Today’s podcast is all about building your business by harnessing one of the fastest-growing areas of the web: video.

Have you read a book called “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk? I read it a last year, and I found it incredibly interesting. I strongly recommend you check it out, as it is full of fantastic marketing tips and ideas that you can implement yourself.

In “Crush It!”, Gary Vaynerchuck talks about taking your passion, or a subject you’re an expert in, and building a business around that, no matter how niche that area is.

With that idea firmly in mind, I’m speaking to Brenton Ford, the brains behind Effortless Swimming. He’s a swimming expert, and he has created a incredibly successful online business that provides coaching and training to swimmers.

One of the secrets to Brenton’s success is how he uses video to publicise his brand.

In the four years since Brenton started his YouTube channel, he has had well over two million views. Brenton is the prime example of someone who is effectively using video to grow their business. During this podcast, you’ll learn his smartest and most effective ideas that’ll help you to build your brand online.

We’ll discuss his video marketing strategy, why his approach to web video has changed during his time marking them, and how he’s rapidly grown his audience by following a few simple tips.

You can download this episode directly from this link, or find The Web Video Marketing Show on iTunes.

Episode Transcription

Ryan:  This is the Web Video Marketing Show. I’m your host, Ryan Spanger. Brenton Ford, welcome to the Web Video Marketing Show.

Brenton: Thanks, Ryan. It’s my pleasure to be here.

Ryan:  It’s great to have you on the show. Now, you are a swimming coach, Brenton. I suppose, when people think about video production, they don’t sort of automatically think about swimming, but you’re using video in a really interesting way. It’s really one of the key things in your business. That’s why I wanted to talk to you on the show, to learn a little bit more about how you’re using video and YouTube to build your business.

Brenton: My background is in swimming. I started coaching in 2006. I always wanted to have an online business. I wasn’t too sure how to go about it, how to get started. Long story short, I basically started putting some videos up on YouTube and getting people going to my website from those YouTube videos. It’s just been the main driver of my business from the very start. I’ve found YouTube to be just such a great tool to use to market my business. Just putting together useful and helpful videos for swimmers and triathletes.

Ryan:  That’s fantastic. It will be really interesting to break down that process. I’m looking at your YouTube channel now. You have nearly two and a half million views on your YouTube channel. Nearly 6,000 subscribers. That’s a pretty decent amount. I’m interested to talk through the process of how you got started, how you first got into the online world and started building the channel. By the sounds of it, initially, you were working as a swimming coach with not much on an online presence. Is that right?

Brenton: Yes, that’s right. I started out when I was in my teenage years. I started selling things on eBay and I kind of liked that online … the ability to be able to sell things online and not have to physically be there. Then, in unity I wanted to start an online business. I always thought the first thing I would do would have b...