5 Steps to Fail-proof Your Channel (Full Guide)

Want to know how to grow a YouTube channel, predictably? After reviewing and helping 1000s of channels, here is exactly what I’d do.

Check out my YouTube system Project 24! https://channelmakers.com/go

Chapters:
0:00 5 Pillars
0:36 1. Actions — Core Indicator of Success
2:22 Real Channel Analysis — Small Channel
6:26 Real Channel Analysis — Medium Channel
9:41 How to Find Your Next Actions
11:50 2. Long-Term Strategies — More Than Goals
15:11 Transitioning Into Work
17:12 3. Finding Your Channel Roadmap
19:30 4. Pivoting Correctly — Hard to Master
23:56 Examples of Good/Bad Pivots
26:11 The Pivoting Tool
29:17 How to Use Channel Focus Correctly
30:42 5. Audience Focus — Often Overlooked

Got something to share with me (feedback or an interesting YouTube find)? Go here: https://airtable.com/shre0hEysXMEeEz9g

#growonyoutube #youtubestrategy

Legal Notice: Channel Makers is a product of Income School LLC. The “Channel Makers” name and O logo mark are trademarks of Income School LLC. Income School LLC is a limited liability company headquartered in Idaho, USA. Results mentioned not typical. No business is guaranteed to succeed, in fact, most new businesses will fail. It takes hard work, skill, and time for a new business to grow. The name “Project 24” is not a guarantee of success in 24 months, but refers to those who have a goal of creating an online business in 24 months. Some will succeed, others will not—just like any business.

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you know with so many videos about how

to grow a youtube channel i am

constantly surprised at how little it’s

talked about

how to keep the youtube channel once

you’ve grown it and how to keep it

growing on a consistent basis so for

this video i wanted to show you what i

would do my best strategies for creating

a fail-proof youtube channel and i’ll be

offering something during this video

that i’m super excited to share with you

so let’s get going all right and there

you are howdy howdy everyone nate here

so what makes a strong youtube channel

it is these five pillars so the very

first thing that makes your channel

invincible is investing in the right

actions now what do i mean by that i

mean taking the actions that lead to the

results that you want on your channel

because you can’t control the results

the subscriber count the income you make

all of those things but you can control

the actions and get this this is gonna

sound stupidly simple but there’s a

reason why i’m explaining this first the

more of these actions that you take

the more quickly you will get the

results you’re looking for so it stands

to reason that the more time that you

spend taking actions that lead to your

desired result you’ve got your goal

going on you know here’s you here’s your

goal the more of the actions you can

take along the way that aren’t

meandering that are actually on track

leading to that goal the more quickly

your channel will grow so in order to

take more of the right actions and

invest in those right actions i would

distilled it down into my beautiful

emoji here of clarity you see the more

clear that you are on where you are

right now as well as the more clear you

are on where you want to be those two

things alone will dramatically improve

your ability to take right actions so

what does this actually look like in

action there’s one person i can think of

that knows this perhaps better than

anyone else let me go get her so anna is

in charge of the entire project 24

community and in fact when you join

she’s one of the first people that you

meet she is super awesome

but you’re welcome but for purposes of

this video and i was thinking we could

look at a few project 24 members

channels and kind of look at what

they’re doing well as well as kind of

analyze these principles that we’re

going to cover in this video yeah that

sounds awesome let’s do it awesome let’s

do it are you have you been building uh

making packages yeah i’ve just been

building some packages for our members

no big deal i’m excited for whoever gets

167 167 right there look out for that

okay so first channel this is cat and

dog um this i love this channel it’s all

about her her german shepherd the other

channel is airplane academy now this is

charlie uh he’s been doing this for a

couple years and in fact i i think you

knew this i talked with charlie a while

ago i interviewed him way back when he

was just having a video it was just

starting to take off and he had a video

go viral for his channel

and since then it’s been fun to see the

channel growing since then but let’s

talk about what’s going on with these

channels i asked them a few different

questions and they got back to me with

some good answers here so cat one of her

biggest goals is to get 100 000 euros

per year in the next two years so that’s

an awesome goal and she’s been doing a

really good job this channel by the way

has only been going for about five

months and she’s already over

1 000 subscribers so she’s well on her

way yeah um and you and i got monetized

yeah you and i nate have been both

helping out cat and talking her through

quite a bit so with this channel what’s

interesting to me because we’re talking

in terms of building a strong channel um

this one’s interesting to me because she

is rocking thumbnails anybody watching

this take note of how kat is doing

thumbnails she is dominating thumbnails

like this is perfect now those are two

things that i wanted to address we were

talking about here one is the titles for

the videos this is a pivot i would take

as well as let’s speak to in terms of

building a strong channel we want to

reach 100 000 euros per year let’s talk

on those two things so the first one

titles the immediate thing that’s got me

a little bit concerned for the growth of

this channel is that it’s not

necessarily easy to be found with these

titles and you were i know you were

mentioning that yeah with having a

pretty new channel these titles look

mostly like interest type titles which

is okay

but of course in the beginning you’re

trying to get uh traffic from kind of

all over which also includes search

traffic for sure so some of the things

that you and i had just discussed nate

is trying to make these a little bit

more of a combination

of

like a search type title something that

the algorithm is really going to know

what the video is about

as well as making it really interesting

for the viewer to click on this one my

dog loves being brushed my issue with

this title right here on this video is

not that it’s not like

you know it’s oh it’s a description of

the video but it doesn’t necessarily

tell me that it’s going to piggyback on

other trends on youtube so taking this

title and changing it into something

like will my dog let me brush them for

20 minutes straight that’s that’s

already taking a bit of a different

thing or if there’s a challenge a trend

going around piggybacking on that

challenge and something like with this

search element um dog brushing challenge

my dog couldn’t take it or something

like that so it’s it’s we’re sprucing it

up adding a little juiciness to the

title so let’s talk to the second goal

here 100 000 euros if cat were to come

to me and say this is my goal i would

say first of all we need to get as many

eyeballs as possible on this content so

i need to tap into all of these elements

we were talking about with titles here

and then my next play is once i’ve got

the audience and as i’m building the

audience sponsors if you’re doing

sponsored videos and you’re charging

about two to five thousand euros per

sponsored video that’s really not

unrealistic by the way it is really

simple at that point if you’re

publishing regularly to hit that

milestone i think cat can totally do it

yeah absolutely and the cool thing about

her channel is she is on the right track

as far as having those videos already in

place for that type of sponsor so if you

actually sort by most popular she’s got

some videos that are already really

starting to pop like this one oh yeah

with 250 000 views just four months ago

if she asks a sponsor or proposes the

idea to them and shows them that she

actually already has the audience and

the potential for all those eyeballs to

watch her videos a sponsor is gonna

really like that idea all right let’s

talk airplane academy now this channel

is all about educating people about

airplanes and he’s trying to encourage

people to

buy an airplane to to experience it more

because a lot of people think that it’s

not possible but let’s look at his goals

what did he say he’s wanting with his

channel he wants to continue and find

the real pain points that new pilots go

through

and he also wants to do more like

affiliate offers in his videos so when

i’m looking at this we’re trying to

approach

new people that are trying to help their

pain points right that are learning

aviation but then also kind of get more

affiliate earnings so there’s one thing

that i think he should do that will

dramatically help his channel build it

stronger in the long term and let me

show you what i mean here this one this

was published 10 days ago as of

recording this exact steps to buying

your first airplane now when you

watching this when you look at that you

think that’s awesome like it’s it’s a

guide video it’s a video to teach me i’m

a beginner these are my exact steps

here’s my issue it’s only 10 minutes 10

and a half minutes long here’s here’s

the thing you would think you should

just make your videos as short as

possible but audience perception before

going to this video if i’m a beginner

you can bet i’m going to be researching

the heck out of everything if i want to

if i’m actually going to buy an airplane

and so this video needs to be longer 20

to 30 minutes at least because the

perception of value before even watching

the video a lot of your videos of course

like nate said are gonna be shorter you

know that eight minute average six

minutes but this one like you said can

be longer because this is the main meat

of his channel buying your first

airplane as a new pilot or maybe an

experienced pilot but people want to

soak this information up before they

make that huge purchase so they’re

willing to invest their time and watch

that long of a video this could also be

a bigger video on the channel that can

relate to other smaller videos

that kind of continue that journey for

the viewer if they’re going to want to

watch this big one they’re going to want

to know all the other little steps that

go along with buying an airplane exactly

and we’re realizing he’s doing dang good

on his titles like his titles are

awesome i love how approachable they are

this one man this would have made my

pilot license so much easier license is

so much easier that’s a very

approachable good interesting title

but

i think in a bit we’re actually leaving

by the wayside some of his search

traffic potential search traffic so this

one exact steps to buying your first

airplane that’s great

um but

this is a bit of a miss my take on this

it’s a bit of a miss because it needs to

be longer but also the title could be a

little bit even more

tailored towards search what is somebody

searching um how to buy my first

airplane so this is seven steps or how

to buy your first airplane seven steps

or something like that i think we need

to tweak these titles if we’re again

going back to charlie’s goals here if

the goal is to help new

pilots we need to get found first but

search i think is something that will

really help this channel get to the next

level all right so i think it’s time to

say goodbye thank you thank you anna

thank you so how would go about

explaining this would be with a visual

you see if you have over here

where you want where you are right now

right and you have over here

see if i get this right we have over

here where you want to be there’s

something there’s some sequence of

events that need to happen in order to

get where you want to be the right

actions you need to take that that get

you the desired result now remember here

we’re not just focusing on the result as

like that is our goal because we can’t

directly control the result what we’re

focusing on is the actions that lead to

that result but one of the biggest

issues i see channel makers making is

they’ll look at this and they’ll they’ll

think well i sort of want to be over

here they don’t necessarily have clarity

i sort of want to be over here but then

we see all this other stuff

all this stuff everywhere else that we

need to be doing in order to get here

and when we focus on all of this that’s

when we start having breakdowns and we

start having a lot of issues because

it’s all of it rather than the next step

so what i’m looking for here is here’s

where you are

right now this is where you are right

now this is where you want to be what’s

the very next action what is the very

next series of actions that will take

you right here and then right here and

then right here and then right here to

each of these milestones in the growth

of your channel so then this becomes a

game of what’s your next step

do it and ignore everything else

literally that is what i’m inviting you

to do here what is your next step you

you keep your goals you know where you

want to go but the very next step

what is that do it and then repeat and

repeat and repeat and you’ll find when

you do that enough you get the results

you’re looking for so what i want you to

do is stop saying it’s too simple dang

it

i want you to prove it to me i’m

seriously whatever your mind is saying

oh whatever nathan just explained it’s

way too simple

literally this is how to get the results

you’re looking for invest in the very

next action do the very next step that

will get you to where you’re headed

prove it to me prove that you’re going

to be different than 99 of people who

set out and say they’re gonna make a

youtube channel be successful prove it

by actually doing the actions okay

enough of the rant back to the

blackboard and we’re back to the

blackboard for our second pillar here i

want you to do something that you can do

long term now again i gotta stop you

before that sounds stupidly obvious but

really

how often have you thought or you ask

yourself this question what’s the

expiration date of this channel idea

how long can i

do this

with my current trajectory what i’m

currently doing with my channel how long

can i do this another question i’d be

asking myself is am i wanting the result

that this channel if played out will

give me am i wanting that and not just

the positive happy like oh money and you

know i get to share what i love it’s

also am i wanting the amount of time

it’s going to take am i wanting the

amount of work and or expanding and

learning how to delegate and build a

team and basically create a youtube

business am i wanting those things and

if i’m not wanting those things are the

alternatives the smaller options or the

different ways of of building the

channel in the long run am i okay with

that the point i’m trying to make here

is that after looking at thousands and

thousands of youtube channels i noticed

a single thing that is a big determining

factor especially in the starting phases

of a youtube channel and here it is are

you ready it’s are you already doing

what you’re considering making a channel

about if you’re not it’s going to be a

bigger transition for you it’s going to

be tougher okay so i decided to go to my

chair rather than my desk in order to

describe this to you because this one is

a bit more soft skill-esque because i

see many cases this questioning yourself

of can i do this long-term being a

question of motivation and where your

motivation comes from because really

when we boil it down how i would

describe success or the accomplishment

of something that we look to get i would

i would describe it this way it’s

discipline of action over enough time

and it actually has very little to do

with motivation in fact a while back i

saw a thread of someone was asking how

do you have the motivation to work out

all the time and be healthy and all the

responses were it’s nothing to do with

motivation it’s about discipline so

discipline of action over enough time

will be a factor whenever you’re growing

your youtube channel and get this action

precedes

motivation most of the time so the

importance of this pillar something you

can do long term is

are you at the point when you reach the

point it’s not if it’s when you reach

the point where you’re feeling like i

don’t want to do this anymore are you

going to choose to continue acting and

wait for the motivation to come it’s

tough and i get it really really well

there’s probably things going on in your

life right now that make it really

difficult to be doing what you’re doing

and if they aren’t right now they

probably will come so the principle i’m

trying to teach here is in those moments

we’ve got to stick to those actions and

hold the right actions over enough time

so that we can get those results even

when the quote-unquote motivation is

just simply not there and that’s when in

those times you need that deeper level

of motivation it’s the thing that pulls

you through and gets you doing those

actions when your motivation is up here

or when it’s down here and actually it

reaches a point with every channel when

you realize it needs to become work and

i don’t mean like bad work but it needs

to make the transition into your channel

being seen as actual work and there’s a

way to do that and you know what you

know who i need back to help explain

this anna anna you’re here

okay so what i wanted to talk about here

is you’ve worked with a lot of people um

in the community helping them work one

of the biggest moments for a youtube

channel is when it starts becoming you

start realizing oh my gosh this is real

what does that transition look like

what’s kind of the sequence of events

for transitioning from okay this is just

a hobby into this is solid yeah so the

first thing is you’ve got to learn the

language you’ve gotta learn youtube

you’ve gotta learn how to be on camera

of course and produce videos

consistently and that leads into just

practicing basically and that’s one of

the hardest hurdles for people to get

over i think is

they watch the analytics a lot and and

they’re watching for growth but really

what they need to do is just continually

publish videos and they’re getting

better at the same time being on camera

and with their production yeah no and i

love that and because those actions

naturally for you lead into results you

start getting results with your channel

you start saying oh my gosh this is real

like

i’m making money i’m not only monetized

i’m actually beyond monetization i’m

making money in other ways and at that

point

this is when i would say you need to

start systematizing you need to start

doing what you do on a regular basis and

turn it into something that can be

systemized so it’s easier to replicate

because the very next thing is

delegating yes at some point you’re

going gonna have more work than you can

do as a sole person and you’re gonna

need to get some help

for those tasks that are more

automated that you continue to do so you

can work more

on your business and not inside your

business if that makes sense absolutely

so that’s awesome uh now it’s the

obligatory i need to now ask the guest

in the video uh to say boop the like

button

can you have have everybody boop the

like button on this video boop the like

button

thank you everybody and if this video is

being helpful to you thus far i would

appreciate if you would book the like

button so that it can spread to more

people and here we are on to the third

pillar that is investing in the right

help we talk about investing in the

right actions but what if you don’t know

what actions to take how do you get the

right help to know where you are it’s

the bird’s eye view the the third party

to understand where you are with your

channel right now well there’s a few

simple options here one is we can just

figure it out on our own you know kind

of scrap it together a lot of people do

that all the time and a lot of people

are successful with that the second is

you can find the right help the help

that actually has the road map you’re

looking for or the third is you can do a

combination of of all three of them and

so to that point before we move back to

my desk i wanted to show you how i would

distill this principle down to a single

thing it’s investing in the right help

right if i were to distill it down to a

single thing it would be what’s your

roadmap where do you want to be what’s

the destination you want to be at and

who has that roadmap to help you get

there so here we are back at the desk

and i wanted to talk more in depth on

this and back to this visual i drew here

earlier now where i often see a huge

disconnect is that oftentimes we’re over

here and then we set our goal and it’s

so massive but we don’t necessarily have

a plan or a road map to get to where we

want to go and so what that leads to a

lot of people doing is they’ll start off

from where they are they’re over here

and then they kind of go this way and

they kind of go and they kind of go and

they kind of go and they kind of go and

what you’re seeing here is it’s

literally going to take more time to get

to the same results because we’re kind

of figuring it out on our own and like i

said earlier that’s not necessarily an

issue and for most people that’s just

fine but what i’m trying to point out

here is that you yes you watching this

your time is valuable and so when i’m

talking here about investing in the

right help i’m talking about the right

roadmap that shortens the amount of time

that it takes to get from where you are

to where you want to be and so being 100

transparent here i have a roadmap for

you

i literally have a program it’s called

project 24 that’s built into an entire

series of phases where does this come

from nate well i built out the entire

system after observing thousands and

thousands of channels from beginning to

very very large and starting to see some

patterns there’s anything that i feel

like i have a talent for it’s seeing

patterns and understanding okay so if

this happens a number of times if i

collect enough data i can start to see

what works and what doesn’t so i built

that into the roadmap and here we are

back at the blackboard for the fourth

pillar and that is pivoting well or

pivoting correctly so what we need in

order to pivot correctly on our channel

is we need ways to gather the right

feedback i’m going to explain a bit more

of that here in a moment at my desk and

the types of feedback you gather

determine the types of pivots that you

can do there’s three different types of

pivots that i see channels making the

first is with the audience intent or the

reasons why they watch your channel for

one channel it could start out your

channel could be starting out for

example everything about a specific

video game answering all their questions

but then it might pivot into watching

you play video games you see those are

very different intents coming to get an

answer versus coming to be entertained

the second type of pivot is in channel

topic this is probably the one that most

people think about what’s the topic i

was talking about cameron photography

gear and now i’m talking about travel

that is a topic shift and then the third

type of pivot i’m looking at is in the

content delivery style am i showing my

face versus not showing my face um am i

using vlogs or am i sitting down static

talking head type of videos and also i’d

be looking at the locations that i’m

filming at or the locations that i’m

bringing the viewers to throughout my

videos okay so on this topic of making

sure that you find the right data

sources for your pivots i want to make

sure that you avoid some of the biggest

pitfalls that i see happening with

channels like yours you see what we’re

looking for with our feedback sources is

this you and i need to make sure that

wherever we’re going for to get our

suggestions for whether we should pivot

and how we should pivot are good sources

so these are the three primary locations

that i would look for to get reasonable

feedback the first one is the right data

now this oftentimes takes years of

training to understand which data and

analytics and the revenue that you’re

you’re garnering from your youtube

channel which data is the most important

to listen to i’m looking forward to this

the data that pushes the results i’m

looking for so if i am looking to gain

some subscribers and i see that a

certain amount of watch time within a

given video tends to show a higher

subscribe rate for that video then what

does that mean that means the

subscribers is the result i can’t

directly control whether people click

subscribe or not right but what i can do

is i can control how good i produce the

video to increase the watch time i hope

you’re following here so which data to

listen to depends on what results you’re

looking to get out of it and spoiler

alert here in most cases if you have a

very small channel we don’t have enough

data to actually look at the larger your

channel is the more views your channel

gets the more data we have to make

actionable decisions on which leads us

to this next thing people now

this is not just any person or your

random neighbor or the dude down the

street that that has no idea how to

build a youtube channel

what you’re looking for here is first of

all trusted advisors if someone like

nate myself if i’ve become a trusted

advisor based on you try applying things

you start seeing oh nate knows what he’s

talking about okay then it’s potential

that he’ll know what he’s talking about

with other topics that i haven’t tested

as much so that’s the first source and

the second source is actually your

audience because the types of feedback

and again this is all about asking the

right questions the type of feedback you

get from your audience can really

determine the direction you decide to

take based on a reasonable amount of

data or numbers coming in and a

reasonable amount of responses and

qualified responses this third one is

you and i had to put this in here

because i feel like in a lot of cases we

overlook it we feel we don’t have enough

confidence in ourselves to say that we

know what we’re talking about enough to

make a reasonable decision now i get it

we’re emotional beings and most

decisions if not all decisions are based

off of an emotion in this case i want

you to trust yourself a little bit i

want you to with these other factors is

why i put this as number three on this

list with the data with the trusted

advisors the people around you and your

audience i want you to trust yourself

also if you’re feeling like things

should be going a certain way to go with

it to go with your gut and test it out

because the big thing i’m looking to

save you from with this reasonable

feedback loop here is the dangers of bad

feedback you see too little data and

non-experts or non-qualified people even

if they’re an expert in something does

not mean that they’re an expert on

growing your youtube channel so what we

need here is an understanding of what it

actually looks like to make correct

pivots on your channel and you know what

we need also we need another anna moment

so i’m gonna go see if i can find anna

all right so let’s talk about this so i

wanted to go back to those channels we

were addressing earlier right um what

were moments that they pivoted on their

channel um okay yeah so with charlie’s

channel he’s been doing this for about

two years again

but what i noticed in the very beginning

i watched a couple of his videos it

seems like he

posted videos about just the journey of

him flying so really just

he decided to fly in idaho for example

which is funny because we are in idaho

but he chose a flight and he just showed

the entire thing kind of from start to

finish it from the pilot seat which is

great it’s a great perspective but it’s

um doesn’t have a lot of variety as far

as production value yeah yeah and so

what he’s done is started to do

more shots more of a storyline and of

course um become more targeted to his

audience yeah and the other thing i’m

seeing here is you’ve become much more

clear and this is for you watching here

the pivots one of the most important

pivots you can make is become much more

clear on who your audience really is and

charlie has been nailing it because in

the past it was just kind of all over

the place showing stuff his thumbnails

needed a little help also they were a

little generic looking he’s definitely

been dialing that in but i think the

biggest thing i’m seeing is who his

audience is like he’s been nailing that

so with cat’s channel what are you

seeing what are you seeing her do

yeah so she obviously is figuring out

who her audience is right someone who’s

very

passionate about dogs german shepherds

in particular this is becoming kind of a

lot of entertainment type content like

we were mentioning earlier she can

really piggyback off of those trends and

that kind of viral content so she’s

totally getting that and she’s also done

a really good job with her thumbnails in

such a short period of time she’s making

them very interesting yeah and the other

big thing i was seeing cat do a big very

beneficial pivot is she’s starting to

understand

where to put the different contents so

she has a separate shorts channel and

then this content and which goes on

which channel so it’s again actually

matching the right audience with the

right content but she started to figure

out what kind of behavior does the

audience

exhibit with this channel versus the

shorts channel and she’s she’s doing

awesome with that and now i wanted to

share another simple tool again this may

feel super simple but i challenge you to

prove it and see if it works for you so

it’s a simple tool to determine whether

or not you should make a pivot so here’s

what i would do i pull out a piece of

paper or you could do it on your phone

and do this i would take your piece of

paper and i would draw a line up here

and then a line down the middle so

you’ve got a big t going on here and

then at the very top you’re going to

write

the pivot you’re considering you’re

writing the pivot you’re considering

then on this side you’re writing four

and then on this side you’re writing

against

so then what you’re doing at this point

is you’re writing this is the pivot i’m

considering making with my channel what

are all the arguments for it and you

write them down here what are all the

arguments against it the reasons against

making this pivot or this change and

here is where the ultra secret sauce

comes in from nate here i want you to

look at these two sites don’t

overanalyze it i mean give it a good

amount of thought and consideration but

look at these two sites and determine

which one is worst or another way to

look at is which one do you like the

least and then do the other one now the

reason i say that is because it’s easy

to get caught up in the world of well

which one’s better when in fact it can

be very simple to say what we don’t like

it’s simple but again i’m challenging

you to do it prove it and see how it

works for you and we’re back at the

blackboard you remember me talking about

something i was excited to share at the

beginning well this is it i’ve already

sort of spoiled it a little bit in one

of these other principles but i have a

youtube system called project 24 where i

teach you the entire roadmap to building

a successful youtube channel and i gotta

speak to this because for most people

it’s the missing link for them for these

three reasons one they’re lacking

structure they don’t know the next step

to invest in to avoid going like this

while they’re progressing towards their

desired goals in project 24 i have an

entire phase system to walk you through

exactly i don’t care where your

channel’s starting here’s where you are

right now these are the most important

next steps to take the next thing is

clarity and the knowledge of where you

are with your channel when we’re talking

about you know where are you right now

and where do you want to be we can get

pretty clear on where we want to be but

how valuable is it for most people

including yourself to know oh this is

exactly where my channel is right now so

i know the very next things to focus on

and then the third thing is the right

help i have an awesome community

man i love the project 24 community

people are in their posting all the time

every five minutes it’s very active and

also when i’m editing this i’m going to

include a few screen recordings of what

i’m describing here if you go to

channelmakers.com there’s a video on

there where i just open the curtain up

and i show you behind the scenes of what

it looks like it’s a living system it’s

not a you get in there dumped and it’s

the same static thing forever i do my

best to absolutely update it all the

time so you can see all of that on

channelmakers.com i’m going to get to

this last pillar so go ahead and go to

channel makers after you watch this so

my watch time is not awful and everybody

leaving the video right now but that’s

where to find it now let’s go on to this

last pillar here this is your audience

focus this is one of again one of the

most overlooked things i see in building

a strong youtube channel but because

it’s so overlooked i wanted to speak to

it on a bit more of a personal level

what i mean with this but first let me

explain all of this hula that’s going on

over here this is how i would break it

down these are in percentages so we’ve

got the right actions about 25 you’re

focusing on this doing something you can

do long term this one’s about 10 this

one’s a bit smaller because usually it

comes down to a decision a realization

of clarity and saying yeah this is

something i can do long term great now

i’m good finding and investing in the

right help for your success is big but

it doesn’t overcome everything which is

why i put it at 25 here pivoting well

this one is another big chunk of 25

because if you know how to do this well

my friend your channel is never going to

die and then for this last one i put at

about 15 right here because it is

important in its core and central and

it’s kind of a baseline for everything

else but again it’s not something that

you necessarily spend a lot of time

focusing on and then i put this last

thing here the number of videos because

one of the biggest questions i get from

people is well how many videos do i need

to publish before it’s successful now

you know in general i say publish at

least 100 before you know like yeah i

like youtube or not however the

principle here is you need to publish

enough videos

so that it’s enough now that sounds kind

of convoluted but what i’m meaning here

is if you were better at some of these

things before starting a channel or if

you’re currently better at really strong

at one of these things and not so strong

at the others it will take less time and

consequently less videos to reach the

point that you’re looking to get to with

your channel if you’re a total beginner

at all of these things it’s going to

take more time and that is okay and for

the final pillar we’re back here in my

chair and you know what that means i

want to talk about caring about your

audience on a deep level now you might

not have been expecting this in a more

strategy centric video which this is but

let’s be honest there are very few

people yourself myself included who can

really build a fail-proof youtube

channel without having some sort of

focus on the audience what i mean here

is what is it about your audience that

you’re focused on in helping them you

see i heard a story a while back it’s

possible it was just an urban myth i i

tried to find the story before recording

this but it went something like there

was a broadway actor someone on the

stage in broadway that did the same show

for 20 years straight the same show

almost every single night for 20 years

straight and the time came when people

would ask him how are you able to do

that because

that holding that level of focus and

commitment it was he was good every

single night for 20 years holding that

level of focus can be extremely taxing

especially when it feels that repetitive

and the story goes they interviewed him

and asked what did you do to do that he

said well i made a small hole or i found

a small hole in the curtain of the stage

and every night as the audience was

assembling or gathering in the

auditorium i would look through that

tiny hole in the curtain and i would

remind myself i would tell myself

this is their first time

this is the first time they’re seeing

this show so i’m going to give it to

them like that you see there will reach

a point or multiple points for you or i

as we are building a strong channel and

we’re doing something to share that we

enjoy doing that we’ll also need to go

deep in understanding why we’re doing it

and who we are doing it for and one of

my biggest motivators for doing this

channel and project 24 and everything

i’m doing is because i love seeing

people take something that they’re

excited about that they’re good at that

they enjoy doing and finding a way to

finally share it with the world if

they’re they’re doing it currently to

take it to the next level i just get

pumped up by that i love that that is

one of the biggest things that keeps me

going and doing what i am doing i’m

going to invite you to check out

project24 at channelmakers.com just go

see just go look at the videos see

behind the scenes decide if it’s a match

for what you are looking for if it’s the

right roadmap the right support that you

need for growing your channel and you

know what else we haven’t had an anna

moment for a while i think it’s time to

bring anna back in here anna i know

you’re around here somewhere why should

they go to channelmakers.com because i

update the milestones and i want to send

him a plaque so you heard her see you

there