We gave our new strategy to a tiny channel (1.3k subs)
Their video went viral.
- 350k views in a tiny niche.
- 280x their average view count
- Then repeated it multiple times
So f**k it…. Here’s the strategy he used:
First things first, here’s the creator and his break out video.
@ollie_kirk8
Before we gave him our accelerator strategy:
- 1.3k subs
- Struggled to get any traction
- Recent videos under 1k views
Enter our new approach to YouTube.
A few years ago I realised all the tips, advice, podcasts are f****ng useless.
Unless you understand these 3 simple concepts.
Let’s break them down step by step so you can apply it to your channel:
1. Audience-strategy mapping
Most creators blindly follow mainstream advice:
- Bright thumbnails with colors
- Fast Paced Editing
- MrBeast style delivery
But if that doesn’t match your audience, it won’t work.
It’s a huge reason many stay stuck, including Ollie.
You need to map (match) your strategy to your audience.
We need to ask:
- Who is our audience?
- What do they value in a video?
- What do they like/dislike?
I like using this template to get a good idea of this.
This was covered in week 1 of the accelerator.
In his own words Ollie was “doing everything right on paper”
But he had an audience strategy mismatch.
65 year old cruise ship watchers don’t care about flashy edits or click on overly bright thumbnails.
It sounds so simple… but so many creators get this wrong.
They serve the wrong execution to their audience.
Ollie studied Golf, Gardening, cleaning channels.
But the next part was crucial to this all working…
2. YouTube pendulum position
Ok so we understand the audience match for our channel ✅
Next we need to find our position on the YouTube pendulum.
Why? So we can figure out where to get maximum leverage for our time.
A huge mistake I see is people not realising what phase they are in.
You could be in phase 1, but think you’re in phase 2.
Result: You’re trying so hard to Ideate and make thumbnails when your videos aren’t even watchable!
See how important knowing your position is?
The reality is you can’t fix everything at once.
Strategy = fixing and working on the most important thing right now for results.
Ollie realised he was in phase 2.
He had passed out of phase 1 (for his audience).
This sounds simple but is SO key.
So many “experts” would tell Ollie…
- You camera is low quality
- Look at shadow behind you
- You’re too low down
- Background boring
- You’ll never succeed like this
Can this shot be better? Of course! But it’s not what he needed to focus on.
3. Execute on leverage
Ok so we:
- Have audience match ✅
- Pendulum position ✅
Now we can easily identify where we can get the highest leverage on our time…
What are the levers that are going to lead to the biggest jump in performance?
Ideation was the first lever: we taught Ollie to look for:
Adjacent niches - study channels w/ similar audiences to yours.
Outliers - Look for videos with more than 3x a channels average.
CCN fit - Look for videos that can hit the core, casual & new viewers for your niche.
Just look at the difference between what he was doing right before finishing the cohort.
And compare to the after.
He put time into ideas. Since this idea he’s managed to double down and repeat it again with 150k views.
Thumbnails were the next lever.
Ollie has been putting a ton of focus into improving thumbnails.
He makes them:
- Clear, simple, less than 5 words
- Bright but not overly so
- Clearly shows cruise ship(s)
- Text creates a curiosity loop.
- Tiny details to add drama
He actually just changed a thumbnail on an under-performer…
And this is happening to it.
Why? He’s focusing on the highest leverage area of improvement for him: ideas and thumbnails
This shows what’s possible, even for small channels.
It’s obvious in hindsight, but shoutout to Ollie for being able to execute so well.
He deserves all the credit.
He’s literally just getting started. I bet he’ll be at 100k this time next year.
If you want this kind of help…
We’re running our next accelerator cohort in July.
- 8 weeks
- World Class YouTube strategy
- Direct support and feedback
Apply here before official launch tomorrow: accelerator.paddygalloway.com
And f**k it
One person who likes and retweets the top tweet gets a free scholarship.
Last time @itssarahamira won from a simple retweet!
Let’s see who’s lucky this time ❤️
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