269 60 Million Views Teaching Tapping

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Brad Yates has 425,000 YouTube subscribers and 60 million views, built over nearly two decades. He has never once sat down to plan a content strategy.

I had a genuinely fun conversation with Brad for this episode. He started out as an actor, trained as a hypnotherapist when his first child was on the way, stumbled into EFT tapping through a workshop, and then one day thought it would be cool to put a guided tapping video on YouTube. He uploaded it, figured he was done, and came back six months later with another idea. That's basically how the whole channel was built.

What struck me most was how clearly Brad has thought about what he actually wants from his life and business, and how little he's willing to compromise on that. He talked about limiting the number of emails his marketing team sends, refusing to redo popular videos just because they performed well, and turning down tactics he knows would probably make him more money because they don't feel right. He quoted Bowie on why the mid-80s were the worst period of his career. It all hung together in a way that felt unusually honest for a business conversation.

We also got into his product lineup, his two memberships, his evergreen programs, and a new platinum lifetime membership he recently launched. If you're curious how someone builds a real business almost entirely on free content and genuine purpose, Brad is a great example.

I think you'll enjoy this one.

Check out Brad's work:
🌐 https:///www.tapwithbrad.com
▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@UCiHZMZejDS4RIxDdBwoie9A

Transcript

YouTube Without Using Marketing

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I have never used it as a marketing tool. Cool, I've got a video on YouTube. I've got no intention of building a YouTube channel. I had no idea what that even meant. I can never imagine myself retiring. I can't imagine not doing this as long as I'm still physically able to do it.

Meet Brad And His Turning Point

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Hello and welcome to the Art Stelling Online Courses. We are here to share WinningSpacity at Top Performance and Online Courses. My name is John Antwerp and today's guest is Brad Yay. Now Brad is one of the most watched teachers of EFT. Emotional freedom technically or acting anywhere online. He didn't start there, he started out as an act. He studied drama, performed theatre around the world, and headed to Hollywood in a small park with Phil Chaplin, who's been a doctor on Days of Our Lives, and then with his first child on the way, he retrained as a hypnotherapist. And a couple of years later, he went to a workshop run by the founder of EFT, Gary Craig. Gary handed out everyone a Hershey's guest and had them tap for a couple of minutes on their chocolate cravings. We'll get into what that means in a minute. Brad is a self-confessed alcoholic, suddenly had zero interest in the chocolate, didn't touch the stuff for two years, and that changed his career. He became one of the first people to put guided tapping rounds out online. Nearly two decades and over 1,800 videos later, his channel has got more than 425,000 subscribers, over 60 million views. He is the author of the best-selling children's book, Witter Twitch, co-author of Freedom at Your Fingertips, and a featured expert in the film The Tapping Solution, alongside Jack Hanfield and Bob Froctor. Brad has built one of the biggest audiences in the personal development world almost entirely by giving away enormous value for free consistently for over a decade. And he's turned it into a real business, program, membership, live events. Brad, welcome to the show. Great to have you here. Thanks, John.

SPEAKER_03 1:39

I'm happy to be here. Although you've you've given so much in the in the bio, it's like, what am I gonna talk about?

SPEAKER_00 1:45

You've told everything about me.

What EFT Tapping Actually Is

SPEAKER_00 1:48

So tell everybody who doesn't know what is tapping or emotional freedom technique. Yeah, thanks.

SPEAKER_03 1:53

Uh so EFT tapping is literally tapping on our face with our fingertips. And I know for anyone who's new to it, it's like, okay, this guy's weird, and why does John have him on his show? Uh, there's a really good reason why we do this. It's originally based on acupuncture. So for thousands of years in Chinese medicine, they've said there's a flow of energy through the body along pathways called meridians. And when this energy is flowing naturally, we experience our natural state of health and well-being physically and emotionally. And when this energy gets disrupted in some way, we don't feel so good, we don't think as clearly, we don't make the best choices, there's all kinds of unfortunate consequences. So in traditional Chinese medicine, the doctor would stick needles in these key points to stimulate that healthy flow of energy. We're just doing that by tapping on these points. And there's a growing body of scientific research showing the benefits of this. It sends a commune signal to the brain. So when when we get into a stressful situation, this part of our brain called the amygdala says, ooh, we're in danger. We go into fight or flight, we don't think clearly, prefrontal cortex shuts down. So if you're running an online business, you really want this part of you to be working. So when stress comes up, like the bills have to be paid or something like that, then we don't think as clearly. So the tapping helps calm down that process so that we start to think more clearly and we feel better. And we're able to make all kinds of positive changes in our lives. So that is why we tap

A YouTube Channel Built By Instinct

SPEAKER_03 3:21

on our face.

SPEAKER_00 3:21

What's your approach been with your YouTube channel that's worked so well for growing it? Is it like volume of videos? Do you like really focus on trying to make sure each any of them are standing out and going more viral? Like how do you approach YouTube?

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Yeah, and the funny thing is, so when I first started, uh I had been doing tapping for uh, you know, five, six years, and YouTube was pretty new at this time. And I thought, hey, wouldn't it be really cool if there's a tapping video people could use and they could use it to start their day, and I'll call it tap of the morning. And uh and I didn't even know how to load it up. I had a friend of mine who did video stuff loaded to YouTube, and it's like, cool, I've got a video on YouTube, I'm done. No intention of building a YouTube channel. I had no idea what that even meant. Right. And so it's like six months later, I thought, you know, I should have a video for people to end the day, and I'll call it Tap of the Evening, and then I'm done. And then I had another idea for a video, and then another one, and uh, and then they just started coming. I was and I'd put them out randomly. Like I'd shoot like six videos at once and uh put them up and then not do anything else for several weeks. And and it was always it it was always just ideas would come to me. It's like, you know what, this is something that might bother people, and I I think this would help. It so my YouTube channel has been an incredible marketing tool, but I have never used it as a marketing tool. I mean, I other than why put up a promo video about like I have a live event on YouTube tomorrow, so I just shot a promo video. But other than that, it's always just when I have an idea of, you know, this is something else that would benefit folks. And I say that, you know, well over a thousand videos up there now on all kinds of different topics, and probably a list uh at least that long of ideas that I still haven't shot yet. Wow. Because I'll like, oh, I'll go back and see what what what have I written down. And in that moment, then I'll have a new idea of something that would be really cool. So it's it's always just um just whatever inspires me. Just it's like, hey, here's um, you know, maybe sometimes it's something that's going on for me, and I'm like, you know what? This is probably something that would help someone else, and and I'll do a quick tapping around. The and the videos are usually between five and twelve minutes. And I'll just turn on the camera and often I don't even know what I'm gonna talk about. I just have like I sometimes I just know the title. It may just be a word like anxiety. All right, turn on the camera. It's like, hey, maybe you're struggling with anxiety, let's see what we can do about that, even though I have anxiety, and then I just let the uh the ideas flow through me.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

And what do you I know that like the numbers aren't um something that you focus on so much. So if any of I ask any of these questions and you're like, I don't know, John, that's fine, we'll just move on. But like, do you know do your do you have like some standout videos that are getting like most of the traffic, or do you consistently get a kind of an equal number on or or similar number on most videos?

Evergreen Videos And Weekly Consistency

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Like, how does it tend to work for you?

SPEAKER_03 6:18

Yeah, it t they tend to be somewhat similar numbers. There are certain videos that I have uh throughout the years that have been particularly key. Um I have one called Being a Money Magnet. And so that's one that just people were drawn to. Uh, I have one uh called Fear and Panic. I have one on anxiety, uh, and so those uh those tend to get a lot of views consistently, and some of these are you know well over a decade old. I've been doing this for almost oh coming up on 20 years soon.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

So I see one here from 18 years ago having a search through, so yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:57

Um and and yes, I have I have gone through YouTube coaching and it's like, here, go find out what your most popular video is and then do it again. And I'm like, I yeah, that makes sense, but I have all these other ideas that I want to put out there. And I was um I had was kind of irregular about it, and uh I was then talking to um to a book publisher who was saying, you know, you should be more consistent in your emails. You should send an email every week and have a video in that every week. So then it became the the tap of the week. And uh so now it's every Monday morning at 6 a.m. I I release a new video, even though sometimes I have several that I've shot. Like when I'm when I'm traveling, uh I was just in Berlin and I shot uh a video in front of the rim remnants of the Berlin Wall. So I'll be in certain places and it's like this would be a great place for a video. I um have a video in front of the Tower of London. I have uh I have several from different places. I sh I shot one um in front of the Globe Theater right there next to the Thames. And uh, you know, about uh you know, playing a bigger part in life. So just whatever whatever inspires. So it's very hard to go, yeah, I'm gonna go and redo something else just because that was possible. So it's it's always just been um coming from that purpose-driven thing. And I think people respond to that. I I I have a, you know, so I wonder if I try to do it in a manipulative way of I'm going to redo a video because that what was that's what was popular, then I'm not sure it'll have the same energy, which is what uh what people respond to in my videos. There they they can really sense that it's coming from an authentic place of, hey, here's something that I really feel is gonna be helpful, as opposed to here's something that I think that your bot you'll look at again because you looked at it before. And then and I'm not dismissing that as effective marketing or content production because it absolutely works for a lot of people. So uh please don't hear that as, ah, you know, don't listen to people. It's funny in in terms of what people say about any kind of content creation or marketing, and I'm sure this is your field, you see this. When you go on like um social media and there'll be an ad that goes, email marketing is dead, or the next one says, Webinars are dead. And the next one's and it's like everyone has this very insistent thing about what no longer works, and and there's no agreement on what what absolutely works, and it's because different things work for different people. So for me, it's like what's working for me is just coming from here's what I feel nudged by the universe to do, and uh, and come from that. And then in terms of the other marketing aspect, I have my marketing team that does it. They're the experts in the in the the data-driven marketing. And uh and and for me, it's like okay, and I'm just gonna do what I do and what what I had the most fun doing and what feels the most right. Do you know about how many views you get a month nowadays?

SPEAKER_02 10:06

Um I'm getting let's I think it's 10,000 a week, I think it is.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Okay. Um I keep I do keep a track. Every every Monday I go in and you know mark down, okay, how many subscribers I have now, what's my total views, what's my email list size, uh, how many followers on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok. Um But I uh so I I collect the data. I don't actually hey, there were five more new subscribers this week. What did I do this week? That um so it's uh it's encouraging seeing the numbers. And again, that's what my marketing team does. They they collect that and they and they see, okay, when we put out this ad, this this got more views and and this, and so um developing things based around that. So but it's usually um I think it's about 10 10,000 new uh 10,000 views a week was one of the uh recently I was looking at something like that. Maybe that maybe that's a day. Then maybe 10,000 a day. It's been some time since I was figured out those numbers because I was um but uh yeah, it's a it's a fair

Why Tapping Struggles To Go Viral

SPEAKER_03 11:22

few. You know, it's not not viral. Um the world is still not totally on board with this. You know, viral videos happen when uh is particularly when people are sharing them and go, Oh, you've got to see this. And people are you you know, it's really easy to share something, uh a funny cat video. It's harder for people for a lot of poke folks to say, hey, I just tapped on my face watching this guy tap on his face. You ever you all should be doing that as well. And I have plenty of people who do that. Plenty of people who say, I share your videos with everybody I know, but it's a lot of people don't. I um there are professional athletes. I had a uh professional hockey player reach out to me recently, um plays professionally and is also on his nation's Olympic team saying, I watch your videos before every match. Doesn't put that out on his social media. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So some people it's like, yeah, it still still looks a little, a little weird. So little by little, there's um uh Emily Blunt, there's a scene of her tapping on the new Devil Wears Prada, too.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:28

So it's little things like that, just you know, peppering it into the the mainstream and uh so that people see it and go, oh, okay. And uh little by little it's getting there. But there's there's still that weirdness factor that uh kind of stands in the way of it going too viral.

Memberships, Workshops And Program Options

SPEAKER_00 12:48

What's your if someone's watched your videos and they're like and want to go deeper and they want to work with you, what's the the options like uh courses, coaching, you mentioned you have in-person workshops, like what's what uh what do you provide people as ways to work with you?

SPEAKER_03 13:02

Yeah, so I have different uh a couple of different memberships. I have a daily one where it's diff I call it daily intention alignment. It's just 15 minutes. We get in, I have people imagine what they want to create, check in with what their body feels like in terms of how acceptable that feels, and then we do a quick tapping round, and and that's it. Just uh 15 minutes, so it's easy to s uh to put into every day. Then I have a weekly uh tapping membership called Advance, where it's an hour long every week. And uh and and then I and I work with folks on Zoom. So, you know, I may have I'll have dozens of people on the call, but I'll work with um three or four people individually. And then everyone else gets benefit from that. That's one of the great things about tapping is that if you and I are tapping on some subject that's personal for you, anyone else who's tapping along with us will be able to benefit. And that's that's a great thing about doing live workshops as well, is there's this incredible energy there. Um I always come back to London because that's where I get my biggest crowd. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Um and uh one of my mom's been to any of your sessions. She she regularly goes to she studies round tapping and has done that for years.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Yeah, I'll ask her later.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

And um and then and then I have uh a bunch of online programs. So and that was one of the things that that was really key. My when I uh started working with my team five five years ago, and they were really good about saying, okay, you've got all these little one-off kind of things. What's let's help you create like a flagship program. Right. So I have uh several evergreen programs that uh you know just steadily have that passive income. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

What's the pricing on your different offerings?

Pricing That Stays Accessible

SPEAKER_03 14:52

Most of the the online programs are one of them, uh I think the highest end one is like two ninety-seven. So I don't have a lot of uh any of the really high end I that for my private coaching, I do that. I try to make most of my programs uh accessible for as many people as possible. So they they range from say twenty-seven dollars up to two ninety-seven. Okay. And then how much are your memberships? The membership so the the daily intention alignment is only twenty dollars a month. Okay. That's uh you know, designed to make it as easy as possible to for for as many people as possible. And then the uh the weekly uh the weekly advanced call is $97 a month, and then there's you know, if you pay for a year, you get a deal. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:43

And then are those completely asynchronous, or are you doing either of those like live at a set time every day, or how does that kind of work?

SPEAKER_03 15:52

Yeah. So the the daily intentional alignment is always live at 8 a.m. uh California time. And uh, you know, just because it's like there's no time that works for everyone because I have an international audience. That's like I try to do when I do a lot of live uh events on YouTube, I try to do them at 1 p.m. Pacific because it's not too late for the people in Europe. It's not too early for the people in Australia. And uh and I have a lot of audience in in Europe and and Australia. So I was trying to find that. With the weekly classes, I alternate each week between 10 a.m. Pacific and 6 p.m. Pacific. So uh people in the US can generally be there every week. Uh folks in Europe, it's every other week. Folks in Australia, it's every other week. And they get the recordings as well. Um you know, maybe maybe a third to a half of the members will be on the actual live calls, and the rest wait for a convenient time on the um on the thing. It was nice when I was uh recently traveling through Europe because 8 a.m. Pacific is 5 p.m. Europe. So that was always uh convenient for me. Usually it's like, okay, we've done whatever touring we're doing, we're getting ready for dinner. I can take 15 minutes and do this call from pretty much anywhere. I shot one in a field up in um Innerlochen in Switzerland with the Alps in the background. Nice.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

It's kind of cool to be able to uh to to

How People Find And Buy

SPEAKER_00 17:20

do things like that. Aaron Powell Then how how does it tend to work in terms of somebody getting onto one of your programs? Is it like is most of your income come because you've sent out these email promotions to them? Do people coming direct? Do you know? If you don't know, that's okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Well, yeah. So my uh a lot of it is just, you know, people coming and watching my videos on YouTube. Someone's either they a friend has told them, their therapist has told them. I've had people say their doctor has told them to watch my videos. And so they will um, you know, maybe after watching a few, maybe just after watching one, they'll they'll look in the description box below and follow up and say, okay, let me uh let me take a look at what else is there and and maybe sign up for something. The uh my team runs Facebook ads, so uh, you know, there's ongoing things from that with some of the um online programs. And then they'll put out some ads sometimes for uh for live events that are coming up when a new program is coming. Like I've started a new program uh next week, a five-week program, which will then be an evergreen packaged program. But um but I'll shoot it live. And and then I use a s do a certain amount on on social media, putting things out there, and so people will find me from uh from Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, and you know, they may just watch the videos there, or they may say, Oh, I want to see uh a little bit more, and and then go from go from that and then either buy a a one-off program or they'll uh you know join up for the memberships. And I recently started uh a um a platinum membership, which is a lifetime membership. And it's like, hey, you you pay a chunk up front, and then you get all the online programs that I ever create and everything I have created, which is you know, like some I've a lot of like small programs I've created over the over the past 20 some odd years, so I have like 70 online programs that are there that they uh then have access

Longevity, Authenticity And Creative Freedom

SPEAKER_03 19:25

to.

SPEAKER_00 19:25

You've been at this for a lot longer, I think, than most people who I talk to or who um most most probably listeners as well. What's allowed you to like keep going with this consistently? Well, part of it is I love what I do.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

Okay. That helps, right? Yeah, it helps. I was recently talking to someone we were talking about retirement, and I thought, I I I can never imagine myself retiring. I can't imagine not doing this as long as I'm still physically able to do it. And you know, it's pretty much just sitting here in front of a camera tapping on my face, you know, which doesn't take a whole lot. Um and and I think and and people pick up on that. So there's there's an energy about that. I early on, um, well, it wasn't too early, it was like five years in. I was uh talking to a coach and she was like, Oh, you know what? You need to be much more energetic in your videos. You need to be like this and that. And I said, you just totally don't get what I do. Um you know, I don't know where what what school you're from that it's like this is what it should always be. And there are certain coaches that that absolutely works for, but that's not uh that's not my vibe. And and my vibe isn't gonna be right for everyone. You know, and I've had I'll have people say, you know, you should do tapping more like so-and-so. I'll say, well, if they're already doing it that way, why do you need me to do that? I was like, well, so you don't lose followers like you did me. It's like, if I tried to do it that way, I would lose my followers. Uh if I try to do it differently, not everyone is going to, you know, for anyone. This is true of anyone. Not everybody likes Taylor Swift's music, but she's filling stadiums. So you know, it's it's that's that's part of um part of the thing of being out there and and building the business is recognizing what we have to offer isn't gonna be right for everybody. And just be okay with that because then you look at, okay, so what what is most right for me? Um as I was telling you earlier, I'm a big Bowie fan. And Bowie talked about how uh the worst part of his career was the mid-80s. After the success of Let's Dance, he suddenly was playing much bigger audiences, and there was pressure from the um from the label to make more of that kind of music. And he was he was now trying to make music for a particular audience instead of what he wanted to make. And he was miserable and it and it and it resulted in his least awesome album.

SPEAKER_01 21:58

And uh

SPEAKER_03 22:00

Still awesome, is that okay. So um, and he got back to, you know, it's like, I want to make the music I want to make. And so for me, that's the thing. It's like going with that instinct. Now, obviously, if I was getting no views and making no money, I may have to rethink what was working for me.

SPEAKER_00 22:18

Um, you know, it's like this is just so it's like a bit of a balance there, isn't there? Of like you it is important that you that you if you want to enjoy it and you want to keep going at it for a long time, then you do need to do it in the way that you really like. And the same with an artist making the music they're interested in. But if the fans don't like it, then then you're not you can't expect to make any money and have success with it. So it's like, how do you make the two of those line up? Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:41

Well, and and there are probably uh artists out there, musicians who work a day job so that when they play music, they play exactly what they want. And it's like, I'm I don't I'm not willing to compromise my art. I can make money in other ways. And and that's absolutely fine. There's no wrong way to do life if you're enjoying it. So um I know that there are things I could be doing with content and with marketing that would probably bring me a lot more money, but I wouldn't enjoy it. It would feel it would feel off. And so I success to me is not measured in in income. It's part of it. I mean, I you know, I really enjoy that I uh, you know, earn an income such that I can spend a month traveling through Europe. Yeah, you know, um that I have the all the nice things of uh of life. Um I don't need to be a billionaire. And there's nothing wrong with being a billionaire, it's just that there are it's not the lifestyle that I am that I'm I I have a life that I love, you know. I sit there on a daily basis going, I am having such an awesome experience of life. And uh, you know, and and there it was there was a time when it's like, okay, you know what, it would be helpful to reach more

Purpose Driven Marketing And Email Limits

SPEAKER_03 24:06

people. And this marketing team reached out to me and uh called Conscious Digital. And they were people who had been in the personal development field and didn't like some of the marketing where where they were working for companies where um it became uh the the the market where it was income over impact. And and they kind of felt that those people had kind of you know lost the plot. So they said, we want to, you know, work with people who it's you know, it's the purpose-driven. And so one of the folks had watched my videos and and like my friend, they reached out and said, Hey, you know, would you be interested in working? And so we've had this great partnership. And and there's as I was saying to you earlier, there are times where I where they try to put out some emails and I'm like, I'm not comfortable with that. It's I understand that from marketing 101, why you want to say it like that, but it doesn't um it doesn't feel quite right. It it feels like it's saying something that is not in my um philosophy. So so I have to temper them. And I also um don't let them send as many emails as they would like to send. Right. So it's finding that balance of uh of recognizing what uh, you know, because it's the golden rule for me. I I get frustrated when I'm on some email list and I just get bombarded over and over. So it's like I don't want to do to other people what what pisses me off. So it's finding that that place and and recognizing that there is a there's a value to it. So it's not a matter of I'm never gonna send you anything and never bother you because I want people to have that. But uh but finding what works for me, and it's not that that I I know the exact right amount of emails that you go out. It's just finding out what um what feels right for me because then my energy that I'm sending out is is more positive.

Where To Start With Brad

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Brad, this is awesome. I love that you are enjoying life so much on a daily basis, doing something that you love, um, and have managed to create content on YouTube for for 20 years nearly coming up. Um this is this is fantastic. It sounds like you've built yourself really a business that's kind of based around your life and what it is that you want your life to be like, and then helping people. So massive congratulations. This is fantastic. Thank you. Thank you. I'm I'm very blessed. I really appreciate you coming on. This has been uh an awesome experience getting the chance to talk with you. Um if people want to go check you out or want to go have a look at your YouTube channel or your website, where should they go thanks, John?

SPEAKER_03 26:42

The best place to go is my website, tapwithbrad.com. And it's the same on social media, tapwithbrad on YouTube, uh, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, all that.

SPEAKER_00 26:54

Beautiful. Amazing. Brad, thank you so much for coming on today, man. I really, really appreciate your time. Thank you.