How to succeed in MrBeast production (Leaked PDF), this leaked onboarding document for new members of his production company is a compelling read. Very detailed, even if you don't want a successful Youtube career, there's still stuff you can take away.
About Mr Beast
I spent basically 5 years of my life locked in a room studying virality on Youtube. Some days me and some other nerds would spend 20 hours straight studying the most minor thing.
And the result of those probably 20,000 to 30,000 hours of studying is I’d say I have a good grasp on what makes Youtube videos do well.
Youtube is the future and I believe with every fiber of my body it’s going to keep growing year over year and in 5 years Youtube will be bigger than anyone will have ever imagined and I want this channel to be at the top.
People Related
I only want "A Players"
You’re either an A-Player, B-Player, or C-Player. There is only room in this company for A-Players. A-Players are obsessive, learn from mistakes, coachable, intelligent, don’t make excuses, believe in Youtube, see the value of this company, and are the best in the goddamn world at their job. B-Players are new people that need to be trained into A-Players, and C-Players are just average employees. They don’t suck but they aren’t exceptional at what they do. They just exist, do whatever, and get a paycheck. They aren’t obsessive and learning. C-Players are poisonous and should be transitioned to a different company IMMEDIATELY.
Work Related
Nothing Comes Before Your Prios
If the studio is burning down and you stop working to put out the fire and don’t get the lamborghini, THAT’S YOUR FAULT. (jokes haha) but seriously don’t let anything come before your prios.
Higher forms of communication.
If you spend any amount of time with James you’ll hear him bring up higher forms of communication a lot. Because it’s important and somehow very overlooked by most people. The worst thing you could ever do when you need something for your critical component is email someone at the company. The best is to talk to them in real life. It’s very important you know when to call people for stuff, grab them in real life, and when to text them. The lower the form of communication the more miscommunication you will face.
Don’t take anything at face value, always dig
Communication Lines
Ideally when communicating across departments you go up and then over. If you skip and just go below you prizemust then call and let the people in charge know.
It’s your fault, track the contractor
I can’t stand when people dump and forget their project on a contractor and then the day before the shoot blame them when it’s not ready. That’s on YOU, not the contractor.
you need to then decide whether or not it’s a critical component. If it is, you should also begin working on a backup and while working on a backup you should check in with JB every single day. Ask him to send videos everyday to spot problems early, hell maybe talk to him twice a day. I don’t care just don’t leave room for error. No excuses, stop leaving room for error.
Video everything
The questions get more and more detailed and all you have to go off of is what's in your mind. The rest of your production team also needs to start planning bits but they don’t know what it looks like and it’s a shit show. This is why we say video everything.
Video Related
How to measure the success of content
CTR(Click Thru Rate), AVD(Average View Duration), and AVP(Average View Percentage).
CTR
why does the title and thumbnail matter to me? Expectations is why. The title and thumbnail on the videos you will be producing set the expectations for the viewer for your video.
How can you know how to start your video if you don’t even know what expectations the viewers have of you?
AVD
As with almost every video on Youtube, the first minute has the most loss (go look). This is why we freak out so much about the first minute and go so above and beyond to make it the best we freakin can.
We also want to do something around the 3 minute mark called a 3 minute re-engagement. A re-engagement can be described as content that is highly interested that fits the story and makes people genuinely impressed.
Misc:
Brand Deals Are Content
BRAND DEALS ARE CONTENT! And when treated as such boosts retention. We need to make them in entertaining. Also, fun fact, the last CEO that sponsored a video said that the return was 1.7x the return they get on a NFL championship game ad.