Seven years ago, I bought the “video is king” narrative.

So I went all in.

I created around 500 travel videos on YouTube.

The channel grew to about 40,000 subscribers. The videos got views. Some ranked well. A few did very well. The channel even made a little money through AdSense.

Not a fortune. Not even close.

But enough to make it feel like something was working.

And something was working.

Just not the business.

That was the part I missed for too long.

The channel was built around destination content.

Best things to do in a city.
Places to visit.
What to know before you go.

Useful content for people who were curious about a destination or planning a trip on their own.

There was nothing wrong with that content.

It helped people. It got watched. It grew the channel.

But it did not bring clients to the agency.

Not one.

At first, that was frustrating.

Then it became obvious.

I had built an audience, but not the right audience for the business I wanted.

I was attracting people who wanted travel information.

I was not attracting people who wanted a high-end custom travel experience designed for them.

Those are different moments.

One person is searching for “best things to do in Paris.”

Another is thinking, “I want to take my family to France next summer, but I do not have the time, access, or patience to plan this properly.”

The first person may watch your video.

The second person may hire you.

That is the difference I missed.

I was chasing the metrics the platform rewards: views, subscribers, likes, comments, and watch time.

Those numbers are not useless. They can tell you something. But they do not tell you everything.

If the goal is to become a travel media company, views matter a lot.

If the goal is to sell high-end travel planning, views are not enough.

The better question is not only, “How many people saw this?”

The better question is, “Did this attract the kind of person I actually want to work with?”

That is where many travel businesses get content wrong.

They create content for attention, but not for alignment.

A beautiful hotel post can get likes without explaining who the property is right for.
A destination tip can be helpful without showing why your expertise matters.
A newsletter can be consistent without leading the right client anywhere.

So the business gets visibility without direction.

And visibility without direction can feel productive while doing very little for revenue.

This is not an argument against YouTube.

Quite the opposite.

I would encourage many travel professionals to consider YouTube.

I would also encourage them to build a newsletter.

I would encourage them to show up consistently in the places where their best clients already spend time.

But I would tell them to start with a better question.

Not, “What content will get attention?”

But, “What business path is this content supporting?”

Because content should not exist in isolation.

A YouTube video should help the right person understand something.

A newsletter should keep your expertise present between conversations.

A social post should reinforce what you want to be known for.

The format matters, but the path matters more.

The strategy is knowing who you want to attract, what they need to understand, what problem they are trying to solve, and what next step makes sense.

I wish I had understood that earlier.

Before making hundreds of videos, I wish I had asked:

Who is this really for?

What kind of traveler do I want this to attract?

What does this person need to believe before hiring an advisor?

What should happen after they watch?

Those questions would have changed the channel.

The topics would have been different. The language would have been different. The calls to action would have been clearer. The audience probably would have been different too.

And that is the point.

The audience you build is not an accident.

It is shaped by the content you create, the problems you speak to, the language you use, and the path you give people to follow.

So if you are thinking about YouTube, start.

If you are thinking about a newsletter, start.

If you are thinking about taking your content more seriously, good.

But do not build content only for the metrics everyone can see.

Build it for the business you actually want.

Because 40,000 subscribers can look like success.

Until you realize they were never the people you were trying to reach.

That is why I now think differently about content.

I do not care whether it is a YouTube video, a newsletter, a LinkedIn post, or a website page.

The question is always the same:

Is the content helping the right person understand why they should trust you, remember you, and eventually work with you?

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