John Hicks

Youtube story time I had one call with this channel at 10 million views per month, which is already kinda killing it He came back for a 2nd call, which is fortunately pretty common, after he hit 20 million per month soon after. Don't take this as bragging, or do I don't care, I just put a LOT of pressure on myself to make sure these little calls are very worthwhile. Anyway, I asked him what his team was like He said it was just him I was like... how the heck have you been doing all this by yourself? Most channels these days at 20m+ have teams of 5+ people, sometimes even 10-20 depending on niche We decided to just sync up for a flat monthly rate and see what happens, then kaboom The biggest thing I saw for him that shot us up fast was his entire channel was based on one single niche/topic, which wasn't bad and obviously 20m per month is just fine I told him we NEED to break out to ever see 50m per month So we started going from 7 videos a week on that one niche to 6 and 1 wide-reaching potential hit, then to 5 and 2, and so on We threw some bait out there and watched for a bite a little at a time Eventually we had 4 wide-reaching hits and 3 on that, now old, niche We broke out We exploded after that and now the joke is at 150 million views per month, the thing that is holding us back is not making videos that can reach the entire internet and young audience This creator is... freakin amazing, do not get me wrong here He is a MACHINE, too He eats clean, he wants a simple life, he just wants to do YouTube But I would not be able to do what I do if I didn't have creators like him This is just what you call a perfect pair I send him an endless stream of proven bangers, give him the thumb ideas and sometimes general layout of the vid And then he just goes It's the same way some coaches probably feel when they have a star athlete Here's the play, now go do it And he just does No feelings, no asking whether he feels like it or not, no motivation He just does He has the ability to reach this many and still be enjoyable, still feel like a friend, still exist on parent's TVs in the living room and not get annoying, and on and on At this point it's just kind of... easy And that's exactly how it should be when you have a well-oiled machine that just churns all day every day If it doesn't feel easy by now, you have a kink in the hose A person that isn't a good fit to the team, a misunderstanding of what your audience wants, systems that are broken, etc Fix the kinks in the hose So yes, I get to put my name on this a tiny bit but it's the creators that have perfected their craft for years in the background that let me do my job well I can give the best ideas, tell you exactly what to do, but if you can't hold a crowd for a few minutes and need everyone around you to spin your straw into gold, we need to go back to the drawing board and figure it out fast No editor, thumbnail artist, strategist, or even MrBeast himself can help you if you don't have a good "act" on "stage" Work on that first or you'll be stuck spinning your wheels for years wondering why your APV is trash Go take speech classes, go socialize without alcohol a couple times a week I even joke that every YouTuber should have to substitute teach for a week and you'll find out fast whether you can hold people's attention and command a room or not You HAVE to learn this This IS the missing piece that nobody around you can really solve for you minus some advice and nudges here and there that they can't see The blind spots, they always get you Anyway, I am so blessed to have worked for my knowledge on the backend to be able to pair up with a good creator and then just watch the magic happen I will be sharing a lot of this someday when I finish my course, I don't care if people think courses are scammy or whatever, I like to teach and I want to teach this and how to improve this stuff I have no clue at all when it'll be done, it's in the Lord's time and I won't be "selling" it, it'll just be available when it's available, I throw a link out there and a tweet or two, it'll cost what it costs because I will decide what I can pretty much guarantee will be made back and more, and then that's it, hopefully it'll change lives and it will be built that way Okay enough yappin, back to the grind