🚀 10 Beliefs You Need to Succeed on YouTube
How to YouTube #20
Hey YouTubers,
Over the past few years, I’ve noticed one clear requirement for growth on YouTube.
Most of the advice we receive is technical, tactical or strategic.
“Make the title and thumbnail first”
“Define your niche”
“Set up a curiosity gap in the hook”
But even though we all still struggle with those things, the reality is that the biggest issue YouTubers face is with belief. It sounds cliche, but it’s more important than most things.
Belief that you can hit your goal, belief that you can keep going in the face of slow growth, and belief that we are worthy of being watched (in a non-creepy way).
So here are 10 things you need to believe as a YouTuber to succeed in the long run.
1. It’s a marathon not a sprint 🏃♂️
Most channels are built over years not weeks. And even if you blow up overnight, it doesn’t solve all your problems, you still have to figure out what to do next. Although periods of intensity are helpful, being a YouTuber is a long game.
2. To succeed, you have to be willing to fail 📈
Being successful on YouTube is one long experiment. That means you have to be okay with trying new things and failing. Even with 5m subscribers, we still try new things almost every week, it helps us find the answers.
3. You are in service to the audience 🕊️
Your desires and vision for the channel are extremely important too, but ultimately the success of your channel is down to whether the audience want to watch your content. If you’re not getting the views you want, it’s because the audience either aren’t clicking or aren’t watching.
4. You don’t need to know the next 100 steps, just the next 1 🪜
A lot of overthinking comes down to worrying about problems you don’t have yet. It’s so tempting to worry about how to get a sponsor or dealing with hateful comments when you haven’t even posted any videos. But ultimately, all you can do is take the next step in front of you. It’s a lot easier that way too.
5. It's better to move slowly in the right direction than quickly in the wrong direction 🧭
You don’t want views at all costs because being trapped in a channel you hate isn’t fun. It’s ok to take time to figure out what you’re doing, and make slow progress in the right direction.
I want to take a short moment to shout out one of my favourite newsletters. Every week, George Blackman shares a highly actionable and highly entertaining newsletter about writing better YouTube scripts. This isn’t a sponsored post, George is a friend, and is simply THE man to follow when it comes to improving scriptwriting for your videos. I’ve learned so much from George about writing in the past 2 years, and I’m willing to bet my future house you will too if you follow him. Check out his weekly newsletter here.
Maybe you’ve seen him on Twitter, he’s this cheerful lad here.
6. Your niche is a moving target 🎯
Niches evolve and change over the years, so don’t let trying to define yours stop you from making videos. Keep making stuff, and keep iterating on your approach. For 99% of YouTubers that is the best way forward.
7. You don’t need 100,000s of views to make a living on YouTube 💰
This is one of the biggest misconceptions about YouTube. You need to start believing that if you have knowledge of any kind that others might want, you can make money sooner than you think. Being a good YouTuber is being a good entrepreneur. I wrote about one easy way to earn money in this newsletter here.
8. You don’t need expensive equipment to be successful 🎥
Beginners like to make the excuse that gear is holding them back. Most of the time it isn’t, and if you have a phone you can get everything else you need for less than a few hundred dollars. Making your videos look good is also getting easier and easier with AI. This video shows how you can use AI to make an entirely new background. If you have a phone and a decent mic, that is genuinely all you need (plus a tripod probably, leaning your phone against a stack of books is no fun for anyone).
9. Happiness isn’t found at 100,000 subscribers 😕
Damn, this one hits. I wrote it mostly for myself, because I still struggle with the arrival fallacy. This is the idea that when you arrive at some future achievement, you’ll finally be satisfied. But that feeling won’t last. The goalposts will shift to something else that you want, and you’ll start the cycle again.
10. Nothing is more important than doing the thing 💪
Did you read that properly?
Nothing is more important than doing the thing. Nothing.
Doing the thing means posting videos on your channel. That’s it. That’s doing the thing. No amount of ideation, analysis, writing or filming means anything if nothing ever gets posted.
Do 👏 the 👏 thing 👏
The Takeaway
Focusing on having the right beliefs is just as important as figuring out how to make a banger thumbnail, because limiting beliefs are probably holding you back more than anything else. They certainly do for me.
Let me know if you have any beliefs that you’re struggling with by commenting on this post or replying to this email :)
Have an epic week making videos!
Tintin 🧑💻
The YouTube Tin
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To be read with love, care and retention.
I really loved all of these tips! I am planning on starting a YouTube channel in the near future and I know it can be a struggle to start from ground zero. Thank you for sharing your insight!