A homeschooling mom who built two YouTube channels past six figures walks through the three-part "Delusion Audit" she uses to find out why creators quit right before something starts to work.
Posted
3 days ago
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sincere
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Big Idea
The argument in one line.
Most creators quit not because the platform failed them but because a pre-existing belief about themselves was waiting to be confirmed, so breaking the cycle requires auditing that belief, naming its root cause, and then deciding to follow through before any proof of success exists.
Who This Is For
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
You've started and abandoned more than one YouTube channel, business, or project and don't fully understand why.
You're actively posting on YouTube right now but feel paralyzed by low view counts and a quiet voice telling you it isn't working.
You're drawn to mindset and self-development work and want a structured journaling exercise, not another growth-hack tutorial.
You want a framework for separating 'this platform doesn't work' from 'I'm not finishing what I start.'
SKIP IF…
You're looking for tactical YouTube growth advice: thumbnails, titles, SEO, algorithm mechanics. None of that is covered here.
You're not looking for a video that leans on religious framing. The speaker cites Romans 12:2 as a load-bearing part of the argument.
TL;DR
The full version, fast.
The video argues that YouTube channels don't fail because of weak thumbnails or titles, they fail because the creator doesn't believe success is actually coming, so low view counts become proof of existing self-doubt instead of data to learn from. The speaker's three-part Delusion Audit has viewers write down every goal they've previously quit, find the psychological root cause using research on self-verification and the fresh start effect, then make an irreversible decision, name a reason big enough to sustain it, and build an evidence file of small real wins. The conclusion: belief has to be decided before the proof exists, not after.
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01 · What separates channels that work from channels that quit
Opening question and premise: nearly every YouTube course teaches thumbnails and hooks, almost none teach the belief work that actually decides survival.
01:54 – 03:15
02 · The Delusion Audit: a 3-part framework
Introduces the exercise (receipts, root cause, decision) and the free guide/challenge offers.
03:15 – 04:39
03 · Part 1: Pull your receipts
Instructs viewers to write down every goal they've pursued and quit, citing James Pennebaker's expressive-writing research.
04:39 – 10:48
04 · Hayley's story: ten years of starting and stopping
Candid walkthrough of a decade chasing sponsorship income across multiple niches, driven by scarcity and fear rather than opportunity.
10:48 – 11:57
05 · You didn't fail five times, you quit the same way five times
Introduces Katherine Milkman's fresh start effect to explain why new projects always feel exciting.
11:57 – 13:09
06 · Part 2: Find the root cause
Explains self-verification theory: people seek feedback that confirms existing self-beliefs, even negative ones.
13:09 – 15:12
07 · Why she pulled the plug on her first six-figure month
Personal account of sabotaging momentum right after the first six-figure month out of an unconscious belief about being a worse mother.
15:12 – 18:27
08 · Wherever You Go, There You Are: naming the fear
No new niche or camera fixes self-sabotage; introduces affect labeling as a way to name and calm fear.
18:27 – 21:06
09 · Part 3: Find your big why
Instructs viewers to write the single biggest reason the goal has to work, bigger than recognition or being seen as successful.
21:06 – 23:09
10 · Burn the ships and renew your mind
Deciding instead of trying, with a Romans 12:2 citation on renewing the mind daily.
23:09 – 26:21
11 · Start your evidence file, picture both futures, write your identity statement
Closing exercises: build a folder of small proof-of-progress wins, contrast both future timelines, and write a one-line identity statement.
26:21 – 26:39
12 · Get the worksheet and join the challenge
Final CTA for the free worksheet and the live 5-day YouTube challenge.
Atomic Insights
Lines worth screenshotting.
Nobody teaches the part that decides whether a YouTube channel works out: what you believe about yourself when the views are low.
People don't fail at five different things, they quit the same way five different times.
Self-verification theory: people look for feedback that confirms what they already believe about themselves, even when that belief is negative, because it feels safer than succeeding.
The first time a creator hits real income, the fear it exposes often isn't the business model, it's the fear of becoming someone brand new.
Quitting the moment a project starts working can be a bigger tell than quitting when it's failing: ask whether you quit because it wasn't working or because it was starting to work and that felt scary.
Affect labeling: naming a fear in words, per UCLA researcher Matthew Lieberman's brain scans, measurably calms the brain's fear response.
A video that gets 40 views is not a verdict on who you are, it's a video that got 40 views, and that's the data to learn from.
The fresh start effect explains why new projects feel good: a new channel resets the dopamine hit of starting over without requiring anyone to push through the middle.
Deciding, as opposed to trying, means no longer asking 'is this going to work' and instead asking 'how am I going to make this work.'
An evidence file of small, real wins, like a first view, first subscriber, or first sale, overrides the old self-doubt narrative better than motivation or pep talks.
Selling owned digital products instead of chasing sponsorships removes the need for ever-increasing views to get paid, which breaks the scarcity cycle for creators.
Takeaway
Belief has to be decided before the proof shows up.
WHAT TO LEARN
Low view counts aren't a verdict, they're data, and the real reason most creators quit is a pre-existing belief about themselves that the low numbers just happen to confirm.
01What separates channels that work from channels that quit
Every YouTube guru teaches thumbnails, titles, and hooks, but almost nobody teaches the belief work that actually decides whether a channel survives.
Some creators with no equipment and zero experience build a life-changing channel, while talented creators quit at video 12, and the difference isn't skill.
02The Delusion Audit: a 3-part framework
The 3-part audit is: pull your receipts on past quitting, find the root cause of the pattern, then make the real decision to follow through.
The exercise is designed to be done in writing, not just watched, because writing forces the brain to process what it's been avoiding.
03Part 1: Pull your receipts
Step one is writing down every goal you've ever pursued and abandoned, the full granular history, not the polished version you tell people.
This draws on psychologist James Pennebaker's research: people who wrote about their hardships ended up healthier and more successful than people who wrote about neutral topics.
04Hayley's story: ten years of starting and stopping
A decade of chasing sponsorship income meant needing ever more views to get paid more, which pushed content further from what actually mattered.
Scarcity and fear, not lack of opportunity, drove repeated niche switching: each new niche felt like the 'shinier object' that would finally fix things.
05You didn't fail five times, you quit the same way five times
Most people don't fail at five different things, they quit the same way five different times, and the pattern itself is the data worth examining.
The fresh start effect explains why a new channel, niche, or project always feels exciting: it resets the dopamine of starting over without requiring anyone to push through the middle.
06Part 2: Find the root cause
Self-verification theory: people seek feedback that confirms their existing self-belief, even when that belief is negative, because confirmation feels safer than change.
If you already believe you're someone who never sticks with anything, quitting at video eight doesn't register as failure, it registers as proof you were right.
07Why she pulled the plug on her first six-figure month
The first time the business hit six figures in a month, the response wasn't celebration, it was quietly sabotaging the momentum over the following weeks.
The unconscious belief was that more income meant being a worse mother and wife, so unexplained inconsistency in showing up followed the money, not the other way around.
08Wherever You Go, There You Are: naming the fear
No new niche, camera, channel name, or editing style fixes self-sabotage, because the person carries the same patterns into every new attempt.
Affect labeling shows that putting a fear into words measurably calms the brain's fear response, rather than just sitting in the feeling.
The actionable rule: a video that gets 40 views is not a verdict on identity, it's a data point to learn from.
09Part 3: Find your big why
Step three is writing the single biggest reason the goal has to work, placed at the top of the page, before deciding whether to keep going.
The reason has to be bigger than recognition or being seen as an influencer, something that still holds up on the days the numbers don't move.
10Burn the ships and renew your mind
Deciding, not trying, is the mechanism: it stops the weekly renegotiation of whether the goal is worth it and reframes the question from 'will this work' to 'how do I make this work.'
Doubt doesn't disappear after deciding, it just stops being the thing that makes the decision.
11Start your evidence file, picture both futures, write your identity statement
An evidence file of screenshotted small wins, like a first view, first subscriber, or first sale, builds a case file the old self-doubt narrative can't argue with.
A useful exercise is writing out both futures in detail: the one where you quit again in five years, and the one where you didn't, then comparing how each one feels.
The final step is crossing out the old self-doubt sentence and replacing it with a one-line identity statement that starts with 'I'm a [role] who...'
Glossary
Terms worth knowing.
Delusion Audit
The speaker's three-part self-assessment: write down every past goal you quit, identify the belief driving the pattern, then make a binding decision to follow through this time.
Self-verification theory
A psychological theory that people seek out feedback and situations confirming their existing self-beliefs, even negative ones, because confirmation feels safer than change.
Fresh start effect
A research finding that people are more motivated to pursue a goal right after a symbolic new beginning, like a new month or new project, than in the middle of an ongoing effort.
Affect labeling
Putting a feeling into words to reduce its intensity in the brain, based on brain-scan research showing the fear response calms when a feeling is named.
Media model
The speaker's term for a sponsorship-based creator business, where income is tied directly to view count, contrasted with selling owned digital products.
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metaphor
So what if your YouTube channel actually worked out? Okay. I don't mean it gets views and your mom leaves a nice comment.
Hi mom. She's always watching my videos and I know there's always her to count on, but I mean, it really works. So two years from now, if you envision it's paying real bills, you know, you're home with your kids, maybe like we are because of our channel.
And you look back at the version of you who almost quit a hundred times over, and you can barely remember why you were so scared after more than 10 years on YouTube. myself in so many different niches on my main channel and this one. And also after coaching over a thousand new YouTubers, here's what I've noticed between those that succeed or those that quit and call it failure.
Okay. Every YouTube course or guru out there, they teach kind of the same thing, right? They teach about how to craft a viral thumbnail that has a high click -through rate, how to craft a winning title that get you a lot of views, how to hook to retain the viewer.
And almost nobody teaches the part that actually decides whether your channel works out. And that part is what you believe about yourself when the views are so freaking low and you feel like nobody's watching and you're too old for this and it's cringe and it's better to put your time somewhere else, right?
I've watched incredibly talented people quit at video 12 and say, this is so hard. I'm not getting any success and why even go forward, right? And I've watched people with a old jank iPhone and zero experience.
sitting in front of like a naturally lit window with no other tech and also editing their video on their iPhone, they build something that absolutely changes their family's life. I'm talking like literally creating generational wealth for their kids and their kids' kids, all because they started on YouTube. And the difference I found was the second group was just a little bit, Delulu, like myself included, okay?
They decided it was gonna work no matter what before they had any. proof that it would. And so in today's video, I'm going to walk you through something that I like to call the delusion audit.
There are three parts. We're going to first pull your receipts as to why you've been what you feel like most likely a failure in the past. Why haven't you had success in anything that you've started and stopped and how you can break that cycle on YouTube.
We're going to find the root cause of that. And then we're going to have you make the real and final decision moving forward, which is going to catapult you into becoming a person worthy of success on YouTube.
I'm also going to do it on myself right here as transparent as I possibly can. Download the free guide. We have everything mapped out for you in the description box below, so you can fill it out as we go.
And if you're also ready to act on this delusion or ideally the reality that you're going to take moving forward, we're actually running a five day free YouTube challenge. And it's all about how to go full time on YouTube before Christmas. Ideally, we're looking at six figures in revenue.
from YouTube and the business you build on the back end of YouTube, because Christmas is so much closer than you think. And we're going to be going live in there every single day for five days. You can pick our brain, ask us anything that you want about how to build a business while also having these five homeschooled kids as a family and yeah, how we do that.
And so check it out down below. We're stoked to have you guys in there. So the first thing we're going to do is basically pull your receipts, meaning your actual history, either on social media or any of the stuff that you've started as size.
hustles or hobbies before. And we're going to pull the whole thing. We're not going to actually just talk about the version that you give to people like in your real life, how things appear on the outside.
We're going to get really granular. And we want to write this down because what I found in just like studying people of success and also psychology and like trying to understand your patterns and how to break them. One thing that I came across is this psychologist.
His name's, I think James Pennebaker or something. He ran thousands of studies where people spent a few short sessions writing about hard things.
So like hardships that you've had to face in your life or reasons why, you know, you might be feeling like a failure and that you're not worthy of success on the platform, whatever. And the people that wrote down the hard things ended up actually healthier and they got that success that they were looking for versus people that wrote about like neutral topics.
So writing forces your brain to organize something it's been avoiding. So literal pen to paper. And so here's the first receipt.
Okay. You're going to write down everything you've ever done as far as like if you've had a goal to make money or had a goal to succeed in any way, whether it's like running a marathon or starting your YouTube channel or starting on Instagram or selling digital products or whatever it is, you're going to write it all down, everything that you've tried.
So for me, that would look like every channel, every niche, every YouTube idea that I've ever started. So pause this video if you need to. I am going to be candid and very vulnerable and I'm going to go first.
So if you guys don't know much about my story, a main channel with over 170 ,000 subscribers. I started that about 10 years ago and I was absolutely desperate to make money on YouTube so that I didn't have to put my first baby.
I have five kids now. So my first baby, Annabelle, that we had unexpectedly, basically when we were engaged, I didn't want to have to put her in daycare and pursue this massive, like fancy college degree in finance that I was grinding for at like a corporate job. So I chased a million different income streams.
We started like an Amazon on FBA business, selling baby high chair covers. I sold digital products on Etsy.
Then I started a motherhood account on YouTube and that took off and I was doing any kind of sponsor that would come my way. And I was just desperate. So through that desperation and being, to be frank, absolute money hungry, and also very fearful and very scarce.
And I had a negative mentality. Like there was so much abundance coming towards me because I was able to make a lot of money fast, but I was also very scared because I had this family and because of that scarce mentality, I started and stopped many different niches on that channel.
And the reason I did that was honestly because of the media model that was required to make money in a traditional sense as an influencer, which we talk about on this channel all the time, is you need more views and you need more of your time, need more of yourself in order to get paid more. So I needed more views to get paid more per sponsor.
It led to this domino effect of me putting up content that felt very disaligned with who I was on that brand just so that I could get more views, just so that I could make more per sponsor and then feed my growing family because I was the breadwinner at the time for a lot of different reasons. I was making more money than my husband.
We talked about that on here, the regrets we have, but we don't regret anything now. It's just at the time when you go after that media model, which is sponsorships is your main focus. You are at the mercy of ever -changing views and you have to get, I mean, everyone ends up getting a little desperate because that's how you make money and you don't want to feel like you are.
are failing and thus your business is failing if you get less views. That's obviously why we sell digital products now. We don't have to think like that.
But anyways, I was chasing so many different niches. I did make money online for moms on that channel. I dabbled in vlogging for a while before I realized that was definitely not right for my family or my kids.
Lessons learned, right, of 10 years ago. And then I started basically branching out into how to raise kids, how to organize, how to cook, how to meal plan, how to feed little kids healthy foods. And I was starting an all these different niches because of this scarcity.
And I abandoned all niches just in favor of one that just looks like a shinier object in the fact that it was going to get me more views. I also started and stopped 101 different businesses off the back end of my YouTube channel. And when one didn't ramp up fast enough, I would be scarce and fearful.
And then I go after another one. And it's only taken me years to realize if you just focus on the thing that you're called by God to do, and you do not get fearful and scarce. which I know this sounds extreme, but I feel like that's really of the devil.
And he derails you because of that fear that you're not going to make money or it's not going to be successful or you're going to look like a fool and a fraud. You will actually end up being successful if you see something to fruition. Through the shiny object syndrome, which it is absolutely like glaringly shiny on social media, everyone's preaching that their way is better.
And when I look back at this long 10 year trajectory of me starting and stopping different things, I started to notice this pattern. It's like when I ended up switching and stopping something that I was working on in favor of something else, I would tell myself the same thing. Oh, well, it will be easier on my family if I pursue this other avenue.
Meaning if I go after this other business idea or this other need, or whatever, there's other video style, I will have more time with my kids. Because in the back of my head, as Candid, now this is like obviously an example from my own story, you guys will have something different as to why you start and stop things.
But in the back of my head, it's like I'm a homeschool mom of five kids. And deep down, I felt for so many years that I'm unworthy of being like this millionaire career mom boss, like business owner, while also homeschooling my kids. Because everybody in my sphere just does not do this.
They don't have time. They don't want to put time to it. And I felt this guilt for working, even though I only work a couple hours a week, probably because my mom worked my entire upbringing.
We're getting deep here, but you're going to uncover all of these, like, I don't know. I don't want to call them traumas because like everything's for God's glory, right? And you want to look at things through that lens.
But all the challenges that you've gone through basically taint your perspective on reality and succeeding on YouTube to the max. You have to understand why you've started and stopped and don't have high follow through up until this point and decide. that you're no longer gonna be that person.
I would say things like, oh, I just need to find the right niche. Or I would say, well, it's not the right season for me or nobody wants to hear this from me. I wanna write down words that describe how you felt about all of the things you've started and stopped, ideally on social media this past year, the last five years.
Don't filter them because for a lot of people, it's words like behind or embarrassed or I feel invisible or I'm tired, I'm jealous or I'm just not good enough. One of the hardest seasons that I look back on is when I, started my main channel and there were so many moms out there in the niche that I was in that were more qualified and even for my husband Doug he does videos on this channel and he started in this protector niche right and he isn't like this operator veteran ex -cop military dude he's literally just a dude that's interested in protecting his family he's just a dad okay and so Even when he started, after all of the knowledge that he has in helping other people grow YouTube channels, he's like, I am unworthy, right?
No one's going to listen to me. I feel like a fraud. We all have these things.
And I had these things as a mom when I had just a little kid. It's like, who am I to talk about motherhood? Who am I to teach how to do YouTube?
Even though, you know, I had the time when I started this business had over 150 ,000 subs and I was doing this full time. My husband and I quit. Who am I?
There's someone out there with millions, right? So now you want to look at everything that you. wrote down.
So if you're anything like me, You're going to notice a lot of uncomfortable things about who you are. And most likely you didn't fail at five different things.
You quit the same way five different times. There's this researcher. Her name is like Catherine Milkman.
I'll put on the screen. But she studied something called the fresh start effect. People are much more likely to go after a goal right after a new beginning, like a new car or a new month or even, you know, like a Monday, obviously, or like New Year's.
They're like, I'm going to lose 20 pounds of the weight I have. After the holidays, gym visits obviously spike after those dates. And so that's a good thing until starting over becomes the thing that you're actually addicted to.
So I am a recovering like starter over any time now that I have this idea, like a good idea. Like if I have any type of like novel idea, I'm like, oh no, that's like a bad sign because it took me 10 years to recover from this addiction. Just because it gives you that dopamine effect and you're chasing that versus the follow through.
And so every new. channel gives you that fresh start feeling without you ever having to push through the middle. But now we're going to get into part two, which is basically uncovering the root cause as to why you have low follow through and how to become delusional enough to push through and find that success.
So there's this theory in psychology called self -verification, and it says that people look for evidence that confirms what they already believe about themselves, which is scary. Okay. So even when that belief is obviously, it can be very negative.
And so in this research, people who saw themselves negatively often preferred feedback that agreed with them over feedback that was kinder because it just felt more true and more predictable and they felt safe about putting themselves in this box and just understanding themselves more. And so think about what that means for your YouTube channel.
You know, if deep down you believe you're the person who never sticks with anything, then quitting at video eight doesn't feel like a failure. It just feels like proof, right? It confirms.
what you already believe subconsciously. And weirdly, that feels safer than succeeding and having to become someone brand new. So I challenge you, like go back and look at each place that you've quit in your life.
Ask yourself honestly, whether you quit because it wasn't working or because it was starting to work and that felt scary. Now this is gonna sound for a lot of people very unrelatable, but in my circles, it happens. So the first time my husband and I made our first six figure month, we made over $100 ,000.
I didn't come from money. I came from like middle class. My parents grinded their entire life and commuted an hour both ways in traffic to work.
I was a daycare kid. I never saw any of this kind of money. And that's probably why I had the desire to have it because I wanted to break free and whatever, have this freedom life that people preach on YouTube, right?
And on social media. And so the first time I made this money, I was the face of our brand, right? So remember what I said is for me, the whatever you want to call it, it's not trauma.
It's just the life experience that I came from. is that my mom worked a ton. All right.
She was a nurse, right? She wasn't a stay at home mom. And I went to like traditional school.
And so I have this desire, had this desire, still do to be more present with my kids. And my mom has this like for me as well, you know, like no shade to her. I'm so grateful for everything she did.
We only do what we know to do and how we can best show up and we improve generation after generation. Right. But because I had this desire to be at home more, I think this is what it is.
We never know. We're not. psychologists, right?
We're just talking to ourselves about our life. I was so desperate to be there for my kids. And so I honestly still can't even drop off my kids.
That's why I homeschool because I feel like this twinge of pain. I don't know what it is. The first time I made my first six figures, I pulled the plug.
I was like, I don't think that, and this was selling digital products literally on this YouTube channel, the one right here. And I thought, okay, I'm not worthy of this. Now I didn't say this out loud, but I didn't feel happy.
Most people that would make that type of money in a 30 day period, it was actually in the first week of the month, they would be like elated, jumping for joy. But after that, I slowly started sabotaging the business model that I was in of selling digital products and courses and coaching.
And I just started showing up less. That's why you can see huge inconsistencies because I honestly think I had this unconscious belief that the more money I made, the more successful I was, the worse of a mom that I was, the worse of a wife that I was. And things just started to get really hard for me mentally.
There's this book and it's called Wherever You Go, There You Are. And that title says, better than I can, you know, a new niche or a new income stream or a new like video style, like whatever, it's not going to fix this, right?
Neither will a new camera. Like my husband just talked about in our last video, you know, a new channel name or a new editing style. Like we keep thinking that the next change on the outside is going to fix the self -sabotage on the inside, but it doesn't because you bring you to every aspect of the channel that you start.
At the time I should have asked myself, like, why don't I feel worthy? You know, why can't I seem to do it all.
And sometimes you can't, but sometimes you just don't want to figure out how. And so now I want you to ask the real question and write down your answer. Why don't you feel worthy of this working?
Now, I'm not asking why it's not working. Some of you guys probably are struggling on YouTube as far as like analytically with the views. It's hard, right?
I'm asking why you don't believe you deserve for it to work. I think for a lot of us in our past, people have said things to you or things have happened to you. And it shows up like, well, you're not the creative one, you know, or you're too over the top or you never stick with anything or who do you think you are?
That one voice can become the lens you see everything through, including your analytics. And you want to put a name on it. You know, here's something that genuinely helps when you feel anxious about growing on social media, whether it's hitting publish or checking the views used to give me heart palpitations on my main channel when I was a breadwinner, right?
Or reading the comments used to send me into a spiral because I had thousands of comments and people created groups about me that were negative and it was on Reddit. It was crazy, right?
You don't want to just sit in that terrible feeling. You want to name exactly what you're scared of. Years ago, there's this guy, Matthew Lieberman, where he was some type of scientist at UCLA, but he did brain scans on people looking at emotional images.
And when they put their feelings into words, the part of the brain that handles fear calmed down. And so scientists call it effect labeling. So this video on the screen right here, I was so nervous about.
putting up because this was one of my times years ago, I think right around COVID that I was quitting. 80 % of our sponsors ended up backing out and our income went down 80 % for the next three months because of the BLM times and COVID and the sponsors out there, like even Target and like Huggies and all these sponsors that had worked with me for years previous, they felt that it was now inappropriate to hashtag add something or sponsor something on YouTube.
So it was so terrifying and I was forced to actually start. this channel where I owned my income by selling my own products. And it kind of catapulted from there.
But at the time I put out a video and it was like, I quit. I can't do this in this way anymore. And I was letting down thousands of people.
And I was so scared that I was letting go of something good. And all of the anxiety that I had at the time, if I had named it and painted out like what would be the worst thing that could happen in the scenario, it's honestly not as big in the daylight as it felt at 11 o 'clock PM. And so you want to look at the facts, you know, A video that gets 40 views isn't a verdict on who you are.
It's a video that got 40 freaking views and that's the data that you can learn from. And so you want to pick one feeling from your list and write down what the actual evidence says next to it. And we're going to talk about having a reason big enough.
Like I did when my channel went down, I had to finally take ownership for something that I felt unworthy of, which was teaching people on YouTube seven years ago. I felt like, who am I? You know, someone else is out there doing it better and there's, you know, bigger people and who am I?
I already kind of told you what my reason was, but like I said, I grew up as a daycare kid and it's not something that I liked. Now, no shade to people that put their kid in daycare or have help. I've had different types of babysitters and stuff like that.
And I loved my daycare provider. It wasn't that. I just, I don't know.
I'm an introvert. I'm sensitive. I don't know what that looks like on like the personality scale, but I just wanted to be at home with my parents.
So when I got pregnant with my firstborn, I was like, I'm going to keep her with me all the time. We're going to have this amazing life together. I saw people on YouTube living and making money together because of social media.
And I was like, well, my husband's got to come home too, right? I had this like pie in the sky idea of what it would look like to live this laptop lifestyle. And I promised myself that her life would be different and we would just be together.
And obviously it took. many twists and turns and it never is what you think it's going to be, but you need to tap into the big why for sticking it out. And so for me, it was never about being recognized or being an influencer.
YouTube was the thing that I found that could support our family and still let me be home. And I'm reminded of the beauty of this type of business model, selling products, leveraging YouTube, and not having to like be thirsty and desperate for views. Like I used to on my main channel because I sell my own products.
I'm reminded of that. when I get to take my kids to their co -op for their homeschool every single week and I get to stay with them. All the other parents have to drop them off and I get to stay and I get to just be with my kids in their learning moments.
Obviously I homeschool on all the other days, but we are here all the time. My husband's with our kids right now learning something at the library and we live this amazingly very weird life and all the people on our street think we're freaks because we're with our kids all the time. It's become very normal over the past 10 years, but I'm reminded reminded how precious this opportunity is right now on YouTube.
And our students live the same reality. Like for instance, Lisa from Farmhouse on Boone, she has, I think, nine kids right now, and she is able to run this massive YouTube channel selling her own products, still doing sponsors and homeschool her kids. Or Elisha and Katie Vogtberg from Now That We're a Family, they do the same thing.
They just teach people in a different way. I mean, if you sell your own products, you don't have to be at the mercy of changing algorithms and and appeasing brands.
And it's a beautiful because you can actually be present with your kids and make money 24 seven. You want to write the biggest reason for why this will work at the top of your page. And you have to decide.
Most people are just trying it. They'll give it a few months. They'll see how it goes video by video.
And I can tell that's what they're doing when they're thinking about other income streams or they're looking at Instagram or they're looking at starting a network marketing, right? It's basically just a quiet way. of keeping the exit door open and deciding means that you burn the ships.
You stop renegotiating with yourself every week about whether this YouTube thing is worth it. And the question then stops becoming, is it going to work? And it becomes, how am I going to make this work?
You figure out the how because you decided. So when my sponsors got cut by 80%, I wasn't like, okay, let's go get a job because this influencer thing on YouTube is not working out. I decided that this is the life that I want for myself.
I decided. I had to make it work. So then I'm like, what other income streams can we tackle that would give us back more of our time?
The doubt does not disappear when you decide though, you'll still have days. And I did too. Like when you think, well, who the heck am I to sell digital products or my expertise or my knowledge, or who am I to like have this big channel?
It just stops being the voice that makes your decision. And the Bible obviously said this long before any neuroscience book did in Romans 12, two, it says, do not conform to the pattern of this world. but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Renewing your mind isn't something that you do once. It's something you do every day until the new way of thinking is just how you think. Everybody has doubt, even me now, like the ceilings that I am able to break through, I still think that's not possible or it's gonna be really hard and maybe it's not, right?
So what I do now versus like switching something else because I think something's gonna be hard that I haven't even tried enough yet is I look for experiences to prove my, out wrong. So that means...
small wins that you earn yourself and you're looking to earn, not like a pep talk, not like watching a podcast or even this video, you have to actually take massive action. So you have to do the thing long enough to see it working. So you want to start an evidence file today.
So it can be a folder on your phone, but every kind comment and every first, like your first hundred views, your first subscriber, you know, we do all of this in our group. We celebrate all of these wins or even like your first. email site up your first course sale.
You want to screenshot it and put it there for proof. So on the days that the old voice gets very loud, you open the folder. You remember this video.
Ideally, you remember the Bible verses transform and renew your mind constantly, even in your business, telling yourself that this is possible. It's already happening for me and all of believing in yourself, right? It's cheesy, but you have to constantly remember these things, or you're going to fall victim to the person that feels unworthy.
I remember for me the first time and of many times that I felt very unworthy, but it quickly shifted was I started pitching people for our program, YouTubepreneur, and I wanted to work with big influencers. If you have big influencers as testimonials, everyone else sees them and they're like, it's just a litmus test for, do you have credibility?
And so I was trying to attack and getting after these big influencers. It was something that I was so scared to do because I did not want to be told that I would, I didn't want to be ghosted. I didn't want to be told, no, I didn't want to.
be told that I was unworthy. I just told myself I have to freaking do it. You know, anyone that has success does things uncomfortable.
So I went after my first influencer in a DM and they immediately was like, yes. And so now I'm not worried about asking people for anything because it's like the worst thing they could do is tell you that you suck and you just move on with your life and you got to do it anyways because you committed. And so I no longer don't wait for this evidence to show up on its own.
I go and get it because every one of these small little wins. your brain can't argue with. You see both futures.
So a good way to do this is to basically just start with the life or picture the life that you don't want. You want to picture yourself five years from now if you quit again. So you're at the same job, you're carrying the same guilt around about not being a present mom like I was or whatever, and you're still watching other people's channels thinking that could have been me.
Let yourself feel how uncomfortable that reality is. Then write out the other version and get super specific. What does your morning look like?
Like if you did succeed, where are your kids? What does your channel bring in each month? And what are people saying in your comments?
So here's the last thing on your page. Go back to those sentences you wrote in the receipts, the one you told yourself right before you quit. cross them out and underneath, you're gonna write one identity statement starting with, I'm a YouTuber or really, I'm a business owner who, because YouTubers, I don't like that term.
They usually don't make a lot of money. You wanna be selling something. That's the whole point of our channel, right?
Okay, so here's mine. I'm a YouTuber who publishes every week even when it's not perfect. So if you guys ended up doing this whole exercise with me, I'm proud of you because it is very uncomfortable.
I've done it with my spouse. That's how like open we are because we do business together and like, We've realized that if we want to make more money, we have to be more honest with ourselves and our beliefs.
So like making money now isn't like a strategy thing for us. It's, it's a psychological thing as weird as that is, but it starts with all of the stuff that we did this video. And I do this on like a monthly basis.
And so if you guys want the worksheet, get it down below. And if you're ready to act on your decision, we're running a free five -day YouTube challenge. We're going live every day and it's how to go full -time on YouTube, turning your YouTube channel into a business.
before Christmas. So the link's down below. I would love to see you guys in there and chat and I'll see you in our next one.
Bye guys.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
The title doubles as the spoken opening line: a direct, almost dare-like question aimed at anyone who has quietly stopped believing their channel will ever pay off.
Frameworks
Named ideas worth stealing.
01:54list
The Delusion Audit
Part 1: Pull your receipts
Part 2: Find the root cause
Part 3: Make the decision (find your big why)
A 3-part written exercise for diagnosing why a creator keeps quitting projects and deciding to follow through this time.
Steal fora coaching funnel lead magnet structured as a 3-part self-audit worksheet
12:12concept
Self-verification theory
People seek out feedback that confirms their existing self-belief, even when that belief is negative, because confirmation feels safer than change.
Steal forframing why audiences self-sabotage right as success starts, useful for mindset-coaching pitches
11:04concept
The fresh start effect
Katherine Milkman's research finding that people are far more likely to pursue a goal right after a symbolic new beginning than mid-effort.
Steal fortiming a product launch or course open around a calendar 'fresh start' moment
17:14concept
Affect labeling
Matthew Lieberman's brain-scan research showing that putting a fear into words calms the brain's fear response.
Steal forscripting a 'name your fear' step into an onboarding flow or worksheet
CTA Breakdown
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
26:21product
“If you guys want the worksheet, get it down below. And if you're ready to act on your decision, we're running a free five-day YouTube challenge.”
Soft CTA for the free guide repeated early (t=146) tied directly to the exercise being taught, then restated with the live challenge pitch at the very end. No hard sell mid-video.
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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 creator who nearly quit during a six-month subscriber slide explains the two habits that saved his channel: judging the process instead of the outcome, and monetizing years earlier than he thought he was allowed to.
A viewer posted daily, got more views and more sales, and still felt worse about the work. Here's the reframe and the two tools that fix it without adding a single extra minute.
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