Because I had no established brand or name, I had to figure out how to be relevant with no following.

At the time (2020), personal finance YouTube was picking up and Graham Stephan was doing several reaction videos per week.

I'd been familiar with Dave Ramsey & his teachings since I was in college and knew he was one of the most popular voices, so I thought I had the perfect idea.

To ride the reaction trend & position myself against someone that other people were already familiar with, I thought making "Advisor Reacts" YouTube videos would be more likely to get views than me staring at a camera talking about basic financial education.

So I made a wild thumbnail, click-baity title, and used Dave Ramsey to establish familiarity:

Initially, the engagement was positive and the video was performing well - getting hundreds of views every hour (while I only had ~25 subscribers).

Then, the algorithm must've kicked it over to members of the Ramsey Religion.

Lots of negative comments & odd personal attacks.

I started to question my own thinking and what it would be like to watch the video from someone else's perspective not knowing who I was.

I didn't like it.

While primarily factual, the video was too negative, condescending—perfect for virality but not for me.

So a few weeks later, I unlisted it and made it private—regardless of how "well" it was performing.

I don't want to put out any type of negative messaging, and I don't want to be remotely tied to someone else for my content.

I'm not trying to build a brand around views or clicks.

I'm trying to build a brand around quality & trust.

🎡 What brand are you building?