This post may contain affiliate links, meaning I make a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Disclosure here.

Most people think they need 100,000 subscribers for YouTube to change their lives. But for me, things started changing even at a thousand subscribers. 

I’m just a mom of two from the UK, and I’ve built my YouTube channel to over 70,000 subscribers around school runs and nap times. And I grew it to a full-time income, which had been a dream of mine since I gave birth to my first baby 8 years ago.

I don’t have a fancy studio.
I don’t do any of that bro marketing.
And I’ve honestly got no AI tricks. 

I just found a method that actually works even with unlimited time on my hands. So, here are the six things I learned along the way.

Keep reading below or watch the video:

1. Starting from scratch

This is something we all have to go through. And it can be really easy to compare ourselves to people who already have the skills we want – maybe they seem to have all these filmmaking abilities or editing tricks, while we feel like we lack them. 

Know, though, that you can start YouTube from where you are right now. And I think especially these days in the AI era, actually being human and showing mistakes and showing up, being vulnerable, not being perfect, is actually one of the biggest advantages you can have on YouTube. 

In my case, as a mom of two, I’ve been publishing videos on my channel for years now, and for a long time, I filmed them during my baby’s nap times and then edited at night when my baby went to sleep.

I had no strategy and no real plan. I was just posting and hoping for the best. And my videos weren’t ideal or perfect – sometimes the script of my video wasn’t perfect, my filming wasn’t great, or my editing was a bit sloppy, but that’s where we all start. We all have to make those cringy videos in the beginning. 

If I go back to my first YouTube channel and look back at my first videos, posted years ago, when I first started, I cringe so hard at them. But I see that as a good thing. That means I’ve improved. 

If I were to go back to the videos I posted five years ago and not cringe, that would probably mean I hadn’t really improved much. It would mean I haven’t changed much over the last five years. And obviously, my goal is to keep making my videos better and better.

2. The change

There were several little moments along the way that shifted my perspective on my YouTube channel.

When a brand first reached out to me to send me a cream for free, as a PR gift, without asking me to create content for them in exchange, I felt like I had made it.

When I created my first small digital product, which was my Lightroom presets back in the day, and I got around £300 in a month, I felt like that was insane. And it wasn’t the amount in itself, as it wasn’t a huge one, but for me, it was proof that I can make this work. If I made that amount, I could make more than that, and it just made me feel motivated to keep going. 

Another moment that was like a switch flip for me was when I started sharing my decluttering content, and I got the first comment from someone, saying, “I watched one of your videos, and I went and decluttered my house, and I feel like my life has changed because I have more time with my kids. I’m calmer and more present.” 

For me, when I receive comments from people who’ve genuinely been positively impacted by watching my YouTube videos, that’s what this is all about. That’s why I create this content. And honestly, it gives me so much motivation to keep going.

3. What 1,000 subscribers actually meant

To me, the first 1,000 subscribers were proof that people were genuinely enjoying what I was creating and putting out there. And if a small group of a thousand subscribers enjoyed watching my videos, then there could be more people like them who’d want to watch too. It was just a matter of figuring out how to get my content in front of more people.

I think there’s something special about reaching your first thousand subscribers. It’s not necessarily the number itself, and you don’t make much money from AdSense at that stage either. For me, the first payout was around $20 or something like that. But it’s the fact that there are real people out there choosing to watch you over the millions of other YouTube channels.

And reaching that monetisation step felt huge for me because, yes, $20 doesn’t sound like much, but it’s the beginning. 

Once you reach that point, you know that if next month you have a video that does really well, maybe it gets 100,000 views, you could earn real money from it. Maybe $1,000 or $2,000. And that can be life-changing. It can add to your existing monthly income from a full-time job, and it becomes proof that this is a business and that you can make it work. And I think that’s really powerful.

4. The skill build-up

There are so many skills that we learn through YouTube. And a lot of the time, we underestimate how important those skills are, especially in this day and age.

Things like confidence on camera, which can be so hard in the beginning. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. And it feels more and more like you’re chatting to a friend. I always try to imagine I’m talking to my friend just behind the camera. She’s asking me questions about how to start on YouTube or how to declutter her home, and I’m just sharing my story with her, or what I’ve tried and worked or didn’t work. 

This is something that helps with confidence, but there are so many other skills that you learn. Storytelling is another, and it’s a big one on YouTube these days. 

Filming is also a great skill, even though setting up your camera and equipment can feel really intimidating at the beginning. You learn skills like editing and creating YouTube thumbnails, and all of these things can actually be really useful if you want to take them into your current job, or even build a separate career alongside being a YouTuber.

These are skills that so many companies and brands are looking for – people who know how to do these kinds of things. So even if you start YouTube and realise it’s not for you long-term, you can still take those skills and use them on a different journey.

5. The income grew earlier than I expected

In my case, on my second YouTube channel, my income grew much faster than with my first channel, where I talk about decluttering. I earn from both channels, including my second one, which currently has around 5,000 subscribers and gets a few hundred views per video. 

I’m still growing this channel, and I monetise it mainly through affiliate links to services that I use, like Flowesk, ManyChat and other programs that I myself use in my business, and through selling my own digital products, like my YouTuber course and an Instagram course.

I really believe YouTube is one of the best platforms to grow a business like this, especially when you’re educating people on a specific topic. 

On YouTube, people get to see you and connect with you. It’s a different experience, someone watching a 15-minute video versus just scrolling on Instagram or TikTok and catching a few seconds here and there. The connection they can build with you through YouTube is completely different, and I think that’s why the income can grow so much faster on YouTube than on other platforms.

6. The compounding effect

This is something I don’t see happening on any other platform, be it Instagram or TikTok, where the videos are quite fleeting and don’t tend to get many views later on.

But on YouTube, a video I filmed when I had 800 subscribers still brings in views and income to this day. That’s why it’s called evergreen content. It’s like building a portfolio of videos over time.

On my main channel, I have around 400 videos now, and every single one is monetised. So every time someone watches a video I posted five years ago, I still earn from it.

That’s one of the things I really love about YouTube. The work you put in today can continue to pay off months or even years down the line.

So if you’re reading this and feel like you’re at zero – maybe you haven’t posted yet but really want to, or you’ve shared a few videos and aren’t seeing the results you hoped for, and you’re not sure why – I’ve got something for you. 

I’ve been working on a free YouTube class that’s available as a replay. In it, I’m walking you through the exact roadmap I used to grow my channel from zero to over 70,000 subscribers.

Thank you so much for reading this article. Let me know in the comments where you are in your YouTube journey. I’d love to hear from you.