If I could go back and talk to myself when I first started on YouTube, one of the first things I'd say is: stop filming videos before you have a title.

For my first 50+ videos, I committed the cardinal sin of coming up with an idea, filming it and then after the fact, having ChatGPT read my transcript to generate a title for me.

I honestly thought I was ahead of the curve and feeling pretty smug about this workflow.

Turns out, it was horrible advice. And I'd been confidently spreading it.

(Tip 💡Take your YouTube advice carefully, even mine, apparently.)

But that wasn't even the worst of it.

I also thought viewers would care about weekly monetization updates. Like, who wouldn't want to follow along with a stranger droning on about YouTube analytics, right?

So I created weekly video series for about 3 months, showing my stats, talking through my data, and using titles like this little gem:

"YouTube Monetization Update Ep.1 (beginner's guide to YouTube analytics studio)"

If you made it to the end of that title without falling asleep, hats off to ya 👏

And the thumbnail? Even better.

Yeah.

It's no wonder it got no views.

This was how I was making content for the better part of 4 months, just throwing spaghetti at the wall with god awful packaging.

Not doing any research, or modeling and really having any awareness of what those even were and why they'd become important.

A lot of that wasted effort could have been avoided with one habit:

Write at least 10 titles before you film.

Not after. Before you set up the camera, before you write the script, sit down and write 10 different titles for the video.

Why 10? Because your first few titles are going to be bad. And that's the point.

Think of it like a dirty tap.

When you turn on a faucet that hasn't been used in a while, the water comes out brown and rusty.

You don't drink that water. You let it run. Eventually it clears up.

Your first four or five titles are the dirty water.

The obvious ones. The generic ones. You have to flush them out to get to the good stuff.

Here's what this looks like in practice. This is from my most recent video, 8 title options and 12 thumbnail caption ideas before I landed on the winner:

I started with things like "The Reality of Starting YouTube in 2026" and "My Honest Advice for Starting YouTube in 2026."

Fine titles. Safe. But they're still missing some of the oomph I was going for.

By the time I got to "12 Months of Brutally Honest YouTube Advice in 12 Mins," it was way more specific and captured the vibe I had in mind.

But that title only appeared after flushing through the bad ideas first.

The process is simple: sit down and just start writing.

Some titles will be long, some short, some will be slight variations of each other, that's fine. Don't overthink it.

The point is to get the tap flowing. If you can write more than 10, do it. I regularly write around 10 but up to 15 or 20 if I'm in the zone.

One rule: don't use AI for this.

As easy as it is to rely on AI, it tends to give us generic titles that lack personality, similar to what's already out there on YouTube. And the whole point of a great title is to stand out, not blend in.

But more than that, working through bad titles is what trains you to spot good ones. If you skip this process, you never build the skill.

Your title and thumbnail are the only things a potential viewer sees before they decide to click or scroll past.

That's the whole audition.

It doesn't matter how good your video is if nobody clicks on it.

Something to work on this week:

Take your next video idea and write 10 titles.

Don't filter, don't judge, just get them out.

Then circle the one that makes you want to click.

Hit reply and send me your 10. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Talk Soon,
Ty
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P.S. If you want a partner helping you work through titling, packaging, and everything else that goes into building real momentum on YouTube, that's exactly what I do inside the 6-Month Momentum Builder. Click here to book a call and let's see if it's a fit.

1580 N Logan St Ste 660 #158977, Denver, CO 80203
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