How I grew my YouTube to 10k subs in 50 days

I grew my YouTube channel to 10,000 subscribers in under 50 days.

• I didn't pay for views
• I didn't work with a YouTube agency
• I didn't spend thousands of dollars on equipment

Here’s how:

Step 0: Why YouTube

Short-form content is like walking past a stranger on the street.

Long-form content is like sitting down and having a meal with them.

YouTube is by far the best platform to create content on because:

• You feel more connection with people on video

• The shelf-life of each video is longer than other platforms

• The discoverability once you hit the explore page is incredible

• YouTube videos get cited in AI search

• People watch you on their TV

I can go on and on. Point is: if muscle is built through time under tension, your brand is built through time under ATTENTION.

Step 1: Define what "winning" looks like

My favorite definition of "brand" is from Caleb Ralston. He defines it as the result of "branding", which is just the pairing of two things (aka associations).

If we know that I want to build a brand around copywriting, online business, and being an entrepreneur... then we can reverse engineer the things I should be associated with.

• Talk about lessons from top entrepreneurs
• Talk about lessons on copywriting
• Talk about lessons on business

We don't just want impressions, we want to MAKE an impression. We don’t just want eyeballs, we want hearts. We don’t just want to be well known, but be known well.

Step 2: Play your best hits

The best singers don't tour around singing new songs. They play their top hits over and over and over again.

Both the video topics AND stories in my videos were things I wrote about before.

I've written over 55,000+ tweets and a weekly newsletter for the past 5 years.

If a tweet, story, or newsletter performs above my average posts' performance, we consider it for a YouTube video.

Step 3: Focus on packaging

A 10/10 video with 2/10 packaging will get you 2/10 results. No one can get value from a video if they never click on it.

Packaging is the title and thumbnail of the YouTube video. Like this:

We first start with what our audience would WANT to watch.

Does it speak to their pain points OR speak to their goals?

THEN we figure out what we want to say in the video.

Step 4: Nail your intro

The best intros we’ve found have a “Promise, Proof, Plan” format.

Promise: What is this video about?

• Pro tip: Literally restate the title

Proof: Why should people listen to you?

• 3 types of proof: your results, client results, borrowing credibility

Plan: How will the value be delivered?

• What can people expect?

Example:

Title: watch this to get your first HIGH TICKET client

• PROMISE: By the end of this video, you will understand what it takes to land your first high ticket client (even if you have zero experience) using what I call the “Public Pitch Method.”

• PROOF: I built a multi-six-figure ghostwriting agency with clients paying me everything from $3,000, $5,000, even $10,000 while I was a 18 year old kid in college.

• PLAN: And in this video, I’ll go over what it is, why it works, and how you can use it this very week. Let’s begin…

Step 5: Structure your videos well

I like to use the STAR Method to structure my videos.

Story: Hook with experience or example

• Far past (months/years ago)

• Recent past (look at your calendar)

• Manufactured (make a hypothetical story)

• Present (things happening right now)

Teaching: Explain the concept

• Contrast (bad vs. good)

• Frameworks (The STAR Method)

• Analogies (This is like… that)

Application: Show how to implement it

• Steps (step 1, step 2, step 3)

• Mistakes to avoid (Don’t do X, do Y)

• Templates/checklists/cheat sheets

Retain: Re-hook the next point

• “But here’s where this gets interesting…”

• “Now you might be thinking X, and you’d be half right…”

• “Most people stop here. And that’s why most people fail, you see…”

Then you basically repeat the STAR for each point that you make in the video.

Hook, rehook, repeat

Step 6: Share actual sauce lol

Most YouTubers share declarative knowledge (knowledge ABOUT things). Few YouTubers share procedural knowledge (HOW TO do things).

Guess where the alpha is?

You guessed it... sharing actual sauce.

• Declarative knowledge: here’s what copywriting is and why it’s important

• Procedural knowledge: The 6Ps of copyTHINKING that will help you craft campaigns

I don't make a video on a topic unless I've thought deeply about it, and more importantly, LIVED through experience(s) that warrant a video.

Step 7: Work with the best

Like most great things in life, this was not a solo effort.

I worked with an amazing editor and YouTube strategist.

I want to give a special shoutout to my strategist Luke Gleason.

He worked with me at Acquisition.com and led Alex & Leila’s YouTube channel.

Fun fact: he came up with and started the Mozi Highlights channel that everyone seems to be raving about.

He’s taking on 2 more YouTube clients, so hit him up if you’re interested in working with him.

Luke is on the right holding the water bottles

TLDR:

1. Define what 'winning' is

2. Validate your ideas

3. Focus on packaging

4. Nail your intro

5. Structure your videos

6. Share actual sauce

7. Work with the best

Road to 100k! 🚀

Until next week,

Jay “Doubling Down on YouTube” Yang

Author of You Can Just Do Things & Work With The Best

Ps. Good cold DM

Pps. My buddy Xavier just started writing on X again. Go drop him a follow, DM him and learn from him. He’s an incredible sales, ops, and marketer.

Brex founder Pedro Franceschi on how to move faster:

"It all starts by asking what's limiting your rate of growth right now. There's only one thing that limits the rate of progress for a whole system: a bottleneck. Once you find that, the highest leverage thing you can do is increase the throughput of the bottleneck and allocate disproportionate amounts of resources into it."

“All roads lead back to 9 PM bed time, 5 AM wake up, 4 hours of deep, focused work creative work first thing, leaving your notifications off, work out mid day to break it up, admin & calls in the afternoon, hang with friends and loved ones in the evening, repeat forever.” - Dickie Bush

One of my core life philosophies:

Real success is how many people thank you for theirs.

Reward: people calling you fit
Price: intense workouts for years

Reward: people calling you insightful
Price: writing and reading daily

Reward: people calling you kind
Price: years of self-observation and inner work

You can’t have the reward without the price.

Stop asking for advice on your ideas.
Start asking for feedback on your attempts.

Then implement their feedback.
And followup with the results.

This is how you bat way outside your league and get people to 'mentor' you.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Stanley

Ok this is objectively super cool…

Stanley (my AI content agent) now proactively creates IG tweet pics for every tweet that I publish.

So so awesome. Try it for free

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