- This is a penny.
And over the last month, Ryan Trahan daily vlogged his way
across America to deliver one of these to Mr. Beast.
And it was pretty popular.
(pop music)
The series helped Ryan's channel earn
over 200 million views.
Over the course of the series,
he gained 2 million subscribers,
making him the proud father of a diamond play button.
This is something less than
a thousand creators have ever achieved.
If you rewind back just a few years,
Ryan was just a small creator with big dreams.
- One year ago, I had like less than 400 subscribers
and I thought that was crazy,
to be honest with you.
Like where'd you guys come from?
I've been watching Ryan Trahan for a few years now
and I think that there are three huge lessons
that all of us creators can learn from his success
if we wanna make it big someday.
So here's the game plan.
Okay, I just wanted to do that.
Lesson one, learn to think inside the box.
Ryan's limited budget of a penny
is a perfect example of a creative constraint.
That's a unique challenge or circumstance
that limits what we can do
or how we produce our videos
and forces us to find creative solutions.
And we all have creative constraints.
For some of us, it might be work or school or a location.
We all have these challenges that we have to work around.
And while we could let these obstacles block our goals,
if we think creatively,
we can find solutions to overcome them.
And that's the same thing Ryan Trahan did
when his channel first started taking off.
This is when he did the very first edition
of the penny series.
He had about 10,000 subs,
was a college student and an insanely busy D1 athlete.
His creative constraints were
school, sports, time and budget,
but he turned these challenges into strengths
and created something viral.
Thinking inside the box
means embracing your unique challenges,
and working with them instead of against them.
Like when BENOFTHEWEEK took the concept
of a high budget Mr. Beast video,
and did it on a small budget.
Or Colin and Samir.
They started their educational series in a car,
inside of a parking garage
because it was the only quiet place they could film.
And last example is Milad Mirg.
He turned his job at Subway into viral shorts
that he filmed on his iPhone.
And he only had time to edit them
when customers weren't around.
They all embraced their unique challenges
and found ways to make them work for them.
You just have to get creative with
the time and the resources that you have.
Lesson two, be a transformative storyteller.
Maya Angelou once said,
"I've learned that people will forget what you said,
people will forget what you did,
but people will never forget how you made them feel."
The same is true with our viewers on YouTube.
If we do a great job of making them feel special,
even if they forget about the videos we made,
they'll always keep running back to our content
just for the way that we make them feel.
The greatest creators on YouTube do this
by what's called transformative storytelling
- Stories that are transformative
take their audience on a journey
and they leave them feeling transformed after they watch it.
Even if your videos are about you,
they'll be shared when they successfully create change
in the people who are watching.
The way we do this on our YouTube channel
is we make videos about successful YouTube creators
and the storytelling tactics that they use to find success.
And by breaking down what they do and how they do it,
our goal is to not only inspire you,
but also educate you on how you can do it as well.
- Ryan Trahan does this so well.
Whether we watch him travel across America,
live underwater,
or spend hours in a sensory deprivation tank.
When the videos are over, we feel optimistic
and inspired to find an adventure of our own.
Any creator can do this.
Growing up, I watched a gaming channel
called SeaNanners every day after school.
Not only because I loved video games,
but his videos helped me improve as a player.
Michelle Khare takes on extreme
mental and physical challenges that bring us
inside worlds we may never experience,
and she shows us how ordinary people
can do extraordinary things.
This is transformative storytelling.
Lesson three, yes, you are good enough.
We see these creators who are confident on camera
and make it look easy.
They film themselves in public without a care in the world.
Let me know in the comments, if you feel uncomfortable
when filming yourself in public.
So often, people say they don't wanna start creating
is because they feel like they need to have
skills like this mastered.
They feel like they need to be confident on camera.
Be professional filmmakers, gonna have everything
figured out before they can even post a YouTube video.
That's another lesson to learn from Ryan.
He's a top creator and filmed this series
mostly on his cell phone.
The editing was simple and wasn't
overloaded with transitions and complicated effects.
In his videos, he doesn't hide his anxiety
or edit out awkward moments.
- [Ryan] Hey guys, I'm selling water for $2.
(Ryan laughs)
- [Judah] It's just part of his brand,
and it makes him super relatable.
You don't need expensive camera gear
or a big budget to start.
You definitely have a good enough personality
and interesting things to share.
Just be you, press record and get started.
One of the biggest creators out there
has shown us that when you strip everything away
and show up,
you can still be successful.
- [Ryan] See you later.
Fart smellers. (Ryan laughs)
(funky upbeat music)