hi guys i'm super excited to be starting
this channel hello
kitty cats welcome back hello my name is
rowena
hey guys welcome back hey friends
welcome back hello swedish potatoes
welcome back hello sweet potatoes
years on youtube
wow seems like yesterday but also
a lifetime ago so i just got home from
the office from scripting and outlining
this video so
we are here really quick water break
before we get started i was thinking of
making a ho chi chi latte because i've
been up since 6 30 and this is the
earliest i've woken up in a really long
time
but since it's already i don't know like
4 30 almost five
let's just instead of doing that i want
to make this instead
so let's make this really quickly and
then we'll start talking about
five lessons i learned
for five years on youtube
add a splash of milk
this is my childhood growing up in
taiwan
the corn soup from mossberger was
all right let's get this video started
it's too good
all right so the first lesson i learned
starting my youtube channel is if
something's important and up to you
you'll make it happen whether it's
starting a youtube channel whether it is
posting your first video
whether it is continuing to post videos
i think that's the hardest part it's
like continuing
once you get started i've said this in
my earliest videos
it's like i'm throwing spaghetti on a
wall and seeing what sticks it really is
i tried a bunch of content and over time
i'm now known as like a self-care
productivity girl um
maybe what do you guys think of me when
you think of me let me know down below
there's no
secret magic formula to blow up on
youtube you just have to
post videos keep trying keep iterating
keep pivoting
as with life right if you are faced with
a wall
you figure out a way to get over it to
get around it to dig a hole and go under
it
not just to stand there and just face a
wall
i mean you could if that is what you
believe your life calling it
can do that as well i hope this was a
good visual representation of where i
started and where i am now and the
journey
in which it took to get to where i am
today every creator is different every
channel is different but i
really really really believe that if
something is important up to you for
example for me
is to help as many people as i can
through my channel and through creating
content
because that was what was driving me and
we'll talk about my why
in the next point right after this i did
everything in my power
to continually reinvent myself to change
to grow to pivot to just evolve
as the platform evolves to evolve as the
viewer preferences evolve if there's a
will
there's a way i'll leave two links down
below one of them is a video from
garyvee where he talks about the
importance of documenting overcreating
as it comes to content creation
and a podcast with tim ferriss and casey
neistat
you guys don't know who casey neistat is
do you even youtube
moving on okay before the second point
i'm gonna i need to grab
makeup and start getting ready because
i have to head out in a bit
i feel like i need to reapply sunscreen
to my face
so the second point is
know your why i talk about this in my
very first video
of what inspired me to start my youtube
channel and it's something that we talk
about all the time it really is
a secret weapon and a very underrated
secret weapon for success if you know
your why
it literally puts you very very much
ahead of the crowd because i feel like
most people are just doing things to do
things
and even if let's say you know someone
with 1 million 5 million 10 million
subscribers even if they have these many
followers if you don't really have a
solid
it's all still empty right it's like you
have all of these things you have all of
this money you have all this fame
but what does that even really mean and
why does that matter
if you don't know why that's important
to you and i'm still
really bad at multitasking um
so with all of that what is your why
rowina
as i wrote i reminded myself of my north
star
of why i started my channel of why i'm
working on beauty within's channel
and for who i'm creating for my younger
self
for her to feel less alone for her to
feel like she's not crazy for dreaming
big
verda have hope that things will get
better if she believes in herself and
something greater than herself
so that is my why
in a nutshell and i really believe that
throughout my youtube journey i've
definitely doubted
a lot of am i doing the right thing
did i do the right thing is the content
i'm creating even helping people
if it's like not reaching as many people
as i'd like it to reach
why am i even doing this there's just so
much
negativity and self-talking go on in
here
so much fear and doubt can happen that
it becomes crippling
but i was lucky that i had people around
me like
my best friends my mother who would
remind me
rowena you started this because you
wanted to help people like younger self
and it was in those moments that it
became so blaringly obvious that i've
lost track of
what was important so if you want to
turn this into a formula to make it more
digestible
is creating videos is scary
helping people is meaningful and
fulfilling
so if you create videos that help people
although it's still
anxiety inducing it makes it less
scary if you have it tied to something
meaningful that something meaningful
will shine
so bright that it overshadows
that it overshines all of the negativity
or like all of the doubting voices in
your head
third point is what is the third point
work smarter not harder
though i've made a lot of sacrifices to
get to where i
am today this includes working
seven days a week this includes not
having
time off this includes working when i'm
traveling and when i'm on vacation this
includes
putting in insane hours and burning
yourself out along the way
so this is working hard that's why we're
talking about
working smarter i was in ise with my
parents
at a beautiful beautiful beautiful
resort hotel
famous for their hot springs and this is
a hotel that i think they hosted g7
um one of those like you know global
conferences with the
top politicians of some of the world's
biggest worlds that's totally what that
is
and i was so convinced that i had to
publish on time and publish
every week that i literally left dinner
earlier to edit
went to sleep woke up at 6 00 am to
watch the sunrise as i was editing and i
just sat there and edited
all morning until we had to leave at
like noon or one the lesson that i took
away from this
after the fact like maybe months or even
a year after when i looked back i was
like yes it's important to work hard but
you don't need to go to extremes and
like work yourself to the point where
you're not enjoying a family vacation
with your parents and like my parents
didn't mind because this is the first
time they've seen me work this hard in
my entire life
but still me looking back decades from
now do i wish i would have gone to the
hot springs with my parents or do i wish
i would have edited
so with all of that i think working hard
as a baseline is important but take
breaks be good to yourself be gentle
with yourself if you're also
a content creator skipping a week
skipping two weeks skipping a month
literally nothing's gonna happen i think
this was my biggest realization
throughout quarantine
one day i was on the toilet i was just
peeing and i was thinking to myself like
man
what if i don't post for a month
absolutely nothing will happen
and that was low-key one of the most
liberating and mind-blowing realizations
i had
where i was like
we good you good take some time off
you deserve it you've been working hard
for many many many many months and years
now
just because you can work 24 7 doesn't
mean
you should so how does one work smarter
and not harder whether it is
streamlining your creative
process as a creator on youtube or just
your work process your workflow
whether it is hiring someone to help you
i love you michelle whether
it is finding apps to help you get more
done with less time i really do believe
at the end of the day
it is being mindful and being
intentional with everything that you do
which is something that identity also
believes in
time or a little sponsored break
you guys know how much i love notion
bullet journaling and all that
productive jazz today
i want to share something new this is
honestly something i wish i had five
years ago when i started youtube because
it helps you organize everything you do
online
in one place with these beautiful tiles
which help to create an environment
that's more conducive to focus and
deeper levels of concentration aka
working smarter not
harder you can click a tile to launch a
website you can organize these tiles by
categories like work finance and
entertainment you can also search for
specific tiles
notes or categories and there's a notes
function including a to-do list which
seamlessly links to tiles making this a
beautiful
10 out of 10 experience if you guys want
to give identity a try
you can check them out via the link in
my description
all right so i'm gonna quickly go
through the rest of my face because
a huge part of working smarter and
harder is to value breaks and taking
time off it is
leah's surprise birthday party tonight
her boyfriend threw it together it's
very very sweet so i'm gonna finish
getting ready
head out and we'll finish the rest of
the video
as i'm in the uber to dinner i'm
reminded of a conversation i had with
jason the founder of jubilee
while we're on our way to an event in la
also in an
uber i asked him how he's able to
continue creating content for over a
decade
on youtube he responded that he had to
keep growing individually as a person
for his channel to grow
and this has stuck with me ever since as
i was deep in my burnout and resetting
era
interpersonal and professional lives if
you're not moving forward
you're either standing in the same place
or moving
backward as someone who valued work
overall else
it was to be expected that i was burning
out all the time
now that i've been making a conscious
effort to spend more time outside of my
safe space of an apartment
saying yes more after five years of
saying no
and prioritizing relationships i think
you guys can tell from my more recent
content that i've been living lighter
taking more time to inhale which has
given me space to be more playful
more of myself and more creative
while growth at different stages in our
lives will look different
sometimes we'll want to run like mad and
other times we'll want to slow down
the most important thing is that we're
trying our best with what we have
where we are
[Music]
just got home let's take off my face as
we talk about
the fifth and final point which is
staying true to yourself i really feel
like this is another one of those secret
weapons
of not forgetting the heart you once had
for example starting out on this youtube
channel
why did i start this channel is it to
grow and is it to get views is it to
make money i think all of these are
great
byproducts of doing the things that i
want to do
but it's not why i started even for
someone like me who prides myself
i'm being pretty self-aware and
intentional with everything that i do
on a week-to-week basis if you're just
focusing on the numbers of views
and how many views the video is getting
in the back end
of the youtube creator studio you can
see how well your new video ranks
compared to previous videos and
sometimes it's just
it's very stressful and that makes you
focus a lot on the numbers the
click-through rates the average view
durations the more you focus on that the
more you lose track of
why you started creating in the first
place so
remembering the heart you once had
staying true to yourself along those
lines
when i first started youtube i poured
through so many different
creators videos on how to get started on
youtube how to grow on youtube i just
remember
one really stuck with me it's a beauty
youtuber
i honestly don't remember who it was
she was talking about how she was trying
to be like the most perfect
beauty vlogger and talk about skin and
just do her makeup like perfectly
and her channel wasn't growing much and
it wasn't until she was like
if that i'm just gonna be myself be loud
and just be proud of who i
am that was when she started seeing her
channel grow because
i think people just naturally gravitate
towards people who are authentic and who
are being true themselves another thing
with staying true to yourself
i believe is being able to focus on what
you have versus what you don't have
it's easy to be where i'm at today and
ask myself you're only at five hundred
thousand subscribers
how come you know one million five
million ten million
this other girl who started a few years
later than you she's already well beyond
one million what are you doing
i think it's very easy to fall down this
thinking
and forget that me five years ago would
be
so happy to know that i've grown
my community to over 500 000 potatoes
and how
much there is to be grateful for in the
present of right now of what
i already have versus what i don't have
and another thing
is focusing on what's on the inside
versus what's on the outside so on the
outside it's easy to see someone living
their best life it's easy to see someone
having the perfect morning routine it's
easy to see someone having an aesthetic
life and comparing yourself to that
being like i'm not good enough they're
living a better life than me but a quote
that i blurted out that you guys seem to
really appreciate
from how to be that girl have a that
girl moaning routine is that
an aesthetic life without meaning and
dup is still
empty that just yes
it's what's on the inside that's truly
important and what matters most because
when we're
older and start withering away the
inside
is what will stay with us the outside
all the spades
like my face right now my face i don't
know why these past few days it's gotten
so dry on my cheeks around my eyes like
it's never
been like this before i feel like age is
just catching up to me
but that's a part of life so heavy like
it's fine
beauty has always been temporary i think
true true everlasting beauty is
truly what's on the inside staying true
to yourself
staying true to your values staying true
to who you are
and the foundation for being able to do
that is taking the time to ask yourself
who am i what do i value and
what kind of a person do i want to be
what kind of a life do i want to live
and what does it mean to be successful
to me
what does it mean to live a meaningful
and fulfilling life i'm about to wash my
face
hop in the shower call it a night it's
been a long
week but i'm immensely grateful for it
and i'm immensely grateful for you guys
for sticking around
since whenever you guys came day one
year ago a couple months ago today is
the first time you're seeing my face
i'm grateful for your presence i'm
grateful that you guys decided to click
on this video and stick around all the
way till the end i don't know if i can
hug you guys
it's kind of far but
with my dry dry cheeks alrighty
see you guys in the next video bye