5 Inspiring Podcast Episodes to Get You Amped for Success on YouTube – Smart Passive Income

Starting and growing a YouTube channel can be incredibly overwhelming and confusing. But if you get it right, it can also be incredibly rewarding.

Here are 5 episodes from the archives of the Smart Passive Income Podcast that’ll show you what’s possible on YouTube, whether you’re an online video veteran or thinking of starting your own channel. Learn from these YouTube pros—in their own words—some of the unexpected keys to their success.

1. From Med Student to Passive Income—Ali Abdaal’s Incredible Success Story & YouTube Tips (SPI 503)

Ali is a doctor who’s also a YouTube star in the making. He joins Pat to share his story and what he’s learned about nailing it on YouTube, including how to build relationships, staying sane in a sea of snarky comments, and the importance of B-roll.

Ali’s Key Insight for YouTubers

One of the crucial ingredients in Ali’s recipe for success? Learning on the job, and getting his lousy first videos out of the way as quickly as possible:

Your first 50 videos are going to be absolutely terrible, and so the sooner you can make those first 50 videos, the better you’ll get.

Ali Abdaal, Ali Abdaal

2. How Powerhouse YouTuber Marques Brownlee (AKA MKBHD) Grew His Massive Brand (SPI 352)

Marques Brownlee is an absolute maven when it comes to YouTube. Along with great advice on everything from creating collaboration videos to a successful mindset, Marques breaks down what it’s like to build a team, how he manages his production workflow, and how to create the kind of following he’s built—we’re talking 15 million plus.

Marques’ Key Insight for YouTubers

Part of the reason Marques was able to create such a world-beating channel is that he didn’t go in with the goal of massive success—he just wanted to create content for the love of it:

When I started, it wasn’t with the goal of making it a career, and the views per video and things like that didn’t necessarily matter. So I was able to decide, whether there were views or not, that I was going to keep making videos anyway.

Marques Brownlee, MKBHD

3. The Right Formula to Win on YouTube with Derral Eves (SPI 459)

YouTube master strategist Derral Eves breaks down his formula for success on YouTube, from researching other channels to testing titles and thumbnails, and unlocking explosive growth by mastering the algorithm.

Derral’s Key Insight for YouTubers

Derral wants YouTube creators everywhere to understand the vital importance of “recon and research”—diving deep to find the trends and video-making tactics that will help your videos perform better:

Probably one of the most underutilized things for content creators, is they just create, and they don’t really research a little bit to see what trends are out there. And they miss opportunities all the time.

Derral Eves, Derral Eves

4. How to Build a YouTube Brand that Makes an Impact with Tim Schmoyer (SPI 368)

Tim Schmoyer has been racking up views on YouTube since he first started making videos in 2006. As he learned along the way and now teaches others, YouTube is not your normal search engine, and it requires you to think about your audience a little differently. It’s all about unlocking the power of story, and making your audience feel like the main character.

Tim’s Key Insight for YouTubers

Tim is all about videos that tell stories. He helps his clients devise powerful story-based videos by having them first answer seven guiding questions:

One, who is the character? Two, what do they want? Three, why can’t they have what they want? Four, what is at stake? Five, who or what comes along to help them? Six, how do they ultimately get what they wanted? And seven—the whole point of the story—how are they changed as a result?

Tim Schmoyer, Video Creators

5. The Story of Matt D’Avella and His Rise to YouTube Fame (SPI 447)

Matt is a master storyteller who was able to go from $97k in student loans to debt-free with a thriving YouTube channel. He explains how he found his voice in front of the camera, and his process for creating videos with tons of views.

Matt’s Key Insight for YouTubers

Matt’s simple but oh-so-important advice to all YouTubers? Be yourself.

Where I started to come into my own on YouTube was when I stopped trying to copy other people, and I started to say, ‘All right, let me lean on my strengths and what I do really well, and let me focus on that more, and also what I enjoy.” Because I didn’t really enjoy turning on the camera and trying to riff and try to come up with something great, because the final product wasn’t as exciting, and the process wasn’t as enjoyable.

Matt D’Avella, Matt D’Avella

Our Newest Course: YouTube From Scratch!

If you’ve been thinking about starting a YouTube channel but haven’t taken action yet, we’ve built a brand new course just for you: YouTube from Scratch!

YouTube from Scratch distills Pat’s video expertise into an easy-to-follow, step-by-step course. He’ll take you all the way from choosing your niche and evaluating the competition, through choosing an angle and topics for your channel, branding, publishing your first video, understanding analytics, and monetizing your channel.

If you’re ready to start publishing and monetizing on YouTube, head to SmartPassiveIncome.com/youtubefromscratch.