I’m still figuring out how I want to use this site in conjunction with my online identity. I’ll wait a bit until I mention the existence of this site on YouTube and such. I want, as much as possible, to have my online and offline worlds be as consistent where you’ll get to know the real Josh regardless of whether it’s online or offline. I always struggled with doing this because I erred on sharing less online because it felt a bit too flashy, but I had to reframe my perspective because I’m genuinely happy when I see family, friends, and strangers succeed online and I would imagine people to have the same feelings towards what I share.
It took me about 4 months before launching my YouTube channel because I didn’t have a set plan on what to do with it. I’m embarking on a 60-day YouTube challenge to push myself out of my comfort zone to grow as a person. At best, it’ll succeed (and I’ll need to define what the overall success means for me as I go), but the more important factor is to still learn and grow through the knowledge and experience whether it “fails.” I see it as a win-win, so I don’t see failure as a failure in this scenario (unless I do something absolutely ridiculous and reputation damaging and posting it online, but I don’t think that’s a problem I’ll need to worry about).
I only just posted the video an hour ago and I already feel a huge wave of support coming from all corners of my life. Views and subscribers aren’t really the main metric of success for me since this is a personal journey and my general success metrics are to post consistently and improve with each video. I want to focus on the process and stay disciplined and consistent in my effort to work put on quality videos. I have such a wide array of interests that I don’t think I’ll just shoot specific categories of videos. Instead, I hope to share what I see is valuable for the world to know. At this point, I want to create and share for the joy of creating and sharing and not be obligated to create for someone else’s agenda. We’ll cross that road when the time comes, but I really want to protect this 60-day journey with pure unadulterated joy.
My approach to creating my first post was to create a preview post for my Facebook and Instagram worlds to push them towards my main video on YouTube. They’re technically two different pieces of content with differing tones, but I figure it’s all a journey and learning process that will be honed and sharpened over time rather than aiming for the best practices from the get-go. I am balancing keeping my marketing mind buzzing at all times to optimize each piece of content and its distribution and just posting for the joy of creating and sharing. I’ll reiterate that my overarching goal is post consistently on what I want to share, and I believe the lessons will emerge as I post more consistently and more data points emerge on how to shape the channel and content.
The biggest obstacles I faced in making the first video.
- Breaking down the steps into manageable chunks. I felt overwhelmed with the prospect of creating and sharing something so publicly. Thankfully, Jessica came to my rescue and addressed my love language of “Acts of Service“
- Resisting the urge the re-record these sit-down type videos. I find it much easier shooting footage where it’s live and fleeting, but the sit-down videos allow me to re-watch and rethink what to say and record. I have main points of what I want to share, but the temptation to ramble is real. The first video had way too many iterations, but Jessica was a great reassuring help in getting it done.
- Starting the editing process was difficult, but it became much easier once I started. Jessica edited the first video for me, and I did the preview video. We both wanted to launch it out on Monday (today), so we divided out the task. I’m glad I was able to contribute some editing with the preview video, but I’m more thankful Jessica will take the lead with the overall editing. I don’t know how much I’ll be editing, but I also want to build that skill in some capacity – more so to have a working knowledge of it than to achieve an ultimate mastery.
- Instagram hashtags are very tedious. I always try to find the relevant and most appropriate ones for my posts and it’s still so time consuming. I use a Google Keep to keep a history of past posts, so I was able to draw from those to expedite the process. Finding hashtags in a new area of interest always takes time because I hunt through what the community is using and sharing.
- Posting to Instagram proved to be more challenging than normal. The Intro Preview was about 550 MB and IG wasn’t cooperating. It wasn’t until I compressed the video more to about 90 MB that IG was able to accept the file.
The positives:
- Jessica. She’s a real trooper in helping this dream come to fruition.
- Family and friends. Seriously, everyone was super supportive. I’m glad I finally got to posting it up because it’s a form of an acknowledgement to all their support and encouragement.
- Google Photos made organizing the videos really easy! I used my Nexus 6P as my main shooter, so videos automatically back up when connected to WiFI, and then I would bunch the videos into Albums that I would share with Jessica.
- Tube Buddy: I discovered Tube Buddy through a podcast, YouTube Creators Hub, and it provided some really helpful checklists and guidelines to pre-and-post publishing videos. I installed the free version before starting, so I don’t have a clear distinction of what’s native to the YouTube functionality, so I might be speaking too soon. Regardless, it helped give me a chance to picture the systematization of the uploading process, and I imagine it’ll help expedite the process until it’s second nature for me.
Here’s the Facebook post with the intro preview:
Here’s the Instagram post with the intro preview:
And finally the YouTube video with the main intro video:
Thanks for staying until the end!
All the best,
Josh
Josh Le 