How I Failed for 15 Years Before Building a $250K YouTube Business

Some success stories skip the messy part. Scott Curry refuses to. Before he built a YouTube channel that pulls in more than $250,000 a year teaching people to invest, he spent 15 years as a serial entrepreneur with mostly failed businesses. In this episode of Unscripted Small Business, host Zaneta Chuniq Inpower digs into how he finally broke through, why “getting monetized” is a trap, and the personal loss that reshaped his mission.

Today Scott is folding everything he’s built into Faith Roar (formerly We Profit Day and Night), with a goal of helping a million people reach financial freedom. Here’s the conversation.

The 15-Year Overnight Success

Scott is candid that the wins came after a long stretch of losses. His whole method is refusing to stop after any single failure — and being clear that the breakthrough was earned, not lucky.

“I have been a serial entrepreneur with mostly failed businesses for the past 15 years, but over the past five years, I finally found success and it has really made all of the failures and all the struggles over the past 15 years worth it.” — Scott Curry

“It wasn’t luck. It wasn’t anything unexpected. It was a lot of very hard work that paid off.” — Scott Curry

The COVID Pivot to YouTube

Pre-COVID, Scott was building a live motivational-speaking career. When events shut down and his side income vanished, he leaned on his time at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley and started teaching investing on YouTube — right as a wave of new investors arrived.

“Within a week, I’d already gained a thousand subscribers. Three weeks after I started the channel, I was already monetized. First month didn’t make anything, but month two made $5,000, month three made $8,000, month four made $12,000.” — Scott Curry

“I would go into my full-time job, work the whole day… then putting in anywhere from five to eight hours per day on the YouTube channel, literally getting three to four hours of sleep every single night for three straight months in order to find that success.” — Scott Curry

Standing Out in a Crowded Finance Niche

Asked how he differentiates among countless money creators, Scott points to real experience and, above all, actually having done it.

“It is exceptionally rare to find somebody who can and teaches. And when you find people like that, go subscribe to every single social media platform they’re on.” — Scott Curry

“You will learn far more from people that have actually done it than people who have read a book. We know what parts of the books are real and legit and what part of those books are complete bullshit.” — Scott Curry

Why “Getting Monetized” Isn’t How You Make Money

One of Scott’s most useful reframes: the YouTube Partner Program is a small slice of the pie. Treat the channel as a business and build many income streams.

“My second month on YouTube, when I was monetized, I made $5,000. Only $500 of those dollars came from YouTube ad revenue. The other $4,500 came from other things.” — Scott Curry

“You have to think about the YouTube channel as a business, and how can I make money in a multitude of different ways?” — Scott Curry

The Pivot to Recurring Revenue

When one-time affiliate income dried up, Scott pivoted from courses and one-off links to monthly memberships — and the math changed fast.

“When I started the monthly memberships, I charged twenty dollars a month and very quickly grew to a thousand people paying that twenty dollars a month… I was pulling in $25,000 a month within a very short period of time by making that pivot.” — Scott Curry

“If you’re 100 failures away from success, you might as well get those 100 failures out quickly so that you can go find that success.” — Scott Curry

Why YouTube Is Hard — and Why That’s Good

Scott compares building a channel to starting at the gym: the early grind produces no visible results, so most people quit before the payoff.

“Your first 10 videos, you’re not going to have any viewers at all… YouTube needs those first 10 videos to figure out who your audience is.” — Scott Curry

“I’ve always believed the harder something is to do in life, the more successful you can be because the less competition you have.” — Scott Curry

Faith Roar and a Mother’s Regret

The heart of the episode. When Scott’s mother fell ill and passed, his financial freedom let him be at the hospital every day of her final three weeks. On the day she died, his father shared her one regret — and it became the reason behind Faith Roar.

“I’ve met a lot of people on their deathbeds. I’ve never met anybody who said they regretted not working more. I’ve met a lot of people who regretted not spending more time with their family.” — Scott Curry

“It’s all about having the faith that financial freedom is possible for you, and then letting that faith roar through action and making it happen.” — Scott Curry

“What’s easier, getting $10,000 from one person or getting $1 from 10,000 people? Turns out it’s a whole lot easier to get $1 from 10,000 people.” — Scott Curry

The Real Reason to Start a Business

Scott closes with a conviction that ties the whole conversation together: the motivation to endure the hard work can’t be money.

“The people that go into business to help others are the ones that are the most successful… your why for starting a business has to be to help people. It cannot be to make money.” — Scott Curry

“The only thing that is stopping you from achieving the life you’ve always wanted is action. So just get started.” — Scott Curry

Learn more about Scott Curry and his mission to help a million people reach financial freedom at faithroar.com. For more conversations with founders and creators, explore the Unscripted Small Business podcast.