Available on Substack, Apple, Spotify, and YouTube.
Summary
It took me five years and a few long breaks, but I finally built a simple system that helps me stay consistent on YouTube without burning out or feeling boxed into one niche.
For the first half of the year, I was posting every other week because I was scared I’d run out of ideas. Then I realized the issue wasn’t ideas. It was structure. Once I started organizing my content into repeatable series, everything clicked.
The Creator Series Engine is a planning system that connects my ideas, scripts, and videos so I always know what to post next.
The system runs on three levels:
- Series — my main topic lanes (Tools, Systems, and BTS Vlogs)
- Season — the theme or goal within each series (like “Road to 100 Videos” or “How I…” videos)
- Episode — the individual video or theme I publish each week
Each video fits neatly into one of these categories, and I rotate between them to keep my channel fresh. Tutorials, workflows, and vlogs all get their space without overlapping or burning me out.
To make planning easier, I use scripting frameworks like StoryBrand, PASTOR, AIDA, and even the 5Ws to outline each video. I reuse thumbnail templates in Canva, keep a swipe file of title ideas from YouTube, and batch record whenever possible.
This system keeps me posting without starting from scratch. After a three-week break, I used it to publish three videos in one week from following the plan.
Some of my inspiration came from creators like Ryan Trahan, Daniel Batal, and Adrian Per, who all use series-based formats to stay consistent and build momentum.
In the future, I’ll be testing new series ideas around freelancing, Apple products and apps, and platforms like WordPress, Substack, and Obsidian, all using the same framework.
I also use playlists like “Currently Updating” on my channel homepage (inspired by CrashCourse) to show my active series.
This system helps me focus on posting, not perfection. And not chasing trends or obsessing over CTR. The more videos mean more feedback, and more feedback means better videos later.
This is still a work in progress, but if you want to build your own Creator Series Engine, I wrote a full guide with examples, resources, and videos to watch next.
Transcript
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Mentioned:
Read the full guide to create yours
How to stay consistent on YouTube
How to never run out of content ideas
It took me 5 years and way too many breaks, but I finally figured out a simple way to stay consistent on YouTube without burning out or boxing myself into one niche.
For the first half of the year, I was posting every other week because I was scared of running out of ideas. And I figured out how to find new ideas and even made a video about it.
Then I realized the problem wasn’t ideas. What I was missing was some structure and organization. I also needed a way to mix things up, so I’m not burned out from posting the same thing back-to-back.
For example, I posted four DaVinci Resolve videos in September, which led to gaps in October. After watching a few videos like these two here, which talk about creating series and repeatable formats, that’s when things started to make sense.
So, I stopped overthinking and reverse-engineered everything to build my own structure and went from posting nothing for 3 weeks to posting three videos in one week. So now that I know what I can do, my main goal now is to post at least once a week without having to start from scratch or feel stuck on what to post next.
I put together this system, Creator Series Engine. So this is a simple planning system that connects my ideas, scripts, and videos so I can always know what to post next.
This has three levels: Series, season, and episode. So the series is the main topic lanes. I have three ongoing series. So under the tool series will be uh software tutorials and demos and walkthroughs for these tools like Davinci resolve, WordPress, Substack and Obsidian.
Then I have the system series which goes over the workflows, productivity, scripting and book insights. So this video for example will be under the series and then I have the behind the scenes or blogs and these are updates like monthly recaps, experiments and case studies.
So each video I create will fall under one of these series which also includes subseries like Davinci Resolve for creators or book insights for creators. So for the next level I have season, and for season this could be a theme or a goal within that series. So I have limited or ongoing.
So under limited this will be uh behind the scenes. So for limited I had a 13-week challenge I did back in April to share what I was up to like the 12 week like a 12-week year recap. Um the one I’m working on uh now is a road to 100 videos. So my goal is to post 100 videos by the end of the year. Then, for ongoing, I have under tools DaVinci Resolve updates. So as long as DaVinci Resolve is updating their software, I’ll always have a video to create.
And for systems, I have a “how I..” series or “how I..” season where I’m going over the behind the scenes. Like this video is “how I plan my YouTube videos”. I did three other videos. how I record, how I edit, why I switched to Obsidian. Another systems example is uh book insights. I’ve posted uh book insights in the past like 12-week year and systemology. The last book I read was the YouTube formula by Derral Eves. So, I’ll have a video on that. This could be a case study or just some insights under the system series.
Another behind the scenes uh vlog was the creator check-in I did uh back in April. This was a weekly series, but after the 13 weeks, I turned it into a monthly recap. There’s the series and season, and then after the season is the episodes, and this is the actual video I publish, and this could also be a theme to stay on topic. Uh, so for a YouTube script, I use frameworks, templates, formats, and formulas. So, I use these as a guide or an outline.
So for frameworks, there’s the StoryBrand framework and I use these for the vlogs or systems videos. There’s the marketing formulas like PASTOR and AIDA. And I can use these for tools or tutorials. And for vlogs and tutorials, I can use the five W’s as a framework to organize my thoughts through the who, what, when, where, and why.
And then for the script itself, I have a formula for the hooks and intros. For the body and outro or for the end screen, this is just an outline that I go through. And then for the titles and thumbnails, I have title formulas that I grabbed from YouTube, or emails, or from YouTube Studio.
So, I basically have a swipe file full of title formulas that I can follow and pick and choose from there. And then for the thumbnails, I create the thumbnails in Canva and I have about five that I use and just switch out the text and the images or screenshots.
So, this is a three-step process I follow each week or on batch days. So, now I have the three series. Then I pick a season. And then the next thing is to pick a framework depending on the video and then follow the steps to fill in the blanks for the YouTube script.
So with this system, this keeps everything organized and I’m not stuck doing the same videos over and over.
So for some inspiration, I have a few examples. Uh like the Ryan Trahan, he did a series for 50 states in 50 days. And the season or theme was to raise a million dollars for St. Jude’s and then for each episode or video, it was the same format starting from “Good morning, sleepy head” all the way to the end of the video with donations.
An example of ongoing series or a season is from Daniel Batal. He has a DaVinci Resolve for Noobs. A limited series example is from Adrian Per. He did a limited series where he did a 30-day challenge. It was a mix of how-tos, how eyes, plus uh vlogs, and behind the scenes within that challenge.
Now, for future series, I have some other ideas I want to work on when I want to switch things up from these three. So, it could be freelancing or a subseries like WordPress, Substack, or Obsidian. Um, products is another series I could work on in the future.
And then I also have some other things I do. I have an inspiration playlist on YouTube and I save videos with an interesting thumbnail or topic or even title to save for later. I also get ideas from YouTube Studio. Even though I have a list of running ideas, I usually have some last-minute ideas like the “how I imported the Notion workspace to Obsidian”. That was a last-minute one that wasn’t part of the running list of ideas.
I also uh changed my channel homepage. Um I got this idea from CrashCourse. They have a “currently uploading” section on their homepage. So I have the same as uh “currently updating”. This is where I show the three to four active playlists or series I’m currently working on.
And then, for the last thing, I also have uh compilation videos. And I did this last year uh where I took short form videos like under 5 minutes, compiled it into one long video, plus added extra tips and that led to more watch hours. So I have the “how to stay consistent on YouTube” video and that was a combination of about five videos and that led to 54 hours of watch time. for the “freelancing for beginners” video. That video was 50 minutes long and has over 107 hours of watch time.
So once this is all mapped out, it’s literally me just picking a series, a theme, filling in the blanks in the script, and then just hit record. So no more guessing on what to do next or chasing trends or stuck in tutorial hell.
And now that this is all set up, I could focus on posting more videos and not worrying about CTR, views, or subscribers. And the more videos I post, that means more feedback. And the more feedback means better videos in the future. And with all the feedback I get, whether it’s from the comments or data from YouTube Studio, I can create a more polished signature series later on.
This is still a work in progress, but if you want to create your own series engine, I’ll leave a link to the Substack post with more info and examples, plus videos you should watch after this.
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Hi, I’m Marjy! Digital Creator and Content Manager for creatives and online service providers. If you’re enjoying this post, here are other ways you can connect with me:
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