How To Make Your First YouTube Video With Claude AI (Step By Step)

Shane Hummus| 00:18:14|Jun 19, 2026
Chapters18
This chapter introduces the video’s goal: teaching you how to create your first YouTube video with Claude AI. It outlines the approach and sets expectations for the steps ahead.

Six Claude AI-powered steps show beginners how to launch a YouTube channel fast, with real examples and a data-driven retooling loop.

Summary

Shane Hummus walks new creators through a practical, Claude AI–driven framework to launch a first YouTube video without waiting for “perfect” gear or enormous subscriber counts. He kicks off by promising that most guru-proclamations aren’t true and cites Nurse Jen’s rapid success as proof. The core of the video builds around six steps: idea discovery with Claude AI, packaging the idea into a holy trifecta (title, thumbnail, intro), scripting via Claude, recording with minimal gear, careful editing (and why AI alone isn’t ready to replace human touch), and finally optimizing future videos using Claude’s launch loop. He introduces his niche hypothesis and a live training offer to help viewers dial in their channel strategy, plus free tools like the niche validator for Claude and ChatGPT. Shane emphasizes that a tiny, high-demand idea can outperform flashy production when the idea itself resonates with viewers. He also advocates for a minimalist, authentic recording style and warns against overreliance on AI for editing, arguing that current AI editing looks “awkward” to audiences. The video culminates with a call to action: join the live training, explore niche work, and consider one-on-one coaching for fast results. Overall, the message is clear: start now with a proven idea, stay consistent, and use Claude AI to iterate based on real viewer data.

Key Takeaways

  • Using Claude AI's video idea finder, you can identify proven topics by comparing view-to-subscriber ratios (e.g., 100k+ views on a 6.5k-subscriber channel).
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  • target_audience
  • 1-2 sentences describing who benefits most from this video and why. Write as an editorial recommendation, e.g., "Essential viewing for Laravel developers moving to Horizon for the first time — covers the gotchas that the docs skip over."

Who Is This For?

Essential viewing for aspiring YouTubers who want a fast, budget-friendly path to first earnings and a data-driven method to scale with Claude AI.

Notable Quotes

"almost everything the gurus told you about getting started on YouTube is a lie."
Shane undercuts common YouTube myths to motivate beginners.
"She didn't have to grind for two years."
Nurse Jen’s rapid growth is used as proof of concept.
"This is going to be the same six steps that I'm going to be giving you in this video."
Intro to the six-step framework.
"you just used claw AI at every single step."
Emphasizes Claude AI integration throughout the process.
"If you appreciate me making this type of content and you want to see me make more of it in the future, then gently cheers that like button and let's jump into it right now."
Typical creator plug for engagement.

Questions This Video Answers

  • How can Claude AI help me choose a YouTube niche with real demand?
  • What is the icon method for finding undervalued YouTube video ideas?
  • What should be in a YouTube video’s holy trifecta (title, thumbnail, intro)?
  • Why is editing with AI not yet reliable for YouTube videos, and what should I use instead?
  • How do I use Claude’s launch loop to improve my next video after publishing?
Claude AIYouTube for beginnersNiche hypothesisVideo idea finderIcon methodVid IQDescriptYouTube analyticsLaunch loopNiche validator
Full Transcript
All right. So, in this video, I'm going to show you how to make your first YouTube video with Claude AI step by step. And I'm going to prove to you that almost everything the gurus told you about getting started on YouTube is a lie. You do not need years to see results. You don't need expensive gear. You don't need a 100,000 subscribers before you make a single dollar. My community member, Nurse Jen, had never made a YouTube video in her life, for instance. And a few months later, she's at 19,000 subscribers, plus 2 million views on her channel. And according to Vid IQ, she's making $12,000 a month from AdSense. And she had one video that hit 500,000 views in just four weeks. So she didn't have to grind for two years. She also didn't have to have some kind of fancy set with the perfect camera and perfect lighting. And she just used claw AI at every single step. And these are going to be the same six steps that I'm going to be giving you in this video. So if you appreciate me making this type of content and you want to see me make more of it in the future, then gently cheers that like button and let's jump into it right now. Okay, so step one is finding video ideas using Claude AI. Now, by the way, some of the skills or the prompts that I talk about in this video will be given away for free, and that's going to be the third link in the description and the pin comment below if you want to follow along. So, the first thing you want to do when it comes to finding videos using Cloud AI is you want to find a video idea that's already proven to work. Okay? And the way that we do that is with a Claude skill. Now, we've already built a skill called the video idea finder, and it runs on the icon method. Now, we make this available to our community members. We have a simplified version of this that you can access in the description in the pin comment below. It's simplified just because of the fact that our community members have a personalized version of it. So, before this skill can work, you need one thing and that is a niche hypothesis statement and that is just a clear oneline statement of what your channel is about and who it's for. So, the basic gist of this is who do you help and what do you help them with? Or in other words, I help X do Y or I help X overcome Y. Now, the full version of this is I help X overcome Y by Z. But don't worry about the Z for now. That's basically how you help them. You can figure out how to help them later on. Now, again, if you don't have one yet, I'm giving away the nicheinder skill free at my live training this week. And this skill builds your niche hypothesis statement for you. And this has been trained on literally thousands of hours of us coaching people in our community and helping them find their ideal niche or dial their niche in if they're uncertain about the niche that they already have. So, links in the description in the pin comment below. go grab a spot at the live training before it fills up. Okay, so for this one already, I have my niche locked in, which is I help aspiring pharmacists get into and succeed in pharmacy school. Now, the reason I picked this is because my background was a pharmacist, right? I had to get into pharmacy school and I actually helped other people get into pharmacy school, too. This is one of the first side hustles that I ever did. So, I'm just going to paste that into the skill and hit enter. So, it's going to pull up 10 search keywords. Let me read some of them out loud. So, how to get into pharmacy school, uh, pharmacy school application tips, pharmacy school interview questions, and these are all proven search terms with real demand. And it is suggesting that we go with keyword number one right now. Now, here is the gist of the icon method. We're looking for videos with 100,000 views or more from a channel with less than 100,000 subscribers and a view to subscriber ratio of at least 5:1. And the worse the thumbnail and the editing, the bigger your opportunity. So, an ugly-looking video with 300K views from a channel that has 15,000 subscribers. That is a 20:1 ratio on bad packaging, and that is gold. So, quick pro tip here, install the free Vid IQ Chrome extension. It shows the subscriber counts right on YouTube, so you don't have to click into every channel to see how many subscribers they have. Now, let's go ahead and run the search. Now, while this skill is looking for video ideas, let me briefly explain how this work. So, this method is named after Carl Icon. This is a legendary investor who made billions by finding undervalued companies that nobody else was paying attention to. And we are doing the same thing except instead of stocks or companies, we are finding undervalued video ideas. And here's the thinking. A massive channel with 5 million subscribers can post a mediocre video and pull 500,000 views just from their existing audience. That doesn't really tell you anything about the topic or the idea of the video. The channel's audience did most of the work. But when a tiny channel, right, 6,500 subscribers, 10,000 subscribers, 15,000 subscribers, pulls 100,000 plus views on a single video, that's the topic working, right? That is the video idea. It is doing the heavy lifting. It's not the channel. And when you make sure the actual content is either mediocre or preferably bad, that means it can't possibly be the video quality as well. So, it literally has to be the idea. Now, it's going to pop up and ask for permissions to run. You want to click allow. And here's what it gives me. So, the first news video is why I chose pharmacy over medicine. 150,000 views from a channel with 6,500 subscribers. That is a 23 to1 view to sub ratio. So, that topic is crushing it. And the channel didn't carry that video. The idea carried it. So, this is what we're going to model. I'm going to copy the title and we're going to move on to step two. Hey, quick break. I'm going to be doing a live training this week on how to start a YouTube channel step by step for beginners. This is going to be for people who want to start a channel, but they don't know what niche to pick, what videos to make, or how to actually get started the right way. And it's a completely free training. No strings attached. In fact, I'm giving away even more bonuses at the training. So, just as an example, I'm going to be giving away my niche validator. Um, this is going to be available both for Chat GBT as well as Claude, which is a super valuable piece of software where you can finally figure out what the best niche for you is. So, do not miss out on this training. Make sure you sign up for it down in the description and the pin comment below because you only get it if you join the training. So, if you don't join now, you might miss it. But that being said, in the workshop, you'll get to meet me and you'll get to ask me questions directly. So, I look forward to seeing you in there. So, click the link in the description of the pin comment below, put it in your calendar, and if for whatever reason you missed out on or you weren't able to attend, make sure you still click that link because we might be having workshops in the future as well and you'll be the first to know about it. So, yeah, hope to see you there. And now, back to your regularly scheduled content. So step two is package videos using Claude AI. Now that we have a proven idea, we need to package it. And the way you package a YouTube video is through what I like to call the holy trifecta. So let me just type in holy trifecta and let's click the skill. Now after choosing the skill, I'm just going to say here's the title that I want to make the video about. Then just go ahead and paste the title. Now, by the way, I almost always just talk to AI. Like I almost never type stuff out unless it's just a few words. I will typically talk to AI. I like to use whisper flow to talk to AI, but you can also just use the in-built audio function. So, we're going to paste in why I chose pharmacy over medicine. And the holy trifecta is your title, your thumbnail, and your intro. And the relationship that they all have with each other. And the reason I call it the holy trifecta is because all three have to be congruent with each other, right? All need to be pointing in the same direction or telling the same story. So, your thumbnail should express what your title is saying, not contradict it or not be unrelated to it, but express it. and your intro, the first thing out of your mouth when the video starts, has to deliver the message that your title and thumbnail just promised. And if those three don't line up, the viewer is going to click off in the first 5 seconds. All right, so now it's going to give us the title options for this video. And it wants us to use the title, I almost chose medicine. Here's why I picked pharmacy instead. Now, I do actually like the alternative title that it suggested, actually, which is why I chose pharmacy school over medical school. And they're giving us a few more title variations here. And since I'm happy with the alternative title, I'm just going to go ahead and type in title. And then I'm going to paste the title of the video. Now for the thumbnail, it gave us a simple description of what our thumbnail should look like. And it also gave us five thumbnail text options. And it also gives us the expressions along with the text. Then the designer instructions on how you would design the thumbnail as well. And a mockup that you can use as a guide in creating your thumbnail. Then it's going to give us five intro variations as well. Intro one is the breaking common beliefs intro. Intro two is asking questions. Intro three is straight into it. Intro four is social proof. And intro five is breaking common beliefs again. Now, I just like to read these intros and then I just choose whichever one I like the most. In this particular case, I'm going to choose intro variant four for this intro. Now, by the way, Claude is really good at making intros. It's going to be better than pretty much anybody except for master YouTubers. So, I highly recommend just going with one of their intros if you're a beginner. So, step three is going to be scripting with Claude. Now, since I'm happy with the title, the thumbnail, and the intro option, I'm going to start writing the script now. So, let me just go ahead and type /youubcriptwriter skill. Then I'm going to say, I'm happy with the title and the intro option. Let's write the script now. But before I hit enter, quick tip. The one thing I do every time I use this skill is something that I like to call a YAP session. So I record myself talking through what I'd say on camera. And it's basically just stream of consciousness, right? What stories I want to tell, what angles, what I want the viewer to walk away with. Then I paste that into the skill alongside the title and the intro. And again, when I do these YAP sessions, I always use the audio mode. Okay? I am not typing this in. I want to use the audio mode for several different reasons. One, it's way faster. Two, it's way more comfortable. And three, it actually is going to sound like me, right? Like I'm going to talk and it's going to write the script in the same way that I talk. So, it's not going to sound like an academic paper or AI slop. It's actually going to sound like me because the raw material needs to come from your brain, your voice, and your stories. Now, one thing you can do here if you have a little bit extra time is you can have it interview you back and forth. It can interview you, ask you questions, get more context, ask you for any other information or data that it needs, and that's going to make the end product even better. But if you don't do the YAP session, the script is going to come out sounding like every generic AI slop script on the internet right now, and it's probably not going to work, and people are probably not going to like it. Okay, so for this demo, I'm skipping the YAP session because it takes a while, but in real life, do it. Okay, so let me hit enter, and the skill is going to run here, and it gives me back the full package. Okay, first is an outline of how the video flows. And by the way, some people literally just like to make the videos based on the outline. But then next is the word for word script that you would read off of the teleprompter. Then the calls to action with the exact phrasing of what to say and when. And then the editor instruction for the video, how to deliver each beat, what to emphasize, etc., etc. And that is the entire script done. That is how easy this step is. All right. So step four is recording. So I'm going to give you three options here. And I want to pick whatever lets you actually press record this week. Right? So, whichever one you're most comfortable with, because the biggest thing that kills most YouTubers is not bad gear, it's not bad lighting, it's the fact that they never hit record. So, option one, and honestly, this is what I'd recommend for like 90% of people watching, is a minimalist style, right? Just your phone, even your laptop webcam camera, and you just open the camera, point it at your face, and you talk, and that's it. And raw and authentic style is crushing it on YouTube right now because people are sick of overproduced fake content that's AI slop or just overly edited. And think about it. If people wanted, you know, super high production quality, they would just turn on the TV. They'd turn on Netflix. That is not why people watch YouTube. People watch YouTube because they want to relate to other people. So, they don't want super highly overly produced videos. Now, option two, if you want to read from a script word for word, is to use a teleprompter. Now, I personally use the Elgato teleprompter. It is a two-way mirror, so you read the words and it still looks directly at the camera. So, it's actually right in front of me right now. I'm not really using it for this particular video, but it is directly in front of me right now. It's on, and if I wanted to use it, I could. And this does take a little bit of practice because you don't want to sound too robotic. Some people when they read off of the teleprompter, it's just very obvious that they're reading. But if you practice a little bit, it can look very natural, and you don't even have to break eye contact. Now, option three, if you'd rather not be on camera at all, is to just do a screen share. Right? Just share your slides or whatever is on your screen and then just read off of your notes. Basically, the same thing as someone giving a presentation. And this is easier if you're camera shy. So, someone who's blown up lately doing this is Daniel Barata. He literally just shares his screen and he shows the Google doc and he reads the Google doc almost word for word and it works great for him, right? The whole point here is just pick one. Don't overthink it because the viewer cares about the idea in your video, not the camera setup. Now, for Nurse Jen, what she did is she used a very simple setup. She literally just used her laptop. She used Descript to record the videos. Descript is a recording and editing software that we highly recommend. and we really like it a lot, especially for beginners. She used Claude to write the script and then she just put the transcript up at the very top, very close to her webcam. And so when she's reading from the transcript, it looks like she's looking directly at her webcam on her laptop. And like I said before, the whole point here is just do not overthink it, okay? Just record your first video. And so after you record, we're going to move on to step five, which is editing. And this is where I'm going to get real with you. I would highly suggest you do not let AI fully edit your videos. Now, I know that you're going to see so many YouTube gurus out there saying that AI can fully edit your videos. And we have watched all those videos. We've tested out every possible thing. And the truth is, if you let AI fully edit your videos, it is going to look like absolute. And if you watch any of these YouTube gurus, by the way, that say that AI edits all their videos. You're going to see that the way they edit their videos is clearly not AI editing, right? They are being edited by real people, not AI. So, this is one of those cases where pay attention to what they're actually doing, not what they're telling you to do. Now, if that ever changes in the near future, trust me, we will definitely be coming out with a video. But yeah, right now, AI editing looks awkward. Uh, viewers spot it instantly. It looks like AI slop. The B-roll that it chooses is very generic and crappy. Usually, if it puts up words on the screen, it's going to look like super AI slop, and viewers are not going to like it. And also, YouTube has been demonetizing channels that are AI slop as well. So, you really want to just stay away from that. So, here's what I recommend instead. Do minimalist editing. If you recorded a screen share with your slides, just cut out the dead air. Cut out the filler words. That's it. If you recorded raw and authentic content on your phone or from your laptop webcam with something like Descript, again, just cut the dead air. Or honestly, don't even edit it. Just try to post it in one go. But if you do want some light editing, the tool that I highly recommend is called Descript. Descript does have an AI feature where they cut out all the dead silence, all the repeats, all the mess ups, etc., etc., and it can do all of this automatically. And the coolest thing about Descript is you can actually highlight a sentence in your transcript just like a Google doc and just delete it and then it will edit it for you. So there's no timeline scrubbing and it's incredibly easy to use. And there is a one-click button that removes all the word gaps automatically. Kills dead air in seconds and then you can just add images. You can do whatever and it's super super easy to edit with. And when you're first beginning on YouTube, I don't care what any of the YouTube gurus say. Consistency is the most important thing by far. If you don't post a video, there is a 0% chance that your video is going to take off. It's just that simple. So, you must post and you must post consistently. And you make videos, you learn from those videos, and that is how your channel grows. And that's also how you get better at doing YouTube. Now, step six is to optimize your next video with Claude. And this is what separates people who make one video and then quit from people who actually build channels. Once your first video is up, even if it only gets 47 views, your viewers are going to leave you gold in the comment section, right? So, check your data, check your comments, and improve on them. If your average view duration is low, that's not random. That means your intro is probably broken. So, fix the intro. If your click-through rate is low, that's not random either. That means your thumbnail is broken. So, fix your thumbnail. And YouTube is literally telling you what's wrong. You just have to listen. Now, this is what we call the launch loop. And we do have a Cloud skill for it called the launch loop skill. So, here's how to use it. Once your video has been live for a couple of days, go to your analytics, screenshot the relevant stuff like the AVD of your video or the impressions click-through rate, and paste those numbers into Claude using the launch loop skill. Again, check the link in the description to get these skills. And Claude might ask you for some other information. Just give it as much context as you possibly can. For instance, you could also copy and paste the transcript of your video as well, and Claude will give you back exactly what you need to fix for video number two. If your AVD was low, Claude tells you why your intro lost people and how to rewrite it. If your CTR was low, Claude tells you exactly what's wrong with your thumbnail and title and gives you fresh options to test it. And then you can stack those two fixes into your next video and then the next one and then the next one. And this is how every video you make gets better. Your data is literally writing the road map for you. You just have to listen. And that is the loop. And that is how channels compound. So look, that is the six steps, six skills, and one video uploaded with some great data to upload the next ones. But here's the truth. That is just the floor. The system I just gave you is the same system that clients in our program use to make a full-time income on YouTube. We have countless amounts of people making full-time incomes. We have lots of people that have gotten to seven figure businesses, and we also have lots of people that have gotten to eight figure businesses as well. Now, if you want to really dig deeper on how to grow and make money with YouTube, then I highly recommend that you join my live training this week by clicking the link in the description in the pin comment below. I give tons of free value away on this channel, the free videos, the free AIs, and even the free live training. At that live training, we'll help you pick your niche or dial your niche in. We'll help you monetize your channel. We'll help you pick the right video ideas, and we'll give you a step-by-step guide to getting started. Plus, at the end, I will literally answer any questions that you have personally. And we are dedicated to giving at least 10 times more value than what we receive. And I know that 99% of you watching this are just going to enjoy my free content, enjoy the live trainings, and we're never going to end up working together. And that is totally fine. But for the 1% of you out there, or even 0.1% of you out there that want to work one- on-one with experts that have done this hundreds of times, and you want to get results as fast as humanly possible with either one-on-one coaching or literally just having us do it for you. If that sounds like you, then go ahead and book a call in description in the pin comment below. On this call, we'll figure out where you are right now, where you want to be. We'll make a plan to get there and we'll see if we're a good fit to work together or not. We only accept about 18% of people who apply. So only book a call if you're very serious about growing and making money on YouTube. The types of people we typically work with are business owners. So a lot of different types of online business owners like coaches, consultants, online service providers, agency owners, and experts, but we also work with some types of in-person business owners as well. Some of the most common ones are realtors, financial adviserss, law firms, dental cosmetic clinics, as well as insurance agents. So, we work with business owners and we help them grow their YouTube presence to get more leads and make more money. But we also work with YouTubers who are getting a lot of views, but they're struggling with monetization. And we work with YouTubers who are crushing it, but they want to crush it even harder. And we work with people who want to treat YouTube like a business and they have a lot of value to give to the world, right? So, a lot of the time, these are people who are professionals. They're a bit on the older side and they're experts. They have a lot of experience and they have value to give the world, right? And they want to help other people solve those problems in mass. So, if that sounds like you and you're very serious about growing and making money on YouTube, then go ahead and click that link in the description in the pin comment below. Isaiah, for instance, helps people who are typically on the older side, who are intermediates when it comes to singing, go pro. And you can check out exactly how we helped him make $30,000 in a single month by clicking this video right here.

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