@Mihai Paun I'd actually rank them like this: 🥇 B — Storytelling & Retention If people don't keep watching, YouTube won't keep recommending your videos. You can have the best topic in the world, but if viewers leave after 30 seconds, the video is dead. 🥈 A — Topic Selection Before I write a single word, I ask: Would I personally click this? The best-performing channels don't just pick broad topics like "psychology." They package psychology around curiosity, conflict, hidden truths, and relatable problems people are already thinking about. 🥉 C — Consistency Consistency isn't just uploading every day. It's consistently publishing videos with the same level of quality. One great video every week will outperform seven average videos. D — AI Tools AI is a multiplier, not the business itself. It can speed up research, scripting, editing, voiceovers, and thumbnails, but it can't fix a boring idea. Thousands of creators use the exact same AI tools, yet only a small percentage get millions of views. For me, there's also an E: Packaging (Thumbnail + Title). A video can have incredible storytelling, but if nobody clicks it, YouTube never gets the chance to test it. Clicks bring people in. Retention convinces YouTube to keep pushing the video. You need both. My formula is simple: Great Topic → Irresistible Title & Thumbnail → High-Retention Storytelling → Consistent Publishing. Miss one of those, and growth becomes much harder. Nail all four consistently, and that's when channels start seeing exponential growth.

@Mihai Paun I'd actually add another option: F️⃣ Understanding the Audience. Every part of the process starts there. When you truly understand what keeps your audience awake at night, what they're curious about, what they fear, and what they aspire to become, everything else becomes easier. - Topic selection becomes obvious because you know what they're already searching for. - Titles and thumbnails improve because you know what triggers curiosity. - Storytelling becomes stronger because you know which emotions to tap into. - Even retention improves because viewers feel like the video was made specifically for them. - A lot of creators think they're in the "YouTube business," but they're really in the attention business. The channels that win aren't always the ones with the best editing or the most advanced AI, they're the ones that understand their audience better than everyone else. If I had to pick one area for most creators to improve, it would be F️⃣ Understanding the Audience, because it makes A, B, C, D, and even E much more effective.