My Experience at Spotter Studio's Idea Summit

The Start

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a creator. It started with writing and drawing as a 6 year old kid. My mom would design blank book templates for me to create stories based on my interests at the time (Lots of Marvel and Star Wars). From that early age I knew I wanted to do something in the creative space, and once I discovered YouTube, I knew THAT was the medium I’d use.

For me, creating videos is a way for me to combine all my passions into one.

• Collaboration with other talented people? Check.
• Stepping outside my comfort zone. Check.
• Strategy and innovation? On my mind DAILY!
• Creativity? Name of the game.

The constant “grind” in my pursuit of becoming a successful creator is what makes me whole. I know that the work I put in now can change not just the life of myself, but everyone around me. And on top of that, I can use content as an avenue to get involved with organizations that serve those in need. There’s so many ways to be a creator and so many ways to spread your message.

If I can reach a point where I’m able to support myself making the videos I want, and as a byproduct, inspire viewers but also help those in need, I can say I’ve “made it”.

Importance of Ideation

As a new creator, I’m always looking for ways to speed up my work flow. Ideation is the most important element of video creation, and having Spotter Studio ensures that those ideation sessions are productive!

The way in which Spotter Studio houses all of your ideas as separate folders and within them are sub menus to ideate titles, hooks, thumbnails, etc makes ideation a BREEZE. I can get as specific as I want in regards to details and revisions WITHOUT feeling cluttered. The best part, when I’m down the rabbit hole of changing the smallest details of a thumbnail, Spotter Studio saves my previous versions in case I want to go back and see where I started from.

The biggest help though, has been Outliers. Seeing proven concepts on other channels in my niche gives me so much data to back the decisions I make regarding ideas to pursue, packaging concepts, and more. It’s like having a YouTube analyst at your disposal and I can say that since using the outlier tool, I’ve eliminated a lot of the guesswork I used to have when it came to selecting ideas.

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The Idea Summit and the Opportunity to Collaborate with the Greats

This spring, Spotter Studio announced an opportunity to Collaborate with the Greats: a once in a lifetime opportunity for creators to build their backlog of ideas and share their best Ideas with Colin and Samir, Aprilynne Alter and Jon Youshaei to help develop and refine their ideas. I added a bunch of ideas to my Idea Bank and shared one of my best ideas with the experts. The idea I submitted was ‘I Opened a Gym That Pays You to Workout’. The idea was inspired by Jack Pembrook’s ‘I Opened a Better McDonald’s’. It was a genius concept and proved to be an outlier (as shown on Spotter Studio), so I knew that if I added my own unique twist but took inspiration from HOW the story was told, I could have a banger on my hands!

The idea caught Colin and Samir’s eye and they elected my idea as one of the winners. So you can imagine the shock I felt when after using Studio, I received the email that I had won an opportunity to meet YouTube’s smartest mentors in real life in Los Angles to collaborate on the idea. I may or may not have jumped in the air a couple times.

Collaborating with the Greats

Having the opportunity to meet with Colin, Samir, Jon, and Aprilynne in real life in LA gave me the confidence I felt I’d been seeking as a new creator. It’s one thing for your peers to enjoy your videos, but to have 1:1 time with the GREATS in the space was life changing. Here’s what I learned from each expert:

1. With C&S, I learned the importance of utilizing thumbnail structures that may have been used for videos completely outside my niche, but could be implemented into my own video. My thumbnail concept changed a lot after my meeting with Colin and Samir. They instilled in me the rule of creating curiosity gaps in my packaging. I knew that if I wanted this video to spark interest, I needed to showcase WHY this gym is more than me handing out $20 bills, and WHY people needed to click and watch it through.
2. With Aprilynne, I was able to refine my video’s intro, to again, spark more curiosity and ensure that viewers WANT to watch until the end.
3. With Jon, I received great advice about being a “career YouTuber” and the best way to tackle longevity through the ideas I choose. I could tell he cared and wanted to see me become as successful as possible

The Idea

Spotter Studio’s Idea Summit gave me so much valuable information that the idea I submitted was entirely rescripted based on the feedback from the experts. I knew that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and so I wanted to make sure that any advice I received was seen in the final video.

‘I Opened a Gym That Pays You to Workout’ is still being filmed, but the concept is stronger, the payoff is more satisfying. If the experts choose to watch, they’ll see their fingerprints all over it. I really dove into the curiosity gap I wanted to create with this video. Originally, it was a neat novelty that audiences would MAYBE find interesting. Now, I’m very confident in the story and I think viewers are gonna love the journey of how I built this gym, and my city’s reaction to it.

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Final Words

This wasn’t just an Idea Summit. It was the affirmation that maybe new creators seek when they start out.

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“Do I have what it takes?” “Am I good enough?” “Are there REALLY  people who have that same passion?”

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Idea Summit and collaborating with the greats gave me an opportunity for me to know that the answer to all of those questions is “yes”.

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