Backstage Careers The Man Behind Ali Abdaal’s $5 Million YouTube Empire
YouTube as Startup
- Generalist roles are crucial in early-stage YouTube businesses, similar to startups.
- These roles require wearing multiple hats and adapting to various tasks, enabling growth and support for the creator.
PTYA Origin
- Part-Time YouTuber Academy (PTYA) emerged from Ali's success with Skillshare courses and a desire for more control.
- A quickly assembled course idea gained traction rapidly, leading to significant revenue and business expansion.
YouTube Niche Selection
- Ali Abdaal chose the YouTube niche for his course due to his credibility and experience in growing a successful channel.
- This resonated with an audience seeking similar part-time success, demonstrating strategic niche selection.
⏱ Time stamps for the episode below 👇
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ABOUT THIS EPISODE:
Today I talk to Ali Abdaal’s general manager, Angus Parker. Angus literally runs Ali’s $5M/year business, and manages the team of 13 people they have on staff, so Ali can focus on creating new income streams for the business.
In this episode, we cover how Angus went from being a YouTube scriptwriter that just graduated from college 3 years ago, to managing a $5M/year business and a staff of 13 people.
Next, we dive deep into Ali’s business, and how they’ve managed to scale it from a small 3-person team to an 13 person hyper growth YouTube business.
Specifically, we look at the numbers for “Part Time YouTuber Academy” which is the main revenue driver for the business. How they’ve scaled that into a $3M/year product, and the exact marketing funnels they're using. And finally, we also discuss the systems and SOPs that Angus and Ali use to manage their staff of 13 people to keep everyone productive and motivated.
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SHOW NOTES:
0:00 Intro
0:46 How Angus got a job with Ali Abdaal
03:05 The cold e-mail he sent
06:48 Announcing the Backstage Careers Coaching Program
07:36 Applying for a job that wasn't listed
08:59 Getting a job with no work experience
10:56 Size of Ali’s team in 2020
11:45 Angus’ first job responsibilities
15:10 Why YouTube channels are the new Tech Startups
16:43 How many hours did Angus work in a week
17:17 Why you need to be a generalist to run a YouTube businesses
21:25 From Skillshare to launching their own course
27:59 Why Ali chose the YouTube niche
29:53 Cohort VS course businesses
33:26 Part-Time YouTuber Academy
36:21 From idea to launching PTYA in 1 week
43:30 Promoting the course on different platforms
45:16 Breaking down the PTYA marketing funnel
55:40 The e-mail marketing formula
58:47 Behind the scenes of running a cohort course
01:06:07 Size of Ali's team today and different roles
01:08:35 The challenges of scaling a team (had to let go of 5 people)
1:14:48 How to know if you actually need to hire more people
1:17:20 Angus’ role as the COO / Integrator
1:24:22 How much they spend on leadership coaching
1:26:40 How they run the business without goals and KPIs
1:29:14 Using 6-week "Sprints" to get the team aligned
1:36:41 Angus' goals of the Integrator
1:38:45 Why Angus prefers staying in the background
1:42:07 Imposter syndrome
1:43:42 How much is Angus compensated
1:45:48 Advice for people working behind the scenes
1:47:47 Where can you follow Angus
1:48: 33 Outro