How A 1,000-Subscriber Channel Earned $20,000 Through Smart Affiliates And Minimalist Content

We show how a tiny, focused review channel cleared $20,000 with around 1,000 subscribers and why you don’t need fancy gear to build a real YouTube business. Gabe shares the playbook for evergreen content, proof-first titles, and monetization that starts on day one.

• three content pillars that serve the same viewer
• why titles using “I” build authority and trust
• affiliate-first review strategy with buyer-intent keywords
• proof-first brand outreach and handling no’s
• diversifying channels to reduce risk
• building lead magnets and collecting emails
• packaging that fits the niche and drives clicks
• momentum, realistic hit rates and series to double down on
• extreme ownership over algorithm blame
• authenticity and funnels as 2026 power skills

Transcript

Proof Small Channels Can Profit

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is a channel with like a thousand subscribers, right?

SPEAKER_01 0:02

It just passed a thousand after two years.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This thing's already made over$20,000 with a 1,000 subscriber channel. Ladies and gentlemen, the proof is in the pudding. Hey, welcome back to the OnlyPodcast. It's here to help you grow your channel and do it in a way that doesn't have a whole bunch of equipment in your background. I'm Travis, and I'm here today with an incredibly special guest today. And I want to really talk about this in a way that makes sense to YouTubers because they're going to be thinking, well, don't I need the best stuff all the time? Don't I need to have as much crap in my house as possible? I don't think so. Gabe is here to tell us all about not only minimalistic content, but how you can take your channel to the next level and make a little money out of too. How are you doing, Gabe?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Great. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show. Really excited to talk about this. I love nerding out about YouTube and money and minimalism. So excited.

Meet Gabe And His Channels

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Yeah, and I I feel like um, you know, of all the creators I've talked to recently, I've been really excited to talk to you because I probably need to just sit there and watch all of your content back to back because I'm the anti-minimalist and I really kind of want to start going the other direction. But tell us a little bit about yourself, um, your channels and channels, and uh how uh kind of how you got started. And we'll get deep into like how you started before YouTube, but just kind of give us an overview.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Sure. Yeah, so I am 30. I currently run through three or four different YouTube channels, some of them more serious than others. Uh, I started on YouTube seven or almost eight years ago now. Um, and so I've never actually gone super viral. I have a handful of videos over a million views, but like consistently I've posted once a week for seven years, um, just really showing my journey of different things. Started with finance, then I got into minimalism, and now it's finance again, uh, or just different habits and lifestyle. So, really just like kind of sharing things that I'm passionate about about self-improvement and finances. And um, yeah, it's really uh grown over the last couple of years. We've been really, really fun and it's just been, yeah, super blessed.

Evergreen Content Over News Chasing

SPEAKER_00 1:53

I love that. And I I what one of the things I love about this is that uh lifestyle and financial things uh are gonna be perhaps more important than ever coming up in 2026. There's been some really crazy stories uh in the news about uh white-collar jobs that are a little worrying for a lot of people. So I feel like your content is gonna be more critical than ever. And also, um, a lot of it is evergreen, which is really important for success. Um, you have upload, like you said, every week for a very long time, several years. And the thing is, is because you're not doing a lot, at least not on in your main channel, at least not a lot of like news-related uh content where it dies after a week. Like a lot of this stuff will work for years and years and years. Has that been part of your success?

Becoming The Niche Through Story

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah, definitely. Part of it has been, yeah, I very much try to avoid the news type of stuff. That's like a whole different route you can go if you want to chase Bitcoin or Trump or whatever's going on. Like you can chase all those things and get a lot of views, but then you're always chasing views and people don't care about you. So, like something I've really tried to focus on is being like a character, right? Where if I if I do these like 20 money saving tips, I want to make sure I add a lot of like personal stuff in so that after they watch it, because they just wanted the money saving tips, they know about me, they know about my story, and they might just show up to the next one that's about habits that simplified my life, just because, like, oh, I liked that guy. He was like a normal person, and maybe this will help me. And so I just try to like just be very like normal human and also follow along for the journey. And that's just kind of like getting my threshold higher is kind of like my main thing. It's just like I'm just trying to get my base views higher, and the way I do that is by building a relationship. So that's why I just like only post long form and that type of stuff.

Three Pillars: Finance, Minimalism, Lifestyle

SPEAKER_00 3:32

I love that because I've talked to a couple creators recently about connecting with your audience in a way that makes them come along with you in your journey. A lot of channels, and I would say maybe the vast majority of channels typically only get views if they talk about one specific subject. It's kind of the way YouTube works, the niche, right? The hardest thing to do is for you to become the niche. And in some ways, you've kind of done that. Like if we look at a couple of your videos uh just on your channel, we have things like uncluttering your house, being minimalism, but then also like money, money things which wouldn't necessarily have anything to do with that, and they all perform pretty darn well. Some of these are ridiculous for um not being all one thing, like not all minimalism, not all money, but like lifestyle stuff. What are some of the like tips and tricks you've learned over the course of the years that you've done this that help people to connect more with you rather than the subject?

SPEAKER_01 4:23

So, one thing I try to do is have like uh I kind of have three pillars. So I've got like finance, minimalism, and lifestyle. And so even though those things are uncorrelated, like you might see like 50 simplifying your life habits or decluttering your home or whatever, I always try to like kind of keep it somewhat similar because ultimately when people get into minimalism, they're like, okay, well, I now now like I got my house cleared out. I want my finances better so I can have more freedom in my life. Now I have more freedom. I realize that I'm spending too much time on my phone, and I need to simplify my like my mental space. So it's like all these are different subjects, but they all apply to the same person, and that person is me. And so like I kind of partly like this is playing the game of YouTube and all that type of stuff, but also also it's very much like trying to tell a lot of stories. I also changed from like when I started YouTube, I was very much like, here's how you save money, here's how you do this. And the titles would be like how to save uh how to save money, how to declutter your whatever. And I've changed it mostly now, not totally, because I also have authority now, but I I saw a big growth when I went to like I tried this, I did this, this is how I save money, this is whatever. And I'm like, I'm just some idiot on the internet, do whatever you want, but I actually did this thing, and here's how I did this. Like, here's how I save my first hundred thousand dollars by 25. I did a thing, and I'm telling you about how I did the thing. I'm not preaching at you because why would you listen to some idiot 25-year-old unless they've done the thing? And so I kind of like uh transition to like I try to never tell people what to do unless I've done it personally. And then if I've done it personally, they'll get to hear my story, and then they get to hear my story, they might like me a little bit. And then also to just like one thing I actively try to do is like just be as weird as possible. Something comes into my head, like like random, like throwing a book or just dropping something. I just try to be like slightly like just let my personality shine and not like try to be perfect. Um, and that seems to connect as well.

Titles That Use “I” To Build Authority

SPEAKER_00 6:11

I'm slightly unhinged myself. Um, I think it's what's interesting is what you just said there in the and this is like a titling strategy. Uh, and you just kind of you talked about it briefly, but I want to talk about how important this is because a lot of times I will go back and forth with myself about in a title if it should say you or I. And I a hundred percent agree with you that especially when you're talking about a subject that you've actually accomplished, um, saying that I've done this thing is really intriguing for someone to watch because they expect to see the proof, right? So they're like, okay, I'm gonna watch this because it's proof. And to sell to say, like, you should do this, you should do that, sometimes might even be off-putting. I mean, sometimes it's still intriguing. Uh, but have you found that the I versus the you tends to perform better for you, or have you even like tested that theory?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

So it seems like the I performs better for the most part, but at some point you run out of things to I when you've 500 videos. Um, but also like I feel like now that I have more authority, I've got 750k or whatever I have on the main channel. Now I can say, here's how you should do it. And they, because I have a large channel, they just automatically assume I know what I'm talking about. Um kind of so you can kind of get away with things where like big creators have advantages that little creators don't have, right? And so that's why I think, like, especially as a smaller person, showing this is like the first video on a brand new channel could be like, here's how I built my business, here's how I got in shape, here's how I did whatever. And then that's giving you the authority to eventually, once they get to know you, talk about here's how you should do it too. So I I like they kind of go, they can both work, but it depends on what you're talking about. And I personally don't like to ever tell people some how to do something that I don't do myself. If I do it myself, I try to do I. And so, yeah.

From FIRE To YouTube Beginnings

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Makes sense. How how did you get into YouTube? What made you decide to start uploading on YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, so I was into like uh the fire movement, which is financial independence retire early. So I was like, uh I had just got my first rental when I was 22 and I was house hacking, so like living there for free. I was like deep down the finance, nerdy rabbit hole. And this was before like Graham Stefan was big and stuff, so like I was nobody's really talking about it. And I was like, I'm just so passionate about this stuff. Nobody I know personally is into it. I just want to talk about it. So I just started making videos. But like, if you go back, you can the video is still there. The first video on my channel, the thumbnail is a screenshot. I didn't know what a thumbnail was. Like, I just like made videos. I didn't know that you could edit, it's all one shot with one edit because I uh like found out as I was uploading it, like, oh, you can edit this. Um, and so it was just like something I was passionate about, made videos, and then fell in love with the process of making videos later on. But it was just like excitement, really.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's so awesome. I'm I'm it's funny. I also feel like um I think success is different for every person, but I've been talking to a lot of younger people that uh have a lot of success that I have not seen. And it's very interesting to hear people on the hustle uh in their 20s when a lot of people are just partying and stuff. Like, what what about that is different for you? Like what I'm not saying you didn't live life or anything, but like what made you focus so deeply in this sort of thing?

Sacrifice Early To Buy Freedom

Blueprint For Going Full Time

SPEAKER_01 9:09

So I all right, so I was homeschooled, I dropped out of high school, being homeschooled, which is impressive, apparently. Um, and so I started working at the age of like 11 for my dad's cleaning company. I did started concrete companies, I got my real estate license when I was 18. Um, but pretty much like I was trying all these different things because I like hated work. I hated the idea of like I can't get in the trap of like having to go to a job somewhere that I don't like because like I have this cleaning job and I hate this, and like I can't do this forever and I have no skills, I didn't want to go to college because I hated school, and so I was just like looking for a way out, and I I read some books like Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and I was like, if I can get my assets, like when I'm young, and I can get them to go to like 3,000 a month or 5,000 a month, then I can pretty much do whatever I want with the rest of my life. And so if I keep my expenses really low, then I have and I just get like a couple assets, then I'm pretty much free. And that's what happened within like I got my first rental at 22, but like I never went out to dinner, I never traveled, I never bought clothes that weren't from the thrift store. Like I wasn't making any money. Um, but I saved up, I got that, and then I got another one. And the the day after I got the next one, like I put in my notice and I left my job and we spent almost no money, but we had almost no expenses. Um, so it was like kind of that like if I can suck it up for like three to five years, I'll be free for the rest of my life. And it was really that like it's not super hard, it's it's like just like sacrificing early makes everything else easier. Because when you have kids, you have a house, you have all these responsibilities, it just becomes way harder.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Well, this is interesting because um we get a lot of emails from people who want to go full time on YouTube and are afraid to go full time, and it is kind of scary to leave something that is uh, you know, sometimes more uh steady than YouTube can be. YouTube can be a lot of things, and steady is generally not one of them. Um if you were in the shoes of someone, so I obviously there are gonna be some people listening, like, I have a family stuff, I can't lose my, I can't quit my job and just jump into this. But there's gonna be some people that have maybe they're living at home, maybe they, you know, they have a part-time job or whatever, and they're like, I maybe could do this. What is the strategy you would give to someone who's like, okay, I really want to commit to this. I've maybe even uploaded a couple videos, they've done okay, but if I put more time in it, I think I could do well. How do you how do you set up your life so that you can grind for maybe a year, let's just say a year, um, and and potentially come out of it uh pretty good. What would you do if you were trying to do that today without any of the other resources that you have?

Affiliate-First Review Channel Strategy

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Yeah. Um well, there'll be a few things. Number one, just like if you really want this, and like most people don't actually want it, they want the they want to become a YouTuber, but like the work that like I lost money for three years on YouTube while working a full-time job and a part-time job and doing YouTube on the nights and weekends. So, like, do you want it that bad? Because if not, it's probably not gonna happen. Um, so first of all, do you want it lower your expenses as much as possible? Because the lower you get it, you can save up money so that you can take time off work and you have more runway. You don't need as much money to make on YouTube to cover the expenses. So, like, get your finances in order, and that obviously there's a lot that goes into that. Um, but then when it comes to YouTube, do you have a monetization strategy? Like, are you just trying to get viral? Are you just trying to like make random content about what you're interested in? Or are you trying to like start something that can make money from day one? So, like two years ago, I started a channel where I review sauna and cold plunges, just as like I was like, Oh, I want to test this in order to see if I can make money because I had like I know a bunch about YouTube. And on the first video on that channel with 3,000 views, I had made$2,900 in affiliates from that first video, brand new channel, 17 subscribers. Never posted it on my main channel because I didn't want to like screw up the algorithm. Right, yeah. And that video, that channel's made$40,000 with it, just passed a thousand subscribers. That's over the course of two years. But like that one has a monetization strategy. Every single person who watches a should I buy a uh desert plunge is thinking about buying a desert plunge, and therefore it's very likely to click on the link in the description, and then you get$300 if somebody buys it. So like it has a very good chance where I don't need a lot of views, but on my main channel, I was posting random stuff about what I was interested in, no way of making money possible. I had gotten like 50,000 subscribers before I and I was making like$300 a month. Like, so like you have to you can't just post, you have to like actually have a strategy to possibly make money, plus you have to not need as much money by getting your life in order.

Passion Vs Profit And Channel Mix

SPEAKER_00 13:35

You know what's interesting about what you just said is uh I've had this conversation with a couple of faceless channel uh creators that I thought was really interesting. It's that you can have more than one channel, um, not to overwhelm you with creative outlets, but you can have one to help finance your passion one. So, like you just said, like you just have this channel that just reviews things. It's funny because I for years I was doing tech reviews and I probably should have been doing this, um, where you can just have videos uh that are servicing you. Um they're not they don't take that long to make. Uh if you've bought things, you can literally review them. I mean, it's not like you never even need to go out and buy new things. If you're if you just bought some new things for your kitchen, uh just review everything in your kitchen. You'd be surprised. Get it if you get Amazon affiliates, you'd be surprised how well that could work. Um, how how important is that to you to have something that isn't um necessarily like your passion to bring in more money so that you can be more creatively free elsewhere? Or do which one of these channels would you say is your passion channel, even um I or no, they're like it it depends.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

I kind of go in cycles where like sometimes like I just don't want to talk about my habits right now or about money. So I'm gonna go. I have another channel where I talk about like how to grow on YouTube. And so I'm like, I just wanted to like nerd out. And that one, like, I just like literally hit record and I just stream of consciousness. And so like I get like super that one's super fun. And then sometimes I'm like, you know, I want to go outside and film something, and I really want this new sauna, so I'm gonna do some sauna reviews and then beg for saunas from every single person who has a like a sauna. And I've gotten like I think I got like six saunas last year. Um it's just like that was just fun for a while, and now I've like I haven't I haven't posted in I think 85 days. I just checked on that channel, but it's still uh still made me over a thousand dollars this month. Um, so like it's this mix, and even on the main channel, like I have like one or two a month that I do. This one's just gonna make money. Maybe it's a pro like a dedicated video, maybe it's really heavy on affiliate, whatever. Like, it's not really my passion, but this one's gonna pay the bills. And then this one right here, this is just something like I don't expect this video to do well, but I really want to do this, so I'm gonna do this. So it's kind of like that mix of like one for yourself and one to like for for business. And obviously it's not like one-to-one ratio, but like having that mix of like, I'm not just gonna do exactly what I want. I'm gonna serve my audience, I'm gonna pay the bills, and then I also have those few that I get to just like whatever I want to do, I'm just gonna do it.

Why Diversify Across Channels

SPEAKER_00 15:57

So, in a weird way, we're kind of talking about a way to go full-time faster by maybe not doing your passion project first for a couple of reasons. Number one, like let's say if you get something that's super focused on affiliate sales, um, let's say that you your passion is for gardening, you could literally start up a gardening uh product review channel where you review all the stuff for that, and you don't have to worry about like getting a whole bunch of views on that, just like Gabe said. I mean, there's sometimes you can make a lot of money off just a couple of focused views. Um, and then kick that off while you still have your full-time job and then do the the passion kind of channel more, you know, whenever you have time. And if you build up that one that can overtake how much you're making at your current job, you can then start you know putting more into that, but then also starting your other channel or or putting more time into your passion channel. I just want people to understand diversification. Can you tell me how important diversification is in the creator economy right now?

Seasonality And Creator Headspace

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Yeah, I think that's like really important. That's why I have multiple channels. Like everybody would think, like, well, why not post that on your main channel? Um, but like I actually did a test of this where I mentioned an affiliate on my main channel, it got 75,000 views, and I made less money than on a video where I had 4,000 views on my dedicated one because it was it's like search volume. It's a hundred percent ideal target audience versus like random people who just watch it for me. And so nobody cares, nobody wants a sauna if they're watching a habits video, you know? Um, and so I I think it's a lot of people think you can only do one, but like especially with search-related stuff like a product review, or even if you have some type of skill that you can teach that you can do high-ticket sales. Um, I have friends who do this, uh, I do it myself. Um, and where you need like if you get 500 people on average watching a thing where you have a$3,000 coaching program on fitness, on whatever, then you need like one to two people to buy a month. So you need like thousands of views, not hundreds of thousands of views. And so you can run that, and maybe it's not what you're excited about, but it does also have to take a lot of work because with those type of things, product reviews or um things where you're coaching, people want to build a relationship with you. They want to trust you. They just want you to pull out your phone and tell you it like, should I buy this stupid sauna or not? Or they're like, I just want a real person because if I'm gonna hire a coach, I want to like feel connected. So just whip out your phone, go for a walk, tell them about your expertise or or whatever, and then you can do that. And so I really like having this the these like different levels of backup where I know that I have the main channel, but I also know that if I put effort into this one, this can grow. If I I do put effort into you know, kind of all of them, they all just like kind of takes a lot of the stress off because YouTube is up and down. Every it's like there's gonna be three months where like like right now I'm in a point where it's like the best months I've ever had back to back. And I know during the summer it's gonna drop by probably 50 to 70 percent, and I'm gonna be like, everybody hates me, like I might as well quit. What like literally every single year that happens, yes? Uh, like income will go down to 75% and then it'll go up with and like if you expect that to happen, it's much less jarring. Um, so yeah.

Pitching Brands And Getting Gear

SPEAKER_00 18:59

I mean, for a lot of creators, that time is right now, especially in the tech space, like January, February is brutal. Um, but I guess maybe if you start a barbecue channel, then uh summertime will be uh the hit for you, so you can start a fourth channel there for barbecue reviews. Um, real quick, um the the smaller channel, tell us how that came to be. And even though it's smaller, you said you were sent sauna. Like, how do you approach brands or or companies or anything to send you something for review if you're not like a huge channel?

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, so with that one in particular, uh, it was like two something years ago. This I I saw I started getting ads on Instagram for a sauna box. It was like really viral at the time, and I was like, man, I'm getting a lot of ads for this. And so I went to YouTube and I saw that like the bid IQ score uh was really high. There was a bunch of a couple different channels that had like maybe 30 subscribers and a video with 6,000 views reviewing this thing. I was like, okay, there's clearly a like a market, this keyword's really hot. And so I messaged that company on Instagram and I was like, hey, I've started a new channel where I review cut products in cold uh like cold plunges. Would you be able to send me one and I'll do affiliate? They're like, no. Um, and but they but they do, yeah, and that's yeah, so that anyways, uh, but then they were like, if uh we don't want you to make a video about it, but if you'll just film you unboxing for us to post on our Instagram and like using it, we'll give you a like exchange a sauna for that. And that's how they get all their content, is they just send people saunas, they film them unboxing it, and then they put it on their own channel. So I was like, sure. Interesting. And so I was able to get an affiliate link, but it had nothing to do, like it wasn't a trade for that.

SPEAKER_00 20:34

Yeah.

Turning Proof Into Bigger Deals

SPEAKER_01 20:35

Um, and then I made that video. That video um did really well because like the search volume was there, there was very low competition, um, and it had affiliates, and I, you know, making a couple thousand dollars. And then I kind of took that and I messaged a bunch of other brands. I was like, hey, I sold$10,000 of Sauna Box. Would you like to send me one? And now with like uh I was able to I messaged literally every single company that has a sauna that was running ads on Instagram because I was like, if they have if they're running ads, they have a marketing department, they probably have affiliates, and so I just messaged them all. Probably like three got back out of 40. Um, and then a couple other ones stuck. Actually, the biggest one has been I don't know if I can mention their name. Yeah, like one of them, uh sweat tent. I've sold two hundred thousand dollars of sweat tents with under a thousand subscribers from like a couple videos popping off. So that's like 20 plus K in affiliate income from that channel. Like that's incredible, it's insane.

SPEAKER_00 21:31

Do they then want to do bigger deals with you or anything? Or have you ever re-proached them? Like, hey, I've sold$200,000 worth of your stuff. You made me want to start talking to me a little bit more seriously.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Uh yeah. So we did have a thing for a while where they were gonna put pay me for monthly uh videos on that channel, but um, I mostly made that channel of like proof proof of concept. Like I didn't want to make like I've made like five sweat tent videos, I don't want to make one every month. Sure. So it was actually like decent. It was like a couple grand a month, but I kind of turned that down and I just like my other channels make more money. Um But but yeah, like this could be really good if you're I don't want to skip over that.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

This is a channel with like a thousand subscribers, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:06

It just passed a thousand after two years.

Handling No’s And Leveraging Wins

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Just after two years, this thing's already made over$20,000 with a 1,000 subscriber channel. Ladies and gentlemen, the proof is in the pudding. And I hear this all the time. Like I'm too small. I uh this will never work. I think Gabe just told a really funny story where he asked for an affiliate. They said no, which is great. That's the I love when I hear those stories because I feel like those are more real than the ones like, yeah, I went out to uh to Pepsi and they said, sure, we'll give you a million dollars. Like it never goes that way, right? It's so many no's before the yes. But so let's dig into that. How many times uh in your content creation kind of uh career would you say you've gotten a no uh on on something, whether it be with a brand partner, a collab, anything like and what how do you deal with that? Because some people, when they hear a no, they just shrink up and they're like, I I should never have tried asked in the first place, should have never done this.

Financial Safety Nets And Email Lists

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Yeah, uh, I mean, I get no's a lot, and it's it's sometimes it's very frustrating. Like there's been brands at another uh, for instance, like cuts clothing. I had mentioned them early on my main channel, and uh uh they were sending me product in exchange for affiliates. I had done like 30k in commission in affiliates for cuts. They shut down their program, they refused to answer my emails, even still, they will not like partner with me or they're like 5% or something like that. And I'm like, I've literally made you guys so much money, and you won't even like get on a phone call with me. And they they just like shut it down. They just don't care. Same thing with like other affiliates that I've had and brands where it's like, I would love to work with you. This would be a perfect fit for this like cheap phone plan. And they're like, Yeah, no, we're we're good. I'm like, I I literally drove like thousands and thousands of clicks for free for you, and you just won't even give me an affiliate link. Like, what's going on? Um, so it happens a ton, but it's not personal. They're like trying to make money, and so I kind of look at it as like kind of this bulk thing where like you're gonna find one or two things that are really gonna click. Um, and then a lot of the other ones won't, so they just try a bunch of stuff. And like if I'm trying to get a free sauna, like I know that I need to message literally every single Instagram thing, apply for every single one, and maybe one or two out of 40 or 50 are actually gonna answer me and then like get back to me. And it's like none of that's personal. They're just trying to make sure that they make money. Um, but I really like showing proof first. So, like, hey, this video got this many clicks, drove this many dollars. Would you like to work with me? As opposed to like, I'm gonna start a channel. I have nothing to show you that I can provide value to me. Please give me free stuff. Like, just go make some videos for free. And like, like I've made a couple, like for a fire pit that I have. This stinking brand will not get back to me. Please, Rio, if you're out there. Uh, it's gotten 16,000 views. It's uh it's driven hundreds of clicks. They won't give me an affiliate link. Whoa. Um, but like I made the video anyways about a product that I just had lying around, and then I use that to leverage for other stuff. Um and so just like start with nothing and uh yeah, don't be entitled, just ask a bunch, fail a bunch, and one or two will click and then just follow with what works.

Lead Magnets That Actually Convert

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Because you never know. The the the one you might get a hundred no's and the one yes might be life-changing. Like, you just never know. Um, that's interesting because I had a similar thing happen with an affiliate that was super I was super successful with. I made five figures off the affiliate and uh they stopped doing the affiliate program. I'm like, wait, please don't stop. I mean, uh we're having great business together. Yeah. So that's the other thing is that you can never tell if something's going to end, whether it be partnership, sponsorship deal, you might get demonetized on YouTube, like anything can happen. We just don't know. Like everything is is kind of um in the air at times. So how do you how do you protect yourself financially from just bad, like terrible months? Obviously, you know, if you're living minimally, that that helps. But uh without that, like how else are you kind of uh protecting your finances?

Hit Rates, Series, And Research

SPEAKER_01 25:50

So I have yeah, I have very diverse streams, right? So we have that affiliate that I can always lead on. We have uh a course that I run um a couple times a year. So that's like totally different. And then we have my main channel, and that's got like different subjects that I can touch on, but also like the main thing that I do from any of the channels day one is like collect emails, right? Any type of lead magnet. When you collect an email, you kind of own that audience. And if your channels all go away, you can still email people, and some of them will click on affiliate links, they will buy products, they will get on coaching calls, they'll do something, right? And so from day one, like the easiest thing to do is like make a PDF, make a something that's a free lead magnet, start collecting emails and owning some of that audience, and that can really help diversify a lot of things. Um yeah, that's that's the main thing I try to do, and that's that's been really big. I didn't do it for years, so like I've missed out on on so much. Um, but it's something I take really seriously now.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

What's a good way of doing that? Because like if you're a content creator that um if you're even doing something like a vlog channel or something that doesn't seem like it's not directly connected to a product, how do you convince people to give you their email? Like, what is that? What's a good strategy for that?

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Um, I mean, I just try to do something that's like uh strangely valuable or something like that. Um so like I'll have like a free mini course on how to get started on YouTube, or I'll have uh I wrote a book like 50 minimalist habits that change my life. And so I'll do a video on like six minimalist habits that change my life. You want a list of 50, it's down below. It's like exact target audience, really easy for me to make. Um, and then it's just like like you know, like that type of thing. So I just try to do something that's like very target, and then I also have made like 20 or 30 of them. And again, kind of like with the affiliates, three of them are gonna do great, and the rest are gonna be like, well, I probably won't promote that one again because four people clicked on it. But you know, you gave it a shot and you wasted three hours, and that's it is what it is, you know. Um, so just make it a bunch.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

I think a lot of people forget that uh 80% of the YouTube channel success comes from like 20% of the videos. Uh, and that goes for a lot of things, a lot of effort put into content creation. The vast majority of success comes from a much smaller portion of the content that you make. How often would you say when you go into creating a video, do you get it right? And what I mean by that is you go into it thinking this is gonna be a banger, it's gonna be great, and then it just flops versus, oh yeah, I was right, I got it right. How what would you say your percentage is of being right about a video?

If Starting From Scratch Today

SPEAKER_01 28:15

Um, I mean, I'm definitely better now uh because like I have such a feel for my audience. I've made so many. Um, but it it's very often that you're like, oh, this one's gonna bang, and then it just like nothing happens, and then this one is like, oh, I'm just gonna should I even post this? I don't know. I will just put it out there, and then it pops off. Um, but then there are some that are gonna be like, I have some series like 50 blank, like 50 habits, 50 finance, 50 savings, 50 whatever. And I know if I do something in that series, every single time it's gonna be one out of 10. Um, so I have like certain series that I know are proven concepts that are gonna work well, but then with some of the other stuff, it's just like I think this will do well. Um, but most of the stuff I do is pretty research, that the keyword, the audience, like something's there. Um, and I don't actually take a ton of like unresearched shots. Um, but even then, like, yeah, generally, like my rule of thumb is like half of them are gonna underperform what you expect, like two are probably gonna like way overperform, and then the other ones will be like, eh, that's okay. Um, and that's just kind of like the rule with literally everything.

SPEAKER_00 29:17

That's actually a really good kind of um re you know, you get to put things in reality. Uh, I think we always feel like we're gonna put out one of tens, but the reality is there's 10 videos, so you're not gonna put out a one of ten every single time. Uh and being realistic about like, yeah, 20% of them are gonna probably do a little better than you think, and the vast majority are gonna do somewhere about what you think, and you're gonna get some stinkers in there, is very realistic. Um, if you had to start a channel today with the sole purpose of being successful, um, and it's not based on anything you've done currently, so like you're just having to do something new and exciting and interesting. What would be the niche and what would be your first three videos? Dang, that is very specific.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

It is. Uh yeah, no, I mean you can think like real time.

SPEAKER_00 30:04

I want you to say it as you're thinking it because people want to hear the thought process.

Beginner Mistakes: Packaging And Focus

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Yeah, so I would probably choose something that is high-ticket sales. Um, just because if my main goal is to make money, again, if it if you have something that's 3,000 for a three-month or six-month coaching program, you need one to two sales a month. You don't need that many views. Um, I personally don't like doing uh one-on-one coaching calls, um, but I would do it uh for that. Um, because I I literally know probably like a handful of like six people that I know personally that do that and make a lot of money with almost no views. Uh, because you like you don't need views. Um, so I would do that. It would I I would just like take an audit of my life, see what I have skills on. Like right now, I would do it on YouTube because I know YouTube really well. Um, but before it would have been on real estate when I started, because I was a real estate agent, I had like those skills, or like it could have been on fitness, um, and then like like whatever it is, I'm gonna choose something that I have an unfair advantage on over other people. Yeah, something probably high ticket or affiliate, because I know that too. Um, but um either what either one of those, it's not just like, oh, I'm passionate about this. It's like this is the monetization strategy. How am I building a content thing around it? Not like I want to talk about this. People will listen and they will give me money. It's like you're looking for that, or even like the keyword, like looking for keywords, looking for uh I do a lot of research on other channels, how they're doing before I would make that um and make sure I have a good chance of making money. And then first three videos are gonna be like authority of like um why I did the thing. So like I bought a rental at 22 with almost no money, copy me, something like that, um, where it's like this is my story, why you should listen to me, and you can do whatever. Um, and then probably the other ones where I would try to like rank and search, because search is a really good way, especially like at the at the beginning to kind of show up with other people, or like based on trendy videos in that niche, um, and try to piggybink on other people, or like authority hacking and just like picking whoever the top like I tried Grant Cardone's thing and it destroyed my life, something like you know, uh something something like uh with with hacking the algorithm a little bit.

Six Months Of Losing Subs

SPEAKER_00 32:14

I love that. Um, what would you say are some of the biggest mistakes you're seeing starting creators make on YouTube? I think one thing that happens is as a viewer of YouTube, you you get a concept of how videos are made and how quote easy it is and stuff. Uh, and then they become content creators and the reality kind of hits them as the actually it's easy but hard at the same time. What do you think are some of the biggest obstacles and mistakes people are making when they start a channel?

Extreme Ownership And Momentum

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Um a couple would be like one would be packaging. Like a lot of new YouTubers, your packaging sucks. If your thumbnail's bad, nobody's gonna click on your video. It could literally be a Mr. Beast video if your thumbnail is like some grainy thing with four pictures in it and colored text. Nobody's clicking on it. So, like, don't bother making YouTube videos if you're not gonna bother learning how to make a thumbnail. Um, that being said, like there's a style of like screenshot ones where people go for a walk and you just do a screenshot and like that's fine if that's your niche. So like you have to research your niche and see what works in that niche and make a thumbnail that works in that niche. Just because it works on finance doesn't mean it works on uh like product reviews, doesn't mean it works on mom's uh day vlogs, like they're all very different. Um, so packaging. Um, I think a lot of people they they'll have so like you'll post five videos, ten videos, whatever, you'll have that one that does well, and then they won't follow, they won't double down on that. They're like, well, that wasn't exactly what I wanted to talk about, so I don't want to become known just for that. And like sometimes you have to play the game of like, I didn't super want to become the minimalist guy, even though I was interested in it, but like it worked for a year, every single video was minimalism, and now because I built that connection, I can talk about pretty much whatever I want, and people will show up because I gave them what they wanted. And so sometimes like I didn't think I'd make a fitness channel, but I made this fitness video and everybody watched it. So I'm just gonna run down that way. I'm gonna embrace the algorithm instead of fight it. Um, and just kind of and if that's not where you want to go, start a new channel, like do something else. Um, so that's probably more or less what I would uh see as mistakes for beginners.

SPEAKER_00 34:10

Um, and it's it's true because what you'll see a lot of the larger creators, because the comment we hear from a lot of creators, well, this creator can make anything and they can get uh views on everything. But there's a lot of there's a lot of aspects to that. That's an onion that you can unpeel. Number one, uh, I guarantee if you ask that creator, they don't agree with that statement because their idea of success is different than yours. The case in point I was watching this content creator that I like to watch, and he had this series that I actually enjoyed, and he mentioned in a video he wasn't going to do the series anymore because he said it doesn't perform well. Well, I went back to his channel, looked at all those videos, and none of them had under 100,000 views, which for most people pretty good. For him, a failure. So I feel like saying that, oh, he can do anything or they can do anything and be successful isn't necessarily true. Secondarily, a lot of those channels, including people like Mr. Beast and whatever, started out as like a gaming channel or something very specific for a very long time to grow that audience, just like you said, to be able to even do anything like you're seeing today. It's that whole meme about the um the iceberg. You just see the very top above the water, but there's all this stuff that you don't have no idea what's going on uh behind it. Can you tell us some of the times when maybe either you doubted yourself or things went wrong or something like that during your YouTube journey?

Current Challenges Beyond YouTube

SPEAKER_01 35:23

So I think like two years in, I had a six-month period of time where every time I posted, I lost subscribers. So I was at like I don't remember, it was like 20,000 subscribers, somewhere in there. It was like a little bit of traction. Six months, literally every single post, uh like I could show you the graph, I would like lose six subscribers and then gain them back during the week and then lose 12 subscribers. And I was like, when people are reminded I exist, they just leave. Uh, none of the videos were doing well, they weren't breaking like a thousand views. It was like really a rough time, but um, I kind of like just built this identity that like I post every Saturday at 10 a.m. That's just what I do, and I'm excited. You know, like I just like what I'm doing and just kind of like stuck with it. But um, I think most rational people would quit at that point. I wasn't making money, I was losing money and losing subscribers, but um just kind of like committing to something for like three years or don't do it at all is kind of like my or or one year, whatever your thing is. Um, it really takes a lot of the pressure off because even now, like I used to get a 10 out of 10, like a really bad performing video, and it would destroy my day. And now I'm like, that's one out of 52 videos I'm posting this year. Doesn't even matter if it's a one out of 10, also doesn't matter because I still need to make 51 other videos. Um, so that really helped when I've been able to change my mindset that way.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Was that a pivot uh during that time, or was it you were you still doing the same type of content and something just wasn't working?

The 2026 Skills That Will Matter

SPEAKER_01 36:42

I was making the same type of content, something wasn't working. Uh looking back, uh like I wasn't listening to podcasts like this, I was just figuring stuff out, I was just posting. Um, it wasn't serving the like I didn't know to serve the audience to like look up keywords. I was just like trying stuff back then. Um, and so looking back, I I kind of can see that they were just selfish videos, they weren't like based on anything. Um, so that was probably the issue. But also like sometimes you like you just don't know what's wrong because you don't have that knowledge of was it my thumbnail, was it my idea, was it my title, was it my video structure? Usually it's the idea, title, or thumbnail, but like uh I I focus so much on the video and put almost no thought into the title thumbnail idea that um that was the main issue. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

Was there like a video that happened that kind of got you out of that funk, or was it a series of videos, or was it just time, or do you do you have any idea of like how you got out? Because I think if if we had any listeners listening, they're like, that's happening to me right now. I'm being shadow banned. I'm like, well, you might not actually be being shadow banned, you might be doing what what Gabe's talking about. Uh do you remember exactly how you got out of that?

SPEAKER_01 37:49

Um first of all, if you if you think you're getting shadow banned, I would just read the book Extreme Ownership. I love that idea of like everything's my fault. I'm never gonna blame the algorithm, I'm never gonna blame the governments or my parents or like whatever. Like, yes, they're maybe all the blame, but like ultimately you can't control them. So it just like makes you really depressed. So if you just say, like, I sucked, this video must not have been good. I don't know what I missed, but I missed something. It gives you the power that you can control it, you can fix it as well. So great book, anyways. Um, yeah, so to get out of that, I think I found a keyword. Like, I think it was like the the keyword uh frugal living that got me me out of that, um, which back in the day was like a great keyword, apparently. Uh still is, it's still one of my top keywords. But like I found a word that worked, and then I just like every single video was about that. Like, which if we put that in the title, it's gonna do well. If we don't put it in, it's gonna do terrible. And then the next like, and then you kind of build that momentum uh to get out of it. Like YouTube's very momentum-based.

SPEAKER_00 38:48

It is, and uh, there are times where if you're if you don't have the momentum working for you, it feels like there's nothing you can do and it works. Then there's the other side where, and I've felt this before too, where things are going well and you feel like you can do just about anything and it just works. Like, what why is it so easy now, but so hard at other times? Um, and I love how you're saying, you know, blame yourself more. It does give you the empowerment to fix it. If, like, if you're the blame, you can fix it. If it's someone else's problem, if it's YouTube, you can't fix that. There's nothing you can do about that. So what how do you not take it personally though? Because that's really very hard.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

I I mean, you I like I just kind of assume that I'm a bit of an idiot, right? Like, there's so much to learn out there. Like, yeah, every like there's a lot of people who are doing success, like who are successful at almost everything, right? And like it when you start to like read books and whatever, you're like, Well, I really know nothing compared to what's out there in the world. Like, I know a percentage of a percent. And if I just assume that I was perfect making this video, like really, uh, so maybe a little bit it is um is that, but yeah, I don't know exactly how to get uh how to get past that besides just like just kind of assuming that you're wrong and continuing to try to um just try to improve and assume that it's something that you're you're doing and then just studying something. Um like studying like this week, I'm just like really gonna spend a lot of time on my thumbnails or titles or whatever and just try to keep getting better and realize that like I actually don't need to get good right now. I need to be good in like a year from now. I need to build the skills. Um, and I'm in a skill building stage, apparently, right now.

SPEAKER_00 40:25

I think most people listening to this podcast would think that you're kind of uh you're just kind of successful at YouTube. Like you just kind of and I think there's this misconception that you're done. Like you can just do you've you've made it, now you can just enjoy life. It's great. What is the current obstacle slash thing that's that's hard for you right now? Because I mean every creator, there's always something. What is it for you now?

SPEAKER_01 40:48

Yeah, uh, so like right now I'm on like the best streak of my life, literally, like views and everything wise, which has been really cool. Um, but that being said, like the the monetization is not like here's like obviously it's it's very good right now, but then I compare it to friends who are who are doing six figures a month, and I'm like, okay, well, I'm a failure. Um, and so it's always like kind of like uh learning new things, getting better at systems, because until like a year and a half ago, I didn't know what a funnel was. And so, like, right now I'm learning about like, okay, here's a funnel, here's how to learn that. So actually, the YouTube side is not super hard, but then like, okay, well, do you want to build a business behind that? Okay, now I'm managing people. How am I at managing? And there's like just all these skills that have to do with YouTube that you don't necessarily think about until you start growing those. And so it's just like this constant learning curve of it's always kind of something. Um, but as far as the YouTube videos themselves, like they're like they don't always hit, but we have a really good like uh kind of system down there anywhere from like two to four hours per video generally um uh of putting them out there and they're all um doing decent right now, but just like realizing that's gonna go up and down. But then there's the business side, and then once you learn that side, like there's all these different sides that you don't think about copywriting, like okay, well, I didn't know that copywriting was a thing until a year and a half ago, and now I need to learn that skill, and just each of those just take time.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Yeah. And for those who don't know, uh a funnel would be something where uh people would come in to basically to your content, and then you send them to like your business or or you know, uh uh an email list or something like that. It's to get people in to go to hopefully to your business or something that you might be monetizing, or uh if sometimes it could be something as simple as like a community, it just depends on what you're trying to accomplish. Um is there anything else we should go over before we leave? Let's see. Um, what is the thing that you think is going to be most critical in 2026 for creators to understand and to maybe master? Uh, what's gonna be the best skill you think this year is gonna be super important? Because everything's changing.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Yeah, I mean, I I I think a skill that's gonna be very important is um I hate to say authenticity because everybody says that, but there's this style of uh title going around right now where it looks like a text. It's like one of the ones we just did was like, I'm begging you to throw away your stuff. And it's like not caps, like it doesn't look perfect, but it looks like somebody texted it to you or whatever. And it is this AI went one way, and there's the people who will just take in the AI, and then there's the other way where people crave this real connection with people. And if you're always chasing what's viral, it it's I don't know. I feel like it's gonna be very hard for you, but if you can learn this new style of like, how can we how can I put my myself in like this real person to connect with real people who are struggling and stuff? Uh, I feel like that's gonna be um a big skill for a lot of people, and then also like picking a monetization strategy. I so many people just don't have a way that they can be successful, like money wise on YouTube. And so, like, if if you're starting, especially and you don't have like a way that you're thinking to make money, you just have a channel idea. Like, don't start the channel unless there's some way to make money, or you're gonna be incredibly frustrated um when you're like, oh, getting 10,000 views a video and I'm making$78 a month. Like, You really need to have a monetization strategy, or it's just gonna be really hard.

SPEAKER_00 44:05

I agree with that. Gabe, you're an incredible creator, and actually, you've given our listeners a lot of different things to think about and some some really concrete skills. And the thing that I'm taking away from this is that you made$20,000 with a channel that has a thousand subscribers. Crazy to me. I'm gonna use that probably as a title for this video because it's so crazy. Uh, Gabe, thank you so much for joining us. If people want to find you, there'll be links in the description in the show notes if you listen to the audio podcast. Gabe has a couple of different channels, so make sure you check them out. If you're looking to get rid of all the crap in your house, like I need to do, he's got a great channel. His main channel will be linked in the description below. If you need anything else, you know we're always here. Check us out on videoq.com, and we'll see y'all in the next one.