I try to inspire people by helping them find
that one unique quality about who they are
and help them realize that's what's going to get them out in the world.
What inspired me to put out the content that I do
is often things that I was looking for as a viewer and wasn't finding.
The only message that I want to give through my channel or with what I do
is to follow your passion and do what you want to
instead of settling for mediocre because it seems safe.
My process...it's very much a struggle.
I have to be in the mood to talk about a certain issue
but I almost always have an outline
just to make sure I don't stray from the message.
I prefer not to script my videos word for word
but I like writing down a few points I want to make
so when you talk to the camera you have those thoughts in your head.
I write a script and then I research
if there's any other video that's the same.
I try to check the internet to see if there are similar videos
in which case I will change mine.
My approch is very essay-based, like we learned in school
where you have an intro, a body, then a conclusion.
I address the issue and I give supporting topics
on why this is not okay, you can't keep doing this
and then offer a solution on what you should do to fight against it.
As a creator, it's important to keep things visually interesting.
I try to write poetry about what I'm feeling when it's politics.
I try to make stop motion, and cool little pictures and things
to help people picture what I'm trying to say.
I always watch my videos back before I load them and go:
"Am I bored? Would I be bored by this?" And if I'm bored, I'm not uploading it.
Consistency.
Just so that when you get this following
they kind of already know what to expect.
So when they see your video on the feed, they're like:
"I know what I'm about to get myself into."
It's important to keep putting out new content
because you're going to change your opinions
and you want to keep talking about that, you want to keep a dialog going.
I try to make my videos a bit more approachable
by just being very personal and one-on-one.
And when it comes to talking about serious issues, or heavy issues
I try to find a nice respectful balance between it being
not too comedic, but not too serious.
I try to approach really heavy topics in the way I would with a friend.
I always try to frame it in a way that I'm sharing something
then talking about the wider issue.
I make my best friends watch it before I release the video
because I feel they're way more sensible than I am,
so they might knock some sense into me if I'm being stupid about something.
They're all brutally honest; they tell me if I suck.
I try to listen to people's opinions, either on Twitter
or from what they're saying to me, before I make the video.
For example, with my Creators for Change project
I got people to send me Voice Notes
letting me know what they thought about that topic
and getting to put that in the video as a visceral part of it.
I'll try to get feedback sometimes
but if I'm going to talk about it, and I feel it in myself
I'm typically just going to talk about it.
My main goal is to try to get my followers to get in this mindset
of being observant and seeing things that are going on in the world
and speaking up against it.
If I like somebody and they do really amazing things
and I follow them on a day-to-day basis
I would love to be like them, so I start trying to do what they're doing.
And, if I'm setting a good example, I believe that people who follow me
will become better people too.
I hope one of the takeaways from my videos
is that people do have permission to talk about topics publicly, and that's okay.
I hope that people feel like their opinion matters.
And I hope that it helps as a tool
to be able to talk to people in their lives if they don't know where to start.
Thanks so much for watching
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