An ancient Chinese proverb says, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” That’s why, to gain 100k subs, all you need to do is go plant a Sony Camera in the ground, water it with the happy tears of a squirrel, and bam, 100k subs. Well, that’s it. Thank you so much for reading…

The best time to start a YouTube channel is today. Imagine you could wake up and say, “I can do whatever I want to do today,” That is possible with a YouTube channel. If you want to travel, achieve financial freedom, meet your YouTube idols, or simply be able to take a random Tuesday off, having a successful YouTube channel can help you find freedom.

However, most people are doing this all wrong, like I was.

Pillar I: Zone of Leverage

For years, I thought about making a YouTube channel but I was overwhelmed with the options and fear of being laughed at. What’s my niche? How do I edit videos? How do I get more views and subscribers? All you need to do is start, and I’m going to show you exactly how to because it changed my life.

When I finally seriously started, when I was all in, I did 3-months of the hardest work I’ve ever done, all while studying 60 hours a week in medical school. The first month, I had zero views and subs. In the second month, 10,000, and in the third month, I hit 100,000 subs. What changed from month 1 to month 3? I didn’t know it at the time, but it actually was very simple. My content delivered what the YouTube algorithm wanted, so I got millions of views and thousands of subs. Let me show you how to do it, too, by finding a Zone of leverage, creating your Bio one-liner, making high-value videos, and staying consistent.

Find your Zone of Leverage

(from my book SoloTuber)

Your common knowledge isn’t common knowledge to others.

We want to discover what we care about, what we know about, and what other people care about.

In The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks says there are four zones:

1. Zone of Incompetence: where other people can do it better than you (like flying a plane).
2. Zone of Competence: where other people can do as well as you (like driving a car).
3. Zone of Excellence: where you are better than most people at it (like if you are a chef, cooking).
4. Zone of Genius: something you are uniquely good at and you love to do so that time and space disappear when you do them (this is flow; for example, you are a writer and have a unique and interesting writing style, and you love to write).

Personally, I found the “Zone of Genius” a bit intimidating. Also, what if I was great at underwater basketweaving?

MAYBE a select few people on earth would be interested in it, but probably not many.

I prefer to look for a Zone of Leverage. A thing that you are obsessed with that you could be very good at (or already are) that people would actually care about.

Importantly, I said “could,” right? That’s because, over time, if you commit and you really like it, you will inevitably get good at it. It’s virtually impossible, for example, to spend 4 hours a day rock climbing for a year and not be better at it by the end of the year.

How to discover your Zone of Leverage:

1. Info-IN Analysis: the last ten things you watched, read, talked to a friend about, or listened to. Pay careful attention to anything that you “lose track of time” doing and activities that energize you as opposed to draining you (You fail “The Vampire Test,” something I just invented, if after the activity you feel drained, like a vampire just sucked the life out of you).
2. Subconscious Analysis: Write down the last ten things you thought about while doing a menial task: washing the dishes, showering, walking, or driving.
3. Info-OUT Analysis: Think about the last time someone asked YOU for guidance. Write down five things. What comes much easier to you than others? What are your effortless skills? Write down five things. What have you been doing your entire life or have extended experience in? Or what is your professional life? Is this raising children, working at a restaurant or hotel, or cooking? Write down five things. Now you should have 15 things! Overlap is okay!
4. Moosh them together: You should have around 35 niches (or topics) you could go into at this point! Now, I want you to narrow down to the ones that overlap (where things are on the Info-IN analysis, subconscious analysis, and Info-OUT analysis) and then narrow them down even more to what is the most exciting for you. Try to only pick 3. Which topics could you write a 1,000-word essay about every week for the next 3 years?

My overlap was studying, wellness, health, and making YouTube videos. I love sci-fi books, playing soccer, and traveling; however, no one ever asks me for advice about those things, and I don’t have much experience in those things. Studying, health, wellness, and making YouTube videos, however, I love, but also countless people have asked me for tips and tricks and strategies for those things, so I talk about them, like what I’m doing right now!

Ok, you aren’t allowed to move on with this video until you select your three topics. If you keep watching, I will murder a baby seal. Seriously, you didn’t think they lived in Pennsylvania? Well you are wrong! Look! I found Jimmy! A baby seal will die, thanks to you, if you don’t pick your topics!

Congratulations, you have found your three topics!! That wasn’t too hard, right?

Once you have your three topics, how do we start to discuss them? First, we need to understand the importance of developing your unique voice.

Pillar II: Find your Voice

In one of my favorite books, Show Your Work, Austin Kleon says, [SG1] [zhg2] “Forget about being an expert or a professional and wear your amateurism (your heart, your love) on your sleeve.”⁴ Share what you love, and those who love the same things will find you.

I have polarizing views that I share regularly! I quit medicine (you should have seen the onslaught of Reddit comments and YouTube comments I received), I sell things on the internet (people hate that), and I talk about both things because I am so passionate about them (people double hate that). But guess what, people also double-love me. I’d take that any day over a lukewarm reaction.

Many people on the internet said I was selfish, a quitter, and didn’t make the right decision, but guess what? When I started posting about these things, I got more kindness and good wishes than ever before. Why? Because the internet is smarter than you think! They understand authenticity vs. fakeness.

The internet, or people, want to hear what you truly think. They really care about you! The nay-sayers will leave you, but who wants them anyway? And guess what? Many nay-sayers still follow my content and, even crazier, buy from me!

Importantly, share only what interests you about your topics and leave out the rest at your discretion. Is it too private? Leave it out. Involving a family member? Leave it out. Boring and irrelevant to your topic? Leave it out. For example, what is your favorite hummus recipe? Actually, sorry, please stop talking because I don’t care (unless you are a Cheftuber).

When people click on your content, they may want to hear a little bit about your life, but 90% of the time, they want to hear your opinion and teachings on the topic.

They want to hear your opinion. Your tools and tricks and tactics. What you learned. How you got better. How you made more money. How you became healthier. How you learned to save baby seals from an early demise.

“What are you working on?’ Stick to that question, and you’ll be good. Don’t show your lunch or your latte; show your work.

Austin Kleon

Really, just add value to the world consistently, and it’s impossible to fail.

Once you start adding value consistently by publishing weekly or every other week videos, you need a Bio-One-Liner so people know who you are! 

When I was working as a doctor, the very first sentence I said about a patient, no matter their condition, was the one-liner, and it was the most important.

“This is a 46-year-old male with a past medical history of heart disease, diabetes, smoking, and cancer who presented to the emergency room 1 hour ago with chest pain.”

Even if you aren’t in the medical profession at all, you probably can have a good idea of what is going on with this 46-year-old guy, right (likely an issue with his heart)?

You want to be able to do the same for yourself!

If someone watches your YouTube video, and because you blew them away with the video that took you 40 hours to make, they want to learn more about you and, lucky you, they click on your profile. The worst thing that could happen is that they are so confused or lost that they click away!

You want them to easily understand what you do in 5 seconds or less so they can subscribe to your channel or email list or buy something from you. What will the viewer gain from interacting with your content and products? We need an elevator pitch on steroids because people on the internet have the attention span of half a goldfish.

The person on the internet’s first thoughts, in order, are:

1. “How are you going to get me what I want?”
2. “Who are you?”
3. “What do you do?”

You cannot explain to others why they should watch or buy from you if you can’t explain yourself in one sentence. Specificity helps, but, more importantly, be clear and easy to understand.

Bios are not the place to practice your creativity. We all like to think we’re more complex than a two-sentence explanation, but a two-sentence explanation is usually what the world wants from us. Keep it short and sweet. Strike all the adjectives from your bio. If you take photos, you’re not an “aspiring” photographer, and you’re not an “amazing” photographer, either. You’re a photographer. Don’t get cute. Don’t brag. Just state the facts. – Austin Kleon

Ok, let’s create yours. In the end, it should look something like this:

I help people _________, I’m ________ (proof – if you have it).

If you teach people programming or piano, I’m guessing you likely have some experience doing that, right? Are you a pianist? A developer? Say you are a pianist, not “I dibble-dabble with the clicky-clacky keys that make nice noisy-noise.”

What Actually Matters for the Algorithm

It’s not the algorithm. It’s not the algorithm. It’s not the algorithm. Your content likely just isn’t good enough (sorry). It’s not titles (sorry) and it’s not thumbnails (sorry).

The thing the Algorithm cares about most is keeping people on YouTube. The more people stay on YouTube, the more it helps the company YouTube, so that’s what the algorithm is built to optimize for #1. That’s why the actual most important part of your video is your script and the actual content of your video.

To prove it to you, the biggest YouTuber of all time, Mr. Beast, revealed one of his retention graphs (essentially how long people stay watching YouTube). One video had about 10 Million views, and another had 30 million views. Can you guess which is which?

Because the second video kept people watching for 1 minute and 39 seconds longer, it had 3x the views. Think about that. If you could keep people watching your video for just 90 seconds longer, you could triple your views!

How do you keep people watching longer? Just make better videos. Seriously, make the best videos you possibly can. What video would you keep watching? What would be interesting to you? There are about 3 billion active users on YouTube a month or 50% of the online population. I’m sure there is someone who is interested in the same things as you.

Maximize your value / second, and you will maximize your chances of becoming a massive YouTuber. 

Making better YouTube videos is a huge topic, but, usually including a story of some kind that will be beneficial to improving retention. Instead of just vomiting information out, make it somewhat personal with a character (yourself) or a character (someone else). Notice how I started this video talking about myself? 

Other ways to structure your script:

1. Basic Story: Background (30 seconds, what is our character’s baseline), conflict/main story (2-20 minutes, what challenges happened?), resolution (90 seconds)
   • I tried waking up at 5 am for 30 days. I wanted to be more productive, but it was so HARD! So I used x,y, and z, and by the end, I accomplished more than I ever thought possible, etc.
2. Listicle: create a list! One of my favorites
   • 10 ways to sleep better (Item #1, item #2, so on…)
3. 3&3: 3 main bullets, each has three sub-bullets (9 items total)
   • How to be more productive: main point 1 – prioritize (use the Eisenhower matrix, 80/20 rule, create a to-do list), main point 2 – manage distractions (analyze your environment, eliminate distractions, maintain focus), main point 3… etc.
4. Tutorial: step 1… step 2… step 3… step 4…
   • (For example, when building a website, step 1 would be finding a hosting platform, step 2 would be installing WordPress, etc.)

Now, briefly, of course, the Title and Thumbnail matter, but what’s more important is delivering on the Title and thumbnail instantly. 

Imagine you click on a video that says, “I survived in a tree for 1 month!” and it’s a thumbnail of someone in a tree looking tired and scared; not a bad video, huh? I would click that! But now imagine, instead, you click it, and then the video has no one in a tree! It’s just a person talking about their favorite flavor of ice cream.

Are you going to keep watching? No! Are you going to be angry and probably never click on this person’s video again because they wasted your time? Yes! Is that person delivering value? Nope! They are lying.

Now, this made-up person likely made the same mistake most NewTubers make (“NewTubers” is a subreddit with a lot of great information; all it means is “New YouTubers”).

NewTubers have a decent content idea, so think of the title and thumbnail after they make the content! The reason this is bad is because NewTubers often try to sensationalize their titles after the video is posted, so people click this more sensational title, but they don’t deliver during the content of the video. Tanking the watch duration, YouTube doesn’t suggest their videos as much, people don’t click as much, and people don’t watch as much. And the NewTuber is flabbergasted about why their video doesn’t have more views!

This is a FATAL error for most beginner YouTubers.

Titles and Thumbnails are developed first. The script comes after to make sure you always meet the viewers’ expectations in your videos.

Before you record anything, make sure the title is typed and done and that the thumbnail image idea is written down somewhere. This is critical to your YouTube success.

For example, Mr. Beast might plan his YT Titles first thing on Monday, design the thumbnail on Tuesday, and record new videos from Wednesday to Friday. He does this because knowing what someone will click on lets you deliver the ultimate value and keep them watching and happy with your content.

Now, imagine if you saw a video titled “I go for a 10-minute walk in the woods,” and the thumbnail is a picture of someone walking in the woods. Then, for literally 10 minutes, someone is walking through the woods in the video. Now, would you click on that video? Probably not; it sounds boring, BUT if someone did click on that video, and that person is interested in someone walking through the woods (which is why they clicked on it), they will likely watch the video for very long and be very happy with it!

That video is delivering exactly what they wanted.

So, come up with your video idea first, then the title and thumbnail, so then you can plan your content to match the “interesting” title and thumbnail. Some quick title and thumbnail tips:

Title Tips

• Look at other prominent YouTubers in your space and see what titles have worked well for them.
• Remember, all viewers care about is “What value will I get after clicking this?” Answer that question in the title.
• How BIG is the impact? Will you give them six-pack abs? Help them sleep better? Clear their brain from junk (if you are a meditation pro)? “How I went from skinny to swole in 5 months.”
• Include a #, “10 steps to save your marriage in 1 month,” “How I scored better than 99% of my classmates,” and “7 tips to lose weight FAST without sacrificing your favorite foods.”
• Use emotions. Mr. Beast nearly always uses the words “Insane, Unbelievable, Crazy, or Ultimate” in his titles. “The Ultimate All-nighter Challenge” will work better than “I decided to stay up all night once.”
• Use a curiosity gap, so instead of saying, “I read book X, book y, and book z, and they helped me get smarter,” say, “3 Books that dramatically improved my grades.”
• Sell the result in the shortest amount of time, tell a crazy story, reveal something, and break the mold.

Thumbnail Tips

• Connect it with the Title, so, for example, if you are talking about the best cup of coffee in the world, maybe you are drinking out of a coffee cup, looking really happy, and changing the color of the coffee in the cup to gold. At the same time, you have an image of a big coffee bean with a question mark and arrow pointing to it. This adds a curiosity gap because people want to know what coffee bean makes the best cup of coffee! Or the gap is the store, or country, or whatever!
• YouTube now lets you do a/b/c testing. Make sure to have three thumbnails for every video, and YouTube will select the best one for you.
• Use five words or less in the thumbnail.
• Try to include a curiosity gap.
• Have a closed mouth (according to Mr. Beast)
• The image must be bright and well-lit. If it were small on your phone and you were looking at it from two feet away, could you imagine what would happen?
• Your face should be in most thumbnails and include emotion.
• Before and after transformations work well. Just do a 50/50 split with two images and a line between them. The image is included below.
• Use contrast and color psychology. Bright colors like red, yellow, and blue work well. Contrasting colors (like blue vs. orange; look at the color wheel; colors opposite each other) also work well.
• When in doubt, minimalism wins.

Ok, I’m not going to talk about lighting, audio, and production quality because you can google that stuff and find that elsewhere. Essentially, it’s not as important, in fact nowhere near important, as the actual content of your video, but it can help. Ali Abdaal talks about “stacking the deck,” and the higher production quality you have, the easier it will be to gain viewership on YouTube, but if you have uninteresting content, even a 1 million dollar setup won’t help you.

Finally, let’s talk about the main reason I actually did well: I stuck to it.

Pillar III: Play the long game

Consistency is king. 

Consistently add value to the world and impossible to fail.

When I first started publishing, no one watched my videos. Still, I focused on learning something and improving after every video, publishing once a week, and studying at least 40 hours a week, usually 60, to become a doctor. How did big YouTubers set up their lighting? What was the organization of their videos? How am I going to get this video out by this Friday at 12 pm, when am I scripting? When am I recording the B roll?

The greatest teacher is experience. I planned to make a YouTube channel for two years, until one day, I decided I was just going to post every Friday for the next year. That decision changed my life, and I learned more in the first month of posting YouTube videos than I did in those 2 years of “preparing.” 

Analysis paralysis hits us all. Break the cycle!

The most important thing for you right now is to get the reps in. Post, post, post. You will, inevitably, learn as you go.

Live Life

Finally, the reason YouTube changed my life is because it gave me the freedom to do basically whatever I wanted. I quit medicine. I traveled around the world. I’ve taken the past 6 months to do nothing except the things I want to do! It’s the first time ever I’ve had no job, commitment, or anything, and it’s amazing. I get to wake up and say, “I can do whatever I want today,” and that’s the best feeling in the world.

Summary

Ok, so what are we going to do?

• Find our zone of leverage
• Create our Bio One-Liner
• Focus on delivering amazing value
• Come up with titles and thumbnails first before we script our videos
• Publish consistently (and now)
• And make sure to integrate balance into your life, take breaks, relax, and don’t exhaust yourself because the whole point of starting your channel is to have some more happiness and freedom in your life, right? I mean, you saved two baby Seal’s lives. That’s a pretty good start.

Thanks for reading!

Zach