How To Work With The Top 1% Of YouTubers
Zach didn’t come from video. But he came prepared. One specific pitch, a little timing, and consistent follow-ups turned a college student into the producer behind Nick DiGiovanni’s most viral content.
Before Zach was helping rack up billions of views, he was just a college student who loved cooking shows and wanted to work in food. No background in production. No fancy resume. Just an obsession and a cold email that hit at the right time.
He wasn’t trying to “break into YouTube.” He was just trying to offer something useful. And that mindset ended up being the reason it worked. So here's what you can learn from his journey to help you with learning how to work with your dream YouTubers!
How Zach Found His Way Into Nick DiGiovanni’s Channel
Before Zach was producing viral videos and helping Nick DiGiovanni rack up billions of views, he was just a college student obsessed with food shows. There was no formal background in video. No YouTube credits. Just a lifelong passion, and one cold email that changed everything.
He didn’t come from production. He came from watching the Food Network as a kid, cooking with his mom, and wondering how to blend food and business into a job that made sense.
The path wasn’t mapped out. But the goal was always clear: work in food, do something creative, and find a way to turn those two interests into one career.
Why Obsession Is Better Than Experience
Zach wasn’t qualified to be a producer, not by the usual standards. No film school. No agency resume. But what he did have was timing, curiosity, and a ridiculous work ethic.
In early 2021, he spotted Nick on TikTok. Then on Instagram. Then YouTube. The content felt different, almost like the polished energy of the Food Network, but tailored to a younger audience. And for someone who grew up on cooking shows, that hit home.
No Portfolio, Just Persistence
The timing helped too. Nick’s following was growing fast, a few million across platforms, but he was still a one-man operation. He didn’t have a team yet. He was still editing his own videos and handling brand deals solo.
Zach caught him right as the need for help was becoming obvious.
And that’s where it started. From there, the work snowballed, from managing posts to helping with video props, to breaking down YouTube data, to producing entire shoots.
The Real Start Happens After the First Yes
This wasn’t some perfect overnight trajectory. Zach didn’t walk in as a producer. He built trust by doing the work no one else wanted to do, and doing it well.
He learned YouTube Studio by diving into it cold. He studied the backend of videos he’d never edited. He said yes to every ask, even when it was outside his comfort zone.
Today, he co-runs Nick’s YouTube strategy, develops original ideas, and shapes every video before it’s even shot. Not because he came from the space, but because he obsessed over it until he belonged in it.
Pitching Yourself to Creators That Seem Out of Reach
Everyone wants to work with someone they admire. But most people make the same mistake: they reach out with nothing but vibes.
Zach didn’t do that.
When he first emailed Nick DiGiovanni in 2021, he didn’t lead with “big fan” or “love your work.” He led with an offer.
That one-line pitch did three things right:
This is what most cold pitches miss. They’re vague. They’re broad. And they put the burden on the creator to figure out how someone might help. Zach flipped that. He gave Nick a reason to respond.
Follow-Up Without Being Annoying
Even with a solid pitch, the answer wasn’t immediate. Nick liked the message, but didn’t have a role just yet.
Eventually, he spotted something no one else had noticed - Nick wasn’t posting on Twitter.
Zach was already running another CEO’s account and offered to handle Nick’s too. Simple, valuable, and easy to test. That small task became the door to everything else.
Value First, Trust Later
A lot of people want to “join the team”, but they forget to show why they deserve to be on it. Zach didn’t wait to be invited in. He created value first, built trust over time, and expanded his role naturally.
That’s why it worked.
He was proving his usefulness.
What Makes a Pitch Land
If you're trying to get the attention of someone you admire, whether it’s a YouTuber, a founder or a creative, here’s the formula Zach followed (and still recommends):
Becoming a Producer Without Formal Training
Zach didn’t go to film school. He didn’t intern at a studio. He didn’t even touch YouTube Studio until Nick asked him to check some analytics.
Three years later?
He’s co-running one of the biggest cooking channels on the platform.
Here’s how he got there, and why you don’t need permission (or credentials) to become invaluable.
Starting With One Job and Turning It Into Ten
His first task was simple: run Nick’s Twitter.
Nothing fancy. Nothing tied to video. But it showed something important, Zach could follow through.
From there, Nick started tossing him more to handle.
One by one, Zach figured each thing out, and built trust along the way.
He didn’t wait to be trained.
He Googled, learned, asked questions and kept showing up.
Falling in Love With the Backend
When Nick asked him to start looking at YouTube analytics, Zach didn’t treat it like busywork.
He got obsessed.
He studied patterns, compared top-performing videos, found out what caused dips in retention and slowly, he started to see what the algorithm was actually rewarding.
Building Producer Instincts Over Time
It happened because Zach made himself the person who could be trusted with:
From there, it became muscle memory. Zach wasn’t just supporting production, he was leading it.
Trial and Error Is the Best Bootcamp
Zach’s process wasn’t smooth. He made mistakes. Like forgetting a key prop. Underestimating shoot time. Overbooking a guest when the food wasn’t ready.
But every slip turned into a new checklist. Every miss became part of the system.
And that’s what separates good producers from the rest: they learn faster than they mess up.
What This Means If You’re Just Starting
You don’t need to be a trained editor, director, or strategist to become a great YouTube producer.
You need to be:
If you can do those three things, and work for the outcome instead of the title, the role will come to you.
The Strategy Behind Nick’s Most Watched Video
You don’t always know when a video is going to take off.
But sometimes… you do all the right things, and it still surprises you.
That’s exactly what happened with the “Cooking for a Sumo Wrestler” video. It became the most viewed long-form upload on Nick DiGiovanni’s channel, 27 million and counting.
But it didn’t happen by accident. Here's what made it work.
1. Spotting an Outlier Topic
Zach didn’t just pitch a fun idea.
Sumo wrestling content was quietly pulling huge numbers across YouTube, especially anything related to food. Videos about the sumo diet, how they eat, what they eat, how much they eat. All of it performed.
That wasn’t just a fluke. It meant something about the topic itself sparked instant curiosity.
2. Pitching What Feels Small (But Has Big Upside)
When he brought the idea to Nick, the reaction wasn’t fireworks.
But that’s the thing about strong formats, they don’t need hype to work. They just need alignment.
This one checked every box:
Zach moved forward anyway. And it paid off.
3. Why It Blew Up
It wasn’t a gimmick. It was just different, but familiar enough to work.
That balance, between trend-savvy and human, made the video bigger than either of them expected.
What You Can Steal From It
If you’re looking for a breakout idea:
One strong idea, one well-run shoot, one clean edit. That’s all it takes to change everything.
How the Team Spends Weeks on One Hook (and Why It Works)
Most people don’t notice it.
But that one sentence at the start of a Nick DiGiovanni video?
They’ve built a process around precision. And it’s why their videos don’t just start strong, they stay strong.
1. A Hook Isn’t a Sentence. It’s a Sales Pitch.
You’re convincing someone to give you their attention, over literally anything else online.
That’s the bar.
So when they sit down to script a video, they don’t move forward until they nail that hook. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Sometimes it takes a week. But the rule stays the same:
If the first sentence isn’t pulling you in, you don’t have a video. Yet.
2. Writing With Retention in Mind
Zach and Nick know where people drop off. They’ve seen the charts. They’ve studied the dips. And over time, they’ve learned something simple:
Every second you waste upfront costs you thousands of viewers later.
If that means reworking a hook a dozen times, they’ll do it. Because if someone’s not hooked in the first 10 seconds, they’ll never see how good the rest is.
3. The Script Is the Strategy
A lot of creators treat scripting as an afterthought. Zach treats it as the blueprint for everything else.
They don’t just write to get it done. They write to guide the entire production.
And that’s why the edit works, because the foundation is solid.
How You Can Apply It
What It Actually Looks Like to Run a Top YouTube Channel Day to Day
Zach doesn’t just “help” with Nick DiGiovanni’s channel.
He runs it - from ideation to shoot days to planning months of content ahead, it’s his job to make sure every video actually happens.
And that job?
It looks nothing like a normal week.
1. Most of It Isn’t Filming, It’s Planning
You’d think the life of a YouTube producer means being on set all the time.
But Zach says at least 75% of his role is planning, emailing dozens of people, tracking down props, coordinating talent, booking locations, managing timelines and staying five steps ahead of the chaos.
At any given time, he’s juggling 4–5 upcoming videos. That could mean coordinating with 50+ people, chefs, collaborators, rental teams, studios and more.
2. Every Video Starts With a Problem to Solve
Being a producer means thinking like an operator.
Every idea comes with its own logistical puzzle:
These aren’t things the viewer ever sees. But if they’re not solved early, the shoot falls apart later.
The job is to make chaos predictable, even if just barely.
3. No Two Days Are the Same
Zach’s calendar isn’t full of repeatable routines.
It’s full of chaos he has to organize:
Sometimes it’s planning a thumbnail.
Sometimes it’s walking around LA trying to find props no one else thought about.
But that’s what he loves about it, the randomness is part of the job.
4. The Real Work Happens Before the Camera’s On
By the time Nick shows up on shoot day, everything’s ready:
The video starts strong because the prep was even stronger.
How You Can Apply It
You don’t need a team to act like a producer.
Ask yourself:
Spotting a 10M+ Idea Before Recording
Most creators hope their video performs.
Zach and Nick expect it to, because by the time they’re shooting, they’ve already stress-tested the idea from every angle.
Here’s how they do it.
1. They Know the Patterns
After years of obsessing over performance data, Zach says he and Nick have something most creators never build - an internal YouTube algorithm in their heads.
They’ve watched enough videos, tracked enough metrics and followed enough trends to instinctively know what works.
It’s not magic, it’s muscle memory.
For any idea, Zach can tell you exactly why it’ll hit (or flop). Not just “it feels good,” but “we’ve seen this angle work across X channels, with Y audience, and Z story format.”
That mental model shapes every video they choose to make.
2. They Build From Outliers
Want a safer bet for a banger? Look at outliers.
Zach looks for content that overperformed on other channels, especially small ones. If someone with 10K subscribers pulled millions of views, something about the idea is working.
From there, they reverse-engineer:
A perfect example?
Their most-viewed video "Cooking for a Sumo Wrestler" came from noticing how well food-based sumo wrestling videos performed across the platform.
3. They Ask: “What’s the Viewer Actually Getting?”
It’s not just “is this interesting?”
It’s “is this interesting to someone who’s never heard of us, and only sees a title and thumbnail?”.
Zach and Nick broke it down like this:
If the answer’s no, the idea’s not ready.
4. They Think in One-of-Tens
Zach constantly looks at YouTube’s “one of ten” metric, but not just on their own channel. He scans it across other creators’ channels to find trending formats.
If 3 out of 5 videos about a topic are “one of tens,” that’s not luck. That’s demand.
Their goal isn’t to be first.
It’s to be best.
Once they spot the demand, they figure out how to make the most watchable version of the idea, and that includes things like better pacing, visuals, editing, and story flow.
5. They Cut the Maybes
Not every fun idea deserves a shoot day.
Zach says every idea that doesn’t make the cut gets a clear “why” behind the no:
That ruthless filter keeps the channel sharp, and saves time for ideas that actually have a shot at 10M+.
How You Can Apply It
You don’t need 10 billion views to start thinking like Zach.
Try this:
Great videos aren’t lucky.
They’re filtered, tested, and sharpened before the record button ever gets hit.
Conclusion
Zach didn’t wait until he was “qualified.” He started where he could, with a real offer that solved a real problem. Then he kept showing up.
That’s what changed everything.
He didn’t pitch a dream job - he created value.
He didn’t wait to be trusted - he earned it.
And now? He’s helping shape one of the biggest cooking channels on the platform.
The lesson’s simple: you don’t need a breakthrough moment to get started.
You need a real reason for someone to say yes.