Kyle | Creative Strategist & YouTube Strategist

This thumbnail got over 2M views, but there’s one (almost stupid) subtle change I believe that could have helped it become even more viral… Now the title is already dripping with morbid remarkability: “Catching the Coyote that Ate My Son” (2.8M views) The video concept itself is bordering on a 0/1 (Aka: it’s incredibly difficult to replicate). But the thumbnail is where I believe there is one small change that could’ve potentially blown this up even more… (I guarantee nothing). I call it the “thumbnail mood”. And the thumbnail mood is the deeper layer below the glance test that happens in the split second they look at your thumbnail. It’s the immediate feeling and tone that your thumbnail creates in the viewer. Now the small mood tweak for this thumbnail is the man’s facial expression. He’s just caught the “killer” of his son, but he looks happy? That doesn’t really align with the title framing. Sure you might be happy to catch the killer a little, but he still lost his “son”. So if he looked angry or even a little sad the negative bias alignment between title and thumbnail might have blown this video up even more. In short, the different mood has changed the video's framing completely. And it’s these subtle tweaks that could be the difference between a 2M video and a 5M video… Day 20 of #Publish30.

If you want to get dangerously good at thumbnail strategy in ANY niche, you need to understand this principle: Visual languages. Aka: the visual elements like colour, style, and cognitive load that tell a specific audience in a split second “this video is for me.” Now this is just the TLDR definition because when we actually break down what makes up a niche’s visual language, we get elements like this: → Font style: Soft and elegant in female niches, or blocky and punchy in most male niches? → Colours: Softer pastel tones, pinks, whites, golds? Or masculine and disruptive neon reds, blues, blacks? → Cognitive load: how many elements are actually on the thumbnail. In an audience with an older demographic, there may be less elements with lower cognitive load. → Subject: The avatar of the creator (a 50 year old male in over-40s health) or items an audience instantly recognises. → Facial expression: Exaggerated shock works in finance and health, but could look stupid in another niche. → Text and copy: Word count, casing (all caps vs lowercase), tonality (bold claim vs curiosity question). → Eye drivers: Arrows, circles, borders. Overpowered in some niches, could be dog sheight in others. → Backgrounds: Simplistic black with depth for older demographics, raw yapper-style for younger. → Production value: A niche like business may have been trained on polished thumbnails compared to biz-op that’s underpolished with literal Google Docs as the thumbnail. → Thumbnail mood: The immediate feeling and tone created in a split second. Finance moods can lean towards fear, greed, or secrecy. Okay let’s lock this concept in with the self-development women’s niche using Jillz Guerin (highly recommend studying her channel): Font style: soft, elegant, lowercase fonts. Even uses italics for emphasis. Colours: yellows, whites, soft pinks. Interestingly, her highest-performing video has her in a red dress, immediately standing out with symbolic weight in a feminine niche. Text and copy: Her copy is lowercase and conversational, almost reads like a text message: “are you ugly? or did you just decide that?” Thumbnail mood: feels dark, feminine, and confident. All the visual elements combine to create that feeling. And there we have it… Once you enter a new niche as a strategist, be on the lookout for these visual elements that make up the visual language. And maybe even bring some of them over into a new niche to try out.

I believe this is the most underrated written platform today. And no, it’s not LinkedIn… Although it may be slightly controversial… X/Twitter. Now I am fully aware of the absolute garbage slop that gets spewed out on this platform. But I am also aware of how powerful it can be, having written 35 tweets every week and trying to master the platform for the past 5 months. Because using X alone can create one of the highest leverage content flywheels today’s. Dan Koe is probably the best example of this: 1/ He took his best-performing short-form tweets (or someone else’s like Naval) 2/ Chained them together into the beats of a 6,000-word mega article 3/ Took that SAME mega viral article and blew it up on Substack 4/ Then took it AGAIN and turned it into a long-form YouTube video that performed well The YouTube long-form can easily create more short-form tweets as well. And I have done something similar for a client. We had 3 short-form tweets go viral around a specific topic. And so I took this as a signal to go deeper with the audience on the topic with a long-form article. And that long-form article is still going viral on Substack and is one of our top-performing on X. Plus, the short-form tweets that do well also crush over here on LinkedIn. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. Don’t sleep on Twitter… Day 18 of #Publish30.

Ask this simple question to immediately expand your audience and hit a new market: “who else is this video relevant to and would enjoy it that isn’t my current viewer?” If you're in the learning market, maybe it's the memory market etc. Day 16 of #Publish30.

This business channel uses the same ugly thumbnail on every video, but is crushing it… The channel is called Markbuildsbrands and he’s in the dropshipping niche with over 200K subs. But what’s actually impressive is that in a biz-op niche like dropshipping where views are hard to come by… he’s averaging around 50-75K per video. (And he has some mega outliers in there with over 1M). And the way he does this is with the EXACT same “ugly” packaging format on every video: → Web cam image of him in the corner shirtless → Image of a dashboard or Google Doc to take up the rest of the thumbnail with a bunch of images → lowercase titles for every video (minor pattern interrupt) Now I’m not saying you should use the same packaging format for every video you make… far from it. But the main takeaway is when you find a format that works, double and even triple down on it. Even if (in fact, especially if) it’s the dumbest, most nonsensical format you can’t explain. Because if you don’t milk your winning format, someone else will… Day 17 of #Publish30.

Location: Tokyo Mission: Scale Coming soon... Day 15 of #Publish30.

I've distilled my most viral titles (and over 1,000 outliers) into 5 Copy Cogs you can use to create your own YouTube titles: 1. Topic It’s the core idea your entire video is built around. Whether that’s investing, visceral fat, dating, business, you name it. For example: “If You Don't Understand the [Petrodollar], You Don't Understand Geopolitics” 2. Outcomes What is the outcome you are promising the viewer by clicking on your video? Is it to lose weight, to fix their business, to become financially free? Use Gary Bencivenga's "So What?" test to discover the outcome of the video “If You Master Boring Stocks, You Master [Money]” You master money → So what? → You become financially free “If You Master Boring Stocks, You Master Financial Freedom” 3. Mechanisms The mechanism is HOW you get to the outcome. And it goes back to a classic direct response principle called market sophistication. Market sophistication simply means how many claims they have heard before you. And so when the market is sick of all the same overblown claims and they need novelty. Novelty is a new, sexier way to GET that outcome they haven't heard about before, called the unique mechanism. “If I Wanted to Go Viral in 30 Minutes, I’d Do [THIS]” The unique mechanism is the THIS. It’s hidden or revealed to create curiosity and attach the claim to this novel concept. If we’re going for revealed: “The [Skittles Effect] Will Make You Go Viral In 30 Mins” The Skittles Effect being the unique mechanism. 4. Proof Your proof could be: *Credentials (Who you are, like a doctor) *Achievements (What you’ve done) *Affiliations (who you’ve worked with or someone famous) *Studies (“New research”). And when you mix proof with your mechanism or outcome, that’s when you really start to create belief… “I've Done [9,000] [Colonoscopies], Here’s How to Fix Your Gut” This immediately leads with the experience and credentials proof, as it implies a doctor. 5. Hook The hook is simply anything that stops the viewer in their doomscrolling and gives them a reason to click. *Audience Call-outs: "[Men Over 40:] Follow This Plan, You'll Retire In Your 50s" *Open Loops: "The [Single Habit] That FORCES You To Focus" *Belief Reversals: "Why Europeans Live Longer Than Americans [(NOT Diet)]" *Loss Aversion: "[NEVER] Invest In These 5 Stocks (Instant Loss)" *Forbidden Knowledge: "Everything Wall Street Won't Tell You About Money" *Attention Amplifiers: "I'll Make You [Insanely] Confident, Just Give Me 22 Mins" Now let's fuse them all together with the topic of longevity: "This Japanese Morning Routine Makes You Feel Decades Younger" Japanese = Proof. This = Hook (open loop). Morning Routine = Mechanism. Feel Decades Younger = Outcome. Longevity = Topic. How you fuse them is up to you and what your market wants. Because the best title formula in the world will not save half-arsed market research. At least now you have a place to start… Day 13 of #Publish30.

Split testing is overrated… But the positives of using it can outweigh the negatives. (So I do use it, but I just have that awareness that it has many downsides). First of all, if you're working with a small channel, do not do a bloody split test. You will not get enough impressions and you'll be split testing until the end of time. Launch with what you believe to be your strongest title and thumbnail. But if you do work on or have a bigger channel, here’s what I like to do: Phase 1: split test 3 thumbnails against 1 title. By thumbnail formats, I mean 3 completely different concepts. Maybe one thumbnail is a blind mechanism style while another uses the panelled backgrounds. Your mantra here is: Test screams, not whispers. Which means you test the things that will actually get you results, not smaller stuff like the font of your thumbnail text. Phase 2: Test 3 titles against the winning thumbnail. The exact same principle applies here: test different title formats and variations, not the same title said 3 different ways. For example, do not do this: “How to get rich” “How to actually get rich” “How to get disgustingly rich in 30 days” Do this instead: “How to Get Disgustingly Rich in 30 days” “I’ll Make You Disgustingly Rich, Give Me 30 Mins” “This Goldman Sachs Secret Will Make You Disgustingly Rich” Phase 3: Test another batch of titles (or thumbnails) on the cold traffic flip. This is something I learned from Shay, the genius content director at ACQ. The cold traffic flip means you go into the backend of a channel and you look at returning and new viewers. That flip over of impressions and views is when the algorithm potentially pushes your video to a new cold audience. And so you can look at your other videos that have performed well with a cold traffic flip to roughly map the days it happens. Then split test titles and thumbnails that could reach the mass market on those days for the new video. Now if a video does end up doing well, sometimes I won’t split the test at all. The entire split testing game is using your best judgment and having a reason why you want to split the test. Day 14 of #Publish30.

I have a confession… My women’s burner account is my secret weapon for YouTube ideas. I believe no other market has mastered the feeling of mood and aesthetic in packaging better than general women’s niches. And it has some of the most underrated titles I have seen: 5 Odd Beauty Habits That Changed My Face Completely (1M views) Things Married Women Won’t Tell Single Women (But I Will) (300K views) I DREAM BIG BUT DO NOTHING. the neuroscience behind why & how to fix (3.4M views) As for actually setting up a burner account in the niche: 1/ Create a new account 2/ Use ChatGPT to make a photo of you as a woman because why not lol 3/ Watch 6-8 videos (on mute) in the women's niche from channels like these: *Christina Mychas *Jillz Guerin *Glucose Revolution *Dr Faye Bate 4/ Let the YouTube algo flood you with women’s niche outliers Tada. Oh yeah, and one final tip: Study their packaging (title and thumbnails) obsessively. They have a completely different visual language from any niche you will have seen before. And if you can understand their language, it will help you master other niches. Day 12 of #Publish30.

YouTube idea hack: invert outlier packaging. You can invert the title structure… Original: “Give Me 15 Minutes and I’ll Make You Dangerously Confident” (9M views) Inverted: “I’ll Make You Dangerously Confident, Just Give Me 15 Minutes” Original: “How To Write Off Everyday Expenses, LEGALLY In 2026” Inverted: “Write Off Everyday Expenses LEGALLY In 2026 (Here’s How) Invert the promise… Original: “If You Don't Understand Debt, You Don't Understand Wealth” Inverted: “If You Understand Debt, You Understand Wealth” Or even invert the entire packaging… Original Title: “How to Explain Complex Ideas So People Listen” Original Thumb Text: “The Onion Method” Inverted Title: “ Use The ‘Onion Method’ To Explain Complex Ideas To Anyone” Thumb text: “Make People Listen” If you already have winning titles and packaging, this is an insanely easy move you can make to iterate. Day 13 of #Publish30.

I handwrote some of the most aggressive video sales letters ever created for 9 months straight. I have over 3 full notebooks and god knows how many pages of marked-up copy. When I first started writing long-form scripts, my mentor told me that if I really wanted to get good at writing long-form scripts and copy... I needed to understand the psychology and flow behind those VSLs. (Sidenote: I hate aggressive blackhat copy. But something I’ve learned from Sharran Srivatsaa and Alex Hormozi is to never judge the source of your information and use the lessons for good). Every morning for 30 minutes I would: → Set my egg timer → Hand copy the VSLs with a pen → Then once I had finished hand-copying, I would go back through the VSL with a red pen and look for these things: 1/ Lead The intro to the VSL. What type of lead did they use? 2/ Unique mechanism problem What was the unique mechanism problem? Was it parasites, leaky gut etc. 3/ Unique mechanism solution What was the unique mechanism solution (that just so happened to be in their product)? 4/ But-Therefore chains between each section To consciously mark up the flow. 5/ Proof (and type of proof used) Was it studies, testimonials, anecdotes? Apart from actually writing the scripts themselves, I believe this was one of the most important things I did to switch over to long-form scriptwriting. Here’s a swipe file of some GundryMD VSLs I handwrote: drive.google.com/drive/folde… Day 11 of #Publish30.

Social media loves to talk about the wins, but my biggest lessons have always come from the “losses”. I’ve created scripts that were so rough they never even got published… I’ve had plenty of 1-of-10s and posts bomb… And I’ve had ideas torn to shreds by mentors. But I don’t even believe in losses… I only believe in lessons. If shit hits the fan and you learned something, it’s still a win. So here’s my mental model for learning from the “losses”: 1/ What is the constraint or problem 2/ Why does it exist 3/ What is the solution(s) 4/ Next steps So if a YouTube video bombs, it’s: 1/ What is the problem with the video (hypothesis) “Well, the packaging wasn’t good, there was no intrigue in the thumbnail or title” 2/ Why does the problem exist “Because there wasn’t enough time spent on packaging strategy before launch” 3/ What is the solution(s) “Spend less time on post-production cleanup and more time on packaging” 4/ Next steps “Write 10 titles for the next video and 6 new thumbnail concepts before even thinking about launching” Day 10 of #Publish30.

I just hit 5,000 followers on LinkedIn. But I did the opposite of what most people do with their content… It took me over 2 years to get here. This wasn’t some overnight dramatic transformation like a classic “guru’s journey”. My posts were sh*t. I didn’t copy any of the outlier formats or follow best practices. I was posting more bombs than winners, learning what posts work, and spent the weekends writing them. And I believe that’s why it worked for me. I posted what I wanted (my love for the YouTube game), broke down channels that I found interesting, and didn’t get hung up when a post tanked. I wasn’t an expert (still am not), instead I took the student frame and just shared what I was learning. So if you’re just getting started out, I highly recommend you do the same thing: 1/ Post personal stories 2/ Post about your skill 3/ Post about what you're learning This is literally all I’ve been doing. So make the post, watch it get 100 impressions, and enjoy the journey. After all, you can’t win the game if you’re always sitting on the sidelines.

This right here is THE perfect example of a unique mechanism being used on the thumbnail

For the past few weeks, I've been binge-watching cop shows like a Netflix junkie. Here’s how to use them to write viral scripts. (I’m watching The Rookie, it’s actually pretty good). And while I love watching them… it’s like a bloody mini-workout for my heart. Every single damn time there’s a twist or tension built up, my body thinks it’s running a half marathon. But between the heart palpitations and spilled popcorn… I realised something: If they can make me sweat bullets from their show writing… I gotta study more cop shows! And so today I’m going to share with you the simple storytelling formula behind some of the most popular cop shows (and how you can use it for any niche)… The Detective Story Formula. 1/ The Introduction of the Crime (Initial Context) 2/ The Entry of the Detective (Introducing Character) 3/ The Investigation Phase (First Twist) 4/ Misdirection/Red Herrings (Second Twist) 5/ The Climax and Resolution (Third Twist and Payoff) While this formula is overpowered for the true crime niche... we can adapt it for education scripts: Beat 1: The initial problem Beat 2: The first solution Beat 3: The first solution has all these problems and flaws Beat 4: Red Herrings (OTHER failed solutions) Beat 5: The ultimate solution and final payoff Example for the business niche: Beat 1: The initial problem 20% of new US small businesses fail in year one. Not because they lack knowledge, but because they don't realize how much money is needed before reaching profitability. Beat (optional): Personal story/character introduction Beat 2: The first solution BUT there's a way to fund it without using your own money... small business loans. Beat 3: The first solution has all these problems and flaws BUT these loans come with heavy interest rates that cripple the business in 5 years. People end up in severe debt. Back to the 9-to-5. Beat 4: Red Herrings (OTHER failed solutions) BUT they try again by bootstrapping with savings. One slow month and the money is gone. So they bring on investors. Now someone else owns 30% and tells them how to run it. Beat 5: The ultimate solution and final payoff BUT there IS a way without savings, loans, or giving up a piece of your business: Joint partnerships. Now you can see the adapted formula actually follows a really clean belief-shifting bridge for an education video. 1 - Start with their current beliefs and initial problem 2 - Toss out the most common solution 3 - Toss out all the other failed solutions (red herrings) 4 - Belief shift them into the final payoff The absolute key is to overdeliver with value in each beat. Otherwise, you'll suffer retention loss from constantly twisting and never delivering. Give them tactics and implementation for how they could use the failed solutions properly if they wanted to. Day 6 of #Publish30.

Over the past year, I've helped my clients get over 13M long-form views. Here’s how I research and create YouTube video ideas from scratch in 60 seconds (or less): 1/ Look at the beliefs, values, and strategy of the client I’m writing (or strategising for) 2/ Look at my outlier swipe file to get a pulse of the market and for inspiration from titles, thumbnails, and topics 3/ Write a 2-3 sentence summary of the big idea behind the video “This video is a listicle about 3 tips about XYZ. Tip 1 is X, tip 2 is Y, tip 3 is Z. Each tip MUST escalate to the next, and there must be an early payoff after the intro for retention.” 4/ Come up with 3-5x more ideas than I need minimum 5/ Eliminate 80-90% of the ideas to only find the best 10-20% 6/ Combine my client's unique positioning with a video idea that aligns with the brand Unique positioning is looking at your client's proof elements and the market for ways you can position them to stand out. E.G., positioning a doctor who’s a specialist in gut health as “The Gut Doctor” or for peptides “The Peptide Doctor” 7/ Write 5-10 titles and 5-7 thumb text ideas for the video to find the positioning 8/ Use the gun-to-the-head approach to decide my packaging This is an old principle used by copywriter legend Gary Halbert: "With a gun to my head that would go off if the piece didn't become the winner, would I use that word? That USP? That headline?” This also stops you from getting sloppy with split testing. 9/ Now go write the script. Would you add anything to the list? P.S. Here’s a mugshot of my lead strategist/boss Day 7 of #Publish30.

Perfect packaging banga

If I were trying to join an agency or close a YouTube channel as a scriptwriter or strategist today, this is exactly what I do: 1. Go to their website and look at the channels and brands they work with. 2. Actually write them a script upfront for free, as in, you would be happy for them to pay for it and actually publish it. It needs to be publishing-ready. 3. Actually come up with the packaging, the title, the thumbnail, all of it. ChatGPT is solid for thumbnails, so you can actually do this. 4. I would send the agency owner a cold email, and also publicly pitch it with a post. There's no guarantee they're going to see it in email, and publicly pitching it also demonstrates your expertise to everybody.

Hey, I’m Kyle 👋. I haven’t ever properly introduced myself before and there’s a bunch of new faces and friends here. I’m currently a copywriter and written strategist at Acquisition(.)com. I joined ACQ 4 months ago after one of my LinkedIn posts accidentally went mini-viral. (Which is why I will die by the saying that one post can change your life). At 20, I bought my first copywriting course while studying business at university and working in a grocery store. (I used my grocery store wages and student loan to buy new courses and invest in my copywriting education). At 21, I cut my copywriting teeth in the direct response trenches as a creative strategist and email marketer for DTC ecom brands, writing ads, product landers, and much more. But at 22, I left the direct response world behind… I joined an amazing YouTube agency as a scriptwriter and eventually strategist, where I learned from someone who I believe is one of the best YouTube strategists in the world. And after over 13M long-form YouTube views and working with some of the biggest education brands in the space… I joined Acquisition(.)com and I started teaching content strategy inside my mentor Matthew Volkwyn’s Copy Dojo. Today, I’m focused on optimizing my life for alignment. Health, relationships, everything that slips under the carpet in the business world as we get lost in the game… Because as a wise mentor constantly reminds me: “It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank if you have no energy in the bank.” P.S. I have no idea what my dog, Hamish, was doing here except using me as a bloody climbing frame. Day 3 of #Publish30