We recently connected with Collin Brackin and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Collin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
When I first started out making content my whole goal was based off 3 words, “Be An Impact” was 3 words I wrote down, and knew something was there.
I looked at those words for weeks and thought of ways I could chase my childhood dreams of being on TV and influencing millions of people one day. In 2019 I was an area manager for a franchise called Jimmy John’s over Northern Utah stores. My daily commute was 3+ hours running between stores all day running multiple stores and supporting general managers in their roles.
I started listening to podcasts so that I could work on my mental development and leadership not just in the workplace but in my own life. I was listening to every bit of success, motivation, and self help podcast, books and videos I could find. Eric Thomas was one of my favorite ones I found, and his “when you want to succeed, more than you want to breathe, then you will be successful” video, and that was the changing point in my life. That moment forward, he was the person who changed my life.
A short year later we went to a conference for a leadership training with Jimmy Johns in Las Vegas and he spoke and I had the opportunity to go up and shake his hand and take a picture with him.
When I met E.T. I said this to him while shaking his hand, “Man I’m a huge follower of you, I just wanted to say thank you because you Changed my life.”
To which Eric replied “I didn’t do nothing for you, you did everything yourself, and I just cheered you on.”
From that moment forward, my “Be An Impact” finally had its full meaning to me. It’s not about the impact I can make, it’s about the impact I can cheer others on to make, and that is ultimately how to “Be An Impact”.
I decided that the way I was going to start was with a podcast teaching people what I have learned from all the stuff i was not only doing, but was planning to do. I wanted to share it with the world and hopefully help someone with what they were doing.
Collin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
So I started watching every single video I could find on how people started their podcasts, someone once told me that success leaves clues. So if my goal was to start a podcast, who better to watch on the “how to start a podcast” than people who were hosting the podcasts I was watching?!
I spent years learning video editing, how to vlog, cinematography, camera equipment, sound equipment and everything that people don’t usually see when they watch YouTube videos and podcasts!
Keep in mind I was working a fulltime job 40-60 hours a week while I was having these dreams and I had alot of bills I had obligations to, home, vehicles, toys etc.. I couldn’t just leave my great paying job with good benefits and chase what at the time seemed like a “silly dream”. So I decided if I was going to do this, I was going to have to cut back on sleep and wasting time, and focus on my goals and only had time for things that got me closer to my goals. I started podcasting and posting content to every platform I could, I bought all the equipment, I got everything I needed to get started and the only thing I didn’t have was a big following, so now I needed to focus on the content. But what was I going to talk about? What was I going to post? I wasn’t very cool, wasn’t doing crazy things, from a town that’s tiny, working an average job etc.
So I started posting just what we were doing, instead of being so focused on “what to film” I finally just decided to “film what I was doing”.
We shot a couple podcasts and people kept telling me, they need to see me and my personality so I needed video instead of audio. So I decided to switch over to YouTube and start vlogging what I was doing, instead of podcasting.
In December 2019 I posted my first video on YouTube, it was snowing, windy, cold and windy and wet. We had every reason to make excuses to just do it later, but I stuck with it, shot the video even tho it wasn’t perfect, spend a lot whole day working on it, and uploaded it.
In what I learned from all the successful people making YouTube videos that I had watched, was the keys to YouTube were a few simple things.
1 people need to click the video
2 you need to either help them or entertain them
3 better audio and video quality helps
4 the proper videos can get millions of views
5 you can make a fulltime career out of making content
When I found these things out, I started to give everything I had into YouTube, I made content around “answering people’s questions” and helping them do their own projects, and sharing all my knowledge with the world.
In my day job I was training a team of managers to be more profitable, better leaders in the workplace and that’s what I was great at and companies paid me well to do, so I took that and transferred it to YouTube.
After I grew some following and was hitting content really hard, someome asked if I could post a video about tips for new Rottweiler owners (I LOVE ROTTWEILERS and have 4 myself)
So I made the video, and created a new channel to post it on called “The Rotty Channel” at the time. After a few months that video caught crazy traction and started to do great, and people were asking for more content about Rottweilers.
The Rotty Channel surpassed my personal channel and so I decided to hit that as hard as I could, contributing to the Rottweiler owner Community.
As time as gone on, we have grown to more pets than just the Rottweilers, we have highland cows, we have ducks, chickens, goats, dogs, fish and don’t plan to stop growing.
In 2022 Sahm, and I, brought a daughter into the world, we vlog everyday and everything we do, after some thought and consideration, we decided to change the name of the channel to “The Rotty Ranch”.
The Rottweilers will always be the base of what we started and how we grew our audience, but our whole lives weren’t just about the dogs anymore, it is now about the whole Ranch.
In January 2022 I was able to leave my area manager position at Jimmy John’s and go fulltime as a content creator and SEO specialist. Businesses were contacting me to help get the growth that we were seeing on our channels and pages.
I pride myself in helping companies take their social media presence from nothing to a big audience.
I’ve helped grow businesses and make their reach worldwide instead of just storefront.
I’ve helped companies save time by creating product install videos, how to videos, FAQ videos, commercials, you name it we have done it.
If you have a business, you should have a tik tok and a YouTube channel promoting your content. The best part about content is, people can view it for years and years to come, even when you’re gone, you’ll still
Be able to “be an impact”
I spend all my free time studying how to get better, how to advance search engine optimization so companies and myself get the most out of their content and work everyday.
I run multiple channels now including Collin Brackin, The Rotty Ranch, & CozyLand
On The Rotty Ranch since we started 2 years ago (at the time of this interview) we have over 60 million video views, 200,000+ followers/subscribers and currently growing everyday still. We are on all platforms so be sure to check out our family friendly content ❤️
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
Since we were able to go full time content creators and have more “free time” to do what we want, we actually bought a business and are currently still the owners of a business called “Pizza Stop” in Preston, Idaho.
I wasn’t always very close with my family, but my partner Sahm has got me alot more focused on the things in life that matter, and family is one of those. So I’m trying to spend more time with my parents, I realized how “stuck” my dad was in working and running the pizza stop they opened in 1993.
My parents are over 60 years old and don’t deserve to be working everyday still. It was my time to let my mom and dad relax and enjoy life, and I would do the Pizza Stop.
After some consideration my parents decided to work a deal with me. Sahm & I are now the owners and operators of Pizza Stop.
Pizza stop is a family business that we took over in 2022. We specialize in making the best stone baked pizzas around. We are famous for our stone baked cheesy breadsticks, and we have just added dessert pizzas to our menu. When we came in, we had to revamp the crew, get some life in there, added some lighting, cleaned up the patio seating and made it a great location to bring the family to eat dinner, and also enjoy the environment.
We are very excited to host our grand reopening under new ownership, celebrating 30 years in business in 2023.
Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?
You know I just want to say no matter what you’re doing in life as a career, it doesn’t matter what you do, what truly matters is how you do it. So I’ll share an example of this,
I’ve switched careers multiple times and I feel there is one common core value that has helped me be successful in multiple career paths and jobs.
The best thing you can do for any field of work, is become AS KNOWLEDGEABLE AS YOU CAN in that field. Then share that knowledge with others.
When I was working as an area manager, everyone else was focused on profit, then operations, then if those two things fell in line, we focused on the people,
I chose to do things a little differently, and I put people first, then operations and profit last.
When you add light, care and love to people, they grow. They will amaze you with the things they do when you give them room to shine after proving to people that you care about them.
I didn’t become a great leader because I focused on the profit first, I became a great leader when I focused on the people, who were growing the profits. I grew the people, they grew the profits.
If you want something done right, don’t do it yourself, teach the people around you, the right way to do it.
I want to say again, it doesn’t matter if you are a baker, learn everything you can about baking, yeast rising, air temperatures, humidity, and baking temps.
If you’re a painter, LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN.
Thinking you know everything, stops you from learning something.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.instagram.com/collinbrackin/?hl=en
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therottyranch/
- Facebook: Collin Brackin & The Rotty Ranch
- Twitter: The Rotty Ranch
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/TheRottyChannel
- Other: We can be found on any social media @ Collin Brackin & The Rotty Ranch