YouTube Mastermind Group – And then there were fewer…

Introduction

At the beginning of 2024, I made a bold prediction that our group of 19 YouTube creators will succeed big by the end of the year. It is however, with great disappointment, that I announce we have now shrunken to 12 (as of February 16th, 2024). I wanted to be honest about how the events transpired instead of re-writing my previous articles. Hopefully, such story can inspire anyone to never be ashamed of publicly expressing their dreams while working on them and admitting failure (or success) no matter what. I will leave everything I wrote before unchanged and widely available for anyone to learn the truth. I am not gonna twist reality to make it seem like a fairy tale and if events occurred in specific ways, then they must be told accordingly.

The Initial Perfect Gameplan?

Since early January 2024, the way our group functioned was we all split into pairs and worked together that way on a bi-weekly basis. During those two weeks, we would send each other titles, thumbnails and video drafts and have the other person critique them. We tried tweaking as much as we could our videos before uploading them publicly so that they could be as good as possible. We would either video call or text each other our most useful feedback and then apply everything we learn together to make better content. We were basically supposed to help each other on anything we thought was worth working on in a more or less fluid approach while still following a somewhat proper schedule. Helping one person shouldn’t be too bad right? It wasn’t like we were trying to help the 19 of us simultaneously on top of building our own content right? Think again! Even with a promising plan like that one, a few unexpected issues still managed to seep their way through…

The Fallout

I never expected everything to happen in the way it did. Back in December 2023, it really felt like we were all going places, but I guess some people weren’t who I believed them to be. One guy I met through video call and who was amongst the most engaged in this initially, for whatever reason, simply vanished… He saw all of our messages, but then literally left us hanging very rudely. He wasn’t the only though. Two other people, who I also thought were working seriously, stayed in the group for 4 consecutive weeks since January 2024 without ever doing anything (nor replying to their respective partners)!! All this time, I didn’t know because I assumed we could trust each other to watch our backs. It was only after I messaged everyone individually to see how they were doing that I discovered all the mess. I’ll never understand why these people preferred to waste others’ time rather than just being upfront from the start. Why couldn’t they inform us in advance instead of wasting 4 precious weeks pretending to instill false hope on others. In the end, 7 other people left in a similar fashion and only TWO people out of them were very honest about leaving properly because they got busy. Those two took time to notify their partners beforehand and they helped them in however way they could before departing with no ill will. Now that, I found to be very noble and respectful and if they were to text me back someday, I would happily help them. All the others just didn’t even care about basic human courtesy. Up until now, everything we do is completely online (something that already gives us the most flexibility). TWO WEEKS should have been plenty enough to make something happen, but ironically, the more time they got, the harder they procrastinated. Our group schedule was designed to be as easy as possible and yet they couldn’t EVEN just text someone ”hey I am no longer interested, keep going without me”. That alone takes 3 seconds and if they can’t do that, then I really wonder what’s wrong with them.

We must keep going…

I’ll say this for now, they literally had within arms reach one of the best FREE resources to succeed at YouTube and they blew it. If you ask me, they were privileged beyond belief, because nothing is more scarce than the time and mental energy/intellectual prowess of another creator to help them achieve such difficult life goal. That or if they can get genuine and thoughtful audience feedback continuously alongside YouTube analytics. I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes knowing that they took for a granted a roadmap to success handed to them on a silver plate. Although hard work and dedication are still necessary no matter what, a hard-working group will always exponentially outperform a solo hard worker. When the rest of us will become big, they will look back and realize: “Oh shit, I was part of them, but I bailed out”. Most likely, I am sure they will never care at all, because at that point, they will have forgotten about their dreams. Nonetheless, the most important lesson here is to never give up. Like I said previously, not seeing results for years is demoralizing, but having someone with you on such journey makes it so much more fun and appreciative. Even if it still takes years, growing with them side by side makes it more worthwhile and helps retain your mental sanity when working on this. It’s better to share hardships with someone aiming towards a similar goal who can provide emotional support. You will feel crazy seeing other people “enjoying” their lives while questioning you weirdly why you are so absorbed by your content creation. They will tell you to get a life, you are wasting your time, what you are doing is wrong, you don’t have a real job, this is silly, etc. I can guarantee you that most solo beginner creators trying to make ends meet anonymously are struggling much more intensely than those part of a group. The solo people who do make it and who can prove me wrong are very exceptional outliers. So many others become desperate and end up paying (if they can afford it) for subscribers, watch hours or engagement on terrible videos. Don’t be like them!