How To Get Millions Of Views In Any Niche (From An Expert)

He started by uploading Call of Duty clips that nobody watched, filming short skits on a borrowed camera, and trying out video formats long before he knew what “packaging” or “audience retention” meant.

It wasn’t about going viral, it was about trying, failing, and building. And that rough, awkward start turned into a career that now helps creators pull millions of views with repeatable strategy and storytelling.

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Starting With Nothing, Then Making It Work, How Leroy Turned YouTube Into a Launchpad

Long before Leroy became a strategist for creators doing millions of views, he was just a teenager uploading Call of Duty clips no one watched. And not much has changed, except now, he’s helping creators get real traction by understanding what makes ideas work.

Like many of us, his first uploads weren’t planned. They weren’t researched. They weren’t good. But they were something. That start, rough, awkward, and completely forgettable, became the launchpad for everything else.

He figured out how to capture gameplay when it was still clunky and niche. He borrowed his mom’s camera (never returned it), made skits, built short films, and eventually partnered with friends to build something bigger.

He wasn’t chasing trends. He was chasing craft.

Why Starting Small Still Works

If you’re feeling behind, here’s the good news: Leroy didn’t start with a niche, a strategy, or a viral hit. He started with bad gaming videos and a fascination with cameras.

That early phase taught him a few things:

• You don’t need permission to start
• Most people won’t care, until they do
• Consistency matters more than instant impact

A lot of creators wait until they feel “ready” to upload. Leroy just uploaded, and figured it out along the way.

Turning Filmmaking into a Format

Eventually, that evolved into something more serious. He and his friends created VFX-heavy short films based on gaming titles like Battlefield and Watch Dogs. They even got some videos stolen by big Facebook pages (one hit 90 million views without credit).

But the real shift came when they realized: even with viral numbers, their content wasn’t sustainable.

Each video took 3+ weeks to produce, with no real income behind it. That’s when they pivoted, from public-facing creators to behind-the-scenes storytellers. They used the same creative energy to pitch brands like Ubisoft and EA, building campaigns instead of just chasing views.

And it worked. They ran a creative agency for eight years, built a full-time team, and worked with major gaming publishers. That behind-the-scenes phase became Leroy’s bootcamp in storytelling, production, and client work, all skills that shape how he helps creators today.

From Platform to Profession

Even though he left uploading behind for a few years, Leroy never really left YouTube. He kept helping creators in the background, friends, collaborators, and emerging channels that needed guidance.

By the time he returned full-time, he wasn’t just a creator. He was a strategist with firsthand experience building content, scaling ideas, and learning what actually matters when the algorithm stops caring.

And that’s where his real career began.

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Choosing Strategy Over Stardom, Why Leroy Didn’t Stay a Creator

It’s easy to assume that everyone on YouTube wants to be the face of the channel. But Leroy realized early on that being “the guy on camera” wasn’t the right fit, even if he had the skills to do it.

Instead, he made a conscious decision: step away from being the main act, and become the person behind the camera helping others succeed.

The Reason? Repetition.

While a lot of creators thrive in routine, Leroy is wired differently. As someone with ADHD, doing the same thing every day, even something creative, felt like a slow drain. Upload. Repeat. Edit. Repeat. Post. Repeat.

And when he was running his original channel, it felt like that. The ideas had to stay in a specific niche. The formats became fixed. And while it worked for a while, it also boxed him in.

What kept him engaged wasn’t sticking to one format, it was jumping between them.

As a strategist, his day might start with a golf channel, then move into anime, then wrap up with a client doing fast-paced street content. It’s unpredictable. It’s chaotic. And for him, that’s a feature, not a bug.

Playing Every Channel Without Owning Them

The job became less about building one thing, and more about connecting patterns across many. Instead of optimizing a single upload, he could:

• Spot what was trending across different niches
• Learn from unexpected sources (woodworking, books, tech…)
• Build a toolkit of formats, hooks, and structures that work

That made him a better problem-solver, and a sharper strategist.

He describes it like building bionic puppets. You take an arm from this niche. A leg from that one. A hook from somewhere else. Then you stitch it together into something new.

That creative cross-pollination? It’s hard to do when you’re stuck making the same video week after week. But it’s the heart of his process now.

Strategy Gave Him Range

By stepping back from uploading, Leroy gave himself something most creators don’t have: perspective.

He could zoom out. Test formats across industries. Spend more time on ideas instead of obsessing over thumbnails or titles. And because of his agency background, he knew how to think beyond the YouTube dashboard, into business models, client relationships, and long-term vision.

That shift gave him the freedom to be part of dozens of channels, without being stuck inside one.

And in doing so, he turned a creative constraint (hating repetition) into his biggest advantage.

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How YouTube Has Changed, and Why That’s a Good Thing

Ask most YouTube veterans, and they’ll tell you: the platform used to be easier. Less competition. More organic growth. Fewer rules.

Leroy doesn’t buy it.

He’s been on the platform since 2008, and in his view, YouTube today is far more creator-friendly than it was back then. Here’s why.

1. You Don’t Need Perfect Conditions Anymore

Back in the day, YouTube pushed videos locally first. If you lived in a country with a small English-speaking audience (like the Netherlands), your content had to overperform locally before it ever reached the US.

And that was just one barrier. Visual effects took weeks. Uploading was a gamble. And there weren’t the tools or knowledge-sharing ecosystems creators have now.

Now? Your video can reach the right person, in the right place, at the right time, no matter where you’re based. And that’s a massive shift.

2. Every Niche Has a Playbook

The algorithm used to feel random. Now, there are patterns.

• Packaging is more formulaic (but still creative).
• Audience signals are easier to understand.
• Competitive research is easier than ever, because you can just watch it happen.

It’s no longer a black box. It’s a platform that rewards clarity, consistency, and creative experimentation. For someone like Leroy, who thrives on system-building — it’s a dream.

3. You Don’t Need Millions of Views to Win

Here’s a stat Leroy shared that flips the script: one of his clients gets 300–500K views per month, and makes $50K to $80K monthly from it.

That kind of success used to be reserved for entertainment giants. Now, with the right niche and monetization model, creators can build six-figure incomes without going viral.

Whether it’s faceless channels, travel storytelling, or expert-based content, there’s space to carve out something sustainable.

4. YouTube is the New Netflix (Literally)

More people are watching YouTube on their TVs. It’s dominating the living room. And that opens the door for a different kind of content, long-form, episodic, polished storytelling that feels more like television than quick hits.

That trend is only accelerating. And it’s one reason why Leroy pushed his client Chris (from Chris Takes Off) to launch a 14-day daily series right out the gate. Treat YouTube like the next-gen TV it’s becoming, and build a format that feels binge-worthy.

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The Biggest Mistake Creators Make, And How to Fix It

If there’s one pattern Leroy sees again and again, especially with newer creators, it’s this:

They fall in love with the content, not the audience.

It sounds harmless. After all, you’re supposed to enjoy what you’re making. But here’s the catch: if you’re creating videos only for yourself, it’s easy to ignore whether anyone else actually cares.

1. The Idea Gets Ignored

Many creators spend 10 minutes brainstorming an idea…
Then 20+ hours shooting and editing it.

The result? A beautiful, well-produced video that no one wanted in the first place.

Leroy flips that ratio. His approach:

• Spend hours validating ideas, watching what’s working, breaking down titles, identifying gaps
• Then shoot and edit quickly, using the data to guide the work

Good content doesn’t start on the timeline. It starts with better questions:

• Has something like this succeeded before?
• Can you find versions of this concept in books, shows, other niches?
• What proof do you have that anyone has ever wanted this?

That’s the research muscle most beginners skip.

2. Creators Get Too Metric-Obsessed

Another trap: staring at the dashboard. CTR, AVD, 10 out of 10s, watch time decay...

Leroy’s not saying those things don’t matter. But when clients obsess over every dip, they lose sight of the bigger picture.

That’s why he sets a rhythm:

• 3 “safe” uploads per month, formats that work with the core audience
• 1 experimental video, designed to stretch the channel, test ideas, and collect new signals

That way, even if something flops, it’s not a failure. It’s a test. And if it hits? It becomes part of the long-term playbook.

3. Your Best Videos Might Not Work Immediately

YouTube doesn’t always reward a good idea right away. Some videos Leroy helped create tanked in the first few days… then took off months later.

That’s where most creators panic. But his view is simple: if the idea is good and you believe in the packaging, give it time.

The algorithm needs space to figure out who the video is for. If you nailed the concept, it’ll get there.

So if you’re a creator stuck on a “10 out of 10” video, or wondering why your latest upload didn’t pop?

Step back. Rework the idea process. Stop guessing and start validating.

Your growth starts before you hit record.

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How Leroy Helped a Travel Channel Go from Zero to 10K Subs in a Week

When Leroy met Chris, a creator with a dream of running a personal travel channel, they didn’t just wing it. They launched with one of the most thought-out YouTube strategies you’ll hear about.

The result? Over 10,000 subscribers in under two weeks, and a blueprint creators can learn from.

1. Package Before You Publish

Most creators start by uploading a few random videos. Leroy and Chris did the opposite:
They built a series-first format, 14 videos, shot before a single one was posted.

Each video in the series had:

• The same intro structure
• A consistent theme song
• Different airports and destinations, but the same story arc

That way, no matter which video a new viewer landed on, they’d understand what the channel was about. And if they liked it? They’d binge the rest.

YouTube loves that kind of viewer behavior. It trains the algorithm faster.

2. Launch Like a Product, Not Just a Video

Leroy treated the channel launch like a proper go-to-market plan:

• Daily uploads gave YouTube clear data signals
• Repeatable structure helped build trust and consistency
• Thumbnails and titles were locked in before publishing, no guesswork after the fact

They even used a “beta test” approach. The early videos gave YouTube enough signals to start pushing the channel to the right audience. Once it clicked, the algorithm did the rest.

3. Build the Creator’s Character

This part is often missed: people don’t just subscribe to content, they subscribe to people.

Leroy made sure Chris came through on screen. Not just as a narrator, but as a person.

• Personality-first storytelling
• Moments of vulnerability (without oversharing)
• Clear emotional beats that made Chris memorable

They trimmed out anything that distracted from that mission, even moments where Chris wasn’t feeling well or was off-brand emotionally. The goal was to build a character the audience could root for.

And it worked.

4. Think in Arcs, Not Uploads

Most creators think in terms of single videos. Leroy builds arcs, sequences of content designed to build momentum.

That’s why this series wasn’t just a set of standalone travel vlogs. It was 14 connected uploads, each playing into the next.

The viewer could feel the progression. And YouTube could see it too, triggering stronger recommendations, higher click-through, and binge behavior.

By the end of the launch, the channel had racked up thousands of loyal fans, not just views. And the most important part?

The strategy was repeatable. Not luck. Not virality. Just smart structure, executed well.

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Why Some Creators Get Stuck at 500K Subs, And Others Don’t

Hitting half a million subscribers is impressive. But it can also be a trap.

Leroy has worked with creators who hit that mark and plateau. The reason? They’re stuck in what he calls “gray mass” content, good videos with decent numbers, but no real identity.

1. Gray Mass = Forgettable Content

These creators have decent watch time and get views… but ask a viewer a day later who made the video, and they won’t remember.

Why? Because nothing about the creator stood out. The format? Generic. The voice? Indistinct. The personality? Invisible.

YouTube rewards memorable content. If you’re easily replaced, the algorithm will do exactly that, replace you with someone else.

2. The Fix? Make Yourself a Character

This doesn’t mean faking a persona. It means exaggerating the parts of yourself that resonate most with your audience.

Leroy calls it becoming “colorful”, not for the sake of standing out, but to repel the wrong viewers and attract the right ones.

If everyone kind of likes you, no one really loves you. And those diehard fans are the ones who drive real growth, through comments, shares, and long-term loyalty.

3. Understand Your Fan Base, And Challenge Them

One of the most powerful things a creator can do is build trust and then use it to evolve.

That means making content that:

• Surprises your audience (without confusing them)
• Makes them feel like they’re growing with you
• Adds new layers to the relationship

The best creators don’t just repeat what works. They expand on what works, turning casual viewers into fans, and fans into evangelists.

Leroy helps creators test new formats this way, slowly at first, but always with intention.

4. Stop Obsessing Over Metrics

This is the other big reason creators stall: they get addicted to the dashboard.

They chase numbers. Obsess over click-through rate. Panic when a video is a “10/10.” But YouTube growth isn’t linear.

Leroy coaches his clients to zoom out. Instead of worrying about one bad upload, look at your body of work over the last 6–12 months.

And more importantly: focus on the ideas. That’s where the leverage is. Better ideas make everything else easier, from retention to title.

When a client of his was panicking over numbers, Leroy’s advice was simple: “Spend 25 hours on the idea. Spend 10 minutes editing. Flip the ratio.”

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What Makes a Great YouTube Strategist, and How Leroy Picks Who to Work With

Leroy isn’t a strategist for hire. He’s more like a creative partner. And who he chooses to work with is just as important as the strategy itself.

If you're a creator thinking about working with someone like him, here's what actually matters, and what doesn’t.

1. It's Not About Numbers

The first thing Leroy doesn't look at? Your subscriber count.

He’s worked with faceless channels, entrepreneurs, travel vloggers, and even a golf creator, a niche he knew nothing about at first. What made him say yes?

Energy. Curiosity. Hunger.

In Leroy’s words: “Do I f*** with this person? Could we be friends in real life?” If the answer is yes, he’ll go all in.

2. Synergy Beats Strategy

If you’re not creatively aligned, no amount of strategy will work.

Leroy looks for synergy, that shared spark where ideas flow easily and you trust each other’s feedback. Without that, every decision turns into a tug-of-war.

That’s why his longest client relationships often last well beyond six months. Not because the content always crushes, but because the collaboration does.

3. He’s Not Just Giving You Ideas, He’s Building With You

With most clients, Leroy is in the trenches.

• One hour-long call a week
• Constant async feedback through texts and voice notes
• Video reviews, scripting input, packaging direction
• And in some cases, helping build entire production pipelines

This isn’t surface-level consulting. It’s a working relationship built on trust, chemistry, and a shared goal.

4. Leave the Ego at the Door

One of Leroy’s biggest red flags? A creator who says, “I already know YouTube really well.”

The best creators he’s worked with, even the ones pulling 70M+ views a month, stay open, humble, and curious. They want to collaborate. They want to be challenged. They’re not fragile about being wrong.

Ironically, it’s usually the mid-tier creators (500K to 1M subs) who get stuck in their own ideas. And they’re often the hardest to help.

5. YouTube Strategy Isn’t Just Data, It’s Taste

There’s no single blueprint for YouTube success. Leroy tailors every approach based on the creator’s strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions.

He doesn't rely on fancy tools (aside from One of Ten and Notion). He relies on something harder to fake: taste. Knowing what makes an idea worth pursuing. Knowing when a video feels right. That’s what separates decent strategists from game-changers.

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How to Build a Repeatable Content Strategy, One That Actually Works

When you’re trying to grow a channel, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Analytics. Algorithms. Format switches. Leroy’s approach cuts through all of that with one key question:

What repeatable strategy can you actually sustain, creatively and emotionally?

Here’s how he helps creators build systems that don’t just work once, but work over time.

1. Start with a Core Format (and Stick to It)

When Leroy helped launch Chris Takes Off, the travel channel didn’t start with one-off bangers or random experiments. It started with a planned 14-day series.

Every episode followed the same formula:

• A consistent intro and theme music
• A new location, but a familiar setup
• The same storytelling framework each day

This wasn’t by accident, it was by design. That consistency gave YouTube’s algorithm clear signals. And more importantly, it gave viewers a reason to come back.

Too many new creators think they need to reinvent the wheel every upload. The real unlock? Build a format that compounds.

2. Create a Backlog of Proved Concepts

Leroy encourages clients to think like they’re building a deck of cards. Each format is a card, some reliable, some experimental.

Here’s how he breaks it down:

• 3 out of 4 uploads should be “surefire”, formats you’ve proven work
• 1 out of 4 should be a wildcard, a fresh idea that could expand your reach or audience

If the wildcard hits? It gets added to your deck. Now you’ve got a new card to play with when viewership dips or you want to shake things up.

That’s how you scale without guessing.

3. Don’t Panic When Something Misses

The dreaded 10/10 in YouTube Studio can ruin a creator’s day. But Leroy teaches his clients to zoom out. A bad upload isn’t the end, it’s part of the process.

Some formats take time to catch. Some audiences need multiple touchpoints. And some 10/10s turn into long-tail winners months later.

The real mistake? Basing your entire strategy on short-term feedback loops.

4. Your Goal Isn’t to Go Viral, It’s to Get Known

Leroy calls out “gray mass” creators, the ones who make decent videos but never build a real connection. People watch, but they don’t remember.

That’s a packaging problem. A positioning problem. And usually, a personality problem.

So when building a repeatable strategy, Leroy focuses just as much on voice, perspective, and narrative tone as he does on hooks or titles. Because the best strategy isn’t just about reach, it’s about resonance.

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The Biggest Mistake New Creators Make, And How to Avoid It

It’s easy to assume the problem is your editing. Or maybe your camera. Or that the algorithm just “didn’t push the video.” But according to Leroy, the most common reason new creators struggle is much simpler:

They spend 10 minutes on the idea and 25 hours on the edit.

And that’s completely backwards.

1. Most Creators Skip the Research

When Leroy works with early-stage channels, he sees the same pattern over and over:

• They make videos they think are good ideas
• They don’t validate those ideas with actual data
• And when the video flops, they’re confused

Liking your idea is not the same as your audience liking your idea. One of Leroy’s most repeated mantras?
“Ideate and conquer.”
The strongest creators spend more time researching what works than editing what doesn’t.

2. YouTube Studio Isn’t the Only Data Source

Leroy doesn’t just look at YouTube to validate an idea. He checks:

• What’s trending on Netflix or in books
• What plotlines or formats are resonating across other media
• What’s been proven to work, even years ago, and could be repackaged today

The goal isn’t to chase the latest trend. It’s to find signal: proof that the core idea has traction, somewhere.

From there, it’s about adapting that idea for your audience and your voice.

3. Editing is Easy, Hooking Attention is Hard

That time you spent fine-tuning the LUT? Probably didn’t matter. The second beat of your intro that took 3 hours to tweak? Most people clicked off by then anyway.

Leroy flips the default creator process:

• Spend more time ideating
• Spend less time polishing
• Learn to spot good ideas before you ever open the editing timeline

It’s not about perfection, it’s about persuasion. And persuasion starts before you hit record.

4. How to Flip Your Process

If your videos are underperforming, here’s Leroy’s challenge:

• For your next upload, spend 3–5 hours only on ideation
• Pull inspiration from formats outside your niche
• Use YouTube, Reddit, even books or TV as idea soil
• Don’t move to script or edit until you’re genuinely excited about the angle

That shift, from output-focused to idea-focused, is what separates accidental uploads from strategic growth.

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Far-Niche Transfer, How to Steal Smart (and Stay Original)

Leroy has a phrase for his favorite way to develop viral formats:
Far-Niche Transfer.

It sounds abstract, but it’s dead simple, and incredibly effective. The idea is this: take a concept from a completely unrelated space, and adapt it to your niche. If done right, you get a fresh format no one else is using, with the proven DNA of something that already worked elsewhere.

1. Think Like a Puppet Builder

Leroy compares it to building a bionic puppet:

• The arm might be from woodworking YouTube
• The leg might come from a tech explainer
• The heart could be a story structure pulled from a 1970s novel

It doesn’t matter where the pieces come from, as long as they work together to serve your audience.

This approach is what keeps him (and his clients) from getting boxed into recycled formats or copycat content. Instead of looking sideways at competitors, he’s looking across the content universe.

2. This Works in Any Niche

Far-niche transfer isn't limited to entertainment or documentaries. It works in education, finance, even golf, and yes, Leroy once applied it to a golf channel despite having zero clue what a par was when he started.

Because at its core, this strategy is about structure:

• Can you take a storytelling style that works in cooking and apply it to tech?
• Can you remix a survival challenge into a business context?
• Can you turn a pop culture commentary into a lens for education?

The transfer makes the idea feel fresh, even when the bones are old.

3. How to Start Using This Strategy

If your content feels repetitive or predictable, here’s how to start thinking in far-niche mode:

• Watch channels that have nothing to do with your category
• When something hooks your attention, ask: Could this structure or format work for my niche?
• Start with the function (e.g. countdown, transformation, personal journey), then apply your own lens

And most importantly: don’t try to clone a full format. That’s not the point. You’re borrowing one piece, then building around it.

4. Inspiration Can Come From Anywhere

Leroy even borrowed a plot structure from a random 1970s book he found at a library for a new client series. Why? Because the book was a bestseller, which meant the plot had proven appeal.

He didn’t copy the story. He reimagined it for YouTube, and for a creator-driven brand.

That's the core of far-niche transfer: build new things using old ideas in new places.

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Conclusion

Leroy’s path wasn’t linear. It wasn’t built on one big break or a single viral upload. It came from small starts, consistent curiosity, and a relentless focus on ideas that connect with people, not just the algorithm.

Today, he doesn’t just help creators grow channels. He helps them build careers. And his playbook is refreshingly simple:

Start messy. Study what works. Build formats that last.

And above all, remember why you’re doing it.

Because the creators who last aren’t the ones chasing trends, they’re the ones building systems.