Last year we hit over 1.4 million views on YouTube, which is pretty insane.

Don’t worry, this isn’t going to become a YouTube course or coaching business.
I just want to share with you some totally unbiased advice and lessons I’ve learned making YouTube our primary traffic and sales generator.
Back in 2022 I knew that I wanted to move away from coaching and into affiliate sales.
I also knew that YouTube was going to be the core driver of new traffic and leads and sales.
At the time, I had done YouTube weekly for years but never really seen massive success.
It’s a bit like being terrible at running and then entering an olympic qualification event.
But, sure enough, over time I learned how to make YouTube work for us.
I’ve spent – this is not an exaggeration – close to $100,000 on coaches, courses, consultants, contractors and other c.words to help my YouTube channel grow.
If we’ve seen any growth, or success, I’d say it’s down to three things.
- Focusing on thumbnails and titles before the video (two coaches taught me this)
- Testing thumbnail ideas and titles with a few other YouTubers (I did this myself)
- Seeing what works on my own channel and others, copying it and still experimenting (two coaches taught me this)
Everything I thought mattered, didn’t.
The quality of the camera, the style of editing, the microphone, lighting, location, video style.
I can literally pinpoint the exact moment I knew a video would do well.
I knew it’d do well despite the thumbnail and title being mediocre and having no script and using a webcam.

Russell Brunson filed to sue HighLevel and I knew it was juicy.
It was divisive, emotional, controversial.
And that’s when it all clicked and I realised that people don’t watch videos, they click on topics.
So your topic has be wrapped up (packaging is the YouTube term) in a clear exciting thumbnail and a clear exciting title.
This was the first time I knew a video would do well.
The second time was when I rejected all the thumbnail design advice I’d been given.
My friend Marc asked me “what would you click on?”
I literally drew out a basic sketch model (like the triangles on whiteboards you guys have seen me do 100 times) and said “I’d click this”.
I also designed one that was basically a screenshot of the whiteboard.
It looked like it was taken from the video. You know, how YouTube screengrabs a random frame to use as the thumb?
Mine was designed to look like that, but actually be a carefully put together image.
Every coach, YouTuber, consultant and designer told me that this was a terrible idea.

In the end, for this particular video, me at the whiteboard won.
And it was our best performing video to date.
So we tried it again:

And again

And each time, the model – both complex and simple, worked.
My lesson was this:
“Don’t market to your peers, market to your audience.”
Even if people say, “I’d never click on that title or thumbnail”, they do.