4 months in 1 full day on yt

So it has been a busy stretch between the 2 month mark and now (4 months in). It has been quite a journey to get it all started, but that's also what keeps things interesting. So over the Christmas break I had time to do some deep reflections, which I had initially recorded as a 2nd channel video ---- until I realized yesterday that it makes no sense in pursuing a 2nd channel right now-----there were literally 0 views, so I pretty much took down the 2nd channel for now (more on that later). 

These are my take-aways 4 months in

- my goal was 150 watch-hours by January 1st. I hit 250, so that feels good. Next goal will be 300 by March 1st. This will lead to monetization by the end of the year at the latest.

- a weekly video has to be the priority, so my focus will have to be on shorter videos that I can produce in less than one day. And I will have to lean into what works.

- I will have to create a stock-pile of videos in case the yt-day falls through (sickness, vacations, or anything in between).

- for audio the YouTube Audio Library will be my go-to. It's free, and of better quality than I anticipated. I used pexels.com until December, and there were too many "copyright-flags" after uploading. So better to avoid all that for now.

- I will discontinue the 2nd channel for now. Its goal was to answer the question "who is this guy", but it didn't get much views and started taking up too much time. It really clicked yesterday, when I was preparing a 2nd channel video about the book "50th law" when I came across this note: "the public is never wrong. when people don’t respond to what you do, they are telling you something loud and clear."

this video is what I had in mind.

In the fall of '23 I pulled the plug of figuring out a good niche for yt, because it was obvious where I would get both views and in a niche that I actually enjoyed (woodwork + building stuff). So between the fall of '23 and the summer of '24 I did two things

1) I filmed all the projects that I could, so I could have a good momentum for the launch in August of '24.

2) I spent way too much time on strategy and "planning all the way to the end".

But it was during that time that I figured that my moat would be "me + content with my kids". But what I hadn't counted on was how hard it actually is to create content with kids, because if they are not totally in it----then it's not gonna work. 

So that's what makes me "extra proud" of the video that I made public yesterday. It's exactly what I had in mind when I started getting serious, and it's also extremely hard to pull off consistently. So that's what makes this special. And, I genuinely enjoyed the time that I spent making this with my son.

Reflection in between.

The main channel has slowed down a bit for two reasons:

1) Life has caught up a bit, and I haven't been able to move as fast with my "online effort" as I would like. (kids were sick a couple days, including three yt-days). 

2) I had one video that just didn't take off, so I started analyzing that against a video that did extremely well. So I took it down, went heavy on the edit for the next one. But it took more time. 

So over Christmas I will reflect more on "everything", but my current take is that I will have to concentrate on projects for the main channel that I can complete within one day. It will make it easier to not fall behind when I will not be able to do any work on the yt-day.

I am proud though of this next video on the 2nd channel. When I uploaded it I felt like it was a bit "extreme", but now looking at it once it's actually online----it's solid. 

2 months 1 full day dedicated to yt

 The end of October marked two months of dedicating one full day to yt. I wanted to document my feeling, so that's what I did in this video. Most of the feeling is that I feel good in the moment right now, and I expect that I will look back on all this a year from now----and then I will be like "why didn't I do this earlier?".

Prep Doc

One of the things that I have to work on is my camera presence. What is hard for me right now is to "talk to get a complex idea across". When things are simple, no problemo, but where it gets interesting I realize that I simply don't have the practice. So that's why, as I'm evolving this format, I'm editing out a lot of stuff.

But what I want to work towards is to just hit record, and to have a clean enough copy that I can just upload without too much editing. So that's where this prep doc comes in. What I try to do with it is to prepare the emotion that I want to communicate, and also the big ideas. It's evolving as always, but it's where it's at right now. The video of this one will be public on Tuesday.  

 

Can I make a Wood Ball (1.0)

 I was watching a podcast a week ago, and there was this question: "How do you decide what to do next?". The answer was "I just create what's cool to me, and sometimes the world agrees." And this is so true, because to make something that resonates with people "your heart needs to be in it". If it's not something that you're at least a bit excited about, then it's simply not going to work. 

So that's my take with this video: I just wanted to see if I could pull this off (make a wood ball). I was excited about trying it out, and I will just see "if the world agrees with me". 

One thing that I may need to reconsider: I posted 3 shorts very closely around posting this main video, but now the analytics show that it's not being pushed out. 

shake-up

I have been playing around with the same format since the summer, so it's time for a shake-up. That's what a storm is about, so that is the perfect in between. I wish I taped some content of the storm itself, but unfortunately I didn't. But what I do have is some footage of me cutting up some branches after the fact.

Starting next week I will shake up the format: it will start with an intro in the same style as the videos since the summer, but then I then I will throw in a story that I threw together in the moment. I want to get better at this way of story-telling, because that's a skill that I want to develop (so the ability to figure out ideas, while telling an impromptu story and mixing in elements from my personal life).