Nate Black Quit the Channel Makers YouTube Channel: Video Breakdown

“No, the company did not force me out. I chose. I chose to leave. It was my choice”– Nate Black

A Video Breakdown of “Why I Left Channel Makers”


Nate begins by expressing his intention to record the video in a single take to keep it as raw and transparent as possible. He acknowledges that he has notes to refer to during the recording. Nate mentions his excitement and trepidation about the video, especially considering the reactions and responses he anticipates. He emphasizes his desire for transparency and to clarify the situation, noting that things are going really well for both himself and the Channel Makers or Income School brand.

“I’m going to attempt to do this in a single take…. because I wanted it to be as RAW as humanly possible.”

Having it done in one single take is not to be “raw,” but to make sure he follows his script. He acknowledges he has “notes” that he will be constantly looking at. He knows he is in dangerous territory and cannot risk getting into legal trouble by going off script. The importance of getting it right in one take is to give the illusion it’s sincere, but the fact is he needs to make sure everything is said correctly to protect himself. If he was genuine and raw he would not need notes or a script to speak from the heart. This is a calculated move.

I am so excited to make this video.

According to the people who worked with him, Nate constantly hinted that “something was coming,” but would never reveal what it was he was doing. This is not a joyous excitement, but a nervous excitement (“also have a fair bit of trepidation”) because he knew that he told everyone he was not starting a channel about teaching YouTube even though he was. “Based on the response and the reaction that I’m seeing,” is not as much about the comments on YouTube, but from the messages being sent from his former coworkers who were reasonably upset about what he was doing. He had to make a statement to save his reputation at any cost. Unfortunately, the cost was the truth, and he could not use it to support his side of the story.

“And to point out why things are really awesome”

He is relieved that the narrative was leaning towards people who thought he was fired from Channel Makers. He wanted to shed light on the fact that he was not fired, only so much as to show that he was “in control” and quit willingly.

He then addresses the need for a new greeting, as he used to start with “howdy howdy,” and invites suggestions for new greetings in the comments.

“I was going to start this video with a grand “Howdy Howdy” but then I realized: I need a new greeting.”

Nate acknowledges here in the very first video that the phrase “Howdy Howdy” belongs to Channel Makers. He admits he needs a new greeting. However, after a few videos published later, he openly defies this truth and uses the phrase anyway. It’s his song of defiance and rallies his lemmings. He says to leave a suggested new greeting in the comments knowing he will get immediate feedback on whether or not he should keep using it. And based on the comments left on the video, it looks like he got the confirmation he needed. A bunch of comments on a YouTube video does not change the fact that he never owned the phrase to begin with.

Nate then outlines a few questions he believes are on everyone’s mind and aims to answer them transparently.

“I tried to outline a few questions I think are probably burning on everyone’s minds here.”

Again, this is his narrative. He can’t or doesn’t want to answer actual questions. He needs to answer questions that he has crafted to fit his narrative to make him look like the victim and get as much sympathy as he can. “First big question that’s probably on everyone’s mind… again, I’m speaking for myself here… my thoughts… my opinions on all these.”

The first major question he addresses is, “Why did you leave Channel Makers?” He explains that it was time for him to move on for several reasons. Nate provides context by mentioning that he started with Channel Makers in an employee role, without owning any part of the brand. He says he was hired to build the YouTube presence for the Income School company, a role he was grateful for and found life-changing.

“The first big question is: Nate, why did you leave Channel Makers”

He says the simplest way to answer this is that he “was ready.” Nate said that his vision for the channel no longer matched the vision that Income School had for the channel.

However, in a letter sent to him on June 6, 2023, Ricky (the owner) said, “I’ve done all I can to provide you with a work environment that’s conducive to your creative process. I’ve allowed a lot of work from home, time off for mental health in addition to our generous and flexible vacation policy, and I’ve been very hands-off of the YouTube side of the company because you’ve told me that you like having the creative control that comes with ownership. I’ve also provided you with an income and a pay structure that gives you control of your income without any of the risks that actually come with business ownership.”

The letter also states over the last two years of working for Income School, Nate earned a six-figure income, had plenty of sick time and vacations, and yet somehow still felt he wasn’t making enough. He wanted all the reward with none of the risk. He wanted the big paycheck regardless of channel performance.

“I was hired to build the YouTube presence for the Income School company.”

This is a lie. According to the Channel Makers website, Nate was only hired for:

  • Managing Email Campaigns and Growing our Email List to drive product sales
  • Planning, Scheduling, and Running webinars for Project 24 members and for our broader audience to drive product sales
  • Networking with other influencers to grow our affiliate program
  • Other marketing activities to both grow and diversify marketing for Income School products

Nate did not have a professional YouTube channel before being hired and did not have any experience in starting or growing YouTube channels.

He then continues to say that over time, as he put a lot of effort into building the channel, he grew to love it and care deeply about the audience. He clarifies a concern raised in another video that he was not just an actor or face of the channel. He believes that he did most of the work from the beginning, including ideating, planning, researching, producing, editing, creating thumbnails, and publishing. This involvement made him feel a strong sense of ownership and desire for actual ownership in the channel.

“There was a concern that… maybe it was just a team producing it all along and I was just the actor or the face of it. That actually wasn’t the case: at all. From the very beginning, I did… absolutely… undeniably most of the work on that channel.”

Here he tries to make it seem like he did all the work without getting in trouble for claiming he did all the work. He wants to give the impression he did it, without legally crossing the line of making a false statement. The issue is that he believes that presenting in front of the camera is most of the work in making a YouTube video. Hard facts: it’s not. According to the team at Channel Makers, the amount of time he spent recording the video was always less than the time the team spent planning, editing, and publishing the video. Nate was just a piece of the puzzle and he wants you to know that he thinks his piece was the biggest.

“…but then it was primarily me heading up all of that. And that included the ideating, the planning, the researching, the producing, the editing, the thumbnails, the publishing, all of those things were done by me. So it was me authentically producing those.”

This section is also carefully phrased. He says primarily heading up. He can’t avoid the fact that not only is there proof there is a team behind the channel but they have been around for a long time. Here he is just trying to make it seem like he was in charge of those things while also the executor of those things. However, it has been established that Andrea has been editing his videos and thumbnails from August 2020 through June 2023, and Cody has been editing his videos and thumbnails from April 2022 through June 2023. Julia started handling the ideation, planning, researching, producing, and publishing on Channel Makers from June 2022 through June 2023. Jim and Ricky handled all those things from March 2020 through August 2021. So technically, there was a very small window that Nate could claim he did a lot of those things, but clearly, he cannot make the claim he ever did all of it.

Eventually, Nate realized that his vision for the channel’s future and his professional priorities were no longer aligned with those of the owner. This realization led him to decide to move on and pursue his own projects, leading to the creation of his own channel.

“My professional priorities weren’t aligned anymore.”

Again, read the article written by Channel Makers to see what those priorities were. Spoiler: it involved him being lazy missing deadlines and not producing a YouTuber Beginners Course. If you see it appear shortly on his website (radicalyt.com), you’ll know that it was originally supposed to be released for Channel Makers in the summer of 2023.

“And so I realised… ya know what? I think it’s time for me to move on. Do my own thing. Because…I just really wanted to do it.”

He says it here like it was a calm rational decision that spanned over a few weeks or days carefully considering all of his options. However, this is false. He was very angry in the meeting with Ricky and made a rash decision and decided to quit that same day. He told Ricky he was done and would be out by the end of the week. The Channel Makers team only had four days to scramble and put every single project on hold and produce a video that would announce Nate’s departure and inform the audience the channel was sticking around and show who would be taking his place. Nate did not help in this process and just sat back and let everyone else do the work. He recorded and edited in secret his own personal goodbye video. The original recording can be seen here. The original tried to put the focus back on himself and away from the team. He also ended with an “I will miss you, but not for long.” At the time of the recording, he had not made it known to anyone on the Channel Makers team that he was starting a new channel. This message conflicted with what the channel was trying to do and was therefore edited out of the final published video. What this video showed was that he clearly did not like or care for his team. It was all about him and his reputation. All others were nothing to him. You cannot walk away from watching his goodbye video or the “What’s Happening to Channel Makers” and think that Nate had any respect or care for anyone on the Channel Makers team.

The second question he addresses is, “What’s going to happen to Channel Makers?” Nate believes that Channel Makers will continue to thrive and succeed.

Nate assures that Channel Makers will continue to produce great content, even though he no longer has control over their production. He mentions that he tried to ensure a smooth transition by planning some upcoming videos, which he believes will be impressive. However, we already established he did not provide enough time or help in the transition period.

Nate expresses a bit of sadness about not being part of these future projects but not too sad because he was planning on making his own versions of that exact content in the near future.

Addressing the audience of Channel Makers, Nate encourages those considering unsubscribing due to his departure to reconsider and give the channel a chance to showcase its upcoming content. He made this statement to try and protect himself legally. He wants to be able to say that he never told people to unsubscribe from the Channel Makers channel before telling people to subscribe to his channel.

Next, Nate addresses concerns about whether his role at Channel Makers was just for show, clarifying that he was not merely an actor. He emphasizes that he was deeply involved in producing most of the channel’s content, especially in the early stages and for the majority of his tenure. He explains that as the team grew, he began delegating tasks like editing and thumbnail creation, which were not his specialties. However, he believes he was still heavily involved in the ideation and research process, ensuring that when he said he found something or did research, it was true. Which just negated everything he said about delegating and having a team. He knows he has to admit there was a team, but he can’t admit they did any of the work.

Nate also touches on the misconception that success on YouTube only comes with having a team. While acknowledging that many channels do grow to include a team, he clarifies that his intention with Channel Makers was never to portray the channel itself as a blueprint for YouTube success. Instead, his goal was to share research and real-world examples of what works on YouTube. He focused on patterns and strategies that could be applied broadly, rather than presenting his personal achievements as a formula for success.

“I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t going to… I didn’t have the experience/ expertise. I couldn’t go on to say ‘here’s exactly how to grow a YouTube channel cause I’ve done it a hundred times.’ No, at the beginning I knew that I couldn’t play that game, so I went with ‘research expertise.’

Here is where the truth leaks out. If he admits that he didn’t have the experience/expertise in the beginning, why should you believe him when he says he was hired to build the YouTube presence for the company? The company already had the Channel Makers channel before he was hired, they even had a YouTube course already in their Project24 system before Nate was hired. All signs point to and confirm that Nate was not the expert when he started. It can even be argued that even still today he is still not the expert.

Finally, Nate addresses why the transition from Channel Makers was so sudden. He hints at more complex reasons behind the scenes, some personal and others related to the business. Again, the article from the Channel Makers website explains the conflict.

Nate discusses the suddenness of his departure from Channel Makers, acknowledging that he tends to move quickly once he sets his mind on something. He admits that the transition could have been smoother and apologizes if it felt shocking to the audience. Nate reflects that, in hindsight, he might have done some things differently.

Addressing concerns about his emotional display in his goodbye videos, Nate assures viewers that he is more than okay and is excited about his current endeavors. He explains that the emotion stemmed from the effort and energy he had invested in Channel Makers and his connection with the audience, customers, and colleagues.

“No, the company did not force me out. I chose. I chose to leave. It was my choice”

He emphasizes that his departure was his choice and not forced by the company. However, this statement is overlooked and forgotten by his audience all the time. Good luck trying to explain that to any of his fans though. They won’t believe you no matter what evidence you have… including directly quoting Nate.

Nate also acknowledges the role of mental health in his journey, thanking viewers for their concern and support.

Nate then shifts to discussing his future plans. He points out the makeshift setup in his recording space, indicating that things are still in a scrappy phase as he works on new projects. He emphasizes that this time, it’s genuinely him handling everything, with the occasional help of his family. Again, admitting that he has a team (his wife edits the videos), without giving them any direct credit. It’s all about him and only him. Got it?

Nate expresses immense excitement about what lies ahead knowing full well he is doing everything on this new channel that he had promised to his previous boss and coworkers that he wouldn’t. What a great guy, huh?

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