Jun 14, 2022 · 1h 0m · my-first-million
Asking Colin & Samir How To Make $1,000,000 On YouTube
Samir Chaudry · 25m spoken Shaan Puri · 14m spoken Sam Parr · 8m spoken Colin Rosenblum · 6m spoken HubSpot Spokesperson · 11s spoken HubSpot Commercial Actor · 2s spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of My First Million, hosts Sam Parr and Shaan Puri interview creator economy analysts Colin Rosenblum and Samir Chaudry to dissect their journey from niche sports filmmakers to seven-figure media entrepreneurs. The discussion provides an in-depth breakdown of high-converting YouTube packaging tactics, multi-platform content distribution, scalable business models beyond AdSense, and the back-end infrastructure required to run modern creator businesses.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. The hosts hold 41.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 4.9 Guest teaching 5.9 Guest disagreement 1.6 The hosts pushing back 2.4
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 5:11 Samir rejects Sam's framing of The Lacrosse Network as a failure
Samir immediately corrects Sam's provocative claim that their first company was a failure, highlighting their 2014 sale to Whistle.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 8:04 Sam challenges the notion that YouTube media is already an obvious mainstream businessSam pushes back against Shaan and the guests, arguing that treating YouTube as legitimate television remains far from mainstream for older demographics.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 33:18 Samir conducts an Airbnb title quiz to demonstrate packaging mechanicsSamir demonstrates the exact power of title packaging by quizzing the hosts on Airbnb video viewer counts, proving why specific framing outperforms generic titles.
The host holds their own ▶ 20:21 Shaan leverages Twitch acquisition insights to breakdown joint creator brandsShaan cites his firsthand experience working at Twitch and G-Fuel's multimillion-dollar creator sales model to outline an untapped 9-figure brand opportunity.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Origin Story: The Lacrosse Network and Teaming Up | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Shaan sets up the interview asking for Colin and Samir's origin story while referencing his prior knowledge of Colin's quote about how one early view changed his career. The guests warmly describe launching The Lacrosse Network in 2011 and meeting through YouTube. | |
| Early YouTube Economics and Acqui-Hire by Whistle | 6 | 6 | 4 | 5 | Sam bluntly asks if The Lacrosse Network was a failure, prompting Samir to defend the project as an acqui-hire success with Whistle. Sam and Shaan debate how mature YouTube is compared to traditional media and crypto, while Samir explains the mechanics of AdSense vs custom client services. | |
| The Current Colin and Samir Ecosystem and Revenue | 3 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Sam asks for transparent metrics on Colin and Samir's current business scale. Samir breaks down their 10-person headcount across YouTube and their newsletter, confirming they operate as a seven-figure media business. | |
| Scaling Ambitions: Media Maker vs. Lifestyle Business | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | Shaan questions whether ad scaling alone can take them to eight figures or if they need a second act. Samir educates the hosts on the philosophical tension between being a filmmaker and becoming a scaled media maker. | |
| Case Studies of Creators Monetizing Beyond AdSense | 6 | 6 | 1 | 2 | Both hosts and guests trade case studies of non-MrBeast creators monetizing audience into off-platform businesses like Doug DeMuro's Cars & Bids, Blogilates, and Yes Theory. Samir notes that the main industry bottleneck is a severe shortage of business operators. | |
| Banding Together: Joint Creator Brands and Operator Shortages | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | Samir proposes creators banding together to launch shared e-commerce brands. Shaan demonstrates domain knowledge from his time at Twitch, citing G-Fuel's playbook and arguing top gaming creators should co-own hardware brands. | |
| Growth Inflection Points and Time in Underserved Markets | 5 | 6 | 2 | 3 | Shaan asks how the guests landed high-profile interviews like MrBeast. Samir credits a decade of 'time in market', which Colin refines to 'time in an underserved market', drawing parallels from Shaan regarding crypto media. | |
| Tactical Advice: Packaging, Titles, and Market Research | 4 | 8 | 2 | 3 | Sam asks for specific tactical advice on launching an Airbnb channel. Samir and Colin school the hosts on title framing and search expectations, with Samir conducting a title quiz that proves how framing drastically impacts viewership. | |
| Commercial Break: HubSpot CRM Platform | 4 | 5 | 1 | 1 | Following a brief HubSpot sponsor break, Shaan asks about YouTube keyword tools and unmet software opportunities. Samir points to vidIQ and Google Trends, then proposes creator-tailored versions of LegalZoom and TurboTax. | |
| Key-Person Risk and Building Scalable Media Assets | 6 | 6 | 2 | 4 | Sam presses on key-person risk, citing Casey Neistat and Jenna Marbles abruptly quitting. Samir compares creators to athletes and explains their deliberate decision to build separate scalable assets like The Publish Press newsletter. | |
| Surprising YouTube Niches and Bizarre Content Categories | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | The conversation shifts to surprising YouTube niches. The guests highlight barbecue rubs and Slow Mo Guys, while Sam shares his fascination with dandruff extraction and cyst removal videos. | |
| Comparing YouTube vs. TikTok and The Milk Road Hiring Story | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | Shaan shares his hiring of a creator who chugged a gallon of milk and asks whether to prioritize TikTok or YouTube. Colin and Samir correct the assumption that one must choose, advocating multi-platform short-form testing to feed long-form YouTube libraries. | |
| Content Formats and Leveraging Shorts for Channel Growth | 4 | 7 | 1 | 2 | Sam points out SocialBlade data showing Colin and Samir's monthly views surging from 1M to over 40M. Samir explains how low-barrier YouTube Shorts acted as top-of-funnel discovery to compound their long-form back catalog. | |
| Engagement Hacking, Clip Syndication, and Packaging Feedback | 5 | 6 | 1 | 1 | Shaan explains their decentralized clip bounty contest and engagement-bait tactics. Samir shares their own phrasing hacks and provides direct packaging feedback on My First Million's Drake/Stake thumbnail and episode titling. |
Statements from this episode (25)
Automated AdSense Payouts Blind YouTube Creators to True Business Fundamentals
“There's a really unique version of advertising when it comes to YouTube in that we are uploading and the platform will actually pay us without us having to interface with clients, without us having to build a media kit, without us having to pitch anyone, which…”
Colin and Samir Rely on Samsung, Shopify, and Jellysmack for Revenue
“And I would say, too, like, we're primarily supported with advertising, advertising-based business. Our biggest clients are Samsung, Shopify, Jelly Smack and other creator economy companies.”
Colin and Samir Generates Seven-Figure Annual Revenue
“Yeah, we're, I would say we haven't been super a hundred percent transparent with like exact numbers, but we're a seven figure business.”
Ad-Supported Creator Businesses Can Reach the Eight-Figure Revenue Mark
“Like we are friends with a lot of creators who, you know, are pushing towards that eight figure business mark. Right. And a lot of that is, is at just ad supported business. There's other creators who have launched, you know, course companies or education, dir…”
Being a Media Maker Differs Fundamentally From Being an Artist
“There's this moment as a an artist or filmmaker or someone who wants to express something where you go from, like I mentioned, I studied film. I was very interested in being a filmmaker, but you go from being a filmmaker to a media maker. And I think that thos…”
Ali Abdaal's Part-Time YouTuber Academy Tracking Toward $6 Million in 2022
“It's a six million. I think he's tracking to six million this year. YouTuber Academy.”
Doug DeMuro's Cars & Bids Auction Site Could Become a Nine-Figure Business
“So he is a car guy with, at this .2 or three million subscribers, and he has an auction website for cars that could potentially be a nine-figure company, I actually think.”
The Creator Economy Is Constrained by a Lack of Business Operators
“The thing that's holding back the creator space right now, I think is, is operators like really good business operators to surround creators because to make, you know, like to make on a consistent cycle, when you are the subject of your videos it doesn't reall…”
Blogilates Founder Cassey Ho Operates Two Eight-Figure Product Companies
“I would say an interesting one that keeps coming up is Cassie Ho. She started Blogilates. So like, fitness, yoga instruction on YouTube, and now she has two separate product companies that are both eight-figure companies, right, Samir?”
G Fuel Generated Over $20 Million Sponsoring Niche Twitch Creators
“If I remember correctly, it was definitely over twenty million. It might be over fifty million in sales that they were doing just off of Kind of this one real niche channel.”
MrBeast Is a Singular Talent Who Cannot Be Replicated
“Mr. Beast is, in my opinion, singular. Like, it's, he's not, you can't, there's not going to be more of him, but you can look at some of the stuff he's doing with, oh, Feastables is interesting”
Logan Paul Drives Prime Beverage Sales Using the Beats by Dre Playbook
“I would say too, it seems like he's following the Beats by Dre trajectory trajectory of making sure to get it in the hands of celebrities and famous people with his podcast. Anytime he has someone on, they have prime in their hand or they try it and they like …”
Colin and Samir Spent Four Years Reaching 200,000 YouTube Subscribers
“Yeah, I mean, probably four years to get to 200, and then a year from 200 to 800, yeah.”
Covering Underserved Creator Markets Built Colin and Samir's Authority
“I would add to that. It's time in underserved market. Because, you know, the reason that Jimmy or Mr. Beast even reached out to us is because no one was really talking about creators or about the YouTube space for a long period of time, and we continued to tal…”
Video Podcasts Incur Marginal Distribution Costs Rather Than Production Costs
“There is not marginal production cost. There is marginal distribution cost. You're going to have to spend time thinking about how to distribute this show on YouTube and how that differs from audio.”
Specialized LegalZoom and TurboTax Platforms Are Major Creator Economy Opportunities
“The two things I wish existed when we first started and that I still think there's opportunities for are legal zoom for creators and TurboTax for creators.”
Content Creators Function Like Athletes Whose Income Halts Upon Retirement
“I think creators are a lot like athletes. Like, I think the term creators and athletes are kind of like, you can think of them in similar ways. So it's kind of like if we stop playing, like, yeah, your income from playing is, is gone.”
Barbecue YouTube Channels Monetize Through High-Margin Proprietary Spice Rubs
“There's like, there's a whole barbecue genre on YouTube. That's massive. And they do huge partnerships with like brands that, you know, Colin and I would never interact with, right? Like sweet baby rays or stubs or and they're like starting to sell their own r…”
Language-Free Visual Channels Generate Outsized Global Ad Revenue
“I'm always amazed by channels like the slow mo guys, where there's literally no need for language. It's just the visual of something happening in slow motion. And the viewership is so high because those videos can be watched again and again and again all over …”
New Creators Should Use TikTok as a Low-Barrier Content Accelerator
“I see TikTok as a bit of like a content accelerator, but like if you're new to content creation and you want to find out what works faster, then go to TikTok because it's a low barrier to entry to post. And if something doesn't get viewership, no one really se…”
TikTok Is Built for Content Discovery, Not Creator-Fan Relationships
“So it's actually not a great place for creators. It's a great place for content. It's not a great place for creators to build relationships with their fans. That's why most TikTok creators move to YouTube to build that.”
Hour-Long Podcasts Build Deeper Loyalty Than Ten-Million Visitor Websites
“Our podcast gets one or two million podcast downloads a month and compared to like a lot, like a website that gets ten million. I'm like, I think we're, we have a bigger, a big, we don't have a bigger, but we have a far more loyal following because people list…”
YouTube Shorts Function Best as Accelerants for Long-Form Video Libraries
“You're building a library of content that, you know, our Mr. Beast interview, for example, you mentioned it, it's pushing eleven million views right now, but in the first month it did a million views. So, you know, you look at now it'll, it'll be a year in Sep…”
An Influx of Negative Comments Indicates a Video Has Gone Mainstream
“Whenever any of our videos hit that mass scale, that's when the comments sort of turn, and it's just, it's kind of a good sign in a way, it's just what happens.”
Podcast Clipping Agency Founded via Contest Hits $1 Million in Revenue
“The first, first winner, they Had a few million views on their like TikTok channel or whatever, and we paid them the five grand, you know, prize for our thing, but they've actually turned that into a business for other podcasts and that business will do like a…”