From Academia to Content Creation: A Journey into YouTube Success

In this episode, Ines Lee shares her journey from teaching economics at Oxford to leading content for Ali Abdaal's 6-million-subscriber YouTube empire. She offers practical insights into how her team balances AI efficiency with human creativity across their content operations.

While highlighting various AI-powered workflows — from video editing to content repurposing — Ines emphasizes that AI excels at producing "adequate" content but lacks the personality that makes content truly memorable: "It's like a cover band that really hits all the notes perfectly, but you're never gonna feel that element of jazz."

For B2B marketers, she shares valuable lessons from the creator economy, including how to leverage personal brands and treat content as a product itself.

About Our Guest: Ines Lee

Ines Lee is the Head of Content for Ali Abdaal, a top YouTuber with over 6 million subscribers. Her unconventional path from academia to content creation began with a PhD in economics at Oxford and a postdoc at Cambridge before joining Ali's team in 2021.

Ines initially balanced academia with content writing as a side gig. In late 2023, she fully committed to creative work when she stepped into her current role. She now leads a team responsible for YouTube videos, newsletters, and social media content that generate revenue through AdSense, partnerships, and sponsorships.

Ines recently launched her own Substack, Side Road 38.

About This Season of the Animalz Podcast: AI & Content

Hello... is there anybody out there creating real value with AI?

The AI conversation in content marketing has become deafening — skeptics shouting from one side, shallow tips from enthusiasts on the other. But somewhere in this noise, there must be pioneers who've actually figured something out, right?

We've gone on a search for the real pioneers — the ones who've ventured beyond the hype to succeed (or fail) spectacularly. Through their hard-won insights, we'll discover if there's actually something of value hiding in the noise, or if we're all just shouting into the void.

Timestamps

00:00 "AI is like a cover band that hits all the notes perfectly"

01:00 Introduction to Ines Lee and today's conversation

03:00 Ines's content consumption habits: The Second Mountain and recent films

04:00 From PhD in economics at Oxford to content creation for Ali Abdaal

06:00 How economics training informs content strategy

07:00 The structure of a major YouTube creator's content team

09:00 How the ideation process works for YouTube videos

10:00 When AI first entered Ines's workflow (summer 2023)

11:00 Three main buckets of AI usage: video editing, content repurposing, and analysis

13:00 Using AI to reverse-engineer Ali's voice and build style guides

14:00 Why human judgment remains essential despite AI assistance

16:00 B2B lessons from the creator economy: the power of personal brands

18:00 Treating content as a product: what B2B can learn from creators

20:00 Ali's expansion into AI software with VoicePal

23:00 "AI gives us adequate content but lacks personality and jazz"

25:00 Current limitations of AI-generated video content

26:00 Developing custom AI agents to improve short-form content selection

29:00 Ines's AI prompt methodology: analyze first, then generate

30:00 "75% of good writing is thinking" - setting appropriate AI boundaries

32:00 A day in the life: how AI assists their YouTube content workflow

36:00 Where to follow Ines: LinkedIn and Side Road 38 on Substack

Mentioned Links & Resources

• The Second Mountain (00:03:00): A book by David Brooks on meaning and purpose that Ines mentioned she's reread.
• Emilia Perez (00:03:00): A film Ines recently watched and enjoyed.
• The Substance (00:03:00): A film with Demi Moore that Ines and Ty found intense.
• Ali Abdaal YouTube Channel (00:07:00): Ali's main content platform with over 6 million subscribers.
• Part-Time YouTuber Academy (00:07:00): An info product by Ali that teaches creators how to grow their YouTube channels.
• Productivity Lab (00:08:00): A 2023 membership program to help people double their productivity.
• Fire Cut (00:11:00): An AI video editing tool that has cut Ali's team's editing time in half.
• Grain (00:13:00): For call recordings/transcripts that feed into AI-driven writing workflows.
• Adam Robinson (00:16:00): B2B founder (Retention.com) with strong LinkedIn presence.
• Stuart Machin (00:17:00): Marks & Spencer CEO cited for personal brand-led content.
• Dana Strong (00:17:00): Sky Group executive using personal content and social to boost brand presence.
• doola (00:19:00): A startup whose founder uses educational content for growth.
• Founder-Led Content: Blitz-Scaling Social with doola's Arjun Mahadevan (00:19:00): The Animalz interview with doola's founder mentioned by Tim.
• VoicePal (00:22:00): Ali's new AI app that converts voice memos into content drafts by asking follow-up questions and formatting responses.
• HeyGen and ElevenLabs (00:25:00): AI tools for creating avatars and voiceovers that Ines mentions when discussing current AI video generation.
• Stay Strong: Never Let AI Fill Your Blank Page (00:30:00): Tim Metz's article on the Animalz blog that Ines cites as important to her thinking on "human vs. AI tasks" in content creation.
• ChatGPT and Claude (00:32:00): Language models Ines and team use for brainstorming and drafting.
• Spotter Studio and 1of10 (00:33:00): AI tools that optimize YouTube content by analyzing historical performance data.
• Elicit (00:34:00): An AI research tool Ines' team uses to find and analyze scientific papers for evidence-based content.

Follow Ines Lee on LinkedIn and subscribe to her Substack, Side Road 38.

Enjoyed this conversation? Subscribe to our pod...