you're probably juggling a 9 to5 family or other responsibilities wonder if it's even possible to grow on YouTube with just 1 hour a day and I completely get it because I personally spent 4 years failing at it then after years of trial and error something finally clicked and my channel went from Zer to 100K in just 3 months and then to 1 million in only 2 years I discovered that growing on YouTube isn't about having more time it's actually about knowing exactly what moves the needle and today I'm going to show you a clear road map to grow your Channel in 2025 even with a limited time let me show you the biggest mistake I made when I was starting on YouTube one time I spent like 15 hours perfecting a single edit just to get like 47 views so what do successful creators do differently they focus on three things that actually matter one creating content people actually want to watch not just what you think looks cool two making titles and thumbnails that make people want to click not just the pretty ones and three understanding your audience and your unique value proposition not just copying big creators everything else it's just busy work I'm going to show you exactly how to nail these three core elements even if you have only one hour a day now this brings me to something really important that I learned you're probably looking at like creators like MrBeast Alex Orosi or maybe Matt dlla and thinking if I just do exactly what they're doing I'll grow too huge mistake big mistake huge mistake never do it trying to copy what successful creators are doing right now is like trying to run a marathon without learning to how to walk first you know it just doesn't work the reason is that big creators are playing a completely different game than someone who's just trying to start and grow their channel for example like on this channel my current goal is not really to grow or get more like subscribers anymore the main focus is really on building the business and scaling the business outside of my YouTube channel so I don't really care how much we grow in terms of subscribers so what do you need to do if you're trying to grow your channel right here's what you actually need to focus on when you're just starting out and trust me it's actually not what you think because before you even touch a camera or think about buying a gear you need to exactly know who you are on YouTube and why anyone should care about what you have to say because even though it sounds like a little sad at the beginning no one cares about us I know this sounds basic but this is exactly why I think I failed in the four first four years of my YouTube career because I was so focused on trying to copy other creators that I forgot to figure out what made me different if you want to avoid doing this mistake it actually comes down to two simple questions that you need to answer first What Makes You Different this isn't about like having a mind-blown skill or having a very unique Competitive Edge or anything it's basically about your background your experiences and your personality it's just those elements that make you you you know so let's say if you're a student who figured out how to get a trade while I don't know doing something different maybe having a hobby aside you can teach about it on YouTube or maybe you are a mom who is really good at time management while raising their kids which is something that most people struggle with you know whatever it is that is your starting point second why should people care this is crucial like we have to be very clear are you solving a problem or are you offering Insight nobody else is talking about in a specific industry or maybe you have a unique humor that make people laugh in your own unique way so to figure that out what makes you unique AKA your unique selling point USB try to write a on sentence mission statement one sentence mission statement is basically like this I help specific audience achieve specific result by specific method or value so for example mine is I help ambitious individuals overcome self-doubt and achieve their goals by teaching techniques to make time for what truly matters I Empower my audience to live a fulfilling life while improving it this is my mission statement and your mission statement doesn't have to be perfect from the beginning because it can change over time but you just need a clear starting point because this is essentially what is going to guide you every single video you make I know figuring out this can be tricky when you're just starting so I created a free mini guide to help you discover your USB you can check it out in the description below it's completely free now that you figured out what makes you unique let's talk about turning that into actual content that grows your channel here's another big mistake I see beginners make they start by making content about themselves but here's the truth when you're just starting out nobody actually is searching for you you know because nobody knows you and nobody cares about a day in my life yet because they don't know like why would I care about it so what are they searching for they are searching solutions to their problems because think about it which video would you click on my daily workout routine from someone that you have absolutely no idea or how to lose weight without the gym or a productive day in my life from you don't know or how I buil a side hustle without getting without quitting my 9 to-5 one is about you the other is solving your viewers Problems by focusing on solution people actively search for you will naturally attract viewers who see you as a helpful resource over time as you build an audience and your credibility you can expand into other content types like storytelling emotional connection or more inspirational and more personal content here's my exact process for coming up with problem solving video ideas I basically spend 1 hour every week at a cafe brainstorming first I list everything I accomplished like mental physical academic professional anything I figured out that can help others then I break these into major areas and think about all the problems beginners face and I also reflect and try to remember what was I struggling with what questions did I have at the beginning for example when I started this channel I did this with language learning you know because I was really good at language learning and I did this without spending a lot of money onto it so I basically first started with something that I'm good at and a problem that I solved learning languages at your home without having a tutor or without going to a language school and also making a process found that was something like a problem that I solved in my own experience and that I was really good at so I started making videos about it and then my channel blew up because the reason is that I solved a specific problem in my life and I was providing free value to people those kind of videos allowed me to establish myself and Authority in a specific Niche language learning and from there I basically expanded into other kind of content and it's not only language learning for example also ADHD I have ADHD and I've been struggling with it for a very long time so I basically built systems and also methods that I can manage my procrastination brain much better and I was sharing it online and a lot of people found it helpful and that allowed me to establish that trust that now I can talk about any kind of topic that I want as long as it's valuable to my audience so now you might be thinking what if I haven't figured out anything yet what if I don't have any credibility or experience in something and that's actually completely okay K too instead of trying to teach people I would become what I call a human Ginia pick so you pick three to five areas that you want to improve and you learn from books experts and try different methods and share what works and what doesn't work you basically test everything that you learn and you share what you learn from those reliable sources out there for example I did this in my video about marshmallow test like I haven't conducted a research about willpower or anything like that I read a book I learned something I test it on myself and then I synthesized it and share shared it with the world that's usually how I make my videos this works because you're either teaching from direct experience or alongside your audience right and both are really valuable and Powerful on YouTube because the reason is that people connect with like real struggle struggles more than perfect highlight reals if somebody really wanted to only learn the language now you can just like ask an AI to teach you something right but people prefer learning from humans because they understand what you went through when you're working with just one hour a day don't waste time trying to make your videos perfect okay you should focus on the value you're delivering to your audience not how polished your video looks here's what I would to streamline my process and produce great content effectively editing is often the most timeconsuming part of content creation so focus on cutting out to the fluff and making your videoos digestible here's how to apply the at20 rule when it comes to editing first film your AAL you know main talking points and for example this is an arrow right this the shot that I'm currently making an arrow and after filming your arrow upload your footage to gling AI because it will give you a clean up version in a few minutes it can automatically detect arms and arms and also the parts that you repeated yourself and you can delete that easily the AI will also transcribe your video and by just going through the transcription that you have you can easily remove unnecessary sections because reading is usually much faster than just like watching re-watching the video again and again by cutting the unnecessary parts from the transcript it will give you a clean base to work with after that I will focus on gener generating a shot list for my b rolls usually because I'm lazy I just take the cleaned up script out from gling Ai and put the chat gbt suggest Boll ideas to enhance my video and it just gives like a shot list for each talking point so after you get those like shot list you film or sourc your Boll and lay it over a roll for a Polish look so that like whenever you're talking there's like a visual element representing whatever you're talking about so that it conveys the message to the viewer much easily so the reason why I love gling AI is because it's specifically built for YouTubers like us so it understands the needs of creators it can save you so much time and it will help you focus on the creative parts of your videos instead of spending hours trying to trim down your footage if you're someone who struggles with editing or just wants to work smarter I highly recommend gling AI you can get it now by clicking the link at the top of the description or in the pinned comment thank you gling AI for sponsoring a small proportion of this video now here's something most beginners get wrong they spend all their money on an exp of camera but their audio sounds terrible don't do that okay because your first investment should be a good microphone not a good camera unless your like phone is really really crappy the reason is that because most people will watch a slightly blurry or slightly not so high quality video but they will click instantly if they can't hear you properly or if your mic is like making too much noise things like that you know so here's some of my recommendations for microphone and if you want to learn more in detail for or gear recommendation whether it's lighting microphone camera I have a free gear guide in the description for free you can basically check out it gives you all my recommendations for different budgets let's talk about lighting honestly when it comes to lighting just keep it simple film during the day if you can next to a window and you're good to go like if you're working 95 and you don't get like sunlight when you come back from work you can use weekends to film and if you need an artificial lighting start with one soft box you know you can start with an affordable one and again for those like recommendations you can check my free gear guide but honestly if I would be a beginner I would dedicate my weekdays for scripting and coming up with video ideas and I would use my weekends to film the video like I would probably use Saturday to film it and on Sunday I will edit the videos now let's talk about thumbnails even with like 1. 4 million subscribers till this day I literally made 99% of my thumbnails on kenva because I personally don't know Photoshop and I don't need to if I have a thumbnail concept that is like quite difficult to make then I just hire free lers here and there but that's just like probably 1% of my thumbnails that I have made so far so the secret is not not really in fancy editing or like photoshops but it's in the psychology of what makes people click here's what I learned from my most successful thumbnails first notice how I use a very specific thumbnail Formula One is clear main text okay sometimes I do also no text but I add text if only it enhances and makes the viewer easier to understand what the video is about for example in thumbnails like never forget and nobody tells you about this I use high contrast text that's like instantly remarkable the key here is making it feel like a secret being revealed or a powerful statement basically second important element is visual Simplicity look at the $7,500 per week thumbnail like I don't really overcrowd it one clear message one strong image and some like strategic use props like the money to support the story and Visually tell what the video is about third factor is emotional expression in each thumbnail my face even though if people say that I have the I have a poker face it actually like kind of highlights and matches the emotion of the video for the focus video I look scattered among objects and for the language learning one I look more confident and authorative in my opinion even though most people say that I just look like a poker face I think they're different so here's my actual process when it comes to creating High performing thumbnails first start with your story hook what is the biggest transformation in your video what is most Rising insight about your video what's the end result people want these are the three important questions that you need to answer and then you start creating visual contrast for numbers videos you know I show clear pictures like let's say 7500 or top 1% and for transformation videos I use like before and after elements and for method videos I use step indicators like 1 2 3 4 5 6 around here another one is using psychological tricklers so like curiosity gaps like nobody else tells you this is a curiosity gap or authority markers like showing subscriber counts view numbers just like this video or like results and proof like the analytical like screenshots that I had on the YouTube video and here's what I think what makes what people get wrong they try to make their thumbnails pretty instead make them intriguing you know notice how my successful thumbnails like let's say 79k or something often just have like two main elements a clear statement of value and an image that builds curiosity that is the way that I think about it like value and curiosity those two elements because a good thumbnail should make someone people feel like oh I need to know what this video is about in less than a second because usually people don't even read the title so the thumbnail should like instantly tell what the value could be about the video that's why I like personally use Simple backgrounds and bold text and clear value proposition for every single thumbnail and it's easy to create easy to remember easy to give a value a proposition and overall I don't think there's like a need to complicate things and a bonus tip from my million viewed video when you include a number like specific results on a thumbnail like a 10K per month or 45. 3 million views make them specific and believable for example like even instead of titling it 10,000 I would make it like more precise figures like 7500 or the exact number that I have to make it more believable because most people are probably not believing in you let's talk about Outsourcing because this is where like I think many creators get stuck they either Outsource too early or and waste money or they wait too long and burn out they hire someone too early and waste money because they're not really clear about what they're doing and you have to avoid that you first need to know which direction you're going with your YouTube channel and once you're fine with it start creating content and Outsource it if you can like if you have a lot of money to burn I think you can Outsource whenever you want for a general reference I think there is a right time and a right way to Outsource first you should consider Outsourcing editing when your channel is generating enough Revenue to reinvest or two you have a clear repeatable editing style that you can explain to others or you're constantly getting enough use justify the investment basically you know if you have a lot of budget that you can burn sure you can Outsource from the beginning but the thing is that good editors aren't cheap and there's a reason for that because a good editor can cost like a minimum $100 for you usually around $250 $300 per video for Quality editing you know if you don't have a Clear Vision in a direction you're going with your channel investing $300 per video and if you're posing four times that's like 1,200 I'm sure some of you guys are fine with that investment but I feel like most people are not really that fine with spending and investing on something that they're not really sure yet but if you're already know the direction that you want to go and your channel is starting to grow then this investment of like hiring an editor can help you focus on what really grows your channel creating great content and connecting with your audience and spending more time on learning about the other stles of content creation but either way remember Value First polish later because if you don't have the clear value proposition even if your video is like super edited very nicely the potential success rate that you can have is much lower than having a valuable content that has minimal editing the reason is because your audience cares more about what you bring to table than how fancy your transitions look unless you are a film making Creator let's talk about realistic planning because this is where most people mess up including me because let me be honest with you like I got a notification a week ago that I only uploaded 20 videos in the last 12 months and it really hurt my channel growth why did this happen because I set an expectation to myself without actually knowing if I could sustain it okay it just literally comes down to that obviously I'm also a lazy person but I finally found a way to overcome that here's what I want you to do first time how long it actually takes you to make one complete video and I mean everything like from brainstorming to final export and if making one video takes you 10 hours and you only have 5 hours available per week looking at one video every two weeks not every single week okay and that's completely fine okay trying to keep up with an unrealistic schedule let me to burn out and become inconsistent so your videos would rather get a one solid video every 2 weeks than watch you disappear for months because you burn out just like I did so use your 1 hour per day strategically and have a clear expectation of how often you will post break down those 10 hours into small manageable chunks you know it could be like maybe Monday is a research day Tuesday is a scripting day Wednesday is a filming day and Thursday is like an editing day and Friday is an idea generation day whatever that is have an realistic expectation now everything I've shared so far is just the beginning because these strategies helped me to grow from 0 to 1 million subscribers and they can work for you too but I know you might be thinking this all sounds great but how do I actually implement it that's exactly why I actually created my coaching SL Community is where I basically show you step by step how to grow your channel and not only I teach you like on a course or anything like that will work together on your video ideas titles thumbnails your strategy together like literally you and I and we align your vision towards that I will personally give feedback on your strategy and help you grow your YouTube channel so if you're interested in working directly with me check the link in description for more details and if you're not ready yet sign up for my free 7-Day email newsletters to learn actionable strategies to grow on YouTube it's completely free check it out let's talk about branding and I'm going to say give you lots of time on this okay when I first started my channel I spent way too much time obsessing over my logo my intro I had like a crazy intro you know good all days all that fancy stuff complete waste of time complete waste of time don't waste your time on that okay here's what actually matters in the beginning first speak to your car message do you remember the mission statement that we created like I help this this kind of people that is your foundation okay second keep your visual simple but consistent you know you can pick two colors you like use the same same font keep your thumbnails following a similar style I'm not saying like do the same thumbnail every single day but if you look at my thumbnails they have a similar style and similar like color tones that's it literally that's it the rest focus on delivering of volum because you don't have that much time if you only have 1 hour per day we have to dedicate that to the most important T that is going to move to needle so focus on delivering value because that's what builds trust with your audience like look at my early videos versus now my branding has evolved and naturally as a channel group you know your brand will change over time anyway and you don't need everything perfect on day one just start with the most critical ones so you can grow your channel and as you grow your channel and make money out from it then you can Outsource other parts of it and improve it start simple stay consistent and let your brand grow with your time also last mindset thing let's talk about this work smarter not harder okay because I used to think more hours I spent on a video made better videos totally wrong completely wrong I remember like even now I had a video where I spend like 2 three weeks it was one of the worst performing videos that I posted in a long time and there's also like a different video of mine that I literally filmed at like 5:00 a.
m. in like 1 hour and it has like 500k or 600k views why is that because the value was pretty clear in that video I want you to be very strategic about how you use your time block out one specific hour every day whether it's 6:00 a. m.
before work if you are a morning person or maybe 8:00 p. m. after dinner and commit to it okay a focused hour beats random bursts of work any day if you can say like 900 p.
m.
