Why I'm Starting A New YouTube Channel

This is definitely a different type of feeling for me because I'm basically just turning on the camera and going now. Which is very different from the videos that I make on my main channel. So thank you for checking this out. I know that this style isn't going to be for everybody, which is why I wanted to do it on a second channel. So if it's not for you, completely understand it. All the stuff that I post on the Visionary Basel channel, like, that's not going anywhere, I'm not stopping that or anything like that. But this is just going to be a different out outlet for me, different opportunity to connect with you guys. And it's something that I'm really excited about, you know, so if you don't know who I am, I'm Ethan, Creative vision Driven basketball. And you know, that was back in 2019 when that all started. And you know, I'll kind of give you the why behind this channel and then kind of like a what you can expect from this and why I'm so excited about doing it. I think the big thing is in the world that we live in now, things are so different than they were five, six years ago when I started venturing basketball. And I watch a ton of different content creators on YouTube now who I have a ton of respect for in terms of the brands they've built and the way that they're able to connect and the content they make. And a lot of them have shifted almost towards a very unedited, very raw. They're almost like a conversation, like tone or channels. Like a lot of them have created second channels. And I saw a really good take on it a couple weeks ago in the world we live in today, 2025, the world of AI, right, where it's hard to really know what's real and what's created by AI. When you read anything online, like if it sounds too good, it's probably AI, but you just, you just don't know. And so it's hard to really trust anybody. It's hard to really trust anything that you see because do you know if there is even a person on the other side of it saying that? And you know, outside of just that, like the way that YouTube is, it's very edited, it's very buttoned up and you don't see any of the imperfection, you'll see any of the struggles, you don't see any. Anything but what people want you to see. And I feel like it's hard to, to connect with that. Right. Like, I think as humans, like we connect with. With honesty, and we connect with, you know, kind of just the raw, unfiltered aspect of life. And so that's kind of what I want this to be without. I'm not trying to go crazy deep here with anything, but that's a big part of why I wanted to make this channel. Allows me to just connect way more with you guys and do a couple of different things, which I'm excited about. So, you know, visionary basketball has kind of started, you know, just kind of as like a. I'll try making this brief as I can, but a background of kind of my story. You know, growing up, basketball was, like, everything to me. When I was probably by the time I got to, like, seventh grade, so probably 12 or 13, basketball was, like, all that I cared about. Before that. It was funny. I was, like, a. Like, huge into football, like, elementary school, like, he's a young kid. I watched, you know, the Peyton Manning play one time when I was, like, 6 years old. And then at that point, I, first of all became a Colts fan, which I still am to this day. Is a rough life for us. Just every. Every year, it seems like when you can't get beat down more, we get beat down more. And people ask me, like, you know, you're from Boston. You basically grown up in Pennsylvania your whole life. You have a lot of other options. Why are you a Colts fan? It's because when I was six years old, I just watched Peyton Manning play one time, and I was like, man, that's my favorite player. And I've stuck with them through the. Through the. The highs and lows, mostly lows. But when I got to, like, seventh grade, that was when it became real, because now you got to try out for the school team and all that sort of stuff. And I just fell in love with the game of basketball, and I fell in love with the process of getting better and what all goes into that. And so, you know, for me, I always say this, and if you watch a lot of my videos, you probably heard me say this before. But my favorite part of the season back then was when it would end, when we get to mid February. This is before, like, this is probably like, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th grade when, you know, you don't have. You're not playing varsity basketball for a championship or anything like that, where you want to keep going. This is before then. I loved when the season would end because I would just. I'd get out my phone and I write down my exact plan for that offseason, what I was Going to get better at how I was going to do it. I loved that process. Like, it was. It was my favorite part of basketball. As much as I love playing and I still do love playing, that was what I loved. And that's a big part of why I do what I do now. But getting into high school was a two year varsity starter at the Catholic school that I ended up going to. And my goal always was to play college basketball. Like, that was always my goal. And my senior year of high school had a couple different opportunities, and one that I was kind of set on basically fell through at like, very last minute, like summer. So at that point, you know, didn't really have any options. So I decided to take the year off and train and come back and find another opportunity. And so that's what I did. That whole year after I graduated from high school, I was just training and had a couple of different opportunities with some jucos throughout Pennsylvania, probably two or three that I really liked because at that point, like, I didn't care. All I wanted to do is play basketball. Like, I don't care where it was, I don't care who was for, I don't care what I had to do. Like, that was what I was going to do. And in that year off, I had someone reach out to me who was the athletic director at like, the middle school that fed into my Catholic high school. And she was like, hey, we're looking for another basketball coach for our boys team. Would you be interested in doing that? So I was like, yeah, you know, a little bit extra money and, you know, I love basketball. I love the process of, you know, I love just being in the gym and, you know, especially then because it was the feeder school to my high school. So, you know, I had a lot of love for my high school coach and for the program that he had. So I figured if I could help him out by developing some of those players, by the time that they got to him, you know, I was all for it. So started doing that. And then I had a couple parents on that team asked me to train their kids outside of like our team stuff. And that was how I kind of got into training was like early 2019, just training, like probably two kids. And that started to grow a little bit and, you know, started picking up a few more kids here and there. And then I think in the summer of 2019 was when I had somebody just kind of randomly telling me, like, hey, you should start posting stuff. Like you start like posting videos and doing social media and all that sort of stuff. And I was a little resistant then because I'm like, I'm not a YouTuber. And, you know, I still, to this day, I don't think I'm a YouTuber now. Like, I don't view myself as a YouTuber, but, you know, I did it. And you know, obviously back then it was very different. But, you know, fast forward six years, almost six years, and here we are. So that's kind of like the background of kind of how things started off with Vision Driven Basketball. There's for sure been a big content shift, and this is kind of getting into why I made this channel and why and what you can look, look forward to seeing. When I first started, you know, I was. And I still think this way now, but it's different. I created that channel to make content for players who were like me, right? Who, you know, I asked myself, okay, what could I have used when I was a high school player? What would have helped me? And that was what I wanted to make. So. So it was workouts focused on ball handling, finishing shooting, you know, all that sort of stuff right there. The player workouts were huge. And even to this day, I get requests for player workouts all the time. So, you know, if, you know, you know. But probably almost every video I got a comment asking to bring back the player workouts. And I love the player workouts at the time. I probably won't make any more of those, just. Cause I've kind of shifted, like, what my focus is now. But I love doing that. I love just the process of breaking. Breaking that stuff down. And I think it's great to. To go out and get back to, you know, being a kid, I think, which is like, when we were all kids, you watch your favorite player play and then you go out to your driveway and you just try and recreate what they did, the shots they made, the moves they make. I think that's a really powerful thing to learn how to do, is emulate those things, use the power of mirror neurons and all that sort of stuff right there. And, you know, I start my channel in July 2019, and then six months, eight months later, I guess, Covid hits. And obviously that changed everything. And so for me, it also changed things because now I knew, okay, well, players don't have access to anything. Like, you can't go work out with your team. You can't go work out with your trainer. You can't even go work out with your friends. You got to stay at your house. And there were places where they Were they were taking down basketball hoops and doing a bunch of crazy stuff, right? And so, you know, that was when I started, like doing the live workouts. Everyone's quarantined, everyone's at home. So I, I would just get on Live on YouTube and we would go through different ball handler workouts, stuff like that. If you were ever a part of the live workouts or you even know what I'm talking about, shout out to you. You are a true day one. But I think what I loved a lot about that was just how much I was able to connect with all of you guys. Because just on live, and it's very raw, very unfiltered, and, you know, we're going through a 30, 35, 40 minute workout. Um, and I, I got a really in depth view at the struggles that you guys were facing. And obviously with COVID it was magnified by a thousand. And I, I want to get back to being able to connect like that. So that's a big part of, of what this is going to be. So, you know, obviously, like, my main channel focuses a lot on, like, breakdowns and, you know, kind of quicker lessons and much more visual, edited content. And like I said, that's not going anywhere because I do love making that stuff too. And I think it's really important. This is going to be a space for deeper conversations like this. You know, I have a lot of guests lined up and more that I'm reaching out to. I'm actually about to record an interview in like a little over an hour. So, you know, make sure if you're watching this, go and check my channel, see if that's up there. Hold up. Getting a phone call here. Well, I just got a phone call from the girlfriend, so I had to edit a little bit out, but that's probably the only edit I'm gonna make. Like I said, very raw, very unfiltered. Um, but like I was saying, make sure you go and check my channel and see if that interview's up, because I haven't. We haven't filmed it yet. Like I said, about an hour. But it's. It's going to be incredible. Danny's really, really smart guy. Gonna be beneficial for players or coaches, so definitely check that out down below. But like I said, this allows me to do stuff like that. And you know, like I said, this will be. Won't be for everybody. Right? There's plenty of people who are like, what the heck is he talking about? Have turned this video off already. I get that. But if it's for you then I think you're really going to enjoy some of the stuff that, that I've got coming. And I've had a big shift and you know, you guys who watch a lot of my videos on my main channel have probably noticed this, but I've, I've had a big shift over the past probably four to six months or so, especially the last like month or two, really focusing heavily on basketball IQ. You know, when I started this 2019, it's funny because I the game of basketball when I started. Sorry, before I get ahead of myself. When I started off in 2019, I was making videos for players who were, who were in a similar situation to me. So what could I benefit from as a younger player? And I still do that now, but the way that I do it is different because I didn't know anything back then. Like When I was 19, 20 years old, I viewed the game of basketball completely different than I view it now. Like now it's almost a completely different game in my mind because, you know, I've learned from a lot of really, really good trainers, really good coaches. I've been around some really good coaches. You know, when I started in 2019, 2020, I didn't have a ton of experience coaching with a team. And that's been a big mindset shift and just overall kind of paradigm shift for me is working with a team and coaching with the team. And now I'm a varsity head coach. So the last five years before this, I've been a JV coach for a very successful high school program. And so that's where you really learn, I think what goes into player development, what goes into actually helping a player become great and be able to produce on the court. And I think when I was younger, it was very much a cut and dry black and white approach. Okay, do this drill, do this workout. If you know, try this move. If you do that, it's going to work. And if you look at basketball, social media, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, whatever you see a lot of stuff like that, that's the bulk. Majority of what you see is quick fix, quick fix, quick fix, do this drill, do this workout. You know, tell yourself this one thing and you're going to be confident. Everything is a quick fix. And what I've learned over the last six years is that, that the quick fist doesn't exist. If you want to become a super effective player, a really successful player, really successful coach, trainer, whatever, you have to fundamentally shift who you are. You have to change who you are. And if you don't do that, none of the tactics or strategies that people throw at you on social media are going to matter. Because you're going to get into a game and you're going to be pressed, you're going to, you're going to be tested and you're going to fold. And that was what I wanted to figure out is how do you build players who can learn all this stuff, work on all these things, get into a game and actually be able to execute it at a high level. They set a goal of hey, I want to accomplish this. And how do you actually help them do that? Because a lot of it is survival of the fittest. You give a really good athlete the quick tips and tricks you see on Instagram, they're going to succeed with it because they're a great athlete. But the other 99% of players who watch that aren't going to see those same results. And so I had to almost dive deeper into it. And that's why I've been so focused on basketball IQ and developing confidence like true deep rooted confidence, understanding. Because that is by far the most important thing. Nothing else matters without it. Like the shooting workouts, the ball handling workouts, the finishing, none of it matters. If you don't have the basketball IQ to understand how to apply it, when to apply it. You don't have the confidence and self belief and problem solving skills to be able to actually execute in a game. The saying is you can't train in a. What is it? You can't train in a. You can't train. It's something like this, I'm butchering it. You can't train in a soft world and expect to succeed in a wicked world. Which just means that if you, if none of your training is actually putting you through the process of being battle tested, then when you get to battle, which is a game, you're not going to be prepared for it. So how do I help develop players to have that ability? And that was why I'm so pressed into basketball iq, because it's so important, it's the most important thing. And when you look at that and you compare it to how much is actually focused on and talked about, it's not nearly as, as front and center as it should be. So that's why I created Basketball IQ Academy and that's why that's been like my, like my thing now. Because I think that that is the most impactful thing that I can give to a player. And you know, even, even going with like My master class, which by the way, I'll link that down below. I just watched my basketball IQ masterclass again. And just because I was talking to a coach who he coaches in Minnesota and his high school girls team, wildly successful, and he had all of his girls using basketball IQ Academy. And I'm not, I'm not trying to sit here and pitch it. I'm just kind of explaining the background. But you know, he also coaches AAU there and so he's got all, all those girls using it as well. And he was. We were kind of talking about the, the masterclass, which is like an hour long, like, kind of like just like free masterclass that I created on basketball IQ and developing some, you know, important skills when it comes to reading your defender and understanding when to drive, when to shoot, when to pass, all the stuff that goes into being a good offensive player. And so I went back and watched it like earlier this week and it's like, I mean, the amount of stuff in there, like, I almost forgot some of the stuff that I put in there. And I was like, oh, wow, that, like, I need to get back to talking about that more because it's important and it's really helpful. So I'll link that down below. Make sure you check that out. If you haven't, it's. It's really good. And I'm not, again, I'm not sitting here trying to toot my own horn, but it's really good. And if you haven't watched it, it's going to benefit you. But like I said, nothing to me matters more than who you are at your core. If you're not the person who's deserving of success on the court, you're not going to be. No matter what drills or workouts you do. I say all that to say this channel is going to be so much about developing the person and helping you become the, the person you need to be developing the principles, the wisdom that is going to allow you to be successful on the court. And that goes for coaches watching as well. I want to. The other reason I started this channel is because it allows me to connect with coaches and players. And it's hard to do that on my other channel. Like, it's very much a player centric channel. Not that, I mean, a lot of coaches watch and learn from it as well, but this will allow me to be even more direct with coaches and some of the stuff that I've learned bring on guests who, you know, a lot of them are smarter than me and know more than Me, so, you know, I'll learn from it. And I think everybody watching can learn from it as well. So, you know, that's been a big thing. But kind of what you can expect going forward is looking at posting at least weekly with, again, like, guest interviews, deep dives, stuff like this. Sometimes I might just turn on the camera and just see where. See where I go with it. And, you know, that's really what I'm looking forward to. I also want to do way more, like, Q and A stuff. So anytime you have questions for me, drop it down below in the comments. Send me a message on Instagram, whatever. Like, I'm looking to connect with you guys and talk about things you guys want to hear. So if you have something that you want me to talk about, please let me know. I want this to be a conversational vibe. Obviously, I'm speaking to a camera, so no one's talking back to me right now. But you can use the comments as your way to be able to respond and do all that sort of stuff right here. I would love to be able to, in my mind, when I make a video, have, like, the idea of who I'm talking to. So when you leave a comment, it allows me to know, okay, I'm speaking to Mike, I'm speaking to Sarah, I'm speaking to whatever, you know what I mean? So, you know, don't be a stranger is basically what I'm trying to say here. I want to do a lot of stuff that's going to kind of involve you guys watching and build that community. And like I said, I want this to be something that's very raw, very edited. I feel like I've talked a lot in this video, and who knows, Like I said, this might not be for anybody, but. But I think it's an important thing to be able to do. I just want it to be very real and very useful and motivating for everybody watching. So make sure you subscribe if you haven't before. Like I said, don't be a stranger. Introduce yourself in the comments. Let me know what you're struggling with, what you could use help with, any questions you might have, anything that you want to see. Also, if you have people or guests that you want me to have on to talk, let me know. Really? Anybody? I've got a few people that I've already talked to that I think are really good. But if you have anybody specific, like, you know, the. The basketball training space is big, but it's not. And so I can kind of connect with. With with anybody, really, if you guys want me to. So make sure you drop that down below. And, yeah, I'm. I'm looking forward to what all this is going to entail and connecting with you guys even more so. Also, like I mentioned, make sure you go and check and see if that interview with. With Danny's up. It's gonna be really, really good. I'm excited for it. But thank you for watching. Talk soon. Peace.