AI is making boring YouTube videos obsolete. This is a big deal in the YouTube coaching niche especially, where people's videos are so useless. Here's what I've learned to do: if I want to see what's going on with YouTube, I'll look at what videos people are posting, copy the video URL, dump it into Gemini, and ask Gemini to summarize the video to save my time. Because I know the creator is just going to waste my time with some stupid crap hook, and if I can get the summary of what they're saying in two seconds, I'll know exactly whatever it is they're trying to tell me.
I'm going to give you the antidote to that right now. Because if you've been listening to all these people teaching you to be an authority and make these boring informational videos, your time is ending. AI is making it so anyone can instantly just grab the information.
I Tested This Cold on My Own Feed
While I was filming this, I ran the experiment live, completely cold. I hadn't even looked at my feed. I pulled up my YouTube homepage with no preparation, fully prepared to refilm if it didn't come out well. First thing I saw was a perfect example: "YouTube's New Update Just Changed Everything." Duh. And I'm not trying to put down any one creator, but it's like, don't waste my fucking time, all right? Don't waste my fucking time with some video. I dropped the URL into Gemini, told it to summarize, and boom, the summary came back in seconds.
Here's what the bullets said. Monetization thresholds doubled — already knew that. Shorts requirements — already knew that. 1,000 subs — all right, already knew that. The definition of a view — already knew that. Why the changes don't stop growth — yep, already knew, I literally already made videos about this. Long-term AdSense — no shit. AdSense is not the ultimate goal — sure. "Focus on consistent quality content" — no, focus on quantity of content, Dave, unless you're planning to clickbait people all the time with your videos. And that clickbait game is not going to keep working once people know they can just summarize your videos. You're going to have to provide a more interesting experience in your video, because summarizing is exactly what people who know what they're doing and value their time are already doing. That was a 21-minute video, and I got all the value out of it in one minute.
So I kept scrolling to find another one. There was a video sitting at 40 views — I don't know if that's even worth watching. Another one was three minutes long — that's just Netflix mode. There was a TubeBuddy video. God, why are these videos so short? I scrolled through and it was literally showing me the same stuff over and over: YouTube growth hacks, YouTube growth hacks. So I grabbed one from 11 months ago, hit share, copied the link, went back to Gemini, and asked it to summarize. Boom. Instant bullets again: a three-topic validation rule, look for at least three of something, treat YouTube as a search engine, bring a unique perspective — no shit. Keyword optimization, put in relevant keywords — and keep in mind this video was 11 months ago; today you don't even necessarily need to do keywords. Find the top three performing keywords and combine them into your own unique twist — eh, you don't really need to do that as much today either. And here's the thing about obsessing over click-through: you shouldn't be chasing click-throughs purely through your thumbnail, because a lot of your click-through rate is actually whether the last video somebody watched from you was interesting.
Do you see why, if you're boring in your videos, people are not going to watch them? You've got to get somebody into your video by being unpredictable. That's what keeps people watching my videos — there's an emotional payoff, because you never know what kind of shit I'm going to say, and that makes them fun. Whereas videos like the ones I just summarized are simply useless going forward.
What Happens When You're Not Boring
Now let me tell you what happens when you're not a boring bastard who wastes people's time telling them stupid stuff they could have Googled. Don't fucking Jimmy me, Jules. Fuck a 5% click-through rate — I'm running an 11% click-through rate with an 11-minute average watch time. On videos that are just me talking about my life. Why? Because people saw my last videos and thought, wow, that was unpredictable. I felt something — up and down like a roller coaster. I felt something. And because they felt something, the next time they see a video from this guy, they want to know what they're going to feel this time. I know this is real because somebody in the chat on my website told me they love that my videos are so unpredictable — "I love that I don't know exactly what you're going to say and what you're going to do." That is exactly what you're going to need to build. Because as long as people can summarize your videos, your information is now useless. I am not watching a 10-minute video when I could get a two-second summary of everything in it.
This is huge for YouTube coaches. It's huge for informational and educational content. It's even coming for entertainment. You're going to have to be so entertaining with your videos that a viewer couldn't watch something better generated by AI.
AI Will Make Its Own Star Wars
Think about where this is going. AI is going to be able to generate stuff like Star Wars, if they license it. AI will just generate a new version of Star Wars where maybe Han Solo doesn't come in to rescue Luke, Luke gets fucking blown up, and the Death Star destroys the planet — why can't I remember the planet? Was it Tatooine? No, not Tatooine. Yavin 4, maybe — whatever planet they didn't blow up in the original. In the AI version, the Death Star just blows it up, there's no Empire Strikes Back, Luke gets wrecked by his dad and killed, and you can watch that version of Star Wars and then go make your own version of Star Wars. AI is even going to be able to generate entertaining content. But the first thing AI is ruining is information-based content, because not only can AI generate the information itself, but any human-generated informational video can be summarized in seconds.
And did you notice you felt something just now? Some of you are thinking, "Wait, Jerry — I can't get out here and swear at my viewers and talk all kinds of shit like you do. I can't do that." Fine. Then just stop being boring. You need to be fun. You need to give your viewers an emotional roller coaster. You need to make your viewers feel something in your videos, because that is the hallmark of being human.
I've Been an AI Bot on My Dates
Which, it turns out, is exactly what I need to stop failing at in my own dating life. It hit me: what I'm doing well in my videos is precisely what I have not been doing well in dating. I've been showing up like an AI bot on dates. "Duh, what's your job title? Do you like me? Do you want to come home with me? Why not? I just asked you boring questions for two hours, and I don't understand why you wouldn't want the rest of this evening." I've been so boring on my dates up until recently that women have been telling me, "Oh, I don't feel the spark," and all that. But when I started acting on dates the way I act on camera? Some of them run. Others of them suddenly decide they very much do want that spark after all. Because this guy's fun.
You want to make your viewers feel something, and this is working across everything I touch. I've literally started six new YouTube channels, and my dating channel is pulling hundreds and hundreds of views organically — because when people watch my videos, they feel something. There's emotion in there, and emotion is what AI does not do well. AI can fake emotion, and it can do it in text, but in video, AI is especially bad at faking emotion right now. And the one thing AI won't even try to fake is being a human being with a genuine personality who might do something unexpected.
So to me, the future of YouTube is that you're going to need to be unpredictable. When someone clicks your video, they should feel a little anticipation. And notice — I don't swear and get crazy in all my videos. Some of my videos are just kind of plain talking. Some of my videos are honestly boring. "Hi, my name is Jerry Banfield." Not every one is exciting. But people don't know what they're going to get when they click. Sometimes they get a regular story about my day and my kids on my vlog. Sometimes they get "I asked 15 women out." Some viewers don't get as excited by every upload — but sometimes they get a feeling. They get an emotion. And because you never know which you're going to get, people anticipate your new videos coming out.
You're a Boring Loser, and I'm Telling You This Out of Love
Here's where a lot of you suck — and not in a good way, either. A lot of you suck because your videos are boring, and your videos are boring because you're afraid of being embarrassed. Don't worry: I've gotten embarrassed enough for all of us. I've had women not want to date me because they watched my YouTube videos. And I'm a fucking great YouTuber. But not every woman wants to date a YouTuber who talks about how he's crying and whining, who talks about the woman he's dating — keeping her private, but still talking about it. Not every woman wants to be with a YouTuber who has a public life. And yet, if you want to do well on YouTube, the future belongs to people who have a personality. Like me. Who put this whole thing together? Me. That's who. You've got to have a personality, because that's what's special. That's what's human. That's what makes a video worth the time — and it's what makes all those other videos not worth the time. If I can just use AI to summarize your video, I'm not going to watch it. But if I watch your video and I feel something, then I'm like, all right — I'll watch this dude's videos, I'll watch this woman's videos, even if I could get the same information faster somewhere else. I'm watching for an experience. I'm watching for a feeling. I'm watching to have fun. Because I know you're tired of your usual regular YouTuber. And with me? You're going to feel something unusual. Honestly — what kind of woman wouldn't want to date a guy like me?
So if you're tired of being a boring-ass, weak YouTuber, get my YouTube coaching and work with me. You can talk to me for four hours of Zoom calls in one month, with text support in between. I'll help you stop being a boring loser. Because most YouTubers I see fail. You're a boring loser — and I'm telling you this out of love.
I've seen a lot of new YouTubers, and here's the pattern: you're too afraid of being embarrassed. You're playing it so safe that you're boring. You're trying to edit your videos to make them perfect, and by doing so, you cut out the very reason to watch them. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to talk as professionally as I do. You don't have to put on a performance like this one. But you need to put some unique stories in there. Look at what you just read — this is a YouTube coaching video, and how much shit did I talk? Half this video was shit talking. Half this video was entertaining. You cannot get that from a summary. Even if somebody tried to summarize my videos, the bullets would come back with, "Damn, he's single." You'd be sitting there wondering why there's a bullet point in a YouTube coaching video about how this dude is single. And for the record, I'm not going to be single much longer — some woman is going to have all this. I'm texting, I'm not even sure how many right now, maybe 15 or 20, and I'm working on a few. If you want more where this came from, the rest is on my YouTube Coaching playlist.
All right, that's enough. It's checkout time. Go to jerrybanfield.com. Buy the chat at a minimum — that gets you the ability to talk to me anytime and ask me questions. Schedule a Zoom call for a one-time session with me. Or if you really want that commitment — if you want to stop fucking around on YouTube — grab the YouTube coaching package.
And did he just say to grab my package? No. I said grab his package.