EXPOSING How I Gained 150,000 YouTube Subscribers in 3 months

• I have received many questions about growing my YouTube channel from 1,000 to 100,000 subscribers in under 90 days.
• In this video, I share 10 things I did and didn’t do to achieve this growth.
• Consistency is crucial, but improvement is equally important.
• Lean into who you are and provide valuable content from your unique perspective.
• Engage with your audience and be transparent in your journey.

I have received a lot of questions recently about how I grew from 1,000 subscribers to 100,000 subscribers in under 90 days.
So in this video, I'm sharing with you 10 things I did and things that I didn't do to grow on YouTube. Here we go.

Number one, the mere exposure effect.
I know you've heard of the importance of being consistent time and time again, but I'll be lying to you if I didn't include this as one of the most important factors that contributed to the growth of this channel. But many people seem to just stop here. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The first thing is being consistent.
It was during my posting twice a week for almost three months straight. That's where my channel saw its biggest growth.
But it wasn't just being consistent. Churning videos week in and week out isn't going to get you anywhere. If you aren't improving as you're going, every now and then, take a step back and reassess the direction of your channel,
reassess the quality, reassess the content and whether you need to continue plugging away if that's the direction you want to go in, or whether you should pivot.

If you want to have a look at how I started, just look at my very first video on this channel.
It's super embarrassing, but I've left it on my channel with its original thumbnail because I don't want people to come onto my channel and create a fake perception
that I've just come to YouTube and I had it all figured out. I, like everyone else, started from somewhere, and I still have a very long way to go.
So don't be disheartened if your quality isn't Mr. B standards right from the get-go.

Next up, we have lean into who you are.
In a world where everyone is trying to be like someone else who is doing well on YouTube, lean to yourself.
You want to figure out the value you can bring to other people, what value you can provide to their lives.
From that, you have the perfect foundation, and a lot of the value comes through bringing your full self.

When I first started out on YouTube, I had no intention to talk about self-development or business, and it was purely meant to be focused on property investing—UK Property investing.
It was only a couple of months ago where I brought the other side of me onto the channel. What I do for a living, my failures, my highs, my lows.
And that's where I saw things pick up. There are a lot of books and textbooks that can teach the same thing.
So differentiate yourself by infusing your personality and your perspective on things.

Next, we have provide valuable content.
People don't want you to waste their time, so don't wait for a 10-minute video. Don’t wait until the 7th minute before you provide valuable content.
You want your videos to provide the best value throughout that whole video. For me, that's what I've always tried to do.
I spent hours researching, filming, and consolidating hours of reading and research into the shortest video possible.

One of the ways to understand if you are providing valuable information is by asking yourself,
“Will I sit and watch this video?” And if the answer is no, then reassess. Ask yourself,
“How can I make this more interesting or more engaging?”

Next, we have get the audio right.
So this is where I screwed up a bit, and if you go through some of the comments in my older videos,
you will see the frustration from some of the viewers regarding the sound quality.
What I've learned is that people don't mind a not-so-great video quality, and they can sit through that.
But people do want a good audio quality. So if you want to spend some money wisely, spend it on upgrading your audio first.
It's a mistake I learned the hard way.

Get to know your audience and your community.
If you have 100 followers and you don't talk to them, you don't message them, you don't read the comments,
you'll never know what people are looking for and what they are appreciating. The replies to my comments are from me.
There's no one else. There's not a team member replying to the comments.
I'm reading every single comment, and this is a really important part of knowing your audience and understanding topics that they're looking for.

Not saying you need to agree and change everything in your video so that it makes everyone happy.
You'll never be able to make everyone happy, but sometimes they will tell you something that you can't necessarily see for yourself.
And if you're a very small channel and you've just started and you're not getting comments or feedback,
then ask your closest friends and family for feedback and then decide what you want to take on board.

Find something you care about.
The Internet can be a very distracting thing, and you might see a lot of shiny lights, shiny objects,
and decide you want to create content here and here. You want to go on the trendy page, and this video will make you go viral and grow really quickly.
But this isn't the right approach because it always comes back to what you stand for and what your audience needs from you that will provide value for them.

A lot of people seem to be going into specific niches on YouTube because it pays.
But if it's not something you truly enjoy and have a passion for and understand, then A, people will see right through it
and your energy will come through, and B, you're going to give up before you even reap the rewards and see the results.
It took me almost a year to get monetized from YouTube, and you can see how much I made in my first month of monetization through another video, which I'll link up here.
But my point is that if you don't enjoy something, then you're not going to try and overcome the challenges and obstacles that will come at you because it is a long game.
So you need to get past that initial hurdle.

Next, talking about thumbnails. Your thumbnails represent your brand, and you want them to speak for your brand.
At first glance, you'll see all my recent videos have a very similar format, similar font, and similar color scheme.
It’s so that whenever I release a video, people can automatically recognize that it's one of my videos, and it creates a sense of familiarity.

Also, when it comes to titles, you want them to be catchy, but you don't want it to be clickbait.
If it's clickbait, people are going to click off pretty quickly, and it's not going to be seen by a wide group of people.
Don't chase the money. Once an audience loses trust in you, it'll be super hard to regain that trust again.
There have been the rise and fall of countless, countless YouTubers for this reason.

As an example, I've turned down thousands and thousands worth of sponsorships because I didn't believe in the companies.
I either don't use it, or the company doesn't align with the messaging I'm trying to bring to my audience.
So if you chase the money, I truly believe your YouTube stint will be very short-lived. People will be able to see through that.

The incentives can be high, so your ethics will be tested.
But you really want to be picky with who you want to bring onto your channel and showcase and market to your audience.

Next up, we have backup what you're saying.
I think it is incredibly important to back up what you're saying and let your audience know why you are saying that.
Is it from experience? Is it from other people doing it? Have you tried it? It all ties into credibility.
I speak on my Skillshare class about how you could show credibility even more.

If someone tries to challenge something you said, if you know you've done the research, you have the facts and figures to back up what you're saying,
and you have experience to prove why you've said that thing, then it'll be a lot easier to deal even internally with any comments or any nasty comments.
I have people disagreeing with me in my comments, and actually, I really enjoy seeing their perspective.
But equally, I don't feel the need to debate because I know I've done my work, and I know why I am saying what I have said.
Whatever content or whatever information you're putting out, make sure it's coming from a place of understanding and credibility.

Finally, stop caring and start.
You're going to find enough excuses not to do that thing. When it comes to starting a YouTube channel, the number one reason why people don't do it is because they're scared of what other people will think.
If you think about it, the goal of starting a channel is that you want to impact as many people as possible and you want as many people as possible to see your videos.

So don't worry about the few hundred people that you know.
In real life, starting is hard. I was petrified when I first did it, and to this day, every time a video goes out, my heart still sinks a little bit.
But think about the opportunity cost of not starting. Say you start a channel, you work hard for a year, and you don't see returns, and you find that YouTube isn't for you, that's fine.
You would have learned a lot, and you would have picked up so many skills along the way.

But if you don't start, you will always regret that one time,
”What if I tried? What if I started that YouTube channel?”
The pain of constantly reliving the “what if” outweighs the immediate pain of when you upload your first video and what a few people you know say about it.

So just go for it.
I remember this time last year, I was on the other side watching other content creators say, “If I can do it, then you can do it as well.”
And that gave me the courage I needed to get started and inspired me, and I felt like this is possible—I can do this.
I hope that from this video, I can pass it on to people watching my video as well.

I think it's super important to be transparent about this. Openly talk about the highs, the lows, the failures, the successes.
Because being open about that doesn't take anything away from me.
So I hope you enjoyed this video. If you want to know more about monetization and how it works on YouTube,
then I also have a specific video on that, and I'll link that here for you. Thank you for watching.
Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already, and I hope to see you in one of my next videos.