--- title: 'How to Make Money by Being Yourself' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=ehNJc1AKpGU' video_id: 'ehNJc1AKpGU' date: 2026-08-06 duration_sec: 810 --- # How to Make Money by Being Yourself > Source: [How to Make Money by Being Yourself](https://youtube.com/watch?v=ehNJc1AKpGU) ## Summary The video argues that beginners on social media often fail because they copy trending content, a strategy that only works for large accounts. The creator advocates for personal content—sharing unique experiences and stories—as the key to building trust, growing an audience, and eventually monetizing. She illustrates this with examples from her own journey and other creators, emphasizing that personal content creates a parasocial connection that leads to long-term loyalty and sales. ### Key Points - **The Mistake That Breaks Beginners** [00:01] — Almost 90% of beginners make the mistake of copying trending content, which leads to burnout and giving up. This strategy is taught by top experts but only works for large accounts with existing audiences. - **Solution: Personal Content** [01:46] — Beginners should create content that builds trust through personal experience. The creator shares how she got her first 10,000 subscribers by talking about her own life, like her VIP-син experience and moving to Bishkek. - **Your Life Is a Goldmine of Ideas** [02:57] — We often ignore our own lives as a source of content ideas. When someone voices our pain or experience, it creates a strong connection. Sharing personal stories makes the creator feel like 'one of us'. - **Ideas Come from Within** [03:38] — Instead of looking outside for ideas, look inside at your transformations and thoughts. Record them and don't devalue them. This yields original content that isn't just recycling existing information. - **Top Creators Use Personal Stories** [04:49] — Even experts like Alex Harmoziy and Alibdal share personal stories to build connection. Alibdal's wedding video got a million views, more than his expert content. - **Parasocial Connection** [06:38] — Personal stories create a parasocial connection, where viewers feel they know the creator personally. This leads to strong loyalty, as seen with Emma Chamberlain's fans. - **Personal Content Is Better for Business** [07:49] — Subscriptions to expert content are short-term; once the problem is solved, people unsubscribe. Personal content keeps viewers engaged long-term, which is necessary because it takes about a year of interactions before someone buys. - **Personal Content Is Easier to Watch** [09:24] — Personal stories are easier for the brain to process than dry expert content. They serve as entertainment and help retain viewers, fulfilling the first goal of a blog: to keep people watching and warming up. - **People Buy from Those They Want to Become** [10:34] — Content wins not by providing more information, but by conveying energy and way of thinking. People want to feel they are with someone they aspire to be. Personal content shows your qualities and state. - **It's Not the Niche, It's the Person** [11:43] — In the feed, people compete, not topics. Your intonation, pace, calmness, and vulnerability resonate. Even common knowledge can be believed if delivered by the right person. - **Be Yourself** [12:23] — The creator's slow speaking was once seen as a flaw, but viewers appreciated it. A blog is a tool to attract people like you. Sharing your life inspires others and is a duty to society. ### Conclusion The key to growing on social media is to embrace personal content and share your unique experiences. This builds trust, creates a loyal audience, and ultimately leads to monetization. Stop copying others and start being yourself. ## Transcript 58,000 on Instagram. I teach how to create content from scratch. And I even have my own academy. I work with content newbies every day and I can tell you for sure that there is one mistake that breaks almost everything. It leads to burnout, stunts growth, and often leads to people simply giving up. And the strangest thing is that almost 90% of beginners make this mistake. Not because they are lazy or not like that, but because that is what they are taught now. This strategy is taught almost from the very first day, and not by some random coaches, but by top social media experts, as if it were a working strategy. Before we move on to analyzing this failed strategy, I want to tell you something very important to understand how to grow on YouTube without burnout, wasted time, and constant doubt, watch the tutorial at the link below. start, how to find ideas, what to film, how to monetize your channel, even if you're not an expert, even if you're not in the media and no one knows you yet . You can also get free analysis from YouTube Academy producers give specific recommendations for improving your channel. Link below this video. Now to the failed strategy that destroys you at the start. You've probably Copy the incoming content to suit your needs, and everything will be great for you. Let me say right away that this works, but only for large accounts. Here's the thing. For large channels, this strategy works due to their existing audience. And this kind of trendy, broad content is what they regularly put out. But this is a failed strategy for beginners for two reasons. Firstly, small channels don’t yet have loyal viewers who will pick up on this trend. And someone who doesn't have personal experience in the topic . So what kind of content should beginners create to get their first 1,000 views? I have a solution for you content that builds trust with the viewer. And this is all done correctly, through personal content, that is, your unique experience. Let's break down how I got my first 10,000 YouTube subscribers. I talked a lot about myself and my experience. For example, I talked about my experience as a VIP- syn, when my channel still had about 300 subscribers. In general, few people pass the VIP passes. This is something unique because it is 10 days of silence, 10 hours of meditation a day. This is a powerful asceticism. There they take away phones, not every person is capable of doing. And that's why this video got 55,000 views and brought 703 subscribers. Or, for example, she quit her job. This is a very personal story. She told about it. It resonated with the audience and received 250,000 views. Or, for example, she moved to Bishkek. This video has reached 100,000,000 views. This video is essentially my reflection on how the city of Bishkek has changed during the years of my absence. As you can see, these are just my needs me, who would even be interested in this. And we often ignore the most interested in this. And we often ignore the most powerful source of ideas, our lives. You know, there are actually a lot of interesting things going on in it. We are simply blind to it. We all experience the same things in one way or another . And when someone voices my pain, my experience, my inner insight, it immediately hits me right moments I feel that I am understood, I am not alone. And the one who said this is no longer just some blogger, yes, or an expert. He becomes, you know, one of our own . I want to listen to him, I want to follow him. And the coolest thing is, if he sells something, I don’t have to be persuaded anymore, because the most have to be persuaded anymore, because the most important thing is that I already got the feeling that I was heard and that I’m not alone on my path. Many people, even I, an experienced creator, yes, uh, always suffer from a lack of ideas. Damn, what should I make a video about this time? We treat this as if these ideas should come from outside. Although, if you really look inside at your life, at your transformations, at your thoughts, these are all ideas for content. You just need to ideas for content. You just need to learn to notice them, record them and, most importantly, not devalue them. And then you get a ton of ideas for content. And the coolest thing is that it’s not something that comes from outside, it’s yours. It's original, it's something new that you bring into the world, not just recycling existing information. And yes, the copying strategy also works, but if you will never become a trendsetter, you will never become a pioneer. If we philosophize and go deeper, then why live life at all? Why then did God and the universe give you uniqueness, such a unique, special uniqueness, such a unique, special outlook on life? Why, uh, all this, huh? If you simply copy someone else's work without adding anything of your own, then yes, in the end, top creators understand this very well and often talk about themselves. For example, Alex Harmoziy. He constantly tells the story of how he was left there without money, how he met Leila, how she supported him in difficult sales expert, but he often peppers his content with personal stories. They often talk about their love, about relationships. And at the beginning of his journey, when he was just starting to develop on YouTube, he talked about this very often. Even at the beginning of his book, which is now a bestseller on Amazon, this rags-to- riches story is described right down to the last detail, and right at the beginning of the book, because this is how he establishes a connection with the viewer, establishes this trust. That's why, at the very beginning of your social media journey, you need to talk a lot about yourself and your achievements to establish trust. transformations and so on. Even when we talk about our transformations, it seems like expert content, but if it’s well written, it’s also personal, because when you talk about your path, your results, your professional qualities, you still reveal your personality, even through the words you use to tell it all . Alibdal, it seems, is also, yes, a dry productivity expert, but he uploads videos where he simply shares what’s going on in his life. And this video gets more views than his other super-useful expert videos. And he just, I don’t know, chats there for half an hour, an hour about the difficulties he’s going through now, what’s going on in his life in general. Or I also uploaded a wedding, yes, my own. And if you think about it, yeah, who even cares about the productivity expert's wedding? But look, Alibdal's wedding got a million views. And through such personal stories, this parasocial connection is created. A emotional attachment that a person feels toward a public figure, character. For example, you might feel like you know a blogger or an actor, even though you've never actually had any personal contact. You can empathize with them, feel joy, sadness, support, inspiration, as if they were your acquaintances or close friends. And this parasocial connection is very powerful. those creators who talk a lot about personal matters. For example, uh, you might know Em Chamberlin. She shows a lot of personal things, expresses her personal thoughts and experiences. And her fans literally adore her. They just run up to me on the street, and she often talked about how they come up to me and I see them for the first time, and their attitude towards me is as if we’ve known each other for 100 years . This one-sided relationship is very powerful among those creators who talk a lot and share a lot of personal information . But this strong attachment, this strong loyalty from fans, from subscribers, is very beneficial in business. The thing is that a subscription to expert, sales-oriented content is more short-term than to personal content, content where people share their interests, knowledge, or something personal. For example, we subscribe to an expert with some pain or problem. Let expert with some pain or problem. Let 's say, I have, uh, a stomach ache right now, and I have some problems with my stomach, and my feed starts recommending, uh, experts in this niche. I subscribe to them, I follow them , I look at what content they post because it’s interesting and useful to me at the moment. And once I solve this problem with my stomach, I'm no longer interested in this, uh, content . I'm not interested in this person either . Since it has outlived its usefulness, so to speak. Let me remind you that the main goal of a blog as a business tool is to get people business tool is to get people to buy something from you, right? And for a person on social networks to decide to buy something from you, on average, he needs a year of interactions, right? And it will take a whole year for a person to get to know you there, warm up, and then decide to buy something from you . Therefore, if you only upload dry expert content, people will not subscribe to you for long, and then there is no point in your blog at all, it turns out. And many people mistakenly think that Saule, if I talk a lot about myself there, no one will be interested in it and it won’t bring me money. But this is far from the truth. Firstly, personal content is much easier to watch than expert content. Expert content, even the simplest one. It requires some attention, focus, concentration, which we have huge problems with now. But if the content is interspersed with some stories about yourself, expert content, then he uploads a wedding, then he talks about what's going on in his life, it's just easier to watch. It’s simply easier for our brain to perceive certain life events that are happening. It's some kind of entertainment, yes. And again, a blog, as a business tool, has two goals. The first is so that they watch for a long time and thus warm up. The second goal is to buy after buying so that they warm up. And so personal content, personal stories of some kind, they actually realize the first task. Thanks to him, people don't unsubscribe from us, they watch for a long time, and then, thanks to expert content, they warm up and become ready to buy. Therefore, to think that personal content does not bring in money is a priori wrong. Today, content is won not by those who provide more information and tools, but by those who convey their energy and way of thinking. People don't just want knowledge or tools. They want to feel like they are with someone they want to become. And personal content is the best way to show your qualities, convey your state and give them the opportunity to feel themselves. As I already said, I have a YouTube academy where we YouTube channels, grow their views, and monetize. And often, when we ask them why they decided to come to the course, they often answer that they liked the way Sauli thinks, they liked her presentation, her charisma, and they have some kind of trust in her. That is, no one said: “Well, she, uh, gave me this tool or she gave me this knowledge.” No, often people talk about some, ah, softer things, right? Her delivery inspired confidence, and my said this or that. We often think that we need to find the right niche, but if you look at the feed, it’s not the topics that compete with each other, but the people. You can be one of 100 experts in your field, and people will still listen to you if something about you catches their attention. It's not the level of knowledge, but how you share it. Your intonation, pace of speech, calmness, vulnerability - these are what resonate with people. There are bloggers who say things that are common knowledge, but you believe them. And there are those who give cool insights, but you skim through them. Because at the level of perception, it is not only the topic that is important, but the context of the individual. What kind of person are you in life? This is precisely why people will subscribe to you. And those who really connect with you, who accept you as you are, who even see advantages in your shortcomings, will subscribe . For example, I speak very slowly and I always considered this a disadvantage. Imagine my surprise when people started writing to me in the comments: “I love how you slowly and thoughtfully formulate your thoughts, unlike other bloggers who shout at the camera, speak very quickly, thereby increasing my panic, yes, when watching them. And then it dawned on me: “It turns out you can be yourself.” Because, at its core, a blog is a tool for attracting people just like you. Other people are inspired by our lives, the path we go through, our transformations, the difficulties we face, and how all this changes us. And if we don’t show all this, we take away from other people this very important opportunity to be inspired by us. I believe that talking about ourselves in general is our duty to society. So talk more about yourself. And if you don’t know where to start, watch this video. In it, I explained how to get your first 1,000 followers from scratch, step by step.