Making Videos for YouTube with Henry Thong

In 10th grade, Henry Thong took media studies, thinking it’d be a chance for him to slack off. Instead, he discovered a passion for videography that transformed his career aspirations and redefined his future. Henry pursued film seriously from that point on, entering festivals at every chance he got and following the Casey Neistat philosophy of constantly creating content and sharing as much of it with the world as possible.

That content push paid off once professionals started spotting Henry’s docuseries on YouTube. Always fascinated by the lives of fellow creators, his passion for telling artists' stories landed him a job producing video content at ConvertKit. But ConvertKit was far from his first career opportunity. Henry knew he couldn’t abandon his side projects, and only pursued jobs that allowed him to balance both.

In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Henry discuss Henry’s advice for filmmakers looking to share their work and gain a following on YouTube, tips beyond beating the notoriously tricky algorithm, how to network with artists that feel out of reach, and how Henry balances a full-time job with the passion projects that fuel him.

Key Takeaways

[00:37] - Have you heard?
- [00:42] - An I Am A Creator film that Henry created was nominated for a Telly Award. ConvertKit’s I Am A Creator website is also nominated for a Webby Award.
- [02:06] - Elon Musk is officially the new owner of Twitter.
- [03:17] - A creator is on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
- [04:02] - CNN+ was canceled a month after its launch due to the WarnerMedia Discovery merger.
[05:06] - Today’s main topic: Making videos for YouTube.
- [05:42] - How Henry built his career as a filmmaker.
- [12:16] - The best way to build momentum on YouTube and the debate on short-form vs long-form content.
- [15:26] - Henry’s tips and tricks for generating organic traffic on YouTube and beating the algorithm.
- [21:19] - How Henry maintains healthy boundaries between his personal work and his ConvertKit projects and how he manages to sustain his side hustle while working a full-time job.
- [25:09] - What Henry learned pursuing a major passion project in addition to full-time work and why he eventually decided to put that passion project on pause.
- [29:42] - Charli’s perspective on short-form vs long-term content.
- [34:47] - How Henry networks with artists and creators, including those with mass followers that may feel “unreachable.”
- [38:38] - Charli’s and Haley’s closing thoughts on Henry’s advice.
- [40:22] - One thing Henry is incredibly proud of.
[42:05] - Today’s listener shoutout! Kurt Libby recently launched a new app called HuntMob where anyone can create photo scavenger hunts. You can plug in your ConvertKit API key to directly grow your email list through the scavenger hunt.
[43:14] - A sneak peek at next week’s episode.

Quotes

[13:18] - “When it comes to the algorithm, it’s so dangerous to play to the algorithm because it’s always changing. It all depends on what you’re trying to achieve. The longer-form content always ends up being better for audience experience. So there’s a lot of factors that influence your decision-making: It’s what you want to achieve with it and who do you want to reach?” ~ @henryzw

[20:01] - “As with every social media platform, you’ve gotta think about it as more of a partnership with that company. What can you do with your content to keep people on their site for longer? Because in the end, YouTube just wants people to stay on there forever.” ~ @henryzw

[32:57] - “Choose whichever format or run time that best fits your creative vision and then find ways to make that work.” ~ @henryzw

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