How YouTube changed my life at only 200 subscribers

6 years ago, I published my first video on YouTube. It was a short 3-minute clip about comparison despair and how we don't take action because we compare ourselves to other people and where we expect ourselves to be. That video was more of a message for myself than anything else, but it's what got me started on YouTube. When I started, I had this dream of being this big-time YouTuber, and I pushed it off for more than a year because I didn't think that I was ready. I thought I needed better equipment, lighting, and confidence to be on camera. And again, that was 6 years ago, which is crazy for me to say because I figured that I would have more than the 2,500 subscribers subscribers that I have at the time of this recording. And even still, I would recommend YouTube to anybody for their own personal growth, especially for an entrepreneur or content creator looking to grow a business. Because when I hit 200 subscribers, my life completely changed forever because of YouTube. Today I'm going to share with you 3 things. First, what happened when I hit 200 subscribers and how did that milestone change my life forever? I'm also going to give you my honest advice if you are a new creator who's feeling overwhelmed, behind, or like you're too late to get started. And I'm also going to share what to do if you've been showing up on YouTube for a while now but haven't seen growth or results that you had hoped for. So whether you're at 10 subscribers or 10,000, there's no such thing as failing on YouTube, and I wanna show you why. So what actually happened when I hit 200 subscribers? Well, when I started my YouTube channel, it was really to promote myself and grow my coaching business. But honestly, I had zero strategy. I was just kind of shooting from the hip, uploading whatever I felt like. Half the time, I was just making videos to help myself, hoping that it would resonate with somebody else out there, and that was the problem. I didn't really have an audience in mind. I was just trying to help everybody with every topic that I can think of, which meant that I was really connecting with nobody. So eventually I got more serious. I invested in some YouTube courses and mentorship, and I started thinking about who I was actually trying to help and why they should care or listen to me. And that is when YouTube completely changed my life. At just 200 subscribers, somebody reached out to me. They had watched one of my videos. They loved my perspective and my teaching style, and they asked if I could help them with the topic that I had made the video on. That one video landed me a $4,000 coaching client. And at that time I was also building digital products and setting up funnels. So people were joining my email list and some started to actually buy my stuff. So it was just 200 subscribers. I was making anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 a month. And now I get to work with people all around the world. I wake up to random sales in my inbox and I've built a 6-figure online business while working under 20 hours a week, primarily due to YouTube. And no, my YouTube channel isn't massive. It's tiny. At the time of this recording, I have less than 3,000 subscribers, but I'm living proof that you do not need a big audience to make money from YouTube. You don't need rely on AdSense, and you don't need to chase sponsorships. You just need a clear message, a solid offer, and a simple system that does the heavy lifting for you. Most creators who are on YouTube or have been in it, who have way bigger audiences than I even do, they're just chasing followers. They're trying to make money, but they're not really making the money. I built my business by chasing problems that I could solve, and that led to legitimate income with YouTube. So when you stop obsessing over going viral and making every video so perfect to be the one that completely blows up your channel, and instead you start focusing on real value for real people, that's when the income really starts to show up and you really build an audience on this platform. Now, if you want to build a system like I have that allows you to start making $2,000 to $5,000 or more per month without needing a huge audience, I have a free training that I'll put as the first link in the description that's going to walk you through the entire process. I'll show you how to build great products, how to sell them on autopilot, and how to drive traffic 24/7 whether you're working or not. I hold nothing back in this training. It's designed to help you and shortcut the learning curve so that you know what to do, what to build, and by the end of it, you will already have a solid product, a system, and know what kind of traffic to be driving to that system. To watch the training, click on the first link in the description, or you can always visit profityourknowledge.com/masterclass. Now, if you're just getting started with YouTube, here's my honest advice to you. Before you ever hit record, get clear on who your channel is for and why they should care. What specific person are you trying to help and what big result are you going to help them get? That's all you really need to know. To get started with YouTube. And don't get too fixated on this. You can always make adjustments as you go, but YouTube is really smart. It's literally built to put the right video in front of the right viewer at the right time. It's not designed to bring viewers to your channel for you. It is focusing on the audience. And instead of algorithm, you focus on audience. So when you can focus on a specific group of people and a specific problem that they have and make videos that solve that specific problem, it's gonna make it a lot easier for YouTube to recommend your videos and your channel to the right people, but it's your job to make it easy for YouTube to do that. Every person scrolling on YouTube is looking to solve a problem. They're looking to learn something or be entertained. They're not thinking about you, they're thinking about themselves. So the more focused your channel is on a specific viewer, the easier it becomes for YouTube to recommend your content to them. You're not just uploading random videos, you are building a library that is designed to solve a specific problem for a specific person. This is a great analogy that I learned from one of my mentors, Ed Lawrence. So imagine your channel as this umbrella and that we have a horizontal line right in the middle. At the top of the umbrella, we have the big problem or result that your viewers care about and know that they have. In other words, this is what your channel is about. It's how we position our channel. Now underneath that umbrella, we have what the viewer needs to get that big result. In other words, these are all of your videos. So your videos are attacking this one big problem that your channel is promising that it helps people solve. Now if you're getting started with your channel, you have to think about what specific person you're helping and what big result you're helping them get. So fill out this formula: I help specific person get big result. Don't overthink this. Keep it really simple and clear. Here's some examples to get your wheels turning. I help garden lovers grow vegetables faster. I help men land more dates using apps. I help women grow Etsy stores. I help online coaches break past 6 figures. Mario Tomek is an awesome example at this. He helps men get lean and in shape and stay lean and in shape. And all of his videos are solving that one problem, and it's very clear that it's for men, but also it's helping them get lean. He has his shirt off in most every single thumbnail, and the dude is jacked. But this is a great example of how to position a YouTube channel. So going back to our umbrella analogy, let's imagine that we chose the niche of helping men land more dates using apps. That is why people come to our channel. So men who are interested in getting more dates with apps and mastering online dating are gonna find our channel and say, yes, this is exactly what I need. So that is why guys come to our channel, and our videos need to solve that big problem by solving the small problems that surround the big problem. So for example, we can make a video that is the number one mistake men make on dating apps and how to fix it, how to take profile pictures that women swipe right on, 5 texting mistakes that are killing your chances of getting a date, how to write a dating app bio that gets you matches step by step. Can you see how we are attacking this big problem of helping men land more dates with apps with each individual video? Everything that you post should live under that umbrella. Some videos are going to flop, some will slowly chug along, and some are gonna randomly blow up 6 months after you upload. But if you keep showing up, keep solving real problems for a specific type of person, and keep showing your value, your audience will find you. And that's how you're gonna grow on YouTube. Now, if you've already been showing up on YouTube for a while now, maybe it's been months or even years, and you're feeling frustrated because the numbers aren't where you want them to be. Here's what I would tell you: don't stop. There's no such thing as failing on YouTube. I have been posting for 6 years, and creating this video, I realized that and was like, oh my gosh, that is crazy. Most of those years I got crickets, but every upload was a lesson, and it still is. Every post gives me feedback, and that is the game. You publish, you learn, and then you adapt. In order to grow a YouTube channel, you have to post videos and then study what's working and what's not working, and when you find what's working, double down on it. My two most popular videos followed the same formula in my thumbnail, and that's how I saw that there is a pattern in these types of videos or this type of thumbnail. Once I spotted the pattern, I leaned into it hard, and you should too. But you still have to make sure that you are still clear on who you're making videos for. That part never changes. You could have a video that really takes off, but it was actually for a different type of audience. If that's not the audience that you are trying to help and attract to your channel, then you might not want to double down on that. But this is all part of the learning process. Every video you upload is an asset, and even if it doesn't perform today, it might be the exact video that someone finds 6 months from now, and that's the one that gets them onto your list, into one of your products, or into booking a phone call with you. Sometimes the videos that we put the most energy and time into are the ones that flop, which is really unfortunate. And then the videos that we are half-assed with and just kind of threw out there, we're like, oh, I just want to post something today, those ones end up taking off. YouTube is a weird, wild game, but as long as you're showing up every single week for your target audience and you are building things that are really helping them, you are going to start to grow. Just remember that you're not just creating content. You are building a body of work and a digital legacy, and that body of work is designed to support a specific type of person in solving a big specific problem. Most creators never stick around long enough to finish that, and that's why they give up or they fail. So stop measuring your success by views and subscribers and start measuring it by the skills that you are gaining, the people that you are reaching, and the momentum that you are building. Every upload isn't starting from scratch because you are starting from experience, and as long as you're learning from every upload, you're going to be fine. Now, starting a channel and getting clear on who you're helping is only one part of making a legitimate income with YouTube. Unless you know how to build an audience of buyers, you could be posting for years like I did and not make a dime. Watch this video next and I'll show you how to build an audience of buyers, not freebie seekers. If you have Any questions or insights you got from this video, let me know in a comment below. And as always, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen. I'll see you in the next one.