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How to Avoid Burnout

2024-07-12 · Case study or coaching session · Ali, Zak · recording, 23:03 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Business and entrepreneurship (also: Goals, purpose and life design, YouTube, writing online and creators) · mode: Explanation and tutorial · tags: His own numbers, Lesson from a book, His own products discussed, Sponsor segment present

Answering Zak, a would-be portrait photographer and van-life YouTuber who feels he is doing too many things, Ali says his problem is the goal and the plan rather than his systems (GPS), and advises treating money as the honest goal, focusing on the business and keeping YouTube as a hobby.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Ali introduces Zak's question about trying to do too many things

00:00:26 — Zak's question: a portrait photography business and a van-life YouTube channel at once

  • ★★ Zak says one of the things he struggles with is trying to be in too many places at once. — 00:00:26
  • ★★ Zak, who aspires to become a portrait photographer and has a studio in his house, is also trying to become a full-time YouTuber; he lived in a van for 17 months. — 00:00:55 · YouTube

00:02:12 — A look at Zak's channel; Ali's first thousand subscribers

  • ★ Zak's van-life YouTube channel has 57 videos and about 900 subscribers, and its popular videos reach 27,000 views. — 00:02:42 · YouTube
  • ★★ It took Ali 52 videos over six months to get his first thousand YouTube subscribers, and he says Zak's channel is growing at a similar rate. — 00:02:42 · YouTube

00:03:32 — GPS: goal, plan and system; reverse-engineering 10K a month in photography clients

  • ★ Ali says he does not usually give this kind of advice unsolicited: he asks people whether they would be open to a conversation. — 00:03:32
  • ★★★ When someone names a goal such as becoming a full-time YouTuber or growing a business, Ali tries to get them to be more specific about what it actually means. — 00:03:57 · GPS: goal, plan, system, YouTube
  • ★★ In Ali's GPS framework, the goal is where you are going, the plan is the strategy for getting there, and the system just supports the strategy. — 00:04:40 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ Ali describes the plan as the big three to five chess moves that will get you to your goal. — 00:05:35 · GPS: goal, plan, system
  • ★★ In Ali's worked example, adding 10K a month in revenue to a photography business at $500 a client would take an extra 20 clients a month, which seems like quite a lot. — 00:06:11

00:06:30 — Brilliant sponsor read

00:07:39 — From A to B: five options, the knowledge problem, one direction, wedding clients and lead generation

  • ★★★ Ali says you should be able to come up with at least five strategies for getting from where you are to your goal; if you cannot, you have a knowledge problem. — 00:08:11
  • ★★★ To fix a knowledge problem in business, Ali advises hiring a good business coach, watching Alex Hormozi and every reputable entrepreneurship channel, and reading books such as The E-Myth Revisited. — 00:08:11 · Alex Hormozi, The E-Myth
  • ★★★ Going in several directions at once gets you nowhere, Ali says; putting all the effort into one direction makes you far more likely to get there, and then you can add more things. — 00:09:06
  • ★★ In Ali's example plan, the photographer stops selling $500 shoots and sells at least $2,000, which probably means charging businesses and weddings. (hedged) — 00:09:36
  • ★★ At $2,000 a wedding, Ali's example needs five clients a month; landing them at a 25% close rate means getting 20 potential clients to book a call. — 00:09:59
  • ★★★ To get potential clients on a call, Ali suggests finding lead sources with Alex Hormozi's $100M Leads: for a wedding photographer, a local wedding expo or ads in local wedding magazines, podcasts and YouTube channels. — 00:10:32 · Alex Hormozi, YouTube

00:10:51 — Business Class, a new free email newsletter

  • ★★ Ali is starting Business Class, a new free email newsletter where he and his team share behind-the-scenes insights on how they grew their business. — 00:11:02
  • ★★ Ali says he and his team grew their business from zero to 5 million in revenue and are working to take it from 5 million to 10 million. — 00:11:02

00:11:28 — Math or drama: fear, imposter syndrome and spreading yourself thin

  • ★★ Ali spent a few hours with Russell Brunson, author of DotCom Secrets, Expert Secrets and Traffic Secrets, at his office in Boise, Idaho. — 00:11:28

  • ★★★ Russell Brunson (quoted): Russell Brunson told Ali that business problems are only two things: a math problem or a drama problem. — 00:11:28

    “It's either a math problem or it is a drama problem.”

  • ★★★ Drama problems, the psychological and emotional side, often disguise themselves as maths problems, Ali says, as when landing more clients looks like a matter of strategy. — 00:11:54

  • ★★ When a project pushes people outside their comfort zone, Ali says, they often retreat and try something new instead, such as starting a YouTube channel. — 00:12:47 · imposter syndrome, YouTube

  • ★★★ Ali finds it really helpful to think about your goal and ask yourself: why am I not already there? — 00:13:23

    “ask yourself, why am I not already there?”

00:13:51 — Why am I not already there? Goal and plan before systems

  • ★★ When Ali has a business problem, he imagines himself having a conversation with Alex Hormozi. — 00:13:53 · Alex Hormozi
  • ★★★ Ali tells Zak his problem is not his systems but being unsure of his goal for the channel and the business, or of the plan to reach it; only with both nailed does he have a systems problem. — 00:14:39 · GPS: goal, plan, system

00:16:00 — A business is a math problem; going full-time on YouTube is a creative field that rests on luck

  • ★★★ Going full-time on YouTube will be harder than growing a business, Ali tells Zak: growing a business is fairly straightforward, with a fairly linear link between doing sensible things and growth. — 00:16:13 · YouTube
  • ★★ A business is broadly a math problem, Ali says, while going full-time on YouTube is a creative field, and creative fields are far more competitive. — 00:16:13 · YouTube
  • ★★ Going full-time on YouTube takes a decent chunk of luck, the right niche and the right unfair advantages, Ali says, and van life is a pretty saturated niche. — 00:17:00 · unfair advantage, YouTube
  • ★★★ To stand out in a saturated YouTube niche, Ali advises asking who your target audience is, what your value proposition and unfair advantage are and what competitors do, and reading Blue Ocean Strategy. — 00:17:26 · unfair advantage, YouTube
  • ★★ Going full-time on YouTube with only AdSense and brand deals is really hard, Ali says, so ask what product you can sell on the back end. — 00:17:26 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Growing a business is fairly easy because there is a playbook others have followed and it relies far less on luck, Ali says, while growing a YouTube channel is a lot about luck. — 00:17:52 · YouTube

00:18:22 — The money goal: focus on the business, treat YouTube as a hobby; sign-off

  • ★★ Going full-time on YouTube and growing a photography business are both money goals, Ali says: unless it is a nonprofit, people grow a business because it makes more money. — 00:18:22 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali advises asking how much money you need coming in every month to feel satisfied; what everyone says, he notes, is 10K a month. — 00:19:06
  • ★★★ To reach 10K a month, Ali advises making growing the business your one work-themed goal: it gets you there quicker, more easily and with less luck than trying to go full-time on YouTube. — 00:19:43 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Trying to make money from a YouTube channel almost makes it harder, Ali says: approaching it for the joy of it and to add value to people makes monetising it more likely. — 00:20:32 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Some say it is not good to have a money goal; Ali disagrees and is all in favour of having money goals. — 00:21:00
  • ★★★ Ali's point is to focus on what the goal actually is and on the most efficient vehicle you have to reach it. — 00:21:28
  • ★★ Ali thinks going from 10K to 100K a month is easier than going from zero to 10K, and that on YouTube your first thousand subscribers are the hardest. — 00:21:28 · YouTube
  • ★★ YouTube is more fun as a side hustle than as your main source of income, Ali says. — 00:22:04 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Ali advises Zak to forget about the YouTube channel and treat it as a hobby while focusing on the business; once it makes 10K a month, he can go back to YouTube for fun. — 00:22:04 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Most full-time YouTubers Ali knows, whose channel is their main source of income, are quite stressed; with a business underneath, he says, you are a lot less stressed. — 00:22:31 · YouTube
  • ★★ If your YouTube channel generates leads for your business, Ali says, you get the best of both worlds. — 00:22:31 · YouTube

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: GPS: goal, plan, system · math and drama problems · YouTube · Zak

Also: People: Alex Hormozi · Gary Vaynerchuk · Russell Brunson

Projects: Business Class · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Works: $100M Leads · Blue Ocean Strategy · DotCom Secrets · Expert Secrets · The E-Myth · Traffic Secrets

Organizations: Facebook · Instagram · LinkedIn · Snapchat · TikTok

Concepts: imposter syndrome · knowledge and execution problems · unfair advantage

Products: YouTube Shorts

Also centred on math and drama problems: 13 Brutally Honest Lessons to Grow on YouTube in 2026

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