2023: The Year of Play Buttons
In 2023, I set myself one clear goal: win as many YouTube Creator Awards as possible. Not someday. That year.
By the end of it, I was looking at a collection most creators only dream of: Gold Play Buttons, Silver Play Buttons, and boxes full of awards, each one representing 100,000 or 1,000,000 real subscribers who chose to hit that button.
The Strategy: Multiple Channels + Short-Form Content
Here’s exactly what I did:
- Ran multiple channels at once, instead of betting everything on one channel, I operated a portfolio of channels across different niches.
- Went all-in on short video content: 2023 was the year of Shorts. Short-form was (and still is) the fastest path to massive subscriber growth.
- Single-minded focus: my only target that year was awards. Every upload, every experiment, every late night served that one goal.
- Systems over motivation: I built repeatable content systems so channels could grow even on days I felt like doing nothing.
Why Shorts Were the Cheat Code
Long-form videos build deep audiences. But short-form builds audiences fast. A single viral Short can bring in more subscribers in a week than a year of long videos. In 2023, I treated Shorts like a science: hooks in the first second, trending formats, relentless consistency.
The result? Play buttons started arriving in boxes, not one by one.
What Those Awards Really Mean
A Play Button is just metal and glass. What it represents is everything:
- Proof that a small-town boy can compete on a global stage.
- Proof that systems beat luck, every single time.
- Proof that the “overnight success” everyone sees took years of invisible work.
Behind every award in that photo are thousands of uploads, hundreds of failed experiments, and channels that died so others could live. (You can read about my biggest YouTube failure here.)
Want Play Buttons of Your Own?
The formula hasn’t changed:
- Pick a niche with viral potential (short-form friendly).
- Upload relentlessly: volume is a strategy.
- Study what works, kill what doesn’t, double down on winners.
- Think in portfolios, not single channels.
And if you want someone who’s actually done it to guide you, message me on Telegram. Let’s get you your first Silver Play Button.
