This Book Blew Up My YouTube Channel transcript

I've been full-time on YouTube for the past 5 years, and it is because of this book. So, in this video, I wanted to share some ideas that kept me going when there was no reason I should have continued doing YouTube through the years of losing money, of having uploads totally fail, of not understanding what was going wrong, and just frustration. It was because of this book and these ideas that I was able to keep going and actually flourish.

And as a creator, I think this is essential. All right. So, to start off with, the book is called The One Thing. And I just want to read the words in the front here. It says, "If you chase two rabbits, you will not catch either one." And this is incredibly incredibly true. I would say there are so many people who when they're starting out, they try to do short form. They try to do long form. They also try to grow on Instagram at the same time and Facebook and they're doing a blog and they've got all this other stuff going on and none of them succeed and they feel like they just need to work harder and they're spreading themselves thinner and thinner and nothing's really hitting.

And I know because I did that. I started with a podcast and a YouTube channel and a blog. Within about six months and when I started reading this book, two out of the three of those were not having as much success, were taking way more work, and I was naturally worse at. So, I cut the podcast, I cut the blog, and I stuck with the YouTube channel. And I would say even now, until you have 100,000 subscribers plus, I wouldn't really focus on multiple things at once until you master one thing and systematize it so that it doesn't really take any effort.

Stick with one thing. If you want to be a shorts creator, be a shorts creator. If you want to be a long form creator, be a long form creator. Don't try to do both. They're not even comparable in how the videos are structured. Everything about them is so different. I see so many small channels that try to do shorts and long or multiple things at the same time and they get two different audiences and they don't understand what's going on.

Put all of your attention in one place. Master that you can go on to mastering something else. As a quote goes, don't halfass two things, whole ass one thing. I don't know who said that, but it's true. Another quote that I love from this book is the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. And that's something that I always try to stay true to. The main thing is my long- form YouTube videos. Everything else is built off of that.

Next point is that success is sequential, not simultaneous. You do not build a YouTube channel overnight. You build it brick by brick. And brick by brick means video by video or skill by skill. You're just going through and you're laying all these bricks of like learning how to get better and better and better. And then eventually you start to have a few things take off, but it's because you did all of this work on the back end that was like underground.

It was like the foundation that nobody really saw, but you're gaining all these skills of talking to a camera, of editing, of thumbnails, of all this different stuff. And then eventually you start to see results, but when you see other people, you're just seeing those results. You're not seeing all the bricks. You don't see the three channels that they failed at. So just remembering that I'm working for the skills. I'm not working for instant success was really life-changing for me.

And then of course, this book taught me that willpower is a depleting asset. You will not always feel motivated to post. In fact, you're going to have a 10 out of 10, which I literally had like 3 days ago. And it kind of sucks. And sometimes you don't feel like going back and making another video, especially when you just put like your heart and soul into something and it tanked. But that's why you have systems in place because we don't rise to the level of our goals and aspirations.

We fall to the levels of our systems. I have a system in place so that whether I get a 1 out of 10 or a 10 out of 10, my schedule throughout the week is going to make me post another video and another video and another for the entire year. And this takes a pressure off of videos for me. If it does well, that's awesome, but I need more to do well. If it tanks, that's fine. I'm going to do 51 other videos this year. It doesn't really matter how one video performs for me because I know I'm going to get rep after rep after rep in.

So instead of focusing on the outcome, focus on your systems and staying consistent for a long period of time. Time block your one thing. In this book, they ask what is the one thing that by doing this thing, everything else will become easier or unnecessary. So you want to find that one thing for you that if you get this, it just puts everything into place. And generally for me, that is shooting a video. That is what really moves the needle for a YouTuber.

A lot of times you can spend days or weeks writing a video and thinking about it, but until you actually film a video, you don't have anything. And so you have to ask, what is that one thing? And then time block it into your week, into your day. So today it might be shooting a video, tomorrow might be editing a video. The day after that it might be working on the scripts and idea for the next video and then whatever.

But you want to make sure you have time blocked into your day. It's scheduled into your day that you are going to get that one important thing done that even if you get nothing else done for your YouTube channel, at least you got that done. You're like, you know what? Even if I get nothing else done, I feel like today was a success because I got that done. What is that one thing? And put that and have that be the only thing on your to-do list.

If you do other stuff, that's awesome. But just make sure you have one thing that really gets done. If you do one important thing every single day for like a year, you're not even going to be recognizable. Maybe for you it's shooting. Maybe for you it's learning. You just don't want to get caught in the learning trap. In fact, if you want to check it out, I have a free 7-day email course. It's like everything you need to actually make and post a video in the next 7 days.

If you want to check that out, there is a link down below. But the goal is to not get caught in the learning step, but to make sure that you're actually doing action steps for that one thing every day. One of my favorite points was actually to say no more often. If something's not like an absolute heck yes, this is going to be great. I'm excited about this. Just say no. I've had so many videos that like it seemed like a decent idea, they got the ideation phase, and then by the time I actually get around to writing it, I'm like, I don't I don't really know about this.

And then like whatever. If I'm not actually excited about something, I won't be able to put the same enthusiasm into the video. So, I try to make sure that I do things quickly. I come up with the idea, I write, I shoot all very close to each other so that I'm still excited and you can kind of feel my enthusiasm in the video. It makes a better video when I'm more passionate about it. But then also, if I'm not actually excited about a video, if I wouldn't watch this or recommend it to a friend, I'm just not going to make it.

If you have stuff that you're just making in order to make videos, but you're not excited about it, you're not passionate about it, you're not putting your heart and soul into it, it's probably going to fail. If it's just like something you're throwing together, it's not going to be great. So, if you're stuck in that loop of just making videos without passion, maybe slow down for a second and ask like, "What would I actually want to watch?

What am I making for this person that I think will change their life? How am I serving these people? Or am I just making stuff selfishly to keep making stuff?" And just start saying no to things that you aren't genuinely excited about. Then, of course, you cannot cheat the process. Ultimately, everything big that has happened, and they have a ton of examples in this book, happens over a long period of time. It's like doing small things every single day.

That's how you get in shape. You don't go and have like the biggest gym session ever and then you're shredded afterwards and you only have to do that like twice a year. No, like you have to do consistently. And for YouTubers, this is like you have to make probably 50 to 100 videos to get good at making videos or have knowledge from somewhere else. But like you pretty much just have to get a bunch of reps in. to do that.

It's like you have to just do all the things that come with making a YouTube video a lot of times and then you're going to have much higher chance of success. And even once you have success, you get a 10 million view video. If you want to keep making money, you have to continue to post. So just really taking pressure off individual things and just making sure that you can do this without burning out for the next 3 to 5 years.

And how do you do that? By doing small things every day in order to keep that process going. That's how you're going to get success on YouTube. It's not giant sprints or getting all excited and running out and doing stuff. It's like consistently working over time, building something sustainable, and continually getting better. That's what makes a difference. Like I said, I have a free miniourse if you're interested in learning more in detail about titles, thumbnails, ideas, all that type of stuff.

I'll leave it down below. It's totally free and I'll send you a helpful email every day for the next week kind of getting you started.