Make an additional $18k with Ad money & new clients from your YouTube channel (Part 1) (Interview with Tracy Steen)

Highlights from the interview

[08:24] – How she got 25,000 YouTube subscribers and how you can make money through Ad revenue from YouTube

[15:57] – What the estimated earnings is for every thousands of views of your YouTube videos

[21:01] – How she earns an additional $200 to $300 per month passively from a simple download that she promotes via her YouTube channel

[27:38] – If having offline clients has been beneficial for her online business

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About our Guest

From Therapist, turned Fitness Trainer, and now a very successful online entrepreneur

Today, I am so excited to talk to Tracy Steen. She’s the owner of Move Daily Fitness, which has a very successful YouTube channel where each video has a couple thousand views each and she has 25,000 YouTube subscribers. 

She also has a very successful fitness membership site with recurring monthly subscribers, downloadable products, and even Ad revenue from her channel and her sponsorships. 

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Edited transcription of Fitness Business Secrets Podcast, Episode 18

Kristy: Hey Tracy, thanks so much for being on the show. So, you’re a very accomplished personal trainer who’s trained lots of clients.

In addition, now you have this great YouTube channel and following, what do you attribute to your success?

Tracy: So, a lot of people who start just peter out. It’s either they’re burning the candle at both ends, can’t figure out a way to make enough money, or have to work the longest hours, so they fatigue physically and mentally.

I’ve always wanted to have this as a career and I was very driven to be sure that that happened. 

One of my friends, who’s a very successful entrepreneur, said to me, “Basically, you’re one-to-one. When you’re a personal trainer and you go into a home, you have that one person for one hour and you can make one paycheck right there. What if you could diversify? Instead of being one-to-one, you could be one to many or one to thousands?”

What platform could you use in order to do that? You could blog and could go on any social media platform, and have a presence there. Then, you’d be one to thousands. 

YouTube really resonated with me because I always wanted to have my own television show or cook in channels. If you asked my family, many times in my life I’d be sitting behind the counter pretending I’m having my own healthy cooking show.

That was always kind of at the back of my head that I really enjoyed being in front of the camera. 

YouTube was a definite fit for me that way. Probably 10 years ago, I did a fitness competition and I decided to get some of my information on how to do it on YouTube.

I would Google, “How to train and eat for a fitness competition,” and I would find quite a bit of information. I thought, “Well, I’m just going to film my journey in this.” So, I decided to start filming it.

I was on a little Blackberry playbook, which had bad sound and quality. You could actually even go back into my old YouTube channel and see those videos there.

As I did that, I recognized that people started to watch and I had a few subscribers. That was about 10 years ago. 

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How she got 25,000 YouTube subscribers and how you can make money through Ad revenue from YouTube

[08:24] Tracy: Fast forward to probably about two or three years into that, I was posting different recipes and a few different exercises.

One day, my Blackberry playbook died, and I stopped filming altogether. I just stopped, which I completely regret now, but one of my friends said this to me, “Be one to thousands.” 

All of a sudden, YouTube came back into my brain. I thought, “I’ve got to pick that back up. I’ve got to decide to do that and be really consistent.”

That was kind of the start of it, and that was about two years ago. I said, “I’m going all in. I’m going to be super consistent and see where it takes me.” 

Kristy: Two years ago, you made this decision to focus on YouTube. I’ve done YouTube videos. It still takes time. You clearly edit your videos, so you’re going back and putting in extra work and the timer.

Sometimes I’d be like, “Oh, well, 30 seconds. Did it have to be 30 seconds?” 

Tracy: I know. Believe me, the learning curve on it is really big. It’s not small, but I’ll tell you how I sort of started and how I began to learn about it. 

First of all, I watched a ton of YouTube videos. I still kept my in-home training business, so I would go to work in the morning for four or five clients a day. I kept that schedule, and then I would come home in the afternoon and learn. 

I watched and learned how to work a camera, how to put the settings on the camera, and how to film. I watched editing videos on how to edit and how to take my thumbnail picture so the photos were clear and crisp, so I watched people like Sean Cannell on Youtube. 

I watched Gary Vaynerchuk for inspiration for my business. I wanted to get inspiration for the type of Youtuber and business that I wanted to have, so I’m watching people like Jordan Peterson, Brene Brown, or Tom Bilyeu.

For me, I want to approach my business in a 360 sort of holistic approach. So, I’m not just doing fitness, but I’m doing wellness, nutrition, mindfulness, mindset, and all of that. I think, part and parcel, that is what sets me apart a little bit from just a regular fitness channel. 

I think it is really identifying the type of trainer I want to be and what service, benefit, and value I want to offer the subscriber. It was a really big learning curve. Like I said, it’s been really consistent for the last two years. 

Everyday or every other day, I’m watching podcasts, listening to channels, and subscribing to blogs. I’m really in that learning curve, so I can be the best that I can be in that. 

Kristy: Well, that’s a good point. It’s okay that it takes time to learn. Could you tell me about where your business is now? I see on your site you have a lot of different things. What makes up the bulk of your revenue?

Tracy: In this last year, I would definitely say it’s kind of 50/50, being online, running programs, and having an in-home training business. Of course, right now with COVID-19, it’s all online. I don’t go to anyone’s homes right now. 

Actually, I’m super happy with the way that I’ve set it up and I actually do have a consistent revenue stream online. Seeing as I can’t go into anyone’s homes, it was a great sort of thing that I had set up. 

It’s probably 50%. This last year, there were a few months that I made more online for the first time than I was making in my in-home training  business. That was a real eye opener that kind of said to me, “Whatever I’m doing is working.”

The online business is growing. My eventual goal is to segue out of in-home training and be all online. I feel like having the in-home clients though has given me a great background, a good history, and they’ve been my good Guinea pigs. 

I’ve learnt a lot by staying with those people. Seeing what they want, the journey through their lives with them, and figuring out how I can help them. Again, not just in fitness, but in wellness and nutrition, and really learning, honing my skills, and coaching.

Now, I’m able to take that to an online community and say, “This is what I can offer. This is how I can change your life.”

Right now, I would say, monetarily, I’m probably about 50/50. It’s  interesting. It’s really easy for me to think or dream up some new program. All of a sudden, my monthly income can skyrocket because I’m like, “Let’s do a summer challenge.”

Last summer, we did a Mindful Summer Challenge for two months, and I had 85 people sign up. It’s whatever you can dream and do. You can do it. 

It’s having the foundation to set all that up. That is the work. I would hate for your listeners to think that it’s just easiest setting it up, and then you can do it. The background of what you have to align, orchestrate, and your funnel. That’s all a learning curve too.

I actually joined a mastermind group with my good friend, Valerie McTavish, and she was able to be a business coach for me to help me to see, “How do I do this online?”

I couldn’t figure it all out myself. She really helped me to go, “This is the structure and process that you need to incorporate if you want to build your business online.” I think finding people who know more than you is really important. 

Kristy: That’s definitely really helpful. For your revenue, since there’s such a big array of online training and I don’t want to make an assumption of exactly what your products are, some people are actually training people virtually. 

I’m thinking yours are mostly informational programs. What is it that you’re selling and how much does it cost?

Tracy: Right now, I actually am doing personal training online. Typically, it’s one to three or one to four, and we’re actually using something like Zoom or a house party app. 

Those have been my sort of recurring clients. I also have programs and many streams.  

Kristy: Cool! I want to hear them all.

Tracy: The umbrella is huge. Let’s list the streams of revenue. This is the glorious part of what you can do because in personal and in-home training, it’s one revenue stream. Here, I probably have five or six. 

Even putting videos on YouTube, you get paid for that. I have 25,000 subscribers right now, and I generate ad revenue from the ads that are played on my videos. 

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What the estimated earnings is for every thousands of views of your YouTube videos

[15:57] Kristy: Could you tell me about how much that is? I think everyone’s wondering, “Is it worth it?”

Tracy: Good question, because people are like, “You can make so much money.” What’s interesting is that December was amazing. In December, you get clicks per thousand, and you get money based on your thousand views. 

It’s called CPM, cost per mille, but it’s per thousand views. The revenue dollar was up to about $13 or $14 per thousand views right now, but because of the economy and how everything’s dropped, it’s actually only about $6 or $7. 

So, you’re making way less, even though I have double or triple the views right now because of COVID-19 and everyone looking for online stuff. 

By and large, my income stream on ad revenue alone has climbed ever since I started. It’s just a slow, steady sort of climb. 

With about 25,000 subscribers and the variances between timing and ads, you’d probably make between $500 and $700 a month with just ad revenue on that. Every month, it’s kind of up. If I have 50,000 subscribers, I’ll probably be close to double that revenue every month. 

I’m just going on my own channel and how much engagement I have because people can have lots of subscribers, but not have the lengthy engagement. Those are variances that are important. That’s one field. 

One of the other streams that I’ve done is now that I have over 400 videos on my channel, I have a ton of content. I can take all of those fitness videos and structure them into the calendars. 

This is why it was so important to me to always answer every single person in my comments on YouTube because they would always ask me, “We did this workout today. What should I do tomorrow?”

And, I’m like, “There’s clearly a need.” 

So, I created these calendars. Basically, I took all my YouTube videos, plugged them into a structure and order, and sold them for $10. I made an advanced one, a strength-based one, a 30-minute and under one, and a beginner one. 

Every day, people buy those calendars and they’re $10, so it’s nothing to anyone. It’s cheap, but it gives a month’s worth of workouts and it’s all structured. In some of the strength ones, I would put exclusive workouts. 

I have a membership and they get exclusive workouts every week. So, some of those and charge a little bit extra.

That was a great little ad revenue there. I use YouTube to funnel people into my program, so I have a couple of ongoing programs. 

I launch a program a couple of times a year called a 6-week Accountability Strength Program. It’s $200 for six weeks. People get coaching on fitness, wellness, nutrition, and they get workouts.

All video and exclusive workouts. We have a private Facebook group. They get a real hand holding and a real deep dive into the psychology behind fitness, wellness, and nutrition. 

I think I told you, but I’m not sure if I’ve told your audience. I used to be a marriage and family therapist before I was a trainer. 

I take that experience and knowledge, and take them a little bit below the water line to help them figure out their life. Whether they’re stuck, why they can’t lose weight, or why they’ve started and stopped fitness, and how they can sustain that for a healthy life forever. That’s that program.

Right now, I currently have a membership as well. It’s an ongoing $40 a month. People can register and drop off whenever after a month is over, and that’s been really good. 

I can have these little challenges come up. We did the March Melt Away for people going through this whole COVID-19 thing in March. I’m like, “Let’s all get together.” I think I had 85 people registered for it. 

Then, I’ve got all those people I can funnel into a membership later if I want, just to say, “If you’ve enjoyed this and found value out of it, would you continue on with us in this membership?” That’s another revenue stream.

Of course, you get a lot of people asking to collaborate with you or to pimp their shoes, socks, or equipment. That happens probably multiple times a month. I get emails about if I can collaborate, how much I would charge, and different things like that.

There’s actually an app called Social Bluebook. You can go on the app, type in, and give the Bluebook access to your platforms. They analyze how many people and subscribers you have, how much watch time, and then they tell you how much you should charge per collaboration.

It’s good because you’re like, “I don’t know how much to charge.” Something like that gives you a good base point.  

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How she earns an additional $200 to $300 per month passively from a simple download that she promotes via her YouTube channel

[21:01] Kristy: There’s a bunch of things I have follow up questions on. I know you have 25,000 subscribers and you definitely have a lot of views per video, and you’re saying that it depends on what your audience likes.

For your set up, you mentioned that you sell the $10 downloads about how to do your program. How many of those do you sell a month to your subscribers? 

Tracy: I would say probably between 30 and 40 a month. If I put a new one out, usually the numbers are higher at maybe 60 or 70. It’s all sort of a drip. 

I have another collaboration with Roku television. They have actually taken my videos and have it streaming on their fitness channel under Roku.

It’s kind of like Amazon or Netflix, but it’s called Roku television. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. Every month, I do nothing. They literally take my YouTube videos, put it on their channel, then people click it and you get ad revenue.

From that, I probably get about $200 or $300 a month. Just kind of dripping in that way. 

Kristy: Is that from Roku or is that because you get more YouTube plays? 

Tracy: It’s from Roku, because they download it from YouTube, so it’s not on YouTube anymore. It’s downloaded onto their platform, so they would have their own subscription to Roku. 

Kristy: I love it. It’s so cool.

Tracy: I’ve gotten probably four different requests to do something like that. With Vimeo and I can’t remember the other names of the channels, but there’s lots of fitness platforms right now that are doing exactly that.

They want your content on their channel, so they can also charge people a subscription fee. Then, you get a little bit of kickback, but now they have a ton of content. That’s really popular that’s happening right now. 

Kristy: Did you decide to do the other ones? It sounds like you didn’t. Is there any reason why?

Tracy: It’s just so much. With Vimeo, I thought, “Well, maybe I’ll do that,” but they wanted me to upload my own videos and create my own subscription, which is a lot more work. Surprisingly, you think, “That’s nothing. It’s just click and go.” But, it’s extra mind power.

Then, I thought, “I need to focus on my own membership because if I’m giving them my videos and they’re creating membership, they’re getting the lion’s share of the money. What if I can just create my own membership?”

I’ve got 400 videos. I can create exactly what they’ve created and have all my videos categorized into a timeframe, body parts, muscle groups, and intensity levels. Why don’t I put my effort in working on that?

The only reason I stuck with Roku is they literally do it all for me. I don’t even have to look at it. I just get a paycheck every month. 

Kristy: Are you able to maybe promote yourself more on Roku so that it’s distributing your brand? 

Let’s say, because they just download it from YouTube, would they cut out the part where you’re like, “Make sure to go to Move Daily Fitness?” Now, you have an additional set of people. I’m just curious. Do they kind of cut that part out?

Tracy: Well, I put it throughout my video, so they wouldn’t cut that out.

That’s a good question. I’m not even sure. From the videos that I’ve seen, it was my whole intro on the screen, the whole time from YouTube is my logo for my website. You got to think too, “Any promotion is good promotion.” 

If my name is out there in 10 different fields, isn’t that better than only being saturated in one? Then, you’ve got to say, “How thin can I be spread?” Every platform that I manage is still work. You still have to be mindful of it and engage with it. 

Google has a new little video platform called Tangi. They just messaged me about a month ago and asked me to be a part of it. Their thing is you can share videos that you’ve already done. If you get enough views, then they want you to share exclusive videos only for Tangi and they’ll pay you an extra X amount of money, which seemed really good. 

But, it’s like, “Now, I’ve got to upload to YouTube, Tangi, and Roku.” How much do you do? I’m working hard. I’m doing as much as I can, but I also cross promote to LinkedIn and Pinterest every day.

My Pinterest had 216,000 views this last month, so it’s people around there watching my little short exercise demos, even on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It’s a lot though. You’ve got to figure out where your audience is, and then go hard.

I’m so consistent. I batch produce. If I think I’m going to go on a holiday or something, I’ve not missed posting a YouTube video when I said I’m going to. It’s been twice a week for the last two years. These last two months, it’s been three times a week because of COVID-19. 

If I could make five videos a week, my channel would do so much better. I see other other girls who are in the same field, and I hear responses from subscribers. They’re like, “You’re the same as this girl or that girl, and your videos are so great. Could you do more?”

I’m like, “Oh my gosh. I’ve got three kids. I’ve got a full time job.” But, if I could, you could just see it grow. 

Kristy: Totally. Well, you’re doing great. I know sometimes we all just need that as a mother and a woman. For me, it’s good enough. 

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If having offline clients has been beneficial for her online business

[27:38] Kristy: Tell me more about your membership site, because I love recurring subscriptions. It’s brilliant.

How long do people stay on and how much do you charge for your membership? 

Tracy: It’s $40 a month. I’m actually shocked with how long my beginning members have stayed on. It feels like 75% of them have been on there with me for over a year and a half now. I’m surprised, and I’m like, “Girls, you can live without me.”

They’re like, “No! Don’t leave us.” 

 I had this group of four girls who were all with me for about a year, and they were all quite a bit younger. Now, with COVID-19 and having to homeschool and everything else, they’re all like, “I don’t know if we can manage all this right now,” so they’re taking a break.

When they’re with you that long, it’s obvious that you’re giving them value. It’s not that they just forgot to cancel their membership that month. 

Part of what I do in the membership to really build a community is I have a private Facebook group, and that’s really key. I’m engaging with them and I really try to find ways to improve not just their fitness, but their life as well. 

Our motto in the group is, “People like us do things like this. We move daily.” I’m coaching these women to move daily in their fitness, wellness, and nutrition by taking little micro steps and making really good micro habits that will eventually add up and lead them down the road to better health. 

What I charge is $40 a month. About 75% of the people have stayed. Every time I have a new program, like I did this March Beltway Away, everyone was like, “Don’t leave us after March. Can we do something in April?”

So, I changed it to a Spring Melts Away in April and of the 80 people, about 56 stayed. For May, I’ll just say, “Whoever wants to be funneled into my membership, maybe I’ll offer a discount for you guys because you’ve been with me for two months and we’ll go into the membership.”

I agree that it’s such a good thing, but you have to really offer value every day. It’s got to be worth it for them. 

I’ll bring on special guests. I just had a therapist come on the other day. We talked about grief and loss, and I know you’re like, “That doesn’t have anything to do with fitness.”

But, in the group, I had already read the room and I really felt a lot of people were like, “I didn’t work out today because I’m really feeling the loss of my husband or my father,” or, “I’m trying to deal with the loss of my job right now, and it’s really hard to rally my brain and be motivated.”

So, I’m like, “Let’s bring on a grief and loss counselor.” I brought her on and we did a Zoom for the ladies. Just offer value, so that they’re going to say, “I can’t live without Tracy. I need her.”

We do a lot of that.

Stay tuned for the Part 2 of this interview with Tracy!