This content outlines a comprehensive seven-step system, the "7R System," for building and growing a successful YouTube channel, emphasizing a strategic, iterative approach to content creation and audience engagement.
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So, if I was going to start a YouTube
channel in 2026, this is the exact
sevenstep system that I would follow.
And our students have actually been
using this system for years now to get
their first 100, a thousand, even a
100,000 subscribers on YouTube. But I
have a disclaimer for you. This system
isn't some magic pill, right? You
actually have to upload videos. You're
going to have to actually punch fear in
the face, press record, and commit at
least a few hours a week to your YouTube
channel. But here's my promise. If you
followed this system, you might be
surprised by how quickly your YouTube
channel grows, by how quickly you reach
your YouTube goals, and also by how
quickly you're able to start generating
money from your YouTube channel. So, if
you're serious about growing your
YouTube channel this year, then stick
with me because I'm going to break down
this entire system for the first time
ever on YouTube like this. And for a new
year, there's actually an eighth R. So,
stick around until the end of the video
because it really is there's some new
rules to YouTube success and we're going
to be covering those. So, let's jump
into number one, which is reverse
engineer. Now, this is a framework not
just for your YouTube channel, but also
for individual YouTube videos. So, we
start out and we start with reverse
engineer, which means start with the end
in mind. Okay, what does that mean? It
means that before you start really
posting videos, before you just jump out
there and upload your first video, you
want to answer a few questions. Some of
those questions include who is your
YouTube channel actually for? The
mistake a lot of people make is that if
you try and reach everybody, you'll end
up reaching nobody. And so you think
about who's my channel for and then what
what problem does my YouTube channel
solve? Who and what? And so if your
channel was, let's say, a fishing
channel, it's for people who love
fishing or want to start fishing and get
into fishing. And what problem does it
solve? Maybe it's how to catch fish, how
to catch bigger fish, what lure is the
best lure. So who and what? That's
reverse engineer. Now you also want to
ask at this stage you know how is my
YouTube channel going to make money.
[snorts] Now a lot of times again the
problem is people get too far into
content creation and they go huh I
wonder how I'm going to make money. I'm
not even sure. They upload the video and
maybe hope to get approved for the
YouTube partner program eventually. But
what we've discovered with our students
is that actually a lot of people are
making money much earlier even before
they get approved for monetization. Why?
because they start with the end in mind.
They work backwards and say, "What is my
plan for growth on YouTube? Who am I
trying to reach? What problem does my
YouTube channel solve? How am I going to
make money? Okay, I'm going to make a
video and I'm going to review the top
five lures for catching bass fish." And
then in your YouTube description, you
could link up affiliate links to those
lures. And therefore, before you even
start, you're making a plan, right? You
may have heard if you fail to plan, you
plan to fail. And so reverse engineer is
the first R. And what we're going to see
here is that this is a system that you
want to do every time when you're
thinking about uploading a new video. So
before I press record, I'm thinking
about, okay, who's this video for? What
problem is this video solve? How's this
video going to make money? And we talk
about lots of different ways. We're not
going to get into all of those here, but
that would be number one. Number two is
then research. This is now where we get
into research, which is going to include
a couple things. This could include
keyword research. Now, what does that
mean? That means kind of like what are
the terms people are searching for or
what are the topics and the language
people are using when it comes to what
videos they want to watch. And so, in
the research phase, we're going to start
crafting our title, right? So maybe we
are using some keyword research tools. I
like to use Vid IQ. We'll link up some
resources in the description below of
this YouTube video. They have a good
keyword research tool. You also can go
to the YouTube search bar and you could
just start typing and you could type
best fishing. Check it out. You type in
best fishing and put a space and it'll
start finishing your sentence for you.
Best fishing boats, best fishing poles,
best fishing. So, what we're actually
crafting in the research phase is we're
kind of like, okay, what's the title of
this video going to be? There's also the
ability to look into how much search
volume, like how many people are
actually interested in this topic? What
is the language that people are using
when it comes to the video that I'm
creating? And so, the research phase
again, you're looking into how
interested are people in this particular
topic. Another way that you research is
you're going to research your
competitors. So, if I have a fishing
channel and I'm looking for I'm going to
make a video about different fishing
lures. At the research phase, I'm going
to go see what other videos are out
there on this topic. How long are they?
What are their thumbnails look like?
What are their titles like? What is the
content inside of the video? What can I
learn from these videos? Again, we have
we're just in the planning phase, but
one of the things that we've learned at
Think Media is every battle is won
before it's even fought. What does that
mean? That's actually a quote from
SunSu, the famous military general and
the author of the art of war. And if you
think about that quote, every battle is
won before the battle even starts,
before the battle is even fought. Okay?
So our time spent in strategy in making
a plan in reverse engineering and then
of doing some research. Okay, what are
the competitors doing? How's my video
going to be different? Our time spent in
research and reverse engineering is our
time spent winning the battle before the
battle even starts. So when we actually
record the video, we're doing it with
more intentionality, with more insight,
with more knowledge, with more strategy.
And this will change everything because
again, as you begin to master this
system, you you'll really discover that
ultimately it works if you work it, as
you learn it, because it becomes the
seven steps that we do over and over and
over again to get millions of views. Our
students have gotten millions of views,
you know, growing their channels. So
number one, reverse engineer. Number
two, research. And I also want to
recommend a re a resource that we have
at freethinkclass.com
that specifically goes deeper into the
money vertical. If you're specifically
wanting to know how do I reverse
engineer not just my channel, not just
my videos, but my money plan,
freethinkclass.com specifically goes
deeper into the money side. If you want
to go part-time or full-time, check out
that. Also link it up in the
description. But let's get to number
three. So number three is record. So now
that we have a plan now that we we know
what our title is. We know what
basically the outline of our video is at
this point because we've kind of thought
through all right, how's my video going
to be different? What do I want to say
in my video? I've looked at what the
competitors are doing. I've thought
about how I'm going to put out my unique
take on this particular topic. I I know
what the purpose of this video is, who
it's for. Now I'm pressing record. And
when you record your video, this the
opportunity here is what we call the
perfect video recipe. It's making sure
that we have a strong hook. It's making
sure that we have a strong big idea,
good title, good thumbnail, like we
really have a strong concept. And and
then there's little things like how do
you spice your video up? So are you
going to do video editing? What kind of
camera are you using? Um what's the
beginning, middle, and end of your
video? Uh we won't go too deep into it
here, but ultimately you want to record
your video with strategy. One of the
things is once you press record, if you
forget to say something in your video,
it's super frustrating because you got
to maybe turn the camera back on or
whatever. So the planning you've done
here is going to help you record a
strong video that holds the viewers
attention, that ultimately is pleasing
to watch. And one of the things that
people make as far as a mistake when it
comes to their videos is they don't
plan. So they just ramble on and on and
on. There's no structure, right? Like I
even took some time obviously in this
video to plan out seven points, draw our
entire seven uh our framework. So
there's a structure that you can follow
along to. So your preparation going into
record can ultimately be super helpful
when it comes to delivering a great
video. You want to be brief, be bright,
be fun, and be done. Turn the video off.
And now you have the video ready to edit
and ultimately upload. Which brings us
to number four, which is release. Here's
what release is. Let's title it, fill
out the description, fill out the tags,
but what are some other things? Fill out
the time code and chapters. That's
definitely a modern feature that helps
people skip around. It could be a very
utility- based thing to to serve people.
Upload your thumbnail. select is it for
kids, is it not for kids? Um, and go
through all the different settings on
the back end of YouTube. Another way to
think about this is your video
optimization. Okay, so I've planned my
video. I've recorded my video. Now, I'm
I'm making sure my title's good, my
thumbnail's good. I'm filling out that
description line by line, uploading
tags, you know, time codes, chapters,
and thinking through links in the
description that I want people to know
about. Is there any information down
there? Um, these days, you know, you can
tag other channels, hashtags, adding
your video to a playlist, and then
eventually making your video public.
Essentially, once it's fully optimized,
make your video public. We like to pin a
comment. You may pin a comment on on
there so that you can uh engage in the
conversation, maybe give a link
somewhere else uh that you want to send
people to. So ultimately, release is
just that key component of getting that
video out there and making sure you take
the time to optimize the video. Now,
here's the mistake people make.
One of the things I've noticed is that
people get lazy right about here, right?
You already might be like, "Dear God,
Sean, we've gone through so much, you
know, like I'm already exhausted. I'm
new to this." And listen, I get it.
You're learning a new skill. Like,
there's a lot that goes into basically
starting a YouTube channel. You're
becoming a media company. You're
communicating on camera, doing doing
market research, understanding marketing
in terms of writing titles, graphic
design. If you're designing thumbnails,
there's a lot to learn. And if you're
not subscribed to Think Media, then
definitely subscribe because that's what
we're here for is to help you learn,
help you understand how to make money in
the creator economy and learn the skills
necessary for building a successful
YouTube channel. If you're also getting
value out of this training, I would love
it if you hit the like button and even
share this with somebody. But we've done
a lot up until this point. Do not cut
corners here. You want to make sure that
your video is is findable, meaning it's
discoverable, that you have put some
thought into just making sure that your
video is optimized properly. So that's
number four, and that is release. Which
brings us to number five, which is
Rocket and Rank. So, this is your
opportunity now. Your video is public.
Congratulations. You've released your
video to the world. It's out there now
and it's sitting on YouTube. And now
your goal is to, of course, get your
video view. The best way to rocket your
video is to do the prior steps. Well,
what do I mean? The best way for your
video to grow on YouTube is not to use
some other social media platform to try
to get views. It's to actually trigger
the YouTube algorithm itself. Meaning
this, if you have done the first four
steps properly, then in a way, number
five should take care of itself.
However, there are some actions we can
do here to reinforce basically launching
your video and getting your video views.
Now, the reason we call it Rocket is
over time, you're going to look inside
of your YouTube analytics, and you're
going to see that YouTube kind of gives
you a picture of your video's
performance. And sometimes when you
release a video, it's really flat. It's
like, it's like launch, it's super flat.
That's not our goal because what is a
rocket? What do we want a rocket to do?
We actually want a rocket to blast off,
shoot into the atmosphere, and then take
off into outer space. And so if we rock
it properly, we literally want that
thing to to shoot up and never stop
getting views. That's the dream of
YouTube. That would be a viral video.
How much can we rocket this video and
get the YouTube algorithm triggered so
that browse features and and YouTube's
features really take this video to the
next level. So what can we do? Here's a
checklist of things. Eventually, after
you get 500 subscribers, and I think the
the number is lower now, you eventually
have a community tab. You can share your
video on the community tab an hour or
two or three after the video comes out
to maybe get a few more views to your
video. You can actually cross-promote
from another video and actually link to
your video on an end card. What are we
talking about here? We're talking about
driving as many views as possible to
your video once you release it. Now,
there are off-platform opportunities
here as well. If you have an email list,
you're a business owner, you've been
building an email list, or you're a
smart creator and you've been thinking
about building an email list, you could
send out an email newsletter, an email
blast, and say, "Hey, I just released a
brand new video. Go check it out on
YouTube." My friend Neil Patel has found
that he's able to rank his videos
because he's built a big email list and
when he releases a new YouTube video, he
sends an email and YouTube loves the
fact that he sends all these people over
to YouTube that weren't on YouTube to
watch his YouTube video and then they
watch, they learn, they love it and it
helps the video get more views and
ultimately rank. Now, what does rank
mean? Rank is our dream of not just
releasing a video and getting some
views. Not just releasing a video
because we have some subscribers
eventually and and getting some views on
that video. Rank would mean that as
people search for this video or they go
to YouTube and they they're looking for
something, let's say fishing, they start
going to their homepage and they're
like, "How do I get started fishing?
What are the best lures for fishing?"
that a ranked video would mean that your
fishing video now starts showing up on
people's homepage or when they type in
what are the top five lures for bass
fishing, your video shows up in those
top search results. Again, what we're
trying to do here is rocket our video,
add as much jet fuel as possible to add
views to the video, and then we're also
trying to rank the video. And so again,
if you've done the first four steps
well, you may just like go to lunch and
this takes care of itself because the
video is great. You recorded a great
video, you optimized it proper, you you
optimized it properly, and you did your
due diligence to plan ahead and come up
with a great topic and structure your
video well. So, this might take care of
itself, but why not do both? And when
you send it to your list and maybe share
it on social media and do whatever you
can to get as many views as possible and
then the video holds people's attention
and uh average view duration, all that
kind of stuff, then boom, your video
ranks. And here's the dream. And this is
what we experience at Think Media. And
ultimately what we teach in our program,
Video Ranking Academy, is you want to
create a video today that gets views a
month from now, six months from now, a
year from now, and even beyond.
And we now have hundreds, I think
thousands of videos that are a year old,
five years old, eight years old, 10
years old that still get views. And so
we get hundreds of thousands of views
every two days. We get a couple million
views a month because we have ranked
videos. How? Because we follow the seven
system. So definitely stick with me
because we're going to go through all
these steps. And as you master this
system, right, you ultimately uh will
master ranking and be able to build a
YouTube channel that doesn't just
experience 15 minutes of fame and then
fizzles out, but consistently grows
rocketing towards success. So number six
now is we've released the video and now
it's about review. What gets measured
gets improved. Review. So review is all
about analytics. Now disclaimer
as you go through the seven R system, I
will recommend that you may want to post
five, 10, 15, 20, 30 videos
before you worry too much. Like when
you're just starting, you're not going
to have a community tab. So don't worry
about it. Like you can't share your
videos on the community tab. You don't
have one yet. Just keep posting videos.
Use what you do have. And when you're
just starting, you can study your
analytics, but you haven't done that
many videos yet. So, I wouldn't
recommend getting stuck in reviewing
your analytics until you've posted 5,
10, 15, 20 videos. So, you really have
like some momentum to actually study. If
you judge your first video and you
gather around your first video like hm
like your first video is going to
probably be terrible. Like your first
videos are your worst videos. I know
mine were, right? So, so like your first
few videos, spending too much time
reviewing them is is kind of
discouraging. It's not even super
helpful, but eventually this is a key
step because what gets measured gets
improved. We look at the video and we
say, "Okay, what do we learn from it?
Did the video take off?" And and what
your analytics will tell you is one out
of 10. That's good. Or your analytics,
your YouTube studio will say 10 out of
10. That's the worst. That's like the
worst out of your last 10 videos. You
go, "Okay, what was it about this video
that uh that that didn't perform well?
Was there something wrong with the
topic? Was the idea weak? Was the title
weak? Was the thumbnail weak? What about
this video? What what was wrong? What
can I learn from it? How long was my
average view duration? Like where did
people drop off?" You could see your
audience retention curve. You can see,
you know, what was the click-through
rate on this video? And you can look at
these different metrics. And then not
only that, remember the 7R system
isn't just about individual videos. The
7R system is about your entire channel
as well. So it works for both. So you
can review your analytics on a
individual video level, but you also can
review your analytics on a channel
level, right? And so this is a step that
you don't just do once that becomes a
habit. like this is a routine. This is a
system that you work over and over
consistently. And so you study your
analytics and then the key is you say
how can I improve and get better next
time? We like to say how do you get 1%
better with every upload? It's not a
matter of, you know, trying to make
giant leaps, although you may make some,
but it's a matter of saying, how can I
uh, you know, take one aspect of my
video and next time I want to
communicate a little bit clearer, next
time I want my editing to be a little
bit tighter or something like that. So,
that's number six, and that is review.
Now, remember, we actually have an
eighth R and this speaks to the new
world we're living in. So, we're going
to get to that in just a second. And
then also a reminder, if you haven't
seen our free class at freethinkclass.com,
freethinkclass.com,
check that out because that goes into
the money side of things. When you
follow the 7R system, it's one thing to
get views and of course eventually you
can get your channel monetized. But one
of our favorite things at Think Media is
the fact that there are multiple
different ways to earn money on YouTube,
even if you don't qualify for the
YouTube Partner Program yet. So, if
you're interested in going part-time or
full-time on YouTube, I highly recommend
watching this class because I actually
break down a case study of how without
being approved for the YouTube partner
program, you can start making money
immediately and even more so when you
follow this 7R system in the process.
But let's get into number seven, and
that is repeat.
Repeat. Now, this is a little bit deeper
than it sounds, but ultimately you can
see now that you start here. You want to
reverse engineer, research, record,
release, brocket, review, and then
repeat the process. Meaning, we go back
to reverse engineer. We take the
information we learned from studying our
video and we say, how can we begin again
more intelligently? But there's some
smart things that we like to do here at
Repeat, which include things like, can I
batch produce next time? How can I how
can I maybe not just shoot one video,
but shoot four videos so I save my
energy? And I think and I ultimately am
more efficient with shooting next time.
The other thing we ask here is after
we've reviewed and remember at some
point once you've posted 10 20 30 videos
we all we start to look and review and
we start saying what are the themes
here? What are the winners? What are the
videos out of the last 10 videos I've
posted? Which one or two videos did the
best? How do I repeat? And we say it
this way. Success leaves clues. make
part twos, right? So, if you've got 10,
20 videos, there's maybe a couple videos
where you should follow up and say,
"Okay, what can I learn from my video
library that I now make a follow-up
video, a part two or a different a
series or something related that I spin
off? I had no idea that YouTube and now
my subscribers were going to be that
interested in that particular topic. But
because I'm studying it and reviewing
it, okay, that's going to influence
the videos that I make next. So
ultimately then we repeat the process
and we go through lots of different
strategies about again how to go deeper
inside of that. But I want to get to the
eighth R, which is repurpose. So it's
really not just repeat, but it's also
repurpose. And this is a huge
opportunity. And let me just give you
kind of an overview. I'm I'm obviously
flying over this system. We teach this
system in depth inside of our program
called Video Ranking Academy. But here's
what what the opportunity with
repurposes. I'll give you like three
examples. So one of our favorite things
to do right now at Think Media is to
encourage people to do video podcast. We
have a video podcast. It's called the
Think Media Podcast. If you're serious
about YouTube, I think you'll love that
podcast. But typically those episodes
are about 20 minutes long. Maybe they're
15 to 30 minutes long, right? Great. So
there's one YouTube upload is the 30
minute podcast. But one of the things
you can do with content that a lot of
people are missing this opportunity is
you can cut clips out of that longer
form content. Okay? So I upload one
video. I reverse engineer it. What's my
video podcast going to be? I do some
research. How am I going to title it? I
record my video podcast. I optimize it.
I release it. I got the title good, the
description, all the different things.
Put the video out. I share it. I might
tell my Instagram stories, "Hey guys,
new episode of the P." It's we call it
the Tuesday ritual. So, you'll see me on
my Instagram stories, Sean Kel
rocketing. You know, I'll be like, "Hey,
new podcast is out." Send that traffic
to the podcast. Maybe tell the community
tab, you know, hey, new podcast is out.
I'm rocketing it. You get what's
happening. Eventually, review it. Okay.
had the podcast do, but now I can
repurpose content out of that podcast.
So, if it's a 30 minute episode, there
may be seven minutes that are worth
uploading as a clip. Now, you may have
seen this for a lot of video podcast
shows. You may see someone like a
Patrick Bet David um or like a Joe
Rogan. His actual fulllength podcast
does not live on YouTube, but he has a
whole channel called JRE Eclipse. So,
you're starting to work smarter,
not just harder. And you're getting more
uploads because not everyone's going to
watch 30 minutes or an hour or two hour
podcast, but now you can go back through
with just one clip and reverse engineer
what's the title of the clip, what's,
you know, research the clip. You don't
even have to record it. It's already
recorded. you just trim it out,
re-release it, rock it that thing,
review, and you might be able to get
multiple clips out of your longer form
YouTube video. So, that'd be like one
way to repurpose. Another way to
repurpose is what we call content
marathons. I don't have time to talk
about it right now. The third one would
be um now repurposing on other social
media platforms. There is an opportunity
to of course upload vertical videos and
clips of your videos on Instagram reels,
Facebook reels, Tik Tok, LinkedIn,
horizontal clips across those platforms,
vertical clips across those platforms.
And so YouTube is the top of the pyramid
where you upload quality content. But as
your brand evolves, as you grow your
creator business, as you evolve in your
as you strengthen your content creation
muscles, then repurpose becomes a
critical R of this system. And so that's
the 7R system. If I'm starting a YouTube
channel from scratch, I'm starting slow.
I'm punching fear in the face, punching
perfectionism in the face. I'm pressing
record. I'm not getting overwhelmed with
all of this, but you do need a system.
You need structure. And I'm going to
follow this system step by step. And I'm
going to master each of these Rs as I
continue to upload videos. Now, as a
reminder, if you specifically want to
start making money from the start and
you want to figure out the shortest path
to how can I make significant money on
YouTube, even if I have a small channel,
then I highly recommend checking out freethinkclass.com.
freethinkclass.com.
that goes deeper into this and it's an
entirely free class. And then finally,
click or tap the screen if you want to
go a little bit deeper into some YouTube
strategy. I just put out a brand new
video that really breaks down some of
the strategies you need to know right
now when it comes to YouTube. So, click
or tap the screen to watch that. My name
is Sean Kel Rhymes with YouTube channel.
Hit like and I will see you in the next
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