I’ve been writing this newsletter for almost a year now, and I have covered a wide range of topics which have helped me grow and have hopefully helped you grow too! In that time, I have interviewed numerous channels bigger than my own, and have been able to confirm that I am down the right path.
But two lessons stand out to me the most, as they are most often repeated and emphasized:
- You have to continuously learn & grow your skills. It never stops. Once you hire an editor, you learn marketing. Once you learn marketing, you learn cinematography. And so on.
- You have to have fun!
When we first start out our channels, we’re excited, we’re giddy. We create random things and show our full selves! We all know authenticity is key, aye?
But then the trolls come, and they beat us down. Our videos don’t perform as well as we expected.
So we stop swearing as much. Use less bikini shots (or more). Don’t show the drunken stumble back to the boat. We study. We sign up for newsletters like this one, and scour YouTube for advice on how to film, edit, and tell stories better. We get a bit better, but our growth doesn’t seem to be affected that much. In many cases, it slows down.
Why?
Because we’ve disconnected from ourselves. And our audience feels that.
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EGO is the Enemy
Our ego has been hurt. And we’ve made the mistake of attaching ourselves and our identity to our videos’ performance. When the feedback is positive, we feel great. When the feedback is negative, we feel awful. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what happens when your ego takes over and you forget your why. It’s what happens when you don’t have a purpose and focus.
When you don’t have a clear direction for where each video should take your audience, you can’t lean back and day, “Yah, the stats aren’t so great, but at least I put out an important message.”
I have a quote I listen to every morning.
“NEVER believe what anyone says about me, good or bad. Do not believe the bad stuff and certainly do not believe the good stuff. Draw my own conclusions about myself. Listen to my own counsel. Nobody knows me better than me. “
It cannot be denied that it feels good when people congratulate you or say good things about your work. But the reality is that those that are the loudest may not be the majority. And if you adjust your work to meet the needs of the loudest, you might wake up one day to find it’s not a message you align with. You may end up attracting an audience you don’t identify with. Or worse…you might end up losing your edge.
Maintain Your Edge.
Your edge is what sets you apart. It’s my dad jokes in every episode. It’s my self-reflective summaries at the end. It’s me talking about all the human rights abuses that happened at the mining site I’m visiting. It’s what makes you 100% for someone and 100% not for others.
And that’s what makes you grow. You have to take a stand on topics, show your full personality, and include that cringe scene. Because it’s those moments that make people think, “Ah yes, I’ve found my tribe.”
In order to maintain your edge, you need to learn to turn inwards and think, “I’m not going to take the edge off. I’m not going to tone this down because XYZ user is going to be offended. Instead, I am going to be myself, the best version of that self. I am in this for the long game, no matter how brutal it might be.”
Action
What is one way you have been taking off the edge in your videos? For me, for a long time I thought my content was too serious. That adventure content needs to be more playful. Lately, I’ve turned into whatever personally resonates and honored that, and I’ve found it makes the whole process much more enjoyable!
