If I Had Only 1 Hour/Day, Here's How I'd Grow My Channel:

You're probably juggling a 9 to 5, family, or other responsibilities, and wondering if it's even possible to grow on YouTube with just 1 hour a day. I completely get it because I personally spent 4 years failing at it. Then, after years of trial and error, something finally clicked, and my channel went from zero to 100K in just 3 months, and then to 1 million in only 2 years. I discovered that growing on YouTube isn't about having more time—it's actually about knowing exactly what moves the needle.

Today, I'm going to show you a clear roadmap to grow your channel in 2025, even with a limited time. Let me show you the biggest mistake I made when I was starting on YouTube. One time, I spent like 15 hours perfecting a single edit just to get like 47 views.

So what do successful creators do differently? They focus on three things that actually matter:

1. Creating content people actually want to watch, not just what you think looks cool.
2. Making titles and thumbnails that make people want to click, not just the pretty ones.
3. Understanding your audience and your unique value proposition, not just copying big creators.

Everything else is just busy work. I'm going to show you exactly how to nail these three core elements, even if you have only one hour a day.

Now this brings me to something really important that I learned. You're probably looking at creators like Mr. Beast, Alex Orosi, or maybe Matt D'Avella and thinking if I just do exactly what they're doing, I'll grow too—huge mistake! Never do it! Trying to copy what successful creators are doing right now is like trying to run a marathon without learning how to walk first. You know, it just doesn't work.

The reason is that big creators are playing a completely different game than someone who's just trying to start and grow their channel. For example, on this channel, my current goal is not really to grow or get more subscribers anymore. The main focus is really on building the business and scaling the business outside of my YouTube channel. So I don't really care how much we grow in terms of subscribers.

So what do you need to do if you're trying to grow your channel? Here's what you actually need to focus on when you're just starting out, and trust me, it's actually not what you think.

Because before you even touch a camera or think about buying gear, you need to know exactly who you are on YouTube and why anyone should care about what you have to say. Because even though it sounds a little sad at the beginning, no one cares about us.

I know this sounds basic, but this is exactly why I think I failed in the first four years of my YouTube career—because I was so focused on trying to copy other creators that I forgot to figure out what made me different. If you want to avoid doing this mistake, it actually comes down to two simple questions that you need to answer:

First, what makes you different? This isn't about having a mind-blown skill or having a very unique competitive edge or anything. It's basically about your background, your experiences, and your personality. It's just those elements that make you you. You know, so let's say if you're a student who figured out how to get a trade while, I don't know, doing something different—maybe having a hobby aside—you can teach about it on YouTube. Or maybe you are a mom who is really good at time management while raising kids, which is something that most people struggle with. You know, whatever it is, that is your starting point.

Second, why should people care? This is crucial. We have to be very clear: are you solving a problem, or are you offering insights that nobody else is talking about in a specific industry? Or maybe you have a unique humor that makes people laugh in your own unique way.

To figure that out—what makes you unique, aka your unique selling point (USP)—try to write a one-sentence mission statement. A one-sentence mission statement is basically like this: "I help a specific audience achieve a specific result by a specific method or value."

So, for example, mine is: "I help ambitious individuals overcome self-doubt and achieve their goals by teaching techniques to make time for what truly matters. I empower my audience to live a fulfilling life while improving it." This is my mission statement, and your mission statement doesn't have to be perfect from the beginning because it can change over time.

But you just need a clear starting point because this is essentially what is going to guide you in every single video you make. I know figuring out this can be tricky when you're just starting, so I created a free mini-guide to help you discover your USP. You can check it out in the description below; it's completely free.

Now that you've figured out what makes you unique, let's talk about turning that into actual content that grows your channel. Here's another big mistake I see beginners make: they start by making content about themselves. But here's the truth: when you're just starting out, nobody actually is searching for you. You know, because nobody knows you and nobody cares about a day in my life yet because they don't know—like why would I care about it?

So what are they searching for? They are searching for solutions to their problems. Because think about it: which video would you click on—"My Daily Workout Routine" from someone that you have absolutely no idea about, or "How to Lose Weight Without the Gym," or "A Productive Day in My Life" from someone you don't know, or "How I Built a Side Hustle Without Quitting My 9 to 5?" One is about you; the other is solving your viewer's problems.

By focusing on solutions people actively search for, you will naturally attract viewers who see you as a helpful resource. Over time, as you build an audience and your credibility, you can expand into other content types like storytelling, emotional connection, or more inspirational and personal content.

Here's my exact process for coming up with problem-solving video ideas. I basically spend 1 hour every week at a café brainstorming. First, I list everything I accomplished—like mental, physical, academic, professional, anything I figured out that can help others. Then I break these into major areas and think about all the problems beginners face.

I also reflect and try to remember what was I struggling with? What questions did I have at the beginning? For example, when I started this channel, I did this with language learning. You know, because I was really good at language learning, and I did this without spending a lot of money on it.

So I basically first started with something that I'm good at and a problem that I solved—learning languages at home without having a tutor or without going to a language school—and also making a process found that was something like a problem that I solved in my own experience and that I was really good at. So I started making videos about it, and then my channel blew up.

The reason is that I solved a specific problem in my life, and I was providing free value to people. Those kinds of videos allowed me to establish my authority in a specific niche—language learning—and from there, I basically expanded into other kinds of content.

And it's not only language learning; for example, also ADHD. I have ADHD and I've been struggling with it for a very long time, so I basically built systems and also methods that I can manage my procrastination brain much better, and I was sharing it online and a lot of people found it helpful. That allowed me to establish that trust, and now I can talk about any kind of topic that I want as long as it's valuable to my audience.

So now you might be thinking, "What if I haven't figured out anything yet? What if I don't have any credibility or experience in something?" That's actually completely okay. Instead of trying to teach people, I would become what I call a "human guinea pig."

So you pick three to five areas that you want to improve in, learn from books, experts, and try different methods, and then share what works and what doesn't work. You basically test everything that you learn, and you share what you learn from those reliable sources out there.

For example, I did this in my video about the marshmallow test. Like I haven't conducted any research about willpower or anything like that. I read a book, I learned something, I tested it on myself, and then I synthesized it and shared it with the world. That's usually how I make my videos.

This works because you're either teaching from direct experience or alongside your audience, right? Both are really valuable and powerful on YouTube. The reason is that people connect with real struggles more than perfect highlight reels. If somebody really wanted to only learn the language, now you can just like ask an AI to teach you something.

But people prefer learning from humans because they understand what you went through. When you're working with just one hour a day, don't waste time trying to make your videos perfect. You should focus on the value you're delivering to your audience, not how polished your video looks.

Here's what I would do to streamline my process and produce great content effectively. Editing is often the most time-consuming part of content creation, so focus on cutting out the fluff and making your videos digestible.

Here's how to apply the 80/20 rule when it comes to editing: First, film your "raw" main talking points. For example, this is a raw shot that I'm currently making. After filming your raw footage, upload your footage to Glint AI because it will give you a cleaned-up version in a few minutes. It can automatically detect "ums" and "ahs," and also the parts where you repeated yourself, and you can delete that easily.

The AI will also transcribe your video and by just going through the transcription that you have, you can easily remove unnecessary sections because reading is usually much faster than just like re-watching the video again and again. By cutting the unnecessary parts from the transcript, it will give you a clean base to work with.

After that, I will focus on generating a shot list for my B-roll. Usually, because I'm lazy, I just take the cleaned-up script out from Glint AI and put that in ChatGPT to suggest B-roll ideas to enhance my video, and it just gives like a shot list for each talking point.

So after you get those shot lists, you film or source your B-roll and lay it over your raw footage for a polished look. So that whenever you're talking, there's like a visual element representing whatever you're talking about, so that it conveys the message to the viewer much easier.

The reason why I love Glint AI is because it's specifically built for YouTubers like us, so it understands the needs of creators. It can save you so much time and it will help you focus on the creative parts of your videos instead of spending hours trying to trim down your footage.

If you're someone who struggles with editing or just wants to work smarter, I highly recommend Glint AI. You can get it now by clicking the link at the top of the description or in the pinned comment. Thank you, Glint AI, for sponsoring a small portion of this video.

Now, here's something most beginners get wrong: they spend all their money on an expensive camera, but their audio sounds terrible. Don't do that! Because your first investment should be a good microphone, not a good camera—unless your phone is really, really crappy.

The reason is that most people will watch a slightly blurry or slightly not-so-high-quality video, but they will click instantly if they can't hear you properly or if your mic is making too much noise—things like that.

So here are some of my recommendations for microphones, and if you want to learn more in detail for gear recommendations—whether it's lighting, microphones, or cameras—I have a free gear guide in the description for free. You can check it out; it gives you all my recommendations for different budgets.

Let's talk about lighting. Honestly, when it comes to lighting, just keep it simple. Film during the day if you can, next to a window, and you're good to go. If you're working 9 to 5 and you don't get sunlight when you come back from work, you can use weekends to film. And if you need artificial lighting, start with one softbox; you know, you can start with an affordable one.

For those who like recommendations, you can check my free gear guide. But honestly, if I were a beginner, I would dedicate my weekdays for scripting and coming up with video ideas, and I would use my weekends to film the video. Like, I would probably use Saturday to film it and on Sunday, I would edit the videos.

Now, let's talk about thumbnails. Even with like 1.4 million subscribers, to this day, I literally made 99% of my thumbnails on Canva because I personally don't know Photoshop, and I don't need to. If I have a thumbnail concept that is quite difficult to make, then I just hire freelancers here and there, but that's just probably 1% of my thumbnails that I have made so far.

So the secret is not really in fancy editing or like Photoshop, but it's in the psychology of what makes people click. Here's what I learned from my most successful thumbnails: First, notice how I use a very specific thumbnail formula. One is clear main text. Okay, sometimes I do also no text, but I add text if only it enhances and makes it easier for the viewer to understand what the video is about. For example, in thumbnails like "Never Forget" and "Nobody Tells You About This," I use high-contrast text that's instantly remarkable.

The key here is making it feel like a secret being revealed or a powerful statement, basically. The second important element is visual simplicity. Look at the "$7,500 per week" thumbnail; like I don't really overcrowd it—one clear message, one strong image, and some strategic use of props like the money to support the story and visually tell what the video is about.

The third factor is emotional expression in each thumbnail. My face—even though people say that I have a poker face—actually kind of highlights and matches the emotion of the video. For the focus video, I look scattered among objects and for the language learning one, I look more confident and authoritative in my opinion, even though most people say I just look like a poker face. I think they're different.

So here's my actual process when it comes to creating high-performing thumbnails. First, start with your story hook. What is the biggest transformation in your video? What is the most surprising insight about your video? What's the end result people want? These are the three important questions that you need to answer. Then you start creating visual contrast.

For numbers videos, you know, I show clear pictures like let's say $7,500 or "Top 1%." And for transformation videos, I use like before-and-after elements. For method videos, I use step indicators like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 around here. Another one is using psychological tricklers, like curiosity gaps. "Nobody Else Tells You This" is a curiosity gap, or authority markers like showing subscriber counts, view numbers—just like this video—or results and proof, like the analytical screenshots that I had on the YouTube video.

Here's what I think people get wrong: they try to make their thumbnails pretty instead of making them intriguing. You know, notice how my successful thumbnails, like let's say 79k or something, often just have like two main elements: a clear statement of value and an image that builds curiosity.

That is the way that I think about it—like value and curiosity, those two elements. Because a good thumbnail should make someone feel like, "Oh, I need to know what this video is about," in less than a second because usually, people don't even read the title. So the thumbnail should, like, instantly tell what the value could be about the video.

That's why I personally use simple backgrounds and bold text and a clear value proposition for every single thumbnail. And it's easy to create, easy to remember, easy to give a value proposition, and overall, I don't think there's a need to complicate things.

And a bonus tip from my million-viewed video: when you include a number, like specific results on a thumbnail, like "10K per Month" or "45.3 Million Views," make them specific and believable. For example, like, instead of titling it "10,000," I would make it, like, more precise figures, like "7,500" or the exact number that I have to make it more believable because most people are probably not going to believe you.

Let's talk about outsourcing because this is where, like, I think many creators get stuck. They either outsource too early and waste money or they wait too long and burn out. They hire someone too early and waste money because they're not really clear about what they're doing, and you have to avoid that.

You first need to know which direction you're going with your YouTube channel, and once you're fine with it, start creating content and outsource it if you can. Like if you have a lot of money to burn, I think you can outsource whenever you want.

For a general reference, I think there is a right time and a right way to outsource. First, you should consider outsourcing editing when your channel is generating enough revenue to reinvest, or when you have a clear, repeatable editing style that you can explain to others, or you're constantly getting enough views to justify the investment.

Basically, you know, if you have a lot of budget that you can burn, sure, you can outsource from the beginning. But the thing is that good editors aren't cheap, and there's a reason for that. Because a good editor can cost, like, a minimum of $100, but usually around $250 to $300 per video for quality editing.

You know, if you don't have a clear vision and direction you're going with your channel, investing $300 per video, and if you're posting four times—that's like $1,200. I'm sure some of you guys are fine with that investment, but I feel like most people are not really that fine with spending and investing on something that they're not really sure about yet.

But if you already know the direction that you want to go and your channel is starting to grow, then this investment—like hiring an editor—can help you focus on what really grows your channel: creating great content and connecting with your audience and spending more time learning about the other styles of content creation.

But either way, remember: value first, polish later. Because if you don't have a clear value proposition, even if your video is like super edited very nicely, the potential success rate that you can have is much lower than having valuable content that has minimal editing.

The reason is because your audience cares more about what you bring to the table than how fancy your transitions look. Unless you're a filmmaking creator, let's talk about realistic planning. Because this is where most people mess up, including me.

Because let me be honest with you—like I got a notification a week ago that I only uploaded 20 videos in the last 12 months, and it really hurt my channel growth. Why did this happen? Because I set an expectation for myself without actually knowing if I could sustain it. Okay? It just literally comes down to that.

Obviously, I'm also a lazy person, but I finally found a way to overcome that. Here's what I want you to do: first, time how long it actually takes you to make one complete video. And I mean everything—from brainstorming to final export.

If making one video takes you 10 hours and you only have 5 hours available per week, look at one video every two weeks, not every single week. And that's completely fine! Trying to keep up with an unrealistic schedule led me to burn out and become inconsistent. You would rather get one solid video every two weeks than watch you disappear for months because you burned out—just like I did.

So use your 1 hour per day strategically, and have a clear expectation of how often you will post. Break down those 10 hours into small, manageable chunks. You know, it could be like, maybe Monday is a research day, Tuesday is a scripting day, Wednesday is filming day, and Thursday is like an editing day. Friday could be an idea generation day. Whatever that is, have a realistic expectation.

Now everything I've shared so far is just the beginning. Because these strategies helped me to grow from 0 to 1 million subscribers, and they can work for you too. But I know you might be thinking, this all sounds great, but how do I actually implement it?

That's exactly why I actually created my coaching SL Community. It's where I basically show you step by step how to grow your channel. Not only do I teach you like in a course or anything like that, we'll work together on your video ideas, titles, thumbnails, and your strategy together—like literally you and I—and we will align your vision toward that.

I will personally give feedback on your strategy and help you grow your YouTube channel. So if you're interested in working directly with me, check the link in the description for more details. And if you're not ready yet, sign up for my free 7-day email newsletter to learn actionable strategies to grow on YouTube. It's completely free; check it out!

Let's talk about branding, and I'm going to say give you lots of time on this. Okay? When I first started my channel, I spent way too much time obsessing over my logo and my intro. I had like a crazy intro, you know, good old days—all that fancy stuff—a complete waste of time. A complete waste of time! Don't waste your time on that.

Here's what actually matters in the beginning: first, speak to your core message. Do you remember the mission statement that we created? Like "I help this, this kind of people"—that is your foundation. Okay? Second, keep your visuals simple but consistent. You know, you can pick two colors you like, use the same font, keep your thumbnails following a similar style. I'm not saying like do the same thumbnail every single day, but if you look at my thumbnails, they have a similar style and similar color tones.

That's it—literally, that's it! The rest focus on delivering value because you don't have that much time. If you only have 1 hour per day, we have to dedicate that to the most important thing that is going to move the needle. So focus on delivering value because that's what builds trust with your audience.

Like look at my early videos versus now—my branding has evolved, and naturally, as the channel grew, you know your brand will change over time anyway, and you don't need everything perfect on day one. Just start with the most critical ones so you can grow your channel, and as you grow your channel and make money off of it, then you can outsource other parts of it and improve it. Start simple, stay consistent, and let your brand grow with your time.

Also, last mindset thing: let's talk about this. Work smarter, not harder! Because I used to think more hours I spent on a video made better videos. Totally wrong! Completely wrong!

I remember, even now, I had a video where I spent like 2-3 weeks, and it was one of the worst performing videos that I posted in a long time. And there's also like a different video of mine that I literally filmed at like 5:00 a.m. in like 1 hour, and it has like 500k or 600k views. Why is that? Because the value was pretty clear in that video.

I want you to be very strategic about how you use your time. Block out one specific hour every day—whether it's 6:00 a.m. before work if you are a morning person, or maybe 8:00 p.m. after dinner—and commit to it. A focused hour beats random bursts of work any day. If you can say, like, 9:00 p.m. is the hour that I work on content, then stick to that every single freaking day.

You don't have to do it in the early mornings; you can also do it later in the night. You have to stick to that!

And finally, let's talk about perfectionism. This is the biggest killer of YouTube channels, and I need you to hear this: your first videos will suck. Mine did; everyone's did. Your first videos are going to be absolutely crap!

Like if you want proof, you can go to big YouTubers' first videos, and they're terrible. They're really bad. But you know what? They posted anyway. That is the difference. Are you fine with having terrible videos and keep practicing in public? Versus are you getting ashamed and too insecure of what people will think about it?

Unless you're teaching people about filmmaking, nobody cares about your fancy lighting or perfect transitions. People care about the value that you can bring to the table. You know, they care about what you can teach them, how you can help them. You know, look at my early videos—they're so bad! They're so, so bad! But I kept going.

You know, I started in 2016, and now it's like almost 2025, which is crazy—like my 9-year anniversary. And each video got a little bit better. So take everything we covered today: your USP, problem-solving content, simple production, consistent schedule, and just start!

Don't let perfectionism hold you back from what could be an amazing journey. YouTube changed my life, and it can change yours too! If you want to learn more about specific strategies about growing your YouTube channel, check out this video.