If you're a YouTuber or a content creator, I just found this Cult of Done Manifesto, and to me this is one of the ideal philosophies I live by that is going to help you be successful on YouTube. The basic idea is that you just constantly create. You upload, you share, you try and add value to people's lives. That's what this is all about.
YouTube Should Add Value, Not Extract It
Now, it's tough, because a lot of YouTube is about extracting value, where people are making videos tricking you into watching them, tricking you into spending your time there, tricking you into spending money on something you don't need, buying something you don't need, and so on. Whereas to me, the idea with YouTube is to add value to someone's life, to get you to have a better life after you watch my video. There's before you watch my video, and then your life is a little bit better after you watch my video.
There's No Editing Stage: Not Knowing, Action, Completion
So here's this Cult of Done Manifesto. I just found this recently, and the basic idea is that there's no editing stage. Stop procrastinating. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you're doing. Not knowing, action, and completion — there are three stages of being: not knowing, action, and completion.
Accept That Everything's a Draft
You accept everything's a draft, and that's how I look at my videos. Everything's a draft. If you wait more than a week to get it done, abandon it. The point of being done is not to finish, but it's to get other things done. Once you're done, you can throw it away.
Laugh at Perfection
Laugh at perfection. You can see I practice all this stuff in creating my videos. Perfection is boring. A lot of YouTube advice is trying to tell you to be perfect — perfect titles, perfect thumbnails, perfect hooks, perfect editing, and all that. And I say no. In my experience, I've gotten over a billion views online. I deleted everything last year, and I started fresh. And I've got millions of impressions, hundreds of thousands of views, and close to a million minutes watched — all from six brand new YouTube channels. And I can tell you, from what has worked for me, you don't have to edit your videos.
People Without Dirty Hands Are Wrong
Being perfect is boring. Throwing some random fucking swearing into your videos can entertain people. And being imperfect makes videos more relatable. People without dirty hands are wrong. Yes — in YouTube, if you're not out here making a bunch of videos, I don't care what you have to say.
Failure Counts as Done
Failure counts as done. If you upload a video that doesn't get watched, a YouTube Short that gets shadow banned and they don't give it any views, well, that counts as done. Finish that one. On to the next one.
My Workflow: A Spreadsheet for Videos and Live Streaming
Here's my workflow. I have a spreadsheet where what I do is I show how many videos I've got done and how much time I spent live streaming. So this, to me, is what you need to do. This is the third video I've filmed already today. Now, I filmed 26 videos a few days ago, and a lot of those were shorts, but I try and film as many videos as I can. I try and give as much value as I can to people.
Done Is the Engine of More
And I figure, from there, done is the engine of more. If you want more views, create more videos. It's most of the top channels on YouTube. I did a video showing the top channels on YouTube that have more views than Mr. Beast. It's just quantity. It's not quality. It is quantity. They crank out endless videos.
Now, does it take more time to do that? Yes. If you're the kind of person that can research YouTube perfectly and execute just the right video and get the right title, if you can do that, then be you. But most of us are going to do better being authentic, being raw, being uncut, being unedited. I literally hit record, talk, hit record, upload. If you want to go deeper on this approach, you can watch more of my YouTube coaching videos here.
Be Authentic, Raw, and Uncut
You saw the beginning of this video was kind of awkward, wasn't it? I was fumbling over my words. So what? Doesn't matter. What matters is that I got this video done. This will be the third video I filmed within 40 minutes. I've had like 50 minutes this morning to film videos, and there's going to be about 35 to 40 minutes of actual videos filmed.
My idea is I step up, I create, and I share. Every video, I try and add value to somebody's life. Many videos will fail to do that successfully, but that's okay, because some videos will add a ton of value to people's lives. And my goal is that even seeing my videos — even just seeing my videos in the feed, even if you don't watch them — will help make your life better. That is my goal. And the way to do that, I have to get videos done.
What a Small Channel's Analytics Really Mean
Because it might not look like some of my videos do much on the surface, but every one of my videos has a goal to communicate with the viewer. If you look at my analytics, you might think, well, this guy's got a couple thousand views, what does he know about YouTube? Well, what I know is I'm out here to help people. I'm not out here just to try and get money for myself. I'm out here to help people.
My videos are on what looks like a tiny YouTube channel with 239 subscribers, where I've gotten a total of 3,000 or so viewers across all my channels, where I've gotten a total of 10,000 or so views on this channel. In 88 days, 83,000 times my videos have been shown on YouTube. Two minutes, 22 seconds average view duration. And the main place my videos have actually been watched is in the Shorts feed. But the main place my videos have actually been seen is just my thumbnails and titles — they've been seen 77,000 times. That's 77,000 opportunities I've had to communicate with somebody. So I think every single day, every single video: what am I communicating? I hope this video has communicated it.
Just Get Your Videos Done
All you need to do is get your videos done. And this applies across anything creatively. Get your videos done. Just get them done. Do something. Get it done. It doesn't have to be perfect. And if anything, you focus always on the next video. As soon as this video is done, I'm uploading it, I'm on to the next video. I don't spend a whole lot of time looking at my analytics, because I'm focusing on making the next video.
Where I Got This Idea
I got this video idea at the Entrepreneur Social Club in St. Pete. Somebody was talking about the Cult of Done Manifesto. I'm like, this sounds like something I already live by, and it would help somebody else, or somebody else could identify it or remember it if they haven't seen it. So if this video is useful for you, I hope you'll come back.
Join the Jerry Banfield Family
And if you want the most value, I have a membership at jerrybanfield.com — the Jerry Banfield Family. The goal is to create a life you don't have to escape from. If you're on YouTube, I've got 15 years of experience, tens of thousands of videos, and billions of views online, and you can enjoy that experience inside. You can get a one-on-one 30-minute Zoom call with me, and you can direct message me at any time. I'm here to mentor you.
I have an AI that I'm training on all my decade-long videos, on all the videos I make all the time. You'll be able to ask it and pull information from any of my videos instantaneously, based on exactly what you need to hear. And if you're a YouTuber, tell me your YouTube channel — I'll shout you out, and I'll promote you, and I'll thank you for joining, because I'm here to add value to your life. For example, new member Scouse Will just started a YouTube channel. He has 48 subscribers. He's been following me for years. He just joined, and that made my day to see him in the group, because I've seen him in my comments for years, and now I've seen him in the group. So if you join the Jerry Banfield Family, you'll get shouted out like that. You can also keep learning from my newest YouTube coaching playlist. Thanks for watching, and I hope this video made your day better.