YouTube Is Harder Now… But There's a Huge Opportunity
Think Media's Sean Cannell breaks down why 20 million daily uploads and a dead subscriber advantage haven't killed YouTube — they've just changed who wins on it.
Posted
6 days ago
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Tutorial
educational
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12.7K
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57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
YouTube's competition has exploded and subscribers no longer guarantee views, but creators who chase the right viewers instead of more viewers, build an AI-proof brand, and master packaging can still break through starting from zero.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You run a business or personal brand and are deciding whether YouTube is still worth the time investment in 2026.
You already post on YouTube but have watched views decline even though your subscriber count hasn't dropped.
You care more about the right views — leads and customers — than raw view count.
You're starting from zero with no existing following and want to know if a brand-new channel can still break through.
SKIP IF…
You're chasing entertainment-scale reach (MrBeast comparisons) rather than lead generation or brand building for a business.
You already have a dedicated YouTube strategist, editor, and system in place and are past the beginner strategic questions covered here.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Sean Cannell argues YouTube got harder: 20 million daily uploads, subscribers no longer guaranteeing views, and good content alone no longer being enough. But the opportunity outweighs the threat — YouTube now out-earns Disney, NBC, Paramount and Warner combined in ad revenue, has paid creators $100 billion in four years, and roughly half of most channels' monthly views come from old videos, so a video posted today can still earn views years later. His fix is five strategic shifts: chase the right viewers instead of more viewers, use authenticity to counter AI fatigue and the 'trust recession,' build a brand AI can't copy, run content like a media company instead of a hobby, and master packaging — topic, title, thumbnail — since a great video with a weak title goes nowhere.
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Sets up the three challenges: 20 million daily uploads, internal competition across Shorts/long-form/podcasts/livestreams, and attention scattered across every other app.
02:34 – 04:55
02 · Subscribers No Longer Guarantee Views
Linus Tech Tips and MrBeast view declines as proof that even big channels don't get automatic distribution; a 77-year-old first-time creator getting 37,000 views on video one as proof it's still winnable from zero.
04:55 – 05:48
03 · Good Content Is No Longer Enough
Introduces the 'content is king, packaging is queen' thesis — topic, title, and thumbnail decide whether good content ever gets discovered.
05:48 – 13:07
04 · The Opportunity: Town Square of the Internet
YouTube's 2.7B monthly users, ad revenue beating Disney/NBC/Paramount/Warner combined, $100B paid to creators, dominance in both Shorts and long-form/TV viewing, and the VPH metric for spotting evergreen performers.
13:07 – 16:52
05 · Chase the Right Views, Not More Views
Reframes success around the right viewer over view count, using a real estate agent's math and Stacy Tuschl's 736-view livestream that closed a $30,000 client.
16:52 – 20:02
06 · Authenticity vs. AI Fatigue and the Trust Recession
Names the 'trust recession' and argues stripped-down, unscripted vlogging is currently outperforming polished production for connection, citing Benji Travis's supermarket vlog.
20:02 – 27:34
07 · Your Brand Is the Only Differentiator Left
The six-part Brand DNA framework (voice, look, perspective, story, convictions, niche) and the case for sharing genuine values, using Cannell's own faith-based video as an example of a brand that repels as well as attracts.
27:34 – 35:56
08 · Act Like a Media Company or Fall Behind
Contrasts creators who dabble with those who invest, using Hormozi/Sanchez/Martell/Vaynerchuk team sizes and Chalene Johnson's lean five-person system that produced $1.6M in a year.
35:56 – 43:20
09 · Master Packaging or Get Ignored
The Packaging Equation, Ben Azadi's KetoCamp turnaround through title/thumbnail work, the anatomy of his breakout title, and YouTube's native A/B testing for titles and thumbnails.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every single day, and every one of them has to win on its own merits — subscribers no longer guarantee views.
MrBeast's average views reportedly fell from over 200 million to as low as 50 million, and Linus Tech Tips reported views down as much as 75%.
A 77-year-old first-time creator with zero social following posted her first video ever and got 37,000 views using the strategies outlined in this talk.
Content is king, but packaging — topic, title, and thumbnail — is queen, and she runs the household.
YouTube now generates more ad revenue than Disney, NBC, Paramount, and Warner combined, according to a Hollywood Reporter analysis.
YouTube has paid creators $100 billion in direct payouts over the last four years.
YouTube Shorts alone gets 200 billion views a day, and YouTube is now the most-watched platform on American TVs.
Roughly 50% or more of a channel's monthly views typically come from videos posted weeks, months, or years earlier — YouTube rewards a long game.
One real estate agent's single video view can be worth thousands of dollars in commission, so chasing the right viewer beats chasing more viewers.
A single 55-minute YouTube livestream with only 736 views generated one $30,000 client for a business coach.
70% of consumers say they buy from brands that reflect their values, and 84% say they need to share values with a brand to use it.
AI can copy your content, but it can't copy your brand — your voice, look, perspective, story, convictions, and niche.
A creator who added a video about his faith lost some subscribers but said the deeper connection gained outweighed the followers lost.
Creators actually investing in YouTube — hiring strategists, editors, thumbnail designers — are the ones breaking through, not those who dabble.
One entrepreneur built a lean five-person contractor team, filmed on an iPhone, never batched content, and produced $1.6 million in a year.
A title change alone can shift watch time by 6%, which is why YouTube now lets creators A/B test titles and thumbnails directly in Studio.
A 12-minute unscripted car video titled 'Give Me 12 Minutes and I'll Save You 17 Years of Trying to Lose Weight' earned 250,000 views in six days and 27,000 email subscribers.
Takeaway
Five Shifts That Still Let You Win on YouTube
WIN ON YOUTUBE
YouTube got more competitive and less loyal to subscriber counts, but creators who chase the right viewers, build an uncopiable brand, and master packaging can still break through starting from zero.
01Why YouTube Just Got Harder
Treat every single video as needing to win on its own, since 20 million daily uploads mean subscribers alone won't get it seen.
Expect algorithm real estate to keep shifting between Shorts, long-form, podcasts, and livestreams — competition is now internal to YouTube too.
02Subscribers No Longer Guarantee Views
Don't panic if your views drop even as your channel grows — major creators like Linus Tech Tips and MrBeast have reported the same decline.
A creator with zero following can still break through on a brand-new channel if the individual video is crafted to win, not the account history.
03Good Content Is No Longer Enough
Invest as much thought in your topic, title, and thumbnail as in the content itself — packaging decides whether good content ever gets seen.
04The Opportunity: Town Square of the Internet
Remember YouTube now out-earns Disney, NBC, Paramount, and Warner combined in ad revenue, which is why serious businesses can't skip it.
Post to both long-form and Shorts, since YouTube rewards videos that can go viral in 60 seconds and keep earning views for years.
Track a video's Views Per Hour (VPH) with a tool like vidIQ to see which old uploads are still quietly earning views months later.
Plan content as a long game — if half your future monthly views will come from old videos, start publishing now so that library exists later.
05Chase the Right Views, Not More Views
Define your ideal viewer before chasing view count — one high-intent viewer in the right niche can be worth thousands of dollars.
Consider a livestream or webinar-style video aimed at a single call-to-action; a modest 736-view livestream converted into one $30,000 client for one presenter.
Separate your brand-awareness goal from your direct-sales goal so you can judge a video's success by more than views alone.
06Authenticity vs. AI Fatigue and the Trust Recession
Expect audience skepticism to keep rising as AI content floods every platform — plan for lower show-up and opt-in rates industry-wide.
Consider stripped-down, unscripted vlogging as a legitimate strategy, not just a lower-effort fallback — raw formats are currently outperforming polished ones for connection.
Know that both extremes can work: big-budget storytelling and raw, single-camera authenticity — the failure mode is polished content with no point of view.
07Your Brand Is the Only Differentiator Left
Define your brand DNA across six traits — voice, look, perspective, story, convictions, and niche — since AI can copy content but not those.
Be willing to share a genuine belief or value, even a polarizing one, since 70% of consumers say they buy from brands that reflect their values.
Expect a real brand to repel some viewers as the cost of deeply connecting with the right ones — losing a few subscribers isn't necessarily a failure.
08Act Like a Media Company or Fall Behind
Decide up front whether you're serious about YouTube or not — creators who treat it as a scheduled habit outperform those who dabble occasionally.
Build a lean team around a repeatable system rather than a big crew: a coach, an overseas editor, a thumbnail designer, and a b-roll organizer can be enough.
Remember your systems determine your results more than your goals do — a simple, repeatable workflow beats an ambitious plan with no process behind it.
09Master Packaging or Get Ignored
Brainstorm 10 to 40 title options per video before publishing, testing different emotional angles rather than settling on the first idea.
Combine an ultra-clear promise with curiosity and urgency in your title — the formula behind a 12-minute unscripted video hitting 250,000 views in six days.
Use YouTube's built-in title and thumbnail A/B testing, since even a 6% shift in watch time can compound significantly against competitors who don't test.
Know that a bad title buries a great video, while a great title gets a great video distributed by the algorithm for free.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
VPH (Views Per Hour)
A metric surfaced by the free vidIQ browser extension showing how many views a video — yours or a competitor's — is earning per hour right now, used to spot which old uploads are still quietly performing.
Packaging
The combination of a video's topic, title, and thumbnail — the elements that determine whether a video gets clicked and watched, independent of how good the content inside actually is.
Trust recession
A broad decline in audience willingness to show up, opt in, or believe marketing claims, driven by AI-generated content flooding every platform.
Brand DNA
The six traits — voice, look, perspective, story, convictions, and niche — that make a creator's content recognizably theirs and impossible for AI or competitors to copy.
Media company mindset
Treating a YouTube channel like a business that requires ongoing investment — team, systems, budget — rather than a hobby posted to occasionally.
“A bad title with a great video goes nowhere, but a great title with a great video gets distributed by YouTube for free.”
closing-line payoff that lands the whole packaging argument→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
40:07
“Give me twelve minutes and I'll save you seventeen years of trying to lose weight.”
concrete case-study title example, self-contained→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
The Script
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.
17px
metaphor
What's happening now though on YouTube is the biggest shift we've really seen. The rules have changed. Competition is higher than ever.
20,000,000 videos are uploaded every single day to YouTube. Subscribers no longer guarantee views.
Every video has to win on its own merits. She's 77. She had zero following on any social media platform.
But she went through some of the tips we're just about to go through, posted her first video ever on a brand new channel and got 37,000 views. The YouTube algorithm today, it's still possible to get views and breakthrough, but every video has to win on its own merits.
I've broken this presentation into three parts. Let's dive into part one. Why YouTube just got harder and what you could do about it.
Here's kind of the the downside first, the challenges first, the threats first, so we can eventually get to those five strategies and figure out how to win on YouTube.
So here's number one. Competition is higher than ever. I've got bad news.
20,000,000 videos are uploaded every single day to YouTube. 20,000,000 videos.
That seems like crazy. Like, how could we possibly get reach? How could we get ahead on YouTube?
That's just a massive amount of content. Right? And we all feel it.
Competition is higher than ever. But it's really not just YouTube because even competition on YouTube itself. Some of the algorithm distribution is we have long form videos on YouTube.
Oh, but you can also do YouTube shorts. And some of the stuff that we're seeing with the views drop is even how the homepage is set up, like how much real estate on the homepage or suggested YouTube shorts are getting compared to long form.
But then there's also podcasting on YouTube now and through YouTube music, and you can have a podcast there. But then, of course, you can also livestream on YouTube.
So even on YouTube itself, the competition of your own content and everybody else's content. But the world's a lot bigger than that because people now too, their their attention's on TikTok or maybe they're on Instagram or they're listening to Spotify or they're on Facebook.
But it's not even just social media. We know that. People are using Amazon as a therapy tool.
Maybe just confessing myself. It's a search engine. You know, you're buying stuff, like searching over on Amazon.
People are watching Netflix, Tinder. You know? There's like three people right now that are like, swipe left, swipe live.
In this room, you know, they're just they're not even listening to the presentation. They're on a dating app.
You know? And then ChatGPT even. People are having conversations with chat.
Their attention is going all these different places, Claude. And so competition is higher than ever and attention is more distributive than ever.
And so we gotta figure out a way to break through. The second big challenge is subscribers no longer guarantee views.
So there's a lot of creators and big creators talking about this. And a few months ago, Linus Tech Tips, a big tech creator, has a whole team, couple different channels, was talking about their views being down.
And was talking about their views on their content being down as much as 75% of what they used to get. Now what's kind of funny is they're like, you know, typically our videos got 2,000,000 views.
And I'm so outraged because recently we only got 700,000. How brutal is that? Can we just take a second to pray for Linus Tech Tips to just stay encouraged while they're getting I mean, you're in the room.
You're like 700,000 views. And so but the delta, like the discrepancy between those, what's also fascinating is, you know, one of the biggest creators or the biggest independent creator, mister beast, was consistently there's bunch of articles about this getting over 200,000,000 views, and some brands started tracking, like, the actual kinda decline of even his viewership from over 200,000,000 to a 175, even 50,000,000.
Again, I think we really should just send some encouraging messages to mister beast for just 50,000,000 views being a bad day, you know, in his world. But the truth is, right, views are down.
Here's the thing to write down, and this is a thing to really capture. Subscribers no longer guarantee views. Every video has to win on its own merits.
So it's like you're not getting distribution of your content just because you got a subscriber yesterday.
The reason you're gonna get distribution of your content in the algorithm is because the individual video that you craft today can break through.
But here's the cool thing is you actually don't need subscribers to start. We did we did a recent five week cohort.
And by the end of the cohort, a brand new YouTube creator posted her first video ever. Her name was Sherry.
She's 77. She had zero following on any social media platform. But she went through some of the tips we're just about to go through, posted her first video ever on a brand new channel and got 37,000 views.
Yeah. That was five weeks ago. So the YouTube algorithm today, it's still possible to get views and breakthrough, but every video has to win on its own merits.
The crafting of the video, the content, the packaging, we'll talk about that. But here's number three. Good content is no longer good enough.
Good content is no longer good enough. Unfortunately, there's a lot of really great YouTube videos that are not being seen or discovered because the truth is this.
Content is king, but packaging is queen and she runs the household.
Yeah. What is packaging? On YouTube, packaging is your topic, your title, and your thumbnail.
And so content is king, but how you package that content with the idea itself, the title, the thumbnail.
That's what causes things to break through on YouTube. So at this point, you know, you might kinda feel like, geez, YouTube's like a blood for it. The truth is sometimes it is.
And it could be exhausting and it could be challenging. But the truth is that every challenge also carries with it a seed of equal or greater opportunity.
So let's talk about the opportunity on YouTube. Why even try to overcome these threats and these challenges?
Well, truth is that YouTube now has 2,700,000,000 monthly active users. And so when it comes to growing your agency, you know, getting customers, getting awareness for your brand, getting awareness and donors for your NGO, YouTube is a massive place to be.
It's actually the town square of the Internet now. And money follows attention and the attention is on YouTube. You may not have seen this, but a recent article came out that revealed that YouTube makes more ad revenue than Disney, NBC, Paramount, WD put together.
And one person called it the king of all media. So YouTube is the world's largest media company as we speak. So you gotta be there.
It's just like someone I mean, there's challenges there. But if you have a serious mission, you're a serious business owner, you you know, are working for your company, it's like having a YouTube presence is essential. It's the king of all media.
And the revenue is wild. YouTube's actually paid creators a $100,000,000,000 in the last four years. That's the checks they're cutting.
That's the direct deposits going into creators' pockets. And so the dollars are flowing to YouTube.
And then YouTube's also kind of the everything platform. It's dominating short form and long form. YouTube vertical, YouTube shorts is bigger than all the other platforms.
200,000,000,000 views a day on YouTube shorts.
You know, I was at one of the social media marketing world events talking to incredible people like yourselves, getting to know people. And I talked to one individual who's been crushing it on Instagram, vertical videos. And she's been doing well there and she's posting her content a few other places.
And she started talking about YouTube strategy and there's some more complex things we could do, some long form stuff. But the first thing I was saying was like, why aren't you just uploading your videos, your vertical videos to YouTube shorts? You already have them.
And in this context, there's a good place to post those. And so YouTube shorts, 200 billions a billion views a day. But the other crazy thing is YouTube is now the number one most watched streaming platform on TV.
People watch more YouTube in the American living rooms than any other Netflix, Peacock, anything else. And so YouTube is not just short form, but it's also long form. YouTube videos are now thirty to ninety minutes, the podcasting, the the TV aspect.
And so YouTube's the best place where your videos can go viral in sixty seconds, and they can also work for you for six years. And that second point is actually what still gets me excited even though I've been on YouTube since 2007.
Sean, are you still passionate about it? Are you still seeing the opportunity there? I am still wanting to click my heels like a leprechaun over this fact about YouTube.
It's the only platform where your content truly lives forever. Meaning, if you post the right video today, it can still be getting views months and even years later. In fact, I have a podcast called the Think Media Podcast.
Started it in 2020 right around the time mean, I thought it maybe was cool to start a podcast, talk about a business growth. But I also wanted a a leverage tool because in 2020 was when my first son was born, Sean junior.
And I wanted I love video podcasting because you got the long form. You can cut the clips.
Y'all are intelligent marketers. You you know that. It's like it's I think video podcasting is the best leveraged asset that you cannot just create the top level content to train AI, but then distribute to Shorts everywhere else.
So when I was thinking about, like, having a sustainable content model as a new dad and all the other things, I had launched a video podcast. Well, I took a screenshot of a couple videos, and you could see on the screen it says VPH. This is probably the one acronym that I'm most obsessed with out of anything as a YouTube strategist.
And VPH stands for views per hour.
Now you can write this down. Maybe you've heard about it before. There's a cool tool called vidIQ.
And if you get the free version of vidIQ and you install the Google Chrome plug in, it gives you what's called vidIQ vision. And on your videos or anybody else's, you can go see the little VPH number next to videos.
Well, on your own videos, can always see this in your analytics, but you could spy on your competitors with this tool as well. But check this out. So this YouTube video, video podcast was posted four months ago, but it's still getting it's small, but it's still getting three views per hour.
So, like, for the hour we hang out, in addition to us all being here, three people every hour for the next twenty four hours are gonna watch that video that was posted four months ago. And so talk about leverage.
YouTube's getting me views why I'm asleep. This video was posted three years ago. It still gets two views per hour.
This video was posted six months ago. It still gets two views per hour. And so when I think about leverage, I want things working for me when I'm not working.
I'm obsessed with all the social platforms, but sometimes it's like, man, I just gotta keep posting on Instagram. I gotta keep posting everywhere. I got all these, you know.
I'm being told by Brock Johnson to post, you know, six reels a day or whatever it is. You know, how do I keep up with this? And and I love it.
But what's cool about YouTube is I'm also sitting here if I take a week off, if I've worked on a different project, working on a different aspect of the business, following up with clients, delivery. I want assets that are delivering me views, which makes it worth it for me to figure out how to rise to the top on YouTube to overcome the competition because YouTube videos work for you while you sleep.
And YouTube is the second most visited website on the planet and the world's largest video search engine. And then creators in general report when there's a study that 50% or more of their monthly videos come from content made weeks, months, or even years ago.
So one out of two videos when once time passes is where the views are coming from. This creates a quandary for us as marketers because you want a return on investment for your time and you want that as fast as possible.
That's called time management. But YouTube is a long game because if you were gonna get 50% or more of your monthly views coming from videos made years ago, well then you better start making videos today so that in a couple years, you could be getting that benefit.
It's a long game mindset. So YouTube is the only platform where your content can thrive for years, not just hours, which brings us to the five rules of YouTube success in 2026. If you're an entrepreneur or a creator that wants to scale their online business, that's why we created the Think Media Mastermind.
I have so much more clarity as to my ideal target audience now, which means my content is about to be so much better and more targeted towards the exact person I'm trying to reach. Super intimate,
high level strategy. I had the skills that I already knew sharpened. I feel like I went to my next level.
For entrepreneurs
and creators that wanna scale with YouTube. This was the first time that I was able to get in a room with a lot of other serious YouTubers and talk with other people who love creating content and love YouTube. Usually, I don't get to do that, so this is really special.
You can check it out at thinkmediamastermind.com.
Part three of our talk today, and here's strategic shift number one. Yeah.
Across the platform, a lot of people are reporting that views are down, but the truth is even if views are down, income can still be up. And so there's two ways to think about it.
You could be trying to get more views. How do I go viral? Or you could be trying to get the right views.
All of y'all have been thinking, of course, about your ideal customer profile, about your target audience. And yet on social media, sometimes it's just like, how do I get as many views as possible? Is that what you really want?
How do I get a viral vertical video to go, you know, just reach a bunch of people? Is that really what you want? Or do you want the right views, meaning customers?
Because a smart business model is greater than the money you do earn from YouTube ads. On screen, I'm not referencing paid ads on YouTube.
I'd say, like, if if you were just focusing on views or ad revenue, which y'all have offers and you want prospects and clients, so you get this. You know, I think about real estate. We work with a lot of real estate professionals, agents, and they know that one view could be worth a thousand dollars or thousands of dollars.
I spoke at this Keller Williams, like, CEO event in Las Vegas at their big family gathering, and I was being interviewed on stage, and I was asked the question, Sean, like, how many views do you need, you know, for a good YouTube video?
And and my answer, the first time it ever came up, I was like, you need one view. They're like, what do you mean? And I was like, yeah.
Like, if it's the right view, like niche, specific person looking for something in a specific city, and you're an agent, and someone's moving to that city, like, how many clients do you need to make 2 k, 5 k, 10 k on your real estate commission?
Not a lot. So the right views could be a lot more powerful than more views. Meet my friend Stacy Tuschel.
We're in a peer led mastermind together, and she has this company called Well Oiled Operations. So she helps small business owners usually doing, you know, couple multiple 6 figures, you know, maybe 250 k a year, and really helps them scale and get out of the chaos and get their operations organized and all that stuff.
And she's been growing her YouTube channel and investing in her YouTube channel, and she did a video. She actually did a livestream that this is kinda worth writing down as a strategy.
It's really kinda like a webinar. Some of you have done webinars or like a master class slides, you know, like like kinda like what I'm doing right now, like put together a presentation. Fifty five minutes on annual planning.
And so she put out that livestream and got a total of 736 views on that livestream. And so it was her YouTube livestream, and then the call to action and the invitation on that video, that livestream, was to book a call with her team.
And so off of that livestream, one individual booked a call, and she was actually able to close a high ticket services offer for $30,000. And so she didn't need more views.
She needed the right viewer with the right offer. And what she said was, well, direct sales happen.
Our primary focus is brand awareness. So there's that direct ROI, but then also, if you can be getting the financial ROI from YouTube, I think we all get this, we call it brand lift.
If I can add a profit at positive return on investment, you know, get lead sales, whatever your business mechanism is, and get more awareness, build more trust, connect with more people.
So she's like, a primary focus is brand awareness. Use YouTube has been great for building visibility, and the engagement we're building is invaluable for long term growth. Consistency is key.
So figure out the business you're building, not just the content you're making. Figure out who your right viewer is and stop chasing more viewers and chase the right viewers.
Here's the second strategic shift. Authenticity is the antidote to AI fatigue and the trust recession.
You know, these are two major things that we're seeing happening in the market right now. We all feel the AI fatigue. I love the opening song and video, blowing my mind with that video, and just talking about, of course, authenticity.
Right? We're we're we're dealing with AI, but how do we also, you know, have that authenticity? And then authenticity in general, if you haven't heard the term trust recession, it's that if you look across the board, show up rates for people opting in for things, down.
People showing up for a web class or a webinar, down. People showing up for sales calls, down. Just in general, there's kind of a trust recession.
Skepticism is higher. And audiences are flooded with content right now, and they're not fools.
So their BS radar has never been sharper. So authenticity is the antidote to AI fatigue and the trust recession.
You know, one of the trends we're seeing in 2026 is stripped down vlogging is back.
Good friend of mine, Benjie Travis and the co author of our book YouTube Secrets is really an expert in this. And he's now been vlogging on kind of the entertaining YouTuber side for well over a decade now.
And he also is doing like, his niche would be food and cooking, and his model, his content format is vlogging.
Stripped down, simple vlogging. And this was a recent video that he did. Shopping at the first TNT supermarket in America, got 94,000 views.
You still see this video is getting one view per hour even though it's eight months old. That's what I'm after. Man, I just wanna post a video today and still give views tomorrow and for months to come.
And he ultimately though just filmed himself. It it was good packaging, but he was also just kind of sharing his passion and his values and making it fun and having kind of a stripped down conversation.
You know, one of the Instagram strategies right now people talk about or vertical video strategies is yapping. Not just like you're like people are just yapping. Like like the yap strategy.
Like people watch yapping content. Not as preachy and or, you know, broadcast voice, but very just kinda stripped down.
Just connecting that raw and authentic. You all know what I'm talking about. And so the two extremes we're seeing on the platform is it's not that big budget thoughtful storytelling videos are not working.
I I know that we're all gonna be here for the keynote of Pat Flynn this evening. The absolute storytelling legend.
And at these days, he's got both. He's got the shorts channel that's super stripped down. He does by himself.
I can't wait you to hear that story. But then he also has this long form channel that's bigger budget. Editors, team, voice over, hundreds of hours of footage.
Yeah. No. I mean, if you can do that, most of us aren't there yet.
That's still working, but the other cool thing is that raw, relatable vlogs are working. Stripped down type of content.
And people don't trust perfect, they trust real. So authenticity is the antidote to the trust recession and AI fatigue.
Strategic shift number three. Your brand is the only differentiator left.
Look at the person on your right and just stare them right in the eye. That's it. I mean, that's, I guess, the only thing.
You're supposed to convey how serious you are. Look at the person on the other side. You can actually we'll try this, like, weird interactions that make it awkward, especially when there's 22 seats in between people in the back.
Look at the person next to you and say, your brand is the only differentiator left.
Yeah. Yeah. Your brand is the only differentiator left.
Listen. AI can copy your content, but it cannot copy your brand.
Now, actually, I mean, give it another three months though, it probably can. But, you know, but but here's what I mean.
Here's your brand DNA on YouTube. You know, your voice. Your voice.
Your pace. Your word choice. Your sound.
What's your voice? And you could fill in the blank on this too. You could you could say personal brand, if there's personal brands in the room.
And then your brand for your company. Whoever whether it's the founder, CEO creating content or somebody on the team, you know, or UGC or somebody you hire. The thing is though that what's the voice of your brand?
And your actually spoken voice, the tone, the pace. People wanna connect with you. Your look.
What are you putting on camera? Is there a look to the set? Is there a look to what you're wearing?
Is there a look to a brand, a logo? Is there any kind of look that can stand out?
Colors, presents, wardrobe, set. Your perspective. This is the difference.
Because everybody has the access to the same AI information. Everybody could just ask AI, get a script, and convey information on YouTube, but you gotta have a perspective.
I'd circle this one and here's what I mean. What is your unique point of view And what do you believe that others won't say? What do you believe to be true about the world?
What's your unique perspective, your hot take, your angle on things? And then your story.
This is a big deal. Why you? Where you came from?
You know, your story. One of my favorite books is this book called Story Brand by Donald Miller. And thinking about like that brand story and then communicating in such a way of course that it makes the end user the hero and adds value to them to tell stories in a way they can see themselves in the story.
And then your convictions. What do you stand for and what won't you compromise on? What do you stand for?
And your niche authority, the specific center of the Internet that you own. So your brand DNA, brand is the only differentiator left.
In an AI world, in a AI video generation world with content everywhere, people connect with people. They connect with you.
They connect with your vibe, your style, your humor. You're kinda dry. You're kinda sarcastic.
You're kinda stoic. Whatever it is you, you need to amplify that. Right?
Your brand DNA on YouTube. And people actually warned me years ago about some things that I started to do in my content.
I'm, you know, most known for a very specific promise. I help people grow on YouTube. I have a tech channel and now we have other creators on this tech channel called Think Media, talk about a lot of lights, cameras, and things like that.
And we help people with the best tips and tools for building influence with online video. So it's like, okay. People come to us mainly for information.
They come to us to, okay, teach me YouTube, help me with my camera, You know, keep it on the straight and narrow, bro. That's why I'm here.
And so then we ask the question, like, how much other stuff do you share though? Like, how much brand or story or values or convictions do you put in your content?
And there's actually something that is very important to me and that's my faith. And I'm kind of a bible nerd and like been studying it for years and stuff. And so naturally, that particular aspect comes out in some of my content.
And I'm not talking about like I pivoted. I'm just talking about like doing a podcast. Am I quoting proverbs?
You know? Like that's some of the thing that would come out. And people warned me.
They're like, bro, you better be careful. I don't know if anyone grew up about the things you're not allowed to speak about at the dinner table. What are we not allowed to speak about at the dinner table that your mom told you?
Politics. Politics. Religion.
Money. So you just can't talk about anything, I guess, at the dinner table. But but, yeah, that's what that's what we've heard.
So and and and all of us feel like we're walking on eggshells in today's world, like afraid of being canceled or what's gonna happen or if I'm bold. And so people warned me. But here's the thing.
I started to talk about my faith a little bit more in some of my content, And people warned me that would hurt, and partially, they were right. I did get some negative comments.
I did lose a few subscribers. I polarized a few people. I did make I I mean, it's kind of like an outlier one off video, but I made a video called three YouTube tips from the bible that will work for every creator.
Now, wasn't like a tactic. That was just like a weird expression of who I actually am. Like, it was just a natural idea that came to me.
I thought I'd give it a shot. And the truth that happened was even though I did lose some followers and really passive followers, I would say, what gained in deep connection far outweighed the followers that I lost.
And here's the thing is that what a real brand does is it doesn't just attract, it does also repel. So what should you be more bold about in your content? Your brand values.
And I wanna be clear. This actually isn't about putting religion or politics into your content. You know, depending on if you're a SaaS company or it's like, probably doesn't make sense.
It might, you know. You're doing these different things. However, look at these stats.
70% of consumers say they'll buy from brands that reflect their values.
So so why is it? So what are your values? What are your brand values?
And are you sharing those on social media? Are you willing to maybe take a risk? What's kinda interesting is I talk to all kinds of people and, you know, our students, our clients, the people in our world, they come from all different backgrounds and faiths and beliefs.
But probably the most consistent thing I have heard whenever I run into somebody in person, it's like, bro, your YouTube content's kinda good, but, man, I really resonated when you shared your story and you shared your faith. So here's my question. What's the thing you're not sharing right now that you could start putting in your content that could create that deeper connection?
Because 70% of consumers say they buy from brands that reflect their values. Are you communicating those? 75% of millennials and 63% of gen z would change to a brand that supports a cause they care about.
This is real. So if brand is the only differentiator left, this is how you stand out.
20,000,000 uploads a day. I I mean, maybe it's changed since then, but I honestly you might say, it'd impossible to post an original video that nobody else has done on YouTube. As far as I know, zero people have been like three tips from the bible for YouTube creators.
What is that? It's ridiculous. Got 66,000 views, resonated with people.
What's that video idea for you? What's that content for you? Because 84% of people globally report they need to share values with a brand to use it.
Brand, personal brand is the only differentiator left. Here's strategic shift number four. Act like a media company or fall behind.
If we're gonna overcome the challenges on YouTube, the changes, whether you're starting from scratch like Sherry we talked about earlier at 77 with just a phone, filmed her first video and got 37,000 views, or whether you've been doing this forever and you're, like, wondering where you go next with YouTube, we all need to take on the media company mindset.
The media company mindset because YouTube rewards those who are willing to invest and not dabble. I've got I've worked with now tens of thousands of creators we've coached and business owners. And what I've kind of found, my number one question when it comes to doing YouTube, which might like for some of you that are on the fence, this might freeing and it's really not helpful to my ambitions of, you know, growing a following of helping people with YouTube.
But I'll talk a lot of people out of YouTube. I I I will encourage individuals to be like, listen, at this point, like, you either kinda like love it and wanna do it and see the power and you're actually gonna invest in it.
But if you're not, don't even do it because you gotta manage your energy. You gotta manage your your time, and YouTube rewards those that invest and don't dabble. Like, a 100% of the people we're seeing that are breaking through are taking it seriously.
They don't have you don't have to block a ton of time or a ton of money, but you're putting it on your calendar. You're putting some time in there. It becomes a routine.
It becomes a habit. It's not a tactic. It's it's even bigger than a strategy.
It's almost it's almost like a lifestyle. It's almost like a brand routine that you commit to.
You don't have to commit to it, but if you wanna get the results and, you know, if you look at the YouTube entrepreneur space, there's some big names in that space. Maybe you've heard of somebody like an Alex Hermosy or a Cody Sanchez or a Dan Martell or a Gary Vaynerchuk. You know, if you look at the their enterprises, of course, what it is today, you know, Hermosy team of these are probably out these are actually outdated numbers now.
But, like, ten, twenty people just doing content. Seventy seventy to two hundred thousand dollars a month just investing in content. That's a cross platform.
That's 300 pieces of content a week. And as the, I guess, Layla is the c CEO.
I don't know what Alex's title is, but he's devoting one to two days a week to create content. Why? There's gotta be a reason for it.
Cody Sanchez, team of 10. Dan Martell, been scaling Martell Media. Gary Vaynerchuk, who knows?
I don't know if those numbers are right, but a friend of mine said he was there recently. He saw 40 people working on Gary's social media content. You might be like, well, is the least helpful slide I've ever seen in my life, Sean.
So like like, cool. Good for them. You know, like, alright.
But this is just an illustration. Why are they willing to invest time, money, team, systems?
Not if it's not producing something. And the principle is they're willing to invest and not dabble.
All of those above resources. But let's so let's look at a business owner who went all in and got results in her own way.
And what I want you to be thinking about is how could you do YouTube in your own way? Because in a way, I'd almost say like you're either in or you're out. You go, hey, team.
It's big ROI here. Plus, we also wanna invest in the future because an investment in YouTube is an investment in the future. Establishing your brand on the town square of the Internet, kind of a big deal.
And so a friend of mine, Shalene Johnson, didn't just dabble. She went all in on video podcasting on YouTube recently. Now she's done all kinds of things over the years.
She spoke at this event. And she's usually typically lean to other platforms, Instagram kinda being a main platform. I feel like Shalene and I have known each other for, like, ten years now.
And, of course, I'm always like, you should probably get serious about YouTube. Your YouTube channel kinda sucks, Shalene. Like, I really think it'd be good to actually invest in YouTube.
It might take some time, some energy. And, you know, she's like, Sean, you know, I I I should have listened to you for you I should have listened to you for, you know, all those years ago.
But finally, she's like, you know what? I'm gonna start taking YouTube seriously. And she actually exited a couple businesses and went all in actually kind of on being a YouTuber, which is, you know, interesting.
And so she invested $10,000 in her first six months, not in ads, but in strategy and systems that could scale. And you don't have to invest $10,000. The point is you do need to invest.
Like, you do need to not dabble but invest, but here's kind of a picture of what it was. She hired a YouTube strategist and coach. She hired an overseas editor, content manager, which was already a team member for her, a thumbnail designer, and a b roll organizer, which was a contractor.
It's a good slide to take a picture of. It's like a mini YouTube team. So she did YouTube strategy and coaching for about six months so she could really understand YouTube and update her skills.
So she hired a coach. She has overseas editor, affordable, and she pays a little bit more for speed, but it's about a forty eight hour turnaround if she submits a video.
Fast turnaround, four days for about like a a longer video podcast. The content manager is already somebody on her team that kinda helps it all happen.
Thumbnail designer, this is more accessible than ever with AI tools. But even Fiverr, you could find the right person on something like Fiverr and just keep working with somebody that could design your thumbnails.
What's funny is she goes, sometimes I get them back and I still go, I'm just gonna do this myself. Like, what do these guys know? You know?
She just does them herself. And then a b roll organizer, which is kinda helpful because her style of doing it is all the different content that she captures wherever and whenever is like perfect perfectly organized on Dropbox, which whenever she tells me about that, I always feel ashamed because my digital Dropbox life could not be in more disarray even as the video guy.
My b roll I don't know where my b roll is, honestly. And so, you know, that's optional, but that's that's the whole workflow. And she films on her iPhone, her editor is overseas, and her system is automated.
I'm sure a lot of us in this room are fans of Atomic Habits, James Clear, and the quote, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Yeah. We don't rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems.
She has simple systems in place. She actually doesn't batch content. This film's, you know, one episode.
She doesn't have a big crew, and her studio is a spare bedroom with one light and a laptop. But what she has is a system, a repeatable workflow, with just a few key people. It's lean, it's scalable, and it's low stress.
And when we were talking about this, she was saying, I actually just, like, love my business lifestyle now because of the simplicity of how I've set this up.
But she was generous enough to share with me what a year of implementing everything she's doing looked like. And a lean YouTube model produced $1,600,000, not including Patreon as well from just going all in on YouTube.
Now I'm not, like, promising results. We have different business models and price points and offers and whatnot.
But the point was the point is those who win on YouTube invest and don't dabble.
So my question is, what would it look like for you to go all in in your way? Like, when you see the opportunity on YouTube and you realize you can get the strategies to overcome all this, it's like, okay.
Who's gonna do what by when? Who does what by when? These are two of my favorite leadership questions.
I run a team of 30 people obsessed with leadership. I'm always wondering, who does what by when?
And when I heard this from a coach once, changed my life. Who's waking up thinking about this? I love that question.
Who's waking up thinking about this? It troubles me because I whenever I wake up, I go, why am I the one wake we got 30 people working here. Why am I waking up thinking about this?
Why does this link on the website dead? Why you know, whatever. Like, just super, you know, frustrated or what but, like, who's waking up thinking about this?
And a lot of times, though, it's a clarity delegation thing. It's kinda like or a system thing. You know?
Some of us, after this conference, in three weeks, your agent on Claude Cowork is gonna be waking up and thinking about this. Never actually slept.
And so but what would it look like to set up a simple YouTube system for yourself? Strategic shift number five. Strategic shift number five.
Here we go. This is the biggest one. Master packaging or get ignored.
Master packaging or get ignored.
Here's the equation. Packaging is topic, title, thumbnail plus hook, which equals the first thirty seconds of trust.
Content is king, but packaging is queen, and she runs the household. Packaging is topic. It's your title.
It's your thumbnail. And that's all working together. That's all working together.
We brainstorm right now when we work on a video at Think Media or on the Think Media podcast.
There's probably not a video that goes out when using AI, but then converting over to what we we use Milanote as kinda like a project board. Maybe some of you use Trello.
It doesn't matter. But we we will we'll brainstorm when it's we when I say we, it's like Kyle and I, maybe somebody else. It's one other team member.
And we'll usually plan and brainstorm and debate as like, the minimum will be 10 titles.
10. Maximum might be 44 for one video.
We'll sit down and have that much to say. Like, this title, this word, change it. Go to chat GBT.
We have a custom GBT for it's our title tool. We'll put it in there. And some of you might use AI sometimes, and then you use it for a while.
You're like, it's not even that smart. It's just like flattering. It's chat especially.
Oh, that was a great idea, Sean. Like, you're really smart at YouTube titles. I'm like, I don't know.
I wanna be flattered. I want, like, real help. So then you go over to Claude.
We go back and forth. And so the level of detail we put into packaging let me tell you a story. This is Ben.
So he's the founder of KetoCamp. And back in 2008, he was overweight, unhealthy, stuck, and was also really motivated because he lost his father to the curable type of diabetes.
So he started to kinda develop this fire that, like, some health stuff, right, is changeable, and I wanna help people not only change my own life, but help others. And so he actually launched a YouTube channel, had some success, but he hit a plateau because all the rules on YouTube changed.
Because these you know, the you had to update the rules like we're talking about in this presentation. And so like every smart creator, he faced a choice. Do I stay stuck or do I pivot and master new skills?
These are a few videos that happened after he started to focus on packaging. Now it's kinda hard to see, but if you look closely on the screen, on the right side, your right side, yeah. What happens if you only drink water for seventy two hours?
His face, a little AI animation, the water, the six pack, the body reset, 1,900,000 views.
Doctors won't tell you this, the center one, what happens when you stop eating for thirty six? These are some title formulas to packaging the the whole idea itself plus the thumbnail plus the the title.
I mean, you you wanna talk about convictions or it's sometimes good to just start a fight because controversy can get views. 36 dangerous foods r f k junior just banned. That thumbnail, the whole thing, got 3,600,000 views.
So he went from a plateau to actually being one of the most viral health creators when he got obsessed with packaging. And here's what's cool.
Some of his videos are more produced, but one of his most breakout videos, he filmed in his car, no script. It became one of his fastest growing videos ever.
Twelve minutes of just straight recording in his car. Listen to this though. The video got 250,000 videos in six days.
Another sim similar video earned him 27,000 email subscribers from one video. It does anybody here want 27,000 ideal customers for your business to sign up for your email list?
Wow. In a room of marketers, the fact that seven people were interested in that kind of subscriber growth.
Right? And so what's kinda cool though is look at this title. Give me twelve minutes and I'll save you seventeen years of trying to lose weight.
Sheesh. Why'd that work? This is some packaging tactics.
So why that title works? One is a time versus outcome hook. It's kind of thinking.
Okay. What kind of topics this should influence even what you're about to talk about. That's the topic.
And then the title, and then, of course, the thumbnail. You also have an ultra clear promise.
You've got curiosity and urgency, and there's a no fluff vibe to it. So this ties into us talking about stripped down vlogging. It's not production value.
Of course, it's his expertise. It's the information shared. And it's also him thinking about even though it's unscripted, it's taken some time to invest and learn some of the communication patterns and the psycho psychology patterns and the video patterns of how you speak to hold viewer attention.
It wasn't his first video ever, but the results are crazy proving that raw content works if it's packaged right. Authenticity plus strategy or really raw authenticity plus packaging equals growth.
And the way YouTube works is that over 90% of videos people watch on YouTube are recommended by the algorithm.
So to get recommended by the algorithm, it's applying all of these strategies and shifts, but it's packaging. Master packaging or get ignored because content is king, but packaging is queen and she runs the household.
And so marketers who figure this stuff out are gonna dominate the next five to ten years. And, actually, if you want to get my AI title system free, happy to send it to you and DM you it on Instagram.
So we have a tool that we created. It's actually just for our clients, but happy to send it to you. So it's a private custom GPT on chat GPT.
And a couple of things this is still worth writing notes down. It it there's two different strategies the tool will help you do. Because on any given video, you could go that still the SEO search engine optimization based route and and think more long term how to do x or that kind of search based route.
Or you can go the curiosity route, which is the much more viral route. Both strategies are still good.
The cool thing is a tool. Walk you through it. It's programmed with over 40 psychological triggers, anger, fear, you know, happiness, like, all these different emotions, which when I say we come up with 44 different titles, it's literally because there's that many different emotions you could hit or whatever in terms of packaging just one video.
For later, whether if you don't get the tool, if you've never studied the five levels of awareness, research that tonight. And the ladder of abstraction.
Like, it's got all these different things in there realizing the different ways we can package videos. So, again, happy to send that to you.
You know, in fact, one of the things YouTube has added as we land the plane is a b title testing. And so you are now able to split test titles, split test thumbnails, and combinations of both.
And just a title change on one of my videos led to a 6% greater I don't wanna say just click through rate because the way that YouTube measures it is actually how much watch time it leads to.
But a 6% difference, which if you multiply that out over not just how many views you get, but across your competition.
The person who is not investing, split testing, using good AI tools is gonna lose to the person who is. And so very powerful when it comes to the fact that using a tool like this.
And so a bad title with a great video goes nowhere, but a great title with a great video gets distributed by YouTube for free.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Twenty million videos hit YouTube every single day, and a subscriber count from yesterday no longer buys a single view today. This is Think Media's Sean Cannell delivering his conference keynote on why the platform got harder — and the five strategic shifts he says still let a total beginner break through.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
13:07list
Five Strategic Shifts
Chase the right views, not more views
Authenticity is the antidote to AI fatigue and the trust recession
Your brand is the only differentiator left
Act like a media company or fall behind
Master packaging or get ignored
The five-part framework structuring the back half of the talk — practical shifts a creator can make regardless of channel size or budget.
Steal forany content-strategy audit or planning session
20:02list
Brand DNA on YouTube
Voice
Look
Perspective
Story
Convictions
Niche
Six traits that make a creator's output recognizably theirs and, per the talk's central claim, impossible for AI to replicate.
Steal fora personal-brand positioning worksheet
37:22model
The Packaging Equation
Topic + Title + Thumbnail + Hook = the first 30 seconds of trust a video has to earn before a viewer decides to stay.
Steal fora pre-publish title/thumbnail QA checklist
11:40concept
VPH (Views Per Hour)
A live momentum metric, free via the vidIQ browser extension, showing how many views per hour a video is currently earning — useful for finding evergreen winners in an old library, on your own channel or a competitor's.
Steal forauditing old content for hidden evergreen performers
40:07list
Why the Title Works
Time vs. outcome hook
Ultra-clear promise
Curiosity and urgency
No fluff vibe
The four-part pattern reverse-engineered from Ben Azadi's breakout title, 'Give Me 12 Minutes and I'll Save You 17 Years of Trying to Lose Weight.'
Steal fora title-writing checklist
CTA Breakdown
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
13:07product
“If you're an entrepreneur or a creator that wants to scale their online business, that's why we created the Think Media Mastermind.”
Cuts from the keynote stage to a testimonial reel of past Mastermind attendees before returning to the presentation — a mid-talk pitch break rather than a hard sell.
Sean Cannell interviews Ben Azadi on how a niche keto channel became the second-biggest health channel on YouTube — and the under-talked-about affiliate structure now generating $700K a month.
Sean Cannell interviews creator Nicky Saunders on the seven-year, gradually-then-suddenly path from freelance hustle to a six-figure, three-person content business.
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