Hey guys, my name is Brian Jung and if this is your first time visiting, you may just see me here as a successful YouTuber with over 1.4 million subscribers today. But let me tell you, that wasn't always the case. My Origins start here in the Maryland area where my parents immigrated here from South Korea and I grew up in a school where I struggle to get good grades, stay out of fights, and outside of my studies I grew up in a home that was struggling financially every single day. You see even to this day I still remember the moments I would be so overwhelmed and I would cry into my pillow and I'd be yelling and asking God why I grew up in a family that was struggling so much why we were dealing with all the problems that we had and the feeling of helplessness where I couldn't do anything to support my parents.

Look, it's one thing when you grow up in California Miami LA or even nowadays Texas and you hear about influencers all around you. but I grew up in an area where influencers or starting your own business or you know, the Wi-Fi money stuff it really was wasn't a thing in my area. The DMV Most people who live here talk about what kind of government security clearance they have or which big four accounting firm that they want to work at. It was quite rare for me to hear about anyone who wanted to become an entrepreneur and even start their own business and personally, for my life, a majority of it I didn't even think it.

was a possibility after living my entire life being broke, making minimum wage or watching my dad doing hardwood floors and seeing just how much pain he was going through physically only to see that we were still always shy of the money that we owed for the bills. This is where I had my breaking point and it was shortly after that I was attending Community College for a few years before I was about to transfer to get my four-year degree at the University of Maryland I decided to call it quits I decided to actually go all in on business and more specifically at that time Drop Shipping Now this was not an easy decision by any means at that time. I was scared and unsure of whether the decision that I had made was the right one. but I had faith that if I put my head down and just give it my all that I could find success.

It was shortly after I made that decision where in the first year I was able to do over $100,000 with my Drop Shipping Store and revenue and eventually I turned it over into a private label brand it from there I mastered the art of paid ads and running Facebook ads, all of where my knowledge foundationally came from. Watching free content on YouTube I then later did that for myself found success I Learned about Ctrs Row as lookalike audience retargeting everything I put that into practice with helping out local businesses by starting my own digital marketing agency. It was at this point where I wanted to document my journey and teach others about getting started and the things that I had learned over the years. Through that I decided to record and upload my journey to hopefully Inspire Just one person who may have thought what I did was impossible in my pursuit of doing YouTube I always just imagined that I was talking to an even younger version of myself.

This eventually led me to talk about more credit cards or how I got started with my businesses or just vlogging. the real ups and downs of dealing with business as someone who had no experience or any family members who did anything like this within the game. So that right there was the start to my current channel that you see here today. Fast forward 5 years later.

I've managed to grow one of the largest Finance channels here on YouTube where in one single year at the height of our growth, we had gained over 900,000 subscribers. By the way, this was all before the blow up of short form content and the recent Trend that we've seen with other creators really doubling down on the area of self-improvement Now looking back, we also had some crazy highlights. If any of you remember the whole AMC GameStop Saga we were actually one of the largest YouTube channels to stream that entire movement. There were even days where we were breaking viewership records with over 30,000 people watching my channel live at a single time.

When the crypto Bll run started heating up in 2021, we were one of the largest crypto channels entering the space. it was through that we were featured on Forbes CNBC wwd Bloomberg The Street Channel a Korean News inverse Vogue Money.com BBC Now that I'm talking about it out loud, it really is crazy just to see how far we've been able to come. It was after all that we were able to become one of the leading authorities within the credit card Market, the investing, the Drop Shipping and even the affiliate marketing space. Now all that eventually led me to doing my first Ted Talk that I presented on the metaverse and getting featured on a Netflix documentary that people still messaged me about to this day.

YouTube even flew me out alongside their top 200 100 creators with people that I grew up watching within the space. Now, none of this would have been possible if it wasn't for me picking up the camera and deciding to give YouTube One More Shot About 5 years back when I first started I went through a ton of ups and downs I remember days when I was too afraid to turn on the camera to record I then remember getting over that but then remember taking literally 30 different takes on a video because I kept messing up and I wanted it to be perfect and I was running back and forth behind the camera and then my storage card was filled up and I look at the time and it was like 4:00 a.m. because when I first started I was still living at home with my parents and the only quiet time in that tiny house was starting from Midnight to 4: a.m. so my sleep schedule was all whack and that wasn't even it I remember thinking multiple times even after getting through that posting my video, seeing some success getting some money that I thought that it was all over that the algorithm was done that I needed to find a job on multiple occasions I remember getting even burnt out handful of times thinking this was not what I had signed up for when I thought I wanted to become a YouTuber who could change the world So let me tell you this: I have gone through the full emotional roller coaster of doing YouTube I was this close in throwing in the towel many times and literally the only reason I'm here in front of the camera once again is through God Now my mission and purpose for this video here is to give you the truth I'm going to do the best job that I possibly can in order to deliver and transfer pretty much all my experience and learn lessons over the last 5 years and being able to set you up with the best chance of success.

If you're in the situation where you want to start your own channel too before I do that. I need to reveal one big truth and that right there is. If you know the right formula and you have the proper systems in place, you don't need to serve what people have now idolized to be called the YouTube algorithm. So many people are so afraid of this algorithm that they think it's this living breathing creature out to get them even now I have friends where I mention the YouTube algorithm and I can literally see fear in their eyes if they're not doing that well.

So the truth I want to mention is that the algorithm is not this living breathing creature that's out to get you. the algorithm. It is people. It is you and me.

But it's not a supercomputer. It's not its own entity and it doesn't favor certain creators over others. If we're able to understand that, we then begin to take away the power behind the YouTube algorithm that controls many of our lives and it gives us more freedom. So a lot of people don't know this, but I actually started YouTube Over 10 years back, the first time I picked up a camera I was using my parents DSLR camera to record the TV to upload video games I would be behind the TV and I'd put my head like to the side like this and I'd be playing my games recording that and then uploading it to YouTube It was after that I decided to create a few other channels to document my life never with the intention of me being able to do it fulltime or making an income from it, but just doing it so that I had footage that I could look back on when I got older.

So 5 years ago I started this channel here. This was the channel I wanted to be the most vulnerable with. it's the one where I wanted to document all of those experiences that I had mentioned when I started I didn't know much about YouTube I didn't know anything about the algorithm or why certain videos got picked up and why others didn't it was back then I barely had a clue about knowing which videos to even post and I would just come up with a list and post videos that I thought could get the most amount of views I Quickly learned that although the potential being a successful Creator was great, the downside was still far greater even once I was making a consistent income to go full-time I was dependent on my views for the next paycheck I was constantly worrying about views that led to multiple burnouts in those sleepless nights and I learned how difficult it was to scale what I was doing. You know that term, no one should be trading their time for money.

No, you got to get passive income I Feel like the past few years, like the term, passive income has really gotten debunked because there's really nothing passive about any type of income that you earn. But let me tell you this when I started YouTube I was trading my time but the money didn't even come. So it's really over this last year where I've figured out a formula that has led me to worry less about the views and has led me to live a life that I'm in now full control of. Even at the start of this year, I was able to spend two full months in career and there was no chance I could ever do that in the time when I was starting my channel.

That's because I would have to constantly be uploading videos. My process for it was long and there were still many moments where I would put all my energy and time into a video and it would still flop. So let me just show you a few examples here: I had a video that was flat for 3 to 4 months, but within less than one week it was precisely 5 days. One random video got over 600,000 views.

Let me show you another statistic here: I've learned to post content that could get get views for years on YouTube and for work I did now about 3 to 4 years ago I'm still able to earn money on because I've now gotten a full grasp on playback CPM and optimizing RPM which is the amount of money you get paid per a th000 views. One single video was able to earn us over $274,000 in the course of the lifetime that I posted it. There are most channels that are never going to make this amount, but I was able to do it with one single video and this is something that you can replicate over and over again and look a lot of people outside of the finance. YouTube Niche Will say money's not even important, just focus on doing what you love and keep posting content that you're passionate about.

If someone tells me that yeah, I'm going definitely pop off. I'm going to give you my truth. If you focus on your passion, you're going to eventually get to a point where you cannot fund your passion. If you focus on just your passion without understanding the monetization behind it, you're not going to be able to grow whatever it is you want to do.

Now, you always have those occasional channels. It's a fluke where they just happen to go viral. But let me tell you, in reality, it's so rare for us to see that happen. Like if you have a passion in doing something, you have to figure out a way that you can still monetize it so you can properly.

Fel What it is You want to do. The great thing is because of YouTube Social media and all the tools that exist that is more possible than ever before. It's just like a lot of people don't focus on it, vloggers don't focus on it and they end up living a much harder life that isn't sustainable. So what I've learned is this: It's never been easier than ever before to start a YouTube channel today.

you can pick up your phone, you can record a video, and literally just publish to YouTube and you have made a video now. Although it is easy to start a channel today, it has never been harder to properly grow a Channel with all the competition that continues to crowd the space. If you've ever heard the phrase oh, Josh just keep posting and post for a long time and eventually it'll work out I Hate to break it to you, but that's completely false. Most of you won't make it even if you decide to post every day for the next 5 years.

If you do not do it the right way, imagine this: Imagine you have the task of shoveling the snow out of your Grandma's driveway. It snowed a lot and you ended up shoveling for a week. But then once you get to the door, you realize it's another granny that opens the front door. You've pretty much spent that whole week shoveling the wrong house and this is what: I've seen so many new creators do now.

I Don't ever want to undermine persistence and your hard work, but it is so important to be able to do that when you are aligned in the right direction. First, this is why you need an edge and this video here is going to unlock all of that for you. So in today's episode I'm going help you discover your advantage and to help do what I've done over the years through my custom Fstep formula in creating not only a sustainable YouTube channel, but one that is profitable and lets you step back from the worries that I still see the world's top creators still deal with today. So before we do that, let me show you a visual where every content creator actually goes through.

So I'd say 80% of people getting into YouTube have a hard time starting. it's only 15% of after that who end up growing their Channel but then eventually burning out and then I'd say it's only about 5% or even less channels that end up getting to a point where they start needing to scale but they don't understand how to do that either and me doing YouTube For over the last 5 years, I've met a lot of different creators within the space I've spent many years attending different conferences, networking with others and I've seen this problem time in and time out. Not only that, I've dealt with this myself, so that's why I'm so confident in showing you this entire phase here. So what most people are going to ever struggle with is actually just beginning.

Most people cannot upload their first video, it's just they get excited. They buy the camera, They do everything they possibly can. They look pretty, they take the shower and their best outfit, and they don't end up posting I've seen some people who actually record their video and they find out they don't like how they sound and they end up not posting it either. Look I Understand YouTube is hard and this is why there's an exponential curve to why there are so limited people considered to be top creators within the space.

So I'd say a majority of people start right here. It's shortly after that you have your people who end up uploading a few videos. This is great. You've seen traction, but these are people who then can't stay consistent.

It's hard enough getting to the first step, moving to the second, and even getting to the third. But I've noticed that when people don't see the results that they were expecting or they've been doing YouTube for years and they still aren't able to pick up, it's usually where they burn out or they give up. Now it's out of this group though, where people see continuous progress. You're hitting small subscriber goals.

You go from 100 subscribers to 500 subscribers, and then you hit 1,000 subscribers when people are able to see continuous grow grow, that is usually when you start entering this channel here. Now this growth period can last anywhere from a year to even five or even 10 years. I was within the growth phase for over 3 years and it was only up until the last 2 to 3 years I started to get into the scaling Channel This phase here is really where I've been able to learn the most about YouTube It's where I've gotten more clarity than ever before and it's where I believe the value I provide from even the scaling aspect can impact and give more value than I ever could have within all different phases of where you might be as a Creator now before I move any further I Want to just talk about even a bit more about my background? You guys got like a general premise of my story. but I also want to emphasize the fact that I am the last person that I believed could ever do YouTube and I'm sure some of you can relate.

I didn't go to school for business I didn't go for journalism writing anything TV related or public speaking I was actually terrible at school. It's one thing if you already a doctor, a scientist, an engineer or you were a successful entrepreneur businessman in your 30s and 40s and you were already smart and gifted in what you're doing. but I was someone that grew up thinking I don't even know what I wanted to do I don't even think I'm smart enough to be able to pursue like an engineering degree even if I tried. Now look, the reason why I compare myself is not to toot my own horn or to say look, I'm I was this dummy and a dummy was able to do this? No, it's the fact that I don't think I had any advantage within the space.

but I was able to pursue YouTube in a format that really worked for me. This format. this system that I've been talking about is something that I believe can be applied to every single person person watching this video so that you can break through all the obstacles that come with starting and growing your own channel too. Even now I can go a whole month without uploading to YouTube and our AdSense won't go under $30,000 a month if I do decide to post even just a few times a month.

our AdSense even in the most recent month, has climbed to near $50,000 You'll see even in November we had uploaded only just 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 78 videos we're currently at the end of. December I've only posted two videos this month and our AdSense even now is still at an extremely high rate. Or how about this? We go into the metric of our best performing month for YouTube AdSense and that was near $200,000 in just a single month. What this shows is that literally, in just a 30-day period, we were able to do over $191,000 with one single source of income.

What if I told you to that? Currently AdSense is one of our lower income streams as well. and right now we're able to bring in even more income from the variety of different businesses and the Affiliates that we have. All right. So let's talk about it.

Let's talk about how I was able to get here without a 30-man team or being one of the most viral or viewed channels within the niche. So to become a full-time YouTube Creator There are multiple layers of knowledge that you need to know. So for layer One, you need to know the absolute Basics when getting in front of the camera. The goal here is to just publish something Now in Layer Two You're going to build up your content and create multiple videos to find what works best for your audience.

Next is then growing your channel. This means doubling down on what's working and creating a process to stream your content for the fourth layer, We're going to talk about monetization through your content through Diversified income streams and optimizing each one for your audience. And last but not least, at the inner core of Layer five, this is where you're going to be expanding the business behind your channel and making sure everything is running like a well-oiled machine. So before starting anything before buying a camera, you need to understand what your Niche is going to be before starting this channel.

I had a fishing channel and I had a full business plan and knowing how to monetize it, how to grow it, Who to collab with? and because I knew what Niche I was in I had so much more clarity on knowing how to pursue and grow and scale that channel. By definition, a niche is just a specific group of an audience. The problem that I see with a lot of new creators is that they want to go viral so quick and they want to reach the largest audience they can. But when you are yelling to a giant crowd in Times Square I'm sure no one's going to hear you.

But if you're yelling at one to two people that are sitting right in front of you, that you have a clear idea on who they are, what they're looking for, and the type of content that you can use to provide value to them in the form of Education entertainment or even a mix of both. That's when you're going to be able to find the Breakthrough. That's when you're going to be able to grow your channel through cultivating viewers and turning that into subscribers and then ultimately leveraging that to create yourself a sustainable business. So to find your Niche there's two ways you can go about it: I Have a four-step process.

we'll go over here or the second way that you can go about it is literally just posting videos. see what clicks, see what you enjoy doing. The second one is going to take a bit more time. It's what people naturally gravitate towards.

It's what I did in starting out. But I know that if I was more deliberate since the beginning in doing this four-step process first, I would have been able to accomplish my goals and grow my channel even faster. All right. So to find your Niche first, write out your interest in your hobbies.

Ask yourself this: what do you enjoy that you could talk about all the time What are your favorite topics to read about or even consume on social media? Then write out a longer list of five to six topics that you believe you could create content on. When I first started my channel, it look like fishing, credit cards, entrepreneurship I even wanted to do vlogs for a while or even live streaming video games. You need to get it down so you can weigh out the pros and the cons and understand what's more sustainable. As an example, I Love fishing and I really enjoyed my time fishing and look for me I enjoyed fishing more than I did recording some of these like three-hour long videos that we do here on YouTube I'll be honest, but how about this.

even though I enjoyed fishing that much, what was the outcome? What was the percentage likelihood that I could pick up traction and then even from there if I had an audience of 10,000 people viewing my videos? what is the likelihood of me being able to do that consistently without burning out and then being able to make a sustainable income to support what I was doing well? It turned out the likelihood of that actually panning out was very, very slim I take everything by percentages for the fishing. it had come down to like literally 2% success rate of me being able to pop off. and that's because there were days where I would go out fishing and the fish were not biting I would be out there in the sun in 90 heat for 8 hours a day saying I need to catch fish for the content and nothing was biting. Just imagine all the times that could have happened in the last 5 years and where I could have gone instead of just putting all my time and energy into starting up like the channel that you see here now.

So that's why it's so important to understand your Niche and to weigh out the pros and the cons and to see what is going to be truly viable on the type of content that you can create. This year, I'm planning on running my first marathon at the end of the year. This has inspired me lately to want to even create content on working out or teaching others about personal fitness and running and reviewing shoes. But then I ask myself, is this a niche that is really viable So the goal here? Just get down as many ideas as possible and then narrow your list further later on.

The second thing you want to do is then find your own unique, competitive Advantage This is also known to others by the unfair Advantage Rule and it's pretty much where you're able to stand out from the crowd. To do this, just look at other content that's being created, find maybe five or even 10 of those content creators within that space, consume their content, and see if there's something that you could do special or differently that would help you stand out. More specifically, you'd want to look for your own unfair advantage and this is a skill or characteristic that you have that can't be easily replicated. Now if you don't think you have your own unfair Advantage because I personally didn't think I did for a while.

you can also go by your own experience because that right there is the most authentic that you can be with an audience now. I Had no idea what my own unfair Advantage was I was just doing YouTube saying I think I could do this a little bit better than the people that exist, but it's only a bit later on I realized that's actually not the case I Don't think I could do it better than other YouTubers But my advantage is that I can explain complex topics a lot easier than I think other people could. Now that is just one small example. You can have multiple advantages within the market, even me looking the way I do as a Korean-american being able to be born here in the US speaking this language natively I Know that gives me advantage of people who may have like a deep accent or they just barely don't even know how to speak English Your advantage doesn't need to be in the comparison of the top creators in the world, but it could just be in the comparison of someone who is also starting out.

So you'll have a bunch of your niches. You'll think about your different Advantage related to those niches and from there what you want to do is understand the earning rate that you can have. At some point you're going to want to go full-time with YouTube and the more that you can earn from your Niche the easier that this transition is going to be. Now there are some very high earning niches where they pay out a lot of money in terms of the ads and the sponsors and more.

And there are some lower paying niches I Know as an example if I was making mature content or something or like I was just playing video games and my my audience was a bunch of 12-year-old kids that didn't have money to be able to buy higher-end products. The amount that YouTube would pay me on those type of ads would be significantly less than if I was making high value educational content like the one I do here on this channel. So for any of our newbies, YouTube pays a different amount depending on the niche that you're in. Okay, if you are say more specifically making videos on training dogs that Niche could be very high because there are a lot of advertisers who see a problem and they want to put ads on your videos to give to other pet owners that they know will spend a lot of money in or even like the makeup industry.

makeup is so competitive, you have competitors all the time that is throwing money out to get them to use their own product. Your Niche does not have to be as broad as the ones that I talked about. It could be micro niches. It could be like a channel focused on teaching someone how to solve a Rubik's Cube You can make a lot of videos on that.

You can talk about different sequences, you can interview people. You can do challenges. Now I'll tell you this: productivity is high paying books is high paying Fitness is high paying education really just the umbrella of that is high paying even Auto And car content has some rather decent Cpms and I know anything regarding health is also pretty high. So once you understand that, you also want to think even more about some of the products that you can offer.

are there viable? Affiliates If you decide to go one way, what are the ways that you can self- sustain as a Creator within that specific Niche Now at this point, you should have a pretty solid list. It's from here where you now want to think of the different type of content ideas that you can actually execute on. So come up with a list of videos and not just specific videos, but type of videos. Because if you go through even like four or five videos, there's only so many times you can remake it.

But if I were to do review videos I know that I can make a hundred review videos of a certain Niche or say if I was a gamer. Even with gaming, you could just make gameplay videos or commentary videos or comparison tutorial videos like. So instead of thinking about individual video titles, think about video topics. Once you do that, you have to narrow down even further.

How can you separate your content from what is currently being made? If everyone in your space is doing like super boring PowerPoint presentations, you can maybe switch it up to doing something more animated, more fun. Or you could do something with an interview format. Or if all the videos are not getting even more edited, tone it down and do less edited and just be authentic. Your goal here is to just find a unique Lane that's going to help you stand out within one of the niches that you've chosen.

So now that we've done that, the next step is then going to be testing the different types of content that you can make. So I've broken down all the content that's been made on YouTube into three main categories. You have your hero content, your Evergreen content, and your timely content. Your hero content are videos that are going to be designed to hit the browse algorithm and get higher views.

So the browse feed is pretty much when you log into YouTube you're on your homepage and they show you just a collection of those videos there. This is what I consider to be top of the funnel for you as a Creator to grow early on. After that, you have your Evergreen content which are videos that are Timeless and can be watched now or in 5 years from now and these involve guides, tutorials, or things where someone could look back on and watch a video from 3 years ago and it still be applicable today. Number three: You have timely content which is literally the opposite of Evergreen content.

This is where videos are talking about current moments and they have a shorter shelf life. So if a new Apple product drops and you're dropping the new Apple watch or if you're talking about something in the news or a current Trend that is ongoing, that is timely content and those can pop off pretty well too. It's from here. you want to know what kind of content you want to stick with I'll tell you if you were to do just all Evergreen videos.

Yes, they can live on YouTube for a long time, but you're not going to get the surge in traffic that can help you blow up and build on that momentum. But if you were to just do timely content posting things about the news as soon as you stop posting your AdSense your viewer growth, it's all going to go down. So you're going to be very dependent on trying to make videos constantly. An example of a hero content YouTube Channel is going to be like Graham Stefan He's designing all of his videos to hit the browse algorithm.

Now if we're talking about things like Evergreen content, well you guys can take a look at my channel. We're focusing a lot on that instead. Now out of those three categories here isn't better than one. Or timely isn't better than Evergreen.

They are all pretty equal. It just depends on your goals and what you're comfortable with doing as a Creator. But I'll say what is best is if you are able to take a blend out of all of them to grow your channel. even for me when we're posting three times a week consistently.

I Wanted to do one Evergreen video and even two types of hero content. I'll do timely content when things in the market pick up. So as you guys know, Crypto has recently surging up and whenever Crypto pops off or there's like a credit card piece of news, we'll be on the Timely content Because we know that for the short period of time we spend making that video, we can still get a pretty decent Roi So once you figure out what kind of content you're going to post, you need to set a goal for yourself in understanding how many videos you want to publish. Here's a difference that I've seen with people who are in business.

They will shoot for goals like oh, I'm going to post a minimum of three times a week. While most new people will say that is crazy, that is so much I can't believe you're doing that and I've seen a lot of people new to the space. just tell thems. Oh, I'm just going to post once a month when it comes to the game of actually succeeding on.

YouTube There is a lay layer of work that you got to do within the quantity of videos that you post. If you're posting a video once a month, there are some channels that can succeed in doing this, but your limited to posting just 12 videos in a single year. You got to understand that your average viewer is going to come across a lot of channels, a lot of different videos, and if you're only putting out 12 videos in a year out of over 365 days, you're not going to be giving yourself the best chance of success in getting seen. So you don't need to set a goal where you're posting like eight times a week.

No, that's what I'm saying you could do one time a week, especially if you're just getting started out, but just set the goal so that you at least have a benchmark and a Kpi of knowing what you want to hit and what it took for you to get there. Now when it comes to setting goals I Need to emphasize this. It is important for you to set a goal, not based on an outcome. So a lot of people will say oh, I want to hit 100 subscribers by the end of the year or a th000 subscribers by the end of the year and if that becomes your focus and your key motivator, it will become very easy for you to give up.

So instead focus on the sources of outcomes like posting a certain amount per week or creating better thumbnails or seeing if you can get five or 10 positive comments on a video that you've made. If you keep these goals in mind, you're still going to reach the same goal that you have set in getting x amount of subs or x amount of views, but you're going to do it with a new motivation that's going to help you last a longer way. trust me. I've been there I Wanted to hit a million subscribers more than anything but on that route because that was my one and only goal.

First of all, when you hit the goal, it's nice for like a week. Okay, you celebrate, you get the gold plaque. It's great, but after that it's just like any other goal. It kind of just goes away.

and what I've realized has really left the biggest impact on my life. It was when I was able to make good videos that have impacted people positively and I could see the effects of that. Now that you've completed the first layer, you've built your foundation for your future and this year is where we've now established your unfair Advantage when it comes to YouTube so that you can grow and scale much quicker. Now following this, we are in Layer Two which is building up the content so the process of coming up with content can be simplified into six pieces.

First coming up with an idea, then creating an outline, then packaging your video, then writing, then filming, then editing, and then you have a video up. When it comes to the task of uploading a video, a lot of people just think it's so difficult because a lot of new creators underestimate all the work that it goes into in making a decent performing video. If You start breaking it down almost as if it was a work sop and seeing all the steps and processes on making a video and how you can check it off and then expedite different ones. have people help out on different areas or spreading out your timeline so that you have enough energy to accomplish certain tasks.

This whole process then becomes a lot less complicated. So let's start with number one: Creating a good video idea. In order to do this I'd suggest that you have three things accomplished. Number One: you need to have a clear why, statement and why you are making that video this year should be as in-depth as possible, but it can be a simple as Concepts like oh, this person made this video before I Believe I Can Make a Better spin to it.

Here's what I'll do before any video that we make I always have a detailed write up of the why. This is because on a Monday if you come up with that video idea, it might seem like a banger. but then you realize on Friday like oh no, it wasn't actually that good. What was I Thinking you can go back to the why so you can remind yourself on the purpose on why you were going to create the video.

Number Two: You want to see if the video has social proof to do this: spend time researching YouTube videos, see what has worked for smaller channels, see what videos are picking up, what are trending, what people interests are in, even if you have a good why, but you don't have enough social proof behind it, that video could still flop by ensuring that you've seen other smaller channels have success with it. and you're able to replicate it by doing number three, which is adding your creative and unique spin on the idea on how that video was created. You're then lining yourself up for takeoff on your Successful video. So knowing all that? what is the best stepbystep guide in coming up with good video ideas that will perform extremely well.

So first of all, what I do is I keep a list of channels on hand that create content similar to what I'm looking to create. You want to, then look for those outlier channels. So I compare the views that a channel got to when it was posted to how many subscribers they may have. Now remember, if you're looking at channels that already have million subscribers, they're not going to be a good indicator.

You're going to want to look for channels that have lower views so that the subscribers that they already have isn't playing a role into them actually getting lift off. Now this here is going to be a good Baseline for you to get ideas to create upon, but after that you'll want to narrow down the list by looking for Unique spin you can add into the content that you're making. Now if you want to be real original, don't even look at competitors within your Niche but look into other niches, see what they're doing, and see if you can apply that into what kind of videos that you make. As an example, we have Sam Solic these days who's just working out.

Everyone's copying the whole long form gym thing. but as a Creator within the finance space I Ask myself this: what if I did something like that? Is that possible to replicate and bring over A lot of the times people think when it comes to YouTube you have to be so authentic and you have to create the next new idea that no one's done. If you're going off of that, you're going to run out of content very quick and you're going to realize someone actually did do it before you. The foundation of most content has now already been made, so this is why we focus on doing research to add a unique spin on what's already done.

So that is one very good method right there. It can get you pretty far, but another better method once you've started uploading videos is to take a look at your own successful videos. This is because your YouTube analytics is going to give you more insight than any other channel you're going to be able to see click-through rate. You're going to see audience viewer retention.

You're going to see where the traffic is coming from. You're going to see if it's a suggested video, what videos are suggesting it. What I do with my team is: I always reflect how I felt recording that video, how that video did a week from now, how that video did a month from now. What My next action steps then are following the posting of that specific content.

So when reflecting, look at your own videos, look at your own analytics, and then from there you can come up with another batch of ideas that you can either make spin-offs on or related videos to on what what has already worked. Also, when you do this, it's going to be a lot easier because I script all my videos online when I first started YouTube I actually journaled in like my math journal, it was literally a mechanical pencil and a piece of notebook paper and that was it. but it wasn't online. If you script your videos online, I Personally use Notion for everything it lives on here so you could expand on different ideas.

You can change up the format, you can throw it into chat Gbt and then give it a prompt hey, can you change this up? Can you improve upon this And then you have a 2.0 version of the video that you've made. The hardest part about creating content is the start of it. It's when you're starting from scratch, you got nothing at all. But if you've already made a video, you see success from it and you replicate it.

You're doing less and less work with potentially the same amount of outcome every single time. So this goes into the basics of outlining a video. How do we even start? well? I Start by running my video idea through YouTube and see if anyone else has done it I use this to get inspiration I'll then Google the video concept and look for any blogs that have the same concept. It's from here where instead of working even more I take a step back and I think about how I can approach the way I deliver my content to my audience.

This is where the excitement for me builds in the videos that I make. if I start gunning it from the start. where I get a video idea I script it I record it. There's no room for me to then get creative.

So the key here is to not copy, but to do all this in just as a starting point and then to follow up with research and find ideas after you've had that waiting period. For the waiting period I take a walk with my dog outside I go to the gym sometimes I literally will just sleep on it and I'll get the idea next thing in the morning. Now if you don't have the time to do that, that is okay. Okay, this is just a method that I've utilized that has helped me a lot in making even better content rather than something that's so rigid and less authentic.

So it's from here where you then want to just start out with a basic outline. A lot of people think you have to go full script out, you have to get your words out, but no, you don't. You can start out with bullet points or topics that you want to discuss, and if you don't know much about what you want to discuss, then do the research, then add it in and it's from there where you can start building out your script. now before we even go into edit or like how you want to approach the video and the format.

I then go into packaging. You want to start packaging as early as possible and what this is is your title, your thumbnail, and what the first 5 Seconds of your video would be. If you know how you're going to be advertising your video before you put it together, you're going to have a much better idea on how to deliver it effectively. This here is also going to allow you to write better in the perspective of your viewer once you get to that process.

So when it comes to generating a thumbnail, screenshot, different reference photos a lot of people think you have to use. Photoshop There are a lot of great AI tools that exist today, even for me. I Use Canva in getting started out and it turns out finding someone who can help you out with thumbnails is like one of the easiest things. They are so easy to find.

Even if you go on Twitter and type in thumbnail designer, you can find people who are freelancing for 25 or 30 bucks per thumbnail. Now a lot of people make the mistake of just getting one thumbnail down. I Recommend that you get a minimum of 3 to five thumbnails. Now this is if you have an evergreen video that you really want for it to take off.

If this is like a timely video, no, you don't need a Focus days on a thumbnail. Obviously, for a timely video, it may expire by the time you have all of this done. So depending on the content, if speed is of the essence, just do your own diligence on whether or not it does make sense for you to invest more time and money into having a good thumbnail. But generally if you want to have a video that lasts a long time on YouTube and for it to do very well, put time and energy into this.

When it comes to titles, there is an art to this and you will only get better the more that you try it if you use a tool like thumbs Up.tv This is where I'm able to then drag can drop a thumbnail and some title options to see how it would look on the YouTube feed. Have different options because sometimes videos just don't perform even if it's a banger and there's a lot of good content. If it's a poor thumbnail and title, people just may not be inclined to click on it. Now a lot of people assume YouTube is the only platform where people will change title and thumbnails, but that's actually not the case if you look on Netflix It has its own algorithm where they don't change their title because obviously that's title is the same for all the movies and shows.

but they change their thumbnail frequently to match with what will work for a viewer. So if there's like a new singles dating show yeah, they're going to put a little bit more of this if it's going to get more clicks rather than you know boring image of not seeing much at all. So focus on drafting a good title and thumbnail. You generally want to make a title that also connects with the type of content you make because you can also clickbait.

If your video is like how I made a million dollar in 3 years and you only made $10 in 6 years, people are not going to watch that video. They're going to dislike it and it won't do well. So you also need to make titles that, yes, grab people's attention but is able to actually get confirmed when they do watch the video. So for Evergreen videos, go for an evergreen title.

Howto guide tutorial guides things like that work really well If you're going for timely content, urgent breaking just in new, it's what news articles like CNN will title in their thumbnail so you can draw inspiration from that. If it's things like hero content, you can grab those title Inspirations from some of the top channels and use them for yourself. Now at the core of YouTube in every video, it is this: It is writing. If you suck at writing, you need to unsuck from it and there are a few ways to do this.

First of all, just don't be afraid of writing. I grew up not liking writing because all my English teachers sucked and they all told me that I sucked. but I started to develop joy in writing when I first started out journaling a lot Journal about your day, Journal about your goals, Journal about what you need to do. This is going to help you write a lot easier just like working out, Writing is also a muscle that you can Flex the more you do it, the stronger and better that you're going to get.

nowadays. there's a lot of tools that can help you as well. Chat Gbt has a creative writing bot that you can turn on you can grammarly to help you with punctuation, and there's a lot of free resources. I Recently read a book called Everybody Writes I got it on my Kindle and I found that to be so so good.

Read books that will help you to understand how to write effectively, how to share stories effectively, and there are different elements. Okay, you have hooks, you have the ability to storytellin, a mindset of just continuously learning even when it came to storytelling. I had pulled up many different books, I had pulled up different YouTube videos and ultimately what I found a lot of value in was actually learning from Disney Pixar Growing up for most people, I'm sure you've watched a Disney movie at some point as a kid. Disney does one of the best jobs in storytelling in taking a character and building upon it.

and that right there is just the basic element of reading a story, even for me as a Christian like I'll read the Bible and I'll pull out different elements of how there is storytelling going on there. You want to have what this is called your reticular Activation so that you start noticing it in all the things that you hear that you read that you do. Now to be a good writer, though, as a beginner with someone who may not have that much time, you don't want to overwhelm yourself. You could also just follow a basic format that I do for every video the most common one that I'll do is just splitting it up with a hook, an intro, a beginning, a middle, an end, and then a call to action.

Now hooks can be approached many different ways. You can relate to the audience, You can pull up a statistic, or you could simply just go straight into the video. Once you do that, you are then into your introduction and then the beginning part of your video where depending on what Niche you're in, what I generally like to do is always go over what I'm going to share with the audience. This is almost as if you're reading a book.

People get excited when they can see the index and knowing what to expect I like doing that even if it's like a 8 minute video even when we're doing Market updates I always said it like hey guys, we're going to go over the price action of Bitcoin what I think is going to happen with Bitcoin you know some all coins I'm looking at and that right there I think is just a solid way in a beginner template that you guys can also follow no matter what Niche or industry you're in now depending on the type of content. it is also in the beginning where I generally like sharing stories and tying that in with the point that I'm trying to make as an example for this guide here instead of me going over my family struggles I could have just been like hey guys in this video here we're just going to be going over like all the steps of you know learning about YouTube And like all the things that I've learned when it comes to YouTube there's hero content. There's Evergreen content. Here's the begin.

Like there are different ways you can make content okay and storytelling is just a way for people to not feel like they're forced in learning something new. Midsection: All right. We got the Torso the abdomen. This is where the magic happens and this is where you're going to teach and show the bulk of your video.

and your goal here is to educate and story to fill the knowledge gaps that were created. Basic examples: analogies, charts, visuals, images, videos, you name it. This here is going to be the bulk of your video where the most amount of value should be given to your audience. Now by the way, you want to spend as little time in the beginning, the intro, and the hook and you want to try to get into your midsection as quick as possible.

When I first started, my YouTube channel I had a bad habit of just going off topic. Nowadays people just want the point so just go straight to it. Now the ending of this is the conclusion. Wrap up all the things that you've talked about, leave people with something to think about and this is a place where you can also drop another call to action.

A call to Action is going to be like drop a like on this video. Like guys, actually drop a like on this video if you're enjoying it so far, or subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already. So a lot of people will say that towards the end. Because this is generally where people are looking for the next step to do, you always want to follow up with a Call to Action.

Now when it comes to writing, there's even more than that. That's going to be your most basic template. I've realized though, if you're able to just go from problem to solution and you explain that and you find good ways to segue it, that is a good video there. If you're finding something, videos are difficult to make, Do not attempt like long, difficult hard videos that you aren't really an expert in, you could do things like five items that I've bought that have changed my life and practice.

From there, in scripting that video, it's pretty easy. You just pick up the five items that have impacted your life and then from there you'll just create a template. What the item is, how it's impacted you, how much it costs, and why you would never get rid of it something like that. Obviously, you can optimize a little bit from there.

so at this point, we've now outlined, planned, written, and then packaged the video. The next thing is, we got to film now. I Want to mention that you don't need to film your videos on a fancy camera? You can always film with your iPhone these shoot 4K resolution. Now what I believe is the most important though is getting good lighting and getting good audio.

So when it comes to audio, there's something called the proximity effect. Pretty much like with the mic, it's not going to sound as good if it's over here, but if it's right underneath my mouth, it's going to sound better. So as an example, if your iPhone is out here, it's not going to sound good, but the closer you are to it, the better it will be. For me personally, there are a lot of good mic options I Bought thousands of dollars worth of mics, but at the end of of the day, a condenser mic is my favorite.

You're going to get the highest sounding audio quality without having to soundproof the area that you're in. If you're using a shotgun mic, but you're not soundproof, it's going to still pick up a lot of different Echoes and sounds. You can also pick up Portable mics or if you're really on a budget, you can use like a different iPhone to film yourself and then record yourself with your iPhone as a mic. these days I've seen people get so creative with different microphones like they'll literally use like a DJI portable mic and then put it on a chopstick and record like it doesn't matter.

As long as the audio sounds decent to you, it should be good enough. but you cannot go wrong with a condenser mic. USB condenser mics are the easiest to set up because you don't need to use an XLR cable like I am doing right here. You can just plug it into the computer and it's ready to go second.

When it comes to lighting, this is super super important. A lot of people will use daytime lights. that's what they recommend I actually don't recommend that I actually love being in the darkness because daytime light will vary. There were moments where I used to film during the afternoon versus like Sunset and the light would literally like be changing and going into my eye.

So this right here is an example of how much lighting affects your video. I could be like here or I could even have just done like a blue light or purple light. Get a decent light. Ladies and gents, these don't cost that much money.

You can go on Amazon and pick something up, but I like using top-of-the-line stuff, mine here is going to be the Nova aperture p300 C It can turn into many different colors and right now my light is set at 10% so if I went up to even as high as 10% I know that I could it's just going to be a little bit uncomfortable when filming a video because I'm like squinting half the time and as a Korean and obviously as someone of Asian descendant I do not want to be squinting as much as I already am. so audio is check. Light is check if you're someone who doesn't have the best skin in the world like me. I Had a ton of acne growing up as a kid and my skin is not great so that's why I need a good lighting source and for a way to smooth it out and you guys could all do that through flattering the light through a soft box.

So if you ever see like those giant boxes that photographers use, that's what it's meant for. It's to soften the light so it's not so hard and harsh on you. The reason I think even tips like this is important is because if you feel like you don't look good and you're not confident it's going to translate into the camera. So I want you guys to all pick up the equipment that's going to make you look the best possible even with the light.

I always have it in a 45 angle pointing from a top word angle coming down because if it's like underneath me, you're going to get like a double chin action. or if it's like right eye level and it's too close, it's going to be distracting. So these are the things that I've learned over time. That is second nature to me, but it's going to save you has a lot of time.

Okay, last but not least, then content. Okay, there's a few ways to actually deliver then the script that you wrote. you can use a teleprompter. This is a game.

Cher Okay, I didn't use a teleprompter for three years of my YouTube career. If I did, who knows how many Subs we would have now, but back then it would be so difficult for me to start because I would have to remember and memorize the lines or what I was going to say and it would just be so distracting and the edits would be hard. I use a teleprompter. Now depending on the video, sometimes I'll just even put like my outline or my bullet points right now.

I'm not going word for word, but earlier in this video I had all that scripted an hour ago in my studio that I could really work through and visualize and then putting into teleprompter. So I don't forget what I said. A teleprompter is easy to set up Elgato Recently came out with a brand new one. This is the first time I've seen like a reputable company do this.

I would check that out. you go ahead and Link that HDMI into your computer so you can have your computer next to you put into the teleprompter and make the process of recording even easier than that. I Know a lot of new beginners are afraid of the camera. They're not good at talking to the camera so teleprompters going to help you a lot.

But one of the downsides is a teleprompter makes people really feel unnatural. I see some people who put the teleprompter so close to the screen and you could like see them do this and like they're like going cross- side. I'm like bro people are not going to watch this video if it's like that. so have the teleprompter far enough from you.

For me it's about 3 to 4et and this means you need the proper camera lens. If you have too wide of a lens, you're going to see the whole teleprompter. If you have too tight of a lens like a 50 mm, only your head is going to be in frame. So what I really like is a camera lens lens that can go anywhere from 20 to 35 mm.

35 is usually the perfect spot where I can keep it at a good distance and then still use my computer to drop it into the screen and if I need to use it at any time I have all of it available. So this here is a little behind the scenes of the setup. This is what I'm looking at right here: I have an outline of the words I have the script in front of me and getting your studio set up. We're talking about natural lines I have that on my second Monitor and then if I need to play around I Got my iPad here I got my audio recorder.

you do not need this if you're going with a USB mic. this is only for the XLR component and then we also have a way to make sure that the camera is still recording with different angles. So Reading off a teleprompter takes a little bit of skill. Sometimes people just autoplay it and it goes really fast.

I Don't like autop playing it I Like scrolling through as I go but this is entirely up to you. There's a lot of practice. There is some pacing that you want to do and you never just want to go like so monotone. Okay, you want to be able to feel a little bit more alive.

Pick it up, slow it down, go high, go low. I Know it sounds silly, trust me guys, but it's going to help you be a bit more comfortable and it's going to show authenticity to the viewer. So this right here. all this filming.

This is A-roll This is your main a camera but you also have Boll Boll could be videos that you know you film on the back end. You put it over while you're talking so it can be a good way where if you mess up or if you're reading something on your laptop and you don't want people to know you're breaking eye contact, you can put it on there. Other times you can use stock footage for B-roll you can add an editing on on top of your footage for B-roll or even if you use articles that you're referencing to. that is additional B-roll there for B-roll We're not going to talk about all the close-up shots, mid shots, the angles, how you pan, and all that, but just know that you don't want to go too much with B- I've seen so many new creators who add just silly story block footage because they think it's going to help with viewer retention, but less is more as an editor.

If what you're doing does not have a reason or does not add to what you're doing, just do not include it at all. If I was talking about my marathon and the shoes that I'm looking to get, it would make sense for me to get the B-roll of those pair of shoes so that you could actually visually see what I was talking about. Now if I'm talking right now, but I have B-roll of me like working on my computer. It doesn't really add to anything, so don't over complicate B-roll and this really Segways Well into editing but don't over complicate editing at all either.

editing comes with time. It is also very time intensive. This is why I went ahead and Outsource my edits to one of my best editors who's editing this video here today. Shout out to my boy Isan but even for me to get to where I'm at today, it took me many, many years and being able to find stability with my content first.

So in the beginning, you're going to want to edit your videos. but the good news is it is now easier than ever before to edit. so you have beginner software like Adobe Premiere Rush or even Cap Cut or even apps on your phone. I personally used Final Cut Pro and back then I was so broke that I would use the Final Cut Pro trial and I use that for two years by turning back my clock on my computer settings anytime before I used it I don't know if that's patched now, but that did get me a very long time before I decided Okay, I'm finally going to buy this app, but learning edits is huge and I think this is a skill that every single person should know at least how to do the basics of now.

Ai is only going to get better and what is out today is still pretty good. There are some tools that cut out all the mistakes and silences that you make automatically. There's some AI tools that help out with your audio, making sure everything's adjusted correctly, or even making sure that your brightness, your contrast, your saturation on your footage is looking clean. I Would definitely spend some time understanding the basics of editing, or at least just understanding knowing how to cut a video.

There is a bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but if you just know like three or four keyboard shortcuts, you can edit your own videos. Now that we have completed the talks on Layer Two you should now have a video created and ready to publish and this process here is going to get easier and easier with time as you keep building the Reps and you feel more confident in the process of it. So Layer Three, we're now going to