4 business updates from February

How to YouTube #45

It’s been a busy past 5 weeks.

I’ve gone from idea, to sales, to product launch, to hiring.

At the start of February, I did not expect to be posting this pic on LinkedIn:

I’ve deliberately been moving faster than feels comfortable, and so far it’s working.

It’s another reminder why action is king.

And limiting beliefs can go to hell.

Here are 4 things I’m thinking about right now as it relates to the business:

1) I’m loving running a group coaching programme.

We’ve got 16 YouTubers in the first cohort of my new coaching programme The $100k YouTuber, focused on building businesses around their channels.

There’s all kinds of niches.

Painting, piano, software engineering, travel, 3D art and live sound.

It’s genuinely amazing to see so many incredible teachers educating the world in their unique way.

Everyone is in a very similar position. They’re getting views on YouTube, but figuring out how to build the business to six figures.

That’s what I love most about it. The focused nature of the group and the goal makes it a lot easier for me to deliver and for students to connect with each other.

And last week was the first week of the programme. I’m buzzing about the level of energy and action bias in the group already. Exciting things to come over the next 6 months.

(If you’re interested in being one of the next 15 YouTubers joining for cohort 2, join the waitlist by filling out this form here).

2) I’m creating less

I love writing and making videos.

But over the past few weeks, I’ve done less of that than I’d like. It’s been a lot of calls and operations trying to get this whole thing together.

And now the focus is building out the curriculum and making the programme as good as it can be.

So not much time for writing and creating. No bueno.

But my hope is that this up front effort leads to an amazing system that consistently gets results for future students, and becomes less time intensive for me than it is right now.

I’m in a phase of building right now, and a) it’s necessary and b) I’m enjoying it.

It’s a short term sacrifice for a longer term gain (hopefully 😅).

It’s the same mindset as growing a channel. Up front investment today, in the hope that it pays off down the line.

3) Hiring is a big unknown

I’ve made the big leap of deciding to hire someone full time, in person, in London to work alongside me.

There’s a sufficient amount of operations, customer success, sales and random stuff that needs doing to warrant this experiment.

And I don’t see myself leaving London any time soon, so I’ve opted for in person. I always loved working in person much more, and things get done quicker.

I could have gone for a virtual assistant type of thing, but it didn’t feel like the kind of business I wanted to build.

The plan is that it allows me to do more of these three things:

1. Deliver an amazing experience to students in the programme

2. Write great emails

3. Make great videos

That’s it.

Those are the 3 things I both want and need to be doing in my business.

(and it’s probably the same for you too 👀).

4) Productivity is about doing less

It feels like I’ve managed to squeeze in a lot in recent weeks.

The secret sauce is that I’ve been focused on one thing at a time. I’ve taken the idea of “doing less, better” insanely seriously.

Right now, I would love to consistently be making videos helping YouTubers.

That’s my whole schtick obviously.

But it’s too much.

I can only afford to spend time making my programme amazing and writing these emails.

I don’t have the headspace, time or energy for videos as well.

This is the biggest takeaway for YouTubers.

If your big problem is building your audience on YouTube, then you shouldn’t be doing anything else apart from that.

You need to learn to make great videos (and titles and thumbnails) for your target audience.

And do nothing else.

Don’t also try to make a course, run a podcast, post on Instagram, send a weekly newsletter and launch a second channel.

Focus on one problem at a time.

That’s the number one lesson that’s helped me have a great start to this year. By far.

And if your problem is figuring out your niche (which is 99% of beginners) then don’t focus on getting views. That’s not your bottleneck!

Your bottleneck is knowing which videos to make in the first place.

So make 50+ videos to figure out what you like making and how you can help people.

Things.

Move.

Faster.

When.

You.

Solve.

One.

Problem.

At.

A.

Time.

Hopefully, that sinks in.

Tintin 🫡

P.s.

A while back I was interviewed on the 1of10 podcast.

I was still working for Ali at the time, and the host Richard asked me all about my role, YouTube and advice for beginners.

If you’re looking for a YouTube pod to get into, there might be an interesting nugget or two.

You can check it out on YouTube here.