Transcription
Every day, thousands of small YouTube creators give up. Most creators quit before making it to video 20 because the truth is, YouTube takes time. It needs more data than you realize, and in that time, it's easy to get discouraged, to compare yourself to others, and to stress about your circumstances.
I'm going to explain the invisible growth phase that happens before every channel's breakthrough and how to survive it. I've been through this moment several times, and it never gets easy. Let's talk about why you shouldn't quit.
I said this in a video a while back, and it's proven to be more true than I ever realized. You see, success on YouTube isn't immediate. Turns out, your content might have been great all along, and it simply takes YouTube time to figure that out.
Growing on YouTube is like planting a tree. You can give it water, give it sunlight, tend to it every day, but you won't see the fruits immediately. Think about what happens when you plant a tree. For months, sometimes years, you see very little visible growth. The sapling looks fragile. You might wonder if it's growing at all. But beneath the surface, something important is happening. It's developing a root system, building its foundation, and gathering strength.
This is exactly how it works on YouTube. You spend every day thinking about your channel, how to make better content, day in and day out. But the algorithm has to juggle hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of different channels. It's trying to analyze your video through its SEO and performance with your community. Every once in a while, it'll show you to more people than normal in a short burst to collect a bigger data set, but it takes time to know what to do with that. All the while, established creators have already gone through this process. They'll get priority because their content has already been considered.
Those videos with only 100 views? They're not failures. They're your roots spreading. Every video you make strengthens that foundation. Every person who watches is like a bit of water nourishing your channel. Every comment is sunlight helping it grow. You're building something that takes time to mature, and the hard part is not being able to see the fruits until later.
Let me show you something. This video of mine took 100 days to reach 999 views, and then something amazing happened. It found its audience. I hadn't made a 3D printing video before this one, and I haven't haven't made one since, and now it's my fifth most-viewed video on this channel. Or look at this one. It did well, but then after 6 months, it blew up and got the channel monetized overnight. This isn't uncommon. This is the norm. This is the almighty algorithm at work.
One of the biggest misconceptions about YouTube is that the algorithm somehow punishes small creators. This isn't true. The algorithm has one job: to match videos with the viewers most likely to enjoy them. The problem is, is that it's slow, and you can't see it working. YouTube doesn't care if if you have five subscribers or 5 million. What it cares about is whether the people who watch your videos engage with them. Do they watch to the end? Do they like or comment? Do they watch another one of your videos afterwards?
When starting out, YouTube is essentially running experiments with your content. It shows your video to a small sample of people, and if they engage, it shows it to more. If they don't, it stops. And it can be hard to prove that your stuff is worth watching if the video itself doesn't have views. The thing to keep in mind is that this process isn't hours or days. It's weeks to months. You don't need everyone to like your videos. You just need the right people to find them.
And if you want to stay ahead on exactly how to help the right viewers discover your content, I share tested and true tips and tactics in My Weekly Newsletter. The link is in the description.
Now, let's talk about consistency, but not in the way you might expect. The most important form of consistency isn't uploading on a perfect schedule. It's consistently showing up for the long haul. 90% of creators quit within their first 20 videos. They plant the seed, don't see immediate growth, and abandon the garden. But here's what happens when you stick with it: one, your skills naturally improve with each video; two, you build a small but loyal audience; three, your library of content grows, increasing your discoverability; and four, YouTube gathers more data about who enjoys your content.
I'll let you in on a little secret: it's often video 20, 30, or even 50 that finally breaks through, not because it was dramatically better than video 10, but because those previous videos laid the groundwork.
So, how do you actually survive long enough to see growth? Here are four practical strategies. First, redefine success. Early on, views and subscribers are the wrong metrics to focus on. Instead, you want to track things like the skills you're developing, completion rates of your videos, comments and genuine connections, and the consistency of your output. Second, you want to find your creator community. Connect with other small channels in your niche, comment on their videos, join Discord servers, participate in communities. This provides support, collaboration opportunities, and keeps you motivated. Third, create with intention. Don't just chase trends or copy what's popular. Ask yourself, "What value am I providing that no one else is?" Even in crowded niches, your unique perspective is your advantage. And fourth, embrace the process. The creators who succeed aren't the most talented or well-connected. They're the ones who didn't quit. They're the ones who fell in love with the process of creation itself, and not just the results.
Right now, someone out there is looking for exactly the content you create, and they just haven't found you yet. Your job isn't to blow up overnight. It's to keep showing up, keep improving, keep nurturing your channel until those people find you. Remember, the videos you're making today are creating the roots for your future success. The growth you can't see is still growth.
So, the next time you feel discouraged by low views or slow subscriber growth, remind yourself: every big, successful creator started as a small, unpolished channel that needed time and consistent care. If you stop tending to yours, you'll never see a bloom. Keep creating. Your audience is out they're waiting for you.
If you're a small creator watching this, drop a comment below sharing one thing you're proud of creating, regardless of how many views it got. Let's celebrate the seeds we're planning together. And if you haven't started yet, and if you're wondering if you should take the plunge, there's literally no better time to become a Creator. Just start. Start before you're ready.
When I started YouTube, I had to learn all this the hard way, and I'm glad that I can share my experience with you and help you to learn these lessons quicker than I did. I just made a video going over the 28 things that I wish I knew sooner, and I think that you'll get a lot of value out of it. Do me a favor and watch it next.