Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dale & Paula McKenzie. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dale & Paula, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I decided, after several years of retirement, to pick up a camera and start a YouTube channel – knowing very little about video, photography, editing, or YouTube. But, I had had a long career in live music performing, and the things I did know – about entertainment, the audience, the importance of sound, visuals, and lighting – turned out to be a great foundation to get started with! And looking back, I still think those are the skills that were and are most essential. After all, YouTube is at its core an entertainment medium.

But…there was a lot to learn to start up and maintain a YouTube channel, at the quality level that I would want to achieve. I teamed up with my wife Paula, and with assistance from subject matter experts and exhaustive research, we obtained the basics – cameras, sound, lighting, workstation and software – and made a commitment to publish one video per week for an entire year, and see how things went. I had a two-hour Internet lesson in the Mac operating system and the editing software, over 4 years ago, and since then I have learned everything by doing, by trial and error, by asking questions, and by researching on the web. (Never let anyone tell you you are too old to learn! I’m living proof.)

I certainly could have signed up for a training class in the editing software (Final Cut Pro), and/or photography, videography, sound, and lighting, but I’m not sure it would have taken me further faster. There are a lot of complexities in creating videos for YouTube from scratch, and looking back, I think we absorbed what we could, at the pace that we could – and then continued to grow and expand our knowledge and expertise over time.

Dale & Paula, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Dale, and together with my wife Paula, we have a YouTube channel called “Las Vegas Inside & Out”. We have lived in Las Vegas for decades, and I am retired from a lifelong career as a musician and entertainer. Several years into retirement, I found myself restless and looking for new challenges, so I picked up a camera and decided to start a YouTube channel, just for fun. Within weeks Paula had joined me and we set off on this endeavor together. That was 4 1/2 years ago, and we have nearly 500 videos on our channel at this point!

Our content primarily features Fabulous Las Vegas and all it has to offer, to the visitor and to the resident. We visit the resorts, attractions, restaurants, and notable locations on the Strip, Downtown, and in the Las Vegas Valley. In addition, we take the occasional road trip to the desert southwest, and always take our viewing community along with us. What we love the most is that we are able to bring “virtual Las Vegas” to thousands of people around the world who love this place and can’t get here, or get here often enough. Because we live here, we can bring it to them via our channel, and they can come along with us on our adventures. During the pandemic years, I can’t count the number of times we were told what a lifeline we were, an escape. That is the essence of entertainment, and to hear that we are able to provide it – we are endlessly proud and grateful.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

This question resonates with me, not only in my current role as YouTube Content Creator, but in my entire career. In general, throughout history, I think there has always been difficulty in understanding, appreciating, and valuing art in all its forms, and what it means to create it – whether that be art on canvas, or musical performance, acting, sculpting, you name it. There have always been issues with quantifying its value, or understanding how much time, effort, energy it takes to create something out of nothing – using just your heart, mind, and skills.

In today’s world of endless entertainment options and short attention spans, the expectation is for fresh new content to be presented constantly – but those of us who are creating that content are doing it while also living “real life” and dealing with all the same day-to-day responsibilities our viewers are dealing with. When you’re watching videos on YouTube, and expecting new ones to show up in your feed, I’m not sure you ever have that thought in mind.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I joke that I have a bigger audience now on YouTube than I ever had in my musical performing career! But, it had to start somewhere. Social media rewards consistency and engagement, and that’s how we’ve managed to grow – slowly at first, but then with more momentum over time. I committed to uploading a new video every Sunday, at the same time, for an entire year, and I kept to that commitment – in fact, I still do. It was easy to choose appealing subject matter – Las Vegas – and over time the quality of the videos of course improved. We answered every comment on the YouTube videos; we set up a Facebook business page and Instagram account to promote our uploads, and monitored those to respond to comments and feedback. We were genuine and approachable on camera and in writing, and the viewing community began to engage with us on a personal level. We wish them happy birthday, we meet them on the Strip when they come to town (schedules permitting), we have contests and giveaways now and then, we encourage them to send us photos, and as a result we have a very warm and welcoming community, with a shared love of all things Vegas. This is an easy formula to follow, and anyone can do it. :)

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dalemckenzie01/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Dale-McKenzie-Las-Vegas-Inside-Out/100063535398157/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/dalemckenzie