In the vast ocean of creators, it can often feel like a daunting task to stand out. We begin to wonder if we can even make a mark for ourselves amongst all these YouTube giants.

Today I am going to discuss one of these YouTube heroes, Ryan Trahan. He has exploded on the platform and broke out from the sea of creators all around him. But, how did he do it? That’s what I will discuss today as I break down his strategies, talk about how he made his mark in a saturated field, and analyze what you can learn from his YouTube journey and apply to yours.

Ryan’s YouTube Journey

Ryan was a small town boy who was a runner in college. He used his platform as a college athlete to vlog about racing and to promote his Neptune water bottle that he created and sold. ​His first video​ ever was just a measly 58-seconds on this very thing. The video is hilarious, but his college wasn’t laughing. They gave him an ultimatum: Stop posting YouTube videos or leave. So he left! He dropped out of college to pursue his YouTube passion with only 20,000 followers.

But this risk wasn’t in vain. After a lot of hard work, one year later Ryan had 1 million subscribers. His content was focused on reaction videos and the views, subs and money were flooding in with his success. Around the 1.5 million mark, Ryan was around 19 years old and he began to ask himself, “Am I just going to just critique people for my entire life??” So he decided to make a shift.

Pivoting Your Channel

We talk to a lot of creators who are at this point. Do I want to keep going down this path that I have started on? Even if it is bringing success, is it worth it to continue if it isn’t bringing me joy?

Look at Ryan. You will not “break your channel” if you make a shift in your content. If you feel stuck or burnt out making the same content over and over, you can absolutely pivot in new directions, develop a clear value proposition, and experience growth.

Another lesson we can take from this is that having 1 million subs doesn’t bring fulfillment. You have never “arrived.” You can absolutely have a million subs and not enjoy what you’re doing on YouTube. Continuing to make content that you don’t enjoy is not sustainable on this platform. You will burn out, inevitably. So if your sub count is your end goal, you need to reassess that.

Defining Moment

During a church service, Ryan heard about three different types of work:

  • Exploitive: Take all you can get with an “I win, you lose” mentality
  • Ethical: Do no harm and seek “win-win” whenever possible
  • Redemptive: Creative restoration through sacrifice with an “I sacrifice, we win” mindset

We see this in types of content all the time. In sales content, creators often focus so much on themselves and not on the viewer. It’s not always to the extreme of exploiting someone, but the mentality is definitely what can I get from you. The community tab shows mentality a lot. If every post is a sales pitch asking someone to buy something, people are going to start ignoring you.

Ethical content is something people often shoot for: I win and you win. This is great. But what really stood out to Ryan was the redemptive work, which creators don’t often even think about. How can I create something as a gift for people? Not thinking at all about what you are going to gain from it, but creating something as a blessing for all of those around you.

We attempt to do this on our channel. We give away all of our secrets. But the catch is, there’s 1,000 videos. If you want the process of how to apply it to your channel, that’s where we need to pay someone to work with you. And that is how we can sustain our business.

A lot of creators don’t exactly understand this. They are too afraid to give everything away because they don’t think people will buy their product. But if you prove that you know what you are talking about, people will come to you because you are the expert. And it is worth the money to have an expert to come alongside and help them.

The Penny Series

Ryan’s penny series is such a different type of content compared the content he began with. Instead of criticizing people, he is now showing that anything is possible. And he is giving his viewers feel good moments along the way as he relies on the goodness of others to get to his final destination. Pair that with his fundraising to charities and you can really see the redemptive work mindset that Ryan is shooting for with all of his content.

Ryan is hyper-focused on storytelling in his videos. There are many structures on how to approach storytelling, but it all boils down to a person, a problem, the stakes if they don’t get that problem solved, a climax of them pursuing that issue and a transformation of the person. Ryan is a great example of how this plays out as he puts himself in the role of the main character and has to overcome obstacles to complete his journey. He invites us along to see how this transforms him and others around him.

Why does it work?

There are so many things that he does well in these series. The overarching story for the entire series draws people in and gets them to keep watching. But he also has a story within each episode and continues to re-hook his viewers throughout the video. The stakes are high. The “great reset” forces him to have to completely start over to a penny if anyone donates over a certain amount to the charity of his choice. This reset changes the whole game which creates even higher stakes, but also allows his viewers to be able to actually play a part in the game, which is even more intriguing.

But he didn’t do this alone. For the first series, he traveled across the country. But he had his three teammates traveling right alongside him, ​editing around the clock in a van each day​. He couldn’t have done it without them.

So many people that followed the first penny series watched along in real time, every day from beginning to end. This spoke volumes to the algorithm. But didn’t happen on accident. The viewer signals were huge because of his storytelling, high stakes and posting the same time each day. The videos became a ritual for the viewers as well as for Ryan. For a month, people checked in on Ryan to see where he was at and viewers began to feel sad as it neared the end of the month. This ritual of watching Ryan was a break from our lives and a chance to go along for his adventure and see what the day held. This is the gift that he offered his viewers.

Primal branding played a HUGE role in the penny series. The music he used for the intro, b-role, and ending music became iconic. The font that he used was part of his primal branding. The daily slurping of the coffee, the slapping of his burrito, and the way that he rode off on his bike, all made you smile because you expected it and loved that he was still doing it every time. It made you feel like you were part of some inside joke, which made you feel included. This is what primal branding does. This is why I harp on this SO much. Prioritize.Primal.Branding. You won’t regret it.

Ryan also didn’t focus on making perfect videos. He shot the entire series on his cell phone. And… sometimes he dropped it. Or it kept slipping down while he was filming and then he just left it staring up at the ceiling because he couldn’t get it to stay put. These moments were SO relatable and added to the charm. If you feel like you have to get everything perfect for your videos, take a note from Ryan. You don’t. It’s charming to leave in mistakes. So don’t take yourself too seriously.

Although each of these videos were part of a series, they could stand alone on their own. He quickly set up the story and the stakes in each video so that even a viewer jumping in half way through would understand what was going on. Take a note from Ryan on this as well. If you want to number your series, go right ahead and do so. But make sure each episode makes sense on its own as well, without a long and boring repeat of information each time.

Ryan’s Thumbnails

Knowing how important a title and thumbnail was to a YouTube video, Ryan created these first. (See! He created them BEFORE filming! #ToldYaSo) He didn’t know how the days were going to go, but he knew what he was going to try to accomplish each day. We work with a lot of vlogging channels that struggle with this. You don’t know what is going to happen each day, but knowing ahead of time what you WANT to accomplish is a game changer for creating your titles, thumbnails and storytelling for each video.

Ryan follows all the principles we talk about regarding intrigue, clarity, and visual storytelling in his thumbnails. But, let’s break them down even more. His contrast is high in every thumbnail. He is using bright colors which is very attention-grabbing. He is scaled very large allowing you to see the emotion on his face. This builds intrigue. He is also very intentional about where he is looking in the thumbnail which shows direction towards the subject matter and helps visually tell the story. But most importantly, his thumbnails are so simple. They tell the story visually with as little images and text as possible. This is the goal.

Lessons for Aspiring YouTubers

This penny series allowed Ryan’s channel to grow to 10 million subs in 30 days. We can learn a lot of lessons from this. First of all, really anyone can make it on YouTube with the right mindset, attitude, commitment and perseverance. We don’t recommend people drop out of college necessarily, but we can all agree that he gave it his all. And just like Mr. Beast, he was on the platform for awhile before he really started to see growth. He experimented, pivoted and learned along the way. And you can too.

Also, authenticity and retention optimization go hand in hand. It’s about humans, not robots. If you’re thinking about tricking the algorithm, you aren’t going to be showing up with your personality and with the goal of connecting to another human. Think about who you are crafting your content for. Human connection is vital. Also, authenticity looks different from person to person. Ryan has a goofy personality and allows that to shine. But you aren’t going to succeed by being someone that you’re not. Allow YOUR personality to shine, even if that looks different than big creators.

Ryan’s YouTube story is nothing short of inspiring. This isn’t just about a small-town guy becoming a YouTube superstar. It’s about how being real, thinking ahead, and truly valuing your audience can turn your passion into your career. Take this to heart, because whether you’re creating content or chasing other dreams, Ryan’s journey shows that when you focus on the right things success is more achievable than you might think.

Power Tip

​Watch Ryan’s new penny series​. Enjoy it the first time as a fan. But then, rewatch it and take notes. How does he set up the story by explaining the stakes? Where are the hooks? What are the primal branding elements? Then, look at your notes and apply these to your own channel.

Keep Changing Lives!

Tim Schmoyer

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