Why you should learn the inner workings of your company first before trying to fix anything
If you want the highest probability of success I beg you to learn why we do what we do at a deep level before you try to “fix” anything. … I know it’s not perfect but we have a reason for how we do most stuff and it’s probably a decent one.
Result-based company
But at the end of the day you will be judged on results, not hours. We are a results based company. Get shit done and move the goalpost!
A-Player, B-Player, or C-Player
You’re either an A-Player, B-Player, or C-Player. There is only room in this company for A-Players. A-Players are obsessive, learn from mistakes, coachable, intelligent, don’t make excuses, believe in Youtube, see the value of this company, and are the best in the goddamn world at their job. B-Players are new people that need to be trained into A-Players, and C-Players are just average employees. They don’t suck but they arn’t exceptional at what they do. They just exist, do whatever, and get a paycheck. They arn’t obsessive and learning. C-Players are poisonous and should be transitioned to a different company IMMEDIATELY. (It’s okay we give everyone severance, they’ll be fine).
3 metrices
The three metrics you guys need to care about is Click Thru Rate (CTR), Average View Duration (AVD), and Average View Percentage (AVP).
Title and thumbnail
why does the title and thumbnail matter to me? Expectations is why. The title and thumbnail on the videos you will be producing set the expectations for the viewer for your video.
First few minutes: not chronological, but a summary
Let’s say we have 10 minute video about a guy surviving weeks in the woods. Instead of making the first 3 minutes of the video about his first day then progressing from there like a logical filmmaker would. We’d tried to cover multiple days in the first 3 minutes of the video so the viewer is now super invested in the story.
Execution
After the first minute of content you will have what we call minutes 1 thru 3. This is where you have to transition from hype to execution (generally). Stop telling people what they will be watching and start showing them.
Re-engagement
We also want to do something around the 3 minute mark called a 3 minute re-engagement. A re-engagement can be described as content that is highly interested that fits the story and makes people genuinely impressed.
Iteration
I’m not going to talk about any production system in particular because the way we run this production changes almost every year haha. … If you’re not growing, eventually the difficulties of the videos will outgrow you.
Dogfood the core skill
This is why we say video everything. … And the easiest way to bring your team up to the same page is to freaken video everything and store it where they can constantly reference it.
Follow up with the contractor
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 the contractor. … Ask him to send videos everyday to spot problems early, hell maybe talk to him twice a day. … Check in daily, receive videos, and know weeks in advance if you’re fucked. Not days.
Admit mistakes immediately and learn
I know. I’m young and I’ll be the first to admit I’m not perfect. I promise not a single person on this planet wants us to succeed more than I do and no matter how much you work you’ll never invest more time into this company then I will, but I can’t promise i’ll always be right.
Present your research first before asking a question
When getting an answer from me it’s ideal you do the research and come to me with context and options.
Identify critical components (bottlenecks) and do them first
Critical components are the things that are essential to your video. If I want to put 100 people on an island and give it away to one of them, then securing an island is a critical component. It doesn’t matter how well planned the challenges on the island are, how good the weather is, etc.
Ownership and communication lines
There is always someone responsible for everything on the video and if multiple people are responsible for the same thing, then that’s a problem and needs to be fixed immediately. Ideally when communicating across departments you go up and then over.
Save money to be more creative
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 10x in your head “Creativity Saves Money”
Increasing the probability of success
No one will ever have a 100% success rate when it comes to filming our videos on time and on budget. It’s impossible. But you still can do certain things to increase the probability of success and one of the easiest but most overlooked is having a back up day. … y. When you’re spending hundreds of thousands of dollars securing a set, renting a tank, etc. make sure you have the ability to extend them in case something goes wrong.
Dig deeper for more information
One of the common themes you’re probably seeing is accountability and this doubles down on that. Don’t take anything at face value, always dig. This is particularly important when dealing with people outside the MrBeast Production team. If someone says something too good to be true, find out why. If it’s fishy, investigate. … Do not overly trust people outside the company. Investigate and verify what they say or it is your fault if they don’t pull through.
Higher form of communication is face-to-face
The worst thing you could ever do when you need something for your critical component is email someone at the company. The best is to 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.
First time mistakes
I hate excuses and I despise with my entire soul when people just try to save face instead of learn from how they messed up. Mistakes are okay! … The reason i’m okay with fuck ups is because I know that’s how you learn.
Learn from the mistakes
I just beg you that you learn from every mistake and try not to repeat it, that’s when it gets annoying. I’ve never ever ever once 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.
Know your top 3 priority list
When you’re being assigned tasks you should have what we call a prio list.
Use consultants
Consultants are literally cheat codes. … He’s already done countless tests and can save you weeks worth of work. I really want to drill this point home because I’m a massive believer in consultants. … In every single freakin task assigned to you, always always always ask yourself first if you can find a consultant to help you.
How to solve problems
Everything you need can be solved by one of these 5 things above. Use Math, Science, Vision, Approvals, or Budget.
Don’t stop at no
Basically what I’m trying to convey is what we call “pushing thru no”. Don’t just stop because one person told you no, stop when all conceivable options are exhausted. This is one of many tools that when combined dramatically improve your probability of success when producing here.
Honest rather than nice
I’d rather you be honest with eachother then nice to eachother.
Pivot and iterate
We pivot a lot, be ready to have everything flipped on its head at a moment’s notice lol
Show and then tell
I want money spent to be shown on camera ideally. If you’re spending over $10,000.
Always improving
We must always be improving and innovating. The camera angles need to always get better, the pacing, the story, the jokes, the color, the lighting, the music, the props, the people, our framing, our ideas, literally everything must always be improving and innovating.
Simple content for more outreach
Our audience is massive and because of that you have to be simple, for 50 million people to understand something it must be simple. Content can be anything but there is structure and rules that we must mold it into that I want to teach you about, because virality doesn’t just happen. Every frame of our videos will be seen by 10s of millions of people.
Formats
One way to boost retention on a video is to have a good format for the video to follow. Let’s use our popular “last to leave” series as an example.
Sponsorship bits of the video
BRAND DEALS ARE CONTENT! And when treated as such boosts retention. We need to make them in entertaining.
Information diet
What you consume on social media, when you watch youtube, tv, the games you play, etc. are what I like to call your information diet. … If your diet is not correct, you won’t have a good pulse on culture. … our information diet. Consume things on a daily basis that help you write better content.
Abrupt ending
The video endings must always be abrupt to protect retention.
Ask for more responsibilities
Every single department has an opportunity for you to grow in and you’re in luck because we don’t do yearly reviews. We do whenever the fuck you want reviews. If you want to become a production manager, tell james your intention and ask him why you suck and how you can become better.
No promotion only at certain times
This isn’t a bureaucratic corporate company. You don’t have to do something for 5 years to get a promotion, I hate the word promotion. The more responsibility, risk you help us navigate, and overall bullshit you deal with, the more you make.