The Brutal Truth About Growing on YouTube in 2025 (No One Tells You)

This is going to be my 10th year on YouTube and I've published over 700 videos. I've tried just about every strategy, tactic, thought all the major gurus had, except spending ads on my channel. I have never bought a single subscriber, a single view, or ran any ads on my channel. My channel has been completely organically grown and it is the main reason why my business is as successful as it is. And by successful, it means I'm making consistent sales in my business from views from my YouTube videos. And if you've been following me at all, you know I love to be transparent. I love to give you the truth and break it down in facts because I've been lied to. I've been promised specific outcomes for specific strategies, and it just didn't work. So today I wanted to take over the last 10 years everything I learned about starting and growing a YouTube channel for my business and give you the complete, brutally honest truth. Not only have I been doing my YouTube channel for 10 years, I have worked with thousands of business owners, whether one on one in my done for you agency that I had a few years ago and now in my coaching program. So the first thing I want, to be brutally honest with you, is starting a YouTube channel is easy. Growing a YouTube channel for your business to make sales is different. You could literally go onto YouTube and start a channel and post a video within the next 24 hours. But having videos that go live that are going to make you sales while you sleep, cliche enough, that's a different plan than just posting videos on YouTube. When you're just coming up with a list of ideas like so many YouTube experts tell you to do, and you're just doing those as you feel like it, you're never going to get sales from your channel. And I know, I've been there. I've created lists and lists and lists of videos. And I looked at my list and I decided I like that one and this one and this one. And I've posted them and nothing happened. No sales, no email leads. It's not until you know the strategy, the system for business owners and look at your channel that way is when you're going to get sales and clients from YouTube. The second truth is you don't need a lot of time to do YouTube as a business owner. You need to have the right system and the right strategy. I understand showing up as a female. Take some work. You need to, first of all, make sure your kids aren't going to come in and interrupt you. Although I've given up on that a while ago, but you need to do your hair, your makeup, you need to set some things up right. But when you have a system built out where you're batching, listen, I don't want to look like this every day. I don't have the time for that. But today I'm sitting down and because of my system, because of my playlist funnel, I know what my next five videos are going to be. And so I've planned them using my video game plan, making sure I stay on track, on task, so that this filming session will be done in the next two hours and I will have filmed four videos in that two hour framework. So it's not that YouTube takes you too much time, is that you don't have the right system in place that's allowing you to be efficient with your time filming your videos. Next. Your views and the amount of views you're getting on your videos aren't the problem and aren't the reason you're not selling. It's your topics. If you are just like I said earlier, coming up with random video ideas or, or trying to find a good searchable video, the people that are going to buy from you, your ready to Buy viewer, the one that's going to want to be your client, the one that's going to want to buy your course, will never find you if you're not creating the topics that attract them. And those videos may get less views because they're going to be very specific topics because that's what you want to create. You want to bring your ready to buy viewers. You don't just want to bring anyone to your channel because you're a business owner. You're here to put time into something that's going to make you money. And so even though your videos will get less views on specific topics, is going to make you more sales. And what do you want? More sales or more views? I have a client of mine who decided to take this seriously and focus on the content her Ready to Buy viewer was looking for. So within 24 hours of posting a very specific topic video, that video only had 20 views. But she booked a client within 24 hours of that video being live and only 20 views. That's the difference of creating the right content for, for your business versus the right content to go viral on YouTube. Let's keep moving on. Next, quality here on YouTube does matter. And I've got definitely some things to talk about this the brutally honest truth around quality of your video, but quantity of videos matter as well. So I will have clients come and be like, can I create every other week or can I create, you know, when I get time? Sure. But are you going to see the momentum, are you going to see the daily sales come in without creating content, without building a library that gets people to binge watch your content, that builds that relationship with you while you're sleeping, that gets them to trust you're the right person to work with? So you can take your time all you want on YouTube, but your results are going to be abysmal, if at all. So you want to be showing up at least creating one video a week. And if you want to see even faster results, I would suggest doing two a week until you've got some content on your videos that your ready to buy viewer can binge build that relationship with you and buy next. If you're not treating YouTube like a business tool, it's not going to work like one. You are not here to be a YouTuber, you are not here to go viral. If you go viral, you're not bringing your ready to buy viewer, and then the algorithm doesn't know who you're ready to buy viewer is. So you're going to keep pumping out content. And while you may be getting views on it, you're not making bank, you're not making sales. So you need to be approaching YouTube as a business owner and building YouTube playlist funnels. You need to be creating videos that take people through a journey to want to work with you. You need to make them solution aware of how you work with your clients, the results your students get in your course. You're not creating random videos, as I said before, you're creating a playlist funnel, just like you would create on your emails. YouTube's not just a social media platform. Every single video you publish becomes a member of your sales team. When you do it right, the next piece of truth I need to have with you. If you're posting and you feel like it's going nowhere, it's not that you're behind, it's just that you're doing it wrong. Seriously. Most business owners I see quit on YouTube because they tried to do YouTube. And when I take a look at their channel, they try to do YouTube like an influencer or like a YouTuber, not like a business owner. And doing YouTube like an influencer or a YouTuber is the fastest path to burnout. But what's great about us as business owners, we don't need to play that game, we don't need to play a subscriber Viewer game. We want sales. So we need to stop creating YouTube videos like YouTubers and start creating videos like business owners. You need to start talking about your offers and building content around your offers and building funnels on YouTube that send people to your offers. I have people coming into my coaching program all the time after going through a playlist funnel. They have told me countless times I just binge watch their content and I'm in, I'm sold. That is why we do videos different than a YouTuber. So if you're following typical YouTuber advice, you're never going to get the results you want as a business owner on YouTube. Next up is consistency isn't just about uploading your videos, it's about consistency in selling. You need to be selling somewhere in your video, whether it's in the description box, whether it's weaving in something naturally, a call to action, naturally in your videos. Because the power that YouTube has is the video you posted yesterday or you published yesterday will continue to get views a month from today, a month from yesterday, six months from yesterday, a year from yesterday. So you need to make sure that you are telling people how to buy from you. You need to make sure you're selling in these videos that are going to live on YouTube for the next couple of months or even years that are going to be your selling team. Because that's the power of YouTube and why I put my time into YouTube because my ROI is there. I create one video and it stacks on itself as time goes on. It gets more views as I post new content, so those old videos get more views on it and I get more traffic to my sales pages and I get more sales and I get more email signups. That's how you need to be thinking about YouTube. Here's some real brutally honest truth that I need to have with you. And it's you're looking at YouTube as a content creator and not a business owner. And I've probably said this five different ways, sideways in this video, but I just see this time and time and time again, people joining YouTube coaching programs that are teaching people how to be YouTubers and they're like, well, I'm not getting sales, I didn't get clients. I see people buying DIY courses in their channel goes nowhere. More importantly, they don't get any more clients or sales and they think YouTube doesn't work for me. But that's not what the problem is. You need to let go of decision fatigue and just get content out there that sells your offer. You need to stop second Guessing yourself that oh, I'm being too salesy or I shouldn't drop my offer or talk about my offer in this video. Need to stop comparing yourself to other people who do what you do, people that are in your niche because you have a specific way of teaching what you teach. You have a specific personality that is going to make a connection with people. You are going to be somebody that people want to work with compared to the other options because there's somebody out there for everyone. You need to get very clear in what you want your channel to do for you and build the content strategy for that. Oh this one. If I could say this one 500 times a day, I would. But being truthful here, you don't need a bigger audience on YouTube to make sales. If you're not making sales, you need a clearer message. Selling is not going to come from having that silver play button. I don't have my silver play button and I couldn't tell you how many times I get comments here on YouTube. How do I know what I'm talking about with a silver small 50,000 subscriber channel? And fine, say what you want but I'm making multiple five figures a month. I made 100k just in the first quarter of 2025 while working about 20 to 25 hours. And I don't know about you, but that's my dream life. I don't need the silver play button. I don't need a hundred thousand subscribers to meet the sales that I want. So why force myself to push more content out for more views just to get a silver play button when what I'm doing now is making me sales every day? So you need to get clear on two things who your ready to buy viewer is and stop trying to create videos for everybody and just create videos for them. And second, what you're trying to sell them and when you can get clear on what you're trying to sell them and who they are, that's when you can start creating content that will make those sales every single day without putting a single ad dollar behind it. Let's keep rolling because I've got quite a few here. I'm making this the best video that you've ever seen about YouTube. As I jump into the next one, let me know in the comments right now how you feel about your YouTube strategy. Is your YouTube channel making you sales or do you think maybe you're creating content like a creator and not like a business owner? Let's have a conversation in the comments next. You don't need to be confident on camera, you just need to be very clear if you're thinking, I feel awkward and I don't know if I'm confident to show up on camera. Confidence is built on clarity. So when you show up, talking about the things you know that you feel big about is way easier to show up because I'm not saying you show up on videos that you don't know anything about. You need to focus on the things you're great at. Why do you think I'm kind of coming in here all hot and bothered? It's because I, I know this. I've been on YouTube for 10 years and I can be confident because I've experienced every single one of these things and I'm showing up confidently because I know this. And when you use a video game plan like the one that I have, if you're interested in getting it, I will link it below@trinalittle.com video plan. You already have your thoughts organized. You know you have your offer in that video. You know how you're going to get to that offer, how you're going to talk about it in an organic way and you're going to be able to show up confidently. So your best advice here is to pick the topics you feel, you know, like the back of your hand and it's going to show on video. I love this one. And it's editing is not your problem because you're overthinking it. In fact, you don't even need to hire a fancy editor. Take a look at my Monday videos. I've been posting this month to a week for a test and testing something. And my Monday videos, I edit myself and they have incredibly minimal editing. In fact, some of them are just cutting out the mistakes and the pauses that I make. And they have some of the best audience retention. Out of all my videos in the last 10 years, what's different? Simple editing? Yes. But I've been focusing on the content that I'm sharing. Focus on my ready to buy viewer. And the editing that you have in those videos for your ready to buy viewer don't matter. It's the content, the value of that video that matters. So you need to stop thinking, I don't know editing or I can't hire a video editor because that is not what's going to get you sales on YouTube. So stop letting editing hold you up from getting he from getting consistent here on YouTube. Next. Imposter syndrome shouldn't stop you from getting on YouTube. It's actually proof you really care about Your people. If you've said to yourself, I'm not even sure anybody will watch my content, but you have an offer that helps people. That is a solution for people's problem. Those people want to see your content. Those people want to hear about the solution that you have for them that's going to make their life easier. And YouTube works the best when you're focused on solving problems, not proving yourself, not showing up to be somebody that you're not just giving people help, value, and taking them to the solution that they need. Your experience is exactly what somebody needs to hear to finally take action. And it doesn't matter if somebody else in your niche has a hundred thousand subscribers or a million subscribers, you are for somebody specific in that person out there that finally finds you and finally realizes, this is the person that I've needed all along, will find you when you show up delivering that help. All right, let's talk about niches, because this is a brutally honest truth about niches. There's no such thing as a perfect niche, just the right audience. If you've said to yourself, I don't know what my niche is yet, or my niche is oversaturated. Your niche is the people that you serve, not the topic. So you really need to hone into what I mentioned earlier. You're ready to buy viewer. What do they need to hear from you? What are their problems? We're not going to keep talking about the same topic over and over again because what's going to happen, they're going to get bored af, but they want to keep hearing you talk about the problems that they are having. So who is your niche audience? Who is your ready to buy viewer? And that's going to be your North Star for the content you create here on YouTube. I'm going to get you here with this one brutally honest truth. It's not that you don't have time for YouTube. It's that you don't have a strategy or plan. Because if you've told yourself, I do want to do YouTube, I want to be consistent on YouTube, but timing's not right. I'm getting this in place first, or I'm working on this in my business first. You're losing out, you're falling behind in the race. You're missing out on sales every single day because your person, your audience, your clients are on YouTube and they're finding somebody else to give their money to. So if you're waiting to post on YouTube and you're like, I'm going to do a little bit of Instagram here. I'm going to keep doing my, my podcast or my blog. Go for it, spend your time there. But guess what's happens, especially on Instagram. You're going to be making another post the next day and the next day and the next day and you're never going to have time to do anything else. Whereas if you just focus on YouTube, creating the playlist funnel, the strategy, the systems you can get to posting one video a week that drives you sales every single day, receipts on the screen right now. So I don't want to hear people say I don't have time for YouTube. That means you don't have time for sales. That means you don't have time for new clients. I told you this was going to be a brutally honest truth video. Next up, I think is a really mindset shift that we need to have as business owners on YouTube. And this was a brutally honest fact for me. Because listening to so many YouTubers and people who teach YouTubers low views doesn't mean your video was bad or it was low quality. Especially if you are following a YouTube strategy to sell. If you're looking in thinking my videos aren't getting views, so YouTube isn't really working for me most of the time my lowest viewed videos are the ones that are sending me the most sales, the most clients because those lower viewed videos are very niche topics for my ready to buy viewer. And they're meant for those people that are right on the fence, those who are right there ready to buy, ready to work with me. And all it takes is that one particular video to get them to buy. And so just because your videos don't have tens of thousands of views, is it the topic that you're ready to buy viewers are watching, Is it the topic that's convincing them to work with you to buy from you? That's the mindset shift you really need to have on YouTube as a business owner. All right, I'm about to probably hit home here with some of you, but Instagram burnout and frustration isn't a strategy. If you feel burnt out over creating content, it's because you're creating content that doesn't work for you after 24 to 48 hours. And because you're staying in that cycle, because you feel comfortable, because you know what you're doing, you're going to continue to stay burnt out. YouTube isn't. And extra YouTube isn't another thing to add to your content plan to your content strategy. YouTube is the solution that you are looking for to finally Stop being burnt out. Creating one YouTube video a week saves you so much time. This is how specifically, in the last 18 months, I've gotten down to working about 25 hours a week because I don't need to create constant content on Instagram. I'm posting my videos. My videos are working for me around the clock. Videos that I posted last August, last January are sending me, sales are sending me, clients are building my email list so that I don't have to create any other content than one weekly YouTube video. And right now, I'm testing two weekly YouTube videos, and I'm still working 25 hours a week. I know this was a lot, and maybe I got through to you that YouTube can actually work for your business. You can actually start and grow a YouTube channel today that sells for you every day. And if that's something you're thinking, I need to commit. I need to stop wasting my time. I need to stop falling behind and start getting clients and sales from YouTube. You can take a look at my YouTube coaching experience. I will link to it on your screen right now. This is exactly what I help my clients do. Build the YouTube playlist funnel, set up the strategy, help them figure out how to sell in their videos every time they post so those videos continue to sell for them every single day. And if you're not ready for that yet, and you want to see how I actually made $100,000 on YouTube in less than three months, I break it down in the video on your screen right now.