048: Ali Abdaal - Building Multiple Income Streams as a Content Creator

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Sep 20, 2021

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Ali Abdaal is a Doctor, writer, podcaster, entrepreneur, and YouTube sensation. Ali has grown his YouTube subscriber base to over 2 million, and writes a weekly newsletter titled Sunday Snippets. Sunday Snippets covers productivity tips, practical life advice, and the best insights from across the web.

Ali studied medicine at Cambridge University. He worked as a Doctor in the United Kingdom before taking time off to explore his other interests. His YouTube channel covers medicine, tech, lifestyle, and productivity. Ali also co-hosts a weekly podcast with his brother, called Not Overthinking.

After learning to code at age 12, Ali started doing freelance web design and development. He enjoys playing piano, guitar, and singing covers of mainstream pop songs. You can find occasional videos of Ali’s music prowess on his Instagram page.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Ali’s savvy insights for growing your YouTube subscriber base
A proven formula for writing content titles that get clicks
Ali’s playbook for taking your podcast to a whole new level

Links & Resources

Ali Abdaal’s Links

Follow Ali on Twitter
Watch Ali on YouTube
Check out Ali on Instagram
Ali’s newsletter
Ali’s website

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Ali:
YouTube can change your life, but you have to put out a video every single week for the next two years. If you do that, I guarantee you it’ll change your life. I can’t put any numbers on it. I can’t tell you how many subscribers you’ll have, or how much revenue you have, like a hundred percent guarantee.

You will change your life at the very least in terms of skills or connections or friends, or opportunities that will come your way as a result of posting consistently.

[00:00:30] Nathan:
In this episode, I talk to Ali Abdaal. Over the last four and a half years he’s built his YouTube channel from zero to 2 million subscribers.

He’s who all of my friends who are into YouTube turn to for advice. He’s got a paid course. He’s got a substantial email newsletter. He started out as a doctor and then has made the switch into a full-time YouTuber. So anyway, I’ll get out of the way, but, before we dive into the show, if you could do me a favor after the show: if you could go and subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen.

That helps with downloads. If you could also write a review, I really appreciate it.

Now it’s on to the show, with Ali.

Ali, welcome to the show.

[00:01:17] Ali:
Thanks for having me. This is really cool. I’ve been following you on the internet in a non-weird way since 2016. I remember once in, I think it was 2018, I discovered your 2015 podcast series all about launching an ebook, and pricing plans, and all this stuff.

It was so good. Now we’re looking to do eBooks and things like that. Thank you for all the inspiration on that front.

[00:01:46] Nathan:
Yeah, for sure. Well, it’s fun to have you on, it’s been fun to watch you grow. I was actually on a hike with our mutual friend, Sean McCabe after he moved to Boise, my hometown. He was talking about you, and I hadn’t come across your stuff yet. And I was like, oh, I gotta check it out.

And now I’m watching a whole bunch of videos. And then of course we’ve been internet friends for, for awhile now.

[00:02:08] Ali:
I’m now a customer of ConvertKit as well, for the last few months.

[00:02:11] Nathan:
Yeah. Let’s see. Okay. So I want to dive into your story and get some context because you have an interesting path of finishing school, like a substantial amount of schooling, and then diving into the world of being a doctor, and then transitioning out of it.

What was the plan? Let’s start.

[00:02:36] Ali:
Yeah. for a bit of context, I spent six years in medical school, and then two years working full-time as a doctor in the UK national health service before deciding to take a break. In that break I intended to travel the world, but then the pandemic happened and I ended up becoming a full-time creator on the internet by virtue of the fact that I didn’t have a job when it was a pandemic.

When I first decided to apply to med school, I’d been into the whole entrepreneurship thing since the age of 12. I learned to code. I started doing freelance web design and freelance web developer from age 13 onwards. So, in school, in high school, middle school, like we call it secondary school in the UK, I’d rush back home from school when I finished off my homework in record time, and then just be plugging away at like PHP or some HTML or some like jenky Java script. I used to make $5 here and there, and be like, yes, I’m, I’m making magical internet money. Every year when, when I was in, in high school, my friends and I would come up with a new business idea.

So, we started this multi-level marketing thing and some other rando...