Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Every viral YouTube idea reduces to a format plus an interest topic, occasionally amplified by a viral vector, and the fastest way to generate winners is remixing proven outliers along those three variables.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A YouTuber or channel strategist who already has editing and retention handled but keeps guessing at video ideas instead of engineering them.
A faceless-channel operator or channel manager who pitches ideas to creators and wants a repeatable framework instead of copying whatever's trending.
Someone running a video essay, listicle, or gaming channel who wants a structured way to find and remix outlier videos in their own niche.

SKIP IF…

You're already running a paid ideation system like this one and just want new formats, not the underlying framework.
You make content with no title/thumbnail click component, where format-plus-topic thinking doesn't really apply.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Vexian argues that ideas, not editing or retention, decide whether a video gets clicked at all, and reduces every viral idea to a formula: a format plus an interest topic, occasionally multiplied by a viral vector, a word or thing that lifts performance in any niche. He runs the formula against five real outlier videos, then layers in the three reasons anyone clicks: fear, desire, and curiosity, which almost never blend fear with desire but readily blend either one with curiosity. The practical system is remixing existing outliers along seven levers, swapping interest topics, adding viral vectors, changing or inverting formats, or escalating constraints and difficulty, instead of inventing ideas from a blank page.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 02:30

01 · Why ideas outrank everything else

Frames the call as his most complete ideation lesson, credits ideas (not editing or retention) for the bulk of his tracked views, and argues that a good idea is what makes people click at all, no packaging fixes a bad one.

02:30 – 05:00

02 · The idea formula: format + interest topic + viral vector

Defines a video idea as a title-level formula, format plus an interest topic, with an optional viral vector layered on, using five example videos (his own channels, channels he's inspired, and a viewer who remixed one of his free formats) as the working set for the rest of the call.

05:00 – 07:40

03 · Five formats broken down

Walks through five reusable formats built from the five example titles: The Story of (modifier)(interest topic), I Built/Tried/Tested (viral vector)(interest topic), X Things That Are Gone Forever (interest topic), The X Levels of (interest topic), and The (thing) that (grand statement), using the Magnus Carlsen/chess parallel to show how fast a grand-statement video essay can be built.

07:40 – 09:02

04 · The 'I built / I tried / I tested' trifecta

Uses Brandon Voloch's airless bike, invisible bike, and 'I tried' videos, plus Landon Schlesinger's ten-dollars-to-a-thousand challenge, to show the I Built/I Tried/I Tested format working across gaming and personality channels, recommends it as the default starting format for anyone on camera.

09:02 – 12:20

05 · Interest topics, listicles, and grand statements

Names the interest topic behind each example title (Kickstarter, Katana, Rainbow Six Siege, Omnitrix, Counter-Strike), defines a viral vector as any word or thing that lifts a title's performance regardless of niche, names transparent/invisible, banned/illegal, and 3am as recurring vectors, and explains why listicles and tier lists are the same format in disguise.

12:20 – 19:01

06 · Remixing outliers in action

Shows two live remixes, Omnitrix's seven-levels format remixed into 'Seven Ways Slavery Still Exists' (same format, new topic), and his own Counter-Strike video remixed into a broader FPS-games statement that outperformed a better-made niche video purely on total addressable market. States the rule that you only ever remix an outlier, then shows a viral-vector remix (invisible katana into a viral 'clear sandwich') carrying the same trick across niches.

19:01 – 25:17

07 · Core drivers of human attention: fear, desire, curiosity

Traces the framework back to an overnight session with the team at One of Ten, defines fear as personal-impact anxiety (health, wealth, relationships), desire as wanting a better version of the same three things, and curiosity as an open loop, then states the hard rule that fear and desire almost never coexist in the same idea, only curiosity reliably blends with either.

25:17 – 29:53

08 · Seven ways to remix an idea

Lists the seven remix levers for turning a proven outlier into a new idea: change the interest topic, add a viral vector, change the format, invert the format, add constraints, increase difficulty, and add a new layer of a core driver of attention, with the 24-hour-to-50-hour challenge escalation and a fear-plus-desire news headline as examples of the last two.

29:53 – 32:49

09 · Remix ways in action, then the katana viral vector

Runs each remix lever back against the five example videos, then in Q&A explains why katana works as a viral vector in any context by pulling up a ballistics-testing channel's 'can a katana cut a .50 cal' idea and confirming on MrBeast's own channel that a near-identical katana-vs-bullet video is one of his most-watched shorts.

32:49 – 33:27

10 · Close and the paid-program pitch

Wraps with a direct pitch for his paid mentorship, explicitly gated to creators already past 50,000 subscribers or $5,000 a month, positioned as the deeper version of the same framework behind the YouTube Play plaques visible on the wall behind him.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

A video's title is the best working stand-in for its idea, and almost every title breaks down into a format plus an interest topic, sometimes with a viral vector layered on.
No amount of good packaging saves a bad idea: if the idea is wrong, no one clicks regardless of thumbnail or title quality.
A viral vector is a word, phrase, or thing whose presence in a title lifts performance no matter the niche, transparent, invisible, banned, illegal, and 3am are named examples.
Formats and interest topics can themselves be viral vectors (a tier list goes viral in any niche; katana lifts almost any weapons video), but a viral vector is never also a format or a topic.
Listicles and tier lists are the same underlying format; disguising the numbered-list structure makes a low-effort format read as broadly interesting instead of generic.
Only ever remix a video that is already an outlier, remixing an average video just produces another average video.
Total addressable market can beat production quality: a rougher video aimed at a bigger interest topic outperformed a better-made video aimed at a smaller one, from the same creator.
Every reason a video gets clicked reduces to fear (personal risk to health, wealth, or relationships), desire (wanting a better version of the same three things), or curiosity (an open loop).
Fear and desire almost never coexist in the same idea because they're opposites, fear of loss versus desire of gain, the one place they reliably overlap is breaking news.
Curiosity is the flexible driver: it pairs with either fear or desire, so adding a curiosity angle is often the fastest fix for a flat idea.
Escalating a challenge's difficulty works better as a clean multiple than a small bump, 50-hour challenges beat 48-hour ones partly because the round number reads as a bigger leap.
You can validate a candidate viral vector by checking whether it already works outside its original niche, if it lifts videos in two unrelated categories, it's a real vector, not a coincidence.

Takeaway

Every viral idea is a format plus a topic, run through fear, desire, or curiosity.

WHAT TO LEARN

Treat video ideas as an engineering problem: identify the format and interest topic behind proven outliers, check that the result triggers fear, desire, or curiosity, then remix along seven concrete levers instead of guessing.

02The idea formula: format + interest topic + viral vector

Treat a video's title as its idea: almost every title breaks down into a format plus an interest topic, with a viral vector as an optional third multiplier.
Titles aren't always literal ideas, some are pure packaging that only make sense next to the thumbnail, but reading every title as format+topic+vector trains you to see ideas everywhere.

03Five formats broken down

Keep a working list of format templates: The Story of, I Built/Tried/Tested, X Things Gone Forever, The X Levels of, and The (thing) that (grand statement), each is a container you can drop any interest topic into.
A grand statement needs to be sweeping and near-universally agreed on, not just a fact, to pull curiosity; 'the genius that solved chess' works as an instant video-essay title for the same reason 'the team that solved Counter-Strike' does.
Modifiers, words that add curiosity without being a full viral vector, work best on video essays, where the entire pitch is the premise plus curiosity about it.

04The 'I built / I tried / I tested' trifecta

I Built / I Tried / I Tested is a default starter format for any on-camera creator, because it makes you the center of your own content without needing an outside interest topic.
The same trifecta scales from personality channels to faceless gaming channels, wherever the niche lets you visibly build, try, or test something.

05Interest topics, listicles, and grand statements

A viral vector is any word, phrase, or thing whose presence in a title lifts performance regardless of niche, transparent/invisible, banned/illegal, and 3am are recurring examples.
Formats and interest topics can themselves be viral vectors, but a viral vector is never also a format or a topic on its own.
Listicles and tier lists are the same underlying format; disguising the numbered-list structure makes a low-effort format read as broadly interesting instead of generic.

06Remixing outliers in action

Only remix videos that are already outliers, remixing an average video just produces another average video.
Total addressable market can beat execution quality: a worse-made video in a bigger interest topic outperformed a better-made video in a smaller one, from the same creator.
The two cheapest remixes are swapping the interest topic while keeping the format, and swapping the interest topic while keeping a viral vector.

07Core drivers of human attention: fear, desire, curiosity

Every reason a video gets clicked reduces to fear (personal risk to health, wealth, or relationships), desire (wanting a better version of the same three things), or curiosity (an open loop).
Fear and desire almost never coexist in the same idea because they're opposites, fear of loss versus desire of gain, the one place they reliably overlap is breaking news.
Curiosity is the flexible driver: it pairs with either fear or desire, so adding a curiosity angle is often the fastest fix for a flat idea.

08Seven ways to remix an idea

When a format already works, the fastest new idea is swapping just the interest topic and keeping everything else identical, this is why the same template keeps reappearing in unrelated niches.
Escalating a challenge's difficulty works better as a clean multiple than a small bump: bigger round-number jumps read as a bigger leap than the math alone would suggest.
Adding a new layer of a core driver of attention is the hardest remix lever to pull but the highest-ceiling one, since blended-driver headlines are rare enough to stand out.

09Remix ways in action, then the katana viral vector

Validate a candidate viral vector by checking whether it already works outside its original niche, if it lifts videos in two unrelated categories, it's a real vector, not a coincidence.
Before assuming a format is exhausted, check whether a top creator has already quietly proven the exact same idea performs well in their own catalog.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Interest topic: The subject the video is actually about, usually the second half of the title, such as Katana, Counter-Strike, or Rainbow Six Siege.
Viral vector: A word, phrase, person, or thing that, when included in a title, tends to lift performance regardless of the niche it appears in, such as transparent, invisible, or banned.
Format (idea formula): The reusable structural template of a title, independent of subject, such as 'The Story of (modifier)(topic)' or 'X Things That Are Gone Forever.'
Modifier: A word or phrase added to a format to raise curiosity about the interest topic without being a true viral vector; it only elevates the premise within that specific video.
Grand statement: A sweeping, near-universally agreed-on claim used as a title format (e.g. 'the team that solved Counter-Strike'), stronger than an ordinary statement because it invites more curiosity from a wider audience.
Core drivers of human attention: The three reasons anyone clicks on content: fear, desire, and curiosity.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

33:14productVexian's paid YouTube ideation program (first link in the video description) ↗

33:14linkVexian's free Discord ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

02:25

“If you have a good idea, it's much easier to get people to click. If you have a bad idea, no one's going to click. No matter how good the packaging is, no one's going to click.”

states the whole thesis of the video in one breath→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

20:00

“There's only three reasons people click. That is fear, desire, and curiosity.”

tight, quotable framework statement→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

24:20

“Fear and loss and desire of gain essentially cancel each other out. They're almost never going to overlap.”

counterintuitive rule with a built-in mental model→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

16:55

“Do not not remix an outlier. If it is an outlier, that's great.”

blunt, memorable rule stated as a double negative→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

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On today's call, we have the ideas call. Probably the most important call out of all the calls we've done so far. I'm hesitant to say ever do, because there's a pretty good chance I can just come back and revisit this topic in a year's time with some new stuff.

This is everything I know about ideas. For context, you guys may or may not know, you've been here, so I don't want to give you the whole spittle. Five billion long -form ideas, or not ideas, but views, credited to my ideas, and I can turn the camera on here.

which i have to if i do that then i actually have to go do this as well hold on start virtual cam and then if i do this and then i do uh video settings and i go here and then i do video and then i do cam link 4k but then i do elgato or obs virtual cam it should work it didn't work i tried i tried um you'll see in the recording you guys you see the picture with all plaques it's fine um But yeah, so let's be talking about ideas.

It's going to be talking about a few different things when it comes to ideas. Ideas themselves, how to come up with ideas, and then the three reasons people interact with basically anything on a day -to -day basis, which is arguably the most important thing because from there you can come up with like organic ideas, which is like kind of a lost art form.

You don't even necessarily need to come up with organic ideas, but it will help with the context of a few things in the sense that if I'm going to teach you how to remix ideas, it's good to know like, okay, I can remix it. Like that's like level one, like just remixing ideas level one. Level two from like, let's say remixing idea is like remixing it with the context of like why people click.

So with all that said, we're going to get into it. And then like there might be some other stuff and I'll field questions afterwards. So let's talk about ideas.

In front of us, we've got five ideas. Can we see the ideas? I'm hoping we can see the ideas.

These are from my own channels. These are from channels I'm inspired from. These are from people who've also like taken my tweets for free and come up with ideas.

So the Omnitrix one, I tweeted about the seven levels format. This guy hopped on it. He DM me saying like, dude, best, like one of the best performing videos of the year on my channel, which is cool.

The first three videos are videos I have worked on. So the Kickstarter video and the Rainbow Six Siege video are videos from two of my different faceless channels. The middle one is Mike Shake's most popular video of all time, which is one of my ideas, title and thumbnail.

And then the last one is not anything I've had anything to deal with, but it is there for a reason. And we'll see that in a little bit. So when it comes to ideas, ideas are the most important part of YouTube, in my opinion.

I think every part of YouTube is important, title, thumbnail as well, which is packaging, as well as the editing, storytelling, and pacing, which are going to come down to retention. They're all equally important to various degrees. But for basically anyone, ideas are the most important.

The reason why is it comes down to first principles. If you have a good idea, it's much easier to get people to click. If you have a bad idea, no one's going to click.

No matter how good the packaging is, no one's going to click. So with that in mind, That is why I over -index all my effort and time and energy on ideas for clients.

I spend very, very little time on retention. I spend very, very, very little time on storytelling. I spend very, very, very little time in general on anything that is not ideas.

I spend some time on packaging because if that's a good idea, it needs to look good so people click. And then I usually let the creators do the rest because that's fine. So with that in mind, let's break it down.

So ideas can be broken down into three things, okay? Or technically not three things, but like three like core things that make up an idea for a video. That's going to be your format plus an interest topic with the addition of a viral vector.

So we can break down what formats are, we can break down what interest topics are. uh break down what viral vectors are but essentially all you need to know is and the way we're doing this is like we're using the title of the video as the idea of the video the title of the video is not always the idea of the video the idea of the video is the premise of the video and the title is the best way to communicate that at like a very understandable level um but not all titles are reflective of the ideas of their videos.

Some of them are purely packaging in terms of the fact that they are antithetical to the idea where the idea of the video is shown in the thumbnail and then the title confirms it. Sometimes the title's a direct call out to the viewer and the thumbnail conveys the premise of the idea the best. So there's a lot of nuance when it comes to that, but just broadly speaking in today's kind of class, just for us, ideas are the titles of videos.

That's not the reality of it, but it would just do you good to think like ideas, all that, like all the titles of the video, that'll just do you good in general. All right, next up, let's break down these three videos. So I have three videos here.

The reason I have them here is because we're going to be using them as kind of some basis for some teaching. So from left to right, we have the team that solved Counter -Strike. This is a gaming video.

The tragic story of Kickstarter. It could have been anyone here who died. I built a transparent katana.

That's a more focused on like, let's say a creator aspect. Like I built XYZ. You could build a, like I built a channel in public.

I built a car. on like that uses water as fuel etc um 30 things that are gone forever rainbow succeeds you could do you know um 30 actors um who are like gone forever and like their best works or whatever or like 30 grammy winners uh who are gone forever something like that and their best song uh then you have the seven levels of omnistrix i don't need to go over the seven levels you guys have seen so many seven levels things i get dms on twitter now from people that are like hey man my entire home page looks like a rainbow what the fuck um so that's that's my bad um So let's break these down and kind of go out.

So kind of breaking down in terms of like the format. plus viral vector eventually you guys will get a list of this i didn't have time to make it because first of all there's a lot i have to figure out what's useful for you guys what's not useful for your guys but i will just give you a list of like 30 formats that are really good 30 well the interest topic stuff is what we classify as niche for the most part by the way but i'll give you 30 formats that just fucking crush like you just use these formats you're gonna print i tweet like free ones all the time like the free ones are the only ones like like i think like people on twitter can like use and make them i've got like for every free format you see me like post i've got maybe 20 other ones that i don't post that just live in a document um which is why i'm not giving them all away because i don't think all of them would be super useful for you they're useful for me and then lastly is viral vectors i will also give a list of viral vectors but viral vectors are a little bit harder to integrate so kind of what i'd say is like a higher higher level idea so with that being said let's break it down

In terms of formats, the five formats I have here, and there are like basically infinite number of formats, but the five for the examples we're using are these five, which is the story of modifier interest topic. So that's going to be like, you know, the story of, or like, you know, the incredible true story of Tom Brady or like the unlikely story of Stephen Curry, something like that, right?

Where it's like, we're taking the story of, which is like a very classic format. We're adding a little bit of a modifier in there. So modifiers for words and phrases that add curiosity.

to the interest topic but they're not viral vectors they're just things that you can use to modify the perception of the idea which is like a key thing here because that's not necessarily a viral vector and we'll explain what a viral vector is but a modifier is usually in the context of a video they're not universally they're not going to work like universally they're only going to work like to help elevate your premise of the video right which is why i like them for video essay so much Because video essays are all about the premise of the video and then getting people interested in that through usually curiosity.

And we'll come to that in a little bit. Through curiosity. So having the modifiers are really, really good to elevate that specific perception of the video for that target demographic.

I probably should have a list of modifiers as well because that'd be probably useful for you guys. But that's just like a super surface level, I think. Next is I built viral vector interest topic.

This is going to be from Mike Shake. I built, I tried, I tested are like the three trifecta. So it's like I built, I don't know, fuck it, you could do anything, right?

There's a great one from Brandon Volokh. Maybe I can bring it up as well and I can kind of show you what I mean by the I built, I tried, I tested trifecta and how it's useful.

Brandon Volokh. Can you guys still see my screen? I'm really hoping so, really hoping so.

Please say yes.

Yep, cool, awesome. Brandon Valk, a friend of mine, he did this for you. I built an airless bike, so he built this.

He then built an invisible bike. He tested it through your house. As you can see, I tried, I tested, I built.

I think he's even, I tried. Does he have an I tried? Oh yeah, I tried and joined the CA.

Look at that. So he's on I tried, I tested, I built. So if you are a personality YouTuber just starting out, you should do, I tried, I tested, I built.

And you can do it through like a ton of different things. So I'll do this Lander trades. Another good friend of mine, a former client as well.

uh lyndon schlesinger uh so bring this up as an example this also like works faceless to a degree if you can make it make sense it's usually gonna make the most sense in the gaming space because um gaming allows you to have kind of like a medium in which you can build things slash try slash test uh which is why i'm like bullish on it especially for storytelling um so like landon or lander did i tried turning ten dollars into a thousand um that just as an example of something that's like different than i built right that's i tried and then obviously we have the classic uh Will Tennyson video, I tried banned energy drinks.

Yeah, so that's, I built something new. I built, I tried, I tested the trifecta of you being the center of your own content. Just crushes.

Next up is X things are gone forever interest topic. This is a listicle video. I'm sure you guys know like the top 10, top 30.

Essentially listicles are like pretty like dog ships. They're really good at the same time. They're exceptionally good in the sense that It's very easy to get a lot of people interested in them.

They're also like really shit because it's the lowest barrier entry type of content anyone can do. That way, this is just like anecdotal. This is not like part of the kind of presentation, but it's probably good to know is that the best way like to disguise a listicle is nothing that's like a fucking top 10.

Like X number of things that are gone forever interest topic is great because it's fundamentally listicle. We're using a numbered list, but we have it in such a way that it's just interesting to the average person. It's just like broadly interesting.

Another great way to do listicles are tier lists. Tier lists are fundamentally listicles. They're just not positioned as listicles.

They're not like top 10, top 20. It's like you kind of have to disguise it. But regardless, the format here is X things that are gone forever interest topic.

Pretty good. Next one outside of that is X levels of interest topic. X levels of interest topic are also a listicle as well.

It's just a little bit of a different listicle in a sense that it actually just makes sense. Like it's just good. It's not like a top X.

So that's why I'm a fan of it. And then lastly is the thing that grand statement. So statements and grand statements are pretty straightforward.

An average like statement is like nothing that is like, let's say, like too controversial. I would say a grand statement is like, let's say more controversial or more universally agreed upon, right?

So if I made a statement, which is like, let's say like a statement would be like, you know, like 30 % of people like cheese. That's just a statement. But if I made a statement, which is like, everyone loves this one cheese.

It's like a grand statement because it becomes more like all encompassing. It's like more impactful. There's a wider towards the market.

There's more curiosity. But it's a statement. It's not, like, a question.

But it still gets curiosity based off, like, how it's, let's say, phrased and positioned. So, in this case, for the Counter -Strike video, it is the thing, that grand statement. So, the team that solved Counter -Strike.

Solved Counter -Strike is a grand statement. So, like, if you did a Magnus Carlsen video, like, the fucking easiest one of all time is, like, the genius that solved chess. All right, congratulations.

Like, that's, like, an easy, like, no -brainer video essay to make just based off that because it's a good format for that type of content. Also, it just works, like, in general. Like, I could make a video today or tomorrow called, like, the person that solved YouTube, and I just, like, fucking make myself a little shadowy figure, and then I just, like, here's, like, 20 years of, like, or, like, 10 years of knowledge and 5 billion views of knowledge and just, like, do a full masterclass.

That would also work. Next up. Interest topics.

The interest topics of these videos, super straightforward. They're usually, like, the second part of the title. And once you, like, start seeing titles like this, by the way, there's, like, no going back.

And, like, YouTube just, like, goes, like, straight easy mode. Like, if you can train, like, the whole muscle of, like, seeing every single title on YouTube for format plus interest topic plus viral vector, like, the unlock that you get is unreal. Like, just YouTube, like, fundamentally actually does just become easy mode.

Like, that's why I tweet out the formats all the time because I just, like, oh, it's a good format. Like, like. Here's like the interest topic.

You can trade that for anything. And like you just add a viral vector and we'll talk about that. So from left to right again, not really left to right, but in the order is like Kickstar.

So Kickstar is the interest topic. He's like a popular person in that niche and he passed away. Then there's Katana for the Mike Shake video.

Katana is the biggest interest topic in terms of weapons in the world because I'm not even getting into it. But Katana is just like universally known from every culture because everyone loves Japan. and anime, et cetera, and manga.

So it's just universally known. Rainbow Six Siege is the interest topic for things that are gone forever, targeting that specific niche. Omnitrix is the interest topic for the Ben 10 niche.

And then Counter -Strike is the interest topic for just broad gaming, but this specific channel. And then lastly, we have the viral vector. The viral vectors are words, phrases, people, things, movements, et cetera, like basically anything, to be honest, that regardless of the niche, its inclusion in a title yields more views than average.

So if I did a video tomorrow and I did a video doing, I built an airless car, probably do pretty well because airless is a viral vector within like that, like kind of specific niche, but it's also not just limited to bikes. Like you could do it like for essentially anything that has wheels that are rubber. Next up for like transparent and visible.

I had worked with a creator prior to pitching this Mike Shake idea, which was we built a invisible Big Mac. It did 500 ,000 views. It was averaging 100 ,000 views a video.

And then I did that for that guy. Then I saw someone else do something similar with like, I think a pizza. And then I just pitched this to Mike Shake because like, I was like, okay, well, invisible seems like work like across like the food niche.

Like food is like pretty different than weapons actually, like fundamentally. But like the process of building something is like the same format. And I'm just adding the viral vector of invisible.

Also, if you go on YouTube right now and you look up like, I built an invisible XYZ. Like they all, they are all crazy viral because there's interesting.

It's like, there's a lot of interest there. So I call them a viral vector and we can break down like why viral vectors are viral vectors, which is interesting. Then like, once you understand that, like everything like becomes like super easy to understand on YouTube in general.

And then like the way people interact with stuff. But yeah, like transparent invisible is one, banned items is one as well, slash illegal items. That one's always like a really, really, really, really, really good one.

In 3am or like 3am slash like, is it really good from like a horror aspect slash fear aspect? And we'll get there and we've got something coming up for that. But yeah, there's a few of these viral vectors.

Some, it's good to note, by the way, that some formats and some interest topics are viral vectors, but viral vectors are almost never interest topics and never formats. Actually, I think, I actually exclusively think they can't be. So what I mean by that is, like, tier list as a format always goes viral no matter what.

That is a viral vector format. Like, you can make a tier list on fucking anything and it will do above average regardless of the niche, regardless of the language. Throwing it out there, that is a viral format.

It's a viral vector format. But, like, it's not the other way around. Like, you cannot, like, make that just individually a viral vector.

Interest topics, there are some interest topics as well that are also always viral vectors. Which is nice when that happens, which means like if you make content on that interest topic, it will tend to do better on average than if you did not make content on that interest topic. You got viral vector interest topics.

Not all viral vector interest topics are independently viral vectors as well. So like if you did a viral vector interest topic on whatever it may be, I don't have one off the top of my head. I can probably think of one if I thought about it.

Let's say you did that, right? And then you did...

Like same niche, but maybe like a little bit of a different interest hopping that niche It would not do as well like just straight up. That's how it goes. Oh It's breaking down even farther and I can actually show you something exact in action so I can like I can like like Back when I'm talking about here.

So these are kind of the The formats here, so we have two different formats here. So the X levels of interest topic, the remix here is seven ways slavery still exists.

So we're remixing the format, which is like seven levels into seven ways. And then the interest topic is also changed from the Grey Matter fanboy stuff, which is the Omnitrix, to slavery and black history. So we're fundamentally changing the interest topic and we're remixing the format in such a way where it's still the seven levels, it's still a listicle, but it's no longer seven levels, it's seven ways.

Then for the remix, this is my channel here, did 900 ,000 views. The thing that grand statement, which is how Counter -Strike solved FPS games.

This is a statement more so than a question. If it was a question, I would have put like a question mark up in to make it a question. But it's more so like, you know, here's the statement of how Counter -Strike solved FPS games.

So we're remixing the statement. And then we're also remixing the interest topic, but we didn't do it too crazy. And I can actually even show you something really cool as well.

So this video right here, which is the team that solved Counter -Strike is one individual team in the ecosystem slash interest topic of Counter -Strike, which means it's niched down by going broad to just FPS games, which is the biggest market of games in the world to how Counter -Strike solved FPS games. This video, just because there's a larger audience for it.

did better. This video is not a better video than the Astralis video. It is fundamentally not.

I think the editing is not as good. I think the storytelling is not as good. I think the way we conveyed the information was not as good as the Astralis video from just my subjective standpoint.

But if you watch the two, I think you will also agree from probably an objective standpoint as well. But because our total adjustable market based on interest topic was so much larger, it just ended up getting more views. But it's fundamentally the same format of video.

So that's also the power of tolerable markets. And like, that's not really as useful to understand when it comes to ideas, but generally you want to be in a market that has a lot of viewers. And if you don't have a lot of viewers, that's fine.

Just make sure it's a very profitable market. So there's two ways we mix that there. The reason why I'm bringing this up is the best way to come up with ideas is to take outliers.

I know it was fucking crazy. Take outliers, which I'm hoping we're doing already. And then finding ways to remix their, we'll get to it, but like remix their formats, remix their, interest topics, and then add or subtract viral vectors are really good ways to go about doing it.

And I have a whole section on that in a little bit. But I'm just showing you, here is good examples of good remixes and why they work and how you can work. But actually, I probably said a blanket statement here.

Everything that you're remixing is an outlier. Do not not remix an outlier. If it is an outlier, that's great.

Maybe find two or more, but that should be our base for everything when it comes to ideas. This is just some other stuff I'm showing you on top. If we go back up here.

These are all outliers for a reason. And we'll break down why they're outliers in a second. Next up for viral vectors, and I guess there's no interest topics here because the formats and interest topics are covered there.

But for viral vector, nice easy one here, which is remix viral vector, different interest topic. So transparent, invisible, I made a clear sandwich. So transparent, invisible, clear, and camouflage are all under the same umbrella for the most part.

Actually, like just indefinitely. So like all those tend to do really well across any niche. So this guy, this girl rather made a clear sandwich.

We've made an invisible katana, potatoes, potatoes here. So this is a remix of the viral vector and is a different interest topic going from weapons to food. All of that to say, what matters here when it comes to ideas?

The three things that matter the most for ideas, and this is like. The biggest takeaway, there's a lot of biggest takeaways here. Obviously, format plus interest topic and plus or minus slash like, you don't always need a viral vector, by the way.

Half of the call, the first thing you see my thumbnail, you're gonna have to watch the VOD. But yeah, so like, not, by the way, not every idea needs a viral vector. They are too hard to include all the time, which is why they're used sparingly and in some cases.

But every idea is going to be a format plus an interest topic almost always, like 98 % of the time. So I should mention that when you see that little like formula up there. But the framing of them all come down to three things.

There's only three reasons people in the world click. I know this because when I was at one of 10, we fucking sat there for 20 hours trying to figure this out overnight in Madrid. And we came to this conclusion.

These are the smartest fucking people in the world on YouTube. Like between the entire team at one of 10, it is tens of billions of views. And like, it's like collectively like 40 plus years of experience posting.

If you add all of our years up individually. And we come to this conclusion, which is there's three reasons people click. That is fear, desire, and curiosity.

Every single person is clicking because they want an answer to fear, they want an answer to desire, or they want an answer to curiosity. So fear is generally defined as personal impact or impact on my life in some way, shape, or form. Whether it be conscious or unconscious.

I should have like extracted the full definition from, the one of 10 stuff, but that would be like kind of stealing to a degree. And I'm not doing that.

I contributed to it, but I'm not going to steal it. So like, we, you know, it's like fear. Generally people are watching because they are feel for, for their personal safety, their financial safety and their family.

Right. So that's going to be like tribe, community, money and health. Usually like, that's usually how it goes.

Or I guess you could say health, wealth and relationships is actually the best way to describe it, which like they're fearful of health, wealth and the relationships. Like that's how you kind of define it. if you wanted to like be technical.

Desire, it's gonna be the same thing. It's usually they want to desire for better relationships, better health or better wealth or like better outcome. But usually the reason why someone is desiring a better outcome, whatever it be, like let's say I wanna get really good at disc golf, something I do, I like disc golf.

If I wanted to get better at disc golf, my desire would be...

like probably relationship with self. If you want to be technical, it was like me getting better at disc golf makes me happier. And that is an improvement with a relationship with myself.

If you want to like, really like break it down to like the absolute, like core stuff. And then curiosity is like, generally it's going to be like curiosity in the sense that open loop question. I want an answer to it.

It's like, How Counter -Strike solved FPS games is a statement, but it is a statement in which, like, okay, well, how did they? Like, you ask yourself that question.

So, like, anytime, like, a viewer, like, clicks on any of these videos or has these videos shown on their feed, this is, like, a faceless guy, this is a faceless guy, this is a faceless guy, so I know all the faceless guys as well, is how does this still exist? Am I a slave? How is this delivered in 2025?

Like generally questions like the viewer might ask themselves when they see this video, which like arguably is a curiosity angle. It's also a fear angle as well because it could be like directly impacting the viewer. The desire, why am I not losing fat?

How can I lose fats? That's the desire to increase health. And then the curiosity angle here for core drivers of human tension for my video, which is how to solve FPS games and not how can I lose fats?

Ignore that. Dad did not make it to the rough draft. You guys now see that.

It's gone.

So with that in mind, some other things to talk about here. I wish I had like a matrix pulled up, but essentially fear and curiosity can always coexist. Desire and curiosity can always coexist as ideas.

Like let's say if I come up with an idea, I can come up with an idea that blends fear and curiosity. I could do it in a way that blends desire and curiosity, but almost never, like almost never. from what I remember, there's no way to blend fear and desire.

Like we sat there for like four hours trying to figure out like if there is, and like maybe occasionally like one out of every 200 videos, there is a potential for fear and desire to be blended in terms of the reason why people click. But generally they don't because they're completely antithetical to each other. Where it's like fear is all like fear of loss in some way, shape or form and desire is desire of gain.

So fear and loss and desire of gain essentially cancel each other out. Like they're almost never going to overlap. Like very, very, very, very, very rarely.

And if they do overlap, it's generally in the ecosystem of news. Like that's like when they overlap. I know this is like all pretty complex.

Are you guys following so far? Like this is all like, like basically like essentially the highest level shit I can get to without like really like sitting here for four hours and breaking down like per basis examples. All right, cool, cool, cool.

What comes with ideas? You use outliers. You find the outlier formats, the outlier interest topics.

Generally, if you're in a niche, you already know the interest topics. But you find outlier formats. You then remix those outlier formats with, in general, with keeping in mind, does this fulfill fear, desire, or curiosity to my viewers?

Is it going to make them feel fearful? Are they going to have a desire? Are they going to be curious about this?

If the answer is yes to one of those or two of those, that's good, as long as it also is like, Are they going to feel fear, desire, or curiosity based on the way I remixed this outlier idea within this interest topic? So there's that.

Okay, cool. I'm glad we're getting there. I had to teach you guys what all those things were, and then you can understand the formula.

It's the formula I use subconsciously at this point to fucking just print views on demand. Which is really nice. All right, ways to remix.

So I've got some ways to remix here. And then what I'm going to do after I talk about this, I'm going to field some questions. I'm also going to help you guys remix stuff on your own channel based in this kind of like framework that I have, which I think is like the best framework in the world for the most part.

And I know I'm not talking about like outlier or I'm not talking about like presence, mind ideation or any of the other questions should I do? Because like that is not, that's not going to be useful to you guys basically ever. This stuff is actually super useful right now.

Where it's like, if you understand this. 95 % of all your videos will come from this type of stuff. Which I think is pretty nice.

Pretty cool stuff. And then, yeah, like I said, I'll help you guys do that with all your guys' channels, and we'll see if we can get cooking here. Waste Remix.

Change of interest topic. So, way one of remixing is you have a good format, a format that works. The seven levels format is the fucking best example of this.

Every single fucking time you see a seven levels thing, it's in a different niche with a different interest topic. That is changing the interest topic, but keeping the format the same. Next is adding a viral vector that is having a format that works really well.

And then you add a viral vector to that format. Next is changing the format. So that's going to be maybe keeping the interest topic and altering the format.

So for example, you saw the, I guess like racist here, but you saw him go from like, Let's say like I think it's like five levels of black sellout But like let's just say like the seven levels like format in general to the seven ways Fundamentally like still kind of like the same type of listicle style, but we're changing from levels to ways Which is like a little bit different then that like depends on the audience and that also like depends on the like persistent positioning and framing Then there are adding constraints.

So adding constraints to a video Great example is like let's look like the super popular diet videos and 50 -hour videos at the moment you see like the kill desert guy like he just eats only like the blue or the red 40 diet or only a diet from home depot for a week then you see um And increase in difficulty.

So like this is like a really fucking easy one because you can do it like linearly or you can do exponential. So like a linear increase, for example, is like 24 hours to 50 hours. And like we can get into like the nuance of like why 50 hours works better than 24 hours, even though 48 hours is two times 24 hours and how 50 hours is a nice even number.

Like I'm not going to get into all that right now. It's like nuance that doesn't matter. But like 50 hours is just doubling the difficulty of 24 hour challenges, which were massively popular in 2016.

And like 50 hour challenges have been like on the rise since 2021. Like that's just kind of like a way that works. And I don't think we're going to see 100 -hour challenges, by the way, before anyone asks.

And then you can add constraints. You can also increase difficulties. So adding constraints and increasing difficulty are essentially the same thing, but they're not always the same thing.

So for example, adding constraints does not necessarily mean an increase in difficulty. It could just mean a change in execution. And a change in execution doesn't mean you're getting much more difficult.

It can actually be easier in some cases. And then lastly, it is... add a new layer of a core driver of human attention.

So if my, if I have a news -based channel, right, and I'm a news, like, bait channel is, like, the best way to describe it is, like, those guys with the fucking, like, lower thirds that, like, ICE just deported all these guys, that's all fear. But maybe I could add, like, you know, a desire element and a curiosity element, which is, like, Trump just, like, really, like, Major Trump announced me, you know, illegals can now become citizens.

That's desire and curiosity. Why is, like, that happening? And, like, I have a desire to not get deported, so I'm going to do that.

Um, which in that case, like maybe it could be fear. And like, generally speaking, like anytime there is like fear and desire, it's usually in the news realm. If there is an overlap, which is like fairly real, a fairly rare.

Um, and then I've got some quick examples of this here. Um, so we've changed an interest topic from Counter -Strike to FPS games, uh, from Katana to Ninja weapons. So in this case, like, so this is also like super interesting as well.

Um, team itself Counter -Strike is a small market going into a big market of FPS games. And then transparent katana is a big market going to a small market. So you can actually see the views reflect this as well.

Also the execution for Mike shake was much better, but like we're going from like the biggest market to a small market. So we get less views. We're going from a small market to a bigger market.

So I get more views. Uh, we basically added a viral vector here. Like say that, um, which is like i added i mix every energy drink and flavor into one which i tried ban energy drinks essentially banned is like an outlier thing and like yes he's like mixing all of them but essentially he's trying them so we went from trying all energy drink flavors which is like that's how you can kind of like conflate that to i tried banning drink flavors uh change in format is seven levels of omnitrix uh to seven ways slavery still exists that's changing the format from like seven levels of like xyz to seven ways of xyz uh and then we have the inverting the format so inverting the format is like fundamentally changing the format.

It's just a way to change the format, which is how to live your best life in two minutes, how to quickly ruin the rest of your life in two minutes, fire, and then add constraints slash increase difficulty. I have these like the same thing because like adding constraints and increasing difficulty to the viewer is the same thing.

For us, it's different. So he tried turning $100 into 1 ,000 is the first video. And the second video is I tried turning 10 into 1 ,000.

So it's getting 10 times harder. That's everything. That is...

Everything I know for the most part without sitting here for four hours, going into ideas, the actual like construction of the idea from like a molecular level, which is like you have the format plus the interest topic and then sometimes the viral vector. And then the framing of the ideas through the lens of fear, desire, or curiosity, and then how to remix them fairly easily over and over again.

And then that's it. That's basically, this will cover like 95 % of everything you'll need to do for the rest of time.

Any questions? And then we can start adding people or get people up here. We can remix it.

Rose, first question. What would be a good example of remix adding a viral vector? I feel as a viral vector is a very abstract concept.

Yeah, it is an abstract concept. It's essentially words, phrases, people, things, ideas, items, et cetera, that no matter what, always do really, really, really, really well. So for example, so Katana is a great example of this, actually.

Katana is an interest topic of the... the hierarchy of weapons, if you will, like the, I guess you could do like the taxonomy of things, or I guess the classification. But like weapons, so like you have like tools, then you have like weapons, then you have like swords, then you have like katana, right?

So like katana is essentially like the biggest interest topic for like the word swords. Like swords is like technically broader because like it includes katana in it. But like of like defined swords, katana is the biggest.

And it's also like, works every single time. So it's an interest topic in the sense that it is just a thing that there is an interest for.

There's also a viral vector because no matter what context you use for Katana, it also does really well. So for example, if I did a channel, which is like, you know, bullet versus, this is a fucking, oh my God, this is such a fucking great example.

Firearms. Need life. Okay, awesome.

So he's doing all these videos here, which is like, could a 150 pound ball stop a 50 cal sniper rifle? Can a concrete highway bearer stop a 50 cal? Is UBLIC bulletproof?

Like he's just doing these videos over and over and over and over and over again. If he did a video, can a katana cut a 50 cal? That's like, you keep the same format, but you add the viral vector of katana, which is viral vector plus interest topic.

And I know that'll work because if I go here to Mr. Beast. which I hate doing, but this actually is the case.

That's going to work really well. MrBeast. And I go to MrBeast right here.

That new short thumbnail is fucking crazy. And I click by popular. I believe it is.

Yeah, his fourth most popular, which is Katana versus Bullet, which is fundamentally, can a Katana cut a 50 cal? If you wanted to take it to its actual logical conclusion. Hey, if you thought that was good, that is just my free stuff.

You get my paid stuff, which is multiple, multiple hours of content with new lessons being added every single week in the first link in the description below. And as a disclaimer, I do want to say this is not for beginners. It's generally for YouTubers over 50 ,000 subscribers or creators making $5 ,000 a month.

If you qualify in that category i think the school is a good place for you to accelerate and grow much faster it's everything i know about youtube at a high level the same stuff that i use to get all these plaques behind me and all these plaques over here of which i can't even hang because i don't have enough space so if that is interesting to you it's the first link in the description below

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Vexian opens by calling this his most important lesson yet, crediting ideas, not editing, retention, or storytelling, for the bulk of the five billion views he's tracked across his own and client channels, then spends the next half hour reducing 'idea' to a formula anyone can run by hand.

Frameworks

Named ideas worth stealing.

03:10model

Format + Interest Topic + Viral Vector

Format
Interest Topic
Viral Vector (optional)

The core idea formula: every video idea is a reusable structural format applied to an interest topic, with an optional viral vector multiplying performance regardless of niche.

Steal forreverse-engineering any competitor's title, or structuring a brainstorm session before pitching ideas to a creator

05:13list

The Five Formats

The Story of (modifier)(interest topic)
I Built / I Tried / I Tested (viral vector)(interest topic)
X Things That Are Gone Forever (interest topic)
The X Levels of (interest topic)
The (thing) that (grand statement)

Five reusable title templates demonstrated against real example videos, each a container that any interest topic can be dropped into.

Steal fora starter format list for a new or stuck channel

20:00model

Core Drivers of Human Attention

Fear
Desire
Curiosity

The three reasons anyone clicks on anything, developed with the team at One of Ten: fear (personal-impact anxiety), desire (wanting a better outcome), and curiosity (an open loop). Fear and desire almost never blend; curiosity blends with either.

Steal forauditing whether a draft title actually gives the viewer a reason to click

25:17list

Seven Ways to Remix an Idea

Change the interest topic
Add a viral vector
Change the format
Invert the format
Add constraints
Increase difficulty
Add a new layer of a core driver of attention

The seven concrete levers for turning an existing outlier video into a new idea without starting from a blank page.

Steal fora checklist to run against any proven outlier before greenlighting a new video

CTA Breakdown

How they asked for the click.

VERBAL ASK

33:14product

“Hey, if you thought that was good, that is just my free stuff. You get my paid stuff, which is multiple, multiple hours of content with new lessons being added every single week in the first link in the description below.”

Delivers the entire free framework first, then gates the paid pitch explicitly to creators already past 50,000 subscribers or $5,000/month, so it reads as an upsell for people already succeeding rather than a beginner funnel.

MENTIONED ON CAMERA

33:14productVexian's paid YouTube ideation program (first link in the video description) ↗

33:14linkVexian's free Discord ↗

FROM THE DESCRIPTION

AFFILIATECommission earned if you click.