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- [00:00]
A
Hey, if you want to start or grow a YouTube channel in 2026, we've got a brand new resource you need to know about. Starting YouTube can feel overwhelming. What camera to use, what niche to pick, what to post first, and most people quit before they even get started. That's why we created the YouTube Creator Toolkit. It's your quick start system to go from confused to confident, fast. And for a limited time, you can save big during our holiday sale or@thinkmedia sale.com you'll start with Niche Finder to get total clarity on what kind of channel you should build. Then you'll use the AI powered video topic generator so you never run out of video ideas. Plug those into Think Media's AI Title system tool to craft titles that get clicks and finish with thumbnail templates and trainings so your content actually stands out. And we've even included a ticket to to our Think Media strategy briefing that's happening right at the start of January to help you lock in your entire growth plan for 2026. It's incredible. And the crazy part is, during our limited holiday sale, you can get the YouTube Creator Toolkit for less than the price of a trip to Chipotle. Just go to thinkmediasale.com to take advantage of this special offer before it expires. Okay, let's jump into the podcast.
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B
YouTube is not the same platform that it was even just a few years ago. The rules have changed.
- [01:29]
A
Subscribers don't matter. They don't guarantee views anymore. You can actually grow a bigger channel and get more views than even established older channels. 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every single day. It is possible to break through, I believe for almost anyone. Most people are posting lazy content. Here's what I would say Invite people to do. Double your time that you spend on packaging. If you don't master packaging, you won't even get a chance to be watched. What is the ideal length of a YouTube video? It doesn't matter.
- [02:02]
B
These are five YouTube realities you cannot afford to ignore if you're creating on the platform this year. Shift number one, Sean, is that subscribers don't guarantee views anymore.
- [02:13]
A
Yeah, this is a big deal. I think one of the myths people believe is there's a line going around that says subscribers don't matter. And I wouldn't say that they don't matter, but they don't guarantee views anymore. What this means is that some established channels you might see, they could have ten thousand subs, a hundred thousand subs, a million, but their view counts are way Down. Now the opportunity is though, is that people that are starting from scratch, if they can identify their ideal audience and create videos that are matching what people are interested in, you can actually grow a bigger channel and get more views than even established older channels. So stagnant channels will stall, making now the best time to reinvent your strategy. And here's the big shift. What has happened on all social media algorithms is that people have shifted from hitting subscribe and now YouTube runs on the interest graph, not the social graph. What does that mean? It means that in the past, you subscribe to your favorite creators thinking you would be fed their videos.
- [03:17]
B
This.
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A
There's so many channels we've subscribed to now that it's really not that you see the videos from the channels you're subscribed to. You see the videos that are performing well enough to show up on your homepage, or you're seeing specific videos that are crafted to show up in search, meaning people are actually looking for it. So what are people watching on YouTube? It's what they're interested in, not necessarily who they follow.
- [03:40]
B
Okay, so big takeaway there, right? When it comes to subscribers, like if someone's listening to this, starting a channel, is it worth asking, having a call to action to subscribe?
- [03:49]
A
Yeah, I still think so. And I think the cool thing about actually starting from scratch right now is if possible, you want to have fierce clarity on the type of people you want subscribed. And you're growing a fresh audience, you're growing a new audience. What can happen to a lot of established channels? This has even happened to Think Media. We've been around for so many years, a couple million subscribers. But people have clicked subscribe for so many different reasons. They Click subscribe for DaVinci editing tutorials. They click subscribe because, you know, they wanted to find a camera. But then also when they found the camera, what else information did they want so they might not be as engaged anymore, and then YouTube tips or a million other things. And so it can actually kind of confuse the algorithm a little bit. I would argue that Think Media isn't in a bad position because of the past, but I would argue that we have to fight for every view just like everybody else, based on interest topic packaging, click through rate. And so Neil Patel said it best on the Think Media podcast, actually. And he said follower count doesn't matter as much anymore. Social media has been democratized. It's about what's new and what's interesting, not how many followers you have. If you can get Followers. And if you can actually really have fierce clarity when you start YouTube on what your channel is all about, it'll help you distribute your content faster. But I just think subscribers are overrated because we see channels with 50,000 subscribers only getting 50 views. But we'll see new channels especially that are like following our seven hour framework that have like 50 subscribers that'll have a 5,000 viewed video. And so it's a very interesting time in YouTube right now.
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B
So shift number two is lazy content no longer works. What do you mean by lazy content?
- [05:31]
A
Yeah, lazy content could also mean low effort content. And competition is highest for lazy content. If you sweat the details and refuse to dabble, you can break into the top 10% of creators. But if you're just kind of like uploading thoughtless, low energy videos that you didn't put any effort into, that's what everybody's doing. So you're going to get buried in the noise. The current stats are that 20 million videos are uploaded to YouTube every single day. So. So the truth is a lot of those videos are going to go unwatched. But I would encourage listeners that it is possible to break through, I believe for almost anyone, because most people are posting lazy content. Now, they might not self define that. You know, that might sound kind of rude, but I see it all the time. We do channel reviews in our coaching program. The titles are like three words. They don't really make sense. There's no thought in the thumbnail. They click the video and they're like, all right, okay, guys, you know, I'm about to get started in this video and you know, I kind of what I want to talk about today, like they're not cutting straight to the chase. So it's not necessarily that, like, it requires tons of editing or fancy gear, but you have to be thoughtful about those details, you know. Gary Vaynerchuk spoke at our recent Grow with Video Virtual Summit. And he said, to win on social media and YouTube today, it just takes more rigor. Rigor means a disciplined approach to the craft that you're doing. So I think what some people think is like, let's take video podcasting, for example. They're like, you know what I think of me and my partner, me and my spouse? Like, we want to start a show. We're going to talk about marriage and we're going to hit record and set up a podcast. Set up. And then they're like, hit record. Like, hey, honey, welcome to today's show. Excited. What do you want to talk about today? I don't know. What do you want to talk about?
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B
Like, that's the only thing. We're gone. We already lost.
- [07:25]
A
Yeah, that's the first 10 seconds. And they just record for like an hour and just throw that out there. Like, no structure, no plan, no hook. The title sucks the thumbnail. I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just saying lazy content no longer works. And so you don't have to be in the top 1%. That's a scary group to get in. It's the type of people that have million dollar budgets and huge teams. You know, Mr. Beast type stuff. People like, just do what Mr. Beast is doing. What are you talking, spending $2 million on a video, bro. Like, don't compare yourself to Mr. Beast. That's a whole different level. But there's a lot of space in the top 10% of content. I'm just saying if you're in 10%, that 8, 9 and 10% getting there, it's not that crazy. If you just get good at packaging, level your skills up a little bit, have a little bit more strategy, and let's actually break down how YouTube works. You know, at the end of the day, YouTube is just math, meaning it's click through rate and minutes watched. And it is a digital algorithm saying, this IP address that's logging in to watch this, how long are they watching before they click away? What's the click through rate? And all things being equal, if one of your competitors has a 7% click through rate on their video and you have a 7.1% click through rate on your video, that's it, 0.1%. And YouTube has to decide what homepage is this going? Who gets to see this? It's math, like the math of the video that's even maybe slightly better than the other one. So the opportunity is that most people aren't going to have the discipline to learn the skills, improve these things. Small tweaks lead to giant peaks. So just be more thoughtful about mastering all those fundamentals titles. And if you're uploading disorganized videos, boring intros, you're just kind of phoning it in, hoping you get lucky. You're gonna vanish in the sea of sameness and the algorithm won't save you. No budget, no subscriber count can actually cover for a lack of rigor right now. And that just means leveling up your skills and getting into that top 10% of uploads.
- [09:27]
B
It's funny, we had our Mastermind event in Vegas just a little bit ago. And something that I'd shared was this whole idea of rigor and this idea. There's lazy content, there's 20 million things being uploaded every single day. It's like you have no choice but to just put more effort in. And I think there's those classic sayings which have truth to them, like, work smarter, not harder, or make sure you work right. And yeah, there's truth there. And I'm also just like. But it's kind of like just now, man. Like, you just. You actually just need to make 10 more titles. Like, you actually just need to reshoot that hook that, you know, you didn't quite get, but you just chose to let you know. It's like those little details, you actually.
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A
Need to work harder.
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B
You actually.
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A
Everyone's like, yeah, yeah, some people are like, harder. Work smarter. Not just harder. No, actually work freaking harder, bro.
- [10:10]
B
Like, take it again, you know, like, don't put out the video if it's just your. You know what I mean? Like, having that ability to actually just put in more effort, I think is actually. We're in an era now where this, you know, everything's going on on YouTube, where that's actually being undervalued and we're trying to AI our way to a, you know, viral video. We're trying to whatever our way. And man, if you're just starting from the beginning, it's like there's something to be found in just the reps of the difficulty of just like pushing yourself a little bit further. And even for established channels, this is actually legit, John. Like in our higher coaching programs, there's like one on one stuff that we're doing with people. There are several people that are established veteran creators, like decade plus, you know, that have been on the platform. You know, back in the heyday, they had their time, but YouTube has changed, right? Oh, my goodness. And so here we are now and there's actually. There's AI channels or people using AI to create content in the same niche that's pulling viewership over here. And so there's like legitimate frustration of like, what are you. This. They're not even. It's easy to say, point fingers and say, well, they're just an AI channel. They're just whatever. But it's like, just to keep it real. As a coach, like, I'm looking at what I'm seeing and I'm like, yeah, it is AI, but their title and thumbnail is just better. You know what I mean? It's kind of like just the reality of Yeah, I know it's AI and it's frustrating. You've been around for a second. But you've got to adapt if you have any hope in this new era.
- [11:29]
A
Yeah, 100%. And I know we're gonna hit all five of these shifts, but I do want people to know specifically for this, for some resources to help you make better content like thumbnails titles. Dial in your details. We're actually doing a holiday sale. It's called our YouTube Creator Toolkit and it costs less than a trip to Chipotle. So I mean like it's really a no brainer. We'll link to that in the show notes or you could just go to think media sale.com. but inside of this we have our video topic generator. More rigor on your video ideas. That's a tool though. You also get access to our title tool and back on like what's happening now on YouTube. YouTube now allows you to split test three titles and you have no excuse to not just come up with one great title, you should come up with three great titles. At least that's four. But you should come up with three and run them all against each other. Using YouTube's built in title split testing tool. We'll help you do that in just a matter of seconds and already write better titles than you were writing. But write three that are actually true to your topic that's included in there. We also have thumbnail templates and a thumbnail training. And then we're also doing an event. It's like a YouTube emergency briefing. Cause so much is happening and it's what every creator must know in 2026. And we're gonna help people build a game plan for 2026 so you get a ticket to that virtual event. And then there's also our niche finder program if you want to dial in your topic. All of this is in the YouTube Creator Toolkit and it costs less than a trip to Chipotle. And so anyways, if people want to check that out, that's the kind of education and tools to help you get the rigor to break through the algorithm, get into that top 10%. Think media sale.com is where people can get access to that limited holiday offer.
- [13:09]
B
Let's go. I actually as a coach, I mean, you know, we use those AI tools a whole bunch of people. I didn't know that that was. We were putting that in the bundle. Yeah, that's actually pretty fire.
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A
Yeah, it's this. That's why it's a limited time too because we wanted to just like hook up our podcast listeners, our broader community, just during when everyone's doing Black Friday, Cyber Monday and all that stuff. We wanted to put together something really cool. So, yeah, get it why it's still available legit, 100%.
- [13:32]
B
Okay. Shift number three is about shorts. That shorts build reach, long form builds relationship. Help us make sense of these two content formats.
- [13:42]
A
Yeah, so this is an interesting thing. Like the question is, or we get the question a lot, what is the ideal length of a YouTube video? Answer. It's. It doesn't matter. Like all of the lengths, like seven second shorts are going viral. And like seven hour videos, I'm not kidding. Like ultra, ultra long form videos. You know, we had Caleb Ralston and on the podcast, he uploaded a video on his channel that's six hours long.
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B
It's like a course.
- [14:06]
A
So it's like a course. It really is. And so it's not what is the ideal video length anymore? That's not the question. The question is how long can you hold attention? And they actually call this the barbell strategy in YouTube's culture and trends report, which highlights that their audience has now split their attention between very short videos and very long videos. It's a pattern called the barbell strategy, meaning where if you see a barbell, it's like a lot of people, like really short and a lot of people. And also kind of the middle is suffering a little bit now. The principle though is that shorts build reach, long form builds relationship. So some individuals are getting a lot of views with shorts, but they're struggling with depth because they get a lot of reach. Oh, it's vanity metrics sometimes, like, do. My channel is doing so well. I got hundreds of thousands of views last month. Millions of views. Because shorts can get a lot of views. But like, how much buy in? How much depth do you have? There's, however, the broader exposure we can get. So that's like, okay, for some creators it could be a play of actually embracing both formats. Can I get reach with shorts? But long form builds relationship. And so shorts can be discovery, long forms authority, long form is relationship. And even ultra long form could be really a level of a ton of depth with viewers. So a couple principles as far as changes is ultimately like, decide your strategy. Maybe just focus on long form. That's up to you. Maybe, maybe you're focusing on shorts, but in each case you might have weaknesses and so you might combine both. And ultimately we're learning that viewers either want like a snack or a full meal, not really A half sandwich. I'm not saying you shouldn't make 22 minute videos, but that's just a big trend that's happening right now that creators thriving in 2026 and beyond are actually really wanting programs. They're scrolling a ton on shorts and just eating that up. Or they want like deeper dive content.
- [16:05]
B
Oh, that's fascinating. I'm thinking about, you know, one of our students, Kayla, who grew her channel. She, you know, it's like an honor to get to work with her in our accelerator program. She's a ninja and a beast, but she, you know, we waited to worry about shorts until the channel got to a specific point. So she got to 50,000 subscribers before we even started messing with shorts. We didn't even turn them on until then. It was all long form. And that was part of the strategy, it was part of the focus. And so I love the idea of, okay, at some point learning how to embrace all of these, but just to free up someone who's listening, it's like, oh, so I gotta like, try to figure out how to add that. Well, maybe, yeah, but maybe not. Also and thinking about the seasonality of okay, for this time, I'm gonna focus on long form for the sake of, ah, man, I'm really lacking depth in my community right now. Or I don't even mess with shorts. And maybe I could bring in a whole new crew, you know, that I haven't messed with. So that's powerful. The shift number four is kind of off of this talking about long form specifically though long form is the underrated growth engine.
- [17:04]
A
Yeah, I think that shift number four is that people are underestimating the power of, of long form. And this is based on data. So in a world that is very obsessed with shorts and it feels like a lot of attention is going to the kind of content that's on TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube shorts. But long form is YouTube's new prime time. YouTube watch time on TV screens has exploded now over a billion hours a day, globally. So just think about the fact it's on TV. People are wanting 28 minute episodes like an episode of the Office. Yeah, they want like an episode of YouTube. Viewers treat YouTube like Netflix or Hulu. So they're watching serialized shows.
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B
They.
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A
Podcasts are exploding. Audio first, podcasts are plateauing if you're only doing audio. But video podcasts are surging, making YouTube the number one podcast platform in the world. And what's fascinating is you even saw like Netflix now is gonna start ingesting Some podcasts from Spotify. Not that that's available for like every creator, but it just shows you that like serialized shows and podcasts are becoming mainstream at a big level. So I think it's just an opportunity to get into longer form content. If you're only playing the short form game, you might be winning a lot of views, but losing relationships and you might be getting that kind of dopamine hit or even short term financial wins. But how much depth are you building in your brand? Shorts don't really build authority. They create binge sessions. They don't cement your brand like long form does. So you could be forgotten in the swipe. And I mean, I can't speak for everybody but listeners, you could tell us you're watching the YouTube version. I like shorts. I like just kind of like zoning out, being entertained. It's also a passive consumption behavior where you're just seeing what's brought to you. Swiping. If you don't like it, you're just chilling out. I can't even tell you, Nathan. Like, I just very rarely less than 10 times, probably less than 5 I've ever clicked subscribe because of a short. I don't even care what channel it's coming from. I'm like, do I like it or not? I might even really be a fan of the creator. YouTube sees I consume it, it gives me more of them. I'm like, and it'll give me the ones I like, right? So it's interesting, like how much connection is actually being built there. But long form is, I mean, what's the phrase? YouTube is a click and watch platform. Long form is actually a decision. Like, I'm looking for something. It's on my homepage. I'm interested in that. I'm making a decision to click on that. I'm then sticking with it. And If I spend 20 minutes with you or two hours with you, that's how long would it take to watch two hours of shorts. But it's never going to be linear.
- [19:41]
B
That's right, Shorts.
- [19:41]
A
It's gonna be a million distractions. And for everybody listening to this, ask yourself this question. Remind me of like three of the best shorts or TikToks or Instagram's Reels that you watched yesterday. What was the creator's name? What are their brand values? What were the three best ones? No, no, no. Don't go to your DMs to see which ones you forwarded to other people you don't even know. Like, you don't remember. But if you Watched a video podcast. I watched a leadership podcast that was from, you know, Dave Ramsey where he had like legends on there. Patrick Leoncioni.
- [20:16]
B
Yeah. And John Maxwell.
- [20:18]
A
John Maxwell and Dave. And so now here we're talking. That was fire two hours. They brings the leadership legends together and it was like a piece of media history.
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B
Yes.
- [20:30]
A
Now I know there's people that don't have as much brand recognition of them, but like, you just can't compete with that. Longform is the underrated growth engine because of that depth.
- [20:38]
B
It's so powerful. It's crazy to think about YouTube overtaking Netflix in terms of TVs consumption. Like, and I'm thinking about several people, several of our students whose backend analytics actually show it's television that is the dominant device of views that they're getting in a specific time period. It's television, like by a long shot, like 50 plus percent.
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A
It's wild.
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B
Which is wild too, because if you think, and by the way, if you're listening, if you haven't gone to look in your analytics, like, find out the devices and ways that your audience is interacting with you, like, where are your views coming from? Because that just could influence a whole bunch of things we're thinking about. Like, okay, should we put QR codes? You know, like, because it shows up on the TV and then people could use their phone. It's just like fascinating to think about this whole new era of long form and how people are choosing YouTube even over streaming platforms. So shift number five is master packaging or get ignored. What is packaging?
- [21:31]
A
Yeah, so packaging, the formula of packaging is your topic plus your title, plus your thumbnail, plus the opening of your video equals your video's packaging. It's getting everything aligned as to again, what is the topic, title and thumbnail? And is it true? Because again, if you, all you do is write like a good. Does it actually truly get delivered in the video? And does the beginning of your video articulate that well enough? Because if there's any disalignment, your video will die. Because even if it's really good packaging and even if it is true, but the hook doesn't, like let people know that people only are giving you a few seconds to be like, is this really what I'm going to get? And so actually not just doing packaging, but mastering it. And here's the interesting thing, is that great content without great packaging will be invisible. Like, it could be incredible content. I mean, another way we've said this for years, is content is king, but marketing is queen. And she runs the household. So it's like, great content. Again, there's people listening to this. It's like, you got so much wisdom. You can help people. You're funny. You get. You can, like, you would entertain people. You want to get info about your business out. If you don't master marketing, which packaging is a term for, like, YouTube marketing. Your thumbnail is your billboard. Your title is that headline. Even the idea itself, viewer psychology. What do people click on? The actual words you choose. If you don't master packaging, you won't even get a chance to be watched.
- [23:07]
B
Yeah, I love how you called that out, because this is just real talk.
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Working with people and a very common thing that I'll hear. And I'm good, as I'm sure you've heard. This, too, is like, to your point of, like, I make good content. I make really good videos. And, like, this other person in my niche or this other person or whatever, you just start comparing and, like, pulling in other videos, and you're like, why aren't they. Like, they don't even have the experience that I do, you know? And it's like, no, they don't. You're absolutely right. You're a legend. But your packaging isn't legendary, you know? And so it's like. And that's just because, hey, you're learning something new. I'll often say, like, YouTube is a sport. You know what I mean? You need to train and you need to go to practice. And packaging is arguably one of the most important parts of this whole YouTube thing. And so you just can't, like, I don't know. I would rather you not get so down on yourself and just be like, okay. Yep, okay. They're winning because they're mastering this first thing. And if I want a shot of my good content to be seen by the people I'm trying to help and serve, yeah, I gotta take some ownership over that and be like, all right, I'm gonna get better at my titles at my thumbnails, figure out how I'm gonna start my video so that the people I'm trying to reach actually pick me and stay with me over someone else.
- [24:18]
A
Yeah. And I got two action items for this. Again, I think two paths. You know, you can implement all of these shifts. Start taking action. Make sure you subscribe to the Think Media podcast for more content like this. And if you just want to implement this stuff and do it on, here's what I would invite people to do. Double your time that you spend on packaging. And all I'm asking people to do is just double your time. Now, you might need more than that because if you're like, I only take about one minute to write my title, well, then take two minutes. Like, that's what I mean by double. Like, at least take another, you know, with AI. Like. But in some cases it's like, yeah, I kind of rushed my thumbnail. It takes me 20 minutes. I'm saying take 40 minutes. Like, more time to put some thought into that, to design your thumbnail on canva or whatever you do, or to, you know, one of the big changes is the fact that you can split test three thumbnails or you can split test three titles or combinations of the both. Right now that's a big. That's all packaging thing.
- [25:12]
B
That's right.
- [25:13]
A
That's the next level of packaging. You go, well, like, I don't have time to do that. That's why I'm challenging you to just double your time. It's a free activity to have more rigor to sit down and say, okay, I normally again, spend even just five minutes on my title. Give it five more minutes, a little bit more tweaking. Sometimes we just go with the first version, write a couple more titles, you know, dial those details in. And so that's a free activity you could do right now. Double your time that you take on packaging, even if that's going from 5 to 10 minutes or 20 minutes to 40. And then a way to go faster is our holiday sale. So@thinkmediasale.com a lot of what we've included in this YouTube creator toolkit is packaging. It's, you know, helping you with better topics. That's the AI tool we built, our title tool, which if all you got was the Think Media AI title tool.
- [26:06]
B
That's what I'm saying.
- [26:06]
A
This thing is stacked with, like, psychological frameworks, click triggers. That's going to help you not just write one title, but three titles. That's a packaging thing, because three great titles that you can run as a split test on your YouTube channel against each other. And we got a little video that'll show you how to do that. If that's something new that you're just hearing about it. And then title thumbnail templates, a ticket to our YouTube event that'll help you build a game plan for 2026 and kind of an emergency briefing with all the stuff that's happening and it. And for Black Friday Cyber Monday, just during the holidays, you can actually get the YouTube Creator Toolkit for less than a trip to Chipotle. So master packaging or get ignored. Skip a burrito, you know, and a Coca Cola or Topachico and grab the YouTube Creator Toolkit and really take your packaging to a new level. It'll be super helpful.
- [26:57]
B
100% man. If you've gotten value out of today, please like rate, share, review wherever you watch or listen. This is actually just the first part in a three part series that we're going to work through to help you stay as most up to date as possible in this new year. With all the platform changes and threats, we have 10 more threats to uncover, so make sure you stay close. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.