The Real Reason You're Not Getting Views (It's Not The Algorithm)
A 41-minute interview with a creator who went from 3 billion to 9 billion views in a single year, and found out at 10 million subscribers that only 10,000 people actually cared.
Posted
1 weeks ago
Duration
Format
Interview
educational
Views
11.3K
240 likes
57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
Low views usually mean you have not published enough focused videos for an audience to find you, and a subscriber only becomes a real fan once your personality enters the work.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
A creator with under 100 uploads who keeps blaming the algorithm and wants an honest test for whether the problem is volume, focus, or quality.
Someone with a working format who wants to add more of their own life and personality without losing the audience they already built.
A beginner with zero following who wants to get paid for making videos now, through UGC and brand work, before the channel earns anything.
A creator with a decent subscriber count who suspects most of those people are watching the concept, not them, and wants to know how to fix it.
SKIP IF…
You want tactical editing, thumbnail, or SEO walkthroughs. This is a conversation about strategy, mindset, and pivots, not a how-to.
You run a long-form, deeply technical channel. Almost every example here comes from short-form lifestyle, challenge, and cooking content.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
The algorithm is not hiding your videos; the audience has not found you yet because you have not given it enough focused material to work with. The guest took a year to reach 1,000 subscribers, then hit 100,000 the next month and a million a few months later, once she had enough videos in a hyper-specific lane for YouTube to know who to show them to. Her rule: under 100 uploads, keep going; over 100 with no traction, change the strategy. She paid her bills with UGC and client work until a million subscribers, then grew from 3 billion to 9 billion views in one year by putting her personality inside proven formats. The hard lesson was that her first pure personality video drew 10,000 views at 10 million subscribers, so she blended the two instead of switching outright.
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Montage of the guest's biggest claims, then the host introduces the show and the guest's numbers: 12 million subscribers, 9 billion views.
00:57 – 01:50
02 · Who she is
Primarily short-form, also long-form and live. Started in business and finance, slowly widened to lifestyle, cooking, and challenges. The host notes that freedom was earned, not the starting point.
01:50 – 02:56
03 · Learning behind the scenes
Making videos since age eight, quit after being teased, then built skills editing for roofers, psychologists, and restaurants. The old videos look polished because the skills came first.
02:56 – 04:43
04 · Working for others until a million subs
She kept client work until the channel hit a million subscribers. The host flags how common that is and teases the look change that made him think he had the wrong person.
04:43 – 06:24
05 · The blue ocean strategy
Red ocean versus blue ocean. Her edge was a finance degree in progress at 16, so she made finance videos for teens, a lane nobody else served.
06:24 – 09:06
06 · Why the algorithm finally clicked
A year to 1,000, then 100,000 in a month. Her explanation: not enough videos for the audience to discover her. The 100-video rule and the warning that scattered topics slow discovery.
09:06 – 12:34
07 · The missing mindset
New creators copy the surface of lifestyle content and miss the research underneath. People do not know you so they do not care yet. Love the work first, because the money comes slowly.
12:34 – 14:31
08 · Money and paychecks
She does not remember her first AdSense check because client work already paid about $5,000 a month at 16. Going full-time took about a year and a half of focused effort.
14:31 – 16:31
09 · Brand deals and UGC
Brand partnerships are her main income. Before the channel took off, three apps paid $300 per short for videos they ran as ads. Today's rate is around $150, and startups on TikTok have the budgets.
16:31 – 18:44
10 · Creators who inspire her
MrBeast for intentional optimization and persistence, Ryan Trahan for community and positivity, Speed for total authenticity. She wants to combine all three.
18:44 – 23:37
11 · Personality first and the glow-up
Fans call her the internet big sister. She flipped from chasing banger ideas to asking what excites her and formatting it. Engaging with comments led to the hair-down glow-up series and the jump from 3 billion to 9 billion views in a year.
23:37 – 25:09
12 · From social anxiety to extrovert
She was afraid to order a pizza by phone and spent her core teen years in quarantine. Making videos forced her out of her shell, and she now draws energy from people.
25:09 – 28:20
13 · Being recognized and parasocial fans
An arcade visit took an hour of photos before she could play. Going from one short a week to 20 a day made fans parasocial; the top in-person question is why she and her ex broke up.
28:20 – 33:30
14 · 10 million subscribers, 10,000 real fans
Her first pure personality video got 10,000 views at 10 million subscribers. More of the same did not fix it. The fix was blending personality into proven formats, like an onion-cutting hack with a B-plot about hating to cry. True fans are now about 100,000.
33:30 – 37:03
15 · Intros and time to action
About 20 percent of production time goes to the first 30 seconds. She only scripts the intro now and never stops changing packaging. Time to action is the priority: a soccer-positions video that opens on 'goalkeeper', and a catch-it challenge that explains the rule as the item drops.
37:03 – 40:50
16 · Live streaming as a show
Her next move is live streaming, produced like a planned show rather than hitting go. Fans cheer loudest for streamers at charity matches because of the relationship. She wants in-real-life streams like Speed's after watching him at six World Cup matches.
40:50 – 41:28
17 · Outro
Host calls her a caterpillar that keeps becoming a new butterfly, points to the show notes, and sends viewers to the next interview.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
If you have fewer than 100 videos, YouTube does not have enough data to know who to show them to, so low views are not yet a verdict.
Past 100 uploads with no breakout, the problem is content quality or strategy, not the algorithm.
Pick a niche so specific that a stranger could describe your channel in five words, and the audience finds you faster.
Spreading ten videos across stocks, Bitcoin, and precious metals targets three different obsessives; ten videos on one topic reach one audience ten times.
One breakout video lifts every earlier upload with it, which is why the first year looks flat and the second looks exponential.
People do not know you yet, so they do not care about you yet; the viral idea has to carry the video until they do.
With zero followers, UGC videos for apps paid $300 each; the going rate is now closer to $150, and it still needs no audience.
Brand partnerships, not AdSense, are the main income for a channel with 12 million subscribers.
Ten million subscribers can hide the fact that only 10,000 people would follow you to a new channel.
Almost every creator's audience is watching for the concept, not the person, and that stays true until personality is written into the videos.
A pure personality video at 10 million subscribers got 10,000 views; a challenge video with a personal B-plot got millions. Blend, do not switch.
When pivoting, keep the hook, idea, title, and thumbnail that already work and change only what happens inside the video.
Roughly 20 percent of production time goes to the first 30 seconds, and the hook is non-negotiable.
The best intro has the shortest time to action: skip the context and start doing the thing, then explain the rules as they play out.
Posting 20 shorts a day instead of one a week turned casual recognizers into fans who ask about her breakup.
Fans cheer loudest for streamers at live events because streaming builds a relationship, which is why live is the next move.
Takeaway
Volume finds the audience, personality keeps it.
WHAT TO LEARN
Under 100 videos the algorithm has nothing to work with, and even 10 million subscribers can be 10,000 real fans until your personality lives inside the formats that already work.
03Learning behind the scenes
Skills built working for other people transfer directly; years of editing for clients made the first solo uploads look professional from day one.
04Working for others until a million subs
Keeping a day job until the channel clearly out-earns it is common among successful creators, not a sign of failure.
05The blue ocean strategy
Find the overlap between a real advantage you have and a lane nobody serves; a teen with a finance degree making finance videos for teens had no competition.
Being inspired by a creator in an adjacent audience is a shortcut: copy the approach, serve the people they are not serving.
06Why the algorithm finally clicked
Fewer than 100 uploads means the audience has not had enough material to find you, so keep publishing before judging the results.
Hyper-specific topics speed discovery; ten videos scattered across stocks, Bitcoin, and precious metals target three different audiences and reach none.
One breakout lifts the back catalog, which is why growth looks flat for a year and then exponential.
Past 100 videos with no traction, stop blaming distribution and rework the content quality and strategy.
07The missing mindset
Lifestyle content that looks effortless hides research into outlier ideas and a deliberate story that makes strangers care.
Nobody cares about you until they know you, so early videos must win on the idea, not the person.
Compare yourself to the creators who put in the volume, not the ones who got lucky on a first upload.
08Money and paychecks
Full-time income took about a year and a half of focused work, and client work covered the bills in the meantime.
09Brand deals and UGC
Brand partnerships, not AdSense, are the main revenue source even at 12 million subscribers.
UGC videos made for a brand's own ads paid $300 each with zero followers; the current market rate is around $150 per short.
Reach out to small startup apps directly, especially ones advertising on TikTok, because they have budget and need creators.
10Creators who inspire her
The three traits worth studying are intentional optimization, community positivity, and unfiltered authenticity, and they rarely coexist in one creator.
Optimizing every detail can crowd out authenticity, so decide which one you are willing to lose a little of.
11Personality first and the glow-up
Start from what excites you and then find a proven format to package it, instead of chasing a viral idea and inserting yourself.
Replying to comments, trying viewer suggestions on camera, and crediting them by name turned passive viewers into collaborators.
A viewer-driven glow-up series doubled four years of views in one year because it combined engagement with viral packaging.
12From social anxiety to extrovert
The limiting factor on camera presence was a lack of real-world conversation practice, and making videos was the practice.
13Being recognized and parasocial fans
A short-form audience treats you transactionally until posting frequency climbs high enough for them to feel they know you.
Twenty shorts a day updating people on your life builds parasocial fans who ask about your breakup in person.
1410 million subscribers, 10,000 real fans
Most audiences watch for the concept, not the creator, and a channel reset would prove it.
A pure personality video at 10 million subscribers drew 10,000 views, and repeating it did not fix it.
Blend personality into proven formats through a B-plot, then save full story-time videos for once people already care.
True fans went from 10,000 to about 100,000 by mixing, not switching.
Only pivot once the current audience has capped or the work stops being fulfilling, and do it gradually.
Keep hooks, ideas, titles, and thumbnails the same and move the new direction inside the video body.
15Intros and time to action
Roughly a fifth of production time belongs to the first 30 seconds, and only the intro needs a word-for-word script.
Packaging is never finished; keep testing titles and thumbnails on videos you consider done.
Cut context and start the action immediately, then deliver any rules while the action is already happening.
16Live streaming as a show
Fans cheer loudest for streamers at live events because streaming builds an actual relationship.
Live is oversaturated, so treat each stream as a produced show with planned bits and guests rather than just going live.
In-real-life streaming lets the audience experience an event with you instead of hearing about it afterward.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
Blue ocean strategy
A business approach where you look for a market with plenty of demand but no competitors, instead of fighting over the same customers everyone else is chasing. For creators it means a niche nobody else is serving yet.
UGC (user-generated content)
Videos a creator makes for a brand to post on the brand's own channels or run as ads, rather than on the creator's channel. It pays per video and does not require the creator to have an audience.
Time to action
How many seconds pass between the start of a video and the moment the promised thing actually begins. Shorter is better; context can be delivered while the action is already happening.
Packaging
The title, thumbnail, and opening hook that decide whether someone clicks. Changing the packaging changes who the video reaches, which is why it is the riskiest thing to alter during a pivot.
Pivot
Shifting a channel from one niche or style to another, such as from baking tutorials to lifestyle content. Done abruptly it loses the existing audience; done gradually it carries them along.
Parasocial
A one-sided relationship where viewers feel they personally know a creator from watching so much of their content. It drives loyalty and also produces fans asking about private details.
B-plot
A secondary personal storyline threaded through a video built on a proven format, such as sharing a fear of crying inside an onion-cutting hack video. It lets personality in without changing the hook.
“If you haven't made at least 100, then that means you haven't made enough videos for YouTube to know who to push it out to. But if you've made over 100 and you still haven't taken off yet, then I would reconsider the content quality and your content strategy.”
The whole thesis in two sentences with a hard number→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
07:07
“I like to use the word audience instead of algorithm.”
One-line reframe that answers the title→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
09:36
“People don't know you, so they don't care about you yet.”
“I went from averaging 10 million views a video to my first personality-based video getting 10,000 views. You can have 10 million subscribers and quickly realize that you only have 10,000 real subscribers.”
Shocking numbers from a mega-creator, built-in contrast→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
20:37
“The first four years my overall channel got three billion views. The last year I went from three to nine billion.”
Stat-driven curiosity gap that begs 'how'→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
28:46
“I bet you their viewers are watching for the concept and not for them.”
Uncomfortable truth aimed at every creator→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
30:02
“If my channel got deleted and I made a new channel, they wouldn't look for me. That's the truth. Maybe the 10,000 people who saw the next video.”
Vulnerable admission with a vivid test→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
33:11
“Keep the hooks and the ideas the same as what has been working, and within the content itself incorporate that adjacent niche.”
16:31 – 18:44sparseCreator influences and authenticity
18:44 – 23:37densePersonality, audience engagement, the glow-up
23:37 – 28:20sparseFame, anxiety, parasocial fans
28:20 – 33:30denseThe 10,000-view wake-up and how to pivot
33:30 – 37:03denseHooks, intros, time to action
37:03 – 40:50steadyLive streaming plans
The Script
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metaphoranalogystory
It took a year to get 1 ,000 subscribers. The next month I got 100K. My overall channel got 3 billion views.
The last year, I went from 3 to 9 billion. If you haven't made at least 100, then that means you haven't made enough videos for YouTube to know who to push it out to. I actually was still working for other people until I hit a million subscribers.
I went from averaging 10 million views a video to my first personality -based video getting 10 ,000 views. Hey, welcome back to The Only Podcast. It's here to help you grow your YouTube channel better than you can do it by yourself.
I'm Travis here every single week doing it with you in the grind. We're getting it. Today, I have an incredible guest from over 12 million subscribers, 9 billion with a B, views, Jenny Hoyos.
Welcome to the podcast, Jenny. Thank you for having me, Travis. I'm super excited to chat and help everyone go viral.
That's right. That's what we're here for. If you're new here, this is what we do.
We talk to content creators and we help you grow your YouTube channel. If you're listening to The Only Podcast, there'll be links in the show notes. for the YouTube channel and of course, Jenny's channel.
Now, Jenny, for people who don't know, who are you and what do you do? I'm Jenny Hoyos and I'm primarily a short form content creator, but I also create long form and live stream content. And I create content about my life.
I started making videos about business and finance. And along the way, I slowly expanded my niche. So now it's just lifestyle, cooking, challenges, everything that.
Sparks my curiosity. Well, the cool thing about it is you were able to do something that most people want to do, which is make videos about their life. A lot of people don't want to like niche down, especially newer creators.
They want to just do whatever, which now you have a little bit of rain to be able to do that because you've established an audience. But I think people will look at that and see the top part of the iceberg, so to speak, above the water and go, oh, she just does anything and it works. But that's not how you started.
So let's talk. Let's rewind. Before you ever hit record, what were you doing?
And then how did you get into YouTube? Yeah, so I've been making YouTube videos since I was eight years old. I'm 21 now.
So it's been quite a few years. I always, I did daily vlogs. I just did random things until as I slowly got older, I got made fun of for making videos.
So I stopped making videos for a bit, but I was still creating content for local businesses just because I naturally had a passion for content creation. And I want to emphasize that point because some people might go to my channel right now and sort by oldest and see that I already knew how to edit. I already knew how to do all these things.
I did not. I had to learn these things from scratch. And I was able to grow my channel relatively fast, I guess you can say, because I worked on those skill sets.
And I created so many videos for so many other channels and niches. I did things for roofing, psychologists.
literally restaurants literally anything you can you name i have probably i definitely have worked with them so prior to this channel you were doing that work is what you're saying yeah yeah or even like prior to the channel and during the beginning i actually was still working for other people until I hit a million subscribers.
A lot of people don't understand that that's a thing that's actually more common than not. I've been talking to a couple people actually on the channel that have very successful YouTube channels and still have full -time jobs because they like their job or whatever. Or sometimes even the financial ups and downs of YouTube are so unsustainable for some people.
We'll talk about that a little bit later. But what did you find success when you first started? Because you I remember was also talking about your look, too, because it's completely different than what it used to be.
Like you look completely different. Matter of fact, I do. The funny thing about this is we we got connected through another content creator I just interviewed.
But I had pitched to you a couple of months back. And it's the Jenny that I've always known on YouTube. When I went to a YouTube channel, I'm like, who's this?
Maybe I got the wrong person. I thought I had the wrong person.
We'll talk about that a little bit later. But before we get there, what were you finding success with? We have to talk about that later because that's funny.
I'm like, is there two Jenny Hoyas on the internet? What am I missing out on something? What's going on?
No. We're back to when you were uploading just a couple of years ago, five, six years ago. What were you making content on and why?
I know why it was working at the time, but people have to remember that things work in a certain time period that if you tried them now, they wouldn't necessarily work. Let's talk about exactly what you're making. But I still do think that there are a lot of like things that people can apply, like in the sense of I was creating.
So I was creating. on daily vlogs until I started, I stopped and started working for these other people. And then I realized, wait, I want to go all in and doing my own thing.
Cause I'm helping these people grow. And if I'm able to do it for them, I can do it for myself. So the first thing I did was I thought of my blue ocean strategy, which is a business marketing strategy where you create a blue ocean.
The analogy is imagine uh an ocean with a bunch of fish but there are also a bunch of fishermen everyone's trying to get the same fish it's it's a red ocean because you have competition but a blue ocean is one where you still have a bunch of fish but you are the only fisherman therefore you're able to collect all the fishes and it gets harder over time like as more people as more creators are going on the platforms but going into it i thought what is my unique advantage and what is my blue ocean?
And my unique advantage was I, so additional context. So I skipped a grade and then I dual enrolled. So I was three years ahead and I was getting my finance degree at like only like 16 years old.
I was like in college for that. So I was like, well, that's pretty unique. I'm going to make content on finance for teens because the average, kid my age didn't understand business or finance the same way I did.
And that was a unique advantage of mine, but also a blue ocean because no one else was doing that on YouTube. I was heavily inspired by someone like Graham Stephan, but he was creating content for people like 20 plus. So that's how I started my channel.
And that's initially like how it took off pretty fast. I already knew how to create content from videography and editing. And then I also had that unique skill.
very quickly took off well i would say relatively quickly it took a year to get a thousand subscribers the next month i got 100k a few months later i hit a million um and it was just like exponential from there why do you think it went like that went kind of slowerish uh almost common a thousand in a year is about common for a lot of creators but then the the exponential growth what happened between the time where you were having normal growth the time you were having ridiculous growth one the videos did get better so i'll definitely say that and But another factor I will say is there are cases where creators are making good videos.
They just haven't been discovered yet. And the way I explain it is because you haven't made enough videos for the algorithm to discover you or for the audience to discover you. I like to use the word audience instead of algorithm.
And the way I like to like use it as an analogy, like that I tell creators who are just starting out is like pick a very like the more hyper specific you can get with your niche and like who you are targeting with your SEO. the quicker YouTube will be able to find who your audience actually is. And even though I was doing finance videos, I was doing stocks and then Bitcoin and something else that was a little bit different each time.
And the people obsessed with Bitcoin, actually, or at least as someone who knows, isn't really the person who's investing in precious metals or obsessed with it. And that person isn't as obsessed as stocks. So if you were to just pick...
If I made all my videos about... bitcoin mining like maybe even that or like bitcoin mining at home and all my 10 videos were like that well then i would have been discovered a lot faster i think that because i i made it a little bit harder to be discovered it took a while but the good thing is after that like i had one video uh blow up all my past videos that i created started taking off as well so if you're in those shoes where you've created a bunch of videos i haven't taken off If you haven't made at least 100, then that means you haven't made enough videos for YouTube to know who to push it out to.
But if you've made over 100 and you still haven't taken off yet, then I would reconsider the content quality and your content strategy. That's actual real. That's so real.
You do need to have a lot of content, a lot of time. Because again, people look at... uh successful content creators and go i can do that but don't realize everything it took to get there and the amount of time some people blow up right off the bat but that's pretty rare you're gonna see people like you and stuff who were doing stuff before they even was doing it for themselves to understand what they needed to do to be successful and even then it took you a while before it started taking off but then all the work like immediately started to connect and started to work for you because you had laid the ground to be successful before you were successful correct exactly So what do you think is missing in the mindset of content creators currently that are starting in 2026 when they see someone like you and like, oh, she's just doing cool videos where she gets to go out with her boyfriend and hang out and eat and cook and it just all works.
And then they start to do the same thing and it doesn't work for them. Like, what do you think the mindset is? They're missing that blue ocean.
A lot of people will see creators. Yeah, like you say, like myself and think that they could do the same thing and get viewership. But the reality is.
People don't know you, so they don't care about you yet. And even with my videos, sometimes they'll seem like I am just hanging out. But deep down, I did do research on, wait, this idea is an outlier.
And I created a story that will make people care and become invested. I think a lot of creators as well will look at the creators who... there are some who get lucky.
Like you say, like they make one, but is it some, some people will post their first video and absolutely it just takes off and they will be comparing themselves to the people who got lucky rather than the people who have put in the efforts to, to get this viewership. Like, I think like, look, look at Mr. Beast.
I think he's a great example of it. Like, I think if you want to be a content creator, the number one thing that you should another thing is sorry i'm like listening a bunch of things another thing is i think you should be or people are missing the fact that at the end of the day there should be something that you love and in anything that you are doing in life you will be the most successful when you actually love it and that is because even if it doesn't work it did work because you're still creating and that's like and that's the goal yeah i mean everyone wants to love I mean, so first of all, if you upload on YouTube, you probably love it unless you pick the wrong niche to begin with.
Like there's something intoxicating about content creating right in and of itself. If you're not doing it for the joy of it first, then you're just doing a job that may not pay well for many years. And that's yeah, you could do that anyway.
You could go to McDonald's and do that. Right. So I think it's really important to find something that not only you're good at, like you talk about the Blue Ocean is really cool concept.
but also something that's going to keep you moving on even when you're not succeeding or quote unquote not succeeding. 100%. Because looking back at when I started, I remember that it's so funny.
I remember telling so many people I knew that I was doing YouTube for fun. And I remember vividly telling someone or telling several people. oh like my goal is not to make money on youtube but i'm not my goal is not to be a full -time youtuber which is so weird it's so funny for the longest time i told everyone and then and then people always ask why and i said i'm scared that if it be that if it becomes a job i won't love it as much so i'm genuinely creating out of passion and for fun and like i would just and i always thought i would like have a have a job or like have a business and then like do youtube for fun I think because of that, and I'm not saying that like, I don't think that's the case for everyone.
I just know that because I genuinely loved it and knew I was going to do it forever. Like that's why it worked because I was doing it out of passion and not because I was trying to make money. And I know a lot of people do it to make money.
Yeah. Well, let's talk about that part. Cause I know people are going to tune in and want to know more about money.
So at what point did things start working to the point where you're getting money and you're like, wait a minute, this is. like full -time money. Like what was your, do you remember one of your first big checks or like how long it took to get like a good amount of money or what that even looked like or what that even felt like?
Cause I don't, in a lot of ways we're making content again, like you said, for passion, for fun, it almost feels weird to be paid for it. Yeah. So interestingly enough, I never really felt like it was like my channel was, I actually don't remember the first paycheck, to be honest.
I know a lot of people remember it, but for me, I was already making good money. working for other people. Yeah.
So, um, I, my first check I think may have been a hundred dollars, but like, but I was like, I remember when was I like, I think I was 16 when I was making $5 ,000 a month, like working for other people. That's crazy.
It is. It's a lot. Um, so I think I, it was only until I hit a million subscribers when I was like, this is a lot more than what i'm doing for other people let me like stop working for other people um so i would say like for it to be significant for me to like quit everything else it took me about like a year and a half of like dedicated like on this channel um but i think that there are a lot of different ways to to make money even if you don't have as i think that's tricky like that's why it's a tough question to answer because if you're if you're If your passion really is content creation, which it was for me, I was making money since before I had my YouTube channel.
I think the question for many people is how can they get out of their full -time job to do content creation full -time? It doesn't necessarily mean AdSense only. There are a lot of ways of doing it, and you've explored a lot of ways.
What have been the more successful ways for you to bring in money so that you can focus more on content creation? Yes. So currently brand partnerships is my main source.
And that is because a lot of brands are starting to pay creators to make ads or like make a video, which they could also use as pre -roll ads or running ads. You might think you need to be a huge creator to do this, but I was even doing this before through UGC content, which is user -generated content, where... How did I get connected?
I remember, I think it was through one of my friends. And then afterwards, I just started reaching out to different brands. And I think now it's even more popular.
But user -generated content, the way I did it before was there were three different apps who I worked with who wanted to promote their apps. And they would just hire me to... like make a video promoting their app, but not, not for my channel.
Like back, this was like before my channel even took off, like videos that they can post on their tech talk that they can run ads on. And so many brands do that. So many brands, you know about how much you can make doing that.
Cause I know that's something that a lot of people do nowadays. So how much were you making? Do you remember when I had like no followers, I was getting $300 video, a video for like a short form video.
$300 for short form video. That's crazy. I will say now there are a lot more user generated, like there's a lot more UGC content creators.
So the standard rate that I'm hearing now is like 150 per short form video. But even so, that's pretty good. And that's without having a following, which is crazy.
How do you break into something like that even? Like how would someone even break into that? Yeah, now there are plenty of websites who do it, but it could also be worth looking at these upcoming startup apps.
and just reaching out to them on like just searching up on tiktok like maybe go on a hashtag app or something or even or any other platforms but usually the ones on tiktok they have the most budget who is who on the platform inspires you or as far as this as far as you just like you watch on youtube and you're just like i want i wish i could do more content like them doesn't have to be in your niche like who do you watch that inspires you as a content creator mr beast for sure okay i would say Mr.
Beast is number one. Number two is Ryan Trahan. And number three is Speed.
And all of them in different ways. Tell us what, I mean, they're completely different creators, but let's hear that. Yeah, they're all completely different.
That's what makes it funny. I think Mr. Beast is one of the, he is the smartest creator on YouTube by far.
And he is very intentional. with every little thing he does. There is a reason behind everything he does.
Everything is optimized and I love it. I think he is an absolute business and storytelling and creative genius. And I take so much inspiration in how much he works and how he is successful, not by luck, but because of the persistence.
And as far as Ryan Trahan, I really love how he... Is all about helping the community. And spreading a positive message.
So. I would love to combine those two. And as far as speed.
I think like. Especially now more than ever. I think everyone saw that he performed at the World Cup.
This kid is. He is like. He is definitely I think.
I think he's the most famous person right now. It's weird right? Yeah.
And I think like Speed does an amazing job. I think the reason why he's successful, everyone's going to say something else completely different. I think because he is authentically himself.
I've never met. There are a lot of YouTubers, I will say, who will create what is working on the platform or will say what people want to hear. But he says what he feels and what he thinks.
And that's why people love him because he's himself. And I think that. There's a lot that I can take from that, because I think that when you are optimizing like Mr.
Beast or even like Ryan, I think sometimes that gets lost that like 100 percent authenticity. So what how would you describe you? Like, let's say, how do you think people describe you?
So you just describe those three creators, ideally. How are people describing you and your content? I think the first thing they would say is I love to cook.
I feel like everyone says that, especially when I meet fans. They always like talk about my cooking. There's definitely food is like.
I'm down with that. Listen, I love to eat. So there you go.
Yeah, I think they would say that. I think they would say I'm a combination of the three, to be honest. Yeah, I would say that.
I guess people would probably call me like their internet big sister. And I think that's like definitely the vibe I go for with. Especially more recently where it's like, yes, I have these challenge videos and these like it's like viral formats.
But more more recently, what has like exploded my growth, which is crazy. I wish I would have done this before. It's like showing more of my personality and things that I like to do and seeing how I can optimize that to get views.
So like what I mean by that is. I used to think of ideas and I do think people can, creators can approach it like this. New creators can approach it like this.
But I used to think, what's a banger viral idea? And then I would just recreate it or see how I could insert myself into it. Instead of thinking, which now I think, what do I want to do?
What excites me? And how can I format that in a way that is already working? What's a popular format that people are doing this in?
Or what's an outlier where I can combine it? But I think like now I'm thinking about, showcase my personality first and what's really interesting and i guess like going into kind of like what you wanted to bring up which is like even the look change which is crazy is like my channel has been it started august 2021 so basically we're five years in the first four years my overall channel got three billion views the last year i went from three to nine billion that's crazy Why?
How? How, Jenny? How?
Yeah, it's crazy. What I did in four years, I just doubled it. I just showed more of myself and I engaged with the audience.
And part of that is actually, that's actually why my looks has changed. So in December of 2025, so a couple of months from now, wanted to build like a deeper relationship with my audience so i i kind of started by trying like like replying to their comments by trying like hacks that they're saying or if they would give me a video idea like intentionally doing it and saying oh i did it thanks to this person and interacting with them and there were a couple of people who would tell me to put my hair down and i i decided to do that and after i did that a lot of my audience was telling me you should try this outfit you should try this you should try that um and it kind of became like this like little glow -up series that i did with my audience and oh my goodness that was that was huge that obviously exploded growth um just because i was like finally like engaging with the audience while still packaging it in viral formats yeah you'll probably see if you're watching youtube video the differences between the before and after the before you look like a nerdy kind of you know person who's going to tell you how to invest smartly in your older videos right and now you look like the typical influencer uh you know beautiful young lady like you're completely different people like that's your nerdy sister like how you know it is it is crazy
Is that how you used to always look off camera, too? Yeah, I always look like that was just that was just me being myself. And it's funny because when I was doing these videos, I remember I would tell the people like, oh, I'll do this, but I'll just go back to how I like I am, which I did at first.
Like at first, I'd be like, I'll put it down for this video and then I'll put it back up. And then eventually I was like, wait, like I actually like this more like you guys actually had a point. And I think that's part of it.
People really they really like that. And I really love how. And I also encouraged a lot of my viewers to get out of their shell.
And even meeting fans of mine, girls would tell me all the time that they were afraid of trying new things or putting their hair down. And I was like an inspiration. And that means the world to me.
Well, this is interesting because in a lot of ways, YouTube, it changed your life. Obviously, it changes having money and all this other stuff. But literally changed who you are and who you present yourself to be over the course of time.
And that's something you don't see a lot of. Um, you changed not only how you look, but like the fact that you're able to share more about who you are to your audience, which can definitely, uh, you know, spawn different changes within you. What else has YouTube changed that maybe people don't even know in your day to day life, so to speak?
Do you interact with people differently? Do you think about things differently? Yes.
I used to have social anxiety. Really? Like, yeah, I, I would, I was the type of person that like, I.
If my family asked me to order a pizza, I would be scared to call and, like, order a pizza over the phone. The drive -thru, what do you mean? I have to, like, say my order and, like, the cashier, I have to, like, interact.
I used to be so scared of talking to people until, like, I guess, like, for one, I got myself out of my shell. I knew that, like, within my videos that what was limiting me is, like, is. Like as far as like being on camera, like my overall presence and vibes was the fact that I was I didn't have experience talking to people.
And I think the big reason is I was 15 when quarantine happened. So like during those core years, I was like lost in the house and didn't really have much human interaction. Yeah.
So I put myself out there in that like because I knew I was making videos. But then I was always an introvert. And even recently, like I realized like.
I was an introvert my whole life. But I think, like, especially since, like, the views have multiplied this much, I've been meeting so many more people. Like, so many fans have been coming up to me.
Like, if I'm going to go out, I... that that is another thing like i i want to talk about this because i love talking to content creators about this like how often you're noticed and what that's like and can you just go places and it's fine or sometimes you can't is there certain places you can't go to i i've had to become like i went from someone who's an introvert to now i like live off of the energy like i i'm an extrovert i i get more energy when i'm around people now but yeah it's gone to the point where depending on where i go if i like let's say if i'm going to I mean, what's a place that like older people will go to?
Like if I'm going to a retirement home, no one's going to recognize me. But oh my goodness, the last time I went to an arcade. Oh, I love arcades.
It's impossible. Like I walked in and I spent an hour taking pictures before I could even start playing. And then even while I'm playing, like just to get in, it took like an hour.
What? Yeah. That's interesting.
It's so weird. What do people say when they come up to you? Because I've seen different interactions with different content creators.
So for short -form content creators, my experience has been when I've been around or near really popular short -form content creators who don't have long -form, the person will come up real quick, want to take a picture, and then usually leave. Like, that's it. It's more almost transactional.
And I'd love to hear your experience. People who do a lot of long form, the people want to stay and talk to them a little bit more than just, it's not just a picture and let me leave. It's like, let me talk to you.
Oh, I love you this, that, and say it. But has this been your experience or no? Yeah.
So because I'm primarily a short form content creator, a lot of the times it is, let's take a picture. But I do think more so recently, another thing that has helped with my viewership growth and explosion is going from uploading one short a week, which would have those, oh, I recognize you. Let's take a picture.
to posting 20 shorts a day and trying to update people about my life as much as possible. And because of that, people have become very parasocial. And even now, like, honestly, the number one question I get meeting fans in person is, why did you and Angelo break up?
That's the number one question. Why did you guys break up? What do you tell them?
I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. I usually just say, I don't know, but it depends on their vibe.
Like if they like, it depends on what they say. I mean, at this point, so now we're talking about something different, which is really interesting because you talked about sharing more of your life. And even just recently, you're like, I would do a lot of shorts every day.
But now people know too much about your life. And it almost becomes a weird thing where when you meet somebody and this goes into dating too. Maybe we should talk about this.
Might be interesting. No, because the thing about it is if someone knows who you are and they're going to date you, they now know more about you than you know about them, which is not the way normal dating goes or even normal friendships go. Like you're learning people, you're meeting a person for the first time and you're learning each other as you learn each other.
But if I already know because I've been watching you for two or three years, I now have an advantage of knowing more about you than you know about me. How does that work in your life? Is that something that you even think about?
Do you care about that? Have you seen it in your everyday life? Oh, definitely.
I guess, like, I just don't assume that anyone has, like, what people have watched or not. So I just have regular conversations. And if they say they knew already, I'll be like, oh, that's pretty neat.
But I love it. I love that they... I think that that's how you have longevity.
Like when people are, are not just, I think 99 .99 % of content creators on YouTube or YouTubers, even some people's favorite YouTubers, I bet you their viewers are watching for the concept and not for them. And that's like, once you've, once you've like already, like once you've taken off and like you're starting to build an audience.
As soon as you can start incorporating your personality, I would do it because, you know, it wasn't always like this because this was really interesting in December. So even when I started doing, I think in October, I started incorporating personality and doing a content pivot where I like engage with the audience more and kind of like what I was talking more about.
And I went from averaging 10 million views a video to my first personality based video getting 10 ,000 views. And I. That was like the scariest thing.
But that's the reality. And I had 10 million subscribers. You can have 10 million subscribers and quickly realize that you only have 10 ,000 real subscribers.
So talk to us about how you dealt with that. And then talk to us about how you fixed it. Yeah, it was very tough.
It was a big reality hit. I thought I had 10 million subscribers. But in reality, if my channel got deleted and I made a new channel.
They all would be like, they wouldn't look for me. Like, that's the truth. Maybe the 10 ,000 people who saw in the next video.
And when I realized that, I thought the fix was just like, oh, let me just keep doing more personality videos. No, it wasn't the fix. It was just 10 ,000, 10 ,000 views every time.
And it was just because I needed to blend the two worlds a little bit better and basically do like... kind of like what I did when I started my channel I did finance videos and I slowly like incorporated it into like personal finance so that way like incorporated my actual life and then just like made it personal content similar to that I kind of had to do that again where it was like okay I was doing these challenge -based videos but like let me like incorporate my personality a little bit more into it so it's like um for example I made like a video where it's like a hax so that you don't cry when you cut an onion but like within it i had a b plot where i talked about how like i hate crying and i don't like when other people like to see me cry and it's like oh well now you're starting to like get inside of my world and it's like you're you're still doing these viral formats and i just slowly mix those in and then occasionally threw in those like full like personality based videos so those full personality based videos would be like story times for example because otherwise you wouldn't care about the story if it wasn't me
Um, and over time I, I built like a real actual audience. And I would say now I still wouldn't say a million real subscribers if that makes it really mean they're all real people, but I mean like true fans, I would say now I've gotten that number up to a hundred thousand, which is like amazing. That's amazing.
So let's talk about that because you, you're talking about something that is so difficult and people who are just starting YouTube don't realize how difficult it is to pivot. And for those who don't know, Pivot is like when you have one niche, let's say that you're a baker and you're just doing baking videos. But now you kind of want to pivot more into what Jenny has done, which is more lifestyle stuff.
You can't just go, just like she said, you can't just go, I baked a cake on Friday and now on Monday, look at me, I'm going to the store and look at me do this whole try on. It's probably not going to work. Jenny literally just told you at 10 million subscribers, she couldn't do it.
So anyone else below that? It's not going to work like that. You have to be really strategic.
So now that you've done it multiple times on your channel, what are the things that content creators need to understand when pivoting a channel? Not too hard, not like 180 degrees, which is like very difficult, but like even just a little bit from something that is adjacent to what they're already doing. For one, if you haven't had like a video like blow up yet, like if you.
it honestly depends on where they're at like if i would i would definitely say first of all like stay within whatever you are doing i wouldn't pivot until you feel like you've reached a cap at like your audience or like unless like you personally just aren't feeling fulfilled then that's different but if you are in those shoes and either of those then yeah just incorporating it little by little in the content i would keep i think the number one thing is keep the hooks and the ideas the same as what has been working and within the content itself, incorporate that adjacent niche.
Because when you start changing the title, the thumbnail and like the packaging, which is also like the hook for a short. then that's when you're like losing your audience completely. How long do you spend on the intro for your videos?
Oh, like, like scripting, filming, editing, shooting, like how, about how much percentage wise of the video would you say? Like if you're, if it takes you 10 hours to make a video, how much of that 10 hours was concentrated on the first 30 seconds or so? Good chunk, maybe 20%.
Wait, it's pretty big. Yeah. Like I used to script my videos entirely bar for bar, but now only the interest, the interest on the thing is like the intro.
And your hook, it will forever be like non -negotiable. That is the most, and if it's a long form of title and thumbnail, that obviously, that matters even more. And videos that you think you're done with, I'm never done with a video because I'm always changing the packaging, trying to find the best one.
Yep, yep. Yep. What are you trying to accomplish in that first 30 seconds that content creators can kind of learn from and try to start focusing on theirs?
My number one priority is time to action. And essentially, how quickly can you get into what you are actually doing? So if you're giving a, you know, I found a really good video that like, was like, I like, I don't know if you guys play other people's examples, but I'll just like explain it.
It was like. when i saw this i was like this is like this is genius and i was like i've never done an intro like this but this is like the epitome of a really great intro the packaging was um it was like soccer positions explained and the thumbnail you see like i don't know how many i think they're let's say they're 10 you saw like 10 images of the different positions with labels and you click on the video, the first frame is the thumbnail, like exactly what's in the thumbnail.
And you might think the intro would be something like, soccer is composed of this many players and this many positions. And these are X, Y, and Z. In this video, I'm going to go through what the position, you would think the intro would be that, right?
No, the video literally started like this. I click play. goalkeeper this is the person who does i'm like oh like they just right into it they just go right into it but it's like nobody cares about like anything else like i if you don't need to give context don't think you need to give it just to have an intro no context need to get just get right into it and and i that's the first thing i think about like how can i make the time to action as as short as possible and if there is any context can I do the action while giving this context?
So like, I guess, for example, a video that I'm working on as I'm training a script writer, if anyone wants, anyone's interested, but like someone who I'm training, they sent me like a script for a video and it was like, catch it. If you, if you can catch it, then I'll buy it. But the only rule is that if you drop it, then whatever it is.
And then I was like, that sucks because like, Why am I explaining the, you know, I was like, instead of explaining the rules, we should just do it. And by the person failing or succeeding, that is where I explain the rule.
So then I was like, instead, I'm going to throw the item and say, throw the item while I say, catch it and I'll buy it. And then as it drops, and since you didn't catch it, that means X, Y, Z is going to happen. Yeah, because if you do too much pretext, a lot of people will forget what it was anyway.
You're like, okay, can you remind me again of what the rule is there? Yeah, it totally makes sense in the moment you're explaining that. So what's next?
What's the content you're doing next? I see that the last couple times you've done a lot of baking stuff and you went to what looks like the World Cup and whatnot. You were doing the thing.
You were doing all the things. What's next for you? I'm very excited.
I'm quite nervous to announce this, but... I am heavily considering live streaming. That might be next for me.
Live streaming is amazing. It's funny. I was talking to Brianna Plays just a couple months ago.
And she's obviously married to Preston. And I was like, you know, you used to do some live streams. And it seems like they did really well.
She goes, yeah. And I go, why aren't you doing it now? She goes, I don't really know.
Like, live streaming is amazing. And you've done live streaming. And you've had success.
Why aren't you doing more? Yeah, what I'm thinking of doing, though, I think there's... Okay, the number one thing I will say is, like, when you...
I think Mr. Visa gave this analogy in one of his, like... I think it was Mr.
Visa that said this, or it could have been someone else. But during one of the Sidemen charity events, it was quite fascinating how, like, whenever the players, like, for the charity event would walk in, you can take note of, like, who's cheering the loudest. And there were...
the fans were cheering so much louder for the streamers. I think Mr. Beast noticed that like even more for him, even though he's like the biggest creator.
And that is because people have an actual relationship with these people because they're spending so much time with them and they're actually interacting with them. And my favorite thing that I love even more than making videos and storytelling is meeting fans and talking to them and getting to know them. And I think live streaming is the closest way to do that.
it's also naturally like the thing that is like the thing that like excites me the most is also the thing that's like working the best for creators right now but i think because it is so popular i think there it is way oversaturated right now and i think i think people should be live streaming but if you are gonna do it being very intentional with the production and like i'm gonna be i'm gonna i my goal would be to create a show every live stream.
Not just hit live and I'm just kind of sitting around and I don't know what I'm doing, but kind of like iCarly where it's like, we're hitting live and we have these bits planned out and I'm going to be bringing you guys on and this and that. I would love to do really great live shows. And we were talking about Speed earlier.
One of the things that makes him interesting is he does these in real life streams, which I think is probably the most interesting stuff that he does. Yes, I was on one of his streams. So is that something that you would consider doing?
Oh, that's exactly what I want to do. I was heavily inspired by Speed. Okay, so I got invited by YouTube to go to 10 FIFA World Cup matches.
And I saw Speed at six of them, like from a distance. We're not friends yet. One day, though.
One day. Yeah. And it was...
he looked so much it was just it looked like he was having something like a blast just talking to to his his chat in real time and like he's enjoying like he's enjoying this game but also like interacting with other people and asking what they thought about certain plays or things that happened and i was like wow that's like that's so cool like i wish i because i was like watching but i was just like talking to the person next to me and i'm like i wish i could be doing that like everyone in my audience like like experiencing this with them um so and you're like actually i guess i could be Really?
You could be. I'm excited to see that. I would love to see what you do with that.
It seems like the one thing you're not afraid of is to try something new and to pivot and you're an expert in that way. And the way that it's changed your life and the way that you've changed in front of people and you will continue to change over the years and decades to come. super exciting.
So if you're a first time viewer of Jenny, I know you're going to love her stuff. It's she's just, she's like the caterpillar that continues to become a butterfly every couple of years. She's a new butterfly every couple of years.
Really amazing. Thank you. I'm super excited to have you on.
I can't wait to see what people say about this particular episode. If you're new here. There'll be links in the show notes and in the description to check out Jenny's channel.
And obviously, I do this all the time, interview content creators all the time. I have another one right here for you. Matter of fact, you should watch it right now.
It's great. This is the best one you've ever seen. It's amazing.
Not as good as this one, but pretty darn good. I'll see y 'all in the next one.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The cold open stacks four numbers in twenty seconds: a year to 1,000 subscribers, 100,000 the next month, 3 billion views in four years, then 9 billion one year later. The title promises the algorithm is not the culprit, and the interview spends 41 minutes explaining what is.
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A YouTube growth coach explains why he suddenly started live streaming: a doubled monetization bar, an AI-flooded platform, and a fast way to find out what his audience actually wants.
A creator who built a $10 million YouTube business on pharmacy lunch breaks lays out the realistic system: batch six video jobs into one protected hour, expect a quiet first few months, and layer AdSense, sponsorships, and high-ticket buyers in that order.
One creator's five-video series about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro pulled in more lifetime views, subscribers, and watch hours than her one-off uploads ever did, and the analytics show exactly why.
A YouTuber with over 10,000 hours in AI tools walks through the exact Claude Code setup, slide-making prompt, and idea-research method behind three students who went from zero to full-time income, and argues the editing was never the reason any of them succeeded.
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