bit differently. But but beyond that, like, I just don't even go into that.
Brandon Robbins [00:39:13]:
There's there's so much more good, positive kingdom building stuff that I could spend my time on that that's just not it.
Ryan Dunn [00:39:21]:
Yeah. Alright. Great. Well, Brandon, if, folks wanna learn a little bit more, where do you recommend they start? With the YouTube channel or, with your website?
Brandon Robbins [00:39:31]:
Yeah. Definitely start off with YouTube. That'll be where you kinda get a get a look at everything we're doing. So that's, just youtube.com slash @brandonrobbinsministry, I think is what that's called. And then, brandonrobbinsministry.com is our website. So you can just go to that, and that'll link you to some YouTube stuff as well as free resources we give away, the book, our membership, different things like that.
Ryan Dunn [00:39:53]:
Fantastic. Brandon, thank you so much for sharing your experience with us and your hope as well.
Brandon Robbins [00:39:58]:
Yeah. Thank you so much, Ryan, for having me on.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:01]:
Hey. Thanks for taking this journey with us on MyCOM. Want to enrich your congregation's understanding of the sacraments? The new Belong series from Discipleship Ministries is your guide with insightful resources on baptism, holy communion, and membership vows, it's designed to bring faith to life in deeper, more personal ways. Whether you're leading a small group or seeking to inspire your entire church, the long series helps you turn learning into living. Discover the full suite of resources today at uncdiscipleship.org. For more things my comm and more tips and resources for your ministry, check out resourceuncumc.org as well. MyCOM is a production of United Methodist Communications, and it comes out monthly. Thank you to Renee McNeil and Patty Delabovi for production and marketing support.
Ryan Dunn [00:40:57]:
My name is Ryan Dunn. I'll chat at you soon. Peace.