The Future of YouTube (Do This In 2026) transcript

You know, technically, this Airbnb is a business expense because my life is my business. >> [music] >> If you were trying to grow on YouTube in 2026, this may be the most important video that you watch. I've been on YouTube for 7 years and I have not seen YouTube change as much as it has in the past couple months. And seeing the direction that it is going, I think now has been one of the easiest times to grow on YouTube.

Maybe not to explode, but to actually like make money on YouTube. I don't think it's been an easier time. And I feel like I'm in a unique place to say this because I have a channel with 700,000 subscribers. I have this one that you're on now. And I have another channel with just a couple hundred subscribers. And like I don't want to brag or anything, but like I make decent money in almost every way that you can on YouTube.

[music] And I have seen this firsthand take some major shifts. And so in this video, I want to break down some of those shifts that you can take advantage of them and not be left behind. Feel like the camera's slightly higher than it should be. First off, uh subscribers don't matter anymore. They used to matter a lot. They don't matter at all, really. That's why instead of trying to take advantage of my main channel with 700,000 people on it to talk about YouTube stuff what I'm into, I just started a new channel.

It doesn't matter. If you make a good video, literally the first video on a brand new channel can do good. Like this video and this video. Brand new channels, they pop off. One of my students literally took a couple years off, came back using the same processes that I do. Two of her top videos ever after years off pop off because systems matter [music] more. Interest-based videos matter more. What does not matter is if Oh, you took a break, you can't have any success.

She went from 500 subs to 2,500 in a week. What matters now is interest and your individual video. Anybody can pop off. I'm not going to lie, though. There is this advantage of having subscribers where like once you have a million subscribers, 5 million subscribers, you can just upload a blank screen. You can do things that other people can't do and you're just going to have some [music] level of success just because people have known you for that long.

But as a new creator, there's nothing holding you back from getting to that point in the future. There's nothing holding back your next video from making a thousand dollars, from making ten thousand dollars, from getting ten thousand views. Anybody can do this and I've seen it time and time again and it's literally just math. So, that is the first thing is that subscribers no longer matter. You have the most advantage I've ever seen on YouTube right now to pop off and show up next to people who are at a million subscribers.

Your video could show up right next to them if you make a good high-quality video that is interest-based, which means that the people care about it. Like I love this example. I made this video a while ago called Why I'm So Frugal. Literally everybody in my niche copied that video and every single one of them got hundreds of thousands of views, thousands [music] and thousands of dollars just based on the interest of this topic.

And every one of them, no matter what their channel size, got one of their best videos ever based on that topic. That was a cool topic. And I have nothing against any of them. That's kind of how this space works. If somebody's going to offer you a free few thousand dollars and top video you've ever done, all you need to do is talk about a topic that people are interested in that has been talked about before, would you do it?

Absolutely. But I think that's like a cool example that anybody can have the success, not just me [music] because I had a base, but any of those people could also have that same success. And a lot of them actually passed me. They had more views than me with less subscribers because maybe they made better videos or just people like resonated with them more or whatever it was. But if you talk about interesting topics, you can actually beat bigger creators at their own game even as a small creator who people don't know about.

And sometimes that's even an advantage. So, um yeah. Next up is that shorts have really changed the game. [music] However, they have also destroyed so many channels. And I think this is something that people are starting to realize now. When shorts really became popular, everybody was posting a ton of shorts. It's an easy [music] way to get views. Let's say you have 100 subscribers, you post a long-form video, it gets 30 views, you post a short, it [music] gets 500 views.

You're like, "Dang, I should post more shorts. They get way more views, right?" Well, those subscribers are pretty much worthless. I've had friends leave 500k sub channels because they're all shorts. And with half a million subscribers, they can't get a thousand people to watch a long-form video because it's all short subscribers where you make no money. The sponsorships are much less. There's no longevity to those videos.

And so while they can be cool if that's your strategy, if your goal is to make a lot of money with a small channel, shorts are not the way. And I think people are really waking up to this strategy now of making hyper-targeted videos for very specific [music] people and having a way to make money off of that. You never used to be able to make as much money as you can now, but because so many [music] people are on YouTube and they all have specific problems, right?

They come to YouTube, second largest search engine, to solve a problem. How do I fix this? How do I learn piano? How do I fix my MacBook? How do I start learning coding? How do I learn AI? How do I grow my YouTube channel? Whatever it is, right? People are searching that. People are there to educate themselves. There's also the entertainment side, which is totally [music] fine, but that's not what I specialize in. But like for the education side, it has never been this big for [music] education before.

It's continually growing. It's taking over uh TV. And if you have a skill that you have, even if it's super duper targeted, [music] very limited skill, very uh interesting experience, you can monetize that like never before. It's never been easier to monetize your skill because you can hyper-target people so much. Like you can hyper-target it all the way down to like if you are in your 30s, you have a full-time job and you want to learn AI automation, then I can teach exactly you how to do that in X amount of time.

Like you can hyper-target people and then even if you only get a few hundred views or a few thousand views, you can get paid for those views because you're hyper-targeting the right people. And I feel like that's just gotten more and more prominent recently. That's how I am able to scale multiple channels to tens [music] to twenty thousand dollars a month even if they have smaller followings. And even people are so sick of the education system in general and just like cheap education that they want to work one-on-one with people.

So, you can teach people piano one-on-one. You could teach people sales. You can teach people so many different things one-on-one. People want mentorship now from real people who know what the heck they're talking about. And this is a great way to test and see if your audience is interested in paying for something. If you already have a business already and you can target people, you can grow a business on YouTube now by targeting exact customers.

And [music] then again, you don't need a ton of views to start growing your business, which is super cool. Now, I want to touch on some of the crazier things that are happening as well. But before that, I think authenticity is one of the biggest shifts in YouTube for 2026. And that is why I personally use Storyblocks. Also the sponsor of this video, the only sponsor I've ever had on this channel cuz I use them all the time and I'm a really big fan of them for a long time.

If you don't know what Storyblocks is, they pretty much have everything you need as a creator all in one place. We're talking about HD and 4K video, music, sound effects, [music] templates, images, everything that you need to make high-quality videos all in one place for one predictable subscription price so that you're not like hopping around between like, "Oh, I got to get music over here. I got to get B-roll over here.

I got to get some of these templates. I got to buy them individually." Like it's everything all in one spot. Best part is unlimited downloads and [music] they are made by real people. They are actually high-quality. They are our real and [music] authentic. So that as you're trying to tell the story, people aren't getting sucked out of it cuz the music's just like kind of like, "Eh, that's kind of rough." Or the B-roll's not like super stock footage looking.

It's actually like made by real people, real creators, you know? So, in this world where everything's pulling more AI, this can make you feel more >> [music] >> uh you know, authentic, more real, more individual. Like I said, I've been using them for years and it saves me hours every week. If you want to get started with unlimited stock media for one set price, check out storyblocks.com/theprocess or click the link down in the description.

And thanks for Storyblocks for sponsoring this video. Another thing is that YouTube is becoming TV. In fact, YouTube is now watched on TV more than Netflix. And when you watch something on your TV, you're not just watching for 5 minutes, you're watching for 30 minutes, right? For 60 minutes, for 2 hours. YouTube is becoming the new TV and it is only growing in that aspect. And that is something that is incredible. So, the days of only needing 10-minute YouTube videos, you don't need to do that anymore.

Actually, I had a a YouTube video where I sat down just like this on my main channel for 29 minutes. I can't talk really long. I'm trying to talk longer, but like that was the longest video I've ever done. I just sat there and talked about something I knew very well. And that video I think got half a million views at 29 minutes. 45-minute videos, 60-minute videos, complete guides on certain things are blowing up right now because people aren't just watching [music] for like an instant thing.

They want to learn from people. They want something that's like in between a podcast [music] and not like I don't have people to talk to, but I can just talk to you right now kind of like we're in a podcast setting and you can learn about whatever you're interested in. So, like an example from another niche is there used to be these decluttering videos. It'd be like 16 minutes or 9 minutes of like how to declutter or declutter with me or [music] whatever for moms, right?

And now they are putting those together and making like hour-long, 2-hour-long decluttering videos where they're putting all their videos together into one video and those ones are blowing up because while people are decluttering their house, they just want this loop of stuff going on in the background. They want to learn and do it with somebody in the background. And this is a true to so many things. People can now get an hour-long video on exactly how to master something.

And so if you're just trying these short videos all the time, try some longer ones. This is no longer a risk. I think it's a huge advantage to have a extremely long video. Even I've seen ones like 22 hours long like this extreme masterclass on something. I could never talk that long in my life. But for some people, that would be absolutely amazing. And so consider trying that once a month, once every other month. Do something that's out of your normal length.

It actually has a very high chance of going viral because YouTube wants people to be on the platform as long as possible. They want them to have a good time, to be on there. They want watch time. They want them to watch as many ads as possible. So, they would have to get them to watch like three, you know, six-minute videos, or they can get them to watch one 18-minute video. And so, ultimately, if you can get people to have a good experience and be on your channel for a long time, YouTube's going to recommend that video cuz it makes them more money.

That's all they want. They want people to have a good time, stay on there as long as possible so they can make as much money as possible. And then we have the AI switcheroo. I feel like Tik Tok and like AI garbage or like just you know, Mr. Beast really had a its time. And now there's been this shift that if you're obsessed about the space like I am, you can kind of see that there are so many more people just making super raw videos just floating around in a pool, just sitting there, going for a walk, sitting in a chair, and people resonate with them because they're real people just talking.

I I don't have to entertain you every second of the day. You don't have to entertain your audience like crazy if you're in some type of educational or personal brand space. Instead, you can be a real person. You could still you know, try to be entertaining, try to be educational, but you don't have to like jump all over the place like you used to. And that's actually something that I'm happy to make that shift now where especially on my main channel, I did a lot of like hyper editing, really in-depth skits, and all this different stuff which some of those do work to just like put in more effort than everybody else.

But also, I've gotten to the point where I'm actually trying to slow down and be more personal. A couple of videos that I've done recently that have actually done really well have just been like I have a thought, I have an idea, I think through it for a few minutes, I flip on the camera, I just sit down and talk, and those videos have been doing really well, really connecting with people. The engagement has been crazy.

And that's generally just because it's a real person. They feel like they're talking to a real person who's normal and not like above them cuz I'm not. I'm just like a normal human being. And like the more you can show your normalness, the more you can show your authenticity, the more people will connect with you cuz they've seen so many copycats, they've seen so many just like people tricking them for views pretty much.

Like they feel used. They've seen so many Tik Toks and Instagrams where it's just like flashes and like really everything quick that they want somebody just sitting down and talking [music] and explaining to them something. And so, if you're trying this hyper edited stuff and it's just not working, try just being a real person. Try just being yourself. Try just going for a walk and talking to the camera. Doesn't work for everybody.

It doesn't work for every niche, but try a different style. That's actually way more simple. [music] And if you can get that to stick, it's so much easier to do that. And there are channels now that are doing that. There's this one channel that I saw. The dude is literally reading off of like a PDFs for like half an hour at a time once a [music] week. And then he has one I think that's like 20 hours long or something like that.

But like he's literally just reading split screen. That's all he's doing. Blowing up. There's other people that just go for walks. That's all they're doing. Blowing up. No editing. No graphics. [music] Nothing. And that is totally a style that works well because people want real people. If you don't think you have the skills or the personality for it, I'm literally the most quiet person that I know. I don't I've never met anybody more quiet than me.

I talk about things that I'm interested in. I love talking about YouTube. That's why [music] I'm doing it while I'm on my birthday vacation thing here. I don't even know what we had what it was. But like this is what I love to do. This is what I love to talk about. And so, [music] it's easy for me even as a very introverted person to talk about this and I don't have to be entertaining. I don't have to jump all over the place.

I don't have to be crazy. And you don't have to be either. You can just be yourself. You don't have to put on your radio voice. That's something I used to have where I never sounded like a normal human when I was talking on YouTube because I was always like felt like I was performing, but you don't have to perform. You can just be you. And that's a really fun thing that I really glad is coming back to YouTube. I feel like it was like that originally and then it got like way over edited and now this like very personal style of vlogging, very personal style of video is coming back which I'm super glad about.

I also don't think it's ever been easier to make money on YouTube. And I don't think that it's easy to make money, but I don't think it's been easier. For instance, I've been able to create multiple channels that have made full-time incomes within a couple months which has been really cool. Even in the past two weeks now, I've been able to create a new stream of income strictly through affiliate links that generated a $9,000 in the past month using the exact same strategies that I use on YouTube combined with Facebook and it's like this whole funnel thing that I I figured out.

But right now there's so many crazy, weird ways to make money through YouTube with the big audiences, with small audiences, and they're all different, but they all work if you just focus on one of them. And so, this is something that I'm really passionate about and a lot of people have been asking if I'm going to open up the 5-hour YouTuber again cuz I wasn't sure if I was, but I am going to open it up for the first time in 2026 in a couple weeks.

So, if you want to join the waitlist, we're going to have limited spots on this. I'm going to show directly how I run all my channels in 5 hours a week, exactly the systems that I use to have multiple six-figure channels and streams of income and stuff that you can kind of copy and have worked for other people. So, if you want to check that out, there's a waitlist. Stuff works. It's not like it's like math pretty much.

So, anyways, hope you enjoyed. Check out Storyblocks and whatnot.