He Quit His Sales Job and Hit $10K/Month on YouTube Shorts in 30 Days

Jason's story starts with a seasonal sales job. He'd work from April through August or September, hustle hard for half the year, and then have the entire offseason completely free.

Most people would coast through that time. Jason didn't want to coast. He wanted to build something.

"I obviously want to spend my time productively," Jason said. "So I was like... let me try this YouTube thing out."

He started researching. Like everyone does in the beginning, right? Watching videos, reading guides, going down rabbit holes. And somewhere in that research phase, he stumbled onto my channel. Started watching the free content. And eventually thought... might as well give it a try.

He'd never had a mentorship before. Never invested in coaching. This was 100% a leap of faith. And like everyone else in that position, the same thoughts crept in. Is this legit? Am I getting scammed?

Preston, who handles a lot of our initial conversations, was super transparent with him. Showed him real analytics. Showed him results from students who were winning and students who weren't doing as well. No cherry-picking. Jason appreciated that.

Then I hopped on a call with him from a restaurant parking lot. My girlfriend and my brother were in the car waiting. I just pulled up Google Meet and said, "Hey bro, what's up? I see you want to join. What questions do you have?" He asked a few things about his niche, I told him don't worry we'll scale it, and right after that call... he jumped in.

Here's where Jason was before we started working together.

He had a channel. He was getting views. But the revenue? Basically nothing. The problem was two things stacked on top of each other... and both were killing his income.

Problem one: he was stuck in a topic that wasn't scalable. His niche was fine, but the specific topic he chose within that niche had trapped him. It had a small loyal audience, but no room to grow. He was maxing out at maybe 3 million views per day, which sounds great until you realize the money wasn't following.

Problem two: his audience was almost entirely from Southeast Asia. Indonesia. Philippines. Countries where RPM (revenue per thousand views) is a fraction of what it is in the US or UK.

"The views were there," Jason told me, "but the pay was bad."

So he had views with no money. A loyal audience that couldn't generate revenue. And a topic that was slowly dying. That's the trap. And without a clear path out, most creators just keep posting the same stuff hoping something changes.

Jason knew he needed to break out. That's why he joined.

The first thing we worked on was a hard pivot. Same niche, completely different topic. The goal: find a topic that would attract a wider, more westernized audience. Specifically, US viewers.

But here's the thing about pivoting on YouTube... it doesn't happen overnight. There's what I call the "TV phase." When you change your content direction, the algorithm needs about two weeks to figure out who your new audience is. It's like rewiring the channel's brain. During that window, things can look rough. Views might dip. The algorithm is confused. You just have to push through it.

Jason started his pivot around December 20th. By January 4th, exactly two weeks later, the algorithm figured it out. On the dot.

"I was literally on the dot," Jason said. "Two weeks. TV phase was over. Algorithm finally figured it out. And then it just started going up."

He paired the topic pivot with one simple but powerful tactic: adding #USA to his video descriptions. Not a dozen hashtags, just that one, targeted to pull in the higher-RPM US audience he needed. And it worked. He watched his US view percentage explode upward.

The combination of a better topic plus a better audience geography was like flipping a switch.

The pivot got Jason in front of the right audience. But the template is what made them stay.

Before the program, Jason's video template was cluttered. Fonts were too big. Too much text on screen. Too much visual noise. It was the kind of thing you don't notice when you're the one making the videos because you're used to looking at your own content.

We stripped it down. Decluttered everything. Spaced things out. Reduced the font sizes. Basically optimized the entire visual format from scratch. Then Jason copied that clean template across every single video going forward.

That's when the big numbers started.

He also focused on hooks, subtle engagement farming (getting viewers to comment without explicitly asking), and making sure every video had an emotional arc. Not just clean editing, but real feeling. The kind of content where the viewer goes through a mini roller coaster in under 60 seconds.

"Something as simple as the template for your videos," Jason reflected. "It was really a lot of clutter. Too much clutter, fonts too big, taking up too much screen. We just decluttered everything, spaced it out, reduced the font. And then I copied that format in every video. That's where the big results started."

After the TV phase ended and the template was locked in, Jason started posting. And then... it happened.

One short started picking up traction. Good likes. Good comments. Good stats across the board. Jason was watching the numbers climb in real time.

"I was praying," he said, laughing. "I was like, please... this is looking good. Algorithm, throw me a bone."

The algorithm threw him a whole skeleton.

That short blew up. Then the next one did. And the next one. Within 48 hours, Jason had racked up 34 million views. For context, his previous 48-hour peak was 6 million. He didn't just beat his record. He nearly 6x'd it.

Revenue started hitting $300 to $400 per day like clockwork. Some days peaked higher. And this was from a channel that was making essentially nothing just weeks before.

"It was like a dream," Jason said. "Some parts felt like a dream. I'm not gonna lie."

Even during a brief gap where he couldn't post (more on that in a second), his channel held up. The moment he started uploading again, the views went right back up. Consistency was the engine. The algorithm rewards people who show up every single day.

Right at the peak of his momentum, Jason got hit with a content strike. Unjustified. YouTube flagged one of his videos for something it absolutely wasn't. He appealed. Got rejected. Appealed again. Rejected again.

For most creators, this is the moment where everything falls apart. You can't post. Your momentum dies. You spiral.

Jason didn't spiral.

He reached out to me. We figured out the best methods to get the appeal through. He eventually contacted YouTube directly on Twitter, laid out his case, stayed completely objective, and they removed the strike.

But here's what matters more than the strike itself: what Jason did during the downtime. He didn't take a vacation. He didn't panic. He stocked up on videos. He talked to Clark, another member of the community who'd gone through the same thing, and Clark told him not to let it get to him.

"Control the controllables," Jason said. "That's something you can do. Stock up on videos. Don't go into emo depression phase. Just keep working."

When the strike got removed and he started posting again, his channel bounced right back. Because he was ready.

Let's put it all together.

Jason's previous sales job paid him roughly $8-10K per month. That was his target when he entered the program. Not some wild moonshot number. Just... match my old salary so I can justify doing YouTube full-time.

First monetized month: $9-10K. Target hit.

He went from 20-30K subscribers to almost 200K. In one month. He's now comparable to some of the biggest channels in his niche, and he's still ramping up.

He's currently pulling 10 million views per day. His daily revenue sits around $300-400 with peaks above that. His RPM is still climbing because the US audience percentage keeps growing. And he hasn't even started a second channel yet.

"Pretty much the first month right away kind of ripped to 10K," Jason said. "Hopefully this is the baseline and it just keeps going up."

This was his first mentorship ever. His first real leap of faith into investing in himself. And it paid back in 30 days.

Jason hasn't even started scaling yet. Everything so far is from one channel.

The next step is what we do with almost every student once the first channel is proven: start channel two. Then three. Each one running the same playbook, the same optimized template, the same audience targeting strategy. The math multiplies fast.

Jason's projection for the coming months? $12-15K as his RPM improves, then $20-30K as additional channels come online. He sees himself going deep into content creation. Not just YouTube, potentially other platforms too.

"If you can do it once, you can do it again," he said. "Scale up multiple channels. And if it leads to popping off on other platforms, that'd be great too."

When I asked him where he sees himself in three to six months, he laughed and said, "Hopefully the next Deven."

He also said something that stuck with me about why he loves this path. He's a self-described homebody. He likes being creative. He likes working on his own terms without a manager, a boss, or employee reviews hanging over his head. YouTube Shorts gave him that freedom.

"It's honestly a crazy lifestyle," Jason said. "How much effort you put in is how much you get out. It's so different from a normal job."

He went from seasonal sales to full-time content creator to nearly $10K/month in one month. No boss. No commute. No ceiling on what comes next.