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— Hannah Doyle 

Inside Ramit Sethi’s $200K YouTube Play

Finance creator Ramit Sethi has grown his I Will Teach You To Be Rich consulting and personal finance education business over the last 20 years through books, courses, and a Netflix show.

Now, he’s doubling down on YouTube—and hiring a senior YouTube strategist with a $200K salary to take his video content to the next level. FYI: Most YouTube strategist salaries max out at $80,000, according to YTJobs listings.

“You pay the best, you get the best people,” Sethi told us. “I believe if you’re at the top of your game, you’re working on a channel with millions of subscribers, and managing all kinds of people including talent, editors, designers, script writers—then you should be compensated well.”

The details: Sethi’s YouTube hire will operate as a strategist and manager—thinking of video ideas, analyzing data to drive YouTube audience and revenue growth, working closely with Sethi, and overseeing a team of video editors, script writers, and designers. 

• “At a role for this level and this compensation you need to be a master at the technical parts of YouTube—when is a high CTR a good thing?” Sethi said. 

• “And second, you need to have good taste. In my space especially, it’s easy to have bad taste and to even become predatory,” Sethi said. “There’s a reason why I’ve been around for over 20 years—I’m only going to make promises I can keep and exceed.”

Big picture: YouTube has been a key top-of-funnel growth mechanism for Sethi’s business since he returned to the platform in 2023 after a yearslong hiatus.

“People will come up to me and say ‘you’re my favorite YouTuber’ and I’m like ‘what?’” Sethi said. “They don't know I have a book or Netflix show, but they watch the podcast and see my videos—that’s YouTube delivering the holy grail, which is new audience, so that’s what’s really exciting for us about this role.”

The Mark Rober Controversy, Explained

In Mark Rober’s most recent video, “Can You Fool A Self Driving Car?,” the former NASA engineer attempted to trick Tesla’s camera-operated AutoPilot technology. 15 million views and hundreds of angry comments later, Rober’s video has caused a stir among tech creators—here’s why.

The details: Rober pitted Luminar, a laser-sensing car using LiDAR tech, against a camera-sensing Tesla to test the cars’ self-driving capabilities. Luminar’s autopilot was successful in all six tests, while the Tesla failed two tests.

What creators are saying: 

• Some creators are questioning the video’s integrity—one AI creator claimed Rober didn’t test the Tesla properly with its updated tech, while another claimed the video was sponsored by Luminar. 

• Many creators came to Rober’s defense, though, with one saying it was a “great video demonstrating how LiDAR works and showing the limitations of self-driving cars that lack it.”

Rober appeared on the Philip DeFranco Show to clear the air, confirming the video wasn’t sponsored by Luminar and offering more insight on his process.

“I don't have a horse in this race…I love my Tesla [...] I’m just here to look at the data and I think I struck a political nerve or something,” Rober told DeFranco. “The video was about LiDAR [tech] and all the cool ways LiDAR is used. Papers have been written on [if you can fool a self-driving car], and [I thought] I should just run the test…so that’s what this is.”

Creators Spotlight Smaller Channels

The hottest trend on gaming and commentary YouTube right now? Shoutouts for lesser known creators, thanks to a trend started by gaming creator JSchlatt earlier this year.

How it works: After giving their recommendations, each creator nominates other creators to take part in the challenge. Participants include Jacksepticeye, Ludwig, Jack Manifold, and Pinely.

The result? A spike in growth for recommended channels, with some creators like RatLobber gaining over 10K subscribers after a shoutout. 

“It reminds me of old YouTube,” said gaming creator Slimecicle. “Where we’re lifting each other up and enjoying the crazy concoctions that people are creating on this wonderful, wonderful platform that we’ve got.”

Who are your favorite smaller creators? Hit reply and let us know.

🔥 Press Worthy

• Gymnasium launches a short-form dating interview show, Left On Read.

• Lifestyle creators Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni join the Unwell Network with a show aimed at Gen Z women in the workforce.

• John Green releases his book, Everything Is Tuberculosis.

• Sidemen’s Netflix show, Inside, peaks at No. 2 on the platform’s UK charts.

• YouTube is hosting creator meet-ups in all 50 states.

• IShowSpeed is headed to China for his next streaming tour.