How I Made $178K with a Single YouTube Video

Summary

This video discusses how content creators can stop being used by YouTube and instead use the platform to attract ideal clients and generate revenue. The speaker shares a proven strategy that has helped businesses, including an example of generating $178,000 in five days from one video. The method focuses on creating content optimized for ideal clients, developing it for high performance, and expanding reach across platforms. The speaker emphasizes quality, targeted content over high views, using YouTube’s algorithm to generate consistent leads and clients for long-term business growth.

Takeaways

• 💡 YouTube can either use you, or you can use YouTube strategically to grow your business and attract ideal clients.
• 🚀 The speaker has created a specific strategy that converts YouTube viewers into ideal clients, generating $178,000 in 5 days from one video.
• 🎯 Success on YouTube starts with knowing your ideal client and creating highly relevant content for them—not for a broad audience.
• ⚙️ The 'CODE' method is essential: Create content, Optimize for the algorithm, Develop videos for high performance, and Expand reach by sharing on other platforms.
• 📊 Low views can still lead to high conversions if the content is highly targeted to your ideal clients and addresses their specific pain points.
• 🔍 YouTube’s algorithm helps categorize your channel and shows your content to ideal clients if you consistently create targeted content.
• 📈 Metrics like retention rate (above 40%) and click-through rate (CTR between 4-10%) are crucial indicators of success for business-driven YouTube content.
• 🔥 Hot leads—clients ready to buy—respond best to hyper-targeted content, which often has fewer views but results in higher sales conversions.
• 📚 A call to action is essential for converting viewers into clients, whether it's sending cold leads to a free eBook or hot leads directly to a purchase page.
• 💼 The goal is not viral growth but aligned growth—creating content that resonates with a small, targeted audience for better business results.

Q & A

What is the main message of the video?

The video emphasizes how content creators, especially business owners, can use YouTube as a platform to generate clients and revenue, instead of being used by the algorithm for mere views and likes.

What is the 'Code Method' mentioned in the video?

The 'Code Method' stands for Content, Optimize, Develop, and Expand. It’s a strategy for creating highly relevant content for ideal clients, optimizing it for visibility, developing it for high performance, and expanding its reach across platforms.

How did the YouTuber generate $178,000 from a single video?

The YouTuber used a targeted strategy that focused on ideal clients, optimized the video for the YouTube algorithm, and paired it with a lead magnet, which led to a well-structured sales funnel involving email sequences and client calls.

What does the video suggest about the importance of YouTube metrics like views?

The video stresses that views alone aren't the most important metric. Metrics like retention rate and click-through rate (CTR) are more important for attracting and converting ideal clients.

Why does the video focus on 'low views and high conversion'?

The video explains that targeted content aimed at hot leads, even if it has fewer views, can convert better than broader content with higher views, leading to higher revenue and more ideal clients.

What are the three types of audiences on YouTube according to the video?

The video categorizes audiences into cold (new, window-shopping), warm (researching but not urgent), and hot (ready to invest). Each audience requires different types of content and calls to action.

What call-to-action strategies does the video recommend?

The video suggests tailoring calls to action based on audience type: cold leads to a lead magnet (e.g., eBook), warm leads to a webinar or video sales letter, and hot leads directly to a sales page or booking a call.

What is the significance of the 'YouTube flywheel' mentioned in the video?

The 'YouTube flywheel' is a concept where the YouTube algorithm starts working for the content creator by categorizing their channel as an authority in a specific niche, helping the channel reach more ideal clients through internal traffic sources like browse and suggested videos.

Why does the speaker discourage creating viral content for business growth?

The speaker explains that viral content may attract a broad and irrelevant audience, which confuses the YouTube algorithm and doesn’t help business owners reach their targeted clients. Instead, creating relevant, highly targeted content leads to better business results.

What does the term 'dollar per view' mean in the video?

Dollar per view is a measure of how much revenue a video generates per view. The video highlights that highly targeted content with fewer views can generate more revenue per view than broad content with high views but lower conversion rates.

Outlines

00:00

❓ Are You Using YouTube or Is YouTube Using You?

In this section, the speaker asks the audience a key question: Are they leveraging YouTube for their business or being exploited by the platform? They share that many content creators feel like they are not getting enough return from their efforts. The speaker emphasizes their own success and expertise in using YouTube to attract clients, highlighting case studies of people who scaled their businesses using their strategy.

05:01

📊 Understanding YouTube as a Business Tool

Here, the speaker explains the need to understand YouTube’s algorithm to either work for it or make it work for you as a business owner. They outline the 'code method,' which includes content creation, optimization, development, and expansion. These are critical steps to ensuring content reaches the ideal audience, leading to better client acquisition.

10:01

🚀 Turning Views into Revenue: Case Studies

The speaker gives specific examples of how different clients have turned a small number of views into significant revenue. They explain the importance of reaching targeted clients rather than going for high view counts, emphasizing that conversion is more important for business growth than broad reach.

15:02

📈 The Importance of Call to Action in Your Videos

This section breaks down the importance of a clear call to action in content, based on the audience’s stage of awareness. Whether it’s a lead magnet for cold leads or direct sales for hot leads, aligning the call to action with the viewer's readiness to buy is crucial for maximizing business outcomes.

🔥 Prioritizing Hot Content for Faster Results

The speaker advises focusing on 'hot' hyper-targeted content when starting out. This type of content attracts ready-to-buy clients and helps build early momentum for a business. It ensures a quicker sales cycle and allows for gathering testimonials and results that can further scale the business.

🔄 Adapting Your Call to Action Based on Business Goals

Here, the speaker discusses how to adjust call-to-action strategies depending on where a business is in its growth phase. They share a case where sending viewers to a lead magnet allowed them to educate potential clients, leading to higher quality sales calls and increased revenue without the need for a large audience.

📊 Tracking Key Metrics: Retention and Click-Through Rate

This section emphasizes the importance of tracking retention rates and click-through rates (CTR) over total views. The speaker explains how a high CTR with low retention can damage a video’s performance, stressing that retention is the most important metric for business success on YouTube.

💬 Qualitative Feedback: The Value of Comments

The speaker explains the significance of detailed comments as a form of qualitative feedback, showing that viewers are engaged and invested. These comments are key indicators of whether a business is reaching the right audience. Focusing on targeted content is critical to avoiding confusion in the YouTube algorithm and ensuring long-term growth.

💸 Dollar Per View: Targeted Views vs. Viral Growth

The speaker introduces the concept of 'dollar per view,' explaining how highly targeted content can generate more revenue per view compared to viral content. They illustrate this with a comparison between ad-based revenue and using YouTube strategically for business, advocating for the latter.

🎯 Aligning Your Content for Ideal Clients

In this segment, the speaker advises business owners to focus on creating content specifically for their ideal clients. They emphasize that YouTube should be used as a platform to provide value and serve a targeted audience, rather than trying to reach everyone.

🌍 Scaling Through Authority and Mentorship

The speaker explains that growing an online education business involves mastering a unique method, sharing expertise, and mentoring at scale. By leveraging credibility and client results, business owners can build trust and position themselves as authorities in their niche, which ultimately leads to more targeted business growth.

🔄 The YouTube Flywheel Effect

Here, the speaker introduces the YouTube Flywheel, a cycle where creating relevant content for ideal clients triggers YouTube’s internal traffic sources to position a channel in front of more targeted viewers. As a result, the channel’s growth becomes self-sustaining with minimal additional effort.

📚 Get the Free Ebook: Bulletproof Your Business Plan

The final call to action invites viewers to download the speaker’s free ebook, which provides 10 steps to scale a skill set and increase impact without trading time for money. The speaker reiterates that viewers can comment below or visit the link in the description to access the ebook, which offers valuable insights into growing an online education business.

Keywords

💡YouTube Algorithm

The YouTube algorithm is a set of rules and processes that determine how videos are suggested and ranked on the platform. It is a core component in deciding which content gets visibility based on factors like views, retention, and user engagement. In the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of 'working the algorithm' to reach ideal clients rather than letting the algorithm dictate views and subscribers without strategic intent.

💡Ideal Client

An ideal client is the specific audience that a business wants to target, consisting of people who are most likely to benefit from and purchase their products or services. The speaker highlights the need to create content that appeals directly to these ideal clients, rather than trying to attract a general audience. This focus helps ensure that the content is relevant and effective in converting viewers into clients.

💡Monetization

Monetization refers to the process of generating revenue from online content. In the context of the video, the speaker discusses monetization strategies for YouTube beyond traditional AdSense revenue. This includes using a well-defined strategy to convert viewers into paying clients through lead magnets, email sequences, and targeted calls to action. The goal is to maximize the financial return from a YouTube channel by leveraging it as a business tool.

💡Lead Magnet

A lead magnet is a marketing tool used to attract potential clients by offering a valuable resource, such as an ebook or guide, in exchange for their contact information. The speaker mentions using lead magnets to nurture 'cold' or 'warm' audiences, guiding them towards becoming paying clients. This process is a key part of the strategy described in the video for converting YouTube viewers into high-quality leads.

💡Retention Rate

Retention rate measures how long viewers watch a video after they click on it. It is an important metric because it indicates how engaging and relevant the content is to the audience. In the video, the speaker mentions that a retention rate above 40% is ideal for business owners using YouTube, as it signals to the algorithm that the content is valuable, leading to better placement in search results and recommendations.

💡Call to Action (CTA)

A call to action (CTA) is a statement designed to prompt an immediate response from the audience, such as downloading an ebook or booking a call. The speaker explains the importance of tailoring CTAs based on the audience's readiness to engage, with different actions suggested for 'cold,' 'warm,' and 'hot' leads. This strategic use of CTAs helps to effectively guide potential clients through the sales funnel.

💡Content Optimization

Content optimization involves adjusting various elements of a video, such as the title, description, and tags, to make it more discoverable and appealing to the algorithm. The speaker stresses the need to optimize every aspect of a video before publishing, ensuring it reaches the ideal clients. This step is crucial for making the content more visible within YouTube's search and recommendation systems.

💡YouTube Flywheel

The YouTube Flywheel is a concept where the YouTube algorithm continually pushes relevant content to more of the ideal audience once a channel is recognized as an authority in a specific niche. The speaker describes how understanding and leveraging this mechanism can create a self-sustaining cycle where high-quality, targeted content results in consistent visibility and client conversion without extra effort.

💡High Conversion Rate

High conversion rate refers to the effectiveness of a video in turning viewers into paying clients. The speaker explains that high-quality, targeted videos may not get many views, but they convert better because they address specific pain points of the ideal clients. This strategy focuses on the value of targeted engagement over sheer volume of views.

💡Low Views, High Conversion

This concept highlights the idea that videos do not need to go viral or reach a large audience to be successful in business terms. Instead, targeting a smaller, more specific audience can lead to higher conversion rates and greater revenue. The speaker provides examples where low-view videos resulted in significant business gains, emphasizing the importance of quality and relevance over quantity.

Highlights

YouTube creators often feel like they're putting in effort without seeing a return.

The speaker developed a strategy to turn YouTube viewers into ideal clients, which has generated significant revenue.

A specific YouTube video generated $178,000 in revenue in just 5 days for the speaker's business.

The speaker has taught this YouTube strategy to thousands of people in 47 countries, helping clients like Chelsea, a painter, and Denver, who made $155,000 in 5.5 weeks.

The key to success is understanding how YouTube works as a business owner and leveraging the algorithm to reach ideal clients.

The four pillars to success on YouTube are: Content, Optimization, Development, and Expansion (the CODE method).

Targeting content to the ideal client ensures better results and helps the algorithm categorize your channel correctly.

High conversion rates are more important than high views; targeted content for hot leads can result in more clients.

There are three types of leads on YouTube: cold, warm, and hot, and each requires a different approach to content and calls to action.

Call to action can be tailored to business needs, whether sending cold leads to a lead magnet or hot leads directly to purchase or book a call.

Retention rate and click-through rate (CTR) are the most important metrics to track for YouTube success, especially as a business owner.

The speaker emphasizes that views alone are not a good measure of success; targeted views and engagement are what drive business results.

YouTube videos can become evergreen sales tools, working on autopilot to generate leads and clients long after being posted.

The speaker generated $178,200 from a YouTube video with only 7,300 views, equating to $24 per view, showcasing the value of targeted content.

Creators should focus on aligning their content with their ideal audience rather than trying to reach everyone, which can dilute their impact.

Transcripts

in a recent video I asked you a very

important question are you using YouTube

or is YouTube using you based on the

feedback and the comments it appears

that quite a few of you feel like

YouTube is using you what I mean by that

is that you're putting all this time

energy and effort into creating content

but you aren't really seeing much of a

return or a reward from that work so

I've been using YouTube for my business

and to attract and magnetize ideal

clients even when I'm not working for a

very long time I created a very specific

strategy that turns viewers into ideal

science for your business and I've

taught thousands of people all over the

world in 47 different countries the same

strategy and I thought it' be really

helpful and valuable to break down

exactly how I use this strategy and

specifically how it generated

$178,000 in Revenue in just 5 days from

one YouTube video recently and like I

said this isn't just Theory this is what

I've been implementing for myself from

my clients for years like Chelsea an oil

painter who has scaled her online course

business to multiple six figures using

yoube Kitty Woodley a veterinarian who's

generated Le in clients on autopilot

from her channel for years now and most

recently Denver who turned 400

subscribers into

$155,000 in Revenue in just 5 and a half

weeks and has a booked solid calendar of

high quality leads but how how do you do

it first it's really important to

understand how YouTube works as a

business owner you are either going to

be working for the algorithm to give you

views subscribers and likes or you are

going to work the algorithm to put you

in front of Ideal clients all day long

so how do you do that well first we need

to understand the four key pillars of

cracking the code on YouTube if you're

serious about monetizing your expertise

this is what we do and like I said we've

helped thousands of people do this to

date and I put together a free ebook

with the 10 steps to scale your skill

set and 10x your impact without trading

time for money comment below with ebook

and we will comment and respond back

with the link to download it for free

this is the strategy that I created and

have implemented with my clients so it

breaks down to the code method it starts

with content which means you're creating

content that is highly relevant to your

ideal client not for everyone only for

your ideal client which will make sense

in just a second from there you optimize

so you ensure before you even create the

content you know how to optimize every

single aspect of your content for

YouTube so that it is seen inside the

algorithm by more of your ideal clients

from there you develop the content which

means that you going into writing

filming and editing the video for high

performance High retention and a high

click-through rate and from there a

really important factor that is often

overlooked is called expand and this is

where you distribute your video once

it's uploaded to YouTube onto other

platforms so that you are expanding your

reach outside of just YouTube to a

relevant audience elsewhere that sends

positive signals to the algorithm that

you are being seen and your content is

being seen and consumed by your ideal

client which helps the algorithm

understand who to show your content to

and the magic of this is once you

understand that process and every detail

within it then you are set up for

triggering the algorithm having the

algorithm work for you having YouTube

work for you with what we call and coin

the YouTube flywheel so it starts with

making sure you know your ideal client

inside and out and making relevant

content for that client and viewer from

there what happen Happ s is the

algorithm then categorizes your channel

to be the authority on that topic

whether you have a big or a small

audience it knows that you are trying to

reach that specific viewer so it starts

to help you using its internal traffic

sources to reach more of that ideal

client and viewer this brings me to the

concept of low views and high conversion

so I'm going to walk you through the

three different categories of audiences

on YouTube for any channel when you're

using this as a business and how you

want to leverage your content to reach

each of of those categories and it will

perfectly depict why lower views can

equal more clients and more sales for

your business so better understand cold

leads are newer to why they would need

help at all and they're just window

shopping right now beginner and Broad

style content appeals most to them and

the purpose of cold content tends to be

more brand awareness than actually

generating clients warm tends to be

someone who has done a bit of research

and is looking for help but lacks any

urgency slightly more advanced content

appeals best to them hot leads tend to

be right at the point of pain and

urgency where they're eager to invest in

a solution so hyper targeted content

that appeals to exactly the paino and

the urgency that they have when they're

ready to invest works best and converts

incredibly well turning your hottest

content and your most specific content

with most likely the lowest views into

the content that will generate the most

ideal clients and convert into the most

clients and I did mention this in my

last video and it's really important to

understand that you have to the Bare

Bones Foundation of leveraging YouTube

for a business is you have to pair your

content with a call to action now this

gets a little bit nuanced when you

understand there are three different

categories of audiences cold you would

want to send to a lead magnet eBook PDF

something that's easy to consume warm

you would want to send something that's

a little bit more of an investment of

their time so that they can watch a

webinar or a video sales letter and

truly become educated on why they need

need the solution you have to offer and

hot you would send directly to your

conversion site whether that is to

purchase on a sales page or to book a

call on your calendar to apply for your

program now this is important if you

don't have a webinar a vssl an ebook a

guide a PDF that doesn't mean you

shouldn't be creating content on YouTube

and it doesn't mean that you shouldn't

have a call to action simply put when

you're in that place and you don't have

those assets you just want to send

people directly to purchase what this

will do regardless of the type of

content you're cre creating is it's

probably going to generate way more

volume for you in terms of buyers or

potential clients it just may mean that

you're dealing with a little bit of

lower quality or more fluctuations in

quality because you're not sending

people through a webinar a vssl a guide

to educate them before they book that

call or before they purchase but if your

goal is volume of sales then just send

people directly to purchase for now and

now seeing visually what these audiences

look like it's important to note that

when you do make colder content or

warmer content you are just lengthening

and extending the sales cycle so it will

take longer to take someone from viewer

of your content to potential client

which is why I encourage especially when

you're in the new stages of your

business to make hot hyper targeted

content for your ideal client because

that way you are going to attract the

eyeballs of people who are really ready

to invest and you're going to be able to

get your first clients in the door

gather social proof and results and then

scale from there so when it comes to

your content and choosing a call to

action the best way to do so is to

really bring it back to your business

goals and where your business is at

currently if you're looking for volume

like I said send people direct to the

purchase or to apply to get on a call

with you or a team member if you have

really solid lead flow then you don't

necessarily have to do that you can make

your call to action a little further

back in the sales cycle so for example

the video that I mentioned that

generated $178,000 in 5 days in our

business no launch complet completely

organically just another week in our

business we sent people to a lead magnet

and the reason is that our calendar

tends to be fairly full and we have

really solid lead flow therefore it's

more beneficial for us to send people to

a lead magnet to educate them before

they are able to then book a call so add

a little bit of friction increase call

Quality but decrease call volume so the

process of taking those viewers on that

video to a client looked like this

YouTube video to relevant lead magnet to

email sequence to invitation to apply

and book a call to speaking with a

member of our team to discern whether or

not we are the right fit and that will

either turn into that person becoming a

client or not we are very Discerning

with the folks that we do inite invite

into our program so we always require

that we speak to people on a call before

we actually invite them into our program

so it's really interesting to see how

those numbers Break Down based on the

call to action that we provided so you

can see that earlier in the week we had

had slightly lower numbers so Monday

16,800 Tuesday

25,800 and Wednesday

16,800 and then on Thursday 2 days after

the release of the YouTube video and

providing the call Action to the lead

magnet so that means people are now

getting the email sequence to encourage

them to book a call with us we see a big

spike of clients and the same thing

happens on Friday and what you'll notice

is that video didn't have a huge number

of views it actually performed pretty

average for my channel but the views it

did get were super high quality and very

targeted ideal clients because this is a

specific topic and pain point and

obstacle that our potential clients deal

with which also meant that when folks

were watching this video they were

paying very close attention and that led

to a really solid retention rate on the

video which means when somebody clicks

on your video how long are they actually

watching which is for me the most

important metric you need to be

monitoring on your YouTube channel this

is why views aren't the best metric to

measure as a business owner using

YouTube the two most important metrics

to measure are like I said retention

ideally above 40% and your CTR should

ideally sit between 4 to 10% or above

but here's what you need to watch out

for if you get a super high CTR it can

lead to low retention because if you get

a very high CTR from people who aren't

actually invested in that topic it's

more of a broad cold audience it's

actually going to bring in the wrong

viewer so it will kill your retention on

that video and then it will kill the

performance of that video because

ultimately what YouTube is looking for

is yes they want to see a high CTR but

if people aren't watching the content

then it's not doing YouTube any favors

either they're not generating a ton of

revenue from that video in terms of AD

revenue and so therefore it's not going

to be something that they're going to

ultimately push so retention is the

number one factor and Metric for success

and to be seen by more of your ideal

clients and viewers and have the algor

than work for you above anything else

and the final piece that I always look

at is qualitative feedback which means

are you getting comments on your videos

and what are those comments saying is it

a one-word response or are people really

putting thought into their comments if

they are putting thought into their

comments you're getting a sentence to

three to four that means those folks

that are watching are really targeted

and they're very very invested in what

you do and getting the solution that you

provide which is a great sign for your

channel and your business and that is

why it's so important as I mentioned to

create only relevant content for your

ideal client because if we reach an

audience like I said that isn't really

interested in what you do and what

you're talking about ultimately it's

just going to send negative signals to

the algorithm it's going to confuse the

algorithm and your content is not going

to be able to perform or sustain long

term so a small targeted audience is

much more valuable than a broad viral

big audience and this brings me to a

concept I call dollar per view so with

the numbers if I look at that video it

generated $178,200 with 7,300 views

which means that each you was worth $24

now if you compare and contrast that to

these numbers let's say you make

$3,000 for 100,000 views that equals 3

cents per view do you know where that

equation comes from that equation comes

from the average amount that a YouTuber

is making strictly from monetizing

through AdSense on YouTube so that

really paints a clear picture of you can

either leave it up to the algorithm and

to monetizing through AdSense or you can

take back control as a business owner

and use YouTube for your business if

you're serious about monetizing your

expertise and becoming the authority in

your industry this is what we do I put

together a free ebook with the 10 steps

to scale your skill set and 10x your

impact without trading time for money

just comment ebook below this video and

we will reply with the link to download

it for free so a big key takeaway here

is that the higher your dollar per view

is the more targeted your viewers are

and that's a really good indication for

your business because it means that

you're making content that's resonating

with your most ideal client which will

then convert into more clients for your

business so more views is not

necessarily the goal targeted views is

the goal that's why it's important to

understand as a business owner you are

not on this platform to entertain and

serve everybody you are here to provide

value and serve the folks who need you

most and are most targeted for what you

have to offer and that's why we always

go back to the three phases of really

being able to lever to platform like

YouTube and to be able to grow an online

education business which is what we

support people in doing starts with

mastering what you do and then having a

unique method that you can teach other

people based on your expertise and from

there being able to Mentor people at

scale and be able to serve and impact

folks all over the world through your

online education business which also

provides you with Incredible unfair

Advantage there are so many content

creators on YouTube and so much

information on this platform but as a

true Authority and a master of what you

do you can leverage your credibility and

social proof and client results in your

content to build a lot of trust because

people want to find someone they can

actually trust online I know because

it's a wild world here and the more

social proof the more credibility you

can share in your content the more

positions you as that goto trustworthy

number one Authority in your space so

it's important to remember that every

video you post on this platform can turn

into its own Evergreen Sales Machine and

will continue to work for you to

generate leads and clients on autopilot

every single day when you're not working

and the number one reason for that is

because this is a search platform so

your clients are out there with problems

challenges frustrations and they are

typing into the search bar looking for

solutions to those problems and looking

for Content that's relevant to them

that's helpful to them and by not

showing up and not creating content

that's relevant to them you're being

missed by the people who need you the

most so it really is about quality

versus quantity and when I say quality I

don't mean you have to have highly

produced videos by any means a lot of

our clients just film with a webcam in

their room but when I say quality I mean

highly valuable content for your ideal

client that makes a difference to them

and makes an impact on them that turns

into lifelong loyal clients that is why

aligned growth trumps viral growth every

day especially as a business because if

you try and grow on a viral scale and

reach everybody with your channel you

are ultimately going to create chaos and

not reach anybody when you try to reach

everyone you reach no one so again bring

it back to the flywheel concept it

starts with that ideal viewer and making

relevant content for that viewer from

there the algorithm then learns your

channel and what category they want to

put you in and it's starts using its

internal traffic sources like browse

suggested search to position you in

front of more of those ideal viewers and

clients without you having to do any

more work and that's when the flywheel

really starts to work for you and the

magic of YouTube really becomes unlocked

so don't forget if you're serious about

this be sure to grab my ebook with the

10 steps to scale your skill set and 10x

your impact without trading time for

money I call it our bulletproof business

plan you can comment ebook below and we

will send you the link to download it

right now or you can go to the link in

the description and download it for free

right now thank you so much for watching

I'll see you in the next one