Shadowing Practice: 9 Things I Wish I Knew When I Started YouTube - Learn English Speaking with Video
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All right, item number one is that no one cares about your videos.
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This is two categories of people do not care.
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Number one, your friends and family do not care.
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And number two, the audience also does not care.
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Firstly, on the friends and family front,
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I was so worried when I started YouTube six years ago that people were gonna say bad things about it.
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I was afraid people were gonna judge me.
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And then I started making videos and I realized no one cares, no one cares.
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People are busy with their own lives.
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People are doing their own stuff.
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They do not give a flying toss whether or not I have a YouTube channel or whether or not I make videos.
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They're never watching my videos my videos are not aimed at them.
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And so me making videos is not for the sake of my friends and family.
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And so many people get held back by the worry of what their friends, their family, their coworkers, their boss,
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their aunt, their uncle, their dog is gonna think about their YouTube channel.
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No one cares.
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Everyone is doing their own thing.
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You can absolutely do YouTube and I guarantee your friends and family will not care.
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Secondly, the other category of people that doesn't care is the audience.
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When I first started making YouTube videos six years ago, I thought people would care.
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I started making videos about me and my friends singing songs, a cover of Payphone by Maroon 5, I have a cover of Adele or whatever.
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And the way I now think about this
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and what I kind of wish I'd known before is that videos on YouTube are not actually free.
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People are paying for watching your videos.
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They're just not paying with their cash.
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They are paying with their time and attention.
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And those are two currencies that are even more valuable than money.
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And so when you're new to YouTube and you make a video and it doesn't get any views and you think,
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oh, the algorithm doesn't like me.
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It's not that the algorithm doesn't like you.
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It's that your video is not worth watching.
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People have not decided to click on that video.
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People have not decided to watch it because it has not provided them with any value.
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And these days, increasingly, people have so many choices of how they can spend their time on the internet.
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The thing they want to do is they want value.
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Whether that's value in the form of entertainment or education or inspiration, it needs to have some kind of value.
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And if there is no value in the video, then people will not watch the video.
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And if people are not watching the video, the algorithm will recognize that no one's watching it and is therefore not going to recommend it.
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And this is enormously liberating and enormously freeing when you're getting started because it means you don't need to overthink it.
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No one's gonna watch the first several videos anyway you have to start off by being bad.
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And over time by being bad repeatedly, you will eventually be good at making videos.
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Your videos will start to add value.
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You'll start to figure out what your niche is.
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And then when people give up their time and attention to watch your videos, it will actually be worth it for them.
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And now the algorithm is gonna start recommending you and then your channel will grow.
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And then at some point you'll become a millionaire and then life will be all great.
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Lesson number two is the difference between being an architect and being an archeologist.
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Now, what I wish someone had told me
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when I first started YouTube is that there are two approaches to finding your niche.
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Firstly, there is the archaeologist approach.
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The archaeologist approach is where you think, okay, there's some interesting videos I can make over there.
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And you start making those videos and you make a handful of them and you see what happens.
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And then you realize no one cares and you're not very good.
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And maybe you didn't enjoy making those videos.
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So then you go to a new topic and then you do this a bunch of times.
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And eventually by exploring enough hot zones, just like an archaeologist would, eventually you'll be making that video and then something good will happen.
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Maybe you'll get one comment when normally you have none.
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Maybe that video will get a hundred views but normally it gets three.
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That's like the equivalent of the archaeologist digging and then finding something like, oh, hello, there's something here.
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And now that you found something interesting in the area, you continue to excavate, you continue to dig.
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And this means basically continuing to make more and more videos about that topic.
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Now, the alternative way to approach YouTube is as an architect.
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Now, an architect does not bother kind of willy -nilly digging in random areas.
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An architect has a plan.
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They've got the blueprint, they know exactly what's going to happen.
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And only once they have all the information out there and it's all written down,
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do they start to hire someone to lay the first brick and lay the foundations.
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If you're trying to approach YouTube like an architect and you have no experience with making videos, you're trying to make the plan,
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you're trying to figure out your niche in advance,
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chances are you're not actually going to take any action because it's very difficult to figure out your niche in advance.
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The vast majority of people that I would recommend should start by being an archaeologist.
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If you don't yet know how to make videos, it doesn't matter what you're trying to make videos about, your niche is irrelevant.
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Focus on making the videos, digging like an archaeologist, and over time, as you get better at making videos,
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you will then start to figure out what works in terms of of how you feel about making certain types of content,
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and also what seems to be resonating with the audience.
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In my case, I started off with making videos about singing, no one cared.
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I then started making travel vlogs about my adventures on my medical elective in Cambodia and Vietnam, no one cares.
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I made a series talking about how I was building a medical app, no one cared.
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I started vlogging about life as a medical student, broadly no one cared, but it was when I started making specific educational videos,
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helping people who were applying to medical school back in the day, six years ago, that was when people started to care.
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And based on that, people started to ask me, how do you do all this studying for exams?
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What study tips do you have?
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And I started making videos about study tips and people cared.
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I dabbled with a bunch of other series at that time that no one cared about, but then people started asking me,
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how are you so productive?
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And I made videos about that.
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And then people started to care to the point that now six years later, I'm the world's most followed productivity expert.
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I've written a book about productivity.
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It's coming out in a few months, link down below, but none of this was intentional.
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It was all the archeologist approach of like digging, making the videos and consistently just sticking to producing one or two videos every single week,
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even while I was a full -time medical student and trying to prepare for my final year exams.
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So if you're allowing the concern about not having a niche hold you back from making the videos, please don't let it.
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Just go for it.
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And I promise your niche will emerge over time.
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Lesson number three is the importance of supply and demand.
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Now, supply and demand is an economic reality, but is also very much a reality here on YouTube.
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And basically what happens here is that the more supply of a particular type of content there is,
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the higher the bar gets raised in terms of how you stand out.
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The lower the supply and the higher the demand, the lower the bar gets.
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So for example, right now, YouTube is absolutely saturated with videos from students teaching people how to study for exams.
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There is a very high supply of that content.
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There's still a pretty reasonably high demand for it, but the bar is very high.
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That means if you're a brand new YouTuber without any camera gear, without any experience talking to camera,
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without any experience editing, just filming on your phone, it is very unlikely that you'll be able to stand out.
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Now, based on this reality, there are two different approaches you can take.
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One approach you can take is just improving the quality of your videos.
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I wanna continue making videos, let's say about productivity.
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I know the bar is here, and therefore I want my videos to be there,
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for example, so they cross the bar and so that they stand out in a crowded market.
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The problem is it's very hard to make videos stand out in a crowded market.
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Generally, you need some kind of unfair advantage, more on that later,
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but the alternative approach is to choose not to compete in a niche where there is already quite a lot of attention.
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We've had thousands of students go through my course, the Part -Time YouTuber Academy so far,
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and like 80 % of them want to make content about productivity, personal development, finance, and business because they enjoy that stuff.
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But the problem with all of those very broad niches is that they are very, very, very saturated.
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And generally the ones that we find succeed are the ones who niche further
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and further down so that they can make very specific videos about a specific topic
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that they have some sort of unfair advantage in.
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Lesson number four is the importance of thinking in systems.
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Now back in the day for the first,
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let's say six to 12 months of me making videos where I made my first 50 to 100 videos,
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I was focused on thinking one video at a time.
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I was thinking in terms of videos.
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I was like, cool, what video am I going to make this week?
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And then I would write the video, I'd film, I'll edit, I'd publish.
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And as the video was uploading, I'd think about the title and figure out the thumbnail.
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I'd publish the video, I'd look at the comments, and then I'd move on to the next one.
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This is an absolutely exhausting way of making YouTube videos if you're focused on making the videos one at a time.
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The big level up that I I had about a year into my YouTube journey was
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when I started to think in terms of systems.
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I read a fantastic book called The E -Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber,
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which is a book about how small businesses grow and how small businesses fail.
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And initially I thought I wouldn't learn anything from it,
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but then I realized that a YouTube channel is a business and businesses grow through systems and through operations.
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Now there are some people that choose to view YouTube as a hobby.
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And if you wanna view it as a hobby, that's totally fine.
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But if you wanna view it as a business, i .e something that makes money while providing value for other people, rather than as a hobby,
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which is something you do for yourself for fun, if you wanna view it as a business, then there's a profound importance in thinking in systems.
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So instead of thinking, what video can I make today?
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What video can I make tomorrow?
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Think, what is the system that I can build
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that would make the process of making every subsequent video way easier than it currently is?
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This might involve, like I do, having a content library, a database of video ideas.
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This is all the stuff that we teach on our course, by the way.
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It might involve systematically brainstorming titles and thumbnails in advance.
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It might involve having a systematic house style for your thumbnails, so it's less work to create thumbnails every time.
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It might involve having a specific system for how you look at YouTube analytics
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and what action you can take on them and completely ignoring the analytics that you don't intend to act upon.
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The point is by thinking in systems and by treating your YouTube channel as a business, as a sort of media business,
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which is basically what it is, you can start to benefit from economies of scale by the fact
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that you're making multiple videos over a very long period of time.
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And systems are a form of leverage.
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It's like the same amount of effort combined with leverage gets you way more output.
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And especially as part -time YouTubers, if like I was, you're trying to grow a YouTube channel
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while you've got a really demanding day job or while you're a student, systems and leverage are one of the key principles
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that will take your YouTube channel to the next level without it completely ruining your life.
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Now, if you're in that boat and you do want to take YouTube seriously, but you're not sure exactly what the next steps are,
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then you can take my completely free quiz.
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It's called the YouTube growth scorecard, and it's a completely free assessment
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that I've put together based on my six plus years of experience to try
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and figure out what are the key things
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that it takes to grow a YouTube channel into a sustainable and a profitable business.
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And you can take this quiz completely for free and based on your answers to the questions,
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it will give you a score for all of the five different aspects of growing a YouTube channel business.
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And it will give you actionable, tangible takeaway points depending on how you answered and depending on your score.
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So you can check out that completely free YouTube growth scorecard by clicking the link in the video description.
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All right, lesson number five is the profound and ridiculous importance of titles and thumbnails.
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Honestly, I don't like the fact that YouTube is so reliant on titles and thumbnails,
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but the truth of the matter is the video could be the absolute best thing in the world,
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but unless the packaging for it is sufficiently intriguing for the target audience that you're aiming for, no one is going to click on that video.
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And if no one clicks on the video, they don't even have an opportunity to watch it.
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This means, and this is the thing that I wish I'd known when I started YouTube,
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that it's very, very helpful to think about the title in the thumbnail before you even think about writing the video.
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Back in the day, as I mentioned, I would think about the title and thumbnail as I was uploading the video.
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This is very, very inefficient because it takes a lot of effort, 10, 20 hours sometimes to make a video.
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Way more if you're making videos that require lots of research and lots of effort.
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And putting in all that research and all that effort
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and all that time and effort and blood and sweat and tears into making the video, but then thinking about the title
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and thumbnail as the final 30 seconds is completely the opposite way around of thinking about it.
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So now what I do on this channel is
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that we really think about the title and thumbnail first
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and only when we can think of a really nice title
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and thumbnail for a video do we then even consider what the video outline is going to be
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or think about writing the video.
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Now as part of my part time YouTuber Academy, I've interviewed dozens of ridiculously successful YouTubers from several hundred thousand subscribers to over 10 million subscribers.
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And I always ask them, what is one thing that you wish you knew before starting YouTube?
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And this is the one thing that they say, they always talk about the importance of the title and the thumbnail.
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And every single YouTuber learns this the hard way that over time,
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you've got to do your title and thumbnail first and then worry about the content of the video itself.
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What I would encourage you to do is to think about who is the person
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you actually want to be watching this video?
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Because whatever the video is, it's not aimed at everyone.
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This video is not aimed at everyone.
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It's aimed at people who want to start or who want to grow a YouTube channel, who are probably quite sophisticated,
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who are probably highly attractive and very intelligent,
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people like you, and therefore it wouldn't make sense for me to make the thumbnail for this video something like this.
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That would be pretty absurd, right?
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Like it's a bit, it's not really the vibe of this sort of educational video.
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Even though this thumbnail might work for a MrBeast video,
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it's not going to work for a video on this channel because it's a different kind of target audience.
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So yes, title and thumbnail are very important, but that doesn't mean you need to follow the Mr. Beast formula for titles and thumbnails.
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Think about what would resonate with your target audience.
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Relatedly, we come to lesson number six, which is the importance of the first 30 seconds.
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So if the title and thumbnail were ridiculously important, the first 30 seconds of your video are like second, secondary in terms of importance,
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but also very, very, very important.
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You'll see that in the first 10 or 20 seconds,
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a lot of people will have clicked on the video and then they will leave the content.
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And with a lot of channels,
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especially educational channels, you'll get 30 seconds into the video and only half of of the people will be left remaining.
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That means that any effort you put into the first 30 seconds of the video,
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the first minute of the video will be disproportionately seen by way more many people than the effort
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that you put into the second half of the video where maybe only 10 or 20 % of the audience is remaining.
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And so the way to think about this is that if you're spending lots and lots of time on your editing,
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but the funky animations you're making come seven minutes into the video, chances are very few people are gonna see them.
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Try your best to front load the effort into the video so that as soon as someone clicks on it,
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they see, oh, a lot of effort has gone into this.
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And then they're more likely to stick around once they turn their phone sideways, once they click full screen.
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At that point, you can back off a little bit,
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but you do have to do quite a lot of work upfront to get people hooked onto the content.
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Lesson number seven is that at the start of the journey, gear doesn't really matter.
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I know plenty of YouTubers in the educational space who have just been filming with their iPhone,
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some to this day who just film with their iPhone,
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and they've got hundreds of thousands of subscribers and are making at least six figures a year here on YouTube,
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and they're just filming with their phone.
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Gear does not matter at the start.
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However, if you can afford gear and you can level up your production value,
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it is one thing that makes your content stand out from the crowd.
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But again, this depends on your target audience.
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There's like a sweet spot for production value.
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For certain educational niches that are aimed mostly at intelligent adults, which is probably people like you, having decent production value is pretty good.
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In the tech niche, for example, having good production value is basically a requirement because people like that sort of thing in the tech niche.
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But if you're doing, for example, a lifestyle vlog that's trying to be relatable,
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then shooting your content with like cinema cameras is going to make it seem less relatable rather than more relatable
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and so there isn't really much point in doing that.
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So for every different type of content
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and for every different audience there is a sweet spot of production value
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and if you can get to that sweet spot by investing in gear
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and lights and cameras and likes and stuff then fantastic
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but you don't want to make the mistake of going too far along
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that spectrum especially in the early days especially
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if you're just starting out you can absolutely get lots
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and lots and lots of subscribers and lots of views by filming things with your phone.
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The main thing is the quality of the content itself rather than the production value of the cameras.
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That'll come later and that is something that can give you that little bit of sprinkle of extra spice over time.
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All right, lesson number eight is to find your unfair advantage.
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Now, having taught over 3 ,000 students from my part -time YouTuber Academy,
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we've been analyzing the data painstakingly and trying to figure out what is it
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that makes the most successful YouTubers stand out compared to everyone else.
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And in almost every single case where we've had a student whose channel is really blown up after taking our course,
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a big part of it is that they've had some sort of unfair advantage to lean into.
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Now, what is an unfair advantage?
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An unfair advantage is something that would be very difficult or impossible for someone else to replicate.
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So hard work is not an unfair advantage.
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Hard work is a totally fair advantage.
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It's like everyone can compete on the realm of hard work, but an unfair advantage is something that's a little unfair,
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something that would be very difficult for someone else to actually take as their own advantage.
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For example, when I started YouTube, I lent into my unfair advantage of the fact
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that I was a Cambridge University medical student
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because there weren't many Cambridge University medical students making videos about how to get into medicine at Cambridge.
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Crucially, being a Cambridge University medical student and trying to make videos playing the guitar, I don't have any unfair advantage there.
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Therefore, there's not much point in doing it because it's very unlikely to be successful.
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But I found a domain of video making where I was leaning into an unfair advantage.
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Similarly, let's say that you've painstakingly worked really hard to teach yourself a language
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and now you wanna make YouTube videos teaching other people how to learn that language.
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That is in a way an unfair advantage
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because it's very hard for someone to compete with you because they would have had to learn the language.
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And especially if you're trying to create videos in a saturated marketplace, which a lot of different niches are on YouTube these days,
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it's important to think, what are the ways in which you can personally stand out?
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What unfair advantages do you have?
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Now, crucially, this does not matter at the start we talked about architect and archaeologist and at the start,
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the main thing you need to do is just make a few videos.
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But definitely once you get to the point of treating your YouTube channel like a business
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and thinking strategically about how you're going to grow and how you're going to stand out,
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thinking what are the personal competitive unfair advantages that I have?
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that could help me stand out from the crowd is a very helpful way of helping
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you figure out what your angle for videos is gonna be.
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And then lesson number nine is something
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I wish someone had told me like months into my YouTube journey rather than two years into it, which is when I started doing it,
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which is to outsource your video editing as soon as you possibly can.
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The vast majority of the big successful YouTubers I know have outsourced their editing.
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And when you do outsource your editing, you find
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that it frees up an absolutely enormous amount of time for you to be able to focus on the things
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that you can do better, which is writing and filming the videos.
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And that was held back so much at the start by thinking that no one could replicate my editing style.
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It would be hard to find an editor.
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I tried outsourcing to someone and then it didn't really work.
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And then I threw it away thinking that, oh, it would take so long to train them.
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I might as well just continue editing the videos myself.
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I told myself that I enjoyed video editing and it was fun and therefore I should continue doing it.
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But what it took was a mentor of mine who had several multimillion dollar businesses to sit me down and be like,
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look, oh wait, trust me, you need to outsource your editing.
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And I thought, all right, cool.
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So then I outsourced my editing and it completely changed my life.
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And that was when the channel really started to skyrocket
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because all of a sudden my own time was freed up to be able to make more videos,
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to be able to think more strategically about the channel,
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to be able to learn more stuff and share it in videos rather than what it was previously,
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which is every day I'd get home from work in my day job as a doctor
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and I'd be editing videos for hours and hours and hours and on end.
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Now, again, if you're in this position where you wanna grow a YouTube channel, but you're not really sure what the next steps are,
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you should absolutely check out my YouTube growth scorecard.
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It'll be linked completely for free down in the video description
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and it'll ask you a bunch of questions and based on your answers to that,
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it will give you a score for the five different areas of growth on YouTube
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and it will give you practical recommendations for what you can do as your next steps in each given area.
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So these were nine lessons that I wish I'd known when I first started YouTube,
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but this list does not lay out what the strategic step -by -step method that I would follow would be.
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And so if you're starting on YouTube or your channel's not growing as fast as you'd like,
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you might like to check out this video over here where I lay out exactly what I would do
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if I was starting a YouTube channel completely from scratch.
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And in that video, I give you my three -part method for growth on YouTube,
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which thousands of people have said have completely changed the way they approach their channels.
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So thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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Bye -bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 314 sentences and 4541 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:53. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| unfair adjective | /ʌnˈfɛɚ/ | Not just. |
| niche noun | /nɪt͡ʃ/ | A cavity, hollow, or recess, generally within the thickness of a wall, for a statue, bust, or other erect ornament. |
| edit verb | /ˈɛdɪt/ | To change a text, or a document. |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| architect noun | /ˈɑɹ.kɪˌtɛkt/ | A professional who designs buildings or other structures, or who prepares plans and superintends construction. |
| gear noun | /ɡɪɚ/ | Equipment or paraphernalia, especially that used for an athletic endeavor. |
| involve verb | /ɪnˈvɑlv/ | To have (something) as a component or a related part; to comprise, to include. |
| dig verb | /dɪɡ/ | To move hard-packed earth out of the way, especially downward to make a hole with a shovel. Or to drill, or the like, through rocks, roads, or the like. More… |
| productivity noun | /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/ | The state of being productive, fertile, or efficient. |
| algorithm noun | /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/ | A collection of ordered steps that solve a mathematical problem. A precise step-by-step plan for a computational procedure that possibly begins with an input… |
| subscriber noun | /səbˈskɹaɪbɚ/ | A person who subscribes to a publication or a service. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| compete verb | /kəmˈpiːt/ | To be in battle or in a rivalry with another for the same thing, position, or reward; to contend. |
| exam verb | /ɪɡˈzæm/ | Shortened form of examine |
| hobby noun | /ˈhɑ.bi/ | An activity that one enjoys doing in one's spare time. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| stand out verb | To jut out, protrude (from a surface etc.). | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| hold back verb | To act with reserve; to contain one's full measure or power. | |
| lay out verb | /ˌleɪ ˈaʊt/ | To expend or contribute money to an expense or purchase. |
| back off verb | To move backwards away from something. | |
| blow up verb | To explode or be destroyed by explosion. | |
| come out in verb | to be afflicted by (a visible disruption of the body) |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It's not that the algorithm doesn't like you.
- It's that your video is not worth watching.
- What study tips do you have?
- What video can I make tomorrow?
- What unfair advantages do you have?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have just been filming · we've been analyzing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have not decided · I've written · We've had |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | are not aimed · is not aimed · will be left |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who were · ones who niche · people who want |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 103 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'd, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: algorithm /ˈælɡəɹɪðm̩/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, thumbnail /ˈθʌm.neɪl/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: publish /ˈpʌblɪʃ/, inspiration /ˌɪn.spɪˈɹeɪ.ʃən/, animation /ˌæn.ɪˈmeɪ.ʃən/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, sufficiently /səˈfɪʃəntli/
- Long words — get the stress right: productivity /ˌpɹɒdʌkˈtɪvəti/, intelligent /ɪnˈtɛlɪd͡ʒənt/, analytics /ˌæn.əˈlɪt.ɪks/, ridiculously /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs.li/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like unfair, niche, edit.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.