😨 Behind The Scenes of a 5m Subscriber Channel

How to YouTube #17

Hey YouTubers,

Today, I’m sharing a story about the reality of YouTube. No growth tactics, but hopefully some inspiration.

When I first joined Ali’s team in June of 2022, I had a lot of preconceptions about what it would be like behind the scenes of a 3m subscriber channel.

I’d had my own channel for about 9 months at that point, and I’d felt the pain of trying to learn a thousand new skills to grow it.

I assumed in Ali’s team that everything would be extremely organised and slick. I thought that they’d have everything figured out.

In particular, I thought they’d have all these unfair advantages that small YouTubers like me didn’t have.

Things like no background noise when filming, never accidentally recording an entire video out of focus, fast wifi, loads of SD cards and all the right equipment.

I quickly realised this wasn’t the case.

One issue I’d had filming at my house in London was that I lived next to a school. The kids were seemingly always in the playground, and whenever I filmed something, you could hear them screaming. It was immensely frustrating. They were ruining every video.

I couldn’t help but think “why me?”

I was trying so hard to grow my channel but I felt like there was nothing I could do about this particular problem.

In hindsight it was a beginner problem, and my brain couldn’t think creatively enough to figure out a solution (there were many).

But fast forward to my first filming session with Ali, and I realised that the team office in London was also in fact right next to a school. And the kids were always screaming.

They’d had the exact same problem that I had. I couldn’t believe it.

And they also had issues uploading stuff, recorded things out of focus, and had about 2 SD cards (seriously guys, cmon).

I’ve now been running the channel for almost 18 months, and I’ll let you in on another secret.

I press “publish” rather than “schedule” on more videos than I’d like to admit (or I sometimes sheepishly schedule them for about 30 minutes time…).

YouTube is hard for everyone.

There are the same types of problems across every single educational, talking head channel. The size of your audience is irrelevant, making content consistently is difficult.

What matters is the determination to figure out a solution. Not every video has to be 100% perfect. Not everything will go to plan.

You can complain and give up, or you can move on and take responsibility for your success.

Nothing else counts except uploading good videos for a long time.

The proof is in the pudding (I think that’s the right expression? The proof is in your pudding? Either way, the proof is definitely in someone’s pudding).

So what kind of YouTuber are you going to be?

The one who blames things outside their control, or the one who makes it work anyway?

Have an epic week making videos!

Tintin 🧑‍💻

The YouTube Tin

Here are a few more ways I can help you progress as a YouTuber:

1. 🍿 I have my own low lift YouTube channel so I can share more actionable insights and lessons to help you guys out.

2. 🐦 I also write on X posting more tips and behind the scenes content.

3. 📈 If you’re taking YouTube seriously and looking for more structured learning, you can check out The Part-Time YouTuber Academy. This is the course that Ali and the team run to help YouTubers start and grow their channels. It includes everything Ali learned growing his channel to 5m subscribers. You can find out more on this page.

4. 🚀 Or if you’re looking for even more support you can check out The Part-Time YouTuber Accelerator. This is the all the course material from the Academy, plus 12 months of support from Ali and the team. I don’t do 1:1 calls outside of work at the moment, but I do speak 1:1 with YouTubers every week inside the Accelerator, and it’s a lot of fun. You can find out more here.