1. Use Incentives
If you read this book and pass a quiz, I’ll give you $1,000.
2. YouTube First, Second, and Third
Your goal here is to make the best *YouTube* videos possible. That’s the number one goal of this production company. It’s not to make the best-produced videos. Not to make the funniest videos. Not to make the best-looking videos. Not the highest-quality videos. It’s to make the best *YouTube* videos possible ... YouTube is the future, and I believe with every fiber of my body it’s going to keep growing year over year. In five years, YouTube will be bigger than anyone will have ever imagined, and I want this channel to be at the top.
3. YouTube Is Not Hollywood
We are not Hollywood. 99% of movies or T.V. shows would flop on YouTube. On top of that, they’d be wildly unprofitable, have no flexibility, and have long lead times that can’t adapt to trends. We aren’t here to make a small movie once or twice a year; I want to make one a week.
4. First, Listen
You need to produce content *our* way, not the way you were taught. If you want the highest probability of success, then I beg you to learn why we do what we do at a deep level before you try to “fix” anything. We’ve done countless videos and invested hundreds of thousands of hours collectively building how we do things. I know it’s not perfect, but we have a reason for how we do most stuff and it’s probably a decent one.
5. Are You an A Player?
I only want A players ... A players are obsessive, they learn from mistakes, they’re coachable and intelligent, they don’t make excuses, they believe in YouTube, they see the value of this company, and they’re the best in the goddamn world at their job.
6. Know the Lingo
The 3 metrics you guys need to care about are click-through rate (C.T.R.), average view duration (A.V.D.), and average view percentage (A.V.P.). Make sure you know those abbreviations because that’s how most people will refer to them.
7. Hyperbolize Your Headlines
“I Spent 50 Hours In My Front Yard” is lame and you wouldn’t click it. But you would click, “I Spent 50 Hours In Ketchup.” Both are relatively similar in time/effort, but the ketchup one is easily 100 times more viral …
Even better: “I Survived” instead of “I Spent”; that would add more intrigue and make it feel more extreme.
In general, the more extreme, the better. “I Don’t Like Bananas” won’t perform the same as “Bananas Are The Worst Food On Earth.”
8. Obsess Over the 1st Minute
As with almost every video on YouTube, the first minute has the most loss (look at the data). This is why we freak out so much about the first minute and go so above and beyond to make it the best we freakin can ... The first minute of each video is the most-important minute of each video.
9. Know Your Minute
You’ll hear us ask what minute mark in the video you’re working on. Whether you’re in production, creative, or editing, you must always know the minute mark of the content you’re working on.
10. Do Your Homework
Whether it be production, creative, camera, or editing, I want you to be obsessed with YouTube. Get rid of Netflix and Hulu and watch tons of YouTube; it will without a doubt in my mind make you more successful here. The more invested you are in our world on YouTube, the more you’ll understand trends, how we can stand out and be more original, what we could do better, etc.
11. “You’re the Bottleneck”
Let’s say you’re in production and a video you’re assigned to is 45 days out. A lot of things need to happen before you can start working on it. For example, you someone to produce a thumbnail sketch. Do *not* just go to them and say, “I need a thumbnail. Let me know when it’s done.” This is what most people do, and it’s one of the reasons why we fail so much.
I want you to look them in the eyes and tell them the following: “Tyler, you are my bottleneck. I have 45 days to make this video happen, and I can’t begin to work on it until I know what the contents of the video is. I need you to confirm that you understand this is important, and we need to set a date when the thumbnail will be done.”
As a result, this person, who also has tons of shit going on, is aware of how important this discussion is, and you guys can prioritize it accordingly.
12. Leave No Room for Error
Let’s say you and Tyler agree on a due date of 5 days from now. *You don’t get to set a reminder for 5 days and not talk to him until day 5*. Every single day, you must check in on Tyler and make sure he is still on track. I want fewer excuses in this company. Take ownership, and don’t give your project a chance to fail. Dumping your bottleneck on someone and then just walking away until it’s done is lazy, and it creates room for error. I want you to have a mindset that God himself couldn’t stop you from making this video on time. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.
13. You’re Responsible for Your Team
If there’s one thing I’d love to impose on you from all this writing, it’s that you can’t just dump and forget your projects. I can’t stand when people dump and forget their project on a contractor and then the day before the shoot, blame them when it’s not ready. That’s on *you*, not them.
14. How to Ask Your Boss a Question
Wrong:
“In an upcoming video, we’re giving away a car. What do you think of this Lexus? It’s only $10,000.”
Right:
“We have an upcoming video. During the 6-9 minute mark, we’ll be giving away a car. We are still on budget, and the budget for this car is $10,000. The P.M. says we could go up another $5K if you want. I searched all of North Carolina for cool-ass cars around that price point, and here are 5 that creative approved. I also have 5 backup options that are less cool-looking and more average if you’re going for that. Here’s a picture of all 10, with their mileage and other info. Which of these do you think is best, or should I get other options?”
15. Shelter Your Work
Treat your work like your baby ... Protect it at all costs. Check in on it 10 times a day. Obsess over it. Make a backup. If it requires shipping, pay someone to pick it up and drive it; don’t trust standard shipping.
16. Don’t Let a Problem Fester
Speak up the second anything goes wrong. The literal second.
17. Creativity Saves Money
Which sounds cooler to you as a prize for a gaming video: $20,000, or a year’s supply of Doritos? To me, Doritos is so much funnier, and I think our audience would find it fucking hilarious. So let’s say we define a year’s supply of Doritos by 5 packs of Doritos a day for 365 days. That’s 1,825 packs of Doritos. A quick Google search shows you can buy a pack of Doritos for less than a dollar. But we can round up and just say a dollar. Our prize for the video just went from $20,000 to $1,825 because we didn’t just throw money at the problem. Instead, we used creativity ...
8. Obsess Over the 1st Minute
As with almost every video on YouTube, the first minute has the most loss (look at the data). This is why we freak out so much about the first minute and go so above and beyond to make it the best we freakin can ... The first minute of each video is the most-important minute of each video.
9. Know Your Minute
You’ll hear us ask what minute mark in the video you’re working on. Whether you’re in production, creative, or editing, you must always know the minute mark of the content you’re working on.
10. Do Your Homework
Whether it be production, creative, camera, or editing, I want you to be obsessed with YouTube. Get rid of Netflix and Hulu and watch tons of YouTube; it will without a doubt in my mind make you more successful here. The more invested you are in our world on YouTube, the more you’ll understand trends, how we can stand out and be more original, what we could do better, etc.
11. “You’re the Bottleneck”
Let’s say you’re in production and a video you’re assigned to is 45 days out. A lot of things need to happen before you can start working on it. For example, you someone to produce a thumbnail sketch. Do *not* just go to them and say, “I need a thumbnail. Let me know when it’s done.” This is what most people do, and it’s one of the reasons why we fail so much.
I want you to look them in the eyes and tell them the following: “Tyler, you are my bottleneck. I have 45 days to make this video happen, and I can’t begin to work on it until I know what the contents of the video is. I need you to confirm that you understand this is important, and we need to set a date when the thumbnail will be done.”
As a result, this person, who also has tons of shit going on, is aware of how important this discussion is, and you guys can prioritize it accordingly.
12. Leave No Room for Error
Let’s say you and Tyler agree on a due date of 5 days from now. *You don’t get to set a reminder for 5 days and not talk to him until day 5*. Every single day, you must check in on Tyler and make sure he is still on track. I want fewer excuses in this company. Take ownership, and don’t give your project a chance to fail. Dumping your bottleneck on someone and then just walking away until it’s done is lazy, and it creates room for error. I want you to have a mindset that God himself couldn’t stop you from making this video on time. Check. In. Daily. Leave. No. Room. For. Error.
13. You’re Responsible for Your Team
If there’s one thing I’d love to impose on you from all this writing, it’s that you can’t just dump and forget your projects. I can’t stand when people dump and forget their project on a contractor and then the day before the shoot, blame them when it’s not ready. That’s on *you*, not them.
14. How to Ask Your Boss a Question
Wrong:
“In an upcoming video, we’re giving away a car. What do you think of this Lexus? It’s only $10,000.”
Right:
“We have an upcoming video. During the 6-9 minute mark, we’ll be giving away a car. We are still on budget, and the budget for this car is $10,000. The P.M. says we could go up another $5K if you want. I searched all of North Carolina for cool-ass cars around that price point, and here are 5 that creative approved. I also have 5 backup options that are less cool-looking and more average if you’re going for that. Here’s a picture of all 10, with their mileage and other info. Which of these do you think is best, or should I get other options?”
15. Shelter Your Work
Treat your work like your baby ... Protect it at all costs. Check in on it 10 times a day. Obsess over it. Make a backup. If it requires shipping, pay someone to pick it up and drive it; don’t trust standard shipping.
16. Don’t Let a Problem Fester
Speak up the second anything goes wrong. The literal second.
17. Creativity Saves Money
Which sounds cooler to you as a prize for a gaming video: $20,000, or a year’s supply of Doritos? To me, Doritos is so much funnier, and I think our audience would find it fucking hilarious. So let’s say we define a year’s supply of Doritos by 5 packs of Doritos a day for 365 days. That’s 1,825 packs of Doritos. A quick Google search shows you can buy a pack of Doritos for less than a dollar. But we can round up and just say a dollar. Our prize for the video just went from $20,000 to $1,825 because we didn’t just throw money at the problem. Instead, we used creativity ...
Whether it be finding a crane for a video, deciding prizes, picking locations, finding critical components, or doing the most-miniscule thing, use creativity to save money. Because every dollar we save allows me to give you guys more stability and hire more people to make your life easier. If you want to succeed here, say this 10 times in your head: Creativity saves money.
18. If It Sounds Too Good to Be True...
Don’t take anything at face value; always dig. This is particularly important when dealing with people outside the MrBeast Production team ... For example, if you need 10,000 pillows by next week and you’ve called 10 pillow companies and none has more than a few hundred in stock, but then the 11th company magically has 10,000 pillows, investigate. Are they drop shipping? Are the pillows shitty? “Why does no one want your pillows?” Push and get answers. People think their job is done after they’ve found the 10,000 pillows — but when the pillows arrive, there may be problems, and now it’s too late to fix it … Problems from a contractor you hired are your fault.
19. Lower vs. Higher Forms of Communication
The worst thing you could ever do when you need something for your critical component is email someone at the company. Talk to them in real life. It’s very important you know when to call people for stuff, grab them in real life, and when to text them. The lower the form of Communication, the more miscommunication you will face. As I’m typing this, you have no idea if I’m laughing, smiling, happy, mad, or sad. You can’t read my body language or my face, and because of that, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll understand what I’m conveying.
Need more toilet paper in the bathroom? A text is probably fine. One week out from a video and the thing you are working out just went south? Minimum, a multiway call with the heads of the video. Ideally, grab them in real life. The more complex the message, the higher the form of the communication you should use. Call first, then text if they don’t answer.
20. Own Your Mistakes
I hate excuses and I despise with my entire soul when people try to save face instead of learning from how they messed up. Mistakes are okay! Genuinely they are, and I expect you to make a lot. That’s perfectly fine. Every veteran here has cost me a million dollars at one point or another, and you can ask them if I ever held it over their heads. The reason I’m okay with fuck ups is because I know that’s how you learn ... I just beg you that you learn from every mistake and try not to repeat it ... I’ve never ever fired someone on the spot for messing up; you have nothing to be afraid of. Own shit so we can address how to fix it, and then move on.
18. If It Sounds Too Good to Be True...
Don’t take anything at face value; always dig. This is particularly important when dealing with people outside the MrBeast Production team ... For example, if you need 10,000 pillows by next week and you’ve called 10 pillow companies and none has more than a few hundred in stock, but then the 11th company magically has 10,000 pillows, investigate. Are they drop shipping? Are the pillows shitty? “Why does no one want your pillows?” Push and get answers. People think their job is done after they’ve found the 10,000 pillows — but when the pillows arrive, there may be problems, and now it’s too late to fix it … Problems from a contractor you hired are your fault.
19. Lower vs. Higher Forms of Communication
The worst thing you could ever do when you need something for your critical component is email someone at the company. Talk to them in real life. It’s very important you know when to call people for stuff, grab them in real life, and when to text them. The lower the form of Communication, the more miscommunication you will face. As I’m typing this, you have no idea if I’m laughing, smiling, happy, mad, or sad. You can’t read my body language or my face, and because of that, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll understand what I’m conveying.
Need more toilet paper in the bathroom? A text is probably fine. One week out from a video and the thing you are working out just went south? Minimum, a multiway call with the heads of the video. Ideally, grab them in real life. The more complex the message, the higher the form of the communication you should use. Call first, then text if they don’t answer.
20. Own Your Mistakes
I hate excuses and I despise with my entire soul when people try to save face instead of learning from how they messed up. Mistakes are okay! Genuinely they are, and I expect you to make a lot. That’s perfectly fine. Every veteran here has cost me a million dollars at one point or another, and you can ask them if I ever held it over their heads. The reason I’m okay with fuck ups is because I know that’s how you learn ... I just beg you that you learn from every mistake and try not to repeat it ... I’ve never ever fired someone on the spot for messing up; you have nothing to be afraid of. Own shit so we can address how to fix it, and then move on.
