Happy Sunday,

One of the best parts of what we do isn’t sitting across from the biggest creators on YouTube.

It’s sitting across from the ones just getting started. 

This week, we met Toni. And Toni came to us with a problem.

He runs a channel called Toni’s Film Club where he talks about lesser-known movies in a way that’s funny, thoughtful, and incredibly watchable.

He’s made some really great videos….but he’s been doing what a lot of early creators do: reinventing the wheel with every upload. Each video starts from scratch. New idea, new structure, new concept. 

That’s exciting... until it’s exhausting. We did this for like 5 years… and it was a straight line to burnout. 

So when we sat down with him on Creator Support, our goal was simple: help him build a repeatable format. (By the way, we’re always looking for new creators to be featured - send us a question here.)

A video system that feels fresh every time but doesn’t require a full creative sprint for every thumbnail and title.

Here’s the 4-part framework we walked him through and how you can use it for your own channel:

1. Information Gap

Your title and thumbnail need to make the viewer ask a question that can only be answered by watching your video. That’s an information gap

Toni had two videos that made this very clear:

This video makes the viewer ask, “what are Hollywood's favorite pair of sunglasses?” There’s a curiosity gap, but it’s a small one. You don’t need to know the answer.

The other problem: Toni answered the question by showing the sunglasses in the thumbnail. We don’t need to click for the answer.

This is a huge curiosity gap. There are a lot of questions we want to know the answer to. Which movie? What happened? Why was the FBI involved?

And the thumbnail gave us more: who was this mystery figure? Why is there blood marks on the wall? Is this real footage?

That video got over 4M views.

The sunglasses one: 19K.

Lesson: Don’t answer the question in your title. Raise a better one.

2. Clarity

A great format is simple to understand and easy to explain.

If you can’t pitch the concept to someone in one or two sentences, or if your thumbnail doesn’t make sense at a glance, it’s probably not clear enough.

Toni’s strongest videos had this nailed. Bold text. One visual idea. A clear hook.

Here's a quick test for clear packaging:

If you turned your thumbnail black and white or shrink it down to 10% size— would it still make sense?

If the answer’s yes, you’re probably on the right track.

Clarity doesn’t mean boring.

It means your audience knows what they’re clicking into. And that’s what earns the click.

3. Easy to Do Again

This one’s everything.

When we looked at Toni’s best-performing video, we asked: what’s the structure here?

"The Horror Film So Real, the FBI Investigated It."

What if every title followed this template?

“The film so [blank] it [blanked]”

• The film so real the FBI investigated it
• The film so bad it bankrupted a studio
• The film so good it prevented nuclear war

That one framework could give him a dozen new video ideas - instantly.

He could do the same for his thumbnails too. Left-aligned protagonist. Consistent VHS-style texture. Recognizable visual identity.

Now he doesn’t have to start from scratch every time.

4. Enjoyable

Formats are only sustainable if they’re fun.

Toni loves movies. He would be talking about movies even if YouTube didn’t exist. He could happily dig up “The movie so weird it started a cult” or “The film so controversial it brought down a dictator.”

If the format isn’t enjoyable, you’ll burn out. And your audience will feel it too.

So loop back to step one until you find something you want to make.

This framework is the same mindset that finally helped us grow after years of plateauing.

It’s what we used to build Creator Support.

It’s how we help creators like Toni unlock consistency and creativity.

If you’re stuck reinventing the wheel - grab our free worksheet on creating a repeatable format.

And if you want us to look at your channel? Submit a question to Creator Support.

See you next Sunday,

- Samir