Ten blunt, no-fluff rules for building a YouTube channel that grows, pulled from six years of Aaron Knightley's own channel instead of a 90-day hype cycle.
Posted
2 days ago
Duration
Format
Listicle
educational
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15.7K
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57 · 43
Big Idea
The argument in one line.
A stalled YouTube channel is usually a discipline problem, not a luck problem, and growing one for real means treating it like a business: detach from view counts, keep every upload at your real quality bar, and stay inside your own lived experience for years, not weeks.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
A creator with a small or stalled YouTube channel who feels close to quitting because views aren't coming.
Someone chasing get-rich-quick growth courses or '10K in 90 days' promises who wants a reality check on realistic timelines.
A creator unsure whether to quit their job for YouTube, or how much production polish and editing actually matters.
SKIP IF…
You already run a channel with a consistent multi-year posting habit and a defined niche; this covers fundamentals you've likely internalized.
You're looking for platform-specific algorithm tactics or SEO tips; this is about mindset, consistency, and content discipline, not the algorithm.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
Aaron Knightley argues a stalled YouTube channel is less a views problem than a mindset problem: treat the channel like a real business and stop checking view counts like a dopamine hit. He lays out ten rules pulled from six years of growing his own channel: emotionally detach from vanity metrics, ignore get-rich-quick '10K in 90 days' videos, keep every video at your highest quality since it becomes part of a permanent portfolio, study analytics and competitors daily, cut overproduced editing and fake motivational-quote formats, keep a day job while building, expect one video can change everything only after years of consistent output, and never stray outside your own lived experience because audiences can smell inauthenticity.
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Names the exact feeling of a stalled creator (no views, nobody watching, ready to quit) and promises a blunt rundown of ten growth fundamentals instead of hype.
01:50 – 04:01
02 · Emotionally detach
Argues YouTube is inherently a business and creators have to stop refreshing view counts and chasing vanity metrics, committing instead to a three-to-five-year horizon.
04:01 – 06:16
03 · Stop watching this
Warns against get-rich-quick growth videos promising fast monetization, and advises following creators only a few steps ahead rather than huge names.
06:16 – 07:49
04 · The quality matters
Every upload becomes part of a permanent portfolio, so low-quality videos keep dragging a channel down even after a creator's skill improves.
07:49 – 09:33
05 · Research & learn
Treats studying your own analytics and competitors' videos as a daily business habit, comparing audience drop-off to tracking churn in a company.
09:33 – 10:52
06 · Never do this
Calls out the cliche of reciting borrowed motivational quotes with dramatic pauses and sentimental music as an instant trust-killer.
10:52 – 12:40
07 · Less editing equals more
Argues an overstimulated audience responds better to a calm, low-noise video than to constant pop-ups, sound effects, and slide transitions.
12:40 – 14:43
08 · Build whilst working a job
Makes the case for building a channel alongside a day job to remove financial desperation, then pauses to pitch his own company, Exit 9.
14:43 – 17:35
09 · It only takes one video
Uses his own TikTok breakout and his mentor Jason Greystone's one viral tutorial to argue a single video can change everything, but only after years of consistent reps.
17:35 – 19:04
10 · Stay in your lane
Warns against chasing unrelated trending topics, arguing it destroys audience trust faster than almost anything else a creator can do.
19:04 – 20:18
11 · They smell the BS
Claims viewers can tell within minutes whether a creator has actually lived what they're talking about, tying authenticity back to staying in your lane.
20:18 – 22:45
12 · Reviewing an old video
Screen-records his own channel from six years ago, replaying an old low-view video to point out early mic and audio mistakes and consistent messaging.
22:45 – 27:29
13 · Three personal hacks
Breaks down three habits: improving your speaking by cutting filler words, building an owned email database, and pinning the first comment to start conversation.
27:29 – 29:34
14 · Imposter syndrome & closing offer
Reframes imposter syndrome as a sign of straying outside your real experience, then closes with a repeated pitch for Exit 9's discounted annual membership.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
Treating YouTube like a business, not a hobby, is what separates creators who grow from those who quit once the dopamine from chasing views runs out.
Refreshing YouTube Studio for view counts every few minutes is itself a warning sign of chasing a vanity metric instead of producing for a multi-year horizon.
Claims of making ten thousand pounds in ninety days rarely account for tax, fees, and ongoing costs, and ignore whether the result repeats the following month.
Following creators just a few steps ahead of your own level gives more usable advice than following people who are already enormous.
Every video becomes part of a permanent portfolio, so a low-effort upload keeps dragging down a channel's credibility even after the creator's skill improves.
Studying your own analytics (geography, demographics, drop-off points) is treated as a daily business habit, not an occasional check-in.
Reciting borrowed motivational quotes with dramatic pauses and sentimental music is called out as an instantly recognizable, trust-destroying cliche.
Overloaded editing (pop-ups, sound effects, constant slide noise) competes with an already overstimulated audience's attention instead of earning it.
Keeping a day job while building a channel removes the financial desperation that leads to reactive, short-term content decisions.
A single video can change a channel's trajectory, but only years of consistent output beforehand gives that video something durable to convert into.
Most people quit between thirty and forty-five days after starting something new, exactly the window where belief drops before results arrive.
Jumping between unrelated trending topics chasing views erodes audience trust faster than almost anything else a creator can do.
Owning an email list protects a creator from relying entirely on the YouTube algorithm to notify an audience that a new video is live.
Posting the first pinned comment on every video, framed as an open question, is a low-effort habit for manufacturing early engagement.
Takeaway
Treat Your Channel Like A Real Business
GROWTH FUNDAMENTALS
A stalled channel is usually a discipline problem, not a luck problem: detach from vanity metrics, keep every upload at your real quality bar, and stay in your lane for years, not weeks.
01Cold open: why your channel isn't growing
Growing, monetizing, and building a trusted audience on YouTube comes down to consistency, discipline, and showing up, not the complicated-sounding frameworks many growth videos sell.
A creator convinced nobody's watching and ready to quit is exactly the audience this kind of video needs to reach before they walk away.
02Emotionally detach
Running a YouTube channel means running a business, with real revenue, analytics, team needs, and daily habits, whether or not you set out to be a business owner.
Refreshing view counts every few minutes is treated as an addiction to a vanity metric that has nothing to do with whether the content is actually working.
Commit mentally to three to five years before judging a channel's performance, rather than reacting to short-term swings in view count.
03Stop watching this
Videos promising growth or ten thousand pounds in ninety days are a red flag; even a genuine spike ignores taxes, fees, staff costs, and whether it repeats the next month.
Follow creators who are only a few steps ahead of where you are, not the biggest names in your niche, because their advice maps more directly onto your situation.
A creator you resonate with, whose advice doesn't trigger a 'that sounds like BS' reaction, is a better filter than subscriber count.
04The quality matters
Every video becomes part of a permanent portfolio; low-effort uploads stay visible and drag down a channel even after the creator's skill improves.
Good audio and good visuals are treated as non-negotiable minimums, not optional polish, regardless of niche or topic.
05Research & learn
Spend time most days studying your own analytics: geography, demographics, and the exact point where viewers drop off and why.
Watch other creators in your niche and study why specific videos performed well, then adapt elements into your own work authentically rather than copying outright.
Treat recurring audience drop-off like a business would treat churn: find the specific cause before deciding whether to add more content or fix what's leaking.
06Never do this
Reciting borrowed, dramatically-paused motivational quotes over sentimental music is an instantly recognizable trust-killer, not a growth tactic.
State information directly and move on instead of building up a quote for effect; the audience notices the manufactured drama.
07Less editing equals more
Audiences are already overstimulated by daily life, so stacking pop-ups, sound effects, and visual noise on top of a video actively works against retention.
Fewer edits and effects make a video feel like a one-on-one conversation instead of content broadcast at thousands of strangers, which builds more trust.
08Build whilst working a job
Keeping a day job while building a channel removes the financial desperation that leads to reactive, short-term content decisions instead of long-term ones.
Going all-in on a channel without a large emergency fund risks one to three years of financial stress before monetization is proven out.
09It only takes one video
A single video can change a channel's trajectory, but it only works because years of consistent uploads already built a portfolio worth discovering.
Most people quit between thirty and forty-five days after starting something new, exactly the window where belief drops but results haven't arrived yet.
A creator can produce hundreds of videos with little traction before one breaks through and funnels directly into a backend business.
10Stay in your lane
Jumping between unrelated trending topics to chase views erodes audience trust faster than almost any other mistake a creator can make.
Content built only from lived experience, not borrowed scripts or AI-written outlines, is what keeps an audience from sensing inauthenticity.
11They smell the BS
Viewers can usually tell within the first few minutes whether a creator has actually done what they're talking about or is reciting a script.
Needing a tightly scripted video with heavy cuts to get through a topic is itself a signal that the topic is outside the creator's real lane.
12Reviewing an old video
A lapel mic alone isn't enough; capturing vocal depth and avoiding an echoey room are what make early low-view videos sound professional in hindsight.
Consistency of message across years of uploads, even at low view counts, is what later gives a channel's archive credibility when it finally grows.
13Three personal hacks
Deliberately cutting filler words and replacing them with pauses is a trainable speaking skill that pays off beyond YouTube, in podcasts and speaking gigs.
An owned list (newsletter, CRM) lets a creator announce new videos without relying on the platform's algorithm to surface it to existing viewers.
Being the first pinned comment on every video, framed as an open question, is a low-effort habit for starting engagement rather than waiting for it.
14Imposter syndrome & closing offer
Imposter syndrome is reframed as a signal of talking outside your actual lived experience, not something to push through with more research or scripting.
Keeping content tied to real experience means a creator can't be called out for fabricating expertise, because the knowledge is backed by having actually done it.
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
CAC and churn
Customer acquisition cost and the rate at which an audience drops off or disengages, business metrics the video compares to tracking why viewers leave a channel.
Shiny penny syndrome
Chasing a materialistic, surface-level marker of success, like a nicer car or a bigger house, instead of staying focused on the deeper reason you started.
15:50channelJason Greystone's "Trading for Dummies" video
16:30channelTom Skrillius
10:00channelModern Wisdom (Chris Williams)
26:30bookPublic Speaking for Success (Dale Carnegie)
Quotables
Lines you could clip.
00:05
“Nobody's watching you, so nobody cares about the content that you're producing... Well, pause. Please do not quit.”
direct pattern-interrupt cold open naming the exact fear a stalled creator has→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
02:40
“You can't want a vanity metric to spike because of your videos.”
tight standalone rule about detaching from view counts→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
05:00
“How many people do you know that make ten thousand pounds in ninety days? You don't.”
blunt reality-check line that punctures get-rich-quick claims→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
09:25
“If you have a leak, you need to know, do we pour more water in or do we fill the leak?”
business metaphor that reframes audience churn as something to diagnose, not push through→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
10:20
“Don't be that guy or girl. Just give the information. Say it as it is.”
quotable rule against fake-motivational content→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
15:05
“Before I blew up on TikTok, I did 900 videos.”
concrete number that reframes overnight success as a backlog of reps→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote
15:50
“Eight years he was on YouTube before that one tutorial video... it's now done nearly ten million views, near sixteen million dollars in upsells.”
specific dollar figures make the 'one video' payoff tangible→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
18:40
“People will never want to stop learning from people... ultimately, people will always go back to people.”
standalone line about AI versus human creators→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote
26:40
“You keep the receipts. No one can call you out. You're staying authentic.”
tight line tying content discipline directly to credibility→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote
The Script
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So you feel like your YouTube channel just isn't growing. You're getting no views. Well, that's what it feels like.
Nobody's watching you. So nobody cares about the content that you're producing. You feel that you're a million miles away to making enough money to replace your nine to five job.
And that what's the point? I might as well quit because it isn't working for me. Well, pause.
Please do not quit because that is why I'm creating today's video. Digest everything that I'm going to share with you. There might be things right now that you're doing.
which are incorrect. And there might be a lot of things that you're not doing, which you can implement straight away after this video. I'm not going to waste your time.
Let's jump straight into it. So slide number one, from views to a channel that grows. Now, let me start by saying this, YouTube.
Growing, monetizing, building an audience that trusts you, and then capitalizing on the back end where you can build a service and a product and actually build something sustainable and scalable is rather simplistic compared to a lot of videos out there that will fluff it up. Big words, big sentences, big quotes, fluffy duffy, dangling a carrot, all this kind of stuff, right?
It's really, really simple. It's actually fundamentals of just consistency, you know, discipline, showing up. learning, educating, tweaking things, right?
I'm laughing because I've been doing this for six years and I see a lot of videos where I can watch someone smell the BS from a mile away and they're just trying to get them into, say, like a YouTube accelerator of some sort. And that's all it is, right? So let's just go over what we're going to cover off in this video.
I'll quickly read them out. Emotionally detach. Really important.
Stop watching this. The quality matters. Research and learn.
Never do this. Less editing equals more. Build whilst working.
It only takes one. Stay in your lane. They smell the BS.
Now, it's unlikely they would have popped up on screen because Mac, my editor, there was no way you were able to keep up with the speed in which I read that. Quick swig. By the way, I got a different cup today.
It's very autumn themed. So. Emotionally detached.
What does that mean? You have to treat YouTube like a business. Whether you want to be a business owner or not, if you are wanting to be a content creator, guess what?
You're becoming a business owner because YouTube is a business. Why? You can make revenue.
It has analytics. You build a team. It requires processes.
It requires consistency. It requires you to do something with daily habits, building momentum to build a channel that's ultimately going to make you money. Because otherwise, why would you want to build a YouTube channel?
So you have to emotionally detach when you are part of the process when building something. And what I mean by emotionally detach, I see it too many times with people I work with. Even within Exit 9, our members are guilty of doing it.
I even put a big post in basically saying everyone needs to slow down and be patient. Dopamine hit. You've got to stop looking at views.
And I know it's hard. I have been there. I'm absolutely guilty of looking at views, refreshing the YouTube studio like every few minutes going, oh, my God, you know, I'm not getting any views.
And we'll review one of my old videos throughout this video. You can't want a vanity metric to spike because of your videos, meaning you can't be in it because of the numbers that look at you and like it. You just have to keep thinking to yourself, I'm in this for the next three to five years.
I'm going to produce. going to show up every week. I'm going to do the best that I can.
And I'm going to make sure that this content is packaged in a way that I am going to try and help as many people along this journey of building a YouTube channel in whatever niche you're in. And I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. And I'm not going to get tied up looking at Essentially, what is very similar to shiny penny syndrome, you know, what we see on social media, wanting this, the nice car, the big house, that very materialistic surface level stuff.
Be in it for a deeper, more meaningful impact. Again, going back to. purpose so please emotionally detach learn to produce put it out into the world don't get caught up then at looking at the views come away re -plan the next video go into producing again to the best of your ability and make adjustments to improve the next piece of content now by the way i'm just going to uh quick quickly check my iso every now and again because the lighting keeps going up and down stop watching this what does this mean so if you go onto youtube and you search how to grow on YouTube, how to monetize YouTube.
I've said this before, you will get a lot of videos that say, how to grow in 30 days, how to monetize and make 10 ,000 pounds in 90 days by doing this one thing. And a lot of you will think, rubbing your hands together, right, I'm in it. What have I got to do to make 10K a month?
Again, you don't need 10 ,000 pounds a month. These videos, you can even hear it in their voices. Hey everyone, welcome back.
Now, do you feel that your channel isn't growing fast enough? Well, if so, do this one thing which I'm about to share with you, which will be at the end of this video. So don't go anywhere.
And then it moves to another slide. Then they're in a different location. Then they're drawing on a whiteboard.
And then it's nearly there. Don't go anywhere. I'm about to share with you the top secret.
I don't know why I'm doing an American. I love all my American audience, but... A lot of them are American.
Although there was an English guy I watched this morning, actually, who was very gimmicky. Don't watch these people because they are basically dangling a carrot that isn't true. They are called unicorn moments.
How many people do you know that make £10 ,000 in 90 days? You don't. And even in the unicorn moment that someone builds something.
that does magically make £10 ,000 in one month, that's before tax, national insurance, fees, insurances, whatever the business is running, staff. And then are they doing that for the next second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth month, which is sustainability? Unlikely.
Do you realise how long it takes to get to £10 ,000 a month? It took me years, years upon years upon years to hit that threshold. And it was tough.
And then it's not just making it, it's keeping that money. So please be mindful of channels that you are watching. It's like why I say don't watch billionaires.
They're too far away. Watch channels that are only four or five steps ahead of where you want to be, because the information is going to be very accurate to what you need to do. And what I would say, this is like a rule of thumb, find someone who you resonate with and that you actually like listening to.
And that when you listen to them, you can't smell BS, which is one of the points we're going to come on to. matters. What do I mean by this?
So I will share a video with you and we'll actually go through some of my older videos. Even when I was getting no views, me as a person, I am very... I was going to use one word, but I don't think the YouTube algorithm will like that.
I am very particular, is the other word I'll use, about... being the best that I can be and producing the highest quality videos. I've always been like that.
If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it well. I'm going to do it to the best of my ability. You should do that too, because with YouTube, you are building a portfolio of videos that eventually when you do grow and one video pops off, which is one of the other points I'll share with you, you then have a backlog of videos which are matching the quality to which you are producing now.
That's really important. Don't put out crud, which is you're just putting it out for the sake of it. Lighting's bad.
Audio's bad. You're saying stuff, but you're not saying a lot. There's no value.
You're just producing videos because you think the more you pump out of just randomness and all different topics, which is really broad, that you'll grow and that something will pop. Please don't. If you are going to produce a video, yes, I'm a firm believer.
Make sure it is the best video that you can produce every time. So when you do pop and they go back to watch. your portfolio, the standard never drops and those videos have a chance to then perform and they will eventually do that.
And again, I'll kind of point out some of the videos that have done that within my channel. So quality matters, but please remember good audio and good visuals. The next one is research and learn.
It would be. Silly not to study what works and what doesn't work. Again, treat this like a business.
It doesn't matter what type of content creator you are in whatever industry, football, lifestyle, clothing, finance, travel, whatever. You are building a business when you are on YouTube. So if you're taking YouTube seriously, you can absolutely call yourself and be proud to say you are a business owner that's running a YouTube channel, which really can change your life.
I promise you that. But you have to research and learn. Spend an hour.
day looking at your analytics when you have enough content that is look at where the geography is coming from look at the demographics really figure out who's watching you and why and when do they drop off and why did they drop off look at the numbers look at the charts study them there's a lot of software out there that you can do that and then go and look at maybe one or two other creators in a very similar niche to you understand why did that video perform well what did they do what was their style and there's nothing wrong with taking a few segments from other people and integrating it into yours, as long as you then portray it in a very, very authentic way to you.
I think that's super, super important, which is something we'll come on to. But research and learn. There should not...
be a day that goes by that you are not watching other YouTube channels for at least an hour and also spending time looking back at your channel. It's like building a business. One of the things that we always look at is cack and churn.
We are always looking at the numbers. Why did we have a bit of churn here? Why was there a human behavior, this pattern that we're noticing?
Why is that happening? How can we improve that? If you have a leak, you need to know, okay, do we pour more water in or do we fill the leak and do we change things?
And so I I hope you get the point there. The next one is never do this.
This is something you must avoid. This is one of my pet hates. And I think it goes down like a lead balloon when I see people do it.
Stop trying to motivate people and reading out long quotes, hard hitting phrases, sentences, trying to replicate. Do you know the guy Chris Williams? He runs Modern Wisdom podcast.
I think his overall message is great. But I have to say, I cannot stand these teed up one line quotes and catchphrases and sentences, which then there's a big pause. Don't be that guy or girl.
Just give the information. Say it as it is. Be a straight shooter straight down the middle.
Say it. Get on with it and move on. Stop trying to motivate people.
I've said this in so many videos and I always come back to it because repetition is key to success and actually making the necessary changes. You cannot be reading off of things where you hope to have like this viral motivational video that's going to go worldwide because you said this quote, which was an original from someone else.
And if you have music in the background and it's sentimental and you read it into a good mic slowly, ASMR, don't bother with any. of that, get on with it, provide value, move on. So never, ever do that.
It always goes down like a lead balloon. Next one is less editing equals more. The reason I say less is more is because we're in such a world where...
So many people feel overstimulated and YouTube is a safe place for a lot of people to go and learn, relax, listen to a podcast, listen to an ASMR video, a horror story or things that they're that they enjoy, that they have hobbies in and to just sort of listen to sometimes and unwind. And that might be an educational video for many people or it might be a how to grow on this platform or do this.
So think about it like this. If you are trying to concentrate on something and there's loads of noise around you and that would have reflected. in the slides or the images that would have popped up.
But if there was loads of noise going on and there's loads of pop -ups, you can't concentrate. People have busy lives. People have family to look after.
People are struggling financially. The world is in dire straits at the moment. It's just crazy.
You know, I think we can all agree on that. It's just so overstimulated. The last thing people want is to then watch something which has got lots of background noise, pop -ups, slides.
swish noises less is more give the information deliver it and as i said earlier Move on. Don't waste people's time and don't overstimulate your audience.
You have to tap into the psychology of people at the moment and people are stressed. So if they're trying to change their life and you want to be the person to help them on their way. Great.
But just cut out all the nonsense. Less editing is more like sitting here. It make people feel like they're sitting in a lounge with you.
So I always try and do I try and make sure that it feels like I'm talking to one person, not to thousands like I'm talking to you. You, specifically you. And we should have a cup of coffee on the go whilst I'm talking and you're listening and hopefully making notes.
The next one is build whilst working a job. I think it's so important to build your YouTube channel whilst you work a job. You're not going to chase the money because you can pay your bills because you've got a job.
Two, you're not going to be driven by the vanity metrics of likes. and getting to monetization. Although, of course, monetization is the goal, but it's going to take the financial stress off of you.
I couldn't think of anything worse than someone going, right, okay, I'm going to quit my job and I'm going all in on YouTube. I mean, you're going to have to have a huge emergency fund to float you for potentially one to three years. I'm just saying it.
That's the truth of it. And actually, I'm just going to do a midway pause here. If...
You want support, help, growing your channel, your personal brand or your business. Please do not forget. I am the co -founder of a company that is accelerating people's growth towards time and financial independence.
Exit 9. We have just launched a one time offer, which is completely new. 25 % off our annual pro membership.
If you leave the word with your comment committed. In speech marks, I will get in contact and you can take advantage of 25 % off our annual pro membership. It is our lowest ever.
Just want to say that because that platform will help you get from your point A to the better point B. I promise you that. Mark my words.
But continuing on from working a job, that is the safest, the smartest way of building a YouTube channel because you just take that financial pressure. There is nothing worse. than being so desperate for something to work.
You're reactive, you make really bad decisions, and you will not be thinking of the bigger picture, the long -term. you know, game that you're playing. OK, so please build a YouTube channel whilst you're working.
Let's state the obvious. You're going to have to work weekends. You're going to have to work evenings.
Tom Skrillius, you know, great friend of mine. Now we've done joint videos together, building his YouTube channel whilst working a job. He's doing it the right way.
I've got so much time for Tom and I know a lot of you probably know his channel, but absolutely fantastic. He's doing it the right way and he's thriving, which is great. The next one, it only takes one.
video. It's totally true. I used to hear this once upon a time and I used to think, well, I'm a man of consistency and I believe in compounding.
I invest for the long term. I save for the long term. I make decisions for the long term.
If I'm going to do something, I'm in it for three, five, six, 10 years. I'm fine with that. I've never been, you know, I suppose the day and age that I grew up in and I didn't have access to AI and social media like it is now.
I wasn't. brainwashed into thinking i need an overnight success and if i haven't got it in 90 days and i'm not far enough ahead there's no point i might as well give up if i haven't achieved 100 million pounds in 90 days because that's literally the world that we're in as nuts as that sounds if people haven't achieved it in 90 days and built their youtube channel people do just give up and that's the real shame people do give up it's absolutely mad we even have certain things within exit 9 that we know people's motivation and their actual feeling like internally about how how much belief they have still and how their mindset drops off after around about 30 to 45 days.
When someone starts something new, whatever it is, 10 days, most people have a huge dip. in their belief that it's even possible, around 30 to the 45 day mark, depending on what they're doing and how, you know, variables, most people give up between 30 and 45 days. That's insane.
But those are the facts. It's absolutely mad. But it only takes one video.
Before I blew up on TikTok, I did 900 videos. Before I, one video, which was, oh gosh. It was, I think it was one of the Stop Working Hard videos, one of my driving videos.
I'd been on YouTube nearly six years. You know, Jason Greystone, my own mentor, ISO's good, my own mentor. Eight years he was on YouTube before that one tutorial video, Trading for Dummies, which has now done nearly 10 million views.
The video's made over $300 ,000. It made over 12... and a half million.
Actually, it's near $16 million, that one video in upsells into Jason's actual business. And that was all on workflow automated processes, which is insane. So he barely lifted a finger.
It was all pre -built, but then when that video took off, it just funneled straight into his backend business. That's the kind of commitment levels that you have to show. But yet people are willing to give up.
That's why I started the opening line. Do you feel like you give it, you know, no one's watching you, so you might as well give up? No.
Of course not. If you're not willing to do something for five years minimum, then never start. Don't start.
Don't start unless you're willing to put in five years of grind, discipline, resilience, build momentum, be determined, have self -belief. Again, YouTube is a business. Do you notice there's a common theme in what I'm saying?
All of this ties into building something bigger and better for you and your family. Only takes one video, but make sure the portfolio that you're building is really good, as I mentioned earlier. Next one is stay in your lane.
There is nothing that is going to destroy your credibility, your audience's trust. People are going to question you if you keep dipping and diving and ducking and diving here and there you try one topic and then it doesn't work so you're like oh i'll talk about this and then you're like oh that didn't work so uh right looking on youtube what's what's the latest what's trending oh talking about pokemon cards and you have nothing to do with pokemon cards you're like did you know pikachu has just upgraded and the you know stay in your lane talk about things that you know that you've lived, that you've breathed, the only thing you have to think about is, okay, the things that I love, that I'm passionate about, how do I just, how do I package this in a way that if I was watching me, how would someone want to receive that, that is valuable, where someone thinks, Great.
I can actually take that now in the way that it's been explained and I can use that. And never forget this. People will never want to stop learning from people.
Yeah, there's AI chats out there. There's AI tools. There's AI coaching.
But ultimately, people will always go back to people. I would always rather watch a YouTube video on how someone actually did it and is living and breathing it rather than. having a 10 -step process written by AI.
I would like to learn from someone who's been there, shares the good, the bad, the ugly, and all the little in -betweens that AI can't actually go ahead and do and learn from the failures. But stay in your lane. Please don't talk about things that you have no clue about or you haven't done, which ties in nicely to my final point on this slide.
They smell the BS. You put up any creator in front of me and I will be confident. within the first few minutes, whether they've done it or not, or whether it's nonsense.
I promise you now, and it's not just me, I'm sure you can smell the BS as well. I'll go back to, and I think, let me have a look. So it is kind of in my next slide.
I don't have a script. I never script. And even when we go back to the video that I'm going to share with you after this last point, we'll quickly jump onto my channel.
I've never scripted. Do you know why? Because I stay in my lane.
So stay in your lane. People can smell the BS. If I started talking about Pokemon cards now, or, I don't know, another subject, I wouldn't have a clue.
I'd have to have a script. I'd have to have detailed step -by -step notes. I'd have to have loads of cuts.
I'd have to pause. I'd have to get Mac, my editor, to keep cutting me in so that I can... remember the sentences to then read them out to you it's so fake and people can smell that so if you want to build a thriving monetized channel again on the platform and off of the platform stay in your lane because people will smell the bs promise you right before we move on to the next slide let me just hit record my screen these are my oldest videos so as you can see here six years ago right this is just nuts but there's a particular video i want to go down to so look at this one thing you will always find with my video consistency i have been saying the same thing about money management personal development social media everything that i talk about is so consistent and you'll find that across my channel So there was one particular video, if I can find the little doodah, which I believe, is it that one?
Okay, it is this one. But if you have a look at the videos here, right? Never sit still, create opportunities.
That's the one we're just going to take a look at. 165 views. The next one to the left of it, discipline will result in any success.
You've got branding. We've got how to invest in property. These are some guests that had multiple bank accounts.
How to find investors, that's when I used to do a lot of investment raising. Gold and Bitcoin, I've been a big investor. Like just across my channel, I've been saying the same things.
But let's now have a look at this one particular video. So let me just hit screen record again. And let's just unmute this actually so I can hear it.
Hey everyone, welcome back to my channel. So today's video is all going to be about self -education, creating new opportunities for yourself, just using your own determination, your own will, your own discipline to actually go on and learn what you need to learn. So why am I talking about this topic?
And it's going to be a very organic, short video today. Okay, so first thing I can notice, I have actually got lapel mic on, but... Going back to audio, it's not capturing the depth of my voice.
So if you notice with my all my ISO is blown up. Let me just turn down my ISO. As you can notice with the mic that I'm using now, you can hear the depth.
That means the deepness in my voice. You can't hear like a space above me like echo. That's never great to have the room filled of like space.
You can hear it in the mic. So that's why it's really important to get a good mic. And let's just chop to another part of the video.
You're doing within that dead time. How can you then replace that dead time with something productive? And what I mean by productive is pan in by me.
This is when I was editing trade and then go and apply it because there is no better time. OK, we'll wrap that up there. So did you just hear me go like that?
Now, this brings us on to the next slide. My three personal hacks. Build a database.
Improve your speaking. Start the conversation. So we're actually going to start with improve your speaking while I'm thinking about it.
Because again, I don't have a script. I don't have notes. And this ties perfectly into this point.
So you heard me in that video go. Avoid filler words. Improve your speech.
Avoid ums and buts and learn to replace them with pauses. If you can improve your speech and the way that you present yourself. People will listen more.
I just want to say I'm checking the ISO. I just want to say I've had some fantastic feedback over the past year about people saying that they like the way that I talk. Thank you.
But I've improved my speaking over a period of time. So if you can either cut them out or just over time, learn to remove these heavy breaths. And I know there's someone in the comments who keeps going on about my slurping, but.
When you have a nice coffee like this, it's mandatory that you slurp. Just try to improve the way you come across on camera and the way that you actually talk. Not only will that benefit your YouTube channel, but as you go down the road of this content creation and building a business, you may get invited onto podcasts.
You may get invited to paid speaking gigs. You might be able to speak at Ideas Fest, TEDx. Hopefully in the future, you blow up and you have a huge personal brand where you're going to need to do a lot of speaking.
And maybe one day you write a book and you have to read out the audio version. Imagine that. There's a great book, actually.
We'll have it pop up on screen by Dale Carnegie. It's called Public Speaking for Success. That was a fantastic book.
So let's just hop back up to the top. Build a database. You should have a newsletter or a sub stack or a CRM system where you're capturing people that are watching you and you're urging them to go and join your free newsletter.
Reason being is every time you release a video, I'm not going to go over it before, but you shouldn't be sending the link because then it's. It's building an algorithm of external watches. But if you have a newsletter, and I have a newsletter of over 6 ,000 people on my personal database, every time I launch a video, I can announce that a video's gone live to then drive the traffic to that video organically so that they click on YouTube.
Keep having to adjust my ISO because of the freaking lighting outside. Pain in my backside. I have that advantage of sending to a database.
You should be building that as well. Please work on a newsletter. Learn about a CRM system.
Get one. Set it up. Get a free guide, a lead magnet, a data submission, a questionnaire, a quiz, whatever it might be.
Capture the information. Use something like Wix, MailChimp, Resend. octopus, male, something like that.
There's loads of them out there that you can then retarget and announce that a video has gone live. So you must, must build a database. And that's like the heart of any business, by the way.
The next one, start the conversation. Be your first pinned comment in every video, opening up with the first question and the debate that you would like to start. You'd be surprised.
In fact, you can go have a look at all my videos. I am the first comment and I will always open up and welcome conversation. And then I reply.
That's it. I'm done. I'm taking a bow.
It's very simple. OK, don't overcomplicate this process. And then finally, let me just run through some of my old notes.
Ah, imposter syndrome. I just want to cover off that. I made an additional note.
I've had a lot of people ask me about feeling like they have imposter syndrome and how to overcome that. The answer is very simple. If you have imposter syndrome, it goes back to what I said earlier about potentially not staying in your lane.
If you feel that you have to write a script. that you have to do a huge amount of research on the topic in which you're going to talk about. Unless you are a show like The Exit 9 Show.
I have this pop up on screen. If you're not subscribed, please go check it out. Look at the episodes.
We are presenting as a show. So we do a lot of deep dive research. So we share links.
Articles. I've done that in a few videos now. So we are presenting as a show.
But if you aren't a show. You shouldn't have to do loads of research in order to press record and talk about the thing that you're really passionate about, that you love and that you're, you know, adding value to other people's lives. It should be straight off the dome.
If it's not, then you need to practice in your spare time with your speech, everything like that. This ISO is up and down. Just bear that in mind.
Imposter syndrome typically comes from you kind of know that you're venturing into an area that isn't yours and you. you haven't experienced enough about which is why when you go to my youtube description in fact i can have a little look actually i have put just to make sure i'm reading it out so this is in my link uh links in this is my youtube description my youtube mission is to help you build a life by design we all know that all my videos are based on my knowledge experiences and beliefs and then i've got the topics in which i talk about so you keep the receipts no one can call you out you're staying authentic you're staying true to your message and your experience you're not pulling the wool over anyone's eyes therefore no one can smell the bs because it's true to you and what you've actually done and then stick with all of this for five years and do not give up so apologies for the iso going up and down it's an absolute nightmare the color of me must be changing
like no one's business. There we go. So let me finish on this.
Again, I say this all the time. If you are building a business, maybe you have an idea you haven't started, but you know that you need accountability structure. You need to build momentum.
You don't yet have the daily habits. Or even if you have started building a personal brand or a business, I must clarify, by the way, exit nine is not just for content creators. It's not just for business owners.
It's for those who need to streamline and start taking some serious accountability to building the thing. that they want to use as the vehicle to create time and financial independence. We are not a platform that promises wealth and riches.
We promise to deliver an all -in -one platform that gives you everything you need to make sure you and your family end up living a life by design within a timeframe that is realistic, not fabricated of 90 days. If you want to come into Exit 9, please note this. This is a one to three year journey.
If you're not committed to that, I cannot help you. Exit 9 cannot help you. Just wanted to make that super clear.
But if you are committed, no matter what age you are or where you're from, you can go ahead and use the 50 % off your first month or you can comment along with your comment the keyword in speech marks committed and I will provide you with that one time offer of 25 % off our annual pro membership, which is absolutely insane.
Obviously, I'm biased, but truly it is. Until the next video, my good people, I hope you enjoyed that and I'll see you on the next one. Peace out.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Aaron Knightley opens by naming exactly what a stalled creator is feeling: no views, nobody watching, the urge to quit, then promises a direct rundown of what's actually broken. What follows is ten blunt rules pulled from six years of his own channel, delivered without the 'big words, big quotes, dangling a carrot' tactics he spends half the video warning viewers away from.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:35list
From No Views To A Channel That Grows (10 rules)
Emotionally detach
Stop watching this
The quality matters
Research and learn
Never do this
Less editing equals more
Build whilst working
It only takes one
Stay in your lane
They smell the BS
The full ten-rule checklist read out at the top of the video and used as the on-screen chapter structure for the rest of it.
Steal forany content creator plotting a no-nonsense growth checklist for their own channel
22:45list
Three Personal Hacks
Build a database
Improve your speaking
Start the conversation
Three concrete habits for owning your audience and your delivery instead of depending entirely on the platform algorithm.
“I am the co-founder of a company that is accelerating people's growth towards time and financial independence. Exit 9. We have just launched a one time offer, 25% off our annual pro membership. If you leave the word 'committed' with your comment, I will get in contact.”
Breaks the fourth wall mid-video with an explicit 'midway pause' to pitch his own company by name, tied to a comment-keyword mechanic, then repeats the same offer in the closing minute.
Add Modern Creator as a preferred source and Google shows you more of our breakdowns in Search, Top Stories, and AI Overviews. It only changes what you see, and you can undo it in your Google settings anytime.
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A 31-minute, one-take talking-head where a six-year YouTuber reads ten fundamentals off his phone notes and argues that the unscripted, unedited version of you is the whole strategy.
A 52-minute no-BS breakdown from a UK creator who replaced his income on YouTube, complete with real earnings, real contracts, and 13 things you should never do.
A 69-minute, eight-part course on turning a hobby into a £1,500–£4,000-a-month personal brand, taught by a UK creator who funds three businesses off his own audience.
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