A practical plan that might actually work when you’re close to giving up
Creator burnout is real.
If you don’t believe that, have any kind of social media channel for years, keep working at it for 20 hours a week and see no validation, no extra money coming into your bank account.
I’ve been on YouTube for a long time (started before Google acquired it), and I launched a channel about UX design in 2021. In the past 4 years, I’ve created over 200 videos (shorts and long form), have over 3000 subscribers and 2200 watch hours in the past year (over 6600 watch hours overall).
As things stand right now, this is not a side hustle.
I have an expensive hobby.
I am on the brink of giving up on this channel and focusing on something else. But I have sunk-cost fallacy. It’s hard to let it go because growing on YouTube was exceptionally challenging for me.
So…
As a last resort, I asked AI (Claude 3.7 Sonnet) to fix my stalled YouTube channel, and it created a surprisingly practical plan.
I started my conversation with AI about setting the scene and giving as much info as possible upfront so that it can ask the right questions from me. Here’s what I wrote:
I started a YouTube channel in 2021 Jun, today is 2025 Apr. I have 3036 subscribers on YouTube and about 200 videos, mix of shorts and long form videos about the topic of UX design, research, figma, tech ux design in new zealand, vlogs, tech ux design in canada, product design career development. I kind of feel like sunk cost fallacy because i love creating videos but my channel isn’t monitized yet and i really feel after 4 years, it should be. I also have about 1200 followers on tiktok, over 4000 on Linkedin, 1000 newsletter subscribers, and about 100 instagram and facebook followers. On Medium, I used to write design articles, i have about 1400 followers, but I’m not earning huge amount. I also have a digital product shop on Gumroad with about 7 products that collected just under $1000 in sale. I offer the products for free but people can pay if they want, and some people do. my website isn’t monitized because i don’t like ads. I really don’t know what to do…I love my youtube channel and i had a few in the past 10 years, one for my dog, one for art, one for recipes, one for fitness but I stopped all of them by now. I only keep going with the design youtube channel. but my life is busy, i don’t know if it’s really worth it for me…i imagined i had a successful business built up by now. but i still need to work in my day to day job as a product design manager. i’m also super interested in money and financial wealth, investment, i’m trying to build my wealth slowly. Can you ask me questions to decide what to do with my youtube channel? Also, offer me advice because i am stuck! I need a coach, please act like one.
AI’s reply:
Pretty great questions, I felt!
Nobody ever asked what explicitly brings me joy about creating YouTube content. It provided me an excellent reflection opportunity, and I realized I do love the creative aspect of creating something & being creative outside of my 9–5.
It also gave me some initial coaching advice:
Next, I started answering its questions. Here’s my answer so that it understands my situation better:
1. What specifically brings you joy about creating YouTube content? Is it teaching, connecting with your audience, the creative process itself, or something else? → I love the creative aspect of it, i love planning, scripting, acting, editing, releasing, posting. It’s a sense of accomplishment & provides me a creative outlet what my job doesn’t. But for some reason the numbers don’t come. And eventhough I looked into analytics, I don’t know what to do after 4 years.
2. How much time per week do you currently spend on your YouTube channel (planning, filming, editing, engaging)? → I can spend about 10 hours a week. Some weeks I spend more, some weeks I spend less.
3. What are your specific monetization goals? Is it about replacing your income, creating a side income stream, or something else? → firstly, just being monetized, because I think it’d give me a push to create more. I kind of feel like I’m burning out for nothing. I used want to replace my income, but right now my plan is just to have a little side income stream of $2–3000 a month.
4. Looking at your analytics, which types of videos perform best in terms of engagement and growth? → in terms of growth subscriber-wise, shorts perform well; topics are wireframing, funny 15 sec video, and vlog of my day at work. In terms of long form videos, the most watched videos with high engagements are around the topics of moving in new zealand and getting a job in tech, tutorials/how-tos about figma, icon design, wireframing, UX sketching, personal brading as a designer, podcast style video with an engineer.
5. Have you examined why you might not be monetized yet? (YouTube typically requires 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in the past 12 months) → yes i have examined it, I only have about 2300 watch hours in the past 12 months.
6. How does your content strategy align with your professional goals as a product design manager? → Well, I was usually making videos around the topic I was interested in at work or what I was doing at work, removing examples obviously. But right now, I can’t tie my work to my Youtube as I can’t talk about what happens at work.
Otherwise, I only earn money on Medium (tiny amount) and Gumroad (again, tiny amount). About 10 people asked me if I offered consulting, but eventhough i love the idea of it, I just don’t have the time and the energy anymore. Eventhough I know it would be good in terms of monetary value I could get.
I didn’t have much luck with design tool partnerships, they seemed a bit shady or lowballed me with the commission so that I ended up not doing collaboration with them, or the one that i was excited about (Miro) didn’t work out because I got crazy busy at work and in my personal life and I felt I couldn’t make it work.
Here’s what AI replied:
This tells me that I should focus my energy on creating shorts vlog-style so my audience can connect to me. But also focus on long-form content. Just be helpful, offer how-to videos (those are the most time-consuming to create, not gonna lie).
But if that’s what it takes, I’m ready for it! I’m willing to put this work in it as one last push before making a go/no-go decision.
Then AI also gave me advice on what I can do to monetize beyond the YPP:
By the way, I do believe in the community aspect, but I also know it’s not for me right now. I’ve seen thriving communities. However, allocating time for it would be challenging, and I can’t afford to hire a community manager. So that’s probably not something I’d do. But never say never.
Then AI also addressed my burnout feeling:
This was solid advice: having a timeboxed, dedicated, focused sprint (6 months or 2x3 months).
Next, I wanted to ask AI about leveraging my existing social network. Here’s what I wrote:
Regarding your comment of ‘Leverage Your Existing Network: With 4,000 LinkedIn followers and 1,000 newsletter subscribers, you have a solid professional network. How might you better connect your YouTube content with these audiences?’ → I used to share my youtube videos on Linkedin and Medium and newsletter but only a few people came over. So I didn’t think it was even worth the effort. I used to cross-publish on all of my socials (I used Twitter a lot, reached 1500 followers in the past but I don’t use it anymore). So I don’t know how I could leverage my network.
I also tried the paid newsletter, but noone wanted to pay for my newsletter in years, so that just didn’t work for me for some reason.
I’ve just finished 2 90-days plan, where I had specific targets like subscriber counts, number of video created, and watch hours. And I did grow my subscribers from 2626 to 2760 in the first 90 days, then I grew the channel from 2760 to 3024, and watchtime grew by 14% overall. But it didn’t seem enough, they were though mainly short form videos, and about 10% long form videos (overall 40 new videos were published).
Anything else you would suggest based on this info?
Here’s the answer:
Then it also gave me advice on what I can do to monetize beyond AdSense:
And here’s the high-level plan for the next 90 days:
Then I asked for a more detailed plan:
I would love to discuss which areas to focus on first, and I’d like your help to develop a more detailed 90-day or 6-months plan. I want to incorporate videos about Canada and New zealand in relation of working in tech as a product designer. People seem to be really interested in the topic. I’m also not a native english speaker so that’s another thing why most people seem to connect with me.
Here’s AI’s reply:
In the first month.
Second month:
Third month:
Then it also offered an implementation strategy:
I love the idea of working on my videos on 2 specific days a week. I usually spread those 20 hours out over the week, 1–2 hours on weekdays, and the bulk of the work on the weekend.
Then asked for content ideas in my niche and based on what it already knows:
I do like your recommendations, it looks like i kind of have a plan now…? Thank you. can you suggest me a few video titles that are evergreen, in my niche, and search engine optimized?
Here’s AI’s reply:
I love that AI created these titles so that they can generate ongoing watch time, as well as focus on the following areas:
Finally, I asked AI about how to maximize watch time:
Here’s the answer:
And that’s when I stopped asking.
I spent about 2 hours conversing with Claude.ai during the weekend, and I feel so much clearer now. You know how it is when you don’t have any creator friends (especially successful YouTube creator friends) to ask for advice, and you’ve paid good money for YouTube courses in the past…
Then, a paid AI tool gives you the best, most customized strategy?
Well, that’s something.
I can confidently say that Sonnet 3.7 by Claude gave me a more solid strategy in 2 hours than any YouTube guru I’ve ever paid for consulting.
Now, I need to get back to work and implement this advice!