The Digital Contrarian

TDC 055: My Contrarian YouTube Strategy: Building a Strategic Content Ecosystem (Part 2)

• Ryan Levesque • Episode 55

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#055: My Contrarian YouTube Strategy: Building a Strategic Content Ecosystem

My contrarian YouTube strategy creates 500K+ annual views with just ONE piece of original content per week.

Episode Summary

In this episode of The Digital Contrarian, host Ryan Levesque dives into the evolution of his strategic content ecosystem six months after first introducing it.

You'll learn how one weekly "source of truth" piece creates a sustainable content system that respects family time, discover the long-form leverage strategy for YouTube, and find how to cultivate influence versus chasing attention.

Question of the Day 🗣️

What's ONE original piece of content you could create weekly that would serve as your "source of truth"?

Key Take-aways

  • One original source of truth piece of content becomes the cornerstone for everything else
  • Long-form content builds relationships while short-form only garners views
  • Strategic content ecosystems can generate 500K+ annual views organically
  • True influence is about intentional, meaningful connection, not mass-produced volume
  • Second mountain entrepreneurs need depth over breadth in content strategy

Timestamped Outline ⏱️

00:00 – My contrarian YouTube strategy
00:48 – Strategic content ecosystem: Six months in
02:15 – Your single source of truth approach
03:40 – Why quality over quantity actually works
05:35 – The long form leverage strategy
06:35 – Short form syndication (10–12K weekly views)
07:25 – Why I'm not trying to be Mr. Beast
08:30 – Second mountain entrepreneurs
09:15 – Using AI without compromising authenticity

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Credits

Host: Ryan Levesque
© 2025 RL & Associates LLC. All rights reserved.

My contrarian YouTube strategy, building a strategic content ecosystem, part two. So last month, I started this YouTube channel. Well, technically, I took an old YouTube channel and got rid of all the old videos and started posting brand new content based on everything that I've been writing about in the digital contrarian.

Now, in case you're curious what this all means for you, well, it means this. In addition to the written newsletter that I write each week, This will now give you a brand new way to consume the ideas explored in the digital contrarian each week. Meaning you can now listen to while you're in the car, or exercising, or spending time in nature, or more generally, going analog and living your return to real life beyond the screen.

This is also part of my strategic content ecosystem more broadly. And because you might find some of what I'm doing here perhaps interesting and maybe even relevant for your own business. I thought I would break down my contrarian strategy behind what I'm doing and why.

Which brings us to strategic content ecosystem six months in. So six months ago in issue 27 of the digital contrarian, I first introduced the idea of building a strategic content ecosystem where every piece of content fits together smoothly and snugly to serve a greater purpose. And by the way, we'll make sure that we link to issue 27 in the description with this piece.

It's worth reading or rereading as it covers some important foundational concepts that we'll be building upon in this session. Now incidentally, it was way back in issue 27 that I first floated the idea of hosting an in-person mastermind on our Vermont farm. And as luck may have it, we finally opened up applications earlier this past week and were oversubscribed for the experience within less than 24 hours.

Now, by the way, you can still get on the wait list to be notified if a spot unexpectedly opens up and or if we do any future dates. And you can do that with a link that we'll provide in the description with this piece as well. But today in this session, I wanna share what's changed in the last six months.

What I've learned in the last six months and how the strategic content ecosystem has evolved in the last six months. And how it continues to evolve even today. But that being said, my constraints remain clear.

Number one, prioritizing quality over quantity, depth over breadth. And number two, alignment with my family's quality of life. So today, I, with a little help from AI, have even more clarity than I did six months ago, which we'll talk a little bit more about in just a moment.

But first, this brings us to your single source of truth. Now, I don't know about you, but when the universe gifts us scenes like the one here on the farm from earlier this week, I don't wanna spend my days in front of a computer screen creating content all day, every day. That is just off the table.

And after all, that would be completely antithetical to the return to real way of life and what I'm personally optimizing for in this season. But at the same time, I do wanna create work that's meaningful and original. And I do wanna create something that represents an actual contribution to the world for the betterment of humanity.

And not just another source of regurgitated platitudes and tired old tropes, like much of what we get seen slung across the Internet these days. In other words, what I would describe as real thought leadership. But that's not easy to do.

And that's why at the heart of this ecosystem, as you may remember from issue 27, is one original source of truth, piece of content, personally crafted each week. Now, for me, that's the Digital Contrarian Newsletter, which I'm currently sharing with you as we speak in this session. Now, I've learned that I have it in me to produce one halfway decent original piece of content like this each week, but honestly, that's about it.

Like for instance, in issue 49, why oxytocin is the new dopamine, a piece that dives into the neuroscience and data behind why so many are craving authentic connection in an increasingly artificial world, deeply resonated based on the feedback I've received that the week it was released and continue to receive to this day. So by creating one original source of truth piece of content like this, and you do it personally, intentionally, and deeply each week, or whatever cadence works for you, I'm finding that it's very much possible to stand out in an otherwise saturated sea of AI generated noise. Now, your original source of truth piece of content becomes the cornerstone for everything else that you do.

And for me, it also serves as the foundation for that aforementioned contrarian YouTube strategy that I hinted on a moment ago. Which brings us to the long form leverage strategy. Now, in my newly relaunched YouTube channel, every week I take my Digital Contrarian Newsletter, like the one that we just spoke about a moment ago, oxytocin is the new dopamine.

And I record myself reading it as a long form, about 15 minute YouTube video essay, like what you're listening to right now. And by the way, it's worth paying really close attention to what I'm doing in these videos, like incorporating images, some of the key text from the original newsletter, as well as what I'm modifying between the written version of this content and the audio and video version of this content for things like video titles, descriptions, and thumbnail images. Now, while I originally toyed with the idea of creating a conversational video each week with a discussion partner around the content of each newsletter, that strategy proved to add too much complexity to the process and introduced several variables that were more challenging for me to control.

So I opted to simply deliver each issue as a video essay to camera. Now, this is an idea that I tested on stage at three different live in-person events, wherein I read from stage, selected excerpts from each newsletter. All three of these keynotes received standing ovations.

Now, this is something that I would rarely receive when I was delivering marketing presentations much earlier in my career. Then I tested the same idea at three different virtual events over Zoom, and received an even more positive response doing this virtually. So this collectively gave me the confidence to test this so called read to camera strategy that you're experiencing right now.

So right now my schedule is simple, to write each piece on Friday and Saturday, and then record the long form YouTube video the following Monday. But this is where things start to get really interesting, which brings me to the short form syndication strategy, a simple yet powerful approach. Now next, my team identifies three to four strategic clips from each of these long form videos.

Now the short form videos are then syndicated across LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and on YouTube Shorts. Each short clip currently averages anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand views per platform weekly. Therefore aggregating to about 10 to 12,000 views per week, and about half a million to 600,000 views annually.

Now this organic strategy demands zero additional content creation or ad spend. It all comes from one single weekly piece of content, which for me is an incredibly elegant and sustainable content strategy. Which takes us to constraints and non-negotiables.

Why I'm not trying to play the Mr. Beast game. Now, let me be clear. With this strategy, I'm not chasing Mr. Beast level views or viral numbers.

Instead, I'm embracing the truth is in the tension. Choosing to cultivate influence versus chasing attention. As we explored together in issue number 31 of the Digital Contrarian, which we'll also make sure to link through in the description with this piece.

Now I know with certainty that if I put effort into creating YouTube native videos, optimized for maximum reach on the platform, that I would likely radically increase my watch time and view count. But the time invested in creating another source of truth piece of content each week would mean more time away from my family, from my wife, from my boys. And what I'm personally optimizing for right now in my life, which is to suck the marrow out of this season of life, to paraphrase Throne.

Now interestingly, my two boys actually started their own YouTube channel. It's a soccer skills themed channel. And they now have videos that surpass mine in views.

Literally starting from scratch without a personal brand or any subscriber base whatsoever. But in some ways, this just reinforces my conviction. That true influence is about intentional, meaningful connection, not mass produce volume.

And for me, I've never been more clear on who I'm serving. Second mountain entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs at a pivotal moment in their lives.

Transitioning from surface level financial goals and business tactics to integrating deeper, purpose driven work aligned with core values and meaningful impact. And frankly, there just aren't as many of us on this planet as there are soccer nuts or Pokemon fans or people looking to make a quick buck with the latest side hustle. Which brings us to how I'm using AI without compromising authenticity.

Now, in next week's piece, I'll reveal how my team and I are strategically using AI right now to amplify authenticity versus augment artificiality, as I described it to one of my private clients this week. With everything that we've taken a look at here today. But in the meantime, what I wanna do is this.

I wanna invite you to check out what I'm doing right here on YouTube right now. I wanna invite you to pick a video, whichever one is most compelling to you right now. I wanna invite you to watch it.

If you like it, like it. And even consider leaving a comment. You'll get a personal reply from me personally, at least right now.

Pick another one to download and maybe listen to while you're making dinner tonight. And if you're feeling really ambitious, binge watch everything that I have here on the channel currently. It's all worth checking out, I promise.

But whatever you do, make sure to subscribe to this channel to be notified for when the next video drops because I've got some good stuff that I am working on that's coming right around the corner. And I can tell you right now, you're not gonna wanna miss what I have in store. All right, I'll leave you with that for now.

Have a great rest of your day. Remember to hug the ones that you love. And until next week, I'll see you in the next video in this series.

Take care.