The Difference Between a Video With 1 Million Views vs. 30 Million Views

According to the world’s most successful Youtuber

You’ve likely heard a variation of this lines: I learn so much from my children — or — My Children are always teaching me something.

For most of my life, this sentiment made little, if any sense.

I wondered; what can your kids possibly be teaching you?

Then I had kids. And wouldn’t you know it, the lessons ensued.

At a certain age they develop their own interests and personalities. Their version of entertainment tends to differ from mine. However, when they’re into something new, I have to look into it, just to be sure it’s appropriate.

That’s how I first came across ‘Mr. Beast’.

My son and daughter pretty much schooled me on his back story. Jimmy ‘Mr. Beast’ Donaldson, is a twenty three year older Youtuber who began posting content in his early teens.

His nickname came courtesy of opening an Xbox account; “They have this thing where it just gives you a random gamer tag. And I was just like ‘MrBeast’, this sounds cool!”

Mr. Beast ranks first among Forbes list of highest paid Youtube producer. His Youtube channel is closing in on 100 million subscribers with 719 videos uploaded, and nearly 24 Billion total views (as of this writing).

Successful would be an understatement.

What caught my attention recently however, wasn’t his overall success, but his take on why videos become viral.

‘What’s the difference between a video with 1 million views as opposed to 30 million views?’

His answer came during an interview with Joe Rogan, host of the largest podcast in the world.

Ideas

In his interview with Rogan, Mr. Beast covered a range of topics — discussed various businesses and his non-media ventures — including Mr. Beast Burger and Mr. Beast Bars.

But it was his take on virality that peaked my interest, and took me back to those first few videos I watched with my kids.

The difference between a video with 1 million views and another with say 30 million views isn’t the effort. You didn’t work 30 times harder. The difference is the idea (the premise of the video).

And where do his ideas come from.

It could be from a random word generator, or trying to remember dreams.

He asked Rogan to give him a word.

“Dog”, Rogan replied.

To which Mr. Beast recounted several videos where dogs were his central theme: One had to do with adoptions, while another had to do with giving away dog treats.

Some ideas are just better than others.

Our jobs, as content creators, is to come up with more of those.

Where do MY ideas come from

A friend of mine recently asked, “How the heck do you come up with the topics you write about?”

One word; life.

Mainly, I cover work related topics. Being in the health and wellness industry presents a number of procedures, products, and services for me to cover.

I’ll also give my take on current events. Should those tie into healthcare, even better.

Then I have conversations with friends, family, my wife and children. I take interest in what they’re into and ask questions.

When I watch something, a show, documentary, whatever; I ask myself all sorts of questions which lead me to more interesting facts. Who wrote (directed or produced) this, why, how did they get into this field, what was the first thing they did, and so on.

The more I ask, the more I uncover. As my favorite writer Kurt Vonnegut regularly typed, ‘So it goes’.

Oh, one last thing about Mr. Beast. He invests nearly every dollar made back into his business, producing even bigger, more ridiculous content. Giving away increasingly larger sums of money, or an island in the bahamas.

That’s how you stay relevant. You keep pushing the goal posts. Bigger sets, elaborate stunts, all while looking for the best people.

Strive to be a little bit better than you were the day before. That’s my approach. Cover new topics, come up with different ideas, talk about how your children can school you, even if that once sounded crazy.

Had it not been for my kids, I may have never come across Mr. Beast, the world of Youtubers, and so on. I would have never asked who he was, how he got into posting videos, or became the most successful Youtuber in the world.

Turns out, lessons come from everyone, you just have to be looking, to find them.

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