TL;DR
Most business owners spend 5 seconds on the idea and 5 hours on the edit. I’d flip that. If the idea is weak, nothing you do in editing will save the video.
Every good video idea is a topic people already care about plus a format that has already worked. Then you add the one thing that makes it yours, your unique advantage. Below is where to find proven topics and formats, how to mix them into 25 ideas in 10 minutes, and how to score each idea before you film it.
“What should I post on YouTube?” is the question I get most from business owners. I’m Bryan, and I run Viral Bangers, a YouTube agency for business owners who sell something. This is the exact process we use for our clients’ ideas. It’s how we got Inayah McMillan 1,203,773 views on the first video we ever made with her.
Part 1: What A Video Idea Actually Is
When most people say they have a video idea, what they have is a topic, like “I should do a video on cold calling.” That’s only half an idea. A full idea is a topic plus a format.
The topic is what the video is about, like cash flow, cold calling, hiring your first salesperson, pricing or money mindset.
The format is the shape of the title with the topic taken out. “How I Brainwashed Myself to ___” is a format. So is “If I Started ___ Again In 2027”.
Your unique advantage is something true about you that a competitor can’t copy, like a result, a number, an age, a timeline or a story.
For Inayah, the topic was money mindset. The format was “How I Brainwashed Myself to ___”, borrowed from two of Leila Hormozi’s best videos. Her advantage was that she became a millionaire at 20. The title became “How I Brainwashed Myself to Be a Millionaire at 20”.
Part 2: The 4 Steps
Step 1: Find A Topic People Already Care About
Your buyers have already told you what they want to watch, in three places.
Your sales calls. Every question a prospect asks before they buy is a video, and you already know the answer. Nobody else has your calls.
The Popular tab in your niche. Find 5 channels in your space, tap Videos, then Popular, and write down the topic of their top 10. If the same topic shows up in 3 or more channels, it’s proven.
Your competitors’ comments. Look for questions and complaints that keep coming up. “But what if my clients pay late?” is a topic.
Then go one step wider than your offer, because videos about the exact thing you sell hit a ceiling fast. I think about topics in three rings. For a fractional CFO:
Your offer: “How to build a 13-week cash flow forecast”
Your buyer’s world: “Why your profitable business has no cash”
Everyone: “How I think about money after looking at 200 companies’ books”
Inayah sells an Airbnb course, but her biggest video is about money mindset, the outer ring. Clover Trading showed us the other side: their psychology video, “9 Years of Trading Experience in 31 Minutes”, got 16,963 views and booked 30 calls but made only 1 sale. Their strategy video got about half the views and made more money than the other two videos we were testing combined. Wider topics bring in more people, and topics closer to your offer bring in buyers.
You don’t need a viral topic either. Our tracking follows each sale back to the video that started it. Across 207 channels, the 100 videos that made the most money had a median of about 25,000 views.
Try this
Write down 10 questions from your last few sales calls. Then do the Popular tab exercise on 5 channels. Circle the topics that show up in both lists.
Step 2: Steal A Format That Already Works
I get ideas by stealing formats, which means adapting what already works without copying anyone’s video.
You find formats by looking for outliers, videos that did far better than that channel’s usual. Divide the video’s views by the average of that channel’s last 10 videos. The smaller the channel, the bigger the jump needs to be:
Under 10,000 subscribers: 10x their usual views or more
10,000 to 100,000: about 7x or more
100,000 to 250,000: 5x or more
250,000 and up: 2x or more
One outlier can be luck, but two outliers on the same format is a pattern worth stealing. Look at bigger channels your buyers already watch first, then your own niche, then completely different niches, and later your own channel.
Scriptwriting videos used to be 9 to 11 minutes long, while dropshipping had “Full Dropshipping Course (18 Hours)” doing really well. So I borrowed that format for a 90-minute scriptwriting course. It’s my most viewed video, with 312,439 views.
Three formats that worked on our clients’ channels, with a version for a consultant:
“I Finally Revealed My Most Effective Scalping Strategy (For Free)” booked Scott Taylor about 10 calls. Yours: “I Finally Revealed My Cash Flow Template (For Free)”.
“If I Started Trading Again In 2026” brought in about 200 webinar sign-ups in 72 hours. Yours: “If I Started My Consulting Business Again In 2027, This Is Exactly What I’d Do”.
“getting rich is easy, actually” has 923,776 views. Yours: “Closing Big Clients Is Easy, Actually”.
Step 3: Make It Yours With Your Unique Advantage
Without “at 20”, Inayah’s title would just be Leila’s video again, and that detail made it a video only Inayah can post. In the first month it hit 309,000 views, about 11 times her usual video, and it’s now past 1.2 million.
Before you lock in a title, type it into YouTube search. If someone else already has it, or could honestly post it, make it more specific. I went deep on this in how to stand out on YouTube in a crowded niche.
Titles about something you did also bring in far more money than titles that only teach. I broke down the numbers in YouTube titles that get clients.
Step 4: Mix Them Into 25 Ideas In 10 Minutes
Write 5 topics down the left side of a page and 5 formats across the top. Every box is an idea, so that’s 25 ideas from one sheet of paper. For a sales consultant, one row might give you:
If I Started Cold Calling Again In 2027, This Is Exactly What I’d Do
Cold Calling Is Easy, Actually
I Finally Revealed My Cold Call Script (For Free)
Some boxes will be weak. You’re looking for the 3 that make you think “I’d click that”. Then add your advantage to those 3. “Cold Calling Is Easy, Actually” becomes “I’ve Trained 40 Sales Teams. Cold Calling Is Easy, Actually.”
Note
Want us to come up with your next 10 video ideas?
On a strategy call we look at your channel and your offer, and show you what we’d make first. Book a Strategy Call
Part 3: Give Every Video One Job
Reach videos bring new people in with a wider topic and a bigger promise.
Sales videos turn watchers into buyers with a topic close to your offer and real depth.
Search videos answer something people type into YouTube, so they keep getting found for years.
A simple mix to start with: make 8 out of every 10 videos for people who could buy from you (sales and search), and use the other 2 to test something wider. If your sales videos convert but too few people see them, add more reach videos. That’s exactly what we did for Scott Taylor, and I wrote it up in getting YouTube views but no clients. To see which videos actually sell, ask every new lead which video they watched.
Part 4: Score Every Idea Before You Film It
Score each idea out of 10 on five questions:
Is the topic proven? A 10 is in the top videos of 3 or more channels, or your prospects ask about it every week.
Is the format proven? A 10 has been an outlier at least twice, and recent copies still do well.
Is it mine? A 10 means you searched it and nobody else could honestly post it.
Would a buyer click it? A 10 means that if it took off, the people watching could pay you.
Do I have 5 things to say they haven’t heard? A 10 means 5 points a viewer in your niche hasn’t heard before.
Add them up. 40 to 50 means film it. 30 to 39 means fix the lowest score first, then film it. Under 30 means bin it.
Try this
Make one Google Doc with four headings: Topics, Formats, Ideas and Shortlist. Once a week, block 30 minutes, add 10 new ideas, score them and move the best one to the top. If you post once a week, 10 good ideas is two and a half months of content.
Your Idea Checklist
The format has been an outlier at least twice, and recent copies still work
The title has my unique advantage in it, and I know the video’s one job
It scores 40 or more out of 50
Get The Full Guide Free
The full guide has all 10 formats that worked for our clients, a worked grid for a sales consultant, the outlier tracker we use and the weekly idea routine. Get the full guide free.
Want Us To Do This For You?
This is what we do every week at Viral Bangers. We find the topics, steal the formats, dig out your unique advantage and write the scripts. You approve the ideas and hit record. Book a Strategy Call.