He Hit 50K Subscribers in Under a Year | Here's Exactly What He Did
YouTube Creators Hub
Dusty Porter
4.7 • 551 Ratings
🗓️ 6 March 2026
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
James Hayes launched his YouTube channel "Dad Mode in Dark Mode" in March 2025 and grew it to nearly 50,000 subscribers in under a year. He covers fatherhood, masculinity, and hard truths for men — philosophical, not ranty. He's monetizing through consulting, a $3/minute call service, and ebook sales bringing in $4–5K/month before AdSense (best AdSense month: $3,400).
About James:
James Hayes is the creator of the YouTube channel Dad Mode In Dark Mode, where he explores fatherhood, masculinity, and modern life through philosophy and real-world experience. After launching the channel in March 2025, he quickly grew it to nearly 50,000 subscribers with longform, story-driven commentary. He also works with men through private coaching and consulting and is the author of Dark Mode Protocol: The Survival Guide for Men the World Can't Control.
Connect With James:
YouTube Channel /// eBookJoin Creator Communities. A place to gather with other creators every single day. This provides access to Our Private Discord Server, Monthly Mastermind Group, and MORE!
Hire Dusty To Be Your YouTube Coach
YouTube Channel Reviews (Audit): Get a 7-10 minute personalized video review of your YouTube channel with honest, actionable feedback for just $50.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter: Each week I document what I'm doing in my business and creative journey, share new things I've discovered, mistakes I've made, and much more!
All Tools Mentioned On The Show: The Ultimate Entrepreneurs Resource. This is the spreadsheet where I keep all of the tools mentioned by all the guests on the podcast.
Follow The Show:
Facebook /// X /// YouTube /// Instagram
Timestamps:
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | I think that that's what people are craving now. |
| 0:02.1 | I think a lot of the slot, like the AIS slop that people are hearing, they're really sick |
| 0:06.6 | of it and they want to, I think YouTube is going to revert back to the way that it started, |
| 0:11.7 | where it's just people in front of a camera just talking because I'm seeing a lot of smaller |
| 0:17.2 | channels. |
| 0:17.8 | The algorithm is feeding me a lot of smaller creators that are doing just that. |
| 0:21.7 | Hello everyone and welcome to this week's conversation on the Creators Hub podcast. |
| 0:26.7 | My guest today is James Hayes from the YouTube channel, Dad Mode in Dark Mode. I love the name |
| 0:33.9 | of your channel. It's wonderful. Where he explores fatherhood, masculinity, and modern |
| 0:39.0 | life through philosophy and real world experience. After launching his channel in March of 2025, |
| 0:45.6 | you're going to see how quickly it grew, to nearly 50,000 subscribers with long-form story-driven |
| 0:51.4 | commentary. He also works with men through private coaching and consulting |
| 0:55.5 | is the author of Dark Mode Protocol, the Survivor Guide for Men, The World Can't Control, |
| 1:02.1 | and a lot of other great stuff over at his community and his YouTube channel. James, how you |
| 1:06.1 | doing today? I'm doing great, Dusty. I appreciate you having me on. Yeah, looking forward to it. |
| 1:12.0 | So let's start here. |
| 1:20.1 | How did the YouTube channel start back in March of last year, 2025, as we were recording this, |
| 1:25.3 | what was the thought process and how did, what was the origin story of the channel? |
| 1:30.6 | Right. So it really started with just my own life experience. |
| 1:33.4 | I had been wanting to do YouTube since 2018. |
| 1:36.3 | I used to watch a lot of like Casey Nystatt. |
| 1:39.4 | So just watching these different YouTube channels and made me want to do my own. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dusty Porter, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dusty Porter and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.