How to Start and Scale Your YouTube Channel (to 500k+)

if you've ever wanted to start or scale a YouTube channel then this video was made for you this channel recently hit 500,000 subscribers which is half a million people which actually blows my

mind and starting this YouTube channel has totally changed my life in so many unbelievable ways but the weirdest bit is I almost didn't do it there's actually a huge amount that goes into

actually launching and then growing a successful YouTube channel so in this video I'm going to go through all the gems of advice that I wish that I had had at the start to hopefully make your own YouTube Journey a little less confusing or overwhelming and give you

that sense of clear intention and a road map to success starting a YouTube channel allows you to share your voice have an impact connect with millions of people all over the world and maybe even

make a little bit of money while doing it wouldn't that be nice if you're new here my name is Izzy I'm a Cambridge graduate and a doctor and I started this YouTube channel just over two years ago while I was still in medical school

making videos alongside my medical degree and then working as a doctor I've also very excitingly started a newsletter so if you're interested in hearing more updates or interesting things from me you know where to find it

I'll break everything down into three main categories and while you're watching this video just have a think about how you could practically apply any of these tips because actually the most important thing that I want you to

take away from this video is to actually take action it's all good and well watching videos and tutorials about how to do this side hustle how to start a YouTube channel how to learn a language

but without actually taking these into our real lives and taking action they're not going to do anything for us so get ready to take action and let's get into the video the three parts will be

defining your creative craft executing beautiful production value and finally playing the spiritual game part one defining your creative craft the first overarching thing that you want to think

about is this whole spectrum of business versus hobby when we're thinking about our YouTube channels it's important that we know what our intention is for the channel and setting those intentions and regularly checking in on them there's a

whole Spectrum from creating videos just cuz you enjoy them on the hobby end you find making videos fun it doesn't really matter about the numbers or the performance or the money or the business it's more about the craft itself so

that's the hobby end all the way up to the business end where some people view their YouTube channels purely as a business proposition to make money whether that's via sponsorships or funneling in organic marketing via their

YouTube channel into another product that they have that kind of thing and most people kind of fall somewhere in the middle where you want to enjoy what you're doing and enjoy the craft but you

also want to have some kind of financial support from your channel and so I'm definitely somewhere in the middle here where I want a balance of the two but just defining this early on is really important because it completely changes

the way that you approach your YouTube channel and how you're focusing on starting and growing it if you're approaching it purely as a hobby then this video maybe isn't for you because actually you don't really need to take a

strategic approach when it comes to doing it as a hobby cuz you just do it when you feel like it you make whatever you feel like and you don't mind about the numbers on the other hand if you're someone who does want to see some growth some numbers some maybe even money

coming in from the YouTube channel then this video is more geared towards you so if you're just doing this for a hobby then make the videos that you love follow your heart and you don't need to watch this video I can save you this

time right now if you're on the other Camp then let's dive in keep watching and we'll build on your strategy the first thing that people often think about when they're starting YouTube channel is oh like what's my Niche what should I make videos about we hear this

phrase Niche down to blow up or the riches are in the niches or if you have an American accent niches which happens to rhyme way better but unless you're approaching your YouTube channel purely as a business I actually don't think

that the niche is something you need to worry about too much at the start just start making videos about topics that you enjoy fling out the ideas play around enjoy it and your Niche will gradually find you there'll be this

amazing intersection of videos that you enjoy making and about topics that you're passionate about along with an audience who actually Vibes with those videos and you will find that the next

stage of your creative craft is ideation so once you've either decided on N that you want a gun for or you've actually decided that you're going to make videos about topics that you're just interested in whatever you feel like making which

is kind of how I approach it then ideation is the next step the single thing that has helped my ideation with my YouTube channel the most is as soon as I have an idea immediately writing it

down because as much as you think oh this is such a fantastic idea there's no way I'm going to forget this let's be honest you probably will if I have a thought even in the shower I will

literally come out of the shower and write down a note on my phone or some maybe even dictate it to Siri to take a note and one quote that I think is so applicable to the ideation phase is you

must not judge any thought or idea that appears in your mind this is a Matthew dicks quote from his book story worthy just write out all the ideas don't start to judge them yet just get out all the ideas and then once you you have your

ideas you can sit down and select the best ones for the next stage of the video process both your Niche and also your brand and also your aesthetic your Vibe will begin to emerge naturally over

time and I find that this is a way more enjoyable way to approach YouTube and now we're getting to the good bit which is the engagement engine so in the

engagement engine we are working on the two most important things when it comes to absolutely blowing up on YouTube and going to the moon and these things are clickthrough rate and watch time if you

can get people to click on your video and then watch all the way to the end of your video then you are on to an absolutely magical recipe and you're going to absolutely win at YouTube

immediately the algorithm will pick it up and like that you're on the moon or maybe Mars or Saturn or Jupiter or something like that so the engagement engine is how we can hopefully move

towards those two things how to craft amazing videos that grab people's attention and deliver amazing value the first most important thing when any anybody sees your video is the TNT the

title and the thumbnail this is what will earn the click or lose the click because if nobody Clicks in your video nobody's going to see the amazing content and the amazing video that you

put so much work into and all the stuff that you shared in that video so it's really worth thinking about the title and thumbnail maybe even before you film the video or before you script the video

right after the TNT is the hook of the video which is the first 10 to 30 seconds of the video and this is where you need to show the viewer that the video they've clicked on is actually the video that they want to watch and it either has the value or the

entertainment or the kind of interest that they want to see for these first few bits of the title thumbnail and the hook there are a few things that you can think about in order to make an absolutely banging TNT and hook but a couple of things that come to mind

include creating open loops and a curiosity Gap essentially where the title and thumbnail or the hook raises some kind of question in the viewer's mind and they're like oh I wonder what the answer to that is and your video is

going to answer that so then people are like oh okay if I click on this then I'm going to learn more about what this person's talking about and I'm going to get the value of what is the answer to my question and actually the reason why

we love fun facts so much is because we are naturally geared towards loving a level of learning where we think oh these are cool things this is an interesting question I want to know the answer another way that you can do this

is by establishing value so are you going to deliver some massive value to your audience are you going to help them with maybe their studying or learning a language or starting a YouTube channel are you going to give them information

that they need or alternatively are you giving them an aesthetic and energy and entertainment think about what your video is providing and how your title thumbnail and hook can help to reflect

that and Spark that Curiosity of like oh maybe this is the video that actually I want to watch one note here is that creating clickbait is not the way because people are going to very quickly realize that if you have a clickbait

title thumbnail and hook that the rest of the video doesn't actually have the value or interest that they want and it's going to make people lose trust in you and in in this day and age integrity and having someone's trust that you're

going to actually deliver a good video that they want to watch is so important so while you want to create a tth that builds Intrigue you don't want to create one that makes false promises because

that's kind of frustrating honestly once someone's actually clicked on your video the next most important thing is the power of Storytelling ever since anatomically modern humans evolved

around 200,000 years ago stories have been the lifeblood of human connection incorporating some kind of storytelling into your videos is going to bring them to life because fundamentally when

you're watching a YouTube video you're not expecting just a bullet point list of facts you're looking for a sense of human connection to the Creator along with some important facts that they can share with you or maybe some kind of

entertainment or some kind of experience depends on what kind of video it is obviously a book that has a big impact on how I view storytelling is story worthy by Matthew dicks and there's a particular quote that I'd like to share

with you which I found really impactful your story must reflect change over time a story cannot simply be a series of remarkable events you must start out as one version of yourself and end as

something new everywhere in movies TV shows books there's always this sense of a hero's Arc if you look hard enough the hero starts out and sets out on the Journey of some kind of Discovery or

transformation or some kind of mission and then they go through challenges and difficulty before finally reaching some kind of Turning Point and either achieving a transform or some kind of

goal or some kind of lesson in your videos try to share something of yourself in stories because this can resonate so much more deeply the next step is building the mode essentially

what are your videos bringing that other people can't bring in their videos if you're just starting out then this isn't something really to worry about just worry about making the next video and getting good at making videos but once

you've established a little bit more you need to think about what can you deliver uniquely that other people can't and this ties in very strongly with competitive advantages every single person on this planet has a competitive

advantage in some way that they can leverage on YouTube it's about finding out what these are recognizing them and then learning to leverage them for example if I were to try to make a video

about how to be a carpenter I'm not a carpenter I don't know very much about carpentry it's going to be a struggle I don't really have any competitive advantages in that space But on the other hand if I want to

make videos about language learning I'm currently self-studying Larin and I'm actually also making a on it on the complete method of how you can selfstudy Mandarin check out the link down below if you're interested in free discounts

or worksheets from it so that means if I'm trying to make a video about how to self-study Mandarin actually a much better place to make that because I already have some understanding of the space and I can talk about it with

conviction and with actual real value another way to build the moat around your content is to share your personality try to learn to relax in front of the camera and share a bit of

your unique self because nobody can be you you are unique and you have a unique voice that has value to share with the world so by learning to project that and share that with your audience that's really difficult to imitate because if

someone else were to imitate that they wouldn't be being authentic to them so share your authentic self and the final thing in building the Moe is effort perception if a video or a channel seems

to have more effort going into it often that is enticing or interesting in some way so for example if I made a video about meditation I was like I meditated

for one day my experience versus I meditated for 700 days my experience which one of these are you more likely to be interested in hearing about and obviously it's still one with

700 days because you're like oh my goodness she spent 700 days meditating what did she learn that's crazy and also in order to actually be able to make that video and actually spend 700 days meditating that is a moat where if

anyone wants to make a similar video they would have to go through that experience and put in the work equally with research as well if you've done loads of research into a video and spent if I told you let's say I spent 10

minutes preparing for this video versus I spent 50 hours preparing for this video to teach you how to be a successful part-time YouTuber then that's a completely different feeling

there's actually a huge amount more to this and near the start of my journey as a confused beginner I actually took the part-time YouTuber Academy course which was a much deeper dive on exactly how to

be a successful part-time YouTuber alongside some kind of day job especially for educational talking head videos like most of my videos like this video all of the information in the course is available scattered across the

internet in videos like these and people sharing their experiences on YouTube and you can definitely definitely learn that way PTY just saved me a lot of time and confusion by distilling down coherently

all of the core information in one place in a slightly surreal full circle kind of moment I'm now actually a guest instructor for PTY and have a session

diving deeper into my exact workflow and how I think about YouTube if you're interested in checking out PTY I will leave a link Down Below in the description part two of this video is executing beautiful production value

this encompasses all the technical skills that you need to beautifully actually execute on your video ideas and bring your creative ideas to life I'm going to separate this into hardware and

software so firstly in the hardware section people often wonder about what kind of gear to use what kind of camera microphone lighting do they need a gimbal do they need a slider do they need all of this kind of stuff let's

keep it really simple while we're just starting out the only thing that you need to start your YouTube channel is your phone it's got a camera and a microphone and that's literally all you need because you can get natural

lighting from a bright window and so you literally have no excuse to not start your YouTube channel and gear will not hold you back so if you have a smartphone with a camera and I'm assuming that all phones need a

microphone in order to be actually be a phone then you have no excuses to not start your YouTube channel yes good gear makes things look better so obviously you can see I'm using not my phone I'm

using an a7c camera with the 16 to35 G Master lens currently and you can see that it kind of creates a nicer visual effect you can see the background is kind of a bit more like it's got that

depth of field vibe to it but really you don't actually need this the best camera is the camera that you have so start with what you have and then build from there the next thing is audio quality

and microphone so actually audio quality is much more important than camera quality weirdly enough which obviously is not what people immediately think when they think about YouTubers they think about big ass cameras but actually

the audio quality is going to affect your viewers experience of the video much more deeply than the video quality try to position your microphone as close to your mouth as possible so mine's right up here this is my microphone just

out of shot just boomed in overhead there are a few styles of microphones that you can get I currently use a shotgun mic I'm using one boomed in overhead but in other videos I've also used little like Bluetooth lav mic mics

that you can hold close to your mouth and the closer to your mouth you can get the microphone the better the audio quality will be there'll be less noise from the environment and also the better it will pick up your voice the third

thing is lighting and arguably this might be more important than the camera that you have the main thing with lighting is you want it to be soft usually unless you want a very harsh dramatic look for most talking head

videos you want a soft lighting which means big basically you want a big ass light that is going to be quite large and close to your face cuzz if you have

a look at these two images with exactly the same camera you can see that the video quality is dramatically different because they have different lighting So

currently I use a big LED light panel with a kind of soft box on it which provides the lighting so I've got two at the moment sometimes I only use one just depends on the setup I'll add a link

below to my notion page which has all of the gear that I recommend at for different budget levels next is the software side so after I have filmed a video with the setup then I upload it to

Google Drive where then my editor helps to edit the video and then they upload it onto a website called frame.io which is a really great platform for leaving video comments on because it allows you

to leave comments on specific timestamps then in the video editing itself there is a lot of stuff that you can do to make your video more engaging the editor that I personally used to use before was de Vinci resolve which is absolutely

free other ones which are paid so depending on your budget are Premier probe and Final Cup Pro and there's a bunch of others out there that are also pretty good cap cut I've heard is reasonable especially for shorts a few

quick fire tips for video editing make the a cut really tight cut out any Paws cut out any Ms and rs get those right out of the video because they're kind of boring they're kind of a waste of time unless they're adding directly to the energy of the video and the story that

you're trying to get across two is to make sure things are happening on screen things called pattern interrupts every 7 to 10 seconds on screen gives your video more visual appeal so whether that's

text on screen or images or showing your cup or being like okay look at my mug this is a cool mug rather than just talking about my mug I like bring it out and show it to you or using broll those

kinds of things add more visual depth to your videos because video is inherently Visual and also auditory so make use of both other software that I would recommend is thumbnail tests which is

for AB testing thumbnails and titles for your videos which basically means that you can display an alternating thumbnail for the same video and it will collect data on that from YouTube studio and then

tell you which thumbnail is better performing or more interesting people are clicking on more Etc one of the most important things in editing is the vibe to support the storytelling support what

you're talking about and the most powerful way to do this is through music this is why epidemic sound has literally been my go-to for music and in something of a pinch me moment they are very

kindly sponsoring this video and if anyone asks me who I recommend for royalty-free music for creators it's always epidemic sound they are my absolute go-to for for an amazing selection of royalty-free Music I've

absolutely loved using their music service for so long now they own 100% of their music that means that you'll never get a copyright claim for any of the music that they have in their catalog

their catalog is I think over 40,000 music tracks over 990,000 sound effects they're adding more every single week they also have a really good affiliate program for creators there are two plans there's the personal plan

which is perfect if you're a Creator and there's also the commercial plan which is perfect for Freelancers agencies and businesses if you're using the music for multiple channels and also in clients content you can sign up for either the

personal or the commercial plan down below and you'll get a free trial with the link down below any videos or content that you create during your trial will be safe and protected from any claims even if you cancel right

after the trial give it a go I highly highly recommend it the next thing is camera confidence and presentation a lot of people struggle with talking to the camera and I definitely did at the start

I found it so unnatural I was so like tight and awkward and in front of the camera and I hated watching myself on camera but it does get better with practice like anything this is a skill

this is a muscle that you can exercise and work over time and develop your voice try to imagine like you're talking to a friend or a family member somebody that you know well and try as much as

you can to relax in front of the camera remember that you have total control over the Final Cut and whether or not it gets published so just take a deep belly

breath and just relax and let the words flow freely one thing that I would say is it's really important to look into the lens directly rather than at the viewfinder so I'm talking into the lens right now which makes it feel more like

I'm actually talking to you and now I'm looking at the viewfinder and you can see that this is something that a lot of people including me would do at the start of their YouTube Journeys and make this mistake of looking into the viewfinder and then in the edit I'd be

like oh my goodness I've been looking into the wrong place the whole video and so then i' have to reshoot the video so to save you the stress of that look into the camera look please look into the lens and create this feeling and even

though you're staring into this black hole of the lens it is worth it because it gives this feeling that you're actually looking directly at the person that you're speaking to rather than looking off somewhere to the side and not really talking directly to them the

next thing is thinking about your filming setup the background is important to an extent and so think about things like lights that you could put in the background or plants or like a YouTube plaque or Sammy the seal

things like this in the background add a certain vibe to the video and figuring out what you want behind you is part of the video the third and potentially most

important part of this video is playing the spiritual game of YouTube all of the psychological skills that you will need to succeed one quote that really feels alive when it comes to this is that

business is a spiritual game and in the same way having a creative business such as a YouTube channel where as long as you're not all the way on the hobby end and you are slightly approaching it with certain elements of business and

entrepreneurialism being an entrepreneurial Creator is the ultimate spiritual game as there will be hurdles at every single stage there are four horsemen of emotions that very commonly get in the way of us creators actually

creating so let's go through each of them and figure out how we can beat these guys the first one is fear this includes fear of judgment fear of making a fool of yourself fear of failure fear

of what are all my friends and family going to think and say there's a psychological effect known as the spotlight effect which is where we almost have Spotlight on our own lives and see all the things in it with such

detail and are watching our own lives so carefully and we think everyone else is also looking at us and scrutinizing our lives but realistically most of the time they're really not and they're focused on their own lives they're so busy

worrying about their own stuff and their own life that they're not really thinking about you if you've heard that your friend started a YouTube channel my thought would probably be like oh cool that's nice and then move on and

actually their opinion of me is probably going to be the same they're probably going to I think oh okay cool and then move on it's probably no big deal to them and we just create and blow up this thing in our heads which often is an ere

exaggeration in our own mind no one who has achieved something so whether that's a successful YouTube channel or a successful business or some kind of success in a career is going to talk

badly of somebody who is trying and beginning and learning how to do the thing so for example a successful YouTuber is never going to talk badly of a beginner in YouTube who's starting out and just launching their Channel a

successful business owner or entrepreneur they are not going to talk badly of somebody who is hustling and trying to start their very first business obviously making lots of mistakes along the way but learning

those lessons and trying hard equally a successful consultant doctor physician they're not going to talk badly about a medical student who's learning the basics of anatomy and trying to study

medicine the only people who are going to potentially talk badly of you are people who either have failed at the thing you're trying to do or they don't have the guts to to do it so for me when I started my YouTube channel most people

were actually really surprisingly supportive but there of course were a few people that I heard about talking about me and talking about my YouTube channel or like laughing about it and this absolutely felt really bad and hurt

me at the time but I'm so glad that I kept going with it and didn't listen to those voices because funnily enough one of the people who was actually talking badly about my YouTube channel they had actually tried to start their own

YouTube channel a year earlier but then given up on it and then when I finally became successful they didn't really have that much to laugh about anymore so just remember if someone's trying to discourage you or talk badly about you

pursuing your dream your business your YouTube channel Etc it says more about them than it does about you they're not on the same path as you you're on a different path you have chosen a different path to them the moment you

decide to start your YouTube channel where you are creating your dream life Brick by Brick step by step a journey of a Thousand Miles begins with a single step you are taking those steps and they probably aren't because if they were

they would be in the ring with you they would be cheering on with you or if they had a sucess successful YouTube channel they would see you and see themselves in your struggle they would see you and see oh I remember what it felt like to

struggle and start my YouTube channel I remember so clearly all of the feelings that I had when I started my YouTube channel I'm feeling kind of emotional talking about it because it was hard and pushing through was a challenge and

that's why I see this as a spiritual game with content creation you are creating videos sharing a piece of yourself and you're also including elements of business elements of Outsourcing growing a team figuring out

how to learn all skills and manage all these things and manage yourself another fear that we often have is fear of failure it's scary to do something put yourself out there when you know that you could fail ultimately pushing

ourselves outside our comfort zone into the Zone where we know we could fail on the edge of our ability is the only place where we can really challenge ourselves to level up if you start your YouTube channel and keep making videos

for 1 to 2 years your life is absolutely going to change you're going to learn skills that you never thought that you could have you're going to connect with people that you never thought that you would and you're going to learn how to share your voice and whether or not your

YouTube channel blows up and ends up with millions of subscribers or if it doesn't blow up massively you're still going to change your life you are taking those strides forward and learning new

skills that are going to honestly transform your life there is no single Shire method for Success on YouTube it is a game of luck but also hustle and also competitive advantages all mixed

into one so you can't know if your channel is going to succeed in the metric sense but I can say that if you make videos consistently for 1 to two years the skills and the transformation

that you will experience on a personal level will totally change your life the next emotional hurdle is perfectionism I struggle so much with this where I want my work to be perfect I want my videos to be something I'm really proud of but

when you're starting on YouTube it's so difficult to create a video that you're truly wholly proud of and so letting go of this idea of perfectionism is so important because ultimately perfect is

the enemy of good if I tried to only release a video when it was perfect I wouldn't have a YouTube channel I wouldn't be sitting here right now talking to you about how to do YouTube because I would never have started cuz I would never have been able to make a

perfect video as my first video think about what's the MVP so MVP stands for minimum viable product it's a concept in business and startups where you think okay what's the minimum for a product or

a video that I need in order to launch it when you're just starting what is my MVP for a video can I just launch this can I just turn on the camera and talk to it as the first step and is that good

enough to upload as my first video I think yes honestly cuz remember that at the start no one's really going to be watching your channel it's going to be a long time probably until you start to

gain traction on YouTube if you follow the trajectory of most creators obviously there's some people like James Johnny who release an absolute Banger Netflix style documentary about something and that blows up but for the

majority of creators myself included many others included you'll make so many videos before you actually start to gain traction so remember that even if your video is bad or you think it's bad firstly not many people are going to

watch it and secondly you're going to improve with every single video that you make iterate and improve every single time you make a video make something better every single time you make a video think about a way that you can

make it better launch ugly launch before you're ready and when your video making skills are still kind of diamond in the rough you're going to get there I promised you you're going to get there if you just keep putting in the practice

and the work and keep trying to improve the next thing is impostor syndrome often we feel like we aren't the right people to be talking about a specific topic we feel like oh like who am I to start a YouTube channel who am I to make

a video talking about how to do YouTube tips like for me I could say well who am I to make this video because I've only got 500,000 subscribers Mr Beast has like 100 100 million plus like he's got

so many subscribers who am I to make this video but actually fundamentally every single person has something to share and you have your own voice and the point of a YouTube channel is it's your space to share the things that

you're interested about people who want to hear from you and want to hear from your perspective they'll come and find you and they will watch your videos and learn from it and Gain real value from it and connection if someone doesn't

think that you're qualified enough to make a video about the topic that's fine they just won't watch it it's not a problem you are the exact right person to share your experience and your knowledge with the world I have to

remind myself of this so often because I so so often feel this sense of imposter syndrome where I'm like oh why would why would people want to hear from me why would people want to watch my videos I don't really think it's that interesting

but clearly people do and I get messages every day by email or DM of people who say that my videos have changed their life and I'm like oh wow that's amazing the final thing is having a lack of

inspiration a lack of passion motivation it's easy to feel uninspired to make a video and I think that's quite a natural feeling sometimes this comes back to Our intention for YouTube what what was your

intention when you set out for this is this a hobby or is it a business if it's on the hobby end if you don't feel inspired to make a video you don't have to if it's a pure business decision then

if you don't feel like making a video you might have to approach it like a business decision do I need to make this video if you're somewhere in the middle then there's a balancing act there but one thing I will say is that there's

this cycle of coercion and productivity guilt that can so easily be fallen into when it comes to this I definitely have where sometimes I'll feel oh I don't

really feel like filming a video but I should film a video I need to film a video in order to keep posting on the channel and then I force myself to film

a video then I find it less fun to film a video next time and it becomes harder so one thing I will say is that finding the joy in the process is so important one thing that can help to spark

inspiration is actively trying to do things that inspire you so whether that's going to a museum so I love going to the British museum I love going to art galleries like the Tate modern in

London or reading a magazine or watching an interesting movie or journaling some of these things can help to spark your motivation and inspiration But ultimately for me I found that it's

important to follow my energy and listen to my intuition because making this into an unenjoyable thing is really not the point for me for me it's in the middle bit of a hobby bit of a business

somewhere nicely in the middle something I have realized which I wish that I knew at the start is that the single biggest existential risk to your YouTube channel or to your future YouTube channel is you

not enjoying the process it's me not wanting to film a video that is the biggest threat to my YouTube channel is me hating the process so to make myself love it I need to learn to follow my

energy and listen to my intuition and find inspiration actively okay so now I'm going to answer some questions over on Instagram feel free to follow me over there I post random things about my life

and also q&as and things like this so a question from Ruben gber did you ever feel like giving up at the start yes when I first started there

wasn't that much traction on my videos it was a very slow kind of trickle of views and it was hard honestly it was really hard every single stage was hard learning to sit in front of my camera

and talk to it was hard learning to set up a good filming background was hard learning how to have good production value was hard learning all the emotional skills was hard and also figuring out what I was making videos about how to make a good video video

editing skills all of this and I felt like giving up at several stages I think at one point as well I got into this cycle of coercion and productivity guilt

around my channel and I learned to let go of that over time but it's definitely an ongoing process once my channel started to gain traction it was easier to stay motivated cuz I was like okay actually there's someone watching my

videos because when nobody's watching your videos and you're putting so much effort into making them it's like oh that feels kind of sad it's like oh I spent 10 hours 12 hours making this video and now nobody's watching it that

feels bad and that almost made me give up but I'm so glad that I stuck it through because actually some of those first few videos which initially only got maybe a few hundred views now they've blown up and they have hundreds

of thousands or even like millions of views and it's a lot of it is about having patience and faith in the process that you are taking one step at a time towards building your dream life crazy

stock news is asking can I use a gaming headset to record audio or do I need an expensive looking podcast mic you can use any microphone that you have you don't need an expensive podcast

microphone to get started you can literally I know some creators who they they literally use their iPhone so they just record a voice note on their iPhone like this and the audio quality on iPhone is actually pretty good and you

can use your gaming headset one thing I would say is just think about how the aesthetic looks as well whether it has to be in shot or you have to be wearing it but literally the best gear that you

have is the gear that you have access to Mar is asking hi Izzy how do you get ideas for your videos I get ideas whenever I have a spark of inspiration or there's something interesting that I

think would be a cool video topic I also often ask on Instagram what kind of videos you want to see on a little Q&A box on Instagram uh and you help me out so much when you come up with suggestions for that that's how how did

you learn all of this I learned all of this via the Internet so via blog posts via YouTube videos kind of a bit like this one via PTY which is the part time YouTube Academy course which I'll link

down below um and then iterating over time really just learning by doing every single time I'd make a video and I might get stuck on a point then I'd be like okay how can I how can I fix this okay

I'm going to Google it or I'm going to search on YouTube or I'm going to ask one of my creative friends who I linked up with via the part-time YouTuber Academy and so it's a very gradual process where you build on your craft

how much did you invest in Hardware camera and others before starting before starting I bought a microphone because a microphone is the most important piece of gear that you can get it is the

single first thing that you should get after as long as you have a reasonable iPhone camera and some kind of lighting whether that's natural lighting so I think the microphone that I bought I bought quite a nice one because I wanted

it to be able to last me so it was around £200 it was the Road video mic ntg I'll link this down below in the notion uh guide to all the gear for different budgets fundamentally though

if you have an iPhone you really don't need to invest anything else if you or even just any other smartphone so Samsung or any other brands as well as long as they have a camera and a

microphone you're good to go how did you get the confidence to believe you were in a position to give advice this is a great question kind of touches on this whole impostor syndrome thing and I'm actually going to make a video about how

to build quiet strong deep confidence so stay tuned for that video because I think that ties into this very much do you recommend starting with the parttime YouTuber at Academy like you did or is

it not necessary so so I absolutely think you can learn everything that you need to start a YouTube channel for free on the internet 100% you can watch videos like these I also have another video that I made about this and lots of

other creators have fantastic videos like this blog posts as well the thing with PTY is it distills everything down to save you time and confusion because there's a lot of noise out there and

lots of conflicting opinions so if you want to make great talking head educational Style videos or kind of kind of videos like this then PT way is a

really good distillation of all the cool things you need to save you all that time it also brings together a community of creators and has a lot of support along the way what can be a good motivation to make YouTube videos in the

long term I love this question fundamentally for me I found that when my motivation for YouTube was to grow the channel that actually felt really Hollow what feels really alive to me is

making videos that provide value to other people that can actually serve and share knowledge because that feels so much more exciting and purposeful so for

me I always connect to that sense of service in my videos and how can I share what I know in the best way obviously the growth side of it is important too because that adds to the sense of impact

and I would say that for you if you're trying to figure out how to stay motivated have a little journaling session of actually like why are you doing YouTube what's your intention with this is a is it a hobby is it a business

is it somewhere in the middle and try to find something that feels alive for you and then come back to that each time another question collab with Mr Beast go on

then we've got such different content I can't even imagine what that would look like but I mean I'd be down but he's he's not going to be down is he another

question is what content am I planning to make videos of this is always evolving over time I'm planning to make some more videos about how to do YouTube about my workflow people seem to ask loads of questions about this and be

super curious about it also about language learning specifically Mandarin and more videos about personal development and how we can integrate that into our lives health and well-being is also a huge topic to me

obviously as a doctor this is a massive topic and anything else that really feels alive always open to suggestions from you guys so let me know down below if you have any suggestions for video

ideas how many subscribers does it take to start making money from YouTube and what decides the amount of money we can make views or subs or ads Etc thank you so much so the requirement to join the

YouTube Partner program which is how you can make money from AdSense is you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the last 365 days on your channel and

then you can join the YouTube Partner program so I reached this requirement in I think March 2022 and started making a couple of pennies a day um from my YouTube videos

which was kind of fun it's like oh cool a couple of pennies a day it can pay for I don't know a coffee a week um but this obviously increases over time time with more watch hours and the way that it's

determined is a combination of something called CPM which is cost per Mill SL RPM which is revenue per Mill which basically means how much YouTube will pay you per thousand views this is based

on your audience demographics primarily so their age and where they're based geographically and it also depends on how many views you have and how much watch duration you have I'm just talking about AdSense here you can even get

sponsorship deals before you have reached 1,000 subscribers when you only have a few hundred views on your videos if you have a really good fit with a brand do you get recognized at work or

out and about so yes I do get recognized when out and about so either at the hospital I've been recognized by some medical students or some like other healthc Care staff or like doctors

nurses in museums or in restaurants around the place I've also been recognized it's really sweet when someone comes up to me and is really nice about my channel it's very heartwarming how much value do you place

on expanding your audience versus putting out what you want to make such a good question I think of it in terms of a mix of some kind of browse content which is designed to be picked up by the algorithm a bit more interesting for a

wider audience and some Community content which is stuff that I want to make stuff that you guys or my audience are more interested in actually seeing uh so things like what's in my bag or

like a Reflections video or a Q&A versus a browse video which is more like how to learn Mandarin faster and smarter is more of a kind of brow Style video so I kind of have a balance of these two

things and I think it's nice to feel like you can make what you want but with a spin that makes it interesting to a broader audience fundamentally if you're not enjoying making a video and it's not

what you want to make that's going to come across in the video in some kind of undertone and people can sense that so it's important that you're making stuff that you actually Vibe with oh there

some really cute comments here from Cole yesterday watched your video about being productive that's why I followed you keep going love heart that's very sweet knowing what you know now if you had to

restart your content create a brand would you start with only YouTube or another social media app like Tik Tok or a combination of others I actually would start with YouTube still I feel like YouTube is an amazing platform where you

can share longer form stuff I find Tik Tok or reals or shorts to be well very short so it's hard to really get into any depth in that kind of video they're

good for little clips and little Snippets of stuff but there's something about a long form video which really allows you to go deeper nearly Anna is asking how do you cope with feeling

burnt out and being a Creator and having a schedule this is so difficult and again comes back to this cycle of coercion and guilt what's important here is to sometimes go easy on yourself

recognize that you need time for rest and recuperation in order to refill the well which is where you draw your creativity from and where you draw the value that you share in your videos from

so what I find helpful is instead of having an output goal of I must make a video this week I have an input goal of today I will dedicate to working on YouTube stuff and then I see how my

energy feels see if I feel ready to make a video see how much research a video needs for it to feel good again it's also about lowering the bar and being like actually I can just make a video where I talk from the heart with a few

bullet points there are some videos on my Channel that I have made totally unscripted some have had a very involved script and a very involved pre-production but equally some have had no preparation I just turned on the

camera and started talking so just remembering that actually we can lower the bar for ourselves and also we don't have to hold ourselves to a really really strict schedule unless that's something that feels like it works fast

so I hope this video has been helpful or interesting in some kind of way again if you're interested in checking out epidemic sound I'll leave a link down below where you can get a free trial and also I'll leave a link to the part-time

YouTuber Academy in case you're interested in checking that out as well if you enjoyed this video I think you're going like this one over here where we go into more depth on the exact YouTube

workflow that you can use to systematize and strategically run your YouTube channel alongside maybe a day job thank you so much for watching as always take

care of yourself and I will see you in the next video bye