26:37Creator Support · Interview
Why Good Storytelling Isn’t Enough on YouTube
Colin and Samir put one cinematic Instagram creator's biggest hit against his worst YouTube flop to show why craft alone never earns a click.
September 24thThe argument in one line.
A YouTube intro's real job isn't to hook the viewer, it's to prove the video is the one they clicked on and then immediately open a new story loop the title and thumbnail never promised.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You script or storyboard video openings and want a repeatable checklist instead of trial and error.
- You're a short-form creator (TikTok/Reels/Shorts) weighing when and how to move into long-form YouTube.
- You run or study a YouTube channel at scale and want to understand what separates stalled growth from compounding growth.
SKIP IF…
- You're looking for editing software or shot-by-shot b-roll technique, not structural storytelling.
- You have no interest in creator-economy news and only want the intro checklist (the back half covers the Sidemen, the Streamys, and MrBeast).
The full version, fast.
Answering a subscriber's Discord question, the hosts lay out a four-part YouTube intro checklist: reassure the viewer the video isn't clickbait, open a new unclosed loop the title didn't promise, set the right tonal expectation, and establish why only you could have made this. They illustrate each point against real clips (Emma Chamberlain, MrBeast's manager Reed, the Try Guys, Casey Neistat) and note the format has gotten more aggressive as competition increased. The second half covers creator-economy news: the Sidemen's manager says there's no creator middle class left, short-form creators should pick a lane before splitting focus, and MrBeast's growth comes down to globally understandable concepts and hyper-focus on one flagship upload a week.
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00:00 – 00:39
01 · Cold open
Episode teaser plus a Discord bit (a joke 'Typhoon' intro clip) before the hosts get into the question.
00:39 – 03:54
02 · Discord question + Server Shop sponsor read
Roman Peshke's Discord question about an intro checklist sets up the segment; the hosts thank Discord for sponsoring and explain the upcoming Server Shop feature (digital goods, pay-per-view assets, fonts) and the waitlist link.
03:54 – 12:10
03 · Checklist points 1 and 2: reassurance and the unclosed loop
Colin reads his written checklist. Point 1, reassure the viewer the packaging isn't clickbait, illustrated with the Emma Chamberlain quitting-YouTube video. Point 2, open a new unclosed loop, illustrated with the Collins Key story and the MrBeast/Reed interview cold open.
12:10 – 23:42
04 · Checklist points 3 and 4: expectation and singularity
Point 3, set the right tonal and pacing expectation in the first 30 seconds. Point 4, establish singularity, why only this channel could tell the story, shown through the Mark Rober Studio Tour, the Try Guys interview, and the 'Story of Carl' intro. The hosts then contrast today's aggressive intro style against older, slower openings from Casey Neistat and Ben Brown, and introduce permission-based vs. interruption-based viewing.
23:42 – 27:11
05 · What we learned from the Sidemen's manager
Recap of an interview with Jordan Schwarzenberger (Arcade Media), the Sidemen's manager: there's no creator middle class left, breaking in now means competing with media-company-scale operations, and the Sidemen's real edge is physical/retail activations.
27:11 – 32:22
06 · Balancing long and short-form content
A Discord question from a 200K-follower short-form creator on how to transition to long-form without sacrificing short-form reach. The hosts lay out two paths: go all-in on scripts and thumbnails for frequency, or accept fewer long-form uploads while keeping short-form volume, plus why long-form evergreen content compounds.
32:22 – 35:29
07 · The Streamys
The hosts discuss their Streamy Awards nomination, last year's loss to Tom Scott, this year's category (Veritasium as the likely winner), and a lighter tangent about wanting to actually win one.
35:29 – 39:08
08 · What can creators take away from MrBeast's growth?
Answering a Discord question (Toasted) about what's fueling MrBeast's latest growth stage: globally appealing, visually understandable concepts, multi-language dubbing, and near-total focus on one flagship main-channel upload a week instead of splitting energy across reacts, gaming, and merch.
39:08 – 44:02
09 · The Deep End
Creator shout-outs: Garrett's Adventure (a 19-year-old solo-sailing the Pacific) and the winner of the Discord's first Weekend Film Fest, Tonio, whose 'day in my life' submission closes the episode.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A YouTube intro's first job isn't to hook viewers, it's to reassure them the video is the one they clicked on and the packaging wasn't clickbait.
- An unclosed loop only works if it's something the title and thumbnail didn't already promise, otherwise it's just repeating the pitch.
- The human mind needs loops to close: once a viewer is reassured, a new open question is what keeps their mind active for the rest of the video.
- Many viewers watch without audio, so an intro's first two beats need to work as pure visual storytelling, not just narration.
- The first 30 seconds of a video set the expectation for its entire pace and tone, so a frenetic cold open followed by a slow conversation creates a mismatch.
- Establishing singularity, proving why only you could tell this particular story, is the hardest checklist item to hit but the strongest differentiator when ideas get copied same-day.
- Permission-based viewing (a creator earns a standing invitation) has given way to interruption-based viewing, where every video has to re-earn the next 30 seconds.
- There are still relationship-based creators whose audience shows up regardless of the title, but building that trust takes years and usually starts with idea-based, title-driven content.
- Short-form video is hard to monetize on its own; creators serious about long-form should pick a lane, either go all-in on scripts and thumbnails or accept fewer long-form uploads while keeping short-form volume up.
- The dopamine curve differs by format: 10 short-form uploads will likely land one hit, but 10 long-form uploads rarely do, which is why short-form creators struggle to switch.
- Long-form evergreen content compounds for years after upload, which is why a channel's older library can keep gaining views long after the news cycle around it passes.
- A manager close to the Sidemen says there's effectively no creator middle class left: breaking in now means competing directly with media-company-scale operations, largely because short-form doesn't build the same audience connection long-form does.
- The strongest brand marker for a creator now is whether they can move an audience into physical space: a retail store, a charity match, an arena event.
- MrBeast's growth traces to concepts with maximum possible audience, global understandability across language and visual barriers, and a near-total focus on one flagship upload a week instead of splitting energy across reacts, gaming, and merch.
Reassure first, then open a new loop
WHAT TO LEARN
A strong video intro isn't about hooking a stranger, it's about proving to the person who already clicked that they got what they wanted, then immediately giving them a reason to keep watching that the title never mentioned.
03Checklist points 1 and 2: reassurance and the unclosed loop
- Spend the first few seconds proving the video is the one the viewer clicked on, before trying to add any new information.
- Introduce a new, unclosed loop that the title and thumbnail didn't already promise, so the viewer's mind has something fresh to resolve.
04Checklist points 3 and 4: expectation and singularity
- Match the tone and pace of your intro to the rest of the video so you're not setting an expectation you can't sustain.
- Where possible, show the audience why only you could tell this particular story, since copied ideas now surface the same day.
- Design intros for the sound-off scroll: the reassurance and the loop both need to land visually, not just through narration.
05What we learned from the Sidemen's manager
- The strongest differentiator for a creator's brand is whether it can move an audience into a physical space, not just a view count.
06Balancing long and short-form content
- Pick a lane between short-form and long-form rather than splitting effort evenly. Going all-in on long-form means leaning on writing and packaging over production value; keeping short-form volume up means accepting fewer long-form uploads.
- Evergreen, long-form content keeps compounding views for years, so concepts that would still make sense in ten years are worth more than trend-chasing ones.
08What can creators take away from MrBeast's growth?
- When a channel's growth stalls, check whether creative energy is split across too many formats instead of concentrated on one flagship upload.
Terms worth knowing.
- Unclosed loop
- An open story question introduced early in a video, deliberately not answered by the title or thumbnail, that keeps the viewer's mind engaged until it resolves.
- Curiosity gap
- The space between a question a viewer wants answered and the answer itself; a well-placed curiosity gap is what an unclosed loop creates.
- AVD (Average View Duration)
- The average length of time viewers watch a video before leaving; used here as the metric for judging which intros actually retain an audience.
- Permission-based viewing
- An older YouTube viewing pattern where an audience trusted a creator enough to watch whatever they posted, regardless of the title or thumbnail.
- Interruption-based viewing
- The current dominant viewing pattern, where a creator has to win attention away from a feed or scroll on every single upload, with no standing trust carried over.
- Idea-based creator
- A creator whose views depend on the strength of each individual concept or title, as opposed to an established relationship with the audience.
Things they pointed at.
03:20linkWhy Emma Chamberlain quit YouTube again
07:16linkInterview with Reed, MrBeast's manager
12:22linkMark Rober Studio Tour
14:47linkAn Unfiltered Conversation with the Try Guys
17:09linkThe Story of Carl
18:59linkCasey Neistat's drone rescue vlog
21:26linkBen Brown's 'Dangerous Swimming'
23:29linkInterview with Jordan Schwarzenberger (Arcade Media, the Sidemen's manager)
29:35channelCleo Abram's channel
31:26linkCreator Support round table (with Cleo Abram, Michelle Khare, Amar, Ryan Trahan, Zach King)
Lines you could clip.
03:39
“The first thing every great YouTube intro needs is to reassure the viewer that this is the video they clicked on and to prove the packaging isn't clickbait.”
05:55
“The human mind needs loops to close.”
07:16
“In May of 2017, Mr. Beast crossed 1 million subscribers, but there was a problem.”
20:39
“We have to interrupt your scroll. We have to catch you. Then we still have to earn your time once you're in the video.”
23:05
“No one's really interested in you off the jump.”
26:34
“The true marker of your brand as a creator is if you can actually bring people into physical worlds.”
38:39
“Focus, focus, focus.”
40:52
“Is the concept interesting before you pick up a camera?”
Where the conversation goes.
00:39 – 23:42denseYouTube intro checklist
23:42 – 27:11denseSidemen manager / creator economy landscape
27:11 – 32:22steadyShort-form vs long-form strategy
32:22 – 35:29sparseStreamys
35:29 – 39:08denseMrBeast's growth drivers
39:08 – 44:02steadyCreator shout-outs
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metaphorstory
What makes a good YouTube video intro? Well, that's the first question we answer on today's episode of Creator Support. We also give some advice for how you can transition from being a short -form creator to being a long -form creator, and we break down how MrBeast continues to break YouTube records.
Okay, before we get into this episode, a quick question from the Discord, Colin. This one was specifically for you. Just click this one.
Oh no. Oh goodness. Hi, I'm Typhoon, and...
Gotcha. All right. If you make it to the deep end, let us know.
Is this the deep end? Are we starting in the deep end? What just happened?
All right. Our first question comes from Roman Peshke on the Discord, and he asks, video intro checklist. I guess that's just the title of his question.
It's not what he asked. This is what he asked. He said, does anyone have a checklist they put together for the first minute of a video?
Because I've noticed that in a MrBeast vid, it's typically an attention grabber, quick explanation of what's going on, cuts to showing further into the video to keep people engaged, some sort of music element. And then around a minute in, there's usually another flash forward to what's happening later in the video. If you have a checklist of what you use, I'd love to see it.
Well, Roman, we do have a checklist.
Colin wrote down a checklist. We talked about this a ton. This was a great question and leads into a great conversation around YouTube video intros.
Now, before we answer your question, we do want to thank Discord for sponsoring this episode. Earlier this year, we partnered with Discord to launch our server, and it's been an awesome experience. We've done live stages in our Discord.
We give feedback on thumbnails, videos. We have chats about creator news. It's a really great place to build community for us as creators and for our community to come together and meet each other.
Yeah, we found out that people are actually meeting through the Discord and then hanging out in real life, like helping each other with their videos. and then hanging out. And not only is Discord a great place for community, but it also supports the diversification of our revenue.
During VidCon, they announced they're exploring server shops, which means we can actually launch a shop within our Discord server. This would be to sell digital goods. So like Notion templates, backgrounds, LUTs.
Love a good LUT. You know what I mean? Love a good LUT.
And you can actually also sell media assets up to 500 megabytes. So we can upload a video and it could be pay -per -view in the server shop. I think that's really cool.
You also could sell fonts. Dude, you could sell fonts. I could sell fonts.
You should sell your handwriting as a font. I have two fonts that I made that I could sell. Just saying.
Dude, that actually would be really cool if you sold fonts. I don't know. Comment below if you're interested in buying one of my fonts.
Yeah. What if I become a font dealer? You could be a font dealer.
All right. Yeah. Cool.
So server shop is still in its alpha phase, which means it's not rolled out to everyone yet. It will be launching later this year, but if you want to join the wait list, we put a link in the description. You can join the wait list to get access to server shop.
It's a great way for creators to build sustainable businesses and offer digital goods to their communities. All right. The video intro checklist going.
Okay. This morning, I wrote out a full checklist of what I think makes the ultimate YouTube intro. And I watched a bunch of our videos.
I watched other creators' videos. And here are the commonalities that I found. I'm going to caveat this by saying, I think this should be noted as the 2023 video intro checklist.
Because after you go through this, I want to talk about how this has changed. But I actually don't know what you wrote down. So I'm interested to hear.
Okay. So the first thing that I think every YouTube intro needs is to immediately confirm to the viewer. that this is the video you clicked on and the packaging is not clickbait.
So the first thing that I think every great YouTube intro needs, and you may think it's like to hook the viewer to watch till the end, but actually I think the job is to reassure the viewer that this is the video that you wanted, that you clicked on. And that has to happen immediately. And to prove that it's not clickbait.
So I'm going to use our video that we made about Emma Chamberlain. It's called Why Emma Chamberlain quit YouTube again.
And I'm going to run through this point and then the rest of the points. Okay. So let's check it out.
Why is one of the most successful creators leaving YouTube? I'm taking a break from YouTube. I need to step back completely and give myself weeks, months, years if I need to.
Okay. So immediately right there, we're showing you that this is a video about Emma Chamberlain quitting YouTube and we're actually giving proof. with her own voice.
That like, this is not clickbait. This has really happened and it is the video you clicked on. So that's number one.
Number two is that you have to introduce new narratives or unclosed loops. So it's not enough, I think, in a really good YouTube intro to just affirm to the viewer, this is what you wanted. You got to go a step further.
Describe or define an unclosed loop. So an unclosed loop is opening a story arc that makes the audience want to get the answer, basically, right?
And in this instance, in the intro, I think it should be something unexpected that was not in the title thumbnail. So it's like you clicked to get the answer, why did Emma Chamberlain quit YouTube again? But we're going to give you that answer, and you didn't know we're actually going to give you more than that.
So that's what we do in the next part. Months, years, if I need to. By the end of the episode, we're actually going to pitch Emma on a way that we think she could return to YouTube in a healthy way.
We're also going to suggest a change that we think YouTube should make to the platform. Yeah. So that's two extra things you didn't know you were going to get.
And when we suggest that we're going to come up with a change to the YouTube platform, it's blurred out. So that's like the definition of an unclosed loop. You want to see what's behind.
blurred out photo. Yeah. Essentially we, it was a term that we talked to about with Collins key one time, unclosed loops, uh, in a, in a hotel lobby in New York is real like YouTube meeting.
Um, and he's just so sharp when it comes to, um, packaging and intros and everything. And he taught us this term unclosed loop where he said . Right.
So like, here's a question. Okay. I want the answer to it.
And he was showing it in the context of like, sometimes you see stuff. It's a lot of what Jimmy does where it's train versus giant hole. You kind of look at it and you're like, well, what would happen?
Okay. Now I need to close that loop. Like that is like, there's a gap of what we call a curiosity gap is, is, is in between there.
And the first unclosed loop is the title thumbnail. Right. And so basically you click there.
Once you're reaffirmed, Now you need a new open loop so that your mind stays active of like, ooh, I do want to know that actually too. So that's, I completely agree.
I guess the question is how long into the intro do you introduce that loop? I think it kind of depends. Like if you watch our video, our interview with Reed, Mr.
Beast Manager, we actually get right into the unclosed loop basically. Like we start in the middle of a story that was not necessarily in the title thumbnail.
One of my favorite intros. It's great. Should we watch this one?
In May of 2017, Mr. Beast crossed 1 million subscribers, but there was a problem. Some months we're spending like four or $5 million on videos.
We've ran out of money many times. I'm not a businessman. I'm a creator.
So if Jimmy doesn't care about the money, who does? So the opening line is something that we worked on a ton. It's in May of 2017, Mr.
Beast crossed a million subscribers, but there was a problem. So that immediately just creates a situation where you're like, oh, okay. What was the problem?
Right. And then he answers that question right after he says some money, some months we were spending so much money, we were losing money. You're like, okay, he loses money.
And then we pose the question. So he says, uh, I'm not a businessman. I'm a creator.
And we pose the question. So if he's not, if he doesn't care about the money, who does? enter Reed, his manager.
So that's like, okay, we had to work on that a lot to build the intrigue of who is Reed? Who's this guy? So yeah, I really liked that one because it does that like, it starts in the middle of the story, gives you something that you're like, oh, interesting.
And then you're like, but there was a problem. Yeah. Yeah.
So number one, reaffirm to the viewer that this is the video that you wanted. It's not clickbait. Number two, open up an unclosed loop.
create a new narrative that the audience wasn't expecting. So all of that, I think those two points have to be conveyed in a simple manner visually and be easily understood. Many times people are watching YouTube videos without audio on sometimes, like the auto -scroll, which we learned when we were talking with Mr.
Beast. And so for a lot of our intros, we put subtitles in the beginning to make sure. That it's like as easily understood as possible.
That you're not working. There's actually another thing we've done, which has to do with packaging, but like the Emma Chamberlain video is a great example, but that one didn't look like a podcast about, it didn't, from the packaging perspective, it did not look like two guys talking about it. It could have been anything because it was Emma on the thumbnail and then why Emma quit as the text on the thumbnail.
So the autoplay then shows me at a mic. And so you're going to immediately be like, okay, this is like, a dude at a mic talking.
The thing that we've done now on the channel is especially when we're doing interviews, like we ensure there's a mic in the packaging and the person looks like they're really in the seat. So you're like, okay, my assumption is that person is sitting in a mic. I scroll over it, get the autoplay.
That person was sitting in their studio at a mic. Yeah. I think what you're talking about is expectation setting.
Yeah. And I have that as the third point. on the checklist which is to make sure that you're setting the right expectation in the intro and that comes down to style of video yeah tone is it comedic is it dramatic and pace we've noticed uh in some of our past videos the pace of the intros can be frenetic like really fast paced and it was hard we thought to transition or expect the audience to transition to then a very slow paced conversation right so we've tried to even out the pace of the intro and have it be more similar to the rest of the video.
So I think it's important as you're crafting your intro to know that those first 30 seconds are probably setting the expectation for the viewer of what the rest of the video is going to be like. If you're going to have like jokes or humor, make sure you have that in the beginning and back it up throughout if that's important to you.
Yeah, I think the thing that we've talked about before is like all storytelling is about tension and release. And the style in which you build tension and release tension should be introduced early on. Because if I like that, then I'm going to want to continue on that, right?
So I kind of want to know what ride I'm in for. What Jimmy and some of the more challenge -focused creators do when it comes to like what you can expect later in the video. You know, they've really been pushing on that where I feel like Jimmy's videos oftentimes in like 60 seconds, every 60 seconds, I'm reminded that something is coming.
You know, and sometimes he does this, this frame where it's like, you know, five different scenes and it zooms in and zooms out of that frame. And you're like, oh yeah, there's, there's five other scenes I'm going to get right now. Yeah.
I think that's where like listicles, like Ali Abdaal talked about with us actually work really well. Cause that's actually what you're talking about is an unclosed loop, right? If I'm like, I'm going to tell you three reasons why blank.
Now my mind kind of wants to know all three. If I only do one. and don't get to two.
I might even just, if I'm bored, I might even just click to see the third one just to make sure I know what it is and then move on. So like when you introduce these things that like expectation setting doesn't have to be like, and you won't believe what happened at the end of the video, explosion. It can be, there's three things I want to tell you.
And that just means you're going to get to a third thing, you know, by the end of the video. Yeah. So I have one more cut and that is to establish singularity.
And I think this is one that is potentially harder. And we don't get it every time. But when it's possible, we always take the opportunity to do this.
And this can come in many forms. I think our Mark Rober Studio Tour was a really good example of a line that we included to establish Singularity to show that this video is something that only we could make that is unique to us. And there's a line in there about how people, not many people have gotten to see his studio or understand how he makes his videos.
And then he cuts, we cut to him saying, this is closed to the public. I don't really invite people here. And I think we did that early in the video to show the audience that you're getting a unique opportunity through us.
That this is like a one of a kind opportunity that only we can provide in this moment. That's good. And I think that's important.
Like if you can add that on top, you don't always have that. But if you have the opportunity to, I think it's important to establish why. You are the one bringing this story.
Yeah, that's good. I like that. I think even more so because ideas are getting replicated.
It's kind of like if two ideas come out on the same day, this checklist number four is like, why are you watching mine versus theirs? Yeah. Right.
Like what makes mine different to the point where only I could have made it? Do we want to recap? Sure.
I think you should recap those four. Okay. So the great YouTube intro checklist of 2023.
Number one, you want to immediately confirm to the viewer that this is the video you clicked on and that the packaging was not clickbait. Number two, you want to introduce new narratives and unclosed loops. Number three, you want to set the right expectation.
Whatever you put in the intro is what you want the audience to believe is coming for the rest of the video. Number four, establish singularity. Make sure you explain or show to the viewer why your video and your point of view is unique.
That's good. We're definitely going to turn that into a short. That's pretty good.
Yeah. I wanted to bring up, so this year, I think the absolute highest AVD on an intro for us was our Try Guys interview. And that also comes down to timing.
You know, that interview with the Try Guys was at a time where they hadn't really spoken after controversy, you know, or after, you know, the internet got very interested in them. We try and ask this question when we're interviewing someone, like, is there a burning question from the public about them? And we titled that an unfiltered conversation with the Try Guys, right?
So immediately that has to, you click on it, it has to confirm that there was unfiltered access, you know, that there was truly this honest, transparent conversation. Click on it, first line, Zach goes, there were four of us, now there's three. Immediately you're confirmed.
Okay. They're going to talk about it. They're going to talk about the thing that I wanted them to talk about.
They're going to be honest. And then, you know, that follows up with like three or four clips of not only Zach and Keith being very transparent and honest, but us asking them questions that are, would provoke unfiltered answers without them answering. And then.
After those clips, we actually open unclosed loops by showing you clips from conversations that you didn't exactly know you were going to get. The anatomy of a successful Try Guy video. How they retained the name The Try Guys coming out of BuzzFeed.
You get little bits of topics that you didn't know you were going to get. Hopefully, that's the icing on top to get you to keep watching. That has been one of our highest...
AVD videos this year. And I would say also, cause Zach and Keith are so engaging. We had a great, like great chemistry with them.
Um, but I think also because we, we did like those clips, sometimes it doesn't work out like that. We don't get perfect sound bites all the time for the interviews, but that one particularly, we had sound bites that. did this exactly.
Like, hit this intro checklist exactly. I think that's just a lesson for creators that it doesn't always need to be a scripted intro. Totally.
The clip selection of your footage, whether it's an interview or something documentary style, can tell a story. Yeah. We have another one, Story of Carl.
That was really, I think, just one if you want to watch an intro that we spent a lot of time on. Like, that was iteration, iteration, iteration, just dialing in the opening line of that. it's a lot of work.
You just got to write it and just look at it and be like, does it hit these marks? Is this interesting? Would you, after hearing these first four lines, want to watch this?
Do you have questions? If you don't have questions, you're not going to watch. Before we move on, should we watch that one?
Carl Jacobs is a college dropout that hacked Mr. Beast's videos to become the number one streamer on Twitch in just a matter of months. Welcome, everybody.
Welcome. It's me, Carl. He's always trending on Twitter.
One of the breakout stars of the last year. His newly launched podcast beat out Joe Rogan on the Spotify charts. What's up, guys?
And welcome to the Banter Podcast. And he has one of the most diehard fan bases on the internet. If I got a Carl notice right now, I'd be on the floor.
The man is quite literally perfect. But if we're being honest, we don't fully understand Carl's content. How is Carl doing what he's doing?
How did he become Carl? I think one of the most important things is like, do you have a butt in your intro, right? Do you have a butt?
Yeah. Where it goes like this, this, this, but this. Yeah.
You just, you need that. Yeah, we used to really think about that when we would do these hosted intros. Without us saying in that moment that we don't understand his content, it's kind of not really a story.
It's just like a - Praise. It's just praise, right? Like there needs to be some exploration.
There needs to be some tension. Yeah, but I do think the opening line of like he hacked MrBeast's videos, that brings some questions to me. True.
But if I was to go back, I would want validation that you're going to tell me how he did that, which we do in that video. Yeah. Now, okay, this is the video intro meta of right now.
And I think it's because competition has increased, storytelling has gotten better, but this was not YouTube when I got into YouTube. I went back and wanted to watch one of my favorite Casey Neistat videos, which was when he saved his drone. You remember that?
Yeah. Okay. The packaging of it is my all -time greatest.
Now, I want you to watch this open.
Where the f*** is he going?
What was that all about? That was really weird, wasn't it? Yeah.
Maybe he didn't like your Invisalign.
So you think that was just a bad egg? Yeah, I think he was mad at me because I waved to him and I didn't laugh, I swear. So it goes on to do his, you know, intro with the music.
And then he goes into his studio and explains what the video is going to be about. About a minute in.
Today's vlog is a mission. That is where like in today's world, he would have started there. Today's vlog is a mission, a rescue, a search and rescue mission.
I lost my drone. It's unlikely I'm going to get it back. Like he does a really great job of contextualizing what goes down there.
But 3 .2 million views in this era, I think really showed how much trust. these creators had from us as audience members. How much of a relationship we had with these creators to give them a minute of time that was just a slice of life.
Yeah, the behavior was perhaps a little bit more similar to how... audiences look at podcasts now. Sure.
Like podcast audiences are really sticky. They don't really care as much about the title. Exactly.
Right. They're just like, I like these people. I'm going to tune in and I might tune in for 30 minutes to an hour, hour and a half.
I don't know. Yeah. I think it's like, it's, it's what we've talked about before with permission based versus interruption based viewing, which is like permission based.
Like Casey had my permission to give me a new video every single day, no matter what it was. And he had millions of people. permission.
And I think we've moved into a place where we have to work really hard to earn your time. Now we have to interrupt your scroll. We have to catch you.
Then we still have to earn your time once you're in the video. Once you've clicked on, it's not like we've earned it. You know, we still have to earn your time.
30 seconds in, we have to earn the next 30 seconds. Yeah. We have to continuously earn those, which again, it's good storytelling, but it's an interesting new reality in the creator economy.
I think that also, though, comes down to the difference between the idea -based creator and the relationship -based creator, because there are still relationship -based creators. Yeah, your mom, Ashley, is a good example. Today, right, who have earned and set the expectation for their audience that the title thumbnail is not going to be...
the heavy driver of, of why you come in through the door. One more for fun. Ben Brown.
Okay. Remember Ben Brown? Yeah.
Ben Brown. Great thumbnail. It's called dangerous swimming.
He's swimming in front of like this huge cruise ship. Here's the, here's the open.
Good morning, everybody. What's happening? What's going on?
We're in the, um, the breakfast hall of dreams right now. Just feasting on all kinds of goodies. Like this honeycomb.
Look at that. Just slicing off chunks of honeycomb. We've got jams for days.
So, I mean, I want to acknowledge that this was the YouTube we fell in love with and tried to emulate and become successful at. And we couldn't do it. And we could not do it.
I think also it's an incredibly long game to become successful at this. But if you do this, like if you go against the grain and you're like, it's my personality that you're here for, it's me you're here for. Right now, if you do that, and even if you build an audience of 100 ,000 people who love that, I think that is one of the most impactful audiences you could build.
Absolutely. If they're just there. because then you truly have a relationship with them.
So I just wanted to bring that up, that the meta has changed. And I wonder if podcasting is this now, like you said, where it's like, I'll click on it, whatever it is. But if we're going to cycle back around to kind of wanting a slower paced, more just like, listen, don't try so hard.
I like you, just show me what you're doing. Yeah, but you have to - Get to the dangerous swimming at the end. Even your mom, Ashley, when we spoke to her, she said that you can't just start with vlogging.
That was one of her curriculum points. She was like, as hard as it is to hear, no one's really interested in you off the jump. You have to obviously come through with titles and thumbnails that provide some value to a certain community and start building that way.
And then maybe you can... relax a little bit after you've earned that trust. Yeah.
I mean, let us know what we missed. I think that was a pretty good YouTube video intro checklist of 2023. Maybe that changes next year.
But that was pretty fun to do. I liked your list items. That was good.
So this week, we have released two episodes on the main channel, Colin, this week. Big week for us. That's a lot.
Yeah, that's a lot. Interview with Jordan Schwarzenberger from Arcade Media, who's the manager of the Sidemen. A great conversation, the first conversation that we had in London.
So if you're wondering, there's comments about like the studio looking different. We addressed it in the beginning, but some people skip over that. The studio is different because we recorded in London.
There's four episodes that are going to come out on the main channel recorded in London. Learning about the Sidemen was fantastic. I was really energized by Jordan.
I think he's a great. like operations guy in our space. He has a really great mind.
If you guys don't follow him, check him out. LinkedIn, Twitter, he posts a lot. But he had a great POV on what the creator economy looks like and what the future of it is.
Yeah, his perspective was that there is not as much of a creator middle class anymore. And he talked about how he does not believe that there necessarily could be another Sideman. That like the Sidemans and the Mr.
Beast of the world are these established creators and he finds it to be extremely difficult to break in right now, mainly because of short form content. Yeah. That like short form content doesn't allow you to really connect.
Totally. With people. Yeah, I would agree with that.
I think, I think even what we're seeing with Jimmy right now, breaking the record every week, right? The viewership record every week, the amount of money he's spending on these videos, the scale he's at, like, I don't even think it's, it's makes sense to, to try and become that.
Like, I think it's, it's now, even when we showed you some of those, those intros from years and years ago, it's kind of looking back in time and going like, okay, what has worked here? What has worked in entertainment? What are people connecting to?
And also like, what is sustainable for me? Cause what the Sidemen and Jimmy have built, those are like, those are straight up media companies. We're seeing like Buzzfeed and Vice kind of go down and we're seeing the Sidemen and Mr.
Beast go up. Right. Which is like, personality focused media companies.
So when you're thinking as a young creator, I'm competing with the Sidemen or competing with Mr. Beast, you're actually competing with like a large organization, you know? And I think you're competing for the eyeballs of people who are now have this very high expectation of what that type of content looks like.
But the way the Sidemen, I think, are really different is their in -person activations, their physical activations. Sidemen charity match, Sides restaurant, Sidemen retail, and then also Side Plus. The one thing we get into in the conversation is that that's one of their biggest revenue drivers is their membership clubs.
Which is basically like their own version of Netflix. Their own Netflix. But if you haven't listened to it, it's a great conversation.
Yeah, and what he was really saying for creators, I don't think he was trying to discourage creators, but he was acknowledging that it is a really difficult landscape. Yeah. And that he believes the true marker of, you know, your brand as a creator is if you can actually bring people into physical worlds.
Like, can you really have a retail store? Can you bring people into an arena? And I think it's good to think about, even if you're a smaller creator, is like, are you actually...
providing enough value to bring people into a physical space. Okay. Now, along with something we talked about, which was this rise in short form content, potentially harming the creator economy, which has been kind of a topic of discussion recently.
I want to bring in a question from Ethan Uncurated on the Discord. Hey Colin and Samir, I'm Ethan and I'm mainly a short -form creator. I have 200 ,000 followers on Instagram and only 1K on YouTube.
And I've always wanted to be a long -form creator, but logistically right now, it doesn't really make sense to dedicate all my time to long -form content. How do you think I should dedicate my time to push towards the goal of being a long -form creator while not sacrificing the amount of eyes I have on my short -form platform?
This is probably a question that a lot of creators are asking right now. You know, like there was so much explosive growth from short -form content and... The reality is it's hard to monetize.
It's hard to build a career strictly off of short -form content. I think the advertisers are there right now. We are doing short -form advertising.
I think it's effective when you do it, but we don't do it. It's not enough. I don't want to do it to the point where it would fully support us because I think it's hard to make compelling short -form sponsored content or even just short -form content in general.
I guess if you are a short form creator though, do you invest in long form or are you a short form creator? Do you know what I mean? I think in this instance, Ethan wants to be a long form creator.
So watching his shorts, they're highly edited. So I think you have to make a decision when it comes to long form. If you want to come out of the gate with some frequency and give yourself the opportunity to fail, you probably, considering you're bandwidth strapped, need to bring the production down and think about...
Is there an idea I want to get across that warrants 20 minutes, 10 to 20 minutes? You know what I mean? And then just think about the writing as opposed to the visuals and think, can I just take shots at titling and thumbnail and getting my thoughts out there?
I would say on the other end of that, if you want to uphold your style, you're just going to upload less long form videos. You'll have less opportunities to learn, but that's not to say you can't become successful with fewer uploads. Yeah, but it does take time.
Like the ROI of uploading a short form, like if I uploaded 10 short form videos and I'm a decent creator, the likelihood of one of them like gaining traction and viewership is high. Totally. If I upload 10 long form videos, the likelihood is low.
So your dopamine is going to be dramatically different as a creator uploading short form and long form videos. And I think that's probably what is impacting. short form creators going to long form.
Cause it's like, I uploaded this. One of them got 10 million views to get 10 million views on a long form video is so incredibly hard. And it probably won't happen in your first hundred, 200 videos, which means potentially if you're uploading once a year, four years after you start uploading long form content, maybe you'll, you'll get there.
Yeah. I mean, look, it does happen like Cleo Abram. Yeah.
22 videos to a million. Yeah. She came from Vox, is making explainer -style videos about tech and science.
It can happen. You can study the platform, and it can work. If I was in Ethan's shoes, I would probably start by just hosting to camera, like writing scripts, hosting to camera.
He's a good writer. Yeah, good writer, minimal B -roll, and really work on the packaging. Can I make the title and thumbnail about this idea that I'm trying to get across, make it compelling enough, and then people click, they're into it.
Can I keep them for 10 to 15 minutes of me just sitting? And I would probably experiment at the same time. That's low lift.
I would probably, considering his style, I would imagine he also likes to add that extra touch. I would probably work on something in the background, not put a time limit on it, but work on something that maybe takes a month or two, whatever, and put it out to see, do I like that experience in a different way? Does the audience like that experience of working on something for a month, a month or two?
That's more highly edited. I think in the long term, I'm like very bullish on long form evergreen content. I think that's like, you know, it's so important to have long format evergreen content on a YouTube channel because of the compounding effect.
We're seeing it right now with our content. Like so much of our library is now gaining so much traction because we have videos that can be watched years and years and years in the future, which is something. Zach King said to us in our creator round table that came out today, which was part of his checklist, which was part of his checklist, which was, can this be viewed in 10 years?
Is it an evergreen concept? And that applied to shorts too. That did apply to shorts.
Yeah. So I think like thinking about the timeless nature, like, are you hopping on a trend or are you making something that if someone stumbles across it in a year that it's still relevant? Because that creates this compounding effect for your brand.
It's also like the gold standard of what makes entertainment successful, period. Like Seinfeld, right? Still being shown on TV today.
The Office is basically Comedy Central. Totally. Like if you make something, if you can actually make something good that can be watched for all the time, that's also what Netflix wants.
Like Netflix doesn't want to buy things that can only be watched in a certain time period. Totally. I mean, Goodfellas, great movie.
Can be watched today. Could have been watched in the 90s. Could be watched in 10 years.
Great movie. Create a round table. I brought that up.
Yeah. That was a really, really cool experience. That video is out.
It's the first time we ever did a round table discussion. We partnered with the streamies to do it. Basically got together a bunch of streamy nominees and had a round table discussion.
It's you, me, Cleo Abram, Michelle Correa, Amar from Yes Theory, Ryan Trahan, and Zach King. That's everyone, right? Yeah.
I mean, it's the first time we've done it, but it also may be the first time. It's been done with creators. I think it's been done with creators, period.
Yeah, yeah. Would love for everyone to go check it out. You know, go check it out.
Let us know what you think. We want to do more of them. Want to do more of them, but I don't want to make it too frequent because I think it's a really special thing.
I mean, logistically also, they're tough to put together. It's hard to fly everyone out and do it. We learned a lot on this first one.
But I will say from a format perspective, it was one of the most fun conversations to like feel the energy of seven people getting to talk to each other. It was like so cool. Um, I also think we could do that with groups like the Sidemen, like we could do a Sidemen round table and Dude Perfect round table, right?
Like these kind of creator groups, we could do that too. I just think the format. I love it.
Was killer. Yeah. Super fun to do.
Um, we are nominated for a streaming this weekend. We went in super cocky last year, thought we were a shoe in to win our category, which was education lost to Tom Scott. We are up against, we were also publicly very confident, super confident.
It's not like we just internally were telling ourselves we're going to win. It was like a boxing match on where we were like channel. And on the podcast, we were like, It's over.
And we were like first round KO. It's going down. You're coming in so hot.
We came in too hot. I truly believe when I look at the category this year. Put us in our place.
Yeah. Tom's got one last year. I look at the category this year and I think about the people involved.
Veritasium's in the category. I think Veritasium should win it. Yeah.
Veritasium is going to win. And then if we are fortunate to be nominated next year, I think that's our year.
Maybe. I got to hold on to a little confidence, man. Come on.
Like a little bit of where we should win. My father -in -law won an Emmy recently. Okay.
Like in the past Emmys. And I was at his house this weekend and I held it and I looked at it and I was like, it's really kind of. that we love these types of things, but I looked at it and I was like, I love this.
I want one. I want something like this. It's like universally something to strive for.
I just want that little streamy in here looking back at us being like, hey guys, you did something. Question, if we do win, we get two streamys, right? I don't think so.
We just get one streamy? Yeah, one streamy. Can we talk to someone?
Steve the streamy. Yeah, we'll keep it in here.
Yeah, we could probably talk to, we could, yeah, we could talk to someone. There's two of us. Yeah.
But we get one. That's what makes it special. That's true.
Okay. All right. You get two.
It's kind of like, where's the streamy? Oh, it's in two. It's at Colin's house and at Samira's house.
That's weird. Yeah. All right.
All right. Clearly we're in the deep end. We are in the deep end, but I did want to get to this question from Toasted in the discord.
Let's hit it. Hey, Colin Samir. My name is Michael.
The most people know me as Toasted. MrBeast is already the most popular YouTuber on the planet, and it seems like anytime soon, he's going to be the most popular person on the planet. And your guys' POV, what has fueled this latest stage of exponential growth to get him here?
And is there anything creators can take away from it? Thanks. All right.
Toasted. Toasted's basically asking, you know, MrBeast, we know week in and week out is breaking records on YouTube. He is...
entered a new kind of, as he calls it, Mr. Beast is entering yet another stratosphere. He's entering a new, you know, stratosphere, sure, of his career.
So the two -part question, what is fueling this growth and what can creators learn from it? Yeah, I think part of it is that when it comes to his concepts, he's doing things that have the maximum possible audience. Like they have a huge scale to them, especially if you look at where this kind of started with the one -year -old versus 100.
year old concept that he did. Yep. Like age is something that everyone, every viewer who clicks on that video can attach themselves to one of those characters.
And visually age is understandable. Yeah. Global appeal was one of the things I thought of like the Olympics.
It's like. Basically, he figured out a way to say, can everyone see themselves in my video? Like every person.
Yeah, can everyone who clicks see themselves? See themselves in one of these characters, in one of these moments. You add multi -language audio, which I don't think should be overlooked at all.
You know, like it's translated into 13 or 14 languages. So it's global appeal from a human perspective, but global appeal from a just sheer global perspective, language perspective. That's basically just the Squid Game effect.
Yeah. I don't want to undermine focus. So this time last year, Jimmy had Beast Gaming, Beast Reacts, Beast Burger, Feastables, Main Channel, and then a slew of other businesses also.
This year, when you think about content, he even said this on our pod, it's Main Channel. Basically Main Channel and Feastables. It's Main Channel, Feastables, and Working Out.
Those are his main focuses. Now, he does do short form, and he has invested quite a bit in doing short form content, but he's got a team around that. And they really, that's a great short form team.
That's just dominating. And I think one of the biggest things that all creators can take away that we even talked about this morning, it's like when everyone and your main focus is on like this one video during the week, you're like, that's the video I'm focused on. And even in talking to him casually as a friend, he's always focused on his next main channel video.
Yeah. That is a different thing. Like, you know, to, to, to even slightly moved your focus to like reacts or gaming and like, how's that performing?
How's this performing? Like all of that stuff slightly chips away from your focus and it just spreads your focus out. If you are all your energy, all your creative energy is on the next main channel upload, I think we're watching the effects of focus right now.
And I think that's just like the most important takeaway. If you were to take anything away from it, it's like globally appealing concepts where every human being can see themselves in the concept and can relate to it. Understandability, can you understand it from a language perspective or from a visual perspective?
What I mean by that is like, you know, how ridiculous or dude perfect, like throwing a trick shot, throwing a basketball into a hoop from a far distance can be globally understandable. And then the third thing is like focus. Is that actually your primary focus?
Is that video? Are you the creator hyper -focused on your next upload? Or are you spread out across merch and short form and all this other stuff?
Like I think focus, focus, focus. All right, we're in the deep end. You got anything for me?
I just wanted to highlight a creator that I came across on YouTube last night called Garrett's Adventures. This is a 19 -year -old who is sailing from Hawaii across the Pacific in a 27 -foot sailboat by himself. And it's not necessarily...
filmed or edited in a style of someone who is like deep into YouTube analytics. But his first video tracks like the first 11 days and it has, I think, almost 800 ,000 views. And it's this like - No, on YouTube.
Oh, on YouTube. Yeah, yeah. But you found him on Twitter.
No, no, no. I found him on YouTube. Did I say Twitter?
You said Twitter. Oh, I meant, if I said Twitter, I meant X. No, I don't mean X.
I mean Twitter. I don't know. No, I meant YouTube.
Did I say Twitter? Are you good? Did I say Twitter?
He said Twitter. Check the records.
I just wanted to highlight a creator that I came across on YouTube, YouTube, YouTube. Yeah, so last night I find myself watching like 40 plus minutes of this guy traveling solo in a sailboat across the Pacific Ocean. Like it's totally insane.
Like it feels like the challenge video that all challenge creators like would never do because it just requires like, it's so intense, requires so much talent and skill. And honestly, I just was like hooked. And I think it shows that you don't always need to like study.
YouTube, you just need to do something that can be authentic to you. You just need to sail by yourself across the Pacific Ocean. Well, that actually, I think the honest lesson there is Hasan Minhaj from our episode.
He said it's all about the PDF. Is the concept interesting before you pick up a camera? And I think that concept is interesting before you pick up the camera.
Yeah, and even if you're watching him, he doesn't film all of the most dramatic things. You're right. Because he was in the middle of the dramatic thing.
Sometimes he just tells the story of it on the boat the next day. And I just find it fascinating. Like the things that are happening from day to day, like his cell phone breaks and he has no more connection to like satellite.
His wind meter breaks. How's he charging his batteries? Solar.
But it's cloudy a lot of days. He's going through like 11 foot waves at times. His bed is getting drenched.
It's like, it's really interesting. Okay. One more creator shout out.
This was the winner of our first weekend film fest. So in our discord, we hosted weekend film fest, 48 hour film festival, where we gave a prompt on a Friday. You had till Sunday night to submit it.
The first prompt was show us a day in your life. And you could kind of take that creative and run with it. However you wanted 60 seconds or less.
And the winner. Got two tickets to vid summit. Uh, we hosted like a very dramatic, almost reality TV style live stage and discord where we had all three of the finalists up on the stage with us.
Then we took them all off the stage and only invited one back. Who was the winner? That winner was Tonio.
Uh, Tonio made a great video. We're going to play that to end the episode so you guys can watch it.
If you're listening, you can listen to it, but it's not the same effect. You should come on YouTube and watch it. But thank you so much for listening to this episode of Creator Support.
That was our video intro checklist. Hopefully you guys liked that. If we missed anything, put it in the comments.
If you have any feedback for us, gripes, whatever you have, you can put it in the comments here. You can say it to us on Discord, which is like, say it to us in our face or something. Let's play Tonio's video and get out of here.
All right. A day in your life, 60 seconds or less. Try and show us something that you do in your day -to -day life that you think is unique to you.
Today's the day. You better make an interesting day in the life, because there's a lot on the line.
Welcome to a day in my life. I get up ready to conquer the day. The first step, cold exposure.
After my ice -cold shower, it's time to put a healthy breakfast in my body. After that, time for some meditation. Now it's time to get some work done.
And let's edit. But you can see we got the whole project here. If you're wondering what this is, it's just deleted footage from today that we're not gonna use.
We'll be right back. Today's gonna suck. And then you can just cut this part out.
The water's not even cold. I just want it to come across like that. All right, I got the shot.
We're good. Get rid of this crap. Hey, I got the shot.
Can you please come inside now and be a father, like a husband, please? All right. Whoops.
Let's delete that. Export here. Ready.
A day in my life. More like a day that I hope will get likes.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
A subscriber's Discord question about video intro checklists turns into Colin and Samir walking through the exact four points they use before they ever hit record, tested against their own highest-retention openings.
How they asked for the click.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
