- The other day I went to my YouTube community tab,
and I directly asked my audience, what are you guys
struggling with when it comes to just making content?
And, over 100 of you responded with what you're struggling
with when it comes to just hitting record,
your struggles with gear, uploading on a consistent basis,
or just making the type of videos that you want
and putting them out there.
So today, I'm not go through all 100 of these and reply,
but I'm going to kind of narrow it down to what
most of you had to say and see if I can help.
I don't know if this will work for all of you,
but it may offer you guys some encouragement,
but also some practical advice; so, let's go.
Hey everybody, this is Roberto Blake helping you create
something awesome today, welcome back to the channel.
For the new folks here, welcome, my name's Roberto Blake,
I'm a creative entrepreneur here on YouTube,
I've done over a thousand videos, I'm also a public speaker
at events like VidCon and VidSummit, and today I wanna
help you if you are struggling to make online content.
Now this advice isn't gonna be limited to just YouTube,
this is gonna be about creating content in general
because I think regardless of what platform you're trying
to go for, a lot of these struggles are the same.
One of the most common things is the fear of being
on camera in the first place.
I struggled with this for my first 100 videos,
I think even Gary Vaynerchuck, prolific public speaker,
entrepreneur, who did a thousand episodes of Wine Library TV
before doing his Ask Gary V Show, Daily V, all that stuff,
he said that for the first 60 to 100 videos, he didn't
feel comfortable on camera, and he's wildly charismatic.
Don't beat yourself up about this, this is something
that comes with practice, giving yourself the opportunity
to practice is one of the best things you can do,
I wish I had done it more before I decided
to actually put my content out there.
Consider recording some stuff that you know
you're not gonna post just to get used to the idea of it,
and just to practice your talking points, and how you want
to say things, because a lot of you, you guys said
that you don't trust yourself in terms of how you're
saying it, how you're communicating, I read through
every single one of your comments when I asked this,
so I understand exactly what you're going through here,
it wasn't easy for me either.
I'm an introvert, I really, when I first got started
with this I was in a place where I was just coming off
of being really down and depressed, so I really do think
that your on camera energy, your ability to communicate
and articulate well, I think those things
really just come with practice, and you just need
to keep going, even if you're not putting it out there.
Now some of you said you live in an area
where you don't have good wifi or internet,
that's because of either the country that you're in
or that you don't have the best,
you can't afford the best wifi or cable, or internet,
and what my recommendation is consider if you have
the ability to, going somewhere where there is
better internet to do the upload process,
even if you have to change your schedule around that,
one thing you could look at doing is you could look
at going to your local library or media center,
if you don't have a laptop to do that, to get your videos
out there, after you render them, consider putting them
on a hard drive or a thumb drive and then going
to your local library or media center,
and then using their internet to upload
if you're allowed to do that.
If you have a laptop then go somewhere where
there's good public wifi, and that makes a difference.
Some of you also said that just where your location is,
it's not good for you to try to do any of the stuff
that you really wanna do, at the level that you wanna do it,
and so my answer to that would be maybe you could
focus all of your energy on just making more money
and saving more money.
You don't have to make more money on YouTube if you're
already struggling with that, or with the social media side,
you could do more of the things that I talk about,
like affiliate marketing, an online business,
if you wanna watch those videos, I'm gonna link to them
up here, and also in the description,
I have a lot of videos about how to make money online,
I make more money on all my other ventures
than I do on YouTube, so maybe if you can save money
you can get resources, some of you said hardware's an issue,
if you prioritize making more money
and saving up for your goals, then you can either
move to a better place that's just easier for you to
fulfill your dreams and your goals,
or maybe if you need equipment, hardware,
or other resources, you can acquire those things,
if you just make more money, or save more money.
And I know that sounds easy to say and it's hard to do,
totally get it, but I remember when I first got started
it was slow for me too, so if I can manage it,
I think that a lot of you are underestimating what your
abilities are and that you have an opportunity.
Now there are a lot of you, you say that your issue is
that you don't have time to make content,
and you really want to.
I would say that, consider looking at the time
that you do have available, and see if there's any way
to save more time in terms of making something more
efficient or spending less time on other things,
and see where you can borrow that extra bit of time.
Also, a lot of you, it's the perfectionist thing,
that's really what's holding you back.
You're saying you don't have enough time,
but the reality is that it's that you're trying to do
something that takes more time then you have.
Maybe cut back your ambition just a little bit
for now to just get something done, and to get efficient,
and to develop good habits, and to check the box.
And you can work your way up to that thing
that you really want to do, because I think that
a lot of you, your problem is, you're looking at
the gap between where you want to be and where
you actually are, and you're not cutting yourself
enough slack saying, you know what?
It takes time to get there, and I'm not giving myself
that patience, that time, to work my way up to something,
because I think so many of you look at the people
that you admire, and you wanna make content
the way they're making it, but none of them
started out where they are today, they worked their way
up to it, whether you've seen it or not.
And a lot of times it's not their first try,
they had five or six failures before they ever launched
whatever it is they're doing now.
So, just kind of put it into perspective,
and stop setting the bar so freaking high for yourself,
calm down, come back down here,
and I'm not telling you to settle, I'm telling you
to respect the level of ability and resources
you currently have, and not abuse yourself
with high expectations.
In reading through these comments I thought
it was important to address the people who have
health issues, demands on their energy,
physical disabilities, I'm very sympathetic to that,
there are people in my family who have this exact
same situation, and it's part of why I advocate
for alternative careers, and ways of making income,
because not everybody can fit the structure
of a nine to five job because of their health,
or their illnesses, or their disability.
With that in mind, when it comes to content creation,
you have to be willing to accept some of the conditions,
and limitations, that your body might have,
and to that end, I would say that you have to look at
content styles and formats that don't rely
on you doing one; filming and editing for very long
periods of time, so you need to curtail what you want
to make to fit within those parameters,
so you need to make content that's simpler to make,
and that is not such a drain on your energy
and on your time, and you also need to approach this
understanding that you will not be able to compete
on daily content, and heavy volume, so you will need
to work with that in mind as well.
You might have to accept that growth will be slow
because you don't have the means of doing daily content,
or multiple uploads a week, and that's fine,
that's the way it is, just accept the growth for what it is,
and understand that there are other ways that you can
supplement growth if you're not satisfied with that.
I would argue that you shouldn't be looking at those
numbers to derive validation, or an emotional response,
but consider that the other ways to get traffic
and attention if you want something to be seen
is you could buy advertising.
It's not what people want to do, everyone wants
to be rewarded organically or algorithmically,
but if your real desire is, you're telling me,
if you guys are being honest with me,
and honest with yourself when you say,
I work so hard on something I want it to be seen,
isn't it worth paying for that if that's what it takes?
Some of you have told me that you are filming at home
and in your room, and you live with people,
and it's noisy, or you can't find a clean area
in your house or in your room, I would stress that
try to find a dedicated workspace, an area,
because just in general I think that's a good thing
to do, if you can manage it, and if you start
actually recording and making videos,
it might encourage you to clean and stay organized
on a more regular basis.
Now for those of you who say that you want to film
outside, you want to vlog, but you're scared
of doing it in public, you have to work past that.
You have to give yourself exposure to that
and confront the fear head on if that's the kind
of content you wanna produce.
If you can't confront that fear head on, you can't accept
that you have to acclimate yourself to this,
you're not gonna be able to make that kind of content
if that's what you want, and you will have to
just do locked off, tripod videos,
in your room, talking head, and you may not feel
creatively or emotionally satisfied with that,
but you also just can't get past the fear
of doing the videos in public, so you're gonna have to
make a choice, you're either going to have to do
what's comfortable, or you're gonna have to be able to learn
to get out of your comfort zone, and you're gonna have
to either live with content that is not what you would
love it to look like, or sound like,
or you're going to have to step up and change something
inside of yourself that allows you to make that content
that you honestly believe is better.
Easier said than done, so I have an idea for you.
Consider if you're going to do that, try to get a friend
or family member to go with you, because maybe it's that
you'll be less anxious if you're not doing it by yourself.
Or, go to a place where people know you, where people
like you, and then let them know what you're trying to do,
and then get some emotional support and know
that not everyone's looking at you weird,
and that they want to be helpful or supportive,
and then maybe that helps you work past it.
I think that's actionable advice.
Now here's some advice, and I should do a video
for the vloggers out there in general,
but for those of you who are trying to be vloggers,
and you aspire to be daily vloggers but your issue is
that you don't think you can make your life interesting
everyday, not everyday has to be a daily vlog.
In fact, I don't think it should be.
Consider that it's just doing videos everyday,
and then you can tell stories.
Casey Neistat doesn't do an interesting day in his life
every single day, a lot of times he'll sit down
in front of the camera and tell you what he's
thinking about, what he's feeling, or a story
from in the past, recently he did a story about
his grandmother, you can find interesting stories
within your life, and you don't always have to capture them,
sometimes you can do it as a story time,
and that's good enough.
And, again, if you signed on for a daily vlogger schedule,
I'm gonna be real with you, you need to scale back
some of your expectations, and you also,
if you're going to stick to daily, that's a commitment,
you signed on for that, so find a way to deliver,
and that might mean being much less extravagant
in the type of videos you make.
I try to do multiple uploads a week, three to five
uploads a week on this channel,
I'm watching a completely second channel
that's gonna do two to three uploads a week,
and then I also, for my business, have to do
my weekly webinars, and we're gonna start archiving
them on the business YouTube channel,
that's a lot of content I'm gonna have to do
regardless of what channels they live on,
I'm gonna have to do five to seven videos
every single week.
Sorry, I ain't doing cinematic content,
I'm not Casey Neistat, I'm not Peter McKinnon,
I also don't have three people around to follow
me with cameras like Gary V, I'm not doing that.
I am working within my limitations,
and I am working with what I have,
because even 1,200 plus public videos, 1,400 total,
on this channel alone, even with all of that,
it still requires me to work up the mindset,
everyday, when I have to hit record,
I still do most of this by myself, majority of the time,
very few occasions where I get help with this
specifically, when I do hire people to help me
it's in the backend of my actual business.
So, just don't think that I'm sitting here on some
mountain talking down to you, I still make content
each and everyday across multiple platforms
mostly by myself, and I've been doing it for over
six years now, so I can tell you that this
is something that is not beyond you, you just have
to do the best you can with what you have,
where you are right now.
My friend Amy Landenum, that is a quote from her
that she borrowed from Teddy Roosevelt,
and I think it is a tremendously important thing
to give you the right approach and mindset.
If you wanna be a content creator on any platform,
whether it's Instagram, YouTube, doing a podcast,
make sure you're listening to my new podcast,
and just anywhere you are where you wanna create content,
understand that it's a commitment,
but also don't burden yourself with unreasonable
expectations, be very self aware of what you have
to work with in terms of time, energy, resources,
and understand where your strengths lie
and stop chasing other people.
And I think that's the best and most encouraging
advice I could possibly give you.
So just like I did to my community tab,
I wanna invite you to tell me what it is
you're struggling with as a content creator,
be as detailed as you like, and also, this community
is wonderful, people are respectful,
I've set a tone for that, and I ban people
who aren't, so leave those comments down below,
share your story, share your struggles,
get a little bit of support, no sub for sub,
no oh, let's all support each other, no,
I want real stories from people, and what you're going
through, and I want people to give their best
encouragement and actionable advice
to people who are going through it,
and then if you like each other's stuff,
you can always feel free to watch each other's stuff
if you're curious about it, I have no issue with that,
I just don't want any shameless self promotion
and spam that keeps people from getting to read
what they need to read, and stops me from being
able to respond the way that I would like to,
because of having to go through all of that.
So let's just keep the comments section clean
and encouraging.
Oh, also, if you made it
to the end of this video I've got a treat for you guys.
For those of you who are struggling with your YouTube
thumbnails, you might know that I sell a product
called the YouTube Starter Kit that has
over 100 downloads, and assets, and resources
to help you make better YouTube Thumbnails,
better YouTube artwork, better graphics,
all of that good stuff, but what I'm gonna do
is on a lot of these videos I'm gonna start
leaving one time coupon codes, so it's gonna be
first come first serve, so there's gonna be a massive
discount and I'm gonna drop like a couple of codes,
maybe it's gonna be five or 10 codes, in the description,
or a pinned comment, so make sure you're paying attention,
watching to the end of the videos, things like that,
because you never know what I'm gonna do.
Anyway, like this video if you like it,
don't forget to subscribe, check out the other awesome
stuff on the channel, as always you guys,
thanks so very much for watching,
and don't forget, go out there and create
something awesome today, take care.
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