How To Make $50,000 Per Month From Home | Step By Step

Paddy Galloway runs one of the most successful in demand businesses on YouTube that's not on YouTube. Throughout the last several years he's cracked the code of the YouTube algorithm and manages some of the largest channels on the platform with a never ending waitlist from the opposite side of the world. Today we're going to break down his million dollar per year business, the secrets of building a YouTube empire and how you can get started as soon as you subscribe. going to say that. I said it. Hey, just hit the subscribe button and we'll start. Have they done it, Graham? it, Graham. Let's get on with the video. All right, enjoy. But first we have to thank today's sponsor Kudos. Because you guys know exactly how much I've talked about credit cards and saving money in the past. But even for someone as cheap as Graham Frugal. But even for someone as frugal as Graham, trying to fully maximize your credit cards points and rewards ends up being way too complicated and time consuming. And that is where Kudos comes in. Kudos is a browser extension that shows you the best credit cards to use for online checkout. They support over 3,000 different cards and all you have to do is enter which cards you use and they'll recommend the best ones for any online purchase you make. The average Kudos customer saves over $750 a year, which is insane. They even look for some of the hidden rewards like travel insurance and purchase protection that so many people forget about. My favorite part of Kudos is the card explorer tool, which shows you which cards you should apply for based on the ones you already have. They also have an auto fill feature that not only saves you money but also your time. Kudos is currently US only and offering our listeners a $10 Amazon gift card when you use code icedcoffee_bf. What was gf taken? Yes, it was. All you got to do is make your first auto fill purchase before December 5th and a $10 Amazon gift card will be delivered directly to the email address you signed up with. Again, you can use the link down below in the description and sign up with the code icedcoffee_bf so they know we sent you. Send me the audio. There we go. Welcome to the Iced Coffee Hour, Paddy. We are elated to have you. Yeah, you got to do your intro, Paddy. Welcome to the Iced Coffee Hour. This is going to be a YouTube master class. Wow. In person. That's fantastic. Yeah. Paddy, we are excited to have you on. I've been a fan of your channel for a very long time. You're a student of the YouTube algorithm. You know all of these hacks where these people can basically growth hack their YouTube channels into blowing up and consistently making high performing videos and turning those into multi-million dollar businesses. You consult some of the biggest creators out there on their YouTube channels and make some amazing content yourself. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. I mean, it's it's been a long time coming. We talked about this a long time ago. So it's it's great to be here. I listen to this podcast myself. Really? So it is pretty surreal being here and looking forward to diving into everything and going through it all. Yeah, I had no idea, by the way, that you ran an entire agency and a business around helping other creators grow their channels and them making more money, too. And I had no idea that was making that much money. You you had said something like $50,000 a month. Yeah, I mean, that that might be a bad month right now. Like we're we're trying we're aiming for a 100k a month. That's where I want to be. And I think I think it is possible. Like we've got close to that a few times. We're pretty much touching you know, in the 90s. Um so yeah, I mean, it's it's funny because I I was making the videos first just because I genuinely loved making the videos. It wasn't because I saw like a business opportunity. Cuz I I've been doing YouTube since 2006 in some form or another. And essentially I just kept having people reach out to me saying, "Hey, do you do consulting?" I'm like, "No." "Do you do consulting?" "No." "Do you do consulting? We'll pay you this much." "No." "Do you do consulting? We'll pay you this much and give you this and do that." I'm like, "Okay, actually let's give this a try." I tried it a few times, did it with a few different channels. First one of the first um channels I worked with, we like 3x views from like 20 million views a month to 60 million views a month. And I was like, "This could be a business." 260 No, 20 million to 60 million. per month. Per month. Wow. Um so yeah. I'm curious when when you're looking at 20 million views a month, I would see that and be like, "Oh, that's pretty good. Let's just let's let's keep that. How could we sustain that?" How do you take that from 20 to 60? And wouldn't they just think, "I'm getting 20 million views a month. This is pretty good. Why do I need your help?" I think it comes down to the person. Like some people are just perfectly okay with maintaining. But it does depend on the niche. Because let's say finance. Like you're like top of the finance game. I think that goes without saying. And like the the the actual ceiling of where you can be, like I would always say we could always do more. We could always maybe double what we're doing. When you look at something like Minecraft, which is the channel I was talking about there. It was a Minecraft channel I worked with. Like Minecraft is the biggest game in the world. There's Minecraft channels that get 20, 30 million views a video. So when I look at a niche like that, I see the ceiling and say, "Like why not shoot for 60 million? Why not shoot for 100 million views a month?" So I I think it depends on the niche. Like some people they have a hard ceiling and they just kind of float below that ceiling. Some people like it's limitless. Can you tell us when you initially looked at that channel, what were some of the biggest faults that you recognized in that channel and things that they can improve on to go from 20 million to 60 million views a month? I think in in that case, it was very early in my journey, to be fair. And it was it was like my first foray into consulting and into doing this as a as a business. So I looked at a channel like that and I just saw, "Huh, we're not really learning enough from data. We're not really thinking enough about ideas. We're not doubling down on the ideas that are working." And like I don't want to take all the credit. The team that was working on that was was phenomenal. And we managed to just all do this together to get to the point where it got to 60 million views a month. But more more recently when I look at a channel, because of the experience I have now, cuz that was quite a few years ago, I can go in straight away and almost like plug and play. It's like this channel has untapped potential. They should be doing more with the thumbnails. They should be spending more time on their intros. They're making obvious mistakes in the retention. And I look at that and say, "I have this experience. I have the team. I can go in and we can scale it to the moon." And how much do they pay you for that service? It kind of depends. Like my hourly rate would sort of float between 500 an hour to about 1,000 an hour, depending on the situation. Then as well, like we can get into kind of like revenue share agreements with with certain channels, which could become more lucrative. And sometimes as well, like performance bonuses. So like maybe they pay me 500 an hour, but then if we hit a certain view threshold, I would get an extra bonus or something like that. So it can be quite lucrative, yes. So let's talk about cuz you seem to be very well versed, kind of an expert on everything YouTube. How did you get to this point? Tell us your story, where you started from, how did you learn all and experience all this stuff for yourself and then teach it to other people? Man, I mean, I think I think a lot of it comes from growing up in Ireland. So I'm Irish, of course, as you can tell from the the accent. And yeah, like in Ireland I lived like 20, 30 minutes away from all my friends. I lived in rural Ireland, in the in the countryside. And during the summers, you know, we have these I I think you have the same here, like sort of three month break, summer break. I didn't have anything to do. So I was like 10, 11, 12. I got a camera for Christmas one year, like a lot of YouTubers say. Started filming videos and I just loved it. Like I loved making videos. I just loved the pursuit of just shooting something, even if it was really just like a prank on my brother, just something random. And then I saw YouTube and I was like, like this is a place I can actually share that. Cuz I wanted to be a filmmaker. And I saw YouTube and I was like, you know, if I want to put something on TV, there's all these hoops you have to jump through. With YouTube, it's just like press, upload, bang. So I started uploading videos there. And I think I think it really helped me because I never thought never saw it as like an opportunity to make money or an opportunity to to build a business. I just saw it as like, "This is really cool. I want to do this." So I started posting videos just of myself and my brother in like 2007, 2008. So we're talking like old school YouTube. Like there's there's no algorithm. It's all just you know, subscription feeds and like top rated videos of the week and all that sort of stuff. Um even back then, like I loved the I realized that the first love of mine was the actual content creation. And the second love was the analytics behind it. Like why something goes viral. And I have notebooks at home from when I'm 12, 13 years old where I would like track the views on successful videos cuz something like Social Blade didn't exist back then. So like the new Lincoln Park song would come out and I'd be just tracking the numbers just day by day and trying to figure out, "Okay, where where is this video going to end up? How many views is it going to get?" And that was again when I was 12, 13. And then since then, I mean, all my life I've had a YouTube channel in some form or another. When I was younger I had a lot of music channels. The most successful one of which got about 50, 60 million views, about 120,000 subscribers. So that was enough to actually start making a living with YouTube. And I was like, "I can do this for a living." Which is like it? It was Irish hip hop. Were you a rapper? No, no, no, no, no, no. Don't do not get me to rap. No, definitely We want to get you to rap at some point. We got to get you to rap. If you're listening, he's going to rap at the end, so stay tuned. At some point. Retention hack right there. we got to we got to say it's at some point in the video. That way you have to watch all the way through. We're not going to announce it. Oh my god, I'm already nervous. No, but yeah, like it it was a mainly Irish hip hop. And it's funny, whenever I say that, people are always like, "Irish hip hop? Like what are you talking about? Like leprechauns and and bars, you know?" And whiskey. But yeah, there's actually really there's a really cool hip hop scene in Ireland. So I I was filming videos and posting on this channel. And like I've got a video on there with 35 million views on this channel. And what are the the demographics of the viewers on that The demographics 90% Irish? It's It's actually it's funny. It's mainly British. It's about 70% British and about 20% Irish and then the rest of the world. Like I go into the analytics sometimes and I see views from like Korea and like Australia. And it's it's pretty crazy. But I stopped that channel a long time after the uh the PewDiePie thing happened and ad rates got crushed. I just completely Like I I was making a bit of money doing it, like not enough to like go crazy, but enough to like make a living as a 17, 18, 19 year old. But then the PewDiePie apocalypse happened in 2017 and I went from making a few thousand a month to like 100 a month. And that's when I actually came up with the the current channel. That's interesting. And then at what point did you realize you could begin turning this into a business? Cuz at that point, were did you want to go to school? Yeah, it's it's funny. So I was actually I was actually saying this to someone earlier. It's like when when I was graduating high school, so I was like 18, 19, I had a channel that had at the time 80,000 subscribers, this hip hop channel. And it was making me a little bit of money. And I was learning a lot. And if you thought of a kid today that has that is 18 and has a channel that's making actual physical money and is growing subscribers, you'd say take a shot, do it. But that never even crossed my mind back then. Like I I thought no, this is like this is not an opportunity. So I went to college. I just didn't think it would be something that would work. And I think some of that is probably being Irish and being from Ireland. It's a great country, but it's very much like you do this, you know? Like one thing I love about America even since just being here for the last few days is everyone is so like encouraging. In Ireland I I love it, but just in general people like, you know, no who do you think you are? You're you're like, you know, you're you're the Irish guy from, you know, Carlow in Ireland, which is where I'm from. You know, you just stick to your lane you do this, you become a mechanic, you go to college, you become an engineer or something, you know? So it's a bit different and I it just never crossed my mind. And then I realized after doing a bit of college and after working a 9-5 for a while, I was like, I was making as much money doing YouTube than I am doing a 9-5 that I do not like. What was your 9-5? It was in a marketing agency. So I was doing like Facebook ads. We were also running conferences as well, like business conferences and events. And it was like it was okay. But like I say 9-5, it was 9-9. Like I was working all the time and it was like $12 an hour. I was like I was making as much money if not more money on YouTube and I was like why not just double down and actually see the opportunity there. It's funny cuz that's only what, 4-5 years ago? But even 4-5 years ago YouTube wasn't the place it is now. Like it was it was almost more of a stigma. Like you like everyone thought this was just going to last a year, 2 years. Like people didn't think they could build sustainable careers. I think that's really changed over the last like 5 years for sure. Yeah, I don't know. I remember I started late 2016. I thought it was too late. I'm like everyone's already done it. Everything's already saturated. Who would care? It's like but looking back I'm like, oh wow, no. Little did I know there's still so much opportunity and so much would happen. Makes me think now every time someone says, oh no, it's so saturated now. What does that mean 5 years from now? Would you look back at that and think, oh man, it would would have been easy back then. There's all these new segments that just don't exist yet. That's what I think is very cool. Yeah, I mean that's that's a good point. I think that might be the the Irish culture in me. Just not not seeing the opportunity as much as as an American might. Yeah. But first today's video is sponsored by Epidemic Sound, the best tool for creators to soundtrack their content. Yeah, seriously, we've been using Epidemic Sound now for years and they've been one of the best platforms to soundtrack all of our videos without getting demonetized. Trust me when I say that dealing with takedowns and copyright claims is one of the most frustrating parts about being a creator. And having access to high-quality copyright-free music is seriously one of the most essential tools for content creation. All tracks are professionally produced by a diverse collection of artists and are exclusive to Epidemic Sound. That means you're not going to find them anywhere else. They offer both a personal and commercial plan with a personal plan ideal for creators that are on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, Facebook, What else? Basically all of them. All of them. Once again, guys, we've been using Epidemic Sound for like 2 years now. If you go back to the second ever video posted on this the family, you can see in the intro we use an Epidemic Sound song. Those are good times, man. Those are good times. So use that link down below in the description to get a 30-day free trial to access Epidemic Sound's diverse music catalog. Again, the link is down below in the description to get started today. And with that said, let's get back to the podcast. So you decided to quit your job and you went all in on this music channel at the time? No, so at the time like the the music channel in in 2017 it kind of wrapped up because of the apocalypse and because it just it just wasn't sustainable. up. Pun intended. Wrapped up. Yeah, yeah. It actually wasn't, but I'll take it. I definitely meant that. Um but yeah, like I I'd wrapped that up and I was like, you know, I know a lot about YouTube. That wasn't the only channel I was running. Like we would be here all day if I talked through every channel. I think I counted it one day and it's like 40 channels. 40 channels? Why? What's the point of that? That's too many channels. It's way too many, but if you're a kid who's interested in things like and loves YouTube. Like let's just say I get into like parkour, which I didn't, but let's just say I did. Channel, you know? I got into like calisthenics, like bodyweight exercises. Channel. I got into like EDM music. Channel. I got into rap. Channel. Like whatever I was doing, I was creating a channel around it. So you can imagine as like, you know, when you're 12, 13, 14, you just have a different hobby every week. So every week I'd start a new channel. And most of it I mean like I would say 98% of them never got past 1,000 subscribers, but a couple of them did. And then I just I was like, damn, I know a lot about YouTube. So 2017 happened, the apocalypse happened. I was like, I know a lot about YouTube and YouTube advice content, in my opinion at the time, was good, but it was kind of boring, I thought. Like I thought I could provide something different. So I was like I just remember saying to myself so vividly, you know, what could I do that's more original? And how like is it possible to get a YouTube advice video that gets a million views? And it kind of it kind of sprung from there. Just that that thought of like, what if it's not just top five tips to grow a YouTube channel? What if you like made a story out of a YouTuber's journey? And uh yeah, I guess the rest is history. What was the first video you made on that? Was that Mr. Beast? No, the first video I made was the Peter McKinnon breakdown. And I have a funny story about this. So the channel I I made it on, which is obviously my channel now, that had a different name and I essentially used it as almost like a bit of a like a a content farm channel. Like I made like top five moments and I had like 20,000 subscribers and maybe like 10 million views because the conversion to subscribers is very low for that type of content. So I was doing that and it was like, you know, a bit of fun. I was making a little bit of a cash doing that. Um but then I had this thought like I said of the, you know, the YouTube advice video that could get a million views. Like what does that actually look like? And essentially, a few months prior to that, I had studied Peter McKinnon's success, like studied his journey. And I was like, how did this happen? Cuz he kind of came out of nowhere. Like he was like, especially back then, it was like him and Casey Neistat were like, you know, top of my mind. So I had almost like wrote an essay for myself just to like learn from his journey and his success. I was like, damn, this guy's really interesting. Let me write down like a little bit of a like a do some notes and write like a story for myself to read back. Then I looked at it and I said, you know, this could be a video and this could be exactly what I was thinking about. Like a YouTube advice video that could hit a million viewers. And I uploaded uploaded it to that channel, 60 views in the first day. And on that channel I was usually averaging a few thousand views in the first day. About 60 views. Mhm. And I just looked at it and I said, this isn't going to work, you know? I'm going to go back to the 9-5. Like this this doesn't work, right? And the funny story about it is I just I remember like shutting it and like signing into a different YouTube account cuz I had so many different YouTube accounts. Um and just signing out, going about my day. And then I was in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, um a few weeks later. And a guy I know came up to me and he was like, Paddy, I I really like that video you posted about Peter McKinnon. I was like, that's funny. Like it's really niche how he'd find that. Like, you know, what? Must have like 100 views by now. Log back into my studio on my desktop cuz I didn't even have it on a mobile. I don't even know if YouTube mobile was even there. YouTube studio was even there. I open up the YouTube studio, 300,000 views. And I was like, damn, people want this type of content. And that's kind of how the channel grew from there. Mhm. How much you make from that video? Do you remember? The RPMs were pretty decent actually. YouTube advice content. I think I think like that video alone, like right now it's got 1.1 million. So I remember the first check that came in for that first month was like 2K. Something like that. Like 2,000. I think in the first month it did like 500,000 views. So that was the first check. I instantly bought a laptop. And then uh that's kind of how it snowballed. When did you quit your job? I finished up my job the following summer. That's when I kind of wrapped everything up, which was I think 2018. Okay. And at that point in time actually this channel, like my current channel, it was in a bit of a lull. I'd made a few videos in in the the meantime while I was still working the job. Some of them had done well, like I made a video on Casey Neistat, got like 600,000 views. But I'd made a video on Alpha M and uh Unbox Therapy and they both kind of underperformed for where I was aiming for. And then I like I finished up the job and I was feeling like honestly like a bit depressed. I was like, you know, what's the next what's the next step for me? Like what do I do next? Cuz I'm the sort of person that always has to be working towards something big. Like I I realized in the 9-5 like if someone said, you work this 9-5, you make this much money and then you go up and you do another few years and you do this, like it just doesn't excite me at all. Like I want rapid. I want to do things and move things forward. So I was kind of in this period where I was like, yeah, I don't know. Like should I just quit the channel? Should I try to do something else? I went through down this rabbit hole of like trying to start other businesses and thinking like, oh, I'm going to get into drop shipping. I'm going to get into this and that. I was just trying all these like silly things and wasting my time. Then I was like, let me just give this a really good go with the Paddy Galloway channel that people know from today. And I went back, started making a few videos. The results were slow. I made one on Matt D'Avella, did like 40,000. Made one on Peter McKinnon, did 80,000. And I was like, ooh, this is something. I made a video on PewDiePie and it absolutely flopped. It it did it did terrible. First week it did like 3,000 views. And you know, I was I was accustomed to like 600,000 and a million. And I was like, God, like I was thinking I might actually quit. Like I might actually just stop YouTube. Before I stop YouTube, I said, I'll make one more video. And that video was the video on Mr. Beast. So I was like, this this Mr. Beast kid, like this is 2019. So obviously he was big, but he wasn't like big big. I was like, this guy's amazing. Like he's he's getting like he's got 20 million subscribers. He's getting 20 million views a video. Let me make a breakdown video on him. So I just said, this is my last chance saloon. And I don't want to like make it too dramatic, but like that was literally what I was saying. I remember looking at the computer screen and saying as I was writing the script, this could be the last YouTube video I make. Made that video. Pressed upload. First day, pretty good. I don't even remember if we had rankings back then. So so long. Yeah, I think maybe we did. I can't remember. But I I uploaded the video. I was like, okay, posted, checked it. I was like, oh, it's performing quite well. Like I think it had like a few thousand views in the first few days. And my videos would always start slow anyway. Started picking up and I saw, oh, 20,000 views. This is interesting. And it was it was right around Christmas of 2019. And then I woke up one morning and it had like 35,000 views and it jumped up overnight. And the interesting thing is Nate O'Brien, who I I know you guys are a very good friends with. This is his hotel room. Shout out Nate O'Brien. Nate. Shout out Nate. He commented on the video. And this was the first time he'd interacted with my channel. He commented on the video saying, "Dude, this is going to get a million views." I remember him saying like I saw the comments. Like I should go back and find it. Like if if anyone wants to look it up, it's probably still on that video. And I saw that and I was like, "Yeah, a million views. Like that'd be crazy." Like I was just thinking I'd love this to get 100,000. And then, the day after that, it got 500,000 views in one day. Mega viral. Next day after that, it got 600,000 views. And that was Christmas Eve. Then Christmas Day, it did 650,000 views. And my YouTube studio was just bananas. Like I was looking at it and I was like, "2 million views in my real time." You know, and the video before on PewDiePie, it's done well now cuz over time it's it's ranked in search and done well. But again, that was 2,000 views in the in the first like 2 weeks. This video had 3 million views in the first 2 weeks. And I was like, "Okay, this is something that I could really really do and stick to." So that was like the second quitting point. So I was thinking of quitting, did that. I thought, you know, I didn't need I didn't need it was like, you know, the YouTube algorithm has just blessed me. They knew I was going to quit and they were like, "Let's give him another shot." But I think it was just a well-timed video at the at the right time. And the numbers speak for themselves. It's interesting cuz Dhar Mann had a very similar story. He said he was about to quit and told his now wife, "This is the last video I'm posting and I'm done." Posted the video and the next day it got like a million views on Facebook. And that's what gave him the encouragement to keep going. So it's amazing how many times you make that last video and it's not the last one. But you got to mentally go in thinking this is the last one and then it'll blow up. It's also very cool when you post a video and people say, "This is going to get a million views. Here before a million views. This video is about to blow up." Cuz usually they're right. If if I usually get about two dozen of those comments like here before a million views. This is going to get a it always does. And I think the viewers know just like if the how the video is going to perform in the first 20 minutes. Pretty remarkable. They felt something fresh. Yes. You know, like maybe those viewers had had watched other YouTube advice videos. And they're like, "Ah, this is some good advice here, but kind of boring." But then not to give myself too much credit, there wasn't really anyone else doing those breakdown videos. You know, there's a lot more now, but at the time I was like the first person to do these breakdown videos. So seeing something completely new and fresh on your feed that, you know, people were just like, "Damn, this is interesting." So I think I think that is a good video. Now, what I find interesting too, I just thought of this, is that you make these very good come up videos. Like the the you know, the rise of a certain creator. Whereas other people like SunnyV2 talk about now the downfall of the greatest. So you like the right up and he's the the right down. Have you found that maybe more, you know, the negative videos tend to do better because I'm watching a lot of SunnyV2? Oh my gosh, his his views his James Corden video over a million views now in 9 hours. Yeah. I How is that not on trending? And that's it just seems like it's organic and and all of his subscribers just click it cuz they just want to know what's the downfall. I I am And part of me I'm super stoked. Like every time he posts a I I watch it. But part of me I watch these videos thinking what could I avoid cuz if if they're all making these mistakes, how could I not make these mistakes? You know, what could I not do? Yeah. You know, it's interesting cuz I I remember when he he first started posting videos and I saw him when he had like 10,000 subscribers. And I thought he was copying me a little bit. Not not to take a shot. Like I I kind of thought he was doing like the rise of Mark Rober and I was like, you know, I was like, "Ah, he's kind of taking a bit of inspiration from me." But like when he when he switched that complete like downfall Yeah. I mean, just look at the view counts. Like I I kind of I don't do badly at all. I average like 900,000 per video when you just combine my last 30 videos. But like this guy gets like a guaranteed million views a video. He's got like 4 million views, 5 million views, 6 million views. Yeah. I think there just is more more of a desire for it. And a lot of people like I I've had people tell me like what like I had people tell me before he even he even came along, "Why don't you do the downfall on people?" Yes. And not to like make myself sound like holier than thou or whatever cuz like I think it's just content at the end of the day. But like at this conference like I'm walking into people. The way I I see this is YouTube is like super stressful. And again, I think SunnyV2 is a genius. Like I think he's brilliant. Like he's honestly and I've I've actually had a few messages with him. He seems like a really nice guy. So like absolutely no shade at all. That's that's to me like imagine I just imagine like let's just say Paddy Galloway fell off. Like not that I'm at this huge level, but let's just say I fell off. Yeah. Like I would just I would feel so bad about that. I'd be like really like shamed. I'd feel like horrible about that. I'd like to think I would find a way out of it and figure out how to like blow up again. But if that was the case and then I'm just like, you know, in a bad mood and then I just see on my news page page like the downfall of Paddy Galloway. But you know what? I have to say he does them in such a way where it's not him coming up with these opinions. He's just reporting. So like he did one He did one on Andrew Hales. And Andrew watched the video and I watched Andrew's reaction of it. It was so good. And Andrew was like, "Yeah, I think it's a pretty balanced video." He's right. That's Andrew. You can't base everybody else off of Andrew. He takes things very lightly. I think there's like you have to if you're reporting something, you have to kind of understand that you're also publicizing certain things and you usually don't accurately portray both sides. You sensationalize it because that's what gets the views. Yeah, there's some of that. But usually in his videos you can point to something in some of these videos like, "All right, yeah, I agree with that. That makes sense." But I see your I see your point though. But like for example, like there was a like I feel like I'm quite like immune to that sort of like I don't care what people say. And but it may me mainly it's because like I'm not on camera. So like they're not they're not personal attacks, you know? So maybe if I actually felt what that was like, I'd be different. But like in January and and February and March, I had a few videos that underperformed on my channel. I had a video that first Ryan Trahan video hit like I think it's like 130 K. The Matthew Beem one like underperformed as well. And I remember just being so like disappointed with that cuz there's nothing worse than like a 10 out of 10. Like it just hurts. Especially as the end of 2021, I had like 3.5 million on a Beluga video, 3.9 million on a MrBeast Squid Game video. So I was like on this ultimate buzz. Then I get like 130 K. Then I get 90 K. And I remember just feeling terrible. And then like I tweet something and like someone replies to tweet just saying like, "Dude, you fell off. Look at your views. That's like a tenth of what you got last year. Like what is going on? Like what is the content? Like if you done something wrong?" And like I know I should look at that and reflect and say, "Yeah, I am doing something wrong." Like there there was a reason those didn't perform. They were badly timed. They were not the best videos. I did mistakes in those videos. But like it kind of hurt. I was like, "Damn." Like, you know, it's kind of bad to actually fail publicly and then someone to say like you're doing you're doing wrong. And I just remember when I made that Ryan Trahan penny series video in June and that one hit a million views. Before pressing that that video before pressing publish, I was so terrified. That sounds strange to someone whose income is not tied to his channel and who's been on YouTube for so long to be so terrified of pressing publish. But I was like, "If this video flops as well, like I'm done." Like that's how I thought. Yeah. And I don't know. But doesn't it in a way affect you professionally because if your clients see you like even if you have results with your clients, but if they see you not having videos that perform, do do that cast doubt in their mind even though it doesn't reflect on them? I I think that yeah, I think there is a point there. Like I I do think that helps me because like there's quite a lot of people that talk about YouTube. There's not many people that talk about YouTube and actually get a million views on videos. So I do I do think that's a factor. Yes. I think the one thing to consider though is like naturally YouTube advice content shouldn't have the audience that mine does in my opinion. Like if you look at any other channel like Brian Collins and Amir who've done a phenomenal job. Like most of them struggle to crack 100 K. So when I get a video that hits 140 K, it's like compared to everything else, it's a massive underperformer. But when you consider the audience I'm trying to actually target at the end of the at the end of the day. Not trying to downplay it, but I feel like you know, let's just say if someone was getting 50,000 views a video on YouTube advice, I think they were a good YouTuber. You know, cuz it's difficult. There's lots of people doing it. It's competitive. But I do definitely think it does help with reputation, with clients, being able to say, "Look, I can make a good video." Um and even like I a funny thing like I I saw this post screenshots on Twitter of like analytics and and results I get for myself and other people. One time I posted a screenshot of a video with like 1.9 million views at whatever on that that mark. I got this DM from someone they were like, "You know, you're just photoshopping this. You know, I want to see some proof for this performance." And I just linked him the video and it was on my channel. And I was like, "Dude, like just look at my channel. It's right there." You know, so it definitely helps in that regard to be like, "I know what I'm talking about." Got it. How many clients do you have now? Full-time clients, I have I believe it's five between five and seven. It kind of varies with some people that dip in dip out. Can you say who your clients are? I can say the the YouTube channels. I can't say the corporations I work with. Sure. Um I work with Noah Kagan. Mhm. He's he's one of I work with for a lot and like, you know, he he was a perfect example of selecting someone who I thought could blow up because he's got like a crazy track record, crazy reputation. He's got resources and he's actually really passionate about YouTube. Like he wants to grow on YouTube. He's consistent. That's what I like the most about him is that very few people in at his league have the consistency to post no matter what. Yeah, cuz he he'd gone through 3 years, two maybe 2 years of just the same results. But he still kept posting and he still kept trying to do YouTube. And anyway, I came in. I talked to his producer. We talked about like a strategy we could apply on the channel. Funny funny story is like I've I've been working with Noah for like nearly a year. And then this this conference at VidSummit is like the first time I've actually really had a conversation with him because like he's got everything so scaled. Like every like he's just kind of like in front of the camera, but everything around him is like systematized. So anyway, like I looked at the channel and they were doing like 20 to 50,000 views a video. Some sometimes outliers, but three times a week. In my opinion, the content was good, but it was like sitting at the desk. It wasn't too creative and like I think there was a bit of a ceiling to it. So when I came in and the guys the producer and and Noah himself, the producer Jeremy, they agreed that like we need to be more selective. We need to go for bigger swings with the content. And like you know, so we started applying that. We started actually posting less, but we went for bigger swings. Like Noah was actually out and about asking millionaires how to make a million and so on. with that idea? They came up with the idea, but I I came up with the thumbnail concept. And in my like I'm not trying to take credit for it, but I think that thumbnail concept is brilliant. I just love that pause reaction of Oh, him at the door with the door kind of open. Yeah, I like that. Yeah. So, like that video that was the first video we did together the first thumbnail I worked on with them. That video is like 3.5 million now. And like ever since then like I think on average I worked it out for my VidSummit presentation like on average we're doing about 500,000 views a video now whereas before it was 50,000. And that's just by being more selective and going for like bigger swings. And I I thought that was possible the minute I saw Noah and talked to him and talked to to Jeremy on his team. I was like you know, this guy has such a great reputation. And also he's just willing to do stuff. Like some people you go into the channel and they're like, "I want to do it like this. I don't want to change anything. You know, I just want to keep it this way." But when someone's like, "I just want to blow up. I just want to figure out how to get more views." I'm like that's what I want to hear. Let's see what we can do. So, yeah. Yeah. So, can you reveal some of your other high-profile clients that you work with? So, I work with Jesser. If you've ever seen his content like we content. we crush it on shorts. He's basically a a basketball creator. He does like a lot of sports-related videos. 6.5 million subscribers. Similar story I went into his channel and I was like you know, things are good here. Yeah. It's decent creator very I mean very good creator. He's doing about 400, 500,000 views a video. Could we scale this to two? Could we scale it to three? Like when I look at a a channel I'm just thinking like what is that ceiling? Like could we get it higher? And we essentially started switching to just higher effort kind of a little bit Mr. Beast-ified challenge videos with bigger stakes so there's a lot more investments in terms of time and money and also just thinking more about thumbnails. I know you guys like love thinking about thumbnails. And that's one of my favorite things about you guys cuz like I can't say how many creators I come to and it's just the last thing they think of. And sometimes these are channels with 10, 15 million subscribers and they're like, "Yeah, I do the thumbnail like the day before." You know. I mean we do the thumbnail usually hours before but it is a nightmare. But you really think about it though. Yeah. Gosh, it is horrible. Yeah. it's fun it's fun when you get it but it's horrible when you're thinking there it's like I have no ideas. I hate it. And you got to get something done cuz we have a deadline and we have to post. There've been times we posted late because I just can't think of the thumbnail. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. But like yeah, it it's a situation it was a situation like that with Jesser where I just knew he had again like a lot of the it ticked a lot of the same boxes like he had a channel that had untapped potential. He was creative and good on camera. He had resources and he was willing to apply feedback. Like my first call with them we originally just did one consultant call together. Did that call instantly said I'd apply what I what I told them. Like there wasn't any kind of like, "Oh, I don't know. Let me It was instantly bang. They started applying it and they started getting results. Then they hired me full-time and well not full-time but like a few hours a week in in January and we scaled it up a bit since then. And I work on every video. I work on every thumbnail. I still think every single video could be better and you know, if if Jesse or any of the team is listening to this like we should be getting 10 million views a video in my opinion. But yeah, we scaled that channel up. He's another channel. Work with a great Minecraft channel called Dom Minecraft. Not sure if either of you guys are Minecraft viewers but the mission with that channel the goal with that channel is to become the biggest Minecraft channel in the world. Who's the number one right now? Dream. Dream pretty much still, yeah. Like there's like the Dream SMP there's Tommy in it. There's a few other guys. Um but we're just sort of looking at it and say like this guy is super driven. He can make great videos. So, we just go into the channel and like I've been working with him since January. We average about 3.5, 4 million views a video in Minecraft. So, I work with him. Who else is there? Got Zack Alsop. Ever seen his content? UK YouTuber. It sounds familiar. He's he's a another great creator. Cash Jordan. Mhm. He does real estate tours of apartments in New York. Got about 300k. He's actually my smallest client but a lot of fun with him. And then as well yeah, I work with a few corporations including one massive Fortune 500 company which I can't reveal Is there any way you could whisper it and we we bleep it out? Just to just to get our reactions. Okay. Makes sense and it's amazing. So, you're doing their social media and stuff? So, no they're just their YouTube. Essentially like they're Wow. Obviously a massive company. And they have like huge resources. They have huge people working with them. There's so much like I don't want to reveal who who it is but like there's there's so much built around this company but they don't have a good YouTube strategy. So, last April the head of YouTube reached out to me. I worked on one video with them titled and thumbnails one video with them. Did 5.5 million views. And their average is like two, 300k if even. Like quite often it's less and sometimes there's like paid on top of that. Wow. So, they were like, "Damn like this this guy knows what he's doing." Did a few talks with their teams and and now they're a full-time client. Yeah, how does it work with payment? Do they pay you way more than a individual creator would? Like how does that relate to your overall income? It's it's a bigger package like there's more included. So, for example with a lot of the creators I work with it's just me whereas this involves like a thumbnail designer that I bring in. It involves my analyst who's on my team who like devotes a certain amount of time Yeah. to week. So, it's it's a bigger retainer deal with some like performance stuff involved as well. And what happens hypothetically let's say you sign on with them and you're just not getting results or like what happens if it maybe you don't know just it's not going right. What would happen in that situation? I think it depends on what they're what they're actually really trying to get out of it because what I realized about working with companies like views aren't the only metric they track. They're thinking like are we moving in the right direction? Like are we learning more about this platform? Like I think there's it's different to a YouTuber. YouTuber just looks at pure views. But I would say in general like I'm lucky and I know this will never be the case because like you can't be you can't get it right every single time. But every channel I've worked with over an extended period of time we've increased views. Like it's it's just never happened that we've decreased or plateaued. Every single time it's increased. Now, just the law of odds like eventually I will come to a channel where I can't fix or I can't make happen and you know, that might happen the next year, the next two years, next three years. I think it just comes down to having a conversation and like I the way I do business I literally do not have contracts. Like you know, NDA stuff sure but I don't do like, "Hey, you're locked in for two years." It's like if we're not getting results you can just leave. Yeah. So, it's it's like and sometimes clients have to be patient. Like I've worked with clients where like the first month is a bit slow as we're trying to transition and trying to make things happen. So, sometimes it just comes down to like, "Yeah, just be patient and if at any time you want to leave you want to leave just go." Like I'm I'm very friendly with these clients. Like I actually chill with them. Like we're friends so it's it's not really like you know, a big deal. I've always thought about that. These these massive corporations have huge budgets and their marketing is very important and they always buy sponsors just buy sponsorships and stuff like that. But why don't they have an in-house team that's running their social media which some companies do but it's never very effective. Yeah. And if they could get that it's the perfect targeted audience the people that like follow or they don't throw enough resources at it. I mean we've seen we've seen some where it's like the whole YouTube team is like two people and and we're like this should be 20. Like Taco Bell's done a good job. Taco Bell's Twitter is like fire. But there's quite a few where they don't take YouTube seriously and they just hire the bare minimum just to do it but they're not doing it that well. Yeah, I I see that as well. And like it is it there's there's pros and cons. Like it's a different world to working with YouTubers. Like there's so much professionalism but it's also much slower. You know, like making a decision takes more time. Like approving things takes more time which is natural. But I completely agree like these companies like why are you spending hundreds of million of millions of dollars on on TV and you're spending like a million dollars on YouTube if even. Like you have like two people on your YouTube team. Like that's not the company I'm working with but like just in general I see that all the time. I'm like, "Why are you not investing more?" Right. Like it's where eyeballs are going. Can you tell us about your business and like how many people work with you and how you've grown that? Like what's the back end of that look like? Yeah, I mean it's it's messy. I'd love I'd like you to take a look at it sometime and and see what I could do better and hear your opinion on it. But uh basically like it started as me obviously cuz it's the Paddy Galloway brand it's my channel. I started working with clients first. Then over time I'm like damn I need an assistant. So, I hired an I hired a PA. So, I've got a PA. Okay. Then I was like I need help with these clients especially on stuff that's repeatable and I can you know, have someone do again and again. So, I hired a what I call a YouTube strategist who just works with me with clients. I hired another YouTube strategist so I have two YouTube strategists that work with me. The other YouTube strategist is more on the data side. So, if there's a client that wants like a deep dive into their analytics they want to export everything build crazy graphs like that's his bread and butter. Uh then I've got a designer that helps me a little bit with like animations and stuff for videos. And after that I have a thumbnail designer who's kind of more on like a kind of retainer contractor basis. But yeah, it's like a team of kind of like four or five depending on how much you count like six if you count freelancers, too. Do you have an office or do you just work from home? Completely remote. This is like the it's it's crazy like I've been working on YouTube like with these these YouTubers for a few years now. This is the first time I've met YouTubers in person. Apart from Nate O'Brien in Dublin in 2020. first and only like YouTuber you've ever met in person? Yeah. I mean like before like I did see I have seen a few since but like in 2020 when I saw him it was right before the lockdown. Like COVID actually wasn't a thing. It was like February, you know. Sure. And we just had a a pint in a pub in Dublin or a bar as as you guys call them. Yeah. And I just thought like you know, this guy's really smart. He's you know, we we'd obviously talked a bit since that video where he commented on performance. And there's there's just not many creators in Ireland, you know. Very few. And then the the lockdown happened. Yeah. So, I was supposed to come here to Los Angeles last year and I couldn't get in cuz of COVID restrictions. Right. So, like this is the first time I've actually been to America. First time setting foot in America so it's pretty interesting. That's cool. So, you being the expert that you are on YouTube understanding analytics and statistics and all of that good back end stuff. What are some content hacks aspiring YouTubers can do or things that are commonly overlooked things that people generally don't do very well that they can fix to see immediate performance increase? Honestly, it it sounds funny saying this but like the biggest thing is ideas. Like the actual ideas and topics you cover. It's incredible to me how someone could like invest maybe tens of thousands of dollars into a video, invest hundreds of hours into a video, but the idea is just the the first thing they thought of, you know? It's a random Oh, that would be a good idea. Let's Let's just make a video on that. Like it just doesn't make sense. So, investing a lot of time into ideas. How do you know it's a good idea or a bad idea? I think you have to have Like so, what I think about is I think about like a funnel. So, I want to come up with Let's say I want to make one video. I want to come up with like 100 ideas and then put it through like a funnel with a filter. And that filter could be like can this video Can I think of a good thumbnail? Does this video excite me? Does this video have 1 million view potential depending on what sort of channel you're on? Like how you decide that is somewhat subjective, but it can also be based on data. Like maybe we've done this video before or we've done a similar one before and it's performed really well. Or maybe it's performed really well with a competing channel. Or maybe even a channel in a different niche that's over performed. So, we have some at least some insight into how this could do. So, that takes the box. And then maybe it's just like, you know, how feasible is this to actually execute? Like we can all come up with a crazy idea, but maybe it's not feasible. I think of like 100 ideas, filter down to like the 10 with like criteria like that. And when you get to 10, just look at them and say which is the best. Like sometimes you do have to trust your gut. And I'm someone that loves data, loves analytics, but sometimes it's just like that feels like a better idea than that one, you know? Let's do that and let's make that video. What I would say like, you know, in terms of hacks like more time on ideas. Like I worked with Mr. Beast for a few months last year and like that was eye-opening to me. How like ideas are everything. Especially for entertainment channels. I think it's a bit different than other niches, but like even Graham yourself, I'm sure you know, like if you got a good topic, it's it's going. Yeah. Yeah. What else beyond that? I would say like intros is one of the biggest problems that creators have. Understanding how to hook someone, how to get to the point, and how not how to not put too much context in. I think way too many creators put way too much context in their intros. Like I don't want to hear all this explanation. I just want to hear delivery. I just want to hear us flow into the rest of the story. That's another thing as well. Like it might sound obvious to you guys, but so many creators have like an intro reel. You know, like a little like cinematic intro. It's just It's just one I watched where the intro reel was 50 seconds. That sounds kind of like your intro, Graham. No, but smash the like button. Make sure you please do it. Are you going to do it? Okay, then. I'm talking about one of those pre-recorded where it's in front of every single video where it's like that like 50 seconds. It was 50 seconds. Like so, I've studied like thousands of retention curves across I want to say hundreds. That's maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but like dozens of niches. I've never seen an intro reel serve a purpose. Like if they're just not use They're not useful. They don't They're not needed. I honestly like with my videos like my videos take me maybe like some videos of mine take like 100 hours to finalize with between scripting and like editing and everything together. And let's just say it's a 10-minute video. You would think like each minute has a 10% time allocation. The reality is I spend like 30 to 40% of the time on the first minute. Just to make sure every word is right. And I I have that liberty because I post infrequently. And I think it's harder when you're posting a lot of content to be able to go into that detail. But that's how strongly I feel about how you start the video. So, like talk about hacks. Like faster intros that get to the point and don't Like I would say an intro that doesn't feel like an intro. Like if I can point at your intro and just see so clearly where it ends and it's like, "Okay, now let's get into the video." Like why didn't you just start there, you know? That's like that's like the biggest intro hack. So, that's that's definitely another thing that people need to work on. I'd love for you to critique our content. I think that'd be great. Yeah. I think I think one thing I I was actually meaning like if ever I if ever I came on this podcast, yeah, I was going to ask you about the the smash the like. I was It's so funny cuz I was about to ask you have you found if likes affect the performance of the video? So, likes Likes and video performance are slightly correlated. So, there there is like a relationship between a video that get gets more likes, gets more views. But it's not as important as retention. So, the question for me and the question for you is really if by having the like CTA if you like let's see Let's say that like CTA leads to like a 3% drop or 4% drop in retention. The way I would think about this is it's trade-offs. Like now you have three or four percent people people who've left the video and what you've got is more likes. But if retention is weighted higher than likes, I would always prioritize the retention. So, my like button smashing is usually about 10 to 15 seconds the maximum and I always include a picture of a baby animal so thank you. And I feel like people like that because some people request now in the comments, "I want a picture of a baby dolphin." Or like, "I want you know, a hedgehog in the next one." So, I'll see the comments. I'll be like, "All right, I'll I'll take a note and then I'll put up a picture of a hedgehog or you know, whatever that is. But you also get comments like, "Stop begging for likes and stuff like that." They've been saying that since the very beginning. There's always going to be somebody who's too complains of it. You're taking your anecdotal experience about people praising you for the for the things that you do. No, because because No, because you you I see out of 100 comments, one person is like, "You're begging for likes." And then the other 99 people don't care and they hit the like button and they like it. There's going to be a person who complains over everything. People complain about my voice, how I look, how I move my arms, which I think help retention cuz it makes a video more appealing. People can find everything to complain about. There's going to be every You know what I think though? Yeah. I I mean, obviously comments like you can get some decent data from like, you know, how people are feeling about a video. But really it's about the retention curve. Like when you do Like I don't I don't really care too much about what people say, positive or negative. I care about those moments where you introduce that like CTA. Are you losing a significant amount of retention? What's your advice for people who might want to be in a position like you to consult and make money on the back end from YouTube? Honestly, don't don't see it as like a a making money opportunity to begin with. Like I actually do it as like a YouTuber. Like be become Try to become a YouTuber yourself. Like I make a living from my channel. I don't necessarily need to do this. Like if I wanted to just like get by, I could just live on my channel. So, like I'm a YouTuber first and then a YouTube consultant second. Like that's the the sort of the way it's gone for me. So, I'd say if anyone wants to do this, I would say either start your own channel and just obsess over that and try to make it the biggest channel you can. Or go and find like an upcoming YouTuber or like, you know, let's just say Matthew Beam. Like last year as Matthew Beam is growing. Like if you want to become a consultant, like why not message Matthew and say, "Hey, I want to work with you." And just learn with every video, apply the stuff, build a case study, and then over time you might be able to take on more clients. But what everyone wants to do is like everyone wants to skip the step when you're like an employee and you're working and you're grinding and you're spending like 60 hours a week getting nothing. They want to skip straight to the expert bit where you're like getting the the high rates and the the speaker fees and stuff. So, I think it takes time. Like, you know, and I I think it it depends on what you what you're working with as well, you know? Like what sort of skills you actually have as a person. I'm curious though, what are your thoughts on the Mr. Beastification of YouTube? I'm noticing that. I click random channels now. "What's up, you guys? Today we're going to tell you the five things." And it's like the same format now over and over and over again. It's interesting to see. And now I feel like it's almost becoming less effective because so many people are doing that. I mean, it's difficult because Oh, we should get this. Alex just had his wisdom teeth removed. Okay. So, I'm I'm going to record this. Yeah, I'm He did? How you doing, Alex? Did you get them out yet or no? They did? Oh my gosh. Did it hurt? I don't want to make sure I don't I don't know if we want to see it. Alex, we're going to get demonetized. No! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Alex, turn it back. No, I don't want to see it. Are you okay, Alex? What do you want to say to the viewers? Uh Paddy Galloway. What's up, man? Uh Paddy, you have any questions for Alex on his teeth removal? I I have wisdom teeth pain. Is it worth it, man? Is the is the worth it, Alex? Getting your teeth removed? No? Hey Alex, what's What do you think working for me? Is it okay? Am I a good boss? You can't do this to him while he's under the influence of something. No, this is not fair. It's good. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's done. You didn't give him a bonus, Jack. And I don't believe in bonuses. He said he doesn't believe in bonuses. I give bonuses to people that bring me SD cards. You see, he knows. He's He's owned me SD cards for a long time. Uh Alex, what All right, thank you. All right, Alex. We'll let you go. See you. Oh well, tell people to subscribe. Black Sock is the official card sponsor because they're awesome. So so awesome. Thank you so much, fam. I appreciate everything you do for me and we'll talk later. All right, Alex. Good luck. I'll see you. Love you, too. That's podcast gold. So, Humphrey's uh behind the camera here. He had a good question. Um what is your advice between smaller creators and bigger creators? Because sometimes as a bigger creator, what I'm doing isn't necessarily going to help somebody else grow if they're just starting out. Honestly, it's cliche. You know, you hear everyone say it, but like you need volume. Like you need to make a high quantity of videos before you get to a place where you can actually even contemplate making a high quality video. So like I I always say like people come up to me all the time and they're like, "Hey, you know, I've made four videos. I've got no results. Check them out. Like I've been optimizing thumbnails. I've been switching the thumbnails." And like if you're switching thumbnails and you're getting like 100 impressions on a video, it's not going to be doing anything, you know? So I always say to people like that, just make more content. Like what are you doing? Make 100, 150, 200 videos. Like I made probably a thousand videos across different channels before I was even monetized, you know? And that's that's more more than most people. And now on my current channel, I've got 30 videos and I've got 400k. That wouldn't have happened if I didn't post a thousand videos. So I think it's small creators just about making a lot of content. And then as well, you do have to be more kind of like shoulders out, trying to like, you know, jump on trends, trend jacking, like trying to find anything to attach your brand to. Like a big event, a big name, another YouTuber. That's kind of the the way you do it. Whereas a big YouTuber, you have something to lose. So you have to consider your audience. You have to consider, you know, do I go with the quantity or or quality approach? Like I I talk quite a lot about some of my clients. So we we we lower quantity, but we just increase quality. Whereas other people, like when they lower quantity, they just don't have that extra level to go up or maybe the ceiling is not that much higher, so that just doesn't make any sense. But that's the biggest thing. I think small creators just don't think about anything except making videos. Just make more. Yeah, that's what I kind of tell people, too, is that um the first I always say like the first like 50 videos are going to suck. So it's better to get those out of the way and just post 50 videos. Like I'd rather see someone consistent about posting bad videos than posting nothing or overthinking it, because they're going to suck anyway. So it's better just to get that out of the way and there's a steep learning curve for the first maybe 20 or so. So it's better just to start, make all the mistakes, you'll get better, and then like video 21, then you start thinking through these things. Exactly. Exactly. Like you don't you don't learn that without doing it, you know? And it's it's just one of those things. People just want things too quickly. I I sound like a boomer, but you know, these these YouTube kids these days, they want a a million subscribers with 10 videos. you think what do you think of shorts and TikTok? I love shorts. Like TikTok, I don't I don't really live in. Like I just live in the YouTube world. Like I feel like YouTube is going to eat TikTok. I think YouTube's going to eat Twitch. Like I am just like 100% YouTube. That's just my game. So I think about YouTube shorts. I think about how they they relate to long form. And like I'll just say with most of my long-term clients, we do shorts on the main channel and they do great. Shorts and long form can coexist perfectly fine. The only thing I hate is how YouTube rolled it out, so it's all like mixed in together. I feel like they should have waited to separate it first. But I love shorts. Like we we have a short on Jess's channel that has like 38 million views. And you know, that's just one. Like we have like multiple shorts with 10, 20 million views. Yeah, Instagram bugs me with that so much. When you go to someone's Instagram page and you see like all the videos mixed in with the pictures. It should be like pictures, video, like tags. That's it. And YouTube I feel like should have that, too, because I don't like going to someone's videos page and it's like riddled with shorts. And I'm like scrolling through to find the one video. They just had the videos, shorts, like the same thing. Would be would be so much better. Did we finish the Mr. Beastification of YouTube? No, we never we never we never we never I just realized What are your thoughts on that? Cuz I saw that video uh that one guy did and it was so good. Oh yeah, the really long one. Yeah, it was like a 50-minute long exposé about like, you know, these I don't say Mr. Beast copycats, but there's definitely a style and a format that people have taken to that just it's the Mr. Beastification. It's like the meta for like entertainment channels. So like I mean, the first thing I would say is like the guy that's making that video, it was a really good video, by the way. I thought I thought it was great video. But if you look at that guy, like how old is he? I don't know, like early 20s? He is not the demographic for whom the channels he's criticizing are making content for. And if you actually look at the data on a lot of these channels, like people say, "It's getting stale." But like when they do something that maybe has more relationship building or maybe a vlog or slower pace, they get a million views. When they do like a a challenge and they're like, "Hey guys, it's me and we're doing this." 2 million views. You know, it's it's kind of hard when you have that instant feedback loop to say this is working. But I do agree like, you know, there's too many people that just see what Jimmy do does and just goes like, you know, obviously he's the goat. We're just going to copy this verbatim and just go like that. I think I think too many people copy it. I think as well, like if we're in a space where everyone is copying Jimmy, we're never going to get another Jimmy. You know, we're not going to get the next Jimmy. I remember a conversation I had with Eric a while ago. It was the best conversation I had about this. He booked in with a consultant call with me last year and he goes, "You know, I'm not that interested with what Mr. Beast is doing, because I know the next Mr. Beast won't be making content like Mr. Beast." I I love that, cuz it's so true. You know, he like Jimmy has just nailed it. He does everything right. No one can compete with him at that scale, at that level. And it's not just money, it's like the intel, the team. You you visit his HQ. Unbelievable, you know? Like they've just got the smartest people in the world working there. Smartest YouTube people in the world working there. So I think you're always going to be smaller than the person you're copying in that regard. And I don't know, like I do think that a lot of people like, you know, our age and you know, we look at it and say, "Ah, this is like corny, too much." But like is it for me? That's the question I was asking. Is this content actually made for me? you look at that and see like, okay, maybe overall the interest is not as high as it was two years ago. You there's it's it's on a decline now. It's like we're getting 10% fewer views than six months ago on average. People like that that are watching it are growing up and the people coming into that age are maybe not as interested because they're going for something else instead. Cuz I'm seeing a lot of younger people now gravitating more towards I think the shorts, TikTok, just quick content than they are 10-to-20-minute long videos that are, you know, quick, fast-paced. Yeah. At least that's from what I've observed as a as a 30-something-year-old. Yeah. I think you don't look 30. Yeah, I think so. I would have I would have I would have said like 20 28. Oh, great. Um no, but I I I would say like yes, to an extent. Uh there's a few things we have to consider, cuz every everything with me has to be boring data. So first thing to consider is during the pandemic, viewership was all-time highs. Yes. So it's kind of like when people say like views might be down compared to two years ago, it's like that's another factor we have to put into the equation. And that's like an important thing to consider. But then after that, I just think like realistically, what works on YouTube shifts over time. We're seeing a lot of people starting to consume shorts. I don't think shorts and long form compete necessarily, but naturally it's like eyeballs going to go on a, you know, like you only have a certain amount of time in the day. Like if shorts start taking more of that time, that takes away from long form. I do think what Ryan Trahan did was just phenomenal. I I love that guy. Like I think I think what he did was amazing, because he still had like the the lessons from the Mr. Beast spectacle generation, but he added more story. And I think I think this I just really believe this. Our generation of people between the ages of like, I don't know, like 23 and like maybe like 35. Like this this generation, we have very few like big entertainment channels that we point to and say like that's our YouTuber. Like four, five years ago, we had Casey and like everyone watched Casey, you know? And he was making content for like guys and girls in their 20s and 30s. Who is there now? Like it feels like a lot of YouTubers have just like scaled or like focused their effort on the younger audience, cuz it's bigger. Like the younger audience is massive with YouTube. And also with things like merch and things that can be crazy. And as you grow older, you you become into more like niches, like finance and like other areas. Maybe that's why. But like we're missing a Casey Neistat. And I think Ryan Trahan might be kind of filling that role. I'm interested to see how it develops. Yeah. Who are some creators that you would invest in? Let's say you could invest in three creators at their current status. And you can invest in Mr. Beast. Who are three creators you'd invest Mr. Beast. Okay. Hands down. Like Still even Oh yeah. at his current valuation? Yeah. Like Mr. Beast would be my first my first of all. I think Mr. Beast is more likely to 10x than like a lot of other YouTubers. Okay. Like the scale of everything is Are we talking about his videos? We're talking about him as a brand? I'm thinking about like the whole package. Like if I'm investing in someone, like I don't want just the videos. But also like you get to a certain point, kind of like what Facebook's dealing with right now, where they're trying to expand their their, you know, their audience or whatever, but they can't because the population isn't getting fast enough Yeah. Yeah. People that have kids, yeah. So for Mr. Beast, too, I'm sure there's going to be a point where like, I mean, he can't apply his main channel English content to more than, you know, all of the English speakers. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's that's the thing. There's like what? There's like there's like 1.2 billion English speaking uh people in the whole world like as a first Something like that. And there's like 1.5 billion people in India. You know? I'm going to look stupid if my geography's wrong, but I think it's like over a billion people just in India. Wow. So like Mr. Beast Hindi But also cultural differences, not just English. There are plenty of things. Yeah. Like but I I don't know. I think I think it's it's like Mr. Beast is at the level where he can make such a big spectacle that like Like I know what the idea is. Like if he's making these ideas now, Mhm. in five years, True. what is he going to do? Like I think the only thing is like if maybe he decides he wants to do something different, which, you know, you you guys have met him. Yeah, he doesn't seem like it. It doesn't seem like he's ever going to be like that. And like just the thing about thing about YouTubers is like everyone talks about this YouTube life cycle, about like you have a few years at the top, then you drop off and wane in popularity. And I think that's true for a lot of cases. But if you look at those cases, did they innovate? Did they try something new? Or did they just stay with the gravy train and, you know, keep going and not really adapt to the current times or changes? That can quite often be what happens with the, you know, the life cycle of declining over time. So Mr. Beast, first and foremost, I'd invest in him, like 100%. Like I just the plans they have, what he's trying to do, like that guy is another level. Right. Um and I genuinely think that I would I would not have said this like a year ago or two years ago, Eric. Again, he's a big creator, so you're thinking that there's not that much upside. But when I I remember talking to him after he just hit a million subscribers. And I thought his content was really weak after he hit a million subscribers. Like he did this like Super Bowl video where he was sneaking into the Super Bowl, but he didn't actually sneak in. But, he posted it. I was like, "That's just such a It was such a weak video for me." Like I I just like that felt so disappointing. I remember it underperformed a little bit at the time as well. He did a few other videos around there, and I remember them very specifically getting like 400K, 500K, like a million views, which is great. But, like for where he was aiming, it wasn't it. And I thought I just didn't think he and his team maybe had the potential. But, since then, I think they've been killing it. Like his videos are so easy to watch. They're filling this gap of like Like Mr. Beast is like the wholesome like everybody kind of like loves him kind of character, and Eric's is kind of like kid in detention. Like he's just doing crazy stuff, you know? I think he fills it fills a different niche in YouTube, and I think they're doing some really interesting things. So, I'd say I'd say Eric. And then I'd have to pick someone more on the come up. I know a guy that you won't know, but he's a really good creator. So, there's a guy called Santiago, and his channel's called Foot Crunch. And he makes FIFA videos, like FIFA the game, like the soccer game. He's got to a point where he's kind of doing like a million views a video. But, I'd invest in him cuz I I know cuz I've done a bit of work with him, and I know what his plans are, what he's trying to do. So, if I had like 100 grand to invest in him, I would because he's trying to go after a really broad big audience. And he's just super obsessed. Like he's not trying to like get to like $5 million net worth or like 5 million subscribers. He's trying to like build something massive. So, he's one to watch out for, I think. That's cool. Uh one thing I want to mention there about Mr. Beast is he talked on Andrew Schulz's podcast about maybe running for president. I think he has a real shot. I honestly believe he would win if he if he runs at, you know, 40-something years old, probably in his 40s. He with with no prior experience, I bet he could win the vote. He'd be massive Kids would have grown up Yes, everyone would have grown up with him and would trust him, and he gives away so much money. And I think everyone received money from Mr. Beast at some point. way or another. But, I think that that's going to be a thing, and I think I really just think it comes down to does he want to do that? Yeah. And I think he's got a real shot at it. It's very It's very It'd be very hard for someone to say, "I hate Mr. Beast." Like have you ever heard someone say that? I mean, probably there's there's terrible people out there. But, like, you know, it's kind of hard to make an argument against someone. The thing would be though, I guess, with him alienating some of his audience by picking a side cuz he's going to have to pick Republican or Democrat. Yeah. Most likely. And, you know, what effect does that have? They're going to try to tear him down anyway, but I think if he wants to do it and he's okay putting himself in the spotlight, I think he could do it. Is there like an age requirement? 35. 35. Okay, yeah. I mean, I've talked to Jimmy quite a few times, been in some very long Discord calls with him as well. Like anything that guy says he wants to do, like I just believe it, you know? I just He's just It's like you know that when you read a book about like Steve Jobs or, you know, these kind of visionary people. One of the most effective things they're they're good at, not just like the design or the coding, it's like making people buy into what they're trying to do. Everything that guy says, I'm like, he's going to do that. If he told If he tells me tomorrow he's going to like make pigs fly, I'm like, they're flying. It's already done, you know? That's the kind of guy he is. He told Jack and I some video ideas where I I loved the ideas so much, and they were so genius that I'm thinking, first of all, how come nobody else ever thought of this? And why didn't I think of this cuz it's so obvious and so good. Yeah. No. We did a call me myself and him I don't know it was maybe like February. And he basically just told me like the videos he was planning to make for the whole year, and he was just asking for my opinion on them. And I was like, "Yeah, that sounds good. This sounds like there was like one or two I was like, "Hmm, I'm not sure about." But, like, there was 10 ideas there that I was like, "That could get 100 million views, you know?" And that's like the standard he's setting. It's just crazy. Yeah, I would love for him to run for president at the age of 35 and just be president then and like just beat every record. What's Who's the youngest president? I think like late 30s, right? No one's ever done it at 35. Yeah, no one's ever done it at 35 though. Just be 35-year-old president. He could do it. I I think he could. But, it would it would mean he'd have to put his channel on the side. Or would it? Yeah. Just imagine if he runs against Elon Musk. I think he would just back out just just out of respect for Elon. Be like, "Elon, no, you take this this This term is you, and then I'll do the next one." Yeah. Just imagine that. Imagine the titles he could come up with if he was president. Oh god. His speeches would be so optimized, too. Yeah. Yeah, he'd just like end them really quickly for attention. He'd be like, "Okay, that's me. Bye." Yeah. And then I've got 100 people over there. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, man. Uh I want you I think it'd be really interesting for you to rank every piece of data that YouTube gives you from most important to least, you know, like CTR, uh average view duration, uh stuff like that, watch time. If you could just maybe rank like your top three to five or something like that. Well, the best is views. Like views is like the god-tier metric. And it sounds it sounds funny to say that, but like I don't care about the CTR and AVD until I know what the views are because of the relativity between like views and and uh CTR and AVD. So, like view views number one. Like that that's number one metric. Then like CTR and AVD, it's like hard to put one in front of the other. Like I think I think I put them on a level beside uh or just underneath views. Like there is there is no way to say which is more important. Like you need both. Like it's pretty it's pretty even formula. Like if you have a video that everyone clicks on, but people click off, YouTube are going to bury that video. So, like I think that's pretty even. And then after that, I think you just you just have things like, you know, the initial like notification click-through rate or something like that. Yeah. First 30-second retention or Like likes, shares, dislikes, comments. Comments actually Here's a fun fact for you, comments have like no weight in the algorithm at all. The number of comments don't don't have any impact purely because Like look at this, right? So, let's just say comments made a big deal. So, like number of comments is a big deal. I could reply to every comment with a question and double my comments, you know? True. And now that's just That's just engagement farming. But, but also like it's just easy to like create spam accounts for comments. It's a little bit harder for like views and likes. of the reason I believe cuz in the beginning that was not the case, and I would see a huge difference cuz I would respond to comments the first hour of every single video across all three channels. And I would notice an immediate difference. When I was not responding to the comments, every single time without fail, the video would not perform as well than if I was responding. I think because of the spam comments, they've maybe turned off that feature and looking at other metrics. Cuz sometimes now I'll get a thousand spam comments in a row. Yeah. Uh and have to go through and delete them. And so, maybe they're taking those out of the equation. And also it's like a comment like essentially when you think about the algorithm, like the algorithm is trying to predict audience behavior. So, everything they're trying to do is understand the audience. And like sure, leaving a comment on a video is like a good indication you like the video, I guess, if it's a positive comment. But, like YouTube aren't going to go through the filtering and see like it was this a positive sentiment cuz like, you know, it's hard to judge that just, you know, from the outside. So, like it's just it's just too complicated, and and also like those things that you can kind of gamify it. I think it I think it's good from like a engagement perspective to ask for comments, not for the algorithm, but for like your your community to like feel involved in the content. And then like I look I remember I read a or maybe I was watching an interview with you talking about that where you were like, "I like reply to every comment in the first hour." And I just love that cuz like a lot of people don't do that. Like I'll be honest, like my last video, I posted that video, I think I maybe replied to like two comments, you know? That's That's silly. Like there was two comments. I think it helps with your community because then people will click on that notification knowing that they can watch and then comment and they they'd get a response. But, if they're already on the video, maybe they're more likely to finish it. Yeah. Um yeah, I responded to every single comment on my channel until I hit a million subscribers. Every single one of them. That's insane. Yeah, I stopped at a million, but it became a compulsion where I'd wake up I could not get out of bed until I responded to every comment. And eventually, I'd start waking up earlier and earlier because it would take me longer and longer and longer. And then I wouldn't go to bed until every comment was answered um up until that point where I had to fall asleep. That's awesome. That's the stuff that That sets you apart. Yeah. Cuz like people just Honestly, like it's so it's so interesting. Like I've obviously got to work with some of the biggest creators in the world, got to like be in the same room with these people, same calls with these people. And lots of them are really really like obsessed with the audience, which is good. But, I have met people who are kind of they do see it more as kind of like this sort of like, you know, almost like a chore. Like we have to like, "Oh, we have to like reply to a comment or, you know, we have to do this and that." The The creators I love the most are people that do like think of that. You know, like you're thinking like, "If I reply to this comment, it shows them that I really care." And it's good for you, but it's also good for them as well to be like, "Damn, like this actually means something to him, you know?" You know, my my favorite thing is uh commenting on random channels. Like not random like but like small channels that maybe I watch a video and I'll just put like great video. Like the most random stuff, and it's just cool to see like see their responses. Yeah, I even get that even though my channel's COVID smaller because like a lot of YouTubers when they're starting, they they might come across my videos. So, like they start their channel, and I just replied to like I put a comment on it saying like, "This is a great video. You have like this could blow up." And they're like, "Oh my god, I like I just watched your video before me." It's such a good feeling. Yeah, and then there's one I commented this guy was doing like a Philip Glass cover on the piano, and the video maybe had like 100 views. And I commented like, "Dude, this this cover is awesome. I really like it." this big verified channel. Yeah, yeah. His video with like 100 views. He probably just uploaded it as like a piano recital or something like that. Like not expecting anything. But, it's so encouraging cuz I remember having like less subscribers and just seeing like someone leave a comment. It's like, you know, you see the verified badge, you see it. You maybe if you know the name, it's just such a like a a nice kind of thing to keep you going. I really like it. Yeah. Do you have any questions you have for us or any advice, things that you see us do that is completely wrong and backwards? I think I'm interested with the the like scaling cuz I've heard a lot a lot of conversations where you've gone back and forth on the kind of hiring process. I would say like on average I would side with Jack in the arguments. On average though, but that's not an absolute. It's not an absolute though. I can hear you bagging out now. I can see your perspective though. Like cuz you you've built like this incredible channel. It's doing really well. I would assume from your point of view you probably look at him, you can correct me if I'm wrong, you probably think there's not that much extra juice to get out of the finance nation in terms of views per video. So like is it worth it to scale and expand? But I think of it from like the personal point of view of like are you not working all the time? Like I know that might be what you love, but like are you going to kind of maybe I don't know hit 40 and say like damn I just worked for 15 20 years? But I like it. Yeah, like today there really wasn't as much for me to do and I was I don't want to say it was miserable, but like it's not a good day. Yeah, I it's I had an off day because I didn't have as much to do as I wanted to. That's because you don't have any like other like hobbies or things that you can pick up to pass time in the meantime. It's Graham and Paddy's time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All of your free time with work then when all of a sudden work isn't there it's like you can't be content. No, I went I went on a run today. Went 3 3 miles. make you feel good? Uh it did. I actually what I do is I download videos to listen to on the run. That's good. When was the last time you went on on vacation? Uh I don't know. We've we Well, we do little trips. Jack and I have done a few like weekend trips to That's my version of vacation. Yeah, that's my vacation. That's my vacation. I I just I like it. 2-week vacation and I I'm trying to I I find it difficult to do it cuz obviously you know, I work a lot as well. And obviously I have to keep things going. But I try to take like a vacation once a quarter. Yeah. Cuz I just think of it as like it recharges me. It makes me better. It makes me think of new things. It It doesn't for me. For me now, when I get off that treadmill it's so hard to get back on. And like when I'm on the treadmill what does it for me is speed it up a little bit. Let's Let's ramp it up. Yeah, cuz cuz when you said when you said that you don't like when you have a day when you don't do stuff and you feel terrible. Yeah. I relate to that. Cuz I cuz like when I I I just remember like I I discovered this incredible concept called the weekend, you know? Like not the not the artist, the actual weekend. And I was like wow, like people take Saturdays and Sundays off. This is like insane. Like let let me try this. My first few times doing it I felt awful. Like I was just like I want to do something. I want to work. I want to think of video ideas. I want to like maybe I could take on a new client and just work with them on the weekends. You know, I was just thinking how can I fill that time? And then like it's the same with vacations. Like let's say you take a week off. First 3 days of that vacation you know, my girlfriend doesn't even want to talk to me. It's like I'm just like I just want to do I just want to work and like no, don't touch the laptop. Then after like 3 or 4 days I feel like finally like I'm kind of unplugging. And like by day 5, day 6, day 7 like I actually just spend a full day actually just enjoying like And the opposite. Food, going to the beach. First few days of the easiest for me and then after day 3 or 4 and now I'm like anxious to get So you're the you're the complete opposite. Complete opposite, yeah. I mean everyone's everyone's different, but yeah. That's how I think cuz I I'm always at this constant balance of like I got for example it's similar with you guys and and with you too. Like you know like by like let's say if we each worked in another 10 hours a week. Like that equates to a lot of money. But then it like how much further does that push you towards burnout? How much further does does that push you towards having no free time? So I I see this I think sometimes I could be offered like a lot of money. Like let's just say it's like 15 20,000 a month to do like something in a few hours per week or 10 hours per week or something. I might look at that and go like that's a that's a big opportunity. That's a lot of money. And I have this like hard balance of like do I take too much on? Do I take more on? And I think I definitely like skew to decide of like taking too much on. Like I feel like like there are weeks when I work like 70 80 hours. Maybe I mean 90 is probably a bit too much, but like 70 80 hours no problem. But the the happiest I am is when I have like at least a bit of time in the evenings. Like it feels good to be able to shut your laptop at like 7:00 p.m. do. But yeah, for me it's like a productive day and then end it like 7:00. Really? Yeah. Yeah. And you've always been like that just work every day. Always. Wow. I mean I got to I got to respect it. Yeah. I keep getting my mind like changed on this sort of stuff though cuz like I remember when I was like 22 23 it was like grind grind Gary V hustle hustle hustle crazy. And then like I got really into like different philosophy, read a few books, listened to a few people and then I was like oh like it's life isn't about work. It's all about chilling out and enjoyment and stuff like that. And I spent like a little bit of time trying to do this whole work-life balance thing. And now I figured out that I don't have balance. Like I'm not a work-life balance person. But like I want to be the person who like works hard, but then takes breaks hard, you know? And has that like balance of like I might for like 10 weeks in a quarter I might work like crazy and then 2 weeks I'm just like flat out on a lilo in the south of Spain. Like that's kind of how I see things for me. All right. But yeah. Cool. Graham doesn't like this conversation. No, I I just don't want to be late. That's why. If we if we had an extra hour I would go off on it for an hour. Yeah. 7:30 and so that's why I'm just like just in case. to go on a boat. Hopefully this boat doesn't leave cuz then we won't be able to go on. And we never found out if it's leaving or not. I know. We got we got nothing back. So let's just hope. Fingers crossed. Come on. Get in here. Yeah, get in here. All right. Look, we got some guests over here. What's up, guests? Hey, hey. What's up? Which camera am I looking at? There's so many of them. Oh, they're all good. They're all pointing. Hey, Graham. Jack's on the couch, right? I I I have the king bed. I am on the couch. We can share the king bed tonight if you want. We'll see. We'll see. Can I hop in there? Yeah, yeah. Hop in. Yeah, you too, Graham. You too, Paddy. All of us. I like a warm bed. Thanks for joining us here on the Ice Coffee Hour. Do you have any questions? What did you guys think? Did it go well? I thought it went great. Were you Were you here the whole time? No, I came in like 2 minutes ago. But Paddy's a great guy. Yeah. I thought you guys covered a really wide range of topics and I think the viewer will take away a lot from it. So I hope they subscribe. Awesome. That's a good point. Awesome. Thank you guys. Get your free stuff in public. Check me out on Instagram. No need to do that. Check out Humphrey Paddy May. Thanks for watching guys. Till next time. See you. Awesome.