Hey friends — as many of you know I used to create articles like this to share research and video breakdowns. It's been a while, and I want to acknowledge that I've missed doing so. Life has a way of pulling us in different directions — and in the winter with snow and taxes, it's harder to keep up. When I watched this video though, I felt I had to share it. The video is by Chris Do of The Futur, released March 24, 2026. It's called **"The Content Strategy Nobody Is Talking About (But Should Be)"** 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaDK_zVy1Cc --- **🤔 The Central Question** Chris starts with a central question: *"If anyone can go viral... should you?"* He then makes a compelling case that virality is actually a trap. **If you DO go viral:** You enter the **Validation Loop** — looking outside yourself for proof you're doing something worthwhile, constantly needing to repeat it. **If you DON'T go viral again:** Motivation tanks, self-worth takes a hit, burnout follows, and eventually you quit. --- **🚨 The Four Problems With Chasing Virality** **1️⃣ The Seduction** — Platforms never tell you how to go viral. It's intentionally opaque. So we hand our emotional well-being over to algorithms and gurus who are also just guessing. **2️⃣ The Addiction** — The platform hooks you like a dealer with a sample. The cruel twist: *the day before your post went viral, you were happy making progress.* After going viral, normal progress never feels good enough again. **3️⃣ The Prison** — Go viral doing something specific and that thing becomes your cage. People expect it every time. When you try to return to something more authentic, the audience punishes you: *"This isn't what we followed you for."* **4️⃣ The Awakening** — Followers don't equal community. VidCon invited major TikTokers with millions of followers to speak. Rooms built for 500–800 people had 20–30 seats filled. One creator with 1.3 million followers held a meet-and-greet. Nobody came.

For those that know of Colin & Samir - they are putting on a free workshop "How to Land Brand Deals Bigger Than Your Subscriber Count" next week, on October 22nd @ 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET and you register at: https://creatorstartup.framer.website/

Hey everyone, in a recent post in one of the groups I’m part of, we were asked to share something new we’d discovered that might help other creators. I am attaching a video that I came accross today that I think can be a major help for anyone who writes video scripts! 📹 The video is by Justin Brown and it’s titled:“This new Google Docs Tool is a Game Changer for Video Scripts.” He walks through a brand-new Google Docs feature that lets your document read itself out loud using natural-sounding AI voices. It’s called “Listen to this tab,” and it’s powered by Google’s Gemini technology. What makes this so useful is that we often write our scripts to read well, but not necessarily to sound natural when spoken.This tool helps bridge that gap by letting you hear your words back — so you can smooth out clunky phrasing and make your delivery feel more authentic before hitting record. 🛠️ HOW TO FIND IT (When It Rolls Out to You) Here’s how Google says you’ll be able to access it once it reaches your account: 1. Open your script in Google Docs on desktop (English only for now). 2. In the top menu, click → Tools → Audio → Listen to this tab. 3. A small floating player will appear — hit ▶️ to start listening. 4. Use the three-dot menu (⋮) on the player to: 5. You can even add a clickable audio button inside your doc for later playback: 6. The playback window can be dragged or repositioned anywhere on your screen. ⚙️ WHAT GOOGLE SAYS ABOUT ACCESS According to Google’s official updates, this feature is rolling out gradually — starting with select Google Workspace and Gemini AI users. It’s currently available to: - Business Standard / Plus - Enterprise Standard / Plus - Gemini Education / Education Premium - Google AI Pro and Ultra tiers If you’re using a free or personal Gmail account, you probably won’t see it yet.The rollout is happening in stages across “Rapid Release” and “Scheduled Release” domains, so it may take a few weeks (or months) before everyone has it.

Earlier today in one of the groups I’m part of, someone shared an email they had received that claimed to be from YouTube. As I was reading through the thread, I realized it might be helpful to share a few things I’ve learned over the years about how to tell if an email is genuine or fake. With over 30 years of running different companies in the IT field — dealing with email systems and learning more than I ever wanted to about how scammers and hackers operate — I thought I’d put together this short post with some tools and resources that can help you spot a fake. 🔍 THE BASICS When you send or receive an email, there’s a lot more going on “under the hood” than just what shows up in your inbox. Every email actually carries with it a kind of hidden paper trail called headers. Headers aren’t something most people ever look at, but they’re one of the most important tools you can use to figure out if a message is genuine or not. That’s because they record the behind-the-scenes details of where the email really came from and who authorized it along the way. The tricky part is that scammers can make the visible “From” line look convincing — they can make it say YouTube, PayPal, or any other company. But the headers tell the fuller story. If you know how to read them, you can see past the surface and get clues about whether an email is trustworthy or not. 📨 FROM AND REPLY-TO The first and most basic thing to look at is the actual sending address. On the surface, the “From” line in your inbox might say something like YouTube Support or PayPal Security, but that’s just a label — it can be faked. What really matters is the domain part of the address, the part that comes after the “@” symbol. For example, if the message says it’s from YouTube, you should see it coming from something like @youtube.com or @google.com. If instead it shows up as @gmail.com, @hotmail.com, or something that just looks similar — like youtube-security.com — that’s a red flag. Scammers often register domains that look close enough to the real thing to fool people who aren’t looking too closely.

Recently, I shared a poll across several creator-focused communities to see where people were on their YouTube journey. In total, 136 creators responded across four different groups, ranging from small communities of a few hundred to larger groups with thousands of members. The results were both encouraging and sobering. 🗳️ The Poll Questions And Results Here’s the exact wording of the options I provided, along with the combined responses across all groups: 🔹 Haven’t started a channel yet, but I’m planning to → 22 votes (16.2%) 🔹 Newbie — started my first channel within the last 3 months → 31 votes (22.8%) 🔹 My most active channel is less than 1 year old — not monetized → 30 votes (22.1%) 🔹 My most active channel is less than 1 year old — monetized → 7 votes (5.1%) 🔹 My most active channel is over 1 year old — not monetized → 14 votes (10.3%) 🔹 My most active channel is over 1 year old — monetized → 21 votes (15.4%) 🔹 I am creating content again after an extended break (3–12 months) → 6 votes (4.4%) 🔹 I am reviving a channel I started over a year ago → 5 votes (3.7%) ✅ Grand Total: 136 votes (100%) When simplified to just monetization status: 🔹 Monetized (options 4 + 6): 28 votes (20.6%) 🔹 Not Monetized (everything else): 108 votes (79.4%) How This Squares With National Trends At first glance, 20.6% monetized looks surprisingly strong. Nationally, the numbers are far lower: 🔹 Studies suggest fewer than 6% of channels are monetized through the YouTube Partner Program. 🔹 Some analyses estimate that as few as 0.25% of all YouTube channels ever make a single penny. 🔹 Even among monetized channels, the majority of income is concentrated at the top—just a few percent of creators earn most of the revenue. By that comparison, my poll results look like a success story. But that’s where the caution comes in. ⚠️ The Problems With This Kind Of Poll 🔹 Self-Selected Sample — Everyone who answered was already inside a creator-focused community. These aren’t casual uploaders—they’re people actively trying to grow. Naturally, that raises the monetization rate above the national average.