Money. Time. What’s next?
I didn’t believe this day will come.
So my channel just hit 1000 subscribers on YouTube. Watch the video about it on YouTube.
I know a lot of people are saying that getting 1000 subscribers is no big deal, but for me it really is. It really means a lot to me.
Every time someone subscribes, it motivates me to keep making videos and providing value for you.
It seemed impossible to get 1000 subscribers.
Milestones the channel achieved:
The growth was slow, and I thought 1K subs would be hard. I wrote about it earlier this month. But actually, getting 4000 watch hours is a challenging task for me.
I am not sure if I can ever reach that right now. I have about 1.3K watch hours in the last 365 days right now.
It seems impossible, exactly how 1K subs did.
Yes, my channel has grown to over 1K subscribers now, which was one of the milestones I set when I started the channel.
But my goals remained the same, I want to share my knowledge so that people, designers have a library of videos they can go to when it comes to product design.
I don’t want to be in the top 1% of product design channels. I’d be happy with moderate success. Being in the top 15% would be wonderful.
I am learning to slow down when I speak to get my point across more clearly. I feel that I’m becoming a better public speaker video by video.
Back in New Zealand, I joined toastmasters which helped a lot with practising public speaking and getting feedback on my delivery of speech in a safe environment without being harshly critiqued. I’d love to find another Toasmasters group here in Canada too.
I don’t think I’ve ever been a confident person when it comes to public speaking. I was bold and brave but not confident. I did things afraid because I was bold. Learning English and not being able to express myself in a way like I was able to in Hungarian, well, my confidence really took a hit. I found it difficult to talk to strangers and communicate my ideas in English.
I want to learn better time management and how to maintain my focus when I make videos ( a couple of hours a day). I want to become a better cinematographer and storyteller (Anne Hatheway is my idol when it comes to story delivery). If I ever come close to that…oh my, that’d be amazing! How to record videos in an entertaining way. I want to learn how to divide my time better and get faster and better at video editing.
I have a full-time job and side hustle, so my content creation (which started as a hobby and a mean to build personal branding), so I only have so much time I can spend on my hobbies and side projects. Sometimes I feel having only a couple of hours here and there is a curse and a blessing. It’s a blessing because it forces me to be productive and focused.
But I really really want to do it. I have this intrinsic motivation, some kind of innate drive that doesn’t let me not do YouTube.
When I started this channel, I decided that it doesn’t matter how hard it would be; I am not a quitter. I decided to create 100 long-form videos and then decide if it’s really worth it. Because it’s ok to fall out of love. It’s ok to fall out of love with a hobby.
It seemed impossible to get 1000 subscribers.
But no.
Getting 4000 watch hours is a tough task for me. And right now, I am not even sure if I can ever reach that. I need to strategize. I should probably create longer videos so people can watch those.
I think it’s still possible to fail with a YouTube channel. YouTube 2022 is different from YouTube 2016. The rise of short-form videos…well, that’s a different topic, so I’m not getting into that. Nowadays, it’s much harder ‘to make it’. But I’m going to try anyway.
I know YouTube shows advertisements on my videos. But they are not my ads. I’m not part of YPP — YouTube Partner Program (yet). So when viewers see an ad on my videos, that’s not my doing.
So my goal in 2023 is to get 4K hours of watch time to qualify for the program. I want to ask all of my subscribers to play my videos in the background so that it can boost the watch hours.
Why we do certain things. Everyone can have multiple whys. It’s okay to be a designer and also a YouTuber and a writer. So I realized I can be all of these…but not at the same time.
I don’t ever want to feel the pressure of creating. I have a few ventures, writing, sketchnoting, and video making. Sometimes I do feel the pressure. Sometimes it comes from other people, but if I’m being honest, most times, it comes directly from me. I put pressure on myself to deliver. But I needed to put a stop into my process. So whenever I feel that inner pressure, I just sit with it and get away from the computer and apps for a few days or weeks if needed. That’s how I felt after finishing the YouTube creator course. I had a debilitating feeling of not being a good enough creator. I forgot that I was supposed to enjoy the creative process.
During these last 6 months, a lot of things happened. Packing everything in New Zealand to get ready for relocation to Canada. Sorting out my dog’s travel. Everything was so stressful and time-consuming. Finally, when I got to Canada, I got sick with Covid, and it took me a few weeks to recover. We had to arrange all of our lives again in Canada, find a place to live, get a health card, and get furniture because our belongings will take a while to get here from New Zealand.
I also lost my job offer in Canada, so I had to find another one, which was unexpected, and again stressful.
Then my dog got sick, and went through a terrible time…and then she passed away in September. One of the hardest things I have experienced in the last decade or so. It took me a while to come to terms with her death. But I miss her cute little personality every day.
…but it took me a while. It was a good time to pause and introspect the past year, finding my whys.
I’m not creating to impress people. I create for personal branding, fun, and knowledge sharing. So I don’t need to feel the pressure at all.
I also want to grow in my ability to share my design knowledge.
‘When one teaches, two learn’ — Robert Heinlein.
Because my videos are mainly educational, that’s why creating videos allows me to do exactly that.
I don’t want to create videos just for the sake of making videos. I want to enjoy the process. I want to feel excited about my channel. I want to create because I feel great about creating. I want to create because it makes me feel creative and bold.
I want to create videos that are useful and fun. Videos that you, my viewers, want to watch when you see the newest thumbnail.
By the way, from now, you can submit a video request through a form. So if you’d like to learn more about a topic, let me know by filling out the form.
I promise to keep making more content that you’ll enjoy. I appreciate every one of you!