Growing my YouTube to 100k by EOY

In last week’s post, I shared that I was entering hypergrowth.

In short, this means I’m doing everything I can to grow the Internet Empires brand across email, YouTube, social, and podcast.

The last couple of months consisted of laying the foundation and refining my workflow.

The top priority for the next 6 months is growing my YouTube channel from 0 to 100k (we are up to 10k in the past month already, subscribe to support here).

Here’s my plan for getting there:

1) Create Great Videos

Every YouTube growth strategist (like Paddy Galloway) says that the best way to grow on YouTube is to simply make great videos.

Here’s what that means to me and how I’ve been refining our videos:

more growth experiments below

2) Leverage my 150k social audience

I’ve already built a sizeable social audience. Time to use it.

The plan is to…

here’s an example of a highly shareable post (check out that engagement — 50,000 impressions and 550 likes)

3) Leverage my newsletter

I’m working with my friend Manny to grow this newsletter.

The plan is to scale it while sharing highlights, case studies, and helpful content aimed at creators & internet entrepreneurs.

I’ll include CTAs to check out full episodes if people want to learn more about the pod.

Even a small conversion will go a long way when we start adding tens of thousands of subscribers a month.

4) Invest in paid social

From my research, it seems like every major podcaster leverages paid social to grow their YouTube.

The strategy here is essentially running Meta ads at specific target audiences and asking them to subscribe if they’d like to learn about xyz topic.

Your favorite show is probably already running ads to grow (check out their ads library on their FB page).

When I eventually start monetizing this newsletter, I’ll funnel all of the money back into growth (across email, social, & pod).

While this option scales nicely, it does require great content and proper ad targeting — otherwise a big waste of money (since people won’t convert).

Here are some of the ads that Steven Barlett is running for Diary of a CEO.

This flywheel works really well once you’ve built a brand and have a consistent flow of high-quality content:

>Social ad leads to new subs

>Social ad also leads to new IG page visitors

>Some of the new visitors follow IG account

>When you post organic IG content about pod, some of them will subscribe

>When you share new pod episodes, you can drive people back to social via show notes

>Staying top of mind via social will lead to increased awareness, downloads, and word of mouth

5) Be consistent. Content Compounds Over Time.

I’ve been creating personally (and professionally for billion-dollar brands) for over a decade now.

On platforms like Tumblr, Myspace, Vine, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, Farcaster, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, Clubhouse, and more.

And one thing I’ve seen time & time again: Content Compounds Over Time.

If I can be consistent with everything I’ve outlined above, then everything will be just fine. I will hit my goals. I will grow this brand. I will land awesome partnerships. And I’ll be able to take this to the next level.

But it all comes back to consistency.

I’m reminded by this post from Jack Butcher:

Thanks for reading this newsletter edition.

Let me know if you liked it, or if you have any topics you’d like me to cover.

And if you haven’t already subscribed to the pod, I’d really appreciate your support.

Subscribe on YouTube here and Spotify here.

Here are some of our latest episodes:

Cheers,

Ish

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