Virginia Chachati

Rena Malik creates educational health videos on YouTube, and I was excited to attend a Q&A session held by YouTube for the Health Creator Community in June 2024.

She has 2 million YouTube subscribers and has been creating videos for over 4 years.

Grab a hot (or cold) drink and enjoy learning from Rena’s experience as a Health Creator on YouTube.

I love sharing my notes from the session so everyone can learn about the impact and business of being a Health Creator – 100% NOT generated by AI.

Who is Rena Malik?

Dr. Rena Malik is a Urologist & Pelvic Surgeon. She posts educational videos about urologic, sexual, bladder health and more.

How Rena got started

• Light from window
• Cellphone
• No mic
• Self-learning how to make videos and edit them
• Started as a hobby
• Did not anticipate the growth of her channel
• Experimented a lot in the beginning, such as interviews and reaction content

Rena listened to her audience

• Figured out what her audience liked the most
• Listened to what questions they asked
• Made videos on questions that kept coming up
• “They have their own questions they don’t get answers to from their doctors”

Challenges of being on YouTube

• There are ups and downs
• “Sometimes there will be big growth, then things might be stagnant for a while, that’s pretty typical”
• Look back at your videos – could the title, thumbnail or introduction be better?
• What was enticing about videos that did well?
• Experimentation, evolving and changing is key

Navigating being a surgeon and creator

• For the first 3 to 4 years she was working on content at the weekend while full-time in academia with scriptwriting on Saturday, recording videos on Sunday
• Now she works at a veteran’s hospital and has her own practice she works on content while her kids are at school

Don’t quit your job to make videos

• Try to fit in creating videos around your work schedule
• You can’t be a perfectionist while you’re working full time at your job – if the message is there and it’s good enough, then publish and keep getting better with each video

Your first videos will suck

• When you start, your first 10 to 20 videos will suck if you’re creating them on your own
• You will get better over time and learn from each video as you go
• The YouTube algorithm really rewards consistency
• Even if you don’t feel comfortable, just jump right into it

Early challenges as a professional

• “Talking about sexual health I worried that it would be looked at as unprofessional”
• “I thought, is me talking on YouTube going to be looked at negatively in my field?”
• It turned out to be okay
• There is a line between professionalism versus being a little too candid or flippant about something

Be your own person

• You want to be yourself, you don’t want to emulate any other creator
• By being yourself, people will relate to you because they like you as a person
• We all have insecurities – this was the biggest roadblock in the beginning

Outsourcing is helpful

• “I’ve hired a virtual assistant to help make collaborations happen”
• Now I have 2 editors to edit videos
• So I can do the things I love to do and need to do
• I used to edit videos myself, it took so many hours!

I have a diary where I schedule ideas for videos

• I keep my ideas in a diary and schedule when I will create them
• If something happens in the news and I need to react to it then I will move that schedule around
• I have constant ideas – from talking to people or audience comments – I try to keep them all in one place

How I create my videos

• I research on Wednesdays and on Mondays I record
• If I’m going on vacation I may batch content
• I will write bullet points, sometimes I will write a whole script – depends on how complex the topic is

• After I record the videos I send them to my editor, then they send them back to me and I review it
• Then I approve the video and send it to my team
• They create a thumbnail and I approve it
• They post it on my schedule

Do you post different formats?

• I make the content to cover the topic
• I’ve had 3 min and 15 min videos that do great
• Make sure you are answering the title and thumbnail in the video
• Give content the time it deserves
• If it’s a really big topic break it into multiple videos

Are Shorts useful?

• Shorts are a great place to experiment to see what people respond to
• If you can answer the question in a Short then do that
• Useful if you don’t want to experiment with a larger piece of content that will take more effort and more time

Audience is so key to YouTube

• Especially in the beginning, try to define for yourself who your core audience is
• You can put yourself in their shoes and think about how they like to consume content
• For example, creating content for students or for patients

Audience may not be what you expect

• I made content on overactive bladder, incontinence, prolapse
• Moved to sexual health because that’s what my audience wanted
• My audience is 90% male
• I did a fellowship in female urology!
• I go to men to get a ideas, e.g. my husband – my core audience
• Look at your analytics because you can see what other things they like to watch

Do you use AI?

• I do not really use AI as it does not really match my style of content
• I read academic journals
• They can give you a framework or ideas – give me 5 ideas on the top questions about x topic
• They can summarise a YouTube video – useful for preparing for podcasts
• The research tab links to Google Trends
• Helps with keywords for titles or alternative titles
• The more content there is on a topic on youtube the more successful it is
• AI can help give you more video ideas for a single topic
• Castmagic is good for podcasts (will need edits)

How to find people to collaborate

• Look at a creator’s business email on their YouTube channel to contact them
• Propose an idea to get an easy yes if they have time to collaborate with you

How to broaden your audience

• It’s a slow process
• Choose a cadence like once a month – different to your usual content
• It may or may not perform as well as your usual content
• Your channel is for yourself too – so talk about what you want, but might not appeal to your core audience
• Use your Community Tab to make your audience aware if you pivot
• If you collect emails then email them too
• They might watch other health channels
• Ask them what they want to watch or questions to answer

Your YouTube channel is like a mini TV channel

• Not all content is going to perform equally
• Optimise videos for search and discovery
• Audience will find it over time
• Thumbnail, description, titles, using chapters – can help you rank higher
• Call out the specific audience you want in your title or description

Ethical side of product promotion

• “I’m very picky – I say no to 95% of people”
• If I don’t personally use it or recommend it to my patients then I won’t consider a sponsorship
• I have a higher pricepoint than most creators as I am a healthcare creator
• It was never a priority to make a lot of money on YouTube

Do you want to be linked to a specific product?

• Is there evidence behind it?
• Is it useful for my patients?
• The second you approve it then it’s out there – and people know you promoted this and whether it has evidence or not, now you are linked to that

Insurance for a health content creator

• Errors and omissions insurance – in case you say something inaccurate or evidence has changed
• Always have disclaimers on my description to say it’s for general educational purposes
• Malpractice insurance

Channel name for brand awareness

• I didn’t have a private practice when I started, so I used my name as the channel name, so now my private practice is my name
• If your goal is to promote your practice or your brand on your channel then call it that

Shorts vs long videos for health creators?

• When I started there were no Shorts
• I resisted making them for a long time
• It’s good for brand awareness
• But I’m not the best example of it if you look at my channel
• Shorts are good for discovery – they take a wide swath approach
• Consider the more entry level topics to a health condition and more accessible things might be best for Shorts
• Do tag long form videos to your Shorts for people to click

How to find a good editor

• I used onlinejobs.ph
• My editors are from the Philippines
• I ask interview questions and they do a small project
• You have to put in the time to find someone
• You will make mistakes, and I have fired editors earlier
• Ask via a post on channel

How often do you look at analytics?

• Look back at titles and thumbnails to improve
• If I don’t love the idea I have on the calendar then I will dive in and find an alternative
• I look at it a few times a month
• It’s health to not be married to your analytics
• Look at 90 days

How to streamline the scriptwriting process

• You can get caught up in research, your audience may include vulnerable people
• I use Google Scholar more than PubMed – I look at highly cited articles
• I look at new systematic reviews and meta-analyses

Signals for the algorithm

• Not having the Health Shelf does not mean you will be unsuccessful
• Have a description of videos – and include your license, your degrees, link to reference articles
• These are all signals to the algorithm to lift up the content

What do you wish you did sooner?

• Getting an editor and virtual assistant sooner, so I can focus on writing the content
• Also you are super smart people – use your judgement – you can come up with good thumbnails and titles for your videos

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