If I Started YouTube from Scratch in 2026, I’d Do THIS — Transcript

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1. 0:00When I first started making videos on
2. 0:02YouTube, I made every mistake possible.
3. 0:04I was posting random videos. I was
4. 0:06constantly changing topics. And I
5. 0:08thought that buying more expensive gear
6. 0:10would magically make my videos succeed.
7. 0:12But all of that was incorrect. But now,
8. 0:14after making over 100 videos for Think
9. 0:16Media, if I had to start over from zero,
10. 0:19I would do these seven things completely
11. 0:21differently. Now, the first thing I
12. 0:22would do is very simple. I would just
13. 0:24make and post my very first video. I
14. 0:26wouldn't overthink it. I wouldn't plan
15. 0:27it out for six months and strategize all
16. 0:29the different things. I would start
17. 0:30messy. I would just hit record and then
18. 0:33I'd hit upload. We work with so many
19. 0:34creators who spend weeks or months
20. 0:37watching videos and researching the best
21. 0:39gear and just waiting for everything to
22. 0:41be perfect before they hit record. And
23. 0:43for me, it was like the studio space. As
24. 0:45soon as I got my studio dialed in and
25. 0:47all the perfect lighting and cameras,
26. 0:49that's when I'd start my YouTube
27. 0:50channel. And the truth is, the first
28. 0:51video that you make is probably going to
29. 0:53be your worst video that you've ever
30. 0:55made because it is the first one. My
31. 0:57first video that I made on YouTube has
32. 0:59been archived for many, many years
33. 1:01because let me tell you, that thing was
34. 1:02so embarrassing. I did not understand
35. 1:04storytelling. I didn't understand good
36. 1:05composition or anything like that. But
37. 1:07it was an important first step because
38. 1:08it got me moving in the right direction.
39. 1:10Once you post that first video,
40. 1:12everything else changes. You start
41. 1:13building confidence, your focus
42. 1:15increases, you get clarity of what kinds
43. 1:17of videos you want to make next, and
44. 1:18your channel starts to build. The second
45. 1:20mistake that I made was in terms of
46. 1:22tech. I was so focused on the camera
47. 1:24aspect and what camera I would buy, what
48. 1:26mirrorless camera, what DSLR was the
49. 1:28most important one and I neglected audio
50. 1:31and that's the biggest mistake that
51. 1:32creators make. They really focus on the
52. 1:34cameras and they don't focus on
53. 1:35improving their audio. The reality check
54. 1:37is your smartphone probably shoots
55. 1:39better video than most cameras can even
56. 1:41shoot 10 years ago. So use your
57. 1:44smartphone, use your iPhone, it shoots
58. 1:45like 4K, 120 fps. I mean these things
59. 1:47are incredible. you got multiple lenses
60. 1:49you can work with. So, just start with
61. 1:50your smartphone. But if you were going
62. 1:52to upgrade your equipment, I would first
63. 1:54start with grabbing a solid microphone.
64. 1:56Something as simple as like the Hollland
65. 1:58Lark M2, which has been out a couple
66. 1:59years. I'm actually using it in this
67. 2:01little windscreen. I'll show you. Here
68. 2:03it is. This tiny little Holland Lark M2.
69. 2:06It's like a 8090 mic system, and you can
70. 2:08actually get it for cheaper, too, when
71. 2:10it's on sale. This is a great beginner
72. 2:12option and the audio quality is going to
73. 2:13sound outstanding and you can use it for
74. 2:15multiple use cases like kind of talking
75. 2:17head videos like this or you can clip it
76. 2:19onto your shirt to have wireless audio
77. 2:21wherever you want to walk around. Very
78. 2:22great starter microphone, but I'd first
79. 2:24upgrade your audio. Then I just grab
80. 2:26like a budget phone tripod. There's one
81. 2:28from Sensign that you can get on Amazon
82. 2:30for like 15 or 20 bucks. That's a great
83. 2:32starter tripod. It can raise up super
84. 2:34high if you want to stand up or if you
85. 2:36want to sit down. It also goes down
86. 2:37fairly low and it's got the little phone
87. 2:38holder on it. only for about $15. Throw
88. 2:41your smartphone on that tripod and then
89. 2:42pair it with a nice wireless microphone
90. 2:44like this and you got a great starting
91. 2:45point. And a bonus benefit to the
92. 2:47simplicity of this kind of tech is you
93. 2:49can focus more on your storytelling and
94. 2:51your content delivery and not be so
95. 2:52worried about what cameras and lightings
96. 2:54and all these different cables you got
97. 2:56to run. You just use your smartphone and
98. 2:57a wireless mic and you should be set.
99. 2:59Now, the third thing I would do
100. 3:00differently is I would focus way more on
101. 3:02mastering the search strategy. If I was
102. 3:05starting my channel from zero, I would
103. 3:07start building my content plan around
104. 3:09YouTube search results. Remember that
105. 3:11YouTube is the number two search engine
106. 3:14in the entire world, only second to
107. 3:16Google search and Google owns YouTube.
108. 3:18So, search strategy is one of the best
109. 3:20ways to get discovered on YouTube. So,
110. 3:22instead of trying to make like really
111. 3:23viral, catchy titles and thumbnails, I
112. 3:26would focus more specifically on like a
113. 3:28formula. Like the how-to formula is so
114. 3:30important. How to do XYZ. So, for me,
115. 3:34it'd be like how to make YouTube videos
116. 3:36with your smartphone or how to edit
117. 3:38YouTube videos with your smartphone. I
118. 3:39have made a ton of videos like this on
119. 3:41this channel and even my personal
120. 3:42channel. And I literally have not
121. 3:44touched my personal channel in a year
122. 3:45and a half. And I continue to get
123. 3:46thousands of views per day because of
124. 3:48this search strategy. And by answering
125. 3:50those specific questions that users are
126. 3:52searching for, eventually you're going
127. 3:53to have one or two of your videos take
128. 3:55off and it'll do 100,000, 500,000, a
129. 3:58million views or more. But you just got
130. 4:00to stay consistent and answer specific
131. 4:02questions that audiences really do have
132. 4:04a desire to have answered. And this is
133. 4:06literally how us at Think Media gains
134. 4:08hundreds of thousands of subscribers
135. 4:09every year by leveraging this search
136. 4:11strategy. And eventually one or two of
137. 4:14those videos will take off and you'll
138. 4:15have a 100,000, 500,000, or a million
139. 4:18views or more on a specific video. But
140. 4:20you just got to stay consistent and
141. 4:22serve your audience and people who are
142. 4:24searching for specific answers to their
143. 4:26specific questions. And a tool that I
144. 4:28use to constantly come up with smart,
145. 4:30searchable video ideas is called Vid IQ.
146. 4:33They've been a longtime partner of this
147. 4:35channel. But Vid IQ helps you identify
148. 4:37winning ideas for your specific channel,
149. 4:40but also helps you spot outlier videos
150. 4:43that are already blowing up in your
151. 4:45specific niche. So you can research
152. 4:46competitor videos and figure out what's
153. 4:48actually working well on YouTube and
154. 4:50then apply that to your own content
155. 4:52strategy. There's even a YouTube Studio
156. 4:53plugin that you can add to your channel
157. 4:55that helps you package your videos with
158. 4:57stronger titles and descriptions and
159. 4:59tags, all of which are so vitally
160. 5:01important to get discovered in YouTube
161. 5:03search. This is genuinely a tool I would
162. 5:05use from day one if I were starting a
163. 5:06YouTube channel this year and wanted to
164. 5:08see results fast. So, if you want to try
165. 5:10this out for as little as $1 to get
166. 5:12started, there's a link for you down in
167. 5:14the description below. Now, the fourth
168. 5:15thing I would do differently is I would
169. 5:17borrow attention from bigger channels
170. 5:19and bigger topics. I wouldn't just try
171. 5:21to create all of my own ideas or videos
172. 5:23from scratch. I would borrow from
173. 5:25interest that's already there. If you're
174. 5:27starting from zero, this literally means
175. 5:29nobody knows who you are or what your
176. 5:31channel's about. And there's a great
177. 5:32book that I'd highly recommend. It's on
178. 5:34the shelf behind me right here. It's
179. 5:35called A Day Trading Attention by Gary
180. 5:37Vee. And really Gary just kind of talks
181. 5:39about how attention is already
182. 5:41everywhere in this world and everyone is
183. 5:43competing for attention at all times on
184. 5:45every single platform. So the challenge
185. 5:47you have to overcome as a new creator is
186. 5:49how do you compete with people who are
187. 5:50already very visible and have been
188. 5:52making content for years. Well, the way
189. 5:54you do this is by what we call trend
190. 5:56surfing. [music] You're able to identify
191. 5:58trends and topics that already have
192. 6:00verifiable interests and you can make
193. 6:02content around those interests to give
194. 6:04you a bit of a competitive advantage.
195. 6:06There's a phrase we use here at Think
196. 6:07Media called copy and paste. You don't
197. 6:10want to copy and paste exact formats or
198. 6:12video ideas or concepts directly from
199. 6:14what other creators are doing. But if
200. 6:16you can copy a similar style or pull
201. 6:18inspiration from other creators and then
202. 6:20add your own taste to that video, that's
203. 6:22a great strategy that will make you feel
204. 6:24like you're making your own content, but
205. 6:26you can borrow from attention that's
206. 6:28already available in different places.
207. 6:30The fifth thing I would do differently
208. 6:31is remember this phrase that content is
209. 6:34king, but and there's a big butt here.
210. 6:36And there's a phrase that goes, "Content
211. 6:38is king, but marketing is queen and she
212. 6:41runs the household." This is a big
213. 6:42revelation that I didn't even really
214. 6:44understand fully until I started working
215. 6:46at Think Media to understand this
216. 6:48concept of video packaging. Your video
217. 6:50package is like the external branding or
218. 6:52the marketing of your video to the
219. 6:54world. And this includes things like
220. 6:56what we call the three T's. This is your
221. 6:58topic, your title, and your thumbnail.
222. 7:00These are absolutely vitally important
223. 7:03and more important than I ever even
224. 7:04understood before working at Think Media
225. 7:06to the success of getting your video
226. 7:08seen in the first place. A lot of
227. 7:09creators will come up with a video idea
228. 7:11and then they'll just go and make the
229. 7:13video and then after that video is
230. 7:15finished, they'll try to think through,
231. 7:16okay, what's the title of this video and
232. 7:18what should the thumbnail be? And they
233. 7:20sort of think of those things as [music]
234. 7:21an afterthought. And they don't even
235. 7:23fully think through the topic of their
236. 7:25video. They just sort of have a generic
237. 7:27idea of like, [music] okay, the video is
238. 7:28going to be this. I'm just going to go
239. 7:29record it. and there's not a clear plan.
240. 7:31And ideally, that whole workflow would
241. 7:33actually be reversed and you would have
242. 7:34a very clear topic and idea that you've
243. 7:37researched out and have a verifiable
244. 7:39demand for the attention of that video
245. 7:41to exist in the first place. And then
246. 7:43you would have a clear title in mind
247. 7:45while you're shooting the video and a
248. 7:47thumbnail already picked out, if not
249. 7:49already completely created before the
250. 7:51production of that video begins. So,
251. 7:53these are the kinds of things that
252. 7:54determine whether a video even has a
253. 7:56chance to perform well in the first
254. 7:57place. You've got to have good marketing
255. 7:59of your content because while content is
256. 8:02king and once somebody clicks on that
257. 8:03video, the content inside of it is so
258. 8:06vitally important to have really great
259. 8:07storytelling and cut out all the fluff.
260. 8:10Yeah, that's all important. But if
261. 8:11nobody clicks on your video in the first
262. 8:13place because of poor marketing and poor
263. 8:15packaging, you've already lost the game.
264. 8:16Now, the sixth thing that I would do
265. 8:18differently is I would find a market
266. 8:20gap. And most creators are posting in
267. 8:23really crowded niches and trying to
268. 8:24compete with some of the top creators
269. 8:26who have already been established for
270. 8:28quite a while. But if I was starting
271. 8:29out, I would try to look for an
272. 8:31underserved audience. So figure out
273. 8:33what's missing in your space. And maybe
274. 8:35you're into gaming or real estate or
275. 8:37marketing, but you can find a specific
276. 8:39area that's a little bit underserved
277. 8:41where there's not a lot of content being
278. 8:42produced, maybe about a specific game
279. 8:44that was launched or even like a side
280. 8:46quest mission of a particular game for
281. 8:48those really niche audience members. And
282. 8:50it's important to remember that
283. 8:51competition is always going to be
284. 8:53highest for lazy content or even just
285. 8:55like the broadest possible appeal. But
286. 8:57competition is a lot less fierce when
287. 8:59you niche down and focus on a particular
288. 9:02target market group to make your content
289. 9:04for. This is what I did on my personal
290. 9:06YouTube channel before I started working
291. 9:07for Think Media. I started really broad,
292. 9:10too broad, and I was covering all sorts
293. 9:12of tech and editing techniques and
294. 9:14concert reviews, all this stuff that was
295. 9:16not really related to each other. So
296. 9:18then I narrowed my focus down to
297. 9:20specifically budget Sony Alpha cameras.
298. 9:23And I was reviewing like any Sony camera
299. 9:25that I could get my hands on, talking
300. 9:26about its pros and cons, and I kind of
301. 9:28became known as a channel that focuses
302. 9:30solely on budget Sony cameras and lenses
303. 9:33and budget tech in particular. And if
304. 9:35you want to learn more about this,
305. 9:36there's a great book I recommend called
306. 9:38Blue Ocean Strategy that will teach you
307. 9:40how to create your own uncontested
308. 9:42market space and whatever your specific
309. 9:44creative discipline is. And the seventh
310. 9:46and final thing that I would do
311. 9:48differently if I was starting a channel
312. 9:49this year is that I would treat YouTube
313. 9:51like a business from day one. And maybe
314. 9:54this is just a me thing because I'm kind
315. 9:55of like somebody who loves business
316. 9:57strategy and trying to figure out how I
317. 9:59can leverage money out of everything
318. 10:00that I do. But this is the mindset that
319. 10:02I would go in with that YouTube is a
320. 10:04business and how can I create a
321. 10:06sustainable business model so I have
322. 10:08money to fund the mission and the
323. 10:09passion that I have for my channel. And
324. 10:11there's a framework that we use here at
325. 10:13Think Media called the three P
326. 10:15framework. [music] And those P's are
327. 10:17passion, proficiency, and profit. And
328. 10:20you want to make sure that as you're
329. 10:21creating your channel, you have all
330. 10:22three of these in mind. The first P is
331. 10:24passion. You want to make sure that you
332. 10:26actually love what you're going to talk
333. 10:27about because you might make 100 200
334. 10:30videos on this topic and you don't want
335. 10:31to lose that passion. The second P is
336. 10:33proficiency. So this is figuring out
337. 10:35what kind of skills or knowledge do you
338. 10:37have that you have a competitive
339. 10:39advantage in. maybe something you
340. 10:40studied in school or you've just spent
341. 10:42hours researching or like a game you've
342. 10:45spent [music] years playing and you're
343. 10:46like an expert in this video game. These
344. 10:48are all examples of things you could
345. 10:50become proficient in and you want to
346. 10:52think through that proficiency piece.
347. 10:53And that final P is profit. So what's
348. 10:55the monetization strategy going to be
349. 10:57for your channel? And a harsh reality is
350. 11:00a lot of people want to rely on YouTube
351. 11:02ad revenue. So YouTube paying you
352. 11:04directly to run ads on your video. And
353. 11:06this is by far the weakest way to make
354. 11:08money on YouTube. Ideally, you want to
355. 11:10have multiple methods for making money.
356. 11:12Things like affiliate marketing where
357. 11:14you sell other people's products or
358. 11:16services and then you generate a
359. 11:17commission from those sales. And a
360. 11:19typical thing is like I might link the
361. 11:20Holland Lark M2 on this video and if you
362. 11:23buy that mic, we'll get a small
363. 11:24commission sale from the sale of that
364. 11:26microphone. You can also create your own
365. 11:28products or services like courses or
366. 11:30physical products like merch or get
367. 11:32brand deals to promote brands on your
368. 11:34channel. There's lots of different ways
369. 11:35you can make money on YouTube, but you
370. 11:36want to think through the profit piece
371. 11:38before you start making your channel to
372. 11:39figure out how am I going to sustain
373. 11:41this channel long term. Am I just going
374. 11:43to try to rely on YouTube AdSense? If
375. 11:45that's the case, you're going to need a
376. 11:46ton of subscribers and a ton of watch
377. 11:48time every single month. Which is why if
378. 11:50you're a smaller channel, it's smart to
379. 11:51diversify your monetization strategy at
380. 11:54the beginning so you have multiple
381. 11:56revenue streams coming in even if you
382. 11:58have a,000 subscribers or less. So,
383. 12:00these are the top seven things I would
384. 12:02do differently if I was starting a
385. 12:03channel from scratch. But you got to
386. 12:04remember step one is to just make and
387. 12:07publish your first video. Well, the
388. 12:09easiest way to do this is to start by
389. 12:10using your phone. So, if you want to see
390. 12:12this stepby-step guide of how to make
391. 12:14YouTube videos on your phone, you can
392. 12:15click or tap this screen right here to
393. 12:17watch that video. and I'll see you in
394. 12:18the next