1:39:43Cole Gordon · Interview
Helping Ali Abdaal Scale From $300K/mo to $1M/mo
Cole Gordon audits Ali Abdaal's coaching business live, table by table, until the real constraint stops hiding behind client success.
August 6thThe argument in one line.
Hitting a first $100k on YouTube has almost nothing to do with view count or subscriber count and almost everything to do with picking one clear transformation to teach, then converting an audience into a high-ticket offer through direct research.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A YouTuber who already posts semi-regularly and wants a structured path from content to a real paid offer.
- Someone considering a coaching, consulting, or service business who is unsure how to price and sell the first version of it.
- A creator with an audience but no email list or lead magnet yet.
SKIP IF…
- You're chasing AdSense or brand sponsorship revenue — this is specifically a build-your-own-offer playbook, not a monetize-the-platform one.
- You already have a proven high-ticket offer and a working calls-booked funnel — this is a from-scratch plan, not an optimization one.
The full version, fast.
The video argues that hitting your first $100k on YouTube comes down to a repeatable seven-step loop, not views or subscribers. Pick one clear transformation to teach, commit to posting weekly for at least a year, and build a free email list with a lead magnet before ever pitching anything. Use 1:1 research calls and a short survey to learn exactly where your audience is, what they want, and what's blocking them, then turn that data into a high-ticket offer ($1,000-$3,000 for 3-6 months) sold through a simple landing page and booked calls. Over-deliver on the first clients to bank testimonials, then run the whole loop again — that repetition, done unglamorously for months, is what actually compounds into six and seven figures.
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00:00 – 00:35
01 · Proof
Opens with his own numbers ($250k/year off 21,000 subscribers) and a student who went from zero product to $20k/month in nine months, then points to the free 100k YouTuber Roadmap.
00:35 – 01:16
02 · How long will it take?
Sets expectations: a total beginner should expect a few years, while someone who already understands YouTube and follows the seven steps can hit 100k in under 12 months.
01:16 – 02:56
03 · Step 1 — Niche
The biggest predictor of reaching $100k isn't view or subscriber count, it's picking one clear transformation to teach and building credibility around it.
02:56 – 04:52
04 · Step 2 — YouTube
Commit to teaching at least weekly for a year, teach from lived experience as a guide rather than a guru, and aim for 1,000-5,000 views per video.
04:52 – 06:13
05 · Step 3 — Email
Build a free email list on Kit with a lead magnet before pitching anything; target 1,000-5,000 subscribers, a 35-40% open rate, and one personal email a week.
06:13 – 09:43
06 · Step 4 — Audience
Learn exactly where the audience is in their journey, what they want, and what's blocking them, using 1:1 research calls and a five-question survey.
09:43 – 14:19
07 · Step 5 — Offer
Turn the research into a high-ticket offer ($1,000-$3,000 for 3-6 months) sold through a simple landing page, optimizing for calls booked, then scaling from 1:1 into cohorts and an evergreen program.
14:19 – 14:59
08 · Step 6 — Deliver
Over-deliver for the first clients to bank the results and testimonials that become proof for the next round of sales.
14:59 – 16:18
09 · Step 7 — Repeat
Cycle steps one through six again and again; the same unglamorous loop of videos, emails, landing pages, and calls is what compounds into a six- or seven-figure business.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- The single biggest predictor of whether a YouTube channel reaches $100k isn't views or subscribers, it's whether the creator has picked one clear transformation to teach.
- A creator who already understands YouTube and follows a structured plan can reach a first $100k in under 12 months; a total beginner with no entrepreneurial experience should expect a few years.
- One creator went from zero product to $20,000 a month in nine months by nailing a single clear transformation from the start, in a niche as ordinary as piano education.
- The number one metric to optimize for when selling a service isn't views or subscribers, it's calls booked.
- A landing page for a high-ticket offer can be as simple as one explainer video plus a book-a-call button underneath it.
- Audience research should answer three questions: where is this person now in their journey, what outcome do they want, and what's stopping them from getting there.
- Aim for a 35-40% email open rate and send at least one personal, non-generic email a week to build trust with a list.
- 5,000 engaged email subscribers is enough to generate over $250,000 a year if the list is nurtured and pitched well.
- Starting price for a first coaching offer should just feel comfortable to charge; one creator started at $2,000 for six months and now charges over $4,500 for the same offer.
- A high-ticket service business scales in three stages: one-to-one clients, then a cohort of five people going through the same program together, then an always-on evergreen program.
- Charging just $3,000 for a service and landing three clients a month produces $108,000 a year.
- Consistent early testimonials from over-delivering on results become the proof that sells the next round of high-ticket clients.
The seven-step loop that turns a YouTube channel into $100k
WHAT TO LEARN
Views and subscribers don't predict who reaches six figures; picking one transformation to teach, then researching and pitching a high-ticket offer off that audience, does.
01Proof
- Views and subscriber count are not the predictor of a six-figure channel; picking one clear transformation to teach from the start is.
02How long will it take?
- A structured plan can compress the timeline to a first $100k to under a year for someone who already understands YouTube, versus a few years for a total beginner.
03Step 1 — Niche
- The single biggest predictor of reaching $100k is picking one clear transformation to teach, not view or subscriber count.
04Step 2 — YouTube
- Commit to teaching weekly for at least a year, and teach as a guide sharing lived experience rather than as a guru with every answer.
05Step 3 — Email
- Build an email list with a free lead magnet before pitching anything, and target a 35-40% open rate with at least one personal email a week.
06Step 4 — Audience
- Audience research should answer three specific questions: where they are now, what outcome they want, and what's blocking them, gathered through 1:1 calls and a short survey.
07Step 5 — Offer
- When selling a service, optimize for calls booked as the single key metric, not views or likes.
- Price the first high-ticket offer at whatever feels comfortable and raise it over time as proof and skill accumulate.
- Scale a coaching offer in stages: one-to-one first, then a cohort moving through the program together, then an always-on evergreen program.
08Step 6 — Deliver
- Over-deliver for early clients specifically to generate the testimonials that become proof for the next round of sales.
09Step 7 — Repeat
- The actual work is a repetitive, unglamorous loop, weekly videos, weekly emails, landing page tweaks, and sales calls, repeated for months, not a single breakthrough moment.
Terms worth knowing.
- Lead magnet
- A free, valuable resource (a guide, template, or roadmap) offered in exchange for an email address, used to grow an email list before ever selling anything.
- High-ticket offer
- A paid product or service priced at roughly $1,000 or more, typically delivered as coaching or hands-on help rather than a low-cost digital product.
- Calls booked
- The number of prospective clients who schedule a sales call after visiting a landing page — treated here as the key metric for a service business, ahead of views or subscribers.
- Cohort
- A group of clients who go through the same coaching program together on the same timeline, combining some one-to-one support with shared group calls and community.
- Evergreen coaching program
- An always-open coaching offer that new clients can join at any time, rather than one that only opens during scheduled launches.
- VSL
- Video sales letter — a video, usually on a landing page, that explains an offer and makes the case for booking a call or buying.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“I also make over $250,000 a year just from this YouTube channel with only 21,000 subscribers.”
01:32
“The person I know who's gone from literally zero, no channel, no product, no entrepreneurial skills, to making a hundred thousand dollars the fastest did it in 13 months — in the piano education space.”
03:57
“You follow the principle of being a guide, not a guru.”
11:31
“The number one metric here that we care about, we're trying to optimize for, is calls booked.”
13:00
“I would start at a price point that felt comfortable, with a time frame that felt comfortable, with a promise to your customer that felt comfortable, and I would just build up from there.”
15:46
“It can get a bit boring week in, week out — making videos, sending emails, building lead magnets, making landing pages, getting on calls with people and pitching your offer. It doesn't look that glamorous.”
Word for word.
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metaphor
In the last 18 months, I've helped over 50 YouTubers build their business towards $100 ,000. a year without relying on AdSense or sponsors, but by building just one world -class product. With some of these YouTubers making over $80 ,000 in a month and many more of them are well on their way.
And I also make over $250 ,000 a year just from this YouTube channel with only 21 ,000 subscribers. So in this video, I wanna show you the only seven steps I would follow if I wanted to make my first 100K on YouTube from scratch. as quickly as possible and share the mistakes that i would avoid to make sure i built a real sustainable business that i could go full time on and before we get to step one i know you're thinking how long will this take how long will it take me to make my first 100k well the answer is obviously It depends.
If you've never made a YouTube video in your life and you have no entrepreneurial skills whatsoever, it's going to take you a few years. I'm pretty confident in that. But if you've been dabbling in the space for a while, you've made a bunch of videos, you understand how YouTube works, and you actually follow the steps that I'm going to lay out in this video, then it could take you less than 12 months, like it did for Igor here, who within nine months went from no product to making 20k a month consistently.
And this month, across everything I've made, I think just north of 20k rev. myself and if you want to follow along these steps then you can download the 100k youtuber roadmap which is available in my free community with the first link in the description so the biggest thing that determines whether a channel is likely to be able to make 100k or not actually has nothing to do with how many views or subscribers you have now the person i know who's gone from literally zero no channel no product no entrepreneurial skills to making a hundred thousand dollars the fastest did it in 13 months.
And it's because they had this one thing completely nailed from the beginning. And that channel was actually in the piano education space, by the way, not a make money niche, which makes it even more impressive. But the thing that they nailed from the beginning was that they picked a very clear transformation that they were going to teach on their channel.
When I first started YouTube, I was just making videos about life lessons that I'd learned and summarizing books and documenting my journey as a consultant and things like that. And it was really about me. But over time, as I realized that I wanted to build a business around my channel, not just...
videos for fun i realized i actually had to share more about my actual expertise and talk about the thing that i had credibility in which was youtube and so i went from making quite general videos to making videos specifically for a specific type of person you a youtuber to help you build a six -figure business around your channel i picked a clear transformation I think I can help people make.
And this is one of the hardest things for people watching to figure out. For some people, it's really easy. You know, you love violin, you're an expert violinist, and so you make videos teaching violin.
For other people who has 10 years experience as a software engineer, but they don't actually want to make videos about software engineering, they then have to find some other area of expertise that they have in their life and talk about that. And they're a lot less likely to have relevant credibility or experience in that space.
But you can build it up from scratch. All that matters... is that you can teach a transformation and the viewer trusts that you can actually help them get there don't worry about over saturation of spaces or competition just focus on yourself focus on the thing that you can teach other people and what transformation can you promise them now step two this is a funny one so every week I hop onto a free workshop that I do with people inside of my free community.
You can get it in the first link in the description and I'll see you on the next call. It's a live call that I do. And some people on that call asked me to roast their YouTube channels.
And they say, what's wrong with my channel? Why am I not growing? And I look at their channel and I can see that they've posted three videos in the last six months.
Or maybe they've been making one video a week, but they've only done it for six weeks. If you're one of those people, then here is step two for you laid out nice and clearly. It is commit to teaching every single week.
on youtube for at least a year that's the kind of mindset you need to get into now you can have a couple weeks off a year three four weeks give yourself a break maybe you're on holiday just get out of the like all the time but it's very rare that you meet a super successful youtuber who's not making at least two good videos a month and in those videos you do one very simple thing which is you teach you share information that is going to help the viewer get closer to their goals and solve their problems now the best teaching and the best teachers Teach from a place of I have done this myself.
I have already achieved this thing that I am teaching you and I'm talking about my journey. And in general, you follow the principle of being a . Sometimes I come across a little bit like a guru and then I have to remind myself, no, I'm just a guide.
I'm trying to help people on their journey. And I don't have every single answer for every single person out there, but I just try to show up every week and teach. Teach from experience, from my own lessons, from the lessons of other people who have helped achieve this outcome and share as much useful information as I can.
We want to build as much trust with our audience as we possibly can. and in terms of outcome we'd like to get to somewhere between 1000 and 5000 views per video that would be a really awesome place to get to.
And if you can get there and you can reach 50 to 100 ,000 long form views per month on your channel, where you're teaching people about specific transformation, then you're gonna be able to build your business to six figures. And two very simple tips to making videos every week easier is to outsource your thumbnails and outsource your video editing.
Sometimes that can even be the same person who helps you. Step three, this is also something that you can do from day one, which is gonna help you build your business long -term and make sure that you're not reliant on YouTube. If you've watched any of my videos, you'll know what it is, is build your email list.
I'm not gonna lay the point here. I'll keep it super, super simple. Go to kit .com, make a free account.
You get up to 10 ,000 email subscribers there for free. You can use my affiliate link down in the description if you like. And then inside Kit, you're gonna create a super valuable resource, which is gonna help your viewers even more on their journey to achieving this transformation that you're teaching on YouTube.
And you're then gonna share it for free. on your channel, but people have to give you their email address to download it. Now, to start with, to keep things from being overwhelming, you just share the lead magnet.
You don't send any emails to your list. You just build the list to make sure that everyone who watches your videos, you have a chance of deplatforming them. and being able to send them emails in the future.
And again here, we're aiming for an email list of around 1 ,000 to 5 ,000 people. Last year, I made over $250 ,000 with an email list that was 5 ,000 people. Now, when we do come to sending emails, which we're gonna get to in a future step, there are a few key things that you wanna bear in mind.
So the first thing is that in general, you wanna aim for a 35 to 40 % open rate. You wanna send at least one valuable email per week where you share a valuable lesson. but you make it personal.
You talk about yourself, you make it non -generic, non -AI slop, and you build your relationship deeper with your audience. And if you want to see what that looks like, you can obviously join my email list with one of the links down below. Next step.
So we're building our audience on YouTube. and on email. We're trying to get 1 ,000 to 5 ,000 views per video.
We're trying to get 1 ,000 to 5 ,000 email list subscribers. What do we do next? Well, at this point, you should have a good understanding of who these people are.
Who are these actual real people watching your stuff, reading your stuff, and what do they want from you? But it's very easy to assume that you know more than you do. So we want to learn more about this group of people that you're collecting, your audience.
And we want to know three specific things. The first thing is where are they now? in their journey so whatever it is you're teaching where are they in the journey for example for me i teach educational youtubers how to build a six -figure business and there are lots of different places in that journey that people could be on they could be never made a video in my life they could be made 50 videos they could have 10 000 subscribers they could be making 3 000 a month or 20 000 a month there's all sorts of different places in that journey that people could be.
I wanna know where my audience are. And then the next thing is I wanna know what do they want? What is the outcome or desire that these people have?
And in my case, the thing that I landed on that I think I can help people get towards that they wanted was a six -figure YouTube business or a business that they could go full -time on. Some people wanna make $50 ,000 a year. Some people wanna make $200 ,000 a year.
It varies, but you know, 100K is a nice round number. And the third thing is then what are the challenges? stopping them going from A to B.
And so in my case, from beginner YouTuber to building six -figure business, what is all the list of challenges that they come across? And there are many, many challenges, many, many problems that people need to solve in that journey. And before launching my only product that I sell now, the 100K YouTuber, I spent years talking to YouTubers and working with YouTubers on the side of my job, in my job.
I was just learning tons and tons about this avatar. And so step four here is all about understanding your audience. And there are two big things that really help in this phase of the journey.
As you're collecting email subscribers, as you're getting viewers on your channel, the two things I would highly recommend that you do, I've done many times in the past, are talking to your audience one -to -one on calls and running audience surveys. So talking to your audience one -to -one on research calls just means asking them those three questions.
Where are you now? Where do you wanna go? What are all your problems?
If you keep it really basic, that's all it is. And we're just trying to collect as much data about our audience as possible. And then those people who we get on research calls with, they could also become future clients.
which we're going to get to and then the second thing with audience surveys we want to ask those three questions as well where are you now where are you trying to go what are all the problems in between but here's actually a list of questions that you can put in your survey right now this is a survey that i've used and that i recommend that my clients use as well so here are all the questions which of the following best describes you right now And then you do a multiple choice for the different situations that people can be in.
What is the single most frustrating challenge you're experiencing right now? You also make that multiple choice. Keep it to four options maximum, I recommend.
If you could achieve only one outcome. in the next 90 days, six months, 12 months, what would success look like? And then you keep that as an open answer so people can say whatever they want.
If you could wave a magic wand and instantly change one thing about your situation, about your journey to getting to the outcome, what would it be? And that's also an open -answered question. Then we have which of these options would be most helpful to you right now?
And then you list four options of different ways you could help them. For example, a community with a monthly subscription, one -to -one coaching, self -paced course, and potentially other things that you could do for them. And then you ask which would be least helpful or least relevant to your situation right now.
And you list the exact same things. There we go. Those are some simple questions you can include in your audience survey and also in your one -to -one research calls where you're going to be getting an intimate understanding of your audience, of all their problems, their goals, their challenges, all of this kind of stuff.
Now, step five, here is where it gets juicy. So we need to start making money. we need to start actually monetizing this YouTube channel.
Now, there are many different products that you can sell to your audience. But for the purposes of this video, we're talking about how do you get to six figures as quickly as possible. Now, for that reason, when we talk about selling a high ticket offer to your audience, which is something that costs generally $1 ,000 or more, you can absolutely build successful YouTube businesses with just one low ticket offer, something that costs $300 or something like that.
But the fastest path and generally the most reliable path to six figures is with a high ticket offer. So using the information we've gained from these one -to -one calls and these audience surveys, we're going to create a high ticket offer.
Let's just talk through this in simple terms. All this means is you're going to work with someone in your audience closely. They're going to pay you more money because you're spending more time just focusing on them.
You're giving them lots of support. And it typically looks like hopping on one -to -one calls with people, giving them feedback for things, giving them extra access around those calls, making course material for them, sharing resources, that kind of thing. But ultimately, getting them as close as possible to the desired outcome that they have.
So going back to Igor, who we spoke about earlier in the video, he had a YouTube channel all about data science and helping people land data science jobs. So he decided to build a high ticket offer, actually working with a small number of people, helping them get their dream job. Well, what did Igor do?
He created a simple landing page with a video explaining how he could help you and then the ability to book a call with Igor to learn more about how he could help just below that video. Now, this is as simple as it gets. In your YouTube videos and your emails, you send people to this landing page in a nice way.
You say, hey, if you're interested, I can help you achieve this outcome. They click on the link, it takes them to this page. They watch this video where you say, hey, I've got a few data science jobs myself in the past.
And if you'd like, I can help you with that journey. And if you want to learn more and see if it's actually a good fit for you, then you can book a call with me down below. The number one metric here that we care about, we're trying to optimize for, is calls booked.
We're trying to get as many calls booked with people in your audience as possible. Obviously, we want those calls to be with the right kinds of people. So to start with, you just keep it super simple and you keep the form quite open.
But then over time, as you realize who's less qualified for you, who's not a good fit for you to work with, then you put questions into your booking form to help filter out the wrong people. So for example, if you tried to... booking a call with Igor, but you literally never studied data science, then you would get filtered out in his booking form.
Now, what does he actually offer? What do you do on the call? Well, if you think you can actually help this person achieve the outcome, whether it's data science, YouTube, piano, guitar, whatever, you talk to them on the call and you pitch.
an offer my recommendation to start with is something simple whatever you feel comfortable with really but a good place to start is somewhere between one thousand to three thousand dollars for somewhere between three to six months over time you can go beyond this eagle started at two thousand dollars for six months and now he charges over four and a half thousand dollars for the same thing he's just got a lot better at selling it and he has more proof that it works but amy here for example who helps women overcome traumatic relationship issues and unhealthy relationship patterns she charges over five thousand dollars to work with her and i think it's six months her program and so she only needs 20 clients a year to make well over a hundred thousand dollars but what would i do if i'd never done this before i would start at a price point that felt comfortable with a time frame that felt comfortable with a promise to your customer that felt comfortable as well and i would just build up from there
I would make the promise greater over time. I would increase the price over time and I would get better and better at helping people. But this whole step is all about sending people from your YouTube channel and your email list to a page where they can understand more about how you can help them and then book in a call if they'd like to.
And then on that call, if you think you can help them, you explain how. And if you can get to the point where you can charge $3 ,000 for your services, for your coaching, then if you get just three clients a month, that's $9 ,000 a month, which takes you to $108 ,000 per year. And I recommend that you start, this is what I did, start with one.
one coaching or you're just working with one person at a time it's separate if you get three clients they're all kind of separate there's no community there's no group element to it then over time as you get better and better at helping people you turn it into a cohort where you get five people at once and they all go through the same journey together you maybe have one -to -one coaching in there with them but you also have group calls there's a community element And you go on this journey with them all together.
And then over time, you can transition into an always -on evergreen coaching program, which is what I do now. So my program is always running. There are always people joining.
And you can do launches throughout the year as well on top of that to create some momentum. This step always freaks people out. And it can be really uncomfortable learning the skills to sell to people and to present offers to people.
And to hear no more than you hear yes is really hard. And that's my week is I just hear no more than I hear yes. And I just have to get used to it.
And it can be really hard, but it's just part of the journey. Now, when you do start getting clients, most people feel... a huge responsibility to actually help them as much as possible and actually help them get the outcome that you've promised.
And so this step is just deliver incredible results. That's it. You know what you need to do.
It's reasonably intuitive how to actually help people. You don't need to overthink it. And that's exactly what you go and do.
You do everything you can to help them as much as possible is the general mindset that you have. You don't wanna ruin yourself with over -delivering in an insane manner. But in the early days, the more you can actually help people, the better because you can get them results and then they can give you a testimonial, which you can.
can then put on your landing page and so in the early days you just want to do as much as possible to delight your customers to get them amazing results and to deliver the transformation that you promised now finally to wrap this all up with step seven you just need to do steps one through six again and again and again you just need to keep posting videos every week you need to keep sending emails every week you need to keep sending people to your landing page keep making it better keep improving the vsl keep improving your skills on calls with potential customers, keep improving the offer, keep improving your price point, keep improving your delivery.
You just do steps one through six again and again and again. And if you do, then you get results like Diane, who has a multi six -figure business now teaching people to plan for retirement, or Igor, who has a multi six -figure business helping people land data science jobs, or Aman Manazir, who has a multi seven -figure business helping people get software engineering jobs, or Andrew here, who helps people build their careers in live sound, and he has a six -figure business, or Michael, who teaches people the piano one -on -one.
and makes about six figures doing that too. But it can get a bit boring week in, week out. It's the same stuff.
It's making videos, sending emails, building lead magnets, making landing pages, getting on calls with people and pitching your offer. And it doesn't look that glamorous. And sometimes people are like, you know what?
That's not worth it. And that is totally fine. But it is in most cases, the fastest path to making six figures as a YouTuber, especially in 2026, when it's a bit harder to get views than it was five years ago.
Now, if you want to hear how I actually make over $250 ,000 a year in my business and the business model that I use, use then I go through that in detail in this video here.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Tintin Smith opens with his own numbers, over $250,000 a year from a channel with only 21,000 subscribers, then promises the exact seven steps he'd follow from a standing start to hit a first $100k as fast as possible.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:22list
The 7-step $100k YouTuber roadmap
- Teach a transformation
- Commit to teaching on YouTube weekly
- Build your email list
- Understand your audience
- Sell a high-ticket offer
- Deliver incredible results
- Repeat steps 1-6
The video's central framework: a repeatable seven-step loop from content to a paid high-ticket offer, shown throughout as a recurring flowchart graphic.
Steal forany structured launch-a-coaching-offer plan
07:00list
Three audience-research questions
- Where are they now in their journey?
- What do they want (the outcome or desire)?
- What challenges stop them going from A to B?
The three questions used on both 1:1 research calls and audience surveys to understand exactly who the audience is and what they need.
Steal forany audience-research call script or survey
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
01:10link
“You can download the 100k YouTuber Roadmap which is available in my free community with the first link in the description.”
Soft CTA to a free lead magnet and community, repeated in on-screen text and description rather than pitched hard mid-video; a second soft CTA at the very end points to another of his videos on his own business model.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
AFFILIATECommission earned if you click.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
