Bryan McAnulty 0:00

Welcome to the creators adventure where we interview creators from around the world and hearing their stories about growing a business. My name is Brian McAnulty. I'm the founder of heights platform. And today I'm talking with Jeremy Murer, about how he grew a YouTube channel, how to craft a unique brand, how he became successful selling online courses, and the importance of creating multiple income streams.

Alright, hey, everyone. We're here today with Jeremy Muira, a brand identity designer and content creator from Sydney, Australia. He's been in the design industry for nine years now, and has worked with brands like American Express. And in that time, he's also helped hundreds of people upgrade their design careers. So he has over 400 plus videos uploaded on YouTube. He's taught over 55,000 students on Skillshare. And he has a following of over 100,000 on Instagram. Jeremy, welcome to the show.

Jeremy Mura 1:03
Hey, Brian, thanks so much for having me on. Appreciate it.

Bryan McAnulty 1:06
Yeah, so you have this successful brand design business, and you have this YouTube channel with 36,000 subscribers, 3 million views over 400 videos. Can you tell us a little bit about your story and how you got to where you're at today?

Jeremy Mura 1:21
Okay, great question, man. For me, YouTube was always a thing that I wanted to be in do because I saw the potential of, you know, building a personal brand, being a content creator, that was always sort of my goal. And it's paid off. And I just love creating content and teaching people but it started all the way back when I finished college at the end of 2015. So I started YouTube in in 2016, my goal was just to create one video a week, you know, so by the time you know, five years later, I would have you know, over 300 videos, because 52 videos a year. And yeah, I just wanted to teach what I knew, you know, I learned tips and tricks in, in university, and just wanted to share those things. I used to read a lot of books and take courses as well. So I'll just like, teach everything I knew that was the concept, you know, just whatever I'm learning at the time, just teach it to help begin a designer so they can level up. You know what I mean? So for me, yeah, that's, that's where I started. I just kept going with it. The first few years was a slog, and a grind. And, you know, I didn't really see many results, I wasn't getting that many views. I wasn't really getting black brand deals or making any much money with Adsense. But I saw the big picture, because at the end of the day, it's a long term game, you need to think long term. It's all about creating evergreen content. So it's constantly working for you while you're sleeping. You know, because YouTube is such a big platform. There's billions of users on there, and people are constantly on there watching content. So yeah, I saw the long term game saw the big picture. And they have been creating ever since. And yeah, I'm enjoying it and loving it. And I'm getting so many opportunities now so many brand deals. And you know, it's really a great source of income to be honest.

Bryan McAnulty 3:04
Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's interesting to see, always have a creator start, because I think there's there's two ways in how creators can approach this. So some creators are like you, they say, you know, I'm going to be this content creator, I'm going to make these YouTube videos. And that's what I'm going to do. And then from that, eventually, other things start to happen. There's all these other opportunities. And then some creators say, Well, I'm going to start this business, I'm going to build this product, build a course offer something, and then they decide after that, okay, now I'm going to do the content creation. And it's interesting to see how both of those work, I'm not sure which one is really better. In a way, like, we always tell everybody, like start building your audience first, because it is easy enough for a creator to make the mistake say, Hey, here's my thing. Everybody can buy it now. And then there's, there's no one because there is no audience yet. Correct. And that's,

Jeremy Mura 3:57
and that's why I feel people missed the point. It's like, you're meant to build up the content, because that builds your credibility, you know, and it also increases the perception and the trust that people see in you. So that's why the principle is you teach what you know. So you build up your audience your content, so then, you know, when people lands on your page, like, Oh, this guy knows what he's talking about. So you're going to increase the chance of someone converting into your course or your product, etc. So,

Bryan McAnulty 4:23
yeah, exactly. Because if you just if you do just release the product, first, completely forget about any kind of creation are all these building. Now you're in this situation that in your mind, you have this great thing, and maybe you really do, but other people can't see that they can't really feel or trust or believe that because they don't know you. But if they've seen videos from you, they can say, Oh, I know this guy. Yeah, he's been making this great content. Well, I want I want to get more from him. I want to do something to get more from him. Cool.

Jeremy Mura 4:52
100% I can even attest to it because I actually got a client one time that was from America and they were looking for logo design. For the new business that were running a beauty, cosmetic business or something back in 2019 2018. And then she found my logo design video. And then she wanted to hire me because she thought my personality was was nice and friendly. And I got a client. So it's powerful. The power of content, you know?

Bryan McAnulty 5:15
Yeah, yeah. It's a great example. Yeah. And as you said, it's, every piece of content is like an investment because you're making that content. And now, people can watch that at anytime. Who knows? Who knows? What might happen from that piece of content that you made? years ago? Even? Exactly? Well, so what exactly is your job description as a brand designer?

Jeremy Mura 5:37
Yeah, so basically, a brand designer is someone who crafts, visual identities for brands and businesses, but it's not just actually the look and feel of a brand, right, you know, logos, colours, typography, graphics, illustrations, icons, it's actually someone who takes the whole process from, you know, the strategy, part of the discovery phase, all the way to, you know, the end of the production. So for me, I can do the whole the whole thing. So taking, whether it's a small or medium sized businesses, that's usually who I work with, no, do like a strategy session, and then build out you know, their funnels, and what direction we're going to take and then bring that into the visual identity, creating the brand itself, and then delivering all those files. So they can use that, you know, whether it's we curate websites or touch points, like Instagram, or LinkedIn, or whatever it is. But basically, that's what a brand designer does. So I did that on the site. Even though these days I do a lot more content and brand deals, to be honest. But yeah, that's, that's typically what a brand is on is. And it's I think it's crucial, especially with today's day and age, there's so many products and businesses, and everything's saturated. So it's like, how do you stand out and the buddy sander is through branding and messaging and crafting a unique brand story and experience for your customers. So they'll pick you over the competition? So sure, I see that

Bryan McAnulty 6:58
clients that you've worked with, with your brand design, what do you feel is like the biggest mistake that they make, or the biggest thing that overlook? And how do you fix that.

Jeremy Mura 7:08
So for me, I feel like a lot of the times, they just try and rush things, and they don't get clear on who their target audiences and what their message is. So I think clarity is very important. Instead of just like throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. And I see that a lot of people just try and do too many things that didn't clarify that and simplify and niche down. It's like when you go to an Italian restaurant, or you know, or a pizza shop, they just, you know, they do pizza and pasta really well. But if they stopped doing like steak and chips and tacos and all this stuff, it's gonna, it's gonna be messy, right? It's not gonna work. So it's like, learning to niche down and focus on who you're serving, and focus on your core messaging on your benefits, features and all that stuff. I think that's what people miss out on before they when it comes to branding.

Bryan McAnulty 7:57
Sure, yeah, I think how this can be applied to, like creators who would use heights creators who are building a course building some kind of coaching offering, maybe the thing that people tend to think, well, this happens in any business actually, is they say, Okay, well, I want to serve everyone. We can we can help everyone actually. And that's great. But really, the reality is, it's yeah, how can you differentiate yourself then. And people think, Oh, well, I'll I'll earn more, or I'll get more clients if I can do everything or help everyone. But if you can show people that you're in this specific niche, and this is really your core specific target, you can, number one, attract people easier. And number two, you can charge more for your service, because it's so specialised,

Jeremy Mura 8:43
that's the end. And I think especially specialising is 10 times better than just trying to do everything, it's always it's always going to benefit you. Cool.

Bryan McAnulty 8:52
So many times entrepreneurs who are more focused on the business side of things don't really consider brand design a priority for their company. So what would you say to somebody like that? And apart from the visual aspect, how can like neglecting that brand design affect their sales or revenue.

Jeremy Mura 9:15
So if you don't have a strong brand, you're going to you know, lose the trust of potential buyers and potential customers. So, you know, if someone's like a cold lead, and you know, they jump on if your site, if you have a website or a landing page, and it's not, you know, designed properly, you can actually lose that connection or trust or if the messaging is not speaking to the to that specific customer, then they might bounce off the site. Right. So I think yeah, the negative impacts of it is that yeah, you'll you can decrease the chances of people, you know, wanting to engage with your brand because of, you know, low credibility, low trust. It doesn't feel like feel right. But to people who are hesitant to whether they Should get like a brand design or brand designer is that you didn't see it as an investment, it's not an expense because you're investing in your business. And if, you know, obviously, you might be tight or strapped on cash, if you're just starting out, I totally understand that you can use free options right for now. But if you're trying to launch like a, you know, $100 product or a $500 product, and the quality doesn't match, and the brand doesn't match that level of value you're trying to offer, then you're gonna have a disconnect there. So I feel like, it's always a great investment, you need to think about it long term. It's also good because you're gonna get clarity as well. And typically, you'll get like a, you know, a brand style guide is also if you'd like hire someone, they can stick with those brand templates, you know, the brand style, the typography, all that all this stuff, just so you have cohesiveness and consistency across all platforms, you know, you don't want to like have a weird different graphics on like your Instagram. And then Facebook is different. And then you go on the website, and it's got a different wacky logo or colognes. Like I am on the right page. So that's sort of my perspective and opinion on that. But I always see it as beneficial. And obviously I'm biassed because I'm a designer, but um, but I've seen I've seen the benefits, you know, we pay attention to big brands like Nike added, as, you know, Disney, Coca Cola, or Netflix all these big brands. And you can see they do design really well. And we can see the impacts of that. So that's sort of my thoughts on that.

Bryan McAnulty 11:33
Yeah, definitely. I definitely agree. And I'm probably biassed, as well, because I started as a, we started as a web design company ourselves. So yeah, definitely I see the value. But yeah, I think it's important. And yeah, if you're a creator that you don't have maybe the funds to invest in that right away. At the very least it's worth researching and learning a little bit about it for yourself, how you can be consistent with your messaging with your graphics and everything. Because as you said, Yeah, you don't want some potential customer start researching you. They end up on your Instagram. And they're like, Oh, well, what is this? This is this looks different. Yeah, okay, cool. So with your YouTube channel, how did you manage to grow that to now 36,000 subscribers over 3 million views? How long? Have you been doing the YouTube channel? Actually?

Jeremy Mura 12:23
So I've been doing it since 2016. So I've done it for six years now. Six? Yeah, going on seven. So it's been a long road long journey. To get to this point, but funnily enough, I actually earned like, most of my subscribers in the last like one year and a half. So I think yeah, 20,000 came in, and just this last little, you know, slog, but the first like four years, it was really like, it was really tough getting to like 10,000 subscribers. And that's because with any platform, you need consistency, if you don't consistently upload, you're not going to get results. It's the same thing for Instagram and Tik Tok, and whatever it is, like, you need to consistently upload. And for me, like, because I saw it as part of my personal brand, and I saw the long term effects. I just kept posting kept posting. And yeah, it's hard work. Like it's not easy, like, now I've got cool lights, and, you know, good cameras and everything like that, and a nice mic. But I just started off with what I had what was in my hand, my dad bought me, like he gave me his old Sony camera I was using that. Sometimes I would use my phone just, you know, had a cheap tripod. And I used to I started in my mom's, like my mom's house like my parents house. So I'm still living with my mom, I shared a room with my brother for 22 years. So that wasn't an excuse, either. I just like and I was in my little corner, my little desk and I just started teaching materials. And the quality wasn't the best, but I just focused on being consistent. And that's one principle. I believe in it. You need discipline consistency. And then now it's gotten to me where I'm at today where, you know, I'm getting big brand deal deals with like brands like editor X and vital elements. You know, I've done stuff on Behance with Adobe, I've done a live session. So just like cool stuff like that. And it's because I decided to be like, No, I'm gonna stick with this. I do all the editing myself. I've done I do all the graphics myself, because I'm a designer. I use Premiere Pro. And I use Illustrator Photoshop. Those are my main main tools I use in vid IQ as well. So yeah, that's what's really helped me to get to this where I'm at now, but my plan is to grow to 100,000. So this in this year, I'm I'm really doubling down on video this year. So yeah, let's hope we hit that milestone fast.

Bryan McAnulty 14:44
Awesome. So yeah, I think you've made a great point. I always like to tell people that like don't make the excuse of Oh, my camera's not good enough yet. My microphone is not good enough. Whatever it is. Because the reality is that You gotta get that video out there, or whatever that content is, maybe it's not even video, but you got to get it out there. Because the reality is a year from now, you're gonna be embarrassed about it anyway, you're gonna think that's really bad anyway. So yeah, don't don't force yourself to wait to have all that stuff. And if your content is good, people will enjoy it, people will still subscribe to you, even if it's just like from your cell phone that you're recording it. And over time, you can, you can always improve that. And it's an endless journey of improving all that anyway. So that's really interesting. But I'm, I'm curious. So you've been working on on all these years. And you mentioned it's only in the last year that it's really had this really big growth? So what like wins? Did you have along the way that how did you keep yourself motivated to actually continue so many years, without really seeing giant results yet?

Jeremy Mura 15:52
So for me, one of the big factors is having a strong mindset. So I have a lot of faith and belief. And for me, that really helps me, you know, move forward. And, you know, I believe God created me to be a success to have impact and influence on people in a positive way to benefit the world add value to people. So in my perspective, it's like, I need to serve people. And I serve people through content through teaching people on how to you know, whether it's how to make more money, how to get better at design, how to improve their brand, you know, concepts, or whatever it is. So in my mind, that's, you know, if I'm, if I'm holding all this knowledge to myself, I'm being selfish, I have to release this knowledge into the world. So, you know, you got to see yourself as a gift to the world, not in an egotistical way, but in a like, you know, beneficial way to help others to help other people become a success. So for my, in my mind, that's how I really, really think. And also, you know, I believe, you know, I'm called to great things, and I believe everyone has potential and greatness in them. It's just, they have to believe it and manifest it. But yeah, so that's sort of the key thing is I have a strong mindset. But then, the last two years, I actually had two viral videos that got over 200,000 views. So that spike really gave me a boost in subs and views. And also my revenue, like my revenue, I was hitting around 700 a month, and then it jumped to like 1300 for like, three months, or whatever it was. And then now it's dropped back down, because of December, January is pretty quiet, but then it should pick back up. But um, yeah, knowing and that brings me on to another bonus bonus point is that having the right thumbnail understanding trends, and what people are searching, you know, using keywords, and also using the right tags and titles, that's the key to YouTube, like, obviously, the content needs to be as best as you can be. But thumbnail title is just as important. And you should spend as much time on those things as you can. Cool.

Bryan McAnulty 17:51
Yeah, that's a great tip. So aside from the brand design, aside from the YouTube, you also saw online courses. One of the ways you do that is through Skillshare, you're a top teacher there, you offer this online coaching sessions, you have this private community where you help new designers. So when did you start selling online courses? And what what drove you to say, you know, I want to teach others I want to share the skills and and build these courses.

Jeremy Mura 18:21
Yeah, so I saw the need for people who are beginners to, you know, learn in in depth, you know, videos and service, because YouTube was typically just tutorials. But what I found was a lot of YouTube tutorials were just low quality, and it will be some, like kid from some other third world countries something, and I would like use a voiceover because they couldn't speak English. And it's like, very, like robotic voice. You know, or some people would go too fast. And I would see commerce, like seeing these devices make sense. And I felt like I could do them better, you know, in a way, like, in a positive way. So for me, yeah, I just thought like, okay, you know, after I got used to doing YouTube for a bit, I started doing Skillshare classes in the same year in 2016. So 2016, around August, I was my first paycheck of like, $50. And then I just built it from there. And now I'm earning like, you know, 10 times at a month, which is great. It's a blessing. But um, yeah, I just wanted to teach more in depth, break down some things that I knew in terms of like logo design, and branding and stuff like that. And I had one of my classes, and now has 15,000 students, it was logo design for beginners. So that was one of the big classes that did really well. And then I got invited from Skillshare to to join the Skillshare top teachers club. And basically, we have a private slack group and we have some extra benefits, then the rest of the teachers on there because it's a lot of other teachers, but um, it was super cool. But yeah, I enjoyed the process. It was a big slog, but now I've got over 25 classes on there, and it constantly generates revenue every month and I'm getting new students and yeah, that's how I got started doing that. between courses or classes?

Bryan McAnulty 20:02
Well, so I think a good takeaway so far is that determination drive and there's just relentlessness of pursuing all that can really pay off. That's really interesting.

Jeremy Mura 20:13
I definitely saw the benefit, because I saw the monetary side as well, like, obviously, like, I wanted to be self sufficient and running my own full time business. So for me, I need to also pay attention to like, Okay, well, what, what revenue streams can I invest in? And I think teaching courses was one of the big things that I kept seeing over and over again, to generate revenue. So that was another reason why it wasn't just good to create the courses. But to generate passive income, even though it's not really passive. It's more like semi passive, because a lot of effort goes into creating a course. But yeah, you get the point.

Bryan McAnulty 20:46
Sure, yeah. I like to tell people that it's, I look at that as leveraged income rather than passive income. So you're creating something that it's going to repay you way more than the time that you put in it proportionally. But it's not just it's not magic. It's not just unlimited money starts coming in. So alright, so regarding the revenue streams, from what we've seen about you, you have sounds like six streams of revenue. So you have the client work for your brand design, you've got online courses, digital products, like some web templates, things like that. Yeah, you got your online coaching. And then you've got YouTube and affiliate links. So would you

Jeremy Mura 21:28
put some other ones like stocks? And

Bryan McAnulty 21:31
so with all these, would you say, creating these multiple streams of revenue? Would you say that it's important for your success in business, or like what made you think like, I have to have all these different streams of income

Jeremy Mura 21:44
100%, like, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. And we've had that many times, you need to actually believe you have to diversify, to build wealth, like you look at millionaires, they've got multiple revenue streams, they usually say that they have millionaires have five passive streams and one like active stream, typically, that's what they have. So one way of actually working physically and still, you know, whether it's a business, whatever, then the other streams are working for them. It could be investments, stocks, you know, whatever it is, it could be real estate, it could be, you know, products, courses, etc, etc. So, for me, like, if you really want to earn six figures, you need to have multiple streams of income, you know, unless you're, you're hyper focused, and you're, you know, really good at sales, or you have a good team or whatever. But to really build that up, you need to diversify. Because there's so many opportunities out there, you just got to see yourself doing it. And you need to learn how to do these things, because it's going to benefit you in the long run, you know, like, for example, it's just great because you basically get freedom. So because I work full time from home, I have income coming in from so many places, I don't have to stress, I don't have to worry, I can take a day off, I can take a week off, if I want like nothing, you won't affect me that much. Because I've built this ecosystem of diversification of income streams. And that's how you build wealth, you don't build wealth, by working nine to five, to be honest. That's what I believe. You know, and obviously, there's inflation, and there's all these things happening in the world. But you need to think outside the box and think how can you expand your income and grow it?

Bryan McAnulty 23:23
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I like to think if you're an independent creator, you want to set things up in your favour as much as possible. And if you are, if you have this YouTube channel, if you have some way that you're creating something, there's probably another step you can take where you can create this other kind of product or something else, to create another portion of your business that could be this other income stream. That is not like starting from scratch, because you've already done something. So in your case, like you have the YouTube channel, you're teaching people, well, why not give them a higher level, like more guidance, and turn that into a course or coaching. So

Jeremy Mura 24:02
that's all right. And I'll give you one, one bonus tip as well. There's something called the four P E, which is the full product empire, you basically want to have a free offer something that's like free, and then you want to have something that's a passive offer. So it's like you have a membership or a private community. And that should generate subscribers. And then you have like your core offering where it's like maybe your main service, maybe offer, you know, web design or whatever. And then you have your high tea offering where it could be like, you know, 2000 to $5,000 range, and you offer like a high tea, maybe it's coaching or you know, a level course or whatever. So it's like you have the four P E for different levels, and you funnel everything through the free stuff, which is the content and you funnel them in to the core offering and then you have like a funnel them in all the way to the highest product. If they didn't do that, then they can sign up to your membership if you want to do that. So that's, that's one of the ideas of how people build online businesses these days.

Bryan McAnulty 25:05
Yeah, definitely, that's super important. We always refer to it as like the value ladder, where when you get people in this free offering, or the cheaper offerings, even that you have, that's how you find the people who may one day say, You know what, like, I'm getting so much value from this, but I want more, and they want to get that more expensive coaching from you or something else. But it's hard to go out and find somebody and say, Hey, give me $2,000, or whatever, and I'm gonna coach you or give me more than that. But when you build this value ladder and these segments of products, it can lead people through that journey.

Jeremy Mura 25:41
Yeah, that's it. Totally agreement. Cool.

Bryan McAnulty 25:43
So to recap, you're managing your own company, you're creating this weekly content for YouTube, other social media, the online courses, coaching programmes, the membership membership site, I assume that you have also some kind of personal life. So how do you find time for all of this? And do you have any other tips for entrepreneurs in a similar situation?

Jeremy Mura 26:06
Yeah, so I do have a bit of a personal life to me, I love working because it doesn't feel like work, because it's fun. But yeah, I'm married. I also have two month well, she's actually eight week, your daughter. Now. I also enjoy going to the gym. So I have a gym in my garage. That's great. I also have a little pocket on the right to play basketball with your mates and stuff. And then on the side, yeah, I play some I like playing games, watching movies. So that's sort of what entails a personal life. I also have made sometimes I go to the beach, like just this weekend, I went to the beach on the weekend. But I've also got big a big family as well. So yeah, I do that family is very high on my value list. So I do make time for them. But yeah, I just find ways to optimise my business, I'm always constantly working. But yeah, my thoughts on like, how to balance blends, if you're actually struggling with it. You know, obviously, I'm not perfect. And you know, I deal with this stuff as well. So sometimes, you gotta make time, like you want to prioritise things like don't focus on things that are low income activities, or things that are just not moving the needle in your business, you need to focus on activities that is going to bring income that is going to, you know, move you forward in terms of business, and actually frees you up time. So you can spend time with your kids or with your wife, or with your friends. But obviously, like I didn't go partying and drinking all that stuff, like I don't do that anymore, that I did that when I was young. So like, that stuff is not important to me. So I can make time for the cool thing. So you just got to balance it and prioritise. And if you need to hire outsource, you know, tasks that are unnecessary, whether it's like accounting or whatever, like I have an accountant, and he saves me so much time instead of me trying to do it all myself, right. So if you can outsource little tasks, then I definitely recommend doing that. But yeah, you just got to make sure that you prioritise the right things and, and don't, don't, don't transmit it, I do meditation as well. Prayer helps me as well. So it also getting sunlight and exercise. These all helped me because if you, you got to think holistically Body Soul spirit. So if you're, you know, physically feeling great you're eating writes the right foods, and then your mind is good through meditation or yoga, whatever your method is, and then spiritually, as you're growing your inner self as well, then everything's gonna flow nicely. When it comes to business and family and everything's gonna meld together, you just got to work on all of it as much as you can.

Bryan McAnulty 28:38
Cool. Cool. I definitely agree with that. I like to think that I really highly value that balance as well. I don't want to be completely focused on work. I love the work that I do. But I also really care about family, personal life, health, all of that. So I rather be the most balanced person than the most successful or the most something like this. So definitely, I think that's really important. It's awesome. All right. So one of the things we like to do in these interviews is to ask our guests what they would like to ask the audience if they have any questions for our audience members. So for you in your case, Jeremy, what would you ask our audience?

Jeremy Mura 29:24
Yeah, so what I would ask is, what, what comes to mind when you think of branding? And how how do you perceive it? Um, when it comes to business? You know, what was your you mentioned branding before, but yeah, that's, that's my main question. Like, how do you see it? How, what's your perception of it? And do you see it as valuable? So? Yeah, hopefully that makes sense. Oh, yeah,

Bryan McAnulty 29:47
that's great question. All right. Awesome. And that is all the questions I have for you today. But before we get going, where can people find you online?

Jeremy Mura 29:58
Well, you can find me on Jeremymura.com Got some resources and free free stuff on there. You can also find my courses on Skillshare. So just type my name Jeremy Mira, I'm on YouTube at Jeremy neurod design, and also on Instagram at the Jeremy Mura. Come say hi, message me always happy to have a chat. I love meeting new people.