Zach Highley Is Doing It Right. Discovering a Creator of the Next Generation.
In the last years of me watching Youtube videos, I stumbled across really good creators. As I am really into productivity I celebrate Youtubers like Ali Abdaal or Matt D’avella. They shaped my youth and are shaping my life right now.
But as I was watching their videos on Youtube, I was curious if there were any other much smaller channels still out there waiting to be discovered. Little did I know that there is a future generation of creators at the starting line.
Zach Highley is a medical student from the US and is currently working on studying for his 1st step USMLE exam. I started following him in the midst of January as his channel started to be suggested to a lot of people on Youtube.
Here are the 6 reasons why he was able to blow up fast and become known as a guy with the potential to be the next productivity master of our generation:
(You can find a summary at the bottom of the article)
- Medical School:
The one thing that made Ali Abdaal a big Youtube star and works out awesome for Zach Highley too is being a medical school student. They found their own niche in the production of content for that particular audience and got on from there to address other topics as well.
Medical school is also making his videos extremely searchable because nearly everyone who has the chance to study was told to study medicine, law, or engineering at least once in the lifetime.
Not only that, he gets technical with the Anki App and makes videos about his process of studying, which many people want to get better at, I included.
2. Repackaging Information in a Great Way, to Target a New Audience:
He isn’t a copycat, but he rather repackages information for the new generation and adds his own twist to it. He did videos about spaced repetition and active recall like Ali Abdaal but then branched out to make videos on: “Why he takes 0 notes in med school” for example. He also did a video on a 30-day running challenge he published on the 1st of January, 2021.
This is a good formula because he does videos, which make him increasingly searchable as more and more students realize the value of spaced repetition and active recall. After you watch that particular video you want to see more of his content and detect other interesting videos with good quality and style.
3. Good Story and Narrative:
Zach does a great job at telling a good story. The running challenge he did two months ago even got me as a runner deeply involved in watching the video. Even a trailer-like movie found the way on his Youtube channel in which he gets the message across that you should try running and motivates you to do so right away. His story is congruent and his shots match his talking style and personality. It’s great to watch him also use the timestamp feature consistently through all his explainer-like videos. This makes the videos easier to digest because you can rewatch the important parts faster, without searching them.
4. Quality of the Video:
His video quality is honestly amazing. Since the beginning, the video quality got increasingly better, even though I thought it was high quality before. The crispy audio is a bonus you wouldn’t want to miss.
He films his videos in a way that you are not distracted from the storyline and they add to his narrative.
5. Really Good at Curating Content:
We know the great productivity Youtubers with other 1 million subscribers. Matt D’avella and Ali Abdaal are my favorites to watch, but I’ll occasionally click on a video of Thomas Frank too. Zach Highley combines the three perfectly. He sticks glue between their niches and builds up new connections as he goes on in the video. The perfect mix of studying advice, day in the life-like content, and study with me videos only adds to the experience because there is a video for everybody.
6. Isn’t Attached to Social Media at All:
I recognized in my years at school that many teachers were good, but few were excellent in their craft.
My biggest theory for teaching something to someone is that you are a better teacher if you’ve done something out of pure teaching before. A physical education teacher has more potential to be great if he played Basketball professionally before.
That’s the vibe I’m getting from Zach Highley. He studies medicine and teaches about the stuff he learned on his path of becoming an amazing student. He doesn’t give advice he never tried and that’s the teaching vibe I need.
Because he isn’t only a great teacher via social media, but a great student too he is currently taking a break from social media and preparing for the 1st step USMLE exam. That takes courage to do so because the upside of social media can be so great, but also shows that he isn’t in it for the quick buck. He’s playing the content game for the long term.
As he has just under 5000 followers on Instagram, I messaged him before he stepped down about his podcast. I thought he did a great job in the first episode and requested why he hasn’t uploaded any other episode. He replied that he considers doing so in the future, but he is not ready yet.
This quick “chat” was one of the reasons, I started my own Podcast B&B Studentalk in March 2021.
Summary:
Zach Highley is a creator with incredible potential to be the next big thing in the productivity and meaningful living sphere of youtube and other social media platforms. His channels experience exponential growth since February 2021. His formula for success is exploring the med school niche and building up a brand from thereon.
He repackages information nicely and in a digestible format. The quality of video and audio, as well as his storytelling and narrative, are a big part of why he is experiencing that fast growth.
As he is playing the social media game for the long term, he isn’t afraid to step down to get back on after he achieved success in his med school career.
Advice for People Starting a Channel:
For all the people starting out with their channel or podcast, I suggest staying in the game like Zach Highley is doing it. That consistency will bring a lot of value in the long term as you see if you look at the stats on Socialblade. Exponential growth doesn't happen at the start, but anytime in the future for sure.
You can find Zach Hihgley on his website, Youtube or Instagram.
