How My Brother Got Monetized in 21 Days on YouTube

$214 in a single day. That's what my 50-year-old brother made on YouTube from a channel that was barely a month old. Now, most people struggle to make $10 on YouTube in their first year. But Zach made more in one day than most successful YouTube channels make in a week. And here's the crazy part. He never uploaded a video before in his life. He was 50 years old, technologically challenged, never used a camera, barely even watched YouTube, and had never uploaded a video. Plus, he had zero subscribers, zero experience, and he was a complete beginner. But he did have something that most creators don't have, a proven system that works. And it all started when he came to me frustrated. 29 years working in the trades was wearing him down, right? I paid for my whole family to fly out to Thailand and we vacationed together. And during this time, Zach told me, "Shane, I need to find another way to make money, something that won't kill my body." And that's when I suggested YouTube. And he thought I was nuts. But after finally convincing him to do it, 21 days after uploading his first video, he was monetized. So if you think you're too old to start, if you think you need fancy equipment, if you think you need to be techsavvy, my brother's story will change your mind. And I'm going to explain exactly why that is and some of the key lessons to growing my brother's channel so quickly on YouTube. So if you appreciate me making this type of video, let me know by gently tapping that like button. And let's jump into it right now. So let's rewind a little bit and talk about right after I told my brother that he should start on YouTube. He was skeptical, you know, he had every excuse pop into his mind in the entire world, right? We were having a great time in Thailand. We were vacationing and my family was just really enjoying the vacation that I was able to pay for in full. And then my brother brought up that, you know, the trades were starting to get really hard on his body. And he was bringing up a few different things. He was like, "Maybe I should get a digital marketing job or remote job or I should start some type of online business. So, which one do you think is best?" And of course, I told him YouTube cuz I truly do think that YouTube is the best opportunity for the average person. It's kind of like entrepreneurship with training wheels. And at first he was like, "No." He brought up every excuse. I'm too old. I'm not tech-savvy. I don't know how to use a camera. I've never uploaded a video. I've never made a video in my entire life. I barely even watch YouTube. All of these excuses came into his head. But I just calmly explained that none of those things really matter if you understand the right system to grow and make money on YouTube. And eventually, I was able to convince him to upload his first video. So basically every year I start a new channel on YouTube just to make sure that I know what it's like to grow as a new channel just in case there's any algorithm changes or anything like that. But this year instead of starting my own channel, I decided to just help Zach grow his in exchange for a case study of course, right? I wanted to be able to thoroughly analyze his channel and talk about everything we're doing to grow it. And so that's exactly what we did. But first, we had to pick a channel name. And when we brainstorm channel names, we thought we were very clever. Zack of all trades. It's kind of like Jack of All Trades, but with Zack instead, cuz my brother's name is Zach, and we thought we were geniuses. Then I searched YouTube. There's literally dozens, if not hundreds of channels that had the same exact name. But one caught our attention. Zack of All Trades with around 7,000 subscribers. And immediately, we had motivation. We had to be the number one Zack of all trades out of the hundreds of them that are out there. We had to become the Zack of all trades. So, we came up with a strategy to beat this Zack of all trades. And let me break it down to you guys. Oh, and by the way, these are strategies that you can apply to your own channel. And strategy number one is picking what we know. So, this was the easiest one so far. We didn't have to think about the niche. We picked what Zach already knew, which is all about trades. Now, this decision was important. When you pick your expertise, you skip years of learning. You know the problems that people face and you know the questions that they ask. And Zach had 29 years of real trades experience. Plus, he's friends with a bunch of other trades people and he knew the industry like the back of his hand. So, he didn't need to research anything. He lived this stuff every day. And that gave him instant credibility and an instant advantage. People could tell he knew his stuff. And so, this is what you should do as well. 90% of the successful YouTubers I've worked with are simply teaching the younger version of themselves. What would you have wanted to know when you were younger? What problems were you able to overcome when you were younger? If you had a time machine and could go back and teach yourself those things, how much time, effort, and money would you be able to save yourself? Probably a lot, right? So there you go. Teach the younger version of yourself. Help them overcome their problems faster or maybe even avoid having the problem in the first place. That is how you give value. All right, quick break. This Tuesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time, I'm hosting a free live workshop called the YouTube Content Advantage for making money and getting leads and sales. And it's happening live on November 18th, 2025. So make sure to mark that date down right now. And if you've been struggling to find your YouTube niche or you're worried about spending months or even years creating videos in a niche that doesn't actually make money, then this workshop is for you. Because for everyone who shows up live, I'll be giving away my niche validator 2.3. This is the latest and most optimized version of my AI powered niche validation tool. And it helps you instantly test and uncover profitable YouTube niches before you waste time creating content that doesn't bring in leads or sales. And it's smarter, faster, and it's trained on even more data from real profitable channels. And I'll be giving it away completely free. but only at this live workshop. And just a heads up, there's a good chance this could be one of the last few times I'm giving a version of my niche validator away for free. So, if you've been sitting on the fence, this is definitely the time to grab it. So, attend the free live workshop by clicking that link down in the description in the pin comment below to grab it and I'll see you there. Oh, and by the way, you'll also be able to ask me questions live. So, I look forward to meeting you. See you this Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming. Strategy number two, have the right mentor and the right system. You're watching the channel, so you've already got that. Anything that you do, you don't want to reinvent the wheel, right? Other people already figured out how to invent the wheel. You just want to take it and use it yourself. So, you're in the right place because obviously we have a great system on this channel. You can watch my free content. You're going to get a ton of value out of that. So, strategy three is about finding the right idea. And this is where most people mess up. They pick topics that they think are cool or topics they personally like, and they never check if people actually want it. And you know what you should do instead? Try to sell a mediocre hot dog in a stadium, but sell it in a stadium full of starving people. Your hot dogs will sell out 100% every single time. Now, try to sell five-star cuisine outside of a buffet. Nobody would even take a look at it. They're already full. It's simple supply and demand. So, this is the method that I use and it's called the hot dog method. So, for Zach's first video idea, I look for videos that people were craving in his niche because it's the idea that makes a video go viral or not. Nothing else is as important as the idea. And if you have the right idea, you can have mediocre hot dogs. And because of the fact that there's a starving crowd of people, you're still going to sell out. So, I found this video about trade jobs with 1.7 million views. And the channel only had around 44,000 subscribers. And that told me everything I needed to know. People desperately wanted this content. So, we modeled that exact video for Zach. We created our own spin to it and posted that video right away. And 3 weeks in, the video already had 74,000 views. And the crazy part about this was that one day after Zach uploaded this video, he already had 85 subscribers. Why? Because we found an idea that people want to see. So, I put the idea first before anything else. Now, by the way, most creators get anywhere between 1 to 3% of people who watch their videos subscribe. And Zach got about 29%. So, his videos were literally getting 10 times more subscribers than the average video. And that's because he was talking about an idea where there was a massive amount of demand, but there was very little supply. Aka, he was selling the idea to a starving crowd of people. And so his video didn't need to be the best thing in the world. It didn't need to be some kind of crazy high production quality video like a Mr. Beast video that that he puts millions of dollars into because the reason people were there is because of the idea of the video. All right, strategy number four is consistency wins every single time. Now, imagine if Zach stopped posting after the first video since it already blew up. He would not have been monetized as fast as 21 days. So, we have a clear strategy to grow his channel and be consistent. And in 30 days, Zach posted 15 videos. About one video every 2 days or about three videos per week. Now, here's what's crazy about his growth. It wasn't steady at all. For the next few weeks, growth was slow, but steady. Some days he got 10 subscribers and some days, too. And by the way, his very first video was uploaded on May 26th, 2025. So this was about 20 to 21 days after his first video. And Zach was up to 887 subscribers and he gained 349 subscribers in 1 day. So on June 15th, he absolutely blasted past 1,000 subscribers and he ended up with 1,339 subscribers. And this is the time when Zach got an email saying that he was eligible for the YouTube partner program and he got monetized shortly after. But his subscribers kept going up. On June 21st, he reached 3,000 subscribers. And on June 26th, about 1 month after uploading his first video, he was up to 5,000 subscribers in 30 days. And on June 25th, he had a $214 day. So 29 days after uploading his very first video, he had a $214 day. That's a run rate of over $70,000 a year. Oh, and the other thing is he wasn't just making money from AdSense. He was also making money from affiliate marketing. And every single time he gets an affiliate sale, he makes hundreds of dollars. But the whole point here is growth isn't linear. And because of the fact that he kept posting videos after the first video, that actually helped that first video pop off. If he would have just posted that first video and then not posted any videos after that, likely the first video either wouldn't have taken off at all or it would have taken a lot longer to take off. But he showed up consistently. And he did this even when he didn't feel like it. And the algorithm loves consistent creators, just like you love shows that don't end in the middle of a season, right? If you start watching a show and one of the episodes hangs on a cliffhanger, you trust that the next week you're going to see the next episode and you're going to get to see what happens. Well, YouTube wants that for their viewers as well. If you're uploading content, people are watching your content. They're forming a relationship with you and they probably want to consume your content in the future. That's why they subscribe to you. But if you just stop posting all of a sudden, people lose trust in you and that's a bad experience from you as well as the YouTube platform in general. So, YouTube loves consistent creators and you need to upload and upload consistently. And I recommend at least once per week. Now, by the way, if you think that one video a week even seems like a lot of work or, you know, three videos a week, that's way too much work. Zach did this while having his own business and only spending a couple hours a week on his channel. So, you can absolutely do this. If you want to figure out how to do it, attend the live training in the description and the pin comment below this Tuesday, 9:00 p. p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I'll be teaching the exact steps that I use to blow up my brother's channel within a month. So, reserve your spot now because the links in the description and the pin comment below. We'll only be going over this live training one time and we'll only be giving away the AI that will make this whole process much easier and much more sustainable one time. So, don't miss out on it. I look forward to seeing you there and I will answer literally every single question that you have on growing and making money on YouTube. So, click the link in the description, the pin comment below. Make sure you put it in your calendar as well and I look forward to seeing you there. All right, strategy number five is simple setup works. So, Zach did not have any fancy equipment, no fancy studio, no professional editing. His entire setup is as basic as it gets. And you can absolutely start your channel with just a phone and basic lighting. That's it. Now, here's the truth that most people miss. Equipment doesn't get you subscribers. Value gets you subscribers. And Zach focused on teaching what he knew. Real insider information about the trades, how to get started, what to expect, and problems that nobody else talked about. And his first few videos looked simple. Some people even said that he was AI generated. He's not. But the reason they said that is because he sounded very monotone reading off from a script. And that just reinforces a point I made earlier, which is it's the idea that matters. You don't have to be a master YouTuber if you're simply talking about ideas where there's a massive amount of demand for the idea and there's not a lot of supply. So, the information was gold and people don't care about 4K quality. They care if you help them solve problems. And that is incredibly important to understand. You don't need to overedit your videos. In fact, in some cases, people post videos that are not edited at all and they're absolutely crushing it. In Zach's case, we did minimalist editing. So, he would record his videos reading a script and then there would be minimalist editing on the videos. All right, strategy number six is learning from mistakes. So, Zach's growth wasn't all sunshine in rainbows. We had our struggles, too. One day, Zach panicked and he called me and he said, "My earnings are down. I don't know what happened." And I asked what he did and he said that he watched some random guru on YouTube and the guy said that everyone needs to turn on player for education and this is going to increase your AdSense. Big mistake. Terrible advice. And I really couldn't believe that my own brother started watching other YouTube gurus even though his brother is probably one of the top YouTube coaches in the world. But he did it. For some reason, he decided to start watching random content about how to grow on YouTube even though his channel was doing great. And I guess the lesson there is don't listen to just anyone on YouTube because sometimes people say stuff just to sound like they're original instead of telling you what actually works. So, my brother turned on player for education, and this is a setting that's meant to only be turned on for content that is designed to be viewed in a classroom. So, we're talking like middle school, grade school, high school, maybe college. Only academic content that is designed to be viewed in a classroom should turn this setting on. But some random guru online said that my brother should turn it on if it's educational content. And so, he did it. And immediately the AdSense dropped. Why? Well, because the YouTube algorithm is weird like that, but it's probably because they're going to be much more careful about recommending content that's designed to be viewed in a classroom for a younger audience. So, if your video is not made for the classroom, then never turn this setting on. And we had to go through this whole process to undo this. His channel views dropped, his momentum stalled, and I had to do a bunch of different things to basically get his channel cranking again. For instance, we had to turn off player for education in every individual video. And we had to update the channel keyword so that basically the right advertisers would start advertising on his channel. And all of a sudden, his RPM went from about $3 per 1,000 views, which it had actually dropped down to that after he enabled Player for Education. Plus, his views dropped as well. And then the RPM went up to around $8 to $10 per 1,000 views, which is a pretty healthy level, especially for a new educational channel. And I think in the future it's likely going to raise up to $15 to $20 per 1,000 views. But I digress. This teaches all of you a crucial lesson. Do not listen to some random guru online unless they have credibility. Right? I have a million subscriber channel that I made to multiple six figures per month before I ever taught anybody how to do YouTube. Right? I was making over $300,000 a month. And the only reason I started teaching YouTube is because people started coming to me begging me for me to teach them what I was doing. and I have the million subscriber plaque, receipts to prove it, and hundreds of client testimonials now, right? So, why would you listen to some random YouTube guru when you have no idea if they're even making money or their channel's successful when you can listen to somebody who verifiably actually knows what they're doing? And then the second lesson is when something's working, don't mess with it. The algorithm was already promoting his content and he messed it up by enabling this random setting. So, don't do that. Focus on content first and optimization second. All right, strategy number seven is preparation pays off. So, right in the first month, Zach actually had vacation plans. We both did a trip to Mexico for Zach's 50th birthday, and most people would stop posting, but not Zach. He pre-recorded videos in advance, and he scheduled them to go live automatically. So, he batch recorded the videos and basically created all of them before he was going on his trip to Mexico. And the crazy part is his channel actually exploded while we were away on this trip. So, the preparation paid off massively. And this shows YouTube's true power. Once you build momentum, it keeps going, even when you're not actively working. And YouTube rewards creators who think ahead. So, I guess a big thing here is treat YouTube like a business. Don't treat YouTube like, oh yeah, I'll just do it whenever I feel like doing it or you know, something like that. Like, make sure you're consistently uploading and plan ahead. You know, you can very easily pre-record videos and then go on vacation and then your videos go live. That's exactly what I do and it's also what I teach all my students to do. And there's actually been times on my channel where I've gotten 3 to four months ahead on content. Now, I don't usually do that, but if I have a really long vacation or I want to do something and I don't really want to be focusing on content for a while, I have gotten 3 to four months ahead or even more sometimes. In fact, there was one time where I got many, many months ahead and then I actually ended up not uploading most of those videos I recorded. So, because of that, I'm usually about one month ahead. All right, strategy seven is the Moneyball method. And this is all about titles that work. And I call this the Moneyball method because of the movie Moneyball with Brad Pitt. And here's the formula. SEO keyword first and hook at the end. So look at Zach's titles. Top five reasons being an electrician sucks in 2025. Top 10 highest paying trade school jobs 2025. Five best and worst trade jobs for 2025. You see the pattern? The SEO keyword at the start guarantees search traffic and the hook at the end gives viral potential. So it's the best of both worlds. You make sure to target the SEO keyword that people are probably searching so that you rank for that. so that when people search on YouTube or Google, your video will likely show up at the top. But you also make the title attractive enough that if it shows up on the side while someone's watching a video or if it shows up on the homepage, they're very likely going to click on it as well. So, it's the best of both worlds. And most creators pick one or the other. We, on the other hand, get both search and viral traffic. And this is why his videos ranked high in search. This is why some of his videos took off and got tens or even hundreds of thousands of views, but the ones that didn't take off are still getting a lot of views from search. So, the reason we call this the moneyball method is because you swing the bat and no matter what, you make sure that when you hit the ball, you're going to get on base. And getting on base is kind of like getting views from search. It's not a home run, right? Your video is not blowing up, but it still scores you steady points and it still makes you steady money. But we also know that if we make the video titles attractive, once in a while, one of those videos is going to blow up. And that's exactly what happened with several of his videos. So, we try to hit a home run, but if we don't hit a home run, we make sure that we always get on base. That is the Moneyball method. So, make your titles SEOfriendly, but also make them attractive enough that if they show up on the homepage or they show up on the sidebar while you're watching a video, there's a good chance that you're going to click on it. All right, strategy number nine is the money moment. And this is the day that changed everything for Zach. 29 days in, he had a $214 day in a single day just from AdSense alone. And again, that's a $78,000 annual run rate from someone who never made a YouTube video in his life, barely watched YouTube, never used a camera, never made a video before, and wasn't tech-savvy. Just one month before, he could have never imagined this working. And this was the moment that everything clicked. YouTube wasn't just a hobby anymore. It was a real business opportunity. And this proves that the system works. And Zach is also getting passive income from selling courses with affiliate marketing, right? They're not even his courses. It's just an affiliate link. And if the person ends up buying after clicking with his link, he gets a significant percentage of the revenue. He is still doing this part-time, just a few hours a week. I think if he dedicates a little bit more time, he can easily make it to that $250 to $300,000 range within the first year. But we'll see what happens. Stay subscribed and stay updated to the channel. And also, I like to give updates on the live trainings with Zach's situation. Whenever I do a live training, I give an update. So again, check out the live training. Links in the description in the pin comment below if you want to see what he's currently doing. All right, guys. For one month only, we are accepting people into our coaching program, Content Growth Engine, where we help you to grow and make money from your personal brand. Now, this can apply to people who are just trying to get a better job, just grow their personal brand to get a better job. literally the best way to do this. For instance, one of our clients, Josh, was able to get an offer from two different fang companies, which are the hardest companies in the world to get into, even harder than Ivy League universities, uh, using his personal brand or just as a side hustle, right? Just as a way to make a little bit of extra money on the side. We teach people how to do this or people who are already making money to make more money or people who already have a full-fledged business and they're crushing it and they're, you know, already have a successful YouTube channel and they want to optimize their YouTube channel and make even more money. So, we've worked with literally every one of those types of people. And what makes our system so good is that we combine all of the best practices of building a personal brand, but we use AI to scale things to make it 10 times more efficient. This is something that no one else has ever discovered. It's an amazing opportunity and that's why I'm so excited to share it with you. So, we are accepting three to five people into the first cohort. You need to be very dedicated, right? Do not apply if you're not super dedicated to growing your personal brand. So, you have to be serious. You have to be dedicated. You have to be willing to put in the time, effort, and money that it takes to grow a personal brand. So, if that's you, go ahead, apply in the description in the pen comment below. And hopefully we get to work together. Have a good one. Bye. And strategy number 10 is understanding that age is your advantage. So, Zach is 50 years old. He's not a 20-some influencer. He's not a digital native, but that was actually his advantage. See, there's tons of young people making content, and there's almost no middle-aged or older people making content. and 29 years in the trades gave him knowledge. Knowledge that no younger creator could match. And when he talked about the trades and how much of a good opportunity a lot of these trade careers are, people listen and they knew he'd actually done the work. He had real experience in the field. He knew the pros. He knew the cons. He knew stories and insights from decades of work. And your experience isn't a disadvantage. It's your superpower. So use it because people trust experience over you. And by the way, it's not just Zach that's blowing up. There's older creator after older creator after older creator blowing up all over YouTube right now. Just an example, another client that I've consulted with, R.J. posted some videos talking about retirement and immediately many of them blew up and he's already monetized and crushing it on YouTube. And there's example after example after example of older creators that are posting very simple videos. In many cases, they're unedited or very tiny amounts of editing, very easy to make, and they're basically just sharing their wisdom and they're absolutely blowing up. So, right. So, if you're older, it's actually significantly easier for you to do well on YouTube. So, again, attend my live training if you're interested in how to know that and you want to dive deeper. Don't miss out on it. And also, I know for most of you, my free content, my live training will be enough for you to get started and for you to get results if you implement what I say. But there's going to be a small percentage of you that want to work one-on-one with myself or my team. If that's you, go ahead and apply down the description in the pin comment below for a clarity call. Only do it if you're very serious. We can only work with a small amount of people. Only do it if you're serious. But on this clarity call, we'll figure out where you are right now, where you want to be. We'll make a plan to get there, and we'll see if we're a good fit to work together or not. And also, check out this video where I talk about how I was able to grow my own channel to making about $1.5 million in AdSense revenue alone. And you can check that out by clicking right here.