Video summary
The video explores five unconventional careers that offer six-figure salaries without requiring a college degree or extensive prior experience, highlighting a counterintuitive economic principle where high pay often correlates with undesirable working conditions. The speaker argues that employers are willing to pay premium wages to fill roles that the general public avoids due to factors like danger, dirtiness, or extreme stress. Examples include elevator technicians who work in dark shafts with live electricity and sanitation workers in New York City who face hazardous waste disposal duties; in some shortage years, these positions have paid upwards of $300,000 annually including overtime. Similarly, the video introduces niche roles like golf ball divers who retrieve lost balls from murky ponds inhabited by alligators and saturation divers who live in pressurized chambers hundreds of feet underwater to perform welding repairs, with top earners making over $200,000 a year despite the high risk involved.
Beyond the initial wages, the transcript emphasizes that these jobs often come with additional financial benefits such as employer-provided housing and vehicles, further increasing total compensation. The speaker notes that while entry-level pay might start lower, the scarcity of qualified workers drives up earnings quickly, sometimes allowing individuals to reach six figures within a few years of employment. A recurring theme throughout the discussion is the concept of leverage: when a job is so unappealing that most people say no, the employer shifts the dynamic where the candidate effectively interviews the company rather than the other way around. This scarcity creates an environment where workers can command higher pay and better benefits simply by being willing to accept the difficult nature of the work.
The video also pivots to discuss a secondary income stream that many professionals in these fields are already utilizing, which involves creating content about their own jobs on platforms like YouTube. The speaker shares success stories of individuals who started channels documenting their trades, such as an elevator mechanic or a sanitation worker, and rapidly generated significant revenue through AdSense and selling related products like cleaned golf balls. By filming their daily struggles and unique environments, these workers turn their undesirable jobs into profitable media assets, effectively earning a second paycheck while performing their primary duties. This strategy allows them to monetize the very visibility that others might avoid, proving that even in physically demanding or low-visibility roles, there is potential for substantial financial growth through personal branding.
Ultimately, the conclusion drawn is that anyone can replicate this success by identifying a niche they are already knowledgeable about and teaching others how to enter those fields, thereby creating an online education business without needing new technical skills. The speaker promotes a live training event designed to help beginners select the right niche, target the correct audience, and build a profitable channel using AI tools to streamline the process. Whether one chooses to pursue one of the high-paying physical trades or leverages their existing career into a digital income stream, the core message is that avoiding the jobs everyone else hates can lead to financial freedom, provided one is willing to embrace the challenges and potentially share their journey with an online audience.
Read the full video transcript
These are five jobs nobody wants that
pay over $100,000. And by the end of
this video, I promised at least one of
these is going to be a legit fit for
you, even if your gut is already saying
no chance. And honestly, it might be
several of them. Some of these are
dirty. Some of these are dangerous. And
at least one is so strange that you'll
think that I made it up. But I didn't.
And every single one pays over $100,000
a year without a college degree and
without years of experience. And most of
them will pay you while they train you.
And you could realistically start most
of these right away. And this is coming
from someone who spent the last decade
studying career paths after getting
burned by the college system myself. I
went $300,000 in student loan debt for a
doctorate that I barely use. That's
right. I paid 300 grand for a piece of
paper that got me into a pharmacy career
where I was constantly burned out and
hated it. So, I built a channel that I
wish I'd had at 18. And since then,
we've helped people land careers that
they actually want with over a thousand
verified testimonials to back it up. So,
I know what I'm talking about when I
break these down. Now, here's the
pattern that nobody teaches you. The
smart ones don't chase the jobs that
everybody loves. They chase the jobs
that everyone avoids because the second
that normal people say no thanks, the
pay starts climbing. For instance, one
town went 15 years without one of these
positions and they finally got someone
to work for $428,000 a year, a free
house, and a free car to fill that seat.
So, that's not charity, that's leverage.
The employer isn't interviewing you
anymore. You're interviewing them. So
today I'm walking you through which jobs
these are, what they really pay, how
people get in, and how some of the
people already doing these jobs are
stacking a second income right on top of
them without having to learn any extra
skills. Now everything in this video is
sourced and on the screen with examples
of real people. So if you appreciate me
making this type of content, then let me
know by gently cheersing that like
button and let's jump into it right now.
Okay, so the first one on the list is
going to be elevator technician. So you
rode an elevator this week and you never
once thought about who fixes it. And
this job means dark shafts, live
electricity, and 2 am trouble calls. And
I can already hear you. If this job
really paid well, Shane, everybody would
be doing it. Except nobody even knows it
exists. And the few who find it take one
look at the shaft, the machine crew, and
the crawl spaces, and they say, "Nope,
out loud." So, there's a trades podcast
episode that's literally titled,
"Elevator mechanics are the highest paid
in the trades." And it has 154,000
views. A union rep on it says top guys
make $200,000 a year on the check and
only four out of every 10 retiring
mechanics are being replaced. So the
pipeline is leaking from the top. So
these are the people who install and fix
the elevators every building over three
stories depends on. Now here's the
receipt. The BLS median is $106,000 a
year. That's not the top guy. That's the
middle guy. So in order to get into
this, you need a high school diploma and
the apprenticeship pays you, right? They
literally pay you to learn how to do
this trade and you typically carry zero
debt. But you might be thinking, well, a
union trade like that would be so hard
to get into, right? Well, my brother
Zach has been in the trades for almost
30 years, and he now helps people find
the right trade career for them. And by
the way, this pick came straight from
you guys. A top comment on our last jobs
video called out elevator mechanic and
wanted me to talk more about it. So, you
get in as an apprentice and it's 100k
plus once you're trained. So, yeah,
that's your answer. And yes, this is a
really good career for the right type of
person. Now, hold on to Zach because
what he did after getting into the
trades is the real story. See, he made
lots of money in the trades. He's in his
early 50s and he already has nearly
enough money to retire. But he started a
second income by making a YouTube
channel about the trades. And of course,
he got help from me since I'm the
YouTube boys. And using my system, his
first video on his channel popped off.
Got over 800,000 views. And 29 days
after posting that first video, he made
$214 in a single day. That's a $78,000 a
year run rate. So he went from zero to a
full-time income in less than one month.
And then he finished off his first year
on YouTube making $18,000 in a single
month. and I'm going to be talking about
exactly how he grew his channel in an
exclusive live training that we are
doing this week. Click the first link in
the description in the pin comment below
to check it out. In this live training,
we're going to be teaching you step by
step. Even if you're older, even if you
have no experience, even if you're not
techsavvy, even if you've never made a
video in your life and you're not
charismatic, because those are all
things that are true for Zach, exactly
how to start a YouTube channel as a
complete beginner, and how to use this
system, whether you have a YouTube
channel or not, to pick the right niche,
target the right people, and actually
grow a channel that makes money, right?
because there's a lot of broke YouTubers
out there and I don't want you to be
one. So, there's a limited time event
and there are limited seats as well. So,
click that first link in the description
in the pin comment below to secure your
seat. And also, if you're watching this
in the future, still click that link
below because it'll automatically put
you on a wait list for whenever we do
the next live event. All right, YouTube
just got 10 times easier and nobody is
talking about it. You used to need an
entire film crew and it used to be a
full-time job for you to just do any
work at all on YouTube. But now you can
get work done in as little as 15 to 30
minutes a day and you can actually grow
a fulltime YouTube channel. That's
exactly what I'm going to be talking
about at the live training that we're
doing this week. Exactly how to start
YouTube step by step for beginners. So
click the link in the description in the
pin comment below to check that out.
Guys, I will be answering questions
before, during, and after the live
training. It's completely free. Plus,
I'll be giving away an AI that is
designed to help you pick your niche if
you don't have one in the first place or
if you already have a niche. It's going
to help you make it 10 times better. So,
really looking forward to talking with
you guys. This is stuff that we've never
talked about before. So, click that link
in the description comment below and I
look forward to seeing you there. Okay,
so the next one is going to be a New
York City sanitation worker. Now, I'm
choosing New York City specifically, but
of course, this can work in many
different towns. So, this is basically
picking up garbage at 5:00 a.m. in
January, and the city still can't fill
the shifts. In one year, 94 of these
workers made over $100,000 just in
overtime alone. Not even their base pay,
just overtime. So, go ahead and say it.
Come on, Shane. It's the trash guy.
There's no way they make that much
money. Well, CNBC made a whole video
about this exact job. And the title is
making 44K a year as a sanitation worker
in New York City. And that video has
938,000 views. Now, hold that 44K in
your head because it's about to look
very different. And the internet's
obsession with this job gets weirder.
The von sat down with a New York garbage
man for almost 3 hours. And that episode
has 4.7 million views. Millions of
people showed up for pure trash talk. No
pun intended. Now, garbage is like
dishes at a restaurant. When the
dishwasher doesn't show up, the pile
just keeps growing, and the restaurant
pays whatever it takes to make that pile
go away. And New York is the biggest
restaurant on the planet. So, one man's
garbage becomes another man's 200 to
300,000. And these are the people
keeping the biggest city in America from
drowning in its own trash. Now, the
numbers come straight from the city's
own page. You start at $47,752
a year. By year five and a half, you're
at $95,316.
And that's just the base pay. Remember,
overtime can take you far over $100,000.
And in the shortage years, it gets
crazy. Fox News reported that some of
these workers saw their pay approach
$300,000 a year. That's $300,000 for
picking up garbage. So, every job on
this list is starving for people. Every
number was sourced on the screen, and if
one fits you, go take it. But did you
catch the pattern? Look at every job
that we just covered. People are making
YouTube videos about every single one of
them and they're getting paid to do it.
And this is what I started off doing as
well. I made the career channel that I
wanted and I wish that I had when I was
younger. And now I've taught hundreds of
other people to do the exact same thing.
My brother's just one example, but
there's Nicole who made it to 80,000 in
a single month teaching people how to
get into a career called governance,
risk, and compliance. Josh, who made it
to over $180,000 a month teaching people
how to get into various different cyber
security and IT related careers. Kadisha
made it to over $100,000 a month
teaching people how to get into data
analytics careers. Seth made hundreds of
thousands of dollars a year teaching
people how to get into digital marketing
careers. Troy's made millions of dollars
teaching people how to get into tech
sales careers. Antoine's made millions
of dollars teaching African-Americans
how to get into various different
careers. And the list goes on and on.
And it's not just careers. Alex Shep
made it to $15,000 a month teaching
people how to graduate from college
faster. Dr. Clifford Stewie made it to
multiple six figures a year teaching
busy adults how to get the right online
degrees really quickly. and Richard
Walls made it to $12,000 in a single
month, teaching people how to get the
right online MBAs as well as
certifications to get raises or to get a
better job. Felix makes millions a year
teaching people how to invest. Nurse
Jyn, who is in her 60s, made it to
$10,000 in just a few months, teaching
people how to age better. And she was
able to quit her nursing job and now
she's traveling all over the United
States in a camper van. And Nathan Rose
made it to a full-time income with a
tiny chess channel, literally teaching
adult learners how to play chess better.
And they all did it without having to
learn any new skills because they're
just teaching what they already know.
And if you want to know the exact system
that I've developed that helped all of
them go from zero to full-time income,
then go ahead and click the first link
in the description in the pin comment
below to attend our live training this
week. Again, this is a limited time
event. There are limited seats as well.
So, do not miss out on this live
training. Click that first link in the
description in the pin comment below.
And I'll also be answering questions
before, during, and after. So, you'll
get to meet me. Oh, and I'll also be
giving away an AI that helps you choose
the right niche for you if you don't
have one in the first place. Or if you
already have a niche, it'll help you
make your niche 10 times better. So,
yeah, don't miss out on it. And once you
sign up, make sure you put it on your
calendar. And if you're seeing this in
the future, still click that first link
in the description, the pin comment
below, cuz it'll automatically put you
on a wait list for whenever we do the
next live training. All right, this next
job is hiding in plain sight, and it's
the golf ball diver. And I know this job
sounds completely fake, but it isn't,
right? There is zero visibility down
there, and you cannot see your own hand,
and you feel through the muck by touch.
And you share that water with snakes,
snapping turtles, and in Florida, actual
alligators. And the pay runs a $100 an
hour per pond. Now, I know what you're
thinking. Shane, you made this one up. I
didn't. One Florida diver made over $15
million in his career doing this. He
literally made $15 million dodging
alligators for golf balls. And 3.5
million people watched the YouTube video
about that story. Now, there's a whole
channel called Golf Roose where these
guys film themselves waiting into golf
course ponds and pulling out thousands
of golf balls. One video is called We
Found Thousands of Golf Balls in the
Dried Up Pond and it sits at 3.4 million
views. That is 3.4 4 million views of
grown men collecting balls. And here's
the smart part. They don't just film it,
they sell every ball that they pull
through their own online store. So, the
videos are the advertising and the pond
pays them three times. Once to actually
do the job, wants to make YouTube videos
about doing the job because they get
AdSense from those YouTube videos and
then once selling the golf balls
afterwards. So, this job is basically
bobbing for apples, except the apples
are worth a dime each. The water is
gravy and the gravy has alligators in
it. And the grosser the water, the
cleaner the money. So, these are the
people who dive in murky golf course
ponds for lost balls that get cleaned
and resold by the millions. So, let's do
the honest pay math. Most part-time
divers pull 26 to $50,000 a year and top
earners push 62,000. But keep in mind,
this is part-time. And also, there's a
general rule that I talk about on this
channel where any job that requires
physical work. Usually, the pays are
listed a bit lower than the reality of
the situation. And this is for a bunch
of different reasons, but one of them is
that a lot of the cash probably gets
paid to you in person. So, they're not
necessarily reporting how much they're
making, but the full-time pros are a
different animal. CBS followed a diver
who nets $100,000 a year, and he
collects millions of balls a year at a
dime a ball. So, you can do the math on
that, and hold that thought because
there's a second paycheck hiding inside
every job on this list that I'll show
you in a few minutes. All right, next
job is going to be a saturation diver.
Now, this job sounds a little bit like
science fiction. They get sealed inside
a steel chamber the size of a minivan
for 28 days, breathing helium and doing
construction shifts hundreds of feet
below the ocean. And you might be
thinking, "Well, Shay, nobody chooses
that. And if they do, the pay can't be
real." Well, it is real. A channel
called The Weld Lab sat down with a real
underwater welder, and the video is
called $1,500 a day welding underwater.
And the number is right there in the
title, and the video has over $260,000
views. So, why is a welder making $1,500
a day? Well, Business Insider has the
answer. They call this the deadliest job
in the world. And their video on it has
1.7 million views. And these welders are
about 40 times more likely to die on the
job than the average American worker.
And that is exactly why the pay looks
stupid. You see, lobster costs $40
because of how hard it is to actually
capture them and get the meat out of the
shell. And this job is the same. They're
not paying you for the welding. They're
paying you for the difficulty. And these
are the people building and repairing
things hundreds of feet underwater. They
live in that chamber between shifts, so
they only decompress once. And Zip
Recruiter has saturation diving at
$123,000 a year on average. And the
crazy part is the floor. Even the bottom
25% clears $11,000 a year. And the
craziest thing is they usually don't
work full-time. They work on andoff
shifts and they typically end up working
about half the year. So day rates run
$1,300 to $1,500 an up. And if you work
more, you can make a heck of a lot more,
even over $200,000 a year. YouTube and
building your personal brand just got 10
times easier. and nobody's talking about
it. And the reason it got 10 times
easier is because of AI and specifically
cloud AI. And that's what we're going to
be talking about in this week's live
training that we're doing. Click the
link down in the description in the pin
comment below. I will be there. I'll be
answering questions before, during, and
after. We'll also be giving you an AI
that's been designed to help you pick
your niche if you don't have one in the
first place, or if you already have one,
that's going to help you make it 10
times better. So, we worked very hard on
this AI. People absolutely love it.
We've literally gotten hundreds of
comments from people that love it. You
do not want to miss out on it. And if
you're watching this in the future for
whatever reason or it's already past the
time of the live training, still click
on that link because we will be having
more live trainings in the future and
you will be the first person to know cuz
it'll put you on a wait list for that.
But with that being said, it's
completely free. No reason not to
attend. Click that link in the
description, the pin comment below, and
I'll see you on the other side. All
right, the next one is an air traffic
controller. Now, this job might be one
of the most stressful ones in America,
and that's why it pays so well. The FAA
is 3,544
controllers short. Over 40% of their
facilities are underst staffed and the
government got so desperate that they're
running recruitment ads targeting video
gamers. I'm not kidding. The
government's actual ad campaign is
called it's not a game, it's a career.
So, who knew that your Xbox and
PlayStation hours were your resume all
along? But Shane, don't you need a
degree in a military background for
that? No, you don't need a 4-year
degree. The FAA takes high school grads
with 3 years of work experience, but the
filter is brutal. Only about 2% of
applicants ever make it and you must
apply before the age of 31 and the law
forces you out at 56. So this job is a
line cook during a dinner rush that
never ends. Except every ticket on the
rail is 300 people in the air and you
cannot drop a plate and you can actually
hear that pressure. A channel called Vas
Aviation has 672,000 subscribers and all
they post is real controller tower
audio. In one video, a student pilot
loses his engine midair and you hear him
get talked back down. That video has 9.2
million views. According to view stats,
the channel pulls an estimated $5,300 to
$14,000 a month, and the entire product
is just controllers doing their job. So,
these are the people watching a radar
screen, keeping hundreds of planes from
hitting each other, one instruction at a
time. So, what's the pay? Well, the BLS
median is 144,000. And that's the
highest verified number in this video.
And the top 10% clear 210,000. So, the
pay here isn't for the work, it's for
you being able to handle the stress,
right? It's for the weight. And if the
weight sounds like too much for you,
there's a lighter way into this world.
One of our clients, for instance, Tim
runs a small aviation channel called
Lyft and Thrust, where he breaks down
planes and airlines. And the whole
channel only has about 10,000
subscribers, but his biggest video sits
at 464,000 views, and the channel is
pulling over 600,000 views a month. And
according to View Stats, numbers like
that are worth an estimated 1,700 to
$4,600 a month. And by the way, the
estimated AdSense money is usually far
lower than the reality of the situation.
For instance, view stats usually
estimates that my channel makes maybe
$10 to $15,000 a month from AdSense when
in reality last month we made over
$50,000 from AdSense. So, it's likely
that these estimates are very low. Plus,
that's just AdSense. There's many other
ways to make money from YouTube. For
instance, AdSense is less than 5% of the
total income that we make from this
channel. But yeah, that's the kind of
money sitting right next to these jobs.
So, there's a secret side of my business
that most of you have no idea exists.
And I actually have a coaching program
on personal branding and growing on
YouTube and making money on YouTube.
This is good for complete beginners,
maybe even people who just want to get a
job by growing their personal brand, as
well as business owners all the way up
to people who are very advanced on
YouTube. And they get to work directly
with myself and my team to help them
reach their goals. Now, we are opening
up three to five spots, and this is
pretty rare. We usually don't have these
open. We usually only limit them to a
select amount of people as well, but
we're opening up three to five spots,
and you can check those down in the
description and the pinned comment
below. And in this program, you will get
to work directly with myself and other
people who are highly successful on
YouTube. Everyone in our program has
100k plus subscriber plaques. Just as an
example, Shawn was able to go all the
way from being stuck, not making very
much money on his channel to making over
$500,000 in a single month. Now, that's
an example of one of my more advanced
students, but there are lots of examples
of people starting out from scratch and
they got to 5K a month or 10K a month,
etc. So, check that out down in the
description and the pin comment below,
and I look forward to working with you
and see if you're a good fit to work
together. And also, check out this video
right here to see exactly how I helped
my brother go from zero to a full-time
income in less than one month.