What if the Real Metric Is Joy Not Views  🔗 **Source:** [What if the Real Metric Is Joy Not Views](https://share.snipd.com/episode/13b37bcc-7a50-466c-b510-17a11f9668ed) ## Highlights - **Slow Start Turned Hobby Into Career** - Joel spent six months to get 100 subscribers and treated early YouTube as a hobby rather than a career. - He kept creating because he enjoyed the process, which later snowballed into meaningful growth around 2019–2020. Transcript: Joel Hansen No, no, definitely. Definitely did not get what a lot of people consider instant success. It actually took me six months to get 100 subscribers, which by some people's standards, especially nowadays, because people look for instant gratification, instant glorification. And admittedly, with certain appsiktok and stuff with a short form you can have one video and kind of pop off but youtube let's say eight years ago this is well before the short content Etc it still was not in those stages like that just really wasn't generally a thing um so no i mean the videos weren't getting views per se. And, you know, you're getting defined success, right? But the thing is, I was doing it because I enjoyed it, right? I wasn't out there to get rich and famous. I never thought this would ever be a full-time thing. I didn't think this would amount to anything significant. It was just like, you know, maybe in your spare time, you like to read a book. Maybe in your spare time, you like to play the guitar. It was just kind of like in my spare time, it was just a hobby I picked up. And because I think like, I guess, you know, found some joy or some entertainment in doing it, success wasn't measured by an external metric like views. Travis I think that's probably the more healthy way of looking at content creation, especially early on. What changed? When did it change? When did things start to go, oh, okay, this actually could be something? Joel Hansen The funny thing is I never had that realization. It was, it just kind of started to snowball. So, you know, increasingly through, like I did, I think I released my first video, let's say like January of 2018 for an example. Year, a year and a half later, it was like I was getting some views and I had some traffic. Like I said, it did take, you know, six months to get 100 subscribers. But, you know, by maybe a year and a half later, mid 2019, I probably had maybe like 20,000, maybe 19,000, somewhere around there. And so at that point, I released a video, that's when you could maybe be like, you know, even just start to gauge some sort of like external success. But I still never thought anything of it. It wasn't a career. It was never something I contemplated. And then 2020 happened. Things were shut down, where I was living there was no jobs I was finished school and um but the one thing I could do was go to places other places and do some videos so I just kind of started Making videos because guess what I couldn't do it I couldn't work I couldn't do anything else but I could do one of my hobbies. So I continued with that hobby. And then about six months to a year later, so very late, let's say 2021, early 20. We'll say very, we'll say very, sorry, we'll say very late 2020. ([Time 0:06:24](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c9c6394e-3c27-46d0-bf76-e21639171ffd)) - **Physical Toll From Extreme Eating And Clear Warnings** - Joel recounts severe physical consequences from extreme eating including torn abdominal muscles and near-choking incidents. - He explicitly warns viewers: don't copy these stunts and includes 'don't do what I do' disclaimers. Transcript: Joel Hansen Short story, yes. Long story is not a specific like health happening per se, but there is times with eating, which sounds crazy and new training and stuff involved i have torn like my abdominal muscles Um i had like rib injuries and all these things so um and plus you know if you almost die half a half a dozen times from choking and stuff like you know it can definitely make you second guess Some of it but to be honest, I mean, I just kept going. I never really thought much of it. Again, just like if you were, again, probably playing football, you know, you probably get some injuries, probably knocked around sometimes. You kind of do what you can to heal them up and continue on. But that being said, yes, when I in my earlier days and my quote unquote younger days my younger years i did some things back then i could not imagine now some of the things i tried to eat Or did eat and just the way i would push myself i wouldn't let myself quit i don't know when to quit that's a a pro and a con of mine um so yeah let's just say there's definitely some things I've done back in the day i would not want to do again um i've eaten like a 20 pound uh like prime rib meal which i felt that literally in my stomach for three days i've eaten like oh my god 20 Some pounds of ice cream in a sitting you could feel you could you could touch my stomach and feel it was cold. It's crazy. It was just permeating through my abdomen. Like, yeah, I've done some crazy stuff. Would not recommend. Hence why the descriptor and all my videos, I say, don't do what I do. And I really mean it. ([Time 0:13:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7e97386c-3b41-487c-b8c5-8f7d39521ac4)) - **Selective Partnerships Beat Free Food** - Joel receives many comp offers but rejects those that don't match his standards or storytelling goals. - He prefers working with passionate mom-and-pop restaurants that represent food authentically, not just free meals. Transcript: Joel Hansen I have many offers from different restaurants to have comped meals, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The thing is, though, do I always take them? The answer is no. Because, again, I'm just not, like, you know, I don't just go do this for free food, per se, right? There's lots of restaurants that to give you free food but still like I put like time and planning into the videos you know what what I think will be interesting you know if the offering Is interesting but yeah I mean like some places are just like you know you get you get many offers I think again it's just like strategically if you take them or not. And, uh, just, you know, just as like, if it's a clothing brand trying to give you clothes or something to wear, it's like, you got also, you know, is this something you want to represent And, or how do you want to represent it? And, you know, kind of a, but I'm admitting me like, you know, I am at a point where there's definitely a point where I would work with anybody or a lot more now i like to work with restaurants Um you know whom are genuinely like excited and passionate about the food and like not somebody that's just like you know throwing garbage out just to make money like you know somewhere Which like you know cares and wants to actually serve people and is proud of what they do. ([Time 0:16:05](https://share.snipd.com/snip/d9413110-f278-45e5-b93e-734317490b96)) - **Position Memberships As Support Not Paywall** - Offer memberships as a way for fans to support you rather than as strict gated value. - Joel treats membership buyers as supporters who want a badge and to contribute, not always to access exclusive content. Transcript: Travis A lot of creators, when they're up and coming, they want to do things like memberships. But I feel like there's this misconception that they feel like they don't have the value. They don't bring the value to a view. Like, why would someone pay me to do what I do already? What is your thought process behind that? Like for membership stuff for you, what is someone purchasing into? And how do you look at that particular scenario? Joel Hansen So that's a great question. And I actually am kind of of the line that buying a membership from somebody is just saying, I support you. I personally, I do know one or two creators whom have done so, like, where they set it up. ([Time 0:18:37](https://share.snipd.com/snip/8088a65e-21e7-43ce-898c-10aa7e19dc86)) - **Make Joy The Core Metric Not Views** - Joel argues creators must be convicted about their why and find internal satisfaction rather than chase external validation. - He contrasts long-term creators with those who quit after a quick win because they were in it for fame, not the craft. Transcript: Joel Hansen Question. And the answer is yes. I think people enter in with so many misconceptions especially in the last couple years let's say the last five years so I'll use an example I have a friend and this friend spent about I cannot say it's a huge buy-in but it's enough he spent let's say a thousand dollars twelve hundred dollars on equipment right away and his plan was, I'm going to start YouTube videos. I'm going to get famous. I'm going to quit my job and travel the world. That was his plan. And I said, okay, cool. And at this point I was still an early creator, maybe, maybe somewhere between 20 and 40,000 subscribers. And again, it took me six months to get 100 subscribers, right? I was just doing it because I like to do it. I did the process. I've gotten reward through the process, not just the end goal, not just the external reward, but the internal reward. Anyway, so he made two videos his second video popped off. It got thousands of views. And within two videos, he had over a thousand subscribers. He was going to soon qualify for monetization. So, you know, and I'm like, Dan, that's cool, man. Good job. And he was like pretty excited. He made a third video. And I don't even think he made a fourth video. And he said, man, I give up. It's too much work. Because he was in it for the wrong reasons. He was in it for this external, like, I'm going to get external validation. I'm going to pop off, be famous. And even though he actually had an amazing start two videos over a thousand subscribers we're talking in a matter of what a week or two that's crazy and it just it just wasn't enough so He gave up and i mean like i said it's like you have to be if you're gonna like become a youtuber you're gonna get in this you have to do it think, for like a real internal like reason, because You want to, because you want to share something with the world. I don't think it matters like whether it's you want to share your voice. Maybe you're a singer. Maybe you want to share an opinion about books. ([Time 0:20:59](https://share.snipd.com/snip/47f64750-eab0-4e99-bf08-0341d9a2fef3)) - **Success Brings Workload And Responsibility** - 'Making it' still means long hours, logistics, and loss of anonymity; Joel worked 70-hour weeks and skipped holidays to build his channel. - Fame adds responsibility to protect family, relationships, and public image. Transcript: Joel Hansen I would think one thing that i think is assumed and people don't realize is, like I said, just the amount of work which goes into this. So they get to see a 20 minute completed video of me eating at a restaurant. They don't see the hours of traveling to the restaurant. They don't see, again, the four or three or four hours at the restaurant to make the 20 minute video. And then they don't see the three or four hours of editing, plus the hour of titles, tags, etc. Right. So again, easily eight to 10 hours of direct work. And that's excluding if you have to travel, that's excluding if you have to arrange these things with a restaurant, logistics, et cetera. And then excluding that, when I was not traveling, I used to work 70 hours a week, literally about 10 hours, seven days a week. Like when I went to visit my parents, right. As like a, you know, visit them on like Christmas or holiday, they were just, they just knew I had to like, there's assumed I had to work. So they just like basically like leave me in my, leave me in the room to work because I had to, right. These were the things I had to do to build my channel, to build my community. These are the things that, you know, I didn't take a holiday for three or four years before. And then, like, finally it came to the point where I was kind of like, and then, you know, you train yourself to take a couple days off. It was, like, hard, you know? So there's just, like, there's so much that goes into it. And then if you, and there's a lot of people that they do, they want to become noticed and become a public figure and stuff. I think one thing which people don't also realize is like, it's actually really nice to have a nominantity sometimes. Like I go to the market or I go to a store or walking on the beach today. And like people know you, right? People come up and say hi to me all the time and i'm very thankful for all my the amazing supporters i have but i'm just saying at the same time like you're out on a date with somebody for the First time and you have a couple people come up and go oh my god oh my god it can kind of freak some people out they're like who are you you know because because you know like i don't introduce Myself to people I don't know. Hi, I'm a YouTuber with a million plus subscribers. Like you don't do that. Right. Like, you know, I get I'm a very like humble down to earth person. ([Time 0:24:44](https://share.snipd.com/snip/7206f1e0-c411-4dd7-b4a8-691e9590467b)) - **Write Titles After Filming For Variable Content** - Pick titles/thumbnails after filming when content is variable; only ~5% of Joel's titles are pre-decided. - Real-time events (being kicked out, unexpected challenges) often dictate the best hook. Transcript: Joel Hansen Say there's only 5% of the time that I would have an idea for the title before and or during the video. It would come kind of after and or possibly through out in a way like there's a time i went to a buffet and i got kicked out well instantly you can tell that the title is gonna be about me getting Kicked out now when i when i go to the buffet and i don't get kicked out right but maybe it was unlimited king crab and i just happen to eat a lot of it well hey maybe there's also an inclination To the title as well um but as as far as like um pre-picking titles exactly i don't do that beforehand because i'm doing a you got to realize i'm doing like a live variable uh activity eating And what's going to happen during that experience i don't know but through through it it might direct towards the title and or the thumbnail you know maybe if you you know in a video you Get or you get you know one of the workers to come and be like you're gonna eat that you know what i mean again it's like it's a it's a variable throughout that you that will add to it but rarely Travis Before yeah rarely before that that's uh that's really interesting because uh depending on it i think you just you made a good point is that unlike a lot of other content people make, Your stuff happens in the moment and you actually don't know necessarily what's going to happen. ([Time 0:28:20](https://share.snipd.com/snip/80f1327d-fe1e-4fb5-b4a3-0db1acdf923e)) - **Use Comment Patterns To Prioritize Fixes And Ideas** - Use comment trends to guide improvements; listen for recurring criticism rather than single complaints. - Joel fixes recurring audio/camera issues and saves repeated viewer requests (sushi, seafood) for future shoots. Transcript: Joel Hansen So through the years, I think some of the most important things that I did learn from my audience is like types of food that are, for example, appealing and attractive in types of videos. So, for example, I know like an eating challenge video will outperform, you know, generally outperform like a buffet video. However, if it's a really dang cool buffet regarding like, let's say, seafood, it's like couldn't do better than a buffet not regard you know involving seafood so i think i think what I so what was most important to me to learn from my followers is general trends and then also like you need to you can't like you get thousands of comments right you definitely can't dive Into every single one but you need to be aware and cognizant of trends. So I'm always one for criticism, constructive criticism. I very much enjoy receiving feedback, both positive and negative, but you got to, um, again, look for like trends, look for reoccurring themes, right? So if I make a couple of videos and everybody says, you know, the audio is just not that great anymore. What's going on with your audio? I better start, no pun intended, listening. Like what's going on here. Right. Now, if one person says that, you're like something wrong. But nobody else says it. It's probably just someone's own computer. ([Time 0:30:16](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9746c30d-cd99-4566-a522-4e146e46e2a9)) - **Long Form Videos Can Go Viral Later And Lift A Channel** - Many of Joel's videos gained traction months after release as YouTube began suggesting them. - A delayed viral lift often boosts the whole channel by driving viewers to other videos. Transcript: Joel Hansen These did well the short answer is I mean I know why they kind of did well, because the way they're marketed and it is quite attractive to a lot of general audience. But but I think all all or most of my videos that went like that really kind of popped off and went, quote unquote, like viral per se, with the exception of one or two. It happened like quite a bit after the fact. It's like you know let's say i released the video in march and then it'd be like randomly in june or july all of a sudden it has it's gained a couple million views and a couple of like traction So so with the exception of again a couple um it's just kind of i mean it was a pretty popular video to start out but then it starts trending for some reason and being suggested. And just the reason why it did good at the start, right? Let's say it still gets 500,000 views at the start. To me, that's pretty dang good, right? So it did well. It appealed to a lot of people. And then so for whatever reason, it being shown and suggested to other people you can assume that it's likely going to have a similar click-through rate etc etc and that's kind of what Travis Has happened i'm curious so in the life of this one it has like nine million views and anyone has five million you're saying that they did well at first and then they kind of that they slow Down or were they just consistently big and then all of a sudden just randomly they just start popping off like tell us the experience of that what you see because some people never experience That so ([Time 0:33:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9bcf3c4a-3584-4f93-b41c-84980982dffb)) - **Start With Content You Actually Enjoy** - If you start YouTube, choose topics you genuinely enjoy and expect to keep doing without fame as the reward. - Joel warns short-form can reward low-effort virality, but long-form demands sustainable passion. Transcript: Joel Hansen Would say, first off, again, make sure it's something you enjoy and you're in it for the right reasons. You're not in this to get fame. You're not in this to get popularity. You're not in the insist to get external glorification, gratification, etc. If you are in it because you enjoy, it's basically entertaining, let's be honest. If you enjoy entertaining and or, you know, sharing knowledge or however you want to look at it, then do it and stick to it. Because there is actually people out there to consume all types of content there are people out there that watch people um like videos of people chewing on hairbrushes i don't understand It i will never watch that video but guess what there's people out there's people out there with millions of followers because they want to watch somebody chewing a hairbrush but then There's people out there that you know like a friend that has that has millions of subscribers he just drinks like he chugs stuff he'll chug sodas and juices and whatever right and then There's people that want to watch you eat right maybe it's they want to eat something so they want to watch eat something spicy or they want to watch you eat you know like mark weans just Different foods of the world maybe it just pizza, right? The Barstool, you know, one bite pizza reviews that gave, you know, how many millions of views on that just from he goes to a restaurant and it takes one bite of a pizza. There's someone out there to consume all types of content. The problem is though, is you need to make sure that you're in it for the right reasons and you want to do it. If you enjoy it, you get gratification, satisfaction from it, then you'll also be able to stick with it. Like I said, just like a hobby. If you like to sit home and play guitar, read books, you don't get paid to do that. It's just in your home. You do it because you enjoy it. So if you enjoy it, you'll enjoy the process, not just the end goal. Then do YouTube. Do this content. ([Time 0:40:12](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3092cf5e-d773-4c54-be92-794dd22e2d7d))