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How I Run this YouTube Channel - Day in the Life

2021-11-13 · Vlog or day in the life · Ali, Ryan Holiday · recording, 14:20 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship (also: YouTube, writing online and creators, Relationships and personal life, Productivity and time) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: His own products discussed, Lesson from a book

In a day-in-the-life vlog of back-to-back Monday meetings in his new London office, Ali presents his team's five core values and mission, plans premium Ghost themes with Dan Rowden, runs a first in-person content brainstorm, and tells Ryan Holiday's podcast he has decided to stop caring about the numbers.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A Monday of back-to-back meetings: the plan for the day

  • ★★ Ali's plan is to go each morning to the business lounge of the building he lives in, to make himself sit down and write his book. — 00:00:08

00:02:03 — The weekly kickstart meeting and the core-values talk

  • ★★ Ali's team meets every Monday for an all-hands "kickstart meeting", some in person and some remotely, to update everyone on the YouTube channel, the podcast, the YouTuber Academy and the courses. — 00:02:03 · Deep Dive, Part-Time YouTuber Academy
  • ★★ Ali's team has five core values, and at the kickstart meeting Ali gives a talk explaining them and why they matter, followed by a Q&A with the team. — 00:02:03
  • ★★★ Ali's team has settled its purpose as asking whether a thing helps people live their best life through inspiring and educational content, and will only put up videos that are excellent. — 00:02:33
  • ★★ Ali says his team judges a video not by external metrics but by its own feeling of whether it is valuable, inspiring and educational and would help people live their best life. — 00:03:02

  • ★★★ Ali's business has no dreams of reaching a set number of people, revenue or team size: it just wants to build a profitable business that helps people while having fun. — 00:03:02

    “Literally just build a profitable business that helps people while having fun.”

00:03:34 — Meeting with Dan about selling Ghost themes

  • ★★ Ali has used Ghost, a website builder like WordPress or Squarespace, to host his website since 2015, and is friends with John, who runs Ghost. — 00:03:34 · Ghost, aliabdaal.com
  • ★★★ Because people keep emailing to ask how he made his website, Ali will sell its theme, which he designed and Dan Rowden coded, as a premium Ghost theme. — 00:04:06 · Ghost, aliabdaal.com
  • ★★ Ali and Dan Rowden are brainstorming their first couple of Ghost themes, and the team will probably set up a Shopify store to sell them. (hedged) — 00:04:31 · Ghost
  • ★★ Ali's team is planning videos documenting what it is like to try to sell digital products on the internet, a topic he thinks much of his audience may be interested in. — 00:04:31

00:05:01 — Content brainstorm: Taylor Swift banter and a pitch for an online dating video

  • ★★ Ali pitches a how-to video on online dating that combines insights from Logan Ury's book with his own six months of online dating and talks with people who have done it for longer. — 00:05:49
  • ★★ Ali calls online dating an absolute no-brainer for anyone looking for a partner. — 00:05:49

00:06:45 — The first in-person writers' room and the Notion content production engine

  • ★★ Ali argues that paying for premium on dating apps is the way forward: choosing a partner is one of the most important decisions of your life, so a few pounds for a better chance is worth it. — 00:06:45
  • ★★ At the team's first in-person content meeting, about three hours long, Ali's friend Taha introduced the new Notion system for videos, the content production engine, which collects ideas from Ali and the writers through the week. — 00:07:14 · Notion
  • ★★ When a valuable video topic is one Ali does not know much about, his team brings in expertise from books, interviews and experts, because the aim is inspiring educational content that helps people live their best life. — 00:07:43
  • ★★ Ali's team is interviewing Logan Ury, author of How to Not Die Alone, on his podcast in a few weeks. — 00:07:43 · Deep Dive
  • ★★ Ali finds that having his team together in person leaves him more energised than meeting on Zoom calls. — 00:07:43 · Zoom

00:08:13 — On Ryan Holiday's podcast: autonomy, brands outside the creator, and not caring about the numbers

  • ★★ A friend of Ali's whose startup had a successful $100 million Series B wants to start a YouTube channel, because investors limit a funded founder's autonomy and he wants his own income from an online course. — 00:08:13
  • ★★ At a YouTube convention the week before, Ali found fairly successful YouTubers trying to build brands distinct from their personal brands, such as merch, coffee or stationery companies, marketed by but not dependent on themselves. — 00:09:00
  • ★★ Ali says creators get into it for the autonomy but then find themselves on a hamster wheel of content; he is so entrenched that he would love to build a brand outside himself. — 00:09:25
  • ★★ A few days before the interview, on a Saturday when he was meant to film, Ali instead spent about five hours journaling about what he wants from his YouTube channel, business and life. — 00:09:25
  • ★★ Although his income streams already let him comfortably sustain a decent lifestyle for a few years, Ali found himself still a slave to the algorithm, thinking two million subscribers is cool but four million even better. — 00:10:01

  • ★★★ Ali's conclusion after journaling: he can decide not to care about the numbers, a consistent publishing schedule or sponsorship deadlines, and make only videos that feel authentic and that he is proud of. — 00:10:30

    “I actually can just decide to not care about the numbers”

00:11:06 — Ryan Holiday's advice on writing the book

  • ★★ Ali was interviewed by Ryan Holiday for his Daily Stoic podcast and YouTube channel; they had spoken twice before, once in an interview on Ali's channel. — 00:11:06 · Ryan Holiday
  • ★ Ali says Ryan Holiday, long in the writing and marketing game, gives very to-the-point advice on the book-writing process. — 00:11:06 · Ryan Holiday

00:11:54 — The weekly leadership team meeting and the move of writing time to 8am

  • ★★ Ryan Holiday (quoted): Ryan Holiday's rule, as Ali relays it: the first draft of a book should take six months, and taking longer means you are screwing around. — 00:11:54 · Ryan Holiday
  • ★★ After talking to Ryan Holiday, Ali feels he has to put in the work on his book over the next six months, hoping something will come of it. (hedged) — 00:11:54 · Ryan Holiday
  • ★ Ali might try Ryan Holiday's physical note-taking system of flashcards in boxes. (hedged) — 00:11:54 · Ryan Holiday
  • ★★ Ali's leadership team, Ali, Angus as head of operations and Dan as his executive assistant and also head of HR, legal and finance, meets every Monday for 90 minutes. — 00:12:24 · Angus
  • ★★ Ali's morning writing time for his book moves from 7am to 8am, since writing from 7am means waking at 6.30 and sleeping at 10.30, which runs against his social life. — 00:13:20
  • ★ Dan, who lives in Wales, came to London for the leadership meeting because the leadership team has an all-day business coaching session the next day. — 00:13:20 · London

00:14:05 — Sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked whether Ali wishes he had kept a one-person business to focus on being creative or enjoys the meeting-to-meeting CEO life, the channel says he is still trying to figure out the balance. — creator comment
  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked why Ali keeps adding men to his team, the channel says the team has recently added a good number of women too. — creator comment
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked how to earn good grades and top the class, the channel answers: active recall. — creator comment · active recall
  • ★★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked how Ali keeps employees from building their own ventures with ideas from the channel and academy, the channel says he does not worry about it and they are welcome to. — creator comment
  • ★ Ali Abdaal (channel): Asked the name of Ali's company, the channel says it does not have a name yet. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: core values · Dan Rowden · Ghost · Ryan Holiday

Also: People: Angus · Dan (staff, mentioned from 2021) · Gordon · John O'Nolan · Logan Ury · Taha · Taylor Swift

Projects: aliabdaal.com · Deep Dive · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: How to Not Die Alone · The Daily Stoic

Organizations: Shopify

Concepts: personal brand

Places: Mauritius · Wales

Products: Notion · Squarespace · WordPress · Zoom

Only in the description or credits: active recall · London

Also centred on core values: How To Decide Your Values For 2023 #shorts

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