How I've Used YT To Grow My Skool

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I was talking with

about YT in a commend thread and figured others might get something out of it.

Now...I'm not a YT guru. I teach guitar. I probably can't help you grow your YT channel, and if you don't teach music I probably have no idea what video would work in your area.

But...I have about 10M views over 3 years, a couple videos with over 100k views, and almost 30k subs.

I also have recent videos that got less than 1,000 views, so take this as you will...

1) I write every video to one specific person

Not “my audience.” One person.

It's “Tim” - the student I helped the most and who bought all my products and was fun to teach.

I’d picture what confused him, what he’d try, what he’d say, where he’d get stuck, what would finally click… and I wrote to that guy.

2) Title + thumbnail matter most (because you can’t teach someone who didn’t click)

It’s all about the curiosity gap. You want "Tim" to think he knows what it's about (it'll help with xyz) but he isn't sure how, only that'll it'll work fast.

So I put real effort into:

The pain they feel (for me it's embarrassment playing in public - emotional stakes)
Identity upgrade (sound professional > technique upgrade)
A situation (someone hands you a guitar, at a campfire, etc...)
A time / number (instantly, 2 min, 5 min, 1 thing, etc.)

I've found taking ideas from other niches works better than copying other people. But it took me 100 tries to find 5-10 things that translated from cooking or finance or bootube to guitar.

3) I have a plan for every video

My basic flow is:

Hook (reinforce the title/thumbnail so they instantly feel “I’m in the right place”) - this is scripted and I read it from a teleprompter
Right into the teaching (no long intro, no throat clearing) - these are bullet points.
I also plan at least 1 CTA to my Skool - usually after my 1st point (which is always the biggest win).
I end abruptly by saying 'now that you can (thing they learned in this video), you'll need to (next thing), and this video will teach it too you.' Often the video I plug is a VSL for my skool community. Not super salesy, but 'here's my teaching philosophy, come check it out for free.'

Recently I film these as live streams, and edit out pauses, flubs, etc.

4) I try to teach in Problem → Story → Solution

The “story” doesn’t have to be dramatic. It just has to be memorable and emotional.

Example from guitar teaching:

Beginners often use too much pick when strumming. So I’ll say:

“You pick moves when you strum (Problem). Imagine the strings are a sheet of paper and your pick is a paintbrush. Don’t mash the bristles into the paper… you brush over the strings (Story). This will keep your pick from moving because the strings are forcing it to move now (solution).”

5) The biggest one: I make sequels to my best videos

When I’m planning, I start by looking at my own channel. What content got views? What had good CTR? What had engagement?

Cool. Do more of that for the same person.

Even when my “best” video was:

800 views instead of 200…I still treated it like a hit and made sequels.

My rough breakdown...If I make 6 videos:

4 are sequels to my best performers
1 mirrors a successful video from another guitar creator (title/thumbnail concept)
1 mirrors a successful format from a totally different niche

By “mirror,” I mostly mean the framing (title/thumbnail/angle). Half the time I don’t even watch the original video if I can already see a clean angle for my “Tim.”

Bonus: Shorts helped with subs and to test what might make a good long video all on it's own.

I don’t think Shorts automatically make you a better long-form channel, but they do widen your funnel, and that's helped me a ton. I use Opus Clip to have AI make shorts from my long videos. I post 5 shorts a day sometimes. But almost always at least 3.

If you’re doing YouTube and you feel behind, I get it. I’ve had slow months, dead videos, and plenty of “why did I even upload this?” moment.

My first videos were horrible. Bad lighting, I was awkward. It's worth it if you keep pushing through.

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