21:30Codie Sanchez · Tutorial
How To ACTUALLY Make Money Using AI
A 21-minute live build where one host goes from idea to first paying customer using nine AI tools and five named frameworks.
June 14thThe argument in one line.
A repeatable six-step system — one platform, real credibility, one category, mined content ideas, platform-specific metrics, and a paid product ladder — turns an audience into an actual business instead of just a following.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You're under roughly 100k followers and deciding which single platform to focus on before spreading across six.
- You're posting content regularly but haven't built anything to sell off-platform yet (courses, events, guides, community).
- You're getting views but confused why they aren't converting to revenue, and want platform-specific benchmarks instead of vague advice.
- You're a business owner turning your expertise into content but still leaning on expensive production instead of native, trust-building formats.
SKIP IF…
- You already have a mapped monetization funnel and are optimizing execution — this stays at the framework level, not platform-specific tactics.
- You want hands-on how-to (editing, algorithm tricks) rather than the underlying strategic system.
The full version, fast.
The video argues that growing on social media is a repeatable six-part system, not luck: pick one platform and win it before expanding, since each platform rewards a different persona and pays differently (YouTube sponsorships run $5-15k per 100k followers versus $200-1,000 on X). Build credibility not with expensive production but with platform-native content, personal history, and visible action. Own one category and repeat it past the point of boredom. Mine ideas from swipe files, comments, and audience language instead of guessing. Read platform-specific metrics — CTR and watch time on YouTube, share rate on Instagram — to diagnose performance. Finally, route free content through a five-rung paid product ladder, since organic funnels convert better than ad revenue alone.
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00:00 – 00:23
01 · Cold open
States the credential (Forbes top-10 creator) and the promise: growth is a repeatable six-C framework, not luck.
00:23 – 00:52
02 · Channel: pick one platform
Most creators fail by spraying mediocre posts across six platforms; the fix is winning one platform before expanding.
00:52 – 02:36
03 · Platform breakdown: X/Twitter
X rewards contrarian one-liners and horizontal podcast clips; it's the fastest platform and the lowest-paying.
02:36 – 04:36
04 · Platform breakdown: TikTok
TikTok reaches cold audiences over followers; great for awareness, weak for direct sales unless the product is highly visual.
04:36 – 06:22
05 · Platform breakdown: LinkedIn
LinkedIn rewards professional aspiration plus tactical education; high-value audience, weak for direct product sales.
06:22 – 08:22
06 · Platform breakdown: Instagram
Instagram rewards shareable, relatable content; declining organic reach but strong ticket-sales conversion.
08:22 – 11:11
07 · Platform breakdown: YouTube
YouTube audiences want the full story-driven walkthrough; it pays the best of any platform and drives real sales.
11:11 – 12:16
08 · Platform breakdown: Newsletter
Email is the highest-intent, fully-owned channel; small engaged lists outperform large checked-out ones.
12:16 – 14:45
09 · Credibility
Skip the expensive studio setup; platform-native content, personal history, and visible action build trust for free.
14:45 – 18:03
10 · Category
Own one specific thing and repeat it past the point of boredom; niches pay very differently in YouTube RPM.
18:03 – 19:20
11 · Curate: the content idea system
A four-step system to never run out of ideas: swipe file, steal the hook, mine the comments, build a problem bank.
19:20 – 23:15
12 · Calibration
Read platform-specific metrics — retention graphs, CTR, share rate, reply rate, engagement rate, open rate — to diagnose performance.
23:15 – 25:44
13 · Collect
Organic outperforms paid for ownership and conversion; route free content through a five-rung paid product ladder.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- You win on the internet by not being everywhere — pick one platform, win it, then expand, rather than spraying 25 mediocre posts across six platforms a week.
- X pays the least per 100k followers ($200-$1,000 a sponsored post) but rewards horizontal podcast clips and contrarian one-liners over polished content.
- TikTok reaches cold audiences more than existing followers — Instagram's median reach to followers is 68% versus TikTok's 38%.
- TikTok is built for awareness, not sales: over 2 million TikTok followers produced fewer than a dozen event ticket sales.
- LinkedIn sponsorships run $1,500-$8,000 per post at 100k followers, but only 2.4% of one event's ticket sales came through the platform.
- Instagram organic reach fell roughly 28% year over year, yet at 100k followers it outsold TikTok on event tickets by about 100 to 1.
- YouTube pays the best of any platform for sponsorships — $5,000-$15,000 per post at 100k subscribers — and drove 27% of ticket sales plus 11% through Community posts alone.
- Newsletter sponsorships look small ($1,500-$5,000 per send at 100k subscribers) but drove 30% of one event's ticket sales, the highest of any channel covered.
- Across the channel's own catalog, more polished production correlated with worse performance — a heavily-edited video got 47,000 views while a kitchen-filmed one got roughly 100x more.
- Finance and investing content earns the highest YouTube RPM ($5-$17 per 1,000 views), versus $4-$6 for entertainment.
- 38% of one campaign's ticket sales came from paid ads; the remaining 62% came from organic content, which converts because it builds relationship instead of renting attention.
- The product ladder runs five rungs by price: free content, $0-$50 (guide/template), $50-$500 (course/community), $500-$5,000 (cohort/membership), and $5,000+ (fund investment or business sale).
Growth is a system, not luck — six steps turn a following into a business.
WHAT TO LEARN
Winning on social media comes down to picking one platform, earning credibility for free, owning a category, systematically mining content ideas, reading the right per-platform metric, and routing attention through a priced product ladder.
02Channel: pick one platform
- Posting 25 mediocre pieces a week across six platforms performs worse than dominating one — win a single platform before expanding to others.
- Each platform functions like a different persona with its own tone, so the same content style doesn't transfer between them unchanged.
03Platform breakdown: X/Twitter
- X rewards contrarian one-liners and predictions that invite pushback in the comments; earnest, feel-good content underperforms there.
- Content dies within about a day on X, and horizontal podcast clips outperform native vertical video on this platform specifically.
- X pays the least of any platform — roughly $200 to $1,000 per sponsored post at 100,000 followers — and drove under 1% of one event's ticket sales.
04Platform breakdown: TikTok
- TikTok's algorithm favors cold, unfamiliar audiences over existing followers, so success there doesn't depend much on your current audience at all.
- High-performing TikToks state a contrarian hook and a clear problem/solution within the first four seconds; a vague hook can drop views by roughly 30x.
- TikTok converts poorly for anything except highly visual products (TikTok Shop, books) — over 2 million followers produced fewer than a dozen ticket sales for one event.
05Platform breakdown: LinkedIn
- LinkedIn content should combine professional aspiration with tactical, repeatable frameworks — pure inspiration or corporate jargon performs badly.
- 80% of LinkedIn users report driving business decisions, making it a small but high-value audience for B2B offers and lead magnets.
- LinkedIn sponsorships run $1,500-$8,000 per post at 100,000 followers, but it drove only 2.4% of one event's ticket sales — weak for direct product sales.
06Platform breakdown: Instagram
- Instagram rewards shareable content that triggers the send-to-a-friend action more than value-dump posts that just project a lifestyle.
- Carousels are gaining reach faster than Reels right now, even though Reels still do more for follower growth.
- Instagram organic reach has declined roughly 28% year over year, yet it outsold TikTok on event tickets by about 100 to 1 for one launch.
07Platform breakdown: YouTube
- YouTube audiences will sit with a creator for 10-40 minutes and want a full, story-driven walkthrough rather than a quick hit.
- YouTube pays the best of any platform for sponsorships — roughly $5,000-$15,000 per post at 100,000 subscribers.
- YouTube Community posts are an underused growth lever — they drove subscriber growth and 11% of one event's ticket sales on their own.
08Platform breakdown: Newsletter
- Email is the highest-intent, most-owned channel — sponsorship pricing is based on opens and clicks, not raw subscriber count.
- A newsletter drove 30% of one event's ticket sales, the highest conversion share of any channel covered.
- A small, engaged list outperforms a large, checked-out one for both sponsorship value and direct sales.
09Credibility
- Heavily produced content (studio, podcast mic, uplighting) consistently underperformed rougher, native-feeling videos across the channel's own catalog.
- Content should look 'platform native' — matching that platform's font, pacing, and editing feel — which builds trust without saying anything.
- Make content about what you've actually done, not aspirational advice; the standard is being able to talk 30 minutes on it with zero prep.
- Showing yourself doing the actual work in the actual place builds instant credibility because there's nothing to fake.
10Category
- Trying to be everything to everyone fails — the creators who win get known for one specific thing and repeat it constantly.
- Content niches pay very differently in YouTube RPM: finance/investing runs $5-$17 per 1,000 views versus $4-$6 for entertainment.
- Owning a category means repeating the same word, phrase, or visual format past the point where it feels boring to you.
- Visual repetition (a signature opening, a recurring prop, a consistent look) builds recognition without the creator having to say anything new.
11Curate: the content idea system
- Build a swipe file: search your niche, save the top posts over a million views, and log the hook, structure, and top comments.
- Steal the proven hook and topic shape from viral posts, then fill it with original expertise — don't copy the content itself.
- Mine the comments under high-performing videos in your niche for the specific unanswered questions people are asking.
- Log audience language verbatim, not your own jargon — speaking their exact words back to them reads as if you read their mind.
12Calibration
- Retention graphs diagnose exactly where a video fails: a big early drop means a weak hook, a slow decline means content that isn't memorable.
- Every platform rewards a different metric: YouTube = CTR (4-7%) and watch time; Instagram = share rate (4%+) and watch time percentage (50%+).
- X rewards reply rate (1-3% is excellent) since virality there comes from starting arguments, not just being liked.
- LinkedIn engagement rate above 4% is solid, above 6% is top 5%; newsletter open rate above 40% is considered excellent.
13Collect
- In one campaign, 38% of ticket sales came from paid ads while 62% came from organic — paid rents attention, organic builds ownership.
- The monetization funnel runs from free content to newsletter/entry products to mid-tier courses/communities to high-ticket cohorts to fully custom deals.
- The product ladder has five rungs by price: free, $0-$50, $50-$500, $500-$5,000, and $5,000+, and each rung should only be built once the one below is full.
- Ship at roughly 85% done — the last 15% of polish takes disproportionate time and mostly goes unnoticed by the audience.
Terms worth knowing.
- RPM
- Revenue per thousand views — what YouTube pays a creator per 1,000 ad-monetized views. Varies heavily by content niche, with finance and investing paying the most.
- CTR (click-through rate)
- The percentage of people who see a video's thumbnail and click it. YouTube treats roughly 4-7% as a healthy baseline.
- Swipe file
- A saved collection of high-performing posts in a niche — thumbnails, hooks, and top comments — used as reference material when generating new content ideas.
- Product ladder
- A sequence of offers priced from free to expensive, each one pulling a subset of the audience toward a higher-commitment, higher-priced purchase.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:33
“You win on the Internet by not being everywhere. You win by being undeniable in one place.”
01:00
“Twitter acts as like the angry middle aged guy who hasn't become what he wants yet.”
02:31
“TikTok. This is like your 14 year old cousin. Funny, a little lazy, zero patience.”
16:08
“If I had a dollar for every time I've said boring business, I'd have topped that Forbes list on revenue alone.”
19:39
“Watch time is YouTube's love language.”
23:52
“Paid ads are just renting your audience and organic lets you own it.”
25:34
“Ship before you feel it's perfect at 85%, and the last 15% takes weeks, and no one notices it but you.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphoranalogy
00:00If I were starting out on social media again in 2026, this is exactly what I would do. Forbes just named me a top 10 creator in the world, but just a few years ago, I had zero followers. Getting here taught me that building an audience is not luck.
00:11It comes down to a simple repeatable framework I call the six c's that works in any business or niche. I'm gonna break them down for you live today. Let's get into first c.
00:20I wanna make something painfully clear for you. So most people start the dumbest way possible. They spray and pray, pumping out 25 average pieces a week across six platforms, none of which work, then they wonder why nothing hits.
00:34You win on the Internet by not being everywhere. You win by being undeniable in one place.
00:40Pick one platform, win on it, then expand it. I think about it like we're here at one of the biggest television production agencies in the world. They're really good at TV.
00:49They nail it. So they earn a bunch of Emmys. So the question for you is, like, where are you gonna win your Emmy?
00:54Like, which platform should you start on? I've learned each one is like a different version of yourself, and you gotta teach them differently. For instance, each platform has a different style, a different way you're gonna go viral, and different value to you and your business.
01:06So here's the breakdown of my actual strategy on each one in the order of how much money I make from them. Starting on the bottom with x. Twitter acts as like the who hasn't become what he wants yet.
01:17He's cerebral. He wants to be challenged. You have to be a little smarter and a little ruder than feels comfortable.
01:23And it is the fastest platform, so content dies in, like, a day. Good content looks like this. Contrarian takes, one liners, predictions that invite a little fight in the comments.
01:34Bad content is feel good aesthetic trying to be liked instead of right. Here's what a good post look like. My take on how much money people should spend on their weddings.
01:44My favorite replies, $5,000 wedding? Where do you wanna have this wedding?
01:48In a public toilet? A bad post for this would be something like acute motivational couple content. That would have done much better on Instagram.
01:56What's also really working for us when I look at it is horizontal videos clipped from podcasts like this clip here. Other platforms, they crave vertical videos. X seems to love horizontal.
02:07But remember, how they pay you, what sort of matches the short shelf life of this content. If you have a 100,000 followers, an X sponsorship might be a couple $100 to 1,000 per post.
02:17That's the lowest of the bunch. I don't do that kind of content on here, but that is what it is. You can see how much we make right here, actually, for the last month on x.
02:25Now for our last event, just over 1% of the tickets sold through social media came through x, which is basically none. Next, have TikTok.
02:34This is like your . Funny, a little lazy, zero patience. You have two seconds or she's gone.
02:40The reason is that TikTok reaches cold audiences that don't know you more than it reaches your followers who know and love you. So you actually can't rely on credibility or quick follow through on your followers. It's kinda like you're starting with a brand new audience every time you post.
02:54There's actually this study that found that on Instagram, the medium reach to followers is 68%, while TikTok is 38%.
03:02So it's easier to get a ton of views on TikTok, but because your followers aren't seeing your content as much as other platforms, views and followers do less for your business. The high performing TikToks, get right into it.
03:14Like this with a contrarian hook in less than four seconds. It presents a problem. Look at this.
03:20It shows the solution. So 290,000 views, 441 comments, that's pretty good for me on TikTok.
03:26But then look at this low performer here, which has a hook that's just not as strong, not that clear, like, what I'm gonna get out of it. There isn't a valuable framework in this video. It's just me explaining a problem and, like, no solution for it.
03:40So what does that mean? I only got 9,000 views and 14 comments. That's no bueno for me.
03:45What's crushing on TikTok are super stripped down videos. Think like zero production yapping videos that look like you're talking to a phone, maybe propped up on a water bottle, or you're casually in the car.
03:57On the monetization side, you can charge anywhere from 2,000 to 7,000 per sponsored post if you have a 100,000 followers. Actually, though, selling products, depending on what they are, works really well on TikTok shop, but it's hard to get people to to buy off the platform.
04:12To put this in perspective, I have over 2,000,000 followers on the platform, and I've sold less than a dozen tickets to my last event. TikTok is great for awareness, terrible for sales unless you have a really viral product that's very easy see visually. So if you have a CPG product, great.
04:28You know, if you're selling a book, great. Book talk's huge, actually. But if you're selling something like an event, much harder.
04:35Next is LinkedIn. It's a platform full of professionals trying to get smarter, richer, promoted. Very high signal to noise platform.
04:4280% of the users on the platform actually drive business decisions. That's really good because that means they have money and they can spend it. Now the way you win is combining professional aspiration with tactical education.
04:53So think business related quotes, hiring mistakes, frameworks they can repeat in a meeting later. Bad content gives press release energy and complete aesthetic fluff and corporate jargon nonsense.
05:05Let me give you an example of bad. This post was purely inspirational, didn't provide any value or way for the reader to improve themselves. It only pushes a product, which is probably why this didn't get very many views.
05:17Now check this post out. It opens with a strong hook and gets into its purpose right away, how to lose good employees. This plays into a contrarian take, and it goes to call out companies like Google and its work culture.
05:30So it's actually offering a free product. The hiring matrix is a solution for hiring the right people. That's called the lead magnet.
05:37Those do really well when you do them right. Now what's crushing for us right now are professional inspirational quotes that look like tweets, just like this example. So LinkedIn is actually trying to increase their short form video presence to keep up with the other platforms, and we should know because they reach out to me directly and try to get us to be a part of this.
05:54I think the best way to get views and grow are post with a good quote as a picture and a value in the caption. And depending on your niche, LinkedIn can actually be a sleeper. It could be super valuable.
06:04Like, 1,500 to 8,000 per sponsored post and a 100 k followers. That's before the deals clients hires it brings in, which, you know, you're not gonna see the cost of that or the value of that, and, uh, that's what I do. LinkedIn doesn't really pay you for doing anything on the platform, though.
06:19Also, if you sell products, only 2.4% of our tickets were sold through LinkedIn. Again, don't see a lot of people having a lot of success selling products on LinkedIn unless they're recruiters or something like that.
06:29Now Instagram wants you to be the , who lets others sort of peek behind the curtain. It's like relatable, aspirational.
06:37And Instagram prioritizes shareable content more than any other platform except maybe x. So the CEO, Adam Masary, said they're trying to differentiate themselves from TikTok and YouTube by making Instagram the most social platform.
06:50So content that makes you wanna click that little triangle in the bottom right is gold for them. Anything that feels like you're projecting to the audience and it's just a huge value dump doesn't really work that much, which makes it sometimes hard for people like me who I'm not really showing my lifestyle, and I don't wanna highlight the cars and the planes and the fancy stuff.
07:08I mostly just talk about how to make more money and grow your business. For some reasons like that, Instagram can be tougher. Now let's give you examples of what works.
07:14This video looks more like a lecture. This is not cute, not aesthetic, and a bond. However, the second video plays it differently.
07:22It's like behind the scenes look that got 341 k views. The reel kinda hits the nail on the head because it shows the peak behind the curtain and presents it in a more casual way.
07:32It feels like you and I are hanging out. Little hot tip, carousels are super hot right now. A year ago, the strategy was to use reels to grow and carousels to engage followers.
07:41You still need reels to grow, but carousels are getting a lot more reach now. I think Instagram's overall organic reach has declined. Lots of studies show, like, 28% year over year, so it is harder to get views than on TikTok, but the audience is way more engaged and, I think, valuable.
07:57At a 100 k followers on Instagram, sponsorships run about 2,500 to 7,500 a post. Instagram will also pay you, although not that much.
08:05But we've sold lots of tickets on Instagram, and I'm focusing just on events because lots of people could do events. In fact, I think we've sold a 100 x the tickets on Instagram than on TikTok for our last event. Next, have YouTube, my favorite, obviously, you guys.
08:20So this is for the aspirational 20 crowd. Tell me in the comments if that's you.
08:25Hi. Who basically want the tactical playbook. So this is people who want something to walk all the way through.
08:31That's why there's all the recipe, uh, YouTube videos, you know, all of the framework videos, or they wanna be entertained. Why are not entertained?
08:39I think it is platform where people will actually sit with you for ten to forty minutes, and it's the largest search engine for information behind Google. So content lives super long there, trust builds really fast, and good content is actually this is story driven education. So we do case studies, breakdowns, how they built this, doctor documentary style lessons.
09:01Bad content looks like this. It's always tough to go back through and look at your dang it.
09:06Uh, it was how to out work everyone by doing 1% better. It's vague. I would say the value on it isn't as high as we wanna be because it doesn't solve an immediate problem.
09:16So it's not helping you immediately, and it's not, like, massively entertaining. On the other side, a post like this, do this every time you get paid, provides a tactical frame. It applies to everyone that has a paycheck.
09:28It's super signal to noise. It's fast, it's kinda creative. Now I think it's never been a better time to start a YouTube channel as the algorithm is actually favoring smaller channels.
09:38And one of the most underused features on any platform right now is YouTube community posts. We've been gaining thousands of subscribers and selling our events through posts. Regarding growth, you know, we see a shift happening where it's coming less from long form than it used to and more from short form content.
09:54Now this is mostly for us. It's not the same for every channel. So I'm just showing telling you what we find.
09:59I think like Instagram, the less produced content performing well for smaller channels on the platform actually. YouTube pays the best for sponsorships though by far. So at a 100,000 subscribers, a single YouTube sponsorship runs about five k to 15.
10:13It's a lot longer though than everything else. Your audience is also gonna buy a lot more on YouTube. And, you know, for our recent, uh, event, MSM Live, we sold 27 of our tickets through YouTube videos, and I think we sold 11% through YouTube community.
10:27Lastly, a newsletter. So this one might not sound like social media, but it's the highest intent and value audience no one talks about. If you wanna steal our homework, should sign up for the newsletter.
10:37You can go to contrarianthinking.co or you can link below to do it. A good newsletter will provide frameworks, business breakdowns, deal analysis in our world, and a lot of here's what I do content or here's what I would do content.
10:49Now if you have a bad newsletter, it's gonna give you filler, and it trains people to stop opening. So don't do that. Sponsorship can be really high too.
10:57It's priced on engagement, like who opens your newsletter and clicks around, not just subscriber count, which means it's better to have, like, a small loyal list than a big checked out one. Let me give you an example of, like, one of our newsletters. It's called the trap of hot businesses.
11:12Businesses that look hot on the outside but optimized for the wrong things. Why I love this and why I think it did so well is it gives you real frameworks on how to counter them. What you could do in business or not do.
11:24Here's another one, uh, this time from TurboTax. It does a great job of promoting a product, but it actually gives the reader nothing tactical. So this would be a bad example.
11:33It doesn't bridge the gap between customer and brand except to show off a product. It feels a little selfish. If you saw this headline in your inbox, would you even click it?
11:41My answer is no. I wouldn't. The sponsorship number for newsletter looks small.
11:46It's like 1,500 to 5 k per send a 100,000 subs. But don't be fooled. You actually own this audience.
11:52So it's the channel you sell the most through. We sold 30% of our tickets through newsletter.
11:57And a little trick to grow fast on any of these platforms, follow high level employees working for the platform you're trying to grow on who are active on social. Almost everyone is trying to build a personal brand, so a lot of these executives are posting free sauce about what the company is doing and what the content they are looking for is.
12:14Alright. Let's talk credibility. Please, please, please, first, for the love of God, this does not mean renting a studio, putting a podcast mic in front of yourself with the fake wood paneling and the uplighting.
12:24You know that what I'm talking about. That can actually hurt you. Across the board, we found the more produced we try to make content, the worse it performs.
12:31So just take a look at some of my own videos. There was this one video that was really polished, like a trending topic, super well edited.
12:38However, I think this one got 47,000 views. Like, it had some good insights, but it would have benefited from way less produced look.
12:46The other video I wanted to highlight is this one, which is me in my kitchen. It got about a 100 acts of uses the first one. A short about business breakdowns gave the viewers a framework, sure, but the opening hook looks like it was filmed natively, kind of like we're here meeting with a bunch of people in Hollywood talking about TV shows and content and agents, and it's raw and authentic, like with airplanes flying over simultaneously.
13:10So if it's not the studio or the sound effects, what makes people trust you? I found it comes down to things that actually don't cost you any money at all. Platform native.
13:18So look like you belong there. Every platform has its own font, pacing, kind of editing feel. And you know when you scroll past something and it just it feels like it was meant for that platform, that's it speaking what we call the local language.
13:30So spend time consuming content from that platform so you know how to tell if it's a native speaker or not. That's how you get credibility without even saying a word.
13:40Okay. The second one I wanna talk about is history. So make content about what you've actually done.
13:44You don't need to be Warren Buffett. Just are you a few steps ahead of the next person? Like, I'm not here in front of this place getting an Emmy, but I actually have made content about finance and business and creating content because I was at Goldman Sachs.
13:57We have tens of millions of followers. I buy a bunch of companies. So don't ask what should I put post.
14:02Ask what have I earned the right to explain? I think the way to think about this is like a a dinner test. You know?
14:08If friends grill you on a topic, could you talk thirty minutes with zero prep about it? I milked a cat once. You wanna hear a story?
14:16Then make content about it. And the last one in action, show yourself doing the thing. Like, the fastest credibility is walking into the building where we're talking about the biggest media in the world.
14:26There's a construction crew I love who built a huge following just filming themselves at real projects on the job site. You believe them instantly, like there's nothing to fake. Point at the camera, talk about the work, do it on the site, have some fun.
14:37Bottom line, skip the studio and show what you've done. Do it on camera, make it look native. Now let's go see if we can do something with these guys.
14:45Category. You can't be everything to everyone. The people who win get known for one thing and shout it over and over again.
14:51Dave Ramsey, the debt guy. Ali Abdul, the productivity guy. Cody, the small business expert.
14:56But before you choose, realize that not all niches pay the same. So YouTube has a metric called RPM, and we pulled a bunch of data for you, which is how they pay you per thousand views to run ads and swing super hard by topic. So finance and investing, sit at the top.
15:12You get, like, 5 to $17 per thousand views. Education and career get about 4 to $10, and entertainment, 4 to $6.
15:21Yes. Even mister beast money lives down here. He just does it as at an insane scale.
15:26This is the video I made about how to invest your paycheck. So it sits in the personal finance and investing space. The RPM was $12.52, and it got about 800 k views generating just over 10 k of revenue.
15:39So choose your thing partly by how much you wanna make, then repeat it so that it gets benefited by the algorithm. On Instagram, a normal, uh, post reaches about 3.5% of your followers, meaning that if you have a 100,000 followers, less than 4,000 are likely to see it.
15:55One post isn't annoying anyone.
16:00But the playbook on YouTube is that you have to be careful if you keep doing the exact same thing.
16:06You need to own a category. So if it's an idea, use that exact word or phrase in a ton of content. If I had a dollar for every time I've said boring business, I'd have topped that Forbes list on revenue alone.
16:18So inside each category, you wanna build content pillars, repeatable formats. Look at mister beast. He does, $1 versus a million, everything.
16:27I survived seven days in, same formats, run again and again and again. Mine is I break down how do businesses work, celebrity business frameworks, money frameworks, interviewing main street millionaires. You can also own a visual.
16:40So School of Hard Knocks, every video opens with the same guy walking up to somebody rich. Kevin O'Leary never appears without his black suit up top, at least. It's kinda funny, though.
16:49When I met him, he did have pants on at Shark Tank, so that was weird for me. Visual repetition makes you way more rec recognizable without you having to say a word. You do need to pick your word, So pick your formats.
17:02Repeat past the point of boredom. That's how you own a category. Now I did not get on the Forbes list because of my AdSense, and that's how you get paid on YouTube.
17:10Right? So for me, it's a tiny slice of what my content actually earns. The real money isn't on the platform at all, and I'll show you how to make way more off of YouTube or whatever platform you're posting on in this video.
17:22Now we're going to Warner Brothers, and I wanna talk to you about what not to do. I want you to stop pulling content out of the thin air like some sort of tortured poet. Like your audience is already telling you what they want.
17:34Go where they are and listen. This is also how you sell TV shows and movies and anything else you wanna do. New people will find you through what they're already watching because your video gets served next to the others in your niche.
17:44So, like, go and study that ecosystem before you add to it. If you think that I don't know what every other business content expert does, you'd be wrong. If you think that I wouldn't know what all of our service businesses do, you'd be wrong.
17:56I think there is actually a four step system to never run out of content ideas, and you can steal it. Step one, you're gonna build a swipe file. So I want you to go to your search bar, type your niche, filter to video, and save the top 100 posts over a million views.
18:13Then you screenshot the thumbnail, transcribe the first thirty seconds, and log the top comments and who's sponsoring them. That's your future revenue list. After you've done that, steal the hook, not the content.
18:24You don't wanna be a copycat. We basically take the proven hooks and topics from those viral videos and pour your expertise into them. Then you're gonna fill it with the stuff you can say only.
18:34Write 30 scripts before you film anything. Step three, I want you to mind the comments. So the lazy person copies the video on top, but I think the smart one actually reads the unanswered questions underneath.
18:46Comment section, subreddits, discords. If a video on buying a business has a million views and the comments scream, but how do I do this with no money?
18:53Bam. Next video. Step four, build a problem bank.
18:56So I like to do this in other people's words. Save what people say in their exact wording. You'd say capital constraints.
19:04Okay? But they would probably say, I don't have the money, I'm scared I'll look stupid asking the seller. Use the listener's version.
19:11Speak it back, and they think you read their mind. And if you want the exact log that my team uses, click the link in the description. I'll send it to you.
19:19And I think the fifth c is the most important. This is calibration. This is where you stop posting and praying and start reading what people actually did.
19:27And remember, the data isn't a judgment of your worth. It's a map. So gonna show you where the audience actually leans in just like ratings do or number of tickets sold in the box office.
19:37So at YouTube, you look at something called CTR, which means click through rate and watch time. Watch time is YouTube's .
19:43More watch time, more ads, more money for you and YouTube. CTR is who sees your thumbnail and clicks. This should be like four to 7%.
19:52It's highest at post when it hits your subs, then kinda settles down as it gets colder. Now, Instagram is totally different. You should look at the share rate plus the watch time percentage.
20:01Watch time is the top signal, but shares multiply you. Like, a DM share is worth three to five x alike for reaching non followers. An excellent share rate is like 4%.
20:12Viral watch time percentage is over 50% and over 60% on a fifteen second clip. Sneaky little tip though, hide your likes. Nobody wants to watch a video with 15 likes.
20:22So if a video hasn't taken off, it doesn't get punished by low social proof. For x, want I you to look at replies. Comments are a signal, but a one to 3% reply rate is excellent.
20:34So it's not gonna be that many people replying. Virality goes to takes that make people talk, not just like. So you do want them engaging in the comments.
20:42Now LinkedIn, you wanna look at engagement rate. So comments, they weigh the heaviest.
20:48Aim for 4% plus. Hit 6%, you're in the top 5% of content, which is pretty wild. And newsletter is open rate.
20:55Meaning, how many people open your email. Baseline, 30%. Anything above 40%, you're crushing it.
21:02Let's break down how to go viral with videos. On any platform, I'm basically watching three things.
21:07The start, the stay, the signal, the three s's. No one stops, that means your hook's weak.
21:12They start in bail, it didn't pay off fast enough. They watch it all but do nothing, entertaining, not memorable.
21:19And growth is all about having them come back. Right? So let me show you how I read this so you can see why a video went viral or not.
21:25Basically, what you're looking at here is a YouTube video of this video with my retention graph that shows the first big drop off as at this point. This is actually one of our more viral videos breaking down Rile Ryan Reynolds' business. The hook works twice.
21:39It's Ryan. Everybody knows him. He's all over the news.
21:43The hook, this is great. Super counterintuitive. It opens a loop, and you need to figure out how to close it.
21:49Like, what happened? Then comes a beautiful flat retention line. Like, see how it sort of stabilizes?
21:55I explained fastvertising. I made up that word. Uh, I tell a story where it played out.
22:00The only dip is the summer at the end. I didn't need it. I you'd really never need to summarize, but 8080% stayed for it, so I'm happy with Next one.
22:08Let's look at a bad version. So same style, 1% of the views.
22:12The hook, way looser, four extra seconds to reach sort of the main part, and I don't name a framework until twenty two seconds in, which in YouTube years is like four years. So fewer people get grabbed, and the retention line slopes down instead of saying flat. Can you see that?
22:28What I want you to do is basically the hook should be counterintuitive, promise value.
22:34You gotta deliver that value right away, and don't repeat yourself. Keep it tight. I think one of the more important things is for you to review the scripts like I am with you right now because you wanna look through all these and see if you can find the issues.
22:45And once you get bigger, you wanna have your team do the exact same thing. Because if you study your winners and your flops, you'll actually figure out why something hits and be able to name topic, specificity, first line, hook.
22:58If you can't name it, you can't repeat it, and luck is, like, a very stupid strategy. We're not stupid here, are we? After posts, just three notes.
23:05Why did they start watching? Where did they leave? What line got a reaction?
23:10Do that across 50 posts, and you'll probably have my millions of subscribers soon. This last c is the most important c because it actually puts food on the table.
23:18You need to collect. I really can't say this loud enough. Do not rely solely on platform ad revenue.
23:24Too many people make content and do brand deals and think that's it. This is why I built mine differently, and some could say it's going pretty well. So let me show you how important organic content is for business.
23:34These are the actual numbers from a recent campaign we ran from one of my events. We promoted both paid ads and organic. 38% of tickets sold came from paid advertising, which means 62% came from organic.
23:46We were paying for impressions on one side and the other was converting for free. Paid ads are just and organic lets you own it by building the relationships that actually close the sale. So besides sponsorships and ad revenue, this is my organic content funnel.
24:00First, I make content about buying and growing small businesses, and I provide free value around it. That pulls people into my newsletter and my entry level products, like my book.
24:10A few people who are really right for what we are offering go from these to our academy and boardroom where we advise people directly. And then now we have ultra select programs called private client where we actually source businesses for individuals. On top of that, we also have a few virtual and in person events and different other products, and we have a capital investment firm both in venture and for a holding company.
24:32And if you want any more information on this, the link is in the description. So here's how you apply this to your own content. You build a ladder that solves people's problems at different depths.
24:40It's not random. Like this video did well, let's sell them a hoodie with a dog on it. Here's the product ladder.
24:45First rung is free content. That earns you trust, basically. Second is 0 to $50 in value.
24:52This is the easy yes, like a guide, a template, a book. The third rung is 50 to $500, and it's like a playbook.
24:59This could be a course. This could be a low level product. This could be a community.
25:04This could be an event. The fourth rung is 500 to 5,000. This is access and speed, which could be a cohort.
25:12It could be a year long membership. And the fifth, anything about that is hyper personalized or big ticket, which might be an investment in the fund. It might be you sell your business to us.
25:22So you don't build all five on day one. I like starting with free content and adding one paid step, a free newsletter that captures the relationship, plus a single low ticket guide as your first rung.
25:33Then you only add the other once the one below is full. Ship before you feel it's perfect at 85%, and the last 15% takes weeks, and no one notices it but you.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
She opens with the credential (a Forbes top-10 creator ranking) and the promise: the growth wasn't luck, it was a repeatable six-part framework she's about to hand over in full.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:00list
The 6 C's
- Channel
- Credibility
- Category
- Curate
- Calibration
- Collect
The full framework the video is structured around, from picking a platform to actually converting attention into revenue.
Steal fora content strategy audit / content calendar structure
00:52list
Platform archetypes
- X = angry middle-aged guy (cerebral, contrarian, wants a fight)
- TikTok = 14-year-old cousin (fast, cold-audience, zero patience)
- LinkedIn = professional seeking advancement
- Instagram = aesthetic friend letting you behind the curtain
- YouTube = aspirational 20-something wanting the full playbook
- Newsletter = highest-intent, fully-owned audience
Frames each platform as a persona to write for, which changes the hook, tone, and content type per platform.
Steal forchannel-specific content calendars
18:03list
4-step content idea system
- Build a swipe file — save the top 100 posts in your niche over 1M views
- Steal the hook, not the content
- Mine the comments for unanswered questions
- Build a problem bank in the audience's own words
A repeatable process for never running out of content ideas, sourced from what audiences are already asking for.
Steal fora weekly content-idea sourcing routine
19:20acronym
The 3 S's (retention diagnosis)
- Start — hook strength
- Stay — payoff pacing
- Signal — memorability/shareability
A three-part lens for reading a retention graph and diagnosing exactly why a video did or didn't work.
Steal fora post-mortem checklist for underperforming videos
23:15model
Product ladder
- Free content — builds trust
- $0-$50 — the easy yes (guide, template, book)
- $50-$500 — a playbook (course, low-level product, community)
- $500-$5,000 — access and speed (cohort, membership)
- $5,000+ — hyper-personalized (fund investment, business sale)
A five-rung pricing structure that routes free-content viewers toward progressively higher-ticket offers, built one rung at a time.
Steal formapping an offer suite against an existing audience
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
19:14link
“if you want the exact log that my team uses, click the link in the description. I'll send it to you.”
Soft CTA embedded mid-framework during the Curate section rather than saved for the end — it extends the content-idea system she just taught, so it reads as a natural continuation instead of a sales pitch.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
Visual structure at a glance.
