The argument in one line.
Every YouTube channel follows one of five levels defined by a single bottleneck—clarity, focus, systems, people, or culture—and identifying which level you're at determines exactly what you need to do next.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A creator with 0–12 months of YouTube experience who's uncertain about niche, format, or audience and wants a mental model to stop spinning.
- A creator earning 0–50k annually who's hit a growth plateau and suspects they're missing a structural constraint rather than a skill gap.
- A solo creator considering hiring or systematizing their channel and wants to understand which operational bottleneck to solve first.
- A creator running 2–5 years who's profitable but unsure whether to stay independent or build a team, and needs permission to choose either path.
SKIP IF…
- You're already operating at the Creator Startup or Creator Company level — this framework is built for clarity at levels 1–3, not scaling operations at your stage.
- You make fiction, music, or other non-educational content where audience fit and monetization follow different logic than the examples in this breakdown.
The full version, fast.
Every YouTube channel sits on a five-level pyramid, and one specific bottleneck gates each jump up. Level one Constrained Creators lack clarity and need content-market fit; Level two Professional Creators have clarity but lack focus, earning $1-10K monthly while remaining one-person shows tied entirely to the algorithm; Level three Creator Entrepreneurs solve focus and build product ecosystems beyond ad revenue, requiring systems and a producer-led team; Level four Creator Startups copy-paste those systems across multiple channels and live or die by hiring rare creative talent; Level five Creator Companies build holding entities like MrBeast's Beast or Johnny Harris's New Press, removing key-man risk through cultural relevance. Identify your level, fix that one constraint, then choose whether climbing further is worth the management overhead.
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00:00 – 01:00
01 · Cold open — nobody is watching
Glitchy pattern-interrupt sketch + the 115M-channels stat sets up why most creators are invisible. Hook earned.
01:00 – 02:55
02 · The five-level pyramid + theory of constraints
Frame the whole video: every channel sits on one of five rungs, and each rung has exactly one constraint. Solve it, level up — or stay, on purpose.
02:55 – 03:30
03 · Level 1 — Constrained Creator
$0–$1k/mo, solo, no clarity. The Y/A/P Venn (You + Audience + Pay) is the framework for finding content–market fit.
03:30 – 07:05
04 · Level 2 — Professional Creator
$1k–$10k/mo. First hire is almost always a video editor. Hallmark: revenue 100% tied to content. Receipts: Matt D'Avella, Humphrey Yang, Graham Stephan.
07:05 – 08:00
05 · The constraint between L2 and L3 — Focus
Prioritization, not throwing spaghetti. You know directionally what you want — now decide how to spend your time.
08:00 – 13:20
06 · Level 3 — Creator Entrepreneur
$10k–$100k/mo. Team expands: producer, multiple editors, designer, script writer. Revenue diversifies into products/services so it doesn't die when the algorithm dies. Thomas Frank as the lean reference.
13:20 – 13:40
07 · The constraint between L3 and L4 — Systems / MVP
Coined acronym: MVP = Minimum Video Process. You can only scale if the process is plug-in-people ready.
13:40 – 17:00
08 · Level 4 — Creator Startup
Founder steps above the clouds; a creative director runs content. Pre-prod vs post-prod split (creative director + producer). Ali Abdaal and MKBHD as references — multi-channel.
17:00 – 18:40
09 · The constraint between L4 and L5 — People (collecting talent)
Steven Bartlett quote — 'you're in the business of people.' Good creator-team talent is rare, in short supply, frequently poached.
18:40 – 22:15
10 · Level 5 — Creator Company
Holding company / media brand above the channels. Removes key-man risk so the business is sellable and survives the founder. MrBeast/Beast, Johnny Harris/New Press, Hormozi/acquisition.com.
22:15 – 23:30
11 · Closer + CTA
Constraint of L5 is cultural relevance. Find your level, focus on that level's one constraint, decide whether you want to climb. CTA: free playbook PDF.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- There are five distinct YouTube channel levels (Constrained Creator, Professional Creator, Creator Entrepreneur, Creator Startup, Creator Company) each with a different bottleneck gating the next jump.
- The Constrained Creator's bottleneck is clarity: not knowing your niche, your audience, or your business model means no amount of execution fixes the underlying strategic vacuum.
- Content-market fit — making content you want to create that your audience wants to watch that can make money — is the triple intersection that unlocks the jump to Professional Creator.
- The first hire for a Professional Creator is almost always a video editor because editing consumes the most hours of non-creative time and the freed time compounds into more content.
- A Professional Creator's revenue is entirely dependent on continued content production — if posting stops, income stops, which is the structural fragility that motivates the jump to level three.
- The Creator Entrepreneur builds a product or service layer that generates revenue independent of any specific video's performance, breaking the content-income dependency.
- At the Creator Startup level, the founder's time shifts from content execution to team management and channel strategy — a fundamentally different skill set than being a great creator.
- A Creator Company (level five) has culture as its primary bottleneck: the systems, values, and operating norms that allow the organization to produce at scale without the founder's daily involvement.
- Most people would be genuinely happy staying at level two — the framework is explicitly permission to define 'enough' rather than a prescription to maximize scale.
- 115 million YouTube channels exist, and the vast majority are Constrained Creators who have not yet achieved clarity about what their channel should actually do.
- The complexity of the business, not revenue, defines which level a creator occupies — a level-two creator can make more money than a level-three creator with a messy team structure.
- Each jump between levels requires the creator to give up a skill they are good at (editing, producing) to develop one they have not yet practiced (managing, leading, building culture).
Each YouTube level has exactly one bottleneck
What it teaches
Five levels of YouTube channel — from solo constrained creator to creator company — each have a single constraint that gates the next jump, and solving that constraint is more important than any tactical improvement.
01Cold open — nobody is watching
- With over 115 million YouTube channels in existence, the default state for any channel is invisibility — understanding the level system is what clarifies why.
02The five-level pyramid + theory of constraints
- Each level of the creator pyramid has exactly one constraint — solve it and you can advance, or stay at that level permanently if it suits your goals.
- The framework is based on business complexity and team structure, not subscriber count or revenue — two channels with the same size can sit at very different levels.
03Level 1 — Constrained Creator
- Level 1 is defined by a lack of clarity — the channel does not yet have content-market fit across all three axes of what you want to make, what the audience wants, and what can generate revenue.
- Operating as a one-person show at this level is actually an advantage — it allows fast pivots and experimentation without coordination overhead.
04Level 2 — Professional Creator
- Level 2 is when revenue is entirely tied to content, making it fully dependent on the algorithm — the first hire is almost always a video editor to reclaim time.
- A lean, profitable level 2 business is a legitimate destination — many creators who reach this level have no reason or desire to go further.
05The constraint between L2 and L3 — Focus
- The bottleneck between level 2 and 3 is focus — you know what you want to build, but you have not yet decided how to prioritize your time to get there.
06Level 3 — Creator Entrepreneur
- Level 3 requires building a product or service ecosystem so the business does not die when the algorithm underperforms — revenue independence from content is the defining shift.
- Team expansion at level 3 typically includes a producer, multiple editors, a script writer, and a designer — but the team can stay lean if the systems are well defined.
07The constraint between L3 and L4 — Systems / MVP
- A Minimum Video Process (MVP) is the documented system that makes a creator business plug-in-people ready — you cannot scale to level 4 without it.
- The MVP must be built in level 3 before attempting to hire at scale — plugging people into an undefined process produces inconsistent output and management chaos.
08Level 4 — Creator Startup
- Level 4 requires the founder to move above the content work entirely and appoint a creative director — the pre-production and post-production split is the key structural change.
- Dialed-in systems at level 4 make it possible to copy-paste the content operation onto multiple channels, which is why level 4 creators often run three or four channels simultaneously.
09The constraint between L4 and L5 — People (collecting talent)
- The bottleneck between level 4 and 5 is people — good creator-economy talent is rare, in high demand, frequently poached, and trained by level 4 companies only to quit and start their own channels.
- Joining a level 4 creator startup as an employee is one of the fastest ways to develop creator-economy skills — the learning density is high and the skill sets are not yet widely available.
10Level 5 — Creator Company
- Level 5 removes key-man risk by creating a holding company or media brand above the channels — the business can operate, grow, and be sold without depending on one person.
- The constraint at level 5 is cultural relevance — keeping a large, distributed creative team aligned on the same vision long enough to survive platform shifts.
11Closer + CTA
- Progression through the levels is not mandatory — every level past two can be a permanent home if the business model and lifestyle match what you actually want.
- YouTube serves as the audience-building and trust-building foundation for every level — creator companies at level 5 that scaled to media empires all started with a YouTube channel.
Terms worth knowing.
- content market fit
- The alignment between the content a creator wants to make, what their audience wants to watch, and what can generate revenue — the point at which all three overlap is considered content market fit.
- creator economy
- The ecosystem of independent content creators who build audiences on digital platforms and monetize through ads, brand deals, products, or services — distinct from traditional media because the creator owns and operates the business.
- algorithm
- YouTube's automated recommendation system that decides which videos to suggest to which viewers based on signals like watch time, click-through rate, and engagement — the primary distribution mechanism for most creator channels.
- VA (virtual assistant)
- A remote contractor who handles administrative and operational tasks for a business — commonly the first non-editing hire for growing YouTube creators, covering tasks like scheduling, comment management, and brand outreach.
- producer
- In a YouTube creator business context, the operational counterpart to the creative director — responsible for managing the production pipeline, coordinating editors and videographers, and ensuring videos are completed on schedule.
- information product
- A digital product based on packaged knowledge — such as a course, ebook, coaching program, or community — that allows a creator to monetize their expertise independently of ad revenue or brand deals.
- minimum viable product (content)
- In the YouTube creator context, the minimum defined workflow — the fewest steps and roles — needed to consistently produce and publish videos, used as a system to delegate production to a team.
- key man risk
- The business vulnerability that occurs when an organization's value is tied to a single individual — if that person leaves, the company loses its primary asset and may be impossible to sell or sustain independently.
- holding company
- A parent company that owns stakes in or controls multiple subsidiary businesses or channels — used by large creator companies to run multiple brands under one organizational umbrella.
- PMF (product-market fit)
- The point at which a product satisfies strong market demand — borrowed from startup terminology here to describe the stage where a creator's content and business model are working well enough to scale aggressively.
- thumbnail split testing
- The practice of creating multiple thumbnail variations for a single video and testing which version generates a higher click-through rate — used at the creator entrepreneur level and above to optimize packaging.
Things they pointed at.
05:00channelMatt D'Avella
05:12channelHumphrey Yang
05:13channelGraham Stephan
05:18channelVrisa
05:25channelHow Town
11:00channelThomas Frank
11:30toolFlylighter
15:50channelAli Abdaal
16:20channelMKBHD / Waveform / Auto Focus
17:00channelSteven Bartlett
19:05channelMrBeast / Beast / Feastables / ViewStats
19:55channelJohnny Harris / New Press / Tunnel Vision / Search Party / The Bigger Picture
21:05channelAlex Hormozi / acquisition.com / Leila Hormozi / School
Lines you could clip.
01:00
“Nobody is watching this video right now. And it is not your fault.”
02:48
“Clarity comes from content–market fit.”
07:01
“If your content is the driving force for your revenue, you are at the mercy of the algorithm.”
07:32
“The one thing you really, really need to figure out is focus. Prioritization.”
16:50
“MVP — minimum video process. You need to know exactly what the process is.”
17:00
“You are not really in the business of your industry. You are in the business of people.”
19:46
“What separates a creator startup from a creator company is the focus on building something bigger than yourself.”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogy
00:00These are the five levels of YouTube channels, starting from absolute beginners all the way up to billion dollar media companies. So if you run a YouTube channel and growth has flatlined, it's not because you lack talent. It's because nobody in the game told you what the levels actually are.
00:14And in this video, we're gonna show you how to identify exactly where you are, but also what you need to do to level up. Starting with level one, which is the constrained creator. There are over 115,000,000 YouTube channels right now.
00:27Most of them are these guys. So
00:29what exactly does it mean to be a constrained creator? Well, as the name probably implies,
00:34you are trying to do too many things at once without real clarity about what you need to be doing. Because as a constrained creator, you're probably more in, like, the exploratory phases of YouTube. Mhmm.
00:44Maybe you were, like, exploring whether I even wanna try this full time. Mhmm. What is my niche gonna be?
00:50What kind of content am I gonna make? And you're kinda just, like, throwing things at the wall, or you're, like, unsure of, like, where this channel should go. And so typically, and these numbers are not like backed by data or anything like that, but average I would say, the constraint creator is making anywhere between like 0 and 1 k Per month.
01:06In revenue from YouTube. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Mhmm.
01:10Right? Because you could very well just build up an audience first,
01:14and then kinda figure out what does my audience want,
01:17and then you kind of mold your strategy around that. But at least you're taking action, you're getting started. Yeah.
01:23So last year when we were working at Spotter on, like, the education and partnership side of stuff, a lot of the creators that we would speak to live in this area right here. And what I mean is almost all constrained creators, they are a one man show.
01:35They are doing everything for the channel, including ideation, uploading, editing the videos, filming the videos, figuring everything out all by themself. And because they're doing it for themself, that is kinda what constrains them in their content, but also in their business. Right.
01:48So one of the pros is that you,
01:50as a one person show, you're very flexible. Mhmm.
01:53You can pivot, you can adapt, you can try new things,
01:56and no one's there just to slow you down. Because like, there if there's one big big issue holding level one from level two, I will say it is that you lack clarity.
02:05You don't really know what your channel's gonna be about, what you wanna make, and what your business is actually going. Clarity is huge. I mean, you probably ask a bunch of these people, like like, what is your niche?
02:16Mhmm. And I would say, like, the vast majority of them can't even answer that. Clarity comes from content market fit.
02:21It's basically when you're making content that you actually wanna create and that your audience actually wants to watch and that it can actually make money. Because if you don't make content that you like, you're not gonna be able to do it consistently for a long time.
02:33Right. So you're still kinda stuck in that first bubble, and you're still kind of trying to figure out, like, who is the audience who's gonna watch my content? You're constrained in just those two circles, and the vast majority of them, they're not even thinking about this third circle.
02:47That's probably why you're at zero to one k. Yeah. But that's fine.
02:50Like, you're still exploring. So that's that comes later. But once you've kind of figured out at least directionally,
02:56this is what I wanna do. I'm clear on that. Then your channel levels up to level two.
03:00We call these the professional creators. So for professional creators, like, the hallmark of knowing that you've gotten clarity on what your channel should be is that you started to get some momentum attraction on the platform.
03:11Right? You're starting to get some viewership. Mhmm.
03:13Maybe some returning viewers, and it kinda feels like it's starting to work. Now this is kinda where, like, the whole revenue thing I was talking about earlier.
03:19It kinda breaks a little bit because, obviously, we have examples of level two, three, four, and five making absurd amount of money. It's not really defined by revenue anymore. It's more of a complexity of what your business looks like.
03:30But on average, I would say that professional creators make anywhere between 1 and 10 k per month. So you can basically make a full time living as a professional Yeah.
03:38From your content now. What that looks like to become a professional creator, you're probably still doing, like, 80 to 90% of the work. Typically, you might be editing your own videos, but sometimes these professional creators start to branch out and work with some freelancers, some contractors.
03:54A big argument can be made for the first person they work with, this is true at least for us as well, is a video editor. That's probably gonna be like the first thing that caps you all the fastest because video editing takes a long time.
04:04Mhmm. It takes a lot of work. It's like eight hours for a video or something like that.
04:08That time goes back into making more videos, filming more videos, ideating more stuff, making more packaging, stuff like that. Another potential hire, this is kinda optional that we also see, they might have like a VA. This person is doing like social media scheduling, answering comments, DMs, doing like basic like email filtering or like responding and negotiating with brands or stuff like that.
04:29But you are definitely still in charge and doing, like, basically all the work besides having these contractors work with you. There's a lot of, like, very successful professional creators. I would say for a long time, someone I admired a lot was a professional creator, this guy named Matt D'Avella.
04:41He was basically the creator in his business. He's also, like, a seasoned editor. He's basically the one man show Yeah.
04:46Doing his whole thing. I guess the a lot of those guys in the personal finance space Mhmm. Humphrey or Graham Stephan, like Yeah.
04:53They keep their team pretty lean, but they're still pumping out content. Or maybe someone like Vrisa, who I think she edits her own videos. Very cinematic stuff.
05:02Kind of solo in on this. Uh, one of my favorite channels that I believe sits in level two right now, this channel called How Town. One of the old people from Vox and from, like and and Netflix, Uh-huh.
05:13They quit their jobs and started YouTube channel together. Mhmm. And they, like, break down, like, uh, journalism and some, like, latest research, and they just kinda chat together.
05:20That's a really it's a really ludicule channel, but they're a hallmark of, like, being a professional creator is that your revenue is almost exclusively tied to your content. Mhmm. Right?
05:30Like, if you stop making content, you basically stop earning money. Mhmm. And with that content, you're unlocking things like brand deals, partnerships,
05:36um, more ad revenue. Mhmm. But those are basically your only revenue streams.
05:40I mean, even though we're only on level two, so it feels like we're still, like, at the very beginnings of this whole journey, a lot of people would be happy to be at level two.
05:51It's just, like, you get to a point where you just define for yourself, like, much is enough? Mhmm. How much money do I need to be making to support myself, maybe my family, support maybe two other people, their families?
06:03Right? Like, that's that's like a decent business. Yeah.
06:07It's not something to, you know, to scoff at at all. Many of the people who wanna become YouTubers,
06:13become content creators, this is what they're thinking. Yeah.
06:16Like, this is the end goal for them. Like, they just wanna make a living making their artwork. And so, obviously, there's lot of pros to being a procreator.
06:22You get to make a living doing what you love, which is making videos all the time. Right? You get to keep a very lean and simple looking business.
06:29You have to talk about stuff you like too. But there's also a lot of negatives to being a procreator. When I talk about the different levels here, it doesn't have to do with the size of the channel in terms of subscribers Mhmm.
06:38Or the revenue you make. It is purely like the models and economics of the business and the complexity of the team. So, yeah, we were at 200 k subs on YouTube, and we were procreators because everything we did was just based on the content.
06:49Yeah. Trying to get sponsorships, and that was it.
06:52Mhmm. And we noticed that there were months where we made a lot of money because we had videos that went viral. Mhmm.
06:56And then some months we had videos that didn't do very well. We made, like, very little money. I mean, biggest downside is the volatility,
07:02And the source of that volatility is the algorithm. Because if your content is the driving force for your revenue, then you're .
07:12Right? You have no other business infrastructure to support your revenue other than the content. I would say like in our journey, we hung out in the procreator area for, you know, probably, like, a couple of years.
07:21We were probably at 200,000
07:23subscribers still in this realm. And so to go from level two to level three, the one thing that you really, really need to figure out is focus.
07:33How do I focus on the right things at the right time to put the business together to level up? Prioritization. Right?
07:40You probably have, like, directionally, like, this is the kind of content that I wanna make, but you're still, like, in terms of, like, which topics, which format. You're clear on what you wanna build, but you're not really focused on how I should prioritize my time to build it. But once you figure that out, you don't have to go to level three.
07:55We'll use Humphrey as an example again. I think he figured out the focus issue, but he doesn't wanna move on to level three, and that's probably fine. You can be very comfortable and very happy at this place.
08:03And I think that's, like, the theme for all these levels from level two forward. If you solve this issue, this main constraint that I'm talking about, you can be very, very comfortable and happy here. But if you do wanna get to that next stage, this is something that you must figure out before you go on.
08:15So when we figure that out, you can upgrade to level three. This is what we call the creator entrepreneur. This is, I would say, where our business is currently at.
08:25Yeah. Probably. Typical revenue in this category is anywhere between, like, 10 k per month up to a 100 k per month.
08:31If you're trying to scale from, you know, 10 to a 100 k per month, you need to delegate. You can't be doing everything on your own anymore. So this size of the team is going to expand a little bit.
08:40So typically, for talking about like a creator business, you're gonna wanna have someone else up here doing a little bit more strategic thinking and management with you. And so what we see in some of these businesses, oftentimes, they'll add in someone called a producer.
08:53Kind of the rough analogy I use is that in the Hollywood world, there's like a director and producer. So one person has the vision, and the other person makes sure that it happens. Oftentimes, like, at these creator entrepreneur levels, you might also start expanding out to having multiple video editors.
09:09Right? Because your videos might start getting a little bit more complicated. We have, I think, seven video editors that we kinda work through Mhmm.
09:15And work with on multiple different projects at the same time. You might also start thinking about someone like a script writer or a designer. Those are two other hires that we also have on our team now doing specifically just thumbnails.
09:26We do a lot of thumbnail testing and split testing. So for every one video, we're making like three or four thumbnails and then variations on those ones. And then on the script writing side, obviously, we need help writing and writing good hooks and, you know, researching and compiling ideas together.
09:40So this is kind of the core team that works with the producer and the creative director on our team. So obviously, like, you know, the content team of this business has become a bit more complex. And since you have more hands on deck to help you with things, that allows you as the founder or the business owner to kinda move away from being solely on the content hamster wheel.
09:59And the reason why they would wanna do that is hit this scale. It's pretty hard to get to a 100 k per month just working on content. It's possible, but it's very, very rare for a creator just from content to get to a 100 k per month.
10:11So that's why these business owners, typically, they're working on building a product or service that supports the channel. For YouTube channels, which we think is a really good path, um, building something like an information product. Right?
10:22Like an education product. So you have things like courses, um, ebooks, uh, consulting, coaching, community based learning.
10:30Those kinds of experiences
10:32can easily get you to a 100 k per month. It's allowed you to step into the building a sales team. Mhmm.
10:37And for me, going over to the fulfillment side so that we could actually build out our YouTube
10:42coaching and consulting agency. The hallmark of a creator entrepreneur versus, like, the procreator is that their monetization is not solely reliant on the content. There's an ecosystem of products behind the channel that can support it so that even if we stop making content for a while, the business doesn't die because we had an ecosystem of products and services on the back end that was still generated for us.
11:03Yeah. So what are other some other examples of channels that are at this level?
11:07One of them is actually one of our good friends, Thomas Frank. We met his producer, Alex, remember, at at Make With Notion. The cool thing about the creator entrepreneur team, it can stay pretty lean.
11:17Sure. We have a lot of contractors that we work with, but, like, our core team is, like, three people. Right?
11:21It's just, these three people at the top here. And so Thomas kinda runs the same thing. He has a two person team where he does basically all the strategy and creative and works on products, and then Alex kinda takes care of, like, making sure the content gets made and doing some other admin stuff in the business.
11:34But the cool yeah. But, like, you can stay pretty lean, and Thomas has, you know, built a very, very successful Notion
11:39template business on the back of his channel. He's got YouTube YouTube channels now that he actually runs. And he's also building, like, a SaaS tool called Flylighter.
11:46It's because his content is so dialed in that it allows him to step away and work on those other things. It only makes sense. Right?
11:53Because now you have so many other people that are all working together. Mhmm. We add on this overhead tax.
12:00Now we have to manage a team. Mhmm. That management itself is a lot of our time spent in overhead.
12:06What we didn't do before was just get on like multiple meetings per week just to make sure everyone's aligned, everyone's like meeting deadlines.
12:14Uh-huh. Like, that can start to feel like a drag sometimes. And so if you're at level two and you know that you're a person who, like, you've gotten to this game because you wanted to make things, but you didn't wanna manage things, then that's why you would stay at level two Mhmm.
12:28And just live a comfortable life doing your content at level two. I mean, level three does come with its costs, and I would say that's the big one. And I will say, like, level three, I'm still pretty involved in the content.
12:38Like, I'm reviewing, you know, packaging. I'm reviewing final versions of the videos before they got uploaded and stuff like that. But what's been really, really important to remove away from being a 100% content
12:50is to build a system that you can kinda rely on and plug these individuals into there. So whatever this looks like for you, just wanna map it out so you know how to plug people into that system. We call this your MVP, minimum viable product to make this thing work.
13:03For YouTube, you wanna make sure you know what is the minimum video process. What is the minimum video process you need to and what are the steps there so you can offload and delegate appropriately.
13:12Yeah. Like you brought up MVP because your minimum video process, you should already be thinking about that in level two.
13:19But in level two, you're still trying to figure out like which pieces go where or like do I even need this piece at all. But by level three, if you want to be able to survive,
13:29then you need to know like exactly what the processes are for your MVP. That's the constraint here. You can't move up to the next level until you have multiple systems in your business that are built out that allow you to really step back and then level up.
13:40And so our goal, who knows, maybe like next year or something like that, we wanna move up to level four. We call these the creator startup. Not to be confused with, like, the start ups that are just starting out or something.
13:50Let's just, like, narrow this in and say, like, the start ups that either just got funding or just hit PMF. And they're at the stage of, like, risk really start to scale this thing Mhmm. And grow really, really fast.
13:59And so at this stage in the creator startups, revenue is pretty unpredictable. You know, some of them are going and doing massive numbers.
14:07Some of them are praying staying lean, and the margins are not that great. So there's not really, like, a typical range in revenue. What we can say is that this content team does get more complicated again.
14:17So generally, what we see in creator startups, if it's still, like, founder led, the founder now needs to move even further away from the content team. And so you basically wanna and everything, and then you wanna hire a creative director to take that spot for you.
14:34This is the biggest shift that happens at the creator startup level because now you are basically not just a creator anymore. You're like a CEO.
14:42Mhmm. You know, like, have to oversee the operations department, the sales team, the HR, like, that other stuff.
14:47Like, there's a lot going on. You can't just be so focused in the content. And you can think about other people that might be involved in the process.
14:54Like, at this stage, you might also be thinking about someone like a videographer. It really is dependent on, you know, like, what are the goals of the content and how much it's needed to support the rest of the business. Now having like two managers on different areas of the content, the producer typically is in charge of managing the video editors Mhmm.
15:10And managing like the videographer for sure. But the creative directors typically are the ones working with the script writers and the designers.
15:18Yeah. Because they're working on some like prepackaging
15:21Mhmm. And the producers are focused on like post production. Mhmm.
15:24Right? So pre production director, post production, producer. Making sure that videos actually get made.
15:29Mhmm. Right? So that's kind of the split of, like, who they're they're managing and working with.
15:33This is kinda complicated, but, like, who would be a great example of a level four business? First one that comes to mind is Ali Abdal. The reason I say Ali Abdal is because he's got a bunch of people in his core team.
15:43He also has people that are, like, in charge of his products. Like, if you wanna, like, draw it out on the side here too. He he basically meets on a weekly basis with, like, his leadership team.
15:53The cool thing is when you get to this creator startup level, a lot of them you see running multiple YouTube channels. Because remember, the bottleneck that you wanna break through from level three is that you gotta build systems. Right?
16:06Mhmm. And so at level four, your systems are pretty dialed in. Who's to say you can't just copy paste the system onto multiple other YouTube channels Mhmm.
16:14Which Ali Abdaal has a bunch of YouTube channels now. I guess a better example would be MKBHD. MKBHD,
16:21super he's he's got four channels. So he's got his main channel, which is obviously MKBHD. Mhmm.
16:26He has the studio, which is, like, his behind the scenes. This is how we run our creator business. He's got his his podcast called, uh, I think, the Waveform.
16:34He breaks down, like, creator businesses and tech and stuff. And he's got, like, a fourth, like, random, like, cars channel called Auto Focus where he just does car reviews. If there is one big constraint that's holding these guys back from becoming a level five, it is people.
16:47I think I I saw this on, um, a Steven Parlett video. He had a video on behind the diary actually where I forget what the video was titled, but he was talking about the longer he's in business, you realize that as you grow, you're not really in the business of your industry. I'm starting to believe that this is actually the most important idea for success in whatever it is you're trying to do in your life.
17:07And this idea,
17:09I'm calling
17:11. Because that's the only way you're gonna grow. You have the system.
17:15You just need really talented people to run that. It makes total sense. Mhmm.
17:19If you're copy pasting your system times four, then now there's a bunch of open seats Yep. That you have to fill. At this level, these businesses are basically trying to snipe each other's talent now.
17:30Mhmm. Right? Which this is probably a whole different conversation, but there is a huge
17:37lack of talent when it comes to this whole creator economy because it's so new. Mhmm. And so not a lot of people have developed these niche skill sets yet.
17:46Mhmm. And so talent is rare, and yet it's in such such high demand. We're talking about, like, good talent.
17:52Good talent. Yeah. People who really know how to run a creative team as a creative director, as a head of content.
17:57I hop on a lot of calls with people who come from the the traditional media world, people who like the TV industry or the Hollywood world. And then when they try to make YouTube content, they're like, it's a different skill set Mhmm. Completely.
18:07And that's the same thing that goes on how the team is structured too. You can tell that good talent is such a bottleneck. Like, remember, it was kinda like a meme at some point where people are like, why I quit working with Ali Abdal?
18:19Ali Abdal created so many talented people in this industry, and they all ended up quitting and starting their own thing. Yeah. Right?
18:25So that's another reason why talent is such a constraint at this level. It's because you're at a level where systems are so dialed in. If you work in one of these seats, you can really learn a lot.
18:34And I would say if you're interested in joining the creator economy, think about applying to work for like a level four creator startup. Oh, definitely. You learn so much.
18:43That's the best way to get into the space fast. But there is one more level above this. So moving on to level five here, and this is when we really become now a creator company.
18:51You might think, like, how do you even remove yourself even further from this? Alright? Like, is that even possible?
18:55And so what creative companies actually do, they remove themselves by not necessarily moving themselves from running this channel, but they create, like, a holding company or a media brand above them.
19:07Mhmm. You can think about, like, the classic creator company example as, like, a MrBeast. And MrBeast runs so many different YouTube channels, but they all live under this holding umbrella company called Beast.
19:16Then he's got, like, Feastables as a leg. He's got his YouTube channels. He's got philanthropy stuff.
19:21He's got ViewStats. He's got all these products and services that live under this big umbrella brand. So what separates, like, a creator startup from a creator company is the focus on building something bigger than yourself.
19:31Because when you say, like, holding company, right, think back to level four. Like Ali Abdul, MKBHD, like, all those guys
19:38have a company where they're holding all their YouTube channels in it. Mhmm. But the main difference that we see here is that they're essentially removing key man risk.
19:49And I mean key man risk as in, like, the company is not just about one person anymore. Mhmm. If that person decides to leave this whole infrastructure, then everything falls apart.
19:58You can't sell this company unless
20:01this founder comes with it. So I think a good example of, like, a creator company that is doing it right now is Johnny Harris. So Johnny Harris obviously has built a massive YouTube channel over the years.
20:11He's really well known in the journalism space. He started his company called New Press where New Press produces, like, four different shows underneath them. So we got, you know, Johnny Harris's show under there, like, obviously, main channel.
20:23You have Tunnel Vision by Christophe. You have Search Party by Sam Ellis. And then you have The Bigger Picture with Max Fisher.
20:29Right? So you have four different separate channels that kinda live under the big brand of New Press. If Johnny stops making videos for a while, there's still still several other, like, content shows and and ARMs that are still running and providing value for that business, and they're building whole other product lines and stuff on the back end of that.
20:45So that is like now really elevated to what it looks like. So New Press, this whole thing we have here, there's four of them for different creators too. Mhmm.
20:54So there's a creator underneath it, and there's a whole team that comes with it versus just having one person, you know, be part of all of them. So that's just gonna get really big and complex. Another example, very good one in the business space is acquisition.com.
21:08Right? Acquisition.com is a rolling company. There's Alex Hermozzi.
21:11There's Leila Hermozzi. There's all these school channels that they have. I think Sharon now, part of the company, has his own YouTube channel too.
21:16Mhmm. So they're just building this big media empire as well that has all of these different legs underneath it. Creator companies, like, at this point, you built such a big, like, team that talent isn't as much of an issue anymore.
21:28It still obviously is an issue, but, like, you're gonna be getting a lot of inbound people who wanna work on this team. The issue isn't really, like, getting people in the door. It's keeping everyone aligned on the vision of the business and the channel.
21:40And so what I would say is the constraint of making sure that creative companies stand the test of time is cultural relevance. Is the culture of this company and the team and what they wanna do so aligned that everyone is still motivated to to continue working on this project?
21:53But at level five, you've transcended
21:55YouTube
21:56Yeah. As a platform. And I think about, like, the brands that have Wizda the test of time.
22:00Something like GQ, you know. They have, obviously, a great YouTube channel, but they also have, like, magazines. Mhmm.
22:06You know, they have, like, a whole bunch of experiences in shows and even, like, gone into, like, the fashion world in in other ways. Yeah. These companies are starting to just elevate and spread into culture and media.
22:16And the cool thing is that even when we're talking about these creative companies, like, how important YouTube is in the process. All those ones that we just talked about, like, mister Beast built his creative company off of the back of YouTube. Mhmm.
22:26So did Stephen Bartlett, and so is Johnny Harris right now. Like, they started on YouTube. And so it's really, like, one of the best ways to build that cult like audience and following and and brand reputation.
22:35And I think we're gonna see a lot more level fours ascending to level five do the same thing. So depending on where you are, whether you're level one, two, three, four, five in your business, understanding, like, that key constraint we talked about to get to the next level is what you should be focusing on right now.
22:50Once you solve that, you can decide, do I wanna take, you know, the business in this direction where we're focusing on formative stuff and getting more building something really, really massive, or do you wanna kinda chill back and live this lifestyle business? There's no wrong answers. But I think at the end the day, you do wanna be, like, obsessed about what does the content team and system look like to keep that running.
23:07I'm not gonna say we have experience in growing level five companies.
23:12Very few people probably do. But we do have experience with the levels before that. And so we put together a lot of different resources and playbooks that you can grab for free in the description below.
23:22And if you wanna check out how to build systems for your content engine, then check out this video right here.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Most channel-growth videos sell you a tactic. This one sells you a map. In Creator Company opens with a glitchy 'nobody is watching this' bit, then drops a five-tier pyramid where each rung gets exactly one bottleneck — clarity, focus, systems, people, culture. By minute three you already know which level you are on and what the next move is.
Named ideas worth stealing.
01:00model
The 5 Levels of YouTube Channels
- 1. Constrained Creator ($0–$1k/mo, solo) — constraint: Clarity
- 2. Professional Creator ($1k–$10k/mo, first hire = editor) — constraint: Focus
- 3. Creator Entrepreneur ($10k–$100k/mo, products + services) — constraint: Systems / MVP
- 4. Creator Startup (multi-channel, creative director) — constraint: People
- 5. Creator Company (holding co, kills key-man risk) — constraint: Cultural relevance
Every channel sits on one of five rungs. Each rung has exactly one bottleneck. Solve it to climb — or stay, on purpose.
Steal forJoe's '5 Levels of the Self-Hosting Creator' framework for Mod Creator / $6 Stack.
02:25model
Content–Market Fit Venn (Y / A / P)
- You (what you want to make)
- Audience (what they want to watch)
- Pay (what can actually make money)
Three overlapping circles. Real content–market fit is the intersection of all three. Clarity = knowing which dot you are in.
Steal forReusable as 'Builder / Buyer / Bank' for any indie product positioning sketch.
12:50acronym
MVP — Minimum Video Process
- Define the minimum repeatable steps a video must pass through
- Document each step
- Plug a human into each step
- Step away from the seat
What you need to delegate. Joe should already be thinking about it at level 2, but it becomes survival at level 3.
Steal forIdentical pattern works for newsletters, course launches, sales pages, livestreams.
09:00concept
Director / Producer split
- Director = vision
- Producer = makes it happen
Hollywood analogy used to justify the first strategic hire above the founder at L3/L4.
Steal forSame split inside any team — Joe + a producer = the L3 unlock.
15:05concept
Pre-production vs post-production manager split
- Creative director runs pre-production (script + design + thumbnails)
- Producer runs post-production (editors + videographer)
Level-4 team structure. Two managers, two halves of the pipeline.
Steal forDirect analog for Mod Creator content team.
19:45concept
Key-man risk → holding company
- Multiple channels under one umbrella brand
- Each channel has its own creator + team
- Founder is removable; business survives + is sellable
The single structural move that separates L4 from L5.
Steal forModern Creator, LLC as the holding co. above JoeFlow + Mod Producer + ModBoard + Clip Lab.
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
23:18link
“We put together a lot of different resources and playbooks that you can grab for free in the description below. And if you wanna check out how to build systems for your content engine, then check out this video right here.”
Soft. Funnels to free PDF ($1M YouTube Playbook) + next-video pickup. No subscribe ask, no monetary pitch — feels earned because the whole video already delivered the framework.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
