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- [00:00]
Sean Cannell
Really quick. If YouTube growth matters to you, you can't afford to keep guessing. The YouTube Growth Sprint is a free three day online event designed to give you clarity, focus and real momentum fast. You can register for free@ytsprint.com and we're also doing a bunch of cool giveaways, including gear for your YouTube channel, software that'll help you get more views and subscribers, and going to be a lot of fun and you're going to learn a lot. So just go to ytsprint.com to register for free. All right, let's jump into today's episode. A lot of people are going to quit or not start because of this information.
- [00:40]
Nathan Eswine
Mr.
- [00:41]
Sean Cannell
Beast's views are down 119 million. Down to 78 million. 78 million. Down to 67 million and all the way down to 56 million. When you've been getting 200 million views, that's, that's over a 50% decline. YouTube is quietly killing long form discovery on the homepage. It's like they're pushing shorts so hard. But the problem is shorts is cannibalizing long form. Do you believe that to be true?
- [01:07]
Nathan Eswine
I go back and forth with this one.
- [01:09]
Sean Cannell
So what does that mean for every creator listening to this?
- [01:12]
Nathan Eswine
Today we're going to be unpacking five big theories behind this. YouTube views decline and the two big takeaways of why this is good news for new and small channels. Sean, can you break down this Mr. B story?
- [01:26]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. This is an interesting story because it seems to be an illustration of something that's happening platform wide. I'd love to ask our listeners, are your views down or are your views up right now? If your views are down, the question is, are we seeing those in proportion to the percentages experienced even by somebody like Mr. Beast? And to be clear, there's some funny tweets that are like, if Mr. Beast, you know, gets 80 million views on a video, people are saying he fell off, like he's dead. Mr. Beast is done. I heard Drake say in a song once, you know, your best day is my worst day. And I feel like that's kind of true about Mr.
- [02:06]
Nathan Eswine
Beast.
- [02:06]
Sean Cannell
Like a lot of us just to get a million views on a video, let alone 80. But the truth is, there is a whole run where he's getting 200 million views of video, commonly over 200 million views. And so Fast Company actually tracked Mr. Beast's four day view count across five consecutive uploads, and it went from 119 million down to 78 million. 78 million down. To 67 million and all the way down to 56 million. So you know when you've been getting 200 million views and you're getting 67 million, that's over a 50% decline. So I think for some individuals that are thinking, man, my views are down. You are sort of seeing a broader platform trend here. What do you think?
- [02:47]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, I mean, I go a couple different places. One, it's fascinating to think about, okay, biggest YouTuber has a drop like this. And if he's the biggest YouTuber and he has this sort of a drop, it does make me think about, like, what's changing with his viewership is probably the first place I go. Like, what's changing? Is his content changing? Is his format changing? Or the interest. This is what's interesting. Or the interests of the people that have been consuming Mr. Beast, are their behaviors and interests changing too? So that's kind of where I go first. And of course, if it's happening at this big level, number one YouTuber, then you think about someone who is still experiencing a drop like this. I think it's the same conversations that start to come up from like a coaching perspective. I think about like, okay, two things. What's the creator doing differently? Are we doing anything differently? And then what's going on with the audience? How is consumption changing? What could be pulling it over here? Or what could be getting their attention versus of you were hanging out with me as long as they used to.
- [03:38]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. And those are two important aspects you're mentioning, but I think there's a third. It's what's the creator doing is the audience change, but also as the platform itself changed and, and people want the extremes, we'd love to blame the algorithm. However, I think there's a mix of truth. When we get into the five big thesises of why there's a great views decline, we'll cover those in a second. But let's cover one of the platform accusations, which is YouTube is quietly killing long form discovery on the homepage. So there's actually a study done by Mario, who's a retention director that works on YouTube channels exceeding 100 million subscribers, including Mr. Beast. So at the end of 2025, he analyzed a thousand channels and he documented a dramatic shift in YouTube's home feed layout. So previously when we would log into YouTube, we would see six long form recommendations across two rows on desktop. And currently he's now seeing, at the time of the study, only two long form recommendations with the remaining slots allocated to shorts. So that is a Choice reduction, reduction of up to 80% in long form recommendations compared to previous home feeds. That's massive.
- [04:56]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, it's huge. I'm wondering too, you know, and again, this for me goes to. Okay, device type. What are you consuming on? It's interesting that he noted all of this different, these different changes. And I would confirm it like even in. Even if I'm searching for something now. Sean, the number of shorts that even pop up now compared to long form options is pretty fascinating.
- [05:15]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, so I would love to. Also for those who can comment on the YouTube version of the podcast, are you noticing these different layout changes when I log in a mobile. You know, when shorts are on mobile, they usually are like two by two and they're tall, they're big. Yeah. So. So like your, your home feed might have two shorts, another two shorts and then a long form video and then some community tab. You can like swipe through different community tabs. The whole point is, yes, the platform is also changing. So is your content changing? Is it? I mean it's funny to say that Mr. B's videos could like be a reduced in quality, but there is a point where do people get tired of a template and how often do you reinvent yourself the content strategy? Is the audience changing, the audience growing up, audiences getting bored or tired of your content. But then is the platform changing? Another study kind of across software like Metric Cool was saying that channels with over 50,000 followers saw a views decrease of 12% year over year. This was back in 2024. But the bottom line is that they saw that platform wide evidence points to structural redistribution. Sean, what does that mean in layman's terms? It means that views are being more distributed across multiple creators. There's more people on YouTube, like views are up overall. People are watching more content, people are enjoying YouTube, but there's more creators to watch, there's more different people to watch. So views are being more distributed. A specific story that came out was actually that MKBHD's earnings showed a downward trend between 2024 and 2026 according to hype auditor data. And we're talking about top creators that are seeing decline.
- [06:56]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [06:56]
Sean Cannell
And his comment engagement dropped 29% over the past eight years for effigy analysis that and now that analyzed 7.6 million comments. So what's interesting is again we're seeing maybe a general increase in disengagement, maybe people watching less videos or commenting less. And that does not mean that there's not an opportunity on YouTube and these big creators when you See these shifts in percentage. Let's bring it down to the everyday creator. Maybe you normally were getting a thousand views and so it's a gut punch if now you've been like, man, I can't crack 400. Maybe you normally get 400 views and you're like, Man, I've been down at 40. What's happening? You know, stick around until the end of the video because we'll go through the theories and some opportunities. But I think the whole thing is an interesting landscape and we are going to get into those theories. But the other big thing is TV. The whole thing about how common YouTube is in living rooms.
- [07:54]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah.
- [07:54]
Sean Cannell
Is a shift. Of course there's mobile, but the, the data is saying that YouTube is the number one platform watched in American living rooms. YouTube's bigger than all these other platforms. You want to lean in on that
- [08:05]
Nathan Eswine
a little bit, 100%. I can actually personally confirm this viewing behavior is happening all over the place. Because the number of times that even if we've had people over for dinner or something and we want to check out something, like we watch something, it's not a TV show we're turning on. We're like jumping onto YouTube because one of us found this video or found this creator and then even it's funny. Like this TV show viewing behavior is now happening on YouTube and it's even at this like silly level. Like we have this creator, his name's Preston goes shout out, dude's awesome. He's grown so quick and he's so awesome. And he does these, these really cool adventures that are totally family friendly. And so our whole family watches them. And we're always looking out for a Preston goes video. Our little three year old is like, Preston goes, you know, just asking for the next upload. And it's become this family event where it's like when there's a new video, we're going to make time for it. We're going to sit down and we're going to all watch it together. And that sort of behavior, I think is why this, the TV domination thing has become such a thing, right? YouTube is surpassed any streaming platform now, beating Disney, beating Netflix. And it makes sense because YouTube, in a way on the television, right, has become the new Hollywood. You can take your pick. There's different creators and so I think that's, that's a really big piece of this. But I also wanted to talk about that word you said of redistribution. And I think that's actually important, important word to hang on for a second because as we get into these, you know, big theories and then as we talk about, like, okay, what's beneficial for small channels, the silver lining is views are being redistributed from these crazy big channels to up and comers. And that's the encouraging part for me is thinking through, okay, because here's the stats, right? Like YouTube now hosts 115 million channels with 69 million active creators and uploading over 500 hours of video every minute, which is roughly 720,000 hours of new content per day. Like, you know, it's spreading all of this out is part of why it's never been a better time to be a smaller new creator. Because YouTube has been investing, I actually think, in trying to help the platform not just be dominated by the big dogs. These different features that they've rolled out, right, like having a specialized team that actually is on the lookout for new channels, small creators, this hype feature that's available for you if you're under or if you're over 500 subscribers, under half a million subscribers. Like, I think these are strong signals that it is an encouraging time for the new creator.
- [10:30]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. And we do got to talk about those opportunities in just a second. But first we need to hit the five competing theories of why views are declining. So we've talked about Mr. Beast, we've seen other creators that are out there. There are some theories. We want to name them and synthesize them. It's probably a combination of all the above. And this is an interactive episode. We're curious your theories or maybe what your experience is, if you can give us feedback. And I also, before we get into these five theories, do want to mention though I agree with you, as crazy as this all sounds, it could lead us to a place of like, man. Well, is there no hope? Is it just going to be a decline? But if you're making the right videos and you're doing it in the right way and you're starting even a brand new channel, you can get results. In fact, we are actually hosting a free event. It's four days. You can go to ytsprint.com if you're listening to this right now. It may have just started, but there's still time to jump in. So you can hit the link in the description to register for free. Recently, someone named Sherry recently went through this event. We did it a couple months ago and she implemented what we taught in this event. She had never posted a video. She's in her 70s. She posted her first video ever on her channel, but she didn't just throw it out there. She just followed the system that we teach. She got 37, 000 views on her first upload as a brand new channel.
- [11:51]
Nathan Eswine
I love it.
- [11:52]
Sean Cannell
Yes. So it's, it's like we're not trying to over promise that. Like it's just easy to get views. Sure. But there is a methodology to it and if you're reverse engineering your video ideas, the bottom line is if you want help with how to stand out in today's YouTube landscape, we have a free event. It's called YouTube Growth Sprint yt sprint.com but here's some competing theories as to why views are declining. Number one, these shorts cannibalization thesis. So we kind of mentioned this. The whole thing is okay, why are Mr. B's views down? Well, is he and everybody else getting as much distribution on homepages to get those clicks? And what YouTube has revealed is that with 200 billion daily shorts views, which is up from 70 billion in 2024, which is massive beating TikTok, beating everything else everywhere else. It's like they're pushing shorts so hard. But the problem is shorts is cannibalizing long form. Do you believe that to be true?
- [12:52]
Nathan Eswine
Man, I go back and forth on this one. I would say overall, no, I don't believe this to be true. I don't, I don't think this is true for one second unless your entire video strategy is based, like if it's based in one content medium. So I think the idea of diversifying the kinds of content you create on YouTube when appropriate for your stage of YouTube, then I think they can all, they can all work together. Like I don't know that I believe this. Especially if you're someone that is, that is trying to do both or multiple styles of content. And the reason I say that too is because someone who watches. Yeah, I think a big argument, actually I'm curious your thoughts on this. A big argument in the YouTube strategy space is like, well, people who watch shorts only watch shorts and people who watch long form only watch long form. And I actually kind of used to believe that and kind of coach that like it's different headspaces, which is true. But I think we also don't account for the multiple touch points that someone could have with YouTube through their every day or every week. And so personally like there's a time when I'm watching short form content and then there's a time when I'm totally binging long form content, like I'm dipping into both pots and so what do you think about that? Like the, the idea that are these things separate? You know, it's like your shorts exist over here, live streams exist over here, long forms exist over here. Or do you think that there's actually multiple touch points people can have?
- [14:09]
Sean Cannell
I mean, I honestly would almost say, like, no comment. Like, I'm here for the, I'm here for the debate. Like, I just, I hear, I. We listen to our community in our community. Or like, shorts ruined my channel or ever since short shorts and somebody else. Or like my views is not down. This stuff is such on a spectrum. So maybe I'll have some synthesizing thoughts as we go through the rest. So why are views down? One theory is the shorts cannibal cannibalization thesis. The second thesis is the saturation thesis. Now, okay, this argues that with 69 million active creators uploading 500 hours per minute, now again, the YouTube says 20 million uploads per day. Crazy means attention is inevitably distributed more thinly. And that's what we just said. Inevitably there's maybe more total views on the platform, but more. More distributed across creators. So everybody's getting less views. And the claim is that YouTube has economic incentive to spread views across more creators to maximize ad inventory. I would challenge that claim to say yes, okay, more creators gives them more ad inventory. But they also could just run more ads on an individual creator that's getting more views. In my opinion. I still think they have an incentive to spread views across more creators because they do want some sort of dopamine feedback loop that if I'm a creator on YouTube and I don't get any views at all, why would I keep creating? So true. So it's like algorithms do want creators. You know, of course people are going to quit if they're just absolutely frustrated. But if they're doing no best practices, no effort at all, and they fail, well, then that's kind of on them. But. But if someone's like really giving it a strong effort and like listening to a channel like this and like, I'm doing the best practices and they really are writing. Good thumb, you know, if they're doing at least some level of best practices and YouTube's going to bet their future on creators, then creators need to have some level of a positive experience. Not everyone's going to be a YouTube millionaire, but if the dream that somebody could earn a few hundred or a few thousand extra dollars a month in the creator economy, that actually has to be real. So I think that's their incentive. I think it's ad library, but I think also they, they want to tweak the algorithm to create success for creators or else they don't have a future for the platform.
- [16:31]
Nathan Eswine
Totally agree. The third thesis here is the satisfaction algorithm thesis. And this is interesting because this is suggesting that there's a shift that's happened, that's happened on YouTube that we're moving away from watch time optimization into satisfaction based ranking. I don't know about you, Sean, I've totally seen things popping up even over the last 18 months or so of these surveys that happen after videos, these little faces with emotions that you can click YouTube actually asking how did this video make you feel? Or scrolling in my mobile app and seeing a video that I'd previously watched show up in my feed and YouTube's asking how did you like this video? And so it's this whole idea that the algorithm is now prioritizing how viewers feel over how long they watch. And hyper, hyper optimized clickbait is performing worse relative to genuinely satisfying content. What are your, what are your thoughts on this one?
- [17:29]
Sean Cannell
Yeah, this one actually ties us back into the Mr. Beast conversation because there was a whole through line in that story of even him mentioning that the hyper YouTube edited the retention editing that maybe grips your attention but just fries your nervous system because it's pummeling you with like you're being yelled at and things you just can't look away. But by the end of it, how do you feel Mr. Beast himself mentioned we're going to be slowing down the edit. And then you zoom out into this whole authenticity trend which feels like a word that's kind of starting to get played out, but is also so important where people are feeling burnt out or overwhelmed. So creators that, that are slowing down, connecting, creating a different experience. The point is optimizing for satisfaction. Yeah, optimizing to just like get attention and get a click. And you kept the viewer watching and they a bunch of information filled their brains, but what kind of experience did they leave with? So when the algorithm prioritizes how viewers feel over how long they watch, hyper optimized clickbait performs worse relative to genuinely satisfying content. So I mean I, I, I could see what this means. Again, these are five different thesis theories as to why there's a views decline. So creators who are maybe shifting their tonality, creating different content at different pacing. Yeah, this one doesn't stand at the top of the list, but I could see part of it. And again, I think this is on a spectrum and it really the whole thing is expanded around the Mr. B story. MKBHD platform changes overall, I think it's part of it.
- [19:11]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, it's interesting too. I'm just thinking now as you were talking, it was like, oh, is this the satisfaction algorithm thesis? Is that really more of a YouTube thing or is that really more of just a shift in viewer behavior, audience behavior?
- [19:23]
Sean Cannell
You know what I mean, what they're clicking on, what they're not clicking on.
- [19:25]
Nathan Eswine
Yeah, because I feel like either these algorithm trends, like something like that, that, well, that it always follows how we're viewing things and how our behavior changes. And so I actually, I totally, I totally think this is, this has legs for sure in this, in this whole conversation. So the fourth theory for why views are declining is this connected TV context shift thesis, which is posing that as YouTube becomes a living room platform, as we were talking about competing with Netflix, Disney plus, the algorithm on YouTube is going to increasingly favor lean back content. So like video, podcasts, conversations, even some sort of show format that's happening and over in there and that YouTube's going to prioritize this content actually over the fast paced mobile native style that has kind of defined things previously. So what do you, what do you make of this? I kind of shared a little bit of how like I'm living this out in real time in my living room. But what do you think?
- [20:19]
Sean Cannell
Well, so since Mr. Beast is kind of the through line of this episode, one of the things that I think is fascinating is personally I like to avoid extremes like some people, people want to make the extreme that let's call the over optimized retention edited Mr. Beast style video is dead. That would be an extreme statement because my observation is Mr. Beast Content feels the exact same to me. Like he might have slowed down and like he stopped yelling, but his episodes are still like I'm standing on the. I mean I feel like it's still yelling. It's like still the same format. I guess here's the point too is like the extreme of saying so we must all slow down and it's all chill hop ambient. It's all no, like YouTube's still a place for every different type of content. A mashup of monster truck destruction meets a channel I was looking at recently is called Study with Me. And this channel is crushing at a million subscribers and they set up a camera at these really cool spots and stream and or upload a video that's 1, 3, 7 hours of just studying with rain noise in a real environment. YouTube is such a Multi opportunity, multi niche, multi topic, multi tone type of a platform. So yes, the connected TV context shift thesis is 100% true. TV is definitely dividing views the experience on TV lean back. My point is people can lean back on their couch and play a very fast paced Mr. Beast video and still enjoy it. Yeah, when I've checked out Beast games it's the pace of that too. I'm not actually super into it. I'm like there's like it's too. I get people like game shows, they want lots of movement, things happening, new things introduced, etc, that's actually just not even my content preference. But I think the mistake is to over extend the whole platform's changed. I don't know, you know. So yes, I think it's a part of the conversation. I think the bigger thing is people are looking for long form experiences. TV show lengths that could be as short as 25 minutes, 28 minutes and certainly 44 or video podcasts and other things as well. So when it. So when we think about like just a fast paced mobile native style is, you know, the study that we're kind of referencing here is like, yeah, I don't know. I don't think Mr. Beast is mobile native only. Yeah, he's a very like for the people who like his content. That's a very enjoyable desktop experience TV experience. And you still gotta dial in your personal tone. I think it is to me it's more of a knowing who your audience is, knowing the vibe you want, but absolutely being aware that the level of consumption happening on TVs is massive. So what does that mean for every creator listening to this? If YouTube still feels confusing, slow or stuck? Listen up. Maybe you've been planning to start, maybe you've been kind of posting, maybe you've been waiting for the right time. 2026 is going to punish that mindset. Creators and business owners who move right now are going to own this next year. The ones who don't will be invisible. And this isn't theory. This is the exact system we're using right now to help creators get real views, build momentum fast and monetize their content in multiple ways. During the sprint, you'll learn how to get traction with a single video, build a channel that attracts subscribers, and follow a proven system that works in 2026, not five years ago. And listen, I know that life is busy and that's why this event is designed for quick wins and not overwhelm. It's free, it's live, we're doing a ton of giveaways of tech and prizes. And it's designed for where YouTube is headed next. If YouTube is something you know you need to take seriously this year, then now is your time to act. Just go to ytsprint.com to register for free or click the link in the show notes. Let's jump back into the episode. So what does that mean for every creator listening to this? What's your what. What is it like to experience you on a tv? Is your content optimized for that? What is it? What could happen if you got some viewers spending 22 minutes with you leaning back? And what content could you create next? With that in mind, I think connected TVs the math is telling us we need to be paying attention. So that's definitely a big one.
- [24:39]
Nathan Eswine
No, that's huge. And I think it would be fascinating too if you're listening to this, like, hop into your YouTube studio, get in those analytics and like actually see the dominant device types. It'd just be curious. Yeah, you may not because some people may not even know. Right. It's like, oh wow, actually like 23% of my viewership is on TV. Like what's going on there? So I think that's a worthwhile little quick homework assignment. But the fifth thesis here I think tags along right off. The fourth one is that this audience fatigue thesis, which is kind of arguing that after the years of every creator trying to copy the MrBeast playbook, hooks in the first five seconds, retention, editing, manufactured stakes like all this stuff. Right. That the audience can sense a formula, the content can become formulaic. And we know what we're kind of tuning into, tuning in now they're tuning out. And that there's actually some data on more authentic content outperforming this polished pace. Thoughts on this one? I know we just kind of walk
- [25:33]
Sean Cannell
through this a little bit. Yeah, I mean I think my thoughts. I kind of already hit it that I, I think it could be overrated that like, oh, raw and authentic content outperforms fast paced content. No, it just depends. I think it depends on what the audience expectation is. In my opinion. I think both are winning. We are just seeing. When we see a trend, we see a counter trend. And is there audience fatigue? Is there burnout to certain types of content? Have lots of creators copied Mr. Beast? I think for sure. So you do see diminishing returns with that. But then you could also say have a lot of business creators copied Alex Hermosi. Yeah, yeah. And so with anything, I think there is, there's this book or Phrase in marketing that says marketers ruin everything. And at the end of the day, if you're a YouTube creator, you're a marketer, you're trying to put out a billboard, your thumbnail, and a headline, your title, to get someone's attention, to click on your video, and then to optimize the whole thing to keep retention. So things shift. And so when marketers ruin everything, it just means that maybe there's something on YouTube that worked for a while, but there's going to be a point in time when you need to pivot or reinvent yourself. So I don't know so much that it is a full fatigue with Mr. Beast playbook, let's say. Yeah, or whoever, whatever sub niche is, maybe think the big creator in your niche or related niche and like, everyone started doing it their way, and that playbook gets outdated if you're copying somebody else. I think it could just be audience fatigue in general. Audiences fatigue. Audiences get older, they watch you for a while, audiences learn the thing. I mean, as an education creator, that's something you really gotta ask yourself. It's like, people might love you, they followed you for a while, they've stayed connected with you, but then they fall off, and you're like, man, what did I do for them to fall off? You didn't do anything wrong. They learned what you teach.
- [27:28]
Nathan Eswine
That's good. Yeah.
- [27:29]
Sean Cannell
So they moved on to the next thing they want to learn. They moved on to the next thing that they're into. So audience fatigue is real in general. So I think what we could see from these five things, you know, we mentioned five different thesises as to why our views declining. I don't know what your take is. I think it's all of them. I think. I mean, and it's contextual. It depends on the situation.
- [27:51]
Nathan Eswine
Yes.
- [27:52]
Sean Cannell
And if we zoom out a little bit, the thing that's fascinating is when you think about Mr. Beast, you could say, oh, yeah, it could be because of the homepage and it could be because of shorts, and it could be because his audience fatigue a little bit. But you, you know, you can't measure something like this, especially at his skin scale in isolation. There was some controversies. He went through a ton of controversies with the Beast games, some stuff with former employee, even the culture, some investigations and views dropped related to that. But what people said was that these view trends lasted longer than the quote, unquote, mini scandal or scandal, you know, should have lasted. So it's hard to say. I think, what the listener. We'll cover these Two strategies of what you could do next. But I think the listener should ask. I think the listener should be aware of these platform trends, because knowledge is power. So there is. It's like, okay, knowledge. What's happening on the platform? Oh, I have a little peace of mind that. Shoot. Even if bigger creators are experiencing some disruption, that gives me some peace of mind. But I think that brings us to the next part. It's like, kind of, what are we going to do about. Or is there still opportunity?
- [28:55]
Nathan Eswine
100%. And I think the opportunity is really there. I think there's good news for new and small creators. And the first big thing to really take seriously is this idea that because views are being more distributed, right. That there really is an opportunity for new channels to show up and, like, pop off. I mean, literally, we just talked about Sherry a little bit ago, who's, like, in her 70s first video. Boom. But. And I watched that video. Sean. What's interesting, too, about that video is I don't even know if Sherry knows it. I mean, granted, she did go through our. Our challenge ytsprint.com for the full framework about creating this kind of content, but she knew what she was doing, man. Like, the title and thumbnail, right? Like, it was dialed in. It was emotional. There's an open loop. I click in, and I think she's actually. She's reading from a script that she put together, but she is also just recounting a personal story. So I think whatever you make of these five theories, the good news is, okay, I like to try to funnel this back down to, like, a coaching mindset, like, as if we're leaving this podcast episode. What's your action step? I think the action step is to really get clear on, okay, here's these five, the theories. Trying to do a little bit of an audit on yourself and your channel and your audience and trying to think about just being honest. Okay? Like, based on what I'm seeing, based on what I'm noticing, based on even the research I'm doing in my niche, like, how can I step in? I'd almost want to say, you know, kind of like a David and Goliath situation. Like, man, get out there. Like, go kind of like, chest up. Look at these big channels. Look at what's going on. Because I actually believe there's no reason you couldn't. If I can phrase it this way, couldn't take some viewership. Like, you couldn't also be shown up. Your videos also can't compete at the same level. If you understand right? How YouTube works and how to make a video that can pop through.
- [30:35]
Sean Cannell
Yeah. And I actually. One of the big trends I'm noticing that I think is a massive opportunity is you can always bank on human nature. And the truth about humans is humans are emotional. And I'm witnessing. And I think we're going to actually continue to see an open gap in an opportunity to start YouTube because a lot of people are going to quit or not start because of this information.
- [31:02]
Nathan Eswine
Wow.
- [31:03]
Sean Cannell
And. And what I mean is this really, like, already people are listening to this, that will make excuses and they'll sit on the sideline. It'll be like, man, you know, I've been thinking about starting YouTube for three months, six months, nine months, maybe multiple years. And now I listen to this episode and it just seems like there's so many negative headwinds that maybe I'm just not going to start or I'm going to delay starting, or also when views go down, I'm going to quit. Like, if my views have taken a hit, if things have taken a hit, sometimes people are tired, they maybe had a run for a while. And so banking on human nature is when certain seasonal shifts happen in an industry, there could be a level of attrition. People quit, people slow down, people give up, and people don't start it because there's legitimate challenges. But what I want to challenge, the person that's listening to this, you can flip your perspective because, you know, Nathan, if we were to go back to 1983, the year I was born, and you were to turn on the news and listen to politicians talking about the economy, what kind of stuff will we hear? Gas prices are surging. It's all the night. Price of oil is higher. Political conflict. Yes, Somebody might get on there. If they were talking about, you should start a business, there'd be somebody else arguing with them. No, you shouldn't. Business is too risky. Yeah, it's too risky. Risky. You should just go get a secure job. Like, what's actually, we think things are so crazy in 2026. Like where. Okay, you know, the negative headwinds or the challenges out there, you know, there's how many marketing messages there are. It would actually been the same narrative. And what happened back in 1983, 42 years ago? Well, people still started businesses. They still started. But now you fast forward to today and back then, there wasn't AI tools, there wasn't algorithmic reach for someone like Sherry to start from scratch. We're not trying to overhype that story. It's Just proof that it's possible. So that's a big takeaway for me. We're just gonna see people drop out of the game and that's an interesting window of opportunity for the listener that can perceive it like that's, that's good news actually. If people are dropping out of the game and some of the old timers are also retiring or moving on, who's stepping in for the next generation? Who's stepping into YouTube right now? Because the macro numbers are still there. So good news for small creators. Two big ideas you mentioned. One, views are being more widely distributed, which means new channels and small channels can get a piece of those views. And, and big idea number two, if views are down, income can still be up. So for the ad dependent creator, this is bad news. If you were counting on views to pay your bills, then an over 50% decline in views is catastrophic. It's sad no matter what. But that's really not. That is a direct hit to your income. And of course views going down could be a direct hit to your income no matter what because it's less traffic. However, you can build a moat of security around you by diversifying your income streams. That's not a new idea probably to most listeners. I think the challenge for most listeners is what exactly should my business model be? It's like oversimplified. It's like what do you do is you like create channel, create course set up, funnel and like you've kind of. But have you thought deeply about the money plan for your specific channel in a 2026 environment? That's a topic for another day. But if views are down, income can still be up. And by the way, we will be going into that deeply on YouTube sprint yt sprint.com it's called YouTube Growth Sprint. It is a four day event where you, Logan, myself, the rest of our Think Media coaches, we're doing four sessions over four days talking about what's working now on YouTube and talking about how to adapt to all these changes. Because you can still get views and you can still make money on YouTube if you do it in the way that's working right now. So if you want to register for that, we'll put a link in the show notes or you can go to ytsprint.com to be a part of that free four day YouTube growth event podcast.
- [35:20]
Nathan Eswine
Let us know what you think. What do you think of these theories? What are you noticing? What are you seeing on your channel? What are you committing to? Because of this conversation, we love to connect with you you down below. Please let us know what you thought of this episode, like rate share, review wherever you watch or listen. This is the Think Media Podcast. I'm Nathan Eswine, and I can't wait to connect with you in a future episode.