What Can Youtube Creators Learn from Ryan Trahan’s $0.01 Series?

Ryan Trahan is built different. While surviving on $0.01 for 30 days... Ryan left clues about his success. Here are three lessons I learned from Ryan's penny series and some actionable tips to crush YouTube.

with 0.01 dollar. 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.





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.

Ryan said in one of his videos:

One year ago, I had like fewer 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 want to make it big someday.


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, forcing 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, started their educational series in a car, inside of a parking garage because it was the only quiet place they could film.


And the 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 them.


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 edits out awkward moments.




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.

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