Seven Things I've Learned About YouTube In One Year

Oof. I can't believe that it has been a year since I started doing YouTube already. And there are so many things that I've learned in this process that I wish I knew from the get-go. But I want to share that with you guys and just share openly about 7 things that I think are really important that I've learned along in my YouTube journey. And I can't wait to share that with you guys. And yay, happy 1 year! And speaking of being on YouTube, thank you, thank you, thank you to all of my subscribers and people that continue to like and comment on my videos. It makes a huge difference, and I'm going to get into a little bit of that today and why that's something that, like, I just— I learned to really appreciate the community that developed on here too, uh, throughout this year. I'll, you know, it's still a small community, but I'm still so, so, so appreciative to everybody that takes the time to subscribe, like the video, comment, and all that stuff. So thank you guys, and if you aren't subscribed, please take a moment to subscribe to my channel, like my video, it helps so much, so thank you. All right, so let's dive into the 7 things I've learned throughout this entire year of doing YouTube for the first time ever. And the first thing I wanna share is that it's a lot harder than it looks, like a lot harder. This is the easy part, most days it is. There's always some days that, you know, sometimes you don't feel like filming, but this is the easy part is sitting in front of the camera and sharing my content and, you know, just being able to do this part of things. But there's a lot of things that go on in the background that I think I had a concept of but didn't really understand how much time and effort it takes to actually, you know, put effort into, into YouTube videos and do the research and the editing and the scripting and the, the posting and, um, you know, just the community development and all that stuff. There's, there's a lot to it and it I appreciate content creators and YouTubers so much more for the amount of effort it takes because it's a lot. And I definitely never wanna discount that. That's like, I think it'll always feel that way because there's, as fun as it can be, there's always so much that goes into it and I so appreciate content creators like way more than I ever could have thought of now being in it. So that is one main thing that I really learned throughout this process is that It's challenging and there's a lot of times where I was like, I, why am I doing this? What am I doing? But there's so much to be learned along the way and I'm learning and growing and so grateful for everybody that's helped me along in this process too. Point number 2, you're gonna mess up. If you decide to do YouTube, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna fail, you're gonna put videos out there that flop. Like it's just gonna happen, it's part of it. You kind of just get used to doing it. I remember my first video, I mean, if you want to check it out, it's literally me sitting in a car driving, which probably is not safe to do. I had it in a little like car holder thing. But my biggest hurdle was just like just getting, just getting content out there no matter how bad it is at the beginning and just, just pushing it out there and getting comfortable on camera and just sharing what I wanted to do. But you will fail. You're gonna have instances where your equipment fails or your editing software fails or you don't get something out on time, or you flub your words but you don't want to do another take, or you, you say something in a way that you don't realize and you have to kind of backtrack a little bit. There's just so many things that can happen along this process. You really have to give yourself grace in the entirety of YouTube and everything that entails. So that's definitely been another point that I've learned in doing YouTube for my first year. Point number 3, um, I did mention this, that being on camera is often the, you know, easiest part of the YouTube process, at least at least for me, but there are gonna be some days where you don't wanna be on camera. There's definitely been days where I've sat down in front of this camera and literally turned to my husband and be like, I don't, I don't wanna be on camera today. Like whether that's just I've had a rough day or I have a lot going on otherwise, like I'm still running a health coaching practice and doing a lot of other things on top of that. Um, it's a lot, it can be a lot. And there's many times where I just didn't feel either comfortable being on camera that day, or I didn't feel super well, or what it might be. But I think it was just important to myself to show that I could show up, uh, and prove to myself that I could show up and be consistent with something, because I have ADHD and consistency is usually not our thing. Uh, so that's been something that's been, you know, interesting to learn and grow with and just get used to the concept that I'm not always going to want to do it. Even though this is the fun part, I might not always want to do it. It's not always a blast. Even though I can kind of fake it till I make it and make it look like it's super fun and like I'm having a good time and, you know, whatever, it's not always what I'm feeling on the inside. And I think that's just something that was a really important lesson for me to learn and also something that in turn helped me appreciate the content creation process too, because you have to think that these people have lives. They have they have other things going on in their lives that are, you know, whether that's tough relationships or job changes or moves or things that are stressful, and they still come on camera and show up. And I think that's so great. So lesson number 4 that I learned in the YouTube process throughout this whole year is that there's so much joy that I have found in developing a community here. And I, like I said at the beginning of this video, I can't thank you guys enough who have subscribed and showed support for this channel and continue to comment. And, and, you know, friends in my that I see on a weekly basis that support me. And it just like, it makes me almost tear up because it's just something I didn't expect. Like, I of course expected to grow my YouTube channel. That was the goal, right? And it's still growing. But I didn't expect the outpouring of support and community that showed up, especially on some of the videos on the ACL stuff. And when I was really raw and emotional about my ACL journey and what I went through and experienced and just the ACL community that developed out of this channel unexpectedly was so amazing, and I'm super appreciative of it. So the joy that you experience when you find your people that really appreciate your content and appreciate your story and what you have to share, it's just, it's an amazing thing. And I really, you know, really have found a lot of joy in this process because of it. Lesson number 5 that I've learned doing YouTube for a full year is that if you have another job, like outside of doing YouTube, which most YouTubers do unless they get to a certain point where like they're the top 3% of YouTubers and they don't necessarily have to have like another job or another business, um, you are probably gonna want to hire a team at some point if you can. You don't need to, but just know that it takes a lot of time. It does. At the beginning of this, You know, I was doing some of the editing on my own and really managing. Like, I still do all the script writing, and I'm obviously the one on camera and the one posting and the one responding and all those things. But thankfully, throughout this process, I've been able to find an editor that's helped me out with a lot of these videos, which has been absolutely amazing because the editing process takes some time. And my lovely husband is, you know, helping me get the camera gear set up, and that's been super helpful. But I can't imagine what it would feel like to do this on top of a full-time job and not have a team accessible at some point as you're growing this and start to produce more content more than a weekly basis because it does become very time-consuming. So I could see it being necessary to consider hiring a team or at least getting a few people to help you out with script writing, topic research, editing, those sorts of things on the backend so that the whole YouTube machine functions a little bit smoother. Lesson number 6 that I learned doing YouTube for a year. This was a tough one. Um, not everybody's gonna like you. And of course I thought of that before doing YouTube. I know that putting myself on camera, that like I'm putting myself out there to thousands and thousands and thousands of people, uh, and there's gonna be some people who do not like my personality or what I have to say for whatever reason. And that's okay. That was a hard thing to learn. Like the first time I I got trolled and continue to get trolled and got some really nasty comments and just some mean people following me on Instagram and then commenting on things there and messaging me there. Like, that's not fun. And I, I again have a lot of respect for people in the public eye because of that tough skin you have to build. Like, I've probably experienced nothing in comparison, but it's just kind of a shock when you experience that at first. And like, I think it's a reality that you always have to keep in mind that like not everyone's gonna like you, and that's okay. Like, keep doing you, keep doing what's important to you and sharing your authentic self. And as long as you're doing that, there's gonna be people that aren't gonna like you, and that's okay. Don't change yourself for them, um, because that's when you start to lose the other people who genuinely did like your authentic self. So, uh, that's something that, you know, I've definitely learned and been more attuned to throughout this YouTube process is just being myself and continuing to be myself and sharing my quirky dad jokes sometimes in recording and just being authentically me no matter if some people like it or not and people have mean things to say. Boo, you know? All right, the 7th lesson that I've learned doing YouTube for a year is that it actually forces you to really become better at your craft. So whatever your topic is or your genre of topics that you cover, you tend to, of course, become way better at that because you're learning more, you're learning so much, you're researching a ton. If you're gonna have a channel based on economic trends, you're going to get really good at analyzing economic trends and educating people on that. And for me, as a health coach, and that being my primary business, I talk a lot about different aspects of health and wellness and lifestyle and behavior change and knee health and my ACL experience and all those things, all of which I have a previous knowledge of, but Being able to dive deep and do research on these topics and then have videos to share about them, but also to have that knowledge on a deeper level to be able to share with my clients is really great. So it does feed into my other business in that way too, which I think is really amazing. And I've become so well-learned in so many different areas of health and wellness in a very deep degree that I wouldn't have otherwise because again, You kind of, when you go through health coaching certification programs and things like that, you learn the bases and then you have your own personal experience on top of that and whatever personal learnings you want to go into. But when you have a YouTube video due date in like 3 days and you still have to research your topic, do a lot of script writing, find all the resources, make sure the resources are valid, all that stuff, it forces you to really, really, really know it. It's like doing your homework. So I think that's been a really amazing benefit and something that I learned along the way is that like I get to learn constantly and become a student of not only the craft of YouTube, but become better at my craft of coaching and serving people in that way, and that's really cool. So those are the 7 main lessons that I've learned in this entire year of doing YouTube, and there's way, way, way, way, way more that I've learned. If you guys are curious, drop any questions down below in this video, but I thought that those were kind of like the main, teaching topics that I've really like taken to heart and really realized throughout this entire process and very grateful to have learned. And I plan on continuing to do YouTube, so this isn't like me saying like, and I'm bowing out and bye. Uh, no, like I plan on continuing to do YouTube and continuing to grow my channel, um, and, uh, continuing to refine my craft at it and to make this a lot smoother, continue to make better content. Continue to put out more content, and I have a lot of big goals for where I want this YouTube channel to continue to grow. So I'm sure I'll have more lessons to share, but these are just some of the ones I wanted to share with you guys. And, you know, just if you're interested in doing a YouTube channel, maybe this helped you, maybe it gave you a different picture, a realistic picture of what to expect. But also just to give you guys some insight as to like what I'm actually experiencing, that I'm not just some like distant YouTube figure, that I'm a real person learning and growing throughout this process too, and that I so, so, so, so appreciate. Uh, I'll add one more so, so appreciate, uh, everybody that's followed me along in this journey and continue to support me, like I said, and subscribe, comment, share my videos, all those things. It means so much. Like, that, that's literally what keeps me going right now. Ooh, I felt like there was a bug on my leg. Um, That's what I'm talking about, my quirks. Anyways, that's what keeps me going right now and really makes me feel like this is providing value. So I want to thank all of you guys who have subscribed thus far, and if you haven't, consider subscribing if you want to. You know, I— it's a cool channel, I think so. Um, and like this video, and until next time, I will see you guys later. Bye!