Shadowing Practice: If I started a YouTube channel from scratch, I’d do this - Learn English Speaking with Video

So I've been thinking quite a lot recently about what would I do

if I was to start a new YouTube channel again from scratch.

And I've been put in the position to think about this

because I've just gone through dozens of YouTube channels from people

who have submitted their questions to me in a recent Q&A that I just published on my channel.

And if I was to start YouTube again,

build an audience who watches my videos and buys from me,

so buy my coaching, buy my products, so I could live from my channel ASAP,

I think there would be three things that I would focus on that I don't see many people on YouTube doing.

And they all revolve around the concept of building superfans, building a tribe of superfans,

rather than focusing on views or subscribers.

I think this is a really important distinction of mindset because

when you see when you have the goal of I want to attract super fans

You fundamentally go about YouTube in a different way versus if you think I need views and subscribers

First it's a lot more human.

So if you if you think I want to get to a hundred super fans within the next three months

it's going to completely change the way you go about making YouTube videos.

Because you're not going to be trying to get lots of views.

You'll stop saying things like, hey guys, can you subscribe to this video in the first 20 seconds of making a video?

Because that's not going to build you superfans.

That might get you a tiny increase in subscribers, but subscribers, we all know, don't really mean much these days.

A superfan is somebody who watches every video that you put out, who comments on most of the videos that they see,

who has been through two or three of your programs.

A superfan is somebody who is going to create the snowball effect for your channel,

because they're going to watch all of your videos from start to finish, they're going to comment on them, they're going to share them, and they're going to talk about you.

And if I was to do YouTube again, that's what I would focus on.

Because if I could get 50 to 100 super fans, then I know that my channel has momentum.

There'd probably be 15 to 30 comments on every single video.

There would probably be up to 1000 views, because those people would be watching the whole thing,

which would signal to the algorithm that push it out to more of these people

that would attract more of these super fans, right?

And that's when I'd know, okay, I have a healthy channel, I have engagement here and these people are ready to go to the next level,

to maybe get some coaching or maybe to buy something from me or whatever.

And there are three ways, if you are starting a channel right now, there are three sort of methods I would use to go about this.

And the first one is to imagine that there's a celebrity that you really like, right?

So imagine you're just a celebrity right now, who you are, you think they're fucking cool.

Imagine if you commented on one of their music videos,

not expecting a reply, and they replied back very personally to your message,

or even more, they did a Q and A on their channel and they screenshot your comment,

talked a bit personally about you and what you said, and then responded, your whole body would activate.

You'd probably feel giddy from top to bottom.

You'd be like, oh my God, this person just responded to me.

This person who I've been watching in this one way dynamic has just responded to me.

And that would make you so much more of a fan of that person.

That would make you more committed.

It would make you more interactive.

It would make you more likely to interact with them further.

And so people think that doing videos like a Q&A, answering your audience's questions, can sometimes be a good format,

but often not because they're thinking about it from a perspective of views

and Q&As don't often get that many views because they're notoriously hard to package, right?

If you call them something like answering your X topic questions for half an hour, and that generally doesn't perform that well.

And the format of them, they don't have that good watch time either

because you might do a 45 minute Q&A and people only want to know about a specific thing.

So they'll watch a little bit of it and then leave.

And so this Q&A is sort of like a bad format, right?

But if you think about the super fan effect that a Q&A gives your channel, what it means is that somebody has a one-way relationship with you.

They've watched two or three videos.

They might not have commented on anything, but then you ask them, hey guys comment on this video and i'm going to respond to your comments in the next video

or reply to this email and i'll do the same

when they get your video response of you saying oh hey

cassandra amazing question yeah cool i've seen this whatever image

that you sent of your knitting if it's a knitting channel

or i've seen this the clip

that you sent in of you beginner riding a wave on a surfboard

and that was cool that was a good wave here's what i would do differently whatever your channel is about,

when you do that, you are one by one turning casual viewers into superfans.

And if you do a Q&A once a month, twice a month, for a few months, you're going to start building up the amount of superfans you have.

And once you get to 100 superfans or so, that's when your channel is really going to start building momentum.

So that's why I think a Q&A is an amazing method to do, to start out as a beginner.

And I did this when I was a beginner on YouTube.

Ten years ago, when I was starting my channel, I did these things called coffee Q&As.

It was like 2015, and it was a regular format that I'd done on my channel.

I would just answer people's videography questions.

That's what I used to do.

And I think that was the bedrock of starting to really build a community.

And that channel eventually got to 350,000 subscribers.

And I lived from it for like eight years or so.

Traveling the world.

Those were the days.

The second method is...

Just completely slipped my mind, but I'm going to keep the video going and it will come to me in about 10 seconds.

I've just remembered it.

The second method is something that I've seen happen on my channel over

and over again through the comments that I get from people, that I can see that people are starting to turn from casual viewers to, oh, I'm a big fan of this person.

And this actually just happened to me with another channel as well, which is when you start having a conversation with somebody

and it says a stranger the worst thing you can do in

that conversation is not give them much to latch onto so

if they say in a question to you oh hey where are you from

and i say england and they say oh cool um how is it over there?

I say yeah yeah it's nice.

I'm not giving them much to latch onto I'm basically killing the conversation

and forcing them to reinitiate the questions every single time.

Instead if they say where are you from

and I say I'm from England but I'm just over here in France now

because I saw that there was a discount on the ferry and I love boats I really love boats and adventures.

So we took the ferry across.

It's crazy.

As soon as we arrived, we had a croissant and the best croissant I've ever had.

So yeah, England versus France.

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France definitely wins the croissant competition.

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If that was my response, I've given them like five things to latch onto.

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If they like boats, they're going to start talking about boats.

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If they like travel, they're going to start talking about travel.

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If they're a foodie, they're going to start talking about food and croissants.

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If they are interested in news and history, they're going to start talking about England or what's going on in England or France, what's happening in France.

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And so I've just given them so much to latch onto.

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And then that person is going to be very easy for them to continue that conversation.

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The equivalent of doing this on YouTube is weaving in things that you're interested in to your channel.

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And so on my channel, I often weave in things like music and guitar.

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In some videos, I've even played a little bit of guitar.

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Other times, I just have the guitar in the background.

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Other times, I might give a music analogy

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or talk about the time I was in a band as an example for a point or something.

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Other things I talk about is somatics.

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I'm training to be a somatic coach and talk about that kind of stuff in my videos.

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Sometimes it's directly linked other times I'm sort of weaving it in

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and I've noticed that a lot of the people who sign up to my programs my high ticket

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and my low ticket programs end up being people who are interested in music

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or literally are musicians and the same with somatic coaching

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and therefore by me putting out things that I'm interested in different threads

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that people can latch onto and project their own hobbies and connections

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and interests to me with they are way more likely to

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become super fans this also happened to me with somebody else I was just watching their channel I really like their videos.

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I think they're really thought-provoking and interesting.

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And I also saw that they made a couple videos about them making songs and doing some music stuff.

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I was just thinking, man, this person's so like me, this is so cool.

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And I'm way more of a fan because I noticed more things in common.

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Whereas if they had sort of suppressed that and thought, I need to be the professional niche authority person, I'm not going to show my other personal stuff, I wouldn't have connected with them in that way.

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The third and final way to develop more superfans

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and to gain more superfans in your channel is the most important out of anything,

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especially if you have a business,

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which is to essentially be the most specific answer to their most specific problem more than anyone else.

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And so if there was a golfing channel

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and it was about how to play golf better and it was talking about all the golf tactics, that might be cool if I was interested in golf,

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which I'm not really, unfortunately.

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But if I was an intermediate golfer, trying to get to advanced and play more competitions, and start making money with golf,

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making a money, making some money with golf, and I found a channel that was teaching me exactly how to do that, it's getting a little windy,

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so apologies for the closeness, then I would be way more interested in that channel, because they're going to know all of my intermediate problems,

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and they're going to be able to diagnose those problems better than anyone else, then talk about the solution to those problems.

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And that's going to make me so much more interested in them

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and interested in their solution because I'm going to feel like, yes, this person really understands me.

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And they are always making videos specifically about this specific problem that I have.

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And that's just going to lead me through a spider's web of content,

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which is going to ensnare me into eventually buying, inevitably buying a program.

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And that is super important.

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So it's that sort of age-old niching question when you set up your channel. Who is this for?

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What's their pain?

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What's their desire?

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It's getting back to those basics because that is also the primal way of building super fans.

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You know, you could do those first two points and do great Q&As and respond to comments and give lots of threads.

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But if at the end of the day,

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you're not going down from pain to desire for a specific person who wants a specific thing,

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then you're not going to be building a channel of super fans who actually want to buy something from you.

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Simple as that.

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If you'd like to see a template and like to use a template, which I call the anti-script, which I use to plan out these videos,

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whether I'm doing one take videos like this, very casual, you know, just sitting in a tree,

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or if I'm at my desk firing out something a bit more informed and planned, I use the same planning template

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and same planning method to make videos just completely off the cuff

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and without a script that bring me in views and sales into my business

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and allow me to sit in a tree at 4 p.m on a Monday.

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And if you would like to see a video about how to get people binge watching your content, which is the fastest way to get them to buy from you, then watch this video next.

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I'm in the same tree just a few weeks ago.

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Why Practice Speaking with This Video?

This video is a goldmine for shadow speech practice! The speaker uses conversational, real-world English—perfect for building fluency. You’ll learn how to share ideas naturally, emphasize key points, and connect with an audience. Plus, the topic (growing a YouTube channel) is relatable, making it easy to stay engaged. By shadowing this dialogue, you’ll master the art of sounding confident and human in everyday conversations—skills that stick far better than memorizing lists. Ready to turn "I can’t speak fluently" into "I sound like a pro"? Let’s dive in!

Grammar & Expressions in Context

The video is packed with useful structures. Here are 3 to focus on:

"If I was to start a new YouTube channel again from scratch..." This conditional form ("if I was to + verb") is great for hypothetical scenarios. Practice saying it to talk about your own "what if" situations.
"They all revolve around the concept of building superfans..." "Revolve around" is a dynamic way to say "focus on." Use it to explain the core of a project or idea (e.g., "My day revolves around studying and practicing shadow speak").
"That would make you so much more of a fan..." "So much more of a + noun" adds emphasis to comparisons. Try it: "Practicing with videos makes me so much more of a confident speaker."

Common Pronunciation Traps

Watch out for these tricky words. Use shadowing to nail them:

"Fundamentally" (fun-duh-MEN-tuh-lee). Don’t rush the "men" part—stress it to sound clear.
"Notoriously" (noh-TOR-ee-uhs-lee). The "tor" is short; avoid over-pronouncing the "i" in "torious."
"Giddy" (GID-ee). Keep it light—don’t drag the "i" sound. The speaker uses it to show excitement, so match their tone!

Pro tip: Use a shadowing site to loop short clips. Repeat after the speaker, mimicking their rhythm and stress. You’ll be amazed how quickly your pronunciation and fluency improve—no boring drills required!

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	I've been thinking · I've been watching
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	I've been put · I've just gone · have submitted
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	somebody who watches · somebody who is · person who I

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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