I made 300 YouTube videos and learned this

did you think growing a YouTube channel was going to be easy I did and I made over 300 YouTube videos and eventually generated millions of views but my gosh was it such a grind and I really wish I could have done things smarter to speed up results so to help make growing your business's YouTube Journey 10 times easier here are 40 brutal truths about growing a business's YouTube channel I wish I'd known a lot sooner lesson one have you ever noticed how none of your friends and family really seem to care about your YouTube channel

when I told my friends I was starting one they just said okay and then moved on here's the truth most people won't understand why you are doing this or how tough it is at all they're going to think it's easy you just point a camera and that's why it's so important you find others who share your YouTube Obsession so lesson number one is to connect with like-minded creators start a group chat and just support each other because when they learn you'll learn and this simple hack will keep you motivated and speed up your progress a

ton Liston number two so this is how YouTube works most people quit because they're too focused here on the chart in the early years it's going to feel like you're making no progress at all but really you're building the foundations and then by consistently posting for the long term what you find is the results explode so lesson number two is to think in fiveyear time scales because thinking in months will kill your dream and if you're like why has his Studio suddenly changed well I'll reveal that to you later cuz it's kind of important lesson

number three do you have a hero someone you really admire I did and I couldn't believe it when they started to DM me in fact I've seen creators with 400 views on a video land giant corporations as clients and Hollywood directors comment on small channels about about screenplays so right now you might be looking at views they're small but you never know who's watching so lesson number three is to treasure every view you get because you only need one to change your life and I see this happen way more than channels blowing up lesson number

four think of one thing you do every day that you constantly fail at yet you just keep doing it anyway you probably can't right because why on Earth would you keep doing something you keep failing at it's irrational but that's YouTube you are going to feel like you're failing more often than you are succeeding and yes it's going to hurt so number four is when you experience pain or the urge to give up realize it's just a sign of growth and progress if you push through this and you keep going you will gain a massive

Advantage because 99% of people quit when it gets tough lesson number five so I was called a joke for years in the comments below my videos and it really made me want to defend myself to try and show the trolls that I maybe wasn't a joke so I spent ages trying to craft these replies and I'd look at the clock and then suddenly realize oh wait half an hour's gone by and then I would post the thing and I'd still feel bad so lesson number five is to stop trying to come up with replies to

haters you're going to get a ton of them but every second you waste is a second you could have spent on a task that could have got you close to your goal it really will distract your focus and waste a lot of your time if you can't snap out of this lesson number six when I realized most of my mental battles were because I had an ego it changed everything I stopped worrying about trolls I stopped checking in on my competition all of the time and I was more open to getting feedback and that feedback

made a massive impact on my channel and my business so lesson number six is read ego is the enemy they get to the end and realize almost every negative feeling you have is because of ego and when you get rid of it YouTube's way more enjoyable lesson number seven so my friend went to meet the biggest channel in his Niche and I asked him how did it go and they said yeah it was strange they're so obsessed trying to get views on their Channel they don't think about the business side anywhere near enough so although

our views are tiny in comparison we're making 10 times more lesson number seven is to stop comparing yourself to others the biggest channels are not always the most successful many get so caught up in their views that their business is a complete mess they don't earn that much and they work insane hours and if I'm honest their lives are a total show the grass is never as green on the other side as you think lesson number eight do you ever struggle for motivation if so watch podcasts and videos about other creators sharing how they had

massive success from outside of your niche seeing other people succeed who you don't compare yourself to will really inspire you to make that next video even if it feels like you're going nowhere lesson number nine so I used to get so annoyed when someone else in my Niche would blow up and I'd say I don't get it my videos are so much better than theirs it's not fair but looking back I was wrong yes my videos were technically better but I didn't understand what my audience really wanted they got how to package and write content

that really appealed to our viewers even though it looked like crap so lesson number nine is to stop telling yourself that your videos are just as good or better than other channels growing faster than yours you might think they are but the audience is telling you otherwise lesson number 10 so when my old Channel film Booth blew up the biggest channels in the niche with millions of subscribers all started to rip off my thumbnails and titles and I was really crushed by this it felt unfair like they would get all the credit for using my

ideas and I'd remain unseen but it made no difference in the long run at all and now I understand what cop being actually means which is lesson number 10 and that is that when people copy you it means you're being recognized as a top Creator it's a sign of your own growth and what you need to realize is the copycats they never come out on top they just sit in the wake of the person who had the original idea if you blow up a video and start getting traction everyone else will copy you don't waste

the time letting it bother you lesson number 11 are you afraid of YouTube most people are and as a result they live in fear of taking a break in case the viewers don't come back or YouTube for gets them years ago I was so scared of not posting because of this I was more willing to put my health on the line than stop but when I finally took a break I came back to the channel two weeks later and it had grown without posting anything and my next video did fine so the lesson here is

that when you have a following stop posting for 2 weeks and just Witnesses the world doesn't fall apart you're going to lose that anxiety that you always have to get content out to stop your audience for getting you and you're going to come back refreshed and it makes it way more fun lesson number 12 if you struggle for time to grow your YouTube channel whatever you do don't add more to your plate and try to go on LinkedIn Twitter Instagram and Tik Tok too BR yourself too thin means you get no results in any of

those places because they all require a lot of time so if you're serious about YouTube you need to quit everything else and give it 100% of your focus and that is how you will get results lesson number 13 if it takes you 30 minutes to set up your equipment and you do that four times a month that's 2 hours of setup a month if you shoot four video at once you set up once which means you save an hour and a half so lesson number 13 is simple batch film always match film three or four

scripts over the year it's going to save you days listen number 14 so you probably always feel like you just don't have enough time for YouTube but this is going to fix it so to get done in your diary every day just block out an hour or two with no interruptions to focus on writing editing or packaging now that might mean you have to sacrifice something else but you won't meet anyone successful who didn't if you're serious about this you need to make time for it daily and prioritize it above everything else if you don't

you're going to struggle lesson number 15 have you ever stopped to consider that the reason your videos packed with amazing information don't perform is because you make your viewers feel awkward now I've worked with hundreds of YouTubers and this problem is way more common than you'd expect the second viewer hits play they judge you and if you lack confidence it hits your credibility and it makes them feel a bit icky so lesson number 15 is is to always no matter how good you think you are keep trying to improve your presenting because you can never

be too good at this listen number 16 are you too familiar with your viewers most people forget that 99.999% of them have never heard them don't trust them and don't have any idea at all if they're credible or trustworthy and the mistake they make is talking to them like friends instead of strangers and this is why lesson number 16 is to always assume the audience has no idea who you are or what you do but to make them want to know with amazing content that builds your credibility lesson 17 so never make what you want

to make and then get upset that it didn't get many views YouTube is about your viewers it's about what they click on it's about what type of content they like to suggest and it's about the style that appeals to them if you just assume your idea is a good idea because you'd watch it you're setting yourself up to fail lesson number 18 you might have heard people say that to grow YouTube channel you need to copy what works and they're right you kind of do the thing is being the channel that everyone else copies that's

the real game changer so give yourself some room for experimentation otherwise you'll always remain a copycat in bigger Channel Shadows lesson number 19 here's how I blew up a channel using this lesson so a few years ago everyone in the yoga Niche was making the same mistake so instead of copying what everyone else was doing wrong we researched adjacent niches like Fitness and mobility and found that short tip-based videos worked best meanwhile in yogaland everyone was just making half an hour lessons so we switched to this format and five videos in we generated millions of

views the key don't just blindly copy your Niche cuz there's a very good chance that everyone's making the same mistake too so the lesson is when you're coming up with ideas always look wider than just your Niche cuz there's a strong chance everyone in your Niche is making the same mistake lesson number 20 what part of YouTube should you spend most of your time on for most businesses it's not filming it's not editing it's not even writing you need to spend 10 times more planning your video idea your title and your thumbnail because it is

just so critical when I realized this years ago I shifted loads of my time to planning and packaging and the videos on film Booth started getting hundreds of thousands of views now of course the video needs to be good too but in today's competitive space getting attention is the name of the game listen number 21 so right now you're probably thinking why is he in another location well I'll tell you why because I missed out lesson 21 22 and 23 when I filmed this and then the editor said Ed you're missing a bunch of lessons

unfortunately I was no longer staying in the Airbnb sh the rest of the video in so lesson number 21 is just to not worry too much about everything making sense yes we need our information not to confuse people but if you made a mistake you don't have to go back and film the whole thing again that'll take you forever just find the simplest solution possible lesson number 22 spend 10 times more time planning your thumbnail title and video than you think you need when I shifted my focus to planning above everything else my views on

film roof exploded and my videos started getting hundreds of thousands of views instead of thousands the video of course needs to be great but in today's competitive space getting attention is critical lesson number 23 before I go back to the regular studio you know that one word in your title or thumbnail can be the difference between a thousand or 100,000 views the thing is you only learn what that word might be by making a video launching it and then asking yourself why did this or didn't this perform so lesson number 23 is to learn to

love your flops because those low views are showing you what not to do next time and the more you have over time mixed with some hits the better you're going to get at this lesson number 24 look at this chart that's the interest in losing weight over a year you see how it slowly drops down as a business you're going to pick up subscribers and a lot of them are going to start with good intentions where they really want to learn about your topic but a lot of them will quit and those quitters will also

forget to unsubscribe so lesson 24 is that subscriber accounts are often just graveyards focus on views per video rather than growing your sub count because recent viewers are the ones who are going to grow your business now and whatever you do don't try and Chase the perfect subscriber to view ratio because it's only going to distract you lesson number 25 want easy views react to news and Trends as fast as you can but understand the video might be dead in a week's time if you want long-term views that compound make every video Evergreen but really

it makes sense to use both lesson number 26 imagine spending 10 hours a day 7 days a week making a video and then doing that for 11 videos in a row only for every single one of them to flop that happened to me years ago but when the 12th video exploded YouTube pushed the others too and everything changed so lesson 26 is that consistently making quality may feel like a waste of time but when a video finally pops your old videos can blow up too creating bin sessions that set you apart so most people make

YouTube so much harder than it needs to be by trying to come up with new ideas for every video Lesson number 27 is going to save you hours and get you more views because all you need to do is just repeat what already worked on your channel but just a little bit different now viewers won't go oh it looks like the same sort of video because they actually like what's familiar to them they trust it so if you have a hit you have to follow it up and you'll probably find you have another one lesson

number 28 what would you rather what's in this hand which is candy or what's in this hand which is candy so sweet it will make you question how the every other candy company on the planet dares to even call itself candy in comparison when I realized that people click on dramatic and big exciting claims it changed everything for me so always inject this into your titles because no one wants to eat boring candy when there's other options available lesson number 29 tell me what this video is about in 1 second now tell me what this

one's about lesson number 29 is to keep your title short ideally under 50 characters because there just so much faster to recognize and digest which means you stick out and stand more of a chance of getting a click lesson number 30 I'm going to read your mind okay really read what's on screen right now lesson number 30 is all about understanding the importance of image hierarchy what you need to do when you make a thumbnail is work out what the most important thing that needs to stand out to your viewers and then design it so

nothing else gets in your way if you have really cluttered thumbnails where one thing doesn't stand out it'll never work lesson number 31 now I hate to break it to you but nobody cares about your face except me of course I love your face and that's why lesson number 31 is to use a famous face in your thumbnail for easier views it's called social hacking and it blows up the small channels a lot doing this now there's a downside though of course the video then needs to feature this famous person in some way shape or

form otherwise it's clickbait and there's another downside if you rely on this too much it can get hard to get clicks when you finally show your own face because you risk being known for others not for yourself lesson number 32 anyone who's ever blown up on YouTube eventually realizes just how important this is and they would never go back after and that is they realize you have to make your f titles first because you need to work out if anyone will click on your idea and make it if you can't make something you think people

click on then it could waste all of your time making the video and you'll just end up demotivated I honestly think if you do your thumbnails last your video's chances success drops 80% would you rather have three chances to hit a ballseye or just one hopefully you said three right and that's why you always need to make three thumbnails for every video because if the first one doesn't work out the second or the third might using this approach I've turned countless flops into hits because we just don't know what's going to work so never limit

your video's chance of success just with one image lesson number 34 Michael J fox or Mother Teresa I can't remember exactly who said this but they once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result and that's why lesson number 34 is to not come up with a branded thumbnail style you repeat over and over again in a dream world all our thumbnails are very similar but I see small channels all of the time come up with a branded style and then they keep repeating it

over and over and then they wonder why they don't get any traction in the early days you have to test so many different things because 99% of what you do is not going to work lesson 35 so how would you feel if the reason your channel wasn't growing was because of one sentence in every video but that's actually quite likely you see the toughest thing to do on YouTube isn't making videos the toughest thing is to get attention and then to hold it and that's why lesson number 35 is to become a master of hooks

as fast as you can but how do you do that well I just use one right there you ask a question your viewers hopefully want to know the answer to and then you keep them listening lesson 36 you're probably wondering why I'm doing a handstand well it's because this next thing is all about getting people's attention that's something called a visual Hook is all about being creative so find interesting visual ways to make your point and you'll keep people hooked lesson number 37 you struggle to get videos finished well this lesson is going to change

that go to your diary and set a hard deadline of when your next script has to be finished by then in your calendar Mark out time to write every day and set a target for each day so hour one day one could be you need to complete the intro hour two day two could be you need to complete the first point and then the third day the second point and so on lesson number 38 after hours writing a script you end up so close to it you can't see the bigger picture so lesson number 38

is to Simply finish writing and then just ignore it for a few days ideally a week and then come back and read it out loud to yourself and what you'll find is you start to spot rep ition confusing areas and you'll edit it so that your video levels up a ton lesson 39 your viewers are idiots not not you of course you're smart and sexy cuz you hit the Subscribe button anyway I once made a video packed with the best info I'd ever given it was on a study on traffic sources and I thought oh

this is going to fly but it bombed and then when I checked out the retention graph everyone left at the best bit when it got really deep so I thought hang on a sec they left the Deep bit so I decided to plan a video that was super simple instead and when I went to hit publish I was actually nervous cuz I was thinking people are going to be like Ed are you taking the mick out of us with how basic this is but it got 900,000 views so lesson 39 is that viewers don't care

about how smart you are only how smart you make them feel simplify everything you can't make things too easy to grasp lesson number 40 but how do you simplify something well this next lesson generated millions of views and I can't express how powerful this is when something is complex in in order to simplify you just compare it to something else that is not complex for example here we have two different channels and the amount of jelly beans in each glass represents their following size when you combine this with a prop viewers then see a problem

that isn't physical made physical and it helps them understand it on a whole new level so if you really want to hold a viewer's attention and make them value a ton use a metaphor with a prop and if you want to see one in action and just how powerful they are watch this video next as this metaphor helped generate hundreds of thousands of views