Tips for Building a Loyal YouTube Audience

Most creators have this backwards. They're chasing views and subscribers, hoping they'll magically become clients. But after analyzing over 10,000 videos across 150+ channels, I realized something profound: YouTube success is about viewer intent. Last month, I worked with a founder who had 87K subscribers but was only making $12K monthly. She was creating "viral content" instead of strategic content. When I shared my systems with her, everything shifted. Here's what I learned about building in public through strategic YouTube content: 1. Foundation First Build genuine authority by teaching what you know deeply. This creates the trust foundation that turns viewers into clients. When you share knowledge transparently, you become the obvious choice for implementation. Your expertise becomes undeniable when demonstrated consistently. People trust those who teach before they sell. 2. Solution Showcasing Demonstrate your expertise through real problem-solving. People hire those who prove their value transparently. Your public work becomes your most powerful sales tool without feeling salesy. Live problem-solving builds immediate credibility and rapport. Prospects see exactly what working with you would look like. 3. System Transparency Share your actual methodology and frameworks openly. Building in public creates magnetic attraction to your process. 4. Transformation Stories Show real before/after results from your work. Transparency about outcomes builds unshakeable credibility. Success stories create emotional connection and logical proof. Other founders see themselves in your client transformations. 5. Strategic Bridge Building Use clear CTAs that guide viewers toward next steps. Every piece of content should have a purpose beyond views. 6. Value Ladder Creation Design a clear path from free content to paid services. Building in public means showing the entire journey. 7. Intent-Based Content Target purchase-intent keywords that your ideal clients search for. Strategic transparency attracts ready-to-buy audiences. 8. The PVT Formula Address specific problems, validate your understanding, then reveal your transformation approach. This converts 273% better than standard tutorial content. This is about creating beautiful, systemized, and impactful brands together. When you build your expertise in public through strategic YouTube content, you create multiple conversion opportunities while establishing deep trust. We 10X'd her revenue within 90 days using fewer videos but with clear strategic intent behind each one. The future belongs to those brave enough to build their systems in public. It starts with sharing your methodology transparently. __ Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Matt Gray for more. Want help applying this in your business? DM me ‘Blueprint’ and let’s chat. Only for founders ready to scale.

I just turned 30. I’ve dedicated over 50% of my life to mastering YouTube strategy. 50+ billion views, millions in revenue, across 100s of channels later… Here are 30 lessons for creators: 1. If starting from 0, give it 2 years of consistent posting and improvement. 2. Come up with 5+ different thumbnail ideas per video, make at least 3 of them. 3. Subscriber counts don’t matter in 2026. Average views per video = the success metric. 4. View counts and retention curves are the two data points worth analyzing. Everything else is secondary. 5. If someone always talks about CTR and AVD (without context) assume they don’t really understand youtube. 6. Don’t treat your channel like a VC start up. It’s not. 7. Instead, try to maintain 40-50%+ profit margins until doing over $2m a year in revenue. 8. Don’t sign to an MCN. I’ll say this every year until I turn 100. 9. Selling merch is usually a waste of time. Sh*t margins and you compete with every other creator. 10. Going from $0/year to $100k/year as a creator takes a lot longer than $100k to $1m/year. 11. Don't try to monetize too early, I know it's hard... but delayed-monetization is how you build trust. 12. Physical product businesses are a bad move for 99% of creators. 13. Never take the short term money. That dodgy company offering you $20k to shill them? Ignore. 14. Reputation is built over years and destroyed in seconds. 15. Adsense + sponsorships is the goat business model for most creators. 16. Schedule 5+ hours a week to studying videos on YouTube. 17. Watch like a student not a consumer. Every video is an opportunity to learn. 18. Create a playlist, every time you see an outlier video, add it. Then at the end of each week analyze those videos. 19. The difference between a struggling creator and a 1m+ subscriber creator is nearly always better time allocation. 20. If 90% of your time is filming and editing, you’re a video maker not a Youtuber. 21. Allocate at least 25% of time to: Titles, thumbnails, ideas, intros. 22. If you don’t want to play the title and thumbnail game, go upload videos to Vimeo. It’s part of the job, whether you like it not. 23. The idea sets the ceiling for your video, your packaging and execution = the result. 24. Brainstorm 10 new ideas per day. Make it a muscle. 25. This is lonely. Find 3-5 similar sized creators and schedule a weekly mastermind call together. 26. YouTube is more competitive than ever, but the upside has never been higher and the algorithm has never been fairer. 27. Stop listening to advice without making videos. 28. If you get to the top, don't forget the inputs that got you there. Stay humble. 29. Make great f***ng videos that people feel privileged to watch. Everything else is noise. 30. Post the video. It might change your life. 30 lessons. There you have it. I uploaded my first video in 2006. It's been 20 years. What a journey.

One Year on YouTube: 370K Subscribers & 14M Views - Here's What I Learned A year ago I uploaded my first YouTube video. Today, that's turned into: → 14 million views → 370,000+ subscribers → A completely transformed business But the numbers aren't what matter. It's the lessons I've learned along the way that apply to anyone building something from scratch. Here are the 6 biggest takeaways: 1️⃣ Consistency > Virality I committed to one video per week for six months. Most didn't take off at first, but YouTube compounds over time. You can clearly see this in the analytics images I attached below. My very first video still gets watched daily. Just like building muscle, the results come from consistent reps, not shortcuts. 2️⃣ Start With What You Have My first videos had no mic, basic webcam, and I was stiff on camera. But I focused on delivering value. Viewers will forgive low production if you solve real problems. The confidence (and gear) came later, after I started getting comments like "Dude, PLEASE get a microphone". 3️⃣ Find Your Own Voice Best practices are helpful, but they're not a substitute for authenticity. If you copy every trending hook, you'll attract the wrong audience, people who show up once and never return. Your real leverage is building trust by being you. 4️⃣ The Flywheel Effect YouTube isn't just about subscribers, it reshapes your entire business. Content brings inbound leads, fuels community growth, and reveals what people actually care about. That feedback creates a powerful flywheel. 5️⃣ Expand Beyond the Platform Once you've created a YouTube video, repurpose it everywhere. Each platform has its own culture, so tailor the format, but keep the core value. Google's research shows it takes 7 hours of content, across 11 touchpoints, on 4 platforms before someone is ready to buy. 6️⃣ Protect Your Mindset Growth comes with pressure: expectations, criticism, and the grind of "always needing another video." The cure is balance. Have outlets outside of work, ignore the noise, and don't publish content you're not proud of. The biggest lesson? Success isn't about chasing algorithms, it's about compounding value through authenticity. If you're creating content, ask yourself: → Am I optimizing for vanity metrics or meaningful conversions? → Am I building a channel, or am I building trust? Thank you to everyone who has watched, commented, or supported me over the past year.💙 P.S. Bonus tip: start making content on a tool RIGHT as it starts blowing up. Shoutout n8n😉

The man behind Alex Hormozi & Gary Vee's brands: Caleb Ralston. Jay Klouse interviewed him on how he helped grow Hormozi's audience from 1.2M to 11.5M followers & Gary's TikTok from 300K to 3.5M in just 3 months. Here are the 8 biggest takeaways: 1. Top creators produce 300+ pieces of content PER WEEK. Not to flood people’s feeds… But to acquire data. Quality is subjective. Your audience determines what "quality" means, not you. The more you publish, the faster you learn what resonates with them. 2. Use the "Accordion Method" to optimize content. Start with high volume to collect data… Then contract: Take the effort from 14 posts and put it into 7 higher-quality ones based on what performed. Then expand volume again with your new knowledge. Constant refinement > trying to execute perfectly. 3. Start with the "Brand Journey Framework" to avoid random content: • What outcome do I want? • What would I have to be known for to achieve it? • What would I have to do to be known for that? • What do I have to learn to do those things? This prevents building an audience around topics you'll end up hating. 4. 80/20 rule for content topics: 80% focused on your core expertise. 20% showing yourself as a human with interests. "Have 80% of your content be about your core thing and use the other 20% to make yourself an interesting human." This prevents burnout and builds deeper connections. 5. For new creators without experience: Share your journey of learning, not just outcomes. Document mistakes so others can avoid them. Be an "expert learner" not a fake expert. "Share your unique perspective on how you're about learning the thing." 6. Get comfortable repeating yourself in different ways. Stories are the key. They let you teach the same principles in different contexts. "I'm going to say the same things over and over in slightly different ways because you never know when it's going to hit home for somebody." 7. Track what matters, not everything. Only track metrics that change your actions. Report on multipliers/outliers, not raw numbers. Instead of saying "150K views," say "1.5X outperformer" compared to your benchmark. This immediately shows what to continue & what to stop. 8. Educational content builds trust, and trust precedes transactions. "What you are doing with educational content is trying to scale trust." When people associate you with their success, they trust you massively. Focus on making it easy for the audience to take action after consuming your content. What's your biggest takeaway from this thread? Let me know below. & if you enjoyed this… Follow me for more content like this.

I grew a YouTube channel from 0 to 100K followers in 10 months. - 3.5M views - $100K+ revenue for my startups - Less than 10 hours/week time invested Here are 8 lessons I learned 🧵 1. Be different YouTube is competitive. The easiest way to stand out is to be unique and challenge the status quo. If a friend described you, what would they say? “Oh, this is the person who ___.” My ___ is shipping lots of startups. Here's a simple formula to find yours: Pick 2 skills you're average at. Combine them and you're unique. For example: - You can code - You play guitar "I built a free app to learn open chords in 7 minutes" 2. Find and replicate winning formulas If you have no idea what to talk about, do what works already. Study successful videos, find their format, and replicate them with your own uniqueness. For instance, you can apply a Mr Beast concept to building startups: "$1 SaaS vs. $1M SaaS" Don't reinvent the wheel. 3. Make your title & thumbnail first Start with these before making the video—they give you a clear angle and direction to shape the content. Spend 50% of your time on them. Packaging is everything: - Promise something irresistible, make viewers feel like they’ll miss out if they don’t click - Trigger emotions like wtf? LOL or curiosity - Keep titles short, avoid adjectives - Have 1 primary element (i.e. your face) and a few secondary elements (i.e. a computer) - Use vibrant colors with strong contrasts 4. Know your audience You can’t talk to everyone. Find your people, speak their language, and relate to them through your tone, visuals, and style. Make them feel like you’re speaking only to them. Use YouTube data to know who's your niche. 5. Tell stories My channel is about my story. But each startup I build also has a story: - Someone hacked my site - My SaaS reached $1,000 MRR - I built this website in 12 hours Every video needs a story. Introduce a problem, show the actions to solve it, and wrap it up. 6. Show, don't tell Keep your intro under 10 seconds. Don’t waste time explaining—show what the video is about immediately. 7. But don't skip the intro Many viewers queue up videos, and yours might not be the first they watch. Remind them of the title and the promise you made in the thumbnail. Help them remember why they clicked. 8. Use constraints Constraints force productivity and creativity. I work on my videos only on Saturdays. I have no choice but to have the video scheduled by the end of day. 1. I pick an idea from my list and find a creative angle 2. I create the title & thumbnail 3. I script the intro and outline the rest of the video (bullet points) 4. I shoot the intro at least 2 times and YOLO the rest of the video This limit keeps me focused and creative. At first, it's awkward to speak to a camera. Then you get comfortable and wish you'd have done it sooner. Starting now could be your best investment for 2025 💪

A creator once told me, “I went viral once… and now no one cares.” That line stuck with me. Because it’s the story of 90% of creators. They think virality means they’ve made it. But in truth — it just means they’ve been noticed. He said, “Bro, my video hit 1.2 million views… but now my IG is dead. What happened?” I smiled. Because I’ve seen this story before — so many times. He thought going viral was the win. But in reality, it was just the test. I told him: “Viral moments are loud. Retention is quiet.” Your first viral video is a lottery ticket. But keeping people coming back? That’s customer service. So I asked him, “What did your next 3 videos look like?” He said, “I tried something new each time — I didn’t want to repeat myself.” That’s the mistake. Your audience isn’t tired of you — they’re just trying to understand you. When they find one video they love, they want more of that feeling. They want consistency, not confusion. It’s like your favorite restaurant. You don’t go there hoping the chef experiments every week. You go there because you trust the taste. Here’s what I told him to do: 1. Find your repeatable feeling. Don’t chase formats — chase emotions. What did your audience feel when they stayed to the end? 2. Study your drop-off points. Every second someone leaves is data. Don’t take it personally — take it seriously. 3. Build a story arc. Every piece of content should have a reason to stay. Suspense. Curiosity. Payoff. Even if it’s 60 seconds. 4. Reward the returners. Speak to the ones who keep showing up. Mention them. Reference last week’s post. Make them feel seen. Because the truth is — retention isn’t about the algorithm. It’s about attention… and attention is earned through trust. Your audience won’t always comment or like. But they’re watching. Waiting. Deciding whether you’re worth their time. And time, my friend, is the real currency of the internet.

Early in my career I drove 120M views on YouTube. In fact, my strategy was so successful that Google made my case study into an ad campaign. (yes, that's me!) Here are the principles that made it work then and what I'd do differently today: #1. Be totally obsessed with your client journey. To do this, you need to understand your ideal client. My ideal client happened to be a 4-year old. I poured over popular kids TV shows, read books they loved, hung out with my ICP on the playground. You can do the same thing no matter what product you sell. -What questions they have in the buying journey?  -What goals are they solving for?  -Where do they go to get information?  -How do they consume content?  -What type of language do they use?  (Pro tip: Feed your Gong transcripts into ChatGPT.) -What motivates them?  -What scares them? -- (The best CRO I ever worked with said, “Find their pain point and stick your finger in it and rub hard.” Graphic, but unforgettable. Brad Myers) And create content that fits in with that journey. #2. Be lean and have a good mic With just me and a part-time videographer, we produced 47 videos in one year. We built a recording studio in the office and made a dolly out of PVC pipes we bought from Home Depot. People will forgive low production value. They will not forgive bad audio. If you invest in only one thing, make it a good microphone. #3. I’d break my video content into three categories: Drive Traffic: Start by turn your top 5 performing blogs into videos. Retain Clients: Build a library that teaches customers how to get more value from your product. Close Sales Faster: Address your top objections head-on in video form. Here's what I'd do differently today: #4. Invite your ideal client to create content with you. Instead of cold outreach, I’d take my top 50 target accounts and invite them onto a podcast or video series. It’s a warmer way to start a conversation and build a deeper, more meaningful relationship. From there, I’d slice the conversation into highlights and distribute them across social channels. This does three powerful things: --> Builds brand association between them and you --> Positions you as a thought leader with your audience --> Creates a flywheel of content that attracts more of the right people I’m running these exact plays with a few clients right now, helping them turn audience insights into content that drives sales. If you want to see what that might look like for your business, DM me and I’ll share a couple of examples.

Youtube… if my introverted ass can do it, anyone can.   Here’s your introvert YouTube start up guide: 1️⃣ Leverage Your Strengths: As an introvert, you excel at thinking before speaking. Use this to craft fully scripted videos with concise, engaging, and well-delivered content. 2️⃣ Focus on Retention: The YouTube algorithm loves retention. Keep viewers engaged by delivering value quickly, using storytelling, and layering hooks throughout your videos. 3️⃣ Plan Your Scripts: Fully map out your video scripts. Include storytelling, data-backed claims, and humor to keep your audience entertained and informed. 4️⃣ Master Hooks: Start with attention-grabbing hooks in your title, thumbnail, and video introduction. Pay off the hook early and add more hooks throughout to keep viewers engaged. 5️⃣ Film Smoothly: Break down your script into short, memorable lines. Read, memorize, and deliver each line on camera, then use editing to create a polished final video. 6️⃣ Analyze Retention Data: Use YouTube Studio to track audience retention. Identify peaks (what viewers loved) and drops (what didn’t work), and adjust your content accordingly. 7️⃣ Tell Your Story: Share personal experiences related to your video topic. Stories resonate emotionally and help build a connection with your audience. 8️⃣ Be Entertaining: Even educational content needs entertainment. Add humor, relatable moments, or dynamic visuals to make your videos more engaging. 9️⃣ Stay Consistent: Commit to a schedule, like one video per week. Consistency helps you build skills, understand your audience, and improve performance over time. 🔟 Embrace Your Journey: Start small, learn from every video, and celebrate wins along the way. Introverts can thrive on YouTube by leveraging their unique strengths. 🚀🎥

For too many #artists, #YouTube is another place to drop music videos and move on. But the ones who really win? They treat YouTube as a storytelling machine, a fan engagement hub, and a revenue powerhouse. Here’s how the smartest artists are turning views into careers. 🚀 Exclusivity Wins: Give fans what they can’t get anywhere else. Behind-the-scenes footage, raw demos, and exclusive performances turn casual listeners into loyal superfans. 🎬 Think Like a Movie Release: Build anticipation before, during, and after a drop. Artists like Charli XCX extend the hype with carefully crafted content rollouts. 🔥 Live & Premieres = Engagement Goldmine: Post Malone’s Super Bowl YouTube Tailgate was a masterclass in live streaming. Live content isn’t an add-on, it’s an event. 🎭 Turn Fans Into Co-Creators: Covers, remixes, dance challenges. UGC isn’t just engagement. It’s free, organic marketing. 📅 Consistency Fuels Growth: The algorithm favours artists who keep fans engaged between album cycles. Vlogs, collabs, and tour diaries keep the momentum going. You’re not just uploading music. You’re building an empire. Swipe through for the full breakdown 👉

What do the strongest brands and creators have in common? A strong community… and here’s how to build one. Likes are great and all but let me tell you, it’s the conversations that grow brands, Whether you’re building a personal brand or running a business account, what you really want isn’t just quick engagement… It’s connection. Trust. And two way interaction. That’s what turns passive followers into loyal fans, clients, and customers. And after over 10 years of creating content for for brands across a variety of industries, Here’s what I can say without a doubt works for building communities & creating talking points: ✨ 1. Say something real → People can smell “safe” content a mile off. → Be honest. Be specific. Be bold. ✨ 2. Ask questions that don’t feel like fillers → Those easy to answer questions are important, but it’s equally important to sometimes ask something a little deeper. → Ask something thoughtful, surprising, or useful. ✨3. Show the process, not just the result → Everyone sees the final product. → Few share the decisions, experiments, and pivots it took to get there. ✨ 4. Tap into shared experiences → Talk about the things your audience has felt but maybe hasn’t said aloud. → This is how you make people feel seen. ✨ 5. Leave space for contribution → Don’t always tie everything up in a perfect conclusion. → Ask others how they do it. What they think. → Invite their voice into your content. ✨ 6. Share a perspective, not just advice → Instead of teaching at your audience, share how you approach things. → People respond to real world context, not textbook tips. ✨ 7. Feature voices beyond your own → Highlight your community. → Share a client win. → Repost someone’s insight and add your take. → It shows you’re not just here to talk, you’re here to listen. Because at the end of the day content that sparks conversation doesn’t just boost engagement. It also builds connection. It builds trust. And it builds community. And whether you’re a brand or a person, that’s where everything begins! Hey, I’m Jess 👋🏼 I share tips and advice on how to build your best social content and strategies! Hit ‘follow’ to keep up to date! ♻️ Found this post helpful? Hit that repost button to help others 😊