13:13Gabe Bult - The Process · Talking Head
How I Run 3 Channels in 5 Hours a Week
A creator running three YouTube channels opens his own analytics to show why the channel with the most subscribers makes the least money per view.
September 24thThe argument in one line.
YouTube success depends less on production quality than on understanding why a specific viewer clicks, trusts you, and keeps watching, and on believing you deserve to be watched.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A new or small-channel creator who keeps polishing editing and color grading but can't explain why people would click on the video in the first place.
- Someone running or planning a channel in a transactional niche such as product reviews who needs to know how that differs from a personality-driven channel.
- A creator who struggles with imposter syndrome and wants a concrete way to earn the right to teach a topic.
SKIP IF…
- You want a technical editing, lighting, or camera walkthrough; the video barely touches production craft.
- You already run a large channel with tested title and thumbnail systems and want advanced analytics.
The full version, fast.
Gabe Bult says the best YouTube channels are built on psychology, not production quality. Before each video he asks why someone would watch and what emotion they should leave with, because a transactional product-review viewer and a relationship-driven main-channel viewer need different titles, tone, and length. He then gives three packaging and credibility rules: put curiosity in the title and thumbnail, make the video understandable to a 'drunk grandma' in half a second, and give viewers an early reason to trust you. The last and biggest factor is yourself: do real things, report back, and commit for two to three years.
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00:00 – 00:24
01 · Cold open: why did you click?
Quality isn't what drove your last click or purchase; psychology is.
00:24 – 03:20
02 · Why do I care? Viewer motive and emotion
A relationship channel and a transactional sauna review channel serve opposite viewer psychologies, and the questions he asks before every video.
03:20 – 04:42
03 · Sponsor: Storyblocks
Sponsor read for human-made stock media with a 15% annual plan discount.
04:42 – 06:36
04 · Make them curious
Curiosity in titles and thumbnails, and baking a named rule into each video.
06:36 – 08:54
05 · The drunk grandma effect
Keep packaging dead simple, with the fresh bread sign as the example.
08:54 – 09:59
06 · Give them a reason to trust you
State the credibility that earns the watch, early.
09:59 – 11:15
07 · Understand yourself
Most people quit because they don't believe anyone should listen; do real things and report back.
11:15 – 11:55
08 · Commit long term and CTA
Commit two to three years, then a pitch for the free monetization masterclass.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- You never knew how long the last video you clicked took to edit or what color grade it used, so production quality is rarely why a click happens.
- A product-review channel can earn hundreds of thousands of views with about 1,500 subscribers because its viewers are transactional and don't care who the creator is.
- The same video can be framed as inspirational or tactical, and that single choice changes the title, the music, and the structure.
- Whether you sell a high-ticket product or run affiliate offers decides how much relationship you need to build in the video.
- A title with no curiosity and a thumbnail that repeats it gives the viewer nothing to itch about, so it probably won't be clicked.
- Baking a named rule (the 90/90 rule, the 24-hour rule) into every video gives you a curiosity-driven thumbnail and title for free.
- If a drunk grandma couldn't tell what your video is about, a clever play on words in the title is hurting you.
- A bread sign reading 'The Bread Basket' loses to 'Fresh Bread' with an arrow, because viewers decide yes or no in half a second.
- Experts fail at titles by using insider terminology that new viewers have never heard.
- If you can't state your video's point in half a line, you can't package it in a title and thumbnail either.
- Viewers need a reason to trust you in the first seconds, such as seven years on YouTube or a hundred books read on the topic.
- Most people quit because of their own psychology, not the algorithm: they don't believe anyone should listen to them.
- If nobody should listen to your book review because you've read three books, read a hundred and then make the video.
- Do a real thing in the real world and report back what you learned; that is the source of videos that are worth watching.
- Expect two to three years of commitment, because even the best new creators rarely succeed in the first month.
Click, trust, and belief are all psychology
WHAT TO LEARN
Production quality is table stakes; why a particular viewer clicks, trusts, and stays, plus whether you believe you deserve the attention, decides whether a channel works.
02Why do I care? Viewer motive and emotion
- Identify the viewer's motive first: a person solving a purchase problem and a person hanging out with a creator they know need different titles, tone, and video length.
- Choose the emotion you want the viewer to leave with, because inspired and educated versions of the same content change the music, title, and structure.
- Decide how the video earns money before you make it, since high-ticket offers need relationship building and affiliate links don't.
04Make them curious
- Put a curiosity gap in the title and thumbnail, such as a named rule like the 90/90 rule, so the viewer has an itch only the video scratches.
05The drunk grandma effect
- Run the drunk grandma test on every title: if an outsider couldn't tell what it's about in half a second, replace the clever phrasing with something basic.
- Avoid insider terminology and plays on words when you are trying to reach new viewers outside your niche.
06Give them a reason to trust you
- Give viewers an early, specific reason to trust you, such as years of experience or the number of books you've read on the topic.
07Understand yourself
- If you don't think anyone should listen to you, do the real thing first, report back what you learned, and commit for two to three years.
Terms worth knowing.
- Drunk grandma effect
- A clarity test for titles and thumbnails: if a distracted person with no context couldn't tell what the video is about, the packaging is too clever or too insider.
- Packaging
- The title and thumbnail of a video, which together decide whether someone clicks.
- Transactional channel
- A channel whose viewers come to solve one specific problem, such as deciding on a purchase, and have no interest in following the creator.
- Curiosity hook
- A title or thumbnail element that raises a question the viewer can only answer by watching, such as a named rule or a counterintuitive claim.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
00:00
“You didn't know the color grading. You didn't know the music. So what made you click on that video?”
07:42
“How can we dumb this down more? You're probably an expert in your field.”
09:59
“If you don't believe that anybody should listen to you, what type of person would they listen to? Become that person.”
Word for word.
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If you think about the last video that you clicked on, you didn't know how long that video took to edit. You didn't know the color grading. You didn't know the music, the background.
So what made you click on that video? The same thing happens with the last purchase that you made. What makes a good YouTube channel is not always the quality of the video.
What I think is actually more important is understanding psychology. One of the first things I think you really need to understand is this idea I call like... Why do I care?
Why does somebody care to watch you? If you start with this question, why is somebody going to watch this video? It changes everything about the video.
Like for instance, when somebody's watching a main channel video on my channel, they're going to be there for a little bit of me because they built a relationship with me because I've made hundreds of videos. It's a little bit of that. just like kind of hanging out with a friend.
They're to be inspired, they're to be educated a little bit, and then slightly they're there for some entertainment. So those are kind of the main components that I am trying to sell on my main channel. However, if we go to my third channel, which is a sauna and cold plunge review channel, they don't give a crap about me.
They literally don't care about me at all. They are there to solve a very specific problem. Should I buy the sauna or the cold plunge that I'm thinking about buying right now?
Maybe I saw Instagram ads and then I went to YouTube and I was like, just typed in, you know, is the sauna box worth it? And before I make that purchase, just I want a real person to tell me that it's worth it or not worth it or their honest feedback, right?
So the psychology of those two people are 100 % different and therefore the title structure is going to change, the thumbnail structure is going to change, how I talk in the video, the length of the video, the tonality. Like when I'm doing a product review video, for example, I... i'm not gonna add personal stories i'm not gonna try to add humor like a little bit of stuff but like i'm not gonna try that much because nobody's gonna follow that channel nobody's gonna subscribe to me that's why it has hundreds of thousands of views and like 1500 subscribers because nobody gives a crap it's a very transactional channel right and so this is something that a lot of people don't think about when you're starting a small channel is what is the reason what is the psychology behind the person who is clicking on this video if you're there to teach them something versus hang out versus day in the life vlog versus inspiration like all of those things are going to change the structure of what you're talking about even the way that you make money is going to change how you hook people into your videos which is very very interesting and i find this very fun so before making each video i always ask myself a couple questions one is going to be why would somebody watch this video what is the reason that they're going to watch this
and that'll help me structure something right next up is what emotion do i want somebody to feel during or walk away from this video with do i want them to feel inspired do i want them to feel like they learned something like be educated i guess i want them to just be like hey that was a good time i had a good feeling i was entertained i was wanted to zone out and i zoned out like what is the feeling that is going to be in this video that's not going to be put into words this is going to be that feeling and this will change again so much of the video will change the music choices that i make it'll change the title from like seven steps to change your life to if you're feeling behind and like watch this those could be the exact same videos but one of those videos is inspirational and one of them is more tactical and then again that's going to change a lot of the structure of the video itself and then am i going to sell some type of high ticket product i want to position myself as an expert but build a relationship with people do i just want affiliates in which case i don't need to build that relationship as much i just want to drive people to that it's like a lot of those things are things you have to think through the the small aspects as you're making your video and that leads us to
the sponsor of this video, Storyblocks. If there's one thing that will kill your video, it is having bad quality. Especially right now, if people see AI slop, they hear annoying music, or it's just not very visually appealing, that can be a huge disconnect.
And that's why I love Storyblocks. I've been using them for years. They're one of the only sponsors I've ever worked with on this channel.
And it's because they have 100 % human -made media. We're talking B -roll, a lot of the B -roll that I use. in music, sound effects, images, anything you need to make higher quality content, Storyblocks has.
And it's not like a bunch of different subscriptions. I used to do that where I'd have like different subscriptions all over. With Storyblocks, it's all one set price and you know it's all handmade.
You know it's all made by humans and it's going to be quality. Plus you get unlimited downloads and there's over 10 million different assets. One thing that I especially love is that they have pre -made customizable templates for a lot of the top editing software.
So this can be a really easy way to just instantly up the quality of your videos. And while their footage is all real, they do have some new AI tools, which can really help you just streamline your workflow and just get things done faster, which is super duper cool while they're searching for stuff or just doing some quick edits.
You can get 15 % off an annual plan with the link down in the description. And thank you to Storyblocks for sponsoring this video. Make them curious about something.
Generally... Some of the best videos have this curiosity hook in it, right? It'll be why boring videos are taking over YouTube.
Why are boring? That seems to not make sense to most people. It's kind of controversial to say that boring videos take off.
And that's why one of the videos I did recently did very well with that title is because it is telling people that the thing that they're not normally told is the best thing to do. fact so it's true and so whenever you're making your title and thumbnail in particular or like your whole structure you always have to again ask that question whether you're doing a day in the life vlog whether you're doing something like honio does where it's like i took you know the cheapest and most expensive flights or whatever or you're doing something like i do eight steps to completely change your life you're always asking what are those little things that i can put in there that makes people it gives them like the itch because generally when people click on a video it's because they're like huh wonder if that's gonna solve my problem wonder if that's gonna entertain me what is better five star or six stars what are the eight steps to change your life like you're always asking that curiosity so if you have no curiosity in your title or thumbnail probably not gonna work and that's one of the reasons on the thumbnails that i've been doing you might see this on my main channel gonna say number number
rule so be like 90 90 rule the seven day rule the 24 hour rule like whatever it is and those are things that we actually bake into the videos that i make sure that i mention some type of rule in every video so that i can put that in the title or in the thumbnail so that when people see a thumbnail they are curious what is the 90 90 rule and so that me knowing that a number and a rule work well in my niche of youtube helps me change the structure of my video so that i can get that thumbnail if that makes sense so again if you have no curiosity If you're just like over explaining or repeating yourself in your packaging, it's not going to drive any of that curiosity.
You need that. It's like a whole self -sustaining system thing. By the way, if you're getting any value out of this, feel free to subscribe.
It is completely free. And I try to offer a lot of value from what I've learned on the last seven years of YouTube on here for free. So yeah.
thank you the next thing you need to understand about psychology on youtube is what i call the drunk grandma effect i don't know who i heard this from but pretty much what i go with is does a drunk grandma understand what this video is about if you don't even know what the heck the video is that you're making and when you title and structure it it's like some fancy play on words or something stupid like that it's not gonna do good okay i've done that made that mistake it needs to be very basic i think a good example of this not even youtube related my wife selling bread right so she made a sign to sell bread called like the bakery or the bread bakery something like that the bread basket that's what it was called and then she put that sign out and i was like a drunk grandma is not going to understand that you were selling fresh bread in that direction so i was like literally just call it fresh bread with an arrow pointing that way and i think it'll do better than something called the bread basket that's all fancy but it doesn't have an arrow
it doesn't say that this fresh homemade bread on it like so always think about like what's how can we dumb this down how can we dumb this down more how can we dumb this down more because you're probably an expert in your field i've seen somebody have like oh i have an adhd channel and this is some word that's very common in adhd and whatever i've never heard of that before so if you're trying to attract new people you can't use insider terminology you can't use play on words you can't use a title structure that makes sense to you but nobody else knows what you're talking about so you always have to ask that like how can i make this more simple how can i be sure like what's the video about if you can't tell me in like half a line this video is to help people understand the psychology that will make them successful on youtube that's what this video is about how can i convey that in the title and thumbnail in the simplest possible way if your video is not that clear if it's not that dumbed down it's probably not going to do well right so it needs to be very very simple so that a kid can understand it so that a drunk grandma can understand it because when people are scrolling through youtube they're just registering for like half a second they're just like decide yes or no it's like boop boop
like that's how much time you had and if it's too complex they just zone you right out so it has to have that curiosity aspect and then also be very easy to understand next up you have to give them a reason to trust you whether you were doing a product review you are teaching something you are entertaining something you have to share with your audience at the beginning a reason to trust you so when i start a lot of videos i'll be like i've been on youtube for seven years i have a successful channel with almost a million subscribers and this is what i've learned about the psychology of youtube i probably should have used that as a hook for this video but just that right there gives me instant credibility because i talk about my past when i talk about minimalism i've been a minimalist for seven years i just started decluttering my life last month it can be anything whether you're early on or later on what is the reason they should trust you i've read a hundred books on money and these are the three that have changed my life but like what is the reason that somebody should
trust you and should watch your video over somebody else's this is something you have to vie for you have to try to get and if you're not clear on why somebody should listen to you they're not going to listen to you you're just like oh thanks for watching my videos i'm pretty bad at this right now but like no nobody's gonna watch it what gives you the authority to teach something to learn something maybe that authority is that i'm open and honest about sharing my own journey with this but what is the before and after what is the reason people should trust you because if you don't tell them if you don't make that clear to them they're not going to trust you and i think the most important psychological factor that you need to understand about youtube is yourself most people won't start they won't be successful they will give up because of their own psychology because they don't believe they can do it because they don't believe anybody should listen to them because they don't you know think that they have the skills to do it whatever it is there's a million reasons why you can convince yourself that youtube's not going to work you can convince yourself of almost anything if you think about it enough and so if you don't believe that anybody should listen to you what type of person would they listen to become that person if nobody should listen to your book review because you've only read three books and you don't really know what you're talking about read a hundred books and then go to so like i'm a big fan of like do things in the real world learn from them implement them into your own life and then share
that thing whether that's in an entertainment space i went and did a real world thing and i shared my experience about the world's worst cruise that is how you get that video whether it's the you know 20 lessons that saved me my first hundred thousand dollars that was me going and actually doing a real thing and then just reporting back about what i learned from that real thing so if you feel that imposter syndrome go do more stuff in the real world make yourself into somebody that other people want to be like that has done stuff that other people haven't done or shared the journey of you doing those things either one of those are going to be great if you don't have the skills get the skills learn the skills pay to learn the skills pay somebody else to do the skills that's also okay and if you're not going to commit to this for two to three years i would say just quit right now there's zero chance i've seen very few people start and then immediately have success in the first month
first three months and the first six months like some people do at six months but it takes a while to learn how to talk on camera to edit to learn title structure hook like like all that it just takes time so commit to it for a long term and if you can get your brain in that situation then you can have a lot of success if you want to learn exactly how i make money on youtube i have multiple six -figure channels that run in five hours a week i'm teaching a free master class you can join the link down below.
I'll answer all your questions at the end and break down how I've made. I think we're closing in on $50 ,000 from a channel with 1500 subscribers. That is just a normal channel that anybody could do.
So if you're interested in that, feel free to join and I'll see you next week.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Gabe Bult opens by asking you to recall the last video you clicked and admit you had no idea how it was edited, graded, or scored. His claim is that the click happened for a psychological reason, and the rest of the video is a checklist for finding yours.
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:00list
Pre-video psychology questions
- Why would someone watch this video?
- What emotion should they feel during or after?
- How will this video make money (high-ticket, affiliate, none)?
Three questions asked before each video that drive title, music, tone, structure, and monetization.
Steal forplanning any video
06:37concept
The drunk grandma effect
If a distracted outsider couldn't tell what the video is about from the packaging, simplify it until they could.
Steal fortitles and thumbnails
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
11:20product
“I have multiple six-figure channels that run in five hours a week. I'm teaching a free master class.”
Soft pitch at the end with a proof claim (about $50,000 from a 1,500-subscriber channel), after an earlier mid-video subscribe ask.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
