I tried YouTube for 365 days. This is what happened. — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00So, exactly 365 days ago, I decided to
2. 0:03create a YouTube channel. And in this
3. 0:04video, I want to tell you the crazy
4. 0:06story of how starting this channel
5. 0:08literally changed my entire life
6. 0:10forever. So, ever since I was a kid,
7. 0:12I've always been obsessed with creating
8. 0:14[music] things. Like, I remember I used
9. 0:16to create my own Pokémon cards, and I'd
10. 0:17give them all their own little attacks
11. 0:19that they could all do. And I also used
12. 0:21to create YouTube videos when I was
13. 0:22younger, as well. So, I have videos of
14. 0:24me and my friends making the worst
15. 0:26videos you could possibly imagine. But,
16. 0:28this creative streak continued into my
17. 0:30adult life, as well. So, I've been a
18. 0:32full-time music producer and a graphic
19. 0:34designer. But, at some point last year,
20. 0:36I hit some pretty bad creative burnout.
21. 0:39I was working for different graphic
22. 0:41design clients, and I just felt
23. 0:43completely disconnected from the work I
24. 0:45was doing. And I remember finding myself
25. 0:47thinking back to years ago, when I used
26. 0:49to make dumb YouTube videos as a kid.
27. 0:51[music] And I remember how fun it used
28. 0:53to be to film all these different clips
29. 0:56[music] and piece them all together.
30. 0:58Like, it almost felt like a puzzle to be
31. 1:00solved. And that's when I started to
32. 1:01feel that pull to come back to making
33. 1:03videos once again. So, I made the
34. 1:06decision to start a YouTube channel. And
35. 1:08the goal was one long-form video every
36. 1:10single week, no excuses. So, every
37. 1:13single week, I sat down and I did the
38. 1:15same thing. Idea, script, film, [music]
39. 1:18edit, post, over and over again. And
40. 1:21after weeks of doing this, after weeks
41. 1:23of uploading videos, nothing was
42. 1:26happening. No views, no subscribers,
43. 1:28nothing. Which kind of hurt. I'm not
44. 1:30going to lie to you, because I was
45. 1:32putting so much time and energy into
46. 1:34those videos. And if I'm being [music]
47. 1:36honest, I really started to overthink
48. 1:38everything, because it didn't make sense
49. 1:40to me. I was putting in all this work, I
50. 1:42was showing up every single week, but
51. 1:44nothing was happening. So, then I
52. 1:46started overthinking how I spoke, or how
53. 1:48I looked, or how I came across on
54. 1:51camera. Like, I remember thinking, am I
55. 1:53good enough, or am I interesting enough
56. 1:55to make videos like this? Like, I really
57. 1:57started to get in my own head. And I'll
58. 1:59be honest, there was this one day where
59. 2:01I was this close to just [music]
60. 2:03deleting the channel and pretending like
61. 2:05it never happened. But at some point I
62. 2:07thought, "You know what? I have to keep
63. 2:09going. I have ideas to share, I have
64. 2:11stories to tell,
65. 2:12>> [music]
66. 2:13>> and maybe you can relate to that
67. 2:14feeling." So I just kept creating. And
68. 2:17then on the 2nd of June, 2025, I posted
69. 2:21one video that changed everything.
70. 2:23[music] So in the video, I basically
71. 2:25talk about my experience creating
72. 2:26content as a graphic designer on
73. 2:28Instagram, and the video just took off
74. 2:31almost immediately. And I remember I
75. 2:32went from getting maybe one subscriber a
76. 2:34day to hundreds of new people
77. 2:36subscribing every single day. And
78. 2:38honestly, I was genuinely losing my mind
79. 2:41with excitement. Like I was checking my
80. 2:43analytics every 5 minutes just to see
81. 2:46the numbers going up. And from the point
82. 2:48of that video blowing up, I just doubled
83. 2:50down. So I kept improving my videos, I
84. 2:52started taking more creative risks, I
85. 2:54started studying and learning about
86. 2:56filmmaking and [music] storytelling, and
87. 2:58slowly but surely I got over that
88. 3:00creative burnout, and I started to fall
89. 3:03back in love with creating again.
90. 3:05But looking back on the last 365 days,
91. 3:09there are definitely a few lessons that
92. 3:11I really wish I'd known when I was first
93. 3:13getting started. And the first huge
94. 3:15lesson that I learned is that comparison
95. 3:18is the thief of everything. So you've
96. 3:20probably heard the phrase comparison is
97. 3:22the thief of joy, which is 100% true.
98. 3:25Because if you're constantly your day
99. 3:27one as a creator to someone else's day
100. 3:301,000, then of course that's going to
101. 3:32take the enjoyment out of it. It's going
102. 3:34to make you feel terrible. But it
103. 3:35actually goes way deeper than that.
104. 3:37Because comparing yourself to other
105. 3:39creators doesn't just affect how you
106. 3:41feel, it takes everything from you. So
107. 3:43you start changing how you speak, you
108. 3:45start filtering your ideas, you start
109. 3:47copying people and trying to be more
110. 3:49like them instead of just being
111. 3:51yourself. Like comparison doesn't just
112. 3:53steal your joy, it steals your
113. 3:55creativity as well. So I guess the
114. 3:57lesson is to stop comparing yourself to
115. 3:59other people who have been doing this a
116. 4:02very long time because you don't find
117. 4:04your voice by copying someone else's.
118. 4:07Okay, so the second lesson I learned is
119. 4:09that when nobody watches your videos,
120. 4:11that's actually a good thing. And I know
121. 4:13that sounds completely backwards because
122. 4:15when you're putting all this time and
123. 4:16effort into your videos, obviously you
124. 4:19want views. You know, obviously you want
125. 4:21people to see them. But what I didn't
126. 4:22realize at the start is that that early
127. 4:24phase when nobody is watching is
128. 4:27actually one of the most valuable parts
129. 4:28of your entire journey because there's
130. 4:30no pressure, there's no expectations,
131. 4:33there's no real consequences if the
132. 4:35video isn't perfect, which means you
133. 4:37have this special period of time at the
134. 4:40beginning of your journey where you have
135. 4:42full freedom to post bad videos. You
136. 4:45have full freedom to experiment and
137. 4:48improve your craft. And when eventually
138. 4:50those views do start to come in and
139. 4:52people do start watching your content,
140. 4:54you've already improved your skills,
141. 4:56you've already refined your ideas and
142. 4:59developed some real confidence as a
143. 5:01creator as well. Okay, so the third and
144. 5:04final lesson that I learned is that
145. 5:05consistency is king. Kind of. So when I
146. 5:09first started this channel, I was very
147. 5:11very consistent. So every single week I
148. 5:14was posting a video, I was showing up, I
149. 5:16was doing the work. But looking back,
150. 5:18consistency on its own wasn't enough
151. 5:21because if you upload videos every
152. 5:23single week or every single day, but
153. 5:26your videos are also consistently
154. 5:28terrible, then nothing is going to
155. 5:30happen. It doesn't matter how consistent
156. 5:32you are. So you can't just be consistent
157. 5:34and hope for the best, you also have to
158. 5:36improve over time and get better at your
159. 5:39craft as well. So get better at
160. 5:41communicating, better at storytelling,
161. 5:43better at actually making videos that
162. 5:45people want to watch, and that takes
163. 5:48time. And for a long time, it's going to
164. 5:51feel like nothing is working until one
165. 5:53day everything changes and everything
166. 5:56you've been doing finally starts to make
167. 5:58sense. And if you are thinking about
168. 5:59starting your journey as a creator, I
169. 6:01actually made this video right here
170. 6:03about how to actually start making money
171. 6:05from your videos even if you are a total
172. 6:07beginner. So yeah, click on to that
173. 6:08video and I'll see you [music] there.