Top 5 YouTube Educators

If you want to grow on YouTube, then it’s important to listen to the people who have grown their own channels and helped other YouTubers earn success.

I’m not talking about the people who have accidentally found success on the platform, rather the people who really study YouTube and share their insights as consultants and YouTube educators.

My list is certainly subjective, yet as someone who has been on YouTube since 2006, uploaded over 1000 videos and supports clients to grow their channels, I do have some insight.

If you were to ask me specifically who I would recommend to learn from first, the following are the names I suggest. However, I do have a more complete list of excellent YouTube educators you may consider to support your YouTube ambitions.

The top three on my list are mandatory in my opinion. Yet, you can switch a couple YouTubers out from the list of five based on personality or your YouTube goals. Consider other educators from the list mentioned above or check out the recommendations I offer after my personal top five list below.

Below is the list of what I consider the top 5 YouTube educators on the platform (Yes, in order).

1. Matt Gielen: If I had to name one person to follow, it’s Matt Gielen. Matt has spent years behind the scenes studying and writing about the workings of YouTube. He has supported top YouTube channels to become better channels. Matt seems to have an understanding and skills few others have in the industry. He has remained an inside secret to the elite YouTube community and conference attendees for years. Yet recently, he started sharing his insights more publicly on YouTube through his company YouTube channel – Little Monster Media. Don’t be deceived by the subscriber count and the number of videos.
2. Derral Eves: He is the man behind VidSummit and is a solid YouTube Educator. Darrel has access to a large cache of data and channels. He uses and studies this information to keep a pulse on what is happening in the YouTube ecosystem. He isn’t all talk, Darrel can personally claim credit for an armful of Gold and Silver play buttons on YouTube. Those who are serious about growing a YouTube channel quickly become one of his over 500,000 subscribers.
3. Brian G Johnson: A year ago Brian may not have been on this list. Since he started his channel in 2016, Brian has been an excellent and entertaining YouTube educator. He shares excellent advice and practices what he preaches. Brian proved his worth by showing his community that he could earn 10,000 subscribers for his channel in the first year. Today with over 50,000 subscribers, he is upping his game and driving past the everyday best practices of starting and growing a YouTube channel. Brian is sharing fewer videos, yet he’s offering a deeper detailed insight into what makes a successful YouTube channel and YouTuber
4. Tim Schmoyer: No YouTube educator list is complete without Tim. Tim Schmoyer provides a wide breadth and approach to sharing helpful YouTube information. Tim offers excellent insight into how you should approach your channel. His teaching is based on over a decade of earned YouTube wisdom. As much as I love and appreciate educators who dig into the algorithm and data, I appreciate Tim for teaching us how to master the platform from a common-sense perspective. Over time, Tim has started to focus more on telling a good story on YouTube and interviewing other creators and experts to share their insight.
5. Sunny Lenarduzzi: Sunny shares a fresh, inspiring approach to grow your YouTube channel and community. She shares YouTube and marketing tips every week to help you improve your channel. Her theme is be your own boss. I like thought leaders who develop systems that work and share their results. Sunny shares excellent insight and tools such as her H.O.T. script formula approach to YouTube.

Depending on your goals, personality and the type of channel you want to create you could switch out a couple of above YouTubers with other excellent YouTubers and still discover what you need to know to succeed on this platform.

If you have more of a sales angle or want to use your YouTube channel to grow your business with video, consider watching Owen Hemsath (Owen Video). Maybe you are more of a creative type, then Roberto Blake may be right for you. Nick Nimmin is certainly rocking YouTube, especially with his live stream YouTuber Hangouts every Saturday.

Not only is it important to watch YouTube educators, but it’s also important that you watch successful channels in your niche. What are they doing? You don’t want to copy, however, you can use their success as inspiration to point you in the right direction.

Ultimately, your success depends on you. If you haven’t started, you need to start now. You can win until you gain the necessary experience to fix the things you need to repair. Once you start you will need to be patient and persistent.

Your beginning subscriber goals are your first subscriber, 100 subscribers and 1000 subs with 4000 hours watch time. The 1k subscriber mark can earn you access to the YouTube partner monetization program.

It typically takes 6-18 months to reach your first 1000 subscribers. However, it took me 20 months and I have friends who did it in a month.

Yes 10,000 subscribers is awesome, a silver play button is amazing and gold is tremendous. Yet, everyone grows at a different pace depending on their, niche, personal improvement, channel improvement and other social capital they may add to channel growth.

So, after you hit 1000 subscribers, take the pressure off yourself. There is only one channel to compete against, your channel. As long as you a growing, enjoy the ride. Check-in with your teachers for more insight into what you can fix or improve next. There is never a point you have arrived, YouTube education is a never-ending process.