On this week’s Aspiring Creator podcast, we’re live from IFA Berlin 2025, I’m joined by Alex and MrHtech for a very creator-at-a-trade-show kind of week. We get into how to actually make events like IFA pay, the constant battle with titles and workflow, and why fake views and dodgy metrics still mess up brand deals.

If you enjoyed this, a quick rating or review on your podcast app makes a huge difference 🙏

New episodes every Wednesday 🚀

⏰ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - How Creators made Tech / Trade Shows Pay 🤑

07:05 - The Clickbait Dilemma: Titles that perform vs titles that don’t annoy your audience 🎣

13:08 - Planning Content for Apple Season (and keeping to deadlines) 📅

18:17 - Do You Need an Agent to Manage Sponsorships? 🤝

23:55 - Fake Views & Failing to Educate Brands 😤

🔗 LINKS

• Alex Gear & Tech - https://www.youtube.com/@AlexGTech
• MrHtech - https://www.youtube.com/@MrHtech

💬 SOCIAL STUFF

▸ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠@petematheson⁠⁠⁠

▸ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠@petematheson⁠⁠⁠

▸ Website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.petematheson.com/

Kick back for a very tech-YouTube week. From Google’s embargo-before-the-show chaos (plus a Jimmy Fallon keynote?!) to a Pixel review unit appearing out of nowhere, I unpack what happened.

I also share how we’re simplifying our Monday.com content OS and discuss whether bringing an agency back in makes sense.

If this helped, a quick rating/review on your podcast app really helps 🙏

New episodes every Wednesday 🚀

⏰ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - Pixel Launch Chaos, a Jimmy Fallon Keynote and a Review Unit Mysteriously Turning Up 📦

07:19 - Pixel 10 Video Filmed on a Pixel 9: Mistake or Genius? 🧐

11:17 - Levelling Up Our Monday.com Content Management System 🚀

14:16 - Agency vs In-House: Can You Really Offload Sponsorship Admin Without Losing Money? 📈

20:26 - Guaranteeing Views on Videos 👀

🔗 LINKS

Catch up on last week’s episode: https://youtu.be/C2oOcZi76SA

💬 SOCIALS

▸ Instagram: ⁠⁠@petematheson⁠⁠

▸ LinkedIn: ⁠⁠@petematheson⁠⁠

▸ Website: ⁠⁠https://www.petematheson.com/

We're back again with another behind-the-scenes look at running a creator business.

In this episode I talk about:

🚀 Growing an email list

🤖 How to massively level up your content using Claude

🤝 What really goes into brand deals and sponsorship negotiations

If you're building a creator business and want the unpolished version of what's working (and what's not), this one's for you. New episodes every Wednesday 🚀

⏰ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 How to Grow an Email List (+ SEO Experiment Update) 🚀

05:57 Claude AI is Actually Insane 🤯

16:52 How I Really Negotiate Brand Deals (with Actual Numbers) 🤝

26:46 Selling my Business to go all in on YouTube 😳

32:00 The Real Difference Between Short Form and Long-Form Content 👀

37:20 The Creator Trap: Why Doubling Output isn't Always the Way 🙅‍♂️

42:11 Is Google Pixel Screwed Over Smaller Creators? 😕

💬 SOCIALS

▸ Instagram: ⁠@petematheson⁠

▸ LinkedIn: ⁠@petematheson⁠

▸ Website: ⁠https://www.petematheson.com/

I'm relaunching Aspiring Creator and this time I've outsourced everything except sitting in the chair and talking, so kick back and come behind the scenes 😃

In this episode I talk about:

🛠️ The systems that make the channel sustainable📈 Growth vs revenue and how I approach it🤖 AI & YouTube reality

If you're building a creator business and want the unpolished version of what's working (and what's not), this one's for you. New episodes every Wednesday 🚀

⏰ TIMESTAMPS

00:00 - My £1.5k/mo SEO bet (+ how I'm outsourcing) 💰

05:16 - Why I'm Starting a Second Newsletter (+ monetisation) 📰

07:09 - Views vs Brand Deals: Which is more important? (+ Tech-tober) 👀

12:48 - New Content Management System (+ financial forecasting) 😌

15:01 - YouTube Analytics: CTR vs Retention (+ is A/B testing worth it?) 📈

19:59 - Channels Stealing Content (+ losing faith with YouTube) 🥷

25:49 - Using AI for YouTube Analytics 🤖

💬 SOCIAL STUFF

▸ Instagram: @petematheson

▸ LinkedIn: @petematheson

▸ Website: https://www.petematheson.com/

Chapters

0:00 Press Trips

1:13 Uploading to YouTube Podcasts

3:02 CES 2025 and Upcoming Trips

7:38 I Quit

13:58 I want a Pixel 9 Pro Fold

18:30 First Year Numbers on YouTube

23:40 Asking for Subscribers

25:13 Helping others

27:20 Easier to find sponsors for Apple content?

29:00 93mph in a 30

0:23 Issues with YouTube Podcasts

2:51 Worth spending money on SEO?

7:40 Begging for Subscribers?

10:35 Less better videos

15:33 Careful with Switching

18:17 Curating Happy Comments

25:11 I now have an agent!

32:40 Video misses

Took me 6 months but I fixed the audio! haha

00:00 I've been a bit busy

00:50 Hitting 200,000 Subscribers

9:23 Finding a format that I love

13:25 Changing up my Team

19:19 Being First vs Being Best. Is there much difference?

21:10 Changes to our editing process

26:02 Attending Events - What should I have done?

Totally buggered up the mic settings here - Will fix this in future episodes!

00:00 The Shift in Content Creation on YouTube

05:44 Attending the Kajabi Event and Finding Clarity

10:34 Focusing on YouTube as the Main Source of Income

13:00 "Video Performance is Essential to working together again"

17:00 How do you review a bad product...?

21:30 The Challenges of Offering Discounted Rates to Sponsors

00:00 Manager vs. Agent for Sponsorships

06:09 The Value of Weekly Calls with Other Creators

08:05 The Misconception of Being a YouTuber

15:16 Running an IT Coaching Business

32:25 Exploring Non-Scripted Videos

Chapters

00:00 Building a Community for Tech Creators

03:48 Reflecting on Video Performance and Ideation Skills

06:39 Balancing YouTube Work and Other Commitments

10:28 Attending Brand Events: Insights and Opportunities

13:55 Gifted Products: Considering Audience Interest