Podcast Summary: Think Media Podcast Ep. 459

"How She Got a Billion Views With Niche Videos (Full Masterclass)"

Host: Nathan, Think Media
Guest: Anastasia, Nail Art YouTuber / Educator (Nail CO)
Date: October 30, 2025

Overview

In this episode, Nathan welcomes Anastasia, a YouTube nail artist and educator who has built a multi-channel empire in three languages, amassed hundreds of millions of views, and converted her content into a thriving business. The discussion is a deep-dive masterclass on YouTube growth strategies, covering content ideation, analytics, thumbnails, titles, storytelling, retention, monetization, and continuous learning. Anastasia offers practical, tested tactics for both new and advanced creators.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Anastasia’s YouTube Journey & Multi-Language Channels

• Started with a Russian channel; expanded to English and then Spanish.
  • Quote: “My first channel was Russian because that's the language I speak. But since nail art is so visual, people were commenting in English. So after two years, I realized I need another one.” (03:20–03:39)
• Monetization through Ads, Sponsorships, Affiliate Links, and Online Classes.
• Diversity of revenue: pivoting when Russian ad revenue was lost to global events.

2. Finding and Prioritizing Video Ideas

• Process:
  • Maintains spreadsheets with hundreds of ideas.
  • Leverages YouTube Studio's 'Trends' and 'What Your Audience Watches.'
  • Checks trends across Pinterest, TikTok, and uses AI (like ChatGPT) to analyze comments for topic trends.
  • Quote: “My problem is typically how do I find time to create all the ideas I have? … Some come from my head, but later I realized research is better.” (05:02–05:32)

3. Starting with Analytics—For Beginners

• Focus on what's already working: Look at best-performing videos, analyze views and retention.
• “Views don’t lie… take the best performing videos and analyze their retention graph, and then go from there.” (07:13–07:59)

4. Benchmarking Competitors and Adjacent Niches

• Analyzed every single competitor at the start; now leverages AI to quickly spot comment trends.
• Draws inspiration from similar visual niches, e.g., fitness, to innovate presentation.

5. Ideation to Packaging: Thumbnail and Title First

• Recent shift: Thinks about thumbnail and title before recording the video.
• “If I cannot come up with a really good idea for the thumbnail, maybe it’s not the video I should record right now.” (11:44–13:33)
• Uses AI tools to sketch thumbnail drafts and A/B tests titles.

6. Thumbnails: Big, Bold, and Before Over After

• Key tactic: Zoom in on details (nails) for clarity—even more important on mobile.
• “When thumbnails are really small, you can't see anything if it's not zoomed in. Especially in my niche, nails are already small.” (16:03–16:53)
• Transformation format works best if ONLY the “before” is shown in thumbnail:
  • “For some reason, they perform much better if I only show the before. The viewers are curious about what happens. They want the story.” (17:14–18:02)

7. Titles: Simplicity Beats Technical Jargon

• Mistake: Using overly professional terminology deterred clicks.
• “Once I started implementing simple titles, they were doing so much better. Something as simple as possible that even a child will understand.” (20:22–21:24)

8. Retention: The ‘Hover Appeal’ and Re-hooking

• First Seconds: Must be visually compelling—viewers decide while hovering, not clicking.
  • “I try to show something really catchy at the beginning. Not me talking, but the nail, the transformation. Briefly describe what I'm going to do, then jump right to it.” (23:41–24:31)
• Retaining Attention:
  • Preview upcoming steps (“We have nine more to go!”)
  • Tease future sections within the video.
  • Storytelling and breaking content into segments or time jumps.

9. Storytelling in Educational Content

• Incorporates real client stories and anecdotal evidence—improves relatability.
• “It's still nice when there is a story involved… people relate and comment, ‘My nails are just like that!’” (32:49–33:33)
• Uses analogies and sometimes props to make technical content more memorable.

10. Calls to Action: Placement and Strategy

• Optimal placement: In the middle, not end, before the most interesting reveal.
• “I put it like right in the middle… if they already watched to the center, they're probably engaged already.” (39:49–41:44)

11. Continuous Learning and Improvement

• Mantra: “Never stop learning.”
• Regularly reviews analytics, tracks not just views but “subscriber density” (subs-per-1k-views).
  • “Some videos, even with low views, may bring 10 subscribers. Those are usually the most valuable, educational ones.” (47:11–49:09)
• Imports YouTube data to spreadsheets for deeper analysis—watches for spikes/dips in retention graphs.
• Encourages taking notes and applying insights right away: “If you just listen and forget, that knowledge really means nothing.” (43:27–45:11)

12. Ensuring a Balanced Content Strategy

• Makes content for wider audiences (not just hard-core fans) to convert new viewers to returning/subscribers.
• Mixes broad and niche videos for a healthy channel ecosystem.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Thumbnails Before Content:
  “The time you spend on doing a video, you need to spend at least the same amount or half of it to packaging the video.”
  — Anastasia (00:51, 54:43–55:59)

• On Simplicity in Titles:
  “I always was trying to name my videos very smart and professionally… but whenever I named my videos something like ‘How to use Thai gel to hide hyponychium,’ people didn’t click. Simple titles did much better.”
  — Anastasia (20:22–21:24)

• On Thumbnail Strategy:
  “For some reason, [videos] perform much better if I only show the before. The viewers are curious about what happens. They want the story.”
  — Anastasia (17:14–18:02)

• On Retention / “Hover Appeal”:
  “I try to show something really catchy and something to the point right at the beginning of the video… not me talking, but the nail… show today and then jump right to the video.”
  — Anastasia (23:41–24:31)

• On Analytics Obsession:
  “I just can’t stop from looking at analytics all the time… I can look at these graphs forever.”
  — Anastasia (47:11–49:09)

• On Learning and Applying:
  “I was always writing it down so I will not forget, and try to use this knowledge in my next videos.”
  — Anastasia (45:11)

Important Segment Timestamps

• [02:52] — Multi-channel introduction & revenue streams
• [05:02] — Ideation: Where video ideas come from
• [07:13] — Using analytics to double down on what's working
• [11:44] — Thumbnail and title first, before recording
• [16:03] — Thumbnails: Zoomed visuals
• [17:14] — "Before" photos outperform “before-and-after"
• [20:22] — Simplicity in titling
• [23:41] — Hook strategy: “Hover appeal"
• [25:55] — How to re-hook and retain
• [32:49] — Storytelling in educational content
• [39:49] — Mid-video calls to action
• [43:27] — Growth, learning, and active application
• [47:11] — Analytics deep-dive: Subscriber density
• [52:49] — Producing content for different audience segments
• [54:43] — Advice to beginners; packaging is as important as content

Where to Find Anastasia

• Main (English) Channel: Nail Co – Nail CO U (53:56)

Closing Advice

• For Beginners:
  “My best advice is to learn the strategy… The time you spend on making a video, you need to spend at least the same amount or half packaging the video… I had some great videos, but not that many people watched because thumbnails and titles were so off.” (54:43–55:59)

• On Consistency vs. Analytics:
  “At the very beginning, count uploads—be consistent. That’s your scoreboard. Later, analytics help you level up.” (55:59)

This episode delivers a tactical and inspirational roadmap for any creator—especially those in niche or visual categories—to grow and monetize their channels by thinking like an audience-first strategist.