The New "Small Channel Advantage" (and how to make the most of it)

Hey there friends. Welcome to today's live stream. I'm so excited to be here live with you guys. It has been a hot minute since I've been live on YouTube and it just is so great to be able to, you know, be live and interact with you guys in this way. I see we already have some people saying hi in the chat um with first comment and hi. So, hey there John um and Tangi. Not sure if that I'm saying your name right, but so good to have you guys here. So, today's topic is the small channel advantage. I'm going to go ahead and share. I've got some slides here for you guys so that we can kind of stay on track because I've got a lot of information to share with you. So, let me know in the chat if you can see those slides. So, YouTube has changed a lot in the past year or so. And 2026 is perhaps the best year ever since, you know, the first couple years with YouTube to start a new channel. I know a lot of people are thinking that maybe the boat has sailed, that it's too late to start on YouTube, but that could not be further from the truth because of some major algorithm shifts that YouTube has made lately. So, that's really what I want to share with you today so that if maybe you've been thinking about starting a channel, you can see what an amazing time this is to do that and you can jump on the ship before it does sail because I'm sure that it's not going to be as favorable of a time to start a channel as it is right now. So, let's get on into this. So, the big idea here is that the algorithm really now favors small creators. YouTube has basically rewritten its playbook and the platform is now prioritizing individual video performance over channel authority. So what this means basically is that now instead of deciding whether a YouTube video should be promoted to more people based on just the size and the authority basically meaning like the age and the clout that a channel has. Now YouTube is much more than ever evaluating each and every video on its own merit. Now, yes, bigger channels that have thousands of subscribers already, they will get more views out of the gate for sure because YouTube is going to show that video to all of their subscribers. Whereas, if you have a small channel with no subscribers, then you don't get that advantage. But beyond that, as YouTube is now testing your video with new audiences, it's trying out suggesting your video to new people and then if they respond well, and we're going to talk a little bit more later on about that. And also on Wednesday, we're going to be talking about like what's working on YouTube in 2026. And we're going to talk specifically then about like what really works to get like what YouTube is looking for with a video. But right now, what I want you to know is that beyond that initial push to subscribers, YouTube is now testing your new video, even if you have a tiny channel with just as many people as they test a video from a larger channel with. And if your video gets as good of or better than signals from the viewers, meaning that the viewers are clicking on it, the viewers are watching sending signals that they are satisfied. Hint hint, that's the main thing YouTube is looking for. Then YouTube is going to continue to push your video out. Now, this has always been true to some extent, but it used to be that there was quite kind of a limit, quite a cap. Um, it was quite difficult to break through if you didn't already have a big channel. And so, you often had to post for years even, certainly many months before YouTube saw your channel as having enough authority. They trusted your channel enough essentially that they were going to promote it to very many people because it was just like seen as a little bit risky. But today they realize that the number one thing that people want is good fresh content from new creators. People actually are looking to discover new creators who they love. And so they are testing that content out from new channels very quickly. And you have an incredible opportunity to potentially go viral with each and every new video you post. Even if your channel is literally brand new. I have seen this working on channels from clients of mine where they started their channel and their first video literally took off. I've had this happen in the past just few months here. I've started a couple new channels, posted the first video. The first video I posted got 5,000 10,000 views. That is insane. So, a few more things we're going to be talking about today um is a little bit more about why this is the best time ever to be starting a YouTube channel, how the algorithm has changed to radically favor brand new channels, and three smart strategies that you can use to work with this new algorithm for faster growth. So, a little just to dive a little bit deeper here into what I mean when I'm talking about video level testing. So, first of all, YouTube is aggressively testing individual videos. So every

video that you upload is getting pushed out to an initial test audience within even just the first few hours, certainly within the first few two days after publishing. And YouTube is measuring how your audience, well not really your audience, your new audience, these new viewers of this video are responding. And it does this regardless of your subscriber count or your channel history. The second thing here, the second way that the algorithm has kind of changed is that now small channels are getting real impressions and you they're getting them without having to fight for this. So, I see that a lot of you are understanding this. I see saying yes, yes in the chat. So, I definitely appreciate that. It's great to have you all here. Let's talk about one more way that the algorithm has really changed and that is that now every upload is a fresh start. So, this goes whether you have a small channel or a big channel. It's something I've been experimenting with on my bigger channels as well, that every time you upload a new video, you have the opportunity to have that video go viral, even if you've had some videos in the past that have flopped. Now, yes, your channel's past history is still going to have an impact on that video, that new video, and how much that new video gets pushed out. But again, more individual video testing, more aggressive testing with the individual videos than ever before. And so we have more like opportunities than we've ever had in the past. So you don't have to worry so much about maybe making a misstep. Maybe that you're posting videos about topics that are too broad at first and then will that affect your ability to narrow down later on or vice versa. You can start more narrow and then go more broad in the future because it is so much easier to pivot a channel today than it ever has been before. I have a client who she has had her channel for a few years now posting videos getting hardly any views. I'm talking somewhere between like five to 100 views, but normally closer to five vid views per video. And the reason she was getting such poor views was she was basically like reposting content that she had created for other platforms. So, it wasn't really curated for YouTube and she didn't really, you know, understand how the algorithm worked, which is totally fine. We all start there. And so, she was posting videos that were very short, but were not shorts. So, they were videos that were just like a couple minutes long, which is not really what the algorithm favors these days. Anyway, well, a couple months ago, she decided to start a podcast. So, she wasn't even thinking about her YouTube strategy. She just decided, I'm going to start a podcast. She starts posting these new podcast episodes on YouTube. Now there are two things that are dramatically different um aside from the content itself. You know obviously like she had a slightly different um you know way she was approaching things but first one was the videos were way longer. So now they're 30 45 minutes long. Second thing was she labeled it as a podcast. So she set up a podcast playlist in YouTube. Now YouTube responded so well. literally the first video that she posted in this new podcast series, despite her channel history of that's a few years long of getting just a handful of views on every video. First new format video, she gets over 5,000 views on it. I think that was just insane. It was so I thought encouraging, so hopeful to see that, you know, your past on YouTube, whether it is you just want to start a new channel now or you want to pivot your current channel, it really does not define your opportunities. Yes, it is you. I see Lori's here in the chat. She says, "It was me. " Yes, it was. It was an incredible story and I'm so happy for you and, you know, to be able to share this as an encouragement to others and I'm so glad you're here as well, Lori. That's awesome. Okay, so AI powered discovery. So, this is another way that the algorithm has shifted and that is favoring new creators, which is that there are more ways for your videos to get discovered than ever before. It used to be that again you had to really rely on a lot of history with your channel and it was very focused on search. Well, now there is a lot of AI suggesting of content. This happens both on YouTube where the AI powered algorithm is now aggressively suggesting content to people, but also now content is being more aggressively suggested to people over on Google and even in tools like ChatGpt. Maybe you saw and actually I'm not sure if we've posted this video yet. I just recently made a video about how to get ChatGpt to promote your videos. Yes, it was posted a couple weeks ago. So, maybe you've watched that one. If not, it's a really good one about how to get ChatGpt to actually be promoting your videos to new viewers, which is kind of crazy. And if you are a newer, smaller channel, it's just so great that there are now so many opportunities for your videos to get promoted to people. And so you don't necessarily have to play like the algorithm game on YouTube as much and

certainly not the search game where you are just focusing on keywords. Instead, you really can make individual videos that are just high quality and are focused on one specific topic. There's a lot more flexibility there. Um, a couple other notes I have here on this slide. One is that niche specificity wins. So, the more focused each video is, the better AI can match it with interested viewers. Also, since now each video is tested mostly independently, channels no longer need to be as niche or as focused as they did in the past. So, I want to just be really clear about this. These days, it is better for a individual video to be more focused. You can really like nerd out on one individual topic if you want to. You don't need to just make a video generically about um how to lose weight or how to make money online or something like that. You can get very specific on a very specific topic about like some specific software or some specific tactic or technique or um an obscure uh maybe workout style or something like that. and the algorithm, and I use that term very loosely, these AI suggesting tools, they are better than ever at finding the right viewers and suggesting it to the people who will specifically love that individual thing that you're talking about. And that also means that now your channel doesn't actually have to be quite as focused as it did in the past because the algorithm is going to be picking and choosing individual videos for individual viewers, which is pretty cool and might be kind of a relief to some of you who have been having trouble like narrowing down a specific niche or fitting yourself into a box. Okay. And then this last thing that I've got here on this slide is that packaging beats popularity. So, a compelling title and thumbnail from a zero subscriber channel will outperform generic packaging from an established creator. Your subscriber count is no longer a disadvantage. So, basically what I'm talking about here is that again like these individual videos are getting um their own opportunities to really um thrive. And so, yes, again, out of the gate, the video from a bigger subscriber channel, a channel with more subscribers, is going to get more views, but as a little bit of time goes on, if your video has uh superior packaging, meaning it has a more compelling thumbnail, title, one that's catching people's eye and getting people interested, your video from your tiny new channel absolutely can surpass a video from a much bigger channel. So, make sure that you are packaging each of your videos to the very best of your ability. [clears throat] Now, this is what I was alluding to earlier in the video. We'll talk more about this on Wednesday with my live stream, but viewer satisfaction is the new currency. So, YouTube has really shifted its entire philosophy from rewarding channel legacy to now rewarding viewer satisfaction. This single change has demolished the barriers that previously prevented new creators from competing with established channels. Click-through rate. Okay, this one is huge. Your thumbnail and your title combination need to compel viewers to click. This ma matters a lot more than your channel's age and size. However, this is not the end of the game anymore. It used to be there were many years where these were really the only things that YouTube was looking at, just the click-through rate and the retention. Okay, still very important. But now YouTube is actually looking at something bigger picture, something that the algorithm previously could not comprehend. And that is the viewer satisfaction. In other words, did the viewer enjoy watching your video? Not just that they keep watching because there was some clickbait in the thumbnail and they are watching because they are waiting for that time when that crazy thing happens in the video. Okay, I'm sure you've watched videos like that in the past and they do get you to click. keep on watching, but you might end up leaving them feeling a little bit disappointed, a little bit like there was some bait and switch and like you kind of don't want to watch videos from that creator in the future. Or maybe you're feeling a little disillusioned with YouTube overall. Well, YouTube has really clued in on that and they are now focusing on figuring out viewer satisfaction. Things like, does the viewer click the like button and most importantly, what does the viewer do after watching your video? Do they go on to watch another video from your channel? Do they go on to keep watching YouTube videos? And not just the very next action, because this new AI powered algorithm is so powerful, YouTube can actually now do things like measure their session lengths after watching your video. So in other words, how long did they stay on YouTube after watching your channel? And do they eventually come back to your channel? And this is going to have a direct impact on whether or not the algorithm is promoting your

videos in the future. So, make sure that you're not just making videos that are shiny and appealing and clickbait, but actually are helping the viewers and that the viewers will really enjoy. [snorts] Okay, last thing on the slide. New creators with strong viewer satisfaction metrics can outperform established channels from their very first upload. I think I've harped on that point enough, so we'll move on here. So in conclusion kind of here we want to talk just about why 2026 really is your golden opportunity. So, in the past, you might have felt like you have missed the ship, like the ship has sailed, like maybe you are too late to start a YouTube channel because YouTube is so saturated these days. There's so much content on there. But the truth is that even though there are more creators on YouTube than ever before, there are also more viewers on YouTube than ever before and they're consuming more content. They're watching more videos than ever before. And so, there is a higher demand on YouTube for videos. So while there is more competition, there is much more demand. So you are not too late from that perspective, but also you are not at all too late because this is kind of the golden age of starting a new YouTube channel. And I bet that you actually have noticed this. I bet that as you've been watching YouTube videos over the past few months or the past year, you've noticed that there are a lot more videos getting suggested to you from tiny channels. A lot more videos suggested to you that don't have that many views yet. And some of them you're like, there's a reason that doesn't have very many views. But some of them look interesting to you and you click on them and you watch them. I've also noticed that YouTube actually has been hiding the view count more and more. They're making it more and more obscure. Both the view count and especially the subscriber count. Be on the lookout for this as you're watching YouTube videos later this week. When you are watching a video, look down at the subscriber uh nope. Look at the channel name under the video and see if you can see the number of subscribers that channel has. I bet that you can't. At least if you're watching on your phone and on desktop, sometimes you can, sometimes you can't. Now, you certainly can see if you go and you click on that channel and you look, but I think that YouTube realized that sometimes people were dismissing or discounting videos. They were less interested in videos when they noticed that the channel didn't have very many subscribers yet. So they're kind of obscuring that now. They're making it a little bit harder to notice that. So you not just the algorithm, but you can judge each video on its own merit. Okay, so that is everything for today's video. I just wanted to share with you before we wrap this up about creator fasttrack because we are currently starting today we are enrolling for the next class of creator fasttrack. So, Creator Fastrack is our threemonth basically YouTube boot camp for people to help them get their first 10,000 subscribers absolutely as quickly as possible. So, three-month program, the goal is to get your first thousand subscribers and it is a very accountability focused program. While there is a very thorough curriculum with guided video lessons that just walk you every step of the way through the whole process, um the main thing I think the most important thing that sets this program apart is that I'm right there with you inside of it. We do group coaching calls every month and we have um a discussion group where we can send messages, private messages back and forth so that as you're working through the material and you're growing your channel, you can reach out to me and my team with any questions you have or anything that you need help with. So through this channel um program, what am I trying to say? Through this program, you are going to learn exactly what to create, when to post it, and how to optimize every element for maximum growth. And most importantly, you're going to have that access to that support for when those challenges arise. So, right now, obviously, today is February 23rd. Enrollment just opened. We have early bird pricing available for these three days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, so through Wednesday, February 25th. And right now we've got that early bird pricing which is a big discount. But if you join today, there's also some extra bonuses for you. So in addition to the complete creator fasttrack program, you can also get access to a really nice um YouTube shorts master class with Jenny Hoyos. Daniel Hoyos is one of the top YouTube shorts creators on the platform and she just broke everything down in an over one-hour long master class where I interviewed her and she just walked us step by step through exactly what we need to do to master that shorts algorithm to work really well with it to make really compelling shorts. I loved that class I did with Jenny. And then also by joining today you'll get access to the script writing master class with George Blackman. So, I don't know if you're familiar with George Blackman, but he is one of the top script writers

here on YouTube. He's written for some really incredible multi-million subscriber channels, and he's a master at creating videos that hook viewers and also get them to keep on watching all the way through the end. And not just that, but that they really enjoy watching. So, if you are looking for some help with your script writing to make your videos way more compelling, then I know that you will love getting your hands on that script writing master class with George Blackman. And that's going to be available to everybody who registers for creator fast track today. And then finally, there's one more sweet bonus for those of you who join today, and that is the complete video production planning guide and workflow. So this is actually a tool you can use for planning your video production and for going through the process of producing your videos. It's a tool that we have built both in a sauna and in ClickUp. So if you use either of those um project management tools already, then these are workflows you can use to make sure that your video moves through all the stages of production. Whether that is you working with a team, video editor, etc., or you're doing the things on your own, but you just want to make sure that nothing is slipping through the cracks because the truth is producing a YouTube video is a pretty big project and especially if you are posting videos every single week, there is a lot of moving parts. So, I know that this complete system for producing your videos is going to really help you. Okay, so I think that I've got just one last slide here, which is just to recap that this cohort for Creator Fastrack, which is our 2026 cohort, is kicking off on Monday, March 2nd, so one week from today. So you can enroll um I believe through Sunday, don't quote me on that. Um if you go to creatorfastrack. com/join, which is the link to join, you'll see the date that the program is um enrollment period is open through. Um, but we've got that in that early bird pricing available today, tomorrow, and the next day. So, through end of day Wednesday. Um, and then we will get started this coming Monday. So, it'll be three months of us working together to get your channel to grow as quickly as possible, get it your first 10,000 subscribers so you can get it monetized and just off to an incredible start. If you have been thinking about starting a YouTube channel for a while now, I just want to encourage you that now really is the best opportunity that there has been in a long time and I'm sure the best opportunity there is going to be for quite a while. I don't know if the time will ever be as good again as it is right now. So whether you decide to join us in creator fasttrack or not, I hope that you take this inspiration and you decide to start your channel because mean starting my YouTube channel truly was the best business decision I have ever made. All right, well that is everything for today's live stream. I'm so glad you all were able to join me here. It was so fun to have you. We're going to be doing two more of these live streams this week. So today's Monday. We're also going to do one on Tuesday tomorrow, same time, which is noon Pacific. Um, and that's 3 p. m. Eastern. And then I'll also be going live on Wednesday at these same times as well. Um, tomorrow we are going to be talking about 10 things you should do after you upload a YouTube video to give it the best chances of success on YouTube as possible and help it get as many views as possible, which is obviously really important. when you've put all the time and effort into making a video, you want to do these 10 little things so that you get the best results from your efforts. And then on Wednesday, the live stream is going to be about what's working on YouTube in 2026. So, I'm going to be talking about some major algorithm changes and feature changes and really just the best strategy in terms of like how long should your videos be and what should you be focusing on in your videos and just several other things that are important to know about if you want to succeed on YouTube in 2026. So, I hope you enjoyed today's session. Again, super fun to be here live with you today and I hope to see you here again tomorrow. That's all for now. Here's to your success.