How to Work With a Video Editor for YouTube (Budgeting, Hiring, Contracts, Feedback, and MORE!)

So when I grew my YouTube channel to 100,000 subscribers in my first year of doing YouTube a big reason for that was because I hired a video editor and so in this video I want to answer the top questions some of you guys might have about video editing for example how to know when you're ready to hire a video editor how much can you expect to pay for video editing where do you even find video editors and how do you hire them And once you've selected a video editor what is the proper way to onboard

someone such as sending the proper contracts brand guidelines invoices and not only this once they start working on the video how do you actually share the vision that you have for your video how do you communicate with them what is the best communication tools to use how many rounds of feedback is even normal and how to even give feedback as well as how to make the most out of your video Editor and how do you know if the relationship that you have with your video editor is improving or if it's not improving and it's time

to find a new one now this is a very comprehensive video and I'm almost convinced that this is going to be the only video that you'll ever need about how to work with video editors and so make sure you're leveraging the chapters below to get the information that you're looking for or you can increase the speed of the video By using the toggle below don't worry I will not be offended now without further Ado let's talk all about working with video editors so how exactly do you know you're ready to hire a video editor or

why should you even hire a video editor the first factor is when your inability to edit videos efficiently hurts your output now this actually happened to me this year so I've been doing YouTube for the last 6 years and majority of those years I've always had a video editor but In 2023 I took a year off and when I came back I was feeling really lost friends I don't feel like I have anything to offer and I didn't really feel in tune with being a Creator so I decided to let go of my video editor

and edit my own videos so that I can really be in the weeds again and that was what I needed at the time but what I noticed is the moment I started editing my own videos I was no longer consistent on YouTube and my output of Videos was incredibly low I even have a spreadsheet where I track this so when I had a video editor between February and may within those 4 months we were able to do 11 videos and the only reason why we weren't able to do weekly videos consistently wasn't necessarily because of

my video editor it was because of me okay I was lagging on filming and I wasn't giving her enough videos now the moment I decided to take the reins back and do my own editing between June to October I was only able to do seven videos in 5 months so I had more time and I less videos so this goes to show that when I edit my own videos I am a lot less efficient now when I realized that I was the bottleneck to this process I decided to rehire a video editor and the moment

that I rehired a video editor we went back to at least doing three videos in a month now the truth is as much as we hate to admit it social media to a degree is a numbers Game the person who uploads more consistently and more often will likely have higher chances to go viral to be seen to grow Their audience if you think about it the person who's only doing one video a month only has 12 chances to be seen in a single year whereas the person who's uploading consistently every week they have 48 chances

to be seen in that year so just based on sheer numbers the chances of them growing their Channel fast is much higher now there are Exceptions for example there's a Creator called life of Reza she posts every blue moon and whenever she posts it always does really well but you also have to keep in mind that she is a filmmaker a cinematographer a pro editor she has really great storytelling and so if you are someone who is choosing to not do a lot of videos you have to make sure that they are incredibly high value

and high quality another reason why I wasn't uploading as many videos when I was Editing my own videos was because there was no accountability whereas the moment that I rehired a video editor and I knew that they were waiting on videos for me I was able to actually get the motivation to fill more videos in the first place the second reason as to why you might want to hire a video editor or how you know you're ready to hire a video editor is when your skill set doesn't match the vision that you have for your

videos so in my case when I Decided to edit my own videos again this year I really enjoyed being in the weeds and being in artist mode and thanks to editing my own videos I started feeling creative again I started getting more ideas but a lot of those ideas included a level of editing that I don't really have I wanted to do more tutorial based videos to really show you guys behind the scenes of my entire Creator process I also eventually wanted to do vlogs now you might be thinking Vanessa why don't You just level

up your video editing skills and save money well that leads me to the next factor and that is when you would rather be doing something else in my case when I was spending so much time video editing I was taking time away from other tasks that would be a higher leverage for me and here's what I've learned in the last 5 years of growing a business and having a team and that is the two things that are very very hard to Outsource is your intellectual Property which is your thoughts your stories the information that you

want to share and also you physically showing up in front of the camera if you can Outsource everything else aside from those two then you're going to be able to make your life a lot easier and in the long run produce a lot more which will then increase the visibility that you have on social media now at this point of the video you might be super convinced that you need to hire a video Editor ASAP but more importantly I want to talk about the last Factor on when you know you're ready to hire a video

editor and that is when you have a really clear sense of direction on what you want your channel to be about but also you have proof of monetization to justify the investment of hiring a video editor for me I edited my own videos for about half a year and just through my own editing I was able to get monetized but also I was able to kind of just Experiment for free almost I did a lot of videos about Finance then videos about mindset and then finally I was able to land on videos about social media

and so that was really my experimentation phase and I feel like it would have been really stressful for me if I had hired a video editor on the get-go pay paying all this money and not really knowing what the direction of my channel is going to be not only this I also got proof that I could make money Making videos back in 2019 I hired a video editor once I was monetized on YouTube but beyond that I found a way to make money on YouTube outside of making AdSense Revenue at the time I was filming

a lot of videos about social media and I realized that this was a great way to actually get clients and during that time period I had closed about two to three clients and made my first 10,000 month and I used a portion of that Revenue to hire my video editor And that reinvestment back into my channel really paid off because in that year I made half a million dollars in my business and how I made that half a million dollars was not only because I was able to post more videos because a video editor was

helping me but it was also because it freed up so much time for me to do other business related activities to grow my business and so I had a really clear idea on how I was going to monetize my YouTube channel now For some people it doesn't necessarily have to look like getting clients it could also mean getting enough consistent views and being monetized to the point where you have enough AdSense Revenue to justify hiring a video editor it could also look like signing your first brand deal and getting proof that there are brands that

do want to work with you for others it could also look like having a steady paycheck somewhere else there are a lot of people who do YouTube part-time and they have a full-time job on the side and they use their paycheck to reinvest back into their channel to save time but also to grow a lot faster and there are also Al people who have existing businesses outside of YouTube where they can actually use some of the money to fund their YouTube channel but with that being said it's really hard to justify hiring a video editor

if you don't know the next important thing which is how Much you can expect to pay for a video editor now back in 2019 when I started working with a video editor they were charging me a flat rate this video editor that I was working with was also new to the scene as well and so I feel like their pricing really reflected their experience now at $165 per video if I did four videos my invoice would be around $660 and when I did two uploads a week it ended up being closer to $1,300 a month

now this is 2019 pricing so I Would assume that in today's prices it's going to be a lot higher than this but I just wanted to give you an example of what it looked like in 2019 now fast forward 3 years later with that same video editor as they started scaling up their business they decided to do an agency model they started taking on more clients they started to increase their prices which on one side I was really happy for them but on the other side I definitely started to feel the pinch and As you

can see from this sample invoice for the same four videos that used to cost me $660 3 years later it would now cost me almost $3,000 and I believe at the time how they charged was they charged a flat rate for any video under 20 minutes and if it went over 20 minutes they would charge me a certain amount per minute that went over now flat rates can be both good and bad it could be a good Thing because there's going to be less fluctuations month Toth month when it comes to your pricing and also

you're going to be able to budget better each video is likely going to be around the same amount but one of the bad things about flat rates on the Creator side is whether a video is 10 minutes or 20 minutes it's still going to cost the same whether a video is complex or very basic it's also still going to cost the same and that is also why a lot of video Editors might like to charge flat rates because it's also steady income for them now eventually our parted ways with that video editor and then I

worked with other video editors that charged an hourly rate and I've worked with a handful of editors that charge hourly rates and the range that I've paid has been from $10 an hour up to $20 an hour now even though you know the rate that you're paying per hour the total amount that you pay every single month or for Every single video is going to really depend on these factors how much raw footage is the editor going to need to go through for example with Vlogs I always found them to be a lot more expensive

because I am sending hours and hours and hours of video footage for my video editor to comb through which then eats up a lot of time and this is also why I have a very specific way of how I film my sit down videos that I've shared in this video for example where I walk You through the process on how I film my YouTube videos I typically never film my sitdown videos in one full take because I know if I film in one full take I'm going to have like a 2hour long video that my

editor is going to need to comb through and instead I fil my videos in chunks so I'll look at my script I'll read out the first section of my video and then I'll stop recording then I'll look at my script and read out the second section of my video and stop Recording now if I end up making a big mistake in one of the sections all I have to do is delete the clip from my video so I don't have to necessarily start over and then I just refilm that section specifically and what ends up

happening is I end up having 10 to 20 clips that I know for sure are usable and that way I'm saving my video editor time of combing through a bunch of mistakes now it doesn't necessarily mean I never make a mistake and here's an Example of little minor mistakes that I've made now the next now the next contract that you're either going now the next contract that you're either going want to sign or send but as you can see those mistakes are easily editable whereas really big mistakes such as me blanking out or saying the

wrong thing or taking a long time to recover those things I typically delete so that my video editor will never have to use that footage this method really Helps you save a lot of time which then saves a lot of money the next Factor that's going to impact the cost of your videos especially if you are working with a video editor that's charging hourly is how much Motion Graphics are you wanting for your video so for example I had this video where it had very heavy b-roll it had a lot of screen shares it was

a very complicated video to edit and so it took a lot more hours for my video editor to make that video Whereas more basic videos like this it's going to cost me a lot less because it's not going to take up a lot of time and as you can see from these two invoices this one video that was really complex costed me $600 whereas these three videos costed me $800 and the only difference is the complexity of the actual video the next Factor that's going to impact the final invoice that you end up paying is

is how many videos are you wanting to upload per month the Frequency matters so if you only uploading once a week it's definitely going to cost you less than uploading twice a week now misconception is when you hire a video editor you think that your video editor has to edit every single video that you do but if you want to cut on costs you can just Outsource the more complex videos to your video editor and then the more simple videos you can edit yourself and if you want to learn how to edit your own videos

here's A video that I did about how I edit in a very simple way and so make sure you check out my video editing tutorial after you finish watching this video now to get an idea of your actual budget let's say you found someone who's willing to edit your videos for $15 an hour what you then want to do is really share with them current videos that you have or inspirational videos that you want to emulate and then ask them how long they think it's going to take them To edit that style of video and

also make sure you let them know how often or how many videos that you're going to be uploading every single week from there that video editor should be able to give you an estimate of hours so let's say they're like hey based on what you've sent me it's probably going to take me about 20 hours per week if you're uploading a video every single week and so in that case at $15 an hour at 20 hours a week you're then going to be Able to know that it's going to cost you $1,600 a month for

the style of videos that you want and for the frequency that you want with that specific video editor now let's say you have sticker shock over $1600 a month well just know that you can negotiate and you can say hey actually my budget is closer to $1,500 or $1,200 a month or $1,000 a month and so with that what can we change about the style of video in order for me to meet the budget and so that way your Video editor can say well the videos that you sent me as inspo you might not notice

this but the Motion Graphics that they're using is quite complex and so if you want to save a little bit of time and money you're going to want to change to this style of editing and so that way you can kind of collaborate with your video editor to see what type of style would better suit your budget and if you guys can't find find an agreement then you're going to have to either decrease The frequency of videos that you do increase your budget or find someone else to do the style of video you want for

a cheaper price beyond that another way that you can manage your budget with your video editor is be very clear with them that you can only spend an x amount of dollars per month on video editing and so whenever you give them videos ask them to notify you when they think it might go over budget so that they can let you know before they actually start Editing the video so for example this video right here where I was talking about notion it was actually over my budget in terms of the hours that I wanted my

video editor to spend on it but I agreed that this video was important because in this video I'm actually selling a notion template and so in my mind I was willing to invest more in that video because I was making a direct sale and I knew that I was going to make that money back and in Fact I did because I was selling notion templates and the money that I made from the notion templates basically paid for the video editing and more now if you're still sticking around I'm assuming that you are someone who is

still interested in hiring a video editor and you're ready to invest so your next natural question is where do I actually find video editors and how do I hire them now here are the places that I've worked for me number one my own Community my first Ever video editor was actually someone who was subscribed to my channel joined my Facebook group that I created and I put out a post saying I needed a video editor they were up for it and that's how we started working together and hiring someone who already watches your videos or

is within your community is a really huge plus because they already know your vibe already know what you're about and they're passionate they actually want to be a part of your team And so this is usually the number one place that I like to look for video editors now I totally understand that not everyone has a community yet to tap into so let me share other places that you can find great editors the second one is referrals and I like referrals because you already have someone that has prev vetted that video editor I've learned that

no matter how good a video editor is sometimes working with them could be a whole different story maybe Their communication is bad maybe they're Shady maybe they're rude and so that really affects the working relationship now one thing that I will be honest with you is a lot of YouTubers are hesitant to share the current video editors that they're working with and the reason why is because when we really love a video editor we typically want them to edit our videos exclusively and maybe get to a place where they're working full-time and if we are

constantly referring People to the editors that are editing our videos then they're going to get booked out and they're not going to be able to edit our videos and so sometimes that can be a problem so I recommend that when you approaching someone about who's edited their videos it's better to ask them who has edited their videos in the past rather than asking who their current video editor is now there are some people who may be able to share that information but not a lot of people Do the next place where I've had success hiring

a video editor is upwork and I really like platforms like upwork because the pricing is very transparent and you're able to know right away whether or not you can afford someone or not now what you can do is you can either hire someone directly by searching up YouTube video editor look at people's portfolios look at people's breats and then contact them directly you can also pay by project so if you Actually click on projects within upwork and then type in YouTube video editing you're going to be able to find people that's going to be able

to edit your video for A flat rate and have a decent turnaround time this is a really great way for you to test the waters or you can also put up a job posting and have people on upwork apply directly to you that way you're going to be able to see who's interested in actually working with you and then you can choose from The people that are interested in later on I'm going to talk about how to choose a video editor and how to actually do test projects so make sure you keep watching the next

place where I've had success in hiring video editors is onlinejobs.ph and if you're not familiar with it it's basically a job site for a lot of talented workers in the Philippines and it's also very transparent on the amount of hours that they want as well as the rates that they Are charging I find that online jobs pH to be really great because a lot of the workers there are looking for longer term placements now regardless of where you find your potential video editor I want to show you how to to screen your video editor and

vet them before you fully commit to paying full price now the first step is typically creating a job description this is especially true if you are someone who is going to be posting a job description and you want People to apply to the role now you can use chat GPT to create one and just to give you a guideline when I create my job descriptions I typically have a little blurb on what the role is about what the responsibilities are which is basically the task that they'll be doing what are the results that I'm hoping

for when they join the team and also what are the requirements needed for them to be successful in the role this could include specific software that they're Using or maybe specific qualities that they need to have now sometimes you want to share the exact hourly rate that you're budgeting for for this role and other times you may want to keep that private until the candidate actually applies the reason why some people might want to do this is because they don't want to scare away potential high quality candidates and they want to know what they're charging

and maybe if it's actually the right fit you may be Willing to increase that budget for the right person and so if that's you another way that you can do this is you can create a form and embed it into the job posting and in this form it's going to ask the candidate basic questions and also include a section that asks them what their expected hourly rate is that way you're able to get a full range of candidates look at their portfolio which by the way you should also be asking them to embed some of

the most proudest Work that they've done when it comes to video editing and that way you have just more selection and you're able to gauge how much your budget should be now the next step is once you have a pool of candidates you're going to want to short list from that pool and how you short list is basically looking at their portfolio what do you like what do you not like and also whether or not you have enough budget to afford this certain candidate now once you've Shortlisted you then want to do a test project

and this is exactly why I only really pick my top three candidates because I typically do paid test projects so that it's fair and that I showing the candidate that I respect their time now if you're someone who doesn't know what a test project is it's basically allowing the video editor to do a sample edit and that way you can actually see the work of your top three editors and choose from there and so What I'll typically do is I will give the same one minute clip to all three of the editors that I'm considering

hiring I will give the same exact brief and I will give one round of review and when it comes to payment I set a limit so I will say this test project is going to be $15 an hour with a cap of 2 hours and so that means this test project will cost about $30 per candidate now you might think oh my gosh I don't want to pay for test projects but I have found That doing a test project is crucial and well worth it in order for you to filter through who is a good

editor for you because even though a video editor has a really great portfolio their communication style could be really bad and that's what the test project is going to filter out or you have candidates that give you a portfolio but it's actually not their work and so this allows them to actually show you whether or not they can truly edit videos not Only this the test project allows you to really gauge whether or not they understand feedback and that's exactly why I give one round of review because it's not just about the final quality of

the video it's also how they respond to feedback whether or not they can successfully implement it and how fast they can actually turn around the deliverable within the set amount of time so you're really testing other qualities that they have now at this Point your candidates would have submitted the test project deliverable and it's going to be quite easy to choose which one did the best and so you just pick the one that you like the best and then you onboard them which is what we're going to be talking about next now let's say you

don't have any success with either of the candidates whether all those candidates did not submit a test project or you just didn't like any of their work then you're going to want To find a different method now that method could look like going on to upwork and actively reaching out to editors that you know are looking for jobs and doing something similar where you pay your top three editors that you filter through on upwork and give them the same one minute clip and allow them to edit that video video that way you're really hedging the

risk because it's only a 1 minute video it's not going to cost you that much and based on the Three editors that you found on upwork you can then choose the one that you like the best and then move forward from there so just know that if you don't have success doing a job posting remember to be proactive and actually reach out to editors as well now at this point you would have hopefully selected someone that you want to work with but before giving them a video to edit you're going to want to properly onboard

them the first step is going to be Sending contracts now the first contract that I always like to send is an NDA a non-disclosure agreement now you might think that this is really intense but let me tell you why an NDA is important I'll give you an example I am starting a new business and I'm going to have my video editor edit Vlogs for that business and in the raw footage of that Vlog we're going to be talking about future product launches or proprietary information without an NDA my video Editor could be telling all their

friends or all their social media followers what my plans are for my business and that is definitely not something that I would want but beyond that an NDA can also protect your reputation let's say you're having a bad filming day or you're vlogging and you say some off-the-cuff thing or you're not acting as your best self you wouldn't want your video editor to take a clip of that post it on YouTube and Defame your character and so by having an NDA it ensures that whatever footage your video editor has access to remains private and is

not something that they can share or talk about with other people now the next contract that you're either going to want to sign or send is an independent contractor agreement now most contractors will already send you this and usually it will include the scope of work what's included what's not included how often they're going to Invoice you yada yada y but if they don't send you that information you could also send one for yourself as well and so an example is whenever I send an independent contractor agreement it will also include Clauses like a non-solicitation

clause so back then when I worked with a lot of clients and I had a lot of Private Client databases a non-solicitation clause basically means that my video editor isn't allowed to go into my CRM my customer Relationship management system get all the emails of my clients and then suddenly cold email every single one of them about her services that is not allowed and so that's what I make sure that I put in my independent contractor agreements now if you are someone who doesn't necessarily have access to an NDA or independent contractor agreement I got

mine from Nina the lawyer and so make sure you click the link in my description box below if you would like To download one of her legal templates I downloaded these years ago and to this day I still use them whenever I hire a new video editor another thing that you're going to want to do as a part of the onboarding process before someone edits your video is agreeing on time tracking now time tracking for me is really important especially if a video editor is charging me hourly what this basically means is I require my

video editors to use apps like toggle or time Doctor to track their hours while they are editing the videos that way when they invoice me and they attach their time tracking sheet I'm able to have a better understanding of which videos took how many hours and which tasks took how many hours this gives me information to know whether or not we're being efficient what things I can cut or it also gives me peace of mind knowing that someone's not just charging me like an absorbent amount of money and I have no Data to understand why

it's that amount but beyond that knowing exactly how many hours each video takes a video editor to do is also really helpful for you to budget so let's say based on the time tracking I know that tutorial heavy Style videos take longer than you know tip-based sitdown videos then if let's say in one month I don't have a lot of budget to spend then maybe I will reconsider not doing tutorial based videos that month and do a different Style of video that's going to cost me less or Cost Less hours instead now once it's agreed

upon on what time tracking app you might want to use or whether or not you guys are going to be time tracking which I do really really recommend the next thing is agreeing on what communication platforms to use now for me the basic communication platform for day-to-day comms I use is slack but when I first started working with a video editor we were communicating Through WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger so it doesn't need to be that fancy slack is just what works for me and it also works for most people if they have more than one

team member on their team now when it comes to how I use slack to communicate with my video editor I will just go into our private Channel and then I will type in the date that my video is going to need to be posted on YouTube I will go into my calendar and get the title of that video paste it There and then where I put my raw files is usually in frame.io which we will talk about later but I will take that folder where all my raw files are for the video and then I

will hyperlink it bold it and then send it into our channel so it will look like that from there as you can see a lot of the conversations actually happen within the thread itself that way in the slack channel it's organized because now it's not just a full-blown conversation There's actually titles for each video and then we can easily access the conversation for each video inside the thread itself now of course there is day-to-day Communications and in which case we use those apps but there is also communication when it comes to the back and forth

of giving video feedback and later on I'm going to talk more about frame.io and how I use it but if your editor is not using frame.io they usually have something else that they're Using and so I recommend just doing whatever your video editor thinks is most efficient for them now as the final part of onboarding it is sending your general video guidelines now I personally find this to be the most fun part so let me walk you through how I create my video guidelines to give a good direction for my video editor so when it

comes to the video editing guidelines um you could do this on a Google doc but I've chosen to do it over On notion it's just a simple page nothing fancy but the first thing includes any login so I'll give passwords to things like frame.io and then also epidemic sounds epidemic sounds is where we get our royaltyfree copyright free music from and so I always make sure my video editors have access to that I then also put in my brand guidelines so this is just my General brand guidelines uh when it comes to what fonts I

use what Typography what is the color palette of my brand depending on the video editor I like to show this just so they have a guideline but I'm not super picky about this to be honest and if you're wondering on how I embed this over on notion you can just do the backspace and then hit PDF and then you're going to be able to embed any PDF that you have then afterwards I share some general video guidelines this is consistent throughout every video of what I require such as Color grading balancing the audio removing all

pauses to make the video more engaging removing any additional mistakes adding b-roll I personally do a lot of longer sit down videos that could be a little bit visually boring and so I always want to make sure that the video editor knows that my expectation is to fill it up with as much b-roll as possible to keep it engaging add light music when necessary uh but not to the point where it's distracting for you Guys add text titles to any key points so they know that's an expectation adding any transitions or animations zoom in and

zoom outs where they think fit and then any funny edits to add more personality I'm someone who really values humor and so I always want my video editors to know this and inject any humorous Parts if they can I also embed music inspiration so I will share some videos that I watch from other YouTubers that have music that they use That I really like the vibe of for example I'm personally someone that likes R&B something that's more upbeat uh Loi hip hop I also really like and anything K-pop inspired I also really enjoy as well

when it comes to video editing inspiration I do mainly talking head videos or Vlogs and so when it comes to talking head videos I personally like more girly editing I want them to add light music that's not overly overpowering and also I take note Of what I want people to feel when they watch my videos I want you guys to feel inspired like you guys can do what I'm teaching you yourselves I want you guys to feel motivated and happy I don't really want sad Vibes in my videos I also embed videos of other creators

that I really like the editing style of and for the ones that I super like I will highlight that in yellow so my video editor can Zone in on that and I also explain why I like those videos so in This video right here from this girl I really liked how the editing highlights her personality making her videos more engaging or with this video I really liked how there's a lot of b-roll integration I like the fonts that she used to explain her key points I love that there was humor mixed in with a lot

of Zoomin and zoom outs and Transitions and I also mentioned that I also like the title sections now Beyond just sharing with a video editor what you Like it's also important to share what you don't like so your video editor can avoid that style so in my case I don't like it when the editing is too masculine or seems very commercial I also don't like using stock b-roll I try to avoid it if I can and so I've linked videos of other creators where I don't really think the style of video is to my particular

taste I've even shared videos that I've posted in the past that looking back I actually don't really Like the video style of and I think that this is important to share because sometimes your video editor will do a lot of research on you and look at past videos that you've done and assume that's what you like but over time seasons change preferences change and so I kind of make it clear that hey I want you to follow a whole new Vibe than I was doing before now when it comes to Vlogs I also do something

very similar where I share the Vlogs that I really Like now personally I haven't really gotten into Vlogs quite yet and so I haven't really fleshed this out as much as I should have finally I also include thumbnail inspiration of things that I like so here I've shared some thumbnails that I personally gravitate towards the aesthetic the style of them and I also have shared thumbnails that I don't like um including thumbnails that I've also done in the past as well so I hope that this gives you inspiration on things That you can include in

your video editing guidelines and also remember that this can be done on a Google doc as well and it doesn't have to be on notion necessarily all right so are you still watching this video because if you are I want to know this is a very long and comprehensive video and so make sure you comment the word nugget and by the way nugget is sleeping right here in the comment section below so I know that you got to this most exciting part and that Is how do you actually give feedback to a video editor how

do you actually communicate with them and so when I am filming my videos as I mentioned earlier I only film my videos in chunks especially if it's a sit down video like this one I will then have 10 to 20 clips that I can send to my video editor and how I send them to my video editor is I use frame.io so after creating a frame.io account I will create a folder and then I will name the folder the Title of my video I typically grab the title idea from my notion content calendar and my

notion content calendar is something that my video editor also has access to it has a list of all of my upcoming video ideas and also the date that I want to publish this allows my video editor to know what's ahead but anyways I copy and paste the title of the video into the folder and then I will drop all the clips that I have into the folder now if I am working with a Brand new video editor what I will request from them first is a rough cut now what exactly is a rough cut a

rough cut is basically the video editor stringing together all these clips that I've given them removing any super obvious mistakes doing color grading and also adjusting the audio levels it's basically the most basic version of the video there is no b-roll there is no music there is no text there is no screenshots no nothing usually because It's such an easy edit the following day my video editor will ping me that the rough cut is ready and they will drop it also in frame.io for me to review now the reason why I like the rough cut

is because I'm able to see the video in full now and then I'm able to actually brief the video editor on what I want for each specific part of the video and again this process as I explain it might seem really Hands-On and micromanaging but I have found this to be the most Effective way to actually show someone what my preferences are now if you are someone who already has a great relationship with your video editor they basically you like the back of the hand you can basically skip this part or if you are someone

who doesn't even know what direction you want the video and you don't have a clear vision and you just want to fully trust the video editor's taste then you can also skip the rough cut here as well but for me Personally the rough cut is something that I enjoy doing when I am working with a new video editor or when I am pivoting and I'm trying A New Concept anyways when I get the rough cut I will watch it at 1.75x speed and that's my little hack for you is watch the video as fast as

you can so that you can give feedback a lot more efficiently and you don't have to waste a lot of time but as I watch the video I will start leaving my comments really specify where I want Text to be where I want specific b-roll to be extra screenshots Graphics Etc and sometimes I will also use the markup feature in frame.io where I can specifically Circle the areas where I want things to show up and that's why I really really love frame.io another way to be more efficient as well is sometimes when you're doing a

video you may have a lot of b-roll that you think that you need to film afterwards and so as I'm doing the review I will say Vanessa to provide b-roll of X and I'll just keep doing that throughout the video and then afterwards I will then search up Vanessa to provide as the keyword I'm going to be able to see the exact list of b-roll that I'm going to need to film after reviewing this video Once the b-roll is filmed or let's say the b-roll is already ready I'm then going to drop all the b-rolls

that I have into a folder called b-roll SLG graphics and then take the link that's There and paste it in all the sections where I said I would provide b-roll Graphics or screenshots I really like this with frame.io because I don't have to wait for the file to be officially uploaded before I can actually send the link and so this really speeds up the time back then when I used to do video reviews using Google Docs it was a nightmare because I would have to wait for Google Drive to upload my b-roll before I could

even get access to the Link to share it another reason why I do it this way is because I find it to be way less efficient if you're reviewing the video dropping Boll at the same time and all that so I like to focus instead on doing one thing at a time if I'm just giving feedback on frame.io I am focused on that and then afterwards when it comes to actually sourcing all the screenshots the graphics and all those things that I want I will then do that later and so that way I'm really Maximizing

my time now one thing is as you do more videos you're going to notice that you often repurpose the same B- rolles or the same screenshots or the same Graphics so in order to make this more efficient my recommendation is on frame iio to create a new project or new folder that's called most common b-roll in graphics and then start really categorizing and dropping your most commonly used b-roll Graphics screenshots yada yada y this way in the Future if you want to empower your video editor to edit videos on their own without you handholding them

there's not going to be a huge bottleneck of them asking you for b-roll and instead they have a whole library of things to choose from and also from an efficiency standpoint if you want to keep providing feedback it's also going to be a lot easier for you to access all of this roll rather than refilm every single time but basically once you get the next Draft you're then going to provide further feedback usually this is going to be way less than the initial video that you were briefing on a lot of times the feedback that's

in this draft is usually you catching mistakes or maybe your video editor didn't interpret your feedback properly or maybe you made a mistake and provided the wrong file so a lot of times that's where I will be giving that type of feedback now after this the next video that you're going to Receive is likely going to be the final draft this is where you can leave your last minute comments if you need to but this is more of you making sure that it is all good to upload onto YouTube once they upload the video I'm

then able to then optimize the video and if you have any questions or you want to know my checklist on how to optimize my YouTube videos make sure you check out this video where I showed the 18 things that I do to my YouTube videos after I've Uploaded them on YouTube to get more views now once the video is not just uploaded but it's also been publicly published the next thing that I will do to save space and reduce my cost is I will then delete all of the raw files that I put into frame.io

now in my last 6 years of doing YouTube I have never really needed to access raw files again other than maybe Vlog footage but when it comes to sit down videos I usually don't need them ever again so I will Delete all of the raw footage I will also delete all of the drafts that we did and the only thing that I will leave inside frame.io is the final version of the video and also my b-rolls and graphics and screenshots and all of that because typically I may need to use them in the future now

at this point of the video I Really shared the entire process of how I work with my video editors I don't think I really missed a single thing but beyond video editing there's Also other things that you can ask your video editor to help you with now you should have made this clear initially in the job description but I want to share some tasks that I have had video editors help me with what I have found is some video editors are also really gifted in graphic design and so I've had my video editors do my

video thumbnails and I really like working with my video editors on this because they watch the whole video they know the context of the Video and they know how to market the video and so that's just one way of maximizing your video editor now if you find that your video editor's rate is like $50 an hour you could technically find someone else to do your thumbnails for cheaper or you can do your thumbnails yourself and if you want to learn how to Outsource thumbnails or do them yourself make sure you watch this video where I

walk through the entire tutorial on how to edit your own Thumbnails on canva and also the exact process on how to Outsource thumbnail creation on upwork what I've also noticed in the past is some video editors also have admin experience or a little bit of social media experience and so in the past I've also asked them to upload my video on YouTube with the title the description keywords chapters info cards already done but sometimes that's not a good use of their time because you're taking away time that They could be doing editing your videos so

you might be better off doing it yourself or hiring another VA for maybe even a lower rate to do admin tasks for you so far in this video I've really shared what it's like working with a new video editor for the first time but obviously after a few videos you're going to be able to pick up on whether or not this relationship is improving or not improving and you're going to need to find a new video editor because Things aren't working out so let's talk about how to know if things are improving now obviously I

shared a really intense version of what it's like being really Hands-On with feedback but realistically after a while things should be a little bit more efficient you should be spending less time doing feedback there should be less rounds of feedback your video editor might not even need to send you the rough cut and you kind of get to a place where you Send the raw files and they already know what you want for that specific style of video and what I mean by this is when you're working with a video editor you should be doing

at least two to three videos of a certain style before that video editor can really get a grasp on what your preferences are so for example you've done two to three videos where it's more of a vlog style well then at that point on the third video your video editor should have done enough to know What you want for your Vlogs or let's say two to three tutorial based Styles at that point that video editor should be more well trained on that tutorial Style video or let's say two to three style of the podcast real

talk videos then at that point that video editor should also know what to expect and what to do for that style and so that's why you can't necessarily say that a video editor isn't good or improving if you keep changing up the style they need Some time to really acclimate to each style of video that you decide to do and also if you ever decide to Pivot or do a new style every single time you do a video then it's not necessarily going to help your video editor understand what your true preferences are because they

keep changing and so you're going to expect yourself to keep giving feedback all the time but if you are consistent in the style of video your feedback should be a lot less over time and there Should be less rounds of feedback as well another important thing that I look for in video editors is good communication so even if you have the best video editor the end result is really great if the process of working with them is not so great that's also Al a really good sign that you may be better off working with someone

else who maybe has less of a video editing skill but better communication skills so the entire process isn't as anxiety inducing So for example you want to make sure that your video editor is communicative in a sense where if they know they're going to be missing a deadline that they let you know right away so that you're not just waiting around for the video I've had that happen to me many times before where a video editor told me that the video would be ready by X day I block off everything in my calendar and the

whole day I'm just waiting for the video and I don't get it and they don't Tell me and I'm just like where are they I don't know if they're working on the video and it's just like super anxiety inducing I'm someone who doesn't necessarily mind missing deadlines every so often but I do mind being surprised that I'm missing a deadline you know what I mean and so you kind of want to make sure that video editor communicates with you properly a good video editor is also someone who is able to manage your expectations especially if

they know That you are on a specific budget and so you never really want to see an invoice and be like completely shocked that a video is way over your budget and that is also on you from the get-go to really communicate what your expectations are and make sure you let your video editor know that hey if you're already at like 75% of your hours make sure you let me know right away so we can adjust my expectations another way that you can see that your video editor was well Worth it and the relationship is

improving is if they genuinely make your videos better I know for me the moment that I hired a video editor my retention chart improved and also I was able to see many more positive comments in the comment section A lot of people were raving about the video editing they enjoyed the style they watched till the end or they got really great value from it because they watched more of the video and so that is a good indication That you hiring a video editor was well worth it another great quality of a video editor that exceeds

expectations is when the video editor actually cares and for any video that they're editing they actually pay attention to the comments so some of my most favorite video editors are the ones that take time out of their day to watch the videos on my channel that they specifically edited and they take note of your feedback I've had a video editor Say hey a lot of people were saying that they didn't like these glitchy edits and so next time I'm not going to do them or let's say hey I noticed that people really liked this about

the video and how I edited it so I'm going to keep doing that for the future videos and so that to me is a quality that I really appreciate with video editors and if your video editor does that then I think you have a really good one on your hands now on the flip side how do you know When things aren't working out now the first thing is the video editor is making silly mistakes that is costing you money now making mistakes is fine especially when you were first working with a new video editor that's

learning your preferences but what I found that hasn't worked for me is when I give feedback and it's not implemented and then I give feedback again and it's still not implemented and anytime a mistake is made I'm basically paying for The time it takes to correct that mistake and so it's different if I was the one that gave bad feedback or if I was the one that gave the wrong link and so I'm totally fine with that and I take ownership of that and I'm okay with paying for that but if a video editor is

just a little bit careless or not as detail oriented and it's costing you money because they are taking more time fixing mistakes than actually making the video better then that is a red Flag now another red flag is if you feel like you're spending more time providing feedback and reviewing the video to the point where you think that you could just be editing videos yourself or hire someone who is a little bit more efficient or the turnaround time is faster now again in the beginning it's really normal for you to spend more time on this

but if you've worked with a video editor and you've done at least like five to six videos together and It's not improving then it might be a sign that you would be better off hiring someone who's a little bit more efficient or is a little bit more proactive so for example after 3 to five videos I would expect that my video editor kind of understands the vibe that I'm looking for and can anticipate my needs so for example I don't want to be the one that's always telling my video editor Okay add music here or

do a transition here or add a title here or Delete this mistake I feel like at least within three to five videos they should already know how to do that and it should get to a place where they are actually enhancing the video and so not only are they doing the basic edits of what they know that you're going to want they're also adding their creativity and their flare to it so that with every video it's almost like getting better and you get to a place where you just trust your video editor you just send

The files you don't need a rough cut you do like one or two reviews and then you're done that is my expectation when working with a video editor especially if you've already done at least five videos together the next red flag is consistently missing deadlines and usually this is because this video editor is at capacity and they probably took on more than they can chew this actually happened to me recently so I had batched all of my videos for my Six-part YouTube series and I thought that we would be on time every single week with

the upload but unfortunately with the video editor I hired even though I batched all these videos in advance we were still missing weekly uploads because you know something would come up or there would be a delay or would take them longer to edit the actual video and of course that didn't work out for me because I really wanted to be sure that I'm uploading every Single week and I actually had a lot more videos that I wanted this video editor to do and so in my opinion if we were unable to even do one video

a week and be consistent on that deadline then I really started to worry whether or not that video editor was going to be able to fulfill the future projects that I had in mind and so what we ended up doing because this video editor is really amazing and I really enjoy working with them we decided to Transition this video editor into my other business super Boba and have them edit short form videos for super Boba instead because this video editor really only had 20 hours a week to spare and I guess they didn't realize how

long it would take them to do my long form videos finally the next red flag is something that I think is a controversial one but I'm going to say it anyways because it is the reality of what I faced and many other of my Creator friends have faced as well and that is when their prices start to stop you from wanting to make videos and so earlier in this video I talked about my experience working with my uh initial video editor and over time they started increasing their rates because they decided to scale up their

business and become an agency and they started working with a lot of clients and on the Friendship side I was really happy for them that they were having such a Thriving business and I wanted to contribute to that but at the same time with the rates increasing it was really hard for me to swallow that monthly invoice and it got to a place where I actually wanted to make less videos in order to keep the video editor make sure I'm supporting their business and all of that but at the end it was still hurting my

channel because I was limiting the vision that I had for my channel and unfortunately they had gotten to a rate That I just simply couldn't budget for and so that's when I knew that it was time to move on and sometimes it's a really hard pill to swallow because you really grow such a strong relationship with your video editor but at the same time I have had instances where I've negotiated rates with video editors that I have really really long-standing relationships with and that is why when you work with a video editor you really want

to invest in them too and you want To really build a good relationship because there have been times where I've worked with video editors that are willing to work with me because they like me as a client and you would be surprised to know that there's some video editors that have clients that treat them like and so even though they're getting paid by this other client if they're not having a good relationship with them they would rather work with a client that may have a Smaller budget but treats them really well and so just know

that when you are working with a video editor you also need to understand that it's a collaboration it's a partnership they're helping you build your channel and so when it's their birthday do something for them or when it's Christmas you know say happy Christmas and think about their family like really treat them really well because that has been one way that I've been able to work with Video editors that I love and also be able to still have a realistic budget for myself and the one common denominator is because they like working with me oh

my gosh if you have gotten to this point of the video thank you so much for supporting my channel I also cannot believe that I have been sitting here for the last 3 hours this is a very long and comprehensive video but I hope that you gain something from it and I also want to make sure that you guys are Taken care of so if if you are someone who is looking for a video editor I want you to comment in the comment section below and let us know and also drop your Instagram so video

editors can reach out to you and let them know that they're looking for clients and if you are a video editor yourself and you're watching this video and you're looking for clients do the same thing comment in the comment section below say that you're looking for clients drop your Instagram drop your website drop how someone can get in contact with you and hopefully through this video through the viewers who are watching this video you're going to be able to book some clients and if for some reason you've watched to the end of this video and

you're not quite ready to hire a video editor yet then make sure you watch this video next this video walks through the step by step on how to edit your own videos using descript and it's what I've Been using to edit my own videos back then when I was doing it myself so make sure you watch this video next as always guys I appreciate you so much thanks for watching and I will see you in my next video bye guys and take care