06:09AlexanderTheCreate · Talking Head
This Grows Your Business Through YouTube, Faster
A solo creator's note to himself on the three habit shifts behind a $34,192 week on YouTube.
September 9thThe argument in one line.
A YouTuber who has been posting for 15 years argues that growth comes from treating your audience like a real relationship and packaging your value clearly, not from chasing keywords, gear upgrades, or a bigger subscriber count.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A YouTuber or aspiring lifestyle creator who is still keyword-stuffing titles and hasn't figured out how to package a video.
- A creator earning income from brand deals who is unsure whether they need a manager or agency to negotiate for them.
- Someone building a personal brand who feels awkward promoting their own products, courses, or services.
- A new creator discouraged by blanket 'no one cares' advice, looking for a more constructive way to think about audience growth.
SKIP IF…
- You already have a manager or agency handling your brand deals and are happy with that arrangement.
- You're chasing raw view-count tactics rather than long-term audience relationship and packaging.
The full version, fast.
A YouTuber with 15 years and six-figure brand deal income breaks down 10 lessons she wishes she'd known from the start. The core argument: audience growth is a relationship you build over time, not a keyword game, so titles should speak to people, not search engines, and videos should be packaged (title and thumbnail first) before they're filmed. She argues editing matters more than camera gear, format consistency makes a channel bingeable, and creators should promote their own products the way they promote sponsors. Brand deals don't require a manager, occasional free work early on can pay off, and no subscriber count will manufacture confidence you don't already choose to have.
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00:00 – 00:14
01 · Cold open
States the promise: 10 things she wishes she knew 15 years ago that would have grown her channel faster.
00:14 – 03:25
02 · Lesson 1: No one cares (but you can make them)
Reframes the 'no one cares' advice: audience care is built like any relationship, by giving value before asking for attention.
03:25 – 05:44
03 · Lesson 2: Title your videos for people, not search
Argues keyword-stuffed SEO titles are outdated for lifestyle creators; conversational, second-person titles perform better now.
05:44 – 07:40
04 · Lesson 3: Optimize your videos for autoplay
Explains how muted autoplay previews work and why captions matter, woven into a Descript sponsor demo.
07:40 – 09:50
05 · Lesson 4: Make your content bingeable
Format consistency, not topic consistency, is what turns one viral video into a channel binge.
09:50 – 12:10
06 · Lesson 5: You can't be afraid to promote your own stuff
Creators are comfortable pushing sponsor products but shy about their own; treat your own offer like a scheduled brand deal.
12:10 – 13:43
07 · Lesson 6: Start with a title and thumbnail
Introduces the 'Frankenstein method': separate running lists of titles, thumbnail text, and video concepts, combined rather than locked to one idea.
13:43 – 15:17
08 · Lesson 7: Editing matters more than filming
Editing quality beats camera and lighting quality; audio is the one thing viewers won't tolerate being bad.
15:17 – 17:07
09 · Lesson 8: You don't need a manager to get brand deals
Six figures of brand deal revenue negotiated without an agency; managers mostly respond to inbound and take 15-20%.
17:07 – 19:55
10 · Lesson 9: Sometimes you have to work for free
Selective early free work (charity content, portfolio-building) was a legitimate stepping stone, not a permanent business model.
19:55 – 22:56
11 · Lesson 10: More subscribers won't make you more confident
Hitting 100K subscribers didn't fix on-camera insecurity; confidence has to be chosen, not earned through numbers.
22:56 – 23:44
12 · Outro: leaving the condo
Personal sign-off: this is the last video filmed in her current condo before a studio move.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Titling videos for the search engine is outdated advice for most creators; homepage and recommended-feed discovery now matters more than search.
- Second-person titles like 'You're gonna be...' outperform keyword-stuffed ones because they read like they're speaking directly to the viewer.
- Muted autoplay previews on the homepage and thumbnail hover are free exposure, and on-screen captions are what make a silent preview legible.
- A channel becomes bingeable through format consistency, not topic consistency; viewers stick around because a video 'feels like the same show.'
- Treat promoting your own product like a scheduled brand deal, assigning yourself a fixed monthly cadence so it actually gets mentioned.
- Pick the title and thumbnail before scripting or filming; a great video with no packaging still won't get watched.
- Editing quality outweighs camera and lighting quality, but audio quality is the one production element viewers won't forgive if it's bad.
- You don't need a manager to get brand deals: managers mostly respond to inbound requests rather than pitch for you, and take 15-20% of the deal.
- Selective early free work, for a cause you support or for portfolio-building, can be a legitimate stepping stone if it stays intentional and temporary.
- Hitting a subscriber milestone does not remove on-camera insecurity; confidence has to be chosen, not earned through numbers.
- A slightly lower-fidelity, iPhone-shot look is currently trendy among big creators, as long as the editing itself is tight.
- Editing tools that auto-detect filler words, retakes, and long pauses can tighten a video's pacing without a manual timeline pass.
Ten YouTube lessons on relationships, packaging, and confidence
WHAT TO LEARN
Real YouTube growth comes from treating your audience like a relationship, packaging your videos before you script them, and separating your sense of worth from your subscriber count.
02Lesson 1: No one cares (but you can make them)
- New viewers won't care about you by default, but you can earn that care over time the same way you'd build any relationship: by giving before you ask.
- Before making a video, ask what value the specific viewer gets from watching it, not just what you want to say. Value doesn't have to mean education: entertainment, companionship, and comfort all count.
03Lesson 2: Title your videos for people, not search
- Keyword-stuffed titles built for the search engine mattered more in 2018-2019; most viewers now find videos through the homepage and recommendations, not search.
- Second-person titles like 'You're gonna be...' or 'Your life is boring, but...' read as more direct and hooky than keyword-first, third-person titles.
04Lesson 3: Optimize your videos for autoplay
- Muted autoplay previews on the homepage and thumbnail hover are free exposure; on-screen captions let that silent preview communicate what's happening and pull in the click.
- Editing tools that auto-detect filler words, retakes, and long pauses can tighten a video's pacing without a full manual timeline pass.
05Lesson 4: Make your content bingeable
- A channel becomes bingeable through format consistency, not topic consistency: viewers binge because the next video feels like another episode of the same show.
- When one video breaks out on the algorithm, a consistent format is what convinces new viewers to watch the rest of the back catalog, even if the subject matter varies.
06Lesson 5: You can't be afraid to promote your own stuff
- Creators are often comfortable promoting sponsor brands and affiliate links but awkward about promoting their own products, and that asymmetry costs real income.
- Treat your own product like a scheduled brand deal: assign yourself a fixed cadence, like one promotional post or video a month, so it actually gets mentioned.
07Lesson 6: Start with a title and thumbnail
- Nailing a video's packaging (title and thumbnail) matters as much as the video itself; a great video with weak packaging still won't get clicked.
- The Frankenstein method keeps separate running lists for title ideas, thumbnail text, and video concepts, then mixes the strongest pieces instead of locking into one pre-scripted idea.
08Lesson 7: Editing matters more than filming
- Viewers tolerate mediocre camera quality far more than poor audio, so audio is the one production value worth prioritizing over gear upgrades.
- Before buying a new camera, invest time in editing skills or outsource editing; a well-edited video beats a well-shot one.
09Lesson 8: You don't need a manager to get brand deals
- A creator can pitch, negotiate, and manage six figures of brand deal revenue without ever hiring a manager or agency.
- Managers typically respond to inbound requests rather than proactively pitching for you, and they take roughly 15-20% of each deal's rate.
10Lesson 9: Sometimes you have to work for free
- Selective, intentional free work early on, for a cause you support or to build a portfolio, can be a legitimate stepping stone, not something to rule out on principle.
- A creator's value to brands ultimately comes from audience loyalty, recommendation strength, and niche credibility built up over time, not from any single free project.
11Lesson 10: More subscribers won't make you more confident
- Hitting a subscriber milestone doesn't remove on-camera insecurity; the discomfort persists past the number you thought would fix it.
- Confidence as a creator is something you choose and build internally, not a reward that arrives automatically at a certain subscriber count.
Terms worth knowing.
- Frankenstein method
- A video-brainstorming approach that keeps title ideas, thumbnail text, and video concepts in three separate running lists, then mixes and matches them instead of locking a title to one pre-made video idea.
- Bingeable channel
- A channel where new viewers, after discovering one video, keep watching more because the videos share a consistent format and feel, even when the topics vary.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“If I would have known these 10 specific things 15 years ago when I started my YouTube channel, I would have grown faster, made more money, and felt less frustrated by the algorithm.”
12:33
“i like to use what i call the frankenstein method for youtube video brainstorming”
16:23
“the industry standard is anywhere from like 15 to 20 percent of whatever the brand is giving you you pay to the manager who negotiated the deal”
20:51
“crack but it's a very quick hit and at the end of the day it doesn't actually make you feel more confident”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogy
If I would have known these 10 specific things 15 years ago when I started my YouTube channel, I would have grown faster, made more money, and felt less frustrated by the algorithm. So I'm going to share them all with you to make your content creation journey easier. Starting with lesson number one, you can make people care about you.
but it takes time. I feel like the number one YouTube advice that people love to give now is no one cares, which is definitely a good like wake up call and true to some extent. Like strangers on the internet are not going to immediately care about your morning routine or what you eat in a day because they don't know who the heck you are.
But I think what's often left out of this conversation is that it is in fact possible to make people care. I like to use the metaphor of like for generating your audience on YouTube because it is really just building a relationship. met someone for the first time, you wouldn't just immediately start monologuing about your day -to -day life, right?
I feel like we've all met those people at a party that like they only talk about themselves and never ask you a single question. And that is pretty insufferable. So you don't want to be that person on YouTube, right?
You don't want to enter into this new relationship with your audience, only ever talking about yourself, only ever caring about what you want to say. In any good relationship, there's give and take. So you want to be thinking about what does that other person Need or want obviously in the case of making YouTube videos.
It is sort of one -way communication You can't just make a video being like hey How are you? What's your name?
What do you do for a living? Like obviously you would do at a party. So instead the online equivalent of that is considering what value you can provide and what the viewers of your videos get out of it.
Rather than just considering what kind of video do I want to make and then creating that, think about what would the hypothetical person who's watching this gain from taking the, you know, 15 minutes out of their day to watch my video. It doesn't have to be education, okay? I feel like all of the tips videos on YouTube are geared towards growing an education channel and that makes sense because people making this kind of content like myself tend to have education channel.
So that's what we know, right? But it doesn't have to be that there's so much other value that your videos can provide entertainment, companionship, inspiration, motivation, honestly, just being a comfort creator. Those are all things that your viewers can get out of watching you.
And you just really want to consider that before you start creating. By starting from that point of view, you can provide value. I know that's such a cliche thing to say, but in whatever form it takes, and that's how you actually build trust.
and connection with your viewers because you're thinking about what they want or need or what they get out of it. And as you do that over time, you will eventually grow an audience that has more interest in you as a person. Just like when you meet someone new and you started the conversation by asking them about themselves and taking a genuine interest in their lives, that person is then more likely to, in exchange, want to know more about you.
Whereas when you meet someone who just starts like popping off about their own life and opinion, that honestly makes the recipient want to know less. And so over time, when you provide value, when you show up again and again with consistent content, that audience will become more connected to you, more loyal and more interested in watching your what I eat in a day or your morning routine.
Start from a place of getting to know your audience and thinking about what they get out of your content. And eventually they will begin to just genuinely care about you as a person. Lesson number two, title your videos for people.
not the search engine. Okay. So the traditional advice for titling videos for YouTube over the years has always been to shove as many keywords in there and try to estimate what people might be searching for related to your video, make that the title to ideally have it show up in search.
And while I definitely did that at the beginning of my YouTube journey, and I think that it was kind of more helpful back in like 2018, 2019 era, it is now 2026. And I feel like that advice is quite outdated. Most people are now coming across YouTube content on their homepage or in recommended videos, they aren't necessarily searching for stuff.
Unless your goal is specifically to be a tutorial creator, maybe someone who does like reviews on really niche products, then maybe your goal is to optimize for search, in which case you can keep titling your videos like that. But I just know that the majority of people who watch my videos are interested in becoming lifestyle creators or vloggers, and that is not a good strategy for lifestyle creators.
your videos for the people who are going to watch them, not for the search engine that's going to rank them. Okay, I have a couple examples here to illustrate what I mean. I could have titled this video, how to vlog even if your life feels boring for new creators on YouTube in 2026.
That would have been keyword optimized, but... it's not very interesting. So instead I made the title, your life is boring, but your vlogs don't have to be.
Okay, I could have called this video, how to become a full -time content creator in 2026 for beginners on YouTube. Instead I titled it, you're gonna be a full -time creator in 2026, here's how. And lastly, I could have titled this video, DJI Osmo Pocket 3 versus Extra Muse.
Are these cameras really that different? Instead I called it, exposing DJI's secret camera copy. Hopefully you can see how all of those titles are a lot more conversational and human -focused.
And bonus tip for you, I find that in general, titles that are written in the second person are especially effective. So stuff like, you're gonna be a full -time content creator. Your life is boring, but your vlogs don't have to be.
You need to do this, whatever. That really grabs people because it feels like it's speaking directly to them. So that's a good hack if you can include you in your titles.
I think that's especially hooky. But in general, Don't stuff them with keywords.
Write it like it's a conversation with a person. Lesson number three. optimize your videos for autoplay.
This is actually a really easy lesson that you can start applying to your channel today. Okay, so have you ever noticed that when you're scrolling on YouTube on your phone, the videos on your homepage will automatically start playing on mute? This also happens on the desktop version of YouTube.
If you mouse over a thumbnail, a preview of the video will play. This autoplay feature can be a huge advantage to you as a creator if you edit your videos correctly. The biggest thing you can do in addition to making the intro of your video as interesting as possible is to add captions on the screen.
If you're new to editing, Descript is a great app to do this because they've got great dynamic caption templates that are easy to use and customize. I can change the animation style, the color, the font.
All of this is important because it becomes a recognizable part of your brand, but also because when your video starts autoplaying, the viewer will actually know what's happening in the intro because they can read the captions and they'll be more likely to be drawn in to click and watch the rest. If you leave this out, you're basically leaving out an entire strategy for attracting new viewers.
But there's more Descript can do than just captions you can actually edit your entire video in this like editing a word document this is really great for video podcasts especially but you can see how it's transcribed my entire video and if i select part of the text here it will automatically select that section of the timeline down here and if i hit delete it will delete that section of the video this is a really great tool if you find timeline editing a bit intimidating or unintuitive you can also automatically detect and delete filler words Or have it take out your retakes.
So if you try saying a line several times, it'll choose the best version and delete the rest. Oh, and I love this feature especially. You can detect word gaps and shorten them.
So I like my videos to be pretty tight and fast paced. So I'm going to set it to 0 .5 seconds. So any pause that's longer than that, it'll shorten it.
And just like that, your rough A -roll is now a clean cut with no filler words, retakes, or awkward pauses. Descript is a great tool for beginner editors. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can click the link in the description.
description. And thanks so much to Descript for sponsoring today's video. Number four, make your content bingeable.
While each video is treated separately by the YouTube algorithm, it is really helpful to have a solid and cohesive back catalog of content for your new viewers to binge. Basically the strategy is you create a bunch of videos that all have a similar format. They're all targeted towards the same audience and they have a similar vibe.
They don't all have to be about the exact same topic, but you want them to feel connected because then when one of your videos finally pops off and the algorithm is recommending it to a bunch of people after they watch that video they're going to be more likely to binge the rest of your channel because it feels familiar and cohesive and delivers the same value that they got from that first video even if you slightly switch up the subject matter like what you're actually talking about in the video that doesn't matter as much as long as you have format consistency so you're always delivering the information in the same way, whether that's a vlog, sit down video, video essay, podcast.
You want to make sure that the style of your video isn't jarringly different to those new viewers after they discover you from that viral video and they start watching the rest of your stuff. Format consistency is the key to making your channel bingeable. I actually think a really great case study of this is my vlog channel, Katie and Dan in a Van.
I've been creating videos over there since 2020, honestly, just for fun. It's my hobby YouTube channel because yes, I'm that much of a dork that I do this in my spare time for fun as well.
Over the years, we've posted admittedly pretty inconsistently, but our format has always been the same. It's always just a chill, authentic vlog, usually pretty chronological. We talk a lot about like history and other like nerdy stuff while we're traveling.
So the format's very consistent, but the thing that changes up all the time is where we're traveling to in our van. Anyway, recently, one of our videos about taking our van across the channel tunnel just happened to... to really get picked up by the algorithm.
And so a lot of people started watching the rest of our videos too because it feels the same. It feels just like another episode in the same TV show, which is why format consistency is the key. to making your content bingeable.
Lesson number five, you can't be afraid to promote your own stuff. For many creators, I find there's this ironic tension where we have no trouble at all promoting the brands that we work with or even products that we have affiliate links for. But when it comes to our own templates, courses, merch even, we find it a little bit more awkward.
to promote it the truth is though if you want to have a sustainable income as a content creator you really need multiple income streams and so it's actually important for a lot of us to have more than just brand deals adsense affiliate links like you really should be offering some of your own stuff and that can take many different forms like i have like a digital product that is a set of templates and resources for creators it's called the content creator starter kit but you could also offer services or other digital downloads or maybe even a physical product.
It doesn't really matter, but having something of your own where you get like a lot more of the profit share than what you would get out of an affiliate commission, for example, is really going to make your income more robust and more consistent. But in order for that to happen, you can't be shy about promoting it. And I feel like I'm telling this to myself as much as I am to anybody else, because still to this day, I'm like really bad at reminding people that I have a digital product, that I have a video editing agency.
Like I have to tell myself. to talk about it more. I think a great framework that you can take on that I'm going to try for myself, and I've done this a little bit in the past, is think about promoting your own stuff like it's a brand deal.
So when it comes to short form content, maybe that's assigning yourself a sponsored reel once or twice a month that's specifically to promote your stuff. If YouTube's your primary platform, then maybe you make one of your videos a month have like a brand deal for your own thing. You could totally do it more or less frequently than that.
It's really up to you. But I think that can be a helpful way to like get it in your content calendar more often and more Consistently promote the stuff that you actually make the most money on and also just remember like if you went out of your way to create Something valuable specifically for your target audience. It's not gonna be annoying for you to talk about that to them You're actually kind of doing them a disservice if you don't bring it up because it's something that you took the time and Intentionally made for them so they're gonna want to know about it lesson number six start with a title and thumbnail, not a video idea.
I wish I knew this so much earlier because I spent years trying to come up with some kind of title or thumbnail that would possibly be interesting to fit into a pre -existing video idea that I'd probably already scripted, filmed, and edited. And then you just end up stuck with like a great video, but no packaging. And that is terrible because unfortunately your video can be amazing but if you don't have a really great title and thumbnail nobody's ever gonna see it i've talked about this in a video before and i'll link it above so you can see the full explanation but i like to use what i call the frankenstein method for youtube video brainstorming and that's where i come up with separate lists of title ideas thumbnail tagline text and video concepts so these are all completely separate things and i will possible in all three of these categories rather than getting really committed to say a video idea but not having a great way to package it.
It's also important that you don't have a great title but like nothing actually of substance to pair with it. I think especially with the style of titles and thumbnails that are popular now there's actually a lot of ability to pair them with like various different ideas which is why I think the Frankenstein method is so effective.
But whatever approach you like to use just make sure that you are prioritizing your title and thumbnail from the very beginning of your ideation process. Because there's nothing worse than the sunk cost fallacy of a YouTube video you've already made, but you have no good title for.
Lesson number seven, how you edit matters more than how you film. A lot of new creators get really caught up in thinking that they need to buy a new camera or start shooting in 4K or improve their lighting techniques in order to make really great videos. But the truth is your editing is so much more important than that.
Viewers really will tolerate slightly grainy footage or video that not the best quality if it's edited into a fast -paced and engaging story and actually i think a slightly more lo -fi look is kind of trendy right now we see huge creators like ryan trahan using like microsoft paint style graphics or massive shows like jet lag being filmed exclusively on iphones but obviously the editing on both of those channels is immaculate it keeps you engaged it's interesting the one caveat i will say to this is audio is really important i feel like people will not tolerate poor quality audio.
But if you're using kind of grainy iPhone footage, it really doesn't matter as long as it's edited down into a tight and interesting video. So before you invest in a new camera, I would recommend investing in learning some editing skills. You don't actually need really fancy software.
I would recommend starting with DaVinci Resolve. It has a really great free version. Or if all of this feels really overwhelming to you, instead of investing in a new camera, maybe you would invest in outsourcing your editing.
And my team over at Creatorly Media does that. I have a small YouTube editing agency and we work with creators.
So if that sounds interesting to you, you can go to creatorlymedia .com. But overall, don't get so caught up in how you're filming. Focus on how you're editing.
Number eight, you don't need a manager to get brand deals. Contrary to popular belief, you don't in fact need to be signed with an agency or have a manager in order to get good brand deals. My primary income as a content creator is brand deals.
I do over six figures a year in brand deal revenue and I have never had an agent or a manager. Now I'll say, depending on the stage of your career, a manager could be helpful. Like if your inbox is just so overwhelmed with inbound brand deals, requests that you can't keep up with them and you know that you're leaving money on the table because you just simply can't respond to them all, then hey, having a manager could be good.
I also know many people benefit from managers because they just really don't have a sense of what their rates should be. And oftentimes managers can help calibrate that because they have experience working with other creators. But I think that if you're ambitious and enterprising as a creator and you don't want to let go of control of your own business and like probably the primary...
revenue source of your own business, then you can take it upon yourself to not only pitch, but also respond and negotiate to any inbound brand deal requests you get. And you don't have to give anybody 20%. of the rate because that's the thing the industry standard is anywhere from like 15 to 20 percent of whatever the brand is giving you you pay to the manager who negotiated the deal and so i've just personally always found it more fruitful to do the negotiation myself and keep all of that money because honestly at the end of the day like a lot of people think i'll get more brand deals if i have a manager i'll just be honest with you these agencies these managers like they are not pitching for you they're just responding to emails that are already coming to your inbox So if you go into that knowing that that's the case and you still think that's a benefit go for it But also maybe you could just learn to negotiate yourself, which I just think is a good business skill to have in general Okay, no one's gonna want to hear this one.
But lesson number nine is sometimes you do have to work for free Look, I know we're all about creatives like ourselves getting paid what we're worth for our work And I really do believe in that but if I'm totally honest with you if I was completely unwilling to work in exchange for exposure or experience at the very very beginning i don't think i would have gotten to where i am now i do not at all want to like devalue the time or effort that even like beginners in this kind of career are putting in because it is very important but i think the fact that i was willing to be a little bit gritty and a little bit like well i'm just going to do this so that i can get the experience under my belt or get this piece of content into my portfolio i do think i do think that helped and i unfortunately think that In this unfair world that we live in, it's maybe a little bit idealistic to expect that you're gonna be getting like.
paid top dollar for your work from the very beginning. But I do think it's important to be intentional and selective about the free work that you do. So for example, I was a freelance videographer before I became a full -time YouTuber.
And when I was first getting started in that and trying to find clients, I needed some portfolio work that wasn't just my own YouTube videos that I'd been making for years. So I actually volunteered with a local charity that I... know support to make content for their social media pages so i was making a lot of stuff for their facebook page and that was a great way to build up my portfolio of my like social media video work and also contribute to a charity that i supported so i think that's a really great example where working for free had this like joint benefit of you know this charitable cause, getting some support and me having some work examples that I could use when I was pitching myself to paying clients.
As for the content creator side of things, I really don't want to encourage you to like on mass do content for product trades like a lot, but I do think that it can be a stepping stone again at the very, very beginning to get some portfolio work, to be able to demonstrate what you do for brands. And I think that you always like, you know, make the best of it.
Like, especially if you can get the product for free, and then you can use an affiliate link to get a little bit of income out of it. Then you can start to build up a portfolio and some data on your conversion rates and how well your brand work performs.
Of course, all of this is in service of the larger goal of you eventually getting paid for what you do. I don't want you to get stuck in a cycle of only ever working in exchange for product. At the end of the day, the value that creators offer to brands is the loyalty of your audience, the strength of your recommendation, your credibility.
in your specific niche. And I think that that is something that you need to build up over time. It's not something that you have from the day you post your first video.
If I would have learned this final lesson 15 years ago, I could have spent so much less time feeling insecure and waiting around for validation. Lesson number 10 is more subscribers won't make you more confident. Whenever I was feeling insecure filming myself, especially if I was out vlogging in public, I would always think, I just wish that I had more subscribers because then I would feel less weird about filming myself almost like it would be more justified like if some random stranger would be like why are you filming this video I could be like well I've got a hundred thousand subscribers that are excited to watch it but then one day I hit a hundred thousand subscribers which was obviously really exciting but then when I stepped outside to keep vlogging I realized I still felt insecure as ever the honest and kind of ugly truth is that for many of us creators we love to seek validation through the admiration of our audiences and through the approval of YouTube Studio.
Like, I'm not gonna lie, nothing hits quite like a one out of 10 and that little confetti gif, okay? That is like... but it's a very quick hit and at the end of the day it doesn't actually make you feel more confident i know this might sound like a discouraging message but i actually want to be really encouraging for you because it means you don't have to wait around to have more subscribers until you allow yourself to feel confident in being a creator you have access to that level of confidence right now even if you have one subscriber as much as i do right like we all can just choose to be confident in what we create and find that validation within ourselves i know it's difficult i'm definitely still on a journey of figuring that out but as someone who's on the other side of it as someone who waited around for years to have that subscriber count make me feel like i was a real creator i want to send this message to you that's never going to happen don't keep waiting for it
just choose to find that confidence in yourself and like start on that journey of internal validation as soon as you can because I wish I would have known that earlier. You don't need to wait for YouTube to send you a play button.
You can and should be confident as a creator right now because what you're making is beautiful and valuable, not necessarily because of how many people watch it, but just because you made it. And I think especially in our era of like increased automation and like AI, slob content, there is so much beauty in human art. So just the fact that like, You took the time to make a video about something that you cared about and you did it intentionally and thoughtfully.
That's so valuable. And so you should feel validated as a creator. because of that regardless of how many views or subscribers you have after 15 years of being on youtube i still feel like i'm learning more every single day but i hope these 10 lessons can be helpful to you and make your journey as a content creator just a little bit easier remember if you want to try a beginner friendly and intuitive editing app you should check out descript it's linked in the description and on one quick final personal note this is the last youtube video that i'm going to be filming in my condo, which is crazy.
If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I'm moving to a new space. I haven't talked about it as much on YouTube because it's just been so busy with like other video ideas that I've had here. I know if you've watched this point in the video, you're a real one, okay?
You're like one of my besties. So let me know in the comments if you'd like to see more about the moving process. I think I want to document setting up my new studio.
But yeah, I just thought I'd give you a heads up because you're not going to be seeing this space as often. I'm still going to be using all the b -roll that I've shot here because I've put way too much work into that to stop now.
But yeah, it's going to be a big transition and hopefully I can put together a decent looking filming space until the studio is ready. As always, thank you so much for watching. I hope you're having adventures and following your dreams and I'll catch you in the next video.
Bye.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Fifteen years into her YouTube channel, Katie Steckly says growth was never really about the algorithm. It was about ten specific things nobody told her early enough, from titling a video for a person instead of a search engine, to why hitting six figures in subscribers was never going to make her feel like a real creator.
Named ideas worth stealing.
12:33concept
The Frankenstein method
- Title ideas
- Thumbnail tagline text
- Video concepts
Keep three separate running lists (titles, thumbnail text, video concepts) instead of committing to one pre-scripted video idea, then combine the strongest pieces from each list.
Steal forany content ideation process where packaging keeps getting bolted on after the fact
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
06:13product
“Descript is a great tool for beginner editors. If you want to try it out for yourself, you can click the link in the description. And thanks so much to Descript for sponsoring today's video.”
Mid-roll sponsor read woven directly into the autoplay/captions lesson, with a live screen-recording demo of the exact editing features being recommended, rather than a bolted-on ad break.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
AFFILIATECommission earned if you click.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
